Advent 3 - Midweek - 12-17-2008

Advent 3, Midweek
One Year Lectionary,
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (December 17, 2007)

“The Mountain of reunion”

Isaiah 66:18-23
John 12:25-36

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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 66th chapter, especially the following verses.

Isaiah 66:18-23 (ESV)

18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord. 22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

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

In our final Advent Midweek service we hear the prophecy of Isaiah speak of a great reunion on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. As we have said in previous weeks, Isaiah offers a vision into the future which is staggeringly accurate. For Isaiah’s prophecies span beyond his own life to nearly 700 years later to the first coming of Christ and then far into the future to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Here in our reading from Isaiah tonight we hear of people coming from many countries, far off islands, a reuniting of all the peoples from all over the world.

Can you imagine a reunion of all the people from the entire world and gathering them in one place. What would that reunion look like? Would that reunion appear like some sort of whimsical old coca-cola commercial from the 70’s where everyone gathered together there on a bright and sunny perfect mountain, singing in perfect harmony? Or would it be more like trying to gather hundreds of people around that famous negotiating table from the Vietnam War? If you don’t remember that table, it was a table over which warring leaders could not agree. But it was not about war terms they couldn’t agree about the physical shape of table. Some at those peace talks wanted a square table, others wanted a rectangle, still others wanted a round table. Many months passed by, many people died on the battlefield, while V.I.P. leaders struggled to come to an agreement on a table. Ultimately a reunion for peace was stalled because they couldn’t agree regarding which shape of table should be used.

If we were called to attend a great reunion of all the peoples in our world today, upon receiving our invitation our first reaction would probably be sort of negativity with a twisted tinge of sarcasm. For there is no way we could ever consider that it would be physically or humanly possible for all the world’s different countries, all the different peoples, to come together in one place. How in the world would the people of Israel come together on one mountain with the people of Iran? How in the world would the people of China sit down next to people of Taiwan? How could all the people from everywhere in the world come together when there is so much division in the world? And if international division is not enough, what about the division in our own countries. Or what about the divisions in our own families? We all have that special brother, sister, cousin, or crazy uncle that we all try to avoid at our own family reunions. And what of those people in our own church who we try to avoid too. How could a reunion of such magnitude ever happen when it seems that there is always some sort of division?

Yet the prophecy was written, Isaiah proclaimed of that great future reunion of, “all your brothers, from all the nations, to [God’s]holy mountain in Jerusalem.”(v. 20) for He said, “they shall come and shall see my glory. I will set a sign among them.”(v. 18-19) So this reunion does not happen because of the motivation of man, this great reunion will occur because of God’s actions.

Yes you will come to see God’s glory, for the time is now coming to gather at His holy mountain. Just as Isaiah prophesied, God’s did set His sign before His people when, “an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the Name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet [Isaiah]: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” (Mt. 1:20-23) Yet even when the glory of God was united in flesh when Christ came into this world, the world still did know Him. The whole world did not rush to gather for a great reunion with their long prophesied savior. Man could not agree on who He was and even in the face of His great miracles they would not see His glory. So instead of a glorious reunion, sinful man reacted to God’s sign by building a cross, and then around that cross mankind gathered to return signs of insults. Those signs were real too, they were signs of human sin and doubt were united with Christ on that cross.

Though man was blinded by sin, that God-man Jesus Christ, hung upon that cross so that the union of humanity with God would be restored and that indeed was a mountain of reunion. For left to the designs of man we see that we still do not agree with other nations, or peoples, or even our own families. But God does not leave salvation to the design of man, rather God in the death and resurrection of Christ restores humanity.

God’s restoration of humanity would not gather the world together in the physical city of the worldly Jerusalem. Rather God lovingly brings His people to Him in a great reunion where there will be a new heavens and the new earth in His city of the New Jerusalem.

And as we await this heavenly reunion, God gives to you now, this very night, a foretaste of that reunion to come. For this day you are united with Him when you are given Christ’s true body and true blood in Holy Communion. And what of that great reunion to come? All who believe and have been baptized will come together on that reunion on His holy mountain. For in your baptism you were given a sign too, the sign of the cross, which marks you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.

God said through the prophet Isaiah, “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, [says the Lord], so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.”(Is. 66:22-23) Oh, what a glorius reunion it shall be as we are reunited in eternal worship on that day of Christ’s return when He gathers us to His everlasting Mountain of reunion.

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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