December 12, 2012 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
“Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to
make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be
enabled to serve You with pure minds.”
Pure hearts and minds. That’s
what the Lord demands. Pure hearts
and minds. What does that involve? Pure love. Pure devotion. Pure emotions. Pure
desires. Pure thoughts. Pure will. That is what is required to meet the Lord’s demand. The lack of these or the
presence of the opposite means falling short of what the Lord expects.
The problem of impure hearts and
minds was found among the people of Israel, those whom the Lord called to be His own. He speaks
against their worship, that which was supposed to flow from their hearts and
minds. The words of the psalm record what the Lord
says: “Hear, O My people, and I will
speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your
sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before Me. I
will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.” A problem
with their worship is noted. Not that the people weren’t offering the
sacrifices, but that there was a lack of faith and devotion found in them.
Countless bulls, goats, and birds were placed on altars. But the people’s
hearts and minds were not focused on the Lord
and the Covenant that He had made with them.
So the Lord exhorts the people: “Offer
to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and
call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify
Me.” And so that this can happen as He wills, the Lord also promises an action that will take place among His
people: “Behold, I send My messenger, and
he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord
whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the
covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
The Lord is going to come to His people. He will send a
messenger to prepare them. And there is going to be a change of hearts and
minds: “He will sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like
gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and
Jerusalem will pleasing to the Lord
as in the days of old and as in former years.” A refining of the priests
will take place, so that the people can have the proper worship. This day of
purification will come. And the messenger sent will be a part of that: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and awesome day of the Lord
comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts
of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of
utter destruction.”
So the messenger came. John the
Baptizer brought the purification of hearts and minds that was needed. The
purification came through the call to repentance, the call to forsake ways that
are empty and vain, the call to return to the Lord’s
covenant. Love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind. Be baptized, marking
the confession and forgiveness that has taken place. Make His precepts and
statutes your discipline, your way of life. That was John’s message. And Jesus
testifies about Him: “From the days of
John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the
violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until
John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.”
The purifying that John’s call
to repentance brings is meant for you. His call to repentance is to strike your
hearts and minds. You are to be refined by it. For you are the sons of Levi,
the royal priesthood of the Lord.
That is the identity given to you by the Messiah who has come and made
atonement for you. It is your identity as the Lord
has chosen you to be His people and gathered you into His kingdom. Essential to
that identity is the devotion of your hearts and minds to the Lord and His ways. That is what allows
you to offer your thoughts, words, and deeds as living sacrifices to Him. These
are the sacrifice of thanksgiving that you offer to the Lord and the vows that you perform because He has made you
His people.
This Advent Season is
penitential. John’s message—the proclamation of that promised Elijah to come—is
for your ears to hear. It is meant to bring you back to the safety and
salvation that the Lord provides. The
Lord’s messenger turns your
hearts, so that the Lord will not
come and speak a decree of utter destruction against you. The hearts that are
turned to the Lord’s righteousness
are led to call on Him in the day of trouble. The minds that are turned to
knowledge of the Lord’s ways will glorify
Him for the deliverance He has brought.
So John points you to the Lord and His Covenant. He proclaims the
One who has a pure heart and mind, the One who desires to fulfill the Father’s
will and accomplishes it. He directs you to the Messiah greater than He who
fulfills the divine promises for you and your salvation. He shows you the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world, even your guilt and transgressions.
And in this way, the Lord’s
promised messenger prepares you for the great and awesome day of the Lord. You are made ready for when the Lord does as is foretold: “The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from
the rising of the sun to its setting…. Our God comes; He does not keep silence;
before Him is a devouring fire, around Him a mighty tempest.” But with your
hearts and minds stirred up and purified by Him, made to receive the righteousness
that the Messiah gives, you can endure the Day of His Coming and can stand when
He appears. That is the message spoken for you and your benefit in this Advent
Season. “He who has ears to hear, let him
hear.”
+ In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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