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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is visiting St. Matthew in Conway, but, for our reflection this morning on the Second Reading for the Last Sunday of the Church Year, Pastor Galler completed a sermon outlined by The Rev. Jonathan W. Rusnak, pastor of Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Rev. Rusnak’s outline was published in the 20-21 volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (31:4, pp.51-54), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when our pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The completed sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
It may not take very long to forget. By the time you get out to the garage, you may not remember why you went out there in the first place. Just days or weeks after a global event—a political collapse, natural disaster, or something like the Olympics—our world can seemingly forget all about it and move on to the next big thing. Though you know you are baptized into Christ, you may struggle daily to remember who you really are in Christ—a child of God, no more and no less. We may easily forget the letter of Jude, too—just one chapter of twenty-five verses, the last six of which we heard this morning as our Second Reading. But, Jude has a very important message for us—especially on this Last Sunday of the Church Year, when we look ahead to Jesus’s Final Coming on the Last Day. Jude’s message for us is about not forgetting. Or, stated positively, his message is about remembering. This morning we consider that Jude teaches us that the Church Remembers Jesus, because Jesus remembers His Church. And that message may not be as obvious as it seems. Remember, forgetting is easy; it has happened before, for Jude can be taken to suggest that some in the church had forgotten Jesus.
The Divinely-inspired St. Jude may have written his letter some 35 years after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. By then, many of the Twelve Apostles had died, and Jude, who was not one of the Twelve Apostles but describes himself was a servant of Jesus and brother of James (Jude 1), was moved to write to the Church, perhaps in some sense in the Apostles’ place (Jude 3). Earlier in his letter he states his purpose: “To remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 5). Some in the church had forgotten Jesus; they had forgotten His promised Final Coming. They had forgotten that Jesus would come as both Savior of those who believe and as Destroyer of those who do not believe, just as had happened in the past at the exodus from Egypt. Having forgotten the reality of who Jesus is, some Christians perverted the grace of God into sensuality, turned forgiveness into license, and denied the only Master and Lord, Jesus (Jude 4). Jude call his hearers, including us, to remember Who Jesus is and what He has said (Jude 17)—both as Savior and as Destroyer.
What happens when you and I forget that Jesus will one day return as the Savior of those who believe? We see the problems of this world: widespread and systemic disregard for God’s gifts of human authority, human life, sexual purity, possessions, and reputation. Even if we do not think that we participate in any of them to one degree or another, then perhaps we are tempted to distance ourselves from them by thinking back in time and remembering “the good ol’ days”, believing that the answer to the problems of the world today is simply to return to the way that things used to be, or at least to try so to return. We may be tempted to believe that the solution to the world’s problems is someone or something other than Jesus. But, instead of forgetting, we instead remember that Jesus, and Jesus alone, is our Savior and the Savior of this world. God in human flesh, Jesus died on the cross in order to save us from sin and death and even now gives us that salvation by his Word and Spirit through the Means of Grace, His Word and Sacraments. Jesus finally and fully will save us from this world that is destined for destruction, when He comes again in all His glory.
What happens when you forget that Jesus will also return then as the Destroyer of those who do not believe? We may see ourselves, in a wrong way, as those securely saved. We may be tempted—just as the church of all times and places is tempted—to be comfortable in our ways, even in our sins, living the way we want to live, giving ourselves license, falling into patterns of thinking and patterns of doing that we know are not in accord with the Word of God. We may convince ourselves that we do not need to worry about or change anything. But, instead of forgetting, we instead remember that Jesus truly will return someday as our judge. We remember that those who forget will be destroyed in eternal, never-ending punishment. We remember that He calls us to repentance; He calls us to trust in His forgiveness; He calls us to live a new life according to His Word.
As frightening as forgetting that Jesus will one day return both as Savior and as Destroyer is, how comforting to remember that Jesus never forgets us! God addresses our potentially forgetting that Jesus is the Savior and the Destroyer by reminding us the same way that God reminded the Early Church through Jude: preparing us for the future by pointing us to the past. God reminds us that He has called us to faith, has loved us, and has kept us in the faith (Jude 1). He has called us through the waters of Holy Baptism, where He joined us to Himself and to all other believers in Him. God reminds us that He has promised, as we this morning heard Jude say, to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless on that day of Christ’s glorious return. He does that in part by feeding us with the fruits of Christ’s cross, His Body given for us and His Blood shed for us, in-with-and-under the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar. We “do this” in remembrance of Him, not as a fleeting memory but in a way by which He is really, physically present, and, so being present, He forgives us. The Church remembers Jesus, because Jesus remembers His Church.
In today’s Collect for the Last Sunday of the Church Year, in a few moments, we will pray the Lord Jesus Christ to so govern our hearts and minds by His Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of His glorious return, we may persevere in both faith and holiness of living. In today’s Second Reading, St. Jude calls us to four particular activities of faith and life. First, building ourselves up in our most-holy faith and praying in the Spirit, we keep ourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Looking backwards and forward, we at the present time focus on our Baptisms, individually receive Holy Absolution, and are nourished in the Sacrament of the Altar. Second, we have mercy upon those who doubt. We keep showing others in the Church the limitless mercy that God shows to us, even when they might seem keep doubting that mercy. Third, we save others by snatching them out of the fire. Of course, God saves anyone who is saved, but we let Him use us graciously to save others. And, fourth and finally, we show mercy to others even as we hate the garment stained by the flesh, not yet washed and made clean in the blood of Christ and so replaced in Holy Baptism with the robe of His own righteousness. Ultimately, even these four “simple” things we fail to do perfectly, and so with daily repentance and faith we live in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and that we in turn extend to one another. We are remembered, and we are remembering.
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +