“THE ONCE AND
FUTURE KING”
THE ADVENT OF
THE KING & HIS KINGDOM
Christ’s Kingdom
of Glory
Adventide
Midweek 2: 11 December Anno + Domini 2014
Fr Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name + of
The King, Christ Jesus
Myths about heaven run from childishly inane
to damnably false. But heaven, even now, exists in the ever presence of the
Lord. To speculate about the details is
wasteful of time and unanswerable by way of human reason.
Only Scripture reveals what the hereafter is
all about. Scripture is God’s Body and
Blood in paper and ink. Christ the King
is one with His word—He being The Word made Flesh. The joys of this December’s Advent will be
crowned with the Celebration of the Lord’s Nativity. The supernal joys and
crescendos of the Final Advent are always preceded by the Law. The coming Kingdom of Glory includes the
judgment of the unrighteous.
“There is none righteous no not one.” [Rom. 3.10]
Only God is right. Fallen man is wrong. Sinners are not “right in the spiritual head” or heart; are not “right” with themselves or their
neighbors and are not “right” with
the Lord. And they sin all the time. You
sin all the time. Only God is righteous.
Only the God/Man Jesus, Immanuel, is Righteous.
Jesus’ words about the great judgment and
the coming of His Kingdom of Glory, are true and are to be heeded by Christians. A sloppy and lazy Lutheran ethos has infested
most of American and worldwide Lutheranism in the last 100 years or so. Yes we are antinomians by nature—we don’t
like the Law—the Law kills. But we are also against the idea that Jesus asks,
expects, and tells us to sanctify our lives—our minds and bodies—that is, in
our thoughts, words, and deeds. This is
not salvation and it is not for
salvation. Jesus kept the Commandments and did all The Sanctifying, the
making holy, in His Body and Blood suffering and death at the cross. Jesus gives The perfect Sanctifying,
the making of a Holy child and heir, a Saint, by washing you + in Him at the
font. Jesus does all the work of The Sanctifying
you as a Royal Priest by filling your ears with Himself; with placing on your
tongues in the Eucharist Himself!
But
the last century notwithstanding, every Lutheran theologian from Pieper and
Walther back to Calov, Hunnius, Gerhard, Andreae, Chemnitz, Melanchthon, and
Luther wrote about, assumed, and instructed their charges to lead holy lives
and to work at sanctification…sanctification in the narrow sense of repentance and striving. These Lutheran “fathers” so catechized,
preached, and lived this way because that’s the way EVERY orthodox Christian
churchman, theologian, and Father had taught for the prior 1,600 years. It’s the way the Apostle taught. It’s the way
all the Old Testament Prophets and Moses taught. It’s what Jesus says.
Lest we overdose on “cheap grace” and a self-indulgent, indifferent, and WRONG
understanding of Justification, we are instructed by the Holy Ghost and Saint
Paul. If there’s anyone in the history
of Christ’s people who believed and grasped being saved by Grace alone and not
of the works of the Law it was Paul.
Paul knew why Jesus had found
him, spared him, rescued him, redeemed him, justified him, and sanctified him…Grace
pure Grace! Pure love, mercy, and
JESUS! Paul was writing to fellow
Christians in Corinth and elsewhere…in Kansas and Missouri. Paul knew the hard-wired default position of
all men, even sinner/saint Christians.
Paul writes: “know ye not that
they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye
may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all
things…I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest
that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway.” [1 Cor 9. 24-27] If the Apostle knew he should, he must (not
for Salvation, but because it’s what the Lord willed for him) run, strive for
mastery, be temperate in all things, and keep his body of sin under subjection,
how can your “new creation” [2 Cor. 5.17] wish to do anything less? Paul exhorts you fellow Corinthians “wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of
me,” [1 Cor. 4.16] and you fellow
Philippians “brethren, be followers
together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.”[Ph.
3.17]
In Christ and by Christ you have your lamps
filled to meet the arriving Groom, but you nonetheless need to daily “trim them.” You have faith to receive your coming Advent
King for He brings the Kingdom of Glory—the heavenly realms of salvific
splendor. Jesus says: “…many shall come from the east and west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of
heaven.” [Mt. 8.11] At the final
judgment, the culling of the goats from you the true sheep, there will be no
fear or apprehension. You will joyfully meet Him in the air at the final
trump…triumphant. But you’re here
and now. The first Advent, these last days, the final
time of the Church, continues, and your Advent journey to the New Jerusalem and
the ever Bethlehem marches on through desert, cross, and pain. Take heed, pay attention, be on the alert. “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called…that ye
put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts.” [Eph. 4. 1ff] Luther also exhorts you to daily drown the
old Adam.
These words of Paul, Martin, and Jesus, your
Lord and God, are not meant to break delicate flowers or crush overburdened
backs. His Kingdom of Glory includes you
because He has chosen you “I have graven
thee upon the palms of My hands,” [Is 49.16] and “they [you] shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them [you] out of My hand,” [Jn.10.28]
and “I kept them in Thy Name; those that
Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” [Jn. 17.12]
You don’t have to flap your arms to get to
heaven. The angels will carry you as they carried poor Lazarus. You won’t
tremble when you’re ushered into the Nuptial Hall of Heaven, then,
but now,
it’s only Holy Spirit prudent to “take
heed, lest [you] fall” [1 Cor. 10.12].
You’re on
the ship; you’re safe in His arms. But
the embrace becomes consummated the way it’s destined at the final return of
Christ. The ships great banquet is yet
to be served. You have the foretaste in
your daily, weekly, rations of Righteousness, and, you have duties aboard the
ship; tasks, sanctifying disciplines. Chafe
not at this momentary chastening, these Christian chores, for they conform your
body into His cruciform. He carries the yoke. He bears the burden. He “comes
to judge the nations, a terror to His foes, A Light of consolations and blessed
Hope to those Who love the Lord’s appearing. O glorious Sun, now come, send
forth Thy beams most cheering, and guide us safely home to the Kingdom of
Glory.”
In The Name of The Father and of +
The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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