Category: Advent 1

O Lord, How Shall I Meet You?

12/1/2020

Entry into Jerusalem, Pietron Lorenzetti, 1320, Public Domain

Advent 1
Matthew 21:1-11
November 29, 2020

“O Lord, how shall I meet You, How welcome You aright?” What a good question! How can we welcome the Lord Almighty? The crowds in Jerusalem from our Gospel lesson give us a wonderful example. They took off their cloaks and cut down branches from trees and laid them on the road for his donkey to walk on. They shouted out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” There were shouts of joy and singing, a happier event than you’ve seen at any street parade.
Yet, how does this teach us how to meet our Lord? Should we cut branches off trees and stand out in the street waiting for Jesus to come in? No. The example these saints in Jerusalem give us is the example of faith. They received Jesus as their King and Savior through faith. And their laying down cloaks and palm branches, their shouts of joy and praise, these all revealed the faith within their hearts.
The crowds wouldn’t let the donkey Jesus road on touch the ground, so greatly they revered their Lord. They called him, “The Son of David,” which means that they believed him to be the Christ, the Righteous Branch, which God promised to raise up from David (Jeremiah 23:5-8). These crowds confessed with their words and actions that they believed Jesus to be the fulfillment of the prophecies of Scripture. They heard from his teaching and saw from his mighty deeds that he was indeed the promised Christ. Jesus taught God’s Word with authority and was faithful to the Scriptures. He made the blind see and the deaf hear; he made the lame man leap like a deer, as Scripture foretold. (Isaiah 35:5-6) They believed that Jesus was the Christ who was coming into the world. (John 11:27)
And these saints crowding the streets of Jerusalem used the words of Scripture to sing praises to their Lord and King. They shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” These are the words of Psalm 118:25-26. Hosanna means, “Save us.” They are treating Jesus as their Savior and as saints are wont to do, they use the very words of Scripture to praise him.
And, so we should follow in the train of these saints who welcomed Jesus’ advent into Jerusalem that week of his crucifixion. We should have faith in Jesus. We should call him the Christ, the King in the highest, David’s Son and Lord. We should call him our Savior and cry to him for salvation with great anticipation. We should listen to the prophecies of Scripture and their promises and believe them. And we should borrow the words of Scripture as we worship our King, who comes to us, just as these saints did. And that is indeed what we do! Every Divine Service before Christ Jesus comes to us in his body and blood at the Sacrament of the Altar, we sing these same words, “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!” These are words of faith, which have been used by the saints for thousands of years.
And we should be joyful. We have a Savior who loves us. We should gladly come to worship him. This should be our fervent desire, not an obligation that takes up time we don’t have. Worshiping Christ, welcoming him into our midst is the greatest thing we do in life, the most important, and the most rewarding.
St. Paul also gives us instruction on how to meet our Lord, not only on Sunday mornings, but every day, especially as the day draws near for his return. He writes, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:12-14)
And so, we too should recognize that our Lord Jesus came to die for our sins. He came to rescue us from their destruction and filth. If we are to welcome our Lord in faith, we must also repent of our filth, cast off the works of darkness which seek to enslave us and cling to Christ Jesus, walking according to his teachings of love, purity, honesty, and self-control. Scripture warns that the sexually immoral, the drunkards, the sensual, and those who are jealous, will not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21) In Revelation 21, after describing the wonderful vision of the new heaven and the new earth, and Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega wiping the last tear from our eyes and destroying death, St. John writes, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (vs. 8)
And so, it is clear that Christians cannot go on sinning as if it does not matter without repenting. You cannot rightly welcome your Lord Jesus if you refuse to turn from your sin. This means that if you have a habit of getting drunk, stop it. If you are fornicating, stop it. If you pick fights with people, gossip, lust after impure things, stop it. And every time these sins arise in you again, cast them off again. Drown your old Adam every day, so that the new man may rise up to welcome Christ at his coming.
It is sin which makes us fearful of Jesus’ return. If Christ comes to judge the nations, a terror to his foes, then it is a terror to those with a guilty conscience! Well, how can you greet Jesus with joy, when you’re a sinner? Jesus hates sin. Scripture clearly states that the wicked will be destroyed and sinners will not stand in the judgment (Psalms 1:5-6; 37:38)!
You can greet Jesus with joy, because Jesus does not come to deal with you according to your sins, but to rescue those who wait for him (Hebrews 9:28), that is, those who have faith in Christ’s forgiveness and salvation. Yes, Christians must repent of their sins. If you refuse to repent and continue to live as if sin is not a problem, then you are not a Christian. Your faith is fake. Yet, even Christians with a sincere faith still sin. We can’t help it. We’re still trapped in these sinful bodies. And although we desire to do what is right, our sinful flesh still lures us into sin each day. Although we daily drown the old Adam in us, he rises again to agitate our conscience. This is why St. Paul laments, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:29) This is the condition of all Christians. Yet, there is a big difference between falling into sins of weakness but repenting of them, and continuing in sin with no remorse without turning to Christ for forgiveness. Jesus promises to forgive you as often as you repent. But if you refuse to repent, then you refuse Christ’s forgiveness.
This is what the Apostle John says in 1 John 1, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Christians are still sinners on earth. And Christians are saved. Jesus saves sinners. That is what he came to earth to do. The crowd in Jerusalem, which welcomed Jesus with such faithful songs and praise, were welcoming him who would die for their sins. That is why Jesus came to Jerusalem. He came to die for the sins of the whole world.
This means that your sins should not make you doubt your salvation. Jesus died for your sins. God knew your sins and the sin of the whole world, and he still sent Jesus to pay for it all with his suffering and death. In Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we see how willing Christ is to die for us. We see how set he is on winning for us salvation. Jesus commanded that his Church baptize all nations. Scripture promises that Baptism forgives sins and grants salvation to all who believe. Jesus told his ministers to forgive the sins of others and promised that he also would forgive their sins in heaven. Jesus sent out his Apostles to preach the Gospel in every land and promised that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. The bread and wine, which we share in the Sacrament, Jesus tells us is his very body, which he gave for us on the cross, and his very blood which is poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus came to earth to save sinners. And he comes to us today in his Word and Sacraments in order to save us.
As Christians, our sins do not cause us to fear Christ’s arrival, because Jesus died to take away our sins. And he comes to us frequently through his Word and Sacrament in order to heal us and forgive our sins, so we do not fear his coming on the Last Day, because we know how he will deal with us. As we just sang,
Sin’s debt, that fearful burden,
Cannot His love erase;
Your guilt the Lord will pardon
And cover by His grace.
He comes, for you procuring
The peace of sin forgiv’n.
His children thus securing
Eternal life in heav’n. (Paul Gerhardt, O Lord, How Shall I Meet You, LSB 334:6).

As the crowds and children received Jesus in faith and joyful praise, Jesus’ enemies in hatred plotted his destruction. Less than a week later, while this crowd of Christians slept after celebrating the Passover, Jesus’ enemies arrested Jesus, put him on trial, hurling fists and false accusations against him, and brought him before the pagan governor. By the time the faithful woke up, Jesus was already headed to the cross. In confusion many of them ran and hid, many lost heart. Jesus’ own disciples hid in fear behind locked doors. Only when Jesus returned victorious from the grave and sent the Holy Spirit to them, did these faithful gain courage again to sing his praises in public.
And so, it is with us today. As the chief priests and scribes looked with hatred upon the celebrating faithful in Jerusalem, so the powerful in this world hate and plot against the Church. Satan and his real human minions look at our celebration of Christ as foolish childhood play. They seek to discourage us and to erase Jesus from our hearts and from this land. But just as Jesus overcame the evil plots of Satan and the chief priests, so Christ has arranged for his Christians to overcome the plots of the enemies of his Church. Though we face evil in this world, we will prevail. While the enemies of Christ look at Christ’s return with terror and the more foolish among them look at it with scorn, we look to Christ’s return with joy and great anticipation, for we know that when he comes, he will give an imperishable crown of righteousness to all who love his appearing.
He comes to judge the nations,
A terror to His foes,
A light of consolation
And blessed hope to those
Who love the Lord’s appearing.
O glorious Sun, now come,
Send forth Your beams so cheering,
And guide us safely home. Amen. (LSB 334:7).

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Jesus Comes for You

12/3/2019

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Benjamin Haydon, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, 1814-1820, Athenaeum of Ohio, Public Domain

Advent 1, 2019
Matthew 21:1-9
December 1, 2019

For December’s newsletter, I shared a poem by Richard Wilbur by the title, “A Christmas Hymn,” which has the refrain, “And every stone shall cry. And every stone shall cry.” This refrain refers to an episode recorded in the 19th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus is entering into Jerusalem and the crowds are shouting praises to Jesus, calling him their king. The Pharisees in the crowd commanded Jesus to rebuke his disciples for what they perceived to be blasphemy. However, Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
If Jesus’ disciples do not praise him, the stones themselves will praise him. This is true, because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He utters his voice and the earth melts. He created the heavens and the earth. All things visible and invisible exist in order to serve him. And yet, as I point out in the newsletter, Jesus didn’t come to be praised by rocks, or sheep, or donkeys, or even angels. Jesus came to be praised by you. This is why he took on human flesh and was laid as a baby in a manger. This is why he was obedient to his parents, why he was baptized in the Jordan, why he rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, why he was nailed to the cross and laid in the tomb. He didn’t do this to save rocks, or beasts, or angels. Jesus took on human flesh, lived under the law to save us humans under the law, and he died to take away our sin. And he has done this so that we, whom he saves, will sing his praises both now and forever.
     Yet, there are many who will not praise him, as we see with the disgruntled Pharisees. They do not welcome his coming. Rather, there are many plotting his execution even as the crowds are singing his praises. They reject Jesus, because he does not come the way they want him to come. He comes lowly on a donkey. He’s too humble and weak-looking to be their king and the promised Christ. They reject him, because he is an outsider. He didn’t learn from them or go to their school. They reject him, because he doesn’t praise them or stoke their ego. They reject him, because he rejects their manmade rules; because he teaches with the authority of God; because he receives sinners and eats with them.
Jesus didn’t come the way they wanted him to come, so they rejected him. Instead of praising him, they demanded his crucifixion. Instead of calling him their king, they said they had no king but Caesar. Instead of taking off their cloaks to lay before his donkey, they watched as soldiers stripped Jesus of his clothes and cast lots for them. Instead of cutting branches from trees to wave in praise, they wagged their heads in disdain as Jesus was nailed to a tree. Perhaps if Jesus would have presented himself in a different way, they would have accepted him and sung his praises.
And this is how many think today. They want Jesus to come to them in a way they are comfortable with. They want Jesus to meet them on their terms, and present himself in a manner to their liking. Some want Jesus to entertain them, while others want Jesus to tell them how smart they are. They think his words in Scripture are outdated and out of touch. They think Baptism is superstitious and reject the idea that it can forgive sins. They are offended that Jesus gives authority to men to forgive sins and promises to come to people through their words. That Jesus tells us to repent and believe in the Gospel does not bode well for most. If Jesus were really “Jesus-like,” he would just accept people for who they are and affirm them in their sins. For these and a host of other reasons, people today reject Jesus and refuse to sing his praises.
Maybe if Jesus would come in a different way, more people would accept him and sing his praises. If Jesus would be a bit more entertaining, a bit more flattering; if he would let us choose in what mode we will receive him; if he would not talk so much about sin, death, and judgment; if he would be less divisive, and be more like the Jesus in the imagination of men’s hearts, then Jesus would be accepted. Right?
Wrong. Jesus does not need to change the way he comes to us. Rather, we need to accept Jesus the way he comes to us. We need to accept the baby born on straw in the stable. We need to accept the man who calls sinners to repentance. We need to accept the man, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, was arrested in the dead of night and crucified on the cross, yet rose from the dead on the third day. We need to accept the man, who comes to us through words, not just any words, but words he has given us, words that have created faith, forgiven sins, and built up the hosts of saints in heaven for many generations and will continue to do so. Words, that the Holy Spirit caused prophets and apostles to write down; words that call us to repentance and declare forgiveness of sins freely for Christ’s sake; words that demand that we conform our minds to God’s will and love one another.
We must accept Jesus in the way he comes to us, because Jesus does not come to us any other way. He doesn’t come to us through the breeze blowing through the leaves as we sit in the deer stand. He doesn’t bubble up in our heart as we meditate on our own feelings concerning the world. He doesn’t come to us through Muhammad, or Buddha, or Hare Krishna. And he doesn’t preach to us any other Gospel. He doesn’t come to tell you how to get rich or live your best life now. He doesn’t encourage you in your selfish desires and sins. He doesn’t tell you that if you try your best, you’ll go to heaven based on your own works. Rather, Jesus comes to you as the God-man, the one who was crucified for your sins, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. And Jesus tells us to repent of our sins and to trust in him for forgiveness and salvation and in him alone. If you are going to receive Jesus, you must receive him on his terms, not on your own.
Yet, this does not mean that Jesus does not meet us where we are. Quite the contrary. Jesus does not demand that we ascend to him, rather he comes down to us! In fact, Jesus comes down to us in the only way we can receive him!
If Jesus were to come to us in his divine glory without joining himself to our human nature, we would be consumed by his glory. We wouldn’t be able to stand before him, let alone receive him into our hearts! And if Jesus were to tell us to do our best and try to enter heaven by our own works, none of us would make it. Every one of us would fail. We’re sinners. We will never be good enough by our own works to enter heaven! And if Jesus were to simply ignore sin, to tell us that we do not need to repent, he would deny himself, for he is righteous and no wickedness can dwell with him. Jesus can't share his glory with any other god, because he is the only God and we must have no other gods before him. If Jesus did not die for our sins, then our sins would still oppress us today and bind us to hell.
Yet, Jesus didn’t come in any way invented by sinful people. Rather, Jesus came in the only way we could receive him as our Savior. He took on our human flesh, was tempted in every way as we were, except without sin; he fulfilled God’s Law in our place! Jesus entered Jerusalem humble mounted on a donkey to show that he does not come in the power of violence, but in the power of his mercy, which he showed by bearing our sins on the cross. Jesus came in the only way that shepherds could come and bow down to him, that a sinful woman could wash his feet with her tears and hair, that crowds of sinners looking for a savior could greet with palm branches and shouts of hosannas, that could bring him to the cross. He came in the only way where his disciples could take hold of his nail pierced, yet living feet in worship.
And Jesus comes to us today in the only way we can truly receive him. He comes to us in Baptism to wash our sins away. We cannot choose him nor cleanse ourselves from our sinful condition, so Jesus does it for us. He empowers simple water with his almighty word. Jesus calls sinners, not to save themselves, but to come to him for salvation. He doesn’t demand that you make reparation in order to receive forgiveness, rather he declares forgiveness by grace as a gift. Jesus comes to you in bread and wine, which cannot be eaten by angels, but you can eat and drink. A meal simple enough for anyone to eat, yet holy enough to contain the body and blood of Christ Jesus, which must be eaten with faith in order to receive its eternal benefits.
If Jesus were to come the way we wanted him to come, we would be lost. Thank God, Jesus comes the way he planned with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Thank God he came to take away our sins through his passion, so that when he returns, he will not deal with us according to our sins, but with healing in his wings. Thank God that he comes to us in words of peace and mercy and that he opens our ears and softens our hearts to understand and believe these words, so that Christ Jesus might dwell in our hearts through faith. It is only through repentance and faith in the Gospel of Christ that we can receive Jesus. This is how God has prepared praise for Jesus wherever he makes his entrance. And this praise will continue to grow. God grant that we would receive Jesus in faith as he comes to us, so that we might praise him today, tomorrow, and in eternity. Amen.

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Advent 1: Behold, Your King is Coming to You

12/3/2018

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Matthew 21:1-9
December 2, 2018

According to recent studies between 6,000 and 10,000 churches will close this year in the United States; that’s between 100 and 200 per week. And this hits close to home for us this morning as Messiah Lutheran Church in Keokuk, IA, one of our sister congregations in Iowa District East, is having its final service before closing down permanently. Although the nation’s population continues to grow and we’re told the economy is growing even quicker and 70% of Americans still identify as Christian, more and more congregations simply can’t afford to support a building and a minister. This is likely due to the fact that, as recent studies also show, less than 20% of Americans attend a Christian church service in a given week.

Of course, such startling numbers didn’t happen overnight or without reason. One of the causes is a false theology, which Satan has spread in Christ’s Church. It goes like this: God is omnipresent, that is, he is present everywhere, therefore, I can be with God anytime and anywhere I want and therefore, I do not need to go to church to be with God. Like many heresies there is a little bit of truth in it. God certainly is omnipresent and you can certainly be with God anytime and anywhere, as Jesus himself instructs us that when we pray “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret.” (Matthew 6:6) And the Psalmist cries to God, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7)

Yet, although God is present everywhere and at all times, he is not always present in the same way; specifically, he is not always and everywhere present with his grace. The presence of God is a serious thing, just listen to what Isaiah the prophet said when he beheld God in a vision, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5) And God spoke to Moses in Exodus 33, “Man shall not see my face and live.”

Those who are attending our Sunday morning Bible study on Leviticus know how difficult it is for God to be present with us humans. God is holy. We are sinners. God is a consuming fire. His holiness does not permit sin to be in his presence. So, God gave very specific instructions on how to build a tabernacle and what type of sacrifices to offer and when, so that God could be with his people without consuming them in fire. And while God’s presence can certainly be a terrifying thing, it is where we want to be! Especially when God comes to us with his grace, forgiving our sins and giving us eternal life.

The tabernacle of course points to Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. Because God has become man, we poor sinners can be in his presence to receive his forgiveness and salvation. In fact, that is all the church is, but Jesus’ little lambs gathered in the presence of God to hear the voice of their Good Shepherd. God is present with his people showering them with his grace where his Word is taught in its truth and purity and where his Sacraments are rightly administered.

And since we want everyone to come into God’s presence and to receive God’s grace and forgiveness, so that they can have eternal life, it is very troubling that so many opt not to come to church and that so many churches continue to close and some here may even be thinking, how long will it be for us? So, how can we bring people to God?

Well, in fact, this is the wrong question. We cannot bring ourselves to God let alone bring others to him. As the beautiful Christmas hymn puts it, “Come from on high to me I cannot rise to Thee.” We cannot ascend to heaven to be with God. Nor can we bring him down to us. It is God who comes to us. And this is what our Gospel lesson teaches us today.

What do we see? We see a man on a colt of a donkey riding into a city in great humility. And yet, this is just as the prophet foretold, “Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” And this right here is the epitome of how our God comes to us. He comes to us lowly on a bed of straw wrapped in a diaper. He comes in human form calling himself the Son of Man even as he always remains the Son of God. He comes to us bloody and sweaty, struggling under a timber. He comes to us nailed to that same cross, crying out in dereliction. He comes to us dead in a tomb. He comes to us alive with holes in his hands, feet, and side. He comes to us speaking peace from God. He comes to us with cool water and profound words to make our conscience clean. He comes to us through the mouth of humble men and under the forms of bread and wine. This is how our God comes to us.

Advent means coming. To those who think that God is already here and there is nothing more to his presence than what we see out in the woods while hunting or in our living room while watching T.V. or wherever else we may be, this season of Advent must seem like a bunch of nonsense. But for those of us, who are trouble with our sins, who don’t hear God’s forgiveness spoken to us from the trees, we need God to come to us. We all need God to come to us. We need him to come and save us from our sins which lead to death and to give us eternal life. This season into which we enter today is all about God coming to us.

And so, since it is God who comes to us, we don’t ask the question how we come to him, but rather, how do we receive God as he comes to us. Or, better yet, how does God prepare us to receive him. When the chief priests and scribes became indignant at the children in the temple crying out to Jesus, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, Jesus responded, “have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” It is God, who prepares praise for his own coming and he does this by creating faith in our hearts.

The crowd, who shouted, “Hosanna, to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” believed that this man riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was their king. Did Jesus look like a king? Not really. But they didn’t determine that Jesus was their king through human logic. They received Jesus as their king through faith. St. Paul writes, “the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘‘‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (That is, the word of faith that we proclaim).” (Romans 10:6-8) The crowd celebrating Christ’s arrival as their king believed the word of God, which Zechariah proclaimed in chapter 9, “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17) God creates faith in our hearts and prepares praise in our mouths through his word. And it is only through faith that one can receive God as he comes. King Herod did not have faith, so he tried to kill the baby Christ. Yet, the shepherds and wisemen, who had faith in the word of God bowed down to a baby as their king. The chief priests and scribes didn’t believe the word of God, so they rejected Jesus as he arrived as the Prophet described. But those, who did believe God’s word welcomed their God as he came to them.

God comes to us in ways that can only be received by faith. Because in order for God to save us from our sins, he must come to us with his grace. We are incapable of earning our way to heaven. Every work we do according to our natural abilities is tainted with sin. So, in order for us to obtain salvation, we must receive this as a gift. Faith is nothing else than receiving God’s free gift.

This is why God became a man. None of us could possibly claim to have helped God become man in any way. Yet, God did this, so that he could share in our misery, fulfill the law in our place, and be punished in our stead. Jesus’ death on the cross betrays all our human logic and pride, yet it was necessary if we were to receive eternal life. Justice must be paid. Jesus paid it by suffering the punishment we deserved. This involved the almighty God coming in humble human flesh and suffering despicable shame. And the only way you can possible receive this is through faith in God’s word “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

In order to receive God’s grace, you yourself must be humble. God exalts the humble, fills the empty, raises the dead. This is what it means to be saved by grace. This means that you must repent of your sins. It is your sin, which separate you from God and sentences you to death and hell. Christ has come to take your sin away and give you eternal life. Faith involves not only having knowledge that Jesus has come to save you, but to place your sins on Jesus and trust in his forgiveness. This is why St. Paul tells us to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. God prepares you for his coming by giving you a repentant heart that constantly flees from your sinful condition and clings to Jesus for salvation.

Advent is about God coming to us with his grace now through his Word and Sacraments and us receiving God’s grace through faith in his word. This was demonstrated to us in Christ’s triumphal entry, as the crowds believing the words of the prophet recited the words of Psalm 118, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Through holy Scripture written a thousand years before this event God placed these words of faith into the mouth of the crowd. And God has placed those same words into our mouths. We join with the saints of the Bible by reciting these same words as our Lord and King comes to us in bread and wine. By using these words, we receive God as he himself taught us to.

Advent is also about God coming in judgment when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. At this coming, everyone will recognize Christ as the King, even those who do not have faith. But we who have received God’s grace through faith have no fear of that day. There is now no condemnation for those, who are in Christ Jesus.

It is God, who will grow his Church. He will prepare praise from the mouths of those you would least expect. And he does this through his word, which creates faith in our hearts. Yes, God will use us to grow his church. As we teach the faith to our children and bring them to church to hear the Gospel and as we confess the faith to others out in the world. God works through these words to gather his sheep, just as he gathered the crowds to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. But it is God who does this. And he does this through his word. And we will not improve on the work of God by abandoning the message of Jesus or trying to make it sound more appealing to another generation. Through the words of the Gospel God will call sinners to himself where and when it pleases him. And as those crowds in Jerusalem welcomed Jesus with shouts of Hosanna nearly two thousand years ago, so do we welcome our Lord today as he comes to us to save us from our sins, so will generations after us, and so will we when we welcome our Lord when he comes on the Last Day. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

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Ad Te Levavi: Advent 1 Sermon Preached by Guest Preacher Rev. Dr. Dean Rothchild

12/4/2017

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Matthew 21:1-9

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Advent 1 God Has Prepared Praise

11/29/2016

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November 27, 2016

Matthew 21:1-16

21 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
    humble, and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt,[a] the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
12 And Jesus entered the temple[b] and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
    you have prepared praise’?”
Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies God has prepared praise. The children cried in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" because God prepared these shouts of praise for them before the foundation of the world. In fact God prepared the praise of those laying down coats and palm branches and crying hosannas as Jesus entered the gates of Jerusalem.
Even this morning God has prepared praise. Consider little Mandie. She can't even talk. She's an infant. Yet today her Lord comes to her and makes her his own child. You see, human beings are incapable of choosing God. We are born sinners. "In sin did my mother conceive me!" King David laments (Psalm 51:5) and St. Paul writes, " The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him." (1 Corinthians 2:14) This is why Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16) Every human being is born in sin, captive to the desires of the flesh and incapable of choosing God. It is as the hymnist wrote in our second Communion hymn, "I lay in fetters, groaning; You came to set me free. I stood, my shame bemoaning; You came to honor me. A glorious crown You give me, A treasure safe on high That will not fail or leave me As earthly riches fly." Little Mandie who was born fettered to sin has today been honored by God. She has received a crown that outlasts all the fleeting treasures of this life. In Baptism God put his name on that little girl, who yet cannot speak her own name.
Mandie, like every human being ever to be born, save Jesus Christ of miraculous birth, was incapable of choosing God, incapable of loving him, incapable of praising him. But God chose Mandie and prepared praise from her lips even before he made the world. St. Paul writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." (Ephesians 1:3-4)
God chose Mandie independent of anything she has or will do, just as he chose those children in the temple to praise Christ with shouts of hosanna. Yet, God doesn't make Christians by a flip of a switch. He uses means, instruments to accomplish this task. The instrument God uses to make Christians is his Word. God's Word creates faith in the unbeliever and it is faith that produces praise to God from the lips of believers.
God prepared praise from those children in the temple shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David". Yet the children learned to praise Christ by hearing the Word of God. Their parents taught them about the Messiah at home. They heard Jesus preach. Even their shouts of praise, "Hosanna" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" the children and crowds recited from Psalm 118. They heard the word of God and through that word God created faith in their hearts and prepared praise on their lips.
So Mandie this morning hears a word of God. "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And God creates faith in her heart. And as she continues to hear God's word she too will learn to sing "Hosanna." Hosanna means, "Save us!" Christians know who saves them. So as the crowds in Jerusalem and the children in the Temple recognized their Savior when they saw him, so Mandie will recognize the voice of Jesus when she hears the Gospel, and she too will pray to God for salvation.
To receive Jesus is a difficult thing for many. Baptism is especially questioned. "How can water do such great things? Surely this is not how someone is made a Christian! It's so simple and plane. And the Baptized doesn't even do anything except get her hair wet!"
It does seem common. Water with a few words. But this is the means by which God has chosen to prepare praise from Mandie's lips. Our Lord Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) It seems common too that Christ would ride into Jerusalem humble and lowly on a donkey. He doesn't enter on a war horse or in a chariot. Yet on that virgin foal led by its mother rides the King, who brings salvation, just as the Prophet Zechariah foretold, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey." (Zech. 9:9) This is how God works, he joins himself to that which is common to save us who are common. We do not ascend to God. We don't find him. He descends to us. He finds us. He chooses us, we do not choose him.
So as the people of faith in Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as he humbly came to them upon a donkey, so Mandie welcomes her Savior through Baptism. And we all welcome our God by hearing his word, reciting the praises prepared for us, and even receiving Christ's true body and blood under the humble form of bread and wine. We receive Christ as he chooses to come to us. Just as he chose to come on a donkey, so he chooses to come now through water and his word, in bread and wine, even from the mouth of a sinful man. And we receive him with praise on our lips.
Mandie's praise for her Savior is planned. Your praise for Jesus was planned too. This makes sense, because it was all planned. The entire episode. It was rigged by God. The donkey and colt; the crowds welcoming Jesus with cheers; the children in the temple crying, "hosanna!"; it's all planned by God. Even more, Christ's miraculous birth from the Virgin Mary, his healing of the blind and the lame, his suffering and death, all this was planned by God and foretold by his prophets. Christ's triumphant resurrection from the tomb, his ascension into heaven, his return in glory, all of this was planned. And it was planned for the purpose of saving Mandie, of saving you, and me. So although the praise from the lips of the babies was planned before God said, "Let there be light," the praise itself is in response to Christ's work to save you.
God prepared a Sacrificial Lamb to take away the sins of the whole world (John 1:29), the very Godman, Jesus Christ. As crowds cheered the arrival of a poor man sitting on a donkey, God's plan for your salvation was coming to realization. The crowds shouted, "Save us" and Christ went to lay down his life for theirs and save them with his holy precious blood. Everything went exactly as planned. Jesus bore all your sins and the sins of the whole world.
And when we talk about Jesus taking away sins, we should realize, he knew what those sins were. God knew what wicked thoughts you would have. He knew every sin you'd commit before you committed them. He knew the atrocities people would bring upon others. And he still sent Jesus to die for them all. He saw your sin, the evil you chose to do, and he put it on Jesus to suffer for it. It's not like God planned to save you, but sees how rotten you are and says, "Oh, well then, nevermind." No before the earth's foundation God saw what you would do against him in thought, word, and deed and he still planned Christ's entrance into Jerusalem, his suffering and death, all of it to save you.
And so we praise God today, for saving us from our well deserved punishment. We praise him for planning our salvation long ago and for going through with this difficult plan. And just as God planned the praise Jesus received when he entered Jerusalem and the temple, so God prepares praise from our lips today; praise that was cultivated by hearing this wonderful Gospel that God planned our salvation through Jesus Christ. So we sing "Hosanna" even today as we prepare our hearts to receive Christ in his holy Sacrament. And God has prepared even greater praise for us to sing when Christ comes not humbly as he did upon that donkey, or this morning in the water of Baptism or with the bread and wine, but when Christ comes in his fully revealed glory, we will praise our coming Redeemer with songs composed before the creation of the world.
May we not cease to repent of our sins, to hear the Gospel of Jesus, and to sing his praises, until we sing them anew in eternity. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

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