St. Michael & All Angels, 09/29/2019

Sermon on Luke 10:17-20, by Samuel David Zumwalt

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The Gospel of the Lord.

FOLLOWING JESUS: UNMURMURINGLY

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It’s not about us. It’s about Jesus. So…when we follow Jesus, we follow Him rejoicing that He has lived the life of total obedience we cannot live and died the innocent death we cannot die that we may be His own. Therefore, we do not, as children of God, occupy the center of things that leads to glorying in self or murmuring about all that is not right with the world. By the power of the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, we give glory to His Father whose love for us will not let us go. Let’s go deeper now.

But first, sing with me, softly: “All night. All day. Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night. All day. Angels watching over me.”

The Viral Nature of the Evil One

In the second lesson from Revelation 12, St. John calls Satan, “the deceiver of the world,” an obvious echo of our Lord’s description, in John 8, of the devil as the father of lies (John 8:44). The old enemy’s power is viral in nature. What does this mean?

One online description states: “Viruses need a host, another living organism that gives them everything they need to work. Viruses take any chance they can to find a host. They get inside the host's cells and take it over. Viruses use the host cells machinery to make lots of copies, so many that the cell bursts and infects other cells around it” (science.howstuffworks.com).

So…our sinful, self-centered human nature is like a body with a compromised immune system. The virus of evil is present in the form of temptation, which then seeks a host that has been compromised by the will to power, the quest for self-glory, the need to be the center, the need to justify the self, et cetera. Adolf Hitler wasn’t born a monster nor was Josef Stalin nor Mao Zedong nor Pol Pot. At some point, each became a host for the old evil one’s viral nature. Whatever positive contributions each of these famous villains might have made to his country was undone by the evil that infected him and willingly so. Each was personally responsible for the murder of millions of his own fellow citizens. Evil murders.

The truth about everyone and every organization on earth, including the Church and a church, is this: Wherever sinful human beings are found, there will also be the old evil one at work, his viral nature looking for a vulnerable host. An old proverb says: “Where God builds a church, the devil will build a chapel.” We must not make the mistake either of making the devil a god or pretending he isn’t real.

If we are to survive the persistent, insistent viral attacks of the old evil one, we need to have a strong immune system. We need the redemptive work, the saving work of the Great Physician Jesus.

Sing with me, softly: “All night. All day. Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night. All day. Angels watching over me.”

The In-Breaking Rule and Reign of God

In the previous chapter of Luke’s gospel, the Lord Jesus had sent out the twelve with the Good News of God’s healing peace. King Jesus was coming to save His people from their bondage to sin, death, and the old evil one. Here, in chapter ten, the Lord Jesus sends out even more – some versions say seventy-two and others say seventy – to go two by two with the Good News of the in-breaking reign and rule of God. Why is that Good News? Why do they need King Jesus? Because the viral nature of the old evil one has become a terrible plague that has infected even the people of God who were created to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Even the Temple, where forgiveness may be had, has been corrupted into an elitist system that will not even be able to recognize that God has come to them in human flesh to open the way to Paradise even for the foulest criminals and the most despised and overlooked people on earth.

As with the later initial success of the apostolic preaching on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, so here in Luke 10 the disciples are starry-eyed from their victories in enemy-occupied territory: “Even the demons

are subject to us in Your name!” Didn’t we do good, Jesus? Aren’t we amazing Jesus? How cool is that?

And the Lord affirms that, like St. Michael and the heavenly host, they have cast out Satan. The Lord Jesus has given them authority over serpents, scorpions, and the viral power of the enemy. They have Jesus’ hedge of protection around them. King Jesus is the immunization they need to fight the good fight for the Kingdom of God. But, He gently and firmly warns them not to focus on themselves, opening themselves to the viral nature of the evil one, but rather to rejoice their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

When you are baptized into the Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are marked with His cross, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and are assured that your heavenly Father’s arms are wide open to you.

Sing with me, softly: “All night. All day. Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night. All day. Angels watching over me.”

Not Murmuringly But Rejoicingly

Whether people are believers in Christ or unbelievers, we have been infected by the spirit of rationalism – which is one of the old enemy’s more subtle lies. Instead of the overt question from the garden, “Did God really say,” we are more likely to fall prey to the question, “Is that even possible?”

My friend and former professor, the late Robert Werberig, used to say that when humanity fell into sin, the first thing that fell was our imaginations. Great artists and poets, co-creators with God, offer up imaginative worlds and powerful visions that lift our eyes from the daily trudge through the muck and mire to the unseen, hinted at, and scarcely apprehended universe around us where good and evil contend.

Such a universe is not so very different from the one inside us where viruses go hunting vulnerable places in our bodies. Is it really that far-fetched to admit that pornography seeks to destroy our minds and our relationships? That drugs and drink, legal and illegal, seek to destroy our lives and our relationships? That the will to pleasure and, yes, to power wrecks lives and murders the unborn? That soulless, rapacious predators seek to steal the innocence of children, wreck marriages, shatter families, and decimate churches and, yes, even denominations? Is it so hard to believe that angels and demons are warring for every soul and body, every heart and mind, and every square inch of this earth that the Lord God has made and still owns? Do you think that your fascination with fantasy in videos or in games is not real?

No sooner had the Lord God rescued Israel from bondage in Egypt and brought her safely to Sinai to make covenant with him by grace than the people began to murmur. It’s really onomatopoeia. Hear it, and you will recognize it. Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. It’s the sound of discontent. It’s the sound of many hearts and minds turned inwards to “my will be done.” It’s yet another evil virus that has found a host in people who have forgotten what the Lord God has done. Rejoicing has been replaced by the equivalent of “What have you done for me, lately?” It’s that murmur that swelled into “Crucify Him!”

Satan has no authority over God’s people, but he wields the power of the lie. He cannot win, for Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again! But he, as St. Peter warns, walks about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

So, then, we pray daily, morning and night, as dear Father Martin teaches us: “Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me” (Luther’s Small Catechism, Daily Prayers). Sing with me, softly: “All night. All day. Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night. All day. Angels watching over me.”

We pray daily, morning and night, the battle prayer of the Church, in the words our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has taught us: “And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.” Again, in Father Martin’s words: “God’s Word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes who fear it. For God Himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit. Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse. Though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day. The Kingdom’s ours forever” (LBW #229).

So, then, we worship weekly, hastening to God’s house to confess the sins that Satan throws in our faces, telling us these are too powerful for us to ignore, telling us these are too great for us to be delivered from, and telling us these are either too big for God to forgive or too inbred for God to condemn. We hasten to confess our sins knowing that the pastor will announce that the grace of God in Christ Jesus is for us. That, though we are great sinners, we have a far greater Savior. He tells us what He has done for us and our salvation, and, then, He feeds us with His own true Body and most precious, virus-killing Blood.

So, then, we serve at and beyond St. Matthew’s, because we are grateful for God’s grace and mercy that drowns our sin-sick, murmur-filled lives in the water of Holy Baptism. We love because He first loved us. We reach out with rejoicing like the twelve, like the seventy or seventy-two, to be in relationship with those who need to know God’s grace and mercy, His wondrous love is even unto death on a cross for all. We give generously of time, talents, and resources, because God has given more than we can ever repay, and we love the One who rescued us that we may be His own forever.

This side of death, and until the end when Christ makes all things new, we will not naively pretend that the viral nature of the old evil one has been permanently eradicated from the face of the earth. That wicked angel and those that threw their lot in with him are in our midst like all the other viruses known and unknown, seen and unseen. But no matter how many battles they win in this world, they are doomed to fail. So, we do not pretend they are not there, nor do we pretend they have any power other than that of a viral lie looking for a host to invade. Making the sign of the cross marked upon us in Baptism, we rejoice with Joshua: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). And, with the help of God, we will not give up or give in. For Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again!

So, remember our heavenly Father has not left us all alone. St. Michael and the holy angels are fighting for us. Please, sing with me, softly: “All night. All day. Angels watching over me, my Lord. All night. All day. Angels watching over me.”

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Samuel David Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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