Advent Sanctus

Isaiah 6:1-7, Matthew 21:1-11
Advent 1 Midweek - November 30, 2016
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

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“It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to Thee, holy Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”  It is meet.  This means it is proper and fitting, because God is in all places and fills all time and is worthy of our constant praise.  It is right, because we have every good reason to be grateful to him, since he rules all things as our Savior.  It is salutary, that is, beneficial to us, because God commands us to and because he promises to receive our thanksgiving and accept it.  “Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying …”

And here we come to the words of our canticle that we consider this evening.  It is a song of both angels and men, of both those in heaven and of those on earth, of saints who have lived in ages past and of all those who still contend with death here today.  In fact, even as it is meet, right, and salutary that we give thanks at all times and in all places, our canticle represents and confesses a joining of all times and all places.  It begins with the song that we learn from the angels in Isaiah 6 who gather around God’s kingly throne in heaven.  It ends with a song that we learn from those in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who met Jesus on his way into Jerusalem to ascend his kingly throne on earth.  Concluding both songs, we sing, “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.” 

This triple hosanna not only confesses the Trinity, but also confesses our reliance on him.  It literally means, “O save us now, we pray.”  It also once served as a cry similar to “God save the king!” or “Long live the king!”  Both those who safely abide in heaven and those who live among dangers on earth cry the same thing.  To hail God as our king is to be supremely concerned with the salvation he brings to us and to all who are being saved.  We are all subjects and servants of the same Lord.  We honor God by identifying him as our Savior.  Even in heaven he remains our Savior. 

This canticle is called the Sanctus because sanctus means holy.  This is what the angels cried aloud while flying around God’s throne: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth.”   This is an even clearer reference to the Trinity.  The Lord is one.  But he is also three: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – holy, holy, holy.  He is the God of hosts.  That is what sabaoth means.  A host is an army.  God has armies of angels who do his bidding in holy obedience to his command.  They serve God’s children here on earth even as they serve God in heaven.  But look how they serve God in heaven.  What do they do?  They proclaim his praises.  They serve God the same way we are to serve God.  They do so with modesty.  Consider.  They have no sin.  They are holy angels.  And yet they cover themselves in holy awe of God’s glory.  If this was how they who are holy comported themselves, it is no wonder that Isaiah the sinner responded the way he did:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”

If those who have no sin show such modesty and reverence before God, how much more should we?  As Isaiah was, so we too are sinners.  What terror to have no holy wings with which to cover our feet and faces, let alone to cover our hearts.  We are exposed and naked before the Highest.  Before God our deepest thoughts and most burning desires are always seen.  And so as we sing this canticle, we remind ourselves of who it is we approach and what it is that is exposed before his all-seeing eyes.  We approach him who cannot be approached.  And yet he makes himself known.  And the thrice-holy God whose very presence causes hearts to melt comes to us with the same mercy in which he came to Isaiah.  He comes not to destroy us, but to remove our sin.  Are your lips unclean?  Is your heart unclean?  Is your very body unclean, having been given to the service of the flesh rather than the Spirit?  Then here he comes with his holy angels to serve you with that which takes your guilt away and purges your sin. 

It comes from the burning altar of God – such holy embers that angels dare not touch except with tongs.  Yet one, by the order of the Most High God, placed it on the mouth of him who confessed his sin.  So also God sends his messengers to do the same for you.  He places on your lips the very body and blood of Christ who bore in himself for you the burning wrath of God on the altar of his throne, the holy cross.  And with this, you are encouraged to take heart.  He, before whom you stand, is merciful.  He, who comes to you, comes to save you.  He, who reveals your inmost heart to the threats and holy commands of the law, also covers you in the shelter of his wings.  And so we sing Hosanna to our King. 

We do so with modesty.  When God forgives us – when he declares us righteous in his sight, he is not pretending – no more than he was pretending when he assumed our flesh and blood to suffer and die.  As surely as he keeps a record of sin, so his records are true.  And with the absolution, with his merciful pardon and peace, comes the absolute assurance that for Jesus’ sake your record is clean.  Though it remain to be felt in your flesh and though it ignite again and again in your mind, the sin that makes you ashamed before God is the sin that Jesus took away.  And so with the same confidence as angels we are bold to serve our Lord and Maker without fear that we will be rejected.  But it is not without fear.  It is coupled with the fear that the angels showed.  It is the fear a son has toward his father.  We demonstrate this fear by living holy lives, knowing that it is for Jesus’s sake that we are truly holy.  We demonstrate this fear by containing our emotions when we worship.  We don’t go berserk or unleash a flood of sporadic moans and groans like the pagans do.  Rather, we humbly listen and learn to sing articulate praises to God that – praises that confess clearly where our blessedness is found.  It is found in the name of the Lord who teaches us both what he does and where he comes to bless us. 

And so we bless the Lord.  “Blessed is he, blessed is he, blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord.”   The same almighty and unapproachable King of kings before whom Isaiah found himself stunned and silenced – he himself comes to us in order to elicit saving faith.  He does not come in terror, as our closing hymn suggests.  Rather, as we sang on Sunday and will sing again this Sunday, he is only a terror to his foes when he comes to judge the nations.  But to those who loved the Lord’s appearing he is a Light of consolation and blessed Hope.  He has healing in his wings.  And so we do not pray that he does not come as the King of kings.  We pray precisely that he would.  For when he comes as our King of kings he comes as the glorious Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings to those who fear his name (Malachi 4:2). 

This is the Lord’s appearing.  And this is what makes this canticle so very fitting to consider during Advent.  He who enthrones himself upon the praises of angel choirs became true man in order to enthrone himself upon our cries for mercy.  He humbled himself.  He rode into Jerusalem as King of kings in order to be rejected and mocked with the title that was truly his: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  He suffered and died in order to do for us what he did for the prophet Isaiah – to cleanse us of all our sin and prepare us to praise the Lord God with songs that angels have not been granted to sing.  The Lord God became true man.  He whom the heavens cannot contain contained himself in a manger and fulfilled his Father’s holy will for our salvation with his perfect life and death.  And with the same love with which he lived and died, he rose gloriously in order to serve us still today in love.  He who came in the name of the Lord continues to come in the same name and with the same saving mission – to come to you as your God, as your Brother, as your Savior.  The holy-holy-holy anthem of heaven is met with the blessed-is-he anthem of earth where our King comes to us lowly. 

With these words we sing, we confess the two-fold reality of what takes place in the Sacrament of the Altar.  First, we confess that the very same Christ who is adored in heaven is present for us in the bread and wine.  He remains both God and Man and so what he gives us to eat and to drink remains outside the pale of our understanding.  It is a mystery.  We embrace the mystery with the simple faith that affirms what Jesus says: “This is my body; this is my blood.”  Second, we confess the benefit of what he gives us.  It is for the same benefit that Isaiah enjoyed – the same benefit that was purchased for us on the cross.  It gives us peace with the consuming fire which is the Lord of hosts.  He is our Father.  With his body and blood, the Son sets you free.  They are given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  Only Christ the Lord God is able to turn you “woe is me” into a “blessed is he.”  And he does. 

And so we sing our hosannas, accompanied by unseen angels and all the faithful departed who now lead them in chanting.  We sing our hosannas on earth as both a “Lord, have mercy” and a “Thanks be to God” that we are granted also to sing them forever in heaven.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest.  Save is now, we pray.  Long live the king!  And he does.  He saves us now.  And our King shall live long and forever.  So will you. 

Amen.