Following God into a New Year: A Meditation on Matthew 2 for New Year's Day

And when they were departed, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying,

Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt,

and be thou there until I bring thee word:

for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night,

and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod:

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Out of Egypt have I called my son.

 

Our Gospel text for today records a dramatic series of events in the lives of the Holy Family, but events through which God safely shepherded them.  In just a few short verses we learn that in addition to the struggle of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem where Jesus was born in the overflow lodging of a stable, they would next have to flee into Egypt to avoid the murderous intentions of the brutal King Herod.  Eventually they would return after Herod’s death, but the intervening years would be spent working and making their living through labor in a strange land among foreign gods.  Yet it was God who brought them through all these travels, hazards, and labors, eventually returning them to the land of Israel, though it was Nazareth in the region of Galilee.  Neither Mary nor Joseph knew all the details of their journey when they began it, but they did know the God who made them, sustained them, and guided them into their future.  For as pious as they were, only God knew their hearts, what they could bear to know in each moment of their lives, and what He was planning to accomplish through them.

 

Truth be told, many of the years we experience look very different at the end than we envisioned in the beginning.  In the closing days of 2021, who could have honestly predicted all the ups and downs, triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows and transitions which would be unveiled even in our own lives, much less within our families, communities, and the world at large?  At the beginning of 2022 God said to the world what He has been saying from the beginning—hear Me… trust Me—even as He alone knew the paths which would unfold for us all.  He did not disclose all the details of the journey which laid before us, but He did provide the principles upon which all could safely navigate that journey while traveling with Him.  Like the wise men who likely spent over a month in caravan traveling to worship Jesus from roughly 600 miles away, only to add both courting and evading the mad King Herod before getting home again; or Joseph taking Mary to be his wife before realizing he would have to ply his trade to support his family in Egypt for some number of years; or Mary who rejoiced to be the handmaid of the Lord, well before she knew the path it would lead her down to Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, and Calvary.  Like us, the great saints did not know all the details of the times which lay ahead of them, but they knew the God who promised to walk with them through everything yet to come.

 

2023 sits similarly before us as did the prior year.  We have changed a bit, perhaps, in the previous years, gaining some relative combination of gratitude, knowledge, and regret.  If we are honest with ourselves, we did not use all the days of 2022 the way we should have, nor did we live every precious moment of life we were given last year to the fullest.  We said things we wish we hadn’t, thought things we wish we didn’t, and did things we hoped we wouldn’t.  We missed opportunities to do good to those who needed it, and most especially to those who persecuted and troubled us.  We failed to speak words of grace and mercy and truth to souls who needed to hear them, when words of malice, scorn, and deception flowed far easier from our lips and keyboards.  We didn’t know all the details of the path which laid before us in the prior year, but can any of us think we would have done better with the time we were given, if we had?  We lived in fear when we should have lived in courage, were unbelieving when we should have had faith.  We applauded corruption when we should have rejoiced in virtue, and preferred justice more readily when it benefited us than when it might have benefited our neighbor.  2023 opens before us the way 2022 previously did, and though we don’t know the details of all that will emerge in the future, we know what we will need at the end of 2023 is what we need even now:  Grace.

 

And of course, this is what God knows we need, too, which is the whole reason He sent His Son to dwell among us, to die for us, and to rise again for us.  God knew what we really need to traverse every year of our lives is the grace which flows from Him alone, and which He makes present to us by His Word.  That Word, like the dream which called Joseph into and out of Egypt some many centuries ago, is the Word of Promise which creates the faith necessary to receive it unto eternal life.  Joseph didn’t ask God what to do with his new bride and stepson—God spoke to Joseph, and called him into a life of faith and fellowship and service in Him.  There is no way for us to predict what crazy politicians we’ll have to avoid in the coming year, anymore than we can know all the places we’ll go, the people we’ll meet, or the work we’ll do as the days and months flow by.  What we do know is that God has spoken to us, given to us His Law and Gospel, that we might know how we should live in any place, at any time, and in any circumstance.  We know the commands of love to God first and then our neighbors, and we know the saving grace of His love for us poured out through His Only Begotten Son.  We know that His Word is sure, His promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation immutable, and His presence with us inescapable.  We know that we are baptized into Jesus Christ, forgiven and free, endowed with His authority to forgive sins and witness to His saving Gospel before all people.  We cannot know all that God will bring about, we do know God, and we know that He is faithful and true.

 

As we press into this next year, we know that the days ahead will be tumultuous, because the days of every year have been before us, and the days of every year will be ahead of us.  But we also know that God is With Us, that He is neither surprised nor thwarted by the events of the future anymore than He was by the events of the past, and that He has gathered His people to Himself by grace through faith in Christ alone, so that they might not fear any time they are given or into which they are sent.  We need not fear king or pauper, land or sea, night or day, for the Maker of them all is for us, and His Word is both our guide and our sure hope.  Be of good courage, therefore, no matter where your feet are set to roam in this coming year, for the grace which envelopes you at the close of 2022 shall be there to hold you in 2023, and unto ages of ages to come.  Amen.

 

The Earth Belongs to God: A Meditation on Psalm 24 for the 4th Sunday in Advent

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof;

 the world, and they that dwell therein.

For he hath founded it upon the seas,

 and established it upon the floods.

 

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart;

who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,

 nor sworn deceitfully.

 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord,

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek him,

that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.

 

Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;

and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty,

the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates;

even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;

and the King of glory shall come in.

 Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts,

 he is the King of glory. Selah.

 

 

David made a bold and prophetic claim as he penned the 24^th Psalm, declaring that all creation belongs to God.  Unlike many of the pagan religions of his time (or those now), the God of Israel was not just a local potentate for the Jews with rules and ceremonies exclusively for them.  Rather, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was and continues to be the only One with authority over the whole world, because He alone brought forth and established the whole world.  The God of Israel was not vying with some pantheon of contestants for a celestial throne, or somehow stuck between the river gods of the Nile and the Euphrates, or the desert gods of Egypt and Babylon.  The God of Israel, the One whose Name revealed in ancient Hebrew reflects the bedrock ground of eternal existence, is the rightful possessor of all things which He alone created, and which He alone preserves until the Last Day.  For the people of Israel this was a declaration that made certain their salvation in their God, for His Word would endure forever by virtue of His perfect goodness and omnipotent power.  As the King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts who is strong and mighty in battle, there is no power on earth below or heaven above that contest His divine will.  When the God of Israel saves, as Jesus would later explain in further detail, no one can take that soul out of His hand.

 

Today’s world doesn’t look much different now than the world of David’s day, even though his reign over Israel was roughly 3000 years ago. There are certainly advances in technology, industry, communication, and travel gleaned from countless experiments and lessons learned about the elements of our world, but the nature of the world remains much the same.  There are political leaders and pawns, armies and economies, heroes and villains, entertainers and craftsmen, parents and children, and a huge variety of every vocational occupation under the sun.  The strong still sometimes seek to oppress the weak, self-interest still motivates broad swathes of humanity, even as the self-sacrifice of others provides a vision of something higher to pursue than money, food, power, and pleasure.  That city in the Midwest might look more wholesome than that city over on the coast, and some people in some places may seem more God-fearing than others.  The mistake easily made is that only the parts of the world that strive to follow God’s Word belong to Him, while the others all belong to someone or something else.  And while it’s true that the devil and his minions hold great sway over this world through the manipulation of corrupt men, the reality is that the whole world and everything in it—the fullness thereof—belong inextricably to the Lord God Almighty.

 

So, no matter how dark or evil the world may look in one place or another, that part of the world and everyone in it belongs solely to God.  Whether it is the horrors which took place in Moscow, Idaho, or the moral insanity of San Francisco, California; the oppression of tyrants in Rwanda or Afghanistan or China or Venezuela; there is nowhere in this world that does not belong to God, be it is a cathedral in Rome or a meth plant in Mexico.  And what is so tremendously hopeful about this ancient, Biblical truth, is that not only does the whole world belong to God, it is entirely His, and His alone, to save.  Just as there is no place in all creation that is excepted from the rightful possession of God, from the furthest flung star in the heavens to the farthest flung hamlet on this globe, there is also no creature, no person so far flung that they can escape His domain.  No person in the Outback of Australia is any further removed from God’s reign than any person on the steppes of Mongolia, or the urban jungles of London, Amsterdam, and New York.  The soul living under a bridge in Los Angeles is just as much a possession of the God of Israel, as is the bureaucrat working under the Department of Health and Human Services, or the plumber striving under the architecture of a skyscraper, or the student laboring under a university’s library stacks.  Every soul, in every place, at every time, belongs to God, and it is God alone who can save them all.

 

This is why the mystery of Christmas is so glorious, that the ancient Prophets and the New Testament Apostles can speak of it as the greatest of lights which pierces so deep a darkness.  No matter how hard and lost and confused any soul may be, that soul is precious to the God who made it, who sustains it, and who has done all things necessary to save it.  There is no soul anywhere on this orb, at any time or in any place, which is beyond the jealous possession of the God of Israel.  When Jesus declared that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to save it, He left no caveats or exceptions to that divine will.  Jesus, God-With-Us, is with us precisely because He so jealously loves us. In His very person, Jesus united our humanity with His divinity, so that the bond between God and Man could never be undone—then took that unity to the Cross, where His sacrifice of unfathomable love might be poured out upon the whole world.  And before His Ascension to the Father, His instructions to His Disciples were to preach this Gospel of love, forgiveness, and life in His Name to all creatures, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them to observe every Word He has given them.  The joy of Christmas is not that God has come to save some peculiar people in one remote corner of the world, or only to save those seem to be the most conspicuously pious, but that He has come to save every single soul, no matter how soiled or sullied.

 

The blessings of Christmas are not just for Christians, anymore than the Gospel of Jesus Christ is merely for people inside a certain type of building.  The blessings of Christmas are for all people, that the Lord of Hosts, strong and mighty, has come to seek and to save all people, calling every soul to return to Him in faith and repentance that grace upon grace may abound.  Hope has dawned upon the whole human race, upon all creation, for the King of Glory has come!  Throw open the gates of your mind, fling wide the doors of your heart, that the Lord of Glory might come in to commune with you, to forgive you and heal you, to set you free from the prison of lies by which the devil has befuddled you, that you may sing the triumph of your Saving, Incarnate Creator unto ages of ages.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

  

Hope and Joy: A Meditation on Isaiah 35 for the 3rd Sunday in Advent

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;

and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing:

the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon,

they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

 

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart,

Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance,

even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

 

The Prophet Isaiah preached the Word of God to the people of Judah during a tumultuous time, when the Assyrians had conquered and laid waste the northern 10 tribes of Israel, and Babylon would eventually conquer the remaining southern tribes of which Jerusalem was the capital.  He bore witness to the coming judgement of God upon His people for their abandonment of His Word to follow other gods and evil ways of life, but he also bore witness to God’s grace, redemption, and mercy.  In chapter 35, God’s Word to faithful King Hezekiah was one of deliverance from the hand of the resurgent Assyrians who would attempt to overthrow Judah as they had Israel, and a promise that in days to come there would be refreshing of the earth in righteousness, joy, and blessedness.  Not only did God fulfill His promise to Hezekiah by turning back the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, but He was also faithful to bring forth the Messiah who would make all things new some 600 years or so later.  Knowing that God will always fulfill His Word and always in His own time, the people of God continue to look forward to the final return of our Savior, the resurrection of the dead, and the refreshing of all creation.  And in the times intervening between the present day and the Last Day, the people of God live in God’s gracious and providential presence with hope and joy, regardless of the rising or falling tides of darkness in the world.

 

Authentic hope and joy are inextricable from each other, because both flow from the same unassailable Word of God.  What is hope, but to know the promises of God for His people, that He has come to give them life more abundantly than any fallen mind can imagine?  And what is joy, but the solid confidence that hope must be fulfilled by that same promise?  When Jesus arrived incarnate on that first Christmas morning, He came to fulfill all the prophetic promises that He gave to the Prophets in ages past.  He is the One who caused the crippled to jump and dance, the blind to see, and the deaf to hear; to preach forgiveness and grace by way of repentance and faith in His Word; to declare and then perform in His own flesh and blood the Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the whole world; to rise victorious on that first Easter morning, lavishing His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation upon all who would trust in Him.  His disciples moved out into the world full of hope and joy, grace and faith, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, in every land, and in every culture, toppling the rule of demons and demonically inspired men.  The hope and joy the disciples were given could no more be taken away from them than the very Word of God could be overthrown.  No matter what circumstances they found themselves in, whether persecuted, imprisoned, detested, or even martyred, they could still count it all joy for the sake of the Promise they had received in Jesus.  They knew that the Promise of the Gospel was forever, and that the sufferings of the present age were only fleeting moments against the backdrop of eternity.

 

In our own day, we would be wise to remember the hope that moved Jesus’ first disciples to become Apostles, and turned the dark, pagan world upside down.  Like King Hezekiah, the Apostles could find no hope or joy in the trappings of politics, of venerable social institutions, in the trappings of ceremony and ritual, or in the ambitions of waxing and waning empires.  The hope of the people of God does not rest on politicians or political parties, the balance of power in Congresses or Parliaments, the sobriety of Justices or the exercise of Executive Administrations.  The hope and joy of God’s people rests solely and immovably upon the Word of His Promise.  While it may look like wicked men move the world toward their own ends, the truth is that God continues to guide the world and all creation to the ends He established before the world began.  The evil will rise up and bear their own guilt, often doing tremendous harm within the boundaries they are given, but God alone can make all things work out for good, particularly for those whose trust abides in Him.  This of course does not mean that His saints are entirely preserved from suffering, persecution, and even death, for all mankind is appointed once to die and then to appear before God for judgment.  Rather, it is that His people are preserved in and through every tribulation and even in their final Judgment, while those who persecute His people will go to their own everlasting punishment.  The hope and joy of God’s people is such that it cannot be shaken by wounds and injuries of contemporary circumstance, because it is rooted in the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

In our age, as in many ages before us, people have wandered away from the sure Promises of God, and in leaning upon their own understandings, have lost their hope and joy.  Many have been deceived to follow their own passions with wanton abandon, and have found only misery and death.  Others have been convinced that politicians will save them if only they were granted more money and power to guide and provision their lives, but find like the peoples of all tyrannical lands that they have become merely slaves.  Some have trusted in academics, philosophers, administrators, and experts to shepherd their lives, only later to find themselves abused and misguided for the enrichment of their guides.  Still others have trusted in science and technology to solve the profound questions of human purpose and the dignity of life, later to discover that endless addiction to media and a bottomless pit of pharmaceuticals have provided little quality or quantity to achieve the goal of a good and wholesome life.  The increasing hopelessness and joylessness of the world around us, as evidenced by the calamitous rise in brutal crimes, mental illness, substance addiction, suicide, population collapse, and civilizational decay, does not so much rest on the failures of the solutions people have tried to apply to their problems, but to their abandonment of the only true source of hope and joy which is given to mankind by their Creator.  Passion, politics, academia, science, and technology can all be used well in accordance with the Word of God, but apart from God’s Word, they become poisoned fonts and fetid pools that leave their drinker’s thirst unquenched.

 

As we press toward Christmas, we come face to face once again with the hope and joy of God’s promise for His people.  Jesus, the very Incarnate Word of God, comes to dwell among us, that we might live and move and have our being in Him.  His Promise is made sure and irrevocable through the work of His Cross, so that the gifts He gives cannot be stolen by any power of fallen men.  To us, a Child is born—to us, a Son is given!  To us is given the Word of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation, which is in itself victory over every sin, over all death, and over every power of hell.  This is the hope and joy of God’s people which endures and shines in every age through those same people who are commissioned to bear witness to the Word which gives them reason for such hope and joy.  We, who are blessed to live in that Word of Promise, full of joy and hope by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, are also sent to share that Word with everyone we meet.  And in so doing, we may just see our darkening, pagan world turned upside down once again.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Repentance and Preparation: A Meditation on Matthew 3 for the 2nd Sunday in Advent

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,

And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying,

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair,

and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

 

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea,

and all the region round about Jordan,

 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism,

he said unto them, O generation of vipers,

who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father:

for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees:

therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit

is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance.

but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,

whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:

he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor,

and gather his wheat into the garner;

but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 

There are few biblical words that raise hackles in our age quite so quickly as the command to Repent!  The Greek word which underlies the English translation here is a combination of turning or changing, and of mind or thinking—thus St. John the Baptist’s command to all who would hear him was to literally turn your mind! or change your thinking! in light of the reality that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  “At hand” is an old Hebrew idiom brought forward in the Greek and directly translated into English, which means literally that the subject is within reach or immediately in the hearer’s presence.  This combination of phrases in St. John the Baptist’s preaching make inescapably clear that the proper preparation of one’s mind is critical to being in the presence of God—or perhaps more directly, that the condition of one’s mind will determine how one is met by God when He approaches.  While phraseologies of the time sometimes used the imagery of the heart as the seat of the emotions and the head as the seat of knowledge, the mind is here directly related to the convictions and commitments which inform a person’s life, and from which flow their words and deeds.  John made that link directly when he ordered the religious leaders who came to be baptized to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, since a truly changed mind must by necessity bring forth a changed life.  In the immediate context of this passage, Jesus had already come and had been walking among the people of Judea somewhat unnoticed, thus making the Kingdom of God very near at hand, and the condition of meeting Him an immediate reality.

 

In our contemporary context, the Church waits in a liturgical way for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but in a very real and tangible way, we all know that He has already come.  Roughly 2000 years ago, the Word of God became incarnate in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary in the real and gritty town of Bethlehem.  He came as the old Hebrew Prophets had foretold, lived His early years in submission to His earthly parents, and after about 30 years presented Himself to His cousin John for Baptism and the inauguration of His preaching ministry.  We know that path ended about three years later on a Roman Cross, before He emerged three days later resurrected from His tomb and triumphant over every enemy of mankind.  Some 40 days after that, having given His Word and authority over sin, death, hell, and the devil to His Apostles, He ascended into Heaven in preparation for His final return at the End of Days, then sent the Holy Spirit to empower His people until His return.  The indivisible Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has thus been with His people and His Kingdom has come into this world, marked by the gathering of His saints in faith around His Word and Sacraments.  Thus, even as we celebrate another coming Christmas with the trappings of Advent and recreating all the joy of His first arrival, we know that we dwell with Him even more closely at hand than did the first hearers of John the Baptist, and that His final coming is imminent even if presently unknown.

 

Living in the presence of Jesus and His Kingdom come, makes many demands upon our earthly minds, and consequently upon the totality of our very lives.  We are in the presence of the King who spoke the universe into existence, who thundered the Law from Mount Sinai, sent fire upon Mount Carmel, who preached and healed upon the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, who died for the sins of the world upon Mount Calvary, and who breathed out His Gospel of peace and forgiveness to His disciples before ascending into heaven from the Mount of Olives.  This is the very God who will come again in glory as the disciples saw Him go up, returning to make final all that He promised.  The condition of our minds, of our convictions, our trust, our commitment, is the very basis upon which we meet the King of Glory, who is very much at hand.  His Word comes to us demanding the faith which that Word itself creates, and thereby issues the grace which forgives and enlivens all who will abide in Him.  That Word comes to change our minds, to reform our convictions, to make firm our commitments, so that authentic repentance of the mind will become a change in how we act, speak, and perform the duties which God has given us in our time and place.  It is a Word which gives the life it promises, so that fallen men might rise up as children of God who live and move and find the entirety of their being in the unending life of their Savior.

 

And though the command of St. John the Baptist to Repent! and the power of God’s Word to create what it demands are unconquerable, they are not coercive.  There is no one who is forced to love God as their Creator, Savior, and Sustainer, nor to turn their minds from evil to His righteousness, for authentic love can never be coerced.  The appeal of God to man is one of love, and the only way to receive that divine love, is to love and trust Him in return.  There will come a day when all the appeals of God to man shall cease, when the last efficacious preaching of His Gospel will ring out over the corrupted earth, and the Day of Grace will become the Day of Judgment at His final return.  In that Day, those who refused to let their minds be reformed by His Word will see Him as the One

 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor,

and gather his wheat into the garner;

but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

On that Day, there will be no bickering or debating about pointless nuances of theology, politics, philosophy or anything else—only the living reality of God’s Kingdom fully come, those who live by grace through faith in Jesus, and those who do not.  As the old saying goes, there are only two ways to meet God:  either as Savior, or as Judge, and the crux of that distinction rests on faith.

 

In this Advent season, hear the Word of God come to you, that your mind may be changed from fascination with evil, earthly things, to an unassailable trust in the loving promises of God.  May His Word so transform your heart and mind into the image of His Son, that your whole person cannot help but bring forth fruits worthy of so great a repentance, reflecting outward the divine love which His Word pours into all who will trust in Him.  Hear the Incarnate Word calling to you across the expanse of eternity, so that you might dwell with Him forever in the blessedness of His presence.  For even more urgent today are the words of St. John the Baptist:  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, turn to Him, believe His Word, and live forever in Jesus, forgiven and free.  Amen.

 

He Makes Wars to Cease: A Meditation on Psalm 46 for the Last Sunday of the Church Year

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,

and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,

though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

 

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,

the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:

God shall help her, and that right early.

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved:

he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

 

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

what desolations he hath made in the earth.

He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;

he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;

he burneth the chariot in the fire.

Be still, and know that I am God:

I will be exalted among the heathen,

I will be exalted in the earth.

 The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

 

If there was anyone in Judeo-Christian history that understood the rigors, dangers, and calamity of war, it was the author of our appointed Psalm for this week.  Not only was David the second King of Israel, a shepherd and giant slayer in his youth, but he was also a soldier, a poet, a musician, and despite his many flaws, a man whom God described as having a heart like His own.  David was not perfect by a long shot, but he did have tremendous faith in God as His Savior, not only prophesying of the coming Messiah but foreshadowing Jesus in many ways.  David knew that war was an ugly reality of life in a fallen world, where evil people would bring forth disastrous effects as they worked out their wicked will upon their fellow men.  But just as surely, David knew that God was the King of the Universe, the omnipotent Savior of all who put their trust in Him, so that no one who fought for righteousness and the Word of God in this world would ever fight alone.  The Lord of Hosts is with us, David writes, even if the world itself is thrown into calamity and convulsion, which makes the God of Jacob our refuge and strength so that we will not fear though the earth is removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

 

David was not a man who loved war, but he was accomplished in its art and strategy.  He faced so many enemies that he often described the perils in his Psalms as being completely surrounded by forces that sought his destruction.  He was the target of both internal political intrigue (the first king of Israel, after losing his mind tried to kill David on numerous occasions, and later in his life even some of his own sons tried to take the crown from him) and international conspiracy, not to mention the demonic forces which sought to tear down Israel and David altogether so as to blot out any witness to the Word and Will of God among men.  David went to war as a servant of the Living God for the good of the people given to his care, and to keep the yoke of evil off the neck of his nation.  Just because David was accomplished at war didn’t mean that it was his life’s obsession, or that war was what David desired.  On the contrary, it is the same David who wrote in the 23^rd Psalm of his love for green pastures, still waters, and of living without the depravations of food and comfort which come with life on the battlefield—the good into which David knew His God would shepherd him both in this life and the next.  David was a man fitted for war, but his heart remained with His God and Savior, who he knew would be his strength, victory, and refuge over every evil foe.

 

Wars have not declined in the nearly 3000 years between David and our own time, nor have the enemies of God, His people, and His Word.  Still today, those who would seek to live after God’s own heart by abiding in His Eternal Word, face intrigues, persecutions, and assaults from forces near and far.  Time would fail to name every enemy of the Living Word at work in the world today, who spend their time, energy, resources, and evil minds upon the task of wiping out, subjugating, or corrupting everything in their path.  While the names and movements and leaders of the enemies of God have changed many times over the course of history, God has not changed at all.  His Word has remained among His people as their strength and refuge in every age, including our own.  That Word which became flesh and dwelt among us, which the Apostles beheld as full of grace and truth, who overcame the worst that wicked men and demonic angels could throw at Him through His life, death, and resurrection, is still the Lord of Hosts and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, One God now and forever, is the God whom David confessed as Savior and Shepherd and Lord.  The same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, the God of Samuel, David, and Solomon, the God of Elijah, Elisha, and the Prophets, the God of Peter, James, John, and the Apostles, is the same God who abides with us today.

 

History has a way of making people forgetful of the glories and calamities of their past, with modern iconoclasts always trying to tear down any memory of prior ages which testified to undeniable truth of God at work in the world to save His people.  Yet God remains the Lord of Hosts, the God of Sabaoth, who is a greater master of war than any human general has ever dreamt of being.  It is He alone who could conquer every enemy of mankind through His Vicarious Atonement upon a Roman Cross, leaving sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil a heaping wreckage upon the sands of time.  He plotted His strategy from before the foundation of the world, worked it out through all the generations from Adam to Noah to Abraham to David to Jesus’ time, preserving His people and His Word from every evil design.  He guided the course of history from Creation to the Cross, and He is guiding it even now toward the Last Day.  He is not only the omniscient strategist who can account for every variable of every material and spiritual entity in the entire cosmos, but the omnipotent King who makes His victory certain by His own unconquerable power, and abides as omni-present with each and every one of His people in every time and place.  He is not a distant commander or conniving bureaucrat, but the ever living and imminent God, accomplishing all that He promised for those who abide in Him by grace through faith.

 

Like the saints before us, we are called to live in faith and courage, knowing our God to be exactly who He has revealed Himself to be through His Eternal Word:  the Lord of Hosts, the Creator, Savior, and Sustainer of all those who put their trust in Him.  It is He alone who will cause all wars to cease through His victory over ever evil thing, and He alone that will gather His people to Himself from every tribe and tongue, every culture and civilization, every age and place, into His Kingdom which has no end.  He is the God of our Salvation who calls us, like David before us, to contend with His power for the faith once delivered to the saints, to bear witness to the Word of His Gospel Promise wherever we are sent, and to know that any privations of war we now experience shall be swallowed up when He invites us to His Table where our cup shall overflow forever in His glorious banquet hall.  Hoist His colors high, and rally to His banner on every field of battle, all you His saints, who live forever in His power and grace!  All glory, laud, and honor be to our Redeemer King, now and unto ages of ages!  Amen.

 

Peace Amidst Convolution: A Meditation on Luke 21 for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost

And as some spake of the temple,

how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts,

he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come,

in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another,

 that shall not be thrown down.

 

…

 

And when these things begin to come to pass,

 then look up, and lift up your heads;

for your redemption draweth nigh.

 

This text in Luke 21, and its parallel in Matthew 24, record a startling discourse between Jesus and His disciples near the Temple in Jerusalem.  There were few symbols closer to the heart of the Jewish people than the Temple, even if some of those running it in Jesus’ day were corrupt.  Though it was not the Temple Solomon built before the Babylonian Captivity, it had been restored recently under King Herod’s reign, and was the center of the Jewish sacrificial system.  The Temple was where sacrifices for sins were made with the blood of animals according to the Law of Moses, and it foreshadowed the ultimate sacrifice Jesus was preparing to make on Calvary for the sins of the whole world.  When Jesus said that despite the beauty of this central edifice of Jewish identity not one stone of it would escape the judgment to come, His disciples could only muster a question about when such a horrible calamity would occur, and the signs of its approach.  Jesus responded by giving them warnings about not being deceived by false teachers, about terrific suffering and social upheaval, and consolation that even as they would see these terrors, their salvation would arrive, too.

 

In a practical sense, Jesus gave His disciples a dual warning.  First, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans did happen within their generation, about 40 years after Jesus’ Ascension.  Many Christians who walked with Jesus would live to see their nation, capital city, and Temple utterly destroyed, and their people exiled to the far corners of the Empire.  Many Christians during this cataclysm remembered Jesus’ words, and when they saw the armies converging on Israel, they fled and escaped the onslaught while thousands of Jewish rebels were cut down.  Though the Roman destruction of Jerusalem was one of the greatest massacres that bloody land had ever seen, Jesus preserved His people by His Word, so that many of them escaped by trusting Him.  Secondly, there is a sense in Jesus’ warning about the final calamity coming upon the whole world.  Like the fall of Jerusalem, it would be a divine judgement upon the evil which would run its course and come to full, festering flower.  At the End of Days, it will seem that evil has prevailed, that it has corrupted and overtaken everything, and that the saints of God are abandoned to obliteration.  It is at that time that Jesus tells His disciples not to flee to the mountains, but to lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.  The final cataclysm will dwarf the regional calamities which came before it, but the totality and completion of salvation with the final revelation of Jesus Christ in all His divine glory will outshine it all.

 

There is some gritty reality baked into Jesus’ words that we are wise to consider.  Not least is the realization that there is real evil in the world, and it will do real damage.  It is not that Jesus desires evil to flourish, but in the reality of a world where people are free to either accept or reject Him, the consequences of freedom can be as bitter as they might be sweet.  Only in a universe of freedom is true love possible, so that divine love might shine through broken creatures who willingly accept the grace of their Creator, and thus receive Him as their Savior.  But also in such a universe are the heights of evil a potentiality, where fallen creatures may reject their Creator’s overtures and make of Him a terrible Judge.  Not shying away from this reality, Jesus set the frankness of their situation before His disciples so they could grow into greater maturity.  Jesus didn’t gild the lily regarding human nature, nor hide the consequences of humanity’s poor use of freedom—instead, He helped them see that He would be with them and save them through the midst of this crazy world.  Jesus didn’t offer them pleasant lies or escapism, but the promise of walking with them and leading them through every tumultuous age yet to come.

 

We would be wise to consider Jesus’ frank address to His disciples in our time, as well.  We should not be tempted to think better of human nature than it is, and to realize that human freedom apart from God can only result in ever greater atrocities.  There is no political solution to the world’s problems, no matter how fond we may regard our own camps, parties, associations, or movements.  Every attempt to build an earthly utopia on the merits of man’s impulse ends in disaster, blood, and flame.  The best political systems we have are not models of perfection, but tools of practicality, aiming to recognize the depravity of man and dividing his ability to wield power over his neighbor… but this is no solution for utopia, only a restraint upon rampant evil.  Likewise, we must not despair at the rise of evil in our age, as if somehow God has abandoned His people or has been overthrown by the kings of Silicon Valley.  Evil will rise from time to time, and God will crush it from time to time, as well.  And even if we are destined to live in the final conflict of rising evil against the Triune God, to see every terror and persecution and ravage of war, our God is still our Savior in this world and the next.  Not the final Antichrist, nor the Devil, nor the Beast of the Apocalypse, nor countless hordes of demons swarming over the fruited plains, nor tyrant states of murderous Marxists, can separate us from the redemptive, saving love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  There is real evil in the world, and thank God He has given us a real Savior.

 

As the Church listens and learns from Jesus in these final days of the ecclesiastical year, hear again the real truth of our salvation made present in this world by Jesus and His Eternal Word.  Today there is real evil running amok around us, but there is also a real King of the Universe who has done the real work to seek and to save all who will hear Him, repent, and believe.  And to all those who will abide in Him by grace through faith, He will abide in and with them, to give them rescue, provision, and guidance in every perilous hour.  The peace we have been given through our reconciliation with God in the Blood of the Lamb outshines every terror, and the fall of every vaunted icon.  In Jesus is the rest and work and redemption of the saints, never fearful nor pollyannish, never despairing of the promise of eternal life, nor the mystery of that blessed life already at work in us now.  The stones of our temples and cities and monuments may topple, but the people whom Jesus has made into living stones shall never be overthrown in this age, nor the age to come.  He is our peace, our courage, and our strength, just as He is our faith, our hope, and our love.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Blessed Are They: An All Saints Day Meditation on Matthew 5 and Revelation 7

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain:

and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:

for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake:

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,

and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

 

…

 

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,

What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me,

 These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,

and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God,

and serve him day and night in his temple:

and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;

neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,

and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters:

and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

 

The Feast of All Saints, which is officially November 1^st on the church’s calendar, is often marked on the Sunday either immediately prior or after.  It is a time to reflect on eternal realities that can sometimes escape notice in the cacophony of daily life, and particularly the realities of eternal life.  Regardless of modern dalliances with atheism and materialism, every soul of every person will live forever, and there’s something deep inside every person that knows this is true.  That sense of eternity is what gives life meaning, informs our sense of human value, and the very nature of ethical obligations we have toward each other.  If man had no future beyond his short span of temporal life, then actions and thoughts wouldn’t matter in the least, and there would be no more appropriate axiom to life than the Epicurean ideal to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die… without meaning, consequence, or purpose.  To the contrary, God speaks to all people that their lives have meaning and accountability far beyond the handful of years spent toiling away under the sun, and that for His people who abide in Him by grace through faith, that eternal state is one of blessedness.  Yet for those who reject Him, it is not their eternal destiny which is denied, but their blessedness and joy in His presence.  All people will live forever, and those who live forever in God’s fellowship, will live forever in joy.

 

In the Gospel text from Matthew 5, Jesus uses a Greek term for “blessed” that could just as easily be translated “joyous.”  Transliterated as Makarioi, it is a declarative term that those who abide in His Word will in fact be full of joy, if less manifest in this world than the world to come.  The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those yearning after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for keeping Jesus’ Word—all will experience trouble and tribulation in the present world, but will be filled with His joy in the world to come.  Jesus noted that such was the fate of the prophets who came before them, who in ages prior had lived struggling to abide in the Word and grace of God, suffered much at the hands of evil people and the wicked designs of malicious demons, only to find their names written indelibly in their Lord’s Book of Life.  Like the prophets before them, many who suffered tremendously for their testimony and faithfulness to God, would find that their eternal rewards in heaven far outstripped their temporary suffering.  In the presence of God their Savior, those who pass from this world to the next find joys unspeakable by mortal tongues, and a fulfillment of their created purpose inconceivable to dimmed earthly intellects.  It is as John glimpsed in His Apocalypse, where the white robed saints, forever washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb, abide with and are led by their God and King, no more to suffer nor weep.  The blessedness and joy of such an eternal fellowship is what the best of earthly fellowships strain to approximate, and it is the future toward which all Christians press by grace through faith in Christ alone.

 

Yet is important to remember how a person becomes blessed, inducted into such a great and unending fellowship.  It is not by powers native to fallen man, for no fellowship of man can achieve such joyous camaraderie.  Every fellowship of men in this world is marked by the sin and weakness of those men who form it, and pressed upon by the evil desires of those who are outside it.  To be sure, there are better and worse human associations in this world, those which do greater or lesser good, and those which do greater or lesser evil.  But the limits of fallen man prevent him from ever building utopia on earth, as every failed attempt at doing so in human history has demonstrated.  However, the fellowship which God creates in this world presses toward fulfillment in a world without sin, without evil, and without the associated pain and judgement evil brings forth.  When God calls people into His fellowship, He begins to transform them into His likeness, renewing the image of their Creator in them which was so horribly deformed by sin.  By the power of His Word and Spirit, He begins to transform their pride into humility, their warmongering into peacemaking, their gluttony into a hunger for righteousness, their vengefulness into mercy, their corruption into purity.  In the end, He even transforms the world’s persecution of them into marks of eternal accolade, where in His eternal Kingdom, those who suffer and are despised the most in their faith are elevated first among all.  It is God alone who makes the saints, and to God alone belongs the glory of their service.

 

As if fellowship with the King of the Universe were not enough, it is His good pleasure to pour out grace upon grace by creating and extending that fellowship outward among His people.  In the Creed we confess this as the Communion of the Saints, acknowledging the Cloud of Witnesses described by St. Paul in the book of Hebrews, and the heavenly hosts described by St. John, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others.  The fellowship of God is a communion of all who abide in Him, knit together in the same divine love, grace, hope, faith, and joy that enlivens each individual soul.  It is a mysterious union shared across time and space between all who are grafted into the Vine of Jesus, an eternal reality that presses into the temporal realm of our daily lives.  Each baptized and faithful person in this world is in fact a part of the Body of Christ, numbered among His people with their names written in His Book of Life just like those who have gone on to glory before us.  In this fallen world the bonds of fellowship can be hard to see, but we recognize the same Holy Spirit at work among us through the same Word of Holy Scripture, bringing about faith and repentance in all who will believe and live in Him.  And what we see partially and imperfectly in this world, God is making pure and perfect in the world to come, so that when we press from this veil of tears into the glories of eternity, we press into the fullness of His Gospel made perfect in us forever.  We catch glimpses of this eternity in the signs He has given us according to His Word, of Holy Baptism, of the Body and Blood of the Eucharist, of Absolution for our sins, of the preaching of His Law and Gospel, and of the Spirit at work in us through our various callings and vocations bringing forth fruits of divine, sacrificial love.  It is a reality we can only now approach by faith, but to which God gives the surety of His promise both now and forever.

 

This is the joy which passes all understanding, which is being prepared for the saints of every time and place.  The fallen world will always be at war with the Word and Spirit of the Living God, and while they may exact their toll of suffering and mayhem in this time bound world, they can never overthrow the King of the Universe.  His Word of Gospel grace—that we are reconciled to the Father for the sake of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit—cannot be broken or undone by any force of man or devil.  The gift of grace, received by faith in Jesus, is what makes the saints Makarioi, full of joy with life unending in the fellowship of God their Savior, and with the countless hosts of those white robed saints who have pressed into eternity before us.  Glory and thanksgiving be to God, now and forevermore, who has built His Kingdom on the Word of His Promise, and called all people into fellowship with Him.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.