Advent Vespers 2014
Jesus is Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, who Rules the Nations with the Peace, Truth, and Grace of Absolution

During this season of Advent, Concordia will meditate on three Messianic passages from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. 
These passages are fitting for Advent because they speak of the Days that are Coming (adventus) wherein the Messiah would be born, Rule Righteously through His Passion on the Cross, give that Righteousness to His Bride the Church through the Gospel, and Reign Graciously by the Gospel throughout the world in the latter days, the second half of human history.
The prophet Jeremiah records the Lord directly calling Christ God when he writes, "This is the Name whereby he shall be called, the LORD Our Righteousness." Jeremiah 23:6. The Name LORD here is God's Name, the Tetragrammaton (the Four Letters, YHWH) and identifies this Branch of David to be God Himself in the flesh. Luther writes:
From this passage we are eager to prove and demonstrate that it is necessary that the Branch of David, or the Messiah, to whom all concede this passage must be understood to refer, is true God. For he says: This is His Name by which men call Him, Lord and the tetragrammaton [YHWH] is used here, which belongs to God alone. Therefore we contend that Christ is true God who justifies us because He has a name which is assigned to God alone.
This Passage clearly teaches us the Incarnation of God and that He is Incarnate in order to be righteous in the place of all men (Vicarious Satisfaction, Galatians 4:4-5, II Corinthians 5:15, 21) because His Name is "the LORD Our Righteousness", giving that Substitutionary Righteousness to them by the Gospel through faith, and, thereby, save.
As a bride takes her name from the bridegroom, so the Church bears the Righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21), taking her name from her Bridegroom Christ (cf. Psalm 45:11, Song of Solomon 6:13, Shulamite [the Woman of Peace] the Bride of Shiloh, the Man of Peace, Genesis 49:10) as God calls her, "The Lord Our Righteousness".
Tetragrammaton means the four tetra letters grammaton. God's Name as it appears in the Hebrew is hwhy. y = Y, h = H, w = W, and, finally, another h. Hebrew reads from right to left so I started at the right with y when giving the transliteration into English. The vowels of the Lord's Name were omitted writers of the Old Testament.
God's unpronounceable name because no vowels were ever attached to it. The people of Israel merely said, Lord, when they came to this Name and never pronounced the Name itself. Hence, the vowels that do appear are the vowels for Lord (Adon).
Luther's Works, Vol. 6, p. 248, amplification added



VESPERS SERMONS FOR ADVENT 2014

VESPERS I

VESPERS II

VESPERS III

CHRISTMAS EVE

CHRISTMAS