Sermon - Advent Midweek 2, 2025 - LSB 334:3,4

The Last Judgment, Unknown Artist, 1549

Rejoice, then, ye sad-hearted, who sit in deepest gloom

Intro: Explain 10 stanzas originally written

1. Through sin we sit in gloom and are covered in shame

2. Christ descended into our deepest gloom through His love for us

3. Through His incarnation He frees us from sin and brings us into His kingdom

Last week pastor Matheny gave you a great rundown on some of the important details of the author of our Advent hymn we’re meditating on this year: Paul Gerhardt. Gerhardt wrote some of the greatest hymns ever penned likely as a result of the many sorrows which framed his life. Last week you heard he was born in 1607, but by 1618 the Thirty Years’ War began. This war would raze his home village, Gräfenhainchen, to the ground. Thankfully before the village was sacked he had been sent to school at Grimma where he studied Latin classical poetry, awakening in him his poetic skills. It was in the midst of that tumult that he wrote the hymn O Lord, How Shall I Meet You.

Gerhardt’s further life was difficult as He was staunchly faithful to scripture and the Lutheran confessions, resulting in him having to move around because of his refusal to disavow his confessional Lutheran heritage. Before the age of 60 his wife and 4 of 5 children had already died. Upon his death a decade later a portrait of his was hung at the church with the following inscription: “Paul Gerhardt, a theologian sifted in Satan’s sieve, and afterward found faithful.”

Those details are important for us as we reflect upon stanzas 3 and 4 today. Gerhardt wrote: “I lay in fetters, groaning… I stood, my shame bemoaning… Love caused Your incarnation; love brought You down to me.” The Lord Jesus Christ descended into the gloom and misery of sin here on earth in order to rescue us from the evils here below. It’s a shame then that LSB cut out 4 of the stanzas which further explore our sorrows here on earth that our Lord descended into. LSB has just 6 of the original 10 stanzas, and I’d like to read you all ten stanzas now just to give you the fuller picture of this hymn.

1 O Lord, how shall I meet Thee,

How welcome Thee aright?

Thy people long to greet Thee,

My Hope, my heart’s Delight!

Oh, kindle, Lord most holy

Thy lamp within my breast

To do in spirit lowly

All that may please Thee best.

2 Thy Zion strews before Thee

Green boughs and fairest palms,

And I, too, will adore Thee

With joyous songs and psalms.

My heart shall bloom forever

For Thee with praises new

And from Thy name shall never

Withhold the honor due.

3 What hast Thou e’er neglected

For my good here below?

When heart and soul dejected,

Were sunk in deepest woe,

When lost from that high station

Where peace and pleasure reign,

Thou camest, my Salvation,

And mad’st me glad again.

4 I lay in fetters, groaning,

Thou com’st to set me free;

I stood, my shame bemoaning,

Thou com’st to honor me;

A glory Thou dost give me,

A treasure safe on high,

That will not fail or leave me

As earthly riches fly.

5 Love caused Thy incarnation,

Love brought Thee down to me;

Thy thirst for my salvation

Procured my liberty.

O love beyond all telling,

That led Thee to embrace,

In love all love excelling,

Our lost and fallen race!

6 Rejoice, then, ye sad-hearted,

Who sit in deepest gloom,

Who mourn o’er joys departed

And tremble at your doom.

Despair not, He is near you,

Yea, standing at the door.

Who best can help and cheer you,

And bids you weep no more.

7 Ye need not toil nor languish

Nor ponder day and night

How in the midst of anguish

Ye draw Him by your might.

He comes, He comes all willing,

Moved by His love alone,

Your woes and troubles stilling;

For all to Him are known.

8 Sin's debt, that fearful burden,

Let not your souls distress;

Your guilt the Lord will pardon

And cover by His grace.

He comes, for men procuring

The peace of sin forgiven,

For all God's sons securing

Their heritage in heaven.

9 What though the foes by raging,

Heed not their craft and spite;

Your Lord, the battle waging,

Will scatter all their might.

He comes, a King most glorious,

And all His earthly foes

In vain His course victorious

Endeavor to oppose.

10 He comes to judge the nations,

A terror to His foes,

A Light of consolations

And blessèd Hope to those

Who love the Lord's appearing.

O glorious Sun, now come,

Send forth Thy beams so cheering,

And guide us safely home!

In Gerhardt’s Germany during the Thirty Years’ War the wages of sin were obvious for anyone and everyone to see. Death was a daily occurrence, and the cost of remaining faithful to your confession, the cost of being a Confessional Lutheran, was evident by the wars being waged. Countless Lutherans were slaughtered because they counted faithfulness to the Word of God as more important than their own lives. Today we try to ignore the divisions and act as if we’re all basically the same, meanwhile our ancestors laid down their lives to say these divisions have eternal consequences. War is terrible, but at least those folks were being honest. Today we’re like that cartoon meme of the dog surrounded by his house on fire but naively drinking coffee and saying: “This is fine.”

The reality is that things are not fine! The devil is waging war against us and our souls are being weighed in the balance. Temptations surround us. I’m in bonds and chains, I’m standing in shame because I’m obviously a sinner and hell is at the gates! I deserve hell and my life could come to an abrupt end at any moment. The pagan hordes are stampeding my way and I can’t seem to find a way to survive the onslaught. How do we keep our offspring faithful, let alone my own wandering soul? On top of it all I’m surrounded by death. Whether it’s my loved ones dying or me, death is everywhere I look. I’m in the wilderness outside the promised land. I’m in a valley of dry bones. Yet, “Love caused Your incarnation, love brought You down to me.”

Look at our bulletin artwork to see that reality illustrated; Albrecht Durer is a masterful artist. In this woodcut you see a building in shambles, the roof has holes in it and weeds are growing in it where it’s not yet fallen through; the bricks are even falling out. But upon the cornerstone lays a newborn babe: the holy Christ Child who came down from heaven. In this dilapidated shack shepherds, angels, and the blessed virgin Mary kneel down in worship before the incarnate Word of God. 

Why would He leave His heavenly kingdom and sink to the depths of woe for our good? Why would He who is perfect and without blemish dwell on this filthy earth with us? How can He who is sinless abide among us sinners? In love, of course! John wrote: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” In love for us sinners God became man to take away our sins. So the prophet Zephaniah proclaims: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.” 

You who sit in sorrows: rejoice! The Lord has descended into our humble estate and dwells among us for our good. I love this stanza that LSB left out: “Rejoice, then, ye sad-hearted, Who sit in deepest gloom, Who mourn o’er joys departed And tremble at your doom. Despair not, He is near you, Yea, standing at the door. Who best can help and cheer you, And bids you weep no more.” The temptations that surround you, the shame that clings to you, the demons’ fiery darts, the hell outside the gates, the pagan hordes staring at our souls, the death that envelopes all; all the enemies are conquered by the King who has come to the rescue of our lost and fallen race.