Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + 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. (Amen.)
Today, tomorrow, and Tuesday, the local temperature is forecast to be just below, at, or above 100 degrees and probably will feel like something closer to 110! Such weather is truly hot, especially if you come from the coldest state in the United States, that is, Alaska! Meanwhile, in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Erin has intensified to Category‑5 strength and today is swelling waves and sending rain to such places as the U‑S Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where Pilgrim supports a missionary team. The National Hurricane Center is saying that Erin will stay out at sea and so only similarly swell waves and send rain along the U‑S mainland. In today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord Jesus contrasts humans’ knowing how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, such as their correctly anticipating scorching heat and coming rain (compare John 3:8), with humans’ not knowing how to interpret the present time, such as their not thinking that Jesus came to bring judgment and division. We also find that connection between weather and wrath in today’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 23:16-29), as the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah pointed to what was called “the storm of the Lord”, saying, “Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest,” that “will burst upon the head of the wicked” (confer Psalm 11:6). Considering primarily today’s Gospel Reading, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme “The Storm of the Lord”.
At the LeTourneau University Church Fair yesterday, Remo, Nolan, and I spoke with quite a number of incoming students, and a frequent topic was what the students were looking for in a church. Of course, we focused not only on what people want, but we also focused on what people need, which is what we offer especially. In Jeremiah’s day the false prophets told those who despised the Word of the Lord that it would be well with them, and the false prophets told those who stubbornly followed their own heart that no disaster would come upon them. Thus, Jeremiah said, the false prophets filled the people with vain hopes. True prophets like Jeremiah and Jesus burst such bubbles! For example, Jesus said that He came to cast fire on earth and that He came not to give peace but division.
Like all people, by nature you and I despise the Word of the Lord and stubbornly follow our own hearts. We also may have wrong ideas about what Jesus came to do—whether we wrongly think that Jesus came in order to tell us what to do, or whether we wrongly think that Jesus came in order to tell us that it does not matter what we do. We sin against God and against one another in thoughts, words, and deeds. And, as Jeremiah said, there is no secret place where we can hide ourselves that the Lord cannot see us. The Word of the Lord is like fire! Being told that things will be well with us and that no disaster will come upon us may sound nice, but we deserve and will receive punishment now and forever, apart from the Holy Spirit’s leading us to repent. The Holy Spirit enables us to know how to interpret the present times (1 Corinthians 2:10‑14). Through Jeremiah the Lord said that true prophets both proclaim His words to His people and turn His people from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. By His true prophets today, God calls and so enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and at least to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sinful nature and all of our actual sin, whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake. To paraphrase today’s Introit (Psalm 55:1, 12-14, 16; antiphon: v.22), we call to God, and the Lord saves us.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus not only said that He came to cast fire on the earth, and how He would have liked for it already to have been kindled, but Jesus also said that He had a baptism to be baptized with, and how great was His distress until it was accomplished. His coming affects not only the world but also Him! Having received a literal baptism of water and the Holy Spirit at the beginning of His public ministry (for example, Luke 3:21-22), Jesus thus spoke of His death as a figurative baptism. By God the Holy Spirit, God the Son offered Himself to God the Father (confer Scaer, CLD XI:110). In today’s Old Testament Reading, Jeremiah spoke of the Lord’s executing and accomplishing the intents of His heart and of our understanding it clearly in the latter days, which prophecy seems to be fulfilled in today’s Gospel Reading. With God’s great love, Jesus deeply desired to save all people, but, as we heard, clearly not only in the Garden of Gethsemane (for example, Luke 22:41-44) but also throughout His life, Jesus struggled as a true human‑being with what saving all people meant for Him. Yet, as today’s Epistle Reading describes (Hebrews 11:17-12:3), for the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. On the cross, Jesus arguably kindled the fire that He came to cast on the earth. On the cross, Jesus’s “baptism” was accomplished and His distress ended. On the cross, the prophesied Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) gave peace and joy on earth among those with whom God is well‑pleased in Christ (Luke 2:14) so that our hearts would not be troubled (John 14:27). On the cross, Jesus died for us, in our place, and so accomplished our salvation (John 19:30; confer Luther, ad loc Psalm 6:7, AE 10:78). Risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, Jesus now gives the benefits of His cross to those of us who in faith receive His Word, especially His Word in its sacramental forms.
In today’s Epistle Reading, the so‑called “Roll Call of Faith” includes the faithful “prophets”, predecessors of faithful pastors today. Faithful pastors read and preach God’s Word, His law and His Gospel, to groups such as this group, and faithful pastors apply God’s Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for us in the Holy Supper. In all of these ways, God Himself is at hand, working through His called and ordained servants, in order to save us through Baptism (for example, 1 Peter 3:21), forgive our sins through Absolution (for example, Matthew 18:18), and give us eternal life through the Supper (for example, John 6:54). Perhaps nowhere more than at the Altar Rail is there the necessary division between repentant and unrepentant, believers and unbelievers, those who confess one faith and those who confess another faith (confer 1 Corinthians 11:18-19).
As we heard in the Gospel Reading, peace with God means division on earth. The righteous are separated from the unrighteous, and, like political differences and other ideological issues, that religious separation can be yet another generational family‑split, though, notably, Jesus does not say which generation is with Him and which generation is against Him (confer Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). One’s enemies might be the people of his or her own household (Micah 7:6), but that fact does not give people of either generation the right to ignore their vocational responsibilities to the people of the other generation (confer Luther, Explanation of John 18:36 [1529], cited by Plass, #1728, pp.569-570 [confer AE 69:211-212]). Such familial division can be a cross that we have to bear (confer Pieper, III:70). Even when family members turn away from the faith, betray one another, and hate one another for Jesus’s Name sake (Matthew 24:10; 10:22), we can be sure that we are still under God’s goodwill (confer Luther, Annotations on Matthew 10:34, AE 67:113-114). And, we still have our new family, brothers and sisters in Christ, born of baptismal water and sharing Christ’s Blood.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, we know how to interpret the present time and think rightly about why Jesus Came, that is, in order for the Father to forgive us our sins. Although the figurative fire of judgment is to some extent here already now, “The Storm of the Lord” one day will come with literal fire and brimstone, but in Christ we have nothing to fear. Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +