Gaudete Midweek – Wednesday 20 December A✠D 2023
✠ Psalmody: Philippians 4:4-5;Psalm 85:1, 2, 6, 8;80:1–2;80:2b
✠ Lection: Isaiah 2:2-5;Isaiah 7:10-15;St. Luke 1:26-28a
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We like to give up. Not only in easy, permissible times, such as Advent midweek meals, but in important matters, especially if suffering is involved or if we don’t see any reward or payoff coming from us sucking it up and putting in honest effort. Some of us give up more quickly than others, but for each one of us, there is something or somethings that can happen to make every one of us just want to say, “I’m done with it,” and move on. How about in your Christian life? Do you ever allow all that you do to live like a Christian to then become burdensome, rote tasks to you? Do you ever ask yourself is it worth it? Is it worth it to do all this? Is it worth it to drive as far as we do? On a Wednesday night? In December? In northeast Ohio when it’s cold and otherwise wintry? Is it worth it to actively try to think about God in everything, much less give Him thanks and rejoice? Is it worth it to spend the time regularly reading the Bible? Praying? Keeping intentional distance from things that tempt us? Is it worth it to fight against specific sins only to watch ourself transgress God’s commandments time and time again? We like to give up. The flesh wants to give this up. Is it worth it to dress well for church, to have our humble servers dress in liturgical garments, likewise, the pastor? Is it worth the effort of swapping paraments, ordering all these beautiful candles, blessing them, cycling them out, cleaning up after them? Is it worth it to prepare the Table and clean up every time we gather? There are plenty of times that we do and participate in all these things just to maintain, to hold on, as life goes as life goes, but do we not hope, do we not desire, that an increase would come out of our efforts? Do we not hope that there’s an increase in strength, endurance, faith, joy, hope, and love; love for God and for one another? If we have such hope, which we should, it is because it has been stirred up within the new heart by God Himself, by His Spirit, through His Word, because Jesus Himself says that He has come so that we may have life and have it abundantly. If you’re here on a Wednesday night, you’ve long known in life that He wasn’t talking about worldly goods, riches, and ease of life. You know that He speaks of those things for which you hope you receive and that they continue to increase in you, true virtues in soul and spirit that prove true to you even as the body fails. You want that, not only so that you’re kept from giving up, but so that you can taste and see what He’s talking about; to understand and lean upon it as your very own. Don’t give up. Because such increase is what your Lord does bring about in you as you progress toward eternity with Him; as you follow Him wherever and everywhere that He leads.
To see such increase that He brings about in you, as you struggle where you are, and fight the same fights over and over we look to our Gradual and Verse from Psalm 80. They say, “Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth; stir up thy strength, and come and save us. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock.” Shine forth, not only upon us, but upon all that lies ahead of us into which He leads. Shine forth so that there is more of Him that we know, love, and joyfully, trustingly depend upon and rest in. Then, again in the Alleluia is the petition “Stir up thy strength, and come and save us.” We look to the names given in this text, including the ones from verse two that our liturgy omits: Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, Stir up thy strength, and come and save us. In these three, you have the beloved of the patriarch Joseph: his two sons and the little brother about whom he inquired as the others came down to Egypt to ask him for food before discovering his identity. Not only that, but these three tribes were the ones camped to the west of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and when the Ark of the Lord was taken up to go forth, these three, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, were the ones immediately in tow. They directly followed the Lord’s leading in this way. This is Who leads Joseph like a flock in the wilderness by means of the certainty of mercy given, for upon the Ark was the cherubim, the dwelling place of the Lord, the very place from which His mercy was bestowed on the people.
The One Whose glory would consume impure man if he entered into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies is the One Who leadest Joseph like a flock; the One Who leadest ye like a flock; His. He leadest now in full measure as we have more than the Old Testament pictures of the Reality to come. We have beheld His glory by the Holy Scriptures delivering unto us the true and glorious account of the fullness of time bringing about the Shepherd of Israel being born in the manger in Bethlehem as our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd. The Holy Ark of the Covenant made from precious materials built to hold and keep God’s commandments was topped by two cherubim facing each another. Upon the ark was the mercy seat where the high priest would go with the blood of the unblemished sacrifice, splashing it upon the mercy seat as representative of the blood ultimately to come from the once-for-all sacrifice on Calvary. It was looking forward in faith to the blood of the perfect Son of God, born pure of the Virgin Mary. He is both Shepherd and the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the World, Who came to gather His own sheep; to bring them into the lush, green pastures of Holy Baptism into the triune name of their God; to guard them from the wild beasts that lurk against them in the devil and his demons, in the world, and in their own sin-hungry flesh, to give increase to their struggles and efforts in godliness.
In following the Lord as you do with desires fueled by His own word, you seek to and will receive what the name Joseph means: increase. The effort to live in such a wilderness, to put the effort in daily not to doubt God, His provision, His love, His holiness, His mercy, was just as hard for the people of Israel as it is for us and as hard for us as it was for them, for we all share the same problematic, fallen flesh. Each of our struggles are common to man, yet combined uniquely in the individual lives to which the good Lord gives us. Yet, the glorious fruit, the worthwhile results coming from pursuing godliness, from daily drowning the Old Adam, from driving distance, from praying, from our ceremonies, from fighting daily battles, from not giving up, is that the effort is more than worth it, because the Lord brings increase. Don’t give up. Godly pursuits and disciplines of the heart, of the flesh, of the soul are more than worth it, even if our eyes, ears, and minds are too fallen to allow us to believe it. It is still true, because the Lord says it is. Yes, they are all worth it! They are worth it and more, for you know that the payoff isn’t just all those good virtues in this life, but eternally. Your Shepherd is the One Who dwellest in mercy. He is the One Who shines forth as the Everlasting Light. He is the One Who stirs up His strength for the aid of His flock and leads them by coming and saving them.
He leads His flock to the places where He gives increase. He awaits you now, in the Meal of Immortality, the Meal of abundance, the Meal that increases His own good gifts within you as you take in your crucified and risen Savior. This Table is prepared by human hands under the leading and care of the One Who came, Who will come again, and Who comes to you again this night. It was He Who in the flesh went down into Egypt Himself in order that He may come up again to lead you to the hill outside Jerusalem upon which He would die, and you with Him, to free you from even the trap of thinking all of this isn’t worth the effort. The Shepherd of Israel leads you up out of the darkness of death and its shadow, into the eternal land of true bounty and increase that He has promised, because stirring up His strength for you and in you He promises, coming to you He is, and saving you He does, eternally giving you reason to rejoice, and to never give up. He is all well, well worth it.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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