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.