Advent Every Sunday

 

Jesu Juva

Zechariah 9:9                                                                

November 28, 2021

Advent 1C                                  

 Dear saints of our Savior~

          Happy New Year!  Today marks the beginning of a new church year, and a new season in the church year.  We call it “Advent.”  And just let me level with you up front, I love Advent.  It’s my favorite season of the church year.  In fact, I wish it could be Advent every Sunday.  But my attraction to Advent isn’t for any of the obvious reasons.  It’s not because of the beautiful sights, sounds, and smells of Advent.

          If you’re an Advent aficionado like me it means that you’re definitely out-of-sync with the world around us.  Advent may be the first season of the church year; but it’s also the lost season of the church year.  There are no “Advent sales” going on at Bayshore today.  No Advent cards are being mailed out.  No Advent parades or parties that I’m aware of.  In our feel-good consumer culture of instant gratification, we trim the tree and hang the stockings with care before the last bite of Thanksgiving turkey is swallowed.  We’ve decked the halls and roasted our chestnuts and sung “Joy to the World”—and it’s not even December yet!

          Nothing against Christmas, but I say, “Let it be Advent every Sunday,” (or at least for four Sundays).  You see, the word “Advent” means “coming.”  It has to do with the coming of the Christ.  And whenever Christ comes, great things happen.  When Christ comes, lepers are cleansed and the blind are made to see.  Sins are forgiven and the dead are raised to life.

          Advent means “coming.”  And the traditional Gospel reading for this Sunday tells of our Lord’s “coming” into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  The Introit, the Gradual, the hymns of this day all reflect that Palm Sunday theme—the palm branches, the hosannas, the donkey.  “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” the people shouted.  And if that “coming” of Jesus into Jerusalem hadn’t taken place—if Jesus hadn’t come to Jerusalem to be crucified—well, then our Christmases would be no more meaningful than our Columbus Days and our Presidents’ Days.  If that coming of our Lord into His holy city hadn’t taken place, then there would be no Good Friday, no Easter, no reason for us to be here celebrating on this Lord’s Day.

          Advent is all about the coming of the Christ.  He first came into our world as the virgin’s Son—the babe of Bethlehem.  He came into Jerusalem to suffer and die as your substitute under God’s righteous wrath against sin.  And Jesus will come again to judge both the living and the dead.  But as God inspired the prophet Zechariah to preach about the coming of the Christ, He inspired the prophet not to speak in the past tense—nor to speak in the future tense—but the Lord inspired the prophet to speak in the present tense:  Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation.

          The Holy Spirit it seems is a real stickler for verb tenses.  Your king is coming.  That means that the Christ who came at Bethlehem also comes today (present tense) in bread and wine.  It means that the Christ who will come again to judge the living and the dead also comes today (present tense) in water and the Word.  That’s what Advent is all about—the “coming” of Christ to forgive sinners like us.  He breaks into our “present,” to forgive our past, to give us hope and a future.  And so I say, let it be Advent every Sunday.

          Martin Luther was at his best when he preached about the coming Christ.  “[Christ] comes,” wrote Luther.  “He comes.  Without a doubt you do not come to Him and catch Him.  He is too high and far from you.  You will not reach Him by your might . . . and work.  You cannot brag as though you had brought Him to yourself through your service and worthiness.  No, dear man, here lay aside all service and worthiness.  For in your possession is nothing that deserves His coming, but only unworthiness.  What is His is pure grace and mercy” (Luther’s Family Devotions, p.1).

          Luther makes it clear that our text this morning is all Gospel.  Your king is coming to you—not because of who you are or what you’ve done, but despite who you are and what you’ve done.  Or think of it this way:  Our text says, “Your king is coming to you.”  In the United States we might say, “Behold, your president is coming to you.”  But, I ask you, when was the last time your president (any president) came to you?  When was he most recently on your doorstep?  When was the last time Governor Evers came to your house, or when did your congressman last stop by for coffee?

          That just doesn’t happen.  The way it works in this world is that you and I have to go to those who hold the power.  We go to them; they rarely come to us.  We have to ask them, plead with them, write them letters and e-mails.  We have to persuade them to give us what we need.  But not so with your King, Jesus the Christ.  Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation.  Your King comes to you this hour in this place to share with you His power over sin—to bless you with faith and forgiveness and life that lasts forever.  Your King comes to give you what you can’t get from anyone else.

          But all too often we miss it.  All too often we walk into this place acting not as though our King were coming to save us, but as if He were light years away.  By nature we don’t see our need to be here on the Lord’s Day.  By nature we don’t see the depth of our depravity and sin, and our great need for what Jesus gives to us in His Word and sacrament.  If we don’t believe that Christ is coming to meet us here in the Divine Service, then all of this becomes unimportant and unnecessary—no more important than anything else that takes up space on our crowded calendars. But you know better.  You know that your King is coming to you!

          This is why we need Advent.  It’s why we need Advent every Sunday!  Advent has to do with the coming of Jesus.  Whenever the words of Jesus are preached and proclaimed—there is Jesus among His people.  Wherever the body and blood of Jesus are distributed to repentant sinners—there is Jesus giving you the forgiveness He won on the cross.  And whenever the water of holy Baptism is applied, there Jesus comes to cleanse another soul from sin, claiming another child for the Father’s family.

          We’ve got Advent for three more Sundays, it’s true.  But we’ve also got Advent every Sunday because our King is coming every Sunday with the gifts He won for you at the cross:  the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

          Let Christmas come.  (It always does.)  Let Christmas come with all its trees and tinsel and toys.  Let Christmas come with all the good cheer the world can muster.  But don’t forget that the One who first came at Christmas, He comes to you every Sunday in the Divine Service.  It’s no accident that in our Communion liturgy we sing, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  We’re singing about Jesus there.  Our liturgy teaches us to get it right (in the present tense).  Our liturgy leads us to see that Advent isn’t just for the next four weeks, but every Sunday.  For every Sunday your King comes to you, bringing you His righteousness and salvation.  Happy Advent! 

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