Sunday's Message

Yesterday, we celebrated the Last Sunday of the Church year.  Here is the message that was heard at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church yesterday.

We all face the reality that, in life, things wear out.  I’ve had this pair of blue jeans for quite a while, and as you can tell, they are starting to show some signs of wearing out.  That big rip in the knee kind of gives it away.  I’ve also got a few shirts that match up pretty well with it.  When I wear them while I’m working around the house, we always hope that nothing comes up that would require me to run to the store in these, since they aren’t exactly in the best condition.  I’ve worn them long enough and hard enough that they have just started to wear out.

I also notice this fact applies not only to my clothes, but even to my body.  We have times where Rachel will go down to sleep, and we’ll end up delaying our bedtime for one reason or another.  When we do that, what invariably seems to happen is that we get to sleep, and then, about an hour later, Rachel decides that it’s time to wake up for a diaper change and a little refueling for the night.  I’ve noticed that I’m just not as able as I used to be to shake off the weariness and do everything that she needs us to do as easily as I used to.  In some ways, I’ve noticed that my body shows a few signs of some wear and tear on it.

You’ve probably noticed something like this, too.  You get something new, some new clothes, or some new shoes, and then you spend the first part of their life breaking them in.  Then, about the time they start to get comfy, you start to noticed the hems that are losing their stitching, or the shoelaces as they start to get frayed.  Comfort enters in, but shortly after we get to that point of comfort, it’s just not too long before they wear out.

That’s the same kind of picture that Isaiah paints for us in the words we heard from him today.  Toward the end of those few short verses, we have him describing what we know to be the end of the creation we live in.  The heavens vanish like smoke.  The earth wears out like a garment.  All who live within this creation end up dying in a similar fashion.  This world we live in wears out, in a sense.  God created it in the beginning, but since the fall into sin, and the curse that was pronounced upon the land, things have aged.  While we see great cycles of renewal and new birth as the seasons move along, we also see that a lot of creation seems to be wearing out.  It’s as St. Paul describes it in one of his letters.  The whole creation is groaning.  It’s waiting to give way to the new creation, the one that God has promised will come, in which He will make everything new once again.

Things wear out.  The earth wears out.  And all because of a curse.  You and I are pretty familiar with the reason for this curse.  It all came into being because the first man and woman had one basic rule to follow and they didn’t follow it.  But rather than pronounce His curse upon them, God did something unexpected.  He cursed the ground.  It would produce thorns and thistles as the man would work it, but it would also be a creation that would wear out.  Not only did mankind need to be remade into a new creation, so did the very creation.  And throughout the history of God’s people, that day of the death of the old creation and the birth of the new creation came to be known as the Day of the Lord.

You and I now know this Day of the Lord in a slightly different way.  We know it as the day when Jesus fulfills His promise to re-appear, to call all the dead from the grave, and to give eternal life to all who put their faith, hope, and trust in His sacrifice for them.  And on that day, God has given us the promise that He will be making everything new.  The old creation that groans under the burden of the curse will be refined through the fire of God, and a new creation will emerge.  That new creation will be free of the curse, a perfect creation just like the first one that God made so many centuries ago.

But the creation isn’t the only thing that will be made new.  You and I have the promise that we will also be made into a new creation.  The pains and burdens of this world will be burned off, as though by fire, and we also will be refined into a new creation.  Everything that would call for God’s wrath and condemnation will be swallowed up, just as it has been through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Everything in you that would wear out and grow old will die.  The new creation that God makes you to be through the waters of your baptism will arise, free of the stain of the curse, free of sin, and perfect. 

Because Jesus has come, and because He has given His life and then reclaimed it in His resurrection, you already have that new creation within you.  When God’s Word was spoken over you and the water was poured out upon you, you became a new creation.  Everything that you will be on the Day of the Lord, when Jesus calls you from the grave, is already present there within you.  You are a new creation.  Yes, the complete fulfillment of that promise has not yet come to be.  You will get to experience that on the Day of the Lord, when God makes the whole creation, including you, into a new creation.  It’s present within you, as God’s gift to you, but has not yet come into its full fruition.

But on that Day of the Lord, on the day when the heavens vanish like smoke and the earth is worn out like a garment, you will be made completely into a new creation.  You will receive new, lasting things from the hand of God, because of what Jesus has done for you.  As St. Paul also says it, you will be clothed in a new kind of clothing, that of Christ Jesus Himself.  When Isaiah says that God’s righteousness draws near, and that His salvation is forever, that’s the very thing that you will be clothed with.  And those things will never wear out, just as you are raised into a new kingdom that also will never wear out or vanish like smoke.

That’s the promise of God that we celebrate today in what is so cleverly called the Last Sunday of the Church year.  That creative name means that we are closing out the year as we celebrate it here in God’s kingdom.  Next Sunday we will kick off a new year with the introduction of Advent.  But today, we celebrate the end of our Church year, and as we do, we do it with the reminder of the promise of Jesus, that He will reappear and claim His own in His new creation.

New things.  No longer will we have to be content with things that will eventually wear out, like the knees in a pair of jeans, or like the soles of shoes just about the time they start to get comfortable.  That’s the hope that we look forward to when the Day of the Lord arrives, when our Lord Jesus reappears to be faithful to His promise to you in your baptism, and to raise you up to new life with Him forever.  Every day that we live in this world, we move a day closer to that promise of newness.  With everything that we see wear out in life, we can be reminded that God has made a promise to make everything new.  God’s righteousness and salvation shall come, and they will never come to an end.  And that is what you will be clothed in forever.

Out with the old, and in with the new.  I don’t know if we could come up with a better theme for the Last Sunday of the Church Year.  But it really is an appropriate slogan for today.  Everything old in you will be out, and through Jesus, everything will be made new for you, courtesy of Jesus in His life, death, and resurrection, courtesy of your baptism, and courtesy of the promise that Jesus has made to you, that He will reappear and make all things new.  Amen!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus.  Amen!