Advent 2 Sermon 2020

 

Advent 2 – Populus Zion (Luke 21:25-36)

St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY

St. Nicholas Day, 2020

 

Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.  When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.  So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

 

The Mormons like to talk about they don’t really believe in hell, but in three levels of heaven, the telestial, the terrestrial, and the celestial.  The problem with this view is that only those who reach the celestial level fully share in their god’s glory.  But there is no heaven without enjoying the fullness of God’s glory.  Heaven is precisely seeing God and enjoying Him.  Anything less than this on the last day is nothing other than hell.

 

Many imagine that this life on earth is all there is.  They strive hard to get as much happiness, wealth, pleasure, and glory this world can afford.  But all of man’s striving is overshadowed by the veil which covers the whole earth.  David calls it the shadow of death.  And the shadow of death is God’s judgment against sin.  Those who expect their highest good from this earthly life are living in what Paul calls the “futility of their minds.”  Paul writes to the Ephesians (4:17-18) and to us,

 

“You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…”

 

The pagans were somewhat aware of the futility of seeking their highest good on earth.  In Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is suffering at the hand of Zeus not only because he stole fire from the gods for men, but also because he prevented them from contemplating their death all the time.  The chorus asks Prometheus what remedy or cure he got for men so that they wouldn’t always think about death.  And Prometheus told them that he planted in men “blind hopes.” 

 

Blind hopes.  In other words, futility of their minds.  Jesus does not want us to be distracted by blind hopes.  That is what happens if our hearts are weighed down by carousing, drunkenness, and the cares of this life.  The world will always tempt us with blind hopes, with distractions from the true good.  Our sinful flesh can’t see past the veil of that shadow of death that is covering the earth.  And so the solution, the remedy that the devil offers us is nothing but a bunch of distractions from the truth of the bad situation we find ourselves in.

 

But Jesus cuts through all of this in today’s Gospel.  The earth depends on light from the heavens.  The moon moves the tides and lights the night with the stars. The sun gives warmth and helps to grow all that feeds us here.  Life on earth depends on the lights of the heavens.  But there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and the nations will all be distressed and the earth will be confused, as the sea roars, and men’s hearts will fail them from fear at what is happening to the earth from which they sought their highest good.  Then the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and the sun and the moon and the stars will fall from the sky, and there will be no place to hide on earth, and all that men trusted on earth will fail them.  Their money will be nothing.  Their clothing won’t hide their nakedness.  Their success and glory will be forgotten.  Their friends and family won’t be able to help them, since every will see the Son of Man descending like lightning from the east to west, coming in a cloud with power and great glory, and the holy angels will surround Him. 

 

He came to save us all.  That was His first Advent.  It was meek and lowly.  He was born of a lowly virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.  He did not live with kings or with the influential.  He called the poor to be His disciples and called sinners to repentance and faith in Him.  When they persecuted Him, He took their abuse.  When He was insulted, He did not insult them back.  He gave His back to those who struck Him.  He gave His life for those who cried, “Crucify Him!”  He came to suffer and to die for sinners.  He came to give the eternal good by taken all of our evil.  He came to reveal God to us poor sinners the way we need Him revealed, beneath the veil, the shadow of death. 

 

But there will be no shadow on that day.  The Son of Man will show all His glory, and there will be no mountains or caves or house to hide anyone.  The secrets of our hearts and lives will be laid bare, and the Judge will sit on His throne and divide the sheep from the goats.

 

Those who did not receive Him, but looked to the earth and its cares and pleasures will be terrified that day because it will mean the end of their gods, the end of their blind hopes.  But they will not be blind to the destruction of what they foolishly placed their hopes in.  Their hearts will fail from fear at what is happening. 

 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13

 

Advent is a season of repentance.  Faith is born in repentance.  We are weak.  God has redeemed us through the death and blood of His Son.  He has bought us back from blind and futile hopes to give us a sure and living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death.  You believe this.  You believe that God loves you because you know Jesus, who lived and died and bled for you, who sends His Spirit to you to speak words of pardon and forgiveness and peace apart from anything you do.  You have this treasure of hope that you will be with God as a child with his father. 

 

But we carry this treasure in earthen vessels, in bodies that are weak, with our sinful flesh still present with us whenever we want to do good.  We are tempted to look away from the certain hope that God has given us to the blind hopes this world has to offer.  And the devil, who knows his time is short, knows also what weaknesses we have.  He watches us and lies in wait to seduce us into false security, to blind hopes of pleasure in what God tells us is sin that destroys our faith.  But what hope is there in pride that goes before destruction?  What hope is there in greed that is never satisfied?  What hope is there in hatred and grudges that push love away from us?  What hope is there is lust and pleasures that give no life, but make us blind to what is true contentment?  What hope is there in worrying about our health and job and retirement?  We can’t see in these sins.  We can’t see past the moon and the stars and the sun that will soon fall from heaven when our hearts are weighed down by the cares of this life.

 

 

And so we repent.  We repent of the futility of our minds that seek peace from a world that can’t give it.  We repent and confess that we deserve to pass away with heaven and earth.  We repent and we listen to the Son of Man who came to give sight to the blind and release the captives from their prison of blind hopes.

 

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.”  And then we see light.  We see beyond this earth and heaven to Christ who is soon coming to give us what the earth could never give.  But He is not so far away even now.  How could He be when we still hear Him speaking to us today?  His words warn us and wake us from the sleep blind hopes that our flesh so gladly believes, but He teaches us not to believe our lying hearts and to trust in His words, which are spirit and life. 

 

He turns you away from relying on what only weights down your heart with more care.  He turns you away from your own works and efforts to give yourself hope, and He says, “I am your hope. Behold, in the scroll of the Book it is written of Me.  What the prophets and apostles wrote is given for your learning, that through patience and comfort of the Holy Scriptures you might have hope that does not leave you ashamed, because I bore your shame.  I didn’t walk blindly on this earth.  I saw it all, and I see your heart, and I was not ashamed to take all your sins that came from there and carry them in My body, and feel their punishment, and know their evil, and wash all those sins away in My innocent blood.  I took what really weighs you down on earth.  I carried your guilt.  I bore your sin.  I died your death.  I faced your judgment.  I give you hope that is not blind, but sees that I rose alive from the dead, clean and pure and without your sin because I took it all away.”

 

It was then that the sun and the moon and the stars gave no light.  Darkness covered the earth on that Judgment Day of Christ’s crucifixion.  The heavens could give no light when God rendered
His just judgment against your sin on His only begotten Son.  And on the darkness of that day hope was born that is not blind.  It was not futile.  It was not in vain.  It was for you.  It was for your certain hope that you will soon see the Winter ending and the blooms budding on the tree, and your redemption drawing near. 

 

And it is to that Day of Judgment that we look while we watch and we pray.  You have the light of His Word to show you in Jesus’ suffering and death that if Jesus died for the sin of the world, then the world has no hold on you.  He is your pleasure because He has known all your pain, but it is no more.  He is your joy because He has known all your sorrow, and it is no more in Him.  In Him is your glory and wealth, though you lose all the honor and riches and pleasures of this life. 

 

So take heed to yourselves.  You don’t know the day or the hour.  It will come as a snare to everyone on the earth.  It is in watching and praying that God continues to guard us against the blind hopes of a world in darkness.  The only light for our watching is Jesus’ words.  He warns us when we go astray and calls us back to find in Him our true pleasure and joy which heaven and earth can’t take away from us.  The only strength for our prayer is the promise of God’s holy Word.  Faith lays hold of God’s promise in Jesus’ words, and we cry out with confidence to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we know that it is not our own watching and praying that make us worthy, but the holy obedience and innocent blood of the Son of God that is given us in His words that will not pass away.  Faith clings to Christ’s words and so watches with a light no darkness can overcome. 

 

If you have strayed, and you see the good you have lost from your soul, yet Jesus’ words have not passed away, and they speak against today.  Words of grace and mercy are in your baptism every day of your life.  You are God’s child through faith in Christ, whose innocence is yours because His death and His life are yours.  If you have lost the good in your life, a spouse, a child, a brother or sisters, a friend, a job, your health, yet Jesus’ words have not been lost.  He is still speaking to you.  He calls you to this altar where the body that died in darkness now shines in the word that says, “Given for you.”  And the same word speaks in Christ’s blood to the heart weighed down by sins that are too heavy for you, “Shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  If you can’t see God because you feel that your heart isn’t pure, yet Jesus still speaks and gives you sight to see God not in your making yourself better, but in Christ making you a new creation by His death and resurrection.  He speaks, “I forgive you,” and all that makes you impure is removed, and you stand right now in pure and glorious light that shows you righteous and clean, as His words purify your heart through faith.  And so you are worthy, by grace through faith in Christ’s words. 

 

With these words I will watch for you, dear Savior.  I have only one hope, and it is certain. When I feel the cold Winter of this world, and the earth offers little warmth and only blind hopes, yet I can see You coming soon in Your words.  Summer is near.  I can see You coming not to condemn me, but to claim me whom You have redeemed and bought with a great price.  I am Yours and You are mine.  The earth of my flesh denies it.  The demons in the high places try to obscure it.  But Your Word cannot be broken.  They will by no means pass away.  Your words are the light that pierces that veil of futility which is over the nations, so that I can look past all misery and vain hopes and see my hope secure in You, my life hidden with You in God.  You speak to me now, and I see You soon coming with power and great glory to put an end to all sin that hurts, to all evil that threatens, to death that frightens; to  change my vile body that it may be made like unto Your own glorious body with the same power that subjects sin and death to you, the same power that raised You from the death, and with this same power You will deliver this groaning creation from the pangs of childbirth, when Your words reveal in a new heaven and a new earth the glorious freedom that I have now by faith, but soon will see with my eyes and feel with a body that has no taint or sickness or sin or any memory of sin.  I will see Your saints in glory, and I will sing with joy no eye has seen or ear has heard, but I will see and hear this joy.  Your words say so, and they will be no means pass away.  How my heart yearns within me!   Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!  Let us pray.

 

 

All my spirit longs for sight

Not of earth and not of heaven,

But for Jesus and His light,

Who gives peace with sins forgiven,

Who from judgment gives reprieve –

Jesus I will never leave.  Amen.

 

 

~Pr. Mark Preus