Reflections on 40 years of Roe vs. Wade--Part 2

Abortion is America’s national sin. Abraham Lincoln considered slavery to be a stain upon his nation, a sin for which there was the accounting of the Civil War. He was right, not in the sense that God directly sent this war in response to the evil of slavery; we have no Word from God to make that declaration. But a nation that flaunts God’s Law will find that there are consequences to such evil. God doesn’t just arbitrarily make laws, He declares laws for our good, for the betterment of society as a whole. And so our national sin has consequences, and it is already happening. You cannot devalue life, declaring that an entire classification of human beings can be killed for any reason, and expect it to have no effect. Whether we like it or not, this world is ordered according to God’s holy Law.

God created life, and so He acts to protect it. The Fifth Commandment is God’s definitive statement on the value of life, for there God declares, “You shall not murder.” Luther gives us the explanation: “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.” God created life, and He expects that the crown of His creation, the human race, would have the same respect for such life that He does. The Fifth Commandment calls abortion what it is: a sin, a great evil, perhaps the greatest evil this world has ever known. The Fifth Commandment calls on us to help and support our neighbor in his or her physical needs; it call us out on our silence. But what the Fifth Commandment ultimately does is drive us to Jesus, for forgiveness, for grace, and He will provide; even the sin of abortion, even the sin of quietism, is nailed to the tree.

Reflections on 40 years of Roe vs. Wade--Part 1

It has been almost exactly forty years since Roe vs. Wade, the most famous and controversial Supreme Court decision in our nation’s history. For forty years the killing of unborn children has been legal, for any reason, or no reason at all. We live in a nation of abortion on demand, a culture of death. There are days that I think I’m living in a nightmare, that someday I will wake up; the one thing that all people should agree on, regardless of religion or political preference, is that we should not kill our children! The scourge of abortion is so evil, so wicked, so ridiculous, that I can hardly believe that any society allows it to happen. But still we do. We need anniversaries like this to throw a bucket of cold water over our face, to wake us up to the reality of what is happening around us. The lives of the most vulnerable among us is being threatened and taken each and every day. This cannot continue.
God loves life; He created it. All other creatures, the heavenly bodies, and even the earth itself were created with a powerful Word from His lips, but when it came to man, the crown of His creation, God stooped down and got His hands dirty. We read in Genesis two: “Then the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” See the intimacy that God has with us! His love, His care, His compassion is shown to humanity, so that the David can sing, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Life is God’s gift, His loving and intimate gift to us. He formed you and me in the womb, He shaped us there to be His own unique creation. The womb is God’s workshop, the location of His creating love.

The Baptism of our Lord (Luke 3:15-22)

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon on this, the Baptism of our Lord comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the third chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ: of all people, surely Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. Dirty people need to be washed, not the clean. Baptism is for you and me, people who are sinful, filthy with corruption. John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is for those who lie, who cheat, who lust, who hate, who rebel against God. John baptizes those who see their sin, this scum that clings to their skin and bones, and in repentance cry out for cleansing. The ones coming to the river to be washed by that desert prophet are those who see the needs of their neighbors and ignore them. Yes, John’s baptism is even for the self-righteous, if they could stop gazing at their own navels long enough to listen to his call for repentance. We need to be baptized because God is not pleased with us, not in the least.

John’s baptism is for you and for me, poor miserable sinners, it isn’t for Jesus. Jesus is perfect, clean, pure, and holy. He is more than simply a nice guy, a great teacher; He is God Himself in the flesh. The first two chapters of Luke teach us that Jesus is the last person on this planet who needs to be baptized by John. The Baptist himself says it: Jesus is the coming one, the one who is mightier than he, “the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” A perfect man, a holy man, a man who is also true God, has no need of baptism.

But yet, Jesus is baptized. He walks into the Jordan, the river where the people of Israel were washing away their sins, and submits to the baptism of John. He is baptized, with the multitude of others, sinners all, and He is praying. Then all heaven breaks loose; the heavens themselves are opened, the veil is torn, the curtain pulled back, the great divide between earth and heaven, between God and His creation, is done away with, if only for a moment. And something comes down from the opened heavens: “The Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove.” If that wasn’t enough, the Father, the Lord, the Creator of the universe preaches a sermon: “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” With this sermon, we have Epiphany; the entire Trinity is revealed to us at Jordan’s stream. The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit descends as a dove, and the voice of God tells us that this Jesus of Nazareth, this man standing in the river, is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, the one with whom He is truly well-pleased, and He has been anointed for salvation.

John declared about Him, “His winnowing fork is in His hand, to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” The Father’s voice proclaims that this Jesus has come to gather in the harvest, to burn the chaff of sin away. He has come to do battle with sin by carrying it within His own body and doing away with it. Most people wash in order to become clean; Jesus washes so that He can become dirty. He washes, identified with sinners, as the sin bearer, the One who will carry all sin. His baptism by the Holy Spirit anoints Him for the task that is ahead of Him; it prepares Him for another baptism that is yet to come.

The Father is well-pleased with Jesus because He willingly became the sin-bearer, to take the heavy weight of humanity’s sin upon Himself. But Jesus carries that burden only so that He may be rid of it; the Father is well-pleased with Jesus because He willingly submitted to another baptism: a baptism of fire upon the cross. At the cross, the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan found its fulfillment in Christ’s suffering and death under the fires of God’s wrath. At the cross, the Father who declared, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased,” abandoned that Son to the very fires of hell. There the Son, so gloriously anointed in the Jordan, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He who was baptized with water, identifying with sinners, with you and me, is baptized with fire, in your place. He dies under God’s fiery wrath, God’s righteous judgment, as the sin bearer, as the One carrying your sin and mine upon His beaten and bloodied shoulders. This was the only path of salvation, the only way that you and I could be delivered from sin, death, and hell. And so in love Jesus submitted to a baptism by the Holy Spirit in the Jordan, and in love He submitted to a baptism by fire upon the cross. There was no voice from heaven that day, but as Jesus cried out “It is finished!” the Father said, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

God proved the truth of those words three days later, when Jesus came forth from the tomb. He had passed through the baptism of fire and had left sin behind, burned and consumed by the Father’s righteous wrath. Now the crucified one was the risen one; as He came up out of the waters of Jordan’s stream to an opened heaven and the Father’s voice, so He came up from the tomb to an opened heaven and the Father’s approval. Jesus ascended into that opened heaven, to take His rightful place at the right hand of the throne of God. Now He commences the work that the Baptist prophesied He would do: “John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Jesus Himself was baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire; at the Jordan and at the cross. He sends forth the Church to baptize you and me with the Holy Spirit and with fire; at the font you were baptized into His fiery death, as Saint Paul declares: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Our sinful nature was crucified in a baptism of fire. “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” In baptism you died to sin! It was drowned in those waters, consumed by God’s holy fire. And make no mistake; you needed to die. You needed to die to all of your sinful desires, your desires to satisfy your own needs above those of all others, your desire to place other things ahead of God. You needed to die to your rebellion against your Creator, your disregard of His Law, your lack of love for Him and for your neighbor. Your sinful nature cannot be reformed, it cannot be better trained, it cannot be improved; it must be put to death! Sin cannot be dealt with in any other way.

Every baptism includes death, but every baptism also includes resurrection: “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” Christ died in His baptism of fire on the cross, but was then raised up on the third day victorious over death. You, too, die in your baptism, and then you rise. “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Your old nature is put to death in the fire, and from those fires emerges a new nature, a new man or woman to live before Him in righteousness and purity. Death and resurrection is the pattern of your life; each and every day Christ returns you to the font in faith, putting your sinful nature to death once again in repentance and raising up in you a new nature. Death and resurrection is the pattern of your life; as you have died and risen in your baptism, you will rise, to newness of life, forever. You will follow the pattern that Christ set, in His death, in His resurrection, in His baptism.

For at your baptism, the heavens were opened just as they were at Christ’s. No one could see it with their physical eyes, but as your head was held over the font and the pastor applied water “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” heaven itself was opened to you. The division between earth and heaven, between God and you, was erased, done away with, forever. Heaven was opened to you never to be closed again. Christ has torn down the curtain, He has opened up heaven, for all the baptized. From that opened heaven came the Holy Spirit, Christ’s gift to you, come to dwell within you, come to create and sustain faith. You were anointed with the Holy Spirit, anointed as God’s own beloved child, adopted by His grace through Christ. And then the Father preached. He preached as powerfully as He preached that day when Jesus came up from the Jordan, saying now to you: “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” He is well pleased with you because of Christ, because Jesus has joined you with His death and resurrection. He is well-pleased with you because He is well pleased with His Son, who submitted to John’s baptism in your place, who submitted to the baptism of fire for your salvation. You are His beloved child; with you He is well pleased!

You hear these same blessed words whenever you receive the Absolution. When your sins are forgiven by the pastor as by Christ Himself, God says to you, “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” You hear them when you receive the Lord’s Supper. When you depart from this altar, having partaken of Christ’s own Body and Blood, God says to you, “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” And you will hear it once more; on the Last Day, when your crucified and risen Lord appears, you will stand before your Creator and He will say to you, “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” And then your baptism will be brought to its completion; your sinful nature will be completely destroyed, and you will follow Christ’s pattern in glory, in honor, in resurrection, forever. In the Name of the One baptized for you, who baptizes you into His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Higher Things Conference, Carlisle, Iowa (Hebrews 9:1-14)

“[Jesus] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and bulls, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this morning comes from the text read a few moments ago from the ninth chapter the letter to the Hebrews. Dear friends in Christ, the tabernacle, and the temple that followed on its pattern, was an assault on the senses. The sights, the sounds, the smells, were overpowering; the nearest parallel we have in western Iowa is a packing plant. Your ears were greeted with the bleating, the bellowing, the cries of animals doomed to die; the chants, the prayers of priests rising above this tumult. You could smell the sweet scent of incense and burning candles, but more overpowering is the smell of death: the smell of slaughter, the stench of burning flesh. And what you saw was blood. Blood everywhere, cast on the altar, sprinkled on the people, flowing in rivers, a clear and certain testimony that what the tabernacle was about was death, the death of innocent animals to cleanse and purify God’s chosen people.

Sin is serious business; if nothing else, the sounds, the smells, the sights of the tabernacle prove that God and His people take sin seriously. Our text tells us that the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place only once a year, and never without taking blood with Him. Without blood, the High Priest was worthless; without blood, the tabernacle had little use. Don’t trust the un-bloody teachings found in the world and even in the Church; don’t trust an un-bloody Gospel! A Gospel without blood doesn’t take our sin nearly seriously enough; a Gospel without blood doesn’t comprehend the depth of our corruption. 

Don’t trust a Gospel that explains away sin, that tells you it isn’t a big deal, that ‘rules are made to be broken,’ ‘everyone else is doing it,’ or ‘you’re making too much of a little thing.’ It’s just your words, just your body, just your neighbor’s reputation. Don’t trust a Gospel that says ‘you can just ask for forgiveness later,’ that claims God will be ok with it—He’s a God of love, right? Don’t trust a Gospel that claims God’s laws were just for people back then, not really for us modern people, that thinks God is moving us in a new direction, a more ‘tolerant’ direction. A Gospel that explains away or ignores sin, that tosses out God’s Law, is no Gospel at all.

A Gospel that acknowledges sin, but points you to anything other than blood is little better; such a Gospel still doesn’t understand the depth of your sin and corruption. Don’t trust a Gospel that calls for anything but blood. Don’t trust an un-bloody Gospel! Don’t trust a Gospel that tells you to live a ‘good life,’ to outweigh your sins with some good deeds. Don’t trust a Gospel that points you to your feelings, your emotions to know that you have found favor with God. Don’t trust a Gospel that tells you to ‘pray harder,’ ‘worship more sincerely,’ or ‘love God more.’ Don’t trust a Gospel that puts the ball in your court, that calls on you to do something yourself to take care of your sin.

If you say God doesn’t much care about His Laws or about sin, you are deceiving yourself, and you are calling Him a liar. If you claim that there is anything that you can do, no matter how good, no matter how pious, to remove that sin, then you have no idea how serious and how great your sin is. The tabernacle calls all those other Gospels lies; the blood that flows in rivers from the sacrifices offered there declares that sin is serious, dead serious, and the only answer is blood. 

There God taught His people, each and every day, with every drop of blood, that the only Gospel worth trusting was one covered with blood. Sin requires blood; the tabernacle was Israel’s living demonstration of that fundamental fact. Sin requires blood; but the blood of bulls and goats could never completely take away sin. The sacrifices offered by the priests day after day in the tabernacle pointed to the once-for-all sacrifice that was coming, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s own blood. Don’t trust an un-bloody Gospel—trust the Gospel that gives you Jesus’ blood. Trust the Gospel that covers your sin with His blood.

Jesus came as the greatest and final High Priest, and He came to enter into the tabernacle of heaven, the Most Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood. The cross shows how seriously God takes sin. What you hear is the cries of a dying man, and what you see is blood, flowing from His thorn-encircled brow, from His scourged back, from His pierced hands and feet. Sin requires blood; the blood of the sinless Son of God, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Trust the Gospel that gives you Jesus’ blood as the once-for-all sacrifice, the only price, the only blood that could fully atone for sin. The cross shows how seriously God takes sin; the cross shows how seriously God takes our salvation, for He offered the only price that would suffice, His own Son.

Don’t trust an un-bloody Gospel—trust the Gospel that gives you Jesus’ blood, which opens the way into the Most Holy Place, which gives you access to God Himself. What the High Priest alone entered only once a year Christ entered once for all, to tear down the curtain, to open what had so long been closed, with the shedding of His own blood. “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” This blood reconciles us with our God, removing the dividing wall of hostility between Creator and creature. Trust the Gospel that gives you that blood, that proclaims nothing of yourself, and everything of Christ.

The tabernacle was all about blood; the blood of lambs, goats, and bulls, all offered for the purification of God’s chosen people. The Church is all about blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, poured out on Calvary’s cross to cover your sins. Don’t trust an un-bloody church; trust a church dripping in the blood of Christ, that proclaims to you Christ’s blood every Sunday. Trust the Church that gives you Jesus’ blood, even into your mouth, the same Body and Blood that was the price of your redemption. There you are forgiven, there your sin is covered, there the tabernacle finds its final fulfillment. The only Gospel that proclaims an end to sin is the true Gospel, the Gospel that proclaims Christ’s death and resurrection, for you, for your salvation, so that you will rise with Christ to live before Him forever. In the Name of Jesus, our perfect High Priest, whose blood secured our eternal redemption, Amen.

Christmas 1 of Series C (Luke 2:22-40)

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this first Sunday after Christmas comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, are you ready to die? This seems an odd question the week after Christmas. Talking about death in the season of Christ’s birth seems out of place and improper. But that’s only if we have a shallow, Hallmark view of Christmas. The real story of Christmas is a story about death; it begins when cruel Herod kills the children of Bethlehem, making them the first to die because of Jesus, it then points us to that child’s death, and even has something to say about our own. And so I ask you again, dear friends in Christ, are you ready to die? Medieval Christians spoke of the ‘art of dying,’ the concept of being fully prepared in body and soul when death came. Today we would rather not even think or talk about death, often because we know that we’re unprepared, and we don’t really have any desire to be ready. But refusing to prepare for death doesn’t hold back our greatest enemy, it simply gives him more power. Death is coming, for each and every one of us, for me and for you—are you ready?

Simeon was. He cries out, with a baby in his arms, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.” He is ready to depart, he is ready to die. Why? Because he has seen the infant Jesus. Luke tells us that this Simeon “was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” Simeon was waiting for consolation, he looked for comfort for a creation groaning and mourning under the scourge of death. He knew what you knew, even if you try not to think about it: death is coming, for all people, and there is no escape. This world needs a Savior, because this world is filled with people who will die. The Holy Spirit had told Simeon that this world’s enemy wouldn’t claim him until he saw the Messiah, the One who had come to deliver humanity from the scourge of death. Simeon was looking for the Comforter and Consoler, the only One who could bring salvation from sin and from death, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, he knew that this baby boy was the One. And having seen Him with his own eyes, having held Him in his arms, Simeon was ready to die, “for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.” This child still had to grow up and accomplish salvation, but for Simeon, deliverance was as good as done; he wasn’t going to wait around for thirty years—Lord, I’m ready! Let your servant depart in peace!

Anna the prophetess heard the testimony of Simeon. Like the shepherds heard from the angels, like the people of Bethlehem heard from the shepherds, she heard a wonderful proclamation of who this child was and what He had come to do, and she rejoices. She too had been waiting for this moment, with the faithful remnant in Israel, those who still looked for redemption. Luke tells us, “And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” She is prepared to die, for she has heard the testimony of Simeon about this child, she has been told who this baby is and what He has come to do. Salvation has come, redemption has arrived, and now she too can depart in peace.

For those waiting for deliverance, the birth of Christ prepares them to die, for they know that with His birth, death’s reign is swiftly coming to an end. They understand that when the child enters the temple that day, only forty days old, it is another step on the path of salvation. For Jesus is brought to the temple in obedience to the Law, His parents follow all that they were commanded to do by Moses. “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’).” This child is true man and true God; He has no sin, no impurity, He is holy at the moment of His conception. But yet He is placed under the Law, and that Law demands death to those who transgress it; it is that same Law that condemns you and me to death, for we have broken it in every way. And so when He comes to the temple that day, the sinless one has no need to stand under the Law for His own sake; He stands under it for you.

He comes to the temple for redemption, so that Mary and Joseph may “offer a sacrifice according to the Law of the Lord.” That Law is laid out in Exodus, where the people of Israel are commanded to give every firstborn to the Lord. The firstborn of animals are sacrificed, but firstborn children are redeemed, that is, an animal is sacrificed in their place. Death is demanded by the Law, but the child is spared; the animals die for them. But Jesus had no sin of His own, He was already holy to the Lord. He has come instead to redeem us. He has come to stand in our place, under the Law’s authority, bearing our sin, and then to give His life as the redemption price. Animals gave their lives to redeem the children of Israel, to make them holy before the Lord; Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave His life to redeem all people. Death is demanded by the Law, but you are spared, for Jesus died for you. He entered the temple that day as the sacrifice, the sacrifice that would be offered thirty years later upon the altar of the cross. He would die in the place of all people, He would die in your place, so that death would have no hold on you.

This would involve great suffering, for Simeon tells Mary that this child will be a “sign that is opposed,” and he warns her that “a sword shall pierce through your own soul also.” Jesus was born to die, so that salvation could be brought to all people; Simeon celebrated the death of that child when He called Jesus “a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” With the eyes of faith, Simeon saw beyond that humble child to the work that this child would accomplish, that through Him salvation would be revealed to all people, both Jews and Gentiles. “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel…so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” All people will fall in Jesus, for the thoughts of all hearts will be revealed, with all their sin, deserving the penalty of death under the Law. Many will rise in Jesus, for the thoughts of their hearts will be revealed, showing that they repent of that sin and believe in the one who has come to conquer sin and death. Many will fall never to rise, for they have refused the Christ who raises up, but some will rise for eternity, never to fall again, for they have believed on Him who brought life in place of death.

Christ’s birth prepared Simeon and Anna for death; it even prepared Christ for His own death. Christ’s birth prepares you to die; this child is born to die, bringing you deliverance from death. He prepares you to die by baptizing you into His Name. There you fall, for at the font your sinful nature is put to death, but there you rise, for your eyes of faith are opened to see Jesus as your Savior. Baptism prepares you for death; having entered those waters, you can say, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,” for you have been given salvation. Are you ready to die? Yes, for you have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ!

Each and every day you fall and rise again; your thoughts are revealed by the work of God’s holy Law, showing your sin and corruption. If we cling to those sinful thoughts and deeds in stubborn unrepentance, then we fall never to rise. But when we, through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, repent of our sin and cling to Christ for forgiveness and salvation, He raises us up. Then we see His salvation with the eyes of faith, and we are ready to depart. Christ especially prepares us by giving to us the Lord’s Supper, for there we fall to our knees in repentance and rise in faith, having received His salvation. And then we depart in peace, singing Simeon’s hymn: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.” He sang as he held his Savior in his arms; we sing as we have just received our Savior into our mouths. Are you ready to die? Yes, for you have received the Body and Blood of Christ, the price of your redemption!

Are you ready to die? Apart from the redemption of Christ, the answer can only be ‘no.’ If Christ has not died for you or risen again for you, you might as well enjoy all the pleasure and fun you can in this life, because death is coming, and it is the end. But if Christ has redeemed you, if He has died in your place, taking the penalty of your sin upon Himself, if He has baptized you into His death and given to you His Body and Blood in the Supper, then you can answer confidently, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.” You can live in confidence even in the face of death, for you know that it is a defeated enemy, that it has no hold on you. You are ready for death through faith in Christ, through your Baptism into His death, through your reception of His Body and His Blood in the Lord’s Supper. This doesn’t mean that death is no longer an enemy, or that you will never fear death again; it means that you will be ready for death, because you know in whom you have believed, the One who died to redeem you and rose to give you life. In Christ we fall, we depart with Simeon, but we do not stay in the grave, for in Christ we rise, we rise victorious over death, bearing the same victory that He won. In Jesus, only in Jesus, can we depart in peace. In the Name of this baby: our redemption, salvation, comfort and consolation, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Christmas Eve (Luke 2:1-20)

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” Grace, mercy, and peace among those with whom God is pleased, through our Savior, Christ the Lord, Amen. The text for our sermon in the dark and quiet of this Christmas Eve comes from the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Dear friends in Christ, on that first Christmas Eve, two thousand years ago, a child was born. That is the fundamental, basic fact of this night. A child was born. This child was born under authority; His parents traveled to Bethlehem in obedience to the powers of this world, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.” Worldwide events sent this couple to the city of David, events far beyond what young Mary or Joseph could even comprehend. And this child was born in humility; the quaint nativity scenes outside our churches and on our mantles may or may not accurately portray the events of that night, but what they do convey is humility. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” 

A child was born that night; born in humiliating conditions, born in squalor, born under the authority of the rulers of this world, but those things hardly make Him unique. This child wasn’t the only baby born outdoors under the rule of the Caesars. No, something else made Him unique, His birth worth celebrating two thousand years later. A child was born that first Christmas night; God’s reaction to that birth would make all the difference. He responded with forgiveness, for this child is no ordinary child; His birth no ordinary birth, as the angels declared: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This child is God in the flesh, God come down to save, He is Christ the Lord. With the birth of this child, the world is shaken, everything is changed. The angels sing of a new relationship between earth and heaven: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” This child brings peace, for through Him God is pleased once again with man. Whatever else this child will do or say, He has come to bring forgiveness, to reconcile man with God.

 A child was born that night; He was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. A time is coming when the wood of that manger will be fashioned into a cross, for Jesus to hang upon and die for the sin of the world. A time is coming when those swaddling cloths will be used as burial cloths, for Jesus to be wrapped in and laid in a tomb. A child was born that night; He was born to die in your place, bearing your guilt, your shame, your sin. A child was born that night; He was born to lay in a tomb in your place, experiencing death itself for you. A child was born that night; He was born to rise again on the third day, announcing that death itself had been conquered. This child was born to win forgiveness for you, and where sins are forgiven, death has no more power. God’s reaction to the birth of this child is the announcement of forgiveness, for this child who was born would walk the way of the cross to win forgiveness for all people. 

Forgiveness is the only reason the angels celebrate this child’s birth; reconciliation between God and man is coming, and the world needs to be told. God’s first chosen messengers are the lowest of the low, the poor shepherds who are watching their flocks by night. Humble messengers of a humble birth. But they cannot pass on what they haven’t first received. They must be taught, given knowledge of the events of that night and the child born into this world. And so the reaction of the angels to the birth of this child is catechesis: teaching, imparting knowledge of God and His ways, creating faith. “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.’” There is no more need to fear! This child will take away all fear, fear of sin and death forever through His death and resurrection. Peace is coming, and God will be well-pleased with you by the birth of this child!

A child was born that night; the shepherds have been told, but their eyes do not yet see. Still, they believe. They believe and then they go to see. They have been catechized, taught about this birth and its significance by heavenly teachers, and this Word from the Lord creates faith. Now they go to see, and when they see, they rejoice. “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” The shepherds react to the birth of this child in the same way that the angels did: with catechesis. They go forth to teach others, to impart the knowledge of this child that was passed onto them from heaven itself to the entire world. Their message hasn’t been silenced to this day. It continues to be passed on, from one generation to the next, from one place to the next, from one person to the next. These words aren’t simply facts, not just a history lesson, but divine knowledge which creates and strengthens faith in the child through whom God gives forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Even Mary, who had spoken with angels, who had carried God in the flesh within her womb, was catechized by the shepherds, although she has a different reaction: “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary heard the testimony of the shepherds that night, and she saw with her own eyes the child, Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. She heard and saw the great deeds of God, and she treasured them up in her heart. She kept them foremost in her mind, guarding and keeping them as the sure and certain deposit of God’s wondrous working in this world. Christmas Eve was to be the lens by which she viewed all else, for the wonders associated with this child had just begun.

A child was born that night; her child. Mary treasures up all these words and events in order to ponder them in her heart. She considers them all carefully, seeking to understand the works of God more clearly. She converses within herself and with God, reflecting on what God has done in her, what God has done for her. Mary is a young woman of prayer; we saw this when she responded to the news of Christ’s conception with words of obedience and a beautiful song of praise. She speaks to God, humbling relying on Him through the challenges that she will face as she raises the incarnate Son of God, as she hears His teaching, as she watches the soldiers nail Him to the cross. Prayer is her constant companion, as she seeks to understand these cosmic events that began within her womb. She is not alone; through the redemption of her Son, she has a direct connection to the Father’s throne in prayer, prayer that sustains her in all that she will face.

A child was born that night; God reacted with forgiveness, the shepherds by receiving and then giving catechesis, and Mary by careful ponderings and prayer. Tonight, we follow Mary’s example. We treasure up the events of Christmas, the wondrous events that we have heard of and seen with the eyes of faith. This child, this Jesus, is constantly on our minds and on our hearts. And we ponder, we ponder the gifts that flow from the manger. We ponder how this child, Jesus Christ our Lord, will leave that manger and walk the way of the cross to win forgiveness of all our sins and even defeat death itself. We ponder how the divine knowledge of salvation, first proclaimed by the angels, is passed down as a gift and treasure to us, to create and sustain faith. And we ponder how prayer, the gift of communication with our God, is possible only because this child was born to remove the dividing wall of hostility between God and us. We ponder all this in prayerful meditation, because nothing in this world is more important than this child and what He brings; His birth changes not just our world, but eternity. In Him is peace, peace among those with whom God is now well pleased. Glory to God in the highest! In the Name of this child, our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Advent Midweek 3: Catechesis

“But as [Joseph] considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife…’” Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon this evening comes from the Gospel lesson read a few moments ago from the first chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Dear friends in Christ, we take education very seriously in our country. We require parents to send their children to school, with the expectation that they will stay for all twelve years. Secondary degrees, from community colleges, universities, and trade schools are more common and necessary than ever before. Then, once you graduate, most professions have continuing education and recertifications, all in an effort to keep you up to date and fully trained for your tasks. About the only place that we stop learning is in the Christian Church. For too many, confirmation is graduation, despite the hundreds of sermons preached specifically to counter such a belief. Sunday morning worship attracts around a third of a congregation’s membership, and bible classes only attract a third of them. Many young children don’t come to Sunday school, and most high school and college age students don’t go to any bible classes at all. The pastoral office is one of the few professions not required to receive continuing education, and so many pastors don’t bother, and their congregations don’t expect them to.

The story of Christmas is a striking example of just how vital teaching and learning is for the life of the Church, for when we find Joseph in our Gospel lesson, we see that he was in desperate need of teaching, for he was about to make a very bad decision. “When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” He was going to do the right thing and protect Mary by divorcing her quietly. But Joseph didn’t have all the facts, he didn’t know everything he needed to. He was in need of catechesis. Now catechesis is much more than simply learning facts or being given information. Catechesis is imparting knowledge of God, giving and strengthening faith. Joseph didn’t need a lesson from a textbook, he needed to have faith in what the Holy Spirit was doing. And the Lord was ready to teach. The angel told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” In one lesson, Joseph learns all that he needs to. He learns that he can trust Mary; her child is a miracle through the Holy Spirit. And he learns that this miracle child is the promised Messiah, the one who will save us from our sins. God has catechized Joseph, so that he can go forth in his given task as the guardian of our Lord.

When the appointed time came, Joseph’s adopted Son continued the catechesis given to his earthly father. If you own a red-letter Bible, it becomes quickly apparent that the bulk of the content in the four Gospels is the teaching of Jesus. He has come to teach, to bring knowledge of God to His people. He has come to bring divine catechesis, as Isaiah prophesied: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.” He taught, He preached, He admonished in order to create and sustain faith in His hearers, to reveal to them the ways of the Lord. But His most important sermon, His most vital catechesis, would contain precious few words. Jesus had come to reveal our Creator as a God of love, and that lesson, that sermon, was given on the cross. There Jesus showed forth His Father as a God of mercy and grace, as He gave up His own life in our place. He demonstrated God’s love through His sacrifice, but that sacrifice was much more than an object lesson. His death actually reconciled us to God, it removed our sin, and with His resurrection on the third day, Jesus demonstrated that death itself was conquered, revealing our God as the God of salvation.

The cross and empty tomb are together the focus and foundation of all catechesis, for they are the object of our faith, they are what we are taught to believe in. Christ sent His Church to spread this knowledge to go throughout the world, so that all people could be catechized, knowing their Creator the only way He can be known, through the death and resurrection of His Son. Isaiah prophesied that in the Messianic age people of all nations would say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” Christ has sent out His Church to teach, to catechize, bringing the true knowledge of God and the salvation He has won to all the nations of the earth.

The congregation that takes this task seriously will be built on the foundation of catechesis. Our primary goal will be to educate all people, our own members and those outside of these walls, in the truths of the faith. Inculcating and strengthening faith will shape all that we do as a congregation. We will always be teaching and learning. Our handbook will be the Small Catechism; it will have a treasured place in our lives, not just for confirmation students and prospective members, but for all of us. We will encourage our children to be in Sunday school, we will exhort our high school and college students to attend bible class. We will be as serious about the education of our youth in the Word of the Lord as we are about their education in math, science, English, or history. Our congregation’s life will be focused on teaching and learning, every age, every week.

The pastor who sees catechesis as foundational will always be teaching, but he will also always be learning. He will seek out opportunities to read new books, to hear new speakers, and attend continuing education seminars. He may even seek out an advanced degree, all with the goal of learning more so that he may teach more. The catechism will be much more to him than a textbook. It will be his pastoral manual, so that he will be constantly referring to it in preaching and counseling, as well as when he teaches on any subject, constantly seeking to deliver the truth of God’s Word to those entrusted to his care. He, too, will remain a humble student of the catechism, remembering Luther’s statement that even he remained a pupil of the catechism his entire life.

The Christian who hungers and thirsts for the knowledge of the Lord which creates and strengthens faith will never graduate. You will constantly be learning, seeking new opportunities to learn more about the Lord and His Word. You will study the bible in class and at home, always seeking to mine its inexhaustible depths. The catechism will be a living book for you, not something that you put away after confirmation, but a book that shapes your life as a Christian day by day. You will take in as many classes as your vocations allow, even being unashamed to join adult catechesis and go through the catechism once again. Your mentality will be that of a humble learner, one who has never learned enough or learned it fully enough. You will never be satisfied with God’s Word, but will constantly seek to drink it in.

For God’s Word is the Christmas gift that keeps on giving. We are always in need, and God will never stop providing. He pours out His knowledge upon us through Christ, the Word made flesh for our salvation, the Word which even today God continues to give to us through the Scriptures and through proclamation, forgiving our sins and strengthening our faith. The Word is God’s gift to us, now and for eternity, as Isaiah declares: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Perfect catechesis will characterize the new heavens and new earth, for there our God, who redeemed us through the death and resurrection of Christ, will be fully revealed as a God of love, forever. In the Name of the Word, our great catechist, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.