2025-11-30 Advent 1

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Welcome to Advent! It’s the like the first day of school when you roll out all your new school supplies from a brand new backpack. It’s a fresh start. A new beginning. The church year resets and reboots us into this beautiful season of hope and expectation! Curiously, our Scripture readings don’t seem very ‘Christmasy.’ Instead, we seem to be plopped into the start of Holy Week with our Lord’s Triumphal entry. Hee Haw, Hee Haw, clippity clop! On the outset this is weird. But it’s actually genius, especially in light of Christ the King Sunday that we celebrated a week ago.

It actually gets at the heart of the word ‘Advent’ from the Latin ‘adventus’ which means ‘coming’ or ‘arriving.’ It takes us way back to the early centuries of Church history where this term was used when an official arrived. A King, an Emperor, maybe a high-ranking dignitary of some kind. This very important person showed up and graced your community with his presence. When Caesar visited a Roman province it was called precisely this, his adventus. The citizens all went out to greet him with palm branches and shouts of acclamation and praise. A grand and royal parade.

So in choosing our Lord’s Triumphal Entry as our Gospel reading for the First Sunday in Advent, the Church is telling us to pay attention. Wake up and get ready to greet the true King of Kings as He advents to you. In Matthew’s Gospel we see Jesus adventing to His city of Jerusalem. We see the familiar crowds with cloaks and palm branches, celebrating His grand arrival, albeit humble and lowly. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (MT 21:9). Jesus comes into the world, into His church and ultimately into our hearts to establish His reign. And our entire church year is framed with this backdrop of our coming King. And the message is get ready. Prepare. Prepare for His Advent.

Now generally speaking, with the Advent and Christmas season, we get bombarded by treats. Shortbread cookies. Fruit cake. Egg Nog. Chocolate. You know, all the stuff you wish you wouldn’t have eaten when sweating on a treadmill for January’s new years resolutions! But Advent isn’t so much like the barrage of holiday treats, it’s more like a festive onion. It’s got layers. And as we peel them back, we learn more and more. Our Lord’s Advent as a baby that we celebrate at Christmas. His Advent at the end of the ages with His second coming. His Advent to us right now in His Word and Sacraments. These are the many layers of the season of Advent.

Our Lord’s Advent ride into Jerusalem on the donkey fulfills his Prophetic Advent, how the Old Testament dropped all these hints about the Messiah. Zechariah told us straight up “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey” (9:9). And immediately after this our Lord cleanses the Temple and teaches about the Last Things. So it also points us ahead to the End Times advent on the Last Day. The Hosannas and shouts of praise from the triumphal entry will one day become the eternal acclamation of the Lamb of God, seated on His throne. The First Sunday of Advent proclaims that the church year, and indeed all of history, is governed by the coming of the King — the same King who once rode into Jerusalem amid palm branches and cries of “Hosanna,” and who will one day return in glory to be acclaimed by all creation.

Piggy backing on this is the profound and deliberate connection to our Isaiah reading today. Isaiah talks about Zion, “the mountain of the house of the Lord” (2:2). This highest of mountains to which all the nations shall flow. This isn’t to say that Mount Zion will replace Mount Everest as the highest peak on earth. It’s more so the importance of the matter that makes it the “highest.” This is the eternal dwelling place of God Almighty. This is where He will be Emmanuel for ever more, the God Who is with us. And this promise is not only for the 12 tribes of Israel. The ‘nations,’ the gentiles, all people will flock there. All people will be drawn to the Messiah when He is lifted up on His cross, shedding His blood for the life of the world.

Next Isaiah says “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (2:3). The law, the teaching, it will go out far and wide. Jesus also fulfills this too by immediately teaching the people after cleansing the Temple. Our Lord gives the definitive interpretation of God’s Word, culminating in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations as the Gospel of salvation is carried out into all the world.

And Isaiah fills us in about the consequences of this teaching and Word of the Lord: “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (2:4). This humble King who rides into town on the donkey is the ultimate Judge of all. He will end all the wars and strife of His sinful people. The same Jesus who receives the greetings and praise of palm branches will one day receive the glory of every knee bowing before Him. The peace our Lord brings is firstly the peace of His cross, building forgiveness between God and man. And finally, that peace will extend to the new creation.

Isaiah says “come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (2:5). It’s no coincidence that Jesus tells us that He is the light of the world (JN 8:12).The Advent call to walk in His light begins with welcoming the King who now enters the city. It begins for us again today at the start of the season of Advent where we prepare to greet our coming King in faith and humility and repentance and the amazing hope, peace, joy and love of the Kingdom of God. This is why, on the First Sunday of Advent, the Church puts these two readings side by side: Isaiah proclaims the destination, Matthew announces that the journey has begun with the King’s royal entry into His city. The entire season of Advent — and the whole church year — is lived between these two Advents: the King has come, and the King is coming.

The Advent message is clear. Lift up your heads and your hearts this Advent. The King is coming. He has already come in all humility and lowliness. Likewise he comes to you on this day in His humble Word and Sacrament, and He will come again in glory to make all things new. This is no mere sentimental season of twinkling lights and peppermint mochas. This is royal business. The true Emperor of all is on the move, and He is adventing to you right now. Every layer of this big, beautiful Advent onion is meant to peel back your sleepiness, your distraction, your half-heartedness, until you find yourself standing on the road again, palm branch in hand, crying out with the crowds of every age: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (MT 21:9).

We prepare the road for our coming King. We confess where we have loved the darkness more than the Light and we receive His forgiveness anew. Watch and pray and stay awake, because the One who once rode into Jerusalem weeping over her sin is the same One who will one day ride from the heavenly Mount Zion to wipe away every tear and end every war forever. Until that great and final Advent, He is here. He is with you. Emmanuel has come, and Emmanuel is coming. Your King of kings and Lord of lords. Come, Thou long-expected Jesus. Amen!