Fourth Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent (C)

December 19, 2021

Text: Luke 1:39-56

            The Word of God announces the saving presence of Jesus, and imparts the Holy Spirit, who gives faith and joy. 

            Maybe we should call this In Utero Sunday.  On the face of it, the story is about the miraculous mothers, Mary and Elizabeth.  But in truth, the story is about the miraculous babies in their mothers’ wombs, St. John the Baptist, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

            Mary is the true Ark of the Covenant, bearing within her womb God Himself, enfleshed in her little Bambino.  It is no accident that she takes the same route King David took as he brought the Ark up to Jerusalem.  And as she comes to the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth, she serves as the spokesman of her Divine Son.  She greets her cousin, and as happens with the Word of the Lord, Mary speaks it, and it fills the hearer with the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth now knows things that cannot be revealed by flesh and blood, the things of faith.  She knows that the fruit of Mary’s womb is none other than the Lord come to save His people from their sins.  And John, the other bambino in utero, is also now filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Word spoken by Mary fills little John with faith and joy.  Much as David leapt before the Ark of the LORD, St. John leaps in his mother’s womb.  And already as a fetus, the prophet preaches Jesus.  Already in the womb, John points to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

            The New Creation is breaking in here.  The Old is coming to an end in Zechariah and Elizabeth and John.  The priests and the prophets have reached their pinnacle.  The fulfillment of it all has arrived.  Christ has come. 

            John leaps because his salvation is here.  But so also John leaps because his own work has begun.  John prepares the way of the Lord.  Quite literally, that happens by his miraculous conception in the womb of an old woman.  John’s conception is a re-run of Isaac’s miraculous conception by Abraham and Sarah.  Two elderly parents, the mother quite beyond the years of child bearing, nonetheless have a child as the result of God’s Promise.  We could think of others as well.  The barren women of the Old Testament, like Rachel or Hannah, are given sons by the LORD’s intervention.  This says something about the miraculous birth par excellence.  John and his predecessors are miraculously conceived of old or barren women.  Jesus is conceived of a virgin.  John and the others are types of Jesus.  And especially John.  It is what we call in theology, “step parallelism”.  That is to say, what John does, Jesus does, only one step higher.  John goes first.  He prepares the way.  Jesus comes after on the way John prepares.  From miraculous birth through preaching and ministry and all the way to unjust execution by the state, John goes before the Lord.  But John must decrease.  Jesus must increase.  John is the type.  Jesus is the fulfillment.  And it all begins right here at this prenatal meeting of the Lord and His messenger.

            And notice how even as an unborn Child, Jesus commands the scene.  It’s all about Him.  What a profound text this is as a testimony to the worth of the unborn.  Elizabeth rejoices, John leaps, and Mary sings as a result of this little Baby in Mary’s womb.  And Jesus is already doing His saving work.  He endures all the stages of human life, to redeem humanity at every stage.  He is a Blastocyst for blastocysts, a Zygote for zygotes, and Embryo for embryos, a Fetus for fetuses.  What the Lord has redeemed by His incarnation, blood, and death, we dare not treat as disposable.  He is a Newborn for newborns, a Child and a Grownup for children and grownups.  He is a Man for us men and for our salvation.  What our Lord becomes, He redeems.  He takes on our flesh fully, and He saves it and sanctifies it.

            Then there is little Baby John in the womb of his mother Elizabeth.  Six months into the pregnancy, He receives the Word through the voice of Mary, believes, and rejoices.  And he preaches, leaping in the womb.  Now of course, Holy Baptism is ordinarily the means by which God gives His saving gifts to infants.  But what happens here is a great comfort for believing parents who have suffered miscarriages or stillbirths.  This little baby who is not even born, who cannot comprehend what is being said and cannot confess the faith, nonetheless believes on account of the Word.  We know that babies can hear in utero.  They are born already recognizing the voices of their mothers and fathers.  There have been wonderful experiments done where the unborn are exposed to musical stimuli and their physiological reactions and brain impulses are recorded.  Clearly babies can hear inside the womb.  What we know from John is that they also can believe.  Because faith is simply trust in the Lord Jesus.  Just like a baby is born trusting Mom.  He doesn’t know her name.  He can’t understand her words and he can’t say anything about her.  Still, he knows her.  He knows her voice.  And he trusts her.  And in fact, he loves her.  When Christian parents learn they are expecting, they come to Church so that they and their baby can be in the presence of Jesus and His saving gifts, hear the Word of God, and know the voice of Jesus, and they can rejoice that their precious baby belongs to Jesus.

            Mary and Elizabeth are the model Christian mothers, and they teach us what it means to be the Church.  Elizabeth is the Old Testament Church.  She has been waiting all her life for Messiah to come and save His people.  She is married to the priest, and covered by the sacrifices.  And she bears within her the last of the Old Testament prophets, St. John. 

            Mary is the New Testament Church.  Messiah has come to her in mercy and she bears Him within her.  She hears the Word concerning Him and she believes it.  And for this reason, she is blessed.  She, who is poor and lowly and despised in this world, is exalted by God, for the Lord is with her… Literally with her, in her womb. 

            In the same way, the holy Church bears Jesus within her.  He comes to her in mercy.  She hears the Word concerning Him, and believes it, and for this reason she is blessed.  The Lord is with her.  Quite literally, in His Body and Blood in the Supper. 

            And then, having heard and believed the Word of the Lord, Mary sings it.  She confesses the faith in song, the Magnificat, “My soul now magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:36; ESV).  It is the first Christian hymn, and Mary is the first Christian hymn writer, and the Church still sings her song today.  Her song is all about Jesus and what He has done, which is always what Christian hymns should be about.  They should clearly confess Jesus and His redemption for sinners.  Look how the cross is confessed in this marvelous song.  The Lord does His mighty things for the lowly… by becoming lowly, despised, and rejected… the lowest of the low, submitting to death on the cross.  And in this way, He brings down the mighty from their thrones.  Those who are high and exalted in this world and in their own eyes, He brings down.  But He exalts those who are of humble estate, the nothings of this world, the poor, the despised, the sinners, you.  He fills the hungry with good things, but the rich He sends empty away.  Poor little Mary, teenage unwed mother Mary… she is filled!  She is exalted.  She is blessed.  For she is the Mother of God.

            And poor little Holy Church, despised in this world, mocked by the proud and exalted ones, persecuted by the mighty… She is the Bride of Christ.  You poor, despised Christians who know the weakness of your own sinful flesh, whose souls are tortured by the state of things in this world in these gray and latter days, the war and the bloodshed, the slaughter of the precious little babes, the rebellion against our holy and righteous God, like Lot in the midst of Sodom… Jesus calls you friend.  He is not ashamed to call you brother, sister, for you are His own.  He bought you with His Blood.  His Father is your Father.  You are God’s own child, baptized into Christ.  And He breathes His Spirit into you, the breath of faith, the breath of life. 

            So you sing this song, as Mary does.  What is true for her is true for you.  Your soul magnifies the Lord, and your spirit rejoices in God your Savior, because He has looked upon you in the destitution of your sin and death, and He has had mercy upon you.  He forgives your sins, dies for them, in fact, and He is risen and gives you life.  Therefore all generations will call you blessed.  His mercy is for you.  He shows His strength with His arm, the arm nailed to the tree for you.  He scatters the proud, the unbelievers, the scoffers, in the imagination of their hearts.  He brings down the mighty from their thrones.  But you?… You he exalts, at the proper time, in the proper way.  You, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, He fills with Righteousness Incarnate, the Body and Blood of Jesus.  And you are satisfied.  The rich, who scoff at such meager fare, he sends empty away.  He helps you.  He remembers His mercy toward you and He helps you.  Because He promised.  It’s what He promised to Father Abraham.  It’s what He promised to Abraham’s Offspring forever.  The Lord keeps His Word, and you are saved.  So you sing.

            And you leap with the joy of Baby John, here safe in the womb of Mother Church.  For Jesus comes to you and greets you through the voice of Mother Church, through the voice of your pastor, in the Preaching.  And hearing, you are filled with the Spirit, and you believe.  And you are blessed.  “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (v. 45).  That’s Mary.  That’s the Church.  That’s you.

            Christmas is coming, beloved.  Jesus comes.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   

 

Advent Midweek III

Advent Midweek III: “Symbols of Salvation: You Shall Defeat Them as One Man”[1]

December 15, 2021

Text: Judges 6:11-24, 7:2-9

            God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.  He chooses what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27).  God chooses “what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (vv. 28-29; ESV).  In fact, He says to the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

            So it is, that of all people, God chooses Gideon son of Joash to deliver His people from the oppressive terrorism of the Midianites. The “mighty, menacin’ Midianites.”[2]  Every year as the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites and their friends would descend like locusts on the land, devouring everything.  And they must have raped and pillaged along the way, for they drove the Israelites themselves to the hills to hide in dens and caves for fear of them.  This, by the way, we read, was a chastisement from the LORD.  He sent the Midianites in response to Israel’s idolatry.  Let this be a warning to us.  When we reject God, the Lord sends His rod of discipline.  In love, to be sure, for our good, as a Father disciplines His Son.  But it hurts.  It isn’t pleasant. 

            Now we meet Gideon, in a wine press beating out what little bit of wheat he was able to salvage, hiding from the invading hoards.  He is, as he himself says, the least in his father’s house, from the weakest clan in Manasseh (Judges 6:15).  A rather pathetic figure. 

            But there is the Angel of the LORD, sitting under the terebinth, watching Gideon.  And we know who this Angel is.  This is the preincarnate Christ, the Word, the Son of God, and we are not surprised to find Him under a tree.  Now He speaks, and the first thing He announces is His own divine, gracious presence, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor” (v. 12). 

            The LORD is with you, a greeting familiar to us.  We say “The Lord be with you, and with your spirit,” as a confession of faith, and as a blessing that bestows the reality that our God is just as present with us, Emmanuel, as He was with Gideon at the wine press.  In fact, even more present, if we may speak that way, because He is with us incarnate, with us in flesh and blood. 

            And then, “O mighty man of valor.”  That must be a joke.  Remember, Gideon is hiding.  And he’s a whiner.  He complains: “if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us” (v. 13).  Why doesn’t He do something about our enemies?  Why doesn’t He smite them?  Why doesn’t He help us and deliver us?  Our fathers told us all about how this LORD brought us up out of Egypt.  But now?  Now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the power of our enemies.  What do you mean, “the LORD is with” us?

            Isn’t Christ’s response to Gideon’s lament rather curious?  “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (v. 14).  Go in this might of yours?  O mighty man of valor?  Gideon, the weakest of the weak, hiding, moaning and complaining… mighty?  Sent to save?  How?  What might?  Why does the LORD say this? 

            Notice, the Source of the Gideon’s might is not within Gideon.  And that is the key to this whole encounter.  The LORD sends Gideon precisely because He is weak, a nothing, a nobody.  Because then everybody will know it couldn’t possibly have been Gideon who saved Israel, but the LORD working through Gideon, who is with Gideon to “strike the Midianites as one man” (v. 16).  The LORD is the One Man.  He is the Savior.  He is Gideon’s Might.  God’s grace is sufficient for Gideon, and for all Israel.  His presence.  His Word of sending.  “But I will be with you” (v. 16).  That is the Promise.  And no one will see it coming.  It will be a great surprise, a mighty mystery.  God will get all the praise.  Which is to say, the people will once again believe in YHWH.  They will return to Him in repentance and faith. 

            God chooses the foolish, the weak, the things that are not, to accomplish His saving purpose.  His power is made perfect in weakness.  This is how God works.  So when the time comes for the world’s salvation to appear, for God to deliver us from the mighty, menacin’ demons and their satanic lord, from sin, from death, from hell, and from ourselves… He doesn’t come as an invincible warrior, obliterating His enemies in a blaze of glory.  He comes… as a Baby.  Flesh and blood.  The Son of God, to be sure, eternally begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit.  But born to a poor, unwed virgin girl from… Nazareth?...  Born, in of all places, Bethlehem, Ephratha, too little to be counted among the clans of Judah (Micah 5:2)?  In a stable, complete with all the sights and smells one might expect in such a place, surrounded by beasts and dirty shepherds, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in the feed bin, because nobody has any room for Him inside the house?

            Foolish.  Weak.  Just what kind of a God do we have here, anyway?  How is a Baby supposed to save us?  If this is how He is with us (Emmanuel), no wonder the Midianites always walk away with the spoils.

            But things are not as they appear.  And there is the LORD with His tree.  In Gideon, the LORD gives us a picture of how He wins the victory over our enemies.  When He sends Gideon out to deliver Israel, our… hero?... raises an army of 32,000 fighting men.  Well, that’s not bad.  We’ll give those Midianites a contest, at least.  But the LORD says, “That’s too many!  See, I intend to keep My Promise.  The Midianites will be defeated.  But if you do it with that many men, you’ll think you did it, and then you won’t believe in Me.  So dismiss everyone who is afraid.”  Just like that, 22,000 abandon the field.  10,000 left.  Against the locust-hoards of Midian.  Now the situation is dire.  But… still too many!  With a test at the water, God whittles it down to 300 men!  300 who lapped the water like dogs.  Now the situation is hopeless.  Humanly speaking.  But that’s the point.  That’s right where God wants us.  Because now He will come down and win the victory.  And that’s what happens.  Gideon’s army advances on the camp of Midian with trumpets and torches hidden in jars.  They smash the jars and blow the trumpets and before they can raise a weapon of their own, the LORD sets the Midianite camp in such panic and confusion, that each Midianite turns his weapon on his comrade.  The enemies of God’s people defeat themselves.  The LORD wins the victory with an army of nobodies who do nothing. 

            The LORD with His tree.  The Baby grew up to be rejected by His own, His people, whom He came to save.  Our flesh and blood God, mocked, spat upon, tortured, scourged.  An innocent Man condemned to death.  Crucified between two criminals.  A band of nobody disciples scattered in hopelessness. 

            But they should have known.  This hopeless moment is THE great moment of salvation, when the LORD turns His enemies’ weapons on themselves.  He harnesses death and damnation… to deliver the death blow… to death and damnation.  And Satan, and the demons, and our sin and misery.  For in suffering death and damnation, in submitting Himself to the hoards of evil, He suffers the just penalty for our sins, and pays our debt in full.  He faces down our enemies as one Man.  And He defeats them.  For after all, what happens on the Third Day?  The grave is empty.  The stone has been rolled away.  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  There He stands… victorious!

            It is a great surprise.  A mighty mystery.  No one saw this coming.  No one can say that weak and sinful man won this victory.  The LORD did it.  His angel.  On His tree.  And now?

            From the vast army of humanity, the LORD gathers His 300, which is to say, His little Church of redeemed sinners, the weak, the whining, the moaning, and complaining… absolved and renewed by Him.  That is our role in this.  We are the 300.  Nobodies from Nowheresville.  Chosen at the water.  We are given lamps under jars; that is, the Light of Christ, the Spirit, and our Lord’s resurrection Life are in us.  But for now this treasure is hidden in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Cor. 4:7).  And trumpets, to proclaim God’s victory.  That is, the preaching, your daily confession of Christ in the world, lives of love and sacrifice in Jesus’ Name.  But we know it isn’t us who win the victory.  It is our new and greater Gideon, Jesus Christ, who does all that.

            All cloaked in the weakness of flesh and blood, and the holy cross.  The LORD Himself wins the victory.  We just enjoy the spoils, now in a hidden way, in the foolishness of God that is wiser than men, in the weakness of God that is stronger than men, the things that are from the things that are not, Words and water, bread and wine, repentant lives of faith, always looking forward to that Day when the angelic trumpets sound, and the jars are smashed, and what is hidden is revealed.

            So we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.  Advent to us.”  And He does, right here and now.  He comes to this little congregation, the Messiah and Lord of all.  To be with us now in flesh and blood.  To give us His victory.  Under His tree.  At His Altar.  Go then, beloved, in this might of yours.  Jesus is with you, to defeat your enemies as one Man.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

             

 

 

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[1] The theme and a number of the elements in this sermon are taken from Aaron A. Koch, Symbols of Salvation: Foretelling Christ’s Birth (St. Louis: Concordia, 2021).

[2] R. Reed Lessing, https://www.lutheranhour.org/sermon.asp?articleid=648&mode=print

Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (C)

December 12, 2021

Text: Luke 7:18-35

            Gaudete!  Rejoice!  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say”…  Rejoice? (Phil. 4:4; ESV).  What is there to rejoice about?  John is captive in Herod’s dungeon, a prisoner for preaching biblical marriage.  He had the audacity to say, publicly no less, that it is not lawful for Herod to have his brother’s wife.  Now, more than cancelled, here he is in chains, and soon enough his head will be served up on a platter. 

            Some of John’s disciples report to him on the latest developments in Jesus’ ministry.  There was the healing of the centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10).  Just a Word from Jesus.  As the centurion confessed, that’s all it would take.  Our Lord didn’t even enter the centurion’s house.  Then, the raising of the widow’s son in Nain (vv. 11-17).  Jesus actually stopped the funeral procession and touched the bier.  Not a care, apparently, about ceremonial uncleanness.  And then He commanded the young man to rise from the dead!  And that’s just what the young man did!  Can you imagine it?  Wonderful things being reported.  Miraculous things.  The healing of brokenness.  Stopping death dead in its tracks. 

            But it’s hard to be happy for the good fortune of others when your own fortune is to languish in prison for the crime of faithfulness.  So John sends two of his disciples to Jesus.  It is a prayer, really.  It is a lament.  It is a question shaded by doubt, to be sure.  And who could blame John?  He’d spent his whole life preparing the way for this One, and now it’s all coming to an ignominious end.  But it’s also a question of faith directed to the only One who can answer: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (v. 19).  Are You the promised Messiah, the Savior?  Or should we look for someone, or something else to get us out of this fallen, sinful mess of death and damnation?  Has all this been worth it, my hard life of austerity in the wilderness, loneliness, rough clothing, spare diet?  Preaching a message that isn’t popular with the government or the religious establishment?  Faithfulness no matter the cost?  Rejection, imprisonment, and soon, it appears, death?  It’s great You’re doing all these wonderful things for centurions and widows.  But Jesus… what about me?  If You are the One, I’ll go to the chopping block for You.  But if You are not, well… 

            How does Jesus answer John’s disciples?  He could have simply said, “Yes, I’m the One,” but that is not what He does.  Instead, He goes on with the business of healing diseases and plagues, casting out evil spirits, and bestowing sight.  Then He tells John’s disciples to go and tell John what they have seen and heard.  Think about this, John.  You know the Scriptures.  What did Isaiah say the Messiah would do?  “The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Is. 61:1).  Those last words are particularly relevant for John, don’t you think?  “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” (35:5-6).  Tell John what you see: The blind receiving sight.  The lame walking.  Lepers cleansed.  The deaf hearing.  For crying out loud, the resurrection of dead people.  Creation healed of its brokenness.  And tell John what you hear: The poor have the good news, that is, the Gospel, preached to them.  Release from all that holds them captive: sin, death, the very devil.  Righteousness and life, the free gift of a God who loves them.  Look at the Scriptures, John, and you tell me.  Am I the One?  I think you know.  Look for no other Savior!  Trust in me.  Hope in me.  Even as you suffer there in chains for my Name’s sake.  Your deliverance is coming.  You must go before me one more time, into death, to prepare my way.  But then you will have your reward.  Be steadfast.  Be faithful still.  For “blessed is the one who is not offended,” scandalized, “by me” (v. 23).

            And notice that in answering in this way, Jesus has done for John’s disciples, and for John himself, what He’d been doing for all the others, all those wonderful, miraculous things.  He was opening their eyes… to the truth!  He was opening their ears… to His Word.  He was giving them courage to get up and walk His way, cleansing them from all sin and doubt, and raising them from spiritual death by giving them the gift of faith.  Good news for the poor.  Even for poor John.  You will be released from your chains.  Soon.  Not in the conventional way, to be sure.  But in a better way.  God’s way.  Into true freedom, life, and light. 

            The world doesn’t understand this, and we have our troubles with it, too.  That is why Jesus turns to the crowd and asks them what they went out into the wilderness to see.  What did you expect?  The world has its expectations of preachers.  Reeds shaken by the wind; that is, bending before the ever-shifting breeze of popular opinion.  Men dressed in soft clothing, prosperity preachers who will let you in on the secret of gaining power, riches, and success.  But that is not how things work in the Kingdom of God.  If you went out to see a prophet, real and true, you got one in John.  Camel hair and leather.  Locusts and wild honey.  Preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Calling a spade, a spade, and the crowds, a brood of vipers.  No deference to Pharisees or Chief Priests.  Blunt and unsparing even of Herod.  Insisting on God’s true doctrine, even if it means the death of him.  And it does.  Suffering.  Martyrdom.  And yet, “among those born of women none is greater than John” (v. 28).  Except the Least, who is lesser yet.  And that, of course, is the Lord Jesus Himself, who will also be arrested for preaching the truth, an innocent and righteous man who will likewise suffer an ignominious death, the death of the cross for the sins of the world.  In this way, Jesus is the Greatest of those born of women.  That’s how it works in the Kingdom of God.  In fact, this is precisely how Jesus wins His Kingdom. 

            The world is tone-deaf to this Gospel.  When the world plays the flute, they can’t understand why the Christians don’t dance.  When the world mourns, they can’t understand why the Christians don’t weep.  It’s because we’re a part of this upside down and backwards Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  When the world calls the tune, it calls evil good, and good evil.  The Christian calls a thing what it actually is.  John calls upstanding Pharisees to repentance, baptizes tax collectors and sinners for forgiveness, and tells Herod he can’t have sex with someone just because he thinks he’s in love.  It is always tempting for us to dance to the world’s tune, to think as the world thinks, to compromise wherever the world demands.  Because it’s easier.  Because it’s comfortable.  But don’t do it.  Repent where you have.  Faithfulness to our Lord and His Word will always mean suffering at the hands of the unbelieving world, and even dissonance within ourselves between the Old Adam and the New Creation in Christ.  But John is our example in this.  As he suffers in the midst of temptation and doubt, he asks Jesus.  He sends to Jesus.  He laments to Jesus.  He prays to Jesus.  “Are You the One?  Because things are really hard, here.  And I’m hurting.  And I’m scared.”  And then he listens to Jesus, and to His Word.  “What do you see and hear in me?” Jesus replies.  “How does that compare with what the Scriptures say, what God has always said?”  And that is John’s answer.  And it is yours.  Jesus is the One.  Look for no other. 

            When you look at all that Jesus did, and all that He is doing, here and now, in His Church, and for you… When you listen to His voice in the Gospel and throughout the Scriptures… When you come here before Him in your suffering and poverty, lamenting, asking, praying… what does He do, but open your eyes to see Him and His perfect salvation and healing: open your ears to hear His voice as He preaches the Good News, the Gospel, of release from bondage; cleanse you of all your sins; set you on your feet to follow in His train; in fact, command you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, to arise and live in Him, now by faith, soon bodily in the New Creation, even as He is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity?  See, He does for you what He did for St. John, and for John’s disciples, and the people in the crowd that day.  Sometimes He grants physical healing now, for a time.  But always in the preaching of the Gospel He grants eternal healing and release from all that afflicts and binds you, spiritually now, bodily on that Day when He comes again in glory. 

            So, what is a little suffering for faithfulness now in comparison with that?  Languishing in a dungeon isn’t pleasant.  And beheading hurts, though only for a moment.  It isn’t fun when the world is frustrated with you, cancels you for what you believe and confess, and even leads some of your friends and family to reject you.  But I am convinced, as St. Paul says, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).  Just keep your eyes and ears on Jesus, on the things He does and says.  He will bring you all the way through.  Remember how things work in the Kingdom of God.  In suffering and death there is victory… In Jesus’ suffering and death for you, and, if need be, your suffering and death for Him.

            Therefore, Gaudete!  Rejoice in the Lord always!  Paul writes these words from a prison cell.  And he, like St. John, would lose his head as the price of faithful preaching.  Still, he says it again, rejoice!  Why?  How, in light of present suffering?  Because Jesus advents.  He has come to redeem and to save.  To bind up the broken and release what is bound.  And He is coming again.  To set right all wrong.  To bring before your eyes what you now see only by faith, to raise you from death, and to set you free.  Gaudete, indeed.  Rejoice in the Lord.  For Jesus is coming to make all things new.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                       

Advent Midweek II

Advent Midweek II: “Symbols of Salvation: The LORD Sets Up His Tent Among Us”[1]

December 8, 2021

Text: Ex. 40:17-21, 34-38; John 1:14-18

            At risk of giving away the surprise ending of our Sunday morning Exodus Bible Study, the erecting of the Tabernacle and God’s filling it with His Glory is the grand finale of the whole book.  This is the entire goal of the exodus from Egypt, the plagues, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea.  “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 8:1; ESV).  The serving of the LORD is not, actually, doing things for Him.  It is rather that He comes down to make His Tabernacle among His people, to dwell with His people, right in their midst, as Immanuel (God with us), in a physical structure covered with skin, so that He may do things for them, for their redemption and for their salvation.  “Let my people go,” release them from bondage, “that they may serve me,” that is, that I may bring them into Divine Service, where I commune with them, and pour out my gifts upon them, and lead them to the Promised Land. 

            As it turns out, Exodus 40 is a Christmas text, and the Tabernacle in the wilderness is nothing less than an embodied prophecy of the Incarnation of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

            Perhaps a little tour of the Tabernacle and its furnishings will be edifying.  It was on the one-year anniversary of the Passover that Moses erected the skeletal structure of the Tabernacle, its bases and frames, its poles and pillars.  You know how it is when you put up a tent.  This Tabernacle was to be ready for travel.  For as the people journeyed through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land, the LORD Himself would go with them.  In fact, He would lead them by His presence in the fiery Pillar of Cloud, the Angel of the LORD.  Whenever the Cloud was taken up from the Tabernacle, the people arose and journeyed.  And whenever the Cloud was not taken up from the Tabernacle, the people settled in to camp. 

            The structure was covered ram skins and goat skins and curtains of goat hair.  We learn that from Exodus 26.  This may call to mind for us the coverings of animal skins God made for Adam and Eve in the Garden after they had sinned, to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3).  Or perhaps it may remind us of the ram caught in the thicket which God provided as a sacrifice in place of Abraham’s son, Isaac (Gen. 22).  Or perhaps we may think of the scapegoat over which the sins of the people were confessed, which was then sent out into the wilderness to Azaael, bearing the sins of the people (Lev. 16).  Or any of the animal sacrifices instituted to cover over sin and mediate God’s presence.  You see, the very skin of the tent preaches atonement.

            In the court of the Tabernacle was the altar for offering those animal sacrifices.  And then there was the heart and center of the whole thing, the Tent of Meeting, housing the Holy Place with the lampstand, and the altar of incense, and the table for the Bread of the Presence.  And the Most Holy Place (or Holy of Holies), separated from the Holy Place by a curtain, wherein dwelt the Ark of the Covenant, the throne of God. 

            The Ark, a chest containing a jar of the holy manna, Aaron’s budding staff, and the two tablets of the Testimony, the very Word of God written with His own finger, the Ten Commandments.  This calls to our minds first of all the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore within her the Word-incarnate, the Son of God, who would bear the staff of the cross, and give Himself to His people as the Bread of Life.  And, of course, it calls to mind the mystery of the Incarnation itself, as the eternal Word, the Testimony of God, took up residence in the flesh of a man, Jesus of Nazareth… Jesus, who would perfectly fulfill the Commandments in our place, and be the Sacrifice of Atonement for all our transgressions against them. 

            And on top of the Ark, the Mercy Seat, where God sits, attended by the golden Cherubim.  This was, of course, the Atonement Cover, upon which the priest sprinkled the blood of sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people, to come between God and the Commandments they had broken.  “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Ps. 32:1)… covered with the Blood of Sacrifice.  That God may dwell with His people, Immanuel, God with us. 

            When Moses erects the Tabernacle, the Cloud descends upon it and covers it, and the Glory of YHWH fills it.  The Cloud, the Glory… This is the Angel of the LORD, the Messenger of God, the Word… This is the preincarnate Christ.

            It is this very text, this Christmas Gospel, Exodus 40, that St. John the Evangelist preaches as fulfilled when “the Word became flesh and dwelt”… literally tabernacled, set up His tent… “among us.”  And “we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

            The Cloud, the Glory of YHWH, the Angel of the LORD, the Word, came down and put on skin.  Human flesh and blood.  A human body and soul.  To demand of Satan, sin, of hell itself, and of all that enslaves us: “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”  Release them from their bondage, that I may bring them into Divine Service, in my Holy Church, where I commune with them, and pour out my gifts upon them, and lead them on their journey into the New Creation, heaven, resurrection.

            He puts on skin, bears our flesh, that He may be Immanuel, God with us… God with us all the way, down to flesh and bone.  And He puts on skin, bears our flesh, that He may bear our iniquities, and be the Sacrifice of Atonement on the cross for all our transgressions.  He is the Scapegoat.  He is the Ram caught in the thicket.  It is in this very skin that He is crucified, dead and buried.  His blood is the Atonement Cover.  And it is in this very skin that He is risen from the dead, lives even now, and reigns eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It is in this very skin that He sits now in heaven at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  And it is in this very skin that He will return, and raise us up in our skin, to live with Him eternally. 

            And even now, as we walk about in this skin, this flesh and blood, He has done something that changes everything about this body of death.  In taking it on Himself, He has redeemed it.  And He sanctifies it.  So that even now, in spite of all appearances, this body sitting in the pew, and the body sitting next to you… the bodies all around you, and even this sad sack of bones in the pulpit… this body is a Tabernacle of Christ and a Temple of His Holy Spirit.  So He washes this body at the font, breathes His Spirit into this body in His life-giving Word, and puts His crucified and risen body into this body at the altar. 

            And when this body of death dies, you do not die.  You live with Christ, where His body is, in the Tabernacle of heaven.  And then, at the Last, when Jesus comes again, bodily, He will raise up your body.  As Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27).  In fact, on that Day, what was prefigured by the Tabernacle and the Temple, and fulfilled in Jesus’ body, will be manifest to us in the New Heaven and Earth, the Promised Land.  St. John again preaches to us, this time in Revelation: “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place’,” the Tabernacle, “‘of God is with man.  He will dwell’,” tabernacle, set up His tent, “‘with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4).  Immanuel.  God with us.  Fully and forever.

            As it happens, not only is the Tabernacle the grand finale of the Book of Exodus.  It is the grand finale of the whole Bible.  And of your life in Christ.  It is the Christmas Gospel.  God with you, covered in skin.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.               

 

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[1] The theme and a number of the elements in this sermon are taken from Aaron A. Koch, Symbols of Salvation: Foretelling Christ’s Birth (St. Louis: Concordia, 2021).

Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent (C)

December 5, 2021

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. 

            Repentance is a turning from sin and death and unbelief, to God in Christ, to receive His righteousness and life in faith.  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 your work, as something you do within yourself that contributes to your being forgiven.  Not at all.  God works this in you.  God repents you. 

            St. John comes preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  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.  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 preaching.  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.