Sermon delivered at St. Matthew’s Church, Westerville, OH, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, December 23, 2007
Lectionary texts: Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25, Psalm 80:1-7.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Good morning, St. Matthew’s! Today is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent and we light the fourth candle on the wreath, the candle that signifies love.
God’s Grace and the Human Condition
In today’s NT lesson, Paul declares boldly that he has been set apart for the Gospel of God (Romans 1: 1), immediately alerting us to the fact that the Gospel does not originate from humans, but from God. Gospel, of course, means “good news.” But if I were to ask you what is the “Gospel of God,” how would you answer? What is the Good News of God? Paul summarizes it nicely in the rest of this passage from Romans: God becomes flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, is crucified, raised, and ascended into heaven. And of course in our Gospel lesson this morning we read about the beginning of this wondrous story—the birth of Jesus, God taking on our flesh in fulfillment of the promise he made through the prophet Isaiah to be with us, “Emmanuel.” Emmanuel, God with us. This is good news because it means that by taking on our flesh, God has not given up on humanity. God has taken on our flesh and given himself for us in a very costly act on the cross to offer us a chance of restoring the relationship with him that our sin has broken. This restored relationship doesn’t begin when we die and go to heaven, it begins here and now. Why? Because God is with us here and now. It is a wondrous and awesome mystery that boggles the mind, but it is part of the Gospel of God and therefore we can believe it with confidence because it comes from God. God is with us to love us and redeem us here and now.
It is easy to believe that God is with us during this Advent season, especially if our houses are brightly decorated, we have our families with us, and enjoy the abundant prosperity of health and wealth that many Americans enjoy. But what about those of us who have lost our health or jobs, or who are divorced or have suffered the death of a loved one recently? What about those of us who are old and all alone? Is God still with us then? Apparently Matthew thought so because in the next chapter he went on to describe the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, an act so evil and despicable that Herod surely could not have been the sole author of it. Surely it was an act that was spawned from Hell itself. There was weeping and great mourning as parents grieved and agonized over their children, but Matthew does not retract his statement, he does not say, “Well, because Herod slaughtered the Holy Innocents, God is no longer with us.” No, Matthew sticks to his guns—Emmanuel, God with us. In fact, it is in our darkest hours that we can be most open to the possibility of the truth of Emmanuel, God with us. In our suffering, grief, fear, loneliness, and brokenness we realize that we are not in control and invincible. We realize how fragile we are and life is, and given sufficient grace, we come to realize that this life span of ours is but a drop of water in the massive ocean of eternity. It is then that we realize how desperately we need to attach ourselves to the Source and Author of all life so that we can begin to live life abundantly, now and for all eternity. It is precisely in these moments that we are ready to hear the wondrous truth—Emmanuel, God with us.
By contrast, when things are going well and we enjoy abundant prosperity, both materially and spiritually, we become fat and sassy, our sinful human pride and arrogance take over, and with the encouragement of Satan, we begin to delude ourselves and start believing we don’t need God. We forget Emmanuel, God with us, and we separate ourselves from the Source of life.
The mystery of suffering also reminds us that as Christians we live in the “already-not yet.” Tomorrow night we will gather together here to celebrate the birth of God made flesh, Jesus—Emmanuel, God with us. In his birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, we are reminded of the “already.” God has taken on our flesh and acted decisively to restore us to him if we will only choose to accept his gracious offer. But sin and brokenness remain and our complete restoration will not be fulfilled until Christ’s second coming. Then the “not yet” will occur. Christ will wipe away every tear and there will be no more mourning, or pain, or death, or suffering (Rev. 21:4) and we will live with and worship our Source of life forever and ever. Until then, however, we Christians must wait with patient anticipation and prepare ourselves so that we might be ready when Christ returns, for no one knows the hour when that will happen (Matt 24:36).
Application
In closing, it seems to me that in the life of our congregation, now is a good time for us to remember Emmanuel, God with us. The events of this past week have conspired to cause great confusion, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty among us, and perhaps we are tempted to forget Emmanuel, God with us. Or worse yet, perhaps we are tempted not to believe Emmanuel, God with us. What will happen to us as a congregation? To this property? It is precisely during times like this that we need to hear and believe Matthew’s word to us—Emmanuel, God with us. Regardless of what happens to this property or to us, we need not fear because God is with us and promises never to abandon or forsake us (Matt 28:20)! This is the Gospel of God and it is ours if only we believe it. This does not mean that there will be no dark days ahead or that uncertainty and confusion will magically disappear. Nor does it make us immune to all the other bad things that life can serve up. Rather, it means that if we humble ourselves and believe God’s mighty promise to be with us, we will be victorious, irrespective of outcome, because we will not let the lesser things of life interfere with God being with us and guiding us.
Do you believe this, that God is with us even in the darkest of hours? In the early third century, there was a bishop of Rome named Hippolytus. Hippolytus was long recognized as a schismatic bishop because he opposed those who had an inadequate understanding of Jesus’ humanity and divinity; they couldn’t believe Jesus was fully God and fully human, God with us. But now Hippolytus is a saint because he did believe the Gospel. Imagine that—a schismatic saint. When dealing with the Gospel of God, Hippolytus believed that we cannot put ourselves in authority over scripture; rather, we must submit to the authority of scripture and believe the things contained in it, things like Emmanuel, God with us, because that is the way God has chosen to make his Truth known to us. If we humble ourselves and believe God’s promise to be with us even (or perhaps especially) in life’s most dire moments, nothing can defeat us—not the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, nor suffering, or death, or brokenness, or separation, or fear, or uncertainty because of Emmanuel, God with us. That really is good news, now and for all eternity.
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.