The LORD is King, He dresses Himself with majesty; the LORD clothes Himself with strength, He prepares Himself for war; the world is established and it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from the beginning because You are eternal.
LORD, the floods have lifted up, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods have lifted up their waves.
The waves in the ocean are mighty and roar mightily, but the LORD on high is even mightier.
Your testimonies are trustworthy. Holiness is the ornament of Your house, O LORD, forever. [Psalm 93]
Beloved fathers and mothers, and beloved brothers and sisters in the LORD!
I bring you glad tidings of great joy from God the Father & our LORD, Jesus Christ! Amen.
The 93rd psalm is a prophecy about the kingdom of Christ, that it is as wide as the world and remains forever. In fact, everything that is created is created for the sake of Christ’s kingdom, for the sake of His people who are His Church. This is also why the Church is not about the business of accumulating earthly power, piling up wealth and enjoying the praise of big shots. The Church is about the Gospel. The Church’s only earthly task is preaching the Gospel: announcing the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name, who takes away death and gives eternal life in its place.
The work God performs in caring for you, protecting and preserving you is indescribably wonderful, and we should always praise Him for it. But the Church is even more wonderful. It is an even more praiseworthy work. It is God’s masterpiece. Why? First, because everything that was, and is, and will be created is created for the sake of the Church. The world owes its existence to the Church. If God had decided not to call a people – to build a Church for Himself – on earth, the world would have been shattered like a worthless clay pot immediately after Adam and Eve turned away from God and ate the fruit. If God had not built His Church on earth there would be no seed time or harvest, cold or heat, summer or winter, day or night, or anything else. True, these things are created by God for our convenience and enjoyment. However, more important, they are made to open the way for the Gospel.
The world only exists because of the Church, and so too do the things that go on in the world happen only for the sake of the Church. All events, great and small, carry the same importance for the Church. Great empires that rise and fall, rise and fall for the sake of the Church. The changing boundaries of nations, countries and peoples change for the sake of the Church. The movement of people from one place to another takes place for the sake of the Church. Wars and bloodshed, famine and disease, are sent by God for the sake of the Church, all so that some might repent and be saved from judgment and eternal death.
Brothers and sisters, if you fully understand that everything that happens in the world happens for the same reason; that everything that happens occurs because God is building His kingdom through the Church, you will understand the importance of His gathering you here again this morning. You are his people, the members of His body. You are citizens of the kingdom of Christ. You are His Church and what happens in His Church Sunday after Sunday, week after week, year after year is of the highest importance for the world, even though the world is blind to it, even denying that it happens at all!
Let us then continuously pray that the Holy Spirit stay with us, lead and guide us, so that by God grace you may be found to be worthy of entering His kingdom and carrying out the great task He has set before you.
Second, the Church is the masterpiece of God because great miracles happen in it every day. Great miracles which the world has never understood like forgiving sins, taking away death, and giving eternal life. Who among you would deny that taking away death and exchanging it for eternal life isn’t a miracle! Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand with five loaves [Matthew 14:21], Jesus’ giving sight to the blind [Matthew 9:27-31], Jesus’ enabling the lame to walk [Matthew 11:5], and raising the dead [John 11:43-44] are great miracles. However, these are small things in comparison with the great miracle that takes place in the Church; relieving a lost and condemned creature of his burden of sin and making him a blessed child of God!
In these evil days you have been blessed by God’s goodness in Jesus Christ with the work of giving away eternal life to dead, darkened hearts! This is what the Savior points to when He says, “I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and he will do greater works than these” [John 14:12].
So, even though, as the psalmist said, “…the floods have lifted up their waves.” Even though death roars mightily at you every day you have nothing to fear. You have this comfort which the world does not have, that God’s, “…testimonies are trustworthy,” and, “…holiness is the ornament of [His] house…forever.”
Holiness is the ornament of His house, but Christ’s kingdom is not decorated with things the world considers beautiful like political power, military authority, material wealth, high ratings, silicon body parts and so on. The Church is dressed up and decorated with Godly ornaments: God’s Word, Baptism, Holy Communion, Confession and Absolution, Gospel preachers, Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving to God, sufferings and crosses. These are the ornaments which Christ uses to decorate His Church.
This is God’s doing and it is wonderful in our eyes [Psalm 118:23]. This is His great comfort for you, that He has ordered all things for your benefit, that you are His masterpiece, that in baptism He has taken away your death and given you His undying life [Romans 6:5], which covers you, keeps you in Christ’s kingdom, in His peace both now and forever. Amen.
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