WE HAVE A STRONG CITY

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson, Revelation 21 & 22, selected verses
Gospel Lesson, Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon Text, Isaiah 26, selected verses

At the church that my family was at, before I came here to Holy Cross (which was King of Grace Lutheran Church in Golden Valley, MN), we had a good family friend, a man by the name of Paul Madson. Paul Madson was the brother of Jon Madson, who was the pastor here in the late '80s - early '90s. His cousins, Dan Madson and Camilla Dashcund are teachers, here at our school. His mother-in-law, Ruby Hougen was the organist here at Holy Cross for many years.

Paul Madson was a pillar in the church. He was a man who had a strong faith in his savior and had wisdom way beyond his years. And, even after we left King of Grace, their family remained close friends of our family.

This past June, we heard that Paul, who was 51 years old, had decided to go on a biking trip from Minneapolis, MN to New Orleans with one of his college age sons. Near Dubuque, Iowa he had a bike accident and was in critical condition. He was in the hospital, there in Dubuque, Iowa, and was probably on his deathbed.

It was the night before the Evangelical Lutheran Synod Convention. Our family was preparing to head up to Mankato, MN to attend that convention, when our phone rang. It was Paul's brother. His brother asked me, "Pastor Bartels, were you going up to Mankato, tomorrow?"

And, I said, "Yes."

He then asked me, "Would you mind stopping by Dubuque, Iowa on your way to Mankato? We are probably going to take Paul off of his life support systems tomorrow. The whole family is going to be here…his dad and mom… his wife and children…his mother-in-law and

father-in-law. ..all of his brothers and sisters…the nieces and nephews. We are all going to be here. And, we would like you to come, because before we remove his life supports, we want to have a worship service."

So we got to Dubuque, Iowa that Sunday afternoon. And there, as that family contemplated removing life supports from Paul (not knowing what would happen, whether he would live or die), his mom and dad, his mother-in-law and father-in-law, his brothers and sisters, his nieces and nephews, his wife and his three children (about 50 people) gathered in the chapel of that hospital, and they worshipped.

They worshipped God.

What a faith moving experience! And, they wanted me to have a little sermon for them. Now, what do you preach, in an occasion like that? You can imagine what I preached to them. My basic message to them was this:

He is safe. No matter what happens. If he is taken off of the life supports and God chooses to keep him living - Paul is safe. He is in the hands of the savior. His sins are forgiven. Jesus will keep him protected no matter comes. And, if God chooses to take his life - Paul is safe. He is safe! He will be in the eternity of God’s Mansions, in Heaven, forever and ever! Protected and safe. And then I told the family,

YOU ARE SAFE."

No matter what happens, you have a savior who loves you and forgives you. He died for you and He promises to keep you safe.

Today is All Saints' Day. Today we think about all of God's Saints, living and departed. Those who are now safe in Heaven and those who are still on earth - those on earth believing in Jesus Christ, as their savior. All saints, living and departed. And then we think of the profound safety that God has provided to all of his saints, living and departed.

If you were to read Isaiah 26 in its entirety, you would notice that on the back of our bulletin we have only selected verses printed here. There are some verses that were not printed on the bulletin and left out. One of the verses that were left off of our bulletin is a very pertinent verse for the times that we have been going through. The verse says, "he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust." We are living that time. Safety is a real issue for us, and a real question on our minds, keeping us wondering. Everyone wonders about his or her safety.

But in the comforting text we have today, God reminds us in no uncertain terms that

We are safe!

In fact, may I be so bold as to say this...

Those Christians

who were inside the Twin Towers on September 11th,

when those planes went crashing into those towers,

when those towers collapsed on them,

those Christians were in the safest place

they could possibly ever be!

How come? Because they are citizens, not just of the earthly city New York (which, just like any city, can be a dangerous place), but, as our text says, they are citizens of a strong city. They are, and were, citizens of God's Church. And, they were in the safest place they could possibly be, on September 11th, even when those walls came tumbling down upon them, and their earthly life ended.

What does our scriptures say? "We have a strong city. God makes salvation its walls and ramparts."

You see, we live in a strong city, as Christians,

the City of God.

And, nothing,

nothing

can penetrate that city.

Nothing can destroy those walls.

Nothing can tear down those walls,

because that city is built upon

The Rock!

And that ROCK is our God.

And our God cannot and will not be shaken.

And, it says that those walls in that city are our salvation, and nothing,

no enemy,

no sin,

no trouble,

nothing in this world,

can ever defeat the salvation that our

powerful,

almighty savior,

with his mighty arm has won for us!

Nothing can undo the forgiveness of sins

that Christ has won for us!

Nothing can take away the safety

of our eternal home in Heaven,

which our savior has purchased for us!

And, so when those walls of the Twin Towers collapsed, those believers who were inside those walls were in the safest place possible. They were in a city whose walls cannot be shaken, a city whose walls are salvation.

And, now God has taken them, safely, to join all the hosts of Heaven, who laud and magnify His glorious name and sing praises to Him for all eternity. They are now with all the angels and archangels. They are in a city, where there will never, ever be any trouble, because the Lord is its king. Jesus, our mighty savior is its protector. And nothing, nothing evil can ever enter that city. Only the righteous ones of God, only those who trust in God, can enter that city. And the passport into that city is simply faith. God looks into the heart. God's eyes pierce through all things and can look into the heart. He permits into that city, only His believers, only those who trusted in Christ as their savior, only those who have been made righteous and declared righteous for Christ's sake. And, now they have been made perfect!

There is no evil.

There is no trouble.

There are no worries.

There is no sin.

There is nothing that can harm them.

They are safe.

And, so are all the loved ones, who have gone before us, who in this life, trusted in Christ as their savior. They have a strong city, whose walls are salvation and they are safe for all eternity.

But what about you and me? Do we have safety? Oh, that safety is ours! Just like that safety belongs to those who are in Heaven. What does our scripture say? It says, "Trust in the LORD forever, the LORD, the LORD is the Rock eternal...Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and your re-known are the desire of our hearts." We trust in Christ's name and in Christ's re-known.

We live in an earthly city. And oh, we may be protected by the United States Military. We may be protected by our government with the FBI, the CIA and Law Enforcement. Our trust, however, our ultimate trust, is not in those things, because those things are human things. And, they are fallible things. They can falter and fail.

But our trust is in the name and the re-known of the Lord. That means that our trust is in His reputation and Jesus has a reputation that cannot fail. Jesus is the one, who single handedly, with no help of us, or others, took upon himself the greatest of all enemies, the enemy that no person, no army, no government, no king, or authority could ever defeat! Jesus single handedly took upon himself those sins that could damn and condemn me for all eternity. My greatest enemy.

And, Jesus with his mighty, powerful arms, Christ the Victorious, took those sins to the cross. There, on that cross, he utterly, totally defeated and destroyed them, so that now he holds under his foot and steps on the neck of Satan! Satan can never accuse me again! He can never bring those sins against me again.

Because He rose from the grave, with power over my sin, your sins and the sins of all people, He is:

Christ the Victor over Hell!

Christ is the one who we put our trust in, during uncertain times, in times of danger, and in times when our safety is at stake. We put our trust in Christ the Victor.

Do you think he won't keep you safe? Do you think the one who is almighty,

who gave up His eternal, holy, spotless life

for you,

who loves you so dearly that He gave up his life

for you,

do you really think that he won't keep you safe?

He tells us that no one can snatch us out of his hands. He tells us to "call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you." That is a promise! The promise to deliver us! And Jesus will keep His people on this earth safe, his saints who are on this earth. He will deliver them in time of trouble. He is powerful enough to either take that trouble away, or if that trouble is not taken away, to keep us in His hands, keeping us strong in our faith, growing in that faith. He is strong enough to deliver us to the eternity of our safe home in Heaven.

He will deliver us. He will keep us safe. We have a strong city, whose walls are our salvation. And we pray to our savior that we remain citizens of that strong city.

You know there are those who may laugh at us, who may laugh at Christians. "You think that God is keeping you safe? You think that God is protecting you? You think that God is watching over you? God is not keeping you safe. You come into troubles, just like we do. You die, just like we do. You go to the grave, just like we do."

How do we answer that? How do we answer people like that? Our answer is this, as our text says, "But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead."

And we, as God's saints, living and departed, know that the day of vindication is coming. The day when God vindicates His people is coming. The day when God proves to this world, for all time and for all eternity, in total finality, is coming. The day when God proves that we were safe and he vindicates his people, is coming. And, He will prove that we were always safe. We were always protected. We were always kept in His loving hands.

This year as we lay to rest those departed sisters and brothers of ours, at their graves, these words were said, "We now commit this loved one’s body to its resting place; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body, by the power that enables him to subdue all things to himself. May God the Father, who created this body, may God the Son, who by his blood redeemed this body, and may God the

Holy Spirit, who through Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be His temple, keep these remains to the day of resurrection of all flesh."

The day is coming when Jesus will vindicate His church, His saints, and His believers. And with a mighty call, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God, the dead in Christ will get up out of the grave, as if throwing off their sheets from an evening's sleep. And they will get up out of that grave in joy! They will burst the bands asunder! They will stand up on their feet, with bodies glorified to be like Christ's body! They will get up out of that grave and will be called from the four corners of the earth! And, they will be gathered together in that great and mighty host of believers of God! And, we will be vindicated! The world will see that we were safe in this life. We were safe in the grave. And, we are safe!

We are safe for all eternity!

Until that time, the scripture says, "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. See the LORD is coming out of His dwelling, to punish the people of the earth, for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her and she will conceal her slain no longer." Until that time comes, it says, "Go my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you." And there our scripture says to go to that safe place and shut the doors behind you. There it is talking about the church, the church here on earth. That is the safe place where we need to go. That is where we hear about our savior. That is where God's Word is heard. That is where the Holy Spirit keeps us in our faith, until that day comes. And until that day comes, how urgent it is for you and I to reach out to this world and call into that safe place, those who are lost.

May we be busy about that task until that day that we are vindicated by our savior.

Amen.