Today’s Scripture

Psalm 62         Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4            2 Timothy 1:1-14         Luke 17:1-10

 

            In the 1960’s was a movie, “Blow Up.”  Throughout the movie, no one seemed to finish anything they were doing, a drink, a conversation, or a work or daily routine item.  The interruptions were continuous.  And isn’t that like our lives, there are continuous interruptions that attempt to take minds off of what we are supposed to be doing.  We are impatient people and want to get through things right now.  We do not want the distractions thrown at us in life that take our minds away from what we are intent on doing.

 

            Habakkuk cries out about this.  How long will you (God) leave me here looking at injustice?  Habakkuk knew God’s promises.  Habakkuk knew God’s will in this world and for eternity.  Habakkuk, like you, was tired of the interruptions in this world that were getting in the way of God’s will being fulfilled.  Then Habakkuk makes a statement of faith, “I will look to say what he (the Lord) will say to me…the righteous will live by his faith,” [2:1, 4] 

 

            Paul writes to Timothy in this second letter today, to guard the good deposit entrusted to you.  Paul encourages Timothy that no matter what is going on in the world around him, to remain faithful to God’s word, God’s promise, God’s hope that is entrusted to Timothy, a Christian and a young pastor in a world that does not like following God’s commands and in a world that comforts itself with delusions of hope and comfort apart from God’s love, his peace in forgiveness won on the cross by Jesus Christ.

 

            You and I live in this world today that is the same as Habakkuk’s world, the same as Timothy and Paul’s world.  Jesus’ words to the disciples and to us today in this section of Luke encourages us with an orderliness that he brings and for us to follow in these distracted and disjointed lives and world we live in.

 

            First of all Jesus tells us the reality of this sinful world.  “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come…” [v. 1].  There is no getting around it.  And if you doubt that, watch the news and read the newspaper.  Note the content, both theme and the words and actions in most entertainment.  Note what is going on in the daily lives and activities of your colleagues at work, neighbors, classmates, and all others you see minute by minute.  Note what is going on in your own heart let alone your words and actions both outward and inward.  Satan does not give us any rest, does he?

 

            Today is the baptism for little Gregory Allan.  We all respond on behalf of him.  We join with his parents (Todd and Kristi), Christian sponsors, family and friends in the pledge to raise him in this one true faith.  We confess on his behalf and with him saving faith in the Triune God who makes us, redeems us from sin, death and Satan, and makes us holy through these wondrous waters to receive everlasting life.  Little Gregory is just like all of us now, his new life and will are to do our Heavenly Father’s will.

 

            That leads us to Jesus’ next phrase, “do not do anything to cause little Gregory or anyone else to sin.”  We are not here on this earth to stir up anger in another, to promote jealousy and envy in another.  We are not here on this earth to try to step in and take something away from another.  Causing others to sin is Satan’s work, not God’s.  Jesus says to not have anything whatsoever to do with this.  We read in Revelation that Satan and his followers were “hurled” down from heaven.  Last week we noted that between heaven and hell is a great chasm that no one can cross in either direction.  It is better to drown in the Des Plaines River than to be sentenced to hell as one of the devil’s cohorts.  Jesus does not want you to fall into the devil’s schemes as he says, “So watch yourselves,” [v. 3].  God has given you his law so you know right from wrong.  He has given you his gift of love in that law and in forgiveness so you are able to rejoice in his love and follow his will.

 

            That will is to follow the example and God’s commands given us through Jesus.  This last week in the miracles Bible Study we noted that the first thing Jesus did to the paralytic lowered through the roof was to forgive him his sins.  Today he instructs us to continue in the peace he brings to us in forgiveness by forgiving those who sin against us.  Yes, rebuke one another, tell each other how we offend.  Forgive where there is repentance.  And guess what?  In our sinful condition each one is bound to do the same sin over and over again.  And just as God forgives over and over again, keep forgiving.  In your prayer of confession did you go on that Lutheran guilt trip because you caught yourself confessing the same sins you confessed last Sunday, the week before, and on it goes.  And God keeps forgiving.  As Jesus told Peter not seven times, but seventy times seven times – don’t count, embrace each other with that peace knowing how in God’s perfect love he can and does forgive unlimitedly, we too do the same.  That is why the centuries old tradition of embracing in that forgiving peace at the time we receive what won that peace for us, Jesus’ very body and blood.

 

            The disciples, realizing how much faith this takes asked Jesus to increase their faith.  Like those guys, we too realize we have a lot of trouble living up to God’s standards and ask Jesus to strengthen our faith too.  And that is faith, trusting God to strengthen our faith.  And here comes Satan again playing those mind games making you wonder if you are good enough because you do not have the faith that John or Peter or James or Paul or Lydia or Mary or David or Abraham or Habakkuk or Lex Lucado or Billy Graham or your friend Charlie or Charlene. 

 

            Don’t fall into that trap as Jesus brings you the true comfort of the Gospel.  You have faith.  And even if that faith does not look big, it can move large trees.  It is because faith does not rest on you, but rests on what God can and does do for you.  Can God move a tree from a mountain into the sea?  Of course!  And here is the biggie, if he can do that simple thing, how about raising you from the dead?  How about removing all sin and the effects of sin from your fleshly body and making it in his image again?  He does.  Do not be deceived by the outward signs of faith as we measure them in our sinful ways, but trust on what faith really is, the inward.  Let your outward lives exhibit that inward faith.  The outward signs are confessing the true faith.  They include the waters of baptism that cleanse you daily of your sin.  Those signs include the body and blood that paid the price for your sins and give you eternal life.

 

            Meanwhile, we are God’s servants on this earth.  Our work does not always carry a lot of glamour.  But that work is joined with all of the other servants.  The mites of one lady and her family does not do much, but combined does over a million dollars worth of getting the Gospel message to faithful believers and first time hearers alike.  As you do not short change yourself, do not let yourself short change the love God has given you in your faith and to share those joys with others.  Yes, we are unworthy servants.  Yes, we are distracted by so many things in this world.  But God has given us the gift of serving him instead of Satan.  God has given you the joy of being not just his servant, but his friend, and his dear child and heir of heaven.  God has given you the joy that when your earthly work is over, you will join all believers at the banquet feast in heaven that he has prepared already for you.  And that servant’s work here, it is sharing that same hope and joy with another so that he too will encounter Jesus as you do today. 

            In Jesus’ undying love.  Amen.