Pentecost 13

So are there just a few? When its all said and done and the numbers are tallied up and every person, every name is present and accounted for in the rolls of heaven, how many will there be?
This very question was asked of Jesus. Lord will number of those saved be few?
Our text provides us with the answer.
Turns out a lot of people will try to enter and not only that, a lot of people will assume they are already in, but in the end will not be able. That is what Jesus tells us. Many will seek to enter but will be left out.
It's like Noah and the Ark. Noah followed the Word of the Lord and built a big boat. Meanwhile, lots of people looked around, saw no water, and thought he had gone mad. But when the Lord commanded Noah to enter the Ark and the doors were shut, after the rain began to fall, every last one of them wanted to get in but it was too late and they perished. How many who were outside cried out to Noah, “Noah we were neighbors. Noah, I lent you my hammer. Noah we were friends.” But the Lord shut the doors and there was no opening them.
I a similar way, at the end many will say, “Lord open to us,” but Christ will respond “I do not know you.” Think of how terrible that will be when so many are shut out of heaven, when so many are resigned to destruction as God's judgment falls on them, not so much for their sin, which has been forgiven and paid for by Jesus, but because they have denied the Gospel, the ark of salvation and atonement built by Jesus himself.
What is frightening, is the fact that, according to the Lord's own words, there will be many who are locked out on the last day who thought they would be in.
Jesus warns us ahead of time. “They will begin to say”, he tells us, “Lord, we ate and drank at your table. And you taught in our streets.”
Couldn't that be you? You have eaten at the Lord's table, you have drunk from his cup of salvation. You have heard his teachings from your pulpit. Does that mean you believe it? Does that mean you have taken the way of the narrow door? There are many who sit in church on Sunday morning. And many of those will not be saved. What about you?
The truth of the matter is that there are so many things out in the world to distract us. Satan knows how foolish we are. Things of this world look so nice and inviting. Things of this world look like they are so much more fun. The flashing lights, the glitz and the glamor can all be so enticing.
Strive to enter through the narrow door, says Jesus. The narrow door. Wide is the way that leads to hell. Straight and smooth and popular and fun. There are lights and side shows and restaurants and coffee shops. There is entertainment and amusement and a delight for the senses. But that is not the door that leads to heaven. Strive to enter through the narrow door. That's where Jesus is heading.
Jesus in on the narrow path, headed toward the narrow door that leads to heaven. Our text reminds us that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Not for glitz and glamor. Rather Jesus is on his way to the cross. The narrow road leads to the narrow door. That narrow door is the cross and Jesus commands us to follow.
This is St Paul “Chuckery”. After moving out here 4 years ago I asked where the name “Chuckery” came from. Someone told me “Chuckery” was the reference to all the “chuck holes” in the road. Our little town is named for a difficult journey, a bumpy ride. That kind of serves as a good reminder for us that the road of the Christian is the road to the cross.
God calls his Christians to follow him along the narrow path toward the narrow door. And in a sense, that road is “chuckery”. It's marked with all kinds of chuck holes. But still we bounce along. Life throws us left and right and up and down as we bounce along the path. Still we suffer through. We follow where our Lord leads. We don't have lots of the world's goods, we don't get lots of publicity and fame. But still we bounce along. Down the narrow road, toward the narrow door. It's the road to the cross. It's the road of suffering. It's the road of Jesus.
Maybe your life follows that road. You have found that suffering. You have been tormented by Satan. You have been tempted to jump off that narrow, that chuckery road. God calls you to follow. In spite of all the bouncing and trouncing still to follow our Lord.
And as we go along this narrow, this chuckery road, we do what our Lord does. This is the road that our Lord traveled. He was on this “chuckery” road to the cross. He was on this chuckery road to Jerusalem. And as he made his way to the cross, he would stop from time to time. He would stop because he found people lying in the road. He found cast aways and cast offs. He found the sick and the lame. The lepers and the sinners. He found the blind and demon possessed. And each time he stopped. As he made his way down that narrow road on his way to cross he would stop to find people. And he helped them. He reached out to them because they were lost, because they were suffering, because they were in need and in pain and he helped them. Those with weak knees regained the strength in their legs. Those who were blind regained their sight. Those who had leprosy were cleansed and made whole. Those who had sickness; cancers, tumors, infections – they were healed. And those who were helpless and harassed by Satan were set free. As Jesus bounced along that chuckery road to the cross he would stop to help those who had need.
And so we follow Jesus and we do what he did. As the road takes us by those who are sick, those who have fallen, those who grieve and mourn, those who are broken and distraught and possessed by Satan, we provide them with the healing of Jesus. We bind up their wounds, we set them free from the chains of sin and the devil, we apply the healing salve and ointment of the Gospel. As Jesus stopped along the way, so do we.
And those broken and cast away lives that Jesus stopped to heal and restore, they would join him on his journey. They would follow him and become his disciples. The would become members of his group of followers. Each time Jesus stopped, he would add one more as he traveled along the narrow road.
But there were other times that he would stop. Yes he stopped for the sick and disabled, but he would also stop to teach. As his followers looked to put the ways of the world behind them, as they had questions and needed answers, they would ask. He would answer. As he saw the need to warn them or inform them of the troubles ahead. Or as he looked to describe the kingdom he would build and the life he would create, he would tell them parables. Jesus and his followers would stop to rest along the road and during that rest he would refresh them with his word.
Jesus does the same with us. Just as his group of cast offs and misfits would pause to hear him teach, so do we pause on our Chuckery road every Sunday to hear the words of Jesus. We hear his teaching. We hear Christian preaching. We hear the law. We hear the Gospel. We bring our questions to Bible Class and we learn. Traveling along this chuckery road we pause for the Words of Jesus. And he teaches us. He helps us to learn and to grow. He feeds not just our bodies but he nourishes our souls.
And at the end of that road, when it was all said and done, the narrow path lead to the cross, where Jesus suffered and died, where he paid for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. The narrow road, the chuckery road, was the cross road.
Today, our church, St Paul Chuckery, also sits at a cross-road. Our road, is also a narrow road, a road that leads where Jesus has gone, a road that leads to the cross. We take up our cross as Jesus commands us to do and we hold it high. Here at ST Paul Chuckery we preach Christ and him crucified for sinners, for the blind and the lame and sick and the suffering who Jesus has stopped to heal along the way.
But there is a literal cross-roads. St Route 38 lies just out those doors, go south a quarter mile and you come to St Rt 161. We are quite literally at a cross roads. We are located where the roads cross. And so that is what we do; we carry the cross at the cross roads.
Guess where those roads lead. Rt 38 leads up past Fairbanks to Marysville through some farm land. You go south down 38 and you will find yourself in London. And then there's 161. You take that east you get to Plain City, to Dublin and Columbus, you take it west and you get to Irwin on your way down to Mechanicsburg or Urbana and all kinds of cities and towns in between. Those are your cities. And they are your towns. You live in them. You work in them. You go there to do your business. You have friends there. You buy your groceries, eat at their restaurants, purchase your farm implements, get your oil changed, and guess what? That guy who changes your oil, that girl who rings up your groceries, who sits in your adjacent cubicle, who brings you your coffee – that person is broken and bleeding. That person is bound up by Satan. That person needs you to stop and set her free, to bind up his wounds, introduce him to Jesus.
You have come to the cross. Now go out to the crossroads and bring back that girl, that man, that friend, that co-worker. Bring him to the cross. Bring her to cross. Because someone brought you.
The road to the cross is a narrow road. It is a chuckery road and it is not an easy road. It is a road that is lined with people who are suffering and in pain and in need of the help of Jesus. And so we follow Jesus. We follow him to the cross. We follow him on the crossroads. And as we make our way we stop to help and we receive from him the invitation to heaven.

Amen.