Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Receive this Word

Blessed are those who read and those who hear the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, as recorded by His bond-servant St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist.  For by this Word you also now receive the grace and peace of the One who was, and is, and is to come.  You walk in His Light as an heir of His Life and Salvation, clothed in His Blood and Righteousness forever.

For all of this, it is truly meet, right, and salutary to remember St. John with thanksgiving unto our God and Father in heaven.  For the Lord has chosen to reveal Himself and give Himself to you by the hand of this beloved Disciple and holy Apostle.  And do not underestimate the significance and benefit of these apostolic Scriptures, which are uniquely foundational to the Christian Church.

What St. John and his fellow Apostles saw and heard and even touched and handled — the only-begotten God, the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of the Father, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ — no less than He is manifested and communicated to you in the apostolic Scriptures, as these have been written and as they are proclaimed within the Church.  As the Father has spoken His Word to us in the Person of His Son, so is He now spoken to you in the apostolic preaching of the Gospel, whereby you have entered into the joyous friendship and glorious company of the holy Apostles, and into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, and His Holy Spirit.

You cannot separate your Savior, Jesus Christ, from this apostolic Word of His Gospel.  Nor can you have the One without the other.  Nor do you have God as your Father apart from this Word of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  But as it is, you have been given and you have this Word by way of the Apostles of our Lord, whom He called, ordained, and sent to preach in His Name.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  And by the preaching of that Word, that is, by the preaching of the Gospel for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, you have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate Son of God.  And by such faith you live and abide in Him forever.  Not metaphorically, rhetorically, or theoretically, but actually and tangibly.  For real.

In the apostolic Word of Christ that is preached to you by His grace, through faith in that Word, you are given everything that the holy Apostles beheld and heard and grasped in the Person of Jesus Christ, the one true God who was conceived and born of St. Mary.  Which is to say that you, also, are a beloved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And you, also, are given to recline with Him at His Supper, cleansed and sanctified by one and the same Christ Jesus, by the washing of water with His Word and Holy Spirit, and fed from His own hand His holy Body and precious Blood.

The only-begotten God who has come from the bosom of the Father, who reveals the Father to us, He has taken you into His embrace, to rest upon His bosom, to find your shelter and protection, your Life and your Salvation, there in Him, in His own Flesh and Blood.

As you are thus called by His Word of the Gospel, by His forgiveness of all your sins, to live and believe in Him, so it is that you shall never die.  For so long as you abide in Him by grace through faith in His Gospel, so do you continue to live, even though you die!  Not by any reason or strength of your own, but by the good and gracious Will of God for you in Jesus Christ, your Savior.

The life that you now live, therefore, you live no longer for yourself, but for Him who for your sake died and was raised.  And you live that life — in Christ — in whatever office or station to which He has called you.  Whatever it may be, and however it may seem to the world or to you, that is the place where you glorify the Name of Christ and serve your neighbor in faith and love.

It will be different for you than for your fellow Christian disciples, as it was different for St. Peter than it was for St. John.  So, neither look back to see where you have been, nor look around to see how you compare with your neighbor.  Simply follow Christ Jesus wherever He shall lead you by His Word and Holy Spirit, whether for life or death, knowing that your true life is now hidden with Christ in God, and when He appears in Glory, so shall His Life be fully manifest in you forever.

Take heart, dearly-beloved disciple.  Repent of your envy and jealousy, your coveting, your doubts and fears, denials and betrayals, your haughty arrogance and faithless despair.  And in repentance, not only sorrow for your sins, but take heart in Christ, and do not be afraid.

By the Word of His Apostles — by the Word as written by St. John, and by the preaching of that Word — Christ Jesus fills the world with His gracious deeds of Life.  And so does He fill you.

When the bright Light of His Law exposes and condemns you, know that He remains faithful and righteous to forgive your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness.  For He is Himself the Propitiation for all your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world; and the merciful Light of His Gospel shines yet more brightly upon you than even His Law.

You are already clean, therefore, by this Word that He has spoken to you, by this Holy Absolution of the Gospel: All of your sins are forgiven!

It is in that Light of Christ that you have fellowship with St. John, the Apostle and Evangelist, and with all the saints who have gone before us in the faith, and so also with one another, and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth.  For at His Word, once heard and received by the Apostles, now spoken and delivered to you here, you have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and, in Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It is for the sake of this Holy Communion, and to this Holy Communion — this Fellowship with God in His Word-made-Flesh — that these things have been written and are preached to the close of the age, unto eternal Life in body and soul.

Come, then.  Recline here at His Table, and lean upon His breast, and eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of that very dear Savior who loves you — and so taste and see that He is good!

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

To Sing of Christ in Peace and Joy

Now you are met, as Simeon & Anna were met, with the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.

He is more than He appears, but by the Light of the Gospel He reveals Himself to you, so that, not only with your eyes, but into your arms, into your heart and soul, and with your mind and mouth, you receive Him, His Life, and His Salvation.

He is God’s Answer to your prayers.  He is the true Satisfaction of your deepest longing.  He is the Reason and Purpose for which you have been created.  And now He is here, with you and for you.

He is begotten of God the Father from all eternity, but now in the fulness of time He has been conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary, in order to redeem you with His own Flesh & Blood.

That is why He comes to His Temple, and why He will enter the Most Holy Place once for all by His Self-Sacrifice upon the Cross, in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, and in His Ascension to the Right Hand of His God and Father.  He does all of this in fulfillment of the Law, in order to save you from sin and death, to justify you with His own perfect Righteousness, to sanctify you with His Spirit, and to glorify you with His own divine Glory as the Son of God.  These are things that only God the Lord can do, and by His grace He does them all for you.

He first of all becomes like you.  He takes human flesh and blood from His Mother Mary, in order to become true Man; and He opens her womb by His holy Nativity, in order to sanctify all the sons and daughters of man.  From conception and birth unto His death upon the Cross, His whole Body and Life are devoted to His God and Father, to do His will.  From infancy He is presented to the Lord, to grow up before Him — from true boyhood to true manhood — increasing in wisdom and stature, and learning to live (as you must learn to live) by grace through faith in the Word of God.

It is a great Mystery, indeed, that God should first of all become what He was not — without ceasing to be what He always was, and is, and ever shall be — and that He should then also grow in grace and truth, in faith and love, in His own human Flesh and Blood.  But so He does.  For in this way He keeps, fulfills, and satisfies His own divine Law as the true Man for all of mankind.

The incarnate Son lives by faith, entrusting Himself to His God and Father.  And in love for His Father, He lives in love for you and all His neighbors.  As a Child He honors His earthly parents and submits to their authority.  He is chaste and pure in human celibacy; and in faithfulness to His Bride, the Church, He cherishes her and cares for all her children in gentleness and peace.  He does not hurt or harm, but helps all people without prejudice, and He gives life in both body and soul.  He does not rob or steal, but freely bestows His generous good gifts on both the evil and the good.

He foregoes His wealth and makes Himself poor, in order to make you rich.  He turns the cheek to those who strike Him.  He forgives the sins of those who trespass against Him.  He loves His enemies, and He prays for those who kill Him.  So does He pray and plead for you with His own Blood and Righteousness, as your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.

So does He perform everything according to the Law of the Lord, even to the point of sacrificial death; for His flawless obedience of perfect faith and perfect love take Him to the Cross, which is already there on the horizon in His Presentation, whereby Mary and Joseph offer Him up to the Lord.  He is not redeemed or released from service, but He is consecrated for sacrifice.  For His Mother’s purification, “a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons” are paid, that is, the offering of the poor, because the Holy Family couldn’t afford the usual lamb.  But in this case, the Firstborn Male who has opened her womb is the Lamb who is given to God.  For He is the Passover.  His Blood is the Ransom.  His Flesh is the Meat.  His Cross and Passion are the Exodus from Egypt.

Therefore, if you would be released from the bondage of sin and death — if you would be set free from the house of slavery — receive this holy Child Jesus into your arms and bless God by faith in Him.  For He is your Life and your Salvation.  He is your true Light in the darkness, your sure and certain Hope when everything seems lost and hopeless, and your sweet Comfort in all sorrow and temptation.  He is your great Redeemer, who brings you out from under Pharaoh’s bitter yoke, through the hard wilderness in safety, and finally into the Promised Land of Canaan.

This Child who is born for you, this Son who is given for you, He is your Peace and your Sabbath Rest.  For He is the Christ of God who atones for all your many sins.  He is the Mighty Lord who conquers death by His Sacrifice.  He is the Seed of the Woman who crushes the accuser under His wounded heal.  And He is the Prince of Peace who reconciles you to God, His Father, and brings you into His presence, blameless before Him in body, soul, and spirit, both now and forever.

So it is that everything depends upon this Lord Jesus.  Yes, even upon this little Lord Jesus, who at six weeks of age is presented in the Temple.  And nothing else matters at all apart from Him.

As you are met with Him, so are you confronted by His Cross, and that is the Sign that first of all opposes you, the Sword that pierces your heart and your soul, dividing between your bones and your marrow.  It puts you to the test by forcing you to choose between the Christ and the Pharaoh, between the Exodus and Egypt, between God and the devil.  There really is no middle ground, no compromise or life “in-between” — other than the wilderness, which teaches you repentance by the Cross — by confronting you again and again, day after day, with the choice of life or death.

In theory, it should be easy, right?  Your life is in Christ Jesus — so, there you go!  But in fact, it is impossibly hard, because your heart is desperately sinful and you are deathly afraid of entrusting yourself entirely to God in Christ.  You neither understand nor trust the paradox of His Cross, that you must die to yourself in order to live with God; that you must fall in order to rise with Christ; that you must be humbled in genuine repentance in order to be exalted in faith and righteousness.

Between you and the Lord in the Holy of Holies there stands the Sign of the Cross, which threatens to undo you — and it does.  It is a swift and terrible Sword, which not only divides your heart and soul within you, but it also divides and redefines your family and all of your relationships.  The Cross of Christ Jesus calls you to belong entirely to Him, the Lord your God; and as such, you and your life are not your own but His — and all of your feelings, all of your friendships, and your whole family are reconfigured by His Cross.  That is how deeply this Sign of Christ divides you.

If this work of repentance were yours to perform and accomplish — for that is what this falling and rising is, this revealing of the heart, this division of soul and spirit — it is repentance — if this were your work, you would be lost.  You would have no peace or joy forever and ever.  For you cannot break the yoke of bondage that lies heavy upon you.  You cannot redeem yourself from the tyranny of sin and death.  You cannot preserve your life, nor can you save your mortal flesh.

But the work of repentance is the work of Jesus Christ.  It is for this work that He is appointed by His Father, for the falling and rising of many in Israel.  It is for this Cross that He is consecrated, in order to sanctify forever the children born of women by the offering of Himself once for all.  It is for this death of His that He is presented to the Lord, in order to bring you to God in Himself.

So He comes to you now, and He calls you to Himself, and He crucifies the man or woman, the boy or girl that you have been, in order to make you alive in His own Body of flesh and blood, to fill you with His Holy Spirit, and to grant you perfect Peace in the presence of His God and Father.

You see, His Redemption of Jerusalem and His Consolation of Israel are not only what He has done by His Cross and Resurrection, “once upon a time,” but this great Salvation is what He does for you and gives to you, even now, here within the Temple of His Church on earth.

It is for Redemption and Consolation that the Holy Spirit calls and gathers you here by the Gospel.  For this is where true Life and Salvation are found, for you, in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus.  Here is where the Glory of God fills the Temple in the Means of Grace, in His preaching of forgiveness and in His holy Sacraments, which are His Pillar of Cloud by day and His Pillar of Fire by night.

What is more, these Sacred Things are the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.  In Him you behold the Face of God; and yet, you do not die but live.  For His great Glory is the Gospel of Salvation, which shines upon you here, that you may see and believe.

As the Holy Spirit brings you to this sacred place by the Word of the Gospel, so are you anointed, filled, and sanctified by the same Holy Spirit through the preaching of that precious and Life-giving Word.  Thus are you able to live by faith, to bless the Lord your God, to serve Him day and night in His Temple, and to love and serve your neighbor in the peace and joy of Jesus Christ.

As scary as the Cross of Christ is, it is now also your Comfort and your Peace.  For by His Cross you have already died with Him; and so by His Cross your life is safely hidden with God in Him.

It is hidden, yes.  But Christ is your Anchor behind the Veil, in whom you have entered into the Holy of Holies.  Even here and now at His Altar, as you eat His Body and drink His Blood, you rest in the Bosom of His Father, and you thus abide within the Inner Sanctum of the one true God.

Now you are released from the fear of death, and you are set free to sing unto the Lord, to sing the New Song of God and of the Lamb.  For He has done marvelous things for you and for all people, and here He feeds you with such Good Things which shall never be taken away.  He remembers His mercy and His faithfulness to you and His whole Church in heaven and on earth.  Everything is safe and secure in Christ Jesus, your Savior, so that your whole life is one of thanksgiving.

Now, I know that your heart and spirit are not always thankful.  For that I must say to you, Repent.  Do not give yourself over to discontent or grumbling.  But so am I also given to say that Christ is your Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, as He is also your High Priest and your constant Prayer of Faith.  He ever lives to make intercession for you, and His Spirit also helps you in your weakness.  For Christ is your Offering to the Father, your acceptable Sacrifice, and your sweet-smelling Incense.  Consequently, there is nothing lacking, nothing amiss, and no accusation that stands against you.  Instead, there is only thanksgiving for your Life and your Salvation in your Lord Jesus Christ.

Sing, therefore, beloved of the Lord!  Sing as the Scriptures teach you to do.  It is not pointless or futile, but meet, right, and salutary.  It is good for you, and it is good for your brothers and sisters in Christ.  For the Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs of His Word fill you and the household and family of God with His Life-giving Holy Spirit.  They catechize you in the true faith, and they strengthen you in faith and love.  And these Songs also bear the fruits of thanksgiving to God.

To sing of Christ is both a principle part and a paradigm or pattern of the entire Christian life.  It is a godly work of faith and love, which both a little child and an old man or woman can do by the grace of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit.  And to sing of Christ chases away the devil, glorifies the Holy Trinity, and allows the joy and gladness of heaven to echo throughout all of Creation.

How shall a song do all of this?  And how shall your mortal voice accomplish such great things?

It is because the almighty and eternal Son of God has Himself become Flesh and Blood like you.  He has a human voice like yours, with which He speaks and sings the Word of His Father.  And in His Body, crucified and risen from the dead, all of Creation has been redeemed and sanctified for God — including you, your lips and tongue, your mouth, and your voice.  And in the Temple of the Lord all cry out and sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and Peace to His people on earth!”

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

Communion with God in the Word-Made-Flesh

Beloved of the Lord, Christ Jesus is your Savior, not only by what He does for you, but because of Who He Is, the Son of God in the Flesh.  For salvation involves not only being rescued from danger, death, and damnation through the forgiveness of your sins, but also being brought into the safety and security of eternal Life and Light in the presence of the Holy Triune God.  Indeed, such Life and Light do not merely come from God; they are of God Himself and in Him alone forever.

It was for the sake of His own divine and holy Love that God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created all things, in order to share His Life and Love with others outside of Himself, that is, with His own creatures, by His grace alone.  In creating all things out of nothing by His Word, God the Lord was giving Himself, His Life and His Light, to those whom He created.  In particular, it was in Love that He shared Himself, and nothing less than Himself, with those whom He created in His own Image and Likeness — of which Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, is the Archetype.

To be created in the Image of God is ever and always to share the Image of the Word-made-Flesh, St. Mary’s Son, who is both God and Man.  For it was always God’s intention that He should fill His Creation with His own divine Life, that is, with Himself, by becoming part of His Creation.

Hence the Lord’s friendship and communion with Adam & Eve, the Man and the Woman, the King and the Queen of His Creation, in the Garden prior to the Fall into sin.  And from the beginning, such communion or fellowship with God has resided in the Person of His Word, the beloved Son, who would in the fullness of time become Flesh and tabernacle with us as the Son of St. Mary.  It is for His sake that the Father created you and all creatures, and it is for His sake that He saves you.

Now, to be sure, the Fall into sin broke the harmonious relationship between God and man, and it made fellowship with God impossible for the children of men until there should be atonement for sin and reconciliation.  Thus, for example, from your conception and birth you were at enmity with God and separated from Him and His Life by your sin.  And that is not to speak primarily of all the naughty things that you have done, nor of all the good that you have failed to do, but chiefly of your inability to fear, love, and trust in God, and your lack of faith in His Word.

By such sin in the very heart of you, God Himself and His Life and Light and Love are rejected, and you cut yourself off from the fellowship with God for which you have been created.

There is every cause for great rejoicing on this Holy Day and in this sacred Season, therefore, because the Son of God, your Savior Jesus Christ, has become Flesh of your flesh and Blood of your blood.  He has come to redeem you from your sin and death and to reconcile you and all the world to His God and Father.  Indeed, He has done so by His voluntary suffering and death upon the Cross, and God and man are reconciled forever in the Resurrection of His Body from the dead.

But not only has He rescued you and all the children of men from the bondage of sin and death.  By His Holy Incarnation, the Son of God has also accomplished within Himself — in the unity of His own divine Person — the perfect and permanent communion of God and Man.  For the Lord your God has taken flesh and blood and your entire human nature to be His very own, in which He entered into the depths of your darkness and has been raised and glorified in the heavenly places.

Your salvation, therefore, and your deliverance from sin, death, the devil, and hell, do not involve an escape from your life in the body, nor from the world of flesh and blood into which you have been conceived and born.  Rather, in Christ Jesus your body is redeemed along with your soul, your soul with your body, and your flesh and blood are sanctified for a bodily Life with God.  For the Body of Christ Jesus, conceived and born of St. Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and risen from the dead in divine Glory, is the First Fruits of the New Creation, in which the very-goodness of the original Creation has not only been restored, but fulfilled, perfected, and exceeded.

The Lord your God has spoken His Word into the Flesh, and the Word of God is henceforth never without His own Flesh.  In holy Love, the Father speaks to you now and forever by His incarnate Son, who is the Light of the world and the Life of man.  His Body of flesh and blood is the Light that shines upon you in the darkness, so that you behold and live with God the Father in Him.  Indeed, your communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is in the Body of Christ Jesus.

As there simply is no Life or Light at all apart from the Word of God — for all things are made through Him, and without Him there is nothing — so there is no communion or fellowship with God apart from His Word-made-Flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, conceived and born of St. Mary.

Everything has been accomplished and established, once and for all, forever and ever, in Him, in His holy Body and with His sacred Blood.  That is to say, both the rescue from sin, death, and hell, and the permanent safety and security of Life and Salvation with God, are found in Jesus Christ.

So it is that your rescue and redemption, your safety and salvation — that perfect Light and divine Life and holy Love for which you have been created by God — become yours and remain yours, only insofar as you are united with Christ Jesus in body and soul by grace through faith in Him.

To that end, because He loves you dearly and desires your salvation, He comes to you and calls you to Himself by the ways and means of His Word.  By and with the preaching of His Gospel, both Christ and His Holy Spirit are actively present and at work to lay Christ Himself upon your heart and mind, to justify you with His Righteousness, and to sanctify you with His Holiness.

From the very beginning, and after the Fall into sin, it has ever and always been so.  God speaks to give Life by His Son.  By the Law and the Prophets, the Old Testament was preparing for and leading to the New Testament in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.  Then St. John the Baptist came, a man sent by God to preach and to baptize, that all might believe in Jesus, the Light of the world.  Likewise, in turn, the Apostles and Evangelists and the ministers of Christ to this day.

As in the case of St. John, and so also to the close of the age, the preaching of the Word goes hand in hand with the washing of water with the Word and Spirit in Holy Baptism.  Crucified and raised with Christ in those waters, you are born again as a child of God in Him.  And this new birth of Holy Baptism parallels the miraculous conception and birth of Christ Jesus Himself.  For as He was conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so are you also conceived and born again in Him — in each case by His Word and Holy Spirit, and not by any will or cooperation of man.

In particular, in Holy Baptism you are united with Christ Jesus in His Cross & Resurrection, and you are thereby brought into the fellowship of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Having thus entered into fellowship with God in Christ through Holy Baptism, you are granted the privilege of feasting upon Him — of eating His holy Body and drinking His precious Blood — in the Holy Communion of His Altar.  So does He live and abide in you.  He tabernacles with you in the flesh, both His and yours, so that you also live and abide in Him, both body and soul.  And by such communion with the Son of God, your fellowship is also with His Father and the Holy Spirit.  That is not simply a means to some other end.  That is your Life and Salvation with God in Christ.

As the almighty and eternal Word of God sounded in the ear of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was thereby conceived and made Flesh-of-her-flesh within her womb, so does the same Word of God — whom you have heard in this Holy Gospel — continue to give Himself in the Flesh, to you and to the many, by and through and with His Word of the New Testament in this Holy Sacrament.

So does the Mystery of the Incarnation — the profound “Sacrament” of the Word-made-Flesh — continue for you at this Altar in this place.  And here, in this Sacrament of His Body and Blood, the one true God is revealed to you.  Indeed, the Maker of the heavens and the earth gives Himself to you in the Flesh of Jesus Christ, and in His Body you share His Life and Light and Salvation.

As He created all things out of nothing with the first “in the beginning,” solely by His grace and power (which are the grace and power of His Word), so does He make a new “in the beginning” for you — out of your nothingness — by and with His Word-made-Flesh.  And, behold, this Word of the Living God declares concerning you and your Life in Him, that “It is very good!”  In which there is nothing else for you to do, but simply to receive it freely in faith and with thanksgiving.

That is what the ChristMass truly is, and that is what “Christmas” is all about.  Not only on this day, nor only for the next few weeks, but all year long and always.  So, come, let us adore Him!  Let us worship and bow down before the Lord our Maker, who is Jesus Christ our Savior!

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

Unto You Is Born a Savior

You’re here in the Lord’s House in the middle of this dark night, while most folks are hunkered down at hearth and home with their families and their gifts, because the sweet Word of the Gospel has proclaimed to you a Savior, Christ the Lord, who is born for you this day in the City of David.

You are surely in need of such a Savior, even as you are at least somewhat aware of the troubles that lie heavy on your heart and mind, upon your mortal flesh, and on your soul.  The unrelenting daily news of this past year has no doubt added to your worries and concerns, to say nothing of the stress and anxiety that pile-drive you with increasing pressures in the final months of the year, all the while the daylight decreases and darkness grows.  But above all, you need the Lord your God to come and save you from your sins, and from the death and damnation that your sins deserve.

Since you are not able to save yourself — nor would you even know how or desire to look to the Lord and call upon Him for help — He takes every initiative, entirely His own, out of His great Love for you and for all people, and comes in the Flesh to save you from sin, death, and hell.

The Creator of the heavens and the earth has entered His own Creation, in order to save His people from their sins and redeem them for Life with Him.  He has come down from heaven to earth — which is how and why there is divine Peace here on earth, even in the midst of conflict, chaos, and confusion — and why the good and gracious will of God now rests upon the children of men.

Beyond that, since you could not receive Him or believe in Him by any work or wisdom of your own — neither by your intellect, knowledge, experience, or sensibilities — He has not only come down from heaven for you, but to this very day, and to this holy night, He causes His Word of the Gospel to be preached to you.  He comes to you and calls you to Himself by that preaching.

He pours out His Spirit upon you by the Gospel.  He enlightens you with His Gifts.  He sanctifies and keeps you in the true Christian faith.  And He brings you here tonight, to this House of the Living Bread from heaven, that you should find Him and receive Him to yourself in body and soul.

As a Pillar of Fire by night, the Glory of the Lord goes before you in this place.  His Word sounds forth in the midst of deep darkness, and the true Light of the Lord shines upon you here and now.  As a Lamp unto your feet and a Light upon your path, the preaching of His Word directs and leads you to His Word-made-Flesh.  He is here with you and for you in this House, nestled in the Manger of this Altar, swaddled in cloths and contained in metal vessels, your dear Savior in the Flesh.

Though you are not a shepherd on the outskirts of Bethlehem, and you are not a citizen or subject of Caesar Augustus (who is long since dead and gone), yet this Holy Gospel of the ChristMass is proclaimed to you, because it is for you that the Savior is born, who is Christ Jesus, the Lord.

The message that is here and now proclaimed to you is not simply a nostalgic recollection of the dark and distant past.  It is most especially the Word of the Gospel of God, which is addressed to you and given to you in the present tense, that you should now receive and rejoice in your Savior.

So it is that, by this Word of the Lord, you are given the Signs that lead you to Christ in the Flesh.

He is in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread,” which is the City of David, because He is the promised Son of David, and His own Body, born of Mary, is the Living and Life-giving Bread with which His God and Father feeds you from heaven.  And that House of Bread is found, not in Palestine, but wherever in the world He gives His Body and His Blood for His Christians to eat and to drink in remembrance of Him.  The City of the Son of David is wherever His Word is preached in truth.

He is likewise to be found with His Mother Mary, as St. Luke and St. Matthew both demonstrate in their Nativity Gospels.  Which is to say that Christ the Lord is to be found within His Church on earth, wherein the children of God are conceived and born by the grace and power of His Word and Holy Spirit.  There, too, He is found in the care of His adopted father and guardian, Joseph, as He provides spiritual fathers on earth to guard and keep and serve and care for you by His Word.

You have heard that His infant Body is swaddled in cloths.  So shall linen cloths enwrap the same holy Body in His death and burial (once more in a borrowed space); and on Easter morning those linens will serve as a Sign of His Resurrection.  No less do you find the crucified and risen Body of your dear Lord Jesus Christ swaddled in linen cloths upon this Altar, tonight and all year long; not only at Christmas and Easter, but as often as you eat and drink at His Word.  And baptized into Him, you also recline here, wrapped up in the swaddling cloths of Christ and His Righteousness.

In particular, as the Angels of God and the holy Evangelist have told you three times over in this Holy Gospel, you find your dear Savior in the manger, that is, in the feeding trough, from which the food is distributed.  For He is given to you as your Meat and Drink indeed.  He is your Savior because He feeds you with Himself, with His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you here and now from this “Manger” for the forgiveness of all your sins, for Life and Salvation.

It is quite appropriate, therefore, that the Divine Service — the Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper — begins with the Song of the Angels: Glory to God in the highest, and Peace to His people on earth!

We hear and confess with all the hosts of heaven that God the Lord is in this place in His own Flesh and Blood, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the salvation of sinners.

As we now approach the Stable of this Sanctuary, as we draw near the Manger of this Altar, and as we enter the Holy of Holies at the heart of this Bethlehem, we sing again with the Angels and Archangels and all saints, praising the Holy, Holy, Holy One, the Lord God, Yahweh Sabaoth, and worshiping the Lamb of God upon His Throne, our Savior Jesus Christ, in His Body and Blood.

Here you receive Him in the Flesh; for He gives His crucified and risen, immortal and imperishable Flesh into your mortal body, as the gift, guarantee, and pledge of your bodily resurrection, and as the true glory of your body and soul.  Thus by His Word, and with these Gifts Christ freely gives, your sin is forgiven, your death is conquered, and you are saved for the Life everlasting with Him.

It is with such sure and certain promises that you return from this place to your own office and stations in life — whether to the shepherding of your own flocks, as it were, to the carpentry and craftsmanship of your own trade, or to whatever it is that you are called and given to do.  In all such tasks and occupations, you praise the Lord your God, your Savior Jesus Christ, not only with your lips but with your very life in deed and in truth.  You confess what you have seen and heard at His Altar, and you serve your neighbor in love with words and deeds that echo those of Christ.

Beloved of the Lord, He honors you with His own glory by preaching to you His forgiveness and  by feeding you with His Flesh and Blood.  As you go about your days and nights, ponder this Word of His Gospel in faith, and treasure it dearly and deeply in your heart and mind.  It is, indeed, your hope and your salvation, and by His grace and tender mercies it will return you, again and again, to this House of Bread and to this Manger, until you shall feast with Him in His Kingdom forever.

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

Ready or Not, the ChristMass Comes for You

Are you ready for Christmas?  You’ve been asking others, haven’t you, over these past few weeks.  And you’ve been asked the question, too, I’m sure.  It’s the social equivalent of chatting about the weather in these latter days of December — a tip of the hat that doesn’t risk anything deeper.

If you were actually going to consider the question, though, what would you say?  Are you ready for Christmas?  You’ve tried, I’m sure, to some extent at least, even if only half-heartedly.  After all, it’s hard to avoid or ignore the Season when so much revolves around it for a month or more.

But, let’s face it, you’re not ready.  Not really.  Not even on your best day, and notwithstanding your checked-off to-do lists.  You could probably tell me in a heartbeat what you have and haven’t done.  Maybe with pride, or maybe with regret, or maybe with irritation and resentment.  But, in any case, you know where things stand, because you ‘know’ that everyone else is keeping track.

It may be that you’re content and satisfied, or maybe not.  I don’t want or need to know your score.  It’s a lie, no matter what the bell curve.  The truth is that you’re not ready for Christmas, because it simply isn’t something that you can do, achieve, or get ready for.  You can’t make it happen.

But what is it, really, that you’ve been aiming at and trying to accomplish?  Think about your list; go over it twice.  Are you doing it all for love?  For whom?  And for what?  What’s your plan?

The stress and the strain.  The striving and struggle.  The sadness and the surliness, on the surface or deep down inside.  Is that love?  Or, is it self-ness that drives you and whips you forward?

If you’re trying to know God and be like Him — by somehow getting Christmas “done right” — you’re not going to manage anything close to that on your own.  By your own wisdom, reason, and strength — by your own working and worry — by your shopping and spending, or by your saving and investing for the future — without the Savior, it all amounts to one and the same epic failure.

You cannot manage on your own, because you live in the darkness of sin and death, inside and out.  Which is to say, you’re doing it all wrong, and you’re going to die.  It’s as stark and simple as that.  And there’s nothing you can do about it, no way for you to fix it, stop it, or make it any better.

Yet, ready or not, Christmas comes.  Indeed, it is upon us.  It is here and now.

The Light shines in the darkness.  But what does that mean?  It is the Law of the Lord, to be sure, which exposes your sin, your nakedness and shame.  But more than that, it is the Gospel — the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of your sins — which is the knowledge of intimacy and a personal relationship with the one true God, the Holy Trinity.  That is what shines upon you.

The Father speaks to you by His Son, and the Holy Spirit opens your ears, heart, and mind to hear.  The Lord Himself gives you a Sign, which is Himself in the Flesh.  He swears by His own Name.

So, here is the bottom line: Christmas comes, because Christ Jesus comes; He comes for you.

The incarnate God, conceived and born of St. Mary the Blessed Virgin, is Himself the Sign that is given to you by His grace, by which He is with you in the Flesh.  Not simply to hang out with you or keep you company, though that companionship and friendship of Christ is no small thing, especially in the face of your loneliness and emptiness and isolation.  But there is more than that.  The Lord God is with you in the Flesh, in order to save you, to give you His own divine Life in body and soul.  That Life is the Light that drives away the darkness with the knowledge of God.

In Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, you know what God is like.  You know Him.  You know that He is Love, and that it is for the sake of His Love that He rescues you from every evil, delivers you from sin, death, and the devil, and draws you to Himself in Peace.  You know Him, not as anger, but as mercy and compassion, as long-suffering patience, sweet forgiveness, and tender care.

From the heights of Heaven into the depths of Sheol, He has come for you, to save you from the serpent’s deadly sting; to snatch you from the clutches of the grave; to pick you up out of the dust and the dirt, and to stand you upright in His presence.  All of this at the cost of His own suffering and death.  For the Father has sacrificed His only-begotten Son for you, and He has raised Him up again as a Standard for the nations.  Look to Him, and live.  This is Love.  This is who God is.

In Christ Jesus — in His Incarnation, Flesh and Blood — in His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension — and, now also, in His Church, at His Altar — everything is ready.  All is prepared, it is finished and complete.  For He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns eternally in the same Flesh and Blood that He shares with you and with all the sons and daughters of Adam & Eve.

The ChristMass is ready for you, here and now, again at midnight and tomorrow morning, and throughout the days and weeks ahead.  You were not ready for it, but the ChristMass is ready for you, in which there is nothing less than sheer Life and Salvation for you and for the many, by and with the forgiveness of all your sins.  Here and now, the Victory of Christ Jesus is given to you.

And in that Light, the good news is that you are ready for Christmas, no matter how much or how little you’ve tried to do, or managed to get done — or even if you’ve been a Scrooge and haven’t done a blessed thing to make this Season bright.  Because, again, it’s not something for you to do or give.  It is the Gift that is given to you by the Word of Christ, and you receive it by His grace.

As the Son of God thus comes to you by the preaching of His Word and in His Holy Sacrament — as He serves you in this way, makes Himself known to you by these Means, and gives Himself to you in Peace, in order to live and abide with you in love — and as you abide in Him by grace through faith in His Gospel, you are made ready by His Spirit to live and to love in His Name.

As you live by His grace, mercy, and peace, so do you also live and love as He as does.  By His Word and Holy Spirit, you love Him who first loves you, who is indeed your Life and Light and Salvation, your Strength, and your Song.

And loving Him, you love your neighbors, your family and friends and even those who hate you and sin against you, and especially your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  You learn to love one another, and you practice loving one another, in the way that Jesus loves you, because Jesus loves you, one and all.  That may not mean lots of fancy and expensive gifts.  You rather love each other well, in sincerity and truth, by caring for one another in the Peace and Joy of your dear Savior.

Don’t worry, and do not be afraid.  He is ready, willing, and able to save you.  And He is here to help and serve you.  Live and love in Him, in whom you are so blessed, unto the Life everlasting.

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

The Body of Christ Jesus Is Given for Your Salvation

The Blessed Virgin Mary believed the Word of the Lord, and in holy faith she said “Yes” to His Word.  She submitted herself to His divine and holy Will.  She entrusted her body and life to Him: Not a tithe or token, but 100 percent, a living sacrifice.  A woman does not bear a child with only part of herself, but with all that she is.  Throughout the nine months of pregnancy, it is true that a mother’s work is never done.  And even after birth, there is still much work to be done, a great and ongoing burden of responsibility to feed and clothe, to shelter and protect, to nurture and teach.

But now, what has the Lord spoken to you, and how shall you say “Let it be” to His Word?  What is His Will for your body and life?  In love for Him, how shall you love your neighbor as yourself?

Truly to love is to give yourself, to spend yourself entirely, and to pour yourself out for another.

With that in mind, do not suppose that the gifts you give, whether later this week or any other time, whether purchased or made with your own hands, can actually substitute for the gift of yourself.

But maybe you are already spent to the point of exhaustion, or bent and broken in heart and mind, and you simply can’t even imagine giving anything more of yourself to anyone.  There are lots of lost and wandering people in the world.  Perhaps you feel that way, yourself.  Alone and confused.  Afraid of so many things, including the unknown.  Distant.  At war with everything around you, and with everyone.  Angry or unhappy.  Disappointed, discouraged, and disconnected from others.

Do you have such heavy burdens to bear?  By yourself?  Is it because your neighbor has neglected you?  Or is it because you have turned away from your neighbor and turned inward upon yourself?

The tragic irony of selfishness is that you wind up alone and lonely, precisely because you are so wrapped up in yourself, so concerned with yourself — to the exclusion and neglect of everyone else around you.  Even what you do for others, you do for your own sake and your own benefit.  And the more you strive to get and to keep for yourself, the more isolated and disconnected you become.  In your wealth you remain empty, and even in your feasting you are never satisfied.

But as God the Lord has spoken, it is not good for you to be alone.  You were not created to live unto yourself in lonely isolation, but to live in love with God and with your neighbors.

In particular, you were created to live in the Communion of Saints, in the one Body of the one Lord Jesus Christ, to live in a relationship with fellow saints within the household and family of God.

That is the Life for which the Holy Triune God has created you, and to which He has called you in divine and holy Love.  And that is at the heart of the Word that He speaks to you in great mercy.

So, how shall you say “Yes” to that Word?  How shall you submit yourself to His Will for you?  And how shall you receive and bear the incarnate Son of God in your flesh, in your body and life, for His Name’s sake in holy faith, and for the benefit of your neighbors in holy love?

The best way to have friends is to be a friend.  And the best way to find love is to love others — in words and deeds, in spirit and in truth.  But let there be no strategy of selfishness at work in your friendship and your love; for selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-love are really the opposite of friendship and love.  Rather, entrust your whole body and life to the Lord your God, conform yourself to His Word and to His Will, and so offer yourself as a living sacrifice of faith and love.

That is to say, in loving the Lord your God above all things, in faith before Him, so love and serve and care for your neighbors as you naturally love and serve and care for your own body and life.

Have you heard how quickly St. Mary went to visit St. Elizabeth?  And have you heard how gladly St. Elizabeth welcomed her?  Consider the friendship and love and mutual help they found and received in each other, all the while their bodies were given over to the good work of bearing the children God had entrusted to them and to their stewardship according to His grace and mercy.

The comfort and consolation these women give and receive in each other exemplifies the work of God in all the members of His Church.  As those who fear, love, and trust in Him unite their wills to His, so does He unite His divine work and sacrifice to theirs.  Not as though He depends on them, but as the means by which He graciously accomplishes His purposes for them and for others.

And it is all of one harmonious piece.  Thus, St. Elizabeth welcomes and rejoices in the Lord, her Savior, in welcoming His Mother and rejoicing over her and with her.  And St. Mary receives the proclamation of St. John, pointing to her Son, through the words of St. Elizabeth.  In loving and serving and clinging to each other, they cling to the Lord, and they are loved and served by Him.

The gracious work of God is likewise hidden in the good work He has given you to do.  So you love and serve Him in the members of His Body, in your brothers and sisters within His family.

That begins with your own parents, your husband or wife and your children, if you have them.  So, spend yourself in loving those nearest neighbors at hand, no less so than a mother with her child.

If you are a husband and father, do not be distant from your wife and children, but draw near to them in what you say and do, and so also in how you listen to them and give attention to them.  As you work to provide for them, so also serve and care for them with your presence and your time.

But if you do have a family of your own — whether as a parent, spouse, or child — know that your family points beyond itself to the household and family of God.  Love and serve that family, also, especially those members who have no other family here on earth.  For the Lord gathers all His sons and daughters together into one Body, under one Head, all His sheep under one Shepherd.

And if you do not have a spouse or children, or parents any longer, rejoice all the more in that fellowship of the Body of Christ Jesus.  Understand that your freedom from the joys and burdens of a family is a freedom to spend yourself in service to others, to the Church and to your neighbors, to help those with families in their needs, and to help others without families in their needs, too.

Do not imagine or make the excuse that you have too little to give, or that you are not up to the task at hand.  Within the place He has called you to be, in whatever office He has stationed you, the Lord your God joins His good and gracious work to all of your works of love; and His Word and promises to you are not impotent but powerful.  That is evident in these two women with child — old Elizabeth, who was called barren, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who did not know a man.

Whatever job the Lord has given you to do, whatever duty and responsibility He lays upon you in this body and life, He supplies all that is needed, and He works His work in you by His grace.

Do not worry about how much will be left for you and your needs, if you spend your time and energy in loving the neighbors God has set before you.  And do not fret about how much your neighbor reciprocates your love, whether a lot or a little or not at all, with or without any thanks.

If you are emptied, the Lord will fill you up with Himself and His good things.  If you are humbled, He will raise you up and exalt you in His presence.  If you are impoverished, He will still feed you with Meat and Drink indeed.  If you perish, you perish; yet, the Lord gives you His eternal Life.

The surety of your resurrection and your Life everlasting with God is the Body of Christ Jesus, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death and buried, but also risen from the dead and seated at the Right Hand of God the Father, your great and merciful High Priest — given for you here, at His Altar, for your Life and your Salvation in Him.

The One who was rich beyond all measure made Himself poor, and the Most High made Himself lowly; the exalted One humbled Himself and became obedient, even unto death on the Cross.  He gives not a tithe or a token, not a part or a portion, but His whole Self, His whole Body and Life, His Flesh and Blood, that you should be enlivened and enriched with all the treasures of God.

He fully united His human will with the Will of His God and Father and submitted Himself to it; and by the voluntary Sacrifice of His Body on the Cross, He has sanctified you for eternal Life.

So it is, likewise, that by the bloody sweat and labor of His Passion He gives birth to the children of God in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism — as He has surely done for Maximus this morning!

Your body and life are sanctified by Christ Jesus, for now and forever, by His Gospel.  Your work and sacrifice are also sanctified by His, and vindicated in His Resurrection from the dead.  Your faithfulness is taken up into His faithfulness and perfected in Him; and where you are unfaithful, His faithfulness avails for you with His forgiveness of sins, to save you from death and hell.

In the midst of your poverty, weakness, and daily failures, His poverty becomes your wealth, His weakness becomes your strength and your song, and His bitter suffering and death for the sins of the world become your glorious victory and great salvation.  This is how Immanuel, the Lord your God, draws near to you, and visits you in mercy, and abides with you in love, now and forever.

If you are spent to the point of exhaustion in loving and serving a spouse, a child, a parent, or a neighbor, whether friend or foe — if you are altogether broke or broken — know that Christ Jesus the Lord is with you to help you and save you.  He has kind regard for your humble state.  He has done great things for you — and He shall do so — for His mercy and His Name rest upon you.

Consider how intimately He came to abide with dear St. Mary, with His own Body of flesh and blood within her womb.  And then see here, how He comes to abide with you, God’s own dear child, giving His own Body and Blood into your body.  His Supper is the remembrance of His mercy.  And shall the One who feeds you with such Good Things and joins Himself to you in love ever leave you or forsake you?  No, He shall not.  All that He has spoken to you, He shall do.

Blessed are you who believe it.  Draw near and receive Him in the belly of His Mother; for blessed is the Fruit of her womb, which has now become the Fruit of His Cross, your Meat and Drink indeed.  Thus abiding in Him, and He in you, return to your home in His perfect Peace and Joy.

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

Rejoicing in the Cruciform Wisdom and Righteousness of God

It does seem unjust and so unfair.  St. John the Baptist, a righteous and innocent man, is put into prison for his faithfulness, while the Lord Jesus welcomes the tax collectors and other sinners to Himself and eats with them.  What is more, St. John will remain in his prison until he is finally beheaded, all the while Jesus is helping other people, healing the sick, and even raising the dead.

Even so, do not be offended.  This seemingly upside-down and inside-out reversal of things is the foolish wisdom of God at work, giving birth to the children of God by His grace.  It is the justice of God, whereby He justifies sinners and brings them from their sin into His Kingdom in peace.

So, then, what have you come out to see?  And how shall you receive my Baptism?  How shall you react and respond to my preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name?

To be sure, I am not the Christ, and it’s not about me.  I rather preach and point beyond myself to the Lord Jesus.  But it is in my preaching and my pointing that Jesus the Christ draws near.

In His Name I call you to repentance — to turn away from your sins in heart, mind, body, and soul — in order to prepare you for His coming, and to present you to Him in peace, according to His good and gracious Will and the Righteousness of God, manifest in His Body of flesh and blood.

Do not be offended by this poor reed, so easily tossed about and shaken by the wind in the midst of this wild and wooly world.  But acknowledge God’s justice, even in this respect, in poverty and weakness under the Cross, in the sure and certain hope and confidence of the Resurrection.

The one who preaches in the wilderness is the messenger of the coming Lord, the expected One.  And the one imprisoned for His Name’s sake goes ahead of Him to prepare His way before Him.  So it is that Christ Jesus Himself will be arrested and imprisoned and finally put to death in due season; for wherever St. John the Forerunner goes, there the Lord Jesus Christ follows after.

It is true that, on His Way to the Cross, the same Lord Jesus Christ does cure many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits.  He opens blind eyes and deaf ears.  He cleanses lepers and raises the dead.  But He does it all by taking all of these infirmities upon Himself, by removing the iniquity of sinners and bearing all the consequences of sin, even death, in His own holy Body.

He acknowledges God’s justice against the sins of the whole world, and He affirms God’s purpose for Himself, for the forgiveness, life, and salvation of sinners, by going to His death on the Cross.

So now the question is, what sort of prison are you locked up in?  What are the shackles and chains that bind you?  And if not iron bars, what is it that has you trapped behind closed doors?

Is it your lust, or greed, or jealousy?  Hurt feelings or unrequited love?  Perhaps it is loneliness, disappointment, personal failure, or your own pride which imprisons you.  Or maybe your sin and shame, your poor health, or depression.  Or, do you rather find yourself locked up in a dungeon by your vices and bad habits, by addictions you can’t shake, or by impatience and a short temper?

It may be that, like St. John the Baptist, it is precisely your faithfulness within your own proper office and station in life that has become your prison and your cross to bear in this body and life.  Perhaps your faithfulness in submitting to a husband who is not thoughtful, kind, and loving toward you.  Or your faithfulness in serving a needy wife who nags and complains and never seems to be happy.  Your faithfulness in taking care of children who demand all of your time and energy, until there’s nothing left for yourself.  Or your faithfulness in meeting the needs of aging, ailing parents, who may not even remember your name or your face.

Whatever it is that imprisons you, no matter how suffocating it may be, the Lord your God declares to you: Do not be afraid, and do not be anxious over anything.  For He Himself is with you in the dungeon.  He is at hand to help you.  Only call upon His Name and pray to Him in every need.

Follow the good example of St. John the Baptist, and ask for a Word from the Lord, for a word of hope and promise — even a word that simply tells you again what you already know and believe.

Ask Him to send His preachers to preach His Word to you, for He Himself comes by preaching.  And gladly hear and learn what He says; take it to heart, believe it to be true, and confess it.

Whatever your affliction and infirmity, Christ has borne it for you, and He now bears it with you.

Whatever the wilderness in which you live, Christ the Lord is there with you.  He is at hand to feed and clothe, to guard and protect.  He is your Pillar of Cloud by day and your Pillar of Fire by night,  going before you as your King and following after as your Rearguard.  For He is a mighty Warrior who has set Himself, not against you, but with you as a Champion against all of your enemies.

There is both a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to eat and a time to fast, a time to repent and a time to rejoice; for it is by death and resurrection that you enter the Kingdom of God.

Repent, therefore, and believe the Gospel.  Turn away from your sins and follow Jesus.  Die to yourself, to your pride and ambition, and live instead by faith in the promise of His Resurrection.  And as He comes to you by the way of the Cross, by and with the Cross that He also lays upon you and calls you to carry, acknowledge the justice of God and do not reject but affirm His purpose.

When He sings a dirge, then weep; and when He plays the flute for you, dance.  Weep for your sin, but dance for joy in His Gospel.  Do not eat the bread and wine of mortal princes who perish along with their food, but now feast at the Table of the Son of Man who gives real Food to the hungry.  Such is the wisdom and justice of God, which He accomplishes for you and gives to you in peace.

Your sense of justice may cause you to retreat and run away from Him in sorrow and shame over your sins and failures.  And your sense of justice may cause you to withhold yourself from your neighbor, because of your neighbor’s sins.  But the justice of God is perfected in His mercy.  His justice is what moves Him to come, to draw near to you in love, to draw you to Himself in peace.

He has taken away His judgments against you by the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ.  And He has cleared away all of your enemies by the same Cross and Resurrection of your Lord.

He is with you now in gentleness and quietness.  And yet, within that peaceful calm, He also exults and rejoices over you with shouts of joy and gladness.  Is that not a most amazing thing?  This Third Sunday in Advent — Gaudete — calls you to rejoice in God your Savior, and rightly so.  But here and now His Word declares that He rejoices over you!  The Lord your God rejoices over you.

He rejoices over you in peace, in spite of your many sins, because He has made atonement for your sins and does not hold them against you.  Repent of your sins, but do not be afraid.  The Lord shall not permit them to harm you, for He rejoices over you.  That is the truth, no matter what you suffer.

He is a friend of tax collectors and sinners, of gluttonous men and drunkards, and of the demon-possessed who neither weep nor dance.  He has made Himself the friend of the poor, afflicted, and oppressed, whatever their personal demons and dungeons may be, whether of wealth or of want.

Child of God, He is your friend in joy and sadness, in misery and merriness.  For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, He pledges you His faithfulness even against death.

And He delights in your faithfulness, too, even if you do find yourself imprisoned by it and for it.  To serve faithfully in the place where He has called you to be, whether in a palace or a prison, and to suffer patiently whatever He may give you to suffer for His Name’s sake, that is a worthwhile calling and purpose in life.  It is not meaningless or pointless, but a testimony to His faithfulness.  It is where you are given to rejoice and be glad in Him, as He rejoices over you in gracious love.

It does not matter that your neighbor has a different place and purpose and lot in life than you do.  And it does not matter that the Lord shows His divine mercy and favor also to those who are less faithful than you.  Do not be offended by Jesus, and do not take offense at the company He keeps.

As Jesus draws near, you will find yourself surrounded by tax collectors and other sinners, by crazy men and lepers, the hurting and despised, the wounded and forgotten, and, yes, by Pharisees and lawyers, too.  He does not despise the children of men, but calls them to be children of God.

Do not evaluate the crowds on the basis of their pedigree or social status.  Do not ask about how much or how little, how big or how small.  Do not count or compile those stats, neither in yourself nor in your neighbors.  This mortal life on earth is temporary, it is fleeting and fluctuating.

One day you or your neighbor are a prince or a princess, the next you are a pauper or in prison.  Or it may be that you pass away in your royal dignity, and then you are buried in your fine apparel and soft clothing — at which point you return to the same dust as all your friends and foes alike.

By contrast, everyone who is born again of the water, Word, and Spirit of God — everyone who is crucified, dead, and buried with Christ Jesus through Holy Baptism — he or she is raised up with the same Lord Jesus Christ, born again to a new life in the Kingdom of His God and Father.

That is the greatness that you share with Jesus and with all who eat and drink with Him in faith.

With a gentle spirit, therefore, be at peace.  Be at peace in your own heart and mind before God, and, in so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.  Love your brothers and sisters in Christ, in particular, no matter what the prison house that either you or they may be living in.

The Wisdom of God is vindicated by all of His children.  The One who raised Christ Jesus from the dead has justified even you, a sinner, by your Baptism into Him — by your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection.  And just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns eternally, so are you vindicated and righteous before His God and Father in heaven, unto the Life everlasting.

Whether He sets you free from your afflictions and infirmities while yet on your pilgrimage, or even if He permits you to remain in your personal prison up until the day that you die, He will surely release you at the last from all of the burdens and the bondage of your mortal flesh.

Whether in frailty and weakness, or in faithfulness and strength, the Lord who has drawn near to you in the Cross of Christ now draws you to Himself forever in His Resurrection from the dead.  He has reconciled you to Himself.  And that Peace of God which is yours in Christ Jesus guards and keeps your heart and mind, your body, soul, and spirit, unto the Day of His appearing.

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

20+21 Favorites and Then Some More (The 2021 Grampies)

 I'm not really doing the "Grampies" anymore like I used to, as it simply requires too much time and energy to be constantly tracking the new music coming out, giving it a fair and adequate listen, and then trying to figure out how to categorize everything by genre, to say nothing yet of determining my favorites. After this past year, concluding the second decade of the twenty-first century, I posted the Final Countdown and resolved henceforth to focus on a far more limited number of favorite artists.

Even so, there were lots of great albums released this year by those artists I already know and love, and I've been tracking and enjoying all of that for its own sake. As this Year of Our Lord 2021 is drawing to a close, I'm not anticipating that there will be any more new albums coming out between now and January 2022 (although I could be caught by surprise, as I have been a time or two in the past). So, rather than waiting until I'm up to my eyeballs in the Christmas Season to compile a list of my favorite albums of the year, I've done so in a low-key way this evening.

My favorite new releases of 2021, hands down, were my new baby grands: Belteshazzar Stuckwisch (19 April), Evelyn Sams (29 April), Jerome Harrison (28 November), and Henrietta Stuckwisch (1 December). But as for new music albums, here are some lists of those that caught my attention and brought joy and gladness to my year:

My Top Twenty Favorite Albums of 2021:

Eric Church - Heart & Soul

Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks

Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH

Mat Kearney - January Flower

NF - Clouds (The Mixtape)

Tremonti - Marching in Time

Cody Jinks - Mercy / None the Wiser (Caned by Nod)

Demon Hunter - Songs of Death and Resurrection

Inglorious - We Will Ride / Heroine

Myles Kennedy - The Ides of March

NeedToBreathe - Into the Mystery

Black Veil Brides - The Phantom Tomorrow

Accept - Too Mean to Die

Daughtry - Dearly Beloved

Cody Johnson - Human: The Double Album

The Steel Woods - All of Your Stones

Volbeat - Servant of the Mind

Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight

Santana - Blessings and Miracles

Dream Theater - A View from the Top of the World

Twenty-One More Favorite Albums of 2021:

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

Watchhouse - Watchhouse

Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

Lady A - What a Song Can Do

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raise the Roof

John Mayer - Sob Rock

Smith/Kotzen - Smith/Kotzen

Switchfoot - Interrobang

Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed

Keuning - A Mild Case of Everything

Night Ranger - ATBPO

The Black Keys - Delta Kream

Sunstorm - Afterlife

Joel Hoekstra’s 13 - Running Games

Travis Tritt - Set in Stone

Passenger - Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted

Metalite - A Virtual World

Parker Millsap - Be Here Instead

OneRepublic - Human

The Neal Morse Band - Innocence & Danger

Imagine Dragons - Mercury - Act 1

And 20+22 Albums from ‘21 to Grow On in ‘22:

Black Label Society - Doom Crew Inc.

KK’s Priest - Sermons of the Sinner

Temperance - Diamanti

Flatland Cavalry - Welcome to Countryland

Zac Brown Band - The Comeback

George Lynch - Seamless

Sammy Hagar & The Circle - Lockdown 2020

Dori Freeman - Ten Thousand Roses

ABBA - Voyage

Blackberry Smoke - You Hear Georgia

Heavy Water - Red Brick City

Steve Lukather - I Found the Sun Again

The Doobie Brothers - Liberté

Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE3

Thunder - All the Right Noises

Kings of Leon - When You See Yourself

Mayday Parade - What It Means to Fall Apart

Gus G - Quantum Leap

Jimmy Barnes - Flesh and Blood

Beast in Black - Dark Connection

Joanne Shaw Taylor - The Blues Album

Ally Venable - Heart of Fire

Gary Hughes - Waterside / Decades

Voodoo Circle - Locked & Loaded

Damon Johnson & The Get Ready - Battle Lessons

Eclipse - Wired

The Night Flight Orchestra - Aeeromantic II

Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon

Times of Grace - Songs of Loss and Separation

Peter Frampton Band - Peter Frampton Forgets the Words

Sirenia - Riddles, Ruins & Revelations

Twenty-One Pilots - Scaled and Icy

Greta Van Fleet - The Battle at Garden’s Gate

Kristian Bush - Troubadour

Sturgill Simpson - The Ballad of Dood & Juanita

Wolfmother - Rock Out

Nancy Wilson - You and Me

Toby Keith - Peso in My Pocket

Trace Adkins - The Way I Wanna Go

Adele - 30

Lilly Hiatt - Lately

The Dead Daisies - Holy Ground

My Twenty-One Favorite Album Covers of 2021:

A View from the Top of the World (Dream Theater)

Time Clocks (Joe Bonamassa)

Seamless (George Lynch)

Innocence & Danger (The Neal Morse Band)

Songs of Death and Resurrection (Demon Hunter)

We Will Ride (Inglorious)

In the Court of the Dragon (Trivium)

All the Right Noises (Thunder)

Human (OneRepublic)

Mammoth WVH (Mammoth WVH)

A Virtual World (Metalite)

NIRATIAS (Chevelle)

Diamanti (Temperance)

Aeromantic II (The Night Flight Orchestra)

Senjutsu (Iron Maiden)

The Phantom Tomorrow (Black Veil Brides)

Riddles, Ruins & Revelations (Sirenia)

Too Mean to Die (Accept)

Afterlife (Sunstorm)

Escape of the Phoenix (Evergrey)

Blessings and Miracles (Santana)

Eighty-Four Favorite Songs of 2021:

“The Heart That Never Waits” (Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks)

“The Loyal Kind” (Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks)

“Time Clocks” (Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks)

“Notches” (Joe Bonamassa - Time Clocks)

“Circles” (Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH)

“Distance” (Mammoth WVH - Mammoth WVH)

“Clouds” (NF - Clouds: The Mixtape)

“Paid My Dues” (NF - Clouds: The Mixtape)

“Story” (NF - Clouds: The Mixtape)

“Lost” (NF & Hopsin - Clouds: The Mixtape)

“Just Like You” (NF - Clouds: The Mixtape)

“I Will Fail You” (Demon Hunter - Songs of Death and Resurrection)

“The Heart of a Graveyard” (Demon Hunter - Songs of Death and Resurrection)

“Crazyland” (Eric Church - Heart)

“Stick That in Your Country Song” (Eric Church - Heart)

“Russian Roulette” (Eric Church - Heart)

“Through My Ray-Bans” (Eric Church - &)

“Doing Life with Me” (Eric Church - &)

“Break It Kind of Guy” (Eric Church - Soul)

“Bright Side Girl” (Eric Church - Soul)

“Hell of a View” (Eric Church - Soul)

“All it Cost Me Was Everything” (Cody Jinks - Mercy)

“How It Works” (Cody Jinks - Mercy)

“Mercy” (Cody Jinks - Mercy)

“Dying Trying” (Caned by Nod - None the Wiser)

“Briefcase” (Walker Hayes & Lori McKenna - Country Stuff)

“'Til You Can't” (Cody Johnson - Human: The Double Album)

“I Always Wanted To” (Cody Johnson - Human: The Double Album)

“By Your Grace” (Cody Johnson - Human: The Double Album)

“God Bless the Boy: Cori’s Song” (Cody Johnson - Human: The Double Album)

“I Wanna Remember” (NeedToBreathe & Carrie Underwood - Into the Mystery)

“Chances” (NeedToBreathe - Into the Mystery)

“What I'm Here For” (NeedToBreathe - Into the Mystery)

“They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That No More” (Travis Tritt - Set in Stone)

“Smoke in a Bar” (Travis Tritt - Set in Stone)

“In Between” (Parker Millsap - Be Here Instead)

“The Best Is Yet to Come” (Accept - Too Mean to Die)

“No Ones Master” (Accept - Too Mean to Die)

“No Time for Toxic People” (Imagine Dragons - Mercury: Act 1)

“Wake Me When It’s Over” (Myles Kennedy - The Ides of March)

“The Ides of March” (Myles Kennedy - The Ides of March)

“Love Hurts” (Jimmy Barnes & Jane Barnes - Flesh and Blood)

“Happy Birthday America” (Toby Keith - Peso in My Pocket)

“Move” (Santana, Rob Thomas, American Authors - Blessings and Miracles)

“Joy” (Santana & Chris Stapleton - Blessings and Miracles)

“All of Your Stones” (The Steel Woods - All of Your Stones)

“Pontiac” (Mat Kearney - January Flower)

“Grand Canyon” (Mat Kearney - January Flower)

“Anywhere With You” (Mat Kearney - January Flower)

“Workin’ on This Love” (Lady A - What a Song Can Do)

“Worship What I Hate” (Lady A - What a Song Can Do)

“What a Song Can Do” (Lady A - What a Song Can Do)

“Let That Be Us” (Tremonti - Marching in Time)

“Marching in Time” (Tremonti - Marching in Time)

"Better Days" (The Doobie Brothers - Liberté)

"Just Can't Do This Alone" (The Doobie Brothers - Liberté)

"Cry for Help" (Daughtry - Dearly Beloved)

"Asylum" (Daughtry - Dearly Beloved)

“Where We Call Home” (Wade Bowen - Where Phones Don’t Work)

“Be You” (Wade Bowen - Where Phones Don’t Work)

“Little Things” (ABBA - Voyage)

“I Can Be That Woman” (ABBA - Voyage)

“Hookup Scene” (Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed)

"Lose Somebody" (OneRepublic & Kygo - Human)

"Bring Me to Life" (Inglorious & Jeff Scott Soto - Heroine)

“Time After Time” (Inglorious - Heroine)

"We Will Ride" (Inglorious - We Will Ride)

"Shotgun Blues" (Volbeat - Servant of the Mind)

"Dagen Før" (Volbeat - Servant of the Mind)

“Simple Things” (Elton John & Brandi Carlile - The Lockdown Sessions)

“Nothing Else Matters” (Miley Cyrus, Elton John, et al. - The Lockdown Sessions)

“Stubborn Pride” (Zac Brown Band & Marcus King - The Comeback)

“Endless Running Out of Time” (The Secret Sisters - Quicksand EP)

“Sinners, Saints and Fools” (Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days)

“Some People” (Smith/Kotzen - Smith/Kotzen)

“Brothers of the Road” (KK’s Priest - Sermons of the Sinner)

“Belly of the Beast” (Watchhouse - Watchhouse)

"Troubadour" (Kristian Bush - Troubadour)

“Last Train Home” (John Mayer - Sob Rock)

“Careful Girl” (Trace Adkins - The Way I Wanna Go)

“Live It Lonely” (Trace Adkins - The Way I Wanna Go)

“Empty Chair” (Trace Adkins - The Way I Wanna Go)

“Young Man” (Thunder - All The Right Noises)

“Grateful” (Lori McKenna - Christmas Is Right Here)

The Baptism of Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins

St. John the Baptist comes preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And that Baptism which he preaches and administers calls for more than lip service or an outward show, although words and actions are definitely involved.  Genuine repentance includes a confession of the truth as well as godly behavior, both in accordance with the Word of the Lord.  But repentance begins and continues, far more deeply, with a decisive change of heart and mind.  It is to be turned away from one way of life to another, a full conversion of your whole self from the inside-out.

Repentance is both a death and a resurrection, and this is the very thing that such baptizing with water does with you and then also works in you for the rest of your life.  As for Jerome, so also for you, Baptism calls you and converts you to become altogether different than you have been — in your attitudes and commitments, in your thoughts and feelings, and in your words and actions.

Truly to repent is rightly to flee from the wrath to come in the conviction that the one true God exists, that He is the Author and Creator of all things, including you, and that His Law is a serious matter, indeed, which means what it says and holds you accountable for what you have done and for what you have not done.  Repentance thus begins with the fear of the Lord.

God threatens to punish all who break His Commandments.  Therefore, you should fear His wrath and not disobey Him.  The axe is laid at the root of the trees, and eternal fire awaits for the ungodly who do not live in faith and love.  For to flee from God’s righteous wrath is not to run away and flee from Him — as if you ever could escape from His judgment!  It is, rather, to live righteously by faith in His Word, and all the more so as the Day of His Coming (His Advent) approaches.

He is the Lord, your King, who is drawing near.  And St. John the Baptist is sent to prepare the Royal Highway before Him, which shall be called a highway of holiness.  Thus, by his preaching and his Baptism of repentance, he fills up the valleys and flattens the hills, he straightens up the crooked places and smooths out the rough spots.

Where, then, have you been lacking in your labors, whether out of laziness, arrogance, or despair?  And where have you exalted yourself and puffed yourself up with pride?  Where have you turned to the right or to the left, distracted from your duties, or else bounced around from one passion and pursuit to the next, as though you had no clear direction?  Where have you stumbled and fallen?

Such are the places that St. John confronts in you.  And that is where your Baptism would drown and destroy the old Adam in you and put you to death, in order to make you alive and brand new.  That is where your fruitless tree is given to bear the fruits of repentance.  Not only to claim sorrow and regret for past failures, but from the heart to change your behavior; to set your ears, your mind, and your mouth upon the Word of God; to cease from doing evil, and to do what is good and right.

Do you want to receive the Christ who comes, to follow Him into His Kingdom and live with Him in righteousness and purity forever?  Do you want to be a Christian, a child and heir of God?  Then live with both humility and confidence before Him within your vocation and stations in life.  Fulfill your duties faithfully, and carry out your responsibilities with honesty and integrity.  Not for the sake of appearances, to impress people, but in the fear of the Lord and in love for your neighbor.  That is what the preaching of Baptism calls for, and that is how you flee from the wrath to come.

To that end, the Lord begins to purify the sons of Levi, starting with Zacharias and his priestly son, St. John the Baptist.  These righteous men, to whom the Word of the Lord has come, are raised up in striking contrast to the reigning high priest, Caiaphas, and his father-in-law, Annas, who is still pulling strings and calling the shots behind the scenes.  Annas and his whole extended family are something of a religious mafia, as corrupt in their own day as were Eli and his sons in the days when Samuel was born.  It is not to Annas or Caiaphas, however, but to faithful Zacharias in the Temple, offering the incense of Israel’s prayer, that the Archangel Gabriel appears.  And St. John is the one who is called and sent as the messenger of God to prepare the people for Christ Jesus.

By his preaching and Baptism of repentance, St. John offers up the people as a priestly sacrifice to God and as a righteous offering to the Lord.  He slays them with his words in the waters of the Jordan, and then he pulls them back up out of the water and sets them on the path of righteousness in Christ.  And by this repentance thus worked in them by the washing of the water with the Word, the people offer up themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the Lord their God.  They become living sacrifices, entrusting themselves entirely to Him, and so living a new life by faith in His Word.

Such repentance is exemplified later in St. Luke’s Holy Gospel, in the tax collector Zaccheus who restores all that he has stolen and then gives half his money to the poor, and in the soldier at the foot of the Cross who confesses that Jesus is the righteous Son of God after witnessing His death.

You are likewise called to live a life that is pleasing to God, that is, according to His Word in the place where He has stationed you — in the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of repentance and of wisdom, and in the confidence of His faithfulness, His righteousness and steadfastness.

He is the Lord, He changes not.  From everlasting to everlasting, He is God.  His promises are true, His Covenant is certain.  Though you have wandered far from Him and forsaken His Word, return to Him, for He returns to you.  He draws near for judgment, for justice and righteousness, in order to make all things new and right, in order to restore the people of His choosing as a priestly nation in holiness and righteousness before Him forever and ever.  That is what He comes to do for you.

But, honestly, who can endure His coming?  Who can stand in His judgment when He appears?  Who can survive His Advent?  For even on your best day, no matter how hard you try, there is yet more to be done, and there is still sin in your heart and life.  Outwardly, your words and actions do not fully measure up, but inwardly it is far worse.  You neither fear the Lord your God, nor do you love and trust in Him, not as you ought.  There are still valleys to be filled, hills to be flattened.

The holy and righteous Law of God leaves no one unscathed.  It does not accuse you falsely, nor does it demand from you more than is fair.  And yet, for all your effort, you cannot live up to it, nor can you make amends for all of your wrongdoing.  Will you pay back four times over all that you have taken from your neighbor?  Will you give all of your possessions, or even half of them, to the poor?  And would you thereby atone for all your sins and justify yourself before the Lord?

No, the axe still cuts you down, the fire still consumes you.  The Law is insatiable in its demands and prohibitions, in its condemnations and its punishments, until it is fulfilled in the righteousness of perfect faith and holy love.  But such righteousness and holiness are beyond your grasp.  They are not a work that you can do or achieve for yourself, but a work that only God can accomplish.  You do not perform it, but suffer it.  And only then, after it has killed you, do you begin to live it.

St. John is not a motivational speaker, nor a self-help guru, but a preacher of repentance.  It is true that he baptizes with water, but the Word that he preaches, being God’s Word, is a fire that burns.

Even so, it is also the Gospel that St. John preaches to the people, though he does not fully realize or understand at first what his baptizing with water shall do.  He rightly preaches the Law, but to begin with he does not perceive that Christ Jesus will submit Himself to the righteous judgment of that very Law.  He preaches a Baptism of repentance, and then he is confronted by the Christ who suffers that Baptism and repents for the sins of the world.  That is how and why St. John’s Baptism of repentance is for the forgiveness of sins.  And so it is that, afterwards, he points to Christ Jesus and say: There’s the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice to end all sacrifice for sin, who makes Atonement for the world, who justifies and sanctifies all who believe and are baptized into Him.

Jesus is mightier than John, not in threats and punishments, but in mercy and compassion for poor, miserable sinners.  He is the Lord, who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquities and sins.  That is the character of His Heart, the essence of His Being, the perfection of His almighty Power.  That is the sort of Lord He is, the true and only God who is Life and Light and Love.  That is why you are not consumed, even though you deserve nothing but punishment.

It’s not as though the Lord overlooks sin or takes it lightly, but that He is mightier than you — in taking sin and death upon Himself, and suffering their worst, and establishing the righteousness of perfect faith and holy love in His own faithfulness, in His own Body of flesh and blood.

St. John’s preaching and Baptism prepare you for the coming of the Lord, because they make ready the way by which He comes to you.  That is to say, Christ Jesus comes by the way of repentance, which He thereby opens up for you, for Jerome, and for all people, by taking responsibility for the sins of the world, by making Himself accountable for all of them and suffering their consequences.

The Lord Jesus submits Himself to St. John’s Baptism, not to flee, but to bear the wrath to come.  He suffers the axe and the fire by His Cross and Passion.  He bears the Tree of the Cross, and by it He bears the fruits of repentance — which are for you the fruits of righteousness and salvation.

This is the good work that your dear Lord Jesus Christ has already accomplished for you, which He has also begun to work in you, as also in Jerome, by His preaching and His Baptism.  By the Fruits of His Cross and in His Resurrection, He brings you daily to repentance and purifies your heart and life by faith.  And just as surely as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, so shall He bring this good work of His to perfection in you, both body and soul, forever.

Not only does He daily and richly forgive you all your sins by the Fruits of His Cross — that is, by the preaching of His Gospel of forgiveness, by His spoken Word of Holy Absolution, by the daily remembrance of your Baptism, and by His Food and Drink of the Holy Communion — but He also bears good fruits in you by the same means of grace, after the same kind as His own Tree.  For the Gospel bears the fruits of faith and love in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, your Savior.

He puts to death all that is sinful, unholy, and unrighteous in your heart, mind, body, and soul, but then He also raises you up to newness of Life in Him.  That is the repentance of His own Cross and Resurrection, now worked in you by His Law and His Gospel.  In this way, and by these means, He removes the chaff from your life, from your thoughts, words, and actions, and He gathers you as finest wheat into His Barn, that is, into His Church and into His Kingdom, now and forever.

He does it by His Word of the Cross, to and from your Baptism, day by day throughout your life.  He crucifies you with that Word, as He puts you to death and buries you with Himself by those waters; so that you die to yourself, to your old attitudes, behaviors, and commitments, and you rise up to live unto righteousness in Him.  You follow Him through the waters into the way of faith and love.  And all throughout the journey, you are blameless before God in this Lord Jesus Christ.

When Joshua led the sons of Israel through the waters of the Jordan River into the Promised Land, he established a memorial of twelve stones, both on the shore and in the midst of the water, in the very place where the sons of Levi had stood with the Ark of the Covenant until all the people had passed through those waters out of the wilderness into that Paradise flowing with milk and honey.

So has this priestly son, St. John the Baptist, stood with Christ Jesus in the midst of the Jordan, to whom Jerome and you have come, as to a living Stone — rejected by men, but choice and precious to God.  And you, also, are a living stone in Him, built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, in order to offer up sacrifices that are pleasing to God through the same Lord Jesus Christ.

From such stones, firmly established in the midst of these waters, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has raised you up as a beloved and well-pleasing child in His Name.  He has dressed you with His own tunic, so that you are now fully clothed and covered in His righteousness and holiness.  And He who has the Food of everlasting Life now feeds you with the Fruits of the Cross, the Body and Blood of the Lamb.  Therefore, in His Flesh, you taste and see the Salvation of God.

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