Finding the Lord Jesus in His Father's House

Throughout his record of the Holy Gospel, St. Luke answers a fundamental question: Where do you find God?  Or, to say it better: Where does God reveal Himself and give Himself to you?

The answer, of course, is that God — the one true God, the Holy Trinity — reveals Himself and His Glory in the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He is the almighty and eternal Son of God, who has become flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood; who was crucified for our transgressions and raised from the dead for our justification.  It is in Him that God the Father is made known, and by Him that the Holy Spirit is poured out upon His people.

So, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ that you find God (or He finds you).  But that raises another, more immediate question: Where do you find Jesus? Where does He reveal and give Himself to you?

In answer to those questions, you have set before you this particular story of the Boy Jesus, unique to St. Luke’s Gospel, which tells you where and how to find Him.  It accentuates and reinforces the answer that was given this past Sunday, as well, that the Lord has come to His Temple; that He reveals and gives Himself to His people in the Temple.  Here, again, it is in the Temple that Christ Jesus is found — specifically, in the speaking and hearing of the Word of God.  And that remains the case, not only throughout the Holy Gospel, but so also for you, and throughout all the ages.

Not that you must find your way to Palestine or make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem — only to find that, of course, that Temple has long since been destroyed, not one stone left upon another.  But, no, in Christ Jesus those Old Testament means of grace, the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Temple, have been fulfilled and transformed.  The Word of God has become Flesh and is perfected in His Body and Blood.  The Holy Scriptures really are the Word of Christ Jesus from the start.  And the true Temple of God is the Body of the same Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.

So, then, the Temple is found wherever the Body of the Lord Jesus is found.  And He is found in His Father’s House, doing the works of His Father, wherever the Holy Scriptures are preached in His Name, and wherever His Holy Sacraments are faithfully administered according to His Word.

In particular, as we are well aware from the story for which our Emmaus congregation is named, the Lord Jesus opens the Scriptures to you and leads you in the Way of His Cross and Resurrection to find Him and receive Him in “the Breaking of the Bread,” that is to say, in the Holy Communion of His true Body and true Blood, given and poured out for you to eat and to drink in holy faith.

So, then, as a good Christian and a faithful disciple of Jesus, you go up to the Lord’s House for the Feast on the Lord’s Day.  It is truly meet, right, and salutary that you should do so.  But then what?

As you return from this Temple of the Lord to your own house and home, to your busy, hectic life, to your own business and busyness, and to all of your hobbies, pastimes, and other distractions, how often are you leaving the Lord Jesus behind?  You pray that He would abide with you in love, and He does.  But do you abide with Him?  Or do you forget Him and go your way without Him?

Is that not the root cause of all the worry and anxiety that permeate your days and nights?  You are so pre-occupied with yourself and with your own concerns that you lose track of Jesus altogether and leave Him behind — far too often without even realizing that He is missing from your life.

When you are made aware of His absence in your life — by the preaching of the Law, or by some crisis or disaster that befalls you — then your first instinct is to go looking for Him in all the wrong ways and all the wrong places.  Forgetting the Word and promise of the Holy Gospel, you search for Him among your family and friends, in whatever is familiar and comfortable and meaningful to you.  But that is not the way that you will ever be able to find the Lord Jesus.

Almost as a last resort, in desperation you are driven back to the Lord’s House, to the Lord’s Word.  And that is where you finally find Him.  Or, rather, that is where He finds you at last.  For you have been so anxious in your doubts and fears and sinful unbelief, He actually catches you by surprise.  You are amazed and astonished at Him, as the world and your flesh always are by His Cross.

Notwithstanding all your missteps and shortcomings, this is where He is for you, and this is where He finds you.  He is in His Father’s House, giving attention to the things of His Father.  In this case, as true Man, and as a faithful child of God, He is found listening to the called and ordained teachers of His own Holy Scriptures, that He should hear and learn the things concerning Himself and grow in the grace and knowledge of His God and Father.  So also do you find this Jesus in the Church of His Word and Sacrament, in the preaching of His Gospel, in His Body and His Blood.

And far from reprimanding you or punishing you, what does He do but forgive you, and comfort you, and return with you from His Father’s House to your house and home and to your daily life.

All of this He does for you, by His grace alone, in His divine love and tender mercy toward you.  And for your part, you abide with Him and keep Him with you as you go about your days and carry out your callings, by remaining in His Word throughout the week.  Not only in these holy weeks of Christmas, when you have the blessed opportunity to be in the Lord’s House each day, but so also in the piety and rhythm of your days and weeks throughout the year.

As you receive the Body of Christ in the Sacrament, live as a member of His Body in the world.  Return each day to the significance of your Holy Baptism by way of contrition and repentance, confession and absolution.  Sanctify the time that you are given by the prayer and catechesis of the Word of Christ as you go about your routines.  Live to and from the Lord’s Altar, knowing that His God and Father is your God and Father, His House is your house and home, and His business is your life and salvation.  And rejoice that He goes with you all the way, today, tomorrow, every day.

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

The Fiction I Most Enjoyed Reading in 2018

I do a lot of reading, not only for work, but for my personal enjoyment and relaxation. All you gotta do is put a book in my hand, and I'm on "vacation," even if only for an hour or two. It is also one of my greatest joys in life to read aloud to my children; that remains my primary recreational activity, as well as a personal priority for most of my days throughout the year.

With all of that in mind, for a number of years now I've tallied up my favorite books at the end of each year. That is to say, not a list of my favorite books published over the course of the year, but the books I've most enjoyed reading during the year, whether to myself or to my children. I focus on the works of fiction, rather than confusing things with the many books of non-fiction that I use for work and for my own personal "continuing education."

Thanks to Amazon and my local library for helping me to discover many things I would otherwise never come across. And thanks to Goodreads for helping me track my reading, and for keeping me in touch with my literary friends all over the place. Above all, thanks to my children for sharing so many great books and stories with me over the years. So many grand adventures we have had together, and the shared experience is no small part of what I treasure in the books I read.

Kudos to my son Nicholai for encouraging me to read (finally!) the Farseer Trilogy this past year, after roughly twenty years of owning those books. As you'll note, it is at the top of this year's list! A shout out to my brother-in-law, Rob Polk, for calling my attention to author Dan Gemeinhart, whose books we have since enjoyed very much. He was one of several new discoveries in 2018, along with Lisa Graff and Polly Horvath, who have been added to our gallery of "favorite authors." You'll note a number of books by those three on this list.

I could easily comment on each of these books and series, but you can see my "reviews" on Goodreads if you're interested in seeing more of my thoughts on any of them. I do want to call special attention to The Messengers series, by Lisa M. Clark. Not only did my family and I enjoy these books very much (the conclusion is #3 on this year's list, and the first two books were on my list from 2017), but they are a profound expression of the Christian faith and life, masterfully crafted into a fine fictional story in a most natural and compelling fashion. I recommend The Messengers highly.

And on that note, without any further ado, I here present the fictional books (and series of books) that I most enjoyed reading in 2018:


1. Farseer Trilogy (series) - Robin Hobb

2. Lockwood & Co. (series) - Jonathan Stroud

3. The Messengers: Revealed (The Messengers, #3) - Lisa M. Clark

4. Lost in the Sun & Umbrella Summer - Lisa Graff

5. Super Powereds (series) - Drew Hayes

6. Forging Hephaestus - Drew Hayes

7. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4) - “Robert Galbraith” (J.K. Rowling)

8. A Tangle of Knots & A Clatter of Jars - Lisa Graff

9. The Broken Lands & The Boneshaker - Kate Milford

10. The Brotherband Chronicles (series) - John Flanagan

11. The Night Garden - Polly Horvath

12. The Zero Equation & The Family Shame (The Zero Enigma, #3 & #4) - Christopher Nuttall

13. The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase - Wendy Mass

14. The Royal Sorceress (series) - Christopher Nuttall

15. Some Kind of Courage - Dan Gemeinhart

16. Wereworld (series) - Curtis Jobling

17. Absolutely Almost - Lisa Graff

18. Very Rich - Polly Horvath

19. Justin Case (series) - Rachel Vail

20. Everything on a Waffle & One Year in Coal Harbor - Polly Horvath

21. The Promised Lie (The Unwritten Words, #1) - Christopher Nuttall

22. Time Jumpers (Five Kingdoms, #5) - Brandon Mull

23. Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #7) - Shannon Messenger

24. The Flaxfield Quartet (series) - Toby Forward

25. Run Program - Scott Meyer

26. Scar Island - Dan Gemeinhart

27. The Trolls - Polly Horvath

28. The Empress (The Diabolic, #2) - S.J. Kincaid

29. The Bunny’s (series) - Polly Horvath

30. The Forbidden Library (series) - Django Wexler

Entering the Eighth Day by the Name & Circumcision of Jesus

Some days are longer than others — but that can mean very different things.  Most of us prefer the long sunny days of summer to the short dark days of winter.  But when we talk about a “long day,” it usually refers to one that has been difficult and tedious.  Such “long days,” when they pile up, tend to become long weeks, long months, and sometimes long hard years.

There is, however, yet another Day which actually goes on forever, one that is not “long,” but eternal.  Not difficult, tedious, or painful, but full of light and life and love and peace.  A Day that never ends, in which there is no more night, nor darkness anymore; no hurt, no fear, no sadness.

Your days on earth can be long and hard, and they often are, because they are burdened by sin and death.  Since everything is dying, and there are limited hours of daylight, there is a constant battle to grow and gather food while you can, and to shore up your life against the encroaching night.

But now, the Circumcision of the Lord Jesus points you to the Eighth Day — not the beginning of yet another week, another month, or another year, but the never-ending Day beyond all blood, sweat, and tears.  The eternal Day of life with God in the New Creation of the Lord’s Resurrection.  The dawning of the new heavens and the new earth, in which there is no more nighttime, and no more darkness or death.  The Day that doesn’t require any alarm clocks or time clocks, or watches or schedules, because work is no more cursed by sin, neither is it a battle to the death, but work and play alike are simply part of living the Life that is yours by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

So shall it be, because Christ Jesus has redeemed and sanctified all of creation, man in particular, by His becoming flesh of our flesh, by His innocent death and holy bloodshed.  And, behold, all things are made brand new in His risen Body.  For He has taken your flesh to be His own, and He has taken your sin and death upon Himself to bear it in His Body to the Cross.  So it is that, in His Resurrection from the dead, your sin and death are left behind, as He enters into heaven for you.

As He has thus entered upon the eternal Eighth Day on your behalf by His Cross & Resurrection, so have you also entered upon that Eighth Day by your Baptism in His Name.

In his Letter to the Church at Colossae, St. Paul describes Holy Baptism as a “circumcision made without hands.”  In doing so, he identifies your connection to the Circumcision of Jesus, which is the fulfillment of the Covenant of Circumcision that the Lord made with Abraham and his Seed.

Circumcision was both the Law and the Gospel for Abraham and his heirs.  It was commanded and required, and there were serious consequences for males who were not circumcised.  Without this cutting of the flesh, they were cut off from the fellowship of Israel.  But circumcision itself was indeed a cutting.  It was painful and bloody.  For adult men, it was debilitating for several days.

Yet, however odd or embarrassing it might be, circumcision was God’s Covenant with Abraham, and a promise that was given to Father Abraham and all his children.  Not the cutting in and of itself, but the cutting included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.  Thus, it was a divine promise signed and sealed in the very flesh of the Patriarch and his sons.  For the Seed of Abraham would inherit the earth, and in that Seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed.  In Him, Abraham would become the father of many nations, according to the promise of God.

Now that Covenant and its promise have been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In submitting to the Law of Circumcision, He has taken the burden of the entire Law upon Himself, as well as the curse and consequences of sin and death.  So has He also received the inheritance of Abraham, that is, the blessing promised to his Seed forever.  For the Son of Mary, Jesus, is the Seed of Abraham.  His holy Body is of the flesh and blood of Abraham, and in that Body of His, in His own flesh, He bears — and bears away — all the sin and death of all mankind.

His Circumcision signifies all of these things, and so does it mark His Body for all of these things.

So does the Name that He is given signify and mark His identity and His vocation as the promised Seed — of Abraham, of Judah and David, of the Woman Eve, and of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary.

To be named “Jesus” is to be called the Son of the Most High.  Indeed, it is to be the true God, Yahweh, in the flesh, who saves His people from their sins.  For He is Immanuel, God with us.  He is the Everlasting Father, the Patriarch of a new Israel, who surpasses even the great Father Abraham.  He is the true Prince of Peace, surpassing even the great kings, David and Solomon.

He is a new and better Joshua, named by God, who truly fulfills what the Lord promised through Moses, but which Moses himself could not do or accomplish.

The Law was a custodian and a tutor, leading the people out of Egypt by the staff of Moses, through the Red Sea and the wilderness, to and from Mt. Sinai, to the border of the promised land.

But now this Joshua has come, who goes ahead of the people into the waters of the Jordan River.  And He brings them, one and all, into Canaan, into the good land flowing with milk and honey.

That is what this little Lord Jesus has done for you, and for all, by receiving Circumcision in His flesh, and by receiving the Name with which His God and Father has named Him from heaven.

He has gone the full distance — from the waters of His Baptism in the Jordan River, to the Blood and Passion of His death upon the Cross.  And so also, in His Resurrection from the dead, you are brought into the true and everlasting Promised Land, which God swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and to all who share the faith and confession of Father Abraham.

He brings you into that good land through the waters of your Baptism.  Not as a slave or a captive, but as a beloved son — a son of Abraham by faith, but so also a son of God in Christ Jesus.

Whether you are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, Jewish or Gentile, employed or un-employed, a student or retired, still very young, or already very old — you, dear Christian, are a son of God in Christ, by virtue of your Baptism into Him.

By your Baptism into Christ Jesus, His Circumcision and all that it signifies avails for you, for the removal of sin and death from your flesh and blood, from your heart and mind, body and soul; and for your resurrection to a new and everlasting Life, as a new creature living in the New Creation.

So it is that your Baptism has also named you with the Name of Jesus.  Not that each and all of you are called “Joshua.”  (How confusing would that be!?)  But everything the Name of Jesus testifies concerning Him, is now also credited to you.  It declares that you are saved by Him, who is your own true God in the flesh.  It certifies that His God and Father is now also your God and Father forever; and Christ Himself is your King, who reigns over you in peace and love from His Cross.

With His Holy Name, which He has invoked upon you and given to you, He binds Himself to you and blesses you for life.  He has done this for you in your Holy Baptism, and that is permanent.  But He also continues to do so, day by day throughout your life on earth, unto the life everlasting: by the speaking of His Word, by the preaching of His Gospel, by His absolving of your sins, and by the giving of Himself to you, His Body and His Blood, for you to eat and drink in His Supper.

Just as a father begets children, and a mother gives them birth, but then both parents continue to “name” their children with loving care for them, by teaching them, by conversations with them, by forgiving them, and by praying and confessing the Word of God with them and for them.  Each time a father calls his child by name, by the name that he has given, he calls that child his own.

So does the Lord continue to name you His own by speaking His Word to you; and with that Word He blesses you with the gift of His Spirit, who is life and health, and peace and strength, and love.

Naming you with His Name, by His Word, He guards and keeps you in body and soul.  In this life, yes, but so also for the life everlasting — for the eternal Eighth Day of life with Himself in heaven.  With His Name He claims you as His own, He identifies you with Himself and His family, as His beloved child and heir.  He is gracious toward you, compassionate and patient, because He loves you.  He delights in you.  He smiles upon you, and His countenance is bright with joy over you.

As you are named with the Name of Christ Jesus, anointed by His Spirit as a Christian, the Lord your God, your dear Father in heaven, is pleased with you and proud of you.  He is not angry or unhappy with you.  Far from it.  He reigns over you with grace and mercy and never-ending love.

That is your peace, through Jesus your Savior.  It is solid, sure, and certain in His Body, in His flesh and blood, in His already-accomplished and completed-once-for-all Cross and Resurrection.

And this is already yours, here and now; for Christ is yours even now, in your Baptism, which has left its indelible mark on you, and in this preaching of the Gospel, and in this Holy Communion.

By this grace of God in the Gospel, by this flesh and blood of Jesus, given and poured out for you at this Altar, you already live and abide with Him in the eternal Eighth Day of His Resurrection.  It is not a long hard day, but a brilliant and beautiful Day of divine Light and Life and Love.

For now it is by faith, and not by sight.  There are still days and nights, some of them longer than others, difficult and tedious.  But the Eighth Day has already dawned for you, and for all people, in the Incarnation of the Son of God, and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  As you are baptized into Him and named with His Name, so shall you also rise and live forever in body and soul, immortal, imperishable, and glorious, like unto Jesus Himself.

Then there shall be no more days and nights, no more weeks and months and years, but only one great and glorious Day, and only the Light of your Savior, Jesus Christ, shining upon you forever.

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

The 2018 Grampies

To welcome the New Year, I here publish the eagerly anticipated and highly coveted 2018 Grampies, identifying my favorite albums from this past year across a variety of genres. I've worked on further refining my categorizations, and (for the time being) I'm fairly settled on what I've come up with. Even so, I have no doubt that some readers might quibble with my classification of certain albums (not to mention disagreeing with my assessments of their quality). So be it. With thanks, as always, to Amazon, Spotify, and my local library, to my children who both share and tolerate my interests in music, and to my friend and colleague, Rev. Erich Fickel, for his willingness to swap suggestions and discuss discoveries from the music world with me. In my estimation, music is alive and well, and I'm grateful that so many of my favorite artists (including some new favorites) released great albums in 2018.


D. Rick’s Album Top Eighty (Across All Genres):


1. Lori McKenna - The Tree

2. Shinedown - Attention Attention

3. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour

4. Joe Bonamassa - Redemption

5. Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger

6. Ten - Illuminati

7. Judas Priest - Firepower

8. Poets of the Fall - Ultraviolet

9. Eric Church - Desperate Man

10. Greta Van Fleet - Anthem of the Peaceful Army


11. Brian Fallon - Sleepwalkers

12. The Poodles - Prisma

13. Phillip Phillips - Collateral

14. Parker Millsap - Other Arrangements

15. Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You

16. Tremonti - A Dying Machine

17. Wade Bowen - Solid Ground

18. Black Veil Brides - Vale

19. The Devil Makes Three - Chains Are Broken

20. Devin Dawson - Dark Horse


21. Mayday Parade - Sunnyland

22. Ashley McBryde - Girl Going Nowhere

23. Mat Kearney - Crazytalk

24. Kenny Chesney - Songs for the Saints

25. Rosanne Cash - She Remember Everything

26. The Record Company - All of This Life

27. Sister Hazel - Water / Wind

28. Angra - Omni

29. Saxon - Thunderbolt

30. Cody Jinks - Lifers


31. Treat - Tunguska

32. The Revivalists - Take Good Care

33. Kamelot - The Shadow Theory

34. The Temperance Movement - A Deeper Cut

35. The Night Flight Orchestera - Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough

36. Joe Satriani - What Happens Next

37. The Struts - Young & Dangerous

38. Amorphis - Queen of Time

39. Jesse Kinch - I’m Not Like Everybody Else

40. George Ezra - Staying at Tamara’s


41. Jason Eady - I Travel On

42. Brothers Osborne - Port Saint Joe

43. Disturbed - Evolution

44. Slash - Living the Dream

45. Riot V - Armor of Light

46. Dillon Carmichael - Hell on an Angel

47. State of Salazar - Superhero

48. Owl City - Cinematic

49. The Radio Sun - Beautiful Strange

50. Paul Cauthen - Have Mercy


51. Dierks Bentley - The Mountain

52. Three Days Grace - Outsider

53. Mipso - Edges Run

54. The Clarks - Madly in Love at the End of the World

55. Donovan Woods - Both Ways

56. Breaking Benjamin - Ember

57. Tommy Emmanuel - Accomplice One

58. Of Mice & Men - Defy

59. Good Charlotte - Generation Rx

60. Audrey Horne - Blackout


61. Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain

62. Beyond the Black - Heart of the Hurricane

63. Ruston Kelly - Dying Star

64. Joshua Hedley - Mr. Jukebox

65. Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits

66. Montgomery Gentry - Here’s to You

67. Ruby Boots - Don’t Talk About It

68. Thrice - Palms

69. Holter - Vlad the Impaler

70. Uriah Heep - Living the Dream


71. Adam Hood - Somewhere in Between

72. The Brother Brothers - Some People I Know

73. Jason Mraz - Know

74. Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel

75. Imagine Dragons - Origins

76. Black Stone Cherry - Family Tree

77. Carrie Underwood - Cry Pretty

78. Kodaline - Politics of Living

79. Airrace - Untold Stories

80. FM - Atomic Generation



Pop 2018

Phillip Phillips - Collateral

Mat Kearney - Crazytalk

George Ezra - Staying at Tamara’s

Owl City - Cinematic

The Clarks - Madly in Love at the End of the World

Jason Mraz - Know

Kodaline - Politics of Living

Ben Rector - Magic

Elle King - Shake the Spirit

Plain White T’s - Parallel Universe

Matt Nathanson - Sings His Sad Heart

David Cook - Chromance

Kylie Minogue - Golden

Dawes - Passwords

Daughtry - Cage to Rattle

James Bay - Electric Light

RSO - Radio Free America

Lake Street Dive - Free Yourself Up

Rita Ora - Phoenix

Camila Cabello - Camila



Modern Mainline Country

Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour

Ashley McBryde - Girl Going Nowhere

Kenny Chesney - Songs for the Saints

Dierks Bentley - The Mountain

Montgomery Gentry - Here’s to You

Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel

Carrie Underwood - Cry Pretty

Jason Ingriselli - The Miles North

Hilary Williams - My Lucky Scars

Sugarland - Bigger

Maggie Rose - Change the Whole Thing

Jeff Hyde - Norman Rockwell World

Kane Brown - Experiment

LANCO - Hallelujah Nights

Jordan Davis - Home State

The Shires - Accidentally on Purpose

Jason Aldean - Rearview Town

Ashley Monroe - Sparrow

Scotty McCreery - Seasons Change

Morgan Evans - Things That We Drink To

Levi Hummon - Patient

Morgan Wallen - If I Know Me

Jimmie Allen - Mercury Lane

Thompson Square - Masterpiece



Folk and Americana

Lori McKenna - The Tree

Brandi Carlile - By the Way, I Forgive You

The Devil Makes Three - Chains Are Broken

Rosanne Cash - She Remembers Everything

Mipso - Edges Run

Donovan Woods - Both Ways

Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain

The Brother Brothers - Some People I Know

American Aquarium - Things Change

The Wild Feathers - Greetings from the Neon Frontier

The Black Lillies - Stranger to Me

Jamie Lin Wilson - Jumping Over Rocks

Trampled by Turtles - Life Is Good on the Open Road

The Jayhawks - Back Roads and Abandoned Motels

Lera Lynn - Plays Well with Others

Amos Lee - My New Moon

Passenger - Runaway

Paul Kelly - Nature

John Hiatt - The Eclipse Sessions

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Sometimes Just the Sky

I’m With Her - See You Around

Old Crow Medicine Show - Volunteer

John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness

Joan Baez - Whistle Down the Wind

First Aid Kit - Ruins



Retro and Traditional Country

Wade Bowen - Solid Ground

Cody Jinks - Lifers

Jason Eady - I Travel On

Dillon Carmichael - Hell on an Angel

Paul Cauthen - Have Mercy

Joshua Hedley - Mr. Jukebox

Adam Hood - Somewhere in Between

Sam Morrow - Concrete and Mud

Brent Cobb - Providence Canyon

Carson McHone - Carousel

Whitey Morgan and the 78s - Hard Times and White Lines

Casper McWade - Hello Lonesome

Shooter Jennings - Shooter

Stryker Brothers - Burn Band

Willie Nelson - Last Man Standing

Loretta Lynn - Wouldn’t It Be Great

Colter Wall - Songs of the Plains

Kyle Park - Don’t Forget Where You Come From



Alternative & Edgy Country - Folk - Americana

Eric Church - Desperate Man

Parker Millsap - Other Arrangements

Devin Dawson - Dark Horse

Sister Hazel - Water / Wind

Brothers Osborne - Port Saint Joe

Ruston Kelly - Dying Star

Ruby Boots - Don’t Talk About It

William Clark Green - Hebert Island

Hawks and Doves - From a White Hotel

Ben Danaher - Still Feel Lucky

Amanda Shires - To the Sunset

Becky Warren - Undesirable

Blackberry Smoke - Find a Light

Frank Turner - Be More Kind

David Nail and the Well Ravens - Only This and Nothing More

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Nightsweats - Tearing at the Seams

Davisson Brothers - Fighter

Ray LaMontagne - Part of the Light

Mumford & Sons - Delta

Lindi Ortega - Liberty

Neko Case - Hell-On

Caitlyn Smith - Starfire

The Decemberists - I’ll Be Your Girl / Traveling On

Belle & Sebastian - How to Solve Our Human Problems

Erin Rae - Putting on Airs



Classic Rock

Greta Van Fleet - Anthem of the Peaceful Army

Brian Fallon - Sleepwalkers

The Record Company - All of this Life

The Temperance Movement - A Deeper Cut

Jesse Kinch - I’m Not Like Everybody Else

Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits

Uriah Heep - Living the Dream

Black Stone Cherry - Family Tree

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - Black Coffee

The Magpie Salute - High Water I

Rod Stewart - Blood Red Roses

Nazareth - Tattooed on My Brain

Walking Papers - WP2

Paul McCartney - Egypt Station

John Mellencamp - Other People’s Stuff



Retro Radio Rock

The Poodles - Prisma

The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough

State of Salazar - Superhero

The Radio Sun - Beautiful Strange

Airrace - Untold Stories

FM - Atomic Generation

W.E.T. - Earthrage

Gioeli - Castronovo - Set the World on Fire

Sunstorm - The Road to Hell

DeVicious - Never Say Never

Steve Perry - Traces

Bonfire - Temple of Lies



Modern Rock

Shinedown - Attention Attention

Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger

Treat - Tunguska

Disturbed - Evolution

Three Days Grace - Outsider

Breaking Benjamin - Ember

Audrey Horne - Blackout

Red Sun Rising - Thread

Nordic Union - Second Coming

Voodoo Circle - Raised on Rock

Smash Into Pieces - Evolver

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog

Halestorm - Vicious

Clutch - Book of Bad Decisions

Red Dragon Cartel - Patina

Godsmack - When Legends Rise

Beartooth - Disease

Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots (2018)



Progressive Rock / Symphonic Metal

Ten - Illuminati

Angra - Omni

Kamelot - The Shadow Theory

Amorphis - Queen of Time

Beyond the Black - Heart of the Hurricane

Holter - Vlad the Impaler

Borealis - The Offering

Last Union - Twelve

Redemption - Long Night’s Journey

Stratovarius - Enigma: Intermission II

Spock’s Beard - Noise Floor

A Perfect Circle - Eat the Elephant

Temperance - Of Jupiter and Moons

Riverside - Wasteland

The Sword - Used Future

Sirenia - Arcane Astral Aeons

Royal Hunt - Cast in Stone

Dynazty - Firesign

Seventh Wonder - Tiara

Ghost Ship Octavius - Delirium

Leah - The Quest

Haken - Vector

Kingcrow - The Persistence

Visions of Atlantis - The Deep & The Dark

Visigoth - Conqueror’s Oath

Ashes of Ares - Well of Souls

Kalidia - The Frozen Throne

The Pineapple Thief - Dissolution

Shattered Skies - Muted Neon

Jon Schaffer's Purgatory - Purgatory



Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

Judas Priest - Firepower

Black Veil Brides - Vale

Saxon - Thunderbolt

Riot V - Armor of Light

Of Mice & Men - Defy

Primal Fear - Apocalypse

Striker - Play to Win

Praying Mantis - Gravity

All That Remains - Victim of the New Disease

Bullet for My Valentine - Gravity

Amaranthe - Helix

Dream Child - Until Death Do We Meet Again



Alternative (Pop - Rock - Metal)

Poets of the Fall - Ultraviolet

Mayday Parade - Sunnyland

The Revivalists - Take Good Care

The Struts - Young & Dangerous

Good Charlotte - Generation Rx

Thrice - Palms

Imagine Dragons - Origins

Houndmouth - Golden Age

Thirty Seconds to Mars - America

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - The Awakening

You Me at Six - VI

Alkaline Trio - Is This Thing Cursed

Dashboard Confessional - Crooked Shadows

Clean Bandit - What Is Love?

Twenty One Pilots - Trench

Florence + The Machine - High As Hope

Panic! At the Disco - Pray for the Wicked

The Smashing Pumpkins - Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1

Fall Out Boy - M A N I A

U.S. Girls - In a Poem Unlimited

Lucy Dacus - Historian

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Rocket

AWOLNATION - Here Come the Runts

blessthefall - Hard Feelings

Muse - Simulation Theory



Guitarists

Joe Bonamassa - Redemption

Tremonti - A Dying Machine

Joe Satriani - What Happens Next

Slash - Living the Dream

Tommy Emmanuel - Accomplice One

Michael Schenker Fest - Resurrection

Gus G - Fearless

Lindsay Ell - The Continuum Project

Impellitteri - The Nature of the Beast

Paul Gilbert - Behold Electric Guitar

Andy James - Arrival

Al Di Meola - Opus

Ana Popovic - Like it on Top

Billy F. Gibbons - The Big Bad Blues

Ace Frehley - Spaceman

Jason Becker - Triumphant Hearts

Mark Knopfler - Down the Road Wherever

Keith Urban - Graffiti U

Jack White - Boarding House Reach

Kurt Vile - Bottle It In



18 Live Albums of Note from the Past 18 Months

Linkin Park - One More Light Live

Alter Bridge - Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Volbeat - Let’s Boogie (Live from Telia Parken)

Accept - Symphonic Terror - Live at Wacken 2017

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Live from the Ryman

Black Sabbath - The End (Live)

Joe Bonamassa - British Blues Explosion (Live)

Kenny Chesney - Live in No Shoes Nation

John Mellencamp - Plain Spoken - From the Chicago Theater

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls: The Live Chapter

Mr. Big - Live from Milan

Amon Amarth - The Pursuit of Vikings: Live at Summer Breeze

Electric Light Orchestra - Jeff Lynne’s ELO - Wembley or Bust

Jeff Beck - Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Opeth - Garden of the Titans (Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater)

Beth Hart - Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Alice Cooper - A Paranormal Evening at the Olympia Paris

Bruce Springsteen - Springsteen on Broadway

Receiving the Lord in His Temple

St. Luke makes it clear that everything here happens according to the Law of the Lord.  On the surface that means the keeping of the rules and regulations of the Old Testament ceremonial Law, as the Lord commanded through Moses.  So it is that Mary and Joseph come to offer the sacrifices required for her purification, forty days after giving birth.  And they pay for the redemption of her firstborn Son, Jesus, per the requirement that all the firstborn sons of Israel be given to the Lord.

But in the keeping of these rites and ceremonies, there is also something else profoundly at work.  When St. Luke writes that it was done “according to the Law of the Lord,” it is as we confess in the Creed, that Christ Jesus rose from the dead “according to the Scriptures.”  It means that what our Lord Jesus has done and accomplished is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures, of the Law and the Prophets — as Jesus Himself unfolds for those disciples on the Road to Emmaus, following His Resurrection on Easter Sunday (also recorded by St. Luke).

The “Law of the Lord,” therefore, is not in opposition to “the Gospel,” as when we distinguish and rightly divide between “the Law and the Gospel.”  Here the “Law” rather refers to all the Words and Promises of God, including His Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, encompassing not only the Ten Commandments but also and especially the Old Testament Liturgy.  The “Law” fulfilled in Christ Jesus is the entire Word of God, which is the revelation of His good and acceptable will — and the revelation of Himself and His Glory — that His people might live and abide with Him in faith and love, in peace and joy.  And as that divine Word has become flesh in the Person of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, so His entire life is lived “according to the Law of the Lord.”

In those days when He was conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Law of the Lord was centered and focused in the Temple.  It is certainly no accident that St. Luke begins and ends his record of the Holy Gospel in the Temple.  It is where Zacharias received the Word of the Lord from the Archangel concerning the conception and birth of St. John the Baptist, to begin with.  And it is where the disciples of Jesus gather daily to pray, praise, and give thanks, following His Ascension into heaven.  Between those two book-ends, there are a number of other significant events which also take place in the Temple, including those events that are set before you today.  It is on this occasion when the Lord Jesus first comes to His Temple in His own human flesh and blood.  Thirty-some years later, He will leave the Temple for the last time in the final days before His Cross and Passion — and then His own Body will be raised up as the Temple of God forever.

To understand the significance of the Temple in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is important that you have some basic understanding of the Temple in the Old Testament.  It goes back to the Exodus, when the Lord led the Children of Israel out of Egypt — through the Red Sea and into the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land — with a Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night.  That Cloud and Fire were the manifest Presence and glory of God among His chosen people.

When God then established and sealed His Covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, He gave them far more than just the Decalogue.  At great length and with extensive details He provided Moses with careful instructions for the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Sacrifices, which were collectively the Old Testament Means of Grace, the Liturgy.  The Lord provided the instructions, and He provided the people to carry out His instructions.  And when the Tabernacle and the Ark had been completed, the Cloud and Fire of His glorious Presence settled upon them, in order to demonstrate that He would henceforth be with His people in this way, by these means.

It is helpful to realize that the Tabernacle and the Ark, the Priesthood, and the Sacrifices in the Old Testament are analogous to the Office of the Holy Ministry and the Sacrament of the Altar in the New Testament.  These are the ways and means whereby the Holy Trinity conveys to His people the Gospel of His Christ.  As such, they all hinge upon our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Immanuel, “God-with-us” in the flesh.  The Old Testament Liturgy depended on the Christ who was to come; they pointed forward to Him and prepared the people for His coming.  So does the New Testament Liturgy, the preaching and ministry of the Gospel, depend upon the Christ who has come, who has sacrificed Himself on the Cross, and who has risen from the dead “according to the Scriptures.”

Now, as you know, between Mt. Sinai and the coming of Christ Jesus, there was another son of David, namely, Solomon, who was permitted to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.  He did so according to the pattern of the Tabernacle, which the Lord had revealed from heaven to Moses.  And when Solomon dedicated that Temple, when the Ark of the Covenant had been moved into the Holy of Holies of that Temple, the Cloud and Fire of the glorious Presence of God then settled upon that Temple — once more indicating where and how the Lord would abide with His people.

Notwithstanding that gracious Promise and Presence of the Lord, the Temple that Solomon built was eventually destroyed, when the people were carried into the Babylonian Captivity, on account of their idolatry and unbelief.  And that was such a devastating blow to Israel in every way.  Who were they outside of the Promised Land, without the Temple, and seemingly without the Lord?  Yet, the Lord remembered His people in Babylon, He remembered His promise of redemption in Christ, and He comforted them with the preaching of forgiveness on the basis of that promise.  What is more, the Prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of a new and better Temple, the perfect and permanent Temple of God, which would be established in the crucified and risen Body of Jesus.

Sure enough, the people were released from Babylon and returned to the Promised Land, and in due time a second Temple was built in Jerusalem.  It was a far cry from the first, architecturally.  But far worse, the Ark of the Covenant had been lost or destroyed, and the Cloud and Fire of God’s glorious Presence did not return to fill the new Temple.  The fact is, though, the promises of God were not to be fulfilled by any human constructions.  Even the first Temple, and the Tabernacle before it — and the Ark of the Covenant, and the Priesthood, and the Sacrifices — they were all about the coming of the Lord Himself in the flesh, the coming of the Christ, our Savior.  And even without the Ark and the Cloud and the Fire, the second Temple continued to anticipate the Coming One, to which its Priesthood and Sacrifices still pointed, even when the people looked away.

The Liturgy of the Lord and the Ministry of His Means of Grace matter, in the Old Testament and the New, because the Presence of God with His people is the source and substance of Life itself.  Apart from Him, there is no life, but only death.  That is the big problem with sin, which separates you from the Lord by the disobedience and disregard of His Word, and then causes you to flee and hide from Him (as if you even could), thereby cutting you off from His forgiveness and His Life.

In your sin, apart from God, there is nothing for you but death.  And as a sinner, it is impossible for you to reverse the situation and find your own way back to God.  You cannot do it, and in your sin you do not even want to get back to God.  Left to yourself, you just keep on running away from Him, and you remain utterly lost in your sin and death.  So would everyone be lost forevermore, if not for the fact that God the Lord, by grace alone, takes every initiative in coming to save us.

The Lord God comes to you, as He came to His Children of Israel in the Old Testament, with His forgiveness of sins, in order to redeem you from captivity to death and reconcile you to Himself.  As He brought the people out of Egypt, and as He brought them out of Babylon, so does He bring you out of your captivity.  And as He was with His people in the Cloud by day and Fire by night, in the desert Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple, so is He with you in the Body of Christ Jesus.

Since the fall into sin, two things have been most necessary for life and salvation.  The first is the gracious Presence of God, and the second is His forgiveness of sins.  Without either one of these manifestations of His mercy, all the sons and daughters of Adam & Eve would remain forever in captivity to sin, death, and the power of the devil.  So, throughout the Old Testament, the faithful people of God clung for dear life to His Words and Promises, whereby they waited in hope and expectation for the coming of His Christ — just as you have waited on the Lord through Advent.

St. Simeon and Holy Anna were among those faithful ones who watched and waited on the Christ.  And so it was that their hopes and expectations were focused on the Temple, “according to the Law of the Lord.”  For that is where His Words and Promises had been given to and for them.  And sure enough, that is where His Words and Promises were first fulfilled — for them and for all people.

As the Cloud and Fire of God’s glorious Presence once filled the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and then filled the Temple in Jerusalem, so did the glorious Presence of God in the flesh come to His Temple in the Person of the Christ-Child, conceived and born of St. Mary.  By the Word and Spirit of the Lord, Simeon and Anna comprehended with the eyes of faith what eyes of flesh could not see: That this little Babe, just six weeks old, is the Almighty and Eternal God.  He is Yahweh in the flesh, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  And He comes now to His Temple, in order to be with His people and to forgive all of their sins.

Born of the Woman under the Law, He comes to redeem those who were under the Law.  For He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  To begin with, as in this Holy Gospel, even from infancy He keeps the Law perfectly for all of us.  He is ever and always obedient in all things — yes, even unto His death upon the Cross.  Indeed, He has come to sacrifice Himself in our stead.

So does Simeon prophecy that this Child is destined for the fall and the rising of many in Israel.  He comes, the Word-made-Flesh, by the grace of God and in the Spirit of the Lord.  But the world does not know Him, because the darkness cannot comprehend His light.  Most of His own people refuse to receive Him.  They hand Him over to be crucified by the hands of sinful men.  And yet, again, it is for that purpose He has come, to sacrifice Himself in the stead of sinners such as you.

Thus does He obtain forgiveness and atonement for the sins of the world.  And in His Resurrection from the dead, He raises sinners in and with Himself, by and with His Word of Holy Absolution.

It is this Gospel of the Cross and Resurrection of our Lord that St. Simeon beholds in the face of the infant Christ-Child, by the Light of His divine and glorious countenance.  And as such, he witnesses that Jesus Christ, in His own flesh, actually becomes the new, divine, eternal Temple of God.  In His own Body of flesh and blood, the Covenant is fulfilled and made new.  In Him all the Words and Promises of God are found.  In Him is God’s resounding “Yes!” to all of your prayers.

“According to the Law of the Lord,” Jesus the Christ comes to His people, to His faithful ones, to St. Simeon and St. Anna in the Temple.  Then, by His Cross and in His Resurrection, “according to the Law of the Lord,” His Body supercedes and replaces that Temple.  So it is that, now, the Temple of God is truly found wherever the Word of Christ Jesus and His Body and His Blood are found.  Which is also to say that the Presence of God and His forgiveness of sins are found in the flesh of Christ Jesus, in His Word preached, His Body given, and His Blood poured out for you.

That is why you are here this morning, and that is what you are here for: The Presence of God in the flesh of Christ, your Savior and Redeemer, and His forgiveness of your sins by His Word and Flesh and Blood.  Not for entertainment.  Not for a pat on the back or a pat on the head.  Not to be emotionally gratified and uplifted.  Not for a sociably good time.  But to wait upon the Lord your God, and to receive His Body and His Blood, according to His Word, within His holy Temple.

This is a divine and sacred thing, an awesome privilege, and a blessed opportunity.  It is not to be approached lightly, but with humility and great joy, with reverence and peace, in sober confidence.

As you come into the gracious and glorious Presence of the Lord your God in the Liturgy of His Gospel, it is well that you follow the example of Simeon and Anna, who received the Christ of God in His Temple, in the flesh, with thanksgiving, praise, and blessing.  Accordingly, not only do we join with St. Simeon in chanting his inspired song of praise, the Nunc Dimittis, but we also follow the example of Holy Anna in giving thanks unto the Lord and speaking of Him to our neighbors.

There are no better or more important activities by which you are given and able to serve your dear Lord Jesus Christ, both night and day, all the years of your life on this earth.  In receiving the Lord in His Temple, in His Church, and returning your thanks and praise, you also grow and mature in the Spirit, and you are filled with the Wisdom of God.  So may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God the Father, and the Communion of His Holy Spirit, be and abide with you always.

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

The Lord Is for You and for Your Children

The promise is for you and for your children.  There is hope for your future.  Your work will be rewarded.  For out of Egypt God has called His Son; and so shall all of His children return from the land of the enemy to His own territory, to His good land, in His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

But here before us is another story — and another big question — for those who wonder and ask why God allows such evil in the world.  If there is a good and all-powerful God, why doesn’t He simply prevent sin and put a stop to all the wickedness?

Why must His Son flee to Egypt in the first place?  And why on earth is Herod permitted to slaughter all those innocent baby boys?  They were just little children, infants and toddlers!  Did they really have to be sacrificed as some kind of object lesson, or to make some dramatic point?

Be sure of this, God is not the author of evil.  But neither did any of these events happen outside of His providential care and permissive will.  Nor does He suffer lightly the death of any creature.

The Lord Jesus goes into Egypt because He has come to save His people from their sins.  He escapes the tyrant’s sword because no one takes His life from Him, but He will lay it down willingly, in faith and love, when His Hour has fully come.  And then He will take it up again.

As His God and Father calls Him out of Egypt when the tyrant has died, so will His Father likewise raise this same Son Jesus from the dead when that last great enemy has been defeated.  For death itself will be defeated by the Lord’s own sacrificial death in human flesh and blood like your own.

So do the little lambs of Bethlehem follow this Lamb of God through death into life, because He is their Salvation, His Cross is their Passover, and His Resurrection is their Exodus into Life.

As before in the history of God’s people, another Joseph now brings his Father’s family into Egypt, lest they perish, in order to preserve the world from death.  But as this story is unfolding, in the middle of the night, St. Joseph has no way of knowing what the outcome of these events will be.  He has nothing to guide him or go by except the Word of the Lord, His warnings and His promises.  With that, he goes in faith, and everything ensues and is fulfilled according to the Scriptures.

Which is really to say that his situation then was not so very different from your own.  As you go about living your life where God has placed you in this world — caring for the neighbors He has entrusted to your love; working the job He has given you to do; and suffering the Cross that He lays upon your body and soul within your vocations — your eyes cannot see, your heart cannot feel, and your mind cannot imagine where things are going or what you will face on any given day.  Yet, you do know where your life story is written, with its happily-ever-after in Christ Jesus.

Both His Cross and His Resurrection are yours.  So you also follow this Lamb wherever He goes.

That can be downright scary, can’t it?  Only do not allow your fears to master you, neither with the violent anger of Herod nor with the inconsolable weeping of Rachel for her children.  Both hatred and despair flow out of fear — not the fear of the Lord, which is true wisdom and bears both faith and love — but, no, hatred and despair flow from the fear of death, which is the fruit of idolatry.

To lose your temper, to rage and storm at your neighbor, to lash out in violence at others, that is to make a false god of yourself, and yet, it also demonstrates your weakness, fear, and insecurity.  The almighty power of the one true God is not found in such uncontrolled anger, but is chiefly manifested in His tender pity, mercy, and compassion for all of us poor and sinful mortals.

In light of such grace, mercy, and peace from your God and Father in Christ Jesus, to throw up your hands in hopeless despair, or to give yourself over to wailing grief and mourning, refusing to be comforted, is to reject the Lord who loves you in favor of atheism.  To act as though there were no hope or any reason to go on, is to live as though there were no God or Savior at all.

That is the false belief, despair, and fear that reside in your sinful heart and in your mortal flesh.  It is especially for this reason that God the Lord lays the Cross of Christ upon you.  Not to atone for your sins, which Christ has already accomplished by His sacrificial death in your place, but in order to crucify and kill the idols that reign as tyrants in your heart, and to work repentance in your heart and mind, your body and soul, unto faith and life in the Lord’s forgiveness of all your sins.

In other words, the Lord your God puts you to death with all your sinful unbelief, ungodly fear, violent rage, and desperate sorrow, in order to call you out of Egypt as His own dear son.

He does not do all of this at your expense, but at great cost to Himself for your benefit and profit.  Nor does He suffer your children to die for the sake of punishing you.  It may be, however, that in love He allows your children to suffer and die under the Cross, for the sake of breaking your idolatry and calling you to repentance — even as He calls your children from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.  For He is their true God and Father, who loves them more than you do, who cares for them far better, and who is Himself their everlasting Life and eternal Salvation in Christ.

So it was, for example, that God the Lord put Father Abraham to the test, when He commanded him to sacrifice his long-awaited son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved.  But so did God spare Isaac and sacrifice His own dearly-beloved only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus.  It is in such love, with His own Self-sacrifice and Self-giving, that God the Father deals with you and with your children.

The truth is that it is far too easy for you to make false gods out of your children, or a false god of yourself as their father or mother; or a false god of your spouse and marriage, of your job, your house and home, or your family and friends.  All of these are the good gifts and blessings of God, but they are to be received in faith, in the fear, love, and trust of the one true God above all else.

You are to love and care for your children, therefore, as the Lord your God has commanded, putting their needs ahead of your own comfort and preferences (and ahead of their own desires).  Just as St. Joseph cared for the Christ Child and His Blessed Mother, St. Mary, and just as pastors are likewise given to care for the Lord’s Church and His children of all ages and stages of life.  For the Lord’s providential care of His people is exercised through His creatures, by earthly ways and means of grace, and so also through those who are His messengers and servants in faith and love.

So it is that He gives you to serve your neighbor, and He gives your neighbor to serve you.

Proceed in that calling of faith and love, in the confidence of Christ Jesus.  In accordance with the Holy Scriptures, God has called Him out of Egypt, the Father has raised His beloved Son from the dead.  That is now your future and your hope.  That is the great reward which you also receive for His good work of Redemption.  It is His sure and certain promise to you, and to your children.

It is His Peace to calm your anger, His security to calm your fears, and His comfort in all your grief and sadness.  The new and greater Exodus of Christ Jesus — through death into life by His Cross and Resurrection — is your forgiveness and your righteousness, your innocence and your holiness, your eternal bliss and blessedness.  He thereby wipes away every tear from your eyes, so that even now, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, you behold the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, and the Lamb who was slain upon His throne, alive forevermore, reigning in love.

He is no tyrant, but a most gracious and benevolent King above all kings and Lord above all lords.  He cleanses you and your children, and your children’s children, with His own holy and precious Blood, shed for you upon His Cross and poured out for you here at His Altar for the forgiveness of all your sins.  He likewise adorns you with the pure white robes of His perfect righteousness.  And He feeds you from His own tender hand, with His own holy Body.

Though you are very little, weak, and small, do not be afraid.  Rest here from your labors in the Peace of Christ, under the shadow of His wings and the shelter of His Altar, until He shall call you from this vale of tears to the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of His Paradise.

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

The Light No Darkness Can Overcome

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, the Light no darkness can overcome.  For the Life and the Love of the Father are in Him, and with such divine Love He has manifested Himself on earth, that you might have that Life with Him forever, body and soul, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

In the incarnate Son of God you see what otherwise cannot be seen.  In the Son of St. Mary you see God, and you know God as He truly is.  In His very flesh and blood, you know and receive the works of God, which are grace and truth.  For in His flesh all of creation is perfect and complete.  So are you also redeemed from the darkness of death and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Propitiation for all your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  That Gospel is the Light that scatters the darkness and shatters all the works of the devil — because the sacrifice of Christ, the Son of God, for the salvation of sinners, accomplishes the good and gracious will of God and makes known the Father to all the children of men.  In this the Name of God is glorified and hallowed among us, and His Kingdom comes to us from heaven.

To know God rightly is to know this Love of the Father in Christ Jesus, and to be sanctified by His Spirit through His forgiveness of all your sins.  As all of this is now revealed and given to you through the Word of the Gospel, so do you have peace in place of despair, and life instead of death.  For not only is God with you in Christ Jesus, but He is for you, He is on your side.  He is here to help you, because He loves you.  His life and death and resurrection — in His own Body of flesh and blood like yours — are the guarantee of that divine Love which was, and is, and is to come.

This is your Light in the darkness.  This is how you get your bearings, so that you know who you are, and where you are, and where you are going, and how to get there.  For knowing God as your Savior in Christ Jesus, you have Life with Him forever.  Everything else takes its cues from that.

So, then, by His Word and Holy Spirit, live that divine Life which is yours in the incarnate Son of God.  Walk in the Light which shines upon you in His Gospel.  Which means, first of all, that you give careful attention to His Word, since that is where and how the Life of Christ is set before you.

Blessed are your ears, which hear the reading and preaching of the Holy Scriptures!  And blessed are you when the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ gives to you His Holy Spirit, so that, by His grace, you believe His Holy Word and live according to it!

Faith thus follows after Christ Jesus in His Word — and love follows after faith in Christ.

That is how you walk in the Light, namely, by listening to and learning from the Word of Christ, so that you might thereby live and love as He does.

Open your ears, therefore, to hear and heed His Word.  That is how you keep your eyes on Jesus and follow after Him as a disciple, for His Word to you is your Light in the darkness.

Look neither to the right nor to the left, and do not turn around to look behind you, but keep moving forward in faith.  I do not mean that you should forget what the Lord your God has done and said and given in the past, but do not linger on your own past works and accomplishments, as though your life were there, in days of glory come and gone.  Leave the past behind in repentance and forgiveness, and praise God for the promise of His mercy and the hope of the Resurrection.

Do not look sideways at your neighbor with envy and jealousy, nor compare and compete with your neighbor, as though he were your opponent or your enemy.  But consider the people around you with the holy compassion of Christ.  Care for them in love and with forgiveness for their sins.  Do so, especially, within your own place in life, on the path to which Christ Jesus calls you.

To turn aside or depart from that path is to wander away from the Light, to walk in the darkness.  Then you will surely stumble and fall — and do not suppose that you will manage anything else.

Child of God, do not sin!  For in such darkness there is only death and despair.  Do not scheme and strive to light your own way, as though to get life for yourself by your own designs and ingenuity.  And do not abandon the faith and fellowship of God for the friendship of this fallen world.

But here is how you shall live.  Do your duty, according to God’s command and your neighbor’s need.  That is to exercise the faith and love that you find in Christ Jesus.  And be content with what you have been given, in the confidence that God who loves you has given His only-begotten Son to die for you, and has also raised Him from the dead, that you might have all good things in Him.

In the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, in His eternal great High Priesthood as your Savior, you now live with Him by faith in the presence of His God and Father.  That is your “royal priesthood,” which is carried out within your own particular place in life, whether that be in service to a ripe old age, or by way of an early martyrdom; whether it be in Jerusalem, Athens, Ephesus, or Rome.

Wherever God has put you in this body and life on earth, love your neighbor there, with the means that God the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship.  Indeed, it is the chief purpose of your time, treasures, and talents that you glorify the Name of the Lord by using whatever He has given you to love and serve your neighbor.  You are quite safe to do so, because the Lord Himself provides for you, in love, all that you need and far more than you could ever ask or hope or imagine.

Instead of seeking to get and to keep whatever you can for yourself, freely give to your neighbor what you have freely received by the grace of God from His generous and open hand.

That is what St. John the Apostle and his fellow Apostles have done; and special thanks and praise to God for the holy Evangelists, who have recorded for the Church the words and deeds of Christ our Savior!  What they received, they have also given; and they were not emptied or undone by doing so, but filled up and glorified by the Son of God.  That is how it goes with the good gifts of God; as with loaves and fishes, the more they are divided and shared, the more they are increased.

So has St. John written what he himself saw and heard and touched — for the sake of the reading and the hearing of the Church on earth, even to the close of the age — and so also here for you.

In the preaching of this Apostolic Word — as in the flesh and blood of Christ, given and poured out for you and for the many — the Life of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is manifested.

This proclamation of God is an admonition and a warning, to be sure, which calls you to repent; to turn away from your sins, from darkness, and from death; to cease doing what is wrong, and to begin doing what is right.  But the Word of the Apostles is not a scolding or a threat.  It is the very Word of God, in which the Gospel predominates because it reveals the very heart of God in Christ.

St. John writes to you, in order that you may be set free from sin, not through your own works and righteousness, but through your Advocate with the Father, who is Jesus Christ the Righteous.

The Apostles and Evangelists write, so that you may be set free from death, and that you may have Life in Jesus through faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.

That is the great joy of St. John and of all the holy Apostles, that you should have fellowship with them in this Word that has been written.  Imagine that!  As we rejoice in the fellowship of the Apostles, so do they rejoice in you, who believe and live in Jesus by their Word.  And not only that, but your fellowship with the Apostles is the fellowship of the Holy Triune God, whereby you also now live and abide with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit.

In order for that to be true — and it is most certainly true — it must be as St. John has testified, that everything he witnessed, and all that he received from Jesus, he has conveyed to you with this Word he has written.  It is more than history and information.  It is the ongoing continuation of all that Jesus began to do and preach from the beginning unto the ends of the earth.  That is why the whole world is now filled with this Word of Christ, and even the whole world cannot contain it.

Beloved disciple of Jesus, what St. John saw with his eyes, and looked upon, and touched with his hands, is here given and poured out for you.  Recline here upon Body of the Lord who loves you at His Supper, and know that in His flesh and blood you are safe in the bosom of the Father, because the Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses you from sin and releases you from death.  For where there is forgiveness, as there is forgiveness for you here, there you shall not die but live.

That is the true Light which shines for you in the darkness, the Light no darkness can overcome.

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