The Lord is Near

Isaiah 55: 6-9

Pentecost 17 (Proper 20)

Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen.  The sermon text for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost is the Old Testament reading Isaiah 55.  There are only two religions in the world.  There is the religion of the law and the religion of the Gospel. Christianity is the religion of the Gospel.  All the other religions of the world would be included in the religion of the law.  It is true that there are hundreds of religions outside of Christianity and it is also true that they have some differences. But at their core they teach the same thing.  At their core all the other religions of the world teach that human beings are able to reach God and make themselves right with God based upon their own actions and works.  The religions of the world teach that human beings can climb the latter to reach God by doing certain things.  Hinduism teaches that there are four paths to God. It teaches that you can reach God through love, work, knowledge, or meditation.  In Islam one would have to follow the Five Pillars which includes a set time for prayer, fasting, tithing, pilgrimage, and confessing that Muhammad is the prophet of God.  According to Islam if you do these things, you are properly summitting to God. Islam also rejects that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died and rose from the dead.  Buddhism does not specifically speak about God, but it does speak about obtaining an enlightened life. In order to achieve this enlightened life you would have to know the four noble truths and follow the eight point plan. The Latter-day Saints teach that you can become your own god in the next life based upon what you do in this one. Judaism rejects Jesus as the Christ and teaches that you can be right with God by obedience to the law and by following tradition. 

We could go on but you get the point.  All the other religions of the world teach that you can reach God based upon your own merit and actions.  All the other religions of the world are wrong.  There is no way that sinful people can even know God on their own much less reach Him based upon their own merit or actions.  There is no way sinful people can climb the latter to reach God or do anything that would make them right with God.  There is no salvation in the religion of the law.

There are two religions.  There is the religion of the law and the religion of the Gospel.  Christianity is the religion of the Gospel.  Christianity is the only true faith.  What is revealed to us in God’s Word is very different then what we see in all the other religions.  What is revealed is that God is the one who has to come to us in order to rescue us from sin and death.  It is the Lord who reveals Himself to us and it is the Lord who brings about our eternal salvation by His grace.  It is true that the Law of God is proclaimed to us.  The Law reveals that we are sinners and that we need a Savior. The Law also guides us on how to live but the Law does not save us.  We cannot save ourselves from sin and death by our own merit or works nor can we make ourselves right with God based upon the Law. Salvation comes to us by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  It is God who has to come to us, and He does so in order to be merciful and gracious to us. He comes to pardon us and have compassion upon us.

That is what we see in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah.  What is revealed is that the all-powerful, all-knowing God is the one who comes very near to us.  Try to imagine what it would be like to fly in a spacecraft.  You would launch above the earth within minutes. Soon you would be out of the atmosphere and then out of this world.  As the spacecraft kept going the Earth would get smaller.  Eventually you would see other planets, like Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune.  Eventually you would be out of the solar system. You would be able to see the vastness of the universe.  This perspective from the spaceship is only a glimpse of the Lord’s perspective as He looks upon His creation.  The universe itself is a tiny speck in comparison to God.  The Lord looks down on His creation and upon the earth and He sees us and He comes near. 

Remember the words of Isaiah.  “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.”  Of course we could never seek the Lord or call upon His name unless He reveled Himself to us first.  We would never look to the Lord unless He had called us.  We would never want to seek Him unless He was gracious to us. The explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism says it well.  “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” 

Isaiah says that we can call upon the Lord because He is near.  How is the Lord near?  He is near through Christ Jesus.  The Son of God left heaven and came to the earth to become a human being. God came to dwell among us in the flesh. You can not get any nearer to God then that.  And how do we seek Him?  It is looking to the Word and to the Sacraments.  Jesus does come to us in a very special way in Word and Sacrament.  And why does Jesus come to us.  Isaiah gives us the answer.  “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” 

The Lord Jesus came to call sinners to repentance.  The Lord came to forgive our sins.  Jesus walked the earth and reveled that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.  He went to the cross to atone for our sins, and He rose from the dead giving us the assurance that He has defeated death for us.  Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we have received God’s grace.  We have received God’s compassion.  We have received God’s abundant pardon.  The Lord came to us in Baptism giving us what He won for us on the cross.  He comes to us in His Word and absolves our sins. The Lord Jesus comes to us in His Supper where He gives to us His body and blood.  We seek the Lord and call upon Him when we look to Jesus and trust in Him.  Our Lord comes to us in His Word to keep us steadfast in the faith until He visibly returns to bring us into the full presence of God for all eternity.  We once again go back to the explanation of the third article of the creed.  “In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.  In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believes.  On the Last Day he will raise me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.  This is most certainly true.”  

Due to our sinful nature we always have the thought that we contribute in some way to our salvation.  This thought does not come from the Lord.  We go back to Isaiah.  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  As it turns out our salvation comes to us by God’s grace alone. 

How are we to respond?  By giving thanks to God, by honoring His Name, and by loving our neighbor.  We do these things not to be saved but because we are already saved by God.  We respond by marveling at all the Lord has done for us.  It is the Lord who has come near to us to give to us His grace. Amen.