The Fourth Sunday in Advent: Luke 1:39-45

Dec. 23, 2012, Advent 4; Texts: Micah 5:2-5a; Heb 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 (46-56); Title: What are We Waiting For? Rev. Tim Beck

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Today is the last Sunday of Advent. Tomorrow night we celebrate Christmas Eve. In a child’s mind it has taken a long, long time to get almost here. In your lifetime, it has taken a long, long time to get almost here too. We are expectant, waiting, looking forward. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve then Christmas day, for God granted us another year of pilgrimage on earth, as we look to the goal, journey’s end, paradise. We wait for our Lord’s return, even as the saints of old waited for his first coming. We wait, and we cry out together with the dead in Christ gathered around the throne: O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?  Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete… who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Rev. 6:10b-11)        

          Waiting is not easy, even if it is part of life, woven into the fabric of faith and hope. Yet the Church’s purposeful waiting is joyful because we have signs that the Lord shall come and rescue us, save us, bless us. The coming One gives eternal promises to break apart our worries with glad tidings. Heaven comes to earth in water and the Word, bread and wine and the Word, and through the Word with the Holy Spirit declares peace unto us, on earth. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:3-5a)

          The first advent of our Lord shall be completed in the next. What a glorious day it shall be. What a glorious beginning that shall never end. What a culmination, completion and celebration. God’s history with our race will be revealed as righteousness and love, and all that Scripture promised will be yours with deepest satisfaction. This is what we look forward to this last Sunday in Advent, as Elizabeth looked forward to the Christ child. Like Mary and Elizabeth, we look forward in faith to what is yet unseen but shall be revealed to sight. While we wait there will be more martyrs for Christ, more troubles, more struggles –since the devil schemes against Christ and His Church. A sword shall pierce our hearts too, as the law reveals our sins.  Yet the Saviour will sustain us until that glad day. We wait expectantly while the Christmas holy-days are hidden to those outside the church, hidden under tinsel and gifts, meals, laughter, or for many a season of depression. But the church, like children eyeing wrapped gifts, expects the unexpected because the Lord is making all things new.

          Even in ordinary things God works for good, as in the days preceding Immanuel’s birth. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  In ordinary days and in ordinary ways, the extraordinary broke forth.  Zechariah saw an angel who promised a son who would prepare the way of the Lord, and because he doubted, was struck dumb. Then his old, barren wife conceived and carried her child like any other woman. It was a miracle delivered in the ordinary way. The betrothed Mary believed an angel’s announcement, and by a miracle of the Holy Spirit, without a man, she conceived the Christ. And in an ordinary way she was accused of immorality and Jesus called illegitimate, because not all believed God’s messengers. Nevertheless, Mary believes, and rejoices with news of God’s undeserved mercy.  The day each pious Jew longed for could be counted during those 9 months, wholly hidden, yet revealed in those holy days.  Christmas was wrapped within a virgin maid, the hand-maid of the Lord. She runs to help her cousin who in glorious seclusion resides in a little town           not even named by Luke, in the back-woods of Judah, like an Appalachian farm. Mary arrives in that little village and entered the open door of Elizabeth’s rustic house, and gave greeting. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

          Faith sees glory everywhere; the Saviour’s coming was almost here. The unexpected shone in words originating not from man, but from God, although delivered through a human mouth. This word for “blessed” means “God has irrevocably endowed you with good!” God has favored you, looked upon you and our fallen race with undeserved kindness.  And you are blessed not just for a moment, but from the past until now you are blessed as is the child within you. God has planned this for a long time. God shall dwell with man; and in those words for Mary, for all flesh, we receive the Son of David’s root and shoot for our lives, our history, our daily grind. In Immanuel, God with us, in that historical event so miraculous and yet so poor and humble, we are blessed. We are irrevocably endowed with good. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

          Though tears befell Elizabeth at John’s blessed death, and befell Mary at Jesus’ blessing death, our tears will be wiped away forever. Through God with us, through His suffering a cross, He laid a sure foundation to the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. Elizabeth and Mary do not deserve this. They did not even ask for such a blessing to enter their lives. That is the way of the Holy One. He comes to bless us. He bestows undeserved favor, his irrevocable endowment of good.  That’s what is under the wrapping of the Christmas package. When Mary’s baby entered the world covered in mucus and blood, and when He died encrusted in His sweat, blood and gore, he blessed us. Inside that virgin womb is heaven: God’s unexpected favor, irrevocable good will toward those who need peace with God. Inside that virgin womb, God and man are joined to forgive and cleanse sinners. So repentant Elizabeth sings, And why is this granted to me (in order) that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Who am I that God personally visits me within His mother’s womb?   By a Spirit-breathed faith she sees through the wrapping of a young pregnant cousin. She sees advent complete, heaven opened, God dwelling with man for peace.  For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

          And the appointed prophet of the Most High cannot help his exuberance. Happier than any child on Christmas morning, John is unrestrained glee. The unborn John the Baptist knows the reason for this visit. He leaps for Him who shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace. It is happening now, the peace of the world on earth, hidden in Mary’s womb; and soon hidden in humility, suffering, and death upon the cross.

          That’s how heaven walked on earth, bringing the kingdom of God, announcing that God is pleased with sinners because God’s Son atoned for our sin. The Father declares peace, declares us righteous in His sight, and to all who believe, gives release from the bondage of sin, death, devil and world. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” This word for blessed means how happy, how fortunate, how glad; faith receives all that is in the package and rejoices.  When mom and dad say to junior, “You’re going to like it” Junior has no doubts, but rips through the wrapping to get to the gift.  Mary too believed the blessed promise of joy and peace. She had 9 months to wait, and then 30 plus years, and then more. The child was born at the appointed time and in the prophesied place, for God always fulfills his word, but there’s more to come. The child will grow, teach, preach, become our Savior, rise and ascend.  Then Mary too will die because she too sinned as a child of Adam. She will be buried and await that day when faith will be sight, when God’s      dwelling with man is complete and all tears are wiped away.  She too counts each Sunday, each little resurrection day, until the Advent of the Second Coming shines in bright splendor. For us too, as surely as this Advent is almost over, Christmas Eve tomorrow night, and then Christmas morning, our Redemption shall arrive. Yet today we are forgiven, and have peace and joy, though there’s more to come. Soon we will see the glory of the Lord unwrapped before transformed eyes. We shall feast in paradise forever.

He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Grant this O Lord unto us all.    

The peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen)