well, look in my eyes

i don't wanna hide

A sermon on a crack St. Jude once made:

The Fourth of July has come and gone. That means we’re now in the heart of summer. And if you had to choose one, I wonder what season would you say is your favorite? *Raise your hand if it’s summer.

RESPOND.

No matter what, even if summer isn’t your favorite season, I think we can all agree that summer has its own unique charms. Doesn’t it? For me, it would be the long days. And I love the smell of trees in the heat, too. 

But what about *y’all? What’s your favorite part of summer? Let’s hear ‘em! Just *shout out your answers! Don’t overthink it! There are no wrong answers. What’s your favorite part of summer? 

RESPOND.

As always, thank you for playing along. You’re good sports. Really! I know you’ve already got plenty on your mind without me asking all these questions each week. 

I know you just want to sit back during the sermon. I know you want to let your mind wander during the sermon! After all, there’s the grocery list to think about. Isn’t there? And maybe, if you’re lucky, there’s brunch to think about, too. 

And even though I’m teasing you a little, I do get it. I know how overwhelming life can be. I know it’s hard enough just to show up! And then, I go making it harder by asking you to think, darn it! I mean, who am I to make you work during the sermon?!? That’s supposed to be my job! Right?

…Honestly, I do feel a little bad. Although, probably not bad enough to stop. Sorry! And anyway, the truth is, I have my reasons for asking these questions. 

First of all, I do want to engage you! Engaged listeners make the sermon better! St. Augustine, one of the best ever preachers in Christian history, served in an especially rowdy congregation. Preaching is supposed to elicit a reaction! And seeing as I can’t get one honestly, I just cheat and make you respond!

Plus, you’re not supposed to be passive during the sermon! Sorry. All of worship, including the sermon, is an act the entire congregation participates in! That’s why we all sing after the sermon! Letting you sit back and do nothing cheats you out of a bit of this part of worship! 

Who am I to do that? You don’t need me protecting you from God. Do you? And, just to be fair, please note, this also means you’re free to take me up on this offer, too! 

And it doesn’t mean you just have to agree, either! You can raise objections! Go ahead and disagree if you’re so moved! And if I complain, you can just smile ever so sweetly and reply, “But pastor, you said.” I know some of you sinners are just dying for the chance to give me trouble! Well, here it is!

But you know what? That’s just the tip of the iceberg! For one thing, I don’t think we’re overwhelmed because we’re thinking too much. No, honestly, the opposite is probably the case! 

I know that sounds counterintuitive. So, let’s test this hypothesis. And just to keep it simple, let’s use an obvious example. How about politics? 

Fun, right? Bear with me, though. I think this might touch upon something you’ve noticed yourself. And I’ll try to keep it evenhanded, too. 

…That said, I do feel obliged to point out the fact that the very mention of politics raises our blood pressure like this is a sure sign that something is amiss. I’ve come to believe we’re all so heated about politics because we’ve all been convinced that the future hangs in the balance. Haven’t we? However, the future is not something we make! Is it? No, the future is a gift. The future comes from the hand of God, not the sweat of our brow!

And this isn’t to say politics doesn’t matter, either. They do! As Luther said, good governance is one of the ways God gives us our daily bread. It’s just to say that government works best when kept in its proper place. 

We’re all so worked up over politics because we want it to do something that, by its very nature, it cannot! Politics doesn’t bring the future or preserve the past. No, all our days are in God’s hands. And God is the one who holds our past and gives us all our tomorrows, too.

And before I move on, this insistence is one way we Christians bear witness. As Christians, we can live as a people who are in the world but not of it! We don’t have to succumb to the world’s desperation. And in this way, we can give witness to a hope that is not defined by the present. That’s what faith is. Isn't it?

So that means if you’ve hitched your wagon to some political movement, you should know you’re free! When the Psalmist says, “Put not your trust in rulers, in mortals in whom there is no help,” you’re not being reprimanded. No, on the contrary, the Psalmist is pointing you to the one in whom your hope belongs! What’s more, the Psalmist is pointing you to the one worthy of bearing something so precious as your hope. 

You caught that. Right? Your hope is precious. And while there’s no shortage of peddlers vying for your trust, there’s only one that won’t let you go. He’s the one God raises from the dead with wounds still in his hands, but who will not lose a single one of the sheep his Father has given him!

That includes you, too. Ok? As Luther said, he had held many things in his hands and lost them all. But, whatever he had placed in God’s hands, that he still possessed. God holds you. And God isn’t burdened when you place your burdens in God’s hands. Ok? *Nod your heads, so I know you’re getting this! Alright. Sorry to be bossy, but this is important!

Oh, and another thing, you get to share this with the world, too! First of all, as Christians, we have the power of prayer. Don’t think you’re doing nothing when you pray for the world. Got it? Prayer is the most powerful thing we have.

And you can pray with others, too. As our Stephen Ministers will tell you—and will you Stephen Ministers *raise your hands so people know whom to look for when they need prayer. Thank you. But, as our Stephen Ministers will tell you, your prayers don’t have to be fancy or perfect. They just need to be honest. The Holy Spirit you were given at your baptism will take care of the rest.

…But, back to the point: We’re not overwhelmed because we’re thinking too much. No, we’re overwhelmed because we’re deprived of any meaningful opportunity to exercise our God-given brains! And we’re using politics as a case study.
So, first of all, who ever heard of being so preoccupied with politics in the summer?!? And then, but keep that in mind, but then let’s consider what we’re focusing on. Lately, it’s Biden’s age and Trump’s potential running mates. Right? 

Ok. But did we ever really digest the situation in Israel or Trump’s conviction? No, of course not! How could we?!? Those are big issues! They take time to think about. 

Instead of really engaging, though, we just move on to the next thing. And trust me, these, too, will be replaced by the perennial next thing in their turn. But you already suspect that. Don’t you?  

This, by the way, is how ideology takes the place of ideas. We don’t have the time to think. Over time, we’ve lost our nerve, too. Plus, we're anxious about the next thing we’ll inevitably have to react to. So, instead of thinking, we run the crisis du jour through preconceived ideological filters and formulate talking points instead of, oh, I don’t know, talking!

…Well, what do you think? Is this just “old man yelling at the clouds,” as the meme says? Or is there something to this? Are we experiencing a slow starvation of thought?

I’m probably out of my depth here, but I think we are! I do believe the issue isn’t that we’re overstimulated. No, I think we’re undernourished! We have too much information to consider. And we don’t have enough discussion to sustain us. 

That’s why we’re overwhelmed! In truth, we’re really underwhelmed! We’ve been denied the opportunity to dig into life! All we’ve been offered is cheap imitations! We’re so malnourished we’ll settle for anything. And it’s got us agitated, too!

Honestly, I want to take time to engage just to do it! Simply taking time is in itself unusual and constructive, too! And I want us to do it together, for that matter! Real discernment is a communal enterprise. It’s easy to come up with some cockamamie conclusion all by yourself. But it’s another thing altogether to hash it out with others. 

This, by the way, is one more way we give witness! When we gather, we witness that there is another force that binds people together! When we gather, we witness that there is another force at work in this weary ‘ol world. When we gather, we witness that there is a people loose in this world who are free enough to consider alternatives!

And that includes you! God has commissioned you to be a freedom fighter out there in the world. You don’t have to fall into the world’s dividing lines. You get to be free enough to be open-minded! You get to be free enough to ask questions and take time to think, too!

…Not bad. Right? But you know what? That’s just the appetizer! God has more on the menu for you and me today!

Do you want to know why I really ask these questions? Well, I ask simply because you matter! That’s right. You matter. Full-stop. Period. You matter.

And, just to be clear, I don’t mean this in some ooey-gooey “you’re oh so special” sort of way, either. Blech! Heavens no! No, I mean you matter because you’re God’s good idea! 

Let me say that again: You’re God’s good idea. You matter because you’re God’s good idea. And that’s categorically different from all those messages *out there. 

First of all, the world’s idea of specialness, if you want to call it that, comes with strings attached! In that reckoning, you must be special! And while that might sound promising, it’s really exhausting! It’s a bait and switch! It all depends on you! 

Yes, you’re told you’re special, but then you must be special. And you have to keep on being special, too! You can never just stop and rest as you are, good, bad, or indifferent. And God forbid, indifferent! In our attention-driven economy, the worst thing you can ever be is indifferent! No wonder we’re all so breathless about politics and any other thing that passes for mention!

No, you matter because you're God’s good idea! Full-stop. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts!

On account of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit you were sealed with at your baptism, you have God’s full attention! As the psalmist says, you are the apple of God’s eye! That’s Psalm 17. Or how about Psalm 8? The same God who hung the heavens and set the stars in their courses above is also mindful of you! You.

You want to know why you matter? Well, just look beyond yourself! And then, look no further than God thyself! Your worth comes from God, and God alone! And God isn’t about to change God’s unchangeable mind when it comes to you! 

God isn’t about to hold back on you, either! No, God became human, suffered, died, and rose again, all to have you. God became human, suffered, died, and rose again, all to have you come what may. This is a worth that transcends all conditions! This is an identity that’s as rock-solid as the mountains themselves! And in Christ, it’s all yours! Let me say it one more time: You’re God’s good idea!

While we’re on it, this is another way we give witness! In Christ, you get to be a non-anxious person in this fearful world! You get to live as someone who doesn’t have to prove your worth! You get to step *out there as someone assured of your worth because you’ve been given it! You get to step *out there as someone assured of your worth because you’ve been given it!

And should you be so blessed that someone might ask you about your peace of mind, you get to tell them of God’s peace that passes all understanding! And do you know what else you get to do? You get to give them a bit of that peace yourself! In Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit that was poured out upon you in your baptism, you get to live a smuggler of the free grace of God in a world that says you’ve got to earn your worth!

…But at this point, perhaps you’re wondering what any of this has to do with today’s Scripture! Well, I’m so glad you asked! So far, we’ve been dealing with the positive side of a provocative remark St. Jude cracks. At the end of the second paragraph, Jude finishes describing the opponents, and he concludes by saying there’s nothing to them. There’s nothing to them.

Well, that’s not only provocative, it’s also apt. Sin, you understand, is not something. No, sin is nothing! And I’ll show you what I mean, too: *What does God say after God creates each thing in Genesis?

That’s right! God says it’s good. And you know what that means, right? It means all of God’s creation is good. So, let me ask you a rhetorical question: *Is sin good? 

That’s right! Of course not! Sin isn’t good at all! And you know what that means, right? It means sin is nothing! Now, I’m not saying sin isn’t real. No, I’m saying sin isn’t a creation. 

Sin is a turning away from, an undoing of God’s good creation. Sin isn’t a thing. No, sin is no-thing. Sin is a making nothing of God’s good something.

At this point, I know it sounds like I’m saying something esoteric. But in truth, this is as plain as day. Here, let me ask you a simple question: What’s painful about heartache? Is it an active something? Or is it that dark power of negativity at work?

It’s the latter. Isn’t it? Of course, it is! Sin isn’t something. No, sin is the rotten power of Sin and Death at war with God’s righteousness and life, God’s good creation.

Yes, sin has a power. But it’s not an active power. No, it’s just a negative power. And yes, it hurts like the dickens, and that’s being polite. But enough of sin and the devil. That non-power power of sin can’t touch God! As Luther said, and you’ll sing, one little word subdues him! 

…That little world is Jesus Christ, the word made flesh! And you know what? You are an integral part of how God is choosing to make that word take on flesh! We’re not gathered here by any might or merit of our own, as we’ll confess in a bit. No, we’re here because the Holy Spirit has summoned us, by the command of God the Father, to make Christ’s spirit take on flesh in this world all over again in us and our assembly!

*This, you are how God is waging war against the devil and all his lies in real time! What’s happening *right now is how God is presently breaking the old satanic foe’s power of nothingness! Yes, we’re weak and of little account, too, but that’s simply the power of that one little word at work! All our nothing is everything God needs! And the teeniest bit of that power of God is more than enough to save sinners, raise the dead, and answer that old prayer: Thy kingdom come!

So, let’s get to it! Shall we? This Word is yours, you know! It’s near you! It’s on your lips and in your heart!

Let’s raise our voices and sound the great battle shout as God breaks the cruel oppressor’s rod and wins salvation glorious! Our Hymn of the Day is hymn number 504, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God! Hymn number 504. Let’s sing!

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, ELW 504