First Sunday after Christmas

First Sunday after Christmas (C)

December 29, 2024

Text: Luke 2:22-40

            Any preacher will tell you that, after Advent and Christmas, the inkwell seems to have run dreadfully dry.  The effort toward profundity has syphoned all the pastoral energy.  The words… there simply are none left.  The mind is mush.  The tongue is swollen.  Am I just whining?  Probably.  Looking for sermon filler?  You’d better believe it.  But the simple fact of the matter remains: The preacher has come to the end of himself.

            Which is exactly right.  That is exactly how it should be.  What is he doing, anyway, this preacher, making it at all, or in any way, about him?  It is the temptation of every clergyman, in every sermon.  And I’m on the cusp of it, now, this danger of preaching myself.  But I think, perhaps, it’s just possible, that I may have a point here.  We preachers… and we Christians (and this includes you hearers)… in our contempt for the familiar, and our desire, ever and only, to speak and to hear something new… miss the profundity of the simple Gospel message.  As if that message is any less profound when the preacher speaks ineloquently, and in weakness, the same old message we’ve heard from time immemorial.  As if we already know it, and don’t need the reminder.  As if that message depends, in any way, on the bag full of wind behind the pulpit, or the eagerness of the hearers to hear it.  Christ is born for sinners, for every last person in these pews.  For you.  Even for the parson, if he’d just get over himself.  There is absolutely nothing more profound than that.  So, dear Pastor, get out of the way!  You must decrease… in fact, disappear!  Christ must increase, and be our all in all.  Dear Christian, open your ears.  Okay, you know it.  Hear it again, now, afresh, and for you.  Christ has come.  The Savior is born.  God in the flesh.  It is simple, and it is profound.

            Still, there is a text to explicate, a Gospel to be proclaimed, and woe to the preacher who will not proclaim it!  And woe to the Christian who will not hear it, ponder it, and treasure it.  What to say, though; what to say, when the words won’t come…  How about just let the Scripture speak for itself, and that in all its glorious simplicity.  It is Christmas, still, for us this day.  So receiving our Father’s Christmas Gift, let us unwrap it, and savor it, and embrace it with all our heart.  The Gift, of course, is life and salvation in God’s own Son.

            Israel of old receives this Gift.  The Purification.  The Redemption of the Firstborn.  Sacrifices given.  The fulfillment of the Law.  The LORD has come into His Temple, as He promised.  It is more than simply a rite of passage when His parents present Him in the Temple courts.  It is the Old Testament coming to completion!  And the inauguration of the New.  The shadows are giving way to the reality.  The types are culminating, now, in divine Antitype.  The prophecies are all coming true.  The High Priest of our salvation has entered the Sanctuary.  David’s royal Son has arrived to take up His throne.  And the precious heel of Mary’s Boy is poised to crush the serpent’s head. 

            Old Man Simeon receives this Gift.  Quite literally from the hands of Mary, whether she would give Him up, or not (that, incidentally, will be the story of her life!).  He takes the little Lord Jesus into His arms and embraces Him, and prays to Him: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel” (LSB, pp. 199-200; Luke 2:9-32).  By direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he composes a Christmas carol on the spot, a hymn the Church has sung ever since (talk about a Christmas gift!), the Nunc Dimittis, which we sing when we take up this same Lord Jesus in the eating and drinking of His Body and Blood.  This is the One Simeon had been waiting for.  The Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  Now the Christ Child is here.  And Simeon says that he can die, now, happily, and in peace.  He can depart, because he knows his salvation has come.  And not only his salvation, but Israel’s salvation, and the salvation of the whole world. 

            Mary and Joseph receive this Gift.  Of course, they are the first to receive Him, in the annunciation of His virginal conception, and in His birth in Bethlehem.  But here, they receive Him anew in the preaching of St. Simeon.  And in this way, they show you how you should receive Him ever anew.  In the preaching!  In the proclamation of who He is… that is what Simeon preaches in his song... and what He has come to do... that is what Simeon preaches in his prophecy to the Holy Parents.  “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed” (v. 34; ESV).  That is the Law and the Gospel.  All people will fall upon this Child.  Either upon His mercy, by faith in Him, or upon His Judgment in hellish wrath by unbelief.  Indeed, many will oppose Him.  And here Simeon enters upon the preaching of the cross.  They will oppose Him to death.  And you will see it, Mary.  A sword will pierce your own soul as you behold your Baby Boy, suffering, pierced, dying, dead, for the sins of the world.  And you will not see it, Joseph.  You will disappear from the Gospel narrative, apparently dying before Jesus enters upon His ministry.  Some have surmised (and I resonate with this), that in his dying before our Lord’s ministry and sacrificial death, God was mercifully sparing Joseph.  After all, what might Jospeh, the divinely appointed protector of God’s Son, have done when Jesus was arrested and mistreated?  He very well may have stepped in, in an attempt to prevent what must not be prevented, to rescue Jesus when He must not be rescued.  In any case, the Gift is for Mary and Joseph, too.  And note, what is true for them, is also true for us.  This Gift necessarily comes with crosses of our own to bear… sufferings, sorrows, piercing our body and soul, borne in faith, and patience, and hope for deliverance in the Baby born to bear the cross for us, and on the Third Day, to rise. 

            Blessed Anna receives this Gift.  Speaking of bearing the cross in faith, patience, and hope, she had borne her widowhood for decades.  Never departing from the Temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day, waiting, like Simeon, for the One, for Messiah to arrive.  And now, she sees Him.  And she knows.  And she can’t stop thanking God, and speaking of the Child to everyone, all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem!

            Well, isn’t that the Church?  Bearing the holy cross, while awaiting the Lord’s coming again to deliver us from all our afflictions.  Giving thanks always, and in everything, for the coming of the Lord in the flesh.  Receiving Him in the preaching, and in the Holy Supper of His Body and Blood.  Speaking of Him to one another, and to everyone.  Confessing Him.  Praising Him.  Praying to Him.  Living each day in Him.

            We, too, receive this Gift.  We are receiving Him now.  It’s so simple.  And for that reason, we so easily miss it.  We miss the profundity for the simplicity, for the familiarity.  “Yeah, yeah, Christmas.  Jesus born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, no room in the inn.  We know.  We know.  We’ve heard it.”  It is especially easy to slip into this on December 29^th, while most of the world has already moved on.  Repent of that.  Resist it, this taking the Gift for granted.  How?  Hear it.  Hear it again.  Hear it afresh.  Treasure it.  Ponder it.  Praise it, like Anna.  Receive it, like Simeon, here at the Altar.  Every Communion is Christmas, which is why we sing Simeon’s carol at Communcion. 

            Well, this preacher is relieved as another intense Advent and Christmas Season comes to a close.  Though we do have one more Christmas service together, next Sunday.  We get to spend the Twelfth Day of Christmas, gathered around the Altar, receiving and unwrapping the Gift!  Hear it one more time, beloved.  Hear it, and take it to heart, this profound truth: Christ is born for sinners, for every last person in these pews.  That is to say, Christ is born for you!  Merry Christmas.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

                

 

 

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day

December 25, 2024

Text: John 1:1-18

 

The arch-fiend, Satan, would do anything to keep your ears from hearing the Good News afresh.

 

Anything to prevent your mind, heart, and soul, from knowing it is true.

 

Anything, if only the Spirit would not blow upon the dying embers of your faith, the Christmas Gospel fanning it into flame once again.

 

He would distract you, the old serpent.  He would draw your attention away.  The hustle.  The bustle.  The tinsel on the tree.  The parties.  The preparations.  All the obligations.  The glamor and the glut.  The liberal libations.  Things that could be beautiful and good, now twisted, turning you from the substance toward the trappings, the mere sentimental seasonal sap.

 

He would tempt you, the dragon, and prey upon your hurts.  Discouragement and alarm.  Deceiving you and misleading you into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.  Your sins.  Your guilt.  Your self-loathing.  Your shame.  He would throw these in your face, and rob you of all hope.  The sins of others?  He would throw those in your face, too, to harden your heart against those who bear God’s Image, and so, harden your heart against God Himself.

 

He would drown out the preaching with noise, and annoyances.  The constant cacophonous clamor of media, mainstream and social, the modern madness of a screen in every pocket.  The meaningless flow of endless information.  Hollow interaction in self-imposed isolation.

 

Because he hates it… he hates this Word sounding in your ears.  Still, the herald’s voice rings out, with all the power of God unto salvation.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  And we have seen His glory… glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

That message, that truth, blasts the fallen angel into the cavernous depths of hell, frozen and afire all at once with the wrath of God, the wrath appeased, now, for all who will receive the appeasement.

 

How humiliating it must be for the enemy of all mankind, to know he is defeated by a little Child, a mere Babe, born in a stable, in Bethlehem.  How humiliating… his forked tongue still flailing forth his lies, while his fangless skull lies crushed under a pierced heel.

 

Christ is born, God in human flesh, to save you from Satan, sin, and death.  Word of our Father, now in flesh appearing.  Let nothing hinder you from hearing this preaching.  From believing it, living it, and singing it forth in praise.

 

If you really want to set the demon’s rump ablaze… if you really want to kick the devil in the teeth… sing a Christmas carol.  Sing forth our Lord’s Incarnation.  Rejoice.  Proclaim.  Believe that it is true.  God rest ye merry, Christian ladies and gentlemen.  The devil is defeated.  The curse is now, for once, and forever, at an end.  Your warfare is over.  Your bondage done.  God and sinners are reconciled.  Repeat the sounding joy.  And let every ear, despite the devil and the whole world, hear.  Merry Christmas!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve

December 24, 2024

Text: Luke 2:1-20

            “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing that He cannot do…”  True enough.  But have you ever considered that the miracle of this night is that God does the impossible, not by being so big, so strong, and so mighty, but so small, so weak, so vulnerable?

            This was brought home to me in a recent devotion by the Rev. Scott Murray from Houston, a meditation on the words of Church Father, St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, which I am now shamelessly plagiarizing!  (If you want the reference, I’d be happy to give it to you.[1])  My God is so small, so weak, and so vulnerable, there is nothing that He will not do… to save me.  To save you.  “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; KJV).  And so, “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).  “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (v. 7). 

            Let us ponder the great mystery of Christmas with St. Gregory.  “The holy Virgin returned to Nazareth [after having visited Elizabeth and Zechariah and the unborn St. John the Baptist, as we heard on Sunday] (Lk 1:56); and a decree of Caesar led her to come again to Bethlehem (Lk 2:1); and so, as proceeding herself from the royal house, she was brought to the royal house of David along with Joseph her espoused husband. And there ensued the mystery which transcends all wonders,” and listen, now, how the God who is so big and strong and mighty becomes for you so small and weak and vulnerable… Gregory continues, “the Virgin brought forth and bore in her hands Him who bears the whole creation by His Word. 'And there was no room for them in the inn' (Lk 2:7). He found no room who founded the whole earth by His Word. She nourished with her milk Him who imparts sustenance and life to everything that has breath. She wrapped Him in swaddling-clothes who binds the whole creation fast with His Word. She laid Him in a manger who rides seated upon the cherubim. A light from heaven shone round about Him who enlightens the whole creation. The hosts of heaven attended Him with their doxologies who is glorified in heaven from before all ages. A star with its torch guided them who had come from the distant parts of earth toward Him who is the true Orient. From the East came those who brought gifts to Him who for our sakes became poor. And the holy mother of God kept these words, and pondered them in her heart, like one who was the receptacle of all the mysteries.”[2]  Thus far St. Gregory.  Beloved, let us also ponder these things in our heart, and treasure this mystery of God become small for us.

            How small does He become?  Before He is a Newborn, (mystery of mysteries) Jesus, our God, is a Zygote, Blastocyst, a Fetus… which is to say that He is nothing less than an unborn, living Human Baby.  And that is of tremendous comfort for every Christian mother and father, especially during the stages of pregnancy…  and for anyone who has ever suffered a miscarriage, or a stillbirth… and for every woman ever told the satanic lie that she had no other choice (if she wanted to live a happy and fulfilling life) than to terminate her child in abortion… and for every extended family member who has ever borne that grief.  Jesus became so small as to become, in His flesh, one of them, one of these children!  Why?  Why did He do that?  Never forget the old adage of the Fathers with regard to our Lord’s Incarnation (His coming in the flesh), first stated negatively: “What was not assumed [by the divinity of the Son of God] was not redeemed.”  Okay, now state it positively: “What was assumed,” namely, our humanity, our flesh, our stages of development, “was redeemed.”  In other words, what Jesus has become, Jesus has redeemed.  He became thus for us, and for our redemption.

            And so, our God, to whom nothing can be added, who is fulness in Himself… grows, the little Lord Jesus.  Newborn.  Infant.  Toddler.  Child.  Pre-Teen.  Teenager.  Adult.  Our God becomes so small… and one is tempted to say, contrary to appearances, that He grows smaller with each stage of development… After all, if anyone would enter the Kingdom of Heaven, He must grow out of adulthood and become a little child!...  Our God becomes so small as to become one with us in every stage.  To assume our humanity in every stage.  To redeem our humanity… to redeem us… in every stage.      

            In fact, He grows smaller still.  He knows the pains of life for you.  He knows disappointment, heartbreak, illness, betrayal.  For you.  He knows your sins.  He bears your sins, becomes your sin, to redeem you from your sin.  And so, He grows smaller still.  Crucified, dead and buried.  He becomes One who is dying.  He becomes One who is dead.  To redeem those who are dying and dead.  The One who is the Life of the World submits to the nothingness of death.  For you.  That is why He is born in our flesh.  God, of course, cannot die.  He is the Living One.  But in our flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary… our God, the eternal Son of the Father… in fact dies.  “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty,” rings rather hollow at the foot of the cross, and as they lay Him in the grave.  Rather, my God is so small, so weak, and so vulnerable… there is nothing my God will not do.  For me.  He dies for me.  He dies for you.  He dies for the world.  For the forgiveness of all of our sins.

            That in His resurrection from the dead… in the resurrection of the Body born of Mary… He may raise us out of sin and death.

            This little Baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the feeding trough of beasts, is our God.  So small.  So weak...  So powerful to save.  No wonder heaven breaks forth and the angels sing.  Let us never lose the wonder of it.  Beloved, take this into your ears, and ponder it deep within your heart: Christ, the Lord, our God, is born for you. 

            “O holy Child of Bethlehem,” be small for us, “we pray; Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today.  We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!” (LSB 361:4).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                  

 

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[1] https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Memorial-Moment.html?soid=1101459756774&aid=QpdjRKvsH_8

[2] Gregory Thaumaturgus, Four Homilies, quoted in Murray’s devotion.

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent (C)

December 22, 2024

Text: Luke 1:39-56

            The Blessed Virgin Mary is a Lady.  I mean that in the highest sense of the word.  Not simply as a vocative street address toward an unknown woman, as in, “Hey Lady!”  Lady, as in “Ladies and Gentlemen,” comes closer to the idea.  An aristocratic Lady of rank among the British may be more like it, albeit with two very important qualifications: Mary is no aristocrat (she’s a poor virgin girl from Nazareth, betrothed to a common laborer, St. Joseph), and her ladyship is not an accident of birth.  Then, too, the ladyship of Mary is really beyond all of these definitions. She is the Lady par excellence.  Why?  Is it her virtue?  That is certainly a part of it, though she is not sinless.  She, too, needed the redemption and forgiveness of her Son.  Is it her faith?  Yes, absolutely, but even more than that.  She is highly favored, the most highly favored Lady (as we just sang), not because of any merit or worthiness intrinsic to her, but because the Lord is with her.  And that, in a very particular way.  He’s in her womb.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit.  The eternal Son of the Father.  The Savior of the world.  Mary’s Son is Mary’s Lord.  And He comes to her by grace.  And He comes to us through her by grace.  We are most highly favored in her being most highly favored.

            Now, I didn’t issue a trigger warning at the beginning of this sermon, although I probably should have, not only because I’m once again making the politically perilous claim that there is, objectively speaking, such a thing as a woman, a biological reality, determined, not by the woman herself, but by the God who created her.  And that there is a model of femininity, a woman women should aspire to be; namely, blessed Mary.  But also, I know you Lutherans have an allergic reaction to saying too much good about the Mother of our Lord, and, as a result, you say far too little.  But the Bible doesn’t say but little, so you shouldn’t, either.  Once again, you’ve got to get over your “that’s too Catholic” absurdity.  Hopefully that’s enough said about that!  Mary is the Mother of God, as the Church has called her for centuries.  Does that title trouble you?  Let’s think this through.  Is Jesus God?  Yes.  Is Mary His mother?  Yes.  Okay then.  A Christian probably ought to hold the Mother of God in high esteem.  Right?  Good.  No, you shouldn’t pray to her.  No, you shouldn’t worship her.  But you should honor her.  You should imitate her.  You should give thanks for her faith and her example.  You should recognize that she’s a member of your Church, that she joins you at the Altar of her Son every Lord’s Day, with all the company of heaven.  You should meditate on these realities.  So let’s take this in order: Mary’s virtue, Mary’s faith, and Mary as most highly favored Lady.

            As a woman of virtue, Mary is the model, to be imitated by Christian women.  Men, too, in many ways, of course, but just like we held out St. John the Baptist as the model of masculinity last week, this week, we’re holding forth Mary.  First of all, she is chaste.  We know that because she is a virgin at the time of our Lord’s conception and birth.  Now, I know, and you know, there is debate about whether Mary remains “ever virgin.”  That is, whether Mary and Joseph ever consummated their marriage, whether she has other children, and all of that.  That has always seemed to me an awkward question, to say the least.  Do you ask your mother the details of her intimacy?  Okay, let’s not worry about that with Mary, either.  Let’s just give thanks that we have in Mary a woman who keeps the treasure of her sexuality within the bonds of God’s order.  She is a virgin at least until marriage (in fact, at least until the birth of Jesus), and what happens between her and Joseph thereafter is between her and Joseph and God, as ought to be the case for all married couples.  Now, we must say here that if you, man or woman, have not kept the virtue of chastity, as Mary did, do not despair.  What should you do?  You know it.  Repent of your sins.  Confess them to God.  Be absolved.  I encourage you to make use of private Confession and Absolution with your pastor.  And know that your sins are forgiven.  All of them.  Completely.  Freely.  For Jesus’ sake.  Now, it is never too late.  Take Mary as your model from this day forward.  If you were not chaste then, be chaste now. 

            What other virtues should we imitate of Mary?  How about humility?  She never puts herself first.  She puts God first, her Son first, and so us first.  How about modesty?  That goes along with her chastity.  Her behavior, her raiment, her lack of vanity.  Her beauty is, as Peter will later write, not to be found in braided hair or splendid jewelry or clothing, but in the hidden person of the heart, the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:3-4).  How about her longsuffering, patience, and courage?  In the face of people, who talk: “She’s pregnant!  And she and Joseph are only betrothed!  Whose child is it?  Her parents must be so ashamed!”  In the face of Joseph’s determination to put her away quietly.  Well, at least he doesn’t want to stone her, as is his right under the Law.  In the face of government compulsion to travel to Bethlehem for a census, for taxes, when here she is, about to be delivered.  No room for them in the inn.  A stable for a birthing room.  A manger for a crib.  In the face of a midnight flight to Egypt to save the Child’s life, while Herod’s henchmen slaughter every male child of Bethlehem, two and under.  How about her submission to God’s will, undertaking this divine mission to be the God-bearer, the mother of the Savior, in spite of the danger, in spite of the hardship, in spite of the impending heartbreak of it all?  How about her loving care for her husband, Joseph?  For her Child, Jesus?  For His brothers and sisters?  For Elizabeth, John, and Zechariah during her visit?  Etc., etc.  We can never say enough good about Mary.  Mark that, dear Lutherans.  She is the personification of the Proverbs 31 woman, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have some homework tonight.  Read the Chapter.  Now, trigger warning!  I’m about to tell a politically incorrect story about the kind of wife a young man should desire.  When I was in college, my pre-seminary brothers and I would often talk about our desire to find a Proverbs 31 woman for a wife.  We would pray for that.  (Oh, how God has answered my prayers, all thanks and praise to Him!)  Young men, you should pray for that, that if God so wills you to be married, your future spouse is a Proverbs 31 woman.  Somebody like Mary!    

            Then, Mary’s faith.  Of course, her virtue flows from her faith.  It is the fruit of faith.  But look at the extraordinary way her faith manifests.  She believes the angel’s word!  She believes God!  Though she knows how these things work, getting pregnant.  “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34; ESV).  She knows the impossibility of this miracle according to the natural order.  Still, she believes.  She takes for granted that the angel’s explanation is true, the Holy Spirit coming upon her, the power of the Most High overshadowing her, her own Child, the Son of God (note the Trinity in action!).  And she says yes to it.  The whole plan.  The scandal.  The pain.  The cross.  “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38).  She says yes, because she believes that God will carry her through.  She believes He knows better than she does.  She believes that this Child will be her Savior, and the Savior of the world.

            Now, you may be saying to yourself, “That’s wonderful.  Mary is great.  But I’m not.  I know I should follow her example in all of this.  But I haven’t.  And I don’t.”  My friend, that is absolutely true.  What are you to do?  Do not despair.  You know what I’m about to say.  Repent of your sins.  Confess them to God.  Be absolved.  Your sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, and Mary’s Son.  Take her for your example now.  And where you fail, repent, and know that your whole life is covered in God’s mercy for Christ’s sake. 

            Again, do you really think Mary is sinless?  Of course she isn’t.  She needed her Son’s salvation as much as any one of us.  What makes her, then, God’s most highly favored Lady?  Not her own righteousness.  Not her own merit or worthiness.  No, the gracious, merciful, justifying presence of her Son.  And see, in this, she’s actually the icon of something much bigger than her.  She is the icon of the Church.  Which is to say, you!  You, dear Church of God…  you are the most highly favored Lady.  In spite of all your sins and failures.  In spite of all that is messy, and weak, and broken, and wrong in this assembly, and with the whole Church of God in this world.  Not by your own merit or worthiness.  Not because you’re good at being God’s people (you’re no better than Israel in the Old Testament).  But by the gracious, merciful, justifying presence of Mary’s Son, Jesus, in your midst, you are God’s most highly favored Lady.  After all, Christ is present in His Word and Sacrament, with and for you.  And that is to say, you, dear Church, carry the Lord Jesus in your womb.  And where you carry Him, and speak His greeting, babes of God, young and old, born and unborn, leap for joy, rejoicing in the presence of their Savior.

            That is why Mary always and only points you to her Son.  She always and only directs your eyes and your ears toward Him.  As she said to the servants at the wedding in Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).  As she sings to us in our Holy Gospel: He is the One who looks on the humble estate of His servant… Mary, the Church, you… doing great things for you and bestowing mercy.  He is the One showing strength with His arm… the arm once affixed to the cross, but now risen and vigorous… scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts, bringing down the mighty from their thrones, and lifting up the lowly, repentant sinners.  He is the One who fills the hungry with good things, and sends those who are full of it empty away.  He helps His servant Israel… Mary, the Church, you… in remembrance of His mercy.  In accordance with His Promise.  So here He is in the flesh, for you.  He was born of Mary for this.  To suffer.  To be nailed to the cross.  To die for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins.  To be buried in a tomb for you.  To rise again for you, the very flesh and blood born of Mary.  To come to you.  To baptize you into Himself.  To speak Himself into you, the voice of the Man, Mary’s Son.  The Voice of God, the Word of our Father.  To fill you, O hungry ones, with Himself: His body, His blood in the Holy Sacrament.  To give you His eternal life.  His resurrection life.  To raise you, bodily, from the dead, as He is risen, bodily, from the dead.  Receiving all of that, by grace alone, what does that make you, dear Church?  The most highly favored Lady. 

            Mary is a Lady.  You, dear Church, are a Lady.  In the highest sense of the Word.  Follow Mother Mary.  Do as she does.  Believe as she believes.  Women, receive her as your model.  Aspire to be like her.  Men, desire your women to be like her, and encourage and support them in that.  Dear Christian ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, be Christians like her.  Be who God created you to be.  Be who God redeemed you to be.  And like St. Mary, bear Christ wherever you go, singing His praise.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                            

Advent Midweek III

Advent Midweek III: “From This Day On I Will Bless You”

December 18, 2024

Text: Haggai 2:10-23

            Building projects are hard.  Frankly, just searching for suitable and affordable property is hard, as we know all too well.  It’s a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, highs and lows, hope and anticipation, followed by disappointment and disillusionment.  Then, when you least expect it, things are looking up again.  What’s hard about this is, once you get on the coaster, you no longer have control.  You just have to go for the ride, trusting that our God does have control, that He will bring us safely through, and that, in the end, the destination will have been worth all the twists and turns.  And what is that end?  A place, a home, in which we can receive our Lord’s Gospel gifts often and routinely, Word and Sacrament, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  And from which we can speak forth Christ to others, and be His merciful presence in this place by loving and serving our neighbors. 

            The Jewish remnant in our text knew the roller coaster ride well.  Down in the depths of Babylonian captivity, up on the heights of return from exile, plunging down again under Samaritan slander and threat of violence.  They actually tried to get off the ride mid-descent.  This is where we met them at the beginning of Haggai’s book, attempting to derail the whole thing, irrationally expecting that their endeavor to sabotage would end in anything other than disaster.  That is why God sends them His man.  “Don’t unbuckle your harness!  Don’t throw impediments in front of the wheels to knock the cars off the track!  You can’t get off this ride, now, without personal and corporate catastrophe!”  Remember, with high hopes the Jewish remnant began the project, laying the Temple’s foundation and constructing the altar.  But when things got hard, when the Samaritans opposed the work, the people decided to abandon the whole venture, neglect God’s House, and make their own houses comfortable and luxurious instead. 

            Well, that was then.  Now God, by the preaching of His prophet, reviews the state of affairs with His people.  “Do you remember how it was?  How were things going, then, when you abandoned My House?  Is it not true that everything always came up short?  The grain?  The wine?  Is it not true that the product of all your labor I struck with blight and mildew and hail?  Why was that?”  It was a call to repentance.  God was calling His people to return to Him, to the LORD their God.  The evidence of their return would be their getting back to work on His House.  See, their idolatrous fear of people and things that are not God had not only stopped the work, it had made the people unclean.  Their apathy and self-interest had made the people unclean.  And as a result, nothing was holy to them.  Because there wasn’t a Temple to make them holy.  Instead, they spread their uncleanness to everything they touched, right down to the very food they ate.  Nothing was blessed.  God does not bless idolatrous fear.  God does not bless selfishness.  God does not bless apathy. 

            But He does bless the call to repent.  God gives the perilous plunge into the depths of the dark valley as occasion for the Jewish remnant, for us, to repent, to turn once again, away from fear and selfishness and apathy, to Him, and to Him alone.  God gives us nosedives into shadow and shade to exercise our faith, that we abandon, not Him, but our delusion of control, and thus cling to Him alone.   The amazing thing is, the Prophet Haggai came and preached that… and the people repented.  And responded in faith.  They took up their tools once again, and got to work.

            That is always amazing to a preacher.  What made the difference?  It wasn’t only the preaching of the Law.  It was God’s Gospel Promise.  We heard it the last two weeks.  And it applies to us, as much as to them.  “I am with you, declares the LORD…  Be strong…  Work, for I am with you… according to the covenant that I made with you…  My Spirit remains in your midst.  Fear not” (Hag. 1:13; 2:4-5; ESV).  And so, three months after the work began again, God says to the people, whatever may have been the chastisement in the past, “from this day on I will bless you" (2:19). 

            Note, it’s not that He will bless them because now they are doing the work by which they have earned His blessing.  No, He will bless them because they are with Him once again.  They have returned to Him.  They are no longer going their own way.  To go your own way (to abandon the roller coaster, to stick with the image) is to remove yourself from the blessing of the LORD.  It is never that He is unfaithful in blessing.  That is not why the blessing ceased.  It is that we are unfaithful in remaining in His blessing.  Where the LORD is, there is blessing.  Even in the valley of the shadow.  He is with us in the darkness.  He is with us in death.  And if He is with us (Emmanuel), who is there to harm us?  If He is with us (Emmanuel), what is there to fear?  We can take up our tools, now, and get to work in faith.  Because His Spirit remains in our midst.  He is in control.  It is true, we can wreck the roller coaster and abandon it, but He never will.  He does not abandon us.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He does not perpetrate evil against us.  Beloved, we have these Promises in our efforts at procuring a building of our own.  Whatever happens.  Whatever our perception of success, or lack thereof.  He is with us.  He will prosper us.  Let us repent of all apathy.  Let us repent of all fear.  Let us trust in the Lord of the Church, that as we go forward in His Name, He will bless.    

            Now, in our text, there is an additional Promise.  For the second time that day, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, God sends His prophet, this time to the governor, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel.  Not only will the Temple be rebuilt.  From the stump of Jesse (to borrow a phrase from the Prophet Isaiah [11:1])… from the House of David that was cut down by siege and exile… shall come forth a shoot.  David’s royal line shall be resurrected through you, O Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel was a son of David.  No, Zerubbabel was not to be king (He was just the vassal governor of Judea under the authority of the Persian Empire).  But through him, God preserved the line.  He is right there in the genealogies recorded by Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of THE Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is a Promise of Christ!

            It will shake the heavens and the earth when this Promise is fulfilled.  He (The Promise Incarnate) will overthrow the kingdoms of the nations when He comes, the chariots and their riders.  He will overthrow all evil.  Zerubbabel is the LORD’s signet ring in accomplishing this.  God has chosen him to be the key.  You know what a signet ring is, of course?  In the ancient world, it is the seal of authority.  Pressed into the wax seal of a letter, or on tablets of clay, it conveys the image effecting royal authority.  Zerubbabel is the seal of God’s proclamation.  He is the proof.  He is the sign.  The LORD will do this.  It is as good as done.  Our Advent anticipation will give way to Christmas joy when a Child, God’s Son, is born to Mary. 

            He is the true Temple, of which every Tabernacle or Temple that came before is but a type.  The LORD Himself builds a House of Prayer for all nations.  And zeal for this House consumes Him.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19).  He is speaking of the Temple of His Body (v. 21).  The Body descended from David.  The Body descended from Zerubbabel.  The Body born of Mary, nailed to a cross, raised again on the Third Day.  The Body ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty, the seat of all power and authority.  The Body to which you are joined, living stones to the Living Stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, built up as a spiritual house, the Holy Church.  The Body given you to eat, thus rendering you, once and for all, clean, holy, and precious to God. 

            The Promise to Zerubbabel, and of which he is the signet, is the reason we undertake a building project.  It is why we’re on this roller coaster ride to begin with.  Not so that God will bless us.  We must never think that if we do this for God, He will respond by doing some things for us.  That isn’t how things work in the Kingdom.  But because, with Him, and in Him… in His presence… by His gifts… His Spirit in our midst… we know our work will be blessed.  We can take up our God-given tools, and get to work with rejoicing.  Because we know that the end of this ride is a place and a home to be with our Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Spirit who proceeds from them both.  To gather around the Christian Family Table.  To hear His Word, receive His Wisdom, to treasure it and keep it.  To be cleansed of all sin.  To be nourished for eternal life.  To be loved by God, and to love one another.  To be the Body of Christ, and the Temple of God in this place.  Beloved, the Lord has put you on this ride.  Don’t unbuckle your harness.  Don’t attempt to knock the cars off the tracks.  Stay seated, stay calm, and enjoy the ride.  God is in control.  He will bring us safely to our destination.  Remain in Him.  Cling to Him.  Even when things are hard and scary.  Trust each other.  Work with each other.  Love one another.  “(F)rom this day on I will bless you,” says the LORD.  You have His Promise on that.  He will do it for Jesus’ sake.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.           

Third Sunday in Advent

Third Sunday in Advent (C)

December 15, 2024

Text: Luke 7:18-35

            Trigger warning: This sermon is politically incorrect.  If something of what I’m about to say offends you, good.  Something in you needs to die, and here it goes.

            St. John the Baptist is a man, a real mensch.  Virtuous.  Courageous.  Gritty.  Gusty.  This is no reed shaken by the wind.  Attired in leather belt and camel’s hair.  No soft clothing for him.  Living in the wilderness on a diet of locusts and wild honey.  He speaks plainly.  He is not afraid to call a spade a spade, a sin a sin.  He is genuine.  He speaks the truth.  And he doesn’t care who you are, or what you think of him.  He calls out the people (Repent!).  He calls out the Church authorities (“You brood of vipers!”).  He calls out royalty, and suffers for it (No one wants to hear the preacher call them out for sexual sin, least of all Herod, and Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife!).  John is not afraid to suffer for telling it like it is.  But he’s not just trying to be a jerk, either (that’s not manly).  He cares about these people, whether they care for him, or not.  And he’s been sent by God to do this.  He has a duty to perform, and he’s going to perform it, no matter the consequences, or how difficult, or unpleasant the task.  He does what must be done.  “Be a man,” we may say to one who is wavering in his duty, one who needs to pull on his big boy britches and get to it.  John is the model of godly masculinity.  We need him as the antidote to a culture that considers masculinity toxic (and a culture that, apparently, doesn’t even know what a man is, or what a woman is).  John is the kind of man men should aspire to be.  He’s the kind of man women should desire their men (husbands, fathers, sons, brothers) to be.  He’s the kind of Christian all of us Christians should aspire to be.  He’s the kind of preacher a pastor, like me, should aspire to be.  St. John the Baptist is a man, and he is the model.  Consider the Lord’s own assessment: “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (Luke 7:28; ESV).   

            Some might think that John’s doubt disqualifies him from that assessment.  Some might think that admitting such doubt makes him less of a man.  Quite the contrary.  He’s doing the harder thing.  He’s being honest.  As a man should be.  To expose a vulnerability, particularly before God, is to bring that vulnerability out of the darkness, into the light, where it may be dealt with.  Confession.  And John is assuredly in the dark.  Herod’s dungeon.  And in sending his disciples to Jesus with his message, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (v. 20), John is confessing to the very One… the only One… who can help him.  See, it’s not that the doubt is heroic.  It’s the confession of that doubt to Jesus Christ that is heroic.  It’s the facing of that doubt head-on.  That’s what a man should do.  And what is John hoping for? … Praying to Jesus for?  Confirmation of his faith, yes.  And confirmation that his life, coming now to this seemingly miserable end, his impending martyrdom after all these years of hardship in ministry… is worth it.  And in confirming that for John, in not rejecting John or his question, Jesus is forgiving John’s doubt.  And taking it away.  Holy Absolution.  The one who heard all those confessions of sin in the Jordan, now confesses his own sin to the Lamb of God who takes away his sin, and the sin of the world.  John is absolved.

            This is extraordinary, because, who of us has never doubted?  Who of us has never wondered if this faith we’re staking our eternal life upon is the right one?  Who of us has never pondered, “What if Jesus is not the One?  What if we should look for another?”  Some people think that being a Christian means you should never struggle with faith.  Which necessarily creates a crisis in the heart of every one of us… or a false sense of pride, one of the two.  Some commentators and preachers even try to save John the Baptist from his doubting.  They say, of course he never doubted, but he sent his disciples to ask the question because they were doubting, or so that they could hear Jesus’ answer.  While it certainly may be the case that some of them were doubting, and that a part of John’s reason was so that they could hear, I don’t find it the least bit comforting or edifying if we try to save John from the disgrace of doubt.  If John never doubted, he must have had some kind of super-human, divine gift the rest of us could never hope to attain.  But if St. John the Baptist, the man, the mensch, could doubt, and come through by Jesus’ grace… well then, I can, too.  I can come through it, by Jesus’ grace.  And so can you. 

            Now, don’t misunderstand me.  Doubt is sin.  Doubting Jesus and His Word is sin.  But when you doubt, don’t deny it.  The Christian doesn’t deny sin.  Or excuse sin.  Or justify himself in sin.  The Christian confesses sin.  He speaks the sin aloud to Christ.  He repents.  Confession is a very manly thing to do. …  And womanly, please hear me on that, but we’re dealing just now with a man, John the Baptist.  And what does Jesus do when He hears John’s confession of doubt?  Does He reject John?  Does dismiss the question?  Does He rail at John for having such a weak faith? 

            No.  Actually, He does for John what He also does for us in time of doubt.  It’s true, He doesn’t give a direct answer, as desirable as we may think that to be.  Rather, He points John… and therefore us… to the Scriptures.  Remember the Prophets, John!  What did Isaiah, for example, say that Messiah would do?  “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see… Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is. 29:18; 35:5-6).  O disciples of St. John… O Christian people… what do you see and hear in the ministry of Jesus?  These very things!  The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and even more!  Lepers are cleansed.  The dead are raised.  And, what is actually the greatest miracle of them all: The poor have the Gospel preached to them.  Who can do these things but Messiah?  So, what’s your answer?  It is right here in the Scriptures, John.  It is right here in the Scriptures, dear Christian.  The Scriptures, which are the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16).  The Scriptures, which reveal the Messiah, the Christ.  The Scriptures which give us the Messiah, the Christ.  In a time of doubt, run to the Scriptures, where the Lord Himself is present for you, to assuage your doubt, and to forgive it.

            Of course, we aren’t told what happens when John’s disciples return to Him with Jesus’ response.  But we know.  John believes the Scriptures.  And our Lord’s preaching of the Scriptures is enough to sustain John, all the way to the chopping block.  John is a man, a mensch.  A man knows the hallmark of his calling as a man is self-sacrifice.  A man knows that there are things…, and people… worth dying for… that the Christian faith is worth dying for… and that in dying such a sacrificial death, a man follows in the way of Christ the Crucified.  Again, a woman, too, and when she does, she is the picture of Holy Church, suffering persecution in this world, but trusting her Bridegroom, her Lord, and waiting for better things beyond this life.  But the man is called to die first.  He is called to give his life first.  To protect the Bride and her Children.  To save the Bride and her Children.  As Jesus, THE Man, gave His life for His holy Bride, to save her, to redeem her, to cleanse her, to sanctify her (Eph. 5), and us, her Children.  John did just that.  He was not offended by his Lord.  He followed in the way of Christ.  And so, he is blessed. 

            What is it that makes it so?  What makes John blessed?  What makes John great?  The Greater One.  The only One greater than John.  And that, of course, is the One who gave up everything to become Least in the Kingdom of Heaven, that John, and we, may become great.  That is our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what Christmas is all about.  God Almighty is born a helpless infant in a stable.  To suffer.  To die.  The death of a criminal.  The cross.  To be buried in a tomb.  To gather to Himself miserable criminals, us sinners, who suffer and die and rot in tombs.  To rise… and so raise us to newness of life, eternal life, forgiven life, resurrection life.  Our only greatness is the greatness of the One who became the Least in the Kingdom for us and for our salvation.  St. John is great in Him. 

            Now the Scriptures hold St. John before our eyes.  He is the Lord’s messenger, who prepares His way.  He does it in words, but also as a model, in the way he lives his life, and dies his death.  What ought we to imitate in St. John? 

            Men, be like him in his virtue and courage.  Never ask which way the wind blows, and live not for the soft luxuries of life in this world.  Speak plainly.  Honestly.  Faithfully.  Speak the Lord’s Word.  Especially to your family.  Care for them.  Care for others, whether they care for you, or not.  Point one and all to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Confess your own sins, your weakness, your doubts.  Run to the Scriptures.  Hear and believe the Absolution.  Do your duty.  Even when it is hard.  Sacrifice.  Die.  To yourself, certainly.  Physically, if necessary.  Women, desire this in your men.  Encourage this in your men.  Respect this, and submit to this, in your men. 

            And men and women… Christians… follow John in these things: Repentance.  Confession to Christ.  Absolution from Christ.  Faith in Christ.  Ears that hear His Scriptures.  Eyes that look upon the healing He brings wherever He is present (as He is, here, for you).  Do not be offended by Him.  Blessed are you when you are not.  No, testify to Him.  Speak of Him.  Speak Him forth.  Die for Him.  Live in Him.  Men… be men!  Women… be women!  Christians… be Christians!  And God grant me, and every Christian pastor, to be the kind of preacher John the Baptist was, and is.

            Now, I warned you at the beginning, so if you’re all hot and bothered that I held forth masculine masculinity and feminine femininity as Christian goods to which we should aspire, see me after for a little remedial preaching and the death of Old Adam.  It is a good to be a man in the way of THE Man, Jesus, as was St. John the Baptist.  It is good to be a woman in the way of Jesus’ Bride, the holy Church.  Don’t kick against this.  You were made for this.  You were redeemed for this.  Rest in it and rejoice in it.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.