3rd Sunday in Advent – B LSB #’s 338, 333, 349
Text – Isaiah 61:2 To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, & the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. A YEAR OF FAVOR – A DAY OF VENGEANCE A passenger jet was flying from Seattle to San Francisco when, unexpectedly, the plane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant explained there would be a delay, but if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft they would re-board the plane in 50 minutes. Everyone decided to leave except for one woman who was blind. A man had noticed her as he walked by & could tell she was blind because her guide dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of her throughout the flight. He also realized she had flown this flight before because the pilot approached her, & calling her by name, said, “Kathy, we’re in Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off & stretch your legs?” The blind lady replied, “No thanks, but maybe Buddy would like to stretch his legs.” The pilot agreed. So here’s the picture. All the people in the gate area come to a complete standstill when they look up & see the pilot, wearing sunglasses, walking off the plane with a guide dog for the blind! Passengers scattered on their way trying to change planes & even airlines. Things aren’t always as they appear, & that certainly applies to the phrase ‘the day of vengeance of our God.’ The Bible uses that term interchangeably with ‘the year of the Lord’s favor,’ even though in our minds there is a very clear difference between favor & vengeance. However, the word translated into English as vengeance has a lot more going for it in Hebrew. It’s not so narrowly defined, in purely negative terms as getting even, venting wrath or inflicting punishment. In Hebrew the word also has positive meanings such as the righting of wrongs & the establishment of justice. Vengeance is not only punishment for evil, but restoration, renewal & re-creation of good. How you react to the sermon text depends upon the angle from which you’re looking at it – from saint or from sinner. Most of us will not argue with taking an antibiotic to restore our health & eradicate an infection. That’s basically the same concept Isaiah is writing about as he uses the phrase ‘the day of vengeance of our God.’ God’s vengeance will eradicate disease & shame & sin. Our heavenly Father gives us faith to restore our spiritual health to that of perfection. Jesus did not come to earth announcing the Gospel to those who are comfortable & healthy. He came to proclaim the Good News to those who are mired in disease & shame & sin. The Gospel of Mark quotes Jesus: “Those who are healthy do not need a doctor, but those who are sick. I did not come to call righteous people, but sinners.” (2:17 NET) Therein lies the struggle. Admitting that we are diseased, shameful & filled with sin is highly uncomfortable, & as we well know, it is also uncommon. Yet this is how Isaiah describes what Jesus will proclaim: “…the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, & the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, & the day of vengeance of our God…” (Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV) God’s Son will be proclaiming a year of favor & a day of vengeance. They are, of course, not two separate times. The prophet used poetic language meant to target the emotions, the thoughts of the heart. This is one time, one event, one moment – a time of grace for the poor & needy – a time of retribution for all the enemies of God’s people. Jesus is the antibiotic sent to destroy what makes us ill, & to prevent any further illness. Like the pilot, who could see, walking the blind woman’s dog, God’s vengeance is not something to be afraid of, as long as you receive the gift of faith that He freely offers. After all, the children of God live by faith & not by sight. Faith in Jesus as Savior from sin informs us that God is good in spite of all the frightening things we see & experience. On the world stage, there’s a very evil & unstable man ruling North Korea who now controls nuclear weapons. On a national level the incompetence & corruption showing up across the institutions of our land is especially disheartening. Those issues are troubling enough, but are still at some distance. Hitting much closer to home, you & I are keenly aware of dysfunctional family dynamics. We feel the brunt of the disappointment, frustration & anger that arises from our sinful weaknesses, or even intentional evil. Children & adults alike fail to mature in their spiritual lives. The ill & the elderly are left abandoned to their own thoughts & anguish. By its very nature as a season of joy, Christmas frequently highlights feelings of being lost & alone. That experience is common to all mankind resulting from the original sin of Adam & Eve. As you know, repairing broken relationships is not a simple or painless process, even in the best of circumstances. If you get old enough, there are no relationships left to repair. As the prophet records the last 11 chapters of the book of Isaiah, he spends a good deal of time describing the wretched state of God’s people. The Northern Kingdom had already been overthrown & its ten tribes obliterated. Now, the Southern Kingdom was rapidly approaching its own destruction. That nation too, like ours, was rotting at the core. And still, Isaiah describes, not only the wretched state of God’s people, but all the more announces her beauty & brightness. Yahweh will fight for His people & defeat the darkness. In fact, as Isaiah prophecies, he often writes in the present tense as if the victory was even then being accomplished. It takes eyes of faith to understand such writing in spite of what we see. In the old days of God’s people, after entering the Promised Land, every 7th year was a sabbatical year when farmers did not sow their crops. Poor people could then collect what naturally grew on the land. In addition, at the Sabbatical year, all Israelite slaves were released from slavery. The goal was for Israel to confess that the land & her inhabitants belong to Yahweh. After seven cycles of seven years, the beginning of the 50th year instituted the Jubilee. Isaiah wrote of the Anointed Servant as He instituted the ultimate rest that we call heaven: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, & the opening of the prison to those who are bound.”[1] This Anointed Servant ushers in the end time’s sabbatical program, or Jubilee, & reverses the desolation of God’s people. She had walked in the dark, but now lives in the dawning light. She had been lost, but now is found. Once she was blind, but now she can see. Yahweh sends the Anointed Servant, whom we celebrate as the Christ child, to proclaim the year of favor & gives the faithful remnant a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. The mourners of Zion will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of Yahweh: “They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.” (Isaiah 61:4 ESV) They’re the faithful people of God, freed by Christ both to live & to serve. New life will spring from death & this restoration will be revealed in the new heavens & new earth of the book of Revelation. What we look forward to celebrating at Christmas is that Jesus has ushered in the Jubilee of the Last Day. That Good News empowers people to become a force for the reconstruction of creation. The promises of God to His ancient people still inspire our faith & hope today. Our lives are not an endless series of bright shining days. Often our hopes turn to ashes. But the heavenly Father offers us a great new day in Jesus Christ through His death & resurrection. His promises are music to our spirit & we’re able to close each day with His praise on our lips. The Anointed Servant, the Christ child, our Savior, has fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah. Jesus is the evidence that Yahweh keeps His promises. Our Lord has proclaimed “…the year of the Lord’s favor, & the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”[2] On the Last Day of time, both of those will become God’s accomplished reality. His vengeance will see to it that sorrow & tears & sin will be no more. By faith, your saintly nature sees & understands that as a good thing. A year of favor – a day of vengeance; they are one time, one event, one moment – a time of grace for the poor & needy – a time of retribution for all the enemies of God’s people. Yes, Christ will eradicate all disease & shame & sin. He will also restore, renew & re-create all that was good. That is the true meaning of Christmas. It is why God’s people spend so much time preparing for the celebration. It is why we hear echoes of Isaiah 61 when Revelation 21 is read: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, & they will be His people, & God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, & death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy & true.’” (21:3-5 ESV) As you look around the world about you, there are many things that are broken. There is much mourning, crying & pain; yet, things aren’t always as they appear. There is a true reality that awaits us. Jesus came & set us free, so we can join Him there. Amen. Soon will come that hour when with mighty power Christ will come in splendor & will judgment render, with the faithful sharing joy beyond comparing. Come, then, O Lord Jesus, from our sins release us. Keep our hearts believing, that we, grace receiving, ever may confess You till in heaven we bless You. Amen. LSB 333:3-4. [1] Isaiah 61:1 ESV [2] Isaiah 61:2 ESV http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/56265/heartbeat
2nd Sunday in Advent – B LSB #’s 345 to tune LW #18, 344, 347 Text – Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” THE SILENCE HAS ENDED After more than 400 long & painful years the silence of God finally ended. What Isaiah had prophesied centuries ago is finally being fulfilled. A voice, sent by the Holy Trinity, is crying out that we should prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness. Some days we feel it more than others, but you & I do live in a wilderness. It’s not a wilderness of drought & sand, but a wilderness of anxiety & sin. It’s not a wilderness devoid of trees & water, but one devoid of integrity & peace & harmony. As the Christmas season approaches, many of us do a better job of faking it for a while, but once the lights & decorations come down, we’re back to our wilderness of being spiritually deaf & blind. This is totally counter-intuitive, but our heavenly Father wants you to be certain that isn’t the worst place to be. The Gospel of Luke says: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, & after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”[1] The radical thought conveyed in those words is from Jesus Himself. He knows better than any of us what kind of wilderness in which we live. He understands because He entered our world in human flesh & lived through it all in conditions far worse than most of us have known. He never had a cellphone to use. Homes He stayed in never had electricity. The wilderness you & I live in is a spiritual wilderness. It’s the kind of place where famous & powerful men in positions of authority have been sexually abusing women across our land. They’ve been getting away with it because of their fame & power & money. Yet, the truth of it is – it’s not a political problem. Nor is it a problem with Hollywood. Those men are spiritually deaf & blind. In positions of power they have been taking advantage of people in positions of weakness & the money has been there to cover it up. Jesus came from the position of ultimate power, but He didn’t use fire to fight fire. Our Lord didn’t use His power to overcome power. He took the position of ultimate weakness in order to shame the strong. That is how the Son of God overcame evil, & the victory is won. John the Baptist was sent by Yahweh to break the silence & announce the arrival of our Savior. “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (40:3 ESV) Those words of Isaiah were written 600 to 700 years before they were fulfilled. The very 1st topic the Gospel of Mark takes up is the fulfillment of that prophecy: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.’” (Mark 1:1-3 ESV) John the Baptist was that messenger & it was his voice that broke the silence. Over 400 years without a prophet from God & the 1st word He sends to His people occurs literally in the wilderness, in this case one of real drought & sand. That John appeared in the wilderness seems too odd to have no significance. As soon as Jesus is baptized by John, the Son of God immediately is cast into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for 40 days & nights of testing. Is there a connection between the 40 years Israel spent in the wilderness & the ministry of Jesus? The Israelites were tempted in the wilderness to worship a false god in the golden calf. Satan tempted Jesus to bow down & worship him. The people of Israel were tempted with a lack of food, & so was Jesus. The Son of God responded to that temptation by quoting Scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4 ESV) Do you remember who 1st spoke those words? It was Moses warning Israel, just prior to his death, not to succumb to temptation as they had in the wilderness. As Jesus spoke the words, “Man does not live by bread alone,” He was proving to Satan that this Son of God was obedient in precisely the areas where the Israelites had failed. Christ, the Lamb of God, was crucified during Passover, which celebrates the Exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt. As John the Baptist pointed to Jesus, the silence of God had ended! Jesus came to earth in the flesh as the true & perfect Son of God that Israel had failed to be. On our behalf, & without sin, Jesus would trek through the wilderness of this world. In the Bible, wilderness is the place you want to journey through. It’s not the place you want to live, but it is the place that God’s people pass through on their way from slavery to freedom. When the gospel writers speak of wilderness they want you to have that story in mind. When Isaiah speaks about wilderness he wants you to have that story in mind. Wilderness is the place of danger. It is the place of temptation & testing. It is the place where it’s easy to lose your way & spend the rest of your life wandering. Wilderness is a place where you could die. Your hopes & dreams can die with you. It’s a place where there are no homes, & where you cannot make a home. The place where things you need to live are not easily available, perhaps not available at all. It’s the place where life is beyond our control, where beauty & sexuality can lure you to your death. It’s a place where we end up spiritually deaf & blind. In the wilderness of our lives, a voice now calls. In this wild mess we have made of life, in a wilderness that constantly tries to turn us back into beasts – beasts of prey or beasts of burden – one voice cries out: “Prepare the way! A highway in the wilderness! Someone is coming to you! He’s not waiting in town. He’s not waiting until you find the way out, until you can make your way to Him. He is forging His way through the wilderness in which you live, & His road in will be your road out!” In Jesus Christ, Son of God & Lord of lords, hope has returned to His creation, even to our wilderness, in a most unexpected way. Messiah has come & He Himself will create in you & me a clean heart & repentant heart. The silence of God has ended. The sun of righteousness has risen with healing in its wings. That is why Christians celebrate Christmas by looking forward to Jesus & to Him alone. Jesus is the messenger & He is the message. Amen. On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry announces that the Lord is nigh; awake & hearken, for he brings glad tidings of the King of kings! We hail Thee as our Savior, Lord, our refuge & our great reward; without Thy grace we waste away like flowers that wither & decay. All praise, eternal Son, to Thee whose advent sets Thy people free, whom with the Father we adore & Holy Spirit evermore. Amen. LSB 344:1, 3, 5. [1] Luke 12:4-5 ESV http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/56265/heartbeat
1st Sunday in Advent – B LSB #355:1, 4-7 to tune #498 Text – Isaiah 64:7 There is no one who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, & have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. SILENCE! Some people appreciate silence more than others. Has there been a time in life that you felt as if God has been silent? Has He given you the cold shoulder? It’s a common technique of interacting with people. We give the cold shoulder when they’ve done us wrong, when repentance is called for on their part. Could that be why God has been silent towards you? In OT times, when the prophet Malachi was done, nothing more was heard from God in that special means until over 400 years later when John the Baptist came along. Matthew wrote, in his Gospel: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matthew 3:1-2 ESV) The season of Advent begins today. It’s a time for you & me to be concerned specifically with our alienation from the heavenly Father & the awful consequences of human sinfulness. It is our sin that has corrupted our relationship with the Source of love. Whenever we experience that silence from our Creator, sin is the cause of it – our sins separate us from our Creator. Advent was designed for looking forward to the birth of Jesus, & to His final coming on the Last Day. It was created to look beyond our alienation & sinfulness to God’s intervention, as Jesus would take on human flesh so He might die for us. When we feel like God is giving us the silent treatment, Advent reminds us of words from John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The OT reading from Isaiah 64 is the Advent cry of the church when we’re especially concerned with our alienation from the heavenly Father caused by the awful consequences of human sinfulness. Isaiah 64 is the Advent cry of repentance for our indifference & outright rebellion against God: “Oh that you would rend the heavens & come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence… Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, & remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.”[1] But those were the words of Isaiah, & they were not for long the heartfelt words of God’s people. Around 100 years later, the city of Jerusalem lies in ruins at the command of Yahweh & under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. After many more generations of unfaithfulness on the part of God’s people, the prophet Malachi pens the last words of the OT: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great & awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children & the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come & strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (Malachi 4:5-6 ESV) There was kindness & severity in those words. Then – silence for over 400 years. Those years were a difficult time of waiting & disillusion set in. Life was hard; the people were poor, ground down by foreign powers. The prosperity promised by the prophet Haggai, if they got their priorities right, did not materialize. Zechariah’s glorious predictions of the future messianic king & the day of God’s judgment & restoration did not come to pass. The people began to doubt the words of the prophets, to feel God had forgotten them & let them down. That shows in an increasingly casual attitude to worship & the standards God set for them. Yahweh’s message for His people in Malachi began with reassurance of His constant & continuing love for them. The rebukes that follow call them back to the covenant agreement which binds His people to Him in a very special relationship. The Day of the Lord is coming! It is vital that God’s people live in the light of that certainty. Then – silence for over 400 years. Maybe, after some cold shoulder treatment, the people would recognize their need for God’s love. How are you doing with that gift of a repentant heart, which you received from God’s Spirit when you 1st believed? In our day, we look forward to Christmas for the celebrations, for the presents, & for the worship services where so many more people attend than normal. Beginning our preparations this morning, through the season of Advent, “Are you looking forward to Jesus?” You know what the answer should be, but is Jesus truly what you are looking forward to? I remember, as a child, lying on the couch at night trying to sleep. As I recall, if I was in danger of throwing up I’d end up sleeping on the couch because it was closer to the bathroom. Now, the cuckoo clock was also in the living room, & what sticks in my mind is the deafening drumbeat of the tick, tock, tick, tock, counting away the innumerable seconds until the sickness passed. Swallowed up by that awful & feverish silence there was the deafening drumbeat of the seconds ticking away one by one. Has God been silent in your lives? If you have become spiritually deaf & blind, then the words of Isaiah 64 are for you. They’re part of a prayer, set in a time, when it appeared as though God had withdrawn Himself from men. It was like He’d spread out an impenetrable garment across the heavens, & hidden Himself, in silence, from His children: There is no one who calls upon Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden your face from us, & have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:& ESV) “Oh that you would rend the heavens & come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence… Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, & remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” (Isaiah 64:1 & 9 ESV) Amen. O Savior, rend the heavens wide; come down, come down with mighty stride; unlock the gates, the doors break down; unbar the way to heaven’s crown. O Fount of hope, how long, how long? When will You come with comfort strong? O come, O come, Your throne forego; console us in our vale of woe. Sin’s dreadful doom upon us lies; grim death looms fierce before our eyes. O come, lead us with mighty hand from exile to our promised land. There shall we all our praises bring & sing to You, our Savior King; there shall we laud You & adore forever & forevermore. Amen. LSB 355:1, 4, 6-7. Opening video is 2:37 long. [1] Isaiah 64:1 & 9 ESV |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
April 2024
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