READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
- Exodus 17:1-7
- 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5
- St. Matthew 20:1-16
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.”
This was evident to Dr. Luther in the 16th century when he titled one of his essays, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” in 1520. The strange thing about that essay, is Dr. Luther does not use the lack of morals or devotions or pious practices to prove that the Church was held in captivity by the pope and his traditions.
Instead, he places the outward signs of captivity squarely on the abuse of the Sacraments. Everyone was still praying in Rome and in Babylon. Everyone was still hearing God’s Word. Everyone was still moral. Everyone was even still going to church. What they were not allowed to do was partake of the Sacraments as easily and freely as the Bible promises.
This we see even in the historic Babylonian captivity. It was not that Daniel and the Israelites were persecuted for practicing their religion. They were persecuted for not practicing the Babylonian religion. Daniel may have been caught praying towards the Temple, but he was only punished because he refused to pray to the king as well, heard in Daniel 6.
The point is, God’s people could still be God’s people in exile, which is why God chose it for them. What Babylon had truly taken away was God’s presence. The Temple was no longer, the glory cloud did not appear in Babylon, and the communion between God and His people through the Temple culture was missing. In other words, the sacraments.
Not even in the 40 years of wandering in the desert, did God’s presence leave, for in our Old Testament reading the Lord literally says that He will stand in Moses’s face on the rock. The tricky Hebrew, however, could be read as He will stand in Moses’s face as the Rock. Regardless, God is there quite visibly, with His people, causing His spiritual goodness to become physical goodness. In other words, sacramental.
The greatest captivity of Babylon, whatever name it goes by in any age, has little to do with persecution or repression. It’s the lie that nothing deeper, nothing greater, nothing more beautiful and satisfying and permanent than the captivity itself, exists.
Repent. You are greatly afflicted with Stockholm Syndrome. Meaning, you have become so used to giving up your Christian freedoms, especially concerning the Sacraments, that you have become accustomed to the three captivities of the Lord’s Supper, as Dr. Luther gives example.
The first is that of denying or withholding. Either you have been told it is so holy that you shouldn’t have it or shouldn’t have it very often, or you have been told that you don’t need it to sustain faith. In either case, the exile imposed upon you is not to believe God’s Word: take and eat and drink.
The second captivity is that of denying God’s actual presence. Either you believe that magic happens and the bread and wine change completely into the Body and Blood or you don’t believe in magic and are just having snacks with God. Transubstantiation, as we call it, is not necessary. Where Christ is, both of His natures are as well. Again, the exile is to not take God at His Word: this is my Body, this is my Blood.
The third exile is the most evil of the three. That is the belief that the Mass is a good work or a sacrifice on your part. Either you believe that going to church is another commandment to show off your obedience to God, or you believe that by witnessing the priest performing the Service, you gain favor. This exile is to not believe that Christ institutes His own Supper and performs the testament Himself.
In Faith, denying or withholding His Supper is an absurdity. As our Gospel teaches today, the Lord’s Vineyard is open for business and there is plenty. In St. Matthew 21, the housemaster invests everything into this vineyard so it is fruitful. He cleared the land, planted, put up a fence, dug the wine press, built a tower, weeded, cared for, and nurtured the land. All for the sole purpose of inviting workers. To deny or withhold is to deny or withhold Christ Himself.
There is not one “true believer” who would say the presence of their god is not necessary. However, Jesus does not 1) make something that defies His own rules for the world and 2) He doesn’t say anything without meaning it. So His presence does not need some magic mumbo-jumbo slight of hand, “now its bread, now its not”. Neither does He say “this is my Body” and mean that its only a symbol.
What it comes down to, in Exile, is faith. Faith to hear the Word and believe it. Faith to understand that a testament is a statement of will from someone who is about to die. They are saying the last things they will ever say to you, so it has to be important. In Christ’s New Testament, He breaks the bread and offers the wine as His true Body and true Blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus dies, but He also rises again to new life. Thus, His Supper is not only a Testament, but a promise, for a promise is made by someone Who is living. He promises to forgive sins. He promises to pay out His denarius of Faith. He promises to build His Church. He promises to forgive sins in His Supper.
Church and His Sacrament of the Altar is His Institution, He made it, His Testament, He bequeathed it to us, and His Promise of the forgiveness of sins. This is the true definition of the Mass. This is what it really means to “go to church”.
“Going to Church”” does not mean “gather to offer up to God our praise, our thanksgiving, our love, our repentance, our spirits, our bodies, our money–our all. When we worship God, we give Him the honor and reverence He deserves” as if nothing deeper, nothing greater, nothing more beautiful and satisfying and permanent than our works exists.
“Going to Church” means gathering together with the risen Christ and His church to receive His gifts of forgiveness and life. And His Mass, or Divine Service is the promise of the forgiveness of sins. Any removal or change of this we would call exile and not true Church.
Worship is properly called “Divine Service” because without the vineyard, there’d be nothing. Without Jesus offering Himself to be the Rock that is struck, and serving us from His vineyard, then we are lost, it is our works that get us to heaven, and we don’t need Christ on the cross.
Jesus suffers in order to create His Vineyard, both the whole of creation and His Bride the Church. He dies to purchase and win fruitfulness and salvation in the same vineyard. He is lifted up on the cross to draw all men to Himself, where He promises to be.
While Daniel knew he couldn’t go back to the Temple, much like how we can’t go back to the cross, Daniel also knew that God keeps His promises, to be among His people even in exile. Even in exile, God goes with us.
The only denying and withholding that is happening is that we don’t have full communion with Him, as we will in heaven. The only forbidding placed upon us is being unable to see or live in eternity, for the moment. The only good works and sacrifices happening is Christ on the cross for sinners, offered in Word and Sacrament in their hands.
So do we deny ourselves these things in hopes our piety will reach to heaven? Good God, no! We do as much as possible to be as “less exiled” as we can. We feast on both kinds as Christ said. We eat and drink bread and wine AND Body and Blood and leave the matter to Christ. We also keep His promise of forgiveness close and return to it as often as we can.
There is enough in this world to make us feel exiled from God and His heaven without us having to pile it on by denying God’s Work as He promised to do it. That is to create His Church and mark it with Word and Sacrament. We know and feel in our hearts that we are in exile. All the more, then, do we act like Daniel, opening the windows of Church and communing with the Lord often.
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