First Sunday in Advent (Dec 1, 2024)

Jeremiah 33:14–16 NIV84

14 “ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15 “ ‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.’

1 Thessalonians 3:9–13 (NIV84)

9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. 11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Pastor’s translation

(v 9) How are we going to be able to thank God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice in our God’s presence because of you? (v 10) Night and day we pray as earnestly as possible that we may see your face and shore up the shortcomings of your faith. (v 11) May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus make straight our way to you; (v 12) and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we do for you, (v 13) so that he may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Luke 19:28–40 NIV84

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

A Real Christmas Requires Remembering Why Christ Came. This year I can’t help but think of those people in North Carolina whose communities were destroyed by Hurricane Helene. I read this past Friday that within the county where beautiful Asheville North Carolina resides at least 225 new eviction cases have been filed since mid-October. The article went on to say that as many as 40 new cases are filed each day. 225 new eviction cases of people’s homes. But, I also heard of a group of people in Ohio who are volunteering and donating materials to build “tiny-homes”, with a goal to build and deliver 50 by Christmas to that region of North Carolina.

As we know by watching the news, and some of us from personal experience, flood waters come with incredible power. Flood waters go exactly where it wants to go. A favorite recipe for such a thing is to just get out of harm’s way.

God’s love is like a mighty river that floods and overflows our lives. When God’s love surge at the shoreline of our lives, his living water quenches our thirsty souls. His love, an ever-flowing stream, clears away our resistance and changes our plans for survival.

St. Paul had brought a loving flood of God’s forgiveness to the Thessalonians. Later he learned how their lives had overflowed in similar fashion to their countrymen. His words to them in our text provide us with some sound guidelines for managing (i.e. being good stewards of) a love that floods. By God’s grace, we become managers of the flood of God’s love in Jesus. It is my prayer that we will not stem the tide. Rather, may his grace open the flood gates, and enable us to go with the flow.

We often Stem the Tide of God’s Grace

Like when we fail to gratefully tell others how God has blessed us through them.

St. Paul was blessed through the Thessalonians. God brought a tremendous amount of joy into Paul’s life through them. Paul tells them “How are we going to be able to thank God for you, in return for all the joy with which we rejoice in our God’s presence because of you?” (1 Thess 3:9).

Has God brought joy into your life through someone? But when was the last time you told them “I thank God for the joy he has given me through you”? What a blessing such words are to the recipient! God can use such words to encourage, strengthen, or reassure a fellow parishioner, or our spouse and our children of his overflowing love. But when such words go unspoken, an opportunity to reassure, strengthen, or encourage has been missed and we have, to some degree, stemmed the flow of God’s love.

We also stem the tide of God’s grace when we neglect our prayer life.

Paul prayed to get back to the Thessalonians: “Night and day we pray as earnestly as possible that we may see your face.”

Do we pray as earnestly as Paul did? Wouldn’t we be better managers of God’s overflowing love if we got rid of our worries at the throne of God’s grace? How many times have needless fears stemmed the flow of God’s love within us? Have we asked God in prayer to make us a better managers of his overflowing love? Yet many of us are not better managers because we have not asked.

The tide of God’s grace is also stemmed when our faith remains weak and is not shored up through the Word and the sacraments.

Paul knew that inevitable sufferings would become obstacles to bold witness. He wanted to continue his readers’ instruction, “that we may shore up the shortcomings of your faith.” He knew they needed to be strengthened by the Word of God.

Often we are so busy building human levees and breakers for our own protection we forget that God himself is the one who shores us up through the means of grace—that is in returning to our Baptism where this flood washes away our sin, where His holy Body and Blood was given and shed to cleanse us from our sin, and in the Holy Absolution where God declares that our sin has been atoned for by the love of Christ Jesus. All of this is ours by faith. Yet, when we neglect his Word and sacraments our faith becomes weaker and our management of his overflowing love suffers.

Christ Opens the Flood Gates.

1 Thessalonians 3:11–12 “Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you;”

God poured out his love into our hearts through Baptism, a “flood” of grace like Noah’s (1 Pet 3:19–21). We talk a lot about baptism because baptism and faith renders us: “blameless in holiness” and “abounding in love.”

Daily we remember our Baptism into Christ. As we confess our sins daily—that is, repent—the flood waters of God’s love washes us clean once again.

It is a holy washing that only God can do: Ephesians 5:26–27 “…that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

With Christ there is forgiveness for all the times’ we have stemmed the tide of God’s grace, whether it be due to our thanklessness, our weak prayer life, our neglect of the means of grace, or for whatever other reason.

IT IS FOR THIS REASON Christ came into the world.

IT IS FOR THIS REASON Christ died on the cross.

IT IS FOR THIS REASON Christ gives us his body and blood in his holy Supper—for the forgiveness of sins every week.

A Real Christmas is remembering why Christ came! He came so that by his sacrifice he might make us “blameless and holy.” And Christ still comes to us this day in his Word and Sacrament to “supply what is lacking in your faith.” In all this He demonstrates his love toward us.

And now God uses his people as instruments of his love. Think of those who brought you into the Christian faith and those who have helped keep you in the faith by their love.

Paul was not going back to the Thessalonians on his own. He relied on God, rather than his bold intentions. “May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus make straight our way to you” (Pastor’s translation). God was directing him to them.

God directs us to those who need his love—family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.

God blesses his people so that we might be a blessing to others.

Paul prays that God’s love, given to the Thessalonians, would not be confined by them, but freely shared. Therefore he asks, “May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for each other and for everyone” (1 Thess. 3:12).

Each of us receives blessings from above in abundance (“my cup overflows” Ps 23) so that God’s love can flow out from us and bless the lives of others.

Luther writes, “A man is placed between God and his neighbor as a medium which receives from above and gives out again below, and is like a vessel or tube through which the stream of divine blessings must flow without intermission to other people.” (Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson [Chicago Press, 1982], 734–35, translated from W.A. 10.1.1:100).

Throughout this coming year Christ will enable us to go with God’s flow as we manage his overflowing love. Let us pray that we do not stem the tide, but that his grace will continue to open our flood gates, and pour out through us into the lives of others.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The Second Reading is chosen as the basis for the sermon, as it ties all the Advents of Christ together while answering the question, “Why did Christ come?” Christ came so that by his sacrifice, he might make us “blameless and holy.” Christ is coming again “with all his holy ones” on the Last Day. And Christ still comes to us in Word and Sacrament, to “supply what is lacking in your faith.”

The Word and Sacrament seem unimpressive. But that is simply typical for Christ’s work—that glory is hidden behind the ordinary. The Gospel demonstrates that. Jesus didn’t look particularly remarkable on the back of that donkey. Yet, he demonstrated his omniscience in finding it and his omnipotence in riding an unbroken colt. More, he was riding it to his death and our salvation—glorious grace! Likewise, listening to some sermons (perhaps extra ones if you count midweek Advent) and eating a bite of bread seem inconsequential. Yet Paul tells us this is how God “strengthens [our] hearts,” makes us “holy,” and “make[s] [our] love increase and overflow for each other.”

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Paul does two things at once. He thanks God for the Thessalonians and offers petitions to God on their behalf. Paul’s thanks arise from the news from Timothy that the Thessalonian Christians are continuing in faith and love (1 Thess 3:6). Paul makes these petitions because he has spent only a short time in Thessalonica and wants to complete what is lacking in the faith of his friends. Furthermore, his efforts have been cut short by persecutors of the faith (1 Thess 2:14-16), and so he is uncertain about the Thessalonians’ spiritual health. Paul uses the word “tribulation” to describe his present woes as he, torn from the Thessalonians, waits alone and impatiently while Timothy travels north to ascertain the Thessalonian situation. The tribulation is not merely some future trouble for the church but present difficulties faced by Paul and by all Christians.

Christians today need to see the Biblical response to tribulations as God’s message of hope in their often difficult lives. God’s answer to the tribulation is twofold. Ultimately He will deliver us by the parousia (coming or appearing) of our Lord Jesus. In the meantime He comforts, strengthens, and prepares us today with the ministry of the apostolic Word. Since no one knows the day of the parousia (1 Thess 5:2), Paul is more anxious to prepare and strengthen his people than to discern any divine secrets. Since he knows the health of the Thessalonians’ faith, Paul’s petitions for them are really more of a blessing or benediction than pious wishful thinking. His words also provide us an excellent summary of what Paul’s ministry was to accomplish and what the ministry of the apostolic Word can accomplish today, especially in terms of preparing for the coming of the Lord.