Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year
WORTHY AND WELL PREPARED
Theme: You prepare for the Last Day in the same way that you prepare for Holy
Communion and vice versa: through faith in God’s Words.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Speaking about His return in glory on the Last Day, Jesus promises to you
in today’s Gospel that “He will send out His angels and gather His elect.”
Dear Christian friends:
Several years ago, when we began eating and drinking God’s gift of Holy
Communion every Sunday, one of my fellow pastors protested. This pastor did NOT
misunderstand the faith of the Scriptures or the benefits of Communion. Like
you, this pastor believed that the Sacrament
is the true body and blood off our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine,
instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink (Small
Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, I).
Like you, this pastor also believed that Jesus’ Words,
“Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” are the main thing in the
Sacrament [and he believed that] whoever believes these Words has exactly what
they say: “forgiveness of sins” (Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, III).
This pastor faithfully preached concerning the Holy Communion, “talking about
the presence of the living Christ, knowing that ‘death no longer has dominion
over Him’” (Apology X.4). In short, this pastor taught and believed the same
things you have been taught and now believe.
Why did this good and faithful pastor protest our eating and drinking
God’s gift of Holy Communion every Sunday? He was worried about you, the
confirmed Christians of Grace Lutheran Church. He was worried that, if you had
Holy Communion available to you every Sunday, you would fail to prepare
yourselves properly for this Holy Meal. This pastor worried that you would grow
lazy, not examining yourselves, as you ought, in order to determine whether you
are worthy to receive the Holy Communion. He worried because God says to you in
His Bible:
Let a person examine himself… For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning
the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak
and ill, and some have died (1 Corinthians 11:28-30).
This pastor worried that you will be unprepared if you commune too often.
I have a mixed reaction to this pastor’s brotherly and pastoral concern:
· On one hand, I agree that all God’s Christians—you and I alike—should
soberly and premeditatedly approach the altar of our Lord. We not only ought to
take regular inventory of our lives, identifying and sincerely repenting of
those sins we so regularly commit against one another and against God, but we
should also make a habit of thinking carefully about the indescribable miracle
that takes place here when we eat and drink.
o It would be good for everyone to approach Sunday worship carefully,
using the prayers in the front cover of the hymnal or the Catechism’s
“Christian Questions and Their Answers” as a way of thinking things through,
especially before communing.
o It would be good and healthy for us each to seek out and make amends
with those whom we have injured or scandalized, sincerely apologizing and
asking forgiveness from one another as a prelude to receiving Christ’s body and
blood for the forgiveness of sins.
o It would be good for each of us to have an uncluttered mind and a
focused devotion as we kneel here, not sidetracked by any child or anything,
alertly following the Word that are spoken here: “Take, eat; this is the true
body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, given into death for your sins. Take,
drink; this is [His] true blood… shed for the forgiveness of your sins.”
o It might even be beneficial for you to fast before communion, as many
of our forefathers once did. Rather than eating breakfast before church,
consider the possibility of using your Sunday morning hunger as a way of
focusing yourself upon your true hunger—the “hunger and thirst for
righteousness” (Matthew 5:6) which Jesus begins to satisfy for you here in Holy
Communion.
Because of these things, I can see and sympathize with my fellow pastor’s grave
concern that you conscientiously prepare yourselves to commune. I also warn
you, that you not approach this altar flippantly or absent-mindedly, but that
you come soberly, watchfully, repentantly, trustingly, and with the sincere
desire to do better than you have previously done.
· On the other hand, there is something you must always bear in mind when
you think about Holy Communion. Luther said it well: “That person is truly
worthy and well prepared who has faith in these Words: ‘Given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of sins’” (Small Catechism, IV). We might call this
“passive preparation,” if you will, or “the way God Himself has prepared you to
receive Holy Communion worthily.” What I mean is this:
o God your heavenly Father has given you His miraculous gift of faith
(Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Peter 1:1). You believe because God’s powerful Words,
spoken to you, called faith into existence—just as God’s Words previously
called light out of darkness (Genesis 1:3).
o Yes, you struggle every day with sin, but all your sins have now been
forgiven by the blood of Jesus. There is no time that you are not fully and
completely forgiven, not a single moment of any day that you are not a fully
purchased and redeemed, baptized Child of God.
o You are the Children of God (1 John 3:1) and whenever the children are
hungry, they should eat—even if they occasionally neglect to say their prayers
before they dig in.
Maybe it has been a while since you have prayed the “Christian Questions and
Their Answers.” Maybe there was just a little bit too much chaos in your house
this morning as your family was getting ready for church. Maybe you have to
wrestle a small child every time you approach the altar. Come without fear,
dear saints of Grace! Hear and believe God’s living Words: “Given and shed for
you for the forgiveness of sins.” Through faith in these Words you are truly
worthy and well prepared, no matter what you manage to do or not to do before
you arrive at the communion rail. You are worthy on account of your Baptism,
which is nothing other than the sign and seal of God’s gift of faith to you,
created by the power of His Word. You are worthy, not on account of what you
might do to prepare yourself to come here, but on account of way your merciful
God has prepared you. He creates your contrition and He emboldens your desire,
even while He sustains
and nourishes your faith.
All of this is directly related to today’s Gospel, where Jesus says to
you concerning the Last Day, “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when
the time will come… What I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” There is much
in common between Jesus’ coming to you on the Last Day and His coming to you in
Holy Communion. The main difference between these two things is that in
Communion, Jesus is hidden in bread and wine, and on the Last Day, He will be
fully revealed in all His glory. But either way, Jesus comes.
How you prepare for the coming of your Lord in one event is the same
way you prepare for His coming in the other event. As it is with Holy Communion
so it is with the Last Day. There both an active and a passive way for you to
prepare for Jesus’ return “to judge the living and the dead.”
· Jesus speaks about the active way in today’s Gospel when He says to
you, “Be on guard” and “Stay awake.” With these Words, Jesus is telling you
that you must not take God’s gifts or His promises for granted. You must remain
sober, watchful, and expectant for His coming. You must guard your life, so
that you will not be caught sleeping, as it were, by neglecting His Word and
His Worship or by living as if you have no god and there was no Last Day on the
horizon.
· Yet as much as you must prepare yourself and be watchful for Jesus’
return in glory, ALSO REST CONTENT THAT YOUR GOD HAS ALREADY FULLY PREPARED YOU
FOR WHAT IS TO COME! God your heavenly Father looks at you as glowingly and as
lovingly as any good father would look at His child. Jesus Christ your Elder
Brother has cleansed you, pure and clean, from every single sin. The Holy
Spirit continues to nourish and sustain your faith through the eternal gift of
His Word. On account of these things, it is well said of you and of all God’s
saints, that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these
Words: “He will send out His angels and gather His elect.”
___________________________________________________________________________
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