Jesus is God [Transfiguration]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 3:1-14

• 2 Peter 1:16-21

• St. Matthew 17:1-9

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

 

Who speaks to you on this day of His Transfiguration from His Gospel, saying:

“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light”

 

Who or what is God? Ask that question around town and you will get as many answers as there are people to answer. He is infinite. He is almighty. He is eternal. He is all powerful. He is the sum total of all things in the universe. He is the spirit of good in all things. He just Is.

 

Someone may even break out into song: my God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing my God cannot do”. What this all points to is that no one can define “god”. Or at least some think they can and this is what evolutionists say has led to multiple religions. Each culture and populace has tried to define God, come up with different answers, and therefore different religions.

 

And don’t think for a minute that Science is left out of the religious loop. Anytime they come up against something they can’t explain, they’ll say, that’s just how that thing works, as if it had a will of its own. Then you say, we just don’t know enough yet. Yes, and we’ll always “not know enough yet”.

 

Ah. Our sinful nature at it again. And it started right away. Adam’s new religion, instead of fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things, was the religion of blaming the wife. Now, Adam worships the God Who created everything, gave it to him, but also gave him a faulty wife, apparently.

 

Eve’s new religion is now Adam’s plus the distrust of her husband who threw her under the bus. Cain then has a new religion. Able has the right one, but leaves before being able to pass it along to anyone. And on and on it goes, until a show down with the gods of Egypt, in the book of Exodus.

 

It is there that the stage is set to truly reveal the one, true God, as the Lord says, “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them” (Ex 7:5). So is that another new religion among the Egyptians, the god who strikes down the Egyptians for his own pleasure??

 

But that is a secondary problem to the one we now face, thousands of years in the future. Our primary problem is that God has not acted in an Egypt sort of way since then, which makes it hard for us to “prove” God. 

 

Jesus, today, does not make it any easier for our sinful nature. Because now, on the celebration of His Transfiguration, He appears to muddy the waters between God and man. Super shiny Jesus, Moses and Elijah back from the dead, and a talking cloud all add up to maybe men can become gods and the Greeks and Romans were right?

 

Repent. The reason God confuses you so much is because you refuse to see Him as anything except Almighty and Infinite. And on the other side of the sin coin, you cannot help but see yourselves as anything but worthy of His position. 

 

What you are really trying to address are the only two temptations the devil throws at you. First that you are not worthy of forgiveness and second, that you are in no need of forgiveness. If God is only Almighty, then He will pass you by on the Last Day either in contempt or arrogance. 

 

Our first, and only, step to solving this riddle is to let God speak for Himself, which He does only in His Word. We listen, and He does start out with “Almighty” in Genesis creating all things, but He doesn’t stay there. He moves on to the Trinity, revealing Himself to be three persons in one God. Not three parts or modes or individual gods, but persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one God. 

 

This, we confess in the Athanasian Creed, is how we must think of God, three in one, if we desire to be saved. Neglecting or rejecting the Trinity is also a non-starter for the Christian. If the God we are talking about with others is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then the conversation can go no further.

 

It is to this very point, that Jesus enters the conversation. Because we cannot argue someone into the faith, faith must come from somewhere else, that is, it must be a gift from God. Thus, it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only source of faith.

 

What Jesus doesn’t show us today is the power of man to glorify himself or dig deep to find the power to alter reality in his own, fabricated transfiguration. This, in a purely human way, is disproved by the Crucifixion. Since Jesus died, His power must have not come through and is therefore unreliable for us.

 

No, it was not the deification of man that Jesus was accomplishing today, but the assumption of man. The divine fact that God came in the flesh to absorb, to take all men into Himself completely, as themselves. 2 Corinthians 3 states, “Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory” (v. 10-11).

 

Our bodies were the crown of creation, having the image of God. The Fall into sin erased that image. It was lost and it is only restored in Christ. Therefore, if we desire to be saved and think on the Trinity, we must first contemplate Jesus, Who is both God and man. 

 

“It is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in His glory and majesty, unless he recognizes Him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise. … For this reason true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ” 

(AE 31:52-53).

 

All theology is Christology. God does not wait for the right religion to show up on earth, neither is He going to wait for the big reveal until the Last Day where one lucky winner got God right. He is going to tell us all things before hand with His own two lips, in Christ.

 

In Christ, dwells all the image of the Godhead, all of it. Transfiguration ends the season of Epiphany for this reason: true epiphany is the revelation of God in Christ. We do not get to the Trinity without first stopping at the God-man, Jesus, Who for our sake takes on the sin of the world in His crucifixion.

 

We sang, O God of Light, earlier. Not only is God’s Word an unfailing Lamp for eternity, but also in our humanity now, as well. We will also “bury” our Alleluias for Lent in a little while, but again, we are not simply singing about our work to be accomplished for the season. 

 

The true meaning of the “burial of the Alleluias” is us singing of how deeply God has buried Himself in humanity. A unity that includes the very last electron, such that what happens to humanity happens to God. God does not even escape death, in Christ, so close is this union. 

 

Such that, since death cannot slay God and life automatically wins out over death, God in His resurrection brings humanity with Him, out of the grave. The Transfiguration light of Christ is the Resurrection light. In this sense, it is foreign and unearthly. Not because Jesus makes Himself into something other than one of us, but because to this point death has always won.

 

So we pay close attention to Jesus, as the Transfiguration cloud advised. We pay close attention and find Him working closely with us, speaking to us, baptizing us, and communing with us. Since Christ is doing that work, God is doing that work. The Almighty and Infinite speaks to us, baptizes us, and communes with us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

So Who or what is God? God is the Lord of the living. He is also the Lord of the dead, because they come back to the living at His Word. God is the ultimate Pure Being, because He is not only clean in Himself but is able to clean His enemies, sinners, as well. God is full to overflowing and He spills that blessing over onto us, filling our chalice till it also overflows, just like Him.

 

God is the God of the cross, Who facing death, dies, and yet remains God in that struggle. He is so alive, He retains His life in death. And freely gives such a life to you. A life that is death-proof. A chalice full of forgiveness, a washing full of rebirth, and an infinite Word contained in a finite body, Jesus.

 

True Prayer [Epiphany 3]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

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)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel, saying:
“…but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
 
When Jesus answers our prayers it is almost never how we want it. And I’m not talking about the “No’s” that God gives, the “secret answerings”, or even the “I never would have thought of that way” answers. I’m taking about the “we ask God for a pony and He gives broccoli”. I’m talking the “we ask for a life of adventure and He gives us a family”. True prayer silences sin and allows faith the victory.
 
I love Naaman, from the Old Testament reading, for this reason. Naaman was a great man in Syria. Naaman was a mighty man, but he was sick. Sick unto death with leprosy. The best he could hope for was a life of solitude after all he had done for his country. The “silver lining” was that he would wait for death while, literally, falling apart. 
 
You see, the Lord had delivered Israel into the hands of the Syrians, by Naaman’s hand. So while it seemed like a blessing to Naaman, the punishment for going against God’s people in such a manner was leprosy. Yet Naaman was not so lost that he was not willing to try going to the people he had just slaughtered and asking for help!
 
True humility, for sure. But almost not. His pride nearly gets the best of him, for when he goes to the prophet, Elisha we know him, he expects a show. He expects a song, a dance, and a whole lotta whoopin. In that touristy way we all have when visiting ancient sites, we expect the natives there to have something we don't’ have, simply because we imagine it should be so.
 
Elisha and the Lord have nothing to do with that nonsense. To the great and powerful Naaman, Jesus says, “Go and wash”. 
 
No no no, says Naaman you mean sit down while Elisha does his spirit dance around a campfire, right?
 
Go and wash.
 
Heheheh, again that joke. No, Elisha is going to wave his hands all nimbly-bimbly, slap the ground like one of his evolutionary forebears, and shout to get your attention. Then there’s going to be a great whoosh, and a shpeeeeew, and Ahhhhhhhh. And stuff. Yeah?
 
Listen. Its going to be ok. Continue to pray, but trust in the answer that Christ gives and the answer Christ gives is always Himself. In Naaman’s case, the answer to his prayer is baptism. Plain, regular water, dirty or clean, so long as its a mass of 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen. 
 
But that is plain. Why can’t our prayers be answered spectacularly? 
Similar disappointment is had in our Epistle. “Overcome evil with good”? What kind of weapon is that? That is not how things are done here. You fight fire with fire. Maybe once in while someone is moved by a good deed or a noble sacrifice, but not often enough to make it reliable, especially if we want to survive the incident or have any good people left on earth.
 
What about the gospel reading? Go and show yourself to the priest? What’s he gonna do? Priests don’t have special powers from God. They are plain and ordinary, too. They are only there to declare, either clean or unclean. That’s it. Healing has to come from somewhere else. 
 
Of course that somewhere else is God. So up to this point, the priest would probably say something like, “Yes. This man has contracted such and such and is unclean. May God have mercy on your soul.” And if God healed him, he was blessed. If God didn’t heal him, some secret sin made God angry and he was cursed. Who knows the mind of the Lord anyway?
 
Repent. To be such a one as the centurion with faith not found in no one in Israel, you would have to let go of everything in life you think you have control over and let God do all of the work, with no meddling. 
 
In our centurion friend, you get to see the faith that trusts enough to go to a man, not a flashy dancing prophet to shout at God. See the faith that trusts enough to have things accomplished from afar, fearing that his own pride and vanity would spoil the miracle. See the faith that trusts enough to say, “Thy will be done”.
 
And there it is. Christian worship became corrupted as men were taught that
their works and prayers, their offerings and sacrifices atoned for their sins. Christ's work of
atonement, and faith in Him were lost to sight. This is still believed today as Christians are taught that they can make God come into their lives through prayer.
 
True prayer is lost and thought of as only a means to an end. It is the ceremony that counts. It is the act of sacrificing one’s time and trust that are more important than what is prayed for or even who is prayed to, as Naaman taught us.
 
The human heart always flees from God, "thinking that he neither wants nor cares for our prayers because we are sinners" (LC 3:10). Instead, "we read in the Scriptures that [God] is angry because those who were struck down for their sin did not return to him and through prayer set aside his wrath [for their sin] and seek grace. (LC 3:11)
 
If we take Jesus for an example, well, He is only half helpful, because He is also God and we’re not. However, the helpful part is His Gethsemane prayer. He prayed wanting things one way, the cup to pass from Him, but submitted Himself, in His humanity, to God’s answer: His crucifixion.
 
Of course, our prayer does not lead to our crucifixion, but because of Christ’s suffering and death our prayer leads to the heavenly gifts His suffering and death purchased, which happen to be the answer to all our prayers: His salvific Word and Sacrament.
 
Trust in your baptism. It may not be the silver bullet to all your problems you bring to God, but it is the sure and certain hope that God is for you and not against you, giving you hope in hopeless situations. Trust in His life-giving Word. You may not think all the answers are there, but the answer to all your prayers are “Yes” in Christ Jesus. Trust in the true medicine of His Body and Blood. It may seem that bread and wine are not up to the task, yet in them, all the power of heaven is stored.
 
These are the answers that our pride and vanity do not like. Jesus wins salvation for us on the cross and hands that salvation over through means. Normal, ordinary means. Just as Naaman had to bathe in the Jordan and the Centurion had to go to the man, Jesus, so too must we accept the answer to our prayers God has given, in His Church, and trust that He knows better than we.
 
Thus, in life and in Church, God has briefly placed before us all the distress which may ever come upon us, so that we might have no excuse whatever for not praying. But all depends upon this, that we learn also to say Amen, that is, that we do not doubt that our prayer is surely heard, and [what we pray] shall be done. For this is nothing else than the word of undoubting faith, which does not pray as a gamble, but knows that God does not lie to him, since He has promised to grant it. Therefore, where there is no such faith, there cannot be true prayer either. (LC 3:119-120)
 
It is actual, human need that drives prayer. True prayer is approaching God as a child approaches his father to make a request. It is not coming in front of an angry God and having to do penance. Your heavenly Father knows your every need and wants to know that you know that only He can do something about them. If you want to please God, ask Him for many things.
 
But where there is to be true prayer, there must be utter earnestness. We must feel our need, the distress that drives and impels us to cry out. Then prayer will come spontaneously, as it should, and no one will need to be taught how to prepare for it or how to create the proper devotion (LC 3:26)
 
For we will have been nurtured and catechized, by the Lord’s answer to our prayers, that is, the means He has given to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify us through His Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was scorned and despised, so will His gifts, especially faith. For faith is no mere spiritual thing, it is physical as well.
 
Thus, in Christ, our prayers are both spiritual and physical. We pray and beg for the good that overcomes evil and we get it: in His work of the Gospel, Baptism, and His Supper.
 

Terrible lack [Epiphany 2]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

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)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel, saying:

“When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

 
Now usually, when I treat this Gospel of Jesus, I prefer to poke at the false idols of the teetotalers. When seeking the wisdom of Jesus for today, I saw in His Word another instance. While Jesus is enjoying the party and makes more wine for the party that ran out, I think the Word reveals something different. Though Jesus brings joy upon joy, He brings it to those who do not have, in order that He be their complete and only joy.
 
Our English translates Jesus as saying, “When the wine ran out”, which can make sense if we are trying to convey that people were just fine before Jesus showed up. But in reality, the words Jesus uses here is more of a description of the entire party. Meaning, they had no wine to celebrate with in the first place. They were wine deficient. They were the party that lacked wine.
 
So when Jesus and His mother enter, St. Mary finds out and tells Jesus, not that they have run out of wine, but that they have none. The wine of joy and celebration that should be there is not there. Wine that makes glad the heart of man (Ps 104:15) and goes together with the bread, which is made for laughter (Ecc 10:19) is not where it should be.
 
But why should it be there? Didn’t our Introit just preach to us that God’s works towards the children men are terrible? St. Jacob agrees, for after he wrestled with God he proclaimed that that place was terrible, yet goes on to confess that the place is none other than God’s House, the gate of heaven (Gen 28:17). Why can’t he make up his mind? I thought God’s house was wonderful, not terrible.
 
Indeed God’s House is wonderful. Ps 34:9. He is full of abundance. In God there is no “running out” or “lack” of anything. If we are with Him we will have want of nothing. Likewise, when we do find that we are in need we can turn to Him or one of His followers and be lifted up by them. We will not be left in the pit, as Joseph was, we will be lifted up and filled to overflowing. Just, not at this wedding.
 
So what do we say when God says, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need” (2 Cor 9:8) as we look at this wedding and as we look at our own lives of extreme lack? Do we conclude that God loves others more or “it could be worse”? What kind of unshakable faith is that?
 
Repent. It is not just abundance that God gives, but lack as well. It all depends on what God thinks you need. Abundance causes sin just as lack can. Even the great men of faith, listed in 
Hebrews 11, [By faith] “…were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated (Heb 11:37). Destitute, meaning lack.
 
Indeed, we “have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;” (Dan 5:25-27) lacking, destitute, without. We have some moments of abundance and rejoice and give thanks to God for those, but the lack seems to outweigh the abundance. In our sin, we are completely lacking.
 
This, we would say is terrible and recall the words from our Introit. For you only just begin to act as though you would be godly and adhere to the Gospel, and see [that you make enemies], and, moreover, [you do] harm, wrong, and violence, and likewise [you give] cause for sin and vice, when you’re just trying to do good. (LC XV)
 
There are arrows of the devil that fly during the day and terrors in the night, when those who sin work their sin. There is pestilence in the darkness and destruction at noon (Ps 91:5-6). The “one who goes before” is the first to fall to the crafts and assaults of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. 
 
What does this have to do with changing water into wine? Shouldn’t we ignore the “terrible” lack and focus on the wedding, the guests, and the party that Jesus has invigorated with His miraculous sign?
 
We cannot. In the first place, God seems terrible when we encounter pestilence, terrors, and destruction. We cannot see His interacting with us in any other way but against us, when we must face those things. One, because we must face them, and two because He makes us face them, or allows them to happen. 
 
Either way, the Presence that Moses prayed for does not seem to do its job as we thought. This is our sin. We can only think of “terrible” in relation to us: how much we are inconvenienced, how much we need to give, how much we suffer lack. 
 
We never think that “terrible” could mean what God does to Himself.
 
The angels weep and cry at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. they cannot bear it, but they must watch as the Lord Almighty spends His own blood completely. He empties Himself, to fill us. Jesus comes to the Wedding at Cana because it is completely lacking. Then there is no question as to Who filled it with abundant joy and celebration, afterwards.
 
The coming of Christ Incarnate is the coming of fullness into the world dying of lack. There was no son to save Israel, so God gave His Son in the lacking womb of the virgin. There was no “glory to God in the highest”, so He gave a Savior in the city of Bethlehem. There was no faith in Israel, so He gave His Gospel to create it. The Cup was empty, He has filled it to overflowing with His Blood.
 
Jesus is the Man Who is lacking on the cross. Not of Himself, but He absorbs all the lack in your life and everyone’s life who ever lived. And when He empties Himself to take on your lack, “the Lord’s eyes looked upon him for good, and he raised him up from his low condition” (Sir 11:12) of death and burial.
 
In your sin, you are an empty can that rattles. Crying out in your iniquity. Jesus covers that rattle, taking it away, and filling you to the brim. Your purification in front of God is accomplished, by faith alone. Jesus absorbs wrath and woe, and you are laid in green pastures. Jesus eats the bread of sorrow and tears, you eat heavenly bread. Jesus drains the cup of condemnation, you drink from the Cup of Blessing.
 
He leads you to Cana’s true feast, which is here offered in His Word and Sacrament. He chooses to fill you, an empty vessel, in order that He be all in all. Faith follows the Good Shepherd’s voice and it goes this way.
 
If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are every moment aimed at you, you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible.
 
Take advice and have others pray for you, and do not stop until the stone be removed from your heart. Then, indeed, the distress will not fail to become manifest, and you will find that you have sunk twice as deep as any other poor sinner, and are much more in need of the Sacrament against the misery which unfortunately you do not see, so that, with the grace of God, you may feel it more and become the more hungry for the Sacrament, especially since the devil plies his force against you, and lies in wait for you without ceasing, to seize and destroy you, soul and body, so that you are not safe from him one hour.
 
But since we are baptized and received into the Christian Church, all from youngest to oldest should also enjoy this communion of the Sacrament, in order that we may serve and be useful to the Lord’s Church; for we must all indeed help to believe, love, pray, and fight against the devil. (LC conclusion).
 
Thus, God is terrible in His works. So terrible that He becomes man, suffers, and dies at the hands of empty sinners. The death of God is terrible, but the Resurrection of God is that much more wonderful. For in His terribleness, we find mercy and the Bread and Wine of peace, which surpasses all understanding.
 

Preach to the Blood [Epiphany 1]

- - - LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE - - -

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)
 
Who speaks to you on this the Sunday after 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?”

 
Can you answer Jesus's question appropriately? As in, in a way that God wants? No. Thus, we find Jesus answering for us. He does so, not with philosophical ramblings, but with His Body. Yes He is preaching and teaching, but He purposefully locates that preaching and teaching in the Old Testament Temple, later with the Apostles, and then further reveals that it is His Body, the New Testament Church.
 
Whenever we are struggling with God’s Word or God’s actions in our life, we must always ask this question of ourselves: did Jesus create a Church? Yes. And in that Church, which is on earth, Romans 10 plays out: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ’How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (v.13-15)
 
We call this the Preaching Office, in Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession:
“That we may obtain this faith”, the Faith, “the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, Who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ’s sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake.”
We “condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.”
 
In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us of this fact in our church. He is not running away from His parents, just to brag that God is His Father and He doesn’t have to listen to them. Neither is He forsaking His earthly duties for some self-absorbed mission from God. He purposefully and simply leads us out of our world of false idols and selfishness to His Church of holiness.
 
So you seek Jesus? You won’t find Him in His Temple anymore, as His parents did. You must employ the only thing that He has left behind: His written Word. Yes His Word. The only place in the world where God reveals His only Son and the salvation found in Him alone. The only reason you seek Jesus is because of His Word, previously spoken to you.
 
Do you seek Jesus in His Word? You learn more about Him, pray to Him, and study His Word to deepen your relationship, but do you find Him? When even His parents couldn’t find Him?
 
So you seek Jesus in His Word and He preaches it today. His parents stop to ponder their own personal experience and miss Him. They say to themselves we’re with family so we’d stick with family. Why wouldn’t our son? Personal experience betrays them.
 
They only look for Him in the Temple because A) they remember their Habakkuk 2:20, “the Lord is in his holy temple” or B) someone told them. Either way, they don’t find God in what they’re doing but what He is doing. And He does His work among the things of His Father: the incense for prayer, the showbread of the presence, the Altar, the Blood, the Holy of holies, and the Ark. All of which scream, God in man made manifest.
 
Repent! The Gospel doesn’t stop there. It keeps going. Jesus leaves the Temple with His folks. He tears Himself away from the teachers and goes home. God leaves the Temple to go back to His life with His family. Who is His family? “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:50), answers Jesus.
 
Jesus does not desire to be caught where He does not want to be caught. He was in the Manger, so cute, but He left. He was in Egypt, but He left there too. He was in His home, but left for the Temple, only to go back again. He was wandering around the Middle-East performing miracles and good works and signs, but He left that too. 
 
He suffers, dies, and resurrects and ascends to locate Himself in all places with His Body. And He is in all places at once, but He has promised to be in certain places for you. For when you seek Jesus in His Word, you find Him. You find Him by hearing Him preached to you and believing.
 
What He preaches is the forgiveness of sins, which He leaves in the hands of His Apostles to “forgive and withhold”. Therefore His Word preached leads to the Sacraments, in which He has promised to work for you, through means.
 
Where these means and promises are gathered around is the place where Jesus, today, wants to be found: His Church. In other words, Seek Jesus in His Word, His Word leads to the Sacraments, and the Sacraments lead to His Church.
 
You may have heard the pithy bumper sticker saying that says, “No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.” Well we can do better than that today and instead say, “No Church, no Jesus; know the Church, know the Jesus.”
 
Dr. Luther puts it this way in a Christmas sermon of his:
“The Christian church retains now all the words of God in her heart and ponders them, compares them with one another and with the Scriptures. Therefore he who would find Christ must first find the Church. How should we know where Christ and his faith were, if we did not know where his believers are? And he who would know anything of Christ must not trust himself nor build a bridge to heaven by his own reason; but he must go to the Church, attend and ask her.
Now the Church is not wood and stone, but the company of believing people; one must hold to them, and see how they believe, live and teach; they surely have Christ in their midst. For outside of the Christian church there is no truth, no Christ, no salvation.” (AE 11:144)
 
So now we can answer Jesus. When He asks, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house”, we can answer with confidence. First, we say that we were looking for Him because His Word says to look for Him, that He possesses all things in heaven and on earth, and that He has promised every blessing. In that Promise of salvation through the God-man Jesus, we know our seeking is not in vain.
 
Second, since we have heard His Word say He would be in His Father’s house, literally “among His Father’s things”, then we boldly seek His House and say “I have entered His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise, for here I see the things promised in the Word and here I touch and handle things unseen, because of that promise”. 
 
You have found Jesus. You hear Him preached to you, as He promised, from His Word alone, and nowhere else. You hear and believe and commune. For unlike the Ark from our Old Testament reading, which held nothing but stone, the Ark of the Church of Christ holds flesh and blood. Preaching leads to the Body and Blood of Christ.
 

True, outward circumcision [Circumcision and Name of Jesus]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Numbers 6:22-27

• Romans 11:33-36

• St. Luke 2:21

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
A blessed 7^th day of Christmass to you all.
Jesus speaks from His Gospel this morning, saying:
“And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
 
While the rest of the world celebrates a New Year, we have already done that at the beginning of Advent. What we do is far more important today, for if all we do this day is sit and ponder and wonder at the words “God was circumcised”, it will be enough to occupy us until Jesus Returns. For a Spirit does not have flesh and bone, so what exactly is circumcised on our God and Lord?
 
Well, we can certainly take it as metaphor, if we need to. God does sometimes. He tells us, (Jeremiah 9:25) “Behold, the days are coming…when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh” and “Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn” (Jer 6:10). 
 
He also says things like “rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13). So it is not enough, apparently, to simply be circumcised in the regular way and since other things can be “uncircumcised”, ears for example, that sounds like metaphor to me, so far.
 
From this we can say two things. First is that circumcision was taken to be a branding of God. That such delight should be in the people that they would mutilate themselves for God and consent to His ownership. Extremely dangerous thinking, considering what has been done in the name of such zealotry, in history.
 
Second is this “circumcision of the heart”. Certain teachers will try to convince us that this has to be what it means to be saved by faith. It has to be within us. True circumcision, then, must be to experience the inner reality of a circumcised heart that the circumcision in their flesh is to signify, whatever that means. If you would only turn from idolatry and honor your covenant with the Lord, you would have fulfilled its purpose to be a light to the world that illumined the path to the only redeemer God. Oops.
 
And that’s all those certain teachers will give you. Just that cliffhanger. For, not only are we to cut ourselves up, but then we have to pretend that all our idols are gone from us, that we know exactly what God wants from us in His covenant with us, and that its good enough.
 
Now idols should be a no-brainer. We can work hard at being less dependent on our own understanding, riches, or our own impurities. We can even love father and mother less than Him, even though in other places He says to honor them. We can whitewash our halls and our tombs and our brains so that not one thing is in them.
 
And then….what? Never think of anything again? Never have any images in our heads, even when told to think of family? Or God? Is this the kind of God we should be proud to have branded on our skin? One Who can’t make up His mind whether or not He wants actual love or abject obedience?
 
Repent! In your pursuit of holiness, you constantly fall into idolatry. When you think you finally have God’s needs and wants figured out, He seems to turn into the devil and you are a sinner once again. If circumcision were enough, then a circumcision of the heart would be unnecessary. If a circumcision of the heart were enough, then the death of God on the cross would be unnecessary. 
 
If the death of God on the cross were enough then…oh wait it is.
 
First, the covenant. Yes, there is in the covenant stipulations about purity on your part, but as we have already discovered today, it is an unobtainable purity. You would cry “foul” in your sin and take God to small claims court. But this is only the small print. The large print is God’s promise to those with whom He makes this covenant.
 
The Large print, as in the main topic and force of the covenant God makes with man, is to redeem him. God’s covenant is His promise to keep His Name holy in order to keep His Chosen holy. If God keeps His promise, the covenant is on. If we don’t keep our end, the covenant is still on. Our idolatry does not cancel God’s Promise.
 
It is God’s Name on the contract. Plain and simple. As we have already mentioned, it is the Name that is important. Look back to our Old Testament reading today. It does not say “where the covenant is kept by you” I will bless you. It says, when the Name is placed upon the people, I will bless them.
 
This now is the reason why naming Jesus is such a big deal and why it is the only verse we read for today’s Gospel. Now instead of dealing with metaphors like “lord”, “almighty”, and “master” we are given to deal with a man, our equal. When the Name of Jesus is given to Him, that He is the one to save His people from their sins, we are forced to call a man “lord”, “almighty”, and “master”. 
 
When Jesus comes through His mighty work of salvation in His resurrection, He does not allow such lofty, meaningless titles to be the Name that resides upon us for blessing only. He also keeps the Name Jesus and puts it within the context of the Incarnation saying, “baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.
 
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” The Name that is above every name, the Name at which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess is the Name on the dotted line of the covenant and it is the Name tattooed in eternally wet water upon your foreheads, from baptism.
 
God gives you His Name in baptism. Not in a contract, not in a dream, in Word and Sacrament; spirit and truth. 
God’s covenant is written upon Christ. It is tattooed into His Body with spear and nail, carved out to fulfill the promise of rescue by His obedience. 
 
True circumcision, then, is baptism, because the Lord of all has promised you that “clean heart that you could not obtain on your own”, through it. True “upholding the covenant” is believing in Christ, Whom God has sent, and receiving His Victory Feast from His hand of flesh and bone. 
 
Yes, the Creator God of flesh and bone has taken on His own flesh and bone all in order that He might rescue you in your flesh and bones. If you speak of idols, why? They are nothing. They don’t exist (1 Cor 8:4)  “…there is no other God but one.”
 
So we have been tricked. We have been lied to. But Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the Name we have been given in order to watch a “man Who is also God” suffer and die for our sakes, to cleanse us as no circumcision ever could. Jesus is the Name we have been given to witness the first born from the dead in the Easter Resurrection. Jesus is the Name we are given to watch and wait for.
 
Jesus is the Name we are given, such that when idols and sin creep up on us, asking us our names, we simply reply, “I am a Christian” and the darkness is dispelled and the sin is removed, leaving only Christ for us. Jesus is the Name we are given so that on the Last Day, when our Judge asks for our name, we answer “I am Christ’s”.
 
In Christ’s zeal for holiness, He finds the devil, conquers him, and obtains true holiness for men. In the circumcision of Jesus, Who is God and man, He finds the slave contract for obedience, takes it as His own, and writes up a new contract of freedom. 
 
Freedom that we find in our flesh and spirit. The circumcision of the heart and the ear and the flesh and any other physical or metaphorical circumcision that one can squeeze out of God’s Word all find their end in Christ and His work. If Christ doesn’t circumcise you, you are not. 
 
But the promise doesn’t lie in mutilation or branding or self-proclamation. It lies in forgiveness. Forgiveness in Christ. Forgiveness in His wounds, in His work, and in His sacraments. There is no way to the Father’s covenant that is not tattooed with the crucifixion of Jesus, thus Jesus spills the first of His blood today, to point to that.
 

He dedicates [Holy Innocents]

 

TEXT ONLY

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jerimiah 31:15-17

• Revelation 14:1-5

• St. Matthew 2:13-18

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

 

Merry 4th day of Christmass.

 

Jesus speaks to us this evening saying,

“Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.”

 

Herod was a hero. He had just uncovered an insurrection. A rival king was about to be set up against him, who had himself just gone through conflict after conflict to get to his throne. And in order to prevent mass riots and more deaths, he initiates public safety executive order HTK 28: the elimination of ANY with ties to Russ…I mean this fringe extremist group. 

This is how he got regular people to comply to his murdering.

 

One advantage the Christian has over something so sinister is not only finding good in bad, such as our Gospel reading tonight, but being able to face down the bad. That is, because of the Faith given and the hope it produces, we can stand in front of governors, princes, even face down the armies of hell without flinching.

 

To be sure, we wouldn't stand a chance, but we would not be run over. Waves of evil hit us like a breakwater, draining its alleged power to zero. This is the power of the Holy Innocents this evening. They stand as sweet flowerets, and yet they shatter the feet of the devil who tries to trample them.

 

How? Because the only thing the devil can do to them is send them to their heavenly home. Yes, it is murder and that’s wrong and God did not create death, but murder is momentary. There is no murder in all God’s holy mountain, which is the new heavens and the new earth.

 

Thus, for all Herod’s raging, he actually furthered God’s cause of taking His faithful to His side forever. You see, evil can only corrupt, it cannot create or do anything on its own. It is not a created thing, just a nothing burger attempting to create space where God is not.

 

Thus, the rage of evil. The frustration of it all that no matter what is activated, all works out for God’s purpose. The Wise Men find their King of kings, Jesus escapes, and the Innocents get the express lane to heaven for all eternity, forever out of reach of the like of Herod. 

 

Life is a win, win, win for Christians. If you survive the rage of the nations, you win. If you succumb, but get better, you win. If you succumb and don’t make it, you win. There just is no losing since Christ has planted His victory cross on the field of battle.

 

So fight. If these little babies can fight without even doing anything, so can you. What was so overpowering about the fight of these Innocents? The Lord had to fight for them completely. The children had nothing in between themselves and God’s pure strength. They had no regrets, bickering, bargaining, or whining. Their heavenly Father said, we are doing things this way. They said, Ok.

 

We conveniently forget what words mean, when we “offer something to God” or “put it in His hands”. For some Baptism is too cat’lick so we “dedicate” our infants instead. Does that not mean that God can now do what He wants with our children and we have given Him permission? 

 

The Lord has given and He can taketh away. Sin clouds our judgement so completely that we forgot that we gave everything to the Lord, even our hearts. And what the Lord gives…

 

He gives back. This is also what we forget: the Gospel. You already forgot Jeremiah from this evening, “Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

    

What is this hope? That death is defeated and cannot harm us. Who is the victorious captain with outstretched arms? Jesus Christ. 

 

In a cosmic twist, God has dedicated His only-begotten Son, not to Himself, but to us. He offers Him to us and in our sin, we send Him packing at the point of nail, spear, and cross. He is murdered by our sin and buried under the weight of our guilt before God.

 

So, first of all, the promise is made to God’s Son. God's Child, Jesus Christ, will come back to His own country though He be betrayed, falsely convicted, and wrongfully executed. Thoroughly alone, there is hope for His future, because He is both God and man. Though He dies, He rises again, never to die again.

 

In this resurrection and victory over sin, death, and the devil He baptizes. He baptizes you into this victory and gives it to you. This baptism holds the promise of the Lord, unlike a dedication, because a dedication does not unite bodies to God.

 

We dedicate our all to God, but rage when He takes action. We baptize all under God and rejoice that He graciously keeps us until the last day. On that day, it will be stay or go. Stay in your sin or go with Christ. 

 

Going with Christ does mean bearing your cross here, in this life, which includes suffering. But it is not an alien suffering. It is the suffering your Savior went through first, in order to bring you out of it quickly. Have you lost a child? So has your God.

 

Going with Christ also means leaving this world. What that looks like is death, but again a fruit of Christ’s resurrection is that death is now a sleep. As St. Stephen taught us this past Monday, we fall asleep in the Lord, we do not disappear. We wait with Jesus to be woken up by Jesus.

 

Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s and our Lord is living, so we shall live too. Regardless of tragedy, loss, or set-back we are more than conquerors in Him. Regardless of Herod’s rage, Christ blazes the path of true obedience, accomplishing His Father’s will to bring to us salvation, from sin and sorrow to set us free, and to slay bitter death for us that we might live with Him, and all the company of heaven, big and tiny, forever.