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.

Christ the Savior Is Born this Night for You

By the grace and mercy of the Lord our God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, we have heard again the story of Christmas from His holy Prophets and Apostles.  And the hymn-writers of His Church have likewise proclaimed that sacred story to us in their beautiful art of poetic verse and music.

It is a delightful story, and one of the most familiar and best-loved stories in the world, surpassing even the most popular of fairy tales.  Indeed, the story of Christmas is part of our culture.  It is retold in countless ways and countless places — in television specials, newspaper editorials, and popular renditions of well-worn carols by some of the most unlikely performers.  For even those who care nothing for Christ and His Church recognize the power and appeal of this lovely story.

But as Christians, of course, we must certainly understand that the Christmas story is far more than just another story.  And by that I mean not only that this story, in contrast to beloved favorite fairy tales, is absolutely true — though, to be sure, it is nothing less than true and historical, as St. Luke makes clear enough.  But this factual account must be for you, not less, but far more than just that.

St. James reminds us that the demons know the historical facts and the truth of the story, and yet they tremble in fear.  And as far as that goes, the people who lived in Jesus’ day were able to see and hear Him for themselves, in person; yet, the vast majority of those people did not understand or believe the real significance of this Child born of Mary, the humble Carpenter from Nazareth.

As a Christian, you are called to see and hear beyond the nostalgia, beyond the beautiful poetry of the story, and beyond all the drama and excitement it presents.  No one could deny that Christmas includes all of those things.  But far more important is the heart and soul of the story, that the Child born of St. Mary in a Bethlehem stable is the Christ, your Savior from sin, death, and the devil.

That is more than just another “detail” in the storyline; it is more than just another historical fact.  Even the angels in heaven must sit up and take notice.  For Jesus Christ your Savior is the one Truth and Light that gives significance — not only to the Christmas story — but to all of history, to the entire universe, and to your own body and life on this and every other day of the year.

His Salvation and the significance it brings are sorely needed, as we are surely all aware.  For in spite of the festivity all around us — or perhaps it is precisely because of all the festivity — one often hears about a dramatic increase in depression and suicide at this time of year.  Like Charlie Brown, the Holidays can make you painfully aware of the loneliness and emptiness and frustration that you might otherwise be able to put out of your mind.  The frenzy of the Season — the frantic rush of shoppers, the piling up of decorations, the urgent writing of cards and letters, and the painstaking preparation of meals — so much breathless rushing about! — what is it all for?

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that all of this activity is nothing so much as a desperate attempt to manufacture a sense of meaning and purpose, to fill the void you have inside with something.

Yet, none of the frenzy can do it.  Nothing that you do can accomplish or discover what you need.  The only real Answer is contained in a single Word: Jesus, a Name which means “Yahweh Saves.”  That is who He is and what He does.  He is God in the Flesh, who saves His people from their sins.

Dear friends of God in Christ, He has done it!  He has saved you from your sins, which are the root  cause of all your hardships and heartaches.  He is your Savior, who is born this night for you!

He has taken your human flesh and blood to be His own, being conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary.  And not only that, but He has also taken upon Himself, into His flesh and blood, the curse and consequences of your sin, your frailty and weakness, your sickness and suffering, your mortality and death.  He has lived your life in the flesh, being tempted and tested in every way that you are, save only without any sins of His own.  But He has borne all your sins and carried all your griefs and sorrows in His own Body to the Cross, in order to put them to death in Himself and be done with them forever.  Which is why His bloody death and passion there on the Cross — in your place — is what the celebration of Christmas and the entire Church Year are really all about.

The Joy and Peace that we rightfully find in the story of Christmas is the Joy and Peace of the Cross.  For Christ Jesus, your Savior, was born to give His life for you.  That is why He came.

And having done so — having given His body and life for you and all upon the Cross — He now gives His life to you and to His entire Church on earth in the Ministry of His Holy Gospel, which is the free gift of His forgiveness and salvation.  He thus fills the void in your life with Himself.

And with that, you are given to understand that the real story of Christmas — which is to say, the coming of the Son of God as your Savior in human flesh and blood just like your own — that most precious story is not just “once upon a time.”  Such a story as that, whether it were true or not, would do you no more good than the fictional Santa Claus with his fanciful flying reindeer.

The real story of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, is not only historically true but deeply and intimately meaningful, because it is a story that continues very much for you in the here and now.

The Son of God, conceived and born of St. Mary, is still coming as “Immanuel,” as God-with-us, to be and abide with you as your Savior in His very own flesh and blood.  He is very present here with you in the proclamation of His Gospel.  And in the “Christ Mass,” at midnight and tomorrow morning, He comes to feed you with the very same Body and Blood that were conceived and born of St. Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death and buried in the dust of the earth, but now risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.  Thus, it is here in His Church, in the Liturgy of His Gospel, that the story of Christmas now lives and gives life.

No matter what the crosses you might be given to bear in this life on earth, it is here within the liturgical Life of His Church that Christ Jesus freely gives to you the forgiveness of His Cross and Life everlasting in His own Resurrection from the dead.

It is in the Resurrection of His Body that all things are made new, so that you also, in both your body and your soul, are able to look forward to that great and glorious Day when sadness, death, and pain will be no more, and Christmas will be forever, though you won’t have to do a thing to get ready for it.  For Christ your Savior has already trimmed the Tree with Himself; He has sent the cards and letters of His Holy Gospel to all the people; and He has prepared for you a Feast in His Kingdom, which has no end.  In Him there is no frenzy, but only the Peace of His forgiveness.

That is why we sing tonight, and so also throughout the Church Year.  For that is how the Church expresses her joy in Christ Jesus.  We sing with all the angels and archangels and all the heavenly host in praising the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  We sing in response to the Word of God — the Word-made-Flesh who tabernacles with us as the true Light in the midst of the darkness.  We sing by faith with the whole of creation, rejoicing to welcome and receive the almighty Creator, the Lord our God, who has become a fellow Creature with us, our Savior, and our truest Friend.

God the Father grant His Peace and Joy to each and every one of you, by His Word and Holy Spirit, as you receive — tonight, tomorrow, and throughout the year — the gift of His Salvation in the Body and Blood of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

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

Sing with Joy in the Light of Christ

Sing for joy, all the earth, and lift up your voice in song, all you people of the world.  For Christ Jesus, your Savior, has come to disperse the darkness of despair and death.  In His Love for you He has come to shine the Light of His Gospel upon you, in order to give you His own Life.

In doing so, He gives nothing less than Himself — in flesh and blood like yours, but without sin and no longer subject to death.  He has become Flesh, true Man, a human being like you, in order to unite Himself to you — and you to Him — so that, by His grace, you may become like Him.

He has come in the flesh, conceived and born of Mary, in order to bear your sins and carry all your sorrows in His Body to the Cross, thereby to conquer death and shatter all the power of the enemy.

He takes upon Himself — and He removes from you — all your guilt and shame, all your doubt and fear, all your frailty, flaws, and weaknesses.  And in place of your sin and death, He gives you Life and Salvation in body and soul, already now in His Church on earth, and in heaven forever.  For He is Immanuel, “God with us,” that you might live and abide with Him in His Kingdom.

That is why the angels sing and glorify God in the highest, even as they proclaim His glory and salvation on earth.  They praise His holy Name and give thanks for His grace toward all mankind, for His Incarnation and holy Nativity, and for His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension.  They rejoice with you and for you, because they delight in the good and gracious will of God, which is the forgiveness and salvation of sinners; for it is the glory of the Lord to save you by His grace.

And if the angels praise and magnify His Name, how much more shall we rejoice, give thanks, and sing; for He is not the Savior of angels but of all the children of men.  So has He become true Man, not only to rescue us from sin and death, but to share His divine nature and eternal Life with us.

It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we sing for joy this night, with all the holy angels, and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth.  And you are able to do so, even in the midst of deep darkness and the shadow of death, because the Lord here sings His Gospel into your ears.

True enough, the shadow of death lies thick and heavy on the world, and it presses hard on you and all your loved ones.  The bright lights and colors of the season cannot stave it off or keep it at bay.  Wars may or may not cease for these holy days, but the hospitals and morgues cannot shut down, not even for twenty-four hours.  Remember those who serve in those places, and all those who must keep working (while the rest of the world parties) because death continues day and night.

Not only the world out there, but Christians also suffer and die and are buried, even at Christmas, and at any given time in this poor life of labor.  Whether by sickness, violent crime, an accident, or the inevitable atrophy of your mortal flesh, you and all of your loved ones are going to die.

The problem is not that you are a finite creature, but that you are sinful.  You are mortal and die because you are sinful and you sin from the inside-out.  You exist and you have life at all only by the gracious Word of God, and yet your sinful heart still doubts, denies, disbelieves, and despises His life-giving Word.  That is the darkness in which you grope around.  And that is why you die.

Sin leads to death because it is a turning away from God and His Word.  And as such, it leads away from love to selfishness and greed and desperation.  Having turned your back on your Creator, on the Author and Giver of life, you spend your days in a frantic pursuit of a life that you presume to be making for yourself.  But for all your striving, sweat, and struggle, you lose it all in the end.

Such is the darkness of your sin and death, and you’ll never be able to see your way clear of it.  You were conceived and born in that dark valley, and whatever else you have gotten from your parents, you have inherited from them the legacy of Adam’s fall, which always ends up in the dirt.

The problem is within you, as well as all around you.  It is not only your parents but you, as well, who are sinful and unclean.  You do not fear, love, and trust in the Holy Triune God as you must, and you do not love your neighbor as the Lord your God has commanded.  Consequently, because you love neither God nor man, you are not able to know the true and only God, Who Is Love.

Such ignorance of God is deadly and damnable.  What you believe to be true is false.  What you consider good is evil.  What you perceive to be light is only a deeper and more sinister darkness.  Your heart and mind are as clouded as your body is overshadowed by the certainty of death.

And yet, despite all of that, the Church still sings, and she is neither foolish nor ignorant to do so.

It is not a matter of positive thinking or an optimistic outlook.  It is rather that God our Savior now shines His Light into your darkness.  Into the valley of the shadow of death strides the Lord, the beloved and only-begotten Son of the Father; the Christ, anointed by the Holy Spirit; the incarnate God, who is true Man with us and for us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, blood of our blood.

He strides into the arena, a greater Gladiator than this world has ever seen, and He joins the battle against all your foes.  He sets Himself against all your enemies, becoming your Champion against sin, death, the devil, and hell.  He scatters the darkness and disperses the gloom, because He is the Light, and the darkness cannot overcome Him.  Death and the grave will swallow Him up in time, for a little while, but only because He lets them; He gives Himself over to the dust of the earth in your place.  And having thus entered into those deep dark depths of Sheol, He shatters that grim dungeon from the inside-out; He breaks all its bars and blows the doors right off their hinges.

This Lord Jesus Christ has conquered in the fight, and now He sets you free, because He has given Himself for your sins.  He has died your death, and He has destroyed its power over you by His dying.  He has atoned for all your sins by the shedding of His blood, so that no charge remains against you.  The devil has no legitimate claim on you, nor any valid accusation to level at you, because the Lord Himself has redeemed you, exonerated you, justified and vindicated you.

When God the Father raised this same Lord Jesus bodily from death and the grave — the same Son of Mary who bore your sins in His body of flesh and blood and suffered and died in your place — when God raised Him from the dead, He raised you up out of darkness into His marvelous Light.

That Light of His Redemption, His Cross and Resurrection, His Righteousness and Reconciliation with God the Father, now and ever shines upon you in the preaching and ministry of His Gospel.

That is where and how you “see” Him and know Him — by faith — by the hearing of His Voice.  He speaks and sings the forgiveness of all your sins, and with that Word He gives you His Life.

His Voice of the Gospel is the way and the means by which He loves you — with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, with His body and His blood, with His whole self, and with everything He is and has.  His Love for you is where His Life and Light begin for you.  He first loves you.  And by the light and warmth of His Love, you see the Light of the revelation of the Glory of God in His face, and you truly begin to live — in Him and with Him.  He loves you, and so you learn to know His Love, to know Him, to love Him, and to love your neighbor as this Lord loves you.

His Voice of the Gospel sounds forth in the darkness; it permeates and prevails over the darkness, which can neither comprehend nor overcome it.  He speaks, and there is Light, as surely as the same Word of God called forth the Light out of the darkness in the beginning of His Creation.

Now He speaks to you from heaven by His messengers on earth: “Here is your Savior. Your sins are forgiven. You shall not die, but live.”  And with this Word, He raises you from death to life.

Do not be afraid.  Do not retreat into the darkness of despair and death, from which your dear Lord Jesus sets you free.  Do not run away and hide from the bright Light of His Voice, no matter how scary it seems, but hear and believe what He preaches.  By Himself He has sworn to bless you and keep you, to give you Life and grant you perfect Peace and Rest.  As He has spoken, so is it done.

And as He speaks and sings so sweetly into your ears, so are you able to confess His Word and praise His Name, to rejoice, give thanks, and sing with your lips, all in the Light of His Gospel.

Come, then, let us sing unto the Lord and raise a joyful song to the Rock of our salvation.  For He who is our Life and Light, who loves us with a neverending Love, He has done great things for us.  Holy, holy, holy is the Name of this Lord Jesus, the Son of God and Mary’s Son, who delivers you from death and the grave and raises you to Life with God in body and soul, forever and ever.

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

The Light and Life and Love of God in Christ Jesus

Perhaps you have not prayed for Immanuel to come, as you should have done.  And perhaps you have not waited on the Lord in faith and hope, in the way a Christian ought to live.  Yet, even though you have been more naughty than nice all year, He has come to be your Savior, anyway.

The true divine Light has entered into the darkness, and here He shines on you in love.  He has come into the world by His conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and He comes to you now in mercy by the preaching of His Word and with His own flesh and blood here at His Altar.

You cannot see the Light of Christ with your eyes, nor can you feel His presence with any of your senses or emotions.  Your fallen mortal flesh is not capable of perceiving Him under the Cross.  It is by faith and not by sight, and it is only by the hearing of His Word that you believe in Him.

The Lord your God loves you, and He has given His Son in the flesh to live and die for you, to save you from your sins and bring you into life with Himself.  But too often what you see and feel and experience in your life on earth, perhaps even within your family and among your friends, is a lack of love.  Though there may be charity and generosity at Christmas, it does not last all year.

As for yourself, regardless of the shiny façade that you wear on the outside, you live in the terrible fear that your own nakedness will be uncovered; that your hypocrisy, your guilt and shame, and your many faults will be exposed; that you will be found out for who you are behind your fig leaf.

And all the while, there are so many things that you want for yourself, and always such daunting obligations piling up on top of you, that you begin to realize how helpless and hopeless you are.

Surely you must understand that you need help.  And yet, for all of that, because of your sin and your lack of faith, you fear the coming and the presence of the Lord — who is your only hope!

He comes to help and save you.  Even His preaching of repentance is for the forgiveness of your sins, that you might receive His great salvation in peace.  But still you flee and try to hide from Him, because you do not love and trust in Him, and you have not known Him as He truly is.

The Lord, your God and Savior, comes to you and speaks to you in love.  But how often do you let His Word go right on by without really listening to it, taking it to heart, or acting upon it?  Is it not the case that you rather persist in relying on your experience and perceptions of the world; on your own intelligence, knowledge, and so-called wisdom; on your job and your income; on the works of your own hands, your personal achievements and accomplishments; or on your family, your children and grandchildren?  Even though none of these things can save your life from death.

This whole world is full of false hopes which compete for your attention and allegiance.  And the devil lies to you flat out, with all manner of enticements; because he hates you and wants to destroy you, to rob you of life, both now and forever, he beclouds and contradicts the Word of God.

It is a downward cycle of despair and death into which the devil leads you, because you cannot perceive the Truth except by the Word and Spirit of God.  The further you depart from the hearing of the Word of Christ, the less you are able to comprehend or believe the Truth.  The further you sink into the darkness, the less you are able to behold the Light of God in Christ or to live in it.

Bear in mind that, in this fallen and perishing world of sin and death, appearances are deceiving.  So it seems as though the ChristMass were just a silly or childish dream, and as though the world of working and spending and of all your stuff were the only real world.  But that is not the Truth!

You cannot rely on your sight or your senses to discern or understand what is true and what is real.  It is solely by His Word that the Lord shines His Light upon you and reveals the Truth to you.

Praise God that He continues speaking to you — the Father speaking to you by His Son — even when you have not been listening.  If not for His persistence in coming to you with such grace, mercy, and peace, you would be lost in the darkness of death and damnation forever.  And so you shall be lost if you refuse to hear and heed the preaching of His Word to you while it is still day.  Therefore, do not squander this gracious opportunity to seek the Lord where He may be found!

In your sin, subject to death, you have not known the Lord your God, nor could you imagine Him; neither have you loved Him.  But He has known you in love, as He created you in love for life with Himself.  It is likewise for the sake of His Love that He makes Himself known to you now.

God Himself is Love.  From all eternity, to all eternity, the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, in the Holy Spirit.  And it is from within that divine, eternal Love that God the Father has revealed Himself and His Love for you in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

The Father has loved you by sending His Son in the flesh to be the Sacrifice of Atonement for your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  And He continues to love you, now and to the close of the age, by speaking to you in Christ Jesus, by giving His Spirit to you in the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and by giving you Life with Himself in the Word and Flesh of Christ.

As you are thus loved by the Lord your God in Christ Jesus, and as you now live in Him by grace, so love your neighbor in accordance with His Word.  As you hear and believe His Word of the Gospel, by which your sins are all forgiven, so live by faith in His Word within your vocations.

Trust the Lord by doing whatever He has called you and given you to do, no matter how difficult it may be, and even when it may seem as though it were doing no good and making no difference.  Do not be deceived by the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, but do what God has said.

Hear and heed the Word of the Lord.  Believe it and obey it in holy faith and holy love.  Not as though your life depended on your faithfulness and obedience, but because you are given life by the grace of God in Christ, and your life is safely and securely hidden with Christ in God.  You live and love, not to become His child, but because you are His beloved and well-pleasing child.

Take it to heart that God loves you, that He shines His Light upon you in peace, and that He has given you His own divine, eternal Life through the Gospel of His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  The Good News of the ChristMass is not simply the promise of some future pie-in-the-sky, nor the gift of stuff that wears out or gets used up.  It is the gift of God Himself, who comes and gives Himself to you, and binds you to Himself in love.  He lives with you, that you might live with Him.

It is not because you are so pious and faithful and good that He loves you, but in spite of the fact that you are a sinner, and even though you do what you should not and fail to do as you should.  Which is no excuse to be naughty, but all the more reason to be pious and faithful and good.  As the Light now shines upon you in Christ Jesus, do not continue to live and to die in the darkness.

Open your ears and hear this: The Lord your God is here with you and for you in grace, mercy, and peace.  God the Father speaks to you and for you in the preaching of the Gospel; He breathes His Holy Spirit into your body and soul through His Word of forgiveness; and He gives to you His own dear Son in the flesh, whom He has also given for you on the Cross, to save you from your sins.

So does the Lord now shine His Light upon you, and so does He reign over you in Love.  His Word to you is not a fairy tale, nor is it a burden or a threat.  It is the living and active Word of Truth, which delivers you from death and the devil, the Word of Salvation which gives you life with God.

Thus are you beloved of the Lord your God, who created you for Life.  By no means shall you be forgotten or forsaken, since the Lord Himself has sought you out and redeemed you for Himself.  As surely as St. Joseph took St. Mary to be his wife and cared for her in love, so much more does great David’s greater Son, Christ Jesus, have you and hold you and care for you in love forever.

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

The Light Shines in the Darkness

Little children of whatever age, shape, or size, you are to love one another, because Love is of God.  It is who and what He is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is also what He does, and why He does it.  He creates and gives life for the sake of Love, the Father for His Son, and the Son for His Father, in the Spirit.

Love is of God.  And so are you: You are His workmanship, His good creation, His own boy or girl, man or woman.  He has made you for the sake of love: That you should love Him above all else, and that you should love your neighbor as you love yourself.  If you would know and wish to pursue the point and purpose of your life, it is to love.  But, first and foremost, God has brought you into being, He has created you, and you exist, in order to be loved by Him, by the Father in His Son and with the Holy Spirit.  And so you are.  You are loved by God.

His love for you permeates all of creation, so that all things everywhere work together for your good, by His grace.  Every ray of sunshine, every drop of rain, every flake of snow, every star in the sky, and every breath you take belongs to His loving care for you.  It is not just a thought, a feeling of affection, or a pleasant word, but an act of God and the tangible gift of Himself for body and soul.  He loves you.  He really does.  The evidence and, more than simply evidence, the actual expression and experience of His Love for you is the Body of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He is the Light that shines in the darkness.  But the darkness doesn’t understand it.  After all, there is so much that seems backwards, inside-out, upside-down, and the opposite of Light all about us.  In the shadow of death, the promise of Life sounds like a lie.  So, the Light seems artificial, fake, or unreal.  And the Love of God that undergirds and permeates all of creation is elusive, apparently ambiguous, if not downright fickle and fleeting.  The sun is too hot in the summer and too absent in these dark winter months.  There’s either too much or too little rain.  And the snowflakes, when they fall, pile up into a difficult, sometimes dangerous obstacle.  With every breath your body takes, you’re that much closer to breathing your last, no matter how your stars may align.

As you look around and listen to it all, are you not pummeled with the evidence and experience of darkness which denies and contradicts the Light of Christ and the Love of God in Him?

Good friends are hospitalized with heart problems, and even young friends contract cancer and lose their hair if not their lives in battling it.  Old friends lose their memories, and maybe their minds.  Christianity is increasingly mocked or simply dismissed as irrelevant.  Children are martyred.  Terrorism undermines the safety, security, and stability of the world’s pretense of control.  It is difficult to discern the truth from the fiction or the flat-out falsehood.  But you watch it unfold and play out on your phone, on the news, or in the papers, as though life were nothing but a tennis match, a bad soap opera, or a tragicomedy.

Beloved of the Lord, do not give up or give in to the fatalism of unbelief or the futility of despair.  The true Light that shines in the darkness, shines for you, and you are given your bearings again in the Body of Christ Jesus.  Not that it’s obvious or easy to see, but it’s no less true.  God’s purposes for you and for His whole creation are not thwarted by sin, death, the devil, or anything else.  His good and gracious will is not prevented, regardless of appearances to the contrary.  As surely and certainly as the Father loves the Son from all eternity to all eternity, so does the same Lord God love you in and with the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Which is why we crazy Christians sing in the dark and celebrate, not the achievements of modern man, but the ancient and eternal grace of God.  We rejoice and give thanks in the face of death, and even at the gravesides of our loved ones; not because we are stupid or deluded by wishful thinking, but because we have come to know and have believed the Love of God in Christ.  Not by our own wisdom, reason, or strength, to be sure.  We are willing to count ourselves foolish and weak without hesitation.  Even so, by the Word and Spirit of the Father, we live by faith.  We have hope.  And we love, just as we are loved by God.

As God brought forth Light out of the darkness by the speaking of His Word on the first day of Creation, so does He cause the Light of the Revelation of His Glory in Christ Jesus to shine within your heart by the preaching of His Gospel.  He speaks the forgiveness of your sins, and it is so.  And with that forgiveness, He gives you life in body and soul, for now and forever.  He raises you up from the death of doubt to the life of peace and joy, and He enlightens you with His Holy Spirit.

The promise and power of His Word is made perfect for you, for your body and your soul, by the Incarnation of the Word.  The Lord your God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, He speaks to you, to your heart and mind — not from a great distance, as though by radio waves across the vast expanse of the universe — but up close and personal.  He speaks to you by His Son in the flesh and blood born of Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

God affirms the goodness of His Creation, and He guarantees His good and gracious Will for His Creation, by actually entering into His Creation and becoming one with it in Christ Jesus.  That fact remains and stands fast over against the darkness of death and despair.  Not only in general, but also for you.  God does not hate you or despise you for your sin.  He loves you still.  Indeed, He cares for you most deeply.  And He has become like you in order to save you, to give you His own life forever, so that you should be like Him and live in fellowship with Him forevermore.

In the Son of Mary, you see the Face of God as He really is, and you see the face of Man as man is meant to be.  You see what you shall be in Him, in the Resurrection and the Life Everlasting.

The key, of course, by which you are brought from death to Life, from darkness into Light, is the Gospel of the same Lord Jesus Christ.  For He does not simply enter Creation and become a part of it, but He actually takes upon Himself — He embraces, and He bears within Himself — the contradiction of sin and death.  Although He is the true and perfect Man, the very Image of God, without any sins of His own, yet, He voluntarily undergoes the curse and consequences of Adam’s sin, and He shares fully in the circumstances and conditions of fallen man.

He makes Himself, not only human, but mortal, subject to death.  He bears and carries the burden, the weight, and the punishment of sin.

In this way, He solves the paradox and resolves the conundrum in Himself, in His own Person, in His own Body of flesh and blood.  For He is faithful and obedient, holy and righteous, even unto death upon the Cross.  He remains steadfast and true, even as He suffers and dies for the sins of the world.  Thus, He continues to shine the Light of God into the uttermost depths of the darkness.  And now, then, in His Resurrection from the dead, He shines that same Light upon you through the preaching of His Gospel, which is the preaching of the forgiveness of your sins in His Name.

It’s not an arbitrary or an artificial arrangement.  The Word and promises of God are a sure and certain fact for you in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus.  He who shares with you the same human nature, the same flesh and blood, has entered entirely into your predicament and returned from it to the Right Hand of the Father in heaven.  So, then, God and Man are reconciled, not only in Him, but also for you and for all people.  For He has made Peace where there was enmity.  He has rescued Life from out of the jaws of death.  He is your Light in the darkness.

And not just once upon a time.  As God loves you with all of His Creation, so does He love you every day, from one year to the next throughout your life.  The Father speaks to you by His Son, who remains forever and ever as your Brother in the flesh, true God and true Man.  He speaks the forgiveness of your sins, and it is so, as surely as Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, never to die again.  The certainty of His own risen Body is the absolute guarantee of your own resurrection.  It is for this that He was born.

He has become flesh and redeemed you with His Blood, He has dealt with your sin and death in His own Body, in order to bring your body as well as your soul into eternal fellowship with God.

And now, with His Body of flesh and blood like yours, conceived and born of Mary, crucified and risen for your redemption and your righteousness, He also feeds you: Not metaphorically, but actually, with Meat and Drink indeed.  His Body and His Blood are the surety of your Salvation, the down payment on the resurrection of your body.  In the Sacrament, He is conceived and born in you, as it were, so that He lives in you, and you in Him.  That is the true ChristMass, tonight and tomorrow, throughout the coming Twelve Days, unto the close of the age and the life everlasting.

Hidden under bread and wine, then hidden in your mortal body in this poor life of labor, in your own flesh and blood, the Light shines in the darkness, and the Love of God is manifest in your Christian love for one another.  By forgiving those who trespass against you, by serving those who cannot reciprocate or pay you back, and by persisting in your vocation and stations in life, you also are a Word in the flesh that God speaks into the world.  The darkness cannot understand you, but neither can it overcome you.  For the Light of Christ has risen upon you and within you, and He remains forever and ever your Life and your Salvation.  Nothing in all of creation can separate you from the Love of God in Him.

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