Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Abram’s experience being called to go out from his homeland to the land of God’s promise (Genesis 12) is prototypical for every believer in the one true God. It begins with a promise from the LORD, something on which to place your hope. And that promise is so filled with the wonder of God’s unmerited grace and mercy, that the promise itself is the means through which the One who gave it, brings about your faith in it.

 

And so with a promise of blessing (which coming from the LORD is a promise of salvation), Abram believed and set out on his way. But where was he going? Only the LORD knew? When would Abram get there? How would he know to stop setting up camp and start to build a city? When would he know that he had overcome all obstacles and passed through all dangers? Would there be a pleasant voice sounding forth to say, “You have reached your destination”?

 

The promise from the LORD to go out and receive His blessing contains within it the promise that Abram would also come into that land of promise and be blessed. And therefore also that along the way between his going out and his coming in, the LORD would watch over him.

 

Today’s psalm was not written by Abram but it was written for people who, like Abram, have been called to go out from where they are and to come in to a place of blessing. Psalm 121 is one of the psalms of ascent, and its content speaks of the experience of Jewish pilgrims on their way to the temple for one of the great festival celebrations. Their eyes look up to the hills upon which Jerusalem was built and they focus their hope on the LORD who dwelt in the temple above the ark of the covenant.

 

Despite the journey taking many days and having to overnight away from home, their comfort was in the LORD who was watching over them: not only as they went out from their homes at His call to come to the feast; and also who would watch over them entering the temple courts to receive the blessing; but also watching over them every step along the way no matter how tiring or dangerous it became. “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (Psalm 121:8).

 

Like Abram who responded to the LORD’s promise with faith, the pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem knowing that the LORD’s blessing awaited them and His eye was upon them as they responded to His call to the altar with that same faith of their father Abraham.

 

In common step we are summoned by the Lord’s promises each Lord’s day to assemble at His altar where He blesses us with the gifts of salvation given through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Children of Abraham by faith, we respond in the same faith to a Lord who promises to bless and direct our way to a new homeland. The Book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham never did build a permanent city of residence, but continued to wander in tents, because the city that he was headed for (the city of promise) is “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

 

We are on the same journey. And although many of us have acquired a home, one that required a great investment to purchase and significant work for its upkeep, we are reminded week by week that it is not our true home. For God’s call comes to us as it does to gather all of His people; to go out from the places where we have been tenting and to come to where He has promised to be. And through His Word and His Sacraments He blesses us for going out and coming into His presence, as He continues to lead us to our eternal home.

 

Jesus said to Nicodemas, “Unless you are born of water and the Spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (John 3:5). There must be a going out and a coming in. You must go out of the life of fleshly desires and enter into the life filled by the Holy Spirit. We recognize that Jesus was referring to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which He would institute for the salvation of all nations (Matthew 28:19).

 

There is a line in our current baptismal rite that has been carefully kept in place from ancient times, even aside from the baptismal formula itself: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This other ancient line sounds a little strange in the midst of the rite, like one of those ritual phrases that are just there because, well, they have always been there. As the candidate for Baptism is brought to the font the pastor says: “The Lord preserve your coming in and your going out from this time forth and even forevermore” (LSB, 270).

 

It is a deliberate reference to the last verse of today’s psalm, and is spoken as a reminder that in Holy Baptism the Lord has called to us by giving us great promises of blessing and salvation. In Holy Baptism those promises are received by the faith which trusts the Word of God in the water (Small Catechsim. IV. 3). As we enter the kingdom of God by being born again by water and the Spirit, we are being joined to the family of faith with Abraham and all of God’s faithful people who have answered His call.

 

The Apostolic Constitutions is a document dating sometime before the 4th century A.D. It is a compilation of the teaching of the apostles handed down through the church. And it includes instruction to pray for the catechumens who are being prepared to receive Holy Baptism. After listing off a number of things for which we should pray for the catechumens, there is then given the quotation to be included in the prayer that the Lord “cleanse them from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and dwell in them, and walk in them, by His Christ; bless their goings out and their comings in, and order their affairs for their good” (Apostolic Constitutions. Book VIII. VI). For over 1500 years that prayer has been said at the baptism of Christians.

 

When the Lord calls to us with His promises, He draws us by faith to go out from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to come in to the life of His indwelling Spirit. Through the promise given, this occurs as we are born again by water and the Spirit by His grace. Baptismal candidates go down into the water where their sins are washed away, the old Adam in them is drowned and dies with all sin and evil desire. And then they come up from the water to live before God in holiness and righteousness in His Church.

 

And from the reverse perspective of those who are already in the Church, who have entered the kingdom of God by water and the Spirit, we come into His presence to receive His blessing and then go out again into the world to live our daily vocations under that blessing.

 

The Church is the place to which the Lord has called us to receive His grace. We lift our eyes to the hills, the high place of the Lord’s promised presence to forgive and heal and save and bless. It may not be a high place in elevation, but every place the Lord is present in His Word and Sacraments is elevated by the glory of Christ. If you happened to drive up the escarpment to get here, you have another blessed reminder of what the Lord has promised. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber” (Psalm 121:1-3).

 

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so [the Son of Man was lifted up], that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:15). Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross on one of those hills of Jerusalem. “I lift up my eyes to the hills.” My help comes from Jesus and His sacrifice upon the cross. My help comes from Jesus whose sacrificed body and blood is given to me here in this high exalted place.

 

The LORD watches over my going out from my home and my coming into this place to receive His blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The LORD watches over My coming in as I pass the baptismal font remembering that I have entered the kingdom of heaven through water and the Spirit. The LORD watches over my going out as I pass the baptismal font again remaining in His kingdom even as I go out of this place to continue to live in this world.

 

The eternal Son of God answered the call of the heavenly Father and went out from the heavenly courts to come into our human flesh so that we might receive the blessings of God. And having taken on Himself the sins of the world, He went up the hill of Golgotha to go out of this life when He died upon the cross for us.

 

He went into the tomb but on the third day He came out again giving us His victory over sin, death, and the grave. That means that we also, when we are called to go out of this life through death, will also come into the everlasting life of all those who with the faith of Abraham have placed their salvation into the hands of the LORD who has called them. And on the Last Day when our Lord Jesus comes again, He will call our dead bodies out of their graves and back into the realm of the living where we will receive the unending blessings of our God.

 

While we await that day, we can always remember that the Lord has already called us out of the world ruled by fleshly desires and into His kingdom. He has done that by our baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. And so each and every day is a calling to us to live in that reality, going out from our sins and coming into His forgiving grace. Like Abraham we are on our way to “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). And “the LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forevermore” (Psalm 121:8)