Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

There are many frightful images about our Lord’s coming again to judge the living and the dead. Some might find the picture on today’s bulletin to be one of them. Today’s Gospel reading mentions “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world” (Luke 21:26). And at the same time, telling us that “when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). And at the end of the reading today we are still told “watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.... Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man” (21:36).

 

So people will be fainting with fear around you, but it means that the day of ultimate salvation has come. Nevertheless watch out because the cares of this life can overwhelm you such that you will not be strong enough to endure the things that are going to take place along with the coming of Jesus.

 

Likewise, the Old Testament reading appointed for today tells us that “the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming will set them ablaze... so that it will leave them neither root or branch. But for you who fear [the name of the LORD].... You shall go out leaping, like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under your feet” (Malachi 4:1-3). Some will be burned to ashes and some will be leaping with the joy of newfound freedom, like calves let out into the open pasture for the first time.

 

Well, what are we to do with this? At the same time we have solemn warnings and assurances of abounding joy. We have scenes of great terror and soothing serenades of peace. It is tempting to pick either one or the other as a focus for the day. I suppose that if I thought of you all as no good, dirty, rotten scoundrels, I would preach about the day of God’s wrath and fire that will have you fainting in fear and burn you to ashes being trampled under the feet of the righteous. And if I thought of you all as godly, pious, respectable people of charity and evangelistic zeal, I would preach about the coming day of your redemption when you will finally be free of the restraints of this wicked world and experience your first moment truly unfettered from this fallen creation. The picture on the bulletin shows the return of Christ with the sword of judgment on one side and a scoundrel who is destined for hell, but on the other side the lily of eternal life and a dear saint headed for the perpetual light of paradise.

 

Our Epistle reading for today tells us that the Scriptures have been written to give us hope (Romans 15:4). St. Paul was referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. So, what hope to come out on the positive side of God’s Day of Judgment do we find there? Let us look at two great moments of God’s judgment from the sacred writings.

 

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:11-13). And so God did destroy all living flesh by means a flood. He opened up the reservoirs of the deep and also brought down rain from heaven for forty days, until all the land was covered and everything drowned.

 

What a fearful time, not just when so much violence filled the earth, but when God began to visit His divine judgment and wrath upon it. What did people do when the waters started to rise and the torrential rains were falling? Certainly they watched their crops destroyed, their homes flooded, and those who were not carried away by the rushing waters would have tried to move again and again to higher ground. They were forced to witness even more destruction and loss of life as they finally came to the realization that there was no place for them to go. No one came to their rescue. There was nothing to avert the painful death as the waters came up to their necks and over their heads, filling their lungs and forcing the life out of them.

 

When we think of the violence throughout the world today we know that it is not confined only to far away places where war has broken out between nations and political factions. Violent demonstrations have found their way to our homeland also. Protests for Palestinians and the incitement of East Indian immigrants have taken the streets of Brampton and Toronto, not all that far away.

 

More personal violence is perpetrated on the streets of our own city. There have been too many reports of shootings in St. Catharines for us to feel completely comfortable and at ease. Incidents of road rage, whether there is physical confrontation or violent gestures and words; car thefts in your neighbourhood; robberies at the mall where you buy your Christmas presents. Sure that happens everywhere, but that is just the point, isn’t it? Violence is happening everywhere. And it is happening in your life—in your home, within your family, in your head and in your heart. As in the days of Noah when God brought forth His destructive judgment, the earth is filled with violence.

 

But the flood was not a time of wrath and destruction for everyone. It was also a time of deliverance and salvation. For just as God had stated He would destroy every thing that has the breath of life, He began to instruct Noah in the way of salvation. He gave Noah directions in how to build an ark big enough to save not only his family, but also to preserve mating pairs of all animals needed to repopulate the earth after the flood waters would subside. Yet, it was not so much an apprenticeship in a building trade, as it was a formation of faith, to trust this God whose divine judgment would prove to be their salvation from death, and their deliverance from a world of violence.

 

“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household” (Hebrews 11:7). By the wood of an ark eight souls were saved when they placed their faith in God who promised them salvation. By the wood of the cross of Jesus you are saved from God’s wrath against your sins of violence, and will be delivered through the ark of the Christian Church to a new world free from violence and fear.

 

For our second look at God’s judgment from the Old Testament Scriptures, let us remember when Abraham and Lot had to part company because God had so blessed them that there wasn’t enough pastureland for all their flocks. Lot took his flocks to the valley of Sodom and settled in the city. “Now the men Sodom were wicked, great sinners against he LORD” (Genesis 13:13). “Then the LORD said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know’” (Genesis 18:20-21).

 

The LORD sent two angels as men to Sodom where the men of the city tried to take hold of them and rape them, but Lot took them into his house. “Then the [angels] said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.’” (19:12-13).The wickedness in Sodom was not only violence, and surely that, but also sexual perversion as we see in the way they wanted to deal with the men sent from the LORD.

 

Is our society any less sexually perverse today? God’s Law tells us that the blessing of sexual enjoyment is to be withheld for the holy bonds of marriage. How many would hold to that today? Not only is there societal pressure on people of all ages to engage in sexual activity outside of marriage, but our children are taught from elementary age, publicly and without impunity, about all kinds of sexual perversions where the particular activity of the men of Sodom is but a primer.

 

Again it is not only something in a far flung country where there is no rule of Law. Rather, Canada leads the march of sexual liberty and such depravity is given the protection of the Law in our nation, and encouragement through government sponsorship; as well as withdrawal of governmental support from agencies that oppose such an agenda, largely Christian organizations. The violence associated with sexual perversion in our midst is not confined to those who are coerced or abused, but resulting pregnancies from illicit sexual encounters are done away through the murder of the developing human beings in their mothers’ wombs.

 

We must also confess that this, too, has invaded our own homes. A world of perversion is not just knocking at our doors, but streaming through the walls of our houses carried by internet signals that can be accessed by every member of the household. Every form of media entertainment pushes the boundaries farther and farther. It takes the vigilance of Lot and the accompanying strength of the holy angels to shut out the perversion, to banish it from our minds, and to exile it from our desires.

 

Yet, again we see that with the announcement of the impending doom upon the city, a message of salvation was given to Lot and his family. And those who placed their faith in the promise of deliverance were given a path of escape. The sons-in-law who rejected the word of the LORD sent to them, perished along with the perverts. “Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.... So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived” (Genesis 19:24-25, 29).

 

We would be highly remiss if we did not also mention what happened to one of the fleeing party. “Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (19:26). Having been solemnly warned: “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley” (19:17), she looked back.

 

There is a way of escape from the burning anger of God against all perversion and corruption. In His Holy Word He is warning you to flee. So Jesus’ words just prior to today’s Gospel reading were addressed to the residents of Jerusalem: “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it” (Luke 21:21).

 

We are not to flee to higher ground, for as in the flood, there is no escaping the universal judgment of God there. We are not to literally flee living in a particular city as Lot was called to flee from Sodom, and the people of Jerusalem were warned that God’s destructive wrath would reach even the city where His holy temple stood. Rather, our escape is to heed the warnings of God’s wrath in His Word, which tell us to flee from our sins and to flee to the grace and mercy that He offers to us through the cross of Jesus, the suffering and death of His own Son for the sins of the whole world.

 

Throughout the New Testament, anchored on the instruction that we have in the accounts of judgment in the Old Testament, we are told again and again to flee ourselves, that is our sins and the things in our surroundings that would lead us to sin. “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18); “flee from idolatry” (1 Cor 10:14); “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon God with a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).

 

You are not on this flight alone. All Christians run with you, all who believe the Word of God, His solemn warnings of judgment and His precious promises of salvation. Our Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans is a reminder that all of us Christians share in a hope that, when lived out in faith in response to God’s words of judgment and salvation, brings about a peace that spreads throughout the body of Christ and brings great glory and praise to the God of our salvation.

 

Salvation through Jesus Christ came to the Jews on account of God’s promises of a Saviour given to Noah and Abraham and Lot and all of our great heroes of faith from the Old Testament. The truth of God’s Word and the truth of His character brought about that great escape when God’s divine wrath and judgment were visited upon the One to whom all of Scripture points.

 

AND, in the character of God’s great justice and His great love, that salvation was not limited to the Jews. On account of the mercy of God His way of escape is also given to the Gentiles, people of all other nations, including you and me. Throughout all of the great acts of deliverance and rescue that God has accomplished throughout history, all people have been called to place their faith in His grace and truth reaching its pinnacle in the cross of Jesus. His Word has gone out and people of all nations have heard them in faith.

 

That Word goes out to you again on this Second Sunday of Advent, reminding you that there is coming a day of judgment, when we do not know; but also that the way of salvation has been laid out for you in Jesus Christ crucified for your sins. Again the call goes out for you to flee from your sins and not look back. It is the way of repentance which gives glory to God and fills His people with hope and peace.

 

 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).