New Year’s Eve, 2015 – Isaiah
40 and Romans 8
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +
As one year draws to a close, and a new one approaches –
how in the world is it already 2015 – we are gathered here together in God’s
house to worship, to hear His Word, to confess our sins of the past, and receive
His Supper for strength for the year to come.
And in our Gospel lesson we hear the injunction that we are to watch, to
be ready – for we are still assuming a 2015 – we don’t know when Christ will
return – He might beat the ball drop tonight.
Or He might not. Either way, we
are to watch, we are to wait, we are to be prepared. But how?
What does watching and waiting look like? What does the being awake pointed to in our
Gospel text actually mean? To get the
answer for that question, we are going to pay special attention to our Old
Testament lesson and our Epistle this night, and hear them in light of our
Lord’s call for us to be awake.
Why? Well, the
Gospel sounds scary at first blush – “But know this, that if the master of the
house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his
house to be broken into. You also must
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Like a thief in the night. However, this is not in reality a call from
God for us to be scared or worried or panicked or anything like that. Just to be aware, to have our eyes open to
what is really going on, to understanding who is really in charge. And this is pointed out in our Old Testament
lesson – “For thus says the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you
shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’” It’s not a call to panic, it’s not a call to
terror – rather be calm, relax, remember in all times and in all places that
God is in control and in charge, and that whether we live or whether we die, we
live and die to the Lord. In Him it is
all good. This is truth. Yet, what so often is the reaction of our
flesh? “But you were unwilling, and you
said, ‘No! We will flee upon horses’; therefore
you shall flee away, and ‘We will ride upon swift steeds’; therefore your
pursuers shall be swift. A thousand
shall flee at the sight of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you
are left like a flag staff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.” All too often, throughout the Old Testament,
when Jerusalem and Israel were besieged and surrounded
by foes, rather than remaining calm and trusting in God, they panicked, they
freaked out. They fled at the drop of a
pin. If you’ve got the enemy outnumbered
1000 to one, you’ve got no reason to run.
But Israel
looked to their own weaknesses, saw the strength of others – when all along
they should have been considering God and His strength.
So then, what will you see this year? Now, I have no idea about the specifics – and
I’m sure some of it will be good and joyous, but some of it will probably be
bad and sad and horrific. That’s just
how life goes in this fallen world. I
love the last of the 20 Questions that Luther wrote up for those preparing to
go to the Supper – “But what should you
do if you are not aware of this need and have no hunger and thirst for the
Sacrament? To such a person no better advice should be given than this: first,
he should touch his body to see if he still has flesh and blood. Then he should believe what the Scripture say
of it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7.
Second, he should still look around to see whether he is still in the
world, and remember that there will be no lack of sin and trouble, as the
Scriptures say in John 15-16 and 1 John 2 and 5. Third, he will certainly have the devil also
around him, who with his lying and murdering day and night will let him have no
peace within or without, as the Scriptures picture him in John 8 and 16, 1
Peter 5; Ephesians 6; and 2 Timothy 2.”
Well, there’s Martin’s Luther description of what we’ll see in any and
every year until our Lord comes. But
what is our reaction to be, how do we respond to all this? Not with panic, not with fear, but by resting
in Christ, trusting in Him, fleeing to His Word and to the Sacrament of the
Altar, remembering that we are baptized and belong to Him, because it is in His
strength that we have security and hope, it is in Him that we are prepared for
anything.
This is the point that Paul makes in our Epistle lesson
tonight from Romans 8. “What
then shall we say to these things?”
That is what shall we say to any of the crazy or terrible or horrible
things we see, the events, the guilt and shame of our own sin? What shall we say to them, what shall our
response be? “If God is for us, who can be
against us.” Yes, these things,
they are big and strong – but God is greater and stronger than anything we
face, and He has said that He is for us, and so we have confidence and hope in
Him. But what if Satan slinks up, what
if that sly serpent should come and accuse you, tell you that God is not for
you? “He who did not spare His own Son
but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us
all things? Who shall bring any charge
against God’s elect? It is God who
justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the One who died – more than
that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is
interceding for us.” The Father
sent Christ Jesus to the Cross to die for you, to save you – He’s not going to
change His mind. He’s not going to back
out now. In fact, Christ Jesus is at the
right hand of the Father, risen again, constantly proclaiming your forgiveness
– God is the One who justifies you, who declares you forgiven and nothing can
trump that.
Indeed, you get Paul at his rhetorical best – he calls out
Satan. Says, as Luther would put it,
that Satan may still scowl fierce as he will, but he can harm us none. “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being
killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us.” Even
if 2015 goes to utter pot – if the crops fail and the stock market crashes and
the banks close, and the cops and communities both riot and Putin has Russia
invade and the ravaging hordes of ISIS swarm over our borders and slaughter us
left and right… so what? Christ Jesus
has still died for you and risen for you, and so in all these things we are
more than conquerors. We will still be
gathered into His House to hear His Word, to receive His forgiveness, to proclaim
His death and resurrection in His most Holy Supper. “For I am certain that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing changes the fact that Christ Jesus
has died for you, that He has risen for you, that He has baptized you and
claimed you as His own. You are forgiven
by Him, this is reality, this is truth.
Do you see what this means?
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men
who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast.” You belong to Christ, He is your
master. You are dressed, your robes
white, having been washed in the blood of the Lamb – the lamps, the candles of
His church still burn, and He shall return for you. This is who you are. Rest securely in Christ, for He has won you
the victory, and He shall be your Lord and Master in the upcoming year, even
until the Last Day. In the Name of
Christ Jesus, our Newborn King + Amen.
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