Fourth Sunday in Advent

Video of Service

Fourth Sunday in Advent (A)

December 21, 2025

Text: Matt. 1:18-25

            Joseph was a just man.  Righteous.  Not, first, in the way of works, but in the way of Abraham.  As it is written, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3; ESV; quoting Gen. 15:6).  And in the way of Simeon, a man who was  “righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).  “(T)he righteous shall live by his faith” says the Prophet Habakkuk (2:4), and St. Paul bases the whole Gospel on that verse (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11).   Joseph was a just man.  That is, justified by faith.  And then he lives that righteousness by his resulting works, as one already justified prior to those works.  Mary is pregnant, and Joseph knows the Child isn’t his.  He kept his flesh in check.  She, apparently, had not.  Or so it seemed.  But being a just man, he did not want to put her to shame.  Which, as it happens, would have led to her death by stoning (cf. Deut. 22:22-24).  He doesn’t want that.  He loves her.  And he has compassion on her.  As righteous men are wont to do.  So he resolves to divorce her quietly, lest this dear woman, who has made mistakes (haven’t we all?... even the just!), be ruined, disgraced, perhaps even condemned to death, temporal and eternal. 

            But Joesph was also a reasonable man, and a dreamer, if you can reconcile these things.  And you can, in the person of Joseph.  Reasonable, for the text says, “he considered these things” (Matt. 1:20).  He thought about them.  Deeply.  You can bet he prayed for wisdom and discretion and the guidance of God’s Spirit, as we all should.  But then, like his type and eponym, the Patriarch Joseph, a dreamer.  That is, God revealed things to Joseph in dreams.  In our Gospel, the angel appeared to him, preaching the Gospel as it happens in real time: Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  She is still a virgin.  That which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  This is the fulfillment of Isaiah Chapter 7 (v. 14): “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”  He is Immanuel, God with us.  You shall call His Name “Jesus,” for He will save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:20-23).  Being a just and reasonable man, Joseph did as the angel commanded.

            So, now Joesph was a husband.  And a model husband, at that.  For he was a just man by faith, and he acted accordingly, as one who believed God.  “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (v. 24; emphasis added).  That is, he took Mary to wife.  And though I don’t doubt that there was tremendous joy in that, as I pray there is among all husbands and wives, we also know that there was for Joseph (not to speak of Mary!) tremendous sacrifice.  The shadow of the cross loomed large.  Joseph was to know her not… he was not to violate her virginity… he was not to insist on his conjugal rights… until she had given birth to a Son.  He bore the cross of celibacy.  That is a sacrifice for anyone, but particularly for a man.  But he bore it in faith.  Now, does that include after Jesus’ birth?  Was Mary a virgin ever after, and Jospeh simply out of luck?  Maybe.  We’ll allow the Church Fathers to speculate on that, but the rest of us ought to knock it off.  If God wanted us to know, He would have told us explicitly in the Bible.  But there is a modesty, here, that most of us lack: In the same way you don’t, or shouldn’t, ask your parents about their sex life, let’s just give Mary and Joseph a little privacy.  But we do know this: If Joseph was given the cross of lifelong celibacy, he bore that, too.  In faith.  Believing that God can give him unimaginably better things.  And here he is the model for single men and women, and for all of us as we bear our own appointed crosses.  And, in any case, crosses aplenty he bore.  As a husband.  And as a father.

            Joseph was a father.  Perhaps to other children, known in Scripture as Jesus’ brothers and sisters.  But certainly to Jesus Himself.  Well, we know Joseph is not our Lord’s biological father.  Jesus has no human father, biologically speaking.  God is His Father, and He is conceived by the Holy Spirit, who came upon His mother, Mary, in the preaching of Gabriel.  Thus He received His humanity from His mother alone.  But Joseph was Jesus’ father in every other sense.  Sometimes called His foster father, or adopted father, he was Jesus’ guardian.  He provided for Jesus, securing a place for Him in the stable.  Food, drink, clothing, shelter.  He protected Jesus… the flight into Egypt, lest this Child die with the boys of Bethlehem.  Another dream.  The return to Nazareth.  The desperate search for adolescent Jesus in Jerusalem.  Finding Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers.  He trained Jesus for a trade.  “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matt. 13:55).  As a just man by faith, Jospeh was a faithful father.  A sacrificing father.  Under the shadow of the cross.  A model for us all.  By the way, we assume Joseph died sometime between the infamous trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve years old, and our Lord’s coming into adulthood, because Joseph simply disappears from the Gospel narrative.  God has His reasons, and we trust that He knows what He is doing.  But among those reasons, undoubtedly?  Jospeph’s vocation was to protect Jesus.  But there came a day when he must not protect Him.  Imagine Joseph at Jesus’ trial (who could hold him back?), or standing with Mary under Calvary’s cross.  What might he have done?  How might he have gotten in the way of our Lord’s saving work?  What crisis of faith might he, himself, have experienced?  See, it was a great mercy to Joseph… and to us… that God took him to heaven when he did.  Let that be some comfort to you when you must grieve an untimely death.  God knows the whys and the wherefores.  You do not, but God does. 

            In any case, it would fall to another Joseph, from Arimathea… yet another just man, “a good and righteous man” Luke says of him (23:50), “himself looking for the kingdom of God,” Mark tells us (15:43), “a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews,” says John (19:38)… i.e. a just man by faith… it would fall to that Joseph to provide for Jesus now.  A shelter, a tomb, a place for God’s dead body.  A place for God’s dead body to rise!  For all the Jospehs.  And for you.  And for me. 

            Joseph of Nazareth, though… he died.  Yet he lives.  Because of his Boy, Jesus.  You know, one day, we’ll meet Joseph.  That’ll be a trip!  But then, I suppose, in some way, we’ve met him already, here in the Scriptures.  Well, and at the altar, around the body of his Son.  And we give thanks for him, this just, reasonable, dreamer of a husband and father.  And for Mary.  And most of all, for Jesus.  In fact, we give thanks for Joseph and Mary because of Jesus.  The Holy Family.  Our family.  We belong to them.  With them.  The family of God.  The family of Christ, our dear Lord.

            Joseph was a just man.  And we are just men and women, too.  In the same way as he.  By faith.  In Jesus Christ.  Who loves us, and gave Himself for us.  Joseph can be a father, of sorts, to us, too.  As we follow his example.  Imitate him.  Be encouraged and inspired by his life of faith, and faithfulness.  Know that he prays for us, and for the whole Church of God.  He is one among those in the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us (Heb. 12:1), supporting us, and rooting us on.  And that is to say, he is our spiritual father.  Chiefly in this: The angel preached to Joseph, “the virgin…” his wife, Mary… “shall conceive and bear a son”… “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:23, 21).  Joseph believed that preaching.  And when you believe it (as, indeed, you do), you are children of Jospeh.  And even better, you are children of God.  The just who live by faith.  Merry Advent, beloved.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.        

                                           

Advent Midweek III

Video of Service

Advent Midweek III: The Nicene Creed

“The Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life”[1]

December 17, 2025

Text: Third Article of the Nicene Creed

            The Lord and Giver of Life.  The Holy Spirit is the Lord.  That is to say, He is God, with the Father and the Son.  Hear again an echo of the previous article.  Just as we heard the word “One” echoed from First to Second Article, “one God, the Father Almighty,” “one Lord Jesus Christ,” so now we hear the word “Lord” echoed, “one Lord Jesus Christ,” “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.”  See the golden thread the fathers have woven into the tapestry of our Creed.  Why did they do this?  That we may know and believe (to borrow a line from the Athanasian Creed) “one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.”  In other words, these echoes were no accident.  “Lord.”  That is, YHWH.  Just like Jesus, the Son.  Who is one God with the Father.

            There have been some in history who have denied that the Spirit is God, much as the Arians denied this of the Son.  There have even been some who have denied the Spirit as a distinct Person of the Trinity, a distinct Personality.  They have described the Spirit as an impersonal energy between Father and Son… I suppose like when we say of a person, “he is rather spirited,” or, as we may say of some group of people this time of year, “they really have the Christmas spirit.”  The name of this heresy (that the Spirit is a force, or energy, and not, therefore, God, or at least not fully) is “Pneumatomachianism,” in case you are keeping track.  But the Scriptures, over against this, describe the Spirit in divine and personal terms.  For example, St. Paul says to the Ephesians, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30; ESV).  He is the Spirit of God, which is to say, He is God, just as your spirit is you.  And He can be grieved, so He is a Person, because only persons can be grieved (what kind of energy can be grieved?  Have you ever grieved electricity?  Have you ever seen sad ionization, or depressed gravitational pull?).  And He does what only God can do, which is to seal you for the Day of Redemption.  We could go on with other passages, but you get the point.  So we worship and confess the Holy Spirit as God, and we even confess this explicitly: “who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.”  We dare never worship and glorify an impersonal force as though it were God.  That would be idolatry.  But we do worship the Spirit, because He is the Lord.

            And Giver of Life.  Behold the Spirit as He broods over the waters of Creation (Gen. 1:2).  You know that in the languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek, the same word may be rendered spirit, wind, or breath.  When God breathes into Adam the breath of life, it is the Spirit who is enlivening Adam, and bestowing upon Adam a spirit of his own (Gen. 2:7).  Behold, the Prophet Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones.  “Son of man, can these bones live?” (Ez. 37:3).  Yes, when the prophet prophesies to the wind, the Spirit, the breath of God, to breathe on these slain.  Behold, the Lord Jesus, raised from the dead by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:11), standing in the midst of His disciples, breathing on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).  It is the Spirit enlivening them with the life of Christ.  And what He does for them, He then does for the whole Church on the Day of Pentecost… the sound of a mighty, rushing wind filling the house where they were, and the Spirit filling each one, giving them utterance, that they may breathe with His breath, and speak Him forth (Acts 2:1-4). 

            So, He is not an impersonal force.  But He is a Force.  And He is not created (just as the Son is not created), nor is He begotten (as the Son is begotten), but He proceeds from the Father and the Son.  Now, you may know that the “and the Son” part of that phrase is a matter of some controversy between the Churches of East and West.  The filioque, as it is called, Latin for “and the Son.”  We will not solve that theological gordian knot for the Church universal tonight.  But for our purposes, suffice it to say, we are a Church of the West, and we have no problem confessing the filioque, because the Scriptures are clear that the Father does nothing apart from the Son, and the Spirit comes from the Father, through the Son.  In our Holy Gospel this evening, Jesus says, “when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26; emphasis added).  It is clear that the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and yet it is the Son who gives Him, so… proceeds from the Father and the Son.  That is a profound and wonderful confession.

            Okay… Proceeds from them to do what?  To give life.  How?  He spoke (and still speaks!) by the Prophets.  The Holy Spirit of God speaks to us in Holy Scripture, doing precisely what Jesus said He would do: Testifying of Jesus (John 15:26); convicting the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (16:8); guiding believers in Christ into all the truth (v. 13); taking what Jesus has received from the Father and declaring it to us (vv. 14-15).  Spoke by the prophets.  That is a confession of the inspiration of the Scriptures (do you hear the word Spirit in inspiration?).  This is why we believe the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant.  Because they are the Spirit’s own words, His own speaking.  We can trust them.  Wholly and completely.  And they give us Christ, who reconciles us to the Father. 

            By the way, don’t miss the direction in all of this.  The Father sends the Son through whom the Spirit is bestowed.  The Spirit delivers the saving work of the Son that reconciles us to the Father.  From Father to Son to Spirit to Son to Father.  Thus our salvation and life in Christ is a Trinitarian work.

            And the Spirit makes all of this a reality for us in the one holy Christian and apostolic Church.  The Church is the Spirit’s creation.  Now, the Church itself is an article of faith, not sight.  Oh, we can see the trappings, can’t we?  A gathering of people in a building called a Church, doing churchy things.  But the Church is not a building.  Nor is it a denomination, by the way.  We call those things “churches” only by derivation.  The Church is holy believers in Christ.  It is the gathering of those to whom the Spirit has given faith.  And we can’t see who believes and who doesn’t, so the Church is invisible.  But we believe it exists.  We know her by her marks, the Word and Sacraments, prayer, the bearing of the holy cross, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.  She is one, this Church.  That is definitely an article of faith.  Just look at the number of Christian denominations.  In fact, never mind that.  Just see the disunity that often manifests in our own denomination, and even in our own congregation.  Lord, have mercy on us.  (He does.).  Still, one Church.  United around the One Lord Jesus Christ (there are the echoes again).  Holy.  Can’t always see that, can we?  In fact, most often not.  The Church is full of sinners, and sinners only.  But here is the Holy Spirit, doing His sanctifying work, His making holy work.  Christian, or catholic.  Same difference, by the way.  We are not speaking of Rome.  We are speaking of the Church beyond denominational boundaries, the Church that confesses this faith of the Nicene Creed.  And apostolic.  The Church founded by the Apostles.  And we’re back to the Scriptures.  The Church gathered around the Scriptures written by the Apostles as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).  The Church is a mouth house, Luther said, where these Scriptures are proclaimed.  And in them, the Spirit still breathes life into dead men’s bones, raising us from the dead. 

            One Baptism… you never need repeat it.  You just live in it.  It is your new birth from above (John 3:5).  For the remission of sins.  Yes, Baptism cleanses and saves.  “Baptism,” Peter says, “now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

            And what is the result of it all?  The resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.  Even as the Spirit raised Christ, so He will raise you. 

            So we come to the end of another series of Advent meditations in this 1700^th Anniversary of Year of the Nicene Creed.  As I’ve said over and again, the Creed is our story as we live our life in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Beloved, tell this story… to yourself, and to one another, and to the world.  Immerse yourself in it.  Pray it, meditate upon it, and live in it.  You are living in it as you say it.  These are the things to never forget.  This is the speaking of what is true and real in a world full of lies and deception.  This is what grounds you.  This is what protects you and keeps you in the holy faith.  It is a little sermon every time.  And what happens as you speak the words?  Life flows into you.  And through you, into others.  From the Spirit, for He is the Lord and Life-Giver.  The Life of Jesus, crucified and risen.  The Life of a baptized Child of God the Father Almighty.  It is good be Nicene Christians.  God keep us ever in this confession and faith.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                                     

             

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[1] Advent Series loosely based on Timothy J. Winterstein, Worshiped and Glorified: A Study of the Nicene Creed (St. Louis: Concordia, 2025).

Third Sunday in Advent

Video of Service

Third Sunday in Advent (A)

December 14, 2025

Text: Matt. 11:2-15

            Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Gaudete!  We have come to the third week in Advent.  The white joy of Christmas is piercing through the penitential violet, thus the rose color of the day.  Anticipation.  Expectation.  Hope.  And an eager longing for Christ to arrive and make all things right again.  Each year, on this day, St. Paul sounds forth the Gaudete call: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Antiphon for Gaudete: Phil. 4:4; ESV).

            But that is often easier said than done.  For we live on the waiting side of Advent.  Oh, we do have something St. John the Baptist did not.  That is our Lord’s first coming in the flesh, and His accomplished work of redemption on the cross, and in the empty tomb.  But we are still waiting for Him to come again in glory, and manifest His setting of all things right.  Banish death, and sin, and grief, and pain.  And though He comes to us now, in His holy Word, and in our Baptism into Him, and in the Supper of His body and blood, still… we don’t always feel it.  We often do not feel it.  Or see it.  Or otherwise perceive it with our five senses.  And sometimes… like St. John, languishing in Herod’s dungeon, awaiting the executioner’s sword, the wages of faithfulness to Christ in this cold, dark world… we doubt.  “Jesus… are You the One?  Or should we look for another?”  It’s not that we don’t believe.  It is that the waiting gets long, and the darkness can be so thick, and sometimes the rose fades back into violet, and even into black.  The problem isn’t Jesus.  The problem is our own eyes, and our own minds, our own lives, our own hearts.  Some of you know that acutely during the holiday season, and we all know it in some way, and at some point.  An empty seat at the table.  A broken body.  An aching mind and heart.  A broken relationship.  The brokenness of your own sin.  So… doubt.  “Are You sure, Jesus?  Are You sure You are the One, and that Your coming is the antidote to the chains and the darkness and the gloom?  Because, I’m looking around me, and it sure doesn’t seem like this is how it’s supposed to be.”

            How does Jesus answer John’s question?  And yours?  “Go and tell John what you hear and see” (Matt. 11:4).  Okay, so ears and eyes on Jesus.  Emphasis on the ears.  Hearing comes first, that the eyes of faith may see.  And what do John’s disciples hear and see?  “(T)he 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 preached to them” (v. 5).  Do you see what Jesus… the Son of God come down from heaven into our flesh, and our sinful and broken and dying mess of a life… is doing?  He is unbreaking the brokenness.  Un-falling the fall.  Undoing death, and all that comes with it.  Releasing, restoring, creating anew.  Because He is taking away our sin.  And freeing us from bondage to Satan and the condemnation our sins deserve.  Don’t misunderstand the healing miracles.  They are wonderful for those who receive them, but they are only temporal.  These people still have to die.  Instead, these miracles point to something else, something more.  This that Jesus is doing here… this is the very thing He came to do, on a cosmically grander scale, for every single one of us.  Spiritually, first, as He takes possession of us by His Holy Spirit.  Now, the spiritual things, we can only see by faith.  That is the rub, isn’t it?  Our bodily eyes have not yet been healed, so we can’t see this healing yet, physically.  But that doesn’t make it any less real.  But then, these are the things He will do for us, completely and eternally, manifested in our bodies, when He raises us from the dead on the Last Day.  That is why we wait so eagerly for that Day to come.  “Come, Lord Jesus.  Come quickly.” 

            Waiting.  That is the hard part.  Waiting for our fallen perception, and creation itself, and our very bodies, to catch up to this reality.  Ears and eyes on Jesus.  That is the only way.  When our ears and our eyes are on Jesus, we can wait with hope.  And peace.  And even, yes… Joy!  Gaudete!  Rejoice!

            “But how do I do that, Pastor?  What are the practical things I can do?”  Good question.  God tells us in His Word.

            First, repent.  Hear and heed the preaching of St. John.  Repent of your sins.  Examine yourself according to the Ten Commandments, and your vocation, your station in life.  What are your sins?  Where do you fall short?  Where are you curved in on yourself?  Where do you fail to love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself?  Confess those things.  Face up to those things.  Be honest about them, with yourself, and with God.  And with your neighbor where you’ve sinned against them.  Now, this is counterintuitive, because we mistakenly think repentance is an exercise in feeling bad about ourselves.  Far from it.  The point of this repentance is to turn… from sin, and to Jesus.  To return to God.  To change your mind from what is evil to the things that are from your gracious Father.  It is to get you out of yourself… from gazing at your own navel… so that you look up to God, and out toward your neighbor.  And, also, sweep, scrub, and mop the detritus, the filmy residue of sin, out of your daily life. 

            Which presupposes the second thing: Believe the Good News John preaches, the Gospel!  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Follow John’s bony finger as he points and proclaims: “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  That means your sin, and mine.  Hear that.  Believe that.  And you will run into the waiting arms of your Father, who loves you so much, He gave His Son into death to make you His own.  Be absolved.  Your sins are forgiven.  That ought to cause some rejoicing, I think. 

            And third, hear the preaching of your pastor.  Be always in the Divine Service, and in Bible study as often as possible.  Be always at the Supper for the visible, tangible Word.  You know, in our Old Testament reading, God bids… all Christians, in general, I suppose, but pastors in particular… “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees” (Is. 35:3).  We often take that as some kind of admonition to do this for ourselves… strengthen our own hands, make firm our own knees.  No.  That’s Old Adam again, trying horn in on the work of salvation, as usual.  No, God isn’t telling us what to do for ourselves.  He’s telling the preachers what to do.  How are the preachers to strengthen and make firm what is weak and wobbly?  By speaking the Word of the LORD: “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come and save you.’”  (v. 4; emphasis added).  The preachers are to preach that strength and firmness into you.  Whereupon follows the prophecy of the very things our Lord points to in our Gospel: Eyes of the blind opened.  Ears of the deaf unstopped.  Lame men leaping like deer!  Mute men singing for joy!  Like you.  Eyes of faith opened to behold Jesus.  Ears hanging on His every Word.  An extra spring in your step because your salvation has come.  Singing praise, full-throated, to Jesus, your King.  Gaudete!  Rejoice!

            Fourth, patience.  Now, that is a gift of God, and it is a matter of perspective, now that you’ve turned to God in repentance.  James tells us, “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7).  That is not a moralistic lecture.  It is the bestowal of the gift, as God’s Word does in you what it says.  And then James gives you that divine perspective.  Think about rain.  It is often discouraging to us (Thursday was rough!).  But not to the farmer, patiently waiting for that rain to do what it is given to do, watering the earth, so that the crops grow, and the earth bears fruit.  And when you think about it that way, that rain is the difference between life and death to you, between hunger and full belly.  So, wait it out.  Whether the actual rain, or the things that rain on our parade as we live and wait in a fallen world.  Wait it out.  And give thanks for it.  Our Lord knows what we need, and He will give it.  It is His care for us.  It will bear fruit, in His time, and as He wills.  Therefore, Gaudete!  Rejoice.  No matter what.  Commend everything to God in prayer.  Trust Him.  God is in His heaven.  Jesus reigns.  He will turn this all for good. 

            Fifth, look to your neighbor.  Not to grumble about him.  Stop that.  James calls us on that one, doesn’t he?  Back to repentance for that.  But, look to him to care for him.  To love him.  What does he need?  Forgiveness?  Give it to him.  From God (tell him the Gospel).  From you (let go of your grudges… you have no right to hang on to them, and they’re poisoning you).  What else?  Generosity?  Let the giving flow.  I’m a big proponent of Giving Tuesday, not because I think our generosity should be confined to one day a year, but because it helps us just do it.  And what a joy!  If you missed it this year, the good news is, there is another Tuesday coming up this week, and every week until the Lord comes back, and every other day of the week works just as well.  The point is, whether it’s forgiveness, or money, or food, or clothing, or hospitality, or whatever… rejoice and revel in God’s great generosity to you, and go pour it out on others, knowing God will never forsake you.  See, that’s Gaudete!  That is concrete joy! 

            Finally, don’t forget hope.  Hope in the Lord.  That isn’t an uncertain hope.  Christian hope is the knowledge and certainty of what is to come.  And what is that?  Complete healing.  Complete release.  The dead raised.  John freed from prison, and with his head on straight.  You too.  Consolation for every sorrow.  Every tear brushed aside by the finger of God.  Every wrong made right.  What is lost, restored.  The broken made whole.  The fallen strong to stand.  Satan judged.  And perfect peace.  Gaudete!  Rejoice.  It is coming.  It is as good as done.  For Christ is born of Mary.  He died, but He is risen from the dead.  He loves you.  And He is coming soon.  Look up.  Lift your head in eager anticipation.  Jesus is the One.  Do not look for any other.  Keep your ears and your eyes on Him, beloved.  And you will hear.  And you will see.  Therefore, rejoice in the Lord always.  Gaudete!  Again I will say… Rejoice!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                       

Advent Midweek II

Video of Service

Advent Midweek II: The Nicene Creed

“One Lord, Jesus For Us, Our Everlasting King”[1]

December 10, 2025

Text: Second Article of the Nicene Creed

            As we meditate on the Second Article of the Nicene Creed, it may be helpful to the divide it into two parts.  The first part, high and exalted words concerning the full divinity of the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, and His unity with God the Father. The second part, words that show His condescension to us in becoming one of us, bearing our sin, and accomplishing our salvation; then dragging our flesh out of death and the grave, and exalting it to the right hand of the Majesty on high. 

            Needless to say, the first part of this article has Arius in the crosshairs.  We hear, already, in the words, “one Lord Jesus Christ,” an echo of the First Article, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty.”  (In fact, if you’re reading the Advent Scripture readings with us, today you read, “for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” [1 Cor. 8:6; ESV].)  As we said last week, it is a confession of the mystery of God’s unity in plurality.  Father and Son are one God, with the Holy Spirit.  And the Son, not created by the Father (there was never a time when the Son was not), but begotten.  And that from eternity, for as we said, if God is Father, as He is from all eternity, that necessarily requires the Son from all eternity.  And this Son is the only One so begotten.  God has many children by adoption, through Baptism into His Son.  But God the Son is the only One begotten in this way.  Begotten, incidentally, is just an old word for a father’s part in the procreative act.  You know this from the Bible, when you get hung up on the “begats” (so-and-so begat so-and-so, and so on, and so forth).  What sets the Son’s begottenness apart from all those other begats, is not only that this Son is begotten by the Almighty Father, but also that there is no mother, no pregnancy, no birth… until Christmas.

            So, the only-begotten Son… begotten, in fact, before all worlds, which is to say, before creation, eternally.  The Son is not the first creature, as Arius maintained, the first thing to be created.  In fact, if we jump a few phrases to the end of this first part, what do we find, but that all things were made through this very Son.  And that is right.  We read it all over the place in Holy Scripture.  In the Christmas Gospel from John 1, we read, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).  And Paul says, “by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Col. 1:16).  “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (v. 17).  Creator.  Sustainer. That is the definition of God.  And the Scriptures apply this definition to the Son.

            And then this cascade of sublime descriptors indicating the full divinity of the Son: “God of God, Light of Light”… like the light radiating from the Sun in the sky… “very God of very God,” again, “begotten, not made.”

            And then the big one… “being of one substance with the Father.”  One substance.  Homoousia, in Greek, of the same being.  Not Homoiousia, of like substance, of like being, but one substance, one being.  This is to say, Father and Son are not two Gods (and the Holy Spirit is not a third).  (Nor, incidentally, are they each parts of God, another heresy for another day, called partialism.  This one is particularly addressed in the Athanasian Creed.)  They are one God.  It is THE profound mystery of the Christian faith.  We can’t comprehend it.  But we live in it.  We live in this reality.  We are baptized into it.  And we wonder at it, worship, and adore it.  We worship and adore Him.

            The second part of this article then turns to the second profound mystery of the Christian faith: This God, the eternal Son of the Father, unites Himself to our flesh and blood.  To save us. 

            You could almost weep at the words, “for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven.”  For us men… I hope you aren’t so infected by the spirit of the times (an evil spirit, that one) that you can’t understand that “men” here means “men and women,” mankind, humanity, and so, for you, whoever you are.  He came down from heaven…  That is not a theological statement about the location of heaven in the physical universe, as though heaven is somewhere up there, and we are down here.  That totally misses the point.  This is about God’s condescension for us.  He leaves behind His glory, His majesty.  The Son does not consider His equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be clung to, but empties Himself, pours Himself out, and takes on the form of a servant… our form, our flesh (Phil. 2:6-7). 

            How does He do it?  “(I)ncarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary.”  Incarnate, enfleshed (carne… meat).  By the Holy Spirit, who comes upon the virgin Mary in the preaching of the Angel, so that the Word of the Father passes through Mary’s ear and takes up residence in her womb (see, by the way, how this is a Trinitarian act, as is all of God’s work for us).  And then, the virgin Mary.  No human father.  But, a human mother.  God comes down to be made man of her.  So far down does God come, that… here is a mystery to which every knee should bow, and every tongue confess… God is a Zygote.  A Blastocyst.  An Embryo.  A Baby.  A Man.  For us.  (Some of us quite literally bow as we confess this mystery in the Creed.)

            By the way, the Creed combats another heresy, here.  Docetism, it is called, from the Greek word for to seem.  Unlike Arius, the Docetists had no problem believing that Jesus is fully God.  They just didn’t believe He is really a man.  That would get God’s hands dirty, they thought, with our yucky flesh.  So, they maintained, Jesus was not a man.  He just seemed to be a man.  It looked like He took on our flesh, but He didn’t really.

            Of course, if the Son of God didn’t take on our flesh, neither did He redeem our flesh.  And we are flesh and blood creatures… flesh and blood sinners… so we need a flesh and blood redemption from a flesh and blood Redeemer.  A Redeemer who is also fully God, so that His redemption may be for all the sins of all people, for all of my sins, and all of yours.  So, thank God, that is just the Redeemer we get in Jesus Christ.  And that is the Redeemer we confess in the Nicene Creed. 

            But He isn’t done condescending.  He is not afraid to get yucky with our yuckiness.  Not only does He get down on our level by taking on our flesh.  He goes all the way down into the depths of us.  He has no sin of His own, but He takes on ours in His Baptism in the Jordan.  And what does He do with it?  Crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, buried.  He puts our sin to death in His flesh.  He goes all the way down to our damnation and death.  He pays for our sins.  He wipes out our debt.  He dies our death.

            And then what?  The third day He rose again.  As the Scriptures said He would.  God highly exalted Him.  Raised Him up out of the grave.  Ascended into heaven… in our flesh.  Blazing the trail for us.  Taking us with Him, so to speak.  Sitting at the right hand of the Father.  That is the place of honor and authority.  He now enjoys the glory and majesty He has always had with His Father in terms of His divinity, but now in the flesh.  And He rules all things for us, seated there on the heavenly throne.  And He intercedes for us.  That is, He prays for us (that is an amazing thing: God prays to God for us).  And He loves us and cares for us, provides for us and protects us.  With all His divine omniscience and omnipotence (His all-knowingness and all-powerfulness).   

            And He is coming back for us.  To judge.  The Last Day.  To set all things right.  Your mother probably taught you that all things come out in the wash.  The reality is that all things come out in the Resurrection.  All will be very good once again, as it was before sin.  And even better.  Because Jesus reigns.  And His Kingdom will have no end.

            And, again, beloved, this is our story.  The Scriptures are all about this.  The Spirit delivers this in His gifts.  God made man for us.  Us, redeemed for God.  God and sinners reconciled in the One Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).  Every time we confess this Creed, we are immersed once again in the reality of it.  God keep us in it.  God keep us ever in this faith.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                 

                

             

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[1] Advent Series loosely based on Timothy J. Winterstein, Worshiped and Glorified: A Study of the Nicene Creed (St. Louis: Concordia, 2025).

Second Sunday in Advent

Video of Service

Second Sunday in Advent (A)

December 7, 2025

Text: Matt. 3:1-12

            So, what is crooked in your life that must be straightened out?  What is twisted, perverted, and skewed?  What messes have you made that must be cleaned up?  In what filth have you wallowed that must now be rooted out?  And what is lacking?  What fruit ought you to bear once again?  And what chaff must be blown away, that the pure kernel of wheat be gathered into the barn?  St. John the Baptist, clad in the garb, and eating the grub, of the Prophet Elijah, preaches to you and me that it’s time to prepare.  In the wilderness of this fallen world, he cries to you and me, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2; ESV).

            That is, Jesus is at hand.  He is coming.  He is near.  And wherever Jesus is, there is His Kingdom, His rule, He reign.  Many of you will have visitors to your home this holiday season.  People you love.  People who are important to you.  What will you do in preparation for their coming?  You will straighten up your home.  You will remind everyone to be on their best behavior (and you’ll try to be on your best behavior, too).  You will clean up the messes.  You will sweep, mop, and scrub.  You will root out the filth.  Because those you love deserve a clean and tidy, comfy and cozy home.  And so also, you fill your home with good things.  Good food, and that in abundance.  Pleasant smells.  Festive decoration.  Maybe even gifts.  That is what you do for those you love.  That is what you do for those who are important to you.

            But here St. John the Baptist points to One you love even more, who is more important… unimaginably so… than anyone one else on earth.  He points, and he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).  He points, and he declares to you, to me, and to all who have ears to hear, “Behold, your King!”

            So, Advent is the season of preparation.  We prepare to celebrate our King who has come to us as a Baby, in our flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, to be our Savior.  We look back at His incarnation, His coming for us in the flesh, and the great salvation He accomplished, and we order our lives accordingly.  But so also, we look forward.  He is coming again.  He is coming to judge the living and the dead.  To give eternal life to all believers in Christ, but to bid His enemies, those who do not believe in Him, those who reject His forgiveness and salvation, and remain in their sin, to depart into the eternal fire.  And we look to Him now, for He comes to us now.  He is near.  As near as the altar.  We hear Him in His Word.  He comes into us with His body and blood.  This King loves you.  That is why you love Him.  And He is at hand.  So, beloved… prepare. 

            We call this preparation repentance.  Out with all that is bad, evil, and corrupt.  In with Jesus Christ and all the riches of His righteousness.  Repentance has two parts: Contrition and faith.  Contrition: Sorrow over sin.  Christ, your Lord, your loving King, is coming.  And you don’t want to be filled with the filth of sin.  It grieves you, because you know it grieves Him.  You know it killed Him.  But then, faith: You know that He comes precisely to forgive your sins, to cover them with His blood and death, to wash them away in the flood that pours forth from His riven side.  Then, there is a third part, resulting from the faith that grasps this salvation in Jesus.  That is fruit in keeping with repentance.  Walking in the Commandments.  Good works.  Love for your neighbor.  Love for one another. 

            But you know that if you are to repent in this way, you cannot do it on your own, by your own strength, with your own resources.  If you are to repent in this way, God must do it in you.  Okay, how?  Does He just strike you with a lightening bolt from heaven?  Or does He gurgle it up from within you, from the pit of your stomach, or the depths of your heart?  No, that is not how our God works.  We see, rather, how He works in the ministry of St. John the Baptist.

            God sends a preacher.  Now, the preacher is not to preach himself… his own wisdom, his own morality, his own path of salvation.  The preacher is never to be the focus of attention, the star of the show.  Rather, the preacher is to uphold Jesus Christ.  He is always to preach Christ, and the Word of Christ.  Christ is to be the focus of attention, the Star of the show.  The preacher is to preach the Law… that you may know your sin.  That you be warned of sin’s wages: Death, and eternal damnation.  That you know how desperate your plight, and your great need for salvation, for the Savior.  And then the preacher is to preach the Gospel: The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Jesus is coming.  He has arrived.  He is for you.  He is the Sacrifice for your sins.  Behold, the altar of the cross, where the Lamb of God is roasted in the fire of God’s wrath, atoning for all your sins.  He is the cleansing.  He is the cure.  He is risen, and He is your life.  And He reigns.  He is your King.  He rules your heart and your mind, and that graciously.  He sets a place for you at His Table.  He prepares a room for you as a Child of God, and a member of God’s Family.

            What else does John show us about the way God works in us?  “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matt. 3:5-6).

            Baptism.  We saw it again this morning.  The washing of water with the Word.  Born anew of the Holy Spirit.  The death of Old Adam, the sinful flesh.  The emergence of the New Creation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Out with all that is bad, evil, and corrupt.  In with Jesus Christ and all the riches of His righteousness.  By the way, though this Baptism takes place in water, and it is certainly for repentance, it is not merely a Baptism in water, a Baptism for repentance.  John’s Baptism had those things, and it was wonderful.  But it was only a shadow of the full reality of Baptism as it is fulfilled in Christ.  Christ’s Baptism delivers the goods, a Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and fire (think Pentecost!).  John’s Baptism prepares for the coming.  Jesus’ Baptism is the coming!  It is the coming of the Kingdom, the coming of the King!

            And then, what were the people doing as they came to John to be baptized?  They were confessing their sins.  Oh, dear Lutherans, do not say to me that confession is too Roman Catholic.  You love the general confession at the beginning of the Divine Service, and I’m glad we have it, but the reason you love it is that you can hide behind the voices of others in that confession, and you don’t have to get specific, and you don’t have to admit any real sins (although you should… that is what the time of silence is for, and that should also be a part of your preparation before you come to Church.  Take time to meditate on those things, to pray to God, to name your sins before Him, and ask His forgiveness).  But in any case, that isn’t what the people were doing with John at the River Jordan.  They didn’t stand on the shore and speak some confessional formula in unison.  They came one by one to John for Baptism, and said the actual things to him that needed straightening, sweeping, scrubbing, mopping.  You can do the same thing in private confession with your pastor.  At the very least you should do the same thing, getting specific, confessing your actual sins of thought, word, and deed, to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

            And see, it is always a return to Baptism, this repentance, this confessing.  The drowning of the sinful nature.  Contrition.  And then… well, John did it by pointing to the Lamb, but we have this in all its fulness now that Christ has come… the Absolution, the forgiveness of all your sins for the sake of Jesus Christ who died for you, who is risen and lives for you, who loves you and reigns for you.  And the Spirit, who comes to you in the Words of Absolution, and gives you faith in Jesus Christ.  And then the fruits of repentance, the fruits of faith. 

            And then… here is Jesus.  We don’t have it here in our text, but you know that as John is baptizing in the wilderness, who should come along to be baptized into us (that we may ever after be baptized into Him), but the very One John is proclaiming, the very One for whom he is preparing us.  And John points… again, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  Well, where does that happen for us?  At the altar.  In the Supper.  He comes, this Sacrificial Lamb.  But He is living.  He comes, to take away our sins.  When you come to the Lord’s Supper, you leave those sins behind at the altar.  Out with the bad, the evil, the corrupt.  And then He fills you.  With Himself.  In with Jesus Christ and all the riches of His righteousness.  “Given and shed for you,” He says, as He gives you His body, His blood, “for the forgiveness of all your sins.” 

            Now, be warned.  Do not come to these gifts, to this repentance, with any righteousness of your own, or with your own bona fides, that you are children of Abraham, fine upstanding citizens, or good Missouri Synod Lutherans.  Do not come thinking you can keep what is yours, your old nature, your old self, your autonomy, your old identity… and have the new stuff, too, the good stuff from Jesus.  If you do that, you will show yourself, in reality, a brood of vipers, the offspring of Satan.  No, this is a total cleansing.  A total out with the old.  It is not a sweeping under the rug.  You don’t get to stuff everything away in that one room where you just shut the door, as you often do when visitors come to your home.  Every corner is to be cleansed.  Every nook.  Every crevice.  And then filled with nothing but Christ.  And, understand… He does it.  He works His repentance in you.  By His gifts, His means of grace.  He burns the whole thing down, the whole structure of your old life, with the fire of His Spirit. 

            And then, He builds you anew.  He fills you.  And what is the result?  Fruitful trees.  Works of love.  Wholesome grain, and pure.  Life.  For He lives.  And He comes.  He comes to you, and for you.  Beloved, prepare for it.  Which is to say, repent of your sins, and rejoice.  The Kingdom of heaven is right here, for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.