Advent, Lord Jesus, Advent - Mark 11: 1-10

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today is the First Sunday of Advent. It’s the first Sunday of the church year. This helps us remember that the church operates differently than the secular world; we have a different sense of time. The world around operates in the here and now. The church also operates in the here and now, but we do so with an eye looking forward, an eye looking at what is to come.

“To come.” That’s what the word “Advent” means: “to come.” We often pray for Jesus’ advent – His coming; so often, in fact, that we probably lose that we are even saying it. Do you know it’s in the Lord’s Prayer? “Thy kingdom come.” The Latin makes it clearer: “adveniat voluntus tuum.” At the dinner table, we pray “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let thy gifts to us be blessed.”  In this season of Advent, our hymnody will pick up the cry as well. We will sing it twice this morning: The King Shall Come, and Savior of the Nations Come. Even the very last sentence in the Bible is, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.”

Do you believe that He will come, that He will return? I think you do. After all, we don’t just pray it, but we also say it in the Creeds, that we believe He will come to judge the living and the dead. We should believe this, because it was Jesus’ own promise: “Behold, I am coming soon!” (Rev. 22:7) To make sure we know and believe this, He repeats himself “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end,” (Re. 22:12-13).

So you sing it, you pray it, you believe it: Jesus will advent again.

But, do you expect it? Do you expect Jesus to return “soon”? I’m not splitting hairs, here, as to what “soon,” means so let’s keep it simple: do you expect Jesus to return by sunset today, sometime this week, one day this month? I think the answer is “probably not.” At best, we’ve been lulled into ambivalence by Jesus’ long delay; at worst, the world has duped us into almost not caring. While we believe Jesus is coming, we have lost the sense of expectation, urgency, and even desire. We’re so busy enjoying this life that we are forgetting about the life of the world to come when He returns.

This morning’s Gospel lesson is most commonly known as the Palm Sunday reading, also known as the Passion of our Lord. You may have been wondering if I had the right Gospel lesson, even – after all, that is supposed to be read in the spring, a week before Easter. True. But the early Church chose this text as the first Sunday of Advent to refocus our eyes and our minds on the news that Jesus advents. Jesus comes.

St. Mark tells us that at the beginning of Holy Week, with all of it’s own astounding events, Jesus enters Jerusalem to the noisy welcome of the crowds. Shouts of “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is the name of the Lord!” echo down the streets while others soften the donkey’s footsteps with their cloaks and palm branches. It was the entry celebration worthy of a king, a man of noble birth, and the welcome arrival of a conqueror and liberator.

After all, they had seen Jesus power over illness: He had restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, power to dead limbs and breath to dead bodies. He drove evil spirits out of people and into swine. He calmed storms that threatened to sink ships. And he fed thousands of people with only a boy’s lunch. History tells us that at this point in time, Israel – and especially Jerusalem as the capitol city – was prime for a revolution. Zealots hated the Roman army and government being in their city. Surely, this is the kind of King who could make Israel great again! Lower corporate taxes, get rid of government oversight, reduce public debt, separate church and state and bring dignity back to the palace, just as David had done long ago. Why, this Jesus might be just the guy to back – and maybe he can set us free.

Wait…were those the wants of Ancient Jerusalem, or are those the wants of so many Christians today? Is it perhaps true that we aren’t so different than those ancient Jersualem dwellers, where we expect our own socio-political messiah in our own idea of what Jesus should be like?  Perhaps we should rethink blaming the people of Jerusalem for making such a mistake, such a misunderstanding. After all, if we are honest, we make similar mistakes of what we expect of Jesus’ coming as well. What kind of Jesus are you waiting for?

A Jesus who will make you rich and eliminate your debt? A Jesus who will eradicate viruses and runaway cells? A Jesus who lowers taxes, creates jobs, all while securing the border but also increasing international trade? A Jesus who can tighten skin wrinkles, rejuvenate hair growth, and burn cellulite? A Jesus who will bring your spouse back? A Jesus who will make your children love you again? A Jesus who will get you the corner office, or the starting lineup, or admission to the perfect college? A Jesus who will make loved ones walk and remember?

Too often, whether it be in ancient Jerusalem or Victoria County 2020, the world wants a political Messiah, one who could put a T-bone on every plate and a donkey in every garage. Covid-19, the various social and cultural movements of this year, and this election cycle have exposed our culture for the kind of pseudo-messiah we want. Then, and today, people lose sight of what God’s Messiah is to be: not a socio-political leader of the rebellion, a Jedi from Judah, if you will, who would use God’s power for righting wrongs and putting bad people back in their places. No…God’s Messiah would do those things – yes, but not the way it was expected.

Jesus wasn’t coming to establish a throne; His throne had been established before eternity ever began. He wasn’t coming to overthrow Rome or any political party; He put government in authority as His representative in the first place. He wasn’t coming to make sure no stomach was left behind; He comes to give the Bread of Life to hungry souls. He wasn’t coming to wipe out sickness and disease; He comes to rescue a fallen world from the effects of the fall of sin. He wasn’t coming to fight for land and territory; He comes to rescue His own world. He wasn’t coming to do battle with an army of soldiers; He was coming to defeat Satan once and for all. But the way of this wasn’t power and prestige. It was the way of the cross. 

The cross stands as our Advent reminder. Advent: remember, it means coming. Advent is a season of preparation. It is not yet Christmas. While the world around us has had Christmas trees and lights up since October, the church is still waiting. Don’t get me wrong: you absolutely can say “Merry Christmas,” send and receive Christmas cards, and play your favorite Bing Crosby, Handel, Pentatonix, or Charlie Brown Christmas CD. You can put up your tree and deck the halls and start sampling the Christmas fruitcake and eggnog. Nothing wrong with that. But don’t forget, in the Church…well, we’re waiting. So, in here on Sundays and Wednesdays, you aren’t going to hear too many Christmas hymns; the readings don’t take us to Bethlehem where this thing has come to pass; we won’t hear of angels and shepherds - not for a few more weeks. No…no, the Church waits. We wait in expectation to celebrate Christ’s Nativity because it also serves to help us wait in expectation for Christ’s return.

Waiting is hard work. So, to strengthen us in our waiting, Jesus comes now. He comes, hiddenly, but nonetheless real – in Baptismal water, in the preached Word, in bread and wine.  He comes to prepare us for celebrating His coming in time in Bethlehem, in the Means of Grace, and into eternity.

I said the world has already moved to Christmas and the church waits. In the weeks ahead, you’ll see the tree and the lights and the Nativity scene. Yeah…even Christian churches have allowed a taste of Christmas to sneak in. That’s OK. Because what remains, always before us, is the cross. The Cross leads us into Advent. Remember: the reason Jesus entered into time in the Nativity by taking on flesh and blood was to be our Savior from sin. “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,” the angel told Joseph. From manger to Cross: Behold: Your Advent king comes.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come. Amen.

 

The End is Only the Beginning - 1 Cor. 15: 20-28, Matt. 25:31-46

The other day the Esther Circle was meeting and they had some questions in their Bible study. They invited me to come town and visit with them a little bit. It was an interesting visit and covered quite a bit of Biblical territory, but we seemed to focus in large part on what happens when we die.

That’s fair. We all have questions about what happens when we die – after all, with only a few exceptions that include Jesus, Lazarus, and several unnamed others, there are few first-hand witnesses of death. Hollywood has done much to entertain us but has done so at the cost of great confusion. Maybe you know someone who has had that near-death experience. I know a man who was technically dead for about thirty seconds. Weeks later when we visited, he said, “You know…all that stuff that you see on TV and the movies – the lights and the voices and stuff? I don’t remember any of that. Just rest-filled peace. Was that heaven, Pastor?”

Yes…and no.

So, on this last Sunday of the church year, as our focus is on the return of Jesus in glory to judge the living and the dead, it seems good for us to talk about what happens when we die, and what happens when we rise.

I had a teacher at the Seminary who loved to stir the pot a bit and say something like this: “Don’t get me wrong – I love heaven and I’m looking forward to it. But remember – heaven isn’t the end of the world.” Now, what does he mean by that?

Too often, we’ll hear something like this at a funeral: “Well, Grandma Schmidtke is in heaven with Jesus.” And that’s the end of the sentence. Period. Das is allis. But, while it is true that the faithful are asleep in Christ, at peace and at rest, there is something more to come. We are not philosophers, trying to throw off this body, thus making death the end goal of our lives. We are children of God, waiting for the fulfillment of all of His promises given us in Christ Jesus – especially our own Easter moment. It’s about more than dying and going to heaven; it’s about dying and rising with Christ when the end of the world comes.

We, at the return of Christ, will be among “the resurrection of the dead” as we say in the Creed. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

You see here that what happens at the Second Coming hinges on Christ’s first coming. Christ rose from the dead--that happened on Easter morning--and therefore we who belong to Christ will be raised from the dead when he returns. Christ is the firstfruits. It’s a harvest image – the farmer would take the fruit that came first and gave it to the Lord, trusting in faith that there would be more fruit to come. Thus, “firstfruits” means there’s more to come. Jesus leads the way, and we follow. He rose, conquering death for us. We too will rise, for he shares his victory with us. You and I have been joined to Jesus and his resurrection in our baptism.

Do you realize that Christ has redeemed your body? I mean this old bag of bones that is falling apart and racked with aches and pains; this mortal body that is subject to disease and death. These bodies that carry high blood pressure and thinning hair; bad eyes and worse hearing; chicken arms, flabby thighs and twelve-pack guts; kidney stones and broken bones; cancer cells and missing appendages: these bodies, your bodies, my body…God is going to do something new with your body, long after it has been laid in the grave. At Christ’s return, the trumpet will sound and Christ will raise you up, whole and complete and better than ever. The blood pressure will be perfect and the hair line won’t be an issue; your eyes will be 20/20 or better and you can hear a pin drop from a thousand yards away into a green grassy hillside; arms, thighs, and abs will be pleasantly shaped – maybe not six pack, but they won’t look as though they slugged down a six pack, either. Cancer and all other disease will cease to exist. I, for one, am curious what my new shoe size will be. Now, I don’t know exactly what our bodies will look like in every respect. The Bible doesn’t answer those specifics. But I do know that you will be you, and that you will have your body except in perfect holiness and whole-ness, the way Adam and Eve were created to be - a body built for eternity - and that that body will no longer be subject to all that ails you now. It will be glorious, in fact, fitted out for eternity.

The return of Christ. The resurrection of the dead. The final judgment. The reading from Matthew 25 gives us a picture of that. Christ the King on his throne. The sheep and the goats gathered before him, that is, the righteous and the cursed. There will be a division, a separation, a sorting out at that time. And the difference will be faith or unbelief. On the one hand, Christ will welcome in the sheep, that is, those who have faith in him--a genuine, living faith, which will have produced works of mercy in life as its natural fruit. On the other hand, the goats--that is, those who had rejected God’s only appointed Savior--they will be judged because they had no faith in Christ and thus had no faith-produced works. It’s not that our works save us, no. But by God’s grace you and I have been given the gift of faith in Christ, and that faith will naturally produce good works in our lives.

You have this faith, don’t you, dear Christian? You are not trusting in yourself for salvation, for that would be a dead end. You know your sins would condemn you. But rather you trust in Christ, the one God sent to save you. Kept in this faith by the Holy Spirit, growing in this faith as the Word and Sacrament sustain you, your life will produce works of love and mercy done in Christ. And this is what will be cited as you stand before the throne of judgment. Not your sins--they have been forgotten, nowhere in sight or memory. Only the good works you have done, the product and evidence of a living faith.

Dear friends, you have nothing to fear on the Day of Judgment. Christ has taken care of that. Your judge is also your Savior. For us, that day will be a blessed day of welcome, of homecoming, of entering into the eternal kingdom God has prepared for us. Joyful, that!

And so, when the end comes, that will be only the beginning. Death is destroyed. Eternal life opens before us. Home at last, safe and secure with our Shepherd in our midst. What a day that will be! All the company of heaven, gathered together, alive and joyful, praising God and enjoying perfect peace and fellowship. The grandest worship you will have ever heard. And you and I will be singing in the choir, our voices blending in sweet harmony. I can’t imagine how good it will be--only that it will be!

“Then will come the end.” And the end, the goal, the place where all this is heading, is the glory of God. Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father, having accomplished everything he set out to do. Christ will have destroyed death, resulting in our glorious, bodily resurrection. Christ will declare us righteous by faith and welcome us into his eternal kingdom. What this does is give all the glory to God. God has done it all. “Then will come the end,” which is, “that God may be all in all.” When that day comes, when Christ returns and we are raised and welcomed into eternal life, then God’s perfect plan will have reached its goal . . . the end…which is only the beginning of eternity with Jesus in the resurrection of the body.

 

Talents to Spare through Christ our Lord - Matthew 25: 14-30

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have you noticed the tabloids lately? Every fall, they start with their doom and gloom prophetic – I use the word very loosely – headlines that signal the end of the world. They do it, of course, to sell magazines. Ironically, these same headlines get one thing right: the end of all things is drawing closer. The Last Day. The Judgment. The Day of the Lord. The coming of Christ in glory. The fancy word for this is eschatology. You probably know it simply as last things.

For many, the mention of last things brings with it a cacophony of fear. What will happen to us? Will our Lord deal with us graciously or harshly? Will our faith be vindicated or will be ashamed, or worse, at the coming day? Will the Last Day be a day of wrath or a day of mercy?

Last week, we were reminded that the Last Day comes suddenly and quickly, but it doesn’t come unexpectedly, at least to those who hear the words of Jesus and take them to heart. His last words to His Church in the Bible are “I come quickly” to which the Church replies “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” Christians have been living and praying in that expectation for 2000 years. Every generation, from the apostle Paul, to the early church, to Luther, to our day, has thought that the end would come in their lifetime. While the unbelieving world sleeps in a drunken stupor, you stand ready, like a soldier on watch – sober, vigilant, watchful, with the breastplate of faith and love protecting your heart and the hope of salvation protecting your head.

And here’s the point: God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake (that is alive) or asleep (that is dead) we might live with Him. That’s what the Last Day is about for the baptized believer – not a day of wrath but a day of salvation, not a day of death but a day of life. That is what we now must believe, and what we do not yet have in ourselves.

The time in-between is the time of faith, which brings us to Jesus’ parable of the three servants. Each is entrusted property in form of money called talents. A talent is large sum of money, about 20 years’ wages. So 5 talents is over 100 years’ wages for a common laborer. No small piece of change. Nor is two or even one.

A rich man entrusted his wealth to three servants. To one five, to another two, and to a third one. And then the man went away without so much as a word of instruction as to what to do. The first two doubled the investment. The one who had five traded with them and made five more. The one who had two did the same. But the third one took a different approach. He dug a hole in the ground and hid it.

After a long time, the master returns to settle accounts. The two who turned a profit are praised with a hearty “Well done” and get to share in the joy of their Master. The third is condemned to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth for bringing back his buried talent all safe and sound.

On the surface, the parable sounds like a judgment of works. The one who made much received much and even got the talent from the third servant. And so do all that you can do for God, hope for the best, and pray that you show some sort of profit at the close of business or you’ll be joining that third servant in the eternal unemployment line.

But the third servant is the key to understanding the judgment. Why didn’t he turn a profit? Why didn’t he do business? Why didn’t he transact with the world and invest with money that wasn’t his in the first place? He really had nothing to lose, after all. It was his Master’s money, not his. And his Master gave no instructions, made no demands, set no profit margin goals. He simply sent out his servants to do business with his property. And he knew his coin was good. He knew there would be a profit and his servants would have a share in his joy. So why didn’t the third servant do anything? Why take that shiny talent and bury it?

Why do we? What keeps us from doing things, from taking risks, from going outside our own comfort zones? From inviting a friend to church, speaking the truth in love to a neighbor, not backing down to HR when told the cross on the cubicle is intimidating to a coworker. Fear. In a word, it’s fear. Fear of failure, failure of being disliked, fear of punishment, fear of loss, fear of a disapproving gaze. Fear is the great paralyzer that prevents us from even getting off the starting line.

I spoke with a young mother recently. She was so proud of her son. He got such good grades, and she told me that she always praises him for his grades and rewards him. I asked her if she ever praised him for trying something he wasn’t good at and failing. Which received more praise, the easy A or the hard-earned C? She smiled as she thought about it and said she was going home to praise him for taking that advanced math class that was just a little beyond his ability.

If you’ve grown up with hard to please parents, a demanding father or mother for whom it was never good enough, then this parable is likely to strike a raw nerve. Fear. You can hear it in the servant’s voice: “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.”

That’s you and me under the Law, my friends. The Law is a harsh taskmaster. The Law demands perfection. If you offend in one point, you’re guilty of the whole thing. The Law demands obedience but it cannot produce a single obedient work. All it can produce is fear, dread, terror of the final day of reckoning when our works will be put through the fire of judgment.

And if that’s your view of God as your heavenly Father, and if the Law is the only way to deal with Him, that’s where you’ll wind up too. Cornered by the critics. Paralyzed in fear.

But the good news is that Christ has set you free from that. What matters is not the abundance of your works, because they are not your works anyway. They are God’s works worked in you. How can you take credit for something that isn’t yours in the first place? What matters is trust, trust that Jesus settled your account on the cross with His perfect life and death so that you can transact in this world without fear of failure. And like the servants in the parable, there are no rules. Simply faith toward God and love toward others.

What was lacking in that third servant was not a profit but faith. He believed that his master was harsh, demanding, and cruel. And he got what he believed. Had he believed that his master was happy go lucky and carefree, that so long as you did business with the world and spread the master’s good name around he didn’t care what you made, that servant would have gone out and boldly done business as one who had nothing to lose.

You have nothing to lose. Salvation is yours. Eternal life is yours. The treasures of heaven are yours. The judgment ends in Jesus, and Jesus was judged in your place. You are free in Jesus to do what God has given you to do, knowing that in the doing it is God at work and He never fails. And even through your failings, your shortcomings, your weaknesses, His will is always done.

Yes, our works will be judged. They need to be cleaned up. The dross of our sin needs to be burned away. The fingerprints of the old Adam need to be wiped off so that we can clearly see that what has been worked in us has been worked by God Himself. Our works will be judged, but we will not be judged by our works but simply by faith.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. (John 3:16-20)

 

In the name of Jesus,

Amen

A Slowly Arriving, Deliberately Delaying Bridegroom - Matthew 25:1-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today we begin the end. Today and the next two Sundays are called the Last Sundays of the church year. Although each Sunday is truly a “little Easter,” for we proclaim Christ and Him crucified and risen each Lord’s day, these last Sundays of the church year are different. They are more somber, their joy more subdued, their tone a little less peace-filled. The reason is the last Sundays of the church year remind us that Christ is coming, coming soon, and those last days before His return will be touched with wars and rumors of war, famine and pestilence, flood, fire and earthquake. And, Jesus warned, these are but the birth-pains, the beginning, of what is to come. 

And, perhaps this year, more than the years past, that somber, subdued-joy, and toned-down peace is appropriate.  It’s been a difficult and trying year in many, many ways. Those wars and rumors of wars, the fires and floods, we’ve seen them both up close, in person and afar, at an electronic distance. We have seen the fallenness of creation in a fierce and terrible way. We watched, first in fear and then in mounting frustration, as a virus continues to affect, effect, and infect our homes and people around us. Our television and computer screens showed the terror of the sky glowing bright red from the tens of thousands of acres of out-of-control wildfires to the west, and from waters rising and winds tearing at the homes of our neighbors to the east. Farmers and ranchers from South Texas northward have watched water holes slowly dry up while uttering a three-word prayer, “If it rains.” And, we have seen the fallenness of mankind.  Across the nation and the world, we saw that people have been beaten, homes and businesses destroyed, reputations ruined, and lives destroyed by anger, hatred, and revenge against racial, social and economic boundaries. Justice has been replaced by vigilantes carrying not only clubs and torches but also armed with social media and sound bites.

Through it all, day in and day out, year after year, the message of the church remains constant: repent, for the Kingdom is near. The Kingdom is God’s reigning in heaven and on earth through the person and ministry of Jesus Christ, in His advent 2000 years ago, in His work in the church today, and with the promise to return in glory. Christ is King, and in His death and resurrection, He has conquered satan’s hold on the world. He rules now, in a hidden way, but He has promised to return in an incredibly visible way so that every eye shall see and every ear shall hear, and there will no longer be any doubt or question of who and what He is: Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. For two thousand years, the Church has preached the same message. From generation to generation, people of God have looked eagerly and with anticipation for Jesus’ return. The Kingdom is near.

But, where is the King? Why is He so slow in returning? It’s been so long, it seems, since He has been among us. What is the reason for His delay? How much longer must we wait?

To encourage us in our waiting, Jesus tells this parable from Matthew. It’s often called the parable of the ten virgins, but perhaps it should instead be called the parable of the patiently slow and deliberate bridegroom. After all, the bridegroom is the reason the virgins are there, waiting to meet the bridegroom, watching for His arrival. Waiting and watching, watching and waiting. The parable stands as a verbal picture, a narrative, to remind us that Jesus will return – at His own time, at His own pleasure.

But, it seems like He is being delayed. Or, is He the one who is delaying?  Either way, it seems as if He is taking forever. Reading the New Testament, it seems as if the disciples, the apostles, expected Jesus to return almost immediately after His ascension. Certainly, St. John – the last of the apostles and the only one to die a natural, non-martyred death – concludes his spirit-given Revelation in prayer-filled anticipation, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come.” And, still, throughout the history of the church, from the early church fathers, into the Reformation, and even into the last century, faithful people of God are urged, in their own times of loss and death and confession of faith to repent, for the Kingdom is near.  

But, more and more – and especially in our day and age, two thousand years and counting since Jesus’ ascension, satan temps us to give up watching and waiting, waiting and watching for our Lord’s return. It’s been so long, he whispers. It seems – some days – as if He has forgotten, almost, of His promised return. It seems – some times – as if He has lost interest in what is happening among His people. It seems – some times - as if He is unaware of what is happening to His people for His name’s sake. Why bother at all?

Why bother watching and waiting, waiting and watching? Because Jesus will return. He has promised.

It’s easy to identify the bridegroom – He is Jesus. Likewise, the virgins are easy to see as the people of God, the church. The virgins have one, simple vocational task before them: to welcome the bridegroom with festal celebration.  The bridegroom will return, even if He delays. He is returning with His bride to celebrate with His people.  They must be prepared – nothing can get in the way of the celebration. The church has one, simple task before us: to welcome Jesus with festal celebration. He will return, even if he delays. And He will return to celebrate with His resurrection people who are watching and waiting, prepared for His return.

There is a difference between getting prepared and being prepared for our Lord’s return. Being prepared is when you are the one standing at the door on Sunday morning, coffee finished, teeth brushed, shoes on, keys in one hand with the other hand on the door knob, ready to walk out the door with ample time to get to church. Getting prepared is what everyone else is doing – still finishing breakfast, brushing teeth, hunting for socks let alone shoes, still in their own bedroom, a far distance from the door. Getting prepared is not the same thing as being prepared.

All ten were asleep, resting, and waiting; all ten were equally surprised when the Bridegroom arrived and the midnight cry was sounded. Five virgins were prepared to watch and wait for the bridegroom’s return, even if He delayed, by having extra oil in reserve. Five were ready for his immediate arrival, but when the bridegroom’s immediate arrival became delayed, their readiness was found lacking. They were still getting prepared, shopping for oil, when the bridegroom returned. Despite their plea, the bridegroom refuses to allow a delayed entrance. It’s as if they failed to know Him and be rightly and fully prepared to meet Him, and in so doing insults the bridegroom, his bride, and the family. Therefore He also fails to recognize them: I do not know you. A warning in the story is repeated as Jesus says to His hearers: “Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

The simple truth is this: We are called to be prepared for the unknown and unknowable moment of Jesus’ return which will happen in the most unexpected time.

So, how do we do that? Obviously, we don’t want to be surprised, unaware and unprepared. What does it look like, then, to be prepared in today’s day and age? Obviously, be prepared with plenty of oil. Earlier, I said it is easy to identify the bridegroom and the virgins as the church waiting for Jesus’ return. So, what is the oil? What does the oil signify or represent?

Be prepared, filled not with oil, but with whatever it takes for you to be prepared to honor the Bridegroom in His arrival. Repentance is obviously needed to be ready to welcome Jesus, and so is true and humble faith in Christ and Christ alone for salvation. Those are constants among the people of God. But, depending on your particular situation, your own vocation, your own place and time, your “oil” may look similar or different from those on your right and your left. Some may need to practice perseverance while you wait. Courage in these dark, difficult, and dangerous times is needed, both for yourself and for those around you. Humility keeps us ever mindful. Willingness to suffer for the sake of Christ and the ability to deny ourselves while taking up the cross of Jesus will be necessary at times. We may need a measure of what the beatitudes speak: sorrowful awareness of the world’s brokenness, a yearning and longing for God’s name to be hallowed, a desire for others to also be watchful and prepared. There may need be separation from those who would keep us un-prepared while also surrounding ourselves with other faithful, watching, waiting, and prepared people of God. Encouragement may be helpful for one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Practicing mercy and compassion to the least in the name of Jesus. Prayer is a necessity as are joy, peace, love, and all of the fruits of the spirit. The list is almost endless of what can be the oil which fills our lamps. [1]

Fill your lamp. Be watchful and waiting; be waiting and watchful, always prepared for the day of Christ’s return. Be filled with repentance and faith that others may see the light of Christ that shines from you, that they, too, may watch and wait with you.

O Spirit, who didst once restore
Thy Church that it might be again
The bringer of good news to men,
Breath on Thy cloven Church once more,
That in these grey and latter days
There may be those whose life is praise,
Each life a high doxology
To Father, Son and unto Thee. (LSB 834:4)

---

[1] This paragraph borrows liberally from Dr. Jeff Gibbs’ commentary on Matthew, Vol. 3. Concordia: St. Louis, 2019. pp. 1323-1324.

Who Are You? A Child of God - 1 John 3:1-3

This is different than the usual sermon. As each "person" speaks, I move to a different space in the chancel and the sanctuary floor to demonstrate a shift. Every story draws us closer to the Font which is where our identity is found in Christ. -JFM

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

As I was thinking about the text for this morning’s sermon, one question kept revolving around in my head, a question I want to share with you this morning. Who am I? Who am I? Who are you? I don’t mean this in some sort of existential, go find myself, midlife crisis sort of way – that’s for counselors, therapists and psychologists to help sort out. I ask the question to find out where is your identity? How do you see yourself?

So, who am I? For that matter, who are you? Better question, who does God say you are? He calls you His children, children of God! What does that mean, children of God? That means that we are the special people that God has called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Yours is a baptismal identity, uniting you in Christ so God sees you as His beloved. God sent his own Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross so that we can be children of God. It is Divine adoption of the holiest order and you are named as sons and daughters of Almighty God. This is what we are. This is who we are. This is what God says you are.

So, what does this look like on a Tuesday, or a Thursday? What does it look like in your life or the lives of those around you?

1. Who am I? I’m a high school freshman. School’s been underway for a few months now. Crazy year. We lost so much of our identity hiding behind a mask. It’s almost like being anonymous, but not quite. School’s going OK, anyway. I’ve got football; that’s going fine. Finishing up with a pretty good record. Basketball will be starting soon. Kinda over-lapping a little; gonna be busy. I have piano practice. So I’ve got football practice, play basketball on the weekends, play piano, I’ve still got to do my homework and I’ve got my parents dumping chores on me. You know what, I’m under a lot of pressure. Who am I? Who does God say that I am? God says I’m his child. I’m God’s son. So as these pressures are piling up on top of me; pressure to please my parents, please my teachers, please my coaches, please everyone who’s putting them on top of me, God calls me, invites me to come to him in trouble, and he’ll hear me and carry me in these times of need. Who am I? I’m a child of God!

2. Who am I? I’m a thirty-five-year-old woman who’s just been laid off. My husband and I have beautiful intelligent children, but they don’t really understand what this means. I feel like a Merle Haggard song…if we can make it through December. Christmas is going to be lean. Clothes are going to have to last. No Micky D runs after school. I went to the food bank for the first time last week. I’m worried – not only about our family, but my husband, too. He works too hard as it is and with overtime drying up, he was trying to make a little extra money on the weekends and evenings, but no one needs yard work done it seems. We don’t spend much time together anymore, and when we do, we frequently fight about money – or, we’re just too tired to even fight. My friends say “God will get you through.” I know that, but it’s pretty hard to believe it when other friends have been looking for a job for over a year.  My stomach hurts; my head hurts. I don’t know what to do.  When people asked me “what do you do?” I told them I am a professional...was, a professional. My identity was in my job. Now without a job, what am I? Who am I? Who does God say I am? God says I’m his child. That even as this pain and hurt comes flooding back in time and time again; every time I look at my children, or think about the uncertain future. Even in those times, my God, my Father in heaven, promises to be there with me, to pick me up, to see me through. To comfort me. Who am I? I’m a child of God!

3. Who am I? I’m a 70 year old man. I’ve lived the American dream. I retired at the age of 59, 11 years ago. I left the toilsome work behind, and my wife and I hit the road, traveling and seeing the country. My wife died last year. I miss her. I miss my children. The youngest moved out fifteen years ago. They all live hundreds of miles away. I still get to see them from time to time. Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas…well, maybe not this year. It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together. My friends don’t come over very often. Stupid virus has everyone scared. To be honest, I’m just not myself. I feel like I’m the only one here. That I’m all alone. That nobody is here for me. Who am I? Who does God say that I am? God says that I’m his child. God says that even though my wife isn’t here with me anymore, I will one day see her again at the resurrection. That even though my children don’t come home as often as I would like. They’re busy, I understand. Even though my friends don’t come around; they don’t know what to say, I understand. God is here. I’m not alone. I’m never alone. My Heavenly Father promises to always be with me. My Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross and died for me promises to never leave me nor forsake me. Who am I? I’m a child of God.

4. Who am I? I’m a ninety five year old woman lying in a hospital bed. Surrounded by my friends, family, loved ones. Pastor’s standing down there at the end of the bed. He’s spoken the rite of the commendation of the dying and commended me to the Lord. I can’t talk, just nod. He makes the sign of the cross. I have all these machines hooked up to me. I’m dying. The doctors told me I’m dying. I’m scared. Don’t get me wrong, I know what God says to me. I know I was baptized im Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des heiligen Geistes, but I’m scared. Who am I? Who does God say that I am? Almighty God, says that I am His child. As I look up into the faces of my loved ones, I know they’re going to miss me. But there’s hope. There’s hope that comes from being a child of God. That even though this life on earth will end. And for me it looks like it’s gonna end soon. Even though that’s the case, God promises to be where he has always been: holding me in his loving hands. My Savior Jesus Christ is coming to grab my hand and lead me home to be with Him forever. I will see these people again. It was through the waters of baptism that God almighty washed me, cleansed me and brought me into his family. Who am I? A child of God!

5. Who am I? I’m a four week old infant being brought into this sanctuary. Kicking and screaming, I’m a little baby. I’m at the baptismal font. Surrounded by the pastor, my parents, my sponsors. The pastor’s pouring chilly water over my head. He’s speaking God’s word. God is speaking, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Who am I? I am a child of God. All of my sins are forgiven. I have just been brought into the family of the Almighty. Through the blood of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am a son of God. Who am I? I’m a child of God!

6. Who are you? You’ve been thinking about this for some time now. Who are you? Members and guests of Zion. Sitting in these chairs. Sitting on your sofa. Sitting next to other saints of God. Listening to and hearing God’s word! God’s word for you! A Word reminding you that you are a child of God. That you are a child of God washed in the waters of baptism. That when these waters were poured over your head, you were brought into the family. As a child, you bring nothing to the relationship but solely lean on Jesus. You trust Jesus Christ died for your sins. You know He shed His blood for your forgiveness.

Who are you? Children of God, look around at each other. Really, take the time and look around at each other. Who are you? You are the body of Christ, a small part of the community of saints, and all children of God. Brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters who will, together, receive your Savior’s true body and blood. Who are you? Children of God almighty!

Children of God! Sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Not just inside these walls in this sanctuary, but also when you step outside that door, or that door. When you go out into the world, you are sons and daughters of the Almighty. Does that mean anything? Absolutely! When we watch the game later this afternoon, we are children of God. When we go to work tomorrow, we are children of God. When you sit down at lunch, close to yet distant from your friends, you are a child of God. When we pick up our children from school, we are children of God. When we fall asleep in Christ, we are children of God. We are children of God, all the time!

Through Jesus Christ, we have been brought into that family. Together, brothers and sisters, in our same faith. In our same Lord Jesus Christ. Fellow children of God. Amen.