Sermon Index
November 22, 2020
1 Corinthians 15:20-28
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Matthew 25:31-46
MT 25:31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. MT 25:34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
MT 25:37 "Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
MT 25:40 "The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' MT 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
MT 25:44 "They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
MT 25:45 "He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
MT 25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Our Gospel reading today is the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats about the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). The Judgment is for eternal punishment or eternal life. Eternal life is the theme of our Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians 15 where St. Paul talks about the Resurrection. Today let’s look at the Epistle reading. There are a couple of things here that we modern people do not understand and so I want to talk about them. It is not so that you can win in a game of Bible Trivia, but so that your faith might be stronger and your faith life might be more like what Jesus talks about in the Gospel reading.
“20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In the Old Testament, firstfruits were those first products of the season. A portion of the crop of vegetables, fruit, and grain must be given to God. It was a thank offering thanking God for the harvest. Leviticus 23:10,11 gives instructions concerning the barley harvest.
“When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. . . . 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”
Two things: 1 it was a “wave offering.” It was not burnt on the altar, it was lifted up and presented to God, and then lowered as God gave it to the priest or the worshipers to eat. 2 until the first small portion of the grain is presented to God, the rest may not be eaten or sold.
St. Paul said, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” What Paul means is that since Christ has first risen from the dead, then the rest of the people can rise from the dead in the same way. As Paul says, “23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” And so the resurrection of Christ is necessary so that we might rise. He has risen first, in order that we will too.
A second thing that we modern people do not understand is the relation between Adam and Christ. It is hard to understand because we do not understand sin and death. Paul said, “21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” It does not seem fair, but we cannot blame Adam and Eve, because we too would have eaten the apple. And we have eaten many of them. And so like Adam we die. It seems to be part of the human DNA that we are sinful, and so we must die. It is like we all have the same deadly virus of sin. In this way we are connected to Adam. But the Gospel is that Christ came to earth and reconnected us to himself. Being connected to Christ, we are connected to his death and resurrection. We die with him, we rise with him. Therefore we too shall rise. Christ died and rose to live eternally, and so we too shall die but also rise to live eternally.
“24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” God the Father sent Jesus and gave him a task to do: to defeat sin and death and to liberate the world. When that task is finally accomplished, the Son of God will return to his Father like a victor coming home.
Back to the sheaves and firstfruits. As we said, these were offered to God as an act of worship. The ceremony recognized that everything we have is a gift of God and so we thank and praise God. This week there are two holidays. November 23 is the Japanese Labor Thanksgiving Day, similar to the American Labor Day. It is a civil holiday to thank those who work. The American holiday that comes on the fourth Thursday of November was originally a religious harvest ceremony to give thanks to God. And so many families on this day do give a prayer of thanks before eating the feast. This year because of the New Corona Virus, all festive gatherings must be small, but our thanks to God must never be small.
We spoke about wave offerings. We lift something to God and then he returns it to us to use. We are thankful people. How are we going to use what God has given to us? Jesus gives us some suggestions in today’s Gospel reading: for example, to feed those who do not have enough food, to give a glass of clean water to the thirsty, to be friendly and helpful to strangers and even to strange people, in this time of pandemic we cannot visit the sick nor those in prison, but we can be careful about spreading the virus, and pray and work for justice and peace in our land and throughout the world.
We look forward to the Second Coming of Christ. We sinners have hope and confidence because of the words of St. Paul. “21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church