Of the Father’s love begotten Ere the worlds began to be
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He.
Of the things that are that have been, and that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Before the worlds began to be, before there was anything in all creation, from all eternity, is the Word; uncreated, outside of time, eternally begotten of the Father. The Word is with God, in fellowship with God, as God’s only-begotten Son. He dwells in heaven with God, enthroned in the splendor of the only true God. The Word is no creature, but is Himself eternal, Himself true God. The Word is God, the second person of the Trinity, one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. There are not three Lords, but one Lord, just as there are not three almighties, but one almighty, and not three eternals, but one eternal. Yet, in the mystery of the Godhead, the Word is one person, the Father another, and the Holy Spirit another. There is plurality in the unity; one God, three persons, three persons, one God. The Father is God, the Spirit is God, the Word is God.
He is Alpha and Omega, evermore and evermore. He is the beginning and the end, He is the source of all things, and He is their end. “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” God spoke, and it happened, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” God spoke a Word, God spoke the Word, and all things came into being, the Word that was with God and the Word that is God. He is the source of all in creation; every creature, every detail, came forth by the Word, the Word that created in the beginning, the Word that still sustains creation, through the mandate given to all creatures: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Nothing has its being apart from the Word, nothing has life without Him. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The Word who is God dwells in heaven, with the Father, enthroned in glory, evermore and evermore. We sing stanza two.
Oh, that birth forever blessed, When the virgin, full of grace
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, Bore the Savior of our race.
And the babe, the world’s redeemer, First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word who is with God, the Word who is God, the Word by whom and through whom all things were created, the Alpha and the Omega, the source and ending of all things, this very Word took flesh. Very God of very God, the eternal Word, who exists outside of time, who created time, entered time. The Creator entered creation as a creature. In the womb of a virgin, without human participation, by an act of the Holy Spirit, the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. God of God and Lord of Lords is now a man, He has become flesh. God takes up residence among His people; as the tabernacle of old was the place where God was present in the midst of His people for their good, so now, in the body of Jesus, God dwells among His people once again. The cloud covered the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled it, but now the glory of the Lord dwells in flesh; the glory of the Lord is a man, a human being, one of us, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We have seen that glory, “glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John saw the glory upon the mountain; He saw Jesus revealed to be the Word from the Father, the very Son of God, full of grace and truth. The glory of the Creator, present in a creature, the glory that filled the tabernacle, once again present among His people. The light that shone forth in the darkness on the first day of creation, the light that existed before sun and moon and stars, had its source in the Word, who is Himself the Light, and now that uncreated, eternal light shines in the darkness of this sinful world. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” We sing stanza three.
This is He whom seers in old time Chanted of with one accord,
Whom the voices of the prophets Promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the long expected; Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” Like a choir, an assembly of beautiful voices, the prophets sang in unity. Each sang a different note, each brought their own unique voice to the choir, each added to the rich tapestry, but all were singing same song: the Word made flesh, the long expected Messiah, the coming the Savior of the world. Moses and Isaiah, David and Micah, Malachi and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, Elijah and Elisha, and finally, the last prophet, the final member of the choir, John. “He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” They were not the light, no matter how bold their words, no matter how powerful their miracles, no matter how strong their voice. They came to bear witness to the light.
Their word was faithful, for it pointed away from themselves and toward the Word who was coming in the flesh. “He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through Him.” The Light, the Word, must increase, they must decrease; they pointed away from themselves and toward Jesus, crying out with John, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” One who follows Moses must believe in Jesus, he who clings to Isaiah’s words of hope must worship the One he proclaimed, those in awe of Elijah and Elisha’s great deeds must marvel at the One who fulfills their works. With their voices, voices raised in one accord, the prophets, the saints of old, from Adam and Eve who received the first prophecy to John who baptized the seed of a woman promised to them, the prophets pointed to Jesus, and cried out, “Let creation praise its Lord!” We sing stanza four.
O ye heights of heaven adore Him; Angel hosts, His praises sing.
Powers, dominions, bow before Him And extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent, Every voice in concert ring.
Evermore and evermore.
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.” The prophets proclaimed Him, the angels sang His praises, the shepherd and the magi were His ambassadors, John pointed to Him, and God the Father Himself declared of Him, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” But the world did not know Him. He created all things, He was the instrument by which God spoke creation into being, but the creatures He gave life to did not receive Him. He was the One proclaimed by the prophets, promised to our first parents and every generation since, but when He came, His own people rejected Him. He came to save, and they put Him to death. He came of the Father’s love begotten, and they hated Him. They spat in His face, they scourged His back, they pressed thorns into His brow. Heaven sings His praises, and the world shouts, ‘Crucify!’ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness gathers around it, the darkness tries to destroy it.
But the darkness has not overcome it. “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Let creation praise its Lord, high and exalted upon the throne of the cross, winning there the peace promised by the angels on the night of His birth. Let the angel hosts sing as He sheds His blood for the life of the world. Let powers and dominions bow before them, acknowledging as Lord the One declared the King of the Jews. Let no tongue on earth be silent, let every voice echo the concert of the prophets, singing with them, pointing to the cross, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” And all who thus sing, all who thus believe, are reborn, made the children of God, “not of blood or of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” All who sing His praises are His children, all who sing His praises are reborn, all who receive Him have a new identity: children of God. We sing stanza five.
Christ, to Thee, with God the Father, and O Holy Ghost to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion, and eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.
Evermore and evermore, heaven and earth is joined together in praise of the Word made flesh. Evermore and evermore, heaven and earth, long divided, long separated, stands unified by the peace promised at the manger, the peace won at the cross, the peace delivered by the risen Christ. Evermore and evermore, this Jesus is praised in heaven and on earth in unity with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Evermore and evermore, we who are children of God, born of God through Christ, will stand praising our Lord. Evermore and evermore, creation is restored, evermore and evermore, the curse will be removed, evermore and evermore, the Word is flesh and ever will be flesh. Evermore and evermore, His praises ring, evermore and evermore His saints sing, evermore and evermore the manger, the cross, the empty tomb stand as tokens of our salvation. Honor, glory, and dominion, and eternal victory; evermore and evermore. Amen.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Advent Midweek service (Psalm 85)
“Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.” You acted in salvation, you saw your people in distress and you did not remain idle. You rent the heavens and came down; you came down to deliver, you came down to save, you came down bring your people out of captivity. When your people languished in slavery, with backs bowed in hard labor, you came; when your people dwelt in exile, far from home, you came; when your people were threatened with annihilation again and again, you came. “You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.” You were angry with your people, and justly, for they sinned, they turned away from you. They rebelled again and again, but in love, in mercy, you turned back to them. You rent the heavens and came down, releasing them from the bondage they deserved, the cruel overlords who were the agents of your wrath. But all of this was preliminary. When your people dwelt in the dark night of sin, subject to death, in the captivity of Satan, you came. You rent the heavens and came down, taking up residence in the womb of the virgin, and coming forth to walk the way of the cross. You came to die, to die in the place of your rebellious people, to die bearing their iniquity. You are the God who comes, and you came in humility, you came in victory, you came with healing in your wings.
“You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin.” You did not ignore my sin, you did not turn your face from it, you did not make an exception in my case. No, your hot anger burned against my sin with as much intensity as it deserved. My sin deserved death and hell, and that is what you poured out against it. You did not spare one ounce of your wrath, but you raged against your Son, not against me. You did not ignore my sin, or the sin of anyone on this planet, but you placed it on Jesus, and your hot anger burned against Him. You covered my sin with the blood of Jesus, with His righteousness; because He died under your wrath, your wrath will not come upon me. “You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.” That is what happened at the baptismal font: your anger turned away, your wrath was withdrawn. I am saved, I am delivered, because you came, you came to this world at your first Advent, taking on flesh to walk the way of the cross, and you came on the day of my baptism, rending the heavens and coming down to make me one of your dear children.
You acted in the past; will you not act again? “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us!” We are languishing, dying in this world of sin and death, a world filled with decay, a world that still faces the just penalties of its sin. The sin and suffering of this world seems to have no end; every day we hear of violence and poverty, the incredible cruelty that humans show to one another only reaches new heights, terrible things happen to the innocent. A seven-year-old was hit by a car crossing the street last week, trying to get to school; will you not act? “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?” How long will you wait, O Lord, how long will you delay? How much more suffering must this world endure? Why don’t you do something? You acted in the past, will you not act again? The world has been in the throes of death since the day Adam and Eve fell into sin, death has reigned over man and beast since teeth sunk into the fruit. How much longer must we endure this penalty? How much longer must we return to the dust, must the ground bring forth thorns and thistles?
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Make us alive, we are dying! Bring us some joy, we are filled with sadness! This world sucks the joy from us, it brings us down into the depths of sorrow. We face the pain of loss, the shame and humiliation of our own weaknesses, the guilt of our sin. We live with aches and pains, our bodies rebel against us, they are racked with cancer, our hearts are ticking time bombs, diabetes lurks around every corner. This world fills us with tears, as we mourn those who are lost to us, those who have died and those who are estranged, those we don’t talk to anymore, those who have hurt us or we have hurt, and the relationships left tattered and torn. All who have hurt us, all who have left us, leave a hole in our heart. Deliver us from this corrupted world! O Lord, how long? “Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.” Show us your love, we are drowning in hate, the false and fleeting love this world offers. Grant us your salvation, we are surrounded by sin and its corruption. We can’t endure this world much longer, we are hanging on by a thread—do you want us to fall? We are at the end of our endurance—would you have us give up? Your people are dying—what do you have to say for yourself?
“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly.” What you have for me is a Word. A Word, not a miracle, not a spectacular show of strength, power, and majesty. A Word. You won’t take all my problems away, you won’t give me heaven on earth, you won’t remove every instance of suffering from my life. Health and wealth aren’t your promise; an easy life is not your guarantee. Instead, you will give me a Word, a Word of peace. “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.” In the darkness of sin, in the bleak night of death, under the shadow that envelops this earth, the Light shines. The Light comes into this world, and the darkness of this fallen creation cannot overcome it. His salvation comes near to His people, His glory shines in the night. He rends the heavens and comes down this Advent, speaking peace to His people, His saints, those who fear Him, and His glory dwells in the midst of our land. His glory dwells in this place, it dwells wherever this Word of hope, this Word of peace is spoken. Do not turn back to folly, dear friends, do not give into despair, do not cry out to return to Egypt when the scarcity of the wilderness overwhelms you. Do not take comfort in the pleasures of sin, but in the assurance of the Word. A Word is His gift to you, a Word that assures you in the midst of your suffering, a Word that gives you His promises, a Word that guarantees for you sure and certain victory.
Because Jesus came at His first Advent, sin, death, and the devil have already been defeated, they will not triumph over you. Because Jesus comes every Lord’s day, you are constantly reassured in the midst of your sufferings that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Because Jesus will come again on the Last Day, you have the assurance that nothing, and no one, can destroy you, that no suffering will last forever, that death itself is an empty shell. In Jesus, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other.” God’s faithfulness and justice met with His love in Jesus, as the sinless Son of God was put to death in your place, fulfilling God’s justice against your sin to bring you His perfect, abundant love. God’s perfect righteousness and His everlasting peace kissed in Jesus, as the sinless Son of God fulfilled all righteousness upon the cross, dying to make you righteous so that you would be at peace with God forever. In Jesus, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.” God was faithful to His promises, preached by His prophets of old as they walked this earth, and righteousness, perfect righteousness, rent the heavens and came down to cover you on the day you were baptized into Christ’s name.
“Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.” There is a place where suffering will be no more, where death will not even be a rumor, where conflict will be erased, where the divisions we once had will no longer matter. In that place, “Righteousness will go before him, and make his footsteps a way.” Righteousness, perfect righteousness, will characterize that place, and it is your home, the Promised Land that is your inheritance, when at long last, and for one final time, Christ rends the heavens and comes down, answering your prayers, and the prayers of the Church of all ages, forever. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
“You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin.” You did not ignore my sin, you did not turn your face from it, you did not make an exception in my case. No, your hot anger burned against my sin with as much intensity as it deserved. My sin deserved death and hell, and that is what you poured out against it. You did not spare one ounce of your wrath, but you raged against your Son, not against me. You did not ignore my sin, or the sin of anyone on this planet, but you placed it on Jesus, and your hot anger burned against Him. You covered my sin with the blood of Jesus, with His righteousness; because He died under your wrath, your wrath will not come upon me. “You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.” That is what happened at the baptismal font: your anger turned away, your wrath was withdrawn. I am saved, I am delivered, because you came, you came to this world at your first Advent, taking on flesh to walk the way of the cross, and you came on the day of my baptism, rending the heavens and coming down to make me one of your dear children.
You acted in the past; will you not act again? “Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us!” We are languishing, dying in this world of sin and death, a world filled with decay, a world that still faces the just penalties of its sin. The sin and suffering of this world seems to have no end; every day we hear of violence and poverty, the incredible cruelty that humans show to one another only reaches new heights, terrible things happen to the innocent. A seven-year-old was hit by a car crossing the street last week, trying to get to school; will you not act? “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?” How long will you wait, O Lord, how long will you delay? How much more suffering must this world endure? Why don’t you do something? You acted in the past, will you not act again? The world has been in the throes of death since the day Adam and Eve fell into sin, death has reigned over man and beast since teeth sunk into the fruit. How much longer must we endure this penalty? How much longer must we return to the dust, must the ground bring forth thorns and thistles?
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Make us alive, we are dying! Bring us some joy, we are filled with sadness! This world sucks the joy from us, it brings us down into the depths of sorrow. We face the pain of loss, the shame and humiliation of our own weaknesses, the guilt of our sin. We live with aches and pains, our bodies rebel against us, they are racked with cancer, our hearts are ticking time bombs, diabetes lurks around every corner. This world fills us with tears, as we mourn those who are lost to us, those who have died and those who are estranged, those we don’t talk to anymore, those who have hurt us or we have hurt, and the relationships left tattered and torn. All who have hurt us, all who have left us, leave a hole in our heart. Deliver us from this corrupted world! O Lord, how long? “Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.” Show us your love, we are drowning in hate, the false and fleeting love this world offers. Grant us your salvation, we are surrounded by sin and its corruption. We can’t endure this world much longer, we are hanging on by a thread—do you want us to fall? We are at the end of our endurance—would you have us give up? Your people are dying—what do you have to say for yourself?
“Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints; but let them not turn back to folly.” What you have for me is a Word. A Word, not a miracle, not a spectacular show of strength, power, and majesty. A Word. You won’t take all my problems away, you won’t give me heaven on earth, you won’t remove every instance of suffering from my life. Health and wealth aren’t your promise; an easy life is not your guarantee. Instead, you will give me a Word, a Word of peace. “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.” In the darkness of sin, in the bleak night of death, under the shadow that envelops this earth, the Light shines. The Light comes into this world, and the darkness of this fallen creation cannot overcome it. His salvation comes near to His people, His glory shines in the night. He rends the heavens and comes down this Advent, speaking peace to His people, His saints, those who fear Him, and His glory dwells in the midst of our land. His glory dwells in this place, it dwells wherever this Word of hope, this Word of peace is spoken. Do not turn back to folly, dear friends, do not give into despair, do not cry out to return to Egypt when the scarcity of the wilderness overwhelms you. Do not take comfort in the pleasures of sin, but in the assurance of the Word. A Word is His gift to you, a Word that assures you in the midst of your suffering, a Word that gives you His promises, a Word that guarantees for you sure and certain victory.
Because Jesus came at His first Advent, sin, death, and the devil have already been defeated, they will not triumph over you. Because Jesus comes every Lord’s day, you are constantly reassured in the midst of your sufferings that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Because Jesus will come again on the Last Day, you have the assurance that nothing, and no one, can destroy you, that no suffering will last forever, that death itself is an empty shell. In Jesus, “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness and peace kiss each other.” God’s faithfulness and justice met with His love in Jesus, as the sinless Son of God was put to death in your place, fulfilling God’s justice against your sin to bring you His perfect, abundant love. God’s perfect righteousness and His everlasting peace kissed in Jesus, as the sinless Son of God fulfilled all righteousness upon the cross, dying to make you righteous so that you would be at peace with God forever. In Jesus, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.” God was faithful to His promises, preached by His prophets of old as they walked this earth, and righteousness, perfect righteousness, rent the heavens and came down to cover you on the day you were baptized into Christ’s name.
“Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.” There is a place where suffering will be no more, where death will not even be a rumor, where conflict will be erased, where the divisions we once had will no longer matter. In that place, “Righteousness will go before him, and make his footsteps a way.” Righteousness, perfect righteousness, will characterize that place, and it is your home, the Promised Land that is your inheritance, when at long last, and for one final time, Christ rends the heavens and comes down, answering your prayers, and the prayers of the Church of all ages, forever. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Second Sunday in Advent (Luke 21:25-36)
“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning is the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the twenty-first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ: is the world prepared for the Last Day? Does the world know that it’s end is coming, that the Savior it rejected is returning to judge both the living and the dead? The strange thing is, I think this world knows that the end is coming, this world has an inkling that progress will not continue unabated forever, deep down this world knows that eventually the institutions and technologies that we trust in will fail. My evidence? Movies, books, TV shows, and video games. Our popular entertainment is filled with stories about the world falling apart, about the end of our current way of life, the destruction of those pillars of society that we cling to so tightly. The vision of the future presented in movies is not utopia anymore, but dystopia, a ruined future, populated by villains and zombies, a world devastated by war or ecological disaster. From Wall-E to the Hunger Games to the Walking Dead, this world has some sense, deep down, that the end is coming. Maybe these movies and shows are meant to be prophecies, maybe they simply give expression to our deepest fears, but in some limited way, the world is reading the signs of the end, and the world is terrified.
“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” The world fears the end because all the world can see is the sweeping away of everything that it holds dear. There is no safety in these dystopic futures; there is tyranny and oppression, there is violence and poverty. This is not a world that you want to dwell in, this is not a reality that you want to have happen to you. So people are spurred on to seek solutions, to safeguard themselves from apocalyptic disaster. Everything from stronger governments to powerful medicines, to things like recycling and doomsday shelters are all enlisted to avoid the disaster that is coming.
There’s a fundamental problem with these solutions: the end of the world isn’t coming from any action of man, and so no solution of man can halt it. The end of the world is an act of God Himself, and the only solution, therefore, is repentance, crying out for deliverance. Every minute that this world endures is due to the patience of God over the corruption wrought by sin, but eventually, that patience will run out. The only answer is to turn from the sins that fix your eyes on this doomed world and lift up your head toward God, begging for salvation. “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” This world, as much as it might fear the destruction of all that it holds dear, steadfastly refuses the only hope that is has been given to it: repentance.
Their hope comes from somewhere else. You see, these doomsday stories always have the ‘good guys,’ who are working their way through that terrible, destroyed world, and they will be the ones to rebuild. There is the potential of a new day, a resurgence of human culture, that from the ashes society will rise again. At the end of the movie, The Book of Eli, Denzel Washington’s character reaches an island where culture is preserved, and he gives them a copy of the Bible, to shelve next to the Koran. The message is clear: humanity will survive. What these stories try to get across to us is the same as any war movie: the triumph of the human spirit, that we as humans can overcome anything, even the utter destruction of our society. Yes, there is much to fear, but there is hope, and it is founded upon you and your fellow man, the heroism that dwells within. Salvation comes from you, and only from you; and together with other heroes, you can overcome.
That is where all of these stories fail so utterly. When the Last Day comes, you cannot save yourself, no matter how much ammo or canned goods you have stored in your cellar. No band of spunky humans will have the ability to rebuild anything, for everything will be destroyed. “The powers of the heavens will be shaken,” Jesus says; they will indeed be shaken, shaken apart. All that God so carefully put into place; the order that once characterized creation, will utterly fall apart. This is no disease, no ecological disaster, not even World War Three; this is the unraveling of creation itself. Environmentalists claim that we can destroy this world; they’re wrong—man can’t do it, but God can, and He will. The Last Day is complete, and it is total, and the only savior on that Day is the Savior that is coming on the clouds to greet His own.
“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The world should fear; it is bowed low, engrossed in its sins, refusing to repent. When that Day comes, there will only be fear, “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.” But for those who repent, those who believe, those who cling to the One who is coming on the clouds, that Day will be a Day of victory. “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Lift up your heads, straighten your backs, dear friends. Do not be bowed low with sin, do not let this world drag you down into the filth, but stand tall in repentance, in faith. For the One coming on the clouds is the One who descended once before, who descended from heaven for your salvation. The One who is coming on the Last Day is the One who shed His blood for your sins, who rose again from the dead. The One who is coming is your crucified and risen Savior.
The angels told the disciples as they gazed into heaven, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” The One who is returning from heaven on the Last Day is the One who ascended into heaven having destroyed sin, death, and Satan. So rejoice, dear friends, rejoice to see the signs that are coming on this earth. We do not rejoice that these terrible things have happened to us or our neighbors, we rejoice in what these events point to—the end of all sin and suffering when Christ returns in glory. The world is coming do an end because your Savior is returning. Rejoice to see this world hasten toward its end; rejoice that your redemption is drawing near. The One who is coming is your Savior, your Lord, who forsook His rightful place at the right hand of God to take on human flesh for your salvation. The One who is coming is Jesus, who suffered at the hands of evil men, who faced the whip and scourge for you. The One who is coming is the One who loved you so much that He would not leave you in your sins; when the Last Day comes, so does your redemption: do not fear, rejoice!
There is no fear for the one who is in Christ, only joy. There is no fear for the one who is in Christ, only anticipation of what is to come. The tumults and terrors of this world, as horrifying as they are, as much as they may impact your property, your health, even your life, are signs that Jesus is drawing near. “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Every natural disaster, every market crash, every outbreak of disease should cause us to rejoice that Christ is drawing near—again, not in the disaster itself and the suffering it causes, but in the promise that the disaster points to. We cry out, ‘O Lord, how long?’ and rejoice to know that He is drawing ever nearer; the signs tell us that this world will not last for long.
There is no need for fear; the end of all these signs is your redemption. There is no need for fear; the end of all these signs is your Savior returning on the clouds. Jesus’ advice? “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Straighten you backs; raise your heads. Stand tall, not bowed down with fear, not troubled by the terrible events described in the Scriptures. These signs must happen, but they are precursors to a reality that is indescribable, a reality without sin, a reality without evil, the new heavens and the new earth where you will dwell with Jesus, body and soul, forever. That is what the Last Day will bring, that is what we anticipate, that is what Christ brings with Him when He returns upon the clouds.
Are you ready? You must be, for all the signs point to Christ’s return at any moment; every sign of the end that Jesus gives us has happened and is happening right now. There is nothing left to be accomplished. Jesus can come at any moment, before the end of this sentence or the end of this sermon. He says it best Himself: “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” The very point of a trap is that it goes off suddenly—are you ready? The world would keep you drowsy, with your head down; the advice of Jesus is to be awake, alert in prayer, with your head lifted in anticipation of His return. “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Are you ready to stand before Jesus? The answer is found in our text. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” You are ready because you are in Christ, you are covered by His blood, you are redeemed by His death. The only shelter on that Day is to be in Jesus. You are ready because you have a life in Christ that is indestructible, you have been claimed by the Word which endures even when all else passes away. His Word will not pass away, and neither will you, for the One who is coming is Jesus, your Savior, your Lord. In His Name, Amen.
“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” The world fears the end because all the world can see is the sweeping away of everything that it holds dear. There is no safety in these dystopic futures; there is tyranny and oppression, there is violence and poverty. This is not a world that you want to dwell in, this is not a reality that you want to have happen to you. So people are spurred on to seek solutions, to safeguard themselves from apocalyptic disaster. Everything from stronger governments to powerful medicines, to things like recycling and doomsday shelters are all enlisted to avoid the disaster that is coming.
There’s a fundamental problem with these solutions: the end of the world isn’t coming from any action of man, and so no solution of man can halt it. The end of the world is an act of God Himself, and the only solution, therefore, is repentance, crying out for deliverance. Every minute that this world endures is due to the patience of God over the corruption wrought by sin, but eventually, that patience will run out. The only answer is to turn from the sins that fix your eyes on this doomed world and lift up your head toward God, begging for salvation. “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” This world, as much as it might fear the destruction of all that it holds dear, steadfastly refuses the only hope that is has been given to it: repentance.
Their hope comes from somewhere else. You see, these doomsday stories always have the ‘good guys,’ who are working their way through that terrible, destroyed world, and they will be the ones to rebuild. There is the potential of a new day, a resurgence of human culture, that from the ashes society will rise again. At the end of the movie, The Book of Eli, Denzel Washington’s character reaches an island where culture is preserved, and he gives them a copy of the Bible, to shelve next to the Koran. The message is clear: humanity will survive. What these stories try to get across to us is the same as any war movie: the triumph of the human spirit, that we as humans can overcome anything, even the utter destruction of our society. Yes, there is much to fear, but there is hope, and it is founded upon you and your fellow man, the heroism that dwells within. Salvation comes from you, and only from you; and together with other heroes, you can overcome.
That is where all of these stories fail so utterly. When the Last Day comes, you cannot save yourself, no matter how much ammo or canned goods you have stored in your cellar. No band of spunky humans will have the ability to rebuild anything, for everything will be destroyed. “The powers of the heavens will be shaken,” Jesus says; they will indeed be shaken, shaken apart. All that God so carefully put into place; the order that once characterized creation, will utterly fall apart. This is no disease, no ecological disaster, not even World War Three; this is the unraveling of creation itself. Environmentalists claim that we can destroy this world; they’re wrong—man can’t do it, but God can, and He will. The Last Day is complete, and it is total, and the only savior on that Day is the Savior that is coming on the clouds to greet His own.
“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The world should fear; it is bowed low, engrossed in its sins, refusing to repent. When that Day comes, there will only be fear, “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.” But for those who repent, those who believe, those who cling to the One who is coming on the clouds, that Day will be a Day of victory. “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Lift up your heads, straighten your backs, dear friends. Do not be bowed low with sin, do not let this world drag you down into the filth, but stand tall in repentance, in faith. For the One coming on the clouds is the One who descended once before, who descended from heaven for your salvation. The One who is coming on the Last Day is the One who shed His blood for your sins, who rose again from the dead. The One who is coming is your crucified and risen Savior.
The angels told the disciples as they gazed into heaven, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” The One who is returning from heaven on the Last Day is the One who ascended into heaven having destroyed sin, death, and Satan. So rejoice, dear friends, rejoice to see the signs that are coming on this earth. We do not rejoice that these terrible things have happened to us or our neighbors, we rejoice in what these events point to—the end of all sin and suffering when Christ returns in glory. The world is coming do an end because your Savior is returning. Rejoice to see this world hasten toward its end; rejoice that your redemption is drawing near. The One who is coming is your Savior, your Lord, who forsook His rightful place at the right hand of God to take on human flesh for your salvation. The One who is coming is Jesus, who suffered at the hands of evil men, who faced the whip and scourge for you. The One who is coming is the One who loved you so much that He would not leave you in your sins; when the Last Day comes, so does your redemption: do not fear, rejoice!
There is no fear for the one who is in Christ, only joy. There is no fear for the one who is in Christ, only anticipation of what is to come. The tumults and terrors of this world, as horrifying as they are, as much as they may impact your property, your health, even your life, are signs that Jesus is drawing near. “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” Every natural disaster, every market crash, every outbreak of disease should cause us to rejoice that Christ is drawing near—again, not in the disaster itself and the suffering it causes, but in the promise that the disaster points to. We cry out, ‘O Lord, how long?’ and rejoice to know that He is drawing ever nearer; the signs tell us that this world will not last for long.
There is no need for fear; the end of all these signs is your redemption. There is no need for fear; the end of all these signs is your Savior returning on the clouds. Jesus’ advice? “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Straighten you backs; raise your heads. Stand tall, not bowed down with fear, not troubled by the terrible events described in the Scriptures. These signs must happen, but they are precursors to a reality that is indescribable, a reality without sin, a reality without evil, the new heavens and the new earth where you will dwell with Jesus, body and soul, forever. That is what the Last Day will bring, that is what we anticipate, that is what Christ brings with Him when He returns upon the clouds.
Are you ready? You must be, for all the signs point to Christ’s return at any moment; every sign of the end that Jesus gives us has happened and is happening right now. There is nothing left to be accomplished. Jesus can come at any moment, before the end of this sentence or the end of this sermon. He says it best Himself: “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” The very point of a trap is that it goes off suddenly—are you ready? The world would keep you drowsy, with your head down; the advice of Jesus is to be awake, alert in prayer, with your head lifted in anticipation of His return. “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Are you ready to stand before Jesus? The answer is found in our text. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” You are ready because you are in Christ, you are covered by His blood, you are redeemed by His death. The only shelter on that Day is to be in Jesus. You are ready because you have a life in Christ that is indestructible, you have been claimed by the Word which endures even when all else passes away. His Word will not pass away, and neither will you, for the One who is coming is Jesus, your Savior, your Lord. In His Name, Amen.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Last Sunday of the Church Year (Isaiah 65:17-25)
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this Last Sunday of the Church Year is the Old Testament lesson read a few moments ago from the sixty-fifth chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Dear friends in Christ, years ago I was told a story (and despite numerous Google searches this week, I was unable to verify it), a story about a stone church in Europe. Right outside the walls of this ancient church was a massive rock, a rock that was slowly sinking into the soft earth. Year by year, the rock, as it sank and shifted, moved closer and closer to the wall of the church. Now, I was told that a legend had grown up about this church and this rock, a prophecy of sorts, that when the rock finally touched the wall of the church, the trumpet would sound and Christ would return. When this story was told to me years ago, I heard that to this day, you can see this church and the rock that was the ‘countdown clock’ for the Last Day. The rock still has not touched the wall of that church, and if you look closely, you can see why. It’s covered with chisel marks; every time the rock came close to touching the wall, the faithful would, almost in a panic, attack the rock, chiseling it away, making sure that Christ would delay just a little longer. It seems that they were not quite so eager for the Last Day to come, for the graves to open, for Jesus to come back.
The second to last verse of the Bible gives us what should be the cry of the Church in all ages: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” If this story is true, then the cry of the faithful in that village was quite different: “Amen. Delay, Lord Jesus!” Delay, Lord Jesus, just a little while longer! I have children to raise, I have money to make, I’m planning retirement, I have this, that, or the other thing to accomplish, I’m not ready for you to return quite yet! Delay, Lord Jesus, give me some time to indulge my pleasures, to sin a little more, to take in all this world has to offer. God declares in our text: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” The former things will pass away, we are told, and that is what scares us, because the former things are what we know, what we enjoy, what we cling to. Ask a couple on the night before their wedding if they are praying with the Church, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Ask a football player the morning of the Super Bowl. Ask a businessman the day he is to take over a company. Ask yourself before a long-awaited vacation, before you graduate high school (or college), before you are planning to enjoy any of the pleasures of this world: are you praying, “Come, Lord Jesus”?
We all have reasons that we want Christ to delay, just a bit longer, we all have our hammers and chisels sitting on the shelf, ready to go. We find it hard to pray, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus,” because deep down, we’re comfortable with life in this world and we aren’t too sure about what is to come; our typical idea of heaven doesn’t entice us. We have no experience of life without sin, the unknown makes us nervous, and (you know this is true), we like having the ability to sin. One of Satan’s tricks is to convince us to cling to the things of this world, to even desire them above the eternal gifts God wants to give to all the saints. But dear friends, this world is not worth clinging to! There is nothing that this world can offer that is worth ever saying, “Amen. Delay, Lord Jesus!”
What this world has to offer you is sorrow, mourning, sadness. Certainly, there are joys and pleasures in this life, and we receive them as gifts of God, but so often they are tainted by sin; indeed, this world seems to be of the opinion that only through sin can we have any pleasure or joy. Just listen to most comedians or watch the soft pornography that passes for primetime television today. Such joy and pleasure leaves you empty, instead of filling you up, the pleasures of sin make you hollow. And that’s what the world passes off as joy; what it gives you more often is the sadness and grief of broken relationships, of conflict; what it offers is the devastation of depression.
The world can only give you sorrow; Christ comes to bring joy, to make you joy incarnate, joy enfleshed. “Be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” The joys that we have in this life are glimpses of the joy that is to come, for God declares that His new creation will be characterized by unbridled, undiluted joy, the joy of the resurrection, the joy of Christ’s victory over sin and death, a joy not tainted by sin, not corrupted by any kind of sorrow or sadness. There will be no depression, no sadness at all in God’s new creation. Sorrow will be replaced by joy.
For there can be no sorrow in a place with no death. But all this world has to offer you is death. No matter what pleasures it can give you, no matter how comfortable life can be, we all have the same destination, and the world can give you no escape. We keep building more (and bigger) hospitals, clinics and surgical centers are everywhere, but we continue to fight a losing battle with death. As much as we modernize, we still fear deadly diseases, and we all dread that six-letter word: cancer. Every day that this world endures is another day for children to die, for people to be diagnosed with terrible diseases. This world is the domain of death, where death rules and always has the last word.
But the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, is a place where death will no longer reign, where its domination over all things will come to an end. “No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” Now, God isn’t saying that people will die in the new creation, or that the wicked will dwell there, but He is describing His new creation by these illustrations to make this point: death will have no more grip on us there. Jesus Christ rose from the dead to put an end to death, to destroy death forever. What the world cannot do through bigger and better hospitals, through more advanced technology, Jesus did by dying. He died bearing our sin and He rose victorious over our enemies: sin, death, and Satan. He rose to establish a place where death is replaced with life.
If death is the destination that this world offers, the path to get there is paved with deprivation and want. There are some in this world who don’t have to watch their budget, who aren’t worried about how they will afford groceries for the month, who haven’t had to tighten their belt over the past few years. Yes, there are some. But for most people, want is the order of the day, whether on a small scale or a large scale. Millions in our country are out of work, millions are struggling to pay the rent, millions are dependent on food banks and other assistance. In this world, the works of our hands fail us; crops won’t grow, or are destroyed by numerous dangers, prices go up and wages go down.
When Jesus walked this earth, two of His greatest miracles involved the multiplication of food: the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. He did this to point to an eternity where scarcity and want will be no more. “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.” No more scarcity, no more want; Jesus has replaced deprivation with abundance, and we will live secure.
Security is not something that we often have in this world of violence and conflict. In our country, in our city, we may be more secure than many (perhaps most) other places around the world, but we still fear. We fear crime, we fear violence, we fear terrorism. Christians fear persecution all around the world. Conflict characterizes our existence in this world: conflict between family members, conflict between groups in our country, conflict between nations. There is no peace, and there never has been, since Cain killed Abel, in a world at war with God and at war with each other.
When Jesus appeared to His disciples on Easter evening, He had a simple message for them: “Peace be with you!” Peace was the result of His resurrection: peace between God and man, peace between you and your Creator. And that peace will fill the new creation, it will permeate our existence there: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” The conflict will be over—forever. The peace that we have with God through the blood of Jesus Christ means a new creation at peace, it means people at peace; no more violence, only peace.
Leave your chisels on the shelf, dear friends, as if you could delay the return of Jesus anyway. Do not pray, ‘Delay, Lord Jesus,’ but rejoice to cry out, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Come quickly to deliver us, to save us from sorrow and death, from deprivation and violence. Come quickly to reverse the curse, to replace mourning with rejoicing, death with life, want with abundance and violence with peace. Come quickly to deliver us from evil, to bring us all that you won through your death and resurrection for our sake. And we know that Christ will hear our cry, though the timeline is in His hands, for He has promised us, “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Christ will hear, and Christ will come, just as He has promised: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’” To which the Church replies: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.
The second to last verse of the Bible gives us what should be the cry of the Church in all ages: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” If this story is true, then the cry of the faithful in that village was quite different: “Amen. Delay, Lord Jesus!” Delay, Lord Jesus, just a little while longer! I have children to raise, I have money to make, I’m planning retirement, I have this, that, or the other thing to accomplish, I’m not ready for you to return quite yet! Delay, Lord Jesus, give me some time to indulge my pleasures, to sin a little more, to take in all this world has to offer. God declares in our text: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” The former things will pass away, we are told, and that is what scares us, because the former things are what we know, what we enjoy, what we cling to. Ask a couple on the night before their wedding if they are praying with the Church, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Ask a football player the morning of the Super Bowl. Ask a businessman the day he is to take over a company. Ask yourself before a long-awaited vacation, before you graduate high school (or college), before you are planning to enjoy any of the pleasures of this world: are you praying, “Come, Lord Jesus”?
We all have reasons that we want Christ to delay, just a bit longer, we all have our hammers and chisels sitting on the shelf, ready to go. We find it hard to pray, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus,” because deep down, we’re comfortable with life in this world and we aren’t too sure about what is to come; our typical idea of heaven doesn’t entice us. We have no experience of life without sin, the unknown makes us nervous, and (you know this is true), we like having the ability to sin. One of Satan’s tricks is to convince us to cling to the things of this world, to even desire them above the eternal gifts God wants to give to all the saints. But dear friends, this world is not worth clinging to! There is nothing that this world can offer that is worth ever saying, “Amen. Delay, Lord Jesus!”
What this world has to offer you is sorrow, mourning, sadness. Certainly, there are joys and pleasures in this life, and we receive them as gifts of God, but so often they are tainted by sin; indeed, this world seems to be of the opinion that only through sin can we have any pleasure or joy. Just listen to most comedians or watch the soft pornography that passes for primetime television today. Such joy and pleasure leaves you empty, instead of filling you up, the pleasures of sin make you hollow. And that’s what the world passes off as joy; what it gives you more often is the sadness and grief of broken relationships, of conflict; what it offers is the devastation of depression.
The world can only give you sorrow; Christ comes to bring joy, to make you joy incarnate, joy enfleshed. “Be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” The joys that we have in this life are glimpses of the joy that is to come, for God declares that His new creation will be characterized by unbridled, undiluted joy, the joy of the resurrection, the joy of Christ’s victory over sin and death, a joy not tainted by sin, not corrupted by any kind of sorrow or sadness. There will be no depression, no sadness at all in God’s new creation. Sorrow will be replaced by joy.
For there can be no sorrow in a place with no death. But all this world has to offer you is death. No matter what pleasures it can give you, no matter how comfortable life can be, we all have the same destination, and the world can give you no escape. We keep building more (and bigger) hospitals, clinics and surgical centers are everywhere, but we continue to fight a losing battle with death. As much as we modernize, we still fear deadly diseases, and we all dread that six-letter word: cancer. Every day that this world endures is another day for children to die, for people to be diagnosed with terrible diseases. This world is the domain of death, where death rules and always has the last word.
But the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, is a place where death will no longer reign, where its domination over all things will come to an end. “No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” Now, God isn’t saying that people will die in the new creation, or that the wicked will dwell there, but He is describing His new creation by these illustrations to make this point: death will have no more grip on us there. Jesus Christ rose from the dead to put an end to death, to destroy death forever. What the world cannot do through bigger and better hospitals, through more advanced technology, Jesus did by dying. He died bearing our sin and He rose victorious over our enemies: sin, death, and Satan. He rose to establish a place where death is replaced with life.
If death is the destination that this world offers, the path to get there is paved with deprivation and want. There are some in this world who don’t have to watch their budget, who aren’t worried about how they will afford groceries for the month, who haven’t had to tighten their belt over the past few years. Yes, there are some. But for most people, want is the order of the day, whether on a small scale or a large scale. Millions in our country are out of work, millions are struggling to pay the rent, millions are dependent on food banks and other assistance. In this world, the works of our hands fail us; crops won’t grow, or are destroyed by numerous dangers, prices go up and wages go down.
When Jesus walked this earth, two of His greatest miracles involved the multiplication of food: the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand. He did this to point to an eternity where scarcity and want will be no more. “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.” No more scarcity, no more want; Jesus has replaced deprivation with abundance, and we will live secure.
Security is not something that we often have in this world of violence and conflict. In our country, in our city, we may be more secure than many (perhaps most) other places around the world, but we still fear. We fear crime, we fear violence, we fear terrorism. Christians fear persecution all around the world. Conflict characterizes our existence in this world: conflict between family members, conflict between groups in our country, conflict between nations. There is no peace, and there never has been, since Cain killed Abel, in a world at war with God and at war with each other.
When Jesus appeared to His disciples on Easter evening, He had a simple message for them: “Peace be with you!” Peace was the result of His resurrection: peace between God and man, peace between you and your Creator. And that peace will fill the new creation, it will permeate our existence there: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” The conflict will be over—forever. The peace that we have with God through the blood of Jesus Christ means a new creation at peace, it means people at peace; no more violence, only peace.
Leave your chisels on the shelf, dear friends, as if you could delay the return of Jesus anyway. Do not pray, ‘Delay, Lord Jesus,’ but rejoice to cry out, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Come quickly to deliver us, to save us from sorrow and death, from deprivation and violence. Come quickly to reverse the curse, to replace mourning with rejoicing, death with life, want with abundance and violence with peace. Come quickly to deliver us from evil, to bring us all that you won through your death and resurrection for our sake. And we know that Christ will hear our cry, though the timeline is in His hands, for He has promised us, “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Christ will hear, and Christ will come, just as He has promised: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’” To which the Church replies: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.
Trinity 25 (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
“And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this evening is the Epistle lesson read a few moments ago from the fourth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica. Dear friends in Christ: grieve, weep for those whom you love. Go to their graves, place your flowers, shed your tears, go through all the stages of grief that counselors and psychologists identify. Be angry, be sad, cry out to God, cry out to others. Do not trap your emotions inside of you; let them out! Weep as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus, be troubled as Jesus was as He faced His own death. Grieve, dear friends, but do not grieve as the world does. “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” Most seasoned pastors can tell the difference at a funeral between those who are active in worship and those who are not. Those who have abandoned the Church, who have cut themselves off from Christ and His gifts struggle to maintain any kind of control, they cannot let go, they linger by the graveside, or they go into a sort of shock, refusing to have any emotion at all. On the other hand, those who have heard the Word of God, who have been fed regularly by Christ’s gifts, do mourn, they do weep, it is not an easy day, but they have something the others do not, which Paul points out in our text: hope.
This hope does two things for the believer. First, it gives the Christian a quiet, calming confidence and peace that tempers the raw emotions of the day, and second, it gives the Christian the freedom to grieve, to weep, to mourn. You weep because you love the one who died, the separation of death is a tragedy, a tragedy that even Jesus felt. But your weeping is not hopeless, it is not wild and despairing; you weep as one who knows that the separation is only temporary: you will see them again. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” Your confidence isn’t without basis; it isn’t some ‘pie in the sky’ dream or a pious wish that ‘good people go to heaven.’ No, the hope sustains you as you grieve is founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus died and rose again, because His grave is empty, we have confidence that the grave of our loved one will be empty one day, that our grave will empty. Those who believe in the One who conquered death will themselves conquer death; those who belong to the One who died in their place know that death has no permanent hold on them. Because Jesus died, because Jesus rose, we can say with confidence that those who died in Jesus are simply sleeping.
Three times in our text Paul says that those who have died in Christ are asleep. Jesus said this to the crowd, and the world laughed at Him. ‘They’re not sleeping, they’re dead!’ the world cries with anger and sorrow. But this word, ‘asleep,’ is the core of our hope. One who is asleep will awake; one who is asleep is waiting for the dawn, for the sun to rise. Sleep is not a permanent condition, and for the believer, death is not permanent either. Their bodies sleep in the ground, waiting to be awakened, but their souls are with Jesus. We should not make this word ‘asleep’ say more than it is meant to say, as if the saints are in limbo, and not with Jesus, as if they are unaware of heavenly bliss. Know this, dear friends, while their bodies sleep in the grave, still on this earth, the dead in Christ enjoy the fellowship of Jesus, their souls are with Him, right now. But even they are waiting, for they were created body and soul. Even though they are in the presence of the Lord, they still cry out, “How long?” Their salvation is still not yet complete, they still haven’t received their full inheritance, they are waiting for the trumpet to sound.
“For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” If the dead in Christ are asleep, that means they will awake; if the dead in Christ are asleep, that means they are waiting for the dawn. That is why the trumpet sounds, that is why the archangel shouts, not simply to alert the living, but to wake the dead. This is the great alarm clock of the Last Day, to awake all the sleeping. The dead haven’t missed out on anything, whether it is Abel, the first man to die, or the man who dies a second before the trumpet sounds: all will hear the sound, and all will awake.
There is no difference between the dead and the living on the Last Day. The dead will rise first, only because the living don’t need to rise; but all will be transformed. All will hear the cry of command, all will be changed. This mortal body will put on immortality; this lowly body will put on glory. This is true for every believer that has ever died, and every believer who is alive on that Day. There will be one generation that will not taste death, but know this, dear friends: all believers in Christ have conquered death, all believers live even though they die. On that Day, the living, those whose bodies are still awake, will join the dead, those whose bodies were asleep, and together we will be with Jesus. “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
This is what all the saints are waiting for, those of us who are still alive, and those who have died and are with Jesus: resurrection. As Christ is raised, never to die again, so we will be raised, never to taste of sin or corruption ever again. And what will happen to our bodies will happen to this creation: it will be renewed and restored, cleansed from sin and corruption. Our existence for eternity will not be floating on the clouds, disembodied spirits wandering through a dreamland, but a real, physical existence, more real than anything we have experienced before, because there is no sin to corrupt it. It will be like turning a television from black and white to color, or waking up from a dream; not that this world isn’t real, but the world to come will be more, it will be better, it will be perfect.
For whatever else the new creation will be, Paul’s declaration will remain true: “We will always be with the Lord.” In the new heavens and the new earth, we will see Jesus face to face, in our bodies, just as Christ is Himself still true man. He will never shed His body, and neither will we, but will have fellowship with our God as He always intended. That is the result of the Last Day, and it is crystal clear: “We will always be with the Lord.” So much ink has been spilled, and so many pages wasted, speculating about the Last Day. Especially this text has been mined to figure out clues on how that Day will go. But Paul writes it not to give us a guidebook to the Last Day; instead he writes to encourage us about the results of the Last Day: the dead will be raised, they will join those who are alive, and “we will always be with the Lord.” The Lutheran Church’s confession of the Last Day is just as simple, proclaimed in the Small Catechism: “On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.” One sentence, simple and clear, on a topic that others spend thousands of pages making muddy and complex. The dead are raised, and eternal life is given to believers, you and me. That’s it. That’s all.
This hope does two things for the believer. First, it gives the Christian a quiet, calming confidence and peace that tempers the raw emotions of the day, and second, it gives the Christian the freedom to grieve, to weep, to mourn. You weep because you love the one who died, the separation of death is a tragedy, a tragedy that even Jesus felt. But your weeping is not hopeless, it is not wild and despairing; you weep as one who knows that the separation is only temporary: you will see them again. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.” Your confidence isn’t without basis; it isn’t some ‘pie in the sky’ dream or a pious wish that ‘good people go to heaven.’ No, the hope sustains you as you grieve is founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus died and rose again, because His grave is empty, we have confidence that the grave of our loved one will be empty one day, that our grave will empty. Those who believe in the One who conquered death will themselves conquer death; those who belong to the One who died in their place know that death has no permanent hold on them. Because Jesus died, because Jesus rose, we can say with confidence that those who died in Jesus are simply sleeping.
Three times in our text Paul says that those who have died in Christ are asleep. Jesus said this to the crowd, and the world laughed at Him. ‘They’re not sleeping, they’re dead!’ the world cries with anger and sorrow. But this word, ‘asleep,’ is the core of our hope. One who is asleep will awake; one who is asleep is waiting for the dawn, for the sun to rise. Sleep is not a permanent condition, and for the believer, death is not permanent either. Their bodies sleep in the ground, waiting to be awakened, but their souls are with Jesus. We should not make this word ‘asleep’ say more than it is meant to say, as if the saints are in limbo, and not with Jesus, as if they are unaware of heavenly bliss. Know this, dear friends, while their bodies sleep in the grave, still on this earth, the dead in Christ enjoy the fellowship of Jesus, their souls are with Him, right now. But even they are waiting, for they were created body and soul. Even though they are in the presence of the Lord, they still cry out, “How long?” Their salvation is still not yet complete, they still haven’t received their full inheritance, they are waiting for the trumpet to sound.
“For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” If the dead in Christ are asleep, that means they will awake; if the dead in Christ are asleep, that means they are waiting for the dawn. That is why the trumpet sounds, that is why the archangel shouts, not simply to alert the living, but to wake the dead. This is the great alarm clock of the Last Day, to awake all the sleeping. The dead haven’t missed out on anything, whether it is Abel, the first man to die, or the man who dies a second before the trumpet sounds: all will hear the sound, and all will awake.
There is no difference between the dead and the living on the Last Day. The dead will rise first, only because the living don’t need to rise; but all will be transformed. All will hear the cry of command, all will be changed. This mortal body will put on immortality; this lowly body will put on glory. This is true for every believer that has ever died, and every believer who is alive on that Day. There will be one generation that will not taste death, but know this, dear friends: all believers in Christ have conquered death, all believers live even though they die. On that Day, the living, those whose bodies are still awake, will join the dead, those whose bodies were asleep, and together we will be with Jesus. “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
This is what all the saints are waiting for, those of us who are still alive, and those who have died and are with Jesus: resurrection. As Christ is raised, never to die again, so we will be raised, never to taste of sin or corruption ever again. And what will happen to our bodies will happen to this creation: it will be renewed and restored, cleansed from sin and corruption. Our existence for eternity will not be floating on the clouds, disembodied spirits wandering through a dreamland, but a real, physical existence, more real than anything we have experienced before, because there is no sin to corrupt it. It will be like turning a television from black and white to color, or waking up from a dream; not that this world isn’t real, but the world to come will be more, it will be better, it will be perfect.
For whatever else the new creation will be, Paul’s declaration will remain true: “We will always be with the Lord.” In the new heavens and the new earth, we will see Jesus face to face, in our bodies, just as Christ is Himself still true man. He will never shed His body, and neither will we, but will have fellowship with our God as He always intended. That is the result of the Last Day, and it is crystal clear: “We will always be with the Lord.” So much ink has been spilled, and so many pages wasted, speculating about the Last Day. Especially this text has been mined to figure out clues on how that Day will go. But Paul writes it not to give us a guidebook to the Last Day; instead he writes to encourage us about the results of the Last Day: the dead will be raised, they will join those who are alive, and “we will always be with the Lord.” The Lutheran Church’s confession of the Last Day is just as simple, proclaimed in the Small Catechism: “On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.” One sentence, simple and clear, on a topic that others spend thousands of pages making muddy and complex. The dead are raised, and eternal life is given to believers, you and me. That’s it. That’s all.
“Therefore encourage one another with these words.” The Last Day is not a day to fear; for those who cling to Christ in the faith created by the Holy Spirit, the Last Day is a day to look forward to, to anticipate, to rejoice in. Encourage one another with the sure and certain confidence that the dead in Christ are sleeping; they will awake, and they are even now with Jesus in His glory, awaiting with the Church on earth the Day that is coming, the Day of victory, the Day of resurrection. Encourage one another with the simple confession of the Last Day, telling each other the truth: on that Day Jesus will fully deliver to you and me all that He won with His death and resurrection. As He rose, so you too will rise, and as He lives, so you too will live, for He died bearing your sin and He rose leaving it behind Him in the grave. “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
All Saints' Day (1 John 3:1-3)
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this commemoration of all the saints, is the Epistle lesson I just read from the third chapter of Saint John’s first letter. Dear friends in Christ, the world doesn’t know all the saints. It doesn’t know how the mourning could be comforted, it doesn’t know how the meek will inherit the earth, it doesn’t know how the poor in spirit will receive the kingdom of heaven. The world doesn’t know all the saints, because it doesn’t know the Savior. “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.” The Creator came into the creation and those whom He made didn’t know Him. They didn’t recognize Him for who He was, and so they rejected Him, they turned their backs. But ignoring Him wasn’t enough. In their ignorance, they raged against Him, putting Him to death. Now, they certainly don’t know all the saints, those who proclaim alive a man the world put to death, those who follow a man the world watched die.
The world doesn’t know you, it doesn’t understand you, it doesn’t get you. If it did, it would be like you are, but as it refused to have anything to do with Jesus, it refuses to have anything to do with you. Christ and all the saints is a huge hole in the world’s knowledge; all else the world can quantify, understand, put in a lab, but people clinging to a crucified man, that the world will never understand. It can only know, it can only understand, by becoming as you are, one of all the saints. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” See the Father’s love, the love that He has for you, a love the world cannot understand or comprehend, a love the world does not know. But you know this love, for you have heard the Word proclaimed to you: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You have heard the declaration, as water was poured over your head, that you are now a child of God; that is what God has called you, that is what He has said about you at the font.
You are called a child of God, all the saints are called children of God, and these are no empty words. These are God’s words. Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The Word of God does what it says. You are called a child of God, and so you are, His Word makes it happen. It is reality, not a pious wish, not an uncertain hope, but reality. You are a child of God; that is who you are, that is what you have become. God said it, and it is true. God said it, and He doesn’t lie, He doesn’t deceive. Your identity is as sure and certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as sure and as certain as the empty tomb.
“The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now.” The world doesn’t know you, for you have become something the world can never understand: a child of God. It doesn’t know Jesus, it refuses to know His resurrection, and so it doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know all the saints. The world scoffs at even calling you, or anyone else in the Church, living or dead, saints. The term ‘saint’ in our world today has come to means a person who is morally upright, who does good deeds incessantly, who acts in kindness toward all. And the world laughs at the notion that the Church could then ever be called the assembly of all the saints. The world sees our sin, it sees our wretchedness; it has encouraged it, it has led us from sin to sin. The world knows just how dirty we are, how filthy we make ourselves, it can even make some good guesses about the sins you think you have kept safely hidden.
All Saint’s Day seems like a joke, a lie, that the Church could somehow corner the market on sainthood. All Hypocrites’ Day seems more accurate, more true to life; the world calls us out on our pretending, our playacting, our hypocrisy. And we know that the world speaks the truth. When we examine our lives, we see very little that is ‘saintly,’ at least as the world defines that term. But the true definition of ‘saint’ isn’t about moral perfection and piles of good works. Those who are true saints, all the saints we commemorate today, are those who have been declared so by the Word of God. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” You are a saint, you one of all the saints, not because you do not sin, but because you are forgiven, because you are covered with the blood of Jesus.
You are a child of God now; that is your present reality, that is true because it has been declared to you, and God’s Word does what it says. You know this, it is certain and true, an anchor in this world of sin. It is especially true when you approach that time that all the saints must pass through: death. The world laughs at All Saint’s Day, it scoffs at our commemoration of those who are dead. The world can show us the graves, it can take us to the bones, it knows just as well as you do, that death is inevitable, it is inescapable. All the saints are dead, they’re gone, no more. Whether it is Peter or Paul, Augustine or Luther, or people closer to home, like Moe, Wally, Harold, or Danielle, the world simply proclaims reality to us: they’re all dead, and one day you will be too.
And we must admit once again that the world is right; certainly, all the saints who have gone before us remain in the grave, certainly the grave is our destination, too. In the face of death, we too shudder, we too fear its coming. But the one mystery that the world can never solve gives us hope, a sure and certain hope: the grave of Jesus is empty; He has been raised from the dead. And because He has been raised from the dead, so all those who belong to Him, all those who have been declared children of God through His shed blood, now live with Him, even though they died, and will one day be raised with Him. The world doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know all the saints, because it doesn’t know the resurrection. It searches for His body, but that body will never be found, for what the angels said on Easter remains true today: “He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.” Christ is risen, and all the saints will rise. Christ is risen, and all the saints who died in Him live. The world sees a dead man on the cross; we see the One who was crucified in our place rising in victory, the proof and guarantee that death will not hold us either.
That is the death and resurrection you were baptized into, and your present identity is the pledge of your future reality. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Now we are saints not yet in glory, now we are saints who have the promise of resurrection. We are God’s children right now, at this very moment, possessors of an inheritance that Saint John hesitates to even try to describe in detail. Know, dear friends, that we will be like Christ, all the saints will imitate Him in His resurrection forever. We don’t see our inheritance with our physical eyes; the crown of glory and robes of Christ’s own blood-bought righteousness are invisible to us and to the world, and in fact what our eyes see is too often the opposite, but know that this inheritance belongs to you even now in this world of sin. And know what you will be: like Christ, seeing Him as He truly is to be seen, the glorified Son of God, enthroned in His splendor.
In this world, that reality is concealed, hidden from human eyes, but we have been given the very Word of the One who does not lie that this glory is ours, it is our possession right now because we are saints, because we have been called children of God, and thus we are. Jesus died for you and He rose for you, and He gives you a hope that is unshakable in this world of sin and death. “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” All the saints are those who hope in Christ, those who have been given the promise, the sure and certain guarantee that they are children of God. All the saints are those who are pure, not because they are sinless, but because they are forgiven, because they have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, shed for them upon the altar of the cross. All the saints will imitate Christ: as His grave was left empty behind Him, so shall the graves of all the saints, including yours and mine, be.
The world doesn’t know all the saints. It doesn’t know how they could hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. It doesn’t know how the sun could not strike them, nor any scorching heat. It doesn’t know how graves could be opened and the dead could be raised incorruptible. The world doesn’t know the saints because it doesn’t know the Lamb. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The slain Lamb will be our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd for eternity, shepherding all the saints to green pastures and quiet waters. In this world, you have mourning, but take heart, you will be comforted. In this world, you are poor in spirit, but take heart, you will receive the kingdom of heaven. In this world you are meek, but take heart, you will inherit the world. In this world, you hunger and thirst for righteousness, but take heart, you will be satisfied. In this world, you will be persecuted, but take heart, you will receive the kingdom of heaven. In this world, you are pure in heart through your baptism into Christ, and take heart, you will see God. You will see Him face to face, as the saints of old did, and you will see Your Savior as He is, for you will be like Him. You know this, this is your sure and certain hope; what the world doesn’t know, you do: you know your present identity as a child of God through your baptism into Christ, and you know your future reality reflecting the glory of Christ in imitation of Him. “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
The world doesn’t know you, it doesn’t understand you, it doesn’t get you. If it did, it would be like you are, but as it refused to have anything to do with Jesus, it refuses to have anything to do with you. Christ and all the saints is a huge hole in the world’s knowledge; all else the world can quantify, understand, put in a lab, but people clinging to a crucified man, that the world will never understand. It can only know, it can only understand, by becoming as you are, one of all the saints. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” See the Father’s love, the love that He has for you, a love the world cannot understand or comprehend, a love the world does not know. But you know this love, for you have heard the Word proclaimed to you: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You have heard the declaration, as water was poured over your head, that you are now a child of God; that is what God has called you, that is what He has said about you at the font.
You are called a child of God, all the saints are called children of God, and these are no empty words. These are God’s words. Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The Word of God does what it says. You are called a child of God, and so you are, His Word makes it happen. It is reality, not a pious wish, not an uncertain hope, but reality. You are a child of God; that is who you are, that is what you have become. God said it, and it is true. God said it, and He doesn’t lie, He doesn’t deceive. Your identity is as sure and certain as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as sure and as certain as the empty tomb.
“The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now.” The world doesn’t know you, for you have become something the world can never understand: a child of God. It doesn’t know Jesus, it refuses to know His resurrection, and so it doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know all the saints. The world scoffs at even calling you, or anyone else in the Church, living or dead, saints. The term ‘saint’ in our world today has come to means a person who is morally upright, who does good deeds incessantly, who acts in kindness toward all. And the world laughs at the notion that the Church could then ever be called the assembly of all the saints. The world sees our sin, it sees our wretchedness; it has encouraged it, it has led us from sin to sin. The world knows just how dirty we are, how filthy we make ourselves, it can even make some good guesses about the sins you think you have kept safely hidden.
All Saint’s Day seems like a joke, a lie, that the Church could somehow corner the market on sainthood. All Hypocrites’ Day seems more accurate, more true to life; the world calls us out on our pretending, our playacting, our hypocrisy. And we know that the world speaks the truth. When we examine our lives, we see very little that is ‘saintly,’ at least as the world defines that term. But the true definition of ‘saint’ isn’t about moral perfection and piles of good works. Those who are true saints, all the saints we commemorate today, are those who have been declared so by the Word of God. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” You are a saint, you one of all the saints, not because you do not sin, but because you are forgiven, because you are covered with the blood of Jesus.
You are a child of God now; that is your present reality, that is true because it has been declared to you, and God’s Word does what it says. You know this, it is certain and true, an anchor in this world of sin. It is especially true when you approach that time that all the saints must pass through: death. The world laughs at All Saint’s Day, it scoffs at our commemoration of those who are dead. The world can show us the graves, it can take us to the bones, it knows just as well as you do, that death is inevitable, it is inescapable. All the saints are dead, they’re gone, no more. Whether it is Peter or Paul, Augustine or Luther, or people closer to home, like Moe, Wally, Harold, or Danielle, the world simply proclaims reality to us: they’re all dead, and one day you will be too.
And we must admit once again that the world is right; certainly, all the saints who have gone before us remain in the grave, certainly the grave is our destination, too. In the face of death, we too shudder, we too fear its coming. But the one mystery that the world can never solve gives us hope, a sure and certain hope: the grave of Jesus is empty; He has been raised from the dead. And because He has been raised from the dead, so all those who belong to Him, all those who have been declared children of God through His shed blood, now live with Him, even though they died, and will one day be raised with Him. The world doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know all the saints, because it doesn’t know the resurrection. It searches for His body, but that body will never be found, for what the angels said on Easter remains true today: “He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.” Christ is risen, and all the saints will rise. Christ is risen, and all the saints who died in Him live. The world sees a dead man on the cross; we see the One who was crucified in our place rising in victory, the proof and guarantee that death will not hold us either.
That is the death and resurrection you were baptized into, and your present identity is the pledge of your future reality. “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Now we are saints not yet in glory, now we are saints who have the promise of resurrection. We are God’s children right now, at this very moment, possessors of an inheritance that Saint John hesitates to even try to describe in detail. Know, dear friends, that we will be like Christ, all the saints will imitate Him in His resurrection forever. We don’t see our inheritance with our physical eyes; the crown of glory and robes of Christ’s own blood-bought righteousness are invisible to us and to the world, and in fact what our eyes see is too often the opposite, but know that this inheritance belongs to you even now in this world of sin. And know what you will be: like Christ, seeing Him as He truly is to be seen, the glorified Son of God, enthroned in His splendor.
In this world, that reality is concealed, hidden from human eyes, but we have been given the very Word of the One who does not lie that this glory is ours, it is our possession right now because we are saints, because we have been called children of God, and thus we are. Jesus died for you and He rose for you, and He gives you a hope that is unshakable in this world of sin and death. “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” All the saints are those who hope in Christ, those who have been given the promise, the sure and certain guarantee that they are children of God. All the saints are those who are pure, not because they are sinless, but because they are forgiven, because they have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, shed for them upon the altar of the cross. All the saints will imitate Christ: as His grave was left empty behind Him, so shall the graves of all the saints, including yours and mine, be.
The world doesn’t know all the saints. It doesn’t know how they could hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. It doesn’t know how the sun could not strike them, nor any scorching heat. It doesn’t know how graves could be opened and the dead could be raised incorruptible. The world doesn’t know the saints because it doesn’t know the Lamb. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The slain Lamb will be our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd for eternity, shepherding all the saints to green pastures and quiet waters. In this world, you have mourning, but take heart, you will be comforted. In this world, you are poor in spirit, but take heart, you will receive the kingdom of heaven. In this world you are meek, but take heart, you will inherit the world. In this world, you hunger and thirst for righteousness, but take heart, you will be satisfied. In this world, you will be persecuted, but take heart, you will receive the kingdom of heaven. In this world, you are pure in heart through your baptism into Christ, and take heart, you will see God. You will see Him face to face, as the saints of old did, and you will see Your Savior as He is, for you will be like Him. You know this, this is your sure and certain hope; what the world doesn’t know, you do: you know your present identity as a child of God through your baptism into Christ, and you know your future reality reflecting the glory of Christ in imitation of Him. “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.” In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Saint Simon and Saint Jude (John 15:17-21)
“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon as we commemorate the apostles Saint Simon and Saint Jude, is the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John. Dear friends in Christ: love one another, that is Jesus’ request, His command to all who will follow after Him. Love one another, for the world will give you only hatred. “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” Love one another, bear one another’s burdens, sustain one another in the midst of a world that hates you all. You, dear friends, are Christ’s gifts to each other, given to love one another even unto death. Tradition has it that Saint Simon and Saint Jude, after having preached the Gospel in many and various places, journeyed together to Persia to proclaim the resurrection of Christ in that place, and there they were martyred together. “These things I command you,” Jesus said, “so that you love one another.” They loved one another as Christian brothers even unto death, they did not face the evil of this world on their own, but with the promise of Christ and the love of a brother Christian, they suffered even death for their Lord. They showed to each other the very love that Christ showed them, as they faced the very hatred that Christ endured.
We should not be surprised that the world hates us; it should come as no shock, no great mystery to those who have heard the Gospels, those who have read of Christ’s passion. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” Christ was sent into this world, to fallen humanity, not to destroy us, not to bring God’s judgment upon our heads, not to condemn us to hell. We were doing a good job of bringing God’s judgment upon us without Jesus’ help. Instead, He came as our Savior, to spare us from the judgment we deserved. He came to show us love, to love the unlovable, to comfort the mourning, to fill the hungry and thirsty with His righteousness, to give the meek and humble the inheritance of a cleansed and purified new heavens and new earth. He came to love. But the world showed Him only hatred. He came to raise this world out of the prison house of sin and death, and it delivered its redeemer to be scourged. He came to conquer this world’s enemies, and it delivered Him to those who persecuted Him. He fed this world with His Word and refreshed it with living water, and it gave Him gall and vinegar to drink.
But Christ did not despair. When He came to save, when He came in love, He found only hatred. But He did not for that reason give up His task of salvation, He did not at that moment change from a loving Savior to a wrathful destroyer, wiping humanity from the earth. He knew that the hatred of this world was not simply hatred of Him, but hatred of His Father. “They do not know Him who sent me.” Hatred of Jesus means hatred of God, hatred of the Creator. When they put Jesus to death, they were crucifying God, they were committing an incredible, almost unthinkable act of rebellion against their Creator. He came to give life, and they chose death, He came to deliver from hell, and this world desired the flames of judgment more than the glories of heaven. But Jesus didn’t for this reason give up on fallen man, He didn’t simply ascend into heaven and leave us to deal with our sin on our own. He submitted to the hatred of this world, He in humility delivered Himself into their murderous designs. He faced the blows, the scourge, the whip, and the cross because the hatred of this world did not diminish His love, and in love, He gave up His life into death for the sin of the world. He used the hatred of this world to save this world, to bring life and immortality to light.
Salvation has been won, despite and through the hatred of this world, but this world wants nothing to do with it; as it hated Jesus before and during His crucifixion, so they still hate Him after He has been raised. And in its hatred, this world will die eternally for sin that has been paid for and forgiven, it will face the judgement from which it has been released. In self-destructive hatred, this world will remain on death row when the doors have been burst open. But from the mass of hatred that fills this world, His Gospel call goes out, and many believe. He chose you out of this world, a world destined for destruction, when He preached the Gospel to you, when He baptized you into His Name. Rejoice, dear friends, rejoice in the hatred of the world. Rejoice that the world hates you, because if you belonged to this world, it would show you only love. “If you were of this world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Dear friends, if the world loved you, you would have the same destination as the world: hell. But because the world hates you, rejoice, for you are not of the world. You are loved by Christ, and He chose you out of this world, so that you will not have this world’s destiny, or its penalty.
Do not despair, do not become callous. When the Gospel is met with indifference, with apathy, or with murderous hatred, we are tempted to give up. Indeed, that is precisely what the world is earnestly desiring. It wants you to give up, to go home, to be quiet and to speak no longer in Christ’s Name. But if Christ had done that, you and I would be lost. If He would’ve left this world when He faced its hatred instead of going the cross, you and I would still be in our sins. If He would’ve taken His Church out of this world when she was sorely attacked again and again, you and I would never have been baptized, or heard of the forgiveness of our sins, so that we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would believe. Do not lose hope, do not cease speaking of Christ, do not stop doing good to your neighbor, for you bear the hatred of the world for the sake of Christ. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” If your proclamation and service brings forth one believing neighbor, or even if you manage to raise one believing child, rejoice. And if you see more fruit than that, count yourself especially blessed. “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my Word, they will also keep yours.” The one who strikes the Master will not show kindness to the servant; the Head cannot wear a crown of thorns while the body reclines in comfort and luxury. This world is not persecuting you, it is persecuting Christ. Let it scorn and sneer today, let it rage all it wants. Let this world take everything from us, even our lives. The day will come when it discovers what its fate and what ours will be. We know what our verdict is, but on that Day, the world will hear an unbearable sentence.
We should not be surprised that the world hates us; it should come as no shock, no great mystery to those who have heard the Gospels, those who have read of Christ’s passion. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” Christ was sent into this world, to fallen humanity, not to destroy us, not to bring God’s judgment upon our heads, not to condemn us to hell. We were doing a good job of bringing God’s judgment upon us without Jesus’ help. Instead, He came as our Savior, to spare us from the judgment we deserved. He came to show us love, to love the unlovable, to comfort the mourning, to fill the hungry and thirsty with His righteousness, to give the meek and humble the inheritance of a cleansed and purified new heavens and new earth. He came to love. But the world showed Him only hatred. He came to raise this world out of the prison house of sin and death, and it delivered its redeemer to be scourged. He came to conquer this world’s enemies, and it delivered Him to those who persecuted Him. He fed this world with His Word and refreshed it with living water, and it gave Him gall and vinegar to drink.
But Christ did not despair. When He came to save, when He came in love, He found only hatred. But He did not for that reason give up His task of salvation, He did not at that moment change from a loving Savior to a wrathful destroyer, wiping humanity from the earth. He knew that the hatred of this world was not simply hatred of Him, but hatred of His Father. “They do not know Him who sent me.” Hatred of Jesus means hatred of God, hatred of the Creator. When they put Jesus to death, they were crucifying God, they were committing an incredible, almost unthinkable act of rebellion against their Creator. He came to give life, and they chose death, He came to deliver from hell, and this world desired the flames of judgment more than the glories of heaven. But Jesus didn’t for this reason give up on fallen man, He didn’t simply ascend into heaven and leave us to deal with our sin on our own. He submitted to the hatred of this world, He in humility delivered Himself into their murderous designs. He faced the blows, the scourge, the whip, and the cross because the hatred of this world did not diminish His love, and in love, He gave up His life into death for the sin of the world. He used the hatred of this world to save this world, to bring life and immortality to light.
Salvation has been won, despite and through the hatred of this world, but this world wants nothing to do with it; as it hated Jesus before and during His crucifixion, so they still hate Him after He has been raised. And in its hatred, this world will die eternally for sin that has been paid for and forgiven, it will face the judgement from which it has been released. In self-destructive hatred, this world will remain on death row when the doors have been burst open. But from the mass of hatred that fills this world, His Gospel call goes out, and many believe. He chose you out of this world, a world destined for destruction, when He preached the Gospel to you, when He baptized you into His Name. Rejoice, dear friends, rejoice in the hatred of the world. Rejoice that the world hates you, because if you belonged to this world, it would show you only love. “If you were of this world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” Dear friends, if the world loved you, you would have the same destination as the world: hell. But because the world hates you, rejoice, for you are not of the world. You are loved by Christ, and He chose you out of this world, so that you will not have this world’s destiny, or its penalty.
Do not despair, do not become callous. When the Gospel is met with indifference, with apathy, or with murderous hatred, we are tempted to give up. Indeed, that is precisely what the world is earnestly desiring. It wants you to give up, to go home, to be quiet and to speak no longer in Christ’s Name. But if Christ had done that, you and I would be lost. If He would’ve left this world when He faced its hatred instead of going the cross, you and I would still be in our sins. If He would’ve taken His Church out of this world when she was sorely attacked again and again, you and I would never have been baptized, or heard of the forgiveness of our sins, so that we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would believe. Do not lose hope, do not cease speaking of Christ, do not stop doing good to your neighbor, for you bear the hatred of the world for the sake of Christ. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” If your proclamation and service brings forth one believing neighbor, or even if you manage to raise one believing child, rejoice. And if you see more fruit than that, count yourself especially blessed. “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my Word, they will also keep yours.” The one who strikes the Master will not show kindness to the servant; the Head cannot wear a crown of thorns while the body reclines in comfort and luxury. This world is not persecuting you, it is persecuting Christ. Let it scorn and sneer today, let it rage all it wants. Let this world take everything from us, even our lives. The day will come when it discovers what its fate and what ours will be. We know what our verdict is, but on that Day, the world will hear an unbearable sentence.
The love the world shows its own is fleeting; it will all evaporate on that terrible and glorious Day. The love that Christ’s shows you is eternal, it even reaches beyond the grave, and no one or nothing can take it away from you. The world did not conquer Christ; He rose again in victory on the third day, unable to be contained even by the grave, and neither will this world conquer you. His love is indestructible. And it is that same love that we are to show to one another. “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” We do not love one another as the world loves its own; we love one another as Christ loves us. We love one another because if the world hates us, and Christ promises us that it will, then we need the mutual conversation and consolation of one another to help us to endure. That is one important reason why we gather together in congregations, why we assemble as a group in worship. Christ does not choose out from the world any ‘free agent Christians,’ but He puts us in community, for the good of one another. You are certainly in worship first and foremost to receive the gifts of Christ, but you are also here for each other. And living in the love of Christ means you are forgiven when you fail to show love to one another, and that you forgive others when their love fails. You are here to love one another, even, if necessary, like Saint Simon and Saint Jude, unto death. “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.” The world shows hatred, we show love, the very love of Christ Himself. In His Name, Amen.
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