Göttinger Predigten
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10th Sunday after Pentecost, 08/18/2019
Flashing Yellow Lights
Sermon on Luke 12:49-56, by Paul C. Sizemore
“Flashing Yellow Lights?” It is a rather strange-sounding title for a sermon, this morning, isn’t it? But if you have ever been a motorist on our nation’s highways and byways, you know how important those flashing yellow lights can be, don’t you? I’ll never forget driving down a state road in South Carolina, one evening, in October 2015; shortly after the city of Columbia had been hit with what the weather experts on television had declared to be: “A Thousand Year Flood!” By this time the sky was dark, and up ahead of me there was a FLASHING YELLOW LIGHT, connected to a large barricade on the road, indicating to me that that road was closed! Why? Because shortly after that barricade, the road had been washed out completely and I would have ended up driving my car into a giant hole; recently created by that flood! But let’s think now about those BIG TRAFFIC LIGHTS we all encounter throughout the greater DAYTONA BEACH METROPOLITAN AREA. A red light at the top of that traffic light, means that you must bring your automobile to a complete stop, and that you are not permitted to drive through that intersection. A green light at the bottom of that traffic light, means that you may drive safely through that intersection, without stopping. But if the MIDDLE YELLOW LIGHT is illuminated when you approach an intersection, well then, you have a very important decision to make rather quickly! If you think you have enough time to stop your car without screeching your brakes, then you must stop your car! But if you think that you DO NOT have enough time to stop your car without screeching your brakes, then you should proceed through that intersection. BUT, HOW OFTEN, MY FRIENDS, DO WE NOT SEE DRIVERS ON THE ROAD TODAY, WHEN THEY WOULD HAVE HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO STOP THEIR CARS WITHOUT SCREECHING THEIR BRAKES, STOMPING ON THE ACCELERATOR INSTEAD, AND RUNNING A RED LIGHT, THEREBY ENDANGERING THEIR OWN LIVES AND THE LIVES OF OTHER PEOPLE ON THE ROAD ALL AROUND THEM? My friends, as I gave a careful study to each of the appointed Scripture lessons that were just read in this worship service this morning, I couldn’t help but see a YELLOW CAUTION LIGHT, in each one of them, flashing in my direction! In the OLD TESTAMENT LESSON TODAY, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY IS FLASHING A YELLOW CAUTION LIGHT IN OUR DIRECTION TOO, THROUGH THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, WHOSE WORDS HAVE AS MUCH PERTINANCE FOR US TODAY, AS THEY DID, CENTURIES AGO, FOR THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH. HERE JEREMIAH HAS ENCOUNTERED A LARGE NUMBER OF FALSE PROPHETS WHO ARE NOT SPEAKING THE WORD OF GOD TO GOD’S PEOPLE AT ALL! Instead these false prophets were, Jeremiah contends, preaching to God’s people a message of “Peace” when many of these people had never come to experience, even one, single solitary moment of God’s peace (Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11)! Instead of these false prophets calling upon God’s people to repent of their sins, and receive God’s forgiveness, they were ignoring the reality of sin present in these peoples’ lives, and therefore also, no doubt, failing to even mention the impending JUDGEMENT DAY that soon would be coming upon them, if they did not repent of their gross idolatry and other sins! Jeremiah, often known as “The Weeping Prophet,” on the other hand, was calling the people of Judah to repentance; warning them that if they did not repent of their sins that they would soon be carted off as political exiles by the Babylonians, living to the north of Judah; a time of exile Jeremiah prophesied that would last for 70 years! Jeremiah reminds us that the false prophets in his day were saying: “Thus says the Lord,” when the Lord had not sent them to deliver the messages they were delivering to his people, at all! And doesn’t St. John, in the New Testament, share a very similar concern with the Prophet Jeremiah, when he speaks to us in I John 4:1, saying: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (I John 4:1)!” And even Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, flashes a bright yellow caution light in our direction too, when he says to us: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:15-18)! There was a time, and not all that long ago, when false prophets in our own day were perhaps, best identified, by the Church as “THERAPEUTIC PREACHERS.” And the NUMBER ONE AIM of these therapeutic preachers was to make the listeners, in their audiences, feel as good as they possibly could, about themselves! Not that the Gospel doesn’t often make us feel good, but it also asks us to REPENT OF OUR SINS to the Triune God, in order for US to receive God’s forgiveness and peace through the sanctifying work and faithful ministry of the Holy Spirit, who also empowers us to live new lives as God’s baptized people! In our EPISTLE LESSON TODAY, THE WRITER OF HEBREWS IS ALSO FLASHING A YELLOW LIGHT AT US; IN HIS WORDS OF CAUTION BEING GIVEN TO A SECOND GENERATION OF CONVERTS TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, WHO HAD BECOME DISCIPLES OF JESUS, BUT WHO WERE NOW BEING GREATLY TEMPTED TO GIVE UP THEIR NEW WAY OF LIFE, AND REVERT TO JUDAISM ONCE AGAIN, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE OF THE PERSECUTIONS, HEAPED UPON THEM BY THEIR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS! Throughout this letter the anonymous writer of Hebrews uses the word “better” thirteen different times! Why? Because he is wanting to convince these recent Jewish converts to the Christian faith of the SUPERIORITY OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE SALVATION, HE OFFERS TO THEM, OVER AGAINST THE WAY OF FAITH THAT WAS THEIR’S before Christ came! In this letter, the writer contends that Christ “is better than the angels” (1:4). And that Christ brought to them “a better hope” (7:19) because OF WHO HE WAS AND IS: THE MEDIATOR OF A “better covenant, that was established upon “better promises” (8:6). And how were they not to succumb to the devil’s constant attempts, to pull them away, from closely following their Savior? The writer says they needed to take notice of that great catalogue of saints, who so very boldly and courageously lived before them, WHO TRUSTED AND TOOK HEART IN GOD’S PROMISES, NO MATTER WHAT! But just as importantly, the writer encourages THEM AND US TO: KEEP OUR EYES FIXED ON JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH, WHO FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM, ENDURED THE CROSS, DESPISING THE SHAME, AND WHO IS NOW SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. AND YET THERE IS ONE MORE FLASHING YELLOW LIGHT THAT COMES TO US THROUGH THE WORDS OF OUR LORD SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST IN OUR GOSPEL LESSON TODAY, THAT IS PERHAPS THE MOST BRIGHT AND BRILLIANT OF ALL? “I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, in one house, there will be five divided, three against two and two against three! They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:49-53)! HERE JESUS IS, OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGING IN HIS HUMANITY HOW DREADFUL IT WAS FOR HIM AT TIMES, TO THINK ABOUT HIS GOING TO THE CROSS! CERTAINLY, REDEEMING ALL OF US, AND ALL WHO WOULD BY GOD’S GRACE, THROUGH FAITH, RECEIVE GOD’S SALVATION, WOULD BE NO EASY TASK FOR OUR LORD! FOR THE LORD OF GLORY, TO SAVE ALL OF US FROM OUR SINS, DEATH AND ETERNAL DAMNATION; THIS WOULD CERTAINLY INVOLVE SO VERY MUCH MORE THAN SIMPLY A SKIP, HOP, AND A JUMP FOR JESUS! WHY DO I SAY THIS? (1) Because Jesus, WHO IS ACCORDING TO HIS OWN CLAIM, THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF THE TRUTH (John 14:6) was fully aware of all the terrible lies and false accusations that would SOON be heaped upon him, as the TIME of his impending crucifixion became shorter and shorter! (2) Because Jesus was fully aware that he would be required to drink the full cup of God’s Wrath in our stead, that should have been drunk by the whole human race instead. (3) But also, because JESUS was fully aware of the IMMENSE AMOUNT OF DIVISION THAT WOULD COME TO FAMILIES, BECAUSE OF THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF THE GOSPEL OR THEIR REJECTION OF THE GOSPEL! Yes, Isaiah was right in saying that the coming Messiah would be: “The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:7) Later on, Isaiah prophesied and spoke of the impending peace the coming Savior would bring to God’s people, in terms of two great metaphors: “The wolf shall lay down with the lamb” (Isaiah 11:6), and that “men would beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks!” Yes, the angels sang on the night of our Savior’s birth: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth!” And on the night before our Savior died, he said to his disciple: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you” (John 14:27)! Because of sin, Jesus divides like nothing else—even more than politics! Some will believe the Gospel that is proclaimed, while others will harden their hearts against God’s Word and discount it all together. Ever since the entry of sin into our world, there have been people and families especially, divided in this world. Adam and Eve not only found their own relationship greatly strained and challenged, but their relationship of love and trust with their Creator God was also now, completely broken. Cain and Abel were divided. And think of the great division of believers from non-believers in the days of Noah! Think of Sodom and Gomorrah. Think of the children of Israel and their relationship with the Pharaoh of Egypt! When Jesus says, “I came” this is a reminder to us that he was not forced to be born into our world, by the will of his Heavenly Father, against his own will as the pre-incarnate Son of God. Christ consented to come into our world, leaving his throne of heaven for a while, that we might one day reign there with him also, as Sons and Daughters of the King!” “Fire” is in the emphatic position in the Greek text, so that Jesus words, translated most literally would not be, “Fire, I came to cast upon the earth!” But the fire Jesus is talking about here is not strictly limited to God’s Judgment that he would bring to bear on this earth, but also refers to the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. Don’t you remember how John the Baptist said, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming after me, who will baptize you with the HOLY SPIRIT AND FIRE!” It was cloven tongues of fire that descended above each of the disciples, now become apostles, on that first great Day of Pentecost. When Jesus speaks of his baptism, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” he was not talking about the Baptism he received from John the Baptist in the Jordan River, at the beginning of his three-year ministry, he means, rightly understood, that he will soon BECOME COMPLETELY IMMERSED IN DOING WHATEVER WOULD BE NECESSARY TO RECONCILE US TO HIS HEAVENLY FATHER, and there would certainly be no turning back, once all these gears were set in motion. Do you remember how James and John, the sons of Zebedee, St. Mark tells us, came up to Jesus so that they could be completely alone with him one day. They said, “Lord, grant that one of us may be seated at your right hand, and the other of us be seated at your left hand when you come into all your glory!” But Jesus, very much aware that he was still residing in his state of humiliation, replied: “To sit at my right hand or my left hand is not mine to grant, but are you able to drink the cup that I must drink, and be baptized with the baptism I will be baptized with?” Of course, not having any true understanding of Jesus’ fast approaching suffering and passion, they said to our Lord: “We are able!” Certainly Martin Luther, while striving to bring THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL TO THE PEOPLE OF HIS DAY, STIRRED UP A HEAP OF TROUBLE, DIDN’T HE!?! When he was at the height of his struggles with the Medieval Church, someone asked him, “Martin, what if those princes and their associates who have been supporting you and your ministry so strongly, were to one day withdraw their support of you, well WHERE would you be then?” Without a moment’s hesitation, and without Dr. Luther’s even batting an eye, he said very boldly and confidently: “I will be where I have always been, in the hands of God!” May our Lord receive our heartfelt thanks today for that great fire of his love that he did unleash upon this earth, and for the baptism of his great suffering, passion and death that he was baptized with, empower us to live with that same kind of bold confidence and quiet resolve, that Luther had, too. Where would you and I be, if a tragedy, great hardship or some immense difficulty were to unexpectedly and suddenly descend upon us in our lives? We pray that God would empower us also to say also: “We would be right where we have always been – in the hands of our redeeming and loving God!”
Amen