4 November 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Matt 5:1-12 (Rev 7:2-17, 1 John 3:1-3)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
This week, most people in
this church will do something very important with lasting consequences. In fact, it will be the most important thing
you can do. For you will act on your
conviction, and you will participate in an action that will change our future
together as a people forever in ways that we may never know.
In fact, by participating in
this rite of our people, you will be taking part in something eternal. The most important thing you will do this week
is not happening this Tuesday, but in the next few minutes: for you will
partake of the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of your sins and in the mystical communion with the Most Holy
Trinity and with all the saints “who from their labors rest.”
The world has different ideas
about what is most important and about whose word you should believe. And it all boils down to this: hope.
Politicians of all stripes
make promises of hope, but they cannot speak infallibly. They cannot speak without error. They cannot speak knowing the future. They cannot speak as God in the flesh. The politician cannot speak as our Master,
Redeemer, Savior, nor as one who truly gives hope.
In fact, Holy Scripture
cautions us not to put our trust “in princes.”
For they do not offer real hope grounded in an unbreakable promise as
God does, dear friends.
For as hard as it may be to
believe, there is something God cannot do: He cannot lie, He cannot deceive, He
cannot spin reality to get something from us.
Instead, “see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that
it did not know Him.”
The world puts its hope
elsewhere, dear friends. This is why
churches across the land are empty, but political rallies are full. All over the country this week, people will
cram by the thousands into football stadiums.
People will crowd onto highways and subways to get to work. People gather in multitudes and throngs to be
entertained.
In their right place and
time, politics and entertainment, work and recreation all have a role to play
in our lives. But do these things bring
us hope – especially the kind of hope as from One who cannot lie, who never
disappoints, who even overcomes the grave?
The world seeks after vain
hopes: riches, happiness in possessions or passing victories, in the good feelings
of entertainments and worldly pleasures, in the promises made by politicians. But the world does not know Him, dear
friends. “But we shall know Him when He
appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”
For the time being, we see
through the glass darkly. We see a wafer
of bread and a sip of wine. We see frail
bodies and minds, imperfect people singing hymns often out of tune. We see a church outnumbered by those who
place their hopes elsewhere.
And yet, dear friends, we
still have hope: true hope rooted in the unbreakable promise of our Savior!
This is how Christians
express their hope even in the face of death.
Yesterday, I presided over the burial of Cleo Smith, our sister in
Christ who lived nearly a century. She was
laid to rest in the family tomb, the 19th person in nearly a hundred
years to be placed inside that small space.
It is a stone structure filled with bones. “Can these bones live, O son of man?”
We gathered at this tomb with
the body of Blessed Cleo. And while we
mourned, we also celebrated. We read
Scripture, prayed, sang, and drank wine.
In hope of the glorious resurrection, we partook of the Lord’s good
gifts! And in this place, dear friends,
nowhere near as crowded as a show or game or place of election, we too read
Scripture, pray, sing hymns, and drink wine – the wine of Christ’s true blood,
even as we partake of the bread that is the very Bread of Life in the flesh!
And though we may see a
sparse and aging flock, full of contention and struggle, what is the underlying
reality? “After this, I looked, and
behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out
with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to
the Lamb!’ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the
elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the
throne, and worshiped God, saying,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.’”
There is more to reality than
meets the eye, dear friends. For truly,
in this hope, these bones can live, these bones do live, these bones will live
forever!
And we do not have to put our
trust in princes or place our hopes in money or political parties or winning championships
or winning elections, in striving vainly after worldly respect or any of those
things that the world, which does not
know Him, hurries and scurries after.
Our Lord has again shared
with us His unbreakable promises upon which we hang our hopes: “Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Even if the world looks down on you for your
poverty or your lack of position in the community, you, dear friends, you
baptized children of God, you forgiven saints, have been promised possession of
the kingdom.
“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.” Our
morning is for a short time, as the fallen world is being recreated anew,
providing us with a sure and certain hope of the resurrection and eternal life! That is our comfort!
“Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth.” The new
earth will be far better than this old decaying habitation, and it is promised
not to the rich and mighty, but to the baptized and forgiven, to those whom the
world holds in contempt, because even as they do not know Him, nor do they know
His bride. But we are His bride, dear
friends, and our Hope is in our perfect groom who lays down His life for His
beloved.
“Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” We hunger and thirst because of our
lack. We are not righteous. We are sinful. And yet, dear friends, we are forgiven
sinners, and therein lies our hope! Our
desire to be righteous will be satisfied by Him who is righteous. That is His promise. That is our Hope!
“Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.” The world
hates mercy. The world celebrates
crushing one’s opponents into the dust.
The world glories in bloodlust and domination. And yet, we who are so often ground under the
heel of the unmerciful have hope in the One who is merciful to us!
“Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.” Dear
friends, on those rare occasions when we do act in purity and truth, we often
pay for it at the hands of the world.
Purity is mocked and derided by a culture that glories in vulgarity and
vileness. And lest we fall into the
temptation to be like the world that does not know God, let us press toward the
hope of seeing the God who sees us even as we are, and who saves us by His
grace!
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.”
Peacemakers are considered weak.
But our Lord urges us to turn the other cheek, to forgive, to seek a
higher way than the road of payback and revenge. It is our hope to have such communion with
God that we are truly His children, “and so we are.”
“Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” For two millennia, the followers of Jesus
Christ, the children of God, have been persecuted, arrested, bullied, tortured,
imprisoned, and put to death. And they endured
this faithfully because their hope exceeded their pain. We have the hope of the Lord’s unbreakable
promises which even trumps our breakable bodies and fear of pain, isolation,
slander, and death itself.
“Blessed are you when others
revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on
My account. Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were
before you.”
Dear friends, this is the
hope of all the saints, of the martyrs, of those who continue to bear the cross
today. For even when we are attacked,
slandered, marginalized, mistreated, or even persecuted for our confession of
Christ, for our faith in the One True Hope, for placing our trust in the One
Prince in whom we can trust – we have the hope of a heavenly reward, following
in the footsteps of those who went before us in glory, winning the “victor’s
crown of gold,” and yet marked by the blood of the crown of thorns.
Indeed, let us go about our
important works this week, carrying out our activities as conscience
dictates. Let us enjoy our lives, and let
us work at our vocations, carrying out what our Lord has created us to do. But let us place our hope only in our Lord.
For on this most holy
occasion of Holy Communion, we join with them who eternally
…enjoy the Sabbath rest,
The heavenly banquet of the blest,
The Lamb, their Lord, at festive board
Himself is Host and Guest.
Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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