The text this morning is from the Gospel lesson, the Apostle Matthew, chapter 25, especially verses 33-39:
He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
This day is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. So what? I’ll tell you so what. Today is the day that we celebrate the end of our earthly lives. It’s a pre-death funeral of sorts. You see, we have just come out of the great time of the Church. Seriously, this vocabulary is how we as the Church speak of such things. The whole of the Church Year is set up to reflect the entire message of the Gospel and the life of the Church, and we are the Church. To get that full musical reflection on the Christian life, we are singing a broad range of hymns today. That’s why we are singing Easter and Christmas and Church militant hymns together.
So, now it is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. Here’s the Church Year in a nutshell: In Advent, we celebrate the Lord’s birth and His soon-to-be second coming. In Epiphany, we celebrate the Wise Men finding the Lord Jesus and we celebrate the spreading of the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles. In Lent, we look to that time that Jesus taught His disciples and those teachings that would ultimately get Him killed. At Easter, we celebrate the raising of Christ from the dead and look forward to our own Resurrection. In the time right after Easter, we celebrate the Lord’s glorious teachings to His disciples of all the doctrines we hold dear and all the teaching we have received and continue to receive from Jesus through Word and Sacrament, through reading, and preaching, and teaching. In Pentecost, we celebrate the founding of the Church, the Church that has endured for 2000 years, and we celebrate the calling of the Holy Spirit to us to be about our work. Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, teacher, IT engineer, counselor, office worker, boss, mother, father, son, daughter, we celebrate our vocation that the Spirit has given to us to do.
Pentecost, which is 50 days after the Resurrection of Our Lord, is that day when the Holy Spirit came down and descended on the Apostles of Jesus, that day when they spoke the Gospel message into every language of the assembled hearers, that day when the Church began its first massive growth of 3000 souls, and it is the day that we as the Church started working.
Yes, you have heard me say, especially if you were in the service last week, that our good works without Christ are nothing. And that’s true. However, the good work that we do in Christ, that is our vocation, our duty, our spreading of the message of the Gospel. This good work is the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, since that day of Pentecost, we have been learning and growing as the Spirit has been speaking to us here in this Divine Worship. We see that we have much work to do.
And now that time of Pentecost, that time of the Church, that time of our work is drawing to a close. Today is the Last Sunday. Tomorrow, we begin to celebrate the second coming our Lord, even at the same time as we celebrate that blessed season of Christmas. It is as if today were the last day of our lives. Jesus is returning tomorrow and will, as we confess each Sunday in the creed, judge both the living and dead. Notice there is no separation of believers in Jesus Christ and unbelievers in that statement. Jesus Christ will judge you in that last day. He returns tomorrow. That is what we celebrate. Jesus is returning and will judge each and every one of us.
So, how are you doing? How are you doing in your work? Sons, are obeying your fathers? Daughters, do you listen to your mothers? Hunting fathers, are you obeying the laws of land and did you get only your fill of deer? Hurried soccer moms, are you obeying the speed limit? Elders, are you looking after your charges? Teachers, are you making sure all your students are learning? Students, are you listening to and learning from your teachers?
Because you see, whatever your vocation, you are expected to do it perfectly. God demands perfection and we just can’t do it that way. We’re imperfect and thus all we do is imperfect. And before you think that I am just convicting you, know that the Holy Spirit also convicts me. You see, I fully admit that I can be a better son. I know that I don’t call my parents and talk to them as often as I should. I certainly know that I was a little heathen to my parents when I was growing up. The same is true for me as a brother to my siblings. I can also be a better husband. I don’t listen to my wife’s needs as often as I should. I sin against my wife daily, and thankfully, my wife forgives me when I do, but I have still fallen fall short of where I could be as a husband. Thus, I am a sinner, and so are you.
Whether our vocation is as a son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife, citizen of Troy, citizen of the United States, whatever it is, we fall short of our vocation. We can’t even do what should come more naturally to us. The problem, of course, is sin. We are conceived in sin, we are born in sin. But before you blame your parents for bringing you into this sinful world and claim that it is really their fault that we are sinful (and it is truly their fault), we must also realize that it is our fault! We live in sin, we commit sin, we are horrible, awful people, especially to those we should love the most. We are a sinful people.
So, how are you doing? Are you filling your vocation? Are you doing everything right? When Jesus comes back, what will He say to you?
There is a legend of Martin Luther, and I don’t know if it’s true of not, but let’s just assume it is. Martin Luther was a bit of a planner. He was pretty exacting when it came down to his schedule. He would make sure he had his day planned. Time that he would spend in devotions, time he would spend writing, time that he would spend reading, his lunch, the services he had to daily do (yes, he did daily services for his congregation, often multiple services in the day – and you think it’s bad to expect you in service each week), time he would spend with his children and, most importantly, his Katie, his wife, all of this was scheduled out. One of the things Luther loved to do, and so he scheduled much time with it, was to garden. He loved planting and tending his garden.
One night, when Luther was in the tavern, as he was wont to do, someone asked Luther what he would do if he knew that Jesus would return the next day. The next day, Luther had scheduled time in his garden. Luther thought about it and said to the man who had asked, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
You see, Luther would rather that he do what he had been called to do than to try to say his peace with God, go and try some street preaching to convert people to Jesus, or try to make up for all his sins and mistakes over the years. Luther would rather that Jesus catch him fulfilling his vocation, living in the very creation that Jesus Himself made, than trying to make up for his sins. Why?
Our sins, dear friends, as Luther knew, have already been paid for! Our sins are no longer ours, but have been taken to Christ! And Jesus knows this, too! In the text, Jesus separates on Judgment Day those who believe in Him and those who don’t. To those who do believe in Him, He says plainly what we long to hear, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Our work, our Pentecost work and struggle, it is not for us, but it is done to our neighbor. And if our work is done for our neighbor, it is done for God Himself!
You see, Judgment Day is not going to be a day when Jesus takes all your good deeds and places them on a scale next to all your bad deeds. Judgment Day isn’t going to be when if your good deeds are heavier than the bad, then you get into heaven. No, Judgment Day is going to be a day when all will have to account, not for the good they did in their lives, but the evil! We are condemned by the evil we have done. And yet, God’s wrath does not pour down on the Christian, and there is no Christian who is not a sinner, on Judgment Day. Why? Because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! Christ’s sacrifice is grasped by them by faith, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We’re not judged eternally by our works because, empowered in Christ, every work that we do is a good work by Christ! By faith, every work, every fulfillment of our vocational duty is a good work!
Even the least little work is done for God. Even the worst work done for another is done for God and He loves it! God loves your work; after all, it is the work that He Himself has given to you. And since He has given it to you, and since He is God, and since He is the crucified Christ, He has taken even the most minor sin, just as He has taken the largest sin, and has nailed it to the cross with Himself. Your sins are crucified. But, unlike Christ, unlike Jesus who has been raised from the dead, your sins are not coming back. They do not come back to life. Your sins are dead. They are buried and will remain buried.
You have pleased God, my friends, not because you are somehow holy or righteous on your own, but because you are covered by the very righteous body and blood of the Holy Jesus Christ. This is what saves you: that you are covered in Christ. And this is what damns those goats the Gospel lesson speaks of. They have rejected Christ and thus their good works are not pleasing to God. Their works are for themselves and for them alone. Those works serve to damn them not because we must do works to be saved but that in their works they have rejected the very God who gave them those works to do.
But you, my friends, you are not goats. You are sheep. You are sheep who know the voice of their shepherd. And tomorrow, when Jesus returns, what will He say? “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” And the righteous, you, dear Christians, will go into eternal life!
We celebrate today the Last Sunday of the Church Year. We look forward to that day when our struggle in this life will cease. This is our pre-death funeral. We put to death our sins, not because we can do it, but because Christ has done it all for us. This is a daily dying to sin! We also, though we were dead, through the forgiveness of our sins, we are raised together with Christ and leave our sins behind. They don’t come with us as Christians.
We are sinners, and yet Christ has loved you so incredibly that He has taken all your works, all your failings, all your sin and has crucified with Himself, leaving those sins behind in the grave. You now go forward, empowered by the Holy Spirit, looking to the second coming of Christ, that second coming which will grant you everlasting and eternal life with Him. Our work in this, dear friends, for most of us, is not done. Our work is not done until we take that last gasping breath or when Jesus comes back. Either way today is the Last Sunday for sinners. Tomorrow is the new day of the Lord and Jesus will take you to Himself and you will be His forever and ever. Amen.
Now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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