First Sunday in Advent

Romans 13:8–14
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

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.