Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

This sermon was preached by Rev. Chaplain (CPT) Graham Glover on December 22nd, 2013.  Rev. Glover is a member of Redeemer and is currently stationed at Ft. Benning, GA.

IN NOMINE  JESU

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, because my son laughed at me when I told him I was going to sing during this morning’s sermon, I’ll forgo the melody and simply recite the jingle that I know many parents use to their disciplinary advantage during this time of year: “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town…He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice, Santa Claus is coming to town…He sees you when you’ve been sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Oh, you better watch out…” Although sung countless times every year, I share the sentiments of parents everywhere when I lament the inability for these words to actually work! Santa, your disciplinary tactics need some help!

Nonetheless, I mention this popular Christmas song because I think it speaks volumes about where many of our hearts and minds are on this 4^th Sunday in Advent. Don’t worry, I’m not reciting its lyrics because Pastor Estes and I have been making lists to check on you. Nor do I mention it because it assists in focusing our hearts and minds on our Lord’s return and celebrating His birth. It doesn’t. At all. Rather, I reference this song because I’m a little concerned that the things I want – the things I’m asking for and looking forward to this Christmas season won’t show up under my tree or take place over the days that follow. And I suspect that my concerns are shared by many of you as well.

What is it that I want for Christmas? Well, the list is long, so get ready. But as I’m reciting it I want to make it clear that I do so based on scriptural authority. Not only am I allowed to do so, I’m encouraged to make such requests. Don’t believe me? Just refer to our Epistle lesson from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. “…in everything” Paul says “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” So, heeding the great apostle’s words, I’m making my requests known to God.

On Christmas morning I’d like some of the books I’ve had on my Amazon.com wish list, a new pair of running shoes, and a selection of fine cigars to get me through the holiday season. For the New Year, I’d like what so many want: to shed a few pounds, improve my financial situation, and be able to spend more time with my wife and children. As for work, when we come down on orders next, I’d like to stay in the Southeast – no northern or western posts for my family. And that whole deployment thing, it’s not really what we have in mind in the near future. We’d actually like to stay in Columbus a little while longer. We love Redeemer. And we’re as close to the Promised Land, I mean, Gainesville, as the Army will send us. Speaking of Redeemer and the LCMS, continue to give her orthodox pastors who shepherd Your people with the Holy Scriptures and our Lutheran Confessions, immersing them with the grace of Your blessed Sacraments in the Divine Service. On the civil side of things, an end to our nation’s financial woes and a solution to the health care issue that continues to polarize us would be great, along with a lasting peace among those who wish the cause of liberty harm. Oh, and one more thing, no more controversies over TV shows about ducks.

A little much? Am I asking for more than I should? At what point do I lose patience if these requests aren’t answered? Should my perspective be a little different on some of them? If so, why? Doesn’t St. Paul tell us to make our requests known to God? The text seems pretty clear on this and I think it’s exactly what I’m doing.

By now I hope you realize that the bulk of my requests are spoken in jest. That my list is, on so many levels, absurd – presuming that the One whose 2^nd Advent we await and whose Incarnation we are soon to celebrate has running shoes, PCS orders, health insurance policies, and programs about ducks as those things that concern Him most about His Church. But I wonder, are these requests any different than what most of us regularly ask of God? Are our prayers, as well as our focus during Advent and Christmas, more often about what we want and what we think we need, rather than about God and what His Church offers? Consider your prayers, your daily desires, and those things that define your faith. And as you do, consider how many of them begin with “I” and how often they focus on you. Sadly, even we Lutherans are guilty of understanding our faith by looking to our wants and our desires. During this penitential season of Advent we find ourselves occupied almost exclusively with worldly requests – things we think need to be fixed, which are, more often than we care to admit – things that have nothing to do with the manger in Bethlehem or the petition, “Thy kingdom come”. Instead, they are things – requests – that we bring to God in an effort to make our lives “better”.

All of which leads me to ask, what is it that makes our lives better? Do books, shoes, and cigars make for a happy man? How about a thinner waist, more coin in the bank, or even more free time with family? Does an ideal work environment, a more confessional congregation and Synod, or an end to political squabbles constitute a better life? St. Paul clearly tells us to let our requests be made known to God and on this we do well. But Paul also instructs us to be reasonable, and even more, he reminds us that it is the peace of God that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Do you see the problem here? These requests – our requests – are often far from reasonable. They have in mind worldly things instead of godly ones. As we pray to our Advent Lord, our requests are laden with things we think will improve our lives, making them better by a standard the world has enshrined. Moreover, how often will we hear and proclaim in the days ahead that this Christmas season is about family, about spending time with them and rejoicing in what they mean to us? Not the Holy Family. Not a carpenter and blessed woman. Not the family that was faithful in all things and had next to nothing by way of worldly possessions. This family could care less about body fat percentages, financial gain, or free time. As this young couple traveled throughout the Judean countryside, workplace and political issues were as trivial to them as they should be to us. But our focus remains on these things, even as we prepare to celebrate the birth of this couple’s child in Bethlehem and confess that we are eager for His return. Our focus remains on our lists, our wants, and our perceived needs – failing to acknowledge that Paul’s words to the Philippians, which inform our remaining days Advent and the Christmas season that awaits us, are not about us – they are about Jesus. They are words about the One born to this Holy Family. And they are words that acknowledge our faith begins and ends with one thing – Jesus.

So how should we prepare our hearts and minds to focus on the Christ-child’s Incarnation and his Second Advent? Obviously jingles about Santa Claus, Christmas wish lists, and New Year’s resolutions are far from useful. To rejoice in the Lord as St. Paul commends us, recognizing that He is at hand and that we truly need not be anxious about anything, we turn to some of the most glorious words contained in the Scriptures. They are the words of the Mother of God. They are her song of praise – her Magnificat. In them we see the Blessed One giving thanks for the child she carries in her womb. Remember, this young woman, likely in her early-mid teens, was recently told that she was with child – not the news she was expecting, especially considering she was only betrothed to be married (say nothing of the fact that she was given this news by an angel of God and that the child she now carried was the Son of the Most High!). Yet having come to the house of Zechariah, Mary greets her relative Elizabeth, and after being proclaimed “Blessed among women”, says these mighty words. As you listen to them again, consider how they give each of us a wonderful example in preparing our hearts and minds during the days ahead. They are words that begin, end, and remain focused on Jesus. They are our words too, give to all the faithful for our benefit.

“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 on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown the 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 has 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.” In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

Rev. Graham B. Glover

I’m not a big shopper myself, but my favorite kind of shopping is window shopping.  I like having no intention to buy anything, not feeling any compulsion to purchase one more thing I don’t need, just looking and browsing, relaxing, chatting with other customers who are willing.  Window shoppers these days are likely an annoyance to retailers.  They just take up space.

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” asks our Lord this morning of the crowds.  Were you just out window shopping?  Were you browsing and perusing for the latest spiritual fad?  Did you think John was a smooth talker, one who was bent every which way by every wind of opinion that blew across the desert plains?  A reed shaken in the wind?  Did you go out to see a fashion show?  Did you expect a trend setter wearing the latest duds?

The people who went to John didn’t get any of these things.  They heard a man who stayed on target, warning the world to repent for the kingdom of God was at hand.  God’s winnowing fork was in His hand.  God would separate the wheat from the chaff.  They saw a man in camel hair (not a trend in his day), John was an edgy man, some would think he’s off his rocker, and he certainly was not refined and regal like a king.  He had rough edges.

Let the Church take a warning from this.  God’s preachers don’t always come in the most comfortable packages.  The American Churches often care more about how the preacher looks on camera and whether the world likes what he says.  Instead we should be concerned whether our preachers stay on message like John—“Behold, the lamb of God who takest away the sin of the world.”

If John was not a talking head spouting off popular opinions or a preacher promising comfort, a solid 401k, and good fashion sense, then what was he?  A prophet, says Christ.  Indeed, more than a prophet! John is the prophet that was prophesied about centuries before.  John would prepare the way for the Lord’s Messiah.  What the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and the like pointed to from afar, John saw for himself and raised his hand and told all, “There, look, it is He!  The one who is to come, is here!”  John proclaimed the advent of the hope of Israel that they had longed for since the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David.  He was finally here!

Or was He?  This passage has troubled many a Christian because John, the great prophet, doubts.  He sends a message by way of his disciples to Jesus asking “Are you the One or can we expect another?”  John was rotting away in prison.  He suffered doubt.  Jesus was not threshing the wheat from the chaff in the fashion John expected.  Jesus was busy healing and performing signs.  He was preaching grace and forgiveness to the poor.  Not poor like Americans think of poor.  This is not about money, but the poor in spirit. The poor are the spiritually destitute like rich Zacheus who repented of his sins.  The poor are the spiritually bankrupt like the prostitute who washed the Lord’s feet with her tears.  John heard these kinds of things and then saw that evil men like Herod were still walking about and wondered what Jesus was waiting for.  Certainly he’s the Lamb of God, but the Almighty God is not milksop is He?  When is He going to deal with evil?

We have a tendency of bristling against any moral failure of conscience or soul in great saints.  Yet, John is far from the first to do this. Oh no!  John joins a long list of saints who struggle when the promises of God seem so unclear, so contrary to reality and so far off.  Abraham and Sarah laughed at God’s message they’d bear a son of promise in their old age.  Moses, angry, frustrated, and doubting God’s plan struck the rock twice in a fury to appease thirsty Israel.  Elijah fled from murderous Jezebel though God had promised to protect him.  David lusted for Bathsheba and abused the office God had given him.  Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, cursed the day he was born as he suffered for preaching the Word of God.  John is far from alone.

And that means you are not alone with the saints.  Welcome to the club of the poor in spirit.  What failure did you bring in heart and mind this day?  Something like Moses’ anger or David’s adultery or Jeremiah’s despair or something else?  If you did not think of one sin, did you not just confess your sins to God twenty minutes ago?  Luther said if you can’t think of any particular sins to confess just put your hand under your coat and see if you’re heart is still beating.  If so, than you’re a sinner.  Don’t harm your conscience making up sins, but confess you’re a sinner nonetheless.  What doubts are creeping up on you?  Are there things in your life that seem so contrary to what you would expect of sainthood that it makes you wonder what God is up to?  That’s John’s struggle too.

Yet, still here John becomes our teacher.  He teaches us how to pray, because when he sends word to Christ he does not say, “Get me out of prison.  What is wrong with you?  Get with my program!”  So often we pray to God and tell Him what He must do to prove Himself to us.  John though prays in a sense, “Thy will be done.”  Are you the one?  Tell me and show me and I’ll will gladly submit to You even if it means You are quite different from what I expected.  John does not want to find fulfillment and security in His present circumstances in prison, but in the message of Christ.

Jesus’ answer is the most beautiful news.  It’s everything that really needs to be preached about Him all the time.  Jesus promises healing and restoration.  He promises resurrection of the dead.  His list of healing is crowned with the promise of resurrection, but then comes this strange anticlimactic point that the poor have the good news preached to them.  Yet, this is important and Jesus does this deliberately.  None of the wonders and signs are more important than this message of good news.  Yes, He is doing exactly what the prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do.  Healing and doing the miraculous.  Yet, also He has come to preach the good news that will set the captives free.  He is the promised Savior who will fulfill John’s own preaching:  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Did John know fully what that would mean?  We cannot tell.  Yet, we know with hindsight 20/20 vision that the good news is that the Savior would lay down His life on the cross and take it up again that we might be freed.  Freed from sin.  Freed from death.  Freed from our doubts.  By this good news we are assured that the saving promises of God from Adam forward have come to fruition in Jesus forever.

Jesus asked “What did you go out to the wilderness to see?”  Perhaps we should ask ourselves the same question when we come here.  What do we come here to see?  Are we spiritual window shoppers just perusing, browsing and not really buying in?  Are we coming with prayers demanding our will be done?  No.  Instead let us heed the Baptist’s cry, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is drawing near?”  “Behold the Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world!”  Amidst our failures and our doubts let’s trust Christ’s actions and Words, for He is the one who came into the world to preach good news to the poor and spiritually hungry like John and you and me.  And so now He feeds us again, “Take eat, this is My Body, this is My Blood, broken and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.”  Amen.

Advent 2
Luke 21:25-36
“Slow Down.”

There are a lot of things to love about Advent and one of them is that it forces us to slow down, if at least for this hour on Sunday morning.  With this season in full swing how many people in America took a moment Monday through Saturday to consider that Christ will return and when he does it will be like a thief in the night?  I’d really like to know, because I think we would all agree more moments were spent this week planning, spending, and being anxious about all the busyness of the season.

Advent says “Slow down…” to the Church and world.  It exposes our neurotic tendency to focus on the here and now which only causes all sorts of panic, stress, and exhaustion.  Advent says “Slow down…” and learn the blessings and benefits of delayed gratification.  With all the commerce, planning, and worrying at this moment most have in mind that Christmas has arrived.  The Church says differently.  This is a time for repentance for the King of the heavens and earth—the Lord and Creator of all has come and is coming again.  “Slow down!”  Meditate on the Advent message and you will find all the worries and frustrations that accompany your Monday through Saturday of any season pale in comparison to the eternal weight and everlasting joys of Advent.

We hate waiting though.  We live in an instant message—on demand world where we have food where and when we want it and entertainment at the press of a button.  A father told me about how they learned that they needed to teach their children about delayed gratification.  Their kids had grown up with Netflix.  They had instant access to thousands of videos at the click of the remote.  You want Thomas the Tank?  ‘Click’ here it is.  No? Elmo instead?  Okay, ‘click’.  Years later they purchased cable service.  The kids saw a commercial for a show the first day they watched a channel.  They looked at their parents and said “We want to watch that.”  Their parents answered that they’d have to wait two days.  The kids didn’t get it.  What do you mean we have to wait?  Once the reality of the situation set in their kids sat there with a defeated look.

Advent is like that.  It’s a counter to the culture reminder that you don’t get the goodies right away.  It’s a counter cultural message that says that not every moment is one for entertainment, wine and song.  Advent beckons us to times of reflection, fasting, repentance and prayer.  It’s a season of waiting for the high festival of our Lord’s Incarnation.  It’s also a reminder that we are always waiting—waiting for the return of our Savior Jesus.  Most of all Advent says “Slow down.”  Advent tells us to think on ultimate things, eternal things, things that will remain after all the presents are unwrapped and the eggnog runs dry.  For the material things of this world will with heaven and earth pass away, but Christ’s words will not pass away.

That’s Christ’s Advent message for you today.  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  We see the world and those around us blissfully unaware of what Advent means and distracting themselves year around with shopping malls and festivities.  They don’t heed or concern themselves with Christ’s words.  It can cause us to despair.  It can even distract us from the meaning of Advent.  We can just as easily forget what Advent and Christmas are really all about, namely Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary.

It can frustrate us, but at the same time it’s a good reminder.  Because this is a picture of exactly what Jesus warns about in our text this morning.  He says this is the way things are going to be.  When the world least expects it and is distracted by many things the day of Christ’s Second Advent will arrive.  Those who weren’t waiting for it will be overcome by fear and foreboding.  Yet, to those who are waiting Jesus says, “Straighten up and raise your heads, for your redemption is drawing near.”  This is a happy message for those who long for his return.  Advent is a reminder to allow our faith to interrupt the rhythm of our lives, to change our priorities, to constantly wake us to God’s reality and to change our expectations for the present and the future.

Christ has come to be our savior.  God came in the flesh not as judge or harbinger of doom and gloom, but rather as our redeemer and friend.  He lived a life that because of sin we could not lead.  Jesus is all the things the world so desperately wants and needs this time of year; love, justice, forgiveness, peace, and goodwill.  He is those things and achieved them not in the fickle and easy way of the world which says, “To each his own.”  That kind of thinking does not deal with injustice, hatred, bigotry and the like that reside in every human heart.  Jesus went the costly way, counter intuitive to the world, and paid the price that we could not.  Jesus received the judgment we deserve and gives us the forgiveness we do not deserve.  Jesus is just and justifier at once.  He is risen.  This same Jesus will come again.  He comes to judge the living and the dead.  He comes to raise the dead in the resurrection and to change those still living in the twinkling of an eye.  He comes to judge in light of the cross, promising eternal life to all who repent and desire his forgiveness and to condemn all those who have rejected God’s goodness.

So this is the Advent message:  Slow down and know that Jesus will come again.  We in the Church have been called to bear this message and proclaim it to our neighbor.  We are all called to give the Advent call to slow down and think on the important things; the things of God and the glorious thing he has done by sending the Christ child.  We are called to keep awake, while the world sleeps.  We are given to pray for the world and call our neighbors to wake up and receive the great thing that the Lord has done.

Jesus warns that our hearts not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness.  Dissipation is like a hangover where you’ve had too much food and too much drink.  You know what I’m talking about.  Dissipation is accompanied with the sore stomach that can’t even handle daily bread.  Your head is cloudy, you can’t think straight, your eyes need sunglasses because they can’t stand the light.  Imagine if Christ the Eternal Light returns shining brighter than the sun.  Jesus knew the disciples.  He knows us too.  He knows how weak we can be.  How the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  How he can find us sleeping even when we have the best of intentions.

He tells us not to have heavy and burdened hearts, but that’s all we often find this time of year.  Packed calendars, family stresses, and all the planning is more a burden than a joy.  It’s really our sin, our idolatry that brings this about.  We allow the penultimate take priority over the ultimate; the temporal presses out the eternal.  We meditate more on our calendars that are here today and gone tomorrow more than we do the Word of Christ which will never pass away.  Our hearts indeed become heavy.

The funny thing is that Jesus is telling us that the good news is that he does not intend for us to be burdened.  Indeed, he has made quite the opposite possible.  His cross and resurrection are the source that make us free and happy people—light hearted people who posture ourselves around the Advent of Christ and the promise of salvation, not our calendars, not our trials, not our sins.  We focus on his forgiveness and we see the struggles and troubles in this world and can straighten up and know that our redemption is drawing near.

Now it’s not that we’ll know the day or the hour.  We won’t.  No thief sends a reservation before he robs a house.  Jesus said his return will be like a thief in the night.  Since he promised that he would be crucified and rise from the dead before it all happened we should take him on his word when he says he will come back.  To reassure us Jesus gives us the lesson from the fig tree.  Jesus’ point is that anything that could burden us should actually remind us that the winter of our sin is ending and the spring and summer of our redemption is closer and closer.

So this Advent slow down for a moment; especially at those moments when you’re distracted and things get hectic.  Remember your Lord’s first Advent and wait for His Second Advent.  Slow down and enjoy the delayed gratification that Advent brings before Christmas.  Watch and pray for your Lord’s coming with the church.  Go and tell the world.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Certain yearly traditions beckon a transition to another season.  One such tradition passed this week.  You’ve probably heard of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  I remember as a child watching and waiting until the end to see Santa on his float waving to the crowds.  In my young mind the transition had come.  Thanksgiving was as good as over and we hadn’t even cut the turkey yet.  “Bye bye pilgrims, Indians, and turkeys and hello presents.”  Christmas is near.

Everyone loves a parade goes the saying and we often get excited about the transitions they communicate.  That’s not really what the early church had in mind when they selected Jesus’ Palm Sunday processional in Matthew 21 to open Advent, but they did have transition into a new season in mind.  We’re starting Advent again.  It’s the New Year of the Church Year, so “Happy New Year.”  And we greet the New Year with shouts of hosanna to our king Jesus.  He parades into Jerusalem in our lesson this day as people wave palm branches and lay down their coats in his path.

“Hosanna” the people shouted.  “Save us!  Help us!”  That’s what that word means.  They hoped that this was the man the prophet Jeremiah had promised; the branch from Jesse, the Davidic King who would save God’s people.  Knowing what they did of their God from the Scriptures they knew that when His promises appear they’re going to get help, they’re going to be saved.  So they shout, they sing, “Hosanna!” to King Jesus.

“Behold, your king is coming to you…”  This is the prophet Zecheriah’s gospel message to you this New Church Year.  This is good news.  He does not come armed for war.  He does not give the battle cry.  Instead he comes meekly on the back of a commoner’s beast surrounded not by an army, but by twelve disheveled and common disciples, some women, and soon children.  This is good news.  God has come to you and he does not come in judgment and wrath, but in peace and humility.

The king is so humble many can’t believe it.  This is God’s powerful king?  A Jewish rabbi on the back of an ass followed by a bunch of nobodies.  Don’t let his meekness fool you though.  Our English word meek does not do the Hebrew word justice.  The Hebrews saw meekness as a virtue unlike we Americans who think of the meek as spineless pushovers.  The Biblical view of the meek is more of our contemporary view of a brave stoicism in the face of evil.  Not someone who is unmoved, but someone who is confident that despite all external appearances the forces and purposes of God’s goodness will prevail even when things look contrary.  The meek trust not in assertiveness or power plays like the politicians and brokers of the day.  The meek trust in the power of almighty God who has and will deliver all who trust in Him by His ways and might according to His good pleasure.  The meek can be humble and even look unimposing because they are confident of God.

This is Jesus, meek and mild, confident of His Father’s will and plan for the Kingdom that He has prepared for His Son.  He is certain of God’s promise to His forefather David, that He is the righteous Branch, and that through His sacrifice He will become the righteousness of God for all people who call upon His name.  He is meek as He answers their prayers of “Hossana!” “Save now!”  He answers that prayer just as strangely as he arrives lowly and riding on a donkey.  He saves when He takes His jagged wooden throne and bloodied crown to Golgotha.  He saves when the very nation that first sang his praises later calls for him to be crucified.  He saves to attain a spiritual kingdom where His first kingly decree from his throne is not an order for taxation or a command for military conscription, but His decree is a costly and gracious one:  “Father, forgive them…”

This is the king’s promise to you, forgiveness.  This is the Church’s New Years day and this is the first thing your King wants you to know about him; that he’s come to answer your hosanna prayers.  That’s God’s New Year promise to you:  another year of His grace.  You might be thinking that’s a big promise since so much can happen in the year ahead.  Perhaps this year of God’s grace will go unfulfilled like any other New Year’s wish we’ll have at the end of the month.  Nothing happens, but we become another year older and have another year to remember for good or for ill.

Yet, here is the difference about our King’s wish for you.  His wishes are His promises and He sincerely means it.  He has sealed His wish for you by His risen and living body and blood.  The same body that was enthroned on a piece of wood for you now reigns for you and His entire church in heaven.  He promises that no matter what this year holds He will sustain you.  Therefore you can be meek like your King, trusting in God’s Word to prevail no matter what may come.  You can do so confidently because you know He has sincerely meant all that He has promised.

Another year of God’s grace is in store for you.  To tell you the truth every year changes us.  When a year passes the things that happened in that year have changed us; sometimes in big ways sometimes in unrecognizable ways.  Nonetheless we’re changed.  We have either come closer or remained close in faith in our King Jesus or grown farther away.  Perhaps you’re able to think of where you find yourself on that spectrum.  Nearer, further, or unchanged really.  No matter where we are we ought to listen closely to Paul’s Words for us this morning too, “For salvation is nearer to us now that when we first believed.”

The day is drawing nearer and nearer when your salvation will be fulfilled.  The years are getting shorter, says Paul.  Your King will return to you, this time not in lowliness, but by sound of trumpet causing all knees to bow.  Until then we wait in the years in between trusting in faith that God will fulfill His wishes for us.  A strange thing we remember in Advent is that our salvation is now, but not yet.  We are waiting for Christ’s second Advent when our salvation will be complete.  Yet, until then you receive His grace now and each year as God draws near to you in His Word, in His body and blood at Holy Communion, in His Holy Spirit which you received at Holy Baptism.  That is how He delivers the grace and favor that the King has promised you.

Another year of God’s grace.  This Advent as you begin another Church Year don’t just wish for it or go through the motions, but trust that another year of God’s undeserved mercy will come.  Pray for it, that this year you will be drawn nearer in faith; that you will be open to what God has for you.  Your King has never held back His blessings.  He has answered our Hosanna prayer.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.