Uncomfortable Church [Ultimate Sunday]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 65:17-25

• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

• St. Matthew 25:1-13

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)
 
Who speaks to you this very morning saying,

“But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”

 
You want to talk about being uncomfortable? No two words of Jesus have ever inspired more fear and discomfort than those of, “I never knew you.” Change my mind.
 
Wouldn’t it be horrible to hear those words? I’m glad it won’t be said to me, only to those “others” that need Jesus. However, it is quite clear from the Gospel, that calling Jesus “Lord” is not enough. Neither is speaking prophesy, nor casting out demons, nor doing mighty works in the name of Jesus.
 
Examples from Holy Scripture include: Balaam spoke true prophecy from the Lord (Num 23-24), but did not end well (Num 31:8, 16).
Saul had his demons cast out (1 Sam 16:23). Judas Iscariot, along with the other 11 disciples, was authorized to cast demons out (Mark 3:14-19).
Solomon did mighty works of wisdom (1 Kgs 3:16-28) and temple construction (1 Kgs 6:1, 7:51). Yet he did not stay the course (1 Kgs 11). 
Remember Joab, King Uzziah, Demas, and Judas as examples of those who did “mighty works” but are not in the kingdom of heaven.
Of course, Judas is our chief example of one who called Jesus “Lord” without membership in the kingdom.
 
Jesus adds to that saying in Matthew 7, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock… And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.” (v. 24, 26)
 
The problem here is that calling Jesus “Lord”, prophesy, demons, and mighty works are the works the Kingdom requires. Along with those include being poor in spirit, meek, peacemakers, loving God from your heart, and living generously and graciously in your community. Many “teachers” in churches will mistakenly claim these outward works as inward, but the same condemnation applies to both groups of actions, outward and inward.
 
So will those who call upon the Name of the Lord be delivered or not? Uncomfortable!
Let’s continue our uncomfortable journey and compare the 10 virgins of today’s Gospel to the 10 righteous men that Abraham prayed for in Sodom and Gomorrah. 
 
The event plays out in Genesis 18 and 19, with God declaring, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave. I will go down myself to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me” (v. 20-21). And when God comes down Himself, that means judgement.
 
Our ten men come into play when Abraham speaks up for the minority. He asks God to spare the city if the Lord finds 50 righteous men living in it, because far be it from the Lord to sweep away the righteous with the unrighteous. God agrees with Abraham’s prayer. 
 
Abraham then uncomfortably, but boldly continues. What about 45, or 40, or 30, or 20? Finally Abraham says, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” For the sake of ten, Sodom and Gomorrah will be saved. But there were not ten, there weren’t even 5. 
 
There was 4: Lot, his wife, and two daughters and even those 4 did not want to leave. The Lord had to drag them out by the hand (Gen 19:16). Now why wouldn’t they go willingly? Why, if even the Lord has numbered them among the righteous, would they resist?
 
How uncomfortable are these interactions with the Lord! They don’t sit well with our modern, civilized understanding of “how things ought to be”. And “how things ought to be” is that I should be the inheritor of all the blessings listed in our Old Testament reading, I am the one who will be let into the marriage feast, I am the one who loves the Lord.
 
Well, if you are so blessed and love the Lord God so much, then why are you uncomfortable in His Church? Why must you be dragged out of your homes to make it to Sunday Morning? Why must your thoughts be on only what you believe you deserve?
 
You are uncomfortable and feel like a stranger in Church because you are guilty. The Lord has come down to see for Himself just what sort of world we have made of this place and just what sort of church we have created on earth, and He is not happy. You can feel it in your bones. It shakes your inner being and you are afraid.
 
You are not afraid because God is not tame or almighty. You are afraid that your guilt is right. You are afraid that your outward and your inward works of loving God and your neighbor will not be enough. In fact, in your lifetime, you have become more and more certain that your thoughts, words, and deeds will be exactly what keep you out of heaven. And you are right.
 
Repent. Our goal should never be to bash anyone, believer or unbeliever. Sure the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality, but that is also a forgivable sin. Our goal should always be the forgiveness of that sin, because we know in our hearts that our sin is very grave and horrid.
 
When God comes near, our guilt is finally filled up, the jig is up, and we will finally be put out of our poor, miserable lives. So any movement, or song, or prayer, or praise, or thanksgiving is going to be stained with that guilt. So much so, that we will not want to do it and won’t be able to stand coming into God’s presence, in His Church, and going through His religious motions.
 
It is not God nor is it His Church. It is you, in your sin, refusing to leave behind your gloomy haunts of sin and sadness and come into the light. The light that will expose you for the wretched, unrighteous sinner you really are.
 
Really, it is a great miracle that you are here. It is a miracle that I am here and am able to stand upright in front of all of you. Are we just gluttons for punishment, like good Jews? No. We are here for one reason, and one reason only: that part heard in the Gospel that is always passed over, the actual Good News – “Here is the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him!”
 
The Bridegroom comes, this is the Gospel. No matter who is there, no matter what is happening, or how anyone feels about it, He comes. He comes and you are surprised, as St. Paul said you would be in the Epistle reading. You are surprised, not just because you were asleep in your sin, but because He comes with an Invitation and not judgement.
 
Jesus did not say, “I am coming, better trim those lamps”. He did not say, “You won’t be with me because you have sinned”. He says “come out and meet me!”. And 5 heard and believed and five heard and didn’t believe. To hear and believe requires faith. And that is the dividing line between it all.
 
Jesus Christ comes with an invitation to be with Him. An invitation. It is a welcoming thing, not a judgement thing. That our Lord comes with an invitation is evidenced in Holy Scripture from beginning to end. 
 
To Adam and Eve, He gave every last thing that He had just created out of nothing and invited them to care for it. To Sodom and Gomorrah He had given His priests, Seth and his sons, to preach that same invitation to return to the Lord. To even Judas Iscariot, Jesus said, “come all who are weary and I will give you rest”.
 
It is not an invitation to be judged, but an invitation to watch the judgment of God on the cross and it is uncomfortable to watch. We have heard Him prophesy of His death and it was uncomfortable. We heard Him talk about eating and drinking His Body and Blood and it was uncomfortable.
 
And in His Church we have gathered all of that into one spot, it is no wonder we are uncomfortable, much more will anyone who is just walking in out of the darkness be uncomfortable. This is why God opens Himself up to us in His Son. Not only opening His will and His kingdom to us, but quite literally His Body, in order that we find salvation in His wounds, in His invitation.
 
And this salvation comes to us through hearing. Faith is a gift and it comes by hearing. But you cannot hear without someone preaching and that someone cannot preach unless he has been Called and Ordained (Rom 10:14-15), as in the man-Jesus-sends and this is uncomfortable, too! 
I don’t need no man to get to God!
 
But so what? So what if you are uncomfortable? I say good. I am so uncomfortable up here it takes all I have to stay and not run. These candles feel like judgement fire. I stay because of the words God allows to leave my mouth, those of His Mercy and Grace. We come for the invitation and we stay for the party.
 
As our Old Testament preaches, God is doing a wonderful thing and He is doing it through His Son Who is a man, Who promises salvation in earthly things: water, bread, wine, words, and then sends us pastors to hand these things out to us, and nothing else. It is in the pastor then, that joy comes to Jerusalem, to the Lord’s Church, because in our pastor we see the man, Christ Jesus.
 
Dear Christians, it is faith that makes you uncomfortable in front of God, for the Holy Spirit has promised to convict you of your sin, but the world has promised to give you “peace” where there is no peace. The difference is, you will not find forgiveness in the world for your guilt, only band-aids to cover that festering wound.
 
In Christ alone do we find healing and true medicine for our beings. And in Christ alone, do we gain true, heavenly comfort. And He gives it to us by means. The means of His grace, Word and Sacrament, gathered neatly in His Church on earth that preaches the Gospel in its purity and administers the Sacraments according to it. 
 
Once we receive this comfort, Church becomes comfortable and it becomes us to comfort all who enter here, because we know what its like.
 

We sing of Christ! [Zion Organ Celebration]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Revelation 5:6-14

• 1 Samuel 16:14-23

 

Dear saints at Zion: grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the Lord of all true music.
 
Who speaks to you today, in your hearing, about King David and King Saul, from 1 Samuel. What is interesting there is two things: first that we hear in verse 23, “And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.”
 
So it is that music, from St. David, soothed the savage beast. Second, is the fact that that “savage beast” or harmful spirit was from the Lord and looks as if God is resorting to pretty and vengeful tactics in order to remove Saul from David’s rightful throne.
 
First of all, we must make the distinction that it is not music in general that has some sort of magical affect on the universe outside of God’s control. I already mentioned that it is specifically David’s music that soothes Saul and that’s the point. David has been chosen by the Lord and so he will be the man to bring peace between God and man. His words, his work, and his song.
 
This of course is to point ahead to the God-man, the true King and Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who’s words, work, and song will effectually accomplish those things for all people for all eternity. David is playing the role of Christ. There will be a man coming Who’s Word will create peace and union with God and man.
 
Whatever else is apart from Christ is harmful, as this spirit to Saul, is. Is this really God being a jerk? No. It is Saul. Saul has placed himself outside of the promise of God, as is declared, “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king” (1 Sam 15:26), and “I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him” (Ps 89:20).
 
Saul rejected. He chose his sin over his Savior. This harmful spirit, then, is not a rogue spirit God keeps in chains till He needs it, it is the spirit of God. And the Spirit of God is an untamed Spirit. Not only does He go wherever, as we hear in John 3, but He also “brings the sword of division” (St. Lk 12:51).
 
This is what sin is like in front of God. There cannot be two gods. Either you will hate the one and love the other; or else you will be devoted to one and despise the other (Mt 6:24). “What communion has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6:14).
 
Simply by God existing in a sinful world, He creates violence and animosity and it is all directed at Him. He is holy, but our sinful un-holiness must crucify Him to finally be rid of Him. This is Saul’s battle. His sin prevents him from hallowing God’s Name or letting His kingdom come. thus, he is tormented with a hellish torment, that of living with his sin and rejecting the forgiveness that the holy God has come to give.
 
So it is that the Son of God comes eating and drinking and singing. And His singing is the singing of the Gospel. And His choir is His Bride the Church who sings with all the saints of heaven, the new Resurrection song in the flesh. And in that same flesh, She will see God face to face.
 
Thus we sing. As the prophets before us put their prophesy, not into mathematics or astronomy, but song, we sing. As John the Baptist’s father brought him into this world in song we sing. As the angels of heaven touched their golden harps on earth at the birth of Christ, we sing. As Jesus is coming soon amid the song of a trumpet, we sing.
 
Most especially, if we can keep our sinful flesh, the world, and the power of the devil at bay with the hymns of Christ, we will sing. Sing for our supper, His Supper, which becomes for us our source of sing, our David. For our song does not come from inside, but outside of us. 
 
God sets His Table of communion and union and we sing. Our Lord promises His death and resurrection to us, and we sing. We see, touch, smell, taste, and hear that God is good in Word and Sacrament and sing with angels and archangels, with all the company of heaven, and from the final Psalm:
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament! (which happens in the same place!)
Praise him for his mighty deeds [of salvation];
    praise him according to his excellent greatness [on the cross]!
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes (and oboes)!
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord! (Ps 150)

One Being - Christ [Penultimate Sunday]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 7:9-14

• 2 Peter 3:3-14

• St. Matthew 25:31-46

 

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)

 

Who speaks to you this very morning saying,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.”

 

It is St. Peter, this morning, that gives us a good Sunday joke saying, “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” I find it particularly humorous coming on the coat-tails of election week where everyone was/is at each others’ throats over something as miniscule as politics.

 

And if all it takes is politics and some imaginary election to so-called “power” to destroy our peace and get us to hate our neighbor, then we can’t even begin to think about being without spot or blemish when faced with everything else that is on our plates. Where is peace in that kind of world? St. Peter the Jokester.

 

Last week, we talked about this fear of being “unelected” by God and found comfort in the Atonement, but even when we look at the Gospel reading for today, the sheep are not at peace or at least uneasy and uncomfortable. They appear to be unsure how they will be judged and don’t even accept the judgement they are given, though it is in their favor!

 

Here, St. James condemns us with God’s Law when he says, “the one who doubts…is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6, 8). For as much chaos and struggle that we place in our own lives, ready to turn on our neighbor at the drop of a ballot, we also leak that into God’s Church, where we doubt. This effectively creates a horrible life and a horrible after-life for us.

 

We are double-minded and doubt. Worse than that, St. James isn’t saying that we are of two minds and if we just change it, everything will be ok. What he is actually teaching us is that we are double-spirited. More to the point, double-being.

 

English translators can’t make up their mind about that word. They will translate it as soul sometimes and “mind” other times, as St. James witnessed. Such as Ecclesiastes 12:7, “ the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

 

Here is this “being” and what we are taught there is that God gives it to us. He creates our spirit, soul, being and we only get one. All well and good. But if we only get one, where does this double-mindedness, this double-spirited-ness comes from? Why must St. Paul depress us saying in Romans 7:

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

 

And if even St. Paul can’t make it…

 

Jesus, in our Gospel also makes a division of two, sheep and goats. The epistle has the scoffers, in verse 3, and those waiting and hastening the Day of the Lord. Daniel, too, gets into it speaking of seeing the Beast killed in fire and “one like the son of man”. 

 

There are not two beings. There is only one being from God. The double is a stranger, as our Introit told us, an interloper. A fake “being” who attempts to usurp and displace. You can’t even blame this on satan, completely, because he also has received his being from God. 

 

This second, false being is sin, that is the corruption of everything God has made, the total corruption of our whole human nature, and the false idea that there is anything besides God and what He made. 

 

Repent. You may be double-minded, but it is your fault. Your sinful nature just loves to take credit for God’s great work, especially when it is your turn to feed the hungry, give to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, or visit the sick and imprisoned. “Lord we always do those things for You!”

 

Hear the words of the true Being: “By this we know love, that he laid down his being for us, and we ought to lay down our beings for the brothers.” Jesus clears the air right away and declares that what He offered on the cross was this being, the one and only, come from God, and given back to Him perfectly, as Ecclesiastes 12 told us.

 

So perfectly, that we hear in Hebrews 10:14, 10, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”, because “by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

 

Jesus has offered up His entire being upon the cross in order to forgive sins, but also to finally put to death this second, stranger being who accuses His elect day and night. For by His being, which suffered and died, He has been approved by God such that His being has risen from the dead, never to die again. 

 

Thus, the Being of Jesus was and is one with God. This was always the case, but now the true gift of God is given when we are then included in the Great Unity! St. Paul alludes to this in Philippians 2:2 saying, “complete my joy by being of the same being, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” in Christ. 

 

Body, soul, being, spirit, mind, heart. All go together. There is not one without the other, just as Christ’s entire being was able to be offered through His Body and Blood on the cross. So it will remain true that “there is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6), because we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28).

 

Therefore, the being of Jesus is the gift of God given to us. The deathless Being of Jesus given to us, fights off death for us. The Victorious Being of Jesus given to us, goes and sins no more for us. The Comforting Being of Jesus given to us, works to heal us of our double-being-ness, through His Word and Sacrament.

 

Dear Christians, St. James tells us to be not double-being-ed, because we have only been given the Spirit of Christ and it is a right and holy Spirit within us. You are not only given something as abstract as a “renewed mind” or a “special soul”. You have been brought into deep communion and baptized into the very being of God, in Christ.

 

The depth of this union is the depth of the love which God has for you. This is not of yourself, for God is only moved to forgive sins because He is merciful and because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2).

 

Returning to St. Peter’s words then in verse 14: in Christ you are addressed by the blessed Apostle as beloved. Beloved of God Who has forgiven you on His own. As His beloved, you wait on Him. And you are able to wait, because since God is for you, who can be against you?

 

You wait for a new heavens and a new earth, not so that you can do all the things you didn’t get to, but because the old ones were strangers against you who sought your very being, and now they are no more. 

 

Your diligence, then, is not in how well you believe or wait, but how well you let Christ do His work among you. How well you attend to His words of salvation in baptism and forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper. Because, once again, the Lord produces in us the diligence He desires by His very being. It is only “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (Eph 1:7-8).

 

In that flood of Jesus’s blood, we find peace. In His wounds, we find peace. In His Word and Sacrament we are so saturated with peace that we will have to be dug out on the Last Day. 

 

Here, the strife is fierce and the battle feels long. We struggle with flesh and with spirit and with mind. But that sin, that evil is the stranger, not you in your faith. That stranger will not rise up with you to your Lord’s side forever, on the Last Day. That stranger will be refused admittance to the Wedding Feast, our Lord declaring, “Depart. I never knew you.”  

 

That stranger, that other spirit, will be taken from you and cast away as far as the east is from the west. And there will only be Christ. There will not be evil close at hand, or a pet-sin to trip you up, or a holy work to confuse as your own. Then, it will only be the Son of Man, in His glory, on His glorious throne, Christ as the Head and His Church, the Body in Whom we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). 

 

Come quickly Lord Jesus.

 

Amen.

 

 

Elected for Atonement [Trinity 25]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 32:1-20

• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

• St. Matthew 24:15-28

Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)

 

Who speaks to you this very morning saying,

“And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

 

Jesus suffering and dying to seek and save the lost has confounded theologians and arm-chair theologians for millennia. In one sense, the work seems too drastic, overkill for such a goal. In another sense, it appears only to be for some and not others, as Jesus seems to suggest in today’s Gospel reading, when He mentions the “elect”.

 

These “elect” then become objects of disdain, in our sin, because they are the lucky ones and who knows if we will be one of them? The so-called theologians have spent lifetimes trying to figure out who is and who isn’t someone for whom Jesus had died.

 

So much so, that this has become the central point of all of their theological teachings. And such fear has been instilled in those who hear it, that when they come across the words of Jesus, such as those found a little further on in St. Matthew 24, saying, “Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left” (v. 40-41), one thought takes over: which one am I?

 

Our anxiety then spills over. We don’t just ask “which one am I”, but because it distracts us from our own guilt, its more important to us to ask “which one is my neighbor”. 

 

We find ourselves no longer focused on Christ, but rather what God is thinking and who He is picking for His team.

However, if sin is against God, but only God can pay the price, then how can God satisfy God? If one person satisfies another, then he that satisfies is still unsatisfied. 

 

It appears then, that God cannot forgive because His very nature is Holiness and Perfect Justice. The Bible says God is just. Therefore, Justice and Holiness is His nature. God cannot act contrary to His nature. God doesn't even have the capacity to forgive or the capacity to be Holy. It violates His nature. He's already inherently Holy and Just. 

 

Also, God's fellowship with Sin is completely void and impossible. God cannot have fellowship with anything less than His perfect righteousness. He must also deal with every human being with perfect justice, meaning He can't deal unfairly. Man is entirely without spiritual life or capacity, so no one can work or earn fellowship with God.

 

Repent. Approaching this “why” of God only leads you into what God does not tell you. This is the hidden God. Not only is His thinking far beyond yours, but if we understood everything about God, He would be a false idol. However, this still does not comfort us in regards to the Last Day, Final Judgement, or the elect.

 

We still have a God who is All-powerful and can do anything He wants to at anytime and not have to give excuses for it. We will have to make up something quick. Either set some man-made guidelines and requirements of what it takes to be “elect” or give up on God completely.

 

Before giving up, though, Moses has left a clue for us to solve this problem. It is in verse 14 of our Old Testament reading which says, “And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” Now at first glance this seems exactly like the same changing-His-mind-God that we have already sadly come up against and no comfort.

 

But the word “relent”, is not a change of mind word, but something more. It is atonement. It would read better, “And the Lord atoned Himself concerning the disaster.” He doesn’t just change His mind, He does something about it Himself. He takes the problem head on without flinching.

 

But what does atonement mean? There are only a few hints given to us. In Exodus and Leviticus, we only know who is handling this atonement. In Leviticus 4:20 we hear, “And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven.”

 

By his own self? No. By the blood of bulls and goats. The priest might be offering the atonement, but he does not make it effective, neither do the bulls and goats. Leviticus 17:11 gets us closer to an answer, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

 

Not the priest. Not the animals. The blood. The blood covering and coating, along with the Promise it is so. Think Passover when the blood was spread over the doorposts and lintels to stave off death. There a distinction was made, but at the Golden Calf incident, no distinction was made. All sinned. All drank the gold-infused water.

 

Dear Christians. Do we have a blood-less, unfeeling God Who only makes rules? Is God so out there, that He cannot even properly interact with His creation, but only as a tyrant Who picks favorites? If God were an unfeeling, piece of legislature, then we would have no choice but to decide on our own who is elect and who is not and despair.

 

But, God is not blood-less, but full of blood. He is not a God of ballot boxes, but of people. Humans. Flesh and blood. So much so that when He shows up in front of people, in front of you, it is not as a judge or lawyer, but a man. A flesh and blood man Who has come to cause the Lord to relent of disaster.

 

Hebrews 2:17 begins to explain, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation (atonement) for the sins of the people.”

 

To be the true chosen, or elect, you would have to be such a faithful and high priest that your body and blood would make atonement, would cover the sins of all people of all time. Therefore, Jesus is the one and only Elect. The true high priest, Who is able to intercede for and buy back His creation.

 

There is then no point to elections or asking Jesus for candidates. Because there is only one candidate and one vote. Your vote doesn’t count because you would always pick the wrong person, as is evident. God voted for Jesus, His vote counts, and Jesus was still rejected and crucified. 

 

But this rejection was planned. Indeed, it was Jesus’s one and only job. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atonement for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

 

It was planned because it was the only way to provide election to those who are neither worthy of it nor could by any means merit it. We are all familiar with Romans 3, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. But to find our own election into God’s party, we must read on, verse 24 and 25 say, “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an atonement by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

 

To say that you are elect means that you believe the Holy Spirit has chosen you. You believe that you cannot come to your Lord Jesus Christ, nor believe in Him on your own. Your election to the divine paradise that God has created from the beginning for those who love Him, is received. And it is received by faith alone.

 

So we have no need for elections or jurisprudence or sleepless nights of anxiety about “am I elect”. Neither do we have to punish our neighbor in hopes God’s attention will be on them and He will passover us. If the Blood of the Atonement covers you, you are elect.

 

That’s it. And that’s what irks the legalists. It is so easy. Too easy. Our pride reels and rejects such a proposition, crucifies it. But, it is no proposition that our Lord and Savior offers. It is a gift. Not a gift to be taken, but a gift to be received. Yours and yours alone. 

 

You don’t even have to search for this gift. It is set on a Table for you. The Lord’s Table. As He says in 2 Corinthians 5, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (v. 18-19).

 

This ministry of reconciliation is Jesus’s work through His Word and Sacrament (as Miles taught us today). Jesus gives us the gift of election through His ministry of Election by the Message of Election. That is that Christ purchased and won your election with His holy, innocent, and precious Body and Blood.

 

The same Body and Blood we eat and drink today in faith, the same Blood that covered us in our own baptism, of which we are reminded, are all found in His Church of Election. So that instead of wondering around your own head for the answer, you can come here and have God answer it directly, from our Epistle, “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thess 4:14), His Elect.