Christmas Day Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and [God was the Word.] John would have us return to Genesis 1 as he begins his Gospel, because if you want to understand Jesus, if you want to understand this Babe lying in the manager, if you want to understand this Man who preaches and heals and performs signs, if you want to understand the Cross and what it means, you have to understand the beginning. We, like any good pious Christian who would have heard John preach, know how Genesis starts. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Yes, God creates, and then He takes His creation and He speaks, and in His speaking He creates order. Light is separated from darkness, earth from the wider realms of space, land from sea, the sea creatures brought forth from the waters, the land producing plants and animals – and all by God speaking, all by the Word of God going forth as the Spirit moves through it all.

    And John knows that it is hard enough to wrap our minds around the idea of “God” - and John knows that it is even harder and more mysterious to wrap your mind around the fact that God is One and Three at the same time – when the Gospel of John is written the term “Trinity” that is our namesake here hadn't even been coined yet. But if you are going to understand who Jesus is and what He is doing, you have to understand something. So, remember the beginning? Remember that Word that created – well, that Word is God and God is that Word – there a mysterious unity and distinction – but the Word is with God and God also is the Word. He was in the beginning with God. And God and the Word and the Word and God (and the Spirit too, but that's another conversation) have always been together, since the beginning, since before anything existed, before anything was created.

    And this Word is vital – All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Creation happens this way. God creates via the Word. It is the Word who takes creation and imposes order, reason, logic, clarity on it. And this stands out more if you under that the word for Word here in Greek is “Logos” - from which we get “logic” or “-ology” as in the “study of something” - or “logo” as in the sign that lets you know what something is. The Word, the Logos creates creation in an orderly fashion – Thy Strong Word did cleave the darkness, at Thy speaking it was done. Everything that is made, everything that is good, every sense of order and stability in the entire cosmos comes about by the Word working.

    In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the pinnacle of creation, the pinnacle of all that the Word had spoken and ordered into being was man. Why? Because life, real life, living life – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. That life was in the Word, and the Spirit was sent, proceeded from the Word, and then you have man – made in the image, the likeness of God. You have order put forth and woman brought about – both male and female in the image and likeness of God – the Glory of God was shown to all creation in the life that was Adam and Eve – who would care for all that the Word had created, who would themselves participate in creation with the two becoming one flesh and then new life, new people, in the image and likeness of God coming forth. This was the working of the Word – and it was good, very good. And the Word who was with God and God who was the Word would come and walk amongst His creation and talk to His Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.
That was the point. The point of all creation, the goal, the reason was so that God Himself would make man and be able to give man blessing upon blessing and chat with man, be with man. That is what the Word did, that was what all of that Creative Speaking of the Word was driving at – Immanuel. God with us.

    Yet we know how the story goes. One day – we don't know when, instead of listening to the Word of God, instead of delighting in His Order and how He had created, Adam and Eve listened to Satan, and sin and darkness and death came crashing in. Man started making divisions that the Word hadn't made, and all that order that God had spoken began to fall apart. Terror where there had been nothing to be terrified of. Shame where there had been nothing to be ashamed of. A giant pall cast over creation. And the Word walks in the garden and calls out, “Adam, where are you?” And the conversation that follows is utterly sad – like speaking to small children trying to pretend that they hadn't broken the cookie jar. This is Adam – the LORD God had brought all the animals to Adam and Adam had named them, organized them – of course he had because He was made in the image and likeness of the Word, the Logos, the ordering-speaking reality of God. And now, Adam is reduced to a blame casting blithering idiot. That's the fall, that's the wreck and ruin. That's the darkness of that day. But it was not complete darkness. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And there was the promise, the promise that the Word would not abandon His creation now corrupted, not abandon Adam and Eve, not leave mankind to drift. No, there would be a day where one of this woman's offspring would be God Himself, the Word made Flesh, and He would come and fix things. He'd defeat and crush Satan and remake and restore His creation, His Adam, His Eve.

    Years passed. Countless lives and histories unfolded. But through all of them sin and death ran. The genealogies ended with, “and he died.” And wickedness spread and grew worse. Even a flood doesn't fix it. Even confusing the language doesn't fix it – it only limits the wickedness we can get up to – like a parent sending kids to different rooms so they don't get into more trouble together. And God would come and He would be with people – He would visit His friend Abraham – but it wasn't like it was in the beginning. He couldn't be with people fully – sinful man couldn't bear it. Abraham couldn't, Moses couldn't, Elijah couldn't. Isaiah the prophet saw Him in a vision and was sure he was a dead man - Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! Do not worry, Isaiah, the LORD will cover you, and through you He would proclaim His coming. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. There would come a day when the LORD would come, when we would have Immanuel, God with us, but God with us in a way that we could stand, that we could endure. The Word would become one of us so as to be able to be with us.

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Of course John did... Jesus was John's friend. They ate together, they laughed and joked together – half the time I think John writes his Gospel because he just wanted to tell fun stories of his time with his friend Jesus – the camaraderie and joshing that goes on amongst Jesus and the disciples in John is fantastic. And real. And beautiful, because it is God with man, God with His creation. But the Word didn't come just to have some friends for a short time – no, John sees His Glory – and whenever John speaks of Glory in His Gospel it drives to the Cross. Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” And again, Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of the this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to Myself.” This is Christ's Glory – that He goes to the Cross to redeem, to rescue, to fix, to restore His people. To rescue you. It is finished, hear Him cry.

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God does not abandon you on account of your sin. Instead, He becomes man and suffers and dies and rises to rescue and restore and forgive and redeem you. Because He had created the whole universe just to give it to you, and to be with you, and to delight in it with you. And man, doesn't sin just tarnish and twist and tear apart everything. That's what Jesus came to fix, to undo. That's what this celebration today is all about. Jesus, the Word made Flesh, to redeem you. Oh, my friends, we know what is coming, but we really have no idea – we can't comprehend what the resurrection, what the new heavens will be like – but Jesus came, and He will come again to ensure that you will, that you will know and talk and eat and dwell with the Lord for all eternity. On account of this, a hearty and merry Christmas to you all. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +

Christmas Eve Sermon

 

Christmas Eve, 2023

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Newborn King +

    Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is well pleased. We miss the irony, we miss the shocking turn of events that arise with the angels singing this song. We have become used to the angels – they adorn our decorations, our trees. We even think of them as “pretty”. “Why you look like an angel” is a compliment given to say that someone looks lovely and sweet.

    That's not how those shepherds had thought of angels as they started their evening. That's not how anyone thought of angels. Angels were understood first and formost as warriors, as God's soldiers. The first angel we see in the bible is the one from Genesis 3 – a Cherubim with a flaming sword – not just a sword, but a flaming sword, to keep sinful man from messing with the tree of life. Or the Angels show up to Sodom and Gamorrah – and then there's fire and brimstone. Or Balaam's Donkey who sees the Angel with the sword ready to strike Balaam dead. Ask Pharoah after the Passover, ask Sennacherib after his army is decimated what they think of angelic appearances, and they would respond only with terror. Angels are God's Army. “But aren't they messengers, Pastor Brown” - yes. But I come from a family of marines, and as my Uncle Major Nordgren liked to point out, if the US wants to send a message there's no better way to send a message than a battalion of US Marines. Gets the point across.

    So this is why, when one angel appears to these shepherds who were just minding their business, that his first words are, Fear not! Since the fall, the angels had been stuck with the sad task of combat. Generally, if you saw an angel, you were going to die. But no, not tonight Shepherds! Something different. Now this angel gets to be a messenger of good news. The Messiah has come – He has been born in Bethlehem. And instead of having a flaming sword to keep you away, I give to give directions! How wonderful for this angel – finally getting to praise! It's not an angel of death, it's an angel of joy. It's not Marines loaded for battle, it's Toys for Tots Marines loaded with gifts! What a better job!

    But the whole battalion wants to get in on it. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host... host. We forget this, but “host” is the Latin word for “Army”. Like “hostile”. A whole army of angels shows up, and they're singing with joy and delight because there doesn't need to be any death today – no! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is well pleased. No, there's peace. Why? Because God is once again pleased with man. Once again, finally, after so long there is a man, Christ Jesus, who is without sin, who is holy and righteous. And this Jesus will grow, and He will take His righteousness and pour it out upon the whole earth, even to you here, so that now when God sees you, He sees you not as an enemy but as His forgiven child, robed in the clothes of Christ's righteousness (a far better gift than any pair of Christmas socks) – and God is well pleased with you. And the angels delight at this, because they finally get to sing a song of victory, and we get to sing with them, because Jesus Christ is born. A hearty and merry Christmas to you all. In the Name of Christ Jesus our Newborn King!

Advent 4 Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    For the 4^th Sunday in Advent, the Sunday immediately preceding Christmas, a pastor has two options in the lectionary for what Gospel lesson he can read. He can read Luke and the account of Mary and the Magnificat, or he can read from John chapter 1, John pointing toward the Messiah. It’s an interesting choice. You have Mary, whom all women will call blessed, and you have John, who is by Jesus’ own words one of the greatest of men – and yet, in both readings there is a wonderful point of connection – neither Mary nor John focus on themselves or how wonderful they are; instead they both point to Jesus and what He does. John – he points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – we sing this whenever we celebrate communion. But Mary's song, the Magnificat, that's part of Vespers, which we don't so often here. So let's hear Mary's song again and learn. But first, the set up.

    In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. Well, I guess John shows up in this text too, but he’s not talking, he’s just leaping for joy when Mary brings Jesus by. And it’s not just John who gets excited, even Elizabeth joins in. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” What the angel told Zechariah was all coming true – Elizabeth was pregnant despite her age, and indeed, it looks like her son will be preparing the way for the Messiah who has just shown up. And there’s Mary – standing there. Probably around 13 years old. Easily she could have been overwhelmed, easily she could have let this all go to her head. Easily she could have bragged about herself – because let’s face it, if for some stupid reason ever we are sitting down and bragging about who we are and what’ve done for the Lord, being able to say, “Yeah, I gave birth to Him” would be win. But what does Mary do? She stops talking about herself, and instead she points to God.

Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” We don’t often use the word “magnify” this way, but it means to make great, to make a big deal of, to focus upon. Your magnifying glass lets you focus upon something and see it clearly – and praise does this – it focuses us upon God and what He has done. This serves as a reminder of what all Christian praise must do if it is to be called praise – it has to focus upon God – it has to be about what God does. It has to rejoice in God and in His salvation. Christian praise is always tied, always points to the fact that God Himself acts on our behalf and saves us. This is what we praise God for – and Mary will continue to expand aspects of this in her song.

    “for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me.” Mary recognizes something about herself. She sees that she is blessed, but that she herself is lowly, that there is nothing in her that demands success or praise or glory. It’s not about her. And yet, God has beheld her, God has seen her, and God is the One who has elevated her – in fact, all generations, even to our day, learn of the Blessed Virgin Mary – her words will echo throughout churches, children will want to be her in Christmas programs – and why? Not because she herself is wonderful, but because God, the Mighty One, has done great things for her. If she were not the mother of our Lord, not a one of us would have ever heard of her. Mary is acutely aware of God’s blessings given to her, precisely because she knows that she does not deserve them. She is humble.

    I reckon that in the next 36/24 hours we'll see a lot of gifts. And sometimes we can be tricked into thinking the gifts we receive are about us – what a good boy am I, see I'm on the nice list, not the naughty one. The gifts we recieve really tell us about the giver – and Mary reminds us of this. She's not received this gift, this favor from God, because she's just all that – but rather because God is good, and He does great things. Knowing this she's ready to receive this gift with humility and thankfulness. Perhaps this is a good reminder for us all.

Mary continues. “and Holy is His Name. And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.” Let's talk more about the Giver, about God. God’s Name, the God who does all this for you, His Name is holy, and He is full of mercy. And in His mercy, He ties Mary into His own Name. Mary sees that – and her name will ever be associated with God’s Name. She will forever be remembered as Mary, the Mother of God. And she sees the great mercy that she has received, that she, a sinful being, receives such wonderful things from God.

    Now, dear friends, consider the fact that you are Baptized. You have been joined into God’s own Name, His own holiness has been applied to you. You are made to be part of God’s Family as assuredly as Mary, Jesus’ own mother, is part of His family – for you have been Baptized, you have been adopted as sons and daughters of the Father, you now have Christ for your brother, you are His family – and as such, you receive His Mercy. The greatest and mightiest thing that God has done for you has nothing to do with the presents under the tree, or the size of your home or your bank account, or how talented you are – those are wonderful, but they aren’t the greatest. You have been forgiven on account of Christ – you have been given the gift of faith and welcomed into the family of God. God in His great mercy and love for you has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, and this is something that is for eternity – and it’s not dependent upon you, but flows totally from Him.

    “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.” Mary brings out another thing that God does that we know yet often forget. We do not need to look very hard to see the mighty and powerful abuse and harm others, indeed, even harm us. But Mary’s words remind us of a truth that we can forget when confronted with wickedness and oppression in this world – there is so much more that God prevents, there is so much that God brings to an end. The proud are scattered, their plans fall apart and so often do not come to fruition. The tyrants on their thrones fall, the powers crumble – evil doesn’t endure because God brings an end to it. And this is a comfort to us, it gives us a new perspective – for even when evil is done to us, even when we are getting it heaped upon us – we know that God does not let it last, that it will crumble and fail sooner or later, and that He will deliver us.

    Indeed, the great example of this is the very fact that Mary is pregnant with the Christ Child as she says this. No more will God be content to have fallen king after fallen king come and rule on this earth – no more will He let this world’s prince have His sway – no, God Himself comes to be our king, to be our Lord, to defeat Satan – and because He has come we have victory assured. The brief battles we face now in this life will give way and yield to the eternal victory celebration of heaven, because God’s strong arm wins the victory by being nailed to the cross and rising again on the third day.

    “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever.” The coming of Christ changes things; things will be different because of Christ. Wickedness will be overcome, the powerful will be cast down. The failings and the disappointments that we face in this life eventually will go away. And instead, God fills us with all joy and blessedness. And as those of the New Testament, we see these words of Mary and the promises they point all gathered in to the Lord’s Supper. If you believe that you are of yourself spiritually rich, that you need no forgiveness, that you have no need for God’s mercy – you will remain as empty and shallow as you were. But for you, dear friends, you who see and know your own sin, who know your own struggles, who feel the pressures of life in this world and who are burdened – you who are hungry for righteousness – behold what God does for you. He calls you to His own table, and here He fills you with not merely good things, but the very best thing – He fills you with Himself – Christ Jesus gives Himself unto you, in a way most wondrous and amazing – He forgives your sins in His Supper, He gives you His own strength – He helps you face down the fears of the past and prepares you to face the trials of the future, because in His Supper we see the proof that He is with us.

    Dear friends, Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, is here, and because He is Here, because He has called us unto His family through the waters of Baptism, because He gives Himself to us in His Supper, we see and understand His great love for us – we see and understand all that He has done and accomplished for us. For indeed, while we were humble and lowly, while we were weak – He is the one who is strong for us, strong to save – who comes to rescue us and free us, not merely for the brief span of our lives, but for all ages, even unto life everlasting. This, dear friends, is why we magnify the Lord, this is why we focus our eyes upon Him and in thanksgiving sing His praise – because we see all that He has done for us, freely and without worth or merit in us. Christ Jesus came to be our Savior, and He shall come again to bring us unto heaven, and so we say again, Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent Midweek 3

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    So, how do you get that forgiveness that Jesus has won? That is our question for tonight. How does all that stuff that Jesus has done for you, actually get to you. It's a question of delivery. It's December; you've all dealt with cards or gifts – how do they get where they need to go? If you found a lovely frock for your aunt Betina in Beloit, but you can't find her address it doesn't do anyone any good. The goods have to be delivered. And the question that forms the basis for the third article of the Creed – I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints – it's really this: how does the forgiveness of sins get delivered?

    Luther starts his explanation with one of the more shocking and humble statements – I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe. Pause there. I believe that I cannot believe. That if it were left up to me, if I were on my own – I'd not believe at all. If I were simply up to me, I'd not have faith. And this is an idea that shocks so many today – especially Americans where we love our choice and decision making. But it's true – St. Paul says you were dead in your trespasses, and dead people don't make decisions. We need the Holy Spirit to be the one to give us faith, to work in us the rebirth unto faith in Christ. And remember – your life, your physical life to you is a gift from God to you, established by God. None of us exist by our own reason or strength – if your birth was brought about by the will of God, why would you ever think that your rebirth, your being born, again wouldn't be brought about by the will of God, too?

    But here we are. We are all tainted and corrupted by sin – and because of that sin, neither our reason or strength have either the ability or desire to believe in God. Apart from the gift of faith human beings are quite content to ignore God. But God, in His love and wisdom, has chosen not to ignore you – and thus He has given you the gift of faith. And how? “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel” The Holy Spirit calls you by the Gospel. There's the delivery method. The Holy Spirit takes the Word, the Good News, the Gospel – and by that Gospel the Holy Spirit comes to you and calls you, speaks to you, connects you to Christ. The Holy Spirit does this by the Word proclaimed, by the Word attached to Water in Baptism, even the Word attached to the bread and wine in the Supper. In all these places where the Word of God is present, there the Holy Spirit is also present, working, calling people – calling you.

    And with this Gospel the Holy Spirit “enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” The Holy Spirit enlightens you – the Spirit turns the light bulb on so you understand. If you understand something about the Christian faith, it's not because you are just that smart and the person over there is dumb. No, it's because it has been revealed to you by God. The Holy Spirit connects the dots for you. And more than that – the Holy Spirit “sanctifies” you – that is the Holy Spirit makes you Holy. Your holiness isn't a result of what you do; it isn't a commentary on how spiffy and wonderful you are. Rather, God has taken you, and He has made you Holy – He has set you apart for His service (because that's what being holy is – if it's holy it's set apart for special use). And indeed, the Holy Spirit keeps you enlightened and holy; He keeps you in the faith.

    So – how does the Holy Spirit keep you in the Faith? What does He use? In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Well, the Holy Spirit gathers you into the Church, and in this Church is Jesus and His Word. The whole point of this place, this building, this service, is the Word of Jesus. The point is the Gospel of Christ. And everything here revolves around the Word, and the Holy Spirit uses that Word to work faith and enlighten and sanctify and keep people in the faith. That's why everything in this service revolves around the Word, because the Holy Spirit is active in the Word of God. And not just the readings – obviously, and not just the sermon (hopefully) – but everything in this service. Our Liturgy and hymns – they're quoting scripture or based on it. That's why the hymns have little tiny Scripture citations on the bottom of the page. It's all being in the Word because the Holy Spirit gathers us together and has us proclaim God's Word back and forth to each other and that's where He works.

    And the chief work of the Spirit is this: In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. In and by that Word of God, the Holy Spirit brings you forgiveness – Jesus says in John 16 He will take what is mine and declare it to you. Jesus' forgiveness is delivered to you. The Church is a forgiveness place, where the Holy Spirit works through the Word to see that forgiveness abounds.

    And with that being said, we can address the elephant in the room that was brought up in our Gospel lesson – Pastor, what about the “unforgivable sin” - the sin against the Holy Spirit? Okay, first off – everyone calls it the “unforgivable” - and the problem with that is we think it's unforgivable because it's so big, so bad, so terrible. No, that misses the point. Listen again to the verse. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Jesus had been speaking of times of trial – when you are supposed to be bold and confess Jesus before the world, before rulers and powerful people. And what if you fail, what if you bail, what if you weasel out? Well, there's forgiveness for that. But how is that forgiveness given? How does Jesus' forgiveness get delivered to you? By the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God in His Church. So when someone is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, when someone is blowing off the Spirit and the Word and the Church... how is forgiveness going to be given to him? It's not, because the delivery system of forgiveness is ignored. This warning Jesus gives isn't about how big a sin is (because all sins are damnable and vile) – but rather it is about how forgiveness is delivered. Without the Holy Spirit, without the Word, one is simply unable to get forgiveness. And thus simply - “will not be forgiven.” Undeliverable mail isn't normally referring to a giant package, but rather just a return to sender, address unknown. Likewise here – the image is that when one cuts himself off from the Spirit, from where the Spirit works (in the Word, in the Church), he cuts off forgiveness.

    So, don't do that. Don't try to cut yourself off from the Spirit, from the Word, from the Church. Rather, remember that the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, indeed that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness as Paul teaches us in Romans. Know what the Spirit is doing when He keeps you in the Word, when He brings to your remembrance what Jesus has said, when He opens your lips. He's working forgiveness and faith in you – and the only way you'll get forgiveness or faith is from the Holy Spirit working in the Word. So, be in the Word now and your entire life, for in the end the Spirit will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. The Spirit is the Lord, the Giver of Life – and He gives you the new life in Christ now, and He shall see you raised to eternal life.

    Thus we have this Advent reviewed the great love the Triune God has for us. God Almighty has created you, won you redemption and forgiveness, and delivered that forgiveness to you, even until He will restore you to true and everlasting life. It's all revolves around what God has done and continues to do for you – because God is active for you and in you and through you in wondrous ways, ways we don't always see or notice because they just happen all the time. So be it – God loves you, and He delights in giving you blessings of body and soul. This is why Christ Jesus came – so that your sin wouldn't get in the way of God giving you wondrous things. We know this now, we receive this now – and we shall see it full and unhindered when Jesus comes again. Amen. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent 3 Sermon

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus our Advent King +

    How do you know Who to look for? When looking for the coming Messiah, how do you know who He is? John – John knew. John knew the Messiah before he was even born – For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. This is John. John saw Christ and cried out Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – words which we will echo here in a few moments. This is John, who when Jesus comes to him to be baptized boldly proclaims, I need to be baptized by you, and do You come to me? This is who John is – of those born of women none is greater than he. This is John, Christ’s own messenger. But now, John is in prison, never to get out again. John is on his way to the chopping block, literally. Was this the way it was supposed to go? I mean, we are talking about John, the forerunner of the Messiah. If there’s anyone that God should get out of nasty messes like this, you'd think it would be John. And yet, there he is. A dark prison cell. Time slowly passing until an ax-man with a silver platter will come. This isn’t what I thought the time of the Messiah was supposed to look like – this isn’t the powerful Christian life I envisioned. Locust and wild honey – sure. Camel hair and wild clothing – sure. Mighty preaching – sure. But isolation in a prison, a preacher left with no one to preach to, and just looming despair and death. Is this really what this was all about?

    So John calls for his disciples, and he sets them on a task. Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, “Are you to the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Did I mess up? Was I wrong, was I mistaken? Right now everything is broken and has gone to pot; where’s the time where everything is fixed?

    Jesus has a fantastic answer which He gives. Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” A wonderful answer. John baptized, John preached – Jesus does everything better. Jesus heals – washes way even leprosy. Jesus preaches even to the poor – the lowest people are gladdened by the news they hear. This is a wonderful thing – and it shows that Jesus is the right One. See the signs that He is doing – He is indeed the Lamb of God, the One that we are to follow. John’s disciples learn that they themselves are to follow this Jesus and no other. Yes, He is the One who was promised; He is the Messiah.

    Now, go and tell John. Jesus remembers John, even in the midst of his suffering and trials and tribulations. Is it dark in that prison John – remember that the blind receive their sight. Are you bound and unable to leave – those crippled and bound now walk. Is it dank and dirty – even the lepers are cleansed by me – those isolated by deafness hear – and yes John, even the dead are raised. Yes, death is coming for you, a wicked little dance will do you in John, but it will not be the end – the dead are raised. This is the good news that is preached to the poor – even to those rotting away in a prison cell. Go and tell John – tell John that he will be supported in his time of trial by Christ’s own Word. And so John, his disciples, everyone there is prepared for what is coming because they have been focused upon Christ, because Christ has shown Himself to them.

    So, what do we take and learn from this? First thing, right off – even for Christians, even for the best of us, life in this world will sometimes be scary and terrifying. This is what Satan wants to do – he wants us isolated and to make us see just how rotten and bad things are. Because, it’s true, things are rotten and bad. John’s story didn’t turn out like he probably hoped. How many hopes and dreams do we have that never happen or fall apart? And whenever that happens Satan will jump up and down and say, “look at this, look at these horrible things – is this what your life as a Christian amounts to?” And there are many ways that we in our sin will try poorly to deal with this. We can try denial, just pretend things aren’t bad, ignore the elephant in the room. We can just try to keep ourselves too busy to care, too drunk notice, we can close our selves off more and more to keep all that bad stuff away. But it doesn’t fix it. And then, Jesus speaks. And does Jesus do? He points us to Himself. Yes, this world is messed up, but look at Me. The blind are healed, the lame are made to walk. I have come to fix things – not just now, not just for a day, not to make sure that your tomorrow is joyous – no, I come to suffer and die and rise so that your forever is fixed, so that your life is eternal and will last past the moments of this day.

    This is how Christ prepares us today to face whatever we end up facing in our lives; this is how we are prepared this Advent season for the celebration of Christmas. We may not see so much the blind seeing or the lame walking, but there is one thing from that list that Jesus gives that we here in this room see and hear and experience. The poor have good news preached to them. Does that not continue on unto this very day – do we not gather here, together in this house as the poor in spirit, as poor, miserable sinners who have the Good News preached to us? Think on what we receive in preaching, in this service. Is there a time you are sent out those doors left to wonder whether God actually loves you – or rather is Christ continually proclaimed to you – is not the Cross of our Crucified Lord continually held before you – See what Jesus has done for you with His death and resurrection – you are forgiven. He is risen, and no matter what happens to you in your life, you will rise to new life because of Him. This is the good news given to poor, miserable sinners – this is your windfall, a windfall of mercy and grace. And does this not color our lives – does not the Lord’s forgiveness shape us and how we see the world? Thus we are prepared for the Lord’s Coming, be it the celebration of His first coming at Christmas or His second coming whenever that will be.

    But Jesus gives you even more than just preaching. When he was Baptizing, John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Do you not realize that you have this – that you have the very Baptism that even John the Baptist looked longingly towards. Advent is the time of preparation for Christmas – and how are you prepared for Christ’s coming, how are to you keep your watch for Christmas? Think on what a gift you have received in Your Baptism. Not only were you washed clean of your sin, but you were joined to Christ – you were made part of His Body – Your Body became His temple. If this is true, if God’s Word on the wonders of Baptism are right – do you see what this means? You are baptized and joined to Christ – I would say that prepares you for Christ’s coming. Think on whom He has made you to be – you are now God’s own child – this is real and true. God prepares you by Baptism. As Luther puts it in the Large Catechism, “Thus it appears what a great, excellent thing Baptism is, which delivers us from the jaws of the devil and makes us God's own, suppresses and takes away sin, and then daily strengthens the new man, and is and remains ever efficacious until we pass from this estate of misery to eternal glory.” With this gift, you are prepared – remember it daily – this is why Luther recommends starting and ending each day with the Invocation and the sign of the Cross – the sign given to you as your own at your Baptism.

Again, we have another treasure for our preparation in the Lord’s own Supper. Think on what the Lord does – He gives us His own Body and Blood – and with it forgiveness, salvation, and life. Do you wish to be prepared, do you wish your watch for Christ to be right – then make use of the Supper! Hear again the Large Catechism, “On this account [the Supper] is indeed called a food of souls, which nourishes and strengthens the new man. For by Baptism we are first born anew; but (as we said before) there still remains, besides, the old vicious nature of flesh and blood in man, and there are so many hindrances and temptations of the devil and of the world that we often become weary and faint, and sometimes also stumble. Therefore [the Supper] is given for a daily pasture and sustenance, that faith may refresh and strengthen itself so as not to fall back in such a battle, but become ever stronger and stronger.” Everything you need, everything that is required for your life in Christ is given to you here; you receive from Him all that you need. Just as John and his disciples were pointed to Christ, we are pointed to Christ, indeed, we receive Him so that we are strengthened.

Cling to Christ, dear friends – trust in Him and His strength – receive the gifts He gives you. In this way, dear friends, you will be kept strong and prepared what whatever befalls you in this life – and you will be able to welcome Christ with gladness come the last day. You are not left alone, you are not forsaken, and even in the midst of your sorrows, Christ is with you, for you are Baptized, you are fed on His own Body and Blood. In this world, Satan will show you sin and terror and troubles – but there is a greater truth, a more wondrous truth. Christ Jesus came, was born, suffered, died, and was buried, and He rose again – and He did all this for you, for your salvation. You belong to Christ, and He will defend you ever more – even until He comes again on the Last Day. Come Quickly, Lord Jesus. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent Midweek 2 - 2nd Article

 

Advent Midweek 2 – The Second Article

In the Name of Christ Jesus our Advent King +

    So last midweek in the Gospel lesson we had the rich young ruler who didn't want to give up his stuff. In response, the ever cheerful Peter says, “Oh, look at what we've given up to follow you, Jesus!” And here we see the patience of Jesus, the wisdom, the love – because Jesus doesn't lay into Peter here for his pride or bragging – that's what Peter is doing here. If you tell someone to do something, and they fail, and then I pop up with a “well, I've done all that already” - I'm being a brown-nosing braggart. But Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter directly. Instead, Jesus teaches. Jesus teaches us what precisely He is doing by becoming incarnate and living and preaching. Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come.

    Now on the one hand, this is simply speaking to the church. We are called to follow Christ, even when our families and friends don't like this – and we gain the church. I have far more brothers in Christ than I do human brothers. But there's a weight, an impact to what Jesus is saying that slides on by the disciples, and it can slide on by us. Who for us men and for our salvation – left His Home in heaven, left the right hand of the Father, and was made Man. What you have here is Jesus describing what He Himself is doing, what the point of His coming was and is. Jesus leaves heaven and comes to earth to win salvation for the Kingdom of God, to fill it with many brothers and sisters, including you and me, both for now and for the life of the world to come.

    This is the beauty, the wonder of the fact that Jesus is both True God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and True Man, born of the Virgin Mary. When Christ comes at Christmas, He gives things up. He sets aside His power, His glory... and He takes on weakness and frailty and hardship. Hear how Philippians 2, the text we hear read on Palm Sunday, puts it - “though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men.” This passage has one of my favorite little Greek-isms in it that's so hard to put simply into English – He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He didn't hold on to the fact that He was God; He didn't go around like some spoiled brat saying, “Don't you know who My Father is” - He doesn't call upon His identity, His privileged His status – although He is God – in the shape and form and reality of being God (again, more Greek-isms) – Jesus lets that all be ignored. He doesn't cling to it – because for Jesus as He comes to earth all His own power and mighty and glory isn't important. You are. You are more important to Jesus than His own respect and power and praise and heaven itself.

Jesus left all that behind, and He made Himself nothing – He emptied Himself of all His power and glory, and was born just like we are. Jesus doesn't just appear as a fully formed adult – He comes as one of us. He is an infant, too weak to lift His head. He comes, and He has to learn how to walk. He comes, and He has to grow. The stained glass there doesn't show it, but boy Jesus in the temple probably had acne and I wouldn't be surprised if His voice cracked a few times when He was talking to the Rabbis. And all this is to gain you salvation, to rescue you from the powers of sin and death. Jesus is True God, but He becomes True Man... and for a time, Jesus sets all the rights, powers, and privileges of being God aside – because His focus is on saving you.

    And how does that happen? Note what Jesus does in the Gospel lesson. There's been all this talk about giving things away and following Jesus, and leave family but gain the kingdom, and Jesus pulls the 12 aside. Whenever Jesus pulls the 12 disciples aside, He's going to explain something to them, to spell things out more clearly. I'm really diving into how Salvation will be accomplished – and He says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” As we say in the Catechism, Jesus purchases and redeems us not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. There's a very practical reason why to be the Savior Jesus can't hold on to His divine power. He has to suffer to save you. He has to take up the weight, the burden, the punishment for sin – your sin – and that means all the events of Holy Week, the shame trial, the beatings, the mockery, the Cross.

    And of course the disciples don't get it yet – they are still a bit full of themselves, how great they are because they're following Jesus – and they've been doing it longer than so many of all you Johnny-come-latelys and they've been in the club longer and so on and so forth. But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. While Jesus doesn't grasp, doesn't hold on to His power – the disciples don't grasp the idea of His suffering; they are still clinging on to their own dreams of earthly power and pomp – the very things Jesus tosses away to save them. Of course they couldn't understand – they hadn't seen it yet – they hadn't see the Cross yet. It made no sense to them, not until after Easter.

    Everything Jesus does in the Gospels, He does to save you, to redeem you, to rescue you. Everything He does drives Him, pushes Him towards the Cross, where your sin will be paid for, where the power of Sin and Death over you will be shattered. And He dies. And on the third day, He rises – as He and Moses and the Prophets had said He would. And after the resurrection, there's something different about Jesus. Oh, He is indeed still really and truly Man – you can touch Him, He eats some fish with the disciples in John 21. But after Easter, all that divine power and majesty that He had to abandon for the sake of salvation – He doesn't have to ignore that any more. After the resurrection, we see Jesus in His fully True God and True Man glory and majesty. A door is locked in the upper room on Easter night – doesn't stop Jesus. He had just been with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and now He wants to be in the Upper Room – so He can and will. Doesn't have to walk, He just goes now – because He's God, and there's no need, no need for your salvation, for Him to not use His power. And for 40 days after Easter He comes and goes and shows Himself to people and teaches and prepares the disciples, and then of His own accord He ascends to Heaven. He's prepared and is preparing a place for you there, but even in the meantime, He will be with you always – literally coming to you in His Body and Blood in the Supper because Jesus is True God and True Man and He can do that if He wants to thank you very much.

    But there is a shift that comes with the Ascension, that is revealed even more fully come Pentecost. The Church as we know it comes about. Whereas the saints of the Old Testament looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, and whereas the disciples followed Christ wherever He went, now in the days of the Church the disciples and apostles would be scattered around the globe, and wherever they went the Holy Spirit would cause the Church to grow – but that is really for next week when we consider the Third Article of the Creed. But for tonight, let it suffice that we remember what it is we are preparing to celebrate this Christmas – that Christ Jesus our Lord would step aside from heaven and its glory to win you forgiveness and life, so that you would be able to enjoy heaven with Him. This is His love for you. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent 2 Sermon

 

Advent 2 – Luke 21:25-36 – December 9^th and 10^th, 2023

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    There is a spiritual battle that is taking place, that takes place all around us constantly. While it's not common to speak of the Devil – seems too old fashioned or medieval, Satan is prowling around seeking your downfall. But even when I say that, there's still a tendency to not get the full picture. We think of Satan's temptations mainly as temptations to do bad, wicked, mean things – what's the image, the little devil on your shoulder saying, “Do it, do it!” That's part of it, but the Serpent is more crafty than any other creature in Creation. There's a larger game that is being played; a wider war is being leveled against you. Satan's chief goal isn't to get you to do bad things; we're all by nature sinful, we're going to do bad things anyway. Rather this; Satan's goal is to get you to forget about Jesus and the redemption He has won for you – and so the warfare that Satan engages in is this: by whatever means necessary, by hook or by crook, by fear or worry or anger or lust or greed or whatever, Satan tries to get you to ignore Christ and Him crucified. In our Gospel lesson we see Satan's attacks, the devil's use of fear or foreboding or busyness as tools used to distract you away from Jesus. The counter to this that Jesus teaches you is this: Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Listen.

    There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations because of the roaring of the sea and waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heaven will be shaken. It never fails – whenever this text comes up, I can look at the news, and I can find more people telling me of impending disasters and troubles in the world. Last Sunday morning, CNN had an article about how coastal cities will be flooded in 100 years (because people apparently can't move), and then Monday morning I saw an article with someone lamenting extra cool zones in the sun, what's going on? And we've got an election coming up, so let's not even talk about the anger and the opinions painted as facts thrown out there - and then I just stopped looking at the news because it's the same thing, all the time. Look at what's happening – you need to be afraid! And so often it's the same fear mongers who were shouting the exact same things years ago – only the dates of destruction and doom are shifted. And as annoyed as I get at all this, it's easy to forget or ignore that there is a spiritual aspect to this. What does all this fear and anger do? It changes the way we look, the way we love, the way we care – or more to the point the way we stop loving or stop caring for people. And it shifts our focus to wild plans of what we need to do – if we just win this election or if we just stop eating so much tasty, yummy beef the world will be fixed. Now, O Christian, do you see the Spiritual shift there? We just had Thanksgiving a few weeks ago – see what God gives, see what our great Creator provides! And yet, we slide past Thanksgiving and suddenly everything in the world hinges on me – on what I do, what I support, how I change the world as though I'm the one actually in charge of things rather than God. Do you see what that move does to us Spiritually?

       Over and against the fears, the panics, the god-absent man focused plans to fix everything, Jesus says something else. No, no, no – it's not about how you fix things. In fact, one of these days, these dire predictions and warnings will come true. The world, someday, will end. Dun dun duuuunnnnn. And when that day comes, it doesn't matter what choices I've made or what I've started eating – it's going to end. It might end for everyone as the Last Day, or it might just be my own personal end as my own death approaches. And you know what Jesus says to that? And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. All these things that people tell you will be the “end” - the dire and terrible thing... well, they are an end, but there's more. Jesus Christ, who once came humble and lowly as an infant, will come again. There is more to come even after these dire things – and you will see Him. You will see Jesus. Doesn't matter how the story of your life or this world turns out – you will see Jesus. Let's say you die – well, that's the end but not the end, because Jesus will raise you from the dead and you will see His second coming. Let's say it's the sweet meteor of doom that somes and smacks into the planet like a horrific celestial game of billards – well, that's an end, but you will also see Jesus, and He will come and He won't be bothered by any of this in the slightest because He's told you already this earth will be destroyed and He's going to make you a new one. And we could come up with countless other disaster scenarios to our hearts' content – but they all will and must resolve into what Jesus has promised – that He will come again, and His Kingdom will have no end.

Therefore, since this is the reality – that Jesus will come again - Jesus tells you, O Christian, to do something the world would never expect. Now, when these things begin to take place – when the worst of the worst predictions actually start happening – straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Don't cower in fear. Don't let Satan terrorize you with fear. Let's say the worst thing happens – so what – it just means you're closer to seeing Jesus return. Straighten up, raise your head, chin up and grin, because Satan can do his worst but it can't do a thing to Jesus, and Jesus always comes to redeem you. He came to win you salvation there on the Cross, and He's going to come again so that you see that salvation eternally – and there's not a thing Satan can do to stop Jesus.

    So since Satan can't stop Jesus, the only trick he has left is to get you to try to forget Jesus. To pull your eyes off of Jesus. And Jesus tells you not to fall for that bait and switch, for that sleight of hand. Don't let Satan distract you – remember, Jesus has told you what things mean. Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. Satan tries, Satan tries to distract and terrify us, to make us forget that Jesus is our God and Savior. Nope – Jesus wins. And Jesus points this out to us because it will be hard for us to remember that Jesus wins. Fear and trouble will drive us. We don't recognize the kingdom of God like we ought. Jesus speaks this parable during Holy Week – and when Jesus goes to the Cross, what happens? Well, there were signs and distresses, sun blotted out and hours of darkness, the world shaken... and Christ winning redemption. And yet, on that Good Friday, so few saw or understood. Wicked crowds jeered thinking they had won political victories; other people cowered in fear of the day, disciples hid, Mary and John looked on in sorrow and heart break. Yet what was Good Friday? The soldier got it in part – truly this was the Son of God. But more than that – look, here is the promised redemption - Straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. The tree of the Cross has a most wondrous leaf on it – Christ Jesus the life of the world! Redemption is near. Yet it was only later that the disciples saw and understood, only after the resurrection. Then they were ready to understand.

    As Christians we learn to see all things through the Cross. We learn to see things through Easter. We learn to know that Christ will come again, as we confess every week in the Creed. And this is all driving and teaching us, in whatever situation we find ourselves, to straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. This is the reality, this is the truth – this is what Christ Jesus has won already. And all Satan can do is distract you. But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. Oh, the Devil is crafty. If simple fear won't distract you from Jesus, maybe dissipation will – maybe you will be spread so thin by so many things to do – because that's what dissipation is; fog dissipates when it spreads on out and goes away – maybe Satan can stretch you with so much busyness that you just don't think you have time for Jesus, for His Word. Or maybe a bit of drunkenness, party hard, enjoy life to the so called fullest – too much so called fun to pay attention to Jesus. Or maybe just the cares of this life, the humdrum every day slog. Whether they are opportunities or joys or sorrows or boredom, Satan will try to use them all to distract you from Jesus. Nope. In all those situations, when any of those things come around – But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man. Don't get bogged down by this – pray for strength, pray to be ready for Jesus to return. But Pastor – what if I see my weakness, but what if I fail? Well, you will be weak and you will fail. Oh well - straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Yeah, you are weak, but He is strong, and yes, He loves you – remember the song? Yeah, you fail – that's why you need to be redeemed – good thing that you know that your redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives.  

    Jesus is coming, and He is coming to rescue you. The rescue has been done already with His birth, His death, His resurrection. Satan might try to terrify and distract you, but it doesn't change the fact that Jesus has already won – we're just waiting to see it. Therefore, this week, whatever you see - straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent Midweek 1

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    Last week I had a really cute moment in Preschool Chapel. One of the kids said, “Christmas is Jesus' birthday, so why do we get presents?” And I gave an answer – God gave Jesus to us as a gift, so we give gifts to each other. But this is really a profound truth, and it's going to be what we focus on today while we ponder the 1^st Article of the Creed. God, your Heavenly Father, is first and foremost a Giver.

    Now, most of the time, when we discuss the first article of the Creed, we look at it from the angle of Creation – and understandably so. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” However, for the past 175 years or so since Charles Darwin printed his book, discussions on creation have been... warped a bit. Now, if I say “creation” - we all think “the past”. We all think way back when, in the beginning. And that's fine, that's part of what we are confessing in the Creed, but it's not the fullness of it. Consider how the explanation begins: I believe that God has made me and all creatures. This isn't just a past tense, way back when thing – God's creation is a here and now thing. He has made me; even right now God creates, He still takes care of me. When we say that God is the Creator, we need to remember that He is our Creator – that right now, God the Father is our Maker – that we live, we exist simply and solely because He wills it. The discussion over creation isn't merely a debate ofver history – but the move that the world has been trying to make is to push God out of the present and bury Him firmly in the past. The academics of the 19^th Century were fine having a God who wound up all of creation and let 'er rip a long time ago but then stayed firmly and squarely hands off. But that's not what the Scriptures teach – our Old Testament lesson says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name.” Do you hear the past creation but also the present activity of God, the present, on-going care and sustaining of Creation that is ascribed to God. Without God actively willing it, without God actively preserving and continuing His creation, we don't exist.

    That's more than we think of today when we hear the world creation. And we as Christians do need to learn to hear the word more fully, to remember the fullness of God's creative work, how God is intimately involved with all of His creation, from the smallest particle to the most distant galaxy. God has made, God knows, and God still preserves it all. Creation is the giant symphony that God not only conducts but plays.

    To aid in this fuller, Scriptural, understanding of God being The Creator, it is useful to remember that first and foremost God is a giver. And this isn't something that Pastor Brown just whipped out out of no where. Luther's explanation to the first article of the Creed is a litany of all that God gives. He gives me my body and soul – He also gives me clothing and shoes – He richly and daily provides me with all that I need. Do you hear the repetition, the focus on giving? How all the things God provides get echoed in the 4^th Petition on “Give us this day our daily bread”? Your God is first and foremost a Giver.

    So, what precisely does God give? He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. The first and most basic thing to remember is that God has given you – you. God has given you your life, your existence, and this is a precious gift. Your body is a gift to you from God. God in His wisdom and wonder, made you you – and that's a fantastic thing. But we don't think it is today. In fact, the world tells us to hate everything about our bodies. A lot of this is couched in advertising – you're not fill in the blank enough, so buy our product, talk to your doctor about our pill, and then you'll be so much better. Maybe she's born with it as a gift from God, but come on, we all know that maybe it's maybelline? Do you get the disdain, the just go tinker with your body, modify it, change it? And it's getting more and more drastic and dire – and all of it forgets that God has given you your body – given you a wondrous body that He wants you to have. God, in His wisdom, did not choose to have me be 6 feet tall; I don't need to get leg extension surgery, which is actually becoming a thing. The world disdains the body – but your body is a great gift to you. In fact, the Father sends Jesus to go to the Cross and die and rise so that you too will be raised and so that you will get to have your body as it was meant to be for all eternity.

    And God gives you more. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have. God gives you countless blessings. He has put you here on this planet, surrounded you by neighbors who all work together to see that you are provided with all that you need for life. And it's wonderful. And yet, how often the world twists and disdains this gift. How often do we have greed and covetousness unleashed, where we no longer are happy with what we have, with what God gives, and we are told instead to want and desire and lust after more and more? And it makes us miserable, because it teaches us to disdain God's gifts. And how many people look at the world itself wrongly? The world is a gift to you from God, for your care, for your benefit; oh no no no, if you eat too many hamburgers you're going to kill the planet. Do you see how that approach disdains God's gift? Yes, we manage things, but the earth is a gift to us to care for and use for our neighbor's good; it's not our mother, it doesn't get to steal God's creative thunder. And yet, you listen and there are people calling for so many sacrifices to appease an angry earth... all of this is a direct attack on the idea that God the Father is our Creator and that He is a Giver.

    No – God gives. He gives you good things. Indeed, “He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.” Over and against all the sin that we have unleashed in God's creation – the sin that makes the whole of creation [groan] together in the pains of child birth as Paul describes it in Romans – God still defends. He still provides and still protects us. This is His wondrous love. And why? Not because of any merit or worthiness is me – God doesn't owe me any of this – but He does it only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy. Or in other words, God is the Creator because He's a giver. Because He is good and He loves to give. Because He delights in giving good things. So if you don't understand that God gives, that God delights in giving – you don't get God. That whole “God loves a cheerful giver” thing is because fundamentally God IS the cheerful giver, who gladly and lovingly blesses all creation and works His creatures to be blessings to each other.

    And this is the tragedy we heard in Luke. [Jesus] said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when [the ruler] heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. See and understand how much God has given you, how freely and joyously the Father provides for you. But don't worship the gift, don't serve the gift – worship God the Giver and give freely as He does. God's a giver – He's going to give you more. And this is one of the temptations Satan will tempt you with – Satan will try either to make you hate the gift – I don't like my body, I hate this worthless food, our house isn't big enough, so on and so forth, or as the ruler in the text, Satan will tempt you to turn the gifts into an idol, where you have to hold on to them, where you cannot share them, where you cannot give them... and thus the image and likeness of God the Giver gets shattered and broken in us again.

    No, remember my friends that God is and always remains a Giver. We see this in all creation – your life and your time is a gift from God to you. And to see that you get to keep your life and to live for all eternity, the Father gives His most precious gift – He sends His Son, Christ Jesus to rescue and redeem you from sin. And that will be our particular focus next week as we look at the second article of the Creed... and of course our focus on Christmas, and really pretty much every weekend. Of course it is, because God the Father is a giver, and we can always ponder His blessings to us of both Body and Soul. Thanks be to God for His generous love towards us. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

Advent 1

 

In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +

    Advent is the season where we focus on Christ Jesus' first coming – where we prepare for Christmas and the celebrations of God becoming Man to save us – who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And we begin Advent by looking at Palm Sunday, at the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It's a popular event in Jesus' life – it's easy to find paintings and pictures, in a few month's we will have palms and processions, and we like the praise, the triumph. Pastors and hymn writers love pointing out Christ's humility – in lowly pomp ride on to die. But for today, with this sermon, we will focus on what St. Paul sets up in the epistle today: Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. When you see Jesus come down from heaven, when you see Jesus in any Gospel lesson, indeed, when you see Him ride into Jerusalem, what you are actually seeing is Jesus fulfilling the law by loving His neighbor, Jesus loving you.

    Before we consider Jesus' love, how He fulfills the law for you, we need to discuss what the Scriptures mean by “love”. To love in the Scriptures doesn't mean to have a strong emotional attachment to something, nor is it describing how you feel about someone. To love someone is to serve them, to act for their benefit. To give of yourself so that they benefit. To decide how to act with the impact upon them in mind. And that is what Christ Jesus does – constantly and continually – He shows love. He acts for His neighbor's benefit, for their good; He acts for you, for your good. This whole season of Advent, of Christmas – it only happens for your good, for your benefit. Jesus didn't need to become man for His own good; it wasn't as though He was there in heaven and said, “You know what – I think I'd really like to be an infant and soil some diapers, won't that be fun?” In Philippians Paul notes that Jesus, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Or in other words, Jesus gave up power and glory and instead came to serve and suffer for your good. That is what love looks like.

    And I will assert that everything Jesus does, everything you see Him doing in the Gospel is in fact love for His neighbor and fulfilling the law. “Oh really, Pastor – even calling people morons last week?” Yep. If I'm getting ready to do something that is grade A stupid and my wife pulls me aside and says, “Dear, please, don't be an idiot” it's one of the most loving things she can do. I mean, is it loving to just let someone plow on into something dangerous and harmful without saying something? No. So my friends, every thing you see Jesus do, any Gospel lesson we will come across this church year, is replete with Jesus showing love – but not love as we tend to think of it. Love as God defines love , love that fulfills the law and serves the neighbor.

    So ponder Jesus there on that Donkey as He rides into Jerusalem – what do you see? What is actually going on? Well, one of the things Matthew points out is that what you see is the fulfilling of Scripture. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” Or we could even consider what our Old Testament Lesson said – Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Throughout the Old Testament, God had in His Word given us images and pictures of what the Messiah would do, things He would do – that way we would recognize Him. Because when God comes to save, when God comes to rescue and redeem you – it doesn't exactly go according to worldly, sinful expectations. We would think of a savior or a hero being bold and brash – not humble. We think of the hero killing the bad guy – not going to the Cross and His own death. And so the Old Testament continually gave us things to look for – don't look for some studly hero on a nice Arabian charger sweeping in like Lawrence of Arabia – He's going to be humble, coming on a donkey. He's not going to be focused on glory, but seeing justice and righteousness executed.

    Because this really drives the point home of what Jesus is doing. Jesus is never self-serving. Jesus is never blowing His own horn. He doesn't need a hype man or a PR agent setting up press conferences to increase His polling numbers. Jesus' focus is on loving, on fulfilling the law for you – and not just “for you” in the sense of “for your benefit” but rather “for you” in the sense of in your place. You see, God had created man to be righteous, to tend the garden, to love one another. And we fail, we have fallen, we sin. There is a drastic lack of righteousness and justice in the world. And the lousy, dire consequences of this spill out now before us – but there are also eternal consequences to this. If left to our own devices this sin would mean eternal separation from God and ever increasing suffering with selfishness and blame spiraling ever more and more grotesque. Jesus comes to execute justice and righteousness – to actually, actively love His neighbor. And thus, finally, once again the Father can look at a man, look at a human being – God become Man Jesus – and say that He is well pleased. And we will get many examples of Jesus actively loving, actively caring for people over the course of this year.

    But there is another side to fulfilling righteousness, of executing justice. And that's punishment. There's always two ways a law can play out – you can obey the speed limit and just drive along happily, or the cop can pull you over, give you a ticket, and you pay the fine. Both of these paths fulfill the law – the later one is just more dangerous and expensive. Jesus actively obeys the Law, does what is right, actively loves His neighbor. However, there is still the question of what is to be done with those who have broken the law. And it's not set up to be good. The wages of sin is death. There are consequences to be had. Humanity is broken, and someone's got to buy it. And this is what we see Christ preparing to do in this text. We see Jesus entering Jerusalem not for fun, not for merriment, not even with the joy that these crowds are showing forth. Jesus comes to fulfill the punishment of the law in your place. The sinner must die – and so Jesus comes to take up your sin and die upon the Cross. That's why He's entering Jerusalem – but that's been the plan from the beginning – behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world... and He takes it away by dying. The Lamb gets sacrificed – again, taught all throughout the Old Testament. And this is what Jesus comes to do. The wood of the manger must lead to the wood of the cross. The Christmas tree with it's lights leads to the tree on Calvary where Christ, the Light of the world, hangs.

    And Palm Sunday, this triumphal entry, it captures all of this – the joy, the fulfillment of prophecy, but also the humility, the expectation of the Cross. And it's all for you, to see that you are saved, to see that you are rescued and redeemed from sin. And it's why we will echo the song of Palm Sunday in just a few moments in the Sanctus – Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD – Sing hosanna in the highest, sing Hosanna to the Lord; truly blest is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Christ comes to you to save you, even this day. He comes in His Word, He comes bodily in His Supper – indeed, every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper it is a celebration of Christmas – Christ Mass, that's where it gets its name. Christ became man, took on a body, to die and rise and give you life – and in this Supper He gives you His Body and blood to give you forgiveness, salvation, and life once again. And we sing His praises and He enters this place in His Supper – do you see the parallels?

    But its good to be us, to be people of the New Testament, post-Easter people. Because we also see clearly the resurrection of Jesus, that His Suffering is completed and yields to victory, to joy, to celebration. It's good to be the baptized, to be those washed in water and the word, to be those baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – which is how we start our service, how we come here – oh yes, truly blest are you, you baptized people, for you come here in the Name of the Lord, quite literally. Even the children who aren't yet prepared and trained for right reception of the Supper get a blessing at the rail – a remembrance and declaration of their baptismal gifts – we start the service with that blessing, and you all get one at the end in the benediction because as you go out this week you go as those truly blest in the name of the Lord.

    Behold the wondrous reality. God loves you. And though your own love will fall short and fail because of sin, God shows love for you. Christ Jesus comes down, and He fulfills all love, fulfills all the law, and He does this for you, taking away sin and death, and giving you forgiveness and life and strength. And this is what He always does – because He came down from heaven to win you salvation by going to Jerusalem and dying and rising for you. And this He has done, it is finished. In the Name of Christ Jesus our Advent King +