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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.
The August edition of the Missouri Synod’s newspaper the Reporter arrived here at Pilgrim this past week, and I skimmed through it, as I usually do. In the “Notices” section, I was struck by announcements that a preschool and kindergarten in Westfield, New Jersey, where a dear friend of mine used to live, is now closed, as is another preschool in Humboldt, Iowa; and another notice announced that a congregation in Sugar Land, Texas, was no longer a part of our Texas District. Often, there are announcements that congregations have closed, as, indeed, there is no guarantee that any individual congregation will continue to exist. What we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, was Jesus’s promise to build His Church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against Her, that is, against the “catholic” with a lower-case “c” Church, or the “whole” Church, not any individual congregation. If the gates of hell, what might be considered the strongest of those powers or forces aligned against Christ’s Church do not prevail against Her, then we can safely say that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”.
At times you and I may not be so convinced that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”. We can wrongly judge the prospects of the whole of Christ’s Church on the basis of Pilgrim’s individual prospects: the small size of our individual congregation, its financial struggles, and the few people actively engaged in its leadership and activities. Or, we might see the statistical and financial decline of our larger Circuit, District, and Synod, “the seemingly meager responses” (Stephenson, CLD XIII:82) even when they faithfully preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, and their willingness to stop doing so, and we might wonder if those forces will not ultimately prevail against Christ’s Church. Unfounded fear of the coronavirus, the government’s and others’ responses to it, and disagreements over those responses may threaten the unity of our individual congregation and the larger Circuit, District, and Synod, but “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”.
Even if we properly identify Her, we still may doubt that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”, maybe we still doubt because we think that She is built on something other than Christ, the Son of the living God, and by extension on that faithful confession of Him and the Office of the Holy Ministry involved in making that faithful confession. Maybe we think that Christ’s Church is built on our efforts, human marketing strategies and organizational development. The security of Christ’s Church is linked to Christ! Maybe we doubt that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church” because we have doubts about Christ. Maybe we do not fully believe, teach, and confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and so able to build Her in such a way that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”.
Whether we all are guilty of those sins or are guilty of other sins, we all are guilty of sins, for we all are sinful by nature. Any one sin by itself, no matter how small we might think it is, alone merits both death here in time and torment in hell for eternity, unless, enabled by God, we turn away in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep sinning. So, we repent! When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sin of mistaking the prospects of individual congregations or larger organizational structures for the prospects of Christ’s Church. God forgives our sin of mistaking the foundation of Christ’s Church and doubting Christ and His ability to build Her in such a way that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Indeed, Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man: two natures united in the one Divine Person (confer Pieper, II:57-58). Jesus is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and He is also true man, born of the Virgin Mary when the fullness of time had come, in order to redeem us lost and condemned persons (Small Catechism, II:4; Galatians 4:4). Because Jesus is true man, He was able to die on the cross, and because Jesus is true God, His death on the cross paid the price for the sins of the whole world, including your sin and my sin. On our own, we are not able to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him (Small Catechism, II:6), but our Heavenly Father reveals Jesus to us by the power of the Holy Spirit (confer Beckwith, CLD III:228). Like St. Peter, we are blessed when we meet that revelation of Jesus’s identity and work with God-given faith that applies the benefits of His work to ourselves (confer Hauck, TDNT 4:368-369). Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the One anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, creates faith and forgives sins through His Means of Grace and so builds Her that “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the authority to effect judgment and grace on earth, with corresponding results in heaven, were promised to St. Peter as an individual, but ultimately that authority was given to the ten disciples as a group on Easter evening (John 20:21‑23), and it has been conveyed to their successors through the centuries, down to pastors today. Christ holds His keys (Revelation 1:8; 3:7), but those He calls and ordains exercise those keys, and they exercise those keys for the benefit of the Church. The Church says “Amen” when sins are bound and sinners are excommunicated with the primary goal of leading them to repent, and the Church says “Amen” when sins are loosed and sinners are absolved to the glory of Christ’s holy Name. God is “surpassingly rich in His grace”, and He has given us multiple ways to receive His forgiveness (Smalcald Articles, III:iv)—through the reading and preaching of His Gospel to groups such as this and through His Gospel applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar—but, that there are multiple ways to receive His forgiveness does not mean that we can or should ignore any one of them, not least of all the mutual conversation with our pastor and his instruction and examination in private confession and the consolation of individual absolution, which private confession and individual absolution may be most-properly associated with the exercise of the keys of the kingdom (Smalcald Articles, III:iv; vii:1; viii:1).
Properly understood, the keys of the kingdom keep us out-of or bring us in-to the kingdom that is Christ’s Church, and “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”. That “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church” comforts us and is of other benefit to us when we are safely in Her! To be sure, being safe in Christ’s Church does not mean, as some religious traditions wrongly think, for example, that Christians are immune from such things as the coronavirus. But, being safe in Christ’s Church does mean that, even if you would be infected with the virus, and even if you would die from COVID-19, the gates of hell including the power of death still have not prevailed against you in Christ’s Church, or against those you might, as it were, “leave behind” in Christ’s Church. Together, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, so we are grateful and worship God with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28).
In considering the Gospel Reading today we have realized both our sin and God’s forgiveness. As we, with repentance and faith, live every day in God’s forgiveness of sins and extend our forgiveness to one another, we are safe and secure, now and for eternity, for, no matter what news reports or anything else might suggest, “Nothing prevails against Christ’s Church”.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +