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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.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
I was pleased to be able to attend, two Saturday’s ago, the gala celebrating the 90th anniversary of the congregation where I vicared, that is to say, the congregation where I served as full‑time student pastor. At that recent gala, I learned things about the congregation’s past and present, and we pondered the congregation’s future—about the congregation’s buildings, as well as its pastors and other vicars and lay people. Some people who were there nearly 30 years ago are there still, others are with the Lord now, and still others for whatever reason are members there no longer. In today’s Second Reading, St. John is shown the future glory of the Church, the Bride or Wife of the Lamb standing, as though it had been slain (Revelation 5:6), as St. John is shown the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. And, by the Reading’s end, St. John says that only those enter the city who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. In a special Sunday-morning sermon-series titled, “Resurrection and Revelation”, Pastor Adler and I are focusing on those Second Readings drawn from Revelation this Easter Season, and so today our theme is “The Holy City’s inhabitants are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”.
We heard the New Jerusalem mentioned in last Sunday’s Second Reading in the context of a new heaven, or “sky”, and a new earth, or “ground” (Revelation 21:1-8), and the New Jerusalem is mentioned even earlier in the Revelation to St. John in the context of its name’s being written on those who conquer in Christ (Revelation 3:12). The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel also was shown a similarly‑described structure like a city, where God was to dwell with His people (Ezekiel 40:1-48:35). As was Ezekiel, St. John was taken by the Holy Spirit to a great, high mountain and there given “an otherwise inaccessible … glimpse into” the mysteries of God (TLSB, ad loc Revelation 21:10, p.2234). St. John saw such things as the city’s twelve gates, apparently inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, and St. John saw the city’s twelve foundations, apparently inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb—the combination of the twelve gates and the twelve foundations, like the 24 elders (for example, Revelation 4:4), is often said to show the continuity of the Old Testament and New Testament Church.
Also earlier in Revelation, St. John apparently refers to the Old Jerusalem but calls it the “beloved city” (Revelation 20:9), perhaps reserving the name “Jerusalem” for the new, Holy City. To be sure, the Old Jerusalem was supposed to be holy, too, but too often the people in that city were anything but holy. Through the prophet Isaiah, for example, God condemned its inhabitants for swearing by the name of the Lord and confessing the God of Israel but not in truth or right (Isaiah 48:1-2). So, not surprisingly, when St. John is shown the Holy City of New Jerusalem, there is no possibility of either anything unclean entering into it or anyone doing a detestable thing and falsehood entering into it, if they are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. As Pastor Adler mentioned last week, the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars have their portion in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur (Revelation 21:8; confer Revelation 20:11-15). Because of our sinful nature and our countless, sometimes unspeakable, actual sins, we certainly could not enter eternal life depicted by the New Jerusalem, except for God’s calling and so enabling us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and to want to stop sinning (confer Isaiah 52:1; Daniel 9:24). When we so repent, then God forgives us: our sinful nature and all our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be. Such repentance shows that we are among those written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Today we might be more likely to have a new‑fangled Google Sheet or Excel Workbook than an old‑fashioned paper spreadsheet or parchment ledger, but, no matter how you picture the Holy City’s register of citizens (confer Exodus 32:32-33; Luke 10:20; Philippians 4:3), those who are listed in it are led to receive in faith God’s gracious gift of salvation for Jesus’s sake. Unlike a fallible church membership list or church directory, the infallible Lamb’s Book of Life has had the city’s inhabitants’ names written in it from the foundation of the world (for example, Revelation 17:8), even as the Lamb might be said in some sense to have been slain already from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8 KJV and NIV). The Divinely‑inspired St. Paul similarly writes that God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that in love He predestined us to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, and that in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. As the Old Testament can speak of Israel as God’s wife (for example, Hosea 2:19-20), St. Paul, like Revelation does elsewhere (for example, Revelation 19:7-8), also speaks of the Church as Christ’s bride, telling husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and, on the cross, gave Himself up for Her, that He might sanctify Her, having cleansed Her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that She might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27).
The washing of water with the Word is Holy Baptism, of course, where we are given our names and where God’s Triune Name is put upon us. So closely is the naming in Baptism associated with the Lamb’s Book of Life that a popular Holy Baptism hymn is translated to close with the petition for God to “Write the name we now have given; / Write it in the book of heaven!” (Lutheran Service Book 592:5; compare the German in The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal #300). In today’s First Reading (Acts 16:9-15), the Lord opened Lydia’s heart, and she and her household were baptized, no doubt including infants among her family, her slaves’ families, and the families of those whom she employed. Lydia prevailed upon Paul and those with him to come to and abide at her house, and Paul eventually did, at least briefly, perhaps sharing table fellowship with them all (Acts 16:40). Certainly at this Altar and its Rail, in bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and in wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us, we have what is popularly called a “foretaste” of the marriage supper of the Lamb (confer Revelation 19:9), and thus we have the forgiveness of sins and so also life and salvation.
In each of today’s Readings we see the importance of the various messengers God sends. Notably, in today’s Second Reading, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues showed St. John the Holy City. The messenger not only revealed God’s wrath on the sinful world but also revealed the comforting glory and security God gives His Church for eternity. Likewise, Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading told His disciples that in this world they would have tribulation but that they should take heart; He had overcome the world (John 16:23‑33). Whatever we might suffer in this world will come to an end. Thanks be to God! In St. John’s vision, the New Jerusalem still has a wall, perhaps indicating that God’s care and protection continue in eternal life. There apparently is no need for a Temple to mediate God’s presence, for His people are no longer sinful. If literal, the Holy City’s gates never have to shut against a threat, because death and the devil have been destroyed. Rather, there is abundant entrance for the believers of the world to come and worship.
As much as I still care about the congregation where I vicared, even nearly 30 years later, I care more about this congregation. And, more importantly, God cares about this congregation. We may know its past and present, and, though we do not know this congregation’s future, we know from God’s Word and Sacraments that He has elected us to salvation and predestined us out of His own love, mercy, and grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. “The Holy City’s inhabitants are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”. As we sang in today’s Introit, cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:4, 16-18; antiphon: v.22).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +