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INJ
St Matthew 25:1-13
'Wake, Awake'
Matins
The Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27) | November 24, 2007
Dear Saints,
There are some simple statements that change your life, change everything. You mark your lives by these statements, you never forget them and after you hear them things are never the same.
For example...
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“Will you marry me?”
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And even more, the answer, “Yes.”
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Or, “Honey, were having a baby.” Things will never be the same.
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When the doctor says, “I'm sorry, it's cancer.”
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or the police on the phone, “There's been an accident.” Our whole life has changed.
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It was two-and-a-half years ago when I stood on the stairs at the chapel in Ft Wayne and heard life changing words, “Bryan Wolfmueller, Hope Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colorado, Rocky Mountain District.”
It's statements like these that completely change our lives, some for the good, others for the worse, but always things are different, our lives are reoriented, we have different cares, different thoughts, the things that troubled us one day are gone (they seem so petty now), and now we have a new outlook, new schedules, new priorities, a new life.
But of all the things that we hear, there is no more world-rocking life-changing statement than this:
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“He will come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead.”
That changes everything, for that statement is the promise that the Lord Jesus who is both God and man, who was crucified for us, raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and who now governs the entire universe will one day soon return to the earth, call forth all the dead from their graves, judge every person ever to live, and then reform the entire universe into the new heaven and the new earth where there will be righteousness and perfection and life, and where all believers in Him will live into eternity.
“He will come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead.”
This changes everything, or at least it should. But here is our spiritually lazy, more: spiritually dead flesh hanging around our neck that hears that Jesus is coming back and says, “Ah well, what's for lunch?”
That's why we have the last Sunday of the Church year, it stands like a liturgical alarm clock to wake us up out of our stupor, out of the haze of our striving to build our own little kingdoms on this earth, out of the sleep of sin, and there is no snooze button on this alarm, on this text. “Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” [Matthew 25:13]
"Wake, awake, for night is flying,"
The watchmen on the heights are crying;
"Awake, Jerusalem, arise!"
Midnight hears the welcome voices
And at the thrilling cry rejoices:
"Oh, where are ye, ye virgins wise?
The Bridegroom comes, awake!
Your lamps with gladness take! Hallelujah!
With bridal care Yourselves prepare
To meet the Bridegroom, who is near."
Awake! Awake! The alarm is sounding right now, in this church, in your ears. It is time, dear saints, for us to wake, to throw off the deeds of darkness, to repent of our sin and our sloth, to lay aside the concerns of this world that are overgrown and threaten to choke out our faith. It is time to head the warning of Jesus, that He will find in His church foolish virgins who have no oil, that is people who call themselves “Christians” but have no faith, no trust in Jesus, who do not know His peace, the peace that passes all understanding, the peace that comes from His promise that all our sins are forgiven.
Awake! Awake! It is easy in the long darkness to fall asleep, to think that no one is watching, to forget that at any minute the rooster will crow and judgment will come, for our flesh is weak and it does not want to watch or to pray.
The alarm is sounding, “Repent.” It must ring in our ears so clearly and so loudly that we cannot escape it or ignore it or hide under the pillow of our selfishness and pride. Repent. When the Son of man comes quickly there are no second chances, no salvation found in clamoring for oil, no last-minute conversions, “I believe now that I see.” Without faith there is only fear and an outer darkness which has no comfort and no end. Repent and watch, Jesus is coming again. These words must change everything. The meaningless pursuits and our addiction to our own comfort and all the other things of this world which our flesh clings to must be exposed in all their palsied wretchedness by the light of His promised coming. Repent, you do not know the day or the hour, just that there is a day and an hour appointed. The alarm has sounded, you have been warned by Jesus Himself. Repent, and believe.
For the promise of Jesus' coming is more than warning; it is not just to fill us with fear. For God has not appointed you for wrath or condemnation. He appointed His Son for that in your place. You, dear saints, are the blessed of God the Father, and for you the Lord Jesus has a kingdom of blessedness prepared from the foundation of the world. [See Matthew 25:34]
You are the redeemed of the Lord, the baptized of the Lord. Jesus has written His name on you, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and He has written your name on the Lamb's book of life. He has called you His own brother and His own sister, the adopted children of God the Father, heirs of God's own kingdom. And His coming is for you, to hand over to you the blessedness that He won for you in His cross.
Behold, He is coming quickly. Who? The Lamb of God who shed His blood for you. The One who has redeemed you with His blood, the One who tasted your death and the hell that we deserved, the One who, despising its shame, took His humiliation all the way to death on the cross.
Behold, He is coming quickly. Who? The One who rose from the grave and promised you the same rising to life. The One who destroyed death in His death that death would no longer reign over us. The One whose life sets us free, free from death and sin and the fear of death.
Behold, He is coming quickly. Who? The One who baptized you and who constantly comes to you in His Word with the promise of the forgiveness of all of your sins. The One who feeds you His very body and blood from this altar. The One who even now sits at the right hand of God the Father and prays for you. The One who promised, “If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” [John 14:3]
The coming One is your Jesus, your Lord, your Champion, your Brother and your Friend, your Redeemer, your Savior. Because of all that He has done for us His coming is our greatest desire and hope.
“He will came again with glory to judge the quick and the dead.” Now that changes everything.
Amen. Come Lord Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO