Ad Te Levavi Midweek 2009

AD TE LEVAVI MIDWEEK

2 December Anno + Domini 2009

Sermon Series:  "My Soul Waits for the LORD”

Part 1:  "Waiting for the LORD in Stillness”

Luke 11:14-28 (Ps. 130; Is. 66:1-2)

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope.”  During our three Wednesday evening Advent Services, we'll focus on what the psalmist means by this declaration.  What does it mean to wait for the LORD?

Waiting for things is not something we do well, especially in our fast-paced day and age where life moves speedily along.  We've become accustomed to getting what we want when we want it, and we're irritated when we have to wait.  We use the old adage, "good things come to those who wait,” but we don't really live by it.  We want what we want now.  No delay.  Now. 

We are an impatient people, ready to grumble at the first sign of delay.  We're like the Israelites who were miraculously led out of Egypt by the LORD, but began grumbling just days later because they were hungry.  Did they not think that the LORD, who had sent ten plagues upon the land of Egypt to convince pharaoh to let His people go, and who had parted the Red Sea to facilitate their escape, would provide for them?  Their lack of patience, their refusal to wait for the LORD, revealed a lack of trust, a lack of faith. 

To wait for the LORD, then, first of all, means to trust in Him to provide.  He has promised to provide for all your needs, both physical and spiritual.  And He is faithful to His promises.  He will provide.  He does provide.  More than you need.  Wait for Him.  Trust in Him.  He will not abandon you.

The problem is that the LORD doesn't always work in our time frame.  He doesn't always answer our prayers as quickly as we would like, and sometimes His answer is, "No.”  We wait faithfully for Him when we trust Him to do what's best for us, which doesn't always jive with what we think is best.  And, this brings me to the specific aspect of waiting for the LORD I want to explore for a few minutes tonight, namely waiting for the LORD in stillness. 

To wait for the LORD in stillness requires that you understand that things do not work the same way in His kingdom as they do in the world.  In the world, you need to work to get what you need and want.  In the world, you reap what you sow.  In the world, success comes to those who want it badly enough to strive earnestly for it. 

Not so in the LORD's kingdom.  In His kingdom, your needs and wants are supplied, free of charge.  In His kingdom, you reap that for which you have not sown.  In His kingdom, success comes to those who humble themselves and trust solely in Him. 

Thus, we have the example of the mute man in the Gospel, who was possessed by a demon.  He could do nothing on his own to improve his condition.  He needed Jesus to do for him what he was incapable of doing for himself.

So it is with us.  We are powerless to defeat sin, death, and the devil on our own.  We need Jesus to do for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves.  And so, He does.  He defeated sin, death, and the devil for us with His perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross.  And, He applied the salvation He won for us by bringing us into His kingdom through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  We were like the mute man, afflicted by the devil and unable to praise God with out mouths, but Jesus cast the devil out, washed our sins away, and loosed our tongues, that they would be free to praise God and confess the truth. 

And, still, even after we were brought out of the devil's kingdom and into God's kingdom by Jesus, still, we are passive, fully reliant upon our Lord Jesus to continue to do for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves.  We wait in stillness for Him when we recognize that our continued life in His kingdom is totally dependent upon His mercy and grace, which He readily supplies via His Holy Word and Sacraments.  We cannot earn merit with God by our works.  We cannot please God or appease His wrath against sin with our efforts.  We continue to need Jesus to stand by us, to serve as our Advocate with the Father, to present His perfect holiness and righteousness in place of our sinfulness and unrighteousness. 

Wait for the LORD in stillness is another way of saying, "Repent, and believe.”  Do not trust in yourselves, but trust in Jesus, who does all things well for you.  "Be still and know that I am God,” says the LORD (Ps. 46:10).  To be still is to recognize your sinfulness and your desperate need of the grace and mercy which come only through Christ.  This is what the LORD is getting at when He says, through the prophet Isaiah, "But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word” (Isaiah 66:2b).

This is also what our Lord Jesus is getting at when He responds to the woman in the crowd, who said, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” by saying, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”  Jesus is not talking about works here, as if only those who obey God's Word are blessed, for that would mean that there hasn't been a blessed person this side of heaven, save Himself, for He is most certainly the only One who ever kept the Word of God perfectly and completely.  No, to hear the Word of God and keep it is to live in repentance and faith.  For the Word of God says, "Do this,” and you don't.  The Word of God says, "Don't do this,” and you do.  But, the Word of God also says, as He hangs on the cross, "It is finished,” and it is.  To hear the Word of God and keep it is to hear God's Law condemn you, so that you fall on your knees and plead for mercy and forgiveness.  And, to hear the Word of God and keep it is to hear and believe the Good News that you have the mercy and forgiveness you need in Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away your sins.   

Beloved in the Lord, I pray that you will allow this penitential season of Advent to have its way with you, that you might learn more fully what it means to wait for the LORD in stillness.  Your Lord Jesus has done miraculous things for you.  He has brought you out of the devil's kingdom and into His kingdom, which has no end.  The only way the devil can gain a foothold in you again is if you think you can go it alone and don't need Jesus.  You can't go it alone.  You do need Jesus.  You need Him every bit as much now as you did when you were first brought out of darkness and into the marvelous light of His kingdom.  The holy season of Advent affords you the opportunity to examine yourselves, that you might come to a fuller realization of your need for Jesus and the Gifts He provides to you here in His Holy House on a regular basis.  We wait for the LORD in stillness, trusting not in ourselves, but in Jesus alone, as we anticipate the celebration of His Nativity at Christmas, when we meditate upon the reason He was born of the Virgin Mary, namely to live and die for us.  And, we wait for the LORD in stillness, trusting not in ourselves, but in Jesus alone, as we wait for the Great and Glorious Day to come, when He appears on the clouds to usher us into His Eternal Kingdom, the new heavens and earth in which we will dwell in perfect bliss forever.  Therefore, let us declare with the psalmist, "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope.”  In Jesus' Holy and Precious Name.  Amen.