Advent Midweek 2, 2021

Advent Midweek 2 2021

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church

Hebrews 1:1-4/2:5-10, John 1:1-18

Incarnation speaks louder than words

As we crawl closer and closer to Christmas, we draw nearer to the time when folks come back to the church for a their annual or bi-annual visit. Whether they’re dragged along by their mothers or grandmothers that they’re visiting for the holidays, or if its motivated by that unshakable curiosity over what this is all about. And as they come, inevitably they come with questions. Why can’t your God give me a sign so I can know He’s real. Why doesn’t your God speak today, like He did long ago through prophets, or through miracles? And if He does speak, what does He say?

Yes, this is the time when many outside of the church begin to ask themselves these questions again. But are these not the same questions that we’ve been asking the whole time? See, as 21stcentury Christians we tend to have a tendency to think fondly of the Old Testament era as a time when God regularly spoke to us through prophets and signs. As if in this time it would be inconceivable to not believe in God, and we tend to look at our own circumstance as modern western Christians and the society around us as a people almost in an unfortunate spot, as if God was revealed then, but hidden now. I mean come on, pillars of cloud and smoke, flash flooding, frog plagues, and prophets!? All we have is this book, how are we any different from the Muslims, or the Hindu’s, or the Buddhists? How are we different from all the other religions who essentially believe the words of some random book to the exclusion of the other book clubs, by making arbitrary preferential claims. How is Christianity anything other thanan elitist book club? See, it seems to us by the eyes of the flesh that God was once revealing Himself, but that now in these latter days He has hidden himself in some random and often confusing (so the world says) book. To the eyes of the flesh, when God spoke through prophets, when He manifested as a pillar of cloud and fire and smoke, this is what seems to be the most climactic divine revelation, but in truth, it is God being more hidden than ever. Don’t believe me? Try to have a relationship with your spouse or your parents through someone else as your prophets, never visibly see one another, represent to one another your presence with them with pillars of clouds of smoke. See how long that lasts. At the time when God seemed to speak most, He was most quiet. Yes, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” But in these last days, He has spoken to us in His fullness, through His Son, the Word Himself. In Christ, He has revealed Himself in flesh. Not only speaking to us in ways that we could understand, but in sharing our very humanity with us. It is here that real relationship happens, in bodies. Bodies that you can see, and walk with, eat with, laugh with, cry with – relationship begins with presence, just as much as creation began with God’s Word being spoken. And what is that Word?

John Chapter 1;in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

You seethis Son, this Jesus Christ – is God in-flesh. The creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, and the savior of all things. The exact imprint of God’s very being, the reflection of His glory. In Him, the fullness of deity dwells bodily (Col 2:9). While we were here on earth complaining about how far away God was, how indiscernible His will was, how absent His presence was from our lives, He was coming to us, through a lowly virgin, to get into our skin, literally, and walk among us. While we were grumbling over the question of suffering, Christ was bearing ours for uson the cross. While we were teaching about what we think is right and wrong about divorce and remarriage, Christ was coming to purchase His bride, to lay His life down for her, the church. While we were arguing about the place that children have in the church of Christ, He was baptizing them into it, and breathing faith into their hearts by His Word. And after all was said and done, after He had made purification for our sins, as we read in Hebrews, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty of God, everywhere present, absent to none, filling all things with His rule, His kingship, withHimself.

There will always be the temptation to footnote the Incarnation, to footnote the Cross and the Resurrection, to say yeah that’s nice and all but I want to know “what now” I want a list of things to do, I want something that will “help me” in a practical way in daily life. There will always be the temptation to make the gospel merely the footnote to the Law, the real star of the show as we would have it. There will always be the temptation to make Christ the door into the Christian life, when in fact He IS the Christian life. If you want to know about marriage, look to Christ, who laid His life down for the church, His bride, who has gone to be with His Father in heaven, to prepare a place for us, and who has promised to return to bring us into the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb and His bride. If you want to know about children, look to the one through whom they were knit together in the womb by His speaking, the one who sustains them every second of every minute of every day, who brings them to the Baptismal font even though they cannot walk, cannot reason, cannot consent to His grace (and neither can we) to bring them the forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation that He offers to all. And If you want to know about how God can be good when suffering is so bad, look to the good God who took upon our flesh, that He might bear our sorrows, suffer our punishments, and die for our sins. He is the God who suffers. And it is through His suffering, that His authorship of our salvation is made complete.

You see, what the world expects, is for God to be an abstract non-visible Lawgiver. They want Him to give them a behavioral rule book. And so whether in the church or outside of it they constantly ask, and even judge the virtue of a church against another on what it teaches on these ethical or political or societal issues. What does your church or God say about divorce, what of raising children, or gender roles, and who is ultimately responsible for suffering? But all that is to be known about these things, aboutdivorce, about gender roles, or the reality of suffering, these big hot topic issues – these things have been given by Moses in the Law, they have been given by the prophets, and they have been spoken about much by those who study the Law both in Scripture and in nature since the beginning of time. But the God that we seek to know by these things, He has come not in command, but in promise. He has come in the flesh to reveal the way, the truth, and the life in Himself. He has come to bless His children.

And though we so oftenthink that we are most pitiable of all, living neither in the timewhen God spoke through prophets, nor when Christ was present in His earthly ministry, it is to us, that He is most present of all, for He has not come to us in command, but in promise, and according to His promise, and according to the faith that we confess in the apostles Creed, havingascended high, He is present here through His body and blood given and shed for you in the Sacrament. He is present for you right now in these words of promise. And He is present in waters which bore the Triune name that was marked upon your forehead in Baptism. He is here, and He is for you.

So, blessed ones. Take and eat. Have your Christ. For in Him, and only in Him, can you know anything of God as creator, as as saviour, or as sanctifier.Amen.