Historic Salvation [Advent 1]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 23:5-8

• Romans 13:11-14

• St. Matthew 21:1-9

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

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!’”

 

Who’s afraid of the big, bad Alphabet Soup? LGBT, BLM, N-T-Fa, CRT, MSM, IRS. So many acronyms and so little time to be afraid. And yet these are the very things that keep us up at night. They are thrown at us and we cower in fear because they appear to have such great power behind them. 

 

Such that, once they are brought into the conversation or debate, we immediately back down and concede. And who knows why? Maybe we really don’t like liberty. Maybe we are ashamed. Most likely it is because you don’t want to cause trouble. 

 

Whatever it is, if you don’t want to be afraid, learn history. It really is as simple as that, because the real power behind this Alphabet Soup is “I know more than you do, nah nah na-nah nah”. It is the claim that history is not what we think it is, and it usually isn’t, or at least it usually isn’t what we were taught.

 

So they get us on two fronts: our wish that we knew more and could be nice and our admission that we haven’t done our homework. And this is inexcusable, for, as many complaints as we have of the internet, it is the most access to information anyone has had in the history of the earth. You have access to information that rivals doctorate degrees and, by studying, can make yourself just as knowledgeable.

 

So who gave the first ground? Well, it wasn’t liberals or democrats or anyone else regularly demonized on our idiot box. 

 

It was the churches! Yes, it was God’s own churches that first threw in the towel to these history-deniers and anti-historians. It came from God’s own people attempting to appease the apparent scholarship of the day and they called it Historical Criticism. historical-critical method, or higher criticism later.

 

Not only did this come from churches, but it came out of Lutheran churches in the 17th century, so soon after the Reformation. The goal was to get at the meaning behind the words of the Bible. In other words, scholars wanted to interpret the Bible (history) according to the time, place, and people they think it was written to. 

 

At first this doesn’t sound too bad, but this was not the end goal of this method. Proponents of this Biblical hermeneutic wanted to then interpret the Bible on the basis of their findings. They thought that their studies were getting at the real meaning of God’s Word.

 

But by “real meaning” they don’t mean “what God wants us to hear”. By “real meaning” they want to cast great doubt upon the Source of God’s Word, they want to reduce God’s Word to simple literary devices, and they want to redact God’s Word into what they think is the community and mindset of the time it was written in.

 

What this implies is hubris of the utmost level. Since we have attained this new enlightenment, we must now undertake the thankless task of rooting out the truth for future generations. The only thing to have been gleaned from this method is doubt about whether or not God’s Word is God’s Word and whether or not Jesus is God.

 

In this light, all the acronyms mentioned before are attempting the same thing, to rewrite history, only now that they think the church has been thoroughly shot through, they have moved onto everyday life, trying their hardest to reinterpret history as they see fit, in order to keep you divided from your fellow man and to keep their jobs by pretending to have accomplished something.

 

So, is the Church a lost cause? No. 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

 

This is what Jesus meant when He said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:16). Not only are the fruits of historical criticism discord and strife, but an abandoning of what God gave. First His Word, then His faith. 

 

“For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the Lord.” (Jer 23:11). 

 

Dear Christians, yes the devil, the world, and your sinful nature divide and conquer and come to us in pleasing forms, as we discussed last week. But the Lord continues in Jeremiah 23: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.” (v. 21-22)

 

What is our recourse except the Word of God. It is God’s Word that is to be heard and it is God’s Word that turns from evil. No new thinking or new idea or new elected official is going to fix anything. Only History will do that.

 

Yes history, because it is in history that the Lord God has spoken and it is in history that the Son of God has done His work. God speaks this way when He says things like, “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning” (Isa 48:16). The beginning as in the beginning of history.

 

And Jesus too says, “The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” through St. Luke, the Evangelist (Acts 1:1). Meaning all the things that the people had seen and heard as a result of Jesus acting, were seen and heard in a very real and provable past.

 

Your God also dwells in history, not just in your heart. A history that He allows to confine Him to His Word. A history that is then passed on to be heard and scrutinized, and doubted. Christ hides from nothing, even this. 

 

He welcomes the critics. He tells us to go talk to His eyewitnesses of which there were so many more than just the 4 Gospels. 1 Corinthians 15 says, “He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present” (v. 5-6). Remain to the present, as in, were still around to criticize the story.

 

And their criticism only proved the truth of God’s Work and Word. No matter how many times the stories were told and retold, God’s history was true history.

 

And now it has become our true history, as we begin Advent. The stories, the facts, the hymns, and even the liturgy. All have been used and approved of by generations of those who heard their history, learned their history, and kept their history.

 

The time between the End of the Church Year and the Beginning of a new one is only a week (Sundays), but the topic for both remains the same. At the End of the Year we are awaiting Christ’s Coming and at the beginning of the Year we are awaiting Christ’s coming. 

 

The slight difference is that last week, we were focused on waiting for God to fulfill His Promise to Come Again. This week, we remember how God has always kept His promises He made to come among us. And what tells us this is history.

 

The History of God saving His people from their sins, as both God and man, Jesus making His preparations in order to bring us along. The history of our Old Testament reading; the Righteous Branch hanging on a tree, gathering, and giving His righteousness to all who believe in Him.

 

the History of our Gospel reading, where the God-man marches on His own city, declaring Himself to be the King of kings Whom everyone has been looking for in order to crucify. And the history of our Epistle, which speaks to us today, in that now we have been brought into this wokeness, this Daylight from on high, baptized into the Branch, baptized into Righteousness, and baptized into history.

 

So we are fed our history, in the crucified Body and Blood of Jesus, in order to stand against these dark times. We are fed that we are not unmoored to be tossed to and fro by the wind and the waves, but we have been planted upon the Ark of the Church, the Dreadnaught of the Seas. No wind can assail Her and no Wave can capsize Her. And with Christ both Captain and Rudder, no false doctrine can steer her wrong. 

 

So, we wait, just as God waits. We wait for the evil of this world to many, even though it may roll over us. But we do not wait as those without hope. For we wait in the sure and certain hope that Christ will come and He will bring us with Him, even if He has to drag us out of the grave.

 

 

Selfish Thanksgiving

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 26:1-11

• St. Luke 17:11-19

 

How the End goes down [Trinity 27]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 65:17-25

• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

• St. Matthew 25:1-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

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.”

 

This is how the Last Day is going down. You will be tempted to your maximum, because the devil doesn’t care if you have a way of escape or not, unlike what God promises in 1 Cor. 10:13. However, they’re not going to be the obvious temptations. There’s not going to be an apparent enemy who is coming to make us all speak a different language with guns. There’s not going to be combat boots knocking on doors. No one is going to force you to do anything. You will have to choose it.

 

The evil of the Last Day will look fair and feel foul, if you catch my meaning. You will be presented with angels of light as described in 2 Cor. 11:14. There will be an offer you can’t refuse, that you won’t want to refuse, and you will be led to darkness. 

 

For this is how the Last Day is going down. You will be holed up in the comfort of your home. You will hear your battle cry and you will hear your “brothers” shouting for you to hold the line and you will rush out to their side. 

 

Your “movement” will send for you pleading that they are in need for you to write papers and give a speech for the cause, because this time we have “them” on the run and you can make all the difference. People just need to know what you know, so get out there and make a difference.

 

All of the loves of your life will come and beg for attention and will appeal to every fiber of your being. And you will go to them, because they are your loves and love makes the world go round. Your sins and your lusts will be on display as you’ve never experienced them before, because they will have such power “as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Mt 24:21).

 

But they will not be your “brothers”, your “comrades”, or anything Good. They will be demons, demons of light pretending to be the things you love and the people you love. They will be pulling you away with lies, because during all this there will be another pull: the Church’s bells will also be ringing.

 

This is the temptation that the five “foolish” virgins place upon the five wise. We hear it and pass it off as just a weird thing. Why couldn’t they spare some oil? What is the big deal? That’s not very Christian of them.

 

You also say things like: Adam and Eve just ate some fruit, so what? Moses only hit a Rock, why not let him into the Promised Land. All the inhabitants of the land of Israel just want Israel wiped off the earth. At this point, what difference does it make?

 

Well, it makes a difference to God. Why? Because its not about fruit, or domination, or oil. Its about fear, love, and trust. Yes the Church bells will be ringing and the choice will be yours. To stay or to leave. The virgins faced the same choice. To stay or to leave. 5 stayed. 5 left. 

 

What I have so far been describing is the havoc your sins wreak upon the Faith God has given you. This is the danger you are in, not just on the Last Day which is coming soon, but each day until then. Everyday God’s Church bells are ringing. Everyday your false idols and secret sins turn you against God and place you on the wrong side of the “shut door”. 

 

For there is a false church on that wrong side, of which your sins and idols are a part. It calls out, has its own service times, and its own bells. It is a church of unthinking and adultery (Pro 7, 9:13-18). It is an exact mirror of God’s Church, just as your temptations seem to be harmless, so too do the doctrines of this Anti-church.

 

She calls out. She has a “gospel”. She has her “sacraments”. You hear and see and are tempted. In your sin, your “falling away from the faith” is nearer to you now than when you first believed. Romans 13:11

 

But because the Bridegroom is coming and not delaying, “now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Rom 13:11). We have fallen asleep. All ten virgins fell asleep. The cry that wakes everyone up, the trumpet call, is the proclamation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Sin and death put us to sleep, both spiritually and physically. They so corrupt and wear out our bodies that they finally succumb to sickness and death. Physically, you have lost the battle against your sin and your death will be proof of that. 

 

On the spiritual side, there should be no question of your loss, for that fight is “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph 6:12). All things we not only can’t see, but can’t reach as well.

 

Thus, the Bridegroom comes. But He comes in darkness, because we are in darkness. He comes in the night because we are asleep. He comes to a cemetery as the life of the party and the lamps follow Him. Why? Because He is the Lamp and the Light.

 

He must come, because we cannot. He must set up, He must hand out, and He must give Light because we are dead on arrival. We cannot choose to wake up. We cannot choose to hear. We cannot choose to have lamps, full or empty.

 

The Anti-Church  and the one, true Church cry out “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here” (Pro 9:4, 16). The Church calls them not simple as in stupid, but simple as in can not think, as in something is jamming your brain signals, such that you are unable to choose the good you want to do and instead choose the bad you don’t want to do (Rom 7:19).

 

The Anti-Church means it as one who practices the evil and premeditates it. “Whoever numbers himself with those who can not think and loves it and embraces it”. Such that the difference between the two becomes glaring. For when the one, true Church speaks, she says with Her Lord, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness and live, And go in the way of  understanding” (Pro 9:5-6).

 

But the Anti-Church says “Stolen water is sweet, And bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Pro 9:17).

 

Christ’s one true religion, found in His Church, offers everything to the Hearer of the Gospel. It is already purchased, already prepared. there is no “line to hold”, no “scathing review to write”, and no “what if”. 

 

The Lamps that were handed out needed no refills and no maintenance. They were good enough for the job at hand, which was to sit and wait. In other words, stay and see what the Lord God will accomplish.

 

Sin, death, and the devil have nothing original or prepared to offer. You must bring it on your own. You must pull yourself up by your bootstraps and do your best. Everything in the false church camp has been stolen and corrupted to suit the needs and lies of him who was a liar from the beginning.

 

In the one, true Church, God has promised! Christ prepares it! there on high our welcome waits (LSB 671). It does not wait for us to choose it, but it waits for us to get there. It is kept and preserved so that no matter which path our life takes us, that heavenly welcome remains fixed.

 

We are saved the last trip to the dealers to prepare for the coming disaster. Our food is purchased in Body and Blood. Our garments are purchased in water and Word. Our lamps are fully furnished for our Lamb is our Lamp (Rev 21:23).

 

Jesus is the Lamp that shines in the darkness among those who dwell in the darkness of sin’s graveyard. The Lamp was never in danger of going out, but satan has so tricked us that we think it will, because everything of this world goes out, and if Jesus has a Body then it too will wear out on us, so he lies.

 

But this is not so. this is the importance of the trumpet call being a resurrection call. For it is in the Resurrection that we see just what a body from God can do. It can not only bear all the suffering of the world, paying for sin and death for all time, but it can rise again to new life, in Christ.

 

Christ’s is a Lamp, a Body that does not wear out, does not need soldiers to fight for it, and does not need a movement to advance it. God’s Kingdom comes without our prayers. God’s will is done without our prayers. God’s Name is hallowed without us. Not because we are worthless, but because we are dead in sin.

 

So the resurrection trumpet raises, not just the Bridegroom, but all flesh as well. it blows such a note that all flesh obeys and those who were asleep awake again. And the note it blows is not B-flat, but “Christ Crucified for sinners”.

 

Come, the Crucified Bridegroom says, come all who are unable to think because of sin corrupting you to death and I will give you the Truth and the Light. Come all who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death and I will give you the Way of Life. For free. Already prepared. Already installed. No payments or subscription required, standard rules apply, see terms of service for details.

 

No, not that. None of that. that is the lie. The lie that you have your end of the deal to uphold. That you have one last push to give, so dig deep. 

 

The Truth is that salvation is not only nearer to you now than it was yesterday, but it is at your ear drums, at your fingertips, on the tip of your nose, the tip of your tongue, right in front of your face. This is how easy the Last Day will be for the Christian. He has only to come to Church, as usual, wait for God in his seat, as usual, and believe that Christ is here to serve him His salvation.

 

That’s it. That is how carefully and fully and wonderfully prepared your Crucified God has made you (Ps 139:14). He has paid for front row seats, not to the darkness, but to His glorious light of the forgiveness of sins. And that is the point of Faith. That you believe your sins are forgiven. Both what you have done and what you have left undone.

 

For the Christian with the Wisdom of God, the world has nothing to offer beyond what God places in front of him. And at the end, what God places in front of you will be the same thing He puts in front of you this day: the Body and Blood of His Son, given and shed for you. There is no other place to be and no other party to attend.

 

The Table and the Stage is set. Jesus is coming soon. Christ has been raised from the dead. You have been baptized into His death and resurrection, such that you may consider yourself dead to sin, the Law, and any unfinished business and alive towards God in Christ Jesus, present and accounted for today, for you.

 

 

Jesus, the Actor [Trinity 26]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 7:9-14

• 2 Peter 3:3-14

• St. Matthew 25:31-46

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

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.”

 

Though there is righteousness and holiness and goodness abounding in our Gospel reading for today, our primary thought is how to be a sheep and not a goat. We see the King seated in judgement and we think that He graciously reveals beforehand what’s on the test so that we can pass it. 

 

Giving food to those who are hungry. Giving drink to those who are thirsty. Giving welcome to those who are strangers. Giving clothes to those having none. Giving comfort to those suffering in sickness and peace to those suffering in prison.

 

And these follow quite nicely on the coattails of Jesus words: “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor” (Mt 19:21). For, if you sell all you have then you will have money for extra food. In fact, you don’t need the extravagant lifestyle you are living right now anyways. 

 

You can learn to be happy and live with less. Your grandmother and great-grandmother did it. They survived the “Great Depression” with just a garden and some chickens. No big screen TVs, no game days, no cell phones. Just people living in the moment and being decent. What a nicely laid out plan. Thank you God.

 

But this holy compassion of yours dies miserably when someone cries out, “Black lives matter” or some other social justice chant. Then your charity stops, your heart closes, and your mind turns antagonistic. “All lives matter”, or something else “clever”, is the response. But that is not what Jesus says to you today. 

 

He says the “least of these lives” matter. And if someone is suffering and in pain, wouldn’t they fall under this category? Yes, social movements can get out of hand and violence should be opposed, but don’t you think they started because someone was hurting?

 

Jesus says today that hungry lives matter, thirsty lives matter, hospitality matters, sick lives matter, and imprisoned lives matter. Jesus intentionally goes out of His way to help  specific groups of people — the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice. It is of course, the Christian thing to do, is it not?

 

And the trap has sprung. Your mind and heart have been ensnared and you are caught in a loop of self-doubt and self-loathing. You know you need to love your neighbor as yourself, but you just can’t bring yourself to help the “other side”. You have heard God’s demands and you reject them

 

Repent. There is nothing satan loves more than being able to toy with your moral sensibilities, especially when he can throw God’s Word into the mix. You see the hungry and you pass them by. You see the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and you cast the responsibility upon someone else, for a few pieces of silver.

 

The hard truth of the world is that No Lives matter. Not yours, not “theirs”, and not even the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice. Why? Because all lives are sinful lives caught up in the never ending loop of self-importance and self-justification. You and the demons seem to think that simply by completing this little list from our Gospel reading, that you will have attained righteousness.

 

In other words, you have heard the Gospel all wrong. 

 

In the first place, what verbs in the Gospel could you possibly even conceive of being in your hands to mold to your own actions? Where in the reading is God commanding anything of you, in order that you earn an inheritance or even become sheep?

 

Jesus is the Son of Man, coming in His Glory, not you. He is sitting, He is gathering, separating, placing, and speaking. Jesus is the only one Who is doing the actions here and by thinking there was morality and justice to be gained, you lost it.

 

The morality and justice to be gained here is by hearing and believing that Jesus is the Son of God. It is not receiving wages for some goodness you think you created, but a handing out of inheritance. The Christian is not a hired hand doing good and seeking justice in the world. The Christian is an heir, by rights. That is by the rights of Christ. And anyway, you don’t earn an inheritance.

 

Look to our Introit, Gradual, and Alleluia Verse. God saves me. God hears my prayer. God helps. God upholds and He delivers. In the Gradual, God calls to heaven and earth, that He may judge. And finally in the Alleluia, the Lord ransoms. Jesus is doing all the actions.

 

In the second place, Jesus is not describing a plan of human action, but a plan of His divine action. Do you not remember our Lord’s words from the cross, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28)? Do you not remember that Jesus ate with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes (Mt 9:11)? That He was the Stranger that came to His own and His own received Him not (Jn 1:11)? Or that they stripped Him before His crucifixion (Jn 19:23), or that He was sick unto death, the death of the cross (Phil 2:8), or that He was locked up in the prison of the Tomb and death?

 

It is Jesus’ life that matters. He is the One without sin and the only one to receive an inheritance from God. He is the Beloved Son Who does all His Father commands. He stays pure among every sin and even remains God in death.

 

What this means is that no matter how hard someone tries, unless Jesus choses him, he will remain in his sin. Unless Jesus turns someone into a sheep, he will never be a sheep. Unless Jesus gives faith, mercy, and life there will be none. Jesus alone has everything.

 

What our Gospel reveals to us today is the Gospel that Jesus will sit in Glory giving gifts. That is Christ’s glory. He is a Giver of gifts to men. In the glory of His death and resurrection for sinners, He purchases and wins an eternal inheritance for you, for free, for His Name’s sake.

 

Truly His Judgment seat is a Seat of Mercy. Though sin forces Him to judge, His true purpose is to suffer and die that He might hand out the benefits of His life and His actions. He comes to forgive, to seek, and to save. This is why He describes Himself in this way today. Not so that we simply ape Him, but so that we find Him!

 

The one True God will be serving. That is how we find Him. We find the seat of mercy where the kingdom of heaven is being handed out to forgiven sinners. We find the inheritance where the Son of God is truly given in Word, Baptism, and His Supper. We find the camp of sheep when we believe that Christ has given us faith to do so.

 

We do not make ourselves “sheep”. Jesus makes sheep. He gives faith to goats and turns them into sheep. He baptizes sinners and turns them into sons. He communes with rebels and renames them “blessed by my Father”. 

 

Jesus says, “For you have the poor with you always” and the hungry and the thirsty, the unclothed, the sick, the imprisoned, and also social problems. There will always be those things around you, not just to show a sinful, corrupt world to you, but to give you a neighbor. So do good to him.

 

“But Me you do not have always”, Jesus continues in St. Matthew 26:11. You will always have opportunity to do good to those who hate you, but churches come and go. Who’s to say Jesus will be in Accident forever? 

 

The difference is, in God’s presence He is the One doing Good. He is the Servant in Divine Service and His inheritance He hands out, even this day, in water and Word, Bread and Wine, Body and Blood. For He is not just “everywhere”. He is seated in Glory handing out the Kingdom of God in Word and Sacrament.

 

So Jesus’ Life matters and now, with His death and resurrection for all flesh, all lives do matter, for His sake. Not because some politician says so, but because God dies for all and all are deserving and made worthy to receive forgiveness in Christ. All lives matter because Jesus’s life matters, you have been baptized into that Life, and now, as sheep, get to lay down your own lives.

 

Jesus creates worth and gives worth to everyone. Even to you.

 

 

Abominable Liturgy [Trinity 25]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 32:1-20

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

• St. Matthew 24:15-28

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)

 

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.”

 

 Antepenultimate meaning the third last, of course. Third last Sunday, ever, is where our minds should be. As in after this Sunday, there will only be two more. If only. If only our Lord would come quickly. Come quickly, Lord Jesus and tarry not, for we have had more than enough.

 

 More than enough of abominations, which we think we see day in and day out, yet they never seem to be the right Abomination. The one that triggers The End. Unfortunate.

 

 But what is this abomination we are to look out for? We have the joke “Obama-nation”, but that has passed its prime. None of those over-the-top prophesies came true at all. So that’s not it. 

 

If we start with Genesis, there are two spots that mention “abomination” and both fall within the Joseph storyline. And both give away just about everything we need to know about this “abomination”, but in the reverse, as in Joseph is going to show us what the world, the devil, and our sinful nature find abominable. 

 

 When his brother’s come back for food a second time during the famine, they were told to bring Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin. At the sight of him, Joseph was overcome with emotion, it being so long since they last saw each other. He had to leave the room and weep. Regaining control over himself, he orders Supper to be set, but he and the Egyptians do not eat with Joseph’s brothers, because it is an abomination to the Egyptians (Gen 43:32).

 

This is what the devil thinks is an abomination: eating supper, breaking bread with God’s Chosen. The second mention of abomination in Genesis comes in chapter 46, when Joseph tells his brothers what to say in front of Pharaoh, in order that they may move their lives into Goshen, the richest of Egyptian land.

 

 Joseph tells them to say that they have kept livestock, they and their fathers before them, all their lives. For to say that they are shepherds would be an abomination to Egypt. Genesis 46:34 says, “…for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

 

Shepherds and their breaking of the bread are abominations to the devil and his angels. Shepherds and the breaking of the bread. You got that, right?

 

So as we continue through Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the things that are abominations to God have to do with Temple life. The uncleanness of man, unclean animals, crustaceans (no more crab feasts!), abominable birds same as mentioned in v. 28 of today’s Gospel, and creepy crawlies (so much for impossible burgers!). 

 

In Deuteronomy, its adultery, divorce, homosexuality, perversion of marriage, perversion of male and female, and idols. However, it is not the things themselves that are abominable, rather it is what they do to the people: to you. That is, they make you unclean and therefore unable to go to Church to stand in God’s presence.

 

As you would expect then, Holy Scripture reveals one more abomination to sin, death, and the devil, that is Temple worship. Worship of the one true God is also an abomination, as we hear in Exodus 8:26. There, Pharaoh does one of his fake “giving in” moments, after the 4th plague: flies. He tells Moses to hold church within the land of Egypt. Moses, knowing better, replies: “It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as he tells us” (Ex 8:26-27).

 

So now we draw closer as we piece all this together and finally understand the Abomination and its desolation. Part of it has to do with the Temple and its life lived in faith. Part of it has to do with a Shepherd and His Supper. Part of it has to do with cleansing and purifying. ANd as Jesus comes on the scene, He finds that all these abominations have been neatly gathered in His house by men.

 

Ezekiel 8:10-12 says, “So I went in [the Temple] and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel…Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up...they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

 

 So Jesus cleanses that Temple on Palm Sunday, but only in a pre-game way. He pulls off the covers and reveals the filth. He bores holes into the walls and exposes the darkness that sin has put there. I said pre-game, because it turns out the abominations are inside men, not just walls, says Zechariah 9:7, they are that which we make for ourselves to worship (Isa 2:20).

 

 Jesus is the rival that shows up. He is not like the abominations you worship, which you have carved upon your walls and upon your flesh. He does not look like those things in which you fear, love, and trust. The Shepherd becomes the abomination, in a world full of abominations.

 

 He proclaims that He will gather His sheep, as the Good Shepherd, and give them life everlasting. He claims He has a Supper to give, in order to break the bread of heaven for you that you may be forgiven. He proclaims that He has a Temple to be destroyed and raised three days later, to never be destroyed again, that you may live in for all eternity.

 

 He has a clean life, free from all sin, to offer. He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, the mockery, and yet replies, “All this I gladly suffer”. And He is lifted up, that He draw all men to Himself and He is made into a corpse, dying and being buried. The ultimate Abomination: the death of God, is the Abomination of desolation.

 

 So you missed the sign some 2000 years ago. You missed the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place that was your signal to flee from the world, its false Christ’s, and its Beast System. You are looking into the heavens, as the Apostles did on Ascension day. You are looking up for answers and signs, but Christ goes ahead of you to Galilee of the gentiles, down on earth.

 

For though the Abomination of Desolation has passed in history, its spirit lives on inside you. What are abominable to God are a delight to the eyes of sinners, good for food, and seemingly desirable to make one wise, like God, knowing good from evil (Gen 3).

 

 Jesus knocks the temple of abomination down to the ground with the “greatest” abomination: His suffering and death. However, this abomination that the Lord creates instead cleanses perfectly and knocks down the high places in your heart. Remember, the real abomination is that of your sinful nature, the world, and the devil’s reaction to God.

 

Thus what the Lord creates in His crucifixion is an anti-abomination, in that it dispels and destroys that which creates abomination: sin, death, and the power of the devil. This is what the Lord meant when He said that our abominations are in our teeth, in Zechariah 9:7. They are our original, corrupted selves in need of salvation.

 

For even though the death of God truly is the abomination of desolation, from that desolation of God on your behalf, comes life eternal. God does not stay dead. Instead He forces death to create life. He forces abomination to produce holiness. 

 

You see, even though the Temple, God’s Church, was full of abominations, He did not forsake her. As He promised, she would be a house where He and His Name would dwell forever (Deut 12:11; 1 Ki. 9:3). And it would be such a place come hell or high water. And both did come. Jesus made His bed in the lower places of the earth (Ps 139:8) and before that had cried out in the Psalms how the waters of His enemies came above His head, on the cross (Ps 69:2).

 

So now God’s Name is on the cross as well, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. Now God’s Name is beneath the earth, having been buried and descended into hell. Now God’s Name is upon the Resurrection, as He is the First-born of the dead. He surrounds His enemies and their abominations on all sides, ensuring His victory.

 

And grace upon Grace, He takes His Name and places it upon the cause and source of all abominations: your forehead and your heart. He baptizes you, a poor miserable sinner, into His holy, resurrected Body that you be cleansed fully, unlike the Temple, and share in God’s own holiness for all eternity.

 

And to continue to make His holiness known upon earth and to continue to lead you away from any and all abominations, He sets up His anti-abomination shop in plain sight, in all places, and in all times. The Good Shepherd sets up and call His shepherds to shepherd His people. Through them, He calls believers to break bread with Him, in Word and Sacrament, and commands that they eat and drink His Supper to proclaim His death until He comes.

 

In this way, Church and liturgy encapsulate and live in all that the world considers an abomination, which is a good thing. Because what God calls good, the world calls evil. Thus, our key to surviving this time of the “abomination of desolation” is Christ Crucified and the bunker, the safe house, the fallout shelter is His Word and Sacrament given and shed for you, handed out in His Divine Service.

 

 

Liturgy fights [Reformation 2021]

...LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE...

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 14:6-7

• Romans 3:19-28

• St. John 8:31-36

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)
 
Who speaks to you from His own Gospel, saying:

“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”

 
If there is anything we can be sure about the Reformation, is that the real battle took place within the congregations not in the courtrooms, emperor’s chambers, or papal palaces. Luther and the Reformers’ emphasis was on getting information to the people that could be easily consumed by them, usually read. And where most everyone was, each day, was in Church, in Service.
 
But the information they were handing over wasn’t bibliographies, master’s theses, or how-to’s, it was doctrine and Liturgy. We have been talking about Liturgy and its importance, the last few weeks, but Liturgy, how we worship, is a fruit of Doctrine and we would go so far as to say, “Doctrine is life”. For without doctrine, we have no liturgy, and without liturgy we have no church life, and with no church life, we have no faith, and with no faith we have no Savior.
 
The fancy Latin phrase is: lex credendi, lex orandi. How we believe is how we pray, or practice. Our own Augsburg Confession states in Article 24: “Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people. For ceremonies are needed to this end alone that the unlearned be taught [what they need to know of Christ].”
 
Though the Mass was historically retained, it was different because of the Reformation, and the pope knew it. The difference was that a true Mass, or Divine Service, can only be celebrated with correct doctrine. In other words, if you are teaching Christ incorrectly, then you are doing church incorrectly.
 
Thus we can say “doctrine is life” because without correct doctrine we cannot get to Church. But, you say, that’s not what Jesus would say. He wouldn’t let something as petty as church doctrine get in the way of accepting people.
 
And you would be right, but not in the way you think. Sin turns everything God does for you backwards and this is no different. Doctrine is not Jesus being intolerant, its you in your sin being intolerant towards God and His work of accepting people, as opposed to yours.  
 
We hear this in St. Matthew 11. Jesus doesn’t say “you suffer violence”, He says the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, but in what way? How can someone assault heaven? Jesus here mentions John the Baptist and all the prophets and even all the Law. John was beheaded for his preaching. The prophets were all killed by their parishioners, as Jesus teaches in Acts 7:52, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.”
 
Violence to heaven is done by assaulting her priests and her congregants, and as we explained last week, the Church is the object of demonic violence. In this backwards, upside-down world of sin and corruption, we project upon our Lord our own violence. We play the victim card when we sin and make poor choices, blaming God for our misfortunes and taking credit for our prosperity.
 
It turns out that when God speaks to us, He is telling us all about the upside-down. He is teaching. He is in-doctrine-ating us back to how it should be. You see, Doctrine is there for you, not for God. It is so you don’t lose your way and end up at the wrong Altar, Hell’s Altar.
 
So we sit at the feet of our Teacher. We hear His Law. We hear His Righteousness. We hear His Propitiation and we hear His Faith, as our Epistle reading taught us. Doctrine is not what you think it is either. Though you may find it scribbled on paper and in classrooms and lecture halls, true Doctrine is the Word of God: Jesus Christ. In this way:
 
Another word we can use for “doctrine” is “teaching”, as it goes in the Greek language. When we read our Bibles, we come across the word “teaching” more, but what that word is translating is “doctrine”. We hear it in St. Matthew’s Gospel, 7:28-29, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”
 
Jesus taught all the time (Mt 4:23) and He even told the Apostles to baptize and teach (Mt 28:20). But what was so astonishing about His teaching? Why were the crowds amazed and what could He have possibly been teaching to invoke such a dramatic response from the crowd either calling Him God or calling for His death?
 
Since you can not grab the answer, you have confessed your sin of seeing Jesus as just another moral teacher of antiquity. That He says nice things like: play nice, be nice, and think nice. It never entered your sinful mind as to what could possibly have set apart Jesus’ teachings and doctrines from the rest of the priests and teachers of Israel.
 
Well, what were the teachers of Israel teaching? “Peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:15), the doctrines of men as the commandments of God (Mt 15:9). And really that one is key, because Jesus prefaces that statement with “in vain do they worship me”. Really, its about worship.
 
So what were the teachers teaching? False worship. Worship of prosperity, instead of worship under the cross. Worship of self, instead of worship of God made man. Worship of personal preference, instead of worship in the Divine Service.
 
This is Jesus’s teachings that were so different and amazing: the simple fact that God’s Law, God’s Commands, God’s teachings, God’s doctrines, God’s Word had become flesh and dwells among us. It wasn’t enough for men to “play nice” together, they needed to be together, joined together in union with God for Christ’s sake.
 
So Jesus went about teaching this Personal Union. As He said at the end of St. Luke, “…that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations” (24:47).
He was preaching the Gospel (Lk 20:1), gathering together the faithful in order that He rise from the dead, create His Church, and commune with them in forgiveness and life.
 
Our doctrine, then, is the Logos of God, the teaching, the Word made flesh. This Doctrine comes down from heaven to proclaim the eternal Gospel to those who dwell on earth (Rev. 14:6) with His own lips. This Doctrine teaches and preaches the forgiveness of sins in His own flesh. This Doctrine suffers, dies, and rises to new life as the Resurrected doctrine. This Way, He does not just teach, but gives, Body and Blood.
 
With this Faith freely given and the resulting belief, the baptized faithful gather around this doctrine, this living flesh of God, and worship God in His light. “Doctrine is life” because in doctrine we find belief, and in belief we find faith, and in faith we find Christ Crucified for us.
 
The violence in putting God to death on a cross, which we confess to in our Creed, now sets you free. Not free to sin however and wherever and whenever, but free to find God while He may be found. Free to respond to the Lord’s invitation to forgiveness and life. Free to worship in a way that reflects the Lord’s Doctrine and how you believe.
 
The devil, the world, and your sinful nature couldn’t care less about your philosophy of truth or who your master is. They care where you worship, how you worship, and Who you worship. The front lines of your struggle against your own sin is right in this room, where God is in charge.
 
The world’s rubber hits the road of the Church, in this spot, and explodes. The Liturgy here proclaims correct doctrine and correct faith, being centered on Christ. Thus, the Reformation fight continues with us, in the liturgy, as we publicly proclaim to the world: this is God ordained Faith and worship and I have come to receive what Christ gives.
 
The battle is engaged, our Captain takes the field, victory is won and handed out freely to all who believe.