At His Word [The Baptism of Jesus]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 42:1-7

• 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

• St. Matthew 3:13-17

 

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

 

Who speaks to you today saying:

“Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

 

It seems fitting, to me, that I should this day preach on snowflakes. “The snow was cold and the snow was bright and the snow was all around”. Maybe a new hymn for our hymnal.

 

No. The snowflakes I want to talk about are the political snowflakes. These are people who get triggered by certain topics immediately when they are brought up in conversation. Snowflakes are people who have been conditioned by their TVs to get offended and angry as soon as a topic is brought up, just like their shock-jocks do. They imitate and idolize.

 

For the last decade, every single political issue is tied to offense. You cannot hold a civil conversation about any important topic without losing your cool. And these topics are important and should be discussed and debated, but you can’t tell a snowflake that.

 

But that’s just the civil and political realm, right? Nothing like that happens when you talk about Jesus. Just try bringing up baptism, and there’d be no snow left in Garrett County. 

But what’s so offensive about Baptism that makes everyone lose their minds?

 

Baptism does that on purpose. John the Baptist says, a few verses before today’s Gospel reading, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12). The difference between the wheat and the chaff is faith. Faith to be able to submit yourself to God’s way of doing things.

 

For example, in 2 Kings 5, there is the event of Naaman. He was a great general in the Syrian army. The Syrians were enemies of Israel and often warred, later to be completely conquered by the Assyrian kingdom. Regardless, Naaman is an enemy. An enemy who had leprosy, yet is highly favored by his king. His king then sends him to Israel, to the Prophet Elisha, who he is told would cure the leprosy.

 

When Naaman arrives at Elisha’s location, Elisha does not come out. Instead, Elisha sends a messenger. Offense number 1. He tells him to wash in the Jordan river 7 times and he’ll be saved. Offense number 2. The Jordan is the dirtiest river in the region. Offense number 3. Elisha did not come out and put on a show. Offense number 4. 

 

Let’s return to John the Baptist for a moment. John the Baptist is melting Jewish snowflakes left and right, by his preaching. “Brood of vipers” is the title of one of his sermons. Maybe an upcoming title in this pulpit. Just sayin.

 

Anyways, the snowflake offender becomes the offended. Jesus doesn’t approach John with arguments, or rebuttals, or gotchyas, like the Jews did. Jesus just comes to be baptized like everyone else was and He is rudely accosted, prevented from doing what everyone else was already doing. John the Snowflake says, “I need to be baptized by you” not vice versa.

 

In other words, “Its supposed to be awesome”. “Its supposed to be fire and Spirit and throw your hands in the air”. Its not supposed to be me, its supposed to be God the Chosen One. Its not supposed to be Jordan-river-filthy-water. Its supposed to be special…man…

 

Man indeed. Man, because you are from man. And now “as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman” (1 Cor 11:12). God has made us physical creatures. He has given us our body and soul, eyes, ears, and all our members and still takes care of them. 

 

And still takes care of them in faith as well. That is if we need words of encouragement, He gives us the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, by mouth and ear. If we need to be fed, He gives us daily bread AND His Body and Blood for lips, mouths, and stomachs. 

 

If we need to be washed, cleansed, sanctified, renewed, regenerated, lifted up in His Image, then He gives water for hands and head, not just feet. 

 

He does not forsake His creation, but continues to use and care for it, as well, that it may be the tool and vehicle for our salvation, who, lest ye forget, are also part of His Creation. You cannot separate yourself from yourself and claim some sort of superior, transcendent status, when you are made with dust.

 

You cannot say that one or the other is more important, spiritual vs. physical, because you cannot separate or distinguish between the two. What happens to your soul happens to your body. What happens to your body, happens to your soul. 

 

Especially for the reason that God Himself has a rational body and soul. “Let it be so for now”, Jesus says. What is for now? Just when He’s walking around with His disciples? No. Now means now, even as we say it today. Jesus means that now the time of salvation will be ushered in by the Baptism of God in the Jordan river, with no fireworks, no show, and no fire.

 

Does your baptism get to be more specialer than Jesus’s baptism?

 

“Let it be so for now, to fulfill”, Jesus continues. Fulfill means so much more than prophesies. Yes, Jesus is fulfilling prophesies about Him from the Old Testament, but He is also completing them, perfecting them. He brings them to their purpose, to their conclusion.

 

What Jesus fulfills today is the washing that Ezekiel spoke of (36:25), but also the Flood and the Red Sea. Jesus could have saved Noah and his family any number of different ways, but He chose an Ark and He chose a flood. Not just because wood floats, even very small rocks do that, but because it looks like baptism.

 

Why didn’t Israel get to walk over the Red Sea, or on the water as Jesus did, or on some magnificent bridge of light? Because going through water is how you baptize, not going over it. This is fulfillment, completion, perfect. How many times must the earth be flooded or how many times must we wash or pass through the Red Sea ourselves, until we receive God’s favor?

 

In fulfillment, you ride the Ark through the Flood, with Noah, by Baptism. In the completion of prophesy, you walk through he Red Sea, with the true Israel, by Baptism. And in Jesus is the greatest and only fulfillment. Which means that, even though it would be cool to ride the Ark or walk through walls of water, the greater show, the more majestic act, the climax of all God’s speaking and teaching, lies in the baptismal font of His Church.

 

As Jesus completely says, “Let it be so for now in order to fulfill all righteousness”. Jesus does not use His words flippantly. If all righteousness is being fulfilled by His Baptism, then all righteousness is being fulfilled, completed, perfected by His Baptism, thus saith the Lord.

 

And if all that is in baptism, how can we be included like John? Well, we do not have to go to the Jordan, dig up John’s bones, and put on a play. “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”, says St. Peter who was there (2 Pet 1:19).

 

Even St. Peter concludes that his experiences with Jesus pale in comparison to Word and Sacrament. We have the Word. The Word which does not lie. The Word which cannot be broken. The Word the endures for ever. The Word that speaks and they are created.

 

“It is not plain water” that accomplishes such great things says our catechism, “but the word of God which is in and with the water, and the faith, which trusts this word of God in the water. For without the Word of God the water is plain water and no baptism. But with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost.”

 

In our sin, we cringe from the idea that God must be reduced, or must reduce Himself, to using such things as water, bread, wine, words. But in faith, we believe that this is the show, this is the transcendent moment, this is the spiritual climax, when we hear and believe.

 

Hear the promises of God, made to us, through water and His Word, and believe that by His Word, we too have the forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, and eternal salvation” by grace, for Christ’s sake, through Faith. 

 

“For in [this Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” alone (Rom 1:17). To all who believe this, God grants the fulfillment of His Word, as the words and promises of God declare. 

 

God does not place His salvation out of reach, far in the past, or so high above us. He creates earth, works it out on earth, and keeps it on earth, because that is where He placed us. In order that we might find Him near. “And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes” (Ez 36:23), the Lord declares, not as we declare.

 

 

No other gods [The Epiphany]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 60:1-6

• Ephesians 3:1-12

• St. Matthew 2:1-12

 

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

 

Who speaks to you today saying:

“behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’”

 

Epiphany is here, recorded in God’s Word, in order to show the completion and fulfillment of His First Commandment. That God has made for himself a graven image and likeness to be worshipped by us. In order that, not only do we point to Jesus against all other false gods, but invite our neighbors to the God Who Shows Himself.

 

There were, maybe 42 kings total, for Israel and Judah up to the Babylonian exile. Post-exile, there was never a real return to kingship, until the Maccabees and their descendants seemed to be forced into the role following Alexander the great, then the coming Romans.

 

In other words, Herod was no true king of David’s line. Even the dynasty before him only came from a line of priests, allegedly. Herod was a puppet of the Roman state, promising allegiance if they would give him the title “king of the jews”. His family came from Edom, the sons of Esau, which gave up the faith way back in Isaac’s time. 

 

“Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe:”, the Lord says in Psalm 60:8.

 

In other words, when the wise guys from the east, announced they were looking for a king, we can be quite confident that they were not searching for a regular king. Not only was there corruption in the current kingship, but there would have been enough kings of the past to be excited over. Nostalgia, if you will. Why this “king”? Why now?

 

The entire world seeks after “god”, though they don’t admit it. Either they want the highest power to approve them and their choices, over and against you, or they want to have the power themselves and claim some sort of transcendence which qualifies them as the authority, not you. 

 

“they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”, says the Lord in Romans 1:25. We’ll get to what that truth is in a moment, but first, false gods are a lie. We must lie to ourselves and choose objects of wood, stone, or flesh to pretend to be gods for us.

There is nothing else. 

All lifestyles are religious lifestyles.

 

When we think about “having other gods”, as our 1st Command speaks to, we usually think of the “golden calf” incident. If that’s the only idols we have to be worried about then that’s easy. Those stupid Hebrews. How silly of them to think that a gold statue was god. Ha-ha.

 

Not so fast. The idea was from God. Before Aaron made the golden calf, it had already been prescribed that bulls would be used to offer atonement before God for all sins. So what better to remind and teach of that than a golden calf, a pure, eternal symbol of that atonement? Very logical.

 

But Aaron says, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”, in Exodus 32:4. The mighty God Who performed all those wonders in the face of everyone. And He’s a calf and not a mature, strong bull?? Who’s idea was that? 

 

If we’re going to make gods for ourselves, they better be the epitome of strength. Like the Hindu’s Shiva, with four arms, or Vishnu with four or possibly more! Who knows? Or better yet, the Egyptians with their half-animals, because animals are fiercer and stronger than humans. Or maybe we make the humanoid gods, like the Olympians, and just make them super-strong. 

 

Or best of all, and this is where we are today, we just say that our gods are beyond all description and beyond all perception. We can’t even comprehend them, so don’t even try to ask questions about them or think too hard. We can’t even depict them in art or statues in order to relate to them, so don’t even try or we’ll cut your hand off.

 

In fact, best to worship either in silence or an empty room. Emptiness is best, because then you really feel your insignificance and the feebleness of your senses. And that’s the lesson you pay for. As long as you don’t disagree with the one preaching, you will be fine. I mean, really. How can you question the unquestionable?

 

Repent. So what do Christians do? We adopt this very same program. We kidnap God out of His heaven and demand Him to be ponderable as we stare at blank walls, infinite geometric patterns, or our own mirrors. We violently bring God down and declare “He is unlike”, but accessible for the right fee. 

 

In a room with nothing but white walls, what do you think about? How do you worship? Just because there is nothing around, does not mean you are fulfilling the first commandment on your own. Your “nothing” becomes your god and the nothing is filled with you and your self-worship.

 

How the Lord Jesus puts an end to this sinful nonsense is, He shows up. He shows up, not as the full-grown, powerful bull, but the son of the bull, the calf. The Son, The Holy One. It is this Messenger from God Who will fulfill God’s own righteousness. 

 

At the official installation of Aaron as High Priest, he was ordered to prepare a calf for his sin offering, to make atonement for himself and for the people he was to preach to and teach. Every other sin offering commanded was of adult bulls, except this first one for Aaron. Why?

 

Because, it was no adult appearing suddenly from heaven who would save the people from their sins and rule over their atonement. It was to be a child, The Son of the Most High, as Gabriel put it (Luke 1:32). And even the Hebrews, fresh from Egypt knew it. The Father was not going to come down, bringing His death-inducing lightning and fire, from atop the mountain. He would send a man, first foreshadowed by Moses, then in the flesh in Jesus.

 

It would be no golden scepter, golden idol, or golden boy that would appear for the magi to worship, but the Father’s Son Himself, God and man, Jesus Christ. The Hebrews almost got it right. Herod wanted himself to be right no matter what, and we want to be right of ourselves. Yet, that sinfulness only gets us part of the way to understanding.

 

We seek power, God seeks service. We seek infinity, God hides in finitude. We want the unexplainable, God draws near to speak His own truth. “Come now”, says the Almighty in Isaiah 1:18, “and let us reason together”. How do you reason with God, if not face to face with mouths and voices? 

 

And what does the almighty wish to discuss with His sinful creatures? Wrath? Judgement? Who is greatest among you? He continues in Isaiah, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool, thus saith the Lord”.

 

The Lord wants to speak of atonement and He wants your attention focused on the Atonement Himself: Jesus. In order to accomplish that, He has given you such a brain that you can imagine scenes in your head that you have never witnessed. Someone can tell you about an event you were never at, and you can see it in your head.

 

And seeing it in your head you can believe what is said to you, because you can relate to the witness. Jesus comes in the flesh, your own flesh that you recognize on Him: 2 eyes, ten fingers, eleven toes…

 

And seeing God in the flesh, then gives strength to your belief. That because He is man, he is trustworthy and believable. If He were a triangle, He’d be suspicious. If He had ten arms, He’d be feared, but not loved. If He was invisible, of what use He to the visible?

 

God gives your mind focus. When you hear of the Golden Calf, you scoff, because you know that a golden calf doesn’t look like Jesus. When you hear of the “king of the jews”, you know Herod isn’t Jesus. When you come to Church and hear of light, scenes you’ve never seen, and a statue of the man Jesus, you know you don’t worship all this, but you also know that this is probably what it looks like right now.

 

Instead of having to fabricate a graven image for yourself, or pretend you don’t have any, God gives you His image and likeness. When you stare at a blank wall, or blank canvas, or blank cross your mind goes blank and tries to fill in the blank, all with disastrous, sinful results. 

 

God puts His Body in front of you so that there is no question Who we are seeking and Who we are worshipping. It is Jesus, the Crucified. Born of the Virgin, pierced by nail and spear, and buried only to rise again with those holy wounds intact. 

 

God describes Himself in such detail, that you can imagine Him, draw Him, and picture Him. God allows Himself to be investigated in such a way. He is not lessened because He is pictured, like Allah or Mohammed. Instead, He is glorified because of what He has done.

 

For our images of our Lord are not arbitrary. In fact, we would have no idea who it is that is front and center on our Altar were it not for His wounds. The image tells a heavenly story. We would not know the who or what of any other depiction we have in Church, were it not for the Word of God describing it in such detail that there is no doubt.

 

It is a sin to say that God is indescribable, if it means that Jesus must be thrown out. And if you are involved with people who are trying to get you to believe that that is God’s main feature, that is a false religion of the devil. “Who’s to say what god really says”, they teach, “he’s indescribable. Just believe me, bro.”

 

It is good, right, and true to seek the Crucified Who retained the description of His wounds even in His resurrection. His Body is proof and He puts it in front of you. And this is the Truth about God: that He can be found in His earthly Sacraments, just as He was found in earthly trappings by the Magi. 

 

They sought Him on earth and brought Him earthly gifts, and they were accepted by Jesus Himself! God made man. The Word Made Flesh. Discoverable, knowable, describable and able to be handled by His people through faith, by Grace, for Christ’s sake alone.

 

 

Blood train [Christmass 1]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 11:1-5

• Galatians 4:1-7

• St. Luke 2:33-40

 

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

 

Merry 5^th day of Christmass in which we ponder our Lord’s words from His Gospel, saying:

“Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

 

The world has no use for Christmass. Sure, it loves getting to Christmass, but Christmass and its 12 days? None. 

 

Why is that? Because, once the Lord Jesus is born to bring peace between men and God, violence ensues. That is, as soon as the Christ Child is found to be a threat, an inconvenience, just a clump of cells Who will potentially overturn our sinful world, we begin, in our sin, to reject Him. As we sing, “He prayed for those who did the wrong - Who follows in His train?” (LSB 661).

 

Who follows in the Christmas train? On the 2nd Day of Christmass, the Church celebrates St. Stephen, the first martyr. What follows Christmass is the blood of a martyr, the first after the Resurrection of Jesus. We celebrate St. Stephen not just to bless the poor, but to bless the poor of the world. The poor that the world judges so poor, that it must be rid of them, to death.

 

The third day of Christmass is St. John. St. John is a martyr that lived to old age. That’s not a martyr, you say? Well, all of St. John’s life is one of a martyr. He embodied the “living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1) Jesus spoke of. You could say a martyr’s life is easy, being able to die quickly. Spending your entire life as one, would be the hardest.

 

The 4th Day is the Day of the Holy Innocents. This appears to be the most tragic feast day in the Christmass season, but only in the world’s eyes. And even they are hypocritical, for while they would hate God for allowing such a tragedy to happen, they will also say, in the same breath, its good those babies got out of this world before more suffering happened to them. They are the lucky ones.

 

We mention these who follow the Lord after His Nativity, because of St. Simeon’s cryptic words to St. Mary in today’s Gospel: “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35). No, St. Mary will not die in a duel, however cool that would have been. The sword has to do with the “thoughts from many hearts”. So it is not a knights and armor “sword”.

 

She is also not in danger of losing her soul, she is in danger of being divided because of her Son. The sword will divide her very being, because she will be faced with a decision. Will she be troubled, as she was in front of Gabriel, at the statement of faith that her son is God in the flesh? Or will she submit and humble herself under the belief that the way of Jesus is the way of blood?

 

Hear this prophesy about Jesus, from Ezekiel:

“And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’” (Ez 16:4-6)

 

It is the natural way, that a baby is born in blood. Most of it is the mother’s, but in the umbilical cord is some of his own. So we can play God’s Word off as Him just being sensitive to the perils of childbirth. We can even stoop down to metaphors again, and shrug it off as St. Simeon’s commentary on the struggles of raising children, moreso that St. Mary has Jesus.

 

However, when we see blood, we see death. You do not walk into crime scene with blood and think, “Oh everyone is fine”. You do not walk into a hospital emergency room, surgery room, or delivery room with all that blood and say, “There’s nothing dangerous going on here”.

 

Blood means death. St. Mary is lucky to be alive, having delivered in a stable, and yet we have survived giving birth in similar, poor conditions. Now, we are so spoiled we can’t imagine anything but a hospital. Hospitals are wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but they are not omnipotent.

 

At this point of danger, we can say that even Jesus’s birth was a miracle of survival. Trust in God and faith beyond measure. And what was on hand to swaddle Him? Only what they used for His delivery. Bloodied, swaddling cloths. This is what set Him apart and why the angels were able to use the swaddling clothes as a marker, for the shepherds in the fields. They were covered in blood.

 

Listen to Hebrews 9:

“For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,  saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.’  And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. ²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Heb 9:19-22)

 

The world wants your blood. “Blood, sweat, and tears”, as the saying goes, and there is nothing to be gained in this world without them. We may think we have sanitized them, in our modern way of doing things, but we cannot get away from our own blood and what’s required to keep it.

 

Jesus is born in blood. Wrapped in it that His people might find Him. Even today, if you look for Jesus, you must find the Blood. There is no other way to the Son, and the Son is the only way to the Father. 

 

Does God bleed? In Christ, He does. The sacrifices made in the Temple, where Jesus is in Today’s Gospel, proves this. His circumcision, which Jesus is receiving, shows this. But the sacrifices and circumcisions were all shadows and pale in comparison to the Lamb of God. Because, God says, “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your entire being, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:11).

 

Our blood can die, it stops moving. God’s Blood can die and come back to life again, so that it never stops moving. In Jesus, the life is in the blood. If St. Mary believes the Word and says “Amen” to life being found in Jesus’s Blood, she will have passed the sword’s test, and be united to her Lord through Faith alone.

 

If St. Stephen and the Holy Innocents believe that the Blood flowing through their veins is no longer theirs, but Christ’s Who Lives, then they will never die. If St. John can but hold out for one lifetime, trusting in the Promises of Jesus, that His will is a life of martyrdom, living the mundane and being holy, and remaining in that Promise until He comes again, then the Body and Blood is for St. John.

 

This, then, remains, in the Christmass Train of our Lord, not footprints or a foot path, but Himself; Body and Blood. No longer on the swaddling clothes, the Living Blood of the Living Christ now flows through His Church, as He promised, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:27-28)

 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus, right? Right. His Blood to save. His Blood to wash. His Blood to feed. And He cares for His blood as a head cares for the body. Where it goes He goes and where it dwells He dwells. Not even death can separate Him from His Blood, for when He sees you in His Blood, He says to you “Live!”

 

Even though the double-edged sword of His Word pierce you and divide you from your sin, you will live. Even though it judge you, and your thoughts in your heart be revealed to be sinful and short of the mark, and you cannot rise to Him. 

 

He comes from on high to you. He does not keep His Blood in heaven. it is housed on earth in His holy house, which He has made holy for Himself, by His Blood. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9).

 

And today, if you seek Him, you will find Him in the same way the shepherds did: wrapped in blood, clothed in flesh, given and shed for you.

 

 

Songs found in flesh [Advent 4]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 18:15-19

• Philippians 4:4-7

• St. John 1:19-28

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                  

Who speaks to us on this last Sunday before His Nativity, saying,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

 

With these words, we come to the conclusion of what we have been pondering these Sundays in Advent: what are our hymns we sing? The conclusion we will reach today is the same conclusion our God and Lord reached in His work, that our songs are human. 

 

One of the reasons God includes John the Baptist in His Word is because he gets to see God. “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” (Jn 14:9), Jesus says. John, in his sinful flesh, with his sinful eyes, his corrupt heart and everything else is made able to focus on God, on earth, and find Him. That is one of the significant parts to the Faith, the belief that God comes down from heaven to commune with us in Church and we can find Him.

 

The first Sunday in Advent we heard that our songs’ only purpose is to teach what we need to know of Jesus to be saved eternally. The only reason they are around, really. The second Sunday sought to show that, because of this sole purpose, they become our weapons against the darkness. They exorcise our demons and sin daily, simply because they teach of Christ.

 

The third Sunday showed our hymns are heaven’s own songs and have heaven’s own authority behind them, provided they uphold their primary purpose. We sing heaven’s songs and thereby have heaven’s own blessings as they sing to us of Christ.

 

Today, our songs are human. I don’t mean that the origin of our songs is human and whatever we come up with is fitting and faithful, just because it comes from inside us humans. What I mean is a mystery. That we can find these eternal, heavenly songs on the lips and in the hearts of temporal, earthly people and that they still do God’s own work.

 

This leads us to the Source of all and His greatest mystery given to us: that there is one Jesus, but two natures to Him, God and man. And that in that God-man, God and man are also made one. This is the beginning of understanding the sacraments. That God chooses to accomplish His work among us through earthly means.

 

Here we should stop and ponder, for the rest of our lives, just what it means that God’s Words come out of our mouths and that He has chosen, in His infinite wisdom, to utilize the finite in His greatest work of all time: salvation.

 

The Holy Spirit does not work apart from Word and Sacrament, the means of grace.

One of the distinct differences between confessional Lutheranism on one hand, and protestantism, charismatics, and fundamentalists on the other is the rejection of this truth. That the Spirit works through the Means of Grace, alone. He chooses to do so. The Spirit does not work through dreams, visions, inner feelings. The Spirit works through the Word of God. 

 

In order to not be sent to the hell of fire, Jesus says you must hear “Moses and the prophets” in St. Luke 16:29. There is the promise that “Faith comes by hearing [with human ears], and hearing by the Word of God” in Romans 10:17. Be born again . . . by the Word of God, says St. Peter (1 Peter 1:23). 

And St. Paul, “from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15) 

 

We must face facts. Salvation is not found high in the heavens or some other far-off place, to be reached by good intentions or holy pilgrimages. Holiness is not on the heights, as in the further from earth we get the holier we are. True Righteousness is still not self-righteousness. 

 

God’s Work is now done on earth, through men. “I am a God Who is near, not far off”, He says in Jeremiah 23:23. St. James is not being facetious when he records, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (4:8).

 

How can you draw near to God if He first does not lower Himself? Elisha proves that this is accomplished through our songs. In 2 Kings 3:15, he says, “’bring me a musician.’ Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him” and he prophesied.

All of the Psalms are written for the musicians to play and the singers to sing and the people to believe.

 

Why? Because men are controlled by music. The entire mood of a room can change with one song. With one song, a tragic scene in a movie can be changed into an uplifting scene. Perspectives, emotions, thoughts. All can be brought under the swing of swings.

 

Dr. Luther says:

“Experience makes it clear that, after the Word of God, music alone deserves to be celebrated as mistress and queen of the emotions of the human heart. By these emotions, men are controlled and often swept away as by their masters. I can’t think of any higher praise of music than this: for if you want to revive the sad, startle the jovial, humble the conceited, pacify the raving, mollify the hate-filled, what can you find that is more effective than music? The Holy Spirit Himself honors it as a means that He uses in His work. He testifies in the Holy Scriptures that His gifts came upon the prophets through music, compelling them to all the virtues, and drives out satan.

This is why the fathers want nothing more closely linked to God’s Word, than music. From this arise so many hymns and psalms in which the music and singing act upon the heart of the hearer at the same time.” (Savior of the nations come; What Luther says, 982:3103)

 

Repent.

We come to hold dear these sheepish viewpoints that most things in our lives are neutral. They are neither good nor bad. Math and music are examples. We believe that it only effects those who let it affect them. You don’t have to listen to music you don’t want to, so there’s no danger. 

 

Then, in sinful cognitive dissonance we forget our history lessons. That the Bolsheviks in Russia targeted churches first and one of the main laws imposed was “no singing”. Even our recent history shows this, when one of the first executive ordinances that came down for Corvid was “no singing”.

 

Singing spreads disease. Out of the heart springs all sorts of evil, and we package it in beautiful harmony, put it under the tree, and call it good, lying to ourselves. Singing can also spread the disease of joy and truth and freedom. However, a new heart is needed if a new song is to be sung.

 

In the birth of Jesus, He wants us to see His will to unite His divinity with our humanity. Not that humanity is ours and we made it ourselves, but that it is a gift from Jesus. And He made us for a purpose. One, so that He could show His love to us and two so that through us, He could bring about that love, in His Holy Incarnation.

 

So it is, that when we get to John the Baptist’s story in our Gospel reading, we find the Jews looking for a man. And they even ask John, straight up, if he is the Messiah, expecting the man to answer in the positive. So they could kill him, of course, but still, looking for a human.

 

When God gives us singing, it is to sing with Him, as we are. We are His creation, His creatures. We are created for His purposes and His religion. And that religion is a religion of love, joy, and peace. The world does not have a corner on the market of good songs, though we may think so. It may be we just need to adjust our thinking on what our singing is, to enjoy what the Church has given us.

 

The world’s song is always off-key. It is in constant dissonance with the Lord’s Song. For one, because it is self-righteous, and for two, because it does not bow to the Word made flesh and His salvation found in fleshly Word and Sacrament. It never crosses the sinners’ mind that heavenly songs are to teach of God’s earthly Church.

 

And so, the Church’s hymns, that She passes down through the ages, teach this. They teach of Christ and what we are to sing in order to be saved. Those notes of forgiveness then remove from us all evil thoughts, causing satan to flee from the joy of those Saved. The angels join in the earthly choir, because God was made man, born to you in the City of David.

 

When heaven joins earth in singing God’s New Song, redemption is won. Not because we sing our story, but because we sing His story. And His is the story of death and resurrection. 

Again from Dr. Luther:

“A new miracle deserves a new song, thanksgiving, and preaching. The new miracle is that God, through His Son, has parted the real, Red, Dread Sea and has redeemed us from the real pharaoh, satan. This is singing a new song, that is, the holy Gospel, and thanking God for it. God help us to do so. Amen. (A Mighty Fortress; What Luther says, 982:3100)

 

The new miracle is the resurrection of the body, the earthly body. The Body that suffers through sin, death, and the power of the devil. The body that fails. The body that gets sick and ages. The body that God made Himself, and has, Himself. 

 

Because salvation begins with sinners, with the enemies of God. And God creates this mercy with our human fore-fathers, that we, in our own bodies, may be authorized to sing His Word and by it, inherit eternal life, in Christ.

 

 

The Canticles of Christmass [Wednesday Vespers

 Two in Advent, one in Christmas, our saints Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon give us words to ponder and sing as we wait for the coming of God on earth. We devote ourselves to their words, authorized to be God's own Word, this Advent.

St. Mary's Magnificat

Readings:

    1 Samuel 1:27-2:10

    St. Luke 1:39-56

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Who speaks to us, even this evening, as we hear from our Epistle reading:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people”

 
These few Wednesdays before Christmass, we will focus on song, specifically the songs or canticles of Christmass. Those would be the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis.
 
Just as we saw a parallel between Palm Sunday and the First Sunday in Advent, the parallels continue this evening as we hear from St. Hannah and St. Mary and their songs to teach us of Christ. We call them parallels, but we may as well see them for what they are: prophesies.
 
Prophesies don’t just predict the future in a 1 to 1 ratio, as in exactly how things will happen. Though part of a prophesy, the main force of prophesy is to, you guessed it: teach Christ! And Hannah, from 1 Samuel does not stray from this path.
 
Hannah is a virgin, though not a pure virgin as St. Mary was, for Hannah is married. Scriptures would call her a virgin because her womb is barren. A barren womb is a virgin womb, even in a marriage, because no children have come out. It is based on children, not adult activity.
 
The fact that Hannah’s husband had more than one wife is also disconcerting but telling. God does not allow polygamy; one man, one wife. Yet the Lord does His work in spite of our sin. Hannah is the favorite wife, regardless, because the Lord sees through to the inner man and chooses the lowly to confound the wise.
 
Samuel’s conception and birth parallel Jesus, because they show forth Jesus. The miraculous birth. The despised character. The handing over to God for Service. 
 
All of this was in St. Mary’s heart when she was inspired by the Holy Spirit to sing her magnificent song. Not only is Hannah, and all the Old Testament, St. Mary’s family and history, but it continued on to her. Even her mother was named after Hannah.
 
All to get her, and us, to Christmass. To get us to the Magnificat, the magnification of the entire human being in God. for that is St. Mary’s opening as she sings, “My being magnifies the Lord”. Not just her soul, which we have separated from our bodies, in error, but body and soul in one St. Mary. 
 
How is it that a sinful being exalts, and lifts on high, the Lord of all? 
It is to that very being that God desires to dwell. In that very being Himself: God made man. Above every other thing in creation, God chooses man and becomes man, in order to redeem man and unite man to Himself.
 
To this, St. Mary sings and magnifies to teach us. And she sings on:
her spirit doesn’t just rejoice, but it rejoices physically. A leaping spirit rises when her Savior draws near to forgive her sins and give her God’s own righteousness, in her body, which He has looked upon, and its state of humiliation, and caused all generations to call her “Blessed Mother, Mary”.
 
For the Mighty One has done to her great things; caused her to bear God Almighty, holy is His Name of Jesus Who will reign in triumph from a tree. In this wise, His Mercy does extend from generation to generation, as opposed to His judgement, felt by Hannah. For those who fear Him do not fear punishment, but renunciation instead of annunciation.
 
He has shown strength with His pierced and scourged arm and has scattered and offended the super-shiny spiritualists in their deep thoughts of heart; those who believe they are super-spiritual and need no body for God to save. 
 
“He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly”. There is only one throne: God’s. He casts Himself down to men to become sin Who knew no sin, thus becoming the lowly of the lowly, the last, the least, in order to exalt sinful humanity, redeemed by His Blood.
 
And now, my favorite stanza from God’s Mother: “He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent empty away.”
It is not just the multiplication of loaves or the preservation of our own pantries, it is the preserving power of His own Word, which is food indeed. Which at first seems ignorant of God. We need food to survive. Starvation is no laughing matter and it is not staved off by words. But now they are. He still takes care of our tables if we trust in Him, but now He sets His own table.
 
And the board, there, is never ending. Never ending, now that He has kicked out the rich. It is the rich’s table He makes available to us, just as He did for His people to the Promised land. Land they did not build on or work in, but received nonetheless. 
 
And Who is rich, but the Lord? He kicks Himself out from His own table, suffering and dying, that we might have a place set for us there, in His Name. Jesus is the rich God-man, sent empty away to the cross, that sinner would find favor in God’s sight and invitation to His table.
 
This is St. Mary’s hope and teaching. That she, lowly as she is, has a seat at the table, laden with her Savior, for her. This is Hannah’s teaching, that she has been chosen out of the highly regarded to sit at the feast of “Bearing the Son”. 
 
This Gospel is then given to our fathers and to Abraham, to pass on, to teach to the next generation. To tell of the works of the Lord, not just the flashy ones, but the humble ones. Being born to no pomp and circumstance. Maturing to no fanfare or fame. Suffering and dying as a lowly criminal.
 
Jesus, the Seed, maintains His own Word, forever. It endures because He endures. The table is full because He is full. His Church and those Who believe are chosen and invited, and in their being there, at His Church, He is magnified, for His work is complete. His great and awesome wonder of rescuing sinful man from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
 
And this will not change, just as St. Mary’s song will not change, neither will St. Hannah’s. Because they endure, we are confident that His Promises endure along with them. Thus, we sing St. Mary’s song, over and over again, to remind ourselves and to leap for joy at the mention of Jesus Christ, our Crucified and risen Lord.
 
And the song goes on…

St. Zechariah's Benedictus

Readings:

    1 Samuel 16:14-23

    Colossians 3:10-17

    St. Luke 1:57-80

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Who speaks to us, even this evening, in St. Zechariah’s song:

“Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel”

 
That is, the Lord, the God of Israel is Blessing itself. So tonight, we sing with St. Zechariah and once again reveal Who it is that is saving us and Who it is that is fighting for us.
 
Just as Scripture says “God is Love”, so too “God is Blessing”. And St. Zechariah goes on to explain why this is: because He has visited and created atonement just for His people. That is why Jesus is the Blessing from Whom all blessings flow.
 
We mention this to bring to light one of the strange things about prophesy. That it has one foot in the now and one foot in the not yet. At the same time it speaks of things happening now, it also hides in its words things that are to come, and not necessarily just predicting the future.
 
If we listen to St. Zechariah’s words, we can clearly see, on the surface, that he is just uttering a thankful hymn to his Redeemer in light of his miraculous, newborn son and that he can speak again. Maybe he knows he speaking prophesy, maybe not. It was St. Luke that wrote his song down, not St. Zechariah, but I’m sure St. Zechariah had it memorized.
 
Over half of his hymn is simply speaking about Who God is and what He has done. “Has” done. As in, that all happened in the past and there has been no appearance of God, in that way, since. Until the angel appeared to St. Zechariah during Church.
 
This is the problem that even many Christians today, struggle with. They read their Bibles and all they hear is past and future. “If only God would come and punish evil like the old days” or “if only God would hurry up and establish His kingdom on earth”. For those with a certain, non-sacramental, worldview, God does not act now, because it doesn’t look like He is acting now.
 
So we make excuses for Him. “That’s not how God works” or “its just not your time” or something similar, excusing God for His apparent inactivity in our lives. Which in turn, makes God too small to have faith in.
 
Though some Christians will leave themselves at that point of prophesy, St. Zechariah with God’s Word, does not stop there. Zechariah introduces a child into the song, which he and we think is John the Baptist, his newly born son. 
 
And because of the miraculous way John was brought into the world, Zechariah rightly ascribes godly works and aspirations to the beginning of his son’s life. Because of such a blessing, Zechariah is caught up in the Spirit of Blessing and the joy for his son spills over into Joy for another Son.
 
Our first clue is when St. Zechariah mentions David. He does not say David is just a servant, but the Blessed One’s child! Just as St. Zechariah repeats it at “You, child shall be called the prophet of the most high”. Of course this is John the Baptist, as Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mt 11:11).
 
But it is more than the Baptist. Which means, John the Baptist is only a shadow of the child to come, just as King David was a shadow. A shadow of the true child, the true Atonement, and the true prophet Who brings God’s own forgiveness to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, not just Zechariah and Elizabeth.
 
This is the full force of St. Zechariah’s song and it retains this same force when sung by us today. The force of crying out for Jesus to be our Prophet, Priest, and King. To bring His Blessings to us. To deliver us from our enemies and give us His Atonement for our sins.
 
This Advent, it is well for us to ponder the depths of prophesy that we don’t understand and realize that St. Zechariah can be singing about past, present, and future all at once, because it is God’s Word and God’s Word is eternal, outside time. So Zechariah can be singing about God’s actions in the past, God’s actions in the future, and God’s actions right now.
 
In fact, God’s Word is of such power that today, if we hear Him, we can have exactly the same fulfillment of prophesy that St Zechariah had and the same singing of prophesy as he did. For God gives us His word to sing, along with Zechariah, using the same words. And since these words confess His Son, Jesus Christ, we can find that same Jesus, in Church, communing and singing with His people on earth.
 
Once again, in song, we find the military might of Jesus Christ Who desires to give us His Holy Spirit by His Word alone and fights to break and hinder every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.
 
For the chief power of Christ, for us, is forgiveness. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is life, light, and salvation. The Holy Spirit Himself honors [His Church’s songs] as a means that He uses in His work. He testifies in the Holy Scriptures that His gifts came upon the prophets through music, compelling them to all the virtues, as seen in Elijah’s case. Using music drives out satan, as the example of Saul’s shows. ((Savior of the nations come; What Luther says, 982:3103)
 
And the song goes on…

St. Simeon's Nunc Dimittis

Readings:

      2 Kings 3:10-20

    1 Corinthians 14:13-20

    St. Luke 2:22-32

 

 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Who speaks to us, even this evening, in St. Zechariah’s song:

“Nunc Dimittis servum tuum, Domine”

 

Quoting St. Simeon, that is: “Now Dismiss, now forgive, Thy servant, O Lord”

To unveil a standing mystery in the Church’s Divine Service, for you perhaps. What the heck is a nunc dimittis?! 

 

Among those mysterious names in the Divine Service are the “Kyrie”, “Gloria in Excelsis”, “Alleluia”, “Sanctus”, “Hosanna”, “Pax Domini”, “Agnus Dei”, and “Benediction”. And even if I were to translate those titles for you into English, they would still require more explanation. Why do we use them? Where did they come from? What does this mean?

 

When we ask these questions of our songs from heaven, we get closer to a non-answer, than anything else. Non-answer because there is no real answer. We have found in their words, a mystery.

 

How ridiculous. Mysteries in this day and age? The only mysteries we have are murders and who-dun-its. There is nothing under the sky that we have not delved our science into and brought to rational light. 

 

Do not be deceived. There are things that true science cannot explain, and if they attempt it, they must dive into the realm of religion to do so.

 

Some examples:

First, logical and mathematical truths cannot be proven by science. Science needs logic and math to be true beforehand, in order to work. Trying to prove them by science would be arguing in a circle

 

Second, metaphysical truths, like there are other minds other than my own or that the external world is real or that the past was not created 5 minutes ago with an appearance of age, are rational beliefs we have that cannot be scientifically proven. Though it is interesting when we try, it is philosophy and religion which explains these things.

 

Thirdly, ethical beliefs about statements of value are not accessible by the scientific method. Meaning, you cannot show that evolution has purpose. You can't show, by science, whether the Nazi scientists in the camps did anything evil as opposed to the scientists in Western democracies.

 

Fourth, aesthetic judgments cannot be accessed by the scientific method, because the beautiful and good, cannot be scientifically proven. 

Finally, and most remarkably, science itself cannot be justified by science. The scientific method is dependent on unprovable assumptions.

 

So there are mysteries in life, though we dismiss them. There should also be mysteries in the Faith. Not mysteries as in, “we need to figure this out to be saved”, but mysteries as in “how does He do that” and “where does He get such wonderful toys”.

 

St. Simeon holds the greatest mystery in his hands, as Jesus is brought, 8 days old, to His circumcision. Here is the promise of divinity, yet He will bleed. Here is the Creator of all, yet He is held in elderly arms. Here is One Who’s essence none can touch, Who holds all things in His hands, and Who rained manna on His people in the wilderness, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

 

St. Simeon holds this mystery and says, this is it. This is the climax. This is the epitome of all that God has said, done, and thought. Since God and man are one Christ, now all that the Apostles and Prophets said will come true, that “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).

 

In the One Body, St. Simeon can die in Peace, Himself. He won’t die in fear, or as the wicked do, or go down to Sheol where there is no remembrance of God.

He will die and he will live. He will be washed and be clean in front of God. He will be fed and never hunger again, all by this Holy Mystery wriggling in his arms.

 

Notice also where St Simeon was waiting. It was not at home, or in a synagogue, or in his closet. It was at the Temple. At Church. Which means there was prayer going on that day. There were readings going on that day. There was singing going on that day. All in worship to the God Who Gives salvation to His people.

 

What they were reading and singing, we can only guess, but what they were praying, we know. They were praying for the consolation of Israel. The Comforter of Israel. The Paraclete of Israel, he says in the Bible.

They were praying Hosanna. They were praying for God’s Kingdom to come. 

 

And it was a child that came. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb”, says Isaiah 11, “The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them” (11:6).

Perhaps that was the reading at Divine Service that day, for there the Root Of Jesse is prophesied to spring out of the stump of Jesse; the remnant of faithless Israel.

 

It was no surprise to St. Simeon that God chose infancy to work His Salvation. Not that “God can do whatever He wants”, but “God will keep His promises” to come as a son. 

 

Now, Lord. Now that we have seen Jesus, we have seen the completion, the perfection of all Your work. Now, since it is finished, take us. We can go. There is nothing more for us here, except the Peace that passes understanding. 

 

For we have not just heard the Word, but held the Word with our own hands. Forgive us for doubting that Your Word is Sacramental, that it uses both ideas and physical things to work among us. Forgive us, in light of Your Salvation, prepared before the foundation of the world, in front of all people to see with human eyes. 

 

The Light of Light on a hill of Golgotha. The Glory of Glories on the hill of Zion. 

 

In St. Simeon’s song, we see the humanity of Jesus. And with the humanity of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus. Such that, along with St. Simeon, we must now say that God does indeed have hands and feet, eyes and ears, mouth and nose. 

 

Sometimes they grasp their mother’s hand, and sometimes they grasp spear and nail. Sometimes they coo in delight, and sometimes they cry in anguish. Sometimes they breathe a cool summer breeze, and sometimes they breathe out their last.

 

But the Consolation is just the beginning. The Last Breath is only the exhalation of sin and death and not of life and freedom. To depart in Peace is to live in Peace. Peace Incarnate, in everlasting innocence, righteousness, and blessedness. And every time you sing St. Simeon’s song, this should be your heart’s focus. That, since you have now died in Christ, prepare to be resurrected in Him, as well.

 

And the song goes on…

 

Heaven's own song [Advent 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 40:1-8

• 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

• St. Matthew 11:2-10

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                  

Who speaks to us on this third Sunday of the new Church Year, saying,

“And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see’”

 

In the Arch-epic, “The Collision of Cousins”, John the Baptist and Jesus meet and the heavens open upon them. 

In response to Jesus being baptized, not anything else. In light of that, however, because of today’s Gospel talking about John, he is a witness to heaven’s open door in front of him and privy to the words and the song he heard, at Jesus’s baptism.

 

Thus, today’s Gospel is included in God’s Word to reveal to us that heaven follows Jesus. This points us to faith, that we can trust in God’s Word to be as powerful for us as it was for those who first used it. If prophets use it to sing, then we sing. If angels use it to proclaim, then we proclaim. If God uses it to create all things, then we are recreated as we sing it and believe it.

 

The song John heard, or maybe the Holy Spirit gave him authority to sing and it become a song of heaven, is of course our Angus Dei: “O Christ Thou Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.” John sang this while pointing to and at Jesus in the flesh. Heaven acknowledging its Lord and Master.

 

Heaven follows Jesus. He came into this world at Gabriel’s annunciation from heaven to St. Mary. His birth saw the opening of heaven to shepherds in the fields, watching their flocks by night. His circumcision was marked by St. Simeon’s song. 

 

His baptism, His Transfiguration, and even His Crucifixion and resurrection all saw heaven intently focused on the Son of Man. Either singing, chanting, or speaking. Heaven is revealed on earth and it resides in, with, and under Jesus Christ. 

 

Returning to our Gospel reading: when John the Baptist wishes to ask Jesus a question, why doesn’t he just send a prayer flying to heaven? Why does he send earthly messengers on an earthly mission, instead of a spiritual one, out in the desert or something? 

John’s message gives us our clue: “Are you the Coming One?”, he asks Jesus. 

 

He got the idea for this question from only one place: the Word of God. First, he remembers hearing the last book of the Old Testament say, “’Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, He shall come,‘ saith the Lord of hosts” (Mal 3:1). He shall come.

 

And second, from his father’s prophetic song, sung at his birth, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways”, from St. Luke 1:76. 

 

God’s Word and heaven’s intrusions onto earth meet up to create faith in John, though he still doesn’t completely grasp what is actually going on. Because no matter what John does, he will not be released from that prison until he is beheaded. And no matter what answer Jesus gives, He will not be released from His Greatest Work until He dies on the cross.

 

Repent! In our sin, we despise heaven’s songs. But we don’t despise them outright, that would be going against God’s Word. No, we despise them secretly. We see them. We hear them. We even acknowledge them. But we believe we can do better. We see these songs the angels sing and believe that they are just examples for us to start from. Square one.

 

We see the Lord’s own Prayer this way as well. It is just a template, an outline of what prayer should be. It is the first step our heavenly Father has given us to grow from. We need to take it and improve it, adapt it to our own lives, which may or may not have anything to do with lives in 1st century Palestine. 

 

Since it doesn’t and we are not Israelites, why is it we think we can make better songs than those that have been handed down to us?

 

Heaven’s words are heaven’s words and heaven’s songs are heaven’s songs. Just as the Lord never changes, neither do His words, commands, or songs. That means that when heaven opens up to us on earth and we hear those angelic songs, they are songs sung in eternity and are pleasing to God.

 

“in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (St. Matthew 18:10), says Jesus. And St. John confirms this in Revelation when he sees and hears “around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with a loud voice” (Rev 5:11)

 

Job confesses: “who laid [the earth’s] cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:6-7)

 

What does this mean? It means we take what Jesus has given us and hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We have been given His songs, His prayer, and we should honor Him by using them “as is” and “as instructed”, that is to pray, praise, and give thanks.

 

Our hymns are heavenly hymns and they retain their holiness and force, though they are sung by earthly sinners. Singing the angels’ “Gloria in excelsis”, from the shepherds, is not just imitating them, it is placing us in the same category as them. As in, with their songs on our lips, we now ascend to heaven to see God face to face. We litteraly sing in the choir of angels.

 

And since certain songs have been placed in the Holy Scriptures, they retain their same force as well. True of St. Mary’s Magnificat, St. Zechariah’s Benedictus, and St. Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis, for example. 

 

And still remains true, now, when we employ them. Hearing and believing God’s Word either sung to us or spoken to us. If you are searching for the pure Church, than you can get no closer than her songs gifted to us from heaven. 

 

That’s right. Through the only One Who has descended from heaven and ascended to heaven, comes our hymns. Through the sole mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, comes the thoughts, words, and prayers from His Church. 

 

Since they are handed over to His Church, they are in turn handed over to us. They are our tradition. Our heavenly tradition in which we can make ourselves certain, in faith, that we are a part of the Church Triumphant. Yes, if the Lord’s Word, the heavenly songs, echo on our lips and move through our voice, then we confirm our membership in the One Body of Christ.

 

So sing your songs, dear children in Christ. Do not be ashamed of what has been handed down to you and be hesitant to change those things. Be encouraged in all humility to create new songs in faith. 

 

Dr. Luther says,

“Clearly, singing spiritual songs is good and pleases God. This is clear to every Christian. Everyone knows the examples of the kings and prophets in the Old Testament who praised God with singing and playing poetry on all kinds of musical instruments. From the very beginning of Christendom, this use of music has been common. 

St. Paul also instituted this use of music when he urges the Colossians to sing spiritual songs and psalms to the Lord with gusto in order that, God’s Word and Christian doctrine might be used and put into practice in many ways.

The arts are not to be thrown out by the Gospel, as some people who think they are super-spiritual say. I would be glad to see all the arts, especially music, placed in the service of Him Who has given and created them.” (To You we pray God the Holy Ghost; What Luther says, 980:3095)