Happy new year and a happy beginning to the Advent season. Today marks the first Sunday in the new year of the church. We begin again on that part of the church year that celebrates and remembers the life and work of Jesus Christ. Today being the first Sunday in Advent we have lit the first candle on the Advent wreath.
That candle is often referred to as the prophecy candle. It is the candle that reminds us that the coming of Christ to earth was told ahead of time. His coming was foretold so that when it came to pass, people would remember God's promise and find yet again another reason to put their trust in Him. So we have lit this candle to remind us that Christ has come and He has kept His promise.
So what does the sermon title, 'Jerusalem to Annapolis and back again' have to do with Christ coming and keeping His promise?
Annapolis got its name from Queen Anne in the 18th century. It was known as Anne’s city, and the name Anne comes from the Hebrew word for grace. So, Annapolis is the city of grace. And last week that city, fittingly, hosted a peace conference about the middle east, of which Jerusalem is at the heart. The center of the Middle East, in so many ways, is Jerusalem. It’s the place everyone wants to go.
And much of the peace in the middle east settles around the peace of the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding territory. Jerusalem is ultimately at the heart of what all the middle east countries, and there were a large number of them, including Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia; Jerusalem was ultimately at the heart of what was discussed at Annapolis. These delegations came to Annapolis, in part, to talk about who comes to Jerusalem. So the sermon title reminds us that even at Annapolis, Maryland, the city of grace, Jerusalem, the city of God, is the place of central focus. It’s where God meets man.
There is a beautiful Hebrew legend of two brothers who lived side by side on adjoining lands. One was the head of a large family, the other lived alone. One night, the brother with a large family lay awake and thought: "My brother lives alone, he has not the companionship of wife and children to cheer his heart as I have. While he sleeps, I’ll carry some of my sheaves into his field."
At the same late-night hour, the other brother reasoned: "My brother has a large family, and his necessities are much greater than mine. As he sleeps, I will put some of my sheaves in his field." So the two brothers went out, each carrying out his purposes and each laden with sheaves and met… at the dividing line of their properties. And there they embraced. The legend says that years later, at that very place, stood the temple in Jerusalem, and on the very spot of their meeting stood the temple's altar.
Of course that is a legend that’s meant to instill the virtue of self sacrifice. It teaches the merits of placing the needs of others before your own. Of seeking the welfare of your brother above yours. And that, of course, is the nature of what God did, in sending Jesus, our brother, to the city of Jerusalem.
In today’s gospel lesson we read a story of Christ coming to Jerusalem, to the city where God meets man, the place where sacrifice is made to atone for sin. Now the context of that event was Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. That’s not a time we normally associate with Christmas. But remember we are in Advent, the time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. And today is about the prophecy of Christ coming as was promised to do the work of salvation. That work was done in Jerusalem. But before it was done at the end of the week that begins with palm Sunday, before what we read about today's coming to Jerusalem, Jesus had come to Jerusalem many times before.
Jerusalem is the place where things that are absolutely core to our religion happened. But we don’t need to go there ourselves for our religion to be authentic. Our touchstone, the place of intersection between God and us is not the place where the core events happened. Yes, the place is significant, but it’s not what we need in order to worship. The place of touching God has moved. It has shifted.
For us, that touch is now in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to Jerusalem in the gospel lesson today, He entered as the sacrifice. He came as the Son of David, as the lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. He came and He did that work on the cross, dying the innocent death in the place of sinful man. He came in fulfillment of the promises of God, the prophesies, as the candle on the Advent wreath reminds us of today.
And when Jesus left Jerusalem, He left it as the victor, the conqueror. He moved the place where we touch God from the stones and mortar of the temple… to the bread and blood of Himself. We don’t need to go to Jerusalem to be touched by God or to touch God. That now happens for us through the person of Jesus Christ coming to us in holy communion.
When you come to the altar railing today and you bow to take communion, you bow to receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus comes here and meets you today! We don’t need to go to Jerusalem; Jerusalem has come to us.
The talks at Annapolis will hopefully lead to a solution as to who can come to Jerusalem in Israel. The peace of Jerusalem is significant for the sake of peace on earth. But Jerusalem, the city, has fulfilled its role of the place where peace with God, for all mankind has been accomplished. Our brother, Jesus, has sacrificed for us. He came to Jerusalem as the sacrifice. When He left as victor He moved with Him the location of where we place our trust; and our trust is in Him alone.
When Jesus ascended from this earth it was not from Jerusalem but from a different mountain. That is hugely significant. It’s not that Jerusalem is no longer important, but, as we said, its importance has been overshadowed by the cross. The cross transferred, if you will, the place of our faith. God’s promise, as we said, has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ not in the place of Jerusalem.
Yes Jerusalem still plays a part, but for us it only represents what Jesus has done. He is the new Jerusalem that will come down from heaven as it tells us in Revelation 21. Jerusalem has now been made perfect and complete and whole, because that is what Jesus has accomplished by coming… as promised and fulfilling the work of lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world.
Remember we said
that Jesus came to
He came before that
to
And Jesus also came to Jerusalem as an
infant. He came on the 8th day after His birth, to be circumcised as
was proper to be done. If you read Luke 2:21 you see that Jesus is brought to
the temple in
Advent helps us to
remember that Jesus kept God's promise and came to earth, He came to
That’s what Advent is for us, the remembrance that God keeps His promises to come to us. That’s the significance of the prophecy candle we lit today. It’s the one that reminds that Jesus keeps all of His promises. Through all the stages of our lives, God comes to us. We put our hope and faith in that and we pray, maranatha, come again swiftly Lord Jesus, come swiftly. Amen.