Sermon Prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church

8:30 & 11:00 AM traditional services – 12/02/01

by Gregory S. Kaurin

Associate Pastor for Spiritual Care and Development

 

Texts: Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, & Matthew 24:36-44

 

The Sermon:

I Come in Peace

 

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To my wife’s irritation, I sometimes enjoy watching corny and dumb science fiction movies.  One of those movies was titled, “I Come in Peace.”   It had a bad alien guy who tried to assure people with those words of “peace,” only to disarm them and murder them more easily. 

The point was clear: this alien was mean and dishonest.  He used—I should say—he stole words of comfort for a vicious purpose.  I’d say it was evil …devilish …satanic …except that I think the devil is more subtle.  He uses the same trick, but is less obvious.

 

I have heard some people complain that we do not speak or preach about Satan enough.  Personally, I hate to give him any airtime.  Hollywood makes a stupid mockery of him.  I’ve even seen some Christian productions and stories that make him into a silly monster with a booming voice.

I believe evil is real, but is much more subtle and frighteningly more personal.  Satan is that voice constantly whispering in our ear, so personal that we sometimes call that voice “self-will,” “selfish desire,” or “self-righteousness.”  Actually, he uses these things to teach us how to rationalize them.  He doesn’t force us.  He teaches us.

One of his strongest weapons has been to use our own religion and our own scriptures to support these notions.  And, suddenly, at times in our history, it became the “Christian” thing to do: to kill the alien, to torture the accused, and to take back the land by violence.

Why?  “Because,” the voice insisted, “God says we can.  See, it says right here in scripture what we are to do to the offenders, and Hittites of the land.  God commands it, right?  So, we are simply obeying.”

I thought it said that all scripture, all commandments, and all prophets need to be interpreted through the commands of love: “Love God with all your heart, mind and soul,” and the other like it (like it, the same, similar), “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Yes, but,” the voice in our ear wonders, “who exactly is my neighbor?"  What does it mean to ‘love him’?”

“Yes, but.”  “Yes, but.”  “Yes, but.”  It is a tricky way of affirming what was just said, but then denying it with the word, “but,” a word that suggests what I am about to say is the stronger, more logical truth.

I don’t hesitate to tell you that Satan whispers his “Yes, but” in my ear and that I often hear and accept it as the voice of reason, even as the voice of my religions and scripture.  That has happened probably even more than several times in a single day.

However, I will follow that by assuring you that he has no final power over you or me.  I am a baptized, repentant child of God.  God will use me and you, and even our flaws and the mistakes we make.  He can because our flaws humble us, and so we cling to the promises of our baptism.  We are forgiven and claimed by God’s grace alone—no power of our own, because we are not strong enough—and for that, because we cling to God only, no one, no sin, no demon, and no Satan can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

I know that sounds like the end of the sermon.  It isn’t.  I’ll let the shock of that sink in for a moment…

It’s today’s lessons that I want to turn to now.  I mentioned the voice of Satan because it is his voice of interpretation that I will warn you against.  I want you to realize that these passages we’ve read today are some of the easiest ones that he manipulates, especially the gospel lesson.  It is so often used as the great “Yes, but” against all the assurances of God’s love.

Be aware that Jesus was speaking to his disciples, his followers (and that would be us, too).  These are not words that pat us on the back and point accusingly at the rest of the world.  These are words that acknowledge that you and I have been given a new life. 

We have been given a new life, and we should not mock it by living selfishly, greedily or hatefully.  We have new life, and we have this one, brief, short lifetime to share it…a brief time.  We are not to waste it by pointing accusations and separating ourselves above others.

This passage is not Jesus Christ threatening us; he is pleading with us.  “You know my love,” he says.  “Tell others!  Show others.  Use this time you have, and be caught in the middle of loving and loving actions.” 

These passages are not to be used to separate us from the needs of the world, but to bury us in it.  God’s goal is not the mere destruction of the bad guys, but it is the salvation of as many as possible …as many as possible.

 

I watch the religious channel on occasion, sometimes to be inspired, and other times to get my blood going as I hear the challenge that Satan is offering through religious voices.

Here’s where I ask you to be cautious.  When you see preachers speaking about tragedies, earthquakes, diseases like AIDs, the dengue fever, famines—if you see them speaking about these things with feverish gleams in their eyes, quoting scripture and rationalizing these plagues, diseases and disasters as “deserved justice,” or as “signs and portents” through their gritted, excited teeth—please, be warned.  They are often preaching the great “Yes, but” against Jesus’ central message of love, sacrifice and unearned salvation.

Pay attention to your internal reactions.  Does it feel mean?  Does what your hearing excuse and rationalize your anger and add fuel to your sense of self-righteousness?  Is he talking about the suffering of others with excitement, or with a self-righteous “They deserve it” attitude?  If so, I have to wonder what voice he listening to and speaking from.

These are the “Yes, but’s” that will even use scripture to counter when Jesus says in our gospel lesson that no one—and for whatever reason—not even the Son of Man would know when the end was coming.  In some preachers I hear an arrogance in interpreting the scriptures and times, as if they have knowledge that not even Jesus Christ claimed to have.

Instead of sitting behind a mahogany desk interpreting the portents and signs, I believe with my whole heart that Jesus Christ is out there holding the hands of the victims, feeding the hungry, comforting the AIDs patient (no matter how he of she got it).  And he wouldn’t stop; Jesus wouldn’t stop even if he knew the end was to come in the very next moment.  He would ignore every pious, “Yes, but.”  “Yes, but nothing!  I love this person …and these people!”

 

That is where we Christians need to be found: in the middle of our living and dying as one is taken from us and one left, in the middle of baking bread or designing a computer program, in the middle of marrying or watching our children and grandchildren getting married.  All the while, we are to be found in love and showing our love for God and each other.

And we have no fear of the end; …let it come!  Our God is a God of a love and mercy that claims us, and a God of true justice that—above all things—demands mercy.  So, let it come.  We belong to God.  And as far as we’re concerned, he comes in Peace!

 

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