Sermon for Epiphany 4: " A Man of His Word"

 + 4^thSunday after the Epiphany – January 30^th, 2022 +

Series C: Jeremiah 1:4-10, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 4:31-44

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me,” so the saying goes. But that’s not always true is it? Words are powerful. Words make things happen. Words often carry authority. The word of a judge can sentence you to jail. The words of a commanding officer issue orders that are to be followed.

 

When someone in authority speaks, those words carry that authority. When someone who has power speaks, those words carry power. So when Jesus who is the Word speaks the Word, His words come with all the power and authority of God Himself. And that’s the point of today’s Scripture readings. Jesus’ words are powerful. Jesus’ word makes things happen. Jesus’ word carries the greatest authority of all, that of his life, death, and resurrection. 

 

Today’s Gospel reading picks up right where we left off last week. The Word Jesus read and proclaimed from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, he now performs in the town of Capernaum. 

 

Like a good Netflix miniseries, Luke reveals the power and authority of Jesus’ words in three episodes. And like a good binge-worthy TV show, it’s better to see these three episodes together as one unit, all with Jesus’ powerful, authoritative word at the center.

 

Jesus teaches God’s Word and casts out a demon in the synagogue by his Word. Jesus rebukes the demon and the people proclaim, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

 

Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever. Jesus rebukes her illness by his Word, and in response to Jesus’ healing Word she serves.

 

Again, Jesus healed many other sick; he cast out and rebuked the demons – all by his Word.

 

Holy Scripture begins with God speaking His Word. In the beginning was the Word. Creation is six days of God speaking. And God said…and it is so. The Word says what it does. “Let there be light,” and there’s light. God does by speaking. He doesn’t pick things up with His hands. He doesn’t use tools. He speaks, and His Word, with all the power and authority of God, does what He says. What God says happens.

 

Not so with our words. When we yell at the TV during a hockey or football game, the ref doesn’t change his call cause he heard us. When we say “be clean” to our messy desks or children’s rooms they aren’t instantly picked up. When we demand our bodies to heal and get over a cold or illness, they don’t heed our word.

 

But this isn’t the only thing our words fail to do. Our words fail to show love to our family, friends, and neighbors. Our words fail to share the Gospel with others. Our words fail to thank and praise God for all he does for us in His Word. Our words fail to heal, forgive, and withstand temptation. Our words reveal our sin.

 

Not so with Jesus’ Word. Jesus’ Word comes to undo the brokenness of our fallen world. In the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus cast out the demon with his Word. The same Word he used to cast out the devil at your Baptism, and to destroy the devil by the great exorcism of the cross. Jesus’ words reveal and give life.

 

In Capernaum, Jesus rebuked Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever by His Word. The same Word that promises you there is nothing that can separate you from his love – not sin, disease, or death. For Jesus’ love is patient and kind; Jesus love bears all things for you as surely as he bore our sin on the cross.

 

In Capernaum, Jesus healed the sick and cast out many unclean spirits by his powerful, authoritative Word. The same Word that comes with the power of his life, death, and resurrection to heal, forgive, and save you in simple, yet powerful words that do what Jesus says: I forgive you all your sins. 

 

It’s true. Our words fail. Thankfully, and graciously, God’s Word to us in Jesus never fails. 

 

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 

This is why Jesus went to Capernaum. To proclaim that He whose powerful Word heals disease and rebukes and casts out the devil, is same One who will keep and fulfill every one of God’s Words by going to cross for you. And there declaring another word for you. A word that destroys the devil, cancels our sin, and heals our brokenness. “It is finished.” 

 

That’s why Jesus had to leave Capernaum. “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 

 

By His Word, Jesus promised to go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise again for you. And he did, just as he said.

 

By His Word, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to speak continually to you of His death and resurrection, and he did just as he said.

 

By His Word, Jesus promised to be with you always, and he is, just as he said.

 

By His Word, Jesus promises to wash your sins away in Baptism, forgive you in the absolution, and feed you in His supper. And he does. Just as he said he would.

 

By his Word, we speak not with the clang and clamor of gongs and symbols, but with his Word of love that sets us free to love others. 

 

Today, the Word of the Lord comes to us here in Milton as He did to Jeremiah and Capernaum. To dwell with us, and to abide with us in His Word. To declare His life-giving, powerful, does-what-it-says, Good News Word to us.

 

Today, as in Capernaum, Jesus, the Word made flesh comes to you. The same Word that silenced demons, that raised old ladies from their sickbed, comes to you. “I forgive you all of your sins.” “This is my Body given for you, my Blood shed for you. For the forgiveness of your sins.” All because Jesus says so. That same Word with the same power and authority comes to you to forgive you, heal you, restore you, raise you up from death to life. Jesus’ Word does what he says. The demons are silenced. Death has no sway. The Law cannot accuse you. You are forgiven. You are cleansed. 

 

You have Jesus’ Word on it.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

Sermon for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday: "The Body of Christ"

 + Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (3^rd Sunday after the Epiphany) – January 23^rd, 2022 +

Series C: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Luke 4:16-30

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

When one member suffers, all suffer together.

 

We’ve probably all experienced the truth of Paul’s words. You’re walking through your room or the hallway, and bam! You stub your toe. Instantly your entire body reacts in pain. Such a small body part, yet your whole body bends in compassion toward your injured toe. 

 

When one member suffers, all suffer together.

 

No doubt you’ve experienced this in far more serious ways as well. As you read and pray for the names on our church prayer list, or your own at home. As your sit and hold the hand of a sick or dying family member or friend. As you talk your friend through despair or an anxiety attack. As you pray and wonder, “how long will I suffer, o Lord?” 

 

When one member suffers, all suffer together.

 

Today our church, and churches across the country, remember God’s gift of life and the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. We also remember the immense suffering that afflicts and affects God’s gift of the body. Abortion. Euthanasia. Just to name a few. Complex, convoluted words that mask the clear and simple evils they really are.

 

When one member suffers, all suffer together.

 

What we experience daily in our bodies, St. Paul uses to describe our life together in Christ.  Scripture describes the reality of the church in many ways: the household of God, living stones, a holy bride. 

 

For you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 

 

1 Corinthians 12 is a theological x-ray of the Church, the body of Christ. Paul reveals the interconnectedness of our life in Christ. Not independence, but inter-dependence of our life together in the body of Christ. Like that old song… the leg bone’s connected to the hip bone; and the hip bone’s connected to the…well, you get the idea. The communion of saints. The body of Christ.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many…God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Paul was addressing one of many problems in the  church in Corinth; seems they cared more about competition and comparison than Christ-like compassion. Believers competing to throw the best parties. Believers comparing themselves, like the disciples squabbling over who’s the greatest. 

 

That’s one of the ways we sin as well. We’re easily tempted to think of ourselves as better than our neighbor. To look down on them for not believing the way we do, or living the way we do, or in whatever ways we compare ourselves to our neighbor. 

 

There is another way we sin, however, that’s just as bad, if not worse. We’re also tempted to think we have no need for our neighbor. And in doing so, we’re essentially saying that he or she does not belong in the body of Christ. Such attitudes caused division in the Corinthian church and they still cause division, strife, and brokenness today.

 

This brokenness is all too familiar in our country. We see broken homes. Broken families. And most of all, broken lives. We see in our country and culture the deadly idea that there are neighbors among us – whether they’re in the womb, or have various disabilities, or are elderly – that they’re neighbors that someone has said, “I have no need of you.” 

 

We see in our country and culture an endless parade of sinful rationalizations…Society will be better off if irresponsible people didn’t have unwanted babies; we’d have less crime, free up tax dollars. It’s better for the unwanted child to never know he was unwanted and unloved. It’s better for the poor girl, the frightened boyfriend, the embarrassed parents, or the indifferent husband if this unwanted child did not enter the world. Yet all the rationalizations, excuses, and justifications cannot change the fact that one person decided that another person is useless; that there’s no reason - for this baby, or this person with these disabilities, or this elderly person - to have life.

 

When one member suffers, all suffer together. 

 

Paul’s words remind us that our Lord cares deeply about you his body, in body and soul. Our Lord cares for you in your physical body and all that this life entails. Our Lord’s own life reveals this. 

 

Jesus did not become incarnate as a duck or a tiger. He was made man. The Son of God, begotten from all eternity, was once a zygote, and then, later, in the wonder of life and human birth, born of the Virgin Mary. The eternal and omnipotent Son from heaven…an embryo…cared for in the mercy of His mother’s womb. This is the strange – yet beautiful and biblical truth – that God was cuddled by His mother Mary; God played in the wood shavings of a Nazareth carpenter’s shop; God learned to walk. The One who created the heavens and the earth … became flesh, blood and bone like you, for you. 

 

The mystery and grace of God’s love abounds all the more. Jesus who assumed a body for you was crucified and suffered in his body for you. So that all of our selfishness. Lovelessness. Brokenness. Our guilt and shame. Our failures, fears, and faithlessness. All our sinful comparisons and carelessness. Yes, even fallen man’s sins against the body, abortion, euthanasia. Jesus bore all of this in his body on the cross. Every last one of our sins is paid for. You are forgiven. 

 

No matter how we’ve sinned or how great our sin, Jesus forgives you. There’s no sin too large for Jesus to forgive. No sin greater than Jesus’ death for you. No sin that mars you so badly that Jesus cannot make you a part of his body. You were bought with a price, body and soul. You belong to Christ. You are a member of his body, the Church. Christ has made your suffering his own, to make his glory and joy your own. 

 

We are joined together in Christ not only through his sufferings but also in his honor and glory. Because of this all that hurts and harms us in this life will pass away. Until that day comes, yes, we suffer together. But more than that, in Christ, we also rejoice together. And we care for one another as members of the body of Christ. 

 

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.                                    

And so it is for you who are in Christ.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Sermon for 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany: "Here Comes the Bridegroom"

 + 2^nd Sunday after the Epiphany – January 16^th, 2022 +

Series C: Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Weddings are an occasion for drama…some good. Some bad. Remember that TV show, Bridezillas?!

 

Well, here in John two, Jesus, the Bridegroom himself, attends a wedding in Cana. And the divine drama of salvation unfolds. It’s the best kind of drama, for it ends not in tears and heartbreak, but eternal joy and holy love.

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

On the third day of creation, God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” Jesus tells the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and on the third day, I will raise it up again.” In Scripture, God does big things for his people on the third day. 

 

It’s also a destination wedding. Not in Jerusalem, backdropped by the temple. Not in the king’s luxurious ball room. In Cana of Galilee. Lowly, backwoods Galilee. Despised and looked down upon. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” the prophet Isaiah said. In the circle of the Gentiles, Galilee of the nations. That’s where Jesus first reveals His glory.

 

The stage is set for the divine drama. The timing, the place, even the event itself, a wedding – no accident. Long before He attended the wedding at Cana and performed his first miracle, Christ, the second person of the Trinity, was present at the very first wedding way back on the 6^th day of creation. Jesus’ presence at the wedding of Cana affirms what happened in Genesis. There, God created and gave marriage as a gift for man and woman to live in together, even before the fall into sin.

 

Here in John 2, Jesus attends a normal 1^st century Jewish wedding, an event many today would consider to be out of touch. A man and woman united in holy marriage before God. The same is true for those of you called to live in God’s gift of marriage. Every day you engage in a sacred act of rebellion against a sinful world that seeks to redefines marriage according to man’s fallen image, instead of God’s holy gift. Our Lord calls us to swim like salmon against the current of this fallen world. In our family life, there’s nothing more counter-cultural, yet nothing more important than this: to strive to raise a Lutheran family. To teach our sons and daughters to grow up and marry good Lutheran and have Lutheran babies and attend a good Lutheran church.

 

Jesus’ presence at Cana also reveals God’s gracious love towards us. Throughout Scripture, God defines his relationship to us as one of husband and wife. In the OT, YHWH is the groom; Israel is his chosen bride. “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” It’s the same in the NT. Jesus is the bridegroom, and you are his holy, beloved bride. 

 

This is the Biblical backdrop of the wedding at Cana. After all, God loves a good wedding. It’s a joyous occasion. Full of life and celebration. Music, dancing, feasting. 

 

But wait, what’s that? There’s trouble fermenting. The kind of trouble that could lead to big, bad drama. There’s no wine. And it’s not like there was a Safeway or Total Wine down the street. First century Jewish weddings could last for days, sometimes even a week. A Jewish wedding without wine would be like a child’s first birthday without a cake to smash in his face. Unthinkable. Unimaginable. And it was the groom’s responsibility to provide the wine. Only, there’s no wine. 

 

Mary steps in. “They have no wine,” she says to Jesus. And how does Jesus reply? “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”

 

Sounds odd to our ears, but Jesus isn’t being disrespectful. Quite the opposite. He says the same thing when he’s on the cross giving her into John’s care. “Woman, behold your son.” It’s a title of respect, dignity, not the pejorative some use today. 

 

Jesus gently reminds Mary, “My hour is not yet come.” His hour of His glory is the hour of His death. That’s why Jesus came. Not to fix every little problem, like a wedding party that ran dry, but to die as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And in dying, He takes care of everything else as well. Even this sign – changing washing water into wedding wine – costs Jesus His life. Jesus’ miracles are always signs of who He is and what He has come to do. They always point to the cross.

 

Mary is confident Jesus will do something. Mary tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” These are Mary’s last words recorded in the Scriptures. “Do whatever He tells you.” We do well to heed those words. When it comes to our Lord’s gift of marriage, and the rest of his words too. 

 

Mary is also asking something more of Jesus. Mary’s asking Jesus to assume the role of the bridegroom. To provide the wine. And he does. In abundance. After all, he is the bridegroom come to save his bride the Church. This is just a foretaste of the feast. So Jesus says to the servants, who must have had the most the quizzical, head scratching look on their faces, “Take those six stone jars and fill ‘em to the brim, boys.”

 

Any way you measure it, that’s a lot of wine. 180 gallons or so. Picture two bath tubs full. And not the cheap stuff either. No two-Buck-Chuck in the Messiah’s wine cellar. The best. “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

 

What a beautiful sentence. You have kept the good wine until now! This is how God works. Unexpectedly. Undeservedly. Here in John 2, Jesus takes ordinary water and turns it into the finest wine. He’ll do something even greater when he reveals his glory at his appointed hour on the cross. An ordinary looking death that is your glory, life, and redemption.

 

Our Lord, our bridegroom does the same for you. He pours out ordinary water and washes away your sin. He uses ordinary words and forgives you. He takes bread and wine and gives you his body and blood. He turns us, ordinary, poor miserable, sinners and makes us his holy, beloved bride. 

 

Now that’s some good – no gracious! – drama. Or, as John says, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; And His disciples believed in Him. That’s the key phrase. Mary, his disciples, the servants; they trusted Jesus’ word. The miracle was a sign pointing to Jesus. Same for you. All the signs point us to Jesus’ word. It’s Jesus’ word that creates faith in Him and good works for your neighbors. Faith and trust in the Bridegroom, Jesus whose glory is manifested where we least expect it to be…in water and wine at the wedding at Cana…and on the cross in Jerusalem where he is crucified for you…and here at his table.

 

Come. The table is set. All is ready. The marriage supper of the Lamb awaits. Jesus, our bridegroom and host serves the finest of wine and food in his body and blood. Given and shed for you.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Sermon for The Baptism of Our Lord: "I Am Baptized"

 + The Baptism of Our Lord – January 9^th, 2022 +

Series C: Isaiah 43:1-7; Romans 6:1-11; Luke 3:15-22

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther writes, “When our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, ‘Nevertheless, I am baptized. And if I am baptized, it is promised to me that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.’”

 

I am baptized.

 

Not “I have been baptized,” or “I was baptized,” though those are both true statements. I am baptized. This isn’t splitting hairs or making an ocean out of a rain drop. These are important, true, good, and beautiful words. I am baptized.

 

Yes, it’s true in the past and the future. But also the present tense. The indicative. The here and now. This is your identity as God’s children. Your reality as his people. Your treasure and hope and comfort in a world that is drowning in death and wickedness. I am baptized. 

 

The Scripture readings for the Baptism of our Lord Jesus, flow like a current, from Jesus into the font. From his baptism by fire and blood on the cross, to the baptism he gives you by water, word and the Spirit. From our Lord’s word and promise to you.

 

It all comes back to those three simple, yet saving words: I am baptized. 

 

When we think of Holy Baptism, we think of it as merely a New Testament gift. And it is. But it’s promised and foretold in the Old Testament as well. Everywhere you turn, God blesses, rescues, and washes his people with water. The Spirit hovering over the waters of creation. God’s rescue of Noah and his family from the flood in the ark. God delivering his people Israel in the exodus through the Red Sea waters. 

 

Isaiah’s promise to Israel, and to you…When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior. 

 

That sounds an awful lot like an Old Testament way of saying, “I am baptized.” Like Israel of old, in your baptism, you belong to God. And God is with you. Remember those three words: I am baptized. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.

 

From Isaiah on down, the Scripture flows like a fire hydrant that just keeps pouring out water. There’s a steady watershed flowing from the Old Testament downstream to Jesus. To the Jordan. To Jesus’ baptism with sinners and for sinners.

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.

You might wonder, at this point, if you haven’t before. Why is Jesus, the sinless one being baptized? John was right to ask, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

Like everything else Jesus does – his birth, his life, his death - his baptism is for you. Jesus, the Holy One of Israel wades into the Jordan River to soak up our sinful water like a sponge. Jesus stands in our place, that in his life, death, and resurrection, we would stand before God in his place. Jesus comes to do what we cannot do, to turn us back, to return us to God the Father. Jesus steps into the water to open the flood gates of his love that will finally be revealed on the cross. 

From the Jordan where Jesus is baptized for you, Jesus makes his way to the cross where he is crucified for you. He goes through the grave and rises from the dead for you. Your baptism into Christ is the great aqueduct of God’s mercy, life, and salvation. From Jesus’ cross to you.

This is what St. Paul means when he says, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

Paul phrases his words that way, as a question, because honestly, some days we forget that we’re baptized into Christ. Some days we live as if we are not God’s baptized, beloved children; we live as if God did not matter, and as if I mattered most. Some days we’re flooded with wave after wave of despair and doubt. Somedays we’re swamped by our own guilt and shame. Some days all of our fears and failures and faithlessness washes over us like a tsunami. 

 

On those days, remember…When our sins and conscience oppress us, we strengthen ourselves and take comfort and say, ‘Nevertheless, I am baptized. The promise God the Father spoke at Jesus’ baptism is the same promise he makes to you in your baptism. You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased.

 

So when the devil whispers his lies in your ears and waves your past sins in your face, remember those three words. I am baptized.

 

When this sinful fallen world, in all its cruelty comes crashing in on you…when you’re frustrated at work. Exhausted by your daily vocations. When you feel as though you have failed as a father, mother, or friend. When you’re bullied at school. Overwhelmed by homework. Hurt by those you love. When you get that bad news from the doctor. That phone call you dread. That nagging, lurking grief that just won’t go away. That depression and anxiety that follows you like a rain cloud. When it feels like the whole world around you has gone stark raving mad. When a tide and torrent of burdens wash over you. Nevertheless, these words are true. I am baptized.

 

When we look in the reflecting pool of God’s Law, all we see is our sinful, selfish selves, clothed in filthy, soiled rags. But when you see Jesus in the Jordan. When you see his crucified side pouring forth blood and water into the font for you. This is most certainly true. I am baptized. 

 

God the Father looks at you and he sees, not our endless sin, but his never ending love for you in Jesus. In Christ you are covered, clothed, and robed in his righteousness. 

 

Today, tomorrow, or whenever our sins and conscience oppress us, strengthen yourself and take comfort and say, ‘Nevertheless, I am baptized.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for New Year's Eve: "Longing"

 + New Year’s Eve – December 31^st, 2021 +

Isaiah 30:15-17; Romans 8:31-39; Luke 12:35-40

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” - CS Lewis

Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in Thee.” – Augustine 

 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11.

 

C.S. Lewis paraphrases Augustine. Augustine paraphrases Solomon’s God-given wisdom in Ecclesiastes. The common thread in those quotes is a sense of longing, a hope, a void that cannot be filled, except by the life and joy and peace that comes to us in Christ born for us and crucified for us. All true meaning and joy and peace come to us in Christ alone. 

 

There’s something about New Year’s eve that stirs that sense of hope and longing in us again. There seems to be more than a need to celebrate the arrival of a new year, at least in some way. Whether you watch the ball drop or blast off fireworks, there’s an unspoken, yet universal instinct of longing.

 

Why? Because in one way or another humans are all hoping that this new year will be better than the last. Our finances will rise. Our work lives improve. Our waistlines decrease. You know the list. It’s full of resolutions.

 

Now, some will say, “Oh that’s just wishful thinking, a fairy tale, or a fool’s hope. Why bother.”

 

Yet, hidden beneath all these wishes and desires is the unceasing, longing of our weary souls. We want life to be better. More love, less hate. More unity, less strife. More compassion and mercy, less finger-pointing and so on. 

 

In other words, we yearn for the advent of a better world, where peace is the rule, where the rulers are just, and where just and caring people surround us. Solomon was right in Ecclesiastes when he revealed God’s wisdom: we hunger for a world made right again. We long for the new heavens and new earth.

 

This is what Paul is getting at earlier in Romans 8 when he says that all creation – and we ourselves along with it – groan as we eagerly await the adoption and redemption of our bodies. Groaning. Yearning. Waiting. Longing. 

 

On this New Year’s eve, what is it that we find ourselves longing for? For less death and illness in our families? An end to a seemingly endless pandemic? An end to one government overreach after another? An end of evils like the murder of the unborn? For despair and mental illness to be gone? For aches and pains to be a little less achy? For food on our table and in our cupboards?

 

What is it that you hope for? For reconciliation with friends or loved ones? For broken families to be reunited? For those pesky, recurring sins to just go away? To wake up one morning and all our griefs and sorrows and sins to be no more? 

 

Whatever it is, these aren’t bad things to long for, and pray for. Though at times, it feels a lot like an itch that we simply cannot scratch away. One way or another, we find ourselves looking for that Silver Bullet that will finally make the itch stop. But it won’t. 

 

Groaning. Yearning. Waiting. Longing. Those aren’t unique to Christians. Indeed, everyone from every walk of life has that in common. What is unique, however, is the answer God reveals in the Scriptures. What he sends for us in a manger in Bethlehem. What is unique, and found nowhere and in no one else, is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ himself. 

 

So Paul addresses our longing with a view of Jesus’ manger and cross born for you.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

Notice that Paul doesn’t make a long list of what he means by “all these things.” He paints with a broad brush so that we see in that little phrase all the things that plague us – whatever troubles, trials, griefs, burdens, and sins we have born in 2021 – and whatever will come our way in the 2022. What then shall we say to these things? Shall we fear Delta or Omicron or anything else in all creation? No. For you are safely kept and redeemed and loved in Christ the Alpha and the Omega.

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

No…for in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we stare back at this year’s failures and losses and fears, we hope, we pray, we yearn…there has to be, there must be, something better. We peer forward to this coming year’s resolutions and goals and plans, and we know there just has to be, there must be, something better. And there is.

 

Only we won’t find it within ourselves. We won’t find it in the empty promises or resolutions of men. We won’t find it anywhere else in all creation except here, in our Lord’s word, water, body and blood. We find it in the God-man, Jesus Christ. Jesus alone, is the answer to the unceasing, longing of our weary souls. Christ alone is the One who swallows the bitter disappointments of last year and pours us the wine of hope for this year. Christ alone feeds and fills constant hunger for a world made right again. Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Take, drink. This is the blood of the new testament shed for you. Here all is well. 

 

In Christ, all our past disappointments are answered by his all-encompassing mercy. All our present worries are answered by his all-abiding presence and protection. All our future wants and desires for a world made right are assured. Fear not. Christ is coming again, soon. And along with him, a new heavens and new earth. 

 

As we leave 2021 and enter 2022, Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. And let us give thanks to the Father for the Son who, in the Spirit, has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. 

 

Lo, I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.

 

A blessed 7^th day of Christmas…and a blessed coming new year…

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

1st Sunday after Christmas: "Christmas with Simeon and Anna"

 + 1^st Sunday of Christmas – December 26^th, 2021 +

Series C: Exodus 13:1-3, 11-15; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:22-40

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

There are two kinds of Christmas. One begins the day after Thanks giving and ends December 25^th. You know how it goes. The radio stations have stopped playing Christmas music. The tree, lights, and decorations come down and the New Year’s signs go up. The other Christmas, the true Christmas, began yesterday and lasts not 1, not 3, not even 7, but 12 days. From Christmas day until Epiphany. 

That’s how significant our Lord’s birth to save is. Here in the Lord’s house, it is always Christmas. 

 

Today we celebrate Christmas with Anna and Simeon. Luke’s gospel fast forwards us from Jesus’ birth to 40 days later in Jerusalem. This is the first of many appearances Jesus would make in the temple, culminating with Holy Week. This first one is filled with prophetic fulfillment and significance. By Luke’s counting, it’s been 490 days since the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah the priest to announce that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to conceive a son in their old age and name him John. 490 days later, Jesus makes His first appearance in the same temple. 70 weeks.

 

The prophetess Anna also speaks of fulfillment in the numbers of her life. Married a brief seven years. Seven. And now she is eighty four, seven times twelve. These may appear to be coincidences, but they are not. There is a strong undercurrent of fulfillment that runs with this episode in Jesus’ infancy. The entire OT had come to its focal point in this little Child. He is the One!

 

The prophet Malachi had written: “Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple, the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come,” says the Lord Almighty. I don’t think anyone expected the Lord to be carried to the temple by His parents, but then no one expected God to become Man either. And so the mystery of the manger continues in the temple, as the infant Priest of humanity makes His first appearance. Humbly, hiddenly. God in the Flesh had come to His temple. 

 

The temple was the place of sacrifice. Lambs brought as atonement for sin. Here God’s tender Lamb appears, promised from eternal years, 40 days old to be redeemed as the first born in accordance with the law of Moses. They came to offer the prescribed sacrifice – a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons – the poor man’s sacrifice of redemption. “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.” Every first born son anticipated God’s Son. And now God’s Son fulfills the sacrifice. The Redeemer is redeemed by the blood of two turtledoves under the Law.

 

Here we see Christ’s work for our redemption. He is the Substitute, the Sin-bearer, the Sacrifice. Though He is sinless, yet for our sakes, He became our sin. He is the Sinner in place of sinful humanity. He shares our flesh, blood, and bone, but also took up our burden under the Law. And so it is fitting and proper, that Jesus be redeemed at the temple and His mother purified. He is the sinless Sinner, the One who takes our place in perfection under the Law. The Redeemer is redeemed.

 

Simeon and Anna are waiting to greet him. Together they represent the OT prophet and priest waiting for fulfillment. Simeon was very old, and had been told that he would not die until he had seen Lord’s Anointed One, the Christ, with his own eyes. Imagine that. The Redeemer of mankind, whose blood cleanses us from our sins, is Himself redeemed by the blood of two pigeons. Such sublime and deep humility! The Lord of all becomes the Servant of all. And His servants – Anna and Simeon – rejoice. 

 

You can only imagine what it was like for old Simeon to walk about the temple day after day, wondering if this was the day, waiting and watching. He’s embodies the OT in one old man, watching for the fulfillment of Israel. How his heart must have skipped a beat that day Mary and Joseph came to the temple carrying their 40-day old son, and the Holy Spirit whispered to his spirit, “this is the One you are waiting for.” And Simeon gather the little Child into his old, tired arms, and lifts His eyes to heaven, and sings out this song: Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace. 

 

His time of service had come to an end. You can almost hear the relief in his voice. His tired old eyes had seen the Lord’s salvation. His arms had embrace Him and lifted Him up. This tiny Child was the redemption of Israel and the salvation of the Gentiles – the world’s redeemer. Only faith could perceive this, faith worked by the Spirit through the Word. Only faith could see through the humility, the weakness, the poverty and gaze upon the face of God.

 

We sing Simeon’s hymn too, at the close of the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. The traditional place for this hymn is at the close of each day. It’s the Christian’s “Now I lay be down to sleep” prayer. Since the Reformation Lutherans have sung this hymn as we depart from Communion. We’ve beheld the salvation of our Lord. We’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. We’ve heard His words addressed to us personally – my Body given for you; my Blood shed for you. The body and blood born of Mary, laid in a manger, nailed to a cross, raised from the dead, glorified at the right hand of God. This is our food and drink, and we, like Simeon sing our song of release, of freedom. We can depart in peace.

 

Think about what that means. Simeon is saying he’s free to die. Not leave the temple, die. This was Simeon’s death song, and a joyous one. He was released from his life’s sentence and free to die. And so are we. We’ve worshipped the Child of the manger, the Man of the cross. We’ve beheld His glory, hidden beneath word and water, bread and wine. We too depart in peace, according to God’s Word.

 

Simeon tells Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed.” There is no neutral position with respect to Jesus. We either trust Him with our life and salvation or we do not. We can’t reshape Him, or reinvent Him, or revision Him. We can only receive Him as He is for you – your Savior, your Lord, your Christ, your Redeemer. 

 

Mary too would feel the bitter pangs of the cross. “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” She would see her Son crucified. What sorrow and anguish that must have been. No parent wants to witness the death of a child. What a burden, to stand at the foot of His cross and watch. 

 

It’s easy at Christmas time to dwell only on the cute and glorious and glittery. The manger, the swaddled newborn, the adoring shepherds, the bright angels. We’re reminded very quickly in Luke’s gospel, however, that the work of redemption is always bloody work. On the eighth day (our New Year’s Day), Jesus was circumcised under the Law and given the name Jesus. On the fortieth day He was redeemed by blood in the temple. He takes our place under the Law, and by His blood He frees us from our slavery to sin, to death, to the power of the law to condemn. 

 

Christmas joy inevitably gives way to the reality of the new year. The wrapped presents have now disclosed their mysteries. Perhaps there are a few left for the next nine days. The lights will grow dim. The trees will dry out, at least the real ones. We will go back to the realities of our vocations with all the ambiguities, uncertainties, griefs, sins. We will feel the burden of our sins and the sins of others.

 

But like old Anna and Simeon in the temple, we are, by God’s grace, given to embrace this Child of Bethlehem in Word and Sacrament. And having embraced Him in the open, empty, receiving arms of faith, we too are prepared to depart in peace.

 

A blessed second day of Christmas to each of you…

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.