Sermon - Populus Zion 2020 - Luke 21:25-36

 “Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life.” There’s always a lot to worry about in this life, probably because there’s a nearly limitless number of future possibilities. It’s somewhat of a human phenomenon that we spend our days in fear and anxiety, worrying about something which hasn’t even happened and may not ever happen.

Since Christ warns us against this, that indicates that we humans are prone to weighing down our hearts with worldly cares, drunkenness, and hangovers. This is easily evidenced just by looking at how we react to things. For instance, one guy in 2001 puts bombs in his shoes, takes them on a plane, fails to detonate them, no one is injured, and yet, because we worry someone else may try it again, before you can board a plane your shoes have to be examined. 

This same worldly worry has impacted much of the world over the past year. Crippled with fear, the vast majority of our normal human interactions have been altered dramatically. Afeared that even though we’re healthy we may be silent spreaders of a virus without realizing it, we withdraw from our extended family and friends. Having withdrawn from normal human interactions, we substitute it with “doomscrolling;” constantly consuming a stream of bad and sad news, thus further weighing down our hearts with anxiety. 

Now, being cautious is fine, but living in a perpetual state of a heart weighed down with the cares of this life is not fine, which is why Jesus warns against it. When our hearts are so utterly burdened with worldly worries, we forget Christ, we forget that Jesus is going to return, we forget that this sad world is passing away and isn’t forever, we forget the joy and gladness of the Gospel. So Christ urges us to replace our worldly worries with His Word. God’s Word gives us patience, comfort, and hope in the midst of a world of worries.

Remember, Christ says that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” God says, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.” St. Paul explains their value: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

If there’s one motto or slogan of the Lutheran church, it’s probably VDMA: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, the Word of the Lord endures forever, as St. Peter wrote. When hearts are weighed down with the cares of this world, we would be wise to remember that this world and all of its cares will be burned up on the last day. These worries which we fill our minds with in the day-to-day grind of life, they’re only temporary, they’re only for a time. But something which does endure beyond this world is God’s Word. 

So if there’s something worth attaching ourselves to, something worth clinging to in this life, it’s not our jobs, our houses, our health, our reputation, our friends and family; it’s the Word of God. Look back throughout history, what’s the one thing which has endured these thousands of years? It’s not man, it’s not our buildings and structures, it’s not nature, plants and animals, it’s not even the planet and universe around us! Everything is constantly shifting and changing, growing and dying, nothing stays the same except for one thing: the Word of God.

Scientists can’t figure out what there was before the universe, but we Christians know, even a little child can plainly say “In the beginning was the Word.” That Word has endured since before there was time and space and it will continue to persist even when all this universe is laid waste on the last day. God has given that little changeless Word to you for your endurance, comfort, and hope.

This is really what Christmas is all about! That Word which gives us all hope and consolation through so many trials has become flesh and dwells among us. That Word became incarnate in the infant body of Jesus lying in the manger and in the adult body of Jesus lying in the tomb. That Word which is eternal entered into the temporal so that we who are mortal might put on His immortality! 

Why? Why would He do this? “Love caused your incarnation; love brought You down to me. Your thirst for my salvation procured my liberty. Oh, love beyond all telling, that led You to embrace in love, all love excelling, our lost and fallen race.” Because of God’s inexplicable love for us He sent His Word of life into our lives to give us real life.

This Word gives us patience, comfort, and hope.

Patience, endurance, and fortitude are virtues very difficult for us. St. Paul is talking about more than just being able to listen to a sermon for a few minutes, or waiting more than 3 minutes for your hamburger at a restaurant. It’s about remaining a Christian even when it’s inconvenient or downright challenging. It’s about believing the bible and living according to it, even when that means risking your livelihood and life. It’s about doing the Christian thing, even when nearly everyone else is doing the opposite and you’ll be shamed, mocked, and despised. 

The scriptures give you that endurance! God promises to sustain His beloved children with patience, and that’s what He does by giving us His Word. Look at the prophets, apostles, and martyrs; when they had nothing else, they clung to the Word. They held onto the one thing which endures, so they endured too. When we cling to the Word of God, we will endure and be numbered among those prophets, apostles, and martyrs in heaven.

Just as God gives us the fortitude to endure the tribulations of life, He also gives us comfort and encouragement. Sometimes amid cross and suffering, it’s tempting to despair, to be weighed down under the cares of this life. While God may not always take away those crosses and sufferings, He does comfort us with His Word. We’re like the sinner on the cross next to Jesus. He doesn’t take us off the cross, He doesn’t immediately bandage our wounds, He doesn’t even necessarily prevent us from dying, but He does speak to us. “Today you shall be with me in paradise.”

When the world causes us so much terror and sadness, He says “The kingdom of God is near… Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” When we’re curled up in tears, He says “Straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” When the world seems dark and hideous, He says “The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” The scriptures are filled with these and so many other words of comfort and encouragement for we who are so heavy burdened.

The incredible thing about this comfort found in God’s voice is that it gives us hope. We’re like old Abraham who was about 100 years old and his wife was past the age of childbirth and barren, and yet hoped in the coming Messiah who would be his own descendent. “In hope he believed where there was no hope.” That’s what we do! Even when everything says there’s no God, there’s no heaven, there’s no life after death, there’s no hope; we believe in God and have hope!

When “there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” When the day comes, “burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” In the midst of all of that, God’s Word gives us hope! We “go out leaping like calves from the stall!”

Dear friends, God’s Word gives us endurance, comfort, and hope. Let not your hearts be filled with fear over a virus, Marxism, death, work, children, or anything else that burdens your hearts. Rather, lift up your heads, see that Christ is coming, the summer is already near, the angels are even singing! You are going to stand before the Son of Man and He shall redeem you from your worldly sorrows.