✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
Isaiah 12,1-6 2613
Kantate (4. Sonntag nach Ostern) 039 weiß
Vitalis of Ravenna, Italy. Martyr 62
28. April 2013
1. O Almighty God, who alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto Your people, so that they may love the thing which You command, and desire that which You promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found. Amen (The Book of Common Prayer).
2. 1You will say in that day: „I give thanks to You, O Yahweh, for though You were angry with me, Your anger turned away, so that You might comfort me. 2Behold, Elohim is my salvation; I trust, and am not afraid; for Yahweh is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.“ 3With joy You draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And You will say in that day: „Give thanks to Yahweh, call upon His Name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His Name is exalted. 5Sing praises to Yahweh, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.“
3. The Prophet Isaiah boasts that he trusts in Yahweh and is not afraid. And yet, should he not be afraid of Yahweh, for after all, Isaiah is a sinner in an idolatrous nation that has turned its back on trusting Yahweh? What about us? Should we be afraid of Yahweh, too?
4. Indeed we should be afraid of Yahweh. We are fallen from His image and likeness; our human nature is now corrupted and sinful. We do not fear Yahweh. We live our lives and do what we want regardless of God and His will. Israel in Isaiah’s day acted similarly. They worshiped Yahweh, but many saw no harm in worshipping the local idols of the region, too. They did not believe Yahweh would punish them or abandon them.
5. Americans in the 21. century are no different from 8. century BC Israel. We live in a nation and a culture that bears a heavy yoke with determined resolve; we look to our own selves for salvation, rely on our strength and sing songs in praise of ourselves. We even pride such attitudes as virtues. We are a subjective people who emphasize the individual and the importance of the individual and expect the universe to revolve around ourselves. Our personal choice reigns supreme as our idol and no one can or should judge us and the decisions we make. Therefore, we can change the institution of marriage to include same-sex unions, we can abort millions of babies each year in the name of freedom of choice and we can make knee-jerk reactions to horrible events, all the while believing that since we as individuals are exercising our liberties, freedoms and choices there will be and should be no consequences to us and our nation.
6. Israel did this very thing and arrogantly thought there would be no consequences to their rampant idolatry, but very real effects resulted from their choices. Idolatry lead to a breakdown in the moral and social fabric of their lives. Neighbors treated each other shamefully. People brought frivolous lawsuits in order to obtain their neighbor’ property. The judges could be bribed for personal gain. The widows were neglected. Young children were abandoned. Israel’s choices had real world consequences in their communities.
7. Do we as Americans think so highly of ourselves that we can dodge the consequences of our choices? The yoke we all bear in this life is the result of the chains we have forged, link by link, in the ungodly choices we have made for ourselves or others have made that have impacted our lives. Our society resembles the rampant idolatry and moral decay that Isaiah lamented about in his day. We are so burdened by this sinful yoke that we cannot save ourselves nor remove that burden.
8. Yoke is a word used of the law (Nagel 175). God’s law is a heavy yoke to bear because the law reveals our sins. If we break even one commandment, then we are guilty of breaking them all (James 2,10). Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that the law is not an easy burden but a difficult one for the law isn’t merely concerned about deeds but also about thoughts and desires. We cannot bear the law, nor keep the law, no matter how hard we try. „And only in the trying, only in laboring at it, do we know the heavy load, a load we cannot bear. We cannot qualify for God’s favor by our performance in keeping His commandments. We are sinners“ (Nagel 175).
9. It is to sinners such as you and me that Jesus bids us to come to Him and bring our heavy load of sins and our laboring under the law. Jesus desires to relieve us of all our burdens: all of our sinful choices that run against God’s will and all of the law’s overbearing condemnations.
10. „What we cannot bear, Jesus bears for us. He carries that yoke for us, fulfills the Law for us. Its condemnation on our sin He bears for us, for on Him is laid the burden of the iniquity of us all. The death for sin Jesus dies in our place. The forsakenness of God, which is for our sin, He takes in our place, for He is the sin-bearer for us all, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world“ (Nagel 175).
11. He does so by exchanging His yoke with ours. Jesus’ yoke is easy and light. Our heavy yoke is our wretched sin. Jesus’ light yoke is His righteousness. In this blessed exchange, Jesus takes from us our sin and gives us His righteousness. The Holy Spirit revealed this to Isaiah who then called this Christ our Salvation, Strength and Song.
12. On account of Jesus, God the Father is no longer angry at us and our sinfulness. His wrath and punishment upon sin has been satisfied in Jesus’ sacrifice. If God is no longer angry at us, then there is no need for us to be terrified of Him, for God has shown us His love and we can now love Him in return. In Christ we are a new creation (2. Corinthians 5,17). We live as sons and daughters of God; we desire to follow His will. We are called out of the world and set apart from the world (εκκλησια). We live a certain way that is in tune with God’s will by the working of the Holy Spirit within us.
13. This morning we confessed the Holy Spirit and His Office in the 3. Article of the Apostles’ Creed. What is this Office of the Spirit? We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, or can approach Him; therefore, the Holy Spirit has called us through the gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps her with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all sins to us and all believers and at the last day will raise up us and all the dead and will give to us and to all believers in Christ eternal life. [1]
14. Today, working through your Holy Baptism and the preached Holy Scriptures, the Holy Spirit sustains your faith, strengthens you to use the Commandments as a guide for your life and with the gospel absolves you of all your sin. Each day He works in your life through these means of grace to keep you on the path of everlasting life with the Triune God. Amen.
15. Let us pray. O Risen Christ Jesus, Your Name is glorious, pour out upon us joy and jubilation so that we robustly sing praises to You, our Savior who delivered us from sin and hell. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
✠
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.
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.
Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University Press.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
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