Things Are About to Change

[n.b. This is Pastor McDermott's final sermon as regular pastor of St. Peter.]

 

 

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

Things are about to change. This is the way of things in this world – they change. You are not the same as you were yesterday, and neither is the world around you or the things in your world. Things are changing.

Today's lessons speak about change in what appear to be very different ways, but they parallel each other in a few key points.

First, we have the account of Jonah. Today's lesson picks up in chapter three, after Jonah has been called by God, run the other way, been tossed into the sea, eaten by a whale, and vomited up onto dry land. Chapter three starts with language almost exactly like Chapter one: God is again calling Jonah to do the job set before him – proclaim the Word of the Lord to the people of Nineveh. This time, Jonah is a bit more motivated, shall we say, to do the job the Lord has given to him.

Jonah sets off on a journey through the great city of Nineveh, which is reportedly a three days' walk in span. He gets one day in, crying out “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be changed!” And something weird happens. These horrible, terrible, no good, very bad heathens – the scum of the earth – repent and believe the Word of the Lord. Jonah has to be the worst preacher in the Scriptures – he preaches a whole five words, with no Gospel message – and yet a whole city is converted by his preaching. The people believe the Word.

And there is the key – they believe the Word of the Lord. The Ninevites do not believe in Jonah. They do not honor him as anything special, or particularly care about his person or work. But they pay great heed to the Word of the Lord. The most literal reading of the text does not give any description of what is coming, merely a notice that the city is about to be changed. Changed how? By what? No one knows, but we better repent and demonstrate proper contrition, lest we be blown off the map. So the Assyrians turn from their evil ways, every one of them, and they call a fast, both man and beast, and they put on sackcloth and ashes.

And do you know what? They were changed. It did not take forty days to begin, but it lasted longer than that. The people of Nineveh were changed by the preaching of the Word of the Lord. And this made Jonah angry, because they were not changed in the way he expected or hoped. He wanted them to persist in their wickedness, and be annihilated, a la Sodom and Gomorrah. He wanted those wretched pagans to burn for their transgressions.

“But God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the evil which He spoke to do to them, and He did not do it.” The Lord transformed the city, not into a burning pile of rubble but into a citadel of holiness. Those who were not His people heard His voice and received His Word with repentance. They were saved not by the preaching of Jonah, but by the power of the Word he preached. Things changed in a drastic way in Nineveh, in the way God wanted, even if not in the way Jonah wanted or expected.

So it is with God. His Spirit blows when and where He wills. The Word of the Lord is preached according to His bidding, and it has the results that He desires. His Word never returns to Him void, but always accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it. In every time, and place, just as in Nineveh, God is calling people of every nation to repentance, that He may relent from the evil that may befall the impenitent.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus, fresh from His Baptism in the Jordan and His temptation in the wilderness, went into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God. Now, some might expect, like Jonah in his situation, that Jesus would enter Galilee with guns blazing, calling down fire and brimstone on the region because of their rejection of John, who had been recently imprisoned by Herod. And they would be mistaken, just like Jonah was.

Jesus entered Galilee and preached the Gospel of God – the Word of the Lord. He preached just slightly more than Jonah: “The appointed time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near; repent and believe in the Gospel.” That is, the day of which the prophets spoke so long ago is here. God has come to His people to redeem them. The kingdom of God is not just in Jerusalem, but among His people everywhere. The time and place are fulfilled, because the Son of God is here. Where God is, there is His kingdom.

Therefore, repent and believe the Gospel. That is, be a Christian – cling to your Baptism. You were baptized into repentance for the forgiveness of sins. You were drowned and died with all sins and evil desires, so that a new man could be brought forth, not under the Law but under grace. It is done; nothing can change that. You better believe it.

But therein lies the problem, on two fronts. First of all, your natural inclination is to have nothing to do with repentance and contrition. Who wants to feel guilty all the time? Modern psychology and pop spirituality tell you that you should not feel guilty about anything, except maybe for being too intolerant. You should open your mind to other ways of thinking, and let the guilt that enslaves you go. Just embrace who you are, and everything will be just grand, they say. There is nothing to confess, because the only one who speaks rightly about you is you. There is no guilt, only room for improvement. There is no sin, except to interfere in the lives of others. Live and let live. As Sir Paul McCartney says, “Let it be.”

Secondly, even if you are willing to confess your sins, your sinfulness, and your need for a savior, the devil would deceive you into despair and false belief. He would blind you to the light of the Gospel, so that you believe the Law and its condemning words about you, but cannot believe the sweet and comforting word of forgiveness that the Gospel of God proclaims. In this way, the old evil foe tricks you into rejecting Christ, because he would have you believe that your sins are too great and your savior too small or too distant to save you.

Jesus enters into Galilee preaching repentance and forgiveness. He calls the young and old, rich and poor to faith, to enter the kingdom of God. And He comes to the seaside and finds Simon and Andrew, James and John. Our Lord calls them to follow Him, and they put down their work and follow Him. They, like the Ninevites, were changed in unexpected ways. These fishermen became fishers of men, hauling not salmon from the deep but souls from destruction. These rash and rough Galileans became preachers of the highest and greatest order. Their work of preaching the Gospel of God brought about the salvation of untold multitudes.

Through the calling of men like Simon, Andrew, James, and John, our Lord Christ is carried into all the world. In every time, the Lord of the Church has called men into His Ministry, ordaining them and charging them with the sacred duty to go into all the world, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand and calling all people to repentance and faith in the Gospel. Jesus goes forth on the tongues of men as He is proclaimed to be the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He goes forth from lectern and pulpit, from lecture hall and park bench, as His death on the cross is held up as the saving work of all the nations and the life of all the living. He goes forth from font and altar, as His Spirit is poured out upon the baptized and His Body and Blood are poured into the mouths of the repentant faithful. The Kingdom of God is at hand wherever Christ is, wherever His Church is.

Jesus has gone forth from the lips of the apostles through the Church for myriad ages, even down to our own day and even in this humble place. This very space is the throne-room of God, the center of the Kingdom of Heaven, because in this place the King of the Universe dwells in grace and mercy. He dwells here through the preaching of His Divine Word, the proclamation of His glorious forgiveness and mercy, and the imparting of that grace through His Holy Sacraments. So long as these remain, the gates of hell shall not prevail; they can harm us none.

You are not the same as you once were. You are not even the same as you were when you arrived here this morning. You have confessed your sins, and you have received the blessed Absolution that forgives you of all your sins. You have been rescued from death and brought into eternal life in Christ. You have been made witnesses of His saving work in all generations, and have confessed your undying hope and confidence in the faithfulness of Him who has promised all good to you.

Therefore, live as changed people. Live as those who have been transformed by the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Live as those free from bondage to sin and freed for service to one another. Live as those in this world, but not of this world.

Do not become too attached to the way things are now. You have heard the warning from St. Paul today about not becoming too contented. Live as though anything could change at any moment, because it can and it is. The world does not stay the same; the only thing that does is God and His Word. Things are always about to change. Just look around you, and think of the change that has happened in this place, and think about the changes about to happen. But always remember that God does not change. His Gospel is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His steadfast love and mercy never fail. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Cling to Him.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.