3rd Sunday after the Epiphany; Luke 4:16-29

"Fulfilled in Your Hearing"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            What would it hurt?  They’re clamoring for one.  They all know He can do it.  He did a few in Capernaum, so why not in His hometown among His friends and relatives?  They want to see a miracle but Jesus won’t do it.  He has something else for them, something better, something that produces faith… He’s there to preach.

            Jesus goes to church, to the synagogue, opens the scroll,  and reads Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
 because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” 

            He sits down, with all eyes upon Him.  You can just imagine it.  He reads the scroll, not as one who simply reads the words on the page, but as one who inspired the words in the first place.  “And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”  They marveled at His preaching.  They’d never heard anything like it before.  The Scripture has been fulfilled in their ears?  But then the crowd turns as if they’re thinking, “Wait a minute.  Is He saying that He’s the one who Isaiah was prophesying about?  But this is Joseph’s kid.  He’s the one who played tag in the street with our children.  We watched Him grow up here in this very city.  Is He actually saying that He’s the anointed one, the one we’ve been long expecting?  Impossible!”  The crowd quickly turns.

            Jesus, knowing their thoughts, responds, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.”  Can you blame them?  Wouldn’t it be easy to have faith if Jesus just did a little miracle?  Why can’t miracles happen all the time among us Christians, then we could really bring them in.  Why doesn’t Jesus empower us to heal the sick, make the lame walk, raise the dead, turn water into wine, then we’d be full every week!  But that’s not how God rules in His Kingdom.  He rules by His Word.  His simple, plain-Jane Word. 

            The Old Adam, the sinful nature, is a glory junkie.  It’s attracted to the flashy, the shiny, the spectacular, the charismatic.  It loves miracles, but words?  What can words do?  Why not do a miracle or two and then everyone would believe?  Well, because miracles don’t create faith, but God’s Word does.  Miracles can only confirm faith that’s already there. 

            The Nazareth synagogue had the Word. They had just heard the prophetic Word spoken to them by the Word Incarnate. What more could they possibly have needed? What more do we need than the Word in all its marvelous forms? Oh, we think we need more. Remember, the old Adam is a glory junkie of the first order. It loves those signs and wonders, which as Jesus Himself reminds us, can even deceive the elect. Jesus knows. Yes, He did miracles for the fringes, for those on the outskirts, for those dwelling in darkness, for those who didn’t have Moses and the prophets. Yes, Jesus did miracles for His fellow Israelites – healing the sick, cleansing the leprous, raising the dead.

            But these were pointers, signposts to something greater. Miracles aren’t an end in themselves, and when they become that, they become a kind of idolatry, a false religion. The greatest thing that could be said was said in the synagogue at Nazareth. The Scripture had been fulfilled in the ears of the people. The Word of God had hit its target. The Spirit of was seeking to create faith through their ears.

            And so it is for you.  This is why you’re here.  To the eye, there’s nothing flashy going on here.  There’s no emotional out bursts, no making the lame walk, there’s no restoring sight to the blind.  Here we get out of the way so that Christ can speak and be heard.  His Word of the Gospel, here, rings out like a finely tuned bell.  The Scriptures and fulfilled in your hearing.  “Faith comes by hearing, ” Paul writes; ears are the organ of faith. 

            The Old Adam is addicted to the flashy, but faith looks at what Jesus does on the cross and the Old Adam passes over it. He dies on a cross.  For you.  For your sins.  It looks ordinary, it’s beyond reason, but this Jesus who preaches in the midst of His towns people, the Son of God, dies.  For you.  The greatest miracle that Jesus carries in Himself the sins of the world, your sins and mine.  He takes what the Old Adam sinfully desires for itself and dies on a cross. 

You have the Word, as surely as that synagogue in Nazareth that day Jesus preached to them. You have the Word in your Baptism, God’s signature seal upon you that you are His and He is yours. You have the Word in the word of forgiveness, that absolving Word preached into your own ears, fulfilled in your hearing. You have the Word of Christ in His Supper, speaking to you, “My Body given for you; my Blood shed for you.” You have the Word in greater richness and abundance than any generation before in the history of God’s people. And it’s the singular evidence of our sinful condition and the old Adam in us that we value God’s Word so little; that we don’t flock to hear and receive, that we, like the Nazareth synagogue, would throw Jesus over a cliff rather than deal with His Word.

Faith comes by hearing the Word. Your faith comes by your hearing the Word of Jesus. And that Word is, here today for you, seeking its fulfillment in your hearing. By the Word of Jesus, you are forgiven. By the Word of Jesus, you are fed. By the Word of Jesus, your faith is created and sustained. By the Word of Jesus, you have freedom from sin, from death, from the devil, from the damning sentence of the Law. All in the Word of Jesus, delivered to you, which, today is fulfilled in your hearing and your believing.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany; John 2:1-11

"Water into Wine"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            The Holy Bridegroom, Jesus, comes to His bride, the Church, and so what better setting to do His first sign (in John’s Gospel, miracles are called signs) than at a wedding feast?  People are making marry, libations are flowing freely, joy, laughter, celebration!  But there’s a problem.  A huge problem.  A big humiliation is about to take place.  The wine has run out.  It’s only the third day and this shindig is supposed to go on for seven days!

            One wonders if Mary wasn’t related to the bride or groom since she tries to intervene.  “They have no more wine,” she tells her son.  But Jesus hasn’t come to earth to keep the party going.  He hasn’t come to rescue us from every embarrassing situation.  He hasn’t come so that we would be in a partying mood 24/7.  This life is filled with bitter gulps of sour wine.  Where children, that God has created, are destroyed in abortion.  Where the worth of a life is measured in what one can or can’t do instead of measuring their worth by God who creates them and dies for them.  Jesus doesn’t want to be the life of the party, but he comes for the life of the world.  He’s come to save the world from its sins; to go to the cross so that the sins that weigh you down would taken from you.  So that you would be set free from the life of bondage to sin that we’ve been placed under. 

“They have no more wine,” Jesus’ mother informs Him; but, His hour won’t come until He’s delivered into the hands of sinful men and be placed on a cross.  Still, Mary has faith in her Son and is relentless in her petition.  “Do whatever He tells you,“ she commands the servants of the wedding feast.  And so, Jesus fulfills Amos 9:14, “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine…” 

Jesus answers His mother’s request.  He keeps the party going.  On the third day of the wedding feast, the same day that God created the vegetation, including grapes, the same day that Jesus is raised from the dead, Jesus does His first sign.  John records, “Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.  When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew) the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 

            What a statement by the master of the feast.  The best has been saved for last.  This life is filled with disappointments, disasters, murdering of children, measuring the worth of a life based on external things.  There’s no doubt that this world is messed up but Jesus comes to drink down the cup of the Father’s wrath in its fullest for the world; for you.  His hour of glory comes on the cross, where things change.  On Calvary’s hill, there isn’t any water used for ceremonial washing, but water that streams from His side that spills on the ground of this fallen world.  The same water that cleanses you, washes you clean in baptism.  Wine doesn’t flow from our Lord’s side, but life-blood that cascades in a cleansing stream onto a world full of death.  Jesus changes water into wine at the beginning of John’s Gospel and at the end, water and blood flow from His sacred body.  I’ve seen artwork depicting this water and blood flowing from Jesus; the water is flowing right into the baptismal font, the blood into a chalice. 

            Truly God has saved the very best for last for you. “The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ.” And you, as baptized believers, are privileged to taste and see that the Lord is good, to sample His vintage, and have a foretaste of a marriage feast that never ends but goes on forever in Paradise. You’re part of it; you’re in on it; you have a seat at the heavenly wedding banquet. Like those surprised guests at Cana in Galilee who got to drink wine from heaven that day because Jesus was among them, today, you receive a foretaste of that wedding feast to come. 

            “His disciples believe in Him.” They trusted Him; they took Him at His word. Notice not everyone believed in Him – not the guests, the wine steward, or even the bride and groom. There are many in this world who don’t know what Christ has done for them.  There are those hurting because of their sins.  Mothers and fathers hurting because of they chose the death for their children instead life.  Doctors whose consciences are vexed because of the lives that they’ve taken.  We must bring to them the balm of His Gospel.  That even abortion, murder, and even your deepest and darkest sins have been covered with the blood that flows from the cross.

At Cana in Galilee, on the cross, here in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, Jesus manifests His glory for faith. He’s here to feed you with the Bread of His Body, to gladden you hearers with the wine of His blood for the forgiveness of your sins, to bring you joy overflowing and unending, so that you would believe on Him and live forever in the eternal Marriage Feast.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

President Harrison Epiphany Greetings

The Baptism of Our Lord; Romans 6:1-11

"Buried and Raised with Christ"

            When we hear what God has to say to us in the Epistle reading for this morning, you may be a bit confused.  Are we dead or alive?  The text goes back and forth, we’re dead, we’re alive, we’re alive, we’re dead.  Which is it? 

            Looking out at you all, it appears that everyone here is alive.  If you’re not sure, go ahead and check your pulse.  I’m assuming that everyone here qualifies as being alive.  So what does the text mean that we’re dead?

            We’re all born physical alive but Scripture teaches something different about our spiritual state.  We’re conceived and born dead.  Not even mostly dead but all dead.  This is taught clearly in Ephesians 2, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.”   We’re physically alive but we’re spiritually dead.  Those who lie in caskets can’t choose for themselves life and so it is for our spiritual state.

            We confess, with Luther, in the 3^rd Article of the Creed that, “I cannot by my own strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him…”  It’s like placing a rock on the ground and waiting for it to come to you.  It can’t do anything unless it’s acted upon by some outside force.  It’s the same with us.  We’re dead, in our sinfulness and we can’t make the decision to come to God, we can’t choose to make ourselves spiritually alive any more than a rock sitting on the ground can decide to become alive and come to you. 

            But thanks be to God that He has seen our wretched state, our sinful condition, He’s seen our dead, helpless selves and He did something about it.  He sends Jesus.  Jesus who leaves His heavenly throne, is born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, was crucified, died, and was raised again, all for you.  He saw you dead in your sins and sends Jesus for you in order to bring you life.  So that God would bend down to earth, breathe the breath of life into you, and make you alive in Him.  He beholds you as a rock on the ground and says to you, “I forgive you.  You’re my dearest treasure.  You are my beloved child.”  Jesus, who wins salvation for you and the world, that all who trust in Him would not be dead, but have life and have it eternally. 

            How does such a gift that Christ has won for the world come to you?  How can the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation be delivered to you?  Baptism.  The Holy Spirit takes all that Christ has died for on His cross and brings it to you, traverses time and space in order that these gifts that Christ has paid for with His precious blood would be given to you here and now through Baptism.  Water connected with God’s Word. It looks simple.  To the eye, there’s nothing special about it, but in those waters of baptism, God does His work of making the dead alive.  He takes us from slavery and death, to freedom and life.  In your baptism, God delivers the goods to you.  God makes all of us alive.  We were dead, but now we’re alive.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised form the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”  Baptism connects us to Christ’s death and resurrection and all that He has won for you from the cross and His glorious resurrection. 

And yet, we’re still sinners.  Baptism has drowned the Old Adam but, as Luther once joked, he swims really well.  We’re constantly not doing the things we want to do.  We’re constantly doing the things we know we shouldn’t do.  We’re, at the same time, sinners and saints.  There’s a war that wages in every Christian.  We’re alive but death and sin still cling to us like a cancer. 

So what’s the answer?  What do we do when the Old Adam, lurks its ugly head.  What do you do when you feel the icy breath of Satan accusing you of your sins.  Return to your baptism, remember your baptism.  And I don’t mean get out the picture album or the video tape, but remember, each and every day, that you’re baptized.   It’s not just a something that happened in the past, but your head is still drenched with baptismal water.  Begin each day by saying, “I am baptized into Christ.”  And in remembering your baptisms, we die.  The Old Adam is drowned.  We kill it.  God puts it to death.  So that we can be alive, ready to serve God.  Ready, not to serve ourselves or our self interests, but our neighbors. 

But this Old Adam clings to each of us every day.  Waiting for the opportune moment.  Tempting us to not trust in what God has said.  When will we be delivered form this?  When will these temptations end?  When will we be free from the grip of the Old Adam.  Not until God takes us to be with Him.  It’s only in physical death that baptism is complete. 

But until then let’s live in the baptismal grace our Lord has given us.  Each and everyone of you have been baptized!  Let’s remember our Baptisms, where God makes us dead sinners alive in Him.  Where the gifts of the cross are delivered to you.  Where you’ve been given eternal life.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

The Epiphany of Our Lord; Matthew 2:1-12

 Worshipping in Faith

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            Throughout Advent, God promised to give us a gift.  At Christmas, the gift of gift was given to us.  And, now, throughout Epiphany the gift is unwrapped.

Epiphany means to make manifest, reveal, uncover.  Sometimes we say, “I just had an epiphany,” meaning that we just thought of something that we hadn’t realized before, something was “revealed” to us.   Epiphany is all about Jesus revealing Himself to the world as God incarnate, God in the flesh.  Standard texts of Epiphany are: Jesus’ baptism, His first sign at the wedding at Cana, and concluding the season of Epiphany with the ultimate revealing of His divine nature with His transfiguration.  But, today, we’re told of His being revealed to the Magi, or the Wise men, we might call them scholars.

            These Magi come from the east, where the nation of Israel had once been taken into captivity.  Israel was forced from the land that God had given to them to a land called Babylon where any utterance of God’s Word didn’t exist.  But as the Israelites were hauled off to Babylon they brought with them God’s Word and the confession of their faith in the one true God.  Remember when Daniel, Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship King Nebakanezer’s idols? 

            See how God works out salvation for His people?  Because Israel had gone into captivity into this foreign land, so long ago, and brought with the Scriptures, these Magi, read from God’s Word.  They read of the promises God had made.  They read and studied about the Messiah who was to come to save the world from its sins.  And a miracle happens.  God’s Word creates faith in these gentile Magi.  And what does faith do?  It seeks to worship.

            In our text for this morning, we learn a lot about true worship and false worship.  We learn about a worship that flows from faith and we learn of a worship that flows from sin.  We learn about a worship that has Christ at the center and a worship that has the self at the center.  So, lets’ get to it.

The Magi get the prize for traveling the farthest distance to worship Jesus.  They know that the King of Kings has been born, so they go to where such a king should be found; Jerusalem.  But they, instead, find Herod.  They say to him, ‘Where is He who has been born king of the Jews?  For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”  

            Troubled, paranoid, and sensing completion Herod assembled his wise men, the chief priests and scribes, who studied the Scriptures and reported to him that the King of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem.  “And he sent [the magi] to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.’”

            A false worship.  Herod has no intention of believing in Jesus as His Savior.  Oh, sure, Herod knows the Scriptures but he doesn’t have trust in them.  He uses the Magi for his own evil purposes.  Feeling threatened by this child who is the King of the Jews, he’s out to eliminate the competition.  You won’t learn what true worship is all about from Herod.  He knows what the Scriptures say, he even knows that this child born is the child of whom the Scriptures have prophesied.  But he lacks something.  Something important.  Something critical.  Something you have to have in order to worship God rightly.  He lacks faith.  Knowledge and faith are two different things.  Herod has the knowledge, but doesn’t have the faith, the belief, the trust.  He’s more interested in mob-style hits than true worship. 

            But the Magi, having read and believed all that the Scriptures have to offer, the Word of God creates faith.  They can’t help but get up and go to see this gift that’s been born for them.  They make their search, the follow the star, which leads them to the light of lights, the Epiphany Light.  And there He is, the light who has penetrated this darkened world.  He has come for these gentile Magi.  He comes for you.

            He comes as the suffering servant that the Magi, no doubt, read of in Isaiah’s prophecy.  He comes as the one that all of the Old Testament points to.  He comes for the salvation of the world.  He comes to reveal Himself as God in the flesh; the Savior.  He comes for your salvation by offering Himself as a gift to you on the cross. 

He comes to lighten the darkness of the blackened, sinful heart of the Magi, yours and mine with His own perfect light.

            He’s the king the Magi have come to worship.  And so have you.  What’s the highest form of worship?  What does God expect of you when you come for worship?  What does this baby that the Magi have come to worship require?  Faith.  Simple faith.  A trust in Him and what He has done for you.  A trust holds fast to all that He suffered, and died and that He did it for you.  A trust that the salvation that He has won, He’s won it for you.  Faith is a hand that reaches out and grasps the promises of God.

            That’s true worship.  A worship that’s done out of faith.   A worship in which God acts in His graciousness and mercy and we receive the gift.  A worship that has God giving His good gifts that we, by faith, hold out our hand and receive.  To believe Jesus and trust in  His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation is the highest form of worship.  Gifts that He gives again and again and again because we need His gifts of forgiveness again and again and again.

We don’t come here to, primarily, give God something, but to receive from God.  God acts first in mercy and we respond with our praise and thanksgiving, with words that He has already given us. The Lord hears our confession and forgives our sins and we respond with an Introit Psalm.  The Lord has heard our cries for mercy and we respond with singing, “Glory to God in the Highest…” That’s the rhythm of worship, God gives His gifts and then faith responds with thanksgiving.

            The Magi respond to the gift of Jesus with Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  But even these gifts confess something about Jesus.  Gold, a kingly gift for the King of kings.  Frankincense, a spice that was used in the temple that points to the Priest of priests who will offer the final sacrifice.  Myrrh.  Do you know what myrrh was often used for?  It’s a burial spice.  Remember Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus by night at the beginning of John’s Gospel?  Well, he shows up at Jesus burial in chapter 19 with a mixture of aloes and myrrh.  Myrrh for the Sacrifice of sacrifices, who goes to the altar of the cross for the Magi and for you. 

            These gifts that the Magi bring flow from faith that has received God’s gifts.  Faith wants to give.  So it is for us.  We don’t give our praise because we’re compelled to, but that’s what faith in Christ naturally does.  Faith gives the gifts of time, talents, and treasures; not because we have to, not because we’re compelled to, but because that’s what faith seeks to do, because we’re free to.  Not because God will love you more but it’s a joyous response to the gifts that God has given to you.

            The Magi come to behold the gift of Jesus that has been given to them and that’s why we’re here.  To receive the gifts.  To put out our hands like the beggars that we are and receive from God all that good gifts that He has to give.  The highest form of worship is to, by faith, receive from God all that He has to give through His Son whom He sent to die on the cross for the world and for you.  May this worship always be in our midst.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.