In the Name of Christ Jesus our Advent King +
Boy, God just doesn’t get it sometimes. I mean, He just doesn’t do things right. Did you hear the text – and this is to say
nothing of the fact that we have a Palm Sunday reading in December (what’s the
Church thinking on that) – but did you hear the text? “Your
king is coming to you humble, and mounted on a donkey, and a colt, the foal of
a beast of burden.” A king – a
king is coming – on a donkey. That’s not
how kings ought to come! Humble? What good is a humble king? And it’s almost Christmas time – this text
isn’t cutesy enough – why don’t we have something cute – a baby or something –
it’s almost Christmastime – get in the spirit of Christmas, God!
St. Paul tells us that God’s plan of salvation is “a stumbling block to the Jews and folly
to the Gentiles,” and at no time is this statement more clear, more
understandable than when December, than when Advent roles around. It is almost heart rending, all the paraphernalia
of Christ’s birth floating around the stores, but not really observed. We talk of the Christmas spirit – which means
buy more stuff to help the economy. Angels are here already – leading us to
great sales and huge savings. . . of money. Actually, we are to the point where
we are only supposed to say “Happy Holidays” – which I actually am grateful for
– I’d rather the world ignore Christ than simply use Him as an excuse for
commerce and greed. No, it isn’t God who
is mistaken – the Church isn’t foolish talking about Palm Sunday here on the first
day of December – it is the world that doesn’t understand. The season of Advent which we enter today is
the time the Church takes to make sure she understands – Advent is the season
where we focus on the coming of Christ – the approach of our celebration of
Christmas – to remember what it really means amid all the pomp and stress that
comes along with the holidays.
What does Advent – what does Christ’s coming mean? First, let’s consider what it is not – for we
easily get mixed up on this today. There
are many platitudes and heartwarming ideas that float around every December. Christmas time is for family. Well, that’s nice – I hope you have a great
time with your family – but I hope you don’t ignore them the rest of the year. Christmas time is for giving. That great – as Christians we are to be ready
to be generous at all times. . . you aren’t using generosity now to excuse
being a cold, heartless scrooge the rest of the year, are you? Christmas time is for kids – so that they can
have fun and enjoy life. And spring
isn’t for your kids, and the fun you have watching things bloom, to say nothing
of summer or fall? Christmas is the time
for that perfect, hallmark card moment where everything goes just perfect and
it is so beautiful and wonderful. . .
Those are the ideals that we toss out – the hopes, the
expectations, the pictures by Courrier and Ives, the Movie on Lifetime. How does it really end up working out? Hurried, rushed shopping at over crowded
stores, demands upon demands for more and better stuff leading to stress upon
stress – is there enough cash to do everything we want to do, or will we
disappoint this person or that – and then rushing around getting all the
gatherings right - we have to have everything just so or aunt so and so will
pitch a fit – and oh great, here comes your sister, no don’t argue with her
now, not here, but we have to be happy, happy, happy, tis the season to be
jolly – on and on to a chaotic, stress inducing mess, so much so that by the 26th
we are done with it all!
Now,
I enjoy all the pomp, all the hokey stuff of Christmas as much as the next guy
– watching a Christmas Carol or the Charlie Brown Christmas – I enjoy shopping,
I like cooking – I even have had my Christmas tree in my front room up for nine
years in a row without taking it down – but all of it can get rather stressful,
can’t it? There’s a lot more
expectations, a lot more things to do that don’t happen in a normal month. All these reasons to get high strung and
stressed out, more and more things to complain about. And all this stuff, when it boils down to it
– really isn’t about what Christmas is truly about. It isn’t about Christ and His coming. We get so busy, we get so caught up in
things, in “the season” that we can sort of push Christ off into a corner – the
focus on Christ can be centered on “did we remember to put up the nativity
scene this year” – and that’s about it.
The trappings of the season don’t really focus on Christ.
This
Advent season though our services are going to provide us a pause, a brief calm
in the frenzied storm that December can be, a time to look past all the
blinking lights and symbols whose meaning the world has long since forgotten –
and we will pause and look at and remember what it is about Christ’s coming
that we ought to celebrate.
Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. The reason we
have events of Palm Sunday start off the Church year is because it is the
perfect reminder of how and why Christ comes.
Do you see how Christ comes? On a
lowly beast of burden. There is no white
steed, there is no magisterial procession.
Even all the hoopla of Palm Sunday – we think of it as a huge
spectacle. It wasn’t, at least it wasn’t
planned out. People just cut branches
off of trees, people threw the coats they happened to be wearing on the ground
– there was no massive planning effort, no huge production, no ticker-tape
parade or celebratory feast. Simple
response – see Christ, respond to His coming.
Simple and lowly and humble. That
is how Christ comes. Does that not
describe perfectly how He comes into Human Flesh – does that not remind and
prepare us for the celebration of Christmas – where God almighty comes, joins
with mankind – not in a huge palace to a rich family, enjoying all the
splendors of life – but to a typical family – born in humble conditions, born
in a barn. Christ comes in humility, not
seeking the best that this life can offer – not seeking Hallmark moments and
everything being just so – but He comes in humility, He comes to the poor and
lowly who have to cut off branches of a tree to laud Him – He is humble – that
is how He comes.
And
our text today points us to why Christ comes.
Just as we can take Christ out of Christmas time, we can so easily take
the Cross out of Christmas time as well.
When Jesus enters Jerusalem,
He enters it to go to the Cross. When
Christ comes as a King, He does so to engage in battle with our old foes of sin
and death – and He does this battle by striding to the Cross, by suffering and
dying. That is why He comes – who for us
men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy
Spirit of the Virgin Mary. Christ comes
to go to the Cross and win salvation for you.
When Jesus comes, He doesn’t come to crawl down your chimney and give
you stuff under the tree – instead He is nailed to His tree so that you will be
welcomed eternally to Your Heavenly Father’s House. When Jesus comes, He doesn’t show up like
Scrooge on Christmas day bringing the prize turkey to enhance your feast – but
He comes to you in His Supper, His feast to enhance your faith, to give you His
own forgiveness and righteousness.
Christ is always working for your salvation – and when we focus on Christ’s
coming, our focus always has to center on what He does for your salvation –
otherwise we miss the point, and we get bogged down on things that really don’t
last – things that don’t endure.
Advent
is a season of preparation. Christ’s
birth is a momentous thing – a mystery which gave wonder and pause to even the
angels. Christ’s birth is that which the
prophets looked forward to, what every human looked forward to since God made
the promise of a coming Savior to Adam and Eve in the garden. The wonder of the ages – the mystery of all
time – that “Emmanuel” is a true statement – that God is with us. And we can just shoot on by it – most likely
not even worry about heading to Church on Christmas – on Christ Mass – the day
you go to Church and have a service, a mass, because Christ was born. Thus the hectic pace of life in America
today. Thus it is most fitting to have a
season, a time of preparation, where we pause from what we are doing the rest
of the time in the week, where we slow down, where we sit and look at, not ads,
fliers, or recipe books, but at God’s Word, and we prepare for our celebration
of Christmas – indeed, prepare for Christ’s second coming as well, in the
diligent study of God’s Word, in prayer, in the reception of the Sacrament.
Remember,
dear friends, Christ and His love for you endures, long after the ornaments are
put away and the tree has died – long after the final leftovers are tossed and
the last of the now stale cookies hit the trash bin. That is why we take time to ponder His
coming, this is why we even spend a month preparing in the Church to celebrate
His birth – and to celebrate it the right way.
We see Christ come meek and lowly, for He comes not to lord it over you,
but to serve you. You have been brought
low by sin… He will come to you to raise you up. He comes as a King, but not as a King bent on
destruction, but rather bent upon salvation, upon your rescue. He came in the flesh 2000 or so years ago and
won your salvation, and He will come again to raise the dead and to give us
everlasting life. He who came once so
humbly will come again in glory. Thus we
are right to pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus.
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King + Amen.
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