Not a mystery [Transfiguration of Jesus; St. Matthew 17:1-9]

Already at the end of the Epiphany season, Jesus symbolically marks the descent into Lent by coming off the mountain of Transfiguration. Really, Christmass and Epiphany go together and form one big revelation of who Jesus is. During this season Jesus reveals Himself to us.

And during His whole life, He was not in disguise as a homeless man, a vagrant, or anything sneaky like that. If Jesus didn’t want to be seen, He hid Himself. He didn’t put on a hoodie or a costume. If Jesus didn’t want people to recognize Him, He prevented their eyes from doing so. He did not have to resort to tricks or mind games.

This is taught to us today as St. Peter says,

“Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

St. Peter knew that it was Jesus he had been following the last three years. Peter knew that it was Jesus that he was going to the top of this mountain with, he knew it was Jesus being transfigured, and he knew it was Jesus he was descending the mountain with.

He even tells us, in the epistle reading, that none of the Apostles followed any cleverly devised myths when they preached Jesus to you. There were no word games you had to play. There was no giving of hearts, no meditation, and no moving of the spirit. There were plain and simple words preached and plain and simple words believed.

Jesus’ entire existence is one of transparency. In fact, Jesus desired knowledge of Him to be shared so much, that He created an entire universe in order to show it to a race of beings created by Him.

Jesus had such a need to be known by the whole world that He made Noah build an ark and preach about it for 100 years before bringing the Flood upon the earth, not that anyone else listened. Jesus’ will to be known was so strong that He came down to talk to Moses, came Himself to gather up Elijah into heaven, and was made man.

Our hymn, "O Love, how deep", clues us in on this as well. Go ahead. Turn to it. It sings:

He sent no angel to our race, of higher or of lower place,

But wore the robe of human frame, and to this world Himself He came.

Look at your Introit in your bulletin, right now. All this language, even in the Psalms, is earthly language. Lightning, earth, tabernacles, courts, house, doorkeeper, tents, sun, shield, etc. All these things you can find in your day to day life, well, just about. These things are used by God and yet they are created things. There is never any talk about working yourself up into an emotional, heavenly frenzy in order to find God. He is, and always will, reveal Himself by earthly means.

It is the world that deals falsely with you by slight of hand. It holds lotteries in order to discover who will be the special-lucky person, out of millions, this time. It holds contests and raffles that hide the winner until the very end. It is the world that uses smoke and mirrors in order to determine the true grit of a person.

It is you that employs these same strategies. In dealing with your neighbor, you are told to never show all your cards in order to get the best deal. In dealing with God, you say one thing, but believe another in order to hedge your bets, just in case you got it wrong.

Repent. Jesus does not need tests and trials to uncover what’s in your heart. He already knows. And what He knows is that you are in sin and you are afraid of God. You fear the future and you fear the actions of God in your life, whether they are for you or against you, because you really can’t tell most of the time.

What is this Transfiguration to you? It is something to be feared in your sin, because it is an act of God and because Jesus alone has the glory. In the end this is how it will be. You will look for help from works and merits, priests and holy-men, or maybe even in saints.

But those will all disappear, in the final judgment. Even our own works will disappear and fly from us, leaving us comfort less. And as Peter, James, and John fell down at the Transfiguration, you too will feel forsaken by God.

Yet, Jesus will be known. He will be there and it will only be Him that you see. To those that do not believe, He will be a stern judge ready to cast into hell.

To those who believe and cling to the Word of God, Jesus will be Who He has always said He was: redeemer and savior. He will be the same God who baptized you into His death and resurrection. He will be the same God Who spoke forgiveness to you over and over again. He will be the same God that opens up His side to feed you salvation.

Today, Jesus does not deal falsely with you. He has no hidden agenda or secret path of enlightenment. He has no pop quiz ready and no plans to nor any need to keep anything or anyone in the dark, for the veil came down at the cross.

Do pay attention to the man behind that curtain. He has traversed time, space, and death in order to be here today. He opens Himself to criticism and doubt and yet remains true. He allows Himself to be handed over and handed down to you in hand and mouth.

This same Jesus that is transfigured in glory and that we will see on the Last Day, now publicly and visibly heads down to the cross. This same face of Jesus that shone like the sun will be on the cross, buried in the tomb, and rise again on Easter.

And that is the point. That this transfigured Jesus is the one going to the cross, not some regular guy or false messiah. The Jesus that can shine like God and talk with men who have died will be the one to shed His blood, take His life back again, and offer it to you in His Church today.

For now you see, hear, and believe the sacraments which God uses to create and sustain Christians in these last days. You hear the Word of God and believe that Christ is Transfigured for you, that Jesus is on the cross for you, and that He will come again for you ready and eager to take you into His kingdom in eternal life.

True prayer [Epiphany 1; St. Luke 2:42-52]

Prayers. Supplications. Petitions. Intercession. Asking. Beseeching. Pleading. Begging.

All these words have to do with what you call prayer and what you have heard in the Gospel read today. For Jesus has spoken and says,

“And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’”

When Sts. Joseph and Mary finally beheld their son, they pleaded with Him and begged Him to give them an answer to why He made them suffer so. This happened only because first they knew they had to care for Jesus and believe He is the Son of God. You too must also learn what you are to do and believe before you can pray.

First, you learn that it is your duty to pray, because God has revealed Himself to you in the 10 Commands and has told you to pray. For to call upon the Name of God is nothing else but prayer. And you have much to call upon God for, because the Commandments have revealed your sin to you also that you can not perfectly keep them.

Second, you must believe that there is a God to pray to and that His commands are just and holy. That He is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That He has created you and all things. That He has sent His Son for you and that He draws you to Himself by His Spirit. Otherwise, why would you pray to nothingness or a false god?

Thirdly, in this one, true faith, to which the Holy Spirit has called you, you pray. In faith you pray; in Christ you pray, for “prayer relies upon God’s mercy, when we believe that we are heard for the sake of Christ…because without [Christ as our] High Priest we cannot approach the Father.” (Triglotta: AP.211:212)

Pray in any other way and you are attempting to do a good work. If you are unwilling to receive something from God, then you are only willing to repay Him. If you are only praying to present your best to God, then you are praying to yourself and not to God.

Daniel says that “… we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. ¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (9:18-19)

Thus Daniel teaches us in praying to lay hold upon mercy; to trust in God’s mercy and not our own merits before God (Triglotta: AP.211:210). God would not command you to pray if He first did not intend to answer it. And He would have said, “first get your act together then pray”, if that was the way of things. Instead, the Lord gives His promise and faith believes. First there is grace, then there is response.

Do not think that there is no use to your prayers. Do not doubt that God hears them and do not think it is all the same if someone else prays and you do not. It is not this way. If you would be Christian, it is your duty and obligation to pray.

Of great advantage to sin, death and the devil is it when a son says to his father, “I don’t need to obey you; I can go and do as I please; it is all the same.” If you are not calling upon God in every trouble and need, then you are calling on something or someone else and it is usually yourself.

Jesus has so designed salvation to be a great shield against such things. Prayer is given that you may repel and silence such sin and evil. Prayer is given to you for your advantage.

Jesus does not need to hear prayer to know what you need or what needs to be done in this world. Before your prayer escapes your lips, Jesus already revealed Himself to the whole world as the Lamb of God, silently led to the slaughter answering all the prayers of the world.

And this is the great epiphany. That Joseph and Mary know where to look for God. They know what He looks like, what He sounds like, what He eats, and how He dresses. They know His words and they know His thoughts. Thus they are able to find Jesus in the Temple and beg of Him.

The Word of God also gives us this glad epiphany. That our High Priest, Jesus, has ordained it that we would not come to Him with sacrifices and atonement of our own, but that He would seek us out, dead in our sin, and offer a sacrifice for us revealing Himself as the Messiah.

In this Great High Priest, born under the Law, all are redeemed to God and have received the full rights as sons (Gal.4:4-5). In this great High Priest, you find His sacrifice for your sins, because He knows all your needs and fulfills them, before you ask.

This great high priest still intercedes for you today. He pleads with the Father, interceding on our behalf. And He is the only one to do all this for you and knows you need it before you pray.

And these weapons Christ has bestowed upon you to stand up against the devil. Though the devil and his followers could easily crush us underfoot, the prayer of the righteous, in Christ, intervenes like a wall of iron. For whenever a godly Christian prays, dear Father your will be done, god speaks from on high and says: Yes, dear child, it shall be so in spite of the devil and all the world.

“Therefore you should say: ‘My prayer is as precious, holy, and pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or [any of the other] of the most holy saints.’” (Triglotta: LC.701:16). Your prayer is great and something to be taken seriously. Do not babble, but pray for something because God is the giver. Ask, He says.

So, when you pray, use the words of psalms, hymns, and Scripture. Jesus did not leave you with no words to pray, but causes His own prayer to be written down for you. So pray this:

“Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever:

Amen.”

House of Bread [Christmas 2; St. Matthew 2:13-23]

Having become thankful for receiving the Lectionary, we receive even more from the Apostles and even more about our Savior as He speaks to you today saying,

“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem...”

Bethlehem. This city we love to sing about at Christmas, but have no idea why its such a great place. It is mentioned about 52 times in the Bible and about 85% of that is in the Old Testament. So much for thinking that only the New Testament gives importance to this city.

Our most notable about Bethlehem: Ruth takes place entirely in that city; King David is from there and also the prophesy that the priests give to the Magi seeking Jesus mentions this place.

Indeed Micah is right in saying that even though Bethlehem is tiny, by no means is it the least among the cities of Judah. For as the Gospels tell us, Jesus is born there, the shepherds seek the swaddling clothes and the manger there, and the Magi worship the true King there.

So, we learn from David that Bethlehem is small, he being the least of his brothers; we learn from Micah that we are not to take it lightly. We learn from Ruth that her redeemer comes from there and that in Bethlehem she finds salvation and redemption.

And where one finds salvation and redemption, one finds Christ. Bethlehem is not just a little town with no dreams. Our little town holds an even greater secret: its name means “house of bread”. It is the true Church in which hungry souls are fed the living bread from heaven.

The bread from heaven is born in the house of bread, laid in a bed of worthless fodder where Christ is to be proclaimed and nothing else. The pulpit of the Church becomes the manger, then, offering the wholesome pasture of the Word for poor Christians.

The bread we find wrapped in bloody, swaddling clothes: both the Old and New Testaments with the Law and the Gospel. It is there where we should seek Jesus. It is there that we then hear of the star of the most holy Gospel, which we are to follow.

Neither Mohamed nor any of the other prophets had a birth like Jesus and they know it. Even though Islam teaches about Jesus, some say even more than the Bible does, others had miraculous births and just as holy a calling as Jesus.

Even though the Jews believe in a messiah, they pass right by the prophecies of a suffering messiah and only look forward to an almighty messiah to give them an earthly kingdom.

Repent. Though we search for Jesus, we tear the place up and slice it apart. We run through the world and confess that the tenants of other faiths talk about Jesus, so they must be true too. We slice through what God has presented to us in His Word and declare that if we just cut out this and that, that all religions are basically the same.

Imagine that God is trying to get something into your head and He goes about it in this way. That the Name Jesus isn’t important, its just one among many. That the manger or the Star isn’t special, it could have been any place or a comet or eclipse that cause these things.

Imagine you are trying to take a test and, not only do the questions continue to shift and change, but the answer keys are multiple and changing as well. Who could pass such a test? Who would even take it and to what end would it serve?

The world understands the need for clarity. In order to get taxes, the Federal government has made very many specific rules. In order to drive a car, there are very many specific requirements and licensing that need to be followed.

The Lord is no different, for only one prophet out of many was immaculately conceived and birthed by a real virgin. Only one priest was able to enter in to the Holy of Holies by His own blood. Only one king is able to lose His life, in order to rule His kingdom forever.

The virgin birth in Bethlehem is miraculous. Islam gets it and must capitalize on it or be left behind as Judaism is. The world understands how important Jesus is, so they must speak against Him. What the devil, the world, and your sinful nature do no understand is that the Christ must be handed over, suffer, die, and three days rise again.

What any other religion can not fathom is God being made flesh. Not only that, but their small minds can not begin to comprehend and God who offers Himself as the sacrifice for all and then presents this sacrifice in the form of a meal.

In Jesus all the dots connect. The sacrifice is to be both for sin and for forgiveness. The true Son of God is to be both the host and the servant. Jesus is to be both the giver of the Feast of heaven and its main course.

All the Old Testament events that happened in Bethlehem; all the symbolism in its name and all the events of the New Testament lead to Jesus being born of a virgin, dying on the cross, and feeding you eternal life in His true Body, which is the bread of heaven.

You will not find salvation or God anywhere else except in this house of bread. For it is here that you now approach and touch these historic items. It is here where the feast of the living bread from heaven is celebrated. It is here that you find good pasture when Christ is proclaimed from the pulpit manger.

Poor Christians are swaddled in the Old and New testaments finding their suffering messiah who knows all their woes. Seeking Christians are wrapped in the Law and the Gospel, hearing of their sin and being shown their Savior.

The proclaimed, most holy Gospel illuminates the dark things of this world by Faith, revealing salvation in water and the Word; grace in the preaching of the Word, and a true meal and medicine unto the forgiveness of sins in, with and under bread and wine.

Only the one true Jesus Christ is both master and slave, serving forgiveness for free, without any works. Only one true God-man, Jesus, can be the Son of God Who dies and rises again. Only the true Messiah can be meat indeed and drink indeed to satisfy eternally and to state, once and for all, that here is God in the flesh and none other.

So, it is to the house of bread that Faith leads you today, to find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, and offering Himself to be taken and eaten and drunk.

St. John, Apostle & Evangelist [Christmas 1; St. John 21:19b-24]

As we continue to celebrate Christmas, we hear this day of the Feast of St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist. We know him as the fourth Evangelist, having written the fourth gospel. We also know him as the youngest of the disciples and even that he did not die like the other 11, but got to live to an old age.

And what we hear tonight, from this blessed Apostle, is the command to follow Jesus. Jesus says this three times in this gospel reading and the funny part is Sts. Peter and John were already following Him, but Jesus makes the point here that constant repentance and conversion is needed for the Christian.

So what does it look like for you today to “follow” Jesus? Well, we have talked about this before and have concluded that it is not enough just to ape Jesus, we must literally follow Him; see where He goes; see what He does and why He does it. One of the told the Church uses for such an endeavor is the Lectionary.

A lection is a reading of texts and in our case, it is a collection of texts which we cycle through each year. Along with this yearly Lectionary come traditions, ceremonies, and ways of celebrating each certain time.

Christmas and Easter, being easy to see. Advent and Lent, the next easiest with candles, extra services, and a darker tone to the readings. In this, the Church employs every sense of the Christian: sight, smell, touch, hear, and taste in order to follow Jesus through His life and see how He will accomplish salvation for us.

This Lectionary has been carefully created, reformed, and handed down through the centuries to finally get to you. The readings which you hear and the way they are presented has been found to be the best way to get the message across.

With this kind of importance attached to it, it is no wonder that it becomes are target of Satan, for at no other time of the year than at Christmas do you hear the words: saturnalia, sol invictus, Mithras, or Horus so often.

These arte just a few of the “old” pagan holy days that unbelievers accuse Christianity of taking over and converting to Christina holidays and Christmas is no exception. It is said that Dec. 25 is not really the date of Christ’s birth, but was the celebrations of these other gods proving two things: 1) if you’re a real Christian you shouldn’t celebrate and 2) because Christianity copies these, Christianity is false.

Even though this is used against the Church, the world knows about ceremony and celebration. It even knows about lectionaries, because it has its own, but it is not original. The lectionary of the world is a corruption of church’s and thus is a rhythm of natural things.

Satan gladly uses any and everything to distract you from the Son of God. If there is something better to celebrate on any given Sunday, it is there in your head and it keeps you away instead of here. Because, here is just the same old stuff that has nothing to do with my life.

You demand lectionaries. You demand that the surgeon have a manual and knows what he’s doing each time you visit. You demand that the doctor understand medicine and how best to treat you, every time. You demand that your clothes fit, that your food nourishes, and that your brain works to understand it all. And the Church lectionary is a burden?!

Come, let us reason together. If Jesus handed over the Church to you and told you to feed His flock, how would you go about it? Would you just do whatever anyone wanted to do each day? Would you allow any and everything that is popular, at the moment, to be let inside? What about after that gets old, then what?

The Church is unhelpful and unproductive without a lectionary. The Church becomes a prostitute of the culture when she has no culture of her own. The Church becomes a liar, a salesman, and a swindler when the Truth is not in her.

Jesus tells us to follow Him and yet all He gives us is Sts. Peter and John. No one is waiting for us in Bethlehem. No one is waiting in dark Gethsemane or light Gethsemane. There is no cross on Golgotha and I’m sure the empty tomb has long since crumbled away.

Christmass-time gives us the answer. Since time began God has continued to work the same way towards salvation. He handed over all things to Adam and gave him instructions. He left all 8 remaining people on the earth in the hands of Noah. Jesus gave responsibility of the entire population of the Church to one old man, Abraham, through his one and only son, Isaac.

The Lord continues to work through men throughout history. Jesus does not simply interact with these men spiritually. The way they knew and the way everyone else knew that the Lord was there was by His Word, for either it came true then and was written down, or it came true later.

The written Word now comes directly from the mouth of God Himself, In Christ. God loves the lectionary because He wrote it. It is not about teaching you how to be a good person or invoking feelings of nostalgia, it is about Jesus and His work done for you.

This is what happens in the Church: it has the entirety of holy Scripture, as you do today in the Bible. It has plenty of time,, because whether Christ comes back today or many todays from now, it doesn’t matter for she has been made ready already. So, she takes her time, goes through each major event leading up to the Resurrection and what comes out is the lectionary.

It is a natural progression from having the Word of God to following Jesus and the Lectionary allows you fulfill this command. For in the Lectionary we do just that. We follow Jesus, not to the exclusion of every other part of the Bible, but to its fullest expression.

It is only in Jesus that we conclude that human and earthly things are holy, for Jesus came as a man, forever sanctifying humanity and earthly things. God did not create all things just to leave them behind and neither did He give all things to us only to have them turn into lies.

Jesus sets us in the fortress of His true Body, giving us a right spirit, in order to hear His Word and believe it, even if we were only to celebrate Christmass every Sunday of the year, we would still hear the entire counsel of God.

But the Lord, and we, are more creative than that. Plus, we love to hear as much of what Christ is doing as possible. God loves pure doctrine and the only way to that is through the Word. Simply by believing in and loving the Word, the Church already keeps out so many lies and false teachings that it would be impossible to list them all.

In being made man, Jesus gives us more than simply a wonderful and heart-touching story about Himself. He gives us Christmass and He gives us St. John, both of which, take all of God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, and feed it to us, repeatedly. For St. John has taken us on the wings of an eagle, in his gospel, shown us the beginning and the end; the alpha and the omega.

St. John, a man redeemed by Christ, has written words, in Christ, that we may believe, in Christ; that we may be baptized into Christ and that we may eat and drink of Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Through men, even becoming a man Himself, God has spoken to us of His Son Who was conceived, born on Christmass which we await through Advent, reveals Himself as the God-man in Epiphany, suffers for us in Lent, dies on Good Friday, rises again on Easter and ascends into heaven. He gives us His Holy Spirit on Pentecost and governs and keeps the true Faith in His one, holy, catholic and Apostolic Church on earth, during Trinity, to which He will come again as our judge.

Jesus is coming. Jesus comes. Jesus reveals. Jesus suffers. Jesus dies. Jesus lives again. Jesus ascends. Jesus gives. Jesus works today and will come again. This is the cycle holy Scripture presents to you and this is the cycle that the Lectionary keeps you in, year after year, in order that you hear what is written and believe that Jesus is the Christ.

The Key

The first Sunday in Advent, the King of kings humiliated Himself by riding on a donkey towards His coronation. The Second Sunday, He brought comfort by shaking the heavens and causing the seas to roil. Last Sunday, He took control by letting others control His destiny.

This Sunday, Jesus appears to cause more trouble and confusion by sending John out first, making it look like he is the one to come.  In fact, the message Jesus comes to bring so infuriates believers and non-believers alike, that all you hear can be summed up by author George Orwell when he said:

“War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength.”

In Mr. Orwell’s usage, this is a derogatory statement, meant to reveal the evils of government gone mad. Whether or not you are familiar with his book 1984, this truth still holds today. Lies sell newspapers, gain ratings, and win elections.

War is peace. The excuse goes that if we don’t fight evil overseas, soon we will find it on our own doorstep. So, the lie is that we must continue to fight fruitless, murderous wars in order to keep the world safe. That, somehow, if we send enough bombs and drones and boots on the ground, we can force the world to accept democracy and peace, or else.

Freedom is slavery. This lie says that if we don’t give up some of our liberty, we will forever be in danger and never live in peace and safety. Thus, we must allow others to control most aspects of our lives like what we say, what food we buy, and how much money and private property we can have and keep. Somehow, if everyone has an equal share, then true peace will exist and no one will steal or murder or do evil anymore.

Ignorance is strength. You can hear the talking heads drooling over their turn to denounce Christianity once again, as the true evil in the world. That the Church hides so many secrets and controls so many puppet strings, that no one who is involved knows how to think for themselves. Yet, the intellectual elites are doing the same thing to their own audiences.

Whether in the church or in society, someone always wants you dumb because that is strength; not for you, but for them. The less you know, the more likely you are to believe the next filth that drips from your betters’ mouth.

The great offense of Christmas is that it promotes these same ideas. Jesus advocates for exactly this kind of belief. The reason so many people hate Christmass and Christianity is that Jesus advocates for warfare, their slavery, and their ignorance.

To the sinner, Jesus seems to create war. He comes, as we have said, stirring up dissension. In fact that is one of the accusations the priests accuse Him of on Maundy Thursday. Jesus says things like, “Tear down this temple” and “hate your life” and “leave your father and mother behind” among other anarchist propaganda.

Jesus demands allegiance and intends to wipe out any and all opposition. But not just allegiance, worship; as in He is the master and you are the slave. You get no say, you get no vote, and you must follow His way. Jesus does not reveal everything to you, but simply says to trust Him, even though you are in ignorance.

Repent. In some ways, it is easier to swing your sword at a monster of flesh and blood than at a monster of the imagination, or propaganda. The monster of flesh and blood provides real resistance to nerve your arms. The monster of the imagination doesn’t. It is now here, now there, now this, now that, flickering in and out of existence, like the incoherent course of a dream.

Hearing God’s Word is hard enough. Seeing it made flesh is an impossible.

Yet it is a glorious impossible. The glorious impossible of an unknowable God making Himself known as a man. The glorious impossible of myth and legends coming to life in a manger, making it all true. The glorious impossible of your salvation through war, slavery, and ignorance.

War because the Son of God does battle with sin, death, and the devil. Slavery because Jesus takes on God’s will and your sin, and yet serves you eternal life, faithfully, without complaint. Ignorance, for now your sin and your guilt are no longer remembered. God has blotted them out from memory, turning a blind eye and a blind mind to all transgressions.

In Jesus, the bound donkey is released in order to serve the true Master. In Christ, you are set free from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil. Your mistaken definitions of these things are revealed as false and Jesus places true definitions in your mouth.

The human definition of war is a false corrupt thing, misapplied. It is God who fights and God who wins. Slavery is also falsely seen by you and only exists negatively because of sin. It is not horrid to bow to the will of God, in fact it is to your eternal benefit that God’s will, which is to send His Son to die for you, be done and not your own.

Then is the idea of knowledge. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is evil. What would sinful you do if God told you how the stars worked or what blue tastes like or why water is wet? In our corruption, we would corrupt such things. In God’s forbearance, He would use them as a means to an end; He would use them to accomplish your salvation.

The ideas of evil, corruption, and oppression are human ideas. They come from our flesh striving to be gods and from our minds attempting to overtake the throne.

Christ is the key to undo all of this. Christ is the key to understanding what true peace, freedom, and strength are like. Christ is the key that unlocks holy Scriptures to us in order that we find all of these things in Him alone.

For in order to be true God, He must become man, suffer and die. In order to be true man, He must be assumed into the Godhead. In order to be the Christ, Jesus must become sin in order that you will come to know no sin.

In the great reversal, the guilty are set free and the innocent is lead away to be crucified, for you. In the great and wrathful day of the Lord, Jesus dies on a cross as He alone participates in that day. On the day of the Lord’s visitation, Jesus ransoms captive Israel.

On this day, that the Lord has made, Jesus shows us the path of knowledge, gives us His Gospel, frees from Satan’s tyranny, closes the path to misery, disperses the gloomy clouds of night, and bids our sad divisions cease. Not by the sword or coercion or confusion, but by His Sacraments.

Angel-ed [Advent 3; St. Matthew 11:2-10]

Whenever you hear a word in holy Scripture like tell or message or report, it is almost always the word that literally reads: “angel”. What angel really means is message or messenger; one who has a message to tell.

The Gospel is such a message. We could even call it the message of the angels, for their only message is of Jesus. This message is what St. John was given to preach. As he was preparing the way of the Lord, he reported the Gospel message.

There are only two human reactions to the Gospel, when it is preached to you. The first is idleness and the second is violent opposition. If we remember what happens to St. John the Baptist after this, we would know that Herod liked to listen to John, but did nothing about what he said. Herodias, on the other hand, listened to John, but had John’s head served to her on a plate, for it.

That’s it. Your human condition is so utterly corrupted, that you only have those two choices, for you cannot by your own reason or strength believe or come to belief. So what is it that you do, exactly? What is your reaction to the Gospel?

Upon hearing this, you should break out in song at all times of the day, as we have been talking about on Wednesday evenings. You should be publicly confessing what you believe to everyone everyday. You should be investing all of your earthly treasure in it, looking forward to a heavenly treasure. You should have zero time to do anything else except to listen to and hear this message.

John the Baptist has the message of the angels and he speaks it to your as an angel. Rotting in prison, his sin gets the best of him. He sees Jesus not baptizing in fire, not bringing wrath, and not saving him. So, he appears to lose it.

In fact, St. Luke says that the disciples John sends come back as angels to John, meaning they come back to retell the Gospel to John in prison. They return because the Gospel needs to be preached. Comfort needs to be spoken to you.

There is nothing else in the world to hear. When the breath of the Lord blows, the grass withers and you are the grass. Your iniquity needs pardoning. Your stewardship needs to be accounted for. That which you hide in the dark recesses of your heart must be brought to light. Those who are in prison, must be freed.

You are in prison. You are a slave to your bellies and yourself. You return to the same sins that you thought had been done away with. You look for salvation in distraction yourself or in others. Finding none, you continue to look for it in those same places; again and again.

You want God in control and yet He is not controlling your life. You want your problems solved and yet they continue, endlessly. You want to love Jesus, but you find that to be one more struggle, day to day. You want out of your prison, but it would take too much of your effort and time to breakout.

Darkness is upon us all, whether we admit it or not. We would rather do nothing when we hear God’s Word, because rejecting it outright, in front of everyone, would be embarrassing.

It beats the alternative. That would be belief that all this is real; that you actually have to do something about this Jesus person. That you can’t sit idle and that rebelling against God is wrong and the fact that you must struggle with this everyday means you are not doing it.

So what do you do? Is God really just making the blind see, the lame walk, cleansing lepers, making the deaf hear, raising one or two of the dead, and speaking nicely with the poor people 200 years ago? Is this just another metaphor?

If you continue in sin, preferring your own judgments and emotions, then yes, this is all a metaphor and nothing to do with you whatsoever. However, Jesus is in control and He is doing something. That something is actually losing control and doing nothing.

Yes, Jesus loses control! This Christmas you will hear of God who is a baby; vulnerable, subject to parents, and dependent. This Lent, you will hear of the God-man who allows His enemies (you and me) to arrest Him, scourge Him, and kill Him. Jesus hands over control to you, does nothing about it, and suffers and dies.

God is in control precisely because He did not take control. God is active, because He rested in order to be handed over. Jesus preaches and shows us this on the cross, but you and John the Baptist don’t like it.

You don’t like that there is suffering, yet Jesus suffered. You don’t like that there is injustice, yet Jesus was falsely convicted. You don’t like that there is capitol punishment, yet Jesus was condemned to it. The opposite of what you and St. John want, Jesus is doing, for you all.

This is the Gospel that is continuously preached to you. Jesus releases those from the prison of their sin, death, and the power of the devil, by becoming the prisoner. Jesus heals perfectly with His true Body and Blood, by giving His Body and Blood over. Jesus forgives by allowing Himself to be the Unforgiven One upon the cross.

Jesus, the creator of the angels, brings this message of Himself to you. Because you are idle in your sin, Jesus gives His spirit which is never idle, especially when hearing the Word. Because you violently react against God in sin, Jesus takes on that violence upon Himself, almost as if He is letting you vent it all out on Him.

Giving you Faith, and by that faith alone, there is now a third Way to react to the Gospel: Rejoicing. You now rejoice in the midst of your suffering and death, because Jesus has taken their guilt and power away from you. Though they do their worst, which is kill, not even death can hold you because it could not hold Jesus.

Being baptized into Jesus, you are now where His Body is and wherever it goes. Yes, it ascends in to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, but it comes to dwell among you in the flesh. The Body of Christ gathers around the Good News of salvation, preached at this Altar and given in these sacraments.

God is not in control because your life is in control. God is in control because you find forgiveness of sins on earth. God is not acting because you feel happy. God is acting because you hear of Jesus crucified for you.

God is not working because peace in the world is growing (its not). God is working because Peace with God has been made and is being handed out for free, only in Jesus. Through faith you remain in this world to receive forgiveness. By grace you are justified in the middle of committing your sins. For Christ’s sake you are made a holy saint though you remain a sinner.

You doubt because God’s ways are not your ways and a cross looks like a horrible instrument of peace and comfort. However, the God your soul longs for, to save and commune with you, acts only in this way to remove idleness, violence, and all sin from you that you might live and hear His Word of forgiveness.

Muted song [Advent 2 Wednesday Vespers; St. Luke 1:76-79]

How many of you remember the story of the birth of John the Baptist? How St. Zacharias was struck dumb for unbelief and unable to speak even when it came time to name his very own son?

St. Elizabeth, however, was not dumb. She was still speaking and even though her husband failed to believe, she knew her son’s name and proclaimed it. But it wasn’t just John’s name she proclaimed, but the promise made to her that was fulfilled in his naming.

This promise made to Zacharias causes his mouth to open in song, that is, the Benedictus. The Church sings his song during morning prayer services.

Last week we introduced what singing in the Church should be. That it should be doctrinally sound, meaning full of Christ and His Gospel, not our actions towards God. This is for 2 reasons: 1) these are the songs of heaven and 2) in heaven, there are only songs of and about Jesus.

This does not mean you are excluded. This does not mean that you can’t enjoy and heart warming rendition of one of your favorite Christmas carols. It does mean that you should want to be very careful and specific when singing in Church, because you never know when you will be made mute.

And yet, you are mute right now. When it really comes down to it; when you are put on the spot to defend your neighbor and speak well of him, you are mute. You may talk a good game, but your heart is far from your neighbor.

Jesus tells us that it was music and song that drove away the evil spirits from the kings of Israel (1 Sam. 16:23). What does it mean when we stop singing? What does it mean that we sing any old thing in front of our crucified and risen Lord, in the flesh?

It means that in your sin, you do not have the right to sing. In sin, your only preference is for yourself and so what you bring before the Lord is only filth and rubbish. Every prayer, every song, and every confession you make should fill you with trepidation.

As is the case with Zacharias. He sided with the world and believed when it sang to him that he and Elizabeth were too old to have children. He sang the world’s song of old age and death to an angel trying to tell him differently.

You are made mute, because you do not know that the Scriptures speak only of Christ and the power within is the power of the Gospel for salvation. Worldly songs of lust, disease, and death have no part of the kingdom of heaven.

The real music your soul longs for and the true song your body aches for is the song of Christ. The Church’s song proclaims the Church’s Lord, given and shed for you. St. Isaiah says that the Lord is his strength and his song ((12:2). Dr. Luther writes that he has no one to sing and chant about but Christ, in Whom I have everything (AE 16:129).

The true music that opens St. Zacharias’ tongue is the life Jesus gave to his son and Zacharias’ response is naming that life. I’m certain that St. Zacharias, his tongue having been released from its bondage, sang a strange song all day, the only lyrics being: His name is John.

Our hymn of the Day teaches us the same thing. We cry for the Lord to open our lips into the correct song and “O Savior rend the heavens wide” is what comes out.

A savior from the heavens comes down to unlock heaven through death. True life from heaven, and yet from the virgin’s womb. True God and true man, which is why the hymn speaks of these earthly hills and dales being watered by heaven. The darkness of sin and death only last until the Fount of Hope and the Morning Star breaks upon it.

You can not sing heavenly songs if you are not heavenly people. You can not sing of Christ if you do not first have faith in Christ. From the exile of muteness, we are led to the open mouth of the baptismal font. In Christ we sing forever and forevermore.

Jesus is our only hope. If His song is not enough; If His Word is not enough; If His sacraments are not enough, then we are doomed and will be left as orphans.

However, with song we give voice to hope. With our own great hymnody, we loudly proclaim the Gospel of salvation which alone satisfies man’s deepest need: communion with the incarnate God.