Grace Lutheran Church 13th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2005

The Rev. Evan Gaertner

13h Sunday after Pentecost "All Access Pass

August 14, 2005 Isaiah 56:1-2;6-8

Imagine if going to a concert of your favorite band and being able to go backstage and talking with band. When I worked catering during college, I was a back stage a couple of times for concerts that were held at the college arena. The catering table would be set up before the band would enter the VIP room. Later only the more experienced workers were asked to go into the room and check on the levels of supplies at the food table. So I never got to ask Bob Dylan about how to tune a guitar or about what it was like to make the transition from growing up in Northern Minnesota to becoming a global icon of a generation. But consider if you had access to someone famous, what would that access get you, what would you do with that access?

The best doctors seem to be behind layers of referrals and hospital networks. The TV show "House" follows an elite team of doctors that work on the most difficult cases at a fictional hospital in Princeton, New Jersey. But I find it interesting that in this TV show Dr. House not only deals with the most complex and difficult cases he also randomly is assigned the walk-ins at the everyday clinic. I would love to be able to have access to the best sports doctor in the area whenever I sprained my ankle. With that access I would get presumably the best advice and I would listen to him more seriously then when growing up and my brother would ask if I could still walk or should he get the hacksaw to cut off my foot.

How close do you feel you can get to your favorite famous musician, your politicians, or the best doctors? How close can you get to the one true God who created heaven and earth, you and me, and all things? How close can you get to the holy, righteous, perfect, God of the Universe?

Sometimes you might have joked saying something like, "When I get to heaven I am finally going to ask God why he made mosquitoes?" Of course such a joke is based on the foundation that we would have that kind of access to God. But how close can we truly get to God? We should consider this question from two perspectives. First as sinners who have trespassed against God's law through our daily disobedience we deserve nothing but his judgment and wrath. To stand in the presence of God with only our weak and feeble works to present would be a frightening situation.

During the time of Jesus worship of God occurring at the Temple in Jerusalem was colored by tightly controlled access. There was a corridor that Gentiles, non-Israelites, could not go past. In fact, part of the charge that Paul was arrested on which eventually led to him making his appeal to Caesar in Rome, was bringing Gentiles into the Temple and defiling the holy place. They had seen Paul with a man from Ephesus earlier and presumed that Trophimus had gone with Paul into the Temple. The worship leaders were so angry about this breach in access they were ready to kill Paul.

The Tabernacle of Moses and the Temples built by Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod all contained divided compartments between the presence of God and the people. The most outer section was called the Holy Place and this was for the priests doing their ritual duties. Entrance to the Holy Place was shut off to the people by a screen. Once in the Holy Place one still was separated from the presence of God by the veil which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place or sometimes called the Holy of Holies was to be entered only once a year by the high priest to make atonement for himself and for his house and for assembly of Israel. It was into the Holy of Holies that Moses had placed the ark of the covenant. The veil or curtain temple served to remind the people that they did not deserve the right of access to the God of unapproachable light, unless his sins had been removed. The Lord said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in from of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover." (Lev. 16:2).

As a sinner in need of forgiveness how close should you be able to get to the presence of God? We may think we should be able to go wherever we want. But would it be safe for a sinner to enter into the presence of the wrath of God? The only person with full and open access to God is he who is blameless and righteous.

The prophet Isaiah in a vision was brought to the throne of God and with utter fear he cried out, "Woe to me, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes of have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Isaiah did not exaggerate. He deserved to be squashed like a cockroach. But one of the angels of God touched his lips with a coal from the incense and said, "Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." With his sin atoned for he could stand in the presence of God and he could do the work of God.

Before Jesus time the Temple, the presence of God was for the Israelites and then through them the promises of God were to be declared to the world. Unlike historical tours of cathedrals today, it was not appropriate for just anyone to walk around and take in the sites. The Temple was a holy place of God's promise for the people. Its access was guarded, barring all from the holy of holies.

This was in some ways a security measure actually protecting one from unknowingly stepping into the wrath of God.

Access to the presence of God is no longer barred from us. I said we would look at our access from two perspectives. First standing before God with our own feeble works to present, but the second perspective is how God desires to see us. We stand upon the rock of our salvation Jesus Christ and through him we are given an all access pass to the treasures of heaven. We are clothed in his righteousness.

When Jesus Christ died upon the cross he was our High Priest making atonement once and for all for the sins of the whole world. The veil that divided us from the presence of God was torn in two at the ninth hour when Jesus upon the cross said, "It is finished" and breathed his last. With Christ's death upon the cross you have been given a backstage pass to the most holy of holies.

The prophet Isaiah looked ahead to the salvation of God being delivered to the world. Thus says the Lord, "Keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed." This is a salvation being brought for the whole world. The foreigner that has joined himself to the Lord does not need to fear the barriers and separations of this world. The Lord promises access to all that have joined themselves to him. Thus says the Lord in the prophet Isaiah, "the foreigner I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer."

What do you get with this access? We are brought to the holy mountain of God's presence. We are brought not in a chain gang of slaves; but people from every nation, language and tribe are brought to the mountain of God to worship him. We are given an opportunity to come to his house of prayer and be heard. When you pray to the one true Lord you can be assured that he has heard your cries. You do not have to doubt or wonder or conjecture if God has heard your pleas. You are heard through the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the wonderful counselor who intercedes on your behalf. You do not need to pray to saints, Mary, or any other name in heaven. There is no other name by which we are saved but through Jesus Christ. With Jesus as your savior you have an all access pass to the treasures of heaven, you have been gathered to the Lord.

What do you do with this access? The Lord has made his house to be a house of prayer; we never put up a separation between God and his people. All that have joined themselves to the Lord, from every nation, language and tribe have a savior in Jesus Christ. Consider the very architecture of our chancel. The communion rail is open and the way to the altar is clear. There is no curtain, no veil, no barring of access to the promises of forgiveness. In the service of the sacrament, from that communion rail opening, the pastor proclaims, "The Peace of the Lord be with you." This is a declaration, a promise, a statement of fact concerning what took place when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave of himself upon the cross and rose again on the third day.

We then share that reconciling peace with those around us. Consider the answer to the question, "What do I do with this access to the Lord?" from what you do when you are given the peace. You share it, you extend it, you reach out with it, and in the name of the Lord you are gathering others towards the promises of Lord whose salvation has come, whose deliverance has come.

The peace of the Lord be with you always. And in your lives may you daily reach out to others with this peace.

Soli Deo Gloria

Grace Lutheran Church

Sermons