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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. (Amen.)
Preparing food is not only a part of our getting ready to celebrate Christmas, as we noted last week, but preparing food is also a part of our getting ready to celebrate other holy‑days, observe special occasions, and even just live every‑day life! Not surprisingly, then, the Bible refers to such things as Joseph’s telling the steward of his house to “make ready” or “prepare” for his brothers to dine with him (Genesis 43:16); Joshua’s telling the officers of the people to “prepare” their provisions in order to take possession of the Promised Land (Joshua 1:11); Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites’ telling the people to send meat and wine to those who have nothing “ready” or “prepared” (Nehemiah 8:10); and, perhaps a more‑familiar example, Jesus and His disciples’ discussing their “preparing” for Him to eat the Passover on the night when He was betrayed (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13). From that Passover Feast and its institution of the Holy Supper, we know that there is a close connection between our feasting and our redemption and that the Lord Himself does the work of “making ready” both our feast and our redemption. So, as this year’s Midweek Advent sermon series, with its theme of “Making-ready a people prepared” (Luke 1:17; confer v.76), last week focused on our being prepared in creation, tonight focuses on our being “Prepared in redemption”. And, tonight’s three Readings, none of which are ever appointed for use in our usual Three‑Year Lectionary Series, are the basis for our meditation.
In tonight’s First Reading, the Lord through Moses promised to bring the people to the land of Canaan, to the place that the Lord had “prepared”, and, to that end, the Lord made clear, that He would send them His “angel”, His “terror”, and “hornets”. The Lord’s “angel” arguably is “the Angel of the Lord”, the so‑called “Pre‑Incarnate Christ”, Who had the authority of the Lord and was present with the people in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The Lord’s “terror” is said to be the fear in all the people against whom the people of Israel would come, fear that resulted from the acts that God performed on the people of Israel’s behalf and so made the other people flee from the people of Israel—they would turn their backs to the people of Israel. And, the Lord’s “hornets” are thought not to be literal insects but a colorful figure of speech for God’s miraculous intervention (confer Joshua 24:12), perhaps not all that un‑related to the “terror” that the Lord sent. Regardless, the people of Israel failed to do completely as God had commanded them, and they fell victim to the false gods of the other people of the land.
Of course, by nature the people of Israel were no worse than you and I are! We fail to do completely as God commands us, and we fall victim to the false gods of the other people of our land. School or work, friends and family, rest and fitness easily become false gods that we fear, love, and trust in over and above the Triune God. We prioritize any number of things before our study of God’s Word and our receiving His forgiveness in Word and Sacrament. We might not have just bought a field or five yoke of oxen or taken a spouse, as the people in tonight’s Third Reading reportedly had done, but we make all sorts of other excuses Sunday after Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday, not to mention day after day, when it comes to Daily Bible Reading. As with the excuses in tonight’s Third Reading, we insult the Lord Who had everything prepared. For those sins, for all of our other sins, and for our sinful nature itself, we deserve nothing but punishment here and now and torment in hell for eternity. Yet, out of His great love, the Lord enables us to call out to Him as we did in tonight’s additional Psalm (Psalm 119:129‑136; antiphon: v.132), asking Him to turn to us and be gracious to us. When we do so call to Him in sorrow over our sin and with trust that He will forgive us, then He is gracious to us, forgiving us for Jesus’s sake.
Tonight’s Second Reading arguably speaks of that forgiveness when God through Isaiah speaks of “establishing” or “preparing” us in righteousness. God in human flesh, Jesus actively did completely as God commanded, and Jesus passively suffered and died on the cross for our failure to do completely as God commanded. Jesus died for us, in our place, as our substitute. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee prepared spices and ointments for His burial and took them to the tomb that first day of the week (Luke 23:56; 24:1), but He had arisen! When we are sorry for our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for the risen Jesus’s sake, then Christ’s righteousness is given to us. We are “established” or “prepared” in righteousness in Christ. As God describes through Isaiah, we who are afflicted, storm‑tossed, and not comforted, in Christ are comforted, given security, and at peace with Him.
Military conquests were often followed by banquets, and so the Jews reportedly came to expect that the age of the Messiah would begin with a banquet (TLSB, ad loc Luke 14:15, p.1746). And, the Holy Supper is such a “feast of victory”, we sing in the liturgy (Lutheran Service Book 155, 171‑172), but the Holy Supper also gives us the victory that Jesus won for us, the victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil. At this Altar He “makes ready” and “prepares” His own Body and Blood for us baptized and absolved Christians to eat and to drink and so to receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. A combined invitation and summons is sometimes used: Come, for everything is now ready; the table is prepared; the holy things for the holy ones. We partake in a lesser‑way now, even as we will partake in a greater‑way eternally. The photo on the Service Outline was taken for a magazine decades ago on a rooftop in Minneapolis, “with a table set to depict Heaven’s Feast” and the backdrop of a “spectacular sunset” said to be painted in the evening sky by the Author of the World (Heaven’s Feast). Truly as an angel said to St. John in God’s revelation to him, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).
Until we feast with the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end (for example, LSB 163), we ask, as we did in tonight’s additional Psalm, that He would “keep steady” or “establish” or “prepare” our steps according to His promise and let no iniquity get dominion over us. At least the desire to stop sinning and to do completely as God commands should flow from God’s having made us ready or “Prepared in redemption”. Fruits worthy of repentance and an improvement of our whole lives and character can be considered part of repentance (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XII:28). But, as people who are at the same time both saint and sinner, we will not in this lifetime completely stop sinning. Yet, we must remember that God and the faith that He brings depart from those who do not repent and do not strive against sin but instead fall into open sin, such as King David’s adultery and murder (for example, Smalcald Articles III:iii:43, with apparent reference to 2 Samuel 11). Those who do repent and are forgiven ultimately are brought by the Lord to the place that He has prepared (confer John 14:1-6) and are said to be “confirmed” in goodness, never to sin again (for example, Pieper, III:551 with n.77, with reference to Matthew 18:10). Then, compared to what we see now, the Lord’s house will be filled with all those whom He has chosen, invited, and summoned to His greatest of all banquets.
As we considered last week, we are by God “Prepared in creation”; as we considered tonight, we are by God “Prepared in redemption”; and, as we will consider next week, we are by God “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 + + +