Preparing for Worship - December 17, 2023

As we continue the Advent season, we hear more of the joy that comes to people as the promise of the Savior is fulfilled. The Psalm is Psalm 126, a “song” of “joy” and “laughter” as the “dream” came true, and God’s people, captive in Babylon, were set free and allowed to return to the land of Israel. Their “tears” were turned into “shouts of joy,” as at the time of a great harvest, or when rains came and “streams” appeared in a “dry” land. These words were a “song” as God’s people went up to Jerusalem, in later times, expecting that God would do an even “greater thing” with the coming of the Savior.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, and speaks of what would happen when “the Anointed One,” the Christ, would come in the power of “the Spirit of the Lord.” There would be “Good News” and “comfort” and “gladness” and “liberty” that the Lord would bring in His coming, with a new and “everlasting covenant.” His people would receive a “robe of righteousness” and “salvation” and would be a witness among “the nations” and “the peoples.”. (Jesus quotes from this passage in Luke 4:17-21 and says that He is is the Fulfillment of this Scripture.)

John the Baptist also “witnesses” to this truth in the Gospel lesson, John 1:6-8,19-28. He makes it very clear that he is not “the Light” sent from God, “the Christ,” but is only" a voice making a straight way for the Lord.” He speaks of One already “standing among them.” The very next day, John 1:29, John identifies Jesus as the One, “the Lamb of God, who takes away” the greatest problem, “the sin of the world.”

In the Epistle lesson, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, Paul calls upon those who have been brought to faith in Christ Jesus to “rejoice always” and “give thanks in all circumstances,” because “the Lord is faithful” and He will “sanctify” them “completely” and “keep them blameless” at the return of Christ. This is “the will of God in Christ Jesus” for them (and for us, as we receive the credit for all that Jesus did perfectly for us as our Savior.) In the meantime, we “test everything” according to the Word of God and seek to “hold fast to what is good” and “abstain from evil.”