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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.
Over its 243 years, the United States has known five pairs of related men among its forty‑five presidents—John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams; James Madison and his second‑cousin Zachary Taylor; Benjamin Harrison and his grandson William Henry Harrison; Theodore Roosevelt and his fifth‑cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and George H. Bush and his son George W. Bush. The United States does not have a single ruling dynasty like that of England, for example, where four descendants of the House of Windsor have ruled for 102 years but their family line of monarchs through other houses and in other countries can be traced back for hundreds of years to the Holy Roman Empire in the eleventh‑century. Yet, ultimately no family of rulers can compare to the family of rulers God promised to David and ultimately fulfilled through His and Mary’s Son, Jesus Christ. Tonight we realize that we are “Blessed by the Davidic Dynasty”.
In tonight’s First Reading (1 Samuel 7:4-17) we heard God through His prophet Nathan tell King David not to build the Lord a “house”, or “temple”, but instead the Lord promised to build David a “house”, or “family of descendants” or “dynasty”, who would rule on David’s throne, including one Descendant in particular, the throne of Whose Kingdom God would establish forever. Tonight’s Additional Psalm (Psalm 132; antiphon: v.11) likewise referred to those covenantal promises to David. And, in tonight’s Second Reading (Luke 1:26-56) we heard Gabriel announce to Mary, who likely along with her betrothed Joseph was of the house of David, that it would be her Son to Whom the Lord would give the throne of His father David, to reign forever over the house of Jacob, who is also called Israel, and that of that Son’s Kingdom there would be no end.
King David’s son and successor King Solomon built the “house”, or “temple”, for the Lord and the ark of His might, but Solomon also was not as faithful to the Lord as was David, and, as a result, King Solomon’s son and successor King Rehoboam saw the united kingdom divided and another person rule over a large portion of what had been his Kingdom. In time, many kings in David’s dynasty fell away from God, and ultimately that dynasty itself appeared to have been swept away for good by foreign kings. As God had promised David through Nathan, when David’s successors would commit iniquity, God would discipline them with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, and so God did.
Of course, by nature we are no better than those unfaithful kings of David’s line. We also commit all kinds of iniquity, some of which people are aware, others of which only we know, and still others known only to God. There are thoughts, words and deeds that should not be but are, and there are thoughts, words, and deeds that should be but are not. For our sinful nature and all of our sin, we deserve for God to discipline us with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But, God’s steadfast love, His “mercy”, does not depart from us! Instead of leaving us to temporal and eternal death, God calls and so enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and at least to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sins, all our sins, whatever our sins might be. In that forgiveness for Jesus’s sake, we are “Blessed by the Davidic Dynasty”.
The failure of the kings in David’s line did not end God’s promise regarding David’s dynasty, for, although the kings and their people failed to live by God’s commandments, God kept His promises. And so, when the time was fulfilled, the Virgin Mary heard Gabriel announce the birth of her royal Son, Jesus, the Christ, the One anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. The power of the Most High overshadowed Mary and so her child was called holy, the Son of God. In Jesus the Divine and human natures are personally united so that He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. In Jesus a Son of David’s body was set on David’s throne (confer Matthew 1:1), but, more importantly for us, in Jesus God helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He had spoken to fathers such as Abraham and to his offspring forever. Not in the sacrifice of animal blood sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark but in the sacrifice of Jesus’s human blood shed on the mercy seat of the cross is there the forgiveness of sins for us and for all people. The perfect life that Jesus lived and the death that He died there on the cross were both for us and for our salvation. We who humbly repent call out to Him for salvation, saying “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matthew 21:9, 15), and He answers us by exalting us with the forgiveness of sins given through His Word and Sacraments in this place.
We come to the Lord’s dwelling place; we worship at His footstool, seeking His forgiveness in the ways that He promises to give it. As God spoke through Nathan to David, so God speaks to us in groups such as this one through the reading and preaching of His Word. And, God clothes us individually with salvation and leads us His saints to shout for joy as the Gospel is applied to us individually with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in individual Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. God is uniquely present especially there on the Altar, distributed by me, and received by you, in order to forgive us our sins and so also give us life and salvation.
So forgiven, we are changed, and our new redeemed nature at least wants to keep God’s Commandments. We try to think, say, and do the things that we should, and we try not to think, say, and do the things that we should not. And, when we fail, as we will, with daily repentance and faith we live in the forgiveness of sins that God continuously gives us for Christ’s sake, and, in turn, we extend our forgiveness to those who sin against us. In this lifetime our enemies are not yet completely cut off from before us; violent people and forces afflict us. But, God uses such afflictions to discipline us and so keep calling us to repentance, conforming us to the image of His Son, Whose path to glory was through suffering. We can have peace and joy even now, because, in God’s time and way, all affliction and suffering will end, and we will fully experience the glory He has promised us. Like the Virgin Mary, we believe that there will be a fulfillment of what is spoken to us from the Lord.
In the future of the United States there may be more pairs of related presidents—Kennedys, Clintons, and maybe even another Bush or Trump may run, be elected, and serve. Yet, whatever good God works through such families of authorities that He institutes, we know that far more are we “Blessed by the Davidic Dynasty”. For, ultimately not the faith‑lessness or even the faith‑fulness of David’s successors, of ourselves, or of anyone else matters, but what matters is God’s faithfully saving us (and all who repent) by grace through faith in King David’s greatest Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we have forgiveness of sins now, and so we have life and salvation for all eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +