St. Paul writes in the epistle appointed for this week, “Owe no one anything except to love one another.” Well St. Paul has obviously never heard of the American Christmas Shopping Season! Why, it's the American way to wrack up most of our debt during this month between Thanksgiving and Christmas! Credit card companies can't wait until we load up our cards with big balances we won't be able to pay off for months or years. The retailers don't even figure they'll start making a profit for the whole year until “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving. Owe no one anything! Yeah, right, Paul! OK. Hit the brakes. Whatever else the world says, the church says it's Advent. Not Christmas yet. No countdown of shopping days. No, Advent. Waiting. Expectation. Anticipation of the Coming of Jesus. That means repentance and faith. So do your shopping. (But seriously, don't go so crazy you end up owing tons of money you can't pay back; there's no help for your neighbor in that!). And repentance and faith mean listening to these words of St. Paul: “Owe no one anything. Except to love one another.”
What does that mean? It means that Advent is a good time to stop and remember why it is that we're supposed to be Christians. Why it is that our Savior comes into this world: to save us from our sins and make us into servants of others. Jesus comes into a world of selfishness where no one would even give up a room at the Best Western for a poor couple on the verge of having a baby to save us from our selfishness and sin. Jesus comes into this world not for Himself but for you. He comes to wipe out debts. Whatever we owe God the Father because of our sins, Jesus comes to pay off the balance! Imagine that! Imagine that a note arrived tomorrow telling you that your mortgage is finished. Your credit cards now have a zero balance! Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is exactly what your Savior has given to you: a zero balance with God. Whatever sins and iniquities and mistakes and faults have piled up have been canceled by the blood of the Baby born in Bethlehem who grew up to shed that blood on the cross. Your sin-debt is paid. Not only for all that you have done, but even for all that you are just by being born in the line of Adam and Eve! Paid for. Zero balance. Debt canceled.
But you DO still owe something. You ARE still in debt. To God? Not at all! You owe Him nothing. He knows you can't pay Him back. It takes the blood of His Son to pay THAT debt. So what debt is left? The debt to love one another. St. Paul tosses out for us a list of commandments: “Don't steal, don't lie, don't covet” and anything else that works out to loving your neighbor as yourself. Advent is a time to try this out! To give someone some true and genuine love of neighbor. Not necessarily by what you buy and wrap for them, but by forgiving them. Not holding their sins against them. By avoiding anything that would cause them to stumble and quickly seeking forgiveness when you do do something to hurt or offend. Try it! Instead of grumbling at someone in your family, ask what you can do to help. We're all plenty busy during the holidays, so pitch in more than you usually do! Buy presents! Throw a party! Not because you need one more thing to do this time of year, but because you may put a smile on someone's face by treating them. Call up some friends. Check on some homebound neighbors. Repent of always thinking of what YOU'VE got to get done and actually DO something for others simply because you owe them. That's keeping the Law. That's loving your neighbor.
Then recognize that YOU can't actually keep the Law. Only Jesus does that. Only Jesus truly and perfectly loves God His Father and loves His neighbors as Himself. But His obedience is yours. It's bestowed upon you at the font, from the pulpit, and every time you receive His body and blood. When you receive the gifts of Jesus, He is once again marking your account “paid in full” and therefore your debt to your neighbor is also paid. So, when you do good works for those around you, learn to believe that the Lord counts those good works as true and genuine for Jesus' sake. It means that everything you do for those around you: for husband or wife, or kids, or parents, or other relatives or coworkers or friends or whomever—all that you do is a fulfilling of the Law for Jesus' sake. In fact, it's not even you doing the good things for others. It's Jesus living in and through you.
So during this Advent season, watch out for debts! Don't charge your cards out of control—and that because it wouldn't benefit your neighbor in the long run. But watch out for your sin-debt! Don't let that pile up without coming to receive the payment applied to your account by Absolution and the Lord's Supper. While the church celebrates Advent, the world is already going crazy with its “holiday cheer.” The temptation is to be dragged down by all that into a vast whirlpool of frustration and irritation and grumbling and selfishness. And that's bad for your neighbor! So repent and come to the Lord's house. It's why we have an extra service each week in Advent! To ear again the absolution which pronounces your account balance before God to be “zero.” To taste again the true Christmas treats of Jesus' body and blood. And then, with your sins forgiven, go back out into that crazy world and put a smile upon someone's face by what you say and do as a child of God. Jesus has paid your debt. There is nothing left that you owe. So owe your neighbor love. And when you run short of funds to pay on that, well then, back to the church where the riches of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus' sake never run out! Amen.