Fifth Sunday In Lent (A) 2017

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: John 11:16
Theme: Life Journey

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

Jesus waited two more days. He commenced with His journey to attend to Lazarus (who was now dead) only after remaining where He was two days longer. He wasn’t hesitant. He wasn’t apathetic. He wasn’t too tired. He wanted the bitterness of death to fully sink in. He then crossed back over the Jordan not to attend a funeral, but to facilitate a resurrection. It would be a preview of the Parousia, His coming again in glory to “judge the living and the dead”1.

Life is a journey. It has many detours, obstacles and opportunities. Do you think about where you are going in life and how you plan to get there? Are you prepared to be re-routed why you take a wrong turn? Do you acknowledge that God has a bird’s-eye view of your journey? Jesus Himself will again journey to earth. When He does, what circumstances will He encounter? Christ will meet us in the candid reality of our daily routine. When Christ returns some of us will have terrible colds or the flu. Others will be dealing with terminal cancer or crippling illness. Some will be preparing for marriage and others will have just been wed. Some will be in labour and others will have just been born. Some people might be in prison (though hopefully none of you), though I might be there for preaching the gospel one day, an activity steadily moving towards the category of criminal offence. Still, that’s nothing new. Attempts were made to silence the early messengers of the truth too. “But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.”2 Disobedience to God’s will always takes us down the path of destruction. Lent reminds us that the way of repentance is the only safe road.

When Christ comes, some people will lie at the threshold of mortality. Before His glorious return, Jesus will not prewarn us so that we are "fast forwarded" through the trials or joys of life in order to be in a more suitable position to receive Him. He will meet us in the frailty of our humanity. He will meet us as Moses met the people of Israel when he came down from Mount Sinai. He will meet us as the host met those in attendance in Jesus' parable of the wedding banquet. Jesus will meet us as He meet the lepers, the blind, the lame, the scribes and Pharisees, and His own disciples. He will meet us at whatever point we are at on our journey. And that, of course, is precisely the point. Of course, in the world, there will be wars and conflicts, and contentions. The busyness, and opulence, and poverty will continue unabated. Utopia will never exist here. Jesus will bring it all to a dramatic halt. We will be eating, sleeping, working, and playing. It will be as in the days of Noah. No one will be unaffected. No one will be exempt.

Why need we spend so much time talking about what it will be like when Jesus meets us coming in His glory? Because our perspective on the future informs how we understand the present. Our worldview is not the myopic vision of unbelief. We are ambassadors in the service of our divine Monarch. Each day when we step out the door, we are continuing the journey of faith the Holy Spirit has gifted us with. In our own wrestling with sin, and selfishness, and doubt, we are used as God’s instruments to assist others in seeing that their journey is not one of futility or despair. We are companions in the Way.

Dear friends, the remarkable truth is that through your baptism you are already living in the reality of the everlasting kingdom. The Bible describes you an eschatological being, that is, a participant in the last things. You already partake of that food. The body and blood of Christ is immortal food. It is a heavenly meal for our pilgrimage to our heavenly home. You already have the Spirit. St. Paul says today, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”3 We have passed through the first resurrection in our journey to the final and eternal one.

You already have a place in heaven with Christ. Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”4 Christ prepares that place for every believer. But the Scripture also speaks of it as a present reality saying that God, “raised us up with Him [Christ] and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”5 It is a present reality we're just not able to enjoy it yet.

Does that mean our journey here can be characterized by apathy? We are told to eagerly anticipate the Second Coming. We should do so not out of a defeatist attitude, as if we were giving up on life waiting to be zapped up to heaven. The Scriptures encourage us to be grounded and sensible. Paul talks about the dangers of idleness and the value of hard work. But we're also to walk by faith not by sight. We recognise that in the very midst of our daily routines Christ is drawing us towards Himself even as His imminent approach draws near. The risen Christ is the present Christ is the coming Christ.

It seemed in today’s situation Jesus wasn’t coming very quickly. Martha and Mary were perhaps expecting more urgency. Jesus waits, but He does not fail to act. He knows the consequence of sin must first do its work. What does the Scripture say? God “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”6 The picture of repentance is constituted by the details but its validity is evidenced by the road one is traveling; the broad or the narrow. Though Thomas misunderstood Jesus’ journey to Lazarus his intention was to travel with Jesus, “Let us go also, that we may die with Him.”7

And that is the destination of faith’s journey: Death and resurrection with Christ. There is no eternity apart from the presence of Jesus. Think of the dry bones that are raised to life. Here Ezekiel is granted a vision of the power of Christ’s resurrection. Death collapses in His presence while fragile flesh is immortalized. “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.’”8

Don’t think though this is all other-worldly talk about inaccessible truths, that the journey of faith is somehow surreal or esoteric. The God’s gifts of life are dispensed here in real time and in this very space. The forgiveness you receive is not contingent on some future condition. You are forgiven, right here, right now. There are no conditions still to be met, nothing still unfinished that needs to be completed. God is as good as His word. Christ was crucified for you. He honours in heaven what He promises on earth. Recall the Small Catechism, "Confession has two parts: First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is forgiveness, from the pastor, as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing, that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven."9 You are a cherished child of God. You are an honoured son. You are a treasured daughter. The blood of Christ washes every spot and stain from your soul. You are given a clean slate; a new lease on life.

Dear friends, Jesus Christ journeyed from heaven to earth to meet you at the baptismal font. It was as if He was coming to the tomb of Lazarus. He says to us, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.”10 Death no longer holds any power over Christ. Therefore, it has no final authority over us. Surely it was one of the longest journeys ever taken, those few short steps from the grave of Lazarus to the vicinity of Jesus! After all, he was dead. We’re all traveling the same road. Thanks be to God! Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Fifth Sunday in Lent
2 April, 2017
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 Nicene Creed
2 Acts 5:29
3 Romans 8:11
4John 14:2
5 Ephesians 2:6
62 Peter 3:9
7 John 11:16
8 1 Corinthians 15:54
9 Luther’s Small Catechism
10 John 11:25-26