The Time of our Migration
Jeremiah 8:4-7
November 14, 2004
A parish priest was being honored at a dinner on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his arrival in that parish. A leading local politician, who was a member of the congregation, was chosen to make the presentation and give a little speech at the dinner, but he was delayed in traffic, so the priest decided to say his own few words while they waited. "You understand, of course, that the seal of the confessional, can never be broken. However, I got my first impressions of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I can only hint vaguely about this, but when I came here twenty-five years ago I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first man who entered my confessional told me how he had stolen a television set, and when stopped by the police, had almost murdered the officer. Further, he told me he had embezzled money from his place of business and had an affair with his boss's wife. I was appalled. But as the days went on I knew that my people were not all like that, and I had, indeed come to a fine parish full of wonderful, loving people." Just as the priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make his speech. "I'll never forget the first day our parish priest arrived in this parish," said the politician. "In fact, I had the honor of being the first one to go to him in confession."
The moral of that story is: "Don't be late." The man's timing was all messed up and unfortunately he paid the price. My friends, that's the message that God has for the whole world, when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Now is the time to believe in the Savior, because when Jesus comes again it will be too late. If you don't have saving faith, you will pay the ultimate price - eternal condemnation in hell. That's why our Old Testament lesson for today is such an appropriate text for the Second Last Sunday in the Church year, when we emphasize the Imminent Return of Christ.
You see, in our text the people of Judah also had their timing all messed up. Not only were they late in putting their faith in God, they weren't putting their trust in Him at all! For example, they were filling the temple with false gods of every kind. Following the worship of the heathen god, Molech, they were even sacrificing their children in the fire. And as bad as that abomination was, the worst part was that they didn't feel sorry about their sin in the least. They didn't repent of it in humility and contrition. Instead, as God said in our text: "THEY CLING TO DECEIT; THEY REFUSE TO RETURN."
My friends, how does that apply to you and me? Are there times when we too follow after that false gods of our own making, sacrificing the things of god, the things that should be most dear to us, for the cares and pleasures of the world? Do we cling to the deceit and Satan and our sinful flesh, instead of clinging to God's Holy Word. In Hebrew the word 'deceit' comes from a verb that means: 'to be loose.' It's the idea of being loose with the truth, loose with our morals, rather than adhering strictly to the commands of God's Word. That's what happens when we lie or gossip, when we think selfish or lustful thoughts, when we hurt our fellow man or hold a grudge. We're clinging to the deceit of idolatry, for that's exactly what sin is. And the worst part is, if we don't daily repent of our sin and turn away from it, then like the people of Judah, we're refusing to return to the Lord.
For that reason, in our text God spoke a powerful word of judgment. He said that those who refuse to repent are like a horse charging into battle. Obviously a horse running in like that whilly, nilly is going to wind up on the enemy's spear, gored to death. And that is a very graphic picture of God's punishment for unconfessed sin. In fact, in the prophecy of Jeremiah God declared that his people were going to suffer violent death at the hand of the Babylonians. And there would be so many dead, that they would be left unburied. Naturally, that was a terrible prospect for the Jew, since many believed the soul would not rest without a decent burial. Which was precisely God's point. For all those who refuse to repent and return to Him, there can be no rest in heart and soul. For as one commentator put it: "Such is the punishment for unrepented sin. It follows the sinner to the grave and beyond."
That's why in our text, God takes such great pains to warn us, just like He warned His people of old. He says, "WHEN MEN FALL DOWN, DO THEY NOT GET UP? WHEN A MAN TURNS AWAY, DOES HE NOT RETURN?" In other words, when someone takes a tumble, they usually get back up, dust themselves off and move on. Unfortunately, when we fall into sin, sometimes we just lie there, wallowing in our guilt and shame. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word 'fall' can mean: 'to be knocked out,' and it often depicts violent circumstances, involving damage or death.
Certainly that is what sin does to our soul. It knocks us senseless and damages our soul, so that on our own we are powerless to get back up on our feet. That's why we need a strong rescuer - someone who can pick us up from the pit of sin, dust of our guilt and shame and bring us back to God. And thankfully, dear friends, we have just such a strong rescuer as that - our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the only one, who can lift us up and set us free. In fact, in our text the word 'get up' is the Hebrew word mWq. It's the same word that Jesus spoke to Jairus' daughter, when He said: "Talitha, koum, Little girl, arise." In other words, it's a word of resurrection - the promise that Jesus has raised us up from the death of sin and granted us newness of life in His kingdom, by bringing us back into God's good graces.
However, the amazing miracle of the Gospel is that to accomplish that, God sacrificed His own beloved Son in the fires of hell on the cross, in order to purge away all the dross of our iniquities. And then when Jesus was buried in the Garden tomb all our transgressions were buried with Him, and laid to rest once and for all, so that we can have rest for our souls by the remission of all our sins. And all of that God did for us freely by His grace, because He knew we could not do it for ourselves. Since we could not turn to Him, He first turned to us in love to welcome us back in. Of course, in so doing He turned His back on Jesus at the cross. But He did it so that we would never have to experience that. He did it, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we could return to Him and be saved.
To demonstrate that, in our text God borrowed an example from nature. He said: "EVEN THE STORK IN THE SKY KNOWS HER APPOINTED SEASONS, AND THE DOVE, THE SWIFT AND THE THRUSH OBSERVE THE TIME OF THEIR MIGRATION." God has placed into these birds a kind of natural 'homing beacon,' so that although they fly south for the Winter, when Spring comes they migrate back home to their nesting place. Dear friends, that beauty of God's grace is that He has done the same for you and me. In our Baptism, He placed into our hearts the 'homing beacon' of the Holy Spirit, who not only brought us to saving faith in Jesus, but continual works to keep us in that faith all our days. So that although at times we wander away in sin, the Spirit is constantly convicting and convincing us to return to God in repentance.
To put it simply, now is the time of our migration. We need to daily migrate back to God in humble repentance and trust. And the way that we do that is by using the Means of Grace the Holy Spirit has given us to strengthen our faith. We need to daily read and study our Bibles, meditating on the Scriptures and applying them to our own lives. We need to weekly attend Bible Study, so that we can share our insights with each other and grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We need to take time each day to worship and thank God and to meet with Him in prayer. We need to frequently partake of the Lord's Supper for the comfort and reassurance of forgiveness that it brings. We need to avail ourselves of the blessings of Confession and Absolution, constantly renewing our Baptism so that we are drawn closer to God, for that is how we migrate to Him. And the blessed promise we have is that when we migrate to Him in repentance and faith, He becomes our nesting place where we find a refuge from sin and guilt as well as a shelter from the problems and troubles of the world. But best of all, we know that when Jesus comes again in glory our True Migration will take place, when He will take us on the wings of the angels to our Heavenly Home, where will have no more pain or sorrow or sin!
They say that, if you put a buzzard in a pen six or eight feet square and entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of his ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of ten or twelve feet. Without space to run, as is his habit, he will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top. In a similar way, the ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off. Likewise, a bumblebee if dropped into an open tumbler will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
Dear friends, there are a lot of people in this world like the buzzard, the bat, and the bee. They're struggling about with all their problems and frustrations, their sin and guilt, not realizing that the answer is not within them, it's 'Above' them. Only God can set us free from our guilt and shame, only He can release us from sin and death, and He has already done that through Jesus Christ our Savior. Instead, taking our cue from the stork and the dove, let us migrate back to Him in repentance and faith. And empowered by His Holy Spirit let's make us of the gifts and talents He's given us to share that Gospel message with others, while we still have time before Jesus returns. For now is the time of our migration. Amen.
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