Thursday 29 October 2009

Reading Romans 8: 31 – end

31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel Luke 13: 31 – end

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”

He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day – for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Sermon

Last week we read a passage from the mid part of the journey to Jerusalem. It came from Luke 12. Jesus talked about bringing division and strife to families rather than peace.

Today’s gospel is from Luke 13. It is the climax of the first half of the journey. It is apt that the passage offers a challenge to Jerusalem that actually prefigures the events of Palm Sunday.

The Pharisees warn Jesus of the danger he is in. Are they being ironic, or friendly? We don’t know. He issues a challenge to Herod the king calling him a fox. That itself is risky given what happened to John the Baptist.

After Palm Sunday comes the trial and crucifixion. Jesus is executed, then there is the evening and the morrow. On the third day the tomb is empty and he has completed the work he came to do.

Likewise in this passage Jesus says “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’”

Luke is here reminding us, his readers, of the significance of the journey to Jerusalem. By exorcisms and healings, Jesus is already sowing the seeds of the Kingdom. This is ‘today and tomorrow.’ Then on the third day he will complete his work.

What completes his work is the cycle of events in Jerusalem. The passion, the resurrection and ascension. Through these events, he is exalted and gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to his people.

Like the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus must suffer and be prepared to die. He says that can be nowhere else than in Jerusalem, where his ministry started and where it will end. That’s where Luke’s gospel starts and ends.

For now, he laments over the city as he will also do when he enters it for the last time. Jerusalem is the holy city, but it will eventually reject him and bring about his death.

But as we read in Romans 8, that is not the end but only the beginning. In this we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. As Paul says:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.