LWML Sunday Sermon – adapted – 9/24/23 – Ps. 24:7-10

God promised to Adam and Eve an heir that would redeem Adam, Eve, and eventually all humanity, from the curse of the sin of disobedience and lawlessness, brought upon humanity in the Garden, thereby plunging all humanity into sin, original and actual. “Sin is every thought, desire, word, and deed which is contrary to God’s Law” as we confess before God every Sunday. Throughout human history, God foretold the coming King through various images of His promise, providence, provision, and protection for His people. David saw God’s glory as he brought the Ark of the Covenant from where it had been staying at Obed Edom to Jerusalem. God’s sanctuary was now in Zion, as He promised.  God had declared He would put His name there and He was fulfilling that promise.. 

He carried out His plan to crush the head of Satan and to put an end to sin so that we may return to Him and offer Him the thanks and praise He is due.   King David rejoiced to see God’s plan being carried a step further as the glory of God came in to Jerusalem, where God would be dwelling in the midst of His people.

King David proclaimed: Psalm 24:7–8

7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
God’s only Son enters into the world in three ways; first, in the promised Son of David, the God made flesh who died on the cross for the sins of the world.  He comes to us here, through Word and sacrament Christ is present in his church, not just in spirit but in person.  Lastly, Christ enters the world on the last day, the day when he arrives to judge the living and the dead, to separate the sheep and the goats for eternity. 

It is obvious the world needs to be rescued from itself. The constant onslaught of brokenness, destruction, disease, and death are all around us and we make it worse with our apathy, our contempt, our smug disregard of others.  St. Paul spoke of the days of lawlessness in 2 Timothy 4. Seeing the sin that fills the world around us, seeing how it covers us as well, we could easily fall into despair because of the evil of our world.  We don’t even treat each other as human beings.  Satan wants us to give up under the weight of all of the bad news we are hit with daily. God’s hope, peace, joy, and love as we proclaim in the coming of our Advent King of glory, is the promise of our God for His people. The only Good News in a world full of bad news. Christ is the King of glory! Paul reminds us, that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:19–21).

This LWML Sunday, we remember the mission work of God’s people — Christ’s church is to proclaim the Gospel to all. We are to share the good news with the world, all ages, all nationalities, all walks of life, all who are burdened by the effects of sin.  Christ has died and risen again.  Christ is with His people.  Christ will come again.  Christ sends us out to tell everyone what He has done for us.  Jesus reminded the Emmaus disciples of this promise, Then (Jesus) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,  and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. (Luke 24:45–49). T 

The Gospel is our only hope, as the King of glory comes in through the proclamation of the Gospel, as we are buried with Him in Baptism and raised with Him to a new life [Romans 6], and Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Cor. 5).  This new creation is free from the corruption of sin.  It’s free from the fear and despair and everything else that results from rejecting God’s rule over his creation.  Everything wrong in creation today is made right in the new creation, the new kingdom.  The King brings with Him the Kingdom of God, the new creation and invites all of His people to be a part of it.  The King Himself makes us worthy and righteous to share in His kingdom.  His glory becomes ours because we share in His victory over sin and death.  Lowly sinners though we are, we celebrate His victory

The world has been caught up in the corruption of sin since the ‘Fall.’ Oftentimes we make believe our times are the worst of times. Surely, we have seen some horrific and horrible atrocities in our time: wars, the senseless killings of babies, children and adults; poverty, homelessness, addictions, every kind of evil one can imagine. We would surely give up, but for the grace of God. As Noah found favor in the eyes of God, so we too find favor/grace in our King, Jesus, as we look beyond the brokenness of our humanity to the blessed hope of His coming in His resurrection.  

Like King David, we look to a heavenly King. King David had personal experience with the darkness of this world.  It was there even in his own life and family. But David, a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), found hope from the darkness in the light of God’s grace.  For as good as God had been to him in his life, he knew God had even better things planned.

“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!”  Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, reminds us that the mission of the church, not just the LWML, is to declare God’s glory and grace to all people.  To show them what it means when Christ reigns among them, to show them a little of what His kingdom looks like as people live together in peace.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth (1 Timothy 1:1–7).

When you’re scared and afraid, when you’re feeling alone and isolated, it’s nice to hear someone’s thinking about you.  It’s nice to know someone cares about you.  But sometimes you need a little more than that. Sometimes you need that physical presence, that reassurance that someone really is right there with you, watching over you and keeping you safe.  Christ comes to the world first as the Word, then as the Word made flesh, with human hands to comfort and console his people.  Christ comforts us with hands that are familiar with what sin can do to a person.  He has been the subject of others’ fear, their anger, their pride, and stubbornness. They heaped it all on Him and He bore it all.  He reaches out to strengthen and protect you in those times when your emotions are getting the better of you or when you’ve been on the receiving end of them, as He has. 

As we look to what God promises, we see the arrival of the King.  This is what God promised so long ago and that promise was fulfilled.  The King promised to continue to be with His people to the end of the age, and He demonstrates His adherence to that promise as He invites us to be with Him every Sunday.  But we also look to the greatest fulfillment of that promise, when the King returns one final time to purge the darkness forever.  A God who took on flesh and blood and the sin of humanity in His body, made His way down the road of agony, pain, and suffering, nailed to a tree, and died for the sins of the world now reigns as King over His creation, all the world, all the universe is His kingdom.. LWML Sunday reminds us to be missionaries and share the Gospel throughout the world so that all will know of Christ, the King of glory who comes to save His people, to redeem them and to restore them all to everlasting life. 

Though it isn’t a part of the Lord’s Prayer as we see Jesus giving to the disciples, the church added an ending to it, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen.”   The requests we make to God are the same, but we also acknowledge why we think He is capable of fulfilling any of these requests.  He is the King and the kingdom is His.  He is the King and all power and glory are His.  We pray that He uses that power on our behalf and that He does so speedily.