The midnight cry is coming! Prepare, ye virgins wise!

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Last Sunday of the Church Year

Matthew 25:1-13  +  Isaiah 65:17-25  +  1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

The night is surely flying.  The Bridegroom is on his way, and the ten virgins are waiting.  But are they watching?  Are they prepared for his coming? 

To understand today’s Gospel – Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins – it helps to know a little bit about Jewish wedding customs. The marriage was arranged; a man and a woman were pledged to be married to each other, and from that time on, they were legally married.  No wedding ceremony was necessary.  But they didn’t start living together right away, not until the man could prepare a new home for the couple to live in, and usually, a marriage banquet in their new home to celebrate their marriage with all their friends.  When all was ready, a date was set. The bridegroom would get all dressed up at his former home and leave with his friends to go pick up his bride at her former home.  She and her unmarried friends (and, therefore, virgins) would go out to meet him, and together, they would walk in a joyful wedding procession to their new home, to begin the marriage feast and their new life together as husband and wife.

And so the picture is painted for us: Jesus is the Bridegroom, who loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  The Church is his bride, to whom he is already married, a marriage sealed in Holy Baptism, but they don’t live together in their new home yet.  The ten virgins are the members of the Church, Christians in name, although not all of them remain Christians in faith at the coming of the Bridegroom.  The lamps they carry are the burning light of faith, that which makes them ready so that they can enter the marriage banquet with the heavenly Bridegroom.  And the oil for their lamps is that which feeds the fire and keeps it burning: the Word of God, the means of grace, the Gospel in Word in Sacrament.  To take this oil along is to live in daily contrition and repentance, to be served regularly through the ministry of the Word, to stay close to the means of grace.

All virgins in the parable begin with faith.  They know that the Bridegroom is coming and are eager to meet him.  They know that night is approaching, so they all take their lamps and go out to wait for him in the dark streets of this world so that, when he arrives, they can meet him and then accompany him to the new heavens and the new earth.  They all know that he’s coming, but no one knows at what time.

So five of the ten, thinking ahead, take extra oil along just in case his coming is delayed, and it is.  These five represent the Christians who know that the Christian life may not be glamorous and spectacular, or even exciting.  The Bridegroom may very well delay until late in the night.  So the Christian life isn’t about living on some spiritual high every day.  The Christian life is largely about waiting, the slow, steady burn of faith, faith that may need to last for 70 or 80 or 90 years or more. And if you know that, then wisdom dictates that your life will be firmly grounded in that which keeps the fire of faith burning.  Your life will be centered around the font, the pulpit and the table.  That doesn’t mean you spend 24/7 in the church building.  But it does mean that your life will revolve around daily contrition and repentance, drowning the Old Adam who was first drowned at your baptism, and rising again each day to lead a new and holy life.  Your life will revolve around hearing the Gospel week in and week out, learning God’s Word, receiving the absolution from the ministers of the Word and receiving the Sacrament, and then passing all of it on to your children and to the children of others, so that they, too, may be ready for a life of waiting and watching.  These five virgins are far from perfect.  But they are very wise.

The other five are foolish.  They take no extra oil along – just what they have in their lamps at the moment. They figure the Bridegroom will come right away.  That’ll be exciting!  That’ll be glorious!  Surely they have enough oil to last just a little while.  They’ve been baptized.  They know the basics of the Bible.  They even come to church sometimes.  That’ll be enough.  The Bridegroom will be along any moment now.  Why waste so much time hearing the same old message, Law and Gospel, Law and Gospel, Holy Communion every week?  I know the Gospel already!  That’ll be enough.

But, you see, the Gospel is more than information.  The Gospel is absolution, and unless you’ve stopped sinning, you never stop needing a ready supply of that.  The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. It’s the food and the fuel of faith.  It’s the voice of the Bridegroom to his bride off in the distance, “I’m coming!  Wait for me!”

But the Bridegroom’s coming is delayed.  Jesus told his disciples that it would be.  And so all ten virgins become drowsy and fall asleep. Now, this isn’t a sinful sleep, not for the wise virgins. This is the peaceful sleep that can come for those who have brought along plenty of oil.  This is the sleep that a believer can fall into each and every night, without worrying or fear.  This is the sleep of being able to go about your business during the week, and work hard in your vocation, and even take time out for fun, because you’re prepared for the Bridegroom’s coming. You’ve been tending to your faith all along with the means God has given you.  For some, this is even the sleep of death – a peaceful death that left the lamp of faith burning bright, even when the body grew weary and died.  No problem!  When the Bridegroom comes and his voice calls out, those sleepers will be awakened and their lamp, filled with oil, will be right where they left it.

But for the foolish virgins, their sleep is their doom, because, although they’re waiting for the Bridegroom, they’re waiting unprepared.  They’ve been careless about their faith and the use of the means of grace.  And they don’t even realize it.  Because they’re asleep. 

The midnight cry comes.  “The Bridegroom is here!  Come out to meet him!”  The virgins awake.  They trim their lamps.  And the five foolish virgins are horrified.  Their oil has been used up.  They scramble to find more, but no amount of scrambling at the resurrection will succeed in relighting the smoldering wick of their faith.  They ask the wise virgins to share some of their oil, but it’s no use.  It’s too late.  The wise virgins can’t help them, nor can they get to the dealers in time.  Their fate is sealed when the cry comes at midnight.

Oh, the joy of the wise virgins who are ready when the midnight cry comes.  They go out to meet the Bridegroom and join the wedding procession to the newly prepared home.  They enter with the Bridegroom and join in the joyful celebration that will never end.  Their waiting paid off.  Their wisdom paid off, the very wisdom that Jesus is teaching you right here, right now, pouring out his Holy Spirit in this very assembly to enlighten hearts and minds.  The midnight cry is coming! Prepare, ye virgins wise!

But not all Christians will learn this wisdom from Jesus.  For the five foolish virgins, it’s too late.  They run here and there to try to find oil for their lamps, but while they’re gone, the wedding procession passes them by.  They try to get into the wedding banquet, but the doors are shut, never to be opened again.  They call in to the Bridegroom, “Lord, Lord, open to us!”  But he answers, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”  So, “Watch!” Jesus says.  For you do not know the day or the hour.

Now, five and five is not meant to tell us the percentage of Christians who will and will not be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom, but it’s striking, isn’t it?, that Jesus sure gives us the impression that it will be an awfully big percentage of Christians who will be unprepared to meet the Bridegroom when he comes. 

Five and five?  Look around you.  Will half of the people you’re looking at right now meet that day unprepared?  Will you?

As we close out this Church Year, I want you to ask yourself:  Do you know Jesus better now than you did at the beginning of the year?  Are you better acquainted with the Bible stories that teach you about your God?  Do you pray more often or less?  Are you more humble in your interactions with others or are you more self-interested?  More compassionate or more bitter? “Watch,” Jesus pleads with his disciples.  “You don’t know the day or the hour.”

When the midnight cry sounds and the Bridegroom comes, the fate of those who are unprepared and impenitent will be sealed forever.  When the midnight cry sounds, they will try to muster up their faith from the depths of their souls and bring it back out of their memory banks. They will try to rekindle the fire of faith.  But they won’t be able to do it.  Because faith doesn’t come from inside of you.  It’s a gift of God that comes from outside you, through the ministry of Word and Sacrament.  And when the midnight cry sounds, then the ministry ends.  Then the pastor cannot absolve you any longer of your sins, nor can he administer the Lord’s body and blood to you any longer or preach the Gospel of forgiveness to you ever again.  You will have slept through the ministry that God placed in your midst, and you will truly know how foolish you were when you try to get into the wedding feast and the Bridegroom looks out at you from the inside and says, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

But the midnight cry has not yet come.  Some of you are already wisely prepared and still preparing.  Some surely are not.  There still is time to become wise, time to repent, time to humble yourself, time to stop making excuses for following your sinful desires and for not following the commandments of God.  There still is time to seek reconciliation with your fellow believers.  There still is time to purchase oil for your lamps – and it’s free. There is no cost.  It’s the Holy Spirit, working in the means of grace.  It’s the Holy Spirit who brings Jesus to you with his forgiveness and his life.

When the midnight cry comes, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens.  When the midnight cry comes and the Bridegroom finally appears, then life will truly begin.  The new home is almost ready.  The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. The midnight cry is coming!  Prepare, ye virgins wise!  Amen.

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Shocking revelations at the Final Judgment

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Second to Last Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 25:31-46  +  Daniel 7:9-14  +  2 Peter 3:3-14

For all intents and purposes, it looks like this world is spinning out of control.  It looks like wickedness has won the day and like righteousness has lost, like the unbelievers are being rewarded for their wickedness, while the saints are being punished for their righteousness.  It looks like Jesus has forgotten his promise to return, his promise to come to the help of his servants, his promise to judge the earth.  Does it look like that to you?  It’s supposed to.  God has told you ahead of time that it would look this way.  Never forget that.

But just as Peter prophesied, just as the Prophet Daniel prophesied, just as Jesus himself prophesied, the Day will come when the Son of Man will come in glory with all his angels and sit on his glorious throne.  And there will be shocking revelations at the final judgment.

Before him will be gathered all the nations. And here is where shock and horror will truly overtake the scoffers, where everyone who did not know the Father of Jesus and worship Him through the Lord Jesus Christ will finally know what a terrifying thing it is to fall into the hands of the Living God.  Here’s where the spotlight goes out and reaches into the darkest corners of the night where people thought they were safe – safe to do the evil things they want to do, safe to worship whichever god or gods they wanted, safe to believe whatever they wanted, safe to simply not think about God at all. Everyone appears before the glorious throne of King Jesus – those who loved him and those who hated him and those who were indifferent toward him.

But see, this is not a trial.  There will be no plaintiff and no defendant, no arguments in favor of or against, no witnesses, no lawyers.  This Judge knows all.  He won’t be lining people up to see where they belong – on the right or on the left.  He won’t be giving people an opportunity to explain themselves, or to argue with him why they really should be among the saved. No, he already has all the facts entered into evidence; he already knows those who are His. And the moment he comes, as his very first act, he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. The verdicts for all people will have already been entered, the sentences already determined.

What will be the basis for those verdicts and when are they entered?  Jesus doesn’t tell us here, but he tells us elsewhere.

He expects that we’ll remember what he said to Nicodemus in John 3, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”  Jesus expects that we’ll hear and believe the Apostle Paul’s words to the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Faith in Christ – faith alone! – places us among the sheep at the Final Judgment. So why does Jesus speak not a word about faith here, but only of the lack of works of mercy on the part of unbelievers? Why speak only of the works of mercy performed by believers for fellow believers?  Because while Jesus can see faith, he shows the rest of us the fruits of faith.  As Jesus says elsewhere, “A tree is known by its fruit.”  Is this a shocking revelation to you?

It will be to the unbelieving world, because none of the good deeds people relied on will be remembered at the Final Judgment.  Everything that doesn’t come from faith is sin in God’s eyes.  What is the reaction of the goats after Jesus reads his list of accusations against them?  “What do you mean we didn’t feed you, clothe you, visit you, care for you?  When did we not serve you?  We didn’t even see you!”  They’re shocked when all that is remembered about them is all the good they didn’t do, how they didn’t love Jesus or his little brothers, the saints. “Whatever you didn’t do for the least of these brothers of mine, you didn’t do for me.”

And yes, there is shock and terror here also for the hypocritical Christians throughout the ages, for those who once tasted the grace of Jesus and then spit it back out.  Because what will they say on that day?  I didn’t know?  “Jesus, I didn’t know you wanted me caring for my fellow Christians. I thought you would be happy that I was in church once in awhile, that I took the mandatory twice a year communion to keep the pastor off my back.  I thought you were fine with it, Jesus, if I spoke crudely and rudely, if I didn’t visit my fellow members when they needed a friend or pray for them or feed them or clothe them or love them.  I thought all you wanted was for me to belong to a church, and that it didn’t matter if I actually listened to my pastor or not, or treated him and my fellow members with love and respect and kindness.  Isn’t it enough that I ‘believed’ in you, Jesus?”

“Oh,” Jesus will reply, “is that what you call ‘believing in me’? You see, I was watching.  Yes, I saw the faith you once had, the forgiveness of sins I once gave to you, the grace that I lavished on you.  I was there to hold you, to comfort you and to strengthen your faith and to sustain it against all temptation and attack.  I offered my body and blood on the cross, and then I offered it to you week in and week out in the Sacrament.  But then I watched you become more interested in other things.  I sent my servants to you, calling out to you through them, pleading with you to remain in me, then to return to me, and you didn’t listen.  I watched your faith die.  And even though you hid your dead faith from the rest of my children, I looked on as you turned into a worse reprobate than you were before, worse than many unbelievers in this world who take care of their own and show more mercy to their fellow unbelievers than you cared to show to my holy people.  That was me you turned away from.  That was me you ignored.  It was me you didn’t care about.  It was me you were too busy to help.”

See the final judgment, swift and severe.  Eternal punishment, punishment that was not originally prepared for human beings, but for the devil and his angels, but punishment that the wicked have fully earned for themselves.

This parable is a call to repentance before it’s too late.  But more than that.  There is great comfort in this prophetic parable of Jesus, great comfort and relief for those who cling to Jesus in faith.

Because what is the reaction of the sheep after Jesus reads the long list of works of mercy and love that they did for him in this life? It’s a shocking revelation to them!  “What do you mean we served you in all these ways, Jesus?  When did we do all these good works you’re giving us credit for?”

And isn’t that the case for believers in Jesus?  They do works of mercy and love, especially for fellow believers, and yet they are shocked when given credit for it, because they didn’t do these things for credit.  They didn’t even let their right hand know what their left hand was doing most of the time.  They weren’t focused on their works. On the contrary, the sheep are fully aware that they deserve God’s wrath and condemnation at the Final Judgment.  But long before the Day of Judgment, the sheep have heard their Shepherd’s voice calling out to them, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”  The sheep trust in their Shepherd who loved them and gave himself for them.  They know him.  They want to be where their Shepherd is.

They want to be like their Shepherd, but the sheep see themselves in a different light, as those who don’t do the good they want to do, but no, the evil they don’t want to do, this they keep on doing.  Even their best works are tainted by sin. But none of that evil is mentioned by the King at the Final Judgment. The sheep are shocked that Jesus would pass by all their sins and focus only on the works of mercy they did that were relatively few and far between compared with Jesus’ own works of mercy and his life of perfect, self-less love.

But then, that’s why the sheep are able to stand in the judgment – because Jesus’ life of perfect obedience, his life of mercy and love covers their sins.  And even though it was Jesus working through them to do all the deeds of love and mercy they did, he still praises them for it.  Isn’t that grace upon grace?  What a shocking revelation!

So a visit to the home or the nursing home of a fellow Christian who needs care or friendship, cleaning up after others here at church or attending or helping to prepare a funeral service, every kind word spoken, every patient ear lent, every morsel of food given or prepared, every bit of help given to the little children, from welcoming them at the baptismal font to assisting in their Christian training and upbringing – all the love and mercy that God’s people show to one another – it does not go unnoticed by Jesus.  Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

This is what it is to live, not under law, but under grace.  This is the freedom of God’s people, the freedom to serve and to love without fear and without compulsion as we wait for the Day of Judgment to arrive. And when it does, when Jesus comes, he will give to you and to me and to all who have longed for his appearing everything we have hoped for and more. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  Heaven itself and our eternal reward in the presence of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – that will be the most shocking – and wonderful! – revelation of all.  Amen.

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Times of tribulation for the elect

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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

Matthew 24:15-28  +  Exodus 32:1-20  +  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Church Year ends in two weeks and the new Church Year begins in three.  As we approach the end of the Church Year the focus of the Gospel turns toward the end of this world and the Second Coming of Christ.  Many events in Bible history prefigured the end times: The Great Flood. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The First Coming of Christ, his humble life, his bearing of the cross, his judgment, his death and his resurrection prefigure the humble life of his Church under the cross and the resurrection of all the dead on the Last Day.  All these are real events in Bible history, real life events used in the Holy Scriptures to picture for us what the end of days will be like.  And those are just a few.

Jesus picks up on one of those events in today’s Gospel.  Last week we were given a peek at the saints in heaven, the elect people of God, chosen by him in eternity to be saved by faith in the redemption that Christ Jesus has accomplished.  We saw these elect souls coming out of the great tribulation. We saw the rest and the peace that is theirs in the presence of the Lamb.  We were comforted for them. But today we’re jolted back to earth, to the trials of the Church leading up to that day when Christ returns, to the reality that the elect children of God have to face in this world, especially as the time of Christ’s second coming gets closer and closer.  In our Gospel, Jesus turns our attention back to the great tribulation, and comforts us as we face Times of tribulation for the elect.

Jesus points back to a prophecy of the prophet Daniel who prophesied in his book about “the abomination that causes desolation.”  An abomination – something that God hates.  It causes desolation – it causes people to desert the worship of God.

We saw an example of an abomination that causes desolation in the Old Testament Lesson today, when the Israelites set up in their midst an idol in the form of a golden calf.  And as you heard, they called it the LORD – Yahweh.  They tried to worship the LORD in a way that the LORD had forbidden.  That’s an abomination to God and it caused desolation in the Israelite community, including the death of 3,000 people that day.

Now Daniel, in his prophecy, said that an abomination would be set up right in the temple of God.  And it was, about 400 years after Daniel lived, about 167 years before Jesus was born.  The Greeks had already conquered the land of Israel, but in about 167 BC the Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes came to Jerusalem and set up a pagan altar in God’s Temple and sacrificed a pig on it – an unclean animal according to God’s Law – in defiance of the God of Israel.  It was idolatry taking place right in the temple of God, a true abomination that causes desolation, a partial fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. And a terrible time of tribulation followed.

But Jesus knew that. So his disciples.  Jesus informs his disciples that it isn’t over.  Daniel’s prophecy still has a future fulfillment.  Another abomination that causes desolation is coming to the holy place, and when the Christians see it, they are to flee.  Immediately. Because it’s going to get much worse.

And it did.  After Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again, the temple in Jerusalem was used for a time by the Christians to gather and to hear the Word of Christ from the apostles, and for a time, many Jews listened and converted to Christianity.

But by the 60’s AD, the Jews in Jerusalem weren’t listening anymore.  The Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire began in about 66 AD.  Jerusalem was still full of Christians at that time.  But things started getting bad.  In about 68 AD the Jews led a bloody revolt against the Roman oppression right in the temple of Jerusalem, and about 8,500 people were slaughtered on one day in the Temple courts.  It was more idolatry in the temple, another abomination that causes desolation.  And a terrible time of tribulation followed.  Within two years, the entire Jewish nation – everyone who remained in Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside – would be wiped out, and the Temple destroyed so that not one stone remained on another.

But the elect – the Christians, those who believed Jesus’ words about the coming destruction of Jerusalem – they escaped!  They did what Jesus told them to do and ran; they fled Judea and didn’t look back.  Only the unbelievers, those who rejected the word of Jesus remained in Jerusalem to be slaughtered by the Romans – the ultimate act of judgment by God on the people who had rejected his Only-begotten Son.

Jesus’ words saved the lives of his First Century Christians, and also kept them from being deceived by the false messiah’s and the false prophets who came along at that time.  But Jesus’ words weren’t meant only for them.  They’re for us, too.  St. Matthew alludes to it, and St. Luke explains it even more.  The abomination that causes desolation and the destruction of Jerusalem foreshadow another abomination that causes desolation in the Church leading up to the Second Coming of Christ. More times of tribulation are coming for the elect.

What is this other abomination that causes desolation, standing in the holy place?  In the New Testament, the holy ones are the saints – those who are counted by God as holy by faith alone in Jesus.  That’s you and I. The New Testament holy place is the Church of God throughout all the world.

This is where an abomination would be set up, an idol in the holy place so that people are directed away from the blood of Jesus Christ to worship the LORD where the LORD has not permitted himself to be worshiped, to seek the LORD, to seek refuge, to seek God’s approval somewhere else.  It’s an abomination that causes desolation, that is, it causes people to abandon the true worship of Christ, and so to abandon faith in Christ.

You know that our Lutheran forefathers identified this abomination that causes desolation in the Roman Catholic papacy, and so do we.  Why?  Because, even as the papacy pays lip service to Christ, it directs Christians away from Christ to trust in the saints, to trust in Mary, to trust in their own works, their own goodness in order to gain God’s approval, in order to erase guilt, in order to be justified before God.  And even though it’s all said to be done in honor of Christ, it’s no different than the Israelite worship of the golden calf that was said to be done in honor of the LORD Yahweh.

Listen to these official decrees by Rome, from the Council of Trent. CANON 9 under justification:  “If any one says that by faith alone the ungodly is justified,… let him be anathema.”  CANON 12:  “If any one says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is that confidence alone by which we are justified … let him be accursed.”

You see, you and I are anathematized and cursed by the Roman papacy, because that’s exactly what we believe: that we sinners, we ungodly people are justified – declared righteous before God – by faith alone in Christ who bore all our sins and whose perfect righteousness is credited to us who believe in him.  Our only confidence is in the divine mercy that pardons sins for Christ’s sake alone.  He alone makes you acceptable to God.  He alone is your peace on the day of judgment, and it’s a perfect peace.  And so you who mourn over your sins – believe in Jesus! In him, your sins are forgiven.  By faith in Christ, you have a part among the elect children of God.

But see! Even though we’ve identified the abomination that causes desolation, it doesn’t mean times of peace on this earth.  On the contrary, there will be times of tribulation for the elect. There will be false prophets and false christs who will constantly be trying to lead you away from Christ to a false worship, to a false god, to a false hope of salvation.

Whatever detracts from the Gospel – the message of God that condemns the sinner to hell and that raises up the penitent sinner through faith in Christ Jesus who made full payment for you and for all; whatever turns our attention away from Christ – this is part of the abomination that causes desolation. Wherever man becomes the center of worship, wherever the works of man replace the Gospel as the focus of our worship, wherever the Word of Christ is emptied of its power, where women pretend to stand as pastors of the people of God and where churches accept such rebellion against God, where homosexuals pretend to stand as pastors of the people of God and where churches accept such rebellion against God, there an abomination that causes desolation has been set up in the holy place.  There destruction is imminent.  From there the elect are called to flee when they see such things taking place, to flee and to never look back.

But as they flee, they are not to be deceived, for many false christs and false prophets will continue to appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect, if possible.  It shouldn’t surprise us that even believers, even the elect are sometimes lured into these traps that detract from Christ.  Look here!  A growing church!  A prosperous ministry! Christ must be there!  Listen!  A little voice inside me telling me what to do with my life!  It must be Jesus! It must be his Spirit!  Look here – a miracle!  Look there – friendly people!  Christ must be there!

What do you know?  It’s idolatry all over again.  Don’t go running after these things.  They are not Christ.  Christ is found where he says he’s found: in his Word and Sacraments.  There he is to shelter you behind his cross.  There he is to give you faith, to strengthen your faith, to protect your faith from the assaults of Satan. Here in his Word he has given you all the protection you need in these terrible times of tribulation in which you suffer, in which you mourn over the desolation that sin has caused in this world and in yourself.  Here in his Gospel, in his Word and Sacraments – this is where Jesus comes to meet you now. Here and only here.

But then, just when the great tribulation seems too great to bear, even with his Word and Sacraments, then Jesus will come for you.  Then Jesus will return and make his glory known from one end of the earth to the other, like lightning flashes across the sky.  Then the elect children of God will be revealed.  Then the times of tribulation will end and the celebration will truly begin. The signs of the end of time, the signs that Jesus’ coming is near mean that our redemption is drawing near.  It means that we’re close to that time that the Apostle Paul prophesied in our Epistle today, when the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will be raised and we who are left will be reunited with them in the clouds and will be with the Lord forever.  The dead in Christ are not lost, and neither will we be.  Behold, I am coming soon!, Jesus says. It can’t be long now, because the tribulation is truly great for the elect throughout the world.  Lift up your heads!  Your redemption is drawing near!  Amen.

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The Burning Question Behind the Reformation

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Reformation Day

Romans 3:21-28  +  John 8:31-36

We’re here today celebrating the Lutheran Reformation because of a question.  Now, there were many questions floating around in 1517 that needed answering: From where does the pope get his authority – from God or from man?  Is the Christian faith founded on Scripture alone or is it founded just as much on the traditions of the Church and the decisions of Church Councils?  Should priests be able to get married?  Should the laity be able to receive both the bread and the wine in Holy Communion?  All good questions, questions that the Reformation would answer.

But at the heart of the Lutheran Reformation there lies a single question, a question that drove Martin Luther, that haunted him, that plagued him until he found an answer to it in Holy Scripture. And when he found the answer, it became the question that fueled the entire Reformation and that led to the answer of every other question, too.  The Lutheran Church exists today – you and I call ourselves Lutherans today because of this one question, the burning question behind the Reformation:  How can a sinner stand before a righteous God?

It’s a question that almost seems irrelevant in today’s world. Who cares about such things anymore?  Sin, righteousness, one’s standing before God – don’t we have more pressing things to worry about, like world hunger, drugs addiction, the border, the economy, the education of our children, health care, what time the game is on today …  ?  But Luther knew the truth: every other question is a distraction. How can a sinner stand before a righteous God? Answer that question correctly and every other question finds its answer. Fail to answer that question correctly, and everything else is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

How can a sinner stand before a righteous God?  The Apostle Paul lays out the answer beautifully in the Book of Romans.  First, he explains how God’s holy Law summons all people into God’s courtroom and places them before God’s tribunal of justice.  And here in this tribunal God doesn’t search his books and count up good deeds vs. bad deeds.  He doesn’t bother comparing one person with another, or handing out grades like A, B, B-, C+, D or F.  The verdict of God’s law is very simple. Either you kept it or you didn’t.  Righteous or wicked! Anyone who has ever broken any of God’s commandments in thought, word or deed, or even by the corrupt, sinful nature with which all people are born – stands accused, convicted and condemned.

Yes, that includes the wicked, immoral world out there.  But it also includes the wickedness that lives “in here (in the church)” and “in here (in the heart),” in the most faithful churchgoer, in the most generous offering-giver, in the nicest and kindest men and women and children in our midst.  God’s Law is merciless and final.  The soul that sins shall die, and all have sinned.  Before the tribunal of God’s justice, every mouth is stopped and the whole world held accountable to God.

The heart that is thus convicted before the tribunal of God’s justice anxiously seeks where and how it can be freed from the verdict of the Law, where and how the demands of God’s holy Law can be met.  How can the sinner stand before a righteous God?  The Roman Catholic doctrine offered several options, and Luther tried most of them, to no avail.  Purchase a Mass to be said for you.  That’ll help to appease God’s justice.  Follow the right ceremonies in the Mass, say enough prayers to the saints, touch their relics and they may speak to the Judge on your behalf.  Get thee to a nunnery or a monastery.  Make a pilgrimage to Rome.  Buy an indulgence. Maybe then God’s justice won’t come down so hard on you.

That’s called “false hope.”  It was a lie.  As the hymn verse says, “It was a false, misleading dream that God his Law had given that sinners could themselves redeem and by their works gain heaven.”  This is what the Scriptures call the “slavery of the Law.”  It’s slavery because you were born into it and you were trapped in it.  It’s slavery because all you can do before the tribunal of God’s justice is work and work to appease the judge, but as with any slave, none of your work pays off.  None of your works can set you free.  At the end of the day the sentence remains unchanged: accused, convicted and condemned. 

How then can a sinner stand before a righteous God?  Before the tribunal of God’s justice, he can’t. By works of the law no human being will be justified

And so, what God did, what Luther finally understood, was this: God has not closed the tribunal of justice or changed the rules in it.  Instead, he has opened up another courtroom, a second tribunal.  It’s the “truth” Jesus told his disciples about in the Gospel, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

What is this truth?  It’s that God, in his mercy, offered Jesus as a “propitiation” through faith in his blood.  That’s a technical Bible word we really have to understand.  A propitiation is that which satisfies the demands of God’s holy Law, that which satisfies the Judge.  What it took to satisfy the Judge so that a second tribunal could be opened was the humble obedience of a Man who was more than a man – a Man who was – and is! – God and Man in the same Person.  What it took to satisfy the Judge for the sins of all men was the blood – the sufferings and death of the Son of God.

Actually the word “propitiation” in our text literally means the “place of propitiation,” the place where God’s righteous wrath is satisfied.  Christ is the Seat of Mercy, the Throne of Grace.  Christ Jesus himself is the second tribunal, the throne of grace.  “The Son of God pleads for us the benefit of being called away from the tribunal of justice to the throne of grace,” so that all who flee to him in faith are no longer judged in the tribunal of justice, but in the tribunal of grace. There they are forgiven from all the condemnation that justice required.  There God credits to them the righteousness of His Son, and so justifies them – declares them righteous, receives them into His grace and judges them to be heirs with Christ of eternal life.

The burning question behind the Reformation has found its answer:  How can a sinner stand before a righteous God?  Only through faith in Christ Jesus our Righteousness, our Throne of Grace.

That was Luther’s answer, and it was the answer of everyone who followed him in opposing the pope in Rome.  It was the answer of priests and princes, of poor farmers and handmaids.   It is this answer for which Christians have faced death for two thousand years, beginning with Christ himself.  It is this answer for which churches have been burned down or closed, ministers have been threatened or imprisoned or deposed, Christian have lost their families, their livelihoods, their lives – for answering this question as Luther did. 

If you abide in my word, Jesus says, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. You see, to abide in Jesus’ word is more than just to hear it once in awhile.  It’s more than just sitting through a confirmation class or making a confirmation vow.  It’s more than just belonging to a church.

To abide in Jesus’ word – to abide in the Gospel! –  is to know it, to believe it as true and especially to rely on it at every moment for your soul’s salvation.  To abide in Jesus’ word is to confess it before men, in the face of all persecution and all affliction, to bear the dear Christian cross and to die first rather than to change your answer to the burning question behind the Reformation, to lose all things rather than to disown Him who is your Throne of Grace.

What would you be willing to lose to hold onto your answer? No. What wouldn’t you be willing to lose?  God has opened up to you, a sinner condemned before the tribunal of justice, a throne of grace that makes you able to stand before a righteous God – as a saint, as a son.  Why worry about the condemnation of men when you stand justified before God through faith in Christ Jesus?  Why worry about the loss of earthly things and earthly life when eternal things and eternal life have already been guaranteed to you by God’s own word?  All things are yours.  What wouldn’t you be willing to sacrifice?  “And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife, let these all be gone.  They yet have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth.”

This is what the Reformation was about.  This is what our life as Christians must be about, too, the burning question behind the Reformation that must consume our hearts and lives, too.  And no matter how irrelevant it may seem to your life or to the lives of the people around you, the fact is, it is the only question that is truly relevant.  Because for as much as people search and search for other things to think about, the Day of the Lord is coming and it will not pass anyone by.  Death is coming and it will not pass anyone by.  All flesh must stand before God in one of his two tribunals.  And now is the only opportunity anyone has to escape the tribunal of justice and to flee to the tribunal of grace.  Now is the time for Christians – and especially confessional Lutheran Christians – to wake up and to return with urgency to the burning question that was asked and answered in the Reformation.

If you have taken the throne of grace for granted, then repent.  If you have been deceived by the devil into seeking God’s approval again in the tribunal of works, then be no longer deceived. If you have grown cold to this grace and to the love of God, then be warmed by it again. Every sinner, no matter how wicked, who is crushed by God’s law and who seeks God’s grace through Christ will find it, and will be able to stand before the righteous God in righteousness, innocence and blessedness forever and ever.  Praise God for the answer His Spirit has given you!  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

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A Glimpse at Our Friends Who Have Fallen Asleep

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for All Saints (transferred)

Revelation 7:9-17  +  Matthew 5:1-12  +  1 John 3:1-3

Today is our celebration day, on which we celebrate the eternal life of the saints who have gone before us, who have died, whose bodies have returned to dust but whose souls live with God in heaven.  I know that some of you have lost loved ones who did not die in faith.  For them we mourn.  But we don’t mourn for the saints.  We may mourn our temporary separation from them, but we don’t mourn for them.

Today is our celebration day, not unlike Easter Sunday.  On Easter we celebrate Jesus’ victory over the devil who sought to destroy him, over the world that hated him, and over death that held him captive for a measly three days.  Today, as we commemorate the faithful departed, we celebrate the same victory that is theirs through faith in Christ Jesus, the faith in which they were baptized, the faith that they confessed in life, the faith in which they fell asleep.  It’s the same victory: Victory over the devil, who can harm them no more; victory over the world that hated them and still hates us; victory over death.

But unlike Jesus, the grave has held them for longer than three days, hasn’t it?  Who are the saints who are on your mind today?  A mom or dad, a son or daughter, husband or wife, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, a close friend, a fellow church member?  How long have they been in the grave?  We don’t see their victory.  All we see is dust and ashes, coffins and cemeteries, empty rooms and vacant chairs at the dinner table.  If only we could get a glimpse of something more!

God gives us that glimpse in the Revelation of St. John, just a little glimpse beyond the veil of death to see things as they really are.  There’s plenty of fiction floating around out there about what heaven is like, but fiction is worthless.  It’s a lie.  It isn’t real.  Only God can tell us the truth about the saints in heaven.  Only God can give us a real live glimpse of our friends who have fallen asleep.

First, see how many of them there are: A great multitude that no one could number.  Jesus once said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” In comparison to the billions and billions of people who have lived on earth over the six thousand years of its existence, the number of saints is relatively few.  And in any given room or any given city, the number of believers in Christ is relatively few.  But add them up, year after year, century after century, from every nation, tribe, language and people across the earth, and you have a multitude that no one can number, children for Abraham that are as numerous as the sand by the sea and the stars of the sky.  And they all stand together, not one over here and one over there, not black people over here and white people over there, rich or poor huddled together.  There is no loneliness, no isolation – no divisions in heaven.

See where they are gathered:  standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They are standing, not lying there helpless as you might remember them on earth, not stranded in a wheelchair or hobbling slowly across a room.  They are standing.  They are standing before the throne of God, not gone fishing or playing golf.  Our sinful minds sometimes imagine that our favorite past times on earth become the stuff of heaven.  Many people – even some who call themselves Christians, are disappointed to learn that all you get in heaven is God.  But those who aren’t satisfied with God on earth need not worry about having to put up with him in heaven.  They won’t be there.   Only those who love God and find their comfort in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – only they will stand in his presence forever.

See how the saints are dressed:  Behold, a host arrayed in white, white robes, like our white paraments today, but even brighter and whiter.  Pure and sinless, no longer plagued by a sinful nature that pulls at them and drags them off into shameful thoughts and deeds.

See what they hold in their hands:  palm branches, like the Israelites waved at their Feast of Tabernacles when they remembered, every year, the temporary dwellings in which they lived during their sojourn – their journey from Egypt’s slavery to their permanent home in the promised land of Canaan.  That Feast of Tabernacles was a foreshadowing of the temporary dwellings of the saints here on this sin-filled earth as we journey from death to life, to the permanent dwellings with God in the new heavens and the new earth.  So the saints in heaven hold palm branches remembering that their days of temporary dwellings are over.

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

See who else in there, in whose company the saints stand: all the angels were standing around the throne. Our loved ones do not become angels when they die.  That’s a pagan myth.  But they do stand with the angels, one great company of the heavenly host, standing always before the Lamb and singing his praises.

See what the saints have left behind: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  In case you were unaware, this – all around us – is the great tribulation, not the great vacation.  It’s not just sickness and pain and financial insecurity.  It’s not just the loneliness and uncertainty of the future and the fickleness of friends that plague us in this world.  Those are terrible things.  But you have to understand, your faith in Christ is under constant attack in this world by the devil, by the world, by your sinful nature.  Finding the truth of God and holding onto it – it’s practically impossible.  Holding onto faith in Christ is not automatic for the Christian, and it’s even harder as the dear cross presses harder.  And holding onto love in this loveless world in which we live – Jesus was right when he said “the love of most will grow cold…even the elect would be deceived, if that were possible.”

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

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

This, my friends, is not pious fiction.  This is no false hope.  This is the Word of the Lord.  This is what heaven is like for our friends who have fallen asleep, and this is what heaven will be like for you when you fall asleep.  The grave may hold us longer than it held Jesus, but it won’t hold us forever.  “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

In the Apostles’ Creed, we also confess, “I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.”  The holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, includes both us and them – believers on earth and believers in heaven.  It is one great communion, one great fellowship.  But if you want to catch a glimpse of this communion, if you want to be close to the saints in heaven, don’t go to the cemetery.  The souls of the saints are not connected to their rotting flesh.  The souls of the saints stand before the Lamb in perfect communion.  Our connection to them, then, is not direct.  It’s through the Lamb. And the Lamb has given us a way to stand in his presence even on this side of death, in the Holy Communion.  Here our connection is with Christ, the Lamb, with the very body and blood that our friends in heaven stand before and worship.  Through Jesus, through the Lamb we are connected to the whole body, even the body of believers on the other side of death.  Here we stand before the throne and before the Lamb in Holy Communion and sing, “Hosanna!  Come and save us now! Blessed is he!  Blessed is he! Lamb of God, have mercy on us!”  There they stand before him, in the company of all the angels and sing, “Salvation belongs to our  God and to the Lamb!”  Here the circle is complete and the fellowship is complete.

And where the saints are, there one day you shall be if you hold onto the faith in which they fell asleep.  They have reached their goal.  We are still running the race.  Their blessedness is experienced in glory and seen.  Ours is hidden in meekness and believed, as we believe the words Jesus spoke in the Gospel, “Blessed are they…” The “they” is “we” as we live on earth in humble faith on our way to the mansions of heaven.

Luther wrote, “This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way; the process is not yet finished, but it has begun; this is not the goal, but it is road; at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified.”

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

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