Monday, December 9, 2013

“O Come, Wisdom” Isaiah 11.2, Advent Midweek 1, Dec. ‘13



1.    Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Everybody has Christmas lists. Before the internet, the most waited-for item in the mailbox every fall was the Sears Roebuck Christmas catalog. My, how kids looked for it! Maybe you were one of them. In some houses, the arrival of the toy catalog meant a riot. Brothers and sisters would fight over it. The first one to get his hands on it would take it into the bathroom, lock the door, and devour the pages.  As much as children would beg their parents for all those Sears catalog toys, for countless centuries God’s people prayed for the coming of their Savior. And for more than a thousand years since the Savior, has come, Christians have sung a similar prayer. We know and love it as, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  “O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.  Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, Shall come to thee, O Israel!” (LSB 357:2) 
2.    The hymn is very old, maybe written in the days of Charlemagne, the 800s, well over a thousand years ago and revised from time to time over the centuries. But, the version we’re singing is the one translated beginning in 1851 by Rev. John Mason Neale, an Anglican clergyman. He tweaked the song a bit, till in 1857 it became the version many people love today.  How we got the song isn’t the most important thing, the prayer in each stanza is. It’s these important prayers that really ought to be on our Christmas wish list, such as the prayer of stanza 2:  “O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, Who ord’rest all things mightily; To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!” (LSB 357:2)  I don’t remember as a child praying for wisdom, (I think my parents would have wanted me to though). But that’s what we sing for tonight:  O Come, Thou Wisdom from on High.
3.    What you and I really need for Christmas isn’t something from the toy catalog or the electronics store or “my two front teeth” or even “the doggie in the window.” What we need is “Wisdom from on high.” When we think of wisdom, most of us think in terms of making right decisions or being able to know right from wrong. And, that’s part of what wisdom is about.  In his epistle, James encourages those who lack wisdom to pray for it, but to pray in faith. James goes on to say that every good and perfect gift, such as wisdom, “is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (1:17).  But, Scripture also speaks of wisdom as though it were a person. In Solomon’s Book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as the Lord’s master builder, with him marking out the foundations of the earth, and as the one who gives enduring wealth and righteousness better than gold (Prov 8:12–31).
4.    Ch 11 of Isaiah gives rise to much of what we find in “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” According to Isaiah, the promised Messiah comes from the family of Jesse, father of David, and is anointed by the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding” (11:2).  So what do we make of this? When we put these lessons together, we learn that true wisdom is inseparable from the person Jesus Christ. When someone knows Jesus by faith, he’s found wisdom. Jesus, John tells us, is the very Word of God through whom all things were made (Jn 1:1–3). Jesus is the divine Wisdom through whom God made, sustains, and saves his creation.
5.    This Wisdom from God, Jesus Christ, is the Messiah the people of God in times past always longed for, whom the prophets foretold. He’s the descendant of David, the son of Jesse, the promised King. But the royal family tree of Jesse became a stump when Assyria and Babylon conquered Israel and Judah. The sons of the last king were killed and the people exiled. How could a new king sprout from a dead royal stump? God would make it happen, the prophets promised.  And God did, when Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem, into the house of David, being the adopted Son of Joseph, a member of the royal family! But how would the world know Jesus was the heir, the promised shoot growing from the stump? “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding” (Is 11:2).
6.    And that happened too. When?  At Jesus’ Baptism! At the Jordan River, as John baptized Jesus, the Bible tells us the Spirit of God descended like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son” (Mt 3:17).  “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” stanza 2, prays for wisdom. But, it turns out that the wisdom God wants to give us isn’t just the ability to make good decisions or know right from wrong. Instead, it’s a person, Jesus, the Wisdom of God. So when we pray for wisdom, God answers that prayer by sending us Jesus. He’s the Wisdom we need.
7.    Have you seen the billboards along the highway that say “Jesus is the answer”? It’s true. The answer to our prayer for wisdom is Jesus. But, how can he be the answer to prayer? What if my life is a mess? What if my personal relationships are getting me into trouble? What if I can’t figure out my priorities? What if I can’t sort out right from wrong? Sometimes things aren’t that clear. What then? What if I need a job and I’m blessed with more than one opportunity? What if I’m tempted to do wrong in order to pay the bills? What if I’m tempted to do wrong just because I think it’ll be fun? How is Jesus the answer?
8.    It may seem that we need specific wisdom for each of these situations. But not really. All we need is the wisdom that is Jesus, God’s perfect gift. When we’re joined to Jesus through faith, when we’re buried with him through Baptism into his death, burial, and resurrection, when through Baptism we’re covered with the righteousness of Christ and filled with his Spirit, we have all the Wisdom we need.  How can that be? The hymn tells us. It says Jesus Christ, “ord’rest all things mightily.” Faith in Jesus sees the divine order of things the song speaks of and knows what to think and do. Our world and life aren’t just a confused mess when we realize that everything is ordered by God’s Wisdom. Somehow, everything fits into the wise plan of God, who works all things out for the good of everyone who loves him (Rom 8:28).
9.    The hymn would have us pray, “To us the path of knowledge show.” How does Jesus show us the path of knowledge? Through the Word of God. Proverbs is a great place to start finding that path! But even more than in Proverbs, we see God’s Wisdom in the Gospels. In them Jesus shows us the path of knowledge through his words, life, his saving work on the cross, and the empty tomb. In Jesus, God reveals his priorities, how to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, true from false. And God’s priority is that he’s at peace with you. That’s what Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection achieved. Your sin, which disordered everything and threw God’s perfect creation and our relationship with him into chaos, has been forgiven, so that we’re once again with him. All is once again right with the world.  Jesus is God’s Wisdom with flesh on it, Wisdom we could have seen and touched had we been at the manger in Bethlehem, Wisdom we can taste in the Lord’s Supper. 
10.But, God’s Wisdom from on high is more than having your heart and mind filled with the knowledge of Jesus.  Most people forget that Advent isn’t just about the coming of Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem. It’s only been in recent centuries that we’ve focused on that.  Historically, Advent was about preparing for the coming of God’s Son in judgment on the Last Day. Advent used to be a darker season for contemplation of the wrath of God, a season for repentance from sin and for fasting. Christmas and Epiphany have always been the bright, happy seasons, not Advent. So praying for the coming of God’s Wisdom from on high isn’t just about welcoming a baby, but it’s about welcoming the Judge of the world who comes to destroy evil and make his creation new again.
11.Praying for God’s Wisdom to come from on high is to pray that we’ll be ready like the wise virgins in a story Jesus tells. You remember that story in Mt 25, don’t you? Ten virgins are waiting with lamps to meet the bridegroom. Soon he’ll be passing by in a joyful wedding procession that they hope to join. Five of the virgins are foolish, and five are wise, we’re told. The foolish virgins bring their lamps but no oil. The ones with wisdom, the wise virgins, bring both.  The bridegroom’s procession is delayed and the virgins fall asleep. Finally, the cry comes at midnight, “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him” (25:6). There’s a crisis. Of the ten virgins, only the five wise ones have oil to light their path and join the procession. “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out” (25:8), the foolish virgins beg the wise. But the wise virgins refuse, saying if they do, they won’t have enough for themselves.  So the foolish virgins go shopping for oil at midnight. Meanwhile the bridegroom and the procession pass by, the wise virgins join in, and they all enter the wedding hall for the feast. Everyone, except those five who lacked wisdom. Showing up late, they find themselves locked out. “Lord, lord, open to us” (25:11), they plead, but the door is shut. “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you” (25:12), the bridegroom says from the other side.
12.What does this mean for us? What wisdom are we to gain from it? Jesus tells us: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (25:13). What is Jesus talking about? The day and hour he returns, the day he comes to condemn the unprepared foolish but to welcome the faithful wise into his eternal kingdom. You, my friends, are those wise to enter heaven, for you have Jesus, God’s Wisdom from on high, who by his death on the cross has reordered all things for your eternity with him. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Rev 22:20).
13.                       Please pray with me.  Gracious Father in heaven, teach us to know that true Wisdom is your Son, Jesus Christ, who comes to us from on high. By your Word and Spirit, enable us to welcome him by faith on the day he comes in power and glory, that we might be received into your eternal kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.


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