The Salutation [Christmas 1; St. Luke 2:33-40]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Merry 5^th day of Christmass in which we ponder our Lord’s words from His Gospel, saying:

“Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

What we hear from St. Simeon, today, is that the physical affects the spiritual word, for he tells us that and sign and a sword will pierce St. Mary’s very being all in order that thoughts and hearts be revealed. The physical reveals the spiritual. What you do with your body affects your soul. What your soul is like, is acted out by your body.

In one of my favorite Bible passages, Isaiah in chapter 1 speaks God’s Word on this very same idea when He says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord”(v.18). This is a revolutionary way to do religion. That God would not just talk with His creatures, but negotiate and dialog with them is heretofore unheard of.

In every other religion, the gods tell you what to do and for obvious reasons. They are gods so they should know better, so who better to go to for advice? Men are puny, what about their lives would interest a god? So we are told to consult the oracle or go to the temple and wait for an answer or, when the gods do speak, they simply say, “You need to figure it out on your own” effectively making their existence useless!

The one, true God does tell us what to do and also does so for the obvious reason of Him knowing better than us. But God takes the next step that no god in his right mind would dare, that of allowing human opinion in His operations. Prayer changes things, yes, but this is a bit deeper than prayer.

Our Divine Service gives us this example and teaching. In the Salutation, “The Lord be with you and with your spirit”, we have the pastor who is God’s man and the congregation of God dialoging. The Salutation is there to bring Scripture to life. In it the pastor and the congregation confess that they do this Service together.

The Salutation marks this new action of the Divine Service—the sacramental action, where God meets us in His life-giving Word. It is not addressed to God but to the people and is a reciprocal prayer of the pastor for the people and of the congregation for its pastor before they together offer their prayers to God. It serves as a constant reminder of the pastoral relationship. For this reason, this phrase and its response has sometimes been called “the little ordination.”

“The Lord be with you” is a familiar greeting in both the Old and New Testaments. For example, when Boaz came from Bethlehem he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you,” and they answered, “The Lord bless you” (Ruth 2:4). The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you” (Judges 6:12). When the angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary, he said, “The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). St. Paul used the phrase in his benedictions, “The Lord be with you all” (2 Thess 3:16) and, “May the Lord be with your spirit” (2 Tim 4:22).

The congregation’s response, “And with your spirit,” is a request that the Holy Spirit be with the pastor as he proclaims the Word as the mouthpiece of Christ. And so, particularly before sacramental acts such as the reading of the Word or the administration of Holy Communion, we have the Salutation and response. The phrase finally became embedded in the early Christian liturgies as a significant responsive introduction to sacramental parts of the Divine Service.

All of this because God is speaking to us, conversing with us, dialoging with us, and changing things with us. The dialog of men alone is unbelief and violence. When Jesus tries to reveal the Bread of Heaven in the feeding of the 5000, the disciples thought Jesus was angry for them for not having bread themselves (Mt. 16:7).

When Jesus asked if baptism was from men or heaven, the chief priests dialoged among themselves and could not answer at all, because they believed none of it (Mt. 21:25). The Pharisees dialoged with themselves and determined that only God could forgive sins, even though God was standing right in front of them (Lk. 5:21) and thought that if they just kill the Son, the inheritance would be theirs (Lk. 20:14) and that its better that one man die rather than a whole nation perish (Jn. 11:50).

In Christ, God sends the dialog; the spiritual sends the physical. Moses was sent to Pharaoh, in God’s stead, to dialog, Ex. 6:27, because the dialog of God does not lead to confusion or more questions. It leads to reconciliation. Jesus says in Mt. 5:24 “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First [dialog with] your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

This is the conversation that God wants to have with His creatures: that you are included, that you are not forgotten, that you have a place in the plan. Reconciliation and salvation are God’s plan and what He wants to reason together with us about. In other words, He wants to talk about His Son’s work.

In Isa. 63 He says, “Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, [dialoging] in righteousness, mighty to save” (v.1).

His son’s work of dialog that leads to salvation is the Divine Service in a nutshell. In Christ, God has been made man so that now man’s words are God’s words. Now, a greeting from a man is a greeting from God. A salutation of “The Lord be with you” is now God speaking to us and we can’t help but respond, “And with Thy Spirit”.

Because of the Incarnation, we can’t even just say a simple “hello” to each other anymore. The plain greeting just seems so insignificant when placed next to the knowledge of God’s Plan of sacramental Salvation. So, we wish each other the highest blessing that has been given to us, that the Lord would be with all of us, even in such a seemingly mundane setting as another Sunday at Church.

Yet, whenever this greeting is given, we know that the mundane is promoted to the holy. When the pastor wishes upon us the Lord’s Presence, we respond in kind, answering him that we are listening and prying for him saying, “And with your Spirit”.

St. Mary must now resign herself to the fact that her spiritual religion just became completely physical in her Son and accept that a sword will pierce her own soul. This must be, because spear and nail and thorn will pierce her Son in order to redeem her and all her race from sin and death, so that the holy conversation between God and men can commence in His righteousness.

Sinner; invited [Nativity; St. John 1:1-14]

AUDIO ONLY.

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The Lesson with carols [Christmas Eve]

AUDIO ONLY.

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Glooooria [Advent 4; St. John 1:19-28]

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Who speaks to you today saying,

“John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know’”

Dear Christians, all too often we sacrifice the physical for the spiritual, contenting ourselves with a mess of a life, if only God would give us good feelings instead of actually acting, especially during the holidays. We strain our necks looking up at the clouds and burn our eyes staring at the sun, waiting for God’s action in our lives.

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​​So God sends us to John the Baptist and we are extremely disappointed with this command, as much as the priests, Levites, and Pharisees are. God commands us to look down, when we want to look up. But when all we see is a mad-man in camel hair, eating locusts and honey, and living in the wilderness we deny its very possibility of being real.

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​​Like Nicodemus who can’t take in the physical act of being born again and like the high priest Caiaphas who could not fathom God sacrificing Himself on behalf of all people. We just cannot connect our lives to the life of faith and heaven in any other way but that of a spiritual metaphor.

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​​When God tells us to love Him, we hear it in a spiritual way, as in its left up to our imagination and the emotions we can conjure. When God tells us to love our neighbor, He means only the ones close to us that are friendly and that anyone else just gets thoughts and prayers.

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​​When God says seek my face in Psalm 27, and seek the Lord while He may be found in Isaiah 55, He just means to feel those special feelings of uplifted, breath-taking, amazing, beautiful, awe inspiring, and spectacular spirituality. God doesn’t really have a face to seek…does He?

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​​Jesus’ opponents, the Pharisees, priests and Levites get it. You may be disappointed by that fact, but they get it. They get the fact that they must be looking for a man, but they are unhappy on both ends of things. Today, we hear them seeking a man and asking him if he is the Christ.

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​​They know! They know God is going to take a body, that He is not just going to be spirit, and that He will come to them in this way. In the same way they know that Jesus is going to rise from the dead, so they set a vigil over His tomb. Both revelations disappoint them.

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​​The Gloria in Excelsis, in the Divine Service, is our safeguard against our sinfulness in taking the side of the Pharisees, priests, and Levites and we have removed it from our Advent Services in order to prove this to ourselves. 

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​​Unlike the Kyrie, the Gloria has been in Service from the beginning. Finally written down in the Second Century, the Gloria stands as our own confirmation and inclusion in the work of God. It commands that we look up, look down, and rejoice that God was made man.

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​​“Glory to God in the Highest” means above all things, not simply far away in heaven. God’s glory, His will, and how He acts are far above our glory, will, and acts and yet God performs those things on earth. The song of the angels on the first Christmas show us this by tearing open the fabric between heaven and earth revealing that God has come down.

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​​This you can also be taught by any good Church art and architecture. If you ever happen to visit one of the big basilicas, the walls are covered in fresco and mosaic, icons and statuary. You are forced to look up and view all the images of heaven and its occupants. But, though you look up, you notice that all the depictions up on high are looking down. You look up for God’s glory, but as the angels tell us, we find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, not the clouds of heaven.

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​​In the phrase, “and on earth peace, good will toward men”, we have a bit of grammar trickery going on. The ESV Bible that we usually hear from in Church translates this as “on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased”, from Luke 2:14. The problem is that it sounds like God is only pleased with some on certain parts of the earth and not all, as He has said in John 3:16, God so loved the whole world.

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​​So we must hear this phrase as declaring to us that there is peace on earth, because God is pleased with men. “Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel” as “Hark the herald angels sing” tells us. God is pleased with man because He is a man. There is peace on earth because a man has come to ransom captive Israel.

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​​“We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks” should not be seen as some sort of good work that we do to earn salvation, since it sounds like we are chanting all about us. Instead, we chant this section in light of true Peace being on earth, forgiving our sins. We praise, bless, worship, glorify, and give thanks, because God dwells with us. We are sanctified to be able to sing this, in Christ.

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​​Next, the Gloria once more moves us into the heights of “lord God” and “heavenly king” and “father almighty”. Again though, the very next phrase takes us down to how God is Lord, where this heavenly king is, and what it means that we call Him “almighty”. 

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​​In the “only begotten son”, the “Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world” and has mercy and receives prayer, God tilts our head down to where Jesus is. God is Lord, because He is proved the master of sin and death, in His Son, the man. He is heavenly king because He makes His throne the cross where He is as a Lamb Who is slain. He is almighty because He can and does do all this and remains God and man, losing neither.

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​​It is this man Who sits at the right hand of God. It is this Lamb only, Who is holy. It is this God-man alone Who art the Lord; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

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​​The Shepherds sing this song of the angels as they seek the mother and her Child, in Luke 2. It is this song that is remembered by those 12 that Jesus chose and it is this heavenly hymn that the Church guards so closely, even today. Because in it She finds the answer to the Pharisees’ question and St. John’s half answer to them.

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​​If they would have sung this song of heaven; this Gloria in Excelsis, they would have known that their Christ, their Prophet, their Elijah, their baptizer was none other than the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, as St. John declares in v.36 of the same chapter our Gospel reading is from.

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​​Had they but held this heavenly chant close and guarded it with reverence, they would have known that the Lord’s prophet from Deuteronomy 18 would speak words from His own mouth, for God would be made man and be His own Prophet. 

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​​Would we but employ this hymn on Sundays and every day, we would rejoice, as St. Paul commands us today in Philippians 4. For then, our reasonableness would be known in the God-man lying in a manger, our anxiety would flee and, our prayers and supplications would fly straight towards the Throne and we would find heaven on earth, not far above.

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​​For the Peace of God that fills the whole earth, because He is pleased with men, communes in His Church. The Peace of God which surpasses all understanding is given and shed for you. The Peace which guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, does so from outside and inside, being placed on your tongue. 

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​​The Gloria in Excelsis places God on the Altar of His Church, which is what all the host of heaven stares at continually in wonder, that the Lord could be crucified and yet live forever. The most holy mystery of all and the constant headline in heaven is that The Crucified is pleased with men and is the Peace on earth.

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​​The Gloria switches the spiritual for the physical and the physical for the spiritual. It lifts our eyes towards heaven and points us to the manger. It fills us with the heavens and sits us down to an earthly feast. It says God is on high and reveals that God is on High, communing with us. It does not allow us to see the things in heaven or the things in earth without Jesus and His cross in view.

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Jesus' Name [Wednesday in Advent 3; St. Matthew 28:1-10]

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Lord, Have Mercy [Advent 3; St. Matthew 11:2-10]

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Jesus speaks to you, even this day, saying:

“This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way before you.’”

Just in time for the Advent season and its annual fake news about how Christmas was pagan and how Jesus wasn’t born on the 25th and how all of Christianity is stolen from other religions, we look to our Kyrie in the Divine Service, that is, the place where we say, “Lord have mercy”.

The reason this all coincides is because, in the earliest forms of the Divine Service, the Kyrie was not there, but it was there in pagan rites and ceremonies. As we sing it, sandwiched between the bright tones of the Introit and the Gloria, the Kyrie is sung with somber and humble tones, in the Divine Service today.

This is exactly the tone they wanted that pleads for favor or help. That the sun worshipers cried, “O Helios, have mercy”. The emperor worshipers cried out, “O Lord (emperor), have mercy”. It is the religious petition toward a god to gain something, usually something good. Never would anyone beg for something bad or tragic, but such is the Santa Claus god we are used to.

We don’t actually see or hear the Kyrie in the Divine Service until the 6th century AD, probably through the powerful influence of the great church at Constantinople, thus it is retained in the original Greek, even to our modern day, so the historians say.

Thus, I guess, we must resign ourselves to prison as St. John does today, that Christianity was and is just another hotplate on the buffet table of history. No matter what we do; no matter what St. John does, he ends up in prison. He had the call from God, he did what God said, and he went where God said. And yet it turns out he was just another crazy street preacher who just happened to annoy the wrong king and lost his head.

This is the one who prepares the way of the Lord?! This is the path that Jesus is to take and then we are to follow that?! On top of that, do we have no originality to stand on? Is there not something that is uniquely Christian that we didn’t have to borrow from pagans or Jews?

As St. John knew very well, he was a borrower, but not from any worldly organization that was somehow around before Christianity. He was a borrower of words, words that God had spoken centuries before he was born. Christianity may have added things on to liturgy and lectionary throughout the centuries, but there is nothing pagan about it, Christmass, or the Kyrie.

In fact, before these sun-cults and emperor fan clubs was King David and he pens psalm 123 which says, “O Lord, have mercy upon us” (v.3) which is exactly what Kyrie eleison means. On top of this, King David was not Jewish, in the religious sense of the word, but a Christian. He was expecting the Lord’s Christ, or Messiah, to come and rescue him, as God told him in 2 Sam. 7 saying, “Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house…And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” (v.11, 16)

Those “forever” words can not apply to mere mortals, but to those who will be resurrected in the resurrection of all flesh, which David believed in saying of his recently dead son, “But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23).

There is no other way to describe religion directed toward God as anything other than Christian; having to do with Christ. This means that there never was a religion, instituted by God that did not have to do with Christ. That is to say, that Christianity did not beg, borrow, and steal. It was the others who stole from Christianity.

So when we come back to St. John in prison and the use of the Kyrie, we find that not only is the Kyrie super-Christian, but that St. John’s predicament is, as well. 

In this way: Isaiah tips us off and tells us great news; we are to be comforted immediately. We are to lay down our warfare, because its over. The fighting has stopped. The treaty signed. But he does it by telling us that our iniquity is pardoned and that we will be receiving double for all our sins.

Iniquity? Sins? Have we not lived life to the utmost for You, God? Have we not done all the right things, said all the right things, and been in the right places? And still the answer is no. Still the answer is temporal and eternal punishment for our sins.

If we make light of sin; if it is simply something we can overcome with a change of mind or a change of attitude, then this is not the place for you, Christ is not the man for you, and the Kyrie is not the phrase for you.

Because Isaiah prepares a way for you that gives comfort and joy, but only after warfare, iniquity, and sin. St. Paul, in our Epistle reading, says that it is the Lord Who judges. Jesus tells us that the man who is “more than a prophet” does not escape jail and death. Jesus then goes on to show us that not even the Son of God escapes all of those things.

Lord, have mercy! That God would engage in war, taste iniquity, and wallow in sin. What brokenness the world is in that the sole, sinless being in the entire universe must empty Himself and become obedient to death. What depths of degradation has humanity fallen into that the Father of all mercy and the God of all comfort must become a judge.

Indeed, all people are grass, and the Word of the Lord will stand forever. But the judgment of the Lord does not stand forever. Yes, sin will always be judged, but now the Lord of all has been sent to prison. Now, Jesus has taken on the darkness, the iniquity, and the warfare, not just to lose His head and become a martyr, but to open the prison doors that held St. John and that hold you, which you could not open.

Where King David, St. John, and the Church have only sacrifices to depend on and no real certainty that God will show them favor at their cry of “Lord have mercy”, Jesus is the sacrifice Himself, Who gives pardon, Who gives rest, and Who gives double for all sins all because He will stand forever, meaning, all because Jesus stands at the Resurrection, never to die again.

God judges Himself on the cross. God raises Himself, three days later, and assumes the throne of His “father” and loyal subject, David. God places Himself in the hands of men in order that, in their suffering, He would relieve them with the Gospel; the fact that all their iniquity is pardoned and that their death-cell door has been propped open with a cross-shaped door jam.

So even though we would call the Kyrie a sacrificial act on our part, meaning, it is an act we do in service to God, it is only sacrificial because of the one sacrifice made for all in Jesus. So it is then that we can “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16), for upon these two wings of humility and confidence all liturgical prayer rises to the throne of grace.

We offer the sacrifice of the Kyrie within the sacrifice Jesus made. Jesus cries out for mercy for us, not for Himself, and so we echo His Word. The mercy shown to St. John and to us within the Church, is a mercy not of this world. A mercy that can be vibrant and effective even behind bars and even in death.

The Name of heaven and earth [Advent 2 Wednesday Vespers; St. Luke 1:26-38]

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Action waiting [Advent 2; St. Luke 21:25-36]

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Jesus speaks to you today, in His Gospel, saying,

“So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”

In the Gospel today we are waiting for the coming of the Son of Man and there are many signs and actions that point to this coming which should be very obvious to us. In the Epistle reading, we are waiting. In the Old Testament reading we are waiting and all in all waiting on the Lord is supposed to be a good thing.

In our modern reinterpretation of the American dream, we have made it “hurry up and wait” as we stand in lines for everything consumerism tells us to. Dr. Seuss even comments on this most useless place in life: the waiting place, saying that it is a place to escape from, not stay in.

This is all brought to our attention so that we do not wait, in life. As in its not a good thing and we would agree. Our Mass-media overlords love to whip us in a frenzy making us hate all those who are waiting for handouts. Don’t wait, go after them yourself. Don’t wait for your ship, go and get your own. The Real American Spirit is to go out and carve out your own life, your own destiny. Don’t be a waiter and be a slave to someone else’s whims and desires.

Of course the driving force behind this “don’t wait” attitude is death. You only have a limited time to spend here so spend it acting and moving. Pick yourself up by your own bootstraps, because no one else will. Leave your legacy, before its too late, because once you die, that’s it.

With God, there is waiting, but there is waiting with action as each of the readings today describe. In Malachi we are waiting for the Coming Day of the Lord, but we are waiting by leaping like calves, treading the wicked, and even turning our hearts. In God’s waiting there is physical activity and spiritual activity.

In Romans, we are waiting by living life! We strive for harmony with each other, we welcome each other, and abound in hope. In the Gospel, we are straitening up our heads, we are watching creation change, and we are staying awake. There is movement. There is action. There is purpose in waiting for the Lord.

This is the Biblical idea behind our Introit in the Divine Service. We need to see the Processional as a transition between before the Service and the start of the Service. Preparing for the Service; Preparing for the pastor to arrive, was the business of the opening hymn and the confession of sins. Historically, this took place on Saturdays during individual confession.

It was the Processional that announced the arrival of he who is to come; the pastor who will speak the Lord’s Gospel to us and give us comfort and joy on the Lord’s Day. It is therefore the Introit’s job to bring the pastor forward in order to fulfill this calling and relieve the congregation from its waiting for the Lord to Act.

The Introit, taken from the psalms, is and has always been this movement of God, from His heaven, to His people. All of the quotes in the Romans reading are from Psalms; are from the ancient Introits used by our forefathers in the Temple. This “introit-ic” movement has never been about idle waiting. It has always been about us resting and God acting.

Yes there will be horrible signs. Yes there will be fainting with fear. Yes there will be burning and destruction and dissipation and drunkenness and all the scary stuff. But all of that comes from God’s presence among a sinful and corrupt people.

And since it comes from God, we know that it does not land upon our heads, but upon He Who is the King of the Jews; He Who is Coming: Jesus Christ. Jesus, Who hanged on a tree in our place, changes us in such a way that we do not think we are waiting in vain for utter destruction, as we wait upon the Lord, but that we are waiting in hope for salvation.

The movement of the Introit teaches this. The Baptized move towards God’s Mercy seat, not His Judgment Throne. The Christian uses God’s own words to signify belief and comfort in God’s presence. When the Christian waits for God, he is not still. When the Christian waits for His Lord to act, he is actively setting aside his own work that the Lord may work in Him the great and grand promise of salvation.

Do not mistake the Lord’s slowness as inability or indifference. St. Peter says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any [of you] should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pt. 3:9).

In a way, you are the one that slows the Lord down. You are the one resisting repentance. You are the one weighed down with the cares of this life and so turn away from the Promise of the Lord’s coming.

And yet, despite what you do with the faith given to you, the Lord comes. He is the Victim of the nations’ rage. He is the recipient of your drunkenness, your dissipation, and your cares. He faints from blood loss on the cross.

Look at the fig tree, He says. Look at all the trees and remember God’s procession to a tree; to death and the tomb, in order that your procession towards God would be full of mercy and life. 

In this mercy, the Lord has offered to you His Church, in which is daily found forgiveness and salvation through Jesus’ merit. He has given us time to organize, teach, and develop such a life of faith in the Church, that even a simple recitation of the psalms and movement towards an earthly Altar, is a movement towards Him.

In the recitation of the Introit, we draw near the furnace of the Lord’s Day, but stand in His presence, unscathed, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did in their furnace. The joy, peace, and hope given to Jew and Gentile alike are found in hearing God’s Word and believing it. 

The Divine Service brings together all of time and all of humanity so that you can seek the Lord while He may be found and find Him. For those baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Day of the Lord has already come and we do not wait for vengeance or war, but mercy and peace found in the true Body and Blood of the God-man, for you.

Hagar names the Son [Wednesday in Advent 1; Genesis 16:1-13]

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Christ's Procession [Advent 1; St. Matthew 21:1-9]

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Jesus speaks to us on this first Sunday of the Church Year, through His Gospel and says,

“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’”

If nothing else, I want you to understand that the Divine Service comes from the Bible, even if all you may see sometimes is an imitation of Jesus. For that is what this reading of the Triumphal Procession of Jesus is: a ceremonial procession.

Indeed, we see this procession of Jesus as Triumphant, but also His next procession more so: His procession from Pilate to His crucifixion. In the same way, there was a crowd that went before Him and followed Him. At first glance, Jesus processes and so His Church after Him does as well.

He is also simply copying what David and Solomon have done before Him. In 1 Kings 1, it is time to name the successor to King David’s throne. Is it going to be one of his wicked sons or is it going to be Solomon, as David swore? Apparently, one of David’s sons had already appointed himself king, without his father’s blessing. When David learned of this, he commanded Solomon be paraded about Israel on his very own mule (v.33).

Thus it is that the true son must be marked and proclaimed otherwise no one would know which is true and which is false. In the case of Solomon, David said, “Take with you the servants of your lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ You shall then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place. And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” (v.33-35)

It was a kingly procession meant to let the people know where the king was, what he was doing, and who he was. Attended by royal officials and Temple authorities, the king is singled out. But being singled out is not always a good thing.

Just before Solomon is anointed king in this way, David’s son Absalom, who was in open rebellion against his father, also rode on a mule one day. This mule did mark him as the king’s son, but to a darker end. Ridding it, Absalom’s head stuck fast in some low branches he was passing and the mule left him hanging there. David’s officers saw him and pierced him with three spears, in 2 Sam. 18.

“And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.”

In Absalom’s case, the son of the king was marked for death. How unfortunate that he was not Solomon. But in both sons were the sins of the father. David’s sins did not go unnoticed by his progeny: Absalom’s wicked rebellion and Solomon’s apostasy are both lessons for us, pointing to today’s Gospel, that a Son will process.

The mule is also another sin here. Crossbreeding was prohibited in Israel as Lev 19:19 declares. So mules were a part of Israel’s black market, were very scarce, and thus symbolized wealth. God’s prohibition for kings to not multiply horses for themselves in Deut 17:16 made David careful in this. Solomon, to his own destruction, was not so careful (1Ki 10:26, 28).

So it is that God’s Son processes as well. Not on the king’s mule, but on a donkey, with those going before Him and after Him, just as Nathan and Zadok had done. It is an exact copy. A fulfillment of prophesy. An example for the Church.

Absalom, Solomon, Nathan, Zadok, and David all were mimicking, behind a thick veil of smoke, unable to see what their actions would show us, today, much less did they realize that God Himself would use them as examples in order to show us His plan of salvation.

And what is the key here? It is that God became man. How would we know the Son if He didn’t look like one of our sons? How can David raise a righteous branch and expect us to recognize Him if He weren’t of our race, as Jeremiah told us in our Old Testament reading today?

As the Lord lives, He comes also to lead us out of sin, death, and the power of the devil with two human hands. He comes to reign as king, not as a terrifying alien, or an immortal god, but as a man. The importance of Christmas begins to come into view, but sharply focuses when we have to do something about it.

When it comes to worship ceremony, we have the Word and that is enough, but not enough for faith. Meaning, faith won’t let us sit around all day and listen to readings. We need something to do and God gives us that in the Procession we have in the Divine Service. 

When we participate in the Divine Service and we process with cross and pastor and candle towards the beginning of this Service, we are not just playing games to show off. We are imitating Jesus. And not just plain imitation, but imitation to confess that we too believe that the God-man, Jesus Christ, comes to us today.

We strew our sins and death in front of Him, singing “Hosanna in the highest”. He deathlessly marches over them, declaring them forgiven and cast away. The Palm Sunday procession that is also heard today teaches us that the Church is eternal.

From David, to Solomon, to Jesus, to us. The Church’s ceremony and celebration all come from Scripture, all align with the Apostles’ doctrine, and all confess Christ in the flesh. Even though today we imitate, tomorrow when Jesus comes, we will commune fully with Him. For He has not just allowed us to mimic, but to show by our actions that we believe.

The Procession, then becomes another way that the Church tells the whole world that Jesus is the Christ and that He has been made man. We not only hear the story, but put words to action. The acts of the body are of infinite importance because our Lord has a body.

The Procession is not a magical formula, as in, if we do it just right, Jesus will come to Church. The Procession is a comfort for us, like everything else in Church. I tis something we do in order to see that we do believe; that we have heard the Word and that we want it done among us also.

Where Absalom processes to his death, we too march with the full weight of our sins towards a holy God. Where Solomon gains recognition, but lives a life turned from God, we too are marked in baptism, but continue in sin.

Where Jesus processes into death as the true Son, death shrinks back and is thrown to hell. Where Jesus processes towards recognition and glory, the cross is made to bear the full weight and wrath of God. Where Jesus processes in every Church that confesses His Advent and His Easter, life, light and eternal salvation are given to all.

When we see a Church procession then, we should be reminded of all this, every time, and confess with our own lips this part of the Bible, this part of Advent, the next part on Palm Sunday, this part of Easter, and then the part where our own sins are forgiven for free.

A Church procession, just like the Church bells, is there to mark the entrance of Jesus, God Almighty, into the Church. It is to mark out the true Son, the true Branch. It is to reveal that the time of our salvation is near and now, at the Word of Christ. It is to tell us that the night of the End of All Things is ending and that dawn is about to break.

The first rays of the Son being the Absolution, the remembrance of Baptism, and the true Body and true Blood of the Incarnate Word, given and shed for you.

God gives thanks [Harvest; Deuteronomy 26:1-11]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

New Land without a Sunday [Trinity 27; St. Matthew 25:1-13]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

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.”

As we conclude our “Land without a Sunday” theme, this final Sunday of the Church Year, we first reflect on what we have discovered. That the world wants churches to be silent and to not be able to ring bells, or speak, or gather. We discovered that our “Sunday” is none other than the Lord’s Day, celebrated daily in the Bible.

We must also remember that the Lord’s Day is something old, not new. The Christians were not ashamed of this new Day of Resurrection; that they had to celebrate it AND the Sabbath side by side. They were respectful of both and learned that the Lord’s Day is the actual right way to celebrate the Sabbath, ending Sabbath Day observance.

Neither were Christians afraid of the world, when they offered the Divine Service in houses, instead of church buildings. They desired peace with God and man. They did not wish for evil upon those who persecuted them, neither did they want to disturb the “peace of the empire” on purpose. They wanted a quiet life, filled with the Word and Sacraments.

So once Rome went away and Christianity became free to assemble publicly, the Lord’s Day grew by leaps and bounds into the Church Year we celebrate today, replete with culture-relevant observances and festivities. During this time period, we get our daily lectionary, prayer books, Advent Wreaths, and every other family and village activity associated with the Church year.

Almost every culture had some sort of Christian aspect to its yearly celebrations, even if that culture was secular. From spring dances to harvest festivals, the life of the faithful was replete with physical manifestations of faith in action. And the church bells rang out everywhere.

Until they were silenced by the Renaissance and the Age of Reason, which produced such wonderful inventions as the gulag and the guillotine. However, though we just celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, have the bells really begun to ring again or have they stopped in the USA?

In our super-saturated American, “Christian” buffet-table, where we can not turn around without running into a “church”, we are turning into another “Land without a Sunday”.

In fact, we are surrounded by bells that are not church bells. We have school bells, ESPN app bells, Wall Street bells, and silver bells. Even though all of these are ringing, constantly ringing, they do nothing for faith and teach us nothing of Christ.

Even the church bells in America that do ring, ring for churches that do not believe that the Lord comes to commune with His baptized people. In a cosmic, devilish twist, this land of Liberty Bells has become a Land without a Sunday.

Since the silencing of church bells didn’t work before, now we will let any and all bells ring as much as they want in order that instead of silence, the deafening, endless noise would drown out all music but its own. The noisy gongs and clanging cymbals of 1 Cor. 13, ring in vanity and corruption and have drawn the people away from Christ to the church of popular opinion.

In this new land without a Sunday, the Bridegroom is delayed and our lamps are going out. As true religion shrinks daily in the US, we who believe become drowsy and fall asleep at the wheel just as the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are lulled into a deep hypnotic sleep by the endless, demonic noise, thinking that we are secure and our lamps are the best.

But Jesus lets peal a new bell. A cry, the sound of a trumpet fires off and sets everyone on edge. And what is this new bell? Is it like the thunder that accompanied Noah’s Flood? Is it the constant blasts on the shofar that signaled Divine Service in the OT Temple?

The significance of a church bell is more than just a call to prayer or an opportunity to play a hymn over a loudspeaker. Its importance and significance is to announce the presence of God in a certain area at a certain time.

Noah’s thunder announced God’s presence as He opened the floodgates of earth and heaven. The Temple’s shofars, jewish horns, signified the approach of God to the Divine Service there at the Temple. The trumpets of the Last Day of all things will do the very same thing: announce the Second Coming of Jesus in the flesh.

Church bells are no different, or they should be no different. In that they are to proclaim to the world, within hearing distance, that God is showing up on the scene. That something incredible is about to happen at this place and this time. That the kingdom of heaven is about to make another breach in the wall of this evil world and preach victory again and again.

All this should be going through your head as you hear a church bell, just as the same thoughts were racing through the 10 virgin’s heads when the bell rang in the Gospel.  At this ringing, they woke from their deep sleep.

Maybe your applications or text messages wake you up too. Maybe you also feel the need to get prepared, whether its your alarm for work or your phone going off and you need to mentally prepare for that conversation.

You must be able to make the distinction, because 5 of the virgins thought they had just received a regular alert on their iPhones and the other 5 heard a true Church bell ringing, announcing that the Bridegroom was going to be there and they better be, too.

What was that cry? “Here is the Bridegroom!” Here. Right here. Not in your lamps, not in your oil, not at the dealers. On this Last Day, you will not find Jesus in your neighbor, or in your life-long ambition, or anywhere else. For He will be in His own Body. But you already knew this, because this is the primary lesson the Divine Service teaches you.

Since the creation of Adam, God has been saying that He is going to take a Body for Himself and there is nothing else in the Bible that God has been so focused on teaching. There is no greater Word of God and no greater representation of the Gospel than the true Body of Christ.

So when the wise virgins hear the cry, they believe a body will show up that will be in this place one second and a different place in another second. The foolish virgins have no regard for this body that God has and instead focus on their own bodies and appetites.

Then the Bridegroom appears in His Body, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, and one minute He is outside the marriage feast and the next, He is behind locked doors.

And what are we to take from this, we who are now living in a new land without a Sunday?

We are to take and eat, believing that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Sunday. And in so believing, come to know that Sunday does not depend on us or our ability to ring a church bell, but it depends on Christ and His coming. For Jesus is the giver of lamp and light and oil, and He is the one to give Faith which trusts the Word of God.

Church bells are no different. Even our organs are the same as bells when they represent and mimic the singing Church; the Church that cries out to God and confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:2). This is why our Hymn of the Day tells us, the watchmen are “singing” their announcement; the only way to get the Church’s message out.

And the announcement is that the Lord of all Creation has come in the flesh to save His people from their sins and bring an end to the heavens and the earth in fire. Not only this though, He has also promised that those standing firm in the faith are to go into the Wedding Feast with Him.

In this hope then, we face the Land Without a Sunday. We continue to gather on the Lord’s Day, continue to devote ourselves to the Apostle’s Doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of the Bread, and the Prayers (Acts 2:42). Nothing done in the Name of Jesus is a waste. It is exactly this tradition that is now radical in the world’s eyes; this Divine Service which is rebellion.

Because it is this Church which the Lord has saved and purified and it is this Church that has the watchmen singing still, and it is this Church, baptized and fed, which Jesus Himself will bring to the Feast to be with Him forever, free from silence and noisy gongs; full of innocence and blessedness.

Righteous war [Trinity 26; St. Matthew 25:31-46]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

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.”

Two weeks ago, I mentioned how the Soviets had jumbled the work week for its citizens, keeping them guessing when the next day off would be in order to frustrate gathering on the Lord’s Day and thus suffocating Church. It turns out, life wasn’t so different under Roman Rule either as we will discover today, continuing our discussion on the Lord’s Day.

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​​Moving into the second and third centuries after Christ, we find a Church under threats of persecution, not from the Empire itself, per say, but from false accusations of disturbing the peace from the people. People who were easily offended by this “new” religion would start a riot, blame it on the Christians, and, to keep Roman peace, Roman authorities would put the Christians to death.

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​​So it is that we come to the holy, roman week consisting of 8 days of work and a 9th day of holiday celebration, or rather, every ninth day was a holiday. The Romans took their national religion very seriously and their “peace of the empire” even more seriously. Since the Jewish, now Christian, week worked in 7’s, you can see how this turns into a point of serious contention and a battle of the gods.

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​​Once the Lord’s Day landed on any day of work, it would have been impossible for the Christians to stop working in order to attend the Divine Service. And even if it happened to land on that 9th day, they were not allowed to miss the Roman holy day celebrations, on pain of death. You could have your own religion in the empire, but you must pay homage to the Roman gods or the empire will fall and it will be your fault for not praying.

“You shall have no others gods” is the commandment that frustrates the “peace of the empire” and gets the Christians martyred. See the false, roman gods can do nothing to keep their names holy or do their will on earth. They are idols. They “…are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 135:15-18)

Since idols are idle, the romans must act in their stead, carrying out what they think is their will, cleansing the earth of any lack of worship. The Christians, in observing the Lord’s Day, had picked a fight with the most powerful nation on earth and declared war to find out which god is the Lord.

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​​The Sunday that we so casually and flippantly celebrate was bought and paid for in much blood. Many thousands were martyred for the faith, during these first few centuries, simply because they went to the breaking of the bread, the Apostles’ doctrine, and the prayers, instead of being caught dead in any state religious celebration. Even though most of the Church was “underground”, this did not prevent bloodshed.

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​​And that’s another thing: what exactly was this gathering on the Lord’s Day that prompted such ire from the state and such dedication from the Christians? Was it worth it risking life and limb to simply get together for a bit and encourage one another and have fellowship? Ridiculous. These Christians were risking life, property, and liberty all for the chance to commune with Jesus. These were holy masses that were being celebrated, each time, not fellowship time, not carry-ins, and certainly not meditation time.

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​​Sacrifice was made and necessitated all in order to celebrate with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven at the Lord’s Table on the Lord’s Day. Why do you think the sheep are so surprised in the Gospel reading for today? Surrounded by sin and evil and death on every hand, when was it that they finally found time to do the works that Christ is claiming that they did?

The world separates, divides, and discriminates. The sheep were fighting a war against the world, a war that they did not win, but got to benefit from its victory. One of the reasons the sheep are so surprised to be praised by Jesus is, because the world would not let them celebrate the Lord’s Day in peace. They were harassed on every side, day in and day out, to turn away, to not go, to give up breaking the bread.

They were not going to make it on their own strength. The real divider between the sheep and the goats is faith. Faith that looks at this horrible, hard life; sees that it is quenched on every hand; finds it a never ending struggle to be a part of church and yet still believes. Believes to the point where it knows that it is not its actions that count, but Christ’s actions.

So the Church and the State engage in war. If we just look at the Roman empire, we know who won that battle, for the Church still stands, but the empire does not. Was it superior fire-power? Was it genius strategy? Was it overwhelming numbers that gained Christians the victory?

Faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:22) and the righteous shall not be moved (prov. 10:30), promises the Lord. Not only that, but the Righteous One shall never see corruption (Ps. 16:10). He Who dies serving the Lord in sincerity and truth, will not make His bed in Sheol, neither will He be cast aside.

As our Introit proclaims, the Lord saves, the Lord hears, and the Lord delivers. He does so through he Word of the Cross of Christ, faithfully proclaimed every Lord’s Day. So, the winning strategy against the empire, the state, and the world is to sit our butts down in the Lord’s Church, believe in His Word, and know that not only is His death and resurrection the ultimate weapon, but they are the ultimate gift for us.

Every other religion in the world must act “in holiness”, never really knowing what the outcome will be. So they are busy making war against everything. The Church is at rest, letting God fight the war, because the war is won, even without our fanfare.

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Being righteous is not how much peace you can keep, or how many riots you can start for God. It is about being righteous. And Jesus says that, in order to be righteous, you must be perfect, and in order to be perfect you must be God.

And in order to be like God, you must be baptized into the Body of His Son. The Righteous One Who knew the corruption of the world’s sin, with all its raging and war, and still claimed it as His own, suffering and dying and descending into hell with it.

The struggle of the Church is the struggle of Christ with sin, death, and the devil. The victory of Christ over these false idols is given to the Church for free. It is handed out in the form of Word and Sacrament. The call to “fight for God” is the call to “take and eat; take and drink”.

Now, in Christ, the Lord’s Day is a celebration of victory won and victory freely given. The world has not figured out that the war has ended, but the Christian knows and thus he is able to sit in a pew and let God work in him, knowing full well the power of Word and Sacrament over and against all others on earth.

You are also a part of this struggle and war, but the Lord has seen fit to bring you into the victory feast to wash you clean of your wounds, to comfort and encourage you, and to feed and strengthen you. Not so that you become a Church-superman, but so that you remember the death your sin has wrought and believe the atonement Christ has made for you.

In the Land without a Sunday, there is no hope for the people. Fully dependent on earthly success and earthly rulers to make anything out of life, their despair when works and state fail them. For on Sunday, the Lord conquers all. The constant remembrance of that fact angers satan and his ilk to no end.

But even if the world was full of devils, all eager to devour us, we would not tremble or fear, because Christ fights for us. The Victor, the Valliant One, the Crucified. He that gains every victory fights for you. He that neither slumbers nor sleeps baptizes you. He Who shows up every Sunday, communes with you, in order that you may believe and out-live all warfare.

Lord's Day Takeover [Trinity 25; St. Matthew 24:15-28]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

On this antepenultimate Sunday, that is the third before the last, our Lord speaks directly to us saying,

“Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”

Last week, we discussed the importance of Sunday and how at first it was placed alongside the Sabbath day, in Apostolic times, as we continue to consider what a Land without a Sunday would be like in these Last Days that we live in. Therefore, today we consider the fact that the Sabbath is taken over by the Lord’s Day in importance, observance, and place in Church.

As time progressed for the Christians and more meditation was had upon what it means that Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), the Apostles had to face dilemmas regarding new converts, both Jews and pagans.

The challenge these new converts presented was the same for both groups: to what extent do we follow the Jewish laws and require non-Jews to do the same? Of course when we read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the struggles on the point of circumcision, not eating unclean animals, and other such laws, however today we will only be specifically looking at the law of observing the Sabbath Day.

So far in our discussion, the Apostles are still trying to be good Jews and yet exalt Christ above all things. Yet, how are we able to do that when we are still clinging to the Sabbath day in simple, ritual observance? And what does God’s command actually mean when He demands we keep the Sabbath holy (Ex. 20:8)?

In Acts 15, this issue is taken up in the first council of Jerusalem. It is there that the question is asked, “Do believers need to observe the law of Moses?” St. Paul concludes his arguments saying that the law should not be observed. From verses 10 and 11: “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Of course, the “yoke on our necks” is the Law, which is unable to save but always accuses us in front of God. The Sabbath always accuses us, if only for the need to repeat it week after week. So it is that St. James, presiding bishop of Jerusalem, makes a declaration to not trouble those turning to God with these burdens. St. James uses the clear reasoning of holy Scripture which plainly saith that the Gentiles are called by God’s Name.

He quotes Amos 9 saying: “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David hat has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name”

Who also agrees with King David who says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the Gentiles. I will be exalted in the earth.” (Ps. 46:10)

And with Isaiah who says: “In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance’” (Isa. 19:24-25). Egypt and Assyria, of course being filled with non-Jews.

The Gentiles are fellow heirs of the kingdom (Eph. 3:6). Why would they not be included in the promises of God? Why would something such as the observance of the Sabbath Day prevent them from becoming Christians? They will be blessed by God  in the future, thus saith the Lord, so they must be today, also, and now, in His Church.

So it is, with these passages and many others and the decisions of this ecumenical council, that the Sabbath day be overtaken by the new covenant and a new day be made for the great Divine Service: the Lord’s Day.

Now you thought I was going to say Sunday. Well, it just so turns out that Sunday just happens to be the best day to teach on this subject; to show forth the Lord’s Easter and teach about the Resurrection. But, it is not THE day. In fact, because the Lord’s Day is now an eternal day of Resurrection, it can be celebrated any day of the week; every day of the week.

In the Book of Revelation, St. John says that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10) when Jesus began to reveal to him this book of the Bible. So towards the end of the 1st century, the Sabbath has already been put away as a sign pointing to Jesus and His great work of Resurrection and replaced with the Lord’s Day.

We are not to give up meeting together (Heb. 10:25), but we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy by not despising preaching and the Lord’s Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing it and learning it. Which can now be done any, and every, day of the week. In Christ, we do not judge according to the observation of a Sabbath (Col. 2:16-17), but instead keep it holy by hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament.

So it is that the 2nd century Christians encourage us, saying: “…every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.” (Didache, 14) In fact, they considered it monstrous to practice any sort of Judaism altogether (St. Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians 10:3).

Once again we see that the rest of the Sabbath pales in comparison to the eternal life and peace of the Lord’s Day. Not only is the Resurrection promise more important than Ritual, Sabbath observation, but it is even more important than the end of the world, if we are to take Jesus’ meaning from the Gospel heard today.

Jesus says to pray that your flight not be in winter or on the Sabbath. We understand the suffering that can occur on an outdoor trek in the middle of winter, but really how hard can a flight on the Sabbath be in comparison?

You must think about it in light of our new-found affection for the Lord’s Day. Not only would Sabbath become a day of work, violating the 3rd Commandment, but now the Christian would not be communing with his Lord an Savior.

Look at what is important to Jesus in the Gospel reading. It is not the Abomination, He never explains clearly what that is. What is important is what that Abomination interrupts. It interrupts family and home-time, it interrupts seasonal times, and most importantly it interrupts finding the Christ on His Sabbath of sabbaths.

This is what Jesus spends His time explaining to us in this Gospel reading. The horrible and unforgivable intrusion that this Abomination and even the Last Day wreaks on the normal, holy work of Christ’s people is the true danger of these final days before Christ Returns. Especially that it interrupts the seasonal, familial time spent in the Divine Service. 

In fact, this is the real meaning of “Abomination of desolation that stands in the holy place”. It is anything that removes your faith from you. It means being able to be offended by Sabbath Day violations and keep the faith. It even means being able to see Almighty God suffer and die on a cross and yet still believe.

It was eternally important for the Lord’s Day to overtake the Sabbath Day as central to the Faith. The Lord’s Day finally brings the promise of rest made on the Sabbath to fruition. What the Law could not accomplish, no matter how many people or times it was observed, Christ accomplishes for us on the cross, on His Day, and today in His Divine Service.