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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tonight’s “snapshot of repentance” is that of Ezra, whose “snapshot” is not only an example both of repentance, which informs our repentance over our sin, and of forgiveness of sins, which comforts us as God forgives our sin, but whose “snapshot” also touches on what is said to be one of the most sensitive topics one can talk about in church: namely, marriage. For example, when we studied Ezra in our Midweek Bible Study nearly one year ago, Pilgrim had had three weddings in the more than five years that I had been here then, and now we have had double that number, with three weddings in the last four months alone, and not without some concern about the agreement of our teaching and our practice. Ezra’s “snapshot of repentance” indeed touches on that but more importantly shows God’s will for the repentance and forgiveness of all of our lives, married or not.
After Daniel’s prayer that we considered last week, and perhaps at Daniel’s prompting, Cyrus king of Persia decreed a temple be built for the Lord in Jerusalem, and he returned people from their exile charged with that task (Ezra 1-3). Opposition to the Temple’s reconstruction led to an official halt in the process for a while (Ezra 4), until Darius king of Persia re-ordered its completion (Ezra 5-6). Some 50-60 years after the Temple was completed, King Artaxerxes sent Ezra back with a second group of returnees with his authority to carry out religious reform (Ezra 7-8). They had barely just returned and offered appropriate sacrifices, perhaps been there only four months, before the marriage problem was addressed, as we heard in tonight’s reading.
When the people had first entered the Promised Land, God had commanded them not to intermarry with its people (for example, Deuteronomy 7:3-4), but, despite their past failures in that regard and the resulting consequences of those failures, such as the exile into Babylon, they still had not learned their lesson. In this case, some men even may have broken their existing Jewish marriages and “married” pagan women of the land for the sake of political and economic advantages. Their actions were sinful and led them away from God to the false gods of the land, and so to even more sin, including other forms of sexual immorality, such as incest, and also human sacrifices. Ezra’s prayer recognized God’s righteous judgment in bringing about the consequences they had suffered in the past and those they deserved to suffer at that very time.
In our day, marriages outside of one’s faith are still too common and still bring ample opportunities to be led away from God and into other sin. However, even married people of the same faith and Christians who have never been married or who are widows or widowers are still guilty of sexual sins. Most might agree in condemning homosexuality and transgender sin, but condemnations of such things as internet pornography, sexual relationships outside of marriage, the use of birth control, and “remarriage” after a divorce might hit too close to home. Ultimately, we all fail to live sexually pure and decent lives in what we say and do, for we are all sinful by nature. Our sinful nature and all our actual sins justly deserve consequences now and for eternity, apart from repentance.
Ezra’s repentance included such outward signs as his tearing his tunic and cloak, pulling out hair from his head and beard, sitting down appalled (perhaps with ashes), fasting for many hours, and literally throwing himself on the mercy of the Lord. The people then joined him in repenting, and so do we. Already tonight in the penitential Psalm (143) we have pleaded for God not to enter into judgment with us, and in the Office Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 613), with its first stanza based on verses from Ezra (Ezra 9:6, 15), we have confessed all our sins of thought and word and deed and made a threefold plea for God’s mercy.
Like Ezra in his prayer, as we turn in sorrow from our sin, we recognize God as merciful and gracious to forgive our sin, and we want to do better than to keep on sinning. God has revealed to us that His love is more than a match for all our sin, and, when we so repent, then He forgives our sin, whatever our sin may be, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. Keeping the line of the Jews, especially David’s line, as holy as possible was important for God’s purpose of saving us, for salvation was of the Jews, particularly David’s line. Expressed in marital terms, the God-man Jesus Christ is the faithful bridegroom and Savior of the Church, Who loved the Church and gave Himself up for her unto death on the cross, that He might make the Church holy, which He does by the washing of water with the Word in Holy Baptism, presenting the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that She might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:23-32).
Tonight’s Opening Hymn (LSB 435), invited all sinners ruined by the fall to come to Calv’ry’s holy mountain, to find a pure and healing fountain that flows for you, for me, for all, in a full, perpetual tide, opened when our Savior died. Yet, not to a place half a world away and to a time two millennia back, but we come in sorrow and contrition and find free remission and peace here, to this Altar and its Rail, where in the Sacrament of the Altar bread is the Body of Christ given for us, and wine is the Blood of Christ shed for us, giving us forgiveness of sins, and so also life and salvation. Here we eat and drink and live forever.
As told by tonight’s Reading, the prayer of corporate confession by Ezra notably was not followed by any corporate absolution, though the covenant people of God could come to their spiritual leaders then, as they can in our time, to privately confess the sins that trouble them most for the sake of having those sins and all of their sins individually forgiven by Holy Absolution, which is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself (Small Catechism V:10).
What did notably follow Ezra’s and the people’s corporate confession was action to address the “marriages”. Perhaps advised by Ezra, and with the case of Hagar and Ishmael as a precedent (Genesis 21:8-21), the Holy Spirit moved the people to bring forth fruits of repentance particular to their sins: after three months of work they nullified 110 “marriages” that had been illegal to begin with, and some of those even had produced children (Ezra 10:18-44). Yet, for all of that, however, Nehemiah still had to deal with essentially the same problem years later. In the New Testament period, the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write that believers should not divorce unbelieving spouses (1 Corinthians 7:12-13), but he also wrote that Christians should not become unequally yoked in marriage with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Even recognizing that different people are in different conditions when the Lord calls them (1 Corinthians 7:17‑24), we must admit that pastors and people fail to honor marriage as God would have us honor it, both in these and in other ways. We know that there is forgiveness for every sin and that such forgiveness neither removes consequences of sin nor gives license for future sin (Romans 6:1-2, 15-16). Judgments about the best way to proceed sometimes can differ legitimately, and so we all live together, receiving God’s forgiveness of sins and extending His and our own to one another.
Ezra’s “snapshot of repentance” has informed our repentance over our sin and comforted us with God’s forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And, as our Closing Hymn will remind us (LSB 886), as we will rest this night the Church unsleeping keeps watch with ongoing prayers and hymns of praise.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +