POPULUS
9 December Anno + Domini 2009
Sermon Series: "My Soul Waits
for the LORDâ€
Part 2: "Waiting for the LORD in
Seriousnessâ€
Luke 11:29-36 (Ps. 27; Gal. 5:1-6)
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!†Last week, we began our focus on what it means to wait for the Lord, honing in on waiting for the Lord in stillness. We learned that to wait for the Lord in stillness means to trust in Him, and not in ourselves. We are passive recipients of the Lord's grace and mercy, unable to help ourselves, but fully reliant upon Him and the help He lovingly provides. Tonight, we take a few minutes to explore what it means to wait for the Lord in seriousness. While we remain passive recipients of the Lord's grace and mercy, waiting for Him in stillness, we, having been brought out of the darkness and into His marvelous light, do now play an active role in our sanctification. We wait for the Lord in seriousness when we realize that we do need to be playing this active role.
What active role do we play? Consider the vows we make at Confirmation. After acknowledging that we believe in the Triune God, Holy Scripture as the inspired Word of God, and our Lutheran Confessions as a correct exposition of the doctrines revealed in the Word of God, we pledge that we intend to make diligent use of the means of grace by making ourselves available to receive Word and Sacrament regularly; that we intend to live according to the Word of God; that we intend to remain steadfast in this confession and Church, and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it; and that we will support the work of our Lord in our congregation with our prayers and gifts as we are able. All of this we pledge to do, with God's help and by His grace.
We do not pledge
to do these things because we believe that doing them will earn merit for us
from God. These are not holy obligations
we must fulfill to save ourselves. They
are not hoops we must jump through to stay in God's holy family. They are not new laws to which we must submit
and fulfill to earn heaven. As
So, why do we pledge to do these things? Because, in doing them, we are doing nothing more than allowing Christ to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We make these pledges because we realize how desperately we need our Lord to continually work on us and sustain us in the one, true faith. These pledges amount to nothing more than a faithful recognition of where our Lord promises to be for us, and how He promises to feed and sustain us throughout our journey through the wilderness of this sinful world.
Waiting for the Lord in stillness and waiting for the Lord in seriousness go hand in hand, then, for while we give all credit to our Lord for our salvation, we also recognize the importance for us to come to where He is and place ourselves in His loving care. We come here to His Holy House not out of obligation, not to make ourselves feel better, not to "get something out of it,†not to earn merit, but because here is where we receive His Gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, here is where our faith is strengthened and preserved by Him, here is where we confess our sins and confess our faith in the One who takes them away, here is where we respond in praise and thanksgiving for all that our Lord has done for us, offering our gifts to support His ongoing work among us as we are able. We come to Church because that is what Christians do. Coming to Church is the active role we play in our sanctification - an active role that recognizes the need to passively receive that which our Lord graciously gives on a regular basis, for we know that we can never get enough, and we know that we need it at all times.
But, why do we need to hear this message? After all, we're here. Even on this blustery winter evening, we're here. Obviously, we get it. We take our faith seriously. We're not like those other "Christians†who don't attend Church on a regular basis. I mean, we can cut our brothers and sisters who decided not to come out on a night like this some slack, but what of those who very rarely, or never, attend Church. Thank God we're not like them.
That's why we, too, need to hear this message, my friends. The temptation is always there for us to become "Pharisaical†and judge ourselves against the inactivity of others, believing ourselves to be "better.†We say to ourselves, "Yeah, we may not be perfect, but at least we're not like those people.†Repent! The moment we begin to play the game of judging our faithfulness by looking at the activity, or inactivity, of others, we have gone astray. We are called to examine ourselves, and, truth be told, when we honestly engage in self-examination, there is plenty there for which we need to fall on our knees and plead for mercy, more than enough to keep our focus off of what others may or may not be doing.
If you need help, consider our Lord's example of the Queen of the South, who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. We have something far greater than the wisdom of Solomon here among us, for our Lord Himself is in our midst. How far would we go to hear and receive Him? What other plans might we forego to make sure that we are in the House of our Lord? Or, perhaps a little more striking would be the question: How often do we fail to recognize the miracles we witness time and time again here in the Lord's House? How often has each and every one of us been guilty of simply going through the motions?
And, if that still doesn't do the trick for us - and shame on us if it doesn't - we need only ask ourselves how brightly we have let the light of our faith shine in this world. That should do it, shouldn't it? For, surely, there is not a single one of us who has never been guilty of putting our light in a cellar or under a basket. Repent. That's what this holy season of Advent is given for us to do.
Thus do we wait for the Lord in seriousness by acknowledging the seriousness of our sins, on account of which we rightly confess that we deserve nothing but His temporal and eternal wrath and punishment. So, we pray, "Lord, have mercy on me.†And, even after we receive the mercy for which we plead, we continue to pray like this, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.†Fore we recognize the serioiusness of our condition, my friends, that we are never ssafe on our own; that we are never completely there this side of heaven; that we continue to live in repentance and faith all the days of our life, trusting in the sure and certain mercy and grace that comes only through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.â€
And so He does. He has mercy on us and helps our unbelief by taking our sins more seriously than we ever would - seriously enough to suffer and die for them on the cross in our place; seriously enough to apply the salvation He won for us to us through His Holy Word and Sacraments; seriously enough to make sure that we have His faithful pledge to be with us always, even to the end of the age; seriously enough to fill sinners like us with Himself, the Light and Life of the world, that we would be ready to meet Him as our Lord and Savior, instead of Righteous Judge who condemns, when He returns in great glory on the Last Day.
We wait for the Lord in seriousness as we acknowledge all that He has done, continues to do, and will do for us. And we do so here, in His Holy House, where we have something greater than Solomon and Jonah - our Crucified, Risen, and Ascended Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, present to forgive us, renew us, strengthen us, and preserve us in the one, true faith. In His Holy and Precious Name. Amen.