Trinity 20
Beloved, not everything will go swimmingly for us as Christians, even spiritually. We will suffer great spiritual trial. That’s because of the simple reason that we Christians have powerful enemies—namely the devil and his allies: the world around us and our sinful nature within us. But even here in the midst of our spiritual trials and in the midst of temptation, we must remember that our gracious Lord does not forsake us. Not only does He not forsake us, but He also sends His holy angels to watch, fight for and protect us. St. David writes in the psalm [34.7; 91.11]: The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them; and elsewhere we read: He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. We are engaged in spiritual warfare against the devil and his allies; the holy angels are fighting for us against the devil and his evil angels.
That’s what we are seeing now in our readings in church. Last week we entered that part of the Church Year, that part of the Trinity season, called St. Michael’s Tide. In it we see the opposition to our Christian life that comes from the devil, our own sinful nature and the world around us. That’s the reality we face—but we don’t face it alone. The Lord is with us, strengthening us by His holy word and sacraments and His holy angels are fighting for us.
Now for us Christians, how should we expect our lives on this earth to be? Lives free of worry and struggle? Lives free from attacks on our faith? Lives in which we can coast into eternity because, after all, we are our Lord’s dear Christians? Hardly! That’s why we have the warning from St. Paul in our text today: Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. Once we become Christians, the Lord doesn’t whisk us out of this world and the evil in it. Instead, He is with us that we fight against the evil and stand by faith in Him, confessing before the whole world that we are His dear Christian who loves and serves Him. By our lives as Christians in this world, engaged in this battle against the devil and his allies for our very soul, we are, by fighting and remaining faithful to our Lord, “rubbing the devil’s nose in it” that the Lord has saved and rescued us and through all sorts of trial, sorrow, and temptation we, in the end, will be with our dear Lord Jesus soul and body in heaven for all eternity. That’s why, in the midst of our trials and the battles we face against sin, temptation and devil together with all his allies, we look at things from that eternal and heavenly perspective. As we look forward to heaven and its joys and bliss of being with all the saints and holy angels before the holy Triune God, that puts our present hurts, trials, temptations, and battles into a proper light. And through them, we know that even though we suffer and the devil intends us great physical and spiritual harm, the Lord is with us and working through these things to purify and strengthen our faith.
Yes, the Lord is faithful to His promise to us in baptism to bring us safely to Himself; yes, with His Holy Spirit and by His word and sacrament, He will strengthen us for and preserve us in the fight for our soul. But that does not mean that we can become complacent. It is a true battle as we are in this world: Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. Make the most of your time, because the days are evil.
Our Lord’s parable in the Gospel this morning is a warning: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come. “Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!’ “But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. As a result, the king was very angry. He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.
The warning for us? They not only paid no attention, but they did not want to come. We must guard ourselves lest we become so engrossed and enticed in the things of this world—things which seem so important that we forget about/ don’t care about the things of God. But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business.
Then there’s the other warning in Jesus’ parable. This warning is for the one who thinks he/she is part of the Church/ our Lord’s dear Christian but isn’t because he/ she is lacking what makes one a Christian—faith in Jesus:
“Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
The most vital thing for us, dear Christian, is to be sure our faith is in Jesus, that we trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. To that end, let us judge everything in light of that: Does this further and promote my faith in Jesus or is it a detriment to it? That’s why we need to hear St. Paul in our epistle: Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. Make the most of your time, because the days are evil.
How do we, then, make the most of our time? By living our lives carefully; and by making diligent use of the Means of Grace—the word and Sacraments.
Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people. Walking—that’s how we live or lives/ conduct ourselves. Our lives as Christians, then, is one that we need always to examine: God’s holy law says to do this and avoid that; have I avoided what He said to and have I done what He commanded? That’s the daily examination of conscience, where we hold up our life and deeds and look at them in the light of God’s holy law. As we recognize our sin, and repent of them, and receive our Lord’s forgiveness of them in the absolution, we then in love and thanksgiving to the Lord—and in the power of the Holy Spirit—strive to root that sin out of our hearts and lives. In other words, as we consider carefully, then, how [we] walk, we combat complacency. How we live, what we do is extremely important. To say that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus does not mean we have license to sin, that another sin is no big deal since it’s forgiven as well. If we become complacent about our sin, we also become complacent about our Savior from sin. The more we see our sin, the more we run to our Lord Jesus and the forgiveness of that sin that He offers and gives. The more we receive His gifts and blessings, the more we love Him for who He is and what He has done to save us from our sin. We consider His gifts and blessings as our greatest treasure and don’t ever want to lose them. We, then, watch our deeds because the gift of faith and salvation can be lost by us. Jesus describes this in today’s parable: But those who were invited paid no attention and went off. We, dear Christian, have God’s will in sight and direct our lives and actions accordingly—Consider carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise people.
The apostle then continues: Make the most of your time, because the days are evil. Our time here in this world is a favorable time; it is the time of God’s grace; it is a time of preparation for eternity. It is a time of grace that we dare not pass up. Let us use it to hear and to take to heart God’s holy word and to walk in it. So, if our time here on this earth is good—a time in which we make use of and enjoy God’s grace—why does the Holy Spirit say through the apostle that the days are evil? –Because just like everything else God created as good, the devil corrupts and turns it evil. This time of grace that God has given us to enjoy His graces and gifts and to walk in holiness, the devil has made into a difficult time. He and His evil forces attack and assault the Christian, who has been rescued from sin, death and hell in order to drag us back into the devil’s kingdom and damnation. Because the days are evil, that’s why we walk/ live our lives carefully lest we turn away from our Lord and His salvation. Or to flip it around—as an extra motivation—because the days are evil why not annoy and frustrate the devil by using this time to live for the Lord, do His will, and confess Him in the midst of these evil days that Satan has corrupted? Live a life of faith and good works in the midst of these evil days and use this time that Satan has corrupted as a time to grow in the faith. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Aggravate the devil and use this time to surround yourself with God’s holy word and grow in understanding all the more His holy will; study what is the God-pleasing situation in each case; strive to know the Lord’s will even better. And the most glorious thing is that as we do that, the Lord will, by His Holy Spirit, not only enable us to know His will but will strengthen us all the more to do it.
As often as you have opportunity, come to the Holy Sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood. There receive Him bodily into your very mouth; there be united with him in a most wondrous and mysterious way; there receive His gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life as we receive into our mouth that very body that bore your sin and was cursed for it and that very blood that was poured out for your forgiveness and reconciliation with God.
We make the most of our time in these evil days as we, then, make use of God’s holy word and sacraments and are then filled all the more with the Holy Spirit. Our text: And do not get drunk on wine, which causes you to lose control. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Being drunk with wine, which was a feature of pagan worship, is artificial and temporary—people eventually sober up. But as we are filled with the Spirit –notice we don’t/ can’t fill ourselves, but we “are filled”—it happens to us; it is a gift of God’s grace. But as we are filled with the Spirit, He is dwelling in us and leading us into a life of faith and good works; He fills us with the fruits of righteousness; more fruit/ evidence of the Holy Spirit is in our lives. And the more we follow the Holy Spirit, the more He rules and governs us and the more we will understand the Lord’s will and the more we will live our lives making use of our time of grace and frustrating the devil.
Our lives will be characterized by joy. The joy we receive being in church in the Lord’s presence, receiving His gifts and singing forth His praises is a holy joy and carries forth into the rest of our life. …By speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In church we come together and extol and praise God with each other for what He has done for us. We do this not only with our lips but throughout the week with the inner devotion of our heart, where true joy dwells because the Holy Spirit there makes us certain of grace, forgiveness and salvation so that even in trial we see the goodness of God (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord) .
Our text: always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Being filled by the Holy Spirit shows itself as our hearts are filled with thanks/ as we make the most of the time by giving thanks to the Lord for blessings both big and small. What great peace we have, knowing that whatever God sends our way be it spiritual or physically, He does so and shows Himself as our dear heavenly Father.
Now is a time of great spiritual warfare for our souls. Make the most of this time of grace God has given you—live a life of repentance and faith; live a life close to the word that you may grow in faith, understanding and be filled with the Holy Spirit; live a life centered on church where Jesus comes to meet you in His holy word and sacrament and give you every heavenly and spiritual gift and where you sing His praise for the grace and mercy He has shown us. INJ Amen.