"Waiting for the Day of the Lord: A Day of Judgment and Salvation" (Advent Sermon on 1 Cor. 1:3-9)

December 3, 2008 | The Rev. Charles Henrickson

[Charles Henrickson]

“Waiting for the Day of the Lord: A Day of Judgment and Salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:3-9)

For Advent and Lent, pastors tend to do a series, with a particular theme, for the midweek services. Coming up with a series theme sometimes comes easily, sometimes less so. Last year for Advent, since it was the year of St. Matthew, we did “The Genealogy of Jesus Christ” found at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. Next year, when it’s Luke, an obvious series possibility is the four canticles found in Luke’s infancy narrative, chapters 1 and 2: the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Gloria in Excelsis, and the Nunc Dimittis. But what to do this year? Mark doesn’t have an infancy narrative.

So I was looking around at the lessons for the Sundays in Advent this year, and something jumped out at me. It was in the Epistle readings, particularly in the Epistles for the first three Sundays in Advent. There was a phrase, a connecting thread, that ran through those readings and that would make for a distinctive series theme. See if you can notice what I noticed.

First, from the Epistle for the First Sunday in Advent, 1 Corinthians 1, the part where it says: “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then from the Epistle for the Second Sunday in Advent, from 2 Peter 3, phrases like these: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. . . . waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. . . . we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth. . . .”

And from the Third Sunday in Advent, 1 Thessalonians 5: “may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Did you catch it? What was the thread running through those lessons? It was the idea of “the day of the Lord,” the coming and revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, his Second Coming, and how we are to wait for that day. Thus our theme for this Advent series: “Waiting for the Day of the Lord.”

We think of Advent as primarily waiting for and getting ready for Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s first coming, his birth at Bethlehem. And that is well and good. It is appropriate to do so. There is also the Advent accent on repentance, as John the Baptist calls us to prepare the way of the Lord. But in addition, there is this Advent emphasis on getting ready for Christ’s Second Coming, at the Last Day, “the Day of the Lord,” in that sense. And really, all these “comings” of Christ fit together. For his first coming, at Christmas, was to win the salvation we’re waiting for at his second coming. And even now Christ comes to us through his Word, calling us to repentance and enabling us to lead holy lives as we wait for that great and glorious day. So today, “Waiting for the Day of the Lord.”

You know, this phrase, “the day of the Lord,” did not spring up new, out of the blue, in the New Testament. No, “the day of the Lord” is a concept with a rich background in the Old Testament. The prophets used that phrase many, many times. For example, the prophet Joel: “Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!” Or again, from the prophet Amos: “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”

Whoa! These passages make the day of the Lord sound like something very dark and gloomy, something to be dreaded and feared, not a great and glorious day to look forward to. And that is true, as far as it goes. In the Old Testament, the day of the Lord would be a day of judgment, God’s wrath coming down on sinful humanity, beginning with God’s own people, Israel. The prophets preached the day of the Lord as a way of calling Israel to repentance. To those who presumed upon God’s grace and their status as God’s chosen people in order to feel secure in their sins and avoid repentance, to them the prophets preached stern judgment to come, coming on the day they called “the day of the Lord.” For Old Testament Israel, that day would come in the form of particular historical events, in which the Lord would visit calamity and destruction upon the nation--the Assyrians conquering the northern kingdom of Israel, the Babylonians overrunning Judah, the southern kingdom, and destroying Jerusalem and the temple. This was “the day of the Lord” as near historical judgment upon Israel.

But the day of the Lord also pointed to something bigger, something more long-range. The historical judgments on Israel, on Judah and Jerusalem, were a “type,” a microcosm, of the judgment to come on the whole world at the Last Day. Jesus himself speaks this way in his end-time discourses in the gospels. He prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem that would come forty years later, in A.D. 70, and moves from that to talking about the final judgment that will fall on the unbelieving world.

That day is coming, people of God. Make no mistake about it. Judgment Day is coming. As surely as the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, as a perpetual sign of God’s judgment on the unbelief that rejects the Christ, so surely will the Last Day destruction fall upon this unbelieving world. Take heed, lest ye fall! Do not treat as a light and casual thing the coming of the Christ, who comes to you even now, calling you to repentance and faith. What shall we do, how shall we stand, if we neglect so great a salvation? We cannot. So heed the voice of God as it comes to you now, for that is the only way you will be able to stand on the day of the Lord.

But, dear friends, you will stand on that great day! God is speaking to you now, calling you through his word, precisely so that you will stand. The day of the Lord is not only a day of fearful judgment. The day of the Lord will be a day of great salvation! A day of deliverance, when our Lord will deliver us from all evil, once and for all! For the salvation won by Christ in his first coming--the forgiveness of sins, purchased by his blood on the cross--this blood-bought redemption will have its outcome, its consummation, at Christ’s second coming: the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Life with Christ and all of his people, in glory, forever! That is what is coming and will be revealed at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore the day of the Lord is a day to look forward to, with eager anticipation! And with confidence, knowing that the God who has saved you by the blood of Christ and who gives you faith in your Savior--this same God is intent on keeping you in that faith, firm unto the end.

This, then, is how St. Paul speaks of the day of the Lord, in those words from 1 Corinthians: “as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you see? You, a sinner--you are guiltless, because of the atoning death of Christ, who has taken your guilt from you and replaced it with his perfect innocence. Christ’s righteousness, given to you as a free gift, will turn the day of judgment into a day of salvation for you! And until that day, when Christ returns and is revealed in glory, God will sustain you to the end, keeping you strong in the faith and in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word and Sacraments. Yes, our “Waiting for the Day of the Lord” rests on the grace and faithfulness of God himself. We wait, confident in this sure promise: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

[Charles Henrickson]

1 Corinthians 1:3-9 (ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge--even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you--so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

[Charles Henrickson]

Ping.

[lightman]

“God is faithful”

“O God, Thou Faithful God”
By Johann Heermann, 1585-1647

1. O God, Thou faithful God,
Thou Fountain ever flowing,
Who good and perfect gifts
In mercy art bestowing,
Give me a healthy frame,
And may I have within
A conscience free from blame,
A soul unhurt by sin!

2. Grant Thou me strength to do
With ready heart and willing
Whate’er Thou shalt command,
My calling here fulfilling;
To do it when I ought,
With all my might, and bless
The work I thus have wrought,
For Thou must give success.

3. Oh, let me never speak
What bounds of truth exceedeth;
Grant that no idle word
From out my mouth proceedeth;
And then, when in my place
I must and ought to speak,
My words grant power and grace
Lest I offend the weak.

4. If dangers gather round,
Still keep me calm and fearless;
Help me to bear the cross
When life is dark and cheerless;
And let me win my foe
With words and actions kind.
When counsel I would know,
Good counsel let me find.

5.And let me with all men,
As far as in me lieth,
In peace and friendship live.
And if Thy gift supplieth
Great wealth and honor fair,
Then this refuse me not,
That naught be mingled there
Of goods unjustly got.

6. If Thou a longer life
Hast here on earth decreed me;
If Thou through many ills
To age at length wilt lead me,
Thy patience on me shed.
Avert all sin and shame
And crown my hoary head
With honor free from blame.

7. Let me depart this life
Confiding in my Savior;
Do Thou my soul receive
That it may live forever;
And let my body have
A quiet resting-place
Within a Christian grave;
And let it sleep in peace.

8. And on that solemn Day
When all the dead are waking,
Stretch o'er my grave Thy hand,
Thyself my slumbers breaking.
Then let me hear Thy voice,
Change Thou this earthly frame,
And bid me aye rejoice
With those who love Thy name.

Hymn #395
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: 1 Kings 3: 5
Author: Johann Heermann, 1630
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1858, alt.
Titled: “O Gott, du frommer Gott”
Tune: “O Gott, du frommer Gott”
1st Published in: Neuvermehrtes Gesangbuch
Town: Meniningen, 1693

Unfortunately LBW and ELW omit verses 5 - 8; verse 8 being particularly suited for Advent's reflection on the Last Things.