You have likely all seen this before. People are gathered around opening gifts at Christmas. There is that person frantically tearing paper off a package. They open the box and then there is a pause…and a gasp! And then they say, “For me?!” The answer is, “Of course it’s for you! The little tag on the present had your name on it!”
This past week I heard about something I had never heard of before. I learned what a “blue Christmas” is. I am not referring to the famous Elvis Presley song. I have heard that before! I am referring to what some churches call a “blue Christmas service.” This is a special Christmas worship service for people who are especially struggling with sadness at this time of year, maybe the sadness of loss of a loved one, or sickness, or loneliness. The service is often held on December 21, the longest night of the year.
St. Luke is an excellent historian. He even begins the gospel that bears his name by writing: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4) He was a meticulous researcher, wanting to be sure he got everything right.
I will confess at the outset, this feels a bit strange to me. Preaching on this text today. Did it strike you as odd? This reading is historically read on Palm Sunday. This is the account of Jesus entering Jerusalem for the final time. This is a Holy Week text! And yet, here we are. It is the appointed reading for today, the first Sunday of Advent. We are beginning a new church year today! We have decorated for Christmas! We are thinking about Jesus’ birth and his coming into this world to be our Savior!
As we celebrate Thanksgiving once again this year, how grateful are you? If I asked you to rank your level of thankfulness on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, what number would you pick? Are you on the lower end? A 3 or 4? You’re grateful, but you’ve had a rough year financially or physically or personally? Are you on the upper end? A 7 or an 8? The investments did better than expected and your cholesterol is down?
A close look at many beloved children’s stories reveals something quite interesting. Certain common elements seem to occur and reoccur. Very often the stories will involve a kingdom; a villain who rises and brings suffering and oppression; a hero, many times a king’s son, a prince; the defeat of the villain; a wedding at the end; and the final refrain so often is, “…and they lived happily ever after.”
In order for us to understand our text this morning, we have to spend a moment reviewing something that was a huge part of the religious life of God’s Old Testament saints. And that thing is Yom Kippur, also known as The Day of Atonement. In particular, we need to review what the High Priest did on that day. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) was the one day of the year when the high priest, and ONLY the high priest, entered into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple.
The Lord has a soft spot in his heart for widows. Time and again in the Bible, the widow is specifically mentioned as an object of God’s attention and concern. Already at the time of Moses, the Lord said to his people, You shall not take advantage of any widow. (Exodus 22:22). Later, through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord would repeat the thought, Do not oppress the alien who lives in your land, the fatherless, or the widow. (Jeremiah 7:6) God’s concern for the widow is not just an Old Testament thing.
I want you to imagine that you are looking into your closet at all your clothes hanging there. Can you picture it? Okay, find me something you would wear to work. Find something? Now pick out something you would wear for dinner out with friends at a nice restaurant. Got it? All right. Now, grab what you would wear to a wedding. Find something nice? All right. Last one. Pick out what you want to be buried in.
It is said there are two things that are absolutely certain: death and taxes. While this is generally quite true, on the basis of our text today, this Reformation festival, we might want to add a third thing to that list. And that is the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus says in our text, The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. (v. 10)
