This Ain’t Easy Y’all

Well, before I started working on this sermon I made sure I thanked Pastor Chris (who makes the preaching schedule) for giving me this passage today where Jesus uses language that seems pretty un-Jesusy at first glance. It’s pretty confrontational for sure. The first reading is also pretty harsh. In the two passages you have God the Creator and God the Son both lifting the veil for a minute and kinda talking smack. There is a note of frustration in both of them. There is a clear sense that they are aware that some people are just having trouble actually hearing how the good and just kingdom arrives and what it will look like as it unfolds. God’s Kingdom of plenty, not pleasantness; God’s kingdom of Justice, not cordialness; God’s kindom of love, not lip-service. God’s kingdom of courage, not cowardice. God’s Kingdom that some will fail to see. God’s will, that some will thwart, because their primary concern is everyone just getting along. A little injustice is okay as long as the quiet order continues, right? As long as everyone is nice. Right? Or it’s okay to twist God’s word to your own performative piety instead of look for injustice and correct it. Right?

In Jeremiah, God in essence says, “Hello! Am I far away or near? I’m in and around everything. I hear you! I know that you are saying things for me that are not true. You are falsely prophesying and you don’t think I’ll find out? Verse 26: How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? The Hebrew word for deceit there is “tarmit.” It’s a rare word in Hebrew and it means deliberate trickery. So it’s pretty clear. Not open to lots of different interpretations. It’s willfu,l knowing trickery. People deliberately using God’s credibility to make false statements about what a people should do. People using God to convince other people to do things that serve you rather than God.

Jeremiah Goes on, verse 28 and 29, “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? Straw and wheat grow together but they come from the same plant, just like prophets and false prophets come from the same belief system. But like the straw, the false teaching provides no sustenance, and teaching God’s justice, like wheat, nourishes. God is telling us to wake up and see the difference.

Then there is what Jesus tells us in Luke. Jesus tells us that the path of the Kingdom, the path to living in God’s way will not be easy. It’s not going to be comfortable and without confrontation, because people will inevitably hear the wrong things and learn the wrong lessons. It is so easy for grace to become law and resurrection to become regulation, and salvation to become placation. Jesus is telling us that not everyone will understand and we will have to confront them about it. We won’t all be on the same page.

Let me give you an example of how this can play out.

By now you know that teachers are returning to their classrooms for the new school year and in those classrooms now it is mandatory to post the 10 Commandments in the classroom in Texas.

This is the law of the land here, and during the debate over this legislation, two state representatives—both Christians—sparred over the bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom.

Representative Candy Noble sponsored the bill.

Representative James Talarico opposed it.

At one point, Talarico pointed out something ironic:

They were pushing the bill on a Sunday—ironically breaking the very commandment about keeping the Sabbath.

Here’s the thing: both believe the Ten Commandments matter. Both profess faith in Christ. But they have very different visions of how God’s reign shows up in public life.

One sees God’s Kingdom advancing through legislation that enforces biblical symbols in public spaces. She also avoided diving into legal or theological defense of the bill. By wrapping it in patriotism and tradition, she sought to neutralize constitutional critique through cultural appeal.

The other sees God’s Kingdom advancing through persuasion, justice, doing the things in the those Ten Commandments and the transforming heart,s rather than issuing government mandates that make us feel like Jesus warriors.

This is exactly the tension Jeremiah and Jesus are naming.

It’s not enough to say “God’s Word” — we have to ask whether what we’re doing with it brings justice, brings truth, brings real Godly peace… or whether we’re using it to make ourselves feel good while ignoring the kairos moment right in front of us, when God’s call to act becomes especially clear and pressing. Kairos is the Greek word which means the right, critical, or opportune time — the moment when action or decision is most urgent and most fruitful.

It means feeding a hungry child when they are starving rather than posting words upon a wall, calling it a day, and patting yourself on the back as soldier for a Christian Nation.

Witness is more than just words. It’s more than just telling people about God or pushing tracts into their hands. It’s about helping the helpless. It’s about liberating the downtrodden, it’s about loving the those losing hope. It’s about telling stories about what God has done for YOU and not what God WILL do for them. It’s about all the things that ‘God’s work. Our hands.’ Sunday is about, which is coming up on September 7th this year, btw.

During faith formation this summer we have been reexamining Luther’s small catechism. It’s turns out that Luther has a LOT to say about all this too.

In the Small Catechism, he reminds us about the eight commandment it means more than not telling lies — it means speaking in ways that protect our neighbor’s reputation and defending them against harm. About the Lord’s Prayer, He also says that when we pray for ‘daily bread,’ we are praying for good and faithful government, justice, and a society where everyone has what they need for life. Luther tells us that it’s not enough for us to talk the talk, but that we also have to walk the walk.

Jeremiah and Jesus press us to see that if our words about God — whether in politics or in church — do not serve the neighbor’s good or secure their daily bread, then we are missing the point and settling for a false peace. God’s Word shoud defend the neighbor and provide daily bread for all — not just for some. It should call us to do justice, to do Kingdom, to see wrongs and make them right, not puff ourselves up with personal piety. It’s not about you. In God’s eyes it’s always about them. It’s always about the neighbor.

How do you know? How do you know that you aren’t just forecasting the weather rather than seeing the real point of what’s going on? In our LGBTQ+ bible study we are currently working through Matthew Vines’ fantastic work, God and the Gay Christian. In that space, interpretation matters a lot. How we read or misread, how we talk or misspeak about the Bible has profound consequences for people, so it’s critical to know how to know you are on the right path and Matthew Vines reminds us that Matthew the Gospel writer says in Matthew 7:16-20 that people, prophets, and prognostications, just as trees, are recognized by the fruit they produce. Good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit, and any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. There’s that word again, fire. God’s fire that purifies, that turns the opaque dustiness of sand into the clear purity of glass. God’s fire forges clear justice, makes duplicitous, self serving, self-righteousness melt away.

Do your prophesies or prerequisites, do your laws and legislation bear good fruit? Do they lift people up? Do they bring justice, and a society where everyone has what they need for life. Do they fill young vulnerable minds with the knowledge that God loves and embraces them or does it lead parents to throw their children into the streets. Does it lead someone to health or to retreat into addiction. Does it bring harm instead of life? That’s how we know. That’s how we know if we got it right. If we are doing God’s will, life will breakout. The downtrodden will be lifted up. The lowly brought to the seat of honor, rough places plain. That’s when you got it right.

Friends, the good news is this: the same God who speaks in Jeremiah with fire and in Jesus with urgency has also planted in us the Spirit to discern the truth, to speak it boldly, and to live it out in love. The Kingdom Jesus describes is not some far-off dream—it is already breaking in wherever daily bread is shared, wherever reputations are protected, wherever good fruit is growing.

You and I are called into that work—not to preserve a false peace, but to create a real one. Not to settle for straw, but to offer wheat. Not to fear the fire, but to let it refine us. We may not all agree on every policy or practice, but if we let our words and actions bear good fruit—fruit that nourishes, heals, and liberates—then we will be living signs of God’s justice and love.

And when the day comes that someone asks you, “What does God’s Kingdom look like?” you’ll be able to say, with joy and without hesitation: Look around you. It’s already here if you live into it.

Amen.

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