Sermon for Second Sunday in Advent - Populus Zion

                                                                                    Advent 2

                                                                                    Mal 4:1-6

                                                                                    12/7/14

            There is probably no place on earth where you can choose to live that does not have the possibility of a natural disaster.  Tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wildfires – you aren’t going to be able to escape the possibility of at least one of them.  And if there is a place that fits this description, my guess is that it is not somewhere anybody wants to live.

            So, as I live in Marion, IL I know that I am right next to the New Madrid fault and that I live in area that regularly experiences tornadoes.  But I still think this is a little different than choosing to live on the side of a volcano that has been active since 1983 – a volcano that regularly pours forth lava.

            During November news reports told about the plight of the Pahoa village on the slope of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii.  Since June 27 a lava flow had been moving towards the village. This is a 2000 degree wall of molten rock that is basically unstoppable. It incinerates everything in its path – it is a moving wall of fiery destruction.  Naturally the village was evacuated when the threat appeared, and so no one has been hurt.  But on November 11 it reached the first house of the village and set it ablaze.  It turned it into ashes.

            The Kilauea lava flow provides an illustration from the present day that helps to capture the sense of what our Old Testament lesson says about the Last Day.  The prophet Malachi writes, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”  It is a frightening scene and certainly does not fit with the Christmas season – after all, nothing says, “Merry Christmas!” like burning furnace. But as we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus Christ, our text helps us to keep our eyes fixed on the final outcome of our Lord’s work.

            The prophet Malachi wrote during the fifth century B.C.  – so think, ballpark, four hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus Christ.  It was for many in Judah, a time of disappointment.  In 538 BC the decree by the Persian king Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return from exile in Babylonia. 

Encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt and dedicated around 516 BC. When the foundation for it was laid, those who remembered Solomon’s temple wept because the new one was far less grand – you build what you can afford.

            The temple had been rebuilt just as Haggai and Zechariah had directed. And then … nothing happened.  Judah continued on as a province of the Persian empire.  The people tried to get by as they resumed life in a land from which they had been absent for seventy years.

            It was discouraging.  Where was Yahweh?  Why wasn’t he doing something?  People began to complain.  They said there was no point in being faithful. Their actions began to reflect this view.  They committed adultery.  They lied.  They oppressed and abused the helpless – the hired worker, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner living in the land.  And they stopped bringing a full tithe to the Lord – they stopped bringing their offering to God.

            God noticed – he always does.  In chapter two he said, “You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ By saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.’ Or by asking, ‘Where is the God of justice?’”  And then just before our text God said, “Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”

            There are times when we feel this way.  It doesn’t take long to recognize that being faithful to God brings difficulties to life.  Saying what is true; acting in ways that are different from the world; serving others instead of yourself – these are all more difficult. They are the narrow way Jesus described, not the broad and easy way.

            And let’s face it.  It’s easier to keep as much money as you can. It can be hard to give an offering that reflects the blessings God has given to you. But God’s says it’s not yours.  It’s his.  That’s exactly what he said to Judah.  Just before our text Yahweh says, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.”  And then God challenged the people by saying, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

            Those who feared God’s name listened.  They spoke with one another about it.  And in the verses right before the start of our text Malachi tells us, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.’”

            Those who feared God were written in his book of remembrance.  They were his treasured possession.  And this was important, because God was going to act with a finality that would sweep away all the complaints.  Malachi writes, “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”

            This day of the Lord would be a day of judgment and destruction for those who rejected God.  Yet the prophet went on to say that it would be one of healing and joy for God’s people. He wrote, “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.”

            When was this going to happen?  Yahweh gave one sign as he said, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”  God had already said in the previous chapter: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.”

            God said he would do it. And he did.  In the first century A.D. God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way.  He prepared the way because God was doing something we would never expect.  At Christmas we will rejoice in the fact that God himself entered into our world.  Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh – that’s why the New Testament calls him “Lord,” the word used to translate Yahweh in the Greek Old Testament. And he did awesome things.  He stilled storms. He healed diseases.  He cast out demons.  He raised the dead. He did things, as we will hear next Sunday, that Jews expected to occur in the last days.  He did it because he was the beginning of the Last Day.

            The Lord did come suddenly to his temple.  He did it one final time during Holy Week.  And then, the day of the Lord came – the day of judgment.  It came as Jesus Christ hung on the cross and bore your sins – all of that stuff we talked about earlier – and God damned him in your place. Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for you.

            But if that was all there is to it, Jesus would be like the stubble consumed by the furnace in our text. He would be like the land scoured by fire of every root and branch.  Yet, thanks to be God there is more! So much more!  For on the third day he rose from the dead.  The day of the Lord arrived when God the Father raised Jesus through the work of the Spirit and began the resurrection of the Last Day. 

            That’s right – the event described in our text has already started.  Judgment has been exacted against your sin. Resurrection life has already begun in Jesus the second Adam. And because of this, you are different.  Through the work of the same Spirit who raised Jesus you have been given new life in the waters of Holy Baptism.  Because of baptism you are God’s treasured possession, a royal priesthood.

            Yes, you still see the sin, suffering and hardships of this world.  But Christ’s Spirit now supports you through the Means of Grace so that you can continue through life as those who fear God’s name – as those who believe and trust in God.

            You do this now as people who have hope, because you know how it ends.  You know that the end has already started.  God sent his Elijah.  The Lord came to his temple.  These things that Malachi speaks about have happened. And something else has happened – Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  His resurrection is the exclamation point that leaves no doubt that the final day of the Lord is coming.

            So take comfort.  Be encouraged.  The day of the Lord has already started.  And the consummation of the day of the Lord is coming.  In our text it’s like Malachi can’t drive home the point enough.  In the Hebrew he begins one line by saying “behold the day is coming” and he starts the very next line by talking about “the coming day.” 

            It is coming and it will bring vindication for God’s people.  It’s a stark image, but that’s what Malachi means when he says, “And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.”

            But for God’s people – for you who have become his treasured possession through the water of baptism there will be no fire.  There will be only the warming rays of the sun of righteousness which rises with healing in its wings as you rejoice in God’s presence forever.

                   

           

           

                                     

  

           

             

           

                                                                                                                       

First mid-week Advent sermon

                                                                                                Mid-Advent 1

                                                                                                Ps. 2

                                                                                                12/3/14

            As Christians, we live in challenging times – times that easily cause concern and worry.  The world has changed, and not for the better.

            Now these changes don’t occur at the same pace everywhere. I was reminded of this last week when I was in my hometown of Bloomington, IN for Thanksgiving.  My family and I went downtown on Friday night for the annual lighting of the lights.  As usual, a large crowd had gathered and as we waited for the festivities to start, a brass band was playing Christmas songs.  They were seated on a portable stage that the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department owns. Suspended behind the brass band was a banner that said in red and white: “Happy Holidays.”  As I looked at the banner, I leaned over to my dad referenced the banner and said, “Well I can tell I am back in Bloomington.”

            Now if you go downtown here in Marion at the square, you will find a very large and prominent nativity scene.  You will never find anything like that in Bloomington on public property.  Bloomington is home to Indiana University, and so in general the town is guided by the secular and politically correct ethos that dominates academia. There is no “Merry Christmas” to be found there in official settings.

            The imposition of a worldview that contradicts God’s Word has not made uniform progress everywhere – but it is advancing.  The “gospel” of tolerance and acceptance is thrust upon us all the time through the media and entertainment.  You know what it looks like as it champions the free use of sex in almost every possible way that breaks the Sixth Commandment. We are told that not even biology can limit your options, as you are free to decide what “gender” you are.  And of course this is not some discussion about an abstract problem, since our own state of Illinois has declared that marriage includes the union of two people who are the same sex.  We know that this is just one more step as the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender movement seeks to advance its agenda. This is an agenda that intends to destroy any worldview that opposes it, and will gladly use the courts and the coercive power of the government to do so.

            The world we live in now was almost unimaginable when I was Timothy’s age.  It can be frightening to think of what it will be like when he is my age.  However, fear is not faith.  It is the reaction of those who do not trust God.  Where we perceive worry and fear in ourselves, we need to confess this as the sin that it is.

            And we need to listen to our text tonight – Psalm 2. There the psalmist writes, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’”

            Yes, the nations do rage and plot against Yahweh and against his anointed One – his Christ.  But our text tells us that is all in vain.  In fact, God laughs at them.  He thinks they are pathetically funny.  Our text says, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”

            Instead, God directs them to his King, his Christ.  Our text says, “Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.’”

            Then in Psalm 2 we hear from the Christ.  Inspired by the Holy Spirit the psalmist writes: “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.’”

            The description of the anointed One, the Christ, as “God’s son” recalls what God said to King David when he promised, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.”  It is this verse that we have on the banner behind me because in this promise God identified a descendant of David as the One who would fulfill his promises about salvation. 

            During Advent we are, of course, preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ in Bethlehem the city of David.  He is the One who fulfills God’s Word – both the words spoken to David and the words of Psalm 2.  He is God’s Son – not a son in an adopted sense like the nation of Israel and the Davidic king.  Instead, he is true God, begotten of his Father from all eternity.

            We prepare to celebrate the birth of this Son, true God and true man. Yet what we find is enough to make us wonder about God’s plan. The psalmist writes, “You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”  This is language of might and power.  Yet what we will find on Christmas Eve is a tiny and helpless baby in a feeding trough.

            If we are inclined to explain this away by saying,

“Well everyone starts out as a baby,” consider this: The words “This is my beloved Son” will be spoken as he submits to a baptism of repentance – as he identifies himself with helpless sinners.  It will be spoken again as he is transfigured in glory – now we are getting on track!  Yet this event itself takes place immediately after thie Christ has predicted his passion and death.

            During Advent we prepare to celebrate the birth of the One who comes in humility and service.  In fact he is anointed by the Spirit at his baptism and there is identified not just as the Christ, but also as the suffering Servant. He will submit to a baptism of repentance in order take our place - in order to take on our sins.  He bears our sins of worry and fear because he the Son trusts the Father completely.  He goes as the sacrifice for sin in order to give us forgiveness.  And so the One lying in the manger on Christmas Eve will hang on the cross on Good Friday.

            It is only after three days – on the third day – that we will begin to understand what happened.  It is only when Jesus the Christ is raised from the dead that we understand him to be the One in whom God has given us salvation and answered a great “Yes!” to all of his promises.   As Paul proclaimed at Psidian Antioch in the book of Acts, “And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’”

            Jesus the Christ is the risen Lord who has now been exalted to the right hand of God in his ascension.  This One who arrived as a helpless baby at Christmas has now defeated sin, Satan and death for you.  And because this is true, there is no room for worry and fear.  For indeed the words of the psalmist in our text are true: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

            The One who came in humility on Christmas Eve will come again.  But as we will hear in our Scripture readings this Sunday, there will be nothing humble about his second coming. He will come as the One who breaks those who oppose him with a rod of iron and dashes them in pieces like a potter's vessel.  He will come as the risen, ascended and exalted Lord who executes judgment upon all who reject him.  But because we know him as the One who was placed in a manger and hung on a cross for us, we know that these words are true: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”                           

Mark's thoughts: John the Baptist - Scrooge comes to Christmas

We are well aware that the world’s “Christmas season” begins before Thanksgiving.  Christmas decorations are up in cities and stores, and Christmas advertising appears everywhere.  Yet all of this is simply a warm up, for on “Black Friday” the season really explodes onto the scene.  From that day until Dec. 25 our culture is in full Christmas mode.  The time is a blur of Christmas decorating, baking and gift buying; Christmas programs, movies and parties.  During the first few weeks of December is doesn’t begin to look like Christmas everywhere you go – it is Christmas.

And yet in the Church during two of the four weeks in December we get John the Baptist. The Scripture reading for the Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete) and the Fourth Sunday in Advent (Rorate Coeli) focus upon John the Baptist.  We learn that John is the fulfillment of God’s word through the prophet Isaiah:

                                    A voice cries:

                                    “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.

                                    And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,

                                    and all flesh shall see it together,

                                    for the mouth of the LORD has spoken”

                                    (Isaiah 40:3-5 ESV).

We get John the Baptist, and when you look a little more closely you find that he isn’t exactly the kind of person you invite to your Christmas party.  Like a survivalist on some reality television show, he lives in the Judean wilderness.  His dress and diet is … unique.  Matthew tells us, “Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew 3:4 ESV). And don’t look for John to make small talk.  Instead he proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1-2 ESV).  He calls people to receive a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3).  He brings a message of fire and brimstone as he declares:                                  

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:11-12 ESV).

Everyone is trying to get into the “Christmas spirit,” and John is talking about sin and judgment.  He is calling people to repentance and confronting sin.  Talk about a Scrooge – Bah! Humbug!

The Scripture readings that focus upon John the Baptist are, of course, from the season of Advent.  As such they are meant to help us prepare for Christmas and not celebrate Christmas itself.  And there is preparation to do.  If we are to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ we must take stock of why he was sent in the first place.  We must confront the sin present in our own lives.  We must confess this sin, and as John the Baptist describes, we must repent.  We need to admit the problem that sin is for our life and world in order understand why the Son of God was sent by the Father.  John the Baptist prepares the way for the One who will be placed in a manger and nailed to a cross in order to redeem us from sin and the devil.  He prepares the way for the One who will rise from the dead in order to defeat death for us and begin the resurrection of the Last Day.  John prepares us because on Christmas Eve the glory of the Lord will be revealed as he brings forgiveness and salvation to repentant sinners.