Category: The Weekly Message Blog

Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. With these words Jesus teaches us about the true purpose of worship- not to fulfill obligations for God by external actions and commitments of our hearts- but instead to receive Jesus and his salvation. Sabath was made for man, just as Jesus became incarnate and died on the cross for the sake of our salvation.

The Pharisees saw Jesus and the disciples walking through grainfields and they saw the disciples plucking grains of wheat. They think thy have caught Jesus and the disciples red handed doing what amounts to work on the Sabbath. Perhaps they hoped this could prove Jesus was a false prophet and not from God.

They have no compassion for why the disciples were plucking grains of wheat. In reality the disciples were not actually breaking the law in that they were gleaning, which is permitted in the law. The traditions of the Pharisees was always to add extra requirements beyond what the law states, so that people were less likely to break it. Jesus consistently condemns them for their pride in keeping man made rules and their judgement of those who do not follow their own standards.  

In response Jesus points the Pharisees to King David, who was anointed King of Israel one thousand years before Jesus was anointed as the Messiah. He is challenging them as to whether they would condemn King David for breaking one of their rules. And he is teaching them something more about what the Sabbath means through this event in the Bible that they would know well about.

David is well know to have faced persecutions from those like King Saul, and not long after Jonathan warned David of danger from King Saul, David and his men find themselves in a position where they do not have food and they go to the priest at Nob. There is no bread on hand and David asks that the bred of presence be used for food for him and his men.

What was meant for only priests to eat in this house of God was given to David and his men. The priest presided over this house of God faithfully, and when the anointed of the Lord was in his presence, he fed him with the bread that was meant to be left before God.

David’s request had the effect of illustrating that God provides for his people who are in need and call to Him. God provides for His people and the needs of His anointed King are important. The ceremonial law to have bread on the altar was like the eternal light we have in our sanctuary area, a testament to the Lord’s abiding presence.

The bread of the presence is there so that people know the Lord is present. It was there in obedience to God’s commandments, but God does not need the bread, the house of God in Nob was made for man to worship and know God’s mercy, not for God’s benefit.    

David and his men eating the bread of the presence was also a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus and his disciples facing criticism from the pharisees for gleaning wheat and healing the sick on Sabbath days.  Jesus now was the one who was putting man’s well being in body and soul, above man’s duty to maintain ceremonial laws. Not that Jesus downplayed or abandoned ceremonial laws. Instead Jesus taught the proper context of what the ceremonial laws were for, that they were part of the Sabbath that was made for man.

Since the Sabbath is made for man we can understand that worship is not only about honoring God, but also about our healing.  This healing is a rest for both body and soul. Rest for body in the sense of remembrance that Israel was a slave in Egypt to where they were unable to rest. Israel faced affliction and hardship just as the Lord Jesus also faced affliction. But now the Lord has saved Israel with a mighty arm, and they can remember this with Sabbath rest, and feel this in their bodies. And so, we the New Israel also have Sabbath rest for our bodies, because Jesus has freed us from the slavery of sin, freed us from the obligation to always work to earn our keep.  Instead, the Sabbath gives us eyes to see the goodness of Creation and how much the Lord provides without our work.

And the Sabbath is a rest for our souls. Jesus has freed us from the curse of death. So that no matter how much the trials of this world and the frailties of our flesh haunts us, we are actually safe and secure through Christ in an eternal Sabbath rest.  Jesus is the true Sabbath rest for God’s people. He invites to us, “come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give rest for your souls.”

A good way to appreciate what our Sabbath rest does for us is to think about what people are missing who do not go to church. Have you ever pictured what life is like for those who wake up on Sunday mornings and have no intention of ever going to church in their life? Think of a young man or a young woman in this community waking up late on a Sunday morning and hearing our church bells toll at 10:30 and the bells mean very little to them.

What routines do these people have, and what do they think of God’s Word. At a minimum I would imagine God’s Word is underestimated, “it’s just not for m, not my thing”. And when it comes to man’s tendency to put himself as chief false idol, God’s Word if it were understood by people, would be despised.

As we heard in our Collect prayer: Eternal God Your Son Jesus Christ is our true Sabbath rest. Help us to keep each day holy by receiving His word of comfort that we may find our rest in Him.  Those who do not go to church cannot know true Sabbath rest because they do not know the Son of God.

As Luther’s explanation to the 3^rd Commandment reads: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”  Those who treasure God’s Word, who consider it sacred- those are the ones who seek to be in church, who find true rest in the joy of hearing the Word.

Here at Christ Lutheran Church Jesus offers us Sabbath rest. This church was raised up and given birth so that God’s people in this place could know and experience Sabbath rest, could touch and see the Lord’s Salvation, even with Jesus’ very body and blood. So that through every ebb and flow of life, every change in stage of life whether gradual or sudden- that the Lord is our hope and our foundation. As we confessed in the Introit:

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. ⁵ For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him;  God is a refuge for us. 

It goes without saying that Jesus is our true rest everyday of the week, not just Sundays. Sunday is the most important day of our week, it is our opportunity for the gifts given in the Divine Service shared with the Body of Christ. But each day with our Lord is also a mini Sabbath.

Although we may be on our own through the week, we are still part of the body of Christ when not at church, our Lord still intercedes for us each day as do Christians for one another.

Although we may not devote as much time during the week to hearing God’s Word as on Sunday, through the week you can read one Psalm per day or be in the Word in any number of daily routines. Not out of obligation to keep a Sabbath rule, but out of thanksgiving, and out of our need to find rest in our Lord each and every day. Amen.

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every situation everyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”  Peter opened his mouth and spoke God’s truth. Peter who on many occasions was known to act before thinking, Peter who was so often impulsive.  Who said he would die with Jesus and then days later denied Jesus three times, who even at the Transfiguration interrupted the holy conversation Jesus was having with Moses, and Elijah. This same Peter spoke after the resurrection of Jesus about God’s love for all people- Jews and Gentiles alike.

Something changed in Peter’s life. How he saw things, what life meant to him, and how God’s mercy is manifested in the world- all of these looked different to Peter.  What allowed for this change in Peter’s life? Clearly Peter beheld the glory of the risen Lord Jesus and his life could not go on the same.

The month of May is a month of change, often changes that are full of emotions, as the school year comes to a close and another Summer comes.   

In the month of May High school and college students typically close out their school year and about a quarter of college students are finishing a degree program. From first steps to first day of school.  First lost teeth, to first day with a driver’s license. And now walking across the stage a young man has graduated high school and is now starting a new direction in life – leaving behind the years of life with family. 

Yet changes from ‘what was’ are not entirely bittersweet endings, they are also beginnings of new stages in life.  When the Lord Jesus is in our lives, changes are never just losses over stages of life that will never be again, they are fruits of his work in our lives.

Like Peter we can look at changes through the lens of the resurrection of Jesus. Because he is risen, our lives are filled with meaning as those who life in the New Creation that Jesus brings to us by undoing the curse of sin. If you ever feel like nothing goes your way, that life is one loss and disappointment after another, consider the greatest change of all for the better that happened in your life and continues to bear fruit- The  drowning of our old sinful nature and the rebirth of Water and the Spirit.

Earlier in Acts chapter 10 Peter is on a roof top praying and the Lord put him into a trance where he sees the heavens opened and a great sheet being let down by four corners. The sheet holds and abundant array of animals that are not part of the designated clean foods outlined in the law- including birds and reptiles.  Accompanying this great sight Peter receives a voice that says: “Rise Peter, Kill and Eat.”

Right on cue Peter answers with the obedience of one who follows God’s law: “By no means, Lord: for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” Now Peter receives a more clear statement with the same message: “What God has made clean do not call common.”

Peter grew up knowing the difference between what was clean and what was unclean. He knew well what things you can eat and who you can eat with.   What once Peter knew and experienced about life is now changing rapidly before Peter’s eyes.  Next Peter has a gentile visitor, Cornelius. Peter catches on that where in the past it would be unlawful for him to receive him in his home- now this is God’s good and perfect will.  

Peter learned a lesson about God’s love to all people. Jesus has made everything clean. Jesus has made everything new.  On the cross as Jesus paid for the sin of the world all of the old distinctions between clean and unclean no longer mattered- for in Christ all is made clean.  Peter saw that this new birth is available to all people, Jews and gentiles alike.  Peter saw firsthand how the death and resurrection of Jesus made all things new.

And so our Lord promises the same to us. Through the ordinary means of Water and the Word He brings us to the joys of the Kingdom, and he opens to us the portal of everlasting life. 

Ephesians chapter 2 talks about the change Jesus brought to all of the nations of the world:  ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Peter experienced this change- where the Jews and Gentiles, the clean and unclean where now all one in hope through the Lord Jesus.   

Peter preached this change boldly to all who would hear.  He could never go back again to the old way of seeing everyone as either clean or unclean, Jew of Gentile- all he could see instead was the righteousness of Christ adorning his people with gladness and joy.

When you have reached the next step in your life- when you see one stage of life is coming to a close-  you move on to the next things the Lord has planned for you. 

Age brings changes we are never ready for, and changes bring new roles of service in the Lord’s Church. Many faithful older members of the body of Christ learn to recognize when one avenue of service has run its course you can always pray for others and meditate on the scripture and hymns, and encourage those in the church to faithfulness.

Jesus knew ahead of time the changes that were coming in our lives and in the lives of the twelve disciples. In our gospel lesson Jesus is speaking with the twelve at length for the last time before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus knew it was time to prepare them for this change where their lives would never be the same again.

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Jesus asked them to remain in His love and to keep his commandments- these are one and the same things. To remain in Jesus’ love is to remain as a new creation in Christ, leaving behind our sinful nature, leaving behind all of those old outdated and useless ways of our flesh.  Looking not to serve ourselves, but to serve God and one another.  

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

In our hymn of the day we sang how things will never be the same because Christ has come to bring life for all. “In a watery grave are buried All our sins that Jesus carried, Christ the arc of life has ferried us across death’s raging flood. Dark the way, yet Christ precedes us, past the scowl of death he leads us; spreads a table where he feeds us with his body and his blood.” 

What beautiful words to hold onto this day, Christ the arc of life ferries us through death’s raging flood, Christ the light of life leads us though dark the way, he spreads out a fest before us as we receive his gifts of his body and blood.  

We are the church, the Lord’s New Creation by Water and the Word. We are the bride of Christ, the Lord has turned our mourning into dancing. And thanks be to God, filled with these promises, our lives will never be the same.  Amen.

We are on a journey through the wilderness.  On this journey we are challenged with temptations from many directions to follow a path of self deliverance- to find salvation within. Lutheran theologians have called this man’s worship- the attempt to justify ourselves by our actions without the help of God. Man’s worship is seeking to understand the world and somehow control our future destiny through this understanding. Man’s worship always ends in death. 

God’s worship contains the truth. The truth is that God so loved us that he gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. 

In our Introit we heard words from one of the favorite Psalms of God’s people Psalm 27.  “The LORD is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear”

 These words in the Psalm speak to the predicament we all face on this side of eternity, we walk through darkness and we are on a journey through the wilderness of a fallen world.

In our time of wilderness we ask for Jesus to lead us by the light of His truth. This is what Psalm 27:4 asks:

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD an inquire in his temple.”   For this season of Lent it is especially meaningful for us to pray that we may gaze upon the beauty of the LORD.   

Lent is a time to look to Jesus and see the beauty of the LORD. “Come let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.”  But as we fix our eyes on Jesus, what is the beauty of the LORD? Is it a beauty in the sense of a clean and perfect appearance? No, we are told in the book of Isaiah about the appearance of the Messiah: he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  

Instead, the beauty is in Jesus’ selfless love toward us.  The beauty is seen in the gory picture of the Son of God humbled to the point of death on the cross. What revolts us, blood and gore- is also what shows the beauty of God’s love toward us.  When see him lifted up on the cross, we truly are gazing on the beauty of the LORD.

In our world today you cannot count on seeing beauty everywhere you turn, it seems more often you see ugly things related to the fallen nature of the world and man’s rebellion against God. Life on our wilderness journey often involves going forward without anything beautiful right in front of you to encourage you onward.

In our Old Testament reading we see a vivid image of the dangers of life in the wilderness and the means of salvation. The people of Israel grew impatient along the journey to the promised land. They questioned of Moses why should they even be there. Did you bring us out into the wilderness only to die?

They implied they were better off in slavery to Pharaoh.  They were ungrateful for the food that the LORD provided for them. Earlier in the book of Numbers we learn about the Manna that came from the sky in which they collected and ate.  “We loathe this worthless food.”

The people saw only their own complaints and did not see the deliverance that was right before them. In not seeing the promise of deliverance, in ignoring the promise of a Savior the people departed significantly from God’s favor. They were lost in their sin.

We see in our reading from Numbers that the punishment for their sin was quick and severe. They complained about bread from heaven from the Lord, and now they have something truly worth complaining about from the Lord.

The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and the bites were killing the people. This is a terrifying picture of the consequences of sin. The pain and the fear the people experienced was unbearable so that they asked Moses to pray to the LORD to take away the serpents.

There in the wilderness the people could no longer pretend they could save themselves. When they complained to Moses they thought they could make things better for themselves, but now they saw fully how perilous the journey is without the LORD’s help. 

The LORD was merciful to them and provided a unique means of deliverance. Moses was commanded to make an image of the very fiery serpent that was killing the people and put it on a pole, and simply looking at this bronze serpent the one who was bit would not die but instead live.

The visual symbol of the people’s sin would by God’s grace serve as the people’s deliverance.

Jesus himself verified this meaning when he spoke of how just as Moses lifted up this bronze serpent it was necessary that he be lifted up on the cross for people to live and have eternal life.  Jesus on the cross was a visual representation of the price of the sin of the whole world.

And looking at Jesus’ death on the cross in faith we live. We live because of God’s free gift of grace. As our reading from Ephesians highlights, we were dead in our trespasses and sins- we had nothing to commend ourselves before God that we should be saved. We were like the people of Israel overcome with fiery serpents with no way to protect ourselves.

“But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Because Jesus was raised up on the cross, and because Jesus rose from the dead we are also lifted up high. We are raised from the depths of our sin to the heights of heavenly places.

How do we make it through the journey of this life? We can see life as a struggle in which we must fight our way through tooth and claw day after day- or we can see our life as depending entirely on God’s mercy.  We can see our life as safe and secure in God’s faithfulness.  We can look to Jesus and see the path of life.

Yes, there are many things we can look upon with our eyes that cause us discouragement.  Whether it is neighborhoods in disrepair or the imperfections of our own lives that discourages us- what we see does not tell the whole story.

Although we see evidence of our fallen world all around us and evidence of the results of our sin- we also see clear evidence of God’s mercy and love toward us. We see that Jesus is for us as we sit in church and see the jeweled cross and see on the altar the elements of bread and wine through which we will see Jesus body and blood given to us.  

We see also that we are not alone on the journey. The inside of a church worship space has been called the Nave, which is a maritime name for the heart of the ship. We are traveling together in this ship of the church toward the glories of eternal life. And just like on a ship at sea during a storm, it is all hands on deck.  Everybody has a role to play in keeping the ship traveling the seas as well as it is designed.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand.  Because of the great news that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, because we can look to the Savior and be saved, we are free to do our best workmanship.

Instead of just trying to survive in life, as our perspective helps us see that we are already saved, we can relax and do the works God has made us to do. Works of kindness and patience, works of courage, works of creativity and hope, labors of love.

We are on a journey through the wilderness of this world, a journey where we support one another, as His workmanship. Looking to Jesus and believing in faith that He is our way, our truth and our life. Amen. 

Why me?  We have probably all said those words to ourselves at one point or another.  When a difficult situation or unbearable trial comes along in life, we often wonder why this should be happening to us now.  Why a car problem of this of all days?  Why this extra assignment at work, why this unexpected costly home repair?

Here in this first Sunday of Lent we are reminded of our state of walking in the wilderness, where hardship are to be expected.   

In our Old Testament reading for today Abraham faces a hardship directly of the Lord’s doing. Abraham would have been without doubt justified in asking God, “Why me?”  The Lord had asked him to give up his only son by means of a three day journey up to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him.   

God tested Abraham with this request. Talk about walking through the wilderness of uncertainty, how could Abraham make sense of an action that had nothing to do with God’s love and faithfulness? In God’s order for creation, people are never intended to be sacrificed, especially not children. Child sacrifice was present in some false idol worship over history- but never from the God who created the world.

How strange this command must have also sounded to Abraham!  After all the years of waiting God had promised Abram that he would bear a son. How could this same promised heir now receive the fate of sacrifice on the mountain?  Why me indeed.

Isaac was a walking testimony to the miracle of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah in their old age.  Isaac illustrated the gift and promise of God and carried with him the future promise as Abraham’s heir who would continue God’s covenant promise to Abraham.

We can only imagine how much Abraham loved Isaac with all of these promises of God wrapped up in Isaac’s existence.  And that is not to mention on top of all of that is the love a parent has for a child from the start.  The love that grows with everything from those first steps, and first words to those favorite activities and rituals that a parent and child develop together. Certainly at that time Abraham had a right to ask God, “why me?” He was in the middle of the wilderness with no clear direction home.

Abraham met God’s requests with faith and obedience all the way until God intervened to save Isaac.   Abraham obeyed despite the great love he had for his son.  He even obeyed through the three day journey to Mt. Moriah in which he had the chance to change his mind. Trusting in God’s Word to him was his anchor in the midst of the confusion of life in this fallen world. 

When Abraham thought why me, God said “I will provide.”  Whenever we want to ask “Why me” we have an example in scripture of how God is at work in the midst of life’s trials. 

The testing of Abraham preached a sermon about Jesus to God’s people. It was a message about God providing the sacrifice in our place which was fulfilled some 2,000 years later. This testing was not about seeing whether God could trip up Abraham, but instead this served as a means of strengthening Abraham’s faith. His son Isaac said it himself, the fire , the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice. God will provide for himself the lamb for an offering.

While Abraham would have been justified in asking “why me”, God was answering “I will” provide the lamb.  God provided the lamb for Abraham, just as Abraham spoke in faith to Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son.”  God provided the lamb in the form of his own son, not on the mountain of Moriah but on the hill of Calvary.  The ram caught in the thicket served to illustrate that God always will provide through Jesus.

God sent the angel to stop Abraham from taking the knife to his son. Abraham was not permitted to make this sacrifice because God would do so instead in sacrificing his Son on the cross.  For as painful as it is to think of what it would be like for Abraham to take his son’s life, God provided his son Jesus to die on the cross as the sacrifice for us. 

This “I will” of God is a demonstration of His love for all sinners.  It gives us a picture of how God’s determination and love goes beyond what we could ever offer ourselves.  We look at the prospect of personal sacrifice and loss from the perspective of the “why me” personal cost. 

In contrast Jesus did not look to his own interests and carefully calculate the cost of helping others.  He willingly embraced the ultimate “why me” situation of dying on the cross for our sake.  Instead of asking the question why does this have to happen to me?, Jesus remained focused on what his sacrifice would accomplish for you and I, and the whole world.

Just as God provided for Abraham, He works in the midst of our “Why Me’s” to provide this great “I will” in our lives.  No matter the challenge we face Jesus provides for us with his “I will”.  His sacrifice for us has provided us with a forgiveness and grace that brings a lasting hope and renewal to our lives no matter the adversity or trial.

Jesus provides His “I Will” for us in the sense that He is faithful even when we struggle and fail to be faithful in trusting God through the trial of the moment.  We may chronically worry about how something in the near future will turn out, where we struggle to have faith and trust that God is in control and has our best interest in mind.  Yet Jesus remains just as faithful to us.  In response to this undeserved Grace, we can say “why me” as in, why am I so richly blessed with God’s love!

When we as Christians undergo trials and persevere in faith, we serve as invaluable examples to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  When we undergo difficulties of life with patience, trust and faith, we demonstrate and model to others what it means to live in faith in our Savior through the perils of this fallen world.    

In our gospel reading we are reminded of how Jesus overcame temptation for us. He journeyed from Nazareth to the land of Judea where he was baptized by John in the Jordan river. Next the Holy Spirit drove him to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  After the forty days of testing he returned to Galilee, commenting on the meaning of his coming, his baptism and his victory over Satan’s first round of temptations: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.”

The time was fulfilled and the kingdom was at hand because of what Jesus was doing for us, living in righteousness where we failed, consecrating himself for his journey to the cross and the tomb.

In the midst of significant trials in life our first instinct certainly is to speak those words, “Why me”  But through faith we know that God is at work in the midst of those trials.  So perhaps a more appropriate response to the trials of life is to say, “Lord, what are  accomplishing in me through this situation?”

Christ has undergone testing and trials to restore paradise, he has overcome the devil for us.  Jesus overcame the temptations of Satan in order to fulfil what we could not do, in order to obey God where Adam and Eve failed. 

Now at the start of this season of Lent, we are called to live in courage not according to our sinful flesh, but according to the new life he gives us in our resurrection. In Christ we have already now a foretaste of the feast to come. As we draw near to Him in the Sacrament of the Altar, we experience in that moment the relief that the knife of the Father’s wrath has been held back from us, and in its place the Lamb of God is sacrificed for us. His life given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  

May the Lord continue to bless us with faith and trust in his leading and guiding- safe through the wilderness of this world and into the joys of his eternal kingdom. Amen.

We are completing today the season of Epiphany. The Transfiguration is a great close to the season with its majestic mountaintop revelation of the full glory of Jesus as the Son of God.  The vision of Jesus shining as bright as the sun transcends the worries of yesterday and today and tells us something about ourselves- that we are destined for a share in His glory.  

We sang a few moments ago:

“O Father with the eternal Son and Holy Spirit ever one, We pray Thee bring us by Thy grace to see Thy glory face to face.”  The transcendent glory of the transfiguration of Jesus is for us the church to share. He showed His glory to us so that we could know that our God is here for us, He has not left us alone, he has revealed his face to us.  As the Epistle reading describes, with the coming of Jesus into the world, the veil that covered the face of Moses and concealed the glory of God has been uncovered. 

In Christ we now can see the glory of God completely uncovered, shining as bright as the sun.  2Corinthians 3:18 celebrates this change: “and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”   We are indeed destined to share in the glory of the Son of God from one degree of glory to the next.

What does it mean to say that the scripture says we have unveiled faces?  Sin is the covering that keeps us from seeing Jesus. On account of the fallen nature of humanity the flesh cannot see the glory of God.

Yet in Christ we are unveiled as we look on the glory of Jesus without barrier- when we look with the eyes of faith, our sinful nature no longer clouds how we see Jesus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can look at Jesus and see His glory.   

Sadly, a veil remains for many in this world on account of their sin.  Many people in the church have asked me how can people persist in unbelief with the countless ways that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of the scripture and countless ways in which God’s Word has proven to be true?

 How could people hold onto a stubborn belief in evolution despite all of the evidence for an intelligent design in creation and all of the evidence throughout the earth of a Biblical flood? Instead of beholding the beauty of the Son of God they long to see a world where death rules.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14 we have an answer to these questions:

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

The things of the Spirit of God are folly to the unbeliever. Each and every one of us came into this world turned away from God, and even an enemy of God.  This is why the gospel of John says : “He came to his own , and his own people did not receive him.”  But God in His infinite love and mercy called us as his own.   

The waters of baptism washed away the covering of sin so that we could be called as his own and actually see the glory of God. 

Often people who have struggled with addiction and learned how to obtain sobriety will talk about how difficult it was to think or do anything with clarity while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. They could not see rightly.

Our church has hosted a weekly AA meeting for many years. Society may look down on those who have struggled with addiction, but we as the church can learn from the experiences of those who have struggled with addictions and made humbling mistakes of great magnitude in life, their experiences are a testimony of how thick and dark the veil of sin can be on our vision.

Even when Peter James and John first saw Jesus transfigured before them, the covering of sin shaped their reaction.  Just prior to the events of the Transfiguration Jesus begins to tell the disciples about the cross.  Peter tries to rebuke Jesus in regards to this fate.

“Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.” What Peter saw and wanted for Jesus was different than what was his purpose.  Peter needed a realignment of focus.  Jesus told him “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hinderance to me. For you are not setting your minds on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  

And as they made their way up a high mountain six days earlier Jesus was transfigured before them.  They recognized Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.  Instead of simply marveling at how amazing it was to be able to recognize Moses and Elijah without ever seeing a painting or sculpture of either prophet, instead of marveling at the meaning of these great prophets of the past now talking with Jesus- Peter interrupts this magnificent meeting with his own agenda.

 “Rabbi it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

Under the veil of sin we are terrified before the presence of God. Yet in listening to the Son, the Lord Jesus- there is no need for fear.  As the scripture teaches in 1 John  “Perfect love casts out all fear.”  In listening to Jesus there is no uncertainty in our life of who we are in this world and what is our purpose. 

Moses and Elijah as great as they were, they were only meant to point to Jesus. They faded away on the mountain and there was only Jesus. The majesty of Jesus, confirmed by the voice of the Father was something they could put their hope and faith in, something that they knew with complete certainty.

And we have this same certainty because we have God’s Word which shows us the glory of Jesus.  In the Old testament times people only had the law playing a role as a teacher and a guardian until Jesus came. Yes, they were shown the glory of God in Old Testament times, but it was always a reflected glory. 

Now as the church we see the full picture of the glory of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

As the prologue to the gospel of John records: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.”  This glory of Jesus- grace, truth, and perfect love.

And because we have seen this glory, we shall share in this glory. Though the body dies, like our sister in Christ Laura, it will be raised a spiritual body that is entirely without sin, raised not in imperfection but instead in the image of Jesus.

After the disciples heard and saw all they did on this mountain the scripture records: ⁹ And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

This revelation was only for their eyes and ears until after the crucifixion and resurrection. They were given a glimpse of the glory for a few moments to prepare them for the trials to come in the days leading up to their master’s betrayal and crucifixion. 

We know from church history that all of the disciples faced persecution in one way or another after Jesus ascended into heaven.  The Transfiguration gave them a foretaste of the eternal joys of heaven that awaited them. As we are gathered here this morning we also can rejoice at the clear revelation that the Son of God has revealed his glory to us, he has forever lifted the veil of sin.  No matter the difficulties we face in the coming days- may we always look to the glory of the Son.  Amen.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”  What beautiful words from the prophet Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28 and following! The verse sums up so much about the difference between our short sighted life experiences and the Lord’s eternal outlook.  

Less familiar to our ears is the verse immediately preceding these words which indicates the attitude of doubt God’s people had which brought about the majestic pronouncement of verse 28, Verse 27 reads: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right hand is disregarded by my God?”

We hear all of the time in worship how great and mighty is our God.  In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter 40 we hear how God is the one who sits above the circle of the earth, and it’s inhabitants are like grasshoppers.  In the Psalm of the day we heard how God determines the number of the stars, ‘Great is our Lord, and abundant in power, his understanding is beyond all measure.’

In the midst of this greatness of the LORD we may feel small in comparison. Could it be that such a mighty God could ever notice us? How could my insignificant life make a difference to God?  Does the LORD almighty really care for me?  The people of Israel apparently felt this way, doubting whether the LORD really cares for them or is able to help them, as if their very way is somehow hidden from the LORD.  Their question of doubt was: “LORD can you really save us?”

In response to this lack of faith the LORD does not punish the people, but instead points them to the truth of how dedicated their God is in caring for them.

 Our God does not grow weary so that the humble and insignificant in this world are not forgotten. In our gospel lesson Jesus demonstrated this remembrance of the insignificant and the downtrodden as he healed many who were sick and cast out many demons.

Jesus who is the everlasting God, the creator of the world, He does not grow weary in his dedication in caring for us.  Jesus gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength.    

Jesus showed this ability to strengthen the weak as he healed all of the sick and cast out demons from those who were oppressed.

After Jesus went to a quiet place to pray early in the morning, Simon and others were searching for him.  “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus knew what was in the heart of man, that people can have their own motivations to seek him in a way where they are not seeking God’s care and provision, but instead their fill of what they want in terms of human needs.

In John Chapter 6 with the feeding of the 5,000 we hear of another instance where after Jesus gave attention to the needs of the multitudes of people, they want to take more from Jesus. The scripture says “Perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” Still the people pursued Jesus, even getting into boats to cross the sea of Galilee to find him. When they finally made it to Jesus he told them “Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”

Jesus made it clear that he has come not just to heal and set at liberty a few, but all.    “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”  That is why I came out.  Jesus came out to preach to all, to heal all.  He came for even the most insignificant among us- not on our terms of what we demand we need, but on His terms based on what we truly need, life and salvation in Him.

Like those in our Old testament lesson who felt “My way is hidden from the LORD” , We may feel like our needs are insignificant to the creator of this world. We may feel that nobody truly cares about our needs when our back is against the wall.    

It is our human sinful nature that we so quickly feel abandoned. We should not mistake it for the truth of how things are. The Father saw our great need ever since the Fall into sin and promised to send us the Savior. He does not faint or grow weary:  His understanding is unsearchable.  Our needs have never been too much for our God to handle. 

Even today in worship, as we confessed our sins and heard the words of absolution, Jesus was present with us.  He cares for us through the amazing authority to take all of the sins we have committed in the past week and count them all as forgiven because of his sacrifice on the cross.  Instead of seeing our sin the Father sees the Righteousness of Christ covering us.

How often do we look at problems in our life and see them as unsurmountable? When I was younger I used to think some people just have things easy. Now, especially doing counseling through the difficulties people face in life- I see that adversity and all maneer of trials comes to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ in this fallen world, likely just as much as we face ourselves.

We know our own limitations and we see with clarity that we do not have what it takes to meet the challenges before us. But we are not meant to take on the challenges of our lives on our own.  ‘Even young men grow faint and weary.’  It is with the help of the LORD that we can run and not be weary and walk and not be faint. 

Through Holy Baptism God’s people are called to a walk of life where each and every day we commit ourselves that we belong to the Lord and we desire to walk in a manner worthy of this calling as His people. 

I often hear people talk in terms of feeling like they do not do enough in their faith to please God- as if it is our role to impress God with how well we can live our lives.

But it is not the accomplishments we obtain that pleases the Lord, but our reliance and trust in Him.   As we heard in the Psalm of the day: “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

We often wish challenges in our life would come together and resolve themselves over night. Certainly, we would like to see a congregation’s  financial challenges resolved, and other barriers to a healthy church removed over night.

Yet it is in waiting for the Lord to answer prayer that we receive spiritual strength from the LORD.  If things come along easy we would easily boast in our own strength. When progress in life takes time and patience our faith grows as we wait to see how His kingdom comes among us.

Waiting on the LORD requires that we see that there are no other options- we cannot push through things to completion on our own.  It may not be easy for us, but we need to accept there are no other options for our lives to move forward in health and wholeness apart from waiting on the LORD.

Our fallen human nature leads us to the type of frantic worry that suggests we think Jesus may not come through for us, and that we better learn to fend for ourselves just in case.  

Instead, we wait on the LORD through a confidence that YHWH will come through for us exactly as he promises in his own time.

As we wait on the LORD we have strength.  The eagle uses the wind for its strength, this is part of the illustration God’s Word uses when it says ‘they who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.’ 

Eagles soar after positioning themselves high on a rock and waiting for the wind to come and lift them. As we wait on the LORD through difficulties and hardships in life and wait in faith, we will with the LORD’s care for us in due time soar.

It is said that Eagles are the most committed of birds in protecting their young.  Deuteronomy 32:11 reads: “Like an Eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.” 

This is a picture of the commitment Jesus has for us, that he will not allow one of us to perish and will cover us with His wings of protection.  May this care be known to you richly as you hear his word day by day and receive his forgiveness and wholeness. Amen.

The Winter can start to feel long right after the excitement and activity of Christmas is over. Other than watching for a snow storm, there is not a lot to look forward to this time of the year, not a lot to watch for.  And if you are watching for Spring, there is a long way to go before any sign of better weather.  Yet fortunately with God’s kingdom, there is always a lot to watch for, no matter the season.

In our gospel lesson from John chapter 1, the account of Jesus calling of Phillip and Nathanael, Jesus tells them exactly what to watch for.  By extension Jesus is also telling us what we are to watch for in our lives as Christians.

This Sunday in particular our worship contains themes of the mysteries of God’s kingdom revealed. First in our Old Testament reading the Lord calls Samuel by his name, and Samuel does not recognize it is the Lord calling him. He thinks it is Eli. He was  not expecting or listening for the voice of the LORD. Only after getting sufficient knowledge from Eli and through his faith and trust in the LORD could Samuel finally knows to respond: “Speak Lord, Your servant listens” 

And in our gospel lesson Jesus reveals to Nathanael that he saw him under the fig tree. And Nathanael goes from the skepticism of thinking nothing good can come from Nazareth to a confession that Jesus is the Son of God.  And then Jesus promises him an even greater mystery waiting to be revealed: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”   

Sometimes the body language and facial expressions seen in church can give the impression that worship, like our everyday life, is at times boring. It would seem we are not always seeing the big picture.  It makes you wonder if we are missing the full scope of what is going on in worship and missing the mysteries that are being revealed in our midst.

Perhaps we struggle to perceive how God reveals himself to us in worship.  We struggle to recall the promise Jesus made to Nathanael: “Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man?” What does it take to see what God is doing among us in worship?

Our church does not have a special effects department- sound, lighting and video. We believe what our forefathers believed, that worship is not entertainment. In fact we understand that what the Lord gives us in worship is far greater than even the best executed forms of entertainment. In worship we do not need the best man has to offer in order to know the mysteries of God.  Instead we are given what God has to offer.  In our worship God serves us, God comes to us in the person of his Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus promises to Nathanael that he will show him heaven opened, and Jesus shows this to us as well- as long as we have faith to see. The background for understanding heaven opened is in Genesis chapter 28

Jacob is on a journey from Beersheeba to Haran, sent by his family to find a wife for himself of their people. That night as he is dreaming the LORD appeared to him with a vision of a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.  Jacob saw a ladder bridging the gap between heaven and earth.

How amazing that there could be something like a ladder that could bridge the divide that which was broken since the Fall into sin!  This is such a different picture than the cherubim and flaming sword set up to bar Adam and Eve from returning to the garden of Eden.

The scripture in Genesis chapter 28 records: “And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”   This ladder was bringing the messengers of God’s kingdom, the angels up and down. What a change was present in this dream in relation to our standing before God. What could this ladder possibly represent?  

It was not a thing that the ladder represented, but a person. A God and a man, Jesus the Christ.  The ladder had to do with the promise made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, a promise that the LORD would be with them and their descendants and would make them great. The LORD would make them the fathers of a holy people set apart for the LORD. 

Nathanael was impressed that Jesus knew his name and saw him under the tree.  But Jesus was only just beginning, any prophet can see extra things and know extra things as revealed by the LORD. But only the Son of God can pay for the sins of the world and bridge the chasm between heaven and earth by his death and resurrection.

And Jesus is the only ladder that connects us to the Father.  Many in the world want to believe that their own efforts and diligent life disciplines connect them to God.  People believe in countless gods of their own making and believe that these gods will give them all things desirable.

Yet the scripture is clear that Jesus alone is the Way the Truth and the life and that no one comes to know the Father except through Him.  Jesus is, as 1 Timothy declares, the only ladder that connects us to the Father:  “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”

This is wonderful news for us. This means that we are not tasked with the mandate to earn our way up to God.  This means that our role in life is to be as a beggars who receive gifts and provision from the Lord day by day.

Like Nathanael we do not always see the full meaning of who Jesus is for us, of what it means to us that through the cross the gates of heaven are opened to us. According to our sinful human nature, we like immediate results.  We would find it easier to see heaven opened in the form of a company of radiant angels surrounded by a big flourish of colors and sounds that would amaze us and bring us sure knowledge of the Lord’s grace and mercy to us.

But instead, we see the gates of heaven opened through the ordinary activities of hearing God’s Word and receiving His gifts to us in worship, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the preaching of forgiveness in Christ. Just ordinary church activities most of us have seen since we were children.

But they are not ordinary at all.  These things we encounter in worship have the power to change our lives.  Heaven is opened to us in worship because Jesus rose from the dead as the first fruits of our resurrection. Heaven is opened to us because Jesus commissioned the disciples that “All authority on heaven and earth is given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”  

Every time we hear God’s Word we are participating in the putting away of our old sinful nature and the welcoming of new life in Christ. The ordinary activities of our faith bring an exceptional life marked by peace that the world cannot give.  A life of purpose and joy.

Jesus knows us inside and out and sees far more potential in our lives than we ourselves can.  “O LORD you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold O LORD you know it all together.”  That is the psalm appointed for today. A psalm that helps us to see that our own bodies have been fearfully and wonderfully made.   Our own bodies are made for the Lord. 

And as our Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians emphasizes our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Whether it is issues of sexual purity or other ways we need to be careful in respecting our bodies- the message is the same, our bodies belong to the Lord, and it is through our bodies that we serve in God’s kingdom.

Often people in our culture today talk about spiritual matters in a way in which our bodies are inconvenient vessels to our soul that get in the way of our enjoying a certain communion with God.  If we do not value our bodies we are losing sight of the fact that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but also true man.  Jesus connects heaven and earth because he is both man and God. 

Jesus connects us with heaven through Water and the Word.  The ordinary activities for our bodies of hearing God’s Word and eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper, is actually the way that we see heaven opened to us. In seeing our Savior crucified for us and risen from the dead, we know we are beholding something more amazing than any of the disciples first saw in Jesus. 

And as the gates are open, we are united with a God who transcends all of the difficulties of today and tomorrow.  A God who will one day return to us in glory so that all things in heaven and earth will be united forever in the joys of eternal life. May we watch for this day always in anticipation and in hope. Amen.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. What wonderful news. The best of all news. The most beautiful news the world has ever known. Our Old Testament reading talks about the beauty of this news in terms of the very first glimmer of good news coming to us:  “How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says “Your God reigns”

In today’s world we have many ways to watch for the coming of good news. I have seen people check their phones for updates on a Colts or a Packers game in the minutes before an Installation to pastoral ministry, or at wedding receptions,  graduations  and recitals.  

People find themselves in situations waiting eagerly for an email or phone call with a high sense of urgency to find out news.  Maybe a notice of employment, or admission to a school, or perhaps to verify a paycheck has posted to a bank account in time.

Think of hospital waiting room as place to wait for surgery results or the news of the birth of a child. We wait for news with anticipation and the first indication that the news is coming can throw your stomach into butterflies.

In Isaiah’s time there was no instant means of transmitting messages.  “How beautiful the feet of him who brings good news”: The messenger is not really who is beautiful. Just his feet. Just the sign of him coming, the first spotting of the messenger running in the distance as he ascends past the peak of the mountain beyond the horizon and is now visible, moving ever closer to deliver the message.

In Isaiah’s time the message of good news was about the restoration of Israel, the end of their captivity in Babylon. The message was clear, “Your God reigns!” Not Babylon reigns or the gods of the many nations reign.   

This message of victory foreshadowed the reign of God in Jesus, where the captivity to sin of all people would be delivered with an eternal reign of Christ.  Jesus’s birth brought an end to the bondage to sin where people had no hope because they were separated from God in thought word and deed. 

Jesus brought a freedom that was more than a matter of which king or court ruled over the people. He brought a freedom to experience everyday of life here- with life and life to the fullest- connected with God’s purposes and entirely grounded in the future destiny of eternal life with Him in heaven.

The Lord Jesus reigns, and through faith in him we share in an everlasting kingdom!  That is the good news of Christmas, that is the meaning for us of the Word Made Flesh who dwelt among us and showed us his glory. 

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring this message to us!  The other details of what the person looks like does not matter. Whether elaborately dressed or dressed in tattered clothing – the message is going to be the same.  We do not want to get distracted by the details of the messenger himself- lest we lose sight of the message we are waiting for.

We are all in captivity to sin, living in a fallen world. That is why more than ever, we watch for the message of good news, the message that Jesus is here for us. The message that Jesus frees from our captivity to sin, giving us forgiveness, peace, wholeness. 

In recent years we have as a nation been enticed to follow news more than ever before. News comes in from countless avenues, leading many to look forward to catching up each day on what is going on, what there is to keep track of.  And of course these updates to our lives do not fulfill us, they only serve to give us reason for isolation from one another, and worry.

Far more important than watching for the latest news and updates in the faced pace world we live in, we wait and watch for Jesus’ message of forgiveness for us found in God’s Word- even as we watch for Jesus to return.  With this message of God’s Word we know for sure that God reigns in our lives, and what good news that is!  

Sometimes at Christmas we struggle with comparing present situations with the past.  How does this Christmas compare with years back when the church was more full? We think of family members who are not there anymore at Christmas.

Family gatherings at Christmas may change over time, yet the reality is that nothing changes about Christmas from one year to another. Every year we celebrate the same hope, the same beautiful good news delivered to us: Jesus is born.

The Word became Flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. That is a message that is worth incomparably more than the message of instant gratifications of the news.

This is the message of the perfect grace of God’s unfailing love to us and the perfect truth of the unity of the Trinity.

Jesus is Full of grace and truth. This truth is only properly understood when we see God’s hand in all of creation and ongoing role in upholding our existence. Colossians 1:15-20 describes such truth:

⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

That is beautiful news worth coming together as God’s people to hear.  How beautiful it has been to see our congregation come together in recent months despite the losses in size compared to many years ago. How beautiful to see feet walking into church after overcoming many obstacles, how beautiful to see steady steps to the Communion rail, even with an imperfect gait.  

How beautiful to be the church and remain as the church no matter the challenges our culture throws at us. How beautiful to be the body of Christ and know we are not going anywhere because we have ‘seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’  Amen.

Have you ever tried to restore something? Restoration is to bring things back to their original beauty and place of belonging in the world.  I am not the most skilled builder, but I have restored many items with sufficient sentimental value with super glue, including those items that were a causality of young children’s activity.  Some of the items you would never even know that they were ever dropped- or run through the spin cycle of the dryer.

To bring something back to its original state. There is something very appealing about restoration in our time today.  Many homes in Indianapolis have gone through restoration to make them closer to the original beauty and style that they were built with. Sometimes people find joy in restoring what was almost lost, not giving up on it, putting blood sweat and tears into the project.

Here in the second Sunday of Advent, Restoration is illustrated as God’s plan from the beginning. We heard in the Introit: “Restore us O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved!  We know this restoration involves more than what superglue can fix. It’s more than a face lift or a new finish of paint. 

But just like the beloved home that is painstakingly preserved, just like teddy bear whose arm is carefully stitched back on- the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  God looked in love at the vine that came out of Egypt and once filled the land with deep root and blossom, the vine that turned bad and lost all its glory and beauty – and God sought to restore His people. 

Even though the vine failed to produce good fruit, even though the people sinned and sought after false idols God set forth a righteous branch from the stump of Jesse.  The righteousness of Jesus, the Lion of Judah was sufficient to make up for the unrighteousness of all people. 

The Father set forth a master plan whereby the sin that runs as deep as every cell in our body could be cleansed. The plan was executed through His Son sent to die on the cross for us, so that we could be completely restored into the image of God as Adam and Eve were in the garden of Eden before the Fall.

We who have been born of water and the Spirit, Jesus looks at us in love and says: “behold I make all things new.” Without doubt we were worth restoring. There never was any question, from the beginning the Father was willing to pay the price in blood for our restoration. 

Because of this great restoration, we have the promise of comfort, hope, and consolation.  These are the messages from God the prophet Isaiah brings to us.  Isaiah is proclaiming a redemption after the destruction sin and idolatry brought to Israel.  

As bad as things are or have been, something has changed in a wonderful way.  “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfareis ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” 

The gospel is a double blessing, it is not just that our sins are forgiven and we are spared condemnation, but because of God’s Word, we are also brought beyond the limitations of our lives to the glory of God.  “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

We are restored and brought back to our original state and then some.

We know who was the voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord- it is a particular person in history, John the Baptist.  Jesus says Elijah has come, and he means John.  Jesus described John as in a category above all other prophets: I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

Nobody born of woman is greater than John, and what does John say: “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”

John, who is greater than all who are born of woman was born to point to the one who was born of the Spirit.  His purpose was to stir up our hearts to repentance, to prepare the way for Jesus. And to prepare us to be born of Jesus, so that we also would be greater in glory than anyone born of woman who does not have the Spirit.

John brings a message of hope, as he speaks just like Isaiah, about the restoration our Lord has come to do in us.  To be sure he also presents a message of repentance that is quire stern and urgent, he even calls the pharisees a brood of vipers and talks about the coming separation of the chaff and wheat where the chaff is burnt up with unquenchable fire.  Although John calls us to first repent, his message is indeed one of hope as he is speaking tenderly about the One who is to come. 

John brings a message of sweet comfort, just as the prophet Isaiah foretold.  Isaiah spoke words of comfort in chapter 40 after many chapters of warnings of destruction because of sin.  The destruction was still to come for Jerusalem, in fact it was over 100 hundred years away.

But even before the destruction happened in history, Isaiah already pronounced God’s Words of comfort.  Their warfare has ended, their sin has been paid for.

God’s Word speaks comfort to us weary sinners troubled by the coming afflictions in our lives.  We know the time will come when the warfare is over, when we will rejoice in our part in the blessing of God’s kingdom. When the warfare seems too fierce, we do well to stir up our hearts toward repentance to see that no affliction is greater than God’s love.  To hear the sweeping truth about all of creation:  “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.”

The result of this comfort from our God is that we have peace.  “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

We are waiting for the restoration of God’s Word to reach its completion. Right now we are troubled by the hardship life in our fallen world brings. We see people making choices to worship man rather than God more and more each generation. We wonder how long before relief, how long before Jesus returns.

When Isaiah was called into his prophetic role as recorded in chapter 6, he asked how long he was to continue preaching God’s Word. “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people and the land is a desolate waste.”

In other words the answer is to keep proclaiming God’s truth, no matter the destruction around. All through the stage of trials and tribulations this side of eternity the church will continue to point people to Jesus.  Indeed we may face diseases and other trials in coming days more trying than what we face today.

Our task as God’s people is clear, to live as those who have received the perfect comfort and consolation of the good news. To live as his restored people, waiting for the final restoration.  To wait in faith and behold that our God comes to us in might.   

Here as we begin the season of Advent we are waiting.  Our prayer is that our King would come to us.   We are in an in between state, a time of waiting and watching. This is part of the Christian life, we live in a time where Jesus has already won the battle on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven- conquering sin death and the devil. But we are still waiting for Jesus to return to bring us to the full completion of God’s plan for us, life eternal in heaven. As we wait for our king to come, we are in a place of transition.

How often in life do we find ourselves waiting for the next thing. Waiting for Christmas, waiting for the Spring or summer time, waiting to get a new pet, waiting for your child’s wedding day. And of course, here and now as a congregation we are waiting on my decision in regards to the Call extended to me.  

We are future oriented in this way for a reason- we know the best is yet to come.  Although sometimes waiting is simply hard.  Sometimes it feels just too much to keep waiting.  But the waiting for God’s kingdom is different than just waiting for holidays and life events to come. This waiting is the way in which we trust in God, have faith in him and worship him.  If we are not expecting, and waiting and hoping, then we are sleep walking through life.

Many of our hymns and songs for the season of Advent celebrate the end of waiting and the opening of gates and doors as our King comes.  “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.”

“Lift up your heads, you everlasting doors, and weep no more! O Zion daughter sing, to greet your coming King: Now wave the victor’s palm and sing the ancient psalm, “Lift up your heads you everlasting gates! Your king awaits!  God will now dwell with man- and never again be separated from us. After so much waiting Israel sees that Jesus’ reign as King has begun.

Psalm 24 provides to us this imagery of the king entering through opening of the everlasting gate: “Lift up your heads, o gates! And lift then up O ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in.”

The fact that doors are described as ancient and gates as everlasting implies that there has long been a chasm and division between Our God and His people, back to ancient times, back to the Fall into sin- when the entrance to the garden of Eden was so forcefully closed by angels.  The fact that ancient gates and doors should open is also amazing.

This world is so full of imperfection and sin, and Heaven is perfect and full of the glory of God.  How is it that the two can meet? How could it be that the ancient gates could swing wide open.  How is it that Jesus our king can come to us?  How can God come to us when there is a barrier and a chasm between heaven and earth? 

Our Old Testament Reading from Isaiah calls for this divide to be broken wide open: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”  

Gates and great doors to ancient cities kept control over who could come and go.  The gates protected the city so that those who would bring harm would be kept out and those who would bring prosperity to the city could be let in.

The imagery in the scripture describes all of creation as the city, and in order for the renewal of creation to occur, the gate needs to be open to a visit from a realm beyond our creation, from heaven. Like opening the gates for a king, but with even more excitement and reverence than even a visit from a king would bring to a city.

One thing is abundantly clear, we cannot open the portal, we cannot raise the gates.  We wait for God to come to us and bridge the divide.

We cannot raise the gates, but our Lord Jesus has come to burst open the chains that hold us down in sin, to open the way for God’s kingdom to come among us. Isaiah chapter 64 longs for this coming of the Savior:  “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence- as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil- to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence.”

We continue reading in Isaiah chapter 64 with the next verse, 3  “When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”

Nowhere in the world has it ever been heard of where a God who acts for those who wait on Him- except for the God of Israel.  Who parted the Red Sea, who opened the flood gates of the waters to deliver His people from pharaoh’s army.  

Remember when Jesus was in Capernaum it was discovered that he was at a home and many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door.  And four men brought a paralytic to be healed by him, down through the roof.  And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The scribes questioned in their hearts: “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Indeed never since the beginning has anyone ever had the authority to forgive sins- to speak words and change someone’s standing from separation with God to peace, from condemnation to salvation.  

“But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins- he said to the paralytic, “I say to you rise, pick up your bed and go home.”  As he picked up his bed and walked before them all in plain sight, they said: “We never saw anything like this!”  The heavens were opened and God’s kingdom was coming.

We all need this healing for our sins. The unbelieving world does not understand this healing. The world says, we never saw anything like this and never will.  But you have seen.

You have seen the Lord’s work in your lives as the gates of heaven were opened to you in your baptism as the Triune name of God was placed upon your heart and your forehead. There the curse of sin was taken away from you, and every time you remember Your baptism you are reminded that heaven has been opened to you in Jesus.

You have the saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ there in your own life story. You have been healed and forgiven by Jesus just like the man who was lowered through the roof in that house in Capernaum. You have seen the most amazing work in your own life and in the life of your brothers and sisters in Christ here in this church.

The reading from Isaiah continues: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” . As we recognize how unclean all of our deeds are we see that it is entirely in the mercy of the Lord that we put our hope.

Isaiah continues: “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 and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” 

On account of our sin we are unable to actually call on God’s name, we cannot rouse ourselves to come to the Lord, instead we push away from God and turn toward ourselves.

But fortunately, we are not on our own, Jesus promised he would not leave us as orphans- but sent us the Holy Spirit. And Jesus told the disciples that when they face the trials of the last days, that they should lift up their heads because your redemption is near. And when this barrier is bridged, take your eyes off of anything else, lift up your heads for your redemption is near.

 We are to lift up our heads because of the promise that Jesus will return to us in the same way that he ascended. At that time He will complete the transformation that he started in us, giving us renewed spiritual bodies without sin.

And in preparation for this day Jesus has already begun to shape us as His own and transform us.  In this time of transition in our lives, we pray for faith to receive his shaping- faith to say Lord you are the potter, we are the clay. Even in this difficult time in our fallen world, even in this time of the summit of darkness Jesus creates us anew as vessels for His glory. We pray “Come to us in our time of waiting so that we see that even on the journey as we wait for the gate to open- you are already with us.”

Christmas decoration are a good thing and may bring joy to young and old alike.  But the decorations are not just there to give us a sense of awe over the moment of the birth of Jesus.  We need more than moments of feeling good and cheerful.  We need the presence of Jesus with us, the presence of the Savior who rends down the heavens and comes down.  Whose death on the cross brought the mountains and the whole earth to quake. 

Open the gates we pray. And as we wait for the gates to open we do not give up, we do not grow weary if we shall be delivered- for we have a God who acts in love. We wait in hope for his coming.  “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.”