The Glory of the Christ Child is Revealed

Matthew 2:1-12 On the night of our Savior’s birth the heavens opened and an angels’ choir sang praises to the newborn Savior and the glory of God shown down upon that scene in the manger.  But in fairly short order the angels departed- and heaven was closed- and the glory of God gave way to the darkness of that night and then to the ordinariness of daily life.

And yet the glory of God was always there in the human flesh of that holy child because he was also God--it was just hidden from sight so that his glory had to be revealed and made manifest. 

Anyone who was there at the night of his birth could see the glory of God--they could hear the angels—but from that moment on, the glory of God in Jesus Christ would be perceived by faith to those whom it was revealed and who understood its signs. 

When the wise men finished their star-guided journey to welcome the king of the Jews, Jesus was already two or three years old---there were no heavenly choirs, there was not overwhelming glory resting as a bright shining cloud above Jesus’ head. 

And yet the glory of God in Jesus was still there and revealed by their visit and the star they followed.  Their visit and the star guiding star revealed that this little child is the God whom nature must serve—he is the Messiah that the Scripture proclaims—he is the hope of the nations—and he is the Lord who will be worshiped.  St. Matthew wrote:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

            We have seen HIS star.  On Christmas day we learned from St. John’s Gospel that the little baby who was born in Bethlehem at a particular moment in time was also from everlasting for he is the second person of the Holy Trinity.  We learned that the tiny newborn who was held and fed by his mother is the same One who upholds the universes and meets the needs of all creatures for he is the God who called this world into being.  These great truths are not the pious opinion of one of Jesus’ disciples-- but the testimony of creation itself about its Creator. 

In our adult Bible study, we heard Dr. Maier’s opinions about what kind of heavenly body it was that the wise men followed.  But it is the Spirit-inspired testimony of St. Matthew that reveals what we really need to know:  that it is Jesus’ star.  Jesus’ star!  It is Jesus’ star because he created it and it is Jesus’ star because it testified to him and reveals his glory.

Throughout the Epiphany season we will see this theme again and again--the glory of God in Jesus revealed.  We will see it as he commands water to become wine, and the seas to become calm, and the ill to become well. 

In the flesh of a newborn in Bethlehem- and a toddler in Egypt- and a carpenter in Nazareth is found the living God of the universe—a universe which must obey the voice of its Master and bear witness to him by a star that illumines his coming into the world- and a sun that hides its face as he is crucified upon a cross- and the earth that is shaken to its core by his death. 

Secondly, in the visit of the wise men we see that Jesus is the Savior of the world who is promised in the pages of Holy Scriptures.  St. Matthew writes:

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.   They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:   “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”  Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

            For so it is written by the prophet.  A number of years ago there was a popular bumper sticker that many people had on their cares.  It read:  “God said it—I believe it—that settles it”.  Even if the wise men didn’t have that sticker on the back of their camels it was certainly their operating theology.  They believed the word of God!

“Where would the Savior be born”?  That was the question of Herod and his court.  The answer of the wise men was:  “What does the Bible say?  It MUST be in Bethlehem because that is what God promised in his Word”!

The purpose of the Advent and Christmas and Epiphany seasons in the church year is to reveal WHO Jesus is.

During Advent we heard the prophecies concerning the Messiah:  that the Savior of the world will be a real human being; that he will be born of a virgin; that he will be born in Bethlehem; and that he will suffer and die and rise again for all people. 

This story is not only TOLD in the New Testament it is FORETOLD in the Old Testament, many hundreds of year before he enters into human history and takes on human flesh. 

During Christmas we heard of the faithfulness of God to all of these prophecies:  that Jesus is born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bethlehem and that a forerunner prepares his way.

Beginning today in Epiphany we see that the Gentiles also come to Christ just as was foretold by the prophets and that every messianic sign of healing the sick and raising the dead and setting the prisoner free was fulfilled by Jesus.

The wise men were men of great learning but they were also men of great faith who simply took God at this Word.  God promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and so that’s where they were looking for the Messiah. 

That is still the sole purpose of the Bible:  to tell us about the person and work of Jesus Christ who is the Savior, not just of the Jews, but of all people.  St. Matthew writes:

After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

            The Gentile wise men rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.  During Christmas we heard the story of the Messiah’s birth set in concrete places and a very specific culture.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were pious Jews and Zechariah was taking his turn as a priest in the temple when they learned that their child would prepare the way for the Messiah.  Mary and Joseph lived in a small town in Judea when they learned that the Savior of the world would be entrusted to them.  The Savior of the world came to earth in a particular place, to a particular people and culture.

But he is the Savior of THE WORLD!  God graciously chose Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and made a covenant with them to bless the world.  That covenant was renewed again and again with their descendants.  Prophets from among their own people revealed more and more about the coming Savior.  The worship rites and laws of Israel revealed his holiness and justice.

But the Messiah’s coming into the world and the work he would do was not just for a few-- not just for the folks with the right culture and customs—not just for the folks with the right ethnicity—but for ALL people—for every nation and tribe and people and language.

God had always promised that he would send a Savior for ALL of Adam’s descendants so that as many as were ruined by the first Adam’s sin-- could be redeemed by the second Adam’s obedience.  The Gentile wise men rejoiced in the presence of Jesus because they knew that the one proclaimed King of the Jews was also the Savior of the world—he was their Savior and our Savior too.

The Jews of that day believed the wise men were cut off from God because they weren’t the right kind of people.  But the religious leaders had forgotten that the love of God extends to all people.

It is good for us to be reminded of that too.  We are still tempted to limit the love of God to those who haven’t done this sin or that—to those who are like us in terms of culture and ethnicity—to those who have a certain lifestyle. 

But the guiding star and the visit of the wise men reveal the Good News that that God’s love and the Savior’s work is for all people, to join all people into the family of God as brothers and sisters in Christ who will one day sing their worship and praise around the throne of the lamb in his kingdom just as the wise men first worshiped the Christ Child.  St. Matthew wrote:

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

                The wise men worshiped Jesus.  The wise men did not merely honor Jesus or pledge their loyalty.  They did not simply acknowledge him as the rightful king of the Jews, though he was.  They worshiped him.  For Gentile and Jew alike, worship is only given to God.  That was the faith of the wise men:  that Jesus was God. 

That is the message of the church—not that Jesus is merely a great teacher or inspiring example—but that he is God.  That is the dividing line between those who are being saved and those who are lost.

It would take the disciples years of miracles and signs before they could really come to that confession, that one true God took on flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.  But already that day in Bethlehem, there were wise men with the gift of faith who gave to Jesus what he deserved and that is our worship.

I pray that the guiding star and visit of the wise men would lead us to that same place:  that we would confess that in Jesus Christ the Creator has become a creature—that the we would believe what the bible says about him—that we would rejoice that his love extends to all people, even to us—and that we would offer him the worship that he deserves!  Amen.

Christ and the Church: God's Model for Marriage

A wedding sermon for Becky and David

Ephesians 5:22-33 The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the epistle lesson chosen for this day.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially you, David and Becky, I bring you grace mercy and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Of all of the blessings and tender mercies that our gracious heavenly Father bestows upon us to enrich our earthly lives, surely the blessing of marriage comes first, for from it comes life itself.

            When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life, the first blessing that he bestowed upon him was the blessing of a helper fit for him.  When Adam saw the woman God had created for him, Adam said:  This at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. God grant that you always feel that way about the other!

This one-flesh relationship between one man and one woman was God’s institution of marriage, the very estate that you are entering into today.

Marriage is God’s good gift.  He is the one who says what marriage is.  No matter what our godless culture says about marriage—no matter what laws are enacted by the state—marriage itself can never be re-interpreted or re-defined because it is not man’s invention but God’s gift:  one man—one woman—united together in a one-flesh relationship that is intended by God to last a life-time.

            And just as the gift itself has never changed, neither have the purposes of marriage for which God created it:  first of all, the gift of children. 

The fruitfulness of marriage in the pro-creation of children is an enduring sign that we are made in the image of God for the love between a man and a woman brings forth life, reflecting the love of God that created life and continues to give life.

Along with the gift of children, marriage blesses us with a companion and helper for life’s journey and the only God-pleasing way to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality.

But there is another purpose for marriage besides these gifts that benefit the husband and wife—there is a purpose for marriage that is intended by God to serve the world.

Christian marriage was designed by God so that it would bear witness to the world as to the relationship that exists between Christ and the church.  Your marriage is not intended by God to serve only your earthly needs-- but is intended to serve the spiritual needs of those around you as they see in your marriage something of the love and respect that exists between Christ and the church.

Each of you has a part to play in that sacred vocation.  The Apostle Paul says that the husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the church and the wife is to respect her husband as the church submits to Christ and in these ways each of you are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  The point is this:

This life that you are called to lead as husband and wife (and how each of you should behave towards the other) does not come first of all from your relationship with one another-- but from your relationship with Christ.  He is the only one who can help you to fulfill the high calling that you are entering into today.

David you are called to love Becky like Christ loves the church, putting her first, laying down your very life for her if need be—but always sacrificing yourself to meet her needs.

The relationship between Christ and the church begins with the love of Christ and so your marriage relationship begins when you love Becky in a Christ-like way.

Becky you are called to respect David as the Church honors Christ and to submit to him in everything. 

This is a very different model for marriage than what the world offers.  TV shows and women’s magazines and relationship “experts” tell us ad nauseumthat marriage is 50-50, that we have to insist on getting what we want—that we have to make sure that our needs are met.

Holy Scripture says that we are to look to Jesus Christ, see the love and sacrifice he has for us, and then live out that same love and sacrifice when it comes to our relationship with our spouse.

Obviously, this kind of married life that always puts the other first is a particular blessing for the two people who are married to one another.  But it has a higher calling as well that extends far beyond just those two people.

As Christian couples live out these kinds of lives in their marriage they put flesh and bone on the relationship that exists between Christ and the Church and they bear witness to those around them as to the love that God has for the world.

And just as that love that God has for the world is enduring, so the marital life of one husband and one wife is to endure. 

Divorce is not permitted except where adultery has already broken that one flesh relationship and so the promises you make today to God and one another in the presence of this congregation and in God’s sight are intended to last a life time.

We make very few promises to do something for the rest of our life but you are making one today.

Your ability to keep that promise will not be found in the strength of your commitment or in the fervency of your love for one another.  It will be found in the love that Christ has for you.

He is the one who will speak to your heart through his Word.  He is the One who will forgive your sins in Holy Absolution.  He is the One who will feed you with his own life in Holy Communion to strengthen your life of love.

Receiving these gifts of Christ’s love, your own love for one another will be renewed and strengthened throughout your married life as you forgive one another as Christ forgave you. 

Beginning each day in God’s grace will help you let the past be past when it comes to sorrows and failures that most surely come when two people live out a life together in marriage.

As your relationship with Christ is strengthened and sustained through God’s gifts of Word and sacrament, so will your marriage grow stronger and become a more powerful testimony to the love that exists between Christ and his church.

To this holy end I pray that God would richly bless your life together as husband and wife!

And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Our Light and Salvation: A Funeral Sermon for Bill

Psalm 27 The text for our meditation on God’s Word is the psalm chosen for this day—Psalm 27.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially you, Bill’s family:  I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Today we gather together to lay to rest a father and grandfather and great-grandfather—a valued member of this community—a dearly loved fellow member of this congregation.  But we also lay to rest a member of what has been appropriately called:  the greatest generation.

These are our fellow Americans who suffered through the great depression and fought the tide of totalitarianism in WWII and rebuilt the world in its aftermath.  Bill was a part of that greatest generation that is quickly fading from our view but will remain in our memory.

Bill fought in WWII on the European Front in Italy.  Only rarely did he share any of those stories of his military service.  I can only imagine what that was like—how frightening it must have been—a small town boy from South Dakota cast into the terrors of war and yet he was also a Christian who knew that God was with him, watching out for him, protecting him.  The words of the psalmist were his own as they are ours today:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.  Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

           

            Those battles of WWII were not the only battles Bill would face—the Germans were not the only foes he would fight against.  Over these last five or six years especially he faced the enemies of illness and frailty and his own declining health.  The enemy of his own mortality was no less powerful than the German bullets that once whizzed overhead.

But Bill knew that the Lord was his light and salvation and stronghold of his life.  He remembered his confirmation verse that the Lord would never leave him or forsake him.  Even as he fought against the frailty of his body and the specter of his own approaching death he faced these enemies with courage and confidence because he knew that the Lord was with him just as he is with us today.

Bill and I talked often over these last years and never once did I hear him talk about being afraid.  The light of Jesus Christ had shined into his life at an early age.  He knew that he was saved. 

He had experienced the Lord as a stronghold throughout his life so there was nothing to fear no matter what the future held.  And even as he lay ill in a hospital bed, mourning the loss of his wife, he would always say how thankful he was for all of the Lord’s blessings upon his life.

This was Bill’s confident faith—a faith that had been given him and formed in him and sustained in throughout a lifetime spent in the Lord’s house just like the psalmist who wrote:

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Until he was simply physically incapable of attending church on Sunday, Bill was always present in the Lord’s house to worship and receive God’s gifts and that was true him from the very earliest moments of his life. 

God chose him in Christ to be his own before the foundation of the world and caused him to be born to Christian parents who brought him to the Lord’s house as a little baby to be baptized.  In the waters of holy baptism he died with Christ and was raised with Christ.  His parents made a solemn vow to raise him in the faith—a vow which they kept.

He attended church and Sunday School and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church, promising to suffer all even death rather than fall away from Christ and his church.  He was confirmed at St. John Lutheran Church in Tyndall, South Dakota and remained a faithful member of the Lutheran Church throughout his life.

He was married in the church and raised his children in the church.  And even with starting a new, successful business with all of the work that entails—he still made time for worship.  Like the psalmist, he dwelt in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.

He did this, not because he felt it some legal obligation to keep or because it was some good work that earned him a place with God—but he did it because he loved the beauty of God’s salvation that he heard about in God’s Word and the blessings of Holy Communion—he did it because he wanted to thank God for all of the blessings and tender mercies God had given him.  With the psalmist he could say about God that:

He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

            I am certain that Bill’s experience in WWII changed him profoundly.  He came home from the war and knew that God really had sheltered him from harm—that God really had lifted him up over his enemies—and it gave him a confidence in the goodness of God that served him for the rest of his life.

            He attended college at Lake Forest at night while he established a career in the grocery business.  He married Vi and began a family.  His life was filled with the joys of a successful career, and a good marriage, and a happy family.

Even there the blessings of God upon his life did not end.  After he retired he moved to Kingsville to start the next big chapter in his life, working with McDonalds to start a restaurant franchise throughout this area.  It was a financial risk and hard work—but if you ever saw Bill around one of his restaurants you know that what it really was for him was pure joy and an opportunity for him to bring joy to others.

Bill was a Christian businessman who saw it as his duty to not only be successful-- but to do good for others in the community.  He served this community on the Chamber of Commerce, and the hospital board, and the Kleberg Bank board of directors.  He supported our local university and gave generously to various charities and provided employment and opportunity to many of our fellow citizens.

I know this last chapter of his life in Kingsville was a special joy and a blessing but like all of earth’s joys, it began to draw to a close.  With the psalmist he prayed the words we prayed earlier in our service:

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!  You have said, “Seek my face.”  My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”  Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! 

            Five or six or seven years ago the golf games began to be fewer—the travel less frequent.  The times that Caroline and I socialized with him and Vi, he always asked me to drive.  As blessed and successful and joyous as his life had been, it began to draw to a close.

For both he and Vi there were increasing bouts of illness.  Their good friends the Haunschilds passed away and then Vi went to be with the Lord.  I can’t even begin to imagine how painful that must have been for Bill to lose his wife of all those years—it was hard to think of one without the other! 

It would have been easy for Bill to think that God had turned his back on him—that somehow God was angry with him.  Those kinds of doubts would have only been natural. 

But I never heard that from Bill—only thankfulness for all the blessings he had already received and a confident faith that the God who had been his light and salvation in the past would be his helper in the future as well.

And so he continued to seek God even when he could no longer come to church.  We would have our worship time there in his room where he would hear the word of God and receive the Body and Blood of Christ and confess his sin and receive God’s forgiveness and confess his faith and pray the Lord’s Prayer. 

As difficult as it was for him to remember some things, he never forgot the words of the Apostles’ Creed or of the Lord’s Prayer—saying them boldness and confidence and conviction even just a few weeks ago and again on the night he passed away. 

He could do this because he knew that even as this life drew to a close there was another life to come.  His confidence was that of the psalmist:  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

            That was Bill’s confident hope and certain faith because he knew and believed that Jesus had conquered death and the grave by his own glorious resurrection and promised the same to all who trust in him. 

Because I live you also shall live was the promise Jesus made to Bill—a promise that he kept as he brought him to himself this last Wednesday.  The Lord wants these words to comfort us too and so he says:  Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

            We are all going to miss Bill—his family and friends and members of this congregation and community.  But the goodbyes we say today are not the last word for we will see him again when we go to be with the Lord.  There is some waiting to do—there are some tears to shed—but the Lord is our light and salvation and the stronghold of our life and he will help us be strong and courageous until that glorious day we too stand in his presence just as Bill does today.  Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting!  Amen.