Author: Al

Text: Hebrews 5:5, 10
Date: Advent IV + 12/23/12

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, because it is the way in which he came that makes His coming a blessing to us. That is, though this is the God who once came to speak with Moses in a burning bush and who came to lead His people out of Egypt in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, the Lord of Hosts Isaiah saw in the temple with great fear and trembling, now He comes to us as one of us. The Spirit of Christ says in Psalm 40, “a body have you prepared for me.” Today we prepare to celebrate that moment in time when the Father fashioned a sinless body for the Son as the fruit of Mary’s womb. Today our Epistle tells us the reason He was given a human body, namely so that He could be the “once for all” offering and sacrifice that takes away your sin and the sin of the world. Amid our Advent praises there begins already today the lilting rhythms of carols of the season, saying, Joy to the world! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Come, Lord Jesus! Continue reading “The Embodiment of God's Love”

Text: Luke 7:18-28
Date: Advent III + 12/16/12

Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! For when He comes we rejoice. And He rejoices over us (Zeph 3:14, 17)! The Third Sunday in Advent is called “Rejoice Sunday” as the Introit announces, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Like John the Baptist in prison, however, we are not always in the mood to rejoice. Our expectations are often contradicted, our hopes suppressed, our happiness challenged, our security threatened. We question even those things we thought most reliable, that we were most convinced of. “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” The true joy of this day, however, comes as the Word of God lifts our eyes once again above our own weakness to the One who came to save us, who comes now to give us freedom, hope and life, and who is coming again in the fullness of His glory. Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! Continue reading “Rejoice in What You Have Heard”

Text: Luke 3:3, 10 (3:1-14)
Date: Advent II + 12/9/12

Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! For when He comes among us we are changed. He comes to us before we are able to come to Him. God sent John the Baptist “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” And we are among the crowds through the ages who have come out “to be baptized by him.” John’s baptism was preparatory to our baptism into Christ. But by John’s preaching we are called to repudiate our old way of life and be converted by faith to God’s gift of newness of life through the forgiveness of our sins. May we hear once again God’s call through John that we may be blessed by the King who comes in the Name of the Lord. Continue reading “God Begins His Work in You”

Text: Luke 19:38
Date: Advent I + 12/2/12

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! So is the shout of faith and hope with which we begin this new Church Year. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! This King is blessed. For we have come to proclaim and to worship not an earthly king or sovereign, but the King of the universe. He is King because “all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:2-3). Though we rebelled and sin has separated us from Him, nevertheless, out of pure love this King of all creation “came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” “Though he was in the form of God, [He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself” (Phil 2:5-8). Still the King nevertheless His kingdom was not and is not of this world (John 18:36). For us and for our salvation He divested Himself for a little while so that, as a man, He could fight the battle we could never win, the battle that has meant death for all mankind. It was a strange and dreadful sight to see Him who was King taking the sin of the world to the cross there to atone for it by spilling His own holy and sacred blood. Yet our strong King, having destroyed death and risen from the grave and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, now lives and rules all things both as its Creator and its Redeemer. So we say, now in Advent and pretty soon at Christmas, and through the telling of the rest of the gospel, “Blessed is the King! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Continue reading “Blessed is the King Who Comes in the Name of the Lord”