Signs that the Day is near

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for Populus Sion – Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

Where is planet earth headed? What’s coming for our human race? There seems to be a growing uneasiness in men’s hearts about the future of our world. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking—an atheist—recently gave our planet an expiration date, more or less. Within a thousand years, he says, the earth will be uninhabitable for humans. So we’d better get to Mars and figure out how to colonize inhospitable planets! We’d better find another home, somewhere in the galaxy, because this one’s days are numbered!

A lot of people know, or sense, that something dreadful is coming. Apocalyptic visions of catastrophe and destruction, either for our race, or for our planet, or both, are commonplace. Whether it’s due to climate change, or war, an unfortunately aimed asteroid, the loss of the ozone layer, solar radiation, the degradation of earth’s magnetic field, super volcanoes, or alien invasion, the people of earth seem to suspect that something dreadful is coming on the earth.

Of course, we Christians know their suspicions are warranted. Something dreadful is coming—the Day of the Lord, when He comes for judgment, to wipe out, not just the earth, but the heavens, too. And leading up to that dreadful Day, there will be any number of signs, which the Lord Christ told us about nearly 2,000 years ago.

What should we be watching for, leading up to that dreadful Day? What are these signs? Luke’s Gospel mentions several of them, and Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, mentions others. Combined, there are nine signs that should keep us awake, focused and ready for the Day of the Lord—nine signs that sound the alarm: The end of the age is coming!

#1: There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. What does that mean? Asteroids? Sun spots? Solar and lunar eclipses? Supernovae—stars exploding? Maybe. If so, we’ve been seeing these signs for a long time. But Matthew’s Gospel puts these signs in the heavens at the end, after the other things have taken place, just as the Last Day arrives. He writes: Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. So I’m of the opinion that the heavenly signs Jesus refers to won’t happen until the very end.

#2: There will be distress of nations, with perplexity. Anguish and anxiety, stress and unrest. Not for everyone, not all the time. But enough that it’s noticeable. Have you noticed a growing amount of anguish and anxiety in the world, stress and unrest? It’s not hard to find.

#3: The sea and the waves roaring. To those signs in nature, Matthew adds earthquakes, famines and pestilences. Heard of any of those things recently?

#4: In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of wars and rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Tell me a time when that hasn’t been around! When I was growing up, several conflicts and two World Wars had already come and gone just in the 20th Century, and it was the Cold War and the constant rumor of WWIII and nuclear holocaust. Today it’s cyberwarfare, the Middle East, monetary crises, and growing tensions among the super powers.

#5 Men’s hearts fainting from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. Do you see that happening? The suicide rate just keeps rising. The global panic over global warming—or is it global cooling? or is it climate change? Over the past 40 years the terms have changed, and the end of life on earth has been predicted multiple times. It’s a wonder we’re still here! To be frank, many climate change alarmists are just hypocrites pushing an insidious agenda to cripple capitalism and to promote socialism and fascism. But many are truly alarmed. Their hearts are fainting from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. They just don’t believe what Jesus says about what’s really coming on the earth.

#6: Matthew writes that Christians will be hated, persecuted, and put to death. We saw such rabid hatred of Christians in the first few centuries after Christ. We saw it again, to a degree, at the time of the Reformation. But I would suggest that never before in the Christian era has Christianity been as widely and as openly hated as it is today. And you can think of all sorts of examples, big and small, from creation-believing students being ridiculed by their teachers, to bakers and photographers being fined, to synodical suspensions of pastors, to Christians in other parts of the world having their heads removed and their bodies burned. See the signs for what they are.

#7: Matthew mentions the great dissemination of false doctrine and false prophets, many Christians falling away from the faith and many being deceived. There have always been plenty of false teachings and idols in the world. But this false doctrine is a sign within the external Christian Church. It’s true, some churches split over non-doctrinal reasons. But the vast majority of Christian confessions or denominations around the world exist because of differences in doctrine. And any doctrine that is different than that which was passed down to us from the Prophets and Apostles, working under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is false and even demonic. The very existence of so many different churches is a sign that Christ is coming soon.

#8: Jesus says that lawlessness will abound, and because of it, the love of most will grow cold. We see such things happening. We see the lawless side, for example, when people target and kill police officers and loot and burn down businesses. We also see love growing cold as people react to such lawlessness with hatred and rage of their own.

And finally, #9, the one sign of Christ’s coming that’s pure and pleasant and sweet: Jesus says, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Well, look at that! The Gospel of Christ is still being preached. It has reached into all the world, and it will continue to be preached until the end of the world, no matter how much the devil and the world try to snuff it out.

All the signs are there: this world is coming to a close. The leaves on the fig tree have sprouted. Summer is almost here. None of the signs that we see taking place should give us reason either to fear, or to complain, or to indulge in self-pity—or worse, in revenge. None of it. None of the signs that we see taking place around us should cause us to panic or to try to reverse the course of the world or to save the planet. The planet is unsalvageable. Our race is unsalvageable, un-savable—

Except for the one and only salvation that God Himself has provided: that all men should repent, believe in Christ crucified, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, now, before it’s too late, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. And for those who have been baptized, God continues to provide for our salvation with daily forgiveness of sins in His Church, with the preaching and teaching of His Word, with the Holy Supper that gives us the body and blood of Jesus to keep renewing us in faith, in hope, and in love all the way up to the day of His coming.

But what can happen? Men can reject the Word of Christ, even those who were once counted among His people. We have a vivid reminder of that held before our eyes: Jesus says, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.

To what generation was He referring? Clearly many generations of men have come and gone since then without the end having come. For the most part, the phrase “this generation” in the Gospels refers to the unbelieving Jews, the physical descendants of Israel who were once the Church of God, but then stopped being the Church of God when they refused to believe that Jesus was God’s Son and their promised Messiah, when they refused to repent and look to Him for salvation. Many of them have been converted to Christianity, but many more remain unconverted and hardened in their unbelief, and you can expect them to remain in that state until the end of the world, as a tragic warning for Christians of what happens when you’re not ready for Christ’s coming.

Heaven and earth will pass away, Jesus says. Sorry, Stephen Hawking, Mars and the rest of the galaxy will offer no shelter from that day. It’s not only the earth that will be destroyed. Heaven and earth will pass away. But My words will by no means pass away. Isn’t that the reason to keep hearing and learning the Word of Christ? His words will outlast even the earth itself. His promises will never fall. His truth will never change or become obsolete.

In that Word, Jesus pleads urgently with His dear people, But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Carousing can include partying, becoming obsessed with sports, entertainment, obsessed with food, obsessed with clothing and style. Drunkenness includes overindulgence in drink, in drugs, in sex. Cares of this life includes just about everything else: technology, education, career, retirement, buying Christmas presents, etc. It’s easy to become weighed down with all these things and to put the Last Day on the back burner of your heart.

So watch and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. How do you escape all these things? By being preserved in faith and in watchfulness until the end, whether that end means our death before the Last Day, or our being preserved in faith if we’re still alive on earth when the Last Day finally comes. How do you stand before the Son of Man? By faith in Him who died for us and rose again. That’s all. Faith in Him now will make us worthy to stand before Him then. And for those who believe in Christ Jesus, there is nothing to fear or dread on the Day of His coming. Instead, Jesus says, When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. Christ, our Redeemer, has already paid for our sins and reconciled us with God through faith and made us children of God through Holy Baptism. Only the final redemption awaits, when this planet is destroyed and the rest of the human race is cast out into eternal torment. For those who are found believing in Christ at His coming, there will be no punishment and no condemnation. Only the redemption of our bodies, the destruction of sin and death, and the beginning of a new and glorious life in the New Jerusalem, the home of righteousness. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Nearer now than when you first believed

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for Ad Te Levavi – Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

The new Church Year begins today—and it does not begin with Christmas. The world, for its own reasons, is anxious to celebrate Christmas—or rather, its idea of Christmas, which has nothing to do with the virgin-birth of God’s own Son in human flesh, who was born to die for our sins and to make peace with God through His blood, shed on the cross. Many Christians, too, are anxious to celebrate Christmas, but many love Christmas more for secular reasons than for the Mass it’s intended to be—the gathering of the Church around the Word and Sacrament of the Word Made Flesh. I fear that many Christians will end up skipping the Mass part of Christmas entirely, even though Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. (Don’t you be among them!)

No, the Church Year begins, not with Christmas, but with Advent, an earnest season of penitence and preparation. But even so, it’s not a preparation for Christmas. It’s a preparation for the Advent—for the arrival—of King Jesus on the Last Day. It’s funny, we just went to see the movie entitled Arrival, about the arrival of…aliens. There are many such movies, of course, because human beings seem to be anticipating the arrival of someone from the heavens. They foolishly think it will be aliens from another planet who come to visit, willfully ignoring the words of Jesus that He is the One who will arrive, to bring salvation to His waiting people and destruction to His enemies.

It’s true, the King has delayed His second Advent for a long time—as He said He would. And as the years go by, people doubt His coming more and more. “Where is the promise of His coming?” So it’s all the more important that we awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

The Gospel points us to Jesus’ first coming into Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago at the beginning of Holy Week. Zechariah’s prophecy foretold it: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Hail the King, about to die as a ransom for all our sins. Hail the King, who comes lowly, to save.

That salvation has three parts to it. The first part was accomplished by the end of that Holy Week. The King saw our race corrupt with sin, oppressed by the devil, weary, confused, lonely, guilty, sick, and dying. So the King gave His life for the world. He suffered for our sins. He allowed the full weight of mankind’s disobedience to be heaped onto Himself and punished, so that we wouldn’t have to be punished.

He was humble and lowly when He first arrived in Mary’s womb, and He remained humble and lowly all the way up to the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He allowed Himself to be tempted by the devil, mistreated, mocked, rejected, or sometimes just ignored by men. But even in His lowliness, even in His humility, He was recognized by some as the King He was, as the Christ, the Son of the living God. By them He was thanked, He was praised, He was hailed with songs of Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!

The second part of the salvation that the King came to bring is the part that has been going on ever since His resurrection and His ascension into heaven: to call men out of darkness into His marvelous light; to send forth His Spirit, who comes still today to teach the world who God is, what God has done for us, and what great things God has promised to those who believe in Jesus. He comes to convict mankind of sin, to bring sinners to repentance, to lead the penitent to look to Christ, the King, for mercy and help.

But all of that is still done in lowliness, in humility. Christ still rides into His Zion, His Jerusalem, His Church, on a “lowly donkey,” that is, through the humble means of grace, through the preaching of men, through water and bread and wine. But preaching can be ignored and disbelieved, and Baptism and Holy Communion can be twisted and emptied of their saving power. The King still allows Himself to be mistreated, mocked, rejected, and ignored in His members. But at the same time, just like it was 2,000 years ago, the King is recognized by some in His lowly Word. He is still praised and thanked by His people as He comes. We still rejoice at His coming, even though our joy is subdued by the realities of living in a sinful world. We still sing with thankful hearts, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!, even though our thanksgiving is still hindered by our thankless flesh.

But the third and final part of the King’s salvation is coming soon. That second Advent is almost here. There will come a day when the King no longer comes lowly or humble. He will come in glory. He’ll come to Zion riding on a cloud. He’ll exalt His Church, even as He Himself has already been exalted, and there will be no more oppression, weakness, weariness, loneliness, guilt, or sickness, or dying. There will come a day when His believers will welcome Him into His Church with shouts of thanksgiving, unhindered by any grief or sorrow, pain or sin. The King’s first Advent on Palm Sunday is a foreshadowing of that great second Advent on the Last Day.

That’s the day Christians live for, and sometimes you need to be reminded of that. You don’t live for Thanksgiving Day, or for Christmas Day, not for a shopping day, or a birthday, or a wedding day, or for spending good days here on earth with family or friends. No, the image that the Scriptures constantly hold before the Christian’s eyes is of the crucified, risen and ascended King coming to Zion in righteousness, with rewards of grace for His people and with vengeance for His enemies.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Those words of the Apostle Paul are just as urgent today as they were when the he wrote them to the Roman Christians. There is an imminent arrival—an Advent of the King—for which we must be prepared, with repentant hearts, with prayer, with zeal to hear and to know and to learn the Word of God, and with lives of obedience to all of God’s commandments. Now, in this new Church Year, is the time to prepare. Now is the time to wake up. Now is the time to love one another. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Amen.

 

 

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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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