Sermon by Pastor David Matthews

Dearly Beloved Saints in Christ,

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father, and from Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The text for our mediation this morning is from the Gospel account of St. Luke, the ninth chapter.

This sermon might make you uncomfortable, but that's okay, being a Christian isn't supposed to be comfortable.  The reason why is because why do we treat the treat as a country club?  What I mean is why do we come and go as we please, and do not show up regularly?  Why are our priorities different on Sundays than any other days?  We get up early to work, why cannot we not on a Sunday morning?  Why is going to the lake more important than going to a sacred place called church?  Why is going to sporting events more important for our children and grandchildren, than having them sit in the pews to listen to scripture and sing hymns?

People make excuses all the time.  It's too early and I want to sleep in.  There is a solution: go to bed at a decent time.  My children have sporting events.  There is a solution:  they do no have to go to every single sporting event, especially if it is on a Sunday.  You do not have to put your children in sports, that is a choice.  Church and following Christ are a priority.  The third commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

But many people do not see it a as a priority.  I am not trying to bash anybody, but I guess as a child I was in a privileged household: both of my parents wanted to take their children to church.  Sadly our society has made us busy to keep us from going to church.  It is even busier than it was ten years ago.  Our public school system does not care about our churches and activities.  We saw that on Maundy Thursday.  The school had a track meet whenever churches would have services.  That blatant disregard for our churches is intentional.  

I'll finally get off my soap box.  I know that this may have sounded harsh.  But whenever we treat the church the way we do and then allow schools to fully disregard religion.  We have a problem.  We do not want to follow Jesus as we should.

You can see in the second portion of Luke's passage this morning that people make excuses for wanting to follow Jesus, in fullness.  Jesus is not trying to be unkind to these individuals along the road.  Rather he is trying to prove a point.  We cannot achieve our place in the kingdom of God, by ourselves.  Instead it is through the grace of God, that we are heirs of the kingdom of God.

The first individual, Jesus, says to the man, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Jesus uses nature as imagery once again.  He points to the fact that foxes have a place that protects them from the outside world, they have a place of shelter, a place to put their food, and and place from bad weather, known as a burrow or den.  The birds of the skies have nests, where they raise their young and have protection.

Jesus is pointing to the fact that He doesn't have that.  Instead He goes from each town and city and is persecuted, and He is often interrupted whenever He is trying to sleep or rest from crowds.  A specific example is whenever He had just preached at the feeding of the five thousand and served them by the disciples giving the people bread and fish to eat, since they were famished for not eating for three days.  Jesus wanted to find a quiet place, but instead He went over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  This is also how life as a Christian is, there are not really times of peace and tranquility.  It also means that we might have to give up comfort and stability to follow Jesus.

And then a second man Jesus says, "Follow me."  But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead.  But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  To our 21st century ears, this sounds like an odd and rude response from Jesus.  But it is what the man needed to hear.  It is what we need to hear as 21st century Christians.  Of course Jesus wants this man to honor his father and mother, as the ten commandments command him, but Jesus is telling him that He(Jesus) should take precedence over everything else in his life.

That is actually why I brought up treating the church as a country club, coming and going.  Sadly our human nature does not want Jesus to take precedence over everything else in our lives.  But as a saint, an heir of the kingdom of God, we should make church, God, and Jesus a priority.  It is vitally important for our faith.

Here is what scripture says about meeting together as a community in Christ, in Hebrews chapter ten, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and goods works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

A big lie that a lot of people believe, is that we do not need to go to church, to be a Christian.  If you think about it is hard to be a Christian by yourself.   We are supposed to be offering praise, singing, worshipping, praying, etc. together in a community.  That is because from the passage I just read, we are not to neglect to meet together.

So I encourage you as Christians at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sutherland, Iowa, to encourage the rest of the members of our congregation to come to church, and hear the word of God, and receive the Lord's Supper.

Scripture also says, in 1 Corinthians 12:26, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."  That me metaphor in scripture, wants us to care for our neighbors, and you would want people to reach out to you, if you weren't coming right?  I know I would.  We also want to know what is going on in your life.  We want to care for our neighbors with love.

Simply, because being a Christian requires sacrifices.

And the third man in the text, also does not follow Jesus.  Here is the third dialogue, "Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home."  Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.""

Again the response of Jesus is odd to us.  Jesus is telling him, you are going to be distracted along the way, of following me, and is that not the truth with us?  How many of us get distracted by worldly things that distract us away from following Jesus?  I am going to guess all of us have been distracted at one point or another.  For example: do we have enough money to cover our expenses this month?  For clothing, shoes, etc.?  Another example: Our child has sporting events on a weekend again.  Guess I have to skip church.  Another example:  Stressful work environment that takes you away from going to church.  I need to rest.  The reality is that a lot of things distract us from following Jesus in a full way.

But that is why the graciousness of God is amazing.  Even though we are distracted Jesus still loves us, and He showed that on the cross.  He loved us enough to die for all of our sins.  He died knowing you would be distracted and couldn't carry the cross that He did.  And we as Christians also have crosses that we bear, but Jesus has also faced all of those crosses as man, and defeated sin, death, and Hell.

An important passage that highlights this is 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says,"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.  God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.  Jesus was a man who has been tempted hy Satan himself, but He was not overtaken by those temptations.  Instead He went to the cross undistracted for you, that you may be saved.  Let that be your peace forevermore.

In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.