Happy Advent! + Merry Christmas!

A Meditation for the End of Advent + the Beginning of Christmas

It's the 4th Sunday of Advent. Today marks the end of the Advent season. The word "advent" means "the beginning." The season of Advent, which includes 4 Sundays, including today, has traditionally been a time in the Church Year when we prepare for the coming of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

But Jesus has already come! Tonight is also Christmas Eve, which marks the beginning of the Christmas/Epiphany season on Church calendars. Christmas Eve doesn't fall on the 4th Sunday every year. This year it happens. We are invited to celebrate both an Advent & the fulfillment of advent promises.

What what do we prepare for if Jesus has already come? A favorite word in Advent is "Immanuel." The OT prophet Isaiah, writing hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, proclaimed, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)

Whoa! Two miraculous facts were prophesied & came true! Mary the mother of Jesus was a virgin when God's Son was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. AND, although Jesus' given name was, well, Jesus, meaning, "He Who saves," He also was & is known as Immanuel.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, as we confess in the Creeds. He was the sinless Son of God but became Immanuel, "God with Us," when He was born a lowly human being. But not a poor, SINFUL, human being.

God's Son was & is Immanuel. He was born into a world of human beings. He lived the life of a human being--but He also lived a life of holy, perfect obedience to His Father. He died the death that we should have died. He took upon Himself the sin & guilt of all humankind from Adam & Eve until the end of time. He was raised from the dead--proof that His Father--"Our Father who art in heaven"--found His sacrifice acceptable.

And Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after He rose from the dead on that 1st Easter Sunday, but He is still Immanuel, because He is God with us through all the mucky swamps of this life. He didn't just ascend to heaven, congratulate Himself on a job well done, & wipe His hands clean of our sins.

He promised "Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the Age." That's a promise revealed to us in the very last verses of the Gospel of Matthew.

Today we can celebrate the end of Advent. We can celebrate because we know that Jesus has come. He is our Immanuel. Oh, yeah . . . I almost forgot. He will come again & take His sons & daughters, all believers, to live with Him eternally in heaven. We've been preparing for His 2nd Coming, too.

We can also celebrate Christmas Eve & the beginning of the Christmas season today. "For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Prayers from Two of My Favorite Hymns

"O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, 
That mourns in lonely in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel." *

"Welcome to earth, O noble Guest, Through whom the sinful world is blest!
You came to share my misery That You might share Your joy with me.

"Ah, Lord, though You created all, How weak You are, so poor and small,
That You should choose to lay Your head Where lowly cattle lately fed.

"Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,
A quiet chamber set apart For You to dwell within my heart. **

* Source:  "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," St. 1, Lutheran Service Book #357
** Source:  "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come," St. 8, 9, 13, LSB #358.