Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
9 E Homestead Ave. Palisades Park, NJ 07650 201-944-2107 Sundays 11:00 a.m. We preach Christ crucified (1. Corinthians 1,23)

Monday, November 27, 2017

Psalm 126,1-3.5.6; Isaiah 35,10a. Eternity Sunday

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Psalm 126,1-3.5.6; Isaiah 35,10a 5717
Ewigkeitssontang  073 (27. Trinitatis)
Konrad, Bishop of Konstanz, Germany. 976 
26. November 2017 

1. O Lord, whose heavenly realm is likened to a wedding celebration, keep us always faithful and alert, so that we receive Your second advent with great joy and celebration.  Amen. (Gradual). 
2. O Lord, And the ransomed of the Lord will return and go to Zion with singing; everlasting joy will be upon their heads; When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad. Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, will return home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
  3. The Introit makes reference to the ransomed of the Lord going up to Zion; this is a reference to those Jews displaced by the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities (721 and 586 BC). First the 10 northern tribes of Israel and then the 2 southern tribes of Judah had been conquered by foreign superpowers, many deported to far away lands and the temple worship brought to a halt. Such judgment was rendered by the Lord for their unrepentant idolatry. The Lord promised to bless Israel if they obeyed His covenant but He threatened to cast them out if they rejected His covenant (Deuteronomy 30,15-20). During their decades of captivity, Israel returned to the Lord and pleaded with Him: »O Lord, remember what has befallen us; behold our disgrace! Restore us to Yourself so that we may be restored; renew our days as of old« (Lamentations 5,1.21). Before Divine judgement fell, the Prophet Isaiah promised the Lord’s future salvation: »The ransomed of the Lord will return and ascend Zion with singing; everlasting joy will be upon their heads; they will obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away« (Isaiah 35,10). 
4. The Lord had promised Abraham: all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring (Genesis 23,18). The Lord had chosen Abraham from all upon the earth and raised up from Him Israel; this Israel was chosen by the Lord as a representative for all the nations. Like mankind, Israel rebelled against the Lord, was punished but also promised a redeemer. As the Lord saved Israel, through Israel He would save all the nations of the earth. The Lord told Isaiah: »I will make Israel as a light for the nations so that My salvation may reach unto the end of the earth« (Isaiah 49,6). John the Apostle proclaimed that Jesus is the Light of the world (John 14,9). The term „Israel reduced to one“ was first coined by Lutheran theologian Dr. Horace Hummel in the 1970s, and was put into print in 1979 with his book The Word Becoming Flesh. Dr. Hummel explained the term this way: „That is to say that Old Testament history really is our history via Christ…. Since Christ is ‘Israel reduced to one,’ and since Israel’s inner history was all recapitulated and consummated in Him, the ‘new Israel,’ the church, expresses [her] identity and mission in terms of the promise given the old Israel“ (Hummel 17). In Jesus’ temptation, we see a dovetailing of two Christological themes: Jesus, as Israel reduced to one, standing in our place, as the Christus Victor who triumphs victorious over our old, evil foe, the devil. Jesus stands in Israel’s place because Israel failed the testing Yahweh subjected them too in the Sinai Desert. Jesus stands in the place of all the nations because all the nations failed to  trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for their deliverance. Jesus stands in our place because we were born in bondage to sin and Satan. While Israel rejected their messiah, there was one who did not. Jesus, the Son of God sent to be Israel’s messiah, is also Israel reduced to one (Hummel 17). „Jesus is Israel, true man, but radically distinct from Israel, true God“ (Hummel 224). Jesus did not reject His messiahship; He did not reject His Father who sent Him to be the messiah. Jesus is »the Deliverer arrived from Zion, He banished ungodliness from Jacob« [Isaiah 59,20; 45,17]; Jesus is »His Father’s covenant with Israel when He took away their sins« [Isaiah 27,9]. In Christ Jesus, Israel has received, believed and confessed the messiah who has triumphed victorious over our sin, death and the devil. In Christ, God has mercy on everyone: to the Jew first, and then also the Gentile. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise given to the patriarchs and the prophets. 
  5. It is this Jesus that the bridesmaids await in today’s Gospel parable. When Jesus arrived, the bridesmaids were filled with laughter and joy for the Lord has done great things for them and restored their fortunes. We are the prepared bridesmaids in this parable for we eagerly and patiently await His return, that is, His second advent. On that day, we who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. We will return home with songs of rejoicing.    
6. The Gospel Readings for the past few weeks have told us that Jesus’ second advent will be a surprise. We don’t know when it will occur, so we wait ready for His arrival. We will become drowsy and fall asleep as we await His return, but when the cry goes out we will awake and join the wedding procession behind Jesus. Jesus will arrive to take His Church into the heavenly reign. Whenever Jesus arrives, we know we will be ready for we have faith in Him.  Jesus shows us in this parable a glimpse of what eternal life in His presence will be like. In Matthew, Jesus used the image of a wedding banquet. The Psalms and Prophets used images like peace existing among the nations and Israel again returning to Zion in celebration and worship. These images merely scratch the surface of what joys await us in the abiding fellowship with Jesus and all believers in Him. The Triune God created men and women to be in perpetual communion with Him. Our Fall into sin has temporarily severed that bond, but God the Father would not have that bond cut forever; He sent His Only Son to redeem us and restore His bond of fellowship with us. The Holy Spirit uses the means of grace to focus our attention on Christ and the salvation He has made for us. Many glorious days and activities await us in the new heaven and on the new earth. The gospel bespeaks us righteous; bright with Christ’s own holiness (LSB 578,3). It is all ours now by faith, and it is this faith that makes us prepared for the advent of Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen and Amen. 
7. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, make known to us the path of life, for in Your presence there is fullness of joy and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore, so that we look forward to the last day as a time of renewal and rebirth in the resurrection that is promised to us along with the new heavens and new earth.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 
Soli Deo Gloria

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.  

   Franzmann, Martin H. „Thy Strong Word“. Lutheran Service Book. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

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