Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity: November 21, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
The German Pastor Philipp Nicolai was born a decade after Martin Luther died. He was trained at the University of Erfurt, the same school where Luther had started instruction in the Law before he dropped out and suddenly changed his major. Nicolai completed his theological training at none other than the University of Wittenberg, at about the same time when the Formula of Concord resolved the several great Lutheran doctrinal controversies of all time and became part of our Book of Concord, the ten Lutheran Confessions that our congregation has sworn to attest as true and pure Bible teaching. Imagine those historic documents coming fresh off the press as the young preacher Philipp began his ministry. After about a decade serving a nobleman’s family, he served a parish in a small town in Westphalia, when the bubonic plague struck the entire area, killing over 1300 people, including Philipp’s wife and most of his children, and decimated the parish to a mere handful of faithful souls in one summer. He looked out his parsonage window at the church cemetery, where there was not a day that went by without several burials taking place, up to even thirty of them a day.
Pastor Nicolai, perhaps while looking out that window at all those fresh graves, resolved to think about nothing but the sheer joy of Eternal Life in the blessed wounds of Jesus Christ, and wrote poems and hymns based on what he found in the Bible about this holy and this certain hope. He recalled hearing a song from the Middle Ages, a tune that would have been sung by a town’s night watchman back in those days, scolding any would-be evildoers to scurry away into the darkness and not harm the peaceful citizens getting their rest within the city walls. Philipp Nicolai wrote a magnificent hymn, starting with that same medieval watchman song, but expanding it into a melody of his very own, with words that turned it on its head. Instead of telling the children of darkness to flee, Nicolai assumed the role of spiritual watchman, and wrote a hymn that calls for all the children of light to come forth, for the wise virgins from Matthew chapter 25 to take their lamps full of oil, and meet the coming Lord Jesus as the Midnight of the Bridegroom’s arrival comes ever closer. The hymn is known to us English speakers as Wake Awake, for Night is Flying, our opening hymn today.
A plague of mass devastation can certainly remind us that this sinful, cursed world is passing away, and other signs could also point us decisively to the fact that Christ is coming again soon, any day now, for the Last Judgment. But our Epistle reading, from St. Paul’s letter to the churches in the city of Thessalonica, the city by the sea on the rocky Greek coast, reminds us that there are more important things than signs and days to consider about the end of the world. In fact, there are three points from our reading today that we should remember and consider:
1. We need to be ready constantly for the Last Day.
2. We must keep watch with a true and active faith in Jesus. And
3. We need to help one another keep ready and watchful.
First, the Last Day is coming. That is a certainty. Even though the precise date will never be known until it actually happens, we still need to be ready for it to come anytime. It will come like a thief in the night, the Apostle warns us. No one selling a burglar alarm will tell their clients, “You won’t have anybody break into your house until next Friday, so don’t turn on your alarm system till then.” No, instead they would insist that you begin arming your alarm tonight and don’t ease up on your vigilance. Plan on it happening anytime, so you’re not taken completely unawares when it does happen. In this region we are advised to be prepared for disasters like fires and earthquakes, if only for the fact that once something like that happens, your remaining time to prepare has whittled down to zero. We need not be fearful or panicked about the end of the world, so long as we are prepared and ready. It’s our salvation, after all, that is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Next, Jesus told the parable of the wedding banquet and the ten virgin wedding attendants in order to teach us how to be prepared and ready. Waiting for the Day of Judgment will be difficult, even wearying for every one of us. Our Lord reminds us that all the virgins fell asleep as they waited, but only five of them were ready at the stroke of midnight when they all were awakened by the groom’s arrival. What is the oil that you need in your lamp?
Paul chose to employ the image of a breastplate, a protective armor of faith and love. Both of those, faith and love, are essential to your end of days preparedness plan. Without faith in Jesus, your self-chosen works of love come up short. You think you are doing good things, but you’re doing them to help yourself only, and you are not allowing Christ to do His good works through you. And if your faith is not accompanied by your love for others, then it turns out you have a dead faith, and you’ve been trying to believe in something else besides Jesus Christ, who was crucified for you.
Faith and love together are your preparation for the End. Just like the foolish virgins couldn’t buy oil anywhere at midnight, you cannot buy your spiritual necessities at any dealer, for the Holy Spirit gives these to you for free in your baptism. Hear your spiritual night watchman singing out: You are children of light, rather than the darkness. God has named you His own, no matter who you are or what you’ve done. Do not get your spirit drunk on the things that are of value in this fallen, sinful world. Instead, your Lord calls you to the wedding hall of the Divine Service, so that you may feast upon the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Every week, every Lord’s Day brings you closer and closer to the great wedding banquet that follows the Last Judgment. It will be a wedding banquet we’ll enjoy forever; you’ll not want to miss it. Be ready at a moment’s notice to leave behind anything that tries to tear you away from the eternal kingdom, the inheritance of your Savior Jesus. No one can believe for you; this must be the refrain of your heart: I am God’s child!
Which brings up our third point. As the Last Day and the Final Judgment approaches, we need to help one another keep ready and watchful for the coming of Jesus. As the five wise virgins could not spare their oil with the five foolish at the moment when the groom was to arrive, so also you cannot share any of your own personal faith to help your loved one or neighbor, but while there is still time you can invite them to God’s Word and to His Holy Table, where faith and love are still being handed out for them in abundance. You can pray for those who are still attracted to the things of darkness, and in this way you arm them also with God’s protection. You can share with them the absolute truth that we read in First Thessalonians, none of us is destined for wrath, but instead God our heavenly Father has chosen us in Christ to obtain an eternal salvation. Whether awake or asleep, whether it’s our loved ones who are resting in their graves, or it’s we who are mourning over their loss, we will live with Him. Until then, we comfort and build up one another, not neglecting to meet together as God’s Church so long as we see that the great Last Day is approaching.
Yes, the End of the World is a real thing. Just because it seems that these days only the overly zealous Christian denominations and cults get too preoccupied with the End Times, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about them in light of God’s Word and prepare properly for the Last Judgment. Instead, we need to keep a constant watch for our Lord’s return. We must maintain a true faith that is active with good works of love. And we are called upon to help keep one another watchful over against this increasingly evil world. This is our role as God’s children who are in the world, but not of this world, which is soon to pass away. Whether you will be called to be with the Lord, or He will come to visit us Himself before your death, it doesn’t matter; you will receive the life everlasting that you were promised. With Pastor Philipp Nicolai we all, after a brief time of trial and sadness, may look forward together with joy at that awe-inspiring moment that is coming soon; the moment when we gather around Christ’s radiant throne, enter through the gates made of a single pearl, and sing His praise eternally.
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings:
Is. 65:17–25 behold, I create new heavens and a new earth
Psalm 149 His praise in the assembly of saints
1 Thess. 5:1–11 the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
Matt. 25:1–13 ten virgins who took their lamps