[0:00] And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Words from this morning's holy gospel in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
[0:12] Amen. This morning's gospel recounts a day near the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, when he spoke of the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, which brought an end to all the Jews had been blessed with since their restoration from Babylon some 500 years plus earlier.
[0:36] As we look around the Western world today, including our own country, it is hard to not draw some parallels. The enemies of Christ and his church are gaining the high ground and have begun to encompass us.
[0:50] Incrementally, the things that have been made for the church's peace, our liberty to live and share the gospel, are being torn down.
[1:02] We are naive if we are expecting some sort of rapture to occur that will save us from the dangers we can almost certainly expect in the years, if not months, or even days to come.
[1:14] What Jesus said to the Jews in his day, he could say to us in ours. If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.
[1:36] My brothers and sisters, nothing should be hidden from our eyes. For over 2,000 years now, we have had the sacred scriptures rightly divided by the Catholic and Apostolic Church available to us.
[1:52] If we have been listening, then we are fully aware of the peace Jesus has offered us in our day and should have embraced it with holiness of life.
[2:03] But much of the church and Western society has not. And so what Jesus warned the Jews about in his day serves as a warning for us in ours.
[2:17] Here is one plain example. This past Monday, the Daily Lectionary had us reading from Romans chapter 1. In that chapter, St. Paul declares God's judgment upon persons, upon a church, or upon a society and culture that turns away from him.
[2:37] He writes, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
[2:49] Suppress the truth in unrighteousness. In other words, reject the truth for lies. What better describes much of Western society than many churches today?
[3:06] For the past 50 plus years, we have incrementally been told by political leaders, medical professionals, sociologists, professors, and even many clergy, that what is good is actually evil.
[3:21] And what is evil is actually good. Love is love, right? Today they tell us to trust the science when it comes to a virus.
[3:34] Truth is being held in unrighteousness.
[3:49] Because of this, we are witnessing the devolution of Western society and culture. The majority of American Christianity believes a biblicized form of antinomian, amoral, self-help psychology.
[4:04] Over the past year, we have seen a number of pastors publicly surrender to the woke mentality. Some have confessed guilt about their own birth.
[4:16] The former, the woke mentality, is a rejection of the gospel. The latter is a direct affront to God. God is the one who has determined from before the foundation of the world that you were to be born either a male or a female of whatever ethnic descent you are.
[4:38] To confess guilt over this is the slap God right in the face. Romans 9.20 states, Oh man, who are you to reply against God?
[4:52] Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Despite this clear truth from scripture, Knowing of these and many other sinful errors, How then can we not expect God to enact judgment upon the Western church and society?
[5:23] If God did not spare Sodom, if he did not spare Nineveh, If he did not spare even his very own covenant son Israel, How can we expect him to spare us?
[5:37] When we are doing exactly as they did. In truth, we are even worse, For we are doing it with the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior, And with the Holy Spirit fully available to us.
[5:54] Jesus has given us not merely days, but decades of peace. And as a church and a Western society, We have squandered it, And are now rejecting it.
[6:08] And now they are hidden from the eyes of many. And hearing the word of God this morning, We can do one of two things. We can give up, Hope there really is such thing as a rapture, And hide away from engaging the culture.
[6:23] Or, Or, We can do as Jesus has called us to do. We can focus on being faithful to the gospel ourselves, And on living the faith in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
[6:37] Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17 provides direction for those who desire to be faithful. St. Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
[6:51] For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
[7:04] As it is written, The just shall live by faith. The answer for the faithful is to live obediently to the teachings of Scripture.
[7:17] The answer for us is to enter ever more deeply into the sacramental life. These are the way. The just live by faith.
[7:33] Towards the end of the gospel lesson, Jesus shows us what we are to do. St. Luke chapter 19, verse 45 states, Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it.
[7:48] God gave Israel the opportunity to cleanse the temple themselves. They refused. So Jesus cleansed it for them twice during his earthly ministry. Both times, the Jews went back to perverting the temple.
[8:03] And so God pulled it down and destroyed it at the hands of the Romans on August 10, 70 A.D. You and I have this opportunity today with our own temple.
[8:18] We can live faithfully to Scripture and utilize the grace of the sacraments to cleanse ourselves, our temples. Or we can follow on the path of pride, materialism, irrational fear, and ultimately, rejection of God.
[8:34] St. James chapter 4, verses 8 through 10 exhorts, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
[8:48] Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
[9:03] These are strong words. Some would call them harsh. But only if we've lost sight of the holiness and the faithfulness God requires of us as his people.
[9:17] So much of the church's teaching over the past 50 plus years has watered down or dismissed the need for repentance and humility.
[9:30] To counter this, we need to honestly assess the condition of our own soul. If we don't, if we ignore it and give in to the lies of the world and the sin it engenders, we will receive the wrath that awaits in the life to come.
[9:52] My brothers and sisters, God is long-suffering, and he is merciful. Scripture states he is not willing that any would perish, but that all will come to the knowledge of the truth and to faith in Jesus Christ and be saved.
[10:11] But he does not force any of us to believe and live by faith. Nor will he just overlook those who reject him and the faith.
[10:24] The days of our peace are still in effect, but the signs of the times indicate they are waning. We can do little about society.
[10:35] We are past the time when a political solution could turn back the materialism and the immorality so many revel in. We can do only a little more with the church at large.
[10:48] Many churches have wholly swallowed the lies of the age. But we can absolutely use this time to cleanse our own temple.
[10:59] We can utilize the teachings of Scripture and the grace of the sacraments to cleanse our own souls and our own lives now, today, in these remaining days of our peace.
[11:14] As we do, we will be able to endure whatever may come with the assurance that what awaits us are everlasting days of peace in the kingdom of heaven.
[11:31] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.