Last Sunday
in the Church Year – Series B (November 25, 2018)
“Are We
There Yet?” (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14)
Daniel lived among the
Babylonians. He was among the many Jews
taken into captivity beginning in 605 BC.
They hauled him and many others to Babylon and about 20 years later
leveled Jerusalem and the temple.
Youthful, intelligent, and skilled, Daniel and his three friends were
placed into the service of the king, King Nebuchadnezzar. This presented particular challenges for them. As faithful Jews, they had special dietary
needs. But this was minor compared to
the worship of false gods which surrounded them and in which they were forced
to participate. But they refused. This led to Daniel’s friends being thrown
into a fiery furnace, and later Daniel being thrown into a lion’s den. You may remember the outcome of those events. The true God delivered them. But the Jews were not allowed to return to
their homeland until the 70 years that God had ordained were over and the Persians
conquered the Babylonians.
The Babylonians, like all other
ancient cultures, also had an entirely different worldview than the Jews who
now lived among them. They had the idea
that history was like a giant wheel, that everything happened in a cyclical,
circular, repetitive fashion. There
really was no meaning to events.
Everything that happened would happen again. It was just the constant circle and cycle of
life. You were simply swept up in the
whims of the gods. Your life had no
point other than to engage in all sorts of salacious religious rituals and
sacrifices – even human sacrifices – in order to appease the gods or to get
them to notice you and get them all stirred up to cause your crops to prosper
so you could live to see another year after the harvest is over and you wait
for another season to begin. Death
seemed to be the only release from this endless cycle. And yet, some cultures even today have the
idea of reincarnation … that after you die, you come back as another life form
… perhaps another human, perhaps an animal, and then after you die you will
come back again in an endless repetition of living until you die … and then
coming back again to do it all over again.
So even death is no real release.
It’s all so tiresome. It’s all so
pointless. The question that children
ask on a long road trip – “Are we there yet?” – makes no sense in this
worldview, because there is no end.
Do you ever feel that way? “Are we there yet?” Life for us often seems like an endless
cycle. The sun comes up and sets each
day. The days pass on the calendar. Another month goes by. Another year goes by. We even see this in the Church Year. It ends today. But then it starts all over again. Another Advent. Another Christmas. Another Epiphany. Another Lent.
Another Easter. Another
lonnnnngggg Pentecost season. And we do
it all over again. Are we there
yet? It’s the end of the Church
Year. And yet there never really seems
to be an end. No end to our
troubles. No end to our pain. No end to our sadness. No end to our financial struggles. No end to life’s frustrations. No end to this blasted battle we each have
with our sinful nature and the devil’s accusations that would lead us to
despair because we are well aware of our disobedience and rebellion against
God.
But there is an end to come. There will one day be a release and rescue
from all evil and sinful consequences in this world. Eternal justice for all the injustices in the
world will finally be served. The
conclusion of all time and history awaits us.
This is the perspective that the Bible gives us. This is the picture that our readings present
to us today. History is not an endless,
pointless cycle of unrelated, random events … although from our perspective it
often seems that way. There is
direction. There is purpose. At the tribunal of Pilate, Jesus said, “For
this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to
bear witness to the truth.” And that
truth places the cross and empty tomb at the center of all history. Everything hinges on what Jesus has done for
you, by dying for your sins and rising in victory so that you, too, will rise
again in glory on the Last Day. He is
the Alpha and the Omega … the beginning and the end. As Creator, all creation finds its beginning
in him. And all history finds its
consummation in him when he returns to judge the living and the dead.
Daniel sees in his vision the
judgment of the Ancient of Days over all kingdoms and people that have been
opposed to him. It’s the king and his
court being arranged with thrones and all the heavenly host as witnesses. The books are opened … books containing a
record of all the deeds of all people, whether good or bad.
And then Daniel sees Christ
receiving his throne in heaven following his resurrection and ascension. He is described as “one like a son of
man.” A human being, although he is also
God. He comes “with the clouds of
heaven.” That’s exactly how John
describes him in his vision: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every
eye will see him, even those who pierced him.”
And recall how a cloud received Jesus from the sight of the disciples at
his ascension, and an angel appeared and told them, “This Jesus, who was taken
up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into
heaven” (Acts 1:11).
Daniel sees Jesus being enthroned
and given all power and authority as Judge of the Universe. “And to him was given dominion and glory and
a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that
shall not be destroyed.” We confess this in the Creed: “He will come again with
glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no
end.” And we sing about it in the Te
Deum: “You sit at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father. We believe
that you will come to be our judge.”
That sounds frightful, though,
doesn’t it? I mean, I get a little
nervous when I get pulled over by a police officer, even if all I did was roll
through a stop sign making a right hand turn.
I’ve never sat in the defendant’s seat in a court of law, but that would
be intimidating no matter what crime you had committed. Your future is in the hands of the judge. If we get a little nervous when getting
stopped by a police officer, how much more should we tremble before Jesus, the
Almighty Judge. We should wail with all
the tribes of the earth who will wail on account of him … because they finally
will recognize how much they have offended him, how much they have rejected
him.
And yet, there is hope. This same Judge is also the one “who loves us
and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to
his God and Father.” When the books are
opened that day, the record of our sins will have been blotted out in red … the
blood of Jesus shed on Calvary. We are
the ones who pierced Jesus because of our sins.
Every one of those hammer blows carried the weight of every act of
disobedience. But Jesus bore it all for
you … to pay the price for your disobedience, to declare you not guilty by
faith in his atoning sacrifice, to wash you clean in the waters of Holy
Baptism, to feed you with his Body and Blood in his Holy Supper, so that on the
day of his return, you will not need to wail with the tribes of the earth, but
you will rejoice and give thanks with the people, nations, and languages of
Christ’s Holy Church.
Jesus has made us to be a
kingdom. A kingdom not of this
world. On this side of the veil, it
often looks weak and powerless. It looks
beaten and battered. It is mocked and
persecuted. This is the way Jesus
appeared at the cross. But behind his
beaten, battered, mocked, and persecuted flesh was his glorious divine
nature. Likewise, his Church also is
elect and glorious, even if from our vantage point the polish on her crown has
been dulled and her bridal gown appears to be dirty. Because we are a kingdom not of this
world. A kingdom we know only by
faith. And because it is Christ’s
kingdom, it is a kingdom that will never be destroyed, no matter how much the
world and Satan try to bring us to ruin.
Jesus promised “the gates of hell will not prevail against” his Church
(Matt. 16:18). Or as the song says, “No
power of hell, no scheme of man, / Can ever pluck me from his hand / Till he
returns or calls me home / Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”
Are we there yet? Well, it depends. No, not yet.
The end is not here. We are still
waiting for the glorious return of Jesus on the Last Day. We feebly struggle here while the saints in
glory shine. On the other hand, yes, we
are there … every time we gather around this altar for Holy Communion we are
united with angels and with archangels and with all the company of heaven. You can’t see them. But they’re there. The Ancient of Days. The thousand thousands who serve him. The ten thousand times ten thousand who stand
before him. And the Lamb on his throne
who feeds us with his Body and Blood. The
Alpha and the Omega. The one in whom all
things find their beginning and end. The
one who was judged for you so that when he comes again, he will welcome you
into his “holy holy holy celebration jubilee” (LSB 680, stanza 5).
Amen.
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