The Sixth Sunday of Easter
He Will Never Permit the Righteous to be Moved Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Every Sunday that we pray the Introit Psalm, we pray one particular verse two times: once at the beginning of the Introit again at the end. This particular verse is called the antiphon. Today’s antiphon—Psalm 55:22—is especially lovely and full of cheer. Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Dear Christian friends, Every day, we Christians show ourselves unable, even unwilling, to believe and take to heart the things that our God has said to us. I am as guilty as you are. God is so serious about His promises and so earnest about His assurances to us that He even recorded His Words into a book for all nations to see and to hear. Oddly, for all God’s blood and faithfulness, for His many years of ceaseless devotion to each and every one of us, we Christians remain convinced that this time, God will not hear the bugle or answer the call. No, my heavenly Father has never before failed me in any moment of my life, but this moment is different. This current burden is so great that there is no way possible for God to carry it on my behalf; I must carry this one on my own. Your own worry indicts you, just as surely as my worry stands in accusation and testimony against me. Whatever preoccupies you; whatever turns unceasing circles in your head: that is your protest against your God. Whatever cargo you have strapped to your own back; whatever you insist upon keeping in your own, white-knuckled grasp: that thing is the true object of your devotion. Whatever frightens you is your idol and your god. It would be good for us to pray today’s Introit in sorrow, as a confession of sin. Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Forgive me, LORD, • for remaining convinced that I can do better with my burdens than You can; • for the self-deluded, idolatrous notion that I actually have some degree of control over my life’s situation; • for liking my misery; • for refusing to believe that You give and do much more for me than I even want or desire (Ephesians 3:20); • for not actually wanting You to sustain me and for preferring to be moved. Hear again the Word and promise and solemn oath of your God. The LORD your God is so serious about His promises and so earnest about His assurances to you that He even recorded His Words into a book for all nations to see and to hear: Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved. If you find yourself unable to unwilling to believe these Words of God, do not make the idolatrous protest that God might possibly be found unfaithful. “He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” If you must protest or doubt these Words of God, go after the word RIGTHEOUS. Aha! God promises that “He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” He doesn’t say anything about the unrighteous! But unrighteousness is all I see and feel. Any righteousness I might muster for myself is merely a lie and a puppet show (and poor one at that!). “He will never permit the righteous to be moved”: perhaps these Words in today’s Introit Psalm are speaking about someone else. You are correct. When God says, “He will never permit the righteous to be moved,” He is indeed speaking about someone else. When God says, “the righteous,” in this verse, He is speaking in the singular. God is saying, “the Righteous ONE,” and He is speaking about our dear Lord Jesus, who alone is righteous among all the people of the earth. Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit [Jesus] the Righteous [One] to be moved. For these Words, we should all thank and praise our God, and sing with a loud voice! Not only has God the Father spoken these Words concerning Jesus, “He will never permit the Righteous One to be moved,” but JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS ONE HAS ALSO COME TO US AND MADE US HIS OWN! Jesus has given His righteousness to us: blanketing and clothing us with His righteousness; washing and soaking us with His righteousness; placing His righteousness into our mouths and upon our tongues; speaking and repeating His righteousness into our ears. Jesus has forgiven you all your sins, and this forgiveness is nothing other than His perfect righteousness, declared and superimposed upon you. This is the very thing we pray in our funeral liturgy, taken from Romans chapter 6: In Holy Baptism (YOUR NAME HERE) was clothed with the robe of Christ's righteousness that covered all her sin. St. Paul says, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His." If such good and gracious Words from God should give you comfort in time of death, how much more shall you find comfort and consolation from God in time of life? If God can be trusted with the bodies of your dead, should He not also be trusted with the bodies your living? Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never permit [Jesus] the Righteous [One] to be moved. God the Father is directly focused upon Jesus Christ His dear Son, and Jesus is now yours, forever without end. Jesus is in you and you are in Him (John 14:20). God the Father remains directly focused upon Jesus Christ His dear Son, and that means God the Father remains directly focused upon you, because you are all sons of God through your baptismal faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-27). It would be good for us to pray today’s Introit, not merely in sorrow and in confession of sin, but also with confidence and with joy! God has already warned you in His Scriptures that everything will be shaken. For that reason alone, none of us should feel surprised at the burdens and troubles that so frequent our minds. Yet in the midst of everything that shakes, God has written in blood that He will never permit Jesus the Righteous One to be moved or shaken. Because Jesus the Righteous One cannot be moved or shaken, neither can we, for we belong to Him. Send your fears to hell. Damn your preoccupations to the fate they deserve. Declare anathema everything that worries you. “Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you” because Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! The resurrection of your Lord Jesus Christ is all the proof and evidence you will ever need that your God will “never permit the righteous to be moved.” _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
