Holy Trinity Ankeny

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. Today’s Gospel text from Luke sure doesn’t seem like it should be read on Christ the King Sunday. There is one word that can trip us up. “If” is a word that can cause us a lot of problems in our lives. Cause us to doubt ourselves. And it can cause us to doubt God’s goodness. On this day and every day, Christ is King and there are no if’s about that.

When Jesus and the disciples leave the Temple today, they comment on how grand it is. And Jesus, never one to forego an opportunity to teach, tells them that this temple will one day no longer be standing. I am sure that they heard this news as bad news. After all, the temple was the center of Jewish religious life. But this isn’t bad news. It is actually good news, especially to those on the margins of life.

The Festival of All Saints is a day to remember the beloved dead who have gone before us. More than that, it is a day to ponder how the faithful people of God face the evil, suffering, and darkness of the world as the “communion of saints.” As people connected to Christ across time and space, we are bound together in love and bound for the promise of the kingdom of God. We are bound by love and bound for hope.

Most of us would proclaim that we are free. Free to do what we want, when we want; free to make choices and plan our life. Jesus questions our freedom. So does Paul. So did Martin Luther. Here is the question: If you have been made in the image of God to love as Jesus does, why don’t you do that? Maybe because you’re not as free as you thought you were.

Jesus tells a story of a religious leader who didn’t need God because he thought he was a big deal. The result was a joyless, judgmental, life with no room to trust anything but self. Jesus also tells us about a sinner who cries out to God, not with excuses but for mercy. Jesus teaches that the sinner went away with God’s blessing. The truth is that we are nothing and have nothing without God’s mercy and grace. As Luther noted at his death, “We are beggars.”

In our age, anything called a “story” is suspected to be untrue. What is strange about that is that stories are the oldest human means of knowing the truth. Stories are how we get to know each other. Stories – narratives – are what we use to make sense of the world. Today we celebrate the Festival of St. Luke, one of the most gifted storytellers in scripture. Luke’s story of Jesus shapes the way we live, the way we see, and the way we make sense of the world. Luke’s story of Jesus is our story.

Ten people afflicted with leprosy cry out to Jesus for healing. Their affliction is much more than a medical condition. It makes them outcast, separates them from family, robs them of a livelihood. Jesus tells them to go to the priest to be declared clean. On the way, they are healed. The skin disease is gone, and they will be restored to life. Of the ten, only one returns to give thanks, to express gratitude. Only one is restored fully because gratitude is an essential part of being fully human. Does it seem strange only one returns? Not really. It seems about right. We are not good at gratitude.

There are so many challenges in this world and needs that are beyond us. Even those times of reconciliation might be asking more than we can give. The good news from Jesus is that the change the world and we need depends less on us and more on the words and deeds of a surprising God. You of "little faith" take heart as even your small word or action, might unfold into something wonderful for this world.

Jesus tells a parable about a very rich man who wears nice clothes and eats well (like most of us). Outside his door sits a painfully poor beggar. Apparently, as the man comes and goes, he never sees or hears the beggar. How is this possible? To be so callous as not to even notice seems unimaginable. But it’s not, really. The pursuit of material things hardens our hearts. The obsession with accumulation is supposed to lead us to happiness, but it never does. The gospel shows another way.

Jesus tells a parable of a man who is so morally bankrupt that he not only cheats his employer but then cheats him again to gain favor in the world. His employer admires him for his craftiness and pique. Then Jesus seems to wonder why it is we can be so imaginative at doing bad to further ourselves and not that imaginative when it comes to advancing the kingdom of God. Could the world be a better place if we spent as much time trying to give away our wealth as we spend trying to make it?