Advent Midweek I

Advent Midweek I: Three Things That Make a Theologian: Oratio[1]

November 30, 2022

Text: Psalm 119:12-16, 26-27

            Maranatha!  An Aramaic word meaning, “Our Lord, come!”  Maranatha!  “Come, Lord Jesus.”  It is the Church’s Advent cry.  It is her oratio, her prayer.  We pray it often at the Christian Family Table, at the Feast of our Lord’s true body and blood.  The Pastor declares, in the words of St. Paul, “As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (LSB 162; cf. 1 Cor. 11:26).  And the people of God respond with the prayer of Revelation 22, the cry with which St. John closes the Bible: “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus” (LSB 162; Rev. 22:20; ESV).  Many of us pray these words at our own family meals, asking Jesus to be our Guest, to be with us, as we eat our daily bread.  But even more, we are asking Him to feed us with the Bread of Life and bring us at last into the fulness of the Heavenly Feast.  Advent means “coming.”  It is all about the Lord who comes… Who came in the flesh to be our Savior, who comes now in the flesh, to deliver His salvation to His Church, particularly in the context of the festive Meal, and who is coming again in the flesh, to bring our salvation to fulfillment.  And so, maranatha!  Our Lord, come.  Come, Lord Jesus.

            Luther says that there are three things that make a theologian (and by “theologian,” he means, simply, a Christian).  Oratio, prayer.  Meditatio, meditation on God’s Word.  And Tentatio, suffering.  Tonight, we take up the Church’s oratio.  We should think of prayer, not as a one-way conversation wherein we tell God what we think He needs to know and unveil for Him our wish list, but as a two-way conversation that begins with God’s speaking to us in His Word.  The introduction to the 1982 hymnal, Lutheran Worship, puts it best: “Our Lord speaks and we listen.  His Word bestows what it says.  Faith that is born from what is heard acknowledges the gifts received with eager thankfulness and praise… Saying back to him what he has said to us, we repeat what is most sure and true” (LW, p. 6).  In other words, our prayers don’t have their source in our own hearts (what a poor offering that would be), but in the heart of God, revealed in His Word.  His Word forms, and informs, our prayers, so that we pray with confidence that God will hear and answer.  You can think of prayer, actually, like breathing, like the breath of faith.  First, we inhale God’s Word.  Then, we exhale our petitions, prayers, and thanksgivings.  You can’t exhale if you don’t first inhale.  You can’t pray, you can’t speak to God, unless God first speaks to you.  And He does.

            And so, on that basis, you pray.  You call upon God in every trouble, as He invites you to do in His Word, and you know that He will deliver you, because that is what He promises, and so, you glorify Him with confession and praise.  The Church prays.  Christians pray.  We can’t help it.  If you don’t inhale, you can’t live.  And if you inhale, you can’t help but exhale.  So, oratio.  We cry out to God.  We pray in the midst of a chaotic and rebellious world: political upheaval, wars and rumors of wars, the celebration of godlessness and violence, and the persecution of Christ’s holy people.   We pray as our bodies decline and disintegrate: aches and pains, nearsightedness, and the common cold, all the way to cancer and stroke and the cold touch of death.  We pray in our brokenness, our own sin and guilt.  And the brokenness as it extends from us to others in hurting relationships and broken ties.  We pray in the midst of the devil’s accusations and lies, his whispered temptations and cackles of despair. 

            We pray in the face of all these things because God’s Name is on us (He has given us His Name for this very purpose, that we call upon it).  We pray because we are baptized into Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for all our sins, and who is risen from the dead.  We pray because, in Christ Jesus, God is our true Father, and we are His true children, and He tenderly invites us to come to Him with all boldness and confidence, as dear children ask their dear father (Cf. Small Catechism, Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer).  We pray as our Lord Jesus Himself has taught us: “Our Father,” we say (Matt. 6:9).  We pray like Abraham, who begged God for mercy in the matter of Sodom and Gomorrah, because he believed God’s Word and held Him to it, held God to His Promises, because he knew that God is merciful and just and would never perpetrate evil (Gen. 18:22-33).

            We also hold God to His Word, and we know He always keeps His Promises.  We know He is merciful and just, because… Jesus came.  At just the right time.  God sent forth His Son.  Born of a woman.  Born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law.  That we might receive adoption as sons.  And because we are sons, God sends the Spirit of His Son, Jesus, into our hearts, who cries out within us, “Abba, Father… Our Father who art in heaven” (Gal. 4:4-6).  God’s mercy and justice meet on the cross, where He punishes all our sins in the flesh of Jesus, and pours out forgiveness and mercy upon us poor sinners.  We know this because the crucified and risen Jesus still comes to us, continually, and at this very moment, in the preaching of His Word, and with His body and blood.  We pray that He would continue to come to us in this way.  That He would not withdraw His saving Word, but breathe it into us, delivering His Spirit and life, and so teaching us to pray.  Maranatha!  Come, dear Lord.  Come now and deliver us from all our afflictions.  Come in Your Word and gifts.  And come soon visibly, to deliver us fully and finally, in Judgment and Resurrection and New Creation.  All our faith and hope drive us toward that goal.  We long for that Day.  We live for that Day.  And so, as we wait, we pray.  Oratio. 

            Maranatha!  The Bible actually leaves us there in that prayer.  Revelation 22 (we probably should have had it as a reading this evening).  “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’” (v. 17).  The Holy Spirit guides the Church, the Bride of Christ, in her prayer that her Bridegroom come to her.  And then the people, the individuals in the Church, you… “let the one who hears say, ‘Come’”.  And then in the same breath, the same exhaling as the prayer, the invitation and confession of faith to others: “let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”  And the Lord Jesus responds with His Promise, the answer to our prayers: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon’” (v. 20).  And again, we pray, with joy and conviction: “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.” 

            “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all” (v. 21).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

             

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[1] The theme and many of the ideas in this sermon come from John T. Pless, “Midweek Advent Series: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio," in Pastor Craft (Irvine, CA: New Reformation, 2020) pp. 139-147.

First Sunday in Advent

First Sunday in Advent (A)

November 27, 2022

Text: Matt. 21:1-11

            The Lord Jesus Christ comes to you this morning, here, in this place, as surely as He came that day to the Palm Sunday crowd in Jerusalem.  Then, He rode upon a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey, the King who comes in peace and humility.  Now, He comes in Words and water, bread and wine, by humble means, the Son of David, the Son of God, to grant you peace.

            His peace.  Peace with God.  The peace of sins forgiven.  The peace of righteousness, life, and salvation.  Peace in the midst of sorrow.  Peace in the midst of pain.  Peace in the midst of turmoil and fear.  Peace even when your world is crumbling around you; even when you suffer violence; even when your body wears out and breaks down; even as creation groans in eager expectation of the revealing of the sons of God; and we, ourselves, groan with the help of the Spirit, who carries our prayers as incense before the throne of our Father in heaven.

            The Good News of Advent, which means coming, is that Jesus comes to us, God in human flesh, not to obliterate us in our sins and damn us to eternal death as we deserve, but to raise us up from death, to heal our brokenness, and give us eternal life in His Kingdom as dearly loved children of God. 

            That is why King Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, and not upon a steed.  Kings ride in on warhorses to conquer and enslave the people.  But when kings ride in in humility, it is to bring peace and blessing.  Solomon rode into Jerusalem on David’s mule, to usher in an age of peace and prosperity (1 Kings 1).  Jesus rides upon a meeker animal yet, to usher in eternal peace and prosperity.  Balaam’s donkey laid down under her burden in obedience to the Angel of the Lord.  She spoke God’s Law to Balaam, to warn him against the path of cursing, which leads to death (Num. 22).  Our Lord’s donkey carries Him into the Holy City in obedience to her Master and Creator.  She carries God on her back, who comes to His people with life and salvation.

            So our King comes to us here and now, riding in upon the meek vessels of His Word and Sacraments.  He does not ride in with a blaze of glory, to terrify us and punish us.  To be sure, He opens the mouth of His beast of burden to announce His holy Law from this pulpit, warning you against the way of cursing that leads to death.  That Word, please God, stops you dead in your sinful and rebellious tracks.  But this is to open your ears to the proclamation of His joyful tidings of life and peace.  Join Him on the road as He goes His way, the way of the cross, the way of resurrection, the way of your blessing and redemption.

            Then He rode into Jerusalem, knowing full well what would happen.  Jesus had shown His disciples “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matt. 16:21; ESV).  His disciples protested.  Suffer?  Be killed?  No, Jesus, raise an army and let’s go show those people Your power and set things right.  Peter even rebuked Him, “Far be it from you, Lord!   This shall never happen to you” (v. 22), this suffering and death business… Which merited for Peter the stinging reproach, “Get behind me, Satan!  You are hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (v. 23).  The things of man never include the cross.  And, as a result, they never include the resurrection.  The things of God come to fulfillment precisely through the cross.  The Son of God came in the flesh of men for this very purpose, to suffer and die for our salvation, and on the Third Day be raised.  And nothing, and no one, should hinder Him from His goal.  He does it for the joy that is set before Him, the joy of winning for Himself a Kingdom and bringing us into it.

            Now He rides into His Church, and He knows our own objections, the way we have in mind the things of man, rather than the things of God.  Our Lord’s death and resurrection for our salvation is accomplished fact, but here He would deliver the benefits of His saving work to us in Baptism, preaching, and Supper, in Scripture, and liturgy, and in the Communion of Saints.  But we think it’s all so mundane.  Routine.  Dull.  We’ve heard it all before.  We’ve done it all before.  Another Church Year, this First Sunday in Advent, and it’s the same old thing.  We want some fireworks.  Some manifestation of Jesus’ glory.  Excitement.  Spectacular experience.  Fire from heaven.  An army for the Lord, to show those people God’s power, and put sinners in their place.  And Jesus has to say to us, “Get behind Me, Satan!  You are hindering Me from delivering My gifts to you in the way that I have purposed to give them.”  The things of man never include such humble, mundane means.  It is all too ordinary for us.  But the things of God are delivered precisely through these mundane, ordinary means.  The Son of God comes among us in the flesh, to wash us clean from our sins in Baptism, and in Absolution, which is always a return to Baptism.  To bespeak us righteous in the preaching of His Gospel.  To feed us with His own crucified and risen body and blood in His Supper.  He comes among us here and now, in the flesh, for this very purpose, to enliven and strengthen us through these Gospel gifts.  And nothing, and no one, should hinder Him from His goal.  He does it for the joy that is set before Him, the joy of making us His own, to live under Him in His Kingdom, and to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

            See, He really is our Savior… from sin, absolutely, but if we’re not careful, we’ll turn that into too theoretical a term.  We don’t always stop to think about what that means, concretely.  He really is our Savior, come to save us… from all of this stuff to which sin has condemned us in this world and beyond.  All the stuff you read in the news.  All the stuff going on in your body, your mind, your heart, your soul, that brings about so much sadness, because it’s all so broken.  All the stuff between you and other people that is broken.  All the destruction.  All the rebellion.  All the bitterness and anger and vitriol that marks this fallen world, and is a foretaste of hell.  Jesus saves us from all of that.  In the nick of time.  He shows up on the scene.  He comes.  And He suffers all of it on the cross.  He suffers for all of it on the cross.  He sheds His blood for it on the cross.  And He covers it over with His blood, here and now, in His Word and Sacraments.  And He calls you to something better.  To follow Him on the way that leads through suffering and the cross, to be sure.  But to resurrection.  The way of faith.  The way of hope.  The way of love.  The way of Jesus Christ. 

            So, how should we greet Him, then, as He comes?  Like the Palm Sunday crowds, we should strip off and spread before Him our sin-stained cloaks… that is, we should “cast off the works of darkness” (Rom. 13:12): orgies, drunkenness, sexual immorality, sensuality, quarrelling, jealousy, and the like… the things St. Paul warns us against in our Epistle (v. 13).  And we should strew our palms before Him, the symbol of His victory and of new life… that is, faith!  We should “put on the armor of light” (v. 12)… “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 14) by Baptism and faith and immersion in His Word.  We should make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (v. 14), which is the old way of darkness and death.  Let Balaam’s braying beast talk you out of taking that road.  And we should make every provision for the new man, created anew in Christ Jesus… for gladly hearing and learning God’s Word, and receiving, at every opportunity, the precious Gospel gifts He gives us in His Word and in the holy Sacraments.  That is the new way the Lord has given us to go.  His way.  The way of life and light. 

            And with the Palm Sunday crowds, we should join the festal shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9).  “Hosanna,” that is, save us now!  And Psalm 118, the Passover Psalm, the Psalm Jesus fulfills in His Passion and Resurrection, the Psalm we sing in the Sanctus every time we gather around His altar to feast on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world: “Blessed is He who comes,” literally, in the flesh, under bread and wine, “in the Name of the Lord,” God’s own Son, bearing His Name, speaking for Him, making peace in His Name between heaven and earth, and bestowing that Name upon us: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We should take up that Name, and the One who comes in that Name, and cling to Him by faith for our very eternal lives. 

            Advent is all about preparation for receiving Jesus as He comes.  That means Christmas: He comes as a Baby into our flesh, to suffer and die for the forgiveness of our sins.  And, on the Third Day, to rise again.  And that means here in the Church, in the Means of Grace: He comes in Words and water and bread and wine, to deliver to us His life and salvation. 

            But there is yet another coming, we know, soon, when He will come, no longer in humility and meekness, but in glory with His holy angels, to judge the living and the dead.  But we know that because of Christmas, and because of His continual coming to us here, in His Church, that coming is tremendously Good News for us.  On that Day, He will raise us and all the dead, and give eternal life to us and all believers in Christ.  That is the destination to which this road is taking us as we follow Him… the visible coming again of Jesus Christ.  Well… we want to be ready.  So there is Advent.  Advent is the season of preparation for all three modes of His coming to us.  St. John the Baptist will lead us in this preparation over the next two Sundays by His preaching of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  And then there are the Advent midweek services, and the special devotions.  Beloved, I urge you not to neglect these opportunities for preparation and edification.  For in them, Jesus Christ Himself comes to you, in the flesh, to bring you His gifts of life and light.  Receive Him with joy.  Go to Church.  Read your Bible.  Live every moment in Him.  And rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.  Behold, your King, Jesus, is coming to you this very moment.  Righteous and having salvation.  Humble and mounted on bread and wine.  His true body.  His true blood.  He comes, Jesus comes, here and now, for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.               

Thanksgiving Eve

Eve of the National Day of Thanksgiving

November 23, 2022

Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-4

            The Second Commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God,”[1] is so much more than the prohibitions.  It is true, “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name.”  We should not use the Holy Name of God, or the Name of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, as an exclamation or a mindless interjection.  But we should use it.  Not to use God’s Name is as much a misuse as using it improperly.  Behind every prohibition in the Commandments is a gift from God to be used according to His will and purpose.  God’s Name is the gift behind the Second Commandment.  In Holy Baptism, God gives us His Name.  He places it upon us, writes it on our bodies.  And not so that we can put it up on a shelf somewhere, like some sort of relic, to be marveled at, but essentially left alone.  He wants us to use it.  So, how should we use it?  In the Small Catechism, Dr. Luther tells us, we should “call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.” 

            Our Epistle reading from St. Paul this evening is therefore an admonition to fulfill the Second Commandment.  “First of all,” he says, as a matter of first importance, “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings” should “be made for all people” (1 Tim. 2:1; ESV).  All people.  No exceptions.  So, what does this mean?  Pray!  Pray for all people and all things, everywhere, and always.  Pray for your own needs.  Pray for your family.  Pray for your pastor, your congregation, and your Church body.  Pray for those with whom you interact in your daily life, your friends, your colleagues, your neighbors, and acquaintances.  Invoke God’s Name on their behalf.  Speak their names before God, commending to God whatever troubles or needs you may know for which they need His help. 

            And this is true, also, for your enemies.  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus says (Matt. 5:44).  And if that is true for enemies who are out to get you, then it is certainly true for those who aren’t so much enemies, as maybe antagonists.  People you find difficult to deal with.  Maybe they drive you crazy.  Maybe they are insensitive, or say or do mean things to you.  Maybe they’ve hurt you, and your relationship with them is broken.  This is, perhaps, a good tip as we enter the season of holiday office parties and family gatherings.  Trust me on this, I’ve seen it myself… or better, trust God, because here He says it: Pray for them.  Pray that God would bless them.  Pray that God would help them.  Pray that God would heal whatever it is that is broken between you and that person.  You may just find that your antagonist turns, that their heart is changed toward you, that they treat you better, that they repent.  And you will most assuredly find that you turn, that your heart is changed toward them, so that you love them as you should, in spite of it all, so that you repent. 

            But in our text, St. Paul gets specific.  You are especially to pray for kings and for all who are in high positions (1 Tim. 2:2).  You are to pray for the president, for the governor, for your congressmen, legislators, judges, and magistrates.  You are to pray for government bureaucrats, law enforcement, your boss, and your teacher at school.  Children, you should pray for your mom and dad.  Grown-ups, you should pray for your mom and dad if they are still living (and especially for your in-laws!).  You should pray for everyone to whom you have a Fourth Commandment responsibility, anyone in any authority over you.  After all, don’t you think they need your prayers?  Especially if you don’t like their policies.  Then you really need to pray for them.  Seriously.  It’s more important even than writing letters.  Frankly, it’s more important than voting.  As important as those things may be, the Scriptures don’t command you to write letters or to vote, but they do command you to pray.  Those in authority over you are God’s representatives on earth.  Whether they know it or not.  Whether they believe it or not.  Whether act like it or not.  So we need to pray for them, that they would execute their task faithfully, according to God’s will, and for our good. 

            St. Paul says that we should do this so that “we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (v. 2).  That is why God has given authority to men.  To keep peace and order, so that His Christians may live godly lives, and that we may preach!  Because God our Savior desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (vv. 3-4).  We know that earthly authorities don’t always do a good job of maintaining peace and order, and all-too-often they are not interested in allowing us to live godly lives and preach the Gospel.  So we need to pray!  Ask God.  Pray for their repentance.  Pray for their faithful leadership.  Pray that God would grant them wisdom and integrity.  It does absolutely no good to sit around complaining and despising earthly authorities.  I’m as guilty of that as the next guy, but we must repent.  Who can move a heart?  Who can change a mind?  Who can lead a stubborn unbeliever to repentance and faith?  God can.  And He wants to!  So, ask Him!  Ask Him on behalf of the authorities.  Ask Him on behalf of all people.  That is, after all, what you do when you pray, “Thy Kingdom come.”

            Have you ever thought about what unparalleled comfort this verse brings, that God our Savior wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth?  There is not a human being on earth, or in history, that God doesn’t want to come to faith and be His own.  Now, there is this great, perplexing mystery of why, if that is true, so many do not come to faith, and are not saved.  God does not reveal the answer to that mystery, and there comes a point where you need to put a finger to your lips and stop inquiring into things God has not given you to know.  In particular, you have crossed that point when you begin to object to the things God has revealed because you don’t understand them, or because you don’t like the implications.  Just be quiet at that point, and let God be God, and you be His trusting servant.  But so also, just pause here a minute and bathe in the comfort of what God does reveal in this verse.  He wants all people to be saved.  That means He wants you to be saved.  And your children and grandchildren.  And your unbelieving neighbor.  And, yes, your antagonist, and even your enemy.  And, yes, the president, and all politicians, kings, and all who are in high positions.  All people. 

            And He doesn’t just want it.  He doesn’t just sit around in heaven hoping by some miracle that it will happen.  No, no.  He gives His Son.  God incarnate.  Jesus Christ.  Into the death of the cross.  Bearing our sin.  Making atonement for our transgressions.  Reconciling sinners to the Father.  By His resurrection, healing what is broken.  Raising us from death.  Giving us eternal life.  This is why our text calls Him, “God our Savior” (v. 3).  By His Word and Holy Sacraments, He breathes into us His Holy Spirit.  That we be brought to a knowledge of the truth.  That we be brought to saving faith in Christ.  It is because God wants us to be saved, that we are.  He gets all the credit.  He does it all.  He saves us.  He gives us faith.  Don’t ask why some are not saved.  We know God wants them to be saved, and that they are not by their own fault.  But just rejoice in this.  God wants you to be saved.  And you are.  You believe.  By God’s grace.  Through Jesus Christ.  By the working of His Holy Spirit.  And as for the rest… keep praying, and keep preaching.  God hears your prayers, and He acts, even through your preaching, through your confession of faith, because you belong to Him, bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 

            And that is why on this day, and every day, we cannot help but give thanks.  We should call upon God’s Name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.  Paul says that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for all people.  Thank God for His love for you, His desire to save you, and His accomplishing it through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Thank God that you are baptized into Christ, and that He has given you His Holy Spirit, to bring you to a knowledge of the truth, and sustain you by His Word and Supper in the saving Christian faith.  Thank God for all the great gifts He continually pours out on you, for making you and all creatures, for giving you your body and soul, eyes, ears, and all your members, your reason and all your senses, and that He still takes care of them.  Thank God that He also gives you clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, family, friends, vocations, and all that you need to support this body and life, and so much more that you don’t need, but that He gives you anyway, for your blessing and enjoyment.  Thank God that He defends you against all danger and guards and protects you from all evil.  And thank God that He does all of this only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you.  He does it for Jesus’ sake.  Therefore, it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.  This is no burden, but it is most certainly true.

            And, beloved, thank God that He does this, not just for you.  For all people.  Thank God on behalf of all those people, some of whom don’t know to thank God themselves.  It is your priestly work to thank God in their stead, in their place.  And then, thank God for those people.  That is part of your prayers for them.  And it just might turn them.  It will most certainly turn you.  Thank God for all those people you love to love.  Thank God for all those people who are difficult to love, and love them anyway.  And call upon God for them.  God has given you His Name for this very purpose.  Use it.  Use it well.  And live in it confidently, and with great thanksgiving.  So let’s do it now.  Let’s trace the sign of the holy cross upon our bodies and, with great thanksgiving, invoke that Name upon ourselves, and for the sake of all people: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                

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[1] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986).

Last Sunday of the Church Year

Last Sunday in the Church Year (Proper 29)

November 20, 2022

Text: Luke 23:27-43

            Let’s get one thing straight… Jesus is the King.  Don’t be fooled by elections or geo-political movements, by the glitzy and the glamorous, or the powerful movers and shakers of the world.  Don’t look at wealth, or grandeur, celebrity, or military might.  Do not let the appearance of things deceive you.  Jesus is the King.  All other powers, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, are subject to Him.  And if that is true (and it is), it’s time for us to start acting like it.  It is time for us to repent of our sins, take shelter under His cross, and live confidently, in hope, and with joy, as those who, in Holy Baptism, bear the Name and insignia of our King, Jesus.

            That is to say, if Jesus is the King (and He is!), it is time for us to weep for ourselves and for our children.  That is repentance.  It is time to mourn our sins, our rejection of our Lord’s rule and reign over us, our rejection of His Word, the things we don’t understand, the things we don’t like.  It is time to mourn our submission to all the other pretenders to the throne, the things, the people, the powers that we have feared, loved, and trusted above Him.  If Jesus is the King (and He is!), it is time to take shelter under the banner of His cross, which shields us from God’s wrath.  Jesus is the Green Tree.  He stands in the breach between us and God’s just and fiery wrath over our sins.  He takes that wrath, the punishment we deserve, upon Himself, to shelter and save us.  And if that is what happens to the Green Tree, God’s Son, His Righteous One, what do you suppose will happen to the dry, dead wood that is us poor sinners if we do not repent, if we are not under the protection of the Crucified?  Just ask the Jerusalem that finally and fully rejected Jesus.  In AD 70, the city that rejected her King was destroyed by the Romans, and lacking the shelter of the Savior, the inhabitants cried out to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “Cover us.”  “We’d rather die quickly and catastrophically, than suffer God’s just wrath.”  This is a warning for us.  It is a type of the Judgement to come upon the whole world, and upon every rival king and enemy of God. 

            If Jesus is the King (and He is!), it means that He is the Judge.  In the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, we get a little glimpse of the Judgment Day to come.  What does He do?  He makes a separation between those on His right, and those on His left.  It is reminiscent of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25.  As they came to the place called “The Skull,” there they crucified Him between two criminals, Luke says in our text, “one on his right and one on his left” (Luke 23:33).  See, it is precisely here, on the cross, that Jesus does His work of judging, even as He will judge in glory on the Last Day.  As we behold our Lord on the cross, there is the Judge, the King, enthroned.  He is crowned with thorns, and robed in royal crimson.  Even Pilate must acknowledge it.  INRI, the sign you see in so much crucifixion art.  It is Latin, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews!”

            And what is His Judgment?  It is just here that it all takes a cosmically unexpected turn.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (v. 34).  Forgiveness!  That is His Judgment.  That is His verdict.  Forgiveness of sins.  For the daughters of Jerusalem and the disciples who deserted Him.  For Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and the Jews who cried out for His blood.  For Pilate, and for Herod, and for the Roman soldiers who nailed His limbs to the wood.  For His murderers.  For sinners.  For you.  Here the Judgment is pronounced on the basis of the universal atonement Jesus is making in His body for the sins of the whole world.  And it effects nothing less than the objective justification of the whole world.  That is to say, there is forgiveness of sins for anyone who would have it!  Amnesty.  And more than amnesty… Absolution!  And justification, righteousness, given as a gift.  And acceptance as a citizen of the Kingdom, in fact, a child, a son, of the King, with all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto.  Jesus can do that, because He is the eternal Son of the Father.  He is the King. 

            But we know that so many would not have it.  They would not receive, subjectively, the objective gift that Jesus gives them.  Because that would mean to submit to His rule.  And so there are the Jewish rulers, scoffing at Him, unknowingly echoing Satan and fulfilling Psalm 22 against Him: “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” (Luke 23:35).  But He won’t do it, of course, for He has not come to save Himself, but us, and these very men who are rejecting Him. 

            Then there are the soldiers, gambling over His clothes at the foot of His cross, mocking Him, and offering Him their vinegar swill.  “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (v. 33). 

            And there is the criminal who rails at Him, “Are you not the Christ?”  (Of course, he doesn’t believe that for a minute!)  “Save yourself and us!” (v. 39). 

            So, to this day, there are the many who will not receive the forgiveness and justification Jesus here freely gives.  They scoff at Him.  They mock Him.  They rail against Him.  He dies for them, but they would rather face God’s wrath on their own merits.  They will not take shelter under His cross.  And they will cry, on that Day, to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “cover us.”  But there is no cover to protect you from God’s wrath.  Except Jesus and His cross and death. 

            Ah, but then there is the second criminal.  Something has happened to him as he witnesses the spectacle, as he beholds our Lord taking the divine judgment against our sins upon Himself, and pronouncing in its place the gracious Judgment of forgiveness and life upon sinners.  This criminal recognizes that, on his part, he belongs on the cross, and frankly, in hell.  His punishment is just.  To realize that, and confess it, is repentance.  But the criminal knows that Jesus, for His part, has done nothing wrong.  In fact, He has done everything right.  He is right.  He is righteous, and so righteousness is His to give. 

            Now, we don’t know a whole lot about this criminal, but whatever the case, we do know that doing it his own way, living by his own rules, has brought him to this point where he hangs, naked and bleeding, in excruciating (crucifixion, excruciating) pain.  He’s earned this.  He probably doesn’t have much book learning.  He probably isn’t very sophisticated.  If I were a betting man, I’d bet he doesn’t know much theology (not good theology, anyway). 

            But he has heard the Word, now, from the King’s own mouth.  “Forgive them.  Forgive them.”  And he believes it.  He will have it.  Yes, even him, even this wretched, good for nothing, callous criminal.  He claims nothing for himself.  No merit.  No worthiness.  He’s not pleading for a second chance to make things right.  He rebukes his compatriot, and confesses his sins.  And then he prays.  He prays to Jesus, hanging there next to him on the cross.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v. 42).  It is a prayer and a confession… of faith… that Jesus is the true and rightful King, and that Jesus… even now, even as he hangs, dying, on the cross… can save him!  And King Jesus makes the poor malefactor a promise he can take with him to the bank, to the royal court, to his dying breath: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (v. 43). 

            Beloved, if Jesus is the King (and He is!), that is what He does for you.  Forgiveness of sins.  Justification.  He dies, that you may be His own, and live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  See, because of the Judgment that happened there and then, at the cross, we know what the Judgment will be when that Day comes, when King Jesus appears with the angels in His glory.  “Father, forgive them.”  That is the Judgement.  “I have taken the punishment of their sins upon Myself.  And I give them My righteousness.  Receive them, dear Father, now, as Your own.  Your children.  As You would receive Me.  For they are Mine, and so they are Yours, bought with My own precious blood.” 

            Now, this is all hidden, of course, under the cross and suffering.  Let it not be lost on you that our reading about Christ the King is the account of His crucifixion and death.  This is the great, confounding, backwards Christian story, that God’s Kingdom comes through Jesus’ innocent suffering and death.  But we know that is not the end of the story.  King Jesus is risen!  He lives!  He is seated, enthroned, now, at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  He rules all things, all people, even the very devil.  They just don’t see it or acknowledge it yet.  He rules over it all for the good of His people.  We, ourselves, can’t always see it.  But what is hidden now, will be revealed on that Day.  And then all will have to confess it.

            Jesus is the King.  So, think about what that means, beloved.  It means you can live right now, today, in that confidence, in that reality.  Are you worried and troubled by the state of things in the world?  Do elections and politicians get you down?  Wars and rumors of wars?  Famines and earthquakes and other natural disasters?  Crime?  Injustice?  Murders, right here, in our own little town?  Never mind the world as they scoff, and mock, and persecute unto death.  How about the devil?  His accusations, his deceptions, his leading, if possible, even the elect into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.  And then, there is our own sad sack of flesh.  The spirit is willing.  We want to follow Jesus.  But our flesh is oh so weak.

            It is just such pretenders to the throne that Jesus overthrows by His death and resurrection.  He wipes them out by the shedding of His blood.  So that you may lift up your head in these gray and latter days, when our bodily eyes are blind to this new reality, until Christ comes again visibly and in all His glory, the Lord has given us His Word and Holy Sacraments.  He has given us Holy Baptism as the sign and seal that we are God’s own children, redeemed by Christ, the Crucified.  He has given us Absolution to leak the verdict out ahead of time, before the Judgement Day: All your sins are forgiven.  He has given us Scripture, and preaching, to steel our hearts and spread the news abroad, a royal proclamation.  And He has given us the Supper, a seat at the Royal Table, to dine with the living God.  Let’s get one thing straight, in spite of all appearances: Jesus is the King.  Acknowledge no other.  Repent of your sins and believe the Good News.  He died, but He lives, and reigns, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  And He’s coming again.  He is coming for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

All Saints' (Observed)

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 6, 2022

Text: 1 John 3:1-3

            Pete was dying.  For real, this time.  Much like our own Glen Warmbier, we’d prayed the Commendation of the Dying with him and planned his funeral any number of times, only for him to pop back up into vigorous life and health, the same old Pete we knew and loved.  But this time was different.  This time it was certain.  As certain as we can be of death, which is about as certain as we can be of anything.  The family called in hospice.  They took him off his medications, except for pain control.  His den was converted to serve as his final abode this side of the grave.  And as his pastor, I sat beside his hospital bed pretty much every day, and often half the night, of that final week. 

            It was early on in the process, as I was reading Scripture and praying with Pete and his dear wife, and had just given them Communion, that Pete stopped me, looked me straight in the eye, and asked, “Pastor, what will it be like?”  As we all so often wonder, especially in those times when we can no longer hide death behind a curtain, or pretend it doesn’t exist.  What is it like to pass from this side of the veil to the other?  What is it like in heaven?  It’s all so mysterious.  And that is why it makes even the strongest Christians among us nervous.  “Well,” I said to Pete, “I don’t really know.  The Scriptures don’t tell us much about heaven, as in the intermediate state where the soul reposes as we await the Last Day.  And, of course, all the silly things we say about heaven being ‘That Great Golf Course in the Sky,’ for example (Pete lived on a golf course), or cultural images of ethereal souls floating around in the clouds with their harps and halos, don’t help.  We don’t become angels when we die (angels were created in the beginning, as angels).  We’re not stars shining down on our loved ones.  We don’t spend our time in the afterlife peeping on our loved ones, watching their every move.”  Which is really pretty creepy when you think about it.  I probably didn’t say this to Pete in the moment, but do you really want Grandma watching when you’re in the shower, or visiting the euphemism, as Dr. Suess would say, never mind when you’re sinning?  Let’s stop saying such ridiculous and unbiblical things about death.  They really aren’t comforting.  They’re just delusional.  “Here is what we know from the Scriptures,” I said to Pete.  “We know that we will see Jesus, and so we will be full of joy.  God will wipe away our tears and relieve us of all pain.  We’ll undoubtedly see our loved ones who have died in Christ there before His throne, and together, we’ll worship the Lamb who was slain, but who lives, and in whose blood our sin-stained robes have been washed white.”  “That’s pretty good,” he agreed. 

            “But then,” I said, “the real kicker of it all, the complete fulfillment of all our Christian hope, and what the Scriptures do tell us about, is not our soul in heaven when we die, but the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, when Jesus comes again in glory.  Your body, Pete, will rise from the grave.  Your soul will be reunited with your body.  And you’ll live forever with Jesus in your body, like Jesus’ resurrection Body, healthy, whole, complete, in a new heavens and a new earth.”  Well, Pete’s eyes grew big as saucers as he leaned forward and said to me, “Really?...  Huh!”  And now it was my turn to be surprised.  “I never knew that!” Pete said.  Now, how many years, how many decades, had Pete been a Lutheran?  And, not to take it personally, but how many years had I been his pastor, and how often had I preached this very thing to him?  But then, I suppose it isn’t all that surprising.  We hear what we want.  We think what we want.  I know how it works.  I’ve sat in there in the pews, too.  And I know how it is in this fallen flesh.  We miss an awful lot.  We dismiss an awful lot.  Things that challenge our preconceived notions.  Things we don’t understand.  Things we simply don’t like. 

            But then, the Gospel, as it is preached, turns us (literally, repents us), so that it opens our ears to hear the life-giving good tidings of Jesus, crucified and risen, who will raise us, as something ever surprising and new.  I think that was going on for Pete, too.  He had heard this before.  He did know it.  But now, he knew it, in the very face of death. 

            Nevertheless, beloved, to save me no small amount of frustration later on, listen up very carefully and closely to what I’m about to say:  Heaven is great.  Your soul will go there when you die.  But even better: On the Last Day, Jesus will raise you from the dead.  Bodily!  Your body will come out of your grave, healed and whole.  Even as He, who died for your sins, is now risen from the dead, and lives eternally.  Your soul, which was separated from your body in death (that is the definition of physical death), will be reunited with your body (that is the definition of physical life!).  And you will live forever with Jesus in your body!  “Really.  Huh.”

            What will it be like?  St. John answers, “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” (1 John 3:2; ESV).  We are God’s children now, because we are baptized into Christ, the Father’s eternal Son.  So, as God’s children, we have a hope and expectation of the good things to come in His Kingdom.  Yes, we hope… on the basis of our current status as God’s baptized and redeemed children… we hope, in spite of the things our eyes currently see: Evil, death, sadness.  War.  Sickness.  Pain.  Brokenness.  All the marks of a fallen world, that does not know us, because it does not know Him.  All the marks of a fallen and sinful nature, and a broken and fallen body, descended as it is from Adam.  We hope nevertheless, because we know that things are not as they appear.  We also know that what things will be, what we will be, and what we are now in truth, has not yet appeared.  But soon, Jesus will appear.  And that is when we will be given eyes that see unhindered.  Jesus will come again in glory with the holy angels.  He will raise all the dead, and then He will judge.  He will give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ, as we say in the Catechism.  And He will consign sin, death, and the devil, along with all unbelievers, to the Lake of Fire.  And then we, who believe in Christ, will be forever with the Lord.  New heavens.  New earth.  Creation restored.  Bodies made whole.  All as it was always meant to be.  Free from sorrow.  Free from sin.  We don’t yet know what all of this will look like.  We don’t yet know what we will be.  But we know that we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.  That is, beholding the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very Image of the invisible God, the image of God we lost in the fall, will be restored in us.

            Pete slipped into a coma a few days after our conversation about the resurrection.  But then, he woke up!  Now, this doesn’t happen for everybody, or even for most people, but for his last full day on this earth, surrounded by his family, I think Pete was getting a head-start on the resurrection.  For lunch, he ordered up a Five Guys Burger and Fries for everyone, his treat.  And the rest of the day he spent directing his sons on how to slow-roast Pete’s Famous Prime Rib dinner for the family feast that night.  It was a beautiful day of love and laughter, joy and celebration, the very best food, and the very best drink.  As it will be in heaven, and on the Day of Resurrection.  As it is now, with angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven around the body and blood of the risen Lord Jesus.  We don’t see it from this side of the veil.  But there they are, on the other side, joining us for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end.

            Pete’s condition deteriorated again that night, as we knew it would.  We sat beside him and prayed and sang.  About mid-morning the next day, a far-off look came over his eyes.  And he began to chant.  “Jesus… Jesus… Jesus…”  I don’t know how long.  15 minutes.  A half hour.  The hymn is true… “When the fight is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song” (LSB 677:5).  It was a prayer.  But I suspect he was singing with them.  But then his voice became weaker.  Finally, only his jaw was moving to the rhythm.  And then…  When Pete breathed his last, it was to exhale the Name of his Savior.  Undoubtedly, he is still chanting, “Jesus… Jesus… Jesus…”  But now, for us, it only just steals on our ears, from a distance, and it is entirely hidden from our eyes. 

            Not for long, though.  Soon, very soon, the Lord Jesus will appear.  We’ll wake up with Pete.  And with Glen, and Leonard, Odessa, and Kathleen.  With Moses, and King David, with Ruth, and John the Baptist.  With Peter, Paul, and Martin Luther.  With Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, and with all the saints, all our loved ones who have died in Christ, and live in Him, whose robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb, who are coming out of the great tribulation.  Jesus will do it.  He will call us forth from the grave.  He’ll give us His hand, the one with the nail print, and lift us out.  And then we will live with Him.  And we will be like Him.  For we will see Him as He is.  With resurrection eyes.  In our risen, living body.  Really.  That is not just what it will be like.  That is how it will be on that blessed Day.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.