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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 2:8-11
St. Matthew 12:38-50
Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
Jesus speaks to you tonight, saying:
“Be faithful unto
death and I will give you the crown of Life”
For many of us, this verse from Revelation 2 is our
Confirmation verse and rightly so for it confesses the centrality of Faith
given by God and hope in the Resurrection. However, where there is faith, there
is the unfaithful and where there is resurrection there is the second death.
In the letter to the Church in Smyrna, we once again see the
comparison between God’s Church and the Anti-church, satan’s chapel. Dr. Luther
says, “Now when the devil saw that God built such a holy church, he was not
idle, and erected his chapel beside it, larger than God’s temple.” (AE 41:167)
What this means is that these two churches are mixed like
wheat and weeds. And while there are marks that distinguish, (The Word,
Baptism, Communion, Office of the Keys, Called Pastors, prayer and
thanksgiving, and the cross), there are also works that are indistinguishable,
(leading honorable lives, loving neighbors, good citizens, upright, moral,
charitable, holy living). The problem is that the devil will use these
indistinguishable works, that the heathen practice better, and make others
believe that these are the marks of the true church on earth.
The devil may even allow the reading of Scripture and the
Lord’s Prayer to be said, to make them appear to be a great holy possession.
But his purpose is different. He wants you to derive new strength and power
from his aping tomfoolery, rather than from the works of Christ.
Just as water becomes baptism by the Word and power of God,
so the devil wants holy water to blot out sins. Just as the bread and wine
become the body and blood of Christ, so the devil wants bells to drive away
demons, consecrated herbs to expel venomous worms, and blessings to heal cows.
Whatever to make his acts look greater and more appealing than God’s.
Whatever to move men away from faith in Christ and to
despise Word and Sacrament, because for us sinners, it is much easier to see
immediate wants fulfilled in the devil’s sacraments than it is in Christ’s.
This is the tribulation in the Church at Smyrna. Though they
have no specific sin mentioned against them, as the other churches do, they are
caught between the devil and his chapel congregants: the world. They are thrown
in prison twice: first for being faithful to Christ and second for being
unfaithful to the devil, that is the State Religion. If you got nothing to
hide, you got nothing to worry about, the saying goes. Too bad that’s a lie.
If there is no war, the media can create a war and everyone
believes it. If there is nothing to hide, someone will create something to hide
on you, to turn everyone against you. The truth won’t matter. It will only be
that first, shocking headline of guilt, and your reputation is over.
You know why it’s prison? Because that is where the devil is
going. In Revelation 20:2 the Lord says, “And he seized the dragon, that
ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and imprisoned him for a thousand”
million billion years. The devil’s mistake is that he thinks an earthly prison
is just like hell.
But there is no comparison. His thousand million billion
years outclasses ten days by any metric. The faithful in Christ will only deal
with punishment, with bearing the cross, for a short while. The devil and those
adherents to the Anti-church will bear that punishment forever.
That is the second death. The death that doesn’t end. The
death that comes after the resurrection of all flesh, yet ends in hell, where
punishment and separation from God last for all eternity. What overpowers this
second death is the Crown of Life, which just so happens to look like a crown
of thorns.
The First and the Last, the Man Who died and came to life,
Jesus, bears His cross to gain the crown of victory. He runs the race. The race
to save all humanity from their sins, is perfectly successful, and ascends in
victory with His crown. It is His. His to wear, His to show, and His to give,
if He chooses.
Jesus is almighty God after all. He needs nothing and has no
obligation to give anything to anyone. And He chooses to cast His crown to you,
which has the power over this second death that the Anti-Church possesses. That
is, that they love their sins more than God and will carry them with them for
all eternity, instead of the Love God wants to give.
This, The Bride of Christ, the True Church, does not suffer
from. Though we are attacked by temptations, we will overcome them and finally
win the victory, in Jesus. Again, from Revelation 20, “Blessed and holy is
the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no
power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with
him for a thousand” million billion years (v.6).
The first resurrection being Baptism into the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
When Jesus saw that we needed rescue, He suffered and died
to purchase the Crown of Life for you, after spending 3 days and 3 nights in
the belly of the fish. When He continued to see our need for the forgiveness of
sins and reconciliation to God, daily, He richly gave us His Holy Church. And
though several demons have taken up residence, possibly leading us astray, we
have been given more than just spiritual marks.
The Light Jesus shines on His Bride is a purifying,
sacramental light. Both spiritual and physical, we are taken in by our Good
Shepherd by voice and action. We are faithful because we are a part of the Body
of The Faithful, Jesus Christ. We are led to the Church of the Forgiveness of
sins, not the church of miracles and good works.
We pick up our cross, that is to walk through this sinful
life, and follow The One Who Conquers as He calls us His brothers and sisters
through Faith alone.
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