✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
Job 14,1-6
Drittlezter Sonntag des Kirchenjahres 070; 25. S. n. Trinitatis 5612
Martin, Bishop of Tours, † 400
✠ Armistice, Remembrance and Veterans Day for Christian soldiers who have served the State. ✠
11. November 2012
1. Stir up, we beseech You, O Lord, the will of Your faithful people; so that they plenteously bringing froth the fruit of good works, may by You be plenteously rewarded. Amen.
2. Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do You open Your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with You? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with You, and You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, so that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
3. Our Holy Gospel from today’s Lectionary urges vigilance; yes, vigilance and a resolute focus on Jesus Christ. Job wisely explains why we must be vigilant and focused on Jesus: a person’s life is few of days and full of trouble.
4. The temptation, however, is to not be vigilant or focused on Jesus. Life in this fallen, corrupt world is difficult and full of suffering. To eke out a bearable existence, we have to work long, taxing hours. We have to weigh our options and make tough choices over the years. The sin occurs when we focus on the wrong person or priority.
5. Holy Scripture exhorts us to trust in Christ Jesus our Lord and God. We are tempted to trust in every thing and every one but Jesus. We trust in our wealth, our ingenuity, our discipline of hard work and our political leaders. We expect all of these things, and many more, to see us through the sufferings of this age. We elevate our wealth, our abilities and our government to the level of gods. We make them idols in our lives. When the chips are down, we look first to our own resources for resolution to the state we find ourselves in.
6. Jesus cautions us in today’s Holy Gospel: »False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.« (Matthew 24,24). This is a real temptation for men and women. People without scruples have used natural calamities, national emergencies, promises of assistance and other circumstances to gain power and prestige for themselves. We have examples of this throughout history in both governments and the Church. Oppressive tyrants patiently wait for such circumstances to arise so they can seize or retain power. The end result is more suffering for their citizenry, and we only have ourselves to blame for turning such men or women into our idols.
7. Not only must we take care to be wary of people who would take advantage of us in the political realm, but we must also be aware of those who would attempt to seize power in Christ’s Church. Jesus warns us that false christs and false prophets have arisen, and will arise again, to deceive and lead Christians astray from sound, Biblical doctrines. Such false teachers spout the foundational doctrine of all other religions: „You must become just so and so and do such and such works if you wish to go to heaven“ (Walther 71). Over against this the true teacher proclaims the message of Christianity: „You are a lost and condemned sinner; you cannot be your own Savior. But do not despair on that account. There is One who has acquired salvation for you. Christ has opened the portals of heaven to you and says to you: Come, for all things are ready.“ (Walther 71).
8. In his lament, Job proclaims: »And do You, O Yahweh, bring me into judgment with You? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.« With his lament, Job wisely focuses our attention upon the chief article of Holy Scripture: justification.
9. Throughout her long history, the Church has been lead away from the comfort of this blessed doctrine. Time and again, the Holy Spirit has drawn back the Church to the comfort of justification.
10. Job laments that all people seem to fall under the wrath of Yahweh’s judgment. Human beings are sinners, they are unclean, and who can bring a clean thing from that which is unclean? Certainly not men or women. We are sinners, and we are unable to redeem or justify ourselves before the wrath and judgment of Yahweh. Yet, all is not lost!
11. Job says: »For then, O Yahweh, You do not keep watch over my sin; my transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover over my iniquity« (Job 14,16-17). The Prophet Isaiah proclaims it this way, using Job’s image from verse 4: »We have all become one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. But now, O Yahweh, do not be so terribly angry, and forget our iniquity forever« (Isaiah 64,6.8-9). So also the psalmist: »Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the one against whom Yahweh counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit« (32, 1-2).
12. God the Father has not rejected us nor has He forgotten us. He knows our sinfulness, and He sent His only-begotten Son to merit our forgiveness. The Apostle John proclaims it this way in his Gospel: »For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but He sent the Son so that the world may be saved through Him« (John 3,17). The holy apostle is proclaiming none other than the doctrine of justification!
13. Jesus did not come to judge you but to justify you. Jesus can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. Only Jesus is righteous, yes, He alone, and He gives us His very righteousness to be our own. »The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, but the righteousness of God is manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no difference, because all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified as a free gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation through faith in His blood which shows His righteousness by passing over former sins. In the forbearance of God, to show His righteousness at the present time, to be just and the one who justifies by means of faith in Jesus« (Romans 3,21-26).
14. This pure gospel soothes consciences burdened by false christs and false prophets who seek to lead Christians away with great signs and wonders (Matthew 25,24). Every generation sees its share of false prophets who peddle a gospel mingled with the law and things we must do to be assured of our salvation. We have those who try to predict and date the return of Christ, and in doing so frighten weaker Christians to doubt their faith. The gospel, however, brings you blessed assurance (seligste Versicherung): Fear not, dear Christians, fear not, for you are saved by Christ alone (solus Christus) and no one and nothing can snatch you out of Christ’s redeeming hands: not your sins, not false teachers, not the tribulations of the world and not even the devil himself. You are free; you are forgiven; you belong to Jesus. Christ’s vicarious and substitutionary death solves your real, deadly problem: (which is your) sin. There is now full and complete peace between God the Father and you. You are righteous and justified on account of Christ’s merits which have now been credited to you. This is the doctrine of justification that Christ Jesus established for you and your salvation. Revel and rejoice in what Jesus has done for you. Amen.
15. Let us pray. We give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks, for Your Name is near, and where Your Name is, there is salvation so that we are assured of our right standing before God the Father. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
✠
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.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Walther, C. F. W. The Proper Distinction Between LAW AND GOSPEL. Copyright © 1986 Concordia Publishing House.
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