Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Today we have come to the end of the Church Year. In a way, all of the festivals and seasons; all of the lessons and Psalms, have been set forth by the Church to return sons and daughters of Adam to their intended place in God’s scheme of things from the beginning. In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth, a place for us where righteousness dwelled. But, lets remember back to the beginning of the Church year. And again where we will be starting next week with a new advent season. We find ourselves with the Baptizer out in the cold wilderness of our sinful state facing the winter of that cold paralyzing reality: we are sinners caught by an inherited state together with an entirely corrupt generation. We have had to face the reality that this condition of spiritual death is nothing we can overcome. Any small path by which we could meet Immanuel would have to be paved with bitter repentance or we must travel along one of the two great highways - either that of abject despair, or the other of rank rebellion.

From the waters of John’s baptism, we have traveled to Bethlehem and beheld our Creator and Redeemer in Diapers, and then on to Calvary, where we beheld Him in suffering and shame. In the cross of Christ, we did not leave, for in our baptism we became incorporated into it where all that is Christ’s has become ours - His grace and pardon, his inheritance, and his suffering to sin in the world. Living in His cross and taking up our own, we followed our risen and ascended Savior, receiving the Pentecostal blessing of His Spirit and learning what it was like to walk in the Spirit, and live the life of faith and hope for the better day that is coming. We learned that as he left and went to the Father, he went to prepare a place for us and in the end . . . he will return.

Well now in the Church’s worship, we have turned our attention to the end. Our lessons this morning and especially our text from II Peter provide an answer to the very important question: What’s the payoff? Where does our journey as God’s pilgrim people take us? How does all this faith life end? What will there be for us, in the end?

As we ponder these things we must first wrestle with a paradox about the End times and Peter reminds us of it. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. For this reason, we must say that while we have come to the day of Christ’s return - this is the end time in which we are living - nevertheless . . . . He has not come - YET! If this is the end, why is He not here? The Church on earth has been praying for some time now, come Lord Jesus Come! And in the Lord’s Prayer, we have pleaded, thy Kingdom come! But here we are - still waiting for the return of our King. What is He waiting for? Peter tells us that this is what there is in the end.

But despite his longsuffering and patience, we are reminded of this sober reality - most will not make it. Many are called but few are chosen. The people of God who make up the citizens of His Kingdom are characterized throughout the Scriptures as but a minority, a remnant. What a troublesome burden this can be for loved ones and family members. Have we not but one exhortation for our loved ones as we think of what it will be like at the end times? Be there! Yes, and when we exhort Be there! we are really joining our longsuffering Lord who exhorts with his gracious Gospel: Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and you shall receive the Holy Spirit. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your household. This call of the Gospel is where Our Lord both echoes our exhortation, Be There! and does the saving work to make it possible. He has not returned yet simply because there are still other loved ones whom he is waiting for and working on to be there. Could one of those loved ones He is waiting for be one of yours? Its OK, the Lord is longsuffering . . . paradise can wait a little longer. His tarrying right now is an active tarrying. He is here in his Ministry of Law and Gospel to call such as your loved ones who are not his own - to call them to faith and life in Him so that they might join you in being there when He finally does return.

But in that Day. . . the long suffering of God will give way to what we now call, shock and awe. He will come like a blaze, but also like a thief in the night. There will be surprise and astonishment with the return of Christ to this fallen creation. When it happens, there will be no time left to prepare. No time to acquire faith in our lamps of grace when the bridegroom finally arrives. The time to acquire the security system and have it operational is before the thief shows up at your house. When he arrives, it is too late. You will be robbed of your precious earthly possessions. With the return of Christ, the matter is even more sobering. The time is now to acquire God’s security system that protects us from sin, death, and the Devil. The Grace of Christ is our only security system that can keep us from being robbed of a happy forever.

Being there in the end, means being brought into his Kingdom and covered with His pardon . . . now. The day of salvation is now . . . now is today. He comes tomorrow and tomorrow is too late. The needful day of grace is today, the better day when cross is exchanged for glory is tomorrow for those in Christ. What an incredible picture we have of what that day will be like from Peter in our text. When Christ returns like a thief in the night, the picture is not so much that things will be taken away as that there is going to be an incredible melt down. Listen again to Peter in our text. The heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. All that is corrupted by sin, all that we are and have made will be consumed. And what then? Will we then leave this place and be taken to live with the angels in the Heaven of the eternal presence of God? No!

There will be a return to the beginning at the End. The end of our world as we know it will take the people of God back to the paradise that God had planned in the beginning. Peter tells us that God will fashion a new earth with a new atmosphere (heavens). Eden will be rebuilt for all of his people. God never abandoned his plan of creation. To get to the end is to go back to the beginning. This is a paradox. History is linear, but it returns the people of God back to where they started in the beginning. Back to the beginning . . . that will be the beginning of the end. The end of sin. The end of death. The end of spiritual warfare. The end of cross life and the end of faith. It will be the end of waiting for the end. The story of the history of salvation closes as all good fairy tales. We all get to live happily ever after. . . when we get to . . . the End.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, A-men.