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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
If nothing else does, the pink or rose-colored candle on the Advent Wreath indicates that there is something different about today, the Third Sunday in Advent. The blue or sometimes purple color associated with repentance is lightened at least for today as the more-somber penitential tone gives way to a greater emphasis on joy. The Collect called for our Lord to lighten the darkness of our hearts, and the Old Testament Reading, the Gradual (Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 118:26 altered), and the Epistle Reading (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24) all spoke of rejoicing related to the presence and work of the Lord and His salvation. Perhaps less-obviously connected is the Gospel Reading (John 1:6-8, 19-28), although in it John the Baptizer clearly declares the presence of the Lord, albeit unrecognized by at least the Jewish leaders (see Nocent, 1:139). Given the Old Testament Reading’s better fit with the day’s greater emphasis on joy, this morning we consider the Old Testament Reading, and we do so under the theme “Rejoicing in the Lord for the garments of salvation”.
As you may know, Isaiah’s whole work prophesies more than 200 years into the future of Old Testament history, not to mention its prophecy about the more-distant coming of the Messiah and His final Judgment Day. The portions from Isaiah 61 that we heard this morning have the Servant Messiah, the Lord God Himself, and His people all speaking about how, despite their exile and other oppression, the Servant Messiah’s work turns their shame of banishment into an excess of joy.
In that Reading we also heard the Lord God Himself say that He loves justice and hates robbery and wrong. The particular kind of robbery mentioned may be that where people lie in wait and violently rob those who come along the road, perhaps even flaying them or exposing them to similar horrors. The people whom the Lord God was using to chastise His own people apparently were guilty of such robbery, but His own people themselves were certainly also guilty, at least of other kinds of wrong: injustice, unrighteousness, actions contrary to God’s character and actions against which God had to respond. And, God did respond, and, as a result of His response, His people were poor, brokenhearted, captive, bound, and mourning over their sin. They wore ashes on their head and, with their faint spirit, they likely also were wearing garments of repentance such as sackcloth.
You and I, as consequences of our sin, may also be poor, brokenhearted, captive, bound, and mourning over our sin, even if we are not at present wearing ashes on our heads or, with our faint spirits, wearing garments of repentance such as sackcloth. We may recognize that God hates not only robbery but all wrong, all unrighteousness, and we should know our own unrighteous deeds. We justly deserve His present and eternal punishment. Our God’s day of vengeance should be visited upon us, if we do not turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning. John the Baptizer’s voice still cries out of the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord”. So, we repent! As we sang in the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 345:3), “Let us haste, with tears of sorrow, / One and all, to be forgiv’n.”
And then, thanks to the work of the Lord God’s Servant Messiah, instead of our being disconsolate mourners seated on an ash heap, strewing ashes on our foreheads, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ we are forgiven sinners, rejoicing and exulting in the Lord our God; He at least figuratively gives us a beautiful headdress—a turban, wreath or garland—and garments that lead to praise: the garments of salvation and the robe of His own righteousness.
From the moment of God’s first prophecy of the coming Savior, His faithful people were watching and waiting for its joyful fulfillment. Eve may have even thought that Cain was the one, though he was far from it; rather, Jesus is, as the Entrance Hymn put it, the “Joy of ev’ry longing heart” (LSB 228:2). As we will sing in the first Distribution Hymn (LSB 346:2), before John the Baptizer and Jesus were even born, John leapt for joy at Jesus’s presence (Luke 1:39‑44), and later John had complete joy hearing Jesus’s voice (John 3:29). As the Sunday School Children and Teachers this morning reminded us, after the birth of Jesus, a heavenly messenger brought the shepherds good news of great joy for all the people (Luke 2:10), and, as we heard in the Old Testament Reading, Jesus Himself was anointed to bring good news, to bind up, to proclaim liberty and the opening of the prison, and to give the beautiful headdress and garments that lead to praise: the garments of salvation and the robe of His own righteousness. More than only announcing such things, Jesus effects them, because of His death on the cross for our sin. To paraphrase John’s later proclamation, as the first Distribution Hymn does (LSB 346:3): “Behold the Lamb of God, / Who takes away our sin, / Who for our peace and joy / Will full atonement win.”
In what has been called “a remarkable blog post”, Facebook on Friday admitted that the company’s own research and the research of others indicates that only reading their Facebook content, without commenting, corresponded with people’s feeling worse. But, research apparently also indicates that actively interacting with people on Facebook, sharing comments and such, corresponds with people’s feeling better. (The Verge.) Far better than any social media transformation is the joy that we have thanks to the presence and work of the Lord and His salvation. The Divinely‑inspired Isaiah says as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (confer Exodus 29:5-9; Zechariah 3:4-5), so the Lord clothes us who repent with the garments of salvation and covers us who believe with the robe of His righteousness. The bridegroom and bride are typical examples of ultimate joy, the deepest and most-sincere joy, the joy one has in one’s heart and that shows itself outwardly. You and I can have such joy in the Church, likened to the Bride of Christ, as the Lord, the Bridegroom, through others anointed to the prophetic office of the ministry of the word, cleanses us by the washing of water with the word in Holy Baptism, preparing us for the marriage supper (Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:8; 21:2). We have a foretaste of that feast to come already here and now in the Holy Supper of Jesus’s true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins. As we will sing in the third Distribution Hymn, “The marriage feast is waiting; / The gates wide open stand. / Arise, O heirs of glory; / The Bridegroom is at hand.” (LSB 515:2; confer Isaiah 62:5.)
The Lord, Who comes in His Feast and over Whom we rejoice, faithfully gives us our recompense and makes an everlasting covenant with us (confer Hebrews 13:20). Ultimately, also our offspring are known among the nations and are acknowledged to be blessed by the Lord. As certainly as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so certainly the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations (confer Genesis 1:11-12; 2:9; 8:22; also Mark 4:26-29; Psalm 126:6?). Now, with daily repentance, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins, “Rejoicing in the Lord for the garments of salvation”, and we can be certain that, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in today’s Epistle Reading, God ultimately will sanctify us completely and keep our whole spirit and soul and body blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He Who calls us is faithful; He will surely do it!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +