Like 7 11-17 2007
Pentecost 2
Luke 7:11-17
June 10, 2007
“Joy in a Land of Sorrows”
Introduction: It is with great joy that I celebrate being back home with you all, my family and my church family. It is with great joy that I come before you and am allowed to preach and share the wonderful news of God’s love given to us in our Savior Jesus Christ. It is with great joy that we hear together the message of salvation, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and that because He died we live, now and forever, together with all who share this faith. Together we share the hope of the resurrection, physically and spiritually and we know that we will be reunited with our loved ones that have died with faith in Jesus Christ. With joy we wait for our heavenly reunion with them.
Even as we have joy, there is still sadness in this land of sorrows, in the time of this present age. Five years ago, as I was preparing to receive my first call in the Holy Ministry, I remember a conversation with a fellow seminarian named Wesley Kan. Even as we had great joy and anticipation, he frankly and honestly made a statement that put everything into perspective. As he was preparing to celebrate his call, he was happy that he and his wife and children were Christian, but then he said, “You know, my mother and father are in Hell. By God’s grace, he was a Christian, but his parents had maintained the heritage of ancestor worship. It is hard to imagine, horrifying even, the thought that some we have known and loved is in hell, separated from God forever.
It was with great joy that I went to Thailand to further instruct the men that will be pastors in Hmong villages. Yet there was also great sorrow. In Thailand, only 1% of the people confess to be Christians. Driving through the crowded streets, surrounded by thousands of people, there is pain in the knowledge that most of these people are going to hell. In Vietnam, standing on the balcony of my hotel, watching the masses of people drive by on their motor bikes, there was sadness that most of these people too will be lost forever, separated from God and from each other in eternal death.
Certainly there was joy in being there, knowing that God is at work, but there is sadness knowing that the gospel cannot always be freely preached, that people are put in prison for smuggling Bible study material into the country, that people that convert to Christianity are persecuted and blacklisted for at least two years. There is pain in the knowledge that there are not enough pastors or places of worship for those people that believe in Jesus and are baptized. In our world there is joy and there is pain. This is the world that our Lord chose to enter in His incarnation.
He shared our joy and our pain. This is reflected in the gospel text for today. In the gospel of Luke Jesus is surrounded by people that are celebrating His Messianic arrival. He had just healed the centurion’s servant. Everyone was upbeat and happy. Then they enter the city of Nain, a short distance from Jesus home town of Nazareth.
Even as there is a celebration of the faith of the centurion, Jesus, the disciples, and the crowds that followed are confronted by the horror and sadness of death. They stand in the presence of a woman, a lonely widow, following the funeral bier of her only son, carried on a pallet and covered with a sheet. There is unbearable sadness.
This is as it should be. Death, physical death in this life is always a reminder that there is a consequence for sin. Sin is the ugly disease that ravishes our bodies, and condemns us to death. This death points to the ultimate death. That is eternal separation from God and from the people we love. It is ugly, repulsive, disgusting. It is not natural; it is not part of life, at least the life that God intended for us. Death brings separation and it tears apart.
Jesus comes to bring life, to restore, to make whole that which broken. He alone can stop the funeral procession and make everything right again. This is what He does. We have all witnessed funeral processions. We have all bee a part of them. When we see them, we quietly and respectfully let them pass. In Canada there is a wonderful tradition, not followed here in the United States. Wherever there is a funeral procession, people stop what they are doing, cars stop, on both sides of the road, people stop on the side walks, life pauses in respect for those that mourn. There is one thing that never happens, in Canada or the United States. People never stop the procession. It is always allowed to pass. That’s because there is nothing we can do to change the fact that someone has died. What we cannot do Jesus can and does do. He stops the funeral procession. He stopped it in the city of Nain. And He stops it for us.
Jesus does the unthinkable. He tells the woman, the widow, not to weep. Of course, if we were to do this, it would be rude, callous and uncaring. Who of us would dare to tell someone mourning the death of a loved one not to weep. That is because there is nothing that we can do. But when Jesus speaks these, “do not weep”, these words are based on his authority and His power to make what is dead alive again. Because he took our sin upon Himself at the cross, because he suffered death, the consequences of sin have been done away with. Because of Jesus he says to us, “He who believes in me will never die, and even after, physical death, there is life in his name.
Yes there is physical death that is because our bodies are contaminated with sin. But Jesus Christ has given us a new and holy spirit. This is the beginning of our new life that will be completed when we are physically raised from the dead. Because Jesus was raised from the dead we know that we to will be raised from the dead in bodies that are unspoiled and incorruptible that will last forever…a concept that our earthly bodies and minds cannot conceive of.
Jesus not only comes to bring us new life. He comes to restore and make whole that which is broken. He gives the women’s son His life back. Jesus gives the woman her son back. The relationship that was broken is restored. Jesus comes to give us life. This new life we have by faith in Him as our Lord and Savior. In the waters of baptism we are rejoined and connected to the family of God. As we believe, as our families and friends believe, we are joined together for eternity. Or relationships with God and with each other last more than for this life, they last forever. This truly gives us joy.
Two missionaries were serving in Korea. A husband-wife team worked together for 15 years. The wife became sick and was dying. Her husband sat by her side, holding her hand, waiting for death. Before she closed her eyes for the last time she said, “Do not grieve for me, my dear. You will get me back again, you will get me back.” A day or so later the man sat in a funeral train, taking his wife’s body for burial. Two Korean women sat behind him. One of them was weeping. Her companion asked her why she was crying. She explained, “I feel so sorry for the missionary.” The other woman said, “? Don’t cry for him; weep for yourself and for me. I lost a boy and I will never get him back. You lost your daughter, and you will never see her again. But these foreigners who know Jesus have a strange and wonderful way of getting their dead back.”
Through Jesus Christ we get our life back. He restores our relationship with God our Father. Yes, we can even get our dead back, to love and hold and cherish forever. We have hope, and we have joy in this place as we celebrate what God has done. He has saved us from our sin. We have eternal life. We share this hope and joy with each other. We have a place to worship, to hear the word of God and receive the Lord ’s Supper. We have been blessed with Connie Steinbach to lead us in the worship and praise of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with each other joined as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ to be one family.
But there are many people that do not have these things. Even as there is joy, there is sadness in the land of sorrows, in this present age. God, our God, invites us to continue to share the gospel through out the world so that other people might share our joy, share eternal life in Jesus name and get their dead back. This is why you allowed me to go to Thailand and to Vietnam. For this I thank God as I thank Him for you. Our job will be done when the household of God is complete. Until then, as you prayed for me while I was gone, pray for those people that have been left behind, that God in His mercy will save them as He has saved us. And that when Jesus comes again our joy may be full and complete Amen.