Sermon for Epiphany 7: "Love Your Enemies" (Luke 6:27-38)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

“Can’t we all just get along?”

“Can’t we all just coexist?”

          “It’s all a matter of opinion anyway.”

How many of you have heard statements like those?

Yes, it is good to get along when it comes to matters of no real importance. Yes, it may be good to coexist when the issue at hand isn’t life or death. Yes, we all have our opinions.

But, when is it good to compromise when matters are of the most importance? When is it good to coexist when the issue is a matter of life or death?

[Love Your Enemies]

Last week, Jesus spoke to us the Beatitudes and Woes, or the blessings and curses. Today, Jesus continues His sermon as He speaks to us about loving our enemies and about judging others. Throughout our text this morning, beginning with the Beatitudes and Woes last week, Jesus is teaching us the goodness of the third use of the Law: our guide.

Today’s Gospel lesson is not to be read out of context, but is to be read as Christ continuing right where He left off.

Last week, Jesus said everyone who trusts in Him as Lord is given immense blessings in the life to come, but those who trust in man, they receive the curse of eternal death once they die.

Jesus also said that Christians will face hate and persecution by the sinful world, but in the end everyone who trusts in Jesus rejoices, because our reward is great in heaven. So, that is the context leading up to today’s Gospel lesson.

Jesus continues today saying, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28).

So, as a follower of Christ, we are to love our enemies.

Now, what kind of teaching is this?

When someone wrongs you, don’t you just want to take out revenge on that person?

This is our natural instinct. We want to return the favor to our enemy.

And, do not be mistaken, each person here this morning at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Glencoe has an enemy.

You may think you could not possibly have an enemy. After all, you don’t do anything that could offend another person.

But, because of my faith and trust in Jesus as my savior, I know that I have enemies. Within my own extended family, I have family who look down upon me since I left the ELCA for the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod for the truth of God’s Word.

When I grew up in the ELCA, I was told that the Missouri Synod Lutherans were weird. I never understood why, but that is what I was told. I was told that those LCMS people were weird.

It turns out that the reason why the LCMS was so weird is because the LCMS trusts that God’s Word is true. And now, I’m a Missouri Synod pastor, an under-shepherd of Christ.

We all do have enemies. You may have family, like me, who dislike you because of your faith in Jesus. You may have coworkers or classmates who believe you are stupid and ignorant for trusting in Jesus.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus had countless enemies. He had enemies precisely because of what He spoke in last week’s Gospel lesson and this week’s Gospel lesson. Everything Jesus spoke caused more enemies to appear.

You see, our sinful flesh doesn’t like God teaching us right from wrong. Our sinful flesh likes being in control. Our sinful flesh wants to be its own god. Our sinful flesh wants to get back at our enemies.

But Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Today’s cultural definition of love is to let everyone do what they want without any consequence. This is not what Jesus is teaching.

Jesus is not endorsing or accepting any evil. Jesus is not telling His followers to compromise with God’s Truth. Jesus is not saying that we should look with favor to things that are contrary to His saving Word.

Instead, Christians are to love our enemies by doing good to them and making our enemy aware in the kindest way that they have transgressed from God’s Word.

And, do not be mistaken, all oppositions of the world are God’s enemies. This includes sin, death, Satan, wickedness and perpetrators.

[The World Calls Christians the Enemy]

Now, how does the sinful culture respond to Jesus and His followers? The world calls Jesus and Christians the enemy.

The sinful world says:

·        “How can you be loving if you say homosexuality is a sin?”

·        “How can you be loving if you say abortion is a sin?”

·        “How can you be loving if you say gender-change surgery is a sin?”

·        “How can you be loving if you say only those who trust in Jesus are saved and all others are damned?”

·        “How can you be loving if you won’t let me believe anything I want about God?”

·        “How can you be loving if you won’t let me do what I want?”

This is the world we live in. This is the context Jesus was speaking our Gospel text. Here, Jesus is describing how Christians should act when we are hated and persecuted.

This is our foreseeable consequence of being a baptized believer in Christ. The world hates us, because the world hated Jesus. We are hated and persecuted “on account of the Son of Man” (Luke 6:22).

But, like our Lord Jesus, we do not react in violence, but we trust that God will act. We trust that God will defend us from all our adversaries.

So, we are to do good to those who hate us. We are to bless those who curse us. We are to pray for those who abuse us.

If this wasn’t enough, Jesus continues. “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either” (Luke 6:29).

So when we are physically abused and assaulted for our faith in Jesus, we are to take the punishment. When our enemy strikes one cheek, we are to offer the other cheek. When our enemy steals from us, we are to give them all we have.

This is what Jesus calls love.

The hope is that our enemy’s conscience would realize the evil they had done and repent and follow Jesus.

As Christians, we are to love everyone. We are to love those who love us and love those who hate us. We love all people, because Jesus loves all people and desires all people to be saved.

§  We love by sharing the Good News of Christ in how we live our daily lives.

§  We love by being content with what we have.

§  We love when enemies ask us about why we are the way we are.

§  We love when we respond to the enemy saying, “I love you, because Jesus loves you.”

[Judging Others]

Jesus does not end His sermon there, but continues. He says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:37-38).

You may remember Pope Francis saying: “Who am I to judge?” when it came to sexual sins.

Is Jesus teaching us not to judge? Is Jesus telling us not to condemn?

Well, yes and no.

Jesus is teaching all Christians to not judge and condemn using their own reason. We are not to judge and condemn using our opinions.

At the same time, Jesus is teaching all Christians to never compromise with God’s Truth. So, when God says something is pleasing, it is pleasing. And when God says a particular act is a sin, it is a sin.

For when we compromise with God’s Word, this is not loving. This is not loving your enemies. This is not blessing those who curse you. This is not praying for those who abuse you.

Yes, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, but He never urged them to remain in their sinful ways, but to repent of their sin and thus be forgiven.

You see, the Triune God does not change and thus as Christians we are not to change His Word as to better fit with today’s sinful culture.

[God is Merciful]

So, as Christians, why do we love our enemies? Do we do this because Jesus said so? Yes, but there is more than that.

You see, Jesus wasn’t just some ordinary teacher. If He was, then His words would have been forgotten centuries ago.

Jesus is far from ordinary. Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. Jesus is God in the flesh.

Jesus tells us, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

You see, while we were yet still enemies of God, God the Father sent His one and only begotten Son into our world and took on our flesh and our sins upon Himself, so that through His atoning death and glorious resurrection, all who believe and trust in Jesus are given life, forgiveness and salvation.

Jesus came to put all His enemies under His feet. He came to destroy the last enemy of God: death. (1 Corinthians 15:25-26)

So, through Christ’s death and resurrection, all who believe and trust in Jesus are given forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.

Everyone in Christ is no longer God’s enemy, but is His precious child.

So, in Christ, we love our enemies because there is something greater coming up in the future – the resurrection of the body. Since Christ has been raised from the dead, all who trust in Him will be raised when Christ comes again on the Last Day.

As Paul writes in our Epistle reading, “So it is with the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:42).

As followers of Christ, we love our enemies, because we have a merciful God who has forgiven us through Christ and He has given us an imperishable salvation, which is guaranteed for us, by grace through faith in Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

Sermon for Epiphany 6: "Blessings and Curses" (Luke 6:17-26)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

Who here doesn’t like being puffed up? All of us love it when people speak well of ourselves. This makes us feel good. This makes us feel great.

But, when a person speaks ill of you, how do you feel? Do you still feel puffed up? No. We feel in the dumps. We feel depressed.

We oftentimes listen to what our fellow man says about us – for better or for worse.

For everyone on Facebook, when you see the thumbs up to your post, who doesn’t feel joyous?

But, when you see the angry face along with negative comments attacking you – who doesn’t feel depressed?

In our Old Testament and Gospel readings this morning, the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – reminds us on who we should trust in – and it’s not our fellow man.

If we place our trust in man, we turn into a shrub in the desert that withers and dies, as Jeremiah says (Jeremiah 17:5-6). But, if we place our trust in the Lord, we will never wither, but remain luscious and alive. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

[Our Daily Bread]

As 21^st century Americans, we hear that and we likely agree that it is better to trust God, rather than man. But, we often forget that. Pastors even forget that from time to time.

We like to put our trust in fellow man. As Americans, we like to think about personal responsibility. We go to work or school and we receive payment for what we have done, either with money or a grade. We think we earned this or earned that. How many of us forget to give thanks to God for His daily bread given to us – with our food, lodging, transportation?

Instead, we thank and praise ourselves. Now, everyone receives the temporal blessings of daily bread. It doesn’t matter if you place your trust in God, in government, or in yourself. Everyone receives daily bread.

But, not everyone receives eternal blessings. For non-believers, their blessings end with their death. For believers, their blessings continue to eternity.

[The Christian Life]

This is what Jesus is talking about with His disciples and the great multitude of people from Judea and Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon. He is telling the crowd of what is to come, rather than the present.

As we all know, being a Christian – a follower of Christ – is not easy. We are not guaranteed an easy life now. There is no promised prosperity as a disciple of Christ. We are not going to become millionaires by just posting a picture of a million dollars on the wall and praying for it. We are not promised the “best life now.” These are not promises of Jesus.

But, Jesus does promise that all followers of Him will be excluded, reviled, spurned as evil, on account of Jesus.

This is Satan fighting back at Jesus. You see, Satan knows how to use the English language into making good into evil and evil look good. We often forget that it is Satan who is the prince of this temporal world. This is why the world hated Jesus. This is why the world hates Christians.

A few weeks ago, I attended the MCCL March for Life in St. Paul. This was a great event. Everyone was smiling. People were praying. We all came for a common good – to preserve life from conception to natural death.

Following the rally, I turned on WCCO-TV and I knew what they were going to say about the pro-life rally. After all, I used to be a journalist. I know the Associated Press Style Book from cover to cover.

Instead of saying “thousands attended a pro-life rally”, they said “thousands attended an anti-abortion rally.” I knew that this was going to be said, for they are using the AP Style, but we are having a battle over words: good is bad and bad is good.

The entire news media has put a negative spin on pro-life. They say that anyone at the March for Life is extreme in their views. But, what is so extreme about life? What is so extreme about children? What is so extreme about the elderly? They find abortion – the murder of innocent, healthy babies – as normal. They find physician-assisted suicide – the murder of adults by doctors – as normal. According to God, this is far from normal.

Sadly, the report on New York legalizing abortion to just prior to birth is already yesterday’s news. The same goes for Virginia proposing abortion to even after birth, so the mother can choose with her doctor if she wants the child to live or die. All yesterday’s news.

Besides life issues, there is a battle brewing on our Christian faith in general.

It seems that every other month, there is a hearing in Washington, D.C. about approving another federal judge. For the past few years, more and more politicians have placed religious tests upon approving or disapproving a judge. So, our Christian faith and our morals based on Jesus’ teachings are under attack by the same people who swore an oath to defend our right of worship.

This is what Jesus warns His followers. We will be hated on account of following Jesus.

But this is the temporal world; we have eternity to look forward to.

[Sermon on the Plain: The Beatitudes]

So, Jesus tells us: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you…on account of the Son of Man! For behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets” (Luke 6:20b-23).

• ·        As Christians in the temporal world, we are poor now, but later we will be blessed.
• ·        As Christians in the temporal world, we will be hungry, but later we will be satisfied.
• ·        As Christians in the temporal world, we will weep, but later we will laugh.
• ·        As Christians in the temporal world, we will be hated for following Jesus, but later our reward will be great in heaven.

You see, our blessings are eternal, not temporal. We rejoice in tribulation, because through Jesus our faith is not in vain. And, when trouble comes, the faithful in Christ survive.

These beatitudes that Jesus describes are the Gospel gifts that every believer receives. The beatitudes function like a Gospel invitation, in which the blessings of the Gospel are held out as enticements to bring or keep the hearer in God’s kingdom.

The beatitudes promise a future joy, but its effect is a present comfort, because of the certainty of the promise of Christ.

[Christological]

The most important feature of the beatitudes is that they are Christological. You see, all of God’s blessings are found in Christ, and Christ is the source of every blessing.

Each beatitude does not suggest principles or guidelines on which to live, but instead shows us what has already been given to us through Christ. When we believe and trust in Christ, the life of Christ becomes the life of the Christian, and by grace the blessings of Christ become the inheritance of the Christian. In that way, the beatitudes come to describe each and every person in Christ.

Now, the blessings are not rewards for a Christian’s supposed accomplishments, but rather are consequences of election in Christ. They are rewards that properly belong to Christ for His accomplishments in His perfect life, atoning death, and resurrection.

All of God’s blessings are in Christ, and every believer receives all these blessings by virtue of being in Christ. There is no degree of blessedness for all who believe and trust in Jesus alone are blessed.

As I have already noted, being a believer in Christ gives us no guarantee of success in the temporal world. But, the Christian is guaranteed immense blessings in the world to come.

[Woes]

As for the unbeliever, they may enjoy temporal blessings now, but they have no positives in their future after death.

Here Jesus speaks of the woes, or curses upon the unbelievers:

“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:24-26).

The future is not bright for the unbeliever and scoffer. Instead of receiving blessings, they receive eternal death apart from God. They will be poor, they will be hungry, they will mourn and weep, they will be all alone.

[Blessing or Curse?]

Our Triune God desires everyone to be saved, but some people want to go about life on their own. They want to go about life trusting in man, rather than God. This only leads to a desert wilderness.

But, for those who trust in the Lord, we are blessed.

We are reminded of how blessed we are when we remember of Baptism. We are reminded of how blessed we are when we hear the Word of God and that Word rightly preached. We are reminded of how blessed we are when we are forgiven of our sins at the beginning of each Divine Service. We are reminded of how blessed we are when we receive Christ’s very body and His very blood, which forgives our sins and strengthens our weak faith.

God gives us a freedom of the will. We can choose to trust in man apart from God and receive curses. But for everyone who remains in the Lord, we receive blessings from Christ, who is the source of every blessing. By His grace through faith, we receive what we do not deserve: eternal life, forgiveness of sins and salvation. And, we know that the Triune God never breaks His promises. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

Sermon for Epiphany 2: "The Wedding Feast" (John 2:1-11)

 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

Even the most devoted married couple will experience a stormy bout once in a while.

A grandmother, celebrating her golden wedding anniversary, once told the secret of her long and happy marriage.

She said: “On my wedding day, I decided to make a list of ten of my husband’s faults which, for the sake of our marriage, I would overlook.”

A guest asked the woman what some of the faults she overlooked.

The grandmother replied: “To tell you the truth, my dear, I never did get around to listing them. But whenever my husband did something that made me hopping mad, I would say to myself, ‘Lucky for him that’s one of the ten!’”

Ah, marriage. Marriage isn’t always as perfect as some television shows and movies portray, but marriage is a lifelong promise of one man and one woman to live faithfully with each other.

[Wedding at Cana]

Each marriage has a beginning. Yes, there is a first date. But, we mark the beginning of a marriage from the wedding date.

Our gospel text from John this morning tells us of one of those wedding dates.

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples” (John 2:1-2).

Weddings in the First Century Jewish culture, were not all that different from today. The wedding officially united the couple and the feast that followed was certainly a party.

The only difference from then to now is the engagement. Engagements back in the First Century were similar to the wedding vows we have today. So, when the man asked his future wife to be married, he would do so in the presence of witnesses – much like today’s bridal party.

Then sometime thereafter, the groom came to take his bride to be an officially married couple. It was then that the party started. The wedding feast began, often lasting for many days.

This was the celebration at Cana.

The wedding feast was to celebrate God’s creation of marriage. They celebrated the lifelong union of the man and woman. They celebrated the hope of procreation and nurturing of future children. They celebrated the covenant, or promise, of living together faithfully until death.

This was a party. There was dancing. There was singing. And, there was wine.

Now, the one thing that was to never happen at the wedding feast was to run out of food and run out of wine.

[No Wine]

As the wedding feast was far from over, Mary whispered into the ear of Jesus: “They have no wine” (John 2:3).

Since Mary was aware of this blunder, it is likely that she had some management of the wedding feast. So, this is likely why she went directly to her son for advice.

The question arises however: What did Mary have in mind for Jesus to do?

Some scholars suggest that Mary expected no miracle at all, but was just turning to Him for advice. Others suggest that it is impossible to see how she could not expect anything less than a miracle.

After all, in the First Century there weren’t any grocery stores or liquor stores to just make a quick purchase. You had to make the wine yourself – which could take up to four weeks to 12 months! The other option is hoping that a nearby friend – who is not at the wedding feast – has stored some wine away. So, this is turning into a disaster!

Believe me, people will talk if this wedding feast turns out to be a failure.

So, Jesus knowing the importance of weddings and the marriage to follow offers to help his mom out of this disaster.

“Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons” (John 2:6).

So, Jesus said to the servants: “Fill the jars with water.” So, they filled them up to the brim. Then Jesus told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast” (John 2:7,8). And, so they did.

Immediately, when the master of the feast tasted the water now wine, he called over the groom and said to him: “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10).

Now, we do not know at what point the water became wine, but to these servants it was evident beyond a doubt that Jesus changed the water into wine.

Instead of a wedding feast disaster, Jesus displayed the first of His signs that He is in fact God in the flesh and manifested His glory. His miracle then confirmed and strengthened the faith of His disciples.

[Cohabitation and Marriage]

God loves marriage. God honors and praises marriage. God sanctifies marriage as holy. In fact, Christ calls marriage a divine union when He says, “What God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6, Apology of the Augsburg Confession 252.29).

You see, the wedding feast became a symbol of the union between God and Israel, which would result from God’s steadfast love for Israel.

For the rabbis, the giving of the Law on Sinai was the time of God’s marriage with Israel, and the Torah was the marriage contract between God and His people.

Marriage is to be a lifelong commitment, like that of God’s eternal covenant.

However, today’s interpretation of marriage has changed. Today’s prevailing sinful culture does not see marriage as a life-long covenant between one man and one woman.

Instead, marriage is often seen as just an option. Marriage is often seen as a mere contract that can be ended for any reason.

Oftentimes, the sinful culture expresses that living together outside of marriage is the norm. This cohabitation is positively portrayed in television shows and movies.

But, is this true commitment? Many here this morning may not see any problem with cohabitation. You may think that cohabitation doesn’t hurt anyone. The culture has led many to believe that it is good to cohabitate before marriage to find out if the couple is truly compatible.

Then there are some cohabitating couples who fear commitment. They believe that by not being married their heart would never be broken, but if one would die, the other would certainly experience heartache.

So, does this cohabitation before marriage work? Well, the Journal of Marriage and Family published a new study last September that said: “Couples who lived together before marriage had a lower divorce rate in their first year of marriage, but had a higher divorce rate after five years.”[1]

This statistic is partly because newly married couples, who first moved in together after their wedding, struggle through their first year of marriage as they get to know each other’s quirks. But it is financial trouble that often leads to divorce, rather than infidelity.

Ultimately, cohabitation is not commitment. In this situation, either party could leave at any moment for any reason at all – without any consequences. Each person is always fearful of this possibility. Each person is always walking on eggshells as to not offend the other.

In marriage, we will offend each other, but there is the life-long public commitment between each other and God of faithfulness for which we remember that we are to forgive each other as God the Father has forgiven us through His Son Jesus Christ.

So if you are a cohabitating couple or know of one, also know that God is always there to forgive your sin, or the sin of another, because Christ died and rose in order to forgive all sins. Now, all God requires is our repentance and we are forgiven, because God is always faithful in His covenant vow to His people.

And, for those who are single – I don’t want to leave you out this morning – remember that your identity, your worth, or your completeness is not determined by marital status, but by the Triune God alone.

[Made New]

The wedding feast at Cana also reminds us of another wedding feast to come. We are reminded that after Mary whispered to Jesus, “They have no wine,” Jesus responds saying, “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:3, 4)

What could Jesus be referring to?

Well, on the night He was betrayed, Jesus said that the wine at the Last Supper is His true blood. Matthew records this event this way:

“And Jesus took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to [His disciples], saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” (Matthew 26:27-28).

Like the perfect wine He created from water at Cana, the wine in the Lord’s Supper is the blood He shed for our sins upon the cross. Here in the Lord’s Supper, we receive a foretaste of the wedding feast in heaven!

Like the servants unsure of when the water turned to wine at Cana, we too, do not know when the wine in the Lord’s Supper turns to blood.

But, by faith, we know we taste Christ’s true body and true blood at this altar.

When we receive Christ’s body and blood, we know that we are forgiven of our sins and our faith is strengthened. We, too, become like Christ’s disciples at Cana.

But, like Christ’s disciples, our worldly insights do hinder us. They believed that Jesus was the Christ. Then they doubted. But, in the end, they believed. They believed because they saw Jesus, who once was dead, now alive. They believed and shared this good news with the entire world. They shared this good news in preaching, teaching and being divinely inspired to write the New Testament.

Likewise, Christ changes us from mere water into perfect wine – through the waters of Baptism, through receiving Christ’s body and blood at this altar, through hearing and taking to heart God’s Word, and through confessing our sins.

We were once just plain water – but by grace through faith – we are now sweet wine.

We pass from death to life. We are forgiven. We are made new.

Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

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[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/10/premarital-cohabitation-divorce/573817/

Sermon for New Years' Eve: "Be Ready" (Luke 12:35-40)

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

Some years ago a tourist was traveling along the shores of Lake Como in Northern Italy. He wanted to visit especially one castle called Villa Arconti.

When the tourist reached the castle, a friendly old gardener opened the gate and showed the tourist the grounds, which this old man kept in perfect order.

The tourist asked the gardener, “How long have you been here?”

“Twenty-four years,” the gardener replied.

“And how often has the owner of the castle been here during that time?”

“Four times.”

“When was he here the last time?”

“Twelve years ago.”

“Never since then?”

“Never.”

“Does he write to you?”

“No.”

“From whom then do you get your instructions?”

“From the agent in Milan.”

“Does this agent come out here quite often?”

“Never.”

“Who, then, comes here?”

“I am almost always alone – only once in a great while a tourist comes here.”

“But you keep this garden in such fine condition and take such excellent care of all the plants, just as though you expected your master to come tomorrow.”

The gardener promptly replied, “Today, sir, today.”

This answer made a deep impression on the tourist. How faithful that gardener was in his trust!

Day after day his thought was not “Tomorrow the master may come” but “Today, sir, today.”

[Awake]

The Church and the world are both awake this evening, but for very different reasons.

The world has already forgotten about “the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 30:11) born just days ago, instead the world counts down to midnight – to 2019.

The Church – like the castle gardener – watches eagerly for her Master, who could be coming at any moment. Our Master Jesus says the Church is to always be ready for He will return at an hour we “do not expect” (Luke 12:40).

In this evening’s Gospel lesson, our Master Jesus tells us in a parable to always be ready.

Jesus said: “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, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:35-36).

It was evening, and the master was in attendance at a wedding banquet away from his home. 

While away, the servants knew that it was their duty to be on alert for their master’s return. When he came, they were to be at the door to open it and do the master’s bidding. They were to keep the lamps burning so that the master would return to a home bright with light.

So, why are you awake tonight? Are you only counting down to midnight, or are you alert for the Master’s return?

Before Christ ascended into heaven, He left instructions with this servants to be on constant alert for His return. Every Christian is a servant.

Now, our readiness is a spiritual one. We don’t have to be physically awake at all hours anticipating Christ’s return. But, we have to be ready in what we believe and teach about Christ.

If we are believing and teaching contrary to what Christ teaches, then we are not ready. We then have replaced Christ with another false god – a false god that offers no eternal hope.

Now, how do we know if we are truly ready for our Master’s return?

Well, we can look at the gardener. Even though the master last visited his castle 12 years ago, the gardener kept the grounds in pristine condition. During those years, he followed the instructions from his agent in Milan.

We, too, have received instructions. These instructions are found in God’s Written Word, the Holy Bible. This is how we stay awake.

Our Master supplies us through His Word and His Sacrament. There is nowhere else besides in the Master’s house – the church – where we are supplied to be ready:

• Through His Instruction here, we devote ourselves to His service. 
• Through His Instruction here, we love our Master and we love our fellow servants by lifting up our fellow servants in the faith, and by loving all others outside the faith, so that through the Holy Spirit, they would come to faith. 
• And through His Instruction here, we are eager to receive His promises: everlasting life, salvation, and forgiveness of sins. 

[Are You Ready?]

Now, when the Master returns, will you be ready?

Jesus said: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” (Luke 12:37a).

All who are prepared when the Master comes will no longer be just servants, but will become lords, and our Master will become our servant.

Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, [the master] will dress himself for service and have [the servants] recline at table, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37b).

This is another great exchange. Who would ever expect the Master to serve the servants? But this is what Jesus does for all who abide in Him.

Just a week ago, we celebrated Christ’s Incarnation with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. We celebrate Emmanuel – God with us – not just because He was born that day, but because of what He did for us through His entire earthly life.

The Apostle Paul reminds us: If Christ had not been raised from the dead, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain. Our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17)

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He has ascended into heaven and as our Master, He promises to return.

And, He will return. He will return when we least expect it. He will return like a thief in the night.

But, as Christians, we have nothing to fear. As Christians receiving God’s forgiveness in His Word and Sacrament, we only have hope. We live in hope, because we know that nothing can “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39).

[Conclusion]

As followers of Christ – this night – remember that we are forgiven and ready for our Master’s return. Yes, it is fine to watch the Times’ Square ball drop to announce 2019, but at the same time be ready for what really matters: our Master’s return for “the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Luke 12:40). Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T

Sermon preached at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Hamburg, Minnesota.