Third Midweek Advent Service: "Good News"

+ 3^rd Midweek Advent Service – December 20^th, 2017 +

Isaiah 7:14; Luke 2:16-20

Redeemer Lutheran, HB

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

When we receive an unexpected gift, or even a simple $10 in our pocket, what do we do? “Good news…guess what I found today?!”

When there’s a promotion at work, what do we do? “Good news at work today.”

Or when there’s a new born baby in the family, what do we do? “Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa I have some good news for you…it’s a boy, it’s a girl.”

Good news is given (a gift), good news is shared.

Luke’s account of the Christmas story draws us into the same pattern: God reveals his gift to us in the birth of Jesus, and there’s rejoicing in the Good News.

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The shepherds ran to find this Good News lying in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes just as the angel said.

Everyone the shepherds told were amazed at the Good News concerning this child.

Mary treasured this Good News and pondered it in her heart.

During Advent and Christmas, we join with the people, the shepherds, and Mary as we receive and rejoice in Good News.

In the last five verses of From Heaven Above to Earth I Come, Luther invites us to join the shepherds, the crowds, and Mary in receiving and rejoicing in this Good News of Jesus’ birth.

And if we’re honest, each of us, for one reason or another, needs some good news this time of the year. For we live in a bad news world. We’ve probably all had days when we’re afraid to turn on the TV or answer our phone… “what bad news is next?” we wonder. The lives of our family and friends seem to be full of bad news: car accidents, cancer diagnoses, strokes, heart trouble, undiagnosed diseases, despair, depression, and suffering. The bad news is personal too: our own conscience is plagued by sin, guilt, and death. And the devil loves to whisper an endless stream of fake news in our ears: look at you and all your sin, you’re hopeless, a lost cause; there’s no good news for you; you don’t deserve it.

You’re right, devil; I don’t deserve any Good News; I’m every bit of the sinner you say that I am; but Christ our Lord has come and joined us in our humanity in this fallen world; Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried to put an end to your lies, all my sin, sadness, and death; Emmanuel, God with us, gives us Good News that in his birth, life, death, and resurrection, all the bad news this world, all of your accusations, and all my sin has been forgiven, cancelled, pardoned, atoned for, and redeemed.

Into the darkness of this world, the angels cry out and sing a song that banishes all bad news:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

The shepherds find their Good News, and ours, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger; the King of kings; yet our kinsmen; the Word by whom the heavens and earth were created makes a Virgin’s womb his royal chamber, and a feeding trough his bed; the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor becomes a weak, lowly, and helpless infant for you; the God who is, who was, and who is to come is Immanuel, God with us.

Instead of soft and silken stuff
You have but hay and straw so rough,
On which as King, so rich and great,
To be enthroned in royal state.

No wonder Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them. She saw that she herself, a descendant of Jesse, had conceived and born God’s Son by the Holy Spirit. She had read in the prophet about a shoot that will sprout from the root of Jesse. She had heard, And you, Bethlehem Ephratha, are a little one among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you will come forth for me one who is ruler in Israel. She saw that she had conceived and born a son yet as a Virgin, just as Isaiah foretold: the Virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel.

God with us in His Word, just as He was in the Word the angels declared to the shepherds.

God with us in the manger of bread and wine before our eyes, just as he was in the manger in Bethlehem.

God with us, working faith and trust in his Word by the same Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary and conceived in her womb this holy child born for you.

In these last 5 verses, Martin Luther invites us to join Mary in pondering God’s gift of salvation revealed in Jesus’ birth; he invites us to join the shepherds in glorifying and praising God for sending His only begotten Son to be our brother and Redeemer, and to spread this Good News to everyone we know, especially those in need of Good News; he invites us to join the crowds in wonder and amazement at this unexpected, undeserved, unconditional free gift of life and salvation in this baby boy; and he invites us to join the angels in singing this Good News.

My heart for very joy must leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song:

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto us His Son has given!
While angels sing with pious mirth
A glad new year to all the earth.

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