Homily for Advent 1 Evening Prayer - 2019

"For You and All the World"
Genesis 12:1-3; 1 John 4:9-14; Luke 2:8-20

With complete credit and much appreciation to Rev. Kevin Golden and Concordia Publishing House's "Behold the Child" Advent series, and with slight revisions for my proclamation.

The son has wandered far from home. After collecting his inheritance prematurely, he has lived as if his father were dead. He has squandered it all and has sunk to the depths—feeding pigs and even longing to eat their food. Now the son returns home willing to be less than a son, ready to be a servant. But the father will not have it. He runs to his son, embraces him, and orders the best robe, a ring, and shoes be put on him. Now it’s time to feast upon the fattened calf. His son was dead and now is alive. That is peace!

It’s no wonder that this story from Jesus is so well-loved. Father and son are reunited without anger, without retribution, without scolding. That’s beautiful.

Luke loves this kind of thing. Throughout his Gospel, Luke delights to recount how Jesus embraces the outcast and the alien. Those who had been cast out are now welcomed; those who had been alienated are now brought near. This is also the kind of account that you need. After all, you know what it is to be an outcast, alienated from others. But don’t hang on to such an account only because it resonates with you. Hang on to it because this is the kind of God you have.

Jesus Christ comes to bring peace between you and the Father.

So we hear in Luke 2. The angel of the Lord sounds forth with a clarion voice: “Behold, I bring to you good news of a great joy. For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This good news of great joy is quite personal. The angel speaks first to a select group of shepherds and says that Jesus is born “for you.” That message is then echoed by the heavenly host, who praise God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among mankind with whom He is pleased.”

Peace. It seems so foreign, even elusive. These days of preparation hardly seem peaceful. There are presents to buy, pageants to attend, halls to be decked with boughs of holly, and here you are with another Advent service to attend. But it is not your overstretched schedule that truly robs you of peace. You are robbed of peace by the absence of certain people. Perhaps death has snatched away a loved one. Perhaps someone you care about had to move away, rarely to be seen anymore. Perhaps you have been alienated from someone by things that should not have been said, either by them or by you. And time does not heal all wounds. The more time passes, the more entrenched—and alienated—you become. Then, when families gather, the cold shoulder and silence from parent, child, sibling, friend makes the absence of peace that much clearer…and more painful.

Yet the Lord is true to His word. Jesus comes with peace for this season and all seasons. He brings peace because we don’t know what makes for peace. As Jesus said, when He wept over Jerusalem, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:42). We don’t know what makes for peace. But Jesus does. So the message of the angelic host to the shepherds is echoed as Jesus enters into Jerusalem. Then the crowds praise God, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). Oh, there will be peace because Jesus comes into Jerusalem. He knows the things that make for peace. He was born for this. He was born to suffer and die that there might be peace.

How beautiful that the birth of the Prince of Peace was proclaimed to shepherds. We may have a romanticized view of shepherds, but the ancient world did not. Shepherds were seen as lowly, even despised—the very kind of folk who need good news. In Luke’s gospel the good news is especially proclaimed to the poor (Luke 4:18; 7:22). Whether it’s the lowly shepherds or the poor who receive the good news, one thing is certain. You cannot claim that good news of peace is for others but not you. No matter how lowly you might be, Christ knows the things that make peace for you.

Rejoice in the scope of the peace Jesus delivers. At His birth, the heavenly host says, “On earth, peace among mankind with whom He is pleased.” The heavenly host proclaims peace coming to earth. Peace has come from heaven to earth in this Child who is born. And the angels say this peace is for all humankind, not just a select few. Everybody. That means it’s for you.

And then, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the peace goes the other direction. Now it’s the crowds who say, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” They know what God has promised through Christ: peace in heaven. There is peace between you and the Father in heaven. It’s yours because of Christ. He took on human flesh and was born to bring you peace. He died in that flesh to reconcile you to God. He rose in that flesh to proclaim peace to you. And He is coming again in that flesh to bring eternal, unending peace. You are at peace with the Father. Your sin that alienated you from the Father has been overcome. You had been the prodigal, but in Christ, the Father receives you back in joy, without anger, without retribution, without scolding. That is beautiful.

That heavenly peace spills down to earth. You are not waiting to be at peace with the Father. You live in that peace here on earth. And so Jesus also knows the things that make for peace between you and those from whom you have been alienated. His peace is for you and all the world, including that estranged family member or friend. Christ has forgiven him; Christ has forgiven you. That is what makes for peace.

So our lives are overcome with joy. “He whom shepherds once came praising,” and for good reason! The angels sing: “Joy, great joy and tidings glad we bring from heav’n resounding, For you, for you and all the world abounding.” The joy is not only for shepherds but also for you and all the world. The praise sounds forth not only from shepherds but also from you and all the world. For “God’s own Son is born a child . . . ; God the Father is reconciled.” Amen.