Revelation 14:6-7; Psalm 46; Romans 3:19-28; St Matthew 11:12-19
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It has been called the battle hymn of the Reformation. We love to sing it. And we always sing it on this day. Do you imagine yourself standing with Luther at the Diet of Worms, telling the Emperor that you cannot and will not recant? Or humming the tune as you run, under cover of darkness, between chapels at a certain local Roman Catholic University, hanging up your copies of the 95 Theses? Its often viewed as the Lutheran alternative to that less-popular hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers.” With might and main we belt out its stanzas. Steeling ourselves for battle. Ready to pick up shield and spear and rush head-long into theological war.
But the image of the hymn and the psalm on which its based could not be more opposite. Rather than hustling to the front lines we are called to the back. Rather than mounting steed and bearing sword we are told to wait; Be still and know that I am God. When St Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus about spiritual warfare he doesn’t exhort them “to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.” But to stay put. To stand. Hear his words: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore (Eph 6:10-11, 13-14). A mighty fortress is our God, indeed; we are anything but.
In 720 BC Jerusalem escaped the destruction of the Assyrians. But Isaiah warns the king and the people that Jerusalem will fall, the temple will be destroyed, and the people will be deported. It is a frightful preaching of threats. The Lord’s people abandoned His Word. He would hand them over to destruction and devastation. The prophet proclaims, All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; sure the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades (Is 40:6-8a).
We know this even without the preaching of Isaiah. We are a wicked and adulterous generation, like children sitting in the sin market, petulant and obstinate. Everything turns to dust. Even our greatest accomplishments. From the moment of conception we are bending toward the grave.
But then Isaiah sounds the note of promise and comfort. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever (Is 40:8). While everything else is perishing; spires are crumbling and steeples falling, the Lord’s Word endures. As the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force, the Lord’s Word endures. And everyone marked by that Word, made holy by that Word, set part by that Word, will also endure.
One hundred thirty-four years later the people of Jerusalem watched as the walls of the city were torn down, the temple set on fire. They would be chained and marched through fields of corpses into exile. But the faithful would cling to this promise: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
In AD 61 the Church stood amid persecution. Christianity was illegal and Christians were harassed, arrested, set on fire, even fed to the beasts. St Peter wrote a letter to the Church grieved by various trials. You heard from this on Sunday. The tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:7). He goes on to remind them of this promise of Isaiah: The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever. And then: This Word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Pt 1:24-25).
The Christians are grass. Choked out by thorns and rocks. Picked at by birds. Beat down by the withering heat of the sun. Sometimes this heat comes in the form of white-hot persecution; the violent doing violence.
Only a few years after he wrote these words, Peter was arrested and imprisoned by Caesar Nero. Crucified upside down after refusing to die in the same way the Lord Jesus did, Peter stared down his impending death and the threatening specter of his own mortality, comforted, no doubt, by the promise: the Word of the Lord endures forever.
In 1521 the Diet of Worms had outlawed Luther’s teaching. The status of this law had changed a few times, but by 1531 is was clear that the Roman Catholic Church and the military might of the Holy Roman Empire opposed this who confessed the pure Gospel. The Augsburg Confession was presented in June 1530 and summarily rejected. To cling to its teaching was dangerous.
The princes who confessed the Gospel could not abandon it. They met at Schmalcald, Germany and formed the Schmalcaldic League. Princes and armies banded together in defense of the doctrine. They chose as their motto the cover of your bulletin: “VDMA.” Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, Latin (because everything sounds cooler in Latin) for the glorious promise: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
They knew their desperate situation, the danger they faced. They knew they might lose their castles, their kingdoms, their lives. But the Lord’s Word of the Gospel would stand through time, an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. It will stand through the destruction of the last day and through all eternity. And all who are set apart by this Word shall also endure.
So here you stand. In the City of God, within the walls of Jerusalem, under the reign and rule of the King whose kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force. A mighty fortress is our God, indeed, but we are like grass. We are dying sinners. We are besieged from without and within. Fighting not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, rulers over this present darkness. Fearful and frightened by our sins which plague us, death which hounds us, the devil who seeks to devour us.
But here is the psalm and the hymn. Not a rally cry to pick up arms, but a comforting word to stand. Jesus is with you within these walls. He is your trusty shield, defending you from the fiery darts of the devil. He is your weapon, warding off the attacks of the evil foe. Our might amounts to nothing; to grass here today and tomorrow thrown into the oven. So He says, “Stay close to Me, I am your Rock and Castle. Your ransom, your Propitiation and Atoning Sacrifice I myself will be; for you I strive and wrestle. For I am yours and you are Mine, and where I am you may remain; the Foe shall not divide us” (LSB 556:7). He calls you to Himself, enfolds you safely in His Castle and Keep, clothes you not with the armor of the front lines, but with the armor of the sentinel, the one called to stand along the watchtower. Stand firm, therefore.
And as your enemy approaches, as the roaring lion comes lurking to devour, as death marches seemingly unconquerable across the field, this Jesus, your refuge and strength, doesn’t send you out into battle. Doesn’t give you a pep-talk and some motivation to really sock it to Satan. He speaks the only dialogue from the Lord in Psalm 46: Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth! He lifts you up and sets you upon the heights to behold what He is about to do.
Death and Satan and hell swiftly approach with their malicious army, but we tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not over power us. For you have the Valiant One, the elect, the anointed of God Himself, fighting for you. Jesus Christ, YHWH Sabaoth, the Lord God of Hosts. God Himself in the flesh, entering the fray, fighting for you, on your behalf. And as He’s out there on the field, like Seed harassed by birds and rocks and sun, He turns to you, sees you staggering under the strain of battle, fearful of the evil day, and He says, Be still and know that I am God. Its as if He says, “I’ve got this.”
And turning back He conquers the Old Evil Foe, that wicked serpent and ancient dragon, your enemy and the enemy of God’s Christians. He conquers Him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of His testimony which endures forever. He who is the kingdom of God enfleshed suffers the torturous violence of the Violent One. He sheds His precious Blood and gives His Body into the lion’s devouring jaws.
Do not turn away in horror at what your eyes behold on this field of battle! Look at Him! A Friend of tax collectors and sinners! A Defender and Savior of all God’s people!
He is stripped of His clothes and beaten so that you would be wrapped with the belt of truth. He allows His flesh to be torn open so that His cleansing blood would be your breastplate of righteousness. He has nails pierce His feet so that you would be fitted with the gospel of peace. His head is crowned with thorns so that you would receive the helmet of salvation. His hands are nailed open so that yours may grasp around the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
For though devils all the world should fill, take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife, amidst crumbling spires and falling steeples, within a world that hates and maligns you, battles raging without and within, the Word of the Lord endures forever. Jesus. The Word that fells this world’s scowling prince. The Word they still shall let remain. The strong Word of the Lord that bespeaks you righteous, bright with the holiness of Christ Himself, clothed in the armor of light. The Word that comforts your stricken conscience and speaks peace to your troubled soul.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present hep in trouble. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.
This is what we sing when we we belt out “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Not a rousing hymn of self-reliance, thumbing our nose at the Pope and patting ourselves on the back for being Lutheran. We sing of Him who bore the true battle strain. Of Him who conquered in the fight. We sing of the Word made flesh, who though slain, behold He lives, and endures forever! And all those marked by His Word, made holy by His Word, set apart by His Word, will also endure.
Here, beloved, He provides a river whose streams make glad the City of God, the Holy Habitation of the Most High. The streams of His Body and Blood. This is how He is in the midst of you. You shall not be moved. Though you are conscripted into war, and as you too bear the battle strain, here dawns the help of God, the consoling Supper of Christ’s own Sacrifice. Look at Him! Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!
By His Word and Sacraments He miraculously preserves His Church against the gates of hell, against the rage of the devil, the rebellious spirits, the world, the flesh, sin, and death. The Word of the Lord endures forever. His enduring Word has claimed you. This is your comfort in life and in death.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It has been called the battle hymn of the Reformation. We love to sing it. And we always sing it on this day. Do you imagine yourself standing with Luther at the Diet of Worms, telling the Emperor that you cannot and will not recant? Or humming the tune as you run, under cover of darkness, between chapels at a certain local Roman Catholic University, hanging up your copies of the 95 Theses? Its often viewed as the Lutheran alternative to that less-popular hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers.” With might and main we belt out its stanzas. Steeling ourselves for battle. Ready to pick up shield and spear and rush head-long into theological war.
But the image of the hymn and the psalm on which its based could not be more opposite. Rather than hustling to the front lines we are called to the back. Rather than mounting steed and bearing sword we are told to wait; Be still and know that I am God. When St Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus about spiritual warfare he doesn’t exhort them “to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.” But to stay put. To stand. Hear his words: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore (Eph 6:10-11, 13-14). A mighty fortress is our God, indeed; we are anything but.
In 720 BC Jerusalem escaped the destruction of the Assyrians. But Isaiah warns the king and the people that Jerusalem will fall, the temple will be destroyed, and the people will be deported. It is a frightful preaching of threats. The Lord’s people abandoned His Word. He would hand them over to destruction and devastation. The prophet proclaims, All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; sure the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades (Is 40:6-8a).
We know this even without the preaching of Isaiah. We are a wicked and adulterous generation, like children sitting in the sin market, petulant and obstinate. Everything turns to dust. Even our greatest accomplishments. From the moment of conception we are bending toward the grave.
But then Isaiah sounds the note of promise and comfort. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever (Is 40:8). While everything else is perishing; spires are crumbling and steeples falling, the Lord’s Word endures. As the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force, the Lord’s Word endures. And everyone marked by that Word, made holy by that Word, set part by that Word, will also endure.
One hundred thirty-four years later the people of Jerusalem watched as the walls of the city were torn down, the temple set on fire. They would be chained and marched through fields of corpses into exile. But the faithful would cling to this promise: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
In AD 61 the Church stood amid persecution. Christianity was illegal and Christians were harassed, arrested, set on fire, even fed to the beasts. St Peter wrote a letter to the Church grieved by various trials. You heard from this on Sunday. The tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 1:7). He goes on to remind them of this promise of Isaiah: The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever. And then: This Word is the good news that was preached to you (1 Pt 1:24-25).
The Christians are grass. Choked out by thorns and rocks. Picked at by birds. Beat down by the withering heat of the sun. Sometimes this heat comes in the form of white-hot persecution; the violent doing violence.
Only a few years after he wrote these words, Peter was arrested and imprisoned by Caesar Nero. Crucified upside down after refusing to die in the same way the Lord Jesus did, Peter stared down his impending death and the threatening specter of his own mortality, comforted, no doubt, by the promise: the Word of the Lord endures forever.
In 1521 the Diet of Worms had outlawed Luther’s teaching. The status of this law had changed a few times, but by 1531 is was clear that the Roman Catholic Church and the military might of the Holy Roman Empire opposed this who confessed the pure Gospel. The Augsburg Confession was presented in June 1530 and summarily rejected. To cling to its teaching was dangerous.
The princes who confessed the Gospel could not abandon it. They met at Schmalcald, Germany and formed the Schmalcaldic League. Princes and armies banded together in defense of the doctrine. They chose as their motto the cover of your bulletin: “VDMA.” Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, Latin (because everything sounds cooler in Latin) for the glorious promise: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
They knew their desperate situation, the danger they faced. They knew they might lose their castles, their kingdoms, their lives. But the Lord’s Word of the Gospel would stand through time, an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. It will stand through the destruction of the last day and through all eternity. And all who are set apart by this Word shall also endure.
So here you stand. In the City of God, within the walls of Jerusalem, under the reign and rule of the King whose kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force. A mighty fortress is our God, indeed, but we are like grass. We are dying sinners. We are besieged from without and within. Fighting not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, rulers over this present darkness. Fearful and frightened by our sins which plague us, death which hounds us, the devil who seeks to devour us.
But here is the psalm and the hymn. Not a rally cry to pick up arms, but a comforting word to stand. Jesus is with you within these walls. He is your trusty shield, defending you from the fiery darts of the devil. He is your weapon, warding off the attacks of the evil foe. Our might amounts to nothing; to grass here today and tomorrow thrown into the oven. So He says, “Stay close to Me, I am your Rock and Castle. Your ransom, your Propitiation and Atoning Sacrifice I myself will be; for you I strive and wrestle. For I am yours and you are Mine, and where I am you may remain; the Foe shall not divide us” (LSB 556:7). He calls you to Himself, enfolds you safely in His Castle and Keep, clothes you not with the armor of the front lines, but with the armor of the sentinel, the one called to stand along the watchtower. Stand firm, therefore.
And as your enemy approaches, as the roaring lion comes lurking to devour, as death marches seemingly unconquerable across the field, this Jesus, your refuge and strength, doesn’t send you out into battle. Doesn’t give you a pep-talk and some motivation to really sock it to Satan. He speaks the only dialogue from the Lord in Psalm 46: Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth! He lifts you up and sets you upon the heights to behold what He is about to do.
Death and Satan and hell swiftly approach with their malicious army, but we tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not over power us. For you have the Valiant One, the elect, the anointed of God Himself, fighting for you. Jesus Christ, YHWH Sabaoth, the Lord God of Hosts. God Himself in the flesh, entering the fray, fighting for you, on your behalf. And as He’s out there on the field, like Seed harassed by birds and rocks and sun, He turns to you, sees you staggering under the strain of battle, fearful of the evil day, and He says, Be still and know that I am God. Its as if He says, “I’ve got this.”
And turning back He conquers the Old Evil Foe, that wicked serpent and ancient dragon, your enemy and the enemy of God’s Christians. He conquers Him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of His testimony which endures forever. He who is the kingdom of God enfleshed suffers the torturous violence of the Violent One. He sheds His precious Blood and gives His Body into the lion’s devouring jaws.
Do not turn away in horror at what your eyes behold on this field of battle! Look at Him! A Friend of tax collectors and sinners! A Defender and Savior of all God’s people!
He is stripped of His clothes and beaten so that you would be wrapped with the belt of truth. He allows His flesh to be torn open so that His cleansing blood would be your breastplate of righteousness. He has nails pierce His feet so that you would be fitted with the gospel of peace. His head is crowned with thorns so that you would receive the helmet of salvation. His hands are nailed open so that yours may grasp around the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
For though devils all the world should fill, take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife, amidst crumbling spires and falling steeples, within a world that hates and maligns you, battles raging without and within, the Word of the Lord endures forever. Jesus. The Word that fells this world’s scowling prince. The Word they still shall let remain. The strong Word of the Lord that bespeaks you righteous, bright with the holiness of Christ Himself, clothed in the armor of light. The Word that comforts your stricken conscience and speaks peace to your troubled soul.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present hep in trouble. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.
This is what we sing when we we belt out “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Not a rousing hymn of self-reliance, thumbing our nose at the Pope and patting ourselves on the back for being Lutheran. We sing of Him who bore the true battle strain. Of Him who conquered in the fight. We sing of the Word made flesh, who though slain, behold He lives, and endures forever! And all those marked by His Word, made holy by His Word, set apart by His Word, will also endure.
Here, beloved, He provides a river whose streams make glad the City of God, the Holy Habitation of the Most High. The streams of His Body and Blood. This is how He is in the midst of you. You shall not be moved. Though you are conscripted into war, and as you too bear the battle strain, here dawns the help of God, the consoling Supper of Christ’s own Sacrifice. Look at Him! Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!
By His Word and Sacraments He miraculously preserves His Church against the gates of hell, against the rage of the devil, the rebellious spirits, the world, the flesh, sin, and death. The Word of the Lord endures forever. His enduring Word has claimed you. This is your comfort in life and in death.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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