In the Name of Jesus
Luke 1,39-56
4. Sunday in Advent Rorate Caeli
Abraham, Patriarch. Ulrik Vilhelm Koren, Pastor, Theologian, and Patriarch of Norwegian-American Lutherans. † 1910. Born in Bergen, Norway.
19. December 2010
1. O Lord Jesus Christ, all Your holy Christendom rejoices this day to celebrate Your holy advent. We, poor, erring lambs, leap for joy that You, O Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, cause Your gracious presence to be realized among us in the blessed virgin Mary. O Lord depart not from us with Your grace, but lest us gratefully realize this gracious day of Your visitation, so that Your advent may ever be salutary and full of mercy unto to us. With all Your pure Word, Your holy Sacraments, Your wisdom, support, favor, blessing, and grace, visit us in our churches, our schools, our courts, and our dwellings. We rejoice that You arrive not as a just Judge before whom we tremble, but rather as the kind Redeemer, with whom we will be joint heirs of the reign of heaven (Löhe 444-46). Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Luke where the holy evangelist writes: Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, ,,Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.“ This is our text.
3. It is the 4th Sunday in Advent, and the arrival of the Christ is now immanent. The Son of God is now incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary. The Church, therefore believes, teaches, and confesses that Mary is the qeotokoj, the bearer of God.
4. In 431 the Church’s bishops convened the Council of Ephesus and made the following ecumenical declaration that is still believed, taught, and confessed by the Church today: ,,The holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to the person (hypostasis), for that reason we call her qeotokoj … If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is the qeotokoj (for she bore in a fleshly way the Word of God become flesh), let him be anathema“ (Wikipedia). What the council said is that Jesus Christ is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh. Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ (Athanasian Creed §28-30, 32). Those who will not believe these things about Jesus are given the straight curse, the anathema: they are condemned by God and damned to the pit of hell. And that, dear Christians, is a stumbling block for many people in the 21st century.
5. As has been the case throughout history, so also in the 21st century, unbelievers and Christians alike, are tempted to either deemphasize Jesus’ divinity or to deemphasize Jesus’ humanity. More often than not, Jesus’ divinity is downplayed or denied more so than His humanity. Therefore, if Jesus is just a man, then Mary cannot be the blessed bearer of God. And if Mary is not the bearer of God, then the Old Testament Prophets have not been fulfilled, and therefore we are not righteous before our Heavenly Father.
6. Christians, therefore, ought to take these things seriously. It is harsh to hear a council of bishops or a creed declare: If you do not believe such and such, then you are damned. We are especially sanitized to such directness because we live in a culture that attempts to enforce political correctness in every day language where no one at any time can or should be offended. Let me give it to you straight: Jesus offends people; the Church offends people; the gospel offends people; Christians offend people. God the Father has established standards that cannot be challenged or changed. Jesus and the gospel cannot be taken up by each and every individual who then twists and contorts them like some flexible toy to suit each person’s fancy. Jesus is God and Man in one person. Mary bore Him and is His mother. That is the way it is. If it offends people, too bad, they will just have to get over being offended and deal with it.
7. Jesus cannot be the Incredible Changing Savior who suits each denominations unique spin on Jesus as the Crhist. Adjusted Jesus is adjusted gospel, and for an adjusted gospel you do not really finally need Jesus (Nagel 158). To pervert the gospel of Christ is to nullify the grace of God (Nagel 159). Then Jesus was incarnated in the virgin Mary for no purpose.
8. The Prophets declared: »Behold, I will send you the Prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of Yahweh arrives. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not arrive and strike the land with a curse« (Malachi 4,5-6). »Behold, the virgin is with child and will bear a son, and she will name Him Immanuel« (Isaiah 7,14). Look at what God the Father gives us in Luke 1. Mary has miraculously conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She is carrying the very Son of God who is the fulfillment of the Prophets. Mary goes to her cousin Elizabeth who is also bearing the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptizer, who will prepare the way for the Lord Jesus. The very moment Mary’s voice is heard, John leaps for joy in his mother’s womb and Elizabeth blesses Mary and her Child. The Prophets Malachi and Isaiah have been fulfilled in Luke 1.
9. The gospel was promised in the Prophets and the gospel comes to pass in the Gospel according to Luke. Yahweh’s salvation is near and on the cusp of being in our very midst. The first gospel promise, given to Eve, is nigh: »Yahweh God said, ,,I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike your head, and you will strike her heel“« (Genesis 3,15). Mary is with child, and this Child will crush the head of the devil, and in doing so Jesus conquers sin, death, and the devil. Jesus makes us righteous in His Father’s sight, and we have that righteousness by faith in Christ alone.
10. To reject the gospel and its salvation is to be left with the law, and ultimately the law binds us and condemns us to the pit of hell. If Mary is not the bearer of God, then all we have is the law. If Mary is not blessed, then all we have is the law. If the Prophets are not believed, then all we have is the law, »for the law kills, but the gospel gives life« (2 Corinthians 3,6). The gospel also creates and sustains faith in Jesus as the promised Christ.
11. The blessed virgin Mary is the first New Testament Christian. The Archangel Gabriel had told Mary, ,,You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name Him Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be holy; He will be called Son of God“ (Luke 1,31.35). Mary’s response to this word from God was, ,,Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to Your word“ (Luke 1,38). Mary believed the word sent from God and she had faith that Jesus would be the promised Christ. Elizabeth and John are the second and third Christians in the New Testament. At the sound of the blessed virgin Mary’s voice, John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb, and Elizabeth blessed Mary as »she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord« (1,45). The first Christians reported in the Holy Gospels, then, are two women and an unborn child in the womb. The gospel has the power to create faith.
12. Through Mary, Yahweh blessed all the nations with a savior. This Child, Jesus, is the Son of God; He is both God and man in one person. Thus Mary is rightly honored to be called the qeotokoj. Everything that happens in today’s pericope is a response to the presence of God in the flesh––the baby inside Mary (Just 75). In five days, we will celebrate this Baby’s birth. In five days it will be a Merry Christmas, for it will be the celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus, who is called the Son of God (Luke 1,35), the Son of Man (Luke 5,24), Immanuel, God is with us (Matthew 1,23), Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9,6), the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5,5), the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22,13). Jesus was born to save all people from their sins (Matthew 1,21), and He has completely and fully redeemed us from our Heavenly Father’s wrath. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, Fulfiller of Your promises, our hearts overflow with a pleasing theme at the incarnation of Your only-begotten Son; help us to be filled with joy as the celebration of His birth nears so that we may sing praises to the King. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Luke © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 1:1–9:50. Copyright © 1996 Concordia Publishing House.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. Mary through the Centuries. Copyright 1996 Yale University.
Pieper, Francis. Christian Dogmatics, Vol. II. Copyright © 1951 Concordia Publishing House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/theotokos#third_ecumenical_council
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