The Lutheran Hour
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"Don’t Worry, Be Happy"
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Text: Luke 21:9
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The angel speaks words of joy to any and all who are brought to faith in the risen Redeemer. These are words of joy which allow us to see the world differently, live differently, and look forward to the last time with joy. In the Name of the risen Redeemer may this joy be ours. Amen.
Most children, when they’re very young, hear a myriad of common-sense stories. One such story is Aesop’s “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” You remember, that’s the tale of the shepherd boy who thought it would be great fun to watch the villagers run to help him when he gave the alarm that a wolf was in the flock. Again and again the lad shouted “Wolf! Wolf!” and again and again the people rushed to his aid; again and again he had his laugh at how they responded to his false alarm. Of course, the story says, there came that day when there really was a wolf among the sheep and the lad’s call for assistance was legitimate. Quite understandably, the villagers thought they were hearing another false alarm and they were reluctant to make fools of themselves for the amusement of the boy. They stayed put and the youngster ended up losing some of his sheep. According to Aesop, the fellow credited with first telling the tale, the story’s moral is simple: “nobody believes liars, even when they’re telling the truth.”
As near as I can tell, when it comes to talking about the end of the world and any serious consideration of the world’s last moments, our modern generation pretty much feels like those villagers. Over the years they’ve heard so many pretend prophets call out, “Repent! The end of the world is near!” they no longer pay attention. In a few months the calendar will flip over to 2011 and then 2012 will roll around. 2012, that’s the year the Mayans are purported to have predicted the end of the world. Are you getting ready? Probably not. You’ve seen and heard it all before. You’re not ready to drop everything every time somebody cries, “Wolf.”
You know, I encourage you in your slightly skeptical perspective. Jesus does, too. In the 21st chapter of Luke He warns, “You know, a lot of people are going to tell you, ‘Jesus is here’, or ‘Jesus is there.’ They’re going to tell you the end is right around the corner and you’d better quit your job, leave your fields unplanted and unharvested.” Jesus says, “When people say that, don’t you believe it. My day is coming unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.”
Of course Jesus did give us some predictions as to what we might expect before Judgment Day. When the city of Jerusalem was reconquered by the Romans in 70 AD there weren’t many Christians caught up in that cataclysm. They weren’t besieged, captured, or crucified by the Romans because… they weren’t there. They had paid attention to the warnings of the Christ and when it seemed His words were being fulfilled, they got out while the getting was good. When Jesus spoke of the world’s end, He said: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” He tipped us off by warning there “will be great earthquakes, and in various places there will be famine and pestilence.” He even cautions: “There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” Along with all these things Jesus also said there would be places where His enemies would arrest, persecute, and imprison the Savior’s people.
Now the more jaded and logical among you will be quick to point out: “But those words apply to almost every generation in every location.” And of course, you’re right. It is an incredibly rare era that has avoided some fulfillment of these signs. Since Jesus’ warnings can be applied to every century, you can understand why people in every century have said: “Oh, I’m pretty sure the end of the world is right around the corner.” Even the great Reformer Martin Luther seems to have gotten it wrong. He said, “I hope the last Day of Judgment is not far, I persuade myself verily it will not be absent full three hundred years longer…God neither will nor can suffer this wicked world much longer, He must strike in with the dreadful day…” (Martin Luther…Luther’s Works, vol. 54, TABLE TALK)
Whatever you may think, Jesus tells us how we ought to prepare for the world’s end. He says, “… when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified…” “What? What did He say? Did I get that right? First He tells us great cities are going to be ruined and false prophets will make false predictions. Along with all that natural disasters and sin-started conflicts will be commonplace. Then, after giving us those warnings, Jesus says, ‘Don’t worry about it!'”
Did Jesus really mean to say the Christian’s reaction to Judgment Day ought to be summed up by the lyrics: “Don’t worry, be happy?”… Well, actually, “Yes!” ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ ought to be our reaction to Judgment Day; it ought to be our response to everyday the Lord gives us. Don’t worry, be happy. It was here that Luther got back on track. The Reformer said: “God is not a God of sadness and death, but the devil is. Christ is a God of joy, and so the Scriptures often say that we should rejoice…A Christian should and must be a cheerful person.”
I love it when Luther talks that way. Christians SHOULD and MUST be cheerful… Indeed, if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s somebody who is not cheerful. Don’t worry, be happy. You know, if I ask you: “What’s the shortest verse in the Bible”, I have no doubt that a lot of you Christians will be able to reply….. “Jesus wept.” But suppose I asked: “In the Greek Bible what is the shortest verse”. I think I’d stump most of you. Do you want to know what the shortest verse is? Let me give you a hint. It’s NOT John 11: 35, the “Jesus wept” verse.
Do you need another hint? I can do that. Here it comes: In the Greek the passage reads: [greek word]. If your Greek is a little rusty, or if you’ve given up, let me share the Greek’s shortest verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16. It translates: “rejoice evermore.” What a wonderful sermon those two short verses might make. Jesus wept so we might rejoice evermore. It’s true, you know. When Jesus was born in a Bethlehem stable, He cried. He wept at the suffering caused by sin; He wept when death came to a friend; He cried at the destruction He saw coming to a beloved city, and He cried out upon the cross as He died to remove the sinful spots of disobedience from our souls. Jesus wept so His people, so we, might rejoice evermore.
Truly, we can rejoice evermore because our sins are taken away by His sacrifice. We can rejoice evermore because we know that with Him as our crucified, risen, and ever-living Savior, we will never be alone. We can rejoice evermore because we know that our friends and family members who have died in the Lord are not lost. We can rejoice evermore because we know that there is a great, unending reunion in heaven. We can rejoice evermore because we know Judgment Day is going to come and when it comes, we will be with our Redeemer in paradise. There, in eternal bliss, God shall truly wipe away every “tear from our eyes. We will experience no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
Now, I know that if I asked you to describe your local Christian churches, “Rejoicing evermore” might not be among the first words you would use to describe them. Indeed, more often than not most people think of Christians as being a sad, serious group of souls. That’s unfortunate because we all know it ought to be different. More than a few years ago (1988) Newsweek did a poll which asked: “What kind of activities would you like to have in heaven?” Laughter was high on the list. 74% of the people questioned thought there should be joy in heaven. Only a minority, 26%, were opposed to laughter there. Almost instinctively people know that when a person meets Jesus, there ought to be a gladness in the coming together. Those who read Scripture will see it’s true. Look at the Gospels and you’ll see it was usually Jesus’ critics and His opponents who were dead serious. The demons Jesus encountered, challenged, and expelled were downright miserable. But Jesus’ followers: well, they really did rejoice. The church frequently quotes an old church father who said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” That’s true … but it’s also true the joy of God’s saved people has always been the magnet of the church. Sadly, we hardly ever hear about Christian joy anymore. And that is a great sorrow.
You see, there was a time when rejoicing really defined we who had been saved by the Christ. When the Apostle Paul was in prison facing possible execution, he wrote to the church in Philippi. (2:17-18) He said, “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and (I) rejoice with you all. You also should be glad and rejoice with me.” When the Apostle Peter was writing to the new churches (1 Peter 1 :6) scattered throughout the Roman Empire, he said, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
Peter and Paul weren’t making a bad joke. They were saying God’s people should rejoice evermore … they should rejoice always … they should continue to rejoice even when they’re suffering grief and enduring all types of trials, even when the end of the world seems imminent. Christians should emulate the women who went to Jesus’ tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday. After those women heard an angel tell them Jesus was alive, the text says, “they departed quickly from the tomb with fear.” Fear is understandable. They had just visited with an angel and found the risen Christ had defeated death and grave. Yes, fear is quite natural. But the text continues, “They departed the tomb with fear AND GREAT JOY.” That is the joy the early church had. It is a joy which comes from knowing sure and certain damnation has been defeated by the risen Redeemer.
And don’t, not for a moment, think that this kind of joy was confined to the few Apostles who had personally walked with, and been with, Jesus. In the year 107, Ignatius, a disciple of John the Apostle, was bishop of the city of Antioch. During a time of persecution, Roman soldiers arrived to arrest him. Those who recorded the event say, he “joyfully submitted his limbs to the fetters.” Ignatius was taken to Rome where he was tried for being a Christian. It was not a difficult charge to prove and he was, in short order, found guilty. His sentence was death and the means of Ignatius’ martyrdom was lions, half-famished lions. Now you and I might get all bent out of shape by the news we were going to be brunch for the king of beasts, but those who were there at the trial of Ignatius, report the soon-to-be-martyr replied “I will get joy from those beasts which are prepared for me.” Soon after, two lions in the Flavian Amphitheater devoured him.
A century after Ignatius, in 203, five students in Carthage were learning about the Christian faith. They never completed their instruction for they were arrested and imprisoned. They were all, including a young lady named Perpetua, sentenced to death. The night her trial concluded, she wrote, “after the judge condemned us to the wild beasts, we returned joyfully to our prison.” Joyfully! It was left to the pen of others to record the death of Perpetua. They report the next day she went to heaven singing a Psalm ofTriumph.
Move forward another century-and-a-half. The Roman Emperor Valerian was doing his best to wipe out Christianity. He had an arrest warrant issued for a prominent Christian leader named Laurence. When Laurence heard he was a wanted man, those who documented the events tell us, he “was full of joy and he gave everything to the poor.” At his trial Laurence refused to deny his faith. As punishment, he was stripped, bound, and placed on a large gridiron above a great pile of burning coals. They roasted him alive. After suffering for a long time, Laurence broke his self-imposed silence. He turned to the judge and, with a cheerful smile and a joyful tone said, “Let my body be turned; one side is broiled enough.”
Whenever Satan persecutes Christians our numbers grow. But in recent years he has changed his tactics. He stopped physically persecuting us and started to laugh at us. And it’s a hard thing to endure the laughter of others, especially Satan. Slowly, ever so slowly, we Christians started to believe the world knew how to have fun and we didn’t. We started to think the world had its act together and we didn’t. We started to believe they had the answers and we didn’t. Many of us grew weary, we grew defensive, and we stopped rejoicing evermore.
Year ago I was told the story of a prophet who came to Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah with the hope that he might save the city. He began picketing; he carried signs; he shouted his message in the marketplaces and shared it in the streets. He said, “Men and women, what you are doing is wrong. It will kill you, it will destroy you.” The people laughed at him, but he went on shouting. Finally, one day, a child stopped him and said, “Poor prophet, don’t you see you’re not getting anywhere?” “I know”, said the prophet. “Then why do you keep on shouting?” The prophet said this: “In the beginning I shouted because I was convinced that I could change them. Now I keep shouting because I don’t want them to change me.” Well, too many Christians have been changed by the world; we’ve been duped by the devil; we’ve fallen victims to Satan’s suggestions.
Take a look. Take a real look. How many politicians do we have to see carried off to prison before we realize power doesn’t keep its promises? How many movie and rock stars do we have to see enter rehabilitation because fame has let them down? How many millionaire families do we have to watch dissolve before we know the love of money will leave you feeling spiritually poor? How many failed classrooms do we need to have before we understand education without values and morality is empty? The happiness of the world without Jesus is fake, false, artificial.
My friends, if you have a troubled heart, listen to the words of the Christmas angel. He said, “In Jesus I bring you good tidings of great joy!” Do you feel alone in an overcrowded world? Then listen to the prayer of Paul. He said: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.” (Phil 1 :4) Does your mind take you from one worry to the next? Do you agonize about your personal end or the end of the world? Don’t. Listen to the book of Colossians. There it says this: “May you be strengthened with Divine power in harmony with God’s glorious might. May you have endurance and patience and joy. May you give thanks for He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. In the crucified and risen Christ we have redemption; we have the forgiveness of sins” and I would add, “we are given the ability on this day, or our last day, or the world’s Judgment Day, to rejoice evermore.” If the joy of Jesus is something you would like to know, please, call us at The Lutheran
Hour. Amen.LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
November 14, 2010
Topic: Easy DivorceAnnouncer: Does the Bible allow for easy divorce? Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
Klaus: Hi, Mark.
Announcer: Our listener says, “With divorce becoming more and more common, even among Christians, I’d like to know what God says about it.”
Klaus: Oh, for that you’d have to look in Deuteronomy 24:1.
Announcer: Which says, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her”, it goes on to say, he simply writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his
house.Klaus: OK. Now what did our listener want to know?
Announcer: Well, basically, could you explain the passage? Is this all there was to it back then?
Klaus: I think the first thing we ought to say is a lot of folks hearing that would comment, “Hey, that’s not fair. It seems to be a one-way street. The guy can divorce the gal, but can the gal divorce the guy?”
Announcer: But, could she?
Klaus: Well, not really. In the ancient world, and even in much of our world today, men had more legal authority, influence, and rights than did the women. That’s why St. Paul writes about how–in Christ–it’s no longer a matter of being Jew or Greek, male or female in the Kingdom of God, that teaching was a shock to the world. Simply unheard of. Even today, compared to most other world religions, the equality of men and women is pretty much a Christian concept.
Announcer: So, did the Lord allow men to get rid of their wives with just a piece of paper? I’ve heard of no-fault divorce, this sounds like no-reason divorce.
Klaus: Yeah, and what I’m going to say next may sound really, really strange … but the
truth is this, that bill of divorcement was really put in place by God to protect and assist
the wife … not to hurt her.Announcer: How would that help?
Klaus: The husband had to have his reasons, mostly having to do with the wife’s
faithfulness and purity. He couldn’t just say, “I don’t like your new hair-style, or the way
you burned the cookies, so get out of the house.” Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, it talks
about cases where a husband seeks a divorce under false pretenses and the penalty
that was demanded for such behavior.Announcer: So, this was in order to strengthen and protect the marriage relationship.
Klaus: Yeah. But, of course, there is sort of “the rest of the story”. In some places and in some times, it almost got that bad … divorce certificates were awarded for really ridiculous and inconsequential things.
Announcer: But that’s not what God had in mind.
Klaus: Nope, Jesus speaks about what God had in mind in Mark 10. There He says the Lord’s original plan was for a man and woman to live together as husband and wife, and that relationship was to be lifelong. It was only because people are sinful and intent on doing what they were going to do that the Lord said, “Well, since you’re not paying attention to Me, I’m going to give you these laws in order to curb and take the edge off the worst stuff you can do.” That’s why the certificate. Still, as far as the Bible is concerned, divorce on demand for any old reason is simply not acceptable.
Announcer: You mentioned a few minutes ago that the equality of men and women is a
particularly Christian concept… more so than is found in other religions. Could you
elaborate on that?Klaus: Well, in some places in Islam there is something called: the triple talaq. That’s a
way a husband can divorce his wife by three times saying to her the phrase “I divorce
you. I divorce you. I divorce you.”Announcer: That’s all there was to it?
Klaus: Yeah, although we should mention that a number of Islamic countries, usually
those of the Sunni sect of Islam, they’ve banned that practice. In India, the talaq isn’t
binding unless there’s some attempt at counseling the couple and putting them through
some process of reconciliation.Announcer: OK. But, could the wife do this same thing, this triple talaq, and divorce her husband?
Klaus: You know, I’ve never heard that as being a possibility in Islam. I do know in
Christianity, the Savior died for both man and woman. And they are sinners and saved
as equals.Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“My Lord, What a Morning” arr. Henry Gerike. From Agnus Dei by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 1996 Concordia Seminary Chorus) Used by permission.
“When the Stars Begin to Fall” by Fred J. Allen. From Sinfonia Voci by the Concordia University Wind Symphony (© 1995 Concordia University-Chicago) TRN Music Publisher, Inc.
“Trumpet Tune” by Jeffrey Blersch. From Resounding Alleluias by Jeffrey Blersch (© 2005 Jeffrey Blersch) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
http://www .lutheranhour. org/ sermon. asp? articleid=OO 15 616A&mode=print 11115/2010