Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + 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. (Amen.)
When we think about celebrating Christmas in a few weeks, we may think about all the things that we have to do! There may be decorations to put up, cards to write, presents to make or buy, and food to bake or cook—just to name four things! With its emphasis on repentance—that is, sorrow over our sin and trust in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake—the Church Year’s season of Advent has us get ready or prepare not only for the celebration of Christmas, the Son of God’s coming in the past to save us, but also for His coming to us now in His Word and Sacraments and for His coming in the future in order to judge the living and the dead. During Advent we give a good share of our attention to the work of John the Baptizer, who, the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, was “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17; confer v.76). While John would actively “make people ready” for the purpose and, ideally, the result that they passively would “be prepared”, ultimately God would be behind the whole process, which is not surprising, given that consideration of the words often translated “make ready” and “prepare”, and other Bible passages where those words are used, reveals that God prepared us in creation, in redemption, and for glorification. So, our Midweek Advent sermon series theme this year is “Making-ready a people prepared”, and our focus tonight is on our being “Prepared in creation”.
When we hear Holy Scripture read in English, sometimes the connections between the related original words and passages are less clear. For example, the antiphon for tonight’s additional Psalm refers to God’s “making” and “fashioning” us (Psalm 119:73-80; antiphon: v.73). The Hebrew word behind that “fashioning” also can mean such things as “establishing”, “preparing”, and “making ready”. So, parallel to the Triune God’s “making” us, we could say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit “make us ready” or “prepare” us. You probably know the Bible’s accounts of God’s creating the bodies and souls of the first man and woman “very good”, of their being tempted by the devil and falling into sin, and so then of God’s through them creating sinful offspring down to us today. As Holy Scripture makes clear, for example, with rhetorical questions asked by the patriarch Job, the same One makes or “makes ready” or “prepares” all people in the womb (Job 31:15), often with the consequence that our existence is a certainty, especially as God provides for or preserves us. The problem is that unlike Job, we often fail to recognize such realities.
In tonight’s First Reading, the Divinely‑inspired Moses spoke prophetically of the people of Israel as if they already occupied the Promised Land and already had dealt corruptly with the Lord Who had “made” and “established”, or “prepared”, them. Moses called them “foolish and senseless people” and said they were “a crooked and twisted generation”, to the extent that Moses even said they were “no longer” God’s children because they were “blemished”. The same can be said of us by nature. And, our sinful nature leads us to all sorts of sinful thoughts, sinful words, and sinful deeds. We may think wrongly that we are responsible for ourselves and responsible only to ourselves. We may think wrongly that we are better than other people, or we may fail to value other people as those whom God has prepared in creation, whether those other people are at the beginning of life, the end of life, or somewhere in between. We may think wrongly that we preserve our own lives, or we may criticize God wrongly for failing to preserve our lives. As the Divinely‑inspired Jeremiah said in tonight’s Third Reading, the Lord “made” the earth by His power and “established”, or “prepared”, the world by His wisdom, but every fallen person is stupid and without knowledge. We deserve temporal and eternal death.
Yet, as we heard the Divinely‑inspired Isaiah say in tonight’s Second Reading, the Lord Who created the heavens and “established”, or “prepared”, the earth, is the Savior, Who does not put to shame or confound to all eternity but Who saves, with an everlasting salvation, those of Israel and the other nations who turn in sorrow from their sin and trust Him to forgive their sin for Jesus’s sake. The Son of God in human flesh, Jesus lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and He died on the cross for our failures to live that perfect life. Jesus died in our place, as our substitute, and then He rose from the dead. When we repent, then God forgives us. As we prayed in tonight’s additional Psalm, His steadfast love comforts us, and His mercy comes to us that we might live. God Who prepared us in creation preserves us and makes‑ready and prepares us as His people in His Christian Church, in which Christian Church, as the Small Catechism says, He daily and richly forgives all our sins and the sins of all believers (Small Catechism II:6).
As you might expect, the God Who prepared us in creation and Who sent John the Baptizer to make ready a people prepared by preaching and baptizing now makes‑ready and prepares us through His pastors’ reading and preaching His Word to groups such as this group and through their applying His Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper—Bread and Wine that are the Body and Blood of Christ given and shed for us. In all of these ways, we who repent receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, we can say that we are re‑created so that we are again God’s children. As, for example, the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17; confer Galatians 6:15). And, as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, having been united with Christ in His death and resurrection by Baptism, now we are to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-14).
And, tonight’s additional Psalm describes well such newness, how the Lord gives us understanding to learn and at least want to do His commandments, His just and righteous decrees, His law in which we delight, His precepts on which we meditate, His testimonies, His statutes. Yet, we will continue to fail to keep His Commandments perfectly, and so, with daily sorrow over our sin and trust in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, we live in His forgiveness of sins. At times, the Lord faithfully may afflict us, and He may seem to be hidden from us, but He is always near to us as we turn repentantly to Him. The Lord has prepared us in creation, but we might say that His preparing us goes back even further than that. St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3-6).
When making‑ready and otherwise preparing to celebrate Christmas by putting up decorations, wiring cards, making or buying presents, and baking or cooking food, some people may really enjoy putting all the effort into the season, and other people may wish that someone else would just take care of all of it for them. When making‑ready or otherwise preparing to celebrate Christmas and to receive our Lord in His Word and Sacraments and on the Last Day in repentance, the Lord initially does everything for us, and then we work with Him by letting Him continue to work in us. As we considered tonight, we are “Prepared in creation”, and, as we will consider the next two weeks, we also are “Prepared in redemption” and “Prepared for glorification”. For all His work preparing us, thanks be to God, now and forever!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +