Luke 23:33-43

23:33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots. 23:35 The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
23:36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, 23:37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
23:38 An inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
23:39 One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
23:40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Don’t you even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 23:41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 23:42 He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
23:43 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

What ever we say about the Kingdom which Christ came to bring, we end up saying it is different. Very different from any other Kingdom we know or could imagine.

It is a Kingdom in which there is no intimidation to control and dominate, no force used to get one’s way, not even a Kingdom where the King is bent on getting even with his enemies.

It is a Kingdom where everything is different: Where the last are first, least are most, one is important, lost are found and the rejected are accepted. It is a Kingdom where grace, not power reigns. This means you can never predict what is going to happen nor control what happens. When grace happens anything can happen!

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is of another Kingdom and his power is made perfect in weakness. His power to forgive and thereby take away the destructive guilt which robs life of its joy and peace. Forgiveness - which reaches to the depth of the heart and soul and there does what nothing else can do - releases one from “sin, death and the power of the devil.” It is the gift of gifts given by the Lord of Lords!

Luke 21:5-19

21:5 As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he (Jesus) said, 21:6 “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
21:7 They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”
21:8 He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. 21:9 When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
21:10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 21:12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 21:13 It will turn out as a testimony for you. 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 21:15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. 21:16 You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. 21:17 You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. 21:18 And not a hair of your head will perish.
21:19 “By your endurance you will win your lives.

“Not A Hair Will Perish”

The American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once said:
“The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them better.”

This certainly is the mark of faith which often has to hope against hope and act in love in spite of all the hate. This is what this text is all about.

It is about the faith which is sure of what it hopes for and certain of what it cannot see.
It is about the love which dares to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.
It is about being witness to the truth in the face of evil and daring to believe that not a hair on our heads will perish.

As one writer put it:
“Christ risen from the dead shows that there is nothing rebellious creation can do to cause something to perish that God wants to preserve.”

It is not the evil which shall prevail; it is faith in the goodness of God which will prevail!
Indeed, not a hair will perish of what God wants to preserve!

Luke 20.27-38

20:27 Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 20:28 They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 20:29 There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 20:30 The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 20:31 The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 20:32 Afterward the woman also died. 20:33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
20:34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. 20:35 But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. 20:36 For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’* 20:38 Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

“God Of the Living”

It is dwarfed minds which want answers rather then vision; specifics rather then promise.

The Sadducees trap question reveals how small of mind they are. They want to know in human terms what cannot be put in human terms - it is too big to be made so small.

When we try to put the mysteries of heaven in human terms - trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together in logical sequence, or throwing up our hands and saying it can’t be done so it doesn’t exist - we end up with nothing worth anything.

If we try live too much for heaven we will not live for today. If we live only for today we have no hope for tomorrow.

The key is to live with a loving God today letting tomorrow be in God’s loving hands. This is the source of our sure and certain hope.

Eternal life cannot be reduced to conditions of temporal life. We are in God’s loving hands.
God of the living and of the dead; God of yesterday, today and forever. We live in love and with love waiting for the day when all things will be new and only love will remain.

Luke 6:20-31

6:20 He (Jesus) lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said,
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the Kingdom of God.
6:21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
6:22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
6:23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.
6:24 “But woe to you who are rich!
For you have received your consolation.
6:25 Woe to you, you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
6:26 Woe,* when* men speak well of you,
for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.
6:27 “But I tell you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 6:28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. 6:29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also. 6:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and don’t ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.
6:31 “As you would like people to do to you, do exactly so to them.

“Good Hearts”

“Blessed are the pure of heart, (those who have opened their hearts to the redeeming goodness of God’s love) for they will see God.”(Matt. 5:8)
And they will be a blessing. It will be said of them “He/she had a good heart!”

All Saints Sunday has to do with our hearts. The Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49)) and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) both speak to issues of the heart.

Heart. The word appears 872 times in the Bible.
It is an all inclusive word which captures all that we are -body, mind, spirit and means everything we are, the very center our our being, the very soul of our existence. In the O.T. as well as new and even today, “the ‘heart’ is at the center of a person’s motivations and actions. It is the deepest fiber and sinew of the human willpower”
John S. McClure

As Jesus says a bit further in the sermon on the Plain:
“The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” Lk. 6:45

How is it with your heart?
Believe it or not, want it or not, God would, through Word and Sacrament search us, cleanse us, call us, equip us, change us, enrich us, forgive us, so that from the heart we might “be merciful, just as (our God) is merciful.” Mt. 6:36

Jesus words to his disciples and to us call us to be open to having our hearts touched by the grace which blesses us and challenges us to live as those who, rich or poor, know we are blessed beyond human understanding.

The irony of life is that the deepest blessings sometimes come out of the deepest hurts - for the hurts open our eyes to see what is really important in life and if we will let them, they tenderize our hearts so that we become more alive and more sensitive to the grace of God at work in our world.

It makes all the difference in the world when our hearts are turned towards God and God’s grace is at work in our hearts and lives, taking the worst which happens to us and making it a blessing; and taking the best that happens to us and making that a blessing too - for others who need to know they too are loved by God.

Then we too are numbered with the Saints for a Saint is someone with a “good heart”; a heart which has been captured by the awesome love of God!

John 8:31-36

8:31 Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. 8:32 You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”*
8:33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s seed, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, ‘You will be made free?’”
8:34 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin. 8:35 A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. 8:36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 8:37 I know that you are Abraham’s seed, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you. 8:38 I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”

“FREE TO LIVE”

Jesus came that we might have live, and that abundantly.

That we might be free to live and drink deeply of this human existence, which is Gods first great a gift to us.

In Christ we are free to be ourselves.
We don’t have to be like someone else; we don’t have to pretend we are more religious then we are. For God accepts us as we are.
“It’s okay to be me, because me is okay.” We are free to be!

In Christ we are free to try, to fail, and to try again. For with God there is forgiveness!

To live with Jesus is to live in forgiveness, full and free. There is no limit to Gods forgiveness. Once forgiven, we live with grateful hearts which are more powerful then any set of rules.

How great it is to have such a forgiving God!

This is the way God is.
God’s grace is big enough for all our needs, and our goofs?

We are free to live!