Jesus Christ is the hinge of history (Advent Vespers December 20, 2009)
By Rev. Bert Thompsonl

Jesus Christ is the hinge of history. All history falls before Christ was born or after He was born: either B.C or A.D; either Before Christ or Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord. Even a dating system that eliminates the Name of Christ and uses the letters B.C.E “before the common era” and C.E. “common era” still hinges on the birth of Jesus Christ as its nexus.

There is no escape: although the unbelieving world will not acknowledge Him – Christ is the center and hinge of all history. For an advent of 4,000 years, His people waited for Him to be born in Bethlehem, and now in this, the final Advent, we wait for Christ to come again in the clouds on the last Day. Ever since the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, all of history is focused on this first and second Advent of Jesus Christ.

The world shuts its eyes and ears and tries to drown out any mention of Christ, but Christ is the center and focus of our lives. Christ is the One we love above all others, because He first loved us. Why do we love Him so? “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8) Through Him and by Him and in Him we have our being. He is our light and our life. Therefore, “we cannot help but speak of the things we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20) Jesus is our Savior from Sin, our Savior from Satan and our Savior from Death itself.

We can’t help but speak of such things. And we do more than just speak.

All societies and all cultures take their most important words and set them to music. The words are the picture and the music becomes the frame. In our culture, we even take unimportant words and set them to music. How many of you remember an advertising jingle because some unimportant words were put in a ear-catching musical frame? If in our culture we set even unimportant words to music, how much more important is it to set the most important words, the Words of God Himself, in a frame of the finest music?

That’s what we are doing here this evening and that’s what we do each week in worship. From the earliest worship in the tent of meeting – the Tabernacle – in the Old Testament to right now, the people of God have put God’s Words to music. Singing God’s Words to the beautiful strains of instrumental music is what God’s people do. Usually to accompaniment, God’s holy people sing God’s holy Words.

Does God call us to sing? Yes, He does. The Bible says, “O come, let us sing unto the LORD.” But this poses a problem for many of us. What if you really cannot sing? What if you sound like a frog? Listen to what the Bible says. The Bible says, “Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation.” When your football team is winning, you make a joyful noise. It may not be on key. It may not even sound like a song, but you are making a joyful noise!

When Mary visited Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist – Elizabeth spoke with a loud voice and to Mary, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Perhaps she could not sing, but she certainly made a loud and joyful noise to Jesus Christ, the Rock of her salvation.

Lutherans are known for a lot of singing. Some of you may remember the old 1912 Missouri Synod hymnal. It had just the words for the hymns and no notes. It was tiny with small print. This is the copy my mother had. But in 30 years, we said it was outdated. So, we published the 1941 red hymnal. It not only included the words of the hymns but it also included the notes. Then came the blue 1982 edition and now we have the maroon 2006 edition.

Our hymnals seem to go out of date rather quickly, but there is one hymnal that has never and will never go out of date. This hymnal has been used by the Christian Church for 3,000 years and it will be used until Jesus comes again. This hymnal was first used by Moses and then by King David. When it was competed, it had 150 hymns. There were very few printed copies of this hymnal, so the people of God memorized these hymns, word for word.

Mother Mary knew these hymns. The senior choir just sang Mary’s song, called by it’s Latin tile, the Magnificat. When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God, Mary opened her mouth and sang snippets from many of these hymns that she had already memorized.

This hymnal of God was even used by Jesus. Just after the Last Supper and just before Jesus was taken away to be crucified Jesus used a hymn from this hymnal to sing with His disciples. Can you imagine what that men’s chorus sounded like with Jesus and all His disciples singing? What hymnal were they using? You all know the hymnal which I am taking about. This hymnal of God used by Moses and David and Jesus and us is the book of Psalms in the Bible.

Our Lutheran hymnals have always included at least parts of these Psalms. These Psalms are important for us to sing for two reasons. First, these Psalms are the Word of God. Therefore, they point us to Jesus. Second, they are out family hymnbook. They connect us with all the people of God of all places and all times. Therefore, in every Divine Service and in every Matins and this evening in this Vespers service, we sing God’s very words from God’s hymnal, this wonderful book of Psalms.

God gives us the words and we use them to make a joyful noise to God the Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for His hymns which point us to Jesus. Amen.