Last Sunday In Church Year
Dear friends in Christ. Today begins the final week of the present Church Year. Today we focus our attention to our Lord’s Second Coming—this time in all glory and majesty, when, as victor over death He will raise all the dead; then will be the Final, public, Judgment. That will be the end of all things as we know it; then our Lord’s dear Christians, in both soul and body, will be forever with Him in the glories of heaven while those who rejected Him will forever be soul and body in hell suffering indescribable torment.
The joy of one day being with our Lord in heaven lifts our eyes from the present sorrows and sufferings and all the more fills us with that longing to be there with Him, the true God, together with all the saints and angels. Our text so wonderfully describes in OT language the saints’ longing for their perfect, final, redemption; for the Messiah to come and bring us into His kingdom.
1. Our psalm is called: A Song of Ascents; or, A song of the ones who go up. It was sung by those who journeyed to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts in the Temple. These OT saints would go to the Temple to hear once again of God’s great acts of rescue and deliverance; to hear once again of the coming Messiah and His work and to be pointed to the forgiveness of sins the Messiah would bring. As these OT saints, these pilgrims, would go to the Temple, their thoughts would naturally turn toward heaven, the ultimate goal of their faith. The Temple was a bit of heaven on earth—where God came and met His people giving them the forgiveness of sins on account of the sacrifice that Jesus, His Son, would offer up.
The same thing applies to us today. When we go to church, here, too, is a bit of “heaven on earth.” Here in church we gather together around our Lord’s Word and Sacrament—where He has promised to meet us. Here in Sacrament and Word Jesus gives us every heavenly and spiritual blessing He won for us and obtained for us by His life, suffering and death. As we gather around the altar we join our praise with that of angels, archangels and all the company of heaven. Church is truly heaven on earth; may our minds always be lifted here from the earthly to the heavenly.
What a wonderful, glorious way that the OT saints thought of their redemption as they went to the temple. When the LORD will have brought back the captivity of Zion, We will be like those who dream. Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Although Jesus, the Savior, hadn’t yet come, they trusted in Him and His work; they were certain of their forgiveness because of the promises—He would bring about their forgiveness and eternal life in heaven. They were on their way to the Temple to hear of and receive once again that forgiveness He would bring. They were certain of heaven and already now could rejoice. But they knew that they could not fully understand and describe that joy; that even though it was too good to be true, it is true: We will be like those who dream.
Yet, how much greater should be our joy!—Jesus the Savior has come; the work for our salvation has been carried out; it is an accomplished fact; by Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection and ascension heaven has been opened to us. The forgiveness and salvation that Jesus brought about is actually given to us.
But as wonderful and glorious a thing as it is for us to be in Christ’s Church, His Zion, here on earth, enjoying the blessings of forgiveness of forgiveness of sin, peace and joy in the Lord knowing that we are His dear Christians and in Christ things are right between us and Him, living our lives in the full assurance and joy of one day being with our Lord in heaven, we are not yet in heaven. We are still in the captivity of the world, sin, death. That means we are still in the sinful world that works together with our old sinful nature to lead us into sin and to fight against faith; it means that as hard as we try not to, we will sin; it means that because of our sin we will die. That’s why the Church on earth is called the Church Militant; we are still fighting sin, death and devil.
But we say with the OT Church: When the LORD will have brought back the captivity of Zion, We will be like those who dream. We are, in Christ, assured of complete victory and deliverance, as He promises us [Jn. 10.28]: I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. Christ, our Lord, will bring back the captivity of Zion, that is, come the Last Day as He raises the body of His dear Christian from the tomb, makes it a body fit for heaven and reunites it with the soul, He will bring back all the faithful to that perfect liberty, joy and peace of everlasting life. We will be as God originally created us to be—holy and perfect.
That glorious perfection that we will one day enjoy for all eternity in heaven, that return from the captivity of sin, death and devil, we cannot now even imagine! We cannot now even begin to imagine the joy that we will then have: We will be like those who dream. Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. The joy will be so great that we can hardly believe it; it will be as if we were dreaming it and it isn’t true—too good to be true—but it is true! In heaven, one day, when we realize that the joys we are experiencing are real, not just dreams, Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing; shouts of joy and thanksgiving will fill our mouths.
That’s our joy come the Last Day. Although as we gather around our Lord’s word and sacrament in church and get a foretaste of this joy already now, it is a joy that will even be beyond our wildest dreams now.
Our text: Then they will say among the heathen, "The LORD has done great things for them". The heathen are pictured as the enemies of the people of God, the Church. Much like our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell will look on helplessly to do any harm to us when we are in heaven: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies—here, come the Last Day, on the great Day of Judgment, the enemies of our Lord’s Church will ask “Why? Why does this lowly despised group enter heaven and all its glory?” And they will have to admit grudgingly that it was the greatness of the Lord’s mercy, the greatness of His deeds on their behalf, the great work of Christ for us.
But we, the Christians of both OT and NT, will gladly and joyfully confess on that day: The LORD has done great things for us, And we are glad. Here is the Lord’s grace to us sinners. We have done nothing to earn or deserve heaven; we are not better or more worthy than others. Instead, the Lord has done great things for us: He came to be our Savior by living a holy, sinless life for us and suffering and dying for our sins; He reconciled us to God; He sent His Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts to receive the gifts of His grace and forgiveness of sin. That’s why even now we are glad—because The LORD has done great things for us; we can be certain of heaven and that eternal joy because it is the Lord’s work; it doesn’t rely/ depend upon us.
2. Dear Christian, by the Lord’s grace what great joy we look forward to on the Last Day! It is so great and marvelous that now we can only come to realize that such joy is beyond our fondest expectation and ability understand.
But let us also realize that it’s not the Last Day yet. That’s what the last Sunday in the Church Year reminds us of. While we await the Last Day, while we live our lives as our Lord’s dear Christians, in the full joy of what a glorious future awaits us, we are still sinners living in a sinful world. The devil, the world and our old sinful nature all conspire to lead us into complacency about spiritual and heavenly things, to make us think that things other than faith in Christ and salvation are vital, that we can “put them off” until later. That’s the warning of today’s Gospel reading—faith can gradually be extinguished and die out if not fed with God’s holy word and sacrament. Then we won’t be ready when Christ returns, or the moment of death, whichever may be first, and the joy of heaven will be lost.
Even though we are certain of joy on the Last Day, it’s not yet the Last Day. Even though we are certain of joy on the Last Day, we are still plodding through this life and like the OT saints, we pray: Bring back our captivity, O LORD, As the streams in the South. Yes, we are baptized; yes, we are part of Christ’s Church; but we still very much feel our sin; we still very much have to fight against sin; we are, until our dying breath or Christ’s return, captive to sin and death. St. Paul speaks for all of us when he asks [Rm. 7.23]: O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? So we always pray Bring back our captivity, O LORD, As the streams in the South, that is [2 Ti 4.18], that the Lord deliver us from every evil work and preserve us for His heavenly kingdom.
Our daily fervent prayer is for Christ to continue to come to us in His word and sacrament and so give us that joy of forgiveness and peace that only He can so that we remain faithful and continue to look for His return. Here we need His continual mercy and His forgiveness. That’s why we go to church so that we can hear and receive what He gives us in His holy Word; so that we hear and receive the forgiveness pronounced upon us in the absolution; so that we receive that forgiveness with His body and blood together with the bread and wine.
The image that the Lord uses in the psalm to picture His coming to us and showering us with His graces is this: As the streams in the South. In the dry desert, sudden rainstorms turn the dry river beds into flowing, rushing streams; so here as we are caught in this barren life fighting against temptation and sin, the Lord’s mercy overflows on us giving us blessing upon blessing, grace and mercy upon grace and mercy and He empowers us so that we endure and remain faithful. It is our fervent prayer that the Lord continue to bless and preserve us in the true faith until He finally brings us to Himself in the joys of heaven; until He comes on the Last Day to bring us both soul and body into the eternal joys of heaven.
What a comforting image we have in our psalm: Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. Yes, because it is not yet the Last Day, we, sow in tears: that is, we weep over our weaknesses, imperfections, shortcomings, sins, trials, sufferings; we see that all our troubles are the result of sin—we are, after all, sinners living in a sinful world; we have been redeemed/ rescued but we are not yet in the safety and joy of heaven. So, yes, our lives now are ones of sowing with many tears; but it will all be different when every impurity and every ill of body and soul will be removed—we will reap in joy!
Just because we are our Lord’s dear Christian, does not mean that this life will go swimmingly for us. So much of our work, our struggles against sin, our works of love seem to be in vain. But let us not give up hope—it is not yet the Last Day. The Lord, will in mercy, crown our patient and hopeful efforts. As we now live our lives in the faith, fight against sin, struggle to do the Lord’s will, these are our seeds of patience, hope and godliness; and come the Last Day, we will present in perfect holiness and glory the precious fruits of the eternal praise of God.
On the Last Day, we, dear Christian will laugh last and laugh best—that laughter of joy—what we believed and held fast all these years, what we endured and suffered because of it—is indeed true and in grace rewarded by our gracious Lord. This certain joy that we know will be ours come the Last Day gives form and strength to us now when it is not yet the Last Day. INJ