“You only O Christ are most High in the glory of God the Father”. Those are rather striking words when we take them out of the Gloria In Excelsis and just read them as a sentence. Christ is most high in glory and He holds that position because, “it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, that He should make peace by the blood of His cross, and that God should by Him reconcile all things to Himself. ” (Colossians 1) Paul says that by Christ, “all things consist”. The letter to the Colossians is a great tribute to Christ as Lord, Savior, King, and the holder of all things together. This is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth.
All Saints Sunday will be celebrated this week in our churches and we will remember our blessed dead. This understanding of who Christ is and what He does should be a great sense of joy to us, and should make us develop a huge sense of responsibility that we keep Him at the fore front of our preaching and teaching and contemplation of all the craziness in our world. The elections coming cannot save us and they cannot destroy us as God’s people. They can make life tough and even painful, but they cannot take us away from the fact that all things consist in Christ and He will use them to God the Fathers Glory, and ultimately to our salvation.
Our blessed dead lived in that reality. That is why the preaching of the Gospel, not some kind of touchy feely goodtime Charlie craziest must be preached. The gospel, not some narcissistic therapeutic pabulum must be preached to God’s holy people, and they must look to Him alone for their comfort and strength. All things consist in Christ including our salvation. The church exists because of Christ and for Christ and our preaching should exhibit that faith we have that our Savior will come to judge the living and the dead.
Martin Franzmann said this – Good times and good things will not save the church, and they will not save us. Bad things and bad times will not destroy us or the church. The Lamb that was slain alone can save, and the wrath of the Lamb alone can destroy us. There will be no rocks thick enough and no holes in the hills deep enough to shield us from that
wrath of the Lamb and from the One who sits on the Throne.
