WEBVTT
00:00.890 --> 00:04.110
Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:04.260 --> 00:05.470
You may be seated.
00:09.410 --> 00:15.082
I like watching various movies and video portrayals of biblical
00:15.146 --> 00:20.366
stories, especially the stories of Jesus touched by the Passion of the
00:20.388 --> 00:23.760
Christ or the Book of John read word for word.
00:24.890 --> 00:28.902
Some of these are very good and faithful, and some of them are less
00:28.956 --> 00:29.270
so.
00:29.340 --> 00:35.014
But when I watch a good movie portrayal of Jesus, it often gives me
00:35.052 --> 00:40.458
some insights that I may have missed, some cultural nuance or
00:40.624 --> 00:44.650
challenges, some assumptions that I had made in reading Scripture.
00:45.150 --> 00:48.774
That's been especially true as I've watched the series, the digital
00:48.822 --> 00:51.162
series The Chosen these past few years.
00:51.216 --> 00:53.920
I know many of you have been watching it as well.
00:54.930 --> 00:58.702
I'll try not to spoil too much about season three, if you haven't seen
00:58.756 --> 00:59.360
that.
00:59.730 --> 01:04.366
But at the beginning of season three, Jesus has preached the Sermon on
01:04.388 --> 01:06.858
the Mount and His preaching
01:06.954 --> 01:12.082
is having some impact not just on his followers, but on other
01:12.136 --> 01:13.300
people as well.
01:13.990 --> 01:18.326
And after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus I'm quoting Matthew Ten here,
01:18.508 --> 01:22.646
not the movie, tells his twelve disciples, apostles, that he is going
01:22.668 --> 01:28.474
to send them out to other towns to proclaim the kingdom of God. To
01:28.512 --> 01:33.898
heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the lepers, to cast out
01:33.984 --> 01:34.970
demons.
01:35.870 --> 01:37.930
I must admit my assumption.
01:38.510 --> 01:42.830
I had sort of overly assumed that the apostles went out feeling very
01:42.900 --> 01:47.838
prepared, very confident, maybe with an Old Testament Joshua's sort of
01:47.924 --> 01:54.354
confidence and courage after they had watched Jesus do all the things
01:54.392 --> 01:55.300
he had done.
01:55.830 --> 02:00.798
But the Chosen did a good job of making the opposite assumption seem
02:00.974 --> 02:06.194
maybe more probable. That the Twelve felt quite underprepared, very
02:06.232 --> 02:11.334
unsure of what was going to happen to him, even afraid of what might
02:11.372 --> 02:12.360
befall them.
02:13.210 --> 02:17.474
I don't know why I fell prey to the assumption of their competence and
02:17.532 --> 02:21.782
competence and courage, as Jesus actually tells them in Matthew
02:21.846 --> 02:27.690
chapter Ten, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
02:28.190 --> 02:31.806
They will deliver you into their courts and flog you in their
02:31.828 --> 02:32.826
synagogues.
02:33.018 --> 02:36.366
If they have called the Master be eligible, how much more will they
02:36.388 --> 02:42.026
malign those of his household? In the Chosen
02:42.138 --> 02:48.206
the Twelve do as their Lord, who they are in awe of, as their Lord has
02:48.228 --> 02:49.040
sent them.
02:49.650 --> 02:54.334
They go out despite their fear and start laying hands on people and
02:54.372 --> 02:59.446
anointing with oil, but they have no sense of where the healing is
02:59.468 --> 02:59.780
coming from
03:00.170 --> 03:04.750
or confidence that their words will actually cast out demons.
03:05.490 --> 03:10.990
I particularly liked the scene where Simon the Zealot goes into a room
03:11.060 --> 03:15.182
and does a wrestling move on one small demoniac and holds him down,
03:15.236 --> 03:20.218
while Matthew, who is portrayed as somebody on the autism spectrum,
03:20.394 --> 03:26.630
says a few words and the demoniac is freed from the demon.
03:27.610 --> 03:31.462
They are genuinely shocked when this power does work
03:31.516 --> 03:36.642
through them. They teach about the kingdom by repeating back to Jesus
03:36.706 --> 03:40.810
the words that they heard Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount.
03:41.470 --> 03:46.534
Words like the Lord's Prayer, which in good Lutheran catechcatical
03:46.582 --> 03:49.820
fashion they repeat back and forth to one another
03:50.690 --> 03:55.114
petition by petition. In the chosen
03:55.162 --> 03:56.558
they then return
03:56.644 --> 04:01.353
the Twelve return to Capernaum and meet in Peter's house to debrief
04:01.482 --> 04:03.860
before they ever see Jesus again.
04:04.790 --> 04:09.170
They are both amazed and frustrated about what has happened.
04:09.240 --> 04:13.122
James the Greater is frustrated that they don't even understand how
04:13.176 --> 04:14.500
these things are happening.
04:16.170 --> 04:19.846
He wants to know more about how he can heal and cast out.
04:19.868 --> 04:22.760
He wants to understand more about this power.
04:24.730 --> 04:31.354
In our epistle text, the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians for I
04:31.392 --> 04:36.986
decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
04:37.087 --> 04:38.090
crucified.
04:39.230 --> 04:43.050
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
04:43.210 --> 04:48.510
And my speech and my message were not in persuasive words of wisdom.
04:50.130 --> 04:54.114
Why did I overly assume that the Twelve Apostles may have been
04:54.152 --> 04:59.298
confident in their first missionary journey when Paul was still
04:59.384 --> 05:05.140
feeling fearful and trembling two decades later?
05:09.220 --> 05:13.680
How are some of you feeling about future ministry?
05:14.980 --> 05:19.712
We have a new cohort of you, SMP Vicars and students just starting
05:19.765 --> 05:22.419
your studies and your vicarages.
05:23.480 --> 05:27.491
I can only assume there might be some fear and trembling among you
05:27.546 --> 05:28.404
this week.
05:28.602 --> 05:29.780
I hope Dr.
05:29.850 --> 05:33.224
Thompson and your mentors and others have been helping you to put
05:33.262 --> 05:40.169
those fears into the right perspective. For you residential students
05:41.100 --> 05:45.895
if you haven't heard, there is a new missionary journey scheduled to
05:45.918 --> 05:49.450
start right here in a couple of months.
05:50.460 --> 05:57.296
We call it Call Day and some of you might be counting down the days.
05:57.358 --> 05:59.789
Is might there be a little
06:00.090 --> 06:03.902
fear and trembling that's going on as many of you go through
06:03.956 --> 06:10.494
interviews with congregations and wait for that first call or that
06:10.532 --> 06:15.550
vicarage placement, that internship placement?
06:16.850 --> 06:18.560
Where will I be going?
06:19.410 --> 06:23.440
What will the people be like in my congregation, in my community?
06:24.370 --> 06:29.800
How will will they receive this word about the kingdom of God?
06:30.970 --> 06:34.920
What will your first messages be like, sound like?
06:35.770 --> 06:38.470
How will they respond to your speech?
06:40.270 --> 06:42.394
Many of you have heard my story.
06:42.512 --> 06:46.582
Some of you will hear it again this semester of how my convertible
06:46.646 --> 06:51.258
vicarage placement and eventual call was to the most conflicted parish
06:51.433 --> 06:53.150
in the Kansas district.
06:54.530 --> 06:58.014
I spent many hours in prayer and pleading for the right words and
06:58.052 --> 07:03.450
patience as well as thankful prayers that the people who became
07:03.530 --> 07:07.394
Ambassadors of Reconciliation later Ted Kober and Bruce Zagel had
07:07.432 --> 07:11.278
consulted and biblically taught about peacemaking and reconciliation
07:11.454 --> 07:13.570
to the parish before I arrived.
07:14.310 --> 07:16.200
But that's another story.
07:17.850 --> 07:22.006
Part of me wishes that I could tell you that after a few months or
07:22.028 --> 07:27.062
years all that fear and trembling subsides that when you get into your
07:27.116 --> 07:31.450
fifty s and sixty s, then everything will be smooth sailing.
07:33.310 --> 07:39.659
That has not been my experience. For many.
07:40.290 --> 07:47.646
maybe all new struggles, new tribulations, new anfechtung will come,
07:47.828 --> 07:52.430
as they did for Paul in his fractured church plant there in Corinth.
07:53.350 --> 07:59.506
But Paul continued to put his trust not in something inside himself or
07:59.528 --> 08:06.646
his skills, but in the power and wisdom of God, which is the folly of
08:06.668 --> 08:08.390
the Word of the Cross.
08:09.530 --> 08:13.606
In the first two chapters of his letter, he knows nothing but the
08:13.628 --> 08:16.280
mystery of Christ's cross to save those who believe.
08:17.130 --> 08:23.014
And in the next to last chapter, chapter 15, he says that Christ died
08:23.062 --> 08:26.586
for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and he was raised on
08:26.608 --> 08:30.330
the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
08:30.770 --> 08:35.693
And because of Christ's resurrection, when he returns, we shall all be
08:35.732 --> 08:40.750
changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet
08:41.169 --> 08:45.310
when the mortal body will put on immortality.
08:47.490 --> 08:51.966
This all sounded like folly to the Greeks and Jews of Paul's day, but
08:51.988 --> 08:56.040
it is the only confidence that he would was clinging to.
08:56.810 --> 08:59.970
This still sounds like folly to many in our culture.
09:00.000 --> 09:06.362
But it is the power and the wisdom of God, even when we don't
09:06.426 --> 09:08.640
fully understand it.
09:09.490 --> 09:12.606
Teaching and proclaiming this message of Jesus is one that may at
09:12.628 --> 09:17.166
times bring you fear and trembling, not just before on call day, but
09:17.188 --> 09:18.560
for years to come.
09:20.770 --> 09:25.446
In the Sermon on the Mount portion read earlier Jesus calls his
09:25.468 --> 09:32.470
disciples to be the light to the world. To in essence reflect His
09:32.540 --> 09:35.160
light out to others.
09:36.650 --> 09:40.714
But he doesn't leave us alone to do that by ourselves, by our own
09:40.752 --> 09:41.606
strength.
09:41.798 --> 09:46.394
At the end of Matthew's gospel, he promises, Lo, I am
09:46.592 --> 09:51.680
behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
09:52.850 --> 09:57.440
And as Paul teaches the Corinthians about Christ resurrection and
09:58.210 --> 10:04.046
return in chapter 15, he ends with these confident words. Therefore, my
10:04.068 --> 10:09.966
brothers and sisters, be steadfast immovable always abounding in the
10:09.988 --> 10:16.550
work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
10:17.610 --> 10:23.478
May our steadfast Lord grant us his steadfastness even to the very end
10:23.644 --> 10:24.680
of the age.
10:25.370 --> 10:27.410
In the name of Jesus. Amen.