A Light in the Darkness for You

You may not be a shepherd, but you do have your own watch to keep — your own flock to guard and protect, to feed and to care for, and your own field in which to abide.  You have the duties of your office, the responsibilities of your particular station in life.

But whether you work the day shift or at night, evenings and weekends, or on call 24/7, you live and work in the midst of a deep darkness.  And sometimes that darkness looms and grows and thickens to the point where it threatens to swallow you up completely.  Left alone and afraid in the darkness, unable to see which way to turn, you may not see any hope for tomorrow.  In the dead of the night, when you cannot sleep — or when your sleep is assailed with nightmares — it does not appear that the sun will ever shine on you again.  No matter how many lights you turn on, no matter how many watts you burn, the darkness crowds upon you, and you can’t turn back the night.

Really, though, I’m not speaking so much about the natural darkness that comes with the setting of the sun at the end of each day.  Indeed, the darkest hours aren’t always at night.  Nor is the darkness only on the outside, surrounding you.  There is a deeper darkness within you, gnawing away at you and eating you up from the inside-out.  It is the native darkness of your fallen old man, the darkness of your heart and mind, beclouded by sin, ignorant of God, tempted to wickedness and evil on the one hand, but then also accused, ashamed, and afraid, on the other hand.

That is the darkness which blackens your thoughts and feelings and makes it impossible for you to see or perceive anything clearly, even at high noon.  You live, as it were, always at night, always in the dark.  You do your job and tend your sheep, but you do it like a hireling; you despise and resent the flock, you grumble and complain.  You run away and hide, on the inside at least, when push comes to shove.  You work without joy, because you have to, in order to make ends meet, and you count the hours, the days, the weeks, and the years until you can finally be done with it all.

When you care for the sheep with no other goal than caring for yourself and meeting your needs, then the darkness emerges from within you in the form of self-preservation and self-protection, and it descends upon your heart and mind in the form of fear, desperation, and finally despair.  That is the darkness which would eventually consume you altogether, dragging you into the long dark night of death and the grave and eternal damnation.

Except that, now, the true Light has come.  The same true God who caused the Light to shine out of the darkness in the beginning, has caused the Light of His Glory to shine upon you by His grace.  He’s doing it right now, as a matter of fact, in the middle of this dark night, in the midst of all the darkness in this fallen world.  As always, it is by and with His Word that His Light shines for you.  His Word is the Light, which is preached to you, that you might see God and have Life in Him.

This Light of the revelation of the Glory of God is scary in its own way.  When you’ve been in the dark for so long, you know how it is — the light hurts your eyes.  And when you’ve been hiding in the darkness, doing what you should not and neglecting what you should, then having the lights suddenly flipped on might well freak you out and make you sore afraid.  For the Light exposes the deeds of darkness and makes it clear that you have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.

Then again, when you’re lost in the dark and looking for the light, it can seem like the Light of the Lord has been overcome by thick clouds and deep shadows.  For the irony and paradox of the Cross, which is the Hour of God’s Glory in Christ Jesus, is that it appears completely otherwise.

Because it is the Light of the Cross that shines upon you in the Word of Christ, your life on earth is not all blue skies and sunshine, but overcast and overshadowed, maybe even dark and cold and dreary.  The days are short, your nights are long.  And when all the excitement and celebration of the holidays have come and gone, the presents have been opened and put away, the decorations taken down, and even the leftovers have all been eaten, there will still be your job to do, your studies to resume, and either the frenzy or the boredom, the loneliness or chaos of your life.

And the prospect that nothing will ever change or get any better may be your greatest fear of all.

But to each and all of you I say, Fear not.  For right here, right now, I bring to you good news of great joy.  This is a Word of Peace, not only for shepherds “once upon a time,” but for all people, and so also for each and all of you.  These glad tidings are preached to you as you keep your watch, tend your sheep, and abide in your field by night as by day.  This message rings out to the ends of the earth, and so also here it is spoken and heard, confessed, prayed, and sung.  It is proclaimed for you, first of all, but in such a way that you are also able to speak it and sing it for others.

This Word of the Gospel is full of great joy, because it meets your deepest needs, delivers you from death, and gives you true and everlasting Life with God.  It is comfort and Peace.  It is Light in the darkness.  It is rescue and relief, protection from danger, tender care, and free Salvation.

It is unto you that a Savior has been born.  He is your Savior, and so He comes for you here and now, right where you are.  He is born “in the same country,” that is to say, not Palestine per se, nor the U.S.A.  Neither Canada, Tanzania, Russia, or the Ukraine.  But all of the above, in the same country and commerce where men and women live and work, the tangible world of sunshine and rain, of eating and drinking, waking and sleeping.  The Lord has been born for you into all of that.

He has come, not simply to be with you and keep you company as you go about your days and nights, but to be your Savior — to save you from all that darkens your world, and from all that brings death into your life.  He comes to do it by His Cross, by submitting Himself to the darkness of death and the grave, allowing Himself to be swallowed up by them — and then triumphing over them and swallowing them up, once and for all.  The darkness does not overcome Him — indeed, it cannot — and so it is dispersed by Him who is the Light.  Death and the grave cannot hold Him, because death is actually defeated by His Death.  So He has risen, and He shall never die again.

As death no longer has any lordship over Him, neither shall it be allowed to rule over you anymore forever.  For your Savior, Christ Jesus — born into the House and Lineage of David, a Man after His Father’s heart — He is your Shepherd and your King.

Even a little child knows that a Shepherd guards and protects His flock from danger, and also feeds and cares for His sheep, leading them into good green pastures and alongside cool clear waters.  That is what your Shepherd does for you, so that you have Life, and so that death is kept at bay.

Because He is also your King, the government rests fully upon His shoulders, and not upon you.  He is not a tyrant, nor a cruel dictator, but an “everlasting Father” for His people.  That is to say, again, that He feeds and clothes you, shelters and protects you, teaches and trains you.  All of this by His grace, without any merit or worthiness in you, but with fatherly divine goodness and mercy.

King Jesus does not take a census of the people in order to tax the world.  He distributes His own wealth to you and all your fellow citizens of His Kingdom, so that you and your neighbor are well supplied and able to love and serve and care for each other with the good gifts of your King.

So, consider how it is: You are saved by Him, and now you live by His grace and mercy, and you have Peace in the Light of His Gospel.  For He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, and having been anointed by the Spirit of His Father in His Body of flesh and blood, He pours out the Holy Spirit upon you through His forgiving of all your sins.  Indeed, He is the Lord Himself — the almighty and eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity — but He has also become true Man, a human being like yourself, by His conception and birth of St. Mary.  In Him, God and Man are perfectly and permanently united.  So, also, in Him you are united with God in perfect Peace.

Come, then, avail yourself of these good things.  Seek and find your Savior in the place where He directs you to go, so that you might worship and adore Him by first of all hearing His Word and receiving His good gifts; and that you should then also return thanks, bend your knee and lift up your voice, and love and serve your neighbor in the Name and for the sake of your true King.

You find Him in the city of David, that is, in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread.”  Not by accident or coincidence is your Savior found in such a House, for He is the true and living Bread come down from heaven.  But His Bethlehem is not far away from you, on the other side of the planet.  It is found, and He is found, wherever His Church is gathered by and for the preaching of His Gospel and the giving of His Body in remembrance of Him.  The household and family of His Church, in which that Bread is administered with His Word, is where you find the Son of David.

He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, in anticipation of the clothes that will wrap and swaddle His Body when He is taken down from the Cross and buried.  For He wraps Himself in your frailty and weakness, in your fallen-ness, in your mortality and death.  But so does He also burst the bonds of sin and death and set you free.  The swaddling clothes of His humble nativity and of His tomb are a sign of His Victory over death and the grave, which He has accomplished for you and for all, that He might wrap Himself up and give Himself to you under the Tree of His Cross.

So is He wrapped and swaddled now upon the Altar of His Church, in the Cup and on the Plate, reverently adorned with linens recalling both His burial and His Resurrection from the dead.

If you want to find Him, do so here at His Altar.  If the wood of the manger has given way to the wood of the Cross, so is the Cross set before you in the wood of this Altar.  And it is still a manger of sorts, that is, a feeding trough from which you eat and drink.  Here is where His sheep are fed with the Food and Drink that are His own holy Body and His own most precious Blood.

Little wonder, then, that angels and archangels and all the host of heaven are gathered here with you and join with you in praising God.  For wherever the Body and Blood of the incarnate Son of God are found, there all of heaven takes notice, pays devout attention, and sings with great joy and gladness to the glory, honor, thanks, and praise of the Holy Triune God.  All the saints and holy angels in heaven and on earth rejoice, give thanks, and sing, because the Lord our God has become Man, and He has saved the sons of men for the Life everlasting.

The same Lord God in mercy sends His messengers to you, to shepherd you as His dear sheep by the preaching and teaching of His Word, in order to bring you these glad tidings.

Do keep these things, as St. Mary did, and ponder them both day and night in your heart and mind.  Savor these glad tidings in your words and actions.  For this Word of Christ Jesus is the Light that disperses the gloom and scatters the darkness.  So it does for you, as you hear it and remember it; and so it does for your neighbor, as you also speak it and share it with those whom you encounter.

With this Word, and by this Light, return to your own field and your flock with thanksgiving to God, and be at Peace in the sure and certain hope of Christ Jesus.  The Truth is that His Incarnation and His Birth, His Cross and Resurrection, have already changed everything for the better.

Though it is still dark in this perishing world, and the night seems to reign without ending, in fact everything is just as it has been told to you.  Your Light has come in the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus, and the Grace of God has appeared in the preaching of His Gospel.  The eternal Day has already dawned in the bodily Resurrection of the same Lord Jesus from the dead, and as you are redeemed by His Cross, so shall you also rise and live forever in His Light.

What your eyes have not yet seen shall at last appear, suddenly bursting into the midst of this long dark night.  As surely as the Gospel is here preached and the Sacrament administered for the forgiveness of your sins, so surely does your Savior come to you, and His Glory shines upon you, and so surely will He bring you home rejoicing.  Then there shall be no more night forever, but only the Light of the Word-made-Flesh, forever and forevermore.

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.

His Manger Is Your Paradise

Working at night is a different experience.  If you’ve been there, done that, you know what I mean.  Not for nothing is it called “the graveyard shift.”  Even nighttime carousers and the glare of neon lights can’t hold back the darkness; neither can they hold back the death which lurks in darkness.  Which is why there are those who must labor through the night to watch out for their neighbors.

God bless and keep all those who keep watch on this night, that we might be gathered in safety.  It is a lonely occupation, too quiet of comforting sounds, yet too loud with chaos and confusion.  The night and the darkness are ominous and threatening, a constant reminder of dangers at hand.  For the truth is that we are dependent on the light, which originates and comes from the Lord our God.  Even the sun is but His creature, deriving its light from Him by way of His creative Word.

It is the same Lord God who provides the various people who serve and protect their neighbors, by night as by day — firefighters, paramedics, doctors, and nurses.  So, cheers to them, and thanks be to God for all of them.  And thank you, also, for your work and service in this poor life of labor.

Whatever your shift may be, you also work in the darkness.  That’s not an insult, just a fact.  For your whole life — with all of creation — is shrouded in deep darkness under the shadow of death.  The nighttime simply reminds you and makes it more obvious, what is also true during the day.

The nations and the rulers of this world have it all wrong in their raging, in their quest for power, and in their aspirations.  All of their grand schemes are futile, and they will end in ruin, as even the heavens and the earth are passing away.  Rage on.  Win your wars.  Build your empires.  Then watch it all fall apart and crumble back into dust.  It’ll be folded up as quickly as a game of Risk, when it’s all said and done, whether you imagine that you’ve won the game or lost it decisively.

What about your own plots and best laid plans?  What raging or scheming does the little tyrant in your own heart and mind concoct?  Not only what you do with malicious intent — though by all means repent of that wickedness, which is deep darkness indeed — but all the ways by which you conspire against the Lord and His Anointed, perhaps with the best of intentions (and excuses), simply by disregarding His clear and ceratin Word and charting your own path and progress.

What is this thing that you have done?  What anxiety now grips you?  What nakedness and fear?

Living unto yourself apart from the Word of the Lord, this too is darkness, the long nighttime of sin and death.  It will not end well.  Not even if you are very nice, hard working, and successful.

Yet, even now in the midst of that dark night, the almighty Word leaps down from heaven to earth.  He enters the too quiet silence, as well as the too noisy chaos, with His speaking of the Gospel.  For this is the Father’s speaking of His Son, not only “in Person,” but in the Flesh of His Word.

This is the Truth that is truer than true, which we celebrate tonight and tomorrow and for the next twelve days: That God the Creator has become the central Part of His own Creation, in order to save the work of His own hands; to rescue His creatures from sin and death, from the evil serpent, and from all the enemies of man; to preserve all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in peace; and to sanctify them forever and ever in His own divine holiness, in and with His own holy Flesh.

The almighty Word by whom all things are made has not only entered into His own Creation and become the central and defining Part of it, but He also gathers up all things into Himself, into His Body of flesh and blood.  And so it is that all things find their Life, their Light, and their Salvation, their meaning and their purpose, their today and their tomorrow and their forevermore in Him.

This is what it means for Jesus Christ to be the Light of the world, the Light that no darkness at all can overcome.  And He is the Light that now shines upon you in His preaching of the Gospel.  This is your future and your hope, both day and night, whether you are keeping watch or sleeping, in your grave or in your bed.  Even the darkness is Light to Him, the night is as bright as the day.

The Father has not hidden this Light of Christ under a bushel, no.  He has set this incarnate Word, this Son of His in the Flesh — this Christ, the Lord’s Anointed — upon the holy hill of Zion, that is, within the City of David which is called the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church on earth.

So does He send His messengers to all the nations, even to the ends of the earth, and now also here to you, to find you out in your field, in the midst of all your labors, and to call you and send you to His Manger in His Church.  His Word sends you to find and feast upon the Word-made-Flesh.

It’s not that you must now spend all your time, your every waking moment, day and night, at the Lord’s Altar.  Although, I dare say, you do invest a lot of time and energy into many others things which do not matter anywhere near as much, which will not last and cannot give you life.

But, like the shepherds then, come and go from this Manger, that is to say, to and from the Lord’s Altar in the Lord’s House.  Find Him cradled in the arms of holy Mother Church.  Come and go from His Manger, not once, but often.  And realize that this is the Center, the beating Heart of Life itself.  It is the Heart and Center of God’s entire Creation, and of your own life in body and soul.

As surely as all things depend upon the divine Word by whom and for whom they were made, so surely do the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, all things visible and invisible, find their Heart and Home in Him, who has become Flesh and tabernacles with you and all His people in His Church (on earth as it is in heaven), in the preaching of His Gospel and in His Holy Sacrament.

Here there is Life and Salvation for you and for all people — in this City of David, which is rightly called the House of Bread, and in the sacred Feed Trough of the Holy Communion.  For here the Word, who is both God and Flesh, is given and poured out for you and for the many in His Body and His Blood, that you should receive and feast on Him for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Here is Paradise found: Creation as it was meant to be, God’s very good gift freely given to you.

Come, then, and feast upon the Word-made-Flesh.  And go back to your flocks, to your office and your desk, to your classroom or your kitchen, and live like it matters, because it surely does.  Live as though it made a difference, because His Flesh and Blood make all the difference in the world.

In the Body and Blood of Christ the Lord, the Son of God, your Savior, creation is rescued and redeemed from sin, death, and destruction.  Not only is it restored and renewed, but it is realized in its true perfection.  Not only is the darkness driven back and held at bay, but the true Light now shines eternally upon the New Creation — and also upon you — in the living Flesh of Jesus Christ.

He is not simply a means to some other end, but His Incarnation and your fellowship in His Flesh is the meaning of Life, the point and purpose for which you have been created and exist — that you should live and abide in Christ Jesus, and He in you, both body and soul, now and forevermore.

Thus, to and from His Manger — to and from this Paradise on earth — live, love, and work in the Light of Christ.  Don’t quit your day job (nor the night shift, if that is when you are given to work), but do now go about your labors in a whole new way.  For it is so, beloved, born of God the Word, that you now live in the never-ending Day of His crucified and risen Body.  And as He lives and reigns to all eternity, which is most certainly true, you also live forever and ever in His Peace.

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

The Lord Has Come Down to Open Up the Heavens to You

Throughout the Season of Advent, we have called upon the Lord and prayed that He would rend the heavens and come down.  And according to His Word and Promise, He has come.

So is He coming to you now.  And so will He come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Already here and now, the Glory of the Lord is shining upon you; the great God and Savior has appeared in your presence.

Therefore, what sort of person ought you to be?  How should you be living in this body and life?

The Lord has taught you by His Word and Spirit: Do what you are given to do, not begrudgingly, but zealous for what is good and right and true, for what is godly, sensible, and righteous.  If you are a husband, love your wife.  If you are a mother, care for your children.  If you are a shepherd, tend your sheep.  And whatever you do, whether eating or drinking, waking or sleeping, wherever God has placed you on earth, do all to the glory of God, in peace and with love for your neighbor.

You are quite right to be humbled by the Glory of God and by His Word.  And you are quite right to fear His Law, His wrath and judgment, for He shall judge the world in righteousness and truth.

But now also hear and heed His Word of the Gospel, which is for you today.  He is your Savior, and He is born for you, to redeem you from sin and death, and to purify you with His forgiveness unto the Life everlasting; that you may live with Him in His presence and serve Him without fear.

This true and greatest Glory of God is hidden and mysterious, because it is not finally the obvious, overwhelming, and irresistible glory of power, might, and punishment, but the gentle and quiet Glory of a voice that speaks forgiveness.  It is the paradoxical divine Glory of a powerless little Child, the Word-made-Flesh, who will submit Himself at last to voluntary suffering and death.

The threat of punishment scares you, but you can understand it, and you know it when you see it and feel it.  Indeed, apart from this Gospel of the Christ Child, you cannot see or feel anything other than punishment and death — which is all that you deserve on account of your sins.

But the paradoxical Glory of divine humility and weakness befuddles and confounds you.  It makes no sense to your wisdom, reason, and experience.  Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, you are not able to recognize or comprehend such Glory; you are rather inclined to despise and reject it.

Even so, repent of your sins and failings.  But do not be afraid!

Here in this place, on this dark night, you are called by the Gospel, enlightened by the free gifts of God the Holy Spirit, and gathered together with the Body of Christ in His Kingdom of Peace.

He is the Lord your God, your Shepherd, and your King.  He cares for you, feeds and waters you, guards and protects you, leads and guides you, in steadfast love and mercy for you.  He rules you with justice and righteousness — not that of the Law, but of the Holy Gospel.  His own perfect righteousness of grace prevails for you, because He has redeemed you from sin and death, rescued you from every evil, reconciled you to Himself in peace, and sanctified you with His own holiness.

Here is where and how you find Him, because He has come to be with you here in His Church on earth, His Bethlehem, His House of Bread.  Here He feeds you from the feed trough of His Cross, from the manger of His Altar, with the Meat and Drink indeed of His own Body and His Blood.

This is the Body of the Baby born of Mary, who shed His Blood for you upon the Cross.  He has been wrapped in cloths, both at His Birth and in His Burial, for you and your salvation.  And here He is wrapped in vestments and paraments, in chalice and paten; He is concealed in, with, and under the bread and wine — given and poured out for you — the Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

What is there to be afraid of in any of this?  It is all for your great joy and blessing, for your life and eternal salvation in the gracious and glorious presence of the Lord your God.  There is no threat of punishment in this little Babe who comes to save you; there is only forgiveness and peace.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Sabaoth, has done it.  With divine grace, He has done it for you and for all people; and all the angels in heaven rejoice in this free and full salvation.  For the Lord has come down from heaven to earth, in order to open up the heavens to you and to all.

So the holy angels praise and glorify the Lord for your salvation.  Shall you not also praise Him, give thanks to Him, and honor Him?  Not because you must appease His wrath.  Far less as though to stroke His ego with flattery.  He has no need of anything from you.  He showers you with grace and every blessing, with or without your prayer.  Yet, how much more shall we, His Church, His people, give all thanks and praise and glory and honor to Him, our Savior and our God.

Receive His gifts, therefore, with thanks and praise, with joy and gladness.  Feast upon the sacred food and drink, the flesh and blood of Christ, which He provides and pours out for you here in this place, in this holy house — which is made holy by His presence — in the midst of this dark night.

And rejoicing in His mercy, return again to your office and stations in life in His peace.

Know that both you and your neighbor have such a Savior as this, who comes not with terrors to destroy you, but with gentleness and divine kindness to serve all men everywhere.  To serve you.

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

The Lord Is Here for You in His House of Bread

It’s not uncommon at this time of year to see attention given to those who are poor and needy, and especially to those who are homeless and out on the streets.  One can speculate and pontificate on the politics and the psychology involved in such publicity, but we cannot deny that such people, regardless of their circumstances, and no matter what their own blame may be, are human beings like yourself, for whom the very Son of God became true Man and suffered death on the Cross.

One of the most poignant examples I have seen — which has stuck with me ever since, though it’s been about a decade ago, I suppose — was a picture on the front page of the South Bend Tribune.  It showed a homeless man in his late 50s, sleeping outside on the night before Christmas, inside a narrow wooden box which looked disturbingly like a casket.  He had nowhere else to lay his head but in that box, with a borrowed pillow and a borrowed blanket.  As I recall, his name was Juan.

Images like that elicit a variety of reactions.  There’s the classic, “There but for the grace of God go I,” and the more honest, “Thank God that’s not me!”  It’s not unusual to feel guilty, and then to wonder what you could or should be doing.  You may get angry, or feel sad, or offer excuses.  Quite aside from all of that, it would surely be appropriate for you, as a Christian, to pray the Our Father and the Kyrie for your neighbor in the street, to give thanks to God for His grace and mercy toward you, and to consider how you are called and equipped to serve those around you in love.

Whatever your reactions to the suffering and sorrows of your neighbors, do not get too comfortable in your own sense of security.  Do not suppose that your four walls and a roof over your head will save you from death when he rides in on his pale horse.  And do not suppose that warm clothes and layers of blankets will hide you from the guilt of your sin and the punishment that you deserve.  Do not suppose that your nice warm bed and your very own pillow, just right for your head, will provide you with the true peace and rest which are found only in the forgiveness of all your sins.

The fact of the matter is that, even though your circumstances in this body and life may differ from your neighbor’s, outwardly better or worse than others, your actual predicament is no different than anyone else’s.  In all the ways that matter, from conception and birth, you are likewise in the dark, out in the cold, cast out of the Garden, and subject to death and the grave on account of your sin.

That is why the story of this night, and the song of the angels, and the testimony of the shepherds, and those things that dear St. Mary pondered in her heart, really are such good news.  Not only for men like Juan or shepherds abiding in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, but for middle class and working class Americans, for young and old, and for the rich and poor alike.

For you and for all people there is this good news, that a Savior has been born.  He is the true King, anointed by God the Father for the purpose of your salvation.  It is upon His shoulders that the government rests.  He has not come to rob the rich and give to the poor, nor to ignore the poor and cater to the rich, but He has voluntarily made Himself poor and lowly and despised so that you might become rich with all the riches of His Kingdom and dwell within His House forevermore.

He has come to save you from your sins, and He has done so at the cost of His own life.  He has made Himself frail, weak, and mortal, so that He could bleed and die, and so that you might live.

Here, then, is the true Son of David.  Here is the Man with God’s own heart.  Here is the King that Israel has waited for, the King that we, His Church, have prayed for throughout the days and weeks of Advent, and really throughout our lives.  He has come to save you, and He is with you now.

This really is good news.  Rejoice, give thanks, and sing to the Lord your God!  For He has come to be your Good Shepherd, to care for you as His own dear sheep.  To feed you in green pastures, and to lead you beside quiet waters.  To give you peace and rest in the place that He has prepared for you.  Indeed, He has prepared His Supper and set His Table before you, even in the presence of your enemies, so that He might feed you with a magnificent Feast: To feed you with Himself.

He has not left you in the dark and clueless.  As He did for the shepherds then, so does He also tell you where to look for Him, and the signs by which you will discover the Child born of St. Mary.

He is in Bethlehem, in the City of David which is called Bethlehem, that is, the House of Bread.  For here now lies the true Bread from heaven, which God the Father has given, that you may eat of It and live.  Here is the Bread which is the Word of God made Flesh.  So this is where you find Him, in this House of Bread, which is the Church on earth.  This is the true City of the true David, where He now reigns in love from the Throne of His Cross.  His Altar is your Bread Basket.

And here within His Bread House, His Bethlehem, He is still wrapped in His swaddling clothes.  As He was wrapped in such clothes at His birth and at His burial, so does He continue to wrap Himself in the ordinary elements of this world: In the water of Holy Baptism, and in the bread and wine of the Holy Communion, which are indeed, by His Word, His own true Body and true Blood.

You find Him wrapped up in these simple, humble elements, because that is where He has directed you with His Word.  He takes bread and says, “This is My Body. Eat it.”  He takes the cup of wine and says, “This is My Blood. Drink it.”  So has He directed you, just as surely as He directed the shepherds: This is where you find Him who is born your Savior in the City of David.  He is here.

And here He is laid in yet a different sort of manger, that is to say, a different sort of feed trough.  And how appropriate that is, since He has come to be your Food, to give Himself for you to eat.

So it is that, just as He was laid out in the wood of that manger, He is now laid upon the Altar, the greatest Gift of all, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and given to you beneath the Tree of His Cross.  Here and now from this Manger, He gives you His Body to eat and His Blood for you to drink.

You can picture the scene, though the reality is hidden from your eyes.  The Lord God Almighty, laid out in a narrow wooden box, a feed trough for animals.  And He Himself lives like an animal, born in a stable.  As He will ride a donkey to His death, so has He come to be a Beast of burden, to bear the burden of sin and death upon His own back.  And so does He become a source of food, the Lamb led to the slaughter, sacrificed upon the Cross, and given to feed His priestly people.

The Lord thus comes and identifies Himself with the weak and poor, with the lowly and despised.  He identifies and associates Himself with the homeless, with outcasts and the gossiped-about; with the likes of Mary and Joseph, who come to his family’s hometown, and the city is so full of his relatives that he has to care for his nine-months pregnant wife in the stable.  Don’t romanticize the story.  Give thanks to God for St. Mary and St. Joseph, indeed, but realize how they were viewed and treated by the people of their own day.  They weren’t pictured on postcards or postage stamps.

The shepherds were likewise viewed as lowlifes, the dregs of society.  Considered little better than criminals, they were not even permitted to testify in court.  Best for them to stay out in the fields with their sheep.  Yet, the angels of heaven appeared to them and announced their Savior’s birth.

He comes to and for such people, because He has come to save the world from sin and death.  From the least to the greatest in the eyes of men, He identifies Himself with the predicament of poor sinners.  With your predicament.  With your neighbor’s predicament.  With everyone.  He has come to be Good News for all the people.  So He makes the circumstances of all people His own.

He is the true Light in the darkness.  He is Clothing for the naked.  He is Food for the hungry.  He is Shelter for the lost.  He really is.  He’s all of that for you, and all of that for your neighbor.  For both your body and your soul, not only now but forever.  That is who He is.  That is what He does.

So, if you would go and visit Him, as the shepherds once did; if you would love and serve Him because He is your Savior and your heart overflows with gratitude; if you would thank and praise Him, who gave Himself for you and sacrificed His body and life that you might live, then look to the needs of your neighbor.  Look to the one who is hungry and feed him.  Look to the one who has no place to sleep, and provide a bed, a pillow, a blanket, and a place to be, a place to belong.

Look to the needs of your neighbor.  And within your own office and station in life, whatever it is — a shepherd, a teacher, a student, an accountant, an engineer, a computer tech — whatever it is that God has given you to do, wherever He has stationed you to be, that is where and how you serve your neighbor.  And that is where and how you serve the Lord Jesus Christ in your neighbor.

Do what you are able.  And do it with joy and confidence and gladness.  You can, because the Son of God, your Savior, Jesus Christ — the Son of David, and the Seed of the Woman, St. Mary — He is your Refuge and your Strength.  He is your very present Help in trouble.  And no less than He has identified Himself with your neighbor, so has He identified Himself with you, as well.

He has visited you in mercy, and He remains with you in love.  He has redeemed you with His own flesh and blood, and you are His very own, purchased with those most costly Coins.

He is your Light, and He is your Life, and He is your Salvation.  He is your Shelter in the storm, and He is your Meat and Drink indeed.  He is the One who clothes you with Himself and His own Righteousness.  So it is that, in Him who is your Savior, you do have Peace and Sabbath Rest.  Death shall not have you in the end, for to you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

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