Homily 655 – 13 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
September 7, 2025
Epistle:  (215) Galatians 6:11-18 and (166) 1 Corinthians 16:13-24
Gospel:  (9) John 3:13-17 and (87) Matthew 21:33-42

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Are you ready?

This Sunday, we are preparing for something – something important.  The Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, which we celebrate formally next Sunday, but we start thinking about it today.

So it may be reasonable to ask, why all the fuss?  Sure, we can celebrate the cross, and the finding of the true Cross.  We have Gospel readings for the Sunday before the Cross, and for the Cross itself.  That sounds like a lot!

And it is a lot.  We only have three feasts that have readings for the Sunday before – Nativity, Theophany, and this one.  There are also readings for the Sunday after.  Mostly, this comes from the date-dependent nature of these feasts.  They are fixed on specific calendar dates, and can appear any day of the week, so having Gospel readings both before and after ensure that people who can only come on Sunday hear the messages of the feasts.

We’ll talk more about this next weekend, next Sunday, on the feast itself.

What I wanted to comment about this morning is the second part, the verse after what may be the most famous scripture verse in the bible.

We all know John 3:16 – for God so loved the world that he gave his uniquely-begotten (or only-begotten) Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

We’ve spent the past few weeks talking about belief, and what the application of belief looks like in our lives.

But let’s turn to the next verse.  John 3:17.

Certainly, God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world but so that the world should be saved through him.

I get chills just reading that.

How incredible to think that God chooses not to judge us but to save us.  To redeem us – that is to say, to pay our ransom.  We have been kidnapped by the evil one.  We were lured into a world of falsehood and deception.

And given to death, and decay, and corruption.  Christ redeems us – He pays for us.  So it makes sense – why pay for something that you are going to judge?  Who pays for anything just to toss it aside in judgement?

The second reading, the parable of the vineyard owner, gives us a bit more insight.  In the parable, the farmers are the Jews, but in reality, are all of humanity.  God created this garden for us – for humanity.  Instead of offering the fruit of the vineyard to God, we, humanity, tried to keep it for ourselves.

So, God sends servants to receive what belonged to Him.  And, we know what happened – they beat some, stoned some.  The more He, God, sent, the more they, we, ignored them.  The entirety of the Old Testament tells this tale of God’s attempts to get our attention.

God sends His Son.  And the farmers – humanity – kill Him, too.

But – there is an important reveal here.  Yes, humanity kills the Son of God.  But that in turn redeems humanity.  Because unbeknownst to everyone, the Son comes voluntarily, knowing He will be killed.  Now, the Son doesn’t want to do that.  But He does it anyway.

And a lot of unexpected things happen.  We are redeemed – freed – from the captivity of death.  Even more, death itself is destroyed.

The world is indeed saved.

Now, what are we to do with this information?  Do we go on as usual, trying to gather fruit for ourselves?  Do we pursue wealth and power and status and self-sufficiency?

Or – do we give God what belongs to Him?  Do we care for the ones He asks us to care for?  Do we love the ones He asks us to love?

By the way, in case you have never read the New Testament, the people we are supposed to care about and the ones we are supposed to love are everyone.  There is nobody on this earth that we are able to not love, not care about, not help.

Especially those who have needs they cannot meet.

We are really good at lifting up Christ and presenting Him as savior.  We tell everyone we know, “Look to Christ!  He is the answer!  He will provide!”

But most of the time, we walk away, quite satisfied with ourselves that we have proclaimed Christ.  But brothers and sisters our job is not yet done.  For if it is within our power, we need to help.  We love, we visit the sick and imprisoned, we feed the hungry, we provide shelter to the homeless.

Yes, we do it all in God’s name.  But we do it with our hands.  We understand that God works in this world through us.  At times, miracles happen.  But most of the time, we are the miracles.  We are the means that God reaches out and ministers to those of His creation.

When God said He would care for us – which He did say, over and over – part of that has to be understood that we will care for each other.  That there is abundance enough around us that no one should be in want or need.

So can we try to remember that our role here is to take care of each other, to love each other.  And in so doing, give to God the fruit of His vineyard, that His hands have planted.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!