Advent Midweek Sermon: "Jesus' Advent Past"

+Advent Midweek 1 – December 5^th, 2018 +

Genesis 3; Luke 1:26-38

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

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

 

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carolbegins in a rather “unChristmas-like” way, at least by the world’s standards. Old Ebenezer Scrooge isn’t busy having a holly jolly Christmas dishing out figgy pudding, decking the halls, or roasting chestnuts on an open fire. 

No. Dicken’s story begins, not with a birth as we might expect a Christmas tale would, but with death. Scrooge’s old business partner, Jacob Marley was dead. Scrooge had signed the burial certificate himself. There was no doubt about it. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.

The story of Jesus’ Advent past and our Advent story begins the same way. Not with birth but with death. Adam’s death. Eve’s death. The world’s death. Our death.

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,    and to dust you shall return.”

There was no doubt about it. Adam was dead. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

This is why Dickens begins his story with death. If the reader doesn’t understand that Marley is physically dead and Scrooge is dead inside, his story will make no sense. So it is for us. Advent begins with death. As painful as it is to hear the truth, we must come to see ourselves as dead, just as Scrooge saw himself. Dead in greed, in selfishness, in sin. 

For until we see that our story begins the same way, Jesus’ Advent past will make no sense. If all we have is a behavioral problem, or a little attitude adjustment, well then, we don’t need Jesus’ death and resurrection. If we are not sick, we have no need of the doctor. But we know the truth. We are quite ill. What we have is not a series of bad habits, but the deadly disease of sin. We don’t need Jesus the coach, guide, or cheerleader, but Jesus the Savior. And so God sends us, not three spirits, as 

Scrooge received in the story. But one. The only Spirit there is. The Holy Spirit. In the Word He shows us our sin.

And just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. One trespass led to condemnation for all men. Adam was as dead as a doornail. And so are we in our sinful flesh. Dead as Scrooge is inside at the beginning of A Christmas Carol. 

Oh! He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scarping, clutching, covetous sinner.In Adam, in our sin, that’s who we are. We are Scrooge.

The story of A Christmas Carol begins with death, as does the story of Jesus’ Advent past. But this is not the end of the story. Only the beginning. A Christmas Carol is a story of death and resurrection. The old Scrooge dies and a new Scrooge rises, is born anew. “I’m quite a baby” he exclaims as he awakes on Christmas Day.

So it is for us. Our rescue and rebirth given to us, all by a baby. This is Jesus’ Advent past for us. 

 “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said 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.”

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

This is what Jesus’ Advent past is all about. Our rescue. Our redemption. Our salvation, forgivenesss, and life in Jesus’ life for us. His death for our life. His self-giving sacrifice to cover our selfishness. His holy, precious blood to rescue us from sin. Born to raise us sons of earth, born to give us second birth. Jesus became the Scrooge for us, to give us new birth and new life.

For when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, 

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The story of Jesus’ Advent past is the story of our death and resurrection in Jesus’ dying and rising for us. Our story that began in death ends in life in Jesus’ Advent past. 

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