221225 Sermon comparing John 1 with Genesis 1 (Christmas Day)

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Sermon manuscript:

I’d like to show you some purposeful similarities between what John said in our Gospel reading and the beginning of Genesis. I’m going to be kind of flipping back and forth between the two.

We can begin by how they share opening lines: “In the beginning…” John says in the beginning was the Word, the Logos, the second person of the Trinity. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Genesis says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” John actually fills us in about that creating we hear about in Genesis. He says, “Through him, that is, through the Word, everything was made. Without the Word, not one thing was made, which was made.” Everything that is spoken about in Genesis chapter 1 comes about through the Son, the Word.

And, in fact, this corresponds with how Moses describes God’s creation. God speaks it into creation with words. It says in Genesis: God said, “Let there be light, and there was light…” “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that bears seed, and tress that bear fruit with its seed in it” and so on. There is all manner of Words. God said, “Let there be,” and there was. So, as John says, all things were created through the Word and there wasn’t anything created apart from the Word who became flesh, the one we know of as Jesus.

There is a strong focus on the light in our reading from John. It says, “The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The true light that shines on everyone was coming into the world.” This is not accidental.

No listen to the words of Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was undeveloped and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ There was evening and there was morning—the first day.”

When God created the heavens and the earth it says that the earth was undeveloped and empty. Another way of saying this is that things were chaotic and disordered. And so in creation, God, through the Word, the Son, set about creating order as the Holy Spirit hovered over the surface of the waters. The first thing that God does to put the earth into order is to create light. Then he separated the light from the darkness, organizing things. He called the light day and the darkness he called night.

And this was before he created the sun, moon, stars, and so on, which were not created until the fourth day. God separated and organized the light from the darkness without the aid of what we believe gives us our light, what we believe are the sources of light.

Thus and so God organized in the beginning. Light came so that there was not just darkness, and God separated the light from the darkness, thereby bringing about order.

Listen now to what John says: “In the Word was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The real light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. He, that is, Jesus, was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, yet his own people did not accept him.”

You can hear from what John was inspired to say the same kind of thing that was going on in Genesis, but on a different level. In Genesis we hear about created light and how God then puts things in order. In John we hear about the uncreated light, the true light, the life of mankind. Genesis has a kind of darkness. The darkness in John is the spiritual darkness of unbelief and alienation from the life of God. Jesus came as the light, to bring light, to put in order that which is disordered.

This is precisely what we see Jesus doing in the Gospels. Jesus puts in order that which is disordered in the body so that the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk, and so on. More deeply and fundamentally Jesus heals that which is disordered in the soul. He casts out demons. He binds up the devil and plunders him of his spoil. He redeems sinners from the devil, purchasing us from the devil with his death.

When John speaks of the Son of God being the true light who shines on everyone, this is what he is talking about. The darkness is not just physical darkness. This darkness is much more sinister. It is the darkness that brought about the death of Christ. God sent his Son to rescue us from the darkness by plunging him into darkness. This separates us from the darkness, putting in order that which is disordered.

The way that God does this recreating, ordering, life-giving work in Christ is unusual. That is to say, it was not by normal means. The normal way for disorders to be healed is to study the laws and principles involved for how things are supposed to work. Through normal, natural means doctors, for example, have come a long way in helping the deaf hear, the blind see, and so on. They’ve figured out how these things work and acted accordingly. The normal means for making someone better morally is by laws and principles too. Teach them so that they learn what is good and bad, right and wrong, and then get busy implementing those things.

There is a lot of power in the use of these normal means for setting things right. Doctors help a lot of people with the problems they have with their bodies. Psychologists help a lot of people with problems they are experiencing. We always have to manage our expectations with these normal means. Doctors can only do so much. There comes a point in time when they can’t prevent a person from dying. Psychologists and psychiatrists have their limits too. In a way, even the very best and most advanced healthcare is only something of a band-aid.

The recreating, ordering, life-giving work of Jesus is different.  Listen to how John describes it: “He came to his own, yet his own people did not accept him. But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his Name, he gave the authority to become children of God. They were born, not of blood, or of the desire of the flesh, or of a husband’s will, but born of God.”

The highpoint of what is said here is that we may become children of God. We’ve maybe heard this often enough so that it doesn’t sound too strange to us, but it is strange. How can anybody be God’s child? How can anybody be born as a child of God? We can’t even become a different person. Even if we were to enter our mother’s womb a second time to be born, that still wouldn’t make us a different person. That which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. As Jesus says in John chapter 3, in order for anyone to see the kingdom of God we need to be born again by the water and the Spirit.

That means that children of God are born through baptism which is then held to by faith. Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Paul in Titus chapter 3 calls baptism the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This is very deliberate “birth” language that corresponds to what we heard from John. Those who receive Jesus, who believe in his Name, have the authority to become children of God. Such children of God are born not by natural human seed, nor by any human striving, nor by any father’s determination to create a child. We are born of God by baptism and faith, which he must do and create.

Such siring and birthing may sound strange, and, frankly, it better sound strange otherwise you are not paying attention. Literal children of God are born through baptism? Entering into our mother’s womb a second time is at least something we can somewhat visualize even if it is ridiculous. There’s no visualization of this birth that Jesus talks about except a childlike acceptance of faith: Jesus says I am born again. Jesus says it is a second birth by water and the Spirit. Jesus says whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Jesus makes it so that I die together with Christ in baptism, and therefore I will also be raised as Christ was raised.

Although this be strange, it is God’s prerogative to do things the way he wants to do things. We might want God only to work in ways that we preapprove and understand, but what would that makes us in relation to God? Wouldn’t we really be the ones who are God, telling him how he has to do things? If we don’t understand something as well as we would like, it’s as though we can then just dismiss it, reject it, or ignore it.

Let me mention something else in this regard that’s already come up. God created light on the first day. He separated the light from the darkness. The light he called day. The darkness he called night. There was evening and there was morning the first day. And yet the only sources we know of for light weren’t created, weren’t further organized by God, until the fourth day. How could there be light without the sun, without the moon, without the normal means? I can’t fully visualize what that first day must have been like. I can’t visualize a day without the sun as the source of light for it. But that’s okay.

What so often happens, though, is that pseudo-intellectuals—whether those pseudo-intellectuals have advanced degrees or didn’t even graduate high school—pseudo-intellectuals will rise up and declare Moses an idiot, the Genesis account a myth, and the only so-called proof they really have is that if they were God, they wouldn’t have done it that way. They wouldn't have made light on day one and not make the sun until day 4. It’s as though Moses should have caught that error while he was proof-reading.

Unfortunately the same pseudo-intellectualism happens with Christmas too. People reject the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Why? Because they have some proof? What proof could they possibly produce one way or another? There is no proof possible; there’s only belief and unbelief. All that’s going on is that they are using that big brain of theirs, and they figure that if they were God, they wouldn’t go about things the way that it is described. They’d make it understandable and accessible. They wouldn’t talk about being born again or death and resurrection. They’d be a better writer than the Holy Spirit.

Set aside your shallow judgements and petty criteria. Your thoughts aren’t nearly as infallible as you think they are. Listen, instead, to what the Holy Spirit says through the apostle John. In Jesus is a re-creation, higher and profounder than the creation of Genesis. The light is not created light. The Light is the Son of God, through whom everything was made. He came to bring order out of chaos, life out of death, light out of darkness. He promises you grace upon grace, a new life, and the ability to see God.

The Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us is what we consider at Christmas, and it is profounder than what is talked about in Genesis.

221224 Sermon on "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward mankind" (Christmas Eve)

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Sermon manuscript:

Tonight I’d like to focus on the angels’ song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.”

Before I get into the actual words themselves, I’d like to first speak a little bit about the setting. The shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night when suddenly one angel of the Lord appeared to them. Real angels are quite different from how they are pictured in popular imagination. They are warriors, for one thing, the Lord’s army. They are holy, that is, perfect, without sin. They reflect the glory of God like a mirror. So just as people fall on their faces whenever God shows a little glimpse of his glory in the Bible, so it happened here too. The shepherds were terrified.

The lone angel then says some of the loveliest words in the whole Bible: “Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” I’m tempted to speak with you some more about these wonderful words, but maybe you can reflect later, by yourself, what these words mean. I want to get to the angel song.

Right when that lone angel was done speaking, suddenly there was a multitude of angels. There was a heavenly army. They were praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.”

The context helps us properly appreciate the words. In a way this scene is terrifying for the shepherds. Something of heaven dropped down upon the hills and valleys around Bethlehem. The shepherds weren’t prepared for that holiness. You and I wouldn’t be prepared for that holiness either. So it was terrifying, but at the same time it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen or heard.

It’s probably a good thing that the lone angel came first to help them with their faith. The shepherds were given something to hang on to when the wildness of heaven descended upon them. “Do not be afraid,” the angel had said. God was not coming to crush them. Surely they needed to drop whatever wicked thoughts or plans they might have been harboring before the angels came. Evil won’t work here. They knew that. But God was not coming to destroy them. They were going to be whisked up into something glorious.

Now let’s turn to the words themselves. The first thing that this countless army of angels was singing was “Glory to God in the highest.” Why are they singing that? Because Jesus Christ is born. The eternal plan is finally playing out. Jesus the baby was precious and so highly anticipated by the angels. Now he has come. Hurray!

Anytime anything remotely like what is going on with these angels happens among us, we love it. Unfortunately such joy and thanksgiving is a rather seldom visitor. Children, it seems, are the most easily visited. The possibility for this experience is one of the reasons why Christmas is so beloved. The anticipation and then the joy and thanksgiving of children opening presents is absolutely delightful.

So maybe thinking of children might help you understand this first part of the angels’ song, Glory to God in the highest. Have you ever seen children kind of form a circle and march / dance while chanting something that they’re happy about over and over? Their faces are beaming. They want the adults to see them and smile. Often their chant or song can be a little ridiculous, a little over the top. They can’t help it. That’s just what has to come out because of the joy within. So it seems, also, to me with these angels. Glory to God in the highest! Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!

The second part of this song goes like this: “And on earth peace, good will toward mankind.” Here you see that the angels are not envious. They are not receiving presents, and yet they are joyful. The Son of God did not become an angel. He was made man, and born of the virgin Mary. The angels rejoice that this goodness is coming to us human beings.

Therefore I have to revise, a little bit, what I’ve already said. Kids know anticipation and joy and thanksgiving, but what if the goodness that was coming was not for them? There were no presents for them. We even wax proverbially about this. The lump of coal would certainly dampen the holiday spirit.

There was no dampening of the angels’ spirit. They are not evil, selfish, and envious like us. They are not benefited by God becoming man, and yet they dance like children. They are happy that God’s goodness is being poured out for all those who would make use of it and be benefited by it. Jesus mentions something similar about the angels on a separate occasion. He says that the angels rejoice when just one sinner repents. These truly are good and salutary creatures who reflect the nature of the one who created them.

But let’s move on from the nature of the angels who sang the words to the meaning of the words themselves. “On earth peace, good will toward mankind.” These words are simple and plain. Jesus himself is your peace, O earth. God is not angry with mankind, but intends to save it.

I’d like to link these words from the angels to some words from Jesus with which you are familiar. “Peace on earth, good will toward mankind,” is very similar to what Jesus says in John 3:16 and 17. “Peace on earth,” is very similar to these words: “God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” What can be more peace-giving than this promise which Jesus speaks: “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And “Good will toward mankind” is very similar to what Jesus says in the following verse, John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” He sent his Son to die for you. God’s good will is toward mankind so that, as it says in another place, all may be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

These words about how God regards us sound gracious and loving. Indeed, they are gracious and loving, but we must not draw false conclusions from them. Peace is promised to us, but God’s peace is different from what people might think peace means. There is a kind of peace where everything is going your way. You’re getting richer, smarter and healthier with every passing day. This is how the world understands peace. Peace is the absence of everything annoying, distressing, or perplexing, and the presence of everything that is pleasing.

That’s not Christian peace. Christian peace comes through faith that God is for me and loves me even if not everything is going the way I’d like at the moment. Christian peace is peace with God even if the winds are howling and the waves are swamping the boat. Christian peace is patient and loving in the midst of scarcity, pain, and sadness.

Consider the holy family in this regard. It is astounding that Jesus was born where cattle might have their babies. I got this shiner trying to shut my cows up in the barn so that they couldn’t have their calves in the cold and the wind, and yet the birth of the Son of God wasn’t hardly more comfortable than the birth a cow might have. Husbands, do you suppose that Joseph wanted Mary to give birth in such a place? Mothers, how would you be feeling if you were in such a place giving birth?

But the holy family was given peace in the midst of much coldness, sadness, loneliness, and even danger. God was for them, who could be against them? And it wasn’t like when they grasped the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, that their negative circumstances were taken away. And yet we must say that through faith there was peace in the midst of perplexity, happiness in the midst of scarcity, joy in the midst of sorrow, life in the midst of death.

The angels flatly proclaim: “There is peace on earth; there is good will toward mankind.” Just because the angels say there is peace on earth, doesn’t mean that everybody is going to perceive such peace. The angels are making a statement: There is peace on earth. There is good will toward mankind. That is how things are. But I don’t think it would be hard to find somebody who would say, “What peace? I don’t see no peace. Where are my presents?”

If you are looking for a peace that the world understands, you aren’t going to find that peace in Jesus. The world doesn’t want the peace that Jesus gives. The world does not want to live under God as his creatures, accepting his will, being thankful. The world wants to be God, dictating how everything must go according to one’s own thoughts and pleasures, never being joyful unless good things are happening to one’s own self. Their desire is not for the truth. It is not enough to have peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They want a room at the Hilton, not a stall in the barn.

Some of you might be looking around, and your life might seem more like the barn than the Hilton. And let’s not romanticize the barn. You know what a barn smells like, don’t you? And so, in your life, there might be some things that stink. Things aren’t how you would do things if you were God. But don’t allow those circumstances to rob you of the angels’ song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.” The angels’ song was true in the stable of Bethlehem. The song is true for you in whatever circumstances you might find yourself in.

And, know this: for those who believe in Jesus the barn cannot go on. You won’t be in the stable forever. Already in this life maybe God will give you some earthly relief, and if he does, thank and praise him from whom all blessing flow. He does that much oftener than people realize, you know. But even if God doesn’t remove difficult circumstances from you, that doesn’t change what’s true. That doesn’t change what God has done in Christ. Your circumstances, no matter how bad they possibly can be, don’t change the love of God, manifested at Christmas, sung about by the angels.

And eventually your circumstances must change. You won’t stay in the stable. Jesus says in another place: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.”

Mary and Joseph aren’t in that stable anymore. They are in those mansions, together with Jesus. They are hearing the angels’ songs, that we just get a tiny, thrilling glimpse of on Christmas night. You remain faithful and believing, and that will be true for you too. What the angels said is true: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.”

221218 Sermon on how to handle shame (Advent 4) December 18, 2022

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Shame is very powerful. Being ashamed, being under the power of shame, is so unpleasant we all try to escape it if that is at all possible. So we try not to let anyone see. If some evidence of wrong-doing comes to light, it is awfully tempting to lie: “No, I didn’t do that.” And since our fellow human beings are not God, those lies work, maybe even most of the time—especially if you get good at telling lies.

But sometimes the proof for the shameful deed is overwhelming. There’s no denying it. The perpetrator was caught in the act. Or, in light of what we heard this morning, the woman got pregnant. How are you going to explain that? There’s only one way for a woman to become pregnant. And if Joseph knew that he couldn’t be the father of Mary’s baby, then some other man must have been.

Mary’s pregnancy appeared to be incontrovertible proof that something shameful occurred. From Joseph’s perspective Mary must have had an affair even though she was engaged to be married to him. From any other on-looker’s perspective either Mary had an affair or Joseph and Mary came together for the marital union before they were married. Either way something shameful has happened here.

The truth of what actually happened sounds a little far-fetched, in fact. It sounds like one of those lies kids might use before they learn to be more sophisticated and believable: “The child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” “Yeah, right,” the worldly wise would say. If the goal were merely to avoid shame, Mary and Joseph could probably come up with some lies that would have seemed more probable. They could claim, for example, that Mary was raped. Then, at least, she could have gotten some sympathy.

But Mary and Joseph were different. They didn’t handle shame the way most people do. That is to say that they weren’t ashamed. They had to have known what most people were thinking about them, but they were not ashamed. They believed what they had been told: the child which was conceived was by the Holy Spirit. They did nothing wrong, so they had nothing to be ashamed of. This is special and unusual. Mary and Joseph did not live in such a way where they were trying to impress everyone around them. They were living in the sight of God. They were not slaves of the judgment of their fellow human beings.

This is something special and important for living as a Christian. I’ll give you another example of this. Paul says to the Corinthians that he does not care whether he is judged by them as adequate or inadequate. Paul does not go by what other human beings regard as good or useful. That wasn’t going to change how he did things, because he was doing what God wanted him to do. The Corinthians weren’t his judges. It is the Lord who judges him. “Thus,” he says, “do not judge anything ahead of time, until the Lord comes. He will bring to light whatever is hidden in darkness and also reveal the intentions of hearts. Then there will be praise for each person from God.”

Let’s apply this to Mary and Joseph. They were told by God and they believed that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Probably most of their neighbors and friends were like: “Yeah, right.” But when the Lord comes he will bring everything to light. The neighbors and friends probably thought that they were very knowing and very discerning. They were wrong, so who cares what wrong things they might say. What matters is what God has said.

So the right thing for Mary and Joseph to do was not to hang their head in shame. So many tsking people around them had to have thought that they should hang their heads in shame, but they wouldn’t and they didn’t. They had nothing to be ashamed of. They didn’t do anything wrong. The ones who were doing something wrong were the ones who were judging them. According to reason and common sense it is understandable why people should make such judgements against Mary and Joseph, but that just goes to show that sometimes reason and common sense are dead wrong.

Now let’s apply this to you. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you shouldn’t hang your head in shame either. That is to say, if you’ve done what God tells you to do in his Ten Commandments, if you’ve acted uprightly in God’s sight, you shouldn’t be ashamed when other people judge you.

For example, let’s take an issue that is brought to mind by our reading. Now, in our times, it is against our society’s norms to remain chaste until you are married. Remaining chaste until God gives us a spouse is what God requires of us in the 6^th commandment, but in people’s popular understanding you are expected to sexually experiment. If you don’t, then there’s probably something wrong with you. Maybe you’re not sexually attractive enough to get laid. A great many evil people in our society might like to shame you, to mock you, for doing what is right. Don’t be ashamed for doing what is right.

Or, another example: Your boss wants you to do something that is unethical but probably highly profitable. Maybe you are just supposed to lie or merely withhold some vital information. The other party won’t know, and even if they suspect it, there’s no way for them to prove it. This kind of thing is incredibly common, so that nobody thinks twice about it. If you don’t go along with what is expected of you, you might be fired. That might not be the end of it either. Maybe they’ll go around town spreading the word that you are some kind of religious freak.

In such a situation don’t panic. God still exists. Evil doers won’t get away with their evil-doing forever. Even if they throw you into a fiery furnace or a lion’s den, if God so wills it, you’ll come out fine on the other end. What you must not do is act as though these fellow human beings are God, as though whatever wicked things they think or do determines what is right and wrong. If you are doing right according to what God has said, then you must not be ashamed. Hold your head up high, like Mary and Joseph, even if everybody else is saying, “Yeah, right.”

But we should deal with how we should handle the other side of shame too. Unfortunately very few, or probably none of us are like Mary and Joseph. We are not blameless according to what God has said. We should be ashamed. How should we handle shame when we are deserving of shame?

The proper way to act when we are guilty is also very strange in the eyes of unbelievers. If we are guilty, then we should plead guilty. If punishment is due, then let the punishment come. Let us confess our sins, and receive absolution, that is, forgiveness from God. What is best is to put yourselves into God’s hands and let his will be done.

Here we have to unlearn something we learned in very early childhood. As just a tiny tike you learned that if you lied you might be able to get away with stuff. You could simply say, “I didn’t do it,” and if you had siblings, and if there wasn’t incontrovertible proof saying that you did it, you probably didn’t get punished. You were rewarded for lying. Judgment and punishment are terribly frightening things. In order to avoid these frightening things we can lie so as to avoid them. If you lie at least you have the chance of escaping punishment. If you admit what you have done punishment is guaranteed. Plus there’s the shame that you then have to admit and fully own: Yes, I did this shameful thing.

The devil would like you to keep you being afraid of shame and punishment your whole life through. The devil would like you to stay in the dark so that nobody knows what you have done. The devil says, “You’ll be safe here in the dark where no one can see you.” The one thing that you can’t do, so far as the devil is concerned, is to say the truth. If you say the truth the game is up. Lies are your best friend. Lies keep you safe. Lies keep you unpunished. And the devil wants to keep you in this state your whole life long until the time of grace is over. And he is remarkably successful in this endeavor because it is the very thing we also want to do. It is what comes naturally to us. It’s easy and appears to be the safer option. But it is not the safer option because then you will never be free of the darkness. You will never be free of the shame. And you will never be free of the punishment.

Pluck up your courage to defy that old lord of ours, the devil. Courage has been in the background of everything I’ve been talking about today. It takes courage for a kid to say: “I did it.” It takes courage for someone who has committed a crime to plead: “Guilty.” It takes courage for any of us to admit: “Yes, I did wrong,” when through lies and hiding we could keep things in the dark until Christ comes. All of this takes courage because thereby you are giving up control over what happens to you. You are then at the mercy of the authority that God has put in place for punishment. That’s scary. It is scary to leave the darkness and to come into the light of God’s truth.

But here’s the thing: God’s light is good. It always has been good. It is good now. It will forever be good. Now, during this time of grace, God’s light is also healing and life giving. We still have time to repent. The devil wants us scared to death of the shame, and scared to death of any punishment, so by all means lie your head off. He will say you’re better off dead than having the wrong that you have done come to light. But know this: he is a foul, stinking, and especially pathetic liar. He is so pathetic. The devil does not have the power you think he has. The only power the devil has is in his lies. He has to have people believe his lies, otherwise he has no power. He can’t keep you safe. He ultimately can’t even keep you in the dark. He’s not God.

And the truth is that God is not some ogre who hates you. What more does God need to do in order to show you what his intentions are toward you? He sent his Son, his dearest treasure, to become incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is “Immanuel,” that is, “God with us.” His name is Jesus, which means, “the Lord saves,” because he saves us from our sins. Jesus was humiliated, Jesus was shamed, Jesus was punished for your sins and in your place. He rose from the dead, thereby showing us that this veil of tears, this world of darkness, is by no means the only life we have. There is a new life where there is no darkness, no shame, but only God’s love. That love of God is already present here and now among us sinners, beaconing us from the darkness to live in the light.

It is telling the truth that breaks the power of shame. If you don’t tell the truth shame is always going to be hanging around at your elbow, ushering you back into the darkness. Telling the truth breaks the power of shame. Telling the truth has two parts. First, that we confess our sins. (Yuck, that seems only to amplify the shame.) But then, second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from God himself. We all know that our sins are real. Understand this also: Jesus’s suffering and death are real too. The forgiveness is real. It’s God’s forgiveness. That’s just as true as your sins. No, the work of Jesus is truer than your sins.

So if God forgives you, who cares what other people might think, or what the devil thinks. They want you to stay guilty and ashamed. It is God who judges you. And in Christ he has forgiven you. That’s the truth. This light of truth doesn’t hurt you. It heals you. You may have a good conscience before God even though you have been and are a sinner. Jesus is your righteousness.

God’s light is always good, even if it’s a little scary. Don’t be so afraid of the true and good Lord God that you go running for cover in the bushes with the pathetic loser, the devil. Pluck up your courage to put your life in God’s hands, for him to do what is best. You can’t know and you won’t know exactly how that will all turn out, but you may rest assured that it will be for the best. God is for you in our Lord Jesus Christ, not against you.

221214 Advent Midweek Sermon on Joy, December 14, 2022

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Sermon manuscript:

Joy is one of the finest things in life. Joy from receiving a gift, joy from receiving praise, joy from amusements—joy can come from so many different things. Can we ever have too much joy? It certainly doesn’t seem so. Perhaps, then, a natural question would be: “How do I get some more joy?”

That, in fact, is one of those big questions in life. If we could put joy in a bottle and sell it for just a nickel we would soon be very wealthy. Lots of books, lots of blogs, lots of YouTube videos promise joy. You always have to do your part. You have to follow their rules. You have to buy your products. But then you’ll be happy.

And, you know what? This stuff can work somewhat. Some stuff can really give you a thrill. Some of the better stuff might be very wise and beneficial rules for living well. Often living well is not as thrilling or as easy as some of the other stuff, but it is also more stable and reliable too. There are lots of things that can give joy or might give joy, but you also know that none of this stuff is perfectly fulfilling either.

The best drugs, even, with the least side effects won’t go on being effective. Illegal drug use can be very thrilling and very satisfying, but it carries with it some dreadful consequences. Even a life that is lived according to the rules is going to have its drawbacks. The most stable, well-lived lives can get some horrible monkey wrenches thrown into them so that joy can be lost. This can be so much so that joy can be thought of as a thing of the past, never to come back. Then it seems like the question, “How do I get some more joy?” is vain because it is impossible.

But that question, “How do I get some more joy?” isn’t a very good question for us creatures to ask. You’re a creature. You’re created. You’re not God. You do not create yourself. Whatever you have or don’t have is because that’s what God has given you.

But what if you don’t like what God has given you? That’s very common. You might not like your body. You might not like your spouse. You might not like your standard of living. Some advice-givers might then say, “Well, fix it! Don’t just sit there. Go get yourself some joy.” And so our joy gets tied up with what we want to accomplish for ourselves. More money = joy. Hotter body = joy. Better amusements = joy. And insofar as we are able to attain such things we do experience some kind of positive emotion. It’s very agreeable to be on the way up. Wouldn’t it be nice to always be on the way up? However, on the other hand, when we don’t get these accomplishments, we are not happy at all.

So, again, that question: “How do I get some more joy?” isn’t a very good question for us creatures to ask. We are not gods, or, at least, we aren’t very good gods. We are creatures. We are much closer to being like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field than we are to being like God. How do the birds live? They do not sow or reap or gather into barns. Their heavenly Father feeds them. One day they find a meal one place; another day they find a meal some place else.

Or consider the grass. It grows up supple and green. It flowers and is beautiful. Then it dries up and withers. It has its day, then its day is over. No amount of wishing or planning is able to make the dried up and withered plant like the plant in bloom. For a plant to wish that it was something other than it actually is at that moment is ridiculous. The creature is created how the Creator wants. The creatures does not create itself. The creature is totally dependent upon what the Creator does.

But this is a little too harsh of a picture of God for us as Christians. We Christians do not have a Creator that operates as though by chance or fate. We do not just resign ourselves to spinning the wheel of fortune. Our God speaks to us. Our God even became one of us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, when he talks about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, says, “Aren’t you much more valuable than they are?”

Indeed, you are. You are much more valuable than birds or grass. The Son of God became man for you and died on the cross for you. His love for you is such that even just for you, even if just you were the only human being, he would still die for you. And for what purpose does Jesus do what he does? It is so that we may have life, and have it to the full. Sounds like joy to me.

Maybe another way of saying all this may be similar to what we heard last week. Last week, in Ephesians 2, Paul says: “Jesus himself is your peace.” I think we could say the same thing this week about joy. “Jesus himself is your joy.” And we can reverse that statement too: “You yourself are his joy.” I’m not making that up either. At the end of Ephesians chapter 5 Paul speaks of the relationship between Christ and us, his Church, as being like the relationship between husband and wife. Paul says that the two becoming one flesh is about Christ and his church. We are his joy. He is our joy. We are one. We are members of his body, one flesh. This is not something sad. This is joy.

And let us not forget that whatever peace or joy we have now in our believing is but the first taste of that which is to come. Now we only know by faith. We might have any number of pictures in our head of what awaits us. The actual experiencing of Jesus our peace and Jesus our joy will be beyond our understanding and imagining.

So, again, there’s that question: “How do I get some more joy?” Jesus himself is your joy. You have been given God’s own Son. He is even one flesh with you. This joy is good and stable. It is life-giving and never-ending.

But what if we were to say: “I don’t want that joy?” Contrary to what you might think, that is not at all uncommon. How else can unfaithfulness be explained? Why do people quit wanting to receive the Lord’s Supper? Why do people quit hearing Jesus’s Word? Why do people quit praying? Why do they quit thanking and praising? They don’t want to. They don’t want that joy. They want some other joy. That joy might be a hotter body. It might be success. It might be a better job. It might be amusements. It might be a stupor from one addiction or another to keep you comfortably numb.

There are high and prestigious ways to get yourself some more joy, and there are low, dirty, and looked down upon ways to get yourself some more joy. Pick your poison. No matter what path is taken, no matter how pleasurable it might be, no life lived poorly or lived wisely can get to true joy. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” No one is getting to true joy, no one is getting to the Father, except through Jesus. All the other gods, all the other potential sources for blessing yourself, can never give you the real stuff. Joy is being with the Father through Jesus.

Because our joy is Jesus we may be different than others. Having our joy waiting for us means that we can forego pleasure. We can be patient when it comes to joy. We do not need to be living our best life now. We do not need to be having all our joy all the time. We can be satisfied with our present life being less than perfect. We can be satisfied with our present life even being quite awful, or a waste, or whatever other bad things a person might say. Jesus himself is our joy. We are one with him. If we are one with him won’t be left behind.

How things usually go, though, is not nearly so bleak. Our kind and merciful God fills us up with many good things. He gives us many more good things than we realize. He certainly gives us many more good things than we deserve. All this he does only out of his fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in us.

But there is no guarantee—to say the least—that we will have unmitigated joy all the days of our life. In fact, there is pretty much a guarantee the other way. You won’t have unmitigated joy. How could you? You aren’t home yet. You are but a stranger here. Heaven is your home. So quit believing that you can make a heaven out of this earth if only you are clever enough or work hard enough. Every attempt to make a heaven out of this earth reeks of chemicals and artificiality. Nevertheless, many fall for the deception. They are led to believe that the pleasures of this life are good enough to sell your soul for them.

May you not be so fooled. Jesus himself is your joy. You yourself are his joy. So that you may be together forever is why Jesus suffered and died. This means, then, that you, too, can do some suffering and sacrificing. You can do what is good, not always having to maximize your own pleasure. Your joy is not in the fleeting pleasures or recognitions of this life. Your life is eternal life. Doing what is pleasing to Jesus is good enough justification for living the way you should live.

Then, when the time is right, when it is God’s will to bring you home, your joy will be full, and no one will take your joy away from you.

221211 Sermon on Jesus's encouragement to John the Baptist and to us (Advent 3) December 11, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

John the Baptist was a great man. You don’t have to take my word for it. Jesus said so. “None born of women has arisen who is greater,” Jesus said. What made John so great was his trust in the Word of God. John said God’s Word. He wasn’t ashamed of it. He didn’t change it. He didn’t improve upon it. He just said it and let God do whatever he wanted to do through it.

So, as we heard last week, John said to the Pharisees and Sadducees that they were a brood of vipers. He told the tax collectors that they shouldn’t extort money from people. He told that soldiers that they should be content with their wages. All of this, and there would have been a lot of other things John said, was so that people could know what was right and wrong. Then they could repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. It’s not possible for anybody to repent if they don’t know what’s right, and that what they have been doing isn’t right. So this was no small task and no small accomplishment that John told people what was right and wrong so that they could repent.

And to those who did repent, John was very kind and gentle. He pointed them to Christ, the one who was coming after him. He testified: “That one, Jesus, is the Christ. That one is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Trust in him.” This made John into the best and most needed of all guides. He turned people away from whatever foolish and sinful paths they were getting lost on in the dark. He told them, “That won’t work.” And then he pointed them to what does work. Jesus Christ himself is our peace. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep. He leads his sheep with his voice. Follow him and you’re going to be alright, come what may.

And let’s not kid ourselves about that “come what may.” Just think of poor John. He ended up in prison. Why? Not because he did something wrong, but because he did what was right. John told king Herod that it was adultery for him to divorce his wife and to marry his brother’s wife. “Shame on you,” he said. If only Herod and his adulterous wife would have owned that shame, but they refused. They would have been greatly helped if they had. Admittedly, it is never fun to say that you were wrong, but it’s awfully good for the soul. But instead of repenting they got even. They put John in prison. That was John’s “come what may.” Follow Jesus and you’re going to be alright, come what may.

But John’s “come what may” wasn’t over with either. Eventually these calloused and wicked people, who hated the light of God’s truth so badly, would conspire so that John’s head would be chopped off his shoulders and served on a silver platter. But Jesus says in another place: “Amen, I tell you: When all things are made new, … everyone who has left homes or brothers or sisters of father or mother or children or fields because of my Name will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”

John the Baptist continued to be alright because his Good Shepherd laid down his life to redeem him. John didn’t do badly by sticking with the Word of God that made evil people hate him. He did well. The Word of God guided him to that which is good and truthful and life-giving, just as he helped others by that same Word. God was faithful to John, whom he loved, even as he went through his “come what may.”

But although John the Baptist was an extraordinary man, he was still flesh and blood, the same as us. You heard in our reading how he sent messengers to Jesus when he was stuck in that foul and uncomfortable prison. He asked Jesus: “Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else?” I don’t think things were panning out the way that John the Baptist had envisioned. He needed to be encouraged.

And Jesus did encourage him. He said, “Go, report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Gospel is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.”

The reason why this message back to John would be encouraging to him is because Jesus is saying that he is the fulfillment of what was prophesied in the Old Testament. We heard one of those prophecies in our reading from Isaiah where it says, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged. The crippled will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.” These are signs and wonders that were unheard of in the Old Testament. We do not hear of the blind, the deaf, the lame, or the mute being healed in the Old Testament, but we hear of a great deal of that with Jesus. Jesus is the Christ who turns back the curses and ailments and brokenness that came with sin. Jesus’s miracles testify to the sorting out and life-giving power that the Christ has. Jesus’s message pointed to himself and his work. It is as though Jesus was saying to John: “Don’t lose hope. I’m still here and at work for you.”

It is a great thing to have our faith and our hope refreshed by realizing anew that Jesus is our Lord, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Savior. None of the Gospels report how John received this message to him, but, surely, that message was a light in that dark prison. Everything was going to be alright, come what may.

None of us, unfortunately, have been as faithful as John the Baptist. Therefore our own “come what may” might not be a noble, crying injustice like it was for John. He didn’t deserve to have what happened to him happen. If anything he should have been thanked for his faithful service instead of thrown in prison. Our bed, unfortunately, is much more likely to be the one that we have made for ourselves. We are much more likely to be in the dark prisons of our own making. But, as Paul says, “This is a faithful saying: Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” And so we just might dare to send our own message to Jesus today from our prison: Encourage us, Jesus, we who are in the dark. Let your light scatter the darkness, and illumine your church.

And Jesus’s words are applicable to us, just as they were to John the Baptist in at least a couple of ways. We might think that they do not apply because we do not see the exact same kinds of miracles that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. But what Jesus is doing among us is no less than what he did then. If anything what he does now is actually greater.

First of all, there is a spiritual healing that Jesus does now. He opens the eyes of the spiritually blind. He opens the ears of the spiritually deaf, and so on. This is no small feat. The world is full of people who do not see the evil, godless times that we are living in. You see and know that Jesus is coming. The world is full of people who are deaf to God’s Word. God’s Word is so good for leading us rightly and truly so that we make our way through this valley of sorrow to God in heaven. You have heard this Word. God has opened your ears.

But let’s not be content with just a spiritual understanding of these things. We are also at the beginning of the literal fulfillment of the more profound healing and restoration that Jesus talks about with John the Baptist. We have already begun to live our eternal life. That started when we were baptized. The working of God is upon us which will finally culminate in the resurrection from the dead and the perfect healing of every ill of body and soul.

In this way the working of Jesus upon us is not less than the miracles that the apostles witnessed, but much greater, by many orders of magnitude. Those people whom Jesus healed were made well in this fallen body of ours, but our fallen bodies are nothing compared to the bodies we will have when we are raised on the last day. Lazarus was raised from the dead after four days, but that, too, was only a restoration to this present life that is still so thoroughly contaminated with our own sin and the sins of others. The work that Jesus is doing and will complete is altogether more and better. If you want to catch just a tiny glimpse of what that will be like, you can read for yourself the Old Testament reading. Isaiah is prophesying what things will be like in the end times.

And so we have encouragement from Jesus to help us in our times of darkness. Our encouragement is Jesus. Jesus himself is your peace. He will see you through, come what may. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has chosen you and given you his grace. He has baptized you and will continue to work on you so that you may enter into the making of all things to be new.

Finally, note that Jesus said to John the Baptist: “Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.” I wonder if John thought of that message when things got still darker for him. I wonder if he thought of that when the door to his cell was opened and the executioner came in. “Blessed is the one who does not take offense at me.” That is another way of saying, “Not my will, but your will be done.”

We can certainly learn from that too. The way God does things is not always the way that we would have chosen if it were up to us. But God has his reasons. What Jesus says to Paul can also be applied to us. Paul tells us of how he bitterly complained to God about a thorn in his side, a messenger from Satan. Jesus said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness.” It’s like how the old song goes: “I am weak, but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me.”

So stay the path. Remember that God’s Word is what is right and true. Don’t be led astray by bad guides and bad advice. Let the commandments be your guide for how you should live. And remember that Jesus is your Lord. Cast all your cares upon him, because he cares for you. Live from one moment to the next knowing that God is in control of your life. You know the Good Shepherd, and, more importantly, the Good Shepherd knows you. You know his voice. Follow him, and, come what may, you’ll be alright. In fact, you’ll be more than alright.

221207 Advent 2 Midweek Sermon on Peace, December 7, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Today we are taking up the topic of peace. It is kind of hard to grasp perfectly the meaning of this word. The dictionary says that peace is the absence of disturbance. So a synonym would be “tranquility.” Another meaning that the dictionary gives is that peace is the opposite of war or conflict. I don’t have a problem with these definitions—they are getting at the meaning, but I think they are missing quite a lot.

We have drugs, for example, that are called tranquilizers. They make people calm. The make people sleepy. They take away anxiety. But those who have been tranquilized aren’t living life to the full. The fullness of life is, in fact, too much for them, so life has purposely been turned down. If tranquilizers were peace, all that we would need to achieve peace would be pills and injections.

The absence of war, also, isn’t a good enough definition. Our country has engaged in many wars for the last 75 years, followed by so-called peace, but that has not brought about too much goodness either here at home or those lands that we have invaded and bombed.

I doubt that any dictionary definition of peace is going to be good enough, because peace is a very broad thing, touching on the stuff of life itself. Therefore it is a very religious thing. Peace is only going to come together with God, and without God no peace is ever going to be truly complete. This is not to say that we haven’t tried that very thing—to achieve peace without God.

Think about where people’s minds have been for at least the length of my lifetime, probably longer. We’ve heard, have we not, that “it’s the economy, stupid.” Politicians are to blame for the economy not working right. If we elect somebody else the economy’s going to change. Then we’ll all be at peace.

Or maybe it’s not the economy. Maybe it’s fixing people’s backwards morals, or, on the other hand, fixing people’s progressive morals.

Think of how many billions of dollars get spent every election cycle—ostensibly for peace, but really for people to scream at each other. And then, when everything is said and done, the same kinds of people to get elected over and over again regardless of party. Lately I think a lot of people have started to think that this hasn’t been working.

Yes, it hasn’t been working. It can’t work. Peace cannot be had without God. Every attempt to manufacture peace without him is doomed to fail. The Bible bears this out with countless examples of failing to achieve peace: The fig leaves didn’t take away the shame. The bushes didn’t keep you hidden from God. The wandering murderer, Cain, and his descendants built their cities and discovered their inventions. That didn’t give them peace.  That’s not to say it didn’t given them anything. These things and all our other endeavors give us something of a high. Tax rebates and stimulus checks give us something. Political victories give us something. But not peace.

This is even true of that which can bring us the closest to peace, but cannot quite get there. This is even true of the endeavor to keep God’s Laws and regulations. God’s laws and regulations are good ideas—really good! I can guarantee anyone and everyone who would keep God’s Ten Commandments that they will always, without fail, be better blessed by keeping them. They will always, without fail, be worse off by breaking them. This is always true 100% of the time. There should be no doubt about that whatsoever.

In fact, before I tell you how this cannot bring peace, let me just mention that God’s commands are 100% despised by the worldly wise. Everybody complains about our problems, everybody offers his or her solutions to the problems—which usually involve somebody else having to change or suffer, and never one’s self. And yet nobody believes that our misery is because we break God’s commandments. Nobody believes that we are suffering so intensely because we are not honoring our fathers and our mothers and other authorities. Nobody believes that we should love our enemy or that we should not love money. Nobody believes that we need to be faithful to the one man or one woman that God has given. And we could go on with the Ten Commandments. Neither Democrats nor Republicans nor anybody else in the upper echelons of power talk about these things because they would be laughed at as being beyond foolish, beyond impractical.

But even if we dared to strive to keep God’s Ten Commandments despite all the warnings about how outdated and impractical they are, we still couldn’t arrive at peace thereby. We know this from history too. Occasionally, very occasionally, God blessed his Israelites so that they kept his Laws and Commandments pretty well. Even then, however, that was not yet peace.

So what is peace? If none of these efforts bring peace, if God’s own commandments can’t bring peace, then where is peace to be found? The answer is a pretty profound statement in our second reading tonight that is easy to pass over. Paul says, “Jesus himself is our peace.” There you have the true answer. All efforts towards peace apart from God are always fake and always leave us craving the next high. Even keeping the Law and the Ten Commandments can’t do it. Jesus, though, is different. Jesus himself is our peace.

How is Jesus our peace? Paul makes it clear that this was through Jesus’s death. He says: “The Law of commandments and regulations were abolished in his flesh.” We are reconciled to God and to one another through the cross. Hostility was put to death on the cross.

You know how we are reconciled to God through the cross. I often speak to you about that. Tonight I’d like to highlight something that doesn’t get talked about as much: Jesus’s cross is also the way that we as people may have peace with one another. Jesus’s cross makes peace with God; Jesus cross also makes peace with one another. The rationale for how that happens goes like this: When Christ died, all died. Since all died, all were guilty. Since all were guilty, we are all in the same boat.

In our reading it is clear that what Paul has in mind is the Jews and Gentiles. It is highly offensive for Jews to be tossed into the same bucket as Gentiles. Jews, at least somewhat, knew God. Jews, at least somewhat, kept the Law. They tried, at least, not to do the obviously horrible, blatant sins of the Gentiles.

They were different, you see, so they wanted to build a wall between themselves and those who were not like them. Walling themselves off gave them some peace. They got something of a high when they thought about how they were better.

Against this we must say, however, that “Jesus himself is our peace.” History shows that every walled off compound deceives itself with hypocrisy and imaginary superiority. No organization, no matter how high they build the walls, can truly attain peace. Not even the God-given laws and regulations of the Old Testament could give peace.

There’s only one option for peace: Jesus himself is our peace. We are all tossed into the same bucket by Jesus’s death. Jesus died for all, therefore all have sinned. Jesus rose from the dead, therefore we all have the same standing, the same justification before God, which is Jesus’s righteousness.

So it is quite silly for us to make distinctions between one another. We’ve all been tossed into the same bucket. We are all dead and lost in our trespasses and sins—that’s the bucket we’re in. But we have been made alive together in Christ. All people are brought together in perfect unity both by the death as well as the resurrection of Christ. We are all brought together in who we are. Jesus’s death shows that we are all sinners. Jesus’s resurrection shows us that we are all forgiven sinners. Our condemnation is all the same, carried out on the cross. Our hope is all the same—that hope being: because Jesus lives, we will live also.

It is so common for people to believe that they are superior to others. They have the right job, the right food, the right skin color, the right education program, the right politics, what have you. But then there are others who also believe that they have the right this, the right that, and the right everything. So, then, what do you have to do? You have to fight to see who’s right. Maybe you even need to do a little ethnic cleansing or some cancel culture to make sure that your team stays on top.

What you don’t often find is people racing for the bottom. You don’t find people arguing for why they should be seen as worse than others. Even among us Christians who should know better it is almost as though Christ didn’t need to die for everything about us. It’s as though there are some good parts of us that didn’t need Jesus’s blood, that didn’t need the cross.

However, in fact, thoughts and feelings like that are worse sins than murder or adultery. They are sins against grace. They are sins against the Holy Spirit, the preacher of grace. If you don’t want to take your place together with the other sinners in that one and common bucket of sinners, then you don’t want to have anything to do with Jesus. Jesus, then, is not your peace. Your own way of life evidently is your peace. You’ll do it your way. Time will tell, of course, whether such a hypocritical, selective, and shoddy peace will manage to hold up.

As for you, if you will be sensible, “Jesus himself is your peace.” Jesus came to preach peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. Through Jesus we all have the same access to the same Father by the same Holy Spirit. Your peace is with God. He has made peace. And so you may be at peace with others, because we are made of the same stuff. We are all alike, and we are all redeemed the same way in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

221204 Sermon on a broader understanding of the End Times (Advent 2) December 4, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Today I’d like to speak with you about broadening our understanding of the end times. When the end times come to mind we often think of Christ’s second coming to judge the living and the dead. We think of heaven and hell, the life everlasting and the death everlasting. These are, indeed, end times things, which haven’t happened yet. What I’d like to do today is to pan out a little bit. Instead of focusing in only on things that are going to happen in the future, I’d like you to see how we have been living in the end times for quite some time already. In fact, with Christ’s first coming the end times were already ushered in. In order to show how this is so, I’ll be referring to all three of our readings this morning.

Our first reading from Isaiah is a prophecy about the coming Christ and the coming end times. The prophet Isaiah lived 700 years before Jesus was born. He foresaw how the kings descended from Jesse, King David’s father, would be cut down. They’d become a stump. But from the royal line of David a king would be born. A branch growing out of a stump is nothing much to look at, and so it was with Jesus. He had no attractiveness and no majesty. He was born in a stable. Most people laughed at the idea him being king.

But, as Isaiah says in our reading, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon Jesus. This happened at the Jordan River, when Jesus was baptized by John. This is when Jesus was anointed. He wasn’t just anointed by oil or by water, but by the Holy Spirit. Isaiah describes what Jesus the anointed, Jesus the Christ would be like. He would be wise. He would judge well. He would be righteous and faithful.

Isaiah also says some strange thing about incompatible animals being compatible with one another: wolves and sheep, bears and cattle. We’ll come back to that later. That is the end times work that Jesus brings about. But let’s move on to what our Gospel reading talks about.

Our Gospel reading describes John the Baptist’s preaching. He says, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!” That is a very end times kind of message. John was the forerunner, the one who prepared the way for the coming of the Lord. When John speaks about the Christ in our reading, he talks about judgement, about heaven and hell: “His winnowing shovel is in his hand.”

A winnowing shovel was the way that they used to thresh grain. When the grain was harvested it was with the husks and the thrash. To separate the kernels, which they wanted, from the husks, which they did not want, they’d toss the mixture into the air on a breezy day. The wind would blow the lighter husks away. The denser, heavier grain would fall to the earth much more quickly. Then they’d gather the grain.

John says: “Christ’s winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Here you see that the work of the Christ is to thresh. The good is to be separated from the bad. That is why we must repent, because the kingdom of God is near. Toward that end, as John the Baptist says, Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

There are a lot of things I might want to say about this, but I’ll limit myself to just a couple points. Notice how the Holy Spirit is given to those who are baptized, just as the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus according to Isaiah’s prophecy. The Christ has the Holy Spirit. Those whom Christ baptizes are given the Holy Spirit. It is so very easy for us to despise baptism and think that it is nothing. It’s a splash of water. It’s a photo op with the new baby. What John the Baptist says is that it is real and effective like fire, giving the Holy Spirit.

The other thing I’d like to point out is how having the Holy Spirit is of the end times, and the Holy Spirit is how it all comes about. How do we repent? It is only by the Holy Spirit if it is a genuine repentance and not a fake one. The Holy Spirit gives wisdom so that we know the times, so we know that the kingdom of God is near. The Holy Spirit alone makes anyone believe in Jesus as the Christ. The Holy Spirit fights against and will ultimately conquer evil spirits, including our own evil spirit, so that we are not like the chaff that is burned up in the unquenchable fire. The Christ has the Holy Spirit and the Christ gives the Holy Spirit to those he baptizes.

Finally I’d like to say something about the end times our epistle reading. Paul is marveling over the Gentiles who have been converted by the Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus as the Christ. The first Christians were all Jews, blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even at Pentecost, when 3,000 repented and were baptized—those, also, were Jews. It wasn’t until a little time later that uncircumcised Gentiles received the Holy Spirit so that they could say, “Jesus Christ is my Lord.” Gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit blew those first Christians away. It took some getting used to. But it was a fulfillment of what was prophesied beforehand in the Old Testament.

Throughout the Old Testament it is said that during the end times the Gentiles will come streaming into Zion, the mountain of the Lord, the Temple. At the time those prophecies were made, Gentiles would have had nothing to do with the true God. Gentiles worship devils and money. Gentiles do not know the words and promises of God. According to God’s own laws in the Old Testament, only those who are circumcised and follow the Laws of Moses should be allowed near the Temple, and, even then, only the descendants of Aaron should be allowed to enter it.

But at the death of Jesus the curtain in the temple was torn in two. The dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles was broken down. Jesus is the fulfillment and culmination of the Old Testament. His body is temple, the dwelling place of God. His body was put to death, and three days later it was rebuilt. All who believe and are baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. The Holy Spirit is poured out on all the nations so that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. Gentiles believing in Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecies that during the end times the Gentiles will come streaming to the temple. Gentiles who believe in Jesus are streaming into the dwelling place of God.

So in our epistle reading Paul quotes one Old Testament passage after another that talk about this end times event: “For this reason I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your Name.” And again it says: “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” And again: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples give him praise.” And again Isaiah says: “There will be a Root of Jesse, and he is the one who will rise up to rule the Gentiles; on him the Gentiles will place their hope.” You can tell that Paul is in something of ecstasy. It is thrilling to him to see the end times playing out before his very eyes.

Paul could see this clearly with the eyes of faith, however, this would not have been recognized with the eyes of reason. Believing in a crucified man who supposedly is risen from the dead is not very impressive to our reason. The Gentiles who were being converted were not the big shots. Slaves, widows, soldiers, poor people were the Gentiles whom Paul knew. That’s not all that impressive. Plus they weren’t even making impressive pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem. Instead they confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord. They were baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Such things have never been impressive to the eyes of reason, and therefore get despised all the way down to today.

But this in itself is also fulfillment of prophecy. Mary says in the Magnificat: “The Lord has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he has sent empty away.”

Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. In fact, it is written in the Old Testament: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.’” God’s continual working among us in his Word and sacraments is an article of faith. It will by no means be seen by everyone. That, however, does not mean that it is real.

So as you look at our readings today, I’d like you to see how they are about the end times. A part of the end times has to do with things that will happen in the future—judgement, heaven and hell. The larger part of the end times, however, has already happened and is ongoing.

The end times were begun with the woman’s seed, Mary’s seed, coming to life in her womb, even though she was a virgin. The end times were underway when the branch from the stump of Jesse was anointed with the Holy Spirit in the Jordan River. The end times were coming to a fulfillment when Jesus was judged and condemned on the cross. End times kinds of things happened on Good Friday. Darkness, earthquakes, rocks were split, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom. And what can be more end times-y than the rising of the dead? He is risen. He is risen indeed. Jesus is the firstfruits of those who sleep. He is the firstborn of the dead. Jesus then ascended into heaven and now reigns and rules during these end times from the right hand of God the Father by his Word and sacraments.

We are now living in the millennium that is mentioned in Revelation—the time of Jesus’s ruling. That began at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all people—man and woman, child and elderly. Jesus is reigning by the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus is now baptizing, giving his Holy Spirit, causing people to be born again so that they can see the kingdom of God. Jesus is now giving his end times banquet at his Supper, giving his own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. All of this is so that we may be saved. Saved from whom? Saved from ourselves—our loveless, selfish ways, so that we may become like God. By God’s power we are being renewed in love, which will be brought to completion in the life to come.

That life to come will be strange because we will be completely changed. Here I’d like to go back to what Isaiah says in our Old Testament reading. Incompatible creatures are made to be compatible: “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together, and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze together, and their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the cattle. The nursing child will play near the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand into a viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

“They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.” That is the hope laid up for us. The Holy Spirit works life and love through Christ. Hurt and destruction are so common. The number of people who have been abused, sexually assaulted, bullied, and so on is unbelievable. Hardly anybody can make it through unscathed. Tragically, flesh and blood can’t learn from this. So many of those who were abused, then go on to be abusers themselves. Like begets like.

Not so in the end times, however. The bear, the lion, the cobra—they should be a certain way, but their natures are changed by the knowledge of the Lord. That which used to hurt, hurts no more. There is hope, then, even for us who have sinned, who have hurt, who have destroyed. Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.

So the end times are not just about the dramatic, obvious signs and wonders in the future. We are already living in the end times. Jesus already is risen from the dead. Jesus already is reigning and ruling at the right hand of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is being poured out, and the Gentiles are streaming into Zion. People are being baptized, and receiving the Lord’s Supper. People are believing that Jesus is their Lord, and are being changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. These current things are the main course—so to speak—of the end times. Dessert, you might say, is that which is to come.

221130 Midweek Advent Sermon on Hope (Advent 1 Midweek) November 30, 2022

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

When I give Christian instruction with the Catechism I warn against using the phrase: “I swear to God.” Very often this phrase becomes a kind of verbal tick. It is similar to how people can fall into the habit of saying, “Oh my God,” or “Jesus,” when they are not in fact calling upon God for help in their trouble. They are taking God’s Name in vain, that is, to no purpose. It is a misuse of God’s Name when we say his Name and don’t really mean it. God says in his Ten Commandments that he will not hold the person guiltless who misuses his Name. So if you say, “I swear to God,” you better be serious, saying something serious and very solemn, such as you would if you were giving testimony in court after having sworn to God. That is the purpose for swearing. It is to say something very serious and truthful.

So what would it mean for God to swear? That is what you heard God do in our first reading from Genesis. We say, “I swear to God,” because by doing so we are calling upon someone much greater than ourselves. There is nothing greater than God, and so God swore by himself. Our reading says, “I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will bless you greatly,” and so on. Swearing means we are to be very serious and very truthful. God already is always and only truthful. Then he swears on top of that. Then he makes his promises to Abraham.

What would be the right way for Abraham to receive what God had said? Abraham should believe it. And, in fact, Abraham did believe God, and this was credited to him as righteousness. When God swears, you should believe it. God wanted Abraham to believe his promises. That is why God swore by himself. God wanted Abraham to have complete and unshakeable hope that God would do what he has promised. And, of course, since he is God, God can and will keep his promises.

Likewise, you should believe what God has said to you. God has baptized you into his own holy Name. You were baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Recall what Jesus and the Scriptures say about that baptism. It is a new birth, whereby you can see the Kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot see the Kingdom of God. Only those born by the water and the Holy Spirit may see the Kingdom of God. Your baptism is a union with Christ. By baptism you are united with Christ in a death like his, so you will be united with him in a resurrection like his. By being united with Christ through baptism you receive everything that is his—you receive Jesus’s victory over the devil and death, Jesus’s righteousness, Jesus’s eternal life. All of this and more—in fact, everything—has been communicated to you in baptism. You know God did this to you. God joined his promise to water, so that it was not just words. It was an event. You know it happened. You need not have any doubt.

I could speak more about baptism. I could speak very similarly about the other sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. What tremendous promises are given through the body and the blood! I could speak of promises and declarations of Jesus and the Apostles that do not have the outward, physical element of a sacrament.

So you should not foolishly think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be like Abraham? Wouldn’t it be nice for God to swear by himself, and then promise to bless me?” That’s foolish because what has been communicated to you isn’t in any way inferior to what was communicated to Abraham. If anything, you have promises and signs that are more profound. What can be more profound than being joined together with God’s Son or eating his body and drinking his blood? God has made his promises to you. He has an inheritance for you that is infinitely greater than the land of Canaan, which he promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God solemnly and truthfully wants you to believe in this hope.

May you be like Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. May you be like Abraham, but it is harder than it sounds. Believing sounds like it should be easy, but, in fact, it must be worked by the Holy Spirit if it is to be genuine. For some reason we don’t tend to think, first and foremost, of God’s promises to us when we think about being Christians. When, for example, was the last time that you thought about all those riches of baptism that I laid out for you a minute ago? When was the last time you thought about you personally being united to Christ, united in his death, united in his resurrection, everything that Christ has is yours? Has it been a while?

What, perhaps, have you been thinking about instead? Maybe you’ve been saying to yourself or to God, “Well, you see, I’ve been working on this self-improvement project, and that self-improvement project. I’ve almost licked this bad habit, and that bad habit is next on my list.” So on and so forth. By the way we talk to ourselves about ourselves, about our Christianity, you might be led to believe that our hope is not in what God can do for us, but in what we can do for ourselves—as though, first and foremost, we must be trying harder. That is ridiculous, however, if you’ll only think about it.

Imagine if Abraham had done that. God swears by himself, solemnly and truthfully: “I am going to bless you. I’m going to bless you like crazy.” And then Abraham responds by saying, “Well, you see, I’ve got this little project I’m working on for myself. I’ve made myself a list and every morning…” If Abraham were to respond to God in such a way, we’d have to say, “Uh, Abraham, I don’t think you’re paying attention. Didn’t you just hear what God said? Why are you talking about yourself?”

Abraham’s strength and our strength is not and never will be in ourselves. The strength of God’s people is and always will be in the promises of God. God says, “I have done this and that for you. I am doing this and that for you. I will do this and that for you.” God’s actions—past, present, and future—are our hope as Christians. God’s actions, promised to us in his Word, are what will make good things happen for us, and not our own actions.

Christians, first and foremost, are receivers instead of doers. You see this in Abraham. God chose Abraham. God made his promises to Abraham. It was all up to God. So it is also with you. God chose you. God has made his promises to you. Why? Because God loves the unloveable. God loves you. God loves his Son, Jesus, who has joined himself to us sinners. God, then, accordingly, speaks lovingly to us.

You are receivers of God’s love through his promises. I’d like to remind you to enjoy that. God’s enemies, including our own sinful flesh, do not want us to meditate on such things. God’s enemies want us to think about almost anything else besides God’s solemn and truthful promises of grace and salvation. God’s enemies would rather us think about our self-improvement projects, if they can’t get us to think of anything nastier—anything that will keep us from meditating on God’s message of love to us sinners. I’m quite sure that God’s enemies are to blame for why we don’t think often on God’s promises. But we should. And it’s good.

We will meditate on mere human words of love or human promises. I’m sure there’s been times when someone you respect or love has said something nice to you. We like to mull those words over in our mind. We look at them from this angle, and from that angle. Or they’ve promised you something. With human promises, we don’t even know if they can be delivered, and yet we mull them over. How will it be? What will it look like?

That is what you should do with God’s promises to you. Not only can you do this, it is, in fact, your strength as a Christian. The more you think about God’s promises to you, the better off you’ll be. The hope you have in God’s promises is like an anchor for the soul, as our reading from Hebrews says. That anchor of hope holds firm and sure in God, who does not lie. The anchor holds no matter how hard the cold winds blow. This is what we see in Abraham and in all the examples of faith in the Bible. Their hope held firm in God’s promise of grace to them. God was for them, they believed. Many and various things happened to them—even horrifying and tragic things occasionally happened to them—but God remains faithful.

So do not imagine that it is indulgent or a waste of time to mull over and savor the goodness of God’s promises to you. The more you think about what God has done to you and will do to you in baptism, the better. The more you believe that the body and the blood of Christ is effectual, beneficial, and salutary, the better. That is your strength. Hope is your strength. God will not disappoint you when you hope in him.