Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Old Testament of the Day: So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt! [Exodus 32.3-4

From the Epistle of the Day: But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. [1 Thessalonians 4.13]

From the Holy Gospel: For as the lightning comes from the east and shines to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. [Matthew 24.27] 

     Today, we enter the three week period known as the End Times, marking the last three Sundays of this Church Year. On these Sundays, the readings from God’s Word direct your mind to ponder the reality and certainty of the return of your Lord Jesus, the certainty of the end of this world as we know it, the certainty of a never-ending life on a new earth for those who are being saved, and the certainty of a never-ending hell for those who are lost. These are serious days that roll around once a year. And they begin with the Old Testament of the Day for this 3^rd Last Sunday, in which your thoughts are directed back to the event in the wilderness for God’s chosen Old Testament people, an event in which God’s people give up waiting for His appointed leader, Moses, to return from the mountain where he had a meeting with God. They gave up waiting, and they made for themselves a golden calf, and they purposed among themselves to return to slavery in Egypt. At the center of this rebellion, unable to stop it, and finally furthering it, is Aaron, the brother of Moses, and the one appointed high priest by God.

     Today, we learn from this sad story and this sad leader, who might well be described as “The Goose the Laid the Golden Calf.”

I.

God’s timing and ours are quite different. You have already had many lessons on this difference in the course of your life to this point. We would love to have things happen more quickly: Quickly solving our problems, quickly healing our diseases, quickly changing our circumstances. It all makes sense to us, but it does not make sense to God, whose timetable is not yours, and whose solutions to your problems are not what you would propose to Him.

This difference of timing exhibited itself as the children of Israel, the adopted and chosen sons and daughters of God, waited at the foot of Mt. Horeb, otherwise known as Mt. Sinai, while Moses had lengthy meeting with God. It was a long wait, longer than a month, while Moses conversed along with God.

In the midst of this wait, the people became overwhelmed by their present circumstances. They were in the midst of a dessert. They had no food, except for this white stuff that they called “Manna.” They had not direction. In short, they came to the conclusion that, minus Moses, they were doomed out here in the wilderness. And since they were minus Moses, they made three fateful decisions.

First, they decided to return to Egypt, to slavery, to break their covenant with God who brought them up out of Egypt.

Second, they decided that they needed a replacement for God, a more visible, understandable God, made in the form of a calf, covered with gold. This new god would lead them on their trek  back to Egypt.

And the third decision was Aaron’s. Weak as he was in the face this rebellion, he tried to have it both ways. He caved in to the people’s rebellion, and he made a new god for them. Note how he and the rebel leaders introduce this new thing that he made: “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Aaron wanted to keep faith with God, and at the same time, he wanted to satisfy the people’s demand. So, he presents this silly calf on one day, and he announces a feast to God for the next day. Indeed, Aaron became the fool, the goose, who laid the Golden Calf.

II.

Why was this Old Testament reading chosen for this 3^rd Last Sunday of the Church Year on the historic One-Year Calendar? Here’s the answer: It introduces the manner in which Christians live, namely, this seemingly endless passage of time without the return of Christ. Moses upon on the mountain for forty days is the symbol of Christ upon a heavenly throne, not yet, and not yet, and still not yet, returning as He promised. It has been 2000 plus years, and the return of Christ has not yet happened. The wait seems endless, and we are prone to lose faith that there will be a final day for this world, a day of judgment, a day of destruction of the old and the bringing in the new, eternal life that your Lord Jesus has promised you and all who await His coming. And this choice, of this particular Old Testament reading, is here to remind you of the disaster that Old Testament Israel made of things by their fateful and faithless choice, lest we make the same mistake.

God’s provision for these times of waiting, these times that tempt us to live as though there is no end, no judgment, no new creation – these times that tempt us to live as though this is all there is to life. God provides His Word, and He provides leaders to study, know, and teach this Word of God, so that we might not meet the fate of those who died in the wilderness for their unbelief.

The Epistle of the Day reveals St. Paul instructing young Pastor Timothy on how he ought to conduct himself and his ministry in the days when Paul is no longer around, in the days where the long wait – the now 2000 year wait – began its second generation, still in the very first century of the Christian Church.

Listen again to what St. Paul has to say to Timothy: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”

And he goes on to remind St. Timothy how Christ Himself made these promises, and it is Christ Himself who will return for judgment and for renewal of this earth, as He has promised.

And so through this New Testament based history, God has raised up pastors and teachers to guide you through this long, living wait for the fulfillment of His promises. In 1^st Timothy we read how St. Paul urges Timothy to be about the work of the public proclamation of God’s Word: “Until I come, devoted yourself to the public reading of the Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.” Only the Word of God, read and taught, can keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus and His return.

III.

And all this waiting, all this teaching, all this believe leads to one final, ultimate reality, which you heard in the Holy Gospel for the Day: “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

So, in these End Times, long though they seem to be, you face the question raised by St. Peter: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?”  And he answers his own question: “According to His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

And as you wait, you live, not following Aaron who shows himself to be the goose, but following Christ and His apostles, living the expectation of the return of Christ, bringing you the fullness of all His promises.