Savior of the Nations, Come! A sermon for the first Sunday in Advent

First Sunday in Advent
November 28^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Savior’ and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Savior of the Nations, Come!

 1. Savior of the nations, come, Virgin’s Son, make here Your home!

      Marvel now, O heav’n and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth.

   Humility is Divine.  Humble service is Godly.   We begin the Story once again,
retelling to young and old the way of salvation, the path of Jesus, coming to save us. 

   And this story is of a great king riding into His royal city, riding on a donkey, wearing no armor, wielding no visible weapon, filled with gentleness, quietly riding into suffering and sacrifice.  A crucial nugget to learn from this first Sunday in Advent is that humility, humble service without thought for oneself, this is a divine attribute.  It is of the nature and character of God Most High to serve, and not to be served.  God is almighty, the source of all power and justice, the avenger of wrongs, the Holy, Holy, Holy One.  And so we sinners expect God to come with wrath, anger at the world, and also towards us.  We hear that the Lord is coming, and we expect an angry God, come to punish and correct.  And this is true. 

   And yet He also comes with gentleness.  In the mystery of the God who is love, at the same time, just and almighty God is humble, gentle, coming to lift up the lowly sinner.  Humility belongs to the character of God.  The humble service needed to save us is also natural to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Loving humility is the best of God, and so also loving humility is the best of man, the Man, Jesus, the son of Mary, the Son of God, come down from heaven to save her, and all of us.  Savior of the nations, come!  Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

2. Not by human flesh and blood, By the Spirit of our God,

    Was the Word of God made flesh - Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

 

3. Here a maid was found with child, Yet remained a virgin mild.

    In her womb this truth was shown: God was there upon His throne.

 

    Mother Mary, most blessed amongst all women.  What’s that all about? 

   Ever since the serpent successfully divided the woman and the man from God, and from each other, we children of Adam and Eve have struggled with human sexuality.  Separated from God by our sinfulness, we always struggle to rightly use the gifts of being man and woman, husband and wife, parents and children.  Satan has succeeded in making us think that sex and marriage and having babies is about me and my pleasure.  It is a gift from God that these things can be pleasurable, joyful, full of meaning.  Indeed, they are designed by God to be wonderful.  But the pleasures of marriage and family and parenthood are added benefits, which come alongside their primary purpose, which is the increase of love and the expansion of God’s family.  But because of Satan and sin, our love and our ability to grow God’s eternal family were ruined.    

   In God’s timing and within God’s plan, Man is made to love and serve Woman, and Woman is made to love and serve Man, each according to their unique roles, mutually and uniquely supporting one another, as created by God.  And chief among these unique ways of serving is that Man was created to be father, and Woman was created to be Mother.  And so, in God’s original plan, Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and fill the earth with children, precious to God and showered with all His blessings. 

   But because of Satan and sin, our love and our ability to grow God’s eternal family were ruined.   And so it should not surprise us that the story of the virgin birth and the person of Mary, Jesus’ mother, should confuse us.  Does the virgin birth teach us that virginity is a higher calling than marriage and parenthood?  No.  Neither is marriage a higher calling than being single.  We are all called to chastity, to sexual purity, regardless of our situation of life.  If we are not married, then we are called to not exercise our sexuality, until we are married.  If we are married, our calling is to love, honor, serve and be faithful to our spouse alone, loving them selflessly, not using them selfishly.  Either calling, as a single person or a married person, can be the highest calling for you, because it is the calling you have received from God today.  If and when He changes your calling, either calling the single to marriage, or returning the married to being single, then your new calling is highest, for you.  Because this calling comes to you from God. 

   So, is the virgin birth about Mary?  Well, it’s not “not” about Mary.  This young Jewish woman did receive the highest honor, the calling to be the Mother of God.  We honor Mary and give thanks to God for her service and example, because she has been called to a unique role to which no other human being has ever or will ever again be called.  Marvel now, heaven and earth: Mary was called to conceive, bear, give birth to and be mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

   Which was wonderfully good for Mary, and also terribly painful.  But for all the attention and honor we give to Mary, the effects of the virgin birth on Mary are secondary.  The virgin birth is not primarily about Mary, but rather it is about God expanding love and growing His family.  As I have mentioned, because of Satan and sin, our love and our ability to grow God’s eternal family were ruined.  So God had to come to reverse the Fall, to restore the “very goodness” of men and women, through the life, death and resurrection of Mary’s Son, Jesus.  The main point of the virgin birth is that Joseph is not the father of Jesus; God the Father is.  Jesus is God in the flesh, the Almighty, entering into the human story, in order to rescue us.  No mere man could achieve our salvation, only God.  So God became man.  Jesus is the point of the Virgin Birth, that God was on His throne in Mary’s womb, the Word made flesh, come to save. 

   The Church’s frequent confusion with what to make of Mother Mary is in great part due to our struggle to rightly understand and live out our callings as men and women, living sexually pure lives.  Whatever your current calling is in regard to your existence as a man or a woman, whether as a young or not so young unmarried person, a widow or widower, a husband or wife, father, mother or child, in whatever role we find ourselves, all of us struggle and mess up this part of our lives with great frequency.  Confusion about sexuality and ongoing sexual sin are amongst the greatest struggles we Christians face.  To say nothing of the sexual madness that is tearing our culture apart.  There is great earthly blessing in exercising our sexuality according to God’s design, and yet we struggle so much to do this.  But do not despair.  Jesus, Mary’s Son, is God in the flesh, for you, come to forgive you for all your sins, and restore you to the life He wants for you.   

4. Then stepped forth the Lord of all, From His pure and kingly hall;

    God of God, yet fully man, His heroic course began.

 

5. God the Father was His source, Back to God He ran His course.

    Into hell His road went down, Back then to His throne and crown.

    What would Jesus do?  This was for a time a very popular Christian slogan.  And it’s not wrong to look to Jesus as an example for how we should live.  But that only gets us so far.  What would Jesus do?  Live 100% for others, for His Father, and for us sinners.  Serve, serve, serve, teach, teach, teach, pray, pray, pray.  Never wavering, never faltering.  How is your imitation of Jesus going? 

     And Jesus isn’t done when He has served, taught and prayed.  In addition to showing us how to love God and our neighbors, He also came to heal the sick, and raise the dead.  Miraculously feed thousands.  Oh, and also to suffer and die on a Cross under the wrath of God for the sins of all people.  Can you imitate these works? 

    Better question: What has Jesus done?  He has done all of this.  He has run His heroic course, to earth, to the Cross, through Hell and back.  He has run His course for joy, the joy of having you for His very own. 

6. For You are the Father’s Son, Who in flesh the vic’try won.

    By Your mighty pow’r make whole, All our ills of flesh and soul.

   How are we Christians to deal with suffering, illness and death? 

   With confidence in our Coming King, who came, and who will come again, and who still comes to us, daily, through His life-giving Word and His sin-forgiving and soul-restoring mysteries.  Jesus is God’s best Word, and His final Word, a Word of forgiveness, love and acceptance, delivered in and through Him.  So it’s not surprising that the eternal Word would work through words, even words spoken through the lips of sinners.  It is not surprising that the Word made flesh would work through earthly materials, plain water, the fruit of the vine, common bread.  For He comes to serve and to save.  This is the story He would have us retell, again and again, until He comes again, Amen. 

7. From the manger newborn light Shines in glory through the night.

    Darkness there no more resides; In this light faith now abides.

 

8. Glory to the Father sing, Glory to the Son, our king,

    Glory to the Spirit be, Now and through eternity.