211128 Sermon on Luke 19:28-40 (Advent 1) November 28, 2021

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To the disciples it appeared that everything was going well as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In fact, things were going very well. If they would have thought back on the past few years they would have recalled things that kings and prophets would have liked to have seen and heard. Jesus did many powerful signs. He made the blind see and the deaf hear. He fed the 5,000 and the 4,000. Jesus taught as one having authority, instead of like the teachers who were only trying to fill the time and cash their paycheck. Many were converted to faith in him.

Jesus’s overwhelming success might be one of the main things we should have in our mind’s eye when we imagine that Palm Sunday. All around Jesus there were spontaneous acts of love, honor, and devotion. There was no campaign manager artificially pumping up the crowds with stirring music. That wasn’t necessary. The crowds loved him, and worshipped him, and this is the only way to understand their actions:

They threw down their garments on the road so that the donkey’s colt, a small animal carrying a fully grown man, might walk on them. They cut palm branches in their hands and waved them about. Nobody was embarrassed. Nobody was self-conscious. All that they were conscious of was Jesus. They wanted to catch sight of him. They were praising God joyfully, with a loud voice, for all the miracles that they had seen.

The words that the crowd said were heavy with all that those words signified. They sang, “Blessed is the king who comes in the Name of the Lord.” They are identifying Jesus as the king. This would have come as news to Pontius Pilate, the highest Roman official in that region, or to Herod, who ruled in Galilee. Jesus had no earthly office or authority. He was a poor Jew from the hinterlands. But these people recognize him as king.

Furthermore, they do not recognize him as the king pending the approval of the Roman Caesar or any other human authority. They say that he is the king who comes in the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. They do not see Jesus as an upstart, making his way to the top by his own bootstraps. They recognize him as the Christ, the anointed King, sent by none other than God himself. How else could he have done the signs or taught the way he taught? Believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, which means “the anointed one,” is the shortest Christian creed. These people have this confession of faith.

The other thing that the crowds say is so outrageous that it makes the Pharisees embarrassed. They say, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” This was a bit too much for the Pharisees. The Pharisees, like every believing Jew, was looking for the Christ, the one who would be like King David, but King David was just a man. The Pharisees fear that these people’s theology is getting dangerously out of whack. A human being might be able to bring about peace on earth, but what is this about peace in heaven? Only God rules in heaven. Furthermore the people are giving him glory in the highest. Only God, and certainly no man, should be given glory in the highest. The Pharisees tell Jesus that his disciples are in need of a stern rebuke.

But Jesus is not alarmed. The Pharisee’s theology is correct, as far as that goes. But they do not see what the people see, and therefore they are wrong. The people see that Jesus is God. All glory, laud, and honor are to him, the Redeemer King. If he were but a man, then it would be inappropriate to say what they had said. Since he is God in the flesh, what they have said is entirely appropriate. All creation sings its praises to Jesus the King: Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

Palm Sunday is when everything was going splendidly for Jesus’s disciples. This is just how they had hoped everything would go once it was revealed to them that Jesus is the Christ. Exciting things were in store. Oh, the places they might go! It’s just a matter of time, they think, before the Gentiles start coming to Jerusalem with their expensive gifts. That will be sweet. And they had been with Jesus from the beginning. It’s good to be friends with the king.

But, as you know, at the end of this same week Jesus would appear before Pontius Pilate, battered and bruised. There he would declare, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, I would have commanded my angels so that I never would have been handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not of this world.” The crown that was placed on Jesus was not a crown of gold, but a crown of thorns. His throne was a cross. He was not held in honor, but was mocked and shamed. Those Pharisees who thought that he was blaspheming on Sunday probably thought that he was getting his comeuppance on Friday.

It is fairly common, even among Christians, to look at Good Friday as the day the music died. But that is the wrong way to look at it. If anything, you could perhaps think of this event as a change in key in Jesus being king. It’s like one of those bridges to a higher key that really brings the whole thing home.

Good Friday was not an accident. It was not a derailment of Messianic hopes. For the disciples it certainly seemed that way at the time. They had dreams of sitting at Jesus’s right and his left, being great in the eyes of their fellow human beings. But their sights were not set high enough. What the crowds sang on Palm Sunday was entirely accurate, even if they might not have fully realized it or understood how it might come about. This king who comes in the Name of the Lord brings about peace in heaven.

Jesus’s peace brings to an end the devil’s accusations. The devil accuses us of our sins and would have us hate and fear God as a harsh judge. And he is a judge. He declares Jesus to be guilty and punishes him in our place. The punishment that should fall upon us, falls upon this divine king, until he is crushed and dies under the weight of it all. Thus there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The devil cannot accuse us of our sins before God because the Lord is our righteousness. The fact of the matter (and this is no wishful thinking, but a plain fact) is that God’s peace and God’s good will is towards men. God’s favor rests upon mankind because Jesus the Christ has achieved peace in heaven.

Even if, through progress and hard work, we were able to achieve world peace, cure cancer, and cure COVID while we’re at it, together with all the other ambitions we might set for ourselves, these would be nothing compared to what this king does. Even if we were able to roll back all the curses and punishments that came with sin, we would still be alienated from our Creator. This king brings about reconciliation between God and sinners. Jesus works peace, good will, and happiness.

But none of the great works this king does can really be seen now. They can only be known by faith alone. Many people get lost when the music changes its key. It’s too high and they can’t sing it. They are more interested in the things of this world: How do I get people to do what I want them to do? How do I use the limited resources to my greatest advantage? I look at you and I think, “What can I use you for?”

All people are necessarily enslaved to their desires, whatever those desires might be, unless they are set free by dying and rising. We have to be born again by the water and the Spirit to see the kingdom of God. We have to die with Christ and be raised with Christ. We have to be baptized. Otherwise we will stick with what we have been doing since we were a baby. We will do whatever we can to manipulate others, to achieve our own ends.

Jesus the king opens up a different way of looking at life. Instead of looking for how you can use others, you can look for how you can serve them. Instead of trying to lord it over others and have them serve you, you can become as the least and the servant of all. You can walk in the footsteps of your teacher and master. He came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.

There is a tremendous change that takes place with the disciples’ thinking from the way the disciples had been thinking on Palm Sunday. Those who continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ even after he is crucified, died, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead have their thinking changed very much. You can tell it by their actions. The apostles did not go out into the world to create little kingdoms for themselves. They did not gather a following so that they could sit on thrones and live richly at the expense of others. Insofar as the Holy Spirit blessed them, they poured themselves out rather than trying to collect as much as they could. They were no longer afraid of suffering and loss. They were glad to suffer for the benefit of others.

This also, just like with our Lord Jesus Christ, can be too high of a key for people to appreciate. It sounds dreadful, in a way, that we should love to the point of suffering and even death. What kind of glory is that? Suffering and death look terrible. There’s no crown of gold. The adoring crowds are nowhere to be found, and we just might get the reward of abuse and scorn instead.

But do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. It is good to love others, no matter what anybody else might say. It is better to give than to receive, no matter what anybody else might say. It is better to serve than to be served, no matter what anybody else might say.

During Holy Week there is something divine and beautiful going on, even though it can only be seen by faith alone. Apart from faith it looks like a tragedy. With faith it is seen for what it really is—peace in heaven. This is also true in the lives of Christians. The Holy Spirit works to bring about the image of God in them, the image of Christ the crucified. This is not a defeat. It is a victory. You can tell by the way the song goes. It is high and beautiful.

So hark the glad sound! The Savior comes. The Savior promised long. Let ev’ry heart prepare a throne and ev’ry voice a song. Amen.

211124 Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve, November 24, 2021

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211121 Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 (Last Sunday of the Church Year) November 21, 2021

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Our Gospel reading today is a rich text that is worthy of being meditated upon for a long time. I’ve known this text for many years and have taught it for many years, but I do not feel as though I’ve understood it completely. There are texts in the Bible that are like this. A person can profitably wonder about them for years or even a lifetime. We will take it up again today.

The broad outlines of the parable are clear. This is talking about Christ’s second coming. No one knows the day or the hour when Christ will come again, so, as Jesus says in the conclusion to the parable, we should keep watch. The bridegroom in the parable is Jesus. The ten virgins represent those who self-identify as Christians. Christians are waiting for Jesus to come. There’s a problem, though. Five are foolish. They end up getting locked out of the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom which has no end. These are all things that can be clearly identified and understood.

There are other elements to this parable that are less clear, at least to me. What do the lamps represent? What does the oil represent? What does the extra flask of oil that the wise virgins are carrying with them represent? What does it mean that all of them fall asleep while they are waiting for the bridegroom to come? Why won’t the wise virgins give any oil to the foolish virgins? Who are those who sell the oil? What does it mean that the foolish are directed to go and get more oil, and how do they get any in the middle of the night?

These are a lot of questions. Over the years you have probably heard answers, and probably even good answers, to the questions I’ve just asked. It is often taught that the oil in the lamps is faith. The reason why the wise cannot give any oil to the foolish is because no one is able to believe for another. Each must believe for him or her self. The sellers of oil are pastors from whom a person can acquire faith through the Word and Sacraments that they are called by God to dispense.

I’m sure that there are much worse ways that this parable could be interpreted. The individual statements are true enough. What is said about faith is true. No one is able believe for another. The only source for Christian faith is the hearing of the Gospel and the receiving of Christ’s sacraments. However, I’ve never quite been sold on interpreting the parable this way. It seems to me to be an oversimplification.

It makes it seem as though Christianity is a religion where almost the whole point of it is to go to church. That’s where the oil is sold, so make sure that you have a good supply on hand. But the parable does not say that the wise virgins had just come back from a shopping trip for oil. They remembered to bring along some extra. If Christianity is just a matter of attending church, then it hardly seems necessary for there to be a final judgment at all. We’d already know whether someone has passed the test by looking at the attendance records. There’s more to faith than attending the Divine Service.

So I think it is helpful to think outside the normal interpretation of this parable.  The obsession concerning oil and the lamps going out appears strange to me. They had planned on having lit lamps for the bridegroom. I’m sure they wanted their plans to succeed. But would the bridegroom care that much if their lamps had run out of oil? Would he have banned them from attending? I’m not aware of any custom or regulation from that time that made burning lamps a prerequisite for attending a wedding feast.

So the obsession with having enough oil has always struck me as being kind of feverish and dreamlike. I’m sure you’ve had those dreams that keep you half-awake all night because of something that you are obsessing about. It’s always something that is totally beside the point. You don’t have something, for example, and you think that you really need to have it. All your efforts at attaining it are thwarted. If you were fully awake you’d immediately know that it is beside the point, but in the dream there’s no getting around it: You have to have it, and you can’t get it. I’ve had many dreams over the years with this kind of theme. They are very annoying. They disturb my sleep.

This parable always makes me think of these annoying, disturbing kinds of dreams. It’s as though they are in a dream. When the virgins awaken they are all in a panic. They’ve fallen asleep without meaning to. They could have missed the whole thing by sleeping through it. Whew! But then there’s a problem with the lamps. They aren’t working right. They are low. The wise virgins are relieved that they have some extra, but the foolish ones become panic stricken again because they don’t have any. They try to solve the problem. “Please, give us some of yours.” But that doesn’t work. Now what are they going to do? Go buy some more. Oh, what a relief. We can solve this problem after all! But no! The stores are closed. It’s midnight. Now what are they going to do? It’s dreadful. They’re running out of time! Finally, by the time they manage to secure some more oil, it’s way too late. Their worst fears have come true. When they get to the gate the bridegroom says that he doesn’t know them.

Then the alarm clock starts beeping and you have to get up. You’re tired because you didn’t sleep well, but at least you’re no longer annoyed and frightened by your dream.

Of course Jesus says nothing about this being a dream. This makes any interpretation based on what I have just said immediately suspect. On the other hand, I think this interpretation accounts for more elements of the parable and is a better description of what is going with faith.

Faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit. It is not a personal accomplishment from attending church or any other activity we might engage in. Faith is something that is immensely powerful. It overcomes the world, the devil, and hell. However, at the same time, faith is something that is also easily damaged and lost. This is something that Luther always said about faith, learned from long experience living as a Christian.

Note how different all of this is from the way that most people think about faith. Most people think that faith is just a matter of doggedly sticking with the truthfulness of certain statements. Statements like: Jesus is God. He died and rose from the dead. Believing that such facts are truthful is thought to be faith. But these are facts that the devil and the demons know just as well as we do, and probably much better. Nevertheless, they certainly do not have faith.

It is also very common for people to think that they have a super-dooper strong faith as opposed to a faith that is easily damaged and lost. I’ve met many people who live in open, unrepentant sin. They have absolutely no intention of changing their ways. They are always irritated at the very idea of it and that I should bring it up to them. And yet they are 100% sure that they have a perfectly fine faith. They don’t have the least doubt that they will be just fine when they die. They often look at me rather strangely when I tell them that it’s not possible to live in open rebellion against God’s commandments and continue to have a true faith. I suspect that they think there is something wrong with my faith. They think I should have more faith in my faith.

The goal, however, is not to have unshakeable faith in one’s own ability to believe. It also is not right to have unshakeable faith in your attendance record at church. The church is not your Savior. Jesus is your Savior. You should believe in him. You should not believe in yourself, as though it’s impossible to lose your faith. Better men and women than you have lost their faith. Believing that you are just fine with your super-dooper strong faith creates a smugness and a coldness that makes you insensitive to God’s Word. God’s threats and promises go in one ear and out the other because you’re already quite sure that your just fine just the way that you are.

The fact that our sins damage us and our foolish thoughts make us sluggish is shown by the way that all ten of the virgins, both wise and foolish, fall asleep. Jesus gives the summary conclusion for the parable at the end when he says, “Watch, because you do not know the day or the hour,” but the wise virgins fell asleep too. Our faith is not so strong as we might like to believe. We can fall asleep. We can fall asleep with our faith and never awaken.

It is also possible that we wake up, but all our actions are in vain. The efforts that we make for our salvation all come to naught. This is what I think is going on with these foolish virgins. They thought they were fine just the way they were, so they make very poor preparations. They simply don’t care that much, so they don’t think to bring any extra oil. When they awaken from their sleep they go after all the wrong things. God scatters them in the imagination of their hearts. They think that their getting into the wedding feast is a matter of them having followed the rules. They’ve always imagined that they’ve followed the rules well enough because faith, for them, was a matter of having the right opinions. They thought they had these opinions in the bag, and thus could otherwise live however they might see fit. Since their faith has always actually been in themselves being good enough just the way they are, they are sent on a wild goose chase to make themselves feel acceptable again. It doesn’t even enter their minds that they should repent and seek forgiveness from the bridegroom, to be admitted to the feast by grace. They are not in the habit of repenting. They have long believed that they are just fine. Their faith is solid as a rock.

But their “faith” has been in an idol. This is a very subtle idol. It looks like the real thing. It looks very Christian, very pious. The opinions are all correct. It’s an idol that is forged in the deepest part of hell by the master himself. A lie is joined together with so much truth. The lie is where the faith gets directed—not in Christ, but in one’s own piety. This trick is so subtle and attractive that we’ve all been taken in by it at one time or another. But it’s an idol nonetheless. Believing in your faith is the wrong thing to believe in.

When the foolish virgins come to the closed door, the bridegroom says emphatically: “Amen, I tell you, I do not know you.” And it’s true. He doesn’t know them. They have not been believing in Jesus. They’ve been believing in their correctness. The thought of being locked out has hardly ever entered their heads. If it did, they’d have a ready answer to put their conscience back to sleep.

They are the good ones. Any God who would lock them out, they think, must be some kind of monster. How could God have the gall to condemn them when they’ve lived a perfectly respectable life? Meanwhile, prostitutes, tax collectors, murderers, drug users, and all manner of people whom they looked down upon their whole life will be entering into heaven before them. These people, as opposed to the ones who are always correct, learned how to repent. These people were given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit. These people believed in Christ.

See to it that you do not despise preaching and God’s Word. Regard it as sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Do not learn to yawn at your sins and consider them to be of little importance because you’ve got your faith that you can believe in. Your faith in your faith will never save you. It is not your Savior.

Wake up from your dream. Instead of making excuses for yourself, think straight. Repent of your evil thoughts, words, and actions. Believe in Jesus, the bridegroom. He’s coming! Come out to meet him. He is the one to whom you must look. He is the one in whom you are invited to believe. Notice how the wise virgins go toward him. The foolish virgins go away from him.

This is already something that you can do now. Paul says that the Lord’s Supper is the proclamation of the Lord’s death until he comes. If you need to have your sins forgiven, then go toward him in the Lord’s Supper. Do not go away from him, thinking you’re fine nevertheless. And when that final trumpet sounds, lift up your heads and look up. Go to meet the bridegroom. Keep your eyes on him instead of on yourself and whether you have followed the rules well enough. Jesus Christ came in order to save sinners, even very bad sinners, like you.

211114 Sermon on Matthew 25:31-46 (2nd to Last Sunday of the Church Year) November 14, 2021

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We have come to the last Sundays of the Church Year. At the end of the Church Year the lectionary directs our attention to the end of the world. Our readings today are especially concerned with that line in the Creed that says, “He shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead. His kingdom shall have no end.”

Almost 2,000 years have passed since Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. A person might wonder: “Where is this promised coming of his?” There is plenty of material available for a person to scoff at the notion that Jesus will come again. It’s not very hard to scoff. We human beings have been prone to scoff since almost the very beginning: “You won’t surely die.” “He won’t see us in these bushes.” “Where’s the water, Noah?” “How are we going to escape, Moses?” “If you’re really the Christ, then come down from that cross? Then we’ll believe you.”

With Christ’s second coming we are dealing with an article of faith. Hebrews says of faith that it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. There’s hardly any arguing that can be done for articles of faith. Either something happens or it doesn’t. Arguing only plays into our natural tendency to scoff. Arguing, for example, is what convinced the Jewish leaders that Jesus could not be the promised Christ.

John’s Gospel tells us what the leaders were saying about Jesus. They said, “He has the audacity to heal people on the Sabbath! He’s a Sabbath breaker. He even continued to heal people on the Sabbath after we specifically told him not to. How can the Christ be a Sabbath breaker?” They said, “He is from Nazareth in Galilee. The Christ has to come from Bethlehem. Plus we’re not even very sure about who his father is.” Then there were all those people with whom Jesus associated: “A bunch of sinners—the whole lot of them. No self-respecting Christ would associate with people like that.”

The ringleaders who put Jesus to death had zero doubt that he was an imposter and a blasphemer. Their arguments were ironclad. It was the stupid laymen who were being taken in by him. It was for the sake of the stupid laymen that he had to be put to death and that right soon, otherwise the whole world would go after him.

But arguing, and the fear of being scoffed at, finally got the best even of almost all of the disciples. They also came to point where they denied him and disbelieved in him—especially after he died. They had thought that he was the Christ, but now he was dead. You can’t prop up a corpse on the throne and expect good government or victory over the Gentiles.

So do not imagine that those who scoff at Christ’s second coming are doing anything new. Ever since the fall into sin mankind has had a devil of a time believing anything that God says or promises. The one who believes is blessed. The one who does not believe only discovers the truth after it is too late. Waiting and seeing is different from watching and praying. Waiting and seeing is what some of the people were doing at Christ’s cross: “Let’s wait and see if the does something that is worthy of us bestowing our faith upon him.” But Jesus did not reveal himself to many skeptics after he rose from the dead. The notable exception to that was the apostle Thomas. As it says in Romans: “God shows mercy to whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.”

Regardless of what anybody thinks, the truth must win out. God will vindicate his people. This is one of the things that Jesus is teaching in our Gospel reading today. All people and every individual is either a sheep or a goat. Every individual goes either to Jesus’s right or his left. The sole criterion for whether a person is on Jesus’s right or his left is whether that individual believed in him and in the promise of his second coming. We are justified before God by faith. The value of faith is rather hidden in this life. It doesn’t appear all that useful. Money, intelligence, and a good work ethic appear to be more important. But faith is vindicated with Christ’s second coming.

That is when judgement comes. This is not the first time that God has judged. Jesus says that it will be like those other times when God judged. It will come at an hour that no one expects. He says it will be like it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Sodom. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage. Life will be going on like it always has until it doesn’t.

There is no way to sugar coat this teaching without being wildly unfaithful to the Scriptures and to Jesus’s own teaching. There is a lake of fire that has been prepared for the devil and all his angels. The goats will go there too. There is an outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is a place where the worm does not die and the fire is never quenched. These are all things that Jesus says. You can believe in them or you can choose not to, but you shouldn’t call yourself a Christian if you are embarrassed by Jesus and his words. Faith is all important. Fain in Jesus and his words is all important.

However, this should not be construed to mean that it’s a matter of having the good sense to believe in Jesus. Faith should not be understood in merely a utilitarian sense where having faith is some way to get ahead in life, or in the next life. Such a calculating and self-serving understanding of faith is not a faith that is worked by God and given as a gift. Faith like that is the product of man’s shrewd reasoning. It is not genuine.

That Jesus is talking about true faith is plainly seen by the way that he describes the sheep and the goats in our Gospel reading. If you think that faith is merely a matter of hell insurance, a clever trick to escape punishment, then you will end up among the goats. Notice how the goats simply cannot endure God’s judgment. They are thoroughly irritated at this fellow who has the gall to judge them: “When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or lacking clothes or sick or in prison and did not serve you?” The implication here is, “We’re good people. Why didn’t you speak up? If you would have showed up at our door, hat in hand, we would have gladly given you directions to the Salvation Army. Why didn’t you show some initiative?”

Or, when it comes to the issue of faith, they might well say, “I had the good sense to believe in Jesus! I thought it was all true as true can be! The Bible says it and I believe it. You can’t send me to hell! It’s against the rules that you yourself have set!”

But this is wrong. Faith in Christ does, indeed, save, but it must be true faith, not fake faith. True faith is given by the Holy Spirit to those who repent. Fake faith is a product of man’s reason, where he thinks that he can beat God at his own game. He makes sure that he plays his cards right, church-wise perhaps—makes sure he stays on the books, but meanwhile his heart is full of hatred, lust, greed, and all manner of selfishness. Christ, for these people, is the get-out-of-hell free card that gives them license to pursue the evil that they would have pursued regardless. Now, however, they can do it with impunity.

Nevertheless, all these people that I am talking about believe with their whole heart that they are going to be saved, because they had the good sense to believe in Jesus. It is precisely these people who will be as mad as hell on Judgement Day. Here they went to all this trouble of being a member of the church and giving offerings and serving on the church board, and all those hours of sitting through boring sermons, and it is all for naught! The goats, in general, are proud and angry.

The sheep are very different. They are humble and self-effacing. Jesus commends them for the good works that they have done, and they don’t know what he is talking about. They weren’t keeping a ledger of debits and credits. The idea of making a case for their justification before God is the furthest thing from their minds, and for good reason. They wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. During their earthly life they were repentant.

What was vivid in their mind was not all the supposedly good things that they had done, but the way that even their best works were like filthy rags. Meanwhile, unawares, the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives like leaven in a lump of dough. Unawares the Holy Spirit was working love in their life. Their left hand did not know what their right hand was doing. Just as a good tree produces good fruit because that’s just what good trees do, so also God is at work in the lives of those whom he has chosen, those whom he has given the gift of faith in Christ.

So faith is not some meritorious work that we have done which deserves the reward of heaven. Faith is a gift from God. Faith is worked by the Holy Spirit, when and where he chooses, in those who hear the Gospel. Faith alone justifies, but faith does not remain alone. Faith is followed by good works, worked by the Holy Spirit, otherwise it is not true faith. Poor, miserable, sinners, without even a spark of goodness in themselves are given access to the very righteousness and goodness of God. It is by communion with God that love is worked, because, as 1 John says, God is love.

And notice for whom the good works were done. They were done for the least of Jesus’s brothers and therefore were done to him. We can be pretty savvy about for whom we do good works. We are much more prone to scratch the backs of those who are more likely to scratch ours in return. Jesus, however, teaches us that we should love our enemies and not just our friends. He says that if we are going to give a dinner party we should not invite rich people who will invite us to their home in return. We should invite those who cannot pay us back.

Our calculating reason, which is always looking out for our own welfare, find such advice distasteful: “No thanks. I don’t want to do anything nice for those who have hurt me.” We might be willing to do “good works,” but those good works better have a pretty good rate of return, otherwise you can forget it.

Thus you can see how different the sheep are from the goats. Thus you can see what a difference there is between true faith and fake faith. The sheep did their work naturally and without calculation. They did what they did because their nature was changed by God. They were made to be like their heavenly Father who makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. It is a miracle for anyone to love his enemy, but that is what God works in his disciples. As disciples, or students, they learn from and follow the works of their master Jesus. He did not just die for the good (otherwise there’d be no one for him to die for), he died for the evil. This is the most beautiful and good thing that has ever happened, and it is a wonderful thing when it is manifested also in his followers—even though it is noticed by precious few.

So when Christ comes in glory to judge the living and the dead, it will indeed be on the basis of faith. Realize, however, that we can fool ourselves into manufacturing a convenient faith for ourselves that is fake and self-serving. Faith is for those who have empty hands.  They know their sins and believe that God would be right to send them to hell for the evil life that they have lived. But they believe that God has loved them in Christ and made atonement for their sins. He is the Savior. They love and trust him.

Thus their lives are changed by God. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Apart from him we can do nothing. In him we produce fruit. These works of the faithful are not done for the purpose of making our case for being a good person. This is what the goats do. Instead we do these works for no other reason than that the works are good.

In preparation for that great and terrible day of the Lord that is coming, we should not wait and see, but rather watch and pray. He is coming. In the meantime he is at work in us, making us into the beautiful image of Christ the crucified.

211107 Sermon for All Saints' Day, November 7, 2021

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With the observation of All Saints’ Day we think of those who have died with faith in Jesus. They have been made holy and are in heaven. Since we are talking about people who have died, this gives us a good opportunity to talk about the important topic of death. The world is full of thoughts and teachings about death. The Bible teaches quite differently about death compared to the world. So today I’d like to speak about what the Bible says about death.

From the outset a person might expect that the Bible only has one message to tell about death. That’s how we often think about things that are true. 2+2=4. It doesn’t also equal 3 or 5. So we might think that the Bible would just have one message. But the fact of the matter is that the Bible speaks both very negatively about death as well as positively.

There are countless examples of God causing people to die as punishment for their sins. This goes all the way back to the Garden where God connects disobedience with the sentence of death: “In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” The flood was a massive demonstration of God’s wrath against mankind which had grown decadent and corrupt.

God brought about the death of people within his church as well. God caused Judah’s son, Onan, to die for spilling his seed onto the ground instead of doing his duty towards his brother’s widow. Under Moses, many thousands of Israelites died in the wilderness for their disobedience and grumbling against the Lord. This is also true in the New Testament church. Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead before the Apostle Peter for lying about what they put in the offering plate.

With these few examples (and there are countless more) you see what Paul says in Romans: “The wages of sin is death.” The wicked perish and are cut off from the land of the living.

But it is not just with those whose sins are black as coal that death is spoken of negatively. Good king Hezekiah begged God to extend his life when the prophet Isaiah told him that he was going to die. God granted him his wish.

King David speaks bitterly about death in Psalm 6. He says, “O Lord, deliver me! … For in death there is no remembrance of you. In the grave who will give you thanks?”

Moses says to God in Psalm 90: “All our days have passed away in your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; and if, by reason of strength, they are eighty years, they are nothing but labor and sorrow. It is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger?”

This is also not just an Old Testament thing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death is our enemy.

These few examples (and there are many more) show us that the Bible speaks very negatively and even distressingly and terrifyingly about death. Perhaps this way of speaking has been surprising to you, and no wonder! It is considered extremely bad form to speak this way about death in our day. No one does it. Even pastors won’t dare to speak this way for fear of alienating their flock.

Instead of speaking negatively about death, everyone wants to speak positively about it. Everyone wants to be assured that everything’s fine. There’s nothing to worry about. It’s all just natural and a part of life. This, of course, is not true. It contradicts the Bible. We were not created for the purpose of dying, but for living. Death is not natural. It is God’s punishment for sin. Death is not just something biological. It is also tied up with our relationship with God.

Since our death is tied up with our relationship with God, it should not be surprising that the Bible also will speak positively about death. A person’s relationship with God can be one of unbelief and rebellion. Death is never a good thing in such situations. But a person can also be reconciled to God and trust in him. This makes death into something that is beneficial.

Let’s look at some examples of the Bible speaking positively about death. Those kings of Israel who remained faithful unto death are said to have been “gathered to their fathers” when they died. Being gathered with those who have died in the faith is a very warm and happy thought.

Psalm 116 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 49 says, “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me.” Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he shall stand on the earth. After my skin has thus been destroyed, nevertheless, I will see God. My eyes shall see him, and not another.”

So also, Paul, in the New Testament, says, “To live is Christ, but to die is gain. If I live on in the flesh this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.” Death is something that is good, because the Christian departs to be with Christ.

So the Bible speaks negatively and positively about death. Someone might think that the Bible is simply contradictory.  But that is not the case. As we’ve already mentioned, whether death is negative or positive has to do with a person’s relationship with God. Thus death being negative or positive also corresponds to the distinction between Law and Gospel.

Death, according to the Law, is a dreadful punishment. The only thing that is worse than death is hell, which is spoken of as a second death, or an eternal death. Death, however, is also something that is overcome by the Gospel. Death as punishment, death as God’s wrath, has been done away with by Christ’s death and resurrection. These most horrifying aspects of death were placed on God’s beloved Son and were carried out completely in him. It’s no longer death with a capital D. All that is absolutely terrifying and horrifying about death—namely, that along with everything else, death is also God’s wrath and punishment—has been purged from death. This changes its character to the point where we can speak of it as being a sleep.

It is one of those good sleeps. When a body is good and tired and lays down, it feels good to rest. If it is a good sleep, the next thing a person knows is that it is morning. The sun is shining. You’re well rested and ready to get up and live.

That is how a good sleep of death in Jesus’s name will be. We die tired and sluggish. We die sinful and unclean. In this life those things that we want to do we do not end up doing. Those things that we don’t want to do are the very things we end up doing. It is not just our bodies growing old, tired, and weak. Our souls, also, grow weak and hard and brittle. It’s time for a rest.

When we awaken in heaven from having fallen asleep in death, and when we awaken with the resurrection, everything is changed. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Our bodies will be renewed. Our souls will be renewed. All the sluggishness, boredom, apathy, and bitterness will be gone. All our natural and sinful blindness and deafness towards God will be healed. We will see and hear and know God like we never have before, because sin will no longer get in the way of that anymore.

In our first reading today, from Revelation, the Apostle John is given a view of heaven. What is heaven like? He tells you: There’s a multitude of people there from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They are standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb. They are clothed with white robes and with palm branches in their hands. They call out with a loud voice (I wonder what that voice of millions might sound like?) They say: “Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb!”

Then all the angels, and there are four living creatures, and the elders fall on their faces before the throne and before the Lamb. They burst out from their innermost being: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!”

Adam and Eve are among that number. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are among that number. Moses is among that number. David is among that number. Mary is among that number. Peter and the twelve are among that number. Paul is among that number. If your loved ones have remained faithful until death, then they are among that number too: Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, brothers, sisters.

But let’s be on guard here so that sentimentality does not lead us astray. We will not go to heaven to worship and commune with our fellow human beings, no matter how much we have loved them, but with our God, with Jesus. We will love each other like we have never been able to before, but only because we love God more.

Death (or how it should really be thought of among Christians: falling asleep in Jesus’s name) is the way that we will enter into this reality unless Jesus comes back while we are still alive. Entering into this life, this healing, this whole-hearted worship makes it obvious why the Bible can speak positively about death. It is positive, because death is no longer really death. Jesus has made it so by defeating it. He knocked the stuffing out of it, you might say, so that it is hardly a shell of its former self.

We must be crystal clear, though, about to whom this applies. It doesn’t apply to everyone. Jesus has defeated death for everyone. He has made full atonement for everyone’s sins. Everyone is forgiven. But not everyone believes. Jesus says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

There is a very strong compulsion in us to absolve everyone who dies. Nobody wants to think of others going to hell. We certainly don’t want to think of that for those whom we love. And so we are tempted to say of everyone who has died that they are now in a better place. That’s not true for those who do not hold fast to Jesus the only Savior. They are not in a better place, but in a worse place, and time of grace has passed away.

It is also not the case that only a tiny fraction of people fail to enter heaven and end up in hell. Jesus was quite clear about this. “Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to eternal life, and few there are who find it. Broad is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter therein.” So we should not think that it is uncommon for someone to fail to enter heaven. This is especially true in our society where God is turning us over to our desires. Few can be troubled to hear God’s Word. Few can be troubled to receive the Sacrament that is the remembrance of Christ’s death. Outside of Christ, death remains the horrible, terrifying thing that it always has been. It is God’s punishment. In Christ, death is the door to everlasting life.

This shows how important faith in Christ is, and how important the Gospel and the Sacraments are. If all dogs go to heaven and everybody ends up in a better place regardless of the Son of God, then who is Christ and what has he done? It is a denial of Christ to say that everyone goes to heaven. Then he would not be a Savior. The prophets and the apostles would all be liars. God, if he is even acknowledged at all, would be entirely different from the one that is revealed to us in the Bible. This is absolutely intolerable and furthers what is number one on devil’s agenda—that people should not believe in Jesus. But this is precisely what we are doing if we do not distinguish between those who die with faith in Christ and those who do not.

Standing up for faith in Christ in order to have a blessed death will not make you very popular, but Jesus wasn’t very popular either. He told us beforehand that if we are his disciples, we shouldn’t be surprised if we are treated like our master was.

Instead of denying Christ, we should confess him. We have a simple message to tell. No human being can be justified before God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Anybody who hopes to have a good relationship with God apart from God’s own reconciliation and atonement in Christ will be horribly surprised and defeated.

But God sent his Son for all people and every individual. All who are weary and heavy laden should come unto Jesus and he will give them rest. Whoever believes in him will be saved. Jesus himself says, “God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus is powerful to save. Whoever puts their trust in him will not be put to shame.

[Over the past year, Linda Meyer has departed to be with the Lord. Blessed be her memory.]