190203 Sermon on Matthew 8:23-27 (Epiphany 4) February 4, 2019

190203 Sermon on Matthew 8:23-27 (Epiphany 4) February 4, 2019.mp3

Our Gospel reading this morning is one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible.  Put yourself into the shoes of these disciples.  They start making their way across the sea, which presumably is not too big of a deal for them.  We know that several of them were commercial fishermen before they left their nets to follow Jesus, so they knew what they were doing.  Everything was going fine when suddenly a great wind arose and enormous waves came with it.  The Sea of Galilee is a very large body of water and so it is capable of producing enormous waves.  The boats that the disciples were in were made accordingly for that.  These people didn’t go to the trouble and expense of making a boat only to have it sink.  Their boats were large—made for the conditions a person might find on such body of water.  And yet, the waves were such that they began to go over the side and started to slosh around the bottom of the boat.

This is a very bad thing to have happen at such a time as this.  The more water that goes into the boat, the heaver it becomes, the lower it goes in the water, and the easier it is for more waves to start to pour in.  And that seems to be exactly what was happening.  Water was coming over the side and the boat was being filled up.  There’s so much water coming in that there’s no use in trying to bail it out.  In only a moment or two the boat would sink below the water and the men would be forced to swim.  But there would be no way that they could stay afloat.  Waves that are high enough to sink one of those boats are surely great enough to swallow up a man.  So when these men say to Jesus, “Save us, Lord, for we are perishing,” they say this because they really are dying.  In a matter of minutes they will be dead.  And so you can imagine that they might have been a lot of screaming and yelling, “We are dying!”

We are confronted with two strange facts at this point that we will get back to when we finish our story.  First, Jesus was sleeping through all this being tossed about by the waves and all the rest of the commotion.  I guess that goes to show that he truly was tired.  Second, it is also strange what he says upon being awakened.  Before he even got out of his bed he said to these frantic men, “Why are you afraid, Oh you of little faith!”  If a person shouldn’t be afraid when their boat is sinking in a terrible wind storm in the middle of the sea, then when should a person be afraid?

But Jesus has mercy on the men.  He gets up and rebukes the wind and the sea.  That means that Jesus tells the wind and the sea to knock it off.  Amazingly, the wind and the sea listen to him.  Immediately the wind stops.  Once a wind stops it doesn’t take long at all for waves to stop too.  The apostles say that a great calm came over the whole place.  Maybe you folks who have gone to the lakes in the north woods know what this is like.  When there is no wind at all the lake can become like a sheet of glass and it is indeed very calm.  The change of circumstances had to have been almost overwhelming.  Seconds before they were all convinced that they were dying and they couldn’t keep their footing as the sinking boat was being tossed by the waves.  Now they are sitting still and nothing is moving.  They have gone from believing that they are going to die, to an absolute calm.  The apostles say that the men “marveled.”  That means they just couldn’t believe what had happened.  “Who is this Man whom even the wind and the waves obey?”  By this sign Jesus manifested his glory and the disciples believed in him all the more.

Now let’s go back to what we find strange about this story: Jesus’s lack of concern.  Worry is what can keep a person up at night so that they cannot sleep.  Jesus is not worried.  He is sleeping like a baby.  And it wasn’t as though he had been living a boring life with nothing to think about.  Just before the disciples stepped into the boat Jesus had healed countless people of their infirmities and diseases.  He had wrestled and cast out demons who were possessing people, and he was silencing them when they wanted to speak.  Demons are not harmless playthings, but powerful and dangerous and only fools believe that there is nothing to fear about them.  The reason why Jesus said they were getting into the boat and going to the other side is because he was tired and needed to get away from the crowds who were following him.

And so with all this activity that Jesus had been doing and which had made him so tired, you are witnessing how the oldest promise God made to us human beings was being fulfilled by Jesus.  He is the Christ.  His healings were the signs of the removal of the curses that came with sin.  He was driving back diseases and death.  He was removing the evil spirits to make room for the Holy Spirit.  Even if he were not worried with all the dangers that went along with the work that he was doing, then you would still think that the excitement of what was taking place might make for light sleep.  But Jesus sleeps deeply.  He is at peace even though the whole world has been thrown into turmoil around him.

And this is not something that is just meant for Jesus—that this is a personal attribute or option that he has chosen for himself, but his disciples can act however they want.  The disciples, like Jesus their teacher, should be unconcerned, not worried.  That is why Jesus rebukes them when they awaken him saying, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” 

Being unconcerned seems at first glance to be totally impossible.  In a matter of moments they will sink into the sea and be drowned and dead.  How could a person be unconcerned and not worried?  The answer is: only by having faith in God’s promises.  What does God promise?  He promises a glory about to revealed in us that the whole creation has been groaning for and waiting for—the revealing of the children of God (those united with Christ) in the resurrection from the dead.  The resurrection from the dead, and the final defeat of sin, death, and the devil, and life together with our Creator who has loved us is the ultimate goal of all of God’s people at all times.

Think of King David’s psalm, Psalm 23—a favorite for many Christians and understandably so.  He says: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters, he restores my soul.”  But what is the climax, the capstone of this psalm?  It comes at the end when he says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  That means, “I’m going to have goodness and mercy while I live here on this earth, but the thing that I’m really waiting for is to be in the Lord’s house forever.  What I’m really waiting for is heaven, when I will never depart from the Lord’s presence.

Or take another much loved psalm, Psalm 27.  Again the opening might be familiar to us: “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom then shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life—of whom then shall I be afraid?”  Later in the psalm David makes a demand of the Lord.  What is it?  Is it money?  Is it a long, healthy life?  No, this is what he says, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require : even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple.”  The one thing he will require of this Lord God is that he may dwell in the house of the Lord, to see beautiful glory of the Lord, to be in his temple.  This, again, is speaking ultimately of heaven.  By the redemption and reconciliation that are in Jesus Christ and by our union with him in baptism, we are enabled by the forgiveness of sins and Christ’s righteousness to be together with our holy, almighty God, and this is the ultimate goal of all Christians.  If it isn’t a person’s goal, then they are an unbeliever.  They do not believe God’s promise.  Inevitably their hope and their fulfillment must be in something else.

But what does this have to do with a sinking ship and what seems to be a very quickly approaching death for these disciples, and Jesus’s rebuke of them for having very little faith?  God’s ultimate promise of communion with him in heaven makes what happens in this life of only secondary importance.  St. Paul in our epistle reading says, “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy of being compared to the quickly approaching glory that is about to be revealed in us,” that is, in our resurrection from the dead.  To be sure, the disciples were suffering during this storm, but it is in fact nothing compared to what God has prepared for those who love him.

And so we need not think of this life as having the ultimate importance, because it doesn’t have the ultimate importance.  What is really important to you and to your life is not that it should be filled with this and that wonderful experience or happy memory.  What is important for you is the Creator who has made you—the one to whom all people are accountable (whether they believe that or not).  And in order that you should be pardoned for your sins and be given the gift of righteousness he has sent his Son as the Redeemer who suffered the punishment that is due for your sins in your place.  And to show you that you shall not die, but live, Jesus was raised from the dead.  And in order that you may have faith and look forward to the ultimate promise of communion with God he sent the Holy Spirit to you by the preaching of his Word and by the administration of his Sacraments so that you can be set free from the fear of death and embrace the God who has loved you so. 

Your God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is what is really important to you and to your life.  Everything else is secondary.  Whether we live out the rest of this hour or the rest of this day or the rest of this month or the rest of this year, or whether we have many, many years ahead of us—none of this is that important.  Faith in God’s promise does that to us.  It makes all that other stuff secondary.

And so as we live by faith we take life as it comes without attaching ultimate importance to it.  Sometimes there is smooth sailing.  Sometimes there is wind and waves.  Sometimes you are being led to green pastures and still waters.  Sometimes you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.  Regardless of the circumstances you are given the privilege to fear no evil, for Jesus the Good Shepherd is with you.  His rod and his staff comfort you. 

And when that time shall come where you are laid down in death, you can be sure that you shall rise again to new life, and even to your true life, for that life will no longer be oppressed by sin as we are in this life.  There is always hope in Jesus.  Even if that boat would have sunk on the Sea of Galilee and the disciples would have been cast adrift, Jesus could surely raise that boat again and gather the disciples to safety.  After all, that would be something less than what Jesus actually did when he rebuked and silenced the wind and the waves whom he was mad at for frightening his disciples.  There’s no telling what he might do and so there is always hope in Jesus.  “Do not be afraid, Oh you of little faith.”

Jesus says to his disciples in another place: “I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have troubles.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

Apply these words to what you have learned about Jesus today from our Gospel reading.  He has told you about what happened with these disciples so that you may have peace in him.  You can never go wrong when you are trusting in Jesus.  In the world you will have troubles.  The wind may blow, the waves may become strong.  The water might be coming over the side of the boat so that you are sinking.  But Jesus says to you, “Take heart.  I have overcome the world.”  That means, “Do not despair.  I will set all things right.”  He might not set things right in the way that you might expect him to or perhaps want him to, but he overcomes in his own way and at his own time.  When the time is right he will rebuke whatever enemies you might have and put them to shame, overcoming them.  Finally he will even rebuke and bring to nothing our final enemy, death, with the resurrection from the dead.  He has overcome the world—he has overcome all obstacles—not for himself (because he had no need of that).  He did it and does it all for you.

190127 Sermon on Matthew 8:1-13 (Epiphany 3) January 27, 2019

190127 Sermon on Matthew 8:1-13 (Epiphany 3) January 27, 2019

I’d like to focus on the second part of our Gospel reading today that has to do with the Roman centurion.  It is worth our time and consideration when we hear Jesus say that he has not found faith in all of Israel like he sees in the centurion.  There is nothing so important as to have faith, and so it makes sense that we should learn what we can from this person whom Jesus holds out as an example. 

There are two outstanding qualities to this man’s faith that we can see in our text.  First, this man is humble.  Second, he trusts that Jesus is able to do anything and will help him.

We can see that this man is humble by the way that he responds to Jesus’s willingness to come to his house to heal the man’s servant.  The centurion says, “I’m not worthy that you should come into my house.”  Why isn’t the man worthy for Jesus to come and help him?  The short answer is that he is a sinner.  But we are kind of used to that answer since we have received the training that we have in God’s Word.  We know that we are poor miserable sinners.  This can become kind of like a textbook answer where we know what we are supposed to say.  It is something different when we speak by knowledge of our own experience and say, “I am a sinner.  I am not worthy that Jesus should come under my roof.”

Luther liked to talk about painted sins and real sins.  Having painted sins is the way of talking about sin where we say, “Oops, I messed up, but nobody’s perfect.”  This is when we excuse away our sinfulness, while acknowledging that we are still technically sinners.  Having real sins is when we realize that we have offended God by what we have done and that he has every right to be angry with us and punish us.  Real sins are stinky and revolting.  They are the kind of things that you don’t want anybody else to know about because you would be so embarrassed if they knew.  But God knows all that we have done.  Again, here we can have this as a textbook answer: “We know that God knows everything, ergo, he must also know all the sins that I’ve committed.”  Or we can know this by experience: “I know that I have offended God and his angels by my actions.  How can I possibly not be punished in this life by all kinds of tragedy and misery and go to hell in the next?”

When the centurion says that he is not worthy for Jesus to come under his roof he is not rattling off some textbook answer to Jesus.  He certainly isn’t saying this as though these were “some magic words” whereby he can manipulate Jesus into doing nice things for him.  The sin is heavy and hot and stinky.  He says that he isn’t worthy of Jesus coming under his roof because he knows it to be the truth.  He knows that that roof just might come down upon his own head as punishment for the sins that he has committed.  This man’s humility is the first element of the greatness of his faith.

The second element to the greatness of his faith is his boundless trust that Jesus can do whatever he wants to do, and he dares to believe that Jesus will do good to him.  “Just say the word,” he says, “and I know that you can heal my servant.”  He even preaches a little to Jesus.  He tells Jesus that he knows what it’s like.  As a commander in the army he can tell one soldier to go here or there and he goes, or he tells someone to do this or that and he does it.  The word and the command are enough.  And he is a man who is under authority, and yet he can do that kind of thing.  And so of course it is possible that the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given—namely, Jesus; of course it is possible that Jesus can just say the word and it will come to pass by his almighty divine power.

In this second part of the centurion’s great faith we can also hear these words in kind of a wooden, textbook sort of way.  Jesus is God.  God is omnipotent.  Ergo, Jesus can do whatever he wants, even healing by just speaking a word.  Or his grace and his kindness might be turned into theological principle that has to take place, because that’s just the way it is.  The textbook says so.

But this centurion believes in a real Savior, not a painted Savior.  He is not engaging in ideas.  He is speaking, praying, to a person.  And the remarkable thing about it is that he is so sure that Jesus will help him.  He is not praying with a double mind, saying to himself: “Who knows whether Jesus will do what I ask him to do or not.”  No, he says (as you heard him): “Speak the word Jesus and it will be done!”  He is full of joy and confidence.  The sun is brightly shining.  There is not a doubt in his mind.  This is the second part of the greatness of this man’s faith.  He believes that Jesus can do anything, and that he will be kind and merciful to him.

When you put these two parts of the man’s faith together you are left with a picture of his soul that necessarily must remain mysterious.  On the one hand his sins press hard upon him and he knows of God’s hatred for all his iniquities.  On the other hand he has joy and confidence in the mercy of his Savior Jesus.  Those are two very different frames of mind that exist together in one soul.  Here we are treading on holy ground and we dare not try to make it acceptable to our reason, to know exactly what is going on.  Faith is a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit in those who hear of God’s judgement and his mercy.  That’s why it is holy ground, and we dare not make it common, or explainable using psychology or whatever other means.  The Christian at the same time fears, loves, and trusts in God.

Something that we can say about these two parts of faith, though—because the Scriptures teach us about it—is that the two parts are not equal.  They are far from being equal, in fact.  Terror because of our sins is not a permanent fixture in the Christian’s life.  It necessarily remains so long as we live this earthly life because we will not be rid of our sinful flesh until it dies at the end and awaits its purified raising at the end.

Of the two parts of faith that we’ve looked at, the confidence and joy we are to have in Christ being kind to us and loading us up with one good thing after another, is the greater part.  It is eternal, first of all.  Our fear shall cease when we die.  The confidence and joy will grow eternally.  But also in this earthly life, it is better the part, the more important part, the more effective part, the part that is more difficult to receive and keep.  The strength of the Christian life does not consist in moping around feeling like garbage.  Your moping and sulking might seem as though it will earn you some credit with God, but that is a terrible and wicked lie mainly because it seems so plausible.  Your sorrow over your sin cannot make up for what you have done.  The only thing that can make up for what you have done is the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, in spite of and regardless of our sins, we must love and trust in him and boldly make our requests to him like this wonderful centurion: “Just say the word, Jesus, and I shall be healed.”

And this is how we must take the word of Jesus as it is spoken to us today.  When you are forgiven by the pastor or by another Christian, you must not understand that word to be empty or without power.  Jesus says, “Whoever hears you, hears me.”  And in another place he says, “Whosoever’s sins you forgive they are forgiven them, whosoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.”  And so when our fellow Christian announces the truth to us we must be certain of it and rejoice in it as if Christ our dear Lord spoke to us himself and said, “I forgive you all your sins.”  Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Jesus in front of us and to hear those words: “I forgive you all your sins?”  He instructs us, by his own word, to regard these words of fellow Christians as being his own.

Or another word that Jesus has left us by which he promises every grace and blessing is baptism.  One of our hymns says over and over again: “God’s own child, I gladly say it: ‘I am baptized into Christ.’”  That’s right!  You are baptized.  You are God’s own child.  Therein lies your status and your strength and your Christianity. 

It might seem as though you will become a better person if you torture yourself or feel really, really bad about yourself and go moping around in sadness.  You show me in the Scriptures where it says that you can save yourself by feeling bad about what you have done.  There aren’t any such passages.  But I can show you passages that say baptism saves, that Christ’s body and blood forgives sin.

In our Old Testament reading Naaman is brought to his senses by his wonderful servants who direct him back to the word that the prophet Elisha spoke to him about with the washing in the Jordan.  They say, “The prophet has spoken a great word to you, will you not do it?”  I can say to you, likewise, “God has spoken great words to you.  Will you not believe them?  Will you still be filled with uncertainty and doubt about whether Jesus forgives you, loves you, and will bring to fulfillment the fullness of your salvation?  Be like this centurion who says, ‘Just say the word, Jesus, and it will be done.’  Jesus wants you to have joy and confidence in him.  Why would you not embrace it, remaining in the cold?”

Since joy and confidence on the one hand, and sorrow and terror on the other, are so different from one another, there has always been a tendency among Christians to want to choose one and neglect the other.  At some points in the history of the Christian Church the people were taught that they should never be joyful and confident.  The seriousness of sin was stressed at these times.  At other times—and I think this is true of the period of history that we have just come out of—joy and confidence have been emphasized but the notion that Christians should ever feel sorrow or terror has been fought against as being unChristian.

The truth, though, is that we need both, but the two things are not equal.  We need sorrow and terror for sin because we still have our Old Adam and we still sin.  God’s Law must still be preached that shows us how impossible it is for us to be blessed because we are so unworthy.  But this is lesser and is passing away and will no longer be necessary once our sinful flesh has died.  The more important, the more powerful, and the more difficult thing to believe and hold to is that God can do more than we can even ask or think, and he is well pleased with us and desires to help us.  Jesus’s atoning sacrifice has brought about God’s goodwill towards us.  Therefore we must be joyful and confident that we are indeed children of God and that a rich inheritance awaits us in the life of the world to come.

Our Gospel reading this morning has given us an opportunity to learn.  In the Roman centurion we see someone who has no confidence whatsoever in himself.  He hates himself, in fact.  But his heart is bounding and joyous in Christ and he has no doubt about him and his mercy.  May it be so also for each one of us.

190120 Sermon on Ephesians 5:22-33 (Epiphany 2), January 20, 2019

190120 Sermon on Ephesians 5:22-33 (Epiphany 2), January 20, 2019

One of the old accusations against Christians is that they don’t want anybody to have any fun.  The old pagans among the Romans and the Germans didn’t like having their drinking parties and their orgies denounced as wicked.  They countered by saying that Christians are prudes. 

But this is not just an ancient thing.  Ever since the widespread use of the automobile in the 1910s young people have gone off to secret places to give vent to their lusts.  This was a change from the courtship that used to take place at the woman’s parents’ house.  Those preachers who might take up a charge of lewdness or fornication against these young people were disliked.  A lot of young people voted with their feet and quit coming to church, or maybe the quit coming to that church and went to some other one where they could be more comfortable.

Even though this is just one hundred years ago it might seem like ancient history for us.  Why bring it up?  I bring it up to show that we are dealing with not just a new problem when it comes to dating, living together, marriage, and so on.  We are in fact dealing with an old problem that has been avoided.  It’s easy to show that it is an old problem by pointing out the similarity of the charge made against Christians.  One hundred years ago the liberated young people were saying that the Church was being prudish and old fashioned.  Times had changed but the Church had not changed with it.  That is the very same thing you will hear today too.

Why haven’t we dealt with this old problem?  It’s because this is an uncomfortable topic that affects all of us.  Who among us is without sin?  And people vote with their feet.  So if your only goal is to perpetuate the existence of the congregation, then topics like this appear to be off limits.  But it is evil and devilish for congregations to just want to continue to exist.  That is not the reason why we have congregations.  The only reason for congregations to exist is so that the Word of God can help people avoid hell and enter heaven.  There would be no reason whatsoever to talk about uncomfortable things if people’s blessedness and salvation were not at stake.  But because they are at stake, and because God’s Word gives us direction in these things for the purpose of helping us, then let us go boldly forward and learn and repent and believe in Jesus.  Then let us teach—all of us, not just me—helping those who are trapped in the imagination of their own hearts about these matters.

Our Epistle reading today is located towards the end of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Often towards the end of their letters the apostles would address how the Christian is now to live in the callings God has given.  That’s where our reading comes from today.  And in the portion we read he is addressing wives and husbands.  Wives are to submit to their husbands in everything like the Church submits to Christ in all things.  Husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the Church—giving himself up for us on the cross so that we could be cleansed from every sin and stain and be presented to himself in splendor.

Some other time, perhaps, I could spend some time on these words addressed to the women and the men.  A lot of people don’t like these words because there is an inequality between the roles.  Husbands and wives are not equal.  They are not the same.  They are not interchangeable.  Each has their role.  The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is head of the Church.  Many people have hated these words for a long time because they believe that only equality and sameness is honorable.  I’m happy to defend what St. Paul says here against those who would pervert the natural order.

But today I’d like to focus on something a bit larger—the sexuality of us creatures as men and women, that is to say, as husbands and wives.  Further down in our reading today St. Paul quotes Genesis chapter 2.  Genesis chapter 2 describes the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib.  Upon seeing his wife Adam says, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.  She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”  The very next verse is the one that is quoted by St. Paul: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

With these words from Genesis you have God’s institution of marriage.  Marriage is God’s design.  Man and woman leave their parents and are joined together in a new family.  To this new family God wishes for there to be children, for he said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”  Sometimes these families are barren by God’s own hidden will—a problem that afflicted several of God’s people as we read about in the Scriptures.  It was always a cause of rejoicing because something has been set right when this plague was lifted from the couple and a child was given by God.  Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah.  Samuel was born to Elkanah and Hannah.  John the Baptist was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth. 

Children are not a plaything or an ornament or a luxury.  Children belong in these families formed by the union of man and woman, husband and wife.  The union itself is the means through which children are created.  They are to be raised in families where neither father nor mother will leave.  They are to be raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  The only reason why this old world keeps spinning ‘round is so that children can learn of their Creator and Savior and by faith sing his praises.  Therefore, marriage is the highest institution on earth and all of life is directed towards it.  The only reason why we have government or schools or any other beneficial thing is so that husband and wife and their children may be served and benefited and furthered in their filling the earth with life. 

We sinful creatures are somewhat blind to this because one of the worst effects of the fall into sin is that we take things that are common for granted.  If we see something a lot then we think that it must be nothing, a dime a dozen, and unimportant.  Husbands and wives with children are pretty common, and so people think that presidents and CEOs and other more rare (and always highly paid) positions in life must be so much better.  But that is not true.  There is no higher calling than husband and wife, father and mother, because this is where new life comes from.  The whole earth exists for these callings.

And so when St. Paul makes reference to Genesis, to husband and wife becoming one flesh, he is dealing with the highest earthly affairs that exist.  It doesn’t matter that this old ungrateful world is jaded and despises marriage.  It is what it is regardless of whatever anybody thinks of it, and it is high and exalted.  But then St. Paul says something that is very surprising.  He says that this mystery is profound, but he is saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. 

And so this would mean that Jesus leaves his Father and his mother and he holds fast to us, to his Church, to his own body.  The highest earthly calling is elevated to the greatest of all truths that exist: God has become Man, and has joined himself to our sinful race.  The two have become one, so that by the riches of the bridegroom the bride may be redeemed and saved from hell.  All people, young and old, married and unmarried, all people without exception have this engagement from the Son of God whereby he claims them as his own bride to be submissive to him.  This is not an engagement with royalty or mere flesh and blood.  This is union with God.

Most people, however, do not treasure this divine betrothal.  Some are disturbed by it and fight against it openly.  Most, though, more or less take it for granted.  This is the great danger for us and our people who see ourselves as Christians.  Familiarity breeds contempt.  The shocking truth is no longer shocking and they do not wonder about it.  They still pledge allegiance to Jesus, but that is mainly because they want to use him to stay out of hell.  The two becoming one flesh is not holy to them.  It’s hardly anything more than a business transaction.

To be sure, this is not by accident.  God’s enemies would like to have you believe that Christ and his promises are repulsive.  But if they fail in convincing you of that, then they will never cease to work night and day for you to take it for granted.  If the hot sun of persecution won’t get you, then maybe the weeds, the other cares and pleasures of life, might work to choke out all your love and devotion.

Something similar happens also with earthly marriage and the marital union.  There is a concerted effort to make it not sacred.  The goal is to make it seem common and ordinary.  Then the sexual union is nothing other than recreation, a pleasurable activity.  It doesn’t matter who you do it with.  The main weapon for desensitizing us is to indulge in the thrill of seeing the glory of another person’s body which should remain hidden from all others because it is the property of that person’s husband or wife alone.  All our songs, TV shows, music, magazines, internet, and so on urge us to do this.  All the flesh and all the casual sex is meant to convince us that it’s all no big deal.  It’s just a way to have fun.

This desensitization has been very successful.  The expectation today is that beginning with high school and certainly no later than college, men and women use each other like prostitutes until they find one that they think will continue to give them a lot of pleasure.  Then they might make a more permanent commitment.  I know that people who make use of the marital union without the promise of fidelity do not think of themselves or their partners as prostitutes.  I know that they might like to talk a lot about love and other high sounding ideals.  But at the end of the day they are using the other person and if they should ever feel like they are done using the other person, then they will pack their bags and leave.  That is not love.  That is selfishness.

How do we begin to straighten this out?  Not talking about it isn’t going to do it.  That’s been our problem.  We haven’t talked about these things for many decades and we’ve allowed our people to be taught by popular culture.  Popular culture has left deep scars in all of us without exception.  Because of our familiarity with the glory of other people’s bodies, we have been desensitized to what is high and holy in marriage.  Therefore, people are deprived of what is good.  It is good for a husband and a wife to only know the glory of the other’s body after having made a lifetime commitment of fidelity.  The marital union under such conditions is the highest and best of this earthly life. 

There is some kind of connection between our sexuality and our life of faith.  Sexual sin does something to the conscience that other sins do not.  St. Paul in another place says that all the other sins take place outside of the body, sexual sin takes place within it.  It defiles.  Therefore, as he also says, we should flee sexual immorality.  We should fear it.

All of the broken down and godless societies that we find in the Scriptures are always corrupted in matters of sex.  You know well the issues with Sodom and how the men wanted to sodomize angels.  The wicked about to be destroyed in the book of Revelation are dripping with sensuality and lust.  All of these things the Scriptures say to us not so that we can ignore them or never talk about them, but so that we can take warning and not perish with the rest of the world.  If we do not talk about these things, though, that is exactly what will happen.  We will go with the flow, live like everybody else, and be condemned.  This is not hard to have happen.  This is the broad and easy way that leads to destruction.

The Word of God is our only hope.  If we will not hear it, then nothing can help us.  If we do hear it, then it is going to point out our sins and our stains and our spots and our wrinkles.  We are proud creatures (for some stupid reason) and so we prefer almost anything to having these things pointed out about us.  But if we will humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and confess our sins, then we have the promise of forgiveness and healing in Jesus Christ. 

We heard about Christ and what he is like towards us in our reading: Christ, the bridegroom loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

The amazing thing about our heavenly bridegroom is that he did go find some pretty, wonderful girl.  He chose us with our deformities and ugliness and promised his fidelity to us that is not just ‘til death do us part, but eternally.  And so turn to him and recognize the sacredness of this betrothal and union.  There is no sin he cannot forgive.  There is no stain that he cannot remove.  He makes us holy and without blemish.

190106 Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12 (Epiphany)

190106 Sermon on Matthew 2:1-12 (Epiphany)

The fact that there are twelve days of Christmas has been made well known by the song that speaks of what your true love gave to you on each of the 12 days.  Yesterday, January 5^th, was the twelfth day of Christmas, and so if you have a true love, then you should have received 12 drummers drumming.  Today, January 6^th, closes out this season of the Church Year with the festival of Epiphany.

The occasion that is commemorated by this holiday was recounted for you in our Gospel reading this morning.  Some sages from the east saw a new star in the sky and somehow they knew that this meant a king had been born to the Jews.  And so they traveled to the land of Judea, to Jerusalem, the capital and made inquiries there about where their king was to be born.  What they found out was that the Scriptures prophesied that the king was going to be born in David’s city, Bethlehem, and so they turn in that direction, and the star comes to rest over where the child was.  And so they worship this child and give him expensive gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

Among us this festival is not especially well known.  Everybody, including the unbeliever, knows what Christmas is about—that it is the birth of Jesus.  Compare that to the awareness of Epiphany.  Most would not immediately know what the festival was about.  At other times and among other Christians this festival was celebrated with much more solemnity and fervency that it is today among us.  The reason for this was that it was thought that this was the first time in Jesus’s life where Gentiles—those who were not Jewish—were given the gift of recognizing Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. 

That is why the festival has the name of Epiphany.  When someone has had an epiphany it means that they have suddenly realized something that was previously hidden to them.  The epiphany of the festival of Epiphany was that the Gentiles suddenly became aware of the Christ.  Instead of believing in magic or progress or technology or philosophy or however else a person might make sense of their life on this earth, these wise men bowed down and worshipped this boy who is their Redeemer and Savior.

Having this “epiphany” is a part of the story in everyone’s salvation.  It was most certainly necessary for our salvation that the Son of God should become incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, be born, suffer and die under Pontius Pilate, and on the third day be raised from the dead together with all the other facts that are conveyed to us in our creeds. 

But it is also necessary that the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, should bring about an epiphany for us so that we can follow the Words and promises of the Scriptures to the Christ.  Without this epiphany we remain in darkness and in the shadow of death.  We remain devoted to the furtherance of our own fortunes or striving after our own happiness according to our own ideas instead of being devoted to Jesus, the center of the universe.  We should not take it lightly that this knowledge has been revealed to us. 

In that regard perhaps we can learn from those other Christians of other times who loved this festival.  Their devotion was marked by both fear of God and gratitude towards God.  They were not puffed up and proud and for good reason.  Gentiles are less than Jews.  Way back in history the Gentiles rejected God’s Word and promises and worshipped the devil instead.  Only Abraham and his descendants believed and worshipped the true God.  It was to him and his descendants that the instructions and promises of the Scriptures were given.  Meanwhile our ancient ancestors were sacrificing their unwanted children to the devil in order to have a better quality of life.  They were devoted to pornography and money and power and the other lusts of the flesh and cared nothing for their Creator.  There was no fear, love, or trust in the true God.  Only among the Jews were those who were devout.

And so when God began to open up salvation to the Gentiles as well, this was a stunning development.  It shocked both the Jews and the Gentiles.  The Jews were shocked that such filth could be made equal with them.  Those Gentiles who believed were amazed that they were plucked from the fires of hell that they knew they deserved so thoroughly.  Those Gentiles who believed thought that the epiphany of Jesus their Savior was a great light that pulled them out of darkness and they marveled that God should be so kind to choose them when they so obviously didn’t deserve anything from him except temporal and eternal punishment.  Those first converted Gentiles understood the enormous importance of what was being made known to them in the Gospel.  And so this story of Gentiles finding the Christ child and worshipping him with great joy was important to them because they saw also themselves in the actions of these eastern sages.

We do not have this zeal among us today.  Part of the reason why we might not have any special zeal or fervency for the story of Epiphany is that the Gospel is not as new to us as it has been to the Christians of different times and places.  The Gospel has been known among our people for several hundreds of years.  Are you aware, even, that your ancestors a thousand years or so ago worshipped other gods?  That we are Christians and live among Christians is more or less taken for granted.

Unfortunately this is how it always goes with the Gospel.  When people are first converted and see the love that God has for them in Christ the crucified, they react strongly like the seed that is sown upon the shallow soil.  They are grateful and they want to learn and grow as children of God.  They speak of the Gospel to their families and friends.  They support the preaching and teaching of the Gospel in the congregation and in missions and with schools.  But as time goes on the love grows cold.  People return to the mentality that comes naturally to us ever since the fall into sin.  We quit thinking about God and Christ and begin to think about how we can be happier and more successful.  There is less thankfulness, less attentiveness to the Word of God.  Love for the neighbor dries up and everybody is looking out for numero uno.  Usually, meanwhile, the machinery of the Church is usually still chugging along, but the people’s hearts aren’t in it.  Their hearts are in other things.

The Bible has many examples of this very thing happening in times of old.  A decline is very noticeable when the Israelites enter into the land of Canaan in the period of the judges.  You see a decline again in the both the northern and southern kingdoms before God overthrows them with the Assyrians and the Babylonians.  You see the decline at the time of Christ when the Gospel finally becomes repugnant to the Jews and is received with joy by the Gentiles.  In all of these periods the people of God still thought of themselves as his people, but it was more or less lip service.  What they really cared about was their own health, wealth, happiness, glory, legacy, and so on. 

You see this decline and worldly mentality dressed up in churchy clothes with the corrupt and bloated Jewish leadership of Jerusalem in our Gospel reading today.  The wise men came to Jerusalem to find the newborn king since this was the capital.  There were scholars of the Scriptures there who were even able to help them find the Christ.  They knew that he would be born in Bethlehem and they tell them so.  But why don’t they go with this strangers from the East to worship the Christ as well?  The Bible doesn’t tell us, but one likely reason why they don’t go is because they are afraid.  They might be afraid of Herod who was a jealous maniac who killed anybody he thought might be a rival to his ambitions.  Our reading today doesn’t get into this, but immediately following where our story ended today St. Matthew tells how Herod sent troops to Bethlehem and killed all the baby boys who were two years old and younger—trying to snuff out the newborn king before he could be a threat.  Certainly Herod was not someone to be messed with, and so the Jewish leadership might have stayed away for that reason. 

They might also not have wanted to be known as some kind of fanatic or nutjob.  If they went in search of the Christ—if they did something out of the ordinary—then people might think they were crazy.  So long as church people do what is traditional and expected, then nobody complains too much.  But as soon as they start making waves, talking and acting in unusual ways—then the name calling begins.  These Jewish leaders saw themselves as being faithful—even the cream of the crop—but their actions show that they are devoid of faith.  They play it safe in Jerusalem and would not risk their life or reputation by going with the strangers from the east to boldly worship the Savior Jesus.

This is how it is among us today too.  Most of us think of ourselves as being Christians.  But are we willing to risk the loss of reputation, or business, or friendships, or family, or life for the joy of worshipping our Savior?  We might even be well versed in Scripture and in doctrine.  We might know the right answers to even the most important of questions, but are we willing to leave everything for Jesus’s sake?  This is a scary thing.  Troubles and suffering are involved in this.  But this is not unprecedented.  Do you think it was a small thing for those wise men to defy that murderous, powerful maniac, Herod?  No, it required courage to go against the grain.

But the wise men were blessed in what they did and so will you if you leave behind earthly pleasures and insurances and follow after Jesus.  I won’t promise you money or possessions or anything else that might outwardly increase your quality of life.  It’s possible even that following after Jesus might decrease your quality of life outwardly.  Remember, the devil, the prince of this world, has a great deal of control over a person’s quality of life and like a hot sun he will persecute those who follow Christ so that they will dry up and wither away if possible.  And so there is nothing material or outward that I can promise you for following after Jesus—although I can also say that you will never be forsaken and you will always have enough.

But what I can promise you is that you will know God.  In this life you will know him and grow in your knowledge of him through his Word.  In the next you will see God and be welcomed by him.  All people, of course, will finally see God.  King Herod will see God.  But these are his enemies and persecutors.  They remain chained to the devil like we all are by nature, but their unbelief will not allow them to be set free.  Therefore they get what they deserve for who they are and how they’ve lived their lives—something that should make every one of us tremble.  Unless you are a fool, then you should know full well that we deserve hell for the wrongs that we have done.

But God makes known to you that in Bethlehem, the city of David, a Savior was born for you.  This boy would grow to be a man, and he would suffer God’s wrath in your place for the sins that you have committed.  There isn’t a sin that he did not suffer for and atone for in full.  He is the Christ, the Messiah, the seed of Eve who crushes the serpent’s head and sets us free to be children of God. 

The Word that I speak to you is an epiphany.  It reveals to you your Savior, and God wants you to know it.  And so do not be cold and indifferent, remaining in the old ruts like the people of Jerusalem who knew the truth, but would not go out to see him.  Pay homage to your crucified and risen Lord.

181230 (Guest Preacher Bruce Boyce) Sermon on Luke 2:22-40

181230 (Guest Preacher Bruce Boyce) Sermon on Luke 2:22-40

181225 Sermon on Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38 (Christmas Day), December 25, 2018

181225 Sermon on Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38 (Christmas Day), December 25, 2018

It might seem a little strange that we have the Old Testament reading that we do for Christmas Day.  What does the tabernacle have to do with Christ’s birth?  The link between Christmas and the tabernacle might not be as clear as it otherwise could be because of the way one of the verses of our Gospel reading is translated.  At the end of our Gospel reading it says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”  A more literal translation of the Greek would read: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”  St. John is linking together the birth of Christ with the tabernacle that God instituted at Mt. Sinai.  In order that we might learn something of the significance of Christ’s birth, I’d like to look at this connection between the tabernacle and Christ and what it means for us still today.

The tabernacle was not Moses’s idea, nor was it the idea of any man.  God gave Moses the instructions for the tabernacle while he was atop Mt. Sinai.  You can read this for yourself in Exodus chapters 25-31.  The substance of what is going on with the tabernacle is that this is the way that the people of Israel were blessed with God’s own presence in their midst.  This is what made the people of Israel different from all the other nations on earth.  All the other nations worshipped idols, believing that they would be blessed by their own arts and practices.  The Israelites had the one true God living together with them with the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle.  Wherever God went the people followed.  Wherever God went the people conquered and prospered.  So long as the Israelites had God and God was gracious to them, there was nothing that they had to fear.

It is wonderful that God chose this ragtag nation of shepherds and lived together with them in this tent with his gracious presence.  It is even more wonderful that God chose the Virgin Mary as the mother of the man in whom the fullness of God dwells bodily, as St. Paul puts it in Colossians.  Choosing someone’s tent to live in is one thing, or as it was later with the temple: choosing someone’s house to live in is one thing.  But what does it mean that God takes up our very human nature to live in?  If you choose to live in someone’s tent or house you are wanting to be on quite intimate terms with them.  But these are things outside of us. 

With Christ God has decided to live together with us in the most intimate way possible.  We frankly are joined together.  He took on the fullness of our human nature.  He did not even just take on our body, but also our minds and our souls.  The incarnation of the Son of God was not in such a way where he just came to inhabit the body, and use the body like a puppet, and the mind and soul were the mind and soul of God that controlled the body like a puppeteer.  Jesus is true man totally and completely, even as he is true God.  Jesus was a true baby.  He needed to have his diaper changed and he suckled at Mary’s breast.  As a baby he was helpless and in need of care from his mother Mary and stepfather Joseph.  As true God he ruled over all things.

This is a great mystery that we cannot get to the bottom of.  It is similar to the mystery of how Jesus died on the cross even though he is true God as well as true Man, and so how is it that God could die?  Shouldn’t God dying be impossible?  Wouldn’t everything have fallen apart at his death?  But then again, how can a man, once he has died and been dead and turned cold and hard, be resurrected from the dead?

These are things to wonder about, not to answer.  It is one thing for a Christian to wonder about these things and say, “How can these things be?” as he or she thinks about the story of salvation—the marvelous lengths that God goes to in order to rescue us.  It is altogether a different thing when an unbeliever scoffs and mocks the idea of Jesus being true God and true Man in one person. 

It seems to me that all three of the great festivals of the Christian Church Year—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost—are well spent when we wonder about the great things that God has done in them that surpass our understanding.  Joyous faith is happy to learn more about the ways and means of God.  And so it is not a bad thing to think about the baby Jesus and his helplessness, or the dead Christ who was lying in the tomb, or the fire of the Holy Spirit that burns in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are all the ways and means that God has used in drawing near to us, claiming us as his own, and bringing about our salvation.  The tabernacle was a sure sign of God’s grace upon the people of Israel.  It showed that God claimed them as his own and worked out salvation for them while in their midst.  The tabernacle, though, was a only a shadow of the greater things to come in Christ. 

The incarnation, the way that God has become man in the baby Jesus, is something that we can look to for the assurance of God’s good will towards us.  By our sins we deserve for God to hate us.  This is not God’s problem, but our problem.  If we would do the good and beneficial things God loves and not do the evil and selfish things that God hates, then salvation would surely be according to the Law.  But God has loved us even in spite of our sins.  And he has joined in the fight for our salvation.  That is what the incarnation means.  God does not sit on the sidelines and watch to see how we are doing with our salvation—just watching and judging.  He makes his claim and risks everything, joining himself in the most intimate way he possibly could to us.  Jesus is our brother, and yet he is God.

The Israelites were able to look at the tabernacle and later the temple and know that God had chosen them for salvation and every blessing.  You can look at the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the tabernacle and temple, and know that God has chosen you for salvation.  God did not become man for his own sake.  He did it for your sake.  At Christmas we must recognize the astounding graciousness of God.  He has not left us to our own devices.  He has joined together with us.  He fights for us.  He wins for us.  All of this so that we could live together with him through the redemption, forgiveness, and sanctification that Jesus has worked in his great sacrifice on the cross.

181224 Sermon on Titus 2:11-14 (Christmas Eve), December 24, 2018

181224 Sermon on Titus 2:11-14 (Christmas Eve), December 24, 2018

There is no shortage of explanations for what the Christmas season is all about.  The explanations are always about things that are good.  People will say that Christmas is about family and friends.  It’s about mending bridges.  It’s about helping people with gifts.  Nobody talks about the Christmas season as the time to commit crimes or be crabby.  No, the explanations of the Christmas season are always for good and beneficial things.

This is true also for the explanation of what Christmas is all about that the Bible gives.  We had a short little explanation of what the Christmas season is all about from St. Paul in our Epistle reading from Titus.  This is what I’d like to talk about tonight.  Let’s hear, again, what he says:

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

There are a lot of words in what I just read that don’t immediately hit home most likely because we are not familiar with them.  We are used to talking about sports and shopping and work.  We don’t talk all that much about the saving grace of God that has appeared in the birth of Jesus Christ.  Since we are unfamiliar with the words and concepts that are brought up by St. Paul it can kind of sound like the teacher sounds in the Charlie Brown cartoons.  You hear the noises, but the meaning is not taken in.  It might just sound like a bunch of church words heaped up together, one after another.

I don’t plan on fixing all this with just one sermon.  God will bless you if you study this text on your own—and you go ahead and test me on that to see if I’m speaking the truth.  Prove me wrong.  There isn’t a wasted word in the whole paragraph.  But for tonight I’d like to focus on just two words that might help us understand what Christmas is all about.  The two words are pretty much opposites.  One word is the way that we are before Christ comes, the other words is for after.  “Godless” is a word that sums us up pretty well before and apart from Christ.  “Godly” is the way that Christ makes us live.  If I can simplify what St. Paul says in our reading tonight: the saving grace of God has appeared that trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live godly lives as we wait for the appearing of Jesus Christ.

So let’s think a little more about these two words: ungodliness and godliness.  What does it mean to be ungodly?  There’s a pretty bad connotation connected with that word the way that we normally use it.  If you say that someone is ungodly, then you are saying that he or she is a pretty bad person.  They have no scruples.  They have no respect for common morals.  They are wild and wooly, doing as they please.

Normal people, so it is thought, are far from being ungodly.  They go to work, pay their taxes, and don’t get in trouble with the police.  They aren’t perfect—nobody’s perfect, right?—but they aren’t that bad either.  And so the way that we use the word “ungodly” does not apply to most people.

It’s interesting that something similar happens with the word “godly” also.  This is not a word that we readily apply to normal people.  Pastors, priests, saints, goody-two-shoes, and other people who don’t live “normal” lives might be possible candidates for being “godly,” but not just any Joe Schmo.  Godly people are thought to have an air about them that sets them apart from everybody else.  It’s an exclusive club.

And so what you have with the way that these two words are understood are small groups.  There aren’t that many ungodly people.  There aren’t that many godly people.  Almost everybody is just “normal.”

But what these two words really mean—particularly when we think about them biblically—is different from the way that they are typically used.  And the real meanings aren’t too hard to understand.  Ungodliness means that you do not belong together with God.  Godliness means that you are happily together with God.  Those who are ungodly are uncomfortable and scared by the thought of being together with God.  Those who are godly are happy to be together with God and desire it.

And so there is a simple test as to whether you are ungodly or godly: Do you want to be together with God?  Do you want Jesus to come again with great glory to judge the living and the dead whereby those who have done good will be resurrected to life and those who have done evil will be resurrected to condemnation?  If the clouds of judgment were suddenly rumbling on the horizon, or if you felt your life slipping away from you in death, and you know that you are about to meet your Maker, how would you feel?  If you are filled with fear, then you are ungodly.  If you are filled with joy, then you are godly.

I don’t think I really need to tell you this, because I think you already know it quite well: the normal reaction to meeting our Maker is fear, not joy.  It’s only natural to think of the things that you have done wrong—perhaps even the things that you have done wrong in just the last night or two—and now that you are meeting your Maker you have been caught.  Ungodly people aren’t dumb.  There’s a reason why they don’t want to have anything to do with God.  We with our sins that cry out for judgment and punishment aren’t too keen on being together with the one who judges and the one who punishes.

But this is where St. Paul’s words to you tonight about the meaning of Christmas are so important.  He says that the saving grace of God has appeared in Jesus Christ.  That is quite a different thing than saying that the dreadful judgment of God has come.  The saving grace of God in Jesus Christ has appeared.  Grace means forgiveness and acceptance.  Jesus has redeemed us by his death from the way that we have lived in rebellion against God.  He has taken your place and my place and the place of all sinners.  No ordinary Man could possibly do this.  Only God in the flesh could bear the heavy load of all the sin of all the world.  With the birth of Jesus we are witnessing the appearance of this saving grace of God in Christ Jesus.

And what does this saving grace of God do?  St. Paul tells us that it trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live in a godly way.  Now try to forget the baggage that we have attached to these two words that we’ve already talked about tonight, and think about them with their true meanings.  The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness.  That means it is training us to renounce and have nothing to do with the fear that we feel at the thought of being together with God.  Why should we not fear?  Is it because we have nothing to fear except fear itself?  Heavens no!  Is it because sins are no big deal?  No!  Is it because God doesn’t really care?  Is it because we’ve tried to make up for the wrong that we’ve done by doing good things?  Is it because we aren’t as bad as other people?  No, none of these false ideas and false hopes has any merit. 

We can only renounce the fear that we have of meeting our Maker by the saving grace of God that has appeared in Jesus Christ.  Only because Jesus has bled and died for me, and for absolutely no other reason, can I look to the prospect of meeting my Maker with joy.  Jesus alone makes you godly, that is, Jesus alone makes it so that you can live together with God.

We can see this play out in a wonderful way with the shepherds that we heard about tonight who were keeping watch over their flocks by night.  These shepherds were ungodly.  By that I do not mean that they were dastardly villains.  They were just normal shepherds having normal shepherd thoughts.  But when the angel of the Lord appears to them they see the reflected glory of God in this angel and they are filled with fear.  They do not like this intrusion of God upon their lives.  It immediately and plainly shows them that they were not loving God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Neither were they loving their neighbor.  They were thinking about when they got to go home or eat supper or what the sheep might be doing.  But with the coming of the angel they know that God has drawn near to them and they are filled with fear.

But the angel says to them: “Fear not!  Fear not!  I have not come to kill you or judge you.  I bring you glad tidings of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”  The saving grace of God appeared to these shepherd in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them.  It trained them to renounce ungodliness.  It trained them to renounce the fear they have at the thought of meeting their Maker.  Why?  Because a Savior has been born to them who reconciles them to God—the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Filled now with the Holy Spirit the shepherds’ fear is turned into joy.  Their ungodliness is turned into godliness.  Their desire to stay away from God is now replaced with the desire to see him.  And so they say to one another: “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”  That is nothing other than saying, “Let us now go to meet our Maker.”  That is nothing other than saying, “Lord, I love the habitation of your house, and the place where your glory dwells.”

The Scriptures have been written for our learning, and so you do well to apply these words also to yourself.  It’s quite likely that you came here tonight with thoughts not all that different from the shepherds.  You probably weren’t thinking about sheep, but you quite possibly were thinking about your home or your family or the gifts that might be in store for you tonight.  Meeting your Maker was probably a thought far, far from your mind.  Well you have met your Maker.  This is the message that he has for you, O Sinner, who fears being together with your God because of your sins: “Fear not, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy that is for you and all people.  Unto you is born in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”

It is my hope that the Holy Spirit blesses you tonight so that your fear of Christ’s second coming may be replaced with joy.  This is a miracle.  Nobody is able to do it except it be given that person by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel.  But the Holy Spirit does create faith in Jesus when and where he wills it, and I have confidence that he has worked it in you.

But remember one last thing tonight of what St. Paul has said.  Remember that the grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live in a godly way while we await Christ’s coming.  Renouncing ungodliness, renouncing the fear we have of being together with God, is something that is ongoing.  We are trained in it.  It’s not something that can be learned once and never brought to mind again.

Thank God Christmas Eve brings people to Church who normally don’t come.  If this is you, I only desire blessing upon blessing, grace upon grace for you.  I want you filled with joy for Christ’s sake at the thought of meeting your Maker, for indeed, there is no greater joy than that.  But I also want you to be filled with wisdom—another gift of the Holy Spirit—and that you continue your training in renouncing ungodliness and embracing godliness as you have tonight.  If that should be with us in our congregation, then that is great.  If it be someplace else, then I wish you God’s blessing there too.  It does not matter exactly where this training takes place so long as you are trained and trained well.  Go where the Gospel of forgiveness for Christ’s sake is preached and be trained in renouncing the fear you feel for your sins by embracing Christ your Savior, born for you.