Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (A)

December 15, 2019

Text: Matt. 11:2-15

            One can hardly blame John for his question.  He had preached Jesus as Righteous Judge, One who came with His winnowing fork in His hand, to clear His threshing floor, the One who would lay the ax at the roots of the tree, the One who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.  Now John sits in the dungeon (for his intolerance of sexual perversity, of course… Herod should not have his brother’s wife), and there does not appear to be any threshing or chopping down or fire going on.  Where is the judgment?  Where is the justice?  John has given his whole life to this endeavor of preparing the way, preaching repentance, hearing confession, baptizing in the River Jordan, wilderness survival, locusts and wild honey, camel’s hair and leather.  Now, chains and darkness and filth, and soon, the ax laid not at the root of the trees, but upon John’s neck.  All for what?  Faithful preaching, that’s what.  So are you the One?  Did I bet on the right horse, here?  Has all of this been worth it?  Or is there someone else to come, another hope?  Is someone else the Messiah? 

            John is not the first prophet to ask these questions.  Elijah, whose office John now occupies, thinking he was the last Christian on earth, sat down under a broom tree and begged God that he might die (1 Kings 19).  All the prophets suffered for their preaching.  They all had their crises of faith.  They all longed for deliverance and the day of Messiah.  Every pastor has these moments, too.  Even those of us whose suffering is not even in the same universe as that of the prophets.  We’ve all wondered if we’ve devoted our lives to this for nothing, if it’s all worth it.  If God will be faithful to His Promises.  And now it’s time for you to be honest.  You’ve wondered about such things, too.  Like John’s disciples, sent by him to ask Jesus.  You’ve doubted.  You’ve questioned.  Where are you, Lord?  Why is this happening to me?  I’ve been faithful, but the wicked seem to prosper while I suffer.  How long, O Lord, how long?  Will you not hear?  Will you not deliver?  Are you the One, or shall I look for another? 

            Jesus does not rebuke John or his disciples for their question.  Nor does He rebuke you.  Instead, He points to His Words, His works, and to the Holy Scriptures.  Tell John what you have heard and seen.  You’ve been witness to the Gospel in action.  The blind receive their sight.  The lame walk.  Lepers are cleansed.  The deaf hear.  The dead are raised up.  Are these not the messianic signs proclaimed by the prophets of old, recorded in the Sacred Writings?  Are these not enough to show you that the Creator has broken in to His creation to heal it of its brokenness?  And miracle of miracles, the poor… you know, the despised, the wretches, the rejects, the sinners… those who have no resources of their own, helpless beggars in need of a savior… That’s you, John.  That’s you, disciples.  That’s you, dear Christian… the poor have the Good News preached to them.  You hear the Gospel.  You hear that your sins are forgiven.  Your salvation has arrived.  From outside of you.  From heaven.  God in the flesh.  Messiah.  Your Redeemer.  Your Hope.  Your Joy.  The One has come. 

            And John’s preaching is precisely what you need to prepare you for this Good News.  After all, what good is the preaching of salvation when you don’t realize you need to be saved?  What good is the preaching of forgiveness when you don’t know you have sins to be forgiven?  John comes preaching and baptizing for repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  And he calls a spade a spade.  He leaves no hearer with the sham comfort of self-righteousness.  He exposes all.  He convicts all.  And that means you.  And then he points you, and all, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  He is the One, says John.  I am not.  I am not even worthy to stoop down and untie His sandals.  But He… He must increase.  I must decrease.  I baptize you with water.  He will baptize you with fire and the Holy Spirit.  My baptism is a baptism of repentance.  His Baptism saves you.  He is the One.  Listen to Him.  Follow Him. 

            This, by the way, is the kind of preaching you should demand of your pastor.  A dear saint in Michigan, now with the Lord, used to say, “I like my religion like I like my whiskey… give it to me straight!”  He was absolutely right.  You want a preacher who will call you to repentance like St. John would.  You want a preacher who won’t give you any wiggle room, no excuses, no prospect for self-justification.  Now, you won’t like it, of course, but that’s not the point.  The preacher must nail you with God’s very real Law for your very real sins.  The actual things you don’t like to name, that you don’t want to admit.  Not just a general, “Yes, yes, you’re a sinner, you have your weaknesses, you’re not perfect,” wink, wink, nod, nod.  But the Ten Commandments.  The actual things God says to do and not do.  Stop gossiping.  Don’t be so stingy.  Herod should not have his brother’s wife.  You should not commit adultery.  Love your spouse and your children.  Stop looking at illicit things on the internet.  You must not live together with your boyfriend or girlfriend or have sex before marriage.  I know you don’t want to hear it, but homosexuality is sin.  Abortion is sin.  Stop hating your neighbor.  Stop holding other sinner’s sins against them.  Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.  Turn.  Return to the Lord your God, for like a wandering sheep, you have gone astray.  That is the winnowing.  That is the ax laid at the roots of unfruitful trees.  Any preacher who won’t tell you the truth unvarnished is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Flee him.  John is no reed shaken by the wind, and your pastor shouldn’t be either.  He should not scratch itching ears.  He should not tickle fancies.  He’s not in it for the soft clothing and the luxury.  He’s not in it to be liked.  If he is, he’s a fraud.  

            But so also, the preacher must take the sinner under his load of sin to the place of encounter with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, with Jesus who takes away your sin.  And that is the water of Holy Baptism, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  That is the Absolution, the forgiveness of sins.  The preaching of the Gospel always points away from the preacher to the Sacrifice for sin, to the Lamb, to the cross, to Christ, and Him crucified.  The preacher should never preach himself.  Only Christ.  Christ must increase.  The preacher must decrease.  In this way the eyes of the blind are still opened.  Which is to say, those born spiritually blind are given faith to see the Lord Jesus and His redemption.  The lame still walk.  You are raised up to walk in the light of Christ and do good works of love for your neighbor.  Lepers are still cleansed.  Your sins are forgiven.  The deaf hear.  Your ears are opened by the Word of Christ, to hear the Word of Christ.  The dead are raised up.  Spiritually now.  Fully, bodily, when Jesus, the Risen One, comes again.  The miracles Jesus performed in His earthly ministry are ever and always signs pointing to this reality.  So also the Scriptures.  All the Law and the Prophets pointed to this.  This One.  Jesus.  John is the greatest of the Old Testament preachers, in fact, the greatest of all those born of women.  But the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.  Which is to say Jesus, who became the least and the last for John and for you. 

            Which brings us back to the question.  Are you, dear Jesus, the One who is to come, or should we look for another?  It’s a serious thing.  How can you know that this is all worth it?  That you are right to believe in Jesus Christ, to trust Him in all things, to live in Him, to suffer for Him, to die in Him?  How do you know that God has not forsaken you when you are weak and sinful and suffering, when the Church is despised and rejected, when the Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force?  When John is beheaded?  When the martyrs are tortured and killed?  How do you know God loves you when you suffer in body, mind, and spirit?

            The proof of God’s love for you, and of your salvation, is hanging on the tree.  The violent took Jesus by force and nailed Him there.  Where all your sins were put to death.  Where your death was suffered by Another.  Where the very devil lies crushed under His feet.  Do you see that corpse hanging there?  That is God’s body, crucified for you.  So that when you suffer, He is in it with you, because when He suffered, He was in it for you.  That is the price of your redemption.  That is the payment for your sin.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by Him.  That is why we celebrate Christmas.  Not just because a baby is born, but because this Baby is God, who is born to die.  And this Man is risen from the dead.  That is God’s answer to the question.  That is Jesus’ answer to John and his disciples, and to us all.  He dies.  He rises.  He raises you.

            So your deliverance is certain, your salvation assured.  And in the midst of your afflictions, like St. John in the dungeon, you wait upon the Lord.  You know He has defeated your enemies.  He lives and He reigns.  And He is coming back for you, with justice and righteousness and eternal life.  In the meantime, where is He when you need Him (as you always do)?  You know.  What do you hear and see?  The Words.  The water.  The bread and wine.  He’s in the preaching and the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He’s in that which is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Which is to say, He is with you, bodily, to the end of the age.  Are you the One, dear Jesus, the One for whom we’re waiting?  I AM, says Jesus.  There is no other.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

             

Advent Midweek II

Advent Midweek II: “Advent with the Prophet Isaiah: The Root and Shoot of Jesse”

December 11, 2019

Text: Isaiah 11:1-10

            Jesus is the King.  That is the glorious good news the Prophet Isaiah preaches to us tonight.  Our text this evening is packed full of the goodness of our theology.  We get the two natures in Christ: He is the Shoot that grows out of the stump of Jesse.  He is the Son of David who sits on David’s throne forever, the Promised Messiah.  This is His human nature.  But He is also the Root of Jesse, the Source, the LORD who makes the Promise and brings it about.  This is His divine nature. 

            We have the Holy Trinity appearing: “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him” (Is. 11:2; ESV), Spirit, Father, Son. 

            We have the teaching of the Spirit Himself and His resting upon Jesus with the fulness of His sevenfold gifts, the Spirit of the Father, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Spirit of God who is God and whom the Father pours out upon us in Christ. 

            We have justification and judgment and the Great Reversal: The poor and meek are declared righteous by the Righteous Judge, who does not practice partiality, as the kings of the earth do, but who gives His own righteousness to those who have none of their own, and condemns those who bring their own so-called righteousness to the table as though it should impress Him. 

            We have the efficacy of the Word: He strikes the earth with the rod of His mouth.  His Word does what it says.  Sinners are brought to repentance and faith.  Our enemies, sin, death, the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature, are brought to nothing. 

            We get a sneak peek of creation restored.  Out with the old and in with the new.  Former prey dwelling with former predators in peace.  No fear.  No violence.  No death.  Only safety.  Security.  Joy.  Because this Promised King has come and restored all things. 

            And we have evangelism.  The Word goes out.  The nations come to the Holy Mountain we heard about last week, Zion, the dwelling place of God with men, Christ and His Church.  They are called and gathered by the Spirit in the Gospel.  The earth is filled with the knowledge of the LORD.  And it is that Root of Jesse, who is the Shoot of Jesse, who stands as a signal for the people, the Crucified who is risen from the dead.  To Him the nations come.  And “his resting place shall be glorious” (v. 10), which Dr. Luther reminds us, means that by His rest in death, He won us for His Kingdom.  And now He is glorious, which is to say, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.[1] 

            Jesse had been cut off.  He’s a stump, and a rotting one at that.  Jesse, remember, is the father of King David, the great King of Israel, the man after God’s own heart, to whom God promised that one of the sons of his body would sit on his throne (Ps. 132:11), that David would never lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel (Jer. 33:17).  But now Assyria has come and taken away the northern tribes, and Isaiah is prophesying the exile of Judah to Babylon and the end of the Davidic Kingship in Jerusalem.  And so it happens in 586 B.C.  Judah goes into captivity.  Jerusalem is sacked.  The Temple is destroyed.  It is the end of the line of kings.  It is punishment for their rejection of the LORD.  And even at the end of 70 years, when they are released by Cyrus the Persian to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, there is no son of David to sit on the throne.  That will have to wait for Messiah.  The priests ruled in the time of the Maccabees.  Then the Romans set up Herod as King.  The stem of Jesse had shriveled up and died.[2]  You see, this is how our God works.  There can only be resurrection after there has been death.  At the very moment when there is absolutely no hope of the Promise being fulfilled, when all appears to be lost and all human recourse has come to an end, then God acts.  He acts purposely and decisively for our salvation.  Luther says, “God does not help except in the greatest trouble and in the utmost need.”  He does this “so that it may be evident that the matter is managed by the hand of God, not by the plans of men.”[3]

            So where is the fulfillment of the Promise to David, to all Israel, and to the nations?  He is wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.  The Son of God advents, He comes, in the flesh, the Son of David, the King.  A Shoot springs from the stump of Jesse.  Known only to shepherds and a poor virgin girl with her fiancé, Hope is born in Bethlehem.  As the sages from afar come to know in the appearance of the star, this is He who has been born King of the Jews. 

            By the way, why “stump of Jesse,” and not “stump of David”?  After all, Messiah is known as the Son of David, and all are expecting a descendent of the great king to restore the kingdom to Israel.  But here God indicates Jesse to show that Jesus is not just David’s Son.  He is David’s Lord.  He is not just a descendent of David, He is the new and greater David.  “Great David’s greater Son!” as we sing in the Epiphany hymn (LSB 398:1).  In other words, Jesus is the true King of Israel of whom David was but a type.  David, and Saul before him, were anointed with the Holy Spirit when God chose them to rule over Israel, but Jesus was anointed with the Spirit in all His fulness at His Baptism in the Jordan River, when the Spirit came to rest upon Him as a dove and the Father declared from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).  This anointing is the fulfillment of tonight’s prophecy, and it is why Jesus is called Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. 

            As God, of course, the Son has the Spirit from all eternity.  But now in His Baptism, as a man, Jesus receives the Holy Spirit.  And not as other saints receive Him, or as we receive Him.  Jesus receives the Spirit from the Father in the same way He has the Spirit from all eternity in His divine nature.  Fully.  Completely.  So that the Spirit who proceeds from the Father likewise proceeds from and through the Son in the flesh of Jesus Christ.  It is an exaltation of our Lord’s humanity.  It is Jesus who possesses the Spirit.  It is Jesus who pours Him out upon us in our own personal Pentecost at the baptismal font, and as often as we return to our Baptism in the Word and in the Supper. 

            Now this Kingdom of Jesus is different from all earthly kingdoms.  In other kingdoms, a nation “of people is provided with a king.  In this case, the King is born first, and then He gathers a people for Himself.”[4]  From all nations.  That is, by the Spirit whom He pours out in Baptism and preaching, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies a people for His own possession, a people whom He won for Himself by His suffering, blood, and death. 

            And this, our King is different than all earthly kings.  He is not the sort of King who judges his subjects based on their own worthiness.  Nor does He judge on the basis of what His subjects can do for Him.  He judges without partiality, not by appearances (what His eyes see and His ears hear), but in righteousness and with equity.  What a contrast to the unrighteous kings of Israel and Judah who lost the kingdom and the nation into exile.  What a contrast to our politicians.  Jesus judges in this way: To the poor and the meek, those who have no resources of their own, no righteousness to present to Him, nothing to bring to the table before God but their own misery, sin, and death, this King gives His own righteousness.  Justification, we call it.  Freely.  By His rich grace.  We are the poor in Spirit to whom belongs the Kingdom of heaven, the meek who shall inherit the earth (Matt. 5:3, 5).  Those who bring their own righteousness to the table are struck down by the rod of His mouth.  They are condemned by His Word.  Some are killed.  Others are brought to repentance and faith.  They are the wolves, the leopards, and the lions who are brought into the Kingdom to dwell with the lambs and the goats and the little children, the Christians.  We can’t see it now, this glorious reality.  But we will, on that Day. 

            On that Day, all will know that Jesus is King.  Every tongue will confess and every knee will bow (Phil. 2:10-11).  Then the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD (Is. 11:9).  Then we will see all the nations gathered before Him, the Signal, the Crucified who stands, the Lamb who was slain but is risen from the dead.  We will be gathered with them on His holy Mountain, His Zion, and we will worship Him before His throne.  And we will rest in Him, in His glory.  The Root has become the Shoot.  Life comes from death.  What was dead now lives.  Jesus bore the sin of the world on the cross… bore it unto death.  And He is risen from the dead.  And so the Kingdom of David is fulfilled.  Jesus reigns.  And He rules all things for you.  He defeats your enemies and brings you into His Kingdom.  He forgives your sins and judges you righteous, giving you His righteousness as a gift.  He pours out His Spirit upon you with His sevenfold gifts.  And so you are His.  By His doing.  And He is yours.  By faith which He Himself gives you by His Spirit.  It is good to belong to the Lord.  It is good that Jesus is our King.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.          

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[1] Martin Luther, Lectures on Isaiah Chapters in Luther’s Works, American Edition (55 vols.; ed. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann; Philadelphia: Muehlenberg and Fortress, and St. Louis: Concordia, 1955-86), 16:124, hereafter LW.

[2] LW 16:118.

[3] Ibid.

[4] LW 16:117.

Second Sunday in Advent

Second Sunday in Advent (A)

December 8, 2019

Text: Matt. 3:1-12

            Busy, busy, busy.  That is what we are in these weeks before Christmas.  We’re so busy doing all the things to be done, holiday parties, Christmas programs (or Winter programs, in case the word “Christmas” somehow traumatizes you), shopping of course, baking, cooking, cleaning, Christmas cards or Christmas letters (if you still actually use paper products to do that sort of thing), trees to trim, halls to deck, tinsel and glitter (both of which I’m against), packages to wrap, Tylenol to take, just a spoon full of sugar, or something a little stronger, to make the medicine go down.  We spend so much time in all the busy-ness and preparation that by the time Christmas actually arrives, we’re done.  By December 26^th it all comes crashing down, and we might even be tempted to say, “Thank God!”  Especially if you’re among the many, many people for whom “the holidays” are not so much full of comfort and joy as they are depression and grief.  And all that fake holiday cheer doesn’t make anything better.  It just makes the situation worse.  See, that’s what you get in the end with the world’s version of Christmas.  Exhaustion at best.  Hopelessness at worst, when Christmas doesn’t pan out the way you’d planned and you’re left with the darkness and cold of the bleak midwinter. 

            That is why the Church does Advent.  The world is already waist deep in jingle bells and last year’s fruitcake.  The Church’s Christmas celebration hasn’t yet begun.  Oh, it will.  We’re not a bunch of Scrooges, and Advent is no Grinch.  We’ll do Christmas right, for twelve whole days, starting sundown on the 24^th.  And by the way, in Christian freedom, sure we’ll go to the office party and sing the silly Christmas songs, and I really hope Charles Zillinger wears his Santa hat again this year.  But the Church is in a season of preparation.  Advent is a time to prepare.  It is a time to hear the preaching of St. John the Baptist: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Matt. 3:3; ESV).  The world thinks Advent is about calendars filled with chocolates.  You know that Advent is about a calendar filled with anticipation and preparation for the Lord’s coming among us with the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

            How does one prepare for such a coming?  Again, John gives us the answer.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 2).  Knock down the mountains.  Fill in the valleys.  Make the road straight and true.  Humble yourself before the Lord.  Examine yourself.  Confess your sins.  Mourn and weep.  Sweep out the old leaven.  Turn from your navel gazing, your selfishness, your idolatry.  Turn from your lust, your greed, your covetousness.  Return to the Lord.  Cling to Him in faith.  Let go of your anger.  Forgive.  Be forgiven.  Let go of your life and yourself.  Be willing to suffer.  Be willing to give it all up for the sake of the Gospel.  Jesus is coming.  That is the point.  Not the tree or the presents or the cups of cheer.  Not the holiday greetings and gay happy meetings.  Not even family.  Beware that idol, by the way, which is always trotted out this time of year.  Yes, family gatherings are great, especially at Christmas time, but even Christian churches decide not to have Christmas services because “Christmas is a time for family!”  What the holly-jolly Christmas is that?!  It’s Jesus’ birthday and you’re not coming to His house?!  That’s like telling Grandma you’re going to celebrate her birthday by staying home and not talking to her.  I’ve even had some Lutherans tell me this… to their shame. 

            Repent!  This entails a complete turn, a radical transformation.  Dr. Luther preaches to us in his Smalcald Articles, one of our Lutheran confessions contained in the Book of Concord: “This is God’s thunderbolt.  By the Law He strikes down both obvious sinners and false saints.  He declares no one to be in the right, but drives them all together to terror and despair.  This is the hammer.  As Jeremiah says, ‘Is not My word like . . . a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?’ (23:29).  This is not active contrition or manufactured repentance,” by which Luther means works of satisfaction prescribed as penance after confession, or the self-inflicted punishments of the monastics.  Rather, “It is passive contrition,” that is, “true sorrow of heart, suffering, and the sensation of death.”   This is what you need to hear.  “‘You are all of no account, whether you are obvious sinners or saints .  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.”[1]  This is what John is preaching when he bids us bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8).  What are the sins that beset you?  Knock it off!  Stop doing them.  Confess them.  Be forgiven in the Name of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  Live the new life He has given you to live in Him, His life, crucified and risen for you.  Love your neighbor.  Serve your neighbor.  Expend yourself for your neighbor.  Live for him.  Die for him.  Forgive him.  Pray for him.  Provide for his needs.  Feed him.  Clothe him.  Visit him when he is sick or in prison.  Yes, give him Christmas presents.  Give your money.  Be generous.  Confess the Gospel to him.  Be faithful in all your vocations, every relationship in which God has placed you.  For his sake, not for your own. 

            And don’t be like the Pharisees and Sadducees who come to John’s Baptism, but want nothing to do with repentance.  Do not be like the Jews who boast that they have God’s favor simply by virtue of the fact that they are Abraham’s children according to the flesh.  God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones.  Do not boast that you have God’s favor because you are an American or a Missouri Synod Lutheran.  Do not think you are holy because you say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Seasons Greetings.”  Be neither like those super-Christians who boast of getting better and better every day, better and better in every way, who think they have nothing for which to repent.  Nor be like those super-Lutherans who brag about what poor, miserable sinners they’ve confessed themselves to be, how lowly, how penitent.  Again Dr. Luther on our text: “But here comes the fiery angel of St. John [Revelation 10], the true preacher of repentance.  With one bolt of lightning, he hurls together both .  He says: ‘Repent!’ [Matthew 3:2].  Now one group imagines, ‘Why, we have repented!’  The other says, ‘We need no repentance.’  John says, ‘Repent, both of you.  You false penitents and false saints, both of you need the forgiveness of sins.  Neither of you know what sin really is.  Much less your duty to repent of it and shun it.  For no one of you is good.  You are full of unbelief, stupidity, and ignorance of God and God’s will.  But He is present here, of whose “fulness we have all received, grace upon grace”’ [John 1:16].  Without Him, no one can be righteous before God.”[2]   

            And that brings us to the culmination and fulfillment of repentance.  The people were going out to John, “and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matt. 3:6).  They were turning from all that is not the one true God, all that is against Him, to Him alone, in faith.  They were turning to Him, that their sins be washed away.  They were confessing all that they are, all that they have, all that they’ve done, that God may effect the repenting, that He may do it.  It is His action.  He does the turning.  He does the transforming, the converting.  And in place of all that He has taken away: the sin, the death, the damnation; He gives what is His: righteousness, life, eternal salvation.  Which is to say, Jesus.  One last quote from Dr. Luther: “Confession, too, cannot be false, uncertain, or fragmentary.  A person who confesses that everything in him is nothing but sin includes all sins, excludes none, forgets none.  Neither can satisfaction be uncertain, because it is not our uncertain, sinful work.  Rather, it is the suffering and blood of the innocent Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world [John 1:29].”[3]  We are nothing.  Christ is everything.   To know that, to confess and believe it, that is to repent in the way of St. John.

            Repentance has two parts: Contrition, which is grief over sin and the death of the old man; and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, which is the enlivening of the New Creation in Christ.  Baptism has two parts: The drowning of old Adam with all sins and evil desires, and the resurrection of the new man in Christ.  Confession has two parts: First that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive Absolution, that is forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.  Christ died for you.  Christ is risen for you.  You are baptized into His death and His resurrection, so that these are your death and your life.  Repentance and confession is nothing less than a daily return to Holy Baptism.  It is a turning again to Christ, who really does the turning of you by His Spirit in His Word and gifts.  In this way your sins are forgiven and you are kept in the one true faith.  And you live with the life of Christ, and so you love and do good works. 

            And that is how you prepare.  Jesus is coming.  The eternal Son of the Father, Mary’s Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  The Savior wrapped in Words and water and bread and wine.  The King of Glory who will come again to judge the living and the dead and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ.  Don’t forget about all that as you madly rush from here to there to everywhere to make merry this month.  Be here.  Be repented.  Be gifted.  With Jesus.  Instead of busy, busy, busy, come to Him, and He will give you rest.  Blessed Advent.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.          

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[1] SA III III:2-3 (McCain et al., Eds, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions [St. Louis: Concordia, 2005, 2006] p. 272).

[2] SA III III:30-32.

[3] SA III III:37-38.

Advent Midweek I

Advent Midweek I: “Advent with the Prophet Isaiah – The Mountain of the House of the LORD”

December 4, 2019

Text: Isaiah 2:1-5

            The Prophet Isaiah preaches the glorious reality of the Church to us tonight.  He lifts the veil to show us what is true of the holy Christian Church already now, in a hidden way, and what “shall come to pass in the latter days” (Is. 2:2; ESV), that is, be manifest on the Last Day, when Jesus comes again in glory.  The Church is the mountain of the House of the LORD.  In the Old Testament, that was the Temple mount in Jerusalem, Zion, the location of God’s gracious presence for His people, where, by His sure Promise, they always had access to Him for help and salvation, where they were formed for faithfulness by His Word, and where the blood sacrifices ever pointed to the atonement God Himself would make for their sins through Messiah.  All of this is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in His body, is the new and greater Temple, the dwelling place of God with man, the Word made flesh who tabernacles among us (John 1:14), true God, true man, our High Priest, the sacrifice of atonement for our sins by His death for us on the cross.  And now, risen and living, He dwells with His Church.  He tabernacles with us who are baptized into Him, in the preaching of His Word and in the eating and drinking of His body and blood.  The Church is the mountain where the LORD Himself is present.  It is the location… not the building, but the people, the congregation, gathered around Him in His gifts… the Church is, now, in the New Testament, the location of God’s gracious presence for His people where we always have access to Him for help and salvation, where our sins are forgiven, where we are formed for faithfulness by His Word, and the blood Sacrifice is fed to us by the Lord, who is Himself that Sacrifice.

            Now, in this life, the Church does not appear to be the highest of the mountains.  Far from it.  She is weak.  She appears to be shrinking.  In our culture, she is regarded as outdated and insignificant, a relic of the past to be ignored.  She suffers persecution from worldly kingdoms that appear to be stronger and mightier mountains than she could ever dream of being.  Within, the Church is full of sinners who are really good at sinning against one another.  There are fights.  There are controversies.  Bitter words are spoken.  Relationships are broken.  It is rather incredible that we confess with a straight face in the Creed our belief in “one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”  It is not easy to be the Church.  Ours is a life of faith, not sight. 

            But in spite of all appearances, we are told here in the Promise proclaimed by Isaiah, that the nations flow to this mountain.  “Come, let us go up,” they say, “to the mountain of the LORD.”  And why?  “(T)hat he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Is. 2:3).  It doesn’t look like the nations are busting down the doors here at Augustana and clamoring for a seat.  But that isn’t actually the Promise.  The Promise is fulfilled as the Gospel is preached to all nations, including right here in Moscow, and to the very ends of the earth.  And the amazing thing is, as that Word is preached, the Spirit is active.  He is bringing people to faith in Christ.  He is bringing them into the Church.  He’s uniting the people to one another, in spite of their sins, as one body, the Body of Christ.  This is all so hidden from our eyes that we forget, we fail to take note of the way our Lord is faithfully doing what He says.  His Word is never impotent.  It never returns to Him empty, but always accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it (Is. 55:11).  The nations come “that he,” that is, Jesus, “may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”  Which is to say, they come for the preaching.  It is the Word that brings the people in.  It is the Word that unites them as one.  This is so different from human wisdom and all the man-made techniques prescribed by the Church growth experts and denominational bureaucrats.  They’re not coming for what we have to offer.  They’re not coming because we’re such an exemplary group of righteous people.  They’re coming for Jesus.  They’re coming for His Word.

            And His Word goes out from this place.  “For out of Zion shall go the law,” not “law” like “Law as opposed to Gospel,” but “Law” as in Torah: Teaching, instruction, Law and Gospel, the Word that imparts Christ, who is Himself the Word made flesh.  Out of Zion shall go the Torah, “and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (v. 3).  And as that Word goes out in preaching, He, the Teacher, the Torah in the flesh, Jesus, judges.  Now, this already happens in the Church, among the baptized.  We are already judged: Righteous, on account of Christ.  Sins forgiven.  And in terms of issues we may have with one another in our life together, insofar as we are still in this fallen flesh?  These are also judged in the sense that the judgment is given by the Scriptures.  We know that which is right.  We know that which is wrong.  We can differentiate.  We have the instruction.  And we have the forgiveness of sins that Jesus has given us to extend to one another.  This is so important in a Church full of sinners.  We must bear one another in patience.  We must forgive one another’s trespasses.  In the Church, love must cover over a multitude of sins.  And all of this can be the reality… no, not perfectly in this fallen world and in our fallen flesh, but it can be the reality… because of Jesus, who is our peace. 

            But all of this is ultimately pointing to that time to come when the New has arrived in all its fulness and the old has passed away completely.  What is already true of the Church in a hidden way, known only to faith, will on that Day be revealed to all and known by sight.  Christ will come.  He will appear.  He will raise the dead and give eternal life to all His believers.  Then we will see with our risen eyes the nations as they flow to Him, the Church in all her glory, made up of those from every nation, tribe, people, and language (Rev. 5:9, etc.).  We will see them gather around the Lord as He pronounces the Judgment: Righteousness and life to all those who believed in Him, guilt and damnation to all who did not receive His salvation by faith.  We will rejoice with the throng singing His praise around His throne.  And we will live in peace.  The Kingdom has come.  No more swords and spears.  No need for weapons.  Plowshares and pruning hooks are our panoply as we tend the fruitful fields.  No war.  No violence.  No sorrow.  No death.  Only perfect peace, perfect Shalom.  In Jesus, the risen Lord. 

            It all hinges on Jesus and His three-fold Advent.  It all hinges on His coming in the flesh to be our Savior by His death and resurrection.  It all hinges on His preserving us by His continual coming to forgive our sins and give us life in the Word and Sacraments.  It all hinges on His coming again in glory to reveal all that is now hidden, to exalt the mountain of the House of the LORD above all the other would-be mountains, to make all that is wrong and bad, good and right again.

            The Church of Advent is the Church that waits in joyful anticipation for these things to be revealed.  Like children, waiting for Christmas.  Isaiah preaches the Promise this evening to sustain us.  And so he admonishes us: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD” (Is. 2:5).  His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps. 119:105).  We walk in His light as we gather here on the mountain, in the Church, to be taught and fed by Him.  And that is what keeps us alive.  And His light will not deceive us.  Though we follow Him through the valley of the shadow of death, He will lead us by His light into eternal life and peace.  Come, let us go up to the mountain of the House of the LORD, to His Church, to His Table, and finally, to His heaven and resurrection life.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

First Sunday in Advent

First Sunday in Advent (A)

December 1, 2019

Text: Matt. 21:1-11

            Hope.  Expectation.  Anticipation.  Longing.  These words are descriptive of the Christian life from the dawn of time.  The Christin life is a life of waiting upon the Lord.  Waiting full of hope, a hope that is sure and certain.  It is expectant waiting, waiting in faith that our God will make good on all His promises.  It is a waiting with anticipation of our Lord’s return to judge the living and the dead, of heaven, of the resurrection, of eternal life.  And it is a waiting marked by longing.  For we suffer here in this fallen world and this fallen flesh, longing for deliverance from sin, death, and the devil, from disease and heartache, from our enemies and persecutors, from our own fleshly desires and weakness.  We long for a home.  We long for the presence of Christ.  We know it will come.  We know He will come.  We know we already possess all that is His, but that is not yet manifest to the naked eye.  This is the realm of faith, not sight.  So we wait, and so we long.  Some are given the grace to wait with patience.  Others bear the cross of impatience, another mark of the very sinful flesh from which we long to be delivered.  But wait we must, and so we do.  Hopefully.  Expectantly.  Believing that Christ will come and our joy will be complete. 

            Such was the Christian life of our first parents, Adam and Eve.  They ate the forbidden fruit, and all at once they were plunged into death.  They died spiritually with the first bite.  They began to die physically.  They began to age and decline.  And they would die eternally in hell.  Hopelessness, despair, misery, eternal separation from God, these are the fruits of sin.  Except that God spoke His promise: The Seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15).  And so hope was born.  Hope is bestowed by the Gospel, the promise of God, Christ, the Savior.  There is a way out of death.  It is the Seed of the woman.  It is the Son of God.  Christ is coming.  And that is what Advent means.  Advent means coming, and it is all about the coming of God in the flesh to save His people.  So Advent is the season of hope, expectation, anticipation, longing.

            Adam and Eve had hope in the promise of the Savior.  They believed the Word of the Lord.  So sure and certain were they in their hope that Eve thought her firstborn, Cain, to be the Lord (4:1).  As it turns out, she was profoundly wrong, and we all know the sad end of that story.  And the longing is intensified.  Add murder to the corruption of God’s good creation.  But Adam continued to preach the promise, as did the faithful in every generation.  And so the believers, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, King David, and all the Prophets, all those who held to God’s Word, they believed God, believed His saving promise, and it was credited to them as righteousness.  Hope sustained them.  Messiah is coming, the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord, Son of Man and Son of God.

            Then all at once it happened.  The angel came to Mary: “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 2:31, 35; ESV).  And so it was in that moment, for the Word of the Lord does what it says.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).  Promise kept.  Hope fulfilled.  In the fullness of time, the Savior of the nations had come, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).  The first coming of Jesus, His first Advent, was about undoing what had gone wrong for all humanity in Adam’s fall, in our sin.  He came in the flesh to undo our sin, and so to undo sin’s wages, namely death, by submitting Himself to death on the cross.  You see, Christmas, too, is about the cross.  It’s about Christ crucified for sinners.  It’s about Christ crucified for you.  Remember that in all your song-singing and gift-wrapping and merry-making, amongst all the tinsel and glitter and the decking of the halls, the eating and the drinking, that this is all finally not about a jolly old elf or stockings hung by the chimney with care, but a Baby born to shed His precious blood and die… For you.  For in so doing He crushes the serpent’s head.  That we may maintain a salutary perspective toward Christmas, the Church observes this season of preparation for His coming, the season of Advent.  While the world is busy with the full-fledged celebration of its version of the holiday, we Christians are waiting.  And we’re listening as God speaks to us here about His Son, the Savior who has come, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.  And we’re repenting.  For all of its joyful anticipation, Advent is a penitential season, and we’ll hear from John the Baptist the next two Sundays calling upon us to “Prepare the way of the Lord,” to “make his paths straight” (Matt. 3:3), to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

            That repentance is more than simply sorrow over sin, although it certainly is that, what we call in theology “contrition.”  It is a daily return to our Baptism, where we died with Christ, and were brought to new life in Him.  But repentance is also our longing that all that is wrong be set right again, that we would be set free from sin and death and all that goes along with it, that we would have the fullness of joy our Lord promises.  And that is what we hope for, and what we believe, expect, and anticipate in the coming of Christ.  That is why the crowds gathered with shouts of joy on the road into Jerusalem as our Lord made His way into the city, why they were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matt. 21:9).  That is why they were strewing their cloaks and their palm branches on the road before Him (v. 8).  “Hosanna” means “Save now.”  And that is what Jesus came to do.  He came to save them, save us from our sin, to fill our longing.  At long last He has come, the One promised by God, the Savior of the world.

            And He doesn’t just come in general, beloved.  He comes to you.  He comes to you right here and now in this place that houses His Body, the Church.  He comes in His gifts, the Word and the Sacraments, in Scripture and preaching, in Baptism, which is the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, in His true body and blood under the forms of bread and wine in the Supper.  He comes absolving you of sin, taking it away, declaring you righteous with His own righteousness, covering you with Himself, giving you eternal life.  He comes.  Advent.  You come to Church, because you know that He is here.  You sing “Hosanna” because that is what He does for you here.  He saves you now.  Hope fulfilled.

            And yet you still long.  You are still filled with hopeful expectation and anticipation.  Because Jesus is coming again visibly, to judge the living and the dead, to raise all the dead and give eternal life to you and to all believers in Christ.  On that Day what you now know only by faith you will know by sight.  You will see Jesus, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  You will dwell with Him.  You  will see your loved ones again, those who died in the faith.  No more tears.  No more sorrow.  No more suffering.  God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.  Beloved, Jesus is coming.  He’s coming for you.  He’s coming to get you.  He comes.  Advent.

            Your life in Christ centers around His coming for you: His first coming in the flesh to be your Savior, His continual coming to you in His holy Word and Sacraments, and His visible coming again in the End.  And so these words continue to describe your life in Christ: Hope, a certain hope that you know will be fulfilled when you see Him face to face.  Expectation, because God always makes good on His promises.  Anticipation, because you are filled with joy and excitement that Christ is coming again.  And longing, as you pray with the holy Church of all times and all places: “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20), come quickly, come and deliver us.  He will.  He has promised.  And so, beloved, we wait, and we trust.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.