Jesu Juva
“9-1-1”
Text: Luke 19:28-40; Jeremiah 22:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance.
We prayed that earlier. We pray those words on the First Sunday of Advent every year. As the Church has for over a thousand years. It is the Church’s 9-1-1 call to God, to come and save us. Because that’s what you do when you’re in trouble. You call for help. And hope that help arrives in time.
But we also try to protect ourselves from trouble, so we won’t have to make such a call. Which is the sensible thing to do. So we put childproof lids on our medicines, lock up our firearms, put lock screens on our cell phones, and passwords on just about everything. But sometimes those things don’t work. A child eats a Tide pod, the gate at the top of the stairs gets opened, or a danger we didn’t foresee . . . And then you tap out those three numbers no one ever wants to have to . . . and you hear the voice on the other end of the line: What’s your emergency? And you hope that help arrives in time. For our threatening peril.
What do you do, though, when everyone needs help? And there aren’t enough first responders to go around? That’s the situation we’re in. Because the threatening perils we face aren’t just here or there, in a medicine cabinet or at the end of a gun. And the threatening perils we face aren’t just in every community, but in every home; and not just every home, but every heart. Threatening perils that turn, as we heard Jesus say two weeks ago, even brother against brother, fathers against children, and children against parents (Mark 13:12). You’ve seen it yourself. You’ve seen it in yourself. Sinful desires and hateful thoughts that blossom into hurtful words and damaging deeds.
Now maybe you don’t see the peril, or think it so bad. Like those who choose to shelter in place when a major hurricane is about to hit them. Maybe they get lucky, maybe not. But the threatening perils of our sins, the Church knows, because the Word of God has told us, is unsurvivable. On the Last Day, there is no getting lucky. And even in these days leading up to that day, evils and perils are lurking and threatening.
So we call 9-1-1.
Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance.
Our Lord has promised to do just that, when the Last Day of this world comes. He will come and rescue His own and take us home. We don’t have to hope that help will come; we know that it will. And we know that it will because it already has. He didn’t come with a blaring siren and flashing lights, but with the roar of a crowd. He didn’t come in firetruck or a police car, but riding on a donkey. He didn’t come with great strength, but in great weakness. But make no mistake about it, Jesus rushed into the danger, into the fire of God’s wrath against the threatening perils of our sins when He ascended the cross, to extinguish that fire and save us by His mighty deliverance. To fulfill the promise He made through the prophet Jeremiah, that in those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely.
Notice he did not say that there would be no more threatening perils. Those are still with us, as you know. The Last Day is not yet. But even so, we are saved and can dwell securely because of Jesus’ saving work for us. Because He rushed into death and it did not consume Him. He rose from death and so is the Lord is our righteousness. The Lord that rescues us from the threatening perils of our sins.
That’s why the crowds were so filled with joy that day in Jerusalem as Jesus rode in, rejoicing and praising God. Because that’s the relief you feel when the first responders show up.
And that’s why we are so filled with joy whenever we have a baptism - because Jesus is riding in, not on a donkey, but in the water, to rescue and save. And when the fire of sin flares up again in our hearts and lives, Jesus comes to us in the Word of the Gospel and the Words of Absolution, and His forgiveness is poured on us that the threatening perils of our sins not take over or consume us. And even though perils grow greater and evil grows darker, we have the sure and certain hope that it will not consume us, because it could not consume Him.
Which doesn’t mean an easy life - you know that’s not true. That’s why the Church has prayed this prayer every year on this Sunday for over a thousand years. And not because He hasn’t answered that prayer yet, but that He may continue to answer it, and continue to come to us, and continue to rescue us. Because the evils and the perils are not going to stop on this side of eternity. In fact, they’re going to ramp up as the Day of their final defeat draws ever closer.
So the Church prays it’s 9-1-1 even more fervently. Come, Lord Jesus! And the voice on the other end of that call doesn’t ask, What’s your emergency? For He knows full well the perils and evils and sins we face. He endured them all Himself. For when the Lord stirred up His power and came, He came and lived among us. Born as one of us. Living among us. In the perils, enduring the evil, suffering under the sins of others. He was the target of evil from the day of His conception until the day He breathed His last, and He arose from the dead victorious. And now He comes to us still in the mix, still in the perils, to save us, too.
Which is why we are going to sing in a moment another ancient prayer of the Church: Hosanna! which means, save us! And then we’ll take up the same words cried out in Jerusalem that day, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! For the same Jesus who rode into Jerusalem that day on a donkey, rides to us here in bread and wine, which He makes his Body and Blood, that He gives us to eat and to drink, to give us His forgiveness, life, and salvation. And against this, the threatening perils of our sins is no match. Because while the threatening perils of our sins is beyond our power to deal with, it is not beyond His. It wasn’t when Jesus was born, it wasn’t when He died, and it isn’t now. Here, too, the Lord is our righteousness.
And with His saving Word preached into our ears, and His Body and Blood placed into our mouths, and His forgiveness and life poured into our hearts, thus rescued and saved we can return to our lives in a perilous world not in fear but in faith. And not just trying to survive another day or another week, but as we heard the apostle Paul say today as he was encouraging the Thessalonian Christians, increasing and abounding in love for one another and for all. So that it’s not every man or woman for himself or herself, but all of us in this together.
So Paul told the Thessalonians that he was praying earnestly night and day to come and see them face to face, so that he could supply what is lacking in their faith. To give them that word of encouragement they needed. To be that hand of help and hope. To comfort and reassure them. To listen to their fears and to walk with them in their troubles. To pray for them and with them when they’re empty and words fail. And especially point them to Jesus. And not to Jesus far away, but to the Jesus who comes in answer to our prayer, who comes here and now. That no one have to face the threatening perils of our sins alone.
Who can you do that for this week? Who has done that for you in the past? Who is in your mind right now? Who has the Spirit put in your mind? And yes, how often have we failed to act, failed to pray, failed to increase and abound in love for one another and for all? Too often, is my answer.
But though we fail, the one who comes to us to rescue and save does not. And as Jesus comes to you, He supplies what is lacking in your faith, and gives you the love you need for others. And maybe it will come from an unexpected place. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day, He said that if the crowds didn’t rejoice and praise Him, the stones would! But He will provide what you need, even if He has to use stones! And you know He will because He already has. The promised Saviour of the Nations has come, and is coming, and He will come again.
So this season of Advent is a season of repentance for us, yes, for all the ways we have fallen short in our faith toward God and in our love for one another. But even more is it a season of joy, preparing us for the great joy of Christmas and the even greater joy of Jesus’ return on the Last Day, when the threatening perils of our sins will finally be no more. No more praying our 9-1-1.
So Happy Advent!
Savior of the Nations, Come (LSB #332)!
Yes, Come, Lord Jesus!
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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