THIS DAY IS SACRED TO OUR LORD

It had been a long time since the Israelites had worshiped the Lord like they did on the first day of the 7th month in 445 B.C. In fact, it had been a long time since they had gathered in Jerusalem as a group of believers at all! There had been a 70 year exile of the people of Israel in Babylon, and then it took 4 ½ years to rebuild the temple by those who had come back, and then there were about another 70 years in between the rebuilding of the temple and the repairing of the walls of the city of Jerusalem. And during that time there were no regularly scheduled worship services for the nation of Israel. For at least 145 years the three annual festivals were not held, the prescribed sacrifices were not offered, the Book of the Law was never publically read - and that’s not even counting the years that God’s people were ruled by ungodly Israelite kings leading up to the Babylonian exile. But then, after all that time, under the direction of the governor, Nehemiah, and Ezra the priest, this remnant of the children of Abraham were able to worship their Lord like no one of that generation ever had before. And starting on that first day of the 7th month in 445 B.C and for the days that followed, sins were confessed and forgiveness was given, songs were sung, potlucks were held, choirs were formed, the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated for the 1st time in 1000 years, but the greatest thing of all was that the Book of the Law was finally read in the hearing of the people once again.
“They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” It was a sermon, an explanation and application of the Word of God to the lives of the people. And when the people heard it, they wept. All of the Israelites who were listening to God’s Word that day cried out together because they realized how sinful they had been and how poorly they had kept the laws that the Lord had laid out for them. And so Nehemiah and the Levites went to the people and encouraged them: “This day is sacred to our Lord,” they said. “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Yes, the people had sinned against their Lord. But their Lord was joyful. He was happy to see his people gather together to hear his Word and to confess their sins and to learn about their forgiveness in the coming Savior. This day was not supposed to be a day of wrath or judgment. It was a glorious day. It was a sacred day.
This day is sacred to our Lord as well: Sunday, September 19th, 2010. This day is a holy day as far as our Lord is concerned because it is the day that you are in his house, the day a flock of his sheep has gathered together, the day his Word is read, his Supper is given, and his Truth is taught. He loves this day! He was looking forward to this day all week! Because there’s nothing our Lord would rather do on a Sunday morning than make a personal visit to a group of his children and feed them by hand the delicious morsels of his gospel. This day is a special day to our Lord. This day is sacred.
Is that the attitude you brought to church this morning? Did you share that same joy with your Lord as you woke up this morning and realized that it was Sunday again? Were you just as excited to meet him in his house as he was or as eager to be fed with the spiritual food for your soul as our Lord was to feed you? Or was this just another Sunday? Just another September morning? Just another beginning of just another week? A lot of times another Sunday is just another Sunday to us. Because the same things seem to happen, the same basic liturgy seems to be used, the same basic melodies seem to be sung, the same basic prayers seem to be prayed, the same basic sermon seems to be preached… What’s so different about it? What’s so unique? What’s so exciting? Yeah, it’s nice to be in God’s house and to be around other Christians and to have a break from the monotony of the work week, but is this day really a holy day? Is this day really all that sacred? It hardly seems any different than any other Sunday of the year…
But it’s not just another day of the week! And it’s not just even another Sunday! It’s another opportunity for you to get to know your heavenly Father better. It’s another chance for you to hear what he has to say about your life here on earth and your future life in heaven. It’s another occasion for your faith to be fortified by God’s powerful gospel. How could we possibly think that it’s just another Sunday? And it’s not just you. It’s me too. Sometimes I’ll get done with a Sunday morning, and after the worship service and after the Bible study, maybe after a Sunday council meeting or an afternoon fellowship event, I go home, change into some comfortable clothes, sit down on the couch, turn on the football game, take a deep breath and think, “I made it through another Sunday.” Now I’m not implying that I don’t like what I do or I don’t enjoy everything that happens on a Sunday morning here at church. I’m saying that there’s a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of effort that goes into what happens on a Sunday morning. And if it’s been a busy week or a more difficult process than usual, it’s almost a relief that I not only got through it all but it actually somehow turned out all right! However, my attempts to “survive” some Sunday mornings can all too often overcome my joy that I should have while I’m here. And Sunday mornings deserve more than that! Our Lord deserves more than that! He considers this a sacred day, a holy day, a special day! He doesn’t think of this as just another one. He doesn’t treat today as if it’s just one more thing to check off his “to do” list! He doesn’t just go through the motions so that he can get on with something else!
And why does our Lord think this day is so great? Because this is the day and this is the time when he gets to sit down with you and explain to you how much he loves you. This is the day and this is the time when he is able to remind you about all of the things he’s done for you in the past, all of the things he is doing for you right now, and all of the things he has in mind for you in the future. This is the day and this is the time when he works on your heart with his Word - strengthening it, comforting it, moving it to do and believe what he wants. This is the day and this is the time when it’s just you and him and your brothers and sisters, gathered around his pulpit and his altar and his font, a captive audience to his every word. This is the day and this is the time that he hears the prayers and the praises and the songs of those he loves, those he has won back, those he can’t get enough of. This is the day and this is the time that is sacred to our Lord. And he wouldn’t give it up for anything!
He loves those moments when you open your own Bible at home too, of course. He loves it when you fold your hands and bow your heads at your evening prayers; he loves it when you read your family devotions; he loves it when you fill your heart and mind with his gospel in whatever way you can throughout the week. But where else are you able to gather together with so many like-minded believers as you are right here, right now? Where else are you able to hear in person the Word of God being integrated into your own life? Where else are you able to witness a baptism into God’s family? Where else are you able to stand shoulder to shoulder with brothers and sisters and receive Christ’s true body and blood? Where else are hymns and confessions and psalms and statements of faith and blessings and Scripture readings all put together for your spiritual edification and the Lord’s glory? At what other time and in what other place is our Lord able to reach so many of his people all at once? Today is a family reunion of sorts for our Lord. His children are here all at the same time. The young and the old. The mature and the immature. The confident and the hurting. And so of course this day is going to be sacred to our heavenly Father. Why wouldn’t it be?
Many of you are at least familiar with Nebraska Lutheran High School, one of our area Lutheran high schools associated with our church body in Waco, NE. It’s a small school, a dorm school. And in the past few years they have been able to get more and more students from overseas, students who are not Lutheran, students who are oftentimes not even Christian. After the first Sunday worship service at the beginning of this school year last month, one of the girls who had come to Nebraska Lutheran from a foreign country said to a teacher, “That was the first time I have ever been in a church service before.” Wow! Really? What a day! What an event! The first time she heard about her Savior in a public setting! The first time a hymn about her Savior was sung! The first time a sermon about her Savior was preached! What a great experience! What a thrilling opportunity! What a sacred day that must have been - for her and for her Lord!
We don’t have that luxury anymore in our lives, of course. We can’t have that first-time-Christ-in-the-Word experience again because today is our 30th time or our 300th time or for some of us our 3000th time in a church service. But this day is just as real and just as important and just as glorious as it would be for someone their very first time around. Because the Word of the Lord is heard today. The forgiveness of the Lord is given today. The power of the Lord is demonstrated today and the love and grace and mercy of the Lord are poured out today. Today you are recipients of all the blessings the Lord gives to his people through his Word. Today you are proof of what the Lord can do to the heart of a sinner.
Yesterday, Saturday was an important day too on the Jewish calendar. It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement in Old Testament worship life was the greatest of the three annual festivals on which the Israelites congregated in Jerusalem to praise their Lord. On that special day the high priest for the year would dress in the traditional sacred garments, slaughter a bull, fill a censer with incense, and enter the Most Holy Place that held the ark of the covenant - the place where the Lord himself had promised to dwell among his people. There the high priest would sprinkle the blood of the bull on the altar to “atone” for, to cleanse, to make up for his sins and the sins of all the people. And on that day the blood of one sacrifice would wash away the guilt of every single child of God. It was a festival that ultimately pointed to what Christ would do for his people. And so it was the most sacred day of the year.
We have the privilege celebrating a Day of Atonement every single Sunday. Because every time we gather together in this building we hear once again the groans and cries of our own sacrifice being slaughtered as Jesus is nailed to a piece of wood; we see Christ’s blood spattered on the side of the cross; we smell the morning mustiness of the Easter tomb, open and empty, a cave containing burial cloths and nothing more. And, in fact, that’s why Christians have worshiped on Sunday for the last 2000 years: because it became known as “the Lord’s Day.” It was the day of the week on which Jesus rose from the dead and secured our eternal life in heaven. And so what better day of the week to worship than on a day that would remind us about Jesus’ victory over death every time we gather! It’s not necessary to worship on a Sunday, of course, but it’s beneficial. It’s not commanded, but commended. And as we sit in our chairs and sing the hymns and listen to the readings and make our confessions and pray our prayers and revel in the blessings on this Sunday, understand how fortunate you really are. You get to come to a place where the Word of God is freely taught and truly taught. You get to gather together with Christians who take the Word of God as seriously as you do. You get to set aside some time on a day that is sacred to your Lord. And your Lord is overjoyed that you are here on this day. Because he always has something prepared for you each week - something special, something just right, something that is exactly what you need to hear. He will make sure to work it into your heart this morning through his powerful Word and he can’t wait until you come back next Sunday for more.
Amen.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3