You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet
This is the reflection sent out to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church on this Sunday's gospel for Michael and All Angels. What strikes you? Do people have angelic experiences today? Have you ever experienced one? Let's talk about this.
17The
seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit
to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a
flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on
snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will
hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits
submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Gospel: Luke 10:17-20
17The
seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit
to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a
flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on
snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will
hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits
submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The seventy were reporting to Jesus, “Lord, this and this
and this happened and even ‘in your name…the demons submit to us!’” They were
overwhelmed with the thrill of all that had taken place on their missionary
trip. And Jesus said, “You ain't seen nothin' yet. B-b-b-baby, you just ain't
seen n-n-nothin' yet” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive, 1974).
Now Jesus didn’t respond to the seventy quite that way, but
don’t you think that was his message? What they experienced paled in comparison
to what lie in the future.
Jesus cautioned the excited seventy, “…do not rejoice …that
the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
It all boils down to having a relationship with Jesus. Our names are written in
heaven because we have become God’s children through baptism. As Martin Luther
describes it, baptism is “a grace-filled water of life and a ‘bath of the new
birth in the Holy Spirit’” (Martin Luther, The Small Catechism).
We are God’s! This is our joy and triumph and everything
else is a result of that. What adventures might lie ahead for us today and in
the days to come?
Let us pray.
O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we
cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give
us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that
your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. (ELW, p. 317).
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