Deathly Hallows Reprise

Well, it's a bit over-due, but I had to post a few thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before it was too far removed.  First of all, cinematically speaking, the movie was (as far as books into movies go) very well done.  For the most part the director followed the story line, the characters were aptly portrayed and a great deal of the imagery in the book was carried through in the movie.  Of course, I must make the caveat that as it goes in theology so it goes with literature: details matter.  Theology is in the details.  Good story telling and movie making are in the details.  Details make the books what they are.  Harry Potter's world like Narnia and Middle-earth thrive on the detail, or what Tolkien calls the writer's work of sub-creation, a world with the inner consistency of reality based upon the primary world.  And though Rowling does not often get credit for this, she has mastered this concept well with her use of language, story telling, myth and fantasy. 

So, if there was one detail I was looking for in the movie - and there is - it's the headstone of the Potter family in Godric's Hollow.  Now, this is pivotal and essential in the books.  And again for the most part, the movie highlights the importance of this scene.  They slowed down the pace, the camera focused on Harry and Hermione in the church's cemetery on Christmas Eve, carols were sung in the background and they uncovered the tombstone of James and Lily Potter, murdered by the dark wizard, Voldemort.  (fwiw, I wrote about this in a little more detail prior to the movie in a segment called The Horcrux of the Matter).  And this is the one detail I would have included in the movie.  It's not much.  The essential quotation - The last enemy to be destroyed is death - from 1 Corinthians was there.  But, it would have been great to have seen a few seconds of a zoom in, Ken Burns style, onto the passage.  That would have bumped my movie review from a 4.5 pretty awesome to 5 stars and never looking back.  It's anyone's guess as to the reason it didn't happen.  And while it's a tragic detail to miss, it gives one an opportunity for catechesis, which is exactly what it was in the graveyard for Harry.  Hermione had to explain to him what it meant.  In a sense she was catechizing him on the hope of the resurrection, also another huge theme in the books.  Do I expect Hollywood to do all that?  No.  I'm no dreamer, but a small zoom could only have made a great movie even better.

If you want to hear a very well done and more detailed review, check out this one from Pastor Richard Stuckwisch on Issues Etc. a few weeks ago: http://issuesetc.org/tag/harry-potter/.

One scene I particularly enjoyed was the treatment of the story of the Three Brothers and how the deathly hallows came to be.  It was quite well animated and it illustrated the other important plot of this final book.  That was a detail they got right.  A detail that also was found in the graveyard not too far from the Potter's headstone in fact.  But for the rest of the story - details and all - we'll have to wait until this summer for Deathly Hallows part 2 or just read the books; it's good for you and then you can be a detail dweeb like me and Hermione.  And that's all I've got to say about that...for now.

Great Advent Expectations

Wednesday of the 2nd Week of Advent

Text: Deuteronomy 32:48-52; John 1:1-18

In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

After 40 years of eating manna & quail sandwiches, wandering in the wilderness with whiny, grumbling, stiff-necked people, a little tap tap on a rock for some much needed refreshment doesn’t seem that bad.  Hardly seems fair, does it?  Of all the people that should’ve entered the Promised Land, surely Moses would be the first.

And yet the Lord calls Moses up to Mt. Nebo and speaks: “Go up this mountain and die.”  How’s that for a holly jolly Advent reading?  Care for a little more Deuteronomy with your wassail?  Let’s face it, if we had composed this story, we would’ve made Moses the first to enter the Promised Land, Cecil Demille style – hands waving, sandals stomping, robes flowing.  But there’s no Hollywood ending for Moses; he must wait for the fulfillment of the promise on a greater mountain.  That tap on the rock heard around the wilderness was more than poor plumbing technique; Moses failed to trust God’s Word.  And as good as the promises of the Jordan were, the milk would be richer and the honey sweeter when the long expected years spent yearning for the Messiah were over. 

Last week John taught us to repent; today, Moses teaches us to wait.  Bonhoeffer reminds us, “To celebrate Advent means being able to wait…Those unfamiliar with the bitter bliss of waiting, of doing without while maintaining hope, will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:542).  Waiting and fulfillment go together.  The farmer who fails to till the ground, plant the seed, and tend the crops will know nothing of the harvest celebration.  The person who fails to court and nurture their relationships will see little or no value in God’s blessed gifts of marriage, family or friendship.  We must wait for the greatest, most profound, most gentle things in life.

Just ask any mother about waiting and fulfillment, of pain and irreplaceable joy that follows.  No wonder birth pangs and pregnant metaphors are Jesus’ favorite for catechizing us about His second coming – for the His people, Advent is a season of expectant joy.

This is why advent is a serious season.  Not stuffy-pants, Bah-Humbug serious.  But a sanctified seriousness that only comes when the weight of God’s glory presses upon us: the Almighty Word of God in human flesh and bone.  Christ’s expectant return on the Last Day.  His body and blood, Water and Word Advent among us.

Sometimes the Word of the Lord comes and we don’t want to say, Thanks be to God.  We don’t particularly like what he has to say: Go up to the mountain and die; repent; wait; be humbled.  Most days we don’t want to wait on the Word of the Lord.  And our prayers start to sound more like demands to a Cosmic Bell-hop than petitions to our Heavenly Father.  Give me patience, Lord and give it to me now.

In our day of instant gratification, waiting seems downright blasphemous: “How dare you make my Christmass unjoyful.  What do you mean it’s not Christmas yet?  I wanna deck the halls like Chevy Chase, eat, drink and be merry.  And who are you to tell me to repent?  What gives you the right to tell me to wait in Advent?

When it comes to waiting, we are our own worst enemies.  Our old sinful flesh makes a 2-year old toy store tantrum look pretty civilized.  And don’t think the world is going to help you celebrate Advent any time soon.  Greed.  Self-satisfaction.  The world has taught the God’s people a great deal about buying presents to impress people we don’t like with money we don’t have – but have the people of God taught the world how to wait by their own confession in word and deed?

Waiting is so premature to everything our old sinful flesh knows and loves so well, you.  Waiting means denying ourselves.  Waiting means to fear love and trust in God above all things.  We do not like to wait because it is yet another sign that we are utterly dependent upon God.  You see it’s tempting to make Advent all about our repenting, our waiting, our preparing.  Advent is less about you and more about Jesus for you.  We like to be satisfied and yet He makes us hunger; we want to be proud and He comes to humble us; we want God’s fulfillment on our terms and yet He says, go up to the mountain and die.  Die in Advent.  Die to sin.

“Only people who carry a certain restlessness about them can wait,” says Bonhoeffer, “and people who look reverently to the One who is great in the world.  Hence only those whose souls give them no peace are able to celebrate Advent, who feel poor and incomplete and who sense something of the greatness of what is coming, before which one can only bow in humble timidity, in anticipation till God inclines toward us – the Holy One of God in the manger” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:542).  The Lord Jesus is coming.  Dear Christians one and all rejoice!  And in your rejoicing, pause to ask yourself:

In Advent, what do you wait for?  Do you wait for reconciliation from a bitter family quarrel?  He comes in perfect humility reconciling the world by His blood.  Do you wait for an age-old grudge between friends to end in peace?  He comes holding no grudge against you who Hated him most of all.  Do you wait for test results from an oncologist or a good diagnosis from the doctor?  He comes as your Great Physician of body and soul.  Do you join creation in its groaning and yearning?  Behold, He comes to make all things new.  Do you wait with the heavy burden of your sin?  He drowns your sorrows in the font and clothes you in His wedding garments. 

Rejoice, greatly O, daughter of Zion. Jesus’ Advent is for you.  Behold, your King comes, righteous and having salvation.  Jesus comes into our world robed in the same flesh and bones as us, into your sin, into your death; to fulfill the Word of the Lord that came to Moses – go up to the mountain and die.   He goes there for Moses.  He goes there for you.   Moses waited.  You wait.  But you do not wait alone.  One moment Moses is lying in his grave on Mt. Nebo and the next he is talking with Jesus and Elijah on the mountain of transfiguration.  One moment our Lord tells Moses to wait in hope of the promise, the next He sends His angels to a hillside where lowly shepherds watch their flocks by night. 

Our Lord brings you, just as He did Moses, from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Nebo and from the mount of Transfiguration to the mount of death…but not your death.  Not on that mountain.  No, that is where Jesus goes up to die and where you are given life.  That is where nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross He borne for me, for you. For you – God’s chosen Israel – Jesus repeats and completes the life of Moses.  For you He obeys God’s Word.  For you He is patient and long-suffering.  For you He was born to die.  For you He will come again.

One day we will lie in our graves as Moses did and before you know how long you’ve slumbered, you will awake to the sound of a new and greater Glory to God in the Highest; you will sing in heaven the song you join the saints here on bended knee: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, Heaven and Earth are full of your glory. 

In the midst of our Advent waiting, Christ comes.  The night is far gone.  The Day is at hand.  Behold I stand at the door.  The Bridegroom calls us, “come to the wedding feast.  Come, eat, drink and be merry.”  Feast on Christ, the Christmass Lamb caught in the thicket of the cross; His flesh is your Promised Land, and His veins are coursing with the milk and honey of blood shed for the forgiveness of sins.  Waiting Over.  Promise Fulfilled. 

In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

NB: The theme (waiting and fulfillment) for this midweek sermon came from a Dietrich Bonhoeffer sermon preached in Havana, Cuba on the 4th Sunday in Advent, December 1930.  The two quotations also came from a Bonhoeffer sermon preached on the first Sunday of Advent in Barcelona, Spain in 1928 on Revelation 3:20.

Lo, How His Advent Bloometh

Originally this was written for the LWML 2009 Advent by Candlelight and is re-posted here for the Advent season.  And just like the previous post, Christmass is not misspelled.

Lo, how rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!  Of Jesse’s lineage coming as prophets long have sung, it came a flower bright, amid the cold of winter, when half-spent was the night.
 Isaiah ‘twas foretold it, the rose I have in mind; with Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind/  To show God’s love aright, she bore to us a Savior, when half-spent was the night.
This flow’r whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere.   
True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us and lightens every load.
O Savior, child of Mary, who felt our human woe; O Savior, King of glory, who dost our weakness know; bring us at length we pray to the bright courts of heaven, and to the endless day.

LSB #359 “Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming”

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            Every year Christians around the world celebrate Christmass and the birth of Emmanuel, God with us.  This Savior of the nations, came the Heavens adoring as He was born in the Little Town of Bethlehem.  Therefore, we Hark the Glad Sound as we read of Gentle Mary Who Laid Her Child Away in a Manger.  As the Angels from the Realms of Glory once rejoiced, they still call the faithful to look to this Babe of Bethlehem.  O Jesus Christ, Thy manger is, my paradise at which my soul reclineth.  For there, O Lord, doth lie the Word made flesh for us; herein Thy grace forth shineth.  The need for a Savior was great for over all the curse of sin and death extended.    
           But in the midst of the Garden when God’s own created children rebelled against Him, He promised Adam and Eve and all of humanity another child who would crush the head of that ancient serpent, the devil, the great deceiver of the nations.  In the form of a curse, God promised this coming seed:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15).

Adam and Eve labored in toil and sin but not without God’s gracious promise, the joyous Gospel spoken in the face of such terrible events.  Eve thought that her first-born child was “the man” who would be their savior.  Now most English translations won’t pick this up, but Genesis 4:1 says that when Eve conceived and gave birth to a child she said, “I have begotten a man, the Lord.”  Why would Eve say such a thing?

She understood the promise that God had given.  She understood that deliverance from sin and death could only come by the Lord who would be born as a man.  The promised seed would be both God and man, but Cain was not this promised child.  Following in his parents footsteps He lived in sin and murdered his own brother.  Despite the sin that spread throughout God’s creation His promise remained in place for His people as they clung to this promised child.

Abraham received this promise from the Lord in the form of a blessing: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3).  And so the promise of the Lord continued and the seed was sown through Abraham’s lineage.

As time continued so did God’s promise to His people.  The prophets were heralds of this promise and proclaimed the coming Messiah.  No prophet was more prolific in his writing of this Messiah than Isaiah.  Hear the Word of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah:

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.  Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

This is the Son of David of whom the prophet Isaiah foretold:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.“  (Isaiah 9).

And again the prophet spoke: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.  And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”  (Isaiah 11).

The prophet Micah also foretold the coming Messiah:

“But you, O Bethlehem  Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin of from of old, from ancient days.”  (Micah 5:2).

And as the day of the Messiah’s birth drew closer, John the Baptist cried out “Repent for the Kingdom of God is near.”    This Lion of the tribe of Judah is Jesus, whose name means Savior, for He is born to save His people from their sins.

Mary listened faithfully to God’s Word saying “let it be to me according to your Word.”  As the angels sang, and the shepherds wondered, we too sing with joy and behold the great wonder of God in human flesh.  As Simeon beheld this child 8 days after His birth we still have His presence among us in Word and Sacrament.  As He once came wrapped in Human flesh He now wraps Himself in water and word, in bread and wine.  As we hear again this Christmass story, let us look upon this Christ child who is in all ways like us, yet without sin. And at the celebration of His birth we ponder these things and treasure them in our hearts:  The Gospel according to Luke 2 is then read.

           

The Horcrux of the Matter

Spoiler Alert!  Nerd Alert!  Consider this a Deathly Hallows prequel to the movie review.  Sorry to say, I did not see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows at the stroke of midnight when it opened recently.  I simply value sleep to much (sorry Fan-boys, I guess I lose some geek street cred there).  But, I do plan on seeing it this afternoon.  So far everyone who has seen the movie has enjoyed it, and allegedly it follows the book fairly accurately, at least as well as any Hollywood production can.  It can't get much worse than Two Towers (am I right, my fellow Tolkien fans!?).  There's been one question I've had since I heard they were doing the movies and especially this final 7th and soon to be 8th movie.  It's rather fitting that this series will end with an 8th movie.  After all, the books are by Rowlings own admission, all about death and life.  And there's no better number for talking about death and life than the number 8.  8 sided fonts. 8 saved in the ark.  Baptism.  New creation.  Eden restored.  Paradise is yours in the resurrection of Christ - today!  But this is not a paper for Dr. Just (hope you all can take a joke, I do appreciate his work on this subject and if that joke was totally lost on you, I'm sorry for the seminary humor).  This is actually supposed to be a brief post about the one thing I really hope to see in this first installment of the Deathly Hallows.  So, let's cut the muggle and get to the point.  We've known throughout all the books that Harry is the boy who lived because his parents were the ones who did not thanks to he-who-must-not-be-named (here on referred to as Voldemort because He is defeated in Deathly Hallows and his name no longer has any power in Hogwarts or Huntington Beach).  In the book, Deathly Hallows, Harry comes to his parent's tombstone and finds an inscription written on it.  This is what I am most interested in.  For the key to understanding the entire Potter series rests in the inscription on that headstone: The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  Most may pass it off as a clever way to wrap some hope into an otherwise sad and lonely life of a teenage wizard.  But the more nerdy (or just Biblically literate) will recognize this passage, and it is no small significance.  Here's where it comes from:

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.  - 1 Corinthians 15:12-28, especially note verse 26 in bold!

And that my fellow Hogwarts students is the horcrux of the matter.  I won't spoil the entire reason why this is so important in the book.  You'll have to read if for yourself, or watch the movie (maybe, hold the phones on that one).  We'll see if the resurrection shows up as clearly as it does in the books.  Ultimately, that is the reason for the series: confidence in the resurrection in the face of death.  Perhaps you could even say that Harry (and all who are not associated with Voldemort) live in this hope and in the end triumph in it as well...but I fear I have said more than needed.  For now, we'll leave further review for after the show.  Rest assured, I'll be looking at one headstone very closely because Harry was and so was Rowling when she wrote it all. 

We Need A Little Advent

Every December the LWML ladies at Redeemer Lutheran, Huntington Beach host a wonderful event known as Advent by Candlelight. It is a joy to receive their hospitality as we dine on exquisite deserts, sing a few hymns and listen to God's Word of comfort and peace during this Advent season. The following devotion is a little something I prepared for last night's event. It would not have been written were it not for a ginormously enjoyable article by my good friend (and distant cousin) Rev. Hans Fiene in the November Lutheran Witness. His little article along with the memories of Alexander's "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day," gave me the perfect idea for a humorous, yet thoughtful Advent "homily." And in case you're wondering, Christmass is not mispelled. Let's keep the mass in Christmass

Advent by candlelight is the perfect name for this evening.  It’s not just because the calendar doesn’t say December 25^th yet.  Advent is its own season.  Your pastors are always telling you that Advent is not pre-Christmass; that it's not just preparation for Christmass – It’s not Chradvent or Adventmass; Christmass has 12 days of its own after all.  Advent is a season of repentance; waiting, lowliness and preparation.  These are all good, right and salutary things. 

And yet in our daily lives, Advent seems to be everything but the calm before the storm…“let’s face it, it’s hard to celebrate Advent when the demands of celebrating Christmass, both the true version and the secular version, are weighing you down.  With parties and presents, candles and credit breathing down your neck from the moment Thanksgiving ends, it’s not always easy to have the proper Advent frame of mind” (How to Escape the Christmas Madness, Lutheran Witness, Rev. Hans Fiene, November 2010).

So, if your legs are still aching from standing in line at the “you-know-what-crack-of-dawn” and you are all twisted like a peppermint stick because you only bought half of the stuff on your list for 25% of the price you hoped.  Pause.  Take a deep breath.  Listen to the words of John, the Advent man: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  With aching legs He walked to Jerusalem bearing our cross to buy you back  from sin and death, not 25, 50 or 75% off, but 100% saved, forgiven, redeemed. When you need to step outside on the porch to escape the Christmass madness remember, from Jesus’ very first breath in the manger to His last breath on the cross – He lived and died and lives for you.

If your legs are still aching and your boss is a total Grinch and you won’t be receiving that bonus check you’re expecting despite the increased workloads this holiday season leaving your knuckles as white as snow with tension…and those TPS reports need cover sheets and you have meetings coming out your tinsel toes and you’d rather deck your fellow employees than the halls.  Pause.  Take a deep breath.  And listen to the prophet Isaiah: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His Name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  He is Immanuel the God who is one of us, God for us, Messiah, Savior, Lord.  He was born to carry your burdens.  He became flesh to take away your sin.  When you find yourself burning the Yule-log at both ends…remember, Jesus is the beating heart of Christmas and He is also the pulsating life of Advent.

If your legs are still aching and your boss is a total Grinch and your children deserve nothing but a lump of coal in their stocking because they’ve been naughty cotton headed ninny muggings (more than once or twice), your fingers look like a pin cushion from sowing the ears last minute on the polar bear costume for the “winter solstice pageant”, and you’d rather be putting those kids up on the roof-top than the blow-up-Santa that they shot with the BB-gun (I told you, you’d shoot someone’s eye out, kid)!  Pause.  Take a deep breath.  And listen to the Words the angel said to Joseph: “She will bear a Son and you shall call His Name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 

After the egg-nog has worn off and you are feeling ho-ho-horrible and you’re just about fa-la-la-la-la-ed out remember that His manger is the paradise at which our souls reclineth, for there, in the Word made flesh, is the One whose voice the wind and waves obey, the One who rested in Mary’s bosom is the One who goes to the cross that you might rest in His almighty arms.

If your legs are still aching and your boss is a total Grinch and your children deserve nothing but a lump of coal and the only ones coming to town are your relatives and your head won’t stop spinning what with all the TSA pat downs, presents to wrap, Christmass hams to get in the oven, parties to attend, cards to write, concerts to sing, children to dress and get out the door and in the pew 7:31 on Christmas Eve.  Exhale.  Take a deep breath.  And listen to the angels sing: Fear not, behold, I bring you Good News of a great joy that will be for all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

ness is piled higher than a Minnesota snow drift and you're starting to feel like a scrooge (BAAH, Humbug!) and you'd love nothing more than to tell that guy who cut you off in line to kiss something else under the mistletoe and your head is spinning and your legs are aching and your boss is a Grinch and your kids deserve nothing but lumps of coal and the only ones coming to town are the relatives and your Christmas is quickly turning into an Oh Holy Nightmare...and you haven’t had a silent night in weeks and you need relief from a season that has buried you up to your nose so bright in a pile of guilt and worry – remember the Words of our Lord: “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  This is Jesus, your Savior, born in swaddling clothes, crucified, dead and buried in swaddling clothes, for you.  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.

Don’t let Christmass steal your Advent.  Don’t let the world Grinch you of the joy that is yours in Christ.  Advent is a season of repentance, waiting, lowliness and preparation – it is here, in the midst of these things, in Advent, where our Lord meets us with all His forgiving, fulfilling and exulting joy.  “In a season where it seems like everyone and everything is weighing you down, Advent is here to build you up by showing you the love of your Savior, upon whom we wait.  In a season that is often full of stress and chaos, Advent never fails to give you the peace of God in the forgiveness of Christ whose birth, life and death we celebrate” (How to Escape the Christmas Madness, Lutheran Witness, Rev. Hans Fiene, November 2010).  We need a little Advent, right this very minute.  And in Jesus, that’s exactly what we have.  Listen to The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. (Luke 2:1-20).

Life in the Wilderness

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent + December 1^st, 2010
Text: Isaiah 40:1-5; John 1:19-28
Theme for midweek 1: Repentance and Forgiveness:

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

    Who are you? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.
Behold the finger of John the Baptizer who points us to the Lamb of God. But there's a problem. Of all the messenger "tricks up His sleeves," what does God use to announce the coming Messiah? No burning bushes; no dreams or visions; no angels…just a man; and an uncivilized man at that. There stands John with locust legs stuck between his teeth. Disheveled hair. And his wardrobe! No project runway awards for this camel-hair-clad, leather-belted, crusty desert preacher.
    John makes you uncomfortable, doesn't he? The kind of guy fathers hope their daughters never bring home. The kind of guy you make apologies for when he shows up in the Sunday readings: "Oh yes, John the Baptizer, well, he's a little eccentric and a bit uncouth, there's always one in every family."
Why does John make you uncomfortable? Let's be honest; it's not just the diet, or the hair or even the clothing. John the Baptizer is uncivilized – that's the problem. He doesn't live in a gated community with Orange County beige paint and 2.5 children. He doesn't shop at South Coast Plaza. He doesn't try to win friends and influence people. He lives the kind of life we find so unfortunate. He leaves the "real world" and runs to the Judean wilderness – the very place we would avoid - only to eat locust and wild honey and dress like Elijah. He's not his father's kind of priest either - the desert is his temple, the Jordan River is his altar and animal hides are his vestments. Malachi's messenger won't even accept honorable mention. Although our Lord calls him the greatest of men born of woman, unworthy John can't even bear to lay a single sinful finger on the strapping of the Messiah's feet. John is everything that civilized sinners don't want to be.
    Who are you, John? The oh-so-civilized Pharisees want to know. "I am not the Christ." What then, are you Elijah? "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" "No." "Who are you? What do you say about yourself?" But John has nothing to say about himself. So the prophet Isaiah speaks for him: "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Make straight the way of the Lord."
    John is a one-tracked record megaphone. Christ is the Word. John is the voice. The forerunner. The advent man, who prepares you for Christ. He will not rest. He incessantly, persistently proclaims that the Messiah is here. John is what most psychiatrists call a monomaniac – someone with an excessive interest and irrational obsession with one subject: yes, a monomaniac about Christ.
    And that's really the heart of our problem. The humility of John lays bare our false humility. John's preaching forces us to answer the same question the Pharisees asked of him: Who are you? You are not the Christ. And that only leaves one alternative: you are the sinner in need of repentance.
Again, relentlessly John the Baptizer beckons you to into the wilderness. To leave behind the devil's lies that you are a reformed sinner, that you're not that bad, that surely you won't die. Leave behind the savage, fallen place you call "the real world" – a world that calls evil good and good evil, that speaks: "peace, peace," where there is no peace. Leave behind your old sinful nature whose only obsession and excessive interest is yourself.
    Not only does John the Baptizer make us uncomfortable. There's a part of us deep down, that hates John. We'd rather have his head than listen to one more word of repentance. Our Old Adam hates to be stripped naked and made to stand ashamed in front of the mirror of the Law. John's repentance calls us outside of ourselves; because repentance calls down the winnowing fork of judgment. God's Law sandpapers our old Adam as John lays bare, how swiftly our tongues wage war on others, how comfortable we are with mammon, how professional we are at blaming others, how easy we are on ourselves. In the wilderness we're open to the elements. Exposed. Uncovered.
     Is there no other way, John? Again the voice: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." Repentance is the only way through the wilderness. You can't go around it; can't go over it, can't go under it. You must go through it. Our Lord draws you, like John, into the wilderness. To live a life of repentance at John's feet. And there in the desert, where John has pulled out every leg your Old Adam has to stand on, you fall to the dust alone with your sin. You see, the desert is also a lonely place. A place where God's Law stares us straight in the face and reveals the arid wasteland of our sinful hearts. A place where we sit in the dust and ashes of our own mortality.
    And this – as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says – is why Advent is a disturbing penitential season for us. Before Jesus stands John the Baptist (whom we must not skip over)." Before Christmas stands Advent. And it is through Advent repentance that we come to the true fulfillment of Christmas joy.
    Repentance and forgiveness are not how we, or the world, see Advent or Christmas, but it is how Jesus sees it. John calls you out to the barren desert, where the only life is where there is water. John the Baptizer we call him. The water man. His sole purpose is to get you to the river. And once he's got you in the water, he's done his job. Because John's identity is all wrapped up in baptism and so is yours.
    For there in the oasis of the font stands Christ: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. Behold the Lamb of God who pours the water of life into the desert of your sinful flesh, drowning your sin-hardened flesh; there in the desert He prepares a highway to Himself. A road He Himself makes straight through John, through His Word. The preaching of John is really the work of Jesus. For only God can work this kind of repentance in you…only God can turn, change, and flip unrepentant sinners 180 degrees. We go where John goes: Wherever Jesus calls us. To the wilderness for Repentance. To the River of Life for forgiveness. And you, like John, now point to The Font. Altar and Absolution. Lectern and Pulpit and say: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away my sin.
    John's Advent sermon is fulfilled in Jesus the moment He steps into the Jordan. Jesus is right where He wants to be, in your dirty old bath-water. The sinless baptized into a sinner's baptism so that we sinners are baptized into Him. In those blessed waters His life and promises are yours and all your sin is His. There, your conscience which burns with the heat of guilt and sin finds the soothing coolness of sins forgiven. There, your sinful heart cracked under the blazing sun of the Law finds rest in the shadow of Christ Crucified. Behold the Lamb of God. He takes our false humility and suffers our humiliation. He takes our shame and wraps Himself in it. He takes our guilt, our sin, our death and makes them His own. Come down to the river and play. The water is fine. Drink. Swim. Bathe and soak in His fountain of immortality.
    There is life in the water as there is life in the blood. For there is a river of blood and water whose streams make glad the people of God. One fork fills the font where Jesus irrigates your desert of repentance with a flood of springing-sopping-wet- forgiveness. Liquid life. And the other fork fills the chalice, where His life is in the blood. Take, drink for the Forgiveness for your sin-parched lips. Take, eat - your manna in the wilderness.
    Who are you? You are the sinner in need of repentance. And yet in Christ, you are Baptized, you are forgiven and lack for nothing. You are the voice of one crying in the wilderness…Lamb of God you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. And there in Jesus, there is joy in the wilderness. Joy in Advent. Joy in Christmass.

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

The Real Meaning of Advent

   We are quite accustom to all the holiday hullabaloo that occurs this time of the year, perhaps none more well-known than those winter watch words, “Put Christ back in Christmas,” or “We Say Merry Christmas.” Of course, the real meaning of Christmas is essential and we dare not over look it. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and jump the liturgical gun (or, if you prefer football metaphors, draw a false start penalty), missing the most over-looked, under-appreciated and misunderstood seasons of the church year, Advent. In fact, we need to put Advent back in Christmas, for the real meaning of Christmas lies in the real meaning of Advent. If the culture has tossed out God’s gift of Christmas with the wrapping paper, then the Church in modern times has thrown out the season of Advent before the baby is even in the bathwater. Why has the season of Advent fallen on such hard times? What can be done via positive – even Scriptural and Confessional - arguments to restore the rich treasure that is the season of Advent?

   In order to answer these questions briefly, we will be led through three Scriptural themes of Advent by the light of God’s Word in Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s sermons; here the Holy Spirit will take us to His workshop and tinker with His Word.

   Repentance. This is where the season of Advent begins in earnest, with the call of John the Baptist, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance is a theme of Advent as in Lent. However, the focus is different. In Lent, repentance focuses the believer on the life of Christ and His suffering of our sins on our behalf. In Advent, while His future death is expectant, the focus of repentance revolves around the anticipation and waiting, not only His first advent in human flesh but also His second advent on the Last Day. This makes John the Baptist the iron preacher of Advent.

   “The message of Advent becomes a disturbing penitential sermon for us and this is as it must be. Before Jesus stands John the Baptist, before Christmas stands Advent. It is only through repentance that we come to the fulfillment of Christmas” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:588).

   And yet this runs counter to our “me-generation” way of life. Repentance calls us to examine ourselves in light of God’s Word, in light of the Commandments, which expose our sin. And much more than expose, repentance calls us into judgment for our sin. Repentance calls us to live outside ourselves, to be convicted of our sin, but also to be forgiven by Christ, who is he fulfillment of Advent. God’s uses His Law in Advent just as He does throughout all seasons, to kill and bring to life, to bring low and to exalt.

   “Look up, you there staring emptily down at earth” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 13:341). Lift up your heads, you mighty gates, the King of Glory is coming. Jesus comes for those whose eyes have been turned away from heaven only to weep at the world before them. Advent announces the coming end of your humiliation and defeat as they become Christ’s humiliation and defeat. This is the joy and promise we look forward to as we wait.

   Waiting. Advent is a season of waiting which also runs counter to our old sinful nature. “Celebrating Advent means being able to wait…those unfamiliar with the bitter bliss of waiting, of doing without while maintaining hope, will never experience the blessing of fulfillment” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:542). Much of life is spent waiting – engagement, laborious years in education, employment, politics, sickness and so on. But when it comes to Advent, it seems that the Church has had more influence from the culture than vice versa. We are by sinful nature, impatient. And so, waiting runs counter to everything our old Adam knows and loves so well, you. Waiting means denying yourself. Waiting means the church is not at all like our private living rooms, but rather a sacred space in which the holy days of Advent are spent in joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ through Christ’s own presence in Word and Sacrament. This transforms everything we say and do in the church. Popular traditions, such as the Advent wreath and the banners hung each Sunday as Christmas approaches, visually confess what the Scriptures teach about Advent. Traditions like this can be easily replicated in the home. Historically, many churches have even set up decorations in stages as Advent anticipation increases with each new week, drawing us closer to the promise and fulfillment of Christmas. Bonhoeffer reminds us well that it is precisely in waiting that our Lord comes to us:

   Only people who carry restlessness around them can wait, and people who look up reverently to the One who is great in the world. Hence only those who souls give them no peace are able to celebrate Advent, who feel poor and incomplete and who sense that something of the greatness of what is coming, before which one can only bow in humble timidity, in anticipation till God inclines toward us – the Holy One, God in the child of the manger” (Bonhoeffer BDW 10:542).

   This was the restless hope that Mary carried with her as she pondered the coming birth of Christ. In her lowliness, she embodies the lowliness of Advent throughout the ages.

   Lowliness. It should come as no surprise that this theme, as with the previous ones, seems foolish to the world. But this is precisely the way God works, through foolish, lowly means – an unwed virgin mother, God in infant human flesh. God is not ashamed of human lowliness. Quite the opposite in fact. He is most concerned with it and has done everything to for us who struggle with in this sinful fallen world.  In our world of sin, evil and death, Advent even carries for us an aching homesickness for the new creation that comes in Christ.

   “A groan wrests itself from our breast, ‘Come, God, Lord Jesus Christ, come into our world, into our homelessness, into our sin, into our death, come you yourself, and share with us, be a human being as we are and conquer for us…Come along into my death, into my sufferings and struggles, and make me holy and pure despite this evil, despite death” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:543).

   The only answer is the pronouncement of Advent, the promise of Redemption through Christ where God Himself answers the cry of humanity definitively in His Son. Jesus comes. That’s what Advent means after all, come. Come, Lord Jesus. And in this way, Advent is a picture of the entire Christian life: repentance and forgiveness, waiting and fulfillment, lowliness and exaltation, death and redemption – all won for us by Christ and all experienced by Christ for us. And so with each passing Advent, we await the final Advent.

   “The time of Advent is a time of waiting, though our entire life is a time of Advent, a time of waiting for that final time when a new heaven and a new earth will emerge…Yes, come soon, Lord Jesus. Amen” (Bonhoeffer, DBW 10:546).

   May your homes and families be filled with the hope and promise of Christ this joyous Advent season as the Sunday sermons and midweek services draw us into the joyful, penitential, waiting, lowly and yet blessed, glorious and holy season.