Advent 2 Midweek - 12-10-08

Advent 2, Midweek
One Year Lectionary,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (December 10, 2007)

“The Mountain of Good News”

Readings:

Isaiah 52:7-10
John 12:26-36

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Old Testament Reading of Isaiah the 52nd chapter, especially the following verses.

Isaiah 52:7-10 (NIV)

7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. 9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In our Advent Midweek services we continue with our theme of coming to the Holy Mountain of Israel through the prophecy of Isaiah. Last week we heard Isaiah speak of the Mountain of Peace. Tonight we hear the prophet Isaiah proclaim of, “The Mountain of Good News” which God proclaims through his lips saying, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace.”(v.7)

A few hundred years after Isaiah, yet still five hundred years before Christ, there is a legend which speaks of a man who ran 150 miles in two days and then right after that it is said he ran another 26 miles. And all that running was supposedly just for the purpose of announcing that the Greek army had obtained victory over the Persians in the battle of Marathon. Upon finishing this long running race, the messenger spoke only one word, "Νενικήκαμεν" meaning, “we have won.” This message inferred that the Greek army had won though the help of their mythical god Pan who instilled an extreme sort of fear, an irrational, blind fear that paralyzed the mind and suspended any sense of judgment. Pan, it sounds a lot like panic doesn’t it? But the bad news is that after this legendary Olympic run to deliver a simple word of good news, the runner immediately dropped stone cold dead right there in his tracks. Not even enough time to climb a podium and receive a gold medal.

The prophecy of Isaiah speaks of another and much different messenger than the one bandied about in the legends of the Greeks. For Isaiah knew that seeing the feet of one lone messenger return from battle would indeed be perceived as a Mountain of Good News. For Israel throughout it’s history had seen more than it’s share of good news and bad news. The Israelites knew what bad news was, they had lived through it for generations. They had experienced hundreds of years of Egyptian slavery and that was bad news. They lived through wars, pestilence, and famine and that was bad news. Serving kings and rulers and an endless string of invading armies who were less than merciful and peaceful to them and all of those thing compounded upon each other was their mountain of bad news.

But God gave the prophet Isaiah the vision to see well beyond his time to a future time when a messenger would stand on the Mountain of Zion He would proclaim the good news that, “Your God reigns!”(v. 7) If one looks out and sees a multitude of beaten and war weary stragglers returning from a battle it can only mean that the army is retreating because it has suffered defeat. But the advent of this lone returning messenger would mean that the war is over and oh how beautiful that sight would be. To see the feet of only one messenger and to hear of his return speaking the good news of peace, good tidings, and salvation. For the proclamation of the word of peace means that the time of threats and the time of war has ended. The lone messenger means that with Him comes good tidings and that in turn will cause all to have great joy. And salvation, well that means that the old evil foe, the oppressor, has been destroyed, broken, and conquered.

But our eyes and ears in the here and now only see mountains of failures in a fallen world which seems to be getting worse every single day. Our hearts and minds are like those of Israelites who witnessed the Roman army as it destroyed the Jerusalem temple and the stones of the city walls lay strewn in ruins. We are daily instilled with the fear of what is to come of our economy, of our jobs, of our savings, and our livelihood, and ultimately we fear what will come of us when we die. Our nightly news and discussion with the people around us instill us with an extreme sort of fear. It is a faithless fear that is irrational, and it is a blind fear that has paralyzed our minds. Our own sin has suspended our sense of judgment. And when we succumb to this fear, we stand with all humanity who throughout the ages who lacked faith and therefore were overcome by sin to induce us to worship the false god of panic.

Repent, for in Isaiah’s vision he “saw the Lord [who would] lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations.”(v.10) That Lord is your Lord Jesus Christ who not only lay bare His holy arms, He lay down His entire body upon the cross to free you from your mountain of sin. And Christ proclaims from the cross that His Word is a mountain of good news to, “all the ends of the earth.”(v.10) In His death and resurrection he gives the good news to all who would believe in Him that they, “will see the salvation of our God.”(v. 8) You who believe and are baptized will “see it with [your] own eyes.”(v.8) You who join in the Holy Supper of our Lord will be freed from your sin, forgiven, renewed, and refreshed by the blood which flows from Christ’s bare arms. And from the ruins of this earthly Jerusalem, the Lord will comfort His people, for He has redeemed you. Do not panic as we await the advent of Christ to “return to [this] Zion”(v. 8) For He will come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead. And when He returns, through Gospel of Jesus Christ you will, “Burst into songs of joy together.”(v.9) How beautiful it will be on that day when we see the feet of the one who brings us His good news, who proclaims our peace, and who brings us His good tidings. For Jesus Christ is "Your God who who reigns"(v.7), and you will see Him with your own eyes. Jesus Christ will bring you to the restored city of Jerusalem, to the heavenly Mount Zion and He will give you eternal salvation, and that indeed, is a Mountain of good news. Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

AMEN
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