Come Lord Jesus be our guest… this is from a table prayer of blessing before meals. It is the prayer which I grew up with, and my family still uses frequently. Perhaps you know it too. The first lines of this prayer are really the theme of this season of Advent. “Come Lord Jesus”
Today is the first Sunday in the church season known as Advent. For the church this is the beginning of a new year already. The theme of “Come Lord Jesus” is present in the name of the season. As I am sure many of you have been told in the past, Advent comes from the Latin for “coming toward” or “arrival”. This “coming toward” does not describe the movement of people’s hearts, and the arrival does not refer to the many guests that arrive at Christmas and New Years parties, nor to the arrival of Santa Claus.
No, we talking about the arrival and coming again of Jesus Christ, of God to His creation, to His people to deliver them from their trouble, their trespasses and sin. Specifically, during the Advent season, we make note of 3 ways in which God has promised to come, to arrive among us and His creation. First, we mark the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of God’s arrival to the world to save them, specifically in the person of Jesus Christ, as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and then born at Christmas. God joining Himself to humanity to redeem the world by His very human life, death and resurrection.
Secondly, we also mark and make note that God continues to come to His people through Jesus Christ in the gifts that He has given to enact faith, hope, love, and bring forgiveness in the preaching of God’s Word, and in the celebration of His sacraments. Here He continues to come to encourage and give life to His people through the life and very real presence of Himself in Jesus Christ.
Finally, during this season when we pray “Come Lord Jesus” or as we prayed in the collect: “Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance” we or pray in the Lord’s prayer “Thy kingdom come” we are also praying for and looking toward that final arrival and coming of Jesus Christ at the last day. He has promised to come again once and for all to bring all things to completion. When we pray “Come Lord Jesus” in this sense we are praying that He would come again in all His glory to judge the living and the dead, the final part of the creed confessing Christ that has yet to be fulfilled. We are pleading for the Lord to come and bring all things to His promised conclusion, that He would deliver us in the midst of our difficulties, that He would avenge the church against her persecutors, that He would rescue us so that we would no longer be tormented by temptation, sin, disease, false teaching, doubt, death, and the works of the flesh or the devil. We pray for the end of our waiting, to see the day of His glory, the moment of deliverance even now. And so, the prayer of Advent is “Come Lord Jesus”.
The Gospel lesson for today is almost like a summary of the Gospel texts of the past 3 Sundays from Matthew 25. As we have already been meditating upon the final return of Jesus Christ as the old year drew to a close. These passages speak about that the last days of the earth as dark days, days of tribulation. As we had heard Jesus saying, there will be signs showing that the final arrival of the Son of Man is near. Those last days sound terrifying in many ways, sun and moon not giving their light having been darkened, stars falling, powers in the heaven shaking. Jesus tells us of signs, yet reveals that nobody knows when it will come, nobody should try to predict when He shall come again. But just be ready. Even as Paul in Romans today tells us to “wake from our sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Be awake. This warning is “don’t become apathetic, don’t let down your guard against those things that wrestle against faith.” “Don’t give in to the false security of the world and the flesh.”
And so during this season specifically we realize that with each passing hour, Christ’s return draws nearer. For this reason, we call out to each other, and exhort one another to be prepared for the Lord is ever nearer in coming in His office of judge.
Therefore, Advent is also a season of calling one another to repentance, to contrition for our lack of vigilance. To confess our sins of falling into temptation, for not being faithful with our time and treasures, for not making use of God’s gifts, for taking God’s gifts, His grace, and His mercy for granted, for using the time to abuse our neighbors, by letting them stay comfortable in their sin or their false beliefs instead of admonishing them in love to turn and live.
Let us not be found in unbelief, complacency, or laziness when our Lord comes again. Let us be ready. Let us be awake.
This true awakening can only come by God’s coming to us, to rescue us from our natural apathy. So again, we pray, “Come Lord Jesus”, but in the 2nd “advent coming” of which I spoke, specifically, that He would continue to come to us in His Word and sacraments. As We will pray in next Sunday’s collect that He would “Sir up our hearts, that by His coming we will be able to serve Him with pure minds.”
So, we are gathered here, and we do pray and God does awaken our hearts and minds, even as He comes to us with His Word and sacraments to give you forgiveness of sins, to give you the power to believe in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The power of this message is the forgiveness of sins that is already accomplished in Jesus Christ, who in His first coming came as true God and true Man to keep the Law in Himself. In order to redeem the world, He then allowed Himself to be punished, to receive the judgement that you, me, and all people deserve because of our rebellious unbelief and sin.
His first coming in the flesh, gives power to the signs of His coming in His Word, His baptism, His absolution, and His Supper of His body and blood. As He has conquered our sin, the curse of death, the power of the devil in His life death, and resurrection. He now gives that same power by the Holy Spirit to come us and give us that same victory even as we live each day in this earthly life waging battles against the same enemies. On our own, we would fail, but by Christ’s power, we will make it. We will not fail. Why?
Because Christ has promised to be with us and come to us in this way to strengthen and keep us in the faith by His presence. Jesus said: “heaven and earth may pass away but My Word will never pass away”.
He comes to you with His word of forgiveness in which He has attached His power and grace with the active power of His sacramental signs where He washes, kills and makes alive. He comes in His body and blood to heal and strengthen and prepare you, His people, for everlasting life in body and soul by His perfect and raised body and blood.
This is how He prepares us. This is how we are able to remain patient as we are strengthened against the enemies that would harm us or take away the treasure of faith. So we pray, “Come Lord Jesus make us your guest, feed us your grace, make us your people, prepare us by your power and make us joyful in your presence. Make us ready to confess you before all people, to bear witness of you to all so that they may see your light. Keep us strong against all our adversaries. Then come o Lord, come again that final time to bring us and all the Church to yourself.”
Dear Friends what a wonderful thing to pray and hope for: eternal life with Him, joy and gladness which knows no ending. Come and receive His gifts where He comes to you for your forgiveness and life. Receive His gifts and be awake in Him so that we may not fear the final day, but in all readiness already pray, “Come Lord Jesus in Your glory for our final redemption in your name, Amen.”
Pr. Aaron Kangas