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?

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. 

New Year's Eve

Luke 2:21- New Year’s (Eve) - December 31, 2012

According to the Law

It’s the last day of 2012.  Another year is passed.  For better or worse, this mile marker measures the accomplishments and events of our lives.  But I suppose we could use any other day as a mile marker.  Think of all the other calendars that measure the year.  There’s the fiscal year.  That’s important to some people.  There’s the academic year.  This is engraved in the mind of anyone who’s been a student.  There is, of course, the church year.  This is the one that governs what we celebrate here in church.  And finally there is the legal year, the one we’re all about to celebrate tonight, which runs from January 1^st – December 31^st. 

Legal year.  That makes it sound kind of unexciting.  But I call it the legal year, because that’s exactly what it is.  What else is it?  Tomorrow is legally, according to the law, 2013.  2012 will legally be over.  There’s no avoiding or undoing the passage of time.  We know that.  The law, however, with its legal years, makes sure that we don’t forget it either.  That’s what the law does in all of its forms.  It doesn’t make anything so.  It just tells you what’s what.   2012 will soon be over and it will be too late to make 2012 anything other than what it was.  That’s the law. 

Tonight we close a year lived under God’s grace by commending a new year into His care.   But consider what else brings us here tonight.  January 1^st just so happens to mark that day when the legal calendar intersects perfectly with the church calendar.  It’s really kind of neat.  Consider the theme.  Just as the year begins on January 1^st, according to the law, so also, for the church year, it is on January 1^st that we celebrate how Jesus placed Himself under the law.  In His birth, God submitted to our physical limitations.  That’s Christmas.  Eight days later, in His circumcision, God submitted to our legal restrictions.  That’s New Year’s. 

New Year's Day

Luke 2:21 - New Year’s Day - January 1, 2012 

JESUS’ COMMITS HIMSELF TO BE OUR SAVIOR

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. 

There’s a lot in a name – what other people call you, what you call yourself.  Your name is your identity.  It says a lot about who you are.  Or maybe it says more about who your parents had hoped you would live up to.  I myself am named after the Apostle John.  If am to live up to my name, I have some pretty big shoes to fill.  It’s fitting for me therefore that my name means “the Lord is gracious.”  Thank God.  Lots of other names have important meanings too.  My daughter Nadia Christi has a neat name.  It means “Hope of Christ.”  Her name reflects that which she was given in her Baptism.  I have a brother who is visiting today whose name I have always liked: Stephen Keyser Preus.  His name means “Crowned Emperor of Prussia.”  Pretty cool, huh?  But … he’s not an emperor; he’s just my little brother.   Some names, no matter how great in meaning, do not always accurately describe who you are.  Now, although he’s done a great job so far, my brother, just like the rest of us, needs to make a name for himself, so to speak.  We all have to do this; we must imbue our own name with our own character.  And perhaps with the New Year, and with all our resolutions and stuff, we are particularly focused on this very task today. 

But of course, I am not here to give you tips on how to do that.  We’re here today to consider the name of Jesus.  Unlike the rest of us, Jesus is what His name means.  That’s why the name was given to Him by the angel Gabriel even before He was conceived.  The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew for “the Lord saves.”  Jesus is called Jesus because He is our Savior.  “And [Mary] will bring forth a Son,” Gabriel told Joseph, “and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”