No I in Christ [Trinity 27; St. Matthew 25:1-13]

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So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Ultimate Gospel and says,

“And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.”

Let us set this straight once again, for the hour has come for all things to end and Christ to return, on this final, ultimate Sunday. There is no amount of preparation you can do to be ready for the Last Day. Nothing. No amount of charity work, no amount of volunteering, and no amount of giving will get you into that Wedding feast that the 5 wise virgins attend. None.

Why is that? Because whenever you focus on “doing the Lord’s work” or “following Jesus”, your mind, actions, and energy are all centered around you. Not God. Not the Word. Not Jesus. You.

Have I built my house upon the rock or upon the sand? Have I found the truth? Is my mind opened to the truth?

Have I invested heavily—of heart, mind and energies—in this "pearl of great price" that I have been offered (Matthew 13:44– 46), or do I have "itching ears" that would rather listen to "new truths" and fables (2 Timothy 4:3– 4)?

Have I carefully proven what I believe, or do I follow my feelings and listen to the latest doctrine or self-appointed prophet or teacher who comes along (1 Thessalonians 5:21)? Am I seeking first the Kingdom of God, or do I make other priorities more important in my life (Matthew 6:33)?

Am I striving to grow close to God while He can be found, or am I putting off the most important decisions in life until later (Isaiah 55:6–9)?

Am I eagerly anticipating and actively preparing for Christ’s return, or am I hoping for more time to enjoy the transient pleasures of this world?

Since others cannot believe for me, I must buy, invest, and make the effort myself!

I, I, I. My, my, my. Me, me, me. If this is the teaching you are clinging to, then you have fallen to the same sin that the 5 foolish virgins have: that you must buy faith for yourself. This is the popular “Christian” teaching in America. This is what most Christians think this parable is about, that God demands you invest in a personal, private faith or be found with an empty lamp. Be sure God finds you doing good works, when He returns, or be locked out of the Wedding.

Repent. The reason why the Last Day, and the book of Revelation, and any other spot in the Bible seem more frightening than they actually are, is because if your faith depends on you, then nothing could be worse than approaching the Day of the Lord quickly, because no matter how hard you try your faith seems forced and your lamp is always empty. All the hard work I do is good for one day, but not the next, so you depend on the next day or the next thing you buy to keep you on the straight and narrow.

The Lord says, “I will go before you

    and level the exalted places,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

    and cut through the bars of iron” (Is. 45:2)

Jesus will go first. He will be the first and only God to be born of a virgin. He will be the first God-man. He will be the first sinless person. He will be the first to suffer in the exalted place of the cross. He will be the first to break in pieces the doors of bronze that life hides behind in death. He will be the first to cut through the bars of iron that imprison everlasting life.

Jesus says that “…the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated His guests.” (Zep. 1:7) The sacrifice prepared is Jesus, the God-man, first born of the dead. The Lord prepares His own way and prepares His own people, because the preparations to be made to enter heaven are too much for a sinful and fallen creation.

But now that Christ has appeared, He has “…abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). Jesus walks in front to prepare His own Way. The Way of salvation and forgiveness for you. The Way of Life, blazed by His suffering, death, and resurrection. And there is no other way.

In Christ, all things are already prepared. They are already ready. It is a finished product that the Lord presents to you today. Complete. Filled up. Which brings us back to our virgins. It is not the ones who filled up their lamps that enter the already-prepared wedding, it is the ones who stayed regardless.

In our Nunc Dimittis, which we sing with St. Simeon, you sing thusly: “…for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Lk. 2:30-32).

In our favorite Psalm, it is the Lord preparing the Table before our enemies (Ps. 23:5). There just is no getting around it. We do not prepare; the Lord prepares us. How do we know we are prepared if there’s nothing we can do about it? Belief. Belief prepares you.

Dr. Luther’s explanation of the Sacrament of the Altar gives us this key clue into the Prepared Life before God. He asks, “Who, then, receives such Sacrament worthily?

The Answer: “Fasting and bodily preparation is, indeed, a fine outward training; but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins.

But he that does not believe these words, or doubts, is unworthy and unfit; for the words For you require altogether believing hearts.”

Faith. Belief. Trusting in what God has given. All these things are what you “do” to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Illness can not stop these preparations. Death does not end them, either, for they are the Lord’s. The Lord preaches His Gospel through all the earth and creates believers. The Lord distributes His sacraments and sanctifies His people.

The Lord calls you to Church in order that you would hear all these things and believe that they are yours, simply because the Lord says they are.

Dear Christians, your lamps are full. Not just full, but over flowing. In the Word and Sacrament, you hold a blazing torch in your hand who’s fire spills over to all the earth. It consumes death and sin and leaves no trace. Out of its purifying flames steps one like the Son of Man, glorious in His appearance.

Continue to ask your questions about your preparations. Continue to struggle with your sins and continue to strive towards more of Christ. But do it in hope and in belief. Struggle and strive in the wild assertion that, though you must wait, everything is already ready for you. Believe, that though you must die, the death of a saint such as yourself results in life everlasting with Jesus.

Life given [Trinity 26; St. Matthew 25:31-46]

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So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Penultimate Gospel and says,

“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Penultimate is the word used for “second to last”, following of course, the word for last: ultimate. And what we are to take away from today, especially as we continue to circle around this text year after year, is that the Lord is Coming and He is coming soon.

As we discussed last week, the thing that keeps us on the straight and narrow towards the Lord’s Return is Confession and Absolution within the Divine Service. We need that Confession of our sins, because Jesus came to forgive sinners and if we say we have sin, Jesus then absolves us and we know He is there, as He promised.

In the Divine Service then, we examine ourselves after Absolution and determine that, in Christ, we are worthy to receive the Sacrament and stand before God’s judgment of us to be declared blessed and not declared condemned.

Thus, when our Collect of the Day:

"O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Thy Holy Spirit: that, being ever mindful of the end of all things and the day of Thy just Judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with Thee forever hereafter; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the same Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen."

it urges continuous study and meditation on the end of all things and the final judgment, we are stirred to holy living and a “forever after” with our Lord. Here, of course, study does not just mean reading your Bible at home, neither does holy living simply mean going out and being a nice person.

The Collect calls us to be mindful. This includes study, but also includes a life lived IN holiness. They go together. And a life lived in holiness is nothing more than receiving the holy Sacrament from the hand of Christ Himself. For Christ has promised to dwell with us where we gather around His Name and it is here that His name is proclaimed in Gospel purity. Being baptized into Christ we are placed in holiness Himself.

So when we begin to digest our Introit from Psalm 54, we are not crying out in despair against those who are after our soul, but we are crying out in the midst of mercy; in the midst of the Divine Service; in the midst of this holy life Christ gives us for free. “Save me, O God”, “Hosanna”, we cry out, and He is right there saying take and eat and drink for your salvation.

So we have a pre-judgment party! A foretaste of the Last Day. This is every Sunday in the Divine Service. In today’s world, everyone is worried about finding the date and time for when the Lord will return and the Lutheran’s are all like, “Hey. He’s been coming to Church ever since we’ve been here. Why the fuss?”

Repent! Why is it that all that comes to mind when you think of rescue from God is that you want Him to make your lives easier? All you value God’s salvation for is how comfortable your lives may become. When things go bad, you call on God. When things go well you leave Him alone. Sin becomes just a few mistakes you make along the way, asking for help to correct them and prevent them in the future.

Praying to God to rule and govern your hearts and minds is saying that you don’t do it, more to the point, that you can’t do it. Begging God to stir up our hearts to His way of living is saying that we weren’t living that way to begin with. Shouting “Hosanna”; pleading for salvation is saying that sin is so much more than a tiny mistake.

When Jesus tells us that His purpose is to seek and save that which is lost, He doesn’t mean that He’s looking for a little lamb who lost their way or made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, meaning something that has gone away and is not coming back. Whenever we read the word “lost” in the Bible, it is important to remember that this word means death.

It is no small thing then, that we see the Lord of all Creation come down in the flesh and rescue humanity by way of the cross. A mistake can be corrected. A wrong can be righted. A sin cannot and does not go away. Sin is an infection. A corruption on the genetic level with no hope of a cure.

No hope, until Christ purchases and wins a cure: His own sacrifice and death. It is in His life of suffering that the holy way is opened for the possibility of redemption from our sin. He does not say “try harder” or “you can do better next time”. He says in Matthew 20:

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Jesus is saying that He doesn’t just want simple obedience in your life, He wants you to believe Him. Believe that He suffered and died for you. Believe that He created a life of holiness, for you. Believe that He has come to rescue you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Believe that He dwells with you in Word and Sacrament.

In dividing the sheep and the goats today, Jesus is making a distinction. He is defining who the sheep are and who the goats are. Not because inherently there’s a difference, but because of what He says about them. He wants the sheep to believe they are sheep, because of what He has done for them and He wants the goats to believe they are goats because of what they think they have done for themselves.

Jesus does not lay out a plan for a fulfilling life in describing His sheep. He lays out the plan of His life. For Jesus feeds the hungry and the thirsty in Communion. Jesus calls the unloved stranger, loved with His Gospel. Jesus clothes the sinful in baptism. Jesus comes to the sin-sick and sin-shackled and visits them with forgiveness and freedom.

In faith, the sheep, those who believe, take on a Christ-like character without even knowing it and through no merit or worthiness in them, they live and work. In faith, the sheep live their lives and are surprised when Jesus declares that such sinful creatures as themselves do and have done works that are pleasing to God. In faith, the sheep die and are wakened to the sound of the Shepherd’s voice praising them for all the things He did in their lives.

Will there be such faith when the Son of Man returns to earth, Jesus asks (Lk. 18:8). Will our holy living take on a character of our own making or will we continue to live the Life Jesus gave us in His Church? In these final days of earth, Jesus has already given us all we need to prepare and survive until He returns.

He has given us faith. He has given us His holy life of faith, to be lived out in the Church. He has presented Himself and His Service in such a manner that all hearts are moved to belief in His salvation.

So that when we hear, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Gal. 2:20-21), our own hearts and minds are taught to conclude that we too are blessed by our Father in heaven and stand to inherit the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world.

Idolize me [Trinity 25; St. Matthew 24:15-28]

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On this antepenultimate Sunday, our Lord speaks directly to us saying:

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

Every time “abomination” is used in the Bible, it refers to idols and that which is offered to them. Which means that one of the key ways to recognize the abomination is to understand what an idol is and what an idol is not.

It is popularly taught, even in churches, that idols are only physical things. They are statues or pictures that people buy in tourist traps and use to decorate their house. It is taught that the buddha statues are a part of this category because it all falls under the heading of “graven image”.

This of course from our first Commandment from God which tells us not to have any other gods before Him. Some churches mistakenly split this commandment into 2 where one says “no other gods” and the other is “no graven image”, which causes the confusion. If we separate other gods and images, then we get a list of commands that are doable.

This way of teaching allows us to love an invisible God over other invisible gods and call it a day. That’s easy. We can put away the physical things that seem to represent other gods or heaven things. That’s easy, too. And there’s 2 commandments checked off our to-do list. Won’t God be pleased?

God forbid! The true teaching of the first command is one: that the worship of other gods is the worship of idols, for there is only one, living God. All others are fakes who cannot hear or see or talk (Ps. 135:16). Which means that simply throwing out your buddha statue or favorite painting is not enough to rid you of crimes against the first commandment.

This is because an idol demands much more than mere presence. It demands worship. It demands obedience. It demands a church. The Lord goes on in describing the first command, saying: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Ex. 20:5)

Repent. You think statues and other works of art fool God. You believe that if you just keep these things out of your life that you will be free from idols and demons harassing you and tempting you away from Christ. And you are wrong.

It is the idols and demons that we keep secret, that are the real danger. The Lord sees the idols and graven images in our hearts (Jer. 17:9). Our heart is deceitful above all things when the truth is we should be loving God above all things. Anything can take our fear, love, and trust away from God. Your own reason or thinking, wealth, your belly or emotions, even our own families. There is nothing in all Creation resistant to being made into an idol by you.

Since we are not safe and since we have secret idols we keep hidden, what is going to rescue us from our idolatry? The idols are abominations. They are abominations, because they remove people from the true Church and place them into the Devil’s chapel. And it works, because the devil’s chapel does things and sounds exactly like Christ’s Church complete with its own word and sacraments.

What may surprise you is that security is found in Confession and Absolution. Yes, of course the answer is Jesus, but there are so many Jesus’ out there, which one is the right one? It is the one that is confessed correctly according to His Word.

And it is only the Word confessed in His Church that saves and prevents false idols in your hearts, because it is only in the place where Christ creates His salvation that will hold any sort of protection for you. By this I mean, the place where Jesus says something is what it is, regardless of what we see.

We confess that all we see are a gathered, rag-tag group of sinners who are probably worse people than myself, sitting next to me. Yet, Jesus says that they are faithful and forgiven and worthy to receive the gifts of the most-high God. In that we believe Jesus’ words over our own understanding, we are absolved.

We confess that all we see is water from the tap, filled with fluoride and other chemicals designed for our good, not worth a second thought when spilled or stepped in. Yet, Jesus says this is the River of Life. A worthy vessel to be used in washing the heart for one’s salvation. A water that tears open the heavens gains favor from God. In that we believe Jesus instead of our eyes, we are absolved.

We confess that all we see are bread and wine, found on any table in the world, made from the same grapes that children eat and from the same grains that animals eat. Yet, the Lord declares, “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood”. The same body and blood that rule the heavens and all the powers therein. Believing these words, we have what the promise declares: the forgiveness of sins.

This is the priceless gift purchased with the Blood of Christ on the cross. A Confessing Church; a place in time and space that you can get to, where no idolatry is present. Where Jesus makes a stronghold against the Abomination that is the anti-Church. In confessing your sin of unbelief, idols, and graven images you freely receive the absolution of Christ and His Faith which does not fail.

In the Holy Ark of Christ’s Word, the Abomination of Desolation does not have a foothold. In Christ’s Church, we always hear the words, “Here is the Christ” and “there He is”, because they are the words of Jesus, not of men. He is not in the secret places where the devil will try to lure you to remove your faith.

Jesus is in the public places. As the lightning comes from the east and shines in the west, so is the Church of Christ. It is all over the world, yet it is one body of Christ. And it is obvious, just as the lightning is. She is decorated as one who is loved. With art, with care, and with purpose. She houses the gifts of God that bring salvation and all her décor is only to direct people to them.

She calls pastors, she cries out with the wisdom of God, and she treasures and administers the Word and Sacraments to a dying and idolatrous world, because her gifts are only for idolaters. They are only for those who are lost sinners, destroyed by the sin and corruption of unbelief.

Jesus has not left us uninformed or defenseless or without hope. We have been given the Word. It guides and informs as to where Christ is saving His people from sin, death, and the power of the devil. We have been given the Sacraments. They heal, nourish, and keep us in the true faith which repels even the very gates of hell.

We have also been given the Resurrection and by it hope. Hope that this life of idols and demons is not all there is. Hope that though the forces of darkness gather stronger and stronger, they do not win. They have been judged. The deed is done. They lie. Jesus does not. The true Church gathers where the crucified and risen corpse, or Body of Jesus is.

Thus the new command is for you to bring your idols and your sin as offering. They are the only things truly owned by you. You are to cast them down at the feet of this Altar, not in obedience but in Faith that they will be exchanged for righteousness and the true image of God: Christ the Crucified.

The day after death [Trinity 24; St. Matthew 9:18-26]

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Who speaks to us in today’s Gospel saying:

“Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.’ And instantly the woman was saved.”

Following the wake of violence left by Halloween in death and darkness, is the breaking of the eternal dawn of All Saint’s Day, which is the hope of the believer: to be translated to the side of Christ for eternity as a saint.

This pattern is repeated throughout the Church year and even throughout the Bible. Death then resurrection. Suffering, then glory. Darkness, then light. Evening, then morning.

This is for a reason: repetition is the mother of memory. In the life of God’s child, this pattern should begin to inform your entire life. It should mold and blend itself into the fabric of drudgery and monotony that you bring with you here, from the rest of your week. For, as our soaps say, the sun also rises.

It should be no surprise then that All Saint’s Day follows the pattern. In the light of hope and mercy from God, for our loved ones that have died before us in the faith, the sun sets and rises on the next day. A day which feels emptier and grayer for our loss. Yet, a day that the Lord has made for us to trudge through, even so.

We have already discussed this March of the Christian through life, when we heard of another son that was close to death. For that son, Jesus simply spoke the Word from afar and the boy came back to life. Yet, his father still had to leave his son’s side, approach a man he never met, and hope that He could do something. A dark journey through sin and death to reach his son’s side, alive again.

Today, however, the young girl is dead. Where they may have been hope for recovery of the son, since he had not yet died when his father left him, today a father leaves the house of death with one more on her way to populate the cemetery.

To top it all off, there is a zombie following Jesus. Part of the living dead, a woman who cannot stop herself from bleeding out attempts to grab a hold of Jesus just in case that might save her. And she needs saving, not just a healer. She knows that if just a doctor looks at her, she might just open up again and be in trouble. She needs healing and rescue from this ever happening to her again.

Repent. You are the living dead. You are the Walking Dead. You may not be as bad off as some others, but your sin has left you with a festering, fatal wound. You may not have to march hundreds of miles amid criminals and the forces of nature with your children. You may not have to dive for cover at the sound of aircraft and hope its not coming for you. You may not even have to struggle as a person like some people in the political party that you oppose.

You may be the holiest person on earth, but you are dead to God. You may be following in the train of Jesus, but you are bleeding out, fatally so. Your sin has caused great corruption to your flesh and no amount of hypocrisy is going to cover it up, yet you must still offer your neighbor the benefit of the doubt saying, “Satan made him do it”.

Two things: 1) Jesus enters the House and 2) Jesus bleeds.

This week, Jesus does not hesitate to follow this father into death. Now there’s something. We always say how wonderful it is that I follow Jesus, when Jesus is doing the following today. Jesus follows in order to bring life in exchange for His death. He rose from where He was sitting and where He was buried in order to cause this girl to rise back to life.

In this same way, your Pastor comes to Christ in the Divine Service, calling to Him saying, “Savior, my church has just died, but come and lay your pierced hands upon her in Your sacraments and she will live.” And Jesus follows, processes to the Divine Service, even here, and raises all of you to new life in front of God.

Through His open wounds, Jesus has poured out everlasting life upon your heads and into your mouths. These same wounds were opened to bind up the woman with the flow of blood. Her blood stopped and Christ’s blood flowed. Her living death became His eternal life which He gives to her. Her condemnation became His salvation.

Jesus bleeds out instead of you. Jesus lowers His head to enter this church. He comes because here there are sinners to be rescued. He stays because here there are sinful wounds needing forgiveness. He presides because here there is bread from heaven to be eaten and the blood of God to be drunk.

As the Church turns towards the End of Her liturgical year, it is a turn towards death for before the Lord comes there will be Satan’s little season. Meaning, it will get worse before it gets better. And that is ok. It is how its supposed to be. We are not supposed to like it here. We are to despise the death we find at every corner.

Yet, we are not to despise the Life that Christ freely gives to us. We are not to despise preaching and His Word. Jesus preached and this woman ceased to bleed. Jesus called to the daughter and she awoke from her deathly slumber. The Word of God raises us and will raise us. We stand with boldness today at His Altar and we will stand on the Last Day, never to die again, seeing Him face to face.

In the midst of life, there is death. In the midst of death there stands the Crucified and Risen Lord. In the midst of death’s dark veil, the powers of hell overtake us. In the midst of hell is the Conqueror with His blood-red banner of victory. In the midst of utter woe, our sins oppress us. In the midst of sin stands Christ Crucified, Who takes away the sin of the World.

On these days which you must continue to press on in this shadowed valley, begrudging each step, you get to sing with all the saints in glory. You approach the Lord of Life in His Supper and commune with Him and all who have died in the faith before you. This day of sin and death, you are awakened to new life, life filled with the Body and Blood of Christ singing the songs of saints and angels.

You do not have to wait for the Last Day or even your own death to sing the Resurrection song. Because God communes with you this day, death and sorrow all belong to the former days. Though the shadows appear to be lengthening, they are growing shorter. The night is ending. Clouds of death are breaking. Storms of sin are ceasing. The Son of Peace rises. Baptism now saves you.

God has promised and Christ prepares the meal that seals the deal. Christ has passed the eternal gates, bringing back His Word and Sacraments to fool the wise and comfort the poor in spirit and heaven rejoices at the Church that produces such believing Christians with those gifts!