Last Sunday of the Church Year

Last Sunday of the Church Year (Proper 29B)

November 24, 2024

Text: Mark 13:24-37

            “‘Wake, awake, for night is flying,’ The watchmen on the heights are crying; ‘Awake, Jerusalem,’” Church of God, “‘arise!’” (LSB 516:1).  Because the Son of Man is coming.  He is coming soon.  All will see Him, coming in clouds with power and great glory.  We are living in the Last Days.  Now is not the time to yield to spiritual drowsiness, the drooping eyelids and nodding heads.  Stay awake.  Watch and pray.  The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Satan is singing his lullaby.  The world is lulling you to sleep.  And you become complacent.  Wake up.  You’ve been dreaming and snoring.  The things you think are important are really just distractions.  If you really believe, as you say you do, that Christ is coming to judge the living and the dead, and that it could happen at any moment, then that ought to order your whole life.  Christ should be your all in all, all-consuming.  And everything else, from your opinions on world affairs, to your favorite sports team, to your morning cup of coffee, should find its place in Him.

            Your priority is not living the American Dream.  It is not providing for a cushy retirement (Look, I have high hopes for retirement someday, and retirement is a good gift of God, but you realize, right, that in comparison with the rest of your life, and especially in comparison with eternity, your golden years are all too few).  Your priority is not comfort.  It certainly isn’t money or things (even the most secular among us expend an awful lot of energy denying that material wealth is a priority, because we know instinctively that it shouldn’t be.  But here in Christ’s Church, we’re honest with ourselves and with God about our sins and idols, because that is the only path to forgiveness, healing, and life.  Repentance.  Confession.  That we may receive the Absolution.  And so, repent of it, confess it, and be forgiven of it).  Your priority is not your hobbies.  It’s not even your career or your education, as noble as those pursuits may be.  In fact, it’s not even your family.  Not first and foremost.  The priority is Christ.  Because in Christ, all of those other things… many more than I’ve listed… find their place in God’s good order.  To hold any of those things as a priority before or above Christ, or apart from Christ, is to put everything else in your life into disorder and disarray.  It’s idolatry, is what it is.  And mark my word on this: All of the brokenness in your life… all of it… comes from this disordering.  In other words, from sin and its consequences.  The fallenness of the world.  The fallenness of the body.  And so, this is not an issue to be put on the back burner, something to be dealt with later.  Christ is coming, but you don’t really think He is.  You’ve fallen into sleepy self-security.  Well… the time has come for you to wake up. 

            This is what will happen.  As in the days before Noah entered the Ark, the world will turn as it always has.  The sun will rise and set.  People will eat and drink, marry and give in marriage.  Life will go on as it always does.  When, all at once, the trumpet will sound.  The heavens will be rent asunder.  The Old Creation will be unmade.  We have a vivid description of that in our Holy Gospel.  Sun and moon darkened.  Stars falling from heaven.  The heavens themselves shaken.  And then, the Son.  The Lord Jesus Christ, in glory, with the holy angels.  Every eye will see Him.  Even those who pierced Him.  Because the dead will come out of their graves.  The books will be opened.  The Judgment will commence.  And those who are in Christ will enter into life with Him, in the Creation made New.  But those who are not in Christ, the unbelievers, will enter into eternal damnation.

            Now… don’t believe it will happen in your lifetime?  Read the signs, says Jesus.  When the fig tree puts out its leaves, you know the summer is near.  When you see the signs we heard about last week… false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions, etc. … you know that He is near, at the very gates.

            Don’t believe it will happen in your lifetime?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Jesus could come at any moment, and the fact that He has delayed His coming is only evidence of His patience and longsuffering.  He has given us a time of grace for His Church to proclaim the Gospel, and for unbelievers to hear, and so believe, because He does not desire the death of a sinner, but that the sinner should turn from His evil ways, and live (Ez. 33:11).  But even if He doesn’t come in your lifetime, He will come for you.  Never forget that.  Memento mori, remember your death.  “O LORD, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days,” we prayed in the Introit; “let me know how fleeting I am!” (Ps. 39:4; ESV).  Judgment Day is the public proclamation of our Lord’s verdict over you.  But unless that Day comes first, you will meet Him on the day you die.  And that will be the day of your judgment.  Righteous in Christ by faith, and therefore a recipient of His gift of eternal life.  Or unrighteous apart from Christ, and therefore sentenced to eternal death in hell.  You do not know the day or hour of the Lord’s coming, and neither do you know the day or hour of your death.  Therefore, stay awake.  Watch.  And pray. 

            Don’t believe it will happen in your lifetime?  No one knows the day or hour.  Not you.  Not the angels.  Not even Christ in His state of humiliation, when He did not always or fully use His divine powers.  Certainly not the false prophets who predict the day or hour, claiming some special knowledge or ability to “crack the code.”  Only the Father knows.  And His knowing is perfect.  He knows the very moment, just right, for Jesus’ coming.  It could be yet today.  It may be generations down the line.  But in terms of God’s charge to you, it doesn’t matter.  You… stay awake.

            And how?  Jude, our Lord’s brother, gives us some very practical advice.  First and foremost, “build yourselves up in your most holy faith” (v. 20); that is, be edified.  How?  You know.  It’s not actually that hard.  Be in Church.  Hear the Word.  Receive the Sacrament.  Be grounded in your Baptism.  Repent and receive the Absolution.  Bible Class.  Sunday School.  The gathering of the saints.  The Bible in your home.  The means of grace, beloved, Word and Sacrament.  Hold fast to Christ’s Words.  His Words make the eternal difference.  “Heaven and earth will pass away,” says the Lord, “but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31).  Pray in the Spirit, Jude says.  Keep yourselves in the love of God, which can mean one of two things, both true… Keep yourselves in God’s love for you, by always pondering it and believing it.  You do that by keeping your eyes on Christ, and your ears on His Word.  Or, keep yourselves in your love for God, which is the result of God’s love for you.  And then, wait patiently in that love for the Lord Jesus to appear in His mercy, which leads to eternal life.  Then, Jude says, have mercy on one another.  Help each other stay awake.  Encourage those who doubt… put the courage into them by speaking Christ into them, the courage of those who know the Lord is coming.  Snatch others out of the fire; that is, rescue those who are falling into temptation, into damaging and faith-destroying sin.  To others, show mercy with fear; that is, the tender balance between patience and compassion for those who have gone astray, all the while watching lest you fall into the same snare.  And, very helpful in our day, Jude says, “hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (v. 23).  Loving the one who has sinned enough to hate their sins, call them to repentance for their sins, and yes, forgive their sins.  That is snatching them out of the fire.

            So… stay awake!  And help your neighbor stay awake.  But, so also, rejoice.  For you who are in Christ, Judgment Day is not a Day you have to dread.  In fact, you pray for its coming, the Church’s Marana Tha!  “Come, Lord Jesus,” we pray at our tables.  “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus,” we pray at the Lord’s Table (Rev. 22:20).  It is not simply a prayer for the Lord’s presence with us here and now, though it certainly is that.  It is a prayer for His coming in glory on the Last Day, to deliver us.  Or, as we say it in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come.”  We long for this Day.

            After all, who is it who is coming?  The One who gave Himself into the accursed death of the cross for you, to make atonement for all of your sins.  The One who is risen from the dead, and lives for you, to be your life, and reigns for you, to bring you into His life.  The One who comes for you here and now in His blessed Word and Sacrament, to speak Himself into you, wash away your sins, clothe you with Himself, and feed you with His risen body and blood.  And, don’t forget this… The One who has let the verdict of your judgment slip out ahead of time.  He lets it slip every time you hear the Words, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.” 

            We get so sleepy.  We are so easily overcome.  Thank God, this Lord Jesus, who is coming soon, keeps us in the meantime by His Spirit and His grace.  He comes to us, and He wakes us, just like He woke those three sleepy disciples in the garden in the midnight of His betrayal.  Attend to Him.  He attends to you.  Stay awake.  Watch and pray.  He gives you to do that very thing.  Jesus is your all in all. 

            “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen” (Jude 24-25).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.