Discipline of Christ [Epiphany 4]

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 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jonah 1:1-17

• Romans 13:8-10

• St. Matthew 8:23-27

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.”
 
Last week we talked about organized religion and how true, organized religion has nothing to do with voting or bank accounts. It has to do with our Lamb of God offering Himself as a sacrifice in order to organize the free forgiveness of sins into neatly packaged sacraments for us to organize ourselves around.
 
This week, Jesus has made sure that His organization stays organized, or at least has men on watch. For what we encounter today, in the Gospel, is the famous “stilling of the waves” along with the accompanying, “Jesus even has power over the wind and the waves” revelation.
 
So it becomes “Christian teachers” to teach this as the “winds and waves of outrageous fortune” that you encounter in your life. Jesus can help get your bank account on track. Jesus can help you through your grieving. Jesus can make you a better person. Jesus can make the world a better place. For you. For me. Just you wait. And see.
 
There’s just a little problem with this sort of “glorified teaching” and it is one that our Introit for today has brought up sneakily. In the Antiphon the Lord says, “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still”, but in the body of the Introit He says, “He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.”
 
God may have stilled the storm, but He caused it in the first place. What this means is that though the Son has set us free indeed, we are still in need of discipline and therefore become disciples, as in “those who are disciplined”. Such is the case today with Jesus’ disciples. They are not in a state of unbelief. Far from it. They believe Jesus can do something about the storm. What they don’t yet believe is that He can do something about it, even asleep.
 
Repent. He Whose essence is untouchable is wrapped in swaddling clothes as a babe.
The God Who from of old established the heavens sleeps in a manger.
He Who showered the people with manna in the wilderness, feeds on milk from His mother’s breasts. The same Lord that stills the waves, makes the waves and we can’t believe God would be such a meanie. Listen to Hebrews 12:
 
“In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
    ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
    For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.’
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (v.4-11)
 
The storm is the way; is where God is. Jesus doesn’t look at the storm and say, “Let’s turn back”. He says this is the way. We are going forward. And even though the wind and the waves were stilled, they were not stilled to make life easier for the disciples, but harder. For now they must believe. Notice their response to this event: “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
 
What sort of man indeed. 
It is not enough that we have a holy man that can care for and calm the metaphoric storms of this life. We need a man who can face real storms head on. It is not enough that we have an alert God, we need an active God not just patching up wind and wave, but curing the root of the problem.
 
For, the storm did not just disappear, but Jesus, the God-man, took the storm into Himself. Meaning, He is traipsing around earth for 33 years in order to soak up all that sin, death, and the power of the devil has ruined. Thus, it is not enough to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”, says James 1:2.
 
Because, Hebrews 12 does not begin with our works in discipline, but with Christ and His work. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
 
Jesus is the Son Who is disciplined in our place. His are the stripes, the wounds, the nails. Jesus is the man Who is able to guide us when we are awake and guard us when we are asleep. Such that we can wake and watch with Christ, and sleep in peace. Why? Because God is always awake, even when He sleeps, even when His sleep is behind a sealed tomb stone.
 
It is the testing, temptation, and discipline of Christ that creates peace between God and man, so that when we face down the wind and the waves, we have the promise of God to still them, though we can not. Not because we have leveled up enough to withstand it. Quite the opposite. 
 
We will never be able to withstand the storms that death throws at us. God must suffer, die, and fall asleep in the tomb, in order to rescue us from the storms and gates of hell. The storms of this life are nothing compared to what our Christ faced for us.
 
And that is the point. Not that you are disciplined and trained or that you have a personal weather god at your beck and call, but that your Lord and Savior is disciplined, trained, and capable. Capable to still the storms and capable to quench the fires of hell all for our sake. 
 
The result of that is the Ark of His Church, which withstands all such assaults. The result is God being made man, purchasing and winning a Rock, a solid place for tempest-tossed sinful Christians to stand on and return to in need. On top of that, going further on to prepare a place that will never have to face such things ever again, by His side, for all eternity.
 
In the disciplining of Christ, a man is made watchful for all eternity, sitting at the right hand of God, ruling the heavens and the earth, and giving you Faith that endures. In the disciplining of Christ, God is offering Himself as the Way, through the storms, through the fire, and through death. 
 
And even though we face storms and demons we can not conquer, we have already been brought into the Boat, the Ark, that has conquered and will rise again, because her Savior rises again. And in that discipline, our discipline is an easy yoke: a splash of water, a sermon, bread and wine. 
 
While we are smacked upside the head every once in awhile and are tempted to get out of the boat to walk on water, Jesus’ rebuke to the wind and the waves is “Peace”. His rebuke to us is “Peace”. “Peace be with you”. Not worry, hysteria, or despair, but peace.
 
Peace to weather the storms, for we are being watched over and we are being brought into eternal life. So really, what can a storm do to you anyway?
 
 

Organized Religion [Epiphany 3]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 2 Kings 5:1-15

• Romans 12:16-21

• St. Matthew 8:1-13

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“…but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
 
You can be sure that this now purified Leper took his illness so seriously that he went and did EXACTLY as Jesus said. Not only in believing, but understanding the way that God wishes to work in the world. That is: going to the rightly called and ordained priest and offering the proper, prescribed sacrifice
 
It’s amazing how when we take something seriously, we believe in reverence and religion. We keep silence at the tomb of the unknown soldier. We stand respectfully for the flag. We recite the pledge of allegiance without turning it into a pop song. 
 
Those of us who wear the uniform snap to attention when an officer enters the room. We salute the flag with respect when we walk past it. We don’t mind the religious ‘liturgy’ of drill and marching, and would be appalled at someone just “doing his own thing” in the presence of any of that. 
 
But when it comes to someone more important than an officer, more important than the president: God Himself in the flesh, we want casual, we want entertainment, we want “anything goes”. We want anything but what God wants.
 
That’s because our real American religion is statism. Christianity is simply a hobby we get to, every now and then. Now would be a really good time to repent, as I think the days are getting shorter, and our Lord is coming. 
 
If you really believe that He is physically present with us by means of a miracle in the Divine Service (and not merely symbolically), and that He invites you to His altar to worship Him, why are you pushing for songs that you like instead of hymns that confess and glorify Him?  Why are you balking at liturgy (you don’t even complain about the liturgical actions at football games and graduations)?
 
We all need to think on this and pray about it, for today Jesus is promoting organized religion. Dun dun duuuuuuuun. So grab your torch and pitchfork, we have a Jesus to crucify for Him even thinking about such things.
 
And it wasn’t just this one time that Jesus spoke in such a way. If it was, we may be able to play it off as a metaphor or something, having nothing to do with us today. However, Jesus also said the same thing to the 10 lepers that He healed in St. Luke 17 saying, “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (v.14). In this case, however, one doesn’t go as commanded, but returns to give thanks to God: Jesus. 
 
What is it that Moses commanded? First of all, its important to remember that there is no sacrifice that will effect the purification of disease. That is satanic to think that something outside of God’s order and command can effect a better cleansing than God Himself. We are not dealing with low intelligence here on God’s behalf. The world works as God made it and He works within that. You can not fool Him.
 
The sacrifice, described in Leviticus 13-14, is for afterwards. It is there only to declare that a purification had taken place and that this newly purified man may now resume normal life. 
 
So what effects the cleansing? Is it simply “waiting things out” or waiting for a miracle? To be sure some natural stuff is involved, like immune systems. But if that’s true, what is the point of all that religion stuff, if things work all on their own?
 
Turns out, things don’t actually work out so well on their own, as is evidenced by the last two years in this country. In fact, they don’t work out on their own so much that the only way out of this world is through death, with no say, no reprieve, and no mercy.
 
In this way sin, death, and the power of the devil are very predictable. You could say that they are organized to the point where you know what they are up to each and every time they show up. They are not here for you, but for your harm. Jesus even suggests this “organized anti-religion” when He says, “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?” (Mt 12:26)
 
Evil is apparently organized, so Good must be as well, and moreso. As it turns out, Jesus talks the talk and walks the walk. He does not organize religion as a pretense for political power, or money laundering, or to mete out oppression. 
 
In Christ’s organized religion, Jesus organizes Himself. He gets Himself together, comes out of heaven, and shows Himself to the priests, in order to “offer the gift that Moses commanded”. 
 
And Moses commanded not only Two lambs, but the sacrifice must be made on the Eighth Day at the Temple. Not only must it be made on the Eighth Day at the Temple, but one lamb is offered for guilt and the other for sin. The blood of the sacrifice must then be placed upon the ear, thumb, and big toe of the one being cleansed, then he must be anointed with oil (Lev 14:10-20).
 
So it is the lamb of God’s choosing, offered up, and the blood of Him covering the impure person along with being anointed for such an event (the Hebrew for anoint is Messiah, btw).
 
And to top it all of, it is not the offerings or the priest that make one clean, as I already stated. No. The whole point of this ritual is not only to declare one pure, but atoned for. Leviticus 14:18 and 20 both say that once the blood and the oil are applied, “the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord.”
 
It is as St. Chrysostom tells us in his Homily #26 in Matthew, from the ancient organized church:
“…only the leprosy of the soul is to be feared, which is sin; and that leprosy of the body is no impediment to virtue.” The lepers, the blind, and all the other bodily afflicted, while begging for and needing bodily healing, all, more importantly, need atonement.
 
This is what the sacrifices were for and this is the sacrifice that was brought before the priest, the High Priest, on Good Friday. It is there that our Lamb of God, our sin, our curse was presented in front of the priest and was utterly rejected. 
 
He was deemed unfit, uncouth, and unclean. He was sacrificed on behalf of worldly “organized ant-religion” and though they meant it for evil God meant it for good. Even the priest could not escape God’s will and even prophesies against himself saying, “it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (Jn 11:50) and “His blood be on us and on our children” (Mt 27:25).
 
So we must be careful with our words. In “organized religion”, popularly understood, we have uncaring, unfeeling, and unhelpful religion; anti-religion. With what was just said, we must redefine “organized religion” properly to what it actually is. That is: that the blood from the Lamb of God is upon us and we are justified by grace, through faith, for His sake, Who was anointed, Messiah-ed, Christ-ed, chosen of God to complete and perfect true organized religion on earth, as it is in heaven.
 
In other words, true organized religion is Christ working through Word and Sacrament to offer Himself as the Lamb of sacrifice in your place, to purchase and win you back from sin, death, and the power of “organized anti-religion”.
 
For our souls are leprous and are falling apart faster than any remedy can fix them, much less are they able to accomplish anything for their own good or anyone else’s. But we are not the leper in the Gospel story, neither are we the centurion. We are the servant, unable to heal ourselves and unable to seek help.
 
But Christ has not left us as orphans, but has brought us to His Church on earth and organized it in such a fashion that pastor and people are there, even when we are not, and are working, even when we cannot. For it is there, that the sacrifice of Christ has not only declared baptized believers pure, but has also effected them so, in God’s eyes.
 
It is the organization of Christ, under the Law and upon the cross that effects complete and utter perfection for us. And it is His baptized believers ordering themselves underneath that cross, in Word and Sacrament, that make it possible for that effect to go out to the whole world.
 
 

Marriage [Epiphany 2]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 33:12-23

• Romans 12:6-16

• St. John 2:1-11

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)

 

Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard today, saying:

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.”

As Christ attends a wedding today, He promotes marriage as good and right. Of course this is not the only place in holy Scripture that talks about marriage and since the Bible speaks so much about marriage, the Church has, from the beginning taken this stance:

Marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman unto one flesh. Marriage was instituted by God and is entered into by rightful betrothal or engagement.

This is the positive view of marriage. So often today we are only presented with the negative view, especially when confronted with the arguments of homosexuality, divorce, and dysfunction. 

Too many times we fall for that trap and lose the argument before we begin. This is because you are trying to prove a negative argument, which can’t be done. The opposing side is trying to remove marriage from the world, at least God’s marriage, and so no amount of arguing is going to win the day.

Instead, argue from the positive. Give the benefits of marriage as proof. Not your private benefits or feelings on the matter, but God’s explicit promises to everyone in His estate of Marriage.

The first stop, of course, is to prove that God institutes and desires marriage for all of us. That can be accomplished with two places in Scripture which say the same thing. 

In Genesis 2:18-25, we hear that one of Jesus’s very first things He did with Adam and Eve was get them married. He said, “It is not good for man to be alone…Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

The next place is St. Matthew 19, where Jesus is asked about divorce, the negative, and instead responds in the positive, quoting Genesis 2, which we just heard. 

In these two places, of course there are many others, we have established that God creates marriage, calls it very good, and also confirms the truthfulness of the Old Testament for us.

So why does God then forbid any other relationship outside of His, as we just described? Is it because He has anger issues? Is it because He has jealousy issues? Is it because He is so weak that if someone breaks His commands, He loses His power over us?

Repent. We usually fight marriage battles over the idea of “love” and fight an uphill battle in trying to convince someone else who they do or don’t “love”. And then trying to convince them, who already don’t understand love at all, that some dude dying for them 2000 years ago is true love.

Regardless of the fact that true love is more akin to chastity, meaning faithfulness, one thing we never think of when talking about marriage is justice. Justice is a more understood virtue, because everyone understands justice, especially when they have been wronged.

We can speak of Justice when we speak of marriage because justice has to do with playing fair, honesty, give and take, truthfulness, and keeping promises. Yet it is still not enough even when talking about justice to someone, because you are still dealing in relativity. Their justice may not be your justice.

Regardless, this is why, primarily, Marriage is more about God than it is about you. This is why St. Paul specifically makes the point, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Eph 5:32), right in the middle of his description of marriage in Ephesians 5.

Not because he doesn’t understand marriage, but because he understands, by the Holy Ghost, that marriage is first and foremost the union of God and man in Christ. Hear and understand: marriage is the marriage of Christ and His Church.

God forbids any other relationship outside of marriage because what is at stake is not our sanity, but His fidelity. This is why God does not leave marriage up to us, but presents us with His idea and gives a full, complete description, leaving no room for discussion.

Marriage lets us know that God is going to play fair with us. In fact, He is going to tip the scales in our favor, in His relationship with us. He is not only going to make us equal to Him, in Christ, but He is going to become the Servant God, offering His life in place of ours.

Marriage lets us know that God is going to be honest with us. He is not going to sugar coat or conceal any of His actions or will for us. How He acts and what He thinks are all going to be on the table. That is, that we are sinners in a sinful world and He is our Savior.

Marriage lets us know that there is going to be a give and take, in our heavenly relationship. Not in the way we think, because God is going to take all and give all. He is going to take all our sin and give all His righteousness and ask for nothing in return, not that we have anything He wants anyway.

Marriage lets us know that God is truthful. He will tell no lies. He will prove to us over and over again that His Word is to be trusted. Not just in performing miracles or giving us nice things, but in laying His honor and Name on the line to manifest His truthfulness among us.

And finally, marriage lets us know that God keeps His promises. He gives Abraham a son, He leads His people to the Promised Land, and He comes in the flesh to proclaim His Gospel and keep His promise to always be with and redeem His people.

This is why God forbids the breaking of the marriage vow, because He is not unfaithful and does not desert. This is why He demands a chaste and decent life, because He is chaste and decent. This is why the husband is the Head of his wife, because Christ is the Head of the Church.

When we choose to get married, we are not creating something new in our lives or in the world. We are being graciously invited into the wonderful estate that God is constantly in. We are being invited to the party of a Good and Gracious Lord Who desires nothing but our good. 

So that, when or if we get to that estate, we find a completed project that we are simply participating in, rather than a worldly, ambiguous, and uncertain contract with which we can disregard at any time. people.

It is in Jesus that all marriage holds together and it is on Jesus to make sure marriage continues to hold up. It depends on His faithfulness. When we enter into this by sacred vow in front of His Altar, we are not showing off how wonderful a person we are and are, maybe, going to be. We are begging God for mercy that He let us commune in His Marriage and that He give us the strength to see it through.

Marriage is marriage regardless of what we do with it or what we think about it. We can try to rename it, repackage it, or resell it, but it will always reflect what we think of God and what God thinks about us. When we abuse it, we abuse God. When it is beneficial to us, it is because God made it so.

Thus all Christians enter into this blessed estate when they are joined to Christ in baptism. And because of His faithfulness, not even death will part that marriage of God and man. We must find and seek forgiveness in our marriages, but we are offered everlasting love, light, and salvation in His union with us.

For Jesus’ marriage vows are one-sided. He was the only one cognizant at His wedding. He had to be both the Bridegroom and the Priest. He had to supply the wedding garments and the dowry, for His Bride was sleeping the sleep of death in her sin. He had to give Himself away and traverse the impossible road to hell to search for her, wake her, and adorn her with His righteousness.

In this resurrection, this confession and absolution from sin, we are placed at Christ’s side and He is proud to have us there, for regardless of what our life takes shape as, His Life wins out in the end and today for us. For it is in this Body and Blood that we see the promise of God’s union to us in our hands. In the Holy Supper, we are united, once again, to our Chaste and Just God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Temple incarnate [Epiphany 1]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 8:6-13

• Romans 12:1-5

• St. Luke 2:42-52

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this the day of His Epiphany from His Gospel heard today, saying:

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

 
When the protestors went into the capitol building last year on January 6th, they did not find democracy, or liberty, or justice for all. It was an empty building filled only with empty promises, with not even an ear to hear their complaints. Truly, there is nothing sacred about the US Capitol.
 
So it is that the Lord knows that in order for words and promises to be worth anything, someone needs to be there to back them up and keep them. His presence is HIs glory and His glory is His presence. When we hear our Old Testament reading talk about the presence of God’s cloud and His glory filling the Temple, we know these two terms to be interchangeable and are proof of God’s faithfulness.
 
When Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory”, the Lord did nothing more than come close to Moses, literally, making all His goodness pass before him while Moses was on the Rock, present and accounted for (Ex 33:18-23).
 
Likewise, Psalm 26:8 confesses, “Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house,
And the place where Your glory dwells” because “there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters…” (Deut 12:11-12)
 
In Jerusalem, in the Temple, God promises His habitation and in this way keeps His promise when He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you, when you have brought the people out of Egypt: you shall serve God on this mountain” (Ex 3:12)
 
God’s Word makes very plain the eternal importance of God’s Temple, not only so that God has a fitting house for Him to dwell with His people on earth, but so that His people can find Him and fear, love, and trust only in Him.
 
Unfortunately, before Jesus is born, something devastating happens. When Babylon comes to Israel, the people are taken into exile and the Temple is destroyed, razed to the ground. Not one stone is left upon another and all the sacred vessels are taken into Babylon, including the Ark, sorry Indiana.
 
As abominable as that is, it doesn’t compare to the utter sorrow and disappointment felt by God’s people when the Temple is rebuilt, after the Exile to Babylon ended. Such wailing could only be trumped by the wailing of Rachel for her dead children. 
 
Ezra 3:12 records the event: “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes.”
 
Whereas the First Temple was inaugurated in this way: “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (2 Chronicles 7:1), the Second Temple had no such divine fanfare, even though everything was done exactly the same, according to God’s Word.
 
The prophet Haggai says, “‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?” (2:3)
 
This 2nd, “disappointing” Temple is the Temple that is still around for Jesus to walk into, from today’s Gospel. And by this time, the dominant denominations at the time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes had all been teaching a doctrine that did not involve God being present in His Temple.
 
This is why the Pharisees didn’t need any other authority other than their own. This is why the Sadducees did not need a resurrection with God. This is why the Scribes needed only their knowledge and interpretation of the Law and none other, because God had left. It was up to them. This is why Jesus coming into the Temple was such a surprise.
 
Repent! What did you come here, today, to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A God Who has so little power in the world that He is reduced to one church in a tiny town? A God who needs our worship and prayers or He will disappear?
 
What did you come here to see? A man in soft clothing? Pampered by riches he did not work for and reaping where he did not sow? Just a crude kind of pyramid scheme, where the man up front gains riches, and fame, and glory???
 
What did you come here to see? A Temple. Yes, much more than a temple, for someone greater than the Temple is here (Mt 12:6). A Temple that time, spear, or nail cannot destroy. A temple that does not fail in glory and a temple that eternally contains the presence of the Almighty God, regardless of time, place, or person.
 
The world then looks for divine brick or mortar, but God only gives heavenly mettle, for “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:21).
 
So Jesus asks, “why were you looking for me”. Did you not know that “the Lord:
…will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places”? (Jer 30:18). Did you not remember that “’The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’” (Hag 2:9)?
 
When Jesus presents Himself for circumcision, when Jesus comes in front of the teachers of Israel, when Jesus displays Himself in front of His Temple, in front of His city, for the world to see, the Greater Glory of God has returned to His Temple and fills the Temple, and heaven and earth once more.
 
In the body of Jesus, God’s glory now resides, as it has done for all eternity. There is no other place it has been. It did reside with the Temple of old, but that was just a shadow of things to come. The OT Temple pointed to the NT Temple of the body of God.
 
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev 21:22) and “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb 1:3).
 
When you look for God’s presence in your life, you do not have to rely on a building, much less on emotions, in order to at best pretend that God is with you. He is going to be here as HE promised, with or without your prayers.
 
He was there of old and He is here today. As ST. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:9-11,
“For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.”
 
And the Lord Jesus Christ remains. His presence is so permanent, that not even death can remove it. He just comes back, never to die again. Kicked out of His own Temple, Jesus tears the curtain in two, promising Word and Sacrament presence, wherever 2 or 3 are gathered.
 
But this is nothing new. The Word has been since the beginning and the Bread of the Presence and the Wine of gladness have ever been with God wherever He has gone, in Temple and on mountains. 
 
For though the revelation that the true Temple is the Body of Christ is new, the Plan to make it so was the plan from the start. Just as God was, is, and will always be the true King over His people, even though they beg for an earthly one, so too will He also be their true Temple, even though we build false temples for ourselves.
 
If we are in the True Temple of God, where is our glory cloud that fills this place, that external proof? Rest is your proof. the very fact that you rest in God’s Divine Service is proof of His Glory being present among you. 
 
Read your Old Testament again. Verse 11 explicitly states, “that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.” 
 
When the priests can do no work, God is doing the work. When houses and institutions of men become empty shells and crumble to the ground, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “When other helpers fail and comforts flee”, the Help of the helpless abides with me.
 
Not just in platitudes or high octane emotions, but in Word and Deed. You see Jesus as He wants to be seen in Word and Sacrament. God’s Glory fills this house when He washes, comforts, and feeds you and you receive it in Faith.
 

Dates lives matter [Epiphany]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 60:1-6

• Ephesians 3:1-12

• St. Matthew 2:1-12

In the Name…

To the saints who are in Accident, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)

 

Jesus speaks to you on this the day of His Epiphany from His Gospel heard today, saying:

“Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.”

I had mentioned on Christmas Day how we have our current calendar system thanks to pope Gregory XIII in the very recent history of the 16th century, almost closing out the tumult of the Reformation. 

Father Gregory was reforming the inadequacies of the Julian Calendar, named for Julius Caesar, initiated in the Roman empire in 46 BC, which was a reform of the earlier Roman calendar, which of course was to unite the whole world. 

sufficient for this evening, is to note that our eastern brothers and sisters in Christ are prepping for their Christmas celebrations which they date January 6th, because of the differences between the Julian Calendar and the Gregorian Calendar, about 12 days.

Part of Gregory’s reform was to compensate for these “lost days”. the calendar wasn’t keeping up with the seasons and eventually became out of sync. For good or for bad, the Western churches adopted the new calendar, along with most of the world, and the Eastern churches did not. Possibly wanting to retain the calendar used during the life of Jesus.

And that’s it. Of course there are other details, cultural factors, and hurt feelings, but nothing to say who is right and who is wrong. Nothing to say, “this is God’s will”. I’m sure most of Gregory’s reform was not religious, but economic, retaining just a bit of the ancient “Rome has conquered the world” attitude. 

All this and more are the leftovers of the “Great Schism” of 1054, where eastern churches went east and western churches went west. All over a tiny thing, such as the date of Easter and Christmas.

Tell me again how little the importance of a date is? Ask your wife how important your anniversary is. Ask a veteran how important July 4th is. Ask a child how important their birthdate is. Ask an SJW how important the date of Roe v. Wade is. 

Ask anyone, not anywhere near church, how important a certain date of a certain event is and you will get the third degree for not remembering. Ask anyone, anywhere close to church, how important a certain date of a certain biblical event is and you will get a “it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is faith in Jesus.”

Repent! In any other part of your life precision, accuracy, and certainty are so important that your life depends on them. You could lose your job, lose your reputation, or lose your marriage. Everything is at risk if you do not get your timing right.

Why is it not so with God’s Church? Why is accuracy, certainty, reverence, and respect thrown out the window when it comes to anything that has to do with Faith and the Church?

King Herod even shows you up here. He is so worried about time and date more than you are are. He “…summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared”, as told in our Gospel heard today. He wants to make sure he gets it right. He wants to be certain where the king is, how old He would be now, and what kind of situation is around Him.

In His Word, Jesus makes it apparent that He is also concerned with precision, accuracy, and certainty. He constantly uses the phrase “on that day” or “at that time” or “then”, signifying a time and a date when He will act. 

Exodus 12:41 says, “At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”

At the beginning of Exodus 12, the Lord creates Passover, saying it needs to be celebrated on the 14th day of the first month.

Deuteronomy 1:3, “In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them”

Jeremiah 39:17, “But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.”

Amos 8:9

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

Zephaniah 3:16

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.

Zechariah 9:16

On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.

Zechariah 14:9

And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.

Jeremiah 33:15

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Zephaniah 3:20

At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.

On the 14th day of the first month of the 5232nd year after the creation of the world, of the 2990th year after the Flood, of the 2048th year from the birth of Abraham, the 1543rd year after the Exodus from Egypt, from the 1065th year after David was anointed king, God provided a Passover Lamb for Himself and sacrificed His Son on the cross, at the hands of sinners.

The same Son, Who 33 years earlier was revealed to be the King of kings wearing only swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. This, His precision, is called theophany. Where Epiphany means general “aha”, “you would have thought of that eventually”. Theophany means you would not have thought it without God telling you.

The Lord is concerned with precision, accuracy, and certainty also, not because He wants to make sure He gets His own Prophesies and Word right, but so that poor, miserable sinners can get at least this much right. He is concerned we know when He is going to act, where He is going to act, Who He is, what its going to look like, how and why. 

There will be no question as to His birth for angels will sing to Him, shepherds will guard Him, and kings will kneel before Him. there will be no question to His power to forgive sins, for God has given such power to men, says St. Matthew 9:1-8. There will be no question to His identity as He will draw all men to Himself when He is lifted up on the cross.

For it was on that day that the sun went dark at noon, that the earth shook and the graves were opened, and His enemies confessed, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27:540. What day? Good Friday.

And it was at that time that the sun revealed an empty tomb, that Jesus delivered His saints from the grave. What time? Easter Time.

such is the strength and authority of the Lord’s Theophany, that no time is lost, no count is lost, and not one thing concerning it is lost to time or memory. And we celebrate our holy Days with reverence, humility, and punctuality.

Why? Because the Lord acted in the past and He acts today. 

Exodus 16:25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord

Exodus 32:29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord”

Joshua 22:31 “Today we know that the Lord is in our midst

Zechariah 9:12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Luke 19:9 “Today salvation has come to this house

Luke 23:43 “today you will be with me in paradise.”

Today the Lord presents Himself to you, not in the manger, cross, and tomb of the past, but in the water, Word, bread and wine of the now, which brings the promise of the Lord’s blessing and salvation directly into your hands.

Children come back [Christmass 2]

@ _ . . LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE . . _ @ 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 46:1-7

• 1 Peter 4:12-19

• St. Matthew 2:13-23

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Jesus speaks to you on this 9th day of Christmass from His Gospel heard today, saying:

“that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’”

 
Now, there are two problems with this prophecy, allegedly. The first problem is that Egypt is the primary symbol of hatred towards Israel, due to its history of Hebrew slavery and genocide. The second problem is that the sign that will tell the Holy Family to run away to Egypt will be the murder of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem.
 
The hatred, anger, and fear aroused in faithful Jews by these signs should be enough to give you pause and think about how the Holy Family felt about all these words from the angel. You should also be angry with how God must work through such symbols of suffering in order to reach us.
 
But history tells us that Egypt did not remain hostile, as is evidenced by our Savior being able to flee His own people’s wrath to that country in safety, and the murder of the Innocents only lasted an evening, then ended. Evil has its day, but does not last past that. Even on top of that, God has turned what was evil, to work His good and gracious will. 
 
However, our holy family is in flight from a country which is supposed to be God’s country. Israel, the land flowing with milk and honey, promised by God to His people as the Promised Land. The same has drawn her sword against the hand that feeds her and sustains her.
 
What we will do, as faithful, baptized believers in Christ, is run with the Holy Family. They see the evil, murder committed by God’s supposed people, and they run from it. This is our plan of action whenever we see any of the Revelation, End Time stuff begin to happen. Don’t sit and stare, just run.
 
But where to run? Jesus returns from Egypt after Herod is dead, but the same evil sits on the throne. Jesus does not even return to the promised land, but grows up outside of it. One of the reasons we are to flee abominations rather than sit and fight them is because, even if we were to be victorious over one, two more would take its place.
 
So where to run? We run to true power, not just apparent goodness. Christ ran to Egypt, which was not a Christian nation, but was at least more liberty loving towards her neighbor. Which meant that the Gospel had a higher chance of being allowed in public there, rather than God’s own land. 
 
The Christian runs towards the Gospel, no matter where it is preached. True power is the Word of the Cross (1 Cor 1:18). But not just the Word of the cross, the Word Himself. St. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 1 saying, “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
 
We run to Christ. And when we do, when we follow Him to the manger, then to Egypt, then to Nazareth and beyond, we are brought to the Gospel. The Gospel that says, even the dead shall rise from their graves (Ez 37:13).
 
This is the Gospel of both today and of our celebration of the Holy Innocents. Our Old Testament reading from both celebrations.
 
What our Savior has spoken to us today in Genesis 46, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again;” is a promise made to Jacob, renamed Israel.
 
This is a promise made to Jacob, the deceiver and swindler of birthrights. Yet even to such a man, God grants Him all the rights of a first born. Not the first born of his father Isaac, but the firstborn of God, the “firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29), “firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15), “the firstborn from the dead” (Rev 1:5). 
 
God goes down with Jacob into the land which will enslave and murder his descendants, in order to be enslaved and murdered with them. And in His murder on the cross, give all His saints the right to become heirs, the firstborn, themselves, freeing them from their oppression.
 
In the second Gospel to which we flee, Jeremiah 31:17 spoke of Rachel weeping for her dead children, from last Wednesday’s Service. Yes, the Lord tells us that she can not be comforted here, what mother could. But there is a promise that we missed there, which will comfort Rachel. It says, “There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back.”
 
As easily as Christ fled to Egypt and returned, so too will we and our children return from the dead to which sin, death, and satan have condemned us. “Your children shall come back.” 
 
Christ’s flight to Egypt is His fight to cleanse this world of slavery to sin, death, and the devil. He goes into all places of corruption and evil, to bring comfort, peace, and victory. He leaves Egypt a better place. When He dies and rises again, He leaves Israel a better place all by giving faith to believe in Him and become children.
 
Children prepared to be sacrificed, but knowing that it will only be a sleep, for Jesus has born the full brunt of all worldly hostility on the cross. And though the Foe will rage and spite, one little word can bring him down: liar. 
 
Neither Egypt’s hostility or indifference nor Israel’s indifference or hostility can prevent the Gospel from being preached and the sacraments administered according to it. In any and all situations, Christ’s atonement for our sins, the same sins of Egypt and Israel, remains true. 
 
Thus, where there is life there is hope and God has given us life. Also, where there is eternal life, there is eternal hope. In Christ, God has given eternal life to us and all believers in Christ. In this promise and hope, hostility is turned to care and concern, hatred is turned to sympathy, and suffering is turned into hope, for Christ is risen from the dead. Alleluia.