The Book of Jude for Lenten Repentance
Ash Wednesday
Called, Beloved, and Kept
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
For our midweek Lenten worship, we will hear the book of Jude. Repeatedly. Add
to your weekly hearing of Jude by taking up this book for your own Lenten
reading. After you have read it, read it again. Roll Jude’s Words in your mind,
because these Words are the Words of God Himself. Measure yourself by Jude’s
Words and find yourself wanting.
As you heart Jude explain, he wanted to write us a letter “about our common
salvation.” Something more important arose. Rather than writing what he wanted
to write, Jude found it necessary “to write appealing to you for the faith that
was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude has not written us a
rose-colored letter of Easter hymns and resurrection joy. Jude has written us a
letter of warning; a letter of rebuke; a letter by which Jude calls all God’s
Christians to repentance and regret. Jude has written a letter for Lent.
At the beginning of tonight’s reading, Jude says three important things about
you and about all God’s Christians. These three things will provide you with
special and repeated comfort during this dark season. In particular, Jude says
that you “are called,” that you are “beloved in God the Father,” and that you
are “kept for Christ Jesus.”
Jude also speaks good Lenten comfort to you at the end of his letter, where he
describes your God as the One “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to
present you blameless before the presence of His glory.”
Called; beloved; kept by the One who is able to keep you: These words will be
our sole consolation during these repentant, self-examining, and sorrowful days
of Lent.
· These Words from God, spoken to you by Jude, will be like divine
fireflies that blink salvation’s light throughout our Lenten darkness.
· These Words of forgiveness and forbearance are the buoys and life
preservers that will keep us afloat in this forty-day sea of Lenten repentance
and sorrow.
· These small, musical notes of muted joy will tide us over until we sing
the new song of Easter Resurrection and life.
In the body of his letter, Jude seems to be speaking about other people—not
Christians, but people who have crept in among the Christians and have
corrupted the pure teaching of the Word. Jude seems to be speaking about other
people, but he is really speaking about us. In particular, Jude is speaking
about our self-motivated willingness to tolerate falsehoods and lies—both in
ourselves and in others.
Jude will say some harsh things to us these next several Wednesdays in Lent. No
matter how harshly he speaks, you must always bear in mind to whom Jude speaks.
Jude is speaking to you. Stated another way, Jude is speaking “to those who are
called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.” Stated yet
another way, Jude will be speaking these forty Lenten days to those who have
already been thrown into God’s basket, so to speak. Jude is speaking about
those who by Baptism now belong to God, the very God ”who is able to keep you
from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory
with great joy.”
Because he has written us a letter for Lent—a letter that calls us to
repent—Jude has felt no need to saturate his writing with Gospel promises and
assurances. With the Words called, beloved, and kept, you have pretty much
heard all the Gospel you are going to hear from Jude.
But these Words are more than enough food from God. These Words will not fail
to nourish us during our Lenten fast, while we wait in the darkness for Easter
dawn. Submit to Jude’s rebuke. Don’t defend yourself against it. Simply cling
to those Words that already describe you: Called; beloved; kept by the One who
is able to keep you.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless
before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,
before all time and now and forever. Amen.
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