Luke 2:21
Circumcision and Naming of our Lord

    ✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

    Somebody randomly walking in off the street tonight might wonder why in the world we’re remembering and focusing on Jesus’ circumcision, especially on a New Year’s Eve.  It seems a little bit indiscreet.  But in the Biblical way of marking time, now after sundown, this is the 8th day of Christmas, the day of Jesus’ life on which He was both named and circumcised.  We observe this event because it is the beginning of the obedience of Christ by which we are saved.  As our substitute, a true human being, Christ actively obeyed all of the demands of God’s Law in our place in order to save us.  He didn’t just hang around for thirty-some years waiting to die and rise again for us.  Right from the very beginning He was diligently carrying out the Father’s plan to rescue us by keeping the entire Old Testament Law for us, of which circumcision was a part.

    We heard this command to circumcise given to Abraham in the Old Testament reading.  Circumcision was a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants.  Circumcision showed that they were set apart from the other nations, that they belonged to God as His own special people.  And circumcision also showed very tangibly that it would be through the literal Seed of Abraham that the Savior would come, his true descendant and offspring.

    So when Jesus is circumcised, He is showing Himself to be one of those descendants, born under the Law in order to fulfill the old covenant.  He is the true Seed, the Promised One God had said would come out of Israel to rescue and redeem His people.  Through Jesus God the Father truly made Abraham to be the father of many nations.  For we heard in the Epistle that if we belong to Christ through faith, then we are Abraham’s seed, his true offspring in Jesus, as numerous as the stars in the sky.  By being circumcised, then, Jesus was beginning His mission to save you.  For He was placing Himself into the old covenant, so that He could truly keep the entire Law and fulfill it all for you, establishing a new covenant between God and His people.  Jesus’ circumcision is an important part of the way in which we are saved.

    The fact that we tend to overlook these active ways in which Christ saved us, focusing rather almost exclusively on the passive ones like His suffering, is a reminder that we sometimes misunderstand what our own Christian life is all about.  We tend to think of God-pleasing living not so much as what we do but as what we don’t do.  Many think of Christianity as a series of prohibitions: “Don't do this!  Don't do that!”  Just keep your nose clean and God will be happy.

    But the fact of the matter is that the Christian life is as much about what you actively do as it is about what you passively refrain from doing.  That’s why Luther’s explanations of the Ten Commandments are so helpful.  In them he shows us both sides, not only the passive restrictions, but also the active commands, not only what we shouldn’t do but also what we should do.  It’s not only that you shouldn’t curse and swear by God’s name, but that you should use His name rightly to pray and to give Him thanks.  It’s not only that you shouldn’t murder but that you should help your neighbor in every bodily need.  It’s not only that you shouldn’t commit adultery but that you should love and honor your spouse.  It’s not only that you shouldn’t steal but that you should work hard and help your neighbor improve and protect his possessions and income.  It’s not only that you shouldn’t give false testimony against your neighbor but that you should defend his reputation and put the best construction on everything.  Above all, it’s not only that you shouldn’t have any false gods, but that you should love and trust in the true God above all things and worship Him and gladly hear the preaching of His Word.  By this we can see how far short we have fallen in truly keeping His commands.  As the confession says, we have sinned both “by what we have done and by what we have left undone.”  Let us repent of where we have fallen short in the past year and return to the Lord.

    The good news for us today is that Christ didn’t leave anything undone.  He not only refrained from all sinful thoughts, words, or deeds, but He also actively carried out every single requirement and commandment of the Law in our behalf:  honoring His parents, remembering the Sabbath day, serving His neighbor in need, loving His heavenly Father and everyone around Him with all that He had.  When we trust in Christ, God credits His perfect, sinless life as our own.  We are holy and righteous in God’s sight through Christ.  We need Jesus’ fulfilling of the Law to rescue and save us.  And it all began on the day He was circumcised.

    Some of you may be wondering if circumcision is still commanded by God.  The answer is “No.”  Neither, of course, are animal sacrifices or the various Old Testament meals.  All of those ceremonial aspects of the Law were types and foreshadowings of the fulfillment of the covenant which Christ came to bring about.  With His holy life, He brought that part of the Law to its completion and culmination.  The moral Law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, certainly still applies to us.  But the ceremonial Law has been made obsolete by Christ.  For He has established a new covenant, a covenant based on faith in His blood, which was shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, blood first shed at His circumcision.

    What counts now according to Romans 3 is not circumcision of the flesh but circumcision of the heart, in which the sinful flesh, the sinful nature is cut off and slain in repentance, so that through faith, Christ may live in us before God in righteousness and purity forever.  Now we are made to be God’s holy and chosen people by being baptized into the sinless Christ and believing in Him.  As Colossians 2 says, “In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

    That’s why circumcision occurred on the 8th day.  The 8th day signifies a reaching beyond the seven days of the old creation into the everlasting day of the new creation, which would commence on the day of Christ’s resurrection.  Jesus Himself was cut off for us on the cross in the flesh and then bodily raised again on Sunday, the 8th day, so that through baptism we ourselves would be a new creation in Him.  Just as there were eight people on the ark who entered into a new world through the waters of the flood, so we have entered a new world with Christ by our baptismal union with Him.  We live in the unending 8th day of His resurrection life, in which the ravages of time can no longer do us any harm.  

    During this past year we have felt those ravages in both small and big ways, in the deterioration of our possessions or resources or health, even in the loss of our loved ones.  We pray God’s mercy on us to help us endure in the year ahead, even as we thank him for all the many blessings of the year now past.  But let us especially give thanks to God tonight that He has taught us to number our days, to not set our hearts on this passing world, and that He has given us a sure hope in Christ, who is the Lord of time and creation.  When the fullness of time had come God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we would receive the adoption as His sons, heirs of His eternal kingdom.  Focusing on Christ’s active obedience, let us resolve in year to come to be diligent and active in doing good works, not in order to earn God’s favor, but precisely because He has already given us His favor fully and freely in Christ.  The Law stands fulfilled in Jesus, down to the smallest detail. All of it He has kept for you.  His perfect obedience is yours. And you are His.  God bless and keep each of you throughout the upcoming new year.

    ✠ In the name of Jesus ✠

Holy Innocents
Matthew 2:13-18

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    The church’s paraments are red today–not to match the remaining poinsettias, but because today we observe a martyr’s day, a day on which blood was shed for the sake of the newborn Christ-child.  These were the first martyrs of our Lord, the ones we call the Holy Innocents, those infant boys of Bethlehem slaughtered by the wicked King Herod.

    The first thing to say about the Holy Innocents is that they were not innocent by nature but by grace.  They, like all of us, were natural born sinners.  Psalm 51 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  However, all of those little boys, two years of age and under, had been circumcised on the eighth day of their lives as God had directed, marking them as ones redeemed through the promise given to Abraham, identifying them as God’s chosen people.  The Lord had told Abraham, “In your Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”  That Seed of Abraham was none other than Jesus Christ.  Like Abraham’s son, Isaac, Jesus would be offered up as a sacrifice on the mountain.  Unlike Isaac, Jesus would go through with it all the way to atone for the sins of the whole world.  That Gospel promise is why those little boys of Bethlehem were both holy and innocent.  That is why we rightly call them martyrs. They had been connected to the gracious promise of God that was being fulfilled in their young Bethlehem neighbor, Jesus.  Even though they had been conceived and born as sinners, they were declared to be holy ones before God in Christ.

    We might be tempted to look on all of this simply as a terrible tragedy and to pity those little ones whose lives were cut short.  But in truth we should in many ways envy them!  Somewhere, Martin Luther once said that the best thing that could happen to us after being baptized is that we should die immediately.  Then, our Baptism, which is the drowning of the Old Adam, our fallen nature, would be completed right away.  Then, the New Man, which is Christ in us, would ascend to the Father to await the resurrection.  Listen to what Luther says in his own sermon of 1541 concerning the slaughter of the Holy Innocents:

"This is how the life of our Lord Jesus commenced, with the devil appearing soon on the scene to foment suffering and grief.  But he must have soon realized what he actually gained by it.  For the children were taken out of this world into heaven.  If Caesar Augustus of Rome himself had wanted to present them with his whole empire, he would not have served them so well as Herod did by his butchery.  He tore the little children from their mothers’ bosoms, and sent them to heaven, making nothing less than martyrs of them, whose blood is precious in the sight of God! For the parents it was a terrible thing, but it happened for the eventual good of the children; they felt no anguish in their souls.  So the Lord took them away at the time of His own advent into the world, as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to Himself.  Thus much good would yet come from Herod’s murdering."

    And for those of us who might shrug this off as just so much talk, it is good to recall what Luther said when he buried his own 14-year old daughter: “Beloved little Lena, you will rise and shine like the stars and the sun.  How strange it is to know that she is at peace and all is well, and yet to be so sorrowful!”  Scripture says it very clearly, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

    The question for us to ask today is, do we believe that?  Can we find it within us to view our own death as something to be welcomed and embraced?  Do we hold to what Philippians 1 says, that for us to live is Christ, and to die is gain, and that to depart and be with Christ is far better than to linger on in this present evil age?  If you are anything like me, you don’t think that way very much of the time.  The Old Adam in us, no matter how old we may be, always whimpers that he is still too young to die!  To believe that God works all things together for our good–even in premature death–is sometimes just too much.  To trust that even the evil that Satan deals out to us, God nonetheless intends and works for our good, is a pretty big pill for us to swallow, especially during these days of pursuing Christmas cheer.

    God strengthens our weak faith, though, with the good news that we, too, are counted as Holy Innocents before God.  This is not because we are innocent by nature, but rather because we are pronounced innocent through God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, the truly innocent Son of God.  In baptism we have received a sign greater than circumcision, the sign of the holy cross, to mark us as ones redeemed by Christ the crucified.  It is written in Colossians 2, “ In Jesus you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, . . . having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  Like the boys of Bethlehem, you too have been connected to the saving promises of God in Jesus.  

    This connection with Jesus means that there is a battle to be fought yet in this world.  The collect we prayed earlier asked the Lord, “Put to death in us all that is in conflict with Your will, that our lives may bear witness to the faith we profess with our lips.”  That prayer is a reminder that there is a Herod still lurking within each one of us.  And he will stop at nothing to ensure that he survives and keeps on flourishing.  The Herod within me and you is always trying to get rid of Christ, because his own little kingdom can only have one king.  Either Jesus will be in charge of our lives or we will.  And the Herod within demands that, if there’s a conflict, Jesus has got to go.  “It’s my life, and I’ll do what I want!”

    Our natural desire to be on the throne of our own lives can even lead us to claim–as Herod did with the Wise Men–that we desire to worship the Christ Child at the very same time that we are plotting His elimination!  How do we do that?  When we say that we believe in Jesus but then reject His Word if we don’t like what it says,  when we think of ourselves as good people by our own merits, when we imagine that the words of approval heard from others this holiday season mean as much as the words of Holy Absolution, when we desire the food and drink of our own festive tables more than the food and drink of Christ’s table–that is when we fight against the Christ child who loved us and gave Himself for us.

    And of course I must mention how our culture is Herod-like when it comes to children.  Herod had two of his own sons put to death along with their mother out of fear for his throne.  When Caesar Augustus learned of this, he remarked that he would rather be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son.  The prevalence of abortion in our culture in many ways makes Herod like a rookie as a child butcher.  There were probably a couple dozen children killed in the small village of Bethlehem–horrifying enough.  In this country it’s more than a million babies in the womb killed each year–often simply so that life plans and lifestyles don’t have to be altered–we need to hold on to that throne!  In a strange way, this is also how in vitro fertilization works.  Herod was willing to kill many in an attempt to get the one.  IVF causes many to die in an attempt to get the one.  It creates many human lives, fully human embryos, that are willfully and purposely discarded, dissected, or endlessly frozen, just to get the desired child.  All of this is the spirit of King Herod.

    Herod, though, whether he be the wicked king of Gospel history or the Old Adam in you and me, is unable to stop the work of the Savior.  The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it.  The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream to warn him: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13).  Like his namesake in the Old Testament, this Joseph goes down to Egypt to guarantee that there will be the bread of life for a world starved for the righteousness of God.  

    Herod, like Pharaoh in the days of Moses, seeks to wipe out every man-child who might be the Redeemer of God’s people—but to no avail.  The infant Savior is Himself saved by the providence of God.  The little Lord Jesus is rescued by God the Father for another day, that Good Friday prefigured and foreshadowed in the slaughter of the Holy Innocents.  On that day, the Holy and Innocent One would be set upon by another Herod, by Pontius Pilate, by high priests, by Jews and Gentiles, in order to save us from our sin.  On that day came about the true slaughter of the Holy Innocent, the Lord Christ slain so that we guilty ones would be declared righteous.  And on the third day afterward, God fulfilled His Word by raising His Son from the grave, for “out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:15).  In Jesus you also are raised up with Him as His new Israel.

    Ponder what a marvelous thing it is that the Almighty Son of God made Himself to be all-vulnerable for you.  He endured suffering and violence and sadness to redeem you from all the things that you must endure in this life.  He can truly sympathize with you and help you in your weakness, in the frequent chaos and seeming disorder of this life.  For in the midst of the mess and the heartache, He is ordering all things for your eternal good; there is nothing in all creation that can separate you from His love.

    Brothers and sisters of Christ, you too have been brought out of the Egypt of sin and death with Jesus through your baptism into His death and resurrection.  Rejoice, then, to the extent that you partake in Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.  Commit your souls to Him as to a faithful Creator.  For He is coming again to turn the voice of weeping to laughter and the sound of grieving to dancing.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the departed Rev. Fr. Stephen Wiest for some of the above)

Luke 21:25-36
Advent 2

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    It’s interesting the way Jesus talks about signs in Scripture.  On the one hand, He says that it is an evil and adulterous generation that seeks a sign.  People that need signs to prove God’s existence or to verify the truth of His Word are only exhibiting their unbelief.  If you insist upon a sign or some special experience, if God has to jump through your hoops before you’ll trust Him or follow Him, that only reveals an absence of faith.  Faith is believing without seeing, knowing that you have a trustworthy Source who is speaking to you.  Sign-seeking is adulterous, going after what fulfills your spiritual lusts and desires.  To those who were seeking a sign, Jesus said that the only one they would be given was the sign of Jonah, a man “buried” in the watery depths but who comes forth to a new life on the third day.  Jonah points us to Jesus, whose death and resurrection is our true and ultimate sign, the sign that our sins have been fully paid for, that He has conquered the power of the grave and brings us resurrection and life immortal.  We need nothing more than that Word of good news, the Gospel, to bring us to faith and save us.

    However, to Jesus’ disciples, to those who believe and don’t demand signs, Jesus still actually gives many signs.  Not only did He perform a multitude of miracles in His ministry, signs that proved He truly was the Messiah, not only do we presently see many signs of His loving kindness toward us even in the midst of this fallen and broken world, but He also gives us an abundance of signs of His second coming and the end of this world.

    In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks in particular about signs in creation, in the sun, moon, and stars, and even climate and weather-related signs.  After mentioning the fig tree and all the trees budding, Jesus speaks of the sea and the waves roaring, nations in distress, and people in perplexity as the powers of creation are shaken.  In other words, nature itself will give us signs that the return of Jesus is almost upon us.

    The problem is that unbelief misreads the signs.  This happens all the time; people see the signs in creation, like earthquakes, like variations in climate and weather, like floods and fires and storms and droughts, and instead of reading these things as a call to repentance and to faithful watching for the Lord of creation to return, they see it as a call to political action regarding climate change and to worship creation itself as their lord.  And so the signs don’t help them.  Signs only help the faithful.

    The world misreads the signs, and so they have the wrong diagnosis of the situation.  They know that there’s a problem; they know that things aren’t quite right.  Even unbelievers sense that things are messed up in the world and need to be fixed.  But they misidentify the enemy and the source of the problem, and so they also misidentify the solution.  Virtually every political cause that is out there does this.  For environmentalists, the enemy is fossil fuels and overpopulation.  For feminists, it’s men and the patriarchy.  For socialists, it’s capitalism (and vice versa), for conservatives, it’s progressives (and vice versa), for those feeling oppressed, it’s racial privilege or gender conformity or big corporations or big government.  And the list goes on.  We have this intrinsic spiritual need to set up a system of good and evil that explains why reality is the way it is.  But when we do that apart from God’s Word, we end up with a system that is comprised of half truths (at best), and people end up embracing delusions and lies.  Scripture tells us that the real issue, the real enemies are the devil, the unbelieving world, and our own sinful nature.  But we don’t like that diagnosis.  Because it means that the problem is not just some neatly defined system or group of people that we can blame.  It’s a deeper, spiritual matter, and it involves a sickness that is actually inside every one of us.  Worldly groups and causes only address symptoms and not the disease.  Only Jesus, our coming Lord, gets to the heart of the matter.

    Jesus once commented on people misinterpreting the signs of the times in Luke 12.  He said, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

    Christians know that when creation seems to be coming apart, that’s because it’s a fallen creation, in bondage to decay under the curse of sin.  It’s certainly our responsibility to be good stewards and caretakers of creation, especially for the sake of the generations to come.  But Christians aren’t surprised by the upheavals of creation because they know that this creation is passing away, no matter what we do, as Jesus said, “The heavens and the earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”  Just like us, creation is wearing down and wearing out.  It has to die in order to rise again as the new heavens and the new earth, which God is preparing to be our eternal dwelling with Him.  Romans 8 says, “the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. . .  All creation groans.”  Creation itself trembles with anticipation of Christ’s return, when the hidden things of our salvation will finally be uncovered and brought to fulfillment, and all things will be made new.  Until that day we cling to Jesus’ words, which endure forever, and which will surely deliver what they say.

    So when we see the signs of the end, our reaction as Christians is different from the unbelieving world.  To the faithless, these signs bring pessimism and panic.  Jesus says here that men’s hearts will fail them from fear.  There will be a sense of retreat, that things are spiraling downward.  Our pop culture reflects this with the incredible number of movies and shows that focus on a dystopian future world, after some apocalypse occurs because of disease or war or climate catastrophe.  Creating these scenarios is almost like therapy to deal with this dread of what’s coming.

    Of course, Jesus also warns against another way that people deal try to with this.  He says, “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”  Some people think to themselves, “Hey, everything’s going downhill; I might as well have some fun while I can.  Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”  Indulging in food and drink and pleasure, throwing yourself into your work or your hobby helps you to forget about this looming future.

    But our reaction as believers is quite different.  For these signs are not just pointing to the end but to a new beginning.  And above all they are pointing to the return of our Savior.  Whereas the world is weighed down with anxiety as things come apart, Jesus tells you that when you see these signs, “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  These signs are actually good news in that they point us to Him.  We can have peace even in the midst of the chaos, because we know what this is all leading to.  We can deny ourselves the sinful pleasures of this world, because we know there is much greater joy and holy delight to come in the presence of our gracious Lord.  Your future is assured in Jesus.  Your merciful Lord is coming.  Your redemption is drawing near.

    That’s really how we should think of the Last Day, not as doomsday, not only as Judgment day, but as Redemption Day.  It’s a good day that is coming, “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” as Malachi puts it–great for those who are in Christ, dreadful for those who aren’t.  Judgment day has already taken place for us.  For we are baptized into Christ, and He bore all of the judgment against our sin on the cross, on that great and dreadful day, Good Friday.  Remember that there were great signs in creation on that day: the sun was darkened for three hours, and the earth quaked at the death of the Son of God.  For the curse on this old creation was broken, and a new creation was dawning in Christ.  As a result of that, Romans 8 says that we are  “eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”  So the punishment and the condemnation is all done for you now.  It’s all taken care of.  You’re redeemed by the blood of Christ.  It’s just a matter of time before your Redeemer returns to reveal that truth before the world, so that you may enjoy it in all its fullness.

    Jesus urges you today in the Gospel, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Lift up your heads in watchfulness and prayer, keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.  For it is only through Him that you are worthy; it is only through Him that you can stand in the final Judgment without fear.  Psalm 130 prays, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?”  Not a single one of us could.  However, the psalm continues, “But with you, Lord, there is forgiveness.  Therefore you are revered.”  Jesus Himself makes you worthy to stand tall in His presence, not in pride because of your merits but because of His cleansing forgiveness, poured out upon you in your baptism.

    So raise your heads, then, and lift up your hearts to see the tremendous sign that the Lord is giving to you today: the holy Sacrament of the Altar.  To the unbeliever it doesn’t seem like anything all that important.  But to you who believe and are baptized, it is a marvelous sign.  For it assures you that the One who comes to you now hiddenly with His body and blood for your forgiveness will come again visibly on the clouds with power and great glory to deliver you.  It is written, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

Luke 19:28-40
Advent 1

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    Psalm 24 says, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?  Or who may stand in His holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”  Well that doesn’t sound like very good news, does it?  That description excludes us all.  Whose hands haven’t been stained by selfish actions?  Whose heart hasn’t been polluted by covetous desires?  God’s Word is clear in Romans 3, “None is righteous, no, not one. . . All have turned aside; together they have become corrupt.. .  They use their tongues to deceive.”  You have no righteousness of yourself, in spite of your best efforts.  Isaiah 64 says that even all of our own supposedly “righteous” deeds are like filthy rags before God.  

   How, then, can any of us ever expect to enter into God’s presence?  The answer and the solution to that problem is revealed in today’s OT reading, where Jeremiah prophesies that the coming Messiah, Jesus, will be called “The Lord Our Righteousness.”  That’s where your righteousness is to be found, in Jesus alone.  Only He has clean hands and a pure heart.  Only He has the right to ascend the hill of the Lord and to stand in His holy place.  So it is that in today’s Gospel we see Jesus going up to Jerusalem–where He would cleanse the temple, where He would redeem us by His holy cross on Calvary’s hill.  His clean hands and His pure heart were pierced for us to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Trusting in Christ, His righteousness becomes our own.  Romans 4 says that to the one who believes in Him, “his faith is counted as righteousness.”  So, we are able to ascend the hill of the Lord and to stand in His holy place solely by Jesus’ merit.  That’s why we begin nearly every service with confession and absolution.  Holding to Jesus and His mercy, we are purified and accepted into the Father’s presence to worship Him.  For Christ the Lord is our righteousness.

    Today, at the beginning of a new church year, we celebrate again this holy, Christ-centered truth.  We begin once more to recount the true story of salvation in Jesus.  Rehearsing His life and His teaching is the heartbeat of our life.  It’s the way we grow up into His righteousness and get ready for the life of the world to come.  

    Still, it might seem strange that we start out the Advent season by picking up the salvation story so far into it, at the beginning of Holy Week!  You might expect that we’d start at the beginning of Jesus’ life, with more Christmas-y type readings.  But you actually get very little of that in Advent.  For the way the church recounts this story is not purely chronological.  Advent is a season of penitent preparation for Christ’s coming.  Advent begins the same way Holy Week begins to remind us that you can’t disconnect Jesus’ birth from Jesus’ cross.  His coming into the world is inseparably linked to His dying for the world.  Today’s Gospel reading shows us that our Lord comes in lowliness and humility, whether it’s in a manger or on a beast of burden.  As it is written, “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey.”  

    Notice how your King doesn’t merely do an obligatory gesture from on high as He passes by, waving and keeping a safe distance from you.  Rather it says that He comes to you, right to where you’re at, past all the facades to the way things really are with you.  He comes to you humbly, on your level, even to the point of sharing in your flesh and blood, to give you mercy, to rescue you and deliver you, to be your life and your help.  Since He comes in this lowly way, you are called to do as the people did here and lay your garments on the road before Him, which means to cast off the works of darkness in your life.  Let your sins be cast aside; lay them down so that He may trample them underfoot.  Humble yourself through repentance, and then through faith in Christ put on His armor of light, walking properly as in the day.

    We see in Luke’s Palm Sunday narrative that there is, actually, a very nice connection here to Christmas.  Perhaps you noticed it when the Gospel was being read.  At Jesus’ birth the angels praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!”   And here, the multitude of the disciples praise God saying, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”  The song of heaven becomes the song of earth.  Angels sing of peace on earth; humans sing of peace in heaven.  But that’s really just two sides of the same coin.  For in Jesus heaven and earth are brought together, since He is God and man together Himself.  By becoming man our Lord Jesus brings peace on earth.  Then Christ reconciles us to the Father by offering Himself up as the sacrifice for our sins.  There is literally peace in heaven as the crucified and risen Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, and God and man are reunited eternally through the power of His blood.  This is what brings glory in the highest; this is the glory of God the Father, to give His Son for us that we might live with Him in gladness and peace forever.

    One of the things that stands out in this Gospel reading is the detailed information Jesus gives about getting this donkey colt.  Here our Lord demonstrates not just that He knows all things, but that He has carefully planned for this day.  Scripture says that the kingdom of God has been prepared for you even from the foundation of the world, and here we see the Lord carrying out His mission to save you in precise detail.  

    And in particular, we see how important this specific donkey colt is.  It is a colt on which no one has ever sat.  For not just anyone can accomplish this mission; only Jesus can redeem us.  Only He is worthy to be seated on this beast of burden and to bear the burden of our brokenness all the way to the cross.  This colt is to be unloosed and released and brought to Jesus; for our Lord has come to unloose and release us stubborn donkeys from our bondage to death and the devil, so that we may serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

    What happens in today’s Gospel is in fulfillment of a prophecy that goes all the way back to Genesis 49.  There it says that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah.”  In other words, the Messiah King, Jesus, will come from the tribe of Judah.  And then it says of the Messiah, “Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes.”  This means that the One who rides this colt does so in order to pour out His blood to atone for the sins of the world.  It is this very blood that is poured out in wine for us in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar.  The King is still coming to us humbly in the Lord’s Supper to save us.  And we are still carrying on the hymn of the people outside of Jerusalem as we sing in the communion liturgy, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!

    Jesus rides this new colt on which no one has ever sat, and then He is buried in a new tomb hewn out of the rock in which no one had ever lain before.  For there also He will do what no one else can do and conquer the power of the grave for us by His bodily resurrection.  And it all will begin with Jesus being laid in a manger which had never been used as a cradle before.  For who would put their baby in a cattle feeder?  Only the humble and lowly Jesus would do these things for us and for our salvation.  There is none other like Him.  There is no other Savior.

    Of course, some will not believe this.  Some are looking for a more glorious Lord, one who brings success and prosperity and worldly honor.  The Pharisees here actually tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples who are praising Him.  For these Pharisees simply cannot accept that one so common as Him could be the promised King, and they are afraid of shaking up the Roman order and their place in it.  Do not be led astray and deceived by those who think this way, who are scandalized by suffering, who want the crown of gold without the crown of thorns.  Rather, embrace Him who embraced your humanity fully to redeem you, who is at work even in the midst of your lowliness and your suffering to bring you to share in His resurrection glory.

    And finally, remember what Jesus says here, that if the people would have kept silent, the very stones would have cried out in praise of Him!  John the Baptist also had preached that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.  That is a reminder that all praise truly belongs to the Lord for our salvation.  For we could do nothing to come to Him.  Until He came to us, we were like stones, cold and lifeless under the curse.  But then by His advent, He brought us to life and built us into His own special dwelling, His holy church.  Because Jerusalem rejected the Messiah, they would be destroyed by the Romans, and not one stone would be left upon another, Jesus said.  But for us who believe and are baptized, it is written in 1 Peter 2, “Coming to (Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  All of you together are the Lord’s holy temple.  You are those who proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  

    So we enter into this new church year, then, let us continually join in with those who praised Jesus as He entered into Jerusalem.  For your King is coming to you.  He is righteous and having salvation.  “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

Matthew 25:1-13
Last Sunday of the Church Year

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    Why is it that you want to go to heaven?  Serious question.  You might say, “Well, obviously, I don’t want to go to hell, so heaven is clearly the better option.”  OK, but aside from avoiding punishment, what is it about heaven that makes you want to go there and to be there?  There is this notion that it will be good and happy.  So that’s nice.  On the other hand, there’s also this notion that it may not be as exciting as some of the things we enjoy on this earth.  Heaven is all holy and stuff, so you better have your fun now while you’re still here.  “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.”  This is actually a good way for you to do a little spiritual self-diagnosis:  What is it that might make you want to put off heaven or the second coming of Jesus?  What is it that would make you want to tell God to hold off for a little bit; I’ve got something else I’m really looking forward to first.  Whatever that is, even if it’s a good thing, it has become an idol in your heart and a false god in your life.

    So again, what’s going to make heaven so great?  Actually, the Bible never really talks about “going to heaven” as the primary goal of the Christian.  To be sure, God’s Word clearly teaches that the souls of those who die in the faith go to be with the Lord.  But there is still much more that God has prepared and planned.  The truth of Scripture is expressed in the Creed, when we say that we look for the “resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.”  Our real hope is tangible, fleshly, and focused on the Last Day.  On that final day, we won’t be going to heaven, heaven will be coming to us.  With the return of Christ, heaven and earth will be rejoined and all creation will be made new through Him and in Him.  What we set our hearts on is bodily resurrection.

    It is as the Old Testament reading said, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth  . . .  No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. . .  The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”  Notice there that eternity is described in physical terms, a new creation.  It will be a world where no aging person is wondering why they’re still here, where no family is ever gathered around a hospital bed or coffin, a world where even in the animal kingdom there will be no more blood-red teeth or claws.  God’s plan for this creation will not be delayed forever.  It will become what He intended it to be in the beginning: a world without fear, without sin, without death.

    But is even that really our ultimate goal, simply to have a pleasant place to exist for eternity?  No, what truly makes the life of the world to come so good–and this is what we often forget–is that there we will be in communion with God Himself, living forever in the overflow of His lovingkindness.   It is written in Revelation, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. . .  God Himself will be with them and be their God.”  Why do we want to have our share in the resurrection of the body to eternal life?  To be with Jesus.  That’s where it’s at.  Being together with Him, sharing in the life of our Redeemer is what it’s all about.  Only through Him is anything truly good and right.  Just beholding the glory of God face to face will far surpass any earthly experience.  In Him is perfect peace and contentment and gladness.  If your idea of heaven isn’t centered in life with Christ, if it’s primarily about a place that fulfills all your own personal dreams, you’re missing the point.  What makes eternal life to be real living is the presence of your Creator and Lord.

     So it’s no wonder, then, that the final prayer in the Bible and the constant prayer of the church is “Come, Lord Jesus!”  That is our faith’s greatest desire, to be with Him, in an even greater way than we desire to be with loved ones for the holidays that we haven’t seen for a long time, or even to see believing loved ones who have died and are with Christ.  We seek something even more than that.  When the sorrows and the fears of this world press hard against us, and we don’t know if we can hold up much longer, we pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!” When change and decay in all around we see, and it seems as if the very foundations are being shaken, we pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!” When we feel the devastating effects of our own sinful flesh, we pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!  Come quickly to deliver us!”  Or as the Psalmist prayed, “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)

    By faith we long for that Day, but we know from Scripture that it will not be a day of joy for everyone. There are those who are unprepared for it, who really don’t welcome it.  Many would see Jesus’ return as an unwelcome disturbance of their plans, who love this world and don’t want to let go of it.  For them that Day will come like a thief in the night bringing sudden destruction, and there will be no escape. To meet that day without faith in the Savior and love for being with Him is to meet it as the Day of Doom.

    What made the wise virgins truly wise in this parable was that nothing was more important to them than being with the Bridegroom.  Everything else was secondary.  It was all about Him.  For the foolish, being with the Bridegroom was just another thing to squeeze in with the other priorities of life–if possible.  And so the wise were well prepared, while the foolish were unprepared.

    Having faith in the Savior and wanting to be with Him is the main point of today’s Gospel parable.  Those who were wise staked everything on Him.  The lamps of the 10 virgins are the Word of God, as Psalm 119 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet.”  The oil in the lamp is the Holy Spirit who works through the Word and the Sacraments to create faith in Christ and keep the flame of faith burning brightly.  Because the foolish virgins gave little attention to the Word of God and the Sacraments, their flames went out; their faith died.  And they ended up being shut of the wedding feast, shut out of life in the new creation forever, even hearing the Lord say those horrifying words, “I do not know you.”  That’s a description of hell right there–hearing Jesus say that He doesn’t know you and that you can’t be with Him; all that’s left is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    The five foolish ones did not endure in the faith to the end. They thought the bare minimum was enough; but tragically, it wasn’t.  It’s not God’s fault.  The doors are open.  And God eagerly and gladly supplies everything necessary–oil in abundance, free of charge, no strings attached, all paid for and provided by Christ.  There is not one soul for whom God’s Son did not shed His blood.  There is not one human life whose sins were not atoned for on Golgotha’s wood.  There is not one human being whose death wasn’t destroyed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of you are forgiven and redeemed entirely for the sake of Christ.  All of you are on the invitation list for the wedding feast.

    Your heavenly Father longs to be with you.  Much more than our desire for God is His desire for us.  That’s really the whole point of being at church, isn’t it?–to be with God and He with you, concretely, tangibly, in the flesh.  He delights in you through Jesus and wants you to be with Him.  Christ shares in your humanity so that you may share in His divine glory.  By His external, preached Word, God keeps you in the faith, lamps burning brightly all the way through to the end.

    To the foolish all the church stuff may seem unnecessary.  What's the point of having so much oil?  But in other matters of life that is exactly how everyone would expect you to behave.  When you are going somewhere without a source of electricity, you make sure that your phone and your devices are charged, or that you’ve brought along some sort of extra charging device.  When you’re going on a big cruise or trip, you make sure you’re all packed up the night before and that you arrive at the airport early.  Young brides-to-be will often spend countless hours shopping for dresses, trying on make-up, consulting with their hairstylist, deciding on menus and flowers, preparing for a wedding.  Doesn’t it make perfect sense then to be even better prepared for the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom?  

    The extra oil of the wise is a reminder that faith never thinks in the way of having the bare minimum, any more than you would want to spend the least amount of time possible with someone you love.  Why wouldn’t you want to receive communion every week?  Being with Christ in divine service and being with Christ in eternity go together, and the cause of joy is the same in both cases–His presence, His mercy.  This is what makes the wise so single-minded:  You know that the One who is coming is the true, heavenly Groom who is perfect love in the flesh, the One who “gave Himself up for His beloved church, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water and the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, . . . holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26-27).  

    We eagerly watch for the Last Day, for when St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he told them that God did not destine them for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.  That holds true for you too who believe and are baptized.  You are not destined for wrath, but for life with Christ.  The Introit proclaims, “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads . . . and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”  And Christ declares in the Old Testament reading, “I will joy in My people.”  That’s a description of heaven right there, the Lord rejoicing in you!  Anyone who thinks that’s going to be boring, or that something else might be more important or exciting simply doesn’t have a clue.  The Lord’s passion and desire for you is that you may live with Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

    So listen to the call:  “Behold the Bridegroom is coming; go out to meet Him!”  Go out with the brightly burning lamps of faith in the present darkness of this world.  Be filled by the Holy Spirit with Jesus’ words and body and blood.  Possess these life-giving gifts in abundance from the Lord.  And as you go out to meet Jesus here in divine service week by week, then it will be no disturbance of your plans at all, but a most natural and joyous thing, when you go out to meet Him on the Last Day.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to William Weedon)

2 Peter 3:3-14
Trinity 26

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

    Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the path that sinners take, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.”  One of the defining characteristics of the ungodly is that they are scoffers, mockers.  They revel in making fun of stuff.  They delight in tearing down the good gifts of God and His teaching and the things that make for order and peace in our lives, and they do little to build up what is good and right.  This is the content of much of today’s comedy and entertainment, mocking and scoffing and doing parodies of people and institutions, and then walking away and blaming others for the rubble that remains.  Hidden beneath the mockery is an unbelieving heart.  

    Now that’s not to say that all scoffing is wrong.  Some mockery actually flows from faith.  In the Old Testament the prophet Elijah famously mocked the prophets of Baal as they danced around their altar and called on their god to send down fire on their sacrifice.  Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.  Maybe he’s on the toilet!”  Idolatry in all its forms is to be mocked, along with the foolishness of those who oppose God’s ways.  Psalm 2 speaks of how, when God looks down at all the scheming and politicking of the rulers of this world, as if they’re the ones in control, the Lord laughs at them and scorns them.

    But in particular, the Scriptures warn us to be prepared to be on the receiving end of ridicule because of who we are as the people of God.  You’re going to have a hard time being a Christian in this world if you’re going to be worried about what people say about you, if you’re trying to remain popular with the secular and pagan folks who are around you.  
 
    Peter reminds us in today’s Epistle that scoffers will come in the last days, saying things like, “You actually believe that accounts in the Bible like the flood are historically accurate?  You actually think that what the Bible says about sexuality and sin and repentance still applies to today?  You actually profess faith in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus, and that Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead?  I mean, come on, it’s been 2000 years now.  Where is He?  Aren’t your beliefs just a little bit backward and superstitious?  You only cling to all that because you’re weak-minded.”  Notice how Peter states that they say all this because they walk “according to their own lusts.”  Their way of life is to follow their own desires and appetites and wisdom.  The notion of a God who might one day judge them doesn’t fit in very well with the way they want to live.  And so they deal with that by scoffing at the Christian faith, mocking it and making fun of it as stupid or hateful.

    But Peter goes on to point out that they do this by willfully forgetting the truth.  They purposely ignore reality in order to justify themselves.  That is why those who object to Christian teaching are becoming increasingly bold and condescending in their speech–it takes a lot of passion and effort to fight against what you know deep down is true.  St. Paul speaks in Romans 1 about how the unrighteous “suppress the truth” that is clearly evident in creation.  Unbelief pushes the truth down and out of the mind so that people can rationalize the way they think and act.

    All of this is not unlike how it was in the days before the flood.  Genesis 6 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”   And so the flood came.  But before that it took Noah many years to build the ark.  In the meantime the Scriptures say he was a “preacher of righteousness,” warning people of the coming judgment.  But no one paid attention.  They surely mocked him for his building project.  It is written in Luke 17, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married . . . until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”  Peter reminds us that there is another judgment coming, this time not by water but by fire.

    So even though you may be growing weary in trying to live like a Christian, even if you’re tired of being made to feel like an outsider, resist the temptation to just give in, to go along with the mindset of the culture, to adopt its self-absorbed way of living, to compromise your beliefs because that’s what you’ve got to do to get by or to get ahead.  The daily barrage can entice us all to believe the lies, to question or just give up on God’s Word.

    Peter here offers you some encouragement.  He reminds you first of all that the Lord’s delay is not a sign that He’s forgotten about you or that the promise of His return is empty.  Rather, it’s a sign of His great mercy.  He is patient and longsuffering with us sinners, not wanting anyone to perish eternally.  He gives us all time to repent.  It is written that the Lord is “slow to anger.”  He’s not like us, with a short fuse when things don’t go our way.  He’s not looking for a reason to let us have it.  Rather, He is “abounding in steadfast love,” wanting all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  So if you hear someone ridiculing a belief in the second coming, or if you find yourself beginning to question it, remember that in the Lord’s delay we see His patient mercy.  The only reason the world continues on each day is because of His love for fallen human beings.

    Our Lord patiently suffered for us, which included His being mercilessly mocked and ridiculed.  Think of Jesus being slapped around before the Sanhedrin, blindfolded and told to prophesy who it was that hit Him.  Think of Him being dressed up as a king complete with a crown of thorns and being offered mock praise.  Think of Him on the cross, being taunted with chants of how He should come down if He really was the Messiah.  On Good Friday Jesus was treated as a fool in order to deliver us from our foolishness and vindicate us who believe in Him and deliver us from judgment.  The sentence has been served for you.  Jesus took your punishment completely.  It is finished.  And since it’s all been accomplished and taken care of, that means that the Lord can wait, and so can we.  There is no hurry.  For God’s wrath has already been appeased.  Your redemption is won in Christ through the blood that He shed. You are safe and forgiven and put right with God.  You have nothing to fear.

    And here’s another thing to remember: what seems like a dreadfully long time to us is just a blink of an eye to the Lord.  One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day to Him.  We must always be careful to look at things from His eternal perspective and be patient, even as He is.

    Still, there will come a point when the time of mercy, when the opportunity for repentance will end.  “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,” suddenly and unexpectedly on the world, as did the flood.  On that last day it is written here that the whole universe will be incinerated and will pass away with a great noise–the real big bang.  The elements of this sin-cursed old creation will melt and fully degrade and expire to make way for the rising new creation to come.  Specifically, Peter says that the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  All of our greatest works and achievements, all that human hands have made will be consumed, evaporated, gone.

    Therefore, since that is what is going to happen, how should we be conducting ourselves?  Should we be setting our hearts on the stuff of this world, or the status and power that comes with being honored by others and not mocked by them?  Why be completely wrapped up in what doesn’t last?  This is no time for complacency and spiritual laziness.  Rather, says Peter, since the last day is fast approaching, conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness and love toward others.  Look for and live for the day of His return.  

    The Epistle draws this all together when it says, “According to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”   We await our bodily resurrection in that place which our Lord Jesus is preparing for us, a real, tangible world in which righteousness dwells.  For He, the Righteous One is there.  No more will there be stomach-turning news reports.  No more will we have to deal with our own frustrating fallen nature.  For all things will be made permanently right and good and new in that Day.  All scoffing will be done, all mockers cast out, and there will be only perfect praise and reveling in God’s glory.

    And even now, the Scriptures say, you are already new in Christ, for you have been baptized into Him who is immortal and incorruptible.  You have been saved from judgment through water.  Just as Noah and His family and the animals entered in through the side of the ark, so also you have found refuge in the side of Christ, from which the blood and the water flowed for your cleansing and your redemption.  You are the ones the Gospel speaks of who are at the Jesus’ right hand.  To you He will say, “Come, you blessed of My Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  

    Let us then pray daily for our Lord’s return.  Let us look for His coming, especially as He comes to us hiddenly now in the holy supper.  Our Lord says in Revelation, “Surely I am coming quickly.”  We say with all the saints who have gone before us, “Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20)

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Matthew 24:1-28
Trinity 25, 3rd Last Sunday in the Church Year

In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit

    The temple area in Jerusalem used to be a truly impressive display of architecture and engineering.  In the years before Jesus’ birth, King Herod had engaged in a multi-decade project turning the entire temple mount into a place rivaling the glories of Rome, with dozens of huge colonnades and porticos and archways and structures surrounding the temple.  And the temple itself was also renovated and upgraded by Herod, with white marble and gold and bronze entrance doors.  It was said that you couldn’t look directly at the temple in full sunlight or it would practically blind you. The disciples were impressed by all this glory, and they pointed it out to Jesus.

    However, Jesus bursts their bubble.  The glories of this present world, even of the temple itself, were passing away.  Jesus, who is the eternal temple, the dwelling place of God in the flesh, tells them that those huge, expertly-crafted, marvelously-placed stones would all be destroyed and thrown down, not one stone left upon another.  This must have been a shocking thing for the disciples to hear, and it gets them to thinking about big apocalyptic things, like the end of the age.

    That’s what Jesus wants us to do, too, especially as we begin to wind down to the end of the church year.  Now is the time for us to ponder ultimate and eternal things and not just what is impressive in this world.  We, too, can rightly marvel at amazing feats of architecture, like the ancient pyramids, medieval and renaissance church buildings, modern stadiums and skyscrapers.  We, too, can be amazed at technological wonders like GPS and AI and rockets that can go into orbit and then return and land with precision at a tower that catches it.  But lest we get too full of ourselves and what humans can achieve, Jesus bursts our bubble and gives us a dose of reality.  It’s all going to be thrown down and destroyed–including even this building, including the things you’ve built up in your life–all of it.  Don’t get too caught up in temporary wonders and accomplishments, or you’ll go down with them.

    Jesus gives several signs which are intended to keep us focused on the main thing, the big picture of life with Him.  The events that led up to the cataclysmic destruction of the temple are a microcosm of what will happen to the whole world in the last days.  And so Jesus talks about both of these things together.

    First, Jesus says that in the last days, you should watch out for false Messiahs and false prophets so that you are not deceived by them.  Whether it’s Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormon “latter-day saints” or Muslims or Hindus or generic spiritual gurus, they all present a false Christ–not the historical person who is truly God in the flesh, who died on the cross as the sacrifice to atone for all sin, not the one who is risen in the flesh as the only Lord and Redeemer, but some person of their own invention.  Even within the church there are some who lead people away from the Christ-centered truth of Scripture to the deceitful wisdom of man.  So be on guard; pay attention to doctrine.  Be sure that you are receiving the Bread of Life and not the junk food of false teaching.

    Next, Jesus speaks of wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, of famines and pestilence and earthquakes.  Sounds a bit like our nightly newscasts, doesn’t it?  Conflicts are occurring and brewing from Russia to China to right here at home.  And nature itself is often in upheaval, as we saw with the recent hurricane.  Yet all these things, Jesus says, are just the beginning of the birth pains.  

    Now when labor pains come, what do the parents do?  They get everything ready for the delivery.  They head to the hospital.  They focus on the new life about to come into the world.  So what do we do when we see these signs?  When everything looks like it’s coming apart wherever we turn, too often we get anxious and fearful and cynical.  But Jesus gives us the signs of the end not so that we’ll focus worriedly on those troubling events but on Him whom the signs are pointing us to.  Just like birth pains, these signs are meant as a wake-up call.  Get ready!  New life is about to come.  We don’t know exactly when–labor is sometimes short, sometimes long.  But one thing we know for sure: Jesus is returning soon.  And that’s a good thing!  So you’re in the right place, this hospital, this divine service.  Do the spiritual lamaze of breathing in and breathing out His holy words.  Receive the medicine of immortality in the Sacrament of the Altar to strengthen your hearts.  Don’t dwell on how everything is crumbling down.  Rather, keep your eyes fixed on Him who is building up and bringing in the new creation for you, even in this moment.

    It’s important to do this, because Jesus says that Christians will be hated and killed for the sake of His name.  How’s that for an evangelism message?  “Come and die with us.”  Those who love the lies and the false promises of this world hate those who hold firmly to Christ and His words of truth.  So don’t be surprised at how violently irrational this could get.  Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first.”  You are given to be like your Lord and to walk the way of His cross.

    Be prepared for this, so that you don’t stumble and fall away from the faith.  Jesus says here, “Many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”  Former Christians will turn on those who were once their brothers and sisters.  And on a larger scale our Lord says, “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”  Sometimes lawlessness is accomplished (ironically) by using legal levers of power.  What greater example could there be of love growing cold than the majority voting for the legal ability to kill innocent unborn children?  Why are people so motivated to maintain this “right” to slaughter defenseless human beings?  It’s because of the sexual lawlessness that abounds in our porn-saturated culture.  When it comes right down to it, sexual freedom is more highly prized in this country than the human life it conceives.  Lawlessness and cold-heartedness go hand in hand.

    However, not all of Jesus’ signs are bad news.  The last sign He speaks of is very good news, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”  Missionary work is a sign of the last days!  Even in the midst of the chaos and disorder of this fallen world, the new world is already breaking in through the preaching of the Gospel.  The kingdom of God is coming right now by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  His kingdom is in our midst wherever two or three are gathered in His name, assembled around His words and body and blood, receiving His forgiveness and life and salvation by faith.  The fact that you have gathered like this today is a witness to the nations of the presence of God’s kingdom and the sure hope you have in His mercy.  In this world of upheaval and constant change, you know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  You can count on Him who is your Rock and your Fortress.  Jesus gives you this promise, “He who endures to the end shall be saved.”

    That’s what you are called to do: endure.  Continue to hold on to Christ and His promises.  For they will come to pass.  Wait with patience for His return.  For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  When you see all these signs that He speaks of, know that Jesus is close at hand.  The very gates of heaven are about to be opened in the sight of all.  His glory will soon be revealed to us and in us.  The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of the living God.  You can endure with confidence because your victory is assured in the crucified One.

    And that brings us finally to this mention of the “abomination of desolation” in the Gospel.  Israel, of course, was under Roman rule in Jesus’ day.  And the Romans demonstrated their dominion by placing their image upon the lands they ruled, the image of the eagle.  The eagle insignia was even attached to the front of the temple.  For the Jew, these graven images were an abomination and idolatry, something like a swastika.  Eventually a large Jewish rebellion arose against Rome in 66 A.D., one which would be crushed in the following years.  Jesus said in Luke 21, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.”  The sign of the eagle arrived in force with these Roman armies.  They entered into the temple, burned it, and tore it down in 70 AD–the abomination that brings desolation.  Wherever the corpse is–the dead bodies of war–there the Roman eagles were gathered together.

    And yet we can see that there is a greater meaning to these words of Jesus.  For just as the destruction of Jerusalem foreshadows Jesus’ return in glory, it also points back to Jesus’ death in dishonor.  “Wherever the corpse is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”  Didn’t Jesus die at the hands of the Romans–Pontius Pilate who condemned Him, the soldiers who flogged Him, the centurion who stood guard at Golgotha with his troops?  The sign of the eagle was certainly there as the corpse of Jesus was taken down from the cross.  The real abomination of desolation was that God incarnate was crucified under the authority of Caesar. And the holy of holies, Christ’s body, was violated as a Roman spear pierced Him and the sacrificial blood of the Lamb of God was poured out.  And yet precisely because Jesus endured this great tribulation, because He underwent this greatest of suffering at the hands of the powerful for you, the tribulation that you must endure will not be your undoing.  Your powerful enemies, Satan and sin and the grave, have all been conquered by the greater insignia, the sign of the cross.  Marked with that sign in baptism, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:28).  For the sake of the elect, the days of tribulation have been shortened–for your sake.  They are temporary.  Then have an end in Christ.  “See, I have told you beforehand,” Jesus says.  He has prepared you for this.  He will see you through it.

    So it’s no longer about corpses and eagles for us.  Now we rejoice to say, “Wherever the risen body of Jesus Christ is, there the sheep will be gathered together.”  We assemble at His table where our hearts are stirred up to love by His forgiving presence.  His coming is hidden now, but not on the Last Day.  “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”  Remember how the angel at Jesus’ tomb had a countenance like lightning.  When he descended from heaven there was a great earthquake as he rolled away the stone.  Imagine, then, what an earth-shaking, radiant event it will be when the Lord returns with the whole angelic host, when your grave is opened, and you share bodily in Jesus’ resurrection.  So it is that we pray with the whole church, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
    
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit