Lift Up Your Heads

Second Sunday of Advent

December 10, 2017

Luke 21:28

Lift Up Your Heads

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Lord commands us to do several things in today’s Gospel:

lift up your heads;

know that the kingdom of God is near;

watch yourselves;

stay alert.

LUKE 21:28,31,34,36 EHV

Jesus' commands all revolve around seeing and believing and correctly understanding what is happening.

We are expected to be able to see the distress of nations, the decline of civilization, and the degradation that comes with fear as clearly as signs in sun and moon and stars. Yet we are told not to run and hide, but to pray and to straighten up and lift our heads.

These horrors are to be interpreted like buds on a fig tree. It is not winter that is coming, it is summer. It is not destruction and desolation and famine that is coming.

The fig tree is budding.

Your redemption draws near.

The devil, the world, and our fallen flesh are thrashing about in death throes. It is horrific, terrifying, devastating. But they will pass away. Thanks be to God: they will pass away, but the Word of the Lord will not pass away.

So watch yourselves, says the Lord, so that you don't think that the worst thing that can happen in this life is physical death. Watch yourselves so that your second worst fear is unhappiness.

But everything is going to be okay, because Christ has died for you.

And now our redemption draws near.

If they must, then let the seas rise and the poles melt and the earth itself burn.

Our redemption draws near.

Take they goods, fame, child, and wife, take they food, music, and laughter: they yet have nothing won. The Kingdom ours remaineth.

Our redemption draws near.

So straighten up. Raise your heads. Look not to the things of this world or to politicians or to movements or even to the doctor’s sad news. Look not to Facebook or Instagram.

Our redemption is drawing near.

It is not just Christmas that is coming. The Last Day, the time when heaven and earth pass away, when horrors and terror will be on every hand, that is coming.

But it will not be a horror for the Baptized who are now trapped in prison, caught in the web of our sins, waiting for our redemption to draw near. Soon we will rejoice and exult and lift up our heads.

And it isn’t just the Last Day that is coming, even now, right now, the Lord Himself comes. He comes here, now, into the midst of our guilt, our fears and our sorrows.

Lift up your heads.

Your redemption draws near now, here, in this place. He speaks in His Word. His Spirit stirs your heart and you believe. His Absolution presents you to His Father as His own dear, immaculate and holy bride.

He comes now, in His Flesh, and enters into you with His risen Body and Blood consummating the marriage, strengthening your faith, and forgiving your sins.

Echoing the Lord’s words from today’s Gospel the pastor turns to us each Sunday and commands “Lift up your hearts” and we say: “We lift them up to the Lord.” What we mean by this is that we want to stop thinking about other stuff. However inattentive we’ve been to this point in the Service, whatever grudges we might have been holding, whatever lusts or fantasies we might have been indulging, let us forsake all sin now.

Let us repent and come before the Lord’s risen Body and Blood with awe and joy and thanksgiving.

We lift our hearts up to the Lord where they belong, not high in heaven, but we lift them up to the Altar, not to be sacrificed, but we lift up them to the altar where He promises to be for us in order to receive the benefit and blessing of the One who Sacrificed Himself for us on the Holy Cross. We lift them up there, now, here, to receive Him as worthily as we might, that is with faith and confidence that His Word is true, that His invitation is valid and makes us worthy, and that He is here for us and truly forgives our sins.

This is your redemption, your Christ, who draws near. The one who died for you and has declared you righteous before His Father comes now in Word and Sacrament to bless you and encourage you. Soon He will also come in glory. He will finish the good work He has begun in you.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thanks be to God!

At Just the Right Time

First Sunday of Advent

December 3, 2017

Matthew 21:4–5

At Just the Right Time

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

— MATTHEW 21:1–5 —

Jesus wasn't making His list and checking it twice. That is, He wasn't accomplishing His plan of salvation by ticking off boxes on checklist written on a scroll tucked up His sleeve.

It wasn't as though Jesus woke up on Palm Sunday, five days before He was crucified, and thought to Himself, “Okay, what prophecies do I need to fulfill today? Oh, right, I have to ride on a donkey today.”

The eternal Son of God who created not the idea of time, but Time itself, chose to live in time and in our history. But while He chose to limit His use of His divine power for a time, it wasn't ever controlling Him.

On the other hand, Time certainly pushes us around. And no other time than now. We have obligations to fulfill. Lists to make. Items to order. Tickets to buy. Boxes to wrap. Lights to hang. Trees to chop (or assemble).

And then the world has the audacity to say that if you don't get it all done in time, you haven't had Christmas.

Christ came to earth to tell you that everything's going to be okay. He was born so that everything would be okay. He rode into Jerusalem so that everything would be okay.

The crowds were exactly right to shout hosanna to Jesus because it meant that everything was going to be okay. Hosanna means save us and our dear Lord did just that. His royal death on a lowly cross was the sacrifice for all our sin.

We use our time badly, sinfully even, but everything's still going to be okay because Jesus is on the cross for us. That's why He came. He promised to die and He did for us.

And so shortly before receiving His true body and blood for our salvation, we joyfully sing the words that proclaim His arrival, His advent:

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

The deeds prophesied about Jesus weren't dictating what He would be doing on each day of His life on earth. Instead, it is better to think of it like this: Jesus simply did what He does and the prophets inspired by God simply wrote down what was already as good as done at just the right time:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

— ROMANS 5:6–8 —

Amen.