Lent IV B [John 3:14-21] (11-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough (8.15am, lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers (9am).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.                                                                                                          

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Our Gospel today is very well-known, and contains the most famous bible verse, John 3:16. Our reading speaks about faith, but then also it speaks why faith is actually needed. It says: Whoever believes in him should have eternal life. And also: Whoever believes in him is not condemned. We have here a positive thing: the gift of eternal life. But also, we are saved from eternal death, from condemnation, from judgment.

Our text today begins where Jesus says: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. In the book of Numbers, there are many different occasions where the people of Israel were grumbling against God and complained. On this occasion, God sent to them fiery serpents which bit them, and many people died. When the people repented, God told Moses: Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. All they needed for being healed was not to crawl up to the serpent, but simply to look at the serpent. Now Jesus compares himself to this bronze serpent: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The serpent was put up on a pole, and also Jesus was put up on a cross. The serpents were the people’s punishment, and a serpent just like the one that bit them was put on that pole. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he took our punishment with him, so that when we think about Jesus on the cross, we should remember that it is both him and our punishment that was nailed there. In Colossians, it says that God set aside the whole record of our sin by nailing it to the cross.

Jesus says: Whoever believes in him may have eternal life. The Israelites only looked at the bronze serpent and they were healed. As long as they looked at their wounds, they would die. Now we have been bitten by Satan, who has led us into sin, and now our whole thinking has been corrupted and tainted by sin. When we are convicted by the Holy Spirit, we see that we have a mortal wound inside killing us from the inside out. But if we look to ourselves to be saved and our own wounds, we die. But when we look to Jesus, we live, trusting that he has borne our sins for us. The Israelites simply looked and were healed for this life. But when we hear God’s perfect word about his only Son Jesus, and trust that word, we are healed for the whole of eternity.

And so Jesus says: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It’s an amazing thing that God not only created the world, but he also loves the world. And his love is not just a feeling, but he actually did something and acted upon that love: he actually gave his only Son. The human race had fallen into sin and separated itself from God. But God was not content to leave it like that, because he loved the world. It is so much a part of God’s character and being that he should love us, because as John writes, God is love.

Now we might imagine many ways that we might show love to the world. But we are not God, but God is. God knows the best way to show it: He gave his only Son. All of that wonderful, pure love of God is tied up in this one person: his only Son. If you want to find God’s love, you must find his only Son. St Paul even describes Jesus’ life as that time when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared. Now why only one Son? Because God doesn’t want to split up his love. He pours it all out in full into this one Jesus, and then offers him up as the one perfect sacrifice.

Now at the beginning of the bible, God said to Adam: You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. This doesn’t seem like a great moral issue, whether or not to eat a piece of fruit. But it’s important simply because God himself commanded it—that’s it! And in advance God said what would happen if they disobeyed it: you shall surely die. But they did disobey, so they did die. We have also broken God’s law, and so we are also worthy of death, and will die.

Paul says in Romans: The wages of sin is death. Death is the payment we get for our sin. Just as a worker gets his wages at the end of a day’s work, so also the wages at the end of a life full of sin is death. And we also read in Romans: We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But then, it says: but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are justified by his grace as a gift. Whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life. God’s gift is life that extends beyond this life and into his wonderful presence for ever.

And everything simply depends of faith. It says: Whoever believes in him. It doesn’t depend on your works at all, because none of your works are perfect. Even your good works are corrupt. It doesn’t depend on your choice. Choosing is still something that you do. Faith is simply receiving the gift that God gives you. Faith says: God’s word says that he so loved the world that he gave his only Son. This word is true, and God never lies. He said it, and that’s it. If he says he loves “the world”, then I know he loves me, because I am part of the world, and he gave his only Son for me, because he gave his only Son for sinners like me. That’s faith.

Now so far in our reading, Jesus teaches us about things in pairs: he teaches one thing over here, and one thing over there. He says: Whoever believes in him should not die, but have eternal life. He talks here about death, and then about eternal life. Now we come to the next part of our reading, where Jesus says: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order than the world might be saved through him. Here he talks about judgment or condemnation, but on the other hand salvation. God did not send his Son into the word to condemn the world (on one hand), but (on the other hand) that the world might be saved through him.

And so we read here that there is death (and eternal death) and there is also eternal life. God condemns and he saves. Later Jesus speaks about whoever believes in him and whoever does not believe. He talks about light and darkness. When Jesus talks about death, he is speaking about hell. When he speaks about eternal life, he is speaking about heaven and the resurrection. There is no half-half. There is no half-death, half-life. There’s no half-light, half-darkness. There’s no half-heaven, half-hell. There’s no purgatory or half-way place. There is only death or life, condemnation or salvation, believing or not believing, light or darkness, heaven or hell. Shakespeare wrote: To be or not to be, that is the question. Jesus says: To believe or not to believe, that is the question.

One thing that many Christians today talk about is whether everyone will be saved. If God so loved the world, why isn’t the whole world automatically saved? Why did God need to send his Son into the world? Why can’t he just forgive us without Jesus needing to die? These are important questions.

One of the things that God speaks to us is his law, or his commandments. He says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and You shall love your neighbour as yourself. This is God’s standard, and on the basis of this standard he promises to reward those who obey that standard.

But God also threatens to punish those who break his law. We read in 2 Thessalonians: God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you…when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

However, in our culture, we have a lot of difficulty with this. Many people almost don’t really believe in justice. If a criminal commits a crime, he or she is often imprisoned not so as to punish them, but to rehabilitate them, and make them better people. Many people think that the purpose of prison is to fix people, not punish people. We even call it “correctional services”. However, “justice” means that a person is punished in proportion to their crime. A murderer gets a heavier punishment than someone who steals a loaf of bread. And God threatens punishment, because his law is holy and he cares about his law. James says: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

So God is a strict judge, not because he is a mad tyrant, but because his law is a good and beautiful thing and it should be kept. The book of Exodus shows us what God’s justice is: a life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. But doesn’t Jesus say that we shouldn’t demand justice? Doesn’t he say turn the other cheek? Yes, and yes! But that’s because Jesus has now taken all of the justice against sin on himself, and when something isn’t done justly, we don’t need to sue people and demand justice. Jesus says: You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.

So God is a strict, just judge, but he is also a loving Father. Our reading today teaches both: God so loved the world. And it also says: He gave his only Son. He gave his only Son, because of his love, and because he wants to show to us his justice which has been dealt with. On the cross, we see God enacting his justice: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. We deserved curses, punishment, death. But God puts all of his righteous curse, his righteous punishment, and the righteous death penalty on his Son. And when Jesus took all of this, and was about to die, he said: It is finished.

And so we read: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. When we look at God’s law and we realise that we haven’t kept it, and that we deserve punishment and justice to be carried out on us, we can still go to our heavenly Father, knowing that he has loved us so much that he even sent to us his only Son. And the sentence that was carried out upon Jesus is completely sufficient to pay the price of all the sin in the world. All that is required of us is that we look up from our snake-bites to Jesus and all our wounds, our sin, our guilt is completely healed for all eternity.

So the reading says: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. We learn that God threatens to punish sin because he cares about his law. His good and perfect law matters. But also, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, because he cares about sinners. Sinful human beings like you and I matter to God and he wants to save us. But why does it matter whether or not we have faith?

We might think: If God so loved the world, and those who don’t believe in Jesus will be condemned, why does he condemn those who don’t believe in Jesus? Paul wrote to Timothy: God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Why doesn’t he just save everyone automatically? Because he cares about his Son, and his Son matters. God’s law matters, we sinners matter, and also Jesus matters. And so we read: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world. (This is talking about Jesus! He is the light who has come into the world). And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

We Christians know what a wonderful Saviour Jesus is! And if only everyone knew, and if only everyone believed. Our faith shouldn’t make us proud, but should fill us with compassion for those who don’t believe, and for a desire to pray for them and share the Gospel with them as we have the opportunity. But many people harden their hearts to God’s word, and to the Gospel. Jesus is the light of the world, but they prefer darkness instead. Because of our sinful nature, and our corrupt hearts, many people refuse to listen to Jesus and to bask in his light. They are afraid of being found out and exposed for who they really are.

But Jesus knows who we really are. He knows our sin, he knows our shame, and our corruption. And it is a shameful thing for someone to know our deepest, darkest secrets. Imagine if all your thoughts were projected for everyone to read on a screen! And yet, when we are with Jesus in his kingdom, he covers over everything. He has died for everything, he has rescued you from darkness and brought you into his light.

We read: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. We might think: “but my works aren’t true! Many of them are evil! I’ve done no better than the next person!” And you’re right! But there is something that God has worked in you that is better. Jesus says: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom you have sent. God has revealed Jesus to you in his word. And when Jesus covers over all you sin and forgives it, as he has promised, then there is nothing to be afraid of when we come into the light. It will be revealed that God has sent you his Holy Spirit and worked his gift of faith in you.

And so we read: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God loves the world, and that he means he loves you. He shows you that your debt has been paid for and your account has been cancelled by giving his only Son. Jesus has died on the cross, and he has offered his life for you, and shed his blood for you. And this word is true, and God does not lie. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. We are spared from death, judgment, and darkness and are given the free gift of eternal life, not because of any good thing that we have done, but because of what Jesus has done. He is our Saviour, and so we put our trust in him. Amen.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your great love, for the wonderful gift of your Son, and for your promise of eternal life. Amen.

Memorial Service for Roy Hoffmann [1 Corinthians 15:51-58] (28-Nov-2017)

This sermon was preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 11am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on immortality, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, sanctify us in the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.

You know: death really isn’t all that mysterious.

At least, it isn’t mysterious in the same sense that St Paul says in these words for us today: Behold! I tell you a mystery!

Death happens, we see it, we know it. We could say it’s kind of mysterious how death has such a profound effect on us. We could say it’s mysterious how death arouses in us a desire for eternity. We could say that it’s kind of mysterious how we grieve when someone dies, like Roy. We could say it’s mysterious.

But that’s not what St Paul’s talking about when he says: Behold! I tell you a mystery!

When St Paul says these things: it’s a bit like when the Prophet Isaiah says: A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. That’s a mystery!

Or when Jesus gathers his disciples together on top of a mountain, sits down like a king on his throne with the majesty that belongs to him, opens his mouth and teaches his disciples and says: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. That’s a mystery! – Blessed are those who mourn.... for they will be comforted. What a promise! But what will they be comforted with? They will be comforted with the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore, as St Paul says, we do not grieve as others do who have no hope.

And it’s this mystery that Paul wants to tell to the church of all times and all places when he says these words: Behold! I tell you a mystery. He wants to draw you in. He wants to invite you into the hidden chambers of God’s heart and show you what lies in store for each Christian who dies in the faith.

In Ephesians, St Paul says: To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

This mystery – he says – was hidden in the dark recesses of God’s heart. It wasn’t for us to know about it yet. But Paul says, I am called to preach this mystery to you. I am called to tell you that the unknown God has a name, and he has risen his Son Jesus Christ from the dead.

So, what St Paul says in our text today, echoes those words of Jesus: Blessed are you ears for they hear and your eyes for they see. For many of the prophets longed to hear what you hear and did not hear it, and to see what you see but did not see it. And so St Paul says: Behold! I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Ask yourselves: Do you believe those words? Listen to how simple they are, and feel their power. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. As we come together today for Roy’s funeral, we come to give thanks for the life of a man that all of us so much enjoyed. We come to thank God for the great gift that he gave many people through the person of Roy.

And in some sense, Roy’s death marks somewhat the end of an era. It brings to end a chapter of family history. All of us here will miss Roy together, but in different ways and for different reasons. But it’s not the end, full stop. People outside the Christian faith will sit and ponder and consider whether or not there is an afterlife, or as people often say, a “here-after”.

But Christians not only believe that there is a “here-after”, but that it is takes a certain shape and has a certain form, and structure and order to it. It’s not something that’s non-descript, but in all its indescribability, St Paul, with such confidence, with such boldness, almost arrogance, and with such simplicity, sets out to describe what it looks like. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Right back in Genesis 3, after the fall into sin, God said to Adam: For you are dust and to dust you shall return. There’s also a famous passage in Ezekiel where the prophet is brought into the middle of a valley of dry bones, and God says to him, Son of Man, can these bones live? What a wonderful confession of faith it is to come to the church today and say Amen to these words: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

In our Gospel reading which we read today we heard about Lazarus, and his sister Martha. Before he arrives at Martha’s house, Jesus says to his disciples: Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I go to wake him up.

There was also an occasion when Jesus saw all the people outside Jairus’ house, weeping and carrying on because of the death of his daughter, and he said: Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.

So our confession of faith today is not simply that Roy Hoffmann has died, but something even more profound, he has fallen asleep with Jesus, in Jesus, he rests in Jesus.

Behold, I tell you a mystery! We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall gathered together again and transformed and glorified, and awake again to see another day, a more glorious, and a brighter day that we have ever seen before.

We shall all be changed. How? In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. When? At the last trumpet.

For the trumpet shall sound, says St Paul, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

It’s true when the prophet Isaiah says: All flesh is grass. The grass withers and the flowers fade.

And for many of us, it’s been a difficult thing to see these words come to fulfilment in Roy’s body in the last few months. We’ve learnt from experience now, that this body is in actual fact perishable. We learn this from our observances, our experience.

Now, we learn something new by faith, and only by faith. We learn something new now not through our eyes, but through our hears. St Paul says: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

For the trumpet will sound and dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Today we are not here to just commemorate the end of something. Christian funerals and memorials are occasions where we commemorate the preparation for something new, for the future work of God that we still wait for – we look forward to the resurrection of the dead.

St Paul writes: When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Do you hear those words: Death is swallowed up. Devoured! Chewed up and crunched to bits.

Death is swallowed up in victory!

Dreams are swallowed up with realities!

Hopes and wishes are swallowed up with real things!

Faith is swallowed up by sight!

Tears are swallowed up with joy!

Suffering is swallowed up with peace!

Mourning is swallowed up with comfort!

Death is swallowed up with resurrection, with victory.

That’s what we come here today to confess as a Christian church: that each Christian will be healed by Jesus from their perishability, each Christian will be healed from their mortality, each Christian will be healed from their corruption.

In the Apostles’ Creed we say: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Can you see the order, the structure here? The Holy Spirit calls us by the gospel into the church, in the church we become a fellowship, a communion of holy people, of saints through Holy Baptism, in this Christian church our sins are daily and richly forgiven, and then this forgiveness of sins blossoms into the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Everything in our text today from St Paul is completely beyond our experience. These are things that are only grasped by faith. In a sense, the Scripture speaks to us from the other side of the grave from one who has seen what is there and now tells us who are still here. And what is seen there on the other side of the grave is so great and so magnificent, that it can only be told to us, by saying: Behold! I tell you a mystery!

In the last two verses of this text today, we read:

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The death of a person is a testimony that they like everyone was conceived and born in sin. The only exception to this is Jesus Christ himself, who became sin for us, and took on sin for us.

That’s the sting we feel and experience today. The sting of death is sin. As St Paul says: The wages of sin is death.

But then we also read: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We already heard before that death will be swallowed up by victory. But here’s the thing: Here, the text says: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We don’t earn the victory! We don’t work for the victory. God simply gives us the victory, as a free gift, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And it doesn’t say, he will give us, but he gives us the victory, now, in the church, through Holy Baptism and through faith. He gives us the victory every time we eat and drink the body and blood with all those who have been given the victory before us, with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

May God bless us today as we remember Roy, whom we knew and loved. Jesus himself knows the sting: he wept himself at the death of Lazarus. But he has died for your sins on the cross, and risen again for them, as a physical and historical proof that you will also rise with him, and also, as St Paul says, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Jesus himself says: Blessed, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Pentecost XXII (Proper 27 A) [Matthew 25:1-13] (12-Nov-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we read a very rich parable of Jesus, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We read: Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. The scene that Jesus paints here is one of ten virgins who are bridesmaids waiting for the groom to arrive so that they can go into a wedding reception, or a wedding banquet. At weddings, it is always important that things run on time, and there are a lot of jokes about brides running late. If a bride arrives early, the car might drive around the block a few times so that they arrive at the church at the right time. But in our parable, it is a groom—a bridegroom—that everyone is waiting for, and he is so late that everyone falls asleep.

In our reading, we read that the ten virgins went to meet the bridegroom. And later we read: At midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ So who is the bridegroom in this reading? The bridegroom is Jesus himself. One of the first things we read about in the book of Genesis is the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God himself as the match-maker and the celebrant. And then, right at the end of the bible, we read in the book of Revelation: I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A couple of chapters earlier, we read where an angel says: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Right back in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah, we read about a faithful servant of God speaking of God like their husband: I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. In Ephesians, Paul has a lot to say about this: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

And so you can see this wonderful reality described in the bible here of Christ as the bridegroom, and the church as his bride. St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2: I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He is not speaking only to the Corinthians who were outwardly celibate and virgins, but to the whole church here. And in the church at Corinth, there were virgins and widows, married people, and also people who had converted to Christ from prostitution, who were adulterers and who had slept around, and also Paul even mentions people who had converted to Jesus after having committed incest. But when these people repented and turned to Christ, they became virgins again, not because of themselves and their own righteousness and purity, but because of Christ’s righteousness which covered them. As it says in Isaiah: He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

In our reading, we read about the ten virgins: Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

On one hand, in the bible, the church is always depicted as Christ’s bride. But in this reading the bride isn’t mentioned, only these virgins, these bridesmaids. And so, we learn from this that in this life, in the church on earth, the bride of Christ is hidden, veiled. The church is often not a glorious place at all. It often seems quite ordinary, even a bit uninteresting and boring and commonplace. Sometimes in the church, there are fights and disagreements. From the outside, the church seems to have a lot of hypocrites. Many people don’t want anything to do with the church, because they see a community of ordinary sinners, and if God were really in charge of the world, why would he bother wasting his time with that lot?

But in this life, we don’t see the bride in all her glory. We only see ten virgins, five of them are wise and five of them are foolish. On one hand, the church is found wherever Christ’s word and the Gospel is preached in its truth and purity and where his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are carried out according to Christ’s command and institution. The Word and the Sacraments are the Holy Spirit’s means that he uses to create faith in people. But on the other hand, not everyone who hears the gospel believes it. But faith is not something that you produce in yourself, but it is something that the Holy Spirit works in your heart. You might even think: “I want to believe, but I can’t”. St Paul writes that God wills and works in us to his good pleasure. If you want to believe, it means that God is already working in you, and you didn’t even know it. Thank him for working in you—he will continue to work in you, and he has already produced faith in your heart.

Now, the Holy Spirit is not a toy. He is the living God himself, and the Spirit of the Living God, and the Spirit of the living Jesus, who has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit will not be manipulated. And so he works whenever and wherever he pleases in those who hear the Gospel. In John we read: The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. What this means is that just as we might be sitting inside one day and can hear the wind outside, so also when we hear the Word of God, we are listening to God’s own wind, the Holy Spirit. But just as you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going, so also we can’t see the Holy Spirit coming, and we can’t see the Holy Spirit working in this person and that person. As Paul says: I preached, [someone else] watered, but God gave the growth.

And so, we see this happen on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down upon the disciples, but not everyone who sees this happening believes it or recognises it. We read: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Some were interested, but some mocked. When Paul preached in Athens, we read: Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So what we learn here is that we never know how the Holy Spirit is going to work. We should never second-guess him and say: That person’s never going to listen. We simply speak the word and go home, but the Holy Spirit then continues to work and create faith in people.

So on one hand, the word of God and the Holy Spirit comes to us from outside of us. And all of us hear the word of God altogether. But God doesn’t speak his word in such a way that it hits you on the head like a rock and bounces off. He calls you to believe it. And so, even though all kinds of people might come to church and hear the word, God calls each individual to be saved personally. Later in our reading we read: As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterwards, the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

We learn a few things here. Firstly, we learn that Christ calls us to receive the gift of salvation personally. When the time comes, it will be too late for the individual virgins to share their oil with each other. We can’t rely on others. We can’t say: I’m saved, because I go to church with bla-bla-bla, and he’s a good guy. Or: I’m saved because my grandma is a Christian. Or: I’m saved, because my grandfather, or my son, is a pastor. Or: I’m saved because I go to the church Martin Luther started, and he knew what it was all about. Or: I’m saved because come from such-and-such a country. No: we can’t get our righteousness from each other. We can only receive our salvation from Jesus and him alone. Now, sometimes, when a person dies, we don’t about their salvation, and so we might commend them to God in prayer and to his mercy. But this does not mean that our good works or our prayers can earn salvation for someone else. Some of you might have a relative or a friend who is not saved and is an unbeliever. Of course, we should pray for them every day and not give up. But we don’t pray that we would be their saviour, but that Jesus would be their Saviour. So salvation is through Jesus and Jesus alone. Peter says in Acts: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So the oil cannot be shared between fellow virgins. It can only be received from Christ and the Holy Spirit, through the living and active word of God.

But secondly, there is a very important teaching here that not everyone will be saved. This is a very unpopular thing to say, but we must learn from the Scripture and not from our own ideas that there will be a judgment, and that each person will be judged by God. There are a number of parables where Jesus teaches this: one of them is the wheat and the weeds, where at the end, the wheat and weeds are separated into different piles. Another parable like this is about the drag net which pulls in all kinds of fish, and then they are sorted into the good and the bad. And here in the parable of the ten virgins, there are two types of virgins: the wise and the foolish. The wise virgins are ready and prepared and they go into the wedding feast, but then there are the foolish virgins who are not ready and it is too late for them, and then the door is shut. So you can see that there is a judgment.

Now today there are many people who don’t believe this. First of all, many people say that there is no distinction between God and his creation. They say that God is everything, God is the universe, or that God is in everything. The first verse of the bible contradicts this and says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is the creator, and the heaven and the earth are his creation. Second, many people say that the Holy Spirit is in everyone. This is not true. Everyone is born with a conscience, everyone is born with a soul, but to be saved, Jesus says you must be born again, a second time, in Holy Baptism, and God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift. Instead of being united around Jesus and his word, many people today just want to be united in their feelings and experiences, and so there would be no difference between the Christian faith and any other faith. But Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If this isn’t true, then Jesus is a liar, and he’s not the true God. If the words of Jesus are not absolute truth, then nothing in this world is right or wrong, there is no good or bad, no heaven or hell, and of course, the church has no mission, and the missionary zeal of the church completely dries up.

Instead, the bible teaches us that God is the Creator, and he has made heaven and earth as his creation, which is distinct from him. Jesus is true God who entered into this creation and took on human flesh, and then died on the cross and made a payment and an atonement for sin. Through faith in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit. In the end, we will be judged; but through Jesus, forgiveness and eternal life has been won for us, and is ours through faith. Jesus is our Mediator, our Advocate, our Defender. The Holy Spirit brings us the Gospel, and through the Gospel the Holy Spirit creates faith in us. The Holy Spirit is the oil in the lamps, and the light of the Gospel in our hearts is the light. And so while we have the light of the Gospel shining among us on this earth, we need to make good use of the time we have to fill up our flasks with God’s oil. If we leave it, and refuse to believe the Gospel, there may be a time, then, when it is too late for us.

And so, at the very end of our reading, Jesus says: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Jesus here is calling us to repent and to reconcile ourselves with God now, in this life, while we have the Gospel. Psalm 95 says: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Isaiah says: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. St Paul says in Romans: The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. And in Galatians we read: As we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone. The time for acquiring faith, and believing in Jesus, and receiving the Holy Spirit is now. It is not next year, not next month, not tomorrow. When we hear the Gospel, we can’t guarantee that it will be there for us when we need it. We might say: I’ll read the bible at home another day, but who knows if later you’ll go blind in your old age? People might say: I won’t listen in church all that carefully, but then later on they go deaf and it’s too late? They might say: I’d like to come to church, but then later they find themselves unable to come when they want to.

Or someone might say: I’m going to church at Easter. I haven’t gone to church for a long time. And then they go along, and the preacher tells everyone that Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead after all. It’s too late – the Gospel isn’t preached in that church any more, and the glory of God has departed from that place. They rejected God earlier, and when they sought him later, they couldn’t find him anymore. They might call for a pastor to come and see them on their deathbed, but then they can’t find anyone to come, because by that time, either no Christians live there anymore, or the Christians who do are too lazy and apathetic to come.

The time of grace is now. And while we have the Gospel, our Lord Jesus doesn’t call us to be apathetic, but to fill up, to stock up our vessels, and to keep our lamps burning. And when our lamps burn brightly, and when they burn with the wonderful light of God’s word and his Gospel, then the words will be fulfilled: Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Others may see the light in the lamps, and will say: I want to go and fill up on the same oil as they. I want to fill my lamp with the same word of God, and the same Gospel, and the same Holy Spirit.

And so, let’s be ready and prepared. Let’s continually learn God’s word, receive the free forgiveness of sins, and to fill up our vessels continually, so that when the time comes we can wake from our sleep and hear the words: Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him’. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. Amen.

Dear Jesus, our loving bridegroom, keep us watchful and ready, and continually fill our lamps with your precious Word and your Holy Spirit. Wake us up from our sleep, forgive us all our sins, and lead us into the wedding banquet of eternal life. Amen.