LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1979, Page 76

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76 CONVENTION SERMON

conviction that we are all victims of the absurd and
meaningless existence which simply ends in the black
abyss.

That mood of hopeless despair has been captured in
the words of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter’s poem
“Dream of a World Without God”: “And at this point a
lofty noble form bearing the impress of eternal sorrow,
came sinking down . . . and rested upon the altar;
whereupon the dead cried out, ‘Christ! Is there no God?’
He answered: ‘There is none.’ . .. And Christ spake on,
saying: ‘I have traversed the worlds, I have risen on the
suns...thereis no God.’ And I descended to whither the
very shadow cast by being dies out and ends, and I
gazed out into the gulf beyond and cried: ‘Father, where
art thou?’ But answer came there none, save the eternal
storm which rages on, controlled by none.

“Then he, sublime, loftiest of finite beings, raised his
eyes toward the nothingness and boundless void,
saying: ‘Oh, dead, dumb nothingness!—Necessity end-
less and chill! O mad, unreasoning chance! When will ye
dash this fabric into atoms, and me too... every soul in
this great corpse trench of a universe is utterly alone!’”

Thus men are compelled to live their lives, forever
cursed by their sins and guilt, forever cursed by their
rebellion and self-willed disobedience, forever cursed by
their separation from God; forever doing evil, forever
imprisoned by the powers of Satan; forever bound to
their sins, condemned to exist forever where “dead,
dumb nothingness” and mad unreasoned chance rules.
Cursed to live eternally beyond that gulf across which
the souls of the damned cry, “Father, where are You?”
Forever condemned to hear no answer except the sar-
donic laughter of the king of chaos, the lord of the
absurd, the prince of darkness. There is no open door.
There is no key. All the doors are forever closed, and
apart from “the One whois holy and true, who holds the
keys of hell and death,” all men are forever doomed to be
what they have made of themselves, imprisoned in that
place where the rebel flag flies forever and where men
grind their teeth in agony and despair.

II. Jesus Opens the Doors
He Has the Key of David

“Behold, I have set before you an open door, which
no one is able to shut.” The theme of our convention
should bring us back to the One who is holy and true,
who has the key of David. The despair and nightmare of
our world would indeed be true if it were not for this One,
who is holy and true. A door has been opened. It was
opened on that absurd day we call “Good Friday.” Ona
cross planted on a hill outside of Jerusalem, Jesus, the
One who is holy and true, cried out across the gulf: “My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” There He
died, executed by God as the one great sinner. That
death is no hero’s death, no sublime and lofty death fora
cause and high ideals. It is the death of a slave—He died
like a dog in a ditch. The ancient Scriptures had spoken
of His death: “He was taken from prison and from
judgment. ... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He

opened not His mouth” (Is. 53:7, 8). The verdict of the
court of heaven had been spoken upon Him. ‘“‘God made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). He
went down into that dark prison from which there is no
open door, into the darkness beyond, the grave and
death.

He Has Loosed Us from the Bonds of Sin

But the senseless storm does not rage on, controlled
by no one. An answer did come back to that cry of
forsakenness. A voice that pierced the darkness and
brought Him back from the grave and death. “The third
day He rose again from the dead.” What awesome
words, these words which we recite so easily week after
week! “He led to freedom all oppressed; and pardon won
for sin-distressed. Oh, praise Him for His mercy!” The
verdict of the court of heaven has been spoken, and that
verdict for us is acquittal—forgiveness and pardon. No
executioner waits for us to remove us from prison and
from judgment. We are not led as sheep to the slaughter.
We do not stand suppliant before the court of heaven
with no advocate to plead our case. Jesus Christ is risen
and ascended into heaven. There our great Advocate
forever intercedes for us. He has opened the door.
“Behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man
can shut it.”

He Has Destroyed the Gates of Death

“The words of the One who is holy, the One who is
true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one
shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.” He who
proclaims Himself as the Keeper of the key of David is
the same Savior who began His ministry by reading
from the ancient prophet: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good
news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to
the captives and ... liberty to those who are oppressed”
(Luke 4:18). He broke the bonds of death and destroyed
the gates of hell. He loosed us from our sins and makes
us free with the glad and joyful freedom of the sons of
God. He has opened the door of our prison and blown
away all the dank stench of death. He has set us free to
breathe the bright air of God’s eternal world of light. No
longer do men need to cry across the abyss to dead,
dumb nothingness, no more die like a dog in a ditch. He
has opened for us the door to the Father’s heart and
home and given us the prayer of the children of God.
“For you have not received the Spirit of slavery to fear,
but the Spirit of adoption by which we cry, ‘Abba,
Father’” (Rom. 8:15). We are not souls utterly alone in
this vast corpse trench of a universe, abandoned or-
phans to live in hopeless despair, not bundles of atoms
waiting for final disintegration of the universe by blind
unreasoning chance. A door has been opened for us—
the door to the bright light of God’s eternal city, which
“has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the
glory of the Lord God is its light, and its lamp is the
Lamb” (Rev. 21:23). Our future is not blind, unreasoned
chance, necessity, endless and chill, but the sweet order
of the Father’s house, where our restless souls find