READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Philippians 4:4-7
St. John 1:19-28
Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who
is to come; from Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth. (Rev 1)
Who speaks to us on this fourth Sunday of the new Church
Year, saying,
“Then why are you
baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
Last week, we pointed out the degradation of language in our
days and our misunderstanding of it, with phrases like “Jesus is the reason for
the season” not meaning too much anymore. However, the words haven’t lost their
meaning, they just need to be taught again and reclaimed. We must make clear
their meaning, if only so that we are certain of God’s Word towards us.
Like it or not, everything we do affects our faith, because
we are inseparable from our bodies and souls. Thus, what our body does affects
our soul and what our soul does affects our bodies. Meaning, what we put in
front of us either has meaning which we are taught, or we give it
meaning.
One such glaringly obvious example is the Christmas tree.
I’m willing to bet that most know very little about this giant icon in their
houses and in their church beyond the fact that it is a tree, that it is used
to decorate for Christmas, and that we’ve always done it this way.
Which is dangerous, because there are many who would love to
fill in the blanks for you. They would fill in the blanks in order to make you
not Christian any more. They would tell you that pagans predate Christianity
and brought green things into their homes religiously. Usually to ward off the
death of winter and remind them that green things will come again in spring.
They will also try to prove to you that the Egyptians would
fill their homes with green palm rushes to celebrate health and life’s victory
over death. This was mainly because they believed their sun god, Ra, was sick
during winter, and they prayed for his speedy recovery. Poor god.
They will also throw Saturnalia out to you, saying the
Romans brought green boughs into their homes to remind them of the coming
spring. Not to mention the vikings and any other number of equally obscurely
referenced religions one could find, to disprove Christianity and relegate it
to a pagan religion, equal to all others, and to show you that you have
misunderstood your own religion. So why continue in it?
I believe the origins of the Christmas Tree, at least
somewhat, comes from the 8th century where a man named St. Boniface is selected
by Pope Gregory II to preach the gospel to the heathens in Germany. Hahaha. Now
that’s relatable, no? In the Spring of 719, he was sent from Rome to the Rhine,
being ordered to adhere to the Roman practice in the administration of the
Sacrament of Baptism, and to consult with the Holy See in case of difficulties.
He became the archbishop of Mainz, Germany, a place that
holds a special place in Dr. Luther’s heart, or will some 800 years following.
Regardless, legend has it that in order to show the German heathens how utterly
powerless were the gods in whom they placed their confidence, Boniface felled
the oak sacred to the thunder-god Thor, at Geismar, near Fritzlar. He had a
chapel built out of the wood and dedicated it to the Prince of the Apostles.
The heathens were astonished that no thunderbolt from the hand of Thor
destroyed the offender, and many were converted. The fall of this oak marked
the fall of heathenism.
Though not an oak, a tree none the less, the evergreens we
raise in our time are more than just a nice looking, decorative thing from
better times. It is a trophy. It is the enemy’s flag. It is his throne, his
coat of arms, and his royal heirloom. And we place that in our churches and
homes to show that our enemy is fallen.
Still, it is not the trophy alone, but the work that was
accomplished. For if our evergreen friend were to be left to his own devices,
we would quickly succumb and return to our pagan roots of tree worship, placing
importance and meaning on a tree it was not created to have.
Here our evergreen fellow would speak with John the Baptist.
“Its not me”, he would say. I am not the Christ, I am not Elijah, nor am I the
prophet. Do not stop at my feet and think that you have found God. Do not stoop
below my level and offer worship and praise. Do not think that I have come to
get in the way, for just as John’s head would bow to Christ, so too does our
Christmas Tree.
We can not afford to trip at the finish line! Having come so
far as the House of God, we are not to fall down in front of candle, window, or
tree. Any and everything is in danger of being made into a false idol by our
sin. We must chop them down and hang them in victory, never to darken our faith
again. Our dead Christmas tree artificially stands as a reminder that it needs our
work to do its job as a false idol.
But God does not need our work to do His job and that’s one
of the differences between a false idol and the one, true God. The Lord will
accomplish His purpose whether we agree with it or no. Even though the Jews do
not believe John the Baptist was sent by God, nor that Jesus was the Christ, He
continues His heroic journey to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem, and to Easter.
For there is another tree, more important than our evergreen
friend. It is also a tree that has been cut down and hung up, vanquished, yet
displayed as a trophy. It is the tree of Life on which Jesus hung. It was the
tree of Life which would have caused us to live forever in sin, if eaten from.
For cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deut 21:23).
Much greater than St. Boniface, Jesus hangs on the false idol,
bleeding to death. Not that the tree has triumphed over Jesus, but Jesus has
taken the tree in. He has tricked it into thinking that it can be the center of
attention, by seemingly killing God. And the devil follows suit, he says, “…
let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Mt 27:42).
Jesus takes the tree of His death, all false idols, and cuts
them off from His creation. He conquers them and removes any power they have
over you, by replacing your false worship with faith. John the Baptist baptizes
with water for repentance, but “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire” (Mt 3:11).
And this baptism, made effective by Him, cleanses you from
your sin of false worship. It gives you that new sense of faith which sounds
the alarm bells any time something or someone is putting up a barrier between
you and your Lord and Savior. It gives you confidence when going up against the
false religions of this world when they tell you that your religion is just
like the others.
This is because Christ has conquered. All things are under
His feet. He is the ruler of the kings of earth and the priest Who intercedes.
He is Adonai, the Lord, and Leader of the house of Israel,
Who appeared in the bush to Moses as a flame of fire, and
gave him the Law in Sinai.
That same God-man has come to redeem us with His
outstretched arms on the cross, gaining victory over sin, death, and the devil.
In this Faith, we find that all things are now conquered for us as well. This
church is a trophy room so to speak. All of it has been placed under Jesus’s
feet: trees, candles, flags. All of it bows to the Lord and master of Word and Sacrament.
And this is how we now treat all these things in front of us
in faith: defeated. That, through the Church Year, we parade them one by one,
recalling how our Savior has fought that battle for us and won. We still keep
St. Boniface’s axe handy, just in case. but as long as there is a clear path to
forgiveness, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, the false idols are safe for now.
However, it is once again the Divine Service that swoops in
for the save, elevating Christ Crucified, and deemphasizing all else, focusing
all our attention on Jesus in Word and Sacrament, and not bell and whistle.
Thus do we hang, even our Christmas tree up to, one more time, teach ourselves
that Christ is victor, we are dead to our sin, and that the Divine Service is
for the living, not the dead.
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