✠ Psalmody: Psalm 18:48a; 1–2a; Psalm 30:1, 2–3; Psalm 103:10; 79:8–9; Psalm 59:1; Psalm 26:6–7
✠ Lection: Leviticus 19:1-2a, 10b-19a, 25b ; John 10:22-38
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Blessed be the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all days, and of all seasons! Blessed be His holy Name that He has seen fit to bring winter to us a week into April and illumine our Gospel tonight by what we have looked through the window to see over the past three days. For, in John 10, it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. It was the winter before the dear Lord’s Passion. It was a feast of dedicated celebration of the Lord Who had been faithful to Jerusalem, to His people, and to His Temple once again by cleansing it of the tyrannical pagan ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes, just a century and a half prior. That was the origin of this feast. Yet again, in days and years following God’s display of faithfulness, the people proved unfaithful, and this, in the ultimate way, for they turned their hearts winter-like in their doubt, accusation, questioning, torture, and murder of God in the flesh. Commenting on the fact that it was plainly noted to be winter in this text, St. Augustine writes, “It was winter, and they were chilled because they were slow to approach that divine fire. For to approach is to believe: the one who believes, approaches; the one who denies, moves away. The soul is not moved by the feet but by the affections. They had become icy cold to the sweetness of loving him, and they burned with the desire of doing him an injury. They were far away, while there beside him.”
Beloved, we are blessed by the wintry reminder, for in so coming upon us in real-time, the Lord brings to our realization the heart’s tendency to ignorantly live in cold distance from Him; to fail to realize its own frosty blight, even while being here beside the bright Fire of Life. Let us never be far away, while here beside Him, the very sweetness of our love. Tonight serves as our final midweek call to repentance and faith in Him, not despairing over the incessant blizzard within wandering hearts, but preparing joyfully to celebrate the great Paschal Easter Feast in sincerity and truth. Yea, even in the deepest winter, the security and assurance of Christ’s grace and truth shines and warms in all places and at all times, especially as we believe and approach His holy altar where He thaws our icy hearts with the consuming fire of His love, forgiveness, life, and salvation.
This is what is before us, upon us, within us all aglow this evening: that the humbled Son, the only begotten of the Father, came to gather His sheep unto Himself. He has been given a Good Shepherd’s task to rescue sheep prone to wander, hesitating not to enter into the icy chambers of every heart to raise it from the dead by the Good News of His salvation; the only news that can accomplish such by granting redemption, hope, comfort, and stupefying awe that His love and all-encompassing forgiveness reaches so deeply into our offenses. All of them are forgiven in Him, for He isn’t the meek, mild, soft Man Who could not bear the load of their payment. He, being a Man, showed Himself God in His plain speech and mighty works, which culminated upon the cross where the full load of God’s wrath for your sins bore down on Him and He drank the bitter cup down to its dregs.
He gathers into His mighty hand by this giving of eternal life, by living a story too good to be true among men. Yet, He has done this, in the midst of our winter, walking on Solomon’s porch, Himself the Holy Temple, the Son of David Who grants peace to all who believe and approach the warmth of His forgiveness. The gift of life that He gives is not bestowed upon Him by another authority; He is not the divine Door Dash delivering the oily slop to you from a local craving, but is Himself the pure and everlasting Life. If He bestows life, then He is also life’s Source, the Beginning and the End.
His mission is grand and His work is finished. What takes place now, post-humiliation, post-crucifixion, post-resurrection and -ascension, is the keeping in His hand those who have been given to Him by the Father. Believe and approach this divine Fire of Life, for His might to save through the forgiveness of sins is the same as that which will prevent anyone or anything from snatching you away. He is mighty to save. The truth is established. The eternal reconciliation with the Father is set. The forgiveness is full. It cannot and will not be changed. No fault, no past, no sin, no dark days now trying to be forgotten can come and snatch you away from the nail-pierced hand that clutches you as a prized pearl. This is the reality within the Christ Who came and told you so that you may believe His word, His works. The truth is the truth no matter what. Pray that your heart listens to and lives by it, for outside it is only a denial of what is really Good News about God and man reconciled in Christ. It is finished in Him. He is Man and God, sanctified by the Father and sent into the world to gather you to Himself as only the Son of God can.
Do not fear. Draw near to this Holy Fire of Christ neither fearing judgment nor fearing that His forgiveness is insufficient for any winter you have brought upon yourself. Even if you invite winter into the spring of life that He gives, the truth remains that He has made it to be Spring, that now is the Day of Salvation, that it still April no matter what, and that the Eternal Day is now another day closer. Even in sin’s wintry gasps attempting to deny the blessed imminent dawning to come, very soon shall be the day in which all the new life begging to bud around us will burst forth in chorus with our songs of praise of the crucified and risen Son of God. Creation’s Creator is your own, and its annual cycle of winter of death to spring of resurrection declare the glory of Jesus as the only Son sent from heaven to die and rise again for those He gathers with plain words of forgiveness. Be not far away while here beside Him. He is the divine Fire whose sure love and forgiveness grow all the warmer as you continue to approach Him in belief and trust.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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