Download Read the Sermon - Mount Calvary Worship

A, Advent 3, OT
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookings, SD
Rev. Matthew Wurm
December 11th, 2016
Sermon Text: Isaiah 35:3-4
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The sermon text for this
morning is Isaiah 35:3-4, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to
those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, with the recompense of God He will come and save you.”
This last week our nation remembered the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl
Harbor which catapulted our nation into WWII with the Allied powers. I recall, as a 10 year old,
the 50th anniversary of December 7th, 1941 and the stories that were told and retold
remembering that fateful day. The attack caught our Pacific fleet by surprise and the cost was
terrible. Over 1,100 sailors and marines are still entombed in the USS Arizona that rests on the
bottom of Pearl Harbor. You would think that many people, knowing the scale of WWI and the
unrest preceding the attack of that day, knew that sooner or later the United States would
declare war.
In those war years our nation was transformed into a war machine. Car factories
became tank and equipment factories. Munitions plants were built over night all over the heart
land. Food, gas, even clothing was rationed during the war effort. It seemed as though every
American joined in the fight. My mother, who grew in Chicago during those war years, recalls
thinking that the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese forces would be on her
doorstep. Such was the fear that was inflicted that fateful day. The attack on Pearl Harbor that
day stuck fear making anxious the hearts and minds of our nation and hands and feet weak.
FDR made no bones about it the next day, our nation declared war. In the years to come, the
Allied powers would defeat the Axis powers as Germany and Japan would eventually surrender
but in those war years, hearts were anxious. Who was going to war to save us from our
enemies?
John the Baptist was a prisoner of war, of sorts. He had been imprisoned by King Herod
Antipas for preaching the word of God. He had told the King that it wasn’t lawful for him to
have his brother Philip’s wife as his own (Matt. 14:3). So King Herod silenced the law of God by
taking His messenger, John, and throwing him in prison. From that place of exhausting torture
and impending death John sends messengers to ask if Jesus is the Messiah, the one who is to
come, or if should he look for another. It makes you think if John wondered why he was still in
chains if Jesus of Nazareth really was the King of David, the Messiah, the Savior who was to
come.
Certainly he was. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised up and most importantly the poor have the good news preached to
them. God does not promise freedom from earthly chains. He does not give to us the works
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righteous formula of “if you do this for me, read, pray, go to church, tithe – then I will give you
blessings and free you from earthly chains”. His Word never promises an abundance of earthly
health, wealth, and happiness by becoming a follower of Christ. Quite the opposite! We see it
with the account of Job, we read of it today in our gospel. John the Baptizer, the one who
points us to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is locked up in prison
because he dared to preach the word. As Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven has suffered
violence, and the violent take it by force,” (Matt.11:12). Herod Antipas took John the Baptizer
by force in order to silence the preaching of the word against him. Later on he severed John’s
head from his body but even that couldn’t silence the preaching of the word, “Behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
You see no matter what nation attacks us, what government rules over us, what leaders
dictate to us, or with what the evil one afflicts us by taking away our health, our possessions,
our income, even our children and spouses as happened to Job - good news is preached to the
poor. This is not an empty, vacuous montage of political rhetoric promising this and that
earthly pleasure or any grand success. This is the good news preached to the poor. This is the
forgiveness of sins proclaimed and declared, sealed by the propitiation, the blood payment, of
the sinless Son of God – Jesus.
This good news preached to the poor proclaims that His name is exalted, that Jesus
Christ is Lord, not Herod Antipas or any other earthly leader. This good news preached to the
poor fills them with the good things of forgiveness, life and salvation, not empty promises. This
good news preached is faithful and true, backed up by His victory over the grave. The good
news is resurrection, vengeance and recompense from Him upon our enemies and His gracious
visitation to save us.
So why do you fear dear baptized of God? Why are your hands weak, you knees shaking
and your heart full of anxiety? The devil can no more take you than the Japanese Navy took the
city of Chicago on December 8th, 1941. Your hearts may be anxious and worried about many
things as was Martha’s when Jesus came to her house. Choose the good portion and hear the
good news proclaimed. Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the One who was to come. You need not
look for another. Your God, Jesus Christ in the flesh, will come and save you. In fact, he already
has.
The violent will always be around trying to steal away your hope and confidence in the
Lord. The violent may pressure you to be silent and recant your confession of Christ crucified
for you for the forgiveness of sins. If you confess Jesus and Lord and seek to live out your
baptism like you mean it the violent will come after you with much greater force than just a
little slander like Chip and Joanna Gaines’ of HGTV faced the other week for their “crime” of
simply being Christian. If you hold to this confession the violent will seek to silence you by
every means possible but they will always and ultimately fail.
The violent will remain until that great and final day of the Lord when He returns with
the vengeance and recompense that is His to dole out. It is not ours. But what is ours is the
preaching of the good news to the poor that strengthens our weak hands and makes firm our
feeble knees so that we do not fear. God is on our side. If you doubt, look at the cross. There
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is love. If you have lost hope, look in the manger and listen to the angels proclaim this good
news with glad tidings. There is hope in the flesh. We need not look for another, the Messiah
is here, so let us prepare our hearts for his gracious visitation. In Jesus name. Amen.
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