Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Have you ever thought about the greeting you just heard? It is very similar to the salutation the Apostle Paul uses in most of his letters. Variations of this salutation have been used by pastors in different places and languages for untold years. It is the way at least one of my pastors started his sermons when I was a little boy, and I was struck by the beauty of it way back then. Later, I found it in the book of Romans, one of my favorite letters from Paul, then in other letters as I continued to study. It is a greeting, a salutation directly to you expressing the gift of unconditional love, gracious giving and forgiveness from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Chris!

Now let us think for a little bit about this grace, this unconditional love, as well as this peace or gracious giving and forgiveness from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus. Jesus has just been warned by some of the Pharisees that Herod wants to kill him. It is a warning that Jesus takes at face value for not all of the Pharisees were adversaries, think of Nicodemus for example. At any rate, Jesus is not to be deterred from his mission. He is feeling a sense of urgency, he is a voluntary agent in the Father's eternal plan of salvation for us, for the world. He is not afraid for he is obedient to the Father. Loosely misquoting Paul in his letter to the Philippians, you might say that his mind is not on earthly things such as threats from Herod. Jesus knows this because he knows that he will be killed in Jerusalem. His mind is on earthly things however when he thinks of us, that is, you and me, as earthly things. And today, tomorrow and the next day he goes about his work and continues on his way. On his way to Jerusalem. On his way to open the gates of heaven and give us citizenship there.

Jesus travels not to escape the very real menace of Herod's threat, but to bring to fruition God's divine purpose. Today and tomorrow and on the third he finishes his work. Now this is not a direct reference to his death and subsequent resurrection on the third day, but it brings the resurrection to mind. He was casting out demons and curing people, important tasks, but his real work was to die, and by his death to defeat death, by his resurrection to cast out our demons, to cure us, once and for all, by grace through faith, by giving forgiveness.

So brothers and sisters, I need to ask you: are you feeling a sense of urgency? I am. I have been feeling it since before I came here, and it, this sense of urgency, continues unabated. In fact, I think it is growing in intensity. Maybe because we are in the season of Lent, on a journey that will take us to Jerusalem, but not end there. Maybe because of what Jesus accomplished on our behalf as he hung from that cross. Maybe because of his undeserved death at our hands for our sakes. Maybe because of his resurrection. Maybe because there is a burning inside, a burning sense of urgency to be about God's work. Maybe I have not used my time wisely, and maybe you have not used your time wisely either.

Maybe we should consider that many of us here this morning came from somewhere else. Maybe we got here because of work or a vacation home, or retirement, or even married into the area. Maybe we have been like Abram, fearful to follow God's call, but following it anyway. Maybe you are here because God has called you to this place. Maybe you have been on your way your entire life, to this very place. Maybe you feel like you have come home.

But the truth of the matter is that our faith calls us away from our comfort zones, the familiar, and just like Abram, we must be on our way, in the way of the cross.

Our reading from Genesis applies to us as well, "Do not be afraid." I tell you brothers and sisters, we have nothing to fear because, "As a hen gathers her brood under her wings," so Jesus gathers us, his people. We are God's own people, we have heavenly citizenship, and we are indeed "brothers and sisters" to one another. When we are in Christ, we are home at last.

AMEN.