Luke 13:31-35 (Lent 2C)
St. John, Galveston 3/16/25
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.
 
I’m sure many of you remember the little nursery rhyme about the church. Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people. I used to be able to do the thing your supposed to do with your hands, but not so much anymore. The rhyme is reminder that the church doesn’t consist of buildings and property. Rather, the church is people; it’s parents and grandparents, and friends, and neighbors, and even preachers.
 
I remind you of that, because in this morning’s message I’ll be referring to the church fairly often. As I do, I hope you’ll keep in mind that little nursery rhyme. “Open the doors and see all the people.” You are, in fact, the church! As such, “you are God’s peculiar people. You are a people set apart for God’s own purpose.” You are people whose life and being hinges on the story of God’s redemptive work in the world and in your life. From Abraham, to Moses, to Isaiah and Jeremiah, and ultimately to Jesus, God’s story is your story, because you are the baptized of God, aliens, as it were, living as pilgrims in this world. You are the unique community we call the church.        
 

The story that defines who you are and what your life is all about, is a story that must be told over and over again. The prophets of old did that very thing, proclaiming God’s word both in season and out of season. The message they preached varied, depending on the time and circumstances in which they were called. Jeremiah was called to speak a word of warning to Israel. At a time when false prophets were proclaiming an time of peace and prosperity for God’s people, Jeremiah was sent to tell a different story. He said, “‘This house (meaning the Temple in Jerusalem) shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” Shiloh was where the tent stood that served as the Temple, until Solomon built a permanent Temple in the holy city, Jerusalem. The Philistines, that ancient enemy of Israel, destroyed Shiloh a thousand years before Jeremiah was even born.     
 

“This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant.” Because of the message Jeremiah was sent to proclaim, he was one of the prophets that no one wanted to listen to. In fact, he fell head long into the age-old tendency of people to want to kill the messenger, the bearer of bad news. Thus, when he prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed, the people said, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” Ah yes, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Whether or not Jeremiah joined the ranks of the prophets who were murdered in Jerusalem frankly is not known. 
 
However, another prophet of great renown would join the ranks of those slain in Jerusalem. Like Jeremiah, Jesus spoke words people didn’t want to hear either. He called the Pharisees, men who were carrying the banner of the faith of Israel, to repentance. Far too concerned about how their lives looked outwardly, the Pharisees and other religious leaders had denied any sort of transformation of the heart. You are “whitewashed tombs, (Jesus said)” men, who outwardly appear “beautiful,” but inside you are filled with “dead men’s bones.” Jesus’ words were scathing and harsh, and yet, they were true. And, as the story goes, the messenger had to die.   
 
I suppose the question for us today is whether the church is still speaking God’s prophetic word, or have we choked on a daily dose of political correctness and woke theology? Remember, the church isn’t simply buildings and property, nor is it only pastors and districts and Synodical offices. “Open the door and see all the people,” the children rightly say. You are the church. The question is, does the church still speak God’s prophetic word today? Or, have we allowed our culture to convince us that its more loving to overlook sin than it is to confront it and that it is more like Jesus to permit people to remain in their sin than it is to call them to repentance? We learned from last Sunday’s Gospel reading about Jesus’ temptation at the hand of the devil that the Word of God itself is one of the tools of the devil’s arsenal. Ah, yes, how often the sinner cries out to the one who seeks to admonish and correct…“Judge not lest you be judged.”   
 
The culture that takes Jesus’ admonition against judgment as an absolute is a culture not worth living in. Even more, a culture that no longer admonishes and corrects, is a culture that has lost both its moral compass, as well as, a sense of the divine imperative to love others as we love ourselves. 
 
Folks, we’re not here on earth to create a utopian society. In fact, it’s a misguided fantasy of human imagination to even think that such a utopian dream could be achieved here on earth. We’re not even here to Christianize political structures, or to create a perfectly moral society. We are here to change the hearts and minds of people by telling the story of God’s redemptive work in the world. The story can only be told, however, if we are true to the Word of God, meaning, if we are true, both to God’s word of Law and to His word of the gospel of forgiveness and grace. 
 
There is no direct connection, of course, between the Israel of the Old Testament and our country, these United States of America. In other words, we aren’t, like Israel of Old, God’s chosen people. Certainly we have been blessed through our founding and over our history, and yet, in the grand scheme of things we are one human institution among many.
 
That said…there is wisdom for us in Jeremiah’s call to repentance. Shall we expect God’s favor over the course, the direction, we’ve taken as a people? Or shall we expect His admonition and chastening? As you well know, we have allowed many things that are an abomination in the eyes of God to prevail in our land. Free choice and self-determination have become the preferred religion of many.       
 
In this religion of free choice and self-determination, Caesar receives the trust that belongs only to the true God. Caesar, not God, is feared, loved and trusted in above all things. He is the one who is expected to “open his hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” All the while, our neighbor suffers, because we, the church, do not act. We abdicate our responsibility, the divine imperative to love one another, trusting Caesar to do what we have lost the will to do.       
 
In the story of God’s redemptive plan, the repentant are drawn to Jesus’ by His grace and mercy, while the unrepentant continue to seek what their hearts will ultimately never find. Jesus wept when He passed through the walls of the city in route to the cross. “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  Behold, your house is forsaken.  And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”” The prophet would die just outside the walls of the city. And, in His death, Jesus would indeed, “draw all people to Himself.”    
 
As much as God’s word of Law is necessary for us individually, as well as, as a nation, the message of the Gospel, God’s free grace in Christ Jesus, is the power of God that will change hearts and minds. Jesus’ story is your story. His death, is your death. His resurrection from the dead, is your resurrection from the dead. His holiness and righteousness are yours as well, freely given. This is the message we are sent to proclaim in our vocations as parents, and friends, as neighbors and preachers. This is the message in which we live and move and have our very being as God’s people. God’s story is your story. His life is your life. And, perhaps most importantly, His grace and forgiveness are your grace and forgiveness.
 
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +