Daily Lectionary: 2 Kings 2:1-18; Ephesians 4:1-24
How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts!My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. (Psalm 84:1-2 from the Introit for Trinity 14)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Does your soul long for the courts of the Lord? Or does it long for more sleep? Does your heart and flesh cry out for the living God or do you cry out at your alarm clock. The Psalmist talks like there's nothing better in the whole world than in being in God's house. You, however, could think of a million places you'd rather be than in church.
That's why we need to hear that these words of the Psalmist are really Jesus' words. The Lord knows YOU don't want to go and hear His Word, so He does. Jesus faithfully loves to be in God's house, because you don't. And there, in God's house, in His church, He bestows upon you what you cannot get yourself: the love of His Name and Word.
You see, we SHOULD love God's Word more than everything. We should be glad and excited to go hear it. Usually we aren't. That's why Jesus died. He died because you don't want to hear God's Word. And that IS God's Word: that He died for your sins. Whatever the Lord tells you to love and cherish and you don't, Jesus does.
This is our salvation. That Jesus does what we cannot do. That He suffers on the Cross for our not doing it. That He rises from the dead to give us the life in which we learn to love His name and His Word.
When you go to church tomorrow, as hard as it is to drag yourself out of bed, know this: You are going to receive what you shouldn't dare to expect: forgiveness. There, in remembrance of your Baptism, by absolution and in the preaching and at the Lord's altar, the forgiveness for your laziness and sloth is bestowed upon you. There, in the church where Christ's Word is proclaimed, the Father sees you, not as a Word despiser, but as a Word lover. In Jesus, you are one who longs for the courts of the Lord and rejoices to be there! It can't be any other way for those who have been clothed with Christ. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
I love Your church, O God, Your saints in ev'ry land, Dear as the apple of Your eye And graven on Your hand. (LSB 651:3)