New Year's Eve Vespers Meditation

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Jesu Juva

New Year’s Eve Meditation

Text: Psalm 90:1-12; Isaiah 30:8-17; Romans 8:31b-39; Luke 12:35-40

 

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Another year has passed. A New Year begins in just a few hours now. A year, 12 months, 365 days, seems like such a long time. Perhaps by some measures it is. But not to the Creator of time. For Him, as the psalmist said, a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past. 

That is comforting. We need a God big enough for eternity. To a young child, Dad is big enough to protect her from all danger, and Mom is caring enough to provide for every need. But then we become the Dad and Mom, and we know there are dangers too big for us, cares we cannot provide for. At such times, we need to be children again. Children of our heavenly Father. And know that we have a refuge in Him. That He is our dwelling place. That there is no danger too big, no care beyond His providing. 

He knows what this coming year holds for us. The joys and the sorrows, the challenges and the successes. We like to think we’re in control. We make plans and resolutions and try to achieve our own versions of happiness. Perhaps you’d like to know what will come this next year, get a glimpse into the future, prepare for it. But that’s not for us to know. It is for us to trust our heavenly Father as He leads us from age to age, from one year to the next. To rely on His Word and not despise it. To grow in His Word and treasure it. To rest secure not in our knowledge, but in His; not that we’re in control, but that He is.

But big can also be frightening. So while it is comforting to have a God big enough for eternity, we also need a God small enough for us to know, and who knows us. That is our God, too. Who became small, the smallest of human beings in the womb of His mother. Who was then born and received the protection of His father and the care of His mother. Who grew as we do, and then died as we do. In every stage of life from beginning to end, Jesus knows. So whatever happened this past year, and whatever will happen next year, you have a Saviour who can and will provide exactly what you need.

Which is what the apostle Paul also said to us tonight, that if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him graciously give us all things? Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So we have a God who is both little and big. Little enough to spend time with widows and lepers, but big enough to cleanse them and help them. Little enough to  eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, but big enough to feed over five thousand with five small loaves of bread and two fish. Small enough to pray, but big enough to hear our prayers. That’s the God we need, and the God we have.

So we end one year and remember all that our Lord has done for us, and we begin a New Year with the confidence that what He has done He will do. We will be well cared for, even, or especially, if it turns out to be a particularly difficult year. We end the year hearing Him speak to us in His Word, and we speak back to Him in prayer. This is exactly the right place and the right way to end one year and begin another.

But not just on this night, because as Luke reminded us tonight, our Lord is coming back for us. There may not be another New Year, a 2024. Or there may be, but not for you or me. I received word just this morning of a pastor who died suddenly and unexpectedly. You undoubtedly saw on the news the death of the former Roman Pope. Man knows not His time. So we need to be ready for whenever that time comes for us. To not be lured into thinking we have many more years - we may not. Not here, anyway. But we have an eternity to spend with our Saviour. 

So, the psalmist prayed, and we prayed, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. That is a heart filled with Jesus. A heart filled with His forgiveness for my sin, His Word for my path, His love to overcome my fears, and His life to overcome my death. And when He comes again - when it is not a crystal ball dropping in New York City, but a Saviour descending in glory - we will be among the throngs of faithful waiting for Him and rejoicing at His coming. 

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

Sermon for the Nativity of Our Lord

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Jesu Juva

“A Talking Baby?”

Text: Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We heard in the reading from Hebrews this morning:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.

Or John put it this way: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh.

Today is not only the birth of Jesus, the birth of the Son of God in human flesh, the birth of our Saviour . . . it is all that, but more. Today, God is speaking to us by His Son.

Now, babies can’t talk. We all know that. But this one says a whole lot.

Now, it’s frustrating when someone speaks but you cannot understand them. Sometimes it’s a language thing - they’re speaking a language you don’t know, like Spanish, or German, or Chinese. Or maybe it’s a vocabulary thing - you know the language, but not those words! They’re speaking with words waaay over your head, or slang that you’re not familiar with. Or it could be the speaker isn’t communicating clearly. You know the language and the words, but he or she is not putting them together well; so what they are saying doesn’t make sense. 

Well how about God speaking? Do you understand Him?

Honestly, sometimes, the answer is NO! isn’t it? That verse from Hebrews said that God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. And some of those prophets . . . we hear them, we read them, and they’re hard to understand. Maybe we don’t know the history or the historical circumstances they were speaking to. Maybe it’s a translation thing from Hebrew to English. Maybe it’s how they speak. But many things God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament are hard for us to understand. We want to. We need to. But . . .

Or maybe we wish God would speak to us now like He did to the people back then. Like He did to Moses in a burning bush. Or to Abraham when those three visitors came to him. Or in visions and dreams. Then we would understand! Then we would know!

I’m not so sure we’d like all that! That might fall into the category of be careful what you wish for! But in any case, that time is past. Now, in these last days, God is speaking differently. In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. And while babies can’t speak, this one speaks volumes.

For here, in the manger, the Creator lies as a creature. And not just any creature, but one of us. And not just one of us, but a tiny, helpless, baby.

Here, in the manger, the Lord God, the commander of the army of angels, the one whom the angels worship, has become a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5).

Here, in the manger, the one who cares for all creation, keeps the planets and stars in their place, knows the number of hairs on your head and every sparrow that falls to the ground (Matthew 10:29-30), receives the care of a human mother and father.

Here, in the manger, the Son of God is now also the son of Mary, like us in every way except without sin (Hebrews 4:15). 

No other god would do this. There is no myth, no legend, nothing in the tales and stories of any other god like this. Those gods sit aloof. Those gods demand you serve them. Those gods don’t want to get themselves dirty. Those gods care only about themselves and what they can get from you.

Not this God. Not the true God. Who cares only about you and what He can do for you and give to you. Who comes down from heaven and gets dirty - dirty with our sin. Who has come not to demand from you but to serve you. And who doesn’t sit aloof, but, as we just sang, joins us and our children in our weakness (LSB #372 v. 2).

So what is this child speaking with all this? How greatly God doth love you! How much? This much. That word is being proclaimed loud and clear this day. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

But still, it’s hard to understand, isn’t it? That God would love us so? Us sinners. Us rebels. We who do what He has told us not to do, and don’t do what He has told us to do. We who have ruined His good and perfect creation. We who are selfish, who fail, who fall. We who forget to pray, or think we don’t have the time, and who don’t even think about God much of the day. That God would do this for us, send His Son for us, come to serve us and save us . . . why? 

Because that’s who He is. A God who loves. A God who is love. And in the manger He is revealing himself to us. How He wants to be known. How He wants to be seen. The God who gives Himself to us in the wrapping paper of swaddling clothes, not under a tree but in a manger, and not just one gift among many, or a gift that will soon be obsolete, but the one we need the most. 

But, I have to tell you, full disclosure - this child isn’t here only to give to you. Oh no - He is here to take from you. He’s not going to let you keep everything you have. He’s going to take from you, too. He’s going to take your sin. He’s going to take your death. He’s going to take your condemnation. He’s going to take everything in you that separates you from God. And, as we also heard from the reading from Hebrews today, after making purification for sins - your sins, and all of them, each and every one - he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high - meaning, after dying for your sins as the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God, He rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of His Father, where He rules and reigns over all. But not just like He did before, as God. For He is not like He was before. Now, as He was in the manger, as He was on the cross, so He is on the throne - both God and man. Your God and your brother. Your blood brother. Your flesh brother. He’s the one now on the throne! As your brother forever. For the Word, the eternal Word, the Son of God, was made flesh. Was made your brother. And not just for a time, but forever. That you be children of God, not just for a time, but forever.

That, as John said, is the light that shines in the darkness. The light of truth that shines in the darkness of sin. The light of love that shines in the darkness of hate. The light of unity that shines in the darkness of division. The light of life that shine in the darkness of death. And the darkness has not, could not, and cannot overcome it. This baby is greater than all the forces of evil. And He is born for you.

That’s what God is speaking to you today through His Son. 

The Son who will also in a moment say to you, Take and eat, this is My Body; Take and drink, this is My Blood. The same Body and Blood held by Mary in her arms. The same Body and Blood that lay in the manger. The same Body and Blood that hung on the cross. The same Body and Blood that then rose from the dead. That Body and Blood I give to you, this child says, to love you with My forgiveness, and raise you with My life. That not sin, death, or hell ever separate you from Me.

That’s what God is speaking to you today through His Son. Through this baby in the manger. A baby who cannot talk, yet is saying an awful lot! 

And to this we sang in response:

The world may hold

Her wealth and gold;

But Thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true treasure.

To Him hold fast

Until at last

A crown be thine and honor in full measure (LSB #372 v. 6).

Until we see our Christmas gift, our Brother, our Saviour, face-to-face, and receive that last gift, greater than all: eternal life.

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

Sermon on the Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord

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Jesu Juva

“No Room for God?”

Text: Luke 2:1-20; Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14

 

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

How hard it must have been for Joseph, not to be able to provide better for his wife. How hard it must have been for Mary, not to be able to provide better for her child. The stable would have to do. The manger would have to do. Beggars can’t be choosers.

You’ve heard that phrase before, but never like this. For tonight, God is the beggar. It’s not just that there was no room in the inn for Joseph and Mary; there was no room in the inn for God. The Creator of all things would have to be born out back with the animals. The one who opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145:16) must lie in the very manger from which that food is eaten by beasts. The God whose heaven has streets of gold so pure that they are clear like glass, with walls made of precious stones, and each gate made of a single pearl (Revelation 21), is tonight as far from that as one can get. He is a poor beggar. We have no room for you.

John said this in his Gospel, which we’ll hear read tomorrow morning: He came to his own, but His own people did not receive Him (John 1:11). No room for God.

Oh, you say, they didn’t know it was God, otherwise they would have. I’m not so sure. Many today have no room for God in this holiday. He would like to come into their homes, into their hearts, but there is no room. There are already too many other things there - family and friends, preparations to be made, trips to take, gifts to give and receive, traditions to uphold, celebrations. So no room for God. Perhaps when Jesus said I was hungry you gave me no food, naked and you gave me no clothes (Matthew 25) . . . He was thinking of this night of His birth. 

No room for God. Truthfully, sometimes we do it too, don’t we? Our lives are so full. And keep get fuller and fuller. Our time stretched so thin. Our calendars wall-to-wall. No time for others. No room for God. Perhaps that’s exactly the way satan has played it. Don’t reject God! No, no, no! But this, too . . . and this, too . . . oh, and this, too . . . all good things! But before you know it, no room for God. We didn’t plan it that way, but maybe satan did. It just happened!? Maybe not.

But God is not so easily stopped. He does not so easily give up. He comes anyway. No palace? No problem. No bed? A manger will do. Out back? Fine. God doesn’t care. There’s only one thing He cares about here - YOU. To come for you. To come and be your Saviour. If He does, then it will be a perfect Christmas, regardless of all the other circumstances. None of that really matters. Only Him, here, for you. So that there will be room in heaven for you.

For if He doesn’t come, if the Son of God does not come down from heaven into the womb of the virgin, into that stable, into that manger, then there is no room for you in heaven. It is closed to you. Locked. A lock that cannot be picked with your prayers, your good works, or your sincerity. That’s what sin has done. Your sin and mine. Adam and Eve getting tossed from the Garden of Eden and barred from re-entering by an angel guarding the way gives us a glimpse of that. There was no way for them to get back in. To get back in to the tree of life and live. 

But God promised one day they would. He would send a key. A Saviour. Who would forge a new key. A cross-shaped key. So when Jesus was born and went from the manger to the cross, was crucified out back of Jerusalem, and then rose to life from a virgin tomb just as He had from a virgin womb, the key of the cross turned in the lock and heaven was open again. There is forgiveness for all who believe. There is a new tree of life and we get to eat from it, as we will tonight, as the fruit that hung from that tree, the Body and Blood of Jesus, are given to us. So there is now room for you, in heaven.

That’s why the angels are also singing this night. They didn’t want guard duty. That wasn’t joyful duty. But this was! To go to the shepherds and announce to them the birth of this promised Saviour. To proclaim Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. That is, God has room for you.

The shepherds heard that message and went to see this child, the fulfillment of God’s promise, their Saviour. And they were filled with joy. For you see, shepherds weren’t usually on the invitation list. For anything. No child told their parents growing up that they wanted to be a shepherd. It was a hard job, a dirty job, and an often thankless job. Yet God wanted them there. God wanted them there first! God had room for them. For shepherds, while the world didn’t think so much of them, God did. In fact, that’s what this child would grow up to be, and wanted to be when He grew up! And not just any shepherd, but your shepherd. The Good Shepherd.

These shepherds, working in the darkness of night, had seen the great light of the angels, and heard the great light of their message. But the greatest light they saw that night, of course, was shining from the manger. The light of God’s love for them. 

And that’s the light that breaks our darkness, too. His forgiveness breaking the darkness of sin. His life breaking the darkness of death. His truth breaking the darkness of a world that has lost its way. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. That is our joy this night. That God has room for us - and not just in heaven, though that is more than we deserve! But in His heart. That despite who we are, despite what we do, here is God’s love for you. 

Not that God doesn’t care who you are and what you do - He does! It’s just that His love doesn’t come after you get better and clean yourself up, but before. It’s there for you, always there for you and acts for you. That’s what tonight shows us. That while we were still sinners, Christ was born for us and Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). To make us His own. And that we might live as His children. Not on the outside, but inside. Not eating the food of anxious toil, but the food He gives. Not on an endless quest for more, but receiving from His hand all that we need. For that hand that sent His Son and gave us a Saviour, will also give us everything else we need (Romans 8:32). So that, as we heard from the letter Paul wrote to Titus and his churches tonight, we live godly lives in the present age.

And you know what that means? Really, simply, this: that just as God has room for us in His heart and in His heaven, and just as by His grace we now have room for Him in our hearts and homes, so too would we have room in our hearts for others. That we not close them out, but have compassion on them, have mercy on them, forgive them, just as our Father has us. And imagine if we did! Imagine if all the world did. It would be a very different world, wouldn’t it? A world with room for God and room for others. Sounds like heaven.

Which is why it will never be that way on earth! Not completely, anyway. But it can start. We can start. And you do. For God is working in you, and through you. His Spirit making room in your heart for Him and for others. 

So Christmas changes everything. Whether or not you get any presents. Whether or not you get what you want. For your heavenly Father has given you what you need. And when His Son came and traded the wood of the manger for the wood of the cross, and His swaddling clothes for grave clothes, He gave the gift of life to all people. To you. For as the angel said, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

So that night which started with no room in the inn, ends with room in heaven for you. That’s a pretty good story, which is more than a story. It is the truth. Your truth. And your gift. Merry Christmas!

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

Sermon for Advent 4 Midweek Evening Prayer

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Jesu Juva

“The Blessing of Having the Way of Peace”

Text: Isaiah 40:1-5; John 20:24-29; Luke 1:57-79

 

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Guide our feet into the way of peace. 

Say that to any Israelite and they would think of God guiding the feet of Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land which God promised to give his descendants. Or they would think of God guiding the feet of Jacob to his Uncle Laban’s house when he was fleeing his brother Esau after fleecing his brother Esau. Or perhaps most of all, they would think of God guiding the feet of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until they got to the Promised Land. God was always guiding the feet of His people.

People are looking for this today as well. Show me which way to go, God! Guide my feet to the right spouse, the right job, the right home. 

The thing is, while all of those things may be good, none of those ways is the way of peace. 

But Zechariah’s son, John, was all about the way of peace. Because of his preaching, people from all over went out into the wilderness - not a place you normally associate with peace! But there was. Peace, there. Peace in the wilderness. Because John was calling the people to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. For that is truly the way of peace: repentance and forgiveness. 

Isaiah, as we heard tonight, said that part of John’s message would be that our warfare is ended. But what warfare is he talking about? We could do like the Pharisees, who claimed they had never been slaves of anyone, so how could Jesus set them free (John 8:33)? and say, we’ve never been at war with anyone, so how can it be ended? But just as the Pharisees were, in fact, slaves, slaves of sin, so have we been at war - war with God. Our ways warring against His ways, our thoughts with His thoughts, our desires with His desires, our lives with the lives He has for us. From the beginning, our sin has set us against God. 

So one of the things John would do is preach repentance, that is, enable us to see our sin rightly. For Isaiah also said that the forerunner would lift up the valleys and make low the mountains; he would make level and plain the rough places and uneven ground. And in our lives, that means that instead of making our mountain of sin into a mole hill, like it really isn’t that bad, instead of belittling our sin, we repent. That instead of making the mole hills of sins committed against us into mountains, instead of magnifying the sin of others, we forgive. Instead of tripping each other up, we help each other up. Instead of throwing each other down, we lift each other up. That in this world of trouble and strife, in this world of me-against-you and against God, there be a way of peace. A way of life. A way of forgiveness.

For without forgiveness, there really is no peace. Whatever peace we have is quickly disturbed with our regrets, with past mistakes haunting us, past social media posts like skeletons in our closets, with questions of what if? And if you’ve been there, you know how difficult and enduring those things can be. And how peace shattering.

So the one whose way John is preparing has come to give us the peace we cannot get or achieve ourselves. The peace that doesn’t come from us, it must come to us. So John prepares the way. The way of peace. He calls us to acknowledge and repent of our sin, and then hear that healing, war-ending word: I forgive you all your sins. And at peace with God, knowing that God does not hold our sin against us, that our past regrets and failures are atoned for, we can live at peace with each other. And that is a great gift, to have such peace.

Many people do not consider repentance a gift. It is, rather, an obligation, a burden they must endure. And if repentance was about what we must do to atone for our own sins, then perhaps that is the right way to look at it. But it is not that at all. Repentance, rather, is about acknowledging that we cannot atone for our sins, and turning to the one who can. And did. And receiving His atonement, His forgiveness, His peace. The very gifts He wants to give us. And considered that way, repentance really is a gift. The gift we need the most.

And so the way of peace starts at the manger, goes through the Jordan, ascends the cross, and then rises from the dead. That is the way of peace for us as we baptismally die and rise with Jesus to a new life. A life set free with His forgiveness.

That was the path of peace St. Thomas needed. Today, December 21, is his day of commemoration. And he did not have peace. For him, Jesus was dead and so was all hope, his hope. He was filled with fear and regrets and did not know what the future held. But then he heard those words from the lips of Jesus: peace be with you. And the once-dead-but-now-risen flesh of Jesus was his way of peace. The flesh that once lay in the manger, the flesh that once ate and drank with him, the flesh that hung on the cross - he now put his fingers and hands on that flesh and into that flesh, and his warfare was ended, his turmoil calmed. He had peace. The peace that only Jesus can bring. 

And that is our peace. We do not have the hands and side of the risen Jesus to put our fingers and hands into, but we do have the Body and Blood of the risen Jesus to eat and to drink. And as we do, our warfare is ended, our troubled consciences calmed, our sins forgiven. Your past can no longer haunt you when Jesus has taken that past, atoned for it, and left it buried and dead in the grave. All there’s left is peace.

And people are looking for this today. It’s a common wish this time of the year, heard in many songs and read in many cards: peace on earth! John points us to Jesus and says: there is your peace. That is the way. Be joined to Him. Die and rise to a new life with Him. Repent and be forgiven by Him. And this is the what all the other work of our Lord is all about, that we have been considering this Advent season - why we have been visited, why we have been mercied, why we have been enlightened: that we know and have the way of peace. That we know and have Jesus. These four weeks of Advent, of meditation on the Word of God and of prayer, have led us to this: to see in the manger far more than a baby, but a Saviour. To know there is peace on earth because that peace is lying in the manger. That we see the flesh and blood of Jesus in the manger and say: my Lord and my God! MY Lord and MY God. For this Great and Mighty Wonder (LSB #383) is born for you and me. To be our peace. That we might have a not only a Merry Christmas, but a blessed one, too.

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

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

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Jesu Juva

“Yes, Really! Immanuel: God with us”

Text: Matthew 1:18-25; Isaiah 7:10-17

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

I mean, would you have believed it? Immanuel. God with us. Really? That’s what they will call this child? That must have seemed like a cruel joke to Joseph. Because God certainly wasn’t with him! His betrothed was with child. Everyone knows there’s only one way for that to happen. He betrothed her and she betrayed him. Joseph wasn’t the kind of guy who was going to make a public example of what happens to such loose women, such adultresses. Oh, not that he didn’t think about it! The sweet taste of revenge. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t do it. But at the same time he wasn’t going to take this slap in the face and pretend like nothing happened. He would divorce her quietly. If this is what she wanted, this is what she would get. And Joseph would move on. 

God with us. Yeah, right. With someone, somewhere, maybe. Whose life was going better than Joseph’s! Who was getting good things, and had joy in their life. But not with him. What had he done wrong? What had he done to deserve this? We wonder that, right? So Joseph probably did, too. He probably replayed that video over and over in his mind, trying to figure it out. Maybe it was this, maybe that. Maybe when he overcharged that person who could obviously afford it. Maybe when he hadn’t done his best carpenter work but passed it off like he had. Maybe it was when he lost his temper, or skipped synagogue because he was just too busy, too tired, his life too filled with concerns and worries. Maybe it was his falling short in his alms and tithing. What was it? What was it that had made God turn against him like this?

God with us. I wish, Joseph perhaps thought. So He could straighten this all out. Make it right. Undo this mess. Turn back the clock and change what had happened. Change what Mary did. Change what he had done. Work it out. 

That’s what God is for, after all, isn’t it? 

But his dream . . . it haunted him. Surely it was only a dream, wasn’t it? His own wishful thinking creeping into his brain and conjuring up this episode. An angel. That the child Mary was carrying was not the fruit of unfaithfulness but of God’s faithfulness. And that this child was being born to be the Saviour; the one who would save His people from their sins. It was wishful thinking, it must have been! For if God was going to do such a thing, why choose Mary? Mary! There were a hundred, a thousand other women God could have chosen - higher, more able, more worthy. Mary. His Mary. It was wishful thinking. You couldn’t even make up a story like that and sell it - it wouldn’t sell! It was too preposterous. Mary pregnant with God’s child. If only . . .

And yet . . . there was that passage from Isaiah . . . he’d heard it read in the synagogue just that week. That must have been where that word Immanuel had gotten stuck in his brain and come out in his dream. 700 years ago Isaiah had said that, told King Ahaz about the Lord’s deliverance, what the Lord was going to do. King Ahaz was like him. He didn’t think that God was with him. Because the king of Israel, the northern kingdom, and the king of Syria had made an alliance and were coming after him and his kingdom, Judah. God had made big promises, but where was He now? Now that Ahaz needed Him! 

So Isaiah told him that God was with him. He was. A child would be born and not too long after that, those two kings and their kingdoms and their armies and their might? It would all be gone. God was bringing in the King of Assyria to discipline them and save Judah. And it happened. King Ahaz was wrong . . . what he thought . . . what seemed to him . . . God was with him after all.

So could God be with him, Joseph, too? He was no king and had no kingdom. He wasn’t anyone important. So, nah. Why would God bother with him? Yet . . . that’s how God often worked. He chose people others wouldn’t. Unlikely people. Jacob was no prize, yet he got a nation named after him, after God changed his name to Israel. David was the youngest and most un-king-like son of Jesse, yet God chose him. Amos was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore fig trees (Amos 7:14), and God used him as a prophet. But him and Mary - ah, that’s different. It was just too much to believe.

But he also couldn’t believe that Mary would do that to him. That wasn’t like her. That wasn’t the Mary he knew and loved. Oh, he was so confused! God with us. God with HIM! That’s what he needed!

But what if it was true? What if it wasn’t just a dream, but more than a dream? What if just like at the time of Ahaz, God was now coming, coming to His people, to deliver them. King Ahaz then was worried about Israel and Syria; now the people were more and more upset with Rome. But this was different that that. Then the child was a sign. His dream had said that this child was going to do it! And that He would save his people from their sins. That’s what Joseph was worried about; why he thought God was NOT with him. His sins. That he had done something wrong to deserve this. That God was punishing him. Could this really be not punishment but deliverance? Deliverance for Joseph? A blessing for Joseph??

He knew that was possible, too. All those stories in the Old Testament, when it seemed hopeless for God’s people, and yet it wasn’t. God remained faithful to His words and promises and had delivered them. Things that seemed bad turned out good. And when everything was going good, that’s when bad things often happened! God with us wasn’t always the way people thought it would be like. In fact, it rarely was. It wasn’t all luxury and ease and comfort, peace, and joy. Sometimes it was God’s people under assault, yet God with them, sustaining them and providing for them.

Well, Joseph felt under assault! So God with us, God with him . . . maybe it was after all. To be honest, he was still a bit doubtful and fearful of what he was going to do and what this meant for him, but isn’t that what faith is all about? Not knowing, but trusting. Not a lack of fear, but confidence in the face of fear? That God is with us. Even when it might not seem like it. Even when it doesn’t look like it. But if God’s Word says it, then it is so.

Joseph felt a little better. Because he wasn’t relying on his own thinking, he wasn’t taking matters into his own hands. This seemed better, right. Merciful. Like God. So he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He did not divorce Mary. He took her in. He wed her. He cared for her. And her child. This child that wasn’t his, but was his. This child that wasn’t from him, but for him. This child that . . . he found himself saying - and believing! - was God with us. 

And with you. All of you. Maybe it doesn’t seem so. Some people get spiritual highs and yes! God is with me! But then come the valleys, the lows, the ditches, and . . . what happened? For others, the ditches are the norm that they just can’t seem to climb out of. But for others - and I think this might be the majority of people - there’s not much of either. Not super highs or super lows, just ordinary. We go to church, we pray, but nothing seems to change very much. We see people suffer we think shouldn’t. We see people succeed we think don’t deserve it. We pray and wonder if God hears. God with us? We’d like to believe it . . .

And then there are our sins, too. Which you’re right - should make God reject you and be against you. When you’re less than honest, less than helpful, less than faithful, less than loving. All those things satan likes to remind us of, and run the video over and over in our minds to convince us that yup! You’re on your own, baby!

To which God says: No! No you’re not. Just as He sent His Word to Joseph through the angel, so He sends His Word to us today through different messengers, but the same Word. The Word of a Saviour. The Word that God is, in fact, with you. Yes, sinful you, unworthy you. Not because of you, but because of Him. Because He promised. And He keeps each and every promise. So yes, the virgin did conceive a bear a son, the Son of God. And yes, He went to the cross as the perfect Lamb of God bearing the sin of the world - which means your sin, too. And yes He died and rose from the dead to rescue you from those two great fortresses - sin and death - which try to keep you away from God and His life. They cannot. Because of Him. Because God came to be with us, fight for us, and win.

And then sent His Word to you in the water of baptism - that another child be miraculously born a child of God. You! You not born sinless like Jesus, but born again with the forgiveness of your sins. And that Word is sent to you in the absolution, in the Gospel, and in the bread and wine, because God doesn’t want to be your Immanuel, your God with us, only once, or here or there, but always. And so He is. Even if it doesn’t always seem like it. Faith says yes. Even faith that is still a little bit doubtful and fearful of what this means for you.

It didn’t mean an easy life for Joseph. This blessing would be work! Taking him to Bethlehem, then to Egypt, then back to Nazareth. And I’m sure a whole lot more than we’re not told. And I’m sure Joseph had more moments after this, when he wondered, when he doubted, when he feared. If it was up to him, I’m sure he would had fallen and failed. But on the foundation of the Word of God, God with him sustained him. 

And you, too. That’s our hope. That Christmas isn’t just one day of joy, but the day that shows us God with us, so that we’ll be with Him, forever. 

God with us. Some will mock that, mock us. Point to all kinds of things to prove that He’s not. That you can’t really believe that, can you? Do you? Well, yes, we do. Because a full manger and an empty tomb proclaims it so. That God is with sinners, to raise sinners, to give those dead in their trespasses and sins life in the forgiveness of their sins. For God is here. God with us. It’s true. For Joseph. And for you.

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

Sermon for Advent 3 Midweek Evening Prayer

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“The Blessing of Being Enlightened”

Text: Genesis 18:16-33; Luke 1:57-79

 

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

A big part of Christmas are the lights. The lights everywhere. On houses, on trees, colored lights, white lights, in our houses, as candles on our tables. At this time of year it is the house that is NOT lit up that is the exception. It is part of what makes this time of year special and brings joy to many people, especially as next week comes the day with the shortest amount of daylight in the year.

This is a theme that fits well with not just the world’s view of Christmas, but also with the Scriptures. We heard from Zechariah’s Benedictus tonight of light, that because of the tender mercy of our God . . . the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. But it’s more than that. We hear every Christmas Eve that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone (Isaiah 9:2). Jesus calls Himself the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5). And that at the consummation of the ages, there will be no more darkness, for the glory of the Lord will be our light (Revelation 21:23, 25; 22:5).

And that’s all good. For the darkness is the time of sin and evil. Darkness is the time of drunkenness and debauchery. Darkness is the time of fear and when imaginations run wild. You cannot see what is hiding in the dark. Jesus dies in the dark when the sun stops shining (Matthew 27:45), or as the early fathers of the church would put it, when the sun was ashamed to gaze upon its creator, though evil men were not. So to have light in the darkness is a good thing for us.

But that’s not the darkness that Zechariah was talking about here. He had in mind a much worse darkness than all of that. Not a darkness outside of us, but a darkness inside of us. When, as we say, someone is kept in the dark. They are left unknowing. They are left in ignorance. They do not have knowledge. They are on the outside looking in.

That is the darkness Adam and Eve found themselves in after they sinned. The sun was still shining, but they were in the dark about how God now looked at them, regarded them, what was going to happen to them, and what God was going to do. And so they were filled with fear. But God did not leave them there. He enlightened them with His Word and told them not just what would be the consequences of their sin, but also what He was going to do about it: send a Saviour. And there was light in the darkness. Hope. 

We heard tonight of how God enlightened Abraham, that He was not willing to keep Abraham in the dark about what He was going to do Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin, because He chose Abraham to become a great and mighty nation. So the Lord enlightened Abraham. But . . . not all the way? For while Abraham knew the Lord was just and right and light, it seems he did not know quite how much. Abraham starts at fifty and goes down to ten righteous people to save those cities, but stops there. 

But the truth that Zechariah confesses is that God spares not just a city or two, but the world, ALL people, of the destruction we deserve because of our sin, because of just ONE righteous person. The son promised to Adam and Eve. The son promised to Abraham. The Son of God who would come in human flesh to not only enlighten the darkness of this world and the darkness that lives in us, but to banish it entirely, once and for all. The sun shall visit us, he says. The sun shall rise on us in the darkness, and give us light. The light of the forgiveness of our sins, that we know we are not condemned, but absolved. The light of life, that we know death is not the end for us, and we need not fear the grave, for we shall rise with Jesus to a new and eternal life. The light of victory over all the forces of evil and the evil one, whose lies and deceit are exposed by the Word of God, that we know the truth that sets us free.

That is the light that shines from the manger, revealed to us at Christmas. It is the light that shines from the cross, scattering the darkness of Good Friday. It is the light that shines from the empty tomb, showing us that the bonds of the grave have been broken. It is the light that shines here from the Word and Sacraments, as our Lord enlightens us, makes us His children, and keeps us in His grace and care. That we not be in the dark. That we know. That we know beyond a shadow of a doubt of His love and all that He has done for us, and all that He has promised to continue to do for us. It is why the ancients called baptism illumination. Enlightening.

And so on the night when He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). Here, Jesus, in a sense, baptizes His disciples with His Word of illumination. And on Pentecost, they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But for you and me, we get all these together - water, Word, and Spirit, forgiveness, illumination, and Spirit,  all at once at the font. And we who were in the dark are no longer. We who were once enemies of God are His children and friends. We who were dead in our trespasses and sins and raised to new life. For as we’ve been singing this season, Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. Let Your light scatter the darkness and illumine Your Church (Liturgy of Evening Prayer, Opening Versicles).

So the lights we see everywhere this season, that scatter the darkness of our communities and homes, while they give us joy and delight, are confessing to us an even greater joy that is ours, and that will not be taken down and boxed up on a cold January day - the joy of no created light, but of the uncreated light, the Son who has come to us and risen upon us. 

And our prayer this season is that His light shine on - and in - each and every person, that all know the Son and live in Him, and join us in that day that will have no end.

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

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“The Way of Joy”

Text: Matthew 11:2-15; Isaiah 35:1-10

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Why are they there? The disciples of John, I mean. Why aren’t they with Jesus? Why aren’t they following Jesus? They’re not with John as his friends; that I could understand. They’re still his disciples, we were told today.

John knows that’s not right, so he sends them to Jesus. With a question. A question to ask that Jesus might help them and teach them. John had already pointed to Jesus and said: Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)! He had already said that Jesus must increase and he must decrease (John 3:30). John had already confessed that he was not even worthy to loose the strap of Jesus’ sandal (John 1:27). But maybe that’s why. Jesus didn’t look the part. You sure you got the right guy, John? The carpenter’s son? From Nazareth? His sandals? You sure?

So John sends them to Jesus. Maybe John knew his time was short. That Herod, who had imprisoned him, soon had to fish or cut bait. And releasing him was unlikely. So his disciples needed to go. As much as John must have appreciated having them around, this was more important. They needed to leave him and go to Jesus.

So Johns sends them to Jesus. And he tells them to ask: Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?

Jesus could have just said yes. But words weren’t enough. Jesus’ lowly appearance made the words hard to believe. So Jesus gives them more. He points to the Word of God in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah. This is what would happen when God comes to save. And this is what is happening now. But not just these things. Even more. Jesus goes beyond what Isaiah said. For in addition to the eyes of the blind being opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, more than the lame man leaping like a deer and the tongue of the mute singing for joy, He says this too: the dead are being raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. Go and tell John.

So that when they did, tell John, John could say to them: then why are you still here? Go! GO! Follow Him! You need to be His disciples. Not mine. My time is up.

What Jesus added there is important. That the dead are raised up could be a reference to when Jesus raised back to life the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17) - which Luke records right before this episode of John in prison! Or it could mean those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, which would go along with what He says next, the poor having the good news preached to them. I think we usually think of the first because it’s a miracle like the rest. But maybe it is the last, the preaching, that is the greatest for Jesus. The proclamation, the good news that He is the dead one who will be raised. And because He is, so will we, the poor and lowly, He wants us to know. We won’t all be healed, but we will all be raised. And even those healed now will have to face death later. So that’s the real foe here. The Messiah is here to deliver us from death and hell. The healings, the miracles, are the little signs of the greater work. 

And I think that’s where we sometimes get confused, like John’s disciples. We think the little signs are the greater work, and the greater work, the preaching . . . well, not so much. 

Or maybe our problem is that we don’t see ourselves as poor. And certainly we aren’t when it comes to the things of the world - we are quite wealthy. Christmas has become a holiday of great wealth and spending. But how about spiritually? Do we see ourselves as poor? I don’t want to be poor! I want to have a faith that cannot be moved! I want to be strong and steadfast. I want to stand on my own two spiritual feet and not need rely on God so much. Isn’t that what growing up is? And isn’t that what God wants? 

Well, no, in fact. That’s not what God wants at all. He doesn’t want you to think you need Him less and less and thereby grow away from Him. He wants you to realize that you actually need Him more and more and so grow more in Him. That you know it is better to be washed by Him than to wash yourself. It is better to be fed by Him than to feed yourself. It is better to be forgiven by Him than it is to forgive yourself. He wants His strength to be your strength, for His riches to be your riches. So you are and must be poor, or as Luther said it: We are beggars, this is true. And while poor is not good in the world, it is just right for Jesus.

So if that is true, where would you expect to find Jesus? In a palace or a hospital? In a five star restaurant or in a prison? He’s out with the blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, the sinners, the outcasts, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the homeless, the people we avoid, the people we step over as we hurry on our way. That’s not where you’d expect someone whose sandal John, the great John, the no-one-greater-born-of-women John, to be! But that’s how God rolls. The Son of God had the palace, the five-star restaurant, and more, in heaven. And glory beyond that. He left that. To come down to you. 

So if you’re looking for Jesus, don’t look up - look down! That’s where He is and will be FOR YOU. Not far away in heaven, but here, washing you, feeding you, forgiving you. You who are poor. You who need all those things. And especially He came down that you would see Him from where all those things come - on the cross. Bloody Jesus. Dying Jesus. Whipped Jesus. Abused Jesus. Mocked Jesus. Rejected Jesus. Thrown out Jesus. That’s your Jesus. Great Jesus. The Jesus who didn’t say: clean yourself up, get better, and maybe I’ll let you into my heaven. But who came to die for the dead, the spiritually dead, to scoop us up from the grave to rise to life with Him. 

John knew that, so go! GO! He tells his disciples. Follow Him! That’s where you should be.

But there’s something else Jesus said, too . . . And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Offended by the kind of Saviour He is. Offended by who He is hanging out with. Offended by how He sees us. 

But people are offended by Jesus. Then and now. They don’t like His teaching. They want what He says is wrong to be right. The want to believe there are other ways to heaven than Him. They don’t want to be saved by grace but by being good. They don’t want to be poor, humble, and underserving, but rich, proud, and admired! They don’t want to live by faith, what they cannot see, and so have to believe and trust, but to live by what they can see and feel. That way they are the arbiter of truth, not Jesus, and they can believe what they think, what they know, not what Jesus tells them. 

And this kind of thinking . . . it lives in us, too. It’s part of the sin we inherited. To put our thinking above God’s thinking, our word above His Word, our wants and desires over His, to make myself something, not nothing. But to be offended by Jesus and so to turn away from Him, His Word, and His truth, is to then also turn away from His blessing and lose it. 

So if John were here today, what would he need to clear out of the way for YOU to follow Christ? What false loves, what idols, what wrong thinking, what sins, what twisted desires? Where are you that he would say to you: why are you still here? Go! GO! 

But you don’t want to lose those, right? Those things John would clear away. But you must. You must be dead to be raised. You must be poor to have the good news preached to you. You must be empty to be filled. You must be sinner to be forgiven. 

So listen to John, and go! GO! Go to the font and remember you are a baptized child of God. Go to absolution and hear those words of forgiveness. Go to the Supper and eat and drink not earthly food, but heavenly. Go to the Word and hear all that your God has come down from heaven and done for you. And is still doing. These are His Christmas gifts to you. The gifts He came in flesh and blood to give. 

So go! GO! Here, but then out there. To the deaf, the blind, the sick, the lame, the sinners, the dead in their trespasses and sins. Not to those who can repay you, but to those who can’t. Help them, do good to them. For that’s what Jesus has come and done FOR YOU. That’s Jesus living in you.

A lot of people struggle at this time of year. It’s supposed to be a season of joy, but for all kinds of reasons, some people, maybe many people, aren’t very joyful. Maybe it’s because we’re looking for joy in the wrong place. I’m sure John wasn’t joyful in prison, but if his disciples left him and went to follow Jesus, that would be a source of joy to him. Which seems backward, and yet that’s the way of Jesus. So maybe the path to joy is to bring such joy to others. Not to seek it for ourselves, but for them. The author of Hebrews said this of Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). The cross wasn’t joyful, but the joy it would bring us gave Jesus joy. Joy to go there and endure that. FOR YOU.

John wants that joy for his disciples, and that is his joy. And on this Sunday when we lit the rose-colored candle on the Advent wreath, this Sunday of joy, that is our joy as well. The joy of Jesus, His gifts, and His life. That life we now get to live. A life that because of Him will never end. And a joy that because of Him lasts more than a day or even twelve. So as we sang in the Introit: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Which, think of it this way, is not just an exhortation, but a promise. That not when you stay, but when you go! Go! you will rejoice. Not when you stay where you are, not when you stay in your sins, but when you go! Go! to Jesus, you will rejoice. For going to the one who came to us as a baby, and who comes to us now with and in His gifts, you will go to Him in the end, on that day He comes again for you. That day there will be only joy. That’s where you need to be. That’s where Jesus wants you to be - with Him, in His joy. To rejoice in Him, always.

So go! Go! To the one who advents, comes, for you.

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