[First in a series of posts on Last Things]Encore Post “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” quipped Benjamin Franklin. He was right about death, at least. In 1997, a satirical online newspaper ran this headline: “World Death Rate Holding Steady At 100 Percent.” They were right. All but two people in the world’s history have died — including God in the person of Jesus Christ! Yet all people fear death because it means that, in the end, they will lose control of everything. We do everything we can to extend life, and, in our age, we have done quite well at it. Yet still, all people will die, and some quite young.
Physically speaking, death is a process that happens as our vital organs cease to function. Practically speaking, medical science pronounces death when the heart stops without the possibility of reviving it or when brain waves cease.
Yet, death is much more than the end of our physical life. It is the judgment of God on sin. Since sin cuts us off from the source of our life, God himself, we will die. When God forbade Adam from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he warned: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:17). When Adam fell, he pronounced his sentence — and ours. “You return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
There is also another aspect of death that is not about the end of physical life. The essence of our life, our spirit, our soul, is violently separated from our bodies. For Christians who are redeemed by the atoning death of Jesus, the soul separated from its body by death is cleansed of its sin, relieved of pain and grief, and lives in paradise with Christ and the souls of all who are redeemed. There, they wait for the second coming of Christ. On that day, the Lord will call their bodies from the grave, reunite their souls and bodies, transforming them to be fit for eternal life.
Campus Ministry Sermon Psalm 24, 1 Samuel 10 October 25, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Saul points us to Jesus as the Prophet, Priest, and King.
Last month, we began this series recognizing that Jesus is the King of all. This month, we focus in on the very first king of Israel, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. There are many stories you have probably heard about King Saul, but today we will only look at Saul’s anointing to become king. At Saul’s anointing, we notice that he foreshadows Jesus, who will be the Prophet, Priest and King for us.
First, we hear in the reading this evening, “Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. Anointing with oil is not a common practice anymore in the world or in the church. We hardly have kings anymore; parliaments and presidents are much more common. But in the days of Saul, becoming a king was a religious experience. It was the church who anointed the kings. It was God who established the government authorities. Israel truly was a godly nation at that point in history.
But oil on the head only set Saul apart from the people as their king. What was it that confirmed that he was the king? Samuel prophesied a few signs. Our reading says, “And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’ First, Saul has to go to Bethlehem; he had to journey to Rachel’s tomb and there he would pick up some donkeys. It is no small detail that the kings of Israel began to reign in Bethlehem. Before Bethlehem was known as the City of David, before David was even a king, Bethlehem was known as the City of Rachel, the burial place for Rachel, the wife of Jacob.
But more than Rachel, more than Saul and more than David, we all know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was given gifts by three kings, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. It was at Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem that He was named the King of the Jews. It was in Bethlehem that He laid among the donkeys and other farm animals.
But donkeys? How can forget to mention the donkeys? It is shocking that Israel’s kings rode on donkeys. No movie shows a king riding on a donkey. No nation wants their kings riding on donkeys. Can you imagine instead of Air Force One that the President of the United States would ride into town on a donkey? What about the King of England? No, kings do not ride on donkeys. But here Saul is on the search for donkeys and he will get them.
And Jesus, the king of all, will ride on donkeys too. Jesus will ride on a donkey with His mother Mary as they journey to Bethlehem. Jesus will ride on a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday too. Saul, the first king of Israel, shows us what it means to be king, to ride on a donkey. And because of that, Jesus too is truly a King.
But what else is in this story? Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. This second sign for Saul demonstrates the work of the priests. From Bethlehem as king to Bethel as a priest, Saul now sees a sign of three men, three goats, three loaves of bread, and some wine. The priest with the goats will make a blood sacrifice. The priest with the three loaves will make a grain offering. The priest with the skin of wine will make a thanksgiving offering. All of these things proclaim and confirm the kingship of Saul.
How does this point us to Jesus as a priest? Jesus will make a blood sacrifice, not of goats’ blood, but of His own blood. This is what John means when He proclaims, “Jesus the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” Not only this, but Jesus will make a grain offering, feeding 5,000 and 4,000 souls by the Sea of Galilee, doing a grain miracle just like the manna in the wilderness. And Jesus will take the cup of wine, and He will declare to the disciples, “This is the New Testament in my Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Yes. Jesus is a priest. In fact, He is the High Priest. He makes the sacrifice for the earth to cover all sins of all people.
But wait. What is the final sign? Our reading continues with these words: After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you.
First, we saw that Saul was to be the Bethlehem king. Then we saw that Saul was to be the Bethel priest. Now, Saul will be a prophet. In the midst of the Philistines, Saul will begin to proclaim the true God to unbelievers. What a miracle that was! This passage shows us so much more than establishing the kingship of Israel. It is way more than oil on the head. In this reading, we recognize what godly kings are supposed to be like and what they are to do.
Saul’s anointing as king over Israel foreshadows to us that Jesus will be the true King of Israel. It shows to us that Jesus is the King, the Priest, and the Prophet of God Most High. Saul was the first king of Israel, but his life turned out that he was not the best of the kings of Israel. Yet Saul’s anointing reminds us and helps us look forward to Jesus’ anointing.
Jesus the King lives and reigns over all of creation. Jesus the Priest sacrificed for the whole world. Jesus the Prophet proclaimed the Easter victory over sin, death, and the powers of hell. What Saul could not accomplish, Jesus has accomplished for us.
Long live the King, the King Jesus! Now let us live forever with Him.
Encore Post: The Lutheran Church is a liturgical church. This means that the theme of the day is set well ahead of time by the lectionary that your parish uses. Each Sunday is normally named by the place it is in the church year — a certain Sunday in Advent, a certain Sunday in Lent, a certain Sunday of Easter, or in Epiphany, or a certain Sunday after Pentecost or Trinity.
Each day is assigned a set of propers — a Psalm, a Collect (a prayer for the day that collects the thoughts of the people related to the theme of the day), a Gradual (a few sentences of scripture spoken between the Epistle and the Gospel lessons), Scripture lessons and a proper preface (said by the pastor during the beginning of the Service of the Sacrament). These are proper to the season and day and so change from week to week or season to season. In the long season of ordinary time (Sunday after Pentecost), the themes chosen traditionally shift about every ten weeks (after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, St. Lawrence’s Day, and St. Michael and All Angels)
Once in a while, you will run into a Sunday that is named after a person, like Saint Peter, or an event, like the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. These days are typically called Feasts or Saints’ days. Most of these are Biblical figures or events, with Reformation Day and The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession being notable exceptions. In a church, a college, or a seminary chapel, where there are services every day, these days are often observed on the appointed date. Most Missouri Synod parishes, however, celebrate them only when the date falls on a Sunday.
Also scheduled on the church calendar are commemorations. These are available to congregations of the church but are rarely used. They include Biblical figures, especially Old Testament ones, Christian leaders, or memorable figures from the church’s history. In the Missouri Synod, they include musicians (like J. S. Bach) and other artists of various kinds and figures of the Synod’s history (like C. F. W. Walther and Rev. Smith‘s favorite — F.C.D. Wyneken)
We celebrate these people and events because they point to Jesus. Saints are not perfect, nor do they have special powers. They were sinners just like us, but now live in Heaven with all the saints. (Hebrews 13:7-8)
[Ninety-Ninth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The word “martyr” is a Greek word that means “witness” — a person who reports what he or she sees. Just before returning to Heaven, Jesus predicted His disciples would be witnesses of His death and resurrection.
The apostles appointed Stephen a deacon. It was his task to feed the widows and the poor, using the funds collected for that purpose. God blessed his work by performing miracles as well. When men from the local synagogue asked what he believed, God blessed Stephen’s word, so that his opponents could not find a reply to answer his arguments. They finally silenced him by charging him with blasphemy — speaking lies about God.
The same Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus just a few weeks earlier now convened to hear Stephen’s case. Stephen told the truth — that the Sanhedrin had handed over Jesus to death falsely. This infuriated them. The last straw came when Stephen related a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God in heaven. For the Jewish people of the time, this was another way of saying that Jesus Himself is God. Jesus said the same thing in that very spot in the early hours of Good Friday. They condemned Stephen to death, too. This time, Pontius Pilate was not in Jerusalem. So they felt safe in defying Roman law and executing Stephen by the method ordered by the Jewish Law. They took Stephen out of the city and stoned him to death. The man who would one day be the Apostle Paul held the coats of those who killed Stephen.
With the death of Stephen and others that followed, the word “martyr” took on new meaning. Now it meant dying for witnessing to the truth about Jesus and for preaching the good news. The martyrs’ deaths impressed the Romans. If you believe in something strongly enough to risk death by torture, they thought, then perhaps the martyrs might be right. Many were baptized because of such witnesses. That is why the church likes to say: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
Sermon on Matthew 8:18–22 Friday in the Week of the 6th Sunday after Pentecost July 6th, 2018 Kramer Chapel Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana
Text: “Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The text for this morning’s meditation is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, verses 18 to 22.
Welcome to Zion on the St. Joseph—where tranquil vistas, first-class architecture, vibrant worship, and perhaps the most comfortable, well-ordered library in the world await you. Here, you sit at the feet of profound scholars, studying Scripture and the Confessions. Yes, you have chosen well—and all it cost you is your whole life.
The would-be disciples in our text did what any pious, Torah-loving Jew of the age would do: they chose a great rabbi. But Jesus of Nazareth was unlike any other. He called His own students.
And so it is with you. You are here because you believe God may be calling you to ministry, in answer to the prayers of the Church that He send workers into His harvest field.
As those early disciples discovered—and as you may have discovered upon meeting your first drill sergeant, your Greek instructor—there is much more to come. If you haven’t already, now is a good time to assess the cost. And I don’t mean financially.
Ministry requires sacrifice and dedication.
The first would-be disciple thought that becoming a scribe meant simply following the teacher and taking notes. But Jesus reminded him: no five-star hotels, no comforts—just the road, wherever it leads. The second disciple wanted to fulfill his familial duties first. But Jesus made clear: the kingdom of God comes first, even before family.
This is not a lucrative trade. You won’t make much money as a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor. Stock options? Unlikely. Appreciation? Sometimes scarce.
You’ll arrive at your first parish and discover they expect you to be “on” before you’re even ordained. I remember pulling into my first church to unload books a week before installation. I was invited to dinner to meet the daughter of a member, who happened to be in a cult. Immediately, I was on. Time for cult evangelism.
The ministry calls at unexpected hours and in unexpected ways. It’s not just on Sundays. It’s 24/7, 365 days a year. Yes, you’ll have a vacation—but pastors are often called back for funerals. Even family time may be shortened, vacations truncated, and relocations sudden. Yes, this costs you your whole life.
Sometimes, that burden is heavy. When a policeman shines a light into your bedroom window at 3 a.m., you may not respond with grace. Yet ministry calls. Sometimes you’ll wonder why you ever said yes. Sometimes you’ll be appreciated. Sometimes your sermon will hit the mark—and the congregation will growl. Sometimes they won’t receive you at all.
Friedrich Wyneken arrived in town with a breathtaking call:
“Come, we need a shepherd.” But when he introduced himself, the man didn’t even look up. “So, you’re a preacher? The sick man’s house is over there. But you probably want to see the wagoner down the block.” How’s that for a welcome?
You’ll often feel unfit. Luther’s sacristy prayer says it best:
“Lord, you have made me a pastor and teacher of the Church, and you know how unfit I am for so great and responsible an office.”
So what do you do? You don’t pack up. You don’t leave. You do what God has called you to do.
And remember what it cost Jesus to call you. Though He was God, He did not cling to equality with God but emptied Himself, became man, and went to the cross. He died for you and me, taking our sin, our pride, our expectations—and nailed them to the cross. He rose again, and we rose with Him. You are never alone.
Now, when ministry is hard, God is with you. Jesus strengthens you through His gifts—through your hands, He blesses your flock with forgiveness, life, and salvation. He is present in the Sacrament and in the prayers of saints near and far. That grandmother who can’t make it to church? She prays for you daily.
You are never alone. He lives with us every day. And when we lay down our office in death, we will go to where He is now—where there is no sorrow, sighing, crying, or pain. And on that day, we will see the true fruits of the ministry He worked through us. It will have been worth it.
And now may the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, fill our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are a few things about Obadiah that I think you should know. First of all, it all boils down to Jacob and Esau. Jacob deceived Esau and got Esau’s birthright for a bowl of soup. And Jacob deceived Isaac for Esau’s blessing for well-cooked wild game. Jacob got everything; Esau got nothing. Even though Esau was older and Esau was stronger, Jacob prevailed and he made off with the promises of God.
Jacob ran away after that for twenty years. I was just reading with someone about Jacob and Esau the other day. And Jacob and Esau did finally meet again. And Jacob assumed war, but he and his brother reconciled. And yet there was still bad blood between them. For Israel ended up with the good land and Esau’s descendants ended up with the land of Edom, on the east of the Jordan.
Obadiah’s whole book is about this feud. His small chapter in the Bible, only 21 verses, was written about 1,300 years or more after Jacob and Esau lived in the land. By that time, Edom had attacked Israel and judgment was upon them. Brother rose up against brother, as it were. Assyria had already taken the northern kingdom and Babylon was near at hand to take Jerusalem. And Edom was gloating and boasting at the ruin of their brother Jacob, the nation of Israel. There was little hope for the people of God who had forsaken the Lord.
That’s the first point, that it all boils down to Jacob and Esau. But just like Jacob ran away from Esau in the beginning of this feud, Obadiah mentions that the people of God will also escape when he says, But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy,and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.The house of Jacob shall be a fire,and the house of Joseph a flame. In other words, and this is the second point, the church shall not be snuffed out. And that is valuable for us. Think about what God has done. First, He gave Jacob the blessings. Then He helped Jacob escape. Later, God’s people received the judgment and yet God still delivered them and they escaped.
Here we see 1,300 years of God’s mercy at work. Obadiah reminds us that we shall not be utterly destroyed. While there are powerful forces in our world that would love to humiliate us and to displace us, we have nothing to fear, for like Jacob we shall be preserved. Consider how much greater the house of Jacob is in our world today than the house of Esau. There is no house of Esau. But there is an incredibly vast and numerous church. Esau’s land was small, but the church has spread to every nation and tribe and language.
It is as Obadiah says, that the house of Esau is stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. At the end of the day, Esau has been judged. While Jacob was suffering at that time and Israel was under attack and nearly lost everything, the church, the Israel of God, has prevailed and expanded by God’s grace.
Consider what St. Paul says about this Jacob-Esau feud in Romans chapter 9. He boils it all down to this simple point: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. We know that this is true. We do not fight battles and wage wars for material gains by human will or exertion. We do not fight battles and wage wars for an eternal earthly kingdom. Rather we know that God has mercy on us and has compassion towards us. Fighting only accomplishes small victories. But God’s grace through faith is the eternal victory that has lasting, ahem, everlasting effect, as you yourselves can testify.
But to the next point. And this is the one that most clearly points us to Jesus. Obadiah ends his book with this beautiful promise: Saviors shall go up to Mount Zionto rule Mount Esau,and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. Here is the Jesus prophecy that we need to hear. The Savior shall fight for the church. The Savior shall save the church. From Mount Zion to the Mount of Olives, your Lord Jesus Christ overcame all the enemies and made them a footstool under His feet. From Mount Esau to Mount Calvary, your Lord Jesus Christ established the kingdom of God, the church on earth.
The Savior has come! That’s the Advent message for you today. We already knew that Obadiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. We already knew that from Jacob’s family, Jesus has been born. We already knew that our God would deliver us, as He did for thousand of years before His Son was born in Bethlehem.
The kingdom is the Lord’s, dear people of God. His kingdom grows and expands more and more by His grace and through faith. And His kingdom shall have no end. Let us rejoice and sing, for what Obadiah has foretold has come true for us, that God saves us now and forevermore.
[Eighty-Second in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: At the Transfiguration, Jesus appeared to his disciples in his full glory as God. In the Three-Year Lectionary, it celebrates the end of the season of Epiphany with a theophany — an appearance of God. The season also began with a theophany. At the baptism of Jesus, the Father spoke over his Son from heaven, and the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove. Now the Father speaks from the cloud of God’s Presence, and with him is the Holy Spirit.
But that is not all. At the Transfiguration, Jesus appeared with the two greatest witnesses of the Old Testament — Moses and Elijah. God used Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and gave the Law to them through him. God buried Moses when he died. Elijah was the great and fearless prophet, whom God carried into heaven in a chariot of fire. God promised the Messiah to Moses, calling the Messiah a prophet like him. Later prophets predicted Elijah would return to witness to the Messiah on the day the Messiah would come.
Now on the mountain of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah discussed with Jesus his Exodus — his departure. As Moses led Israel through the Red Sea to freedom, Jesus would bring us all through death to everlasting life by his death on the cross. Not knowing what to make of it all, Peter offered to set up tents like the people had used during their wilderness wanderings. As usual, Peter missed the point.
So the Cloud of God’s Glory appeared on the mountain. In that cloud, the Angel of the Lord led the people by day through the wilderness and showed God’s presence in the tabernacle and temple. From this Cloud, God the Father speaks a second time. “This is my beloved Son,” he said, “listen to him.”
The message of the Transfiguration is that Jesus is God, yet He set aside His glory to die for our sins. We should serve God by doing what He says and serving one another.
Advent Midweek III Jonah 3:1-5, 10 December18, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Would you go? Would you go to Los Angeles and tell everybody you meet they need to repent? Would you walk right into the mayor’s office in Los Angeles and say, “Mayor, change your ways, believe in the Lord.” And then you would say, “Yet forty days and Los Angeles shall be overthrown!” That would take guts! We all might think that we would simply be escorted out of the office with guards, never to see the Mayor’s face again.
Would you go? Would you go to Las Vegas, to the casinos and the brothels, and go to the magnificent mansions and tell the leaders of the city, “Yet forty days and Las Vegas shall be overthrown!” Doesn’t it seem like a nearly impossible task to accomplish? Do you blame Jonah for running the other way?
Would you go? Would you go to Washington D.C. to turn the nation back to the Lord? You wouldn’t go there for political purposes and you wouldn’t go there for a vacation. You would go there to say to the President, “Yet forty days and America shall be overthrown!” I imagine the message falls on deaf ears. The security would probably think that you were nuts!
But Nineveh was not known for those things that Los Angeles and Las Vegas and Washington D.C. are known for. No, Nineveh was known for murdering enemies. The Ninevites were ruthless people. They killed babies. Would you go to Nineveh? Would you walk into the offices of the Nineveh of our day, Planned Parenthood, and preach against that slaughter and murder of the next generation? “Yet forty days, and Planned Parenthood shall be overthrown!” Imagine how many people would hate you! Imagine trying to stay alive yourself if you did that.
We may be able to sympathize with Jonah. We wouldn’t want Jonah’s job either. I think that all of us would rather run away from God and His people who need to hear the Gospel. We may not take a boat on the sea, but who among us would get in a car or a train or a plane to go anywhere but the place that God sends us.
Dear people of God, the first thing we ought to do is to pray for those Christians who are enduring persecution. Pray for the Pastors certainly, but also the congregations who live in the midst of great and grievous sin, who live where love and life are so messed up, who live among great leaders who despise God’s Word and do not gladly hear and learn it.
It takes incredible courage to be willing to go and to obey the voice of the Lord. The Lord said to Jonah a second time in our reading today, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” Sometimes parents do have to say something more than once for the kids to do what they ask. And in this case, God did have to tell Jonah more than once what his job really was. I have been pondering this recently with one of my friends who was called to Canada. Would you uproot your family who had lived fifteen years in one place to move to a different country, to become citizens, to change schools, to endure the cold? I think for most of us we would definitely think twice before making that decision.
But that is the thing about God. He calls us to tell others about Jesus, and He does the rest of the work. There was no hope for Nineveh. They were ruthless, but by the power of the preached Word, by the conviction of the Law, especially these words, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” By these words and certainly the rest of the sermon, the whole city of Nineveh repented and believed in God. He worked a miracle. Jonah started as a coward, but God turned him around and sent him to the city. And Nineveh started as murderers, but they ended in sackcloth and ashes and turned a whole city to God.
We spend a lot of time thinking about the fascinating story of the Joppa high dive and the digestion of whales. But here is the message: And the people of Nineveh believed God. Imagine for a moment what happened, 120,000 souls turned and believed in God. The Lord used the most unlikely prophet to convert the most heathen city at that time.
Now, I have no desire to live in a city, and we continue to pray for those who do. But sometimes I’m jealous of Jonah, for his preaching converted 120,000 and I work to convert just 1,000 or 2,000. But I get ahead of myself. This is not my ministry; this is our ministry. This is not only our ministry; this is God’s ministry here in Curtis and the surrounding area. Together, we work to convert the people of our community to the church of Christ. It is tough work, but it is amazing work. We tell others about Jesus, and God will do the rest of the work of converting souls and changing hearts.
This is what He already has done in us, and like Nineveh, we believe in God and trust in Him for all things. Like Nineveh, God has relented against the disaster planned against us for our sins. Like Nineveh, Jesus died for us to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Like Nineveh, God’s Word goes out, and it does not return to God void, but it accomplished that for which He sent it, namely for your faith by His grace unto life everlasting.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear people of God, we ought never to wish that we were dead. It is perfectly normal to desire to meet Jesus in heaven and we certainly will when we die. But there is always a reason that we are alive, and we should never wish that we were dead. We are alive to spread the Gospel, we are alive to serve our neighbor; we are alive to worship our God.
And we ought never to wish that other people would die. We must protect and defend every human life regardless of circumstance. Life is a gift from God. We must never hope that so-and-so would die, that evil nation would be defeated, that despicable family would experience hardship, or anyone else. That is committing murder in our own hearts.
And that is taking life from others who God has created, loved, and died for. We are alive to spread the Gospel to our enemies, we are alive to serve those who hate us, and we are alive to worship God all our days.
I mention all this because Amos wrote about the judgment against all of Israel’s neighbors for the previous four chapters. This nation was unfaithful; that nation was murderous. This nation was sinful; that nation was worthless. And at least to some degree, the people would cheer for the destruction of others. Those people should die! Think of how it is today. That nation rises up against nation to annihilate each other, total war, bombs, rockets, and missiles.
We should give thanks that we are safe from warfare at this point. And we should pray to God that we do not enter into war. But there is definitely a bit of smugness in each of us when we think, “But they deserve to die. Those people are evil. That group hates Christians.” And we sit on our couches wishing vengeance on our enemies.
But then the Lord commands Amos to preach against the people of Israel and Judah as well. For it is well-known that no one is righteous, no not one. And that caused a moment of reflection. What? You mean that we also deserve to die? That we also are under judgment? That Your vengeance, O Lord, shall be exacted against us?
Three times in Amos 5, the preacher preaches, “Seek the Lord and live!” That was a call to repentance. For it was easy to cheer on destruction when it wasn’t happening to us. But here is that chilling realization that God shows no partiality. If anything, God expects more out of us than He does out of the pagan nations.
But the people were praying and praising for the destruction of others. This is what Amos means when He says, Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? Amos preaches to bloodthirsty, vengeful people who want to see the downfall of other nations. Amos preaches to self-righteous hypocrites who do not acknowledge that they have murderous hearts.
I remind you, we are alive to spread the Gospel, we are alive to serve our neighbors, and we are alive to worship God. Shouldn’t we spread the Gospel to Russia AND Ukraine? Shouldn’t we pray for war to cease in the Middle East?
These wars and rumors of wars are for us an example of what we deserve from the Lord: death. And this violence and threat is an example for us of what the day of the Lord would be for us if we did not have the Gospel. As Amos says, It is darkness, and not light,as if a man fled from a lion,and a bear met him. In our reading today, Amos provides a scary picture of the end of the world, a hopeless image of running from a lion to a bear which would end with the same result: death.
But this is not because the Lord does not love us. It is because the hearts of God are not gracious and merciful. It is because our souls want revenge. We want other people to die because they deserve it, because they are evil and we are not. Or so we think.
Consider these words from God through the prophet Amos: “I hate, I despise your feasts,and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,I will not accept them. I totally get it, when God is angry with us, His Word cuts us to the heart. To be sure, there is not much hope or Gospel in this passage today. God’s Word does cut us deeply in our hearts. This is how it happened with Cain after he killed Abel. This is what happened when Nathan confronted David about killing Uriah.
But let us learn this lesson today and not repeat the sins of the past. As Amos says, “Seek the Lord and live. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” I remind you, it is not God’s will to destroy us, to kill us. Rather, it is one of the major themes of Advent, that God is with us.
Do not forget that. God is with you. What a comfort that is when there is vengeance against all the nations. God is with you even when the cities are falling. God is with you even if you have to fight in a war. God is with you and it is not His intention that you ought to die, or that anyone else should die.
Seek the Lord and live, the Word says to you today. For our God has been gracious to us, the remnant of Joseph. God is gracious to us now, that He spares our lives. He spares us so that we can spread the Gospel to the nations who are warring against one another. He spares us so that we can serve our neighbors and even our enemies. God spares us destruction and woe so that we can freely worship Him here. God spares us that we can live now on earth, and eternally with Him in heaven.
For it is in heaven, as Amos says, that justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. What a beautiful picture. And what an obvious joy! That there is no war in heaven; there is ever-flowing peace. That there is no anger in heaven; there is ever-flowing joy. That there is no vengeance in heaven; there is ever-flowing grace. Like a stream, like the stream of living water, our Lord Jesus Christ shall reign with justice and righteousness as the eternal King of Kings.
[Seventy-fourth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: In ancient times, salt was precious. People would pay a lot of money for it because it kept food from spoiling. If meat was not salted, a family would have to throw it out in a day or two. When meat was salted, it might last a few months. Even in the early days of America, salt was necessary to have meat to eat in the winter. If salt isn’t pure, it could lose its taste and the ability to preserve food. Then salt has very few uses. At best, it could keep plants from growing on the paths they need to walk on.
Lamps were made of clay and shaped like a bowl. Olive oil was poured into the lamp, and a wick was stuck in it to soak up the oil. Someone in the family would light it. Tall stands were put around the house. The person who lit the lamp would place it on a stand so that the room would be bright.
