Rejoice! Your Names are Written in Heaven (Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: July 6, 2025)

Texts:  Psalm 66:1–7

Isaiah 66:10–14

Galatians 6:1–10, 14–18

Luke 10:1–20

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for today is all of our readings, but especially these words of Jesus at the end of our gospel reading, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, unless you are our dog, this weekend has been a weekend of much celebration for people as we celebrate the 249th anniversary of our country. Meanwhile, our dog is completely ready for this weekend to be over so he can quit cowering on the couch next to us. And for those of you don't know, we have a 65-pound standard poodle. So when he cowers next to us, he takes up a good chunk of space. We have much cause to rejoice as we celebrate the birth of our nation this weekend, as we celebrate all of those men and women who have served in our nation to defend the freedoms that we so greatly enjoy. It's on a weekend like this that we can sort of begin to understand what rejoicing truly is. In our Gospel reading and throughout all of our readings for today, this theme of rejoicing comes up time and time again. You know, we see it at the beginning of our Old Testament reading, “Rejoice with Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:10). We see it at beginning of our Psalm, “Shout for joy to God all the earth” (Psalm 66:1). And we see it here in our Gospel reading. But our cause for rejoicing as Christians, as wonderful as this nation is, our ultimate cause for rejoicing is not in something temporary but is in our eternal kingdom, our eternal heavenly home. Our true cause for rejoicing that we learn about today in our readings is that we rejoice because God has written your names in heaven.

Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we give You thanks that You have called us out of the darkness of this sin-filled world and have brought us to true light in You, that we may rejoice in you always. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we may always have the sure and certain confidence that because You have given Your Son into death for us to suffer and to die because You have raised him from the dead on the third day never to die again that we have the confidence that all who believe in Him have their name written in the Book of Heaven and have the promise of life everlasting; through Your Son's name that we pray. Amen

Our world takes one of two ways when it comes to rejoicing. It tries to make us rejoice in things that ultimately are not beneficial for us or it tries to squash all joy whatsoever. Certainly there are good things to rejoice in. Celebrating the anniversary of our country. Celebrating a marriage, a birthday, an anniversary. Celebrating the birth of a new grandbaby. These are all good and temporal things that we rejoice in. But sometimes we can rejoice in things that aren't so good. As you know there are people out there who rejoice in evil when evil is done, people celebrating things that break God's holy law. The joy that comes from people who persecute Christians. The joy that comes from ourselves when it's easier for us to rejoice in things temporal to the point that on Sunday morning (and obviously I'm preaching to the choir here) but on Sunday morning it becomes too difficult to get up and go to church. Obviously there are those who have to stay away because health doesn't allow them, because their bodies won't allow them, and those are completely different circumstances. You know, my grandmother used to have the policy, my mom had the same policy with me, you can do whatever you want on Saturday night, but your butt is getting up and going to church on Sunday morning.

On the flip side of this, we have those which try to squash all joy whatsoever. That temptation to wallow in sorrow. That temptation to look at everything bad that is going on around us. Whether it's in our own lives, in our world as a whole. and to feel like there is no hope, no peace. As we face failing health, as our bodies aren't able to do the things that they once were able to do, as we face death and the loss of loved ones, as we mourn those who have gone before us, as we look at the world around us and see ever-growing hostility towards Christians. There's much in our world that wants to zap out any joy that we might have.

And both of these things have their same goal. Satan uses both the rejoicing in the wrong things as well as the wallowing in sorrow and grief. He uses both of those things to drive us away from God, to keep us from hearing God's word, to keep us from those gifts that we so greatly and dearly need.

And God knew this. God knew that these temptations were ours. God knew that we would face the lack of joy, the temptation to rejoice in the wrong things. God knew that there's plenty in this world that would drive us away from him. And so He sent His son, Jesus Christ. The Son took on human flesh, lived the perfect life that we cannot live. And yes, He experienced joy. And yes, He experienced sorrow as well. In fact, He experienced the greatest sorrow as He was wrongly tried. He was arrested, falsely accused, as His own people betrayed him, as He suffered great agony and anguish on the cross, as He gave up His spirit. There's also great joy in that story though. For on the third day Christ was raised from the dead never to die again. And now through that great sorrow and anguish, God has given the ability for us to become His children. God has made it possible so that you and I can receive that complete and absolute forgiveness of sins that Christ won for us in His death on the cross. God has given the ability for you and for I to rejoice, a true joy, joy beyond that which we can ever imagine here on earth. He's given us that chance to rejoice in Him.

That joy is what calls us, which causes us to go forth and to celebrate and share with all the hope that is ours. Christ sent forth the 72 to go into the villages where He was going to let people know that Christ was coming. He continues to send men into the office, going forth into congregations, pastors coming to serve you so that you may have that same joy, the joy that comes in witnessing the baptism when another soul is redeemed by God. The joy that comes in the forgiveness of sins where each and every one of us hear that absolution spoken. That joy that comes in the reading and proclaiming of God's Word. That joy that comes in partaking of the Lord's Supper. That is our source of true joy. As here on earth, we get a foretaste of the feast to come. As here on earth, we get a foretaste of that heavenly banquet that we will all one day get to be a part of.

And then you go forth from here in joy and in peace. You go forth from here in joy and in peace, but you don't just keep that for yourself. You're not called to keep that joy and that peace bottled up within you as if there's a limited supply of it. God says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river” (Isaiah 66:12). St. Paul says, “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). There's no limit to that peace and joy. So guess what you get to do with that? You get to take that peace and joy with you and share it with others so that they can also have that peace and joy. You get to take that peace and joy with you and carry it and be witnesses to God and his glory throughout your lives so that all may come to know the hope that is yours. And yes, because we live in this sin-filled world, as we go out, those temptations will arise, whether it's the temptation to rejoice in the wrong things or the temptation to sorrow and fall back into despair. That's why God calls you back here next Sunday to receive a new dose of joy and peace to carry with you. That's why God continues to call pastors to give you that peace and joy even throughout the week as you need it.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Rejoice! Celebrate! Shout for joy! Sing praises to God! He has given His Son to suffer and to die for you, to forgive you your sins. Through His Son's death and resurrection, He has reconciled you to Himself. Rejoice today and every day that your names are written in heaven. Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.