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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.
Some of you may either personally remember or otherwise know that, back in Lent of 20‑18, I did an eight-part midweek sermon series titled “Snapshots of Repentance”, which series considered eight Old Testament examples of both repentance and forgiveness of sins, examples that were not only instructive but also comforting for us. At that time, there were other examples that we could have considered if there had been additional midweek services, and so this Lent I am doing a five-part midweek sermon series titled “More Snapshots of Repentance”, which series considers five more Old Testament examples of both repentance and forgiveness, examples that are not only instructive but also comforting for us today. Our first “snapshot”, as described in the Reading of Exodus 32, is that of the “Golden Calf”.
The people of Israel had already accepted the basic terms of the covenant with God (Exodus 24:3, 7, 8), but, while Moses received additional instructions from God, the people apparently impatiently concluded that Moses had forsaken them or died, and so, despite not Moses’s, as they said, but God’s bringing them out of the land of Egypt, the people wanted new gods, and apparently also a new leader under those gods, such as they arguably were seeking in Aaron. Perhaps trying to get the people to change their mind, Aaron commanded that they give him all of their gold, and, when they, in their fanatical readiness, did give him all of their gold, Aaron either personally fashioned it with a graving tool or had others make a golden calf, to which idol they then wrongly attributed their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Aaron seemingly combined that error with truth by calling for a feast to the Lord, and the people seemingly combined the Lord’s sacred sacrifices and meals with perverted pagan play.
We may readily condemn the people of Israel for their quickly turning aside out of the way that God had commanded them, but, by nature, we are equally corrupt, and we sin in similar and countless other ways. We may grow impatient and feel alone waiting on the Lord. We may come to false conclusions about God or those He puts in place to lead us. We may want other gods in line with our own ideas and subject to our own manipulation. We may be unwilling to give up what we think are our goods in order to support true worship. We may mix our own false ideas with the truth of God’s Word and Sacraments. When we break one Commandment, we have essentially broken them all, and we deserve God’s intense righteous wrath, both His executing us here and now and His tormenting us in hell for eternity.
God described the people of Israel as being “stiff-necked”, as resisting their being turned to the right way and as resisting their being bowed in humble repentance. Even Aaron, when confronted by Moses, first blamed the people and then the fire for making the idol, instead of confessing his own sin. But, Moses called the faithful to his side, so God calls and enables us to repent. When we turn in sorrow from our sin to faith in God to forgive our sin, when we are bowed in humble repentance, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our having other gods; God forgives our not gladly hearing His Word and receiving His Sacraments; God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
As Moses mediated between God and the people and interceded for the people with God, and as Aaron mediated between Moses and the people and interceded for the people with Moses, all the more did—and does—Jesus Christ mediate between God and us and intercede for us with God. Moses appealed to God’s past act of deliverance, His reputation before the nations, and His Gospel promises. Even more, God loves us and shows mercy towards us. As Moses stood in solidarity with the sinful people of Israel, all the more did Jesus, God in human flesh, stand in solidarity with us sinners. As Moses offered himself to be blotted out of God’s Book of Life in order to save the people of Israel, all the more Jesus offered Himself on the cross as the atonement for our sin. Jesus satisfies God’s intense righteous wrath with us, and our wrong relationship with God He makes right. God relents from the eternal death that we deserve, and, for Jesus’s sake, we receive eternal life.
Water was an important part of temporal life in the desert, and Moses illustrated for the people what they had done to their source of life by burning the calf with fire, grinding it to powder, scattering the powder on the water, and making the people of Israel drink it. For us the water of Holy Baptism gives eternal salvation to all who believe the words and promises of God about Holy Baptism. At the Font, God’s Triune Name is put on us, and, as it were, our names are entered into God’s Book of Life. There is no need for a new nation from Moses, for those who believe and are baptized God makes the true people of Israel in the Church. In the Church, God richly forgives our sins, as in Holy Absolution in the same Triune Name. And, those who are so absolved are admitted to the sacred meal of the Sacrament of the Altar, where bread is the Body of Christ given for us and wine is the Blood of Christ shed for us, and so they also give us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The greatest way for us to worship God is repentantly to seek and receive His forgiveness of sins in all of these ways by and through which He promises to give us His forgiveness of sins!
So forgiven and made a part of God’s great nation of forgiven sinners, we are back on the way that God commands us. We patiently wait on the Lord, letting Him act in His way and in His time. We put up with the faithful leaders God puts over us. Of what God has entrusted to our use, we are willing to give a sacrificial portion in order to support true worship. We let God’s Word and the Lutheran Confessions inform our understanding of His Word and Sacraments. And, as we fail in those and in other ways, as we will fail, with daily repentance and faith, we live in both the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and the forgiveness of sins that we extend to one another. And we recognize that, even with that forgiveness, there still will be not punishment but temporal consequences for our sin, including our earthly suffering and deaths—deaths like the deaths that the Levites brought about, and suffering like the plague the Lord sent on the people because they made the golden calf. But, such temporal consequences eventually give way to eternal life with its peace and joy.
The “Golden Calf” is one “More Snapshot of Repentance”. Like the others, this Old Testament example is both instructive and comforting for us. We have seen the people of Israel’s and our own sin, God’s righteous wrath, our repentance, our Lord’s mediation, His forgiveness, and those remaining temporal consequences. But, ultimately we also will have God’s eternal peace and joy. Next week’s “snapshot” will focus on a different incident involving Moses, Aaron, and their sister Miriam. Until then, may God bless our repentant walk in this season of Lent to the glory of His Holy Name.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +