Twenty-third Sunday after
Pentecost (Proper 28C)
November 16, 2025
Text:
Luke 21:5-36
“Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33; ESV).
Do you see all the things passing
away in our Gospel? The Temple, the
House of God in all its majesty. The
nations. Creation itself. Those who bear the Name of Christ, martyred
for their confession. The Holy City,
Jerusalem. The earth overcome by the
sea. The heavens shaken. These are the signs. The Day is coming. The Day of Judgment, and Christ’s appearing. St. Peter writes, “the day of the Lord
will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and
the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the
works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10). He then asks the pertinent question: “Since
all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be”
(v. 11)?
Well, what do you think? What about you, specifically? What sort of person ought you to be? What ought to be your essence? Not only your core, but the very substance of
who you are? How ought you to order your
priorities, your resources, your time?
What is important to you? What do
you live for? How much of your energy,
your income, your anxiety, are you investing in the things that are passing
away? What are the things that
last? What will not pass away? And what impact does that have on your
day-to-day life?
The Day is coming. When we believe this, and hold that Day
before our eyes, it has this way of setting our days, and our lives, and all
that is ours… in fact, our very thoughts and emotions, our very being… in order. Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus
says. That means all that is now
available to your five fallen senses. So
what sense does it make to live for those things? Whatever they are… money, pleasure, power,
relaxation, recreation… all good, but all are passing away, and if you live for
them, you will die in them. Safey,
security, comfort, health… same thing.
The things you are worried about, the grudges you hold, your bitterness
toward any person, or any thing… these are passing away, too. So, why not let go of all that?
Because there is one thing that will
not pass away: The Word of Jesus Christ.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
The Word of the Lord endures forever,
Peter writes (1 Peter 1:25). So what
sort of people ought you to be?
Those who know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word
that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). As you wait for the Lord’s appearing, listen
for, and hang upon, His every Word. His Word gives you life. His Word gives you the Spirit. His Word gives you faith in Jesus Christ,
and sustains you in that faith.
His Word gives you Jesus Himself, who is the Word made flesh. And so, His Word gives you redemption,
the forgiveness of sins, and justification, righteousness before God,
and so, eternal salvation.
So that, of course, means always
availing yourself of the Word at every opportunity. Coming to Church. (You’ll have plenty of opportunity for that
in the coming Advent Season.) Reading
the Scriptures at home. Praying the
Scriptures. Talking about the Scriptures
with your family. Teaching the
Scriptures to your children. It means
Bible Study. Be there, beloved. Sunday School for the kids. It means devotions. And it also means living by the visible,
tangible Word of God as He gives that Word in His Sacraments: Baptism,
Absolution, the Lord’s Supper.
And then, let that Word captivate
you. Meditate upon it. We get meditation wrong in Twenty-first
Century America. We’ve been duped by the
Eastern religions, to think that meditation is an emptying of the mind. The mind cannot be emptied, beloved. An empty mind is a vacuum. Guess who will fill it if you empty it of the
good stuff. Satan and the demons. Remember, Jesus teaches us about demons
finding houses empty, swept, and in good order.
They love to take up occupancy.
So don’t do that. Instead, fill your
mind (and your heart and soul) with
God’s Word. Memorize the Word. Ponder the Word, and treasure it in your
heart, like Mary, the Mother of our Lord, who pondered all these things and
treasured them in her heart. Turn it
over in your mind. Like a cow chewing
the cud, ruminate upon it.
And then live by it. Put it into action. Believe what it says, and do
what it says. Order your whole life and
being according to it. Not just most
of your life. All of your
life. Because whatever is not ordered
according to the Word of the Lord will pass away. It leads to death. But whatever is ordered according to
the Word of the Lord, is ordered rightly, and serves for your life, and
for your blessing. Because that Word
applies the blood and death of Christ to your life, and all the things in your
life, to redeem your life, and all the things in your life. And that Word breathes the resurrection life
of the risen Lord into you, and upon you, and upon all the things in your life,
so that you live His life.
So, Peter answers his own question
(what sort of people ought you to be?) without even taking a breath. “(W)hat sort of people ought you to be,”
he says, “in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the
coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and
dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting
for new heavens and a new earth,” a resurrection heavens and earth, “in
which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:11-13). What sort of people ought you to be? Those who live lives of holiness and
godliness, waiting eagerly and patiently for that great Day.
St. Paul answers the question, too,
right here in our Epistle. What sort of
people ought you to be? How about
this? Those whose hearts are directed to
the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ. Loved and loving. Recipients of Christ’s faithfulness,
therefore faithful to Christ. And how
about this? Imitators of the Apostles,
and so of Christ. Working quietly, so as
not to be a burden, but eager to help, eager to serve, eager to take up the
burdens of others. Not walking in
idleness, and not busybodies, but busy with the business of God’s love. Not growing weary in doing good. That’s what sort of people you ought to be.
The point is, live your life,
fully and faithfully, here and now, in light of the Lord’s coming. Read the signs. They are all around you. Destruction and decay. False messiahs, false christs, those who
claim they can save you if you only vote for them, or devote yourself to
them. Nation against nation. Kingdom against kingdom. Earthquakes, famines, and pestilences. Persecutions.
They happen. They are happening,
and continue to happen, and they are always signs that Christ is on the
move. He is coming. We will see Him soon.
There are always signs in the
heaven, too. In sun and moon and starts. Frankly, some of them are pretty cool, like
the Northern Lights with which God has favored us in recent nights. Or eclipses, or comets, or meteor
showers. These, I suppose, are more or
less routine. We take them for
granted. We shouldn’t. But get a load of what Josephus (a first
century Jewish historian) says happened, just before the sack of Jerusalem in
AD 70 (when, by the way, every stone of the Temple was thrown down, in
fulfillment Jesus’ Word): He says an ominous star resembling a sword appeared
over the city, along with a comet that lasted a whole year.[1] That was a sign of the Lord’s Judgment over
Jerusalem. And we shouldn’t be surprised
by this. A star greeted our Lord’s
birth. Perhaps a star will indicate our
Lord’s coming again in glory.
Maybe. Maybe not. (Don’t get weird on me, and make prophecies!) But the point is, signs in the heavens, you
bet. Then Josephus records some other weird
signs prior to the Temple’s demise. A
great light shone from the altar for half an hour, he says, making the night as
bright as the day. A sacrificial heifer
gave birth to a lamb on her way to sacrifice.
The great eastern gate of the Temple’s inner court, difficult for twenty
men to open and close, apparently opened of its own accord (well, we know it
was God, or the holy angels). A few days
later, he says, chariots and troops of soldiers appeared in the clouds (just
prior to the arrival of the Roman troops on the ground). Then, on the Day of Pentecost, the priests
heard a great noise, like a multitude, saying, “Let us remove from hence.” It’s like the scene in Ezekiel, when the
Glory of God departs from the Temple (Ez. 10).
Whose voice sounds like a multitude?
God’s does. Our Triune God was
leaving the place. Now, Josephus is not
a Christian. So, when he talks about
these signs, he’s not trying to vindicate the Lord. He believes he’s just reporting what
happened. But here our Lord’s Words
prove true. As they always do. Heaven and earth are passing away. But the Word of Jesus never passes away.
So, when these things begin to
take place, Jesus says, what?
Cower in fear? Despair? (Some will be despairing, when Jesus
comes, but let it never be us, beloved in the Lord. Believers in Christ have no reason, ever, to
despair.) What does He say? “(S)traighten up and raise your heads”
(Luke 21:28). Why? “(B)ecause your redemption is drawing near.”
What matters, ultimately, in this
life? Being in Christ. And so, being in His Word. That’s it.
What is distracting you from that?
What cares of this life are weighing you down? Put it all away. Get rid of it. It is leading you to death. All of it is passing away, anyway. You see the signs, as things wear out, and
everything decays, and disappears. In
the midst of all that, keep your eyes on Jesus. You know this. And then, order everything accordingly. Love your neighbor. Work hard, as working for the Lord. Live faithfully in your vocations. And wait for, and hasten, the Day of the
Lord’s coming. Beloved, Jesus is coming
soon. We live for that Day. Stay awake.
Keep watch. And join the Church
as she ever prays: “Amen. Come, Lord
Jesus. Come quickly.” He will.
He is. Jesus is coming soon. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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