Sermon for Advent 4

Elizabeth said to Mary, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).

Mary heard some spectacular news when the angel Gabriel came to her from heaven. Gabriel told her she would have a baby, and the Baby is the Son of God. And then to add more believability to it, Gabriel also told Mary, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:36-37).

So Mary thought it good to go visit her relative Elizabeth. And as she approached the home of Elizabeth and husband Zechariah, she called out her greeting, and before she could reply her greeting in return, Elizabeth was interrupted by this commotion. The baby in her womb leaped for joy. As depicted on the service folder cover, little baby John, leaped for joy. John heard the greeting. John somehow, with the help of God, knew what was going. John believed. John leaped for joy.  His Savior had come. The Savior of the world was here in the womb of Mary his mother. The promised Lord and Messiah has come down from heaven to earth and was made man, ready to deliver us. John believed this and the fruit of that faith was joy.

Now I know skeptics and critics will scoff and say, “No way.” Babies don’t know anything. They can’t believe anything. They cant feel joy or grief.” And so they disrespect, they despise babies.  

Elizabeth says it right, the movement she felt was Baby John’s joy. Verse 41 says, “And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit”. This was not her imagination, her wishful thinking, her personification of the mass of tissue in her womb. This was her understanding, as she was led by the Holy Spirit, inspired to believe and confess.

The example of Elizabeth and Mary’s babies gives us even more reason to love children, born and unborn. We want them to be baptized, because they can believe. We don’t want them aborted and thrown away. We don’t disrespect and despise them. We love them, honor them and admire them. We grown ups, should have such joy.  We hear that Baby Believer John leaped for joy in the present of his Savior, Baby Jesus, and we should conclude this. We should have such joy.

Now a person might say, “It was easy to have joy then”. They were full of the Holy Spirit, according to Luke. There were these miracles happening all over. Elizabeth’s having a baby in old age. Mary’s having a virgin birth. There’re angels popping up all over. They had lots of reason for joy. But by comparison, life here and now is so ordinary. Plain. Boring.

In her song, the Magnificat, Mary praises God for, as she says, “great things he has done for me.” She admits in the Magnificat that she is a handmaiden, a servant of the Lord. She was plain, simple, ordinary, engaged to plain, simple, boring carpenter from Nazareth, an ordinary, plain, boring town. But then Mary tells what the Lord does. He blesses the plain and simple. He lifts up the humble and brings down the proud in the imagination of their proud hearts. The Lord does not bother with the rich, the famous, the powerful who believe they don’t need The Lord and don’t need his saving. The way the Lord works is he blesses the poor sinner and forgives. He has grace for the weak and the dying and gives eternal life. He has regard for the sorrowful, and he gives them comfort and joy.

So we may not live in such marvelous times as Mary and Elizabeth and John. We might not be famous and fortunate. But we have God’s favor. We can look back at this Magnificat regularly, not just in Advent. We can hear again and again, the comforting words of Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and we can apply them to ourselves. She said, “The Lord has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” Find reason for joy in that.

Consider how it went for John. He heard the voice of the mother of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the book, What to expect when you’re expecting it tells how researchers found that in the third trimester, that’s what baby John was, babies will turn their heads toward an interesting sound coming from outside the womb. John heard. John believed. John leaped for joy.

Well that’s how it is for you too. You’ve heard. You believed. You’ve been given the fruit of such faith, including joy.

You have heard what your Savior says. He says, I am with you. Because of the miracles that were happening to Mary, the miracles that were happening in Mary, Jesus is with us. He took on flesh and blood. So he can say, “I’m with you.” I’m not a God who is far off in the heavens. I am in the flesh, in the world, in your life.” The fullest expression of that word from the Lord is when He says “take, eat, this is my body.” “Take, drink, this my blood.”

You have heard what your Savior says, when in death at the cross he said, “Father forgive them.” Your sins and guilt are erased by his words.

Even until your last hour in this life, you will have the words you’ve heard, to trust in, to be comforted by, to have joy in. He says, You will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Sermon for Advent 2

“Watch Yourselves”

Jesus said, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” (Luke 21:34).

This might be unexpected to some, that we start off December in church hearing a dire, stern warning from the Lord. Judgement Day is coming. Watch yourselves. If someone comes to church with worldly expectations of what we will do here, it might be confusing to hear the Advent message “watch yourselves lest the end of the world come upon you suddenly like a trap.” If a person comes into church expecting to hear a happy Christmassy message, to get some warm feelings on a cold day, to have a comfortable, cozy experience like watching a Hallmark movie, then it’ll be jarring to listen to this message from Jesus: “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. . . [so] Straighten and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

You notice of course, how there’s a difference between the world’s celebration of Christmas and the Church’s celebration of Christmas. One very significant part of that difference is timing. The world around us has already made a good start on the holiday season. While in the church, we are saying “not yet”. The Gospel reading for the day, is not yet Christmas, it’s an Advent message, preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which will happen soon, we are to expect.

“Not yet” is an important concept of the Church and the Christian life. “Not yet”, we are not in heaven yet. Our journey is not yet complete. Our struggle is not yet over. If you hope to feel good in this life, life will treat you with difficulties that will teach you to say, ‘not yet’ but true and full happiness must wait into the life to come with the Lord.

The church’s disciplined pattern of waiting and saying, “Not yet” is good practice for life. We are living in this “not yet” time. Sure, you know that Jesus has come into this world, born in Bethlehem and crucified outside of Jerusalem. So you know you’ve been saved and given eternal life. But you do not yet feel it, see it, enjoy that new life fully. You gotta wait for it. Faith is edified and strengthened when you tell yourself, not yet, I have to wait for the blessings my Lord has promised me. I have to take his word for it that it is all coming when the time is right. But for now, I have to have patience and exhibit endurance and hope in the Lord.

Patience, Endurance, Hope -- These things are fruits of faith, fruits of the Spirit. The Lord Jesus invites us to take these fruits as we wait for his coming and the consummation of all creation. He says, “watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap”

As we wait and watch, we will see the signs that day is approaching, like the new leaves on the fig tree giving signs that summer is about to return. There will be signs in the universe and signs in people. “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.” For generations we have been noticing the signs in the heavens and on earth: Natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars. But note also how Jesus says fear that people have is a sign of the approaching end. This worldwide rise in fear and anxiety in the souls of people is a sign for us that the Lord is preparing to bring an end to this world and have His Kingdom come.

So, therefore, “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” says Jesus.

That is his message to you who have this “not yet” attitude, who are waiting for him to come, ready for him to come, because you love him. Have patience. Exhibit endurance. Hope in the Lord and in his promises. “Watch yourselves.” “Take heed” was the old way of saying it. Jesus says, “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

“Stay awake”. What’s that mean for you? Jesus is talking in parables, in figures of speech, in metaphor. This isn’t the physical distinction between sleep and awake. We should all get our needed physical rest. But Jesus hear speaks of spiritual wakefulness.  Here’s three examples of how you stay awake spiritually.

First, pray. Pray that you may have strength to escape all these things. The signs of the end of the world are enough to make those without faith faint for fear. But you, when you see fearful signs, Watch yourselves and pray for strength.

Second, remember His promises. When worries and fears come at you, stay awake. Trust God. Trust his promises. He says he loves you, cares for you. His biggest promise of all was in sending His son into this world so that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.

Third, remember your vocation in this life. Keep doing what the Lord has called you to do. Love your neighbor. Be patient with your neighbor. Anxiety and distress make a person impatient with those around you. When you start thinking, “I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time to listen to them. I don’t have time to go out of my way for them.” Stay awake. God give you your time, your moments and your days. What better do you have to do than to care for the people whom God has sent your way.

You can do that with the hope that is in you. So then we conclude with the blessing given in the Epistle reading of the day, Romans 14: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen.