Are You in a State of Well-Being?

Third  Sunday in Advent

Gaudete

December 16, 2012

Matthew 11:2–10

The Church Year began in the only way it can, if it is going to do what it is meant to do. And so it began by pointing us to the cross. Jesus is carried into town on a donkey only so that He can die. The Church Year moved us further into itself by very plainly showing us what kind of people we are. We are people of hope. When we see Jesus going into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday we see God’s grace. Because of His grace we have hope. Today the Church Year shows us that we are people of joy. Last week we saw how hope for Christians is a very different thing from simply wishing and hoping things to be true. It’s not that we need to have hope, we do have hope. It’s not that we hope for God’s grace, it’s that He is a gracious God and saves us. Therefore we have hope.

Do we also have joy? We are a people of hope. Are we also a people of joy? In the Introit we were exhorted, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Do we do that? Do you have joy?—period, end of statement? Do you have joy no matter your feelings, whatever your circumstances, whatever you do or no matter what happens to you? Or, even as you can see holding on to hope, do you see yourself as one who knows you are saved by grace, have the hope of eternal life… but the joy? The joy just isn’t there? Do you see yourself as the recipient of the exhortation to rejoice always, because you don’t?

Even as hope in the world is far different from hope the Scriptures call us to, so it is with joy. True joy is not like joy that the world thinks of. To the world joy is conditional. If things are going well, you have happiness, well-being, joy. Even if you’re in a time of trial but you can see light at the end of the tunnel, you have some reason for being glad because you know your circumstances will change. To be sure, there certainly is a blessing in good circumstances. God has blessed us with abundant blessings and provides for us and gives us things in which we can take pleasure and in which we can be happy. So it’s not that the Bible is telling us we shouldn’t be happy.

But it is telling us that we have true joy. No matter our circumstances we have true joy. No matter what we’re going through we can rejoice in the Lord. The practical question then would be, “How is this so?” How is it possible to be people of joy, to have joy no matter our circumstances? If it’s not tied to my feelings, or my circumstances, what is it tied to?

The answer to that we see from today’s Scripture readings. As is always the case in the Church Year we are shown that we must not get so caught up in our circumstances that we lose sight of Christ. The reason the Church Year does this is because the Bible itself does this. Your circumstances are never so great that the truths of Scripture are diminished by them. You are never in so much need, or suffering from so many trials, that the central message of the Word of God takes a back seat.

The word joy in the Scriptures has an aspect to it of being in a state of well-being. Whereas we often associate it with good feelings and good circumstances the Bible takes it much deeper than that. The well-being we have from God, and the joy we have in God, is a fact of being a child of God; not something that we have only when our circumstances give evidence things are going well or when our feelings match what we consider rejoicing. We struggle with this, though, don’t we, because it seems to go against reality. Or at least reality as it seems to us. And that’s why we must go back to the Scriptures rather than looking at our circumstances or checking how we’re feeling.

As we head toward the end of Advent consider what we are met with when we see the great John the Baptist holed up in a prison. One of the benefits of a free society is that we have a system in which people who commit crimes are punished accordingly, including being locked up for punishment as well as for protection for the rest of us. But here’s John, his only crime that of faithfully carrying out his call from his Lord to prepare the way for his Lord and to proclaim the Gospel of his Lord. What does he get for that? Prison. He gets punishment at the hands of men who deserve more than he does to be in that prison cell. Furthermore, how can he continue his calling of proclaiming the Gospel when he’s limited to his cell?

How do you think John the Baptist’s state of well-being was at that point? I hope I never end up in prison, but if I do I don’t imagine I will feel like my well-being matches what it is when I have a life free to enjoy it freely. Whatever trials and difficulties you are experiencing, do they compare with what John the Baptist experienced? I’m guessing you’re like me and you’d just as soon not have to experience what he did. For another example, on this day in this nation it would be hard to imagine feeling worse than those who lost their children and loved ones in the horrific shooting in Connecticut. But even so, this is not the point. God the Holy Spirit didn’t put that little part in there about John the Baptist being in prison so that we could compare our troubles with his and then come to the conclusion that we may have it bad, but at least we don’t have it that bad. Comparing yourself with others is a road that will only lead you to finding others who are either better or worse off than you are.

What your Lord does is exactly what He did for John. Whether you find yourself in prison or in a fight for your life against cancer or can’t stand the pain you endure, whether it’s physical or emotional, what your Lord is telling you is something that actually might make you feel worse. The reason that is is because of our penchant for viewing things circumstantially and conditional. I have joy because everything’s going great! Or, how can I have joy when things are falling apart! This is the worst thing you can do, but we do it all the time, don’t we?

Jesus teaches us straight out that we are in a state of well-being. There are no conditions. There are no circumstances under which this is not true for you. It’s, Rejoice!, because you have cause for joy. You are a people of joy. Note that Jesus never says anything about feelings. He doesn’t even say anything about circumstances. In fact, that’s the whole key to this, He doesn’t point us to anything within us. Rather, He points us to Himself.

How could John rightly believe that he was in a state of well-being when he was locked up in a cell? As they soon after led him to the chopping block where they severed his head from himself, how could he think that God had him in His care? Because, as Jesus responded to John’s question, He, Jesus, was the One. What was it that John had been doing all that time before they threw his pink little body into prison? Pointing to the One. Proclaiming the Christ. Preparing the way for the Messiah, the Savior. That’s what John had been doing. That’s what it was all about. It never was about John. It never was about his feelings, or his circumstances, or the conditions he would have liked to place on his standard of living or his general assessment of his well-being.

No, it was, and was always, about Christ his Lord. It was always about the fact that John, in prison and out, in good times and bad, in moments of happiness and moments of sadness and despondency, was in fact in a state of well-being. In other words, he had true joy. It all stemmed from God’s grace, and gave him hope, and he was a person of joy. One who could rejoice in all circumstances.

That’s the true beauty of joy and rejoicing. You can do it even when you don’t feel like it. You have joy even when it seems there’s no cause for it. Since it’s not based on your feelings or your circumstances, you can know that you have true joy because it’s something that is entirely from and of your Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s really quite amazing how Jesus preaches a sermon. When you consider that preaching the Gospel is always preaching Christ and the salvation that is in Him alone it’s fascinating to see how Jesus Himself does it. What does He first do? He says very simply in response to John’s question, which is, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”, “Well, John, what am I doing? The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” In other words, Yes. Yes, I’m the one. So there you see how Jesus preaches the Gospel, in the same way every Christian preacher must do it, by preaching Christ.

But then it gets interesting. He then goes on to talk to the people about John. One moment He was proclaiming Himself, and so far so good. But then He goes into a thing about John the Baptist. Wasn’t John the one who was supposed to be proclaiming Christ? And now Jesus is pointing the people to John? But Jesus is the true genius preacher, never preaching anyone but Himself. Whereas every preacher falls short at times, Jesus is the one who always focuses us exactly where our sights need to be set and always proclaims exactly what we need to hear. And what is that? Him. Jesus. The Savior, God in the flesh; the one who came to go to the cross.

So is Jesus really pointing people to John here? No. He’s pointing people to Himself. When He brings up the stuff about John it’s in order to show us who God is and how He works. Namely, God promised the Savior. God promised He would send His messenger before Him. When He is pointing to John, then, as this very messenger He’s not pointing us to John at all. He’s pointing us to Himself. In Him, and only in Him, is true joy. In Him, and in Him alone, is our reason for rejoicing.

Think about what you are doing when you look at your circumstances and do not see cause for joy or when you place conditions on your ability to rejoice. You are looking at things other than the one thing you ought to be looking at, and that is Christ. That is what He Himself does for you—He gives you Himself, He gives you true joy, He makes you a person who is a person of joy.

It never was about John at all. And it is never about you either. It is, and is always, about Christ. Because if it’s about you, well, then, yes, there’s not always cause for joy because you will always find reason for lack of joy. But if it is always about Christ there is reason for joy and rejoicing.

He is the one whose conditions and circumstances turned dramatically to the point where prison would have been a summer home compared to His suffering on the cross. All the sin and guilt of every person was laid upon Him. All the wrath of God against sinners was brought upon Him. The eternal punishment every person deserves was dealt Him. All our suffering and sadness is met in the suffering of Christ on the cross.

This is the heart of the Gospel, for it is the heart of Christ. It is simply an unfathomable fact that He considered going to the cross a joy. He rejoiced in His Heavenly Father’s will to go this path. And that, dear friends, is why we have true joy. Amen.

SDG

Third Sunday in Advent

Advent draws more to a close and we pause in the midst of meditation and preparation to consider the joy we have in Christ. Even when circumstances seem to tell otherwise, true joy is ours in Christ. The circumstances of the birth of Christ weren’t ideal but the joy was all the more clearly seen. The condition we are in in awaiting His glorious Return on the Last Day seems to call for something other than joy. Perhaps questions or doubt. But the joy we have in Him is found not simply in the promise of His Return but in His actual coming to us in the Gospel that is proclaimed and the waters that were poured over us in Baptism and the partaking of His body and blood in His Holy Meal. Having true joy doesn’t discount circumstances, it simply shines through in the midst of them.

Commemoration of Lucia, Martyr

One of the victims of the great persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian, Lucia met her death at Syracuse on the island of Sicily in the year A.D. 304, because of her Christian faith. Known for her charity, “Santa Lucia” (as she is called in Italy) gave away her dowry and remained a virgin until her execution by the sword. The name Lucia means “light,” and, because of that, festivals of light commemorating her became popular throughout Europe, especially in the Scandinavian countries. There her feast day corresponds with the time of year when there is the least amount of daylight. In artistic expression she is often portrayed in a white baptismal gown, wearing a wreath of candles on her head. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

O Almighty God, by whose grace and power Your holy martyr Lucia triumphed over suffering and remained ever faithful unto death, grant us, who now remember her with thanksgiving, to be so true in our witness to You in this world that we may receive with her new eyes without tears and the crown of light and life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Jesus Has Come to Deliver

Midweek in Advent2

December 12, 2012

1Corinthians 15:3–5

As we continue with our Advent preparations we see that the purpose of the Catechism is to direct us to our Lord. It is to show us our Lord’s work in how He comes to us and why He comes to us. That is because that is what the purpose of the Word of God is. God has given us His Word so that we may know His Son. His Son is, in fact, the Word made flesh. That is how God has comes to us. In the flesh. In the Person of Jesus. He came at Bethlehem and He will come again. He comes to us often in Word and Sacrament.

The Ten Commandments show us our need. They show us why Jesus needed to come. They direct us to our sin and call us to repentance. Here is where we see our Lord. We see that He has become a curse for us. Though He fulfilled the Law He was placed under the wrath of God against sinners so that we sinners may be saved. The Creed clearly lays out the essential actions Jesus did to bring about this salvation. The Creed is what we hold to. It’s what we believe and what we confess. It’s the declaration of faith Christians down through the centuries have put forth because it clearly and simply enunciates the Gospel.

This is the kind of thing Paul was getting at in 1Corinthians 15 when he said, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” [ESV] He doesn’t just state the facts as if he’s delivering them to them out of the blue. He says he is delivering to them what has been delivered to him. This has been handed down, and that’s what we do with the Creed. We are taught. It is delivered and handed down to us and then we do the same with successive generations.

Paul is very specific in what he is delivering. It is in accordance with the Scriptures, he says. It is the very details of salvation. Christ died, He was buried, He was raised on the third day, and then He appeared to the apostles. He goes on to say in succeeding verses that Jesus appeared also to more people. These facts he is delivering are very Creed-like. In fact, when the Church set out to formulate the Creeds one of the things it did was go to the Scriptures and see how the Scriptures themselves laid out the details of how salvation was actually accomplished. Was it because Jesus spoke of it? Was it because He prayed to His Heavenly Father about it? Was it because the apostles got on board with the whole plan? What Paul writes is very clear: it’s all Jesus and it’s all His actions of dying, being buried, and being raised. This is the Gospel Paul proclaimed and it’s the Gospel the Church continues to proclaim.

The Creed doesn’t add anything to the Scriptures, but simply, and succinctly, sets forth what the Scriptures teach. We saw last week how one of the things Jesus did for us wasn’t simply to take our place in being punished for our failure to keep God’s Law, but also to fulfill that Law. His life is of vital importance. Jesus lived a life fully in concert with His Heavenly Father’s will. Upon doing this He then suffered and died for the sins of the world.

The Church has taught this across the ages and will continue to do so. At the heart, though, of salvation, is the cross. Without the cross every doctrine, every thing Jesus did, the whole Christian faith, is a house of cards that comes crashing down. The Creed ultimately confesses and hones in on the cross. In Advent, when we are preparing our hearts and minds for the celebration of our Lord’s coming at Bethlehem, the point is brought home of why we celebrate that event, of Jesus being born; of God becoming a man, and that by being born as a baby. The reason? The cross. Jesus was born in order to die.

See how the Creed teaches this. A mere comma separates the Creed’s confession that He was born of the Virgin Mary and that of His suffering and death. This is how it reads and how we confess it: “who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” In the Creed we confess that He was born of the Virgin Mary and in the next breath that He suffered and died. This is remarkable. A whole lot of stuff happened between that happy day Mary cuddled Him in her arms and the day the soldiers affixed Him to a cross. There were the miracles, the teaching, the acts of compassion, and as we saw last week, an entire life of living in perfect harmony with God’s will and fulfilling His will as it is laid out in the Ten Commandments. Jesus did in fact come to do all that stuff and it’s all His work of accomplishing salvation for us, but it must always be remembered and always proclaimed and confessed and taught that it is all centered in the cross. He was “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”

If we learned from the Commandments that Jesus has come to fulfill we learn from the Creed that He has come to deliver. He fulfilled what we were unable to, He delivers what we are unable to accomplish on our own. He fulfills the Law and delivers to us salvation. We having received this salvation now deliver the Gospel on to each generation. The first reading this evening captures this nicely:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. [ESV]

We confess and then we teach. As Paul’s words in 1Corinthians were very Creed-like, so are the words of the first reading—the declaration that the Lord is one God. The Scriptures beautifully show who this one true God is, He is the Triune God. The One in Three and Three in One. Not three gods or three parts of one God. One God, three Persons. Three Persons, one God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit; all fully God. Notice what the Scripture passages we heard do—they lay out the doctrine. They state the facts of who God is and how He has accomplished salvation. There is no explanation of how God is triune. There is no logical positing of how God became a man; of how Jesus, who is fully God, could die. There’s just the pure unadulterated laying forth of the facts of salvation. The Triune God has acted in such a way as to save us. He has done it by the Second Person of the Trinity becoming man and suffering, dying, and rising.

Notice, then, what the Creed does—the same thing. It states it succinctly. There is no explanation. No attempt at proving anything. No appealing going on. Simply confession. The faith is confessed and we confess it as our own. God the Father, the Creator, God the Son, the Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, are all perfectly in concert in bringing us life, redemption, and sanctification.

This is all concentrated in the work of the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s why Paul makes the beautiful confession of faith he does in our second reading:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. [ESV]

He has come, He will come again, and He comes to us even now in the Gospel and the Sacraments. Because, after all, Jesus has come to deliver. Amen.

SDG

Being People of Hope

Second  Sunday in Advent

Populus Zion

December 9, 2012

Luke 21:25–36

If we began the Church Year honed in on God’s grace, today we continue it in hope. In the Epistle for today Paul says that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The history Scripture lays out of the people of God is a history of hope. Constantly pointing them back to what God has done so that they may look forward to what He will do. One thing that should characterize us as Christians, as God’s people, is hope. We need to be people of hope. When the world sees us holding on to the belief that our Lord will return in glory it sees people who are deluded. Or who just need something to hold on to. But the Bible calls it hope and we hold on to it because what our Lord says to us has proven more reliable than what the world has said to us.

And so Paul concludes his Epistle for today with a benediction: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” We don’t just hold out hope, we abound in it. Paul calls our God the God of hope. God gives hope. Just as He is the God of love and the God of power and the God of peace and the God of joy He is the God of hope. He loves us and gives us love. He is powerful and gives us strength. And He gives us hope. Love and joy and peace and strength are standard fare we expect from God. But hope is a little tougher to get a handle on. How exactly does hope help us out? Why not just give us the goods right now instead of expecting us to wait and rely on Him to fulfill His promise?

This is what we learn today as we move into the Church Year. To begin the Church Year we see Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Christ is carried into that place where He will accomplish all that is necessary for salvation. This is how we are taught grace. Grace is God giving to everyone what they do not deserve, which is eternal salvation. He does this out of pure love and mercy. Our sin and guilt are dealt a death blow on Calvary. That’s why the Church Year begins this way, because without this there is nothing to talk about. There is no hope, no ultimate victory, no ultimate purpose to life. But with this there is hope. That’s why we move on, then, in hope. It’s why we settle in for the long haul and say, “We know what our Lord has done, now we go forward seeing Him carrying it out to its ultimate realization.”

Again, to the world this is living in a fantasy world. But don’t we yearn for something more? Don’t we long to see greater glory than what this world offers? Yes, we do, and that is what God provides. That we don’t want to experience any suffering or any waiting shows that we’re still trapped in our worldly ways of thinking. To break us out of that our Lord has to give us hope. If you have a little child you want the very best for him or her. You want them to have everything good you could possibly give them, but you don’t dump it all on them at once. You give them what they need. You guide them as they grow. You teach them and help them see that patience is not just a virtue but vital to their growth and life. You may not think of it this way, but what you are doing is giving them hope.

You are teaching your child to be a person of hope. Not wanting everything now. Or at least, not always acting on their wants. Being restrained, circumspect. Stepping back and looking ahead in hope, knowing that not getting everything now is actually better than all of it being dumped on them at once. As we grow from childhood to adulthood we continue to learn and grow. We see that this never stops. As adults we continue to need to live in hope. One way we as a people gathered in a Christian congregation can see this is in how we live lives of stewardship.

Have you ever thought about why, if it’s so important that God has His people gather together so that they may receive His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, and be equipped by Him to make known the Gospel and serve others, that He doesn’t just make it very possible, very easy to do? Instead, we struggle. We have belt-tightening budget meetings. We are called upon to give offerings so that the work of the Church can continue. God is the God of all power, is He not? Does it really have to be so tough for a Christian congregation to get by and do the work of the Church?

Yes, it does. And the reason why is not because God can’t do it another way. It’s because He won’t, in the same way we wouldn’t dump everything on a child but instead teach, and lead, and guide, and give as necessary. He does it because He is the God of hope and is teaching us to be people of hope. We probably never think of commitment and the giving of our offerings in terms of hope. Maybe we should. Maybe we should stop thinking in terms of giving our offerings because it’s what we’re supposed to do and begin thinking of it in terms of what we simply do as people of hope. Hope is sorely misunderstood in our culture and I’m afraid in the culture of the Church as well. We think of hope as something that might be, and boy, will it be great if it ends up coming about. That’s not what hope is. At least, it’s not what Paul is talking about in the Epistle reading. It’s not what the Bible is teaching us when it teaches us that we are given hope by our Lord.

In giving our time, talents, and treasure we do it not out of obligation but out of hope. When our flesh says, “What’s the big deal?”, hope calls to us from the distant future and says, “It’s eternally significant.” When we are tempted by fears, realistic and natural, that we won’t be able to make it financially, the God of Hope calls to us and says, “Even though your circumstances look bleak, I see the whole of history and the whole of your life and I have you in my care.” That’s hope. It’s certain because God’s word is certain.

Hope is not “I hope it’s going to happen,” it’s “I know it’s going to happen even though I don’t see it yet.” Hope is looking at our circumstances and not bemoaning the fact that they look bleak, but rather seeing them through the lens of what our Lord has told us about them. It’s holding out hope, not in the hopes that what He said is true, but in the knowledge and certainty that what He said is true.

Each of you has come here today with various trials and struggles. Some of you look ahead and see a bleak picture and wonder why you need to have hope. Wouldn’t it be better if God took care of your trials? Wouldn’t that do much better to give you hope for the future? The answer is no. The only way for God to truly love us and help us and give us the strength we need is to empower us to be people of hope. We know what He has accomplished. He has come as a man and He has come for the purpose of saving man. Now He directs us to look ahead. His words in the Gospel reading makes us aware of what we need to know: “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.”

This is startling. If you want to give your child what is good and what is best for him you don’t want to go about it by scaring him. Yet, this is not what Jesus is doing here. Even as part of raising your child is warning him, making him aware of things he needs to know, not to frighten him, but to prepare him, part of our Lord’s caring for us and guiding us is making us aware of what we need to know. If you are struggling in your life you have hope. The startling details of Judgment Day, in which the very powers of the heavens will be shaken!, are given to us by our Lord so that we may be people of hope. There is nothing you will face in life that is beyond the purview of your Lord. You may wonder how you’re going to get through your trials. God doesn’t. He’s going to get you through. He gives you hope.

He knows what you are going through. He says also in the Gospel reading, “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.” Sometimes things in life can seem overwhelming. Sometimes we turn to things for relief, for something to take us away from the pain and the strain difficulties put on us. Alcohol may deaden the pain for a while but ultimately what happens is what Jesus has warned against: Our hearts get weighed down. In other words, turning to things other than relying on God in hope. This always makes things worse. Even being weighed down by the cares of this life makes things worse. There’s a difference between caring about things and worrying about things. God gives you hope, not a call to get so wrapped up in the day-to-day things of life that you lose sight of the call to greater glory on the Last Day and the present call to love and serve others.

Living in hope isn’t easy. Otherwise it wouldn’t be hope. The call to live in hope is always an exhortation to look ahead and live in certainty that what your Lord has promised you is as good as if you experience it in its fullness now. When Jesus describes what will occur in the Last Times He does so to give us hope. He does it so that we know that we shouldn’t lose sight of who He is and what He does for us. It’s so that we don’t lose sight of who we are and what He has called us to. It’s so that we don’t go about day-to-do life as if His death and resurrection don’t have any impact on who we are and how we live and His ultimate purpose for us. In short, it’s to give us hope.

He says, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Your redemption has been accomplished. This you know for certain. He redeemed you on the cross. He has given you forgiveness, life, and salvation in your Baptism. He gives you this very same forgiveness, life, and salvation along with His body and blood He gives to you to eat and drink in His Holy Supper. You don’t hope these things are true, you know they’re true.

You know what else you know? Your redemption is drawing near. You have hope. You live in hope. You know. You know that the God who has redeemed you from sin, death, and the devil is the God who will redeem you from the fallenness of this life. He will come again, this time in glory, and bring with Him all the fullness of His power, His glory, and His love, and you will live in it forever. Amen.

SDG

Second Sunday in Advent

As we move into the season of Advent we do so in hope. The Second Sunday in Advent reminds us that we are people who see things very differently because God shows us a new view. We are invited to see things not as they seem but as they truly are, and that is where hope comes in. Hope in the Scriptures is not something that is hoped to be true but something that is confidently looked forward to because God’s word is sure and His promises are always fulfilled. Christ has come, He will come again in glory. His word is certain, and that’s why we know that He comes to us in the Gospel and the Sacraments with His forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Commemoration of Ambrose of Milan, Pastor and Hymnwriter

Born in Trier in AD 340, Ambrose was one of the four great Latin Doctors of the Church (with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great). He was a prolific author of hymns, the most common of which is Veni, Redemptor Gentium (“Savior of the Nations, Come”). His name is also associated with Ambrosian Chant, a style of chanting the ancient liturgy that took hold in the province of Milan. While serving as a civil governor, Ambrose sought to bring peace among Christians in Milan who were divided into quarreling factions. When a new bishop was to be elected in AD 374, Ambrose addressed the crowd, and someone cried out, “Ambrose, bishop!” The entire gathering gave their support. This acclaim of Ambrose, a thirty-four-year-old catechumen, led to his Baptism on December 7, after which he was consecrated bishop of Milan. A strong defender of the faith, Ambrose convinced the Roman emperor Gratian in AD 379 to forbid the Arian heresy in the West. At Ambrose’s urging, Gratian’s successor, Theodosius, also publicly opposed Arianism. Ambrose died on Good Friday, April 4, 397. As a courageous doctor and musician, he upheld the truth of God’s Word. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

O God, You gave Your servant Ambrose grace to proclaim the Gospel with eloquence and power. As bishop of the great congregation of Milan, he fearlessly bore reproach for the honor of Your name. Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellence in preaching and fidelity in ministering Your Word that Your people shall be partakers of the divine nature; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Commemoration of Nicholas of Myra, Pastor

Of the many saints commemorated by the Christian Church, Nicholas (d. AD 342) is one of the best known. Very little is known historically of him, though there was a church of Saint Nicholas in Constantinople as early as the sixth century. Research has affirmed that there was a bishop by the name of Nicholas in the city of Myra in Lycia (part of modern Turkey) in the fourth century. From that coastal location, legends about Nicholas have traveled throughout time and space. He is associated with charitable giving in many countries around the world and is portrayed as the rescuer of sailors, the protector of children, and the friend of people in distress or need. In commemoration of Sinte Klaas (Dutch for “Saint Nicholas,” in English “Santa Claus”), December 6 is a day for giving and receiving gifts in many parts of Europe. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

Almighty God, You bestowed upon Your servant Nicholas of Myra the perpetual gift of charity. Grant Your Church the grace to deal in generosity and love with children and with all who are poor and distressed and to plead the cause of those who have no helper, especially those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief. We ask this for the sake of Him who gave His life for us, Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Jesus Has Come to Fulfill

Midweek in Advent1

December 5, 2012

Matthew 22:37

Advent is a time of preparation. What are we preparing for? How do we prepare? During these midweek worship services in Advent we will explore how our Lord teaches us to prepare. The simplest way to say it is that He teaches us to turn our sights on Him. There’s a little book that does that better than any other, except for the Bible of course. It’s the Catechism. We will spend some time examining how the Catechism is a great way to prepare our hearts and minds for the ways our Lord comes to us.

In Advent there are three ways we are shown in which our Lord comes to us. He has come, He will come again, and He comes to us now. The first one most people are pretty aware of, He came as a baby. The Second one is somewhat familiar, He will come again in glory on the Last Day. The third one is sadly not emphasized much at all in the Christian Church today and perhaps our third midweek Advent worship service will do a little toward changing that. This third way is that He comes to us now, but not just in the knowledge that He’s always with us, or in the conviction that He lives in our hearts. He comes to us in specific ways, just like He came in a specific way the first time, born in a stable, and laid in a manger; and just like it will be specific in His coming again on Judgment Day, everyone will know. The specific ways He comes to us are what we refer to as the Means of Grace, the Gospel and the Sacraments.

Before we get to His Second Coming and His coming to us often in the Gospel and in the Sacraments, we need a little preparation for a fuller appreciation of what those second two comings of Christ mean. And by this we mean not just a better knowledge of them but also a better grasp of how they apply to us both now and for eternity.

The Ten Commandments help us out here. The Ten Commandments stand at the head of the Catechism. The Catechism takes no prisoners. Off the bat you realize that you are a sinner. God lays down His Law and you are left holding an empty bag because you have nothing to put in there to give to God. You shall have no other gods? You have plenty. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God? You misuse the name of your Lord more times than you would care to admit and in more ways than you probably even realize. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy? Do you trust fully that God keeps you in body and soul through His Gospel and Sacraments? You can’t even get off the hook here with the defense that you’re here every Sunday, and even more, cause you’re here in the middle of the week when it’s Advent and Lent.

The Ten Commandments nail us to the wall. We look to ourselves, to other people, to other things for our greatest good. We do not trust that God works all things—all things—for our good. We do not love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s because we’re often too busy thinking of ourselves to think to serve them. The Ten Commandments show us that we have fallen short of the glory of God. They show us that the God who revealed them is a God who demands perfection; and no matter how good you can convince yourself that you are, you cannot pretend that you are perfect.

In Advent we need to be aware of this. Okay, not just in Advent, but Advent is a good time to bring this home. The reason is that this is why Jesus came. The reason Jesus was born is because of the Ten Commandments. The Law is God’s revelation to us but it is not the only one. And it is not the primary one. His Son is. The baby born in Bethlehem is. God demands perfection of us in the Ten Commandments but He gives His Son to us to meet that very demand.

The way Jesus speaks of it is as fulfillment. He has come to fulfill. Matthew 22:37 says this: “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” This is about as good a way to sum up the Ten Commandments as there is. What Jesus has done in coming to earth was not to lay down more Law. Not to hand down more burdens. Not to heap on us more demands. He came to fulfill the very Law He has given to us.

The demand of perfection is met in Christ. You and I fail all the time in keeping the Commandments. Jesus kept them perfectly. You and I sin against them instead of delighting in them. Jesus delighted in them and actually carried them out in their fullness. When we think of what Christ has done, and why He came to earth, we rightly proclaim and lift up His crucifixion and His resurrection. He suffered and died and rose for the sins of the world. He took our punishment for not keeping the Law of God as if He were the one who did not keep it. His blood was shed instead of our getting what we rightly ought to get: eternal punishment for our sin.

What we too often forget is that Jesus did that and more. He didn’t just receive what we deserve, He did what was demanded of us. He kept the Law perfectly. He fulfilled the holy, pure, righteous Law of God. This is what He says in the second reading we heard: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” [ESV] This is good news! As much as we’d like to wipe out the Ten Commandments because of our failure to live up to them—because of our sin, because of guilt and lack of holiness—Jesus does no such thing. He doesn’t get rid of the Law, He fulfills it!

If it were just a matter of Him saying to us, “Hey, I’m Jesus, I’m God, and I’ve done this; namely, I’ve done what you could not do”—well, that wouldn’t be very good news for us. It would be just the same as the Ten Commandments being laid upon us. Jesus came to fulfill the Law for us. That’s why He came. That’s why He was born. What does He go on to say in that reading? “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” [ESV] He said it Himself and then He did it. He speaks of fulfilling it, of accomplishing all that is necessary for being holy in the sight of God. And He does it. He fulfills. He accomplishes.

It might seem as though He follows this up with more Law, as He goes on to say: “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” [ESV] But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t follow up His work of salvation with more Law. That would wipe out the salvation.

What He is doing is laying out exactly what is necessary for salvation. Namely, as we have already noted, perfection. Full compliance with the Law. Keeping it wholeheartedly. As we heard, loving “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus is not demanding this of us but showing us that He does it and He does it for us. Our righteousness is perfect righteousness because Christ gives it to us. He gives us His own righteousness.

How do you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind? Not by attempting it. Not by thinking you have done it or are on your way to doing it, getting better and better at it all the time. You just do it. But hear this clearly: you don’t just do it because you’re able to. You just do it because that’s what your Lord has given you to do in giving you His righteousness. Are you righteous? Yes, in Christ you are righteous. Are you holy as you stand before God? Yes, you are because your holiness is nothing else than the holiness, the perfection, the purity, the having-accomplished-all-ness of Jesus Himself.

He has come to fulfill. He has come to save you. He has come not to bury you with the Law but to fulfill it for you. Next week we will ponder the promise of our Lord to return again in glory. That implies that we are waiting for that. Much like the people of God waited for the Messiah to come the first time, at Bethlehem. What do we do as we await? Having the righteousness of Christ, having the Law accomplished perfectly by Christ, we are freed up to serve. We are not under the burden of having to fulfill the Law, we are under the joyous call by our Lord to serve others as He has served us.

Because, after all, Jesus has come to fulfill. Amen.

SDG

Commemoration of John of Damascus, Theologian and Hymnwriter

John (ca. 675–749) is known as the great compiler and summarizer of the orthodox faith and the last great Greek theologian. Born in Damascus, John gave up an influential position in the Islamic court to devote himself to the Christian faith. Around 716 he entered a monastery outside of Jerusalem and was ordained a priest. When the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian in 726 issued a decree forbidding images (icons), John forcefully resisted. In his Apostolic Discourses he argued for the legitimacy of the veneration of images, which earned him the condemnation of the Iconoclast Council in 754. John also wrote defenses of the orthodox faith against contemporary heresies. In addition, he was a gifted hymnwriter (“Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain”) and contributed to the liturgy of the Byzantine churches. His greatest work was the Fount of Wisdom which was a massive compendium of truth from previous Christian theologians, covering practically every conceivable doctrinal topic. John's summary of the orthodox faith left a lasting stamp on both the Eastern and Western churches. [Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod]

Collect of the Day

O Lord, through Your servant John of Damascus, You proclaimed with power the mysteries of the true faith. Confirm our faith so that we may confess Jesus to be true God and true man, singing the praises of the risen Lord, and so that by the power of the resurrection we may also attain the joys of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Carrying Christ to You

First Sunday in Advent

Ad Te Levavi

December 2, 2012

Matthew 21:1–9

It’s not sacrilegious to compare God and the way He works to mundane things, even things we might think beneath ourselves, let alone Him. Why it’s not? Well, because He does it all the time. The holy, spiritual, all-powerful God is at home in the mundane. In an ironic twist of our considerable this-worldness, God is much more at home in this world than we are. Part of that is that we are not fully who we have been created to be because this world is tainted by sin; our flesh is tainted by our sinful flesh. Part of it is that as the people of God, the holy Christian Church, this is not our home. Heaven is our true home, we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth.

But God? He’s not afraid to get dirt under His fingernails. This is easily seen in the person of Jesus. He’s God, fully, completely, true God of true God. But He’s every bit as much of a man, a human being, flesh and blood, as you and I are. God is at home here in our realm, our earth, our day to day existence.

And He loves to operate in and through the things of this life. And not so much the spectacular; the amazing, the stunning. Go to the Sierra Nevada Range and witness an awesome display of God’s power. Go to the Fjords of Norway and behold the majesty of God’s amazing creation. And there’s no doubt He makes Himself known in those places. Travel the globe and witness that He is the Author of an amazing globe, full of life and beauty. Set your eyes to the Hubble Telescope and marvel at the universe that is really beyond our ability to comprehend. God indeed places upon our hearts the knowledge that there is a Supreme Being.

But He’s much more at home in the mundane things of this world, the simple, everyday things of this universe. You can see that in the ways He truly makes Himself known to us as who He really is. In Baptism, what does He use? Water. Water’s pretty straightforward stuff. What about the Lord’s Supper? Bread. Wine. Simple, ordinary things; the stuff of daily life, of what millions upon millions of people have been partaking of in their meals down through the millennia. How about His incarnation? Flesh and blood. Now it’s true that the human body is beyond compare to anything else in this universe. At the same time, you meet people every day. They’re ordinary. You don’t go around in awe each time you see a person, because people are the stuff of ordinary life. Yet, God became one of them. He put on flesh and blood, ordinary personhood, and walked around as everyone else does, most people not giving Him half a notice. He wasn’t glowing or anything.

So it’s not blasphemy or anything to say that the ways in which God comes to you is very much like a pack animal carrying a person to a destination. I’m sure there are people who have a tremendous understanding of the intricacies of donkeys, but most of us I suspect don’t bring to mind a donkey when we think of the wonders of nature and specifically of the animal kingdom. A donkey is, well, just a donkey. They serve their purpose. And yes, they’re much higher on the list than, say, roaches or mosquitoes. But donkeys are just donkeys. They serve their purpose and for that we’re grateful.

And how we should be. If it weren’t for those ordinary things in life that serve their purpose, where would we be? God is definitely not afraid to use ordinary things to carry Christ to us. You might even say He loves to operate this way. And this is what we are given to note on this day, the first day of the Church Year, the first day of the season of Advent, the first day where we are shown the true beauty of how our Lord works. When we are met on the first day of the Church year with the account of Palm Sunday we are shown immediately that the Church Year doesn’t operate the way a normal year would or in the way we would expect. It doesn’t begin at the beginning. No, it begins with Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.

We know why He was doing that. And that is our key to why we begin the Church Year this way. He is going to the cross. That is how we are directed at the beginning of the Church Year. The Church Year as it unfolds will be all about the cross. Our Advent preparations will be centered on the cross even as we are contemplating why Jesus was born at Bethlehem and as we are continually mindful that our Lord will return again in glory. The Church Year will move us toward our observance and celebration of the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. Jesus didn’t, after all, ride into Jerusalem because He felt like having a parade.

It was the opposite. His coming into Jerusalem was a humble coming even as the crowds were crying out in majesty. Those voices were eerily silent on Good Friday, when He was carrying out what He had ridden into town to carry out. This is where we could truly say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” They didn’t truly understand what they were doing in hailing Jesus as the one who comes in the name of the Lord even as we don’t either if we do not see it as true because of what He accomplished on the cross.

And that is what the liturgy is all about. A magnificent way in which our Lord comes to us. The liturgy is like that donkey, carrying Christ to you. On the Sunday before Jesus suffered and died, a donkey carried Him into the town where that would happen to Him. Now, He doesn’t use a donkey. But if we think a donkey is pretty mundane we can see how it’s similarly mundane to use liturgy to carry Christ to us. The liturgy is not just a ritual we go through, it’s a means through which Christ is brought to us in a way similar to that donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem on that particular day.

If you expect the God of the universe to come to you in the spectacle of His creation you are instead met with your Lord riding in on a lowly beast of burden. This is what your Lord does, He re-orients you. He gets you off the magisterial ways you’d think He’d come to you and the spectacular ways you’d like Him to work in your life and re-orients your thinking and your faith to see how He actually and graciously comes to you. His ways are not your ways and the liturgy teaches you this.

Think in terms of how the Introit for today has done this. It is similar to the explanation of the Creed, a very personal confession of faith. When we confess in the Creed that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, we go on to understand that what this means is that “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.” It’s not just true stuff about God, it’s a personal confession of faith of who He is for you. And in the Second Article of the Creed we confess that what it means is that “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.” This is not just information that’s out there, to make note of, that’s helpful in an informative way. This is the very personal confession of faith.

So in the Introit we prayed along with the Psalmist, “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

Everything in the liturgy, and along with it the Church Year, is driving us to think the things of God, to be re-oriented on Him and His ways; in short, carrying Christ to us. And so we pray in the Collect for the Day that we are in no way preparing in Advent for the birth of Jesus. He has, in fact, already been born. It is a past event that we look back to. No, our preparations are, as preparations always are, for the future. The Collect directs us toward what we should be preparing for: “Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”

We pray our Lord to come. And yes, we know He is going to come on the Last Day, but we don’t just wait and pray for that. We pray He would come to us now, to protect us, to rescue us, to deliver us from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by His mighty deliverance. We too often pray our Lord to come to us in ways that suit our perceived needs much better than mighty deliverance from our sins. All the past events, of the promise of the coming of Christ, the event itself of His coming, His birth and His life, His coming on Palm Sunday, and the event of the fulfillment of it all in His suffering and death, all of these past events are brought home to us in the liturgy, in the mundane way of carrying Christ to us.

This will be our prayer as we are about to receive the Lord’s Supper, in the Proper Preface: “It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose way John the Baptist prepared, proclaiming Him the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and calling sinners to repentance that they might escape from the wrath to be revealed when He comes again in glory.  Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying.”

John was in a sense an Old Testament prophet just as Jeremiah and the others were. He was preparing the way. He was proclaiming Jesus as Messiah. The difference, perhaps, is that Jeremiah and company pointed ahead to one they could not name by name, namely, Jesus, whereas John pointed straight at Him, saying, “This is the one!, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And why did he do this? He was calling sinners to repentance that they might escape from the wrath to be revealed when He comes again in glory. It’s one thing to look back to the historical event of John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and it’s the blessing of God using the liturgy to show us that in the Sacrament we look, and there He is, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, the one who takes away your sin, in this bread and wine, in His body and blood, given and shed for you.

The liturgy, which is the substance of our gathering together in worship, re-orients us and we see that our lives are here in time and also something else; in eternity as well. In the Epistle reading Paul wrote after the fact, after the historical events of the birth of Christ, His coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and His death and resurrection. Now in the Epistle He is speaking of an event in the future, the coming again of Christ on the Last Day. But Paul speaks of it in the same way, as a fact. This is the way we live, in this waiting, trusting, living by the promises of our Lord, taking into ourselves the very means by which He comes to us in the meantime, because our Lord is carried to us in these means.

The liturgy is infused with the language of the Means of Grace—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In the Epistle Paul uses Baptismal language, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” This is in contrast to what he has described as the ways of the flesh: orgies and drunkenness, sexual immorality and sensuality, quarreling and jealousy. Instead, let us walk properly as in the daytime. How do you do that? You put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You live in your Baptism. When we gather for worship we begin with the name of our God placed upon us in the Invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” When we depart we depart having had the name of our God thus placed upon us again in the Benediction, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.” The liturgy thus teaches you that your whole life in Christ is from beginning to end one as a Baptized child of God, the name of your God having been placed on you and you having access to Him—you know His name; you know Him.

Baptized children of God are in Christ even as they waiting for Him to return in glory to take them home to Him in heaven. It is here in worship where we learn this. The Lord’s Supper is intricately wrapped up in the liturgy and perhaps nowhere else is this notion of Jesus coming and our waiting more keenly shown than in Holy Communion. What does our Lord do in His Holy Supper? He comes to us. In and with bread and wine He comes to us. His body and blood are given to us in that bread and wine. Yet, there’s anticipation because we are not yet communing with Him in the fullness of His glory. Even as we are communing, as will be said in the Proper Preface in a little while, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, certainly they realize this Communion in the fullness of its glory while we here on earth still wait for our Lord to return in glory and bring us to the fullness of the Banquet He hosts in eternity. So yes, you do await that day, and as you do, you raise eternal thanks that in that simple, even mundane, bread and wine, you eat and drink things that carry Christ to you. Amen.

SDG

First Sunday in Advent

The First Sunday in Advent begins the Church Year. This day sets the tone for the entire year. It focuses our attention on our Lord and specifically that He comes to us and how He comes to us. On the first day in Advent and as we begin the new year we are planted firmly in the realm of grace. Grace begins our journey through the Church Year, for the Church Year will move us through the way God comes to us in His grace. Out the outset of the Church Year we are made aware that we are in need. Our prayer in the Collect of the Day is that we “be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance.” This shows us something important about this season of the Church Year and how it charts our course through the rest of the Church Year. We not only prepare for the celebration of our Lord’s coming at his birth, we celebrate why He was born—to suffer and die for the sin of the world. And we not only prepare for our Lord’s return in glory on the Last Day, in repentance and serving others. We also are mindful that our Lord comes to us in His Gospel and Sacraments to forgive us and strengthen us in faith and equip us to serve Him.

Awake and Alert

Last Sunday of the Church Year

Sunday of the Fulfillment

November 25, 2012

Mark 13:24–37

It’s a difficult position our Lord puts us into today. Directing us to stand guard. To keep watch. To stay awake and alert. There’s nothing here about what we’re to do, how we’re to go about it, how to occupy the time our Lord gives us on this earth. It would be much easier if He were to lay it all out, as in some other passages of Scripture where it’s clearly defined of actions we are take, ways we are to think, things we are to do for one another.

But here today it’s a simple, “Don’t fall asleep.” Picture the security guard working the night shift. Picture soldier stationed on a remote island with no sound or movement around him.

There’s but one duty here: stay awake and remain alert. Dozing off could get someone killed. Not paying attention could invite treachery. And Jesus in today’s Gospel reading is not talking about some matter of keeping these things about the Last Day in mind. He’s talking about being vigilant. Always on guard. Always awake. Always alert.

He gives no indication about how you are to make use of your time and what things to do with your time. You are to keep watch.

That might make for a very short sermon, in that, what else is there to say about it? Jesus pretty much leaves it at that. So what are we to do with it? Just sit around and wait? From a purely practical and physical standpoint it’s impossible to stay awake. We need sleep. We can’t go, go, go. We have to rest and need to recuperate on a regular basis. The guard and the solider themselves take shifts in their guard duty.

Jesus is waking us up. The fact that we have to ask how to do this shows that we are asleep at the wheel. We are not alert, we are focused on getting by day to day. We are spiritually asleep, concerned more with our problems and being unsatisfied with things in our lives. There’s no time for Jesus to lay out what we should do, He’s gotta wake us up! He is rousing us from our drowsiness. He is shaking us so that we don’t sleep through and be unprepared for when the Hour comes.

Judgment Day is not on our radar. It needs to be. If you’re not prepared, you will stand under the Judgment. You will be judged. Only He knows when He is returning in glory. And only He knows when your life will come to an end on this earth. When you die, if Christ has not yet returned in glory, you will face your Judgment Day. You need to be prepared now. If you’re asleep, wake up! If you’re thinking it’s not a big deal, you need to be alert. It is an eternal deal.

So how do you be ready? What do you do to stay awake and remain alert? As it happens, it’s not just that our Lord says, “stand there like a  guy who’s the doorkeeper and keep watch.” It’s true that what He gives us to do is compared to the doorkeeper keeping watch. This is the way Jesus says it in the Gospel reading:

It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

But a careful hearing of what He’s saying is not that we’re just to stand around and make sure we stay awake. He’s saying we need to be vigilant; just as a security guard would, just as a soldier stationed at his post would, just as the doorkeeper Jesus spoke of would. The way they keep watch is by standing there guarding what they have been given to guard.

What we are to keep watch of is our very lives. We need to stay awake and alert in the life God has given us here on earth to live. The only way you can do that is by being focused, the same way a guard is. Concentrating on the task at hand, which is to keep watch, to stay awake, and remain alert. What Jesus is not saying to us in His warning and exhortation on the coming of the Last Day is to consume our thoughts with it every waking hour. The Bible gives us the calling of actually living out our lives in service to one another, so we can’t take our Lord’s words here and conclude that we need to think of nothing else than when He’s coming back again in glory.

At the same time, we need to take our Lord’s words here to heart and not just go about our everyday lives without realizing the earnestness of this for our daily lives. We can’t become complacent, apathetic, unaware of the urgency—Judgment Day could come at any moment and our death could come at any moment.

But how do you be awake and alert for it if you are not to constantly think about it? The first thing is to listen to Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. It is a sobering and compelling description of what will happen. It is also a warning that it could happen any time. We don’t know when it will happen. We need to be vigilant. It would do us well to go back and read the words again on our own slowly and consider them as something we should not forget.

The second thing, as already stated, is not to take this for granted. Don’t fall into apathy, stay alert!

The third thing, and this is where you get into what our Lord has given us to do in this life, is be in the things that He has given us to be in where He is the one who wakes us up and sustains us so that we don’t fall asleep spiritually.

The first way is, as they say, preaching to the choir. You need to be here. You need to be in this House, the House of God, hearing the Gospel, receiving the Lord’s Supper, being filled up with all the blessings your Lord gives you. You can’t stay awake and alert if you are not receiving what He gives you to spiritually enliven you and sustain you.

This is the blessing of what God gives us to do. It’s stuff to do but it’s really not stuff we do. We’re in this House of God; we’re hearing what is proclaimed; we’re eating and drinking the very body and blood of Christ; but we’re not the ones doing the things that are being done to awaken us and keep us awake and alert. The Holy Spirit is. He’s the one doing the work. He is always vigilant in His work of creating and sustaining faith in you. He is also on guard to forgive you of your sins in the Gospel that is proclaimed and applied to you in your Baptism, and in the Absolution, and in the Lord’s Supper.

The second way is similar in that each day you need to be in this same way of living in which you are receiving. Beginning each day in prayer. Closing each day in prayer. Making some time each day to be in the Word of God. Here again, in these things you are doing things, but really you are receiving. God is the one who is active when you are in His Word and when you are remembering that you are a Baptized child of His.

The third way seems the one most about what you do and not what God does. It is called various things, such as serving, doing good works, vocation, sanctification. Whatever people might like to call it, it is active, and dynamic, and anything but standing around waiting. It is God’s people in service to others. It is His children loving others, caring for others, and submitting to others. It may seem the opposite of standing there at the door keeping watch, being the doorkeeper. But it is the same thing. When you serve—carrying out your vocation, your calling—you are staying awake, remaining alert.

You are not just standing around. You are not idle. You are living in the way your Lord has called you to live. If you live to yourself you will fall into spiritual sleep and apathy. You will not be awake and alert. You will forget about the urgency of Christ’s Return in glory even as you will forget about the calling and the opportunity to serve others. You will forget and even begin to disdain the Gospel, that it is your very life and sustenance.

Part of being awake and alert is being awakened by the Law. God’s Law comes in like a freight train and wakes you up. If you’re near train tracks and a train comes rushing by you are startled and you have to catch yourself at the force of the wind. The Law of God wakes you up to the realization that you have sinned against your Lord in thought, word, and deed. The Ten Commandments shine more brightly as a mirror the more you peer into them and see that you have fallen short of the glory of God. You have fallen asleep at the wheel, not trusting in your Lord and His good gifts to you but rather seeking out your own pleasure and glory.

Wake up now before it’s too late and your own death comes or your Lord returns in glory at any moment! Be alert and repent.

But the other part of being awake and alert is being awakened to new life by the Gospel. The Law wakes you up to the reality of your spiritual death but the Gospel wakes you up to new life. The Gospel actually spiritually awakens you. Think about the warning, or rather, the prophecy given that Christ would go to the cross. He was alert as ever, refusing any sort of alcoholic mixture on the cross to deaden the pain. He was wide awake to the reality that He was taking on Himself the sin of the world. He was aware that His Heavenly Father was bringing upon Him the judgment of holiness against sinners, all on His shoulders; His very life being claimed.

It is in this suffering and death that sinners are brought to life. In your Baptism you are awakened to this life. When you receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper—the very body and blood that were given and shed at the cross—you are sustained in that new life, awake to the eternal life your Lord secured for you and will bring you to the glory of when He returns on the Last Day.

These are the things it means to be awake and alert. These are the things your Lord gives to you in order to be awake and alert. As you see this world go by with all its end-time devolution you remain awake and alert. As you see yourself daily slipping back into the ways of your sinful flesh, wake up; be alert. As you become more and more aware of the devil hitting you hard each day with temptation, be awake; stay alert.

Your Lord is the one who is coming again in glory. This is what you know because He has told you. You have His promise. Your Lord is the one who sustains you in the life He has given you and called you to. Your Lord is the one who forgives you and never forgets you. He is always awake, always alert, always with you, both now when you fall asleep and forever when He comes again in glory to take you home to heaven. Amen.

SDG

In Everything, Thanksgiving

Day of Thanksgiving

November 21, 2012

Philippians 4:6–20

Do you need something good to happen to you in order to be thankful? The answer is no. How about this question: do you need to be given something in order to be thankful? The answer to that is yes. The difference makes the difference between being a truly thankful person and a truly ungrateful one.

If you are depending on good things to happen in order to be thankful you will end up a very ungrateful person. If you realize that the source of your thanksgiving is having received good things from God you will be a truly grateful person. If the difference doesn’t sound like much it’s because we are so conditional. We operate circumstantially. If good things happen, we’re grateful. If bad things happen, we’re ungrateful.

But we have received abundant blessings from God. We ought simply to be grateful, no matter our circumstances. We shouldn’t place conditions on God but rather rejoice in what He has given us.

Have you ever thought about why Jesus Christ gave thanks before He broke the bread of His Holy Supper and gave thanks before He gave His disciples the cup? These are the words of Luke and Matthew as they describe the scene:

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you”… And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

He gave thanks because He had received something. It’s not that good things were happening to Him or things were going well for Him. In looking at the circumstances, things actually weren’t going all that well for Him. He would be betrayed shortly, and He knew this. He would be placed on trial and mocked and tortured, and He knew this. He would be nailed to a cross shortly after that, and He knew this.

You don’t give thanks unless you have received something. What was it that Jesus had received? He was the Lord of the universe, having all things in His possession, what could He possibly have received? Well, with you and me, when we receive things we think of things that make things better for us. When Jesus receives things they are things that entail loving and serving us. What He had received was the commission of being sent to serve. He came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

It pleased the Father to give His Son to us for our salvation. Our Lord and Savior was grateful for the will of His Heavenly Father to become man, to suffer and die for the sin of the world. This is how we are taught to be thankful. Instead of looking at our circumstances, we learn to be thankful for the greatest gift we have ever received, our Lord Himself. Instead of looking for good things to happen to us, we learn that they already have! Our Lord was given to us and He is given to us often in the Gospel and the Sacraments.

When we sit at the table to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast we give thanks for that blessing. Think about what Jesus did when He hosted His disciples at the Passover Meal. He gave thanks at a meal in which He was giving to them. They were receiving, yet He was the one giving thanks. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper we receive what our Lord gives to us. We give thanks for what our Lord has done, which is what He was given to do by His Heavenly Father.

That’s why in the Epistle reading Paul talks about “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” He doesn’t say in the good things. He doesn’t urge gratitude for those times when things are going well. He doesn’t use simple logic and tell them to look around at their circumstances and if they’re amenable that they had better be grateful.

In everything, thanksgiving. It just so happens that what we see anyway isn’t always what really is. God looks at things differently than we do. God sees how truly good things come about through things that we simply view as not good. So while it was tragic that Jesus suffered as He did, died as He did, and lay in the tomb as He did, God brought about the greatest thing there is through that: peace with Him. Atonement of our sins. A restoration of relationship with Him through the willing sacrifice of His Son laying down His life for all sinners.

Paul says that this “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Think not about your circumstances. Think not about what your reason or your logic tell you. Think not about how you would like for things to be different. Simply rest for a moment in gratitude as you consider this peace that surpasses all of your understanding. Consider for a moment how, no matter your circumstances, God’s peace guards your heart and your mind. This is why, and also how, you can be thankful—in everything. The peace of God which bypasses your capacity for understanding, guards you in all circumstances. You aren’t subject to how things are going, you have in everything the opportunity to give thanks because of what you have received from your Lord.

So how do you do this? When you’re naturally inclined to wish your circumstances were better, how do you give thanks in everything? Paul goes on to say, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Is this what you do? Do you think about these things? When you think about these things you are taking your focus off yourself and your circumstances and onto the things of God. In the midst of or despite your circumstances you see more and more how in everything you can give thanks because you see more and more all the many blessings He gives you.

Paul speaks directly to the Philippians: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” The kind of language he uses is receiving language. Language that focuses on what is given, not on how things are going. He exhorts them to consider what they learned in him and what they received in him and what they heard in him and what they saw in him. These are all things that were given to them. That is why they could be thankful, because God gave them blessings through His servant Paul.

Interestingly, Paul then actually goes on to talk about his circumstances. But it’s not for the purpose of saying, when things were going this way, I was this way. And when things were going that way, I was that way. Rather, he says, in all things I was content. Whether he was in need or had plenty he gave thanks. He knew God was taking care of him in all circumstances. His gratitude toward God was not based on circumstances but rather what he had received from God. These blessings received by the Philippians flowed freely back to Paul as he describes how they helped him in his needs. When you give thanks in everything you see how much opportunity there is to help others.

And if we still have trouble with this business of giving thanks in everything, the clincher argument Paul makes is this: “my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” It’s not really an argument so much as a statement of fact. Every need. God will supply everything you need. And why is this? Because of the riches of the glory of Christ.

When you look at your circumstances you are being very close-minded. You are looking at only part of the picture and basing your status on that. When you look beyond your circumstances and see everything that God has given you in Christ, the glory of the riches of His suffering, death, and resurrection, you see that in everything there is nothing else but to give thanks. Another way of saying this is how he closes with this doxology: “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

SDG