Sunday, December 10, 2023… 2nd Sunday in Advent
“Thy Will Be Done”
Psalm 40:1-8; Isaiah 7:10-17; 1 John 2:15-16; John 1:1-14
A Service of Christmas Hymns and Carols
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
How many times have we prayed those words in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done?” Do we really mean it when we pray those words? Do we know what we’re saying? “Thy will” leaves no room for “my will.” Those are words of total surrender. Are we really willing to “let go and let God,” and leave our life decisions in His hands? Do we really have the faith and courage to do that? We’re happy to have the Lord along as our co-pilot, but are we nearly so willing to just let Him drive?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Pastor, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with my life. I don’t know what God wants from me.” Or, “Pastor, I’m trying to make a decision” – about whether or not I should take a job, or whether or not I should move, or sell my house, or get married, or end a relationship – or any of those really big life decisions. Pastor, I’ve prayed and prayed, but God doesn’t seem to be answering. In my humble experience, a lot of people who complain, “God isn’t answering me” are really just ignoring the answer God is giving, because they don’t like what He has to say. So we’ll just keep on “asking” until we get the answer we want, which is really just the answer we want; which turns “Thy will be done” into “My will be done.” And that never ends well.
If we’re going to at least try to do God’s will, shouldn’t we at least some idea of what God’s will is? What do we know about God’s will? Jesus is pretty clear about it in John 6: “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” And St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4: “God desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” That’s the heart of God’s will. That’s what He really wants. God’s will is to save us all. Everything God has done or is doing or will do is for the purpose of accomplishing that goal. So what has God done, and what is God doing, to see that His will for us gets done? How does God accomplish His will?
Apostle John takes us back to the beginning – all the way back to Genesis, in fact. God has been carrying out His plan, His will for us all, from the beginning of time. The creation account in Genesis begins, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.” And John begins his Gospel by echoing those words: “In the beginning… was the Word.” “The Word” is the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Word, the Son of God, was with God from the beginning -- “begotten of His Father before all worlds,” the Creed says. And the Word was God, and the Word is God; a very Trinitarian beginning, both to Genesis and to John’s Gospel.
And – here’s where we begin to learn what the will of the Triune God is – “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” God’s will is to give His children life. He first breathed life into the first man Adam and made Him a living being, and He still gives the breath of life to all people. And He wants us not just to live, but to live well; not just to have life, but to have “life to the full.” God’s will is that His children be happy and joyful and content, and live with Him forever. The Son of God, the Word, Jesus Christ our Lord, is the Light of all men. “I Am the Light of the World,” Jesus says. The God who made all things from the beginning wants nothing more than that all people should see Him, and know Him, and come to Him.
Now, here’s the wrench in the works: If God is all-powerful, why isn’t His will being done in the world today? If God is everything He says He is, why does He let the world go on as it is? Why all the wars and violence? Why are bad people getting away with bad things? Why does He allow us to have hurts and pains and troubles? Why doesn’t He just raise His scepter or His staff or one holy finger and put it all right? Our Catechism explains: “The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature are opposed to the good and gracious will of God.” The wonderful “let there be light” story in Genesis is quickly followed by the sad part of the tale. The Lord God, seeking children to love who would love Him back, gave His children the ability to make choices – to obey or not to obey, to love or not to love. Love can’t be love if it isn’t freely given.
God’s angels were also given free will, the same as us. And Satan, who was created as one of those angels and nothing more, chose to disobey God. Genesis says he came snaking his way into the garden, to do what he could do to keep the will of the God from being done. The devil whispered his lies into the ears of God’s children, and caused them to doubt that the will of God was for their good. And they made their choices; and here we are, in a broken world full of sin, with sin living in us, and having the same doubts. St. Paul says is Romans 7: “I know that nothing good dwells in me… for I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out… Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?”
John says in our Gospel, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” The Greek word for “understood” is an interesting one. The word is kataleben; and it’s one of those words that’s kind of hard to put into English and still get the gist of it. Some translators say, “the darkness has not understood it,” and others say, “the darkness has not overcome it,” but the real meaning is a bit of both. The Light that shines in the darkness is our Lord Jesus and the truth He comes to bring us – the Light that still shines in this dark world (like “stars in the universe,” St. Paul said). And the darkness is Satan’s kingdom. His kingdom is the one built on lies, deceit, deception, and hate; and it’s inhabited by everyone who has his dark will in their hearts instead of God’s. And “those living in darkness” can’t understand or comprehend or grasp what the Light is, or what God means by it.
The children of darkness, as Jesus calls them, can’t understand, can’t comprehend, can’t overcome their doubts, when we tell them about how a God with the power to create a universe could also love His poor creatures enough to die for them. They just don’t get it. God’s way, God’s will, what God is doing, seems so outlandish, so improbable, so impossible, that they turn from the light where grace and salvation can be found, and choose to live in the darkness instead. Our world has both kinds of people in it; both children of the light, and children of the darkness; both those who know and love Christ, and those who don’t, those who can see and those who are still blind. And all of us are sharing this very small world together until Jesus comes again at last to sort it all out.
God’s will is going to be done, like it or not, accept it or not, welcome it or not. Jesus is coming one day soon. Some of us will stand up and rejoice on that day, and others will be looking for a place to hide. “Thy will be done, O Lord, Thy will be done”. But until then, the war between darkness and light, between those who seek to do God’s will and those who oppose Him – goes on in the world.
Our Catechism asks the question: “How is God’s will done in our lives?” And here’s the answer: “God’s will is done when He breaks the plans of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which try to destroy our faith in Jesus Christ. And God’s will is done when he strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith and helps us to lead God-pleasing lives. And God’s will is done when He supports us in all our troubles until we die.”
So what is our part in all this? How is God working out His will in our lives? Our Catechism says “Thy will be done” means: “The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that is may be done among us also.”
Those big life decisions we were talking about? Those times when you have choices to make and you’re not sure what to do? Can I make it easier for you? Whatever you do, or decide to do, bend your poor human will to God’s will. Give it up! Surrender! That’s what “Thy will be done” really means. Whatever you’re contemplating doing, does it agree with what God wants done? Will it help God’s Kingdom come, and help people “come to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth?” Will it bless your family, your church, or your community, and not just yourself? Putting God’s will ahead your own is never a bad decision, I promise you. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Apostle John tells us in our Gospel about John the Baptist, “a man who was sent from God.” John was a man who gave his life and surrendered himself to God. When Jesus arrived on the scene, John gave up his ministry and the following he had going, and pointed to Jesus, and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Follow Him! He must become greater, and I must become less.” John was humble enough to know and admit that he wasn’t the Light people were looking for. His only job on earth was to point people to the Light, so they could see and believe in the Lord and be saved. That was God’s will for John, and he accepted his role with humility and grace. Thy will be done, O Lord, Thy will be done.
Even the Son of God Himself, Jesus the Word of Life, the Creator of everything there is, was willing to put His own glory aside and set His feet down in a broken world – a world that He knew would not know Him or recognize Him or receive or welcome Him. “Yet to all who would receive Him,” John says – to those who would believe in His name and come to His light – “He gave the right to become children of God; children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” God’s will for us is that we should be born again – born from above, re-born in faith, by the Word of God and baptismal water. Not born again our way, but born again God’s way, by His will, by His doing. Thy will be done, O Lord, Thy will be done.
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us,” John says. Jesus “for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man.” “We have seen His glory,” John says. We’ve seen the One and Only Son of God in the flesh, come down from heaven to give Himself to us, come down to say, “Not My will, Father, but Yours be done,” then He put Himself on a cross out of love for us and for the sake of our sin. His glory, the only glory that mattered to Him, was putting His glory aside for our sakes, so we could be forgiven and know Him and come to Him.
The devil, miserable sod that he is, wants us to be miserable, too, because misery loves company; but that surely isn’t God’s will for us. The devil just hates it when we praise and pray and sing all these lovely Christmas songs. He wants our Christmas joy to be buried in the rubble of worries and cares and being too busy for our own good. He’d love for Christmas to find us and the whole world doing his unholy will instead of God’s, and for the child in the manger to be forgotten in the rush.
The counterpoint to the devil’s lies is truth; and the remedy for hate is love; and the answer for all the sadness in this world is to offer hope. Keep telling the Good News. Put it in whoever’s ears you can put it in, however you can. Go tell it in your house, go tell it in your school, go tell it on the mountain. Sing those Christmas songs aloud in the store or at the mall or wherever you happen to be. Don’t ever stop and don’t ever give up. That’s how we’ll light a candle in the dark. That’s how we’ll win!
St. Paul just nails it in our reading from Ephesians: “Be filled with the Christmas Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Thy will be done, Father; Thy will be done! Father all glorious, help us to praise! In Jesus’ name; Amen.