The Second Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Romans 15:4-13
In Christ Jesus, who has brought sinners all over the world into His holy body by cleansing them with His blood (Eph. 2:13), dear fellow redeemed:
In the Holy Gospel for today, Jesus describes what will happen in the world and in the universe before His return on the last day (Luke 21:25-36). Signs will be seen “in sun and moon and stars.” Nations will be distressed because of “the roaring of the sea and the waves,” referring to things like hurricanes, tidal waves, and floods. People will faint with fear and foreboding when they see what is happening.
And then Jesus will return in His glory. Most people will not be ready. Their focus was on other things. Their hope was anchored in the world. That day will come upon them “suddenly like a trap.” They will not escape His judgment. They will be condemned to eternal punishment in hell. You might wonder if you will avoid this fate. You might question if you are faithful enough to be gathered with God’s people in heaven.
Today’s reading from the Epistle to the Romans addresses these concerns. The apostle Paul writes by inspiration that we have something more sure to go by than our thoughts, our experiences, or even a feeling in our gut about where we stand with God. We have the Holy Scriptures. Specifically Paul is talking about the Old Testament, the record of events from the creation of the world to some four hundred years before the birth of Christ.
The Old Testament is far more than a collection of historical accounts, laws, and psalms, which are only useful for historians, lawyers, or musicians who like those sorts of things. Paul writes that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.” As we study the Scriptures, we learn endurance and find encouragement, because we see the trials that God brought His people through and the many examples of His goodness and blessings.
So through the Scriptures we also learn to have hope. We are not the first to have troubles. We are not the first to have worries and doubts. We are not the first to fall short of the glory of God in our sin. We are part of a long line of sinner-saints stretching back through time, back through the Reformation, back through the early Church, back through the apostles, back through the prophets, back through the patriarchs. This is a continuous, unbroken line, because our merciful God has preserved His Church through all of history.
The way He has preserved His Church is through His Scriptures. Both God and His Word are described as giving the same thing. The “God of endurance and encouragement” gives this endurance and encouragement through His Scriptures. The “God of hope” gives hope through His Scriptures. Everything good that God wants to give us, every blessing He has planned for us, comes to us through His Holy Word.
Paul emphasized this point in his epistle to the Christians in Rome by pointing them to God’s promise that salvation was not for the Israelites only but for all people. Those who were not part of God’s chosen people Israel were called the Gentiles. They belonged to the pagan nations around Israel who did not glorify God or listen to His Word. The Gentiles had no reason to hope for God’s mercy based on who they were or what they did or what they could offer to Him. They deserved His wrath for their many sins.
And yet God planned salvation for them. Paul referenced the Old Testament prophecies recorded by Moses in the 1400s B. C., by David around the year 1000 B. C., and by Isaiah in the 700s B. C. All those prophecies show that Gentiles would join the Israelites in praising the Lord. The Israelites who had the Scriptures must have had a hard time imagining this. “The wicked Gentiles whom we are supposed to stay away from will join us in glorifying the true God? How can this be?”
That question is answered by Isaiah’s prophecy: “The Root of Jesse will come, even He who arises to rule the Gentiles; in Him will the Gentiles hope” (Isa. 11:10). The Gentiles would hope in the “Root of Jesse.” Jesse was the father of King David. Long after the glory had departed from that family, after the last descendant of David sat on the crumbling throne of Jerusalem, a greater King would rise up. Isaiah prophesied that “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (11:1).
That King was Jesus, a blood descendant of David through His mother Mary (Luk. 3:23ff.), and a legal descendant of David through His guardian Joseph (Mat. 1:1ff.). Jesus’ family tree contained all manner of sinners—liars, murderers, adulterers, and even some Gentiles. This human line shows what kind of people He came to save—sinful people, guilty of all sorts of wrongdoing against God.
God in His love does not make a distinction between Jew and Gentile anymore. He does not see any one group of people as better than another, and neither should we. Men are not better than women, or women than men. Republicans are not better than Democrats, or Democrats than Republicans. Americans are not better than foreigners, or foreigners than Americans. Even Christians are not better than non-Christians in the sense of being less guilty of sin.
Romans 3 says, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (vv. 22-23). That should give us a great sympathy toward the people around us. They struggle with sin just like we do. They probably regret a lot of things just like we do. And Jesus died for their sins just as certainly as He died for ours. Who can be below me, unworthy of my love, if Jesus, who was perfect in every way, who never did any wrong toward anyone—if He humbled Himself to be nailed to a cross and die for all my sins?
That is our hope, a hope that is clearly spelled out for us in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. Jesus died for me. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for every sinner in human history. It is His sacrifice that brings together people of various nationalities, languages, and customs into one holy body, into His body the Church.
As members of one body, God wants us to glorify Him with one voice. Some Christians take this to mean that we need to set aside our doctrinal differences, and we need to compromise the Bible’s teaching for the sake of outward unity among Christians. This is the reason why many churches in our area will hold joint worship services. They believe and teach many different things in their own buildings, but they still think something can be gained by an outward show of unity. This is a false unity that we want nothing to do with.
Unity in the church is never to be looked for outside of the Scriptures, but in and through the Scriptures. God’s Word creates the only unity worth having, as the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ and Christ to us. Unity in the church is God’s work, not ours. Paul writes, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We see here that God grants harmony, and that this harmony will be built on Christ Jesus and grow through Him if it is true harmony.
So we don’t create this unity, but we certainly can destroy it. We destroy unity in the church when we put anything else before God’s Holy Word. Maybe it is our pride—we want things a certain way, and we insist that everything happen just the way we want it, or else there is going to be a big fight. Or maybe it is our passions—instead of resisting our sinful desires, we give in to them and give no thought to how our actions affect and hurt the whole body of Christ. Or maybe it is our prejudice—we think that we could never work with people who have this background, who look like this, or talk like that.
When we give in to our pride, our passions, our prejudice, or any other sins, we simultaneously give up all hope. Trusting in our own way always leads to hopelessness. But God in His mercy calls us out of our hopelessness and away from our sin. He leads us to repentance, to the humble acknowledgement that we have done wrong, and to the conviction that we don’t want to keep doing wrong.
Then the Holy Spirit through the Holy Word points us to Jesus. “That Root of Jesse came forth for you,” He says. “He came to be your King and bring you into His kingdom. He came to pay for all your sins and cover you in His holiness. You are not destined for the Father’s wrath and punishment. You have salvation by faith in His Son.”
That is the hope given to you and declared to you in both the Old and the New Testaments. It is the hope that gives “endurance and encouragement” as the world around us devolves into selfishness, hatred, and deceit. We Glorify God for His Gift of Hope. The hope we have in Jesus gives us joy in trying and troubling times, and it gives us peace in our distresses.
Jesus comes through His Holy Word to bring us this joy and peace and to strengthen our confidence that He will return on the last day. He will save us from the judgment that awaits those who reject Him. He will bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom. For this, we Gentiles praise and thank Him and extol His holy name, just as the Scriptures said we would.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture of stained glass from Jerico Lutheran Church)
(audio unavailable for this sermon)
The First Sunday in Advent – Vicar Lehne sermon
Text: St. Matthew 21:1-9
In Christ Jesus, who surpasses our expectations, dear fellow redeemed:
For children, one of the most torturous things in the world, if not the most torturous thing in the world, is waiting to open their presents on Christmas morning. They want to open them as soon as possible, but their parents always seem to find another reason to make them wait longer: the family has to go to church first; the entire family has to be gathered around the tree; dad has to find the camera so that he can take pictures. So, as the kids wait to open their presents, they pass the time by trying to figure out what’s inside them: they look at the size of their presents; pick them up to see how heavy they are; shake them to see if they can hear anything inside that could give them a clue. And sometimes, by the end of their investigation, they think they’ve found out what at least one of their presents is, and it’s something that they’ve wanted for a long time. So, when the time finally comes for them to open that present, they excitedly rip the paper off, open the box, and . . . it’s not what they thought it was after all.
Like children waiting to open their Christmas presents, the people of Israel built up their expectations for what the promised Messiah would be like when he eventually came. And, if kids think that it’s torturous to have to wait to open their presents for an hour or two at the most, the people of Israel had to wait thousands of years for the Messiah to arrive. As they waited, they looked at the prophecies in Scripture that spoke of his coming and interpreted them in an incorrect way. Since many of the prophecies described the coming Messiah as a mighty king who would save his people, the people of Israel looked at their current situation, being forced to live under Roman rule, and interpreted those prophecies to mean that the coming Messiah would be a mighty earthly king who would overthrow the Romans and give their nation back to them.
Because of the expectations that the people of Israel had, they probably expected the Messiah to come in majesty. But how did he come instead? He wasn’t born in a magnificent palace, but in a stable, with a manger, a feeding trough for animals, for his bed. Who were the first ones to behold him? Not kings, but lowly shepherds. Where did he grow up? Not in an important city like Jerusalem, but in the lowly town of Nazareth, a place that was looked down upon for being inferior in education and culture. Whom did he associate himself with? Not with mighty soldiers and the important religious leaders, but with lowly fishermen and those whom the religious leaders considered to be sinners.
But now, the Messiah, Jesus, had the perfect opportunity to finally present himself as the majestic king that he truly is. Jesus knew that this was the last Sunday before he would die an innocent death on the cross, and so, as he prepared to ride into Jerusalem for the last time, he could have done so on the back of a horse, wearing flowing purple robes and a glistening crown. But what did he ride in on instead? On a lowly donkey. And it wasn’t that there were no other animals available that he could have ridden on. Jesus specifically asked his disciples to bring a donkey and her colt to him, which he did to fulfill the prophecy that was spoken by the prophet Zechariah: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
Because of the humble way in which Jesus came on Palm Sunday, as well as the humility that he lived in throughout the rest of his earthly life, it was clear that he was not showing off his majesty in the way that the people of Israel expected the Messiah to. But they had not given up their hope just yet. Even though Jesus had not yet shown his power and might by confronting the Roman rulers, he showed his power and might through the countless miracles that he performed throughout his ministry. Surely, he intended to use this power to save them from the Romans. So, as he humbly rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the people of Israel praised him and shouted, “Hosanna,” which means, “Save us now!”
But then came Jesus’ ultimate humiliation. On Maundy Thursday, he was betrayed by Judas, one of his own disciples, and handed over to the Romans, who tortured and mocked him before ultimately putting him to death. Jesus did not shed the blood of the Romans; instead, his own blood was shed by them. He did not wear a glistening crown on his head; instead, he wore a crown of thorns. Where were those who were praising him on Palm Sunday now? At least some of them had turned on him and were the ones who were telling the Romans to put him to death. It had become plain to them that Jesus was not the Messiah that they were hoping for.
But little did the people of Israel know that, by his ultimate humiliation, his innocent suffering and death, Jesus gave them a far greater gift than salvation from the Romans. He gave them salvation from their sins. He may not have established a kingdom on earth for the people of Israel, which would have been only temporary, but, by the shedding of his innocent blood, he did open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to them, a kingdom that has no end. So long as the people of Israel believed in Jesus as their Savior, their promised Messiah, that eternal kingdom would be theirs. And many of them eventually did come to faith in him through the preaching of his Word.
But this gift is not just for the people of Israel. It’s also for the entire rest of world, including you. The torture and mocking that Jesus endured was for you. The sins that Jesus took on himself were your sins. The blood that Jesus shed on the cross was for you, so that the price of all of your sins was paid. He suffered the ultimate humiliation on the cross so that the gates of heaven would be opened to you. But how does Jesus bring this gift to you? He does so through humble means: the means of grace, his Word and Sacraments.
Instead of mighty angels descending from the heavens and declaring to the entire world that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that we are to put our faith in him and do as he has commanded us to do, God sends humble pastors out into all the world to preach his Word to them and teach them what God wants them to believe and do. Instead of putting us through a baptism by fire, in which we are put through a challenging trial that results in us proving our faith to him in the end, God gives us a baptism through water, in which he brings us to faith by the application of water and the speaking of his Word. Instead of preparing a magnificent feast for the entire world to eat that will satisfy all of their earthly hunger, God prepares a humble feast of bread and wine, in which, through the speaking of his Word, we feast on the true body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.
The world looks at the humble ways in which Jesus comes to us and thinks that they’re foolishness. If God really wanted us to believe in him, he would show greater displays of his power and might: he would end world hunger and poverty, making sure that everyone had enough money and food to satisfy their earthly needs; he would bring an end to all of the wars and violence in the world and usher in an era of world peace; he would guarantee that everyone gets to go to heaven by either wiping out all sin from the world or forgiving everyone of their sins, regardless of whether they are repentant of their sins and believe in him or not. The world expects God to behave in the way that they think he should behave, and, because he doesn’t, they don’t want to have anything to do with him and want him out of their lives.
Even we can have our own false expectations for how God should behave. We may not go as far as some of the people of this world do, but there are times when we may think that, if God is really as powerful as he says that he is, why doesn’t he give us the rain that we need in order to make our crops grow? Why doesn’t he put someone in control of the government who will actually fix our country’s problems? Why doesn’t he heal our loved ones who are suffering from pain and sickness? The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8 that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (verse 28). However, we are tempted to think that, if God was really working all things out for the good of those who love him, wouldn’t he only give us good things? What did any of us do to deserve the hard times that God puts us through?
We may think that we know what is best for us, but God says to us in Isaiah 55, “[M]y thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . . For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (verses 8–9). God alone knows what is best for us, and he gives that to us. He gives us what we need for our earthly lives, as well as for our spiritual lives. And while we are all too often focused solely on our earthly needs and desires, God knows that our spiritual needs are the most important things for us, so he makes them easily accessible to everyone by giving them to us through the means of his Word and Sacraments. As Jesus comes to us through these humble means to give us his grace, we join in singing the same words that the people of Israel sang as Jesus rode into Jerusalem to give them his grace, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Everything that Jesus did for us is far better than anything we could expect. Through his innocent death on the cross, he paid the price for all our sins. By his resurrection from the dead, he destroyed the power that death had over us. Jesus won the victory for us, and now, that victory is brought to us through the preaching of his Word and through the Sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The prize that awaits us is greater than anything we can comprehend, and that prize will be ours for all eternity. Jesus, our Messiah, may not have met our false expectations, but by coming to us in humility and giving us the eternal salvation that he won for us on the cross, Jesus surpasses our expectations.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Entry of Christ into Jerusalem” by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1320)
The Fourth Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 1:19-28
In Christ Jesus, who “comes to judge the nations, a terror to His foes,” but “a Light of consolations and blessed hope to those who love the Lord’s appearing” (ELH 94, v. 10), dear fellow redeemed:
I imagine you have a busy week ahead. There will be gifts to wrap and food to make. Maybe there is more decorating to do and cards or letters to send. This is a time of preparation, a time to get everything ready for the big day: Christmas. Perhaps you hope to recapture the feeling of the season from when you were a child, or you want your children or grandchildren to have that feeling now. This is a special time. You want everything to be just right.
Advent is a time of preparation, but the focus is not especially on external things, what is happening around us. The focus is internal, what is happening inside us. The problem with internal things is that they are more difficult to control. I can spend hours wrapping gifts and make them just the way I want them. I can clean my house from top to bottom. I can put everything in its place around me and make it look like I have every detail covered. I can do all these things while being torn up inside by sadness, by pain, by guilt.
That might be where you are right now. That is why Jesus comes to you today. He comes to meet you in your struggle and lift your burdens from you. He comes to bring you forgiveness and hope, comfort and strength. He comes to assure you that you have a merciful Father who loves you and cares for you, and that in His Father’s house are many mansions where He has prepared a place for you (Joh. 14:2).
These are the things that Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, came down to earth to do. John was sent to prepare the people for His coming. He was the “voice” prophesied more than 700 years earlier by Isaiah, the voice who would cry out, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain” (Isa. 40:3-4). How exactly was that highway making—that raising of valleys and lowering of mountains—supposed to come about?
The evangelist Luke writes that John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3:3). And John didn’t hold back in his Law preaching. “You brood of vipers!” he said to the crowd. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (3:7-8). Repentance was the way the people were to prepare for Christ’s coming. It was the way for their hearts and minds to become open to His gracious teaching.
And that is still the way we prepare for Christ’s coming: we repent of our sins. We repent of our valleys of doubt and despair, and we repent of our mountains of pride. But we wouldn’t know this was even necessary if God did not give us His Law. His Law is both written on our hearts and recorded for us in the Bible. There is no question what God’s will is for our lives. There is also no question that we have failed to live up to His Law—failed completely.
But the error we often fall into is measuring our holiness not against God’s Commandments, but against the lives of other sinners. And we can always find others who appear to be more sinful than we are. This is a trick of the devil to get us to think that we are not that bad, that our lives are pretty well in order. But if that were true, then why did Jesus come? Did He come to hang out with the righteous people, or to save sinners? Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luk. 5:31-32).
The holy Law of God shows us how sick we are. It shows us how bumpy our road was in the past when we disobeyed God’s commands and how bumpy it will be in the future if we give in to our sinful desires. And through the Law, the Holy Spirit works repentance in our hearts today. He moves us to contrition, to remorsefulness and sorrow, for the wrongs we have done—for the sins we have tried to hide and the sins we have committed right out in the open.
But repentance is not just about admitting sin. It is about avoiding the same temptations going forward. It is about not giving the devil an inch, because he will take a mile and usually a lot more. What good is repentance if you have no desire to stop sinning and do better? John said to the crowd, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” Show in your life how sorry you are for your sin and how you want to live for the God who made you and provides for you.
The people must have trembled when they heard John preach. He was great and powerful in their eyes. They trembled even more when he told them One was coming after him, “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” “I baptize you with water,” said John. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Luk. 3:16,17). In other words, “Don’t ignore my warning. Don’t let this fall on deaf ears. A far more powerful One than me is coming.”
John was a serious preacher, but it was not all gloom and doom. The baptism he administered was given for spiritual comfort. God’s Law was doing its work. The people were sorry for their sins. Now they stepped forward to the Jordan River desiring to receive God’s forgiveness. They believed what John said. They did not want to be caught unprepared when the Christ came. They sincerely wanted to “make straight the way of the Lord.”
But would the way be straight enough for Him? Would He be pleased with what He saw in them? Would they be worthy enough, welcoming enough? Those would have been natural questions to ask, but they were the wrong ones. We get sidetracked in the same way. We want to live our lives for the Lord, but then we focus more on our living than on the Lord. We focus more on our work than on His work.
But it is His work that saves. No matter how well or how much you prepare for Jesus’ coming to you now, it is not enough. You have fallen short of the glory of God. That is why God sent His only-begotten Son. Jesus came to perfectly do for you what you could not do. He had no need to repent, because He was sinless. He could measure His holiness against the Law of God, and it did not condemn Him. Those valleys of doubt and despair, those mountains of pride, could not be found in Jesus. He kept God’s holy Law for you down to the smallest detail.
And He put all your Law-breaking, all your sin, on His shoulders and invited God’s wrath on Himself to spare you from eternal punishment in hell. That is where the Lord’s greatness is most clearly seen—in His suffering on the cross. That is where His glory is found, hidden beneath a crown of thorns and behind all that anguish and shame.
You have a Savior who knows sadness. Isaiah described Him as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:5). You have a Savior who knows pain, who knows guilt, because He took all of yours on Himself. Isaiah says again, “[H]e was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (v. 5). This is the peace the incarnate Son of God came to bring, the “peace on earth” that the multitude of angels sang about the night of His birth.
It is the peace He wants you to have in this busy season no matter what troubles you, grieves you, or weighs you down right now. Jesus came for your sake. He came to save you. He came to redeem your soul by shedding His holy blood and remove your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psa. 103:12).
His forgiveness of our sins is why we don’t view repentance as a chore. Repentance is a gift worked in us by the Holy Spirit which prepares us to receive God’s greater gifts—the gifts of His righteousness, peace, and life. He gives these blessings to us now and assures us that we will have them forever in heaven.
So by the power of the Holy Spirit, we “Make Straight the Way of the Lord” today. We push away all doubt. We set aside all pride. We hand over to God everything that has caused anguish and pain to ourselves and to others. And our merciful Lord says, “I forgive you all your sins. I made payment for them long ago by My precious blood. All that I won for you, all that I have, I poured over you at your Baptism. There, I made you My own.”
Your Baptism into Christ means that even though you may feel empty at times, you are not empty. And even though you may feel alone, you are not alone. The Christ, your Savior, has come, and He still comes with gracious tidings of comfort and joy for you.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “The Preaching of St. John the Baptist” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1565)
The Third Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 11:2-10
In Christ Jesus, who shares His righteousness, honor, and glory with us, not because of our own worthiness, but because of His great mercy and grace toward us, dear fellow redeemed:
You probably haven’t heard the name “Pheidippides” before, but I think you know his story. He was a resident of Athens when Greece was beginning to develop a democratic form of government. The Persian Empire viewed Greece’s move toward independence as a threat, and a Persian fleet was sent to attack the city of Athens. The Persians landed on the coast of Greece at a place called Marathon. Seeing that the Athenian army was on better ground for fighting, the Persian commander divided his force and sent part of it by sea toward Athens which had been left unguarded. The Athenians, realizing that time was running out, attacked the Persian army and routed it.
To let the people of Athens know that help was on the way, a messenger named Pheidippides was sent off. He ran as fast as he could, covering a distance of about twenty-five miles before the Persian fleet arrived in Athens. With his last breath, he declared “victory!” and died. His message saved the people of Athens, and his heroic effort is remembered by the 26.2 mile marathon races held all over the world each year.
There are many examples like this of a messenger becoming famous for the message he brought. Paul Revere with his “midnight ride” comes to mind. He hurried around warning the revolutionaries that the British were coming. We remember him because of his message. And this is also why we remember John the Baptist.
John’s purpose was set for him before he even existed. The angel Gabriel told his father Zechariah that he and his elderly wife would have a son whom they were to name John. John would be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” He would “turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” and would “make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luk. 1:13,16,17). When he was about thirty years old, John went preaching in the wilderness of Judea. His message was this, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat. 3:2).
The crowds started to gather around this bold preacher. He didn’t talk like the teachers of the Law. He didn’t care whose feathers he ruffled. He didn’t appear to have any angles; he wasn’t doing this for himself. The people knew he was special—a prophet sent by God. Some even wondered if he might be the Messiah. John shut off all speculation. “I am a voice,” he said. “I am only a messenger. Don’t look to me—listen to me!”
This is what made John so great. He deflected all attention from himself to the Savior. And this is what Jesus wanted the people to understand about John. He asked them what they went out into the wilderness to see. Did they go to see “a reed shaken by the wind,” one who spoke an uncertain and weak message? Obviously not, since everyone knew how boldly and fiercely John preached. Did they expect to find “a man dressed in soft clothing”? Not at all. John was no “pretty boy.” He wore clothes made out of rough camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. Hardly dressed to impress.
So did they go to see a prophet? “Yes,” said Jesus, “and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’” John was the watchman crying out that the Bridegroom has come. He was the herald announcing the coming of the King. He was important not because of his own abilities or his own credentials. He was important because of who came after Him.
It is offensive when someone acts like a “big deal,” not because he has done anything significant, but because he is related to or tied to someone significant. The spoiled children of a rich person might behave like this or the relatives of someone who is famous. John was actually famous in his own right, but he knew his place. He knew that the One who followed Him, whose message he proclaimed, was far greater. John said, “I’m not even worthy to untie His sandals” (Luk. 3:16).
This is the understanding that all of us should have about our connection to Jesus. We do not give Him something He lacks; He gives us everything that we lack. We do not make a name for ourselves; He gives His name and all His accomplishments to us. We do not deserve honor and glory for our successes; He deserves the glory. We do not tell Him what to do; He tells us.
In the kingdom of God, everything is turned upside down: greatness is found in humility; strength is found in weakness; victory is found in defeat. The unbelieving world and our sinful nature along with it, rebel at these things. We want to be great because of what we do. We want to stand on our own two feet. We want to win. We want others to bow down to us, to recognize how gifted we are.
And sometimes we even act this way toward God. We get mad at Him when things don’t go the way we want them to, as though our plans are better than His. Or we forget about Him when things go well for us, imagining that we have only ourselves to thank for our success. We complain about what we don’t have, instead of thanking Him for what we do have. We think we deserve to have more, when our heavenly Father has already given us the kingdom by faith in His Son (Luk. 12:32).
And what does the Lord do about us prideful, self-centered beings? How does He respond to our impatience and complaining? What we deserve is for every good thing we have—which God has given to us—to be taken away. We deserve to have all honor, all goodness, all joy stripped away from us. But that is not what Jesus does.
Instead He puts Himself at our service. He comes to meet us in our weakness, our failure, our sin. He brings us forgiveness for thinking that everything revolves around us. He cleanses our hearts and minds of all our pride, all our thinking that our ways are the best, that we need nothing more than ourselves.
This is why God took on flesh, to save us sinners. This is what He made clear to the disciples of John, that He was here to heal, cleanse, give life, and preach good news. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Joh. 3:17). Jesus came to take up your sins and your sorrows and carry them to the cross where atonement was made. And He still comes through the means of grace to apply His saving work to you.
This is what you have come today to hear. This is what I have been called to preach. I have nothing to give you of my own, at least nothing that can benefit your soul. What I proclaim to you is not mine, but His who sent me. Every faithful preacher is like John, a messenger pointing to Jesus. Today’s Epistle lesson speaks about the work of preachers: “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1Co. 4:1).
I am not your boss. I am not your lord. I am a servant of God and a steward who proclaims His Word and administers His Sacraments. I am not above you; I join you in receiving the rich gifts of our Savior. Each one of us is a beggar with empty hands, which Jesus fills with His perfect works, His totally sufficient life of holiness.
This is the clear message of God’s Word, and it is why we rejoice today. The rose-colored candle and bulletin, and in some churches the rose-colored cloth on the altar and pulpit, remind us that the season of Advent is not all repentance. It is also a rejoicing at what Jesus came to do and what He fully accomplished. His work shows undeniably that you matter to God. You might not feel like you matter much in the world, but the world’s glory is only temporary, and it is never enough.
You matter to God because He says so. His incarnate Son died to take away your sins. He rose from the dead to destroy the grip that death had on you. He chose you to be His own and adopted you in the waters of Baptism. And He still meets you to impart His eternal blessings to you, even feeding you with His holy body and blood.
This is the message of God. It is the message that comforts you, strengthens you, gives you hope. It is the message that assures you of your value to God. It is the message “for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Act. 2:39). God does this calling through each one of us. He puts people in our lives who are hurting, lost, confused, and He calls us to share with them the hope we have. We don’t have to say everything perfectly. We don’t have to practice the exact words to use. We simply tell them who we are in Christ. We tell them what He has done for us. We tell them that on our own we are nothing, but in Him we have everything.
And if we enjoy a good reputation in our communities, if anyone speaks well of us and wants to give us credit for the good things we accomplish, we can do what John did. We point to Jesus. We are just the messengers. It is the message that matters most. Jesus is the Source; He is the Savior. With John we point to Him and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29).
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Witness of John the Baptist” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1972)
The Second Sunday in Advent – Vicar Cody Anderson sermon
Text: St. Luke 21:25-36
In Christ Jesus, who says this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away, dear fellow redeemed:
We are at that point in time where my wife says, this is the most wonderful time of the year! Just me saying that and you can already hear the music in your head. We do always look forward to the holiday seasons. We are planning what we are going to make for food, what we are going to buy for gifts. It is great to look ahead for the holidays. Since we gauge things in time, there are other things on the calendar we look ahead towards. We look ahead to birthdays, anniversaries, vacation and the list goes on. With ourselves trained to look ahead for certain dates that are ahead, Scripture reminds us that there is a more important date that is coming up. It is a date that we are supposed to look forward to, we are supposed to expect it, yet we tend to forget about it. As we get excited to remember and celebrate Christ’s first coming, we should not forget about what Christ says about his second coming.
Jesus speaks very clearly about what is going to happen. Jesus says, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” If that sounds very serious, then look around, these signs are happening. What Jesus says is happening. His kingdom is coming. The earth is only our temporary home. It will pass away. Now we could look at what is happening in the world and we could freak out. It seems like a lot of people are doing that already. Or we can listen to what Jesus says when it comes to the end of the world and prepare for His coming.
As the end draws near, God calls us to repent. Paul writes, that [God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:4) This happens with a contrite heart. We repent of our sins. Our sins are very serious and they have eternal consequences. The world doesn’t like that at all. Who likes to be told that they have done something wrong? For the world this is very despairing, so they try to stop and ignore the signs. They will try to save the dying world’s health. They will look for a worldly peace among the nations by treaties. They will try to control the climate. They will also see these signs and instead of prepare, they will be like in the days of Noah and act like nothing is happening. That Jesus second coming should just be ignored. Why should the world care about the signs that Jesus tells us when they can find something as great as their own self-worth. Now we see the outcome of the world rejecting the teachings of Christ. Jesus is telling us the truth, repent for the kingdom of God is coming, the world will end.
Unfortunately, Satan is crafty and he has a way of getting us to fall into the traps and worries of the world. Jesus tries to warn us. He says, “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Due to our own stubbornness, we also fall into the traps ourselves. We see the problems of this life and we see how they affect us and we begin to worry. What will happen when the famine, pestilence, and wars hit close to home? So, we put our confidence in the powerful people of the world. Or we try to find help and comfort in worldly things that cannot save us. The temptations of the world will not go away quietly, the world shows us how noisy it is. It wants us to tune out the signs and the promises that Jesus has given us. It wants to distract us from what really matters and get us to focus on what is passing away.
It is so interesting that we look forward to so many dates and special occasions yet we lose focus on what Christ tells us. Talking about the end is coming directly from our Savior yet it is the hardest even for us to hear at times. We don’t like to hear when we are wrong. We don’t want to be corrected of our sins. If we stay in our sins, then we will be condemned with the rest of the world. Our hearts can harden, and if we die in unbelief or if we are without faith when Jesus returns, then we will join the devil and his demons in hell. The world is not prepared for Christ’s return, but we need to be. When we forget about repentance, then we have succumbed to the world and we end up not being vigilant. When we are weighed down by our own cares and anxieties, then we forget about the comfort in Jesus second coming.
As we get ready to celebrate and rejoice in the first coming of Christ, we also look forward to what is to come because Christ will come again in glory to take us to our heavenly home for all eternity! This terrible evil world will come to an end and we won’t have to stay in it. Because of Christ life and death on the cross, we don’t have to suffer the pains of hell. He will call us to our eternal home.
Advent is the season for looking ahead. We see how Christ came humbly into the world, yet we “will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” We needed him to come the first time because we needed a Savior from our sins. Jesus redeemed us from our sins of worrying. He takes away our sins that have distracted us from His coming. He gives us comfort that his Word will never pass away. This is the message of the Gospel, what Christ has done for us. When we fail and get worried about our future, Jesus gives us comfort that He has not left us and that He is coming soon.
Christians also look ahead to when Christ comes to us in the Means of Grace. This is Christ giving you the assurance that He is trustworthy. He is truth. Every week we hear the Word preached, the blessing of the Gospel of Christ in his Word. There is so much comfort in the Word of God. It tells you how Jesus redeemed you. You are a sinner who could not save yourself, and the Son of God took on flesh to sacrifice Himself for you. He died in your place, so that your sin and death would be overcome forever. He gives you these blessings of His redemption in the mysteries of Holy Communion. You look forward to this sacrament because here is the true body and blood of our Savior given to you for the forgiveness of your sins. This is the assurance that you have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation because of what Christ has done for you.
Verse 27 again says, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” This is a glory that you will not have to fear. You can rest assured that when Christ comes on the last day you will rejoice in his return. There will be no pain or suffering. All of the trials and temptations of this world will be gone. Your tears will be gone. Your bodies will be glorified where Christ is the light of the world. This is the comfort that you have in His message. Jesus is telling you that believers will not have to worry. This is your eternal reward. Jesus’ kingdom will have no end.
Looking forward to Christ’s second coming, Jesus tells you how to prepare. “But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Here Jesus gives you the tools to be ready. You pray to him for the strength you need because you can’t stand on our own. Your strength to endure through this life comes from Christ, in what He did in his first coming. Living a perfect life, dying, rising from the dead, redeeming you.
Now our calendars can tend to be full at times and I know that everyone has been starting to fill in next year’s already. Christ keeps the real focus on him. That is where our focus needs to be. He wants us prepared for His second coming because we don’t know when it will come. When we get lost in time, we forget the date entirely. Christ keeps us sure of what is to come. Though life will get difficult, Christ is our comfort because of what he has done. Because of Jesus first coming, we can rejoice when the second coming is here. The world will try to distract us from Christ. It will try to convince us that His Words have no meaning. Jesus however says in verse 32, Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from Jerico Lutheran Church stained glass)
The First Sunday in Advent – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 21:1-9
In Christ Jesus, who “comes [to you] with gladness, / Moved by His love alone, / To calm your fear and sadness, / To Him they well are known” (ELH 94, v. 7), dear fellow redeemed:
My wife and I have been working our way through a book about Abraham Lincoln’s thirteen day train ride to Washington D. C., where he would take the oath of office. While Lincoln made his way there, the united states were coming apart at the seams. Some states in the south had already seceded and had elected a new president for themselves. The federal government was floundering. Credible intel suggested multiple assassination plots to keep Lincoln from ever getting to Washington. It was an anxious trip.
At every stop along the way on a carefully designed route through the northern states, Lincoln was met by large crowds of people wanting to catch a glimpse of this iconic man. Whenever he stepped off the train, they surged forward trying to get as close as they could and maybe even shake his hand. They hung on every word he spoke. As humble as his upbringing was and as down-to-earth as he conducted himself, they treated him like a celebrity—maybe even like a king.
If you had been there in that tumultuous time, and you met Lincoln at one of his train stops, what would you have done? What might you have said to him? To this point, Lincoln hadn’t done much more than talk. Was he really up for the task of leading a country that was on its way to civil war? Was he truly the man for this moment? There were many hopes, but also many questions.
The coming of Jesus to Jerusalem was met with just as much excitement and just as many questions. The people knew Jesus was special. They had seen Him perform many miracles, including the raising of Lazarus from the dead not far from Jerusalem. They also knew that the Jewish religious leaders despised Jesus and wanted Him silenced. No doubt the Roman authorities were aware of these things, and they were anxious to maintain the peace and avoid an uprising, especially now that the city was jammed full of people attending the annual Passover celebration.
If you had been in Jerusalem at the beginning of that festival week, and Jesus came riding down toward you from the Mount of Olives, what would you have done? What might you have said? We know what the Israelites did. They removed their outer garments and cut branches from nearby trees, and they laid them on the ground in front of Him. They wanted to create a soft carpet for Jesus’ arrival. They wanted Him to know He was most welcome.
But while the donkey’s hooves may have fallen quietly on the path, the crowd was anything but quiet. The people who went before Him and those who followed Him were shouting and singing the words of an old song, perhaps as much as 1,000 years old. “Hosanna!” they cried, which means, “Save us, we pray!” “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
They were shouting the words of Psalm 118, a messianic song of victory. They believed the coming of Jesus was the fulfillment of these words. They welcomed Him as a king, “the Son of David.” Just what sort of king He would be was not clear to them, but they almost certainly had nationalist notions in mind. Jesus could lead them into a new era of earthly glory and prosperity, free from the rule of outsiders, like the rule of the great king David!
But Jesus was not that sort of king. By the end of the week, He stood before Pilate and said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (Joh. 18:36). His kingdom was heavenly. He was looking to gain eternal souls, not earthly subjects. He would win them in a most surprising way. It would not be done by political deal-making, alliance building, or a superior show of strength. Jesus secured freedom for the captives by suffering. He brought them life by dying. He won everything for them by appearing to lose it all.
Jesus came to do what the people were crying out for, “Hosanna! Save us, we pray!” But it wasn’t salvation from corrupt religious leaders or pagan overlords. He saved them from their sin and death. It is rare and perhaps even impossible for an earthly leader to do something that benefits everyone. But what Jesus accomplished was for everyone. He suffered and died for everybody’s sins. He made no distinctions, played no favorites. Jesus was there on the cross for all sinners.
That means He was there for you. When Jesus received His crown of thorns and was pinned to that gruesome instrument of death, you didn’t exist. You wouldn’t exist for nearly 2,000 years! But God the Father saw the wrongs you would do and the good you would leave undone as clear as day. All sin was before Him, and He placed all of it on His holy Son. All your pride when things went your way, and all your impatience when things didn’t. All your bad decisions, your unfaithfulness, your brokenness. All of it was piled on Jesus, who suffered as though all of it was His doing, as though all of it was His sin.
Suppose you were employed somewhere, and you decided that you would do whatever you felt like doing. You broke the rules. You broke merchandise. You took whatever you wanted. When the losses couldn’t be ignored, the boss called everyone together. Now things were getting serious. How would you lie your way out of this one? But you didn’t have to. Even though the evidence strongly pointed to you, your innocent co-worker was accused instead. He was the one to be fired—not you. And he didn’t even open his mouth. He knew the truth, and he willingly took the punishment—took the punishment for you.
Knowing what your sin did to Jesus, knowing what He suffered in your place, what would you do if He met you here? What might you say? Part of you would want to try to justify yourself and pass the blame for your sins on to others. You were just a victim of unfortunate circumstances. Or maybe you would even have some criticisms of Him, that if He were a king more attuned to your daily needs and more aware of your troubles, you would not have struggled along like you had.
That would be no way to greet your King. But He would stand there patiently, looking right at you, a mixture of love and compassion and truth in His eyes. Then slowly He would lift His hands and turn them open to show two marks—marks from the nails. Those marks speak a message of perfect love, perfect sacrifice, perfect forgiveness, a message that can be boiled down to two words, “For you.”
Nothing more needs to be said. Nothing more needs to be done. Jesus died for you. He rose from the dead in victory for you. And He still lives for you. “I am with you always,” He says (Mat. 28:20). He does meet you here. He comes humbly, hidden in simple words, simple water, simple bread and wine. He comes through these lowly means to transfer all the wealth of His kingdom to you. He gives you His forgiveness, His righteousness, His life.
And when He comes in each Divine Service, you greet Him like the Israelites did outside Jerusalem. As the Israelites laid their garments at His feet, so you put off your old Adam in repentance and lay your sins before Him. That is how the Divine Service begins, with repentance. You tell the truth about yourself and put yourself at His mercy. And immediately you hear His words of absolution, the free forgiveness of all your sins.
As the Israelites also decorated the road with palm branches, so you sprinkle the path of your coming King with praises. You join the angels in their Christmas song, “Glory be to God in the highest. And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” And as the Israelites repeated what they had learned about Jesus in the Holy Scriptures, so you listen to the Scripture readings and sermon and confess the truth about your King in the Creeds, acknowledging Him as the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.
Then in the service of Holy Communion, you even take up the Israelites’ hosanna song. Just before Jesus joins His body and blood to the bread and wine, you sing, “Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Then you hear Jesus’ invitation, “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you…. Drink of it all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.”
The entire Divine Service is a review of what Jesus did to save you and what He still does to keep you in His kingdom. Your King is not ashamed to count you among His followers. He is happy to meet you and dispense His riches to you. He does not ask anything from you except that you trust what He tells you. And even this faith comes to you as a gift from Him.
He is not a king who forces His subjects to be devoted to Him and praise Him. He doesn’t have to force us. When we see all that He has done for us, we cannot help but give Him thanks and praise and desire to live our life in His service. None of it is good enough for Him, and He accepts all of it with gladness.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Entry of Christ into Jerusalem” by Pietro Lorenzetti, 1320)