WEBVTT 00:00.490 --> 00:03.994 Dear brothers and sisters, in Christ, grace is yours, mercy is yours, 00:04.042 --> 00:05.066 and peace is yours. 00:05.098 --> 00:08.718 From God, our Father and from our dear Lord and our Savior Jesus the 00:08.724 --> 00:09.280 Christ. 00:10.210 --> 00:11.070 Amen. 00:12.690 --> 00:17.518 Now, concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need 00:17.604 --> 00:19.920 to have anything written to you. 00:25.450 --> 00:30.310 But of course, Paul goes on and so too shall we, if only briefly. 00:32.409 --> 00:38.126 Now, Paul is here addressing one of the concerns of the Thessalonian 00:38.178 --> 00:39.642 church at that time. 00:39.776 --> 00:45.830 They were very concerned with the precise time that this eschaton 00:45.910 --> 00:50.426 would come, that this day of judgment, this day of the Lord would come 00:50.448 --> 00:50.954 upon them. 00:50.992 --> 00:54.494 And so Paul assuages these concerns by telling them that they are 00:54.532 --> 00:57.200 asking entirely the wrong question. 00:57.970 --> 01:01.422 He's able to do this, of course, because he's already set up in 01:01.476 --> 01:06.554 chapter four the fate of those who have fallen asleep in the Lord. 01:06.602 --> 01:11.118 So he doesn't have to concern himself with with those particular 01:11.204 --> 01:11.502 points. 01:11.556 --> 01:14.978 He's able to say it will come like a thief in the night, like labor 01:15.034 --> 01:17.910 pangs on a woman who is giving birth. 01:18.490 --> 01:24.406 It's the nature of the thing, not really when it will be that you 01:24.428 --> 01:30.474 should be concerned with. Paul justifies this move in a lot of ways by 01:30.512 --> 01:37.142 invoking that much feared and much revered phrase of the Old Testament 01:37.206 --> 01:38.982 the day of the Lord. 01:39.126 --> 01:42.474 The Day of the Lord is perhaps one of the most ubiquitously addressed 01:42.522 --> 01:47.774 themes in the entire Old Testament alongside such things as the 01:47.812 --> 01:50.880 covenant faithfulness of the living God. 01:51.810 --> 01:58.686 It is necessarily tension filled image, though the Day of the Lord. 01:58.878 --> 02:04.226 On the one hand, the day of the Lord is a day of wrath, a day of 02:04.248 --> 02:10.326 judgment, the deus era, that day which inspires great fear in the 02:10.348 --> 02:12.600 enemies of our God. 02:13.690 --> 02:19.846 And on the other hand, the Day of the Lord is the day of our salvation 02:19.958 --> 02:26.870 and deliverance, the cause of rejoicing for us who are God's dearly 02:26.950 --> 02:28.060 beloved children. 02:29.150 --> 02:35.854 There are countless sermons and meditations and devotions that could 02:35.892 --> 02:41.870 be written and could be given about the admonitions that Paul gives 02:42.020 --> 02:48.110 over the the first portion of our reading throughout even. Be alert, 02:49.170 --> 02:55.522 oppose these forces of night that surround you, those who get drunk 02:55.586 --> 02:57.560 get drunk at night. 02:58.250 --> 02:59.810 Now, I know that that isn't 03:00.250 --> 03:01.902 always the case around here. 03:02.036 --> 03:03.550 O you Lutherans. 03:04.610 --> 03:13.546 But still our Lord is calling us in this passage toward sober judgment 03:13.738 --> 03:15.360 in all that we do. 03:16.610 --> 03:20.766 That right there, that sinking feeling, that kick that you just gave 03:20.788 --> 03:21.070 yourself. 03:21.140 --> 03:23.678 Now, if you felt self righteous about what I just said, that's a 03:23.684 --> 03:27.046 different issue and will not be tackling that today. 03:27.228 --> 03:30.166 But that kick you gave yourself, that's the issue that I want to 03:30.188 --> 03:31.558 address today. 03:31.644 --> 03:37.570 That's actually the point of what I'm getting at, is that you probably 03:37.660 --> 03:41.817 don't even do that, and yet you kicked yourself. 03:41.904 --> 03:43.174 You had this feeling. 03:43.222 --> 03:50.458 And I think that this stems from something that plagues me too I won't 03:50.554 --> 03:57.310 claim to be above it, this idea that we have where we seem to seek out 03:57.460 --> 04:00.110 in many ways guilt within ourselves. 04:01.329 --> 04:07.790 We walk around and we take our whip in our hand and like some medieval 04:07.870 --> 04:14.706 monk, we bloody our knees and our backs trying to prove something. 04:14.808 --> 04:19.459 Our devotion or our faith, some such thing. 04:19.850 --> 04:25.750 Our love affair with those words I a poor, miserable sinner. 04:26.970 --> 04:28.034 Now, don't get me wrong. 04:28.092 --> 04:32.090 Those are the same words of my confession as they are yours. 04:35.270 --> 04:36.818 And there's a place for it. 04:36.904 --> 04:43.074 This season of Lent is want to remind us of our need for repentance. 04:43.202 --> 04:48.440 And repentance is a good and proper part of the Christian life. 04:49.690 --> 04:56.620 It is only half of that tension, though. 04:58.190 --> 05:02.300 See the other half you are children of the day. 05:03.230 --> 05:06.606 Now, children of light is a metaphor that's used in other places in 05:06.628 --> 05:09.102 Scripture, an image that is used. 05:09.156 --> 05:15.418 But Paul is making a more poignant sort of point here when he expounds 05:15.433 --> 05:21.346 on it you are children of light by saying, following that up with you 05:21.368 --> 05:23.220 are children of the day. 05:24.950 --> 05:30.274 You're not just children of day in the sense that day is the time of 05:30.312 --> 05:34.900 light and life, that it is opposed to night. 05:35.909 --> 05:39.254 You are children of the Day. 05:39.452 --> 05:39.813 St. 05:39.852 --> 05:45.094 Augustine, when he speaks on this verse, hearkens back to those most 05:45.132 --> 05:47.030 blessed words of the psalmist. 05:47.370 --> 05:50.919 This is the day which the Lord has made. 05:52.810 --> 05:55.798 You are children of the Day. 05:55.884 --> 05:59.419 The Day of the Lord, that day which shall be for us 06:00.330 --> 06:05.390 salvation and deliverance and not ruination. 06:08.050 --> 06:11.950 Some of you may have noticed that lately I had shaved my face. 06:12.020 --> 06:15.946 And while I didn't know it at the time and you didn't know it, behold 06:15.978 --> 06:20.926 now the deeper and truer reason that the Spirit has worked through 06:21.028 --> 06:22.814 that act. 06:22.932 --> 06:25.390 It's imagery for this sermon. 06:26.570 --> 06:30.786 Now, I also wish that the Spirit had affected about 20 pounds of weight 06:30.818 --> 06:36.454 loss, because then I really would be for you the spitting image of my 06:36.492 --> 06:37.190 father. 06:37.710 --> 06:39.494 I love my father dearly. 06:39.622 --> 06:44.218 He is a good and kind and wise man. 06:44.384 --> 06:47.994 I try very hard to be like him. 06:48.032 --> 06:54.830 I maybe have an overly idealized image of him in my head, but that is 06:54.980 --> 07:01.454 all right for the sake of this argument is that I strive to live after 07:01.572 --> 07:04.260 his example of Godly living. 07:05.990 --> 07:10.100 For example, my dad is great with kids. 07:11.590 --> 07:13.522 I have to work with kids every now and again. 07:13.576 --> 07:15.034 It's just a part of the ministry. 07:15.182 --> 07:19.714 And so because it's not something that is an incredibly natural 07:19.762 --> 07:23.922 proclivity of mine, I try to emulate my father. 07:23.986 --> 07:29.354 And part of what can help me out with that is the understanding that 07:29.392 --> 07:32.854 as I'm dealing with these kids, a sort of basic empathy. 07:32.982 --> 07:40.734 When they look at me, they see the same face that I saw through my 07:40.772 --> 07:42.110 whole childhood. 07:42.530 --> 07:47.146 And so I live into that image. 07:47.178 --> 07:51.502 And even when I fall short, the Lord has given me by virtue of my 07:51.556 --> 07:57.026 birth that I will always bear this resemblance to the image of my 07:57.048 --> 07:57.730 father. 07:58.390 --> 08:00.514 I'm sure you can see where this is going. 08:00.712 --> 08:02.706 The same is true for you. 08:02.888 --> 08:06.280 You are children of the Day. 08:07.450 --> 08:13.526 By virtue of your birth in water and in the Spirit through your 08:13.548 --> 08:22.486 baptism, you bear the likeness, the very image of that Day which shall 08:22.518 --> 08:25.690 be for us salvation and deliverance. 08:26.350 --> 08:32.830 That's one way to understand what Paul is saying here. 08:32.980 --> 08:37.198 This difference, this distinction of God's people. 08:37.284 --> 08:44.569 The reason that that day of the Lord is for us more a day of salvation 08:44.730 --> 08:49.694 and deliverance than it is a day of wrath and judgment is because when 08:49.732 --> 08:55.800 that day comes, we shall already be found in the likeness of of it. 08:56.170 --> 08:59.490 That likeness is the very likeness of our Lord 09:00.570 --> 09:01.680 Jesus the Christ. 09:05.560 --> 09:11.636 A very wise man once said to me that it's not that 09:11.658 --> 09:16.836 it is the things that you come to the seminary with that will make you 09:16.858 --> 09:19.380 a great pastor or deaconess. 09:20.840 --> 09:27.256 Not the things that you're given here. Now, surely theological 09:27.288 --> 09:31.100 training and the formation that takes place here are necessary things 09:31.170 --> 09:31.864 for the ministry. 09:31.912 --> 09:36.924 They are things which need to happen and which will shape how that all 09:36.962 --> 09:37.500 works. 09:37.650 --> 09:42.784 But it is the spirit at work in you that will actually make that 09:42.822 --> 09:49.136 ministry happen, is He who will accomplish all good things in you. 09:49.238 --> 09:56.672 It is my hope that we, dear brothers and sisters, would always seek 09:56.736 --> 10:04.148 after that Spirit, that same Spirit that lives in me and lives in you, 10:04.314 --> 10:08.196 so that we could follow the exhortation of Paul at the end of our 10:08.218 --> 10:13.270 reading, encourage one another and build each other up. 10:14.040 --> 10:20.908 That we might, seeing our brother in times of trouble, that we might 10:20.994 --> 10:24.430 remove the whip from his hand. 10:25.120 --> 10:29.790 That we might see him whole and holy to the end. 10:30.880 --> 10:34.076 And now may that peace which surpasses all understanding guard your 10:34.098 --> 10:37.084 hearts and your minds through faith in Christ Jesus to life 10:37.122 --> 10:38.140 everlasting. 10:38.720 --> 10:39.160 Amen.