The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Isaiah 52,7-10 0414
4. Sonntag im Advent 04, Rorate Caeli
Ischyrion, Martyr in Egypt 253
22. Dezember 2013
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 lives, cause Your gracious presence to be realized among us in the blessed virgin Mary. O Lord do not depart from us with Your grace, but let us gratefully realize this gracious day of Your visitation, so that Your advent may always be salutary and full of grace unto us. With all Your pure Word, Your Holy Sacraments, Your wisdom, support, favor, blessing and grace, visit us in our churches and our homes. We rejoice that You do not arrive as a Just Judge before whom we tremble, but rather You arrive as the Kind Redeemer with whom we will be co-heirs of the reign of heaven (Löhe 444-46). Amen.
2. on the 4. Sunday in Advent the heavens shower down the righteousness and salvation (Isaiah 45,8), for Yahweh has arisen and had pity upon His creation; it is the time of grace; the appointed time has advented and arrived (Psalm 102,13). Thus the Prophet Isaiah proclaims: »Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for Yahweh has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God« (Isaiah 52,9-10).
3. What Isaiah prophesied by the Word of Yahweh came to pass 700 years later, and it is recorded by St. Luke the Evangelist: And Mary said: „My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name. And His mercy is for those fearing Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever“ (Luke 1,46-55).
4. Yahweh promised to comfort His people and redeem Jerusalem. Six months after he had told Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a son named John, Gabriel was sent from God to the virgin Mary (Luke 1,26). He said to her: »The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child being born will be called the Holy One and the Son of God« (Luke 1,35). When Mary went to visit Elizabeth and greeted her, John leaped for joy in her womb (Luke 1,44). Thirty years before John was in the region around the Jordan River preparing the way for Jesus by calling people to the baptism of repentance, he was joyfully kicking in the womb at the sound of Mary’s voice, thus already as an unborn infant he was preparing the way for Jesus.
5. Yahweh likes to work in pairs: light and darkness, sun and moon, male and female, type and antitype, prophet and Christ. In today’s Gospel Lection, the virgin Mary speaks as a prophetess: »The Lord has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever« (Luke 1,55). This came to pass, as the Angel Gabriel said to Mary: »Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus« (Luke 1,31). Mary’s response is an honest one: »How will this be, since I am a virgin?« God had created mankind male and female, and thus children are conceived with a man and a woman. Two men won’t conceive a child, nor will two women, for such relationships are not natural. The only natural relationship is a man and a woman together conceiving children. This is not the political correct attitude of Western American civilization, but biology and common sense tell us that you need a man and a woman to conceive a child.
6. Another politically incorrect belief to hold today is that Mary was a virgin when she had conceived Jesus. Obviously, we would expect atheists and other non-Christian religions to reject and deny Mary’s virginity, but in the 21. century some Christian denominations and Christians also deny this doctrine. How, you might ask, can a Christian or a church deny this doctrine when it is clearly taught in the Gospels according to Matthew and Luke and furthermore confessed in the Creeds? Nevertheless, there are churches and Christians who deny Mary’s virginity. „Attacks upon the virgin birth emerged in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, with some theologians attempting to harmonize the anti-supernaturalism of the modern mind with the church’s teaching about Christ. The great quest of liberal theology has been to invent a Jesus who is stripped of all supernatural power, deity, and authority. In America, the public denial of the virgin birth can be traced to the emergence of Protestant liberalism in the earth 20th century.... Now...modern Christians completely discount the historicity of the virgin birth and understand it in a figurative sense“ (Mohler).
7. The rejection of the virgin birth of Jesus is the result when people deny that God can act in His creation and do things supernaturally, like making a virgin conceive a child without a man involved in the process. The rejection of the virgin birth is also the result when people already deny that Jesus is God. Naturally, our human reason, corrupted as it is by the fall into sin, cannot comprehend how God can make a virgin pregnant. Too often, we run God’s actions past our human reason and wisdom. If we cannot understand the how or the why of His actions we are tempted to dismiss and disbelieve them. An honest appraisal of God’s activity in human history as recorded in the Holy Scriptures reveals many instances where God acts contrary to how we think He should be doing things. God had chosen barren women, not once, but many times to become mothers and give birth to someone who was instrumental in His unfolding Heilsgeschichte (salvation history). Often, God did not choose the firstborn son to carry the promise of the Christ to the next generation, but rather a younger or the youngest son. God chose a teenager armed with a slingshot to confront and defeat a giant armed with the best weapons and armor complete with many victories to his credit. These are a few of the many Biblical examples of God’s activity in human history.
8. Here we are today on the 4. Sunday in Advent and we have before us in the Holy Gospel according to Luke the account of two women, one barren and the other a virgin, both who have become pregnant by the power and will of God for the salvation of all fallen men and women. Elizabeth’s John prepared the way for the Christ, and Mary’s Jesus is the Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. By God’s command, the heavens shower down His righteousness and salvation (Isaiah 45,8). The Prophet Isaiah declares: »How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings the gospel, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion: „Your God reigns.“« (Isaiah 52,7). Thus Elizabeth proclaims: »and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you, Mary, among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb! For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy« (Luke 1,42.44), and Mary proclaims: »My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and His Name is holy« (Luke 1,46-49). God the Father reigned through Elizabeth and Mary and John; He reigns through Jesus, His only-begotten Son; He reigns through each one of you as the joy of Jesus’ impending advent joyfully glows within Your heart and as you give testimony to Christ Jesus as your Lord, Savior, Brother and Friend. Jesus is our Heavenly Father’s Messiah for His fallen, sinful world. We will celebrate and welcome His birth on Christmas Eve. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, who creates a pleasing theme to overflow within our hearts, give us the joy in Christ so that we may be comforted in our salvation and respond with verses of praise sung to His Holy Name. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1990 Oxford University Press.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Mohler, Albert. Can a Christian Deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ? http://www.religiontoday.com/columnists/al-mohler/can-a-christian-deny-the-virgin-birth-of-jesus-christ-11597404.html
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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