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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Easter 4





John 16:16-23 - Jubilate - April 17, 2016
While We Wait





Lord, how long will the wicked,
How long will the wicked triumph? (Psalm 94:3)
If we listened to our Gospel lesson this morning, we know the answer already.  Not long.  Our loving Savior tells us that it is just a little while until our sorrow will turn to eternal joy, which no one can take from us.  As we will sing in our closing hymn,
O little flock, fear not the Foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow;
Dread not his rage and power.
What though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumph o’er God’s saints
Lasts but a little hour.

The old evil foe seems to triumph over us.  It seems that way.  That is why we sorrow.  At least, this is what we are to learn to sorrow over.  Those who are not bothered by the seeming triumph of the devil, the world, and their sinful flesh clearly don’t believe what God says about these things.  They prefer peace with the world over peace with God.  Those who do not sorrow over the fact that their flesh is weak and often falls to wicked desires – those who do not grieve at the fact that the world is full of temptations that lure them away from the fear of God – well, such people are not Christians.  He who does not mourn shall not be comforted.  Such people who do not learn to sorrow for a little while on earth shall sorrow forever in hell.  Those who do not weep and lament at how often their flesh loses the battle to sin – over such people the devil does not just seem to triumph.  He has already triumphed.  Even if such a one be counted among us in the number of the Shepherd’s sheep – even if he prays and confesses and sings with us – even if he approaches the rail where the very body and blood of Christ are given as food and drink — remember, as the healthy has no need of a Physician, so the happy has no need of Consolation — if such a one does not truly sorrow over his sins and rend his heart before God, then he eats and drinks to his own judgment!  He is thereby made worse rather than strengthened.  The wrath of God remains upon him and he confirms himself in his unbelief. 
It is therefore extremely important that we learn what true repentance is and what godly sorrow is compared to the worldly sorrow of the heathen.  Those who do not repent of their sins and in true zeal aim to amend their lives will never know true joy.  But for us who wait on God in patience to deliver us from threats without and from lusts within, dear Christians, it only lasts a little hour.  To you who know the cause of your sadness, who see that when all is said and done, it is your own sinful heart that remains your biggest problem – to you who struggle and find not the strength to overcome in yourselves, to you, dear brothers and sisters, our Lord speaks profound comfort in our beautiful Gospel lesson this morning.  He goes to his Father.  His disciples see him no more, because he is hidden under the shame and torture of his crucifixion.  But he goes to his Father.  For the same reason that they will not see him, they will see him again.  He goes to his Father.  He is hidden first in his suffering, where he makes atonement for all our sin, bearing all God’s judgment against you.  He is hidden second in his glorification, where he ascends to the right hand of Power to make intercession for his saints.  He hides himself not to be far away, but in order to bring to you through word and sacrament what he has earned as your Savior God. 
You who grieve therefore to feel that Christ is far when your sin is near, and who wish for him to be near with that assuring and faith-creating, Easter evening “Peace be to you,” dear Christian, it is a short wait.  Christ comes to you here, now with mercy and forgiveness and everlasting life.  He removes from you your sin as far as the east is from the west.  You have the peace he gives you – peace and reconciliation with your Maker that he won by shedding his blood as your kinsman Redeemer.  Your God and Brother strengthens your weak faith and establishes all the more firmly the certain hope that you will be delivered, body and soul, in the end.  He frees you from all wrath and judgment by bearing it himself; and he brings you, by faith today, and, soon enough by sight and every future sense, into his eternal kingdom of never-ending joy and peace! 
What is permanent endures forever.  And what is permanent for you is found in the word he speaks in Holy Scripture.  Permanence is not to be found in the things you feel.  What only seems to be lasts only a little while.  You know this from experience.  And this is true whether what seems to be gives you great pleasure or deep grief.  
To our flesh, these little whiles seem to go on forever.  That is why, on one hand, we become so sad and miserable when we must bear some heavy cross as though it will never be lifted.  Nothing could be worse to us.  We complain and curse and imagine that every joy is ruined by the affliction that afflicts us.  But we are wrong.  Such an attitude demonstrates that our Old Adam won’t go down without a fight.  He will judge everything by how he feels.  But you must not.  You must judge by what God says.  Jesus tells you a little while. 
To our flesh, these little whiles seem to go on forever, which leads us to why, on the other hand, we become so determined to seek pleasure and store up wealth and waste time on frivolous delights instead of studying God’s word, praying, or fulfilling our duties of love toward one another.  Just as the little while of pain seems to last forever – even though they really don’t at all – so also our foolish flesh imagines that the fleeting burst of pleasure will satisfy us for longer than they will.  They won’t. 
The lazy worker says, “Just a little while, and I will get back to work.”  But do we need any commentary on what this little while turns into?  He heaps up more trouble for himself than he avoided.  The drunkard says, “Just a little sip to ease the weight of this angst in my mind.  Then I will resume my commitment to living as I should.”  But his little while of sin leads to a long while of grief for those who love him, and to a siege against his own soul that God desires to save.  The insecure Christian says, “Let me impress others by joining them in their mockery of what is holy – just a bit – and I will enjoy their praise for time to come.”  Not only is this sinful, it is foolish and wrong.  Your popularity will perish as quickly as yesterday’s fashion.  Your little while of praise will end sooner than you think.  It is better to endure their mockery of you for a while than to join them in God’s judgment forever. 
The dissatisfied husband says, “Just one more look, just one more peek and I will be satisfied for a long time to come.”   But his sinful flesh lies.  There is no satisfaction in indulging the lusts that war against the soul.  The next thing he knows, he is consumed by unfulfillable desire and bitter disappointment.  His little while of pleasure translates into a heavy load of guilt and ungodly sorrow. 
The underappreciated wife says, “Let me just give him one piece of my mind.  Let me savor the pleasure of telling him what’s what and I will reap the benefit of being right and him being wrong.”  But she won’t.  She will enjoy just a little while of her pride being fed.  But it will hunger again as she grows increasingly resentful of her husband who does not deserve her respect. 
The young couple knows they should get married.  They have been taught that a good conscience is more valuable than passing carnal pleasure.  They know that to sin against God brings God’s disfavor and not his blessing.  “Just a little while,” they say.  “Just a little while of living in disobedience and we will set things straight when the time is right.”  But the time is never right if they marry without repenting.  Their little while becomes merely the opportunity to harden their hearts against God’s clear word that speaks against their sin.  How many Christian couples who fornicated for a little while end up not coming to church anymore at all because their pastor called them out on their sin?  This isn’t just a statistic.  It’s a warning.  These little whiles of pleasure war against the soul, as the Apostle said. 
The reason our foolish flesh judges little whiles of pleasure so falsely is because it judges the little whiles of sorrow falsely.  What we need is not our own way of escape.  What we need is God’s way of escape.  He gives us crosses to bear for little whiles at a time in order that we might flee for refuge under his own cross.  Here in the mercy of Christ, workers learn to be honest.  Drunkards learn the value of sobriety.  Husbands and wives learn to bear with each other’s weaknesses.  And Christians learn to count the honor of this world as nothing compared to the favor of God. 
He who rejoices at his seeming triumph over God’s judgment will, in a little while, be judged.  He who sneers at the law of God and defies the law of man which God has told us to obey will be judged.  He who neglects his duties as father, mother, spouse or child, as though his current satisfaction were proof that he has effectively evaded God’s wrath, will soon enough learn that God cannot be mocked.  He is a righteous avenger.  He cares for the widow and fatherless, for the poor and abused.  He is a consuming fire who will avenge his own when they cannot avenge themselves.  He demands purity, and will purify with fire if need be. 
However, he who knows a thing or two already about God’s burning wrath towards sin – he who sees God’s wrath revealed in the brutal death of Christ – he who sorrows at his seeming defeat and his undeniable unworthiness will today find salvation offered to him.  And in a little while, such a penitent sinner will stand with all the saints on the Last Day, all his sin completely removed and forgotten forever.  He will stomp the devil, his demons, and all the wicked under the feet of our Head Jesus Christ – even as he does so now by faith when he believes that his sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake.  So while we are to sorrow for a little while – and we must! – we learn that what grieves us is only temporary.  As surely as what gratifies the flesh lasts just one disappointing little hour, so what grieves the soul is just as short lived.  And all these crosses prepare us for a weight of glory that we cannot now comprehend.  In Christ, in his forgiveness, in his life for us, what we are to rejoice in forever will not fade away.  
In a little while, you who confess the truth that this church teaches, and have rightly examined yourselves as to what you have done and left undone – you who have concluded rightly that though you are unworthy, Christ makes you worthy – you will in a little while enter the courts of heaven as you approach this altar.  Here you commune with God.  Here you receive not just forgiveness, life, and salvation, but also the very body and blood of God that once lay in the manger for you and that once hung on the cross for you.  It only lasts a little while.  But here you share in the eternal peace that all sleeping saints now enjoy without end as angels and archangels and all the company of heaven join you in singing praise to him who comes in the name of the Lord.  And this little while of communion goes with you as you continue to endure the little whiles of guilt, persecution, sorrow, and regret. 
As surely as our Lord’s little while on the cross procured for us an eternity with him in heaven, so your little whiles must be measured not by what you feel in the moment, but by what God says to you right now: “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”  Learn to apply your Lord’s little while to yourself:
The Foe in triumph shouted
When Christ lay in the tomb,
But, lo, he now is routed,
His boast is turned to gloom.
For Christ again is free;
In glorious victory
He who is strong to save
Has triumphed o’er the grave.
I saw a church sign not too long ago that had an arrow pointing to the church, saying, “Sinners here.”  It’s clever, I suppose.  Our church is a hospital for those who are sick, a refuge not for those who have no sin, but for those who are heavily burdened by their sin.  And we should certainly look at our churches this way.  Here Jesus binds and heals sinners.  But he heals and binds saints too.  Remember that.  You are not without Christ, dear lambs of the Good Shepherd.  You are not deprived of your status as his holy saint just because you struggle with sin, just because you endure scoffing insults from the world for what you believe and confess, just because you must forego pleasures that the world is so intent on advertising so much – or worse, just because your flesh longs for those pleasures that God forbids.  This little while of temptation and grief is just that: a little while.  But as often as you are called back to where your sin is forgiven, where your soul is strengthened in your fight against the flesh, where you are taught how to do your duty toward God who graciously covers your failures and clothes you with the obedience of his Son – so often, you encounter eternity.  Taste it and see that the Lord is good. 
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life.  (Psalm 30:5b, a) 
Let us pray:
This is a sight that gladdens;
What peace it doth impart!
Now nothing ever saddens
The joy within my heart;
No gloom shall ever shake,
No foe shall ever take,
The hope which God’s own Son
In love for me hath won. Amen. 

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