Advent Midweek 2 In This Precious Baby Boy, LSB 352
Text – Genesis 16:15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, & Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. This Is My Son: Ishmael Certainly you’ve heard of “Tiger Moms” & “Helicopter Parents.” Well, apparently, their time is over. There’s a new type of parent pushing their way through the schoolyard & they will stop at nothing to ensure their child’s success. The new style of parenting is called “Snowplow” parenting. These mothers & fathers are intent on removing any obstacles standing in the way of their child. Their goal is that their child does not have to face pain or difficulty on their way to success. If their child struggles, “Snowplow” parents take matters into their own hands & relieve their child of any burden. This type of parent believes they are helping their child without considering the long-term consequences of this approach. Most parents understand this to some degree. They’ve gotten impatient with a child when helping with homework. It’s much easier to just give them the answer than having to struggle with them until they get to the solution on their own. All of us are tempted to take matters into our own hands when something is not going well or taking too long. That’s the struggle in which we find Abraham & Sarah at Genesis 16. Abraham had received the promise of God that he would be the father of many, & through his descendants God would bless the whole world. Abraham & Sarah believed His promise. But that promise had been made years ago. Abraham & Sarah weren’t young then & they certainly were not getting any younger. Sarah was still barren. Maybe they needed to take things into their own hands & force the issue. Sarah comes up with a plan. Maybe it was just Abraham that was needed for the promise to be fulfilled. She offers her servant, Hagar, to Abraham that he might obtain children from her. Abraham listens. Hagar becomes pregnant. It worked! Or so it seemed. This situation quickly caused issues in the household of Abraham. Hagar, who was blessed with child, began to look with contempt upon Sarah, who was unable to conceive. Hagar’s behavior got so bad that Sarah treats her badly in return, causing Hagar to flee. After all that gets cleared up, & God convinces Hagar to return to Sarah, Hagar gives birth to Ishmael. Then, God makes it clear to Abraham in Genesis 17 that, despite Abraham’s efforts, Ishmael is not the son that God promised: “You will have a son by Sarah,” God tells Abraham. She is 90 years old, & Abraham is 100. So, Abraham replies, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before you!” He’s trying to demonstrate to God that he has already taken care of everything. “No,” God says, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, & you shall call his name Isaac.” (17:19) Abraham & Sarah did not have to take matters into their own hands to have a son & kick start God’s plan of blessing. Yahweh was going to take care of fulfilling His promise in His own way & in His own time. When it comes to the blessings & promises of God, we too often believe that we have to take matters into our own hands. We imagine that we have to activate God’s promises by cleaning up our lives or showing Him how sincerely & earnestly we believe. We think we can manipulate God by our own good works & force His hand to pour out blessings upon us. We become impatient with our Lord as we wait for His promises to come to fruition. We try to take our relationship with God into our own hands & we turn into snowplow children trying to get the job done. In order to maintain our status as God’s children, we imagine that we’ve got to prove ourselves to Him over & over again. It’s a natural tendency of sinners to exchange the freedom of the Gospel for the slavery of the Law. Rather than living under the freedom of Jesus’ words “It is finished!” we lean into the slavery of the Law, which says “Do more! Try harder & smarter!” In the Book of Galatians, Paul repeatedly demonstrated the foolishness of this thinking. At Galatians 3, he wrote: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. . . Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (3:10a, 11) At chapter 4, Paul supplements his argument with the story of Hagar & Sarah: “I am going to use these historical events as illustrations. The women are two covenants. The children of the covenant given on Mt. Sinai are born to be slaves; this is Hagar. Hagar in this sense is Mt. Sinai in Arabia & she is like Jerusalem today: she & her children are slaves. But the Jerusalem that is above is free; & she is our mother.” (4:24–26 NET) In other words, Hagar represents the Law given at Mount Sinai. All those who submit to the slavery of the Law are children of Hagar. They are Ishmaels. Eventually, God cast out Hagar & Ishmael because he was not the son of the promise. He was produced by Abraham’s efforts, a work of the law. He was rejected as ultimately all will be who rely upon the Law. God called Abraham & Sarah to trust in His promise & live by faith in God’s mercy. He would take care of it. And though it seemed impossible, Sarah did give birth to a son, Isaac, the son of God’s promise. Paul explains, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. . . we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.” (Galatians 4:28, 31) Those who live by faith, not by works, are also sons of the promise, sons of Abraham & receivers of God’s blessings. But it is not faith in Isaac that brings the blessings of God’s salvation. It is faith in the true Son of Abraham, the Son through whom the whole world is blessed – the Son whose work sets us free from slavery to the Law. As our loving heavenly Father, God removed any obstacle between us & our salvation because He knew we could never do it on our own, no matter how hard or smart we tried. He sent His only-begotten Son into this world & called Him Jesus, for “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) This Son would also be born through miraculous circumstances, not through an old, barren woman, but through a young virgin. This Son would also walk up a mountain to be a sacrifice, but unlike Isaac, God did not stop the hands that placed a crown of thorns on the head of Jesus. God did not stop the hands that plunged nails into the hands & feet of His own Son. Jesus completed the work of the Law, suffered the consequences of our sins & lack of faith; then won our freedom as He declared, “It is finished!” Jesus is the true Son of Abraham whose eternal blessings are received only by faith. “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith,” Paul wrote to the Galatians & to you. (3:26 ESV) “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ… And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (3:27, 29 ESV) ♫ “Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, & so are you... So let’s all praise the Lord!” You & I are sons of the promise, sons of Abraham, children of God, through the true Son of Abraham & Sarah – Jesus Christ, the almighty Son of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen. God’s own children, we have strayed, constantly have disobeyed in the garden, in the sand, through the river, in the Land. But the Child who takes our place bears the cross to earn us grace. Through this baby in the hay, God has given us the Way to inherit life above, rescued by His perfect love. In this Child, we all may be children of eternity. Amen. 2nd Sunday in Advent LSB #’s 572:1-3 tune 451, In This Precious Baby Boy, 572:4-6 tune 451
Text – Genesis 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, & she conceived & bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” THIS IS MY SON: CAIN When parents find out they’re expecting a child, many hopes & expectations come with that discovery. Parents begin to dream, “What will my child be like?” They wonder what he or she will accomplish. Every parent wants to be able to point out their child at any stage in life & proudly introduce them by saying “This is my son” or “This is my daughter.” But every parent has to face inevitable disappointment as well. Our children will not live up to every expectation we have of them. The dad who places a tiny basketball in his son’s crib may end up with a son who is not interested in basketball. The mom who prays nightly for her teenage daughter, trying to raise her right, may still end up getting a call that her daughter has gotten into trouble. Life with children does not go as we plan or hope. This Advent series will look at three father-son relationships found in the OT. We’ll explore the hopes & expectations that the fathers had for their sons & will especially look at the disappointment each father faced as his son failed to meet expectations. Ultimately, each sermon will end by looking at the perfect Father Son relationship: the one shared by our heavenly Father & His only begotten Son upon whom Yahweh smiled & said, “This is My Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) Today, we look at perhaps the most disappointing son in the history of mankind – the firstborn son of Adam. His name is Cain. His parents had high hopes for him – evident not only by his name but also by what his mother says about him. In the translation we use, Eve says, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” However, scholars, including Martin Luther, have understood Eve to say, “I have gotten the man of the LORD.” Eve may have thought Cain was the promised Seed of Genesis 3:15. He would crush the serpent’s head & bring salvation from the sin of his parents. The name Cain comes from the Hebrew word meaning “to possess” or “to acquire.” Martin Luther puts himself into Eve’s head & imagines her thinking like this: “I remember what we have lost through sin. But now let our hope & speech be of nothing else except winning this back & keeping possession of it. For I have gotten the man of God who will obtain that lost glory for us again.”[1] Those are some high expectations! Contrast that to his brother, Abel, who gets no such welcome from his mother. His name means “vanity,” something that is worthless or cast aside. The names of these two brothers reveal the hopes & expectations of their parents. Adam & Eve were setting themselves up for major disappointment. Cain was no savior. Perhaps the lofty expectations placed on him gave Cain the selfish pride that’s revealed later in the story. However, more than likely, his selfish pride was a result of the sin that was passed down to him from his parents. Whatever the reason, in Hebrews 11 it’s made clear that Abel possessed true faith in God & received His favor while Cain’s offerings were rejected because his heart did not belong to God. Envy & anger filled Cain’s heart & mind, ready to devour him like an animal crouching & waiting to devour its victim. Cain is warned by God to resist sin & to repent. Instead, when sin pounces, Cain gives in. Then he pounces upon his unsuspecting brother, taking his life & becoming the 1st murderer. Can you imagine the pain & disappointment of Adam & Eve when they find out what Cain has done? The son they thought would save their lives instead became a taker of life. They had to come to grips with the terror of the curse of their original sin. They had passed it down to their offspring. And it continued to be passed down to their grandchildren, & great-grandchildren, through every generation up to & including those here today. Romans 5:19 says, “By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.” All of us are sons of Adam. We have inherited the same inclination to sin that lurked in the heart of Cain. As Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5, each of us is as guilty of murder as Cain. Everyone who becomes angry with his or her brother is liable to the judgment of murder. Anyone who insults his brother or says to anyone “You fool!” will face the same condemnation as Cain: exile from God. When it comes to keeping God’s commandments, each of us has been a huge disappointment. Our offerings to God have not always been made with hearts full of faith & joy but out of grudging compulsion. We’ve harbored anger & envy in our heart toward others. We’ve imagined that we are not our brother’s keeper, not responsible for the well-being of others, more concerned with ourselves. As children of God, we have fallen well short of expectations. This is why the writer of Psalm 146 instructs us: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” (146:3-5 ESV) Adam & Eve were wrong about Cain being the promised Seed, but God’s plan was still intact. The Savior would indeed be a son of Adam – true man – but also the Son of God. Into our world of hatred & murder was born the God of love & life. From the moment Jesus was a little child, the spiritual heirs of Cain sought to take His life. Because He lived His life as a perfect offering to God, others grew envious & angry toward Him. Eventually, they succeeded in spilling His blood. Two Lenten songs bring the story of Cain & the story of Jesus together. “A murderer they save, the Prince of Life they slay,” from My Song Is Love Unknown. (LSB 430:5) For Cain, & all murderers since, you & me included, the Lord & giver of life is murdered so that we might receive eternal life. And, from Glory Be To Jesus (LSB 433:4): “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies; but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.” God told Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:10) The blood of Abel cried out for justice for himself, but Hebrews 12 says us that Jesus’ blood cries out not for Himself but on behalf of the whole world: “You have come... to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, & to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22a, 24) Jesus became our murdered brother so He might keep us from everlasting death. Jesus is the true Son of Adam whose blood & body are the perfect sacrifice accepted by God the Father to wash clean our murderous hearts. St. Paul spelled it out in Romans 5: “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man (Adam), much more will those who receive the abundance of grace & the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (5:17) Because of Jesus, our perfect brother, your heavenly Father is not disappointed in you. All of His expectations have been met by His Son Jesus. Through your Baptism, He looks down upon you with approval & love, saying proudly: “This is My son or daughter, with whom I am well pleased.” In Jesus’ name. Amen. In this precious baby Boy we are given peace & joy. By the Spirit hope is won – Mary bore the Father’s Son. Son of God & Son of Man: He fulfills the holy plan. Through this baby in the hay, God has given us the Way to inherit life above, rescued by His perfect love. In this Child, we all may be children of eternity. Amen. [1] Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis, vol. 1 of Luther's Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958). |
AuthorPastor Dean R. Poellet Archives
April 2024
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