Sermon for the third mid-week Advent services - Lk 1:26-38

 

Mid-Advent 3

                                                                                       Lk 1:26-38

                                                                                      12/14/22

 

          In the course of doing some research, I learned recently that unwed teen pregnancy was virtually unknown in the Greco-Roman world.  The reason was that girls married as soon as they were able to have children – usually at twelve or thirteen years old.  There simply wasn’t time and opportunity between when they were able to become pregnant and being marriage to have a child outside of marriage.  What was true of the Greco-Roman world, was also true of the first century Jewish world for the very same reason.

          We think of infant mortality as being a something of the ancient past.  But it was still a significant factor not that long ago.  Around 1870 two of my great great aunts went to visit their parents in St. Louis.  Both women had a child who was a little over a year old. While visiting there, both of these children died from what was then called “Second Summer Disease.”  Toddlers who were no longer nursing were given milk. This unpasteurized milk was delivered outside the door in the summer heat.  The milk gave children an intestinal infection that ultimately killed them.

Because ancient people lived in a world where infant and child mortality was extremely high, the Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures had girls marry and begin having children as soon as possible.  In order to maintain the population in the face of these losses, females needed to have as many children as they could.

In our text tonight, Mary learns the shocking news that she is going to be pregnant when not married. We recognize that this would make her appear to be guilty of breaking the Sixth Commandment. But we also need to understand how unusual her situation would be – how much it would make her stand out in that culture as a violator of God’s law.

          Our text begins by telling us that Mary was a girl who lived in Nazareth, a city in Galilee.  She was a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. As I just described, Mary would have most likely been twelve or thirteen years old. She was betrothed to David. This was more than our engagement – it was in fact a legal status. However, she and Joseph were not yet married.

          We learn that the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. He said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” The angel announced that Mary had been shown favor by God, and that Lord was with her. This was a greeting that announced blessing.  But Mary was no more used to seeing angels than you or I, and she was greatly troubled at the saying, as she tried to discern what sort of greeting this was.

Gabriel responded to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

          These are words that are based on what God had said to King David through the prophet Nathan.  In Second Samuel chapter seven, God had promised, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”  This was the foundational promise that the Messiah would descend from David.  It is this promise that the prophets later explain further such as when Isaiah said in chapter eleven that one from the line of David would have the Spirit upon him as he judged righteously, killed the wicked with the breath of his lips, and ushered in the time of peace when the wolf would dwell with the lamb.

          Gabriel was telling Mary the that her son would be the Messiah – the One who would bring God’s end time reign. This was overwhelming news! Yet Mary raised a rather obvious question as she asked: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”  Unlike Zechariah’s question last week, this was not a doubting question of unbelief.  Instead, it was the faithful attempt to receive an explanation for something that seemed like it could not happen. Virgins, after all, don’t have children.

Gabriel replied to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.”  Earlier Gabriel had stated that Jesus would be Son of the Most High.  The kings that descended from David were described as God’s “son” in an adopted sense. But now it became clear that Gabriel meant something far more.  The Holy Spirit was going to cause Mary – a virgin – to conceive.  This child would be unlike any other child because he would be holy - he would be the Son of God.  He would be true God and true man at the same time.

This had never happened before.  But in order to demonstrate that God really was going to do it, Gabriel went on to say, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”  God had made the supposedly dead womb of Elizabeth pregnant with a child.  The Spirit of God could certainly cause a virgin to become pregnant with the Son of God, because nothing will be impossible with God.

Mary had heard that God was going to do what seemed impossible.  But her response was one of faith and trust. She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” She not only trusted that God would do it, but she also submitted herself to God’s will and plan. 

There are times when God’s will and plan for our life do not go according to our script. There are unexpected setbacks. There are delays that we do not want. There is real uncertainty about the future, and how exactly things are going to turn out.  As we face these things, it becomes easy for the old Adam in us to raise questions about whether God really is in charge.  We are tempted to doubt God’s love and care.

Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.” That is what happened as she became pregnant and gave birth to the incarnate Son of God.  Gabriel told Mary about Jesus, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” That is what God did, for on Pentecost Peter proclaimed about the Jesus and the events happening that day: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

Yet before this happened, Jesus suffered and died on the cross. As Isaiah had foretold, God did put his Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism and identify him – the One descended from David – as the Messiah.  But in having the Spirit placed upon him, Jesus was also designated as the Servant of the Lord – the Suffering Servant. At the Last Supper Jesus quoted Isaiah chapter fifty three and applied it to himself as he said, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”

Jesus Christ suffered and died as the sacrifice for our sin. He was numbered with the transgressors as he took our place.  He received the judgment against sin that should have been ours. But if things had ended there, he could not have been the One described by Gabriel whose kingdom – whose reign – has no end.  On the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.  As the risen Lord told the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

On Good Friday, it did not look like God was in charge.  The One designated as the Messiah was crucified. He died in shame, weakness, and humiliation.  It did not look like God was doing anything. But on Easter we learned that the cross was in fact God’s powerful action to save us. Jesus was both the Suffering Servant and the Messiah.  God has acted through the cross to give us forgiveness.  And by dying, Jesus the risen Lord has defeated death.

This changes the way we look at everything.  It gives us confidence that we can trust in God no matter what things may look like.  The cross and resurrection of Jesus become the lens through which we see all of life.  God achieved our salvation in a way that did not look like he was doing anything.  Yet because of the resurrection we now have everything. When faced with those times that can cause us to doubt God, we need remember the resurrection of Jesus.  It says that God is still in charge and that his loving care for us will not fail. It will not, because nothing is impossible for God, and he has shown us this in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

 

 

 

 

    

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent - Gaudete - Isa 40:1-8

 

Advent 3

                                                                                                 Isa 40:1-8

                                                                                                12/11/23

 

          John the Baptist certainly got people’s attention. John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist.  His dress called to mind the prophet Elijah.  He showed up, preaching in the wilderness of Judea. The wilderness had been the place from which God brought Israel into the promised land as Israel conquered it.  We know from other examples, that when prophetic figures showed up in the wilderness, people got excited. It prompted hope that God was about to act to rescue them from the Romans.

          John certainly declared that God was about to do something great.  He proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Any Jew knew that the kingdom of heaven was not a place.  It was instead the end time reign of God, and John said it was at hand. It was just about to arrive.

          God’s reign was about to arrive, and because this was so, there was only one thing to do: Repent!  John left no doubt about why this was necessary.  He said about the One who would bring God’s reign: “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.”

          The coming One would bring God’s end time judgment.  All people are sinners, and so all needed to repent.  John was known as “the baptizer” because the unique thing about his ministry was that he applied a washing of water to people.  Ritual washings were very common in first century Judaism. But these were all self-administered. John stood out because he applied the water to other people. By receiving John’s baptism, people demonstrated that they were repentant, and they were ready for God’s reign to arrive.

          Matthew tells us about John, “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” Matthew refers to our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah chapter 40. 

Isaiah wrote in the eighth century B.C.  He confronted the sins of God’s people. In the very first verses of his prophecy he wrote, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”

God revealed through Isaiah that in the end, the southern kingdom of Judah would not repent.  They would not return to Yahweh. And therefore, he would bring judgment upon them, just has he had warned in the book of Deuteronomy. He would send them into exile in Babylon, away from the land.  This happened in 587 B.C. when the Babylonians destroyed the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, and took all but the very poorest people into exile.

However, through Isaiah, God also spoke a word of comfort and hope. Our text begins with the words, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” God had punished Judah.  But now he was going to rescue her.

And so our text says, “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.” The imagery used here is of God coming to his people in Babylon. The way before him is described as a highway that is even and level. Nothing would impede God.

God was coming to rescue his people. Isaiah announced: “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”  God did rescue Judah from exile in a most dramatic and surprising way.  In fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesy, God used the Persian King Cyrus who defeated the Babylonians. Then in 538 B.C. Cyrus issued a decree that the people could return to the land and rebuild the temple.

Just as God had rescued Israel from Egypt, so God rescued his people from exile in Babylon.  Yet each of these actions pointed to something even bigger – something that would be rescue for all people. And so Matthew tells us that John the Baptist is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words.  He came to prepare the way for the Lord. He was “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

John’s message of repentance sounds forth today to us.  His words prepare the way as we are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  In our text Isaiah says, “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.”  Every obstacle must be removed.  We must repent of the sin that cuts us off from God – the sin that brings God’s judgment.

Repentance is not what the world has on its mind right now.  Well, actually it never does…. But especially right now this is the furthest things from its mind because it is the Christmas season.  The world says this is a time of joy. It is the time of lights and decorations. It is the time to buy gifts, and to look forward to the gifts that we are going to receive.

It is easy for us to get caught up in this. Yet in the life of the Church we are in the season of Advent. This is a time of preparation.  We are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. And that preparation must focus on the reason that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary as God sent his Son into the world.  He did it because of our sin.

We must do what Judah was unwilling to do. We must repent.  We must confess our sin. We must confess how we have gossiped about our neighbor by sharing information that puts him or her in a bad light. We must confess how we have spoken angry words to a family member. We must confess how we have coveted the success or wealth of others.

Repentance means that we confess our sin.  It also means that we then turn in faith to Jesus Christ who has won forgiveness for us.  Zechariah said of John the Baptist when he was an infant, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.”

John proclaimed that the coming One would bring God’s judgment.  Yet the great surprise of Jesus Christ is that first, he received God’s judgment in our place.  That’s what happened on Good Friday as Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Jesus received the wrath of God against our sin. That is why he said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” God revealed his saving glory as Jesus died on the cross. 

Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, our sins are forgiven. Jesus’ body was buried in a tomb.  But John the Baptist could not have been right about the coming One if Christ had stayed there.  And so on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead. This is exactly what he said would happen.  Just before Holy Week Jesus told the disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

By his resurrection Jesus has defeated death. He has given us eternal life. And God has vindicated Jesus as the coming One who will bring God’s judgment on the Last Day.  John said about the coming One, “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.”  Jesus is the risen and ascended Lord who will return in glory on the Last Day. He will burn up the sinful in his judgment.  But, we who are forgiven by faith in his death and resurrection, will be gathered to be with him forever.

As John said, Jesus is also the One who has given us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Christ called us to faith. He gave us the new life in the washing of rebirth and renewal of Holy Baptism. And this brings us to the other side of repentance and forgiveness.  Jesus said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  Repentance does not simply mean we confess and receive forgiveness because of Christ.  It also means that we then turn away from sin.  We cease to do it. We struggle against it, so that we don’t commit it.

Repentance means forgiveness for us.  But it also means that we seek to live in the ways of Christ as his Spirit leads and enables us.  When the people asked John the Baptist, “What shall we do?”, he answered, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”  We share and care for others around us.

When the Tax collectors also came to be baptized they asked John what they should do.  He said to them, to him, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” We seek to do our job honestly – to do it in the right way as we work unto the Lord and not unto man.  We do this knowing that through our vocation we become the means that God uses to care for our neighbor.

Most of all, we who have repented and have been forgiven, now forgive one another. We share the forgiveness that Christ has given to us.  St. Paul told the Ephesians, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  The place to begin this is in your own home.  Husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister all forgive one another because God has given us forgiveness in Christ.  And from there this forgiveness received in Christ spreads out to include all those around us.

In our text today Isaiah says, “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.”  We learn that these words have found their great fulfillment in John the Baptist, and his preaching of repentance as he prepared the way for Christ.  He continues to call us to repentance as we prepare to rejoice in the in the incarnation by which the the glory of the LORD has been be revealed. We know this now by faith, and on the Last Day all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Sermon for second mid-week Advent service - Lk 1:5-25

 

Mid-Advent 2

Lk 1:5-25

12/7/22

 

          Our text tonight is filled with the most awkward of circumstances.  Zechariah learns amazing news about the child that his wife his going to have, but he is unable to tell anyone about it.  Elizabeth, aged and barren, suddenly becomes pregnant but her husband has returned from his service in the temple and is unable to speak.

          Now in the case of Zechariah, he had nine months to ponder what he had been told – the remarkable truth that he was unable to share in any meaningful way.  But at least he knew that his silence would come to an end.  Elizabeth experienced the very thing for which she had prayed and hoped.  When it seemed certain that she would never have a child, she suddenly became pregnant!  Yet at the very same time her husband returned from Jerusalem with a disability, and she had no way of knowing whether he would ever be able to speak again.

          Our text begins tonight with a description of a couple that is both wonderful and sad.  We learn that Zechariah was a priest, and that his wife Elizabeth also descended from Aaron.  Luke tells us, “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.” This was a pious and faithful Jewish couple.

          Yet even as they lived as the faithful people of God, there was a great tragedy in their lives.  Luke says, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.” The modern world treats children as something to be avoided.  It goes out of its way not to have them.  Yet this is not the way Scripture teaches us to view things. The Psalmist writes, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!”

          A life filled with children is described as a blessing from God. Psalm 128 says, “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.”  In the first century Jewish world, to be a wife without children was a source of sorrow and shame.  To the outside observer, it called into question whether a person really was walking in the ways of the Lord.  Childlessness placed a woman in a category from which she needed rescue.  Pslam 113 says that although God is seated on high, “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!”

          At the time of Jesus, the priesthood was divided into groups of people.  Each group would serve in Jerusalem for a period of time before returning home.  While there, the honor of burning the incense in the Holy Place at the hour of prayer was chosen by lot.  On this particular day, Zechariah was chosen.  This is not something that would happen very often in a priest’s life, and so it was a great occasion for him.

          Yet his great day took an unexpected turn, because an angel appeared at the right side of the incense altar. Zechariah was frightened.  But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.  And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord.”

          Zechariah had prayed for a child.  It is a prayer that surely he had spoken again and again during the years. The angel announced to him that this prayer had been heard and that Elizabeth would give birth to a son, whom they would call John. Now the birth of a child to the aged and barren Elizabeth was a miraculous event. But the angel’s description went beyond this simple fact as he stated that “he will be great before the Lord.”

          The angel went on to tell Zechariah: “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” After hearing this past Sunday’s Old Testament lesson from Malachi, we immediately recognize that John is going to be the Elijah figure who prepares the people for the coming Day of the Lord.

          This was an announcement that should have prompted joy.  Yet Zechariah responded: “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”  Now these are basically the exact same words that Abraham spoke to God in Genesis chapter fifteen when God told him that his very own son would be his heir.  Yet there, God brought Abraham outside and promised him that his offspring would be numerous like the stars of heaven. As we heard last week, then Genesis tells us: “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

          Zechariah says almost the same words, but gets a completely different reaction.  Why is this so? The answer appears to be that he asked the question in a very different spirit, and that he was not open to believing God’s word. He answered the angel sent by God with a question that was based on the assumption that what he was told was impossible.

          And so the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”  Gabriel has been sent from God’s presence to announce good news – good news that Elizabeth would have a son; and even better news that God was sending the end times prophet that he had promised in Malachi. But Zechariah had not believed it, and so now he would not be able to share this good news until it was fulfilled in the birth of John.

          When Zechariah emerged, he was unable to speak.  He could only motion with his hands, and the people finally understood that he had seen some kind of vision in the temple.  He remained unable to speak when he returned home. Yet God kept his word. Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

          In Zechariah we see the challenge of believing God’s word when it contradicts our normal experience.  This is true about the event we are preparing to celebrate – the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  In our experience, virgins don’t have children.  This is true about the Sacrament of the Altar.  What we receive in the Sacrament looks like bread and wine, and tastes like bread and wine.  This is true when God says that he loves and cares for us, and yet we or a loved one have cancer, or chronic pain, or suffer from mental illness.

          Yet nothing is impossible for God, and so we need to trust in him and his power, rather than be limited by our perceptions.  Zechariah learned this. Elizabeth became pregnant.  Indeed, John was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.  When the pregnant Elizabeth met Mary, pregnant with Jesus Chrit, Luke tells us that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

          Zechariah saw God’s word fulfilled in Elizabeth, yet he was unable to share this good news with others.  However, when John was born, and Zechariah obeyed Gabriel by indicating in writing that his name would be John, his tongue was loosed.  Then filled with the Holy Spirit he prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”

Zechariah spoke about how God was fulfilling his promise to send the Christ. And next he said of John, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.”

          As we will hear the next two Sundays, John did prepare the way for the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Nothing is impossible for God, and for that reason we have forgiveness for our every sin.  Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  He died on the cross as he received God’s judgment and damnation against our sins. Dead and buried in a tomb, God showed yet again that nothing is impossible for him.  On the third day he raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus lives!  And because he does, we know that we have eternal life with God. We know that Christ will raise us up on the Last Day. He will, because nothing is impossible for God.

 

         

 

 

         

 

 

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent - Populus Zion - Mal 4:1-6

 

Advent 2

                                                                                                 Mal 4:1-6

                                                                                                12/4/22

 

          “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, every where you go.”  Actually, it’s looked like Christmas in many places since well before Thanksgiving as the world’s “Christmas season” advances ever earlier on the calendar. 

The world wants you to get into the “Christmas spirit.”  Merchants want you there so that you will be extra willing to buy gifts and spend money.  Charities want you there so that you will be extra willing to give money to help others.  And people in general want to be there because it is a warm and fuzzy feeling filled with nostalgia as we remember the past, and also create new memories. The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Christmas are all part of the “most wonderful time of the year.”

And then, in the midst of all that wonderful Christmas spirit, you come to church on the Second Sunday in Advent and hear these words from the prophet Malachi: “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.” Merry Christmas? Not quite.

Malachi’s words wrench us out of the “Christmas season,” and back into Advent.  They remind us that the name Advent comes from a Latin word that means “coming.”  During Advent we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Son of God into this world as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 

However, as a Christian, one cannot think about this first coming without also thinking about the second coming of Jesus Christ on the Last Day. These words remind us that the season we are preparing to celebrate has nothing to do with Santa Claus, or snow men, or jingle bells … not even the Polar Express. Instead, it is about the saving work of God in Christ. For if it is not about that, then as a sinner the “Christmas season” and the “Christmas spirit” will only bring you God’s wrath and damnation on the Last Day.

Malachi’s prophecy was written about 450 B.C.  In 538 B.C. the decree by the Persian king Cyrus had allowed the people of Judah to return to their land and rebuild the temple.  The temple had been rebuilt and dedicated around 516 B.C.  The people were back, but nothing was the same.  No longer was Judah its own nation, but instead it was just one small province of the Persian empire.  Yahweh had returned them from exile in Babylon but all the former glory had been lost. Where was God in all of this?

This produced a malaise – a sense of indifference to the way of the Lord.  It showed up in the offerings that the people brought, and that the priest were willing to sacrifice.  While the animals were supposed to be without blemish, at the temple the sick and deformed were offered. Malachi wrote: “When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.”

The people weren’t bringing the tithe – the ten percent - as God’s word had instructed. We hear in Malachi, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.” Yahweh challenged the people: “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.”

Men were being unfaithful to their wives and divorcing them. God said, “So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

The priests weren’t teaching the people the truth.  They weren’t confronting sin.  Yahweh charges, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction.”

Yet the worst thing was that people said none of this mattered. Malachi charged: “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.’”

It is not hard to find ourselves in this attitude and list of sins.  While the tithe is no longer commanded in this era of the new covenant, it continues to be a good benchmark for our offering to God.  Has your offering kept pace with the blessings God has given you?  Sexual immorality pervades our culture. Are we unfaithful by engaging in sex outside of marriage, or in viewing pornography for the purpose of lust and self-gratification? Certainly, being a Christian today is more and more of a challenge, and it doesn’t seem to bring much worldly benefit. We may wonder, “What’s the point?”

The book of Malachi ends with the strongest possible assertion that it does matter.  Malachi warns, “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.”  Malachi tells us – like so many other places in Scripture – that God will judge sinners on the Last Day, the Day of the Lord.

Yet, there is Advent good news in our text as well.  God says through Malachi, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.” Elijah had been one of Yahweh’s greatest prophets.  He had been taken up in whirlwind.  Now, God says that before the great and awesome day of judgment, he would send Elijah.  What is more, in the previous chapter Yahweh had said, “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.” Elijah – this messenger – would prepare the people. He would prepare the way before Yahweh.

As we will see the next two Sundays, we now understand that this “Elijah” was the prophetic figure John the Baptist.  He came to prepare the way for the Lord. He came to prepare the way for the One who brings the great and awesome Day of the Lord.

Of course, during Advent we are preparing to celebrate the birth of a baby who was placed in a manger.  There is nothing great or awesome about that.  Therein is the tremendous surprise about the Christ.  The Christ – the Savior descended from King David – is the mighty and powerful One. He is in fact, more than a man, because the Son of God entered into this world as the Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to become pregnant with the One who is true God and true man at the same time.

However, Peter tells us, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”  The way of the Christ was to be one of suffering and then glory.  Luke tells us that after Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

The Son of God entered into the world as the Christ to suffer and die. He did because of all the ways we sin against God. He did because since the fall we are by nature sinful.  As he hung on the cross, Jesus received the judgment of the Day of the Lord. It happened, but it happened to Jesus in our place, and so now we are forgiven before God.

If a baby lying in a manger did not look great and awesome, then a man dying in agony on a cross looked even less so.  It appeared to be the very opposite, as it was scene of weakness and humiliation.  Then as the sun was about to go down on Good Friday, they left Jesus’ dead body lying in a sealed tomb.

Yet on the third day, God demonstrated that what had happened on the cross was great and awesome. It was his powerful saving action to take away our sin. On Easter God raised Jesus from the dead as he defeated death.  In the resurrection of Jesus, God began the resurrection of the Last Day – the Day of the Lord.

The risen Lord has now been exalted to the right hand of God as he ascended.  Yet as we hear in the Gospel lesson, Christ declared that he would return in glory.  He will. It will be the Day of the Lord that we hear about from Malachi.  But because of Christ’s death for us, we are not included among the arrogant and evil doers.  Instead, we are the forgiven children of God. And so Malachi’s words describe us: “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.”

          This is a description of joy – of calves leaping in excitement as they are let out. It is also a description of victory, for notice how God’s people are described as treading down the wicked as ashes under the soles of their feet. Both sides are true. We will rejoice in that final salvation that Christ will give us on the Last Day when he raises us up and transforms our bodies.  We will also experience a moment of vindication and victory.

We need this Sunday in Advent to remind us that Christmas is about God acting to take away our sin through the incarnate Son of God.  Apart from that, there can only be God’s judgment on the Day of the Lord. But because of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for us we celebrate the salvation we already have now, and eagerly await his return on the Last Day when we will receive the consummation of his saving work.

And at the same time, we need this Sunday in Advent as encouragement.  Jesus was not joking when he said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  You have chosen to follow Jesus in the difficult way of faith. The world thinks you are stupid for being here this morning.  With increasing intensity is directs its derision against those who believe in Christ.

          But the resurrection and ascension of Jesus mean that he has already won. And so, we win. That’s how all of this ends.  Certainly, we want as many people as possible to receive this same victory that comes by faith in Christ. Yet when we encounter rejection and scorn, we live in the confidence that Jesus has risen from the dead, and so, we win. The Lord who will return will not be a helpless baby in a manger. Instead, he will be the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. He will be the mighty judge who gave himself into death on the cross to take away our sins.  For us, the risen Lord will be a source of joy, and not a consuming fire,