Advent Midweek III

Advent Midweek III: “From This Day On I Will Bless You”

December 18, 2024

Text: Haggai 2:10-23

            Building projects are hard.  Frankly, just searching for suitable and affordable property is hard, as we know all too well.  It’s a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, highs and lows, hope and anticipation, followed by disappointment and disillusionment.  Then, when you least expect it, things are looking up again.  What’s hard about this is, once you get on the coaster, you no longer have control.  You just have to go for the ride, trusting that our God does have control, that He will bring us safely through, and that, in the end, the destination will have been worth all the twists and turns.  And what is that end?  A place, a home, in which we can receive our Lord’s Gospel gifts often and routinely, Word and Sacrament, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  And from which we can speak forth Christ to others, and be His merciful presence in this place by loving and serving our neighbors. 

            The Jewish remnant in our text knew the roller coaster ride well.  Down in the depths of Babylonian captivity, up on the heights of return from exile, plunging down again under Samaritan slander and threat of violence.  They actually tried to get off the ride mid-descent.  This is where we met them at the beginning of Haggai’s book, attempting to derail the whole thing, irrationally expecting that their endeavor to sabotage would end in anything other than disaster.  That is why God sends them His man.  “Don’t unbuckle your harness!  Don’t throw impediments in front of the wheels to knock the cars off the track!  You can’t get off this ride, now, without personal and corporate catastrophe!”  Remember, with high hopes the Jewish remnant began the project, laying the Temple’s foundation and constructing the altar.  But when things got hard, when the Samaritans opposed the work, the people decided to abandon the whole venture, neglect God’s House, and make their own houses comfortable and luxurious instead. 

            Well, that was then.  Now God, by the preaching of His prophet, reviews the state of affairs with His people.  “Do you remember how it was?  How were things going, then, when you abandoned My House?  Is it not true that everything always came up short?  The grain?  The wine?  Is it not true that the product of all your labor I struck with blight and mildew and hail?  Why was that?”  It was a call to repentance.  God was calling His people to return to Him, to the LORD their God.  The evidence of their return would be their getting back to work on His House.  See, their idolatrous fear of people and things that are not God had not only stopped the work, it had made the people unclean.  Their apathy and self-interest had made the people unclean.  And as a result, nothing was holy to them.  Because there wasn’t a Temple to make them holy.  Instead, they spread their uncleanness to everything they touched, right down to the very food they ate.  Nothing was blessed.  God does not bless idolatrous fear.  God does not bless selfishness.  God does not bless apathy. 

            But He does bless the call to repent.  God gives the perilous plunge into the depths of the dark valley as occasion for the Jewish remnant, for us, to repent, to turn once again, away from fear and selfishness and apathy, to Him, and to Him alone.  God gives us nosedives into shadow and shade to exercise our faith, that we abandon, not Him, but our delusion of control, and thus cling to Him alone.   The amazing thing is, the Prophet Haggai came and preached that… and the people repented.  And responded in faith.  They took up their tools once again, and got to work.

            That is always amazing to a preacher.  What made the difference?  It wasn’t only the preaching of the Law.  It was God’s Gospel Promise.  We heard it the last two weeks.  And it applies to us, as much as to them.  “I am with you, declares the LORD…  Be strong…  Work, for I am with you… according to the covenant that I made with you…  My Spirit remains in your midst.  Fear not” (Hag. 1:13; 2:4-5; ESV).  And so, three months after the work began again, God says to the people, whatever may have been the chastisement in the past, “from this day on I will bless you" (2:19). 

            Note, it’s not that He will bless them because now they are doing the work by which they have earned His blessing.  No, He will bless them because they are with Him once again.  They have returned to Him.  They are no longer going their own way.  To go your own way (to abandon the roller coaster, to stick with the image) is to remove yourself from the blessing of the LORD.  It is never that He is unfaithful in blessing.  That is not why the blessing ceased.  It is that we are unfaithful in remaining in His blessing.  Where the LORD is, there is blessing.  Even in the valley of the shadow.  He is with us in the darkness.  He is with us in death.  And if He is with us (Emmanuel), who is there to harm us?  If He is with us (Emmanuel), what is there to fear?  We can take up our tools, now, and get to work in faith.  Because His Spirit remains in our midst.  He is in control.  It is true, we can wreck the roller coaster and abandon it, but He never will.  He does not abandon us.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He does not perpetrate evil against us.  Beloved, we have these Promises in our efforts at procuring a building of our own.  Whatever happens.  Whatever our perception of success, or lack thereof.  He is with us.  He will prosper us.  Let us repent of all apathy.  Let us repent of all fear.  Let us trust in the Lord of the Church, that as we go forward in His Name, He will bless.    

            Now, in our text, there is an additional Promise.  For the second time that day, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, God sends His prophet, this time to the governor, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel.  Not only will the Temple be rebuilt.  From the stump of Jesse (to borrow a phrase from the Prophet Isaiah [11:1])… from the House of David that was cut down by siege and exile… shall come forth a shoot.  David’s royal line shall be resurrected through you, O Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel was a son of David.  No, Zerubbabel was not to be king (He was just the vassal governor of Judea under the authority of the Persian Empire).  But through him, God preserved the line.  He is right there in the genealogies recorded by Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of THE Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is a Promise of Christ!

            It will shake the heavens and the earth when this Promise is fulfilled.  He (The Promise Incarnate) will overthrow the kingdoms of the nations when He comes, the chariots and their riders.  He will overthrow all evil.  Zerubbabel is the LORD’s signet ring in accomplishing this.  God has chosen him to be the key.  You know what a signet ring is, of course?  In the ancient world, it is the seal of authority.  Pressed into the wax seal of a letter, or on tablets of clay, it conveys the image effecting royal authority.  Zerubbabel is the seal of God’s proclamation.  He is the proof.  He is the sign.  The LORD will do this.  It is as good as done.  Our Advent anticipation will give way to Christmas joy when a Child, God’s Son, is born to Mary. 

            He is the true Temple, of which every Tabernacle or Temple that came before is but a type.  The LORD Himself builds a House of Prayer for all nations.  And zeal for this House consumes Him.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).  He is speaking of the Temple of His Body (v. 21).  The Body descended from David.  The Body descended from Zerubbabel.  The Body born of Mary, nailed to a cross, raised again on the Third Day.  The Body ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, the seat of all power and authority.  The Body to which you are joined, living stones to the Living Stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, built up as a spiritual house, the Holy Church.  The Body given you to eat, thus rendering you, once and for all, clean, holy, and precious to God. 

            The Promise to Zerubbabel, and of which he is the signet, is the reason we undertake a building project.  It is why we’re on this roller coaster ride to begin with.  Not so that God will bless us.  We must never think that if we do this for God, He will respond by doing some things for us.  That isn’t how things work in the Kingdom.  But because, with Him, and in Him… in His presence… by His gifts… His Spirit in our midst… we know our work will be blessed.  We can take up our God-given tools, and get to work with rejoicing.  Because we know that the end of this ride is a place and a home to be with our Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Spirit who proceeds from them both.  To gather around the Christian Family Table.  To hear His Word, receive His Wisdom, to treasure it and keep it.  To be cleansed of all sin.  To be nourished for eternal life.  To be loved by God, and to love one another.  To be the Body of Christ, and the Temple of God in this place.  Beloved, the Lord has put you on this ride.  Don’t unbuckle your harness.  Don’t attempt to knock the cars off the tracks.  Stay seated, stay calm, and enjoy the ride.  God is in control.  He will bring us safely to our destination.  Remain in Him.  Cling to Him.  Even when things are hard and scary.  Trust each other.  Work with each other.  Love one another.  “(F)rom this day on I will bless you,” says the LORD.  You have His Promise on that.  He will do it for Jesus’ sake.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (C)

December 15, 2024

Text: Luke 7:18-35

            Trigger warning: This sermon is politically incorrect.  If something of what I’m about to say offends you, good.  Something in you needs to die, and here it goes.

            St. John the Baptist is a man, a real mensch.  Virtuous.  Courageous.  Gritty.  Gusty.  This is no reed shaken by the wind.  Attired in leather belt and camel’s hair.  No soft clothing for him.  Living in the wilderness on a diet of locusts and wild honey.  He speaks plainly.  He is not afraid to call a spade a spade, a sin a sin.  He is genuine.  He speaks the truth.  And he doesn’t care who you are, or what you think of him.  He calls out the people (Repent!).  He calls out the Church authorities (“You brood of vipers!”).  He calls out royalty, and suffers for it (No one wants to hear the preacher call them out for sexual sin, least of all Herod, and Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife!).  John is not afraid to suffer for telling it like it is.  But he’s not just trying to be a jerk, either (that’s not manly).  He cares about these people, whether they care for him, or not.  And he’s been sent by God to do this.  He has a duty to perform, and he’s going to perform it, no matter the consequences, or how difficult, or unpleasant the task.  He does what must be done.  “Be a man,” we may say to one who is wavering in his duty, one who needs to pull on his big boy britches and get to it.  John is the model of godly masculinity.  We need him as the antidote to a culture that considers masculinity toxic (and a culture that, apparently, doesn’t even know what a man is, or what a woman is).  John is the kind of man men should aspire to be.  He’s the kind of man women should desire their men (husbands, fathers, sons, brothers) to be.  He’s the kind of Christian all of us Christians should aspire to be.  He’s the kind of preacher a pastor, like me, should aspire to be.  St. John the Baptist is a man, and he is the model.  Consider the Lord’s own assessment: “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28; ESV).   

            Some might think that John’s doubt disqualifies him from that assessment.  Some might think that admitting such doubt makes him less of a man.  Quite the contrary.  He’s doing the harder thing.  He’s being honest.  As a man should be.  To expose a vulnerability, particularly before God, is to bring that vulnerability out of the darkness, into the light, where it may be dealt with.  Confession.  And John is assuredly in the dark.  Herod’s dungeon.  And in sending his disciples to Jesus with his message, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (v. 20), John is confessing to the very One… the only One… who can help him.  See, it’s not that the doubt is heroic.  It’s the confession of that doubt to Jesus Christ that is heroic.  It’s the facing of that doubt head-on.  That’s what a man should do.  And what is John hoping for? … Praying to Jesus for?  Confirmation of his faith, yes.  And confirmation that his life, coming now to this seemingly miserable end, his impending martyrdom after all these years of hardship in ministry… is worth it.  And in confirming that for John, in not rejecting John or his question, Jesus is forgiving John’s doubt.  And taking it away.  Holy Absolution.  The one who heard all those confessions of sin in the Jordan, now confesses his own sin to the Lamb of God who takes away his sin, and the sin of the world.  John is absolved.

            This is extraordinary, because, who of us has never doubted?  Who of us has never wondered if this faith we’re staking our eternal life upon is the right one?  Who of us has never pondered, “What if Jesus is not the One?  What if we should look for another?”  Some people think that being a Christian means you should never struggle with faith.  Which necessarily creates a crisis in the heart of every one of us… or a false sense of pride, one of the two.  Some commentators and preachers even try to save John the Baptist from his doubting.  They say, of course he never doubted, but he sent his disciples to ask the question because they were doubting, or so that they could hear Jesus’ answer.  While it certainly may be the case that some of them were doubting, and that a part of John’s reason was so that they could hear, I don’t find it the least bit comforting or edifying if we try to save John from the disgrace of doubt.  If John never doubted, he must have had some kind of super-human, divine gift the rest of us could never hope to attain.  But if St. John the Baptist, the man, the mensch, could doubt, and come through by Jesus’ grace… well then, I can, too.  I can come through it, by Jesus’ grace.  And so can you. 

            Now, don’t misunderstand me.  Doubt is sin.  Doubting Jesus and His Word is sin.  But when you doubt, don’t deny it.  The Christian doesn’t deny sin.  Or excuse sin.  Or justify himself in sin.  The Christian confesses sin.  He speaks the sin aloud to Christ.  He repents.  Confession is a very manly thing to do. …  And womanly, please hear me on that, but we’re dealing just now with a man, John the Baptist.  And what does Jesus do when He hears John’s confession of doubt?  Does He reject John?  Does dismiss the question?  Does He rail at John for having such a weak faith? 

            No.  Actually, He does for John what He also does for us in time of doubt.  It’s true, He doesn’t give a direct answer, as desirable as we may think that to be.  Rather, He points John… and therefore us… to the Scriptures.  Remember the Prophets, John!  What did Isaiah, for example, say that Messiah would do?  “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see… Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is. 29:18; 35:5-6).  O disciples of St. John… O Christian people… what do you see and hear in the ministry of Jesus?  These very things!  The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and even more!  Lepers are cleansed.  The dead are raised.  And, what is actually the greatest miracle of them all: The poor have the Gospel preached to them.  Who can do these things but Messiah?  So, what’s your answer?  It is right here in the Scriptures, John.  It is right here in the Scriptures, dear Christian.  The Scriptures, which are the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).  The Scriptures, which reveal the Messiah, the Christ.  The Scriptures which give us the Messiah, the Christ.  In a time of doubt, run to the Scriptures, where the Lord Himself is present for you, to assuage your doubt, and to forgive it.

            Of course, we aren’t told what happens when John’s disciples return to Him with Jesus’ response.  But we know.  John believes the Scriptures.  And our Lord’s preaching of the Scriptures is enough to sustain John, all the way to the chopping block.  John is a man, a mensch.  A man knows the hallmark of his calling as a man is self-sacrifice.  A man knows that there are things…, and people… worth dying for… that the Christian faith is worth dying for… and that in dying such a sacrificial death, a man follows in the way of Christ the Crucified.  Again, a woman, too, and when she does, she is the picture of Holy Church, suffering persecution in this world, but trusting her Bridegroom, her Lord, and waiting for better things beyond this life.  But the man is called to die first.  He is called to give his life first.  To protect the Bride and her Children.  To save the Bride and her Children.  As Jesus, THE Man, gave His life for His holy Bride, to save her, to redeem her, to cleanse her, to sanctify her (Eph. 5), and us, her Children.  John did just that.  He was not offended by his Lord.  He followed in the way of Christ.  And so, he is blessed. 

            What is it that makes it so?  What makes John blessed?  What makes John great?  The Greater One.  The only One greater than John.  And that, of course, is the One who gave up everything to become Least in the Kingdom of Heaven, that John, and we, may become great.  That is our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what Christmas is all about.  God Almighty is born a helpless infant in a stable.  To suffer.  To die.  The death of a criminal.  The cross.  To be buried in a tomb.  To gather to Himself miserable criminals, us sinners, who suffer and die and rot in tombs.  To rise… and so raise us to newness of life, eternal life, forgiven life, resurrection life.  Our only greatness is the greatness of the One who became the Least in the Kingdom for us and for our salvation.  St. John is great in Him. 

            Now the Scriptures hold St. John before our eyes.  He is the Lord’s messenger, who prepares His way.  He does it in words, but also as a model, in the way he lives his life, and dies his death.  What ought we to imitate in St. John? 

            Men, be like him in his virtue and courage.  Never ask which way the wind blows, and live not for the soft luxuries of life in this world.  Speak plainly.  Honestly.  Faithfully.  Speak the Lord’s Word.  Especially to your family.  Care for them.  Care for others, whether they care for you, or not.  Point one and all to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Confess your own sins, your weakness, your doubts.  Run to the Scriptures.  Hear and believe the Absolution.  Do your duty.  Even when it is hard.  Sacrifice.  Die.  To yourself, certainly.  Physically, if necessary.  Women, desire this in your men.  Encourage this in your men.  Respect this, and submit to this, in your men. 

            And men and women… Christians… follow John in these things: Repentance.  Confession to Christ.  Absolution from Christ.  Faith in Christ.  Ears that hear His Scriptures.  Eyes that look upon the healing He brings wherever He is present (as He is, here, for you).  Do not be offended by Him.  Blessed are you when you are not.  No, testify to Him.  Speak of Him.  Speak Him forth.  Die for Him.  Live in Him.  Men… be men!  Women… be women!  Christians… be Christians!  And God grant me, and every Christian pastor, to be the kind of preacher John the Baptist was, and is.

            Now, I warned you at the beginning, so if you’re all hot and bothered that I held forth masculine masculinity and feminine femininity as Christian goods to which we should aspire, see me after for a little remedial preaching and the death of Old Adam.  It is a good to be a man in the way of THE Man, Jesus, as was St. John the Baptist.  It is good to be a woman in the way of Jesus’ Bride, the holy Church.  Don’t kick against this.  You were made for this.  You were redeemed for this.  Rest in it and rejoice in it.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                                     

Advent Midweek II

Advent Midweek II: “Be Strong! My Spirit Remains In Your Midst”

December 11, 2024

Text: Haggai 2:1-9

            Temples and Church buildings preach.  They can’t help but preach.  Every Church building preaches something of what the people who gather in it believe about God (or, at least, what they once believed, when the building was built), what is important to them, what is central in their theology.  You know this instinctively.  Consider a big box Church building with theater seating, a stage (often without a cross), screens, maybe a podium front and center, and oftentimes a rock band.  What do you know about their theology?  What does the building preach?  First of all, that a Church is like a Wal-Mart or a WinCo.  Consumer culture.  You choose your preferred shopping center.  If you don’t like this one, move on to the next.  Second, because we want you to choose us over the other guys, your comfort, from the cushy seats, to the omission of any possibly offensive visuals (the cross, the crucifix), is paramount.  Third, what is on the stage?  What is important?  Not Sacraments (no altar!).  Not Christ crucified (as we said, no cross!).  Maybe a Bible (okay, that’s good, but what will be said about it?  Will it be read and preached as the power of God unto salvation [Rom. 1:16], or simply as wisdom for daily life, tips on how to improve this or that aspect of your life, etc.?).  Screens and a rock band suggest that you’re in the right place for entertainment.  And the podium, or the guy in skinny jeans with the microphone meandering the stage?  He’s the star of the show.  He’s hip.  He’s cool.  And now we’ve got it.  This is all about his personality inspiring us to be better people.  Or, more likely, affirming that we already are better people for the sheer act of being here.

            Several of us recently visited the Genesee Valley Lutheran Church on old 95.  Now, that building preaches!  I don’t claim to know what the congregation in Genesee currently believes, but I can tell you what was important to those who built that Church, what was central to their theology.  Jesus Christ, present with His people in the Sacrament of the Altar.  The altar dominates the space.  It is a beautiful old-fashioned and ornate altar with gothic spired reredos, a life-sized statue of our Lord serving as the focal point of the whole building.  The building itself reaches toward heaven with its magnificent steeple, but Christ is down here with us.  Add in the substantial pulpit, accentuating God’s holy Word while minimizing and containing the preacher, as well as the baptismal font (which, in past visits, I’ve seen front and center, that through which you must pass to enter the altar space and receive the Supper) and…  That’s it.  That’s biblical, Lutheran theology.

            This building we’re in now, originally a Lutheran Church, probably once preached all of that.  Now, this building has been through several denominations since, and sadly, someone gutted it.  Our hosts at All Souls have worked to beautify it, thanks be to God (let us never underestimate the importance of beauty in the things of God, one of the three transcendentals, as we call them: Goodness, Truth, and Beauty!), but they, also, have a non-sacramental theology, evident in the empty space of the chancel.  We do our best to fill it up with what we have, but our setup preaches we are a Church without a home, wandering in the wilderness, everything portable, pitching our tent where the LORD leads, but looking forward to a more permanent Temple.  And we have to keep that preaching before our eyes, and in our ears, because otherwise our setup may appear to preach that we are a Church of the good enough… That’s good enough for us.  That’s good enough for God.  It’s functional.  It’s economical.  Why expend our hard-earned money and our best efforts, when this is… good enough?  God spare us from that attitude, from that preaching.  But if we are doing our best with what we have, looking forward to a better future situation (if God so blesses, and it appears He is so blessing), then we are where the returning exiles found themselves, a mere 3 ½ weeks into taking up their tools once again.

            The returning exiles… especially the old folks who remembered Solomon’s Temple in all its glory, now destroyed… they wept, because they knew, in spite of their best efforts, that this new Temple fell far short.  “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory?  How do you see it now?  Is it not as nothing in your eyes?” (Hab. 2:3; ESV).  So the LORD speaks through His prophet.  “Yet now,” He says to Zerubbabel the governor, to Joshua the High Priest, and to the remnant of the people, “Be strong…” (v. 4).  He says it three times for emphasis, a number that I think not insignificant in the Bible.  Might this be a Trinitarian blessing?  “Work,” He says, and this is why you can be strong and work: “for I am with you” (v. 4), and “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not” (v. 5).

            Here is the thing about the preaching of buildings…  Visual preaching, as valuable as it is, must, at some point, be clarified in words.  When the prophets acted out visual dramas, like Jeremiah wearing a wooden yoke, or Isaiah walking around naked, they also verbally had to answer the question, “what does this mean?”  When I ponder a painting, I may come to any number of conclusions about its meaning, but the very best (especially of Western) art has a very specific meaning intended by the artist, and my interpretation is either right or wrong depending on how close I come to his intended meaning.  So it helps when I read an explanation.  See, we cannot always leave beauty in the eye of the beholder.  The same is true of creation itself.  It has a meaning intended by God, the Creator.  “For [God’s] invisible attributes,” Paul says in Romans, “namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (2:20).  The interpretation of nature, also, is not in the eye of the beholder.  It has an objective meaning, but that meaning must be proclaimed by a preacher.  Otherwise, we may know God’s divinity and power, but we will never know, for example, that He loves us and has provided for our salvation by sending His Son, Jesus Christ. 

            So the returning exiles needed a preacher, to reveal God’s interpretation of their building project.  It’s okay that this building doesn’t match the visual splendor of the previous Temple.  Because this is a type, a foreshadowing, of a Glory with which even Solomon’s Temple, in all its splendor, was never arrayed.  I’m about to shake things up, God is saying… The heavens and the earth, land and sea, and all nations, because, “I will fill this house with glory” (Hag. 2:7).  The Glory of the LORD that departed Solomon’s Temple in Ezekiel 11… in other words, the departure of God, present as He had been with Israel… that Glory will now return.  God will be present once again, in this new Temple.  Well, you know how that happens, right?  Jesus comes into this Temple.  It happens about 500 years later.  As we heard last week, for the purification of Mary and His redemption as firstborn (Luke 2:22-40).  As we heard this week, Jesus sitting among the teachers in His Father’s House (vv. 41-52).  And every other time He entered the Temple since.  And He (Jesus) supersedes it.  The Temple, as it turns out, was always and only a foreshadowing of Him.  Jesus of Nazareth is the dwelling place of God with Israel, and with all nations, all who believe in Him.  He is God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us.  And He is the Whole Burnt Offering, the Paschal Lamb, and the Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world.  The Temple is fulfilled in Jesus.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).  “[H]e was speaking about the temple of his body” (v. 21).

            By the mouth and pen of the preacher, God was able to show the exiles that the structure they were building preaches that.  Now, don’t worry about money, He says.  After all, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine” (Hag. 2:8).  Give what you have, and give generously, but just see what I’ll do with it.  “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts.  And in this place I will give peace,” Shalom, “declares the LORD of hosts” (v. 9).  Healing.  Wholeness.  Wellness.  The Peace of sins forgiven on account of Christ.  The Peace that is Christ.  The Peace of the Lord that is with you always.  The Peace He puts upon you with His presence and favor in the Benediction. 

            What the prophet preaches to them, then and there, he also preaches to you, here and now.  It’s okay that we’re here, now, in a borrowed building, with a portable setup (though, let’s never settle for good enough).  The Israelites, after all, had their ram skin Tabernacle in the wilderness, complete with carrying staves for the Tent and all the furnishings.  But, as God gives to us, let’s build.  A building that preaches!  Christ crucified for us.  Christ risen for us.  Christ present with us in His Word, and in the Sacrament of His body and blood.  Christ birthing and bathing us in the Font of Holy Baptism.  Christ bespeaking our sins forgiven, breathing His Spirit upon us and into us, giving us life.  Let’s build a building that preaches all of that.  Be strong.  Work, God says.  Fear not.  For I am with you (Jesus, Emmanuel).  And My Spirit remains in your midst, building you together into a dwelling place for God (Eph. 2:22).  Beloved, fearlessly take up your God-given tools, and get busy.

            And… I say this, hopefully, not entirely selfishly… keep a preacher on hand to tell you what this means.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                      

                     

Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent (C)

December 8, 2024

Text: Luke 3:1-20

            St. John the Baptist is the great Advent Preacher.  He is the promised Elijah, the voice crying out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Luke 3:4; ESV).  The Lord is coming.  He is adventing.  So you’d better be ready.  And to make sure you are, the Lord sends His man, His herald, to precede Him.  To proclaim.  To preach. 

            St. John builds Him a Royal Highway through the wilderness, a thoroughfare right through your heart.  “Repent!” John preaches.  Fill in every valley, all that is lacking in you.  Knock down every mountain, all that is too high, your arrogance, your pride.  Straighten what is crooked, what is bent, what does not conform to our Lord’s will for you.  Like when your parents say, “You’d better straighten up!”  Level whatever is rough, whatever is impure, whatever is tarnished in your words, your thoughts, your deeds, your will.  Smooth it out.  Clean it up.  Why?  Because THE monumental event in all of human history is coming to pass.  All flesh shall see the salvation of God.  Jesus Christ is coming to you. 

            To repent is to turn, or return.  It is to turn from, and return to.  It is a turning from sin and death and unbelief, to God in Christ, to receive His righteousness and life in faith.  And it is not, first of all, your work.  Repentance is God’s gift to you.  It is His work in you, by His Spirit, in His Word and Holy Sacraments.  He gives it in Holy Baptism, where He drowns old Adam in you and raises you up a new creation in Christ.  He gives it in the preaching of His Holy Word, exposing your sins by His Law, crucifying your flesh, raising you to new life by His Gospel as He applies the sin-atoning death and justifying resurrection of Christ to you.  He gives it in the Holy Supper, as Christ enters into you with His true body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, now filling you with His very resurrection life.  This is so important.  Because it would be so easy to see repentance as a work you do within yourself that somehow contributes to your being forgiven, contributes to your salvation.  Not at all.  God works this in you.  God repents you.  He does it in preaching.  He does it in His means of grace. 

            St. John, therefore, comes preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Now, this corresponds, not only to Christian Baptism, of which it is a foreshadowing, but to our continual return to Baptism every time we confess our sins and are absolved.  The people came out to John confessing their sins, to have them cleansed away in the waters of the Jordan, to be taken up by Jesus in His Baptism into us.  So we come before God to speak our sins aloud, to give them over to Him, to be dealt with by Jesus’ blood and death on the cross, to have them spoken away from us, and thus to be absolved, forgiven, cleansed, purified, justified, declared righteous on account of Christ.  This is the great gift of repentance.  Convicting us of sin by the preaching of His Law, as John preached to the crowds in the wilderness, God drives us to Himself, and to Himself alone, for the gift of forgiveness, righteousness, and life. 

            This corresponds to the two parts of repentance.  Melanchthon puts it this way in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (one of the documents in the Book of Concord): “we have attributed these two parts to repentance: contrition and faith.”^[1]  Contrition is godly sorrow over sin when God’s Law has convicted you.  This is the turning of the heart away from evil.  Faith, of course, is trust in God, trust in Jesus Christ, and in His sin-atoning work, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  This completes the turning from evil, and to God in Christ, thus repentance. 

            But then there is this (and this is the part Lutherans are always in danger of forgetting).  Though repentance is essentially complete in the turning, now there results the fruit of repentance.  The Apology continues, “If anyone desires to add a third—fruit worthy of repentance, that is, a change of the entire life and character for the better—we will not oppose it.”^[2]  Thus St. John preaches, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8).  A good tree bears good fruit.  A bad tree bears bad fruit.  You will know the tree by its fruit.  Therefore, God, having fashioned you into a good tree out of a bad one… that is to say, forgiveness and justification being complete for you in Christ… you now do what God has created you to do.  Love your neighbor.  Do good works.  Be God’s hands and feet and mouth in the world.  Be who you are in Christ.  Be who God has created you to be.  Be who God has now redeemed you to be.

            “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”  “What then shall we do?” (v. 10).  The people wonder what on earth kinds of fruits John could be demanding.  He tells them to examine themselves in terms of their station in life, and in relation to their neighbor.  It sounds remarkably like the Small Catechism, doesn’t it?  “Consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments”?  Tax collectors are not to cheat people by taking more than they are authorized to do.  Soldiers are not to extort money from people by means of threat or false accusation, and they are to be content with their wages.  Now, apply this generally to your own vocations.  Examine yourself.  And be brutally honest.  What are you taking that isn’t yours to take?  In what ways are you harming your neighbor, embittering his life by your words and actions, despising him in your heart, holding a grudge against him, bearing him in malice?  Where could you help that you don’t because of selfishness or self-interest or holding others in low esteem?  If you are honest with yourself, as such self-examination demands, it will hurt, because it is the death of old Adam, the flesh.  Repent.  Turn from that.  And to Christ.  Take heart in Christ.  And then?  Get busy.  You’ve been freed to do so.  You’ve been freed to reject sin and selfishness, and to live outside of yourself, in Christ, for others.  Where you have taken… now give, and that generously.  Where you have harmed… help and heal.  Speak words of healing, encouragement, Gospel.  Forgive your neighbor where he has sinned against you.  Bear with him in patience where he is weak.  Contribute, support, give aid.  Put your hand to the plow.  Your money in the hat.  Your prayers in God’s ear.  If you have two tunics, share with the one who has none.  Clothe the naked.  If you have food, share with the one who lacks.  Feed the hungry.  Do your job as for God Himself.  Pay your taxes.  Honor your parents.  Raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  It is kind of silly that we ask with the crowds, “What then shall we do?”  We know what to do.  Do the opposite of whatever old Adam wants.  Be Christians.  Die to self and live in Christ, in faith toward Him, and in fervent love toward one another.

            See, in repentance, a change happens.  Luther says it this way in the Smalcald Articles (another of our confessions in the Book of Concord): “This is what true repentance means.  Here a person needs to hear something like this, ‘You are all of no account, whether you are obvious sinners or saints <in your own opinions>.  You have to become different from what you are now.  You have to act differently than you are now acting, whether you are as great, wise, powerful, and holy as you can be.  Here no one is godly.”^[3]  Everyone must examine himself.  Everyone must turn.  It does no good to fall back into a false sense of security that you are a son of Abraham, or a good old Missouri Synod Lutheran.  Nor should you go on sinning that grace may abound.  May it never be.  Nor should you despair that you can never be forgiven and live a Christian life, for these are the gift of God in Christ.  The call to repentance is aimed at the heart of every one of us.  John is preaching to you.  Examine yourself.  Repent.  Turn in faith toward Christ.  Your sins are forgiven.  For behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Now bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

            And this is how you prepare this Adventide.  God sends his man to preach, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”  And that is what He is doing in you.  Right here, right now, in the preaching of His Word, God is constructing for Himself a highway.  He is giving you the gift of repentance and faith.  He is turning you from sin to Himself.  He is working in you to will and to do what He commands.  Advent is the season of preparation.  Let us heed the prophet’s wilderness cry.  For Jesus is coming.  He is coming for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

 

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[1] Apol. XIIA (V):28; McCain, p. 161.

[2] Ibid.

[3] SA III III:3; McCain, p. 272.

Advent Midweek I

Advent Midweek I: “The Time Has Come: Consider Your Ways”

December 4, 2024

Text: Haggai 1

            The Word of the LORD came to the hand of the preacher.  Write to those in power, the governor, the high priest.  Then, write to the people.  And this is what you are to write: “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord…  Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?  Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways” (Hag. 1:2, 4-5; ESV). 

            It had been nearly 70 years since Solomon’s Temple was destroyed, and Judah went into exile in Babylon.  Now they were beginning to return, under the leadership of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the High Priest.  And they made a good beginning.  They laid the foundation of the new Temple, a House for God to dwell among them once more, and they built an altar for sacrifice (Cf. Ezra 3 and 5).  But then their initial enthusiasm waned, when the work became hard.  The Samaritans, descendants of the Ten Tribes leftover from the Assyrian captivity, mingled with other nations brought in to colonize Palestine, relatives and bitter enemies of the Jews… they opposed the work.  They wrote letters to the emperor, made false accusations, threatened violence.  And you know what happens to a project (especially in the Church) when things get hard, when there is challenge and conflict.  People quit.  They go home.  They become indifferent.  So, for sixteen years, the work was simply abandoned.  There was the foundation.  There was the altar.  There was no Temple, no House for God. 

            But there were paneled houses for the people.  That is to say, whatever the challenge, the returning exiles made sure of their own comfort.  Even some amount of luxury.  Not just houses.  Paneled houses.  And, of course, it isn’t sinful to live in paneled houses, to make sure of the comfort of your own home.  The sin is to disregard the House of God in favor of your own luxury.  To say, “This isn’t the time for that.  This isn’t the time for God.  This is the time for me.  These resources He has given me are for me to spend on me.  This freedom He has given me from Babylonian captivity frees me to be concerned with me.  And anyway, there are the Samaritans.  Facing their opposition is difficult and dangerous.  So, let’s wait.  The right time will come.  Some day.  Another day.  Perhaps when it can be someone else’s problem.”

            Isn’t that the way of the flesh?  Of course, you know, right, that if you’re waiting for just the right time, and just the right circumstances, before undertaking something big, like a building project, or getting married, or having children, or whatever it is, that right time and those right circumstances will never come.  It’s an excuse!  It’s a self-justification for reluctance or indifference.  It’s the flesh.  Crucify it.  Repent. 

            That is why God sends His preacher.  That is why He sends the Prophet Haggai.  “Consider your ways,” he says (Hag. 1:5, 7).  Twice!  Examine yourselves.  Repent.  Have you noticed, dear returning exiles, that though you sow much, you reap little; that though you eat much, you are never satisfied; your drink, your clothes, fail to fill and warm you.  And your wages?  You put them in a bag of holes.  Your wealth… it all slips away.  The heavens withhold their dew.  The earth withholds its produce.  There is drought.  Why?  Because “my house… lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house” (v. 9).  If you shrink at the challenge of building My House, I will give you challenge in maintaining yours. 

            Here is the long and the short of it: God does not bless reluctance, stinginess, miserliness toward Him and toward the things of His House.  He does not bless selfishness.  After all, that is a lack of faith.  “If I give God this money, this time, this labor, this sacrifice, I will lose.  I will lack.  I will never get back what I spend.  And I cannot count on God to provide.” 

            Quite the contrary!  God blesses eager enthusiasm for the things of God, generosity in money, time, yes, labor, sacrifice, and suffering for His Kingdom.  Just watch Him, and see.  Now, this is not to say that you’ll never suffer lack or loss, drought or famine, if you’re generous toward God.  He does lay crosses upon us for our good.  We know that well enough.  But it is to say, God blesses faithfulness.  He does not bless unfaithfulness.  He does not bless indifference.  And it often does happen (and I believe it will happen with the building program of Augustana Lutheran Church) that, if you set yourselves eagerly to the task of building a House for God, in spite of the challenges and conflicts that will arise (we know they will), God will bless it. 

            Because that is what He says through His Prophet Haggai.  The people repent after reading the letters.  And God once again sends His preacher, His messenger (angel is actually the word he uses to describe Haggai), this time preaching the consolation of the Gospel: “I am with you, declares the LORD” (v. 15).  And that is the Promise that makes all the difference.   By this Word of Promise, the LORD stirs up the spirit of Zerubbabel, and the spirit of Joshua.  He stirs up the spirit of the remnant of the people, those returning from exile.  What a wonderful Advent phrase!  Stirs up…  Throughout the Season, three out of four weeks, we pray in the Collect that the LORD would stir things up!  “Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come… Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son…” and again, “Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come.”  “Stir up Your power!  Stir up our hearts!  Come, O Lord, and be present with us… and be in us with Your Spirit… and then nothing can harm us.  No one can hinder us.  Our hands will be strengthened.  Our hearts will be steeled.  Our darkness will be lightened.  Our sorrows turned to joy.”  “I am with you, declares the LORD.”  That is His answer to our Advent prayer.

            And, of course, that is the whole purpose of Advent.  Emmanuel is coming, God with us.  “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare His way.”  Let us consider our ways, and make a course correction.  That is repentance.  That is the preparation.  To turn back from our ways and set ourselves on His way.

            So… repentance.  Stirring up.  Emmanuel, God with us.  But there is even more Advent-y goodness in the Prophet Haggai.  You know that the Hebrew name Yehoshua, Joshua, is translated into New Testament Greek as Iesous, Jesus.  And what is Joshua here in our text, but the High Priest, foreshadowing the new and greater Joshua, our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who makes THE Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins on the altar of the cross.  That is why He came in the flesh.  To save us from our sins.  And then, this Zerubbabel, the governor, as it happens, is a son of David.  And he is a forefather of THE Son of David, our Lord Jesus, born of Mary. 

            It is no accident that these two, along with the people, build the new Temple.  Through them, the LORD Himself is building His true Temple, the dwelling place of God with man.  Christ is the Temple.  Simeon knows it in our Gospel (Luke 2:22-40).  Anna knows it.  And when we are baptized into Christ, we are incorporated into that Temple.  “You are God’s temple,” Paul says, and “God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16).

            And the point is this: God already has His Temple, here, where Christ is, and where He gathers a people to Himself.  That part is done.  By grace alone.  The Church is built.  God did it.  But now, what is the application of all of this to our present circumstances?  The time has come.  The Temple in this place needs a physical House to dwell in.  God’s House.  Our home.  Let us consider our ways.  Let us repent of all reluctance, all indifference.  Christ has freed us from our Babylonian captivity.  Our sins are forgiven.  We have eternal life.  And as for paneled houses and daily bread, well… we are well provided.  Beloved, let your spirit be stirred by the Lord’s Spirit, and His Word of Promise: “I am with you, declares the LORD.”  Build.  Take up the work.  What will happen?  What hardships and challenges will we face?  I don’t know.  But I do know this: God will bless it.  And you will rejoice.

            Postscript: Twenty-four days from Haggai taking up his pen, the people took up their tools and resumed work on the House of the Lord, as the Spirit stirred them.  Nearly 500 years later, the Lord Jesus came into that very edifice, in the flesh, to be presented to His Father.  Simeon’s spirit was stirred to sing the Nunc Dimittis.  God grant us a place to call home, where we, too, may receive the Lord Jesus as He comes into His Temple, and take up Simeon’s song afresh.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.