When you see the abomination standing in a church, flee!

Posted on November 7, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 25

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 + Matthew 24:15-28

From now through the end of the Church Year and through most of the season of Advent, the Church has taught us for many, many centuries, through its selection of Scripture readings, to focus on the end of this world, and on the state of the world leading up to the end. There is some divine providence in the fact that U.S. elections always occur at this time of year, when Christians have been historically focused on the end times. It’s very easy to get drawn into politics and election results, and into arguments over the best way to “save our nation.” But the truth is, all this will soon be destroyed. Not a single nation on this earth will survive the coming of Christ—only the faithful within His Church, which exists in every nation, will survive. And, besides, Christ has never taught His Church to set our hearts on this world, or on the government of it, although that hasn’t stopped many Christians from getting caught up in it anyway. No, the Lord teaches us to live as foreigners and aliens in this world, even here in what we call “our own country,” to recognize that our true citizenship, as Christians, exists in heaven, and to set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and to wait eagerly for the Lord to return.

With that in mind, we turn to today’s Gospel, which took place during Holy Week, as Jesus was about to be betrayed, mistreated, and crucified by His own nation, by His own people. But His disciples didn’t know that yet. So they came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “You see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Then He took them out to the Mount of Olives to continue teaching them, and they came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” Those two questions set the stage for the two-part answer Jesus gave in our Gospel. He talks about the “end” of Jerusalem, that is, the coming destruction of Jerusalem which would take place within the next 40 years, but He uses certain aspects of Jerusalem’s destruction to answer the second question His disciples asked, to describe the signs of His coming at the end of the age, and to give His Church some crucial instructions for surviving those troubled times.

He begins, in our text, speaking of the time to come when they would see the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.” Let’s dig into what that means. It’s a phrase used by the prophet Daniel. And, while it may have had a first fulfillment in certain events that took place in Jerusalem before Christ was born, Jesus makes it clear that Daniel’s prophecy had yet to be fulfilled. And, as we said, it would have a fulfillment yet in the actual temple of Jerusalem leading up to its destruction, and it would have another, greater fulfillment in the spiritual temple of God leading up to Christ’s return. Let’s break that down.

First, what is an abomination? An abomination, in the language of the Old Testament, could refer to something that was to be detested by men, for a time, such as the unclean animals that the Israelites were to avoid. God, through Moses, taught the Israelites to detest or shrink back from the idea of eating the creatures on that newly-given list of unclean animals, like pigs or shellfish or camels, but only for the duration of the Old Testament.

Other things, though, were abominations to God, abominations by their very nature, something God always found “abominable” or detestable. The Old Testament specifically lists several things as abominations of that kind. At the top of the list were idols, and the practice of idolatry, and pagan rituals in general. They were called abominations. But specific things were also named as abominations to God: witchcraft and divination, child sacrifice, adultery, homosexual behavior in particular, men dressing like women, or women like men, bestiality, or even things like unjust business practices, perverse ways, lying lips, blemished sacrifices, and the sacrifices brought by people who were actually unbelievers. (Remember that list; we’re going to come back to it in a moment.) For these abominations, God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites, who had filled the land with their abominations. For similar abominations of which the people of Israel were guilty, God had laid waste to the land of Judea and to the city of Jerusalem, leaving them desolate and abandoned for a time. That’s why it’s called, here in our Gospel, an “abomination of desolation.”

And it’s seen standing “in the holy place.” That was, at first, a reference to the temple in Jerusalem. And, in the decades following Christ’s resurrection from the dead, an abomination would stand in that temple. All the sacrifices of Christ-denying Judaism were abominations to God. While the temple remained, the Jews continued to bring their sacrifices, in denial of the once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, for the sins of the world. And even after they heard that Jesus had been sacrificed for their sins, they refused to believe in Him, and kept on bringing their abominations, day in and day out. And, eventually, God brought in the Roman armies to destroy that “holy place” that was no longer holy.

But, remember, Jesus was also answering the question about the end of the world, about the times leading up to His coming. Now the “holy place,” now the “temple of God,” is the Holy Christian Church on earth. And Jesus means to teach His disciples here that they (we!) would see another abomination of desolation standing in the Church. We would see a rise of wickedness, not only in the world around us, where such godlessness is to be expected, but in the Church itself, where wickedness would rise and, eventually, be allowed to stand, and to thrive.

Let’s dare to name just some of the idols and detestable practices that have infiltrated the holy place of the Christian Church over the centuries, some here, some there, and not just as passing errors, but as permanent fixtures. Christ-denying Judaism, often combined with Christian Zionism, is being promoted and permitted in many churches, and it remains an abomination to God. Divination, witchcraft, and pagan rituals are practiced in many churches around the world, not to mention the “prophesying” and “tongue-speaking” in many Pentecostal churches, and it remains an abomination to God. Abortion, which is the modern form of child sacrifice, is promoted and permitted in many churches, and it remains an abomination to God. The worship or veneration of saints, and icons, and statues is idolatry, which is promoted and permitted in many churches, remains an abomination to God. Adultery, and the practice of homosexuality in particular, and cross-dressing are promoted and permitted in many modern churches, and it remains an abomination to God. Then there are the unjust business practices and the defrauding of Christians that are running rampant in most of the megachurches. Those, too, along with all false doctrines, along with all wicked practices, are an abomination to God, just like they were in Old Testament times. And they will bring down God’s wrath on the outward institutions of the Christian Church, causing it to become desolate, just as God’s wrath was brought down on Jerusalem and its temple when the true worship of God was replaced with an abomination.

Now, the question: What are you to do when you see this abomination standing in the holy place—when you see these things being promoted, permitted, and defended within a Christian church or church body? Here’s what Jesus says to do: Flee! Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to get anything out of his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to get his clothes. But woe to the women who are with child and who are nursing in those days! Keep praying that your flight does not take place in the winter or on the Sabbath! For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be. There was to be a geographical fleeing from Jerusalem and Judea in the first century, when it became clear that the city, as a whole, was going to keep practicing its abomination of Christ-denying worship in the temple. And they were to flee as quickly as possible, even if it was hard. And they were to leave things behind as they fled. Getting out before the destruction came was the most important thing.

So it will be, so it already is, in these last days. The abominations mentioned a moment ago weren’t all set in place overnight and everywhere. Some of them have been around for many centuries, and the Lutherans were some of the first to start fleeing when they saw the abominations of the papacy. But since then the abominations have multiplied like locusts, especially over the past 50 years, so that, when the outward Christian Church is viewed as a whole, and all the abominable teachings and practices are viewed together, how can anyone fail to see the abomination of desolation standing firmly in the holy place?

Some people have the noble idea that they should stay in the place where the abomination is standing, to try to root it out. Others are very attached to some of the nice things in those churches and are unwilling to part with them. But such people aren’t listening to Jesus, are they? He says, “Flee!” That means, flee from any church or church body that has an abomination standing within it, that is, where any idol or idolatry is being promoted or permitted, where any form of adultery or homosexual behavior is being promoted or permitted, where abortion is being promoted or permitted, where any type of fraud, or any type of false doctrine, or any type of irreverent worship is being promoted or permitted or defended. All these things stand in defiance of Christ Jesus, within the very place where people claim to worship Him. So, wherever you see these things embedded in a church, flee, even if it means leaving things behind that you cherished. Flee, even if it’s hard. Flee, not from being active in a Christian church, but from being joined to a church where you see the abomination standing. Getting out before the destruction comes is the most important thing.

It will get bad for the elect, Jesus says. It has gotten bad, not only for those who stay with the abomination, but also for those who are in the process of fleeing, as we are here. That’s why it’s called “the great tribulation.” It will get so bad that if those days were not shortened, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened, Jesus promises. And because it’s gotten so bad for genuine Christians in the world, because the outlook for the Church appears so bleak, many will arise, as Jesus Himself predicts, claiming, ‘Look, here is Christ!’ or ‘There!’, offering people false hope in their made-up teachings, like Mormonism, or charismatic movements, for example. But, Jesus says, Do not believe it. For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will perform great signs and wonders, so as to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. Don’t be deceived by false christs and false prophets. Don’t be deceived by signs and wonders, either. And don’t be moved by all the people who will criticize and condemn you for daring to notice the abominations they’ve set up. Cling to the apostolic word. Confess it, together with the ancient creeds, and let no novel teaching lead you astray. Keep your eyes on the heavens, looking for the coming of Christ, like eagles carefully scanning the ground for their next meal. When that meal appears, they all see it and flock to it. In the same way, when Christ appears, all who are scanning the heavens for His coming, will see Him, and will gather around Him in glory, both we who are still alive, and those who have already fallen asleep. May God keep us in the midst of this great tribulation, and may He keep our eyes on the heavens, waiting for our Savior to appear. Amen.

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The Lord blesses those who love Him, repays those who hate Him

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the week of Trinity 22

Deuteronomy 7:9-11 + Matthew 18:23-35

You heard a moment ago Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant, and of God’s expectation that those who have received mercy from Him will behave mercifully toward others—or else forfeit the mercy they once received from God. It’s a parable that highlights both the Lord’s great goodness and mercy toward sinners, freely shown to the one who humbles Himself before his God, and the warning for those sinners who think they are free to refuse mercy to their fellow sinners.

That teaching of Jesus was actually nothing new. It was the same thing God taught the people of Israel in the Old Testament Law. But most of the Jews misunderstood the Law, and, as a result, they neither kept it, nor did they perceive the Gospel promises that were hidden there.

In our Lesson from the book of Deuteronomy, we see God laying it out before the Israelites. In the verses leading up to our Lesson, Moses reminds the people of the great and merciful deeds God had done for them in bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt, freely, at no cost to them, without their having earned or deserved it. He reminds them of the special place God had given them in His kingdom, bringing them into a covenant with Him, making them His own, special people.

Now, in the words of our Lesson, Moses reminds them to acknowledge the goodness of God, and His faithfulness to His promises: Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.

“With those who love Him.” What does it mean to love God? In this context, love for God includes five things: It includes (1) humility before the Lord, a recognition of one’s unworthiness, an admission of one’s sin and guilt. It includes (2) an appreciation of the Lord’s great mercy. It includes (3) trust in the Lord’s promise to show continual mercy, and to forgive sins. It includes (4) a desire and commitment to follow the Lord’s commandments. And it includes (5) a merciful attitude toward one’s neighbor, a small reflection of the mercy God has shown to us.

In other words, love for God includes repentance, and the fruits of repentance. Where there is genuine repentance, and faith in God’s promise to forgive for Christ’s sake, there will also be fruits of repentance, a desire and a commitment to keep God’s commandments. That’s love for God. And where there was love for God among His covenant people Israel, He promised to faithfully keep His covenant with them, to be their God, to forgive their sins, that is, the debts they had piled up with Him for their failures.

But where any one of those parts of love was missing—humility, appreciation of God’s mercy, trust in His promises, a commitment to follow His commandments, and a merciful attitude toward one’s neighbor—there was not actually love for the Lord, but hatred of Him, no matter how much they claimed to love Him. In such a case, God promised to repay, to punish, to destroy the one who hates Him. He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.

That’s what we saw the king doing in Jesus’ parable with the unmerciful servant. That servant who had received such a great gift from the king—the forgiveness of a debt that was 600,000 times greater than the debt his fellow servant owed him—didn’t actually love the king, even after that great forgiveness took place. If he had loved the king, that love would have spilled over into his dealings with his fellow servant. Instead, he was ruthless toward his fellow servant and refused to forgive him even the small debt he owed, even when his fellow servant humbled himself before him, showing that he, the unmerciful servant, actually hated the king who had shown him such great kindness. When the king heard about it, he repaid the wicked servant who hated him to his face, just as God had said, through Moses, He would do.

Therefore, God said to Israel, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them. It was for their own good to keep them, and for their own downfall if they refused.

These words echo the words in the Conclusion of the Ten Commandments in our Small Catechism: What does God say about all these commandments? He says: “I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, who visits the sin of the fathers upon their children who hate Me, to the third and fourth generation; but to those who love Me and keep My commandments, I do good for a thousand generations.” What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments; therefore, we should fear His wrath and not disobey them. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep them; therefore, we should also love and trust in Him, and gladly obey His commandments.

One of those commandments is to love your neighbor. Another is to appreciate how greatly God has forgiven you, and the high price He paid to earn your forgiveness—the suffering and death of His beloved Son, that you might be saved from sin, and death, and the devil. And if you appreciate the mercy you’ve been shown, you won’t be a heartless wretch who refuses to show mercy to the one who seeks it from you.

This isn’t a command to forgive the one who willfully and impenitently sins against you. It’s a command to forgive the penitent, from the heart, and to recognize, with great humility, that any amount of mercy you might show to your neighbor, is a drop in the ocean compared to the mercy you yourself have received from the God who loves you, from the God who is also worthy of all your love, and obedience. And if you have failed to forgive when you ought, if you’ve hated God for a time, then it’s time to start the process over, by humbling yourself before God in repentance and fear, standing in awe of His ongoing promise to forgive you for Christ’s sake, and then producing the fruits that are in keeping with repentance, including the fruit of forgiving others, out of love for God. Amen.

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The blessedness of the saints, and the road to get there

Posted on November 1, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of All Saints

Revelation 7:2-17 + Matthew 5:1-12

We praised God a moment ago for all the saints who from their labors rest. When we Lutherans talk about those saints, we aren’t talking about a small number of really, really outstanding Christians who have died and gone straight to heaven, while most Christians have not yet reached sainthood, but are forced to enter the so-called “Church Suffering” in purgatory when they die, waiting, in pain, to one day be granted sainthood, after they’ve suffered enough for their sins. That is the papist understanding of “saints,” but not the Biblical one.

“The saints” are, literally, the holy ones. It was a favorite word of the Apostle Paul for referring to the believers on earth to whom he ministered. The saints are the believers who still labor here on earth. But they are also the believers “who from their labors rest,” as we sang in the hymn, all those who died in the faith, who finished their earthly race still clinging to Christ alone for life and salvation. We observe All Saints’ Day as a day for us to pause and remember the heavenly blessedness of the saints who have died, while also remembering the road they took to get there, which is the same road you and I are still treading.

The heavenly blessedness, and the road to get there, is the dual theme of the Beatitudes you heard this morning from Matthew 5. And it’s also the theme of the reading from Revelation 7, which will receive our focus today.

You’re more familiar, I imagine, with the second part of that Revelation reading, which describes the blessedness that the saints in heaven now experience. But we shouldn’t overlook those earlier verses describing the placing of a seal on the 144,000. That’s a very comforting part of the vision, too, if you view it correctly. It’s part of the road to blessedness.

John saw four angels holding back the destruction that they would unleash on the earth. They had to hold it back so that the 144,000 could first be sealed—kept safe from God’s judgment that’s coming upon the world. He heard the angel say that the impending destruction couldn’t be unleashed on the earth until the servants of our God have been sealed on their foreheads. Already it’s clear who is being sealed. It’s “the servants of our God.” That’s another way of saying all faithful Christians, that is, the elect.

We’re told something about those who were sealed or “marked.” There were 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. But the listing of tribes given here is not the normal listing. The order is different, beginning with the tribe of Judah—the tribe from which Jesus Himself was born, according to the flesh. The tribe of Joseph is named instead of the tribe of Ephraim, and the tribe of Dan is missing.

What do we learn from those anomalies? Well, it’s part of the figurative nature of the Book of Revelation. The tribes are to be understood figuratively. The 144,000 isn’t a literal number of people who were physically descended from each of those tribes of Israel, just as there is no literal seal being physically imprinted on their foreheads. It’s referring to the full number of the Church, which is often represented by the number 12 in Scripture, for the 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and for the 12 apostles in the New Testament. 12,000 x 12 gives us 144,000, a figurative calculation for the full number of the Holy Christian Church, the elect and believing children of God, who are the spiritual Israel, the true Israel, that St. Paul talks about in Romans and in Galatians.

What does it mean to be “sealed”? Well, this imagery of a seal placed on the forehead is taken directly from the book of the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel was shown a vision of a man, clothed in linen, who was commanded by God to go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. Destruction was coming against Jerusalem, but it was not allowed to touch anyone who had the mark, those believers who mourned over all the wickedness being practiced all around them in that city. So it is here. The four angels who were about to bring God’s destruction on the earth were instructed not to harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

So the 144,000 are the elect and believing Christians who persevere in faith until the end. They’re sealed in this life with God’s seal of protection, which preserves them from perishing together with the unbelieving world, which keeps them safe in the judgment. These are the ones who are walking on the road to blessedness, a road that is characterized, as Jesus describes in the Beatitudes, as being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart, being peacemakers, being persecuted for the sake of Jesus’ name. In other words, it’s a road that includes hearing the Gospel, repenting of our sins, believing in Christ Jesus, confessing Christ before men, staying close to Him and His means of grace, praying earnestly for God’s protection and strength, and living as saints already here in the world—wearing the name of our God on our foreheads, so that people can see by our words and actions that we are His—and doing all this all the way to the end of the road.

That’s how John describes the 144,000 later on in the book of Revelation, speaking, again, in figurative terms: The hundred and forty-four thousand were redeemed from the earth… These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Such things can only be said about people who have had their sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb, people who have received, by faith, the status of saints, and who have then, in their earthly walk, begun to live like saints.

Then, in the second part of that reading from Revelation, we see the glory, the other side of the curtain, the blessed end of the 144,000, of all who were sealed in Christ in this life and persevere to the end. This vision is important, because all we see on this side of the curtain is death. Faithful Christians (that is, saints) end up in the grave, just like the most wicked unbelievers do, buried right alongside one another. What we don’t see with our eyes is what John was given to behold in his vision, on the other side of the curtain of death: that the souls of the faithful departed are, even now, celebrating their victory in the presence of God.

The vision of the 144,000 beheld the saints on earth, being preserved and protected by God. But now John’s vision is of the blessedness of heaven, and it’s now a great multitude that no one could number. That’s an allusion to God’s promise to Abraham way back in Genesis: Abraham, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” He was talking, not only about Abraham’s physical descendants, but also his spiritual descendants—all who believe in the Lord Jesus, as Abraham himself did. In any given room, or any given city, the number of believers in Christ is relatively few. But add them up, year after year, century after century, from every nation, tribe, language, and people across the earth, and you have a multitude that no one can number, children for Abraham who are as numerous as the sand by the sea and the stars of the sky. And, in the blessedness of heaven, they all stand together, not one over here and one over there, not black people over here and white people over there, rich and poor standing apart. There is no separation, no loneliness, no isolation or divisions in heaven.

See where they are gathered: standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They are standing, not lying there helpless as you might remember them on earth, not stranded in a wheelchair, or hobbling slowly across a room with aching backs and bones. They are standing.

And see how the saints are dressed: Behold, a host arrayed in white, white robes, like our white paraments today, but even brighter and whiter. Pure and sinless, no longer plagued by a sinful nature that tugs at them and drags them off into shameful thoughts and deeds. They were clothed in life with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, through faith, with robes made white by Christ’s blood, through the forgiveness of their sins. Now they’re clothed in glory with their own righteousness.

See what they hold in their hands: palm branches, like the Israelites waved at their Feast of Tabernacles when they remembered, every year, the temporary dwellings in which they lived during their journey from Egypt’s slavery to their permanent home in the promised land of Canaan, now having arrived at their true permanent home in glory.

Palm branches also recall the events of Palm Sunday, when the crowds welcomed the Lamb of God into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week and called out to him, “Hosanna! Come and save us now!” That’s similar to what the saints in heaven are saying, although now it isn’t “Come and save!” Now it’s, “You have come and you have saved!” They cry out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The saints in glory are the ones coming out of the “great tribulation.” That’s this life—the great tribulation, not “the great vacation.” In addition to all the sickness, pain, loneliness, uncertainty, and death that happen here, your faith is under constant attack in this world by the devil, by the world, by your sinful nature. Finding the truth, holding onto faith in Christ, holding onto love in a loveless world—those things aren’t automatic for the Christian, and it’s even harder as the dear cross presses harder.

But the saints have overcome by the blood of the Lamb. They come out of the great tribulation, one by one, as death ushers them out of the great tribulation and into the great calm of heaven. They can finally rest. They can finally breathe a sigh a relief, “It’s over. We made it.” No more persecution. No more pain. No more struggling with false teachings, no more threats to their faith, no more falling into temptation.

Finally, see what God does for them as they live in his presence and serve him day and night in His Temple: He shelters them with His presence, providing for their every need, protecting them from all harm and danger. No more hunger or thirst, no more scorching heat or any threat of catastrophe. The Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. After all the struggles with sin and its consequences here on earth, finally the saints in heaven reach the lap of their heavenly Father who knows better than anyone just how hard it has been, but He comforts them, “See? Now all that is done. Now you’re here with Me.”

This, my friends, is not pious fiction. This is no false hope. This is the Word of the Lord. This is what heaven is like for our believing brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep, and this is what heaven will be like for you when you fall asleep, if you remain faithful until the end.

So hang in there. It won’t be long now. God has baptized you into this race for the finish line, this race toward the heavenly goal. Jesus has blazed the path to glory for you, and won the prize for you, and He feeds and nourishes you along the way with his Word and Sacraments. Keep running the path to blessedness. You’ll make it, if you keep running. God is faithful. And when you do, those of us who are left here on earth until the final coming of Jesus will celebrate you, too, at least once a year at the festival of All Saints. Today is their celebration day, and we give thanks to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the saints who from their labors rest. Amen.

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Love one another while the world hates you

Posted on October 28, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of Sts. Simon & Jude

1 Peter 1:3-9 + John 15:17-21

While it’s the occasion of the Apostles Simon and Jude that brings us together this evening, we’ll use their day as an opportunity to focus, not on them so much, but on some beautiful words of Jesus that the two of them were there to hear with their own ears, before they eventually went out into the world to preach the gospel to all creation.

Simon and Jude (or Judas Thaddeus) were among the eleven apostles who were there with Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed, after Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, had left. They were there with Him in the upper room. They had their feet washed by Jesus. They celebrated the Passover meal with Him. They participated in the New Supper that was instituted that night, the New Testament in Jesus’ blood. And then they were there to hear Jesus’ departing sermon, recorded for us only by the Apostle John, Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples before they arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, where He would be arrested and hauled off to be tried, tortured, and crucified. In His departing words to His faithful apostles, Jesus leaves them with one final command: Love one another.

“Love.” Not necessarily “like.” You aren’t commanded to like anyone’s personality or to like how they look or how they talk. Love. To be devoted to someone, devoted to seeking their best interests, devoted to helping and serving and caring for someone. To turn away from yourself and your needs, toward someone else, to be willing and even glad to give from what is yours in service to another.

Jesus’ apostles already knew God’s commandment through Moses, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That was the summary of the whole Law, to love God wholly and to love one’s neighbor perfectly, every neighbor equally, from family member to fellow Israelite to stranger and foreigner. They were to love in obedience to the Law, which, in turn, was to show them their sin, to show them how loveless they really were at heart.

But this commandment in John’s Gospel is different. In chapter 13, Jesus issued the same command to “love one another” and called it a “new commandment.” New, because it wasn’t a command to shame them or to accuse them; it wasn’t a command to “do this or fall under God’s wrath and curse!” It was a command, from the Lord to His brothers, to His “friends,” as He had just called them in the verses before our text, a command to follow Him, their dear Lord, who was about to walk the ultimate path of love for His friends. Follow Me!, He says. Love one another as I have loved you, committing all I have, even My own life, to your eternal good.

Love one another. That was the other thing that made this command “new.” This is not like Moses’ command to love your neighbor as yourself. It’s a command to love your fellow Christians, not “as you love yourself,” but “as I have loved you.” To be devoted to your brothers and sisters in Christ as your close friends and allies in this Church Militant, in the battle against our enemies—the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh—to consider one another to be beloved family members in Christ.

How can you tell that “one another” doesn’t refer to all your fellow human beings? Because of what follows. He contrasts His disciples on the one hand with the world on the other, that is, with those who are worldly-minded, who don’t believe in Him, who have not been chosen out of the world by Him. You, Jesus reminds them, have been brought to Me by the Father through the Spirit. You have been given, as Peter said in the First Lesson, new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by God’s power, through faith, for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You have been made children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ and in Christ. You have been brought together into one body, “My body,” Jesus says. “If I, the Head of the body, have loved you and all My Father’s children in this way, you must love one another as I do, as I have, as I will.”

And even more, you must love one another because no one else will. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Why would the world hate them so much? Because they belonged to Jesus, and spoke truthfully about Jesus, and spoke like Jesus, and acted like Jesus did in the world. In other words, because they were no longer of the world. They no longer belonged to the world, or belonged in the world, or spoke or acted like the people of the world. They had been chosen out of the world, as all baptized Christians have been, baptized out of the world, made citizens of the heavenly City, and so they, we, are now foreigners and aliens among the sons of the serpent. The citizens of heaven belong to Christ, and we get our understanding of right and wrong and good and evil from God, not from the world. The citizens of the world, the unbelievers, get their understanding of morality from themselves, from their darkened, deadened consciences, or worse yet, from their father, the devil. What God calls good, the world calls evil, and what the world calls evil, God calls good. So the world is left hating those who expose its darkness, eager to rid itself of those who just don’t belong here or fit in here anymore.

That was certainly true of Jesus. Good Friday fully revealed the extent of the world’s hatred of Him. The three centuries that followed fully revealed how much the world also hated His apostles and those who followed in the footsteps of the apostles. Ridicule was the least of their problems. They were attacked with vicious hatred, lied about, stolen from, beaten, and mercilessly tortured while crowds of people, both Jews and Gentiles, cheered and gnashed their teeth at those horrible, horrible Christians. That was how the world treated them.

The last thing Jesus wanted was for His Christians to turn on one another, to add to the world’s persecution by having Christians persecute one another or mistreat one another or burden one another with more hatred or grief. Instead, He wanted them to have a “safe place” on earth, if you will, not perfectly safe, obviously, but He wanted them to have a group of people they could rely on to care for them, to be there for them, to love them in the midst of the world’s hatred, a group of God’s people on earth for God’s people on earth, with whom God’s people will spend eternity after this world finally comes to an end.

In another place, Jesus tells His disciples to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He doesn’t want us to return the world’s hatred with more hatred. He wants us to treat even our enemies with love, and to seek to help them to leave the citizenry of the world and to become citizens of heaven, as we are. If we are to love our enemies, how much more does He expect us to love our allies! To love one another from the heart, to love those with whom you will spend eternity.

This is why it’s such a serious problem when churches experience strife and discord and contentions in their midst, when that which was intended to be a safe haven and harbor turns into a source of pain and persecution. Given Christ’s commandment that we love one another, there’s only one thing that rises to the level of rightfully disrupting the bond of love and mutual support among Christians, and that’s the doctrine of Christ itself. Some would place even that underneath the bond of so-called “love,” preferring to preserve unity at the expense of the Word of Christ. But you know that the Word of Christ has to come first, and that the love of Christians must be subordinate to His Word, must flow from His Word, must be built upon His Word as the foundation. To tolerate doctrinal errors in a Christian congregation is one of the most unloving things we could do.

But what a great gift and blessing it is when Christians, united in their confession of the doctrine of Christ, love and support one another, when Christians truly care for one another and, in love, overlook the human and sometimes sinful shortcomings of their brothers and sisters—as Peter writes, Love will cover a multitude of sins.

So love one another, on the one hand, and accept the world’s hatred, on the other. Don’t let it surprise you. Don’t let it weigh you down. Don’t let it cause you to hate the world back. Embrace the fact that you no longer belong here, in this world, that you’ve been made different, that you’ve been made to stand out in it. And, as the world hates you, and hates your fellow Christians, make it your goal to give your fellow Christians all the help and support they need to live in the midst of this hate-filled world. Be the safe haven God intended you to be for one another in this world, until this little while of being grieved by various trials, including being on the receiving end of the world’s hatred, is finally over and you enter into that incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance that is reserved in heaven for you. Until then, rejoice that you have been made children of God, and that you get to be treated as Jesus was treated in this world, and that you have been given fellow Christians around you, whether few or many, whom you have the privilege, and the commandment, to love with the love of Christ. Amen.

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The Reformation restored freedom

Posted on October 25, 2026 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation

Galatians 2:16-21 + John 8:31-36

You heard Jesus say it today in the Gospel: If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Again, He said: Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. This is Jesus’ promise to everyone who believes in Him, to everyone who abides in His word: Freedom. Freedom is the birthright (or the re-birthright) of every Christian. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, Paul writes.

Freedom was also the theme of the Evangelical Reformation of the Church—“Evangelical” meaning “Gospel-centered.” (The original Lutherans didn’t call themselves Lutherans but Evangelicals. And now, frankly, both titles have been largely coopted by groups that are neither authentically Lutheran nor Evangelical.) But turning our thoughts back to the Lutherans/Evangelicals of the 16th century, the Reformation they fought for, suffered for, and carried out, by God’s grace, was all about freedom. Because, for roughly a thousand years at that point, Christians had been subjected to several kinds of spiritual slavery and tyranny, each one attacking the truth of the Word of God, each one robbing Christians of their God-given freedom.

First, and probably most egregious, was the slavery of works-righteousness, the slavery of the Law as the path to salvation, the tyranny that deprived Christians of the free forgiveness of sins and of the certainty of salvation that believers in Christ are meant to have. The promise of the Gospel, God’s promise to freely forgive sins to those who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, was being systematically withheld from Christians across the Holy Roman Empire, being all but silenced throughout the Roman Church. Instead, sinners were taught that justification before God (that is, the reversal of our well-deserved condemnation) depended on how many good works they did, how many Our Fathers or Hail Mary’s they said, how obediently they fasted, how many prayers they prayed to the saints, how many Masses they sponsored, and, in some cases, how much money they paid to the priests and popes. Faith in Christ was good and well, but it didn’t save you. It didn’t justify you. You had to make satisfaction for your own sins, adding that to the “incomplete” atonement made by Christ. You had to earn your own part of forgiveness, either in this life, or after this life, in that imaginary place they called “purgatory.”

Oh, the teaching about purgatory was its own kind of slavery and tyranny. Christians were led to believe that their deceased loved ones were all suffering in that place of fire, and that they all had the same fire to look forward to when they died. The only little bit of hope they were given, was that if they said enough prayers, if they did enough good deeds, if they suffered enough in this life, and, again, if they paid enough money for Masses, and for the pope’s indulgences, they could shorten that time of soul-suffering in purgatory, both for their loved ones, and for themselves.

Where did the notion of purgatory even come from, since it isn’t taught in Scripture? Or prayers to Mary, for that matter? Or the invocation of the saints? None of that is found in Scripture. It was all part of another form of tyranny: the tyranny of tradition. The Roman Church of the 16th century, not unlike the Roman Church and the Eastern Church still today, did not even try to use the Scriptures as the only foundation of teaching in the Church. The Scriptures were placed beneath the oral traditions that had accumulated in the Church for many centuries, together with sayings of certain Church fathers, or decisions of certain councils or popes. Christians were enslaved to the teachings and traditions of men, some of which were useful, some of which were useless, some of which were abusive, and others of which were outright antichristian, like the teaching of purgatory, or prayers to the saints. The mantra of the Roman Church was not, “Abide in the word of Jesus and you will know the truth!” or “Search the Scriptures!” It was, “Listen to the Church, and do not question us!”

Related to this was the tyranny of the papacy itself, the tyranny of an imposed hierarchy over the parish priests and over the Christians themselves. Christians were led to believe that the bishop of Rome was not only the bishop of certain Christians in Rome, but of all Christians everywhere—the Head of the Church, the Vicar (or substitute) of Christ on earth, the “holy father” over all Christians, who had the divine right to judge all doctrine, to create new doctrines that were binding on all Christians, to impose fasting and other practices on all Christians, and, yes, to issue indulgences throughout the world and to spring souls out of purgatory—for a price.

For centuries, Christians had been trapped behind all these forms of tyranny, like prisoners behind bars, unable to change them, unable to escape, unable even to see the bars on their spiritual prison, because they had been taught that those bars weren’t bars but blessings.

But one by one, the Evangelicals began to break down those bars. A few faithful men had started rattling the bars over these and other abuses already in the 15th century, but it was Martin Luther who really got the wrecking ball rolling in 1517 with his 95 Theses, daring to challenge the pope’s authority to issue indulgences, and his audacity in selling them for money. And within about fifteen years, the freedom for which Christ had set us free was restored to those in the Church who were willing to have it.

The Reformation restored the freedom God offers from slavery to the Law and to works-righteousness.   Not freedom to sin, but the freedom to hear and believe the Gospel, that is, to see all your sins placed upon Christ, the Lamb of God, who bears all their punishment in your place. Not freedom to sin, but freedom from guilt, and from a guilty conscience, because God freely forgives all who repent and believe in Jesus. Not freedom to sin, but freedom from doing works of penance, or any works at all for the purpose of earning a pardon from God. Not freedom to sin, but freedom to do good works that flow from faith and from sins forgiven.

The Reformation also restored the freedom God offers from slavery to the fear of purgatory. Because, according to Scripture, there is no such place. Either a person dies clinging to Christ Jesus in faith, in which case, his or her soul is escorted directly to Paradise with God, or a person dies in sin and impenitence, in which case, his or her soul is taken to its permanent place of suffering in hell. In either case, there is nothing the living can or should do to affect the fate of the dead, no prayers that must be said, no Masses that must be purchased, no indulgences that must be bought. We’ve been set free from that burden. Instead, the living are now freed to do what we can for the living, repenting before it’s too late, calling sinners to repentance while there is still time, calling unbelievers to faith, and tending to our own souls by faithfully using the Means of Grace, free from the delusion that we can somehow make up for our sins later on, in purgatory.

The Reformation also restored the freedom God offers from the tyranny of tradition, especially where tradition has introduced error and false teaching. That includes the false teaching that Christians can or should approach the heavenly saints for help they should be seeking from God alone. It includes the false teaching that makes popes and councils and church fathers into a new and infallible source of doctrine. It includes the false teaching that the Mass is a sacrifice that Christians must offer to God in order to atone for our sins. We’ve been set free, not to ignore doctrine, but to learn our doctrine from the inspired Scriptures themselves, which cannot err or lead us astray. We’ve been set free, not to interpret the Scriptures in a hundred different ways, as each one sees fit, which is the bane of most of so-called Protestantism, but to use Scripture to interpret Scripture, and to use the church fathers and councils, not as infallible sources, but as God-given guides along the way. We’ve been set free, not to torch everything we’ve been handed from previous generations of Christians, but to evaluate it all on the basis of Scripture, free to use what we find useful together, and free to dispose of that which does not edify, and of that which fails to teach the truth. We’ve been set free, not to dishonor or disparage the saints, but to honor them by not turning them into idols, free now to approach God the Father directly, through the mediation of Christ Jesus, our Lord, who is the one Mediator between God and man. We’ve been set free, not to abandon the Sacraments, but to use them according to Christ’s command, not as a sacrifice we offer to God to atone for our sins, but as God’s instrument for applying Christ’s already-perfectly-accomplished atonement to us, individually.

And the Reformation also restored the freedom God offers from the tyranny of a man, of a pope, and from the slavery to a manmade hierarchy. We’ve been set free, not from the Church, but from the false teaching of the Roman bishop and from the Roman Catholic Church, Inc. We’ve been set free, not from the office of the ministry or from having a pastor, but from the tyrannical ministry of distant popes and bishops. We’ve been set free, not from having a Head of the Church, but from calling any man but the Lord Jesus Christ the Church’s Head.

And so, dear Christians, dear Evangelicals, you who call yourselves Lutherans, not to honor Luther or to follow Luther, but to identify yourselves before the world as those who have been set free by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for which Luther fought, and which Luther faithfully preached: Stand in the freedom for which Christ has set you free, and don’t let anyone move you from it. Give thanks to God, not only for Martin Luther, but for the Lutheran Confessions that he and other men wrote down, to preserve them for future generations, the Confessions that so clearly and so joyfully proclaim the truth of God’s Word, and the agreement of our doctrine with the doctrine of the universal Church from the very beginning. Resolve to read and study those Confessions more and more, even as you renew your commitment to knowing the Scriptures better and better. We may not be a big Lutheran Church, tied to the even bigger Lutheran synods. But as long as you abide in the word of Jesus, you are truly His disciples. And you will know the truth. And the truth will set you free. Amen.

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