Saturday, November 27, 2010

November 25, 2010

"Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." (Matthew 24:42-44)

How many of us this Thanksgiving weekend can say that we are fully prepared to celebrate Christmas? Even the "anti-crastinators" among us, who may have completed their gift shopping, probably haven't wrapped all of those gifts yet. Or consider your church choir who may have all of their Christmas pieces selected, but who likely don't have any of the numbers solidly rehearsed or polished. And who of us can say that we have taken the time to properly ponder the wonder and great mystery of all the events that led up to that first Christmas - when Jesus "became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14)? It stands to reason that none of us are properly prepared for Christmas yet - and that's fine, because we know we have another month to take care of all of our Christmas preparations. We know that in exactly one month, we will be celebrating the time when our Lord first came into this world. What we do not know is the day when our Lord will return, "you do not know on what day your Lord will come." Because we do not know, and in order to avoid being surprised, we must be "ever ready" for that day - which could even be today yet!

How can we be ever ready? Jesus tells us here to "keep watch." Does this mean we should be signing up for time slots, so that at all times one of us can be watching and looking up into the sky to see if we can spot Jesus' feet coming down out of the clouds? I suppose if that's what it takes to get us to think about His return on a daily basis, then it wouldn't hurt. But I would like to bring to light some other suggestions that may be a little more practical. Often when we hear about keeping watch, we hear it coupled with something else - we hear keeping watch coupled with prayer.

Teach us in watchfulness and prayer
To wait for your appointed hour,
And fit us by your grace to share
The triumphs of your conqu'ring pow'r. (CW 9:5)

Another example of this coupling would be what Jesus told His disciples to do in Gethsemane - “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." (Matthew 26:41)

Maybe we don't need to make a habit out of going out and watching and looking up into the sky everyday, but maybe we should make a habit of praying about being prepared for Christ's return. One way to make such a prayer a habit could be to marry it to something that is already a ritual for us in our daily lives - like brushing our teeth or taking our pills. Every time, out of habit, that we do one of these rituals, we could also pray about being properly prepared for the day of the Son of Man's return. Here's a simple prayer that we could use as a framework for our personal "ever ready" prayer: "Dear Jesus, today could be the day that You return, please help keep that thought in my mind throughout the day. Please guard my heart and mind from anything that could cause me to be unprepared for, or surprised by, Your return. Amen."

So, one way we can "keep watch," is through prayer. The pastor and hymn writer, Paul Gerhardt, provides another suggestion for how we can be "ever ready" and unsurprised by the day of our Lord's return - should it happen in our lifetime.

O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you, My Hope, my heart's Delight.
O Jesus, let your Word be a lamp to light my way,
To show me how to please you, to guide me ev'ry day. (CW 19:1)

God's Word serves as a guide that keeps us on the path of proper preparedness - a path that also draws us closer to Him. As the Word brings us ever closer to Jesus day by day, we are also ever closer to being with Jesus as every day passes. As the final stanza of Amazing Grace puts it, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun." (CW 379:4). As each day passes we have no less days to sing God's praise, but we do have less days until we are taken to the place where we will be singing His praises eternally. The Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans contains a passage, which also happens to be a part of our Epistle Lesson for this Sunday, that speaks to the fact that every day we're a little bit closer to our day of salvation- "And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." (Romans 13:11)

Whether the Son of Man returns in our lifetime and brings the world's time of Grace to a close, or whether our own personal time of Grace comes to a close before Judgment Day, the fact of the matter is our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. It might even be nearer than we currently anticipate. We know that we have another month to prepare for the celebration of Christ first coming into this world, we don't know how long we have to prepare for Christ's return. Because of what we we are preparing to celebrate in a month - because God was willing to send His Son, our Savior, into this world as our ransom, we can be ready for the day when God will send His Son, our Judge, into the world again. As we keep watch, our prayer is that we will be ever ready, and as we keep watch and when we dig into God's Word, we find a guide and a path that will bring us closer to Jesus. In order to avoid being caught by surprise and unprepared, during this Advent season, as we make all our various preparations to celebrate our Lord's first entrance into this world a month from now, let's also keep watch and make paramount our preparations for that unknown day when the Son of Man will make His final entrance into this world - which could even happen before 12/25/2010!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

November 18, 2010

"The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." (Luke 23:35-38)

Picture for a moment a police officer on his beat, walking down the street. On one side of the street you have a law abiding citizen who sees that police officer, and feels a little extra safe and a little bit more at ease. One the other side of the street you have a law breaking citizen who sees that same police officer, and feels a little more apprehensive and a little more anxious. Same exact police officer - two different perspectives. Paul in his first letter to the church of God in Corinth provides two perspectives of Christ and His cross from their respective "sides of the street." "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18) In our Gospel Lesson for this Sunday, Luke gives us the perspective of Jesus the King of the Jews, from the side of the street that sees the cross of Christ and the message of the cross of Christ as foolishness - something to joke about. Let's also consider the perspective from the other side of the street that through faith we are on - the side of the street that views the cross of Christ as the power of God and our only hope of Salvation, our only hope of admittance into the King's Kingdom.

From the side of the street with the foolish perspective, the rulers looked and mockingly doubted the fact that Jesus was the true Son of God, they used the word "if" - "if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” When we survey the wondrous cross, from the other side of the street, through the eyes of faith we see a King who we know is the Son of God - no ifs ands or buts. Remember what God the Father in the voice from heaven said at Jesus' baptism? "And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

From the side of the street with the foolish perspective, the soldiers looked and mockingly doubted the fact that Jesus was a king. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” They saw a "wanna-be" king who was all talk. How would this Jesus ever have a chance to rule when He would soon be dead? If Jesus was going to have an opportunity to rule, He would have to save Himself and come down from the cross. The soldiers failed to realize or understand what Jesus had told Pilate, "Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36) When we survey the wondrous cross, from the other side of the street, through the eyes of faith, we see a King who without question had the power to come down from the cross, but who instead chose to endure. Out of undeserved love, by sacrificing Himself, Jesus gave to all who have faith in Him the opportunity to be able to live under Him in His Kingdom that is from another place.

Remember what the angel told Mary when she first learned that she would be the mother of the Savior? Among other things, the angel told her precisely what the rulers and the soldiers mockingly questioned about Jesus - whether Jesus was God's Son and whether He would reign as a King. The angel said, "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:31-33) The sign hanging over Jesus' head, that was put up by those on the side of the street with the foolish perspective, read, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." And while it was meant to sarcastically mock what appeared to be a pathetic reign, it actually couldn't have been more true. Jesus is the one who was long expected by David and Jacob and Abraham and their descendants. I am reminded of a verse of a children's Sunday school song, "Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham, I am one of them and so are you, so let's all praise the LORD!" We probably don't have any of Abraham's blood running through our veins, but Spiritually speaking, we are son's of Abraham, we are "Jacob's descendants," and we are subjects in the King of the Jews' Kingdom. Jesus is our King too. Praise be to the LORD that because we are adopted subjects in His everlasting Kingdom, that we are able now to properly view His cross from the right "side of the street."

But if we are evaluating honestly, don't we sometimes find ourselves straying over to the other side of the street? Don't we sometimes have a little ruler, or a little soldier in us? One way we have a little ruler or a little soldier in us, is whenever we question why Jesus our King isn't exercising His authority over earthly issues as we think He should be. We have a little ruler or a little soldier in us whenever we start out our prayers (even if the thought is understood) with: "if you are really God, then you should be..."

Thankfully, God's Messiah - the Chosen One - stayed on the cross and made the final ransom installment for the debt that was created by all those times when we stray to the other side of the street. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we aren't banished from His Kingdom. "The Son of Man did not come to be served," (as a ruling earthly king might be served) "but [He came] to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Jesus played the role of servant during his first stint on this earth, but Jesus will return, and next time the King will come in all His glory to take us, who through faith and because of what He did for us on the cross, to live as subjects in His Kingdom that's outta' this world and that will never end! Amen! Come King Jesus and take us to your Kingdom. Amen!

Friday, November 12, 2010

November 11, 2010

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." (Isaiah 65:17-19)

Have you ever heard someone wax nostalgic, by recalling only the best of times, as they talked about the "good old days?" The last people who would have been able to think back and talk about the "good old days" and actually have had something legitimately and purely good to talk about, would have been our first parents Adam and Eve. They experienced Eden. They experienced life before sin tainted the creation that was very good - "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31) And things were very good until sin complicated and frustrated the order that God established. Sin created a new order that is laced with weeping and crying and groaning. Paul said in his letter to the Romans "that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." (Romans 8:22)

But God's plans were, and still are, to eventually put an end to the groaning for good, by creating new. Near the end of John's vision of the new creation that we have recorded for us in Revelation, we find a passage that quotes a line from the passage we are considering from Isaiah, "Then [John] saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away" (Revelation 21:1) The order, or how this world currently operates, will pass away. "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:4-5) Everything about the way things operate now on this earth will be no more. What a change God's new creation will be for us. "Change" and "new" are words that might make us Lutherans feel somewhat uncomfortable. I am reminded of a joke, (Question) "How many Lutherans does it take to "change" a light bulb? (Answer) ... Lutherans ... change something? nah..." We should thank God that we have been blessed with such a great heritage and we should thank God that we have been blessed with such enlightened forefathers so that our practices, and most importantly our theology, doesn't need reform. "If it aint broke, don't fix it," they say, but sometimes our motivation to avoid trying something new is strictly because we are intimidated by our fear of the unknown. Fear of the unknown can be a strong emotion associated with thinking about life after our physical bodies die. Those who are unbelievers are really in the dark about the unknowns associated with the afterlife, but even we who believe and are students and searchers of the Scriptures, even we don't have a crystal clear picture of what God's new creation will look like or be like. But we can be comforted, and our fears of the unknown can be silenced by what the Holy Spirit tells us in these verses through the prophet. We have nothing to worry about, in fact we can "be glad and rejoice forever in what God will create."

Eventually someone who is talking about the "good old days," if they talk long enough will likely stumble into recalling days where situations affected by sin caused them to suffer and maybe even cry. We can take comfort in the fact that when our struggles on this earth come to an end and we begin our new life in the new creation, that nothing about "the old days," from our sin-tainted life on this earth will be remembered. We will be in a place where not only "the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more," but we also will be in a place where we won't even hear the sounds of weeping or crying in our minds or in our memories, because these sounds - which are a result of sin and sin's consequences - "will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind."

Yes, we have a new creation to look forward to, and while we aren't given all the details, we don't need to suffer from the fear of the unknown, because God has promised that His new creation will be a place of joy for us. Thankfully, when we reach this new place of joy, we won't remember anything about any of the days we spent here on this earth - days that were tainted with sin and the mess that sin creates. When we reach the new creation, we won't be talking about what are actually the "not so good old days" from here on this earth, we will be too busy experiencing the joys and delights of the "best new days," spent in the new creation. And not only will we be taking joy and delight, but God will also be rejoicing and taking delight in us and with us! "[God] will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in [His] people." How awesome will that be? Amen - come Lord Jesus and take us to Your new creation! Amen!

Friday, November 5, 2010

November 4, 2010

"Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. (Luke 19:1-6)

A few years ago on a Friday afternoon, my family and I were on our way to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. Heavy flooding caused portions of I-90 westbound between Madison and the Dells to be shut down. All cars were diverted to the smaller 2-lane State Highway 51 causing it to become overburdened with bumper-to-bumper traffic. One of the cities that Highway 51 runs through is the city of Portage, Wisconsin. The road through Portage was so crowded that when at one intersection, even when the traffic light turned green, we couldn't go - simply because there was nowhere to go! The only reason we we had to contend with the major traffic jam - the only reason we were even in Portage, was because we needed to go through it to get to the Dells. In this Gospel Lesson we find Jesus entering Jericho, and His whole purpose for entering Jericho was because He needed to go through it to get to Jerusalem, "Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through." And in attempting to pass through, Jesus ran into a traffic jam of His own - there was quite the crowd surrounding Jesus as he traveled the road through Jericho. It's possible that many of those people who were adding to the human traffic jam were people of Jericho who had just witnessed Jesus give the blind man his sight outside the city gates, people who were following Jesus to see what He was going to do next. What Jesus was planning on doing next was making His way through town to the other side - again His purpose in entering Jericho was to pass through. But Jesus' purpose in entering this world superseded and took precedence over his purpose for entering Jericho. At the end of this account, a few verses later, Jesus explains what His whole purpose in entering this world was, He tells Zacchaeus: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) This primary purpose took Jesus' focus off the crowded course and to the lost Zacchaeus.

On our daily paths through life, whenever one of "the lost" looks our way (as Zacchaeus was looking Jesus' way), we have an opportunity to show Jesus to them, to "let [our] light shine before [them.]" (Matthew 5:16) But do we sometimes fail to shine or fail to even pay any attention to the lost at all, because our path is so crowded with all the activities and responsibilities that consume our day? The holidays that are fast approaching only seem to add to to the congestion and worsen our daily activity traffic jam. When I was driving in that bumper-to-bumper traffic jam in Portage, I put the blinders on and focused on the bumper of the car ahead of me. Do we ever find ourselves putting on the the blinders to focus on the activity that's ahead of us in our bumper-to-bumper daily schedule? We should pray that God would take our blinders off so that we might not only gain peripheral vision, but that we would scope out the opportunities we have to share Jesus with the watching world. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost," - the saving part Jesus took care of - what's left for us is to emulate the seeking part, and we have the perfect template when we use Jesus as our pattern. We should pray that we become more and more like Jesus so that our true purpose in this world - to seek the lost and make disciples of the lost - always takes precedence over all the other bumper-to-bumper activities that so often crowd our path.