"CHILDREN’S STRENGTH"
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
October 16, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Out of the mouth of babies and infants You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
Psalm 8:2 (ESV)
Even as we rejoice in the steady march of human progress, some of us try our best to hold onto those things that don't change--or at least shouldn't. As we get older, it can be a frightening thing to look around at our world and come to the realization that it's not the same world that we have known throughout our lives. I suppose adjusting to new things is difficult enough, but what I find to be the most difficult thing to adjust to is the passing away of what is familiar and comforting to me. Call it a security blanket if you wish, but when the people and things that I have always counted on over the past sixty-two years suddenly aren't there for me anymore, it can be downright scary. And I can only assume that the larger that number of years becomes, the greater my angst will be at living in this constantly changing world.
As Christians we need to be mindful not so much of the constant change that surrounds us but rather the changelessness of our God. We take comfort in the fact that even in this world where everything is constantly changing and where it seems that nothing lasts forever, there is still one thing that we can count on, and that one thing is the mercy and grace of our eternal God. The One who came into human history in the Person of His Son has thereby transformed human history for the benefit of humans. This is the change that really matters. Because of the life and ministry of the Son of God, the passing of time means more to us than just the approach of our death; it means also the approach of the fulfillment and consummation of all things--the completion of the blessings of salvation that we have been given in our Savior Jesus Christ. As we gather this morning in the presence of our changeless God of grace we meditate on the psalmist’s words before us, paying particular attention to the “babies and infants” through whom strength is established and “the enemy and the avenger” who are stilled.
Who are the “babies and infants” through whose lips the Lord has “established strength”? They are, first and foremost, the baptized--the children of God in Jesus Christ--those who have been “born [again] of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). They have been changed--made new--as new as babies--not because of anything that they have done or said or willed but solely through the operation of the Holy Spirit, working through the means of grace. These “babies and infants” are the people the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17, 18). That’s us that he’s writing about! We are the passive recipients of the redeeming grace of God in Jesus Christ. And because of that redeeming grace we are reconciled to God, our Creator and Judge.
When babies are born, they immediately begin to show the signs of life. Whether they understand their bodily functions or not (and they obviously do not), they nevertheless make use of those functions almost automatically to ensure their survival and growth. The more that they grow and mature, the more that they begin to appreciate the life that they have received through no effort of their own. It’s really no different with the children of God. While we do not become children of God because of anything that we do, because we are children of God there are all kinds of things that we do and through which we bear witness to the glory and strength of the One who has given us life. The New Life that we have received in Baptism is to be lived to the fullest--every day of our lives. Because the grace that we have received is ongoing, it is new for us every day, providing us each day with new opportunities and new strength to live the New Life that is ours in Christ.
Now what about “the enemy and the avenger” who is stilled by the God-ordained strength of His reborn children? Just who is this enemy? He is, of course, the one described in the book of Revelation as having been expelled from heaven and being bent on taking along with him whoever he can. We read in John’s account of his vision: “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Revelation 12:9). Have you ever given any thought to what the name Satan means? It means “accuser”--an appropriate name indeed for our enemy, since he seeks to destroy our faith by accusing us of our sin, not as the Holy Spirit does (to bring us to repentance) but in order to lead us into despair by making us believe that God never could or would forgive such wretched sinners as us. Satan’s accusations are stilled when the Spirit who lives within the children of God moves them to acknowledge God’s grace in Christ, to turn to Him in repentance, to ask forgiveness in His name, and to praise Him for it in word and deed.
Satan’s greatest tool in this constant onslaught is within us--specifically our conscience. Conscience in itself is not a bad thing. It is, after all, something that God has created. But, like everything that God has created, the human conscience can be abused. It is one thing to be convicted by our conscience and be moved to turn to the cross of our Savior, pleading with Him in tears for forgiveness. But it is quite another to dwell on everything that is wrong with us and with the world as if there were no hope. The story is told that when Martin Luther was in the midst of one of his infamous bouts with melancholy, his beloved wife Katie appeared one morning dressed completely in black. When the reformer asked her who had died, she supposedly responded: “God must have died, judging from the mood that you've been in lately!” This is said to have startled Luther out of his despair. We certainly should feel guilty as a result of our sin (because we are guilty), but we need never doubt the Lord’s ability or willingness to forgive.
The “strength” of “babies and infants” that God has “established to still the enemy and the avenger” is the faith of His people--faith that is rooted in His incarnate Son Jesus Christ--faith created and nurtured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace. This faith stills the ongoing attacks of Satan, the ancient accuser of God’s people, because the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection is infinitely stronger than the power of our sin. As we live our lives in a changing and decaying world we are nevertheless confident of God’s grace in Christ, giving thanks for the gift of faith, which draws us not to our own merits or thoughts or feelings, but to the cross of Jesus alone, where we find the confidence to pray-
"Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou that changest not, abide with me."
(Lutheran Service Book #878, stanza 4).
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.