Monday, December 9, 2019

Sermon Sermon Dec. 4, 2019 Mid-week Advent Service

Title: The Father’s love restores us.
Luther’s Small Catechism the Apostles Creed First article
Text: Psalm 80:1-7

80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might and come to save us! 3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved! 4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6 You make us an object of contention for our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!

The Creed
The First Article
CREATION

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

What does this mean?

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given
me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.

He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.
All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true!

"I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here: and this idea of a creating hand refers to God."

http://atheism-analyzed.blogspot.com/2012/07/sartres-conversion.html

These are the words of French philosopher, author, playwright and atheist John-Paul Sartre near the end of his life. He was reviled by his mistress and fellow atheists as a senile traitor.

As we wait in anticipation this Advent season for the coming of the Christ child, we look to our loving Father who created us in his image. Who with his all powerful word brought forth all things and who commands us in the 1st commandment:

That you shall have no other Gods.

In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther writes that if you were to ask a child:

“My dear what sort of God do you have? What do you know about him?

The child would say, “This is my God: first, the Father, who created heaven and earth. Besides this One only, I regard nothing else as God; for there is no one else who could create heaven and earth.”

Readers Ed. The Book of Concord pg 399 CPH

To this God - the psalmist cries: 80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel.

God - the shepherd of the flock of his people whom he created is called upon.

As the shepherd of the flock, God himself, cares and leads his people Israel.

You who lead Joseph like a flock

You Lord God heavenly Father, truly lead all of your children, who trust in you, just as a shepherd leads his flock. You are the Good Shepherd are our shepherd.

But what God created perfect,
and what he saw as good,
and what after his creating work he rested from ...

... that same work has been broken. It is this break and fall into sin from our first parents Adam and Eve that the psalmist calls to the one true God who is:

You who are enthroned upon the cherubim,
And he calls him to shine forth.

When we call on God in the benediction, we call upon him to make his face shine on us and to be gracious unto us. To once again bring forth the rescue needed for fallen man and to make a way where there is no way.

3 Restore us, O God;

Give to us o Lord, the original righteousness that was ours, given to us in creation!
let your face shine,

Give to us o God, your gracious favor once again!
that we, who are broken by sin, may be saved!

Who among you doesn’t know the fallen  nature of man?

Who among you has not seen the result of this broken creation, in your life and the lives of your loved ones?

23 For the wages of sin is death, Rom 6:23

Who among you understands that death is not by God’s ordaining, and was not part of his plan for creation?

For creation has been changed and broken by sin. So too you and I, and this life we share, is lost to the corruption and brokenness that has fallen upon it.

O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.

A old storekeeper in Maine refused to buy a salesman's goods. "You must remember, young fellow," he said, "that in this part of the country every want ain't a need."

Source Unknown.

The wants of this created world can be many. The desires that we seek can point us all away from the one thing needful. The condition of our standing before God and whether we stand condemned or restored is what the joy of Advent brings.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

The Father’s love does indeed restore us.

So we cry forth with the psalmist:

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!

The shinning face of the Father is turned towards his children in Jesus Christ our Lord who he sends to bring about our redemption. The restoration of life, in this babe in a manger, is what we wait for, and it is this love that the Father has for us … that he gives and showers upon us.

And while the wages of sin is death, as the Law of God condemns you and me, the good news is made clear as St. Paul continues in second half of Romans 6:23:

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Father sends the son to restore the world broken by sin.

He in love comes in the person of the Christ child in a manger to be a substitute for what man could not do.

He comes to make right what had been made wrong by sin and to 3 restore us, O God.

There is a wonderful story about Katherine and Martin Luther in Roland Bainton’s fine biography “Here I Stand”:

At family devotions one morning, Luther read Genesis 22 and talked about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac:

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

As he finished, his wife Katherine said,

“I do not believe it! God would not have treated his son like that.”

"But, Katie," Luther quietly replied, "He did."

50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Spiritual Giants by By Warren W. Wiersbe pg. 14

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen

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