- Psalmody: Liturgical Text; 78:1; Psalm 141:2a, 2b; Psalm 117:1; Psalm 138:7; Psalm 119:4–5
- Lection: Isaiah 44:21–23; Ephesians 4:22–28; Matthew 9:1–8
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If you have read much classical literature, especially originating from Western Europe, you cannot help but notice how much the Church Year comes up matter-of-factly. Even in imaginative plot and story, the reality of what is good pervades how fictional characters mark time as it passes. You may read that such-and-such was taking place in the week prior to Judica (the fifth Sunday in Lent), that winter was already overly harsh by Epiphany, or that this thing over here happened the second week after Michaelmas. I specifically make that last reference because that is where we are, in the second week after Michaelmas in the year of our Lord 2026. Michaelmas may sound to you like the name of an oddly-shaped tree nut, but I assure you that in long tradition it has been a regular marker of time temporal meant to ever keep our focus on time eternal. Michaelmas is a Christian holy day whose name is formed just as Christmas is, for that title refers to the day on which the Church gathers in the Holy -Mas (Mass) to remember the Nativity the Christ- Child being born in Bethlehem, and it is celebrated every December 25th. Michealmas (or Michael-Mass)is the Christian holy day on which the Church gathers in the Holy Mass to remember St. Micheal and All Angels, and it is celebrated every September 29th. Accordingly, we find ourselves now in the second week after that Feast Day, or in the general period called Michaelmastide, a regular marker in the life of Christian people up until the modern era where we’ve replaced it with temporal, fleeting, worthless markers like March Madness, football season, The Fall Classic, and not Candlemas, but instead Superbowl Sunday. May we ever correct our short-sightedness by peering into eternity through the Word of the Lord that stands forever and the great celebrations in time that are built upon it!
Our fathers in the faith have taken that mighty Word and fashioned upon the revelation of Jesus Christ therein the annual cycle of the Church Year, a venerable work of art in that serves Christ’s holy Bride, the Church, not only in annual utility of time-marking, but in momentous beauty that enlightens and imparts knowledge in us over and over and over again on what is, what was, and what is to come. Michaelmas is significant for us every year, for here we are again already beyond it well into October. Here we are again near another end, and beginning, of our annual observance of the Lord coming to procure our salvation, and this cycle’s end is just over the horizon. The Church Year ends next month, and with it comes those familiar final Sundays that draw our attention heavily toward the Day of Judgement, the Day of the Resurrection of the Dead, the glorious return of Christ upon the clouds, and the life of the world to come. So, just as the Transfiguration turns our heads from the manger and epiphany of our Lord with Him toward Jerusalem and His beat down of Satan under His feet at the Place of the Skull, so Michaelmas draws us out of the long, green season of growth in this life, and prepares us for what lies ahead. It prepares us well for the End. It prepares us as this Gospel text does, to live out our days in hope, already possessing all things in Christ. It prepares us to die a holy death or to rejoice in being caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air at His return before it.
Thus, Matthew nine was chosen for this Sunday in the year to stir up joyous, eternal expectation within us by how the Lord Jesus deals with those in these Last Days lying paralyzed with fear, pain, doubt, uncertainty, and any fruitful woe sprouting from rotten root of corrupted heart and will. Let us see how He prepares us here in time for the very end of it by bestowing first in full measure the greater gift of the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, in Absolution, in Holy Communion, so that when death comes, and all eternity with it, we shall look back with joyful forgiven hearts and glorified, risen bodies to life and death as just the Beginning, a most important beginning, to be sure!
We see by the events in St. Matthew that we play a part in preparing one another for eternity to come. We are vital to one another, recalling that you shall love your neighbor as yourself as a command like unto the great one of loving God with all the heart, soul, and mind. The Christian heart desires to love Christ, to be where He is, to come before Him by all means necessary and to bring others unto the great mercy seat upon which Jesus sits. Bring one another to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Bring one another in your prayers, for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Pray for those on our congregation list by name at least weekly. Pray for others not on the list. Bless one another and bear one another’s burdens by going to your Father in heaven asking in faith for His mercy to be upon those around you, for we all need to be brought to Jesus in this way, as we walk encumbered by the sinful flesh that hangs stubbornly around our necks. Pray for each other’s godly prosperity in body and soul, and for the grace to endure where there is lack, bounty, trial, or tribulation.
Also, seek to physically bring others to where Jesus is seated, speaking His mighty Word, to where He is to be found in His Divine Service. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Make sacrifices, seeking to help with barriers that keep those who do not know Him away, so that your neighbor sees the hope that you have in you and begins to wonder from whence it comes. Rejoice, rejoice, believers, and invite and encourage those around you to come that they may be lowered before the Christ in hope of a blessing, the very same position in which you hope to be by the support of those around you. Let it be an intentional point in your life that your greatest effort to go anywhere is seen in what you do on Sunday morning. If sacrifice and determination can be given to get through traffic, redlight, and crowd to Walmart or Aldi, places that cannot perpetually feed you, to go to the doctor who cannot save you, or to park and walk a mile to a seat at the game that cannot satisfy you, bot only accept your offerings from deep in the wallet, then how much more effort is fitting in how you seek to be before the One Who forgives sins and resurrects from the dead? Oh, how much there is in the blessed presence of Jesus, to have Him lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace by what He speaks!
This is how we are to adore Him in this age of Michaelmastide, where we dwell in the Last Days, calling out for the Lord Jesus to strengthen and preserve us, and to come quickly. This is how we are to live, as in, He is the means by which we arise, by which we take, by which we go. All that He gives is abundantly more than what we could ever think or ask. By His Word and Sacrament, He says to all brought before Him who are paralyzed by original sin and its rotten fruits in body, mind, and will, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” Not only does He not blaspheme by speaking thus to the paralytic, He rightly orders our priorities so that we may endure and be strengthened in faith all our days, trusting that even though the body ages, the illness sets in, the mind grows dim and the eyes with it, He speaks into us that which shall never fade like we do. The Word of the Lord is not like grass. The forgiveness of the Lord is not a consolation prize. It is the one worth forsaking all others. When Jesus Christ says, “your sins are forgiven you,” He gives a mighty treasure that shall stand from this time into the endless.
Jesus comes to His own, to you, in this life, in these days leading ever toward their own end. It is how He keeps you prepared, by granting you faith, hope, love, and trust in realizing and clinging to the greater gift of forgiveness of sins, knowing that the lesser, too, will come on the Last Day when you, responding to Jesus’ bright command of, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house,” shall have all eternal effect upon your dead ear. “Arise,” your Savior will say, and you will awaken from the narrow, safe chamber of peaceful sleep, and your eyes with joy will see the Son of God’s glorious face, your Savior and your Fount of grace. May the Lord Jesus Christ our prayer attend, ever strengthen us in the peace and joy of the forgiveness of sins, and bring us to praise Him without end.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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