The Lutheran Hour
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"The Changeless Christ for a Changing World"
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Text: Hebrews 13:8
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Today we write the last of the fifty-two weekly chapters in the current volume of our lives; we find our self in the last week of the year, which twelve months ago seemed to lose itself in a broad and distant future. If ever we need anything to emphasize the colorful picture of Scripture, when it sketches the one life that you and I have to live as a rushing wind, momentary foam upon the waters, a tale swiftly told, grass and flowers that grow up in the morning, but that wither and are cut down in the evening, the weaver’s thread that is quickly snapped; if ever we are inclined to think that the writers of the Bible speak darkly and see black when they ask, “What is your life?” and answer, “It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away,” – stop to measure the length of the twelvemonth now closing, and you will agree that life at its longest is just a flicker in the ages.
Add to this distressing thought of time’s swift-winged flight the further realization that our existence at its surest is uncertainty itself; that as the close of every year shortens your span of life, but lengthens its shadows, so the past twelve months have wrought deep-grooved changes in many hearts, printed the stamp of death and decay on many lives, and wrought drastic changes in many homes. Some of you listeners who last January greeted the new year with care-free laughter and high hopes have since been flung on your knees in grief. For others the days which came and went have touched the quick of your souls with piercing sorrows. I know – for your letters pour out the overflowing measure of grief – that some of you compute your losses in terms of broken hearts, broken health, broken limbs, in the liabilities of shattered fortunes, crashed hopes, severed friendships, and a hundred other crushing reverses that present themselves when, at the close of a year, we take annual inventory of our joys and sorrows.
I know, on the other hand, that for thousands of you the past months have built a year of outstanding gain and notable blessing. Yet even you, the richly endowed, who have never known what it means to be cold or hungry or unemployed or destitute, will agree that in your complicated life nothing is secure, nothing immovable, nothing certain. Our generation, which has been torn by race war, labor war, trade war, crime war, civil war, world war, and though staggering on the edge of international bankruptcy, bleeding from a thousand unstaunched wounds, finances a new war – this groggy, blood-drunk age is sowing seeds from which we may yet reap a harvest of ruin greater than we have ever known. One need not be a prophet to discern the flares of perilous trends and impending dangers.
But you do need Christian faith, the implicit trust in the Bible from cover to cover and in Jesus from Bethlehem to Calvary and the open grave. You must have that Christ-centered trust to find soul-security for this insecure hour, spiritual certainty for an uncertain world.
In the last broadcast of this year of grace, then, and somewhat in summary of every message that I have ever been privileged to bring you in the past, I propose to exalt –
THE CHANGELESS CHRIST FOR A CHANGING WORLD
Let us as we bid farewell to this year, with the Spirit’s help, take faith, hope, and love from that majestic exclamation in the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter thirteen, verse eight, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Thank God that as this year tapers into history we can rise sheer above our changing world and believe with unswerving conviction that “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever,” never changes His love, shades His compassion, nor alters His grace. Behold the highest devotion that the race knows, the love that centers in the home, and as you witness the hardest and most hopeless of human tragedies, children spurning their parents, parents hating their children, husbands untrue to their wives, wives neglectful of their husbands, you will realize that human affection is often frail and inconsistent, disloyal and traitorous. Take the truest love that moves our hearts and even in its purest forms it is subject to change.
Surrounded by this change and decay, Christ comes to us, as the year closes, with a message of unchanging hope. Pay undivided attention to it, you who have trusted your friends and now know that they have betrayed you. Hearken carefully to each word, you who have built your confidence on health, and it failed; on your money, and it disappeared, on your own ingenuity, and it left you the victims of your own folly. Listen closely, you, the distracted of life, dissatisfied with yourselves and your fellowmen, bewildered by your lack of peace in mind and souls. If you are caught by the undertow of life and want a high and mighty rock to which you can cling midst all turbulent tides, here it is in “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.” If in that greatest of yesterdays, the first Christmas, He was born for us, if in the blackest of yesterdays He, all-merciful, all-gracious, all-compassionate Savior, “loved” His own “unto the end” and in that final terror and deepest darkness offered His own poor, beaten body for the sins of all the world and its races, for all the crimes of all humanity and its ages, then believe that He whose “mercy endureth forever” and who assures you, “I change not,” looks upon you with the same intensity of His love that nineteen centuries ago brought Him to the cross. In His Name I beseech you: “If there is anything in your life that keeps you from Christ, ask God before this year closes for the strength required to tear it out forever.” Jenny Lind, the gifted soprano, retired from the concert stage at the height of her success. And when, in the seclusion of her home near the English shore, a friend sought an explanation for her abandoning the stage, the Swedish Nightingale thoughtfully replied, pointing to the bible, “When every day made me think less of this, what else could I do?”
If you want Christ and with Him the forgiveness of your sins, heavenly counsel in all your problems, His light of love in all the darkness of hatred, His burden-lifting companionship on the roughest of life’s roads, what else can you do, what else dare you do, than pull down the pride and haughtiness of your life, tear out the claims of self-righteousness, break off the treacherous relationships that keep you in sin, and then push your way through to your Savior? Fall before Him with a heart convicted of great sin, but a soul assured of even greater grace. As you confess, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,” the mercy of Christ, renewed with each day, will repeat the promise of His Word that neither age, nor fire, nor sword, nor life, nor death can change or suspend, restrict or modify, “thy sins are forgiven,” “Thy faith hath saved thee.”
Jesus Christ, the same self-giving Savior yesterday, the same loving Redeemer today, the same sin-removing atonement tomorrow – yes, forever! Can you think of a greater God and a deeper love than our heavenly Father and His holy compassion in giving His own Son, the Sinless for the sin-stained, the Ever-living for the justly damned? Can you picture a more glorious Savior than the Christ who thanked His Father for the privilege of redeeming the world and who in His unchanged love still intercedes for the sinner, the Christ for every man and every day and every place; the Christ for the sick-bed and the death-bed, yet the Christ for the health and the strength of life; the Redeemer of the deserted and the destitute, yet the Ransom for the applauded and the acclaimed? Can you – or anyone else – construct a better faith than the changeless Gospel that has never put a price on its promises or demanded payment for its blessings?
Some one objects, “We need more than love. We need the power which puts this love into blessed operation.” The closing scenes of the year have impressed upon our minds the truth that, while human authority rises only ultimately to fall and while earthly rule increases only finally to decay, “all power . . . in heaven and in earth” still belongs to the unchangeable, eternally triumphant Redeemer and Ransom of our souls.
Every other force that influences one may fluctuate. Our age has witnessed the limitation of brain power, the swift and sudden collapse of money power, the repeated debacle of military power, and seen all this more intimately than any other generation; yet we still see the Cross of Christ “towering o’er the wrecks of time.” If the enemies of the Savior in the past of all history have been hurled to destruction and have confessed defeat as did Julian the Apostate, who in his dying moments is said to have thrown some of his own lifeblood toward the sky and screamed, “O Galilean, Thou hast conquered!” – if today Christ is crowned Lord of Lords and King of Kings in His triumph over the rebellious uprisings of a hundred antichrists, then for tomorrow let all the forces that hate His Cross and reject His atoning blood mobilize for a common onslaught. Let them re-enforce their ranks a thousand times, increase their number ten thousand times, multiply their power a million times, and as each morning the sun rises in its irresistible splendor over the retreating shadows of night, so Christ, our “Sun of Righteousness,” will blaze forth in His glory to scatter the legions of unbelief into perpetual flight.
It may seem, of course, as we view the past year and the consequences of sin, with godlessness enthroned and crime nourished on the fat of the land, that Christ’s power has been changed and His supremacy restricted. Ah, but God moves in mysterious ways to His victory and at unexpected times, and at unforeseen places.
If ever you doubt Christ’s power over obstinate, self-willed, Christ-denying men, you can gain a clearer understanding when with the psalmist you contemplate their end. Though the enemies of Christ may fare sumptuously and be “clothed in purple and fine linen,” the unavoidable reckoning always awaits them and, as thousands of Christian pastors can testify, makes quaking, gibbering cowards of men who prided themselves on their independence of God.
Perhaps many of you who were Christ’s now stand baffled by the unshared burdens and the unrelieved sorrows that came with the past year. You cry out in protest: “Christ has not helped me! My prayers are unanswered, my trust has been misplaced! The power of Heaven is broken!” But will you measure God with the yardstick of twelve short months when a thousand years in His sight “are but as yesterday when it is passed”? Will you dictate to God and say that He must answer your selfish prayers that He must help you here, now, and in this way? Would you pluck the green fruit before it ripens in the orchard of God’s grace or believe with all your souls that, if in the past Christ’s miraculous power fed the hungry, cheered the destitute, healed the sick, and strengthened wavering lives, He is “the same…today” and that, if it be in accord with our soul’s salvation, He will invoke the resources of His omnipotence to guide, guard, and protect you, in His own better way, to His own happier purpose.
If your own personal problems you find that there are difficulties, then remember that the unchanging faith will still carry out its purpose. If you trust Christ for your soul and body and believe Him when He says “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” in the uncertain tomorrow with its hidden joys and unveiled sorrows, His power will bring the same evidence of His merciful compassion.
Oh, will you not stand with me as another year goes on into eternity and prepare a book in which the record of your life for the past days will be commemorated with this inscription: “Heavenly Father, on these 365 pages is recorded the evidence of my trust and mistrust. I thank Thee for the grace that has bestowed my blessings; but in Jesus’ Name I plead for forgiveness whenever the record has been disfigured, as it often has been, betraying my inborn weakness and traitorous disloyalties. And it is with the resolve that, Thy Spirit helping me, I lay aside the volume of this year to start a fresh record for the coming year, confident that whatever may befall me, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever,” will redeem me with His unchanging love and strengthen me by His unchanging power. As the book of this year closes, hear me for His sake Who can save to the uttermost even Jesus the Savior.” Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for July 25, 2010
Topic: Is the Church out of date?Announcer: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer and today we have a question you might say is “open-ended.”
Klaus: And you want me to turn “open-ended” into a “closed case?”
Announcer: Well, let’s see how it goes. Our listener writes, “When I was young, I was part of a church. Our family attended services just about every Sunday. We put money into the collection plate. I was confirmed and was a member of the high school youth group.”
“Although I wasn’t overtly faithful during my college years, after I got married and had children I decided it was time to get back to church and give our children the same moral foundation I had received. But when I got back, I was very disappointed. The Church was so out of date… so out of step with things. I went to a meeting and they talked about things that seemed so unimportant. The world has a lot of problems but they spent two hours at this meeting talking about what color to paint the bathroom. The sermons also seem to be out of touch, as well. And the hymns-now, I like some of the old hymns, but all we sing are the old hymns. Why can’t we sing something else? Don’t get me wrong. I like tradition… but it almost seems as though the Church is hiding its head in the sand.”
Klaus: Wow. Really not a question… more like a commentary. So maybe we should ask the question… “is the church out of date?”
Announcer: What do you think? Is it?
Klaus: I think yes and I think no. Let me give you the “no, it’s not out of date” answer first. The story of salvation by grace through the sacrifice of the crucified and risen Savior is an old story, but it is hardly out of date. Each generation in every place needs to hear that story; for it is only through the hearing and believing of that story that anybody can be saved.
We are all sinners, we all need a Savior. That will never be out of date.
Similarly, the mission of the church and the Scripture upon which our doctrines are founded are also never out of date. We have a changeless God Whose message comes to a changing world.
Announcer: But you said, “Yes and no, so, in one sense, you must think the church IS out of date.”
Klaus: Yeah, I did, and although what I’m going to say next doesn’t necessarily apply to every congregation. Sometimes the church gets stuck in a rut. A rut can be nice, it can be comfortable, it can be easy. A church’s rut happens when they start rehashing the same discussions, going over the same ground, dredging up discussions from the past, dwelling on decisions made or not made.
It’s sort of like being on a treadmill. We walk real fast, but we don’t go anywhere. The exertion, the meetings, all give the impression of going somewhere, doing something… but it’s sort of an optical illusion.
The truth is, there are enemies out there who are threatening the church, our families, our faith. Luther wrote a hymn that said, “The old evil foe now means deadly woe.” In other words, the devil has got us in his sights. So does the world. The question is, are we going to be engaged in those battles against the enemy?
Announcer: I notice you’re using words that describe a conflict. Words like battle and fight and enemy.
Klaus: That’s really perceptive, Mark. And those words aren’t chosen lightly. I know that there are those in the Islamic faith who accuse Christianity of being involved in a crusade against them. You know, that kind of rhetoric, I’m afraid, says more about their state of mind than it does ours.
On the other hand, we certainly are involved in a battle… a battle for the souls of humankind.
Announcer: But didn’t Jesus already win that battle?
Klaus: He absolutely did, through His life, His suffering, His death, His resurrection, Jesus won the war–but individual skirmishes for individual souls continue on.
The words are chosen advisedly. St. Paul, in 1 Timothy calls upon his young protégé to fight the good fight of faith. In Hebrews 11, talking about heroes of faith, it says, these fellows “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised; they shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of the sword; their weakness was turned to strength; and they became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” Yes, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers of darkness.”
The Church has a battle to fight, which is more important than keeping up with the current fashion or pandering to current taste. If the church is involved in the real battle that’s raging, it will never be out of date.
Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” From Hymns for All Saints (© 2004 Concordia Publishing House)
“Who Trusts in God a Strong Abode” From Heirs of the Reformation: Treasures of the Singing Church (© 2008 Concordia Publishing House)
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory” arr. Bob Singleton. From How Great Thou Art (©1989 Family Films) Agnes Day Music/BMI
“Prelude in G” J.S. Bach. From Organist Frederick Hohman & Johann Sebastian Bach by Frederick Hohman (© 1988 Pro Organo)