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ssecondlast04
Till Hope Be Lost
in Sight
Text:
Luke 19:11-17
Date: Second-Last Sunday
11/14/04 gta vice city.zip
In
the last days of the Church Year, Holy Church turns her attention
to focus on the Last Things, the enduring hope of our Lord's final
return. She sings, “The clouds of judgment gather, The time is growing
late” [LW 463:1]. In today's Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ speaks
a parable on the eve of his final entry into Jerusalem. St. Luke
says he spoke these words “because he was near to Jerusalem, and
because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.”
In a sense nothing has changed, except that nearly a couple of centuries
have passed. Nevertheless, the Christian hope of the final consummation
remains steady as the light of the presence that burns continually
in the chancels of her sanctuaries around the world; a quiet, constant
flame of hope that has never been fully extinguished everywhere
regardless of the upheavals, conflicts, or all the forces of darkness
and dark days that have threatened that hope. Each day, as the sun
makes its daily, continual setting around the world the Church gathers
in cathedrals and huts, churches and homes singing her Evening Prayer,
“Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The light no darkness can
overcome.”
This
is a parable about the kingdom of God, the rule or reign of Christ
through the ages, and how some receive his gracious rule while others
reject it, and the certain return of Christ on the day of judgment.
He is the nobleman who “went into a far country to receive for himself
a kingdom.” Heaven, the throne of God's presence is “a far country”
from our point of view, as we, his creation, have been separated
and set adrift like a boat that has lost its moorings. Ever since
Adam and Eve were ejected from the Garden of God's holiness, sin,
our sin, has separated us from God. Nevertheless, God so loved his
world, the work of his hands, that with the original curse against
sin he planted also the seed of hope and salvation. To the serpent
he said,
“I
will put enmity between you and the woman,
and
between your offspring and her offspring;
he
shall bruise your head,
and
you shall bruise his heel" [Genesis 3:15 (ESV)].
And
the forgiveness of sins was already announced as he “made for Adam
and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” [Genesis 3:21
(ESV)].
The
hope of the promised Savior burned so bright that when Cain was
born Eve rejoiced in that hope. But he was not the Savior. Neither
was his brother Abel. But the seed of hope would be passed through
the second-born many times through the generations that followed.
Finally, in the fullness of time, and in the dark ages after 400
years of prophetic silence, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons” [Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV)]. He came
from heaven as the light of life and redeemed us by taking on our
flesh and blood. Though he knew no sin, he came to take our sin
upon himself, nailing it to the cross of his vicarious death, thus
paying the price of our redemption in full. He was then raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, proof that his sacrifice is
acceptable on behalf of the whole world. His journey down from heaven
for us men and for our salvation was followed by his journey back
to heaven where he “received for himself a kingdom,” as he said,
“all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” If
hope endured so long a time of waiting between the first promise
of a Savior in the Garden until the days of John the Baptist, Mary
and Joseph, it now endures waiting for his promised final return.
“Calling
ten of his servants, he have them ten minas.” A “mina” is what financial
advisers recommend the least you have in your savings account, about
three-months wages. Jesus, the nobleman, is the giver of great gifts.
And he gives them to “ten of his servants.” These represent the
Twelve Apostles and the seventy(-two), whom Jesus had commissioned
and sent. Christ gives gifts to his Church, to apostolic clergy
and witnessing laity alike, as St. Paul said it, “But grace was
given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.'” Namely, “he gave the apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints,
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” [Ephesians
4:7-13 (ESV)]. These gifts are over and above what we need for our
own daily life as we spoke about last week on Stewardship Sunday.
These gifts are vocation and his Word and Sacraments.
In
each and every generation and to every believer, he has given these
gifts and a task, saying “Engage in business until I come.” That
“business” is nothing other than the “business” of witness and conversion,
repentance and faith: making disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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