Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

LISTEN (coming soon)

Jesu Juva

“A God Who Loves Camels”

Text: Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:1-12

 

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

Merry Christmas! For today is the eleventh day of Christmas, of the Christmas season, even though we’re remembering and observing Epiphany today. So we can still say Merry Christmas.

But we’re observing Epiphany today, and since we are, let me ask: What’s your favorite part of the Epiphany story?

For many, I think, it would be the star. The star God sent to lead the Wise Men to the child Jesus. That’s a pretty cool part of the story. 

For others, it would probably be the Wise Men themselves. Those mysterious visitors from the East. Mysterious, for we really don’t know who they were. We call them Wise Men. The Greek calls them Magi. A beloved carol calls them kings. We don’t know how many there were or where exactly they came from. And they disappear from the scene as quickly as they came. But the mystery is part of the attraction, I think. And the popular phrase “Wise Men still seek Him” make many want to imagine themselves as and imitate the Wise Men.

But as for me, I have a new favorite part of the Epiphany story this year - one that I don’t think anyone wants to be, but I think really captures the spirit of Epiphany more than the star or the Wise Men . . . and that is the camels.

Wait! What? Camels? 

Yup. The camels. They’re mentioned in the Old Testament reading we heard from the prophet Isaiah today:

A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

Would we have the Epiphany story without the camels? According to Isaiah, they brought the Wise Men, the treasures, the good news, and the praises. These beasts of burden are an important part of the story. 

But have you ever seen a camel? I mean, they’re ugly! They’re not cute and cuddly like cats and dogs. They’re not majestic - they walk and move very awkwardly. They have those giants humps, either one or two of them. Their heads are too small for their bodies. They grunt funny. They’re temperamental and stubborn. And they’ll spit on you! Really gross saliva. God made a lot of unusual creatures, and He loves them all . . . but camels? Well, bear with me . . .

Because camels, I think, are the perfect image of Epiphany . . . in this way: Epiphany is the revealing of this child, Jesus, as God in the flesh, come to save camels. Not camels the animals - but people who are like camels. People who are not the most beautiful, people disfigured by sin, humpy, lumpy, misproportioned, stubborn, ugly . . . but who God loves and sent His Son to die for. And the Bible is full of them! Full of “human camels.”

There was Paul. He considered himself a camel. He called himself untimely born (1 Corinthians 15:8), the least of all the saints (Ephesians 3:8), he was weak and sickly, maybe with bad eyesight (Galatians 4:13, 15), and often in prison! Yet God shone the light of His grace upon Paul and used him as a light to the Gentiles.

And speaking of Gentiles . . . they were considered camels by Israel, who really didn’t want them and their false worship and strange customs around.

Gentiles like the Wise Men, who may have been camels themselves. In our day, Wise Men are often eccentric or consider weird. Maybe the ones who came to see Jesus were, too, and mocked and taunted for following a star, wasting their money on a foreign king, falling on their knees before a child . . .

A child who Himself was considered a camel by many. Yes, Jesus Himself was taunted as an illegitimate child (John 8:41), and as being out of His mind (Mark 3:21). Isaiah tells us that He had nothing majestic or beautiful about His appearance (Isaiah 53:2). And then especially after He was flogged and crucified - people just wanted to look away. He didn’t spit, but was spit upon. He didn’t have a hump on His back, but carried a cross there.

Which then brings us to you. Maybe you consider yourself a camel. Maybe we are a congregation of camels! People a bit awkward, not the most beautiful. Misfits. Flawed. Not strong, wise, and outstanding, compared to others. A little quirky, maybe even odd. Not beautiful to the world, but like real camels, beautiful to God. And made beautiful by God. Washed cleaned and re-created in the waters of Baptism to be His beautiful, radiant Bride. Maybe you are someone no one else would choose, but God did. And He shined the light of His love upon you. Camels who bring treasures also: your children, your families, your praises.

And there are lots of camels out there. People ugly inside and out. People the world doesn’t want and has no use for. But God does. And Epiphany is God rolling out the welcome mat for them, for us. For all to come and see Him in the flesh - the Body and Blood He would sacrifice and lay down for the life of the world. To shine the light of His love upon a dark and loveless world. A God who loves camels.

An that’s really what Epiphany is all about, what Jesus is all about: making the goodness and love of God known. The goodness and love of God in the flesh and blood of Jesus. Sometimes that happens in an unusual, even spectacular way, like with the Wise Men and the star. Is stuff like that still happening today? I don’t know. Maybe. There are reports from Iran and other countries of people coming to faith in Jesus because of dreams they’ve had. And we know that Jesus wants all people to be saved, so maybe. And if so, that’s a cause for joy.

But even if He is, even if God is using unusual ways today, to bring his Son to people and people to His Son, don’t despise the regular, normal, ordinary ways He has given us - which are far more common than the unusual or extraordinary. A friend talking to a friend. A mother teaching her child to pray. A father bringing his family to church. Being there at crisis moments, or times of fear and uncertainty, to bring the grace and love and peace of God to people who feel like camels. And maybe they are. But we have a God who loves camels.

And so He sent the apostle Paul, and He establishes churches today, to shine the light of this truth. To be a star and lead others to Jesus. To be a point of stability and truth in a world where things are constantly changing and truth is relative. To proclaim an unchanging God and His unfailing love. As I said, Epiphany is God rolling out the welcome mat for all the world, for He wants all people - and maybe especially camels! - in His kingdom. 

But while God loves camels, He doesn’t want us to stay camels! No. God came in the flesh, so that the sin which deforms us would go. And so He washes us clean and raises us to a new life in Baptism. He absolves our sin, not for us to get away with it, but to get us out of it and to get it out of us! And then He Suppers us with His own Body and Blood - the food of immortality. All this to make us sons and daughters of God. Maybe camels, still, in the eyes of the world, and crazy ones at that! But not in the eyes of God. In His eyes, children, dearly loved, with a place in His heart and a place in His kingdom.

And maybe because of this, the world will roll up its welcome mat and not welcome you into its groups of the privileged and the esteemed, the loved and admired. And maybe they will do worse, using that rolled up welcome mat as a club to persecute you. Jesus said if they did it to Him, they’ll do it to us. As we heard last week, Herod did it, rolling up the mat he rolled out for the Wise Men to club the baby boys of Bethlehem. The goodness and love of God isn’t coming from the world - only from the child in the manger, on Mary’s lap, and finally on the cross.

Did the Wise Men live long enough to hear that news? That the child before whom they fell down and worshiped and to whom they gave their gifts, the King of the Jews, had been crucified by the Romans? We don’t know. As I said, these Wise Men disappear from the scene as quickly as they came onto it. 

But we know. We know that this child whose little fingers could barely wrap around the grown-up fingers of the Wise Men, would one day use those fingers to touch and heal eyes that were blind, ears that were deaf, bodies that were leprous, raise the dead, and finally be nailed to a cross. That was Paul’s message to the Gentiles and it is the church’s message to the world: that the goodness and love of God was shown in the birth of this child who is the Son of God, but even more was shown in the death and resurrection of this man, that every man, woman, and child who dies might rise to eternal life in Him. He died for all and welcomed all, especially camels. And still does.

Which is why I’m glad Isaiah included them in his prophecy. I’m glad they weren’t left out of the story. They’re my new favorite part of the Epiphany story,  for they give me hope. And I hope they give you hope, too. That I don’t have to make myself something for God - I don’t have to un-camel myself for Him - because God made Himself nothing for me, to un-camel me. To make me - and you - His son, His daughter. To open my eyes to see His love. To open me ears to hear His Word. To cleanse my body so diseased with sin. And finally, one day, raise me to life eternal. 

So this morning, if you want to be like the Wise Men, follow the light of His Word and come to the altar. For here is the Body and Blood born of Mary, worshiped by Wise Men, hung on the cross, raised from the dead, and now given to you. Come with your humps and lumps, your burdens and baggage, come awkward and downtrodden. For God loves camels. God loves you. 

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

The idea of using the example of camels in this way from Rev. Nathan Jastram in “The Singing Camels of Sheba,” Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 36, Part 1 (CPH, 2026), 65-66.

The Congregation at Prayer

For the Week of the Epiphany of Our Lord (January 5-10, 2026)

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

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: Matthew 3:15 – “Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #407 “To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord”

Hymns for Sunday: 401, 407, 624, 405, 404, 594

Readings for the Week: [The readings for Thursday-Saturday are the Scriptures for this coming Sunday.]

Monday: Psalm 29

How was the Lord over the waters of creation? How over the waters of the flood? What water now to give life to us? How?

Tuesday: 1 Kings 8:6-13

What indicated the presence of the Lord in the Temple? Why? How is God present with us now? In what Temple did He live?

Wednesday: Romans 12:1-5

Why is conforming to the world dangerous? What is it to be transformed by the renewal of your mind? How does this happen?

Thursday: Isaiah 42:1–9

Who is the servant Isaiah speaks of? What will he do? What is He doing and teaching with all these deeds?

Friday: Romans 6:1–11

Is forgiveness an excuse to sin? How do Christians live? Why?

Saturday: Matthew 3:13-17

What happen to Jesus when He was baptized? What does this teach us about our own baptism? What happens to us?

The Catechism - Daily Prayers: Morning Prayer: I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Collect for the Week: Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregation’s Board of Elders.

+ the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, and provision for our Synod’s Veterans of the Cross program.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268

Meditation for New Year's Eve and the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

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Jesu Juva

“More Than a Guardian”

Text: Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 2:21; Numbers 6:22-27

 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

Since it is New Year’s Eve, you - like many people - might have made a resolution or two for the coming year. 

But what is a resolution? It is law you make for yourself. A rule you want to live by. To keep you from things harmful for you, and to form a habit, a way of life, that will be good for you. And maybe it works - for a while or for a long time. Most don’t, but you never know! That’s why people keep making them. Maybe this time . . .

But you can make a resolution only for yourself. You cannot make a resolution for someone else. You don’t have that authority. And a resolution is also a law without consequences. If you break it, nothing happens. You might get disappointed in yourself, is all. But resolutions are good and meant for good. And I hope that if you made one or two resolutions for this coming year, they turn out good for you, and for your good.

There are people, though, with the authority to make and enforce laws for us. The government is one, and God is the other. Now, with the laws the government makes, maybe they’re good and maybe they’re not, and we might disagree about that. But with God, there is - or least there should be - no debate: His Law is good. His Law is to keep us from things harmful for us, and to form a habit, a way of life, that will be good for us. In this respect, God’s Law is, as Saint Paul told the Galatians, a guardian for us. And you can hear the word guard there. The Law is to guard us and protect us, and to direct us to what is good for us. And it does. 

The problem, like so often with our New Year’s resolutions, is that we break them. Now, with our New Year’s resolutions, as I said, there are no consequences for that, because they’re laws we made for ourselves. But with God’s Law, there are consequences for breaking them. Grave ones. Namely, eternal death instead of eternal life. That’s what God told Adam and Eve with the very first Law He gave: Don’t eat from the tree, for if you do, you will die. Well, they did, eat, and they did, die. They died spiritually, and they would die physically. And we do, too.

So while God’s Law is good and acts as a guardian for us, we need more than that. And, the Apostle Paul is telling us tonight, we have more than that! For, we heard, the law was our guardian until Christ came. And now that Christ Jesus has come, we have a new guardian, a new protector, a new guide, and that is Christ and His Spirit. The Law of God is still good and we should listen to it and do it. But Jesus came to do what the Law could not. The Law instructs and threatens, but Jesus justifies and saves and gives us a new life to live as sons of God.

And He did that by putting Himself under the Law for us. That was God’s resolution after Adam and Eve sinned - that He would come and fix what they broke. So the Son of God becomes one of us. He is born for us, as we celebrated seven days ago. And on the eighth day after He was born, Mary’s baby boy is circumcised and given the name Jesus, which means: He will save. And He will save by doing two things: keeping the Law perfectly for us, and taking the consequences of our Law-breaking for us. He will die. 

Now, Jesus didn’t have to do any of that! Because the Law wasn’t meant for Him but for us. He wasn’t under that Law, just as you’re not under the resolutions I make for the New Year. But He took that upon Himself. I’ll do it; I’ll fulfill it for their good. To bless them and keep them and give them peace. So that we have not just a year, but an eternity, of blessing and good.

And that is given to you, Paul says, when you are baptized. For in Baptism you put on Christ and are given His Name. And with His Name, you have all that is His - His life and salvation. That’s what the Lord told Moses and Aaron in the reading from Numbers we heard tonight, that when God’s Name is put upon you, you have His blessing and keeping, His grace and His peace. Blessing, keeping, grace, and peace for this life, and forever. For with the Name of the one who defeated death upon you, you too will rise from death to eternal life. Death cannot stop His life, or His life that He gives to you.

Which is a good thing to remember on this New Year’s Eve, which is also the Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus. For no matter what the New Year holds for you, no matter what happens in our world, no matter whether you keep your resolutions or not, you have this assurance: that you belong to Christ. And when you belong to Christ, you have the forgiveness of your sins, and the promise of blessing and life. Not an easy life, but a life that cannot end. 

So as tomorrow is the eighth day of Christmas, tomorrow is the day we officially remember Jesus’ circumcision. Today is the eve of that. So that means that the first day of our New Year is marked with the first shedding of Jesus’ blood. And I pray that be the pattern for the rest of the year. That each and every day, you not only remember your resolutions and keep them, but remember that you are a baptized child of God, washed clean in His blood, and keep that in your heart. For while your resolutions may or may not make a difference in your life, the blood of Jesus definitely does. You’ve been marked. His Name has been put on you. You belong to Him. As does this New Year before us. A New Year He will fill with blessing, keeping, grace, and peace. 

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

Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas

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Jesu Juva

“First Steps”

Text: Matthew 2:13-23; Galatians 4:4-7; Isaiah 63:7-14

 

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

We don’t know for sure where and when Jesus took His first steps. 

If you’re a parent, you probably remember when your child took his or her first steps. It’s a big moment! After learning how to flip over, then crawl, then “couch walk,” those first steps without hanging onto anything bring great joy to parent and child, and these days are probably captured on video and put on the internet for all to see. 

But where and when the child Jesus took His first steps, we’re not sure. It might have been in Egypt. 

But we don’t know because we don’t know exactly how old Jesus was when the Wise Men came to see Him. When they came and Herod found out there was another king - a king of the Jews - who might rival him. A threat he had to nip in the bud. Because that’s what Herods did. That was their well-earned reputation. Resort to violence to maintain your power. 

So as we heard today, he commands that all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, be killed. Herod wasn’t sure how old Jesus was either. So he builds in a buffer - kill all the baby boys two and under, and that will surely get his rival. 

And faithful soldiers carried out his order. Herod was a king you didn’t want to cross!

So now imagine being in Bethlehem . . . and being relatively new parents . . . and maybe your little boy had just taken his first steps . . . had just proudly let go of the table and awkwardly toddled over to Mom! Smiles and joy all around . . . until suddenly the door bursts open, a squad of soldiers bursts in, and a sword cuts short your child’s life. His first steps, his last steps. What grief! What pain! Hurt that won’t soon go away! The words of the prophet fulfilled. Rachel weeping for her children; refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.

Monsters don’t just live under beds and in closets. They live in palaces, too.

But among that group of baby boys killed that day, Jesus is not included. Oh, He came to die, but it is not yet His time. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son to be born, and in the fullness of time He would ascend the cross and die, but that time was not yet. So Joseph, faithful Joseph, who didn’t divorce Mary - quietly or otherwise, who stepped up, manned up, and became the guardian of Jesus, flees to Egypt in the middle of the night. And they stayed for a while. Again, we don’t know how long. And maybe it was in this foreign land when their little boy, Jesus, took His first steps.

First steps of many steps. Steps that would take Him to Galilee, Judea, and Samaria. Steps that would take Him from boats at sea to the top of mountains. Steps that would take Him into sinners houses, kings palaces, and government headquarters. Steps that would finally, ultimately, lead to steps under the heavy burden of a cross, where His feet would be nailed in place, never to walk again. . . . At least, that was the hope of those who put Him there.

So Jesus did the exact opposite of Herod. He did not resort to violence to save His power, He gave up His power and sacrificed Himself to save you. Herod caused untold hurt, pain, and tears. Jesus came to take those very things away; that in His kingdom, there be no more hurt or pain, and He would wipe away every tear from our eyes. And notice who’s kingdom lasted . . . Not the one which resorted to violence. Not the one that caused hurt, pain, and tears. The kingdom that lasted - and that will last - is the kingdom of sacrifice, love, consolation, and forgiveness. 

For that is the way of God. He can exercise His almighty power, and sometimes does! Plenty of stories about that in the Bible! But that’s not His first move. That’s not what He wants to do. That comes only at the end . . . after calling to repentance, after working to save, after great patience and long-suffering. For God wants to save all people. So unlike Herod, who wanted to save Himself, and so whose first move is to kill - God sends His Son to lay down His life for the life of the world. 

Which maybe should make us pause and think a bit . . . when we feel threatened, when things seem to be going wrong in our lives, when we get bad news . . . what’s our first move? Is it, like Herod, to lash out? To violence? To lose our temper? To threaten? To punish? To torment? To try to save ourselves and what we want and what we have and hold onto it with all our might? We often do, I think. That’s our sinful nature. Our selfish nature. Look out for number one. Whatever it takes. But while that’s what, I think, we often do, is that what we should do? Is that the best way to live? Is that going to make our kingdom last? Or is that really going to lead to our downfall? Is that going to stop the hurt and pain and tears, or only cause more? Maybe there’s a better way?

Really . . . look at yourself, your life . . . how have you been?

Now, there are times when you might have to use might and defend yourself or your family. If you’re a father, you’ve especially been called to that vocation. Being the head of the family is a place, a vocation, of service, not privilege. And you are to protect your wife and children - and not just physically, but financially, emotionally, spiritually. And there are times you will be called on to do that, like Joseph was. You might not want to. I’m sure Joseph wasn’t jumping for joy having to move down to Egypt for a while! But you may be called on to do that. And mothers, too. And children, too, when your parents get older and need your help and protection.

Perhaps, though, you haven’t done so good at that . . . perhaps you’ve been more like Herod, and through physical or verbal violence protected yourself first, served yourself first, put yourself first. If so, repent. Because there is a better way . . .

Because it isn’t Herod’s kingdom that we’re still talking about. Sin doesn’t, sin never (really) gets us what we want. The kingdom that lasts - and not just a lifetime, but forever - is Jesus’. A kingdom built on His blood, of laying down His life for you. A kingdom He brought you into by Baptism, where He also ran His sword through that old sinful nature of yours and raised a new man to live a new life. And He promised to provide all you need to do so. Whatever it is! So what are you short of? Love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, forgiveness? He has that here for you, giving you His Spirit, feeding you with His Body and Blood. To fill the world not with Herods, but with Christians. 

For there are enough Herods out there. You know that. You’ve experienced it. You’ve been at the end of a pointed tongue, or worse. What the world needs is more Christians, more Christ, more forgiveness, more love.

So in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son for you, to serve and to save. And now in the fullness of time, God sends you to serve others. Not to save them - that’s Jesus’ job. And He did it. For after He laid down His life for you He rose back to life again, defeating sin, death, grave, satan, and hell. That you live a life free from fear of those things, free to love and serve and forgive, as He has done for you. And when the fear starts to creep back, when the Herod in you starts to burst out, by the Spirit God has given you, cry out “Abba! Father!” Father, help! And He will. For that’s the very thing He loves to hear, and the very thing He loves to do.

It might not be easy for you . . . serving, putting others first. First steps never are. And first steps are often clumsy and end with us on our butt! But as delighted as parents are with their children’s first steps, so is your Father delighted in your first steps. It’s okay if you’re clumsy. It’s okay if you wind up on your butt! He’ll be there to pick you up again. And the next steps will be easier, and a little more sure. And you’ll grow in your repentance and love and forgiveness, too. But it all starts with that first step . . .

Where was Jesus’? His first step? I don’t know. But I know that His last was not when He went to the cross, as those who put Him there hoped! For after He led His disciples to the top of a mountain and ascended into heaven, He promised to return the same way. In the fulness of time. 

And one day, you’ll take your last step. When? Where? I don’t know. But in Christ, as a Christian, it actually won’t be your last step. For you, too, will rise from death to life. You too, will ascend with Christ to His kingdom that - unlike Herod’s - has no end. A kingdom with no more hurt or pain or tears, just joy. Christmas joy. Easter joy. Joy that has no end.

So on this Fourth Day of Christmas, this First Sunday after Christmas, this day of Commemoration of the Holy Innocents, those baby boys in Bethlehem that lost their lives, your true love, your heavenly Father, gave to you not four calling birds, but a Son, calling you to His life. Calling you to what’s better. To a kingdom not of this world and that has no end. For this Jesus was born. For this He took His first steps. For this: for you.

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