+Advent Midweek 2 – December 12th, 2018 +
Isaiah 7:10-14; Matthew 1:18-25
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In December of 1914 the Great War had been raging across Western Europe for several months. But that Christmas Eve of 1914, something strange happened along parts of the Western Front. Guns fell silent. Officers swallowed their trench whistles. Shells ceased their banshee cries. And in the silence, music filled the air. German soldiers sang Silent Night. British troops responded with The First Noel. No man’s land became a soccer field. Some soldiers even exchanged gifts.
They realized that there was something far greater than past hostilities. That there was something hopeful, far beyond the bleak future of their muddy trenches. Joy in Jesus who came and who still comes among us. Joy in Jesus who was born to die for us. Joy in Jesus’ advent present.
For few hours, Christmas came and interrupted everything they thought important. For a moment that present moment was all there was.
That’s what Christmas does. Jesus’ birth is God’s great, joyful interruption into the darkness of sin and death. Jesus invades his fallen creation with grace, mercy, and peace in his life and death. Jesus’ birth leads to his death, to the cross where he fought for us the war to end our war against God.
No wonder the angel army proclaimed a jubilant song, Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased.
And yet, we do not celebrate Christmas simply because Jesus is the God who came to save us – past tense; but also because he is the God whocomesto save us – present tense. As the angel of the Lord told Joseph.
“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.”All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
Jesus is our Emmanuel. God with us. Yet not in the consuming fire of the burning bush. Not in his untouchable glory as in the Tabernacle. Not even in the radiancy and brilliant light of his transfiguration.
God with us as a zygote in The Virgin’s womb. God with us in our flesh and blood and bone. God with us in his hiddenness and humility in ordinary words, water, bread and wine.
Like Scrooge, though, we have a problem with humility. As C.S. Lewis writes, humility isn’t that we think less of ourselves, but that we think of ourselves less. That we stop navel-gazing and look to our neighbor’s needs. That we live in sacrificial love for those God places in our lives.
And like Scrooge, we have not done this. Our sin, like his greed, spreads misery and pain everywhere we go; it infects everything we say, do, and think. As we confess on Sunday mornings. We have not loved the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
The second spirit in A Christmas Carolwas the opposite of everything Scrooge was. He was a miserly, self-absorbed curmudgeon. The spirit of Christmas Present was full of mirth, life and laughter, sprinkling joy everywhere he went. He took Scrooge all over the country showing, to show him his own want and need, but revealing great joy in humility: miners huddled around a fire, sailors at sea, Bob Cratchit and his family, his Nephew and his wife – all of them living in poverty, yet celebrating Christmas with great joy. Having nothing they rejoiced that they had everything in Christmas.
And in this, we see a picture of Jesus’ great love for us in his Advent Present with us. Jesus’ love for us is the opposite of everything we are. Though we were self-absorbed, he sacrifices himself for us. Though we loved only ourselves, Jesus loves us, his neighbor, as himself. Though we were full of sin and death, Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us
That is why the joy of Christmas isn’t found in some abstract, nameless, lifeless, wishy-washy “Christmas spirit”, but in Jesus’ Advent present for us. Jesus who is Emmanuel. God with us.
God with us in life and death.
God with us in joy and sorrow.
God with us in calm and strife.
God with us in contentment and anxiety.
God with us in health and sickness.
God with us in trust and in doubt.
God with us in times of peace and pain.
God with us in our laughter and our weeping.
God with us on the cross, in the grave, and in His resurrection in which we are baptized.
God with us in his humble words that transform simple water into a flood of forgiveness.
God with us in his humble words that cause ordinary bread and wine to host a Christmas feast of his body and blood.
You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.This is why Jesus came. For you. To fix what we had broken. To mend what was marred. To find us who were lost. To save us who were perishing. To be our Emmanuel. God with us. Not only in the past. But here. Even now. Today. His name is Jesus for he has saved you from your sin in his advent past. He will save you from your sin in his advent future. And he saves you in his advent present.
God bless us, everyone, in Jesus’ advent present. In Emmanuel – God with us and for us.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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