The Fourth Sunday in Advent

Hymns: 60, 61, 55, 62

Isaiah 40:1-8 — “Cry unto Her, That Her Warfare Is Accomplished”

Grace, mercy, and peace to you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today is the Fourth Sunday in Advent and the Old Testament reading appointed for this day is Isaiah 40:1-8:

     Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
     The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
     The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Introduction

The Introit for this day begins: “Drop down, ye heavens, from above; and let the skies pour down righteousness.” Is this not lovely? Is this not what every heart yearns to observe? Oh how we long for righteousness to be manifested among us in our world of trouble and pain and disappointment and sorrow and grief and injustice! Do we not even act in accord with these words in our moments of heartache? Do we not look heavenward and cry out for things to be made right?

As with all true prayers, this is more than wishful thinking. True prayers are actually the responses that the Holy Spirit produces in us through the faith that He generates in us, responses to that which the Lord our God has promised. This is the proclamation of Advent. This is the promise that was declared in the garden when sin had stolen life and hope and light from mankind. This is both a fearful declaration of judgement as well as the exalting good news of deliverance. For this Word was first proclaimed to the serpent as a word of judgment concerning the head of the serpent, that is, the devil. But in declaring judgment upon the devil, making this declaration within the hearing of the couple who had brought death upon themselves and all future generations, through this they heard the promise of their deliverance and ours. From that time forth they were able to look heavenward and cry out that righteousness be poured down, knowing that this judgment against unrighteousness was simultaneously their salvation in the one who would be born of woman to redeem all of sinful mankind. And so our text today begins with the word Comfort!

I. Cry unto Her, That Her Warfare Is Accomplished

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

“Nachamu! Nachamu, people of Me!” “Deep Sigh! Deep Sigh, people of Me!” says your God!

This fortieth chapter of Isaiah begins thus. Can you relate to these words from your God? Deeeep sigh! Deeeeeeeeeep sigh! Is this not what we do when a heavy burden has been lifted from us? Is this not what we do when we have narrowly escaped great danger? Is this not what we do when terrible consequences have been avoided? Is this not what we do when an overwhelming pain has subsided? Do we not give out a deep sigh of relief and comfort?

This is the message that our God wants us to hear. This is His primary will for us. Punishment is not what He desires for us. He is our loving Father. Punishment is subservient to His desire that we be restored to the life of peace and freedom from the consequences of sin. Sin destroys us and our happiness. Sin separates us from God so that even though He continues to call to us as our loving Father, we nevertheless are turned away from Him and His gracious and merciful love. Sin causes us to interpret everything from our perverted perspective so that all of His goodness is interpreted as harshness and judgment. We cannot hear from Him what we need. We cannot hear what He gladly declares on our behalf. Even the sacrifices that He makes for us we interpret as sacrifices that we must make to Him.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Oh that we would hear what He says in these words! He literally says: “Speak ye to heart of Jerusalem.” We say things like, “That really touched my heart.” “That really plucked my heartstrings.” And what does He command to be spoken to our heart? Jerusalem is the capitol city, the city from which we are ruled as His people, the city in which the temple stands where true worship is performed in His name for our benefit. Jerusalem is the mother of the people of faith.

“Cry unto her,” He says, “that her warfare is accomplished.” This literally says: “Cry out to her because filled up is her sabaoth.” We maintain this word in the portion of the liturgy that is preparatory to the Holy Supper of forgiveness and renewal in God’s communion when we sing the Sanctus, which says:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

We sing of the holiness and salvific will of the Lord God of Sabaoth, that is, the Lord God of hosts or armies. He has the heavenly hosts of angels standing ready to come to our aid. They fight against the devil and the legions of demons to protect us. They guard us physically and spiritually. They came when Jesus was born and announced His birth. And in our text this word is applied to Jerusalem, the mother of the people of faith.

What does the Lord mean when He says that Jerusalem’s sabaoth are filled up? It certainly does mean that her warfare is accomplished, but why? Her hosts or her armies or her mighty gatherings have been filled up. The children of God and of Jerusalem have been gathered together, regenerated and brought into the safety of the presence of their loving God, through the promise of the Savior, Jesus. And so the comforting message is to be cried out unto her that her hosts have been filled up because the satisfaction has been made for her iniquities and because she has received from the hand of Yahweh double in all her sins.

Our translations say that she has received double for all her sins, which is O.K., but it actually says that she has received double in all her sins. Moreover, this is received from the hand of the Lord. IN all of her sins removes our false presumptions that the things that we suffer are in some way payment for our sins. No, throughout the entire redemptive activity of the Lord on our behalf, we remain in our sins. Whatever hell we suffer in this life is a mere drop in the bucket. No, what we receive from the hand of the Lord is not that we suffer for our sins, but that He, as the double intercessor of both God and Man, comes to us IN our sin and takes our Sin from us into His own body and fills up double what we cannot even begin to pay with many lifetimes of suffering. He fills it up for us double, not only as a man but also as God in the flesh. He comes to us in our sin and fills up our debt doubly, both in time and with His eternal holiness and righteousness, leaving no possible doubt that is it filled up and accomplished, once and for all! This proclamation is to be proclaimed unto Jerusalem for all who have ever and ever shall be gathered to her.

II. Make Straight in the Desert a Highway for Our God

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

This sounds peculiar and even confusing. Who is this voice? Who is the one crying out in the wilderness? If in the darkness you hear a voice, what is your first thought and question? Do you not ask: “Who is that? Who is calling?” This voice is in the wilderness. It is the same voice crying out “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” Yes, it speaks of John the Baptizer. It speaks of Isaiah, too. But John is not the voice. If you have set down your cell phone while working or playing outside and it rings and you go to the ringing and press the answer button and hear a voice, do you say that it is the voice of the cell phone? Or do you respond, saying, “Hello. Who is calling?” Do you not listen to the voice that is being conveyed through the vessel or cellular unit?

John and all of God’s spokesmen cry out in the wilderness, but they are not the voice of the one crying out. They are the vessel or conduit or transmitter or cellular unit. They do not cry out with their own message. They cry out with the voice of the one crying in the wilderness.

And what does the voice cry out? “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” To whom does this voice cry out? Is the voice crying out to the world? To us? To the Church? Yes, to the Church. Whom else has been empowered to prepare the way of the Lord? Whom else has been given the means by which the highway of our God is made straight? What are these means? They are the means of grace. How do we make the highway of the Lord straight? By using the means as they have been given and not changing them or how they are used.

For it is not actually we who make the way straight. For the rest of this declaration says:

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

It is the Word of God that makes the highway straight. This Word has been conjoined with water and bread and wine. What happens when water rushes over uneven places? Does it not level out the terrain? Are not the high places worn down and washed along to fill in the low places? And what happens to the crooked ways in which our distractions lure us when we are properly fed and nourished with the bread of heaven and the blood of life? Do we then have any reason to look this way and that way, causing us to walk in crooked ways? This is what the mouth of the Lord has spoken and promised. This is what He works for us when His means of grace are administered as He has ordained through His Word.

III. But the Word of Our God Shall Stand for Ever

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Indeed, the preacher knows not what to preach unless he first hears the voice of the Lord through His Holy Scriptures. The command is to cry out! But first the preacher must hear for himself what the Lord says. Then, after the preacher is filled with the Word of the Lord, then what he preaches will truly be what the voice cries out for all to hear. And what does the voice say? The message is two-fold:

All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

This is the double-edged sword of the Word of God which cuts to the very soul. It is the double-edged sword of the Law and the Gospel. It is the hard proclamation that all of our works are filthiness and unrighteousness so that we cannot do anything good of ourselves. The Law shows us that we are totally and completely corrupt and powerless to do anything that is holy and good. And so, all flesh is grass that the Spirit of the Lord burns up with judgement, causing us to wither and fall down confessing our poor, miserable condition as sinners. But the Word of our God has two sides. The Word of our God has Himself made Himself to be flesh. The Word Himself took our sin so that He was held up to wither and die in our place. And now that holy One, who died as the sin of the world, has been raised up for us in the flesh to stand before God forevermore as our intercessor and advocate. Now, the Word of God stands before God in the flesh, standing between us and the throne of judgment, declaring us to be righteous as His own body and blood as we are joined to His body through Baptism, to partake of the unity of His body in the bread and to receive His blood of righteousness into our own flesh in the wine. With these given to us through the Word that has been raised up forever, we too are raised up to the new life that is in Him.

Conclusion

This is the ongoing Advent of our God. He comes to us and comforts us and cries out to us that our warfare is accomplished and that the hosts of the Church are filled up, namely with us. We are the hosts of the heavenly Jerusalem. We have been washed into her gates and into the courts of the heavenly temple of the body of Jesus through Baptism. We partake of His Holy Sacrifice of His body and blood that was given and shed for us even from the foundation of the earth, given and shed through the will and Word of God, to be filled up in the fullness of time with the birth of the babe of Bethlehem who came to Jerusalem, to be carried out to be raised up on the cross where our warfare was accomplished. Now the message goes forth into all the world, gathering in every place the hosts of Jerusalem, filling them up with the righteousness of the Lord, keeping them evermore in His holiness and the life that endures forever. Ah yes, what a glorious word of comfort the voice cries out for us to hear and receive with rejoicing forevermore. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus forever. Amen.

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

Hymns: 60, 61, 55, 62

The Introit (Is.45:8; Ps.19:1)

P:     Drop down, ye heavens, from above:
C:     and let the skies pour down righteousness.
P:     Let the earth open:
C:     and bring forth salvation.
P:     The heavens declare the glory of God:
C:     and the firmament showeth His handiwork.

(The “Gloria in Excelsis” is omitted during the Penitential Season of Advent)

The Collect

Stir up O Lord, we beseech Thee, Thy power, and come and help us with Thy great might, succor us that by the help of Thy grace whatsoever is hindered by our sins may be speedily accomplished through Thy mercy and satisfaction; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

The First Lesson Isaiah 40:1-8

      Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
      The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
      The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

The Gradual (Ps. 145:18,21; 40:17b)

P:     The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him:
C:     to all that call upon Him in truth.
P:     My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord:
C:     and let all flesh bless His holy name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
P:     Thou art my Help and my Deliverer:
C:     make no tarrying, O my God. Hallelujah!

The Epistle Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The SENTENCE for the Season (Psalm 25:6)

P: Hallelujah! Remember, O Lord, Thy tender mercies:
C: for they have been ever of old. Hallelujah!

The Holy Gospel St. John 1:19-28

      And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
      And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
      Then said they unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
      He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
      And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
      John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.
      These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Isaiah 40:2