Christmas Day

December 25th, 2005
Text: John 1:14, I John 4:2, 3

In many and various ways God spoke to His people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son. Dear Hearers of the Word made Flesh.

God is not at a distance. God is not somehow trapped in the supernatural so that He isn’t involved with the physical stuff of your daily life. God is not unaware of what it is like for us sinners to carry around this dying flesh. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

What more can God do or say to show His love for us than this? THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. What other action could we recommend that would bring God closer to us than this: THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

Christmas! The Nativity of our Lord! It is so simple and yet so astounding. It is so mysterious and so marvelous and like it or not, so messy. It is the heart of all that we believe and yet, humanly speaking, it is unbelievable. God with man is dwelling. God and man in one person has come to teach and feed His creatures. The eternal Word who at creation spoke and it came to be, was conceived by His own word in the womb of a virgin. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. In David’s town a Son was born – the Savior of the world. Tiny, infant helplessness hides the Holy Lord of heavenly armies. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

This is the core of God’s self-revelation. It is also the core of our true self-understanding. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. In so doing Jesus accomplished the miracle of the ages. In so doing, He also made an eternal claim on our bodies. Since God the Son now dwells in a human body, we cannot be truly spiritual and at the same time deny the importance of our bodily actions.
That gets to the heart of our sin which is to deny God’s claim on our bodies. A spiritualized Jesus is one thing, a Jesus whom we can keep at a distance away from the mess of our daily lives. A flesh and blood Jesus with skin and hair and sweat is quite another. That’s why it is crucial to remember that Christmas is not only a marvelous mystery, it is also a messy mystery. The manger in Bethlehem points to the messiness. Stables were not pleasant, hygienic places. The swaddling clothes point to that messiness. They weren’t colorful fashion pieces from Land’s End but simply the diapers of that day.

THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. The true humanity of Christ is so crucial that Scripture states that it is the spirit of the antichrist that denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (I John 4:2, 3). Anti in Greek means “In place of” or “instead of”. ANTICHRIST therefore first of all means someone who tries to take Christ’s place.

Someone like me! Someone like you! For we can get comfortable with a Christ who is way up in the air somewhere at a distance; someone to play games with in our minds. But we don’t easily abide a Christ who is so close as to know and care about every action of our body. We’d like to run our messy bodies in our own little ways as if we could take Christ’s place. Here, in the flesh, where my body is concerned, I’d like to handle things my own way, thank you.

For instance people say, “I’m only human. Getting smashed now and again isn’t so bad as long as I don’t drink and drive.” And Jesus says, “Be filled with the Spirit”. Or, people say, “I’m in a really serious relationship with my soul mate. Why shouldn’t we share our bodies and express this really spiritual thing that’s happening between us.” And Christ says, “Got a marriage license?” For God’s gift of marriage is always more than Caesar says it is but never less than Caesar says it is. With our flesh and blood bodies God says we are to keep the one flesh relationship of the marriage bed pure. Or somebody’s just sick in their soul over all the people whose lives have been torn apart by hurricanes or the unborn babies whose lives are ended in the womb or the homeless and the hungry. And Christ says, “Your prayers yes” but “Where’s your checkbook?” “How can the love of Christ dwell in you if you ignore those in need?” And many of you know with me what its like to have such a deep spiritual devotional life that in fact for days we are tempted not to take the eyes and mouths of our body and use them to read God’s Word for a few minutes and voice prayers for the needs of the Church and the world. And Christ says, “only one thing is needful”, “continue in My Word” and “pray and intercede for everyone”.

You see, when I handle things my way it never works! Who do I think I am? I may say I’m fine, but whatever delusions I’ve got on the inside, my body fleshes them out on the outside. And what a mess I make of it. When I look at the hard evidence in light of God’s holy will my life is an unmitigated mess. Look at what my mouth has actually said and what it didn’t say. Look at what the grey matter of my mind thinks and doesn’t think. Look at what my eyes have actually been content with and what they have actually coveted. Look at where my feet have gone and where they haven’t gone. Look at those I have hurt and those I have failed to help. I’m constantly tempted to make an idol of my body or the body of someone else. My attempts to be the ANTICHRIST, “the instead of Christ” are predictably pathetic. Look at the mess that I’m trying to run.

But to each of us in the middle of our messes God says “Merry Christmas”. It is that very mess that God got into when THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US. He came to be Lord of the mess, Savior of the mess. There is no other Name under heaven by which we must be saved and He is involved with it all. From outside of space and time, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US!

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…All things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made. That includes our bodies. In Him there is no separation between supernatural and natural, between spiritual and physical, between heaven and earth. You can’t keep His love for you at a distance in some kind of spiritual never-never land!

He made us and He sees us body and soul. He made us and He sees us trying to take His place in our lives, to do that antichrist number. He sees the whole mess of it. That’s why He came. He came to take our place who keep trying to take His place. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to take our place with mouth and eyes and hands and feet. He came in the flesh right smack into the hard external evidence of what’s really going on in our souls. He took it all on Himself. He came in the flesh to bear what’s going on in our bodies, the whole ugly mess. The little baby in the manger had a body for one reason. That in His body He might bear the sins of our bodies on the tree of the cross. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Merry Christmas! Rightly understood, Christmas is so mysterious and so marvelous but also so very, very messy. His mouth got slapped for what comes out of ours. Whatever’s filled our eyes, His eyes were filled with tears and blood – for us. His back got ripped open with a whip for the burdens we refuse to bear. His hands got driven through with spikes for what my hands have done and didn’t do. His feet were pierced for where your feet have gone and haven’t gone. THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US.

The baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes gave way to the man Jesus stripped of all clothes and then wrapped in grave clothes with the mess of spices and a dead body. The baby Jesus laid in a manger gave way to the man Jesus whose body was laid in a garden tomb. And when He stepped out of the tomb on Easter morning He stepped out bodily. He rose physical with hands and feet and eyes and hair, just like He was born with – just like you and I were born with. “Touch me and see” He said. “A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39)

THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US to rescue us body and soul. He can’t be kept in faith at some spiritualized, sanitized distance. He has come to run our whole lives with His love. He’s not ashamed to come where the rubber meets the road. He baptizes precious human skin and hair to bring us with Him bodily into a new creation. He puts into our mouths and stomachs bread and wine which is the very body and the very blood which was nestled in the manger and lifted up on the cross. The eternal word is still flesh and blood. He comes into our mess again this morning to clean it up and to prepare for us at eternal place without mess. He loves us with an undeserved love that is mysterious and marvelous and messy.

The mysterious and marvelous parts are forever, but not the messy part. He is the firstfruits of those who are raised. You will follow after Him soul and body. Too messy you say! Not for His precious blood to cleanse. Not for His love to claim! When death comes, the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; (I Cor. 15:42-44).

Dear Christians, THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND DWELT AMONG US …FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. THE WORD MADE FLESH STILL DWELLS AMONG US TO GIVE US HIS GRACE AND TRUTH. He is Lord of the mess until the mess is no more. Merry Christmas - in the Name of Jesus; AMEN.

Christmas Eve

December 24th, 2005
Text: Luke 2:1-20

Dear Christians, merry Christmas! Really - merry Christmas – because, “It happened!” That is how the Christmas Gospel begins. “It happened!” “It came to pass” (NKJV) is how we heard that first Greek word (egeneto) read tonight. There is a bit more mysterious ring to that expression “it came to pass”. But the Greek (egeneto) literally means, “it happened”! Some modern versions leave it out altogether, regarding it as redundant. It is, after all so matter-of-fact and so ordinary – “It happened!”

The usual thought is that if you report what took place, you don’t also have to begin by saying say that “It happened”, that it took place. For example, we wouldn’t normally say “It happened that it rained on Christmas Eve”, or “It happened that our family gathered together for a meal.” We would just say “our family gathered together for a meal”.

But tonight I would like you to take the first word of Luke 2 for all its worth – because it’s worth a lot. “It happened!” The true gift of Christmas happened. The angel’s song, the shepherd’s joy, the virgin birth of the Son of God; beloved - the miracle of the ages happened – for you!

Current attempts to rename Christmas trees as holiday trees won’t change the life and death reality of what happened when God broke into the darkness of our world. But the danger of losing sight of the factual nature of Christmas is far more serious than the anti-Christian pressures of our culture.

The greatest danger is the sinful nature that we live with that believes it determines what is real, what happens, what matters. Week in and week out we easily go on as if what we see and feel is the chief determiner of what is real and what we can’t see is anyone’s guess. Such unbelief clings to each of us.

We live in an age that celebrates everyone making their own reality and deciding their own truth. We live in a time when even those who contend for the word “Christmas” easily turn it into a sweet, sentimental myth. A jolly man in a red suit or reindeer in the sky easily give the season a make-believe atmosphere. Frosty the Snowman and candy cane lanes add their hypnotic effect.

Christmas movie classics and delightful stories of angels abound this time of year. But have you noticed, those angels are presented as doing everything except what the real Christmas angels did – proclaim Jesus Christ. “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

How refreshing! St. Luke makes no Christmas demands of us. He simply states what happened. His telling of the story is reason to say “Merry Christmas”. His telling of God’s gift contrasts sharply with societal expectations that multiply pressure and add stress in this season. After all, tis the season to be jolly! The be-nice, be-happy, be-prepared expectations of this season are so heavy that human depression is at an all time high in these days. It’s presented as something so magical and so marvelous and of course marketable. But for us sinners in need of salvation, it is also ultimately meaningless without the certainty of the gift of God described by the evangelist St. Luke.

Tonight, take the first Greek word in Luke 2 for all its worth, because it is worth a lot. With all of the inner charades of our self-centered hearts, with all the cultural clutter of the Christmas season, rejoice in what St. Luke reports so matter-of-factly, “It happened!”

What happened? First of all, the government wanted more taxes – no surprises there. In a census, people and property were listed as a basis for assessing taxes. As even secular historians acknowledge, the taxation spoken of in our text happened. Although Galilee was a hotbed of opposition to Roman taxation, Joseph set out to be registered as he was told, as a loyal citizen.

The chief player in what happened might first of all seem to be mighty Caesar Augustus, ruler of the world? His power was unparalleled. His life seemed to unfold in a dream-come-true way. His concern was for law and order and taxes for the millions of people whom he ruled. Even if Caesar had known of this carpenter and this woman and the baby she carried, what would he care?

But tonight, two thousand years later, we remember Caesar Augustus only for something he neither knew nor intended. By God’s design, his taxation was instrumental in bringing Mary and Joseph and the unborn child to Bethlehem. Without their choice, the most powerful man in the world of that time and an insignificant carpenter, bring it about that Jesus’ birth is in Bethlehem. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered…And Joseph also went up…to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Dear Christians “It happened” and when it did, there was no place for Him in the inn. Our sin is that we go on living as if it didn’t happen. Our sin is also that we are reluctant to give place to the Savior even as He had no place on the holy night of His birth. It is as if our hearts are bursting with struggle and sorrow that is so serious that the love of God cannot overcome it. Conversely, it is as if our life is so full and free and fabulous that we can’t be bothered to make room for God’s perfect gift of undeserved love.

Make no mistake that is exactly what happened in Bethlehem. Love came down. God’s love was freely poured out on us dying sinners. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He who formed Adam from the virgin earth this night is born from the Virgin’s womb. It happened and its effects reach right down to you this evening and into the New Year and into your eternal future.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” As St. Paul wrote to Titus, The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...”

Beloved, God’s grace has appeared in person for you. God’s love for you is so sure He is clothed with flesh and blood. The swaddling clothes didn’t look like much. The manger didn’t look like much. Even the baby didn’t look like much. But He is the Savior of the world. He is God’s love in the flesh. He came down to take you up with Him. It happened. It happened for you!

Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will toward men. This child is God’s gift of peace to you. As Isaiah named Him, He is the Prince of peace,

So what if your life doesn’t seem to be full of peace? What if it doesn’t seem to be happening for you the way you’ve hoped for? What if you feel like you have to renounce self-control and grab for worldly passions to manufacture love or else you’re headed for a dead end. So those feelings do not change what happened on this holy night. It happened! Love and life came down in the flesh. Even death is not a dead end to Him.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. On those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. The glorious light in Bethlehem’s fields foretells the glorious light from inside a garden tomb on Easter morning. God’s angels were at it again – proclaiming Christ. In between the light of Christmas and the light of Easter was the darkness of our death and God’s damning wrath against our sin. Jesus suffered it in His body for us. The baby nestled in the manger was born to die on the cross and so defeat death for us. For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. It happened!

By God’s grace, it is still happening. Christ is still in the flesh, now risen from the grave. And just like at the incarnation of His Son God does not wait to get approval from us as to how it should happen. He continues to come in ways that surpass our understanding.

With the message the shepherds were given a sign – after all – babies look pretty much alike. The baby they were to seek was to be found in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. Only one baby like that to be found in Bethlehem on that night!. When they saw Him, they told others what had been told them about Him.

You also have been given a sign and told where to find Jesus. Jesus said whoever remains in His words, remains in Him. Jesus also said to keep on eating and drinking His body and blood. There are lots of divine claims, but there is only one God who claims to have sacrificed His body and blood on the cross for the life of the world. There is only one God who bids us to continue to receive that same body and blood under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins.

The shepherds returned to their same vocation, tending their sheep. The gift of Christmas was not disconnected from their daily life. In a few hours or few days we also go back to what we have been given to do – sheep to tend – children and home to care for – studies to give attention to – daily work to perform – friends and family to love. We go back to the same tasks, but it is all different in Christ. God will do things in you and through you beyond your knowing and planning just as he did through the shepherds and Mary and Joseph and even Caesar Augustus.

You came here on this Christmas Eve to hear again the good words from God about His gift of love. You brought along the parts of you that still say, no, it couldn’t have really happened just this way. You brought along those parts from a world of death and taxes and all the things that threaten to wear you out and dry you up. You brought along those questions about loneliness or pain or meaning in life or health, that seem to shout, “no, it didn’t happen”.

But those feelings are wrong. Merry Christmas! It happened! God’s word helps us through to the rock bottom of what happened, and on that we can build. On His word we can fit in all the pieces and layers of our lives, the hard things yes, but also the happy things too. We can let them be the happy things they are, family, home, friends together, gifts, food, drink and all the fun and kindliness of Christmas. We can let them be truly happy things for they are liberated from having to cover a wretchedness or emptiness of heart. For our heart is now fixed where true joy is found – a Savior who is Christ the Lord!

Dear Christians, it happened! Joy to the world, the Lord has come. God’s word has carried it to our ears again this evening. The Word made flesh will carry it to our lips in bread and wine again tomorrow. God grant that His forgiving love continue to pass from the ear and the lip to the heart of each of us. The giving of God’s love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus is still happening!

As you return this week to the duties God has given you, He will have things to do with you that you have not planned. In Christ He is working out your salvation. In Christ He will bring to completion what He has begun in you. Merry Christmas! Really! In the name of Jesus; AMEN.

4th Sunday of Advent

December 18, 2005
Pastor Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Luke 1:26-38

The waiting of Advent is almost over but the repentance of Advent is needed every day of life. The sin of unbelief clings to us. We are easily thrilled by trinkets of this world but not so easily thrilled by the holy mysteries of God that reach far beyond this passing world.

The angel Gabriel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God…For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Dear Christians, may it be to you according to the Word of God for NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. This doesn’t mean whatever we dream or desire God will make happen. The Greek literally says NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. The meaning is that no word that God speaks, no promise that God makes concerning our rescue and salvation will remain unfulfilled.

God’s first word of promise connects directly to the word He now speaks to Mary. That first word told Satan of his defeat - “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Notice the surprising use of Seed instead of eggs in this promise. Men have seed, women have eggs. By speaking of the Seed of the woman it is as if the woman would bear a son without a man involved. NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.

Luther is said to have noted that this Word of God was particularly unkind for the devil. Satan knew that the man promised to crush his head would be born of a woman. But he didn’t know of which woman or when He would appear. Every time a son was born down through the centuries, Satan would have to wonder if this was the one.

The Savior’s identity was a mystery kept secret for long ages. Yet through those ages there were specific promises concerning Him. He would be born of the line of Abraham (Gen. 22:18) and David (II Sam 7:16). He would be from Nazareth (Mt. 2:23), and yet would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Though He would look like nothing special (Is. 53:2) yet He would be called “Immanuel”, “God with us”. He would be born of a virgin (Is. 7:14).

But now He has been disclosed. Now He has been made known to all nations. In the sixth month (that is the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist) the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.”

God broke into our sinful and dying world in the exact way He had promised in the garden. In the fall, angels guarded the way to the tree of life when man was driven out of God’s presence. But now God sends His angelic messenger to announce that God has come into our presence.
On this last Sunday of Advent ponder the awesome wonder of what Gabriel said to this girl. She who is a virgin will conceive as a virgin. She will have a son, not a daughter! His name will be Jesus, not another. She who is a sinner will bear the world’s sinless Savior and her own Savior as she called Him (See. 1:47 and Rom. 3:10). We can’t fully understand the miracle of a natural conception and here God trumpets a conception which leaves no explanation but one. NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. As Gabriel proclaimed, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

And so it was! Fellow Redeemed, In her womb, the tiny cells would have multiplied rapidly. By the 4th or 5th day Jesus’ embryo would have been at that very stage (blastocyst) where modern day researchers desire to grind up the unborn up as possible medicine for adults. After a few more days there would have been the rapid and rhythmic heartbeat in the womb – swish, swish, swish. Organs and limbs formed and increased in size. From the moment of conception there was a unique human being in Mary’s womb. He only needed to grow and develop as we all did, protected there, fearfully and wonderfully knit together in our mother’s wombs (Psalm 139).

As we stand at the door of Christmas, contemplate the awesome wonder of what this angel said to this girl. Man-made religions and man-altered Christianity often appeal to human logic, to what seems to get results, to what all can agree on. Popular sentiment concerning Christmas boils down to thoughts of honesty and compassion and charity. But here is Divine logic that passes all human understanding.

God sent an angel from His presence to announce the miracle of the ages. Even more than Elizabeth’s advanced age, Mary’s virginity would preclude pregnancy. Yet God caused both to conceive. The entire Old Testament hope is realized in the womb of Mary. The fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) dwelt in the womb of Mary, bodily for us. The word for “overshadow” used in our text is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe the cloud covering the Tabernacle as the glory of the Lord filled it (Ex. 40:34-38). As God’s promised to locate His saving presence in the Tabernacle, so God’ saving presence was for a time located in the womb of Mary. For therein dwelt the body of Jesus. NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

It is important to note that Mary’s favor is God’s choice of her, not something she earned. The verb for “favored one” or “graced one” is passive. It is God’s doing, God’s gift. Mary did nothing to earn the honor of bearing God’s Son. Mary is receiving grace here, not dispensing it. It is spiritually harmful when Mary is worshipped and prayed to as a mediator between God and man. But it is not Mary’s fault when such occurs. Beloved, do not allow such errors to sour your own thanks to God for the wondrous miracle that He worked through His chosen handmaiden. Is it not a wonder what God did through her? Is it not proper that we still confess in the creed two thousand years later “born of the Virgin Mary”? We should thank God for His work through Mary. We should honor her highly (Apology XXI, 27). NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

Think for a moment about God’s Word to David through Nathan the prophet (II Sam 7). When David desired to build God a house of cedar, the LORD declared to David that instead the LORD would make him a house. The promise to David ends “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” We sang it in the Psalm “I will build your throne for all generations.”

But you know the history. In the very region now called Iraq, there were no elections back then. King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian chain saw cut through Israel like a twig. The temple was destroyed. The people were slaughtered and led away into captivity. For over 500 years David’s throne was a dead stump. Well might we ask, “What about the promises?” “What about God’s Word to David?”

Hear again Gabriel’s words to Mary, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” God’s kingdom is not of this world.

NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. This is true whether He is speaking about David’s throne or about His eternal gifts to you or about your scarlet sins being as white as snow or about His strength being made perfect in the weakness of your present suffering or about Him being with you when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. No matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 1:20). All of God’s promises to bless you are fulfilled in Him who took on flesh in the virgin’s womb.

NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. His word to baby Ulrich today is that “Baptism now saves you” (I Peter 3:21), that you are baptized into the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), that you are born again of water and the Spirit (John 3). His promises to you in your baptism are the same. How can water do such great things? It may seem as impossible as a virgin conceiving.
But remember it is not simple water but water included with God’s command and combined with God’s Word, and NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.

Luther once quoted Saint Bernard concerning our text who declared there are here three miracles: first - that God and man should be joined in this child; second - that a mother should remain a virgin; third - that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her. The last is not the least of the three…Had she not believed, she could not have conceived.

Beloved, see what a treasure God has given you in the miracle of faith! What is foolish to a dying world is precious to you. What is moronic in the eyes of worldly wisdom is marvelous in your eyes. The mystery that was kept secret for long ages has now been revealed, and wonder of wonders you believe it. He through whom all things were created has come among us as a creature. He who created the universe and threw the stars into space was so small a speck in the universe as a few cells in His virgin mother’s womb. He was there for only one reason, to forgive your sins, to take you out of death to life.

Dear Christians, you also are a “favored one” a “graced one” of God. He delights in nothing more than in giving you the life and salvation Christ brought into this world. That’s why He comes into your midst to serve you today. You cannot build Him a house. But He has built you a house that will last forever. Indeed, you are living stones built into the very household of God.
Will you ever question your membership in His eternal house? Absolutely! Will you doubt God’s love at times? Certainly! Will you be tempted to despair when held in captivity by loneliness or illness or grief? Of course! Will you be sorely tested both by the pressures and by the fleeting enticements of this passing world? Yes! As long as we live in this sinful world we will waver. But God doesn’t waver. The Lord is faithful to His promises. NO WORD IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!

He has promised that nothing can separate you from God’s love in Christ Jesus. He has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you. He has promised to strengthen you through the preaching of Jesus Christ. He has promised that He will finally give you rest from all your enemies even the last enemy of death. May it be done to you and to me according to the Word of God. In the Name of Jesus, AMEN.

3rd Sunday in Advent

Vicar Michael Monterastelli
John 1:6-8, 19-28

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:3).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, before God appeared to us in the Flesh, He sent John “the locust eater.” He was a sight to see. A bit of a spectacle. Not like the other priest’s kids. His fellow Pharisees and Levites wondered, “Who do you think you are, John?” Though he prophesied, he was not The Prophet. He was more than a prophet. He was the last of the prophets. Jesus called him the greatest of men born of women. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He is the Voice. He calls out to us to tell us the Lord is coming after him. The Lord is right behind him. Standing right there for all to see. He who has eyes to see, let him see.

The One of whom John preached was already standing there among them. And John couldn’t wait to point us to Him. Even in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, he leapt for joy at the sound of the virgin mother’s voice. Even as a pre-born infant John pointed people to Jesus as if to say, “Hey, that’s Him! That’s God in the flesh!” John ‘the aspiring locust eater’ leapt for joy, his mother Elizabeth shouted for joy, and mother Mary sang. (Luke 1:39ff)

John ‘the locust eater’ pointed. Rules of etiquette don’t apply to prophets. His life’s work also included eating locusts and wild honey, while wearing camel skins. He even waded in the muddy Jordan; and invited others to repent and join him. He was made a spectacle in order to get your attention and point you to Jesus.

John was not only a locust eater. He is the Voice crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord.” He was a witness of the Light from God. The locust eater baptized and preached repentance. That was his vocation – his ministry.

Like the stereotypical man, who at one time could be seen standing on sidewalks (a sort of concrete wilderness) wearing a sign instead of camel skins, crying out, “Repent! The end is near!”, so also is John-the-Voice crying out in the wilderness. John came to draw your attention away from things that don’t really matter so you would start paying attention to the one thing needful! To Jesus!

John beckons us from the desert to open our eyes and acknowledge the wilderness in which we live. In this world of choose-your-own-belief-system, John pleads with you to “Come out of your make-belief world. Come and face reality. You are vulnerable and weak. Who knows when your heart will beat its last. You cannot stop a bullet. Flu shots won’t protect everyone from every mutant virus. Stone houses look permanent compared to wooden ones or mud huts, but even stones can be thrown down and dashed to dusty pieces. You have no safety in yourself or in man-made contraptions. These things only offer false comfort. All of your life is fragile. If the twin towers can be brought down in a single act of hateful violence, how much more the things of your life.

Still, even in desperate times, we are all prone to sell our birth rite for a bowl of soup. You turn in on yourself, away from God. We all do it. We are too easily consumed with our own desires and earthly fears. So consumed, you neglect your spouse and children, students neglect their fellow students and teachers, and all of us have neglected our parents and co-workers. We’ve all neglected that proverbial man robbed, beaten and lying in the ditch. When our desires are not met, we are likely to be broken-hearted or feel sorry for ourselves. Our sinful desires for fame, entertainment and ease imprison our hearts and minds. Wake up. Repent. You are in danger of losing everything. Repent before it is too late. Repent for there is joyous Hope.

There is One whose sandal straps we are all unworthy to untie. He is not filthy like we are. He is pure, clean, and righteous. He is the God of Moses and Elijah in our Flesh. He gives Himself for and to you, to make you safe and free, wholly alive again. He baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit in the waters with His Name.

He bestows righteousness. He forgives, restores, and renews without checking your transcripts or credit history, without a payment schedule, without references or oaths, without any cost or demand or restrictions! He forgives. He loves. He is the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

He removes every single one of your sins: small and large, calculated and plotting, or passionate stupidity. He fixes it all. He makes it better. He overcomes your lust, your anger, your past, your laziness. He gives you a future again. And that is what matters. Not who John was, some locust eating preacher destined to die alone in prison; not who you are, but who Jesus is. He is the Christ! The long-expected Lover of your soul who wants you despite your flaws and rebellion, who restores you to the kingdom. That is the one thing needful, who He is, and who He calls you to be in Him: His beloved Bride.

Here in the wilderness it is hard to believe that is what matters. It seems at times like what matters is remembering to send every friend and relative a Christmas card, or realizing your potential, or getting all A’s, or getting the honor and respect you crave from your brothers and sisters and parents. It seems like what matters is never being bored for an instant or having every craving and desire fulfilled, never waiting for anything that you want. It even seems at times like what matters most is justice, that life would be fair, that you and your loved ones would never be shorted or suffer in anyway.

But that stuff doesn’t matter on the Last Day. What matters then, is that the virgin’s Son went to the cross to redeem you, body and soul. What matters then, is that He comes to you in flesh & blood. As John pointed people to Jesus, so also the Holy Spirit of our Lord continues to point us to Jesus in word & water, in bread & wine. He rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He is the Christ, the Messiah. He is the One anointed to be your Savior. He loves you even when no one else does or can. That is what drove John. It drives us as well.

Fact is, you already do what Paul told the Thessalonians: ‘Rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances because He who calls you is faithful; and He does it.’ God-pleasing rejoicing is found no where else than in the midst of repentance and hope in God’s mercy.

Leaping and singing and boasting in the Lord. This is what it can mean to rejoice in the Lord always. To give thanks in all circumstances. And Jesus does it. He does it all. He does it perfectly. He does it for you. He who calls you is faithful.

People get ready. Jesus is coming. The end approaches. What you endure now is almost over. Jesus is coming! Believers, Rejoice!

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon you. The Lord brings good news to the poor. He binds up the broken-hearted. He proclaims liberty to the captives and opens the prison. Those who mourn, He comforts and gives a beautiful head-dress instead of ashes. He exchanges your faint spirit with His garment of praise and oil of gladness. With mourners transformed into oaks of righteousness He builds up and repairs what was ruined and raises up what was devastated. The Lord who loves justice has clothed you with garments of salvation; He has covered you with His robe of righteousness.

Go in Peace. You stand forgiven.

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

2nd Sunday in Advent

December 4, 2005
Chaplain Christiansen
Text: Mark 1:1-11

In Nomine Iesu. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” (Mark 1:3)

Preparation. The season of Advent is about preparation. Preparing for the holidays and the holy days of Christmas. Preparing for the end of all things and the coming of Jesus in glory. Preparing the way of parents expecting their first child prepare - with anticipation, excitement, fear, and joy all at the same time - preparing for the baby’s arrival. In fact, Advent is like a pregnancy. Time is pregnant with the Promise of God. Christ is near. It’s time to get ready.
Our guide for our Advent journey today is John the Baptizer. He hardly needs an introduction. Of all the characters in the Bible, I don’t think there is anyone stranger than John. Jesus called cousin John the greatest man ever born, though I daresay he doesn’t stack up to our world’s measure of greatness. John never invented anything, never led a nation, never ran a corporation, never wrote a popular song or directed a movie or authored a book. He spent his days baptizing and preaching, paving the way for cousin Jesus to make His grand appearance. And when his preaching and baptizing days were ended, his head became a present for King Herod’s mistress.

The religious leaders of John’s day concluded he had a demon. Today’s critics would say that John was narrow, out of touch, intolerant, a religious fanatic, perhaps even a psychopath. We’d put him on Prozac and ship him off to the coast to chill for a while.

John lived as one who was “in the world but not of the world.” Clothed in camel’s hair and a leather belt, John was unfashionable, rough, untamed, non-conforming.

He didn’t care about the latest trends in fashion or style. If “clothes make the man,” then John was doomed from the start. Subsisting on a wilderness diet of locusts and wild honey, John lived by the hand of God. John came out of that OT tradition called the “Nazerites,” ascetics who voluntarily gave up the pleasures of life to point people to God. People like that make us uncomfortable with our comfortable lifestyles. They should. That’s the point. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

John was a revolutionary without an army, a radical who didn’t hesitate to call the high and mighty to repent, even when it cost him his own freedom and life. He was a rebel whose cause was nothing less than the kingdom of God.

John came from the wilderness where he was raised. We can only speculate about his early life. Luke’s version of the Gospel simply tells us that John “grew and became strong in the spirit, and was in the wilderness until the day of his manifestation to Israel.”

Some think that John grew up in one of those wilderness messianic communities called the Essenes who were preparing the way for the Lord in the wilderness. You’ll remember that John’s parents - Zechariah and Elizabeth - were quite old when John was untimely born. Perhaps it was the Essenes, or a group like them, that gave John his wilderness roots.

He called Israel back into the wilderness, a kind of reverse exodus across the Jordan, away from the safety and security of priest and king, of synagogue and temple. He called Israel back to the wilderness, the place of testing and temptation. The wilderness, where God has first made a nation out of a rag tag bunch of slaves.

It was time for Israel to start over. To repent. To come to a new mind, a re-cognition of who they were and who God was. The religious types, so invested in the creed, cult, and conduct of Judaism, wanted nothing to do with John. He was a threat to the status quo, a threat to their religious power base, a threat to the institution. John was the kind of guy that institutions keep a careful eye on. Not a team player, not a company man.

The religious leaders rejected his baptism. What was this ritual washing unknown to Judaism? Where did John come up with this? And why did the clean need to be cleansed? Washing was for the filthy - those traitor tax collectors and prostitutes and immoral sinners and Gentiles.
They rejected John’s message. What sins did they have to confess? They were the ones who walked the walk and talked the talk; they were the teachers of the Torah. How dare John instruct them. They were the religious people, the righteous people, the people everyone looked up to as role models and examples of righteousness. How dare this shaggy prophet from the desert call them a bunch of snakes! Who did he think he was, anyway?

John was a voice. Just a voice, calling in the wilderness. Prepare. Get ready. John was a prophetic voice. The voice of Elijah. It was no coincidence that John appeared in the Jordan wilderness. That was the place where the prophet Elijah had been whisked off to heaven in a fiery chariot. And it’s no quirk that John appeared wearing camel’s hair and a leather belt. That was the clothing of Elijah. John’s voice was the prophetic voice of the entire OT. Through John, all the prophets were crying out together: Get ready! Prepare! Pave the highway! The Lord is near!

By all appearances, John was popular with the people. They flocked to him in droves. Mark says the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Perhaps they came out of curiosity, to get a look at this strange preacher. But those who heard his preaching and took it to heart, went away dripping wet with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of their sins.

They came confessing their sins to John. John is called “the Baptizer.” You might just as well call him “the Confessor” too. People brought the dirty laundry of their lives to John - their blasphemies and idolatries and adulteries and murders and thefts and lies, their misdemeanors and their felonies. And he baptized them into the forgiveness of their sins. He washed away their sins with water and the word.

Who would ever have thought that sin could be dealt with like this? With water. In the OT, sins were cleansed in the temple was with blood sacrifice. But John introduced a baptism, a washing with water for the forgiveness of sins. Something new and different. John was preparing the people for the end of all sacrifices and the appearing of God’s Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world.

Through John, God was saying, “The time is coming when my Son will shed His blood once for all, and I will no longer ask for blood sacrifice. Instead you will be baptized into His death, into the forgiveness that’s in His blood. John’s baptism was a kind of sacramental bridge between the old testament and the new. Jesus was new wine, and John was the new wineskin.

The people came away from John’s baptism washed and forgiven and free. It’s amazing. Dirty Jordan river water cleanses from sin. How can water do such great things? You know the answer. It’s not just the water but the Word in and with the water. The promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation in the Son of God. Remember Naaman, the Syrian general, who was cured of his leprosy in the Jordan at the word of Elisha. Water and the Promise of God make baptism more than a bath.

For the people of John’s day, this was a fresh start, a new beginning, a rebirth. People whose lives were so messed up were given a new start. Can you imagine the joy, the freedom, the hope that these newly baptized people must have experienced there in the Jordan. They had a reason to get up in the morning. Messiah was coming. They were prepared for Him. Someone was coming after John, someone so great John said he wasn’t worthy to bend down to untie his sandal straps. Someone who would bring an even greater baptism than John’s. He would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

What’s your hope? What are you looking forward to? What are you preparing for? Do you get up in the morning with a sense of urgency, anticipation, expectation? Christ is near. He is coming soon and quickly. Prepare the way of the Lord. The danger lies in the distractions, those potholes on the royal highway. We get so caught up in things temporal we lose sight of things eternal. We get so caught up in the “spirit of the holidays” that we miss out on the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens us out of our Baptism.

You are baptized. Or if you aren’t, then I would urge to be baptized. Not in the Jordan wilderness. That was John’s baptism. But in the church, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are baptized with the greater Baptism, greater than John’s baptism. John’s baptism prepared people for the first Advent of the Christ.

Jesus’ Baptism prepares you for His second advent. You’re baptized. Washed with water and the Word, born of water and the Holy Spirit, buried in the death of Jesus, clothed with Christ. Baptism isn’t just an event in your life, something that happened to you one day. Baptism is your life, it defines who you are and whose you are. You didn’t choose this for yourself, you were chosen. You are part of a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people set apart by God for a purpose.

You and I, we’re John the Baptizer for this world of ours. When Jesus said to His disciples, “Go and make disciples of all the nations by baptizing and teaching” He was telling His church to do the same thing John did. Baptize, teach. Prepare the nations to meet their Maker and Redeemer. Prepare the world for the coming of Jesus.

Like John, our clothing is odd, out of step with the religious fashions of the world. No, we’re not called to wear camel’s hair and leather. That may have been fashionable for prophets of the old testament, but not the new. While the world parades around in its winter collection of religions, you’ve been given to wear the seamless robe of Jesus’ righteousness. That’s your clothing. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.” And in this world of ours, you may as well be wearing camel hair and leather. But wear it proudly, and don’t hide Christ in the closet while you try to blend in. You can’t. You’re strange, you’re different, you’re weird. You’re a Christian. Get used to it.

We’re not called to eat honey coated locusts, either, thank goodness! In fact, John never asked anyone to join him in his odd, macrobiotic diet. I’m surprised no one has picked up on this with our penchant for imitating the Bible. We have “Ezekiel bread” and we even have a cookbook entitled “What Did Jesus Eat?” But I’ve never seen a book based on John’s diet. A stunt on Fear Factor, perhaps. But I don’t see honey coated grasshoppers becoming the next rage in spiritual dieting. Still, when you think about it, our diet does strike the world strange. Every week we engage in a ritual meal - a little piece of bread and a sip of wine, that unique and wonderful Supper of Jesus’ Body and Blood. Our wilderness food. Manna from heaven. The joy of the wedding feast come to us. A foretaste of the feast to come.

Do you feel you aren’t worthy for such great things? You’re not alone. John said he wasn’t worthy to stoop down to Jesus’ feet to untie his sandals. John was a sinner, born into the fallen condition that is common to all of us children of Adam and Eve. But that didn’t stop John, nor should it stop any of us from worshipping Jesus as the Christ and pointing the way to His coming. John’s worthiness was not in himself, in his diet, his dress, his zeal. His worthiness was entirely in cousin Jesus, the One who was coming to stoop down to death to take away the world’s sin and conquer death once and for all.

Worthy is the Lamb. And in Him worthy are you. Get ready for more. The Lord is near.
Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Sermon originally preached by Rev. WM Cwirla on the 8th of December 2002 at Holy Trinity - Hacienda Heights.

1st Sunday in Advent

Vicar Michael Monterastelli
Texts: Mark 11:1-10, Isaiah (63:16b-17), 64:1-9; 1 Cor. 1:3-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:3).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, He is coming. That’s what Advent means, “He comes.” The Savior of the nations. Hosanna in the highest. He who comes in the Name of the Lord. That’s what Advent means for the Church of all ages. That’s what the season of Advent is for. People of Christ get ready. Be prepared. Soon we shall commemorate the blessed birth of the Messiah, when He came in the flesh.

Jesus prepared his disciples. He taught them. He sent them out. He told them what to say. “The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.” These are powerful words. They are words which prevent two of Jesus’ disciples from losing their lives as horse thieves. Instead, Jesus’ words (spoken by two of His disciples) transformed those men who looked to everyone else like horse thieves, into faithful disciples of the Lord. They became living martyrs, or witnesses. That’s what the Greek term marterion means. It means witness. Like all faithful disciples, they became living martyrs of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

These words of Jesus transformed these men and freed the colt from bondage. The colt, on which no rider had sat, became part of the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy (Zech 9:9). “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” His disciples threw their cloaks on the colt and He sat on it, as no man had done before.

Many other men made martyrs of their cloaks by throwing them in the filth of the polluted road. Others spread leafy branches from the field. And all who attended this holy and humble procession of the Savior of the nations, both those martyrs who went before and those who came after, shouted the Sanctus, which has become part of the divine communion liturgy, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! (Ps. 118:26), … Hosanna in the highest!”

Like no god has done before or after Him, Jesus acts for those who wait for Him (Is. 64:4). He meets those who joyfully work righteousness, who do right, and remember Jesus in their way of life (Is. 64:5). He comes along a filthy road of witnesses. Humble and lowly. Riding on a young and humble colt. Treading along the road paved by the polluted garments of humble martyrs. Leading the way to the prophet’s reward. This road only goes one way. It leads to death; and from death to eternal life.

But who of us can look at our life and say, ‘I have remembered Jesus as He wants me to remember Him’? “Eat My body and drink My blood in remembrance of Me”, says Jesus. By this He tells us to eat and drink His food, the food He gives to us, believing that He is here now to feed you with His body and blood. “Do this in My remembrance”, that is, “receive Me in the faith I have given you.”

Who of us has become a living martyr for Jesus? Who has sacrificed no small amount of material goods and fame as a living martyr of Jesus? Well, we all could point to something. But as soon as we did, we’d be lost again. Repent. We can’t point to our works for proof of our worthiness, for Isaiah reminds us, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Is. 64:6). We must point anyone who asks us, to Christ and Christ alone. By His Word He prepares us to remember Him. He teaches us. He calls us to His table. He sends us out and tells us what to say. He remembers us.

Advent! Jesus is coming. He does not remember iniquity, but takes it from us. Like a thief. He takes what is not His, what He has not earned. At His Baptism, He transformed Himself in the polluted water of the Jordan River. He changed from the one who is most worthy of heaven, to the one who is the most unworthy of all. Thankfully, in order to destroy the death which we have stored up for ourselves, He became like one us, worthy of death.

For you, He suffered death and hell. For you, He rose from the grave to lead you victorious into His eternal presence.

Advent! The Savior of the nations comes, righteous and having salvation, humble, and seated on a colt. Because of this, because of Him, you will be saved. The potter comes to mold his clay vessels. You are the work of His creative hands. Fashioned, since that day your mother conceived you, into vessels of His grace — grace poured on you in Baptism — grace poured into you from the cup of His salvation. As you patiently wait for the final Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, He sustains you to the end, to be guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful. He will do it. Hosanna in the highest! We are Yours, come and save us, dear Lord! Amen.

Thanksgiving

Vicar Michael Monterastelli
Texts: Luke 17:11-19, Dt. 8:1-10, 1 Timothy 2:1-4

On this national day of thanksgiving, Christians give ear to Jesus’ words: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”

These were the healing words of Jesus for those ten former lepers.

The men had suffered what many people would call hell on earth. They were lepers. They were unclean according to the Law. That means they were more than diseased. They suffered more than physical pain and disfigurement from rotting flesh. They were cut-off from family and most of their friends. They were forsaken by their community. They were almost completely alone. Though alive, they were treated like dead men. As bad as it was, it was not hell on earth. There is no such thing as hell on earth. By the grace of God in Jesus Christ, hell only exists in hell. Thus we always give thanks for everyone and for all things, because, bad as it is, it is not as bad as it could be.

In hell, those men would not even have had each other for consolation and friendship. Most of all, they would not have had Jesus. If only at a distance, they could still call to Him as He briefly passed through their village on the path to Jerusalem.

So like the Canaanite woman (Mt. 15:22), they yelled at the top of their lungs, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And He answered, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And so, according to the way of the Law, they went, but as they were going, before they even did what the Law required, they were cleansed. Just as the prophet Isaiah told us three weeks ago, God is the one who has performed for us all our works (Is. 26:12); so also, based on the work of Jesus’ words, all ten men were cleansed from their leprosy. They were no longer alienated from their community. The Word of God healed them. Not the priests. Not the Law. Regardless of whether they truly trusted in Jesus above all things, the Word of God made them clean.

But did you notice what the Samaritan did? (that good ol’ foreign outcast)? He was the only one to actually praise God. Whether he actually showed himself to the priests or not is made irrelevant by the text. He was clean and he praised God. But did you also notice how he praised God? By turning back. He turned back from the way of the Law and re-turned to Jesus instead. The foreigner praised God by praising Jesus! This Jesus is no ordinary man. He is God in the flesh. And Jesus declared, “your faith has saved you.” The foreigner’s faith did something the faith of the other nine did not do. While all of them were made clean, this foreigner, was also saved. His was an active faith, a saving faith. Faith without works is dead. The faith God gives works to save you. It’s working in you now. It ignites a life and death struggle for your soul – a struggle between your old sinful man and your new man in Christ. This kind of faith is a gift of God, or else anyone could boast in himself rather than in Jesus.

But what of the faith which brought these lepers to Jesus in the first place? Jesus was traveling, healing people, and forgiving sin. These men had heard of Him.

These men were desperate to find relief for their earthly suffering. They knew Jesus could heal them. If they went to Him, He would heal them. That is one way that the Law works. It imposes itself on desperate men and tells them where to go and what to do. The Law can tell them where to find healing, but it does not give it to them.

For a time, the Law is obeyed. At least until we get what we want, or worse, give up wanting the good things we’ve hoped for in Jesus. Either way, our obedience quickly turns away from God. Our earthly minds always prefer earthly results through earthly kings and earthly delight. Faith in Christ does not promise predictable earthly results. When earthly benefits come because of faith, they come to serve your neighbor as God completes His work through you. The thief who confessed Christ on the cross still died on the cross. But because of His saving faith, he joined Jesus in paradise that same Friday. And the Holy Spirit recorded His confession for our ears to hear today. “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”

There is much to give thanks for on this Thanksgiving Day! One of the things we thank God for is that our government has been able to prevent major terrorist attacks on our soil since those of 9/11, 2001. Many people outwardly remembered Jesus after those attacks. They filled Christian churches for several weeks. But soon, their desire for their own earthly pursuits turned them away from Jesus once again. The winds of change blew them back into their old habits. This truth of sinful human behavior is a bitter one. Americans filled churches for a brief time. But almost all did not remain. They got their fix of comfort, did what they thought was their duty, and went back to their old ways. Just as the other nine former lepers. Others people may have continued to remain in Christ through His Word. Just as the one foreign former leper. Their lives and eternities were changed by the Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. They were caused to realize that man does not live forever on bread alone, but by His every Word. Jesus is the Word of God who is the bread of life on which you feed and are saved.

What happens to a drunkard or an abusive spouse after they’ve hit rock bottom can be the same. Filled with remorse for what they’ve done, they cry out for help and treatment. And once they’ve got what they think they’ve come for, or at least made a good show of it, they may go back to their old ways. Old ways create well worn paths. Not only are they hard to get out of, but they’re hard to stay out of. Bad habits are hard to break. But that’s why we have Jesus. He is here to pull us out of the ditch we’ve dug for ourselves. He comes to us and we cry out with a LOUD voice, “O LORD, HAVE MERCY ON ME! I’M YOURS! SAVE ME!” And He does.

Because of His mercy, we give thanks for all things. For leprosy which combined with God’s Law and Gospel drove ten men to Jesus and one of them back again to give Him thanks and praise. Despite drunkenness, cancer, terrorists, physical and verbal abuse. Despite misguided church leaders, and natural disasters. We give thanks to God for all things. Despite women fooled into having abortions. Despite babies they’ll never hold.

We give thanks to God in Jesus Christ because whatever happens, God works to bring us to recognize the leprosy which is rotting our flesh and bones, so we will stop relying on ourselves and re-turn to Jesus, whose mercy endures forever. Our suffering is not insignificant. But neither is it the true and actual cost of our sins. For this reason, we delight in the Lord and give thanks.

There is much to give thanks for on this Thanksgiving Day! We give thanks for our country in which we have the freedom to publicly worship the one true God through Jesus Christ. We thank God for the clothes that have not worn out on us; for our daily bread and everything that supports the needs of our bodies; for devout spouses and devoted children; for butchers and bakers and utility providers; for construction workers, farmers, miners and manufacturers; for those who defend us against danger; for devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, and self-control; for good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like.

The Word of God heals, His faith saves, His mercy endures forever. And that is reason enough to always give thanks in all things – whether we keep our jobs or not, whether governments feed and educate their poor or not, whether your children honor you or not, whether men lie and misbehave and drag us down or not, whether our synod, our country, or our families endure or not. We give thanks always in all things because even though Jesus Christ died, he did not stay dead. He rose for us. He lives for us. He gives to us His body and blood. He heals us both body and soul. The sadness and disappointment in this life is not all there is. For even as the worst and most horrendous day here is not as bad as an instant in hell, so also the very best day here with family and friends and good food, in peace and safety, cannot compare to what is to come.

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of [clean] water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and [seed bearing] fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat [warm] bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

In Jesus’ + Name, Amen.