A Mountain that Won't Kill You

First Sunday in Advent

November 27, 2016

Isaiah 2:2

A Mountain that Won't Kill You

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

Most mountains try to kill you. You could fall. You could freeze. You could suffer from acute mountain sickness and have trouble breathing or worse. I always get a kick out of Christian-ish posters that show Mount Everest or K2 with a line from the Psalms overprinted: “Our God is an awesome God!”

God is everywhere, this is true, but He only wants to be found in Christ through His Church where is Gospel is heard and eaten. And so the prophet Isaiah describes a mountain that won't kill you:

²It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and all nations will flow to it. ³Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. Then He will teach us from His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For from Zion the law shall go out, and the Lord’s word shall go out from Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:2-3 + Evangelical Heritage Version

This mountain is Mt. Zion and it is alternate name for the city of Jerusalem. Zion at first specially meant a certain part of the city, a rocky hill near where the Temple was built. In the Psalms, Zion's meaning shifted to mean the Temple mount itself. And over time, Zion became another name for Jerusalem.

And here Zion and Jerusalem go beyond the Old Testament and show us the future. Here is God's city, because His Word is there. And it go out in the world calling God's chosen people home. In our home war and weapons will be out of place because Jesus will rule all His people.

This prophecy shows us our everlasting life in heaven, but it also shows us how things are now. This is a prophecy of the Church on earth. In the Church force and coercion are out of place; our “weapon” is the Word of God. The Law of God accuses us of our wickedness and shows us our sin: carousing, drunkenness, sexual sin, wild living, strife, and jealousy (Romans 13:14).

And our sin quickly crops up because you are thinking, “I don't carouse . . . at least not anymore.” We sin as much as we can or at least as much as we can get away with, so the fact that you like to go to bed at 9:30 instead of 2 am doesn't say much that is good about us.

Others may be thinking, “I never caroused.” But it's only because no one would carouse with you, yet you secretly were jealous of those who partied hard and never seemed to suffer any ill effects.

The Law shows us that we sin as much as we can. The answer to sin isn't to run away from it; the answer is Christ. He is coming to be our judge, but for those who live on Zion, in the Church now, who do not despise preaching and God's Word, but gladly hear and learn it, there is fear and there is love. Just outside Jerusalem Christ was crucified, the fearful punishment for our sin and wonderful mercy of our Lord that washes our sin away.

The Law: we sin as much as we can;

the Gospel: Jesus forgives all our sin.

Most mountains kill you, if you give them enough time. But not God's mountain, not Zion, not His Church, because there is where He wants to be found. There is where He comes and speaks to you, His accusing Law and His forgiving Gospel.

Advent means that Jesus comes. He comes in three ways. He has come in Bethlehem, God in the flesh. He comes to you now in Baptism, Absolution, and Communion, washing, speaking, and eating. And He is coming again at an hour when you do not expect Him. It is true that we should expect His final advent today, but whether or not He comes today, we are one day closer to the everlasting mountain because we are already on the Mountain. Jesus is with us.

It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Romans 13:11 + Evangelical Heritage Version

For even the Son of Man did not come to be Served, but to Serve, and to Give His Life as a Ransom for Many. Amen.