God s Sweet Christmas Recipe December 4, 2011 Isaiah 40:1-11 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice of one calling: In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. 6 A voice says, Cry out. And I said, What shall I cry? All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. 9 You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, Here is your God! 10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Points to Ponder: God s sweet message of Christmas starts with a message of. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God In the desert prepare the way for the LORD To prepare the way of the Lord is to take up a,which consists in. Through the preaching of repentance God makes hearts ready His. The second strand is the Reminder of. What in your life brings home the often sad reality that surely the people are grass; the grass withers and the flowers fall? What specific comforts are you brought by the truth that The Word of the Lord endures forever? In what way(s) is Jesus like a shepherd? He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart (v. 11) m m m The cooking list for Christmas is long The aromas would fill our kitchen as my mom was baking. It was fun to sit there and watch her work, filling my nostrils with the
wonderful smells of Christmas baking. Gingerbread, fudge, peffernuse and my favorite, Stollen. For those of you who might not know what Stollen is, it s a coffee cake filled with fruit, nuts and covered in powered sugar or icing. Stollen actually dates back 600 years or more. Historians have traced Christollen, Christ's stollen, or Weihnachtsstollen (Christmas stolen) back to about the year 1400 in Dresden, Germany. The first stollen consisted of only flour, oats and water, as required by church doctrine. The Advent season was a time of fasting, and bakers were not allowed to use butter, only oil, so the cake was tasteless and hard. Finally the pope lifted the ban. Over the centuries, the cake evolved into a sweeter cake with richer ingredients. Stollen was called Striezel or Struzel, which referred to a braided shape -- a large oval folded in half with tapered ends -- said to represent the Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothing. I could pretty much make a meal out of Stollen. As we prepare for the celebration of Jesus birth, we come across this familiar Christmas text. It is as if God is making His own Christmas cake, weaving together three beautiful messages that add a spiritual sweetness to Christmas. The first strand is a message of comfort Isaiah talks about getting things ready for the arrival of a king. The king and his entourage don t want a bumpy, windy road. Only a flat, straight and smooth road is, well, fit for a king. Roads for kings in the wilderness is only a metaphor. Roads in human hearts and roads for Christ is what this voice means. It is the same thing that John the Baptist, the human embodiment of Isaiah s voice, was interested in. It is the thing in which God is still interested. He wants our hearts to be prepared for the arrival of the Great King, his own Son. It is interesting that the Hebrew word Isaiah uses for comfort is also a word which can be translated repent. The idea is that God s comfort comes as a result the people s repentance. Isaiah had said to them, in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, and now they were finally ready to receive it. Their sins had been paid for and deliverance was in the air. But this was not the result of what the people had done. This was the work of God. It was undeserved, unmerited favor. Everyone is included in this call. To those who have become like towering mountains in their pride he says, Repent. To those who have done everything right on the outside for all the wrong reasons on the inside he says, Repent. For those whose hearts have become a winding, treacherous path because of doubt and a lukewarm reaction to God and his Word he says, Repent. To those whose life has been an open book of shame
and vice for all to read he says, Repent. To those who have looked down their spiritual noses at others who aren t as spiritual as they are, god says repent! The call of repentance goes to each of us because before God there is no difference when it comes to the natural state of any human heart. Everyone is on the same level. Nobody is better or worse. Every mouth is silenced by this call to repentance and the whole world held accountable to God. Through the preaching of repentance God makes hearts ready for what he really wants to tell them. What he really wants to do is to comfort his people. The message is that sin has been paid for. It has been adequately covered,. Not just partially where they had to finish it off. Not just in reserve, if they could earn that forgiveness. But they had received double for even what was needed. Their warfare with the Law which accused and condemned is over. His comfort is based on his coming to mankind in all his grace. God s saving glory would be hidden in someone who looked pretty ordinary. He would do it in Jesus, a child and yet a King. The apostle John puts it this way: The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The second strand of Christmas sweetness is The Reminder of What s Important God gives poetic words to the prophet to describe humanity, in their life, trials, and death. He says: All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever (Is. 40:6-8). Our lives bloom quickly and have the beauty or glory of the flowers. But they wither and fall, because the breath of time blows on us. As much as modern medicine and cosmetic surgery and diet and exercise plans try to capture our human beauty and strength at their peak, and try to freeze the effects of time, the grass still withers, and the flower still falls. Age and time takes its toll. People and generations will pass away, troubles and hardships will come and go, as will times of prosperity. It s certainly not our financial security, our job security, or our health security that stand forever. But these are mere distractions from our real problem, which is sin and death. The devil would be pleased to have us worrying about symptoms while the real malady of our sin remains untreated and unattended. So we worry about all sorts of things outside our control that Jesus told us not to worry about. I suppose one could see these comparisons as depressing. Some try to deny the reality of our fragile nature, by fighting against aging and death with every tool in our powerfully equipped medical arsenal. But if we see them as depressing, or as a hopeless view of our mortality, we are missing God sweet plan for Christmas. In contrast to the fleeting days of our lives God s Word stands forever. His Word
remains unchanged. God knows our frailty since He made mankind from dust, and even more so since God Himself became incarnate in Jesus Christ, and lived and died and rose as a human being. He literally knows our frame inside out. And the Psalmist adds: the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. God s steadfast love is eternal. God isn t shifting or changing like so much in life, but is eternally dependable. But the fact that the Word of our God endures forever, isn t just a contrast to our frail and changing state it s the very cure for our frailty! Did you know that The Word of the Lord Endures Forever became a slogan of the 16th Century Lutheran Reformation, as they upheld Scripture alone? The Latin translation Verbum Dominum Manet Aeternum, abbreviated VDMA is still imprinted on some Lutheran books, letters, etc. Only the Gospel stands forever. It s larger than our circumstances; larger than our worries and problems that are here today, gone tomorrow. It s the eternal word of comfort, peace, and hope. The good news of God s Word is founded on Jesus coming into the world. He comes as the promised Good Shepherd we hear about in Isaiah today. It s in that word that we hear about the third strand of God s sweet Christmas recipe: The Assurance of a Shepherding Savior This is the third strand in God s recipe for a sweet Christmas for us. No wonder we are told to go tell it on the mountain, to shout out: Look at your God! Look at him. He s powerful enough to do anything he wants yet he makes you and me His priority. He is a holy and majestic King who wants to be seen by us as a tender, protecting shepherd. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart (v. 11) The Lord is the shepherd who is focused on you. Are you young and need constant attention, old and need special care, anxious and need peace, confused and need guidance, doubtful and need confidence, guilty and need pardon, hurting and need healing, injured and need treatment, weak and need strength? Are you ashamed and need assurance? Whatever your need Jesus has you covered. He is the Good Shepherd, Immanuel, God with us. Jesus, the Word made flesh, joined Himself to our dying human race, that through His death He would conquer death. He comes forth from His grave with power, the power to rule the nations! The reward He brings for those who fear Him is forgiveness and eternal life. He s the cure for our frail and fleeting lives, marked by sin for death. Trusting and hoping on the Lord Jesus, we share in His resurrection, so that death will not be the victor. By faith we re attached to the Word of the Lord that endures forever. Through Him, we have comfort that goes beyond mere words. It goes to heaven. There are all sorts of recipes for Christmas sweets.
But none are as sweet as the strands of the Christmas message God has prepared for us. VDMA