How Can This Be?

This morning we considered the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would conceive and bear the Son of God, though she was a peasant virgin dwelling in the backwater town of Galilee. This announcement surprised her as it does us when we read of it. And beloved we need to recapture some of that same wonder and surprise about what takes place at this Table each and every Lord’s Day. I mean think of it. Each and every Lord’s Day the risen and exalted King of kings and Lord of lords comes to visit us in Greer, SC, tucked away in this old building in the middle of an old mill community. Each and every Lord’s Day the God of heaven and earth raises us Gentile peasants up from the ash heap of our sins and seats as princes at His Table. When I read the words of institution and call you to partake of this glorious and triumphant feast of the Lord, does this announcement ever catch you off guard? When I pray before the bread and again before the wine, thanking God that in these sacraments we receive Jesus Christ, do you ever wonder with Mary, “How can this be?” Beloved, this Table is the closest we come to experiencing what Mary experienced when she bore the Savior in her womb. For here we receive the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ into our inmost being by faith. At this Table the Holy Spirit comes upon us and the power of the Highest overshadows us enables us feed upon Christ though he remains seated at the right hand of God. Here at this Table we can rejoice with Mary for here God is with us and we are blessed among all the peoples of the earth. But you need not fear to come. For you like Noah and Mary before you, have found grace and favor in the eyes of God. He sent His Son on that first Christmas Day to save you, His people, from your sins. And He accomplished that salvation on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. So eat and drink with hearts full of joy at the wonder of your salvation. Receive here, in bread and wine, the grace that you have found in Jesus Christ.

Read More>>

Being Ready for the Unexpected

With the fourth Sunday in Advent we draw near to Christmas day. I was reading someone recently who remarked that we never finish the fourth week of Advent. It is always “interrupted” by the arrival of Christmas Day. This, of course, fits the Advent pattern. Our Savior Himself said that His coming would be when none expected it. Whether we consider His coming in judgment in the time of Noah, at Sodom and Gomorrah, or at the Red Sea, His coming always takes people off guard. This morning we’ll consider how the announcement of His coming to Mary catches her off guard; it interrupts her week. But unlike the generation of Noah, the Sodomites, and the Egyptians, Mary has prepared herself for His coming. Though caught off guard, we’ll see that she nevertheless responds in faith, ready to receive the promises of God. But that type of response doesn’t just happen; it is the fruit of preparation. It tells us that Mary had been “repeating the signs” and rehearsing the story unlike the priests and Levites that we considered last week. This is clear from the song that she takes up after going to meet Elizabeth, which we call the Magnificat and which we’ll sing this morning. In the Magnificat, Mary weaves together texts from songs and psalms of old, showing us that for instance she had often sung Hannah’s Song. You see it was through cultivating regular habits of worship and prayer at the synagogue in Nazareth and in her home, that Mary made herself ready for the message of Christmas, for announcement that she would conceive and bring forth the Son of God. I call upon you now to join me in following Mary’s example of preparation for the message of Christmas. Confess your sins from heart, sing with hearts full of joy and gladness, and receive Christ in Word and Sacrament as Mary received Him in her womb!

Read More>>

Repeating the Signs

This morning we saw how all of the questions of the priests and Levites led them on an “Adventure in Missing the Point.” In all of their questions and in all of their preconceived ideas of what they were looking for, they had missed the point, they had forgotten the signs. The One who was coming after John stood in their midst and they didn’t know Him. The light was shining in the darkness and the darkness didn’t comprehend it. Well, in God’s goodness and mercy He has given us these signs, bread and wine, to keep us from missing the point. Each and every week we receive these signs of the body and blood of Christ to keep our minds and hearts focused upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. Week after week the light and life of men and the world shines in our darkness and gives us His body broken and His blood shed so that our eyes will be opened to Him. This is of course the tragedy of the contemporary church, which has removed these signs from their place in the weekly liturgy to a once a month, or once a quarter observance. Is it any wonder that the Church has by and large lost her way? We need to have Jesus Christ front and center. This is again part of the beauty and utility of the Christian Year, rehearsing the story of Jesus Christ year after year, and it is surely the blessing of weekly communion, receiving the signs of Jesus Christ week after week. In eating this bread and drinking this wine by faith alone in Christ alone you will be kept from missing the point, from missing the presence of Christ in your life. So come eat and drink for you belong to Him and He delights in you! In His goodness and grace He has given you these signs that in receiving them, you might receive Him, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

Read More>>

Don't Forget the Signs

For the last two weeks we’ve been considering the message of Advent as the coming of Christ for the salvation, and at times, the judgment of His people. What determines whether or not His coming to us will be for our salvation, or our judgment? The way we receive the message of Advent, which is the message of the Gospel. This morning we’ll see how the Jewish leadership failed to heed this plain spoken message. They were all full of questions for John the Baptist, but already had their own answers. Somehow over the course of the 700 years since Isaiah uttered his prophecy, the people of God had forgotten what to look for, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” In this the first century Jews were very much like Jill in the Silver Chair when she stopped repeating the signs that Aslan had given her and thus she kept missing them. Remember how Aslan had instructed her to repeat the signs over and over till she knew them cold. Well, in a sense that’s why we celebrate Advent year after year, rehearsing the story, repeating the signs. We do this time and again so that we’ll be ready to meet the Lord when He comes for us and so that we’ll know that He is coming for our salvation. We rehearse the story time and again because we know that we’re much more like the Jews of old than we want to admit. For many of you the story has grown old. Your hearts are dulled, and you’ve forgotten the signs. So this morning let us repent of allowing the message of Advent to become old, stale, and lifeless. It is anything, but that! And let us again repeat the signs and rehearse the story because in this way, in the way of repentance and faith, you can know that His coming to you will be for your salvation. And behold He comes to you visit you this day, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Read More>>

Better Than Money Can Buy

This morning we’ve seen that Mark presents the First Advent of Christ as the inauguration of a New Exodus. This New Exodus is described throughout Isaiah 40-55. Interestingly, this section concludes with a call to come and eat. It is actually the call that we are currently using at the beginning of our service following the seasonal scripture sentence, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price…Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” Just as God brought Israel out of Egypt “to hold a feast” with Him at Sinai; even so the new exodus that He accomplishes by the cross is to culminate in a feast on the heavenly mountain. Ultimately, these verses are the call of the gospel. But, then again, what is the Table spread before, but the gospel in tangible form? You see eating and drinking are actions that depict so well what it means to receive the gospel. It is not enough to know what food and drink are, or even to agree that they are necessary for sustaining life. If you don’t actually eat and drink, you’ll starve, or die of thirst! Even so it’s not enough to know about Christ, or even to agree that He is the Lord and Savior of the world – the devil does all that. If you don’t feed upon Him by faith, if you’re not nourished and strengthened by His Body and Blood, you’ll perish in your sins, or your faith will be choked out by the cares of this world! Eating and drinking also depict so well the fruit of the gospel. Eating what is good brings delight. Later on in Isaiah, just before he describes the New Jerusalem, we read this, “Behold, My servants shall eat…drink…rejoice…[and] sing for joy of heart.” Beloved, the Table spread before you is nothing more or less than the gospel. As you eat and drink by faith in the death of Christ for you, rejoice and sing for joy of heart! This meal, this gospel, is more valuable than money can buy; it must be received as a gift of God’s grace. Taste and see that the Lord is good!

Read More>>

Preparing the Way

With the Second Sunday in Advent our focus shifts from Christ’s Second Advent to His First Advent and the ministry of John the Baptist. We’ll see that all three of our Scripture Lessons today are tied together by the theme of preparation, getting ready for the coming of the Lord. Central to this preparation for the coming of Christ is repentance. Thus John the Baptist comes preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Well, just as repentance and the confession of sins was to prepare Israel for the coming of Christ in His First Advent, even so repentance and the confession of sins prepares you for His coming in Word and Sacrament on this, the Day of the Lord. A lot had transpired in the history of Israel from the close of the OT to the ministry of John the Baptist. As we’ll see this morning the Land that was to be an Edenic Garden had become a wilderness and needed to be cleansed and renewed. Even so a lot has transpired in your lives from the time you left church last Sunday till the call to worship this morning. We don’t need 400 years to mess things up! Each Sunday you are sent out in the power of the Spirit to manifest the new creation in your lives, families, neighborhoods and work. And yet even with the best of intentions and the most diligent efforts, you and I fall woefully short of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore as you contemplate the prospect of Christ coming to you in Word and Sacrament, “to walk among the lamp stands” as it were, His way must be prepared. In order for His Word to have free course in our midst so as to bring about a new creation in and through us, we are in need of cleansing and renewal. Let us then repent of the mess that we have made of our lives, families, neighborhoods, work and this world, and confess our sins unto Almighty God. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

Read More>>

A Table of the Kingdom

In this morning’s sermon we considered Jesus’ coming in judgment upon Jerusalem in AD 70 as well as His coming again on the Last Day. And both of these comings inform our celebration of this Table. For, of course, we gathered here on the Day of the Lord in the New Jerusalem to proclaim the death of our Lord until He comes again. You are seated here in the kingdom of God as a result of Christ’s shaking of the heavens and earth and sending of His messengers to call His chosen ones from the four corners of the earth. In Luke 13 we read of how Jesus was going through the cities and villages of Israel telling them to enter the kingdom through the narrow gate. Then he describes a scene of judgment where Israel sees, “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God…They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom.” This is the kingdom that Luke later describes in this way, “And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kindgom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (22:29-30). You see your presence at this Table is an exercise of Christ’s kingly authority and indicates that you share in that authority. You are the kings and queens, the princes and princesses, of the new creation. In putting all things under the feet of Christ, beginning with Jerusalem and Rome, he is putting all things under your feet as well, as Paul said to the Romans, “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20). Elsewhere Paul writes that God has made Christ “to be head over all things for the Church” (Eph. 1:22). “For all things are yours,” writes Paul, “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come – all are yours” (1 Cor. 3:21-22). And each and every Lord’s Day this truth is enacted at this Table. Here, you eat and drink in the presence of, and the certain hope of victory over, your enemies. Here, you proclaim the victorious death of the King of heaven and earth until He comes again to deliver the kingdom to the Father. Rejoice, the Lord is King!

Read More>>

Beginning with End

As I mentioned before the service, today in the first day of the Christian Year; our New Year’s Day. As Christians we begin our journey through the Year in much the same way that we begin our week. We begin each week with the Lord’s Day, or Day of the Lord, in recognition of the coming of Christ to visit us with His salvation in Word and Sacrament. Likewise we begin each year with Advent season in recognition of the coming of Christ to visit us with His salvation as the Word made flesh for the life of the world. And just as His visitation on the Lord’s Day meant judgment for some in the Corinthian church who failed receive Word and Sacrament rightly, even so His first Advent meant judgment for some among His people who failed to receive the Word made flesh rightly. We’ll consider that latter judgment this morning in our Gospel lesson. But why do we begin the year in this way? We begin the year in this way because for us time is eschatological; which is simply to say time and history are moving towards an appointed end with the coming of Christ to judge the quick and the dead and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. And this appointed end is to inform your celebration of the coming of Christ in the flesh. That is why we have the four weeks of Advent season leading up to the twelve days of Christmas. Our culture, of course, gets this all backwards and has Christmas at the front end for two months and then it’s all over in an hour or two on Christmas morning. But there is wisdom in the church’s ordering of time. We need time to reflect upon the significance of the coming of Christ in the flesh and this must always be viewed in the context of His coming again at the Last Day. The baby pictured in our Christmas cards is the same one who used the Roman armies to destroy Jerusalem in AD 70 and who will one day return to judge the world in righteousness. Advent season keeps us from domesticating Jesus, turning Him into a harmless baby, or a Jeanie in a bottle. The baby in the manger is the Lord of heaven and earth. And even this Day He summons you to worship Him in the beauty of holiness!

Read More>>

A Table of Unity

In this morning’s sermon we caught a glimpse of the wonderful diversity that characterized the earliest church: Slave and free; Jew and Gentile; prominent and obscure. God integrated folks from such divergent backgrounds into one body, the Body of Christ. And He continues to work in this way today. As you look around this assembly you see a similar diversity, crossing the spectrum of class, gender, and geography. How is this possible? God weaves together this rich tapestry by the power of His Holy Spirit blessing the proclamation of the gospel of His Son. But how are men, women, boys, and girls from such divergent backgrounds formed truly to live as one body? You can perhaps see how He gets us in the door, calling us out of our divergent backgrounds to a common faith in Jesus Christ. But how is this common faith maintained? Well, for the early church the single most unifying practice that nurtured their common faith was their common worship. When folks from such divergent backgrounds gathered perhaps daily, but at least weekly to devote themselves to the means of grace: the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers, God was at work by His Spirit forming them into one body. And the pinnacle, the climax, of these daily and later, weekly gatherings was the Eucharistic feast; the feast spread before you this morning. So sacred was this feast that in the early church they actually dismissed all visitors and catechumens from the service before the meal. They did this believing the words of Paul, “For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” It is here at this Table that our unity in diversity is most clearly seen. Come then and join in the communion of the saints in eating this common meal. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!

Read More>>

Worshipping with Your Body

In the last of the Songs of Ascents, Ps. 134, we find that Israel has made her ascent and her feet are now standing within the house of God. And here we see what she has come to Jerusalem to do: “Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD. The LORD who made heaven and earth bless you from Zion!” The psalm begins with the call to worship: bless the LORD! And ends with the benediction: The LORD…bless you from Zion! Beloved, that is why you are assembled here today: to bless God and receive His blessing. I’m sure that the people of Israel encountered all sorts of obstacles in making their ascent, just as you do: fussy children, marital spats, and heavy eyes (remember they walked!). But when they reached their destination they were to put all of that behind them and bless the LORD. That is the value of posture in worship. God doesn’t say, “Sit or stand, whatever suits you.” No, when you come into God’s house you stand to bless the Lord no matter whether you feel like it or not! Likewise He doesn’t say, “If you feel sort of silly raising your hands, that’s ok so as you are worshipping Me in your heart.” No (!), He tells you lift up your hands when you have drawn near to bless Him. The idea is that perhaps your hearts will catch up to your feet and hands. You see God created whole people with souls and bodies and intends for us to worship Him with both! And though sometimes He works from the inside out, He often works from the outside in. The Spirit works when the Word is heard, touched, and tasted. And likewise God trains your heart through your feet, knees, and hands. It is as you worship God as whole people with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, the strength even to stand, kneel, and lift your hands, that Lord will bless from Zion!

Read More>>