It was the Lord’s delight to crush the Messiah Jesus for the sinners of the world. Reminding us how we would have nothing without the Suffering Servant.
The Christ brings a baptism in order to gather all those sinners who are scattered across time and geography to be God’s people united in redemption and salvation.
Solomon prays for grace, and he gets it, and it is not because he asked for it. It is because that is the kind of God he has, a gracious God, full of steadfast love and faithfulness even when we are not.
In the season of Advent, we speak of a present-day hope that we have in God through the work of the Holy Spirit to create and sustain faith in us through the Word and Sacraments.
The name of God invites us on a journey to see how God will remain present with his people, listen to their cries for salvation, know their sufferings in such an intimate way so as to incarnate them in Christ.
No efforts to create worship as a delectable dish to attract people to our services will ever work, because it is only what God gives to us in His Word and Sacrament that can satisfy the hungry and thirsty soul.