Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Revelation 15,2-4. Cantate

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Revelation 15,2-4 2914

Kantate 039 sing

Theodotus, Schenkwirth and their companions, Martyrs 303

Erik IX, King of Sweden, Martyr

18. Mai 2014

1. O Almighty God, who does make the minds of all faithful people to be of one will; grant unto Your people that they may love that which You command, and desire that which You promise; so that among the various and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed upon Your promise, whereas true joys are to be found (The Book of Common Prayer 141). Amen.

2. »And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: „Great and amazing are Your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your Name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”«

3. On Cantate, the 4. Sunday after Easter, the focus is on singing and praising the Triune God. In his Apocalypse, the Apostle John describes the Church triumphant singing the song of both Moses and the Lamb: »Great and amazing are Your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your Name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.« Their singing is also their confession (lex orandi, lex credendi), and what they confess is Christ and His righteous deeds. There is much that we confess about God, but let us narrow it down this morning to the two points that Jesus highlighted in the Cantate Gospel Lection: »No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.“« (Matthew 11,27-28.30).

4. 21. century American culture prides itself on tolerance, particularly the tolerance of diverse opinion, unless of course, you view your opinion as the only truth, then American tolerance because rabidly intolerant to you and your view. For many people, this statement by Jesus is intolerant: »No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him« (Matthew 11,27). It is labeled intolerant because ingrained in our modern culture is the idea that there are many paths to God and salvation. Therefore, Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all legitimate ways to heaven, along with any other religions. The funny thing is: if you study Christianity, Judaism and Islam, then you will discover that those faiths teach a one way path to heaven. Christians say salvation is through Christ alone, Jews have their Sinai covenant and Muslims have their Five Pillars.

5. Part of our Western culture’s problem with tolerance and intolerance is that we have pigeon-holed Jesus as some nice, friendly teacher who taught about love, peace and understanding. Now Jesus is loving, peaceable and nice, but He is also divisive and harsh at times, for what Jesus says in Matthew 11 contradicts our warm and fuzzy view of Jesus. Jesus is very intolerant when He says: »My Father knows Me, I know the Father and if you don’t know Me, then you don’t know the Father either« (Matthew 11,27). Jesus makes it plainly simple: »I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me« (John 14,6). Now, American political correctness cringes at such absolute statements and will try to water it down to make it more palatable to the average American. But I tell you this, and other absolute, statements made by Jesus and the apostles are statements that define our Christian faith; we should be bold and proud of these statement. Do not shy away from them, but embrace them and graciously proclaim them to people you converse with.

6. Jesus makes other intolerant and absolute statements: »Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.« (Matthew 11,28-30). Only Jesus can bear our heavy burdens and bring respite for our weary souls. In this He shows us the loving heart of our Heavenly Father.

7. Such sentiments also go against the grain of our popular American ideals that look fondly upon the advice to „pull yourself up by your bootstraps“ and „God helps those who help themselves“. These sentiments are traditional 19. century American frontier practicality, but they are not very helpful when we experience the Anfechtungen (agonizing struggles) that Jesus has in mind in Matthew 11. There are many examples of faithful men and women in the Bible who experienced such agonizing struggles: Adam, Eve, Job, Leah, Abraham, Sarah, Naomi, Ruth, Hanna, David, Jeremiah, Mary Magdalene, Peter and Paul, just to name a few. I mention these faithful people because often we wistfully remember the great words and deeds they performed for Yahweh, but we tend to forget the great and agonizing struggles they endured and overcame by the mercy and power of God throughout their lives.

8. Such agonizing struggles are not pleasant, but our Lord Jesus Christ uses them to strengthen us as persons and Christians. Meditate upon the words of the Apostle Paul concerning the thorn in the flesh Jesus had put in his life: »But Jesus said to me: „My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.“ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong« (2. Corinthians 12,9-10). Paul can say this because he knows that »Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart, and in Him we find rest for our souls« (Matthew 11,29).

9. So when agonizing struggles bear heavy upon your body and soul, turn to Jesus, let Him take upon Himself your struggles, for His yoke is light and His shoulders are more than capable of bearing your soul-wrenching struggles and tribulations. Do not bear such things by yourself. Jesus is here for you, and he wants to bear your burdens. You are not bothering Him when you pray and ask Him to take your troubles upon Him. Jesus wants to do this for you. He bore all your sins upon the cross; He can handle whatever struggles you are over-burdened with.

10. Meditate also on this psalm of David: »How long, O Yahweh? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Yahweh my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say: „I have prevailed over him,“ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to Yahweh, because He has dealt bountifully with me« (Psalm 13,1-6). Consider how David’s psalm is structured: 1. Why have You forsaken me, O God? 2. How long will this agonizing struggle run roughshod over my life? 3. I trust in Your steadfast love, and I rejoice in Your deliverance. 4. I sing to Yahweh because He has dealt bountifully and graciously with me.

11. How does David leap the gulf between God’s apparent abandonment in his life to trusting and rejoicing in God’s deliverance? David knows that Yahweh has a long, Scriptural history of saving and rescuing people (Heilsgeschichte). It begins in Eden, runs through the Flood, then through the Egyptian exodus and for David culminates in Goliath’s defeat and the routing of the Philistines from the Promised Land. Yahweh worked through His people and delivered them each time. All this paled in comparison to the deliverance accomplished by Jesus at Calvary and the empty tomb. Jesus is worthy to bear all our yokes and burdens. But this does not excuse us who bear His Name as Christians from walking alongside our brothers and sisters in the faith and helping them when they are burdened and heavy laden. The Apostle Paul exhorts us: »Let us not be weary in doing good, for as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all people, especially unto those who are of the household of faith. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ« (Galatians 6,9-10.2). If you see one in our midst distressed, offer them encouragement. Pray for those who are sick in our church. Help them bear their troubles so they know they do not bear them all by themselves. This is what Christ does for us, and we ought to follow His lead doing the same. »Christ alone is holy. Let us come and worship Him with our songs and deeds, for His righteous acts have been revealed.« Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Risen Christ, all the earth sings the glory of Your Name, we also give You glorious praise and we ask that You take from us our heavy burdens, shoulder them for us, and give us in return Your light burden which is manifested in the reality of Your resurrection, so that we are comforted and rest in the peace of Christian discipleship that teaches us to trust You in all things. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Revelation 15,2-4. Cantate

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