READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Daniel 7:9-14
2 Peter 3:3-14
- St. Matthew 24:31-46
Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who
is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth.
Who speaks to you this Penultimate Sunday saying,
“For I was hungry
and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and
you welcomed me”
What we take from these cryptic words of Jesus today is that
He hides Himself. He hides Himself in the good works that He gives to His
faithful Christians. these Good Works are proof of salvation, fruit, not the
means of salvation, as Jesus said, “As you have done so, you have done to me”.
What this points us to is not just the problem of sin, but
now a true dilemma and fight. If the Lord is in secret, then how will we know
Who is the real Christ? Can anyone claim the title by deeds, by divine right,
by flippant whim?
God chose me! Prove it. I know in my heart, so there.
Jesus tells us ahead of time He is hidden from sinful eyes,
not to bring confusion, but so that we do not look for Him as He once was, any
longer. Once He shows up, He shows up, and every knee will bow. This is our
comfort today and our peace for the rest of our lives, which swim in nothing
but chaos and suffering.
For, it is not enough that there is war in heaven. It is not
enough that the devil has been cast down among us, basically giving us a taste
of hell on earth. No, he has also entered the hallowed halls of God’s own
house, the Church. Where God builds His Church, the devil erects his
chapel.
One of the lessons from today’s Gospel, which the Lord wants
us to hear, is that division starts within. Jesus will be coming to judge all
people, yes, but He will start in the church, as He says in 1 Peter, “For it
is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with
us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
(4:17)
The devil is not just in the details, he is in the Church.
Which makes sense. We see him in heaven’s courts at the beginning of the book
of Job. We see him arguing over the body of Moses, in the letter from St. Jude.
What we don’t hear about is his actions in the courts of kings and presidents
or his arguing over unbelievers’ bodies.
We don’t hear about that, because he thinks they are already
his, for they fall under his jurisdiction. He already has their hearts. It is
the hearts of the faithful that he truly wants and he will risk everything to
get them, including trying to sneak into the Son of God’s wedding feast, as we
heard the 20th Sunday after Trinity (St. Matt 22)
The war continues in all its fury, because satan has been
cast down. He could not get to God, even through Jesus. The next closest are
God’s children and those who obey His commandments. It is with them that the
war goes on, now. And they are in Church.
And there is nothing beneath him. If you seeing your
beloved, yet dead grandmother will pull you away from the faith, he will
impersonate her as an apparition. If you being a part of a defeated or
victorious political party will shift your focus off Jesus, then he will
encourage you there. And it will only worsen as Jesus approaches His return.
The devil resorts to any means necessary. He doesn’t care
about logic or reason or being consistent. He utilizes all earthly services of
men, civil and religious organizations become his attack dogs. He has
encroached upon every aspect of the lives of men.
How can he do this? He employs his favorite disguise: 2
Corinthians 11 says, “for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light”
(v.14). He preaches, from his own pulpit, that which only appears right. He
tempts us by what on the surface feels right and good, only to the world’s
standards.
He promises pleasure and fulfillment in many ways that the
world honors but that set aside God’s Word and will. He denies the need for
suffering and struggle in Christ’s church. He casts doubt on God’s love
for us.
Eve received the full brunt of such a sermon and she came to
the same conclusion, “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she
took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with
her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6).
Does God not want His children to grow up? Does He not want
them to find wisdom and knowledge? If there is vengeance or wrongs to be
righted, that must be His cause. Surely, He does not deny pleasures and
delights, does not God create them? Even the Psalms say, “at your right hand
are pleasures forevermore” (ps 16:11)
Repent! When you look at the world around you, and see this
war, even in your own soul, you sink, like St. Peter on the water. Like Eve,
you begin to see a new path. A path of self-growth and independence. Like Adam,
you go along to get along, sacrificing truth for a worked for and earned
righteousness.
The angel of light gives comfort, if you want comfort or
not. He gives hard work, if you want hard work or not. Truly he works in
mysterious ways. He gives pleasures beyond your wildest imagination, if you
just give in. Shave off pieces of your soul, you have plenty. And you know in
your heart that it just feels right.
The battle is met in Church and thank God it is. Not because
church is the place we love the most for friends, family, or direct oversight
as to where and how we worship. No. Not you. Not because of the soldiers.
How is battle joined? Battle is joined when the captains
take the field and order the march. We know the devil is on his loathsome
horse. But Who is to take the other side of the field?
Joshua had that same question, as he approached the mighty
and impenetrable Jericho.
Chapter 5 states, “…he lifted up his eyes and looked, and
behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And
Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”
And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have
come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him,
“What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the Lord's army
said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you
are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so” (v.13-15).
Then He gave command on how Jericho was to be defeated, but
first was His declaration. Almost as if He said, “I am not for you or against
you, because I am for myself”. Yes, because God’s Name is holy in itself. He
doesn’t need us and our prayers to accomplish His eternal tasks. First was the
holiness, a repeated from in front of Moses.
He does not need us, yet He brings us with, just as He
brought Joshua with, past the walls of Jericho as they crumbled.
Why is the battle met in Church and not outside or on the
field of Armageddon? Because the Lord says, “In every place where I cause my
name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you” (Ex 20:24). And His
Name is remembered here, and His death is proclaimed here. He has shown up. He
has taken the field.
So take off your sandals. right now. Take off your sandals
of sin. Take off your sandals of doubt. Take off your sandals of works. The
Lord is going to do an amazing thing and you will only get in the way. And what
is He doing? Psalm 118, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (v 22-23).
That is the suffering, death, and resurrection of God and man in Jesus.
The devil promises pleasure and fulfillment, but Christ
suffers. The angel of light denies the need for suffering and struggle, but
Jesus denies the soft couch for the cross. The Old Adam squirms at the sight of
blood and declares an unloving God, but Jesus declares forgiveness by His
Blood: death and resurrection.
When the Lord, our Great Captain Jesus, fights for us, His
weapon is forgiveness. Not “its ok” or “there there, don’t worry about it”, but
“Father forgive them”. For what? For rebellion. For clinging to the angel of
light, instead of the cross of Christ.
And the cross is carried at Jesus’s Word and Sacrament.
There, we run into the God-man, Himself. For it is in His Word that He reveals
to us what He gave to His Apostles and Prophets to write and teach that He is
God’s Christ, the Only-Begotten. And it is in His Sacraments, where He uncovers
the Word made flesh, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.
This Gospel is our path through the midst of the
battlefield. At the words and Promises of Jesus, “a thousand fall to your
right and ten thousand to your left” (Ps 91:7). The battle is won when
God’s Word and sacrament make us holy, not our efforts. When sin is called sin
and the free justification of sinners is publicly declared, for Christ’s sake
alone.
The Lord Who is hidden reveals Himself through means, and
this the devil cannot stand. There is no hidden truth, no archive under the
vatican, and no secret return. “Every day I was with you in the Temple
courts”, Jesus said (Mk 14:49). That is, everyday He is with us in His
Temple, His Body, His Church. “And He put all things under His feet, and
gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the
fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22-23).
As St. Peter said in our Epistle for today, we are to be
found without spot or blemish and at peace (2 Pet 3:14). The only man without
spot or blemish is the Paschal Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the
world. The only Peace comes from the promise of Peace, made by Jesus. The sheep
know the voice of the Good Shepherd because He preaches Himself: His Gospel and
His sacraments according to it.
Faith alone separates the sheep from the goats. We have
merely to wait. “The Lord will fight for you”, says Exodus 14:14, “and
you have only to be silent”.
He gave us the signal: In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.