Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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The season of Epiphany is all about the revealing of “the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ,” as St. Paul puts it. (2 Cor. 4:6). The word ‘epiphany’ literally means, ‘bring light.’ On Christmas, the ‘bright light’ of the glory of God came into this world, but it was all wrapped up in flesh and swaddling clothes and if it weren’t for those angels and their ‘bright light’ telling the shepherds where to go and what they’d find, you’d swear it was just another baby.

After the ‘Christmas rush’ dies down and all the family goes back home and the last of the pine needles are finally vacuumed up, life gets back to normal. That’s the way it was for the holy family. Other than a visit from some strangers from the East, a couple of visits to the Temple and a trip to Egypt, there’s really not much to report.

For 30 years, God was in the flesh, dwelling among us, and no one knows, no one sees it. Can you imagine growing up with Jesus and never knowing who He is? You sat right next to Him in 3rd grade. He was your lab partner in biology. Your fishing buddy, and that coffee table in your living room, he made it – and WHO KNEW?

But then 30 years after Christmas, He comes to the Jordan to be baptized, and the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends on Him and a voice from above declares, “You are my Son, with You I am well pleased.” And a strange man named John points his boney finger at Him and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

And lots of people said, “Well I’ll be. I never would have guessed.” But then the light goes on. THAT’S ‘EPIPHANY.’ ‘Epiphany’ is the OMG moment that people have when they ‘SEE’ what had been right in front of them all along but they had never ‘SEEN’ it. It’s the moment when suddenly old Eli the priest realizes that the voice that the child Samuel keeps hearing is the voice of the Lord calling him. It’s the moment that Samuel hears the voice a third time and says, “Speak, for your servant listens.”

It’s ‘EPIPHANY’ moment when a man named Nathanael, who hasn’t been able to process this stranger from Nazareth, and then suddenly the ‘LIGHT GOES ON,’ “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

All along, the Corinthians had always believed, ‘it’s my body. I can do with it as I please.’ But then their pastor said to them, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” “Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?” “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” Continue reading →

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‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

“Formless and void.” “Tohu wah vohu” in the Hebrew, which sounds like beautiful poetry, but “formless and void” is anything but beautiful. No shape AND no content. It doesn’t get worse than that. Its chaos squared.

Even if you had ‘CONTENT,’ ‘something,’ there’s nothing to contain the ‘something’ so it goes everywhere and there’s nothing you can do with it. And even if you had ‘FORM,’ ‘shape,’ every ‘form’ is ‘empty,’ utterly ‘void.’

It’s like being in a room that is completely dark because there is no such thing as a lightbulb to hold the light and even if there was, there’s no light to put into the bulb. Oh, and there’s no room either and so there’s no way to be ‘in’ the room – or anywhere.

“Formless and void” is ‘disorder’ multiplied by ‘meaningless,’ because how can there be any ‘order’ where there’s no ‘form’? And how can there be ‘meaning’ when everything is ‘empty.’

And for a lot of people, this is beginning to sound like a description of their life – and maybe you’re one of them. “Without form and void.”

So, what do we do when ‘without form and void’ is the assessment of my life? We do what king Solomon did. We create ‘form’ and then fill that ‘form’ with as much content as we can possibly stuff into it, because we do not like to be “without form and void.”

For Solomon, the ‘FORM’ he tried to create was something like, “the perfect life” however you define that. We define the ‘perfect life’ by all those “perfect lives” on your Instagram and Facebook accounts. “They look so happy and their lives seem so perfect. Not like mine that is for sure.”

Then Solomon set out to FILL the FORM with as much “wisdom” and “self-indulgence” and “work” and “wealth” and “wives” as he could cram into the FORM.

But in the end when Solomon examines his life, it was ‘tohu wah vohu.’ “Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’” Which is just another way of saying, “Without form and void.” Continue reading →

sermon12-31-17

In our Epistle reading, we heard the Christmas story according to St. Paul. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Gal.4:4,5).

On Christmas Eve, we heard St. Matthew’s countdown from Abraham to “Jesus who is called Christ” – each generation filling the glass a little bit more until it finally reached “fullness.”

We heard St. John extend the countdown all the way back to ‘the beginning’ when “the Word was with God and the word was God.” Time reached its FULLNESS when “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

And we heard St. Luke remind us that it was “in those days in which a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” that the time reached its fullness. (Luke 2:1)

It is remarkable when you think about it really. All four agree that the entire history of the world, from the great ‘world changing’ events to the most mundane thing that no one ever noticed, the almighty God was moving ‘all things’ along the course that He determined in the beginning, even from eternity to send His Son into the world “to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

I remember from my days in business that there was always a lot of emphasis on effective time management. And the emphasis was always on doing those things that actually matter and not getting distracted by those things that don’t really matter, even though we may prefer to do those things because they’re easy and we like to check the boxes.

But here we see that God is the ultimate ‘time manager.’ He’s not controlled by time – He controls time. He IS involved in all of the little details of life – even the ones that may seem to us to be so trivial or insignificant that you might say, ‘what’s it matter?’ He is involved and directing all of those global, epic events that seem like they change the course of history but that actually all work to the end and purpose that He has set. Continue reading →

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Grace and mercy and peace be to you on the Christmas Eve, from God our Father and the baby born of Mary in the little town of Bethlehem.

“I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

This evening, we have come here to hear once again the Christmas story. And as familiar with it as we may be, we never tire of hearing it because of its sublime beauty.

Tonight, we heard the Christmas story from three perspectives. In the Old Testament readings from Genesis and Isaiah, we heard the Christmas story as it would have been told to those who lived before it happened.

They were like little children who waited anxiously for Christmas day to finally arrive. Their parents and grandparents would have told them the story over and over again about how God had promised that an offspring from the woman would come into this world to crush the head of the devil who had brought darkness and gloom and suffering and death into the world.

Year after year, on nights a lot like tonight, the Old Testament saints 0would have read the Christmas story from the Isaiah’s prophetic telling of it… “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” “To us a child is born, to us a son is given…” Continue reading →

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A little boy wanted to land a part in the school play. He was so excited that his parents were concerned how he would handle it if he didn’t get a part. So when he came home from school they anxiously asked him how the auditions went. The boy was ecstatic. He joyfully told his parents that his teacher had picked him out of all of the other kids to sit in the audience and clap as loud as he could.

I think that John the Baptist would have been wanted to land a part in his school play like that one too.

John was “supporting cast” and definitely not the “lead role.” He was the announcer whose part it was to declare that the time had fully come and the curtain was about to rise. He was the light man whose job was to shine the spotlight on the lead man when He came onto the stage. John’s big line in the divine drama was, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Artwork from the early Church depicts John the Baptist with an overly large mouth and a hyper-extended index finger pointing to Jesus. John was perfectly content to be known as the guy with the “big mouth and the big finger.”

John was born to be a witness. “He came as a WITNESS to bear WITNESS about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear WITNESS about the light.” Continue reading →

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“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

These words mark a significant turning point in the book of Isaiah. Up to this point, the word of the Lord that came to Isaiah was mostly a harsh word of Law and the promise of punishment because “my people” refused to call Him, “their God” and continued to live as though His Word didn’t matter.

Isaiah’ message has been that God is going to use a foreign nation named Babylon to carry out His punishment against “my people” – OUT OF HIS ANGER, yes. (You don’t really think that your rejection doesn’t really bother Him do you or that He doesn’t really care, do you?)

But even more, OUT OF HIS LOVE AND MERCY, because He wants “my people” to REPENT! He wants them to see where their rejection of “their God” is taking them and TURN BACK before the judgment comes. (Because you don’t really that there will be NO judgement for your putting yourself first and other’s second and God last, do you?) Continue reading →

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“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains may quake at your presence – as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!”

YOU SEE WHAT THE PROPHET IS ASKING FOR DON’T YOU? ‘There’s trouble, ‘trouble in River City,’ and Isaiah is imploring God to ‘come down’ and straighten things out. He wants God to ‘come down’ from ‘the heavens’ to set things right, to straighten things out.

Ever prayed a prayer like that? “Come down and straighten things out down here, God.” “Come down and put the fear of God in the terrorists and the drug dealers and the sex traffickers and the crooked politicians – that they may tremble at Your presence and repent and turn and stop.”

Or maybe for you, it’s much more personal than that. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, and heal my disease, cure my friend from her cancer, fix my marriage, get my kid off drugs, get my children to go back to church.”

There’s a sense of desperation in the prophet’s prayer. And maybe you have the same sense in yours. The prophet is asking God to do something DRAMATIC. Let them know that YOU SEE what they’re doing and that they’re not going to get away with it. Make them “TREMBLE AT YOUR PRESENCE.”

YOU SEE WHAT THE PROPHET IS ASKING FOR DON’T YOU? He’s asking for God to put the FEAR OF GOD into those evil and wicked people. And it’s not as if God is above doing that. God can preach with ‘fire and brimstone’ like nobody’s business.

In the days of Moses, God came down onto Mount Sinai and the mountain quaked and there was fire and thick clouds and loud trumpets and all the people were filled with fear and said, “We’ll do whatever you say.” That’s what the ‘fear of God’ does to a person.

And there was that time when the prophet Elijah prayed a prayer just like this one, (or maybe it was this one), and God came down from heaven in a bolt of fire that exploded the altar and everyone got the ‘fear of God’ put in them.

That’s what Isaiah’s asking for here. “When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.” “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down…” Set something on fire, boil some water, shake the mountains. That’ll change people. That’ll fix things.

Isn’t that what we prayed for in our Collect for this first Sunday in Advent? “Stir up Your POWER, O Lord, AND COME, that we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by your MIGHTY deliverance…”

Sounds pretty good doesn’t it. But have you noticed that as we identify all those TARGETS for the Lord to COME DOWN ON, with His POWER and MIGHTY DELIVERANCE, it’s been ‘THEM,’ or ‘HIM’ or ‘HER, or ‘THOSE PEOPLE’?
• Not once have we identified ourselves as the target for God to drop His 30 megaton guided missile on.
• Not once have we identified ourselves as coconspirators in the mess that we are praying for God to REND THE HEAVENS AND COME DOWN and fix.

But that’s just what the prophet does in this prayer. He catches us all with our finger pointed at the evil and wicked people OUT THERE and bends it back around until we’re pointing at ourselves.

“Behold you were angry, and WE sinned; and in OUR sins WE have been a long time, and shall WE be saved? They’re all ‘1st person pronouns.’ Not a ‘2nd person or 3rd person pronoun’ in the bunch. “WE have all become like one who is unclean, and all OUR righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. WE all fade like a leaf, and OUR iniquities, like the wind, take US away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from US, and have made US melt in the hand of OUR iniquities.”

YOU SEE WHAT THE PROPHET IS ASKING DON’T YOU? He’s asking God to “rend the heavens and come down” and put the fear of God into those evil doers and wicked people – and he’s painted a big, red, X right onto our own chest.

It’s only when we understand that the prophet is sending the coordinates for a divine missile strike up to God, and the coordinates he signals are the hearts of GOD’S OWN PEOPLE, that we can begin to understand what the prophet is asking for here.
I’d like to respond to all of this in three ways.

First, positively. What is most certainly true about the human predicament and dilemma is that there is most certainly no way out of it apart from the Lord God Himself coming down from heaven to make things right. The prophet is not asking God to give His people three points or five biblical principles or even 10 Laws, that if they will only follow them, it will fix their lives or their marriages or their children or this world.

“We have all become like one who is unclean…” It’s like grilling a great filet mignon perfectly and as you cut it open its done just the way you like it but then you see that there’s a worm in it. “And all or righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” There’s something rotten on the INSIDE that makes all of our best efforts to save ourselves a ridiculous delusion.

The Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Nazi’s for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. From his prison cell in Buchenwald, he wrote a series of letters that are some of the most poignant meditations on our utter dependence upon the Lord to rescue and deliver us. In one of his prison letters, Bonhoeffer writes this, “a prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

“We are completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside.” The season of Advent is all about focusing our thoughts, our prayers, our hope on the One who comes down from heaven to “open the door of freedom from the outside.” “Stir up Your POWER, O Lord, AND COME, that we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by your MIGHTY deliverance…”

We cannot open the door from inside. As much as we may see the problem as MY FAULT that I have caused because of my sinful insistence that my way were wiser than God’s ways, I cannot escape them or overcome them.

This is Paul’s great confession to the Romans. “But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul’s thoughts and prayers and only hope is that someone would rend the heavens and come down and open the door from the outside – which is precisely what God has promised to do. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:23-25)

That leads to my second response which is negative. Isaiah prays for God to come down from heaven and fix things with a demonstration of His mighty power – “that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil…” And maybe that’s also what we were thinking of when we prayed, “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come down…”

We’re always tempted to think that ‘signs and wonders’ of God’s mighty power will cause people to repent and turn from their sin and believe in the Lord and walk in His ways. After 911 and other national disasters, they say that lots of people went to church, but in less than two months, things were right back to where they had been. Some take these as God’s warning to repent and turn and believe in the Lord Jesus. But then when things returned to normal again, its’ right back to the same old same old.

In fact, this is not the way that God answers Isaiah’s prayer or ours. In our gospel reading, we heard the Palm Sunday account of Jesus entering Jerusalem. This is how the almighty God comes down out of heaven to open the prison door and set you free – not in a fiery, earth quaking demonstration of His nuclear power that makes sinners quake in our boots and repent in the fear of the Lord. But He comes down from heaven in such a humble and lowly way – on a donkey, with the sound a hammer sticking nails that pierce His hands and feet, the sound of a ‘still, small voice,’ that prays, NOT for God to rend the heavens and come down – but, “Father, forgive them.”

For the truth is, it’s not God’s power that changes people and turns them from their sin to repent and receive His forgiveness that SETS THEM FREE to love and serve Him. It’s His love for us that makes that kind of change in us. His coming down from heaven, born of the virgin Mary, and suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried – for me, for my sins, for my guilt, for my forgiveness.

That God came down from heaven in such meekness and humility to open the prison door to set ME free, (1st person, singular pronoun), that I may be His own and live in His kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness;” that He has killed the worm in me by drowning it in His holy, precious blood in my Baptism, that’s what moves a sinner like ME to repent and turn from his sinful ways.

This is the Advent that we are continually being reminded of in every sermon that is preached and every baptism that is administered and Lord Supper that is served. Your God has rend the heaven come down to you with His Word of promise and life, and His Body and His Blood given and shed for you, and His death and His resurrection, not in demonstrations of power, but hidden in these lowly means of grace – to open the prison door and set you free.

And then lastly, the third response to Isaiah’s prayer is positive. For the day will come when the Lord does indeed “rend the heavens and come down” in all of the power and glory that is rightfully His. And every eye will see Him and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that this Jesus, who come to rescue this fallen world on a donkey, and by the cross and through the grave itself – is indeed the One who has rescued us from the threatening peril of our sins and saved us by His mighty deliverance.

Until then, we continue to pray, “now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay, and you are our potter, we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, we are your people.”

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In the beginning, God created the world by His word, “let there be,” “and there was.” That’s the kind of power that God’s Word is. Whatever is says it does.

On the FIRST DAY, God said, “let there be light” and then He SEPARATED the darkness from the light and He called the ‘light’ day and the ‘darkness’ He called ‘night.’ And there was evening and there was morning the FIRST DAY.

At the end of the SIXTH DAY, “God saw everything that He made, and behold, it was very good.” And then we come to the SEVENTH DAY. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…”

The SEVENTH DAY of the world should have been the LAST DAY – the ETERNAL DAY, in which EVERYTHING THAT GOD MADE, RESTED in the ‘REST OF GOD,’ as in, “come to Me… and you will find REST for your soul.”

But as we all know, Adam and Eve didn’t ‘REST’ in ‘God’s rest.’ They listened to a voice that said, ‘You’re restless aren’t you? You want to be like God, don’t you? You won’t ever find ‘rest’ for your soul until you’re like God, will you? Come to me, and you will find REST for your soul.”
And Adam and Eve looked inside themselves and examined their hearts according to the serpents word, and sure enough, what do you know, they were ‘restless’ weren’t they? As they left the Garden they began their quest to “find rest for their souls” APART FROM GOD. And all humanity followed them.

And so what should have been the LAST DAY, wasn’t, because the almighty God will not be denied His joy or put up with our ignorance and faithlessness forever. He prepared a Kingdom from the FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, and if He has to make all things new again, He will do it. Another LAST DAY would be needed.

Just as sin entered the world THROUGH ONE MAN, so set in motion His PLAN to make all things new again THROUGH ONE MAN. Through ONE MAN, God planned to bring His restless men and women into HIS REST in the “the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the world.”

He put the Word out, announcing His plans. In ‘days of old’ He broadcast His PLANS to ALL NATIONS, in many and various ways by the prophets. One of my own favorites is the word broadcast by the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 29:11 – “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11).

But now in these LAST DAYS, He has broadcast His PLANS through His Son, “Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

In the ‘OLDEN DAYS’ God came with the gentle, humble, tenderness of a shepherd with his sheep. “Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak… I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey.”

The Shepherd brings His sheep into “their own land,” and sets an eternal shepherd over them, who is, “my servant David, and he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord will be their God.”

And when the ‘OLDEN DAYS’ were over, “and the time had fully come, the ‘LAST DAYS’ began. And “Now in these last days,’ THE MAN through whom the plans of God would be accomplished has made the grand announcement in person – “I am the good shepherd.”

All of God’s PLANS for your welfare, to give you a future and a hope, are accomplished in this man. From His ridiculous, cross-shaped throne, the judgment of God against all the rebellion and restlessness of mankind was carried upon the King Himself – FOR THE KING HIMSELF IS THE MAN OF GOD. He suffered the punishment for all mankind, from the first sinner to the last, in our place, on our behalf, without any merit or worthiness in us – by grace alone. Why? Because this was His plan “from the foundation of the world.”

In Christ and Him crucified, we see NO REST, NO GLORY, NO PEACE. In Him, we see Adam and Eve and the end of all THEIR PLANS to find rest for their souls apart from the REST OF GOD.

But then, BEHOLD, the 3rd day, LET THERE BE LIGHT. And the light shattered the darkness and now in HIM – THIS ONE MAN, we see “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

As He is about to ascend to His Father, He sends His apostles into the whole world THAT HE CREATED IN THE BEGINNING, with the same message as that of the prophets of old. “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer. 29:11).

And this holy message is still being broadcast to the ends of the earth. And it will continue to be broadcast until it reaches every nook and cranny, every tribe and nation and language and people with the GOOD NEWS – In Jesus Christ, you will find rest for your soul.

But THESE LAST DAYS will not last forever. There is a LAST DAY – no one knows when it will be – not ever THE MAN. So, “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Ps.95:6) And repeated by the apostles, “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7).

For “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne and before him will be gathered all the nations.”

At His Great Commission, His Word went out to ends of the earth through His witnesses in every age – the called and ordained to their congregations and missions, the mother and father to their children, the friend to his friend, the co-worker to her co-workers.

The voice of the Shepherd Himself, speaking through each one – going out to the stray, the injured, the weak, the lost sheep with His gracious call, “…come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“I, I MYSELF, have taken all of your sin and that restlessness in your soul upon myself. And I, I MYSELF have given you my yoke of forgiveness and life and salvation – and you will find rest for your souls. “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

And some would and some wouldn’t. Who knows why? And some will and some won’t. Some were too proud and some too ashamed. Some said ‘not now, maybe later’ – AND LATER CAME TODAY. And some said, ‘this is amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

On the LAST DAY “…he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.”

To those on His right, He says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

It’s an ‘inheritance,’ not a ‘reward,’ not ‘wages due’ – ‘inheritance,’ pure gift, wonderful surprise.

Only AFTER He has already separated them and pronounced the blessing upon them and brought them into His kingdom, does He commend them for their good works. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was as stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

The sheep are confused and actually challenge their Judge. They think He’s being TOO GRACIOUS. “When did we see a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”

They’re not saying they didn’t do these things. They just never realized that what they did for “the least of these” they were actually doing for Him.

In these LAST DAYS, our Lord is always hidden from us – hidden under His Word and Sacraments THROUGH WHICH HE GIVES US HIS LOVE – hidden in our neighbor THROUGH WHOM WE GIVE HIM OUR LOVE.

Only faith can see that. Only faith SEES the Lord hidden in the neighbor. But on the LAST DAY, faith is over – and everything is revealed and “every eye will see Him.”

And then will we realize that He was present among us all along. In our ‘weak faith’ when we did not see, He was present among us – hidden in the stranger and the naked and the sick and the prisoner. Hidden in the one who told us about Jesus and His rest for our soul.

“And the King will answer them, ‘truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.’

The goats are also surprised to hear the King’s judgment. “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” And for all of the same reasons that the FAITHFUL were commended, these are condemned.

And in their surprise, they say, “When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, sick and did not minister to you?” If they had known it was Jesus they would have waited on Him hand and foot. But it really doesn’t take any faith to do that. And it doesn’t take any love to ‘not serve’ your neighbor either. Without faith they were truly blind.

“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And the judgment that was pronounced upon Jesus on the cross is now pronounced upon them – for they would have none of His cross.

He paid the price for their sins but they would have none of it because they “said that they had no sin – and deceived themselves.” Or they thought they could atone for it on their own sins. And so because they would not receive the Lord when He came to them in LEAST OF ALL, HIS BROTHERS – they will have no Jesus at all.

“Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” One the FIRST DAY, He SEPARATED the light from the darkness. So He will do again ON THE LAST DAY.

I’ll close with these words from letter to the Hebrews:
“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:1-6)

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“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.”

Parables can be tricky things to interpret. Knowing how to accurately translate a parable from ‘earthly story’ to ‘heavenly meaning’ is not easy to do correctly. For example, what are we supposed to do with these “TALENTS” that this man distributes to his servants? What do the ‘TALENTS’ stand for? In Jesus’ day, ‘TALENTS’ were measures of silver. One “TALENT” was lots of silver. Is that what this is about then – the unequal distribution of ‘silver’ or ‘wealth’? Or are we to interpret a ‘TALENT’ as abilities and skills.

And what are we to make of the fact the man gives his property to his servants, “each according to his ability”? How are we supposed to find ourselves in this story and apply it to our lives? Are some given more or less money, more or less abilities and skills, more or less opportunities than others because they’re more or less ABILITY to handle them properly? And, which one am I?

So, I’m telling right now, the only two details in this parable that I’m confident in identifying, is that the “man” is our Lord, Jesus Christ. And “his servants” are His followers, His disciples – you and me. And the “it” is the Last Day when Jesus appears again to judge the living and the dead. Continue reading →

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We’ve been taking this guided journey through the life of our Lord – St. Matthew our guide. We took a detour the last two Sundays for Reformation and All Saints, which was fine, but now it’s time to get back on the bus again.

This morning we come to the 25th chapter of Matthew’s gospel – and this is where the tour will end. We’ll make three stops in this chapter over the next three weeks, which will bring us to the end of the Church Year when we’ll start all over again, St. Mark taking over for St. Matthew as our guide.

That’s what the church year is all about – a carefully guided journey through the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ from the promise of His coming into the world – to RECONCILE ALL THINGS TO GOD – to His coming again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus Christ is coming again – NOT to suffer and die on the cross for your sins and mine again – “for the death He died He died to sin, once for all…” (Rom. 6:10). THAT’S HISTORY and there’s no more atoning for your sin that still needs to be done.

Jesus Christ is coming again – NOT to teach us something new or do a few more miracles so that you might stop doubting and believe that He is who He says He is – “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31) You don’t get more WORD OR MIRACLES than you’ve already got in the Bible.

Nor is He coming again to take the believers and give the unbelievers a second chance to repent and believe. He’s not coming again to wipe out all of the unbelievers and give all the believers a time to enjoy this place without those nasty ‘bad people’ always spoiling things.

Jesus Christ is coming again – to declare the FINAL JUDGMENT on every human being ever created from the first man to the last – which therefore includes you and me.

And from what we’ve heard during this journey that we’ve been on, the declaration of God’s judgment will sound something like this,
• either “Woe to you,” or “blessed are you;”
• either “I know your name,” or “I don’t know you;”
• either “come to Me,” or “depart from Me.”
To some, the door will be opened. To others, it will be closed.

In other words, there will be a great SEPARATION on the LAST DAY. Continue reading →