“OUR JOY”
Midweek Advent Worship II
December 9, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
The angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you Good News
of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:10, 11 (ESV)
“’Tis the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.” Joy is
another hallmark of this Advent-Christmas season. Despite the hectic
atmosphere of “Black Friday” and the weeks that follow it, the mood of
many at this time of the year is one of joyful anticipation:
anticipation of gift giving and receiving, anticipation of family
get-togethers and holiday meals, anticipation of the carols, the
lights, the decorations, the cards, and everything else that seems to
remind us that this is indeed a special time--a time to back away from
the rigorous routine of day-to-day living and take the time to just
sit back and enjoy the ambiance of the season, reflecting on the joys
of Christmases past and anticipating even more joys in the Christmases
yet to come.
Have you noticed anything missing in all that I just said about the
joy of this “most wonderful time of the year”? To a lot of people
(perhaps most) the things that I mentioned are all the joy that they
know--and that is very sad. It’s sad because all of that is an empty
joy--what I call a “manufactured” joy--because it is a joy that we
have created. All of this fine if the mood and the trappings and the
traditions that we come up with have substance. These things that
I’ve been talking about are good if they are our expression of the joy
that has its substance only in the God who became human and entered
our world in order to redeem humans from their sin and its
consequences--the incarnate God who comes to us even now in the Gospel
of Christ that the Holy Spirit gives us in Word and Sacrament--the
glorified Son of God who will come again at the end of time to rescue
us from the world that we have corrupted by sin and to take us to His
glorious kingdom where we will experience a joy that knows no end. So
that we might better understand the true Joy of Advent and Christmas,
let’s examine it once again this evening by listening to what the
angel told the shepherds of Bethlehem about the event and the effect
of Jesus, who is our Joy.
The angel’s announcement of the event is very simple and
straightforward: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The event is the arrival of the One
who had been promised again and again in the ancient Hebrew
Scriptures. This announcement includes the who, the what, the when,
the where, and the how. Who? –“a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
What? –this promised Savior has finally come. When? –“this day.”
Where? –“in the city of David.” How? –by a normal, natural birth. As
momentous as this event is to the people of God and in the history of
salvation, it went by unnoticed by the majority of people. And the
classic predicament of the holy family--“there was no place for them
in the inn” (Luke 2:7)--still continues today. To the world this is
not necessarily a time to celebrate the coming of our Redeemer and to
prepare for His return; it’s all about “Black Friday” and “Small
Business Saturday” and “Cyber Monday” and “Giving Tuesday.” A popular
slogan that we see and hear so often during this season is very
appropriate: “Keep Christ in Christmas.” But that message, like the
Christ Himself, finds no room in the hearts and lives of most people.
But it needn’t be that way. This Savior, according to the angel’s
announcement, was born “for all people” and especially “for you.” I
once saw and heard a children’s sermon (and, I must admit, borrowed it
and used it myself) on the story of Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers
in Luke’s Gospel. The children were shown a ten dollar bill that was
found on the street and another one that was received in a birthday
card. They were asked which one of them was more valuable. The
answer, of course, was that the ten dollar bill in the birthday card
was worth far more. The reason is that it was given especially to the
receiver as a gift of love. The other ten dollar bill was found by
mere chance. Anyone could have found it. And the one who “gave” it
didn’t really give it at all; he just lost it. The Savior that God
gave, like the healing of the lepers, was given deliberately out of
love especially for the receivers. But in the minds of most people
the blessings that they enjoy are simply a matter of pure luck (or
perhaps the result of their own accomplishment). They are missing out
on so much.
According to the angel’s announcement, the coming of this Savior is
“Good News.” The New Testament word for this is euaggelion. It is
usually translated “Gospel,” and the English word “evangelism” is
derived from it. This word “gospel” has sometimes been defined as
“anything that brings good news to a bad situation” but the Gospel
that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds on Bethlehem’s field is
infinitely more than that. It is the only Word that can truly bring
“Good News” to the bad situation of sin and death that we have brought
upon ourselves by our rebellion against our Creator. It is the “Good
News” that God, in love, has reached down to poor sinners could not
reach up to Him--that He has lowered Himself to the level of those who
could never raise themselves to His. It is the “Good News” that the
Holy God and sinful humanity are now reconciled in the incarnate
Christ.
And this “Good News” is not just any good news; it is “Good News of
great joy.” It is the joy of knowing that God in His mercy Has become
One of us in order to deliver us from the sin and death to which we
have enslaved ourselves--the joy of knowing that the righteous and
just God who we have offended by our sin has satisfied His own
righteousness and justice and has reconciled us to Himself. It is joy
that can find expression in a variety of different ways. The
shepherds “went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby
lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying
that had been told them concerning this Child” (Luke 2:17). After all
of that, “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:20).
“Mary,” on the other hand, “treasured up all these things, pondering
them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). There are as many different ways of
expressing joy as there are people to express it. Some laugh and some
cry. Some shout it from the heights while others silently meditate.
But all of it is motivated by the true Joy, who is the incarnate
Christ.
There is a lot of manufactured “joy” that surrounds us during this
time of the year. It manifests itself in decorations, greetings,
celebrations, gatherings, and a host of other things. But the
overwhelming majority of these manifestations of “joy” make no mention
whatsoever of the only real Joy that sinners have in a world where
they are burdened with the grief and sorrow that are the inevitable
results of sin. This Joy is Jesus Himself--the Savior who God sent to
do away with sin and its consequences and to replace them with the
joys of forgiveness, life, and salvation. In Him we have joy that
comes not only during the last few weeks of the year but as often as
we need comfort and encouragement--a joy that will see us through
whatever may come our way until it comes to completeness in the
kingdom of glory that Christ prepares even now for you and for me--a
joy will last forever.
Amen.
May the One who once came as an Infant in Bethlehem prepare you for
His coming again in glory by His Means of Grace, through which He
comes to you even now. May He equip you to be His witnesses so that
you, like the Baptist in the wilderness, may prepare the way of the
Lord. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.