Fellow-Redeemed in Christ Jesus,
Do you know the political term “big tent?” It is another way of saying we want our party to be all-inclusive. There is room for everyone on our platform. There is no bigger tent in transcendent terms than the kingdom of God. This is true not only in the New Testament Church. It was true in the Old Testament Church.
Isaiah wrote of that all-inclusive church. It is for all people who bind themselves to the LORD. There is room for all, like the Gentile woman of our gospel, who come humbly, empty handed, to Christ trusting only in him.
Rising high above Jerusalem in stark testimony to this reality was Solomon’s Temple. It was God’s house of prayer. Prayer was one part for the entire temple activity like bread could stand for all we need for physical well-being. Or, Jesus’ cross stands for all aspects of our relationship with God.
In Isaiah’s prophecy, we come to see the invisible church, the communion of saints, as a house of prayer, which the temple depicted for the eye. God’s Church is a House of Prayer. He gathers people into his church. He gives us joy in his church.
Jesus quoted Isaiah’s words here and some from Jeremiah when he drove out the moneychangers during Holy Week. Our Savior was jealous for his heavenly Father’s house that his people, basically, had turned into an empty shell with their lip service andheartless obedience. They would not permit “sinners” or “Gentiles” into the temple even as they missed that Christ stood before them as the Savior of all.
Isaiah saw Jesus’ day, our day. God calls “foreigners” and “exiles of Israel” into the kingdom of God. God’s church, all believers, is not a building but it is a house of prayer. We come into that house of prayer through repentance that shows itself in these actions, “Maintain justice and do what is right.” This is God’s call to repentance based on his love, “For my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness soon will be revealed.”
The pronouns are important. God says salvation belongs to him. Righteousness that saves us belongs to him. It is close at hand and revealed in Jesus Christ our Savior. Rather than an earthly temple rising high on Mt. Zion, we have God’s presence with us in his Son, Jesus Christ. We have the kingdom of God, our house of prayer, in which we not only pray, but also do everything that comes with our new relationship with the LORD.
The Holy Spirit has bound us to the LORD through Holy Baptism. This is not like a servant or slave is bound against their will to a master. The Spirit has given us a new will that gladly and freely serves Jesus Christ. Bound to Christ in faith we possess his salvation, his righteousness. The Holy Spirit gives us joy in his church.
It is in that bond with Christ that we function within the house of prayer, the church. Isaiah described the characteristics of former foreigners and exiles. We bind ourselves to the LORD by his call “to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him.” We “keep the Sabbath without desecrating it” and hold fast to his covenant.
What joy there is for us in ourservice and worship. As Prof. Deutschlander pointed out last week, it is in our bond with Christ that we are truly free. Nothing gives more joy than freedom. I think of the two men wrongly imprisoned for decades in NC who were freed last week.
God has freed us from eternal imprisonment in hell. Now we serve him and not ourselves. Now we worship him and not the things of this world. We keep the Sabbath not by worshiping on a certain day but by treasuring and trusting in Jesus’ cross,which includes everything he did for us. When our sinful nature, which infects our reason, will and emotions, overcomes us, we repent.
In repentance, we offer our burnt offerings and sacrifices at the LORD’s altar. Isaiah combines in two categories all the children of Israel were to offer to the LORD. Particularly, they were to offer the LORD their hearts through these things in faith in the coming Savior. We offer our prayers, our money, our time, the use of our abilities, and our hearts in faith in our Savior who has come for us. The LORD accepts our offerings and sacrifices at his altar when they come from the heart.
This gathering of sinners into the LORD”s house of prayer is ongoing. From Isaiah’s time through today the LORD has kept his Word, “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”The apostle Paul wrote about it to the Romans in our second lesson. Paul reminded the Gentiles that God called them too into the big tent of the church. With the Jews, they belong to God through the gospel. Paul used the picture of branches grafted into a tree. God broke off branches of Jews who rejected him and then grafted Gentiles into the tree of the church.
The Promise was always for all people through the LORD revealed it primarily to Israel. The Temple was theirs. Isaiah saw the day coming soon when that revelation would extend beyond Israel, which soon would be conquered, and the Temple destroyed.
Yet the LORD’s house of prayer would continue. It would even expand. Where the people had offered burnt offerings, sacrifices, service, and worship only outwardly, the day was coming when the outward actions would change but the inner action of faith would grow.
When I was in Milwaukee, there was a Lutheran Church of another synod not far away with the name House of Prayer. I always like that name. More important than a sign with that name on the outside of a building is a heart that is in the house of prayer, the church. This is a heart, to use an old word, cleaved to Christ. We used to use that word in the marriage vows. Husband and wife promised to cleave only to the other, that is, be faithful.
God has cleaved to us, promised himself to us. We have cleaved to Christ, promised ourselves to him. In that bond, “Maintain justice and do what is right for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness soon will be revealed.” Amen. <SDG>