Philippians 4:4-7 * Midweek Advent 1 *
December 3, 2008 * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
There is a little phrase used by the Apostle Paul in the words you heard read just a minute ago that sums up the entire message of Advent. It also expresses the reason we gather for these special midweek services.
There is so much we could talk about on the basis of Philippians 4:4-7. It is such a rich text that we’ll be using it again next Wednesday. But this is the phrase we’re especially going to concentrate our thoughts on today:
“THE LORD IS NEAR”
The word Advent comes from a Latin word that means “coming.” Christians sometime talk about the “three advents of Christ” – or, to use the words of our text, the three ways in which “the Lord is near.” Let’s talk about each of them.
The Lord is near, first of all, in the birth of the Savior we will celebrate in approximately three weeks. This makes now – the weeks leading up to Christmas – our time of preparation to meet Him as He comes to us this way.
How do we do this?
First let’s talk about how we shouldn’t do it. When we talk about this advent of Christ it is not as if we need to suspend reality and somehow pretend that we are Old Testament believers living in Old Testament times. The fact is we live in New Testament times. As such we are the grateful beneficiaries of seeing how God’s plan of salvation played itself out.
So for us the Savior is not like a present under the tree which we know is there but don’t know exactly what it is until it is opened. We know what we’re getting. By God’s grace, we know all about the incarnation – God made flesh. Immanuel. God with us.
Not only that, we also know its implications and ramifications. We know the birth of Christ to be more than a heartwarming and endearing account of a young family navigating through difficult circumstances miles from home. That may be the subtext, but Christmas (as we know) is an event of cosmic proportions…
Because the birth of Jesus is the very intersection of
heaven and earth in the unlikely but God-ordained location of
Yes, by God’s grace we know all that. So how do we prepare for what we already know?
When I was a young boy we lived in a big house with a walk up attic. Because we had all this space my older brother and father had constructed a pretty elaborate model train track. It was built up off the floor and had mountains and tunnels and a complicated switchboard, and it filled an entire room up there. In retrospect I’m not sure how big it actually was, but to a ten year old boy it seemed huge.
On occasion when the train was running some of the wheels would come off the track. The train would still run, but in a labored, disjointed manner. If it was real bad, the train would stop. But if it could limp along there was a special piece of black plastic track that was devised especially for this situation. This piece of track had a wide mouth which corrected the derailed wheels and guided them back onto the rails. Then all was well once again.
Why am I telling you this? Here is the point I’m trying to make: Advent is kind of like that piece of track. If we find that we get derailed by the worries and preoccupations of life; if we feel our spirits are just kind of limping along, Advent cycles around each year and allows us to get back on track. It’s another chance to get it right. To put things in perspective. To remember once again that in the Christ of Christmas the Lord near – and all that this means.
The second way in which the Lord is near is in His second coming. For the last several Sundays our Scripture lessons have focused on the return of Christ. They have repeatedly reminded us that the Lord could come back at any time.
I have no doubt that every single one of us believes this. But it is also entirely possible that many of us have relegated this to an intellectual truth that will happen sometime in the distant future and has little immediate effect on us. Kind of like we believe our country will celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2076; true, but many of us will never see it.
We have to be on guard against that kind of thinking for two reasons. First because it is rather dismissive of a clear teaching of Christ. I don’t think any of us intend to be intentionally dismissive of any teaching of Christ, but we may have to watch ourselves with this one.
Secondly (and if we are dismissive of it), the second coming of Christ fails to be the living hope God intends it to be for His people. It truly is something to look forward to and something to pray for. Because it will usher in that period for each of us when there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain because the old order of things will have passed away.
God is good and in His grace He provides us with many joys in our lives. But when He comes again we will see all of God’s earthly blessings to us as mere shadows of a greater and glorious reality that will last forever. In the words of the hymnist: “I know not, oh I know not, what joys await us there, what radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare.”
Jesus says He is coming soon. And the advent cry of His people is: “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
The third and final way we talk about how the Lord is near to us in His Word and Sacraments.
In other words, when we read our Bibles and meditate on the message of Scripture, Christ is near. He talks to us. Not verbally like He did to His disciples and others when He walked among us, but just as truly. Through the Word of God He talks to our souls and calms our hearts. He provides us with spiritual insights and personal comfort.
“Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” is our Savior’s gracious invitation. And He is as close to us and as accessible to us as our Bibles.
The same with Lord’s Supper. When we take communion we are actually experiencing a foretaste of the eternal banquet that will be ours in heaven. Another Advent intersection, if you will.
So the Lord is near to us in His first coming, His second coming, and through Word and Sacrament. These are the three advents of Christ. But on the basis of Scripture we should perhaps consider a fourth way in which the Lord is near to us.
In order to illustrate this, allow me to very briefly share with you one version of a story some of you are probably familiar with because it is rightfully considered a Christian classic. It’s the story of Martin the Cobbler written by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy.
Martin was a shoemaker. His life was hard and his wife had recently died. He spent much of his time being sad. One day a Russian priest visited him, gave him a Bible and suggested that he read it to lighten his soul. So Martin did this, and soon found himself reading it more and more. Once, while reading the account of Jesus visiting the house of a Pharisee, he fell asleep. And in his dream he heard Jesus say, "Martin, look out in the street tomorrow, for I shall come."
The next day he was very excited. He frequently checked the window of his shop awaiting his special guest. Late in the morning he looked out and saw an old man who worked for a neighbor, clearing snow. It was obvious that he was cold and tired. So Martin invited him in and gave him some hot tea and pleasant conversation.
Later in the afternoon he looked out and saw a young peasant woman with a baby in summer clothes, valiantly but unsuccessfully trying to protect it from the winter wind. Martin invited her in, gave her hot soup and found an old coat for the baby…
Toward evening he saw an old woman selling apples from a heavy sack. A boy ran by and stole one, but the old woman caught him by the hair and threatened to call the police. Martin intervened. He asked the woman to forgive the boy as Christ had forgiven her and then asked the boy to help the woman. So they went down the street together, the boy carrying the heavy sack.
Back to his shop. Night came. No visitor. Martin went to read his Bible. He meant to open it at the place he had marked, but it opened at another place…
Then he heard a voice call his name. "Who is it?" asked Martin. The same voice from night before said, "It is I" – and from the shadows first came the old man… then the young peasant mother… then the old woman and the boy… Each smiled and vanished.
Martin’s soul grew glad. He looked down and found the Bible open to these words of Jesus: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in…. Forasmuch as you have done this for the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." And Martin understood that the Savior had indeed come to him that day.
And from those words of Jesus we also are reminded that the Lord is near to us in ways we might not even expect.
So the entire message of Advent can be summarized in the four word phrase: the
Lord is near – as the babe of
And what impact does all this “nearness” this have on us? Because the
Lord is near Paul tells us “do not
be anxious about anything.”
And what exactly that means we will take up next Wednesday. Amen.