Last Sunday of the Church Year

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
    Today’s parable is the old familiar ending to the Church Year – the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. With the end of the Church year comes a reminder that Christ’s coming could happen at any time, that we ought to be ready for it, and indeed, this parable teaches us how to be ready for it. So, let us hear this parable and listen to it once again.

    “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” Now, let’s consider this set up. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us at first – why are there are bunch of virgins, a bunch of young unmarried gals waiting for the groom? Generally today brides don’t like their husband to be cavorting with a bunch of 18 year olds on the way to the wedding. But perhaps the best way to think of these would be that they are like our modern bridesmaids. It’s a big wedding, there’s 10 gals, and their job is to make everything look pretty. That's their job. However, there is a problem. “Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” The main job of the virgins back in the day would be to be part of the procession, and they would carry lamps, candles, and the light would make everything look just so and perfect – plus they wouldn’t look too shabby for any of the groom’s single friends. But there’s a problem. A lamp without any oil isn’t very useful. It doesn’t work, it doesn’t do its job – and a gal without any oil for her lamp would have been rather useless. What might be the modern equivalent? Bridesmaids showing up to the wedding without their shoes – you know, you’ve seen the bridesmaids where they all have their shoes died fuchsia or periwinkle or whatever strange color the bride had picked out? It’s nice that you are there – but if you don’t have your shoes, bridezilla over there is going to be sort of upset, and you’ll look really, really tacky up front instead of just so and picture perfect.

    And then something unexpected happens, or maybe it’s better to say something expected doesn’t happen. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ The groom is late. Things are getting drawn out, and all the gals, wise and foolish alike fall asleep. The wedding is supposed to start at 6, and by 10:30, and they are all out cold. Now, there are few things one can bring out from this – one being that they are all asleep, that no one stays up and is awake when groom shows up midnight. The point of this parable isn’t that the wise are bright-eyed and bushy tailed and perfect little gals – almost like the wedding equivalent of those royal guards in England who never move. No, these verses are designed to take away any sense of pride or smugness the wise might have. But there is another aspect – it does highlight how foolish the foolish ones are. Let’s jump back to our modern bridesmaids – and let us say the wedding is supposed to be at noon, and you aren’t ready, but then there is the news that it’s going to be pushed back a few hours. So, what do you do – do you go get ready then, do you quickly run to the shops and finally buy the shoes you should have gotten well beforehand? In the case of the parable – no, because they are foolish. And at any rate, the time for the wedding arrives.

    Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And it’s time for the wedding, and the foolish gals aren’t ready. Do you know what their request to borrow oil would be like? It would be like saying, “Oh no, I forgot my shoes, hey, can I borrow one of your's Let's just both wear one?” That’s how foolish the request in the parable is. Hey, I’m not ready, how about we all not be ready? How about none of us have oil to do our job? It’s not that the wise are mean and won’t share, it’s that the foolish are foolish. Off you must go.

    And we know how it ends. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.  Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ And they miss it. The foolish gals are off and about, and the groom shows up, and the wedding starts, and they are shut out. And they have no one to blame but themselves – they can’t blame the groom because he was delayed – they weren’t ready 6 hours earlier. They can’t blame the wise, I mean, why would you show up to the wedding you’ve known about for so long without your oil, why would you not have gone to the store and bought your shoes already? And so they are left out of the party, they miss it.

    So then, let us ask the Lutheran question. What does this all mean? What’s the point of the parable? Jesus answers by saying, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. The time for the wedding is coming, you need to be ready. You can’t assume that there’s more time… because let’s face it, if you aren’t getting ready now, are you really going to be getting ready later? You see, this image of the wedding is the image for the life of the world to come, it is the image for all the happy stuff at the end of Revelation – in fact Revelation 19 talks about the marriage feast of the Lamb. The call goes out! We are to make sure that we are ready, that we are prepared for the Second Coming, for the End, for the great feast that never ends.

    So how? What distinguishes the wise from the foolish in this parable, what ought we be looking for? It’s not the distinction between those who have heard and those who haven’t heard. The wise and the foolish both know there’s a wedding, they know it’s going to happen, and they even want to be there. The foolish in this parable aren’t those who turn up their nose at the idea of the wedding – no, the wise and foolish all know it’s a good idea. And the difference isn’t the great moral character of the wise and the terrible moral character of the foolish. It’s not as though the wise are waiting for the wedding but the foolish got so drunk from the bachelorette party at the bar the night before that they couldn’t wake up. No, they are all together, they all fall asleep at the same time, they all are awakened together. They are in the same boat in terms of how they live. No, the key difference, the thing that separates the wise from the foolish is whether or not they have their oil.

    Consider this. If you are to be an old fashioned virgin here – you are at the wedding in the company of the groom, you are there to provide light with your lamp. If you don’t have light for your lamp, you are pretty much ignoring the whole reason you were invited. If you are asked to be a bridesmaid, but you don’t care enough to have your outfit ready, what’s the point of you being a bridesmaid? And that’s the difference, that is what separates the wise from the foolish. The wise understand their part in the wedding feast; the foolish don’t and thus aren’t prepared. The wedding isn’t about your plans, or what you would like, this wedding is about the Bridegroom, and you are there for the great and fantastic joy.

    So, consider the Christian Faith. Consider what we confess in the creeds each week. That Christ Jesus, the great Bridegroom, has won us the forgiveness of sins, and that we receive this forgiveness and life everlasting from Him. That we are those who have been baptized for the remission of sin, and so therefore we look forward to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. That’s the story, that’s how all this stuff works. We are those who are forgiven – that’s our job. We are those who receive forgiveness, so that for all eternity Christ Jesus might be glorified as our Redeemer. Because this is the cry of heaven, this is the praise that is shown forth – Revelation 19 puts it like this: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God” Salvation! That’s the first thing on the list. Do you want to know how awesome Christ Jesus is, how awesome the Reason for this eternal party is? He saves people – in fact, He has saved me! That’s the heart of all the praise we will sing out, that’s the heart of Christ Jesus showing His glory – that’s the great demonstration of His Power, when He lays down His life – that’s why you are always hearing about the Lamb who was slain in Revelation – because it’s in His salvation that we see just how wonderful Christ Jesus is.

    And that’s how we are brought to that feast. We receive by faith this salvation. We receive by faith this forgiveness and life. And that is wisdom – remember, wisdom in the Scriptures is always tied to the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who opens our ears to hear, who focuses us upon Christ, who makes us see Him and His salvation. And as for the fool – well, the fool says in his heart there is no God. Or at least not a God who saves… not a God who wants the point to always be about what He does. And so the fools ignore everything going on – they ignore the plans for the wedding, whether it be having oil for their lamps, or shoes for their feet, or hearing the Word, attending the Supper, receiving Christ’s forgiveness. They have better things to do, they know better, and so they miss out on it.

    But you, dear friends, God has given you wisdom. He has washed you in the waters of Holy Baptism, He has given you your garments for the everlasting feast. He has kept you in the faith; He has brought you again to this place to hear His Salvation proclaimed, to receive the forgiveness of your sins. He even brings you to the altar for the Supper, for the foretaste of the great feast to come. And why? Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. You do not know when your call to the feast will be – whether it be at the hour of your death when you fall asleep and then awaken to life everlasting, or whether you live until Christ returns with trumpets and archangels. But here in this place, your eyes are focused once again upon Christ Jesus, you are made to watch Him. Here we all are focused not upon our own plans or wants or whims, but upon Christ Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. He has provided for us all we need – and now we simply wait for the great feast, the great party, the life of the world to come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

2nd to Last Sunday

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    Last week I noted in passing the idea that the Church is hidden. This was one of my favorite things from reading Luther – this idea, this focus that the reality, the fullness of our lives as Christians right now is hidden. It will be revealed, there will be the great Revelation – that's why the book is called Revelation – but right now there are profound realities of who we are in Christ Jesus that just aren't obvious, that we do not see. And there is no story that Jesus tells that teaches this more clearly than our Gospel lesson today – the Sheep and the Goats. This is the last bit of teaching we hear in Matthew's Gospel – after this it's on to our Lord's Passion. And so we ought listen to what our Lord wishes to tell us about what we do not see now but at the last day will see and understand.

    When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. When. At some point in the future, this is what Jesus will do. He will come back, and then it will be obvious who He is. During His earthly ministry people didn't get to see Jesus in His glory – they saw a poor working man from the sticks. They didn't recognize God Almighty – they saw a guy whipped and beaten and dying on a cross. But come the Last Day – who Jesus is will be fully and totally revealed, and there will be no confusion, no doubt, no hemming and hawing about it. Jesus will come fully revealed as God and Savior, and He will do His thing. He will separate the sheep and the goats, He will judge the living and the dead. It's Judgment Day.

    But it's not Judgment Day as we sadly often think of it. It's not a Judgment Day where Jesus pulls out the laundry list of complaints to nag us with – it's not going to be, “oh no, I was out too late with the boys, boy am I gonna get it when I get home.” “Oh no, when he sees how much this dress cost, he's going to flip out.” No, it's not like that at all. Not for you, O Christian. Listen. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a 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.” Oh, there's a list alright, but it's a giant list of praise. Come – get on over here, how great that you're finally here. Look at this, the Kingdom is yours, it's so awesome that you're here because you've done so much and the Kingdom of God will be better with you in it.

    That's Judgment Day for you O Christian. Not an angry judge combing through the fine print looking to throw the book at you. No, it's Jesus literally praising you to High Heaven. You made the world better, you'll fit in heaven. Look at all that you did. And here's where it is important to note the reaction of the Sheep, what your reaction and my reaction will become come Judgment Day (even though we've heard the story). Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry...” And it's actually humorous – what's being described is not a well reasoned response from the sheep, but just a torrent of words spilling out in wonder – a dumbfounded blathering. All this stuff You said we did for You and to You, what are You talking about Jesus? And then, the revealing of the Mystery – 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.”

    Jesus says, “Yes, I know I am literally praising you to high heaven, but stop trying to find grand things that you've done. The good works I've given you in your life aren't Super-hero works. It's not the leaping over tall buildings I'm praising here – it's the simplest things, the things done to the least of My brothers.” And this is the reality. Any of y'all changed a diaper – well done good and faithful servant, for in so doing, in that little bit of your normal, humdrum life, you have served Christ Jesus. This is the mystery of Good Works, and why frankly we shouldn't be trying to judge our works. We don't understand good any more – that's part of the Fall. Adam and Eve ate the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, and ever since then we think we know better than God what is good. Our understanding of good is warped. We think of good works as extra credit works, or medals that we would win for going above and beyond the call of duty. No, that's not how God uses the word good.

    Again, consider creation. God creates, and things do simply what they are supposed to do. Trees grow. Birds fly. Cows eat grass and go mooo. And it was good. Good is simply being what God has created something to be. It's not super crazy awesome – it's the simple things. God delights in the simple things of your life. You are a forgiven, redeemed child of God – your sins are taken away, they aren't yours anymore. God doesn't see them on you, He sees them on Christ on the Cross well and thoroughly done away with. So all that is left is your simple, everyday life, simply you doing all those normal things. Cooking. Cleaning. Helping out at work. A diaper. Laughing with a friend. Crying with a friend. All of these simple things that fly by in our life without nary a second thought – God sees all of these and He is pleased to bits, He is delighted by it. Because you're living, living in faith, and He created you to live. Those are your works, and Jesus calls them good.

    But right now, we don't see this, we don't see the fullness of this truth – and that's a good thing for us, because in our sinfulness we will mess things up, we will miss understand. We can ponder works, and we can think that they earn us something, that they merit us something. We want to boast in them, instead of seeing and understanding that our works are given to us as a gift from God. I make a sandwich for my son – sure that's a good work, but it's a gift to me. I have a son to make a sandwich for – and quite of a few of you here can think back a little bit wistfully on those days with your kids. It's a gift. Or what about this – I preach a sermon. I get to be your pastor, what a gift. You come to church – what a good work. Yes, but what a gift, that you were able to be here today, to receive forgiveness, to sing with the people of God. It's not that we do stuff and then earn things from God – it's that God gives us good gifts and we walk in them, we live in them, and it is really and truly good – good in a way that is too deep and too high and too profound for us to fully grasp in this life, for us to understand while we still struggle against sin in this life. But that's the truth, that's the reality of you who you are in Christ Jesus. You are a forgiven redeemed child of God, and you cannot comprehend just how delighted with you God is, how thoroughly Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me, this I know... but we only know it in part – come the last day we get the mind blowing fullness of what that looks like.

    Now a word on the goats. There is condemnation, off to hell with you jerks, because you always treated Me like dirt. The goats are confused, when did we do this to You, surely if we saw You we wouldn't have. 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. Just as good works are hidden, sin is hidden – we don't understand sin, we don't understand the profundity of our sin – that our sin is always against God. And so we simply confess our sin, the sin we know and the sins we aren't aware of. We don't know all of our own wickedness. And frankly, we don't need to, lest we become overly terrified and paralyzed. The thing that separates the sheep and the goats isn't some level of sin – the difference is this. The sin of the sheep is taken away, is taken up by Christ. The Sheep are absolved, their sin is cleansed off of them and taken away by Christ. But have sympathy for people who sin against you. They literally know not what they do, they don't get the full implication of what's going on. Many times they don't have a clue as to what they've done, but even if they are trying to sin against you, trying to hurt you – oh, they don't really know, they don't aren't thinking of how they are sinning against God. This is why we live in the forgiveness of Christ Jesus, we live receiving Christ's forgiveness and giving out Christ's forgiveness... because we have an idea of how wretched sin is, and no one should have to live with that.

    So live in forgiveness, O sheep. Live as one who is richly and fully forgiven by Christ Jesus. Because this is the truth, the reality, that you are a Baptized, forgiven child of God, someone who has been called out of darkness into God's marvelous light, someone prepared to inherit the kingdom of heaven. You might not always see this, and you certainly won't see the fullness and true wonder of this – we're always just going to be a bit clueless in our earthly days. But Christ Jesus has won you life and salvation, and He gives you every blessing of body and soul. He has taken away your sin and filled you with His own righteousness. He sees this, the Father sees this, and God delights in you, His forgiven child. Fear not the judgment; all it means is that you will know God's love for you more fully than ever before. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 25 - 3rd to Last Sunday of the Church Year

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    In the meantime. What a wonderful little phrase – in the meantime. You want to be doing something, but you can't right now, you've got to wait. It's not ready yet, so you get to do something else. In the meantime. In our Gospel lesson today, our Lord Jesus warns us that there will be quite a lot of our life spent in the spiritual meantime. We indeed wait for Jesus to come again, we look forward to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come, we want Jesus to return and put and end to wickedness and bring us to our eternal home... but it's not yet. The Father, in His wisdom and love, has not yet sent Jesus to return (though if He chooses to interrupt this sermon and bring us all to the feast, well, who am I to argue). And so Jesus tells his followers, tells us, that we must be prepared for life in the meantime.

    And it won't always be pretty. The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. Think about this. The disciples were used to hanging around with Jesus. With just chatting with Him, bouncing ideas off of Him. After the Ascension, they don't have that anymore – not in the meantime at least. And the problems that Jesus would have directly handled, well, they are called to handle them. So there will be times, rough times, when they will wish Jesus handled things directly like He used to. Most of us who have faced responsibility can understand – there are times where we think, “Grandpa would have handled this better” or “how would mom have done this”. I'm not knocking our earthly family here, but they've got nothing on Jesus. And even then, we ourselves as Christians, we face challenges, and we pray, we ask Jesus for strength (which He does give), and we can wish He would just show up and fix things... and we have to wait for that. And that's lousy.

    And the temptation, when we are faced with the difficulty of waiting, the difficulty of facing the responsibilities that Jesus hands to us, is that we can become impatient. And we can start being tempted to follow off after foolish, false rumors and tales. And they will say to you, “Look, there!” or “Look, here!” Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day.” In the first century, there were a lot of false messiahs, people claiming to be Jesus come back, Jesus reincarnated. We still get them on occasion today, but they were really common then. And Jesus warns the disciples, no, don't go running off after rumors about My return – when I return, it will be sudden – as sudden as lightning, and it will be obvious to everyone – you aren't going to miss it. And this warning still holds, still applies to us. There are a lot of false teachers out there who will dangle secret, hidden information about Jesus, about the second coming, about the end of days in front of you. And those types of lines are so appealing because we want Jesus to come back, we want to know how things will play out... we even want to be able to make them play out. And Jesus says no, you're just going to have to wait. And anyone who says otherwise isn't just selling something; they're also calling Jesus a liar and saying that they know better than Him. If Jesus says, “No man knoweth the hour” then the guy who says he's figured out when Jesus is coming back is a snake oil salesman at best.

    No, we must wait. And it won't always be a comfortable waiting. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. The disciples thought that since they were following Jesus, they were going to literally get to run the world. That following Jesus would mean they would be ruling Israel and it would be earthly glory days, because Jesus is the Messiah and doesn't that mean glory? Well, yes... but... Jesus is going to go to the Cross. The point isn't merely glory, the point is winning life and salvation for you by taking up your Sin and crucifying it on the Cross. Jesus suffers. And also, Jesus is rejected. Jesus gets denigrated. Jesus gets spat upon. It's not all lifestyles of the Rich and Famous for Jesus in this world... and disciples, it never becomes that in this world. That's heaven, that's the life of the world to come. You'll have to wait for that.

    And my dear Christian friends, well, I've got to say, you'll face the same sort of things. Jesus has told us that no servant is above his master. In this world, you won't always be celebrated for being a Christian. You won't always be encouraged in your faith by the people around you. In fact, many people you know, people you love, even people you respect, will throw up obstacles to your faith. They'll try to pull you away from Church, from worship, from the faith. And you'll even face disdain, mockery, and rejection. That's all part of this meantime that we are in. And yet, in this meantime, in the face of rejection, we're called to bear witness to Jesus, to proclaim that He has died and risen for the forgiveness of sins, that what Jesus did on the Cross and the forgiveness which He gives is the most important thing in the world. And why?

    Because Jesus is coming back. And we need to be ready, and those people who reject us, God grant that they come to faith even though our witness so that they will be ready too. For Jesus says – Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Noah was rejected. His friends, his neighbors saw the ark, and I'm willing to guess Noah told them why he was building it, that there even was room. And then the flood came, and it was their end. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot – they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all – so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Another example with Sodom and Gamorah. Abraham couldn't believe how few faithful people there were left in Sodom when God delivered Lot and his daughters from that wicked place. Abraham had taught them of God; Lot had taught them of God. Then the destruction. We've seen the pattern – and it will play out one last time when Jesus comes again. And so in the meantime, we remain faithful, we tell others, we hope. And we wait.

    However, I want you to note something about this waiting that we have. We are not waiting for an absent, distant Jesus to return after having left us alone for thousands of years. Did you not the last word? When the Son of Man is... revealed. It's the same word for the book of Revelation (note, Revelation, singular, one Revelation – the revelation of Jesus). That word for revealed is the word Apocalypse, and it literally means to pull the cover off of something – it's ta-da. This thing was here, but now the veil is pulled back so you can see it. And that's the thing – while we wait for Jesus to return, it's not that Jesus has been absent or gone, it's that He is present with us in His Church, with us – but not in an open and obvious way. And theologians will use different images to describe this wonder, this mystery – Paul will talk about how we are buried with Christ by baptism – we're joined to Him in a way that is hidden and not obvious, but it's real, and we are united with Him. And the end, it's really just when all these truths of Scripture that are real and present are shown publicly and fully to be real – when the meantime, when the “now we see through a mirror dimly” becomes the “then we see face to face.”

    And this is where Jesus in fact started off our lesson. Don't expect everything about God and Jesus and the faith to be open and obvious all the time. The Church is invisible, is hidden (I like hidden a little bit better), the realities are deeper than our mere observation. And we aren't to go chasing off after wild obvious displays of God's power in the meantime. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, [Jesus] answered them, “The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is,' or 'There,' for behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” When's the kingdom coming, Pharisees? Well, I'm right here – Christ Jesus, the Lord, is right here in your midst, and even though you might not see it, the Kingdom of God is right here. And this remains true for us – right here, right now, among us, Jesus is here. God Himself is Present. Where two or three are gathered in My name – you know, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – there I will be. Take and Eat, Take and Drink, lo I will be with you always, even until the end of the age – even until the revealing of the Son of Man. In the meantime we are called by the Holy Spirit, we are gathered by the Holy Spirit to live in the Gospel of Christ Jesus, to live in His Word, in His Sacraments. These simple things which the world disdans and scoffs at, preaching, baptism, the Supper, the Word of God – God is present and active for you in them, to forgive you, to strengthen you, to guide you, to preserve you, to enlighten you. To keep you in His Kingdom, His Power even until the last day.

    And there are so many temptation, temptations away from the Word, temptations away from the Church. Temptations dangling pleasures, temptations threatening us, even temptations telling us that we don't need to wait. Oh, this is a sore one for us 21^st Century Americans, because we hate waiting for anything, and we have so little patience. Oh well, Jesus has spoken, and He has told us the truth, the reality. He is with us now in His Church, in His Word and Sacraments, and He will come again – and whether His second coming is in our lifetimes or not, we are called to wait, we are called actually to rest in Him, to have our Sabbath rest in Him, to hear Him, and thus be in His kingdom now and forever. The meantime is the time of the Church, and while it is difficult, in the Church, even the Church militant here on earth, it still is all good in Jesus. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +