This is a time of year when many people are decorated up in frightening ways, running around saying frightening things, trying to scare other people. But take heart; the election will be over on Tuesday. Coincidentally, today is also Halloween, when many are trying to frighten people in other ways. But how are we to respond to what unsettles or panics unbelievers? We are to summon them to a life of faith, outside of which is only alternative is fear.
In just a moment we will be singing the great battle psalm of the Huguenots, Psalm 68. God shall arise, and He will scatter His enemies. But He will do so according to His Word, according to His promises, according to His assigned means, and by the power of His Spirit. Unbelievers should therefore leave all their fears, and turn in wholesome fear to the one who can throw both body and soul into Hell.
There is no problem with giving candy to the kids who come to your door tonight. Go ahead, enjoy yourself, and bless their evening. There is no problem with going to the polling place this Tuesday and casting a responsible Christian vote. That is your civic duty, and a great privilege.
But it is no sacrament. The world is being actually transformed here. God in the folly of His wisdom, in the wisdom of what men call folly, has determined to remake humanity in the image of Jesus Christ, and to do so by means of words, water, bread and wine. What we do in the world flows from here. We are equipped here. We are blessed here. We are strengthened here. We are made wise here. We then take it out into the world. The living water flows over the threshold of the Temple, and it flows outward from the Church for the healing of the nations.
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But these things require a catalyst. We do not think that words mumbled, or holy water, or bread on a priestcraft table, or wine in a superstition cup can themselves change the world. We are the body of Christ, and because that body is not dead, the catalyst is faith given by the Holy Spirit. The catalyst is alive. That catalyst is a conquering and glorious evangelical faith.
So come to this Table as you must come—believing in Jesus. Come, and welcome.