In the Name
of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
The Fourth Sunday in Advent (2011)
The
Blessed Fellowship Christ Came to Establish
Romans 16:25-27 (ESV)
Now to him
who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for
long ages [26] but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings
has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal
God, to bring about the obedience of faith— [27] to the only wise God be glory forevermore
through Jesus Christ! Amen.
In the Introit for today, God speaks
through the prophet Isaiah, saying: “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the
clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and
righteousness may bear fruit” (Isaiah 45:8 ESV) and again speaking
through King David, He says, “The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1) These
triumphant expressions go far beyond their framework, for they proclaim the
restoration of the ancient covenant to God’s chosen people, restoring them to
their former status after seventy devastating years of Babylonian Captivity. However,
these jubilations look far beyond the present age of Captivity, some seven
hundred years to the heralding of Christmas and the miraculous incarnation of
the Son of Righteousness for the reconciliation of God with man. They speak of
the eternal union of heaven and earth through the life and redemptive work of
the blessed Messiah, whose descent and ascent the angels attended.
Wherever we live in this world, we live
under the Shadow of the Cross, with its perpetual reminder of our divinely
wrought salvation. Therefore, regardless of the hemisphere we live in the
firmament of the heavens above is ever ready to open again, as they did that
first Christmas Eve when the path to
Indeed, all through this Advent season
we have been concentrating on the coming of Christ. However, have we looked
beyond the image of a baby in the arms of his mother to the tremendous reality
that in this holy Child, God comes to us? Have we seen that from on high the
Holy Spirit came in power to the Virgin Mary so that there might bud forth in
the fullness of time the Savior of the world? Do we understand
the importance of this holy time, that: “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” (Rev. 21:3 ESV).
Our text this morning brings us to this
glorious fellowship with the Christ at Christmas as it speaks radiantly of: The Blessed Fellowship Christ Came to
Establish.
A few years ago people were fond of
repeating this popular phrase, “the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.” Now you might ask, “What
does that mean pastor?” Well, it referred to the truth that God has created men
and sustains all of them; therefore, all men should be brothers and sisters
toward one another. Thus this catchword expresses the truth of Holy Scripture
given us by the prophet Malachi, who wrote, “Have we not all one Father? Has
not one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10 ESV)
The fact is this is true. Yet we know
that most men live without any sense of their sonship toward God or their
brotherhood toward one another. After World War I it was said that was the “war
to end all wars” however, the truth was after that war, the world lived “a
peace that was not a peace.” Truth is we can say the same today. Tensions
between nations are near the breaking point. Discord and division is the stamp
of our time. People are pulling apart instead of pulling together. But this is
nothing new, it is a situation as old as Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. For
when those first humans sinned, they renounced the Fatherhood of God and chose
the sovereignty of Satan; they spurned the divine law which says: “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Instead, they set into motion
the course of selfishness that has been a blight to
all generations, the blight which asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Therefore, if the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man were to be restored, if Paradise was to be regained, an
act of God was needed, and it is that act that we are about to commemorate.
We can assuredly say that the pending
desolation of these times brings to the forefront our complete need for divine
intervention. We who trust in God know that there is no hope for the world
unless God intervenes. Moreover, we can also assuredly say, God has intervened
with the incarnation of His beloved Son, with His birth and the deliverance of
our Immanuel at
Yet we might ask who is meant by this “conscious fellowship”? None other than
that spiritual creation defined in the Ecumenical Creeds, the “one holy Christian and apostolic church.” This
is the fellowship of God’s children, of Christian brethren from century to
century the world over. Its unity does not consist in the use of one and the
same language, or in being of one and the same nationality or race or residence
in the world, or in identical usages or customs or ceremonies or forms of
prayer. However, it does consist of the same faith in the Triune God, who
revealed Himself in His Incarnate Son whose virgin birth in a stable in
Bethlehem of Judea, is affirmed by Holy Scripture.
Surely, right-minded Christians confer
with one another to strive for unity; for oneness in faith, in church work, and
in divine worship. We ought not to be willful individualists insisting that
unity is not required in the outward works of the Church or the proclamation of
the Gospel. The church body that pursues an isolationist course, detaching
itself utterly from all associations with others, can hardly claim to be “eager
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3 ESV).
A congregation wantonly addicted to self-sufficiency in forms of worship, in
“Kingdom projects,” and in overthrowing time-tested usages can hardly claim to
have a vision for the unity of historic Christendom.
Discarding time-tested liturgy in favor
of free-wheeling individualism greatly misses the spiritual oneness with Christ
in our Communion liturgy, a priceless heritage preserved for us through many
generations. It leaves an unfilled hunger for the rich Christian experience in
such Scriptural versicles as “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who
made heaven and earth.” We can no longer cry out the Kyrie with the woman of great faith nor
hear the leprous, the blind, and others who were healed after voicing that same
fervent plea. Devoid of our liturgy, we would no longer sing out with the choir
of angels as they first sang the Gloria
in Excelsis Deo, nor join with the devout forerunner of our Lord who first
reverenced Christ as the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.
These and other elements of our divine
worship services have enriched the spiritual life of millions and they can do
the same for our own. There is something dynamic in the realization that we
have the same Epistle and Gospel that have been used in Christian Church
services since the year 800; that we confess our living faith in the words of
the Nicene Creed as it was confessed communion after communion from the year
325 onward; that our collects, our canticles, our Litany, and many of our hymns
did not originate merely 100 or 400 years ago but 1,000 or more years ago. Therefore,
we grieve over those disgruntled souls who seem to lack the capacity for
meaningful worship. It is our sincerest prayer that at least every one of the
20,000 plus churches, coast to coast, which call themselves Lutheran if not all
of the 300,000 Christian churches of all denominations, would use the same
Order of Service as an expression of unity in spirit and truth.
Yet we are ready to also admit that
outward forms are not the mark of the
church’s unity. The fact that some Jews still think every true prayer to be
heard of God must be uttered in Hebrew although this has become an unknown
tongue even to many Jews; the fact that Muslims feel the same way about Arabic,
or others require prayers in Latin or Greek does not make them right. In God’s
eyes an artificial uniformity, a blind adherence to tradition, is of little
value. What He wants is a fellowship that surmounts all barriers of language,
local customs, national origin, race, time, distance, and the fellowship that lies
in the common declaration of the Gospel, in the common faith in the incarnation
of the Son of God and in the redemption He effected for all men.
Luther wrote in the Smalcald Articles
of 1537—his theological testament in the face of threatening divisions in his own
camp—“Thank God, a seven-year-old child
knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice
of their Shepherd [John 10:3]. This is what matters: that the Gospel of
Jesus Christ be proclaimed and believed in its blessed fullness and finality;
that God became man and by His exemplary life and His suffering and death He atoned
for all the sins of mankind and He won forgiveness, life, and salvation for
every man, woman and child on earth. That we implicitly believe that Gospel and
trust in our salvation by the grace of God alone, through faith in His
sacrificed Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. That in love and gratitude to Him for
our salvation, we serve Him in His kingdom and that as members of a Christian
congregation, we worship and work together for Him, that, to the best of our
ability, we contribute in that the great work so that Christ’s kingdom may go
forward to the saving of many souls. That is
the way the Fatherhood of God is re-established among men; that is the creative force for the
establishment of human brotherhood. This
is the means that makes for blessed fellowship with God, far exceeding any
man-made endeavor. Human wisdom, human experience, human counsel, all remain
piecemeal, fragmentary, and inadequate to meet man’s deepest need; rescue from
sin, death, and the devil.
The church offers divine fellowship and
assurance through the means of grace; God’s Word and the Sacraments God has
entrusted to her. These are the means that connect us with the prophets, the
apostles, the martyrs, all men and women of true faith past and present. Above
all, they connect us with Christ, the Author and Finisher of our salvation.
This then is the blessed fellowship
Christ came to establish. Now the question is, “What should this fellowship do
to us?”
Our echoing of the eager expectation of
the church in the world’s Advent-tide, the Old Testament era, should stir
within our hearts a sense of immediacy and of gladness. The Christian religion,
centered as it is in God’s glad things, is a religion of joy, a religion of
certainty, a religion of assurance. We are filled with a gladness of heart
because a blessed fellowship has been established by Christ between God and man
and we are all partakers of that fellowship.
How marvelous it is to know that we
really belong to something infinitely worthwhile by belonging to the Christian
Church, the fellowship of all believers in Jesus Christ. We who believe the
Gospel of Christ as He Himself taught it to the apostles, and they, through
their New Testament writings taught it to us; we have fellowship with the most
worthwhile people who ever lived, but also with those who of themselves are not
worthy. Yet our fellowship is more than a human thing; it is a union with One who is more than a man, even more than the greatest man
who ever lived. It is with God from whom all blessings flow. Yes, God and we
are bound together in a blessed fellowship that will be ours forever.
Within the Church we have contact now
with this Living, Blessing God. Here is the manger where we find Him, the God
incarnate, the Light of our lives. For this reason our Christian fellowship,
our church membership, is no mean and trivial thing, a side issue, but the one
thing needful, for which we are living and which we warmly commend to others.
It is a good thing in life to have
friends, true friends, who always stand by us, who think and speak well of us,
who come to our aid when we are in need, who give us the benefit of their
experience and their education, and who share with us their life’s joys.
However, isn’t the goodness and the wisdom of God even
better to have? Is this not perfect and enduring? In the blessed fellowship
Christ brought to us we can overcome sin and death and attain everlasting
salvation. Thus our joy can be full, our merry Christmas everlasting. In order
that this may come true, may God bless our use of His Word and Sacraments,
these channels of His blessed fellowship with us and ours with Him! Amen.
May the peace
of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Amen.