Pastor Steven Albers
Sine Domino Frustra Laboramus
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Second Sunday of End Time
November 11-12 2017
POWER UNLEASHED
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
I.
How do you speak about something that is seemingly not high priority or any priority in our lives, society or world… like the Last Day of Final Judgment and Glory? I heard recently that Groucho Marx once said – “I know that you have heard this before, but I need to hear it again.” (That my new line of defense to my long-suffering family when I am about to tell the same stories over and again!) I really do need to hear this message again and again and again, until I die and hearing it will then be obsolete.
The language of the Old Testament reading from Daniel is, at times cryptic, akin to Revelation, filled with surreal images, “apocalyptic.” In this reading, the author twice in three verses references “ancient of Days”, a rather odd name for Almighty God. It doesn’t mean our God is some sort of ultimate and divine senior citizen; rather, that this God of us all has been before the beginning and whose dominion shall have no end. Eternity is not just “end of liturgical year” talk, but it is believed and confessed at every funeral of the faithful and by all of us who have ever thought of or been close to taking our last breath on earth. I am not suggesting that we understand eternity, for who among us, bound by the constraints of time, can fathom what is “forever.” But we say and trust that somehow, somewhere, sometime we will conclude our life here on earth and begin eternity with our Lord. That’s what the church member in Texas said while holding the hand of a woman who had been shot numerous times – “I’ll see you again in heaven.”
II.
Unleashed Power – like the wind and rain of hurricanes, and the ravishing of forest fires out of control. Oh, and did I mention the buildup of nuclear power which can be transformed into “weapons of mass destruction.” There are eight countries with that in their arsenal even now; we tremble at the prospect of unleashing that power. I fear what kind of world our grandchildren and even children will face on so many fronts. And we would do well to ask, if these are forces which we fear, why don’t we fear the Day known only to the Almighty that God will unleash his unparalleled power in righteous wrath and fury?
All of that power combined, and all of the trillions of dollars that seemingly can buy ‘power’ is less than a drop of water in the sea when compared to the power of God. Can any mere mortal carve mountains and fashion oceans and create living beings out of dust? God did, and does! Can any mere mortal, no matter how rich or how powerful, add a single moment to the length of his days on this earth? God can and God does, for all of life is in the hands of the Almighty.
You want to talk of power, as so many of our politicians and world leaders are wont to do – then talk of the omnipotence of God. You want a show of power? Then wait for Christ the King to come again to this earth, not as a baby born in Bethlehem, but as the supreme and ultimate Ruler of the universe. Listen again to these verses in Daniel: He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and people of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” The ones who had confessed Christ as Savior and Lord on earth will be multitudinous and they will come from every nation under heaven. And we will be among them. We will be among them. Not because we are the privileged, but because of the power – the UNLEASHED POWER of the Holy Spirit poured upon us through simple water and the Word – we have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ.
Despite all of the evil around us that pops up its ugly head and wreaks havoc on our society and world – people maiming and killing one another for no real reason; greed that exploits the poor and vulnerable; those who establish their own standards of what is right and wrong, who are self-serving and self-seeking – despite all of that, this world is still firmly and irrevocably in God’s holy and eternal grasp. And as long as this world endures, God will continue to call people to repentance, to renewal, to receive in faith God’s promises of magnificent, matchless mercy, hope and single-minded discipleship. Therein is the patience and persistence of our grace-filled God, holding back the fullness of his power until the Day of Judgment and Glory!
III.
Whether or not the reality of Judgment and Glory has become more urgent or, like the “foolish maidens” we live with the illusion that we have all sorts of time to get our spiritual houses in order, depends in part I suppose upon what age or stage of life you find yourself. Here’s my story and I’m sticking with it, and it is your story as well. Christ will come again in power and glory and all eyes will recognize his unparalleled power. We may be alive on this earth to witness that or we may have died, buried in some fashion and awaiting the great resurrection. Our eternal future is eternity in heaven, because the grace of God has embraced us and held us tight. That’s our forever future. To prepare for all that, we focus on the present, seeking to do what the Lord wants and wills of us day by day, and as each day unfolds. That we don’t always or very often accomplish that our will meshes with what God wills is why we live in forgiveness, God’s powerful forgiveness unleashed our direction every hour of every day. That, and that alone, is why we are heaven-bound. There now; that’s our story. I know you have heard all of that many, many, times, including from this pulpit, but I needed to hear it again.
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.