- Psalmody: Philippians 4:4-6;Psalm 85:1;80:1b, 2b, 1a;80:2b;85:1-2a;Isaiah 35:4a, b, d
- Lection: Isaiah 40:1–8;1 Corinthians 4:1–5;St. Matthew 11:2–10
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The first words of the Divine Service proper for this Gaudete Sunday aren’t sourced from the Old Testament as usual. No, on this day the Holy Church takes words that were written after our dear Lord’s first Advent, from an epistle of St. Paul, through whom Christ’s Holy Spirit tells us to Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. We are to rejoice, for we, unlike the unbelieving world, have unfailing eternal riches in Christ that indeed stir up much rejoicing regardless of how deep the darkness of now grows. The Light that lightens the world is coming and to prepare you in mind, body, and soul, He sends before Him His messengers, as He did with John the Baptist, to prepare the way in your hearts. John’s voice, the one crying in the wilderness for all to hear who have ears to do so, prepared the multitudes for Jesus’ coming in humility, compassion, and service. The voices of Christ’s messengers today, His preachers, prepare multitudes for Jesus’ coming now in humble means, but also again in glory. Let a man consider us pastors as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Yes, indeed, we are given the blessed task of preparing you with the ever-steady diet of God’s gifts, His mysteries, His sacraments, so that you are constantly reminded of the Reason that you possess unto all eternity to rejoice always.
Jesus’ words in response to John’s envoy and inquiry sent from prison gave Him reason to rejoice. They blessed and strengthened the captive Baptizer for what lay ahead for him as it does the same for us. Consider all that John had been given to preach and the zeal with which he delivered a message that included the prophecy that this Lamb of God would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. That His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. Yet, by the time John was in prison for speaking the truth about Herod’s adultery, the threshing floor was still in disarray. The wheat and chaff were still there mingled and the fire of judgement had yet to be seen. Instead, Jesus was preserving His life until the proper hour, evading the authorities, eating with tax collectors and sinners as He poured out merciful acts upon the blind, lame, leprous, deaf, and even the dead. The might and ferocity of the winnowing, fiery Lord was at least heavily cloaked if not all-out missing in John’s eyes. So, from prison he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to inquire Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? Regardless of the motivation behind John’s question, the action of this minister is one for which all current ones do well to strive. He committed them to Christ. By doing this, he confesses that we all are but given to heed the word of Jesus for our greatest good. No matter what happens to any pastor that you have in the span of this life, no matter how he stumbles, no matter how he fails, no matter how he excels, look first and foremost to Christ. Go to His Word and hear what He says. Pastors must decrease. Jesus must increase, in your minds and in your hearts, so that, as we all are tempted to wonder when and where the powerful and glorious King is to show up with the promised fury, we trust Him in His mercy. We trust the weight of glory shown to us by faith in His Holy Word and Blessed Sacraments to cleanse and sanctify sinners’ hearts. Seek Him now as He comes in these humble yet mighty means. They fully prepare you to stand at the coming honor, glory, might, and dominion to be revealed and for every day leading to the eternal. These are the mysteries of which pastors are but stewards, because these are God’s mysteries and you are best served by us pointing you to Him and them. Seek Him as He deliberately and divinely orchestrates all things according to His good and gracious will in which we are but to trust.
Our dear Lord’s continued words call us ever to trust Him more, to consider Him more, even if our confession of Him and His truth is mocked and despised. Consider all that He does: the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. We directly also have much to consider: our forgiven sins, our gifts of friends and family, our health, our age, our homes, our church. Consider not the worst aspects about that list, let not your mind dwell on all that is wrong, but how when appropriately measured, all things actually abound in God’s rich blessing. There is far more of God’s goodness in them than all the trials and tribulations that He allows to come upon us, and even the hard things He works for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
But He demands that we consider all of Him and all that He says, for He concludes His response to John by saying, “blessed is he who is not offended because of Me,” by which we may ask the self-examining question, are we offended because of Jesus? We are all, of course, going to interpret this in our own best light, because we are mostly willing to admit that we are Christians when asked. We are not offended enough to have actually come to church to willingly hear Jesus say these words. But what about the offense that we take when His word gets really personal with us and with our deep-rooted sinful opinions and tendencies? Are we offended when God says He expects us not to forsake the assembly and to be in church every Sunday? Are we offended at His call to generously and cheerfully give the money he has given us back to the work of the Church and to the furthering of the Gospel among us and others? Are we offended at God’s order of creation and His design of the headship of man and not woman? Are we offended that God expects men to be men, godly men who lead, and who serve sacrificially as Christ serves His Bride, the Church? Are we offended that God expects good works out of us all, godly thoughts, godly speech, godly actions, as those He has purchased with His shed blood, as those He has freely put His new Spirit into? Are we offended at the call to make Christmas morning about the Christ, to prioritize the Divine Service by coming and exalting Him even over family, even over presents, and even over nostalgia? Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.
And if blessed, then joyful, truly joyful, to the point of rejoicing, always. We look to the Light of our Savior, for all pastors are but faint glows in the early morning darkness that tell of the rays set to burst forth when dawn breaks upon the horizon at the coming Sun of righteousness. It is Jesus to Whom His stewards point, He of Whom we tell, for He is the Refuge of those weary of their sin, of their offense, of their burden. Come to Him all you who labor and are heavy laden and He will give you rest, for He is longsuffering, patient, and kind. The patience He showed to John the Baptist is the same that He has for you. He assures you by calling you to trust in Him in all that He is doing and in all that He is refraining from, even down to the details that trouble you. Trust Jesus. He does all things well. He does them perfectly. As in His earthly life, He does all that is expected of Him, but not by us. He does all in accordance with the perfect will of the blessed Holy Trinity, the Almighty God. There is no fiery judgement yet for He has ordained that it is not yet time. Now is time for grace, faith, and godliness according to both. Which means that it is always time to rejoice, again I say rejoice, because by your fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, you let your moderation be known unto all men. In this, your coming Savior is well-pleased and rejoices you.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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