Sermon: Christmas 1 - 2019

29 December 2019

Text: Luke 2:22-40 (Isa 11:1-5, Gal 4:1-7)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There is a popular term “bucket list.”  This is a list of things that a person would like to do – truly once in a lifetime things – before the person dies.  St. Simeon had one thing on his “bucket list.” 

Simeon was a “righteous and devout” man.  It is likely that he was a retired priest.  He was also a man who was “waiting.”  He wasn’t waiting to die, or waiting for riches – rather he was waiting “for the consolation of Israel.”

Why did Israel need consoling?  Because the people of God had been stuck in a kind of limbo for four hundred years.  God had become silent.  The children of Israel had been taken captive in Babylon, were later allowed to return under the Persians – though still a conquered people, and then they found themselves under the Greek Empire.  And in Simeon’s day, the people of God were living under Roman rule, lorded over by people who worshiped many gods.  The emperor himself was worshiped as a god by the Romans who did not know the true God.

Simeon knew both God and His promises.  Israel was waiting for the consolation of the Savior, the Messiah, who would be a blessing to the entire world.  And God revealed something to Simeon: a promise to which he clung, a dream to which he held fast, knowing that until it happened, he was not yet ready to “depart” from this world “in peace.”

For “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Maybe St. Simeon heard about the strange happenings going on: the miraculous birth of a child, John, to his elderly parents Zechariah the priest and his wife Elizabeth.  Maybe he had heard the rumors of angels appearing over the skies of Bethlehem.  Or maybe none of this was known to Simeon.  We will not know in this life.  But during his long wait, the elderly Simeon caught a glimpse of a man and a woman with a baby boy, a poor couple who could not afford the preferred sacrifice of a lamb – offering instead two turtledoves.  Of course, the reality – later to be revealed – is that their Son Jesus is the Lamb, the sacrifice that is truly “holy to the Lord” as the firstborn male to open the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Simeon came “in the Spirit into the temple.”  The Spirit – who had earlier revealed that he would see the Christ – now revealed to Simeon that the time had indeed come!  His wait was over!  The Consolation of Israel was there before him, held in the arms of His mother and accompanied by His stepfather.  Jesus came to the temple that He was to prophecy would be destroyed, when the New Covenant would render the Levitical priesthood, the blood sacrifices, and the temple itself obsolete.  Simeon stands at the precipice, the crossroads of time, the intersection between BC and AD.  The world will never be the same, and the Holy Spirit figuratively whispers in the ear of faithful Simeon: behold, your Lord and your God!

And so St. Simeon “took Him up in his arms and blessed God.”  And being in the Spirit, Simeon sang a song that we still sing today, dear friends.  It is part of the Church’s liturgy.  It is traditionally sung in Christian communities and homes at bedtime, as a reminder that we are prepared, like St. Simeon, to “depart in peace” because we have seen the Lord Jesus Christ.  And because of this revelation, we can sleep in peace without fear – not even fearing death.

And this liturgical hymn, Simeon’s Canticle, which we also know as the Nunc Dimittis, is the typical post-communion canticle sung in our churches.  For like St. Simeon, we are consoled by Christ – not merely the promise of His coming, but His actual, physical presence.  And even as Simeon held the body of Christ in His arms, we are blessed to carry the Lord Jesus Christ in our bodies by means of the Holy Sacrament.  Our wait to be consoled – to be released from sin, death, and the devil – is over, dear friends.  The Christ child is with us as surely as He was with Simeon.

And so we sing with Simeon and with generations of Christians to whom the Spirit revealed this joyful song of praise:

“Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.”

Joseph and Mary “marveled” at the words of this song – and it is just as marvelous even today as the Church continues to marvel with the saints and angels at the gravity of Simeon’s words.  The one thing that Simeon had waited for his whole life has been fulfilled.  He was now free to lay down his weary head and die in peace, for he had “seen [God’s] salvation” – the salvation of the people of God accomplished by God.  Simeon understood that this was indeed God’s grace.  The child Jesus was not only the incarnate Word, not only a Champion of mankind who has come to take vengeance on the devil, not only the eternal extension of King David’s house and royal line, not only the promised Messiah, not only a Prophet, Priest, and yes, Sacrificial Lamb – Jesus is God’s salvation – the saving of mankind from sin and death.  And ironically, with that salvation, Simeon can look upon death without fear, knowing now that it isn’t the victory of the enemy, but rather a manifestation of the Lord’s victory over Satan.  And for that reason, Simeon can now “depart in peace.”

In the words of the ancient Lutheran hymn, Simeon now has as little to fear from the grave as he does his bed.  We Christians can die in peace because we die in Christ – “according to [God’s] Word.”

St. Simeon – in the Spirit – revealed a piece of the puzzle to Mary – something that she would not understand for some thirty years, long after St. Simeon’s holy departure: “a sword will pierce through your own soul also).  Salvation will come at a price – the price of the Lamb’s sacrifice.  And even as Mary brought the child Jesus “to present Him to the Lord,” she would later see Him presented on the cross.  She would witness not the sacrifice of two turtledoves, but rather of her own flesh and blood Son, He who opened her womb, “called Holy to the Lord.”  She would suffer the anguish that only a mother could know.  But like St. Simeon, St. Mary was also faithful and righteous and devout.  She obediently gave birth to the Word Made Flesh, enduring the shame.  She presented Him to the Lord in the temple.  She raised Him.  And she would suffer the grief of watching Him sacrificed.

But she would also know the joy of His resurrection, as well as the salvation of His blood even atoning for her.  The sword that pierced her soul would be beaten into a plowshare as many more would follow St. Simeon, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, in dying as faithful confessors of our Lord Jesus Christ, the consolation of Israel.

May the Song of Simeon continue to be our song.  May it be on our lips when we have seen the Lord’s Christ in the Lord’s Supper.  And may these joyful words deliver consolation to us when it is our time to depart in peace, according to God’s Word.  

Amen.

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

Sermon: Christmas - 2019

25 December 2019

Text: John 1:1-18 (Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38; Titus 3:4-7)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We live in an age of paradox.  We have never been more connected to family and friends all over the world through social media and the internet.  We now communicate in real time at the speed of light.  And yet it seems as if we are also more detached than ever before.  Today, even a phone call seems like a lot of work when a few taps on the phone can put a text into cyberspace, and we can then move on to the next task.

And in spite of all of these connections “in the cloud” – more people are isolated and lonely than ever before.  We are designed for actual social interaction, not just looking at a screen.  And even today, the ultimate human contact is to sit down at a table together, and to share a meal.

At the fall in the Garden of Eden, that intimacy with God that we enjoyed was broken.  We became estranged.  The best that we could do was a kind of social media contact with the Lord God.  We could pray and offer sacrifices.  God would speak to us through prophets.  But the closest that God would come to us was “in the cloud.”  He spoke through Moses, but the people were not allowed on the mountain.  God make covenants, and we held on to the promise – but He was not physically present with us.  Our interactions with God were mediated through priests.  The sacrifices were a kind of token of God’s presence.

But we craved the original fleshly contact that we originally had with God in the garden.

This closeness began to be restored when God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, a tent in which the presence of God would dwell with us.  Later, this tent would be replaced by a house, the temple, where God’s presence would abide with His people – but once again, only mediated through the priests and prophets.

The prophets spoke of a coming Messiah, a Savior, a manifestation of God to come among us – not just in the cloud, and in a way that transcended the nearness of God to us mediated by priests.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 

This is the mystery of the incarnation, of God becoming small, of the eternal Son putting on mortal flesh, of the Almighty becoming all-vulnerable for the sake of rescuing us.  This miracle in which the finite put on the infinite is the event of which the prophets spoke.  God the Son, the eternal Word, the Creator, entered space and time as a single human cell, microscopic, and hidden in Mary’s womb.  And according to God’s will, He grew and made His appearance on the first Christmas: in the flesh of a baby delivered by His mother, born and tabernacling with us.  No more in the clouds, He is now flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones.  At last, we can see God face to face – unmediated by priest and prophet, no longer requiring the sacrifice of tokens of flesh.  At last, God could sit down at table and look us in the eyes.

And as Titus proclaims: “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us.”  Our salvation is wrapped up in this incarnation of Jesus just as surely as the baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths.  

Titus also mentions that Jesus is our Savior “not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Jesus saves us not through disembodied words, but through His Word attached to water.  Baptism is incarnational, as God’s Word is not in a cloud or mediated by a priest – but attached to a physical element that it placed on our bodies.  The token of sacrifice has been replaced by the direct fleshly sacrament!

Since the Word became flesh, He sits at table with us.  We have the intimacy of eating a meal together with Him.  The Lord’s Supper is likewise incarnational.  It is the true flesh and blood of our incarnate Lord, the Word Made Flesh.  We do not experience Him in the cloud or through an impersonal text message cut off from His presence.  He is physically present in His Word.  And in the Sacrament of the Altar, He appears to us in the flesh.

The world mocks this idea of God becoming small.  The world scoffs at a God who takes the despised form of a baby in the womb.  The world holds us in contempt for believing that the Man on the cross is in fact God, and that when you come to this altar, you are not only sharing a meal with God, you are in fact participating in the true flesh of God – the body and blood of the Lord that is not a sacrificial token, but a sacramental reality!

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 

This is what we have been waiting for, dear friends.  Not just with the Advent season.  Not just in anticipation of the Christmas meal.  Rather this becoming flesh is what all of humanity has been waiting for since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden.  For when the Word became flesh, He was to dwell among us.  He was to eat with us, teach us, forgive us, and deliver eternal life to us in the flesh.  He took on flesh so that His flesh could be sacrificed upon the cross – not as a token, but as the once-for-all atonement for the sin of the world.  And that flesh was to rise again at Easter, ascend into heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that flesh, dear friends, is coming again on the Last Day.

Indeed, we live in an age of paradox.  God comes to us even as we are poor, miserable sinners.  God dies so that we mortals might live.  God becomes humble so that we might be exalted.  The Creator who is outside of creation becomes one with His creation, even to the point where we can eat and drink Him.  He is not in a cloud or on a screen, but in the manger, on the cross, in the tomb, in His Word, in the font, and on the altar.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Amen.

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

Sermon: Christmas Eve - 2019

24 December 2019

Text: Isa 7:10-14, Micah 5:2-5a, Isa 9:2-7, Matt 1:18-25, Matt 2:1-12, John 1:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There is a popular Christmas song called “Mary Did You Know?”  The idea behind the song is that we wonder how much Mary knew about her Son and what He was going to accomplish.  

The answer is that she knew some things, but not other things.  

This is how God works with all of us.  He reveals what we need to know at a given time, but there are also many things that remain a mystery until they happen.  So Mary certainly knew that she was going to bear a Son, even though she knew that she had not known a man.  She knew that the process took nine months, and so she knew when her Child was going to be born.  She knew what the prophets and Old Testament scriptures taught about the Messiah.  But there was indeed much that she did not know as well.  She would find out like everyone else as the future slipped into the present, and then made its way to the past, to history.  

The first thing that we ever knew about Jesus was recorded in the Book of Genesis, and was actually spoken to Satan immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden.  God told the devil – within earshot of Adam and Eve – that the “Seed of the woman” would crush the head of the serpent, of the devil, and in the process, the serpent would bruise the heel of the Savior.  

The expression “seed of the woman” makes no biological sense.  But it must have started to make sense to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the “most highly favored lady,” as she was told by the Angel Gabriel that she would bear the Savior without the seed of a man.  Blessed Mary knew the Scripture from Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” 

Mary also knew – from the prophecy of Micah – that she would give birth in the little town of Bethlehem, “too little to be among the clans of Judah,” and yet her Son was to be “Ruler in Israel.”  She knew that He was to be “great to the ends of the earth” and that “He shall be their peace.”

She knew that David’s Royal City is called “Jerusalem,” in her language, ‘the City of Peace.”  Her Son will be the Prince of Peace, the fulfillment of David and of the promise of peace in the great city.  

She knew that like Bethlehem, she was not great.  And yet she knew that the Lord often chooses the weak – even the seemingly impossible – to carry out His mighty will.  

Mary knew the prophecy of Isaiah, “Unto us a Child is born, to us a Son is given… His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” and that He would sit on David’s throne “from this time forth and forevermore.”  She knew that “the people who walked in darkness” will see a great light, her Son, who would shine on the world’s darkness and death, and replace it with light and life.  

Not only would Mary hear the announcement of her pregnancy from an angel, she was to hear the “song the angels sing,” the Gloria, the praises of heaven and earth to “God in flesh appearing” to whom she would give birth.

Mary was to know more of the particulars when the angel of the Lord would also appear to her fiancé Joseph, saying, “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Mary was also to come to know the suffering that would follow her and her Son, as the devil and his allies – among whom were King Herod – would try to destroy the Fetus within her.  She came to know more when the magi from the east came bearing gifts.  For not only did they come to pay homage to her Son the King, they also “fell down and worshiped Him.”  For it had been revealed to these wise men “what child is this,” and so they brought the treasures of their land: “incense, gold, and myrrh” to this King of kings” who “salvation brings.” 

Mary most likely did not know about her Son’s crucifixion, that He would save us by grace by means of His blood shed on the cross.  But St. Simeon did give her a hint when he held the baby Jesus in the temple: “Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

Mary knew that her Son’s mission to save the world would involve suffering.  But thankfully, the exact nature of His passion and her own heart-piercing sword, was withheld from her.  Mary did not know all of the details.  For God is merciful, dear friends.

And in the course of time, after Mary witnessed her Son fulfill His mission to save us at the cross, after she had seen Him risen from the dead, after He had ascended into heaven, after her own death, after Sts. Peter and Paul would be put to death for the sake of the name of Jesus – the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who took Mary as his own adoptive mother to live in his house, St. John the Evangelist, would reveal to us the sublime truth, the eternal mystery, the details of which that Mary herself did not know unless it had been revealed to her, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

This, dear friends, is the mystery revealed to us in the flesh of Jesus and in the Word of the Holy Scripture.  The eternal Word, the utterance of the Father “Let there be light,” in some way that we cannot understand, took flesh in the womb of the virgin, becoming the Seed of the Woman, the King of Israel, the Savior of the World, Immanuel, God with us, the Prince of Peace.

This child did not begin His life at His birth or at His conception.  For He is the eternal Son of God, “of the Father’s love begotten [before] the worlds began to be.” 

Mary knew about Jesus from the “seers in old time” who “chanted of [Him] with one accord.”  Mary knew “the voices of the prophets” and just what and Whom they “promised in their faithful word.”

And now, dear friends, Mary knows, the angels and the saints know, the whole company of heaven knows, Satan and the demons know, and we who have been saved by His redeeming grace, we who bear the gift of eternal life in His name and by His blood know: We know that He is the Christ, the Son of the Father in flesh appearing, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born to save us from our sins, He is Jesus, Immanuel, God With Us, the Christ.  And we sing with the heavenly hosts:

Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,

And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,

Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving

And unending praises be,

Honor, glory, and dominion,

And eternal victory

Evermore and evermore.  Amen.

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

Sermon: Rorate Coeli (Advent 4) - 2019

22 December 2019

Text: John 1:19-28 (Deut 18:15-19, Phil 4:4-7)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

John the Baptist was an unlikely hero.  He was an outsider.  He did not wear soft clothing and live in a palace or cozy up to royalty like the Herodians.  He was not a temple priest or a Levite.  He was not a Roman, neither a patrician nor a centurion.  He had no political clout among the ruling class.  He was not a scribe or a lawyer.  He was not a merchant and had no wealth.  He was neither a Pharisee nor a Sadducee. 

He lived in the desert, wore camel’s hair, ate locusts and wild honey, and sometimes insulted the large crowds who came to hear him preach and to be baptized by him.  Eventually he would even insult the king and queen.  But people flocked to him in multitudes.  He did not tell them they could have their best life now in seven easy steps, nor did he tell people that God accepts them just as they are.  

He told them to repent and be baptized.

He told them something else, “I baptize with water, but among you stands One you do not know, even He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

The crowds could sense that something was happening.  John preached to them with a sense of urgency that the kingdom of God was near.  And when the crowds were interested in him, in John, when they asked him, “‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’”  John did not try to cash in on his fame.  John did not promote himself.  John did not put forward his own plans, but rather pointed them to Jesus.

But even the priests and the Levites knew there was something supernatural about John.  They asked if He were Elijah.  They asked if he were the Prophet spoken of by Moses in our Old Testament reading (who was fulfilled in Christ).  John kept saying, “No.”  And when the priests and Levites pressed him for an answer, John pointed them to the prophecy of Isaiah: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’” 

And when the Pharisees also interrogated him about his ministry of baptizing people – being that he denied being the Christ, Elijah, and the Prophet – John did what he did best: he preached Christ.

John is not just an unlikely hero, not just the final prophet, not just, as Jesus said, one who is the greatest of men born to a woman – John is the model of every Christian.  John is the model for pastors, for he preached repentance and he preached Christ.  John is also the model for laypeople, for he “confessed and did not deny.”  John confessed not only who he was and who he wasn’t, but he also confessed Christ.

We Christians are confessors – not only of our sins, but also of the faith, of the Gospel, of the cross, of our Lord.  To confess is to say the same that that you have been told.  To confess is to repeat what God has revealed to you.  God revealed Christ to John by means of prophecy.  God reveals Christ to us by means of His Word: His Word preached and His Word given in Holy Baptism.  John’s ministry is the church’s ministry: confessing, preaching, and administering sacraments, bringing people not to ourselves but to Jesus, not for our personal gain, but for the sake of love, of redemption, of salvation, of obedience to what our Lord calls us to do.

John had a call to preach.  So do pastors.  How can we not?  We are given a Word, and we proclaim.  We are given to call people to repent, and so we give pastoral care.  We are called to baptize, and so we bring people to Jesus, and like John, we bring Jesus to the people.  We point people to the One whose sandals we are unworthy to untie.  

John had a call to confess.  So do all Christians.  How can we not?  We are baptized into Christ.  We are given His Word.  We are called to repent.  We are given absolution.  Like John, we are told to confess – before friend and foe alike, before our brothers and sisters in the church, and before those who do not believe – we are called to confess our Lord Jesus Christ, and to follow Him, to be willing to suffer for Him.  

So how do you confess, dear brothers and sisters?  You confess when you do not deny Jesus.  You confess when you openly say that you are a Christian.  You confess when the Word of God is a priority to you.  You confess when you regularly are where Jesus is, when you devoutly receive His body and blood.  You confess when you give offerings not only to your church, but to those in need.  You confess when you reach out to people in love, and show them the mercy of God.  You confess when you are Christ to your neighbor.

Preachers and confessors do not seek glory for themselves.  For they are subjects of the kingdom.  Preachers and confessors seek glory only for their King.  Preachers and confessors are motivated by love: for God and for neighbor.  They are also motivated by the love shown to them by the Son, by His blood shed on the cross, by the eternal life that we all inherit through the atoning death of our Lord upon the cross.

That is our confession, dear brothers and sisters.  That is what we in the office of the holy ministry preach.  And like John, we do not accumulate followers, but rather send them to Jesus.  Like John, we preachers and confessors must decrease, and He, Jesus, must increase.  

John spoke the Word of God because He knew it was true, and He knew that it worked.  He knew that the Scriptures spoke of Jesus.  And that is what John did: in word and in deed, in his life, ministry, and even in his death.

On this last Sunday of Advent, we listen to John, for John preaches and confesses Christ.  And whether we, like John, are surrounded by adoring crowds, or whether we, like John, are stuck in a dungeon facing execution – whether we live or die – we do as we are called to do: confess Christ.  It is only in Him, in Christ, that we can, as St. Paul invites us: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”  And whether we are preachers or confessors, whether we are beloved by the many or hated by the powerful – our lives are focused in Christ: “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.”

“And the peace of God,” dear brothers and sisters, dear confessors of Christ, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 17 (Daniel the Prophet and the Three Young Men)

17 December 2019

Text: Rev 5:1-14

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

This part of John’s revelation of Jesus keeps repeating the word “worthy.”  There is a scroll to be opened, that is, there are prophecies to be fulfilled.  But history is at an impasse because there is no-one worthy to “open the scroll and break its seals.”  For four hundred years after the last prophets of the Old Testament, there was this sense of being stuck in history, waiting for the Messiah, the worthy One, to come and bring history to its fulfillment.

And even today, we have been in a kind of long advent for nearly two millennia expectantly waiting for the worthy One to return, to crack open the last book of history, and bring us to eternity. 

For we know that we are unworthy.  Even the greatest of all human beings, those who have achieved greatness in the realms of ideas and technology, or even great saints of the church whose faith was steadfast even unto death – all of humanity is unworthy, and cannot bring us to eternity.  All but One, that is.

“Weep no more,” says one of the elders in John’s vision, “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Jesus has conquered.  He has vanquished sin, death, and the devil.  He has destroyed the power of the grave and brought the Gospel to bear on the unforgiving and unmerciful Law.  This is His work on the cross.  And so we gather around the reading of the Scroll, with music and songs of praise, with incense and prayers, singing “worthy is the Lamb,” and participating in His blood by which we are ransomed.  And this is the Church gathered in the Divine Service, those unworthy ones made worthy “from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  We join with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven – including the “four living creatures” who say “Amen” as they “fell down and worshiped.” 

Worthy is the Lamb, now and even unto eternity!  Amen!

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

Sermon: Gaudete (Advent 3) - 2019

15 December 2019

Text: Matt 11:2-11

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

This was John the Baptist’s question about Jesus.

Who is Jesus?  Is He just one more prophet?  Is He yet another rabbi, another preacher?  Is He a great moral philosopher or teacher?  Is He an example of kindness?  Is He a mythological figure whose followers turned into a legend by retelling His story and putting in exaggerations over and over?  Maybe He never existed at all, but is more like a super hero in a story.

Or maybe Jesus was a crazy man who suffered delusions of grandeur.  Maybe He was a schizophrenic cult leader.  Maybe He was invented by the ruling class to hold down the workers.  

All of these theories have been floated by those who hate the Church.

John the Baptist, who heard from his own mother that when both he and his cousin Jesus were in the womb, and when the two mothers met, John leapt in the womb.  John received a vision from God at the Jordan River that Jesus was the Messiah, and John baptized Him and sent his own followers to Him.  John said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world.”  But now, John is in prison.  Things just aren’t working out the way he planned.  Maybe there has been some kind of mistake.  John is looking for some clarity.

“Who are You, Jesus?”

Jesus tells the followers of John to look at the evidence.  “Go and tell John what you hear and see.”  Jesus doesn’t make claims for Himself, rather He points to His miracles: “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.”

Jesus points out just what was happening, the things that were witnessed by thousands of people during His ministry.  Everyone knew that these miracles were happening.  Even our Lord’s enemies freely admitted it.  We even have a written record of Jesus’ arrest warrant.  His accusers charged Him with “sorcery” – in other words, He really did miracles.  Their explanation for them was not that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, God in the flesh, or the fulfillment of the prophecies of Scripture.  No, indeed.  They charged Him of working miracles by means of the devil.

But to answer John’s question, Jesus points to what everybody knows is happening.  And the things that are happening, as John the Baptist, John the preacher, John the prophet knows – were prophesied in the Scriptures.  

The messengers went back with these words to John.  Jesus is working the very miracles that the Old Testament says the Messiah will do.  Nobody can explain these marvelous deeds; all that His enemies can do is claim He is acting on behalf of Satan.

Of course, as Jesus points out, this is ridiculous.  Satan wishes evil on mankind.  He does not heal.  He does not restore.  He does not reconcile.  He does not revive from the dead.  He does not forgive sins.  None of the miracles of Jesus reflect the work of the devil, but rather oppose the devil.  And when the high priest proposes that Jesus be put to death, creating a conspiracy to carry it out – he says that the problem is that people are believing in Him.  

Dear friends, John’s question is still the most important question in the history of the world: “Who is Jesus?”  The great writer and professor C.S. Lewis, who converted from atheism to become one of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith of all time, put it like this: Jesus is either Lord, liar, or lunatic.

And His greatest miracle of all would happen after His death.  Because our Lord’s execution was such a politically sensitive matter, and because of the holiday that was approaching at sundown, the Romans made extra sure that Jesus had died on the cross.  The soldier plunged his spear into the heart of Jesus, and blood and water flowed from his side.  This is because the pericardial sac around His heart was pierced.  And this is one technique that the death squad had to make sure that the condemned person was indeed dead.  His body was put into a tomb quickly, a large stone was rolled over the entrance, and because of the political sensitivities, a government seal was placed on the tomb.  Breaking it meant a death sentence.  And just to make sure, guards were placed at the tomb as well.

But Jesus rose from the dead.  The angel rolled away the stone.  The guards fell into a coma.  Jesus walked out of His tomb and was seen by witnesses for forty days – including the apostles themselves.  Eleven of the twelve would suffer death for their testimony.  And there are records of historians outside of the Bible, written by non-Christians, that record this weird turn of events – the empty tomb and the claims of resurrection.  

And this threw the entire establishment – the leaders of the Jews and the Romans – into chaos.  The Christian Church would almost overnight grow by the thousands as the Word of God was preached to these early witnesses of these events.

And they were just getting started.  Even members of Caesar’s household converted to the faith.  There are records that the wife of Pontius Pilate, who condemned Jesus, became a Christian.  The Jewish leaders persecuted the Church, and that just made it grow.  The Romans also persecuted the Church, and its numbers exploded.  It was like a raging fire that nobody could put out.  By the year 315, the Emperor himself, who converted to Christianity, made the worship of Jesus the official religion of the empire.  

Jesus continued, and continues, to work miracles through His Word and His sacraments.  Lives are changed.  Even nations are changed.  And no matter how hard dictators and tyrants try to burn the bibles and destroy the churches, this only makes us grow.  The Church of Jesus Christ is unconquerable.  And great minds continue to convert to Christianity – because it is true.

And so the Church continues to do what Jesus did: point to the works of Jesus.  We preach.  We teach.  We search the Scriptures.  We baptize.  We celebrate the Holy Supper.  We forgive, and we are forgiven.  We bring people to Jesus so that they too can enjoy forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And we look forward to His coming again.  To this day, dictators and tyrants are afraid of Jesus.  

People still ask who Jesus is, and we are happy to tell them.  He is indeed God in the flesh, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, the Messiah, the King of the universe.  “And blessed is the one who is not offended by [Him].”  Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 10

10 December 2019

Text: 1 John 4:1-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. John, the apostle whom Jesus loved, the last of the Twelve to depart this world, speaks to all of us Christians in his epistle, dear friends.  He reminds us that “God is love” and that we must love our brother.  He writes powerfully that “the love God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”

The apostle connects the dots between God’s love for us in Christ, and our faith.  “By this,” he says, “is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment,” for “perfect love casts out fear.”

But of course, the world defines “love” differently than we do.  And here is where St. John’s advice is especially crucial for us today: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

A true prophet acknowledges the fleshly incarnation of God in Christ Jesus.  A false prophet does not confess the Incarnation, and is antichrist.  And “by this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 

Once again, it is the Word of God – the scriptures that testify of the Word Made Flesh – that is the true prophecy, that teaches us what love is, as well as testifies to the nature of the love of God.  The world’s distortions and errors are the lies from the father of lies.  Only the Word of God rightly teaches us and bolsters our faith in these confusing and confounding times.  The key, dear friends, is Christ.  As the holy apostles says: “In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

There is love, dear friends!  There is the truth!  There is our confidence!  Amen.

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

Sermon: Populus Zion (Advent 2) - 2019

8 December 2019

Text: Luke 21:25-36

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord preaches to us concerning the last days.  He uses words like: distress, perplexity, fear, and foreboding.

He speaks of signs in the sky and on the earth.  And then He tells us that rather than be beaten down by these things, instead “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

We have certainly seen an increase in the fear and sense of doom in our world all across the spectrum of human thought.  There is distress across the board, whether people fear climate change and rising sea waters, or they fear a government ban on firearms.  Some people fear living in a tyranny run by Christian fundamentalists, while other fear a life of being persecuted for the sake of being Christians.  Some suffer distress at the thought of one political party running the United States, while others are anxious over the thought of the other party winning elections.

It is safe to say, that this sense of pessimism and dread is essentially held by everyone.  Virtually nobody believes that the world is moving in the right direction.  

Notice that our Lord doesn’t promise us that we won’t have persecution (He actually says the opposite) or that things just seem gloomy (no, they actually are).  Nor does He tell us we can fix it by just being nice, or by empowering the government, or by taking power away from the government.  He doesn’t tell us that if we just proscribe the right gun laws (whatever they may be) or institute the right political and economic policies (whatever they may be) – we can live in a happy hippy John Lennon “Imagine” Utopia.  Rather He tells us that there will come a time when the entire world will be in the midst of a global panic attack, and hysteria will reign supreme – and it is when this happens that we should start thinking about what is really going on.

Jesus is coming!

Of course, we all believe this.  We say it in the Creed every week.  But we often seem to forget it.  We join in the hysteria and we lose heart.  We get caught up in the world’s drama, and things that are so important to unbelievers – things which shouldn’t really matter to us at all – become just as important to us.  And so when our unbelieving friends are in a state of emotional frenzy, so too are Christians.  

Jesus says to stop it.  Look up!  Look to the heavens!  This is still God’s world, even though the devil continues to pull strings in our fallen lives.  Jesus is coming!  And He tells us what is going to happen.  And though nobody wants to suffer or deal with unpleasantries – what really causes anxiety, dear friends, is not knowing how things will turn out.  But we do!  We know how it turns out!  It is as though we are watching our favorite movie for the twentieth time.  We know the ending already. 

Jesus is coming!

And He is coming to save us, to redeem us: “your redemption is drawing near.”  And so Jesus tells us to look around at the world around us.  He bids us to have “situational awareness.”  We all can tell the seasons by what the leaves on the trees are doing.  “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”

So our Lord teaches us to look at the world around us.  We should take note of the hysteria and worry of people around us.  But we also need to be aware of what we’re looking for, and that means understanding the Word of God.  We need to be familiar with what our Lord says will usher in the end of the age, but we also need to understand the Big Picture.  We need to know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  We need to understand who Jesus is and why He was born in Bethlehem.  We need to know why He was crucified, and what it means when we say He rose again from the dead.  We need to fully understand what Jesus means by “redemption.”  Because if we don’t, we will just join the mob across our country and world of people who are running around like headless chickens scared of their own shadows.

Do you want to be at peace?  Then you need to know the Word of God.  You need to look at the signs of the times.  You need to allow the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” to “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  This peace is delivered to you in this sanctuary, hearing the Word proclaimed and preached, and partaking of the foretaste of the feast, participating in the miracle of the Lord’s presence with us in His body and blood.  While the world whips itself up into a frenzy, our Lord comes to us to assure us while we kneel here being assured by the very One who told us to “straighten up and raise [our] heads, because [our] redemption is drawing near.”

Meanwhile, as we wait, our Lord also tells us how to avoid the world’s trap so that we don’t join them in their hysteria and anguish: “Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life.”  We need to see the big picture even when we carry out the ordinary things of life.  Self-medicating – whether through alcohol or drugs, illegal or legal – will not bring you peace, dear friends.  For we need to have our wits about us, lest “that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” 

Jesus is coming!

The entire universe is going to change, be rebuilt, be made anew – perfect and glorious.  It will happen according to the will and timeframe of the Father.  We don’t know when, but we know it will.  So, “stay awake at all times.”  What the world calls “woke” is just groupthink and conformity.  To “stay awake” means to be aware that Jesus is coming, to rise above the world’s pettiness and political correctness.  It means that we fix our eyes on Jesus, because Jesus is coming!

Staying awake is a day to day discipline.  We need to make the Word of God part and parcel of our lives.  There are many ways to do this.  The One Year Bible is a way to read the entire Bible in easy-to-digest daily readings.  The Treasury of Daily Prayer provides daily readings and meditations and the ancient prayer offices of the Church.  Portals of Prayer provides a very brief Scripture reading and meditation for every day.  These are ways that you can stay awake and find peace in a chaotic world.  These are practical ways to do as our Lord says: “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Jesus is coming!  Amen.

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

Genocide is not enough!

In this video...


a mob of eco-terrorists block traffic as police officers watch and do nothing.

At one point, a "protester" goes from car to car "interviewing" the victims.  One lady was angry that she was being impeded.  The "protester" basically told her it was for her own good.  She retorted that she was also concerned about the environment, but this "is not helping."  He asked what would help.  She replied, "depopulation."

Depopulation.

Let that sink in.  The implication is, of course, the canard that human life is ruining the planet, and the earth would be great were it not for all the people.

Think about the implications of this call to depopulate.  Based on this line of reasoning, genocides are a blessing, and the likes of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao should be treated as eco-heroes.  Moreover, abortion on a mass scale is a "solution" to the quest for depopulation.

This may well explain why many of these "protesters" describe themselves as Communists or Socialists.  Let's consider what Communism has done to advance the agenda of depopulation:

• USSR: 20 million
• China: 65 million
• Vietnam: 1 million'
• North Korea: 2 million
• Cambodia: 2 million
• Eastern Europe: 1 million
• Latin America: 150,000
• Africa: 1.7 million
• Afghanistan: 1.5 million

Of course, we also have National Socialist Germany's depopulation accomplishments to consider, though their exploits are not listed in the Black Book of Communism. 

According to the Huffington Post, the German National Socialists added 11 million to the Socialist depopulation count.

This also explains the Left's obsession with abortion - which snuffs out millions of lives before they are even born.  According to the World Health Organization, there are between 40 - 50 million abortions per year worldwide.

These statistics do not include deaths due to wars.  According to the New York Times, in the 20th century alone, 108 million people were killed in warfare.

But apparently, all of this wanton death and destruction of millions of people is not enough.  It follows that to the average eco-warrior chanting in the street, what this world needs is more genocide.  We need more world wars and mass devastation.  We need even more women to kill their children in utero.  One can hardly think of a site more delightful to these people than a mass grave.  In their worldview, we should erect monuments to the likes of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao.  Not all heroes wear capes. 

Sermon: Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1) - 2019

1 December 2019

Text: Matt 21:1-9

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Now that we have been hearing Christmas music in the stores for more than a month, we now begin our Advent journey.  Advent is a time of expectation – not merely waiting for the 25^th of December, but waiting for Christ’s return, waiting for the end of this age and the life of the world to come.  And we wait for His return by reflecting upon His first coming, His first Advent, even as we count down to Christmas Day, the Feast of the Incarnation of our Lord. 

The world has a message for us at this time of year, dear friends.  The world has skipped Advent – because who wants to wait?  For we are consumers.  We want what we want and we want it now.  And so the world is in full-on Christmas mode.  Our friends at Amazon and Walmart and Target and Ebay have a Christmas message for us: buy stuff, and lots of it!  You can get anything with a swipe of a card or a wave of a chip.  Our merchandisers – who want you to feel loved by them – want us to covet and fix our eyes on stuff.  The more the better.  They want you to believe that money buys happiness.

But the Church’s Christmas message to the world is entirely different.  We have nothing for you to buy.  We have nothing for sale.  What we offer is entirely free, and yet not even all the money of the richest man in the world – the guy who owns Amazon – could ever afford what we offer.  It is not for sale at any price.  For we offer the salvation won for us at the cross of Jesus, and it is delivered to you not by a delivery truck or an experimental drone – but in a chalice.  We have the blood of Christ, we have His body, we have His pledge of everlasting life.  We have the Gospel.  And it is worth more than Mr. Bezos’s fortune multiplied by a trillion.  And yet, dear friends, it is free. 

In this first Sunday of Advent, we reflect upon our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  This seems a strange thing to reflect upon given the time of year.  Instead of Jesus in the manger, we are reflecting on a passage that will bring Jesus to the cross.  For the cross is the completion of the manger.  His death is why He was born.  This is what we really mean by talking about the “reason for the season.”  Jesus has taken on flesh, to offer His flesh, all to redeem our flesh, so that we too may rise in the flesh.  This is what the Word “Emmanuel” means: “God with us” – with us in the flesh.

And while the music of our season sweetly proclaims the Boy King, we must remember that this King doesn’t enrich Himself like a Caesar or a CEO, but rather empties Himself like a servant.  He is not crowned by gold, but rather by thorns.  He does not sit upon a throne, but rather hangs upon the cross.  He is not transported into His Royal City pulled in a magnificent chariot, but rather “humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”  And His march to the cross will be even more humble, dear friends.

Our King doesn’t flaunt his wealth – even though He owns all things.  Rather He comes to us in humility, even humiliation – willing to be put to death on a cross.  For unlike the corporations from whom we buy our Christmas gifts, Jesus actually does love us.  All that He has, He shares with us without price.  No swipe of the card; no wave of a chip.  We come to this church and to this communion rail as beggars – with empty hands and open mouths.  We have nothing to offer.  We do not leave with a bill and some bling, but rather with the antidote to death without price.  We depart the communion rail free and unburdened.  We do not walk out of this sanctuary in debt, but rather with our debts forgiven.  For we do not buy gifts here, but we are the recipients of the greatest gift of all.  

Jesus, our Boy King whom we will in a few weeks call to mind lying in a manger, is our Savior.  He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  He was indeed welcomed into the Royal City of King David, His royal father according to the flesh.  He came into the city riding a donkey, as did David’s immediate son King Solomon.  And along with those adoring crowds who knew they were welcoming their King, we too sing with them: “Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!”

And in the manner of people who live in monarchies crying out “God save the King!” – we sing “Hosanna!”  And this word “Hosanna” means “save.”  But we are not calling for the King’s salvation, rather we are confessing and celebrating the King’s salvation of us!  “Hosanna, King Jesus, Son of David, Save us!” we sing.  

We reflect on His first coming to us: as a baby in Bethlehem, as a triumphantly entering King in Jerusalem, as a crucified sacrificial Lamb outside the gate of the city, and as our Risen Lord who has conquered death in the empty Easter tomb in the garden.

All of this is rolled together for our consideration, dear friends.  For He was born that He might die.  He died that we might live.  And He rose again that we too might join Him in eternal life.  And the riches He bestows upon us are immeasurable, and yet free.

And so we welcome our King.  We sing “Hosanna.”  We pray for mercy from the Son of David.  We rejoice in His coming.  We anxiously await His return.  We receive Him in Word and Sacrament.  We anticipate His Advent even as did those in days of old who saw Him at the manger, the cross, and the tomb.  

We see Him in His body and blood.  We hear Him in His Word.  We receive His gifts according to His promise.  And we continue to wait in expectation for His return, not according to the world’s calendar, but rather according to His Father’s will.  We wait for that time when we too will wave our palms and sing not just once a week, not just once a year, but for all eternity: “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the Highest!” 

Amen.

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