Rev. Tucher

Text: Luke 3:1-14 (15-20)

Make Ready the Way of the Lord

            Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.  The text for the sermon this morning comes from the Gospel which was read earlier.

            The world gets ready for this season on one level, Christians on another.  The world gets ready for just one great big blockbuster of a day on Christmas, kind of an annual consumer feeding frenzy, indulging itself in stuff and more stuff.  Then when it’s over, it’s over.  All that is left of Christmas on December 26 is a big pile of wrapping paper and trips to the store for after-Christmas sales and returns.

            Fortunately for us, that is not the way it is in the Church.  For us, when Christmas comes, it stays.  It lingers on through Epiphany, and all the way through Lent.  We continue to ponder the great glad news that God has become man to redeem all humankind out from under the iron grip of death and hell.  And we will sing our Christmas praises well into January and beyond.  We make Christmas last.

            But Christmas hasn’t begun yet; we’re still in Advent.  We’re still getting ready.  Yet our readiness is much more than just sending cards and decorating our homes and having parties.  It is a readiness of the heart that God desires at His coming.

            In our Gospel reading for today, we hear about John the Baptist.  John was a herald.  He announced what God told him to preach.  John preached both the Law as well as the Gospel.  He proclaimed “a baptism of repentance.”  John’s baptism was characterized by repentance.  To repent means to change one’s mind.  It involves a turning away from sin and a turning toward that which cleanses from sin.  It is a complete about face.  A man who repents is one who has changed his mind about sin.  He no longer finds pleasure in it, but realizes it is a cause of eternal damnation.  He has also changed his mind about salvation.  He no longer thinks that he will get to heaven by being good.  When we speak of “repentance” in this sense, we include a turning to faith in the Messiah, God’s promised Savior from sin.  Thus John preached the Law, which shows us our sin, and the Gospel, which points the sinner to his only Savior.

            The point of John’s message is not a message of himself, but of Christ.  Advent means “coming.”  Advent is a time where we focus on the coming of Christ.  That is why the words of the prophet Isaiah are so important: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”  Even our Collect for today speaks of the coming: “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son.”  Just as a messenger was sent ahead of a king or ruler to get people to repair the road on which he was to travel, so John was sent out ahead of God’s Son to prepare for Christ’s coming.

            Here we are on this road to Bethlehem, to make ready the way of the Lord.  John the Baptist has gone before to make ready the way of the Lord.  What is it that John is making ready?  Is it people?  Is it a place?  Is it a thing?  The answer is all of the above.

            First, John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  He preached this to anyone and everyone.  He didn’t tell this to just Jew or Gentile, Christian or non-Christian.  This was a message that everyone needed to hear and John was fulfilling the words of Isaiah as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”  He went in and laid it all on the line to all who heard him: “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.  Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  The sad truth is that more often than not, you and I don’t produce the good fruit our Lord expects.  We simply don’t love God with all our heart and soul and strength, much less love our neighbor as ourselves.  Despite our best efforts, there are those we have hurt and those we have failed to help.  Our thoughts and desires are soiled with sin.  There is nothing good within us, in our sinful nature.

            That is where preparing the way of the Lord begins.  Through the Law, we hear about our sinful nature and what that means for us.  It means death and damnation.  It means eternal separation from God.  But the message that John is preaching about is the sweet sound of the Gospel which we need to hear; that there is One who is coming to save us from our sins.  There is One who is coming to give us everlasting life.  There is One coming who is forever bridging the gap between God and man, One who will trade His life so that we can have life.  It is in John’s message of the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus that we are lifted up and comforted.

            John’s warning was indeed sharp.  When the message of love and grace fails to touch the heart, then the Law’s message of judgment upon sin must be proclaimed.  The purpose of this message is to strike fear in man’s conscience, so that he might stop and realize his lost condition without Christ.  Through the power of the Gospel alone, the Holy Spirit works true faith.  This Gospel turns the sinner to his only Savior through whom he can escape God’s just punishment.  Among his hearers John’s message found those who were troubled in their consciences.

            That is the message of our text today.  Our sin has separated us from God.  We don’t want to hear that.  We don’t like to hear that.  Those whom John was preaching to had an answer to his preaching: “We have Abraham as our father.”  What they failed to realize was that by being a descendant of Abraham did not bring about salvation.  Staking a claim to Abraham did not make anyone less a sinner.  If that were true, then we all would be saved because we all claim to have Abraham as our father.  But where did Abraham come from?  He came from the lineage of Adam and Eve, our first parents and the first sinners.  One can claim Abraham as their father, but ultimately we must claim Adam and Eve as our first parents. 

            The reason why the season of Advent is so important is because it shows us the need of a Savior.  Hearing John’s message can cause great fear in us, knowing that we might be a tree that does not bear good fruit.  Those to whom John is preaching to begin to ask the simple question, “What should we do then?”  John gave simple, straightforward answers.  He told them what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. 

            The message of John seemed very much like the coming message of Christ, the message foretold in prophecies of old.  It was only logical for them to ask if John was the Christ.  John preached with such great power that many people thought that he might be “the Christ,” the promised Messiah.  John answered all such questions concerning himself by making a public announcement.  He points to “one more powerful” than himself, who will soon come.  That One is the Messiah Himself.  John declares that he is not fit even to untie the strings which hold the Messiah’s sandals on His feet.  In other words John was not fit to perform the duty of the lowest slave before this great One.

            So let us ask the great Lutheran question: What does this mean?  It means that John the Baptist is not the Christ, but only the forerunner of Christ, the one who is to preach about His coming and prepare the way of the Lord.  Let this holy Advent season be your comfort and your joy as deep within takes root the reality that Christ has actually come in the flesh and will come again at the end of time.  But He comes this very day in His Word and Sacrament to make you new and whole and free; a new person, made clean by the blood of the Lamb, who has freed you from your sin by His death and resurrection.  So prepare the way for His coming.  Let this be your constant Advent prayer: “Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of your only-begotten Son.”  In the name of Jesus, amen.

            Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

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Text: Mark 13:32-37

When Christ Returns

            Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.  The text for the sermon this morning comes from the Gospel, which was read earlier.

            The Last Sundays of the Church Year anticipate Christ’s soon return.  While presently suffering tribulation and temptations, the Church prays in godly fear to be kept in faith until that day.  The Last Sunday in the Church Year, the Sunday of the Fulfillment, calls pilgrims traveling through this vale of tears to remain faithful until the day of our salvation.  Today, throughout the whole Christian Church on earth, believers are contemplating the return of Jesus Christ.  Today, the Church looks toward the future – to the consummation of the age.  On this Sunday, the Christian Church talks about preparation – about being ready for the return of Jesus.

            The Lord will return, and we want to know when.  Bookstores are filled with paperbacks interpreting biblical signs through current events, trying to determine when Jesus will return.  Don’t waste your money buying predictions about the Last Day.  This will only lead you astray, since Jesus promised that you will not know when He returns until He returns.

            God’s Word talks much about being ready for the return of Christ. Jesus took the time to prepare his followers.  The Lord provided them with details about what conditions would be like when He returned.  He talked to them about the signs of the end of the age.  And Jesus warned them about the challenges that believers would face as the end of the age approached.

            For your faith’s sake, He warned you of things to come, even things now here, because you will be tempted to drift from faith, to fall away in persecution, to doubt God’s love when suffering, and to doubt when He will return.  Therefore, don’t stumble on these things that you fear, the speculations of the end that are so uncertain, or the troubles of today that seem so threatening, but WATCH FOR THE END BY RECEIVING CHRIST’S PROMISES TODAY.

            It is pointless to try to predict or determine when Christ will come again.  Even Christ Himself tells us that is pointless: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard!  Be alert!  You do not know when that time will come.”  The only thing that we need to focus on is not the when, but that He will come again, just as he promised. 

            The parable that Jesus tells to His disciples is one that is very appropriate for the Last Sunday in the Church Year: an owner of a house who goes away, leaving his servants in charge, each with their assigned tasks.  The doorkeeper’s task is simple: watch to alert everyone that the man of the house has returned.

            As end another Church Year and begin a new Church Year, it is a year of watchfulness.  We watch for the return of Christ.  The reason for this watchful attitude is given.  The specific time, the end time that Jesus has been talking about in this entire chapter relating to His second coming, is unknown.  The uncertainty connected with this lack of knowledge is no reason for carelessness or indifference.  The very opposite is true.  Uncertainty calls for increased watchfulness, as Jesus illustrates in the parable.

            The man who has gone away is no other than Jesus Christ.  Christ left this world in His ascension, just as He said He would.  But He also said that He would return again.  In our Gospel text for last week, Jesus told His disciples that “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”  Christ Jesus, who once came to save all humanity, who comes to us even now in Word and sacrament, is most certainly coming again.  We do not know when that will be.  It could be at anytime.  The sinful world, which goes on its outwardly merry but purposeless way, is totally oblivious to this fact.  In making predictions and the like of when Christ will return, we try to set a date to which Christ Himself could not determine.  The Scriptures are abundantly clear that only God knows when that is to be.  Not even Jesus, in His humanity, claimed to have that knowledge.  And yet many have attempted to set a date and to lead others into believing and accepting their view.

            All of us are destined to stand before Christ.  It might be one second after this [snap fingers here].  It may happen before Christ returns as we come to the end of our life.  But make no mistake, Christ will return to put an end to all things as we know them and to fulfill the promises made by God in Scripture.
            Well again, what is Jesus’ advice?  Simple, be ready!  Be alert.  Know that Jesus is returning and live in His forgiveness and grace.  Know that the cross was about making us ready to stand before Jesus.  Know that God draws close to keep our hearts ready for that great and awesome day that is coming.  Know that God has more at stake in us being ready for the end of time than we have.  He sacrificed His one and only Son on the Cross to make us ready!

            Jesus tells us to be ready because one day He will return.  This time He will not be the humble Savior who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, only to be killed on a cross. He came then to be our Savior, to give up His life on the Cross.  When Jesus returns next, He will come to judge.  He will come to destroy the present world and to establish the eternal Kingdom where all believers are to live for eternity.  You have a place in that Kingdom as God washes you clean through the forgiveness that Jesus won on the Cross. And if you are a believer, and if when Christ returns you are having a weak moment, it is that same forgiveness that Jesus won on the Cross - once for all believers for all time - that assures you that Jesus will usher you into the Kingdom.

            As this Church Year ends and we look to the coming of a new Church Year, we watch expectantly.  We keep watch because we do not know when Jesus will come back.  Regardless of His return, we do not want Him to find us sleeping.  We stay awake and watch vigilantly by coming to church so we hear the Word of God and receive the gifts which He has given to us in His sacraments.  We watch by attending Bible study where we learn more of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. 

            When we understand the situation that confronted the 12 disciples at this moment, we can appreciate the Lord’s personal concern that they be especially alert.  In short order the Lord was to be anointed by Mary of Bethany for His death and burial; He was to institute His Holy Supper; He was to be arrested, tried, condemned, crucified, and buried; He was to rise triumphantly on the third day; He was to commission His disciples to preach the good news to all creation; He was to ascend into heaven.  Each event fit into the master plan for the salvation of the world, and all was to take place in the light of His second coming, when all the pieces would finally fit together for all eternity! 

            We look to the words of Jude in our Epistle reading for today: “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”  It is in that faith, that we can look to Christ’s return with joy.  It is in that faith that we can look to that return of Christ as a great reunion with all who have gone on ahead into the eternal Kingdom.  It is in that faith that we can look to the return of Christ as our deliverance from this world.

            As we look to the future, let us hear and follow the words of Jesus: “Watch!”  Amen.

            Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

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Text: Philippians 4:6-20

Be Thankful

            Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The text for our sermon this evening is the Epistle which was just read.

            Tonight is Thanksgiving Eve.  In approximately 12 hours or less, Tom Turkey will be making his entry to the oven.  The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year.  Everyone will be out at the wee hours of the morning trying to get the best deal on all the items on their Christmas list.  But what does all of that have to do with our text for this evening?  Absolutely nothing!  In Paul’s day, they didn’t have Thanksgiving as we have it.  But he does write something to the church at Philippi that could be seen as his way of giving thanks.

            Paul had a special bond with the congregation in Philippi.  His letter to them is filled with joy.  Paul had not written because there were major problems in the congregation.  Rather, he wrote to encourage them in their faith—not to be discouraged by his chains, to show Christ’s humility to one another, to receive Epaphroditus back with honor, to place no confidence in their own works but to cling to the Savior and His gift of eternal life. 

            Two verses earlier in verse four, Paul gives us these words.  Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!  At the seminary, there is a beloved professor who teaches New Testament classes.  When he gets to Philippians 4, he tells us that we need to continually rejoice in the Lord, and if we don’t, we should pack our bags and leave the seminary.  After that class, he would always walk into the classroom and before he could remove his coat and hat, he would ask us if we were rejoicing in the Lord.  Our answer would always be yes, but were we really rejoicing in the Lord?  Do you always rejoice in the Lord?  Do you give thanks when your car dies in the middle of the road or when your power goes out in a storm?  Of course not!  And why is that?  It’s because of our sinful nature.  The “Old Adam” in us keeps popping up and causing us to be human, to be sinful.  Our sin keeps us from rejoicing in the Lord, regardless of what it is that we have or do not have.  But through Christ, we can be thankful and we can rejoice in the Lord.  

            The advice he gives to the Philippians then is just as valid to us.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Christians are never to worry about a single thing.  Unless we can constantly get rid of our worries before they worry us, joy would cease, and that noble, gracious yieldingness would disappear.  We are to pray and not to shrink from petitioning and to let the actual things asked for be always made known to God.  Then no worry will ever be able to arise.  In what better hands can any trouble of ours rest than in God’s hands?

            It is hard to be anxious when you’re thanking God.  If we review all of the blessings which God has already given us, both physical and spiritual, the evidence is overwhelming that our God loves us and is able to care for us.  Even the poorest believer has riches in heaven because of our Savior, forgiveness of sins won for us by Jesus Christ on the cross for all of mankind.  The grace of free forgiveness is enough proof that our future is in good hands?  So why worry?

            Ultimately, God’s forgiveness is what drives away our worry by giving us peace.  Is it a wonder why when the sermon is over, you almost always hear Paul’s words: “And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  They are words of assurance for us that God has given us His peace and that by that peace, we have received the free gift of God through His Son, Jesus Christ: forgiveness. 

            Where does true peace come from?  Does it come from us?  Our military?  We cannot produce peace with God or peace with ourselves.  True peace is God’s work and God’s gift to us.  With hands and hearts and minds centered on what is excellent and praiseworthy, all done by the power of the Spirit living in us, the God of peace will be with us, filling us with peace.

            In looking at this text, verses 11-13 stick out as a prime example of what we should be saying, regardless of the circumstances. 

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

            Did you hear what Paul just said?  Paul is saying he is lacking something, but that’s ok because he can live with that.  He’s been in need and he’s had it all.  Regardless of the situation, Paul is content with what he has.  The same goes for us today.  We’re content because we have a loving Savior who promises to take care of all our needs, not because we’re helpless to change our situation.

            A popular song from several years ago has a line in it that says, “it’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you got.”  How true is that!  I’ll give you an example.  At the seminary, the food wasn’t the greatest but it wasn’t the worst.  There was always something to eat.  You may not like what is served, but at least there was food.  What about the person who will be sitting at the Salvation Army tomorrow trying to warm themself up while eating some turkey that someone donated?  Do you think that person will complain because they got dark meat instead of light meat or that they ran out of gravy for the mashed potatoes?  They will be happy that they have something to eat.

            We’re not always happy that we’re in the situations that we’re in or liking the idea of eating Easy-Mac several nights a week until the next paycheck comes but we make due.  And why do we make due?  I can do all things through him who gives me strength.  You see, God never gives us anything that we cannot handle.  He will bring us right up to that line and push us to our limit, but will never push us over that line.  Paul has learned and has taught us that whether he has more than he needs or goes hungry, his God will care for him by giving him strength to do all things. 

            It is interesting that Paul says he “learned” how to be content.  Contentment is not an attitude we’re born with.  It is a lesson we learn, as the Holy Spirit works trust in our hearts through the Means of Grace.  Our society is growing more and more materialistic and dissatisfied with its possessions.  We act as though we were drinking salt water: the more we drink, the thirstier we become.  We need to proclaim boldly to our fellow Christians that the secret to being content is not what we have but whom we have: Jesus Christ.  True contentment comes only through trust that Jesus loved me enough to die for me, that He lives, and that He will continue to care for me in every situation.

            And what better way for this text to end.  And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  To our God and Father be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

            And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting.  Amen.

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