Monday, September 30, 2013

We are Unprofitable Servants: A Meditation on Luke 17



While pride may be thought a civic virtue, it is never complimented in Holy Scripture.  From the pride that caused the devil to fall, to the pride that caused our first parents Fall, or the pride that goes before any person’s fall, it is not a complimentary feature of humanity.  People, broken and sinful as we are, have no right to pride… or perhaps phrased as a question, “What on earth do we have to brag about?”

We could start a list, I suppose, of the things we enjoy patting ourselves on the back for.  Perhaps we are particularly strong, fast, or physically powerful; perhaps we are clever, quick, or wise; perhaps we have won games, championships, or competitions; perhaps we have earned degrees, certifications, and honors.  Whatever populates your particular list of things you like to brag about, Jesus presents a universal pin that pops every person’s pride balloon.  In the Gospel readings for this week, Jesus presents a story to help the disciples understand their proper place and order in the grand scheme of things:

But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle,
will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the
field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather
say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird
thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and
afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank
that servant because he did the things that were commanded
him? I trow not.  So likewise ye, when ye shall have
done all those things which are commanded you, say, We
are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our
duty to do.  (Luke 17:7-10, KJV)

Jesus’ point here is not about dinner eating order, but rather about the difference between a Master and His servants.  Granted, the American mind chafes at the notion of someone being superior to another, but we need to set that humanistic notion aside—God is not equal to us, nor are we equal to God.  As human beings we may all be equal before God, but that should not lead us to forget that the Creator is infinitely greater than His creatures.  If we can come to grips with the reality that we are the creatures, the servants of God by His own design and making, we can appreciate what Jesus is teaching His disciples.

Even at our best, we are only doing what is our duty to accomplish.  Were we to use all our God-given time, talents, and treasure for the purposes that God has given them to us (in pure love of God and our neighbor, doing everything that is commanded of us,) we would not deserve any accolades from God.  If we perfectly and completely lived up the righteous, holy, and pure Law of God in everything we thought, said, and did, never missing or forgetting anything His Word teaches us, nor ever flinching in our faith and trust of Him, we would have done what we were made to do.

Ponder that for a moment.  If we could keep the Law in perfection, and be holy as our Father in Heaven is holy, we wouldn’t be worthy of praise, but of simple affirmation that we had done what we were designed from the beginning to do.  There’s no ticker tape parade for simply doing your duty—no grand awards banquet for accomplishing that for which you were made.  Quite on the contrary, it is your obligation to do everything that God has called you to do, and to do it perfectly according to His will.  There’s no grading curve.  This is simply Pass or Fail.  And to pass is to be perfectly in accordance with your Maker’s will.

It doesn’t take long to see the wisdom of Jesus’ teaching, when we understand our situation before God rightly.  He made us perfect, and we corrupted ourselves into a state that cannot keep His will or His Word.  He did all things well in the Creation, and we did everything we could to corrupt it into a sphere of death, suffering, and misery.  What God brought into being and called very good, we have taken and warped into something evil.  As fallen creatures now, that Law of God which was perfectly in harmony with us in the beginning, has now become our death sentence written large across the heavens.  Even if we were to come back to His Law, and seek to keep it, our petty attempts are ludicrously short of His perfection.  And if, even for a moment, we were to keep His holy Law rightly in thought, word and deed, at best we could say that we had done only what was our duty to do… never mind all the millions of other moments in which failed miserably, or perhaps openly rebelled against our duty to God and His Law.

And so it is true what Jesus says, that not only at our best could we say we have merely done our duty, but in reality, we are unprofitable servants.  Every one of us, from the Apostles and the Prophets, to the Saints and the Martyrs, to you and me:  we are unprofitable servants.  Perhaps we had a flash or two in our meager lives of coming close to fulfilling some aspect of the Law and God’s righteousness, but we are on the whole sinners deserving of nothing but death and condemnation.  At our weak and paltry best, we are only unprofitable servants of the Master, our Creator, having failed to live up to our created duty.

When Jesus preaches the Law, as He does in this text, He leaves sinners like us with nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.  If we hide in our works of sin, He is there to judge us according to the perfection of the Law.  If we hide in our works of righteousness, He is there to judge us according to whole of the Law, and the whole of our lives.  For those who would sit at the feet of Jesus our Master and learn from Him, we must learn this great truth which St. Paul would later write:  that no one is justified by the Law.  No one is righteous—no, not one.

But where does the sinner turn, to escape the great judgment that awaits us?  To this same Jesus, our Savior.  Jesus knows better than any other just how fallen we are.  It was through Him that we were made, and through Him that our sins and evils have been paid.  Jesus is the Word through which all the universe leapt into existence, and He is the Eternal Word that suffered and died for the wickedness of His unprofitable servants.  This same Jesus who presents the Law in all its holiness and severity, brings to us in His very Body and Blood the Gospel in all its sweetness and hope:  that He has come to seek and to save the lost.  Where there is no hope in the Law, there is hope everlasting in His Gospel of Grace.  Where we are left to beg for mercy in terror under the righteous condemnation of the Law, Jesus brings to us the joy and peace of Absolution through His Gospel.

Are we unprofitable servants?  Indeed, we are.  But in Jesus, we are given a new nature, a new life, and a new identity.  In Him, we are given His Holy Spirit, that dying to sin in our Baptism, we might rise up in a new life of faith, hope, and love.  And this new life we have been given is not our own work, that anyone should boast—but rather it is the work of God in Christ Jesus. 

So here, the Christian does his good works of love and mercy, which grow out of a heart of living faith, not as if trying to satisfy the Law, but reflecting the love and mercy of Grace.  We do not do our good works for others to appreciate, or to earn anything for ourselves, or to somehow help God along in this world; rather we do them out of a love that pours forth from Jesus Himself, through us, to our neighbor.  Such living faith cannot exist apart from the works of love, which emerge like fruits of Jesus’ Vine.  And even so, the Christian remembers that we remain the unprofitable servant for whom He died, and we live by grace through faith because He lives for us.

Are we unprofitable?  Most surely we are.  But Jesus makes all things new, even unprofitable sinners like you and me.  Thanks be to God, that our Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, has done what is profitable for us all through His Cross, that we may believe and live in Him forever.  Amen.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Angels: A Meditation on Revelation 12 for Michaelmas



Just who are the Angels, and what do they mean to us?  It is a valid question, and one worth chewing on.  Cultures all over the world have beliefs and experiences of Angels, and while they may share similarities, they also have vast differences.  Some cultures see the Angels as helpful, terrible, or terrifying; others see them as guardians, tricksters, or destroyers.  They are presented in both fictional works, and works that present themselves as first-hand accounts.  Abraham saw Angels, as did some of the Prophets and Apostles.  But then, Muhammad claims to have seen an Angel who gave him the Koran, and Joseph Smith claims to have received the Book of Mormon from an Angel.  New Age religions and various forms of witchcraft encourage the worship of Angels, as well as communing with them.  What is the Christian to make of all the confusion and conflicting accounts regarding Angels?

This Sunday is set aside in the Church year to remember St. Michael the Archangel, and all the heavenly host of Angels, and is a good time to sift the truth from the error.  In reality, we know very little about the Angels, and what we do know can be unsettling.  Since human experience is a dangerous place to start evaluating spiritual things, our safest place to examine the question, is Holy Scripture.

In Revelation chapter twelve, a vision is given to St. John that encapsulates the history of the Church in a brief series of images.  A Woman (variously understood to be the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Church,) who gives birth to a male Child who is to rule the world with a rod of iron (Christ, whose reign is absolute, in heaven and on earth.)  The great Dragon (the devil,) attempts to kill the Child as He is born, but fails (Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Egypt, fleeing the murderous intentions of King Herod,) and eventually the Child is taken up into heaven to His throne (Jesus ascension in Heaven, and His reign forever at the Right Hand of the Father.)

Then a great war erupts in heaven, and the Dragon with one third of the Angels of heaven, does battle with St. Michael the Archangel and the whole heavenly host.  The Dragon is defeated and his rebel Angels with him, being cast down out of heaven to the earth.  The Holy Angels rejoice that the accuser of the people of God is cast out of heaven, defeated by the Blood of the Lamb (the Cross of Christ,) but speak warning and woe to the inhabitants of the earth below—for the Devil has come down with fury against the people of God, knowing that His time is short, and everlasting hell looms before him.

So, who are the Angels?  They are powerful, spiritual beings, created by God.  In their created holiness and purity, they reflect the very light and life of God.  But for those who are fallen, they are dark and demonic, filthy, twisted, and evil.  The Holy Angels of God serve Him in righteousness and purity, while the Fallen Angels work to ravage and destroy all that is holy and good.  The Angels, good or evil, are supremely more powerful, more wise, more cunning, and more astute than any human being—and while we humans may walk the earth for 80 years or so, they have been around since the very beginning.  No human being is a match, by strength or wit, to any Angel, be they Holy or Fallen.

It’s also worth noting, that the Holy Angels, in communion with the life and light and power of Almighty God, are more powerful than the Fallen Angels who have lost their connection to Him.  The Holy Angels won the war that threw the Devil and his legion out of heaven, and they won it decisively.  The Holy Angels and the Fallen Angels are not equals, but rather the Fallen are defeated by the Holy.  St. Jude recounts a story in his Epistle where St. Michael the Archangel confronts the Devil with a simple and devastating Word:  “The Lord rebuke thee.”

As human beings, we should be cognizant of the Angels, if for no other reason than that they are here among us.  Knowing that in our humanity we are no match for the Fallen Angels, and that they make war against the people of God to destroy us, we should be aware of them and their activity.  What does the human being have to hope in, what refuge can he find, if the Devil and his legion are roaming about the world seeking whom they may devour?

Our hope, is Jesus Christ.  His Blood shed for us upon His Cross, is the power that the Holy Angels used to cast the Devil from heaven, and stopped his blasphemous mouth from breathing out accusations against the people of God.  Jesus’ Blood is what reconciles human beings to God, paying for our sin and evil and rebellion, giving to us communion once again with our Creator.  The shed Blood of Jesus puts us into the restored fellowship of the Most Holy Trinity, so that we, like the Holy Angels, share in His divine and eternal life.

So what should the Christian think about the Angels?  We should remember that the Fallen Angels are powerful and wicked, bent upon the destruction of all mankind, but especially of the Church of Jesus Christ.  We should remember that we are hopeless to resist their power and tyranny in our own fallen human condition.  However, we should give thanks and praise to God, that through Jesus Christ our Savior, we are given His power over all the forces of evil, to tread upon their serpents and scorpions, and to cast out the Fallen Angels with the power of His Holy Name.  We should remember, that we now fight alongside the Heavenly Host of Holy Angels, who live by the same power and might that flows from the Lord God Almighty, King of Heaven and earth.

We should remember, that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, and that by the shed Blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Angels are our friends, guardians, and fellow soldiers, in a war that is already won through His Cross.  And for this, we give Him our thanks and praise forever more.  Amen.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Today Matters: A Meditation on Daniel 10-12




I’m guessing that I’m a lot like you, when it comes to how much I reflect on the little things that make up my average day.  Since I’ve technically entered “mid-life,” I’ve had plenty of practice at doing the things I do, from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night.  My morning coffee, quick look at the news, touching base with my lovely bride and daughters on the events of the day, the city commute, the daily work, the home-bound commute, the extra-curricular activities, and a cold drink around the modern campfire (read:  TV) before heading to bed.  It’s amazingly predictable, when you boil it down, and being that predictable, it takes almost no thought at all.  I’ve often wondered if I could make my way to work and home each day with my eyes closed, and sometimes it feels as if I did.

The last few chapters of the Book of Daniel, help to remind us, that no day is ever forgotten.  All those things we do without thought or consideration, and all those days we let slip by us, never come back again—but they don’t disappear, either.  Our past, whether we think of our youth, our young adult years, or yesterday, are captured forever in the mind of God, who is the basis of reality for all that was, or is, or is yet to be.  Because God exists from eternity to eternity, and God is omniscient, knowing all things, every moment of time is always present for Him.  For you and I, as temporal beings, our past is behind us, our future before us, and the only moment we can influence is the present one.  We cannot go back in time to undo, or redo, anything that is behind us.  Likewise, we cannot lean forward and do what is ahead of us.  All we have, is this present moment, in which to work, love, fight, trust, disbelieve, build up or tear down.  This moment, right now, is the one we’re given to live in.

And, at some moment not too long in the future, we will all die (should the Lord tarry.)  At that moment, our whole life has passed behind us, and with it, all our opportunities to do, or act, or work.  In that first moment of eternity, we stand before our Maker naked and exposed, as our life which is our past, is brought into His eternal present, and there judged perfectly and righteously according to the good and holy Law of God.  In that moment, there are no more excuses, no more pleading, no more opportunities for repentance or grace.  That moment, in which our whole life is behind us, is a moment of destiny that marks our eternity.  We stand before the Judge of the Universe, to give an account of every careless word we have spoken, and moment of time we carelessly discarded.  Now, without time to change or time to turn, we give an account of the time we were given, to Him who gave that time to us.

I don’t know about you, but that is a terrifying thought to me.  How many moments, just today, did I waste?  How many words, just today, did I cast carelessly about?  And beyond today, how many of my moments, now cast forever into my past, shall be revealed before the Lord of Glory as wasted, or worse—used maliciously or selfishly, discarding the needs of my neighbor, and serving rather myself?  How many moments of this life so graciously given to me, shall cause me to hang my head in shame before the Judge?  Knowing who I am today, and who I have been yesterday, what hope do I have that tomorrow, should the Lord of Glory choose to give me even one more day of life, that I shall be any better a steward of tomorrow’s moment, than I have been of today’s? For we who are sinners through and through, the prospect of that Great and Terrible Day of the Lord should bring forth a divine fear unlike any other—a fear, that we will finally get what we deserve.

This is the Day of which Daniel speaks, in chapter twelve, verses 1-3:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.  And many of them that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  And
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the
stars forever and ever.

Whether we face that Day as we step from this world through the portal of death and into the presence of God, or upon that Day when He returns to judge the living and the dead at the final Resurrection of all flesh, it is clear that what we do in this moment we are given, follows us for eternity.  The good or the evil we have done, will be brought forward to our remembrance, as it is always before the Eternal Present of the Lord of Glory.  The real question that emerges from the text above, is who is to be found “written in the book”?  Who will be raised to everlasting life, and who to everlasting contempt?

The answer is found in Jesus Christ.  If we stand before the Judge, robed only in our own works, the totality of our lives will leave us condemned to an eternity of shame and contempt.  Our misuse of our time, talents, and treasures, shouts out our condemnation before the Judge—and while we may forget our past and think we have escaped it, for God, it is always present and before His Holy Face.  We cannot escape the Judgment of our past, and we cannot hope to live long enough to expunge our just sentence.  On our own, we are lost, and destined to an eternity of shame, surrounded by the cacophony of all our wasted moments, declaring the justice of our place in hell.

But our God knows our condition, and the futility of our works.  He knows that on our own, all is vanity, as the Preacher has said.  He sees our hopeless condition from all eternity, and in divine love and compassion, pierces our temporal moment with His Eternal moment of grace, forgiveness, and life.  Where we struggle, He has succeeded.  Where we fall, He stands.  Where we waste, He does all things well.  In His Life, Death, and Resurrection, He effects a salvation so great, that His mercies pour out upon not only our present moment, but our past and our future.  Our life becomes hidden in His Life, our temporal moment in His Eternal Moment of Grace.

To us He comes, bearing His Word of forgiveness, life, and salvation, that we may stand in this moment, and in all moments for eternity, wearing His righteousness and grace.  For those who will receive Him by faith, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord has lost its terror.  For those who fall down in faith and repentance for the wasted lives we have led, we shall be raised up in a Life and Hope not our own, but given to us in Jesus Christ.  This moment, this day, the Lord calls to all of us sinners, to repent and believe the Gospel, to give our wasted lives to Him that He may nail them to His Cross.  He calls us to rise in a new life, empowered by His Holy Spirit, to live by grace through faith in Him, and bring forth fruits of love, and mercy, and peace.  And to us is the promise, that with His Holy Absolution, our shame is buried with Him in His tomb, and that like Him we shall rise again, without the shame of sin and guilt, but rather shine forth as the stars of heaven, evermore reflecting His perfect glory.

Today matters, and this moment matters.  It will ring throughout eternity.  Let this day be for you a day of rejoicing in the love and mercy of Jesus by faith and repentance, so that when you stand before the Judge on that Great and Terrible Day, your evil is absolved in the Cross of Christ, and your eternal future is life forever blessed.  Amen.

Monday, September 16, 2013

To Devour the Poor is to Invite Destruction: A Meditation on Amos 8




There are many nefarious consequences to the growing secularization of our land, and the psychology of atheism or agnosticism that creeps behind it.  The relativity of morals is amongst the most noxious, since without God as arbiter of Good and Evil, man imagines himself as the measure of all things.  And even amongst those who still profess a belief in God, often there is a misunderstanding about who He is, and what He has promised to do.  So many in our day discard the Holy Scriptures either because they discard the God who breathed them out, or they have become vain in their imaginations about who this God actually is.  While the self-styled atheist or agnostic discards Divine Revelation because he repudiates the idea of the Divine, the self-made Christian (or other religious adherent) discards God’s Word to replace it with their own words, imaginations, and philosophies.

The prophet Amos reminds us, that regardless of our self delusion—be it our self idolatry that casts God aside, or our idolatrous syncretism that permits God to remain subservient to our own desires—God still reigns, and He still judges the living and the dead.  There is no person that escapes His watchful eye, and no action made upon the earth that He is not aware of.  No one comes into being without His permissive grace which bestows life upon them, and no one leaves this world without His permissive will.  No thought, word, or deed ever escapes Him, regardless of how fleeting or remote it may be.  If not even one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge and care, we may be sure that every hair on our head is numbered.  He knows us, and all His creation, more intimately than we know ourselves.

And with such knowledge, He, and He alone, judges rightly.  While we may think our best and brightest people know a great deal, it is only limited to their senses and capabilities.  Even the most brilliant philosopher or scientist is still constrained by their ability to perceive the world around them, and to structure that perception of the world with reason and logic inherent in their person—a person which is, by the way, broken in sin, and destined to die.  But for God, this is not so.  Where we are limited, He is unlimited.  Where we are bound, He is free.  Where we are distorted and corrupted, He is pure and holy.  Where we are destined to die, He is eternal life.

Yet knowing this, we strut around this globe, as if we own the place.  We act either personally or corporately as if there is no God, or if there is, that He is unable or unwilling to judge His creation.  We consume the poor through manipulation and greed.  We abuse the orphan and the widow through policy and procedure.  We oppress the homeless and the destitute by statute and law.  We craft whole economic systems that prey upon the weak of mind, as if tricking a person out of their money or their labor is justified as “good business.”  We inflate our prices to line our own pockets, and leave others to scratch out the most meager of existence.  We feed ourselves gluttonously on the plunder of the poor, while the poor struggle to eat at all.

Amos shows us that God is not blind to our sinful condition, nor to the evils we perpetuate.  While we abuse the poor, He swears to uplift and defend them.  While we abuse the orphan and the widow, He pledges to be their protection and their deliverer.  We think in our pride that God has blessed us because we are rich, and He tells us that He will cut us down and cast us out for the sake of the poor we have defrauded.  Make no mistake, He who rules from on high, sees the plight of the poor and the oppressed, and He shall rise up to defend them.  He will lay low those who elevate themselves, and lift up the lowly and the downtrodden.  He will cast out the prideful, and call in the humble.  Hear the Word of the Lord—He has said it, and there is none who can resist or stop Him from the execution of His judgment.  When the Lord rises up to judge, there is none to deliver from His hand.

Oh, you who have defrauded the poor, filled yourselves with good things, and left your neighbor empty, where shall you flee?  Where shall you run to escape the righteous judgment which will so swiftly fall upon you?  To whom will you plead your case, when the Immortal and the Almighty comes to rip your life from your body, and cast you into the eternal fires of hell?  You fat, prideful, gluttonous, selfish, idolatrous brood of vipers—who will deliver you from the wrath which is to come?

There is only one hope for you, and for me.  There is one avenue of escape, for sinners such as you and I, only one Savior to whom we may flee.  But let us not be deceived, our God is not mocked—the same great and almighty God who has promised to execute judgment upon this sinful world, is He who has come to deliver us all.  We who are oppressed and abused and downtrodden by sin, death, and the devil, have one Deliverer who comes to seek and to save us.  This same Jesus, by whose Word the Law is spoken to our condemnation, is the one whose Word speaks also forgiveness, life, and salvation through His Gospel.  The Judge of All has become the Deliverer and Savior of all, through His sacrificial death on the Cross of Calvary.  Through His death, our debt of death and hell are paid, that His resurrected Life may be our life as well.  The Judge has judged righteously, and taken the guilt of us all upon Himself, that He may have mercy and grace upon all who will come to Him in faith and repentance.

And so the Word of the Lord comes to us—a sinful, prideful, stiff-necked people, who by our own hands deserve nothing but death and hell.  To us, a word of grace pierces our darkness, calling us to repent, to turn from our evil, and believe in Him who has come to save us by grace through faith.  Of course, the choice remains with us, to remain in our sins, to discard the Word of the Lord, and perish in the Day of Wrath that so quickly comes upon us.  The call of the Gospel is urgent and unwavering, calling sinners to repentance, faith, and life, before the sentence of righteous judgment falls upon us.  May we hear this good news, believe and live.  Amen.