Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
November 30, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras

How To Prepare For The Coming Of our Lord
Advent 1A

Moreover, knowing the time, that the hour is come for you to be awakened and arise from sleep; for your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed. The Night is far gone and the Day is at hand. Let us therefore put off the works of darkness and be clothed with the armor of light; let us conduct our lives properly, then, as in the light of day. Not in wild parties or intoxication, promiscuity or sensuality, and free from strife and jealousy. But clothe yourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision to gratify the desires of the flesh. (Romans 13:11-14)

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People always prepare for important events.

On September 1st Halloween decorations hit the shelves, and people spend inordinate sums of money on them: about $14 billion each year! They exert much labor; engage in a great deal of cursing at inanimate objects, and suffer about 3,200 injuries every year putting up and taking down said decorations – one quarter of those are ladder falls. All this to “celebrate” a mindless festivity. It is easily the longest preparation period for any “special” day of the year. But that’s the way we are wired – to celebrate and to prepare for said celebrations.

Speaking of preparation and celebration, the coming of our God into the world is simply the most significant event of history! When Christ comes everything changes for the better!

When he came to Adam and Woman in the form of animal skins which the Father had prepared, they were granted pardon for their rebellion and received back into the family of God: though on different terms now. The promise of eternal life still applied, but only through much tribulation would they enter the Kingdom of God.

When our Lord came to the prophet Isaiah as we hear in today’s Old Testament lesson, notice what it says. “The WORD which Isaiah son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” That WORD was not a disembodied sound, but it was Jesus himself. One of the many appearances of “the pre-incarnate Christ.” Which is to say an actual appearance of Jesus, the Word of God, to man BEFORE his holy incarnation on Christmas Day. We must learn to hear Scripture this way. As Adam and Woman saw with their own eyes, so did Isaiah and many, many others.

What did the pre-incarnate Lord’s say to Isaiah that day? What was his message? It was the end of warfare and bloodshed upon the earth! The END we say! Because the Prince of Peace was coming to “make peace by his blood on the cross.” Peace between God and Man, and Peace between Man and Man. Notice Isaiah’s prophecy: He will arbitrate between the nations, which means that he will turn their enmity into friendship. An alliance so sure and certain is THIS blood-bought peace that they will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Which is to say weapons of war into tools of prosperity and productivity. And moreover that the whole world will take notice and come to the church to learn the ways of the LORD Jesus Christ, who himself IS the Way the Truth and the Life.

But the Lord and his Prophet also discussed another event on that occasion, one that was still 800 years in the future. One wherein God Incarnate would ride into Jerusalem – the event we hear in today’s gospel. The day the King of Creation and Righteous Lord rode into the Holy City on a donkey to stand trial for our sins! To be unjustly judged and convicted of them. And to receive their cruel and unusual punishment. But in so doing, this Incarnate Word assumed all of our sorrows, our tears, fears and sicknesses.

Now speaking of celebration and preparation here is something to truly worth our attention and effort: the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh to “save his people from their sins.” We are those people.

Yes, he spoke often in times past to our fathers through the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by the birth of a Son whom He appointed as heir of all things. As Isaiah says elsewhere, “For unto us a Son is given, unto us a Child is born!.

Those references are to what Saint Paul calls, “the fullness of time” when the eternal Son of God took on the form of a servant, was born in the likeness of men, humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

But this is not the end of his coming to us because he says in Mt. 28:12 “Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is the promise he fulfills in every liturgy, when he comes to exercise his High Priestly Office in the presence of his people, and in union with his people wherein we “glorify God with one voice,” (Rom. 15:6) the Voice of Jesus Himself.

But how do we prepare for such a coming?

Historically speaking his birth is in the past, but sacramentally speaking is with us always. An ongoing occurrence. The one we celebrate at this precise hour. Wherein we are called to meet with our Lord in the flesh at his altar, hear his sterling words, sing his celebrated praises and offer him our prayers and thanks for his mercies: which are new each morning.

But today’s celebration doesn’t only look back, but it looks to the future as well, when our Lord will return, and every eye will see him, every knee in heaven and on earth and below the earth will bend before him. And so let it be known O Man! You can bow down now in faith, or later in fear. But all will see him, even “those who pierced him.”

How do we prepare for that coming?

Paul answers that all important question in today’s epistle. He urges us to wake up from our sleep because the Night is almost over, and the Day of the Lord is at hand. He spurs us on with these words: “Your salvation is nearer now than when you first believed.” He then gets very specific in instructing us to take off the works of darkness that fit our sin-filled flesh like a tailor made suit, and to dress ourselves in in the armor of light. Jesus is that Armor, Jesus is that Light. And the language here is purely is baptismal, because that is what happened to us in our baptism. We were clothed in Christ.

He speaks vociferously to Christian and non-believer alike to run far and fast from the sins of the flesh: wild parties, intoxication, debauchery, sensuality and to have no part in the strife and jealousy that mark the culture day and night. He insists that we are NOT to gratify the flesh, or even make provisions for it. But rather we are to renew our baptism every day by daily contrition and repentance. And again to dress ourselves in the Lord’s seamless garment which even black-hearted, pagan soldiers at the cross knew better than to divide.

Being seamless as it is you can be sure that nothing can penetrate. Nothing can reach you. Not sin, not death, not devil, not judgment not fear or injustice – however filled with these things the world may be.

Yes, that is how we prepare both for celebrating his Incarnation, and to receive Him at his Second Coming – which will be the best day of your life!