Being Ready for the Unexpected

With the fourth Sunday in Advent we draw near to Christmas day. I was reading someone recently who remarked that we never finish the fourth week of Advent. It is always “interrupted” by the arrival of Christmas Day. This, of course, fits the Advent pattern. Our Savior Himself said that His coming would be when none expected it. Whether we consider His coming in judgment in the time of Noah, at Sodom and Gomorrah, or at the Red Sea, His coming always takes people off guard. This morning we’ll consider how the announcement of His coming to Mary catches her off guard; it interrupts her week. But unlike the generation of Noah, the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, Mary has prepared herself for His coming. Though caught off guard, we’ll see that she nevertheless responds in faith, ready to receive the promises of God. But that type of response doesn’t just happen; it is the fruit of preparation. It tells us that Mary had been “repeating the signs” and rehearsing the story unlike the priests and Levites that we considered last week. This is clear from the song that she takes up after going to meet Elizabeth, which we call the Magnificat and which we’ll sing this morning. In the Magnificat, Mary weaves together texts from songs and psalms of old, showing us that for instance she had often sung Hannah’s Song. You see it was through cultivating regular habits of worship and prayer at the synagogue in Nazareth and in her home, that Mary made herself ready for the message of Christmas, for announcement that she would conceive and bring forth the Son of God. I call upon you now to join me in following Mary’s example of preparation for the message of Christmas. Confess your sins from heart, sing with hearts full of joy and gladness, and receive Christ in Word and Sacrament as Mary received Him in her womb!

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Don't Forget the Signs

For the last two weeks we’ve been considering the message of Advent as the coming of Christ for the salvation, and at times, the judgment of His people. What determines whether or not His coming to us will be for our salvation, or our judgment? The way we receive the message of Advent, which is the message of the Gospel. This morning we’ll see how the Jewish leadership failed to heed this plain spoken message. They were all full of questions for John the Baptist, but already had their own answers. Somehow over the course of the 700 years since Isaiah uttered his prophecy, the people of God had forgotten what to look for, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” In this the first century Jews were very much like Jill in the Silver Chair when she stopped repeating the signs that Aslan had given her and thus she kept missing them. Remember how Aslan had instructed her to repeat the signs over and over till she knew them cold. Well, in a sense that’s why we celebrate Advent year after year, rehearsing the story, repeating the signs. We do this time and again so that we’ll be ready to meet the Lord when He comes for us and so that we’ll know that He is coming for our salvation. We rehearse the story time and again because we know that we’re much more like the Jews of old than we want to admit. For many of you the story has grown old. Your hearts are dulled, and you’ve forgotten the signs. So this morning let us repent of allowing the message of Advent to become old, stale, and lifeless. It is anything, but that! And let us again repeat the signs and rehearse the story because in this way, in the way of repentance and faith, you can know that His coming to you will be for your salvation. And behold He comes to you visit you this day, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Preparing the Way

With the Second Sunday in Advent our focus shifts from Christ’s Second Advent to His First Advent and the ministry of John the Baptist. We’ll see that all three of our Scripture Lessons today are tied together by the theme of preparation, getting ready for the coming of the Lord. Central to this preparation for the coming of Christ is repentance. Thus John the Baptist comes preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Well, just as repentance and the confession of sins was to prepare Israel for the coming of Christ in His First Advent, even so repentance and the confession of sins prepares you for His coming in Word and Sacrament on this, the Day of the Lord. A lot had transpired in the history of Israel from the close of the OT to the ministry of John the Baptist. As we’ll see this morning the Land that was to be an Edenic Garden had become a wilderness and needed to be cleansed and renewed. Even so a lot has transpired in your lives from the time you left church last Sunday till the call to worship this morning. We don’t need 400 years to mess things up! Each Sunday you are sent out in the power of the Spirit to manifest the new creation in your lives, families, neighborhoods and work. And yet even with the best of intentions and the most diligent efforts, you and I fall woefully short of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore as you contemplate the prospect of Christ coming to you in Word and Sacrament, “to walk among the lamp stands” as it were, His way must be prepared. In order for His Word to have free course in our midst so as to bring about a new creation in and through us, we are in need of cleansing and renewal. Let us then repent of the mess that we have made of our lives, families, neighborhoods, work and this world, and confess our sins unto Almighty God. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

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Beginning with End

As I mentioned before the service, today in the first day of the Christian Year; our New Year’s Day. As Christians we begin our journey through the Year in much the same way that we begin our week. We begin each week with the Lord’s Day, or Day of the Lord, in recognition of the coming of Christ to visit us with His salvation in Word and Sacrament. Likewise we begin each year with Advent season in recognition of the coming of Christ to visit us with His salvation as the Word made flesh for the life of the world. And just as His visitation on the Lord’s Day meant judgment for some in the Corinthian church who failed receive Word and Sacrament rightly, even so His first Advent meant judgment for some among His people who failed to receive the Word made flesh rightly. We’ll consider that latter judgment this morning in our Gospel lesson. But why do we begin the year in this way? We begin the year in this way because for us time is eschatological; which is simply to say time and history are moving towards an appointed end with the coming of Christ to judge the quick and the dead and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. And this appointed end is to inform your celebration of the coming of Christ in the flesh. That is why we have the four weeks of Advent season leading up to the twelve days of Christmas. Our culture, of course, gets this all backwards and has Christmas at the front end for two months and then it’s all over in an hour or two on Christmas morning. But there is wisdom in the church’s ordering of time. We need time to reflect upon the significance of the coming of Christ in the flesh and this must always be viewed in the context of His coming again at the Last Day. The baby pictured in our Christmas cards is the same one who used the Roman armies to destroy Jerusalem in AD 70 and who will one day return to judge the world in righteousness. Advent season keeps us from domesticating Jesus, turning Him into a harmless baby, or a Jeanie in a bottle. The baby in the manger is the Lord of heaven and earth. And even this Day He summons you to worship Him in the beauty of holiness!

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