Preparing for Worship - December 11, 2022

Our Psalm for the Day is Psalm 146, which begins with the Hebrew phrase “Hallelujah Yah!” - “Praise the Lord!” We realize that we should not put our trust in human leaders, who come and go. Our trust is in the Lord, the “Maker of all things,” who truly does care about His Creation, even though it is fallen, and gives help and hope to a world filled with people who have all sorts of trouble. The Lord “reigns forever” and “keeps faith forever,” especially in the gift of His Son, Jesus, Who fulfills His promises in His saving work for us.

The Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 35:1-10, predicts the coming of Christ, who will show “the glory of the Lord.” He will meet the needs of many, and above all, “He will come and save you.” He will provide a ”highway of holiness” which will lead to “everlasting joy” in heaven, where “sorrow and sighing will flee away,” through His redeeming and ransoming work for us, paying the price for us and our sins on the cross. He will “strengthen” and “make firm” our “anxious hearts,” as we wait in faith for His coming again.

In our Gospel lesson, Matthew 11:2-15, John the Baptist is sitting in prison, because of His work of “preparing the way for the Lord.” He and his disciples need their anxious hearts to be encouraged, and Jesus gives that strength to them, telling of how He is preaching the Good News of salvation and fulfilling the very prophecies given by the psalmist and Isaiah. Jesus assures John that he, John, was the one who was come in the Spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:16-17), even though “the Kingdom of Heaven would suffer violence” (through John’s death and through the death of Jesus Himself, later on). Jesus also said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” - by the fact that Jesus would be a suffering and dying Servant, in order to fulfill His Father’s plan and provide salvation for the world.

The Epistle lesson, James 5:7-11, gives the same encouragement to us who wait for the return of our Lord Jesus. We need the patience of a farmer, waiting for crops to grow and be ready for harvest, and the patience, without grumbling, of the prophets of old, who had suffering, even though they were “speaking in the name of the Lord.” We need steadfastness in faith as we wait for the Lord, too. How can we have such faith? By remembering “the purpose of the Lord” and “how He is compassionate and merciful toward us,” in what He has already done for us through Jesus, though we don’t deserve it. He will help us through, as He did Job and so many others we read about in the Scriptures. We hang onto those promises, as we listen to His Word and receive His other gifts in this Advent season.