READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 25:6-14
Ephesians 4:1-6
St. Luke 14:1-11
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 John)
Who speaks to you this morning saying,
Today, we will talk about what it means to be the Church Militant on earth.
With the passing of St. Michael’s Day last week, the Church begins to be mindful of the End of all things, anticipating the return of Jesus. Unfortunately, because the devil and his angels have been thrown to earth and are in great wrath, the Church on earth has become a Military Base, day in and day out being harassed and defeated.
While as exciting as the Church being a military operation sounds, the only structure left standing in the Spiritual War is the Medic Tent filled with ailing church-goers, waiting for the dropsy of their sin to be healed so that they may perhaps return to the front lines. They sit and wait for the Lord in their places of perceived dishonor, hoping and praying to be seated in honor.
It is for these reasons we call the Church, the Church Militant, during this Age of Grace. The devil prowls about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: those who resist steadfast in the faith. The world succeeds. The Church appears to dwindle. The fight in heaven may have cast out 1/3 of the angels, but the fight on earth seems to be casting out all the faithful.
This diseased man from our Gospel reading, whom did he have to fight for him? How long he had been sick, no one can say, but who was treating him that he was forced to confront this Jesus, causing trouble for the religious establishment, for aid? Who was caring for him, seeking a cure? Who was fighting for him and visiting him with God’s comfort?
Or the woman with the flow of blood for 12 years, who spent all her savings on state-owned doctors and received no help? Or the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners that had all been destroyed by the Holy Religious Order that declared them forsaken, and yet also found themselves at Jesus’s feet?
We also need to include the lawyers and Pharisees, who’s spiritual and civil job was to lead the people on God’s Way and increase faith in the Messiah. Who was policing them? If they would have walked worthy, as our Epistle said, then there would have been no problem. But because they were watching out for themselves and not their sin, their neighbors lie on the side of the road, forsaken.
Is it lawful to walk this way, through life? Yes. The civil law and God’s Law, allow for legal excuses to get around loving your neighbor. The man with dropsy is a sinner and, if interacted with, could be contagious. “Touch no unclean thing” (Isa 52:11), saith the Lord. We are vindicated in not helping him.
In the Church Militant, the fight is against these spiritual tribulations and temptations, because they are important to faith and eternal life. “You cannot love God, Whom you can’t see, and hate your brother whom you can see” (1 Jn 4:20). One weapon the Church militant employs is Scripture Alone. When the devil wants to play word games, we give him more words of God, specifically the Gospel.
Against the church lawyers, it is “Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath” (Lk 6:5). Against the Pharisees it is, “God will get for Himself His own honor” (Isa 48:9-11). And against the sin-sick sinners, “Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance’” (Lk 5:32).
Repent! Your “place of honor” that you choose for yourself, that is, how you love God, how you serve Him, and how you worship Him, is reserved for someone else. You will be asked to vacate that seat, in order that you see your sin. Your “low place”, the seat you look down on and degrade others for being in, will be your seat, when the time comes.
Really, there is only one seat: the Seat of Christ. If you are going to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, then best to not get in God’s way. For there is only one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism; one Sabbath, and one Honor.
There is only One Church. One Body of Christ; One. This is what Scripture says. If it is His Body then, it is His honor. More than that, Jesus Christ is the honor of God. We don’t give Him honor, He has His own, which He wants to give to you. If you or your works are in the way, then you may miss it.
There is only one Sabbath and Christ is its Lord. That means that on any given Sabbath, He can heal whomever He wants and do whatever else He pleases. Yet we know He limits Himself to His Promises and the Sabbath promise is that of rest, but our rest, not God’s. We set aside the work we do, in order to let God work in us.
There is only one Baptism, one Faith, one Lord. Baptism is not a work of man, it is a work of Faith: hearing and believing that water and the Word saves. The one Hope we press towards is that, even though we set aside reason and action, we hope Jesus keeps His promise to work and to save in our stead, because everything we have done hasn’t done it.
Which brings us to the One Spirit. The One Spirit in Trinity with the Father and the Son and this One Spirit chooses to create the one, true Church on earth. That is, He gives Faith and saves by Word and Sacrament. This He does to people and with the promise to build His Church (Matt 16:18), we believe that it is here among us, now.
This is the Church Militant, the church beset by problems and infested with hypocrites. This visible, or revealed, Church is only revealed by the Word of God, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Office of the Keys, ordination of ministers, prayer and praise, and bearing the cross. These 7 marks are all works of Christ and all He gives us to find His Church on earth.
The Church’s One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. Though we dwell in the sick-tent, suffering underneath the dropsy of our sin, Jesus has come to heal on the Sabbath, and every other day, and grant us His place of honor in front of God, while He takes the seat of the Cross. This Seat turns out to be the seat on which your sin-sick self is purchased and won from your sickness and from your weakness against any and everything in this world.
The Church is called the Holy church because of this cleansing blood of Christ. It is the Christian Church, because it is built on Christ alone and belongs to Him alone. This same Church, beset by countless devils, will be the Church Victorious because of her Victorious Lord, Who has risen from the dead.
Because we see all these things taking place in front of us, as the Word and Promises of God declare, we are given the true gift of the Church: endurance. Endurance to always seek to be and remain members of the hidden Church, Christ’s Body. Endurance to be faithful to our denomination by Word and Sacrament. Endurance to avoid false teachers, false churches, and false organizations.
And endurance to maintain and extend God’s Church through service, prayer, and financial support, for “the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor” (Gal 6:6).
This is the way of Christ and His Church. The Church Who gains rest in Christ and is exalted by Christ, not ourselves. We cling to Christ because He is our Captain in the fight, our savior, and our medicine for eternity. Our honor is that we cannot fight for ourselves.
Thus, the greatest honor a Christian can receive is to be healed, saved, and called by Jesus, without his own merit or worthiness. There is no honor for defeating demons, or following the Law, or walking worthy. All honor, glory, might, and dominion is Christ’s (Rev 5:13) and He uses all that is His to “present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).
Therefore, let us keep the festival and rejoice in our militant med-tent, and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Church has made herself ready, because she was gifted Clothes to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Blessed are those who are invited to the Sacrament of the Altar of the Lamb. These are the true words of God. (Rev 19:7-9)
Who speaks to you this morning saying,
“But they remained
silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.”
Today, we will talk about what it means to be the Church Militant on earth.
With the passing of St. Michael’s Day last week, the Church begins to be mindful of the End of all things, anticipating the return of Jesus. Unfortunately, because the devil and his angels have been thrown to earth and are in great wrath, the Church on earth has become a Military Base, day in and day out being harassed and defeated.
While as exciting as the Church being a military operation sounds, the only structure left standing in the Spiritual War is the Medic Tent filled with ailing church-goers, waiting for the dropsy of their sin to be healed so that they may perhaps return to the front lines. They sit and wait for the Lord in their places of perceived dishonor, hoping and praying to be seated in honor.
It is for these reasons we call the Church, the Church Militant, during this Age of Grace. The devil prowls about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: those who resist steadfast in the faith. The world succeeds. The Church appears to dwindle. The fight in heaven may have cast out 1/3 of the angels, but the fight on earth seems to be casting out all the faithful.
This diseased man from our Gospel reading, whom did he have to fight for him? How long he had been sick, no one can say, but who was treating him that he was forced to confront this Jesus, causing trouble for the religious establishment, for aid? Who was caring for him, seeking a cure? Who was fighting for him and visiting him with God’s comfort?
Or the woman with the flow of blood for 12 years, who spent all her savings on state-owned doctors and received no help? Or the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners that had all been destroyed by the Holy Religious Order that declared them forsaken, and yet also found themselves at Jesus’s feet?
We also need to include the lawyers and Pharisees, who’s spiritual and civil job was to lead the people on God’s Way and increase faith in the Messiah. Who was policing them? If they would have walked worthy, as our Epistle said, then there would have been no problem. But because they were watching out for themselves and not their sin, their neighbors lie on the side of the road, forsaken.
Is it lawful to walk this way, through life? Yes. The civil law and God’s Law, allow for legal excuses to get around loving your neighbor. The man with dropsy is a sinner and, if interacted with, could be contagious. “Touch no unclean thing” (Isa 52:11), saith the Lord. We are vindicated in not helping him.
In the Church Militant, the fight is against these spiritual tribulations and temptations, because they are important to faith and eternal life. “You cannot love God, Whom you can’t see, and hate your brother whom you can see” (1 Jn 4:20). One weapon the Church militant employs is Scripture Alone. When the devil wants to play word games, we give him more words of God, specifically the Gospel.
Against the church lawyers, it is “Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath” (Lk 6:5). Against the Pharisees it is, “God will get for Himself His own honor” (Isa 48:9-11). And against the sin-sick sinners, “Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance’” (Lk 5:32).
Repent! Your “place of honor” that you choose for yourself, that is, how you love God, how you serve Him, and how you worship Him, is reserved for someone else. You will be asked to vacate that seat, in order that you see your sin. Your “low place”, the seat you look down on and degrade others for being in, will be your seat, when the time comes.
Really, there is only one seat: the Seat of Christ. If you are going to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, then best to not get in God’s way. For there is only one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism; one Sabbath, and one Honor.
There is only One Church. One Body of Christ; One. This is what Scripture says. If it is His Body then, it is His honor. More than that, Jesus Christ is the honor of God. We don’t give Him honor, He has His own, which He wants to give to you. If you or your works are in the way, then you may miss it.
There is only one Sabbath and Christ is its Lord. That means that on any given Sabbath, He can heal whomever He wants and do whatever else He pleases. Yet we know He limits Himself to His Promises and the Sabbath promise is that of rest, but our rest, not God’s. We set aside the work we do, in order to let God work in us.
There is only one Baptism, one Faith, one Lord. Baptism is not a work of man, it is a work of Faith: hearing and believing that water and the Word saves. The one Hope we press towards is that, even though we set aside reason and action, we hope Jesus keeps His promise to work and to save in our stead, because everything we have done hasn’t done it.
Which brings us to the One Spirit. The One Spirit in Trinity with the Father and the Son and this One Spirit chooses to create the one, true Church on earth. That is, He gives Faith and saves by Word and Sacrament. This He does to people and with the promise to build His Church (Matt 16:18), we believe that it is here among us, now.
This is the Church Militant, the church beset by problems and infested with hypocrites. This visible, or revealed, Church is only revealed by the Word of God, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Office of the Keys, ordination of ministers, prayer and praise, and bearing the cross. These 7 marks are all works of Christ and all He gives us to find His Church on earth.
The Church’s One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. Though we dwell in the sick-tent, suffering underneath the dropsy of our sin, Jesus has come to heal on the Sabbath, and every other day, and grant us His place of honor in front of God, while He takes the seat of the Cross. This Seat turns out to be the seat on which your sin-sick self is purchased and won from your sickness and from your weakness against any and everything in this world.
The Church is called the Holy church because of this cleansing blood of Christ. It is the Christian Church, because it is built on Christ alone and belongs to Him alone. This same Church, beset by countless devils, will be the Church Victorious because of her Victorious Lord, Who has risen from the dead.
Because we see all these things taking place in front of us, as the Word and Promises of God declare, we are given the true gift of the Church: endurance. Endurance to always seek to be and remain members of the hidden Church, Christ’s Body. Endurance to be faithful to our denomination by Word and Sacrament. Endurance to avoid false teachers, false churches, and false organizations.
And endurance to maintain and extend God’s Church through service, prayer, and financial support, for “the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor” (Gal 6:6).
This is the way of Christ and His Church. The Church Who gains rest in Christ and is exalted by Christ, not ourselves. We cling to Christ because He is our Captain in the fight, our savior, and our medicine for eternity. Our honor is that we cannot fight for ourselves.
Thus, the greatest honor a Christian can receive is to be healed, saved, and called by Jesus, without his own merit or worthiness. There is no honor for defeating demons, or following the Law, or walking worthy. All honor, glory, might, and dominion is Christ’s (Rev 5:13) and He uses all that is His to “present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).
Therefore, let us keep the festival and rejoice in our militant med-tent, and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Church has made herself ready, because she was gifted Clothes to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Blessed are those who are invited to the Sacrament of the Altar of the Lamb. These are the true words of God. (Rev 19:7-9)
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