Choose a Side
Notes
Transcript
MCLEAN, Va. -- Mars Chocolate North America's Twix brand has unveiled a new riff on its ongoing marketing campaign, pitting the Left Twix against the Right Twix by giving each "side" its own unique package. Fans of the chocolate candy bar will have to "deSide" which bar they prefer.
"For everyone having a tough time choosing, Twix is prepared to help fans pick which side is right (or left)," the company said. "Custodians can grab a new Left Twix pack, but janitors will want to grab a Right Twix. Singers–Left Twix; vocalists–Right Twix. Bouncers should go for Left Twix, but doormen, clearly, Right Twix. See, it's easy."
"Twix is out to celebrate things in the real world that are the same, but different—just like Left Twix and Right Twix," said Allison Miazga-Bedrick, Twix brand director, Mars Chocolate North America, McLean, Va. "We know many fans have a preference when it comes to Left or Right Twix and we're excited to now offer a pack for each side."
Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. … through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Now, in reality, we know that there is no difference between “Left Twix” and “Right Twix,” but Abbey Lewis was spot on in her reporting on this ad campaign in the “CSP Daily News” article from March 22, 2017. that commercial has given the Twix candy bar a unique branding amongst a plethora of sweet chocolate treats.
In our Gospel text, the scribes from Jerusalem were arguing that there was no real difference between Jesus and Satan, but, like the Mars Candy Company, Jesus was creating a marketing campaign that created a false distinction between his activities and Satan in his efforts to exercise spiritual control over the people of Galilee and Judea. They sought to expose Jesus of Nazareth as a fake messiah, a pretender to the prophetic seat of Moses and the royal throne of David.
At the same time, we see that even Jesus’ family were not clear regarding His activities, and whether they honestly thought so, or were hoping to somehow protect Jesus from accusations by the Jewish religious authorities of witchcraft, they began to vocally question His sanity.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
Some might say that the crowd honestly didn’t care, whether he was insane, possessed, or even in league with Satan - All they cared about was Jesus had power to heal and to deliver. Everyone had something to say, had an opinion, had their hands out. Jesus just keeps on going - day after day, healing the sick, preaching the Gospel, teaching the disciples, and casting out demons.
Did anyone offer him a chance to get away, lighten the load, or otherwise give Jesus a chance to decompress? Did anyone stand up to the Scribes or the Pharisees with their accusations?
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
Jesus came to declare - and to bring to reality - the good news that, in the Kingdom of God, deliverance from Satan and sin was available to all.
27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Two thousand years have passed. In America, a lot of people hold a different worldview from what people held in Capernaum back then. Too many don’t “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Far too many worship gods not that far removed from “the Amorites or the regions beyond the River.” Our dollars declare “In God We Trust,” but the behavior of many and the things that we teach our children in our government - controlled schools say something else.
But what about the Church? We have not joined society in its dancing with the devil; our hands are not drenched in the blood of the innocent. Will we suffer with the wicked?
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
How do we look at this past year, and not see the hand of the Lord, or worse, as it is written:
13 “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. 14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. 15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,” says the Lord.
God is not mocked; what a man sows, that shall he also reap.
16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ 17 I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’ 18 Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. 19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
Now is not the time to try to hide in the woods with the world.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
In their newness to sin, the man and the woman had not yet learned to add sin to sin, to add lying to their attempts to cover up their shame. But we are far removed from those days of innocence. We have learned how to “call good, evil, and evil, good.” We have learned how to disguise “outbursts of wrath” as “righteous indignation.” Some of us have even absorbed the sins of our Egyptian captors, talking as if “for all have sinned” makes an exception for black and brown skin. No - “their ice is not colder,” but no, our dirt is not cleaner.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
When we “feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things,” He “made our enemies our footstools.” Yes - the demons that energized their animosity lashed out at us, and yes, some of us bled and died on the altar of racism, but those who died did so in Jesus’ name, not in the name of GD, Vice Lords, or neighborhood cliques.
We need to return to that fear, that love, that trust that sustained us and those who came before us. We need to “go back to the old landmark.”
971 There Is a Redeemer
1 There is a Redeemer—
Jesus, God’s own Son;
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One. Refrain
2 Jesus, my Redeemer,
Name above all names;
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Hope for sinners slain. Refrain
3 When I stand in glory,
I will see His face;
There I’ll serve my King forever
In that holy place. Refrain
Ref: Thank You, O my Father,
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit
Till the work on earth is done.
Text: © 1982 Birdwing Music, admin. EMI. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110001632
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.