The sermon for December 2 was based on Matthew 21:1-9.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our local liturgical experts may have something to say about this but I'm fairly confident that when my ecclesiastical forefathers selected this Gospel for this Sunday they couldn't have even imagined the kind of wild, all consuming, frenzy that Christmas preparation have become.

And yet they couldn't have chosen a better lesson for people in our time and place. We hear this morning about people carried away by a flood-tide of emotion. They're praising Jesus with shouts and songs and throwing their coats down on the road in front of Him as He enters Jerusalem. It wouldn't take much to push them over the edge, to turn them into-holiday shoppers!

The crowds in Jerusalem were caught up in the events of the day. They were part of something so much bigger than themselves that they began to be controlled by the goings on rather than the other way around. The leaders or the people, who fancied themselves to be in control of the people try to persuade Jesus to make the people stop. They try to assert their control and when Jesus sweeps away their objections, they discover that their control is imaginary. Does any of this sound familiar? Could there be a better Gospel for early December in the United States?

I'll bet that the Chief Priests and the Scribes were more than a little afraid of the swelling emotion of the crowd. But I'll bet that the people themselves were almost as frightened. They were, indeed, part of something huge, something beyond their control and in mere days it turned very ugly. By Friday the Sunday crowd was crushed around Jesus screaming for His crucifixion. It had all started out so happily, with singing and children and flowers. But that's familiar too isn't. It starts out with lights and ornaments and ends with angry migraines.

There are two illusions that ruin us. 1) That we're in control of our own lives. 2) That there is anyone or anything other than Jesus that is worth having as a master. Free will in spiritual matters and self-determination are dangerous myths. They're lies really and they lead us away from salvation. You are either the devil's puppet or a Son of God but you are never your own man. This is what God says through the prophet Jeremiah in our OT Lesson and this is what St. Paul explains to the Romans in our Epistle. You're either a naked sinner or clothed with Christ.

All masters other than Christ are violent and absolute tyrants of the worst possible sort. Think of the slave drivers we hear about in the news; drugs, alcohol, debauchery. Now think about those that you don't hear about on the news but see every day in the lives of people around you; pride, pleasure, the much vaunted self-esteem. Just think of the horrors to which these masters drive their slaves. Any master other than Christ, and that includes you yourself, is a task master. How often have you hurt yourself or others trying to assert your imaginary independence?

You cannot be your own master. If you try, you will be over powered by a stronger contender. The devil will find a way to rest the reins of your life you and, since you were conceived and born in sin, he won't find it all that hard. Only Jesus can or will rule over you with perfect righteousness and complete gentility. His reign is refined and benevolent. He will not drive you to despair. He won't lead you to ruin. Rather He leads you beside still waters and into green pastures. No other master, including yourself, love you more than himself.

Jesus loves you more than you love yourself. His arrival in Jerusalem reveals His character, the king who comes in humility, the prince who reigns from the back of a colt. His arrival in Bethlehem is just as telling. Here too He comes in humility to rule with tenderness. Where other master seek to exploit and spend, Jesus comes to build up and endow. The devil covets your soul. Jesus gives you His. The world craves your attention. Jesus pays attention to you. Where you fail to be righteous, Jesus declares you to be righteous for His names' sake.

For all its gentleness and tender dominion, Jesus' rule over us is no less compelling than the those of the devil, the world and our flesh. In fact, His is even more so. Jesus tells the Jewish rulers that if the children were to stop singing His praises as He rode into Jerusalem the very stones themselves would cry out. That's compelling! Friday night we celebrated St. Andrew's Day wherein we read that Jesus came upon Peter and Andrew, promised to make them fishers of men and they dropped everything and followed Him. Tell me they weren't swept up in something beyond their control.

It is always frightening to be swept up by circumstances beyond our control, our entire nation is even now coming to grips with the reality that even being the most dominant and powerful nation in the history of the world does not provide immunity from being caught up in and carried away by events. Sometimes its frightening to be swept up into God's plans too. As one who fought his call as hard as he could I speak to you from experience. But Jesus never leaves us alone and as St. John says, His love drives out fear.

We Christians find ourselves saying and doing things we didn't know we even were capable of. We find ourselves praying for our friends and our enemies and then we find ourselves doing good for those who abuse us. We look up from our workaday lives and find that we're eating the body of God and drinking His blood and wanting to do so as often as we can. We're surprised to find that, without our even having intended to, prayers escape our lips and ascend to heaven. Through Word and Sacrament Jesus takes residence in us and works through and for us.

The world is rushing headlong, out of control toward its annual January hangover. Let it rush. Let it go. Jesus has swept us up into His kingdom and were proceeding at right angles to the world.

The world will run over Christmas, hit a wall of overindulgence and collapse in a heap of disappointment. Our Lord is preparing us for His arrival where we will rejoice at His incarnation and begin another year of grace refreshed, delighted and above all, absolved. Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 7/15/2008