To Worship the Lord Jesus in Faith and Love

The Magi were probably from Babylon or Persia, that part of the world, east of the Promised Land.  They were not magicians or alchemists, but scientists and scholars, astronomers.  We know that Babylon already had such people in the days of Daniel, and it is surely no coincidence that Daniel, after interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, was made the chief of all the magi in Babylon.  He also continued to serve in that capacity when the Medes and Persians took over.

So, it is no wonder that Magi from the East had some awareness of what was going on among the people of Israel.  For the faithful Prophet Daniel, who lived according to the Word of the Lord, would also have confessed and taught the Wisdom of that Word, including the Prophecies of the Christ who was to come: The Scepter of Judah and the Star of Jacob.

When the Magi observed a bright new light in the sky, in the area assigned to Judah, they would have known from the Word of the Lord what this meant.  The King had come who would reign over the nations with a scepter of righteousness.  It was His star that had risen.

It is important to understand that, while the star was the sign of Christ’s birth, it was the Scriptures that actually guided the Magi to Him.  The Scriptures pointed them, first of all, to the land of Israel, to Judah.  And the Scriptures also then directed them to Bethlehem, to the City of David.

But why did they go?  Why did they bother?  Why did the Magi travel that great distance?  Why did they search so diligently?  And why did they rejoice so greatly when they found the Child?

They could have been saved by faith in the Word of God without making the long trip to see Him in person.  They could have rejoiced in the Savior from afar.  But they did not.  They undertook the journey.  They were compelled by faith and love to seek Him out.  And they tell us plainly why they went.  It was to worship Him.  That’s why they made the journey: To worship the Christ.

So, when they entered the house and saw the Child with His Mother, they fell down and prostrated themselves before Him.  They worshiped Him with their bodies, with their treasures, and with their very lives.  They entrusted themselves to Him.  They worshiped Him in the beauty of His holiness, even in the frailty of His human flesh and blood, an Infant in His Mother’s lap.

They saw the same thing anyone else would have seen.  But the Word told them what to believe about this little Boy.  That He is God.  That He is the King.  That He is the Savior, the Christ, the Ruler who has come.  So they prostrated themselves before Him.  They humbled themselves in His presence.  And they gave Him their costly treasures.  As their lives belong to Him, so with body and life they worshiped Him who is manifest God in the Flesh, and who has come to save them.

They came and worshiped Him, not as though to grovel and beg to get something from Him, but because they knew and believed that He had come freely, in love, to give them everything by grace.  There was nothing else they needed any longer.  In this Child they found and received everything that matters.  And that made all the difference in the world.

The same God and Savior has also revealed Himself to you.  He has also spoken His Word to you.  And He has given His Word to you, as well — His Word-made-Flesh — in outward, visible, external Means of Grace, in the preaching and Ministry of the Gospel.  That is where and how you find the Christ, your Savior!  That is where and how you find the Lord your God.

Heaven and earth stand up and take notice, because in the simple preaching of the Word of God by ministers all over the world, from pulpits just like this one — and from this very pulpit — divine Mysteries are revealed, which even the angels know only by this preaching of the Gospel.

This Word tells you where God is for you.  And the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God is revealed to you in the face of Jesus Christ, the Babe, the Son of Mary, the Crucified One who suffered under Pontius Pilate.  In Him, in His Flesh, God Himself is with you.

The Gospel of Christ reveals Him to you by forgiving your sins in His Name.  It gives you His Life and Salvation, because it gives you Jesus Himself.  And in doing so, it calls you to faith in Him.

That faith to which the Gospel calls you is not a dead or dormant thing.  It is rather a living and active thing, and before it has even been told what to do, it is already busy doing it.

And what is it that faith does?  First of all, it listens to the Word of God.  There is nothing more vital to faith than that.  Faith gives attention to God’s Word and the preaching of it, because it is by His Word that God does and gives all things.  It is by His Word that He gives life.

Faith hears and believes what the Word of God declares.  And according to that Word, it receives the Gifts of God within His Church on earth in the Ministry of His Gospel.  It knows that Christ is here at hand to save and to give life.  Faith is willing to stake everything on that.  Indeed, it will suffer and die a thousand deaths before it would ever give that up.

Faith will likewise travel a thousand miles, it will go even to the ends of the earth, in order to find the Christ Child, to worship and adore Him.  Faith spares no expense.  There is no treasure on earth that it would not freely give up, because Jesus has come, the Treasure of heaven.  The riches of God are here in Him.  Everything else is rubbish by comparison (and nothing at all without Him).

So faith seeks out the Christ where His Word has determined and directed you to go.  It looks to the Signs that He has designated.  Not to stars in the sky, not for you; that was for the Magi then.  For you the Signs are here on earth, within the Lord’s House, in water, bread, and wine.  That is where Christ Jesus is for you, the Lord your God in the Flesh.  That is where you find Him.

And that is where you go to worship Him in faith and love, with heart and mind, with body, soul, and spirit.  To serve Him, not because you “have to,” although He is your Lord and God, and you are His creature and His servant; but you serve Him, as you love Him, because He serves you.

You love Him and serve Him because He has given Himself entirely for you and to you, and because your life is found entirely in Him.  Thus do you worship Him with all that you are and have.  In and with your heart, to be sure.  It is in and with your heart that you cling to Him by faith, come hell or high water against you, no matter what may happen to your body.

But as your heart loves and worships Christ Jesus, so does your body also, as it can.  You prostrate yourself before Him.  You bend your knees and bow your head.  You humble yourself before Him.  And you worship Him with your hands and feet, your mouth and lips and tongue, and with your whole life.  Your flesh is put into His service.  You’ll bleed and die if necessary, for the sake of this King who has saved you by the voluntary shedding of His Blood for you upon the Cross.

You will spare no expense to love Him, to serve Him, and to worship Him.  For whatever you have is from Him in the first place, and He will not fail to supply whatever is needed for your body and life, here in time and hereafter in eternity.  So you will do whatever.  You will open your treasures, be they great or small, and give Him whatever you have, because He has given you everything.

You worship Him with heart, soul, mind, and strength, with your body and life, your flesh and blood, and with your time, treasures, and talents.  You worship Him with all that you are and have.  Not to purchase His blessing (which is not for sale, in any case), but to thank and praise Him for all His grace and every blessing, for all that He is, and for all that He has done for you in love.

Thus, you live a very different life than the world does.  And you live in a completely different way than the Herods of the world.  You live in a different way because you have a new and different King in Christ Jesus.  And in Him you have found a new and different house and home with God.  You have a new Fatherland.  So you walk by a new and different way, just as the Magi did.

You love and serve the Lord Jesus, and for His sake you love and serve His people.  As the Magi served Mary and Joseph with their gifts — which paid for their flight into Egypt — so do you love and serve Christ by loving and serving His people, providing for their needs in this body and life with whatever means the Lord has placed into your stewardship.  You look for ways to love and serve Him by faith, by loving and serving those around you who are hungry, who need shelter and protection, mercy and care.  You do it for Jesus’ sake.  And in this way, too, you worship Him.

His Word tells you what to do and how.  He has not left you without guidance.  His Word warns you against all harm and danger.  As He warned the Magi against Herod, so does He warn you.  His Law warns you against the ways that would destroy your faith and life in Christ.  And His Law guides you, as well, in the way that you should go.  It guides your footsteps in the way of peace.

His Word teaches you how to live as a Christian.  How to live under Christ and serve Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

And by faith you do.  Because it is not only His Law that guides and warns you, but His Gospel lights your way.  His Gospel forgives every misstep, every wrong turn, every false direction.  His Gospel shines the Light of His grace, mercy, and peace upon you.  His Gospel forgives your sins.

He does not ask you to fight His battles, but He fights for you.  He is not a king like the rulers of this world.  He is God Himself, who reigns in love over His creation, the work of His own hands.

The kings of this earth and their subjects live in fear.  They are terrified of death, and so they fear the judgment of God against their sins.  They do not understand that He comes with forgiveness and salvation.  They tremble and shake at the coming of Christ Jesus.  And in response, they avoid Him, or else they seek to “worship” Him with a sword and violent bloodshed, because He threatens their existence, their self-chosen place and purpose in the world, and their idolatrous lifestyle.

Be on guard against that violence of unbelief in your own sinful heart and soul.  For it is not only those tyrants in high places who seek to be rid of the Lord Jesus.  It is whatever would dethrone Him from reigning over you as your King.  It is whatever would take His place in your body and life.  When you set Him aside in favor of your own passions and pursuits, you follow the lead of those who sought to end His life then, and the lead of those who refuse and reject Him to this day.

They suppose that He has come to take away what they love.  And to that extent they are right!  He has come to take away what they love, but so also to give them that which is actually worth loving, that which is necessary for life and salvation.  He has come to replace their false gods and idols with Himself, the true God in the Flesh.  He has come to give them real life instead of death.

Now, by the grace of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, you have been called from the darkness into the Light, into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, Christ Jesus.  Baptized in His Name, you live no longer for yourself but for Him who for your sake died and was raised.  No longer terrified by death, you fear, love, and trust in Him above all things.  You serve and worship Him by faith

Your King has set you free from the bondage of sin and the fear of death, so you may proceed in peace with exceedingly great joy.  You live according to His Word, because you are free to do so.  You are a free citizen of His Kingdom.  Wherever in the world you live, you are His very own.

He seeks you out, and He finds you.  And now, as then, it is God Himself who gives the greatest Treasure.  You worship Him, not because He needs your gifts, but because He has given you every good and perfect Gift already.  It’s all yours in Jesus Christ!  He places it into your hand, into your mouth, and into your body, that you may have life in both body and soul, both now and forever.  Oh, come, let us worship Him!  Let us kneel and bow down at the Altar of the Lord, our Savior.

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

Perfected in the Flesh of God the Word

A man does not hate his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes his body.  It’s not a matter of pride or personal affection, but of need and survival.  There may be all sorts of things that you really don’t like about your body, and yet you are constrained to care for yourself.  Your aches and pains are bothersome, but you give attention to them rather than ignoring them because they are your own.  Your flaws and weaknesses may frustrate you, and your blemishes and scars may embarrass you, but you deal with all of those things because you cannot separate your body from your self.

There is an immediacy to the demands of your flesh, which you simply can’t ignore.  So you do the best you can to protect and provide for yourself, even though you are not able to preserve your body and life beyond a limited point.  You’re driven to nurture and care for yourself for as long as you are able, all the while you are constantly confronted with the basic fact of your mortality. 

You do not hate your own flesh, but neither can you trust it.  You know that, sooner or later, it’s going to let you down, fall apart, or otherwise betray you.  You serve it every day, because you have to — it eagerly and greedily becomes your god — but your body cannot save you.  Instead, it makes you anxious, angry, and afraid.  Your own flesh discourages and disappoints you.

The whole of creation presents a similar challenge and temptation.  Though the rest of the world is not so personal as your own body of flesh and blood, there is still an immediacy to all the stuff that you can see and touch and taste and smell, surrounding you on all sides and pressing upon you.  It is so tangible, so present, and so solid, as though it were definitive and decisive, whether for good or ill.  Creation promises and threatens, seemingly without any recognition of the Creator.  Thus, faith and fear are misdirected from God to the world.  You either idolize or demonize it.

A case in point is the sun, which God created as a great light to govern the day.  It is surely an impressive and valuable gift, and, oh, how we miss it when it goes down at night or hides behind the clouds.  Of course, we also curse the sun when it beats down too hotly upon us and burns us.  But mostly we rely on it, so much so that we often express our hope for the future with reference to the sun coming up tomorrow.  That may be a confession of confidence in the Lord, who causes the sun to shine on both the evil and the good; or it may be yet another case of pagan idolatry.

You have probably heard, at some point or another, that the Feast of Christmas competed for a time with the pagan festival of sol invictus, the “unconquered sun,” which followed the winter solstice in late December.  The lengthening of the days appeared to be a triumph of creation over death.

Modern conceit is no better than ancient paganism in supposing that, with gadgets and electricity, we are now able to provide and control the light for ourselves, and to keep the darkness at bay.

Christians know and confess that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, is the true Light, and that by His coming into the world He enlightens every man.  He is the true Sun of Righteousness, who has risen upon us with healing in His wings.  He is neither a creature nor within anyone’s control; He is the divine Word by whom all things are made, and without whom there is nothing at all.  The sun, moon, and stars, the earth and the sea and all that is in them, all of these are His own creation, and He is the One who still preserves them and provides for them in His mercy and by His might.

The Light of this Son, Jesus, is the Life that is His by nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity to all eternity.  It is the holiness of His Life and His freedom as the one true God.  For He is neither constrained by anything nor in need of anything, but He is who He is: He was, He is, and He is to come.  So He remains, always the same, and all of Creation depends on Him.

But why, then, has He created the heavens and the earth?  Not out of boredom or need, but for the sake of holy Love!  Because the divine eternal Life of the Holy Triune God is Love, the Father for His Son, the Son for His Father, in the Holy Spirit, forever and always.  It is in this Love that He always remains, always the same.  And it is solely for the sake of this Love that He creates all things ex nihilo, “out of nothing,” in order to share Himself — His Life, His Light, and His Love — His Glory and His Holiness — with others outside of Himself, that is, with His own creatures.

That is the Grace of God, of which we so often speak, and for which we glorify His holy Name.

By this Grace, through His almighty and eternal Word, the Father created man in His Image; which is already to speak of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus — the Word-made-Flesh — from the very beginning, from the foundation of the world.  This is a great Mystery, indeed, that man is made in the form and the likeness of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Son.  The first Adam is created to be like the Second.  For the Lord Jesus Christ is the Image of God, the exact representation of His Being.

The Incarnation of our Lord is not an afterthought.  His conception and birth of St. Mary are not a “plan B,” they are the original creative purpose and gracious intention of the Holy Trinity, that God should become Man in this way, in order that man might receive and share the Life of God in Him.  Indeed, that is the very foundation upon which the entire Creation has been established.

From the beginning, it is this Word of God — the only-begotten of the Father — who fills Creation with divine Life and Light and Love.  Not only does He bring all things which have been made into existence, but He undergirds them and sustains them.  Neither man, nor the sun in the sky, nor any creature under heaven is self-existing or self-sufficient.  That is why the fall into sin is so deadly and destructive.  In turning away from the Word of God, man plunges everything into darkness.

Despite all that, we rejoice and give thanks on this holy day because divine Love has moved to rescue and redeem, to sanctify and save His fallen creation.  Not only does He restore man to the starting point, but He fulfills and perfects mankind, as He intended, in His Image and Likeness, in holiness and righteousness.  That is what God the Word begins to do in His becoming Flesh.

By His conception in the womb of St. Mary, and by His holy Nativity, He makes Himself one with His Creation.  He enters into it, and by doing so He becomes the definitive part of it.

He comes to His own, to the work of His own hands, and although He is neither comprehended nor received by those whom He has come to save, He accomplishes and brings about a New Creation in Himself.  He does not scrap it all and start over, but He restores all of Creation by the forgiveness of man’s sin, by the sacrificing of His own Flesh and the shedding of His own Blood.

In doing so, in laying down His body and life in this way, He does not hate His own Flesh, but in Love He gives Himself for you, so that you might become a member of His Body and His Bride.

Although this may seem self-defeating and tragic, namely, that the Son of God should suffer and die for sinners, it is precisely in this way that He brings about the fulfillment and perfection of His Creation.  It’s not as though sin and death were ever by the Lord’s design or doing, but they are utterly unable to thwart His purposes; they rather become the occasion for His great Salvation.

As God in the Flesh, He saves you from sin and death, and He gives you Life and Light and Love.  This, too, is a creatio ex nihilo, a “creation out of nothing,” for there was nothing and no one else  who could have done this thing.  It is God Himself, and He alone, who saves you.  But being also the true and perfect Man, He does so in perfect faith, in perfect love for His own God and Father, and in holy love for you and for all people.  Grace and truth are thus realized in Jesus Christ.  The faith and love required by the Law are accomplished and established in Him, in His crucified and risen Body of flesh and blood.  And so the “government” of the whole world is upon His shoulders.  The “economy” of the whole Creation rests on Him, and resides in Him, and shall not be shaken.

It is for this purpose that He became Flesh and was made Man, so that, by His Cross — and in His Resurrection from the dead — you who were dead in your trespasses and sin should be given the New Birth of the children of God by the washing of water with His Word and Holy Spirit.  Your Baptism into Christ Jesus is the New Creation by which you have become the man or the woman that God intended you to be, a beloved son or daughter after His own heart, in whom He delights.

No longer do you live and die in the darkness, because the Light of Christ has risen upon you and shines in your heart through His Gospel.  No longer are you driven by desperation to take care of yourself at the expense of others, since the Life of Christ now fills you and sustains you through His Word and Spirit.  No longer are you cast off and distant from God, because He has drawn near to you in Love, and you now live and abide in Him by faith in the Word of Christ, your Savior. 

The same living Word of God is with you, because God the Father speaks to you by His Son in the preaching of the Gospel.  And He is no empty or futile word.  He is not white noise or meaningless chatter.  No, the very One who speaks and is spoken to you is the creative and life-giving Word by whom all things are made.  By Him you are named with the excellent Name of God Himself, and sanctified by His Holy Spirit, and glorified with the radiance of His own divine Glory.

By the preaching of this Word, the Lord God Almighty bares His holy arm — the arm of Christ the Crucified He bares — to all the nations of the world, even to the ends of the earth.  And not only does He make known His Salvation, but His Gospel actually saves you and grants you His peace, because it does exactly what it says, which is to forgive you by the Cross of Christ Jesus.

That same Word of the Gospel becomes Flesh for you in this Sacrament.  The One who has become like you, now feeds you with Himself, so that you might become like Him.  The One who shed His Blood for you, now pours out His Blood for you to drink from His Chalice with the mouth of your own body of flesh, that you should thus be cleansed and refreshed with the Life and Love of God.

See, then, how solid, how present, how immediate and tangible this Word is for you.  See here how the true Sun of Righteousness now shines upon you.  See here the perfection of Creation in His Body and His Blood, given and poured out for you.  And know that in this eating and drinking you are granted to become flesh of His Flesh and blood of His Blood; that you are thereby wed to Him as a member of His holy Bride; and that all of you are knit together as one holy Body of Christ.

This true and perfect Man surely does not hate you or any of the members of His Body.  He loves you dearly, and He nourishes and cherishes you with all that He is and has.  Not by any constraint, and not with any selfish desperation, but in the perfect freedom of His holiness and divine grace.

Nowhere is the heart of God more open to you than here at His Altar in His Body and Blood.

The Eucharist is the New Song that you sing to the Lord, the Good News that you shout joyfully to all the world; because the incarnate God, the Word-made-Flesh, here opens your mouth, your lips, and your tongue, to feed you in body and soul with Himself to the glory of His holy Name.

All the holy angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven worship Him who is your Savior, and all of Creation rejoices in His mighty works and great Salvation.  And of His fulness you receive, His grace upon grace everlasting, in His Word and in His Flesh which are for you.

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

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.

At Home with God the Father in the Body of Christ Jesus

Beloved of God, the Lord Jesus has not gone away.  He has not left you alone.  He Himself is with you, and He has poured out the promised Spirit of His Father upon you.  The same Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, is even now — and shall be forevermore — your merciful and great High Priest.  He lives before God in righteousness and purity forever on your behalf, in order to establish your place with God; and He reigns over you in love with His Gospel.

As He has stretched out His arms for you upon the Cross, in offering Himself up to the Father as the Sacrifice of Atonement for all your sins, so does He lift up His hands in blessing upon you, in order to justify you with His own Righteousness, to raise you up from death to Life with Himself, and to anoint you with His Spirit by His Word.

Thus, He gives Himself to God as the true Man; and He gives Himself to you as the one true God.  And in Him, both God and Man and heaven and earth are bound together in perfect harmony.

Righteousness and peace kiss each other in Him, so that you are now reconciled to God the Father in His beloved and well-pleasing Son.  Indeed, your flesh and blood, your body and soul, your whole life, and all of creation, are sanctified for Life with God in the Body of Christ Jesus: In His own Person, first of all, but also in His Body, the Church, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

It is in Him that you know and love God rightly, and that you live the true Life.  Not by escaping from your body of flesh and blood, nor from your own place, wherever that might be, but precisely in that place where God has put you, in your own skin, in your life and occupations on earth.

Remain there, where God has stationed you; and be gathered here within His Church on earth to wait upon the Promise of your Father in Christ Jesus.  Already you are being clothed with His Power from on high, with His Spirit and His Righteousness.  Already you are God’s own child and a citizen of His heavenly Kingdom, although for now it is by faith in His Word and not by sight.  For as the Christ entered into His Glory through His suffering and death upon the Cross, so do you enter into the Kingdom of God through repentance and faith in Him who was crucified for you.

Therefore, do not be afraid, and do not despair of His presence and His peace; for His blessing is upon you in the lifting up of His wounded hands, and the Gospel of His Cross and Resurrection is preached to you in His Name, even as He lives and reigns forever at the Father’s Right Hand and intercedes for you as your Royal High Priest.  God the Father has established Him there by an unbreakable oath, by raising Him from the dead, crowning Him with Glory and honor, giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth, and putting sin, death, the devil, and hell beneath His feet.

Now, I know — and He knows it even better than you and I do — that you don’t yet see or feel or experience the Glory of His Resurrection and Ascension.  You don’t yet see all things beneath His beautiful feet.  You don’t yet experience the fact that His enemies and yours have been defeated.  You don’t yet feel His Victory and your Redemption, except by way of His Cross and suffering, which still seems like exactly the opposite, a contradiction of what it really is.

Given the hardships and heartaches of this body and life on earth, you might easily give yourself over to hopelessness and despair, supposing that you have been abandoned and left utterly alone in your misery.  How often do you cry out, frantic for someone to help you, though it seems for all the world that you are not heard or answered or helped?  And do you sometimes conclude that your family, friends, and loved ones — and God Himself — have forgotten you and given up on you?

Whatever the particulars of your own situation may be, you have heard from the Lord Jesus that in the world you have tribulation.  That’s not the exception but the rule in this poor life of labor.  What you see and feel and experience is not the Resurrection but the Cross.  And it would seem as though the Ascension of our Lord were hardly a cause for celebration, but nothing so much as yet another heartbreaking goodbye, an apparent reminder that you have been left all alone.

And yet, the Lord is with you.  He has not gone away and left you.  That’s not the case at all.  He’s not some “pie in the sky,” but He has entered into the presence of His God and Father in your own skin, as it were, in the same flesh and blood and bones and sinews that He shares with you and with all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.  The Cloud that received Him is the Grace and Glory of God, with which He also comes to you and abides with you in the Liturgy of the Gospel.

It is not by accident or coincidence that men in white stand before you and proclaim the Word of the Lord Jesus to you; for thus it was necessary, not only that He should suffer, die, and rise again on the third day, but also that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in His Name to the ends of the earth.  By this Ministry He fills all things and the Kingdom of God comes to man.

It’s like the difference between a single radio, which can only fill a limited space with its sound, depending on its wattage and speakers and volume, and by contrast, a radio broadcast tower, which can blanket a huge area with its signal and be heard wherever its signal is received.  So does the Lord Jesus ascend to the Right Hand of His God and Father, not to “go away and leave you alone,” not to give Himself a break and leave you to yourself and your own devices, but in order to fill the whole wide world with His Word and Spirit, His Flesh and Blood, His Life, and His Salvation. 

So does the Word of the Lord go forth, beginning from Jerusalem, to all of Judea, to Samaria, to Rome, to the New World, the Third World, to Africa and Asia, and to the whole planet.  And as the Word goes out, so does it gather disciples of Jesus together into one Body, one Church, into the Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem, where the Lamb upon His Throne is not only the Priest and King, but He is the Temple of God among men, the Lamp and the Light which illuminate the New Creation, and both the Bridegroom and the Wedding Feast of finest Wine and richest Meat.

That is your Home, your place of Peace and Sabbath Rest.  That is where you live, because that is where Christ is both with you and for you forever.  He really does unite and hold all things together in Himself, in His own Body and by the power of His indestructible Life, as He serves you in His Church on earth, as He worships the Father in heaven, as He pours out the Spirit upon you by the Gospel, and as He ever lives to pray and intercede for you at all times.

It is not only that He is everywhere at once, filling all things with Himself.  Nor is it only that He is with you here and with the Father in heaven; although that much is true, to begin with.  But He also brings God to you, the Father and the Holy Spirit, in and with Himself, in all that He continues to teach and to do, and in His own Body of flesh and blood.  And in Him, at the same time, you are with God; for He brings you to the Father and seats you with Himself in the heavenly places.

Beloved, you are baptized into Christ, and that means, not only that His Cross and Resurrection are yours, but His Ascension, too, His Spirit and His Father, and His place within the Holy of Holies.  Likewise, when you eat His Body and drink His Blood here within His Church on earth, you live and abide with Him in the Bosom of the Father in heaven.  This, indeed, is already to be living the true divine Life for which you have been created by the Holy Triune God.

It’s not as though your life on earth under the Cross were always pleasant or easy.  We all know better than that.  With the rest of creation we are longing for the consummation of all things, for the resurrection of the body, the glorious revealing of the sons of God, and the Life everlasting in Paradise.  We long for that, and we pray for that — and rightly so, as Christ our Lord has taught us to pray to the Father in heaven for the coming of His Kingdom.  Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!

But let us do so, let us pray for the coming of Christ Jesus and the Kingdom of His God and Father, precisely in the bold confidence that He has borne the Cross for us and conquered in the fight, and that His resurrected and glorified Body is already the Firstfruits of the Resurrection of all Flesh.

In His Body it is already a done deal.  And it is for you, as the Sacrament delivers and declares.

That is what His Ascension means and signifies and does for you.  He fills all things in heaven and on earth, in order to be actively present and at work in and with His Church, and so also to bring His Church and all her members, including you, to His God and Father within His own Body.

The fact that He ascends as the Crucified One, and that He serves you by the ways and means of His Cross, means that all the hurt and heartache and hard things shall not be able to destroy you, nor to separate you from Him, His Life, and His Love; but, by His grace, they actually help to heal you and save you and bring you to heaven.  For He works repentance in you, and He disciplines your mortal flesh, in order to bring you through suffering and death into faith and life with God.

There simply is no pain, no persecution, no place nor pit nor hell hole, where He is not with you in peace.  So, too, you are with Him, who lives and reigns forever at the Right Hand of the Father.

He doesn’t make you come to Him, nor even to meet Him halfway.  And He doesn’t simply come to keep you company in misery.  But He gathers you fully to Himself, and He embraces you with Himself, and He abides with you as true God and true Man, as your Savior and your Salvation.  Therefore, as you know from the testimony of St. Paul, your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Mortal life in this fallen world is one of constant separations, which cut you off and distance you from family, friends, and loved ones, and even from your nearest and dearest kin.  Whether by death or disease, by accidents or atrocities, by adventures or adversities, by ailments or age, your relationships and your connections are constantly being changed, and eventually they are ended.

But the Ascension of your crucified and risen Lord Jesus proclaims a permanent place for you and perfect Peace with God.  That does not change, and it cannot be taken away from you.  Nor is it far away from you now, but up close and personal, a very present help at all times, in every trouble, and a source of genuine great joy in the face of everything that confronts you.

It is here for you in the Temple of God, given and poured out for you to eat and to drink.  It is here for you in the hands of Christ Jesus, with which He blesses you and feeds you and absolves you; with which He signs and seals you as a Christian, a child of God; and by which He raises you up.

As all of this is here for you in Him, in His Body and His Blood, so shall He be with you always, wherever you may be.  And so shall you be with Him, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit, at home and at peace with the Blessed Holy Trinity + forever and ever, world without end. Amen. 

The New Creation in the Baptism of Our Lord

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a return to the beginning of Creation.  In fact, it is a renewal, a restoration, and a fulfillment of God’s good Creation.  The Baptism of our Lord, in particular, bespeaks and begins a New Creation through the forgiveness of sins.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  And He did so for the sake of His own divine Love, that of God the Father for His Son from all eternity in the bond and unity of the Holy Spirit.  For the sake of that Love He spoke and created.  And this gracious work of creation was (and is) the giving of Himself, His Life, His Light, and His Love, to His own creatures.  He does it all by the speaking of His Word and the breathing of His Spirit.  And it is no coincidence that He begins with water and brings all things into being out of the water.  Creation was the first big Baptism, which pointed to the Baptism of our Lord Jesus — and so also to your Holy Baptism.

The Lord’s creation of the heavens and the earth culminated in His creation of Man in His own Image and Likeness.  In this there was already an icon of Christ Jesus and His Bride, the Church — and it pointed again to Holy Baptism.  For Christ came down from heaven to seek His Bride and to give Himself for her, that He might cleanse her by the washing of the water with His Word.

All of this the Lord God did by His divine grace, and it was very good.

Then there was the Fall into sin and all the deadly curse and consequences of sin.  Man’s rejection and disobedience of God’s Word drives the Holy Spirit from man’s heart, mind, body, and life, breaks and shatters the Image and Likeness of God in man, and causes death and destruction and dark despair on every hand, making a desert wilderness out of the Lord’s formerly lush Garden.

And yet, the Holy Triune God remains — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — with Life and Light and Love for His creatures, even and especially for all the fallen and rebellious children of man.

So the Lord does not destroy His good Creation.  Even in the case of the Flood, with all its terrible death and destruction, the Lord was working to redeem and save His people — and pointing ahead to the saving waters of Holy Baptism.  The same waters of the Flood that drowned and destroyed the sinful world with all of its idolatry and unbelief, with all of its unfaithfulness and wickedness, also saved believing Noah and his family, cleansed the world, and gave new birth.  The Flood was the next big Baptism, pointing to the Baptism of our Lord — and so also to your Holy Baptism.

The Lord God has not exterminated man and started all over from scratch.  Instead, He has become true Man in the Person of God the Son.  He has entered and become a part of His own Creation.  And in His own Body of flesh and blood like yours, He makes all things new.  He brings light out of the darkness.  He brings life out of death.  He restores the Image and Likeness of God in Man.

Once again, not by coincidence or accident, the Creator of the heavens and the earth begins with water — with the speaking of His Word and the bestowing of His Spirit.

The Baptism of our Lord is straightforward, short and simple, especially in St. Mark’s account.  But for all that, it is no less significant, no less fundamental.  It is profound, and it is permanent.  God has here established and accomplished something for all eternity.  For Christ Jesus, the Son of God, has taken His place with you and all people in His Baptism; so that all who believe and are baptized into Him are forgiven all their sins in His Name, and they are saved in and with Him.

As I have often said, Jesus here submits Himself to St. John’s preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Not for His own benefit — He has no need.  It is for the sake of Love.  And not for any sins of His own — He has no sins.  But it is for you and for all people, for the forgiveness of all your sins, for your life and salvation, on account of His divine and holy Love.

Here is the “great exchange,” as Dr. Luther liked to say.  The holiness, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness of Christ Jesus, in exchange for your sins, your death, and your damnation.  His Life and Light and Love, all given to you at His expense.  His Sonship, His Holy Spirit, His home in heaven with God the Father — all of this for you by way of His Cross and in His Resurrection.

You see, the Baptism of our Lord already anticipates and initiates His Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.  Here He is crucified, put to death, and buried in the water.  Here He emerges and arises from the water in righteousness and purity.  All of this in your place and for your benefit.

Everything that was yours is now His in His Baptism.  Your sin becomes His.  Your death becomes His.  The righteous wrath and judgment of God against your sins is here and now leveled against Him.  And everything that is His is now yours in your Baptism.  You rise with Him, and you live with Him.  You are a beloved and well-pleasing son of God by grace, anointed by His Holy Spirit.

This is how Christ Jesus baptizes you with the Holy Spirit.  It is in and with the waters of His own Baptism — which have become your Holy Baptism in His Name and with His Word.

So it is that the heavens are now opened to you.  And the Father’s heart is opened to you.  And the Father’s arms and His home are opened to you, never to be closed again.  All because Christ Jesus has suffered and died in your place, and He is risen from the dead as your Savior and Redeemer.

Now you are a New Creation in the same Lord Jesus Christ by the washing of the water with His Word and Spirit.  He has named you with His own Name, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  And with His Name He has recreated you in His own Image and Likeness, in your heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.  You are set free from the bondage of sin and death.  You are free to live as God lives.  You are free to love as God loves.  You are free to reflect and radiate His Light, as He enlightens you by His Word and Holy Spirit.  For the One who caused the light to shine out of the darkness has caused the Light of Christ to shine forth within your heart.

What, then, shall you do?  What shall you do with yourself and your life?  How shall you live?  How shall you exercise your freedom in Christ Jesus, since for freedom He has set you free?

Will you live to sin?  To serve yourself?  To go your own way?  To abandon the God who loves you and saves you and gives you life, in order to be your own false god and so to die in your sin?

May it never be!  You have been crucified with Christ Jesus, in order to live with Him.  You have died to sin.  Let it remain dead to you.  All that so appeals to the world — all that so appeals to your old mortal flesh — all that seems to be a source of life and freedom and happiness — it is really the false allure of slavery and death, beckoning you back to destruction and dark despair.  It is the idolatry that does not give but only takes.  It is a pantheon of false gods that destroy you.

But your true life is in Christ Jesus.  Your life is found, paradoxically, in His Cross and Passion.  And it is safe and secure in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, although it is now hidden under much weakness.  So, your life is found in repentance — unto faith in His forgiveness of your sins.

None of this is your own work or effort, none of this is your own choice or decision.  It is beyond you.  It is not something you can achieve for yourself.  But it is given to you freely by the Lord.  It is Christ’s work, and it is His good and gracious gift, freely given to be freely received in the Liturgy of His Gospel by the preaching of His Word and the working of His Holy Spirit.

Come, then, confessing your sins and receiving His free and full forgiveness.  Return daily to the significance of your Baptism by contrition and repentance.  Examine yourself, your heart and life, in view of the Ten Commandments and the place where God has stationed you.  Confess your sins, and hear the Lord’s Word of Absolution.  Die to your sins, and rise to newness of life in Christ.

Rely upon the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.  Avail yourself of the means of grace, which are His good work and His free gift to you.  Live in the freedom and the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection from the dead.  For your life is already manifested in His crucified and risen Body.

As you have died and risen with Him in your Baptism — never to die again, but to live forever with God the Father and the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son — do not be afraid to love and serve, to sacrifice yourself, and even to die for your neighbor.  Do not be afraid to forgive those who trespass against you, for your own sins are freely and fully forgiven in Christ Jesus.

So, give generously.  Serve faithfully.  Love freely.  Live gladly.  And at the last, depart from this body and life in the peace and joy of Christ Jesus, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God.  For even though you die, yet shall you live.  For Christ has died, and Christ is risen, and you are His.

You are baptized, as He is baptized, and all that belongs to Him is yours most surely.  Your sins are all forgiven, the heavens are opened to you, and the Word and Spirit of God rest upon you.

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

Come and Worship Christ Jesus, Your King

When you have learned to know the value of Holy Absolution, Dr. Luther writes, you will gladly run a hundred miles to receive it.  For the forgiveness of sins in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus is more precious than gold or silver.  Indeed, it has been purchased and won for you by His holy and precious Blood, and it gives to you eternal Life with Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  You cannot buy that kind of gift, nor could you discover it on your own, but here it is given to you freely with a spoken Word.  This Gospel of forgiveness from your Lord Jesus Christ is truly your greatest treasure.  When everything else is said and done, it is the only treasure that really matters.

Come, then, receive the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation in the One who has been born — and who has died — as “the King of the Jews.”  Though you would not even know where to look, nor would you ever be able to find Him by your own wisdom, reason, or strength, He calls you to Himself, and He leads you and guides you on the way, by His Word and Holy Spirit.

The stars, along with the sun and moon, are for signs and seasons in this world, but they do not point you to the Christ apart from His Word.  The Magi recognized the significance of the new star they had seen, but they most likely knew what it meant from the Prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Star and Scepter of Israel and Judah — whether they knew those Prophecies directly from the Holy Scriptures or by tradition from Balaam, from Solomon, or from Daniel, who was given oversight of the magi in Babylon and Persia.  In any case, they discerned in the rising of the star the birth of a new Jewish King, who would have salvific importance, not only for His Jewish kinsmen, but for the Gentiles and the whole world.  For by the Seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth are blessed.  And that knowledge, too, is the promise of God in the Scriptures.

Bear in mind that it is not the star but the preaching of the Holy Scriptures that leads the Magi — and now also you — to Christ Jesus.  Thereby it is known that He is born in Bethlehem of Judea.  Only when that Word of the Lord has been confessed does the star reappear for the Magi, in order to seal what God the Lord has spoken, and to mark the presence of His Word-made-Flesh.  So, too, the means of grace confirm His Word and promise to you, and they mark His presence with you.

Christ Jesus truly is God-with-us in the Flesh, as the Prophets foretold.  And He has come in the Flesh, conceived and born of the Woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in order to save you from sin and death and from the power of the devil in both your body and your soul.

That is the sort of King He is — the true divine King who bears the government on His shoulders; who becomes like His subjects, in order to serve them and to share His royal dignity with them; who invades “the darkest depths of Mordor,” so to speak, in order to plunder Satan’s kingdom, to set free those who have been held captive in the slavery of sin and the fear of death, and to make them free citizens of His own eternal Kingdom.  For His Kingdom is not of this world, but of God and of the Gospel, of the Resurrection and of the New Creation.

Even so, His coming and His Kingdom do disturb and shake up every earthly kingdom and every power structure which presumes to set itself up as a god.  Eventually, all such lords and gods of men shall be removed from their thrones and thrown down, whether they be a Caesar or a King, a President or Governor, a petty tyrant or a bully in the home, the office, or the classroom.  All these rulers and would-be powers on earth conspire against the Lord and against His Christ, but none of them shall prevail, nor shall they survive; whereas His Kingdom has no end.

The newborn King of the Jews is no tyrant or bully of any kind.  He is a Man after His Father’s heart, the Son of God from all eternity, now also great King David’s greater Son.  He is anointed — in His Flesh — by the Spirit of His God and Father — to be the Christ (the Messiah) who shall save His people from their sins.  He rules with equity, with justice and righteousness; not by violence or force, but by His Word and Spirit.  He shepherds His people in peace and joy, because He delivers them from all their enemies and reconciles them to God.  He feeds and waters them in green pastures and cool, clear streams.  He freely provides, not only for the wants and needs of this body and life, but true Spiritual Food and Drink for both body and soul, for now and for ever.

He establishes this Peace within His Kingdom between God and Man; and by the Gospel of His Incarnation, His Cross and Resurrection, He bestows exceedingly great joy upon all who come to Him.  For not only has He become true Man — made Flesh by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary — but so has He also borne in His Body the full calamity and bitter weight of man’s sin and mortality.  Thus, He is born “the King of the Jews,” in order to be nailed to the Cross, crucified and put to death under Pontius Pilate.  And by His sacrificial death He does away with sin and death, and He rescues you and all people from every evil of body and soul.

Better than any earthly diplomat or negotiator, He is the perfect Mediator between God and Man.  He makes amends for all the wrongs that every man, woman, and child has ever done, and He repairs the breach between the Creator and all the children of Adam & Eve.  In love for His Father and for all those whom He has not been ashamed to call His brothers and sisters, His voluntary suffering and Self-sacrificing death and bloodshed bring Peace where there has been no peace, such true and perfect Peace as this world cannot give.  Such is the almighty power of this King, Jesus the Christ, whose strength is perfected in the willing weakness of His Cross and Passion.

As He lays down His life for you in love, so does He take it up again in the strength of His Father and the power of His Spirit.  Having given Himself over to death for the salvation of the world, so does He receive divine Power and Glory and all Authority in heaven and on earth in His own Body of Flesh and Blood.  That is the Authority of the Gospel, the free and full forgiveness of sins, with which He pardons and emancipates you from every crime and punishment.  So does He reign in love as the true King, at the Right Hand of the Father, while all His enemies are placed beneath His feet.  And to you who come to Him, who call upon His Name, He gives the Life everlasting in body and soul, as surely as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.

You come to Him now, and you call upon His Name, because He has come to you and He calls and gathers you to Himself by the Ministry of His Gospel.

That is how and why you are here with Him who is God-with-you.  For His Gospel is the blessed and beautiful Light that now shines upon you in the deep darkness of this fallen and perishing world.  It is by His Word and Ministry of the Gospel that you see and know the Way of Life; for it is by the Gospel that you believe in Jesus Christ, your Lord, and come to Him to worship Him.

Arise and shine, therefore.  Your Light has come.  The Glory of the Lord has risen upon you.  And the great Sun of Righteousness, this bright Morning Star, shines upon you here within His Church through the Gospel.  Indeed, here in the Church on earth the divine Mystery of all the ages is made known, not only to the Jews and Gentiles alike, but even to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, to the angels and archangels and to all the host of heaven.  The Holy Triune God is manifested and made known in the Flesh and Blood of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, in His Church where His Gospel is preached and His Supper is administered according to His Word.

Have you not heard that He is “with His Mother”?  Over and over again, St. Matthew has made a point of saying so.  The Lord our God has become flesh of her flesh, and blood of her blood, in order to be with us — in order to be our Savior from sin and death.  You’ll not find God anywhere else than in His Flesh and Blood.  But just so, these very sacred things are given and poured out for you here in this House of the Living Bread, in this Sacrament of the Altar of Christ Jesus.

Read this Sign of His coming and recognize His presence here with you by the means of His Word.  Know what this Bread and this Wine are, and what they are for, by hearing what Christ Jesus says concerning them: His Body is given for you to eat, His Blood is poured out for you to drink, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  This is the Gospel of your dear Lord, your King, and your God: Not the sign of a star up in the heavens, but your Savior Himself right here with you on earth.

Come and worship Him here, as the Magi worshiped Him in Bethlehem.  How so?  In the Spirit and the Truth, which is to say, by the Holy Spirit and in accordance with the Word of God — in the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith.  It is from the heart, first of all, by such faith in His Word, that you worship Him rightly.  Apart from such repentant faith, whatever worship you attempt is nothing but idolatry.  But not to worship Him at all would be equally blasphemous.  So, then, repent of your sins, believe the Gospel, and ascribe to the Lord the Glory due His Name.

Now, the faith and worship of your heart will not remain hidden in your heart.  As the Lord saves you in body and soul by His Word and with His Word-made-Flesh, so humble yourself and honor Him with your whole body and life.  With all that you are and have, acknowledge Him as your one true God and King, as your great High Priest, and as the Sacrifice by which you are redeemed.

Consider the example of the Magi, and learn from it to live and move by faith.  They journeyed to find the Christ Child and worshiped Him in person.  They opened up their treasures and gave to Him their best.  Then they returned to their own country — much as the shepherds returned to their sheep — but they did so by another way.  Their whole way of life was changed by their encounter with Immanuel, Christ Jesus, so that, henceforth, they proceeded in faith to the Glory of His Name.

It is the same for you, beloved of the Lord, notwithstanding the differences in your circumstances.  You need not go to Bethlehem of Judea or follow a star to the ends of the earth.  But you worship the same Lord Jesus Christ by taking the time to journey to the House where He is to be found.  And this journey, in particular, is for your sake and for your own benefit, not for His; that you might hear and receive His Word of Absolution and eat and drink of His Body and His Blood.

Your worship of Christ begins, not with what you give, but with His Gifts of the Gospel to you.  You kneel or prostrate your body before Him, not to stroke His ego, but in order to receive His mercy and help.  Even repentance and faith derive, not from yourself, nor from your heart, but from His Word and Spirit.  You come to worship Him because He is your Savior, Christ the Lord, and all of your worship of Him — in heart and mind, body and soul — arises from His saving of you.

In returning thanks and praise to Him, you do worship Him with your treasures and your talents.  But these are not for His sake or benefit, either, but for His Holy Family, which is now also your own household and family in Him.  Remember, again, that He is found “with His Mother,” and it will be St. Joseph who cares for both Mother and Child as they travel in and out of Egypt.  So you worship Christ with your treasures by using them to care for His people, for your neighbors in the world, and for the Church and Ministry of the Gospel.  And like the Magi, you return to your own country and go about your life on earth in a new and better way.  You are not in league with Herod but a subject of the newborn King of the Jews, a free citizen of His Kingdom.

It has often been said that the gifts of the Magi confess who Christ is: The Gold, that He is King; the Frankincense, that He is God (for incense is offered to God as the prayer of His people); and the Myrrh, that He is Priest and Sacrifice.  Truly, He is each and all of these.  But the gifts of the Magi are also tangible signs of the worship that you are called to bring: The myrrh of repentance, as your old Adam is put to death with Christ; the frankincense of faith, in which you pray and confess, praise and give thanks, and call upon the Name of the Lord; and the gold of your love for one another in Christ, as you exercise a stewardship of His gifts to you in service to your neighbor.

With repentant faith before God, and with fervent love for God and for each other, you worship the Lord in the splendor of His Glory, in the beauty of His Holiness — not of yourself, but of His Gospel.  It is in His Light of forgiveness that you become a light of love for others.  Deep darkness still surrounds you in this valley of sin and death, and there is still the darkness within you, within your heart and mind, your thoughts and feelings, and your words and actions.  Yet, the Light has come in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, and behold, His Light continues to shine upon you.

He daily and richly forgives your sins with His Word of the Gospel, His Holy Absolution.  And in His Body given, His Blood poured out, His Glory still rises upon you in His Peace and Love.

Here, indeed, is Christ Jesus Himself, your dearest Treasure.  Here He is, the bright Morning Star, the Sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in His wings for your body and your soul forever.

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

So This Is Christmas

What is it that makes this day, December the 25th, special?  What makes today “Christmas”?

For most Americans, there is hardly any day of the year more important, if only for the sake of the economy, or perhaps because it is the primary “family gathering” occasion.  It’s certainly become a significant festival of the Church Year, as well, albeit a relative late-comer, historically speaking.

By the early fourth century, it does appear that some Christians (in and around the city of Rome) had come to identify December the 25th as the “birthday” of Christ Jesus — although He was far more likely born in the spring of the year, much closer to Easter.  “Birthdays,” in general, have never been prominent in the Church’s liturgical observances, but the Nativity of Our Lord is of course uniquely significant.  Even so, the occasion was not observed with any major festivities for many years.  The focus of the Church’s faith and life was rather on His Cross and Resurrection.

As for the coming of God the Son in human Flesh and Blood and His appearing as the God-Man on earth, the Christian Church (especially outside of Rome) originally celebrated that awesome, divine Mystery on January the 6th — what we know as the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord.  Until the end of the fourth century and beyond, that was the big celebration for most of the Church.

Many are convinced that December the 25th came into its own among Christians as a replacement for the pagan festival of the sun god — the victorious, “unconquered sun.”  This seems not only likely, but appropriate, since Christ Jesus is the true Sun of Righteousness who has come into this world as true Light in the darkness, and who has conquered all the enemies of man by His Cross.

Nowadays, we might wonder whether our culture and society have not turned the Christian Feast of Christmas back into another pagan festival, only without anything so specific or worthwhile as a sun god.  Be that as it may, let us not point fingers at the world outside.  Let us rather ask, what is it that makes this day, December the 25th, special for us?  Why are any of us here this morning?

The answer is nothing you have done or said or felt.  It is nothing in yourself or of your own doing.  It is, rather, “of the Father’s Love begotten.”  For it is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who makes Christmas happen by giving His own dear Son, His Only-Begotten, in the Flesh.

That is what Christmas is about, or, better to say, what Christmas is.  That is why the angels from the realms of glory appear and sing to shepherds here on earth — and why we sing with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  For the Nativity of our Lord binds together heaven and earth, God and Man, which is something neither you nor anyone else could ever have done.  For you could not, by your own reason or strength, believe in God the Lord or come to Him; and in your native sinfulness, you did not even know Him or want to have anything to do with Him.

Yet, He has ever desired in love to give you true and lasting Life in and with Himself.  Therefore, since you could not come to Him — nor did you even want to come to Him — the Lord your God has come down from heaven to you in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, begotten of the Father from all eternity, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fulness of time.

He does so entirely in “Love.”  For God is Love.  That’s not just what God does or what He’s like, but “Love” constitutes His very essence as the Holy Trinity.  The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, in the perfect unity of the Holy Spirit.  And it is in that divine Love that He acts.

It is in that divine Love that God the Son comes in the Flesh as your Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is in divine Love that He gives His Body into death upon the Cross and sheds His holy, precious Blood to make Atonement for the sins of the whole world.  It is in divine Love that He has come to you in the waters of your Holy Baptism to cleanse and sanctify you, within and without, by His Word and Holy Spirit, and to make you a beloved and well-pleasing child of His own God and Father.  And it is in divine Love that He gives you His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Thus does God the Father love you in and with His own dear Son, and by and with His Holy Spirit.  It is a divine, eternal Love that never ends or wavers, because it does not depend on you in any way, but it depends entirely on Him, on who He is.  It is as sure and certain as God Himself is true.

So, then, returning to the question of what it is that makes this day “Christmas” — which is to say, the “Christ-Mass,” the celebration of the Eucharist in celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord — it is because, not only “once upon a time,” but here and now, in this place, God the Father gives to you His only-begotten Son in the same Flesh and Blood that were conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Indeed, the same Flesh and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, are given and poured out for you here at this Altar in His Holy Supper.

The King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth He stood, the Lord of lords in human nature, in His Body and His Blood, gives Himself to you and all the faithful as heavenly Food.

So, the fact of the matter is that today is Christmas Day because the Christian Church around the world is celebrating the Holy Communion and receiving the true Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in this Holy Sacrament.  Otherwise, December the 25th would be no different and no more special than any other day of the year.  By the same token, every day in which the Church celebrates and receives the Holy Sacrament is a Christ-Mass — and Epiphany, and Good Friday, and Easter!

It is the flesh-and-blood presence of Christ Jesus that does indeed make this day special.  For His presence as your Savior and your King, and the priceless Food and Drink with which He feeds and serves you, makes this Day and this Divine Service a festival and a Feast of His great Salvation.

Thus, “for you there is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  And as Dr. Luther has said concerning a similar Word of promise, “These words, ‘for you,’ require all hearts to believe.”

For you, right here and now, and for the Christian Church around the world, the “Christ-Mass” truly happens on this Holy Day — as the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus are given and poured out for you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins.  Here this morning, on the corner of Milton and Dale, in the frailty of bread and wine (no more impressive than a manger), everything that matters in the world happens for you.  The Savior comes to you in His own human Flesh, as surely as He was conceived and born of St. Mary, in order to give to you His own divine, eternal Life, that you should live with Him, and with His Father and the Holy Spirit, in body and soul forever.

As I’ve delighted to say many times over the years, this Sanctuary is your Bethlehem.  This Altar is for you the stable of the Lord Jesus Christ; the Patten and the Chalice are the manger that bear His Body and His Blood for you.  And as He once came to dwell in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, so does He come to live and abide in you, that you might also live and abide in Him.

That is what makes the 25th of December so special.  Not the historical accuracy of the date, which is likely off by several months.  Not the nostalgic memories of the past.  But the coming of Christ Jesus in the Flesh for you and your salvation, that the Love of God the Father and the Communion of His Holy Spirit might also be yours in the Body and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

Be certain that this true meaning and significance of the “Christ-Mass” will continue throughout the coming year, come what may — and so long as day and night, seasons, and years persist on this old earth — as your Lord and Savior comes to you, week after week, to strengthen and keep you steadfast in the true faith, in His Word and Spirit, Flesh and Blood, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.  So do you abide with Him in peace and joy.

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 Remembrance of His Mercy

We’re all in the same boat, the same predicament.

There may be all the difference in the world between the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the strong and the weak, the well-fed and the hungry; between the mother of ten and the barren widow.  But everyone alike is brought to nothing in the end.  For all alike are sinful and unclean.  There is no one who is righteous, no, not even one.

The grass is always greener on the neighbor’s side of the fence, but the truth is that your grass and his will wither and fade just the same, and all your flowers, too.  You both brought the same thing into this world, and you’ll take the same thing out: Nothing.  Whatever anybody has between the cradle and the grave is by the utter charity of one and the same God.

Protests of unfairness are a lie.  Your neighbor’s sins and failings seem more pronounced to you, more egregious and less excusable than your own, but that’s not really true.  Every sin is damnable.  Neither are his merits or her virtues any more or less than yours, not before God.  You and your neighbor are no different in deserving nothing but punishment.

But the Lord, the one true God, is merciful to you and to all people.  He makes no distinction and shows no partiality, but abounds in riches for all who call on Him.  For whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.  He preaches repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the world, the Gospel to all of creation.  He sends the Apostles to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize and to catechize in His Name, both Jews and Greeks, slaves and free men, male and female, adults and children.  For in every nation the one who fears the Lord and does what is right is welcome to Him.

But who, then, shall be saved?  For there is no one who does right, no one who is good but God, and no one who calls on the Name of the Lord.

We’re all in the same boat, the same predicament.  And we should all be lost, every one of us, completely and forever: brought low, sent away empty, and slain as the wicked.

Except that God, the Lord, actively remembers us in love.  He has created you for life with Himself, and, not according to your merit, but according to His mercy, it is His good and gracious will to give you that life.  And as it is by the grace and mercy of God, by His tender compassion and loving-kindness, it is for one and all alike, as it is for you.

So it is that the Lord, who loves you, comes to save you from sin and death.  He comes to give you justice: not the justice you deserve, which would destroy you, but the justice of His Atonement, His Redemption, His forgiveness of your sins, His reconciliation, and His peace.  He comes to judge you righteous with His righteousness; not by your works of the Law, but by His grace, by the Word and work of Christ.  He comes to rescue the children of Adam & Eve from death and the grave, and to bring you and all into the Paradise of His New Creation.

In order to do and accomplish all of this — and this is the way and means by which He remembers you and His mercy toward you — He fully empathizes with you by making your predicament His own.  He gets on board the same boat with you, the sinking ship in the midst of the storm, tossed about by wind and wave, in which you and all are going under.  He submits Himself to the flood, to drown and die with you and all, with all your sinful lusts and desires.

He first of all becomes like you: true Man of flesh and blood, conceived and born of the Woman, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Son of God, of one substance with the Father from all eternity, takes the human nature of this Mother to be His own, so that He is now of one substance with you, with all men and women everywhere.  He has a Body of flesh like yours.  He has blood like yours.

And in His Body He bears all your sins and suffers your death.  He sheds His Blood to make propitiation for you, to establish His Covenant with you.  He takes your weakness and hurt upon Himself, your sickness unto death into His flesh, your illness and disease into His bloodstream.  All the consequences of your sin, all your guilt and shame, your punishment and failure, and all the sins of others against you, He has made His own: to feel all the pain, and to bear all the blame.

He is the One who is abandoned by friends and accused by enemies.  He is the One despised and rejected by men.  He makes Himself poor and lowly, so that you might be exalted and become rich in the Kingdom of God.  He hungers and thirsts, so that you might eat and drink and be filled and satisfied in both body and soul.

As He bears and suffers all of this on your behalf, and as He dies your death in your place, so does He also receive and bear the Holy Spirit on your behalf, in His Body of flesh and blood like yours, in the human nature that He shares with you through His Mom.

By His Incarnation, He makes Himself one with you and all people, your Brother in the flesh.  By His voluntary humiliation, by His Cross and Passion, He makes your predicament His own.  And by His anointing with the Spirit of His God and Father, as the Christ, your Savior, at His Baptism and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, He brings you out of death into life, raises you up with Himself, and sanctifies your body of flesh and blood with His own divine holiness and glory.

That is what the Son of Mary has accomplished in Himself for you, and that is what He gives you by His grace in the Holy Gospel.

As He came for you then, conceived and born of St. Mary, so does He come to you now in the same flesh and blood.  As He was conceived in her womb by the Word and Spirit of God, so by the same Word and Spirit does He give Himself to you.  And as He visited St. Elizabeth in the womb of His Mother, so does He visit you here in the womb of His Church.

What is more, as St. John the Baptist, while yet a babe unborn within his own mother, announced the coming of the Christ and pointed to Him by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so does the Lord still send His servant before His face, within His Church on earth, to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, to baptize, to prepare the way and point to the Christ.  He does so here and now, so that you may rejoice and sing with Holy Mother Church and all the people of God.

This is the Visitation of the Lord by which you are saved, by which you are raised up, exalted, well-fed, and made rich with the good things of God.  He truly does great things for you.

As St. Mary was a new and better Ark of the Covenant, by whom the Lord came to Judah in the flesh, so does He now come to you with His flesh and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Not only conceived and born of Mary, but crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead and buried, risen from the dead, ever living to intercede for you as your great High Priest at the Right Hand of His Father.

His flesh and blood are the fruits of His Life-giving Cross.  So, too, your Holy Baptism is a sharing in His Cross, and the Gospel is the preaching of His Cross.

The Cross of Christ is the hiddenness of the womb in which He visits you.  It is the humiliation of His life on earth, and the hunger of His righteousness, which is by faith and not by sight.

It is thus by His Cross that He works repentance in you — unto the forgiveness of all your sins, unto faith and life in Him.  He wounds in order to heal.  He kills in order to make alive.  He puts you to death, in order to raise you up with Himself in glory.  He lets you go hungry, in order to feed you with the Bread of His own Body.

And in this way He bestows the Spirit upon you: by the Word of His Cross, the Ministry of His Gospel, within the womb of His Church, and therefore hidden from the eyes of the world in such humility and weakness, sometimes in sorrow and shame.  Though you are suspected and accused, despised and rejected — though you are sinful and unclean, conceived and born in sin, deserving of punishment, death, and damnation — your dying and rising with Christ are a new conception and new birth by His Word and Spirit.  Thus are you a child of God; indeed, a son of God in Christ.

As He has become like you in all respects, save only without sin, so have you become like Him.  You are righteous with His righteousness, and holy with His holiness.  You are faithful with His faithfulness, and, as He first loves you, so do you also love with His own love.  For there is the fulfillment of the Word that He speaks to you.  He forgives you all your sins, and you are forgiven.  He justifies you, and you are just.  He sanctifies you, and so do you live in love, in the Light of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, like the Lord Jesus, who lives in you, and you in Him: Forgive and love your neighbor, and gladly do good to those who sin against you.  Show hospitality, as Elizabeth welcomed Mary into her home, and as Mary surely served and cared for her elderly relative in those final months of her pregnancy at such an advanced age.  Care for your neighbor, too, as the Lord Himself shows hospitality to you in His Church, clothing you with His righteousness in Holy Baptism, feeding you with Himself in the Holy Communion, and caring for your body and soul with His Gospel.

In the love of Christ, by the grace of God, do good to all people, contributing as you are able to the needs of your neighbor.  Do so with empathy and compassion, since you and all are children of Adam.  All of you alike are sinful and subject to death.  But so are all of you alike redeemed and reconciled to God by the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection of the Second Adam, Christ Jesus.

To those who do not know the Lord, who do not love and trust in Him, let your gracious love, your gentle kindness, your patience and peace, be His hidden Visitation unto them.  Bear Him in your body, in all your words and actions, and in your song, as dear St. Mary bore Him in her womb and magnified His holy Name with her confession of His Word.

And all the more so, be at peace and do good to those who are your “relatives” in Christ Jesus, your brothers and sisters and cousins in the Lord, whether young or old, married or unmarried, with or without children, orphaned or widowed.  For you are all one Body in Christ.  You are children of one God and Father.  You are anointed by one and the same Holy Spirit.  You are baptized with one Baptism, forgiven alike by one Gospel, fed with one Bread and given to drink from one Chalice at one Lord’s Table.

In Him is the Life and Salvation of His whole Church, the holy Ark of Christendom, in which He visits you in mercy; in which you abide with Him in safety and in peace.

Beloved, we are all in the same Boat, the same Body of Christ, the same Jesus.  And blessed are you, who believe in Him, for His mercy is upon generation after generation of those who fear Him.  So has He spoken, so has He accomplished, and so shall it be done.

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