Sermon-Sunday-July 8, 2007

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus promises a harvest that is plentiful. So how does that sound to you today? Many of you of course are in anticipation of a soon to be arriving harvest. How do Jesus’ words of promise of a plentiful harvest sound to you today?? Perhaps, in light of the storm that we were hit with this week Jesus’ promise of a plentiful harvest might sound like empty words that have little meaning.
Perhaps in light of whatever storms the world might be throwing at you; be it disease, depression, anxiety, financial burdens, addiction, or jealousy or envy or pride or lust that just seems to have an overpowering grip on you and it won’t let go. Perhaps in light of all that, these words seem empty. But fear not, for that is nothing but the devil himself telling you that there is no plentiful harvest for you.
It is nothing but the devil coming and attacking you through sin and accusing you through the law in the way that he does. But Jesus never denies that you would face this. In fact He comes to you today in His Word and tells you that, as one who has been claimed by Him in the waters of baptism, He sends you out into the world like lambs into the midst of wolves.
And even though the fate of the devil has been sealed, he continues to go down his path of deception, filled as it is with meaningless accusations and empty promises. He continues with his attempts to convince you that the plentiful harvest which Christ Jesus promises is not for you, or he tries to seduce you with empty promises of another harvest that can only lead to destruction.
The pathway that the devil tries to seduce you with can only lead to destruction the likes of which, the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida faced in verses 12-15 of today’s gospel lesson, in light of their rejection of the forgiveness and redemption that can only come through Christ Jesus. The devil had worked on them the deception that he daily tries to work on you, and the end result was destruction.
But Christ Jesus was on a different path. He was on a path that would lead to His death. He was on a path that would lead to His laying down His life for you. He was on a path that would lead to the cross, where He bore the burden of your sin. He was on a path that would lead to a tomb that He would walk victoriously out of. And it was because of this path that He knew the fate of the very one who attacks you with empty promises and accusations and our Lord Jesus speaks of this fate in today’s Gospel lesson when He says that He watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.
Like a flash of lightning, Satan was defeated. Like the lightning that we saw earlier this week, Satan was defeated. Satan will continue to attack you, but he will attack you through this world. After all he is, as it states in Ephesians, the ruler of the kingdom of the air. But his attacks are in vain, because Christ Jesus comes to you a sinner, dead in your transgressions and claims you as His own, and He gives you new and eternal life in Him.
By His rich love and abounding mercy Christ Jesus has seen fit to rescue you from vulnerability to Satan’s attacks, and Christ Jesus has seated you with Him in the heavenly realms, as it says in the second chapter of Ephesians. In the rich and unconditional grace of God in Christ Jesus you have been freed from sin, death, and the devil. And none of this is by your own doing, but is all the work of the One who claims you in baptism and who takes your sin and death with Him to the cross.
In light of that we are reminded in today’s second lesson that we are never to boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Other translations use the word glory instead of boast. However it is translated, the key issue here is that in whatever way Satan continues to attack you and tries to tear down the hope that you have in Christ, you are to cling not to what you do, but to what Christ has done for you. It is not in your personal accomplishments that you find hope, but in the cross of Christ.
Luther says that the cross of Christ signifies much more than a piece of wood, but in fact it signifies all the afflictions of the church, which it suffers for Christ. This means that when Satan tries to attack, deceive, and afflict you, all you need to do is to look to the Cross of Christ and you see the very defeat of those attacks.
As children of God, the world has been crucified to you and you have been crucified to the world. Essentially what this means is that the world condemns you and that you condemn the world. This is not a call to go around condemning those who don’t share your Christian faith. Rather, this is to say, it is in the nature of the world to reject Christ and thus to condemn Christ. But through faith in Christ, you condemn the world as rejecters and crucifiers of Christ. Again, this is also not of our own doing. Even your best and most pious efforts don’t even come close to giving you the authority to judge or condemn anyone.
But praise be to God, it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you and it is through Christ living in you, raising you to new life, making of you a new creation that the world is condemned.
Left merely to your own devices and your own abilities you would remain crucifiers and rejecters of Christ yourselves. But again, fear not for the Lord does not leave you to your own devices. He does not leave you in the temporary futility of this world that condemns you, but rather He claims you as one of His own and has placed you in His Kingdom.
And He sends you out like lambs into the midst of wolves to proclaim the arrival of that very Kingdom that He has brought you into. And yes, He promises that the world that condemns and crucifies Him will reject you, and when you are rejected, Christ is rejected. But Christ Jesus has given you His eternal word of promise. He has given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and He promises that nothing will hurt you.
In whatever way Satan and his snakes and scorpions attack you they are not able to touch the eternal hope that you have in Christ Jesus. Indeed as the seventy disciples returned to Jesus they tell Him that in His name, the demons submit to them. And the same is true for you. Through Christ living in you, through the new creation that Christ Jesus is making in you, the demons submit to you.
Heed the words of Paul in our second lesson for today through which Christ Jesus urges you to bear one another’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. The snakes and the scorpions will continue to attack you and try to deceive you, and in the midst of that you have been given to each other, to bear one another’s burdens.
You have been given to each other to be servants to each other, and Christ lives in each and every one of you. Christ lives in each and every one of you and in you Christ continues His work of proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near. The storms of this world and the attacks of the devil will continue, and in Christ you have been given the authority to stand defiantly in the face of those attacks and tell the devil to bring it on, because the One living in you has already sealed the devil’s fate, and your place in the Heavenly realms has been secured.
And none of this is of your own doing. As the work of proclaiming the Kingdom of God is continued in you, those who listen to you, listen to Christ, those who reject you, reject Christ. Boast of nothing except the cross of Christ, and rejoice not that the Spirit submits to you, but that your name is written in Heaven where there is indeed a plentiful harvest and you have a claim in it.
Amen