Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Advent Midweek Sermon: "God's People Sing"

Advent Midweek 1 – December 6th, 2017
Micah 5:2-5; Luke 2:1-7


In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wherever God gathers his people, there’s singing:

Miriam sings of YHWH’s Red Sea rescue: I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

King David invites us to sing of the Lord, our Good Shepherd who feeds, guides, and saves us.

Isaiah sings of the Suffering Servant, the Prince of Peace, and the Shoot of Jesse’s tree.
Mary sings the Magnificat for her baby boy who is Emmanuel, the Word made flesh.

The angelic choir and Palm Sunday crowds join heaven and earth in singing: Glory to God in the highest. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Whether you’re reading the Old or New Testament, whether you’re at home or here in the Lord’s house, wherever God gathers his people, you’ll hear singing.

This holy season of Advent is no different. Like Israel, David, and the prophets, our choirs, concerts, and midweek services resound with songs God’s promises fulfilled in Jesus’ birth. In Advent, we join the saints in heaven, Mary, and all the angel hosts in singing Glory to God in the highest, Hosanna to the King of David born in the City of David, for you.

And so this Advent, Martin Luther will be our choir director as we sing and reflect on his famous Christmas hymn: From Heaven Above to Earth I Come. This Christmas hymn, like all good hymns, points us to Christ who was born for us, crucified for us, risen for us, and who will come again for us.

"From heaven above to earth I come
To bear good news to every home;
Glad tidings of great joy I bring,
Whereof I now will say and sing:

In a brilliant stroke of storytelling, Luther begins to tell us the Christmas story from the angel’s declaration of Good News to the shepherds and to you.

The angels in Luke’s Christmas story mirror the prophet Micah in pointing us to Christ. Like a good choir: the angel’s song, Micah’s prophecy of Bethlehem, Luther’s hymn, points us to Christ. In singing this hymn, we’re called away from ourselves, away from following the beat of our sinful, selfish, flesh, and directed to join the song of Good News of great joy this Advent season.

And where does the angel, Micah, and Luther point us? Not to our feelings, not inside of us, and not to our heart (which Scripture says is wicked beyond measure), but outside of us to Christ who is born for us as one of us. We’re called to look - not up to heaven where we might expect to call upon God’s great glory, might, and power - but rather to look down. In Bethlehem, who is the littlest among the clans of Judah, and yet from whom comes forth the ruler of Israel whose throne becomes a manger; the Ancient of days who is born of a woman in the fullness of time. For you.

"To you this night is born a child
Of Mary, chosen virgin mild;
This little child, of lowly birth,
Shall be the joy of all the earth.

Martin Luther once commented that if we want to find God, we need look only to the manger and the cross. For there in the manger and on the cross, we see God and his love revealed to us and for us, as he becomes one of us; he is weak and helpless, yet a mighty Savior from sin and death; he is true God and yet true man; he is an infant lowly yet the Holy One of Israel, the Word made flesh for us.

As Luther writes in the third stanza:

"This is the Christ, our God most high,
Who hears your sad and bitter cry;
He will Himself your Savior be
From all your sins to set you free.

We don’t often put a cross in our nativity sets, but maybe we should. That is, after all, why Jesus is born – to die for you. The artist, Albrecht Durer illustrated Christ’s birth (our bulletin cover) with this in mind. Jesus is front and center, surrounded by Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds. But at the top left corner of the picture is the cross.

Like Luther, the angels, and the prophet Micah, Durer reminds us that the greatest gifts at Christmas are not under the tree, but the One upon the tree for you.

"He will on you the gifts bestow
Prepared by God for all below,
That in His kingdom, bright and fair,
You may with us His glory share.

This gift, Luther reminds us, comes to us wrapped in our humanity. Jesus is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. As we confess in the Athanasian Creed, Jesus is perfect God and perfect man; one…not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God. Or we could say it this way: Christ’s incarnation is one small step for God, one giant leap for mankind.

The angel’s words tell us and the shepherds where to find God’s gift born to save us.

"These are the signs that you shall mark:
The swaddling-clothes and manger dark;
There you will find the Infant laid
By whom the heav’ns and earth were made."

Jesus bears our humanity to save us. The Son of God became man so in him we might be called sons of God. Jesus is wrapped in swaddling clothes at his birth just as he is wrapped in burial clothes at his death…all for you.

This is why we sing, today, tomorrow, and for all eternity.

A blessed Advent to each of you…

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.





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