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Backseat Conversations on the Way to Heaven #11: We’re Here! and It’s Time for the Feast!
Backseat Conversations on the Way to Heaven #11
We’re Here! and It’s Time for the Feast!
Ezekiel 24
† IN JESUS NAME †
As You Look into Eternity, May the Grace, the Mercy and Peace of God the Father and our Shepherd Jesus Christ, Bring You Comfort and Build Your Desire for His Return!
Will We Get There… On Time?
Eleven weeks ago, we started on this sermon series, a look at our journey through our life together towards heaven. Today, on the day we celebrate the coronation of Jesus Christ our savior, we come to the end of the sermon series….
We celebrate looking forward to the day, when our journey with Him ends, when we arrive home in His presence and celebrate a feast more incredible than any we have ever experienced.
So this is the one last lesson about our journey in the backseat – on our way toward Heaven.
There is one person in every family, who stands at the door, waiting for everyone else to finally get ready. They are worried about traffic, and being on time. The rest of us are possibly frustrating them, as they don’t want to be late for the plane, or for church, or for dinner. Maybe especially for dinner.
I mean, how many of you want to be late for a holiday dinner?
My dad was the one who waited by the door, or more likely, out in the car. My sister would be hogging the bathroom saying she needed to get ready, my brother watching television, and I probably had my head in a book. My mom would be trying to get us all out to the car… and she had a hard job.
Years later, I would find out my dad’s strategy, when he set the time we “needed” to leave on a car trip, he would always add 20 minutes to his estimation, so that we were actually in the car when we should have been, and we’d arrive on time, a few minutes before the feast would begin.
He would make sure we got there, on time, not because he drove fast, but because he put in place a plan.
God has a plan, and as we look towards the end of this age, and see the plan God has revealed, we will realized that He planned well. We will arrive before the throne of God on time, and the feast will begin!
He has promised this, and He is the faithful shepherd! It is His journey, His ministry towards us.
Distractions Along the Road
As we read Ezekiel 34, our Old Testament text this morning, God commits to going out and find every one of His scattered children.
They are all lost in the dark, in a fog. They have been scattered, they aren’t where they should be, all together, in the presence of the One who loves them. His commitment is to find them, to bring them home, to help them at any cost, even if they as so confused, so stressed, they don’t recognize at first that He is God. That He is their shepherd.
Scattered, lost, in the dark, their minds fogged and confused, the people God loves need help, they need rest, and they to be fed, to be restored. But they have to be found, they have to be rounded up, they need to come home.
In verse 16, the promise is made again, specifically noting that they have strayed away. The word there is the same word in Hebrew for being seduced, being tempted – and the world does that all too well. Think of how materialistic our society has become, and we see one of the ways Satan tempt us, seduces us. We covet power and authority, tempted to believe that if we have it our way, it will all come out right. We make idols our minds, or our hearts, and they demand that we sacrifice everything to satisfy our own desires…..and our hearts drive us away from God, because of sin.
In verse 20 there is another reason why sheep have to be found, have to be rescued and restored.
20 “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. 21 For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands.
I’ve met many people over the years that describe church in words like these. Some feel driven away, because it took too long to find a way to meet their needs. Others feel that way because the church. Others feel driven from the church, because those entrusted to share God’s grace, do not, but instead condemn those looking for forgiveness.
This is a challenge, because too often we look at the incident, rather than acknowledge the feelings we see develop from the situation. Whether the situations are as the people perceived it occurring or not, the feelings are valid. They feel driven off, they feel broken and even abused by other sheep. Rarely is one side completely accurate, there are two sides to every story, but the feelings are what drive the people away, or cause resentment to build until the pain is too much to bear, and the flock is scattered.
Sometimes this is done intentionally, but more often than not, we can drive people away because we are so hungry ourselves, so in need of God’s love. It is as if we don’t believe God can care for all of us, and so we fight like triplets for our Father’s attention.
When we sin against someone, when they sin against us, those sins can be brutal, and can drive people away from the church, where God’s put His name… so they can know His love! If we realize we’ve done this, we need to ask forgiveness, if it’s done to us, we need to offer it. We all need to seek reconciliation.
The Rescue
I’ve mentioned this before, when Jesus died to pay for sin, He didn’t just pay for those we’ve committed. Yes, He has rescued us, delivered us from the sins caused by our desires. But He has also rescued his people from the sins committed against them, the times where the fat sheep have driven others away….intentionally or not intentionally.
God goes after us, rescuing us from the darkness, rescuing us from that which clouds our lives. Over and over in scripture that is the promise,
Here it with your name placed there, instead of sheep
“For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search and find (your name). 12 I will be like a shepherd looking for (your name). I will find my (your name) and rescue (your name) from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.
and again,
“I will feed (your name) on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where (your name) live(s). 14 Yes, I will give (your name) good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There (your name) will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. 15 I myself will tend (your name) and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for my lost ones, including (your name) who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak including (your name).
and finally
23 And I will set over (your name) one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed (your name) and be a shepherd to (your name). 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people (the church). I, the LORD, have spoken!
This is what God does, He rescues us, makes us His children through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the death and resurrection we are bound to in baptism. He quickens us, brings us to life and faith and repentance, and calls us to journey home with Him.
It is that journey we’ve heard about, as we’ve been asked to “get along back there”, to give up the trash we’ve been hoarding in our lives, as we’ve asked, “are we there yet” and cried “it isn’t fair”, as we’ve realized the beauty of the journey is found in making it with Christ, as we’ve depended upon the Holy Spirit, as we count on Jesus to be our way home, into the presence of the Father, into His glorious presence.
Now it’s time for a feast, a feast that will be complete at the marriage feast of the lamb, when the last prophecies come true, when we hear,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.
Until that day, live in His peace…for there is safety and security, found in Jesus Christ. AMEN!
Here is an audio version of the sermon:
Are We Waiting for the End of Time with Joy?
Discussion and Devotional Thought of the Day:
10 Announce to the nations, “The LORD is King! The world stands firm, never to be shaken, and he will judge its people with fairness.” 11 Tell the heavens and the earth to be glad and celebrate! Command the ocean to roar with all of its creatures 12 and the fields to rejoice with all of their crops. Then every tree in the forest will sing joyful songs 13 to the LORD. He is coming to judge all people on earth with fairness and truth. Psalm 96:10-13 (CEV)
794 Mary spent three days and three nights looking for the Son who was lost. May you and I also be able to say that our willingness to find Jesus knows no rest. (1)
Carmelite Vow: Let each stay in or near their own cell, meditating, day and night on the law of the Lord, and vigilant in prayer, unless otherwise employed by the Holy Spirit! (2)
As I look at the last quote, it seems odd for me, a Lutheran pastor, to quote a Catholic Monastic Vow. Luther was not known to praise monastic orders, he saw little use for them.
But to dismiss this thought entirely, is to forget the amount of time Luther spent in prayer, and in the word of God.
What would happen if we spent this kind of time with God, that whenever we weren’t involved in our vocations of life, we were using that time for prayer. If we made the time we spent entertaining ourselves, the time we watched “reality shows”, the time we spent just doing nothing, seeking the Lord? If we gave thought daily to His return, His glorious return? I think we wouldn’t fear it, or see Christ’s return as simply an escape from the day’s trouble. ( I will admit there are days I cry out for his return, just to be done with the trauma and drama of this life)
I think the experience of being so aware of His peace would change us dramatically.
We would hunger for those times as the Psalmist does, as we read of men like Luther and Wesley who would make a priority of hours a day in prayer. I love St Josemaria’s thoughts as well, what if our willingness, or desire to find Jesus knew no rest – if we looked for His presence, not just in the fifteen minutes of the day, but also for hours, and for the seconds when we have nothing else occupying our minds?
That would change how we view our vocations, how we view the daily grind of life.
It would change every encounter, as fueled by our time with Hi, our hearts would be centered on the glorious day of His return. The time where judgment comes, and rather than fearing it, we welcome it, because of the work of Jesus Christ. We welcome His coming, seeing the Father face to face, knowing as we are known.
Come, let’s plunge into a life of devotion, come, lets spend time with our Lord! Not to impress Him, not because of some expectation we hope to meet, but rather, in love with a God who would come and make His life here… among us.
Lord Have Mercy!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 3286-3288). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Celtic Prayer Book, Monthy Devotional Thought for the 3d Day of the Month
A Glorious Sample!
A Glorious Sampling!
Romans 8:18-27
† In Jesus Name †
May the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life not only assure you of the grace and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ that is yours now… but also that is eternal and yet to be fully revealed!
Anticipation…..
To be fair, I should start this sermon with a warning. So here it is.
You are warned, that carefully listening to this sermon may make you very, very, very hungry.
Back in the day when our only television was a 12 inch B/W, there was a commercial that was so well done, that even in black and white, the ½ inch thick perfectly cooked, juicy hamburger was so well pictured, that it could make your mouth water…
There was a poor starving salivating child waiting for it, as a Heinz catsup bottle was hovering over it, taking 20 seconds for the first drop of catsup to lead the thick, rich, delicious catsup stream that would make complete the burger.
If you are old enough to remember those days, how many of you didn’t wait for the catsup, but got out a butter knife to encourage the catsup’s flow?
Anticipation, is making me wait! Making me wait for this delicious, juicy, perfectly barbecued hamburger, which will be ice cold by the time the catsup leaves the bottle!
I never waited for the catsup – just tossed some onions on it, and started eating!
Some of us have trouble waiting patiently, whether it is for food, or to see God’s will revealed in our lives, and to see our lives become perfect.
Yet, it is a glorious thing when we see it, and knowing us, God has given us a little foretaste of what is to come. That is what Paul is talking about, in the passage from Romans 8 that we heard a few moments ago….
It is just hard to wait, he is right, we long for the days when we are released from sin and suffering, and our adoption as God’s kids is fully realized.
The Struggle with Waiting!
We have a problem with waiting, probably because the other terms for waiting are not pleasant. We have to have patience, or to use an older phrase – we have to be “long-suffering”.
Patience means we don’t get what we want, when we want it.
We don’t like that opening verse of the reading,
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later!
It is a struggle to wait, such a struggle is its own kid of suffering. We get frustrated, whether it is waiting for catsup to pour out of a bottle, to get a seat at a restaurant, or to wait in line at a grocery store.
We struggle with those little things, and often we pour out our frustration in those situations, because we can’t figure out how to give address other struggles, other heavier, more personal and painful suffering.
Suffering we endure as our bodies cannot do what they used to do. When we wake up with aches and pains, instead of energy and strength. The suffering that happens because of age, or disease, or even common things like allergies.
Like the suffering that comes when we struggle to make ends meet, or as we wait for test results, or when our expectations don’t become reality.
There are even deeper sufferings, the pains we feel as we watch people we love suffer, as marriages suffer, as grief weighs on people, as financial struggles crush them, as addictions rob life from them. Even more so as we look at those we love, who could know God’s peace, and instead continue to struggle to play God, and fail.
Those times where the suffering is so great, we can’t even find the peace or the words to pray, where our very heart is crushed by the suffering. This isn’t even starting to talk about the suffering of martyrdom, the suffering that can accompany sharing God’s love for people.
We aren’t alone in the suffering, Paul tells us the whole creation – the earth and stars suffer as well, waiting for that which we hope for…. The transformation that all creation groans for, as it awaits Christ’s return.
How can we wait patiently, expectantly for that, if we struggle to wait for some tomato paste and vinegar to make it’s way from a bottle onto the aromatic, juicy, perfectly barbecued hamburger?
What are we waiting for?
I joke about the burger, but we need to see that for which we hope. Hope, not like in hoping that I win the lottery, but more hope as in we fully expect Christ’s return.
Paul uses some incredible words to describe that for which we hope.
“we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering!”
And,
We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us!
Those are a lot better to wait for than that catsup – right?
Imagine – no more body, no more effect of sin on our lives, or the lives of those we love and care for, just the presence of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; who welcomes us home into a life beyond experience, beyond our imagination.
There are days I long for that! There are days I cannot wait…..
Especially when I hear the news of more churches being burnt to the ground, of Christians being threatened with death,
I long to know the glory we will share in, and be done with the suffering of this life…
Then again, I had trouble waiting for catsup! How do you expect me to wait for eternity to be revealed? How can we wait for it, when waiting means struggling, sacrifice, and suffering?
How Can We wait?
I warned you at the beginning of this sermon that it might make you hungry, but I wasn’t talking about the hamburger with the Heinz catsup on it.
What I hope you are hungry for, nearly starving for, is that day when we realize how true it is, that the sufferings of our lives is nothing compared to the glory awaiting for us.
I pray you are hungry for the revelation of God’s glory, of our eternity spent with Him, or as Paul explains it to the church in Colossae,
1 You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. 2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory! Colossians 3:1-4 (TEV)
Set your hearts on it! Put your hope in God! Expect Him to fulfill all His promises – and know what those promises are!
God provides for us as we wait as well! Paul describes two ways in which the Holy Spirit work.
The first is as we pray, as we groan and endure, when we are so week, that we don’t even know how to pray. The promise is that the Spirit is with us, praying with us, groaning with us, pleading for us, as verse 27 states, in harmony with God’s will.
We don’t suffer alone! Our prayers are heard! God is listening, for the Spirit who dwells in our hearts communicates clearly and the Father hears.
The other, even more significant is that the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life! I love how the NLT translates it…
23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory
The presence of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God given to us when we were born again in baptism. The presence of the Lord and Giver of Life, the Comforter, the Advocate, the One who gives gifts to the church to serve the word the good news of Christ. The One who assures us our prayers are heard by God the Father and answered, the Healer of our souls.
Who is a foretaste, the Holy Spirit who is present in our lives – a glimpse of what to expect when the suffering we now know is replaced by the glory of that day.
May we revel in the presence of the Holy Spirit, may we drink deeply of the love revealed to us, and may it help us realize the peace of God, as we anticipate the glory that is yet to come!
AMEN?
How life is Built, or How a Temple is… the oft overlooked secret
devotional thought of the day:
7 The stone blocks for the building of The Temple were all dressed at the quarry so that the building site itself was reverently quiet—no noise from hammers and chisels and other iron tools. 1
2 “About this Temple you are building—what’s important is that you live the way I’ve set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently. Then I’ll complete in you the promise I made to David your father. 13 I’ll personally take up my residence among the Israelites —I won’t desert my people Israel.” 14 Solomon built and completed The Temple. 1 Kings 6:7, 12-14 (MSG)
74 You are not happy because you make everything revolve around yourself as if you were always the centre: you have a stomach-ache, or you are tired, or they have said this or that… Have you ever tried thinking about Him, and through Him, about others? (1)
It is ithe plan of the Masterbuilder that all of the business of making rough rock into perfectly fitting, polished stone be accomplished in the stone quarry. There, beyond this place, beyond that door, is only the assembling of what has been done here. (2)
I have read of Solomon’s building of the temple many times, the dedication of that temple is one of m favorite portions of all of scripture. The gathering of God results in God’s presence being so manifest, that smoke fills the temple, and no priest can offer any sacrifice. The people of God pray, and are forgiven. Others come and pray, and God makes Himself real to them. God and people.
Yet in the midst of the work, verse 7 gets overlooked, it gets lost in the details, in the glory, in the imagery. I never even bothered to ask why the work was done in the quarry before.
Thinking on it now, as the son of a man who build tons of stone walls (literally) it amazes me. To so carve the rock as to be sure of its fitting, to so care for the work as it is transported to the temple mount, to then be fitted into place, perfectly. It is mindblowing to think of this with lasers and high power saws and polishers, but this work was done with chisels, and hammers, carved lovingly by hand. And in the temple, even as it is being build, reverent silence…It is built in peace, the joining mortar laid, the stones carefully put in place. Peace, quiet, solemnity.
No wonder the building of the temple of God in its fullness happens outside the walls, outside even the city, the noise of the hammers pounding not heard within its walls. The only noise to be heard there, the tear of a thick curtain….as the Holy of Holies is revealed without its glory. Without the ark, for that which fulfils the covenant, that glory is hanging, nailed to a tree. The Body given, the Blood poured out, the sins forgiven, forever. And peace reigns as the shadows come, and darkness falls…….
To often we don’t wait to get to the silence, to see the glory of God – to know His peace. We are too busy with our issues, with our ailments, with that which pounds and shapes us, Fr. Josemaia is right, we focus on the now, and we don’t see the temple being build, we don’t see God put each one of us in place.
We don’t see the plan, the beauty, the glory coming together because we choose to live back in the quarry, rather than to see where God has put us in His living temple. To trust Him at His word, at His promise. To realize that we aren’t in the quarry, really, Hear how Paul says it…
1 Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. 2 Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth, 3 because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. 4 But when Christ is revealed—and he is your life—you, too, will be revealed with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (NJB)
Though we may think we are not finished yet, those who believe have in many ways left the quarry, and are sitting here, in the temple, just waiting for Christ to put us in place. That is where our life is, and we are encourage to see it that way. Our life, shaped and designed and lived out in Christ. We’ve taken some pounding – He has taken more for us. We are in His presence, in a place where the pounding has already been done. We have been delivered and saved… and my prayer for you, is that you realize this more and more, and live in the peace and serenity that is found in Christ. For be assured,
6 And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (TEV)
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 531-534). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Northumbrian Community, Celtic Daily Prayer (devotions from Finian readings for April 5th
Come and See – His Day
Come and See: The Day!
Jer. 33:14-16
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God, the love and mercy and peace that is yours in Christ Jesus, be that which is most evident in your life, until the day
He returns in Glory for us! AMEN!
Come and See!
Yesterday afternoon, a man named Michael was standing right here, with his dad standing next to him. He was as anxious as any man I have ever stood beside as they prepared to enter marriage.
As the doors back there opened, as he looked upon his fiancé, dressed in white, there was the loudest gasp I have ever heard from a man, as he commented, in awe of how beautiful she was, at how her beauty exceeded every expectation he had, every dream of how this moment would be.
During the wedding, it was kind of cute – as he looked upon her with such adoration that she often looked away – almost embarrassed to see the look in his eyes! A couple of times during the vows I even had to remind her to look at him!
That kind of mindset, that nervous anticipation of the bride and groom, the moment before the doors open and they look at each other, that ½ second when time slows to a crawl prior to the doors opening – that is the mindset of advent.
We know He is coming, we know what has been promised. We have desired the day to finally come, the moment, the time that is drawing closer. Maybe we’ve even dreamed about it, as we hear the descriptions of what it will be like.
There is a sense of awe, and a sense of anxiety, a feeling of doubt as we wonder “how will I live up to His expectations?”
As we walk through this advent together, as we look to the day when Christ comes again, fulfilling the promises that were first fulfilled when He came 2000 years ago, it is my hope that we realize that our situation is not unlike the situation Mike’s lady found herself in, as we realize the love of God and the way that Christ sees us, the church, His bride.
For that is what that day is all about!
The day when we have come to see, as we come to adore our Lord.
What do we expect of the Messiah?
In my more self-righteous moments, I wonder how the people of Israel could overlook all of the prophecies about the Messiah. How could they have been so far off in what they expected Jesus to be like, how they expected Him to come. How could the experts have been so…wrong?
Those errors had incredibly serious implications, for example – if Herod’s advisors had known that Jesus didn’t come to establish some mere political kingdom, that he wasn’t going to overthrow Caesar and Herod, would he have bothered to slaughter all the innocent male children? Would the Pharisees have reacted to Jesus if they had spent more time in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel, rather than just seeing the promises of a new Moses, a new David?
What about our expectations today, as we look at the church around the world – does it still expect the kingdom of heaven to be established on the earth? I have mocked the television-evangelist types, when they promise wealth and health and happiness, yet there are times, I have to admit, when my expectations are just as self-centered. And that leads to trouble, for false expectations can create a let down of massive proportions. When our expectations are shattered, no matter their basis, how do we react? Are we like the young couple that sees their life in the harsh reality that occurs when the bills are piling up, the in-laws are becoming more critical, and the pressures of work and household are taking their toll? Do we spiritually “fall out of love” with God at times?
How do we balance off promises like “all things work for good for those who love God,” with the things we don’t understand, like economy, like disease, like death? How do we hear passages like Jeremiah, that promise a day coming… when we’ve been waiting so long, when we’ve heard that Jeremiah’s promise was about the coming of the Messiah? – the first coming? When those promises, supposedly fulfilled by the baby in the manger, now seem to be as naïvely received as the promises of how perfect a young couple thinks their marriage will be?
Has God let us down? Will the second coming also be…more of the same?
What is promised?
As we enter Advent, as we take a moment and light an extra candle, and then two and then three, and then four, and then, in the right moment, at the precise time, this fifth candle is lit, the one that really matters, the one that makes hope and peace and joy and faith possible, we need to learn that lesson – these candles only find their meaning in that candle.
So to do the promises of God, found in the Old Testament only make sense when we, the church, the bride of Christ, are looking at our groom, at our Lord.
Hear Jeremiah’s words again,
14 “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.
In Sunday School, we are going to talk about who Israel and Judah are, and who they aren’t. For us, in this moment, I am going to tell you – what matters is that you are, one way or the other, included in that group.
God will do what He has promised, in His time, and it will be good.
What will done? What will God do?
He will raise up a righteous servant. One of David’s line. He will do what is just and what is right – throughout the land – that is what Jeremiah tells us.
Isn’t that why Christ came? To set everything right, to fix it all? TO make life perfect?
Was not the Messiah to bring healing and light to the nations? To bring glory to Israel?
Even as I look around at the broken world in which we live, I can in truth say, yes, I believe Christ came to do that, and has done it, and is doing it still.
Except that we don’t see the work all that clearly, in fact, only with a little more clarity than those awaiting the Messiah the first time. For in Jeremiah’s promise, we see that the righteousness – the perfection comes, not in us, but in Christ. It is His work that establishes what is just and right – it is His work.
At the cross, that work was done. At that time, we were saved, and indeed the people of God live in safety. We have been delivered my friends, from all that threatens us. Sin has no power over us, for God has given us the keys of the kingdom, the responsibility to nullify sin through the authority to forgive it, to dismiss it, to negate it.
Likewise its compatriots, Satan and death, though they seem to loom powerfully in this world, are but illusions and fraud. They cannot separate us from God, they cannot diminish His love for us. They cannot remove His guarantee that all will work for good, because He stands behind that.
That is what it means, for the city of God to be named, The Lord is our righteousness. Yhwh-tsidkenu. It is He that is perfect, righteous, holy.
And we, the church, are His bride. Joined to Him, one, even as a husband and wife become one…
He Has Come, He is Coming!
In many ways, life is like the wedding ceremony, with the life that will become true, only hinted at, even as we wait for the life that is to come, afterward.
We haven’t begun the life together yet… even though the joys of the moment are here. We still struggle to look our Lord in the eyes, to see His love there, to know that He sees us as His beautiful, clean, glorious bride.
Yet that too is part of advent, the reminder that life is yet to truly begin.
We are in the presence of the bridegroom, who has paid every price to bring us to this point. We see Him in His glory, and wonder whether we truly belong here.
There is the message of advent as well – we do, we’ve been called here, we’ve been called to live eternally as the bride of Christ, as the people of God.
Soon, the wedding will become the feast, and then the life…
May we live in this moment, looking to Jesus, the Lord who chose us to be His, who brings us into life and shares His life and His righteousness and holiness with us.
Come my friends. Come and see your Lord, the One who shares it all with you. Come and see your Lord, look into His eyes of love, do not look away.
I’d leave you with two promises, found in the writings of the Apostle Paul, to churches like us…
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4 (NAB)
1:6 I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes.
Philippians 1:6 (NJB)
Your Lord awaits… it is time to celebrate, for you have been saved, your life with Him is lived safely and peacefully, for in His righteousness, you are guarded, your heart and mind always in His care. AMEN.
While we are waiting for His return….
While We are Waiting…
Jude 20-25
† In Jesus Name †
The Blessing of the Book of Jude:
To you who are called, to you who are dear to God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ, 2 mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
The Holy Stairs.,,
Luther had stood at the base of the steps we stood before, just about 500 years prior to Kay and I standing at them. Even as Jesus has reportedly climbed those same stairs, as he approached Pilate, and the cross were He would embrace death, that you and I would know life.
At the top of the stairs, now with a church built around them, was a incredibly compassionate picture of Jesus, looking down the stairs, at those who would pray to Him as they climbed those stairs on their knees, humbly praying, as they have for hundreds of years.
One thing that struck me then, as it had all week, the incredible devotion showed to God, some in love, some in fear, that we saw in the pilgrims and in the many beautiful places dedicated to God. Such testimonies to an incredible devotion to God that so touched the hearts of tourists; as well as those who were somewhere between tourist and pilgrim.
I am sure that God listens to prayers without our needing to make pilgrimages, or spending hours upon hours on our knees praying. But there is something to be said for the devotion, for the focus, for the treasuring of God’s love, that would draw someone to such actions, or to build incredible basilicas that rival any other buildings in the world. To sculpt or paint, or compose music, that would point to God’s glory. It amazes me the work that man can accomplish, that testifies to God’s glory. What amazes me more, is the work that God can accomplish through us, as He builds His people into His church.
As we celebrate the end of the church year… as we look to His return, and the celebration that will come, when God gathers all of us home… Jude encourages us to accomplish some things while we are waiting…
It is better to say… to let the Holy Spirit bring things to pass in our lives…
Building up in holy faith
I know that Michael last week talked about the things which last, that it is not the temples and basilicas and even the churches of today that will last eternally – but the people that God calls into being as His people. For Jesus talked of that, as the disciples talked of the stones that built Herod’s temple – stones taken from the mountains that Jesus spoke into being.
Jude talks of building that up – the community of believers, the brothers and sisters united in Christ, as children of God – that which Jesus indicated would last, for He would guard and keep that church.
You, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, 21
It is, I think, more of a challenge to build up each other in the most holy faith, than it is to paint the Sistine Chapel. But that is the masterpiece we have been called to build up. To point each other to Jesus, to help each other trust in Christ. That includes, at times, the challenge of showing people their need for Jesus, for each one of us, from the greatest to the smallest, from the proudest to the meekest, from those who seem to have it all together, to those who can’t even remember which part needs repair the soonest. We all need Jesus, we all need His healing, we all need His love…
It is given to us, to build up each other, not in building up egos, but in helping each other realizing our desperate need for Jesus, to encourage each other to turn to Him, to even walk beside each other, pointing each other to God, and His healing. And to that, in prayer, listening to God, hearing the Holy Spirit. I like what one pastor wrote about this..
..you realised that until now you had known that the Holy Spirit was dwelling in your soul, to sanctify it… But you hadn’t really grasped this truth about his presence. You needed that advice. Now you feel his Love within you, and you want to talk to him, to be his friend, to confide in him… You want to facilitate his work of polishing, uprooting, and enkindling…
I wouldn’t know how to set about it! you thought. Listen to him, I insist. He will give you strength. He will do everything, if you so want… And you do want! (Escriva, The Forge)
It is no mistake, in this tiny, last of the epistles, that the writer would encourage us to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice, to pray in His power, to realize His presence, even as we are awaiting the full revelation of Christ’s mercy upon His return. For our task is not one merely of human creation, but one which requires all the strength and creativity of God.
Showing Mercy
Jude mentions two very similar ways of building each other up, ways in which we simple are to do this.
The first is to show mercy to those who are wavering, those who are struggling, those whose faith is fragile, even as they struggle. Such weakness is never a cause for contempt, it is never our place to say – well if they can’t hack it – if they don’t have the strength on their own – then that is their own problem. We are called, instead of judging or condemning them, to come alongside them, and encourage them. Jude says this is not option – we must those mercy to those whose faith is wavering.
For indeed, in our own lives, we know that kind of mercy, or we need to know i! We see it when we struggle, or doubt, or wonder. Whatever you want to call it…we each go through it – no one in this sanctuary is strong enough on their own, no pastor that has ever stood before you, no elder, or Sunday school teacher, no board member, nor any child who comes into this place. Each has been there, with their faith wavering, whether they wanted to admit it or not. All of us need that love, that compassion, that care, the kind that Christ shows through His people. The kind Jude compels us to show. There is no other option, and it is quite probable we need to repent for not obeying this.
Likewise in verse 25, we are commanded to “23 Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
You see, that is what we are doing when we share our faith, whether in a doctor’s office in Artesia, or in a café in Rome outside of Vatican city. We aren’t just trying to convince people that our way is somehow better than theirs, that our God is better than the god of Islam, or Judaism, or Buddhism. This isn’t like anything else than “snatching people from the flames of judgement”.
Is there anything more important that we do in our lives? Is there any reward more incredible than seeing someone you’ve loved when no one else bothered to, baptized and cleansed and given a new life? You could build a thousand Concordias! You could paint a Sistine chapels day after day – every moment of your life creating artistic masterpeices, and none of it comes close to this work of showing mercy. The most incredible thing you could ever do in life, is to lead someone to a baptismal font, or guide them to an altar where they are cleansed of their sin, or as they are struggling come to them –pointing them to Jesus as you carry them to His side in prayer and love.
Whether they are simply struggling in their faith, or… being swallowed by Hell…
This is our work, this is what the saints of God are called to do, even as we are called to walk with the Holy Spirit in prayer
Know God is powerful
The bottom line of Jude is found in the last few verses:
. 24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!
Note in the middle of the praises, there is a description of God’s action – that He is the One who keeps you from falling away – from being safe in God’s love as He mentioned. It is His work to bring you into the Father’s glorious presence, more glorious than any painter or sculptor can imagine and create.
He brings us there without a single fault, not one, not even one little tiny fault. He has promised us that, and died to make it so. That’s why he climbed the steps before Pilate and made good His promise to become our Savior. The steps that some climb, to pray for a friend, or a family member or themselves, he climbed for us all. That is what we are to encourage each other to trust in, the Lord who climbed those steps, who endured that cross, looking forward to the joy of revealing how much He loves you. That is why we are to come alongside and support those whose faith wavers, and to rescue others from the fire.
And someday… instead of celebrating the end of the church year, we will celebrate the homecoming of all homecomings,
Until then, my friends, know this – even as you will see His glory face to face, you dwell in it now. Even as you will sing praises to Him in all His glory, you dwell in that glory now…and even there, as His peace will reign in your life, it does so now.
For our Lord Jesus Christ has made it so, creating us as His people, cleansing us from sin, and keeping us from falling out of that peace. AMEN?
