Video of Vespers is here. The sermon begins around the 18:05 mark.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lent reminds us that we are all strangers and exiles on this earth. We are in much the same position as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). In what was their faith? To what were they looking? Abel sought to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God. Enoch did not see death, and He was pleasing to God, which one can only be through faith. Noah became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Abraham went out toward the land of promise. Sarah reckoned God, who had promised her a son, faithful. Out of dead bodies comes life according to the promise. Beyond human reason, God does what He says He will do.

These all died in faith. They only saw the promises from afar, that is, they only saw them by faith. And, the letter to the Hebrews says, because they were looking to the fulfillment of those promises, as long as the promises are still in the future, that means that they are strangers and exiles now. They did not have a lasting city in the various places they lived, because they were seeking the city that is to come. God brought Israel out of Egypt and they wandered in the wilderness. God brought them to the land He had promised to give to their ancestors, but they didn’t believe the promise, so the first voters’ assembly voted however-many-to-two not to go into the land. So they wandered longer. But that didn’t mean God hadn’t kept His promise. After 40 years, He brought them again to the land. But even once they were in the land, they didn’t have absolute peace. They were still troubled by enemies, by idols, by their own sin, and by their lack of faith. Even in the land they were still strangers and exiles.

Psalm 107 is the prayer of the people of God, who constantly find themselves in need of the deliverance of the Lord, even once they’ve been delivered. Delivered from Egypt, they need deliverance from other enemies, from other slaveries. Delivered into the temporary land, they still need deliverance into the eternal land. Four examples of people in trouble, four cries for deliverance, and four refrains of praise: some wandered; some sat in darkness and the death-shadow; some were sinful and foolish; some faced the danger of storms on the sea. We are no different. “All we like sheep have wandered; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). “There is a way that seems right and straightforward to a man, but its end result are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). All our ways come from the crookedness of our hearts. But for wandering sheep, the Lamb of God has appeared, and “Yahweh has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). All “cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress” (107:6, 13, 19, 28). “He led them by a straight way till they reached a city in which to dwell” (107:7). And then, thanksgiving: “Let them thank Yahweh for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man” (107:8, 15, 21, 31).

Even so, still they waited. Still God repeated the promise for them to believe. But now, the promise to which Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah all were looking has indeed come. The son of the promise, by whom all nations would be children of Abraham by faith, has appeared in the flesh. He is holy and acceptable to the Father, the pure and pleasing sacrifice. This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Unlike Enoch, He did die, though He had no sin of His own; but He was raised from the dead. From a dead body comes life according to the promise. Then He was taken up to the Father. Mystery of mysteries, our human flesh has been glorified at the right hand of God, because Jesus is the one mediator, rejoining us and all people with God by His faithful righteousness.

We have not seen this glorious fulfillment and completion of the promise. In that way, we, like the believers of old, still walk by faith and not by sight. We are still in the wilderness of this world, still fighting off the temptations to idolatry. We are still struggling against our own grumbling and complaining, still often valuing what we can see over what we have heard from the mouth of God. This is the proof that we are not yet to the eternal land of promise, in which only righteousness dwells. We wander in the wilderness, on a waste and desert way, and we find no city here in which to dwell, in which to remain, in which to live. Like Abraham, who lived in tents in the wilderness, because “he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). And “people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:14-16).

Just as God led Israel through the wilderness to the land, the fulfillment of the promised inheritance, so He still does, as He leads us by Jesus, who is the Way. He makes “a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). And the end result of His way is life. He leads us until we reach the New Jerusalem, a city in which we will dwell forever with God. The day is coming when the wilderness will be returned to a Garden, and waters and streams will break forth, the burning sand become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water. “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not wander… And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:5-8, 10). Let the redeemed of Yahweh say so! “Give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever” (107:1). He has redeemed us from the hand of the foe; He has answered our prayer and will continue to do so: “let Thy holy angel be with [us], that the wicked foe may have no power over [us].” He satisfies the hungry and thirsty, the fainting one, and He fills us with His eternal and living good things. “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of Yahweh” (107:43)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen

— Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 3/13/24