“The Word Who Breaks the Silence” — An Advent Series

Series Overview

From the Guide

So much of the holiday season is about sights and smells: fragrant Christmas trees, warm fresh cookies, and crisp snow falling silently through the air. But what about the sounds? They, too, capture our imaginations and bring us to the reality of the Advent and Christmas seasons. When “a multitude of the heavenly host” fills the sky in Luke 2 at the birth of the Christ child, saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 14), it’s not the sight nor the smell that enthralls the shepherds, but the sound of a word of proclamation: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” proclaims an angel of the Lord (v. 10). This is none other than the baby Jesus himself, born of a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes. He is both the light of the world (John 8:12) as well as the Word made flesh (John 1:14) in order to bring faith, life everlasting, and righteousness to all peoples.

For this year’s Advent Sermon series, Pastor Matt Popovits focuses on six passages throughout Scripture where God speaks to his people or where his people wait on his Word to bring them his promises. Throughout Advent, we await a particular Word from our God; a Word which comes to us on Christmas Eve when God’s silence finally breaks, and we rejoice with all the saints over God’s Incarnation in the birth of the babe lying in a manger.

“If the Word is spoken, all things are possible,”[1] says Martin Luther in his commentary on Genesis. This is as true when God creates as it is when he re-creates the sinner into the justified through his gift of faith, and all the times in between. God used his prophets in the Old Testament to both reveal and hide God from his people. And in times of trouble, it’s a word from the Creator himself that the Israelites prayed for: “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,” states David in Psalm 22:2. The season of Advent culminates not in a silent night, but in the boisterous and powerful speech of our Creator. While we would do well to reflect on the moments when he is silent during this season, the moments where we long for his return, we must also remember that we have a God who does not remain silent for long, for his goodness, light, and love are wrapped up in his voice.

[1]Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1–5, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 49.