Luther quotation mentioned in the sermon:
A Word from Luther
All miracles and works of God are considered impossible in our eyes, and they are also impossible for the natural man to grasp; and this is to the end that God may be confessed to be an almighty Creator, for whom something impossible can be made possible, and can make something out of nothing. … Therefore, if death be present and I can no longer live, I must still know enough to say: “Nevertheless I live, and I will live. Death, even though it is all around me, is no more than a little spark, and life is as great as the sea.” Now reason cannot grasp how this takes place. But whoever believes, knows for a certainty that death will be like a spark of fire falling into the midst of the ocean, that is, it will be extinguished in a moment. God is almighty, he who believes is in God, therefore he is in life, even though he be in the midst of death.
From Luther’s Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, alt.
Sermon manuscript:
Words are one thing. Actions are another. We’ve all known
this for a long time—ever since we were kids. Threats of punishment are one
thing. Punishments being carried out is another. So long as mom has only said
such and such, we might very well go against her wishes. When she says she’s
going to tell dad, that’s a whole different feeling.
It seems that we have an amazing ability to hear the sounds
of words, somewhat understand their meaning, but carry on regardless—as though
we had never heard it. Mere words leave us in charge of what we might do. With
actions, though, we might not be in charge anymore. When dad was to be told we
could no longer go on our merry way. We knew that dad was going to impose his
will upon us, and we weren’t going to like it.
When it comes to Christianity there are a whole lot of words
that get used. God’s revelation to us is with words. Therefore, also, words are
used in catechesis, in preaching, and in confessing. Even our sacraments are
quite wordy. Baptism is the joining of water with the word of God. The Lord’s
Supper is the joining of bread and wine with the word of God. Without the word
of God the water is plain water, and the bread and wine mere bread and wine.
Without words there is no Christianity.
It is not surprising, therefore, that people assume that
Christianity is merely words, that there is no action. When Christianity is
assumed to be merely words it becomes somewhat like a parlor game. There’s
talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And, “Mmm. That’s interesting.” But everybody
does what he or she wishes. Everybody does what they were going to do anyway.
There’s a good reason why we act this way with Christianity. It’s pleasant.
It’s nonthreatening. You are the one who gets to judge all the talk. If there’s
talk that you like, then you can like it, but if there’s talk that you don’t
like, then you can brush it aside. You are the one who is left in control.
But genuine Christianity is not mere talk. God actually
exists, and he does stuff. He blesses and he curses. He punishes and he
rewards. The life we live is seen and judged by God already in this world. He
threatens to punish all who break his commandments, therefore we should not do
anything against them. He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep his
commandments, therefore we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what
he commands.
However, this is not the only possible explanation for why
our life goes the way that it does. In fact, believing that we are subject to
God’s actions is a very rare way to look at life—even among Christians.
Instead, people understand that life is a matter of chance or luck. The reason
why good things happen is because you happened to be lucky. The reason why bad
things happened is because you were unlucky. Or, there is that old saying that
builds on this idea: “people make their own luck.” That is to say that
successful people put themselves in the right position and the right time to
score big time. So you, then, are the one who is responsible for your successes
and failures. God has nothing or very little to do with it.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible
explanations and philosophies about life. There are many more. But already we
can see how the claims that Christianity makes about God’s actions in our life
for whatsoever might happen to us can become doubtful. Who’s to say it’s God?
Maybe it’s just luck. Maybe it’s hard work. Maybe it’s science and technology.
So long as it is felt that we can’t really know what is going on we seemingly
are free to believe and do as we see fit. Sure, we hear the words. We might
even hear the threats and promises. But who knows whether they will be carried
out?
But it will not always be this way. Our beliefs and our
actions have consequences. One day it will be made plain because the threats
and the promises that God has made will be confirmed by action. God will do
what he wants. We won’t be in control. It won’t matter if people like it or
don’t like it. God is going to act. This will bring to an end all the competing
philosophies about life.
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered
in his presence and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the
goats on his left.
On the last day the Holy Spirit will raise you and all the
dead and give eternal life to all those whom the Holy Spirit has kept together
with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. The unbelievers, on the other hand,
will remain in their guilt for the sins they have committed. As the hymn writer
puts it: “Those who set at naught and sold him, pierced and nailed him to the
tree. Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall their true Messiah
see.”
The power and glory of this day that is coming is of such a
nature that we cannot really be prepared for it. It is too much for us. It’s
like staring at the sun. Our eyes aren’t strong enough to do it. Simultaneously
it will be the best day that has ever been as well as the worst day that has
ever been depending upon what a person believes in. Those who believe that Jesus
is Lord will experience it one way. Those who have believed in other gods will
experience it like the criminals that we all are by nature.
So we are just going to have to wait for these words to be
replaced by actions at that moment that God should choose to convert the last
sinner whom he has chosen for salvation and immediately thereafter to bring
this world to an end.
I believe our Gospel reading today, though, is a little more
approachable than that great and glorious day that it is a reflection of. The
reason why it is a little more approachable is that it includes things that we
have already seen. Nobody has seen the kinds of things that will take place at
the end. All of us, on the other hand, have been to a funeral.
We have seen the casket in the front of the church,
containing the body of someone we’ve known and loved. We’ve seen the casket
being moved from the church to the graveyard. Then that body has been placed
into the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust in the sure and
certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ
who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body by
the power that enables him to subdue all things to himself.
But in our Gospel reading something interrupted these
proceedings. Jesus was moved when he saw the scene before him. A young man had
died. The death of the young shows us what death is really like—it is no friend
of ours. It is hateful and vile and sorrowful when a young person dies. Death
surely is our greatest enemy. But there was added sorrow in that this boy’s
mother had nobody close to comfort her. Her husband had died. The body in the
casket was her only child. Bitter tears were streaming down her cheeks. So
Jesus came up to her and said, “Don’t cry.” In fact, he interrupted the whole
proceedings. There is a rhythm and expectations to these kinds of things. If
someone interrupted the procession of the casket from the inside of the church
as it is making its way to the hearse, it would be rather shocking. But that is
what Jesus did. He told the men who were carrying the casket to stop. He put
his hand on the casket and said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” And the
dead man sat up and started talking.
If you think about how these things go, and what people
expect to happen, and the solemn mood that always accompanies these
proceedings, then you now that the people who were watching the procession must
have screamed when the boy sat up—out of surprise if for no other reason. I
doubt that the casket was lowered carefully and slowly. I’m sure the pall
bearers wanted to get away from this thing—for who would expect that the dead
coming to life would be anything other than a nightmare? Indeed, Luke reports
that they were not just afraid. He personifies fear, and says that fear reached
out and grabbed them as though it had arms or tentacles.
But quickly their fear was also being mingled with and
ultimately overtaken by joy. The tragedy was going away. This young man, cut
down in his prime, was no longer cold and stiff and greenish white. His cheeks
were rosy. His eyes were bright. He probably felt better than he had for a long
time. His mother, who probably never dared to wish for even one more hug from
her son was reunited with her him safe and sound. The people started to speak
with wonder: “A mighty prophet has arisen among us.” They tingled, and
their stomachs did flip-flops, as they said, “God has visited his people.”
Those are not sad words, but words that ring with joy.
This event is so unusual and stark and dramatic that it is
almost hard to believe—especially if you put yourself in these people’s shoes.
It’s like it says in the Luther quotation that is on the back of your bulletin.
Our old Adam thinks that all the miracles that God does are impossible. But God
is not waiting around, seeing if it’s okay with you to do what he does—to wait
and see if you think it is reasonable or not. God does what he does regardless
of what we might think about it—whether we think it belongs at a funeral or
not, whether we think the end of the world should go the way that it will.
God’s Word is clear about what is happening and what will
happen. God is already intimately involved in our lives. What happens to us is
no accident. It is not luck. We should fear his wrath, therefore, and not do
anything against his commandments. We should love and trust in him, for he is
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. But in this world we are living
in a time of faith. We have his Word, we know what he tells us, so our faith is
clear. But there are others who believe, teach, and confess something else.
Thus in this present world God’s Word can be ignored, misinterpreted, or denied.
It will not always be this way.
When Jesus acted, it didn’t really matter what anybody else
might have said about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one or two of the
crowd who put their reason to work and came up with some natural explanation. The
boy must not have actually been dead after all. He was just passed out, and
suddenly revived. It was just luck that it happened at the exact moment that
Jesus spoke. Such is the stubbornness of our unbelieving hearts. But in general
Jesus’s actions were unmistakable. They were plain for all to see. That is how
it will also be at the end of the world, but to an even greater extent.
Jesus’s actions with this dead man were a foreshadowing of
something greater. For this young man was not resurrected to an eternal life.
He returned to an earthly life. The greater resurrection from the dead at the
end of the world will bring to completion the new creation. We will have bodies
like Jesus’s glorified, resurrected body. We will be changed in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye. Sin and death will be put away once and for all—the
first time that we will ever experience that. And finally we shall see God in
all his holiness, power, and majesty. It will be like looking at the sun, but
obviously greater than that. Our eyes will have been strengthened so that we
will be able to bear it. Having been made holy by Jesus’s blood, we will not be
afraid.
As I speak to you today, these are just words. They are God’s own promises and so they are true, but they are also able to be denied. Most people, in fact, will deny them. They will continue to go on living like they always have, believing in luck or themselves, or who knows what else. But it will not always be this way. One day Jesus will come on the clouds with great power and glory together with the angels. Faith will be replaced by sight. Brace yourself. That will be a tremendous day.
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