“Our God Comes”
11-25-2012
Isaiah 2:1-5
Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. It is the season of Hope. It’s the church’s new year’s day, the start of a new Christian calendar. Each year we rehearse the great works of God for us and for our salvation. In the seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany we hear of the Father, who in love sends His Son into the world, to take up our humanity and dwell with us to save us.
In the seasons of Lent and Easter, we hear of the Son, who gave His life as a sacrifice on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
In the season of Pentecost, we hear of the Holy Spirit, who delivers to us all that the Son died to win for us, and who joins us to the death and resurrection of the Son through our faith. Today, we start the cycle all over again with the advent of Christ.
The word "advent" means "coming" or "arrival." It referred to the coming of the king. Among Christians, it refers to the coming of Christ to save us - both His first advent in humility, conceived of Mary and born as the baby of Bethlehem, and also his second advent in glory, when every eye will see Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
The season of Advent is time wrapped up in Hope, of preparation, of worship - both for the celebration of Christ’s birth and for His coming in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Isaiah says, In the Last Days. The time between Christ’s first advent in humility and His second advent in glory is called the "last days." We are now in the last days. We’ve been in the last days since the days when Jesus was conceived and born, suffered and died, rose and ascended.
The last days are the time of the church. They are the days when God establishes His church on earth. Here God teaches the nations His Word. Here God makes eternal peace. That is the prophetic vision of the text that we read from the book of Isaiah. In the last days the mountain of God’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Isaiah’s view of history is through a long, telephoto lens. He sees the whole time of the last days all piled up together. It’s like when we look at mountains from afar. It’s hard to tell the near mountains from the far ones. They almost appear to be right next to each other.
Isaiah sees the church as our Lord’s temple built on a high mountain. It is chief among all the mountains and raised up above the hills. When you realize that all religions had mountains, and every high place was a place of worship, you get Isaiah’s point. In the last days, the worship of the true and living God will be established over all other gods. Our God’s mountain will be chief, and his temple will be the place of true worship.
Recall what Jesus said when he pointed to Herod’s temple in Jerusalem. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again." The temple Jesus was referring to was not the temple building on the mount in Jerusalem. He was speaking of His own flesh, which He would give for the life of the world.
The "mountain of the Lord’s temple" is the body of Jesus Christ, raised up on the cross, raised up from the dead, raised up to the heights of heaven. Where the crucified, risen, and glorified body of Jesus Christ is, there is the mountain of the Lord’s temple. It is where the Word of forgiveness is preached, where the body and blood of Christ are eaten and drunk in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, It is here that we worship and praise Him, It is there we find His mountain. It is chief among the mountains, raised above all high places.
The worship of God in the flesh of Jesus Christ is the death of other religions. Religion is man’s attempt to deal with God. To bribe Him with gifts, butter Him up with sacrifices, get Him to love us and deal kindly with us. Every so-called religion of the world has you climb a mountain to reach up to God. But the worship of our Lord in the flesh of Jesus Christ flattens every religious mountain under the cross of Jesus.
We don’t reach up to God. We can’t; we won’t. But God reaches down to us, and comes to us. We don’t climb up a mountain to reach God. He comes down from His mountain to reach us. He hangs on a cross and dies. He rises from the dead and ascends. And He raises us up with Him. God pushes His mountain up from below.
Christianity is not really a religion among religions, a mountain among the many mountains that reach to God. It is the end of religion, the end of mountain climbing, the end of all religious works designed to earn God’s favor. God’s favor is yours through the death of His Son. Some people say, "All religions lead to the same place." That’s true, in a sense, because all religion leads to hell. Only dying and rising in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ leads to life with God.
"All nations will stream to God’s mountain." The worship of our Lord in the last days will pay no regard to race or ethnic background or language or nationality. It is the end of all racism and ethnic religion. God is not a national god. He belongs to no nation, no particular people, no language or ethnic group. He transcends all borders and political boundaries.
The worship of God in the flesh of Christ is the same in China, Korea, Africa, S. America, Australia, N. America, everywhere in the world. And the church must be open to all people. We may not lay down a boundary where God has not. Boundary lines and ethnic groupings mean nothing to God who sent His Son Jesus to save the world.
The Church is the mountain where God teaches the nations. Teaching and baptizing is how disciples of Jesus are made. "He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths and teach others to do the same."
His ways are the way of repentance and faith. To walk in His paths is to daily die and rise with Jesus in Baptism. That’s the word that goes out from the church. Not how to be good. Not moralism about "good and evil." The world already knows plenty about good and evil, and more knowledge of the law isn’t going to make people any better or any less evil. On His mountain, God teaches another way, a way the world does not know, a path the world does not follow.
Ethics and morality you can find anywhere. You have a conscience. You feel guilty. That’s the law at work, written your hearts. Because of the law we know not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to murder. When we do these things, there is a sense of shame, a desire to hide, a drive to cover things up.
St. Paul points out that orgies and drunkenness and immorality and debauchery (isn’t that a great word, much more colorful than "loose living") and dissension and jealousy are works of darkness that hide in the darkness. These are things we don’t want to come to light. The law inscribed on our hearts accuses us. Our consciences convict us. We are not a peace within ourselves or with others or with God.
You can get "how to be good" lessons in many places. But the free forgiveness of your sins comes only through the Lord’s temple, through Jesus Christ. That’s what God teaches on His mountain. Not "be good or God will get you."
But repent, turn away from your sin, die now in the death of Jesus, lose your life in His life and save your life forever. Trust in Jesus, in His perfect life lived in your place, in His suffering and death on the cross, in His resurrection and ascension. Trust that they are all yours, and that He gives them to you and daily renews you in them. That’s what God teaches on His mountain.
Not how to be good, but how to be saved. He teaches the way of the cross, of patience endurance in suffering, of dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ every day. And above all, He teaches Hope!
God teaches the nations through His holy ministry and through you, You are His priesthood. First the church, YOU, the priests of God, must be taught. You must hear the Word yourself and believe it. And don’t think for a moment that you’ve heard everything that God has to say to you. God isn’t finished teaching you yet. Jesus may be finished with His work, but He isn’t finished with you.
And then having heard the Word, the priests of God go out into the world to teach others - your friends, neighbors, co-workers, children. And don’t just teach them "about Jesus." Knowing about Jesus won’t save anyone. Bring them to the mountain of the Lord’s temple. Bring them to be baptized, forgiven, fed, taught. Bring them to the place of Worship, where together we learn how to be forgiven for Jesus’ sake.
The church is the mountain where God makes peace. "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples." God is the referee, the umpire on this mountain. He renders the decision. And the decision is peace. "Let the peace of Christ rule (referee) in your hearts," St. Paul writes (Col 3:15). Let the peace that comes from the wounds of Christ, the wounds that are your peace, be the referee. And His ruling in your hearts is "peace."
God calls us to live in peace, not at war. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ. How can we refuse to be a peace with one another? We are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. How can we refuse to be reconciled to each other in Christ? It is a contradiction of the cross, and the Body and Blood that was offered there, for fellow believers to be at war with each other.
In the days of the wild west, they had gun racks at the door of the church. You literally checked your guns at the door. We must do the same. Check your guns at the door. The church is a place of God’s peace, defended only by the Word.
Where the Word of forgiveness in Jesus Christ reigns, there is peace. Here weapons of war are turned into farm implements. Tools of destruction become tools of growing and harvesting. Swords are beaten into plows; spears are bent into pruning hooks. There is no need to be on the defensive because our true enemies - sin, death, the devil - have been defeated by the death of Jesus.
There continues to be wars and threat of wars, and yet from the prophet’s perspective, peace is breaking in even as war is breaking out. God’s peace in Jesus. "Peace I leave, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Peace is breaking in wherever the good news of Jesus is being preached and heard and believed, wherever Christ’s body and blood are eaten and drunk by sinners desiring forgiveness. In little congregations, like this one, all over the world, God’s reign of peace is breaking in.
God’s word of forgiveness and His peace are here for you to receive. "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob." In the name of Jesus. We will come now on this first day of Advent and celebrate His coming, His death on the Cross to celebrate Communion. We will partake of His Flesh that was broken for us and His blood that was shed for us. Amen.
