the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

16 September 2018

Isaiah 50. 4-9a

We’re redeemed not for heaven’s sake, 
but for the sake of the world!

Way back in seminary, the preaching professor told us a story.  About a boy who found a wheel to a bike.  Just a wheel.  No tire.  No bike to go with it.  Anyway, he picked it up and took it home.  After a few days, he too that wheel out back and nailed it to the fence.  And he’d spin it and watch it turn.  Well, the next day, he went out to find another wheel.  He brought it home and nailed it to the fence beside the other.  He did the same the next day.  And the day after.  And the day after that.  He’d spin them all and watch them go.  Flashing.  Flickering.  Some he’d turn in one direction.  Others, he’d turn in another.  Then, he ran into the garage, found a long piece of rope, and wrapped it around and between all those wheels.  When he was done, he could turn just one wheel and all the others would go around and around and around in the sunlight.  Well, he was excited about what he’d created and wanted to show off.  He ran and got his dad and turned the wheels.  And his dad smiled.  “That’s great, son,” he said.  “But where does it go?”

“Where does it go?” You see, wheels weren’t invented, simply, to hang on a fence and spin.  The whole reason for a bike wheel is to take you somewhere, to go places!  That’s great, son, but what’s the point?  What’s the destination?

First of all, just to clear things up, this image of the five gears on the PowerPoint, was the closest one I could find!  There’s not that many images of wheels nailed to a fence.  But Dr. Hoefler went on to explain that the way we do church, more often than not, is like those wheels.  Just hanging on a fence.  Going around and around.  Accomplishing nothing.  Going nowhere.  It looks impressive.  It makes us feel good.  But when all’s said and done, it just doesn’t go anywhere.

We collect all these wheels.  Sunday School!  Worship Services!  Choirs of every description!  Youth Groups!  Catechism Classes!  Study Groups!  Retreats!  Summer Camp!  Mission Trips!  We nail them to the wall!  We start them spinning!  We watch them sparkle!  Glisten!  We get such a sense of satisfaction, success!  God sees it.  God smiles.  And god says, “That’s great!  But where does it go?  Where is it taking you?”  And we have to admit, it’s going nowhere.  It’s going nowhere.  It’s just hanging there, on a fence, going around and around and around and around.

“The Lord GOD,” the prophet says, “has given me the tongue of a teacher!”  Has given me the tongue of a teacher not so I can talk down to everyone!  Has given me the tongue of a teacher not so that I can know more about god than anyone else!  Not so I can know more about me!  Not so I can get a good job!  Or win a round of Bible Trivia!  Or impress my enemies and friends!  The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher not even that I can find my way out of hell and into heaven!  “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word!”  That I may know how to sustain the weary with a word!  And that, my friends, is why we are here!

That’s why we’re here!  And that’s why we do what we do!  Week after week!  Month after month!  Year after year after year!  That’s why the gospel is spoken and heard!  That’s why the sacraments are administered and received!  That’s why we’re loved!  So that we, so that we can go and do the same!  So that we can change the world just like Jesus!  That’s the point!  That’s the direction!  The destination!  Bottom line, god loves us so that we, too, love!  Love our family!  Our neighbors!  Our friends!  God suffers and breaks and bleeds and died so that we, too, suffer and break and bleed and die!  So that we can be, not just “little” christs to the world, but so that we can be full size, honest-to-god Christs!  Saving the world – just like Jesus – from sin, death, and the devil!  Saving the world – just like Jesus – from itself and from its own good intentions!  The Lord GOD has given us the tongue of a teacher that we may – not only know how to sustain the weary with a word, but that we will, actually, do it!

It’s like the quote we heard when we were at Pacific Lutheran University, a few weeks ago!  Luther says, “You are powerful to make to make the weak powerful!  To raise them up!  To defend them!  You’re wise so that you can teach the foolish!  Righteous so that you may forgive the unrighteous!”  Everything we do here. . .  Everything we see. . .  Everything we hear. . .  Everything we touch, everything that touches us. . .  is intended for the service of the lowest and the least!  God feeds us so that we can feed!  God gives us something to drink so that we can give others something to drink!  God gives us something to wear, god gives us something to live in, so we can go and do the same!  We notice when someone’s missing, we seek them out, we find them, we bring them home, because that’s, exactly, what god has done for us!  It’s not just a matter of nailing bicycle wheels to a fence and watching them spin.

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher                   

that I may know how to sustain the weary. . .”

“The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher                   

that I will sustain the weary. . .”

We are who we are, we do what we do, not for the sake of heaven; but for the sake of the world.  Not for there and then, but here and now.  Compassion begets compassion.  Forgiveness breeds forgiveness.  The cross. . .  The cross creates more crosses!  And those crosses more crosses after them!  On!  And on!  And on!  God loved the world so much, god sent Jesus!  And Jesus loved the world so much, that Jesus sent the church!  And the church sends us!  And we send our children!  And they send their children!  And their children send theirs, after that!  And the reason?  The purpose for it all?  To sustain the weary!  To sustain the weary with a word!  With THE word!  And in doing that, we redeem lives!  We change the world!  Just like Jesus!  Nothing about climbing Jacob’s ladder!  Or going through gates of pearl!  But everything to do with turning the other and going the extra and doing unto!  Everything to do with taking up our cross and following after! 

My friends, don’t fall on your knees!  Don’t bow your heads!  And don’t close your eyes!  Instead, stand tall!  Open your eyes!  And take a look around you!  A good, long look!  Look closely!  Look carefully!  Because this. . .  all of this. . .  is why we are here!  This. . .  all of this. . .  is why we are here!

Midland Lutheran Church
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