Third Sunday in Lent, 2010

Text: St. Luke 11:14-28

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“Christ Goes Forth to War; Who Follows in His Train?”

Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? … But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you… He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

The War has begun. The armies of the Dark Lord, Sauron, have marched out of Mordor to begin their assault on the White Tower of Minas Tirith, the ruling city of the kingdom of Gondor. Minas Tirith is now the only real barrier to Sauron’s dark desire of bringing all of Middle-Earth under his shadow. But at the same time that the orc armies of Sauron are marching down out of the Mountains of Shadow, Frodo the Hobbit has managed against all odds to come undetected to the very pinnacle of those same mountains and to the brink of fulfilling his quest - his quest to destroy the Ring of power in the fires of Mt. Doom in the heart of Mordor.

I don’t know if you’ve ever read J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, or seen the movies, but I’m a huge fan. And I must say that the more I read it—especially the last book, The Return of the King—the more I find the story increasingly instructive with regard to the Christian life.

Remember (those of you who know the story) that Frodo didn’t choose to receive the ring; it came to him. But as Gandalf the wizard says, Frodo was meant to have it—and not by the ring-maker, but by some greater, secret will. But once the Ring had come to him Frodo was instantly caught up into an ancient battle, the battle for Middle-Earth, and he had a decision to make. He could either go forward on the quest he was chosen for – to go right into the heart of the Sauron’s kingdom to rob him of his power to bind people to his will – or he could sit back in the false security of his little hole in the Shire until the inevitable happened: until the day came when the enemy grew so strong that he could bring even the Shire under his shadow and enslave all its people. And so it became very clear to Frodo that he really didn’t have a choice. He had to take up the quest. He had to move forward on his mission to spoil the enemy, or become the spoils himself. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly the message of our Gospel lesson for this third Sunday in Lent.

Christ teaches us in our Gospel lesson that we have been caught up into a great cosmic war, the ancient struggle between the kingdom of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the kingdom of God and Christ. And we have a mission. We didn’t choose it, nevertheless it came to us the day Christ called us to be his servants. And now we can either move forward on our mission - to go with Christ into the heart of the enemy’s camp in order to rob him of his spoils—the men and women who been enslaved to his will—or we can sit back in the deceptive peace and comfort of our little portion of the kingdom until the inevitable happens to us: until the light of our city on the hill is put out, and we ourselves become enemies of Christ’s kingdom which he must remove. “He who is not with Me is against Me,” He says, “and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” There is no neutrality. Either we fight with Christ, or He fights against us. We’ve been hearing some hard words this Lent, and those are definitely some hard words.

And so, in the end, there really isn’t any decision to make. Christ has chosen us for this mission. We cannot refuse it. If we would not become the spoils ourselves, we must move forward with Christ to spoil the enemy.

This is not a J.R.R. Tolkein fantasy. This is reality. This is our reality right here, right now.

But in addition to there being no neutrality, Christ teaches us here in our Gospel lesson that, in order for us to be successful in our mission, there can also be no division among the ranks, and no mere truce with the enemy. Remember those three negatives. No Neutrality. No Division. No Truce.

Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.” Now he applies this maxim to Satan’s kingdom as proof against the idea that He exorcised demons by Beelzebub, the chief of the demons. His point is: Satan’s kingdom is not divided. But if our enemy’s kingdom is not divided, how can we think we can prevail against it if we ourselves are divided? The maxim applies to us as well. A kingdom divided against itself will fall. This is why we hear so often in the Scriptures the exhortation to be of one mind, to be like-minded, to strive together to have the mind of Christ.

St. Paul, writing to the members of the church of Corinth, said this: “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” And to the Philippians, “[Let me hear] that you stand fast in one Spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries.”

Brothers and sisters, to have any success against so united an enemy, and enemy that is bent on our destruction, an enemy that is never off its guard, that does not rest, that will not cease to resist us until it is finally destroyed, we must be equally united with the mind of Christ. And what is the mind of Christ? He tells us here in our Gospel lesson. The mind of Christ is to loose people from their bondage to the enemy, to bind the strong man and to take back His stolen property. That’s His mind. That’s His mission. And we know that we are of His Kingdom if we have His mind and share in His mission.

We have a mission statement in this church. It is framed over there on the back table. And if we would just unite our minds together with that statement and move forward with that purpose, I believe we would be well on our way to accomplishing the mission Christ has given us. Why? Because I think my acronym is so clever that the gates of Hell can’t prevail against it? Of course not. But because it is a simple crystalization of the Biblical purpose for the Church, and, therefore, a simple cystalization of the mind of Christ. Let’s unite around it. Commit it to memory. And let’s be constantly evaluating what we’re doing here according to it. Then I believe we will be moving forward on the mission we were chosen for.

No Neutrality. No Division, No Truce.

Jesus said, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

What Jesus is saying here is that, in our mission against the kingdom of Darkness, it will never be enough merely to dispossess the enemy of his power and influence over our own home turf, and settle for some kind of truce. “We won’t attack you, if you don’t attack us.” One: because the enemy will never agree to such a truce. He may leave us alone for a while to lull us into a false ease so we lower our defenses. But then he will renew his attack. And, Two: we cannot simply go un-possessed. Someone or something will possess us: either the world, the flesh and the devil, or Christ. There are only two spiritual kingdoms, and one of them will lay claim to our hearts. Therefore we dare not try merely to sweep our house clean of the devil. We dare not settle for a mere outward, moral reformation. We dare not try to set our house in order simply in terms of behavior—everybody acting like good, upstanding church people. We had better seek for our house to be filled and indwelt with the Spirit of Christ. We had better exhort one another daily to stand firm in the Faith that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, and that we may be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man against the powers of the Evil One.

And, beloved, here’s the thing: if Christ is dwelling in us, we will never be content merely to drive out the Evil One from our own turf, because Christ doesn’t make truces with the devil. When Christ says that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, He means the kingdom of Darkness will not be able to withstand our attack, not that we will simply be able to protect ourselves against its attack. We’re the ones who will be on the offensive with Christ. We’re the ones who will be taking it to the enemy. We will not simply be content to protect our own borders.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate army was forced to retreat from Pennsylvania back down into Maryland. And the commander of the Union army, General Meade, wrote to President Lincoln to inform him of the victory, and exulted, “We have defeated the enemy. We have driven him from our soil.” And Lincoln wrote back and said, “When will you understand, when will you get it into you head, that it is all our soil!”

The world is all our soil; it is all our turf. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Therefore we are to go, and make disciples of all nations.” That’s our mission. We didn’t choose it, but it came to us when Christ graciously called us to be his servants. It’s our mission because it is His mission to work through us. We may, like Frodo, wish that responsibility didn’t lie with us. But as Gandalf says, “That’s not for [us] to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

“Christ goes forth to war. Who follows in his train?” +