Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost -- 11 November 2007

St Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM -- The Rev. J. W. Korthauer

Job 19:23-27a; Psalm 17:1-9; 2 Thess. 2:1-5, 13-17; Luke 20:27-38

Grace and Peace be to you from God our Creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

•  -          Once again God has blessed us with a rich day of symbols and celebration. It is commitment Sunday, it is Veteran’s Day weekend and we have a baptism at the late service.

• -          It would seem that all of these events have with them some form of commitment and maybe even some form of duty.

• -          I share or have shared in all of the forms of these commitments. I have felt the obligation to give and serve in congregations I have been a member of, I have brought many people to the font and committed myself to their development in the faith, I have been brought to the font myself a little over 31 years ago, and like many veterans, I have in my time sworn an oath to uphold and defend the constitution so help me God as an Air Force officer.

• -           I won’t say that I know the experience of every person, but I will venture to say that I have come to similar conclusions about matters of this world and the next that have led me to stand before you in Christ’s church convinced that my faith is not ill placed, that God is active in the here and now, and that the entire body of Christ, all those who gather here, and all those who gather other places, are my brother and sister in Christ.

• -          It is with that understanding in life that I dedicate myself to just causes, to noble efforts, to living the best I can the cruciform life, with motives bigger than myself, the congregation, the flag or the constitution, set in front of me the mission of God with the world as the horizon.

• -          And so it is that with what I teach an preach, that I focus on what this day will mean for that mission of God, to reconcile the world, to redeem all creation, every nation  and all people, knowing God created all people and things aware Christ has said that he is the least of these who I encounter also.

• -          However, as convinced of Christ as I am, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t days and periods of time in my life that I don’t relate to the Old Testament reading this morning where we encounter Job.

• -          Job has suffered every kind of defeat, every kind of loss, death of family and reputation, loss of wealth and health. Job even suffers a crisis of faith. The text before us today looks like a rock solid faith, so much so that we often use the text at funerals to remind ourselves of an afterlife, and what happens when we get there.

• -          But Job is a bit more complex than that, you see, Job through all his suffering has come to some understanding of God, Job wants his sufferings to mean something, at the very least to be used as a teaching tool, for those that are around after him, but also in some small part to be a list, a list that someone will find, some distant relative, some kindred spirit in cause in suffering to find and to avenge what God has done to him. You see for redeemer is a translation that is not as close to the original…where it is more like a person that will avenge the spilled blood of a family member.

• -          We take a little comfort knowing that this understanding in Job of an avenger, that no matter whom the vengeance is to be visited by or upon it has to happen in the presence of God.

• -          Indeed there have been times along the journey where the end of suffering doesn’t seem to be in sight that righteousness seems far off…but God is and will be there on the day of our redemption and reconciliation.

• -          Then there are times that are much more like that of David in the Psalm where we have not been pushed to the edge of despair quite yet, but the world is doing its best.

• -          The story of David however is less passive, David is not idlely sitting by and letting blessing come to him, not hoping that someone will accomplish God’s will for him, but he is actively stepping out for God’s sake and he is finding more and more that not enough people are following. David in the psalm is pleading with God, telling God directly that it is God’s will that David is doing, that his cause is just, yet enemies are rising up to defeat him.

• -          We have all felt this way, we have stepped out into the lead on something that we thought God had called us to and no one is following, or not enough are following and it seems as though this God given call and task might not succeed.

• -          Like both David and Job though we are all tempted by what Paul calls the lawless one. We are tempted to get sidetracked, that the cause has already been defeated or that we have missed our chance at God’s redeeming love. That we have missed God’s action some where in time.

• -          Which leads us to our present day and time and the trials and tribulations that are at hand and what the Gospel has to say about them.

• -          Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson is often out in front talking about and have discussions about the trying times we are in. He challenges the Lutheran church to have discussions around what it means to be a church in a nation that has been at war for 4 years. He challenges the church to discuss what it means to be the church in a nation where there is not healthcare for all children.

• -          This past week the senate just confirmed and attorney general who would not denounce a form of torture, that the former acting assistant attorney general studied on the behalf of the government and decided was torture.

• -          Our new attorney general also said that the president is allowed not to follow the law.

• -          Cut to Jesus arguing with the Sadducees about the law.  Jesus is arguing with resurrection in mind and the Sadducees are arguing that this life is all, therefore to the Sadducees the law is to ultimately be followed.

• -          When asked by what authority that he speaks out, Bishop Mark Hanson replies, by right of my baptism, where I promised to proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace…not by authority granted under church documents or another authority.

• -          Baptized children of God, you are called into the world to stand with Christ, to suffer like Job, to engage like David, to discern like Paul calls you to, and to understand that the kingdom is not just of the here and now, but for all eternity. 

• -          The kingdom of God has come near, how will you be a witness, to what will you commit yourselves?

-          Let us commit together. Amen.