Emmanuel Shall Come

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is the day in the Church Year, every year, when we get the privilege of adding our voices to the ancient choirs who sing throughout the ages the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” We sing the haunting melody and the words of the supplications to the God who is coming to us. So let us take a moment to consider the supplications we offer:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.
Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.
Come quickly to deliver us.
Come and rescue the prisoners who
     are in darkness and the shadow of death.
Come and enlighten those who sit
     in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Come and save us all, whom You formed out of clay.
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

We ask, in the words of these antiphons and this hymn, that the Lord would come to His people and fulfill His promises. Then, you have the joyous refrain: “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” You make your requests and supplications to God, and immediately begin rejoicing, because what God has promised is as good as done, even if you do not see its fulfillment right now, right before your eyes. Singing this hymn is a confession of your faith in the promises of God. The promises which He spoke to His people through the prophets so long ago are the same for you, and so your prayers are the same as theirs. Come, Lord God! Rejoice, O Israel, because your God is coming to you! E'en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!

Today you heard the promise that the Lord gave to David, to establish his throne forever. The Lord promises to make David's name great among all the peoples of the world, and to establish David's people in a place where the Lord will reign over them, and no violence shall disturb them. Finally, the Lord promises to David, “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” David will never lack for a descendent to sit on his throne and reign over his people, for the Lord will preserve his house, from this time forth and forevermore.

The promise of an everlasting throne for David is not simply that the political kingdom of Israel would continue forever; we know that did not happen. Rather, the promise of an everlasting throne is the promise of a Messiah who will come to reign over the people of God. For the throne of David is no longer in Jerusalem, but in heaven, where the Son of David rules not just over a dusty chunk of Asia, but over the whole universe. The promise is of a savior, who will rule over His people with reconciliation, redemption, and salvation.

These promises and prophesies were part and parcel of what it meant to be Israelite in the first century BC. It was ingrained into the people's consciousness that the Messiah would come as the Son of David, to rule from David's throne. And so, it is that much more shocking when the Son of David comes upon the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Archangel Gabriel comes to the Blessed Virgin, to a woman betrothed to a man who was of the house of David. Generally, a woman knows something of the background and lineage of her fiance, especially in the case of an arranged marriage; so Mary knew Joseph's heritage. This angel comes and greets her: “Chairei!” That is, literally, “Rejoice!” Which scared the bejeepers out of Mary. She was not simply startled because of this radiant supernatural being in her living room, nor because she did not know what was happening.

The angel's greeting is not simply “Hello!” Rather, commentators suggest, “Rejoice!” is a greeting reserved specifically for the Lord speaking to the Daughter of Zion. So, when Mary hears the Angel Gabriel, this powerful supernatural being, greet her as the Daughter of Zion, one could understand how that might be more than a bit unnerving. Mary turns around and finds this angel in her house, and then he greets her as Israel reduced to one. Time to freak out.

But Gabriel says to her, “Fear not, the Lord is with you.” This assurance serves several purposes. First of all, it is an absolution. Mary is no doubt distressed by the presence of the Lord in the form of His messenger because she knows that she is a sinner, that she is in no way, shape, or form holy enough to stand in the presence of God. But the Angel says “Fear not.” That is, do not be afraid to stand in the presence of God. He desires a relationship with you, and He has done what is necessary to come to you in blessing.

Second, the Angel announces that the Lord is there present in the room with Mary. Of course, the Lord is omnipresent – in all places at all times – but that is not what the Angel is saying. He is announcing that the Lord is with Mary for a special purpose, revealing Himself to her in a way that could come by none other.

The Lord is with Mary, and shall continue to be with Mary in a way that He is with no other. The Lord, in the very speaking of the Angel, is coming to be with Mary in her own flesh and blood. He is with Mary in her virgin womb, drawing His human life and strength from her. You want to talk about unnerving – how about being the mother of God?

The Lord of Hosts is present with Mary in this very moment, creating new life in her virgin womb and settling His only-begotten Son into her flesh, to be born as her son according to the otherwise-usual way of things. Never mind that this child was conceived through His mother's ear!

The King of the Universe ranks human beings, and human life, so highly that He condescends to take on human flesh and blood, to humble Himself to be born of a woman.

And yet, consider how we sinful humans rank human life. Each day, just in the United States of America, somewhere around 3,300 children are killed by their parents before they ever see the light of day. And that only counts those we know about; who knows how many more are killed by abortion-causing contraceptives that dispose of a human life before anyone even knows it exists.

Human life, instead of being something sacred, something to be treasured and protected, is now something to be poked and prodded and manipulated in a laboratory. A child can now have at least three biological parents, through reproductive technologies that inch ever closer to human cloning. In-vitro fertilization removes the God-given, beautiful act of procreation from the equation and makes reproduction the highest goal. Since this procedure has a recklessly high failure rate, stacks of embryos – tiny human beings – are produced, many of whom will either be destroyed as unwanted, or else frozen, to spend who knows how long in a state of suspended animation. And this is how we value, treasure, and protect life?

And do not forget about the other end of life. Even if you avoid the evils of reproductive choice and technologies, you must still be concerned about the ethics at the end of life. In several European countries, it is legal for doctors to murder their patients if the patient requests it, for any reason at all. That right has been slipping downward in age, until now, in the Netherlands, anyone over the age of twelve can request to be murdered by his or her own doctor, and parents can ask their doctor to murder their infants if they deem the child to be suffering overmuch. Even in our country, the debate over these practices has been raging for years. Anyone remember Doctor Kevorkian? Watch out for the angel of death clothed in white coat.

In so many actions, in so many thoughts, in so many ways, we deem human life worthless and disposable. And so you become worthless. You become worthy of death and destruction. You become disposable and replaceable.

But today an angel of the Lord speaks to you the same words that Gabriel spoke to Mary: “Fear not! The Lord is with you!” The Lord is with you, in your flesh and blood, by your side, in your stead. Fear not – you are not alone.

Jesus became incarnate and was made man not simply to tour our world, passing judgment on all the wretched sinners who darkened His holy footsteps. He came to become worthless. He came to become lowly, despised, afflicted, beaten, scorned, rejected. He came to be mocked and spit upon. He came to be murdered at the hands of sinful men. And He came into all this for you!

Jesus came to be die for you, to take away the worthlessness, the shame, the guilt, the reproach, the condemnation of your sin. No matter what decisions you have made in the past, no matter what ways you have harmed your neighbor in his body or failed to help when you could have, that is taken away. Have no fear; Jesus is with you!

Jesus came to rise for you, to proclaim to you the victory He has won over sin, death, and the devil. No matter who you are, what you have done, or where you are, His victory is yours by faith in the Son of Man. Have no fear; Jesus is with you!

Jesus came to be the everlasting King on the throne of David for you, to rule in peace, grace, and mercy over the Kingdom of God in everlasting righteousness and purity. No matter how small or how big, no matter how young or how old, no matter how strong or how weak you are, He reigns for you. Have no fear; Jesus is with you!

Jesus came into the flesh so that a real flesh-and-blood man might sit on God's throne.

Jesus came into the flesh to be all that God has promised to His people. He is the Son of David to sit on the everlasting throne. He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of Israel, the Hope of the Nations, and all the other wondrous titles ascribed to Him. And He is a man. He is the son of Mary, born in the usual way, brought up just like any other child of His time. This is the miracle of how our God works for His people.

Life matters. Life matters to God – He does not create junk or disposable nonsense. Life matters to you – you certainly value your own life, and the lives of your loved ones. There is a story floating around about a hospital with a special book of names. Standard procedure was that when a miscarried or stillborn child was delivered, the birth and death certificates were simply filled in with “Baby Boy A”, or some such generic descriptor. But the nurses in this hospital believed that life was more meaningful than that, so they had a book of names, and they would mark the chart of each such child with a real name, so that no human life would go unnamed, even in death. Every life matters enough to have a name.

Life matters enough to God to give Him a Name. And what Name does one give to Life Himself? Jesus. Jesus is your Life and your salvation. And your life matters to God also, enough that He has given you His own Name to mark you as His own. You are marked with the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, identified as a child of God, and blessed with an eternal identity rooted in the Son of Mary. And your life matters to God, so that He will never leave you nor forsake you. “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.