Advent 1
Beloved. When I say to you today, “Happy New Year!” your first thought might be: “What’s he talking about? Has he forgotten all about Christmas and the hub-bub around that? What does he think happened to the last month?” But then we remember: today is the first Sunday/ first day of the new Church year. The Church Year does not run the same as the calendar year; it begins with the first Sunday in Advent—today. And as the first day of the year, today/ the first day of the new Church Year is also filled with all kinds of hopes and longings as the first day of the calendar year. But there is a huge difference. We know exactly what we will find and experience this new Church year because why? The Church Year brings to us once again, week after week, the accounts of our Lord’s life and recalls to us once again His work for us and our salvation. This new Church Year brings before us and places us in the midst of Jesus’ work for our salvation. So let us, for example, see ourselves as part of the Palm Sunday crowd welcoming Jesus, [our] King, as He comes to [us], entering Jerusalem humble, and riding on a donkey to suffer and die and so be our Savior by destroying our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell precisely by His holy, innocent suffering and death. Let us see ourselves with the shepherds as they announce Jesus’ birth and run to see the newborn Savior. Let us see ourselves this new Church Year as part of the crowd seeing Jesus heal the sick or cast our demons; as part of the crowd hearing Him teach. Let us see ourselves at the foot of the cross with St. Mary and St. John. Let us see ourselves running with Sts. Peter and John to the tomb. That’s what the Church Year does—it recounts the events of our Lord’s life; in faith let us be there with Him and experience His grace to us once again. And remember, the word of God that we hear once again this new Church Year doesn’t just tell us of Jesus and His work. Instead, the word of God gives us the blessing and fruit of Jesus’ work: forgiveness of sin, life and salvation. Let us, then, receive those gifts and blessings in faith once again this new Church Year.
Notice something else here. When the new calendar year begins, there is all sorts of hope and expectation that this will a year filled with all sorts of good things. Sometimes they pan out; other times a year is filled with seemingly nothing but sorrow and tragedy. There is always a hint of uncertainty as we begin a new calendar year—but never is there as we begin a new Church Year. That’s because Jesus is coming to us once again in it. He comes to us riding His lowly donkey of word, water, bread and wine having and giving us once again all the fullness of His heavenly and spiritual gifts. We can be sure that come what may, Jesus comes to us once again in grace, having salvation. We will have a blessed new Church Year—that’s a guarantee as we, like the Palm Sunday crowd, welcome Him in it.
The season of Advent that begins the new Church Year sets the tone for us for this new Church Year. As we examine our text we will see that message of Advent. It is, first of all, a message of salvation and joy; and it is also a message of repentance and renewal.
St. Paul begins our text: And… this, since you understand the present time. It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. Now, dear Christian, is the time of grace! Let us make use of it. The image St. Paul is using is of the new day sneaking up on the night: The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. The night is an image of life in this world; it is influenced by sin and evil. But its time is short, limited. Just like at the beginning of the new day as the darkness of the night wanes and the first rays of light are beginning to mix in—light which will soon overtake the darkness. This is the time in which we live, in which the Church has always lived. Yes, we are surrounded by sin and evil. But God has not abandoned us to it. We live under and enjoy His grace and mercy. That’s the light of Jesus—the Light of the world—shining into the world. Now God’s grace and mercy is clear. How can we deny it? Didn’t He come into this world to deal with our sins once and for all on the cross? Didn’t He conquer our spiritual enemies for us, triumphing over them for us by rising from the dead Easter Sunday morning? This clear, obvious grace and mercy is what is being proclaimed to us once again in the new Church Year. And as it is being proclaimed, God’s grace and mercy is also being given to us and we receive it by faith. That’s why the message of Advent is one of salvation and joy [Zch 9.9]: Behold, your King is coming for you; He is just and having salvation. Who can deny God’s grace and mercy? It is present for all to see in Jesus—the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who became also true man for us and our salvation.
But Jesus, true God and true man, isn’t a mere historical person who came 2000 years ago. He continues to come to us today. The night is almost over, and the day is drawing near. Jesus set up/ established His kingdom, the NT Church, as He was enthroned on the cross. Now that He rose from the dead, He lives and reigns and comes to us even personally and individually. He came to us in the waters of Holy Baptism where He washed away our sin, created faith in Him in our hearts and brought us into His holy family. He still comes to us in His word giving us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and strengthening our faith. He comes to us in the Holy Sacrament where with the bread and wine He gives us His very body and blood; unites Himself with us. Advent’s message of joy and salvation is that the night is almost over, and the day is drawing near; the presence of Jesus’ kingdom is here now in the Church and continuing to shine in the darkness of the world as the day sneaks up on the night. And the full day, the day of all glory, the Last Day, the day of Jesus’ return in glory is fast approaching.
With that in mind, with the certainty of Jesus’ coming in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead, with that message of ultimate salvation and joy for the Christian, our eyes are directed toward God and the Last Day. Not only, then, does Advent teach us of Jesus’ coming now in His Church in His word and Sacrament, but also of His coming on the Last Day. Advent’s message to us as it sets the tone for the entire Church Year is to keep ready and watching for Jesus’ return. That day is the culmination of all of Jesus’ work—His incarnation, His life and teaching, His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension—on that day we will be soul and glorified body eternally in the presence of God, free from sin and all evil.
All that we will again hear throughout the new Church Year, with Advent setting the tone, will direct our gaze and focus to the things of God, to His eternal gifts and blessings. How we need that because day in/ day out struggles and sorrows as well as “joys” and “successes” turn our gaze downward to earthly, temporal things! But as we hear Advent’s message of the end of all things and our Lord’s return, the message of the ultimate salvation and joy, we live our lives and turn our gaze heavenward and can live a life of hope here and now. We are assured—because Jesus won them for us—of every heavenly glory, even though now it is hidden from us. That becomes the reality of our lives. St. John tells us [1 John 3.2]: Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What a glorious message of salvation and joy. And Advent proclaims it to us once again.
What a glorious preaching of Advent we find in our text: our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Everything necessary for our salvation has been done for us by Jesus. That’s what the upcoming Church Year will again proclaim to us. And each time we gather around the word and sacrament in this new Church Year, we will receive the fruit of Jesus’ work for us—forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Our salvation is certain and accomplished; we just are waiting for Jesus’ return and our final deliverance from all evil. We have nothing else to wait for than the beginning of our life, soul and glorified body in heaven. As Christians, we have, by our baptism participated in Jesus’ death and resurrection; we have reached the frontier of the world to come—now we just await that Last Day to enter the full glory of heaven. What a powerful message of salvation and joy Advent again greets us with to begin this new Church Year.
Since our salvation is certain and sure, since it is certain that the day of salvation will come, it is vital that we pay attention to the times we live in; it is vital that we be awake in spiritual matters! Our text: And … this, since you understand the present time. It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep. That’s why we begin the new Church Year with Advent’s message of repentance and renewal. We need the spiritual wakeup call that Advent gives us because it is so easy to be lulled by life day in/ day out that we lose sight of what is most vital—our Lord, His return, our faith, our being ready for it. When the holy Apostle speaks about sleep, it’s a picture of spiritual inattentiveness, turning our focus off the things of God and directing it to the things of the world; or, a bit more harshly: our spiritual sleep is a disregard and despising of eternal blessings. And really, sleep is a very apt description, because what happens when we sleep? –We dream! And although their images are often wrong and weird, dreams seem so real. And their images are useless, intangible, formless, etc. but they seem so real and in the dream we act accordingly. What an apt description for what seems so real in the world—they are like dream and fantasy. The truly vital and the thing of substance and reality are the things of God. They are for the here and now and they are eternal; they have eternal consequences. The call of Advent? Wake up! Wake up from following the phantom images of the dreams that the world presents as reality and be wide awake in spiritual matters. Keep the main thing, the main thing! Direct your heart and mind, Advent preaches, to fulfill the will of God. That’s its message of repentance and renewal. None of us fulfills the will of God. We daily and often sin. That’s why we need to hear the call to repent: It is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep. We did that at conversion—we woke up from spiritual sleep, but the life of a Christian is one of continual repentance because we continually sin. If we are not in a continual hurry to repent of our sin, we, by that, are saying we don’t need it, that we don’t need a Savior from sin. But our life as Christians is one of all the time waking from spiritual sleep and renouncing our ungodliness and sinful desires, and following the leading and governing of the Holy Spirit to grow in a life of holiness. Our text: So let us put away the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. Let us walk decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual sin and wild living, not in strife and jealousy. Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give any thought to satisfying the desires of your sinful flesh. Dear Christian, we fight that battle because the day of Jesus’ return is soon. Our lives of holiness, striving to fight against sin is a steady battle but in baptism we were clothed and united with Jesus. He is our armor of light. He has fought and won the battle for us. May His Holy Spirit dwell in us, govern and rule us as we await the day of His return living a life of repentance certain of our salvation in Him. INJ