Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
Grace, Mercy and Peace be with you from God our Father and from Lord Jesus, the Christ.
When you work hard and put a lot of sweat equity into caring for your household, you naturally expect there will be, eventually, some time to enjoy the fruit of your labor with family and friends, or, perhaps, depending on your personality, it’s the solitude you enjoy. Either way, most days you toil and do what you may not most enjoy with the expectation that sometime in the near future you will be allowed some time to do what you do enjoy. When that does not happen, when all you do every waking hour of every day is toilsome and does not work out the way you’d hoped it would, you, the elect of God, may complain to God and ask Him to remember His promises and have regard for His People whom He has purchased and redeemed. His elect have His invitation and command to call on His Name.
When good homes are destroyed by fire or water, or by the violent movements of earth or wind, we call those events “acts of God” and wonder why a good God would allow such tragedies to effect so many innocent people.When good people suffer theft or violent loss of life at the hands of evil doers, when robbers force themselves into your home and steal your sense of security and, then, when they return and you protect yourself as the law of the land allows but wind up evicted from your home and lose your deposit on top of it all, you may ask God to vindicate you and give you the justice you richly deserve. When others speak lies about you – interpreting things you’ve said or done in a negative way – in attempts, or with the effect, at least, of threatening your reputation or costing you your license or certification or your office, you may call on God to defend you from the scoffers and foolish people who revile God’s Name by ignoring His commands and violating His laws.
When things occur in your life to remind you you do not always get the good things you’ve earned, when you store up a grand inheritance for those you leave behind, and are reminded there is no guarantee it will only be used to do good things, when your rights are violated, when you or those you care about are dishonored or disrespected, when the rulers God has appointed to rule over you abuse or misuse their power and authority to violate your rights, take away your ability to defend your neighbors from wild beasts, thieves and murderers, when the law of the land seeks to silence your confession of God’s truth, restrict your responsibility to raise your children in a Godly way, or the government itself facilitates and encourages the murder of human life in the womb, you, the elect of God, have rights which no power in heaven nor any power on earth can ever abuse, misuse, violate, or destroy. You have the right and privilege of calling on God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and request His help, to deliver you from your enemies, to protect you from all evil, to keep your going out and your coming in, to guard you in all your ways. He will neither slumber nor sleep. He hears your prayers and He will not delay to answer. He will give you justice, speedily.
Jesus wants His disciples always to pray and not lose heart. His parable reveals the great willingness of God, Who is The Righteous Judge, to use His Judgment of the living and the dead to give Justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night. Even though it might (sometimes, or even most times) feel like He takes too long to answer, He does not long delay His Justice. So we keep praying, always, night and day. With His Promise to give Justice to His elect, He gives patience to those who await His appearing and His Judging. And we keep praying. We don’t always get the answers we want, when we want them. But we keep praying. We even get answers to prayers we haven’t even prayed, yet, and, we keep praying. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we keep praying and we do not lose heart. Because even without our prayers, God gives us this day our daily bread, and in the end, He will give us Justice, speedily. Wickedness will be punished; Good will finally be rewarded. And because you are among His elect, Baptized into His Name, a reborn member of His Body, He will count you among the living who are alive in Christ; you are alive in Christ because He has united you with Himself through Baptism into His death and resurrection. You remain alive in Him by enduring sound teaching and turning away from false teachers, their selfish passions, and their ear pleasing myths.
The Spiritual Father of Saints Timothy and Titus, Father Paul, the Apostle of our Lord, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
It seems that time has already begun… not just with this election season, but quite a while ago.
And so, it’s very important you seek the Truth; not the “truth” you prefer, not the “truth” your evil passions desire; not the “truth” your own selfish interests tempt you to think are most important; no, it’s most important you seek The One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Jesus Christ, revealed by His Prophets and Apostles is That One.
God’s Word never tells us to follow our passions apart from His Will. And so, Jesus tells His Elect He wants us always to pray and not lose heart.
He promises He will give justice to His elect, and to His elect He will give justice speedily. With this promise, His elect, those who believe and are baptized, are invited to pray in every circumstance. We pray when good things happen and when bad things happen. We praise God for the good He sends, and we trust God to bring good even from the evil we experience (Romans 8:28).
In order to not lose heart, in order always to pray, especially when times are tough and nothing else is working the way we think it’s supposed to, we need the confidence the Holy Spirit builds up in His elect through His Word and through His Word of forgiveness Which He attaches to ordinary water, bread and wine. We do not have to go to church to receive these good gifts every week, but we need to. If we could see the flaming arrows the devil keeps aiming at us, we’d see our need for God’s gifts every day. Our confidence in what is True, our certainty of sound teaching, depends on what God has revealed through His prophets and apostles. Only through His prophets and apostles can we know what God wants us to know for salvation. Only by His written word can we make sure His teachers are teaching sound doctrine.
What is most certainly true is the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God; He is the Lamb Who was slain, Whose blood sets us free to be The People of God (Revelation 5:12-13; 19:5-9; “This is the Feast”, Lutheran Service Book 155). Unlike all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain, His Blood, the Blood of Jesus Christ, covers all sin in the entire world throughout all time; His Blood has already secured for you an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12-28); His Blood is the blood which has washed you in Baptismal waters; His baptismal washing appeals for you to God for a good conscience through His resurrection (1 Peter 3:21); His baptism of us makes our robes white in the blood of The Lamb (Revelation 7:14).
His Spirit, working through His means of Grace, reveals the Truth and brings it to our remembrance through the ongoing proclamation of His Word. Through His Baptism of you and through His own Body and Blood given to you in Holy Communion, His Spirit awakens and feeds the faith which trusts only in Christ for all good things. This faith hungers for Christ and His Word. This faith, which grows out of His sound teaching, bears every good fruit.
And so we are always to pray and not lose heart. But sometimes, often times, we do not always pray; we do not pray day and night as we should, and we have lost heart. We have forgotten to call on the Name of the Lord when we rise and when we lie down. We have forgotten to always praise Him for the good things in our lives; and we wrongly curse Him for the crosses we must bear.
Not satisfied with the good Jesus gives through His Word and Sacraments, we even begin listening to strange teachers and their strange teachings; those strange teachers know how sound teaching makes us itch. And so you tune in (or maybe you’ve just been tempted to tune in) the televangelists and read their tweets, which encourage you to follow your passions, your dreams and your heart. They would have you build your hope not on the foundation of Christ crucified for your sins, but on a false hope for a better life now, rather than on the better life to come, when Jesus appears and rightly judges the living and the dead.
Repent. Your heart will lie to you. Your passions have deceived you. But Christ will never leave you or lie to you. He loves you. He has elected you. He commands His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. He remembers you. He has purchased and redeemed your soul from your old heritage of wild beasts and welcomed you to His new and better heritage of life and love with all the company of heaven united in the One God Who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Your passions are not what you will follow. You will seek the Risen Christ and His Passion. The reality is that sound teaching, good teaching, because it reproves, rebukes, and admonishes, because it causes disciples to burn deep down inside (Luke 24:13 ff.), sound teaching must be endured (John 5:39, 46). Jesus is the Light of the World, not you nor me nor our joy nor our sense of peace. Jesus is the Light of the World. He is the light of men. His light draws us to Him. His light shines through us despite our tarnish and bad attitudes. Your destiny is in Christ Jesus risen from the dead. Nothing can keep you from Him. You have nothing in your life to fear. Your time cannot be wasted because God works all things for your good. In God’s presence you will prevail.
In Jesus’s Name you will be delivered. Amen.