Christmas Day

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day

December 25, 2022

Text: John 1:1-18

            “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1; ESV).  ὁ λόγος in Greek.  And “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v. 1).  That is to say, the Word, ὁ λόγος, eternally begotten of the Father, is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.  When God speaks in the beginning (for example, “Let there be light” [Gen. 1:3]), the Father is speaking forth the Son, “by whom all things were made,” as we confess in the Nicene Creed, almost directly quoting our Holy Gospel this morning, and, as St. John reminds us, “without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).  The Father said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3).  The Word of God accomplishes what He says, because the Word of God is God Himself, the eternal Son of the Father.  And all things are created, and all creation is sustained, through Him.  The Father does His creative work by means of the Son; and while we’re at it, let’s not forget the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, who is hovering over the waters in the beginning (Gen. 1:2).  But here, St. John would focus us in on the Son, the Word, ὁ λόγος.

            “In him was life,” John says (John 1:4).  The Source of our being alive (and here the word is not just βίος, as in biological life, but ζωὴ, the state of being a living soul)… The Source of our being alive as living souls is the Son of God.  And the life, the ζωὴ He gives us, John says, is “the light of men.”  And now we’re back to the Son as the Source of light. 

            So, through the Son, the Father has given us this creation, and made us living souls to receive it and enjoy it, and He has given us light, not only with which to see with our eyes, but warmth (yes, even this cold December), and, even more, the light of reason, illumination, what the philosophers and theologians call “the rational soul” (if we were to mash up the Greek word with English, we could say God has given us a λόγος-ified soul, which is all part of what it means to be created in God’s image).  And all this would be enough grace and mercy to demand our praises and thanksgivings for eternity. 

            But God is not content to leave it at that.  He was never content with that.  He wants more.  He made man for Himself, for communion, for relationship, to be the recipient of His intimate and substantial presence.  Even before sin came into the world, God’s earnest desire has always been to dwell with His people.  He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the day.  He spoke with Adam.  He gave Adam gift upon gift, grace upon grace.  When everything went wrong, there, in the Garden… when Adam and Eve fell into sin, plunging all of us, their sons and daughters, into curse and death and eternal condemnation… it wasn’t plan B to become one with humanity in order to save us.  That is His plan A, the eternal plan of God to become one with us, and that is precisely what saves us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (v. 14).  That is, God the Son became flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, and literally tabernacled (like the Tabernacle in ancient Israel), pitched His tent, among us.  How?  To use, now, the words of the Apostles’ Creed: He “was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.”  And you know that story from last night, from Luke Chapter 2. 

            What happens when the Son of God becomes flesh, when the Word of our Father is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, His Incarnation, His enflehsment?  The Light (the Son Himself!) is shining in the darkness!  Now, not just the darkness of primordial creation.  But the darkness we brought upon ourselves.  Sin.  And sin’s wages: Death.  The devil, the old sly serpent, and his demonic lackies.  The curse.  Where the Light shines, the darkness is eliminated.  And He comes, this Light, to shine His saving rays and eliminate the darkness “far as the curse is found” (LSB 387:3).  That is why Christmas is such a season of joy! 

            But you know, He came into the world… the world that was made through Him… and the world did not know Him.  The Creator comes to His creation to redeem it and restore it, and the living souls, for whom He is the Source of life, would have nothing to do with Him.  If original righteousness is communion with God and faith in His Word, then original sin is rejection of God and unbelief.  Tragically, original sin infects all humanity… save the One who is born apart from the will of the flesh, without the cooperation of a human father to pass along sin, born of a virgin, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            He came to His own.  That is, the Jews, the children of Israel, God’s chosen nation.  And His own people did not receive Him.  They had their own system of eliminating the darkness.  Their own inner light.  Their keeping of the Law.  Their good works.  They didn’t want God to come and fix what they would not acknowledge was broken.  So the Jews, and the rest of the world (the Gentiles), crucified Him.  They rejected Him to death.  They thought they were eliminating the darkness, but in reality, they were the very tools of darkness, and of the prince of darkness, stiving to eliminate the Light!

            Ah, but they played right into His hands, didn’t they?  The Word became flesh for this very purpose.  To stare the darkness of death in the face, be consumed by it, and pierce it from the inside out with His illuminating and darkness-eliminating rays of Light and Life.  Death is the black hole that swallows up sinners into hell.  But dark death made a big mistake when it swallowed the Light.  It has not overcome the Light.  In fact, it cannot.  For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born of Mary, is risen from the dead. 

            And now, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,” to all who have been taken in and swallowed up by the Light, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters to enlighten and enliven, “he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).  He gave us to be born into Him by water and the Word, by faith.  And like His birth, our new birth is not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man.  It is of God Himself.  The Son of God gives us to become sons of God.  Baptized into Christ.  God’s own child, I gladly say it.  God’s Triune Name written upon us in water and in blood: “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” 

            And He sends His preachers, now, to shine His Light upon you.  John the Baptist.  Apostles and Prophets.  Christian pastors.  Not to mention Christian parents, Christian teachers, your brothers and sisters here in the Church.  And what happens?  In His Light do we see Light (Ps. 36:9).  The darkness in your life is dispelled and eliminated.  Your sins are forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.  The Holy Spirit takes up residence in you, so that you are not just a living soul, but a spirit with eternal life, looking forward to the resurrection of your body apart from the passions and corruptions of the flesh.  And you begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit, the things of Light: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).  From the fulness of Jesus Christ, your Light and your Life, you receive grace upon grace (John 1:16)… upon grace upon grace.  And you know the Truth: Truth Incarnate in the Person of Jesus, and the Truth inscripturated in the Holy Bible.  Indeed, the Law came through Moses; Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ (v. 17). 

            And now, watch this: You see His glory.  Okay, not with your eyeballs, in the same way that the Evangelist, St. John, saw His glory in the Transfiguration, for example.  You will see it that way, in heaven, and in the Resurrection of the dead.  But you see it even now.  By faith.  In Jesus, as He comes to you.  “No one has ever seen God,” John says, but “the only God, who is at the Father’s side,” Jesus Christ, His Son, “has made him known” (v. 18).  That doesn’t just mean back there and then, at the time of John.  This is the new reality for the people of God ever since the angel appeared to Mary, and our Lord was conceived in her womb.  The Word became flesh… Incarnation!... and pitched His tent among us.  Emmanuel, God with us!  He who put His blood and skin on the line, on the cross, to win us for Himself, is not content with just some distant, spiritual or emotional connection.  No.  He comes down in the flesh and sets up camp right here.  Substantially.  With us.  Because He made us for Himself, and has now redeemed us for Himself, for communion, relationship, to be recipients of His intimate and substantial presence.  And to become one with Him as He feeds us with Himself.  His true body.  His true blood.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Born of the Virgin Mary.  Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. 

            When you eat and drink Jesus, the Light pierces you from the inside out and takes possession of you.  And whosoever is possessed and enveloped by that Light, that one no darkness can overcome.

            Merry Christmas!

            In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                 

Christmas Eve

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve

December 24, 2022

Text: Luke 2:1-20

            “Fear not” (Luke 2:10; KJV).  That is the preaching of Christmas to all who are “sore afraid” (v. 9).  The shepherds were sore afraid that first Christmas.  Literally, they feared a great fear.  After all, it isn’t every day (or night, as they case may be), that the angel of the Lord comes upon you, and the glory of Lord shines round about you.  And you know very well that the effeminate angel that tops your Christmas tree is nothing like the real thing.  Angels are fearsome creatures.  Mighty warriors.  And when they appear in the divine radiance of the Lord Himself, well… It’s enough to scare you to death.  In fact, it will kill you, mortal sinner that you are, unless… Unless there is the preaching.  “Fear not.”  Why?  Because this is the eternal life-saving and life-giving Gospel, the good tidings of great joy announced by the angel: “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (v. 11).

            “Fear not,” dear shepherds, for Messiah has come.  Unto you a Child is born.  Unto you a Son is given (Is. 9:6).  God has come down in flesh and blood.  Not to execute His wrath on lowly sinners, but to be one with them, to pitch His tent among them (John 1:14), to save them, by offering Himself up as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  And here is where you will find Him: wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12).  It’s enough to make all heaven sing.  And so heaven does.  The whole heavenly host (v. 13).  Angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  They sing the first Christmas carol: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (v. 14).

            “Fear not,” dear Christian.  The angelic Gospel proclaimed to shepherds of old, is likewise proclaimed to you this night, as you keep watch, and long for the morning light.  God knows you fear a great fear.  God knows you are sore afraid.  Perhaps you don’t fear an intrusion of angels.  But your fears are not all that different than those of the shepherds.  The perils of the night: The dark and cold, wolves, predators, violent malefactors.  

            And for that matter, your fears are not all that different than those that plagued the Holy Family.  Government decrees and burdensome taxes.  Stressful and dangerous travel, only to be turned away at the door on Christmas Eve.  And the young woman is pregnant… an unplanned pregnancy.  And poor.  And now her time has come.  “You can sleep with the animals.  It’s the best we can offer.”  Perhaps you, or someone you know and love, have been faced with such fear and cruel rejection.  In any case, you know what it is to be crushed from above and pressured from all sides, with no apparent resources to come to your rescue.  And that is certainly the case when it comes to your sins.  The holy Law of God proffers no mercy.  Only guilt and condemnation.  It presses down from above.  And the world offers no real solace.  Only broken promises and rejection.  The squeeze to keep up, or give up.  It is enough to scare you to death.  In fact, it will kill you.  Unless…

            “Fear not,” all you who walk in darkness, and everyone who is oppressed (Is. 9:2, 4).  For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.  He is born into your fear.  The Light breaks into the darkness.  Hope cuts through despair.  The glory of the Lord shines round about you in the very dark of night.  He is born in poverty and in the filth of a stable.  And the yoke of His burden, the staff for His shoulder, the rod of His oppressor, He breaks as on the Day of Midian (Is. 9:4), when, in great weakness and sorrow, He bears His cross to Golgotha to die for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world. 

            He was born of the Virgin Mary for this very moment.  God cannot die.  But a man can.  A mere man cannot atone for the sins of the world.  But God can.  This fleshy little Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger… He is God.  Our God is a Man.  The Man, suffering, bleeding, and nailed to the cross, bearing the full weight of our transgressions against God’s holy Law, crushed by God’s righteous wrath from above, hemmed in on all sides by those who mock and jeer and reject His suffering love… He is the eternal Son of the Father.  True God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the Virgin Mary.  But He is your Lord.  He does this for you.  Why?  To make you His own.  To wash away your sins.  To rescue you from every oppression.  To give you eternal life and joy.  So that you need never fear again. 

            “Fear not.”  That is the Christmas preaching.  And the speaking of God makes it so.  The shepherds do not die.  And neither do you.  For Christ born of Mary has died for your sins.  The Seed of the woman has crushed the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15).  And now He is risen, in the very Body born on Christmas.  Unbreakable Life breaks into death.  Glory to God in the highest.  Our Lord Jesus has done all things well.  And on earth, peace.  That is, God’s good will toward men.  Peace between heaven and earth.  For your sins are forgiven.  God’s anger is assuaged.  He is for you, and not against you.  God and sinners are reconciled.  No more pressing down from above.

            And this makes for reconciliation between sinners.  This makes for peace between you and those who have hurt you, and between you and those whom you’ve hurt.  Christ has redeemed you from all lawlessness (Titus 2:14), and given you to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions (v. 12), and that includes all grudges and refusals to forgive.  And He’s given you to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, and that means repenting of the sins you’ve committed against others, asking for forgiveness.  And forgiving as you have been forgiven.  And so, no more pressing in from all sides.  By His incarnation, death, and resurrection, Christ Jesus has freed you from those chains.    

            Now our Lord Jesus has ascended in this same Body, born of Mary, to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, where He rules all things for us.  As Isaiah prophesied, the government is upon His shoulder (Is. 9:6).  But this also means He is hidden from your eyes.  Nevertheless, “Fear not.”  He is not gone from you.  As a matter of fact, you know just where to find Him, where you always have access to your flesh and blood God.  You will find Him swaddled in the pages of Holy Scripture, and lying on the altar to feed you with the Bread of Life, which is to say, with Himself. 

            “Bethlehem” is a Hebrew name that means “House of Bread,” and that is the Church.  Let us go, then, even unto the Church of God to see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us: That unto us a Child is born.  Unto us a Son is given.  He is our Savior, Christ, the Lord.  And it is right here that meek souls will receive Him still, with all His Gospel gifts.  “Fear not,” dear Christian.  The hopes and fears of all the years are met in the Christ Child tonight.  God is born in flesh and blood for you.  Merry Christmas.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                       

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent (A)

December 18, 2022

Text: Matt. 1:18-25

            Joseph was a just man (Matt. 1:19).  That is not to say that he was sinless.  But it is to say, humanly speaking, he was a good guy, a faithful and generally obedient Jew, who loved God, hoped in God, believed the Scriptures, observed the Law, attended Synagogue, and dutifully plied his trade.  A hard-working carpenter, you know.  Joseph is the kind of man you want your son to grow up to be, and your daughter to marry.[1]

            Which is to say, Joseph teaches us what it means to be a Christian man.  Our confessions say this is what we should do with the saints.  We shouldn’t worship them or pray to them.  But we should set their memory before us, as the Augsburg Confession says, “that we may follow their faith and good works, according to our calling.”[2]  It is particularly important in our time that we have biblical examples of Christian men, and for that matter, Christian women, Christian marriages, and Christian families, whose faith and good works we may emulate in our own lives, and from whose mistakes we may learn of the grace of God.  Because, if you haven’t noticed, the very essence of these things, what it means to be a man, a husband, a father… what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother… whether an infant’s life has any inherent worth… whether marriage has any meaning beyond sexual desire and romantic attraction… the very essence of these things is under attack.  And you know why, don’t you?  Satan hates men because Jesus Christ was born a man to undo the deadly damage perpetrated by the first man.  Satan hates women because the Seed of a woman would crush His head (Gen. 3:15).  Satan hates fathers because he hates God, our heavenly Father.  He hates mothers because he hates Mary, who bore the Savior, and He hates our mother, the Church.  He hates babies because our Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  He hates marriage and perverts sexuality because Christ is the chaste and faithful Bridegroom of His Church… because He loved her, and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water and the word, that He might present her to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:25-27).

            So, here the Spirit holds St. Joseph before our eyes as a just, that is, righteous man.  What are the qualities that make him a model for Christian men?  Look how he cares for his betrothed, Mary.  When he thinks (for obvious reasons) that she has stepped out on him, committed adultery, he is even still, heartbroken as he is, concerned to protect her.  Now, according to the Law of Moses, he could have insisted she be stoned (Lev. 20:10; John 8:4-5)!  But he doesn’t do that.  He does determine to divorce her.  And you have to understand that in Israel, betrothal was as legally and spiritually binding as marriage.  The marriage simply hadn’t been consummated yet.  So, divorce it is, but quietly.  He is protecting not only her life, but as much as possible under the circumstances, her honor.  He is covering over her sins (or at least what he thinks are her sins).  But then, when the angel tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, and that it is, in fact, true that the Child conceived in her womb is from the Holy Spirit, he is obedient to the Word of the Lord.  He will take her, now, into His protection, under the umbrella of his providence, as his own Eve, his rib, flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone.  And the Child.  The Child, too, will be under Joseph’s protection and providence, as his own Son.  Joseph is the model adoptive father.  His relationship to Jesus may not be biological.  And he understands he must yield to our Lord’s heavenly Father.  But there is no question that Joseph is Jesus’ dad. 

            And yes, Jesus.  Joseph shall name the child “Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21; ESV).  And it’s all right there in the Scriptures of the Prophets, Joseph: “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (v. 23; Is. 7:14).   When Joseph takes Mary and her Child as his own, he is accepting all the attendant sacrifices that will require of him.  As, indeed, the Christian man must always accept when he becomes a husband and a father.

            And we should note this, too: Joseph is a model for us all of sexual purity.  Even during their betrothal, he doesn’t violate the sanctity of Mary’s body.  No premarital sex.  He controls his passions.  That is a sacrifice every Christian man and woman must make.  We should regard and treat the bodies of others as holy vessels of the Lord, created in His own image, and redeemed by the sacrifice of His body on the cross. 

            But Joseph shows that this calling extends even into marriage.  Now, most Christian husbands and wives are not called upon to refrain from consummating their marriage on the wedding night and thereafter.  Joseph has a special calling to “know her not” until she gives birth to her Son.  But even in marriage, we are to treat the bodies of our spouses as holy vessels.  To be blunt, sex is holy.  Christian husbands and wives should enjoy it, and they should give themselves to one another, and not deprive one another, as St. Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 7.  But always in holiness.  Don’t let Satan convince you that sex is dirty and bad.  It is only dirty and bad outside of holy marriage, and when it is used in ways that demean, harm, or unnaturally violate the holiness of marital union.  All Christians, but Christian men, especially, are called upon to emulate St. Joseph, and guard the sexual purity of themselves and others, even against their own fleshly passions. 

            Well, what else do we know about St. Joseph from other texts?  He cares for Mary and her unborn Child on the long, arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  He cares for them in the Bethlehem stable, surrounded as they are by beasts and shepherds, when the time comes for Mary to give birth.  He attends her and provides for her needs.  As the spiritual head of his house, he has the Child circumcised on the eighth day, naming Him Jesus as the angel commanded, and he brings the Child and His mother to the Temple for the rites of redemption and purification (Luke 2); that is, he leads his young family in the holy faith of Israel.  He provides a home for them.  He shelters them in a house, in which they receive the wise men.  And when he is warned in a dream of Herod’s murderous rage, he protects his dear Baby Boy by whisking his family off to Egypt (Matt. 2).  We know that when the danger has passed, Joseph gives his family a stable home in Nazareth, and we can be sure that he trains up little Jesus in the way He should go, in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and undoubtedly teaches the Boy his trade, that of carpenter.  We know that Joseph is faithful in leading his family to Jerusalem for the great Old Testament feasts, and when, on one such occasion, he thinks Jesus is lost, he turns the city upside down looking for his dear Son.  Until, of course, he finds Jesus right where He belongs, in the Temple, sitting among the teachers and asking them questions (Luke 2).

            He’s a good husband, a good dad, a just man.  But then Joseph disappears from the Gospel narrative.  By the way, not a word from his mouth is recorded in Scripture.  Apparently, he was the strong, silent type.  But what happened to him?  Presumably, he died.  Mary is an apparent widow when Jesus commends her into St. John’s care at the cross (John 19:26-27).

            But see, here, too, he teaches us.  He never makes it all about him.  All the things we’ve pointed out about him, are not actually about Joseph, or even about Mary (who is, by the way, the model for Christian women, in her faithful obedience to the Lord and treasuring His Word, as well as her reception of Joseph’s husbandly care and headship).  It’s all about Jesus.  Joseph’s whole life, the protection and care he provides for his family, his faithful sacrifices, his obedience to the Word, it's all about providing God’s gift of Jesus to the world.  Which is to say, to you. 

            Just as his namesake, that dreamer of old, Joseph the Patriarch, protected Israel and provided for them in Egypt, so that, from this people, the Savior of the world would be born; so St. Joseph of Nazareth is the mask of God in protecting and rearing the Child born of Mary, our Lord Jesus Christ.  And, now, think about this: In his providence and protection and vocation as head of the Holy Family, Joseph teaches us what Christ, our Bridegroom, does for us. 

            He was a just man.  Justified by faith alone in the Messiah, who, as it happens, is his own adopted Son.  But so also just, as in a faithful, Bible believing, Christian husband and father, who provides for his family and raises them in the faith.  Dear Christian men… be like him.  Dear Christian women… marry a man like him.  Husbands, fathers… do what he does.  Wives, mothers… do as Mary does and receive the Christian headship of your husband.  And to those who are single now, or widowed, or even if you never get married… there is virtually nothing here that you can’t emulate in your own context as you seek to live faithfully as one redeemed by Christ the crucified, the Son of Mary, Son of God, Joseph’s Boy.

            But above all, all of you, dear Christians… emulate Joseph in this.  Christ.  It’s all about Christ.  Your whole life wrapped up in Christ.  Redeemed by Christ.  Live for Christ.  Really, to be like Joseph simply means to find your life in Christ alone.  To trust Christ.  To receive Christ as He comes to you in the flesh, even as Joseph received Him in the flesh. 

            Thank God for Joseph.  Through his faithfulness, God brings our Savior into the world.  And from St. Joseph we learn what it means to be a man.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.    

 

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[1] Peter Nafzger, https://www.1517.org/articles/gospel-matthew-118-25-advent-4-series-a-2022?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=237461661&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--l92xUn9AJIps4E5gKorSfw-EEs8F-EX5-lw5QSh7npa5E0lhI22hcVn-yf_19fZZsv81iK-aCYb2-FW42umYh8Fu2Nw&utm_content=237461661&utm_source=hs_email

[2] AC XXI:1, https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/of-worship-of-saints/

Advent Midweek III

Advent Midweek III: Three Things That Make a Theologian: Tentatio[1]

December 14, 2022

Text: Psalm 119:153-168

            Perhaps I should have warned you in the first midweek sermon: Prayer and meditation on God’s Word is a dangerous undertaking.  It will, necessarily, lead to suffering, trial, affliction.  Luther says that there are three things that make a theologian: Oratio, Meditatio, and Tentatio, and now you must know that the three always come together as a package in the school of the Holy Spirit.  For when you pray according to God’s will, and when you meditate upon His Word, drinking it deeply into your mind and heart and soul, you are launching an assault against our three main enemies: the devil, the world, and your own sinful nature.  And that, beloved, makes you a target.  When you pray, and when you hear and learn God’s Word, you become the focus of your enemies’ hatred and rage. 

            Perhaps it will be physical.  Perhaps the devil will orchestrate an accident or an assault to cause you bodily injury.  Or maybe he will unleash an illness in your cells.  Perhaps the world will restrain you for your Christian confession… loss of freedom, loss of earthly goods, loss of safety, loss of life.  And your own sinful nature may rebel against the spirit within you.  You may need to discipline your body by refusing to indulge the fleshly appetites, fighting against lust and covetousness, gluttony and sloth. 

            Then again, it will certainly be spiritual, this affliction, this tentatio.  The devil will whisper his temptations in your ears, and introduce doubts about God’s Word.  He will then shout his accusations when you fall, leading you into despair.  And the world will mock, and reject, and cancel you for being such a closed-minded and hate-filled religious zealot.  And your own flesh will betray you, ever willing and ready to listen to the devil’s lies, and forever craving the passions of the flesh and the approval of the world. 

            So oratio and meditatio always lead to tentatio.  Which, then, must drive us back to ever more oratio and meditatio!  It is as our Psalmist, King David, sings in Psalm 119: “Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law” (v. 153; ESV), Your Torah, Your Word.  Why is King David afflicted?  Because He clings to God’s Word.  He does not forget Torah.  He meditates upon it.  He hears it, reads, marks, learns, and inwardly digests it.  And on that basis, he prays.  Which makes him a target for all his enemies.  They afflict him.  But, now, watch this: He doesn’t then abandon God’s Word and prayer so his enemies will leave him alone.  That is not what a Christian does.  No, the affliction drives him deeper into God’s Word, and on that basis, he prays, he cries out, “Look on me, O LORD, and deliver me!”  See, the whole thing backfires on the enemies.  When they unleash affliction on a Christian so as to cause unbelief and despair, God uses that very affliction to bring His Christian closer to Him.  He gives His Spirit, leading you to become even more firmly entrenched in oratio and meditatio. 

            This is just the Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer in action.  “Thy will be done,” we pray.  “What does this mean?  The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.  How is God’s will done?  God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let his kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.  This is His good and gracious will.”[2]  When we pray the Third Petition (which itself is also a meditation on God’s Word, since the Lord Jesus gave us these very words to pray), we are asking… not that God would never let us suffer anything… we know that’s simply not how it works in a world full of sin, and sinners, and our own sin... but that He would deliver us through it.  That He would turn the affliction on the heads of the afflicters… that the affliction would backfire. 

            You know, our Lord Jesus also prayed the Third Petition, under great spiritual and physical affliction, in a garden, while His disciples slept.  “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will… if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (Matt. 26:39, 42).  He didn’t want to suffer.  Of course He didn’t.  But there was something He wanted even more than He wanted to avoid suffering.  To accomplish the will of the Father in saving the world from sin.  Saving you and me.  And He knew there was only one way to do that.  Surrender.  Give Himself into the hands of the enemies.  The devil.  The world.  Sinful human nature.  The suffering and death of the cross.  So he didn’t shrink from it.  He drank the cup to the bitter dregs.  Knowing all the while that these afflictions would result in the utter defeat of all that held us captive.  He came for this very purpose.  He took on a body to do just this: To suffer, to die, to rise again, for our forgiveness, justification, and redemption.  We’re about to mark once again the Feast of the Baby born of Mary, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.  And that Feast is all about the cross, and the death of the Son of God in our flesh, and the resurrection of the body born of Mary for the salvation of the world.  That is the Father’s good and gracious will.  Jesus. 

            So, if He accomplished that, the greatest good, the salvation of sinners, through the greatest evil, the crucifixion of the Son of God, what can He accomplish through the afflictions you suffer?  You know what He’s doing through these afflictions, in spite of every evil plan and purpose of your enemies?  He is doing what we call in theology, His alien work (the work that is foreign to His nature), breaking you down and stripping you of your idols, all that you fear, love, and trust the most, all that you’ve made into a god or a savior.  So that He can do His proper work (the work that is essential to His nature), re-creation and resurrection in Christ, by His Spirit, in the preaching and sacramental gifts of the Gospel.  Your afflictions, your crosses, are a participation in Christ’s cross.  He won your salvation on His cross.  But in the crosses He lays upon you, He accomplishes your own death and resurrection.  He scrapes you up out of the mud in which your afflictions have laid you.  And He breathes His Spirit into you.  So that you breathe His Spirit in meditation on God’s Word (inhale) and prayer (exhale).  The best way to deal with afflictions when they come, is not to avoid them, but to commend them to the Lord in earnest prayer, and dive ever more deeply into God’s promises in His Word.  Knowing that God will do as he always does: Work all things, even evil things, together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).  “Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your Word.”  Tentatio leads to meditatio and oratio. 

            These three things make a theologian, which is to say, they make you a Christian… prepared (Advent) to receive the Lord Jesus who came as a Baby for your redemption; who comes to you in His Word, Baptism, and Supper; and who is coming again to raise you fully and finally, bodily, to live eternally in His Kingdom.  Blessed Advent.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.            

 

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[1] The theme and many of the ideas in this sermon come from John T. Pless, “Midweek Advent Series: Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio," in Pastor Craft (Irvine, CA: New Reformation, 2020) pp. 139-147.

[2] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986). 

Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (A)

December 11, 2022

Text: Matt. 11:2-15

            “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7; ESV).  That is the Lord’s Word to us from the pen of His own dear brother, James.  Advent is a time of waiting.  In fact, the whole New Testament era, from the time of our Lord’s Ascension, to the time of His coming again in glory, the time in which we now live, is a time of waiting.  It is one long Advent Season.  We wait upon the Lord.  We wait for our deliverance.  From our sins.  From this fallen world.  From the crafts and assaults of the devil.  And for the Lord’s appearing.  For the light of His face.  The fulfillment of our hope.  The great setting right of all things.  Resurrection.  New Creation.  But here we are, now, in this world.  And we wait.  And we pray: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).  And we wait some more. 

            Waiting is hard.  St. John is waiting in prison.  He has been faithful.  His whole life has been a going before the Lord’s face, a preparation for the way of the Lord.  He has preached faithfully, at great personal cost, and in the face of substantial opposition.  A home in the wilderness.  Camels’ hair and leather for his raiment.  Locusts and wild honey for his table fare.  Baptizing with a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And what does he get for it?  A dungeon and chains and almost certain death.  Herod’s government will not abide preachers of biblical marriage.  So, you can sympathize with St. John, can’t you?  He has believed, and He has preached, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  He has believed, and He has preached the arrival of Messiah, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  And it should be as his father, Zachariah, sang at John’s own nativity: “that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us… that we… might serve [God] without fear” (Luke 1:71, 74).  But here he is in the dungeon, waiting and suffering, and he just wonders…  Is it all true?  Has this all been worth it?  What is the end game of all of this?  Lord Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another” (Matt. 11:3)? 

            What is Jesus’ answer to John and his disciples?  It’s always a little frustrating, isn’t it, that He won’t just say “yes” or “no”?  But He wants John to look at the right thing, in the right place.  “Go and tell John what you hear and see” (v. 4).  And what is that?  It is Jesus fulfilling the Prophets.  It is Jesus fulfilling our Old Testament reading (Is. 35:1-10)… “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news,” Gospel, “preached to them” (Matt. 11:5).  Jesus is doing what all the Hebrew Scriptures say Messiah will do.  He is reversing the curse.  He is undoing the work of the devil.  He is rescuing sinners from the wages of sin.  He is healing creation of its brokenness.  And, to be sure, it is not the final and full manifestation of His restoring work.  But it is a glimpse of what will come about, fully and completely, on that great Day when Jesus comes again at the end.  It will come about because of what He came into our flesh to do now: Suffer and die for the sins of the world, and on the Third Day be raised from the dead. 

            And blessed is the one who is not offended by that, “blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (v. 6).  The redemption and restoration can only come through suffering… The suffering of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, and the suffering of His people as we wait… As we wait upon the Lord for our own resurrection and deliverance.  That is a scandal.  Literally, the word translated here as “offended” is σκανδαλισθῇ, “scandalized.”  It doesn’t mean “outraged” or “taken aback.”  It means “to be tripped up” so that you stumble and fall.  Blessed is the one who is not scandalized, who doesn’t stumble and fall on account of Jesus, and the suffering, and the waiting, but who, rather, waits patiently for the coming of the Lord.      

            This is the time of waiting, beloved.  And waiting is hard.  Thanks be to God, thus far, you don’t have to wait in prison and chains.  But there is no question that it sure doesn’t look like you’ve been saved from your enemies and the hand of all who hate you.  It sure doesn’t look like you can just serve God without fear.  In fact, you may end up in prison and in chains for Jesus.  I hope not, but the way our society is trending, it has a lot more in common with Herod’s government than with Jesus.  Trust me, I think about that a lot, because like John, I preach biblical marriage.  And it is simply true that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force (v. 12), so that is what you can expect.  While you wait. 

            And, it doesn’t have to be prison and martyrdom that drive you to St. John’s question.  If Jesus has come, and He is the One who delivers us from all evil, then why do things have to be so hard?  Why are other people so difficult?  And why am I so difficult for other people?  Why do they keep sinning against me?  Even my fellow Christians?  And why do I keep sinning and failing in so many ways?  I’m frustrated with others.  I’m frustrated with myself.  I’m frustrated that I’m so easily frustrated.  Never mind physical afflictions and politics and the dreary winter weather.  And here it is, the holidays again, and I’m just supposed to smile and make merry with a warm glow in my heart.  Well, try telling John in prison to have a warm Christmas glow in his heart.  If we’re being honest, the truth of it is, as St. Glen Warmbier famously said: “Life isn’t as easy as it looks.”  There are really good things for which we thank God, and there can be the glow, but frankly, it often looks pretty miserable.  Because our eyes still only see the curse.  We don’t see the reversal of the curse.  So, we also ask… Are You the One who is to come, dear Jesus?  Or should we look for another?

            What is Jesus’ answer to your question?  It is the same as His answer to John.  Look at the right thing, in the right place, and not at what your fallen eyes see.  What do you hear and see from Jesus?  Look at His Word, the Holy Scriptures.  Look to preaching and to Sacrament.  See how the Lord Jesus has come in your flesh, the eternal Son of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, to be your Lord and your Redeemer.  See how He comes to you now in His Gospel gifts.  His ministry of healing and restoration back then is a sign of what He does for you here and now.  He heals you from your sins.  By forgiving you.  He heals you from your death.  By dying.  He gives you His own righteousness and life.  By rising again.  And He reigns.  Yes, even over this mess, where all is fallen and broken, where creation groans, and Satan bares his poison fangs.  You know it, because it is proclaimed to you.  You know it, because you have a foretaste of it here, in the Holy Supper.  What do you hear and see, not out there, but here, from Jesus?

            Look!  Jesus is pulling back the veil, to give you just a glimpse of what is coming, and what is now, in Him.  Joy is breaking through the sorrow.  New Creation is invading the old.  Waters are breaking forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.  The burning sand is becoming a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.  God give you eyes to see it, which is to say, God give you faith. 

            You want a simple answer to the question, “Are you the One who is to come?”  Yes.  The answer is yes.  But find your answer where and how Jesus gives it to you.  In His Word and Holy Sacraments. 

            Now, here we are waiting.  And waiting is hard.  Jesus has done His sin-atoning work on the cross, and He is risen from the dead.  And we know that.  We are certain of our salvation.  And He is coming back.  Sometime.  Soon.  But for now, we wait.  “Be patient, therefore,” beloved, “until the coming of the Lord.”  Do not grumble.  Least of all against one another.  Give each other a break, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your fellow Church members.  Be patient with them, as you want them to be patient with you.  Pass over their weaknesses and deficiencies.  Forgive each other.  Love one another.  Put the best construction on everything.  After all, Christ died for us, and we live in the forgiveness of sins.  It does us no good to bicker or hold grudges.  Let’s bear with one another, and be at peace… the peace that that comes to us in Jesus Christ.

            And let us suffer patiently whatever the Lord permits to afflict us.  Suffer it in hope, because you know the Lord will deliver you soon.  And with joy… which is not the same thing as that obligatory heartfelt Christmas glow.  Joy is the certainty that your hope will be, and is, fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  And so… Gaudete!  Rejoice.  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).  Rejoicing is simply joy in action, which is to say, when you hear and believe the Gospel, that will always result in praise and thanksgiving to God.

            Be patient, beloved, and rejoice.  The Lord is coming.  We are not at home here in this fallen world.  But we will be home, soon.  Just wait and see.  Soon you will see Him.  Then, faith will give way to sight.  Then, hope will be fulfilled.  In the meantime, do not be scandalized.  Waiting is hard.  But the Lord Jesus says to you, “Surely I am coming soon”… “Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).  Blessed Advent.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.