[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT 20 December 2009 "He Did Not Spurn the Virgin's Womb" Luke 1:39-56 LSB Series C Vicar Jeffrey M. Dock Soli Deo Gloria!

In the name of Jesus + Amen.

You may have noticed that our opening hymn was a Christmas hymn. And yet it's still Advent. Christmas is coming, but isn't yet here. This Christmas hymn was quite fitting though- for Jesus is all over today's Gospel reading, even if you neither see nor hear Him. For in the reading, it is already Christmas. For remember- Christmas is not properly celebrated if you treat it as Jesus' birthday party. Christmas is a celebration of the incarnation. A festival to remember that God became man. A feast on the one who created the Universe and yet takes on created flesh. Jesus hasn't been born yet- but He is the incarnate deity already. Resting in the Blessed Virgin Mary's womb.

Wonder at that marvel for a minute. The Creator. The One who appeared in a burning bush and began the process of freeing His people from slavery¹. The One who, in a single night, slew 185,000 Assyrian solders who had Jerusalem surrounded². The Lord of the Universe. That One. The second person of the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity now dwells in the Blessed Virgin Mary's womb. Christ indeed humbled Himself, for He limited Himself to exist as only a single cell. The proper biological term is Zygote. Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows, for He has taken the same journey we have. Not just from birth to death- but from conception to death. The most powerful being in existence let Himself become the weakest thing in all of creation, a single living cell. Such was the start of the path in which the eternal ever-living God, who had no need to fear death, would let Himself be murdered and yet not raise a hand in His own defense.

And He who was crushed for our iniquities has now risen again, and so shall we. For Christ has walked every step of this road of life before us. Indeed, He has walked it for us. We suffer nothing that He did not bear, face no temptation He has not overcome, and encounter nothing He has not foreseen. Even those unborn who tragically die before the washing of Holy Baptism find their hope here in the Son of God who sanctified even the womb. Not for a single moment in this life does Jesus not sympathize with our weakness and walk the path of this life with us. His work as savior even in the womb is an ever present comfort for those who have seen their children suffer from a miscarriage. As well as a grave warning to those who won't take steps to protect the right to live for the yet unborn. Thank God the Blessed Virgin Mary 'chose' life, for she bore in herself the Life of the entire World. The life which gives life to all lives.

The world has always attacked the simple truth that Jesus is fully God. Could God really become man? Could God really be an infant? A fetus? Jesus can be many things, a moral teacher or a wise prophet- but not the Son of God. Not part of the Trinity. That idea is considered ludicrous. But it is the simple truth Scripture states. Here reigns the Lord of creation, God and yet also man. Fully man and also yet fully God. Heretics have opposed it for centuries. Popular novels continue to attack this simple truth. Satan knows that if he can win this battle, Christianity will fall apart. Yet the Word of God stands. In the beginning was the Word who created all things, and yet This Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the one, as we heard last week, who gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, cleansed the lepers, gave hearing to the deaf, raised the dead, and preached the Gospel to the poor. These are not the works of a man, but of the enfleshed Son of God who directs all things. And in our reading today, this GodMan grows in a womb.

So Mary comes to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. For the past two Sundays, we've heard about how John the Baptizer pointed toward Christ with His prophetic words and actions. It is no different in this reading, where we see John's first prophetic act. Even in the womb, John senses the Messiah and leaps for joy. Not content to wait till His prophet is born, already the Holy Spirit is testifying to the Messiah who would bless all peoples and redeem the Earth. The One who every Old Testament prophet pointed to is now here within the womb of a virgin, and so John (the last true prophet of the Old Testament) testifies to Him yet again. Behold your savior, righteous and having salvation³, humble, and carried within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Blessed Virgin Mary. I've used that term several times now. Lutherans tend to be a little hesitant about using that terminology, though I've never been able to figure out why. It is probably a knee-jerk reaction to other denominations which ascribe abilities to Mary which she does not have, and attribute to her miracles which she cannot do. But in our reading today, Mary prays the Magnificat. A prayer which has been preserved in the church ever since, and is prayed here during Advent at our Wednesday night Vespers services. And it is Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, who proclaims that "all generations shall call her blessed". And since we are part of those 'all generations' it is right and fitting to call her the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed for she bore within herself Jesus Christ and is properly called the Mother of God. A virgin because God miraculously brought forth life untouched by the stain and corruption of original sin so that this innocent Lamb of God could be the one who sacrifices Himself for mankind's sins.

The Blessed Virgin Mary proclaims in the Magnificat "He has shown 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 exalted those of humble estate." And in a move only God would think of, He does this not with might and power. He does not bring in an army of angelic warriors and forcibly remove the mighty from their thrones and punish justly all sin. Instead He comes Himself, not in power and glory but as a zygote. An unborn child. The very thing that no one was expecting. For He did not want to impress the world, scare the nations, or force the earth to obey Him. Instead He wanted to redeem it. This tiny unborn child is unassuming and humble because that is what our redemption required.

And this little One, this unborn Messiah, would be the sign for the rise and fall of many in Israel and around the world. This One would lead forth His church to the ends of the Earth. This one would proclaim a message that would make demons cower, and steal back prisoners from Satan's kingdom. Within only a few years of this reading, the mighty King Herod would attempt to kill this child and yet the Father would protect Him and it would be Herod who would find himself under God's judgment. The Father has shown strength with His arm, the strength of His Son's victorious death. The Father has exalted those of humble estate, namely us, and the entirety of the Christian Church who clings in faith to the Son of God. The church around us doesn't often look exalted, but then Jesus didn't look like God when He was in the womb. It doesn't change the reality of God's Word and promise.

The Blessed Virgin Mary's Magnifcat continues with these words "And His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation… He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." These are fitting words to end the season of Advent with. We have looked at the One who was prophesied throughout the entire Old Testament, who is now here. Here in the womb of a virgin. Here to begin the work of freeing His people from their sin. Here to conquer death. Here to bring everlasting life. God has not abandoned His people. He did not forget the promises He made to Israel, and He does not forget the promises He made to you. This Advent season of the Church year draws to a close with the upcoming birth of our Savior. Then we'll hear again of His path to the Cross, into a grave and then out of that same grave, with an ascension into Heaven and a Gospel which goes out to the ends of the Earth. Let us walk that path again together, hearing anew all the wondrous things God has done for us. Rejoicing in a salvation we did not deserve paid at a cost we cannot comprehend.

Of the Father's love begotten ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source,
the ending He,
Of the things that are,
That have been,
And that future years shall see

This is He whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord,
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.
Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹ Exodus 3
² 2 Kings 19:35
³ Zech 9:9