Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 19, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

It is now the week of Christmas and the Church would have us consider the question: “Who are you?” John the Baptist would teach us how to answer. It is not: “I am John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, prophet in the power of Elijah and forerunner of the Lord.” That answer is not sufficient. The names by which we are called, the jobs in which we toil, the people whom we love and who love us, even the offices to which God has called us are secondary. None of these define us so much as the Baby who was born from Mary’s virgin womb.

Who are you? Frantic last-minute gift-shopper, baker, decorator, and party-goer? Grandmother, freeway driver, and dishwasher? Sinner? On the last day none of that will matter. Here is what matters, and John gave the proper answer: I am not the Christ. You are not the Christ. But – but, but!!! There is a Christ! There is a Messiah, One prophesied by the prophets, anointed by the Father in the Jordan’s dirty, sin-soaked water, the Promised Coming One. There is a Christ! He felt the sting of Pilate’s lash. He bore a crown of thorns. He had the flesh of His hands and feet violently pierced by nails. They held Him to the accursed tree made into the Tree of Life, the blessed cross from whence comes all our joy, o fruited wood that delivers the healing medicine of Life.

There is a Christ! He is the One in David’s line who made adulterous Bathsheba into a virgin bride and the prostitute Rahab into a pillar of the community. He made deceiving Jacob’s sons into twelve noble tribes, a people who were no people, and brought them through the sea on dry ground. He is the Christ, our Messiah. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world. Because He is, and always has been, you have come to be, and you will continue to be—in and through and thanks to–Him.

Who are you? You are not Him. You are not the Christ. But –you are Christians. You wear His Name. You’ve been washed in His Blood. You eat His flesh, hear His Word, pray His prayers, die His death, and live His life. He was born, so are you from above. He died, so have you, a watery, drowning death. He was raised, so are you, in faith and grace and He calls you by His own Name. You are His. Who are you? You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the Name that was placed upon you. You are not the Christ. You are not God. But God’s Name was given to you. That holy Name opens wide heaven’s gates to you. It drives away the demons that want to attack you. It banishes your guilt, fear, and shame to Hell’s deepest pit, and those enemies no longer have control over you.

Hell now hath no fury—at all— because of this holy Name, because God now has hands and feet that can be pierced, and they were, because God has a brow on which He will wear the thorny crown, because God has eyes to weep. Hell hath no fury. The holy Life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has taken care of that. So it is true that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But neither then does it have a fury like a king tricked by wisemen with gifts from the East. It has no fury either like Caiaphas pretending to be outraged at an imagined blasphemy. Hell hath no fury, none at all, not the slightest bit, not even fury like that which you feel when you get attacked on Facebook for having a unique opinion, or even when the gas price goes up yet another nickel or dime overnight! For Hell has no fury, none at all. It has not even a minor annoyance or disappointment. Hell’s fires, Hell’s demands, Hell’s accusations have all been met. The Savior of the Nations has crushed the devil’s head with His bruised heel. And this Hollywood gets right. The cross actually drives off the vampires. The cross of Jesus Christ, that innocent suffering for the sins of the world has satisfied all that Justice demanded. Neither the devil, nor vampires, nor werewolves, nor ghosts or monsters of any form or depraved imagination, nor demons, nor governments, nor synods have a claim on us. There is no one to accuse you. Jesus has saved you. In Him, you are safe. His cross has driven off death. You are not the Christ. But, thanks be to God, there is a Christ.

It is true, of course, that Our Lord Jesus Christ grew up. He is no longer a baby. Nor does He now sleep in a manger. He is risen from the dead and lives. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of His Father. He rules the Universe as a Man, advocating and mediating for us. And yet, come Christmas time, we still place little statues of a baby in the nativity scenes. Empty mangers just wouldn’t do. But putting a baby in a manger doesn’t mean we think that Jesus is still a baby. Still, we want to remember that He was a baby, that He came down to earth and entered our world, that He took up our flesh and suffered all we suffer and worse, that He was weak and lowly for us, in order to redeem us. It’s not required, but still a good thing to remember to bow when we say in the Creed: “and was Incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” It is the same reason we put babies into mangers. This is the highest mystery and the most concrete manifestation of God’s love. Because God loved the world He sent His Son. That is what the word “for” means at the beginning of John 3:16, because. Because He loved the world He sent His Son, and this is how He loved the world: He sent His Son. He took up our flesh. He became one of us to be our substitute, to pay our penalty, to rescue us by a payment made, a Divine exchange.

So if we don’t have mangers without a Baby Jesus, we should also have crosses with Jesus pictured as crucified on them. We want the baby there to remind us of God’s humanity in the Christ and the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. To take the baby out of the manger merely because Jesus isn’t a baby anymore would be as ridiculous as insisting that we only have empty crosses. The cross is a symbol of the Sacrifice Jesus made. We preach Christ crucified. Even an empty cross still represents the crucifixion or it has no place in Christian worship or homes. Of course we prefer to see a body on the cross, even as we prefer a baby in the manger. It is not necessary for worship, but the baby in the manger and the body on the cross reminds us of God’s humanity, that God Himself has suffered for us in our skin, as one of us, in weakness and humility, to make us His and set us free, and that we can approach Him through that very same human flesh and blood of His.

So who are you? You are not the Christ. Neither is John. But there is a Christ. He is your Christ. For you are Baptized. You have been called by the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You wear His cross around your neck. You are One with Him. You are the Temple of His Holy Spirit. Heaven’s gates are open wide to you. There is a Christ! It is Jesus, the Son of Mary, as we will remember again this week He was born in Bethlehem, and you are His forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Deut. 18:15–19 a Prophet like me from your midst … Him you shall hear
Psalm 111 The works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them
Phil. 4:4–7 Let your gentleness be known to all men
John 1:19–28 this is the testimony of John

Sermon for the Wednesday of Advent III: December 15, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The hymn (LSB 561) says that the tree of life, with every good fruit, that once stood in Eden’s holy orchard, is now found within the cross of wood, the tree of Jesus’ shame. We are used to seeing lowliness and humility employed for the Lord’s highest good. Just think of our Infant Savior Himself, as the upcoming Christmas Gospel will recall, He was wrapped up in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The angels announced the good news to poor shepherds who were watching their flocks by night.

However, the cross is in a category that takes us far beyond the humility of our great Savior. Yes, He stooped down low in order to serve us and submit to the worst of the evils of men. He could have called upon twelve armies of angels to protect Himself, but He allowed the Temple soldiers to arrest Him without a fight. What humiliation that was! At least Samson had Delilah who tricked him into giving up his Divine strength. Jesus was conquered with no cunning needed.

As a Baby, He was not exactly shamed or put through great agony just to be laid in a manger. On the other hand, both shame and horrible pain are true when it comes to the cross. The manger certainly prepared us for the cross, but only one is for us the instrument for our salvation. When Jesus was laid in the manger (whether He was crying or not crying, the jury’s out on that question) the time was not yet for Him to die for us. He had to flee to Egypt from King Herod, just so 30 years later, Pontius Pilate could wash his hands and send our Lord to His execution.

It is also significant that our Lord commanded His disciples to take up their cross as they follow Him. Notice that He did not say, lay down and sleep in a manger and follow Me. Take up your cross takes more out of you and me than just, “Take a deep breath and be a more humble human being.” Our sinful nature doesn’t like crosses. Christmas morning is a much happier thought in our minds than Good Friday at twilight.

Take up your cross means, get ready to suffer, to be rejected for My sake, to bear a burden that you think at the moment is going to be too much for you. You want to save your life for yourself? Then you won’t be able to take up the cross, the way Jesus requires of us. Do you want to substitute some other way to show off your Christian faith? It may impress many people, but you aren’t going to fool God. You could gain the whole world, win the lottery, have everybody like you, fulfill your dream- bucket list, but if you forfeit the cross of Christ, you forfeit your soul, your very life for eternity.

Last week we found that you make the tree good by means of a good confession of the truth. Now we realize that the fruit of that tree not only includes the fruit of good works and God’s blessings, but also along with those must necessarily come the suffering of the cross.

Why me? you may ask. What is gained by my suffering if it is true that nothing I do will gain salvation for myself or anybody else? I thought only Christ and what He did for the world was all that mattered. What is there still left to do if Jesus accomplished it all on His cross? What was His reason for placing the burden of a cross on those who follow after Him?

I’m sure Jesus could have seen that question brewing in the minds of His disciples right away, so He set their minds at ease. “If the world hates you,” (Uh, Jesus? You might as well say, “When the world hates you…”) “Then remember that it has hated Me first…. I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The sons of darkness saw the light, yet hated it, and loved and preferred the darkness instead.

Mankind in opposition to God knows what it’s getting when people are told, do better, give more, sacrifice yourself. You’re talking the world’s language. But when Jesus says, Take up your cross, you become passive. You receive suffering. You don’t go out and make a difference and get your reward. You instead do what common sense tells you is the total opposite of what will help you.

It’s the same thing with the cross that Jesus bore. His sacrifice and death did not look like a simple feat of humility and love for fellow men, and all of that sentimental, do-a-good-turn stuff that too often gets the top billing at Christmas time these days. If you remember to be nice to people and think of them with a proper gift, then you’ve fulfilled your duty.

Jesus’ cross, however, is something that we cannot copy. We cannot be perfect like Jesus, or give up our life that will make a sufficient satisfaction for another. Our Lord is far and above us in the category of love.

But remember that it is not a contest. We run the race with Him, but it’s not like we are not trying to match our Savior’s record. Take up your cross is not merely to act more like Jesus, and do the same things that He did. It means instead that we entrust our entire lives to Him, placing our bodies and souls entirely into His hands. We pray to our heavenly Father in His name because He willingly entered His holy presence with His own blood for our sake.

Confess your sins before Him, agree with the condemning Law that you don’t measure up, that you have failed your Lord and His will for you. But as you take up your own cross to follow Him, look to His cross as your lifeline, your tree of life, with twelve kinds of fruit yielding constantly in your life.

The Tree of Life will be found in the cross of wood for a little while longer. For as long as our Advent still looks forward to the glorious coming of our Savior from out of the clouds, we will still struggle and suffer. We will sin, and we’re not going to like it, but our pain will turn our attention ever closer to Jesus.

Then, when He does come, we will wash in the pure water of His forgiveness that streams out from the pierced side of the Lamb who was slain. We will obtain the every good that God had wanted us to find in the tree of life. With Christ as the good fruit that came to us from the tree of the cross, our Advent expectation will be met not only with Christmas joy, but with end of the world glory.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent: December 12, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Have you ever had two Christmases happen in the same year? It happens more often than we tend to realize. The first Christmas is the one we visualize in our mind’s eye, the one we expect to happen, and the second one is the Christmas that actually transpires. Some years there is quite a difference that occurs between the expectation and the reality. For many people, the disappointment is so great that they would just rather not celebrate Christmas at all. The pain is too heavy, whether it was a loved one who died around Christmas time, or a tragic crisis, or an unreconciled hurt in a relationship, it just makes the holidays unbearable.

Multiply that by 10 and you’ll be able to feel some empathy toward John the Baptist. Today’s Gospel pictures him not as the bold prophet preaching with conviction, baptizing thousands in the Jordan River, nor as the fearless critic of the royal family’s marital shenanigans. No, the adulterous King Herod threw John in a miserable prison, to await a certain death by execution, and he had nothing but time to think about how things actually turned out. Instead of two Christmases, John the Baptist was thinking he was witnessing two vastly different Messiahs, and the difference was threatening to debilitate him in his spirit.

On the one hand, John proclaimed a mighty Messiah wielding the utter wrath of God, with winnowing fork in His hand to separate wheat from chaff, whose sandals he was unworthy to untie. On the other hand, the Messiah John heard about in prison was disappointingly gentle in comparison. Sure, he had pointed his finger to Jesus and announced Him to be the “Lamb of God,” knowing full well what happens to any lamb that takes away anyone’s sin, let alone the One who takes away the sin of the whole world. John was clearly aware that Jesus would suffer and die, but it wasn’t exactly looking like what he had imagined. So, he sent his messengers to make their way to Jesus.

Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another? John speaks for all of us in the Church. Is Jesus worth all of this trouble? Will it really make a difference in our lives if we were loyal Christian believers or not? Before you know it, we’ve placed ourselves right alongside John the Baptist sitting in that dungeon, feeling disconnected from the joy of knowing Christ our Savior, and disappointed at how short our actual has fallen from the expected.

You’ll be relieved to hear that Jesus did not reprimand John for his brief bout of weak faith. I would suppose that our Lord was even able to keep that look off his face, you know, the look we can’t put away but it always gives us and our true feelings away whenever we’re disappointed in someone. Instead, Jesus praised John for his utter faithfulness to his given ministry as the prophet sent to go before the Lord to prepare His way. Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. He is anything but a reed swayed by the wind, or a metrosexual man of dandy fashion. And John was indeed a faithful preacher of the Word, even while in prison, because just as he had throughout his baptizing ministry shifted all focus to Christ, saying “He must increase, I must decrease,” so he continues to refer his disciples to the Lord, preferring to hang on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God Himself.

And Jesus doesn’t disappoint with the answer John is eager to hear. He reassures His saddened prophet with the signs that Jesus is accomplishing His work: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Creation is beginning to be restored, sin and its curse are being put to flight, even death itself is fleeing at the good news that Our Lord preaches. And this in particular for John, and it is also for you and me today: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.” Offended? How can we be offended? For us, it often happens in a more subtle way. You and I can all too easily let the disappointments we face take over our attitude, and then before you know it, you end up offended that you have to suffer so much, that life is too difficult, and the hurt and the pain seem to be too much to bear.

When you’re in a prison such as this, you can recall the signs that Jesus is accomplishing His work among us, too. You can believe the servant of Christ, the steward of God’s mysteries when he tells you, In the stead and by the command of my Lord, I forgive you all your sins. You can remember that you’ve been baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only for the forgiveness of your sins, but for your guarantee that you are a child of God, with an inheritance that no principality or power can ever take away from you. You can also feast upon the body and blood of Christ, the delivery into your very own flesh and blood of the price your Savior paid for your eternal salvation. These are your miracles that lift up your head and give you encouragement while you wait for the full experience of this salvation that you already possess.

Finally, you can share His encouragement with others who are disappointed, not merely with their Christmas expectations, but they say, if not in words, at least in their actions and attitudes they wonder, Are you, Jesus, the One we are waiting for, or should we look for another Savior? Tell them what you hear and see in God’s house today: You can assure them, as you yourself are assured, that no matter what loss or trial you have suffered, you have all of it restored and even more in the promise of forgiveness, resurrection, and the life of the world to come. That is more than enough to drown out the offense to Jesus that tries to sway us with doubt. With a steadfast faith in Jesus, a faith like John the Baptist had, you and your loved ones possess instead a true Advent joy.

You can trust that even though the wait until Christ comes again is hard and long, and your life’s disappointments, whether they’re over differences in the two Christmases, or they’re of a more significant nature, you have true cause to rejoice. You have right now everything that Jesus paid for with His blood on the cross. You have right now the power of His resurrection from the dead, which conquers all discouragement, anxiety, sin and sin’s curse, and that power is handed to you. You’ve been reconciled to God, and He reconciles you to your neighbor, the one you know who needs to hear a forgiving word from you.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God! Relieve your heavy load of pain, and let your heart rest in pure Advent joy, knowing that although the grass withers and the flower fades, still the Word of our God endures forever, the Word that promises and delivers the one thing that will truly remove all disappointment. Look no further for any other deliverer, for here in God’s house is where Jesus gives you all you need for you to rejoice.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Is. 40:1–11 Comfort, yes, comfort My people! …
Psalm 85 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him.
1 Cor. 4:1–5 judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes
Matt. 11:2–11 Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?

Advent Midweek: December 8, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

When you typically think about “your faith,” so to speak, you usually think of your own personal trust in God. What comes to mind typically is your own specific way in which you prevailed through all those trials and troubles of life. Many people told me when they were in the hospital or mourning the loss of loved ones over the years, they said, Pastor, I don’t think I could have made it half as well if I didn’t have my faith.

I knew what they meant. They were saying really that the Lord had strengthened them all along, even though they didn’t come right out and say precisely that. They credited it to their faith, or to people’s prayers, not to deny that God was doing all of it all along, but I suppose they just used a sort of spiritual shorthand in order for them to talk about it. I don’t want to come across as a persnickety hair-splitter at those sensitive moments, so I typically don’t say anything to correct them right then and there.

Yet correction needs to come sometime, so why not tonight, right? Your faith is not some inner ability that you have to see a positive spin on everything. If it were, then clinical depression wouldn’t afflict anyone who was a Christian. Sadly, it does. A relentless happy countenance or a dogged sense of positive thinking are not the unmistakable signs of a healthy faith, no matter how good these qualities may look to other people. Nothing is wrong with your faith if right now you are sad.

Once again, the Bible helps us out this Advent with the image of a tree. Jesus said, “Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit will result to be bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” Perhaps that by itself doesn’t help all that much, so He adds some more: “Good people do the good things that are in them. But evil people do the evil things that are in them.” That’s the good treasure and evil treasure that our reading was talking about.

That may get us somewhere. Good deeds can be seen. They are what the Bible refers to as good fruit coming from a good tree. You can measure this kind of fruit. It has a standard to which you may compare them—you know good works and good fruit because you have the Ten Commandments telling you what is pleasing to God and what is an utter offense to Him. A Christian should start doing good works, so that their faith can reveal the good fruit from a good tree.

There’s no mystery to it, then: no tricky feelings to decipher inside, no secret knowledge or hidden code to reveal some dark truth. The Law of God can easily tell you whose tree is good and whose is bad. You just have to examine the fruits in light of the Commandments. Have you changed your tune? Have you dedicated your life to serving the Lord and Him alone? Have you effectively lived out the life of Christ in your every thought, word and deed?

Of course, then the Law leads you to a big problem. You don’t have any good fruit. When that kind of standard gets measured against you, then you don’t stand a chance of being a good tree. I know I don’t, either. I am a sinner, and sinners sin. I know you are, too. God’s Word tells me as much, and I’ll believe that every time, despite anything you may have to say to the contrary.

So the command of Christ, “Make the tree good,” cannot be fulfilled by our efforts to follow the Law. There is no way to good fruit by that route, and yet that’s the exclusive way our world attempts to achieve that goal for ourselves. All have sinned and fall short, Paul told us. The Law leaves us no option but to give up.

Yet, ironically, giving up- that’s our best and only hope! When we thought, with all that we have had to go through in life as Christians, as people stuck with a lot in life that nobody would ever envy, that all would be hopelessly lost for us, that’s when our Savior Jesus stepped in for our rescue! “Make the tree good,” was not your job to fulfill, but His!

Jesus made the tree good when He purified you from your sin. He inhabited your human flesh at every stage of life in order to make your human existence a blessed one. From the earliest stages in the womb to a body laid in a grave, your Lord went through it all in your place. He was assigned the sinful, bad fruit that you bore, and He suffered the penalty for disobeying God, even though He was innocent. When He rose from the dead on the third day, He declared you and all the world free from sin. You are a good tree, by grace!

The Holy Spirit has produced in you not just your own particular faith, your God-given ability to withstand the evils of this world. He has given you a fruit of faith that not even the Law can measure—He has given you the Faithful One, Christ your Savior, so that with your own mouth you may agree with the Word of faith that you have heard with your own ears, from the mouth of one who has been called and sent by Him to preach it.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. To say, “Jesus is Lord,” is not to admit that He should be the one telling you what to do, that you should act more like Jesus. No, to say “Jesus is Lord,” means you know that you can expect no good thing to come to you except through Christ. That whatever blessing you may cherish and hang on to in this life, it is complete rubbish in comparison to knowing that your sins are forgiven. That you are even now a member of our Lord’s kingdom, you are His own. That you are purchased and won from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.

Admitting that basic Scriptural truth is exactly the Word of faith that you proclaim, and that you don’t have all on your own. It is the one Word of faith that you share with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the Word that you believe, even though for now you cannot see it or experience it. You may even think that you are still producing bad fruit, the way that the Law measures it. But that does not matter, because in you, because He died and rose for you, Jesus made the tree good already. That has made your fruit good in Him.

You don’t need to call upon any inner strength that you might call “faith” for you to rely on. You call upon God Himself to step in for you. He has promised that He already would. Go ahead and pray for those around you. It’s not your prayer that will deliver them, to be precise. It’s our heavenly Father, to whom you pray, who will make good on His promise to save. Your fruit is good, starting with a good, sound confession, a public profession of the faith that then leads to the works that Jesus Christ is pleased to perform through you.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent: December 5, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

What comforting signs God has in mind for you who are living in these end-times! But they look pretty scary at the same time. Judgment Day is near, as Jesus promises, and along with it come the signs: armies laying siege, people fleeing Jerusalem, great distress on the earth, wrath against this people, signs in sun and moon and stars, distress of nations from the sea and the waves, people fainting in fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. Sounds like the news headlines of any given day! Disaster and destruction everywhere! We’re taking a risk just getting out the door in the morning! And these are the signs with which Jesus wants to encourage you?! Listen again to what He says: “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

But why is it so important for today, for this season of Advent, to know so much about what will happen in the future? What use can you make of these “highway signs” while you are so intent on the present-day road that you and yours are traveling in life? It would seem to be enough these days to juggle school, home and work schedules, run to endless meetings and get-togethers, handle the occasional crises that come up, keep up on your e-mails and phone calls. Then, if all that weren’t enough, you add the holidays coming up, with shopping, cooking, traveling and cleaning that’ll make you crazy. Anyway, the point is clear: it’s so easy to get engulfed in cares and concerns of the present, that you lose sight of the goal of our precious Christian faith, that is, our eternal salvation.

That’s why these signs are so scary-looking. That’s probably why the Bible says only a few things about what the full glory of heaven will be like. It’s all designed, quite intentionally, to shake you out of the present-day worries and needs and fleeting pleasures. You have fallen for the strangle-hold of the here-and-now. Your eyes may be glued to entertainment screens and your thoughts fixed on minor inconveniences. Earlier in Luke chapter 21, the people were amazed at those massive temple stones. In the very same way, you are enthralled by anything that steals your attention from Jesus and His glorious coming.

The passing, temporary things of this life remain the most important to you, even though you’re objecting even now, thinking: I’ve got my priorities straight, I’m doing my part. And although you can give one testimonial after another about how God has blessed you in your life, showing everyone else how thankful you are to Him, your Lord still knows your heart. He sees when you begrudge the difficult times that you’re facing. You cave in to your secret weaknesses because that’s so much easier than to remain strong. He has created in you a clean heart, and you don’t waste a moment getting it dirty again with sinful thoughts, words and deeds.

Of course, it is easier for a Christian to think of the heavenly things when there is very little to hope for on this earth. That explains the stories of death-bed conversions or renewals of faith. It brings to life what Jesus says— that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The more faith that you have invested in the things of this world and the here-and-now, the less faith you have to put in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. If your earthly life were in danger every day, like it is right now for many believers around the world (I’m thinking especially about those Christians who continually face persecution at the hands of Muslim governments and armies); if you were in their situation, then you would be bowed down, crushed to the ground since you cannot count on any blessings that you can see. And yet at that moment, when you give up on everything you hope for in this life, that’s when the Lord takes His opportunity to raise your head in true hope of your redemption, that is, your heavenly rescue that is just around the corner.

So you who live in the comfortable, freedom-loving United States of America, although you may just be getting by in a state like ours, yet you still have food and shelter and a few of what you call the “necessary comforts,” you who may even have some of the nice things that money or plastic can buy: what hope is there for you? You are not persecuted, you are not homeless, or suffering a complete lack of adequate medical care (at least not yet!). Sorry if I’m making it sound like a bad thing, but you may not have anything going on in your life so utterly drastic that it’s automatically built-in to force you to appreciate the true, heavenly joy that is already hidden in the forgiving word of God, the everyday water in the baptismal font, the common bread and wine that is offered this table. It can be bad because many other desires of your heart can get in the way. And even though you are often tempted to look for that heavenly joy in emotionally touching and entertaining worldly things, the gift remains yours without anything you have to do for it. This free gift also means that you are completely transformed by the grace of God that was given to you in your Baptism. He sets you at war against your own sinful human nature, but it is a war that He will win for you.

Because the decisive victory in that battle wasn’t your decision to follow Jesus. It wasn’t when you stood up in public and confessed the Christian faith, as exhilarating as that may have felt. If you only had to rely on the strength of your faith or those emotional mountain-top experiences, then you’ll be left with nothing when those things fade during difficult times. No, the decisive victory in the war you face every day was already won for you when Jesus suffered for your sins and died on the cross to give you eternal life. That remains the only hope you have, whether you are barely getting by, or living on Easy Street. And in the end, especially at the end of this temporary world, that is all that matters to you. For that humble Savior who died unjustly under the Divine curse, is the same Son of Man who is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity, and will return soon in a cloud with power and great glory.

So, when terrifying events take place, when suffering and hardship come along for no good reason, even if you are treated shamefully because of the Lord in whom you believe, straighten up, Jesus says, and raise your heads. Listen attentively to the precious, powerful words of eternal life that are entering your ears. For as St. Paul reminds us, endurance and encouragement come to us from God through His Word, the Holy Scriptures. From this endurance and encouragement we have hope that will not be disappointed. Thank the Lord for washing you clean in Baptism. Kneel with all the others at this table who have publicly confessed total agreement with each other, and with the saints whom we cannot see but who are safe in the Lord’s care, then open your mouth to eat and drink the holy Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for you.

These gifts are all the preparation you need for those scary-looking end-times we have been focusing on these last several weeks. In fact, these gifts bring you the good parts of the end of the world that you are looking forward to as your inheritance. You just get it in a hidden form for now. Though chaos and violence against the Christian faith will continue to boil all around you, the Lord still brings you through. Pray for the strength to escape, to withstand all temptation, and you will receive His rescue, and you shall stand before the Son of Man with your head held high. These sacramental signs in which your Jesus hides Himself, Baptism, Absolution and Sacrament of the Altar, they are not as fearful as the other signs of the end of the world, but they are definitely more important, because these gifts connect you to Jesus, the true source of comfort that your soul needs. Since you the Church have the Father’s promise that your name is written in His book, be sure to encourage one another as you see the great Day approaching, and as you are filled with Christ’s forgiveness and the Holy Spirit’s strength, you too shall stand firm to the end and be saved.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Mal. 4:1–6 the Sun of Righteousness shall arise
Psalm 50:1–15 Every beast of the forest is mine
Rom. 15:4–13 written for our learning, that we … might have hope.
Luke 21:25–36 lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near

Sermon for the Wednesday in Advent I – Pr. Stirdivant

Make the Tree Good: “Cut the Bad Tree Down”

Matthew 3:1-12; Romans 11:1-24

“The axe is laid to the root of the trees,” warns John the Baptist. He is a preacher that doesn’t care what you think of him. He’s going to tell you the brutal honest truth, because he was sent as a preacher of repentance. Don’t take it personally; don’t get put off with his strange clothes and even stranger diet. He does indeed want to give you the good things of God, but not before the proper time. Forgiveness is rendered worthless if one should use it as an excuse to go out and sin some more.

He uses a good metaphor to communicate the true sense of urgency that we face—hurry, a tree is about to be cut down! You can’t undo that kind of final judgment. One moment you have a living organism, roots, trunk, branches, leaves, birds nesting, squirrels leaping across the foliage. The next moment you have a cord of firewood and a pile of chips sitting next to a sappy stump. That’s the image that John uses in his sermon as he urges repentance before it gets too late.

Jesus had talked about a tree, also. In one of His parables, a landowner ordered his garden-steward about a tree that was growing on his property. He said, I keep coming to this tree, looking for fruit, and I continually find none on it! Cut it down! Why should it take up the ground?

And the steward pleads for mercy, not for himself but for the unfruitful tree! Leave it alone for a while. I will take care of it myself. Let me fertilize it and give it some TLC, and let’s see if any fruit comes on next season. If it doesn’t produce then, well then I can make sure that it gets cut down.

Jesus didn’t tell that parable just to remind us to be patient in our gardening! Parables have an important spiritual meaning, and John the Baptist already had his finger on it. He was saying to anyone who would listen: Repent! This is now your time of grace! Your sins lay condemned before the almighty judgment of God’s law, but for now, maybe for just a little while, you have the promise of a Redeemer, one who has spoken up for you and has pleaded to the Father for mercy.

Our Savior graciously took it upon Himself to do everything that would ensure a crop of forgiveness to abound for you, to give you His Holy Spirit so that a God-pleasing harvest of good works would sprout from your life. So now is your opportunity to let that faith grow strong, for your love to abound.

It may sound like I am testing the limits of God’s justice by asking this, but what will happen if we don’t act on this moment of opportunity? What will happen if the axe would come down on the trunk and fell the tree? I’m not talking about what will happen to the damned on Judgment Day at the very end of the world, I’m talking about that unknowable time in someone’s life when time has run out, when their window of opportunity to repent closes on them and they head full speed into a hardened, utter rejection of grace.

The only reason I can talk to you about that spine-tingling possibility, is because the Apostle Paul preached on that in Romans 11. It actually happened that God’s ancient people were given an opportunity to come to Him in faith and believe in their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. They were not bent upon disobeying God, yet they said No to the offer of free grace and instead chose to rely upon themselves. The axe was laid at the root of the trees, as John had warned, and despite all the fertilizing of God’s Gospel Word and the care of faithful pastors, some refused to bear the fruit of repentance. Their trees were cut down. So what happened to them next? How did God continue to do His unchanging will?

We are venturing toward the outer limits, so be careful where you step. Before we go any further, don’t forget that our merciful Father does not want anyone to be lost forever but to repent and come back to Him in the knowledge of the truth. No one was ever doomed beforehand to eternal destruction, just as much as no one by their own reason or strength comes to the Lord for their own salvation. Those two extremes of falsehood have to be kept at equal arm’s-length from us. If you’re saved, God did it all for you. If you are condemned, it’s all your fault.

But before that final judgment day comes, the warning of “the axe is at the root of the trees,” has a companion coming along with it. That is a Gospel offer of grace, of repentance that not only includes a stopping of sin and a starting of righteousness; this wonderful gift includes faith in Christ. It enables you to hold on, like you couldn’t do on your own, hold on to the forgiveness that you have been given. To take hold of the promise of everlasting life that Jesus earned for you.

If you were cut down by the axe of God’s law’s punishment and condemnation, then He has graciously offered through the Gospel a “re-grafting” into a new tree, the tree of the Church. He wants you to be made one with Him, and so belong to His kingdom forever. Has God rejected His people? By no means! A remnant, a small branch of the tree, if you will, will be grafted back in and grow in the tree of the Holy Christian Church.

The same generous offer stands before you this Advent. It is an invitation that comes from that harsh-sounding preacher of repentance, John the Baptist. He is severe, and will not let you get away with your own version of God-pleasing works, and “I hope I’m good enough.” That’s simply not going to cut it.

Yet his words are also full of God’s kindness, so that the fear that you have is not a despair-ridden kind of fear, but a humble, faithful posture toward God, ready to receive His undeserved mercy, and live as a new creation, forgiven and made clean by the Blood of Christ.

The axe is at the root of the tree. Let the axe fall! Let it fall on the dead, diseased wood of your sinful human nature. Let none of your sinful nature live anymore within, because your Jesus comes to you. Chop down that anxiety within you that doubts the Lord’s Words. Prune away the anger that you harbor against someone who has wronged you. Your Savior has generously offered to graft you in to His healthy tree. The fruit you bear will be His fruit of love toward others, and your preparation for His final coming will be complete, thanks to His forgiveness.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent: November 28, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Let us make our way in a pilgrimage of faith to Zion, one of the Bible’s many names for the Church who firmly believes and trusts in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Advent has begun and you and I both know that Christmas is already in the air all around us, but first, while we still have an opportunity to give it our attention, we need to remind ourselves of this important fact: “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

Believe it, O Daughter of Zion! Awake from your sleep, O children of God! This is big news for you! What does it mean that salvation is nearer to you now? It’s not to say that you have to work to make yourself closer to being saved. It’s not that Jesus deceived you into thinking that you were saved, because His perfect and unbreakable promise remains: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. No, salvation is nearer to you now, means that the time is getting ever closer and closer to the Day when you will see the salvation that you already have. Faith will be replaced by sight. Trusting only in His Word will soon make room for you to experience that Word of God in utter fullness. Advent is just as much a reminder of Christ’s glorious return as it is a preparation for the celebration of His birth in long-ago Bethlehem.

This is why Advent begins with Palm Sunday. It’s almost like Advent is designed not only to look forward to Christmas, but to look beyond Christmas as well to the Last Day of the world. And Palm Sunday is itself a prophecy of the End Times. I count as many as eight hymns in our hymnal’s Advent section that refer in some way to Palm Sunday. On the first Palm Sunday in the city of Jerusalem, the crowds gathered to greet the arriving Messiah. The golden setting sun was shining on the face of Jesus as He was riding on that donkey that had never been ridden before, meandering down into the shady valley as He got closer to the base of the city wall. Then, as the road turns back up the steep hill toward the city gate the cheering crowd lined both sides of the dusty street, threw off their expensive outer garments, leaving on their plain- looking robes that they were wearing underneath. The people held palm branches in their hands, symbols of victory a little bit like the wreath of olive branches that the Greeks used to place with honor on the heads of Olympians and valiant soldiers.

The words of praise from their lips bounced off that imposing Jerusalem city wall: “Hosanna! Blessed be the Son of David! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Prince of Peace entered the reputed City of Peace, and He was fully aware of the Price of Peace, that for your forgiveness and mine to be a reality, His holy Blood must be shed and handed over. The exultant crowd of pilgrims and disciples will disperse and soon another crowd will assemble to shout in a mad rage, “Crucify Him!” As unlikely as it sounds, these events are exactly the way the Lord has chosen to raise up, in the words of Isaiah, raise up the Mountain of the House of the Lord, namely, the Church, so that it will be the highest of all the mountains. Before swords can be reshaped into farm implements, and spears used for tree and vine trimming, Christ the Savior must be lifted high on the cross. As our brand-new church year will unfold for us yet again, we will relive all those moments that make for our own story of salvation.

But the Palm Sunday that you and I participate in today is not merely a reliving of a past event. It is so much more. “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Our spiritual pilgrimage to Zion that we are walking in our hearts this morning is not meant for us to see Jesus die yet again, because that was done once and for all. Instead, we are called together today to receive the fruits of that holy Cross, most especially the forgiveness of sins.

The night of your blindness to the wrongs you have done and the “rights” you have left undone—that night is far gone; the day is at hand. Your lack of love for your neighbor, your quarreling and jealousy, whether spoken or left in the darkness of your thoughts, must now be abandoned! Those who were there that first Palm Sunday took off their fancy overcoats. You instead on this First Sunday in Advent, take off all from this world that covers you, all that you use to make yourself impressive in the eyes of this world, and leave what remains underneath, a simple garment of repentance, a spiritual garment that Jesus has washed white with the forgiveness you received in your baptism.

As the setting sun shone on Jesus’ face on Palm Sunday afternoon, let the light of a new day, a fresh start, shine on your face with the blessing that comes with God’s face, His countenance that shines with favor upon you and gives you peace. Though there will be days when you must pass through a time of shadow, the road will be steep, and the walls will seem high and imposing that try to keep you outside of the borders of God’s love, but you will keep the simple prayer “Hosanna” on your lips, for your King will truly save you when you call on Him. You will one Day hold the palm branch of victory, as John’s vision in Revelation 7 shows in a great multitude—see, that’s you, you’re there somewhere in that massive crowd that he saw! That’s the Palm Sunday to end all Palm Sundays!

For now, as St. Paul instructs us, walk properly as in the daytime through this new church year and for the rest of the pilgrimage of your life in Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, feed your soul with pure spiritual food of all those fruits of love that are pleasing to God, and withdraw all provisions, starve out the sinful flesh that pesters you for self-gratification. You’ll find that it would be better to owe no one anything, other than to love them sincerely, since focusing just on earthly obligations will only distract you from what is truly most important in this spiritual pilgrimage that you are walking in faith this day until the Day you see Jesus with your own, resurrected eyes.

Prepare our hearts for Christmas? Yes, we will do that this Advent. Marvel in the prophets’ words over centuries coming true in the womb of the Virgin Mary? Most certainly we shall. But for now, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord!” Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed, so today let us take hold of that Salvation. Eat and drink that Body and Blood that has already paid the Price of your Peace. Rejoice and praise your true King who comes in the name of the Lord, for blessed is He, indeed! Let us pray our Hosanna to the Son of David once again: Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Jer. 23:5–8 The LORD our righteousness
Psalm 24 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Rom. 13:8–14 Owe no one anything except to love one another
Matt. 21:1–9 you will find a donkey tied

Thanksgiving Eve, 11/24/2021
Pastor Stirdivant

Readings:
  Deut. 8:1–10 remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness
  Phil. 4:6–20 I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.
  Luke 17:11–19 10 lepers … but where are the nine?

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

Sermon for the Second Sunday after All Saints: November 14, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Our Lord Jesus Christ predicted His own coming Day of Judgment saying: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” “What does this mean?” Well, it’s exactly the same thing we confess in the Creed when we say that on the Last Day Jesus will “come to judge the living and the dead.” Is that Good News or bad –Gospel or Law – an occasion for anticipation, or a time for dread? The answer is “Yes! Both” – depending, of course, on whether you’re a sheep or goat. This is bad news for goats – cursing, condemnation, and eternal hellfire. For sheep, it’s Good News – blessing, praise, and eternal life. You may say, I don’t know which one I am, because some days I feel a little like both sheep and goat. So, what will that judgment be like for me? Our reading gives us some answers.

Above all, we learn that Jesus will come to judge – a task which was given to Him by the Father from eternity. All nations will be gathered before Him. The living and dead from every tribe, people, and language will stand before Him as He appears enthroned in heavenly splendor surrounded by armies of angels. Concerning that day, St. Paul writes: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done.”

The judgment Paul speaks of, however, is really more like sorting – the way a shepherd sorts sheep from goats at the end of the day. During the day, they graze together in the same field, but at night, when they’re brought into the pen, the shepherd stands at the gate and separates them one from the other – the goats on his left and the sheep on his right. What that means is that in this world believers and unbelievers will graze together and be treated alike. Both will receive the same rain, sunshine, illnesses and diseases, have the same business, car and house problems – and both will die to rise in the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day. But that’s where the similarity ends. The righteous will rise to eternal life, but unbelievers will rise to eternal condemnation – the sheep will be on the right and the goats on the left – with Jesus, the “Dividing Line,” between them.

However, even though works are mentioned, the judgment of that Day won’t be based on what you’ve done or left undone, but instead on what you are – sheep or a goat. What you are will determine where you go – be it to the right, to blessing, inheritance and praise for your works – or to the left with cursing, punishment, and condemnation for the works you didn’t know you didn’t do. The sheep hear Christ say: “Come, you who are the blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” They receive a gift that’s been in the works since before the beginning – when God was at work preparing salvation even before any of us even existed. And what they will receive is an inheritance and a gift – rather than wages for their work.

Parents can do a similar thing if, before having children, they establish a fund so that when their offspring reach a certain age they’ll receive the money as their own. When the child is old enough, at that time the parents can rightly say: “We set this aside for you before you were born, and now we want you to have it.” The child can no more say he’s earned that money than you and I can say we’ve earned eternal life. This was something set aside for us before we were born – even before the foundation of the world.

God has been working for our salvation since before the cosmos came into being. He made His promise to save when He spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden following the fall. He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because of us – even as He guided Israel out of Egypt through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. He caused His Son to be born of the Virgin Mary – to suffer, die and rise again –for us and for our salvation. God brought us to His Word in Holy Baptism – later to His house to hear that Word and to taste that Word and strengthen our faith in Christ. All this has been worked out so that Christ could hand us the kingdom on the Last Day and say: “Here, it’s all yours. Your Father has been working on this for a long time.”

On that day the works of the sheep will be judged as righteous – and the sheep will be amazed! After all, they had no idea any of the things they had done were done for the Lord. And so they’ll ask in amazement: “When did we do those things? When did we see You hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison?” They hadn’t seen Christ Himself. They’d only seen some poor beggar picking through the garbage, a lonely foreigner in need of welcome, a person with nothing to wear, and another sick or in prison who needed company. Whether Jesus was there or not was the last thing on their minds. They had only done what they knew needed doing. They had only done what comes naturally to a child of God. They were simply exercising their God-given vocation.

That’s how faith in Christ works. It does what needs to be done even before the Law lays down the requirement. It does the right thing without having to be led or prompted. It’s like an apple tree producing apples, or a tomato vine bringing forth its fruit. Faith gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, welcome to the stranger, and company to the sick or imprisoned – and all without having to be told. That’s how faith in Christ serves Christ in the service of one’s neighbors, because Christ is actually hidden behind the “mask” of those we serve.

Jesus who fasted for us in the wilderness and felt hunger pangs Himself is hidden in the hungry. Christ who cried out: “I thirst” is hidden in the thirsty. The Shepherd who came as a Stranger despised by His own people is hidden in the stranger in our midst. He who became sick unto death with our sin is hidden in the sick and physically afflicted. Our Lord became a Prisoner under the Law in our place—He’s hidden in the one who is imprisoned. Jesus became the least, so that through His poverty we might become rich in God’s mercy – so that when we love those who are least, we love Him who loved us unto death. When we love the neighbor in need whom we see, we’re loving Christ, our Shepherd-King, whom we do not see.

But what about the goats? Their situation is entirely the opposite. Jesus says to them over His left shoulder: “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Notice two things. First is that Jesus doesn’t call them “cursed of My Father.” And the second is that the eternal fire they’re being sent to – that is, hell – wasn’t prepared for us, but instead for the devil and his angels. You see, God’s desire isn’t that anyone go to hell. He sent Jesus to die for everyone. If anyone goes to hell, they’ve wound up there in spite of the Father’s desire to save the world through the death and resurrection of His Son.

The goats on the left hear nothing but condemnation because their works are found wanting. “I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I was a Stranger and you didn’t welcome Me, naked and you didn’t clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn’t visit Me.” Did you notice how the goats seem to be just as surprised as the sheep at what they didn’t do? “When,” they asked Him: “when did we see You hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick or in prison and didn’t help? If we had known it was You, Lord, we would’ve done something to help and assist You!”

In spite of all their supposed “good works,” the goats actually despise and reject these the least of the world – because they despise and reject Christ who is hidden in our neighbor. They reject Him who came in the form of the least – the poor, helpless Babe of Bethlehem and the broken Man of Calvary – the very One who comes still today humbly and hiddenly – only now in water, Word, bread and wine. The goats had done what comes naturally to unbelievers. They had rejected and refused the gracious gifts of our giver-God – the gift of Christ, and the gift of their neighbor in need. That was why they were rejected and their works refused. It’s sad, God never intended that anyone perish, but the reality is that if you reject the gift of Christ and the life He brings, you get the wages of hell.

Now we’re back to the earlier question – which are you: a sheep or a goat? Are you standing at the right or the left hand of Christ? The answer here and now in this world is “Yes!” Your sin and the Law tell you that you are a goat by nature, for we all often neglect the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. And no matter what we’ve done, it hasn’t been nearly enough. But the Gospel tells you something else – that you are a sheep from the Good Shepherd’s flock. You’ve been marked with His cross in Baptism and taught to trust only in Jesus, not in yourself. Daily you die and rise to new life through repentance – which is the very thing this account is intended to work in you – that is, that we each turn from goats into sheep. That doesn’t mean you’re supposed “try real hard” to become a sheep, or that you are to endeavor to mold your life in such a way that you make yourself a saint. No, there’s only one way. The sinner in you must die in Christ so that the saint can rise – because that’s how God transforms a goat into a sheep!

Repentance means simply that you have to be transformed. You must get a new identity. Before, you could only see yourself as a goat with Christ as your Judge, but God wants you to see yourself as a sheep with Christ as your Shepherd-King. The Good News is that you will not be judged by what you’ve done but who you are. You don’t do good works falsely hoping to earn God’s kingdom, you do them because God’s kingdom is already yours through faith in Christ Jesus. You don’t feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, or comfort the sick and imprisoned in order to become a sheep, you do those things because you’re already one of His sheep. And along with being a sheep comes this wonderful promise: “As you did to one of the least of these, My brethren, you also did it unto Me.”

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Dan 7:9-14 One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven!
Psalm 50:1-15 Every beast of the forest is Mine
2 Pet 3:3-14 the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night
Mt 25:31-46 a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats