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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.
If you have been at all following President Trump’s twelve-day trip through Asia, you have seen a number of official visits, such as President Trump’s walking down a red carpet with China’s president Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, ceremonially reviewing Chinese honor guards at the ready as they went. There is a different kind of civic welcome to be given to an important visitor mentioned in today’s Epistle (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and Gospel Readings—an important visitor that you and I are to be ready for at any moment. As the Church Year draws to a close, this morning we reflect especially on the Gospel Reading, under the theme, “Ready to meet the Bridegroom”.
Like other parables that we have heard, today’s Gospel Reading’s so‑called “Parable of the Ten Virgins” makes use of the wedding customs of Jesus’s day, which customs some Bible commentators cannot even agree whether or not we even know (compare Trench, Parables, 247, with Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 25:1, 395), let alone agree on how those customs line up with the parable. Thanks be to God that the one main point of the parable is clear enough regardless: despite their similarity at one level, some people are ready for the delayed coming of the bridegroom, while other people are not ready, and, at that point, it is too late for them to do anything about it, so they end up shut‑out of the marriage feast. Likewise with the Kingdom of Heaven, you and I, who may outwardly appear to be equal members of the Church (Apology of the Augsburg Confession VII/VIII:19; cf. Marquart, CLD IX:18) are to be “Ready to meet the Bridegroom” (that is, the Lord Jesus Christ), or else you and I will spend eternity shut-out of the marriage feast.
Earlier in St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, Jesus’s disciples had asked Him about His final coming and the end of the age, and Jesus had said, among other things, that they should “stay awake”, for they would not know on what day their Lord was coming, and that they should be ready, for He would come at an hour they did not expect (Matthew 24:3, 42, 44). Likewise this morning we heard Jesus, continuing the same section of teaching, say to “watch” for we know neither the day nor the hour. If we did know the day and hour, surely we would set an alarm on our smart phones or other electronic devices for a time just moments before it! Since we do not know the day or the hour, “we are to watch at all times, always be ready to meet [the Bridegroom]” (Lindemann, 4:217).
We may think that His final coming is imminent, and so He may seem to us to be delayed. Or, in some sense our sinful nature may even forget that the Lord is returning (Pieper, III:516). Either way, we may foolishly not be ready and watching. We may imagine, talk, and act as if we are fit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Lindemann, 4:214), but in fact we may not be fit to enter. We may think that a parent, spouse, or child will get us in, when, in fact, they cannot. In fact, only God can make us wise and so ready and watching. As prophesied, God sent John the Baptizer to prepare His way and make people ready (see Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 1:17). God’s call to repentance through His faithful messengers brings us from spiritual death to spiritual life, but that spiritual life itself dies unless we let God continue to work in us through His Word and Sacraments, ever leading us to be sorry for our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us all our sin, whatever it may be, for Christ’s sake. We cooperate in our ongoing sanctification, or else we are not sanctified. Those once-baptized who never or seldom hear God’s Word, seek His individual absolution from His called and ordained servants, or partake of His holy meal here and now, will—by their own fault—be shut‑out of His holy meal for eternity. (See Grundmann, TDNT 2:704-706; Bertram, TDNT 4:842-843.)
As we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading (Amos 5:18-24), the Day of the Lord is “darkness, and not light” for those who trust in their own righteousness, or those who make offerings apart from faith that trusts in Him Who out of love for the world gives His only Son to makes the ultimate offering of Himself upon the cross (see the LCMS Lectionary Summary and Freeman, CPR 27:4, 51). Upon the cross, the God-man Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and mine! There may be no apparent difference between all of us here this morning, but at our deaths or when the Lord comes the final time, whichever comes first, there will be a separation between those foolishly unrepentant and unbelieving and those wisely repentant and believing (confer Matthew 24:25; Luke 12:42). Some here or elsewhere, who might otherwise appear to be prophesying in His Name, casting out demons in His Name, and doing many mighty works in His Name, will call out to Him, “Lord, Lord” but find themselves called “workers of lawlessness” and shut‑out of the Kingdom; but, the one who does the will of the Father in Heaven, which will is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, Whom He has sent, the one who calls out to Him with faith that seeks and receives the forgiveness of sins He won for all on the cross, that one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 7:21-23). The Lord is not slow to fulfill the promise of His coming but is patient, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:1, 9). Each believes for himself or herself, and so, as we sang in the Introit (Psalm 84:1, 9-12; antiphon: Psalm 84:3), is blessed.
Our one-time baptismal entry into the Kingdom of Heaven leads us to hear the Word of God read and preached repeatedly, to confess privately to our pastors for the sake of individual Holy Absolution whenever we have sins that we know and feel in our hearts, and to eat of Christ’s Body with bread and drink of Christ’s Blood with wine often, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all these ways we are given repentance and faith and sustained in repentance and faith, not by our doing, but by God’s love, mercy, and grace. In all these ways, you might say, we are ever ready.
More than a century ago inventor David Misell laid several batteries front to back in a paper tube, with a light bulb and rough brass reflector at the end, and so designed the first hand‑held flashlight. Misell subsequently assigned the patented invention to Conrad Hubert’s “American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company”, which was later renamed and sold batteries first trademarked as “Ever Ready” and then as “Energizer” (using its well‑known pink bunny since 19‑88). (Wikipedia.) Perhaps the products and names are only coincidental, although, as part of the likely background for today’s parable, God says in Proverbs that “The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out” (Proverbs 13:9 ESV; compare NIV). We whom God has made righteous in Christ truly are ever “Ready to meet the Bridegroom”, wisely watching for His final coming, though we know neither the day nor the hour. We stand firm in the faith and do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:13). We live both in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from Him and in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from and extend to one another.
Far more important than a formal meeting with President Trump or any other leader of state, we are ready to meet the Bridegroom when He comes the final time and then to enter into His marriage feast. Though at times confusing with a different sense to the word “sleep”, today’s Epistle Reading well describes how those who die before then will come from heaven with the Lord, how those living at the time will be caught up with them in the air—not in a secret “rapture” but in a coming with three different sounds able to be heard by everyone—and how finally all who repent and believe will always be with the Lord—here, under a recreated or restored sky, on a recreated or restored earth. May God so grant to us all, for Jesus’s sake.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +