Sermon for the Twenty first Sunday after Trinity - Gen 1:1-2:3

 

          Trinity 21

                                                                                                Gen 1:1-2:3

                                                                                                10/20/24

 

            At the end of September, Hurricane Helene hit Florida.  It then continued north as a storm through Georgia and the Carolinas, dropping a tremendous amount of rain.  Especially in North Carolina, this water was trapped and funneled by the mountainous terrain.  Streams surged out of their banks and turned into raging rivers. This torrent of water brought chaos as it swept away buildings and even small towns.  It washed out roads and left destruction everywhere.  At least 300 people were killed by the storm.

            Then, about two weeks later Hurricane Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico.  It grew to be a massively powerful storm – a Category 5 hurricane – and moved toward Florida.  Thankfully it weakened to a Category 3 as it then passed through central Florida. But it flooded streets and left three million people without power as it caused destruction.

            In a very short period of time, we have seen the disorder and chaos of nature.  We have seen its destructive power as it takes life.  In our Old Testament lesson this morning we hear about God’s act of creation. We learn that what we experience now is completely different from what God intended because God created an ordered world that was very good.

            Our text is the first chapter of God’s Word.  We hear, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

            God’s first action is to make the “stuff” of creation.  He creates from nothing and brings it into existence.  We learn that this initial action resulted in something that was “without form and void.”  It was disordered, and was a setting of darkness as the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

            Then God proceeded in his act of creation.  He brings order to what had been disorder.  And he does so by speaking.  The power of God’s word creates and brings life.  God says, “Let there be light” as he separates light from darkness. God makes the expanse and separates the waters that are under the expanse from the waters that are above the expanse.  He creates dry land as he separates the water from the land.

            Then God creates life for his creation.  He creates vegetation for the land.  He makes sea creatures and birds.  He creates livestock and creeping things to live on the land.  Each time, God’s word brings forth the parts of his creation.

            And next, God creates the crown of his creation. We hear in our text, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” and we learn, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  God creates man in his own image.  He creates him to be like God.  Man is not God. But he is the only part of creation to be like God.  Man knew God as God wants to be known and lived perfectly according to his will.

            God created man as male and female.  We learn in the next chapter that God created Eve as the helper who perfectly corresponded to Adam – the one whom Adam needed.  God created man and woman in their difference to be joined in sexual union as one flesh.  And God is clear in our text about what that sexual union is meant to do.  We hear, “And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

            In our text as God makes things we repeatedly hear, “And God saw that it was good.”  Finally, when he has finished creation by making man we hear, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  God had brought perfect order to his creation.  He had made man in his own image to live in fellowship with God.  He had created man as male and female to live in marriage.  He had placed man as his representative in the midst of creation.

            Adam and Eve lived in this perfect ordering as they shared in life with God, with one another, and with the creation.  They did, until the devil caused them to question whether the ordering was in fact good.  God had told Adam that they showed their worship toward God by not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They demonstrated that God was God, and they were not, by obeying God’s command about this tree.

            But the devil tempted Eve. God had said eating of the tree would lead to death.  The devil replied, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  The devil said they could be more if they just disobeyed God.  So Eve ate of the tree, and then gave it to Adam who also ate.

            Adam and Eve sinned.  Sin entered into the world through them and it brought disorder and chaos into creation.  Creation is no longer the perfectly ordered setting in which we live. Instead nature sees the disorder of hurricanes and tornadoes, of earthquakes and tsunamis. It is no longer the setting that naturally produces food for us, but instead requires the hard work of man – work that is not always successful.

            Sin has brought disorder into our personal relationships.  Husbands and wives get frustrated with each other and speak angry words that they wish they could call back.  Children disobey parents and parents feel exasperated with children.  Co-workers deceive and gossip is passed around the office.

            And sin has brought disorder into our own lives.  We do not fear, love and trust in God above all things, but instead have no difficulty finding other things to put before God and his Means of Grace.  We act in selfish ways and in so doing hurt the very ones we claim to love.  We find ourselves ruled by impulses for things which we know to be wrong.

            And in the end, this will lead to the ultimate example of disorder for us – death.  Sin brings death- it always does.  And death rends apart what God had ordered as a unity.  Death tears apart body and soul – it undoes what God made us to be.

            When sin entered into creation, God did not abandon us.  Instead, right from the start he promised a Savior who would descend from Eve – a Savior who would defeat the devil.  God made promises that this Savior would descend from Abraham through Israel.  And in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

            The Son of God became man, without ceasing to be God. True God and true man, he is the creator of the universe.  True God and true man, he is the descendant of Eve promised by God.  Jesus Christ came as the second Adam in order to provide the answer to sin.  Where Adam disobeyed God, Jesus obeyed the Father’s will by giving himself as the sacrifice for sin on the cross.

            St Paul wrote about this to the Romans when he said, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”  Through faith in Jesus Christ we are now justified.  We have been declared “not guilty” by God, and that will be the verdict of the Last Day.

            The final disorder of sin is death.  Christ died to win forgiveness for us. He also passed through death in order to defeat it forever.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  Here too, he was the second Adam.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

            Jesus Christ’s resurrection was the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.  In Christ the new creation has arrived. Jesus has already now included us in that new creation in Holy Baptism.  We hear in our text about how the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters in the time when God created the world.  Now the same Spirit has worked through water to give us new life and make us a new creation in Christ.  We have been born again of water and the Spirit.

            This means that now through the leading of the Spirit we seek to live according to that ordering that God established when he first made his creation.  We seek to live in God’s way because it is the way that is best for us, and for those around us.  So seek to fear, love and trust in God above all things as you turn to him in prayer and you receive his gifts of the Means of Grace during the week and especially on Sunday.

            Children and youth, obey your parents, and look for ways to assist them at home.  Parents take up your responsibility to raise your children in the Christian faith by bringing them to the Divine Service and Sunday school, and by having devotions with them at home.

            Husbands, love your wife by putting her needs ahead of your own, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Wives acknowledge the headship of your husband in marriage, and support him.  All Christians – and especially youth and young adults: Follow God’s will that sexual intercourse is to be shared only within marriage.  Wait until you are married to have sex so that you may know it as the blessing God intends.  And husbands and wives, see to it that you fulfill the sexual needs of one another because you are married.

            Help your neighbor to protect what they have, and don’t take from them.  Defend your neighbor’s reputation and speak well of him or her, while refusing to pass on gossip.  As Paul told the Philippians, “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

            God has forgiven you and made you a new creation in Christ so that you can live in these ways.  And he encourages us with the hope of what awaits us and creation as a whole because of Jesus Christ.  Paul told the Romans, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

            When Jesus Christ returns, he will renew creation to make it very good once again.  And he will raise and transform our bodies to be like his resurrection body.  Never again will we know of sin, sickness, or death.  Instead we will live in that perfect ordering with God, one another, and creation that has been intended for us since “In the beginning….

 

Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 22:1-14

 

         Trinity 20

                                                                                                Mt 22:1-14

                                                                                                10/13/24

 

            From the moment that Jesus entered into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week he was in constant conflict with the religious leaders. They were indignant when they heard children in the temple crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” because of Jesus. They challenged him as they said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

            Just prior to our text, Jesus had told two parables which are directed against the religious leaders. At the end of the first, about two sons, he said, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”

            Our Lord then told a second parable about tenants at a vineyard. At the conclusion of this one he said, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”  And Matthew tells us, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.”

            In our text, Jesus tells a third parable.  After what has happened thus far, it’s not hard to guess the target of the parable.  He began by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.”

            When Jesus refers to the “kingdom of heaven” he is talking about the reign of God.  Our Lord began his ministry by proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  When accused that he was casting out demons because he was in league with the devil, Jesus replied, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

            Jesus announced that the saving reign of God was present in him.  Our Lord tells this parable to describe what the kingdom of God – the reign of God was like at that time.  He said it was like a king giving a wedding feast for his son.  This would be a grand occasion.  Following the practice of the day, those who had been invited had already indicated they would be coming.  And of course they would be coming. After all this was the wedding feast for the son of the king!

            But then something strange happened.  The people who had been invited would not come.  So the king sent out other servants saying, “Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”  The king described how a rich feast had been prepared as he urged the people to come.  Remember, the people in first century Palestine rarely ate meat as part of their diet. This was going to be a grand celebration!

            However, the people paid no attention and then went off to their farms and businesses.  Worse yet, the people seized the king’s servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.  The people had disregarded and shamed the king and his son. They had offended the king.  The king was angry and so he took things into his own hands.  He sent his troops who destroyed the murderers and burned their city.

            With these words, Jesus describes how the religious leaders were responding to him.  Jesus was the Messiah sent from God.  In his person the saving reign of God was present for his people.  But the religious leaders had completely rejected Jesus.  They wanted to arrest him.  And soon enough, they would do so.

            Jesus says that this is what the kingdom of God is like.  It is not what we would expect.  We expect God’s reign to look mighty and powerful.  But Jesus has come to Jerusalem because God’s saving reign arrives in a way that is the opposite of our expectations. 

            Just before entering Jerusalem, our Lord had told the apostles, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” And then a little after this he said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

            Jesus brings the reign of God by dying as the sacrifice for our sins.  The sinless Son of God took our sin and received God’s judgment.  He died on the cross because you have false gods in your life that receive more time and attention than the triune God.  He died on the cross because you have angry thoughts that turn into angry words and action towards others. He died on the cross because you don’t defend your neighbor’s reputation, but instead join in passing on gossip.

            When Christ suffered and died in the darkness of Good Friday, it did not look like God was doing anything.  But then on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead just as he had foretold. Because of the resurrection, we now understand the cross to have been God’s powerful action to reconcile us to himself. And in the resurrection we see that God has defeated death in Christ.

            God’s saving reign arrived in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And in the second half of the parable we learn about the gracious invitation to forgiveness that God offers to all.  Jesus went on to describe how the king said to his servants: “‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’”  Those who had been invited had shown they were not worthy by rejecting the king and his son.  Now the king sent the servants out on the roads to invite as many people as they could find.  Jesus said: “And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

            The Jewish religious leaders had rejected Christ.  Ultimately their rejection of Christ would lead the nation to receive God’s judgment as the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  But God’s saving reign was not going to be negated by their unbelief.  Instead, God extended out the invitation further.  Jesus’ words describe the proclamation of the Gospel by the apostles.  They carried it to Jews.  And prompted by God’s Spirit they also shared the Gospel with Gentiles.

            You believe in Jesus Christ because of this action by God to extend his saving reign to all people.  God has called you to faith through the work of his Spirit.  He has done this through his word. Peter said that “you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”  And God has combined this life giving word with water in Holy Baptism.  You have been born again of water and the Spirit.  Because of this, you are the forgiven child of God.  You have received God’s saving reign in Christ.

            However, we must also note that we have not yet reached the end of the parable. Jesus tells of how when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.” The king said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” The man was unable to give an answer.  Then we learn that the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            The parable closes with an unexpected turn of events. There is no evidence that any kind of special “wedding garment” was worn for a wedding, or was given to those attending.  Instead, people wore the best clothes that they had.  So why was this man thrown out of the wedding feast?

            Here we must recall the king’s statement about the first group in the parable who refused to attend. The king said that “those invited were not worthy.” We have seen that religious leaders were not worthy because they rejected Christ.  They did not believe in him.  Now we find that this individual is no longer worthy to remain at the wedding feast.

            Our Lord’s words warn us that it is not enough to begin in faith.  It is not enough to have once been in the faith.  Instead, we must continue to walk in faith, believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. 

            The way of faith brings forgiveness and eternal life.  It brings peace with God and joy.  But that does not mean it is easy.  Jesus causes divisions in the world.  Faithfulness to Christ and his word will put us in challenging situations.  Our Lord said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

            Jesus calls us to a faith that puts him before everything.  Yet he does so because by his death and resurrection he has already given us everything.  He has given us forgiveness, peace with God, and resurrection on the Last Day. 

 

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity - Mt 9:1-8

 

          Trinity 19

                                                                                                            Mt 9:1-8

                                                                                                            10/6/24

 

            The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has developed a worldwide reputation for excellence in medical care.  It is known for its work with cancer, along with cardiology and heart surgery. One billion dollars worth of research goes on the at the hospital each year, and so its staff includes experts who deal with rare conditions.

            Because of its reputation people from all fifty states, and one hundred and forty countries come to the Mayo Clinic each year for treatment.  They make the trip because in this world there is nothing more significant than one’s health.  It’s hard to live well and enjoy life when you don’t feel good.  What’s more the threat of death prompts people to do anything possible in order to find help.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning, we learn about several men who are willing to go to great lengths in order to help their friend regain his health.  They bring the man to Jesus in the faith that the can heal him.  Jesus does, but in the course of doing so Christ shows that he had come into the world to provide far more than physical relief.  He had come to address the root cause of all that is wrong in our lives, and in our life with God.

            The beginning of Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Jesus’ ministry included two activities.  We hear: “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.”  First, Jesus taught and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom – the good news that God’s saving reign was present in Jesus.  And second, Jesus demonstrated the presence of this reign by healing those who were sick.

            It’s not surprising that this drew a great deal of attention.  Matthew goes on to say, “So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”

            We learn in our text that Jesus had just returned to Capernaum from another part of the Sea of Galilee. When he arrived, some people brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.  These individuals were determined to help their friend. They physically carried him to Jesus.

            Yet we learn that they were motivated by more than care for the paralytic.  Our text says that Jesus saw their faith. They believed that Jesus could heal the man.  And when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

            This is probably not what the men who brought the paralytic expected to hear.  They brought the man for healing, and instead, Jesus forgave his sins.  Yet in doing so, our Lord demonstrated that he had come to address the root problem of all that is wrong in this world.

            God created man in his own image.  He created us to live in perfect fellowship with him.  We knew God as God wants to be known, and we were able to live perfectly according his will.  God created us as creatures who are a unity of body and soul.  He made a very good creation in which we were to live our bodily existence.

            However, tempted by Satan, Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  They brought sin into the world.  This sin ruptured the fellowship that man had with God. Man lost the image of God, and was no longer able to live according to God’s will.  Instead, he was a sinner who faced God’s wrath and judgment. 

            But for man, the spiritual and physical cannot be separated from one another.  God had told Adam that if he ate of the true of the knowledge of good and evil he would die.  And so after Adam ate of the tree he told him, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

            Sickness bears witness to the presence of sin in our life.  From the moment that we are born, we are always in the process of dying because we are sinners. Yet we were not meant for death.  Instead, God created us for life.  And that is why God sent his Son into the world.

            Jesus had forgiven the paralytic’s sins.  This was a remarkable action, and it did not go unrecognized. We learn, “And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ‘This man is blaspheming.’” 

            All sin is committed against God.  When David sinned, he confessed to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”  We sometimes lose sight of this fact.  Our sin is not the breaking of some abstract rules.  Instead, sin is an affront to the almighty God.

            All sin is committed against God. And only God can forgive sin.  The scribes understood this very well.  And so when Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sin they accused him of blaspheming. They accused him of arrogating to himself an authority and power that belonged only to God.

            Jesus knew their thoughts and said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”  Jesus’ question moved in two different directions.  On the one hand, it is easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” because, unlike rising and walking, no one can verify whether the action has taken place.  But on the other hand it is more difficult to forgive sins because this is the true root cause of all that is wrong in the world.

            Yet after asking his question, Jesus proceeded to state: “‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’--he then said to the paralytic —‘Rise, pick up your bed and go home.’”  Then the man who had been paralyzed rose up, and went home. We learn that when the crowds saw it they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

            Jesus healed the man and in so doing demonstrated that he did have the authority to forgive sins. He had the authority to do so because he is the Son of God who entered into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Jesus’ inherent authority is something that is recognized by others. When our Lord had completed the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

            As the Son of God, Jesus had the authority to forgive sins.  But in order to deal with the problem of sin as it effects all of humanity something final and complete was needed.  In Matthew’s Gospel we learn that Jesus’ healing ministry points us towards this.

            In the previous chapter, Matthew tells about Jesus’ healing ministry as he recounts: “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” Then the evangelist adds: “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” 

            This quotation is from Isaiah chapter 53 which talks about the suffering Servant. At his baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus is identified as the Servant of the Lord at his baptism.

At his baptism Jesus took the place of sinners and began his way to the cross, for the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah is the suffering servant. The Son of God had entered the world in order to provide the ultimate and final answer to sin.  Sin is sin against the holy God. It evokes his wrath, and as the just God requires his punishment.

Jesus Christ took on the role of the suffering Servant to receive God’s judgment against our sin. Isaiah said of the Servant, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus Christ received God’s judgment against our sin on Good Friday. He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as he drank the cup of God’s wrath. The One who worked miracles for others, did no such thing for himself as he remained on the cross until death, and he was then buried in a tomb.

Jesus died on the cross as the suffering Servant who won forgiveness for us. But the complete defeat of sin required more than forgiveness. As we have seen, sin produces death. Jesus Christ died. But then on the third day he rose from the dead. He defeated death as he began the resurrection of the Last Day.

In our text we see Jesus heal the paralytic. Our Lord didn’t heal everyone who was sick in first century Palestine.  In the same way, our prayers for healing are not always answered in the way we want today. But in his resurrection Jesus has begun the healing that all will receive. Christ will return in glory on the Last Day and will raise us from the dead. He will give us resurrection bodies like his own that can never get sick or die again. Paul told the Philippians that “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Our Lord calls us to live as those who have already now received his saving reign. We have been given the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in Baptism. Jesus teaches us to love God above all things, and to love our neighbor as our selves. He tells us to live in ways that the demonstrate Christ in the world. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Where we stumble; where we fail, we have the comfort of knowing that Jesus gives forgiveness to us. In our text Jesus says to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven.” The Lord who died on the cross and rose from the dead to win forgiveness continues to speak these words to us.

In Holy Absolution the crucified and risen Lord speaks through his called servant and says, “I forgive you all your sins.” This gift that takes place at the beginning of the Divine Service is available for you as well in a private setting where you can confess specific sins that bother you, and where you can hear this Gospel word spoken to you as an individual.  Jesus forgives repentant sinners now. And at the resurrection of the Last Day he will give us the healing so that we never again know knows of sin, sickness, and death.

 

 

Sermon for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

 

         St. Michael

                                                                                                Rev 12:7-12

                                                                                                9/29/24

 

 

In writing to the Colossians, the apostle Paul says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”  Here Paul is clearly responding to those who said that Gentile Christians needed to observe the Law of Moses that God had given at Mt. Sinai.

Yet then he goes on to say something that has puzzled interpreters.  He writes, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

            Paul warns against “worship of angels.”  It is not certain whether the phrase means actual worship of angels, or instead, “worshipping with angels.”  What is clear is that somehow, angels had taken on a role and focus that they should not have as Paul directs the Colossians to hold fast to Christ, who is the head of the Church.

            This example demonstrates that angels can easily become a source of fascination and misunderstanding.  They certainly are today.  Often when a person dies you will hear it said: “Well heaven gained another angel.”  This indicates that when a person dies, he or she becomes an angel.  Yet God’s Word tells us that this is simply not true.

            Today is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.  It is a day when we can focus on what Scripture teaches us about angels.  It is also a day when we reflect on one specific action by St. Michael and the angels, and what this shows us about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

            Angels are spiritual creatures made by God.  They are part of God’s creation made during the six days when God created all things.  We confess this each Sunday in the Nicene Creed when we say that we believe in “one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”

            In the Psalms we hear, “Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!”  We learn that the angels are mighty spiritual creatures who carry out God’s Word.  Angels often serve as God’s messengers, delivering his word to people, such as Gabriel did when he announced to Mary that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit. At other times they carry out God’s will in this world, such as when angels rescued Lot and his family from Sodom.

            Angels are mighty, and since they are holy they are able to be in God’s presence as they praise him.  But we can never lose sight of this truth: we are more important to God than angels. We rank higher in God’s creation than angels. This is because we were created in the image of God. Angels weren’t.  God has shown how much he values us by sending his Son to take on our human nature in order to redeem us.  When Christ returns on the Last Day and gives us a share in his resurrection, our position in relation to the angels will be evident for all to see. As Paul told the Corinthians, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?”

            The Psalm says that the angels obey the voice of God’s word.  However, the subject of angels leads us also to consider those spiritual creatures who don’t obey God.  We are of course talking about the Satan and the demons.  Satan and the demons were created by God in the same way that the angels were. Yet at some point between their creation and when we hear about the Satan’s temptation of Eve in Genesis chapter three, they rebelled against God. 

God’s Word does not tell us anything about how or why this happened.  We would like to know more. But where Scripture is silent we must be content to leave things there, and instead focus on what it does say. And what God shares in his word is what he has done to conquer Satan, sin, and death.  He shares what he has done in Jesus Christ to save us.

We hear about this in our text from Revelation.  Revelation is, frankly, a very challenging book of the Bible. It has been written in the genre of apocalyptic literature.  This means that it uses symbolic imagery in order to convey God’s truth to us.  This imagery means that Revelation often makes a big impression on us.  That’s a good thing … unless we lose sight of the fact that this is not a literal account – a blow by blow description of actual characters and events.  It is a true account, but it is one that is given using symbolic language.

Just before our text, John describes what he calls a great sign in heaven.  He sees a woman who is pregnant and about to give birth. He also sees a red dragon who wants to consume the child who is about to be born.

Now it seems clear that the women is Mary.  John tells us,  “She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.”  The child born is Jesus, and using the language of the Old Testament he is identified as the Messiah.  Then in incredibly compressed language, we learn that he was caught up to God and to his throne.

In this brief statement, Revelation has summarized Jesus’ saving ministry.  Revelation begins by identifying Jesus as the “firstborn of the dead” – he is the risen Lord.  It speaks the praise: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father.”  The book has identified Jesus as the One who died on the cross to free us from our sins.  Jesus has risen from the dead, and in chapter 5 John sees the ascended Lord seated on the throne in heaven receiving praise and worship from the heavenly host.

Then we hear in our text, “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

We learn from Scripture that Satan had been able to appear before God in heaven. In the Books of Job and Zechariah he appears before God in order to bring accusations against Job and Joshua the high priest.  However, now Jesus Christ has completed his saving mission through his death, resurrection, and ascension.  He has redeemed us from sin.

And so Satan can no longer approach God to accuse God’s people. St. Michael and the angels kick Satan and the demons out of God’s presence.  After they have done so, John tells us, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.’”

Satan can no longer accuse us before God, because of the forgiveness that Jesus Christ has won for us.  John hears the voice say, “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.”  St. Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Baptized into Christ, we are now the sons and daughters of God.

At the end of our text John hears the voice says, “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” 

We learn that angels in heaven rejoice over the victory that Christ has won for us.  They rejoice over a victory in which they were God’s servants.  It was angels who announced to Mary and Joseph that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  It was the angels who ministered to Jesus after his temptation, and after his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was angels who announced the good news of Christ’s resurrection to the women on Easter.  It was the angels who announced at his ascension that Jesus will return in glory.

            Yet we also hear, “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”  Satan has been defeated by Christ.  He knows that his time is short, for Jesus Christ will return in glory on the Last Day.  As so Satan makes the most of the time he has left.  St Peter warns us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

            Because we face this threat we must focus our life on the means by which the Holy Spirit delivers forgiveness and strengthens us in faith.  We build our lives around the means by which Jesus is present for us. We turn to the Word of God as we read and study it.  We return daily to our baptism as we grasp in faith the promise that through water and the word we have been joined to Jesus saving death.  And we come to the Sacrament of the Altar for here Jesus is present giving us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.  Here we find ourselves present with the angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven who rejoice in what God has done for us in Christ.