"Since God So Wills It"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In peace and joy I now depart

Since God so wills it.

Serene and confident my heart;

Stillness fills it.

For the Lord has promised me

That death is but a slumber (LSB 938.1).

So goes the first stanza of Luther's hymnic paraphrase of the Nunc Dimittis – the Song of Simeon which you heard read in today's Gospel lesson. What an amazing song of faith Simeon sings! His song, so simple in its words, gives voice to a faith that is unshakeable in its trust in God to do what He says.

Throughout the Advent and Christmas season, you have heard a great deal about death. Jesus came to die. He came to die the death due for your sins. This is the reason for His incarnation, the reason we celebrate and highly exalt the mystery of His birth in the flesh. But what connection does Jesus' birth have to the death of a Christian?

Old Simeon in the Temple, holding the infant Jesus and singing his hymn of thanksgiving, teaches you about the way a Christian should regard death. There is only really one death that is of much concern to a Christian – the death of Jesus. For His death is the real death to sin. He has died the death to pay the debt of sin. And He has risen from the dead, and now lives and reigns to all eternity. Compared with this most glorious death, the death of the Christian in the body is but a slumber, a sleep until the Lord awakens you.

The Lord has defeated death and freed you from bondage to sin, death, and the devil. He has already drunk down the cup of wrath to the bitter dregs. There is no more condemnation to be had for those who are in Christ. There is only life and salvation, and a slumber while you await the promised resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Therefore, you can stare death in the face and say, “In peace and joy I now depart since God so wills it.” Whatever may happen to you in this body and life, you face it with peace and joy, because your salvation is secure. Whether you live or whether you die, you are the Lord's. He is the Author and Perfecter of your faith. He is the stronghold of your life. Since He wills it, you are made holy and righteous, and no judgment can come against you, because you are God's elect. When God wills it, you will fall asleep in faith and wake up in the bosom of Abraham, in the company of the host of heaven. This is the serenity and confidence of your heart.

But such serenity and confidence are difficult to grab hold of, and more so to hang on to. The devil and his forces would have you believe that death is not merely a sleep. Death is the end. Death is something to be feared and evaded and postponed at all costs. You must do everything you can to run from death. You must hang on til the bitter end, because there may be nothing beyond the gates of death. If you die, then the devil has somehow won.

Or perhaps you might hear voices supposedly leading you to peace and quietness, but they are false, misleading hissing. Death is natural. Death is a part of life. Death is the way to happiness. Death is the spirit being liberated from this confining body of corrupted matter. Just lie down and die, and let someone else deal with the problems of this world.

Death is neither something to be feared with all your might, nor is it something natural to be embraced warmly as the answer to your problems. Death is the enemy of life, but the Life of the World has defeated death for you, so fear not!

The Holy Spirit had promised Simeon that he would not taste death until he had seen the Lord's anointed. Therefore, when the Spirit led him into the Temple that day and revealed to him that this babe so few days old was the One for whom he had been anxiously waiting, he breaks forth into song, praising God for this gift. He received eagerly the Lord's Christ, and asked now to fall asleep in faith, because he knew that his salvation was accomplished.

Like him, you can sing,

Christ Jesus sent this gift to me,

My faithful Savior,

Whom You have made my eyes to see

By Your favor.

Now I know that He is my life,

My friend when I am dying (LSB 938.2).

Christ Jesus, who was sent to Simeon as the gift of life and salvation, has sent this gift to you by the Holy Spirit. He has sent you the gift of His life. That same life was laid down upon the cross, and He took it up again on the third day. Now His life flows from the cross to every font and chalice, through the mouth of every preacher of the Gospel. His life flows down your throat and through your heart and hands and voice. He is your faithful Savior.

In this world, you are indeed dying. This whole world, this whole universe is dying. Physicists call it entropy – the notion that everything is sliding downward into chaos. From the moment you were conceived, you began dying. All around you, disease and decay claim more victims each day. But all is not lost. All is not hopeless. For Christ is with you. Immanuel has come to His people. God is here, in this place. God is here for you. He is your life and salvation. He is your friend while you are dying, because He has died your death, that you may now only fall asleep. He is your friend, because He is the source of your life. He has come to you in the flesh, that you might take up in your arms the fullness of the Godhead, that you might see with your eyes the salvation of our God prepared for you.

Christ is the hope and saving light of those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. He has passed through death, that the mere shadow of it might pass over you. His death renders your death a sleep. His life renders your life a gift everlasting. His cross renders your cross a burden light and an easy yoke.

He guides and comforts you in all distresses, because He has blazed the path for you. He has opened the way to the paradise of heaven. He has come to be the Light of the Nations, that in His light you see light. In Him all the people of the earth find peace and joy and glory.

So do not depart from His temple, but day and night give thanks to God for the grace of Christ, worship Him in the splendor of holiness, and speak of Him to those who anxious wait for the redemption of the nations. Go in peace, for your eyes have seen the salvation of our God.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.