Sermon on the Augsburg Confession, Art. II: Original Sin

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Midweek Advent 2

Romans 2:1-16  +  Luke 1:26-35

In Article I of the Augsburg Confession, we confess who our God is—the one God who is three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the God for whom we wait during the season of Advent, and the God whom we celebrate at Christmas: The Father Most High, who, as we heard in the second lesson tonight, caused His only-begotten Son, who was God with Him from eternity, to be conceived as a  man in the womb of the virgin Mary by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit.

In Article II of the Augsburg Confession, we are presented with the “why” of Christmas—why the Father had to send His only-begotten Son into this world if mankind was to be saved, and why the Son of God had to be conceived miraculously in the womb of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Why? Because of Original Sin.

Our churches teach that since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin, called concupiscence.  Concupiscence is a disease and original vice that is truly sin. It damns and brings eternal death on those who are not born anew through Baptism and the Holy Spirit.

Since the fall of Adam. God created Adam and Eve in His own image and likeness, that is, without sin, with the fear of God, with trust in God, and without the inclination to sin called concupiscence. They were created in a state of “original righteousness,” without anything bad and with everything good.  In their hearts, they were inclined to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love their neighbor as themselves. And that was the nature that God intended to be passed down from Adam and Eve to all their children.

So when the devil tempted Eve and actually got her to distrust God and His Word and to want something that went against God’s commandment, that was a monumental change.  Her perfect fear of God and trust in God and inclination to obey His commandments cheerfully was twisted and warped into something ugly, so that God was no longer her God but her enemy. Her soul was damaged beyond repair.  And when Adam sinfully followed her lead, our entire race was plunged into sin.

All who are naturally born are born with sin. All who are naturally born.  You heard Paul make the same accusation in the first lesson this evening, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  The big sins that we see really bad people committing are the very same sins that dwell inside our nature.  Maybe we keep them concealed better; maybe we don’t let them get out.  But they’re there within our flesh.  No one fears, loves and trusts in God above all things by nature. A sinful mother and a sinful father always pass this sin down to their children. There’s no getting around it.  It’s like a genetic disease that is passed down 100% of the time, except it’s worse, because it’s a spiritual disease, and while the worst genetic disease in existence only lasts for a person’s earthly lifetime, this disease of the soul lasts forever; there is no cure for it, no remedy at all.  No one is born spiritually healthy.

No one, that is, who is “naturally born.”  And right there in that phrase lies the “why” of the virgin birth.  Why did Gabriel bring those glad tidings to Mary, that she would conceive and bear a child as a virgin—without the involvement of any man?  Because “all who are naturally born are born with sin.” But the child conceived in the virgin’s womb was not naturally born.  There was no human father to pass down his corrupt nature to his son, because this child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and therefore, conceived without the corruption and disease of original sin.  That’s essential for our salvation, because a sinner cannot save sinners.  A sinner cannot die for sinners.  A sinner has no righteousness of his own to offer sinners.  Only a righteous child, a sinless child, a spiritually healthy child could trade places with sinners so that sinners could be justified, while the Righteous Child of Mary would be condemned in their place.

The Christian doctrine of Original Sin removes all power and righteousness and goodness from human beings.  It negates any idea of human merit or worthiness before God. It rips away from everyone the ability to earn God’s favor for him or herself, or to fix him or herself by working really hard at it.  Sin is a horrible, ugly disease.  We cannot be cured of it.  Instead, we must be forgiven for it. And that can only happen if the Child of Mary pays the penalty for it, and if the Holy Spirit applies that payment to us, which He does in Holy Baptism.

Jesus is speaking of Original Sin and Holy Baptism when He says in John 3: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” That which is born of the flesh is flesh.  In other words, the child born of a sinful mother and a sinful father is sinful, like his mother and father.  That sinful flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. But then the Holy Spirit comes in Holy Baptism and washes away sin and regenerates or gives new birth to a new man, a spiritually healthy person created in the image of Christ Jesus, so that the new, healthy man lives in the Christian together with the old, diseased man.  Original Sin is not erased from the Christian’s nature.  Instead, it is forgiven.

So, you see, this article concerning Original Sin is fundamental to the Christian faith, which is also why we condemn any teaching concerning sin that diminishes the depravity that dwells in us, or that limits that depravity to only some people, or to only some age groups, or that makes sinners somehow able to contribute to their own salvation.

Our churches condemn the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, thus obscuring the glory of Christ’s merit and benefits. Pelagians argue that a person can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.

Pelagius lived in the 300’s AD and taught that Original Sin isn’t really sin.  It doesn’t condemn a person or make a person guilty of God’s wrath and punishment. It’s a minor defect in human nature that you can fix, all by yourself, if you try really, really hard.  If you work really, really hard, you can overcome this natural defect, Pelagius taught, and so be justified before God by your own strength and reason.  Others after him weren’t quite as crass.  They were called Semi-Pelagians.  They taught that Original Sin is a minor defect in human nature that you can fix, not all by yourself, but with a little help from God, so that as you use the grace God gives you, you can overcome sin and so be justified before God by your own strength and reason combined with God’s grace and help.

You see remnants of this Semi-Pelagianism in Roman Catholicism, where you hope to someday be justified before God by faith that is made complete by good works that you have to do to earn God’s favor, and don’t worry, God will infuse His grace into you so that you can overcome sin.  You see it in Baptist-type churches, too, where a sinner is said to have just enough strength in himself to reject the wrong and choose the right and to make a decision to accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

You see how all this “obscures the glory of Christ’s merit and benefits”?  If there is no Original Sin, or if Original Sin doesn’t make us worthy of God’s wrath, or if Original Sin isn’t a complete and total corruption of our nature from birth, then we are not totally lost and condemned creatures.  We can still contribute something of our own to our salvation—something, either great or small.  But if, according to Christian doctrine, man is thoroughly and totally corrupt and unable to do anything good in God’s sight and born in sin and condemned to die, then we need a Savior who will do everything to save us.  And that’s what we have in Christ Jesus.  It’s 100% His merits that earned our salvation.  It’s 100% His righteousness that covers us poor sinners.  It’s 100% His benefits that make us able to stand in God’s favor.  And all this is ours only by faith in Christ which is worked by His Holy Spirit, so that He gets all the glory.

So, in this Advent season, we ponder anew just how ugly and just how horrible our Original Sin is, not so that we despair, but so that recognize why we so desperately needed a Savior, and why our Savior had to be born of a virgin. We give thanks for the first Advent of the only Man ever to be born in the unnatural way—the One born of a virgin.  And we long for His second Advent, because it is at that time when He will finally strip away our sinful flesh, corrupt as it is with Original Sin, and allow us to live the holy, sinless lives that believers in Christ long to live.  Amen.

 

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Signs of the King’s Coming on the Clouds

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 2 – Populus Sion

Micah 4:1-7  +  Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

Last week it was the image of lowly King Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey that filled our vision. Now it’s that other image of Jesus’ Advent—the image of glorious King Jesus riding into this world on a cloud.  That first Advent of Christ marked the beginning of the day of salvation, when He came and made atonement for our sins, and we still live in that era.  This is still the day of salvation when God calls out to sinners to repent and believe in His Son.  The second Advent of Christ will mark the end of the day of salvation, so that all who are found believing in Christ at the end of this long day will join the glorious King in His glorious kingdom, while all those who do not believe in Him will go off to everlasting punishment.  The day of salvation is still here, but it’s swiftly coming to an end.

It is surely God’s will, not only that you should come into His Church through Holy Baptism, but just as importantly, that you should remain in His holy Church through a living faith that perseveres all the way up to Christ’s second Advent. And Jesus is well aware that your enemies—the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh—will do all they can to rip you away from Him before He comes.  So in the Gospel Jesus gives us signs to keep us alert and watchful, signs to remind us that, oh yeah, Jesus is coming.  This earth isn’t my real home.  My home is with Jesus in His heavenly kingdom. This life isn’t my real life.  My life is hidden with Christ, and when He appears, I too shall appear with Him in glory.  The signs are all around us.  Jesus is coming soon.

There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. Elsewhere Jesus speaks of the sun and moon not giving their light.  But He can’t mean that they just go dark, because God promised to Noah long ago that as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night shall not cease. So these signs have to be temporary things, events that come and go and that aren’t even noticed by everyone.  They include things like eclipses and comets, and falling stars and supernovas—all the heavenly events that break the routine of our daily experience of sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. The fact that many of these events can be explained scientifically doesn’t change anything.  In fact, it’s all the more awesome that God could program these signs into the very fabric of natural law way back at the beginning of creation.  It’s the Word of Jesus that reveals these things to us as the signs that they are—signs of the coming of the Son of Man.  Just as every rainbow is to remind us of God’s covenant with Noah, so let every one of these cosmic events serve as a reminder of Jesus’ imminent return.

And on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring. Again, Jesus is describing temporary events that come and go down here on the earth. Natural disasters and confusion and distress of nations.  Hurricanes and earthquakes, tsunamis and storms of every kind. These, too, are omens of His coming, and when they happen, God’s people are not to despair, but should recognize—Jesus is coming soon.

Men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Not everyone on earth will feel this fear and dread.  Peter tells us in his epistle that life will be going on as usual leading up to Christ’s return, and He will come like a thief in the night, when everyone is going on with business as usual.  But a good many will be living in fear—fear of the future, fear of what’s coming, even though they don’t actually believe Jesus’ Words, that the Son of Man is what’s coming.  Could it be an asteroid or comet that wipes out all life on earth?  Will the planet be destroyed by global warming—or global cooling—or nuclear war?  Could it be aliens that are coming?  No.  It’s the Son of Man who is coming.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.  “They will see the Son of Man coming.”  All people—from one end of the earth to the other.  There will be a gathering as the holy angels go out and gather all people together as a farmer sends out workers to gather his harvest.  Now the world scoffs at the words of Jesus.  “Where is the promise of His coming?” But on that day, their mouths will be shut in terror and awe.

But for you who repent of your sins now and believe in Christ now, that day will not be a day of fear and panic.  It’s a day to look forward to.  It’s the day when you will be rid of all the sin that clings to you, rid of all the wickedness and immorality and suffering of this world.  It’s the day when your King returns to you, not to punish you, but to redeem you from this world and bring you into His heavenly kingdom. This is the comfort for the Christian, that no matter how terrible things may appear at the moment, everything ends well for the one who believes in Christ.

Jesus used a parable of the fig tree, and all the trees as an illustration. The new leaves on the trees in spring are a sure sign that summer is coming. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Again, that’s pure comfort for the believer, who wants to be near Christ and who wants to be rid of sin and every evil.

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. “This generation” is a reference to the Jewish people, the generation of Abraham.  Many times in history it looked like the Jewish people would be wiped off the face of the earth, especially after they rejected Christ at His first Advent.  But no, Jesus says, they will remain as a witness and as a sign.  They will remain as a living testimony to the history of God’s goodness to Israel and of Israel’s stubborn rejection of God’s mercy in Christ.  They will remain as a warning for the Christian Church, lest we should take God’s grace for granted as they did and suffer the same fate they will. Another sign to take note of before Jesus comes.  Another proof that Jesus was telling the truth when He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

Then, another warning from Jesus: 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.  See, Jesus knows our hearts—that even the hearts of believers are prone to getting “weighed down” because of the sin that still lives in us.  When you’re surrounded day in and day out by an earthly life, it’s real easy to get wrapped up in your earthly life—so wrapped up that you forget, your real life is hidden in Christ.  Things like carousing—partying, “going out”—or drunkenness or any of the many cares of this life pull you down to earth, pull you away from Christ and become a snare for you, a trap.  It can be a job that takes over your life, or friends whose friendship becomes more important than God.  It can be a girlfriend or boyfriend, so that you’re more interested in developing your relationship with him or her than you are in following the word of Christ, or receiving the body and blood of Christ.

Watch, Jesus says!  Watch therefore, 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. Who will be counted worthy?  This is what God says in the last chapter of Isaiah, “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” Has the Word of God revealed your sin to you so that your spirit is poor and contrite and sorrowful over your sins? Then you are blessed.  Has the Word of Jesus caused you to tremble—that is, do you take His warnings seriously and flee to Him for refuge?  Then you are safe—safe from the punishment and condemnation that is coming on this world, safe on the day when Jesus comes in a cloud with power and great glory.  You won’t be able to stand before the Son of Man on your own merits or goodness.  You won’t be able to stand before the Son of Man and tell Him what a good life you lived.  But you will most certainly be able to stand before the Son of Man by faith in His goodness, by faith in His merits.  And the forgiveness of sins that is handed out to you now in the body and blood of Christ from this altar will still shield you from wrath on the day when He comes.  His body and blood are what make you able to stand on that day.

Jesus is coming soon.  See the signs all around you.  They point you to repentance.  They point you to faith.  They point you to watchfulness and prayer.  And they signal your final redemption.  Amen.

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Sermon on the Augsburg Confession, Art. I: Concerning God

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for midweek Advent 1

Colossians 1:12-23  +  Luke 1:1-25

As St. Luke points out at the beginning of his Gospel, the events of the life of Christ were carefully passed down by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.  Luke himself was concerned with writing down for Theophilus—and for every generation since—an orderly account…that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.  Christianity is a historical religion, not based on myths, not founded on philosophies, or on truth that’s buried somewhere under six feet of fiction.   The Christian faith is based on real facts.  Real events.  Real historical figures and a historical revelation of God through inspired words that record His real thoughts and His real actions performed for mankind’s salvation.

For example, there was really an elderly priest in Jerusalem named Zacharias, with his elderly and barren wife Elizabeth. There was an angel Gabriel, and the divine promise of a son given to this elderly couple—a son who would go before the Messiah as a forerunner, who would fulfill the real words of the real prophet Malachi to come in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.

Because ours in a religion founded on history and fact and communicated in doctrine that comes from inspired words, because doctrine is nothing more and nothing less than the teaching of Christ Jesus, because our very life and our eternal salvation comes from Christ and revolves around Christ, doctrine matters.

The doctrine—the teaching—of Christ is a unit. There is one teaching of Christ which we speak of in various points or various “articles.”  But there is only one teaching.  As Jesus commanded His apostles, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” So the Christian life is not about learning a few doctrines in a Bible information class and then being baptized and confirmed and then you’re done.  The Christian life is a life of ongoing catechesis—ongoing, lifelong instruction in the doctrine of Christ.

The doctrine of Christ has been summarized in various ways: in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.  It’s been summarized more extensively in Luther’s Small Catechism.  And it has been passed down to us in a most exquisite and comprehensive summary form in the Augsburg Confession of 1530.  This is the foundational confession, not only of the Lutheran Church, but of the catholic, Christian Church. And the real beauty of the Augsburg Confession is that there’s nothing new about it.  There was nothing new about it in 1530.  It simply outlined the doctrine of Christ as the Christian or catholic Church had been confessing it for about 1500 years.  It is still our confession as a congregation and it remains the confession of the Christian Church, so much so that any doctrine that is not in line with the Augsburg Confession cannot be called Christian at all, in any real or historical sense.

So. For the next 52 weeks we will be considering the 28 articles of the Augsburg Confession in our midweek services.  During Advent and Lent we will meet every Wednesday, and in the other seasons of the Church Year, we’ll meet every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month to continue our brief study of each article—as many of you and whoever else wishes to embark on this doctrinal journey.

Now, in this penitential season of Advent when we seek to walk in repentance and in preparation for the coming of Christ, the first thing for us to know and understand is what the first Article of the Augsburg Confession discusses: What is God like? Who is the God in whom we believe and for whom we are waiting? What has the Christian/catholic Church always believed and taught about Him?

Our churches teach with common consent that the decree of the Council of Nicaea about the unity of the divine essence and the three persons is true. It is to be believed without any doubt. God is one divine essence who is eternal, without a body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. He is the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible

In full accord with the ancient, historic, catholic Church throughout the world, we teach that God is one divine essence.  Rome teaches the same thing.  One divine Being who is eternal—without beginning or end. Without a body—God is a spiritual Being, not a physical flesh and bones Being.  Without parts.  Human beings have parts, even a right brain and a left brain that have different functions.  You can’t divide God up into parts.  He’s infinitely good and powerful and wise, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible, as we heard in the first lesson this evening from Colossians 1.  And this is important.  All things can be placed in two basic categories.  There’s God.  And there’s God’s creation—everything in the universe that God made and still preserves.  There are many, many parts to the creation.  But there is only one God.

Yet there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are of the same essence and power. Our churches use the term person as the Fathers have used it. We use it to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself.

Our one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  None comes before or after the other. The Father is not the Son.  The Son is not the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not the Father.  But the Father is God. The Son is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. Yet they are not three gods, but one God.

Simple, right? Actually, it is.  Simple enough, at least, for a child to grasp it.  And it’s important to get this right, because if you worship the wrong God—some God who isn’t Father, Son and Holy Spirit—then you’re an idol-worshiper and your faith is in vain.

That’s why our Lutheran Fathers were also quick to point out and condemn some of the wrong teachings about God that the Church had to deal with over the centuries.

Our churches condemn all heresies that arose against this article, such as the Manichaeans, who assumed that there are two “principles,” one Good and the other Evil. They also condemn the Valentinians, Arians, Eunomians, Muslims, and all heresies such as these. Our churches also condemn the Samosatenes, old and new, who contend that God is but one person. Through sophistry they impiously argue that the Word and the Holy Spirit are not distinct persons. They say that Word signifies a spoken word, and Spirit signifies motion created in things.

We won’t look at each of these false teachers individually tonight.  One thing they all had in common: They all taught that Jesus is not true God.  They denied the article concerning the Holy Trinity.

We might add to the list the big-name Trinity deniers of our day.  The Muslims are still with us. There are also the Mormons who teach that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three gods who do not share the same essence, and that both Father and Son have physical bodies.  Actually, they teach that all people and even Lucifer himself were begotten of the Heavenly Father. Or there are the Jehovah’s Witnesses who teach that only the Father is really God (Jehovah), while Jesus, as the first creation of God, became sort of a lesser god like the Arians taught, and the Holy Spirit is not a person at all, but a power or a force, like the Samosatenes taught.

Again, why is it so important to get all of this right?  Because you only have redemption through the blood of Christ if Christ’s blood has the value of God’s blood.  St. Paul said to the Colossians about Christ: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  He was not, like Adam and Eve, “made in the image of God.”  Paul says He “is” the image of God, and that it pleased the Father that in Christ all the fullness should dwell.  All the fullness of who God is.  The Bible says that there is only one Mediator between God and man—the Man Christ Jesus.  You only have a valid Mediator between God and man if Jesus Christ is both God and man.

You see, then, the connection to Advent? What child is this whose birth we await with eager anticipation?  It isn’t an angel who would be born in Bethlehem, or the first creature that God created long ago.  It is the very Son of God who is in the Father’s bosom from eternity.

The Apostle Paul both comforts and warns us in the First Lesson that you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.  The Gospel which we have heard is that simple Gospel of who God is and what He has done to save us.  God is the Father who loved our fallen race and ordained in eternity that He would send His eternal Son to be born as one of us, to live and die for us, and to save us from our sins through faith in His name.  And that the Holy Spirit would work faith in our hearts through the means of grace and so bring us into fellowship with the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To continue grounded and steadfast and unmoved in this faith, to wait for Christ rightly, we must know who it is we’re waiting for; we must be able to distinguish Him from all the false gods men have set up in their hearts. We must know and believe in the one true God, the very one whom we confess as our God in the first article of the Augsburg Confession. Amen.

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Christ’s Advent in humility paves the way for His Advent in Glory

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Ad Te Levavi – Advent 1

Jeremiah 33:14-18  +  Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

Advent means coming, arrival. And God must surely come.  As we’ll hear next week in our Gospel, Christ must come for judgment, because this world stands judged for all of its evil.  Christ must come in glory, because He is the Lord, the King of glory.  He has a Church to come back and rescue from this decaying world, and He has promised, “Behold, I am coming soon!”

But before His coming for judgment, before His Advent in glory, the King had to come in humility. The King had to come with salvation so that there could be a Church—a Zion—waiting for Him when He comes again.  The two Advents of our King are painted for us with these two images: King Jesus riding into Jerusalem humbly, on a donkey; and King Jesus riding again into this world gloriously, on a cloud.

Today we take just a few moments to view the first image again.  Christ’s Advent in humility paves the way for His Advent in glory.

There He is with His disciples on the Mt. of Olives, just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem’s eastern gate. His earthly ministry is nearing completion. Jesus is ready to face His greatest humiliation—rejection by Jerusalem and death on a cross.  It’s Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.

But first, He needs to send Jerusalem a message, a heartfelt and urgent message.  “Behold, your King is coming to you.”  But Jesus is too lowly, too humble to make such a proclamation about Himself.  He lets the prophet Zechariah do it for Him. Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ How should Jerusalem recognize Jesus as her King?  By following the pointing finger of the prophet Zechariah.  There He is!  Coming to you, riding to you on a donkey.

So Jesus needed a donkey, and just a tiny bit of His true glory shines through as He again reveals His divine attribute of omniscience to His disciples—that He knows all things, including where the donkey would be tied up.  And He reveals just a bit of His divine attribute of omnipotence, too—His power over all things, because Jesus didn’t just know how things would go with getting the donkey, and that the owner would be OK with it.  He made it so.  And He had no trouble mounting this donkey that had never been ridden before.  It’s as if He were the donkey’s true master, which, of course, He was.

Why this humble Advent?  Because no one can see the face of God and live.  To see God in His glory, to see Him in His majesty—every sinner has to die.  God’s wrath against sin and rebellion are too great.  The guilt in every man’s conscience would rise up like a flood and drown everyone in despair.  People get away with denying their sins and convincing themselves everything will be just fine, regardless of their wickedness, as long as God’s face remains hidden.  But there can be no living in denial for the sinner who is confronted with the majesty of the Righteous God.

But in Christ, God reveals that He doesn’t wish to destroy us.  He wishes to save us from our sins.  He wishes to forgive us and rescue us out of Satan’s kingdom, to redeem us from sin, death and the devil.  So He hides His glory in human flesh—humble flesh.  He rides on a donkey so that everyone in Jerusalem could know from the words of the Prophet, this is your King!  This is Savior!  Behold, your God!

This is the Branch about whom the prophet Jeremiah spoke: In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Since you have no righteousness of your own to offer God, no goodness to shield you from His wrath, no uprightness to plead in His divine courtroom of justice, God Himself rode into Jerusalem in human flesh—human, because human beings are the sinful ones, so it took God in human flesh to become the Righteousness that avails before God for mankind.

The first Advent of Christ in humility was to earn for us the righteousness that allows sinners to stand before God—the righteousness of faith in Christ. The first Advent of Christ in humility was for the Son of God to die a criminal’s death so that the criminals—you and I—might go free.

Here He comes, riding down from the Mt. of Olives, crossing the Kidron valley on the winding path up to Jerusalem’s gate.  He lets the prophets do all the talking and explaining.  He lets the prophets call the people to repentance and faith in this humble King.  He just rides on in silence, in righteousness, in humility.

It won’t always be this way.  The Jews were waiting for this Advent in humility.  We are not.  We are waiting for Christ’s Advent in glory.  But we will only be prepared for that Advent if we receive Christ in His first Advent, if we receive Him now as our crucified and risen Savior who rode humbly into Jerusalem to save His people from their sins.

And notice, He wants to consider all people “His people.”  His invitation to believe in Him and be saved is for everyone.  Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you! He wants, not the righteous people in Zion to be saved by Him.  No, He comes—the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS—to be the righteousness of everyone, so that every sinner can become a citizen of Zion and call Him King.  He comes to shed His blood for everyone. He comes in humility for everyone, to call all men to repentance now, in humility, before the time is up and He comes in glory with a rod of iron to dash every sinner to pieces.

As long as Christ delays His Second Advent, it’s still the day of salvation.  It’s still the time of Christ’s Advent in humility. God is still willing to deal with us in grace, in humility, in forgiveness.  Repent now, call on Him now, while He may still be found.  Because at His Second Advent, it will be too late to enter His kingdom.  Only those who enter His kingdom now, by faith, will have a part in His glorious kingdom.

What are we left with between these two Advents? We’re left with two things.  First, we’re left with the Means of Grace.  It’s still the time of Christ’s Advent in humility. He still doesn’t come to us with bright lights and outward signs, but with the spiritual light of His Word and with the humble signs of water, bread and wine.  For now, we’re left with these things—the Gospel in Word and Sacrament—as our connection to our King.  And we don’t look for Him to come in glory until that day when He actually comes in glory.

The second thing we’re left with is our Hosanna—Zion’s perpetual song of praise.  Just as the crowds welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem at His First Advent, so we, too, continue to receive our now-humble King with rejoicing.  Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!  We sing, we praise, we believe in Him and look to Him for salvation and help in all our needs until He comes in His Second Advent.  We hear and learn His Word, and we invite others to hear and learn it, too, so that they, too, can learn to sing Hosanna.

Then, when Christ comes in glory, we who have learned to know Him in His first Advent in humility will be ready to receive Him with the same song, with the same Hosanna, at His Advent in glory.  The Advent in humility paves the Way for the Advent in Glory.  So sing, Zion!  You who have believed in this King in His humility will see Him in His glory, and you will not die or be destroyed when you see Him.  Because He is your King.  He has called you by name in baptismal waters.  He feeds you now with Himself through bread and wine.  See your King riding into Jerusalem lowly and humble, bringing salvation to you.  With that image burned into your heart, you will be ready to receive Him in glory. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Amen.

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Thankful for everything through Christ

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Thanksgiving

Habakkuk 3:17-19  +  2 Corinthians 9:6-15  +  Philippians 4:6-13

Thanksgiving, as you know, is an American holiday.  It isn’t necessarily a Christian holiday.  People across the country will be giving thanks tomorrow to various false gods and idols, and so it will be, for many people, just one more day of idolatry whitewashed with an appearance of godliness but without its power.  Some won’t be giving thanks to anyone tomorrow.  They’ll be too busy indulging in pagan revelry and gluttony.  Still others will spend Thanksgiving lonely and without a feast on their table, and they won’t recognize anything in their life for which to give thanks.

But Christians don’t need a government-sponsored national holiday to remember to stop and give thanks to God.  Christians formally celebrate Thanksgiving every Sunday in that great Thanksgiving Meal that is called the Sacrament of the Altar, or the Eucharist (“Thanksgiving”), where we receive the greatest blessing heaven has to offer: the very body and blood of the Son of God, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. The whole Christian life is one of thanksgiving to the true God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because the whole Christian life is a life of faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior, who gave Himself for us on the cross, satisfied God’s wrath for us and rose from the dead.  And where there is faith in Jesus Christ, there is always thanksgiving, because, no matter how many blessings you can count in your life, no matter how few, you have Christ, and with Christ, you have the Father’s love and every spiritual blessing that exists.  With Christ, you have the sure hope of eternal life, resurrection from the dead and an eternal inheritance kept in heaven for you which can never perish, spoil or fade.  With Christ, you have the favor and love of God the Father; you have the living Lord Jesus reigning over all things for the benefit of the Church which is His body; you have the gift of the Holy Spirit sanctifying you and preserving you in the true faith. On top of all that, you have God’s promise to provide you with daily bread for your body here on earth, too.

Now, that doesn’t mean you’ll be rich with earthly wealth, or that you’ll have a pleasant, easy life on earth. Some Christians have plenty and the pantry is full and the body is healthy.  Other Christians have little and the cupboard is bare and the body, diseased.  Who has more to be thankful for?

Listen again to Habakkuk: Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Who has more to be thankful for?  Every Christian has the same thing to be thankful for: God’s love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Jesus’ mercy extends to rich and poor alike, and whether you have much or little, His blood shed for you is worth the same.  All those who are baptized into Him have the same status before God—the status of Jesus, the status of the beloved Son of God.

In His fatherly, divine goodness, God provides for us, sometimes in great abundance that no one can measure, sometimes with just enough to get by. As Paul taught the Corinthians, that’s something to give thanks for, in either case.  He calls it an indescribable gift.  Why?  Because then those who have been given more have something to share with those who have been given less.  And those who have been given less in food or money often have more of something else of their own to share, as was the case in Jerusalem.  The Corinthians had worldly prosperity while the Jews in Jerusalem were suffering from famine.  But the Jews in Jerusalem had a gift of their own to give to the Gentiles in Corinth—the Gospel itself, the message of Christ.  It was the Jews who sent the Apostle Paul to the Greeks in the first place to give them the blessing of salvation through faith in Christ.  Now it was the Gentile Christians’ turn to take of their earthly wealth and share it with their needy brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.  And all of this giving back and forth resulted in praise to God and glory to Christ.

We have so much to be thankful for all the time.  What, you don’t feel very thankful all the time? Of course you don’t! You drag around with you 24/7 a miserable, sinful flesh that’s never content, that feels entitled to comfort, pleasure and plenty.  You live in a world that seeks to con you every day into thinking you need something else, you need to buy it, you need to win it, you need to receive it as an entitlement. And there is also a devil who from the very beginning at the Garden of Eden has always worked to convince human beings that GOD IS NOT GOOD, and His providence is not enough. Of course you don’t feel thankful all the time.  You’re a wretched sinner.

But Christ didn’t come to save happy, godly, thankful people.  He came to save sinners who have been taking God’s providence for granted since birth, for sinners who are far better at complaining about the life they’ve been given than they are at giving thanks for it.  Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am chief, said the Apostle Paul.

Which is the very thing that taught the Apostle Paul—and that teaches us—to be content in any situation. I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

All things through Christ who strengthens me.  You have no strength to trust in God, to be thankful, or to do anything else to please God.  But you poor sinners have been given Christ.  And you know that.  And you are thankful to God for that.  I don’t have to tell you to “Be thankful!”

But let me tell you how to be thankful. You going through a Thanksgiving ritual once a year is not how God wants to be thanked.  You relying on Christ Jesus for mercy and grace and every good thing…you receiving His gifts with joy, you sharing your good things with your neighbor in need—that is how God wants to be thanked. That is what will make tonight and tomorrow and every Sunday, and every day in between, a true Thanksgiving to the one true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a true Thanksgiving that only Christians can render. Amen.

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