She's so blonde...she thought Meow Mix was a CD for cats.
‹Jim Genthe›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
28Nov
2010
Sun
16:28
author: Stingray
category: Sermons
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First Sunday in Advent

Matthew 21:1-11

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Behold, your King is coming to you," Zechariah was given to say.

On Thursday after church, the kids and I watched the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As always, the parade ended with a man dressed in red with a white beard riding a float. And, as always, the announcer gives the obligatory proclamation that the end of the parade signals the beginning of the holiday season. With Thanksgiving, we enter the "Christmas Season," or so we are told.

In the world of retail, this is most certainly true. Stores have been rearranged and decorated, not only with fall colors in preparation for Thanksgiving, but also in reds and greens, in preparation for Christmas. Some stores were already set up before the end of October. And, of course, there was Friday...Black Friday—the real beginning of the Christmas shopping season when the stores and their parent companies hope to remove themselves from operating in the red and back into the black.

Of course, we know better. Christmas begins on the evening of December 24. While the date may be borrowed from a pagan holiday, Christmas is all about Christ's church and the celebration of the Christ Mass (from which the word is derived). We, the members of the Church, are still waiting and anticipating. The season we are now entering is not the Christmas season but the season of Advent, a word derived from a Latin word meaning "coming."

"Behold, your King is coming to you," the prophet was given to say. So, if your King is coming, then He is not here, yet, and we can, by no means, celebrate His being here, contrary to what the Macy's announcers and stores would like you to believe. For them, the celebration is now; for us, the celebration is yet to come.

On the other hand, we do confess that the King has already come once, otherwise we wouldn't have a yearly celebration called Christmas, and the twelve days that encompasses. Jesus the King, the Son of God, first came in a humble setting, developing from a zygote in the womb of a common virgin girl descended from Israel's greatest king, David. He was born in a barn and bedded in a trough, not exactly the nursery of royalty.

Some 33 years later, He rode into the royal city atop a donkey and her colt, borrowed from a village opposite the Mount of Olives. "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey,'" the prophet declared. The people were ready for Him, so today's text tells us, but not all of them. Some cut down palm branches to place on the road before Him, and others placed their coats on the ground. Still, others asked, "Who is this?"

Excitedly, they answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." This is the King long-expected, the Messiah prophesied of old. He has come to set His people free, and to them, this meant from the tyranny of Rome.

And what does He do? He is captured by the temple guards, handed over to the Roman governor, flogged and beaten to within an inch of his life by Roman soldiers and spiked to a cross outside of the city. A borrowed donkey may have been overlooked, but a cross for a throne and thorns for a crown are another matter. The sign over his head may read, "King of the Jews," but this is not the kind of King they expected, not the kind of King they wanted.

He dies, is buried, and rises again. 40 days later, He leaves, ascending into heaven, with the promise to return. "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:2b-3)

He may not have been what the crowds expected, but what He did accomplished freedom for them—freedom and salvation, in fact. Jesus came as no ordinary king, but humble, from beginning to end. It was the way of His righteousness, the way to bear their sin and yours. They and you are sinners burdened by the perfect Law of God that cannot be kept because they and you are descendants of Adam, conceived and born and living in Adam's sin. Jesus' crucifixion is their victory—is your victory—over sin, death, and the devil. The Law has no more power over you; it may still accuse you, but it no longer condemns you because the King kept it perfectly in your place.

Now, He is ascended for them and you, enthroned (properly) as King over all the universe. Ascended into the clouds, His promise is sure, for He always keeps His promises. Even as the angels told those assembled watching Jesus ascend, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11) "He will come," the angels declared.

"Behold, your King is coming to you," the prophet was given to say.

Not so fast, though. Your King comes to you, even today, though He comes hidden. You cannot see Him as He comes, but He has an advent today, and every day, regardless of the season, until He comes again in glory, for all to see and recognize.

For now, though, He comes hidden in ordinary means, still as humble as when He first came as zygote and infant, still as humble as when He rode into Jerusalem as King on a borrowed donkey, still has humble as when He stood before the temple guards, Pontius Pilate, and Roman soldiers who mocked, beat, and crucified Him. He comes in ways humble and lowly so that people can receive Him and from Him receive what He has come to give: forgiveness, life, and salvation.

He comes in water, mere water combined with His Word that is a washing of regeneration. He comes in simple Words—Holy Scripture, the voice of a pastor, and the proclamation of Holy Absolution—words which give exactly what they say: the forgiveness of sins. He comes in bread and wine, giving with it His very body and blood, giving His very life to those who eat and drink, saying, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53)

And, just as the crowds on that Palm Sunday became disenchanted with a King who died such an ordinary death, people today reject Him because they can't conceive receiving Him in such ordinary means. They want something more glorious and grand—an epiphany, a vision, the very voice of God Himself from heaven. "What kind of king or god would use such simple ways to talk to us and give us His holy things," they ask, "Why would any king or god do it this way?"

And it's disheartening even for us, especially as we await His return in glory. We do the same thing week in and week out. We hear the same words from the same pastor all the time. We eat the bread and wine, which we say is the body and blood every week. And we feel no different for it. Behold, your King comes to you, dear hearers; if you are disheartened despite this, if you feel no different for all of this, the problem is not your King's but within you. Your Old Adam is obscuring you view and clouding your faith; he is the cause of your denial of your King's coming to you, your denial of the presence of your King.

But, your King still comes to you, righteous and having salvation. (cf. Zechariah 9:9) Confess your inability to see His coming to you in simple means. Confess your denial of His presence for your good. Certainly, you are here because you believe, and the Lord will help with your unbelief.

How? Behold, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation. He comes to forgive your sins and strengthen your faith here and now as you recall your baptism at which you were given faith, as you hear and receive the words of Holy Absolution from one much like yourselves but given to say those words, as you receive His very body and blood hidden in bread and wine. Yes despite your Old Adam obscuring your view and your own denial of His coming and presence—indeed, for those very reasons—your King, your Lord, your God comes to you righteous and having salvation, and He gives them to you.

"Behold, your King is coming to you." And this is why He comes to you today as He does. One day, we don't know when, nor do we need to know, He will be coming again, this time in glory, unlike His conception and birth, unlike His ride into Jerusalem, unlike in the simple, ordinary means of water, word, bread, and wine. The King is coming again, and at that time no one will be able to doubt or deny that God is God and His Son is Lord and King, but by then, it will be too late for those who rejected Him and the faith He has to give. But, He comes to you now in these simple, ordinary means, just like He came in humble conception and birth, just like He came into Jerusalem in such humble fashion, so that you can receive Him and be prepared for His final coming—His final advent; so that you are prepared to receive Him in glory as your Lord and King so that where He is now, you may be also.

Behold, your King came to you. He was born for you and died for you to win your forgiveness of sins. Behold, your King comes to you. He is here now for you giving to you what His birth and, more pointedly, His death on the cross won for you.. Behold, your King is coming to you. We now live in the last days, when we expectantly await His next advent, prepared for it by His continual advent in those simple, ordinary means...simple, ordinary means which proclaim and give to you what you hear and receive from this pulpit week in and week out: you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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