Exodus 32:1-20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; St Matthew 24:15-28
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you want someone to know that you really don’t like something you simply use the word “hate.” But if you really hate something, you can use the word “detest.” And if you really, really hate something, the right word to use is “abomination.” An abomination is something you intensely hate.
It was an abomination to the Lord, something God intensely hated, that the Israelites melted down their gold, their earrings and bracelets, and made for themselves a golden calf and bowed down to it. The invisible God was their glory. But, as the Psalmist sadly puts it, They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea (Ps 106:19-22).
God hated that they decided to worship Him in their own way. He had given a vision of the heavenly throne room and an earthly icon of that sanctuary. The Tabernacle was a way that He could approach them, the unapproachable God, dwelling among His people within the skin of animals, a tent made with hands. But they exchanged His glory for an ox that eats grass.
So He sent down the mountain an angry shepherd named Moses. He smashed the Ten Commandments, ground the idolatrous calf into powder, sprinkled it on the water and made them drink it. Then he called to him the Levites and commanded them to go through the camp and stab many of the offenders to death. That day about three thousand men fell (Ex 32:28).
It was an abomination, something God intensely hated, that most Jews rejected the gift of His Son. He came unto His own and His own received Him not (Jn 1:11). So what Jesus said would happen in today’s Gospel happened. Forty years after His death, resurrection, and ascension, in came the Roman General Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.
His troops surrounded the city for seven months, cutting off all food and water. Josephus estimates that over half the population of Jerusalem died. When the army finally entered the Holy City they ransacked the Temple, hauling off its vessels for sacrilegious use in Rome, slaughtered a pig on the Altar, set up their eagle insignias in its sacred space, worshipping their own golden calves, and finally burned it to the ground. That was an abomination of desolation in the holy place of which Jesus warned His hearers.
We call this country America the beautiful. And it is. But this beautiful land is dotted with some ugly abominations too. Things God hates. There are golden calves everywhere being crafted and being bowed down to. How about the Temple of St Lucas of the Oil Can? Or the fact that the Almighty Dollar is still devoutly worshipped at casinos, at check-outs, and in PayPal accounts all over this land? Or that our favorite scientists are adored as saviors of humanity, as we heard in yesterday’s LCMSU presentation? We have even set up an altar to the god of individualism, bowing down to choice, even if that choice is something as in-your-face to God as killing your child, choosing your sex, or redefining His gift of marriage.
But its not only the pagan Romans of our day. God’s children in America have been known for their own abominations. We may not set up golden calves in God’s place, but we’ve actually done something easier. We just put ourselves up there. We live as functioning atheists, as though God doesn’t matter and we matter most. We have become deluded by the myth of autonomy, as though our lives belonged to us. We say things like, “that’s my money,” “that’s my time,” even though its not.
Our constant drive is to seize control of our life from God. As one preacher said, “Remember the letter ‘I’ is in the middle of ‘sin.’” The most common golden calf we worship is me, myself, and I. And woe to those who don’t bow down to my wishes. God should really, really hate us. Detest us. Find us to be an abomination and punish our stiff-necked ways.
But that was not to be. Because, as we prayed in the collect, Almighty God did not deal with us after the severity of His judgment, but according to His mercy. “Go down,” He said to the shepherd Moses. And he did. In anger. To smash their abomination, make them drink it, and put many to death.
But later, He said to another shepherd, His own Son, “Go down.” And He did. In love and with mercy. Because we sinners were the object of His loving kindness. “Go down,” God said, and the walls of the Temple came tumbling down in anger in AD 70.
But before that, His Son, God’s true Temple, our Lord Jesus Christ, went down to death in mercy and love. He took the place of self-worshipping man. “Go down,” the Father said to His dear Son. “Deal with their abominations, the things I really, really hate, by becoming for them the worst abomination the world has ever seen.” And He did. For our sake God made Him to be Sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). And, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13).
The real abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place is the crucifixion of Jesus at Golgotha. He put Himself right in the middle of your sin and atoned for it.
That’s right, God’s beloved Son, the One the Father loved and cherished and delighted in more than anyone, was willing to become an abomination for you. By His death, Jesus is a sacrilege to God, in an act of divine judgment for your redemption. The sinful deeds that God so hates, Jesus bore in His Body to death. Our hateful thoughts He so detests, Jesus extracted from you and placed on Himself. All of our abominable, stiff-necked, self-worship, He atoned for on His Cross.
There He let God’s wrath grind Him down, made Him partake of the detestable cup of His wrath and be stabbed in our place. Out of indescribable love for us, He became for us at the Cross the Abomination of Reconciliation. The Abomination of our Salvation. The Abomination of our Propitiation. That’s just the theological word for what He accomplished there, turning the Father’s righteous anger away from us and onto Him. All the sins of the world cast on the One, pure, holy, righteous Man who didn’t deserve it. The crucifix is an ugly abomination if there ever was one. But beautiful to the eyes of faith.
And then He’s the One who rose from the dead on the Third Day. He did this so that He might show you the extent of His love by finding you and baptizing you and washing away everything God hates. So that you might not be hated, but loved. Not detested, but cherished. Not found to be abominable, but lovable, because our Lord really, really loved you.
There is no shortage of false prophets peddling their false Christs from their pulpits and stages as we live out these last days. They attempt, if possible, to deceive even the elect. “With their own imagined virtue and good works, they believe that they have made God their debtor, that He must rightfully receive them into heaven after their death, and that He must eternally reward them. They do not want to think of themselves as sinners who are in need of a Savior. The Word of the cross is foolishness and a stumbling block to them” (Walther, TDP, 7 Nov).
Not for you, dear Christians! The love of Christ is extended to you again this morning as He bestows you His Holy Spirit in the Absolution, reviving your faith. As He pours out His love for you in His Body and Blood, strengthening your faith for the evil days yet to come by fixing your eyes on Jesus.
The love Jesus had for His disciples is a love that He has for you. He loved them enough to tell them exactly what to do during that terrible tribulation in AD 70. He told them to flee, get out of there, and many did. To a city called Pella. But Jesus will come again on a greater and more terrible day, the Day of the Lord, when every eye will see Him at His Second Coming.
But on that Day you won’t need to flee to the hills like the early Christians did. For at this Altar you have already fled for refuge in His comforting wounds. You won’t need to run for it, for you have been invited again this morning to reverently walk to this Altar and drink the very Blood that forgives you and keeps you safe. You won’t need to head for the hills, because the One who is coming down with a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, the sound of a trumpet, is your Shepherd, who has loved you. He is coming to take you with Him so that you might always be with the Lord.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
If you want someone to know that you really don’t like something you simply use the word “hate.” But if you really hate something, you can use the word “detest.” And if you really, really hate something, the right word to use is “abomination.” An abomination is something you intensely hate.
It was an abomination to the Lord, something God intensely hated, that the Israelites melted down their gold, their earrings and bracelets, and made for themselves a golden calf and bowed down to it. The invisible God was their glory. But, as the Psalmist sadly puts it, They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea (Ps 106:19-22).
God hated that they decided to worship Him in their own way. He had given a vision of the heavenly throne room and an earthly icon of that sanctuary. The Tabernacle was a way that He could approach them, the unapproachable God, dwelling among His people within the skin of animals, a tent made with hands. But they exchanged His glory for an ox that eats grass.
So He sent down the mountain an angry shepherd named Moses. He smashed the Ten Commandments, ground the idolatrous calf into powder, sprinkled it on the water and made them drink it. Then he called to him the Levites and commanded them to go through the camp and stab many of the offenders to death. That day about three thousand men fell (Ex 32:28).
It was an abomination, something God intensely hated, that most Jews rejected the gift of His Son. He came unto His own and His own received Him not (Jn 1:11). So what Jesus said would happen in today’s Gospel happened. Forty years after His death, resurrection, and ascension, in came the Roman General Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.
His troops surrounded the city for seven months, cutting off all food and water. Josephus estimates that over half the population of Jerusalem died. When the army finally entered the Holy City they ransacked the Temple, hauling off its vessels for sacrilegious use in Rome, slaughtered a pig on the Altar, set up their eagle insignias in its sacred space, worshipping their own golden calves, and finally burned it to the ground. That was an abomination of desolation in the holy place of which Jesus warned His hearers.
We call this country America the beautiful. And it is. But this beautiful land is dotted with some ugly abominations too. Things God hates. There are golden calves everywhere being crafted and being bowed down to. How about the Temple of St Lucas of the Oil Can? Or the fact that the Almighty Dollar is still devoutly worshipped at casinos, at check-outs, and in PayPal accounts all over this land? Or that our favorite scientists are adored as saviors of humanity, as we heard in yesterday’s LCMSU presentation? We have even set up an altar to the god of individualism, bowing down to choice, even if that choice is something as in-your-face to God as killing your child, choosing your sex, or redefining His gift of marriage.
But its not only the pagan Romans of our day. God’s children in America have been known for their own abominations. We may not set up golden calves in God’s place, but we’ve actually done something easier. We just put ourselves up there. We live as functioning atheists, as though God doesn’t matter and we matter most. We have become deluded by the myth of autonomy, as though our lives belonged to us. We say things like, “that’s my money,” “that’s my time,” even though its not.
Our constant drive is to seize control of our life from God. As one preacher said, “Remember the letter ‘I’ is in the middle of ‘sin.’” The most common golden calf we worship is me, myself, and I. And woe to those who don’t bow down to my wishes. God should really, really hate us. Detest us. Find us to be an abomination and punish our stiff-necked ways.
But that was not to be. Because, as we prayed in the collect, Almighty God did not deal with us after the severity of His judgment, but according to His mercy. “Go down,” He said to the shepherd Moses. And he did. In anger. To smash their abomination, make them drink it, and put many to death.
But later, He said to another shepherd, His own Son, “Go down.” And He did. In love and with mercy. Because we sinners were the object of His loving kindness. “Go down,” God said, and the walls of the Temple came tumbling down in anger in AD 70.
But before that, His Son, God’s true Temple, our Lord Jesus Christ, went down to death in mercy and love. He took the place of self-worshipping man. “Go down,” the Father said to His dear Son. “Deal with their abominations, the things I really, really hate, by becoming for them the worst abomination the world has ever seen.” And He did. For our sake God made Him to be Sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). And, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13).
The real abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place is the crucifixion of Jesus at Golgotha. He put Himself right in the middle of your sin and atoned for it.
That’s right, God’s beloved Son, the One the Father loved and cherished and delighted in more than anyone, was willing to become an abomination for you. By His death, Jesus is a sacrilege to God, in an act of divine judgment for your redemption. The sinful deeds that God so hates, Jesus bore in His Body to death. Our hateful thoughts He so detests, Jesus extracted from you and placed on Himself. All of our abominable, stiff-necked, self-worship, He atoned for on His Cross.
There He let God’s wrath grind Him down, made Him partake of the detestable cup of His wrath and be stabbed in our place. Out of indescribable love for us, He became for us at the Cross the Abomination of Reconciliation. The Abomination of our Salvation. The Abomination of our Propitiation. That’s just the theological word for what He accomplished there, turning the Father’s righteous anger away from us and onto Him. All the sins of the world cast on the One, pure, holy, righteous Man who didn’t deserve it. The crucifix is an ugly abomination if there ever was one. But beautiful to the eyes of faith.
And then He’s the One who rose from the dead on the Third Day. He did this so that He might show you the extent of His love by finding you and baptizing you and washing away everything God hates. So that you might not be hated, but loved. Not detested, but cherished. Not found to be abominable, but lovable, because our Lord really, really loved you.
There is no shortage of false prophets peddling their false Christs from their pulpits and stages as we live out these last days. They attempt, if possible, to deceive even the elect. “With their own imagined virtue and good works, they believe that they have made God their debtor, that He must rightfully receive them into heaven after their death, and that He must eternally reward them. They do not want to think of themselves as sinners who are in need of a Savior. The Word of the cross is foolishness and a stumbling block to them” (Walther, TDP, 7 Nov).
Not for you, dear Christians! The love of Christ is extended to you again this morning as He bestows you His Holy Spirit in the Absolution, reviving your faith. As He pours out His love for you in His Body and Blood, strengthening your faith for the evil days yet to come by fixing your eyes on Jesus.
The love Jesus had for His disciples is a love that He has for you. He loved them enough to tell them exactly what to do during that terrible tribulation in AD 70. He told them to flee, get out of there, and many did. To a city called Pella. But Jesus will come again on a greater and more terrible day, the Day of the Lord, when every eye will see Him at His Second Coming.
But on that Day you won’t need to flee to the hills like the early Christians did. For at this Altar you have already fled for refuge in His comforting wounds. You won’t need to run for it, for you have been invited again this morning to reverently walk to this Altar and drink the very Blood that forgives you and keeps you safe. You won’t need to head for the hills, because the One who is coming down with a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, the sound of a trumpet, is your Shepherd, who has loved you. He is coming to take you with Him so that you might always be with the Lord.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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