The voice of Advent cries out to you

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Rorate Coeli – Advent 4

John 1:19-28 + Deuteronomy 18:15-19 + Philippians 4:4-7

Rorate coeli! “Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down the Righteous One. Let the earth open her womb and bring forth salvation.”  It’s almost time for the rains to come, almost time to welcome the day when the virgin’s womb brought forth the Righteous One and our salvation.  This last Sunday in Advent is our last chance to prepare together to meet the child in the manger on Christmas Eve – that is, unless he comes back before then and the skies pour down again the Righteous One.

The one whom God sent to prepare Israel to meet his Son was that prophet named John, the same John whom we encountered last week, troubled by doubt in Herod’s prison. Today we see John at his finest – serving faithfully and humbly as God’s spokesman.  He speaks to us too, through sacred Scripture, and we do well to listen to him.  Listen!  The voice of Advent cries out to you.

We honestly don’t know how long John the Baptist’s ministry lasted.  When our text occurs, he had been out in the desert for quite awhile already, preaching and baptizing. He had already earned a reputation for himself as a powerful preacher of repentance who just told it like it was.  He had already baptized Jesus, but then Jesus left to be tempted in the wilderness for 40 days, so no one, except for John, knew yet who Jesus was.  Just before Jesus returned to begin his ministry, some of the officials in Jerusalem decided they’d better try to get a handle on this John character.  They wanted to know who he was, or at least, who he claimed to be.

Could he be the Christ? Is that what he’s pretending to be? I say “pretending” because the religious leaders in Jerusalem knew that John couldn’t possibly be the Christ. After all, he was drawing crowds to himself and preaching without their authority! How dare he! So they figured he must be claiming some pretty big things for himself if he was willing to defy them. He must be claiming to be one of the VIP’s prophesied in the Old Testament.

But immediately, it says, He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.”  Hmmm. Not claiming to be the Christ. Let’s see…What other VIP was supposed to have an Advent?

OK, well, then, maybe, ah! “Are you Elijah?”  Seems like a silly question. Elijah had been gone for some 800 years – but remember, Elijah was one of only two men in the Old Testament who is said not to have died.  He was taken to heaven in a whirlwind, accompanied by a fiery chariot.  The Jews thought he would return from heaven one day.  They thought that partly because of how they interpreted Malachi 4, which we heard two weeks on ago on the second Sunday in Advent, ““See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

So, the Jews had this prophecy of the coming of Elijah as one more prophet who would come after Malachi, the very last prophet before the coming of the Lord.  And here was John, dressed just like Elijah used to dress, preaching as Elijah used to preach. And, in fact, the angel Gabriel had told John’s father, Zechariah, “And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Just like Malachi had prophesied!  And Jesus himself told the people later on that John was the Elijah who was to come – a figurative Elijah, a prophet like Elijah, but not literally the man Elijah who had been taken up into heaven 800 years before.

So when the people asked if John was Elijah, they were asking if John was that very prophet of old, and he had to tell them, “No, I’m not.”

Hmmm. Not the Christ, not Elijah. OK, what other important, authoritative person is prophesied to come? Ah!  “Are you the Prophet?” It seems that they had in mind that very Prophet whom we heard about it our First Lesson today, the one whom Moses said would come one day, and to whom the people of Israel were compelled to listen.  The New Testament tells us that Jesus is that Prophet Moses predicted, so again, John had to answer, “No, that’s not me.”

OK, then, John. How about you tell us who you are – or at least, who you claim to be?

And now we get to the heart of John’s answer.  I am “a voice.”  Don’t view me as some great prophet, and certainly not as someone who claims to be a great prophet or an important person in any way.  I am simply a voice – the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ 

The voice calling or “crying out.” How humble is that?  The voice prophesied by Isaiah – “Yes,” John tells them, “I was mentioned in the Old Testament, but not as an important person like the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet.  I’m just a voice crying out, but now understand what that means!  If the voice is right here, right now crying out, as Isaiah prophesied, then the Lord’s Advent is at hand! He is here!  The voice simply heralds his arrival. The voice is nothing. Christ is everything! So don’t focus on me, as if I were someone important.  Do what the voice says! ‘Make straight the way for the Lord!’”

What does that mean? What is the Lord’s way and how do we make it straight for his Advent? Let me share with you a few words of Martin Luther from a sermon he preached on this text: “The way of the Lord is that he does all things within you, so that all our works are not ours but his, which comes by faith….A spiritual preparation is meant, consisting in a thoroughgoing knowledge and confession of your being unfit, a sinner, poor, damned, and miserable, with all the works you may perform. The more a heart is thus minded, the better it prepares the way of the Lord.”

And here’s how Luther describes the things that get in the way of the Lord: “The hindrance, however, which obstructs the Lord’s way, is formed not only in the coarse and palpable sin of adultery, wrath, haughtiness, avarice, etc., but rather in spiritual conceit and pharisaical pride, which thinks highly of its own life and good works, feels secure, does not condemn itself, and would remain uncondemned by another.”

Does that help explain why the Pharisees hated John so much, and Jesus even more? John was just a voice. But he was the voice that stripped away everyone’s appearance of goodness, the voice that accused all the people of sin and lumped everyone together under condemnation – but the good and decent religious people of Jerusalem took offense. In their pride, they didn’t condemn themselves and certainly wouldn’t allow John to condemn them.  His voice was a voice they refused to hear.

But you must listen to the voice of Advent crying out to you, Make straight the way for the Lord!  Know and confess that you are unfit for the kingdom of God – just as unfit as the most wicked person you can imagine. Know and confess that all of your works are nothing – they count for nothing in God’s kingdom.  You will never be able to stand on that day when he comes if you’re found either clinging desperately to sin, or clinging desperately to your goodness. Despair of yourself!

But don’t despair of God.  The voice of Advent cries out to you.  Here is another!  He’s right at the door!  He doesn’t come to demand your obedience.  He comes to provide his own.  He doesn’t come looking for your good works.  He comes to do your good works for you, and then in you – he – not you.  He doesn’t come to make you pay for your shameful deeds.  He comes to pay for them – his life for yours – a perfect sacrifice.  In him there is forgiveness of all sins. Cling desperately to him in faith and you will be saved.

The voice of Advent cries out, “I baptize with water. But among you stands one you do not know.  He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” I am nobody, John declares.  It’s not me you have to worry about.  It’s not me you should look to to save you. I’m only a voice.  But Christ is coming! He’s right at the door!  It’s not about me, it’s not about you – it’s all about him.

And you do know him, thanks to the voice of Advent!  You’ve known him from the very beginning – from his birth in Bethlehem, from his manger-bed and even from eternity. You’ve been baptized into his name, and so in a way, it’s your birth that we’ll celebrate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The voice of Advent cries out to you one last time today:  Look away from yourself in despair. Look away from your works, from your sins, from your chores, from your hardships and from your life. And look up!  Turn your thoughts toward Christ, in humble repentance, in joyful expectation. He’s coming with vengeance on the proud, so repent of your pride. He’s coming with eternal joy for those who trust in him, so trust in him. Emmanuel is coming! He’s coming! Very soon! Amen.

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Songs of Advent – the Song of Simeon

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Midweek Advent 3

+  Luke 2:29-32  +

29     “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
30     for my eyes have seen your salvation
31     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32     a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
        and for glory to your people Israel.”
 
Songs of Advent.  The Song of Simeon. Nunc Dimittis – Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

This Third Song of Advent is really the fourth and final song of Advent, but we need to save the angels’ song for Christmas Eve, so we’ll take this one out of order.  The Song of Simeon – Nunc Dimittis – that should sound pretty familiar to you if you come to church regularly.  It’s a song that’s traditionally sung in every Evening Prayer service as it will be again tonight, and in most every Communion service. Has it ever occurred to you as you sang it, that you were singing a Song of Advent?  Have you ever stopped and wondered, “Why are we singing this song now? What does it mean?”

It’s simple, really. “O Lord, I’m ready to die now.”  How’s that for an Advent message?  But that’s exactly what it is.  Lord, I’m ready to die now, because of the Advent of your Son.

Luke tells us that Simeon had spent much of his life looking up, waiting in eager expectation for the consolation of Israel.  And God granted to Simeon an enormous reward for his faithful “looking up” as he trusted in God’s promise to send the Messiah. Somehow or other, the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he saw the Messiah with his own eyes.

So, you see, Simeon was not ready to die – according to God’s own word – until he saw Christ’s Advent.  Until then, he was waiting for God’s word to be fulfilled, waiting with great expectation because he knew he would see it himself, and the older he got, the closer Christ’s Advent must be. Simeon was the servant; God was the Master. And Simeon the servant would wait and watch as long as the Master wanted to keep him on this earth, waiting and watching.

Finally, the waiting and watching paid off.  On that day – 40 days after Jesus’ birth – when Mary and Joseph took him to the temple in Jerusalem for the purification rites prescribed in the Law of Moses, the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to be there at the right place, at the right time, to meet his Maker. And somehow the Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon the true identity of that one-and-a-half month old boy.

He took the baby and cradled him in his arms and spoke the words of the song we now sing, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.”  The word here for salvation is a special word.  It doesn’t necessarily mean, “I have seen the salvation take place.” What it does mean is, “I have seen the means of your salvation.”

So this is how God would do it!  This is how God would rescue Israel – and all peoples – from the curse of sin and death, from the bite of Eden’s serpent.  A baby, a child, the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head.  This is the means of God’s deliverance – God-made-man to redeem man from sin. God made an innocent mortal to die so that sinful mortals might live.

“I have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.”  That baby born in Bethlehem wasn’t a secret, kept hidden away from the world.  He came into the world and was there for all to see. Every Jew in the temple that day, every Gentile in Jerusalem could gaze on God’s means of deliverance. It’s just that very few recognized God’s salvation when they saw it.  The rest of the world saw only a baby, brought to the temple like countless other babies.  It took God’s revelation to Simeon to give him eyes of faith, to see in that baby the Advent of God’s salvation.

Christ himself was the revelation to the world of who God is, what God gives and where God forgives: He himself was, as Simeon sang, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

To Simeon, it was crystal clear: “The Advent of Christ means that I can die in peace – my service on this earth can come to a peaceful end whenever you, O Master, are ready to call me to my heavenly rest. Because your word has now been fulfilled.  Your means of saving mankind from our dreadful sin has been born. All of your promises and prophecies have been wrapped up and put in one place – into this baby I’m holding in my arms, into this child whom my eyes now see.  Yes, Lord, I’m ready to die now, because your salvation has come and death cannot harm me anymore.”

Your eyes have seen God’s salvation, too, the same eyes of faith.  And you say, “Wait! I never got to see baby Jesus!  I never got to cradle him in my arms, like Simeon did.” But remember, Simeon saw a baby – nothing more.  Simeon didn’t see Jesus save anyone from anything. Only the eyes of faith – by God’s revelation – told him there was more to this baby than his natural eyes could see. 

You have seen the means of God’s salvation just as clearly as Simeon did. Because, what does God’s revelation in Scripture teach you?  Where does his Holy Spirit direct you to look up and see the means of your salvation? He directs you to a very specific time and place when water was poured over your head in the name of the Triune God: “Baptism now saves you”, he says.   He directs you to a very specific time and place when you hear the words of absolution: “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.” “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  He directs you to a very specific time and place when you eat bread and drink wine in communion with Christ Jesus himself. “This is my body. This is my blood.”

And so we sing this Song of Simeon, this Song of Advent after Communion.  “Lord, now you let you servant depart in peace.” Because your eyes truly have seen God’s salvation – his means of deliverance – cradled, not in your arms but in your pastor’s hand to your hand or to your lips. There is Jesus, as surely as he was there in Simeon’s arms.  And we pray after communing, “Hear the prayer of your people, O Lord…that the eyes which have seen the coming of your Son may long for his coming again.”  There it is again, the Song of Simeon, the Song of Advent.  Lord, I’m ready to die now. Because I’ve seen your salvation and received the forgiveness of sins from him.

And we sing this song of Simeon, this Song of Advent, as a regular part of Evening Prayer, because now, as you go home and go to sleep, who knows for sure if you’ll wake up tomorrow? The Song of Simeon is the original bedtime prayer: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”  Don’t be frightened by the sleep of night or by the sleep of death!  Sing with Simeon, “Lord, I’m ready to die now.” Because to the believer, the sleep of death is just that – a sleep from which the voice of the Son of God will awaken you when he comes – at his Advent!

“Lord, I’m ready to die now, or I’m ready for you to come again.”  What a strange song of Advent, this Song of Simeon. What a beautiful song the Lord has inspired in his Word for you to sing and be at peace as you live out however many days on this earth that God, your Master, wishes you to live. You, the servant; He, the Master; Christ, your salvation. Look up and wait for his coming, and sing for joy at Christmas to the one whose birth makes even death a delight. Amen.

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The hidden joy of Advent

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Gaudete – Advent 3

Matthew 11:2-10  +  Isaiah 40:1-8  +  1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Gaudete!  Rejoice! That’s what that single pink candle on the Advent wreath signals to you on this third Sunday in Advent.  Rejoice!  But notice, it’s hidden in the back, the hidden joy of Advent. It almost seems out of place, buried as it is among the blue and green and white. It’s hidden for a reason.  It’s hidden because the reason for the rejoicing of God’s people is hidden from the world.  It’s revealed only to those who know where to look and what to look for.

Obviously, we rejoice because we know that Jesus is coming!  We’re looking up, watching and waiting for him. But he’s a very unexpected kind of Savior, and through the ages, even God’s people have sometimes wondered, “Can this be right? Is this Jesus, revealed in the Bible, really the one whom we should expect? Is he really someone over whom we should rejoice?”

John the Baptizer – by Jesus’ own proclamation, the greatest of all the prophets, the greatest man ever born – wasn’t so sure anymore that he should be rejoicing over Jesus.  He did rejoice for a long time. He was convinced by the Holy Spirit himself that Jesus was the Son of God, and he joyfully proclaimed that to the people.  With great rejoicing John announced to his disciples, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

But John’s rejoicing began to diminish after he’d spent some time in King Herod’s prison.  You remember, he was imprisoned by Herod because he had dared to call even King Herod to repentance for marrying his brother’s wife.  There John sat – a faithful prophet of God, abandoned in a prison cell.  Abandoned, so it seemed, by the very one whose Advent he had proclaimed.

Oh, John’s disciples would come and visit.  They would tell him about what Jesus was doing there in Galilee – the miracles, the teaching. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”  At one time John had rejoiced greatly over Jesus’ coming, but now he was beginning to wonder if he had made a big mistake putting his confidence in Jesus.

Why?  Because Jesus was supposed to make things better for those who listened to John’s preaching, and worse for those who didn’t.  John had preached repentance to the people of Israel.  He had shown them their sin, shown them that no one could call himself righteous before God, that each one needed to mourn over his sins in true contrition, because Jesus was coming!  He had pointed the penitent to Christ for forgiveness.  Those who heeded his warnings were supposed to be saved; but those who had refused to listen – like the Pharisees, like King Herod – they were supposed to perish at the coming of Christ.  Believers were supposed to be rescued from the wicked. The wicked were supposed to be crushed and removed from the face of the earth.

But the wicked weren’t being crushed or removed from the earth by Christ, and those who were living in repentance were still being persecuted and imprisoned by the wicked. There sat John in prison – soon to be beheaded. How could Jesus be the one we should expect? How could John rejoice?

You see how the joy of Jesus’ coming was hidden – even to John at this time? I find John’s doubt awfully familiar. Don’t you?  We look around, and we may not be in prison, but we don’t see salvation for the people of God.  Over 2000 celebrations of Christmas have taken place, and still, God’s people suffer afflictions.  Still this world is filled with wickedness.  And so, by the way, is your heart.  Wickedness surrounds you.  And wickedness still lives within you. And it’s not supposed to be that way!  Your heart is supposed to be clean and free of selfish or lustful thoughts, but it isn’t. Your life is supposed to be lived in complete dedication to hearing, learning and doing God’s Word, but other concerns compete and sometimes win out. You’re supposed to care about the lost souls around us that haven’t heard the gospel, but you’ve grown all too caught up in your own life, all too content with the current size and make-up of our membership.  It isn’t supposed to be this way.  Can Jesus be the one we should expect?

Oh, where is the joy of Christ and the rejoicing of God’s people?  It’s in the very repentance that John preached.  Joy is hidden – like a single pink candle at the back of the Advent wreath – hidden in the sorrow of repentance, because there at the bottom of the barrel, when you’ve found that place where all your personal idols are torn down, all your goodness is stripped away and your sin is exposed and your shame is revealed – there comes Jesus.  There comes Jesus with his kind of salvation – not the immediate removal of wickedness from the earth, but the immediate removal of your sin’s power to condemn you.  There is Jesus, entrusting his servants with the secret things of God, commanding his Gospel minister, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for” – her sin!  Not the sin of those wicked people over there.  Don’t be surprised – and don’t you dare be disappointed that Jesus has not yet burned up the wicked with his coming, because that means that you have been spared.  That means your sins have been paid for and there is comfort for you.

Jesus told John’s disciples, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:  The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.  Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”  All John could see at the moment was his own cross, and joy is always hidden when we focus on ourselves.  Jesus called John to look up! To look up and focus on Jesus’ works and Jesus’ words. See, John! See the glimpses of salvation hidden behind Jesus’ lowliness and apparent inaction. Those who repent of their sins are being saved – some are being healed temporarily of their physical maladies.  All are hearing the good news of forgiveness. And Christ’s preaching of good news to the poor is for you, too, you poor, downtrodden, sinful imprisoned prophet.  Blessed is the one – happy is the one, joyful is the one who does not fall away – who does not stumble over me.  Oh, John, hold on – just a little bit longer. Trust me! I won’t let you down. But don’t hold your breath waiting for earthly salvation. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

And lest the crowds there that day get the wrong idea about John or about Jesus, lest any of them start to wonder, like John, if Jesus was really the one who was to come, Jesus confirmed both John’s ministry and his own.  “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?  If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.  Remember, Jesus tells them.  You who followed John and listened to John during his ministry – you didn’t go out to see him in the desert because he looked so good or sounded so sweet. His environment was harsh. His manner of dress was strange.  His message was stern. Your eyes and ears gave you no reason to find any joy in John the Baptizer.

So why did you out to him? What did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’”  You went out to John because you recognized that, behind the camel skin shirt and the long hair and the stern message of repentance, there was truth – The Truth from God, the truth that pointed ahead to a Savior from sin, to real, lasting joy in Christ – joy that will outlast the pain of this world and continue into eternal life – joy that remains hidden from the eyes of the world but is revealed to the one who believes in Christ.

Joy is hidden behind the cross, like a single pink candle is hidden at the back of the Advent wreath.  Blessed – joyful is the one who looks for the hidden joy of Christ’s Advent.  There is joy hidden for you in repentance, because repentance always results in the forgiveness of all your sins.  There is joy hidden for you under the cross of affliction and persecution, because you get to be like The Cross-Bearer as he appeared in weakness at his First Advent, which guarantees that you will also be like him in glory at his Second Advent. Rejoice that he comes to you now in Word and Sacrament with forgiveness and peace, and with the promise of his return.  At the time of John the Baptizer, much had yet to be accomplished in this world before the end could come and the people of God could be rescued once and for all.  But Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. The Advent candles have burned lower and lower through the ages. The time for his return is getting closer and closer.  The time of your final redemption is drawing near. Look up from your prison cell! And gaudete! Rejoice! Amen.

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Songs of Advent – the Song of Zechariah

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Advent Midweek 2

+  Luke 1:68-79  +

68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71 that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

78 because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The second song of Advent – the Song of Zechariah.  Benedictus!  Blessed! The word literally means, “To be given a eulogy; to be praised; to be spoken well of.”  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel!

Zechariah sang this song, inspired by the Holy Spirit, on the day his son John was circumcised and named. You remember the story, I suppose.  Nine months earlier Zechariah had been ministering in the temple when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that God was going to grant him and his wife, Elizabeth, a son in their old age – a son who would “go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah didn’t believe it at the time.  But now that he held his one-week-old son in his arms, he knew it was true.  Not just the part about having a son – that was pretty obvious.  He believed the other part, too, about what his son would do for Israel.  And when he thought about that, he just had to sing.  Benedictus!  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel!

Why? Why should he be spoken well of?  For he has visited and redeemed his people.  This picture of God “visiting” and “redeeming” his people – isn’t that a neat picture?  It shows up in the Old Testament at two key times in Israel’s history.  When they were slaves in Egypt, and when they were held captive in Babylon.

Here’s what God promised them about their slavery in Egypt:   God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob… Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

Here’s what God promised them about their captivity in Babylon: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope… You will go to Babylon, O Daughter of Zion; there you will be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.

At both times – in Egypt and in Babylon – God promised, and God fulfilled.  He visited and he redeemed his people from the hand of their enemies.

But that was nothing compared to the visitation and the redemption Zechariah was singing about. The Lord has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.  God visited his people in the Old Testament by sending human saviors to rescue them from their human enemies. But now, in the house of his servant David, in the very womb of the virgin descended from David, God had visited his people in the most amazing way of all.  God had come into the world as a baby growing in Mary’s belly.  Redemption was already conceived.  Salvation was already at hand.

But not salvation from a human enemy.  Neither Jesus nor John the Baptist would save Israel from any human enemy.  This divine Savior would save Israel from the enemies of sin, Satan and death, as God had promised in the Old Testament, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.  He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”  He himself will redeem Israel…Oh, my!  Yes, he himself – God in person, God joined to human flesh – will redeem Israel from all their sins.  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel!

And with what result? That we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.  The result of the salvation Christ came to accomplish is not – that Israel should now go out and ignore God’s will and rebel against him, but that Israel may now serve the Lord without fear.  Zechariah knew about service to the Lord. He was a priest.  It was his full-time job to serve the Lord in his temple.  But he also knew that holiness and righteousness were an impossible dream.  That’s why the priests had to bring sacrifices every day to the altar.  That’s why priests had to bathe and wash and wear special garments, to hide their unholiness, to cover their unrighteousness – because priests and non-priests were all infected with sin.  God was good and they were not.  No one could serve him adequately, because a holy God deserves holy service by righteous people.

But now, blessed be the Lord God of Israel! Because in the womb of Mary grew the one who would cover priest and non-priest with his own holiness and righteousness, once for all, so that no more sacrifices would be necessary, no more ceremonial washings, except the one-time washing of baptism, no more blood would need to be spilt on the altar – because this child’s blood would be spilt once for all on the altar of the cross. 

As a result, God’s people can finally serve him, without fear of messing it up, because sins are covered.  God’s people can now serve him, not as priests in a temple, but in any and every place, with deeds of love and kindness, deeds that are made perfect and acceptable in God’s sight by the child conceived in Mary’s womb. No wonder Zechariah sings, Benedictus!

And he sings Benedictus! because he was holding in his arms the chosen prophet who would prepare the way for Christ’s salvation. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. See what kind of salvation the Christ would bring! Salvation in the form of forgiveness of sins. Because where sins are forgiven, then death itself must soon give way to life, and trial and tribulation must soon pass away into oblivion.

This one-week-old boy, the son of Zechariah, would one day get the people of Israel ready for Christ.  God would use this boy to call his people to repentance, to call his people away from their imaginations of a political salvation or a social salvation, to teach his people to yearn for the coming of the Savior from sin, to get his people ready for the imminent Advent of Christ.

That Advent of Christ – would be the sunrise that shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.  The sunrise was on the horizon.  He was already conceived, and his prophet was already born.  God had kept his word.  The light of forgiveness in Christ was already beginning to shine.  The shadow of death was already beginning to give way to life.  And the way of peace – by faith in Christ – was about to be revealed.

Benedictus!  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.  So sang Zechariah a few months before the Advent of Christ in Bethlehem.  So sing we, too, this Advent season, because by the preaching of John and the teaching of Jesus, the Lord God of Israel has visited and redeemed us, too, and made us a part of his people Israel through faith in Mary’s Son.  And even as he kept every promise made to the nation of Israel to save them from their enemies, so he must keep his promises to us to visit and redeem us once more at the imminent Advent of his Christ.  You and I have every bit as much reason to sing as Zechariah: Benedictus!  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel! Amen. 


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Look, People of Zion! Your salvation is coming!

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Populus Zion – Advent 2

Luke 21:25-36  +  Malachi 4:1-6  +  Romans 15:4-13

Populus Zion!  People of Zion!  Does Christmas ever sort of just sneak up on you?  I mean, you know it’s coming at the same time every year, and yet suddenly, now it’s December and then December is almost over and you still have shopping and baking and decorating and cleaning and planning to do, and – how did a fixed date that never changes manage to catch you off guard?  And yet, it does.

If the celebration of the First Coming of Christ at Christmas can catch you off guard, how much more his Second Coming, which isn’t found on any calendar?  That’s why we have the season of Advent – so that neither Christmas and its significance nor Christ’s Second Coming and its significance should catch us off guard.

People of Zion – members of the Church of Christ – behold! Surely your salvation is coming!  Last week’s Gospel saw Jesus, the King, coming to Jerusalem on Psalm Sunday to bring salvation to his people through his death on the cross.  We considered, too, how Jesus keeps bringing salvation to his people in the Means of Grace – Word and Sacrament. 

But in this season of Advent, God also has us looking forward to a future salvation, a final salvation at the end of time – a time that isn’t too far away anymore. That salvation isn’t a myth or a bedtime story.  It’s really coming.  It’s coming when Christ comes again.  Advent points us to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the age.  “Lo, he comes with clouds descending.”

He tells his disciples that in today’s Gospel.  Look! Your salvation is coming!  Look around at the signs!  Look up when you see him coming!  Look out that you don’t fall asleep while you wait!

LOOK AROUND AT THE SIGNS!

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

Look around at the signs in nature!  They tell you that your salvation is coming.  What is Jesus talking about here?  Natural phenomena in nature like solar and lunar eclipses and meteor showers and storms at sea?  Or miraculous events like the actual sun, moon and stars falling out of the sky?  The answer is, “Yes!”  On the day when Jesus returns, this present universe will be rolled up like a scroll.  But until then, every solar, lunar and stellar event, every storm at sea, every hurricane, every tsunami, every earthquake is meant to be a sign – a very specific sign that signals a very specific event: Jesus is coming!  Just like new leaves on the trees signal the coming of summer, so the upheaval of nature signals the coming of Christ, and God wants his waiting people, the People of Zion, to understand and to know what it means.  Look around and see! Your salvation really is coming! Remember! Believe it!

But the world will never understand or see it that way.  The world will not believe the signs until it’s too late. When the unbelieving world sees nature doing crazy things, people get scared and confused.  They come up with wild explanations and scary, scientific theories.  Aliens are coming! A super volcano is coming!  A super earthquake is coming!  Climate change is coming! A magnetic pole reversal!  A terrorist attack! A nuclear holocaust!

The people of the world look around at nature’s upheaval and are ready to believe that anything and everything is coming – except for what is really coming – The Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.  No, no!  Not that!  It can’t be that!

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire.”  You know what people have to be afraid of on that day?  Justice.  Justice.  Because “at that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” and he will come with justice. And all people will finally, finally have to answer for everything they’ve ever thought, said or done – for every harsh word spoken, for every infraction of God’s commandments, for every sexual sin, for every joke at the expense of Christ or his people, for every bitter attack against the Church. People will be judged by their deeds, and not a single human being will escape condemnation who is judged by his or her deeds, because they will all be found wanting, deficient, worthy of condemnation.

That’s why the Word of God calls out to the world so urgently, “Repent!  Repent of everything!  Repent of your entire record of behavior and be judged by Christ’s record instead, by his deeds, by his righteousness! Trust that his condemnation on the cross sets you free from condemnation when the Son of Man comes in the clouds.”  Faith in Christ means that you don’t wish to be judged by your deeds or condemned for your sins. It means you recognize that your judge is your Savior.  Look! Your salvation is coming!

LOOK UP!

And when you see the signs, and especially when you finally see the Son of Man coming in the clouds – if you’re alive on the earth at that time – you don’t have to run. You don’t have to hide.  You don’t have to scramble with the unbelieving world to look for shelter, because He who is your Shelter is coming in the clouds. Stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Look! Your salvation is coming!  Look up!  Jesus’ Second Advent won’t bring any destruction or condemnation for those who are found waiting for him.  You don’t have to wonder if your sins have been washed away. You have been baptized into Christ, after all.  You have his Means of Grace now. Look for Jesus there!  He comes to you there with free and full salvation!  You’re baptized and forgiven now.  You’re alive in Christ by faith now.  You’re in God’s kingdom now. 

And so we eagerly await Christ’s coming in the clouds, because for us who believe in him, it means final redemption. It means the end of every single one of our enemies – no more sin. No more temptation. No more death.  No more devil to pursue us. No more being the victims of the world’s persecution.  It means the beginning of the great Wedding Banquet for Christ and his Bride, Zion, the Church.

LOOK OUT!

But in the meantime, while you look around and see the signs, while you get ready to look up and welcome the Bridegroom who comes in the clouds, Jesus also warns you to look out. “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.”

Jesus knows that waiting isn’t easy. He knows that his Church is in danger every moment until he comes in the clouds, because, for as eager as you may be on Sunday morning for him to return, by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around – not to mention Monday through Saturday – you’ve got all sorts of worldly matters competing for your attention.

Jesus mentions being weighed down with dissipation – basically, a hangover, and drunkenness, and the anxieties of life.  You’re not looking for your coming salvation if you’re in a drunken stupor. You’re not looking for your coming salvation if your head keeps pounding with reminders of last night’s party.  You’re not looking for your coming salvation if your heart is wrapped up in the things of this life.

Look out, Jesus says, be careful! Because when your hearts are weighed down to this earth, then repentance and faith float away. Then you’re so distracted that you can’t hear him calling out to you in the gospel.  Then Christ is shoved to the backburner of your heart, and that is dangerous.  That is deadly.

Ever have one of those moments when you were doing something, saying something, dwelling on something that you knew you shouldn’t be – maybe even thought to yourself, “I sure hope Jesus doesn’t come back right now”?  In his grace, he didn’t. He gave you the opportunity to be convicted of your sin and forgiven of it.  But if you tempt him – “Oh, I can get away with this.  He won’t come back yet.  What are the odds?” Then you’ll have only yourself to blame when he comes like a thief and judgment sneaks up on you, as it will sneak up on the unbelieving world.  The real tragedy is, the unbelieving world never knew or believed he was coming.  But you, Christian, you do know and believe he is coming.  Why would you live a life unprepared?

Understand, God is not playing games with you.  He isn’t just waiting for you to get distracted and then, snap!, the trap goes shut.  He isn’t playing games with you.  But don’t you play games with him, either.  You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Instead, “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Be always on the watch.  Or another way to translate it, “Stay awake!”  Look out that you don’t slip into spiritual sleep. Look out, so that in every moment of every day, you’re expecting your Savior’s return.  Even while you tend to the daily chores you have to tend to, do it with one eye on the chore and one eye on the sky, as it were.

If you know that heaven and earth will pass away but the words of Jesus will never pass away, then you’ll hear his words regularly – in preaching, in teaching, in the Lord’s Supper.  These are the things that will never pass away.  Look out for the things that do pass away.

And pray – pray like your life depends on it, because if you’re praying constantly that you may be able to escape the trap that will close on the world, then that means you’re awake – you’re watching, you’re looking, for your salvation is coming.  You’re living in daily repentance and faith in Christ, and shielded by faith from God’s wrath, you will be able to stand before the Son of Man.

Look, people of Zion!  Your salvation is coming!  It won’t delay, not much longer now.  Don’t let that day or Christmas Day sneak up on you. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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