Reformation – Sunday 29 October A✠D 2023
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 119:46;34:1-2, 11, 22;48:1, 12-13;48:14
✠ Lection: Revelation 14:6-7;Romans 3:19-28;St. Matthew 11:12-19
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Hear what? Hear how? For do not all with functioning ear lobes and drums hear when things are spoken? Do not all with ears that work hear it when the truth of God is proclaimed? Yes, they do. Yes, you do. But there’s a big cliff just inside the ear, a chasm between ear and heart into which our flesh is prone to allow the things of God to just drop off without us giving consideration to God’s Word. Thus, let him hear is an admonition by the Creator Himself to believe what He says and not cast it aside as mere drivel that is worth no more than all the other voices and noise demanding your trust day in and day out, for most of them would fall into the violent camp of whom Jesus spoke. They seek to take the kingdom of heaven by force, yet those truly belonging to the reign of Christ are not there by violence nor can they be snatched away from it by the same. Remember that your own flesh will try to tell you differently and even cause you to fear this world, or even worse, to doubt God as He rules now. He has come to reign in a way that does not look right to our human eyes or sound right to our human ears, because they are fallen and fear, love, and trust the ways of the world more than the ways of God. He who has ears to hear, let him hear how God’s kingdom comes!
All the prophets and the law prophesied until John [the Baptist]. What did they prophesy? They faithfully called people to repent and fall upon the mercy of God, for He is mighty. He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He is holy. He is fierce. When the nations raged, He uttered His voice and the earth melted. Do we not believe this? Do we not believe that just by Who He is that He demands and deserves reverence, attention, fear, and awe at all times? Most certainly He does, for He has made His power known. He has made known His glory in the heavens that He created by the Word of His mouth. He has shown that He makes use of His power, not only to uphold the expansive galaxies, stars, and planets, but that He has displayed it upon the earth as a witness to us of Who He is. He split the Red Sea to free His people by deliverance through water. He shrouded the Holy Mountain in frightful cloud, thunder, and lightning as He gave His Word. He split open the ground and made it swallow up those who rebelled against His messenger Moses. All of it was to show that He has the power to conquer and rule whenever, wherever, and however it pleases Him. And how He promised to come to rule was to send the Messiah to free the people that He calls His own. Therefore, those people should expect mighty things from this one and only God, this Lord of heaven and earth. But our ears, minds, and hearts must expect the mighty things to be in accordance with His definition, in accordance with His ways, and not ours, for our corrupted expectations lead to much angst, worry, and, heaven forbid, unbelief.
The ear and the heart are what are at fault to assume that God, when He sent forth His Messiah, would do so by earthly measures, for violence is what rules upon the face of the earth. If those in power cannot obtain what they desire from willing participants, force is applied and the victors by those means become the rulers. It is true among earthly kingdoms and those opposed to God try to do the same against His. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Now, 2,000 years removed, we learn much by this one sentence. First, that John was instrumental in bringing something very significant about, for Jesus uses him as a marker. What was the importance of John? He was a prophet, and truly, I tell you, more than a prophet, for if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. What that means is that pivot in history, that point in the timeline in the world in which God raises up and sends forth His Messiah was at hand. John is Elijah to come. John is the one to prepare the way of the coming Lord. John is the one to announce the arrival of the Messiah and thus the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. Considering the thousands of years of God’s display of might and His promise to come to deliver His people through the establishment of His kingdom, this magnificent herald of a man in John should therefore be unbelievably spectacular, one would think. But, as with Jesus for Whom he was preparing the way, there was no earthly flexing of muscle, there was no ingathering of daunting armies of men against which no nation could resist. John instead lived in the wilderness, ate locusts and wild honey, and wore not a general’s uniform but a garment of camel’s hair. He brought violence alright, but it was a call for us to repent, to be violent against the sins of the flesh, against the wickedness within us that is against God and His kingdom and that seeks to destroy us. But the violent on the outside of the kingdom seek to take it by force. They seek to take it, not so that they can have the promises of God contained within, but so that they may conquer it unto annihilation. In other words, the violent, the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, the ones opposed to God, want to take out His kingdom and be done away with it, for condemnation of sin, and even the Good News of sins forgiven, are troublesome words to ears that have no interest in hearing.
So then, dear Christians, one and all, how is it that we rejoice? How can we lift up our heads when we see no great display of power from the all-powerful One? How can we come to church on Reformation Sunday, sing boldly, receive the encouragement of the reigning King Himself from the reigning King Himself, and, feeling the same, carry that right back out into a world in which there are widespread murders, blatant celebrations and displays of sexual perversion, violent terrorist attacks and wars, constitutional amendments aiming to permit murder of the unborn all the way up till birth, issues that are spun to convince the masses that if enough people say that a drug is permitted to be used “recreationally”, that it must bring harmless and most certainly doesn’t lead to more widespread harder drug use, and on and on and on? The noise is so loud. Yes, these things are part of the war that it appears God and His kingdom are losing. But that is not true. You don’t have to reserve your rejoicing to just this sliver of time on Sunday morning. You must not do that, lest you fall into the deception of the devil and all things that the talking image on your wall or TV stand tells you to fear, loathe, or even trust in more than the truth of God that gives you as reason to rejoice on Sunday and every other morning. If you submit your mind, your heart, by the means of your eyes and ears, to what the television and internet preach to you, then you will grow to believe its doctrine and even doubt God’s power. You will fear and worry about what your earthly masters demand you to. You will fall into the snare of the devil and the despairing cycle of violence upon the earth.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear that just because Almighty God did not come in earthly might as we would expect in fallen minds that know only violence, that somehow, we are the wise to call Him foolish. Beloved, the kingdom of God, for which John was a forerunner, has come by the power of God and the righteous judgement against all evil will come with greater measure and ferocity than all the righteous in the Lord could hope for, yes in earthly-style violence and even worse as unbelief and all manners of wickedness receive their just and eternal reward, but not yet. That day shall come and the righteous in God shall be glad. Until then, we cannot be like the Judeans of Jesus’ day in that we reject Him, how He has come, and how He reigns now, for in doing so, we would doubt that He does indeed reign. He cares not so much for the places upon the earth over which we slaughter one another, but more so for His place upon the heart of man. His kingdom gains ground there not by force, but by grace, by faith, by forgiveness in the King Who came in humble power. Christ rules through humility. He rules through self-sacrifice, through love of neighbor, through patience, through godly lives being led, and especially through the forgiveness of sins, things this world understands not nor seeks to live out. His is the greater kingdom; a kingdom built not on violence or temporal strength that is but for a time. The kingdom of gathering in hearts and souls unto eternity is the far greater power that remains hidden but to the ears that hear. The power and glory of the Son of God, Who came not to be served but to serve, is a power that only fades in your weekdays as you allow it by turning away from treasure that it is. Christ is the Valiant One Who holds the field forever, all days included, and it is upon the field of the heart of man that His reign shines most glorious, for how can there be a grander battle than that of making dead hearts alive to God in Christ Jesus? If you want to experience the joy of that, turn not away from Him and to the world for six and a half days while wondering why you struggle to believe or understand or trust in how the Lord reigns. Repent, turn away from the desires of the flesh and from the violent ways of the world. Saturate your mind not in it, but in His Word instead. Read it daily. It is no child’s task, but a Christian’s. Think about it as you go about your day. Fill yourself with it instead of hours of talking images that entice your spirit into the kingdom of the world. Pray to your Father in heaven as you begin your tasks. Love Him as He loves you. The more that you self-control your mind, your eyes, your ears to think upon, look at, and hear the things of God foremost, the more you will benefit from the truth that remains hidden from this world. You know the Truth. You know that His kingdom is not of this world but is greater than it and all the power that it could put on display. Do not doubt the humility of Christ in that He came not with earthly displays of His power, but much more eternal ones that establish His kingdom in the hearts of men, deep dark places unredeemable by the world and the violent therein. He has come to reign in a way that does not look right to our human eyes or sound right to our human ears, because they are fallen and fear, love, and trust the ways of the world more than the ways of God. He who has ears to hear, let him hear how God’s kingdom comes and how Christ truly reigns now and forevermore. May this always be our hope, delight, and comfort!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.