Mark 13:24-37 (Last Sunday of the Church Year)
St. John, Galveston 11/24/2021
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
This morning’s Gospel reading is pretty straight forward. One day Jesus is going to return in glory! Therefore, He says, stay alert! Don’t become complacent. And, whatever you do, DO NOT FALL ASLEEP! And, though no one knows the day or the hour when He is going to return, the day is surely coming, as we confess, “He will come to judge both the living and the dead.”
 
The day of Judgement can be a fearful prospect, especially when we think about it from the standpoint of God’s commands and our own sinfulness. The reason for that is that the commands of God, His Law, were never intended to comfort us, or to give us hope and peace, for that matter. Rather, God’s Law was given to alarm us, to awaken us to our need for a Savior. And so, if you’ve ever found comfort in the commands of God, you can be certain that you’ve either misunderstood what He demands, or you’ve overestimated your ability to fulfill it.
 
In a rather well known passage from Romans 7, St. Paul reflected on his life from the standpoint of God’s Law. He came to a rather disheartening conclusion. He said, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” He then goes to say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” But for the comfort afforded Paul by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, he would have been forever tormented by his failures and the prospect of standing one day before God, guilty and without excuse. But, it’s in that moment that he turns from the condemnation of the Law to the grace of the Gospel and He says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.
While Paul was awakened to his guilt and his utter inability to keep God’s commandments, he was also awakened to the peace and comfort of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins granted to him by the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is in that sense, that is, as a baptized child of God, that Paul knew without a doubt that he was “in Christ.” And so, he says, with absolute certainty, “there is therefore no NO CONDEMNATION for those who are IN CHRIST.”
 
As we give attention this morning to the Day when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, we are admonished once again to be vigilant, to be watchful, and, above all, to STAY AWAKE. These admonitions are not threats, nor are they calls for us to do better that we might prove ourselves worthy of being saved according to the letter of the Law. Like Paul, you and I have been awakened to both the awful weight and condemnation of the Law and to the sweet comfort and freedom of the Gospel. And, like Paul, you and I, by virtue of our baptisms are, even now, IN CHRIST. Therefore, we await the day of Jesus’ return, not with fear and trepidation, but with profound thankfulness for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
 
There is a quotation attributed to Martin Luther that says, “When I look at myself, I don’t see how I can be saved. But, when I look at Christ, I don’t see how I can be lost.” Whether Luther actually said those words or not, the statement is profoundly true. In fact, it delineates very clearly the proper distinction between the Law and the Gospel. The Law directs our attention to ourselves, to our works, to our lack of purity, to our sins and our failures. The Gospel, on the other hand, directs us to Christ, to His work on the cross, to His purity and to His sinlessness, all of which are bestowed on us in and through our baptisms.
 
To remain awake and watchful for the day of Jesus’ coming, is to rightly divide His word of truth. It is to refuse to find comfort and peace in the Law and, at the same time, to refuse to find guilt and condemnation in the Gospel.
 
It was a cold, blustery night in a little Norwegian village. The door burst open to the Pastor’s study where several clergy were gathered together in fellowship. The person at the door asked the clergy there to send someone to the little village of Ravelunda to minister to a parishioner who was dying. There was urgency in the request because the dying man, though a Christian, was on the brink of despair, not able to see beyond his sins to the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
 
The pastor’s in the room, none of them wanting to venture out that night, sent the young vicar out into the cold. When the vicar arrived at the man’s house,, he went straight to his bedside. There, he found Johannes despondent just as the messenger had said. “I wish you God’s peace, the vicar said, God’s eternal peace and blessing.” The sick man shook his head. “Not for me! Not for me (he said)!” “Eternal damnation, punishment according to the measure of my sin, the judgment of wrath, and the everlasting flames—that is for me. To me, God will say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!’”
 
But, said the Vicar, God is good. The sick man looked straight up at the ceiling. “Yes (he said), God is good, very good. It is just for that reason I am in such a bad way. Pastor, do you know how good God has been to me? He has sought my soul and bidden me to walk the way of life. But I have not done so. Why, one day, I sat in Ravelunda church and heard the angels sing. Then, I looked over, and I saw my mother in the women’s pew, and I thought: Mother has aged, this winter she may die; then I’ll inherit the farm. And my heart wept, for I saw that, more than I loved Mother, I loved the filthy dollars. And, then the pastor came to the pulpit. Potbelly, I thought. You can play cards and fish for trout, but you cannot feed God’s poor little lambs with the word. But I had not prayed for him. Was that love? That is how it is with me, Pastor, the man said. Day after day, moment upon moment, it is sin added to sin, and nothing but sin.
 
The vicar, who, unfortunately, had been trained in the corrupt teachings of rationalism, wasn’t able to comfort Johannes that night, because he kept trying to remind him what a good man he had been throughout his life. But, that was the problem. Johannes, like all of us, knew that his goodness was a façade.
 
The Vicar stood up. With an assertion of his priestly authority, he laid his narrow hand as heavily as he could on the shoulder of the dying man, and said, “Johannes, I say to you that, if anyone in this settlement will die in peace, it is you.”
 
Johannes looked up. A quivering gleam of hope began to flicker in his eyes. “How can that be, Pastor (he asked)?” “Why, said the Vicar, because you are a better and more upright soul than anyone I have ever met.” Then the little gleam of light in Johannes eyes died away. There was a piercing earnestness in his eyes as he looked up at the pastor. “The Judge will not judge the soul by other souls, Pastor.”

Finally, a neighbor of Johannes, a woman, entered the room. She gained the attention of Johannes, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Johannes lay quiet. And then he said, “do you really mean that He takes away also the sin that dwells in my unclean heart? “ “For all have sinned, the woman said, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “Amen, said Johannes.” And he died, having fallen asleep in Christ, in peace.

And what I say to you I say to all, (says Jesus): Stay awake.” Your redemption, your life and salvation, are in Christ Jesus and in none other.

“Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for every sinner slain;
Thousand, thousand saints attending
Swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +