God Saves

The Rev. Joseph Winston

November 25, 2007

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
We Texans have quite a few sayings that the rest of the world just does not
understand. Take for example, the phrase “Figures never lie, but liars can figure.”
When you and I hear this simple sentence, we all know what the speaker has in
mind. Numbers are completely impartial. They neither know nor care what facts
they happen to prove or invalidate. On the other hand, people have an invested
interest in the outcomes of spreadsheets and unscrupulous business people will
juggle the numbers so that they say exactly what they want. Enron and World
Com are but two examples of this basic fact.
Another example traditionally directed toward the more verbose people among
us, which normally includes our elected officials, is the saying, “A diarrhea of
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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words and a constipation of thoughts.” Texans know exactly what this means. The
object of ridicule is running on and on but is not saying anything new at all.
Today’s Gospel lesson from Luke contains words and actions from Jesus that
the rest of the world does not understand.
The first time that this occurs, Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them; for they
do not know what they are doing.” Now why would He say this? Our readings
from Luke over the last year have given us many different reasons. His disciples
have abandoned Him and at least one has betrayed Him. The appointed Roman
officials have done little to keep the leaders of the Temple from railroading His so-
called trial through the courts. The everyday people in the streets have called out
for the terrorist Barabbas to be released while wanting Jesus to die on the cross.
The occupying forces have tortured Him. How can anyone ask that all of this be
forgotten?
Throughout the entire passage that we head today, the leaders of the Temple,
the army from Rome, and one of the terrorists all speak with one voice. The sad
reality is that no one from this group really understands Christ’s dominion since
they all shout out, “Show us your power! Save yourself!” The one that Jesus saves
is not Himself. Look at the criminals on their crosses. One of them asks Jesus
for salvation. Jesus grants this request. How can One have the strength to save
someone else but not themselves?
The same players as before, that is the religious authorities, the foot soldiers,
and the criminal have something else to tell us. They want the to see the King that
makes Israel into a world power. This is the third example in today’s Gospel lesson

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of Jesus saying and doing one thing and the rest of the world not understanding.
A little review may be in order to see how important this idea of kings and
their kingdoms really is. In Luke, Jesus often speaks of rulers and their countries.
This understanding of Jesus as king is so well known that Pilate even asked Jesus
this question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” The reason that Pilate must ask
this question is that anyone who would act like this is a threat to the government
because they are proposing another way of rule. This brings us back to today’s
lesson.
Of course, they all want to see outpouring of force for different reasons. The
scribes and the pharisees need to have some justification for their actions. They
have accused Jesus of being the anointed One, what we normally call Christ. This
action of pouring oil on a person’s head was normally reserved for priests and
kings. It was obvious to them that He was not a priest. Therefore, if He was being
called the anointed One, He must be a king. The Roman forces and their leaders
wanted to put down the revolts once and for all. If they could exterminate the
leader of the rebellion, perhaps they could finally have peace in the land. That is
the reason why the two criminals are being executed with Jesus. They are trying
to throw off the Roman rule. The criminal that taunted Jesus wanted to show
everyone that this King on the cross is false and that the uprisings against Rome
would continue. How can this man be the King of the Jews?
From the beginning of the Church year on December 3, 2006 to the last Sunday
of the year, Christ the King Sunday which is today, the author of Luke has been
trying to answer these questions for us.

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 The reason that sins can be forgiven, the reply to the question of having enough
strength to save others but not yourself, the response to the question of the lineage
is given to us at the start of the Gospel according to St. Luke. The angel Gabriel
told Mary that her child would be called Jesus. The name Jesus in its original
language means, “God saves.” This is exactly what Jesus has done during the
entire book of Luke. He saved people from their sins. He saved people from death.
He can do these things because He is the Son of God.
The entire world does not like to hear that God saves us from all sorts of
situations since we all feel that we can live just fine without God. This was true
two thousand years ago and it is true today.
In Christ’s time, the Temple authorities thought that they completely con-
trolled all access to God. So, when God’s Son came to the world and told the
leaders that God could and would forgive sins in a different manner than what they
were used to, they could not believe it. The scribes and the Pharisees continually
told the people that they did not need God’s help. In fact, they thought that they
controlled God, they tried to call Him into the Temple to defeat the Romans, and
they failed miserably when Rome destroyed the entire Temple so that one stone
did not stand on the other. And on the subject of kings, the people recognized
Rome’s rule but neglected to pay honor and respect to the King of kings.
Today, the situation has changed but the same problem still remains. In our
sophistication, we believe that the obsolete problem formally known as sin no
longer exists in our world. We feel that anyone can do whatever they want. Now
there are many reasons for this belief but they all boil down to one argument that

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states, “I am the most important person in the entire world and because of this I can
do whatever I want.” Many churches of all stripes, including the mega-churches
and non-denominal churches, preach this same message. All that God does in this
type of relationship is bless you with gifts. And since we are the masters of our
own destiny, we have no need of a King that either guides or protects us.
The message that the author of Luke has continually given us through the year
can be summarized in one Word: Jesus. This Word of salvation speaks against our
ideas that we can save ourselves. In this Word, we find salvation not because we
have done anything but because God saves. This is God’s very nature since it is
God’s own name.
And the people that God delivers are the ones that most of us would write off
as incorrigibles. The ones without hope are given promises that are fulfilled. The
ones who cannot see what God is doing in the world are given sight. The ones
who oppressed by forces outside of their control are given freedom. The one who
are dead are given life.
The angel Gabriel has an important word for us today on Christ the King
Sunday. Unlike all other rulers that this earth has ever seen, our King’s reign will
never end. What this means for you and I is that Jesus continues God’s life saving
actions in our lives today. Jesus is here for you. God saves you. This means that
the same actions that happened in Luke’s account are still occurring today. The
hopeless are given dreams. The blind are given visions. The imprisoned are given
pardon. The dead are raised.
As we all know, Texas have a language all our own. This ranges from the use

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of “y’all” that most people probably understand to the phrases such as “friendly
as fire ants” that some people might have problems with. It not like we are trying
to keep people out of our conversations. We are friendly here in Texas and do not
want that. It is we value our traditions here in the state and work at keeping them
alive.
There are two other truths held in the language we Texans talk. We translate
for newcomers. If someone looks puzzled over the use of a phrase we will tell
them what it means. “Y’all” is a contradiction of “you all” and in proper Texan
it means one person out of a group. If we wanted to indicate everyone we would
use, “all y’all.” The other fact that we often overlook is that our phrases change
with time. Fire ants are a pest that were only recently introduced into the state.
Our great-grandparents would have never used the snippet, “friendly as fire ants”
because they had no idea that fire ants existed.
The language of the Church has its own phrases that are unique to the Church.
We talk of kings that reign forever, of the dead living, of the God who saves
named Jesus. These words and phrases are foreign to the rest of the world. This is
partially the world’s fault but most of the blame rests squarely on our shoulders.
It is true that we live in a democracy and do not have a native understanding of
what it means to live with a king. But the fact still remains. We have done a very
poor job of translating these ideas into concepts that the world understands. Our
challenge is to teach the world in its language that God saves.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and

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minds through Christ Jesus.”2

2
Philippians 4:7.