First Sunday in Advent

Jeremiah 23:5–8

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you’re preparing for something, you’re going to actively get ready for it, maybe even get a little busy. But you’re also waiting, and that should probably imply a sense of calm and stillness—waiting for something to happen. That’s what’s going on in Advent. While the commercialized world is running ragged in its preparations, the Church is doing a lot of waiting. While we wait for our Lord we should also prepare to receive Him. Yet sometimes the waiting takes its toll. We don’t like to sit and wait for something to happen. We think we have to be the ones doing the happening.

Waiting for the Lord certainly took its toll on Jeremiah the Prophet. In fact, all of the Old Testament is like one huge season of Advent—waiting for the coming of the Lord, the Messiah, the One who would save His people from their sins. Ever since God promised Adam and Eve that the Offspring of the woman would come to crush the serpent’s head, God’s people had been waiting. And Jeremiah was no different, except that he certainly had a hard time of it while he waited.

I don’t think many people would pick Jeremiah as their favorite Old Testament prophet. He is known to be quite depressing. After all, he also wrote the book called Lamentations. But if anyone had reason to lament, it was Jeremiah. His ministry as a prophet of God was one of the toughest. He had to preach to the people of Jerusalem in that city’s darkest hours. By Jeremiah’s time, the northern half of Israel had already been destroyed by the Assyrians. Those Israelite tribes had been killed, enslaved, and scattered to the wind, because they would not repent and trust the Lord’s Word. Now all that was left was Judah, the southern tribe, and its capital, Jerusalem. And the shadow of destruction was looming over them as well. The Babylonians were on their doorstep, and Jeremiah saw what was in store for Judah and Jerusalem: exile. Their king would be thrown down, their people carried off to Babylon, and their city and temple destroyed. Because they also would not repent and trust the Lord’s Word.

So it was Jeremiah’s God-given task to preach this message of judgment. Do you think the people or their rulers were happy to hear this gloomy message? Do you think they thanked Jeremiah for his faithfulness to God’s Word? Do you think they listened and turned away from their sinful deeds? Far from it. They continued sacrificing to false gods, even slaughtering their own babies. They continued to ignore God’s commands and live like the rest of the godless nations surrounding them. They even tried to kill Jeremiah on numerous occasions because he wouldn’t leave them alone. And if they couldn’t kill him, they could at least keep him in prison.

The people and their rulers didn’t like Jeremiah—he was a downer. Besides, the king of Judah was sure that he could save Jerusalem from the Babylonians. The priests of the temple were sure that God was pleased with them and all their sacrifices. So, instead of repenting and waiting for the Lord to save them, they continued their busy lives, making their own preparations, playing the games with politics and money, and dabbling in the worship of idols alongside the true God. Although they used His Name, they did not truly believe in the Lord their God. Although they read His Word, they did not truly listen to it or trust it. And so God judged them to destruction. He used the Babylonians to bring them to ruin.

And do any of us operate the same way? We use God’s Name and sit in church and listen to His Word, but then do we care when babies are slaughtered for the idols of choice, freedom, and convenience? Do we care when people live in sin and deliberately ignore God’s commands? We don’t throw prophets into prison, but do we spread lies about pastors and other Christians? These things are not true about everyone, but they are certainly true of many people today. It makes me wonder who our Babylonians will be? Will God bring His judgment down on us and what will that look like? None of us are innocent. We all must repent and trust the Lord’s Word.

In the midst of sadness and destruction, God also gives a message of hope to Jeremiah and to those faithful people who still believed in God. But it wouldn’t be a quick fix. They would have to wait. They would have to live and suffer through this horrible destruction and exile, and wait for God to save them, trusting that the Lord made a promise and that He always comes through on His promises. So, the Lord gave them this hope and comfort for the future, so that they would know that the ruin of their city was not the end: Behold, the days are coming declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.

There was already a king in Jeremiah’s day, but clearly he was not doing a good job. The Lord says He will raise up a new King. From the old dying family tree of King David, with the rotten limbs of wicked kings, the Lord will make a righteous Branch come forth. He will be a King like none other, because this King will be the Lord Himself. His name will be called, “The Lord is our righteousness.” Ironically, the evil king of Jeremiah’s day was named Zedekiah, which means, “The Lord is my righteousness.” Yet, he was not the promised king. Unbelieving Zedekiah clearly had none of the Lord’s righteousness. He was not right with God, and so he was judged to destruction.

But this new King, He will be righteous and He will be the righteousness for His people. He is the Lord, our righteousness, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Branch sprung up from the tree of David. In Mary’s womb He became the heir of that ancient king—a descendant of David’s house and line. He is the Promised One, the One Jeremiah and all the Old Testament waited for. 

From the Gospel today, we see that our King Jesus is humble. He comes to us riding on a donkey on His way to the cross. Meekly, He came to do His Father’s will, obedient to the very end. He fulfilled all of God’s demands, He was perfectly righteous. And yet God judged Him to destruction. All of God’s wrath over sin was poured onto that righteous Branch, so that we can escape the destruction we deserve. There is no more condemnation for those who believe in Jesus. 

And not only do we escape God’s judgment of destruction, but we are also given God’s judgment of righteousness. You who believe and are baptized into Jesus your King, you have Him for your righteousness! You have no righteousness that can be called your own. Nothing that you have done can save you from His anger. But the King gives you His own righteousness—His goodness, His life, His glory. God declares you to be righteous and holy because of Jesus. And so with a King like that, you are saved and dwell securely.

There are two times in Jeremiah’s book, where the promised righteous Branch is mentioned along with this name, “The Lord is our righteousness.” The first time is what we have heard today from Jeremiah 23: The Lord will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king… In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which HE will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ But the second time is just a bit different, in Jeremiah 33: The Lord will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David… In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which IT will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’ (v.16) Did you catch the difference? The second time, the name of the King, the name of the righteous Branch is also given to Judah and Jerusalem. The righteousness of Jesus is declared, imputed, given to God’s people, and so they actually bear His holy name. Our sin has been removed from God’s sight, and instead He sees us covered in the King’s holy blood, His innocent life, suffering, and death, and His glory.

In the Old Testament the event that really defined God’s relationship with Israel was the Exodus. The people often said, “As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt!” That was how they knew God, that He was their Savior. But Jeremiah saw a time when the people of God would no longer talk about Egypt and that old Exodus. There would be a far greater Exodus with the new and righteous Brach—the King. Then the people would say, “As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where He had driven them.” Here Jeremiah references the Lord’s promise that the people who are exiled to Babylon will return to Jerusalem one day and rebuild it. And that certainly happened.

But the new Exodus, the ultimate end to all exile and destruction, the reign of the righteous Branch who will gather all His people into His eternal city, that is the Exodus of Jesus Christ. Through His death and resurrection He has brought you up out of the land of sin and death. He has forgiven you, freed you, and given you a home in His Church. And over this new home He is a King who rules you with His forgiveness and love. No longer do we say, “He is the Lord who brought us out of Egypt.” Nor do we say, “He is the Lord who brought us out of the land of Babylon.” But we say, “As the Lord lives, He has brought us from the ends of the earth. He has gathered us by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. And He makes us His people by declaring us righteous.”

And that is precisely how you prepare for your King’s coming again: you receive His righteousness. You confess your sins and are absolved. You are taught His Word and trust it to be true, whether you feel it or not. You are fed with His body and blood so that His own life is in you and your life is found in Him. No frantic, stressful season for you. You prepare for the King by waiting in the calm and stillness of a sure faith and a confident hope.

Come quickly + Lord Jesus. Amen.

Last Sunday of the Church Year

1 Thessalonians 5:1–11

St. Matthew 25:1–13

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When our Lord returns in glory, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. These virgins are the bride’s attendants, whose job it was to greet the bridegroom as he was coming from his parent’s house to his bride’s home. Then they would join the wedding procession to the new home that the bridegroom had prepared for his wife, and there the party would begin. In this parable, Jesus is talking about the Church, not people of other religions, outside the Church. All ten ladies are virgins carrying lamps—they all look the same. These ten maidens represent members of the Church: they appear outwardly pure, they bear the name Christian. But not all outward members of the Church are true believers. These ten virgins are not all the same.

Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The simple meaning behind the terms foolish and wise is unbeliever and believer. But there’s more to learn from these terms. This Greek word for foolish is actually where we get our word, “moron.” Bet you didn’t know that Jesus calls people morons. It’s quite an insulting word to us, but it’s a good word. If we think someone is a moron, we don’t mean someone who just lacks knowledge. Ignorance can be educated—you can learn new things if you want to. But we would say a moron is someone who’s not street-smart. They lack common sense: like not bringing oil. It’s nighttime, you’ve got lamps, and you don’t bring oil? Pretty dumb.

But the truth of the parable is that sin is stupid and sin makes us stupid. We know there are bad consequences to sin. We know God is not happy with us when we’re careless or go ahead against better judgment and sin anyway. But being sinners, we convince ourselves that we are right and we refuse to be corrected. The moronic virgins and people like them are not uneducated people, they are stubborn. They do not want to learn from God’s Word. They do not want to admit that they are wrong, that they have failed, that they need help and that they need to learn something new. Not wanting to repent of sin, and not wanting to learn from God’s Word, is foolish. It’s as foolish as bringing lamps with no oil.

The other five virgins are called wise. The Greek word here for wise also means “sensible or thoughtful.” Again, we’re not talking about book-smarts. You don’t have to study a lot and know a lot of facts in order to be wise. But it means you want to learn, you want to be a better person than you are now, and you are open to being changed. The best meaning for the word is actually “prudent.” This word Jesus uses is one of the four human virtues. The classical Greeks identified four virtues that are necessary to be a good human: justice, courage, self-control, and prudence. Being prudent means that you care about future things. This could be something big, like saving for retirement, or something small, like bringing oil for your lamps when waiting for the bridegroom.

These five wise virgins were prudent—they were ready for difficult circumstances. They were ready to admit they might be wrong about the Bridegroom’s arrival. Maybe they thought he would arrive sooner, but he was delayed. These prudent ladies planned ahead. Prudence—looking forward to the future, planning for and caring about the future—this is the virtue that listens to Jesus’ warning: Watch… for you know neither the day nor the hour. This means that the wise person wants to prepare now for Jesus’ return. You want to learn what He has to teach you in His Word. And you’re open to being corrected. You know you’re a sinner, so when you hear yourself being judged and your sin condemned, your first reaction is not to take offense or be outraged and storm off, but you repent. You want to turn away from your sin and try to do what God expects. You know you have failed and so you also want to do better. Most importantly, you want to get what Jesus offers now in His Word and Sacraments, so that you will be ready when He comes.

That last part really is the most important, because your prudence is not enough. Your effort to be on guard against sin, your work to prepare and obey God’s commands—that isn’t enough. All ten virgins became drowsy and slept, even the prudent ones. You have failed, and you will fail again. You can’t make yourself ready by your own power. And the church you belong to can’t do it for you either. Just playing the part, showing up once in a while or helping out when the congregation needs something—that won’t be good enough when the Bridegroom shows up. You need something else. You need something more than justice, courage, self-control, and prudence. The Christian Church recognizes that those human virtues are good and true, but we also recognize that the Bible tells us something else. We need the theological virtues: faith, love, and hope.

What we need is the oil for our lamps. In an oil lamp, the wick needs to be in oil—that’s the fuel for the fire. With no oil, the wick would burn up very quickly and go out. But with the oil, the wick burns slowly, brightly, steadily, because the wick is drawing up the oil so the flame is feeding on the oil. For us, in the Kingdom of Heaven, the oil is God’s Word and Sacraments: the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of those Scriptures that create faith by the power of the Spirit and instruct us in the life that is pleasing to God; Holy Baptism, the Name of God joined to the water that washes our sins away and gives us new birth as God’s children; Holy Absolution, the declaration of the forgiveness of sins spoken aloud so that you may be certain of God’s grace and have a good conscience before Him; and the Holy Communion, the feast of Christ’s true body and blood that forgives sin, enlivens faith, strengthens love, and saves us for eternity. These are where and how we get the oil for our lamps. These are the holy things that the flame of faith must feed on. Without this holy oil of the Word and Sacraments, our faith would sputter and go out. But with this oil, the flames of faith, love, and hope can burn brightly, all through the long night of waiting—waiting for our Bridegroom to arrive.

Now the fact that we need this oil and can’t do without it on our own means that it is really the Lord Himself who makes you ready for His coming. While our prudence is necessary, it’s not the thing that saves us. While our faith, love, and hope are necessary, these also are not why we are saved. We are made ready for Jesus’ return, we are saved, because He died for us and rose again; because He loves us enough to deal with our sin, to rebuke us and to forgive us; because He speaks to us and He is faithful to His promises.

In the Epistle, we were told that the Lord provides us with the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. There’s those three theological virtues again. Our Lord gives us the gift of faith in Him, and He kindles in our hearts the gift of love for our neighbors. He also inspires in us the sure and certain hope of His return on the Last Day. We know the future that has been promised to us. Christian hope is the greatest prudence of all: not merely working and planning for the future, but confidently trusting in the Lord who will come again to rescue us from every evil. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep (alive or dead) we might live with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Do not be foolish and do not confirm other people’s foolishness. But be wise for yourself and for one another. Encourage your fellow Christians to live a holy life in keeping with God’s Word. Build up your fellow believers by speaking and singing that Word to them, and by praying for them. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body, be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

Come quickly + Lord Jesus. Amen.

Day of Thanksgiving

Psalm 104

St. Luke 12:13–21 (Harvest Observance)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Introit this morning is drawn from Psalm 104, but whenever we sing snippets of a psalm, it is also good for us to think about the entire psalm. Psalm 104 is a psalm of thanks to God for the goodness of His creation that was made and given to us as an undeserved gift. 

The psalm begins: Bless the Lord, O my soul! We exhort ourselves to praise and bless God. To bless someone means to speak good words about them or to them. So, how do we bless God? Just as we do at the end of the Divine Service: Bless we the Lord. Thanks be to God. We speak good words of thanksgiving. We tell of what He has done and given for us. In this way, the psalmist begins His exuberant song about this world that is bursting with life, an absolutely wonderful riot of fruitfulness, a beautiful order in which every creature praises its Maker by doing what He has given it to do.

God’s work is good because it reflects His own goodness. He is clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Himself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. These heavens are the sky, even what we call “outer space”, which is not empty but full of the sparkling, blazing splendor and majesty of stars and planets, constellations and galaxies. 

He makes the clouds His chariot; He rides on the wings of the wind; He makes his messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire. Even the winds and storms of our atmosphere tell us something about His power and speed, and about the service of the holy angels, His ministers. The angels, these windy, fiery messengers serve their Lord by serving us. They are sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14).

He set the earth on its foundations… He set a boundary for the oceans that they may not pass… He makes springs gush forth in the valleys… they give drink to every beast of the field… the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His work. The Lord’s creation does His bidding and so is blessed. His creation is good because it reflects His own goodness. Or as another poet once said: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God…”

From the realms of stars and vast sweeping oceans, the psalmist descends into the lush liveliness of creaturely order: a world full of wild donkeys and roaring lions, the birds of the heavens and storks building their nests in great trees, while the wild goats and badgers make their fortresses in the mountains.

Also there is Man, that most unique of God’s creatures. Man—like the animals, he is flesh, and like the angels, he is spirit. Body and soul, he is created in the image of God. And since he is the crown of God’s creation, all of that creation is made for his benefit. The Lord causes the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart. The rich bounty of the Lord’s earth is put into the hands of men, so that we may be glad, refreshed, and strengthened for lives of service to our God and to His world.

            And yet, even the food we need to survive is not mere fuel. God could have arranged our bodies to be nourished by dirt. But the food He gives is also for our enjoyment, that we may taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). As Solomon wisely observed: Happy are you, O land, when… your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! … Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life (Ecclesiastes 10:17–19). Sin comes with over-indulgence, when we use our earthly goods for selfish purposes. But there is no sin in enjoying the good gifts of this creation: wine and beer, turkey, chocolate, or buttery mashed potatoes. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4).

The psalmist goes on to marvel at the orderliness of life. Far from this world being the mad, random rushing of atoms, the universe is held together by a design. God’s creation works together because it fits together, each creature finding his proper place at the proper time. He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. He makes darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. Even man and beast have their coordinated schedules, happily going to the work their Master has given them to do so that He might also fill them with His bounty.

And yet, life is not all work and no play. The psalmist sees how life’s labor and fun complement each other, making each more rewarding and more pleasurable. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which God formed to play in it. Can’t you hear the enthusiasm of a little boy? There go the ships! And Leviathan—a giant sea creature, what we might call a dinosaur, or better yet, a dragon!—splashing about in the waves.

O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all. All the many and various works of God are done in Christ, the true Wisdom of God. That Wisdom is not just a thought, but a Person—specifically the second Person of the Trinity—the Word who is God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:3). In Christ, this world was made. In Christ, this world was redeemed. And in Christ, the gifts of this world are still given to all His creatures, even though some of these human creatures do not believe in Him or thank Him.

Whether they know it or not these all look to You, O Lord, to give them their food at the proper time. When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are filled with good things. And without the Lord who created us, and died for us, and rose again, then all creation would cease to exist, crumbling, falling into the void of nothingness. When You hide Your face, they are dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. He is the Creator and Redeemer, and so He has the authority to judge and sentence to death.

But, when You send forth Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground. The Spirit of God, the Lord and Giver of Life, is always at work in His world. He is the Breath that carried the Word of the Father and brought all things into being. And He’s still doing it. “The world is charged with the grandeur of God… Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” The dawning of each new day is a reminder of God’s mercy and faithfulness.

The antiphon for our Introit comes from the end of the psalm. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works. This prayer flows from God’s declaration in Genesis 1: God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). His creation is good because it reflects His own goodness. He was pleased by His creation. And even though His creation rebelled against Him, He desired to rescue it so that He could rejoice in His work all the more. May the Lord continue to rejoice in His works, He who could unmake it with a touch, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! The psalm ends with a word of judgment: Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Evil, disobedience, ingratitude, pride, selfishness—all that must be eradicated so that only joyful praise is heard from God’s creation. 

This means that repentance is essential for true thanksgiving. You can’t really enjoy God’s gifts in creation when you’re unrepentant of your sin. God certainly gives daily bread to everyone… even to all evil people, so, if you don’t confess your sin, sure, you’ll still eat and you might have what you think is a good life, but you won’t really enjoy it. What is better? Buying dessert from the store or getting a piece of Grandma’s homemade pumpkin pie? The bought one might be perfectly fine, but you truly enjoy Grandma’s pie because of the good relationship you have with the one who made it and gave it to you out of love.

Likewise, the foolish but rich farmer had many earthly gifts from God, yet they were not good FOR him. He could not enjoy them and in the end they even condemned him because of his faithlessness. The fact that he turned the goods into idols made it even worse for him. So, to have a truly good life means repentance for sin and faith in Christ. Give thanks to God and give goods away to your neighbor. Then, even when it’s time to die, you don’t lose anything. In fact, you gain even more, because what was most important was your good relationship with God, the Giver of all those gifts.

And you do have a good relationship with the Creator, through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Christ graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32). He sends forth His Spirit and we are created anew by faith. And the Lord Christ even gives His body for bread to strengthen you and His blood for wine to gladden your heart. So, we can call God our Father and confess His works in the Creed.

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.
He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. 

All this He does only out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.

For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true (SC, First Article).

Bless the Lord, O my soul! Alleluia!

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Poem quoted: “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins