Two posts in one day, exciting right! Here is my Christmas Eve Sermon. I worked really hard on this one because I think Christmas Eve always needs to be a better than average sermon. As I was giving it, I was worried it was not very good and that I had dropped the ball the first Christmas Eve I got to preach. However, several people including Pastor and his wife said I knocked it out of the park with both delivery and content. This is just proof it is all the work of the Spirit not me!
[Just a side note, these manuscripts are never exactly word for word what I preach. I write the manuscript, then learn the sermon thought by thought not word by word. So quite a bit of the wording changes as I actually preach. Then afterwards, I go back and change some of the wording that I thought was better said when I actually preached it; however, I do not remember or change everything. Just wanted you to know, but it is still the same message nonetheless.]
This sermon was based on the Hymn of Praise - Gloria in Excelsis or "Glory to God in the Highest"
Did you know that every part of our liturgy services in the front of the hymnals has a very specific meaning? Not only does each part have a specific individual purpose, but the overall order of the liturgy all works together for a very specific flow as well. In other words, there is a method to the Lutheran madness of why the liturgical services in the front of the hymnals are laid out in the precise order that they are. Each part serves a function and the entire service works together for the worship and glorification of our God. Now this does not mean that if you go to some other church and they do not use one of the Divine Settings they are not worshipping God. Not by any means! As long as the worship is based around the Word of God and His gifts He offers to us in the worship service, it is for the glory of God. But still, these Divine Services we have and that we use here at Mount Calvary are set up in a particular way for a reason. If you want to know more about this, I recommend taking a look at these new pamphlets we just got titled: “The Divine Service – An Explanation”. These can be found in the narthex of the church. In this pamphlet it lists each part of the divine service, gives scriptural basis, and then includes a short paragraph for the meaning of this specific part. It also includes a short application for daily living. This is a very handy and helpful resource to help you better understand each individual part of the service and the overall purpose of the service as well.
During Advent we have been looking at different hymns. Tonight we are looking at hymns that are in the liturgy services. So at the four o’clock service Pastor Wurm gave a great sermon on the Song of Simeon. Now at this service we are looking specifically at the Hymn of Praise – Gloria in Excelsis or “Glory to God in the Highest!” So in the pamphlet, if you go to the Gloria, under meaning it reads – “Having just petitioned the Lord for blessings beyond the forgiveness granted in absolution, we now praise Him as the one who can deliver those blessings, because He is the all-powerful God. His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the lamb worthy of our praise, just as the angels praised Him at His birth.” The Gloria in Excelsis comes right after the Kyrie which follows confession and absolution. In our confession, we ask for forgiveness, and we receive it in the words of absolution where Pastor speaks the words on Christ’s behalf. These words of forgiveness truly are as certain as if they were coming directly off of the lips of Christ. We are undoubtedly forgiven by the authority of Christ Himself, which is why this paragraph includes the phrase, “the forgiveness granted in absolution.” Then the part of “petitioning for blessings beyond this forgiveness” is the Kyrie where we ask God for certain things and then respond with Lord have mercy. We boldly ask for peace, salvation, and unity for all those here to worship and for the whole world from our God who provides us with everything. We respond with “Lord have mercy” because we know we do not deserve these things on top of the abundant blessings we have already received. So it is by God’s mercy alone that He grants us such things. So we have asked for forgiveness and received it in the absolution, and we have asked for God’s mercy to grant us these other petitions in the Kyrie; now we join together to sing our praises to the one who is able to deliver these abundant blessings. The hymn of praise addresses all three persons of the Triune God, but it focuses mainly on Jesus, the only Son of God because Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in our absolution and He is the one seated at the right hand of the Father, receiving our prayers and the petitions of the Kyrie as our intercessor between us and the Father. So we worship, give thanks, and praise Him for being our Paschal Lamb who takes away our sins and our intercessor who hears our prayers. He truly is alone the Holy one, alone the Lord, and alone the Most High, and we sing our praises to Him just as the angels sang His praises in the presence of the shepherds on the night He was born.
Now you might have noticed that for the last three weeks we haven’t sung the hymn of praise in our Sunday morning services. If you look at it in the hymnal, there is a red line just under the heading “Hymn of Praise”, that reads, “During Advent and Lent, the Hymn of Praise is omitted.” However, it does not give any kind of explanation as to why it is omitted. Well, in the same pamphlet, at the bottom of the inside page, you will find an explanation for this. I’m paraphrasing here, but basically it states that because Advent and Lent have a penitential character to the seasons, the hymn of praise is omitted to set it apart as a very distinct time in the church year. The penitential character of these two seasons is preparing ourselves for the birth and resurrection of our Lord by examining ourselves and realizing we are dirty rotten sinners who do not deserve to have a Savior who would be born into the flesh or would die in order to be resurrected. This is why the Hymn of Praise is omitted during this penitential season.
So this advent season is a penitential season that is meant to be used to examine ourselves and prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord. Have you been using this season to examine your life, your actions, your choice of words, your habits, and even your thoughts? Then have you not only examined your life to see what areas you are struggling with, but have you actually repented of those sins? Have you gone to your Father in prayer admitting that you know this certain area or that certain struggle in your life has caused you to sin against Him and maybe continually sin against Him day in and day out? For example maybe you are struggling with an addiction. It doesn’t even have to be a serious addiction like alcohol or drugs, but maybe something more minor like gossiping, anger, greed, lust, or pride. Something that when you say your evening prayers, asking God to forgive you for all that you did wrong that day, this is that one sin that you keep finding yourself asking for forgiveness every day. So you have examined yourself and recognized your habitual sins, those sins you constantly find yourself recommitting. You have confessed these sins to God, asking Him to forgive you of these sins. The next step of repentance is to work towards changing your behavior, asking God for the strength to not keep committing these sins, and taking intentional steps to correct your sinful habits. It is not easy and most likely won’t happen overnight, but if you are truly repentant of these sins you do not want to keep doing them over and over and over. Your repentance drives you to correct or change this area of your life.
Now we should confess our sins daily, and our repentance should drive us towards trying to change our sinful behavior year round, but these penitential seasons are a time in the church year that are set aside for the distinct purpose of preparing ourselves for the coming of our Lord. These seasons are meant to be reminders that if we have let ourselves slip back into old routines and old habits, it is time to start working on them again. It is time to start making the intentional prayers and effort to live a more sanctified life. The hymn of praise is omitted because we should be more somber and sincere about the fact that we are sinners who do not live up to the expectations God has demanded of us. Each and every one of us has fallen short of the glory of God and do not deserve anything from Him but eternal damnation. We do not deserve to be happy, healthy, or loved. We are sinners who sin constantly every day. So I ask again, have you used this penitential season of Advent to truly prepare yourself for the coming of the Lord? Has the omittance of the hymn of praise been a heeding to you this season that you are a sinner not worthy of God’s blessings?
The good news though is that the coming of the Lord is not dependent on our preparation. From the time Adam and Eve fell into sin in the garden, all of mankind has been sinful and unworthy of God’s mercy. God promised to send His Son as the Savior in the garden, and from that moment up until Christ was born in Bethlehem was the first Advent. This entire period of history was the first preparing for God’s coming as His people awaited the promised Savior. If His sending His Son into the world in the flesh the first time would have been dependent on the people being rightly prepared, we would still be waiting for Christ to be born. But God did not wait for His people to be truly prepared because He knew they never would be. He knew they needed a Savior for the very reason that they never could be truly prepared. These sinners were not capable of living a life that would live up to God’s demand and this is the very reason He sent His Son to be born of the flesh. He sent His Son to live a life in this world, to die on the cross to pay the price of all sin of all mankind, and to rise from the dead to defeat sin, death, and the devil. And the good news is God sent Him when He knew the time was right. He sent Him even when the people were not ready to receive Him. Christ was born into this world upon the Father’s command while the people were still living sinful lives, still committing those same old sins, and still not rightly prepared. Christ was born, He died, and He rose to be the Savior of these sinful people.
Now that Christ has been born, our Advent is not waiting for His birth. Even though we use Advent every year to prepare ourselves for the good news that He was born into the world, the Advent we are living in is now waiting for His return. We are waiting for Christ to come again and end the sinful condition of this world, to claim His reign and establish His kingdom once and for all. This is the coming of the Lord we are preparing ourselves for. And just as when God sent Him to the world the first time, His return is not dependent upon when we are rightly prepared. Our Father will send Christ back for His final return, the end of the world as we know it, when He deems the time is right. Yes, we should be trying to live the most sanctified life we can and we should be preparing ourselves for His coming, but we know our salvation is not based on our works and His coming is not based on our readiness. We have our assurance that Christ will come again, and He is coming to claim us as His people. Even though we continue to struggle with those same old sins, through His forgiveness we will be pronounced as sinless, holy, and righteous. He has granted us His mercy in forgiving us of our sins and by giving us abundant blessings in this life time. He does all of this for us not because we are prepared, ready, or worthy, but because He loves us and has chosen us to be His.
So we do not sing the hymn of praise in Advent because we use the penitential season to examine ourselves, confess that we are sinners, and with the help of God try to be more sanctified. But we got to sing the beautiful Gloria’s tonight, and we will sing them again tomorrow morning, and we will sing them every Sunday until Lent now as we celebrate the birth of our Lord. We will sing the Glory to God in Highest to praise Him for Sending His Son to be our Savior. And as we sing these praises to our God, we know the Gospel truth that God sent His Son to be our Savior who is the Lamb of God forgiving us of all our sins and our Intercessor who hears our every prayer and petition while we are on this earth. We also know the Gospel truth that God will most certainly send Him again when He knows the time is right to be our Savior who claims us as His forgiven, righteous people for the rest of eternity.
In the name of our Savior who has come, who is come, and who will most certainly come again, Christ Jesus. Amen!
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