11 November 2012 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 17:20-30 (Ex 32:1-20, 1 Thess 4:13-18)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
“For behold, the kingdom of
God is in the midst of you,” promises our Lord Jesus. “In the midst of you.”
This is a startling
pronouncement of our Lord. It undoes
thousands of years of sin, and brings to an end millennia of warfare between
God and man. For when our first
ancestors Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden, they were
given dominion over all that the Lord had created. And in the midst of that lush paradise was a single
and solitary tree that they were instructed to avoid.
For all the trees were given
to them to enjoy for food, but in the midst stood the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil – a knowledge that was best left alone, a knowledge that brought with
it the consequence of sin, of death, and of a broken and fallen universe.
And from that time, man has
lived in the midst of sin and corruption, in the midst of decay and
degradation, or as we sing in the ancient funeral hymn: “Media vita in morte
sumus,” – “In the midst of life we are in death.”
We are in death, dear
brothers and sisters, for that cursed tree stands symbolically in our midst,
mocking us with our great “knowledge” which is really our desire to “be like
God,” our rebellion, our rejection of the eternal life given to us by our
all-loving and almighty Father.
And it is in the midst of
this stark reality that our Lord Jesus pronounces: “The kingdom of God is in
the midst of you.”
The reason He can say this is
because He has come into our midst. He,
the eternal Word, “Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and merciful Savior,” God
the Son, eternally begotten of the Father, took flesh. He dwelt among us, in our midst. He walked among us, in our midst. He preached to us, suffered with us, and died
for us – in our midst and on our behalf!
And even in the midst of
death, He came once more to life, dear friends. That is the “kingdom of God in the midst of
you.”
Our Lord tells us that we are
not to be fooled by false claims, by false teachers, by false Christs. “And when they say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look,
here!’ Do not go out or follow them.”
For the Kingdom is in our
midst, dear friends. The kingdom is
among us, in our hearts that have been converted by the Gospel, in our lives
adorned by the forgiving grace of the Lord whose promises never fail, at our
baptismal fonts wherein we receive new life, in our pulpits through the Word
proclaimed, and at our altars where the Lord is in our midst in His very flesh
and blood!
“For behold, the kingdom of
God is in the midst of you.”
But what do we see with our
corrupted and fallen eyes? What do we
perceive with our corrupted and fallen reason? Anything but the kingdom of God, anything but
the real presence of Christ, anything but the transforming power of the Lamb
and His blood that makes all things new. While in this fallen existence we see the
golden calves that we install on flimsy pedestals and abominable altars. We see the “stiff-necked people” that we truly
are. We see broken commandments and the
bitter waters corrupted with the powder of the curse of our own making.
For “the kingdom of God is
not coming in ways that can be observed.”
And thanks be to God, dear
brothers and sisters, for God is too clever to be held at bay by our fallen
nature. It is precisely to sinners that
He comes, beckoning us to repent, exhorting us to turn away from the gilded
idols of our own making, encouraging us to place our faith not in what is seen:
in the brokenness of this world and the corruptness of our hearts, but rather
to place our trust in the unseen: in His Word and promise that even as He is in
our midst, the kingdom is “in the midst of you.”
For when the time comes for
the “Son of Man” to be “revealed,” when the veil is removed and the truth is
made known in a way that “can be observed,” there will be no secret about it. “As the lightning flashes and lights up the
sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His day.”
And when the day of the Lord
comes, it will happen suddenly, with a shocking rapidity, and there will be
nothing anyone can do to stop it – and again, thanks be to God! For we live for that day, dear friends,
holding on to this hope, this promise, this actuality that the kingdom in our
midst that is now unseen will, on that day, become seen by all, in all its
glory, and in all of His love.
And although this will be a
day of judgment for the fallen world, let us remember the Lord’s promise and
declaration: “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” For “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of
the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first.”
“The kingdom of God is in the
midst of you.”
That, dear brothers and
sisters, is the true power of this kingdom: “the dead in Christ will rise
first. Then we who are alive, who are
left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
“We will always be with the
Lord.” “The kingdom of God is in the
midst of you.”
We have traded a cursed tree
in our midst for the single and solitary blessed cross in our midst. We have exchanged knowledge of good and evil in
our midst for the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and
the kingdom of God in our midst. We have
made the happy exchange of life over death, of righteousness over sin, and of
our blessed Lord over the cursed devil.
“Therefore, encourage one
another with these words.”
“For behold, the kingdom of
God is in the midst of you,” now and forever.
Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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