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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. (Amen.)
Whenever we come to a Divine Service, we come from our own contexts: such as things that happened this past week, this morning, or on the drive here. Here, we come into a liturgical context: the day of the Church Year with its theme, evident, for example, in the appointed Collect, Readings, and Hymn of the Day. And, those Readings come out of their own Biblical contexts: their respective books of the Bible and the Bible as a whole. All of those contexts are relevant as God speaks to us, through His Word, in any Divine Service, and this morning’s Divine Service is no exception. In our own contexts, we may be anxious about any number of things in our lives: the economy, the start of school, or a health issue. The liturgical context seems to emphasize believers’ not fearing in the face of God’s gift of the Kingdom. And, the Biblical context of the Gospel Reading, for example, relates believers’ not fearing in the face of God’s gift of the Kingdom to their being rich toward God, with a treasure and heart in heaven, as part of their, unlike the man in last week’s so-called “Parable of the Rich Fool” (Luke 12:13-21), being awake and ready for the judgment—judgment that comes either with their deaths on earth or with the final coming of the Son of Man at an hour we do not expect. From the liturgical and Biblical contexts, God this morning speaks to us, in our contexts, that “Our Father gives believers the Kingdom”.
In the Old Testament Reading (Genesis 15:1-6), the Word of the Lord told Abraham, when he was still named “Abram”, not to fear, though in the Reading we are not told explicitly what Abraham might have feared. In the context, Abraham and his allies had just rescued his nephew Lot and Lot’s people and possessions from a group of kings that had taken them, when those kings defeated a rival group of kings (Genesis 14:1-16), and Abraham had just been blessed by Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:17-24). Abraham might have feared retribution from his earthly enemies, but, in light of how the Old Testament Reading continues and what follows it in Genesis 15, Abraham apparently was anxious over remaining childless, despite God’s previous promise to make of him a great nation (Genesis 12:2). In the Old Testament Reading, God reiterated His promise to Abraham, and then He made with him a formal covenant, with its sacrifices and meal and signs (Genesis 15:7-21). Likewise, God later told Abraham’s son Isaac not to fear and promised to multiply his descendants (Genesis 26:24), and their faith in those promises and their passing on those promises is highlighted in today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 11:1-16; confer Hebrews 11:17-22).
Yet, perhaps some three-thousand years and at least forty-two generations later (see Matthew 1:17), as Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of many thousands (Luke 12:1) but in the Gospel Reading spoke primarily to His disciples—whether the Twelve alone, or also including the Seventy-Two and maybe still other followers (Just, ad loc Luke 12:22-34, p.510)—Jesus taught more about last week’s parable (confer Just, ad loc Luke 12:22-34, p.509) and told His disciples, a little flock, not to fear, for the Father’s good pleasure was to give them the Kingdom. A little flock as they knew it might have some twenty to thirty animals (J. Jeremias, TDNT 6:499), but, as Jesus tells His disciples, despite their being few in number and despite anything else that might go along with their being few in number, they do not have to fear anything, because God gives them the Kingdom, as prophesied already in the Old Testament (J. Jeremias, TDNT 6:501, with special reference to Daniel 7:27).
In our various contexts, we certainly can be anxious about numbers, especially when it comes to church. Even the Missouri Synod and Texas District are a “little flock”, by some comparisons, and especially our Pilgrim congregation is a “little flock”, with our sixty baptized members and with an average of a little less than half of them attending Sunday morning services so far this calendar year. And, our being a “little flock” may make us worry more, as we budget for higher costs and nominate from fewer volunteers for the next calendar year (confer Sherrill, CPR 32:3, p.33). To be sure, Jesus is aware of the temptations caused by size, and He attacks our human striving for a greatness different than that greatness which He gives with the Kingdom concealed now in our small size (Michel, TDNT 4:654). As Jesus in the Gospel Reading called His anxious disciples those “of little faith”, so Jesus condemns as deadly and damning sin our anxiety that hampers and hinders our faith (Balz, TDNT 9:209). From such sin, as from all sin and from our sinful nature, God calls and so enables us to repent. Our Father in heaven does not will that one sheep that has gone astray should perish (Matthew 18:12-14). When we repent, then God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus tells us to “seek” God’s Kingdom, but that is not one more reason for us to be anxious or worry, as if we cannot get the Kingdom on our own. We cannot get the Kingdom on our own, and God knows that we cannot get the Kingdom on our own; rather, our Father’s Good pleasure is graciously to give us the Kingdom. “Our Father gives believers the Kingdom.” We do not choose Him, but, as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, our Heavenly Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him; and in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Christ, according to the purpose of His will; in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ (Ephesians 1:5-9; confer Schrenk, TDNT 2:741-742). The Kingdom “is the miraculous act and gift of God,” one commentator says, a gift so “incomparable and unique in value” that “only God can give” it; we cannot merit the Kingdom for ourselves (Preisker, TDNT 4:718), but Christ Jesus merits the Kingdom for us. God in human flesh—human flesh in some sense already in the loins of Abraham (confer Sherrill, CPR 32:3, p.34)—Jesus took our sin upon Himself and bore it to the cross; there on the cross He died for us, in our place, the death that we otherwise deserved. And then, Jesus rose from the dead. When we believe that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake, then, as with Abraham in today’s Old Testament Reading, the Lord counts that belief as righteousness (confer Romans 4:1-25). For, as St. Paul says elsewhere, the Kingdom is a matter of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).
God gives us His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) through His Word and Sacraments, as pastors pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made them overseers, to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood (Acts 20:28; confer 1 Peter 5:2 and K. L. Schmidt, TDNT 3:520). Such shepherds of the flock read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this one, and they apply the Gospel individually with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that in the Sacrament of the Altar are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us, and so which give us forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Notably, in Holy Baptism, the Lord, Who clothes the lilies in glory greater than that of Solomon, clothes us in robes of Christ’s righteousness (confer Isaiah 61:10), and, in the Sacrament of the Altar, He, Who feeds the ravens, gives us the Body of His Son to eat and the Blood of His Son to drink and so strengthens and preserves us in body and soul to live everlasting. The Lord has us recline, as it were, at this table and through our pastors He Himself serves us (John 13:1-11), so that we who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied (Matthew 5:6). Here is God’s covenant made with us, with its sacrifices and meal and signs!
The Old Testament people of Israel were to eat the Old Testament Passover meal with their belt fastened, their sandals on their feet, and their staffs in their hands (Exodus 12:11), and similarly, in the Gospel Reading, Jesus told His disciples to stay dressed for action. Regularly receiving the New Testament Passover meal, we are transformed by God and act accordingly. When anxious and fearful, with the man whose son had a mute spirit, we pray, “I believe; help my unbelief”, and, with the apostles, we pray, “Lord, increase our faith!” (Mark 9:24; Luke 17:5; confer Luther, ad loc John 1:13, AE 22:90). We pray for our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom to come, and we pray to be given our daily bread. We know that our dwellings here are not permanent, but we are seeking and looking forward to a homeland in the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God (confer Greeven, TDNT 2:895). We are, as the hymn quoted on the top of the raredos says, Pilgrims here, for our home is above (Lutheran Service Book 685:1). We know that whatever happens is under God’s control and need not cause us anxiety. The gates of hell do not prevail against Christ’s Church (Matthew 16:18), but rather the Church possesses and therefore controls the gates of Her enemies (Genesis 22:17; confer Genesis 24:60), which all people will realize when the Lord suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2), comes visibly to judge the living and the dead. Until then, people may go from and come to our Pilgrim congregation, but the “little” flock that is the complete Church of God is anything but “little”, for, as the descendants of Abraham were promised both to be as many as the stars of heaven, if they are able to be numbered (even with the fancy new James Webb Space Telescope), and to be as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore (Genesis 22:17; confer Genesis 32:12), in the fullness of eternity, the flock and Kingdom that is the Church of God (J. Jeremias, TDNT 6:501 n.20), indeed, consists of a great multitude that no one can number (Revelation 7:9).
“Our Father gives believers the Kingdom.” That truth of God’s giving us the Kingdom might be said to be a “context” in which we interpret everything else. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther once said that the promises of the Gospel would be of little benefit without sin and other afflictions (Luther, cited by Plass, #1538, p.513). With the psalmist today (Psalm 33:12-22; antiphon: v.20), we have considered false hope and true hope (confer Hamp, CPR 26:3, p.43), and by God’s grace we cling to true hope. We say again with the Psalmist: “Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +