PENTECOST 10, A – July 20, 2008

SCRIPTURES – Isaiah 44:6-8; Romans 8:12-17; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

In my early years as a pastor I was involved for one week every summer in a camp called Camp Pineshore. The highlight of the week for the kids was the counselor hunt, which took place after dark on the last night of camp. The pastors and counselors would be given time to hide, and then the kids would try to find us. I was well prepared for this by my vicarage pastor, Pastor Keurulainen, who is now our District President. One year he hid in the lake, underneath the dock that extended out from the shore. No nibbling fish or crayfish were going to make him come out! He was my inspiration. So, one year I crawled deeply into and under some bushes and covered myself with dirt. So what about the bugs. I wasn’t going to be found! Another year I climbed way up a huge pine tree and hid among the branches. Wherever I hid, I would call out and taunt the kids: “Here I am! Come find me!” They would come running, sometimes shine a flash-light right at me, and once almost stepped on me. I was right there! But, they never saw.

In a sense, this is how it is with God. He is right here among us, working and helping and serving and saving. His kingdom, His rule for His people, is present! But, His presence and work is easily missed, for it is not obvious. The wheat and the weeds  look the same. God’s kingdom in this world is hidden.

This is nothing new. It’s been this way since Adam’s and Eve’s sin closed their eyes to God. The hiddenness of God and His kingdom are the backdrop for today’s reading from Isaiah, which begins: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me?’ ” Why does God have to state this? Because His presence among His people has not been obvious to them, and so they have turned to worshiping other gods. The God of Israel seems to be just one of many options, one of many gods!

So it is in our day. There are many different religions. There are many different gods who are worshiped. And, you can find other gods saying words similar to what our God says. “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god,” He says in Isaiah 44. "There is no God but Allah " – every Moslem is to recite this daily. Pretty similar, aren’t they?

And, what is so different about what we do? We Christians worship God. We listen to Scriptures and sermons, sing hymns, and pray. So do people who worship other gods besides the Trinity. We strive to follow what God says and be good people; and, we had better, for you can’t please God if you listen to Him but then go out and do whatever you want! But, there are atheists who do good things and are good people. What’s so different, then, about the Triune God and His kingdom? Those who believe in Jesus can seem no different than those who don’t. The wheat and the weeds look alike.

Jesus tells us that the great difference will be seen at the end. “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” He goes on to explain clearly what this means: “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” At the end, the great glory that is given to us in baptism as the name of the Triune God is put upon us – a glory that is now hidden – will be revealed. Then, “the sufferings of this present time [will not be] worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us,” St. Paul says (Rom. 8). All sin and evil and law-breakers, including and especially all false worship of gods who are not gods, will be removed, and there will be nothing but true worship and goodness and health and peace to enjoy in heaven. God and His glorious reign will no longer be hidden! Best of all, we will also be changed. No longer will we groan because of the things we suffer, or even groan because of the weakness of our faith.

q   There will be no more feeling sure about God and happy in Him one day and then being filled with doubts the next;

q   No more praying gladly and fervently one day and the next not even knowing what to pray or feeling like praying;

q   No more feeling good about yourself one day and being weighed down with guilt the next.

We will receive “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” No more sin! No more sorrow! No more weakness of faith! Our very bodies, including our feelings and thoughts and faith, will be changed, purified, made holy and perfect. Oh, that that great and glorious day, the day of Christ’s return in glory, would come!

It will. But, what about here and now? What about our struggles as we, Christ’s wheat, His believers, grow together with the weeds? How can we deal with the burden of sufferings and sins under which we groan because of God’s hiddenness? Here is where the great difference between the Triune God and all other gods, and between Christian worship and all other worship, is seen. Our God gets involved. He is with us, not only in our sufferings but even in our sins, and He deals with them for us.

Sufferings? These are much the same among Christians and non-Christians. So, too, may be our struggles of faith – although, this doesn’t mean that such struggles are ok. Paul points out that “we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” Why not? Isn’t this terrible? It’s not something to shrug off with an, “Oh, well.” It’s an indictment! If a child doesn’t know what to say to his parents and talks very little with them, doesn’t this show that there’s a problem? What’s our problem? Hasn’t Jesus taught us how to pray? Hasn’t He told us to pray often, and assured us that our heavenly Father hears and will answer? So, why don’t you pray as you ought? What’s wrong with you? This is a terrible thing!

But, see how God responds. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” God responds to our sinful weakness by giving us Himself! The entire Trinity does this.

q   God the Father has taken us as His children; this is why Jesus teaches us to call Him Father. How much does a good father do for his children? Our heavenly Father does more!

q   Jesus speaks of Himself as the sower in today’s parable. How much does the farmer do for his crop? He prepares a field for it, plants it, waters it, protects it from bugs and disease. And, of course, we know clearly what Jesus has done for us: He died for us, paying the penalty we deserve for our sins!

q   God the Holy Spirit dwells within us to help us in our weakness by praying for us, interceding on our behalf before the Father.

The Triune God does not turn away from us in our weakness of faith. He does not say, “Get better, be strong, pull yourself up by your bootstraps!” Instead, His heart goes out to us. He hides His glory and comes down to us in weakness to help us and raise us up with Him. This is how the Triune God is different from all other gods. This is why He and His kingdom appear to be hidden in this world.

I was asked a question last week which illustrates well how our God and the faith in Him is different. I was asked if we Lutherans believe in reincarnation. “Yes and no,” was my answer. What is reincarnation? The word simply means, again in the flesh, in the body. Yes, then, we believe in reincarnation. After we die and our bodies rot away, we will be again in the body. Do we not confess in the creed, “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come” ? But, we will be in this body, the body you had in this life, and not another. And, this will be God’s work. The Father created your body for this purpose. The Son of God took on flesh and redeemed your body, paying for your sins and in His resurrection rising in the same flesh, pure and whole and without the sins that it bore on the cross. In Baptism the Holy Spirit  joined your body to Him in His death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit also comes in that Baptism to live within your body as a deposit, guaranteeing your resurrection. Our resurrection is God’s work! It is, then, sure and certain, and it will also be perfect and complete. The Lord will take His wheat into His barn. We will live with our Lord in heaven, in holiness and righteousness forever! How different this is from the reincarnation which Hinduism and many New Age religions teach, that after death the person’s soul is “re-birthed” into another body. If the person was good, it will be a better body; if not, it will be the body of a lesser creature. It’s the person’s life, his work, and not god’s, that determines his future.

“I am the first and I am the last,” says our God. He gives us life, and in Christ He will bring our lives to fulfillment, to the glory He has prepared for us. Although His kingdom is hidden in this world, in His Word and worship He calls out to us, “Here I am! Come to me!”, and He fills us and readies us for the final harvest. So, come, you thankful people, come! Raise the song – Christ’s song – of harvest home!