Thanksgiving flows from sins forgiven

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Eve of Thanksgiving

Colossians 2:6-15  +  Luke 7:36-50

Just like every other time we gather together here around Word and Sacrament, we’re here for Thanksgiving. Now, there are many ways to give thanks to God. You can say a prayer of thanks by yourself, of course. You can say a prayer or sing a song of praise with your family or here in your church, or you can confess the one true God, as you just did in the Nicene Creed. You can make a list of all the things you’re thankful for, all the things you recognize, with gratitude, as coming from your Father’s bountiful goodness: food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, and on and on and on.

Deeds of love for your neighbor can be an act of thanksgiving to God. True obedience to God’s commandments is always an act of thankfulness. Your whole life, in fact, can be one great giving of thanks, in all you do, in all you say, in every godly vocation that you hold.

But the starting point of all true thankfulness is love for God. It all begins with love. And love begins with faith. And faith rests upon God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of Christ. Thanksgiving flows, ultimately, from sins forgiven, which is why only Christians can truly celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

That’s what the apostle Paul emphasized in the Epistle from Colossians: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Even more directly, that’s what Jesus teaches in this evening’s Gospel. An unnamed sinful woman—that is, a woman well-known for her sins, probably a prostitute—heard that Jesus was dining at a Pharisee’s house, so she went to see Him. The Western Church has traditionally identified her with Mary Magdalene, who has also been identified in Western tradition with Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus. Whether or not they’re all the same woman, the lesson remains the same.

She spoke not a word of thanks to Jesus in our Gospel—no prayers, no praises. In fact, she said nothing at all. Instead, she brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

The woman said nothing. But her every action, her every tear, was a thanksgiving—a thanksgiving that flowed from love that flowed from faith that rested upon the forgiveness of sins—the Gospel that she had already heard and believed.

The Pharisee who invited Jesus—Simon was his name—didn’t appreciate her act of thanksgiving. Nor did he think very highly of Jesus for letting her do this to Him. He thought to himself, This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.

Now those are the thoughts of a truly thankless man, and Jesus tells him a little story to illustrate his thanklessness. Two debtors owed money to the same man. One owed 500 denarii, the other owed just 50. The creditor forgave both debts. Which of them will love him more? I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And He said to him, You have judged rightly.

Then Jesus explains the story to Simon. You see this woman? I came to your house and you did nothing for Me. You didn’t even offer me the common hospitality of a foot-washing or a bit of cheap oil for my head, much less greet me with the customary kiss of friendship. But this woman has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair and kissed them and anointed them with costly perfume. And she did it, not to make up for her sin and not to purchase My favor, but she did it out of her great love for Me, because she knows her sins are great, but she also believes that I am great, and that I have come to forgive sinners their great and terrible debts of sin. She loved much because she has been forgiven much. Your sins are forgiven, Jesus told the woman. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.

But you, Simon, you should take her actions as a grave warning. Because your lack of love for Me, your lack of thanksgiving to Me, is a sure and certain sign of a deadly disease: To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

It’s not that Simon actually had little that needed forgiving. It’s not that you or I or anyone actually has little that needs forgiving, compared to all those “really wicked” people out there. The difference between Simon and the sinful woman wasn’t in how much forgiveness each one needed from Jesus. It was in how much forgiveness each one sought from Jesus, how much forgiveness each one admitted that he or she needed from Jesus. That’s why the woman was so grateful and Simon so ungrateful. She was penitent; he was impenitent. She was honest about herself; he was delusional about himself. She was astounded by the grace and mercy of Jesus, while Simon was bored with it.

So it is that thanksgiving can only flow from love, and love can only flow from faith, and faith is only true faith when it rests upon God’s promise to forgive sins for the sake of Christ alone. This is where thanksgiving begins and ends.

And so tonight, we go back to this source of thanksgiving, this Christian faith, this recognition of how badly we need the blood of Jesus to pay our debts, and how great Jesus truly is for willingly shedding His blood, just so that He could say to each of us on the day of our Baptism, Now your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Baptism has saved you. I have saved you. Go in peace.

That brings us here to the Lord’s Supper itself, the “Eucharist,” the great Thanksgiving in which we poor sinners, penitent, baptized and forgiven, come to offer this “sacrifice” to Jesus. Not a sacrifice to pay for sins anymore, but a sacrifice of thanksgiving—our grateful acknowledgement that Jesus is the friend of sinners and has given His body and blood for us, and now to us, as a seal of the forgiveness He won for us by His death on the cross. The Eucharist is our as-often-as-you-drink-it opportunity to come into the presence of Jesus, to express our love for Jesus, even as the sinful woman did in the Gospel, and at the same time it’s our opportunity to receive from Jesus much more love than we ourselves can give, just as the sinful woman herself received absolution from Jesus again that day.

From here, let your love for Christ be nourished and grow into an every-day, every-hour, every-minute kind of thanksgiving. After all, it is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to our merciful God, with words of praise, with prayers of thanksgiving for all that He has given, with lives of obedience to His commandments, with lives of service to your neighbor.

There are many reasons to give thanks to God, but they all begin with the forgiveness of sins. There are many ways to give thanks to God, but they all begin with love—love for the God who made us alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us. Any Thanksgiving that does not begin and end with that is empty and useless. But, as we’ve seen in the Gospel, every Thanksgiving that flows from love that flows from faith that rests upon the forgiveness of sins is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of Christ. A blessed Thanksgiving to you. Amen.

 

 

 

 

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State of Readiness: Alert

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  +  Matthew 25:1-13

Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s year. We’ve followed and studied the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ for another year. We’ve heard His continual call in the preaching of the Gospel to repent of our sins and to believe in Him, the crucified and risen One, for the forgiveness of sins. We’ve received that forgiveness in Holy Baptism, in the Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar, where He’s given us the communion of His very body and blood. We’ve taken counsel from His warnings, we’ve taken comfort in His promises, and we’ve taken guidance from His Holy Spirit, who has renewed and strengthened us in faith, in hope, and in love. And starting next Sunday, we’ll do it all over again. And we’ll keep repeating this blessed cycle until Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, finally comes to take His Bride, the Church, into the new heavens and the new earth.

On this last Sunday of the church year, Jesus pleads with His dear Christians once more: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Watch. Keep watching. Be alert at all times. The day is coming like a thief in the night.

Those who have had any firearms training are probably familiar with something called the levels of awareness or states of readiness. There are four such levels: unaware, aware, alert, and alarmed. I’ll spare you the firearms applications and apply it directly to the state of readiness for Christ’s coming.

Some—those who don’t believe in Christ or care about His Word—are living in a perpetual “unaware” condition. They’re oblivious to the truth about who God is, who Jesus is, and what He has done for us. They don’t believe He is coming for judgment at all, and so they go on living in their arrogance, idolatry, and unbelief. They are “in darkness,” as Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, and the day of the Lord will come upon them for their eternal destruction.

Many Christians also fit into that category of unaware. They are the Christians in name only, who know nothing and who care to know nothing of the doctrine of Christ. They have an idea of who Jesus is that they’ve made up in their own heads, and they’re content to know their made-up version of Jesus and consider themselves Christians, but they have no awareness of their great need for the forgiveness of sins, nor faith in the blood of Christ to cleanse them of it. They think of Christianity as one valid religion among many. They would hate the real Jesus, if they knew Him. Such people are unaware that Christ is coming like a thief and unaware of what is necessary to be prepared for that day.

But we are not like those who don’t know the thief is coming, are we? We are sons of light, and sons of the day. We do know, for sure, that the day is coming, even though we don’t know exactly when. We know who Jesus is. We are aware of His coming.

How foolish we would be, then, not to keep watch, not to also be alert, focused, prepared to meet the Bridegroom when He comes.

Like five of the ten virgins in Jesus’ parable were unprepared, not watching, not alert. The ten young ladies all knew that the Bridegroom was coming. They were aware. They were eager to go out and meet Him. But they did not all keep watch. They did not all prepare for His coming. Five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Half of them were not ready when He came, and were locked out of the wedding feast forever—half of those who started off well, eager to meet the Bridegroom.

Stop and take note of that. As Jesus describes the times leading up to His coming at the end of the age, He doesn’t depict for us a Christian Church that is mostly prepared, in a state of readiness, where practically all Christians are going to go out to meet the Bridegroom with joy upon His arrival, with just a few stragglers who are oblivious and unprepared. No, what picture does He paint? He shows us a Christian Church in which a full half of the Christians are caught unalert and unprepared at His Advent. This is nothing for us to pass over lightly and pretend that we can just go on with our earthly lives and stop caring about it, stop thinking about it, stop preparing for. That would be foolish, not wise.

Now, what did the five wise virgins do? What made them wise? The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. They were aware that the Bridegroom was coming. They were aware of their need to have burning lamps in order to meet Him and accompany Him upon His arrival. They were aware that they might be waiting awhile, and they were aware that the oil that was in their lamps would eventually be consumed by the flame. That’s how fire works. It consumes fuel. We’re all aware of that, aren’t we? Putting all those things together, they became alert—alert to the necessity of bringing more fuel along with them, enough to keep their lamps burning, enough to get through the night. And it did get them through the night, so that, when the midnight call rang out, they were ready to go straight out to meet the bridal procession.

The foolish virgins, on the other hand, took no extra oil along with them. It doesn’t say that they forgot to take extra oil, or that they had no opportunity to acquire extra oil. No, they chose not to take it. They neglected to take it, even though they knew their lamps couldn’t possibly stay lit all night long. See, they were counting on the Bridegroom arriving early. They assumed they would have plenty of oil to last. But He didn’t. And they didn’t. And their lamps went out. And they went straight from being vaguely aware that He was coming, past alert, to alarmed at His arrival.

As well they should be. Because, while the five wise virgins accompanied the Bridegroom into the wedding hall, the five foolish virgins scrambled to find a seller of oil at that late hour. They were too late, weren’t they? They finally showed up at the wedding hall, where the door was already closed, so they knocked and said, Lord, Lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.

Locked out of the wedding hall, just like the rest of the world, even though they started out as friends and servants of the Bridegroom. Locked out of the wedding hall, no longer acknowledged by the Bridegroom, just as all those who fail to watch for Christ’s coming will be denied by Christ, locked out of heaven and sentenced to eternal darkness and torment in hell because they neglected the means by which they should keep their lamps burning.

What are these precious, burning lamps, which alone are required for entrance into eternal life? They are the burning lamps of faith. Not just any faith, of course, but faith in the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And not just the knowledge of who this God is, but the reliance on this God and the trust in this God to save us poor sinners, who deserve only His wrath and punishment, for the sake of Christ alone, who died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. It’s as simple as John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

But hear what the Holy Spirit teaches us in today’s Gospel. There is no such thing as “once saved, always saved,” or “once a believer, always a believer.” On the contrary, many who have made a good beginning, believing in Christ for salvation, have later made shipwreck of their faith, as St. Paul puts it. In order for faith to remain, in order to persevere in the faith until the end, a ready supply of oil is required.

That oil is the Gospel as it is preached and as it is administered in the Sacraments. The vessels that hold it are the ministers of the Word, whom God has called and given to His Church to, what did Jesus say?, “feed His lambs” and to “take care of His sheep” until He comes. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Coming to church, to the Divine Service regularly, often, is an integral part of being, not just aware of Jesus’ coming, but alert and ready. Of course, not just coming, but listening to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, living in daily contrition and repentance. Holding out your beggar’s hand and seeking mercy and charity from Jesus—that’s being alert and prepared. I’ll warn you again, as I have warned you before: if it’s within your power, don’t move to a place where the pure teaching of the Word is absent. Don’t take a job that will prevent you from receiving the supply of oil your faith will need to keep burning bright. Don’t let the concerns and cares of this life keep you from hearing the Gospel. Don’t marry a person who does not adhere to the pure teaching of Christ and who will not help you keep watch for His coming. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

On the other hand, if you find yourself in any of these situations already and it’s not within your power or divinely given prerogative to change it, pray to God that He will provide the strength and the means for you to attend to the faith He has given. Use every opportunity that He puts at your disposal, including the Bible reading booklets that are being provided to you today, with their Bible readings and Confessions readings, and Small Catechism readings.

The Christian life is not like a flash of light that burns brightly for a moment and then you go to heaven. It’s the slow and steady flame of a lamp that needs to keep burning for years, for decades, as you walk in great weakness here below, fighting constantly against the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, bearing the cross patiently, always watching, always alert, knowing that Christ will come soon, and knowing that “soon” just might be today. Or it might be in a hundred years. You have to be ready for either scenario.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Take the wisdom God has provided again today. Take it into the new church year with you and use it. You’re aware of what’s coming. You’re sons of light and sons of the day. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober…Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Amen.

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Christ will judge in favor of His brethren

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity

2 Thessalonians 1:3-10  +  Matthew 25:31-46

So much time has been spent on election stuff. It has been all-consuming for a lot of people in our country, and the nastiness that preceded the election on the Right and on the Left, and the juvenile protests and the reprehensible riots that have continued after the election are just more evidence of the fact that our country, our human race, our world itself is ripe for judgment.

It’s time to stop dwelling on election day and start preparing for Judgment Day. Once again, the annual lectionary that the Christian Church has used for hundreds and hundreds of years helps us to do just that. The Holy Spirit sets this parable before us today of the sheep and the goats. Judgment is coming! And every soul must be prepared. Judgment is coming, and God will not permit any protests on that day when Christ the King descends in majesty, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, and He takes His place on His glorious throne, in the sight of all flesh.

We know, by faith, that Christ already sits on His throne and rules over all things for the benefit of His saints, His dear Christians. But now is not the time for us to see it. Jesus tells this parable about the sheep and the goats to give our faith something firm to cling to, to assure us that, despite everything we now see, He will most surely reveal His throne to us one day, on the Last Day. Then we will see the reality. Then we will see what has been true all along. And His saints will be blessed forever. And His enemies will be cursed forever.

But take note how Jesus describes His saints in this parable, and how He describes His enemies. First, there is a separation of the two. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. That separation is another thing that’s already a reality now in God’s sight, but we can’t necessarily see it. We can see who claims to be a Christian at the moment, and who doesn’t. But we can’t see which of those claiming to be believers in Christ are actually pretenders, or which ones will fall away, and we can’t see which of those who are currently not Christians will eventually be converted before the Last Day. All of that will be made visible when Christ comes in His glory. The separation will be clear, and it will be permanent.

Then notice the criterion Christ says He will use at the Last Judgment: the good that people did or failed to do for “these My brethren.” To the sheep He says, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ And to the goats He says, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

You won’t understand this parable at all if you don’t understand who are the “brethren,” or the brothers of Jesus.

Some people would like to stretch the term “brethren” to apply to all people, making all people on earth the brothers and sisters of Christ and of Christians. They say, “See! You’re supposed to see Jesus in all people and take care of all people, especially the least: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned.” They insist that the purpose—even the primary purpose! —of the Christian Church is to do social work and to seek social justice. Just this week, after the election results came in, the Bishop of El Paso expressed his concern over Mr. Trump’s potential treatment of “our brother and sister refugees and migrants” and “our brothers and sisters who are Muslim.”

Don’t be led astray by these false teachers. Throughout the New Testament the phrase “the brethren of Christ” is used as a synonym for “Christians.” The baptized. The saints. The writer to the Hebrews says, Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. “Those who are being sanctified,” through faith in the blood of Christ—those are the ones Christ is not ashamed to call brethren.

So this whole parable is about the treatment of Christians in this world, from the greatest to the least. As Paul writes to the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That’s why Jesus can say that whatever was done or not done to any of His Christians was done or not done to Him. Because every Christian is clothed with Christ in holy Baptism.

See how He elevates His people in this parable! In the judgment pronounced against the goats, there is no mention of their idolatry, of their misuse of God’s name, of their hatred of God’s Word—the first three commandments. Why? Because idolatry and unbelief don’t damn a person? Of course they do! There is no mention of murder or adultery here, either. Why? Because murder and adultery are not causes for condemnation in the judgment? Of course they are! But for the sake of emphasis, Jesus passes by all the idolatries and the wicked deeds of men that they commit with and against one another, and shows us what matters most to Him: His people. His beloved Christians. His dear saints. To help any of these, including the least, is the greatest work that a Christian can do. And to mistreat any of these, even the least, is cause for eternal punishment. As Jesus said earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

All this talk about work in the judgment…Was Jesus just kidding when He said that whoever believes in Him is not condemned? Was the apostle Paul lying when he wrote that “to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness”? Are we actually judged on the basis of good works done to other Christians? Or by works in addition to faith? Can unbelievers be saved if they do enough good deeds to Christians?

Once again, Jesus expects that we have been paying attention. If we ignore the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, and the other Gospels, and the book of Acts, and all the Epistles of the New Testament, and just read the verses from today’s Gospel, we might conclude that our works are everything in the judgment and that faith has almost no part. But then we would be foolish interpreters of Scripture.

Faith alone saves. Faith alone justifies. Faith is what unites us with Christ Jesus. It unites us to the death of Christ. It allows His good works to be accounted to us for righteousness. God forgives sins to all who believe in His Son. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. The Scriptures couldn’t be clearer on this point.

Those who do not know and believe in Christ cannot earn His favor by helping Christians. And those who do know and believe in Christ already have His favor. Good works are the product of faith. Good works always flow from faith, as light and heat flow from the sun. It’s what real Christians do; they love one another, without being guilted into it or forced into it. Remember what Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians in today’s Epistle: We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. God Himself is responsible for that love and for the service Christians render to each other. It matters to Him, and He praises it, and He will recognize it on the Last Day.

In the same way, God will recognize the mistreatment of His people, as Paul also writes, since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And He won’t just punish the mistreatment, but, as our Gospel declares, even the lack of good treatment of His people He will condemn when He comes.

Now, none of this means that Christians are allowed by God to mistreat unbelievers, or that Christians are to be apathetic toward the suffering of non-Christians. The commandment remains in place, “Love your neighbor”—not just your brother—“as yourself.” But today’s Gospel is not about helping your neighbor. It’s about the love that Christians show to fellow Christians, and more importantly, it’s about God’s righteous wrath and judgment against the unbelieving world for every offense they commit against His holy people.

Unbelievers had better take warning, before the Last Day and heed this call to repentance now. Because then the curse will be pronounced upon them and it will be irreversible: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

But Christians should be greatly comforted by the coming judgment, because our curse has already been removed. In the words of St. Paul, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). Our judgment has already happened. In the words of Jesus, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

As we walk in that life, as we prepare for the day of judgment, we know we have nothing to fear, either in this life or on that day. Instead, we have everything to look forward, even the words of the King: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. What hardships and tribulations of this life can compare with that glory? Live with an eye toward that day. Live with your eyes fixed on Jesus. And remember that Jesus allows you to serve Him by serving His brethren here below, His dear Christians, here in our midst, and everywhere in world. Let His love for His brethren be reflected in your love for the brethren. And let that be the thing that people see in you and know about you—more than your thoughts about the election. Amen.

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Living as refugees of Jerusalem

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity

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

In those days leading up to His crucifixion, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 20-25, Jesus taught His disciples many things about the coming days—what they should expect to happen after His resurrection, both during their lifetime and all the way up to the end of the world. In today’s Gospel Jesus covers the entire New Testament period, from the destruction of Jerusalem that would happen in 70 AD, all the way up to His second coming at the end of the age. It’s a tragic prophecy of the apostasy and destruction, not only of earthly Jerusalem, which once was the beloved city of God but then rejected its Redeemer, but it’s also a tragic prophecy of the apostasy and eventual destruction of the spiritual Jerusalem—the Visible Christian Church on earth.

Of course, mingled with that tragedy is also the lovingkindness of Jesus who warns His true Christians about all this ahead of time and provides for His true Church a way of escape from the destruction that is coming. That way of escape is for us to flee from Jerusalem and to live out the remainder of our days on earth as her refugees.

Jesus mentions the “abomination of desolation,” 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 depicted a god who does not save sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. False doctrine that depicts a divine spirit who deals with men, not through the Word of God, not through the 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 rejected it. 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.

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. They were spared from the wrath of God that was poured out on Jerusalem, but the cross they bore for following Christ was real, and living as refugees of Jerusalem meant that they 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.

According to the promise of Jesus, those days were cut short, even though 250 years is a pretty long time. 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 holy city.

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, which temple you are.

The abomination that would be set up in the Christian Church is summed up in the Roman papacy. We’ve known that now, in the Lutheran Church, for nearly 500 years. It doesn’t matter who the pope is, or how different he is from other popes that came before him. He 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. 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 forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through Word and Sacrament—that is the simple Gospel of Christ. Wherever human works are added as a cause of our salvation, 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 recognized that abomination within the Roman Church. And when their efforts to bring reformation to Rome failed, they realized that they had to heed Jesus’ words and “flee to the mountains,” to flee from the pope’s doctrine, first in their hearts, and then, as necessary, with their feet. 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 pope.

They not only had to leave the safety of Rome behind. They had to be continually living as refugees of Jerusalem, continually watching out for the false prophets and false christs who would distort the Gospel and get them to turn their eyes away from Jesus and away from His Word and Sacraments. Fleeing from Rome wasn’t a one-time thing for them. It was an ongoing way of life. And the life of refugees is a messy business, full of instability and confusion and uncertainty.

So it is also for us. As Lutherans, we have fled from Rome. But it’s not over yet. We’re still living in the midst of the “great tribulation.” But this tribulation is more spiritual than physical. False doctrine has filled the world, has filled our country, has filled our culture. (To be honest, our country, as a whole, has never known true faith-alone, Word-and-Sacrament-based Christianity.) The spirit of antichrist still calls out all around us, “Come back! Come back! And don’t let doctrine get in the way! Come back to the safety of Jerusalem, the safety of Rome, the safety of the one big Church—you can even call it Lutheran, if you want to! 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.”

That’s all part of the great tribulation, and it’s the life that we refugees of Jerusalem, we refugees of Rome, will continue to live until Jesus comes for us. We’re constantly surrounded by false prophets who are always shouting, either, “Come back to Rome!” or “Here’s Jesus, over here! There’s Jesus, over there!” “Over there, in the desert, by yourself, away from organized religion!” “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 Rome or its pope, or to the big synod, or the big church of any kind. You won’t find Him out in the desert, or alone by yourself apart from His means of grace. You won’t find Him in your heart or in your prayers or in your imaginations. You won’t find Him on earth, except as He comes through His 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 Church. There are His elect, living the life of refugees 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, flying around 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 refugees 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. Instead, we follow 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.

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Powerful preaching, forceful faith

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Festival of the Reformation

Revelation 14:6-7  +  Matthew 11:12-15

The story of the Reformation is the story of a priest who became a great preacher, a man who witnessed the corruption of the Church and was called by God to speak up about it, to call the people of his day to repentance, to point them to Jesus, to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God. He was loved by many and hated by many and persecuted for his bold preaching. And as a result of his preaching, many people turned from the error of their ways to Jesus, and, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, they were given a place in the kingdom of God.

Of course I’m talking about the man whose name was John, the Baptist, of whom Jesus once said, Among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament. And as such, he didn’t merely reform the Church of God. He prepared it for its transition from the Church of the Old Testament to the Church of the New. His duty was to point to Christ, and to the kingdom of heaven over which Christ rules.

What is the kingdom of heaven? It is the reign of Christ as King in the hearts of men. Not the kind of ruling that forces men to follow Him or to obey His commandments. But the kind of ruling that brings with it the forgiveness of sins, that frees a person from slavery to sin, from the power of the devil to accuse and condemn, and even from death. It’s the kind of ruling that makes a person a born-again child of God and an heir of His heavenly kingdom.

Where is it, this kingdom of heaven? It isn’t up in heaven. Instead, it has come down from heaven. It’s wherever the Gospel is preached, where the Sacraments are administered. There is the kingdom of heaven! There the Spirit of Christ calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

And what is the Gospel? It’s what John the Baptist first began to preach. God has come to the aid of sinners. God has stepped into our earthly history. He has given His Son to be born as a man, to redeem us from sin, death and the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and by His innocent suffering and death. He did it, not because we deserve it or have worked for it. But by His grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. I think that passage would be better translated, “The kingdom of heaven advances forcefully, and forceful men lay hold of it.” In the parallel passage from St. Luke’s Gospel, it puts it a little differently. “The Gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is pressing into it forcefully.”

How was the kingdom of heaven advancing forcefully? The Gospel of Christ was proclaimed in the face of much opposition. It was proclaimed precisely where men did not want it to be proclaimed, and yet it could be silenced or stopped. Herod couldn’t stop the kingdom of heaven from being proclaimed by putting John the Baptist in prison. The Pharisees couldn’t stop Jesus from proclaiming it, until He Himself was ready to bring everything to its completion on the cross. Even then, the crucifixion of Christ couldn’t stop the Gospel from being proclaimed. The apostles and the ministers of the Church went out and preached, even though they were targeted and killed, one by one. And the Christians who heard and believed their Gospel spread it to their own families and fellow citizens even as they fled from persecution to one city after another.

And how were forceful men laying hold of the kingdom of heaven? Who were these “forceful men”? They were tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, a Roman centurion, a Canaanite woman, a village of Samaritans. They were little children, of whom Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” All of these were laying hold of the kingdom of heaven, pressing into it forcefully. Not by being wise or good or obedient. They were all sinners deserving damnation. But in the face of great sinfulness, in the face of great opposition by the world, in the face of all the devil’s temptations and accusations, by the power of the Gospel they all dared to trust in Jesus as their Savior, as the Christ, the Son of the living God. That’s no small feat. That’s the power of the Gospel, which is the power of salvation for everyone who believes.

That Gospel of Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Savior of sinner was powerfully preached in the world for many hundreds of years after Christ’s ascension, and the kingdom of heaven continued to advance forcefully around the world as the Gospel was preached.

The kingdom of heaven always advances forcefully, and forceful men always lay hold of it. But that doesn’t mean the Gospel is always preached as clearly and as abundantly as before. There came a time when the Gospel was preached less and less, as the Roman pope became less and less Christ-centered and more and more self-centered, less and less word-of-God oriented and more and more man-oriented. It became difficult for people to hear the Gospel through all the chattering of the pope’s men about other things, as they preached less and less about Christ and more and more about indulgences, works of penance and satisfaction, paying for one’s own sins, praying to the saints, worshiping the Virgin Mary, the sacrifice of the Mass, and on and on.

We celebrate the Reformation, because God raised up men like John the Baptist, men like Martin Luther and Martin Chemnitz and countless others who, in the face of great opposition, pointed poor sinners away from all those other things and back to Jesus, back to His Word, back to His works, His merits, His grace, and His promise of salvation by faith alone. Luther was, indeed, like that angel of whom we heard in today’s Epistle, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Since the days of the Lutheran Reformation, the Gospel has been clearly preached again in the world. But again, that doesn’t mean it’s always preached as abundantly as before. The Scriptures do not depict for us a kingdom of heaven that spreads visibly over the face of the earth, gradually taking over the planet and enveloping the world in good behavior and charitable acts, nor do they depict a large Christian Church that fills the world with pure teaching and with orthodoxy. On the contrary, pure preaching is depicted in these last days as rare, and with regard to faith, it is not depicted as a common thing, but instead Jesus asks, When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

No, the powerful preaching of the Gospel and the forceful faith that results will not be widespread as this old earth winds down. But the kingdom of heaven must remain on this earth until Christ comes again. The Word of God remains forever, as the Scriptures declare and as the Lutheran Reformers also proclaimed. There must be a Church on earth that preaches the Gospel and that hears and believes the Gospel.

As those who have been given the treasure of the Gospel and who have been given entrance into the kingdom of heaven, let us give thanks to God for His grace in giving us this gift. And let us see to that, by God’s grace, we do not take this treasure for granted, but stand upon it as Luther once stood, powerfully proclaim it, and steadfastly believe it. Amen.

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