The Joshua Victor Theory

  “To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” Today our church year begins anew with the season of Advent. We renew our annual cycle of watching and waiting for our Lord. Advent means “to come” and merges our waiting and anticipation for two different comings of the Lord. We remember, reenact, and celebrate Christmas, Christ’s first coming. We anticipate, prepare for, and watch for Christ’s second coming, His return to judge and redeem the world. Advent blends memory and anticipation. Since this is our Christian “New Year’s Day” in a sense, as the church calendar renews, we’re oddly out of step with the world, which doesn’t celebrate New Year’s for another month. The church can never be in complete alignment with the world, which is blind to God’s priorities, and often directly contradicts them. And almost as if to keep us a little off balance, the reading historically used for the 1 st Sunday o...

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Ever since the dawn of mankind, people have tried to push aside God’s rule in favor of our own rule. God’s rule in the Garden of Eden was perfect, harmonious, blessed and peaceful. But Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule in favor of self-rule or autonomy. The logic of sin is: “Better to make our own rules and ignore God’s command.” But the new rule that they ushered into the world was not friendly. Sin and death entered the world and became Adam and Eve’s new slave masters. The question of “Who will rule us?” echoes down through the Old Testament. When the Israelites were ruled by literal slave masters of Egypt, God rescued them. B ut they couldn’t bear the responsibility of freedom and grumbled to have their old easy life of slavery back—craving easy food more than freedom. When they were finally a free nation, they were ruled by Moses, Joshua, the Judges, and prophets like Samuel...

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Today’s parable of the Ten Virgins is a parable of readiness and faith. God has set a day known only to Him as a definitive, final cut-off date. Judgment Day, or the Day of Christ’s Second Coming, when He returns to judge the living and the dead. We confess every week in the Creed that “ He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead”. The final judgment. On that day, God will finally determine who are the just, who will join Him in eternal life, and who are the unjust, who will be sentenced to eternal punishment. The Parable of the Ten Virgins symbolizes this “final cut-off date” when the Bridegroom arrives for the wedding celebration. Upon His arrival, five wise virgins are ready, prepared, and waiting. Five foolish virgins are not. They’ve left just before His arrival, and it is too late to enter in when they return. Pleading at the door emphasizes the fi...

Grace to you and peace. Amen. Our readings from last week and this go right in order in 1 Thessalonians. Today Paul continues to explain Christ’s 2 nd coming, the “day of the Lord.” Last week he talked about the hope of the resurrection from the dead on the last day, and the circumstances of Jesus’ return. Today Paul describes the suddenness and surprise of Jesus’ return, and calls us to readiness. Paul warns us to be ready with an illustration of drunkenness vs. sobriety. “ So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” If you’re in the dark, asleep, or drunk, you can be caught off guard. You can’t be as watchful and ready. You’re not ready for a quick response. Your senses and self-control are dulled. With the holidays around an...

Grace to you and peace. Amen. As our preparation for Jesus’ coming is marked by repentance—symbolized by the color purple in Advent—it is also marked by joy. On this third Sunday of Advent, it’s traditional to light the pink candle, which reminds us of joy—just as today’s epistle reading from 1 Thessalonians begins with “Rejoice always!” Joy at the celebration of Christ’s birth; joy at Christ’s continual gifts and presence among us; and joy at the anticipation of Jesus’ return in glory. A major theme of the letter to the Thessalonians, and especially the last two chapters, is how we prepare for the second coming of Jesus. The reading ends with a blessing that we be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let’s reflect more deeply on how Paul calls us to prepare for Jesus’ coming. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Had you ever reflected on the thought that God’s will f...

“To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” Amen. Last week, this week, and next, we’re in Matthew chapter 25, a series of three parables that all focus on Jesus’ second coming, and our readiness. Last week we heard about the five wise and five foolish virgins, and how those who were wise were well supplied with God’s free gifts, and were ready for Jesus’ return. This week we have the parable of the ten talents; a lesson in stewardship and how we use God’s gifts until Jesus returns. Next week shows the final judgment and God’s sorting out of the sheep from the goats. Each lesson shows a different aspect of why some pass through the judgment of God into His blessing and glory, and others fall under the judgment and go to their eternal punishment. In the parable today, the master who leaves on a long journey, and entrusts his possessions to three servants—represents Jesus, who has gone to prepare...