St. Matthew 21:1–9
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Listen to the Collect of the Day for the First Sunday in Advent:
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Rescued from the threatening perils of our sins. That is why we need Advent. That is why we need prayers like this one. Because we don’t believe that our sins are threatening perils. We don’t think sin is as dangerous, certainly not more dangerous, than say, not having a comfortable life and a good amount in savings, or not as dangerous as getting that bad diagnosis, undergoing that difficult surgery. We think those are the real perils.
But sins? We try to make pets of our sins. They’re something we can excuse or overlook once in a while. We think we can handle them. We’ve got a handle on it, we can control it. This or that sin now and then isn’t really going to destroy our faith, is it? Surely not going to put our salvation in jeopardy, right? But the Church in her wisdom has put this collect into our mouths and forced us to pray: rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins. The Church is teaching us to confess that our sins are truly perilous.
We know this hypothetically, and we all agree to it, but we seldom truly believe it in actuality. Of course, we know it’s true because we accept what St. John the Baptist declares when he points at Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” We know this so well, it’s rather common and loses its punch. But it’s a big deal that there is a Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And that’s because sin is a big deal. You need a Savior from sin. And if you agree that you truly need a Savior from sin, then you must also agree that all sin is truly dangerous.
A ship on the ocean, with a broken helm or steering wheel, is pushed and led wherever the winds and storms direct it. So also, when we live in sin without God, we are like that ship. We are given over to our sinful passions and the temptations of the devil. We do what we don’t want to do and we go where we don’t want to go. Without God, we are slaves to sin. Our sinful mind and heart have a broken steering wheel and we cannot correct our course or keep ourselves from being dashed against the rocks of God’s condemnation. This is what it means when the Bible says we are in bondage to sin. We are in grave peril and we cannot escape it because sin has broken our steering wheel. There is nothing we can do. The only way for us to be saved is for God to grab hold of our ship and direct us Himself by His Holy Spirit. God must deliver us by the strong hand of His mercy.
So this is why we need Advent. Advent is our John the Baptist, calling us to repent and to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Advent begins by proclaiming this Lamb of God, by showing us Jesus riding on a donkey, coming to save His people. He is the King, but He is also meek, humble, riding on a lowly beast of burden. Like a lamb, He went to the slaughter—He did not fight back or defend Himself or punish His accusers. He yielded Himself to their hateful hands and He yielded Himself to His Father’s gracious will so that all might be saved. Advent begins with King Jesus coming on His donkey so that we would see His lowliness for our sake. This way He is not feared because of His majesty, but He is loved because of His gentleness. Advent teaches us that we have a kind and merciful Savior, not merely a strict and terrifying Judge.
At the same time, Advent is also waking us up to the fact that sin is dangerous, and that God’s anger is serious, and that Judgment Day is real. You know the time, says the apostle, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. Just as St. John the Baptist preached to the people: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand… Prepare the way of the Lord; (Matt. 3:2), so also Advent says to us, “It’s time to wake up. Don’t let sin rule over you. The kingdom of heaven is close. Christ’s Judgment is coming.” This message also gets rehearsed for us in the Communion Proper Preface for Advent: It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose way John the Baptist prepared, proclaiming Him the promised Messiah, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and calling sinners to repentance that they might escape from the wrath to be revealed when He comes again in glory.
One of the colors for Advent is violet—the color of repentance. Advent doesn’t look like the rest of the world at this time of year. It’s not supposed to. It’s supposed to feel as strange as St. John the Baptist dressed in camel hair, with locusts stuck in his teeth. Advent, with its violet and blue instead of the ubiquitous red and green, is supposed to be a vivid reminder that we are meant to set our minds on repentance: praying for deliverance from our perilous sins, and praying for salvation from the wrath of the Last Day.
But Advent also offers hope and directs us where to look for such hope. The upside of realizing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, is you also know that salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. If we are closer to Judgment Day and Jesus’ return, then we are also that much closer to our eternal salvation. This means Advent is also our John the Baptist by pointing us to the Lamb of God who comes to us right now. So we are taught how to prepare the way of the Lord: by repentance and faith.
So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light… put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Jesus does indeed rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins. So let us confess them, cast them off, and try not to gratify those desires. Instead, let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to us now in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Absolution, and in His Holy Supper. Let us meet our coming King in this His present Advent, here in His Church, where He forgives our sins and equips us with the armor of light so that we can stand and fight against temptation and overcome the danger.
We need Advent to prepare ourselves now, so that we may greet Christmas with true overflowing joy. Likewise, we need to prepare now with repentance and faith, so that when Christ comes again we may greet Him with true everlasting joy. If we make use of Advent and so are truly ready for Christmas, then we will also be truly ready for Christ’s final coming on the Last Day. For, after all, the true meaning of Christmas is that Jesus is our Savior who came to die and rose again—He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and He is coming back.
So, finally, notice who the Collect is praying to. Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come. Well, Jesus is the One who is coming. So it also ends: For You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Typically, the collects are prayed TO the Father THROUGH Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord. But we begin Advent by praying directly to our Lord Jesus who is coming again to save us, praying that He would come and be our Lord and Master. We pray that He would deliver us from our sin, rescue us from ourselves and our own evil desires, and that we would escape from the wrath to be revealed when He comes again in glory. This is why the crowds with their palm branches shouted out: Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna means, “Save us,” so Hosanna in the highest, literally means “Save us in heaven!” This is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer when we say Deliver us from evil. It means, Take us from this evil life of sin and sorrow. Take us to heaven. And asking this of Jesus means we are willing for Him to be that Lord over all our life.
But if you don’t want a Master, if you think you can be free to do what you want, then you will just have many tyrannical, evil masters, constantly on your back, especially the devil and your own sin. You will be like that ship that cannot be steered but only used and blown about by every evil foe. But if we are willing to be held and controlled by Jesus, then we will have only one Master—a Master who is good, and good for us. Having Jesus, the Lamb of God, as our Lord and Master means that we do also want Him as our powerful Master, our strong Captain. We know the threatening peril of our sin and we’ve had enough of it—we hate our sin. So then, we are praying to the Lord Jesus, not only that He would come to our hearts and minds at Christmas, not only that He would come in His Word and Sacrament throughout the year, but also that He would come and bring this sad world to its rightful end and rescue us by His mighty deliverance in all His powerful glory.
Come quickly + Lord Jesus. Amen.
Preached at Trinity, Clinton, IA, and Immanuel, Charlotte, IA
