Reformation Sunday October 27, 2019
Reformation Sunday
Revelation 14:6-7 & the Te Deum
October 27, 2019
“Live BIG”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The moon is a big, beautiful thing, right? Right now we’re at a new moon but two weeks from now it will be again full and big and bright and glorious. The second brightest in the sky. And yet what would the moon be if there wasn’t the sun? We only see the moon because it reflects the light of the sun. What if the moon said, “Look at how big and majestic I am, I don’t need that arrogant sun anymore.” Then the moon would be nothing. It would be a dull gray mass that you and I wouldn’t see or care about. The moon would become small and meaningless without the sun.
So our lives are without God, the eternal Sun and Light. We can live BIG in the name and presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Creator of the heavens and earth, reflecting His light and grace and mercy and life. Living in the company of the whole church in heaven and earth. Or we can live small without Him—in a dull, gray, small world with no meaning and no hope.
On this Reformation Sunday, we’ll consider what it is to live BIG and not small. We’ll look at three things—first of all, the big hymn known as the Te Deum, then second the big Gospel of Revelation 14 that is proclaimed over the whole world, and finally also the big life of Martin Luther when He found his way back into the glory of God.
Would you say that hymn we just sang is a BIG hymn? That hymn is the Te Deum (Latin for “You, God”). It’s a modern setting of it but it’s the same Te Deum that goes back 1600 years to the 4th century. It is, by its very nature, a BIG hymn. Of course we played it big. I asked Dr. Fredstrom, our organist, if we could make that hymn bigger. But the real size and mass of it is in the words. So I’m going to ask you to look at those words. Now many of you, like me, know the Te Deum very well because you grew up singing it in the service of Matins from the hymnal. My home church sang it out of the old red hymnal once a month. So if you want to remember that, you can turn to page 223 in the hymnal and you’ll find the version of the Te Deum there that you’re familiar with. Page 223. I believe many of you will recognize it from the days of Pastor Lakamp or Pastor Matzke. Matins is the morning service for every day of the week.
So you can do that and look at the words. Or you can flip over the sermon insert and there I put together a little visual of the Te Deum. So the Te Deum starts BIG from the very beginning. Why? Because it starts with God. “You, God.” “We praise you, O God; we acknowledge You to be the Lord. All the earth now worships You, the Father everlasting.” We’re singing BIG, right? All the earth. But it gets bigger because we start to see just how many people and spirits are joining with us in this BIG hymn of praise.
First the angels. “To You all angels cry aloud.” The cherubim angels and the seraphim angels. All of them are crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory.” Then the glorious company of the apostles joins in. Then the goodly fellowship of the prophets joins in. Then the noble army of martyrs (those who died for Jesus). They praise You, God. Then the holy Church throughout all the world. What, just us small 100 here this morning? Oh, no. The whole Church all over this big globe. And the holy Church acknowledge God and says, “You, God—The Father of an infinite majesty; Your adorable, true, and only Son, also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.”
But now we zero in on Jesus Christ, the 2nd Person of the Trinity. All this “BIGNESS” of heaven comes down now to earth in the least likely of all places—in the womb of the virgin Mary. Our BIG God took upon Himself to deliver man. He humbled Himself to be born of a virgin and He overcame the sharpness of death for us to open the BIG kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Now our Savior Jesus sits BIG at the right hand of God and rules over all things for us. We live in His name and in His presence and we pray Him to help us.
Now all of this is just a hymn, you could say. But the hymn is describing the actual reality. This is all true. You right now are not living alone in a small world and small life. You are surrounded by this massive God and everyone who is with Him. Te Deum. “You, God!”” Not me. No, I’m nothing without You. You, God! Father of an infinite majesty. Son who became man for me. Spirit who lives within me. All the angels are with You. Cherubim. Seraphim. All the prophets from the Old Testament sing with you. All the twelve apostles plus St. Paul all sing with you. All the martyrs who died for the faith sing with you. All Christians throughout the world sing with you. This is a BIG life you live. You are not alone.
Now I’ll give you a second picture of this BIG life that is ours in God. In the Epistle today from Revelation 14 it says, “Then I saw another angel flying directly overheard, with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
I was planning to preach on those verses today and then a little over a week ago Bonnie Krug brings me her family Bible for me to take a look at. It’s BIG (to go with my theme today). And here in this BIG Bible I open up to the introductory pages and find this big, beautiful picture of Revelation 14:6-7. Here is this beautiful angel flying overheard carrying the eternal Gospel for us. “Worship Him who made heaven and earth!”
So now I’ll turn to Martin Luther to explain this a bit. At one of Luther’s funeral services this text was used and it was said that Martin Luther was an angel (a messenger) whom God used to proclaim this eternal Gospel in all the world. But we can’t start at the end of Luther’s life. We have to start earlier. When his life was small.
When Martin Luther became an Augustinian monk, his life was small and his God was small. He didn’t know a big, gracious, merciful, loving God who sent His Son for the whole world. He knew an angry god. A small god. He didn’t know the true God. He knew a small god who said, “If you don’t do this, this, and this then I’ll send you to hell.” He knew a small god who needed our good works to make him happy.
As a result, Martin Luther’s life was small. He didn’t care about anyone except himself. He was obsessed with trying to perfect himself to make his god happy. He didn’t enjoy life or beauty or mercy or grace. His life was actually miserable. But I’ll let you tell him about himself in his own words when he describes the moment he truly came to understand God and the Gospel:
Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God…
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. I also found in other terms an analogy, as, the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God, with which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.”
(LW 34:336-337)
Life without God and His grace is small. Today in America we have swallowed hook, line, and sinker the ideology of individualism. Everything is about me, myself, and I. Of course, this is always what the devil wants. He wants us to live small. He wants us to be selfish, full of pride, glorying in ourselves. He doesn’t want us to see the light of the Sun and reflect God’s grace and mercy. He wants us to live small.
How much of your time is spent on yourself? Worrying about yourself? Shopping for yourself? Telling others about yourself? Entertaining yourself? Pleasuring yourself with food and drink? Beautifying yourself? Thinking about yourself? What a small life we live! This is what sin does. It curves us in ourselves into our own little, small world and life. Lord, have mercy on us.
What’s the answer? Te Deum! “You, God!” Not me. You, God! Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Your glory.” Martin Luther learned of a BIG God and a BIG life. He learned of a BIG Gospel. And look how BIG Luther lived. That’s not a coincidence. That what happens when you live BIG in God and when you know His glory.
Finally, let me end by putting your life in the BIG picture. Are you a small nothing with no meaning and no great purpose in life? No, you are a creation of God the Father of infinite majesty. God fashioned and designed you in your mother’s womb and has called you by name. You aren’t small. You are God’s!
And for you God Himself came down from heaven to be born of the Virgin Mary and to suffer and die for your sins. Are you small? You are more precious to God than all the earth.
And are you alone? No, God has given you His Holy Spirit and you are united with the whole Church of every time and place. With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. With prophet, apostles, martyrs.
And all of your life is now lived as a BIG Te Deum. All for “You, God!” You don’t live for yourself. No, that’s small. You live for God and you live for your neighbor. That’s BIG.
Live BIG, friends. Acknowledge HIM to be the Lord. You, God! Not me.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.