Advent 2
Dear friends in Christ. St. Paul begins our text: For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might continue to have hope. Basically his thought is this: The Old Testament was written for our instruction that we might learn patience, be given comfort and retain our blessed hope.
As we think back to what we read in the OT, of course we think of all the great promises of the Savior who was to come; we think of all the comforting psalms; we think of all the accounts of the Lord’s mighty working for and in and through His people. So, yes, it is very easy to see that what is in the OT is of great benefit to us spiritually. But then there’s a word that throws a monkey wrench into things: whatever. Every little bit of the OT/ every single word of the OT was written for our instruction. That includes all the parts we don’t usually like to read—the long lists of names, the law for the OT people given in excruciating detail, the detail about the day in/ day out lives of the OT saints like every day events, battles etc.—whatever things were written before were written for our learning.
Of course, tied in with this is the doctrine of inspiration—every word of the Bible is God’s word; He so moved the human authors to choose/write the exact word that they did. Elsewhere St. Paul puts it this way [2 Tim. 3.16]: All Scripture is God breathed. In the Creed we confess this work of the Holy Spirit—He spoke by the prophets.
So yes, precisely because every word of Scripture—and here Paul is specifically referring to the OT—is the very word of God, every word is to be guarded and held to as the treasure that it is; and although we can see and value some more than others, every word is valuable and is beneficial for us and our salvation: whatever things were written before were written for our learning.
And why do we need all these “whatever things”? The reason “why” is what we hear in today’s Gospel reading—the return of Christ on the Last Day and so that we will be prepared for it. Although there will be signs aplenty/ warnings that Christ is coming and to be prepared, we still have our old sinful nature that is lazy, negligent, and does not want to regard these signs, that wants to draw us away from our watchfulness. Just like Christ warns us in today’s Gospel: But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. The Lord knows that His NT Church is in for a long wait before His return in glory and judgment on the Last Day, so that’s why He equips us for that long wait with His holy word.
What do we see in the OT? The OT saints waiting for the promised Savior. What else, then, do we see in the OT? The OT saints living out their lives during that wait, in faith. Not every OT account is the excitement of David and Goliath; there are a lot of accounts of day in/ day out business, home life, family dynamics, wars and conflicts—much that is mundane. That’s how our lives mostly are—mundane/ day in day out normal daily life. The point is simply this: as our Lord’s dear Christians awaiting His Second Coming our lives will be quite mundane/ hardly extraordinary; but precisely during our normal everyday lives the Lord will be working to keep us steady and firm in the faith—just like He did the OT saints awaiting His first coming in humility as the Baby born of the virgin. Whatever things were written before, in the OT—even the unexciting/ mundane things we normally want to pass over were written for our learning; looking at them we can see God’s gracious dealing, preservation, love and grace at work in the lives of His OT people and we can be certain He will work just as mightily as we wait for His return.
In fact, we have it even better than the OT saints: For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might continue to have hope. Notice, we have the OT Scriptures. Through them the Lord works mightily strengthening our faith as He gives us example after example of His gracious work in the hearts and lives of His people. And in the Scripture, both Old and, now for us the New Testament—the record of God fulfilling His promise to send His Son to be our Savior—God is teaching us. As He teaches us His will and His work for us, He is equipping us in the wait for Jesus’ return.
From the very beginning, the Christian religion dealt with doctrine/ teaching and the teaching/ imparting of that doctrine. Our faith is not built on our feelings and what we think, but on the solid foundation of doctrine—what God teaches and proclaims in His word and what He has shown in deed in the lives of His saints. That’s how He equips us for the wait for His return—a wait that for the Christians down through the ages has been a lifelong wait. The OT—since that is what Paul was particularly pointing to in our text, but certainly by extension also the NT, the complete word of God—was written for our instruction so that we might learn patience, be given comfort and retain our blessed hope.
The OT saints lived in hope—hope in that Savior that God had promised to send who would pay the price for sin and reconcile sinful humanity with Him; we now live our lives in hope, the hope of His return when He will bring us and all His dear Christians, going all the way back to Adam, into the glories of heaven to be eternally with Him there soul and body. The wait is long and difficult but it is a wait in hope. Hope means there’s nothing material; we hope for what we can’t see. If we can see it, it’s already here and we don’t need to hope for it. But, dear Christian, as we wait in hope for Christ’s return on the Last Day and to equip us, in that wait our good and gracious Lord, in place of what we can’t see, has given us His word of comfort to keep us and sustain us during the wait—which may take the rest of our lives. Hope is marks our lives now. As now we wait in hope, we are certain God will be gracious to us; we have the sure confidence that all God’s promises to us are all fulfilled/ are “yea and amen” in Christ and that heaven is one day ours.
In place of actually seeing these blessings—then it wouldn’t be hope—God has given us His holy word and sacrament. Through these and in these He does not merely announce but He actually gives us the blessings that Jesus won for us on the cross—forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace, joy, the certainty of heaven. Through faith we receive these and are strengthened and equipped by God for the wait—just like the OT saints received God’s promises and looked forward in faith to the coming Savior and through that faith and the gifts of God it received they were strengthened in the wait for Jesus’ first coming. Notice in our text: St. Paul calls God the God of…comfort. Through His word and that word made visible, the Sacraments, the Lord comforts us during our wait and equips us.
2. But now that God has and does equip us for our wait, in hope, for Jesus’ return, what does that mean as we live out our daily lives? The whole context of our text is the blessed apostle’s discussion of unity in the Christian congregation, that those Christians who are strong in faith are to bear with the Christians who are still weak in faith. In Paul’s day, it had a lot to deal with Jewish Christians and how much they still held to certain laws about what they could and couldn’t eat, for example.
Instead of causing the divide in the congregation over things that are not doctrinal, the stronger Christians were to put up with the weaker Christians who would have qualms of conscience, for example, about eating the Christmas ham. How is the Christian’s life marked during this wait in hope for Jesus’ return?
The vital thing to remember is that the Christian life is not “me and Jesus riding off in the sunset together;” it is a life lived in a Christian congregation where Christ has gathered us around His holy word and sacrament. And what does Paul write in our text? For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might continue to have hope.
Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. During our wait for Christ’s return we are not only certain, because of His word, that all God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ—and that alone would be enough for Christians to bear with each other—but as our Lord’s dear Christian, Christ dwells within us—just as He dwells in all His dear Christians. As we recognize Christ in our fellow Christian, who with us is waiting for Jesus’ return on the Last Day, particularly in the same congregation, how then we will be lenient to our fellow Christian and bear with them in their weaknesses and faults, just as they see Christ in us and bear with us in our weaknesses and faults. This bearing with our fellow Christian and they with us is a difficult thing because we both have our old sinful natures.
But this is precisely the patience/ patient endurance Paul talks about in our text. It is a very tiring thing to put up with the weakness and foibles of our fellow Christian, but that’s what we are called on to do; that’s the life we now live as we wait for Jesus’ return—but God strengthens us precisely for this, this daily tiring work removing of thorns and splinters. This is living in the wait and this is living out the Christian life, the nitty-gritty life/ the “mundane” Christian life. We ourselves have enjoyed the forgiveness of sins that God in Christ has given us, that forgiveness that we receive in the absolution, sacrament and word; and as we live out our lives we then forgive those who sin against us and we bear with our fellow Christians in the congregation in their weakness. In Christ we are one with our fellow Christian and Christ empowers us to forgive and to bear with each other’s weaknesses.
Yet because of our old sinful nature and the working of the devil to stir up strife, this is not an easy thing to do. That’s why we need Paul’s prayer like he prayed for this Roman congregation; that’s why we need to be continually praying for ourselves: Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus.
How do Christians regard each other? Our text: Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. How did Christ receive us? He received us/ welcomed us in spite of our sins and hostility toward Him. He welcomed us by suffering and dying for us; He took us to Himself despite our sin and we then live out our Christian lives during our long wait for Christ’s return by showing that same mercy that Christ showed us and now empowers us to show. And because of that love, that patient endurance with our fellow Christians in the congregation, there is a glorious peace and unity in the church. Of course there is that oneness of doctrine that the Holy Spirit worked in the heart, and there is also that outward peace and unity as each one welcomes/ receives the other; and then you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Empowered by God and as He equips us by His word and sacrament we live our lives in glorious peace and unity/ in oneness of doctrine and confession of faith as we with our fellow Christians—especially those in our own congregation—await our Lord’s coming. That is living out our faith day in and day out. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. INJ Amen