Preparing for Worship - Sunday, December 15, 2024

This is the Third Sunday of our Advent season, and the readings continue to prepare us for the coming of our Savior Jesus, with all His blessings and hope and strength and guidance for us.

The Psalm is Psalm 85, a psalm of temple singers, the Son of Korah. They know that the Lord had forgiven their sins in the past and had covered over those sins. (See also Jeremiah 31:19-20, 25 and how we also are to forgive others, James 5:20.) Now the psalm writers realize that they and their people are again having trouble in following the Lord and are under His anger and judgment. They pray that the Lord, in His steadfast love, would revive and restore them (literally, “turn them” back to Him and grant them salvation). They know that they also need His intervention so that they do not “turn back to evil folly.” They pray that the Lord, in His mercy, would “speak peace” to His people again. The Lord would have to “give what is good” in His own “steadfast love and faithfulness and righteousness and  peace.” This is prophetic of the coming of God’s own Son, Jesus, to be “our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6, 33:8, 14-16) and “fulfill all righteousness” in our place (Matthew 3:15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-21). In His footsteps is our Way (1 Peter 2:21-25).

The Old Testament lesson, Zephaniah 3:14-20, is also prophetic of the “rejoicing and singing” when “the Lord our God comes into our midst” in the Person of His Son, “a Mighty One who will save” and “take away the judgments against us” because of our sins. He will “save the lame and gather the outcast” and “change our shame into praise.” He will “quiet us with His love” and help us “not to fear” and not to “let our hands grow weak” but “exult in Him.” God’s mighty work in Christ will be a witness to “all the peoples of the earth” and for their benefit, too. One commentator, Franzmann, says that the Lord will act as Judge (v.15) and Warrior (v.17) and the One who loves us (v.17) and our Good Shepherd (v.19-20). What a wonderful prophecy!

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 7:18-35. Jesus, God’s Son, did come, but the one preparing His Way, John the Baptist, had been thrown into prison. John and his followers needed assurance that Jesus really was the Promised One. Jesus lets them see what He had been doing, including the lame walking and good news being preached, even to the poor, and many other miracles - exactly what had been predicted. He encourages all not to be offended, even if He is not doing everything in the way that people expected of Him, especially in His coming suffering and death for our forgiveness and salvation. Jesus also speaks again of John the Baptist, who did faithfully prepare the Way for Him in a “great“ way. Even despised tax collectors and many others could see the justice of God for their needs and were baptized for repentance by John. Sadly, religious leaders and others rejected the purposes of God and would not repent and be baptized. Too many people, Jesus said, were like fickle children, never satisfied with what was happening, with John the Baptist in His strict ways or with Jesus, who ate and drank with joy and sought to be a friend of all, including despised tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was the truly Wise One, doing His Father’s will, in love and care for all since all are sinners. (He demonstrated this in the story that follows, in Luke 7:36-49, forgiving a sinful woman and bringing her salvation, while others rejected Him and His true wisdom and thought they were much better and failed to show love. See how Jesus is described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.)

The Epistle lesson is Philippians 4:4-6. This reading, plus many additional verses, was read in many churches on Thanksgiving Day. The focus here is upon rejoicing in the Lord and all that He has brought to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. We now have peace with God and the peace of God, which goes beyond all that we can see and understand. Our Lord God guards and keeps us in connection with Christ Jesus. He is at hand, with us always, and we can bring our anxieties and needs and requests to Him, along with our praises and thanksgivings, knowing that He truly cares for us, in and through and because of Christ. The word “reasonableness” is also sometimes translated as “forbearance,” the idea of being kind and gentle and yielding toward others. We don’t always have to have our own ways and desires because the Lord knows what is best, and he is working for good as we seek to stay in Christ and His Word. See passages like Titus 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:3, and James 3:13, where the same Greek word is used. We can try to talk with courtesy, without being quarrelsome, with “the meekness of wisdom” that comes from God. We don’t always do it so well, but we try to rely on God and His Word as we speak and on His mercy and forgiveness for us and for others, too. The rejoicing is not in ourselves but in our Lord. He and His Word are our confidence.