Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Third to Last Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 25)

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

In his monumental work The City of God, St. Augustine divided all people into two “cities,” two groups: the city of God, and the city of man; the heavenly city and the earthly city. The city of God is made up of those who worship and serve the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The city of man is made up of those who, ultimately, worship and serve man. Both cities exist here on earth, but you can’t see their walls or count their citizens. In a sense, the cities are invisible.

Still, there was a time in history when God chose a visible city, with visible walls, to represent the invisible city of God: Jerusalem. The Old Testament Scriptures even refer to Jerusalem as the city of God, as we sang in today’s Gradual.

That’s what makes today’s Gospel so devastating as Jesus predicts the corruption and the impending destruction of the city of God, of Jerusalem, and even warns His people to flee from it, to flee from the city of God before they were caught up in its destruction. We’ll see that Jesus was not referring only to the city of God that was Jerusalem, but also to the city of God that is the visible Christian Church that has become apostate, the Church that has fallen away, and His warning to flee from the city of God has an application in our time as well, because mingled with the horror of that city’s impending destruction and the anxiety involved with fleeing and living for a while in the “mountains of Judea” is also the promise that God will still be with us and provide for us all the way up until Christ comes again at the end of the age, as Paul mentioned in today’s Epistle.

In Matthew 24, Jesus mentions the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place,” which Daniel, too, had prophesied. An abomination is something that God despises and hates, and it was a common word used in the Old Testament to describe idols and idolatry in general: false worship, false doctrine that portrayed a god who does not save sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; false doctrine that portrays a divine spirit who deals with men, not through the Word of God, not through the divinely instituted ministry of the Word, the appointed Means of Grace, but directly and inwardly.

That abomination was firmly set in place in Jerusalem and in her temple in the decades after Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Some of the Jews listened to the Gospel for a while, but eventually the city as a whole—the city of God—rejected their God. They rejected their Savior, who was the true Temple where God is to be worshiped. They kept looking for an earthly savior who would save them, not from sin, death and the devil, but from the Romans. So God caused those very Romans to bring destruction on Jerusalem and her earthly temple. That happened first in 70 AD, and again in the 130’s AD when Emperor Hadrian stamped out the Third Jewish Revolt and exiled all Jews from Jerusalem permanently.

But all who heeded the warning of Jesus and His instructions—let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains—were spared from Jerusalem’s demise. But a time of great tribulation came upon those Christians for the next 250 years or so. They were spared from the wrath of God that was poured out on Jerusalem, but that doesn’t mean they lived in safety. The citizens of the city of God had to keep fleeing from one place to another as the Roman empire ramped up its persecutions, and many Christians became martyrs for the Christian faith: tortured in unspeakable ways, imprisoned, and finally killed. For most of that time, there was practically nowhere in the world where it was legal or safe to be a Christian.

According to the promise of Jesus, those days were cut short (although 250 years is a pretty long time to live in that kind of earthly instability). In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine became a Christian and ended the bloody persecution of Christians throughout the world. The “great tribulation” came to an end. But Christ hadn’t returned. So Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24 still had a spiritual meaning and a spiritual fulfillment that would yet take place. They should expect another “abomination of desolation” to be set up in the holy place, in the city of God.

Now, the days of earthly Jerusalem’s importance are past. It will never again be called by God “the holy city,” and “the holy place” will never again be located in a Jerusalem temple. The holy city is now the Holy Christian Church, and the holy place is the hearts of Christians, whom God has sanctified for Himself through Holy Baptism. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy. And you are that temple.

The abomination that would be set up in the visible Christian Church is idolatry, specifically, the exaltation of man over God, and it’s summed up well in the Roman papacy, which has its seat in Rome, which also came to be known as the “city of God.” As Lutherans, we’ve recognized that now for about 500 years. It doesn’t matter which pope we’re talking about, or how different one is from another. What the papacy represents is manmade doctrine, manmade forms of worship, and the worship of man. It represents all the false doctrine that has invaded and now desolated Christendom, every teaching of man that obscures or darkens the work of Christ and faith in Christ, whether in the Roman Church or outside of it. The Gospel is clear: that all have sinned against God and deserve His wrath, that Christ has come and suffered for all sin and risen from the dead, that God offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to sinners for the sake of Christ alone, through faith alone, apart from all our works and obedience, that God sends His ministers to call all men to repent of their sins and believe in Christ Jesus, and that God the Holy Spirit will work through Word and Sacrament to gather His Church, to create and preserve faith until Christ comes again for the resurrection and for judgment. That is the simple Gospel of Christ. Wherever human works are added as a cause of our salvation, wherever human doctrine is exalted above divine doctrine, wherever sinners are directed to seek peace with God apart from Christ or apart from His Means of Grace—that is of the devil. It’s an abomination in the sight of God. It causes desolation—devastation within the Christian Church.

The first Lutherans didn’t immediately try to flee from Rome. As you know, they tried to reform it. But when that failed, they realized that they had to heed Jesus’ words and “flee to the mountains,” to flee from the pope’s mangled institution. They couldn’t, in good conscience, remain under the Roman bishops. They couldn’t hold onto the earthly safety and prosperity that came with loyalty to the Roman papacy. Instead, they lived in exile. And with exile comes instability and confusion and uncertainty. Fleeing involves scattering, a few here, a few there, in pockets of refugees throughout the world.

That’s where we live, in exile, outside the earthly city of God, with instability and confusion and uncertainty. A few scattered Christians, here, there, and throughout the world. We’re still living in the midst of the “great tribulation.” Just as the early Church had to fight two battles at once, against persecution from without and against false doctrine from within, so it is today. In some parts of the world, Christians are treated brutally and shamefully. In our country, we’re only seeing the first beginnings of that kind of persecution. But we’re already deeply mired in false doctrine that has largely corrupted the American churches. The spirit of antichrist still calls out all around us, “Here is Christ, in the one big church! Come back! And don’t let doctrine get in your way! Come back to the safety of Jerusalem, the safety of Rome, the safety of Constantinople, the safety of the big and glorious Lutheran synod! Think of all the nice things you and your children are missing out on by your picky doctrinal positions! Think of all the good you’re failing to do for the poor and for the oppressed by remaining in your tiny little church!”

Dear Christians, that’s all part of the great tribulation, and it’s the life that we citizens of the city of God, living in exile from the earthly city of God—which has actually become the city of man—will continue to live until Jesus comes for us. We’re constantly surrounded by false prophets who are always shouting, either, “Here’s Jesus, over here in the big church! There’s Jesus, over there, in the desert, by yourself, away from organized religion entirely!” “Over here, in the inner room of your heart, in your feelings, in your emotions, in your dreams! That’s where you’ll find Jesus!”

Do not believe it, Jesus says. You won’t find Jesus attached to manmade doctrine or the worship of man. You won’t find Him in your emotions. You won’t find Him floating around somewhere in the air. You will find Him as He comes through His Holy Spirit, where two or three are gathered in His name, where His Word is rightly preached and His Sacraments are rightly administered. There is Jesus. There is His catholic Church. There are His elect, living the life of waiting in exile until Christ comes again.

And when He comes again, there will be no doubt about where He is. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. The eagles don’t think to themselves, let’s go find a carcass over in such and such a place. Instead they’re constantly flying around, watching, waiting, without knowing where the carcass will appear, waiting and watching until it does. Then they know where to go. Then they know where to gather.

Such is the life of Christians, living as exiles of Jerusalem. We don’t expect to find Jesus in Jerusalem or in Rome or in any human institution, and so we cannot be permanently tied to any human institution, including this church building, including this diocese of which we’re so gladly a part. Instead, we fly around, following where the Word of Christ is preached in its truth and purity. And then, when Christ appears in the clouds with all His saints, we will fly to Him and gather to Him, to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Amen.

(no audio or video of today’s service)

Sermon for Trinity 18

1 Corinthians 1:4-9  +  Matthew 22:34-46

The Old Testament is an interesting place. It’s largely historical narrative, from the beginning of the world, to the worldwide flood, to the scattering of the nations, to the formation of the Hebrew people and the recounting of their 2,000-year history, from Abraham to Christ. But within that history are embedded two main teachings: the commandments and the promises, the Law and the Gospel. When I say ‘promises,’ I mean the promises of grace that didn’t depend on the people’s obedience. There were also promises of the Law, of course: If you obey, then you will receive such-and-such a reward. But the promises of grace were different. They were things God promised to do for His people, not because of their obedience, but usually in spite of their disobedience, things He promised to do “for free,” because He is gracious, kind, and good.

The commandments and promises are there throughout the Old Testament, starting in the Garden of Eden, where there was the command not to eat from the one tree. And attached to the commands were usually also punishments, like, “or you will surely die.” But then there was also the promise, after Adam and Eve disobeyed, God’s promise to send the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head, God’s promise to be the God of Israel, to bring captive Israel back from captivity, to establish a New Covenant of the forgiveness of sins. Even in the Law of Moses, the commandments existed alongside the promises, and sometimes the promises were wrapped up inside the commandments. For example, there were many commandments surrounding the sacrifices the Israelites were to bring. But within those sacrifices were also found the promises of forgiveness and grace in the blood of the coming Christ.

Still, there was a heavy emphasis in the Old Testament on the Law, the commandments, what Israel was to do. They were a heavy “yoke” that God imposed on the people of Israel, to weigh them down with works and with sins, to hammer into them the reality of their sinfulness and uncleanness. The commandments were a “tutor,” as St. Paul called them, to lead them to Christ, so that, by the time He came, they would be yearning to be set free.

But by the time of Jesus, the Jews were so caught up in working at keeping the commandments that it was as if blinders had been slipped onto their faces, so that all they could see were the commandments, the commandments, obedience, obedience, do, do, do, do, earn, earn, earn, earn God’s acceptance and a place at His heavenly banquet. That’s one of the main reasons why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much. It’s not that He denied the commandments. It’s not even that He didn’t often repeat the commandments. But He kept going back to that other part of the Old Testament, to the promises, as if there were an entirely different way of entering into God’s favor: not by keeping the commandments, not by doing, but by believing in the promises.

One of the Pharisees in our Gospel wanted to keep the focus on the commandments. He put the question to Jesus: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Not an easy question. There were lots of laws. 613 of them, by some people’s count. Civil laws, concerning crimes and punishments in Jewish society; ceremonial laws—which foods they had to avoid, clothing they couldn’t wear, festivals they had to attend, ceremonies they had to observe, tithes they had to offer; and moral laws, governing right and wrong behavior, like the Ten Commandments, for the most part. In any case, there are hundreds of commandments. Which would Jesus choose as the greatest?

Not surprisingly, Jesus placed a commandment from the moral law at the top of the commandments, since the moral law applies to all people of all times, while the civil and ceremonial laws applied only to Old Testament Israel. He answered, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. Obedience has to start with the right attitude of the heart, with a full and complete devotion to God, with everything that is in you, so that every act of obedience is done, not to gain something for yourself, but purely out of love for obeying God. And then Jesus goes beyond what the scribe asked for. He adds the second greatest commandment, also from the moral law: The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

We should note, this isn’t “love” as the world defines it. First, it isn’t a feeling. A lot of people claim to love God, deeply, sincerely, and then they proceed to do whatever they want, regardless of what God says, all the while fooling themselves into thinking that they truly love God, because they feel something for Him. That isn’t love. St. John writes, This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. In other words, if you love God enough, then you’ll do all that He says; you’ll keep all of His commandments. He will come before your mother and your father, before husband or wife, before son or daughter or grandchildren, before boyfriend or girlfriend, before your pleasures and desires, before your own life. His Word and His Sacraments will be more important to you than your reputation, more important than sleep, more important than the football game. And, if you love your neighbor enough, you’ll never do anything that harms him and will always do everything in your power to help him, just as you would do for yourself or have other people do to you.

Second, “love” isn’t in conflict with the other commandments. My son once had a conversation with a friend. The topic of homosexuality came up, and my son pointed out that it’s a sin. His friend—a member of a Christian church—replied, “How can you say that? The Bible says to love your neighbor!” You see, the world thinks that love means to ignore all of God’s other commandments and to celebrate whatever makes your neighbor happy, and sadly, many Christians have swallowed that diabolical lie as well. No, love doesn’t trump the other commandments; it’s part of all the other commandments. It starts with the attitude of the heart and follows all the way through to the action, in keeping with all the commandments.

On these two commandments, Jesus says, hang all the Law and the Prophets. Every commandment given in the Old Testament has its source in these two. No commandment given in the Old Testament can be obeyed without simultaneously obeying these two.

But the commandments to love God and neighbor come with a catch. Attached to the commandments is the corresponding punishment for disobedience. The wages of sin is death. If you disobey, if you fail to love, then the same Law commanding love comes after you. Anything less than pure love has to be punished. There’s no getting around it. You can’t say, well yes, but I’ve kept the 5^th commandment and the 6^th. I’ve given nice big offerings. I’ve stayed away from drugs. I’ve paid my taxes. I pray (sometimes). None of those are the greatest commandments, are they? This is why the Law, for as good and for as beautiful as it actually is, always accuses, always comes after you and chases you right to hell.

But after answering the Pharisee’s question and revealing the heart and the thrust of the Old Testament commandments, Jesus turns their attention to that other teaching of the Old Testament, the one they had too often neglected, the one that had to do, not with the commandments, but with the promises, which were all centered in the Christ.

What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.” Everybody knew that! Easy question! God had promised to send the Christ from David’s line, to rule on David’s throne forever. He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”

Interestingly, perhaps shockingly, the scribes and Pharisees seemed not to have spent much time at all considering the promises related to the Christ. No one could even answer the question of “how can this be?” They hadn’t even considered it. Their hyper-focus on the commandments had blinded them to the Gospel-part of the Old Testament, to the promises centered around the coming Christ, who would be both true Man—David’s Son, according to His human nature—and true God—David’s Lord, according to His divine nature.

But where is the promise in Psalm 110? The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool. Where is the Gospel here? And who are His “enemies,” after all? Is it those who have disobeyed the great commandments? For the answer, Jesus would send those who listened—and who are listening now—to the rest of the promises of the Christ in the Old Testament. Why did He come from David’s line? Why did the eternal Lord enter our race? To give us new laws? To give us new commandments? To condemn the sinful world? No. There were plenty of commandments in the Old Testament, including the two great commandments, and plenty of condemnation to go around. The Son of David came, not to condemn, but to be condemned that the world through Him might be saved. He came, not to command us to do and to obey, but so that He might do and obey, and then still suffer and pay the penalties for a disobedience that wasn’t His, and so win for us a kingdom and an eternal inheritance that wasn’t ours, the forgiveness of sins and a place in God’s family, which He will give to us free of charge, not because of how greatly we have loved, but purely because of how greatly God has loved us in Christ Jesus. That’s His promise, to all who believe.

Understanding the promises in this way, we can see the Gospel promise also in the Psalm verse, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool. After Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He did sit down at the right hand of the Lord. Why? To rule over all things for the good of His Church. To defend us against all our enemies—the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh—which have now been placed under the feet of David’s Son, and to reign until the final enemy, death itself, is destroyed. To make sure that everything in this insane, wicked, messed up world has to work together for good to those who love Him. That’s God’s promise of what He does and will do for us who believe in Christ Jesus.

Are the commandments important? Of course they are! They show us what is good and right and tell us what we should and shouldn’t do. But at the same time they show us our sins, and that there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves from them. The promises, on the other hand, show us God’s mercy and grace. They show us our Savior, and they offer us the benefits of what Jesus did for us, even the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Repent and believe the good news! And having believed, go back to the great commandments and let them guide you in the new obedience of the children of God. But never lose sight of the promises, because it’s by faith in God’s promises that you stand justified in God’s presence. And having been justified by faith, we’re also given these words of  Paul in today’s Epistle, He will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a promise! Amen.