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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text for this evening comes from the Old Testament reading, the prophet Isaiah. You remember from high school, in the concept or the subject of physics, the measurement of change is always defined by time. Miles per hour and so forth. When a baby is born, you talk about it being days old, weeks old, months old, and then finally you only celebrate years old. It is the same with ourselves, our children and our grandchildren, and even our great-grandchildren. And in the Western world, ever since the coming of our Lord Jesus and the Roman Empire’s embracement of Christianity, the years are called years. In the year of our Lord, or Anno Domini, A.D. It doesn’t mean after death, it means Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. And so we’re about to measure change from 2016 A.D. to 2017 A.D. And each year, as this amazing miracle happens, you and I think in terms of New Year’s resolutions. We resolve to change something about our life for the better. Typically, it’s about our health, eating or not eating, eating healthily or prolonging what we’re eating, or maybe it’s exercise or something along those lines. But the other one is trying to clean up our personality, that we won’t be as anxious as we were last year, or we won’t be as grumbling as we were last year. But all of those things are all focused on individual actions and individual things. True change can only begin if it begins in your heart. And your and my heart can only be changed by God. And here’s the rub. What we perceive as needing to change is never as complete as what God sees. What we see is never as a complete thing as what God sees. We compartmentalize into habits and idiosyncrasies and traits even, but God desires total renewal. We desire a change of a habit, of this or that, but God desires the death of ourself. That’s pretty radical stuff, if you ask me. The death of our self, because that’s the issue, is self. We think piecemeal, and God is always thinking in totality. He’s always thinking about our entire heart, not just outward behavior or outward action. In the Old Testament reading, that was Israel’s issue. You see, they had seen their immediate problem being protection. So they… Listened and talked to Egypt to bring their protection. Didn’t want anything to do with God. In fact, they told their preachers, quit preaching to us about God. Preach to us things that we like. Sounds like Paul’s letter to Timothy. Itching ears, desiring to hear what they want to hear. Gathering people around them. Signs of the end times. Sounds like the end times have been happening a long time, have they not? And though Isaiah, and through him, and the prophets, proclaimed the need to die to self and live as God’s children or as God’s people, they didn’t want to hear it. Now, see, you and I are bound by time, just like the Israelites, and you and I see immediate issues. Doctor tells you you have a heart situation and you need to change your diet. Wow, boy, do we do that quickly. Doctor tells you you need to exercise. We jump right on it, most of the time. Hmm. Yet we’re also keenly aware of the eternal, are we not? For we are very aware that we will someday stand before our God in all of His holiness and righteousness. And it is this bigger picture that God is trying to get us to see as He tried to get the people of Israel to see in their situation as Isaiah preached to them. Because only in Christ is the eternal dealt with. See, we deal with individual actions in a span of time. It never fixes anything because our problem isn’t an individual thing or a span of time. Our problem is we don’t live eternally. And there is a beginning and an end to our life, whether that be measured in the change of moments, seconds, days, or months, or decades and scores of years. We still have a beginning and an end. This is interesting because in our minds, we think it’s all about behavior modification. Just change our behavior and we’ve got a brand new person. You change your behavior, but God doesn’t change your heart. It solves nothing. Nothing whatsoever. From God’s perspective, it is only through His work of repentance on your heart and His work of forgiveness in your heart. Those are His works, not yours. Those are His. Those are His. He crushes you and He raises you. He pummels you and He bolsters you. He law and puts it upon you and He gospels you. It’s God’s work, not yours. All of our resolves, all of our changes, it’s all centered on us with ourself rather than God with ourself. There is an interesting verse of intrigue in this evening’s reading. It goes like this. It’s also of great comfort. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest you shall be saved, and in quietness and trust shall be your strength. Said in a more modern manner, If you will sit down and be quiet, you will be saved. You will conquer by your sitting and waiting upon the Lord and not by your doing. For those of us growing up in the church, that just doesn’t set well because we admire and we praise the hard workers and the busybodies. We love it when we get noticed for all of our hard work and effort. So what is the text meaning when it talks about this quietness and this sitting still and this waiting that you and I will be saved? It’s not as if God is saying, do nothing, just sit back and relax and I’ll save you. Jesus said it better in this evening’s Gospel reading when He said, Stand dressed and ready for action. Keep your lamps burning. And the only way you can keep your lamps burning is with the oil of God’s Word and God’s means of grace. And be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to Him at once when He comes and knocks. Recently, three of our sisters in Christ have exemplified what this quietness and this sitting still and waiting is all about. Something we will all have to do at some point or another, and which God wishes us to do tonight and each time we gather to hear His Word. G.F., Thelma, and Christine showed that they were ready and waiting. Ask them what they’ve done for the kingdom lately. Nothing like what you’ve done. And yet, that was their strength, wasn’t it? The sitting still, the waiting, the trusting in God’s promises, the stand dressed and ready for action was their posture. It didn’t look like it as they lay there. Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when He comes. And though their eyes may have fallen asleep before they died, they were as much awake waiting for Him as you and I are here with our eyes fully awake and listening. And did you hear what Jesus said? He will dress Himself for service. He will have them recline at table. He will come and serve them. And He did when He took them home. They had the proper posture. Sometimes our posture isn’t so proper. Right? And so our God says, I will get you into practice for this posture. And I get you into practice for this posture of standing still, listening, taking in what I have done. Let my word work in you and change your heart by coming to the table that He’s prepared for you. The one that He stands dressed and waiting to serve you if you desire to be served. It puts us in the receiving mode and not the giving mode. It puts us in His strength, not in our own. And it for sure keeps our mouth and our mind as quiet as we can. Those are two places that we can’t keep quiet very well. This is interesting. In returning and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and trust shall be your strength. For the Israelites, they needed to wait upon God’s deliverance. They didn’t. They chose to fix their problems by seeking help elsewhere according to their mind. It is the same with you and me. We think we know what’s best, and so we seek alternatives to what God has promised. Because the waiting part is very difficult for you and for me. And yet, take the time in the Psalms, and you’ll see waiting as a part of the theme of all the Psalms. It doesn’t mean we sit still and do nothing. That is why Jesus said, stay dressed and ready for action. How? By keeping your lamps burning. And you keep your lamps burning by receiving the oil from Him who provides the oil, the light of His gospel, His good news and hope, His forgiveness that He works in your heart. That way when He knocks at the door, whether that is now or when we’re in our 80s or 90s, we will be ready. Not just when we think we have our life sewn up or when we think our life is as chaotic as it can be. He will promise to care for you. In returning and rest, you will be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. In the name of Jesus, Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
