New Year's Day

Luke 2:21 - Christmas Octave - January 1, 2017
Under the Law – Above Every Name

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And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shep-herds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.   Luke 2:16-21

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The incarnation of the Son of God is truly a wonderful mystery.  Like with those whom the shepherds told, it causes us to marvel.  It contradicts all human reason – that the infinite and limitless would be contained by the finite and limited.  Therefore since the question of how is clearly off the table for our consideration, we are all the more compelled to get to the bottom of the question of why.  Why did God become man?  And so asking, we delve into the pious and beneficial exercise of pondering in our hearts with the mother of God all those things that were spoken of her Child.  For surely we cannot begin to ponder the purpose of such a mystery unless we keep in mind what God says about it.  There’s nothing to investigate unless we set our mind on those things revealed in Scripture.  The Bible plainly teaches that the infinite God by whom all things were made became a helpless infant who depended on those very things that were made through him – including his own mother.  He who is eternally begotten of the Father with whom, in his very essence, he shares all things, including his substance and nature as God of God and Light of Light – this One now becomes a man like you and me who like us must lift his eyes above himself for those good gifts that come down from the Father of lights.  Why?  Why did God become man?

Christmas Day

Micah 5:2-5a - Christmas Day - December 25, 2016
The Completed Puzzle

“The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).  So it has always been.  God hides his majesty and glory.  He always has.  “If God is real and so powerful – if God wants us to know him so badly and insists that everyone believe in him – why doesn’t he show himself and quit hiding?”  So says the fool.  He is a fool, though, not because such a request is necessarily unreasonable.  If aimed at our would-be rulers, this is a very legitimate question.   But no, he is a fool because he assumes that to know God is like knowing details of a celebrity politician and to scrutinize his credentials.  But God is not our equal.  He does not exist on our plain of existence.  He is not beholden to time or space, let alone scientific investigation.  And furthermore, he has no obligation to lay his cards on the table.  Nor does he want to be known by such minds that would insist that he cater to human demands of proof.  He wants to be known by faith alone.  Faith exists in humility.  To the proud he is terrifying.  So he must remain.  To the humble he is comforting.  And so it shall ever be.  God wants our knowledge of him to consist of humble faith, not impudent demands for evidence.  This is the whole point.  God wills to remain hidden to those who put God on trial.  But he chooses to reveal himself in kindness and love to those who know they’re on trial. 

The word of the cross is of course the message of the atonement. 

Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-20 - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2016
This Thing Which Is Come to Pass

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This evening and tomorrow, people all over are celebrating.  Families are gathered.  Presents are opened.  Children are excited.  But what are they celebrating?  Christians celebrate by investigating what all the excitement is about.  We celebrate by hearing the word of God.  That’s how the shepherds celebrated Christmas.  The angel preached that a Savior had been born.  What made it good tidings of great joy was not simply that he was born, but that he was born to you.  He is your Savior.  Added to this wonderful news was the sign that was given.  The angel said: 

“And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” 

The point of the promise was not simply to give them something to ponder.  It was to give them God to worship.  God’s glory that shone around them and frightened them would no longer be found in the glowing or thundering of the sky.  No, the angel said to fear not.  Fear not, for now the glory of God in the highest is made known where he makes peace on earth and reveals his favor and goodwill toward men.  This peace and goodwill were found where God became a man.  His birth changed the Sabaoth of God’s mighty angels into sweet choirs of singing heralds. 

Advent Nunc Dimittis

2 Chronicles 6:1-2, 6:41– 7:3, Luke2:25-33
Advent 3 Midweek - December 14, 2016
Nunc Dimittis Servum Tuum

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The reason Joseph and Mary came to the temple with baby Jesus was because she had just given birth to a baby boy.  God commanded that any son who is the firstborn child of his mother had to be consecrated to the Lord and redeemed with a sacrifice.  Even among the animals, any firstborn lamb or calf that was male had to be sacrificed.  Certain animals and human sons, which of course God did not accept as sacrifices, were not sacrificed.  Instead they were redeemed with a lamb.  This was not a weird and arbitrary commandment.  It was actually part of their celebration of the annual Passover.  God instituted the Passover.  You will recall that each household was to sacrifice a male lamb and then eat it roasted with bitter herbs.  This was in commemoration of that first Passover when the angel of death killed all the firstborn sons in Egypt, and spared the firstborn sons in those Hebrew homes whose doors were marked with the blood of the lambs they roasted.  This was the Passover.  Thus, from then on all firstborn sons were holy to the Lord and had to be redeemed by blood.  This consecration was to be done as soon as the mother who just gave birth was ceremonially clean.  So 40 days after Jesus was born, Mary went with her husband and son to the temple, first to receive her own purification and also to consecrate her little boy to the Lord.  And they did. 

Two things here are really interesting. 

Advent 3 Gaudete

Matthew 11:2-10 - Advent 3 - December 11, 2016
Refining and Purifying Christian Faith
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Last Sunday our sermon dealt with the crosses that Christ lays on his Christians.  Crosses are hard to bear – whether they be something bad that God adds to your life or something good that he takes away.  Generally, because of the pain and personal nature of whatever hurts, folks would rather talk to some sort of professional counselor than to their pastor.  But the highest arts of sociology and psychology fall infinitely short of providing what the Christian most dearly needs in time of deep sorrow.  Oh, a counselor can help.   Please don’t get me wrong.  They are often well trained and experienced and can give wonderful and wise advice.  Sometimes all that’s needed is to have a discreet listener who will let you spill out your heart.  That can be, as they say, cathartic. 

That word cathartic means purifying.  It’s where we get the name Catherine, which means pure – a beautiful name!  God makes things pure by purging them.  Pure and purge come from the word for pyre or fire.  To purge is to cleanse by fire, usually in relation to metals like gold and silver or iron.  The Medieval Church entertained the superstition of purgatory where God, through pain, would purify those who died without being pure enough for heaven.  Of course this isn’t true.  What a terrible attack on the comfort of the gospel!  The Bible teaches that our purity is found in Christ by faith, and that this purity will be perfected in us in the twinkling of an eye on the Last Day when Christ returns.  Our pain doesn’t earn our purity.  Christ’s pain already has! 

Advent Agnus Dei

1 Peter 1:17-25, John 1:29-34
Advent 2 Midweek - December 7, 2016
Agnus Dei, Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi

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When God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, it was with little fanfare.  He chose a lowly birth.  He chose lowly people to reveal it to.  An angel gave them a sign and the shepherds followed the sign to the manger where he lay.  The sign was not much to see.  No sign is.  But the promise was wonderful.  It was the promise that compelled them to go and behold the sign.  It was the promise of a Savior who himself was the long awaited Christ, the very Lord God in the flesh.  This was good tidings of great joy to all people.   But all people did not behold him there – only they who had received the sign.  Only they found him and worshiped him and saw that thing which the angels had told them.  Only they, because only they received the sign. 

The angels sang: “Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”  This word for goodwill that the angels sang is the same word that the Father spoke when Jesus was baptized: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”  Goodwill, well-pleased, good-pleasure – it’s all the same word.  Jesus said that no one enters the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again.  By being baptized, Jesus provided for us a new birth that links us to his own holy birth.  Baptism gives us peace with God and the Father’s good-pleasure. 

Advent 2 Populus Zion

Luke 21:25-36 - Advent 2 - December 4, 2016
Your Redemption Draws Near
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As darkest night must fade and die before the sun’s appearing,
So fades my grief away, when I think on these tidings cheering,
That God from all eternity hath loved the world, and hath on me
Bestowed His grace and favor; I’ll ne’er forget the angels’ strain:
Peace–peace on earth, good will to men, to you is born a Savior! Amen. 

In Jesus’ final beatitude, he said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12).  Of all persecutions that we suffer as the children of God, I think about the most painful is when we hear people lie about Jesus – and then by extension when they revile us as well for believing and confessing the truth.  What can be worse than to hear evil spoken against us falsely because of Jesus?  What can be worse than to hear others twist our motives of love and concern as though we were judgmental and hateful bigots when really we just want what Jesus wants: for them to repent and believe the good news that their sins are freely forgiven for Christ’s sake?  What can be worse than when people fundamentally misrepresent this message of the gospel that saves them by adding in false human opinions that rob God our Savior of the glory that belongs to him alone — and then when others for whom the gospel is intended actually believe their lies to the eternal detriment of their souls?  What can be worse?  Yet Jesus says to us who must bear this sorrow, “Blessed are you.” 

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.” 

Christmas Eve

Isaiah 7:10-14 & Luke 2:8-16 - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2015
This Shall Be A Sign Unto You

Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:10-14)

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What is the purpose of a sign?  Why does God give so many signs in the Bible?   It is because God wants you to be sure of what he has promised.  He wants you not to doubt his mercy and grace, and his goodwill and favor toward you in Christ your Savior.  He wants you to be certain of it and to regard him as your loving Father in heaven who does not condemn you, but blesses you and keeps you, since it was to this end that he sent his only begotten Son to be born for you, to live for you, and to die for you.  He wants this confidence for you because he loves you very much.  He wants you to be firm in your faith for at least these two reasons:

Advent Jacob

Genesis 27:41–28:22 - Advent 3 Midweek - December 16, 2015
Jacob – Access to God

Jacob fulfilled his name and supplanted his older brother Esau.  [Jacob fulfilled his name.  We learned about this last week.  His name means supplanter, which is one who gets what belongs to another by taking that person’s place.  Ordinarily, this is a sin.  The ninth commandment teaches us that we should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance, or get it in a way that only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.  Well, Jacob schemed.  And so he got what his older brother thought was his.  But this was no ordinary circumstance.  God had already promised it to Jacob.  Jacob feared and loved God.  He was not scheming to get his brother’s inheritance.  He was scheming to get his own inheritance.  And he didn’t get it in a way that only appeared right.  Actually, it appeared quite wrong.  And yet Jacob was justified in claiming what God had already said was his.  God said it was his.  It was Esau who did not help and be of service to him in keeping it.]

He got the blessing from their father Isaac that Esau had wanted for himself.  Esau was furious.  He consoled himself by planning to kill his brother once their father was dead.  So Jacob fled.  By his determination to gain the blessing that by God’s promise was already his, Jacob became a stranger to the very land that God promised him.  By his eagerness to receive the promise of God, he became a fugitive from his own brother who had become his bitter enemy.  

Claiming God’s blessing by believing the gospel has a way of doing this.  The world, which has at least some sense of fairness and justice, like Esau, knows you don’t deserve the blessing you claim to have and enjoy.  You’re a sinner.  You know it.  They don’t know the half of it.  God knows all of it.  And yet you claim what before the world makes you look like a crook, like your father Jacob.  You claim what you don’t deserve – a blessing you were not born with.  What makes you better than they?  For presuming to have God’s favor despite your many faults, you’ll be called a hypocrite. 

But you don’t claim your own merit or righteousness, do you?  You claim the merit and righteousness of Christ, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  His righteousness stands against all accusation.  It is your birthright, because when you were baptized, you received a new birth – not a birth holding onto the heal of your elder brother, but a birth that unites you forever to the eternal Son of God made flesh for you.  You have been buried and raised with him.  His inheritance is yours.  His innocence is yours.  You have his permission and command to lay hold of it and claim it and not let anyone take it from you.  Esau hated his brother because he couldn’t understand any of this.  So also you will be hated by those who don’t believe the gospel. 

Advent 3

Matthew 11:2-10 - Advent 3 - December 13, 2015
Decreasing & Increasing

St. John was more than a prophet.  He was sent by God to prepare the way for his Son, Jesus Christ.  He prepared for the Lord in two very basic ways. First he taught repentance.  He exposed the sin of those to whom the Lord was coming, that is, the people of Israel.  He exposed their love of money, their arrogance, their drunkenness and debauchery, their disobedience to parents and others in authority, their disdain for the poor, and their shameful ignorance of God’s holy word, which was their heritage.  He exposed their self-righteousness – especially that of their leaders and teachers who no longer directed God’s people to the promised Christ, but directed them instead to their own good works of obedience.  They pointed people to themselves as examples of righteousness to imitate rather than to the mercy long promised in the coming Savior. 

And this brings us to the other way in which John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord.  After he showed people their sin through the law with its curse, he directed them to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He said, there is your blessing; there is the one who bears your curse.  Repent of your sin and look at what I am pointing to.  He is the very Lamb that Abraham told Isaac God would prepare for a sacrifice in his place.  He is the Lamb that was typified by the spotless lamb whose blood marked their doors when the angel of death passed over in Egypt.  He is the Lamb that all sacrifices that the priests ever offered in the temple always pointed to.  

Advent Isaac

Genesis 27:1-40 - Advent 2 Midweek - December 9, 2015
Isaac – Instrument of God

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Abraham had taken two wives altogether: Sarah and then also Keturah after Sarah died.  That’s fine, of course.  One is free to remarry after a spouse dies.  But then he also took Hagar, Sarah’s servant, who gave birth to Ishmael while Sarah still lived; and then also several concubines besides.  That’s not fine.  His grandson Jacob did the same.  He took two wives as well; except for him it was at the same time.  Plus he pretty much took his wives’ servants as wives too.  So he kind of had four wives altogether.  It was all pretty messed up.  It was the culture in which they lived, and they were products of it.  But that doesn’t make it right. 

They had learned these practices from the heathen nations out of which God had once called Abraham and which surrounded them where they lived in the land of Canaan.  God told Abraham to forsake all idols, and he did.  But apparently God was patient when it came to some of their unsavory customs.  God never openly rebuked them for their multiple marriages.  But he never approved of it either.  We see no blessing come from it  – only strife every time.  The blessing with which God blessed Abraham and his seed was always despite these foolish traditions they inherited.  God graciously overlooked them for the sake of the promise to send his Son. 

People will often mock the Bible because of this blatant polygamy among the patriarchs.  But remember God neither commanded it nor approved of it.  As Jesus himself said,

“From the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Mark 10:6-9) 

Jesus points us to the beginning of creation. 

Advent Abraham

Genesis 22:1-18 - Advent 1 Midweek - December 2, 2015
Abraham – Father of Faith

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In Catechism class we’ve been studying Bible history.  The next three lessons that we’re on schedule to study just so happen to form a very fitting three-part series for our midweek Advent services.  We’ll be considering the three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This evening we focus on Abraham

Abraham was a Christian.  His faith was Christian faith, because the promise God gave him to believe was the promise to send Jesus.  Jesus would be a blessing to all nations because he would be the Savior of all nations.  Abraham’s faith was great.  It was strong.  But what made his faith so great was not its strength.  It was its object – that is, it was what he believed in.  He believed the word of God.  He believed in the same Lord Jesus that we believe in.  Of course, Jesus wasn’t born yet.  But this didn’t keep him from believing in him.  Jesus tells us that it didn’t even keep him from seeing him. 

The Jews in Jesus’ day claimed Abraham as their father.  But they did not trust in what Abraham trusted in.  They trusted in themselves – and in their bloodline connection to him.  Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39).  This made them angry, because they were quite proud of their works.  Then Jesus said that Abraham still lived because he believed in him.  So they accused Jesus of blasphemy.  Jesus responded to their charge by saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). 

Let us consider two things this evening:

Christmas 2

Matthew 2:13-23 - Christmas Two - January 4, 2015         
Our Father Guards His Children

Joseph was a just man.  Just means righteous.  This is what St. Matthew calls him when he reports how Joseph had the mind to secretly divorce his young betrothed wife.  He of course knew that he was not the father of the Child she was carrying, and supposed that Mary had behaved unchastely.  But he was a just man.  He was concerned about not publicly shaming her.  That’s why he sought to secretly divorce her – that is, until the angel assured him that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit. 

Joseph was a just man:  This has a double meaning.  The first is the more important.  And the second flows from the first.  But the two meanings go together.  The first refers to the righteousness by which he stood before God by faith, given to him as a free gift in Christ.  The second refers to the righteousness of the sanctified life, which he did before men in response to the free gift.  Joseph was righteous by faith.  He was also a just man in word and deed.  Righteous men do righteous things.  Go figure. 

New Year's Eve

Luke 2:21 - New Years’ Eve - December 31, 2014         
God Names His Children

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We name our kids, and then our kids make names for themselves.  Their names stay the same – the outward syllables don’t change.  But in a name is more than what one is called out loud.  In a name is what one is, what he has done, what he’s worth.  One’s works and achievements fill the name he has and give it meaning – whether for good or for bad.  A name serves as a sort of symbol of who one is. 

Christmas 1

Luke 2:25-32 - Christmas One - December 28, 2014
The Peace of Christmas

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Every Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation of the Son of God.  The word to incarnate simply means to take on flesh and blood.  That’s what God did.  The almighty creator and sustainer of the universe became a Man, born a little Baby to the Virgin Mary, upon whom He relied for His sustenance.  We accept this wonderful mystery in simple faith, because God’s Word clearly teaches it.  Christmas is very readily and joyfully celebrated because God is here presented to man in such a gentle and peaceful manner.  Who could despise this little Baby?  He lies in a manger as a harmless Child surrounded by lowly and gentle barnyard animals.  It is truly a very peaceful way for God to present Himself to us. 

And of course, one can hardly think of Christmas without the song of the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  This adds to, and in fact establishes, the peaceful atmosphere of Christmas that we all know so well.  Simeon knew this peace very well too.  No, he wasn’t there when the angels appeared to the shepherds singing their beautiful message of goodwill toward men.  But this peace was no less familiar to him because of it.  

Christmas Eve Magnificat 4

Luke 1:39-56 - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2014
God Remembers His Merciful Promises

“He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

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It is said that God helps those who help themselves.  It’s a clever little saying.  There’s some truth to it.  But there is also a great error in this way of thinking.  We’ll consider both. 

The truth of the matter is clear: God does help those who help themselves.  We can’t deny it.  We see it happen.  Laziness is met with poverty.  Industry is met with wealth.  This is how God’s world works.  It is tempting God to pray for daily bread, but then refuse to work for it.  It is tempting God to pray for the betterment of your neighbor, and then refuse to assist him yourself when you can.  It is tempting God to pray for your brother’s repentance and conversion, and then refuse to admonish or encourage him to hear the word of God when the occasion arises.  To pray for God’s help is to pray that God might give you the strength and opportunity to do what needs to be done.  God works through means.  You just may be the means through which God desires to work. 

But this does not mean we trust in ourselves.  No, we trust in God.  It is not like God rewards our self-help by helping us the rest of the way.  No!  God just so happens to use our own responsible decisions as a means of blessing us, and others.