Trinity XXVI - 2 Peter 3:3-14 - November 25, 2015
Hymn #91 Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord
Hymn #611 The Day Is Surely Drawing Near
Hymn #53 Abide, O Dearest Jesus
Isaiah 40:9-11
2 Peter 3:3-14
St. Matthew 25:31-46
Collect for Trinity XXVI
Hymn #611 The Day Is Surely Drawing Near
Hymn #53 Abide, O Dearest Jesus
Isaiah 40:9-11
2 Peter 3:3-14
St. Matthew 25:31-46
Collect for Trinity XXVI
O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Thy Holy Spirit that, being ever mindful of the end of all things and the day of Thy just judgment, we may stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with Thee forever hereafter; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Sermon on the Epistle Lesson
1) St.
Peter tells us in today’s epistle lesson that in the last days scoffers will
come who do two interrelated things. First, they will walk in their own lusts.
This means that they will live their lives and arrange their conduct to suit
their own desires for carnal pleasure, worldly honor, and power over men. These
scoffers will be quite Epicurean because they will pursue the fulfillment of
their desires, pleasure being the greatest good they can attain. They will walk
in such a manner because of the second thing they do. They willfully forget
that there will be and end to all things, a deluge-like destruction of the
world, and a final judgment. Since they willfully forget that there will be a
judgment for their deeds they can do as they please. They are scoffers because
they scoff at the morality of natural law and Scripture while simultaneously
scoffing at the idea that Christ will return to judge the quick and dead. What
is interesting about these scoffers is that they willfully forget the past destruction of the world in the days of
Noah. The rainbow was a sign to all generations that the Lord would not destroy
the earth again . . . with water. These people willfully forget that
destruction for the earth’s great wickedness so that they can willfully forget
the coming destruction of the world by fire. Think about what we see in our
age. The great deluge, the flood during the days of Noah, has been relegated to
fable and fairy-tale by the proponents of the theory of evolution. The Flood,
to many of them, never happened. If we can erase the first great judgment of
the world for wickedness, there is no reason to believe in a coming judgment.
At the same time now we see the rainbow hijacked by the LGBTQ movement as their
symbol. This is no coincidence. Since the flood has been demoted to a cute
children’s story, the sign of the covenant that God will not destroy the earth
in that fashion again, is up for grabs to be branded into a sign proclaiming
wickedness and suppressing the truth of nature. The scoffers of whom St. Peter
writes of are alive and well in our day, rejecting the idea from the past and
for the future of any end, any judgment, and destruction of this world in which
we all live. Willfully neglecting the past and future judgment, they are free
to walk after their own lusts and desires, whatever they might be.
2) St.
Peter’s words in the rest of today’s epistle serve as an antidote for this
mindset and willful forgetfulness, so that the Christian living in the world
does not succumb to such ahistorical thinking and lifestyle. He doesn’t just
say, “Don’t worry, ya’ll. Christ will return. He said He would. Just wait.” He
roots this long wait for Christ’s return in God’s attributes of eternity and mercy.
First he writes that time doesn’t matter to God because God is everlasting. With the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. From our finite point of view, the
Lord has delayed long in returning. But this is not so. God is timeless, outside
of time. This is why the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness. Those that think the
Lord will not return after so long a time, almost two thousand years now, are
thinking of God according to human categories rather than divine. Not only is
the Lord everlasting and outside of time, but His eternalness is directly
related to His mercy in this matter. He is
longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance. He’s not dillydallying. He’s not loafing. Nor has He
forgotten or become lazy and negligent regarding His promises. It’s just the
opposite. He tarries, or seems to tarry from our point of view, out of mercy,
that more might come to repentance and faith in Christ’s atonement. He
demonstrates His unfathomable and inexhaustible patience with sinners by giving
the world another day and another day and still another to hear the Word of
God, repent of their sins, and come to the knowledge of the truth that God
saves sinners from their deserved punishment through faith in Christ.
3) But
this longsuffering will come to an end. The
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat;
both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. The
scoffers, by willfully forgetting the days of Noah and Christ’s promised
return, show their hatred not only for God, but for God’s mercy. As the wicked
world was cleansed through water from both the fountains of the deep and the
windows of heaven in the days of Noah, so the heavens and earth will be subject
to flames, along with everything in it. Those who scoff at God’s threats of
judgment for impenitent sinners must yet be reminded that history has a
beginning so it will have an end. While the scoffers suppress the natural
knowledge of God that is hardwired into them at creation, they must be reminded
that there is a final judgment by the one who created the heavens and the
earth. Even the saints of God must be reminded of this end because each of us
still carry with us the Old Adam, our sinful flesh, which wants to walk
according to its own lusts and desires as if there is no end. Not only that,
but the Christian lives in the world and the world is ever-tempting the
Christian to conform to its ways of thinking and its patterns of morality and
sinfulness. Keeping the end in mind, the goal of all human history, serves as a
remedy against Epicureanism which tempts us to pursue pleasure and ease at all
costs as if it were the highest good and goal of life.
4) This
is what St. Peter means when he says, Therefore,
since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons out you to be
in holy conduct and godliness? With all these things in view, how then
shall you live, dear child of the Most High? What manner of persons ought you
to be? You are called to holy conduct and godliness, knowing that all things
will burn in the end. But your Lord doesn’t say this to threaten you into good
works. They wouldn’t be good works, holy conduct and godliness if they were
done out of coercion of the Law. Holy conduct and godliness can only spring from
faith in God’s promises, the faith which looks forward to the fulfillment of
His Word. St. Peter doesn’t hang the final judgment and dissolving of the
elements over you to coerce you. Holy conduct and godliness are motivated by
the promise. He writes, Nevertheless we,
according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth in which
righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be
diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. The
motivation for holy conduct and godliness isn’t the law but the Gospel. Though
everything will burn the Lord will create new heavens and a new earth where
righteousness will dwell. No longer will sin infect the creation, for the old has
passed away in flames. No longer will death plague God’s people. Death is
swallowed up in the life of Christ at the resurrection of the dead. No longer
with the Devil, the world, along with our own sinful flesh tempt and test us
with sin and rebellion, with lust and desires, for our enemies will be no more.
The old things will pass away and only the new will exist.
5) The
new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells, that is what the
Christian looks forward to in faith and hope. Because of this the Christian is
to live in holy conduct and godliness, being diligent to be found without spot
and blameless. And what does holy
conduct mean? It’s more than just being good. Holy conduct is living according
to God’s commandments in the holy orders, or vocations. In Luther’s Small
Catechism, at the beginning of the Table of Duties, the most neglected part of
the Catechism along with Confession, begins by calling each of the duties and
vocations that Scripture assigns to us as Holy
Orders and Stations. Your conduct is to be fitting for your Holy Orders,
your vocations in which the Triune God has placed you. It is in these places
that you are conduct yourself in a holy fashion, that is, according to your
calling as a Christian.
6) These
stations are given to you to be a service to your neighbor. You are hearers of
the Word in the church, therefore you are to hold preaching and the Word sacred
and gladly hear and learn it. As citizens you are to work for the good of the
state, supporting it to the best of your ability and even speaking against its
policies if they violate natural law. Husbands are to love their wives with
self-sacrifice. Wives are to submit to their husbands in love and respect for
their self-sacrifice. Parents are to raise their children in the fear of the
Lord. Children are to honor their parents, obey them and esteem them. Workers
are to do everything as if for the Lord, while employers are to serve their subordinates
by being fair and just. Youth are to be submissive to elders and to learn humility
while widows and widowers are to practice chastity and service to their church
and neighbor. Above all, each of you have the holy calling of Christian, little
Christ, whereby you are called to love thy neighbor as yourself and persevere
in prayer for all men. These vocations, with all their duties, are given to you
for the sake of your neighbor.
7) The
Christian lives quite differently from the scoffer because the Christian seeks
the good and welfare of his neighbor in all things. The Christian also thinks
differently than the scoffer, for the Christian does not willfully forget, but
rejoices in the promise of the end. You know that after the destruction by
flame of fire comes the new heaven and the new earth where righteousness
dwells. This is St. Peter’s admonition to the church today. Do not neglect the
promise of the end. Do not mistake God’s longsuffering and mercy for slackness
and idleness. Do not forget what you receive at the end, the reward of faith,
the crown of life with Christ your Lord. Until that day, with all this in mind,
consider how you live in holy conduct and godliness, not because these things
save you. Only faith in Christ’s merits and atonement do that. But consider
your holy conduct and godliness in this age, knowing that you are justified
through faith in Christ, and trusting His gracious promises of all the
blessings of the life of the world to come. Amen.