As we now enter the summer rush, that time when we try to get every little last thing done before school starts… oh… wait it already has. Ok, that time when we get our last few days of vacation time used while… oh… wait, that is gone too. No… wait… I’ve got it. It’s the time when the whole family still has one day off during the week on Sundays and it means we… ________. (You can fill in the blank).

 

I am truly thankful that Advent is blessed with many faithful members for whom Sundays mean… we gather together to hear God’s Word and receive forgiveness for our sins. It is a beautiful thing to partake of the eternal richness of God. I say eternal to point out the brevity of every single thing we seek pleasure and joy from as we go about our daily lives. We rightly understand that vacations and other leisure activity is a gift from God, and he wants us to enjoy our time with family and friends. But he also wants us to draw near to Him and call on Him, and not just in times of trouble or distress. God desires a pattern and rhythm of worship that brings us regularly to Him to receive what he has to offer.

 

I visit my Keurig machine every morning… possibly some of you visit Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts to receive what is offered there. I will say… it makes my day better (better for those around me too). However, that ritual or any other cannot give me what God gives through regular communion with Him. The gift he gives is faith in Christ, salvation from sins, and eternal life.

 

I have pointed out before that as Christians we are actually living that eternal life now… we are in a state of now and not quite yet. Having been brought from death to life through baptism, we are no longer dead in our sin and unbelief, but have been given faith in Christ, a faith that can fear, love, and trust God. As we gather in the Divine Service to confess our sins, receive forgiveness, and the very body and blood of the risen Christ, there is no closer place on earth to heaven and the joy that waits there.

 

Let that soak in for a moment. We can seek happiness and contentment in any and all matter of locations and activities, but God chooses to come close and touch us through the means he has given. It is Word, water, bread, and wine all in the place he has set apart for that to happen – the body of His Church. Perhaps it is too simple… too available, and we can easily come to the point that we take it for granted. It will always be there next week, next month, or at Christmas and Easter. God so richly gives to us and we can barely see and comprehend what takes place. If we could visually see it, we would never leave or long for anything else! Or, perhaps, like many who saw Jesus face to face, we would desire it for all the wrong reasons. They simply wanted the earthly kingdom of glory to come with richness, power, and physical fulfillment of their fleshly desires; not seeing the eternal life given through faith in Jesus and the receiving of His body and blood. Many turned away at this difficult teaching and they still do today. But Peter rightly and succinctly answered the question Jesus posed to the twelve in John 6:67 “Do you want to go away as well?” Peter answers… “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

In John’s Gospel all of the people referenced stood before the incarnate, living, and breathing Christ and many did not believe. Near the end of John’s Gospel he tells of Thomas and his need to see the risen Christ in order to believe. When Jesus appears before his eyes he speaks to Thomas. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

I give thanks to God that you come… you hear the Words of Christ, receive forgiveness, and receive His Sacrament, in faith seeing what is unseen and its eternal glory… that you see Christ. I give thanks to God that he has blessed you with that gift of faith.

 

Amen.
Pastor Grady