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]

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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.
 

Witness of suffering [St. Stephen Day]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 2 Chronicles 24:17-22

• Acts 6:8-15, 7:54-60

• St. Matthew 23:34-39

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks on this 2^nd day of Christmas aka St. Stephen’s Day, saying:
“For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” 
 
When you hear the Word of God and realize you believe, having received faith from above, it hits you like a ton of bricks. (Sorry St. Stephen+ no offense). Your entire worldview changes. What you thought you knew, turns out to be lies. What you thought were lies, turn out to be true. The world seems to flip on its head and the rocks tumble all around.
 
Though really, through God’s Word the world is just righting itself. For it is you who were backwards and upside-down, believing the lies. You were clinging to the earth, the dust, the rocks from which you came and you tumbled along with them, hurling yourself at the God who made you suffer.
 
Yes. In our sin that is our charge we bring against God. “Why bring me here if I’m just going to suffer?” Job speaks this point saying, “Let the day perish on which I was to be born,
And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived’” (3:3).
 
The Christian Church is the Church because it suffers, because it bears the cross of her Lord and Savior. Whether its the wood of the cross or the stones of the tomb, the ancient saying goes, “the blood of Christians is the seed [of the Church]” (Tertullian, Apology, L:13).
 
However, it is not enough for the Christian to suffer, more to the point, we were not made to suffer. 
Genesis 1 says, “So God created man…and blessed them…and behold it was very good” (v.27, 28, 31).
 
It is also not the point of suffering to seek out suffering. In that route, we seek suffering in our sin and St. Peter warns us in our 2nd Sunday after Christmas Epistle, “let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler” (1 Pet 4:15), in other words, as a sinner. 
 
Note the crime they accuse St. Stephen of. It is not giving to the poor, it is not doing good deeds, it is not even for “being a Christian”. As we heard them from our reading in Acts, St. Stephen is charged with speaking against the authority of the day. In this case, satan’s authority coming from the twisting of holy Scripture.
 
The twist that says, no matter what God’s priests and Temple authorities do, it is God’s will. The twist that gives godlike authority and lordship to all who “serve” and “preach” and “teach” in God’s “service”. The twist that allows murder and the breaking of all commands in order to preserve its own power structure, even at the cost of defying the God they claim to be in service to.
 
Satan is the only one to lie and proclaim and promise that kind of earthly glory to those “serving” today. This is why we term this sort of theology the theology of glory. 
 
Theologies of glory are approaches to Christianity and to life that try in various ways to minimize difficult and painful things, or else to defeat and move past them, rather than looking them square in the face and accepting them. In particular, they acknowledge the cross, but view it primarily as a means to an end – an unpleasant but necessary step on the way to good things in the future, especially salvation, the transformation of human potential by God and the triumph of the Kingdom of God in the world. As Luther puts it, the theologian of glory “does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil” (The Heidelberg Disputation, Proof to Thesis XXI).
 
So we hear the words of both our saints today, St. Zechariah in the Old Testament reading and St. Stephen. Don’t be fooled, however. Zechariah is not demanding revenge. The word there is “judge”, in the Greek. Meaning, he is calling upon God to judge between his words and the words of the authorities.
 
St. Stephen is doing the same. Though St. Stephen already knows God’s judgement, because he has seen it in action, in the flesh, on the cross. And God’s judgement, which St. Zechariah also asked for, is guilt for the Son, innocence for the sinner.
 
And where St. Stephen and St. Zechariah can only pray and hope for God’s forgiveness to be handed out to their enemies, Jesus Christ, the King of Saints, purchases and wins salvation, making it a reality.
 
Jesus Christ is buried under the rocks of His martyrs. Though He is somewhat special. His rocks are brand new. It was “a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid” (Jn 19:41) and they threw “a stone against the entrance of the tomb” (Mk 15:46). A special stoning for a special man.
 
For while Sts. Zechariah and Stephen did not get out of their tombs of rock, Jesus did.
 
St. Fulgentius from the 6^th century makes this point for u:,

“Yesterday, my dear brethren, we celebrated the birth in time of our timeless King; today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of a soldier. Yesterday our King, clothed in a robe of flesh, came forth from a virginal womb and deigned to visit this earth; today a soldier, leaving the tabernacle of the body, departs, as a conqueror, for heaven. The former, preserving the majesty of divinity, assumed the lowly form of human nature and entered this world to do battle; the latter, laying aside corruptible bodily trappings, has ascended to reign unceasingly in the palaces of heaven. The One, Christ, descended veiled in flesh; the other, Stephen. ascended laureled in blood.
 
Yesterday the angels sang exultingly “glory to God in the highest”; today they have joyously received blessed Stephen into their midst. Yesterday Christ was wrapped for us in swaddling clothes; today blessed Steven is clothed by Him with the stole of immortality. Yesterday the narrow crib carried the Infant Christ; today the boundless heavens receive the triumphant Stephen. Our Lord descended alone that He might make many ascend; our King has humbled Himself that He might exalt his soldiers.
 
Nevertheless, dearest brethren, it is necessary that we know with what weapon blessed Stephen was armed so as to overcome satanic savagery and merit such triumph. To obtain the crown which is signified by his name, St. Stephen was armed with charity and by it conquered all obstacles. Because of his love of God he fled not from the cruel Jews; because of his love of neighbor he prayed for those who are stoning him. In charity, he corrected the erring that they would amend; in charity he prayed for his executors that they would not be punished. By virtue of charity he conquered the fire-breathing Saul and so merited to have his persecutor on earth as companion in heaven.“ (St. Fulgentius, Matins of St. Stephen, Pius Parsch I:216)

 
In this way only, were the torrent of stones dear to Stephen, as they were dear to Christ Who rested in the tomb for you. We thusly pray with St. Stephen today, at this Altar, in this Service, with Psalm 63, “My soul clings fast to Thee” because my body was stoned for Thee, my God (v.8). 
Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord. 
 
 

Historic Proclamation [Christmass Day]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 52:6-10

• Hebrews 1:1-12

• St. John 1:1-14

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks from His newborn lips today, saying:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
 
Once again, we hear one of the people’s favorite verses, in verse 12, because once again, we believe that “to receive Christ” is an active act on our part, as O Little Town of Bethlehem commands us singing, “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Lord enters in”.
 
But when have souls ever been meek? As we have already mentioned this Advent season, we have been trying to rewrite history since we started recording it on paper and God’s history is no exception. The sin-filled soul rages at even a hint of God’s presence.
 
So, what I’d like to read to you is the historic proclamation of Christmas, begun in the 4th century and completed by the 6th. This Proclamation was not a “required” reading on Christmas Eve until the 16th century when Pope Gregory XIII decided we needed a new calendar. But that’s another story.
 
Please listen:
The twenty-fifth day of December, being the 20th day after the last New Moon.
In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world
 
from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;
 
the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;
 
the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham;
 
the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses
and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;
 
the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king;
 
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
 
in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
 
the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;
 
the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
in the sixth age of the world,
 
Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by His most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since His conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary,
being made flesh.
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
 
Now, if you were paying close attention, perhaps you got offended by this proclamation, because it claims to be able to number the years from Creation, when no one was counting, or at least writing it down. And people have been offended. 
 
In a deplorable, but not unexpected, happenstance, the old text was thrown off the cliff by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1994. They replaced it with a generic formula of dates using: “when ages beyond number had run their course” and “when century upon century had passed”, instead of exact years.
 
This change to being imprecise was lauded as genius and the height of scholarship. Imagine calling a loss of information genius. But that is our level of science and understanding today, to be less precise instead of more. To be more general and inclusive, instead of being exact and truthful.
 
Though Christians complain about this, they perpetrate more than most. As we have already seen in the “christian” changes to this proclamation. But is also most noticeable on Christmas where candy, lights, and presents take center stage, replacing fasting, prayer, and meditation on God’s mysteries. I mean can you imagine changing Genesis 1 to something like: "And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was an indeterminate period of time. And some innumerable ages later God said: Let there be a firmament ..."
 
No. As we have been discussing these past Sundays, history is important and God takes it very seriously. Though we may be able to debate dates and counts of years, more important to us and to faith is that we recognize God’s work in relatable, recordable, and recent history.
 
The Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 2, is our biggest example here, and most recently on our minds because of Christmas. In that Christmas reading, the Lord goes through much trouble to mention striking and provable details of the current time, for those alive in the first century.
 
There we hear of Caesar Augustus, a prominent figure in history even today. We hear this was the time when Cyrenius was first made governor. We hear specific cities, specific peoples, and specific times. There is no way anyone can get those dates wrong.
 
There is no possible way that God will allow us to miss the great Day of the Lord when He said through Isaiah that we shall know His Name and shall know that it is He Who is speaking. “Here I am”, He says (Isa 52:6) in our OT reading. 
 
And He writes “Here I am” on walls and even in the stars. He sets off a beacon for the whole world, and all of history, to announce “Here I am”. St. Mark 4:22 says, “For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”
 
God may know the secret sins of our hearts (Ps 44:21, 90:8), we may deal in secrets beyond number, century after century, but He gives us this promise, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you …” (Jer 29:13-14).
 
God will be found. Not through any effort of ours, but by the sheer openness of God and His works. He has hidden nothing behind silly, man-made centuries upon centuries or silly man-made numbers in the billions of billions and trillions of trillions. 
 
There is no question. Our faith is historic. Our proclamation and belief about Christmas is historic. Our beliefs are not pulled out of some old, dusty, myth-filled past or even from the brains of greedy, white men. 
 
They are pulled out of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, displayed for the entire world, yes in a manger, but yes upon the cross. And we can be reasonably comfortable that history continues to confirm the veracity of God’s Word, not that we need it to.
 
So we find that “receiving Him” is not as active as we thought. “Receiving Him” is actually very passive, because as the verse goes on to state, it is only by the will of God that any of this happens. For children of God are born not of the flesh or blood of man, but by the Will, the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, born specifically for you.
 
Merry Christmas!
 
 

Children's Programme [Christmas Eve]

 Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ.
 
What to do with a child? They can’t fend for themselves, They can’t pay the bills.
 
Yet, everyone understands being pregnant and having a baby. No end of money and energy is spent on celebrations, gender reveals, and showers even before the baby gets here. The excitement sits on all family and friends alike as the time approaches. The child in the womb is spoiling his parents even before he can take part. 
 
The great and awesome day of delivery comes. The phone calls pile up, the cards rush in, the FaceBook likes near monetization levels. 
 
The baby is born.
The phone lines go dead. The mail halts. Facebook turns away. 
 
You see, everyone understands having a baby, but the world doesn’t understand having a baby. It doesn’t understand the diapers, and the lost hours, and the constant investment with no return. Sure, you will get a pat on the head and a “it’ll be ok”, but too bad. The baby is a burden a drain, unwanted.
 
This is evident in our country as to how we treat our infants. they are toys. they are dolls. We dress them up, show them off, and throw them to the wolves of the public sector who have nothing better to do than program them against us.
 
It is unfortunate that the darkness of the world closes around us so closely, for such were some of us, says 1 Cor 6:11), aligned that way, thinking that way. Sinful you were. But where the darkness surrounds, Christ’s light abounds.
 
“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). No longer are we children of the night, but sons of the day. No longer are our bodies for sin and death, but for the Lord only, 1 Cor. 6 continues. 
 
For this night, of all nights, our bodies have been sanctified by His body. Our every step of life, gestation and maturation, have been touched by eternity. From conception to the grave, we are the Lord’s. And now that He has come into our world, we will be with Him even beyond the grave.
 
The world might not know what to do with babies, but the Lord does. He knows exactly how to create them, to care for them, and to love them. He knows exactly how to honor motherhood and infancy, by becoming an infant Himself and daring the world to lift one little finger against Him.
 
They dared and we dared, in our sin. that is why His cross will always come after His birth. But it is at this point that the mystery begins. The mystery of God made man. The mystery of the Lord serving us. the mystery of how can a body do such great things such as die and come back to life, never to die again.
 
This is the washing that our Infant Lord gives to all infants in baptism. this is the holiness freely given by God to all who believe the Word of the Cross. This is the justification Christ declares as He holds out His Body and Blood with nail, imprinted palms.
 
The Lord of all has found it important to do all this with an infant. It behooves us to follow His example and so we do. We cherish our children as He told us. We teach them and make them dress up funny, year after year, so that this Word of God imprints Himself forever on their hearts.
 
So we are given a clean heart, and the Body and Blood of our Savior. We are given God’s Body in our own baptism, which saves and gives faith, so that we believe in God being born and that the Christ Child will work His wonder of salvation among us.
 

Lessons & Carols [Christmas Eve]

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks to us, this Christmass Eve, from His holy Scripture and many hymns.
 
But, Pastor, why are we wasting our time with all these musty, Old Testament readings?  This is not what Christmas is about.  It’s about the nice, fluffy story of sweet, 8 lb 6oz. baby Jesus.  So can we please hurry up so that we can get on with the evening?
 
Let me tell you; for the same reason we read the Old Testament, was Jesus born in the darkness. These Old Testament readings remind us of the state of our hearts at this moment and the state of the entirety of time in that moment.  Even winter reminds us that we are in the darkness of our sin, which does not want God’s kingdom to come nor His Name to be hallowed.
 
Jesus was born into the sin and corruption of this world’s darkness to remind us why He came and who He came for.  He is an infant now, but He does not stay this way.  We have been praying for Christmas to come so that Jesus would step out of heaven to BEGIN His work.  That work being His death and resurrection for the redemption and salvation of us sinners.
 
Braving spears, false piety, and corrupt justice systems, Jesus the Christ breaks into our world as a child.  If a child can break through, what kind of watch is kept on us now?  Not a good one.  Sin, death, and the devil do not stop Jesus from entering the virgin’s womb and being born sinless, to die for sinners.
 
And it’s not just this one night, Christians.  Jesus does not only come down this night to give us joy to the world, peace, comfort, hark the herald angels, mistletoe, and presents to pretty little girls.  Jesus dwells with His people.  He comes down to serve them Faith and forgiveness every Divine Service in which His Gospel is preached in its purity and His Body and Blood eaten and drunk according to it.
 
This is what Christmas is all about: God’s Divines Service.  It’s about the fact that we don’t have to go on vacation to find Jesus.  We don’t have to commune with nature to gain peace.  We don’t have to get away from it all or know it all to gain enlightenment.  Jesus puts Himself, along with all the things His Gospel promises, in a nice little box for us in a manger.  And He’s as easy to find as a present under a tree.
 
Jesus is He Who crushes the serpent’s head.  Jesus is He Who is offered instead of Isaac.  Jesus is He Who breaks our darkness to increase our gladness.  He is the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace.  He is the Root of Jesse and our Judge and we are going to hear how He accomplishes this.
 
In the next set of readings is where we hear this.  Jesus completes His work in humility and service, Divine Service, the exact opposite of what we would do if we had to save the world.  In humility, He takes our sin as His own, forgiving us of it forever, dying on the cross.  In service He comes down to wash us in Baptism, to speak to us in the Gospel, and to feed us all of these glorious and wonderful things in Body and Blood.
 
Jesus places Himself in a box so that you can find Him every time you look for Him.  He is in His Church, as He promised, given for you for the forgiveness of your sins.  He then dwells within you, constantly forgiving and bringing you to Life and to Light from death and darkness. 
 
Jesus marches from the Old Testament and the darkness of prophesy and the manger, to the divine revelation and wisdom of the cross.  He wraps Himself in Moses and the prophets, Bread and wine, to assure you that He really has come in this manner and that this is how He’s going to accomplish His work of saving you.  In water, in Word, and in Body and Blood.
 
 
 

Meditations of Athanasius [Christmass Eve]

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 7:10-14

• Romans 1:1-6

• St. Matthew 1:18-25

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

 
Jesus speaks from our Epistle today, saying:
“…the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures”
 
For your meditation, this evening, I offer two selections from old, dead Church fathers—one anonymous; and one from the early Bishop whose name the anonymous piece bears. For God proclaims His promises through His prophets and continues to speak to us in His Word, through His pastors, in His Church as She moves throughout history.
 
Tonight, all these readings we heard, all these carols, the tree, the candlelight—even your celebrations at home, the presents, the candy and cookies, the Hallmark villages and the various hot toddies—they all celebrate and bring our focus to one place: the incarnation—God in human flesh lying in a manger. This profound mystery is the very foundation of the Christian faith. That is why the Church rates this as a first-class feast in the church year. 
 
So, tonight I thought it fitting that we contemplate devotionally a section of one of the great creeds of the Church. While generally, we think of creeds as our confession of faith, they also proclaim to us the profundity of the Faith. So, tonight, instead of confessing it, hear and ponder this section of the Athanasian Creed which confesses the significance of God in a manger:
 
(Read vv. 27-37 on p. 320 in Lutheran Service Book)
“Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the substance of His mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood; Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ: One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God; One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead; He ascended into heaven; He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty; from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
 
While that creed bears the name of Athanasius, Athanasius most certainly did not write it. It is written some years later. But it confesses the doctrine he championed throughout his life. Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria in Egypt in the early fourth century during the Church’s greatest Christological controversy in which those who held to the Arian heresy denied the divinity of Jesus. 
 
Athanasius tirelessly defended the orthodox teaching on the divinity of Jesus. He was exiled by his enemies five times and almost murdered twice. Christmas—and the incarnation it celebrates—is of course, at the heart of the person and work of Jesus. So, Athanasius wrote voluminously on the incarnation. Here is a small piece from Athanasius on the incarnation:
 
“The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father’s Son, was such as could not die. For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through His indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent. For naturally, since the Word of God was above all, when He offered His own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, He fulfilled in death all that was required.
 
You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honoured, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled, and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has simply ceased to be. For the human race would have perished utterly had not the Lord and Saviour of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death…
 
Some may then ask, why did He not manifest Himself by means of other and nobler parts of creation, and use some nobler instrument, such as sun or moon or stars or fire or air, instead of mere man? The answer is this: The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display, the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it…”        
—    from “On the Incarnation” by Athanasius of Alexandria (ca. 293-373)
 
In other words, God is in the manger so that He can die for you, and by dying, destroy death from the inside out. So sin and death no longer have dominion over you. And instead of the eternal death which you deserved, you have eternal life because you are forgiven for all your sins—all because God is a baby in a manger.