Sanctifying Time to the Glory of God

As we have recently heard from the Holy Gospel on Christmas Day, and as we confess throughout the year in the Creed, it is by and through the Son of God (the Word who became Flesh) that all things are made and exist.  Even in the face of sin and death, we thus affirm that all of creation is good, for it is God’s good work and His gracious gift.  It is to be received with thanksgiving, sanctified by His Word and prayer, and used to the glory of His Name in faith and love.

By the same token, you know how easily and how often God’s good gift of creation is abused and misused in contradiction of His Word.  It is so typical that it is either idolized or demonized, either worshiped and feared as though it were God, or despised and rejected as though it were the devil.

Time itself also belongs to God’s good creation and is therefore subject to sanctification by His Word and prayer, or to the idolatry and sacrilege of sinful unbelief.  It is created by God and given for a good and godly purpose, namely, that you should live by faith in His promises, day by day and year after year, in patience and in love.  Thus is it marked and measured by the days and nights that God the Lord has established; by the rhythm of weeks, the turning of seasons, and the passing of years which the Holy Scriptures and the servants of God, the sun, moon, and stars, determine.

The purpose of these signs and seasons, of evening and morning, sunset and dawning, of winter, spring, summer, and fall, and of seedtime and harvest, is that you should remember the Lord and His mercies, as He remembers you according to His steadfast love, and as He generously provides you with your daily bread.  For all of time, together with all of creation, is sanctified to the glory of God and for your eternal good by the Cross & Resurrection of the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

Even so, time is likewise subject to blasphemous abuse when it is worshiped and feared instead of God, or when it is resisted and denied as though it were the work of the devil.  Time becomes a cruel taskmaster and a prison house, when it is viewed, not as God’s good creation and good gift, but as your lord and ruler, whether for good or ill; that falsehood will destroy you, either way.

Then you find that time pursues you on swift horses, indeed, until you are utterly undone.  Except, it is actually the Lord your God, your Maker and Redeemer, who pursues you in love — also with His servant, time — in order to recall you to Himself, to faith and love, and to eternal life in Christ.

Thus, it is here in time that you suffer and die on account of your sin.  But it is also here in time that you are brought to repentance, that you receive life and live by the grace and mercy of God.

It is within time that you may be hurt and disappointed, lied to, betrayed, and left waiting on those who let you down.  And it is within time that you, also, do both good and evil to your neighbors.

But it is in repentance and rest, quietness and peace, that you are saved here in time for eternity hereafter.  It is within time that you are called to live by faith, to wait in patience on the Lord; and in time that you are called to love and serve your neighbors, to carry out your duties in the fear and faith of God — not knowing the hour in advance, but only that your Master is certainly at hand.

Therefore, do not lose heart, and do not grow weary of doing good, but keep your loins girded, and keep the Word of the Lord in view as the Lamp unto your feet and as the Light upon your path.

Blessed are you, who are so ready and waiting.  The Lord will surely reward you in due season.

It is for you as it was for Israel in Egypt: Waiting and watching, suffering and dying, praying and hoping.  Not always faithful, but never forgotten.  The Lord hears your cries and remembers you.

Ten plagues the Lord sends upon your taskmaster.  But things get worse before they will get better.  The Cross puts to death every part of Egypt that reigns, not only over you, but within your heart and mind, your body and soul.  But all goes according to the Word of the Lord.  And at exactly the right time He raises you up and delivers you from every evil of body and soul, within and without.

For those who know and believe that the angel of death is coming to strike down the firstborn, the Lord provides the lamb to be sacrificed and eaten, sanctified by His Word and prayer.  So it is that death passes over, and His people come out of slavery into freedom, out of death into life.

So imagine yourself and your family on that night, gathered around the table of the lamb, guarded by nothing but his blood upon your door.  Whether it will happen in the second or third watch of the night, you have been told what is coming.  So you wait, you watch, you pray and confess.

And then the hour comes, and the cry goes up, and with your loins girded and your lamps lit you are brought out of Egypt by the mighty hand and outstretched arm of the Lord your God.

Beloved, that is how you are to live at all times and in all places, in readiness and waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ who is coming to set you free.  And He does set you free, though not from His creation, nor from your body of flesh and blood.  He redeems and sanctifies creation to become the new heavens and the new earth, and He sets your body free from sin, death, and the power of the devil, that you should live with Him, both now and forever, in body and soul.

He makes of time, not a tyrant, but a servant of faith, hope, and love.  So it is that, precisely in time and through time, He delivers you from death and brings you into the life everlasting in Himself, into the eternal Eighth Day of the New Creation in His own crucified and risen Body.

If you find that Egypt pursues you on swift horses, and if you are put to death all day long for the Name of the Lord, you also find yourself driven to the Pole on the hill, that is, to the sign of the Cross on Mt. Zion.  And you are brought through the waters of Baptism, through the drowning and death of repentance, into the resurrection of forgiveness and the divine life of faith and love.

You are taught by the Lord Himself to number your days in this way, day by day, from one week to the next, year after year.  For when His Hour had come, and the Lord Jesus was handed over to His voluntary suffering and death, He was watchful and alert on your behalf, girded in readiness, girded with love for you and for all people, even though all the world was at enmity with Him.

So now He invites you to recline at His Table, and here He comes to wait upon you and to serve you in grace, mercy, and peace.  Here you are gathered around the Table of the Lamb, and you are guarded by His holy, precious Blood.  In this way He remembers you, and you are made ready.

This is how you live and love and wait for the reception of your Master, here in time, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection and eternal life.  Not only when you are kneeling at the Altar and actually receiving the Holy Communion of His Body and Blood into your mouth and body; but, no, your whole life moves to and from this Table, so that, whether you are eating or drinking, or whatever you are doing, you live by faith, you live in love, and you glorify the Lord’s Name.

Live, therefore, as one who receives the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and consider what that means for your life in the body here in time.  Use your body to care for your neighbor’s body, respecting your neighbor, of course, and keeping yourself pure, but feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, caring for widows and orphans in distress.

Use the time that you are given to love and serve your neighbor; to listen with patient compassion; to pray and intercede for your neighbor in peace; and then, also, to gird yourself for good works, that you might be the answer God provides to your prayers and intercessions for your neighbor.

Live as one who receives the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that, as He died and was raised in His Body, so also are you justified by God for a resurrection ready to be revealed in due time.  As God the Lord has bound Himself to you with the very Body of Christ Jesus — here in time — there is nothing at all in time or space that shall be able to separate you from His Love.  Not 2015, nor 2016.  Neither life nor death.  Not now, not ever.

Time is neither your savior nor your enemy.  It is neither God nor the devil.  But the one true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, uses time and all of His created things to serve and care for you: to feed and clothe and shelter you; to bring you to repentance and faith; to feed you with Himself.  He has, He does, and He will, tomorrow as today, throughout the New Year, unto life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

God Is With You Under the Cross

It’s certainly not as though God can’t handle Herod easily or take care of Himself.  For all things derive from Him and depend on Him, and He upholds all things by the Word of His power.  He needs nothing from anyone, but all things in heaven and on earth must look to Him.

And yet, it is according to His wisdom, grace, and mercy that the Lord your God works through means, behind the scenes.  The Creator takes care of His creation by way of His own creatures.  He thereby affirms the goodness of His Creation, and He brings His creatures into harmony with Himself, that they should live and work with Him in the giving and preserving of life.

It is also the case that He, the one true God, has entered into His Creation and become one with it in Christ Jesus.  The Creator has become a creature.  Not only to fulfill the purpose of creation in Himself, in the Person of the incarnate Son, but also to redeem and sanctify the fallen creation and make all things new in the Resurrection of His Body from the dead.

This is what it means for Him to be Immanuel — God With Us.  He has become one of us, flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood, and tabernacles with us.  His own Body is the Temple of God among men, both now and forever, that we might dwell with Him and He with us.

Not only has He become true Man, but to begin with, as God in the flesh, He also enters fully into the mess along with us, bearing our sins and their consequences.  He suffers the curse of the Fall in His own Body and Life, and yet He lives by faith and confidence in His own God and Father.

As the true and perfect Man, He relies upon the Word and promises of God in order to fulfill the Law and the Prophets in Himself on our behalf.  He also depends upon the means that God provides to guard and protect, to nourish and sustain His body and life on earth unto the Hour of His Cross, when He lays down His life in faith that His Father shall raise Him up from the dead.

Already His Cross and Resurrection are anticipated in His journey to and from Egypt.  For so shall He also, in due time, pass through death and the grave into the Resurrection of His Body and the life everlasting in the heavenly Promised Land of Paradise.  Thus has He opened up that way of Life for you and all His people, for all who believe and are baptized into Him.

You have heard, have you not, again and again, that it is “the Child and His Mother” who go in and out of Egypt into Israel.  He is with His Mother because the Son of God has become true Man by His conception and birth of the Woman.  And she is with Him, because He has accomplished all things for His people, His Church, so that, where He is, there you may be also.

By the same token, consider all the ways that His God and Father in heaven cares for “the Child and His Mother” by the faithful and steady service of St. Joseph here on earth.  So does the Lord care for His Church to this day by His called and ordained servants of the Word, in much the same way that He provides husbands and fathers to care for His families in the world.

But St. Joseph is also an example to you, no matter what your particular calling and station in life may be.  Therefore, learn from him to navigate your way through the challenges and difficulties of life under the Cross, by hearing and heeding the Word of the Lord, and by exercising the true wisdom that begins and continues with the fear of the Lord.  But do not be afraid of anything or anyone else in doing so, regardless of appearances.

Think of the contrast between King Herod’s impotent rage, which could not prevail against God’s purposes, and St. Joseph’s quiet obedience, by which the Lord fulfilled the Word of His Prophets and preserved St. Mary and the Christ Child in the midst of mortal peril.

Such is the truth of the matter, even now.  Those who appear to be powerful are not; whereas those who seem to be so weak and powerless find security and strength in Christ by faith.

Such faith listens to the Lord, trusts His Word and promises, and lives and works according to His commandments in all circumstances.  And just so, according to His divine Wisdom under the Cross, He accomplishes His purposes for you and for your neighbors.  For the Cross of Christ conquers death and brings forth the Resurrection, and God calls forth His children out of Egypt.

The Lord is faithful, and He shall do it.  Rest assured that He has not lost track of you or forgotten you, no matter where you are.  No, He is still Immanuel.  He is with you in His flesh and blood, and so are you with Him, both body and soul, unto the life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Seek the Lord Where He Is Found

The shepherds did not linger or delay after hearing the Word of the Lord.  They did not drag their feet, hem and haw, or make excuses.  Directly following the praise and proclamation of the angels, they encouraged one another with the promise they had been given, and they went straight to Bethlehem to seek the Lord where He would be found.  They went in a hurry to find the signs to which His Word directed them.

Learn from this good example of the shepherds and practice the same zeal for the Word and Sacrament of Christ.  For He is the priority at the center of this story and of all creation.  Establish Him as the priority in your own life, as well, as you plan and schedule your days, as you budget, spend, and save your money, and as you choose your activities and companions.

Do not hesitate or make excuses, but faithfully seek the Lord where He shall be found.  Make your way with due diligence to the Christ Child, to the Lord your God in the flesh, to His Manger from which He feeds you in body and soul.

According to the oath that God swore to His servant David, here now is great David’s greater Son.  He is the true Shepherd and everlasting King of Israel, who cares for His flock by day and night, who gathers the people to Himself and rules the nations with righteousness, justice, and equity.

This newborn King and great Good Shepherd of the sheep does not despise the poor and lowly, nor does He neglect the weak and little ones.  Instead, He demonstrates His own almighty power in mercy and in meekness.  Although this little Babe is the Lord your God, He voluntarily takes all your sin and death upon Himself, and for a little while makes Himself poor and lowly, weak and small, dependent on His young Mother and her husband, and subject to the rulers of this world.

All of this He does in love for you and for all people, so that by the mercies of God He should thus raise the sons and daughters of fallen man from death and the grave to the life everlasting.

You know that, in the fullness of time, this Child shall be crucified for your sins and raised for your justification.  For He is your reconciliation and your righteousness.  And as the Lord, His God and Father, raises Him from the dead in His own Body born of Mary, so are His flesh and blood established as the New and Everlasting Covenant of Peace and Joy and Life with God.

Come, then, find your life in Him.  Receive these gifts Christ freely gives.  Share the fellowship Meal of His Sacrifice.  Eat and drink the Food that He provides at no cost to you.  Open your mouth and be fed, and so give thanks unto the Lord who is so gracious, good, and kind to you.

Seek Him out and find Him where His Word has directed you: With Mary and Joseph, that is to say, in His Church and Ministry; in His House of Living Bread, and at the Manger of His Altar.

Receive Him here as He gives Himself to you, into your ears by His Word, into your heart and mind, and into your hands and mouth and body and soul.  Gladly hear and learn His preaching, and treasure every Word that proceeds from His mouth as the greatest and most worthwhile prize on earth.  And at His Word, come worship and adore Him in His Body at His Manger here.  Believe and trust in Him.  Kneel and bow down before Him.  Eat and drink with thanksgiving.  And so also pray, confess, and sing, as surely as the Lord has spoken to you by His Gospel of forgiveness.

Sing to the Lord the New Song of faith and confidence in Christ.  Praise and glorify His Holy Name, His Body and His Blood, in all that you say and do.  Return faithfully to your office and stations in life, to perform the duties God has given you for the good of your neighbors.

Indeed, seek the Lord and serve Him also in those neighbors, as they are adorned by the hidden majesty of His Word.  Shepherd your own little flock, by night or by day as you are so called, in the joy and gladness of your Savior.  Do not work as though to make a life for yourself, and do not labor for that which does not nourish you or last for very long.  But work to the glory of the Holy Trinity, and live the life that He gives to you by grace through Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

To Be Turned to the Lord

Over this past week or so, we have considered the centrality and importance of St. Mary to the Incarnation of the Son of God, to the coming of Christ in the flesh.  That seems obvious enough, I suppose, and all the more so if you’re a mother with babies of your own.  There would be no Christ Child or little Lord Jesus without His Mom!  Even the U.S. Post Office makes a place for the Blessed Virgin Mary — the Madonna and Child — as an alternative to its Santa Claus stamps.

What may or may not be so obvious, but not nearly so comfortable in any case, is the place and importance of St. John the Baptist.  I’m fairly confident that we’ll never see that fiery preacher of repentance on any U.S. postage stamps!  The world has little patience for the Season of Advent, and even less desire for repentance.  The world doesn’t want to hear about it, doesn’t want to think about it, and certainly doesn’t want to do it.

No, the world is far too eager to celebrate its own version of what it calls “Christmas,” beginning earlier every year.  Bright lights and decorations; parties and pastries; shopping and wrapping, sending and exchanging gifts; and the proverbial “Christmas spirit,” which frankly has nothing to do with Christ, nor His Mass, nor His Holy Spirit.  It’s all really something, except that, by the time the days of Christmas actually begin, the world is already tired and ready to be done with it all.

For the moment, the world has time and energy for all its much-to-do about nothing, in the interest of the economy, if for no other reason than that.  But the world has no use for Advent, and it has no stomach whatsoever for St. John the Baptist.  Sad to say, neither do many would-be churches.

But do not be bothered by that.  The world will always go its own way, but let us not go with it.  In any case, the Word of God will not allow us to leapfrog over Advent and St. John the Baptist in our hurry to get to the Christ Child.  All four of the Holy Gospels begin as much or more with St. John before they get to Jesus.  And long before either one of them appeared, St. John had already been the object of various Old Testament Prophecies, according to which it would be necessary for the Forerunner to come first and go before the face of the Lord to prepare His Way.  The Angel Gabriel, righteous Zacharias, and the Lord Jesus Himself all affirm that Word of God.

As there would be no Christ Child and no Christmas without the Blessed Virgin Mary, so would it be impossible to receive the Christ in Christmas or at all apart from His Forerunner, St. John.

But, why?  Doesn’t everybody love the little Baby Jesus?  Who would not receive Him gladly?

Well, to begin with, No, not everybody loves the Baby Jesus, as the stories of the Gospel make painfully clear.  Not only that, but it is neither correct nor sufficient to love the sweet little Baby apart from the bitter agony and bloody sweat of His Cross and Passion.  For He has come in the flesh to sacrifice Himself on the Cross, to bear away in His own body the sins of the whole world.

It is also necessary to understand and believe that it is no mere man who suffers and dies for you, but the true Man who is at the same time the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God.  And His true beauty and divine glory are not to be found in the romanticized images of Hallmark greeting cards and holiday specials, but in His gracious mercy and His humble obedience even unto death.

The Lord Jesus comes, not only in the flesh, but under the curse of sin and death, in order to obtain forgiveness, life, and salvation for sinners, like yourself, who do not deserve a bit of it.  He comes and takes your sins upon Himself and atones for them by the shedding of His blood.  He suffers your death and damnation in your place, and shares with you instead His own divine, eternal life.

The sad fact of the matter is, though, that in your sinful ignorance and rebellion, you do not want these divine gifts of your dear Lord Jesus Christ.  You don’t want to give up your sins, nor even to admit your bondage to death and the devil.  For it is at the very heart of your sin to deny and reject the Word of God and the Life to which He calls you.  And you are so blinded by your sin and by the devil’s hold on your heart, mind, and mortal flesh, that you are not even capable of realizing your own situation.  It is a trap from which you cannot free yourself, no more than anyone else can.

Such is your predicament apart from the Word and Spirit of God.  And it cannot be turned around without a lot of kicking and screaming on your part, because you are the core of the problem.  So it is that everything you are apart from Christ must be put to death: crucified, dead, and buried.  Only then can you be raised up to a new life in Christ in His own Resurrection from the dead.

Dying and rising, being put to death and made alive.  That is the shape of your Baptism into Christ, and that is the pattern of your Christian faith and life in this world.  It is the shape of repentance, which is where and why St. John the Baptist enters the picture with his preaching and baptism.

Now, to be sure, the “rising” part of this equation sounds attractive.  But you do not rise and live with Christ unless you have first been put to death and have died to yourself through repentance, and that on a daily basis throughout your life, until your body returns to the dust of the ground.

And the thing of it is that neither the dying nor the rising is a do-it-yourself exercise.  You cannot will it to happen nor make it happen.  Not by choices or decisions.  Not by personal reflection or pious meditation.  Not by good works or sincere efforts.  Not by your own self-imposed guilt, and not be making yourself feel really bad about your past sins.  None of this is right, nor does it work.

What you need — and what has to happen if you are to be saved — is that the Forerunner must go before the face of the Lord to prepare you for His coming by the preaching of repentance.  He must level your mountains of pride.  He must straighten out your crooked ways.  He must slay your old Adam, nailing you to the Cross of Christ, and drowning you in a Baptism of repentance for the remission of your sins.  In short, he must put you to death by the preaching of God’s Law.

Only by that Word of God do you die to your sins, and die to the world, and die to the devil, death, and hell.  Only by that Word are you turned away from all of your self-chosen self-destruction.

But that is only the beginning of repentance, and only the first part of the ministry of St. John the Baptist.  For along with his preaching of the Law, he comes also with the preaching of the divine Word of the Gospel.  Indeed, as fundamental and necessary as St. John’s preaching of the Law is, he is most distinctively the one who ushers in the Christ of God, who is the Savior of the world.

When Advent comes along each year, and St. John comes to you with the Word of the Law and the preaching of repentance, they are announcing and declaring the coming of the Lord your God.  And He comes, indeed, to save you, to redeem you from sin, death, and hell, and to grant you the eternal life of righteousness and holiness with God, which is found only in Christ Jesus.

When the preacher of repentance exposes your sins and your sinfulness, he does so to prepare you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  When he puts you to death with the sharp Word of the Law, it is to raise you up with Christ by His sweet Word of the Gospel, His Word of Holy Absolution.

So, too, when he preaches and administers the Baptism of repentance, it is for the forgiveness of your sins.  For it is the death by drowning of your old Adam, that the New Man might daily arise in you, and you in Him, to live before God in His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

None of this is possible, nor is it even available to you, except by the Word of God.  Of course, it has all been accomplished for you, obtained for you, and manifested for you by Christ Himself.  But all of this that He has done would be for nothing, if it were not actually conveyed to you, delivered to you, and bestowed upon you by the preaching of His Word, His Law and His Gospel.  Only by that Word — in which Christ and His Spirit are actively present and at work — are you put to death and raised again to newness of life.  Only thus are you turned away from your sin and death, and turned to the Lord by faith in His forgiveness of your sins, in order to share His Life.

Which is why, from the Old Testament Prophets to St. John the Baptist, from Christ Himself to His Holy Apostles and Evangelists, and to this very day, the Lord in His mercy has never failed to send His messengers before His face: His preachers of repentance, who prepare His way, who give the knowledge of salvation to His people by the forgiveness of their sins.

And so now also unto you.  By the preaching of this Word, the Dayspring from on high continues to visit you, and to shine upon you — to give you His Light, even when you sit in darkness or walk through the valley of the shadow of death — and to guide your feet into His Way of Peace.

It is in this way that the Lord who loves you brings you through this penitential Season of Advent to the feasting and celebration of His Holy Nativity.  God grant you, by His grace, by His Word and Holy Spirit, the repentance and faith to receive that most precious gift, unto life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Wounded for the Weary, Weak, and Wounded

The first mistake that St. Thomas made was in not being gathered together with the other disciples — whatever his reasons may have been for not being there.  His sinful doubts and fears and unbelief are not relieved but fostered and exacerbated by his absence from that fellowship of the Church.  He does not see the Body of Christ on the First Day of the week, because he is not gathered with the Body of Christ in the company of his brothers.

He is there on the Eighth Day, however, on the Octave of the Resurrection, the Second Sunday of Easter, because of the confession and witness of the other disciples who have seen the Lord.  In this, they begin to serve their office and vocation as holy Apostles of Christ Jesus.

So also should you seek out your brothers and sisters in Christ when they have been missing from the Divine Service.  Search them out, and confess and testify to them what He says and does for you here in the fellowship of His Body, the Church.  Encourage them to come with you, to be here with the disciples of the Lord Jesus — even (or especially) if they are struggling with doubts and fears and uncertainty, and even though they may be weary, weak, and wounded in heart and mind, in body, soul, and spirit.  Invite them and encourage them to come, and bring them along with you.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is precisely the place for the weary, the weak, and the wounded, for those who are hurting, doubtful, and afraid.

It is the place for you, no matter what your wounds may be that will not heal in this life on earth, and no matter the scars that you bear on the inside or on the surface.  The Body of Christ is where you belong, regardless of your personality, and notwithstanding your pain and skeptical sadness.

The wounded Body of Christ is the place for you.  Reach here, then, with your finger and your hand, to see and touch and feel and handle His holy wounds, to trace His sacred scars.  For He has been wounded in His love for you and for all, in order to love the weary, the weak, and the wounded with His sacrificial flesh and blood.

St. Thomas had that part right, even in the depths of his doubts, depression, and despair.  He looked for the Lamb who was slain.  He understood that the real Lord Jesus is the Crucified One — and that remains so, even in His Resurrection.  His glorified Body bears the scars of His Cross, because His Body has been glorified by the wounds He has suffered in love for us poor sinners.

He is recognized, rightly, not “in spite of” His wounds, but especially by His wounds.  Indeed, He is recognized in His wounds, not only as Jesus of Nazareth, but as the Lord your God, and as your Savior and Redeemer.

He is recognized in His wounds, and His disciples are brought to faith in His wounds.

So where do you see and touch those wounds of Christ in His Body?

First of all, you reach out and lay hold of them in His means of grace.  He approaches you by the preaching of His Gospel, which is the preaching of His Cross and Resurrection, the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of all your sins in His Name.  That preaching breathes into your body, through your ears, the Spirit of Christ — from His Cross into your body — unto the resurrection of your body from the dust of the earth to the life everlasting.

His preaching of the Cross also brings you to His Baptism, whether to be baptized in the first place, if you have not been, or to return you to the significance of your one Holy Baptism by way of contrition for your sins, repentance, confession, and faith in His Absolution or forgiveness.

By that ongoing significance of your Baptism, you are daily united with the crucified and risen Lord Jesus in His Cross and Resurrection.  You die and rise with Him, as you are baptized into His riven side, and you are washed and cleansed in the water and the blood that are poured out from the wounds of His Body upon your body and soul.

He has drowned your old Adam in that death-dealing and life-giving flood of Holy Baptism.  He has brought you through those waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, out of Egypt into the safety, peace, and rest of His Church.  Thus are you a member of His Body, and a sheep of His green pastures.  By your Baptism into Him, and by the Catechesis of His Word, He has made you His disciple, and so it is that you belong in this place where His disciples are gathered.

Here in His House, at His Table, He who is both your Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God, who has laid down His own life for the sheep and shed His blood for their Atonement and Redemption, feeds you from His wounded hands with His holy Body and precious Blood.

Not only have you entered His wounds through Holy Baptism, but you feast upon His wounded Body here in the Holy Communion.  And with His own flesh and blood, the fruits of His sacrifice, He enters into your wounded body to dwell with you and abide with you in peace, unto life eternal.

As He deals with you so kindly and so graciously, so do you also behold His wounds and reach out to them in His other disciples, your brothers and sisters within the one Body of His Church.

Do not be afraid to care for those who are so weary, so weak, and so wounded, for whom Christ Jesus Himself, your Lord and your God, has been so wounded and sorely scarred in love.

Rather, love your neighbor, as Christ Jesus loves you in both body and soul.  Tend your neighbor’s wounds, care for her scars, feed his hunger, quench his thirst, and soothe her doubts.

Love your brothers and sisters in Christ — whether with or without emotion, that is neither here nor there — but love them most surely with your words and works of mercy and of service.

Use your body to care for your neighbor’s body, as you care for the wounds in your own flesh.

And in so doing, behold the Lord Jesus, the wounded God, who has been slain for you and for your neighbor.  Recognize that He now lives in you and with you and through you.  If you are wounded for the sake of His love; if you are beaten and bruised, mocked and ridiculed and spit upon; if you are crowned with thorns, crucified, and pierced, well then, so do you live and become like Jesus.

But how can you possibly believe this?  And how on earth can you ever hope to live like this, as Jesus lives, in such love for your neighbors, even for those who hate you and hurt you?

How shall you survive even your own wounds, and how then shall you help to heal the wounds of others?  After all, such wounds are not pleasant or pretty.  The instincts of your sinful heart and of selfish self-preservation would have you turn away in fear and loathing.  So how shall you ever become otherwise?  How shall you believe and love?

It is by the apostolic ministry of the Gospel of Christ, carried out by those who are called and sent in His Name with His Word, His works, and His wounds.

It is by the witness and testimony of St. Thomas and his fellow Apostles, by the proclamation of the Prophets and Evangelists, and by the preaching and catechesis of the pastors and teachers whom Christ Jesus freely and graciously gives to His Church on earth.

You do not yet see Him, but His Apostles have seen Him, and have eye-witnessed His Baptism, His Life and Ministry, His preaching and miracles, His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension.  And as they have seen and heard and touched and handled the Word-made-Flesh, so by their confession of His Word are you blessed by His grace, and you believe in Him and love Him, sight unseen, hidden under His Cross, and revealed not yet in power but in His wounds.

Here within His Church, as a member of His Body, whether you be a joint or ligament, an arm or leg, a hand or foot, a mouth or an ear, an internal organ or a weaker member, you taste and see by faith the Glory of the Lord in His flesh and blood.  You see the bread and wine, which by His Word are His Body given and His Blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of all your sins. You hear, too, His Gospel of forgiveness.  You touch and handle, and eat and drink His wounded Body, conceived and born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, risen from the dead and glorified — who is here with you and for you, that you should also be with Him where He is.

By this apostolic ministry of the Gospel, your fellowship is with Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, and with His Father and His Holy Spirit, and with all those who are His, with St. Thomas and all of the Apostles, and with all the saints in heaven and on earth, both now and forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Visitation of Christ in His Church

It is sung by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and recorded in the Holy Scriptures, that all generations will call her “blessed,” that is, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Blessed is she among women, for blessed is the Fruit of her womb.  We remember her and honor her in this way, because God the Lord has looked upon her and regarded her with His favor.  He has blessed her, not according to our mistaken worldly standards of importance and worth, but according to His mercy.

We give thanks for this handmaid of the Lord, St. Mary, not because of her personal greatness, but rather because, in her lowliness, the Lord has done great things for her.  And so has He also, through her, done great things for all the generations of those who fear, love, and trust in Him.

We now sing and pray along with her, because the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only a fellow member of the Body of Christ, but also a living “icon” of the Church, to which we also belong.  For the Lord has come to her and given Himself to her, and by His Word and Spirit He has granted her the faith to receive Him, to serve Him, and to praise Him.  Along with all of that, He has given Himself to the world — and so also to you — through the frail means of her poor flesh and blood.

Hence, the Holy Church, to whom the Lord has come to give Himself by grace, to whom He grants the faith to receive His forgiveness and life, and through whom He shares Himself with the world.

St. Mary’s Song, therefore, has for generations been the Church’s song, as well.  For it is a song of faith and a confession of the Cross of Christ, by which death is destroyed and life is granted.  It is a confession of faith in a reality you cannot see or feel, but one that you can only believe.

Such is the great contrast or reversal which centers in the Crucifixion of our Lord.  It is the contrast between all that you see and feel and experience, on the one hand, and what is really true for you in Christ on the other hand.  Such things you cannot distinguish or discern within your heart, nor in your head.  Faith clings only to the Word, as did St. Mary at Gabriel’s Annunciation: “Let it be for me,” she said, according to the Word that God the Lord had spoken to her by His messenger.

So then, let us hear and listen to His Word in that which St. Elizabeth has sung by inspiration of the Holy Spirit in her greeting of St. Mary: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb!  But how is it granted to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Thus does the Spirit declare that St. Mary is “the Mother of our Lord,” which is to say and confess that St. Mary is the Mother of Yahweh.  Not of the Father, of course, nor of the Holy Spirit, but of the One who is God the Son from all eternity.  He truly is God, and St. Mary is truly His Mother.  And that is most significant, indeed, because it is the way and the means whereby true God has become true Man, and so also our Savior and Redeemer.  It is for this reason especially that Holy Scripture and the Church have always held the Blessed Virgin Mary in highest esteem.

What is thus confessed in the words of St. Elizabeth is that St. Mary has become, by the Word and Spirit of God, the fleshly means by which the Son of God is given to the world and comes to visit His people with His forgiveness and life and salvation.  It may be helpful to think of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this regard as a kind of living “Sacrament” of Christ, since He comes to abide in the waters of her womb, and He takes her flesh and blood to be His own, that He might give His Life, His Body and His Blood, for you and for the many.

That is also implied in the very way that St. Luke describes the greeting of Elizabeth.  For in the Greek he writes that she “intoned” or “chanted” her blessing of St. Mary.  It is a liturgical song of the sort that was sung in the Old Testament by the priests as they served around the Ark of the Covenant.  And this description is one of several ways by which St. Luke indicates that, because she bears the Word-made-Flesh within her, the Blessed Virgin Mary has taken the place of the Old Testament Ark as the vehicle of God’s glorious presence in the midst of His people.

Hence the irony, and this beautiful and most profound, divine paradox: The Lord, our God and Savior — whom St. Mary magnifies and praises in her Canticle — He is in fact the tiny, frail, helpless Fetus in her womb.  For do not suppose that St. Mary praises God in heaven apart from the one true God who is conceived and growing within her.

Nor do you and I have any other Lord, nor any other God, nor any other Savior, than this very One who is conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We know of no God the Father, nor do we receive any Holy Spirit, apart from this incarnate God the Son.  For He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but by Him.  So also, it is only by His Word of the Gospel that His Spirit is given.  And thus, when we praise and magnify the Lord, we must do so in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, who is conceived and born from St. Mary’s womb.

It is the Lord God Himself who has chosen St. Mary, alone among all women, to be His Holy Mother, according to His steadfast love and faithfulness, in remembrance of His mercy.

But what did St. Mary do to deserve such an honor?  In truth, she did nothing to deserve it.  And that, dear friend, is precisely the point.  She was chosen by God because He desired to show mercy, and for no other reason than that.

She didn’t earn it by her virtues, nor by her poverty and humility.  She did nothing at all but to receive what was given to her by grace, and that by faith alone, which is itself the gift of God.

And all of this, not only for her, but also for you and your salvation.  For He who is true God, begotten of His Father from eternity, has also become true Man, born of this Blessed Virgin Mary.  And He has now become your Lord, because He has redeemed you from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  Not with gold or silver, but with His own holy and precious Blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.  He has done it all for you by grace, that you might be His very own, and live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns eternally.

Whatever else you might see or think or feel or experience, it is this that is most certainly true!

Your past may be full of regrets; your present may be hard to bear; and your future may be scary and uncertain.  There are so many times when your sinful heart will tell you, in so many ways, that God has turned His face away from you, or that He is punishing you for your sins as you deserve.

But when those doubts and fears arise, consider that your Lord has set before you the example of His Blessed Virgin Mary, His most highly-favored Lady, who lived under the Cross of her Son: Suspected of adultery by her fiancée, who plans at first to divorce her.  Then threatened by her king and forced to flee to Egypt with her precious newborn Son.  And warned by faithful Simeon that a sword will pierce her soul, cutting her to the very quick with which she magnifies the Lord.

So, is this any way for the Holy Mother of God to live and to be treated?  Actually, yes, it is.  It is the only way for the Mother of a Crucified God to live, that is to say, by faith alone, and not by sight, even when she is found mourning at the foot of His Cross when His Hour has fully come.

Who shall say to her, then, that the almighty arm of God has done “great things” for her?

But it is just so that He does put down the mighty of this world from their thrones, as He ascends the throne of His Cross.  And so does He exalt the lowly, as surely as that poor young Mary has become the Mother of God; for her crucified Son has conquered death by His death in our flesh.

You cannot see or feel it.  You can only believe by the Word & Spirit of God.  We do not have His perspective, whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not our ways.  We are not God but His servants and His handmaids.  It is for us according to His Word.  But in that Word, you are given the blessed perspective of Christ and His Cross, the incarnate Son of God, who makes sense of it all.  You live by His Word, by faith in His Word, and He remembers His mercy toward you.

As He was conceived in St. Mary by the Word and Spirit of God, so does He come to abide in you by the proclamation of His Word and by His Holy Spirit.  So does He make your life His own.

And as He was given birth from the waters of St. Mary’s womb, so has He given birth to you in the waters of Holy Baptism, for the baptismal font is the womb of His Church.  There, in the washing of those waters with His Word, you were crucified, dead, and buried with Him, so that you are also raised up with Him, as well.  For as you were born from those waters, united with Christ, you were born again as a son of God in Him, a dear child of His own dear Father in heaven.

And as He received His flesh and blood and human life from the virgin body of His Mother, so do you receive His Body and His Blood from His servant in His Church for divine Life & Salvation in Him.  It is the same flesh and blood of the same true God who was conceived and born of Mary, who was crucified for you and for the many, who feeds the hungry with good things, here at His Altar, for life with God both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

All of this you are given to receive with thanksgiving, in and with His Church, in the same way as the Blessed Virgin Mary, that is, by grace alone, through faith alone, according to the Word of God.  St. Mary did not choose this for herself.  It was not her decision to make.  Nor did she do anything to earn it or deserve it.  It was the good and gracious Will of God and the remembrance of His mercy, that He should choose this poor girl to be His dear Mother.

So has He remembered you and chosen you to be His own, to live under Him in His Kingdom, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  Always and only out of His divine mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you, but with His steadfast love and affection.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Blessed Are You Who Believe

The visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her relative, Elizabeth, in the final trimester of the older woman’s pregnancy, is at once the most profound Mystery and the most practical work of mercy.  And now the Son of God, St. Mary’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, visits us in this Word of His Gospel, no less so than He visited St. Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist in her womb.  Indeed, He visits you here in this place in much the same way that He visited them.

It was, in many ways, a very practical visit to begin with.  St. Mary was given the sign that barren Elizabeth had conceived a son in her old age, and so she went straightaway in accordance with that Word to see the fulfillment of that sign.  But she also went in love to help and serve her elderly relative — and in turn to learn and benefit from St. Elizabeth’s wisdom, to be strengthened in her faith and vocation by the witness of St. Elizabeth’s faithfulness and righteousness.  Thus, these two women, in some respects at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet bound together in faith and by their sons, love and serve and care for each other in mercy.

Consider what it would have been like for that dear old lady in her final months of pregnancy: Heavy with the weight of the child growing inside of her, weary from the work of it, her frail mortal flesh stretched and strained by that burden under the curse of sin and death, her bones no longer so resilient as they were in her teens and twenties.

We hear nothing of St. Elizabeth after the birth and circumcision of her son, but she likely did not live long, perhaps only a few more years in which to nurse and wean the boy.  It is no stretch to suppose that her pregnancy, her labor and delivery, might have broken her health and led to her decline and death.  Her child grew and became strong, but he lived in the deserts until his public appearance some thirty years later, dressed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey.  There is no indication that St. Elizabeth ever saw the Christ Child following His holy Nativity.

What she did see and receive was a welcome visit from her young relative, the Blessed Virgin Mary from Nazareth.  The dear young Mother of our Lord came and spent the final three months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with her.  And along with everything else going on in this beautiful story, her visit was no doubt a source of help and comfort.

For St. Mary, too, there was the blessing and benefit of being with and learning from the wise and faithful St. Elizabeth.  We know nothing from the Holy Scriptures concerning St. Mary’s father and mother, but it is possible that she may already have been orphaned, even at her young age.

She was probably in her early teens, old enough to be engaged by the standards of that culture, and her body able to conceive and bear a child.  But now she was pregnant before her wedding, before the consummation of her marriage.  Hence, the wonderful Word of God that she received in faith, by which the Lord was fulfilling all His promises and granting His tremendous blessings, was also throwing everything up into the air for St. Mary and putting her life into jeopardy and danger.

The Son within her womb was conceived miraculously by the Word and Spirit of God, and she herself remained a chaste and pure virgin, faithful and righteous by God’s grace.  But who was going to believe that?  What was Joseph going to think or say or do?  And what was she to do?

What she did was go with haste in the direction the Word of the Lord had pointed her, in the same faith with which she had prayed, “Let it be,” and in love for the Lord in her womb and for St. Elizabeth.  This was her vocation set before her, and just as she believed that the Lord’s Word to her would be fulfilled, so did she trust that He would care for her and provide for all her needs.  And as she believed, so was it done for her, one step at a time.

Zacharias the priest — and Elizabeth his bride, a daughter of Aaron, the mother of the Lord’s forerunner — they believed St. Mary’s story.  And they strengthened and sustained her faith in the days ahead, even as their own faith was strengthened and sustained by her confession and witness.

You should learn from this to seek out your brothers and sisters in Christ, not only your close relatives but your fellow members of the household and family of God, to love them in faith, and to be loved by them.  Resist the temptation to withdraw into ever narrowing circles and personal isolation.  Faith and love, body and soul are strengthened and sustained — and both you and your neighbor are comforted and helped — through fraternal fellowship and in the mutual conversation and consolation of those who are bound together by the Gospel in the one Body of Christ Jesus.

To be faithful by God’s grace, and to be righteous by such faith in Christ, does not mean that you will never be lonely or afraid, that you will never be confused or doubtful, that you will never be worried or anxious.  Even the Blessed Virgin Mary and Righteous Elizabeth bore the burdens of their mortal flesh, the frailty and weakness of their sinful hearts and minds, along with the bodily burden of their baby boys.  Righteous Zacharias, too, had doubted and questioned the Word of the Lord when it was first spoken to him by the Archangel Gabriel.

Do not suppose, then, that you shall simply stride forward in confident faith and never falter.  Nor despair when your mind balks, your heart quails, your body trembles, and your frail flesh falls short.  Rather, follow the example of St. Mary and St. Elizabeth in hearing and heeding the Word of the Lord, and proceed in faith upon the path that He lays before you.  You live and walk by faith, and not by sight, by the hearing of the Word of Christ.

Hidden in the womb of his mother, St. John the Baptist is already filled with the Holy Spirit and begins to fulfill his vocation and office as the forerunner.  He kicks and leaps for joy inside his Mama at the presence of the Christ, the little Lord Jesus, deeply hidden in the womb of His own Mother, and therefore doubly hidden from John!  But little John points to Mary’s little Lamb and proclaims that He is the Coming One, because that is what St. John’s whole life is all about.

St. Elizabeth heeds the non-verbal preaching of her son, as she hears the verbal confession of the young Maid Miriam, that is, her beautiful song, the Magnificat, which the Bride of Christ continues to sing to this day.  By this double testimony of her Lord, the Christ — who, even as a Fetus in His Mother’s womb, is nothing less and no one else than Yahweh in the flesh — by His gracious Visitation, St. Elizabeth too is filled with the Holy Spirit.  In faith and love and with great joy she cries out with a loud voice, singing a priestly chant of praise in the presence of the Lord.

Here the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh Sabaoth comes home to a city of Judah.  Great David’s greater Son has come to save His people from their sins, to set them free from all their enemies, from death, and from the devil, and to establish the House of His God and Father forever in the midst of His true Jerusalem, with peace and rest and perpetual felicity.  For the body of St. Mary bears the very Son of God, and the Church rightly confesses that she is the Mother of God.

He thus comes in and with a body of His own, of the same flesh and blood as St. Mary and as all of you, in order to bear your sin and be your Savior.  He bears all of your iniquity, guilt, and shame in His Body to the Cross, where He sacrifices Himself once for all — the Lamb of God, indeed, who takes away the sin of the world.  So does He shed His holy and precious blood to atone for all your sins, to make propitiation for you and the whole world, to cleanse your conscience and to seal His Covenant with you.  So does He also feed you with His flesh, to strengthen and sustain you in body and soul as He leads you out of Egypt, through the desert, into Paradise.  For He is the living and life-giving Bread from heaven, the very Word of God made Flesh for you.

With all this grace and every blessing, He comes to visit you in great lowliness and meekness, wrapped up in frailty, and hidden in deep humility.  You cannot see Him with your eyes, nor do you discern the glory of His Resurrection in the present experience of your body and life on earth under the Cross.  You share His lowliness, His weakness and humility.  Or else, when you presume to exalt yourself, He scatters your pride, empties your hands, and brings you down from your high horse.  He calls you to repentance.  He closes your mouth and shuts your lips, until He shall open them to confess, to pray, and to show forth His praises by His Word.

He does all of this in remembrance of His mercy toward you.  He does not forget you, even when you have forgotten Him.  He remains faithful even when you are not.  Therefore, He humbles you, in order to exalt you in Himself, in His own Resurrection from the dead.

His promises to you, His gifts and benefits, His life and salvation for you, are no less miraculous, no less amazing and remarkable than the pregnancies of a very old woman and a young virgin teen.  Nor are they any less true, but just as sure and certain as Christ Himself is the Truth incarnate.

What has been spoken to you by the Lord has been fulfilled for you, already in Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, and it shall be fulfilled in you, in your heart and mind, body and soul, just as He has promised.  For by your Holy Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection, you have been born again to a new and living hope.  Blessed are you who thus, by His grace, believe His Word and promises.

Here He has brought you to His House by His Word and Spirit.  And as soon as you hear the sound of His greeting, the proclamation and confession of His grace, mercy, and peace, you also are filled with His Spirit, with the great joy and gladness of His Gospel.  So do you sing and chant and pray and confess in the confidence of Christ the Lord, in the presence of His holy Ark and Altar.

From this Altar, in this place, by His Word and with His Spirit, hidden in the womb of His Church, the dear Lord Jesus Christ visits you with His own flesh and blood.  He feeds your mortal body with His own Body, conceived and born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead and buried, risen and ascended.  And by this gracious Visitation, He feeds you and He fills you with good things, His mercy rests upon you, and He is borne in you unto the life everlasting of your body and soul.  For He has done great things for you, even by the nailing of His strong hands and outstretched arms upon the Cross.  His mighty deeds of salvation are manifested and given to you in His deep compassion for you, in His tender mercy and kind pity on your misery.

Blessed of the Lord, do not be afraid.  He shall exalt you at the proper time.  Behold, He is with you even now, and you have found favor in His sight.  Surely, He will help you at all times and in all places, for He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Just as He has spoken, so shall it be done.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

By the Word and Spirit of God

All of these things are from God, by His grace, according to His Word — delivered to you and accomplished for you by means of His Word.  Indeed, it is the Word of God — the only-begotten Son, begotten of the Father from eternity, by whom all things are made — who is conceived by the Holy Spirit in St. Mary’s womb, and from her flesh and blood becomes flesh and blood Himself.

Therefore, do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God, who comes to you in mercy and speaks to you in peace.  He has given His Son to be conceived and born of this Blessed Virgin, to bear your sin and to be your Savior.  So is He named Jesus.  For Yahweh saves His people from their sins, and He calls you to be His own, to be one of His beloved people, to live with Him in His Kingdom.  And as He lives and reigns eternally, so shall you also live and abide with Him forever.

To be sure, these are incredibly great and precious promises that are given to you by the grace of God, and a truly remarkable Word that is spoken to you by the mouth of the Lord.  It is seemingly impossible that a virgin should conceive and bear a Son; that the very Son of God should thus become true Man; and that He should save you and all His people from the devil, death, and hell.

All of this seems impossible.  And it is impossible for you to believe and trust these words and promises of God, except by the power of His Word and the work of His Holy Spirit in your heart.

Blessed are you who thus believe this Word of God, according to His grace.  And blessed is she — to speak as Elizabeth will sing of Mary by the Spirit of God — blessed is she who believed all that the Lord had spoken to her, every Word that proceeded from His mouth into her ears, into her mind and heart, into her body and her life, all for the sake of our life and salvation in her Son.

In all of this, aside from everything else, St. Mary is and remains such a beautiful example of faith.  Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, who prays and confesses so rightly and well, “Let it be to me according to Thy Word!”  God grant that you should also have such faith and speak in this way.

Indeed, to have and confess such faith is perhaps the most miraculous and incredible grace of God, above and beyond all of the other miracles at work in this Holy Gospel.  But so it is, according to His steadfast love and mercy, that you trust His holy Word and boldly confess what He has said and promised in the face of all adversity, even (and especially) when it all seems so impossible.

The way and the means by which the Lord God grants to you such faith are, in fact, the very way and means by which He bestows His gracious gifts upon you.  And in this He deals with you in the same way and by the same means as He dealt with dear St. Mary.

He sends His servant, His messenger, to speak and proclaim His Word and promise to you.  The Liturgy confesses and declares this point each time you hear the Salutation from your pastor, the very same Salutation that St. Mary received from the Archangel Gabriel: “The Lord be with you!”

With that greeting He announces not only His gracious presence, but also His works of mercy for you, and His good gifts of the Gospel.  He speaks the forgiveness of all your sins, and He bestows the salvation of your body and soul by the body and blood of the Incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

It is that Word of God — that Word of Christ, the Word of His Gospel — that Word by which and through which the Holy Spirit is actively present and at work — it is that Word which opens your ears to hear, your heart to believe and trust, your mind to understand the Truth, and your lips to confess the same Son of God, your Savior, Jesus Christ.

So do God’s Word and Spirit also embrace and comprehend the chosen elements of His good creation, as the Word and Spirit embraced and comprehended the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in order to manifest and give His Salvation “in the flesh” unto His creatures of flesh and blood.

As the Son of God was conceived and born of St. Mary, so are the children of God conceived and born by the washing of water with the Word and Spirit of God in Holy Baptism.

And as the Son of God took flesh and blood from St. Mary’s body, in order to become flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood as true Man, so does He give that same Body and Blood to you when His Word comes to the bread and wine of the Holy Communion and He unites Himself with them, in order to be “conceived and born” in you, as it were, as you eat and drink at His invitation.

In these means of grace, within the Holy Christian Church, the Incarnation and the great Salvation of God continue to happen — for you — to the praise of His glorious grace.

Beloved of God, the Son of God has come in the flesh to cast away the works of darkness and to destroy the works of the devil; He has come to purify you in body and soul, for now and forever, that you should live no longer in sin but unto righteousness, by His grace through faith in Him.

As He has prevailed over sin, death, and the devil in His Body of flesh and blood, by His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead, so does He accomplish His purposes in your body and life — not by your own reason and strength, but by His Word and Spirit.  Though it is not yet obvious to the world, nor even to your own perception, nevertheless, you are the Lord’s, and He is yours.

And so it is that, as St. Mary presents you with a beautiful example of faith within her vocation as the Mother of the Son of God, so do you now live by faith within your vocation as a child of God.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Bearing the Fruits of Repentance in Christ

Why are you here this morning?  Why have you come?  Is it because you recognize your sin, and you know the death and damnation that you deserve under the wrath of God, and yet you hunger for the forgiveness of your sin, which is found only in Christ and His Word?

Or have you come because you presume to belong by right to the Church and Kingdom of God?  And you figure that, whatever He may have to offer, you want to get what’s coming to you?  And you’d like to be made to feel good in time for the holidays?

The reality is that you are a poor, miserable sinner, and you deserve nothing but punishment.  By sinful nature, from your conception and birth to the present day, you are subject to the temptation and influence of that old serpent, the devil, to whom your fallen flesh readily gives in.

Therefore, if you are a member of the holy Christian Church, it is not by any right, nor by any choice or decision of your own, but only by the grace and mercy of God, who has loved you — and He loves you still — even though you have been His sworn and mortal enemy.  He has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and kept you in the true faith.

Your entire life and salvation hinge and depend upon that grace of God.  That is all that stands between you and the axe that is poised at the root of your unfaithful and unfruitful tree, which would otherwise chop you down, and you be thrown into the fire.  It is the Lord’s gracious Gospel, and only that, which gathers you into His barn and keeps you from being swept out with the chaff.

The thing of it is, you have no “right” to be here, no claim upon the Lord, and no merit or worthiness whatsoever before Him.  In stark contrast to your pride and self-confidence, you are utterly empty and hollow, destitute and desolate (inside and out) like a desert wasteland.

And yet, it is precisely for those reasons that you are here — by God’s grace, by His Word and Spirit in Christ — not to receive what you deserve, which is nothing but punishment, but to be raised up through His forgiveness and filled up with Christ Jesus Himself and His Salvation.

If you are here for any other reason than that — with any presumption, or with any pretense — then you may as well go home.  Because you’re not going to be patted on the back and made to feel good about yourself and your life.  The Lord has not called you and brought you here to stroke your pride or feed your ego.  On the contrary, He calls you to die, and to receive a new life altogether, one that is no longer defined by the devil, the world, or your sinful flesh, but a new life that is from the Holy Triune God and lived according to His Word.  It is a life that is shaped by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, which you also share by your Holy Baptism into Him.

If you are concerned by all of this, as well you should be, then there must necessarily be some change and indication in your attitude and behavior to confess that your life is in Christ.

So, what is your life in Christ going to look like?  It’s going to vary in its specifics from one person to the next, according to vocation and circumstances.  But, in general, it means that you serve your neighbor as Christ Jesus serves you — not selfishly, but sacrificially; not for any personal gain, but simply and solely for Jesus’ sake.  And the particulars of all that are spelled out for you by God, and according to His Word, in the specific demands and responsibilities of your stations in life.  You do what your calling and your job require of you, in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor, neither neglecting your duties, nor abusing your position and authority.

As a husband and father, or as a wife and mother, you serve your spouse and family.  And as a son or daughter, you honor your father and mother, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. As a worker, you serve your employer, your clients and customers, by faithfully doing your job.  As a citizen, you serve your community and your country.  And as a member of the church on earth, you serve your congregation and your brothers and sisters in Christ with your time and energy, with your talents and skills, and with your financial means and resources, according to the needs of the church and in keeping with the gifts and abilities the Lord has entrusted to your care.

In each and all of these ways, you bear fruits worthy of repentance and confess that your faith and life are in Christ Jesus, by serving your neighbors in love.  That is true in several different ways:

On the one hand, you serve your neighbor in the way that Christ serves you.  And on the other hand, you serve Christ Jesus in your neighbor, since your Savior and Lord has identified Himself with those in need, with the poor and lowly and despised.  In both respects, you demonstrate and express that your life is no longer defined and dominated by the devil, all his works and all his ways, but by the Holy Triune God, as He has revealed Himself and given Himself to you in Christ.  So have you promised and confessed in the rites of Holy Baptism.

It is simply not possible to be called by God to such repentance and faith — that is, to be turned away from your sins back toward God in Christ — and yet not to bear the fruits of repentance.

The fact that such fruits are frequently missing in our lives, even as Christians, simply and soberly demonstrates that we still remain such poor, miserable sinners, that we yet deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment: to be chopped down and burned in the fires of God’s wrath.

Nevertheless, the genuine fruits of repentance and faith are nothing more nor less than that.  They are the fruits or produce of faith and life, not the means or the source of your life and salvation.

These fruits of repentance and faith do not constitute some kind of “self-help” program.  In fact, as soon as you attempt to bear such fruits as a means of helping and advancing yourself, it is no fruit worthy of repentance that you bear, but the vain efforts and works of self-righteousness, which only serve to confirm your sin, death, and damnation.

In any event, none of us produce the genuine fruits of repentance as faithfully as we should.  Even if you could, and even if you did, those good works would still not save you.  They’re not meant to, nor does it work that way.  Rather, the fruits worthy of repentance demonstrate and give evidence of just the opposite!  Namely, that you do not rely upon yourself, nor upon your own sincerity, efforts, works, or accomplishments, but solely and entirely upon Jesus Christ.

The actual heart of repentance and faith, and your only real hope, is not the fruits that result, but first of all to be turned away from yourself (away from your sin, death, and the devil), and turned toward the Lord Jesus Christ, who is alone your Savior and Redeemer, your Life and Salvation.

Really, that is what all the fruits of repentance are about.  They are expressions of faith in Christ, and of the life which is only in Him.  Which is to say that real works of love for your neighbor are an outward manifestation of your faith in Christ.  Such fruits follow faith — necessarily so — but if there were any “fruits” apart from faith in Christ, they would be sour grapes and rotten apples.

Now, do not misunderstand the point.  It’s not as though everything depended on your faith.  Rather, your faith and everything else depend upon Christ.  Everything that St. John the Baptist proclaims, along with everything I preach to you this morning, depends upon Christ Jesus.

He is the One who suffers the axe and the fire that threaten you.  Which is to say that He suffers all the righteous wrath of God and all of the judgments and punishment of the Law.  And all of this He bears and suffers in your place, in order to spare you the death and damnation you deserve.

What is more, He bears and suffers all the burden of your sins, as well, in His own body on the Cross.  All the hurt and harm that you have done or caused by your sin, and all the wrong that has been done to you, He has taken upon Himself.  Not for retribution or revenge, but for mercy and forgiveness, that you and your neighbor might be reconciled to God and to each other in Him.

So it is that He is stripped naked and goes hungry.  He is overtaxed, falsely accused, mistreated, and extorted by force.  Which is why, for example, you see and serve Christ Jesus in the poor and hungry, the naked and imprisoned, the needy and despised.  Yet, He is the One who feeds and clothes you with Himself in Holy Baptism and the Holy Communion; who showers you with all His riches; who heals you, guards and protects you, and gives to you His own divine, eternal life.  Indeed, all the love the Law requires for your neighbor, the dear Lord Jesus does for you.

His fulfillment of this royal Law of Love is centered in His Cross and Resurrection, and He continues to love you from the Cross.  For by His own death, He has destroyed death, forgiven sin, and conquered the devil.  And as such, He has also risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, opening heaven and obtaining eternal life for you and all sinners.  It’s all a done deal in Him.  There’s nothing for you to earn or obtain for yourself.  He’s already accomplished it for you.

Now He gives it to you all by grace, as He has done beginning with your Holy Baptism.  There, by the washing of water with His Word, He shared His Cross & Resurrection with you personally.  You died and rose with Him in those waters.  That’s repentance!  Being crucified and resurrected with Jesus the Christ.  Dying to sin, death, and hell, and rising to new life in Him  — and He in you — by His forgiveness of your sins.  Uniting you with Himself in His Cross & Resurrection, He has granted you His own divine Sonship and anointed you with His Holy Spirit, so that you are no longer the offspring of vipers, but a beloved and well-pleasing child of His own God and Father.

The Lord Jesus continues to serve you with all of these good gifts through His Ministry and preaching of the Gospel, His spoken Word of Holy Absolution, His free and full forgiveness of your sins.  By His Law He levels your mountains of pride, but with His Gospel of forgiveness He raises your valleys of humility to share His own glorious exaltation at the right hand of the Father.  Bearing His Cross by faith, dying and rising with Him through daily repentance, your life is safely and securely hidden with Christ in God, seated with Him in the heavenly places.

The fact of the matter is that He and His Cross are the genuine Tree of Life, which bears the only worthy fruits there are for the forgiveness of your sins, for life and salvation in Him.  Above all, these very fruits of Christ and His Cross are given to you here and now, from this Altar this morning and throughout the year, in His own holy body and precious blood.

Here, then, receive the fruits worthy of your repentance, the fruits of His redemption, given and poured out for you.  Open your mouth and be filled with His grace, mercy, and peace.  And as you are thus fed, so bear such fruits after their own kind in your own place, that your neighbor may see the Salvation of God in you, His dear child, and glorify your Father in Christ Jesus.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

God's Great Amen to Your Petition

Dear child of God, you are righteous before Him by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, and in such faith you pray to Him as your own dear Father in the Name and for the sake of the same Lord Jesus.  Not only that, but your prayer certainly is heard by God and answered with a resounding “Yes” and “Amen” for His Name’s sake.

And yet, your own “Amen” sometimes falters and fails.  For the Word and promises of the Gospel stand in sharp contradiction to your experience, to what you see and feel and suffer.

The Lord has sent His messenger before His face to speak His Holy Gospel to you, which is indeed fulfilled for you by Christ the Lord.  Yet, the frailty and weakness of your sinful flesh too often gets the better of you, so that you doubt and fear, you agonize and worry, and you question the grace of God in Christ: How can you be sure of His Word and promise?

This is your lot, your calling as a Christian: To wait and to watch in silence, with nothing to rely upon but the Word of the Lord that He has spoken to you.

You cannot make it happen, nor can you make your heart believe that it will.  Instead, you must be called daily to repentance, and this also is the work of the Lord your God.

He acts to save you, to deliver His people from sin, death, and the power of the devil, from unbelief and false belief, from all unrighteousness, and from every evil of heart and mind, body and soul.  He Himself comes, the incarnate Son of God, to redeem you for His own, for now and forever and ever.

In order that you would be prepared for His coming and able to receive Him (not by your own reason and strength, but by His grace), He raises up and sends the Forerunner first.

Where St. John appears in the spirit and power of Elijah, preaching repentance — and, by the Word and Spirit of God, turns the people around, away from their sins back to God — there the Christ Himself is surely on the horizon, who is coming speedily to save His people from their sins, from the captivity of death, and from the tyranny of the devil.

So this messenger of the Lord goes before His face and calls you to repent: To turn away from your sins and from the death and destruction they bring; to quit your doubts and fears and your wicked refusal to believe; to give up your shame and vice and all your bad habits.  To be freely and fully forgiven, and to receive the Lord’s good gifts of life and salvation.

So, then, repent, and believe the Gospel.  If you are baptized, remember and return to your Baptism.  And if you are not, then submit yourself to the Lord’s Baptism of repentance, in order that you may be saved by His gracious forgiveness.  Either way, cease and desist your sinful ways.  Refrain from your wickedness, and do what is good and right.

It’s not as though the Lord desires to deprive you of happiness.  On the contrary, He alone freely bestows the true joy and gladness that are real and forever, which are found not in your sins but in His Word and faith.  He calls you to repent, therefore, not in meanness, but in Love.  As a father’s heart is toward his children, so is the heart of the Lord toward you, and He disciplines you in love for your good, for life and health and strength in Him.

Where your worship and prayers have faltered, do not despair, but now become faithful and attentive.  Hear and heed the Word of the Lord, which He in mercy causes to be preached to you.  Call upon His Name in prayer, with praise and thanksgiving.  Fear, love, and trust in Him above everything else, both in prosperity and in adversity, in good times and bad.

Where you have hurt or harmed your neighbor by your words and actions, apologize, and make restitution where you are able.  And where you have failed to help and support your neighbor in body or soul, do not delay any longer to do what you can, but do what you are given to do within your office and station in life.

Care for the orphans and widows in their distress, and do not neglect to care for your own spouse and children in the meantime.  Serve and support the elderly and infirm.  Feed the hungry.  Help the poor, who are always with you.  Shelter the weak and lost and homeless.

Do not be greedy or selfish, as though your life were your own to grasp and preserve, or as though your life were actually found in your possessions.  And do not fail to support the Church and Ministry, the Temple and Priesthood of the Lord, with your first fruits and best gifts; for it is the House of His abode, the place where His Name and glory dwell with you.

Do not be afraid, and do not despair of His promises.  Neither doubt nor worry whether they are true.  The Word that God speaks is faithful and certain, whether you believe it or not.  But that you should believe it, He calls you to repentance, according to His steadfast love.

The Lord is not angry with you.  In His tender mercy and compassion, He comforts you with His peace.  For He is your Strength and your Song, and He supplies you with all that you need for now and forever from His wellspring of Salvation.  He calls you to repent, not to discourage or destroy you, but that you should receive Him who comes now to save you.

You cannot see Him, nor can you feel His presence, but He is with you, even now, even in your old age, infirmity, and weakness.  His Word is Spirit, Truth, and Life.  The One who promises is faithful, and He shall do it, just as He has spoken.  Amen! Amen! It shall be so.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.