NOVEMBER 2022
NOVEMBER 2022
6 November 2022 - All Saints
I remember a time a few years ago, while I was watching an episode of the CSI television program, when I heard this line, spoken by a criminal character on the show, in explaining why he had perpetrated the notorious “signature” crime that he had committed:
“I want something of me to be left behind, so that people will speak my name, and know who I was.”
People who commit notorious crimes do sometimes have this motivation. They want to be remembered by history for something.
And if they cannot be remembered for their positive contributions, then they will settle for being remembered for the way in which they shocked or scandalized society.
Quite often, when famous public figures have been assassinated by previously unknown persons, it was partly because that previously unknown person wanted to become a known person. And killing a famous individual was the quickest way to become a known person, and a remembered person.
Most people, of course, do not resort to such horrible methods of achieving a level of “name recognition” for themselves that will endure beyond their mortal lifetime. But it is common for human beings in general, who are conscious of their mortality, to entertain in other ways the thought that was expressed by that character on CSI:
“I want something of me to be left behind, so that people will speak my name, and know who I was.”
I know that physical death will eventually catch up with me. I know that it is impossible to live forever physically in this world.
But in my human desire not to be forgotten completely after I am gone from the earth, I might still try to figure out some way to fulfill the wish for at least something of me to be left behind.
So, for example, even though George Washington is now dead and gone, the country that he worked to establish - the United States of America - has been “left behind” as evidence that he once did live.
William Shakespeare passed away over 400 years ago. But whenever people read one of his plays, or watch a performance of one of his plays, they remember him, since “something of him” does live on in his literary work.
Back in the year 2010, I visited the high school from which I had graduated 30 years earlier. I thought at the time that there wasn’t much evidence left, after 30 years, that I had ever been a student there.
But on one wall, mixed in together with a bunch of other class pictures spanning the decades, was a group photo of the class of 1980. And there I was, one face in the crowd of my classmates, looking out from that picture.
When I have passed away - as some of my high school classmates already have - that picture will still be there. Something of me will be left behind, so that people - at least maybe a few people, at my hometown high school - will know who I was.
What are you doing in your life, right now, that is calculated to leave a mark on the world that will remain after you are physically gone? Are your various actions - in your church, in your community, or in your family - motivated only by a selfless desire to serve others according to your calling?
Or is there sometimes a wish - a prideful wish lurking behind the various things you do - that you will be remembered for these deeds? Is there sometimes an expectation - a selfish expectation connected to your actions in this world - that people in the future will speak your name, and know who you were, because of the impression that your actions left on them?
How important is it to you, that you name might be inscribed on a plaque mounted on a wall somewhere, or on a trophy in a display case at a school you once attended? Is it important to you that your name would be printed in the newspaper at some point in your life, so that people someday who are doing research in that newspaper would see it, and know that you were once alive?
Because of the various little “remnants” and “relicts” of your existence in the world - which will still be able to be found here and there when you are gone - do you now feel a certain level of satisfaction that after you die, something of you will indeed be left behind, so that people will speak your name, and know who you were?
In his message of salvation to humanity, Jesus Christ does speak to the inner yearning to “live on” in some way that is found within all of us.
But Jesus does not promise merely that “something of us” - some inanimate influence or footprint - will be left behind in this world, when we are no longer here. Rather, he promises that through faith in him, what will live on is our whole being, our whole human existence, our whole person.
Those in Christ who are still alive on the earth, and those in Christ who are now with the Lord in death, have all been baptized into his death and resurrection. Their destiny - our destiny - is a destiny of resurrection. We still confess, in the words of the Creed that these departed Christians also confessed:
“I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come.”
The saints on earth and the saints in heaven will live forever, body and soul, in glory and immortality.
Today we are observing the Festival of All Saints. The saints of God in heaven - Christians from all times and places - are indeed still alive in Christ. They trusted in Christ’s cross for their justification before God, and they now share in Christ’s victory over death and the grave.
Some of them did leave a memorable mark on the world - and on the church within the world - during their time on earth. Humanly speaking, something of them is left behind. We speak their names, and we know who they were:
Mary and Mary Magdalene, Peter and Paul, John and James, Athanasius and Ambrose, Monica and Augustine, Patrick and Boniface, Francis and Clare, Luther and Melanchthon, Chemnitz and Andreae, Walther and Krauth.
But most of the saints of God, who over the centuries lived and died in faith, are anonymous to us. We don’t speak their names. As individuals, we don’t know who they were. Practically speaking, nothing of them remains in this world any more.
But that doesn’t really matter, because all of God’s people - forgiven in Christ, and reconciled to God in Christ - have found true immortality in Christ. And God knows all of them - the famous and the obscure; those who are still remembered on the earth, and those who have been forgotten or who were never known.
While their bodies slumber in the ground, they live on. And in the resurrection to come, when their bodies are called forth from the grave, and from the elements of the earth, they will be fully and completely alive, in every way, forever.
During their earthly lifetime, the saints of God did not obsessively seek to find a human technique to “live on,” in some small way: in the memories of other people, or in the institutions and monuments of this world.
Rather, during their earthly lifetime, the resurrected Christ graciously sought them out, in his divine Word and sacraments. And by his forgiving grace, he bestowed on them a genuine immortality: an immortality that his own resurrection guarantees to all who trust in him.
The Lord knows and remembers them. And the Lord knows and remembers you, since by faith you are among them. Through the Prophet Isaiah, the Lord says these things to his people:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”
St. Paul writes in his First Epistle to the Corinthians that
“Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
And that means that God’s Son guarantees such an immortality to you, too, as you trust in him.
One of the purposes of the Lord’s death on the cross for you, was to slay within you the compulsion to waste the limited time you have on earth, in a desperate search for your own limited version of earthly immortality. In his death for your sins, he reconciled you to his Father in heaven, and thereby reintroduced you to the only true source of true eternal life.
As the resurrected Lord of his church, Jesus now bestows this eternal life on you, through the preaching of his gospel and the administration of his sacraments. As St. John’s Gospel records it, Jesus says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
Again, Jesus says:
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
As you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, and as you abide in your baptism by daily repentance and faith, Christ continually delivers you from the false hope of earthly immortality - in little bits and pieces, according to all the various forms that this false hope may take.
And he delivers to you, in its place, the genuine hope of the resurrection. This is a real hope for a real immortality, which enlivens the church militant, still struggling on earth; and which enlivens the church triumphant, at rest in heaven.
When you partake of the sacrament of your Lord’s body and blood - his glorified and resurrected body and blood - this is a pledge and a down-payment on your own future resurrection. This is Jesus’ reassurance to you and to those who commune with you, that everyone who lives and believes in him shall never die.
St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:
“We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
And so now, as Paul also writes in his Epistle to the Romans,
“None of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
And so we acknowledge and embrace the blessed hope - and the blessed reality - of eternal life: which is shared by all of God’s saints, on both sides of the grave.
It is a hope and a reality that exist for us already in this world, and that sustain us while we remain in this world. But it is also a hope and a reality that lift up the eyes of our faith, so that we can look with confidence and certainty beyond this world, to the next world.
And as we look, perhaps we sing:
The church on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee. Amen.
13 November 2022 - Michaelmas 7 - Matthew 25:31-46
If you have ever had occasion to visit a national cemetery, you will notice that almost all the grave markers are ornamented by some kind of religious symbol. The size and style of the markers themselves are uniform and the same, but there is quite a diversity to be found in the religious symbols on those markers.
This diversity of symbols represents the diversity of beliefs and convictions that were held to by these many veterans and their spouses during their lifetimes.
It is understandable why people would want an emblem of their religious faith to be emblazoned on their grave marker, because almost all religions involve - as one of their chief purposes - the preparation of their adherents for what will happen to them when they die.
If someone has a specific hope or expectation of what he will experience in the next world, such a hope or expectation has no doubt been shaped by the teachings of that person’s religion.
Many today think that religion in general is little more than a human psychological phenomenon, invented by people to help them cope with the anxiety of death. People in different times and places invent different kinds of religions. None of them is objectively true, however.
This modern, secular way of thinking might seem to be confirmed by the existence of so many different religions, and of so many different religious teachings about the afterlife. Is it possible for you to know what will happen after you die, and to know what your ultimate destiny will be, and why?
There are so many competing claims, promises, and warnings. Which ones can be believed? Can any of them be believed?
Might it all just be made up, and might there actually be nothing awaiting you on the other side of death? Is it possible that when you’re dead, you’re just dead, and nothing of you continues on?
Two thousand years ago, there was a man - a unique and extraordinary man - who did cross over the threshold of death, and who then came back from death. He had predicted that he would come back, and then he did come back.
Many people who knew him before he died, and who saw him die, then saw him alive, and interacted with him. So, this is not a fable or a myth. This is real history, with real eyewitness testimony.
If anyone should be listened to, for reliable information about what happens after death, it would be this man, who himself came back from death. If anyone would be able to tell us what to expect, and how to prepare for what will happen on the other side of death, it would be this man. It would be Jesus.
In today’s text from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Jesus does in fact tell us some important things about what will happen, and about why it will happen.
We don’t have time today to explore in detail all the things that Jesus says in this text. But we do have time to examine a couple of his main points.
We know from other passages of Scripture that in temporal death there is a separation of the soul and the body. On the last day, when Christ returns visibly to this world, all the dead will be miraculously raised - with a reunion of soul and body - and will then stand before Christ, who will judge them.
Today’s text picks up the story at this point. Jesus says:
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”
In the original Greek, the word translated here as “blessed” is “eulogeo.” This is the same Greek word on which the English term “eulogy” is based. Literally, it means “good word.”
The kind of blessing that Jesus is talking about is not a material benefit that has been bestowed upon a person. There is another Greek word for that kind of blessing.
It is, rather, a spoken blessing: that is, a “good word” that has been spoken by God the Father over those who will be invited to enter the kingdom prepared for them.
The works of love and kindness that these people had performed during their lives on earth will be referred to. But what will be referred to first is the “good word” - the eulogy - that had been spoken over them by God.
Our good works are the natural fruits of a saving faith. But what makes a saving faith to be a saving faith, is that it believes the gospel of God’s salvation for sinful humans. This salvation does not depend on the good works that we do, but on the good works that Jesus did for us.
The gospel that the Lord’s sheep hear and believe is a gospel that announces to them, and bestows upon them, the divine gift of forgiveness, through the death and resurrection of Christ; the divine gift of justification, through the crediting to them of the righteousness of Christ; and the divine gift of adoption as children of God, through the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ.
On judgment day, when the saints of God stand before their judge, they will also be standing before their Savior - who is the Son of God. When they give an account of their lives, they will be giving an account of the good things that God has spoken over them; that God has worked within them; and that God has accomplished through them.
And they will be welcomed into the kingdom that their heavenly Father has prepared for them “from the foundation of the world.” God’s grace toward those who - in time - repent of their sins, and receive God’s reconciliation, is a grace that extends beyond time, in both directions.
It is an eternal grace, toward those who are chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. This is an incomprehensible mystery.
But one of the ways in which you can be comforted by this mystery, is to know that God’s desire to save you from sin and death is not an afterthought on his part, or a contingency plan based on anything you have done or earned. This is something he has always been planning.
Whenever his law drives you to repentance and remorse, so that you desire to forsake your sins and amend your life, God’s plan for you is thereby being implemented. Whenever the comfort of the gospel is applied to you, filling you with the assurance that your sins have been put away, and that God is at peace with you for the sake of his Son, God’s plan for you is thereby being implemented.
Whenever you in your human failures are restored to faith, or in your human weakness are strengthened in faith, God’s plan for you is thereby being implemented. And when on judgment day, Jesus opens the door to his Father’s eternal kingdom to you - prepared for you from the foundation of the world - God’s plan for you will, in the ultimate sense, be fully implemented.
If you know Christ’s pardon and acceptance now, you will know Christ’s pardon and acceptance then. If you have eternal life now - by faith in the one who has claimed you for eternity - you will have eternal life then.
But there is more to the story of what will happen on judgment day, that we must also consider. In today’s account, Jesus goes on to say:
“Then [the Son of Man] will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
These fearful words will be spoken to those who are cursed by God because of their sin - manifested chiefly in their indifference, during their lives on earth, to the needs of others. And that indifference will be referred to.
But the Lord does not link this curse to an eternal plan on God’s part, to reject them and damn them. Indeed, as we read in today’s lesson from the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Lord “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Jesus will not, therefore, send unbelievers to a place of destruction that had been prepared for them - as was the case with heaven, for his saints. Rather, the damned will enter into an eternal destiny that had actually been intended only for “the devil and his angels.”
In other words, people do not go to this fiery judgment because God wants them to be there, or because he takes any pleasure in their condemnation.
They go to this judgment because they had chosen to believe the lies of Satan instead of the truth of God; because they had aligned themselves with the rebellion of Satan instead of with the peace and harmony of God; and because they had made themselves to be servants of Satan - in their thoughts, words, and deeds - instead of servants of God.
There is a very noticeable lack of symmetry between the origin and inhabitants of heaven, and the origin and inhabitants of hell.
Those who end up in heaven, end up there because of God’s unmerited grace, in Christ, from the foundation of the world. But those who end up in hell, end up there because of their own sin and unbelief, and not because God had prepared hell for them.
God does send the devil and his fallen angels to hell. There’s no doubt about that. A way of redemption for these rebellious spirits has not been provided.
But there is a sense in which God does not send people to hell, as much as he allows them to send themselves there. But he does allow this.
In life, God does not coerce people to forsake evil and to turn to him. Likewise in death, God does not coerce people who in their hearts actually hate God, to spend an eternity in the gracious fellowship of God and his saints.
Instead, in eternity, he lets them have what they want. If in life, they had chosen companionship with the devil over companionship with God, then they will share in the fate of the devil also in death - in an eternal death.
As we all think about the inevitability of our departure from this world; and as we - with all human beings - would seek to glean from the teachings of our religion some kind of hope or expectation concerning what comes after this departure: I implore all of you, to make sure that you are adhering to the teachings about life, about death, and about life after death, that Jesus declares to you, and to all people.
Neither Jesus, nor the Bible as a whole, answer all the questions you may have about the afterlife. But what Jesus does teach - and what the prophets and apostles teach - answer the questions you need to have answered, as you look forward to the rest of your life, and to the end of your life.
Make sure that there is more than just a cross emblazoned on your grave marker, after you die. Allow the cross - the real saving cross of humanity’s Redeemer - to be emblazoned on your heart, before you die.
St. Paul writes to the Galatians:
“God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
He also writes, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Many are perishing even now. And if there is no course-correction in their minds and hearts, then in the final judgment they will perish eternally. Nobody enjoys believing this, but that doesn’t mean it is not true. It is true. Hell is real.
But many others, in Christ, are being saved even now. Their walk with the Lord may indeed be accompanied by much weakness, and by many doubts and stumbles.
But the power of God to sustain them, to help them, and to restore them, is also there: since the message of the cross, to which they cling, is there. And so, in the final judgment they will be saved, and they will live, eternally.
This is also true. The unbelief of those who are too hardened to accept it, or too blind to see it, doesn’t change that. Heaven, too, is real.
St. Paul, because of the mercy that God had showed to him, knew that on judgment day he would be included among the sheep of the Lord, and would not be cast out with the goats. Do you know? You can know.
You can know that Jesus is your Savior, and that Jesus will be your Savior. You can know now what he will say to you then - when you, and all people of all nations, stand before him.
Since you are still alive, that means that the gospel - the “good word” from God about his grace in Jesus - is still being preached to you. The blessings of this gospel are still being offered to you.
The invitation which comes through this gospel - to know Christ and his forgiveness here in time, so that you will know him and his forgiveness also in eternity - is still being issued.
And you can believe him. Whoever you are - whatever evil you have done in the past, or whatever good you have not done in the past - you can believe him.
Believe him today, when he declares to you that your sins are forgiven, and that you are his. And pray today, with the words of Psalm 39:
“Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths... And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You. Deliver me from all my transgressions.” Amen.
20 November 2022 - Last Sunday - Matthew 25:1-13
The full meaning of some of the Lord’s parables is not immediately clear to us. Jesus’ parables were spoken to a first-century Jewish audience.
He often told stories that drew on certain unique customs of first-century Jewish people that are not familiar to us today. Today’s parable from St. Matthew, about the ten virgins, is one of these.
One of the wedding customs of the Jews, was that on the day of the wedding, the bride, and several of her friends - her bridesmaids, as it were - would wait at the bride’s home, until the bridegroom came to escort his bride to what was then going to be their new home.
The bride’s friends followed along, and became a part of the procession to the bridegroom’s home. When they all arrived, they went inside for a big wedding banquet.
This is the frame of reference for the parable of the ten virgins. These ten girls, or young women, were - in effect - bridesmaids for a wedding.
In this particular case, the bridegroom was delayed. For five of the virgins, this didn’t matter, as far as their preparedness to be a part of the nighttime wedding procession was concerned. They were ready for the wedding, whether it started on time or started late.
But for the other five, this delay did matter. They did not have enough oil for their lamps.
They were not prepared for the possibility that the bridegroom might be tardy - in coming to meet his bride and her retinue, and in leading them to the banquet. So, when he did end up coming later than they expected, they were not ready.
The focus of their lack of preparedness was their lack of oil for their lamps. These lamps were necessary for a nighttime procession.
The five foolish virgins had not brought along an extra supply of oil when they went to the bride’s house, to wait with her for the bridegroom. So, when that oil was needed - once the relatively small amount of oil that had been in the lamps had been burned off during the time of waiting - it was not there.
When it was announced that the bridegroom was finally on his way, and the foolish virgins realized the situation they were in, they tried to get some oil from the wise virgins - who had each brought an extra supply for their own lamps. But the wise virgins told them that they would not have enough for themselves, if they gave them some of their supply.
They told them to go instead to buy more for themselves. The foolish virgins accordingly left - in a hasty attempt to find someone who would sell them some oil.
But remember that according to the scenario of the parable, it was now midnight. We can assume, therefore, that there were no oil venders open for business at that hour of the night.
So, when the bridegroom arrived to pick up his bride, and lead her and her bridesmaids to the wedding at his house, the foolish virgins were not there. They were not a part of the procession.
They were not a part of the banquet. They were, ultimately, excluded from the wedding.
The point of the parable, was to teach the church to remain always ready for the coming of the Lord on the last day, when he will finally usher his beloved church into the joys of eternal life, in the new heavens and the new earth. In the parable, Jesus is the bridegroom.
The parable doesn’t actually mention the bride in so many words. Christians are described on this occasion as those who are the friends and companions of Jesus’ bride.
What is preserved through the use of this illustration is the corporate nature of the church. You and I, as Christians, are not awaiting the Lord’s Second Coming all by ourselves.
We are waiting together. Even when the Lord seems to be delayed in his visible return to this world, we stay together, and continue to wait together.
The church is often thought of as a big supernatural hospital, where the spiritually sick or wounded are treated and made well. But from the perspective of today’s parable, we might think of the church also as a big “waiting room” at the Doctor’s office.
We know that the time of our ultimate healing and cure will come, and that we will be delivered once and for all from the afflictions that we endure in this sinful world, when the Great Physician comes bodily to raise our bodies from the grave, and to bring us into his eternal habitations.
But for now, we are still waiting for this. It has not yet happened.
Now, in general terms, the act of waiting for something can have one of two effects on those who are waiting. If you are confident that the thing for which you are waiting is really going to happen, and if you know that this thing will be a good thing when it does happen, then the act of waiting helps to build up your anticipation, and your yearning for that desired, future thing.
Think of a young couple in love waiting for their wedding day, or of a young married couple waiting excitedly for the birth of their first child.
But for those whose hearts are not really in the waiting - and if they are not so sure that the thing for which they are waiting is really all that significant - then the act of waiting can wear down the resolve and patience of those who are waiting.
It’s like being put on hold on the telephone, when you are trying to talk to someone about a relatively unimportant matter. If you are kept on hold for, say, five or ten minutes, and there are other things you would rather be doing, you may very well hang up, and not just keep waiting indefinitely.
Another thing that has happened to me, when I have been on hold for a long time, is that I get distracted from the act of waiting, and start to do, and think about, other things - even though the line is still open, usually on speaker phone. And then when someone at the other end does finally pick up, and say “hello,” if I do not immediately respond to that “hello” within a matter of one or two seconds, he hangs up!
So, all that waiting was for nothing, because it was not an intense and focused waiting. I was not ready - in an instant - to talk, when the opportunity to talk came.
Jesus has, as it were, put the church “on hold.” He has told us that he will get back to us, and return to this world to judge the living and the dead.
He has not told us when he will do this. But he has told us to wait, and to remain ready, for when he does do this.
Because of what may appear to you to be a delay in his fulfillment of this promise, have you, perhaps, stopped waiting? Have you hung up the phone, and moved on to do other things that seem to be more pressing, and more real, as far as life in this world is concerned?
Or have you become distracted in your waiting, so that there is a part of you that is now thinking about other things, and prioritizing other things, instead of remaining firm and steadfast in an active and lively expectation that Jesus can return at any time - and that you must therefore be ready for him at any time?
Again, the focal point of the virgins’ preparedness, or lack of preparedness, in today’s parable, is the presence, or absence, of a supply of oil. This oil is faith.
Jesus elsewhere asks the rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” The answer, of course, is that he will, because his true church will endure until the end.
He promises that he will be with his disciples always, even to the end of the age, through the ministry of Word and sacrament that he has commissioned them to carry out among all nations in perpetuity.
But throughout the history of the church on earth, and also at the present time, there have been many who visibly assemble with the church; who outwardly seem to be waiting for Jesus with the church; and who therefore appear to others to have faith; but who do not have faith.
The oil lamps and oil flasks of the first century were made out of clay, not glass. Just as with the human heart, you could not look through those oil containers to see if there was really anything inside.
Five of the bridesmaids in today’s story seemed to be ready for the bridegroom’s appearance. Externally, they were holding lamps. But their lamps were empty. There was no oil in their lamps. Their was no faith in their hearts.
Do you have oil? Do you have faith? Outwardly, you appear to be waiting with everyone else. Outwardly, you seem to be ready, if the Lord were to come today for you and his church. But are you ready?
Some people within the outward fellowship of the church, even if they do not say it in so many words, think that they are ready, even when they are not, because of a borrowed faith. Do you consider yourself to be a Christian because your spouse is a Christian, and is serious about the faith, even though - when push comes to shove - you remain personally indifferent?
Do you think that you have faith, because you were born into a Christian family, and your parents have faith? God does not have any grandchildren, you know. Or do you not know that?
If you are not yourself a child of God, by adoption through the indwelling of the Spirit of his only-begotten Son, then you are not a part of his family at all.
In effect, the foolish virgins wanted to borrow faith from the wise virgins, but it could not be done. A borrowed faith is not a real, saving faith.
The faith that prepares you for Christ is your own faith, not someone else’s. The faith that keeps you ready for life in the next world - and that fills you with the hope of Christ in this world, too - is your own faith in Christ.
Over and over again, Jesus said things like this to individuals to whom he had ministered: “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
And what is most pertinent is what he said to Peter: “I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
Peter’s faith was very much in danger of failing. But Jesus prayed him through it. And when your faith is in danger of failing - or if it has actually failed - Jesus will pray you through it as well, as he intercedes for you at the right hand of the Father.
In God’s kingdom, the nature of the buying of oil, or of the acquiring of faith, is best understood in terms of the divine invitation that was issued through the Prophet Isaiah:
“Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ... Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.”
As God himself explains it, buying wine and milk without money, means listening to his Word, inclining your ear to his Word, and hearing his Word.
This involves a real appropriation - a deeply personal appropriation - like what happens when you buy something, so that it becomes your own possession. But what the gospel offers is not actually for sale. The faith that the gospel creates in those who hear it, is a gift of grace.
The “vendor” to which you have recourse, for a continual replenishing of your faith in Christ, is the Holy Spirit. And the place where he is “open for business,” as it were - and is available always to renew your supply of faith - is in the Word and Sacraments of Christ.
Where the message of Christ crucified is proclaimed; where baptism is administered, and continually recalled through confession and absolution; and where the Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood is distributed, is where you come, to buy without money.
This is where we all come to be renewed in our confidence that the Savior who once did come to redeem us and forgive us, will in glory come again for us at the end of the age. This is where our flagging faith is reinvigorated by the gospel, and where we are continually justified by faith in the promises of that gospel.
To find faith is really to find Christ, who is the object of faith. To be given a new supply of faith is really to be given Christ. To him we cling, and in him we trust.
In repentance, you do need to “take ownership” of your sins - to “buy in” to the honest admission that you have not been eagerly and undistractedly awaiting Christ as you should have been. And maybe you have stopped waiting for him altogether, so that your faith is now dried up, and is in need of a complete restoration.
But then, for the renewal and replenishing of your faith, God invites you to “take ownership” of Christ: to “buy in” to him and his grace, without money, and without price. God invites you to receive faith, by receiving Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
And as you mystically receive Jesus by faith now - and continually receive him in this way, as you continually hear and believe his Word - you will be ready then, to receive him also in his glorious bodily appearance on judgment day.
Until he does visibly come in that final way, you and I - and all of his people - will truly be waiting for him together, when we are waiting for him in the fellowship of his church.
His Word will be proclaimed among us until the end. And his sacraments - in which his Word is combined with elements of the earth - will be administered among us until the earth, as we know it, is no more.
For as long as we need to wait - as each of us stays close to Christ, and as we also stay close to each other in a mutual encouragement of the faith that resides in each of us - we will pray together, and we will pray personally, in words like these, from a hymn by John Monsell:
With my lamp well trimmed and burning, Swift to hear and slow to roam,
Watching for Thy glad returning To restore me to my home.
Come, my Savior, Come, my Savior, O my Savior, quickly come. Amen.
23 November 2022 - Thanksgiving Eve - Proverbs 14:34
Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in our country. The Christian church year, in its historic, international form, does not include such a festival, and there are many countries in the world that do not have a thanksgiving observance.
But we live in a country that does. And so, as the government of our nation asks its citizens to set apart a specific day each autumn, to render thanks to God for his blessings, we are eager and willing to comply with this request.
The fact that we are Christians, whose faith in God is shaped by his self-revelation in Holy Scripture, means that we know who the God who has blessed us truly is. We therefore do not offer thanks to a vague and shadowy deity whose character and will are matters only of educated guesses or wishful thinking.
We know what his character is. We know that he is a holy and righteous God, who judges sin and wickedness.
We also know that he is a merciful and forgiving God, who is patient with his fallen creatures, and who wants all people to turn away from evil and to be reconciled to him. St. Paul accordingly writes to Timothy that “God our Savior...desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
God reveals his goodness and patience chiefly through making salvation from sin and eternal life available to the human race, through the redemption and forgiveness that his Son Jesus Christ won for us on the cross. But this is not the only way in which God shows his mercy and goodness to the human race.
Human sin has indeed corrupted the world that God created, and has contaminated it. But the fundamental goodness of God’s creation also still shines forth in many ways.
As the world continues to function, we can see the loving hand of divine providence at work for the earthly happiness and well-being of all people - believers and unbelievers alike. In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus points out that “your Father in heaven...makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Also in the area of human relationships and the good order of human societies, God works through the voice of conscience and reason, to restrain evil and to promote civil righteousness.
Now, civil righteousness, which manifests itself primarily in people outwardly following the golden rule in their families and communities, is not the righteousness that saves us. But it is a good thing as far as it goes, and is much to be preferred to anarchy and social chaos.
St. Paul writes to the Romans that when Gentiles, who do not have the law - meaning the written Law of Moses - “by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.”
Also in his Epistle to the Romans, Paul explains that God works through rulers, and others who have governmental authority, to maintain law and order for the earthly well-being and physical safety of those who live in this world. He writes that “there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”
He adds that, according to the ordinance of God, “rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.” A government official who is entrusted with the duty of enforcing just laws is, according to Paul, “God’s minister to you for good,” who “does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
This is why today’s Epistle reading, from First Timothy, instructs us “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”
We don’t want the civil government to presume to do the spiritual work of the church. And we certainly don’t want the civil government to hinder and oppose the work of the church.
But we do want the civil government to create a protected safe space, under the rule of law, within which the church can fulfill its divine commission in publicly proclaiming the message of Christ crucified for sinners, and can without restraint administer the means of grace that have been entrusted to it by the Lord, for the salvation of souls and for the comforting of consciences.
So, on this Thanksgiving Day, we are indeed thankful for all these earthly blessings. As Christians we are certainly thankful as well, for the spiritual blessings of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation from sin and damnation that God has poured out upon his church in all nations.
But since this is a national Day of Thanksgiving, which focuses on the blessings that God has poured out upon our nation as a whole, that is also the focus of our thanks on this day.
We live in a country with a tradition of freedom, and in particular with a Constitutional guarantee of the free exercise of religion. We live in a country with a tradition of the rule of law, and of impartial courts and law enforcement agencies that are governed by the principles of the Constitution and not by partisanship or political favoritism.
We live in a country with a tradition of punishing criminals and of protecting the general population from their predations. And we live in a country with a strong tradition of respect for the institutions of marriage and the family, and of public policies that have encouraged the stability and integrity of families.
Insofar as we still enjoy these good blessings in our nation, we gratefully recognize God as the merciful source of all this. St. James writes that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
But insofar as these blessings are in some ways being taken away from us - so that our freedoms are being gradually curtailed and restricted, and the social order that surrounds us is gradually disintegrating - then we should consider what judgments and chastisements the Lord may be bringing upon us, because of our national and personal sins.
Most of what the Old Testament says regarding the life of a nation, is applicable specifically to the nation of Israel, with its very unique covenantal relationship with the Lord. Old Testament Israel is in many ways parallel to the Christian church, with its special standing before God, and is not parallel to the United States or to any other modern earthly realm.
But some of what the Old Testament teaches regarding the life of a nation, is applicable to all nations - including pagan and idolatrous nations - especially in regard to whether the voice of conscience and reason is being followed in those nations, in the maintenance of public order and public justice.
And so, we read in the Book of Proverbs that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
God was certainly offended by the religious unbelief and misbelief that characterized the pagan nations. But even with their spiritual errors, they were still capable of maintaining civil righteousness in their society, with just laws and fair treatment of all citizens.
And God expects that of our nation, too, even though our nation does not have the same kind of spiritual standing before God as the ancient nation of Israel did. But given the way things are going in our country, the warnings that God spoke through the Prophet Malachi may very well be landing also on us:
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
There are too many cases among us, where criminals are rewarded and law-abiding citizens suffer. The frustrations expressed by the prophet Jeremiah are our frustrations as well: “Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?”
How long will God allow this to continue? Through the prophet Isaiah he warns:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!”
In Psalm 139, King David offers a prayer of awe and thanksgiving regarding God’s lifelong love for him, beginning even when he was first conceived and was still in his mother’s womb:
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret... Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
How provoked do you think God is by a society like ours, that continues to allow the killing of unborn children on a massive scale? Are you doing what you can, to bring this slaughter to an end? Are you following the Lord’s injunctions, as written in the Book of Proverbs?:
“Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”
In a few short words, the Book of Genesis lays out God’s design for the human race, which he created as male and female, and for human procreation through the marital union of a biological man and a biological woman. We read:
“God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.’”
Our normal physical features, according to the way God made us, are a part of who we are as his creatures. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord asks this rhetorical question:
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?”
The implied answer, of course, is that they cannot. And they should not want to.
In the Book of Deuteronomy, the people of Israel are warned about the punishment that God will bring upon them if they disobey him and violate his will:
“The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion.”
Doesn’t that describe so much of what is happening among us today? Vulnerable and confused people - often very young people - are encouraged by those in authority, who should know better, to undergo disfiguring surgery that will prevent them from ever living a normal life, or from ever having children.
How long will God tolerate such abuse? And how long will God tolerate our lack of love and active concern for those who are being harmed by all of this?
In his Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul encourages us never to stop caring about others in need, and never to stop doing what we can to help them and protect them. He writes:
“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”
Are you trying to be an influence for sanity in our increasingly crazy society? Are you doing what you can to bring about true healing, and peace of mind, for those who are troubled and confused?
Are we seeking, with the Lord’s help, to be agents of a culture of life, in opposition to the culture of death that is increasingly shrouding our land - and increasingly taking away our own liberty in the process?
On this Thanksgiving Day - as citizens of God’s kingdom, and as members of his holy church - there is much for us to be thankful for, as we enjoy all the blessings of God’s redeeming love in his Son Jesus Christ, whom we know by faith, and whom we worship in hope.
And on this Thanksgiving Day - as citizens of a mostly free and prosperous land - there is also much for us to be thankful for. Our nation still abounds in prosperity, and enjoys external peace.
But will this last? Indeed, on this Thanksgiving Day, and on all days, there is much to be concerned about, and much to be sorry for, as we look around us, and as we look inside of ourselves.
In our life in this world, God has given us many opportunities to show our love for him and for our neighbor, which we have not taken advantage of. In his Word, God has given us many warnings and admonitions, which we have not heeded.
So, we are thankful today - deeply and humbly thankful - for God’s patience with us, and with our country. He has not yet destroyed us - or more precisely, he has not yet allowed us to destroy ourselves.
So, as we are thankful for the time that God has given us - time to repent of past failures, and to implore him for future wisdom and strength - we do indeed repent of past failures. We have not loved God with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
And Jesus - the friend of the downtrodden and the helper of the suffering - covers over our failures, with his perfect, saving righteousness, and washes away our sin with his blood. You are forgiven! And you are set free once again to sing with joy:
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”
As his forgiven people; as citizens of his heavenly kingdom; and as his ambassadors of light in the midst of much darkness, Jesus will also open our eyes to see where and how we can now live out the deeper reality of our heavenly citizenship, in the context of our earthly citizenship - and in the context of the needs of our earthly country and of the people who live here with us.
Jesus will open your heart, and will give you a renewed desire to honor God and to be a blessing to your neighbor, as you daily bear the fruit of the Spirit who resides within you. Indeed, as St. Paul teaches in his Epistle to the Galatians,
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
We close with these words from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians:
“Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Amen.
27 November 2022 - Advent 1 - Jeremiah 23:1-6
Please listen with me to a reading from the 23rd chapter of the Prophet Jeremiah, verses 1 through 6. You’ll notice that the last part of this text overlaps with the first part of today’s Old Testament lesson.
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!,” says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the Lord. “But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the Lord. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
So far our text.
One of the Sundays of our church year, during the Easter season, is called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Jesus, of course, is the Good Shepherd, whose love and care for us is recounted in the lessons and hymns on that day.
In contrast, what God says through the Prophet Jeremiah, in the passage we have just read, could serve as the theme for a “Bad Shepherd Sunday” - if there were such a thing. The Lord severely criticizes the shepherds of Israel: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!,” says the Lord.
In Israel, the divinely-appointed shepherds were the priests, whose duties included offering the sacrifices that pointed forward to Christ; and giving instruction from God’s Word to the people concerning God’s ways, and God’s promises concerning the coming Christ.
The kings were also among the shepherds of Israel. In the theocratic system of the Old Testament era they played an important role in governing the religious life of the people, and in preserving the true faith for the nation.
But in the time of Jeremiah, these priests and kings - these shepherds - were bad shepherds. A primary focus of their bad shepherding, is that they had not kept the sheep together, but had instead scattered them.
Literal sheep remain safe when they remain together, under the protection of their shepherd. When a sheep is alone, he is vulnerable. And if he stays alone, all by himself in the wilderness, it is only a matter of time before he is found by a predator and devoured.
In ancient Israel, the priests and kings were neglecting their spiritual duties as defined by God. Instead of working to make sure that the people knew and believed the Word of God, they had led the people away from the Word of God by tolerating, and even promoting, idolatry.
The perversions of Baal worship and Molech worship replaced the solemnity of the worship of Jehovah. The profane liturgy of the pagan high places replaced the sacred liturgy of the Temple.
The people of Israel might have been with each other physically, as they engaged in their idolatry. But they were no longer with God. They were no longer a part of the Lord’s true flock.
In their hearts, they had been scattered. And so each of them, one by one, could now be picked off by the devil, who roams the earth looking for isolated and vulnerable souls to drag off to damnation. And as a nation, they were also dragged off, by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, into slavery and exile.
Their shepherds had not kept them together, around the Word of God, and under the protection of God. Their shepherds had not paid attention to them. But God, in his wrath, was now going to pay attention to those shepherds.
“You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the Lord.
The spiritual shepherds of today will invite upon themselves the same kind of divine judgment, if they scatter the flocks entrusted to their care by teaching or tolerating the false doctrine of today’s paganisms and substitute gospels.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And to the Romans he likewise writes: “ I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”
Anything that falls short of the preaching of the cross of the Christ who has come - and the preaching of the forgiveness, life, and salvation that God offers to fallen humanity through the cross of his Son - has no power to keep the Lord’s sheep within his flock.
Today’s popular “gospels” - purported gospels of self-indulgence and self-fulfillment, of material wealth and earthly prosperity, of moral license and ethical indifference - attract many. Those who are drawn to these deceptions may physically gather in large numbers at those places where these things are preached.
But as far as the spiritual protection of the true God is concerned - and regarding the inner union with God and with God’s flock that come through faith in God’s Word - these false gospels are actually dispersing the people.
Those who - in their hearts - give themselves over to these modern-day idolatries, and depart from the cross of Christ, thereby depart from the flock of Christ. And they will be overcome and devoured by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
In the New Testament era, the civil authorities are not responsible for the outward maintenance of public worship and sound doctrine, as the kings of Israel were. But those who are responsible for this today, among the clergy and laity of the church, will also call God’s anger down upon themselves, if they ignore this responsibility.
Those whose duty it is to support and facilitate the preaching of the message of Jesus Christ and the administration of his sacraments, and the gathering together of God’s people around those means of grace, will be judged - as were the unbelieving kings of the past - if they, like those kings, allow the Lord’s Temple to become desolate.
An accounting will be demanded for the souls who are lost to the church, when the shepherds who were called to use God’s truth to draw them together, and to keep them together, pastured them instead on human and devilish lies: so that those souls scattered, to worship the gods of this world, at the idolatrous altars of this world.
St. James writes:
“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”
And we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews:
“We know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
God’s judgment against the priests and kings of old was severe. But this severity was offset by the sweetness of his promise, concerning the way in which he himself would provide a remedy for the spiritual disaster that these bad shepherds’ sins had caused. Through Jeremiah, the Lord declares:
“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking.”
Because of their idolatry, the people of Israel were scattered to the idolatrous nations, and they were devoured by those nations. The northern kingdom of Israel was more evil, and more thoroughly apostate, than was the southern kingdom of Judah. And it was punished accordingly.
The people of Judah were able to retain their identity as children of Abraham during their exile in Babylon. For them, the hardships of their exile served to purge them of their outward idolatry, so that they were ready to return to the Holy Land, and to reestablish the worship of the Temple in Jerusalem, when God allowed this to happen after 70 years.
But the northern kingdom was totally sucked into the paganism of the Assyrian Empire. They became completely blended into the larger world of the Gentiles, and ceased to exist as a distinct, identifiable nation.
It would take a miracle to extract them from this. But a miracle is what God performed for them - for us - through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus says in St. Matthew’s Gospel that before this world is brought to its end, the “gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations.” And from those many nations who are hearing this gospel, the Lord’s people - his elect - are even now being called forth to rejoin his chosen flock.
There may not in every case be a specific genetic connection between those ancient Israelites who were sucked into the larger Gentile world, and the elect from among the Gentiles who are reclaimed by Christ and incorporated into his church - although some or many of us no doubt do have traces of Hebrew DNA.
But the deeper point remains. God never forgot those ancient exiles - those ancient scattered sheep - who once had been called by his name, even though they had forgotten him.
And the Lord always had a gracious, saving plan for the nations into which the northern tribes of Israel had been absorbed; and a gracious, saving plan for those tribes insofar as they were now within those nations.
God’s redeeming love for the world is now being manifested, and his plan for the world is now being implemented, as the Great Commission that Jesus entrusted to his disciples is being fulfilled. Jesus tells them, and through them he tells us:
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
In the body of Christ - the Holy Christian Church - Jews and Gentiles are brought together, by faith in the one Redeemer of the world. Judah and Israel - the descendants of the southern kingdom, and the descendants of the dispersed northern kingdom - are, mystically, reunited.
The flock of God is restored. The wanderers are called back to their Lord and protector.
And the focus of this Great Commission also includes those individuals in our time who were formerly in the communion of the church, but who have been lost to it - at least for now.
By the power of the gospel, as this gospel re-engages them; and by the power of their baptism, which is continually calling them home, they, too, can be reclaimed.
We should not give up on people, on whom God has not given up. And God has not given up on them. The parable of the prodigal son reminds us of that, if nothing else does.
Sometimes, you might think that a profound miracle would be necessary to extract some of the former Christians you know, from the falsehood and godlessness into which they have now enmeshed themselves, since their departure from the faith. But a miracle is exactly what Jesus offers them.
And considering that this service is also going out over YouTube, I would add that if anyone who is listening to this is in this situation, a miracle of restoration and renewal is exactly what Jesus is offering to you. The beginning of a new church year, on this first Sunday in Advent, is a great time for a new beginning in your relationship with the church, and with the Lord and chief shepherd of the church.
When a child of Adam is spiritually born again, and becomes a believer in Christ, that is a miracle. When one who had fallen away from Christ is restored to faith - and is spiritually resurrected - that, too, is a miracle. With God, all things are indeed possible.
Also, if any of you sense in your conscience that your own sins may be partly responsible for having turned certain friends or family members away from the church, that certainly would be a great burden of guilt to bear. Know, therefore, that Jesus is also here for you, and that his forgiveness is here for you.
As the eternal high priest who offered himself as the atoning sacrifice for human sin, Jesus died for all our offenses. He died for all our shortcomings and inconsistences, and for our many failures in how we have conducted ourselves: as pastors, as church members, as neighbors, and as husbands, wives, and parents.
Christ’s complete faithfulness and perfect obedience as the ultimate priest for God’s people, and as the ultimate king over God’s people, are credited to us when we are justified before God, by faith in him. Before God, he takes away our sins, and places his righteousness upon us in the stead of those sins.
That’s what God is talking about when he says today, through Jeremiah, that the name by which the Savior will be called is: “The Lord our righteousness.”
If it is possible, you might seek out those whom your conscience tells you you have let down or misled, and apologize for your failing. You can try, with the Lord’s help, to do better in your future interactions with them. And you can pray for them.
You can pray that they will accept Jesus’ admonition to them, to repent of their sins: for which they do bear the ultimate responsibility, and not you.
And you can pray that by the working of the Holy Spirit, they will humbly accept Jesus’ invitation to them, to cling once again to his cross; and to walk once again in the newness of the life that he gives to those whom he owns.
Ultimately, it is the Good Shepherd himself on whom we must all rely. God does give us pastors and teachers, parents and religious leaders, through whom he works, and through whom he blesses us. But all of these people, who are themselves still tainted by sin, will eventually disappoint us - sometimes in small ways; sometimes in big ways.
They will need our forgiveness for these failures, even as we each need the forgiveness of those whom we have hurt. Above all of this, however, is Jesus Christ the Lord. And he will never fail us.
To everyone who looks today to Jesus the Good Shepherd - even to those whose faith may tremble with weakness, or falter with doubt - I as your human shepherd can tell you without hesitation that Jesus will never fail you. He will never abandon you or forsake you.
Jesus’ words of hope and life are never stale or barren. No hypocrisy or insincerity ever attaches to anything he says or does.
Jesus is the “Branch of righteousness” whom God raised up for David. And in another sense, but in a very real sense, he is the Branch of righteousness whom God raised up for you: to make you righteous in God’s sight; and to reign over you and within you in righteousness and in love.
In the healing and reconciling fellowship of the flock of his church, to which he calls you, he shall indeed “reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness,” as he daily convicts his people of their sins and calls them to repentance, but as he also daily forgives and pardons his people, and restores them to his protective shepherd’s embrace.
And within the healing and reconciling fellowship of the flock of his church, in which he preserves you in time and in eternity, Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely.” Amen.