OT Israel Kingdom [Wednesday in Advent 2]

TEXT ONLY

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Malachi 3:1-5, 4:5-6

• St. Matthew 11:11-15

 

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)
 
Jesus speaks in both Malachi and St. Matthew of His Kingdom, saying:

“Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”, and

“the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple”. So we will follow Jesus and think on His Kingdom of Israel.

 
To recap from last Wednesday: we said that Geographic Israel of earth and map was unimportant if we only understand it in terms of God, His blessings, and the end of the world. Though God’s plans for salvation mention an “Israel” as a tract of land, that land’s only purpose was to exist as a place for Jesus to be born, God Incarnate.
 
And that is the end, or completion, of the geographic Israel. We should expect no more from a piece of land, except that it today host a Church of Word and Sacrament.
 
Tonight we will ponder the Old testament Israel. Though it too is found by being on land, we will be focusing on it as a kingdom and its institution and organization. We don’t have to worry about land or maps, because the kingdom of Israel was instituted by promise, not treaty or war. 
 
It is the promise made to Abraham when there was no land yet. But the way God works is that He creates from nothing. He makes those things lovely which He will love. So too in this case. Though there was no land or king yet, the Lord still made the Promise. Yes, it was a promise of land, but first and foremost it was a promise of care and concern.
 
Listen to it again: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:1-3)
 
Notice how the land doesn’t matter, only that God will show it when it is appropriate. What matters more is the blessing, as God repeats it five times in just two sentences. Indeed, the Lord’s purpose in creating His Old Testament kingdom on earth is nothing but noble. He says in Isaiah 65, “But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness” (v. 18).
 
What joy and gladness are coming from Israel today? None. What adherence to God’s covenant is being held in Israel today? None. Even the Old Testament Kingdom that the Lord creates, is supposed to be a blessing, but which king accomplished that?
 
Was it Saul who quickly lost faith and the throne? Was it David the adulterer whose sons caused havoc in the kingdom? Was it Solomon, a greater king than his father David and a greater adulterer, whose sons would divide the kingdom and lead it to its destruction?
 
When we think about an earthly kingdom, what is it that makes one up? You need a king to rule, victories against enemies, and prosperity for citizens. The king must guard his heart against idolatry (specifically by not marrying foreign wives [17:17]); he must not rely on the power that comes with extreme wealth (17:17); and finally, he must rule according to God's law (17:18-20).
 
The Lord was always fighting for and giving victories to Israel, even from Joshua on. “Go up to battle”, says the Lord, “and I will deliver them into your hands” (Josh 11:8), many times. He promises the people, “you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, in Exodus 19:6.
 
The problem we run into when we try to bring these promises forward in time, to an earthly kingdom of Israel, is when God describes this kingdom as eternal. He says to King David, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16).
 
The “forever” word is the problem because kingdoms don’t last forever, much less do people. Now, we can squirrel our way out and make excuses for God saying He meant it figuratively and He meant it for future generations. But where is it all today?
 
Thus, the kingdom is based on Promise and the Promise of God is forever. The Old Testament is the Testament of Promise, the promise to fulfill the prophesy of David’s throne being occupied forever. Forever only applies to God. God must sit on David’s throne then.
 
So it is that the Lord turns our ears and hearts to St. Gabriel who utters these words, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (St. Luke 1:32-33).
 
There is no way around the Christ. You may want to redraw maps or rebuild an Old Testament kingdom, but the truth of the matter is, it all points to Jesus. Jesus is the Old Testament Covenant, for it promises a Messiah. Jesus is the true king, Who lives forever, forever occupying His father, David’s, throne. He is of the line of David through St. Mary. 
 
He is the eternal victorious, having conquered His people’s enemies of sin, death, and the devil. He is the true, High Priest, and He alone is Holy. So why is there doubt about this today? There is doubt and confusion over the kingdom because our sinful nature wants castles and gold. We refuse to believe that the Kingdom can be victorious through water, bread, and wine.
 
And that’s it. It is a battle over whether or not God needs us to rebuild His kingdom here or if He has already established His Kingdom in His Son and His Son’s Bride, the Church. The Kingdom is built on the Promise and the Promise comes from God. So if God is making the promises, He will fulfill it how He wants and when He wants, at His good pleasure.
 
And we all know and believe that the Father’s pleasure resides with the Son, and not any moldy throne room. The Father is pleased with His Son alone. If we want God’s Kingdom to come among us also, here on earth, we must go along with how God wants the Kingdom to come, which is through Word and Sacrament.
 

Read how you hear [Advent 2]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Malachi 4:1-6

• Romans 15:4-13

• St. Luke 21:25-36

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)

 

Jesus speaks to us on this second Sunday of the new Church Year, saying,

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

 

One easily overlooked way of hearing “my words will not pass away” is that the Word of God is such a power in the cosmos, that what it says comes into being in front of your face. What I mean is, we think of the “Word enduring forever” as the ultimate force, that’s on our side of course, for us to use against our neighbor.

 

It is the ultimate force, but it’s God’s ultimate force and He uses it to bring His wonderful gifts and promises to you.  

 

Baptism proves this point for us today. Not only do we see water, but we hear God’s Word that will never pass away, talk about the water. First is the obvious, “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” and “baptism now saves you”. Second is the uncomfortable, from today’s Gospel reading, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves.”

 

To the first way we hear God talk about water: its the easy way. These “easy to understand” words of Jesus are what we would call the sedes doctrinae, or the seat of doctrine. What that means is when we want to teach about something from God, in this case, Baptism, we go to the easiest to understand verses in the Bible. “Baptism now saves you” is as simple as it gets.

 

We turn to those simple words of Jesus for correct understanding and correct faith. We also may employ “the New Testament interprets the Old Testament” when things get a little off the chain, in the old days. This helps us find comfort in the Gospel, even outside the 4 books of the Gospels.

 

An example might be something like this:

Malachi today talked about ovens and being ablaze. Scary. Fire is scary, but not as scary as water. So how do you put out a fire? Throw water on it. How do you put out, or quench, Malachi’s ovens and ablaze-ment? Throw baptismal water on it. Throw your baptism at the Final Judgement on the Last Day and God’s Judgment against you goes out. You are clothed in asbestos for Christ’s sake.

 

That is Bible reading 101. 

 

Our problem today is that we are put in a backwards position. It is the New Testament that is hard, with apparently no help from the Old Testament to interpret for us. For it is there that we hear about the not-so-nice water having roaring waves and no New-new Testament to interpret for us.

 

So what do we do? Just talk about how Jesus can be scary if He wants to be and if you’re not on His side then you are an eternal loser? That if you’re not sure if you’re going to heaven or hell if you would die tonight, that you’re out of luck? How is that going to bring people in to our church? 

 

Jesus talking about the last days, today, do not help this endeavor either. So who do we turn to for help? We turn to our very own Church. The Church of Christ. The Church of time and history, who has had to live through the ages with nothing but the words of Jesus which will not pass away, as He said. This life of faith will tell us how to read our Bible.

 

Repent. Where are the words of Jesus in this church? Most churches you visit will proudly boast that every pew has a Bible or that just about every person brings their own Bible to church. Why do we do no such thing and why do you think that having a Bible in hand will get you “more Bible”?

 

Let me ask you in a different way: how many times have you stopped reading your Bible because you run into things you don’t understand? More than we’d like to admit.

 

We lean on our own understanding more than we lean on God’s wisdom. This is because we’ve been trained to think about God’s Word in two opposing ways at the same time. We’ve been trained to think of it as down to earth, parables and such, but at the same time it being God’s wisdom that is too high, we cannot attain unto it (Ps 139:6).

 

So at the same time that you feel you can really grab a hold of everything in that Bible, you also believe that you will never understand your Bible. This is our roaring wave. This is our “disturbed water” that threatens to drown us. But it is to this wave that we also turn for aid.

 

Again, we are learning in the Divine Service how to read our Bibles. So when we hear of roaring, life-threatening water, we immediately recall our Sunday School lessons on the Flood. That was actual water that roared and killed.

 

But not all. Eight being were saved in all, Noah and his family. And in Psalm 69, Jesus uses that to point to Himself on the cross. In this light, the Church as it has been living in this “my words will never pass away”, places all water in baptismal water. As in, when the Church has difficulty understanding the Bible, it turns to the promises and sacraments of God.

 

Jesus prayed the psalms on the cross. He knew better than Noah and He knows better than us in these last days of roaring waves, what it means to “have come into deep waters, and [have] the flood sweep over me” (Ps 69:2). This is His cry on His cross.

 

On the cross, the sin-filled Flood completes its purpose by drowning and killing God. The roaring waves that mostly threaten you, find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus dying on the cross. In the midst of deathly waves, God throws the wood of His cross.

 

And it floats! Meaning, just as the Ark floated over the Flood, the cross of Christ floats above sin, death, and the power of the devil and all those who find themselves hoping and believing in the cross of Christ and everything it stands for and accomplishes, will also float.

 

Since Jesus has now descended into the depths, He has calmed the storms with His Body and Blood. His sacrifice made on our behalf causes the death-filled waves to use up all of their force until they are emptied of it. There is no more threat from distress, perplexity or fear, for Christ has passed the eternal gates.

 

So, when we go through the motions of the Baptismal rite, and when we hear those readings and prayers, and when we move through our own Divine Service in weekly, monthly, and yearly devotion, we are not only hearing God’s Word, but we are living it. Which is more than you get from just studying it like a textbook.

 

The Bible, God’s Word, in your church, is in your hymnal and in your Divine Service. When you leave here today, you will be dripping and drenched with so much of God’s Word that you will not know what to do about it except maybe feel good. 

 

But know this, your church is saturated in Scripture. Look at your hymnals again. There is nothing we do or say or sing or pray in here that is not the “words that will never pass away”. This is because living out the “words that will never pass away” is better than just studying and memorizing. Not that that doesn’t happen as well, but that is not our goal.

 

Our Goal is always Christ and eternal life with Him. It is always to His cross that we run. Into these “roaring of sea and waves” we now throw the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus sanctifies it all for us, such that we can place our babies into that distress and perplexity and bring them out at peace with God.

 

The wind and the waves, and the storms are all the sinful and "passing away" world. That is what is out there, not in here. In here is the Word Who endures forever, even death on a cross, and does not pass away. The same Word that promises comfort and joy in the midst of raging chaos, is the Word that washes and feeds you.

 

This is the life of the Christian, housed in the Ark of the Church. The storm outside, the promises of God inside. The backwards, misunderstanding left at the door, the forward salvation in Word and Sacrament on our lips and in our hearts.

 

Do not be afraid. You have already won. In the face of “Christmas is not a Christian holiday”, you have won. In the face of “my team did not win”, you have won. In the face of this world is going downhill fast, you have won. 

 

You have won, because the Lord and Creator Who calmed the wind and the waves, now shuts down any defeat for His Christians. You believe this because you have heard it from God and from this pulpit. That is the point of every sermon. To get you to believe once again and to teach you how to read your Bible.

 

There’s not too much mystery behind what goes on from this pulpit, but now I hope you are aware of this point. That you should read and understand the Bible according to what is said here. No matter how elaborate or daunting the sermon is. It is simply teaching you how to understand those things you can’t on your own. 

 

Christians should be baptized. Christians should be taught. Your life of faith is 50% Bible study and 50% Divine Service all of which is 100% Jesus.

 

Geographic Israel [Wednesday in Advent 1]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• St. Luke 4:14-22

• James 5:7-11

 

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)

 

From James’s letter, Jesus speaks this evening, saying:

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.”

At St. James’s words about waiting for the precious fruits of the earth, this Advent I’d like to take you through 4 earths, or Israels, because as it turns out, no one knows what Israel is. 

The USA seems to think it knows, as it sends billions of dollars to a nation claiming to be Israel, in the Middle-east. 

So-called Christians seem to know, thinking God has revealed everything in His Old Testament about a long-gone kingdom that they seem to recognize on a map. 

The Church also knows a man named Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel, by Jesus. And finally, everyone’s favorite Israel of heavenly fame, the New Israel.

If you didn’t catch all that, worry not. You have four Wednesdays to pick it up.

For this evening, we’ll talk about the Israel of earth and stone. The “geographic Israel” and clear up some modern misconceptions. Such as: the only reason we even think about the word Israel is because God made a promise to Abraham about land, but then it was not given the name Israel.

It was the land of Canaan, Noah’s grandson, about whom was said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers” (Genesis 9:25). Yikes. Regardless, much later, when Moses is God’s man, the Lord says, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites” from Exodus 3:8.

As far as we know, Canaan is the area where modern day Israel is, but it wasn’t called Israel. We don’t even hear the word Israel until Genesis 32:28, where it is Jacob’s new name, not the land’s. This will be an important point on another Wednesday, but for now…

It is not until King Saul, in 1 Samuel 11:3, that we hear of the “territory of Israel”. 

And then in 1 Kings 12:20 “when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only.”

So really, it is not until the kingdom is divided do we have a proper “Israel” on the earth. Israel begins in sin. And it continues. With the Babylonian Exile in 586 BC, Israel is once again off the map and will not find its place again until the Crusades, some 1500 years later. And when the Crusaders can’t hold the territory, it leaves once again, only to come back May 6, 1948 as a decree from the United Nations.

The point is, just because we see the word “Israel” on someone’s map, does not mean this is the same Israel that Jesus talks about. The Israel of earth and stone that Jesus talks about is gone, just as His cross is gone. 

As we said last Wednesday, the “land” of God’s promise is important, but it is only important because God is coming to this land in the flesh. There must be a land of Israel if there is to be born in it the Savior of Israel. More than that, St. Luke 24:47 says, “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” There must be an Israel, if there is to be a Jerusalem.

The land’s importance is is for the prophesies about the Messiah to come true. Our Introit for the Last Sunday of the Church year said, “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky” (Ps 85:11). Also, a messianic prophesy from Isaiah 45:8

“You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.”

So Jesus, the Savior of His people from their sins, will come from earth. That is, He will be conceived by the Holy Spirit, but born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem, on the earth. The land itself births the Savior in order that we might find Him. If He was born from above, how we would seek Him or find Him?

God gives faith and He give it through means. A geographic Israel holds no meaning anymore, because the entire earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 24:1). With the Temple veil torn in two at the crucifixion of Jesus, the Word has gone out unto all lands (Rom 10:18). And since it is to all lands, maps, borders, and spoils of war matter not.

For now the true Israel follows Christ and He goes to all His Churches to commune. The earth-bound Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness and did not succeed in reaching it. Why? “Because they did not pursue it by faith” (Rom 9:31-32).

In Christ, we have no use for maps or empirical decrees about this or that land mass. We pursue faith. Faith saves and we believe that, “..not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel…but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Rom 9:6, 8).

For the earth will pass away and everything in it, including those map-shapes marked as “Israel”. The Word of Jesus will not pass away and will endure forever. Do we look for an earthly kingdom? Only the Kingdom of Christ, in His Church, in Word and Sacrament.

For tonight, and for the rest of your life reading scripture: you cannot associate the Israel of Scripture with the Israel of geography, unless you are simply searching the Holy Bible for a piece of land. Then you will find a relatively few amount of references for your curiosity. At least enough to get to the Mediterranean Sea.

For tonight, it is enough to take away that the “geographic” Israel of the Bible is pointing to more than just farmland and cartography. It is pointing to our Savior, Jesus Christ. That should be your watermark on everything you hear about “Israel” today. If the Israel of today is not pointing to and referring to “the coming of the Lord”, from St. James, or “Scripture being fulfilled in your hearing”, then you are no longer talking about God’s Israel.

For God’s Israel is gathered like a brood of chickens underneath the outstretched arms of Her Savior, crucified on her behalf. On this Israel, hang all the law and prophets.

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.