30 December 2006

A Homily for New Year's Eve

[Text: Luke 12:35-40]

“So that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.”

It reminds you, does it not, of the beautiful image here to my left. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” For our Lord is a gentleman. He never barges in where He is not welcome, where He is not invited. If you insist on Him being on the outside of the door, shut out of your life, He will allow that. He will even allow that eternally. But it breaks His heart, and so He stands and knocks. He wants to enter your heart, to enter your life, because He knows that His presence brings joy and life, forgiveness and healing.

In fact, in tonight’s Gospel we are told that He asks to enter precisely so that He might “dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”

In other words, He asks to enter that He might be your servant. That is His joy. It’s why in our hymnal we call the liturgy “The Divine Service.” Because we know that our Lord, the Divine One, is among us as One who serves, whose delight is for us to allow Him to be our Servant. He comes to us to wash us from our sins, to clothe us in the bright robes of His righteousness, to feed us the Feast He has prepared – His very body and blood for the forgiveness of all our sins. He comes to sing over us a love song from the heart of His Father – and He promises us that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love that is ours in Him. He remains today the same Servant Lord that He revealed Himself to be on Maundy Thursday, when literally took of his clothes and put on a towel to wash the feet of his disciples.

But as I said, He won’t barge in. He knocks. He desires entrance into our lives, into our heart, our minds, our homes. But never by compulsion.

And will you open the door to Him? As you think back over the year past, you might recall moments when He was knocking and begging entrance, when you declined to have him come in. And why?

His presence indeed spoils the party when the party is sinful. In His presence, gossip has to die, for He drives out the Accuser of the Brethren and Himself speaks well of the human race before His Father’s throne in heaven, as our Advocate. In His presence, pride has to die. There is no room for our strutting about when we are with the God who loved us so much as to take on human flesh and blood, the God who went to Calvary’s cross to blot out the handwriting that was against us. The God who humbled Himself to raise us up. And His presence does indeed drive out other guests that you might want present – when those guests are the demons. His presence has a way of challenging the entire way you order your life, your priorities, your thinking, your spending, your use of time, the sites you visit on the internet, the TV shows you watch, the movies you see, the books you read, and how you use your treasure and your talent.

He knocks, and He wants to enter, but let only those open the door who can bear the consequences of His presence, of His coming in. You cannot say: “Yes, Lord, come into my life” and at the same time tell Him: “But please don’t be changing anything. I’m happy with things just the way they are.” His presence with you won’t allow it.

Tonight as across the world people make their resolutions for change in the new year, here is a worthy resolution for each of us: Lord, when you knock, I will open.

You will find then that you need to stay “dressed for action and keep your lights burning” – as you make your constant prayer: “Come in, Lord Jesus. Welcome to my heart. Welcome, to my life. Welcome, to my home. Come in and fill me, use me, lift me up to the heights of being a servant with you.” You’ll need to stay dressed for action, then, because He will delight to answer that prayer. He will come to you.

You will see him on the face of a friend, a spouse, a child; you will see him in the beggar with his hand outstretched for mercy; you will see him in the sick and the suffering, the dying and the mourning, the lonely and the forgotten.

He will be there in all of them and in all of them He will be knocking at your heart’s door. Will you let Him in and then will you serve with Him? He serves you that you might come to serve others also.

“The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” That’s not just a warning that the glorious Appearing of Christ will come as a surprise; it’s fair notice that He intends to knock on the door of your life this year in many ways and through many people. It may be the middle of the night. It may be during the course of the day. Maybe it will be at the gas pump, or standing in line at the grocery store, or eating at your favorite restaurant. But He’ll be there. And if your prayer is always “Come in, Lord Jesus” whenever He knocks, you will find that His real presence is not confined to the Holy Eucharist, but that He fills the creation itself. Really and truly.

Because nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ, everything in all creation can speak to you the love of God in Christ. The God who is always and everywhere “for you” – He is the one who knocks. The One with the nail scars, the One with that tender look of love upon His face. Always the gentleman, never forcing Himself upon a soul. The Lord who humbly begs entrance to serve us that He might make us servants. This year, come, Lord, enter in!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm confused. If faith is a gift that can be refused, is "not resisting" an act of the will which refutes the idea that "I cannot by my own will come to Him", or is not resisting also a gift? This is a sincere question which may or may not be fueled by my OCD.

William Weedon said...

What's OCD?

This homily is addressed to Christians, who cooperate in all the works of the Holy Spirit, albeit in great weakness. It is not a sermon on how to become a Christian, but a sermon for Christians on always welcoming the Lord who seeks ever further and new entrance into their lives. The statement in the SC is bang on right: by your own reason or strength you cannot believe in Jesus or come to him. But the Holy Spirit enables you to do both things by grace, and after your Baptism, your renewed will cooperates in that.

Pax Christi!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. Feeling empty from all the sermon writing going on in the past two weeks, I heavily borrowed for tonight. I did add in the obvious illustration of Peter refusing the foot washing - and our Lord not forcing it, but does continue to knock by explaining the consequences of having no part in Christ.

(fwiw, my organist informed me that we don't have another marathon session of services (Xmas Eve Day, Xmas Eve, Xmas Day, NY Eve Day, NY Eve, NY Day) like this year's again until 2017.)

The Lord create within you and yours a clean heart in this new year.
Jimbo

Anonymous said...

Pr Weedon,
Thanx for the response. OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder. I will often obsess over having absolute clarity and understanding of ideas or concepts. Paradoxes make me a bit anxious. :)

chaplain7904 said...

You write:

It reminds you, does it not, of the beautiful image here to my left. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” For our Lord is a gentleman. He never barges in where He is not welcome, where He is not invited. If you insist on Him being on the outside of the door, shut out of your life, He will allow that. He will even allow that eternally. But it breaks His heart, and so He stands and knocks. He wants to enter your heart, to enter your life, because He knows that His presence brings joy and life, forgiveness and healing.

Reply: Dear Friend, this is an old Baptist schtick about the Lord Jesus being a gentleman etc.

This doesn't apply to non-Christians, because they can't open their hearts. He surely does barge in, though I don't recall that exact metaphor in Scripture. If He didn't we'd exclude Him forever. The law breaks down the door, destroys everything in sight, and then the life-giving Gospel is given us to believe.

As for the Christian, Christ dwells in his heart by faith. Granted this is used in Revelation as regards Christians, but this opening, and not barging in etc. if way off and besides the point, as regards that passage.

I'm suspect you had a good idea in mind with this verse, but I wouldn't go down this road. Not with the old adam's synergism so rampant, especially in connection with that particular painting by William Holden Hunt.

dean.kavouras@gmail.com

William Weedon said...

Dear Pastor Kavouras,

Regarding the non-Christian, but of coursre. But regarding the believers, I couldn't disagree more. Our Lord's knocking upon the door is precisely an image that remains vital for the Christian. He Himself employs it.

He was speaking to Christians in Revelation 3, no? And we note the explicit Eucharistic overtones of that passage.

It's picked up in LSB #620: "Jesus comes today with healing, knocking at the door, appealing, off'ring pardon, grace and peace."

Or again #341 "Fling wide the portals of your heart, make it a temple set apart."

Or again #361 "O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today."

Just because our Lord dwells in our hearts by faith, does not mean that He would not dwell more in us. He gives us the lot and then He gives us more: there is no limit to His coming to us. So when we pray: "Come, Lord Jesus!" we not only ask for the parousia, we ask for His continued gracious coming to us. We invite Him in each and every day - or we should.

He knocks at your door as He knocks at mine, but force is not His way in the time of grace. As our dear Dr. Nagel taught: "For a gift to be a gift, it must be rejectable." And so the gift that He is begs constant entrance to our lives, our homes, our hearts.

Wishing you every good thing in Jesus!

chaplain7904 said...

Brother, you write: He knocks at your door as He knocks at mine, but force is not His way in the time of grace. As our dear Dr. Nagel taught: "For a gift to be a gift, it must be rejectable." And so the gift that He is begs constant entrance to our lives, our homes, our hearts.

Reply: Dr. Nagel was using a bit of human wisdom here to try to explain the inexplicable, viz., that the Holy Spirit makes unwilling hearts willing. In any event here you're talking about conversion so Dr. Nagel's comments won't do. Faith is a gift we do *nothing but* reject until it is installed in us via God's doing. Don't try to fathom this because we can't do it. All we know is that God does it all, and we become the blessed receivers of His work.

As far as your hymn references go, they're very nice and might even be properly understood. But they're not very good proof texts. There's also a strong pietistic element in many of the hymns in our hymnals, especially as translated by Catherine Winkworth (such as Lift Up Your Heads).

But considering the current theological landscape this is a subject which will only be mis-understood.

What is the meaning of Rev. 3:20? It's a call to believers who've gone very far astray! to repent before they are spewed out of the Lord's mouth. Yes there is a promise attached to be sure, but also an implicit warning and demand. I don't get fuzzy or sentimental when I read this verse. On balance it frightens me much more than it comforts me.

Nor does this verse say or imply that Jesus is knocking on the door to anyone's *heart.* This all eminates from Baptist theology and the painting.

William Weedon said...

I suspect we'll have to agree to disagree on this, Pr. Kavouras, because while it is truly terrifying that the Lord threatens to spit the believers out of his mouth if they do not repent, they repent precisely by opening the door so that He can enter in, and bring His saving Supper to them. And that is not terror, but joy overflowing. Or better, as the Gospel reading I was preaching on, when you open the door, He enters to be Your servant, to make you recline at table as He serves you up the dish He has prepared!