Pentecost 22/Proper 28 Zepheniah 1:7-16 1 Thess 5:1-11 Matthew 25:14-30
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Old Testament Lesson just read. Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ, “the great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there. A day
of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and
devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick
darkness.” The day is coming, and our
text today paints a grim picture of what will happen.
We are now in the
last few weeks of the church year, and as we draw near to the end of the church
year, we remember the coming end to our world.
St. Peter tells us that the end of the world will come with fire (I
Peter 3:7) for the judgment of ungodly people.
We see all sorts of movies and televisions shows depicting the end of
the world, and even they cannot depict the gruesomeness of it. It is a scary prospect, that all we know, all
we have ever experienced, all we have ever seen will be destroyed in one
day.
So often we are
afraid of the end of the world. So often
we are afraid of the judgment that will one day befall us. And dear friends in Christ, there is a good
reason for that. For we truly deserve
and have earned the promise of destruction.
We deserve what our text today describes, “At that time I will search
Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who
say in their hearts, The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.' Their goods shall be plundered, and their
houses laid waste. Though they build
houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall
not drink wine from them.” In other
words, the worldly will not be able to enjoy the wonderful things they have prepared
for themselves.
Why do we deserve
this? Why must we face this promise of
destruction and punishment? Why must we
face the thought of all we love and know being destroyed. Friends, you know the answer. You have not loved God with your whole
heart. You have not loved your neighbor
as yourself. You have not perfectly fulfilled
God’s will, you have not pleased him with your thoughts. Instead, you, just like me, just like every
other person, has filled your life with filth and sin. We have made ourselves the judge of the
world, and we boldly cry out to the vices of this world, “I will make you mine!”
Sex and violence
fill our televisions and our computer screens, and we keep watching. Anger and hate fill our hearts, and we smile
as we spread it around some more to those who surround us. We disobey our parents, we disobey the
government. We cheat, we steal, we do
all sorts of horrible things. In other
words dear friends in Christ, we are
sinners. There is no escaping it,
just as there is no escaping the punishment for that sin, death and
destruction. We are the reason that this
world will come to an end. We are the reason
that fire will destroy all we know. Its
because of you and because of me.
So what can we
do? How can we escape the destruction of
sin? How do we save ourselves. In countless movies we watch those who are
facing the end of the world miraculously save it. In the movie Armageddon, they prevent
the asteroid from destroying earth. In I
am Legend, Will Smith invents a vaccine to save humanity. In the War of the Worlds, a virus stops the
aliens, and in 2012 they miraculously drive, fly, and run away before devastating
destruction only to be saved at the last minute. Can’t we in a similar fashion save ourselves
from sin and death?
Friends, you
cannot. The situation is too dire. Your sin is too great. You are lost in your sin, and you cannot save
yourself. To put it bluntly – THERE IS
NOT ONE LITTLE THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT YOUR SIN!
Our text says, “Be silent before the LORD God!” You cannot make an excuse. Be silent!
You cannot talk your way out of it.
Be silent! You cannot tell God a
lie about why you are in sin. He knows
the truth, and he knows what it will cost.
It requires death. It requires
the shedding of blood, for without the
shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. (Hebrews 9:22).
But hear what our
text today says, “For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a
sacrifice and consecrated his guests.”
He has prepared a sacrifice for you.
He has prepared the necessary blood atonement to avert your
destruction. He sent Jesus to the cross
to keep you safe from destruction and to give you eternal life. He sent Jesus to shed his blood on behalf of
all those sins that infect your life. He sent his one and only begotten son, that
all who believe in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
And having sent
Jesus to a bloody death, and having resurrected him from the dead, Jesus now
consecrates his guests. The word
consecrated means to wash and make clean and holy, to set it apart for holy
usage. Dear friends, our text says that
he has consecrated you, that in the sacrifice of Jesus you were made holy. How?
Or don’t you know, that when you were baptized, you were baptized into
the death of Jesus. You were therefore
buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new
life. (Romans 6:3) A new life consecrated to God. A new life
forgiven in the blood of Jesus.
I tell you the
truth dear friends in Christ, because of what Jesus has done, when God looks at
you he does not see your sin, not even what you believe is your most glaring
fault. When God looks at you, he sees
only Jesus blood, he sees only a baptized forgiven child, he sees only the
holiness that Jesus gives to you in baptism.
And now forgiven
by Jesus, we need not fear the destruction at the end of times. We need to fear even our own death, for death
has been swallowed up forever in Jesus.
On that great and dreadful day the end of the world finally arrives,
those who trust in Jesus will but enter into eternal life, not death. Peace, not destruction. Joy, not terror. Our faith, the great gift of God that receives
God’s gifts, will save us and bring us into something more wonderful than we can
understand. As our epistle lesson says, “For God has not destined us for wrath,
but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us
so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.” Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD
has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. As a baptized child of God, you will be
ushered into eternity in peace and comfort.
Fear not, the Lord is with you.
Amen.
