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Isaiah 44:6-8 Romans 8:12-25 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
So, I’ve been here at Hope for just over 4 years now and there’s at least one topic I can think of that I’ve never preached on. And I’m not 100% sure why I’ve never preached on it before. Perhaps its because I don’t fully understand the topic myself. Perhaps its because I don’t think most of you will believe me if I do talk about it. Or perhaps its maybe because I’m scared of the topic and would rather it just go away. But today’s Gospel reading leaves me no choice. Today I’m going to talk about the devil. The Evil One, Beezlebub, the Tempter, Satan, whatever you want to call it. [HERE’S THE PARABLE THAT JESUS TELLS.] The devil is a prominent figure in the parable Jesus tells. So I think its important that we talk about here at Hope as well, because I believe that the devil is alive and active in this place, trying to do some great damage to our congregation. Undoubtedly, the image that comes to many of our minds when I talk about the devil is this little red guy with horns, a pointy tail, and a pitchfork. That’s what we see in the cartoons anyway. But this doesn’t seem to be the kind of character that Jesus is talking about when he talks of the Evil One. Instead, the Bible uses words like slanderer, father of lies, tempter, and accuser. I like CS Lewis’ image of the devil when he says that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. The devil is sneaky, he’s creepy, and from our parable today, we see that he is out to wreak destruction on the world. He’s out there planting weeds among all of God’s good seeds. And when he comes to you, he’ll be so enticing and flattering, that it will be really hard to tell good from bad. Here’s a great clip from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to illustrate how the devil actually comes to us. Picture yourself as the little boy, Edmund, and the devil as the White Witch.
PLAY CLIP
The devil gives us what we think we want, what we think we need. He messes with our minds so much that we don’t know what’s good and what’s bad. The devil is a sneaky fellow. But before we get too much more into this whole devil thing, I’d like for us to take a look at our other two scripture passages because I think they send us a message that is vitally important when dealing with the devil. In Isaiah 44, the nation of Israel has been conquered and destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. The people have been dragged off into exile and planted in a foreign country, where they are surrounded by countless other gods. They are basically POWs and they aren’t sure if they’ll ever get to return home. So God sends Isaiah to remind the people, that not only is God still with them, even in Exile, but that God is bigger than the Babylonians. God is the King of the World, the First and the Last. God was there before Babylon and he’ll be there after Babylon. God’s message for the people is “Do not be afraid, do not tremble. I am bigger than the problems you are currently facing.” Now, in our Romans passage, Paul is making a similar point in chapter 8. For years, the people have lived under sin. Its like sin was their daddy and they did everything that their sin daddy wanted them to do. But when Jesus came into the world, God adopted the people away their sin daddy and made them his own children. For all who are in Christ Jesus, they have a bigger daddy now – God. And having God as a daddy is much better than having sin as a daddy. With God as a daddy, you no longer have to live under your sin daddy. You are free to do good, free to love, free to inherit eternal life and go to heaven. Our God daddy is bigger than any sin daddy could ever be. And this brings us back to the devil in our parable that Jesus tells us. God planted all these wonderful seeds and he had this beautiful garden in mind. And then, under the darkness of night, the Evil One came in and in a brilliant move, scattered weeds among all the good seeds. I can see this happening here at Hope Lutheran Church. These last few years have been really, really good. God has planted some incredible seeds in the congregation, some are in full bloom, and some are just starting to sprout. Here’s just a few of the examples of the good things that God has been doing around here. Within the last year and a half, we’ve done 26 baptisms, and we have a couple more next week. Twenty six people who have been adopted into God’s family. God has led us to start a Stephen Ministry program and we have 8 trained Stephen Ministers. God has led us to start a Christcare Small Group program, with 5 active small groups and several more on the way. Our council has been restructured and now runs much more efficiently. God has led more and more people to our congregation and we’ve seen a 10% increase in worship attendance over the last year. God has led us to create a new worship service and is speaking to us in new ways through LIFT. God has connected us to Haiti and to nursing homes and used Hope members to keep OASIS going strong amidst their property crisis. God is working to help us start a Kids Against Hunger food packaging program. God has even been working through Hope to start a new church in New Town called The Bridge. God just got done working on 12 of our youth as they engaged in urban, inner city ministry in Denver. And, of course, God has given us this great new building to use for ministry. My friends, God has been planting some incredible seeds in this place and we should be so thankful. But do you know what? Satan doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like this one bit. He doesn’t like it when God changes the lives of his people. He doesn’t like it when churches become blessings to their community and to the world. He doesn’t like it when God adds people to his family. Satan doesn’t like this at all, so he has come in the night and has begun planting weeds, trying to throw us off-track, trying to hit us where it hurts the most. Within the past few months, 3 of our council members have been affected by cancer, and one of them is dealing with heart issues. One of our members told me last week that they’ve been forced to take a 20% paycut, but he was just thankful he still had a job. There are lots of families that are struggling, and one of our new, young, passionate families was taken from us to go to Dallas so they could find work. On a couple of our teams, there are growing signs of burnout because new volunteers are not stepping forward. And of course, there was last week’s announcement about our struggling finances due to a disparity between what people said they would give and what they are actually giving. My friends, these are weeds that the Evil One is sowing amongst us. Satan is trying to get us and ruin all of God’s marvelous plans for us. And any time you’re dealing with these kinds of things – cancer, financial crisis, burnout – it’s a scary thing. And I know there are many of you who are caught up in the weeds right now. But the message of the parable is clear. God is bigger than the weeds. God is bigger than the devil. God is bigger and stronger and more powerful than the devil could ever hope to be. It’s not even close! Our God brought those Israelites back from Babylon. Our God Daddy has purchased and adopted us as his children from the sin daddy through the blood of Jesus Christ. And our God is bigger than cancer and money and burnout. Our God is bigger. In the parable, God didn’t panic. God didn’t jump straight to the harvest, like the servants wanted to do. He knew exactly how it was all going to turn out. He knew that the devil wasn’t about to get the better of him. The weeds may have caused some difficulty and some pain and weren’t necessarily what was expected or planned, but that didn’t deter God, it didn’t foil God, it didn’t stop God from doing what he had originally planned. Why not? Because our God is bigger than the devil. I realize that there are other ways to read this parable and more that you could get out of it, than just this simple message. But for our congregation and for those of you that are hurting right now, I hope that this is good news. God is still working in this congregation and in the lives of all of you. God is still working to heal you, to bless you, and to save you. God is still active and loving and nurturing the world. God’s harvest will still happen, just like he intends, because our God is bigger. Amen.
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