The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
July 28, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Genesis
18:17-33 Colossians 2:6-19 Luke 11:1-13
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Old Testament lesson just read, along with
these words from the Gospel lesson, “Your kingdom come.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. What is God’s kingdom, and how
does it come? As good Lutherans, we all
think back to those good old (Or perhaps not so good) days when we were in
confirmation class, where we were taught and learned in the words of the Lord’s
Prayer that “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy
Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here
in time and there in [heaven for] eternity.”
And spreading that
kingdom of God has been the church’s mission since its very founding during the
ministry of Jesus. A few weeks ago, we
heard how Christ sent out the 72 to proclaim the “Kingdom of God” to all the towns
of Judea. After His resurrection, Jesus sent
the disciples into all the world to preach and teach and baptize for the
purpose of making disciples. That
mission has been going on even to today, when there are over 800 missionaries
from our own synod, preaching and teaching, to proclaim the kingdom of
God.
And it is good
that there are still pastors and missionaries and members of our church body
proclaiming the Kingdom of God in our world, because the truth is, there are
still billions of people in our world who have not heard, and do not believe in
the forgiveness of sins, earned by the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are still people who are not Christian,
who are not saved, and who face the eternal consequences of their sin. And, furthermore, there are those who are in
need of both the Gospel, and of the love and compassion of those who have much.
Dear friends, I’ve
been in Africa with our district’s project 24 team, and I’ve seen those who
wash their clothes in the same muddy water they drink a few hours later. I’ve seen firsthand those who’ve struggled to
afford the boiled cornmeal that was their meal for the day. I’ve seen the young girls whose only clothes
are the princess Halloween constumes sent from here in America. I’ve seen the children whose parents have
been killed by AIDS or malaria, or even hunger.
These people exist in our world still to this day, and really always
will, as Christ our Lord says, “The poor you will always have with you.”
And so, dear
friends, what do we do? We live here in
North Dakota, thousands of miles away.
And the truth is, we often are very uncomfortable with helping those in
our own communities, let alone thousands of miles away. We are most concerned with what’s happening
in my life, in my family, in my own self-contained
little world. And this concern for self
in us becomes so large that we lose track of those whom God has given us to
actually care for, namely the individual in need.
Dear friends –
that’s sin, our sin, our guilt, and our shame showing itself in our lives. God cares for every person in this
world. God cares for every sick person,
for every poor person, for every child in Africa or in Hankinson who is in
need. God cares for all who are in His
kingdom.
Look how he
displays it in our Old Testament lesson today. God is set to destroy the towns of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and Abraham says, Lord what if there are 50 righteous ones in the
towns? Will you destroy them with the
sinners? God answers “no.” Abraham asks, “What about 45?” God again responds “no.” What about 40? Or 30?
Or 20? Or 10? How many faithful people do there need to be
to stop the destruction of this town?
And the Lord’s Response? “No, I
care for each and every one who has faith in me. I love those who love me. I care even for the one lone righteous
one.”
It’s the truth,
dear friends, God cares for each person so much that he sent his Son to die for
all in need. He would have sent His Son
if it was just you in need. He would have
sent His son if it was just one poor orphan in Kenya, or if it was just one
sick woman in Fargo. God cares for each,
and every person so much that the bloody suffering and death of Jesus was not
too much to pay to forgive them their sins.
In that death and in that resurrection you have the promise of
forgiveness, life and salvation.
You see, God sends
the one righteous one to save all the sinners.
The one righteous one, Jesus, saves all who trust in him. Including you. Including me.
Including the poor and weak and sick.
All are saved by Christ, and by Christ alone.
So then, how do we
live? What do we do about all the poor
in this world? We care for them. We show compassion on those in Kenya, working
through projects, like Project 24 to care for their earthly needs, while we
preach to them the saving news of Jesus.
We, like Abraham intercede for those who are need. We pray to the Lord to help and have
compassion on those in the kingdom of God in far away places. We do missions to baptize, preach and teach
where the Word has not been heard. We
ask God to send His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace, those in need throughout
all the world would believe his word and lead godly lives here in time, so that
we may one day see them there in eternity.
And also we pray
for ourselves in the prayer we are taught today. We pray that we may always trust in the grace
earned for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That we too may enter eternal life, and one
day be at peace forever. And dear
friends, in that we can be sure. It is
God’s promise to us. God’s kingdom is
coming to us, each day we draw closer to inheriting it. Bring us at last dear father in heaven to be
with you in your coming kingdom. And
help us to proclaim that good news to all the ends of the earth, that all may
be delivered from evil in your name. For
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
