Homily for the Second Sunday after Christmas

(Audio)

Matthew 2:13-23; 1 Peter 4:12-19; Genesis 46:1-7

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

On Christmas Eve, Christians the whole world over heard the precious and familiar story of Jesus’ birth as St. Luke has recorded it in the Gospel that bears his name. St. Luke’s infancy narrative is by far the most familiar and beloved, but it is not the only one. St. Matthew, too, has a narrative of Jesus’ birth, though it is much more compact and seems to serve the specific purpose of demonstrating that the circumstances of Jesus’ birth serve to fulfill specific Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. And, if you attended Divine Service on Christmas Day, then you also heard the very succinct and highly theological birth narrative presented by St. John. However, few Christians are likely aware that there is a fourth narrative of Jesus’ birth in the Holy Scriptures and that it is to be found in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter twelve:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

In stark contrast to the silent and holy night of our imaginations, there is an unseen reality that permeates the story of our Savior’s birth, indeed that was in the world before the incarnation and that remains in the world today, the dragon. Satan, that ancient serpent and tempter, was poised to devour the Christ child upon birth. Indeed, it seems that murderous Herod was but a shadow of the true face of evil as he slaughtered the innocents of Bethlehem in his attempt to destroy Jesus. However, having been warned by the angel of Herod’s furious intent, Joseph packed up his family and fled into Egypt.

Egypt had been the ironic refuge of God’s people since the time of Jacob. Though the Egyptians were pagans who worshiped the sun god Ra, the creator god Amun, and the mother god Isis, along with the Pharaoh himself, God assured Jacob saying, “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again.” And God did indeed make Israel into a great nation in Egypt. But in their prosperity, the people forgot about their homeland in Canaan to the east, and the Egyptians forgot about God’s mercy during the administration of Joseph, and God delivered the Israelites unto slavery.

Egypt is, at once, symbolic of both a place of refuge and sanctuary and the place of enslavement and captivity. Egypt, and the surrounding desert wilderness, is the place where Satan dwells, whether in the form of Pharaoh, wild beasts, or the tempter himself. It is the place of waiting in patient faith and trust for the Lord. It is the place where nurture and protection comes from the Lord alone. God sends His people into Egypt that they might learn to trust in Him for all things. God allows His people to dwell in the midst of tyrants and tempters, war, pestilence, and death that they might find comfort, peace, and hope in Him alone.

Thus, St. Peter writes to you, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” Since the first Israel, Jacob and his descendents, proved themselves unfaithful to the Lord, God sent His Son Jesus, the New Israel, down into Egypt that the prophecy might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” Jesus brings to perfection what old Israel could not. He is the faithful Israel, the embodiment of the people of God. He offers His perfect and holy life in place of our own. He submits Himself to persecution and suffering in order to save us.

Therefore, we should not think it strange when we who are in Christ experience trials because of the faith. Rather, we rejoice to share in Christ’s sufferings, knowing that we will also share in His glory. For, it is still out of Egypt that God calls His son; that is to say that it is out of trial and tribulation that God calls you into His glorious presence and life: It is only captives that can be freed. It is only the suffering who can be comforted. And it is only sinners who can be saved.

And the Lord who promised to go down into Egypt with Jacob and all Israel has come down into our Egypt in the person of Jesus. He has made a blessed exchange with us, taking our sin and rebellion upon Himself and dying our death but giving us His righteousness, holiness, and life. He is with us now in this wilderness full of temptations, tribulations, pestilence, and death to forgive and renew, to bind up our wounds and strengthen our faith, promising still, “I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again.” It is but a little while before this corruptible puts on incorruption. Until then, we have His Word, His Absolution, His Baptism, and His Holy Body and Precious Blood. Therefore, let us entrust our souls to our faithful Creator while doing good.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe on the Divine Service

In worship the congregation experiences its Lord most intimately. Here it lives in nearest proximity to its Groom in a heavenly life on earth, an earthly life in heaven. Worship is the most beautiful flower of earthly life. Just like land in the middle of an ocean, the Word and the Sacraments stand in the inner life and worship of the congregation. You have one week behind you, a new week lies in front of you. Between these two weeks is the day of Communion Sunday. You desire to draw near to God with the congregation. What do you, whether you are a shepherd or a sheep, have to do first? You do what all religions say is necessary for the soul: you cleanse it like feet that have become dirty from the activity of daily life. In other words, you prepare yourself for worship by confessing your sins and receiving absolution. Being cleansed from sin, you enter into the joys of the particular festival day or Sunday. But the worshiper finds that earth still has other burdens and sorrows, both present and future. Life, death, and eternity, with all of their bitter fruits and consequences, threaten you as you journey to the heavenly kingdom. Worries burden you and keep burdening you. But no longer does sin torture you, no longer do you fear evil, no longer do you sigh longingly, but joyful confidence fills your soul. You sit beneath the face of the Lord. In the sermon you begin to experience the blessed communion of the saints who rejoice in the Lord. The worshiping congregation experiences itself as the Bride of the Lord, rich not  only in and through Him but also in and through one another. The congregation, in its fullness, thinks of the special needs and miseries upon the earth, delights in all good things, and goes before the altar of the Lord with intercessions, petitions, and prayers. All worshipers are blessed and approach the throne of blessing knowing they are worthy. The worshipers realize that the Church is one unit both here and everywhere. Pilgrims are one in their prayers and are cleansed with all of the blessed saints in heaven.

From Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 2008

Homily for the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

(Audio)

Luke 2:21; Galatians 3:23-29; Number 6:22-27

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

The sun has set and we are gathered here in God’s house to receive forgiveness for our sins and strength for our faith. It is the dawn of a new year, and there is no better way to begin it than in prayerful reception of God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. But it is also the Eighth Day of Christmas, the day our incarnate Lord received the Name that the angel Gabriel told Mary He would be named: Jesus, which means God is salvation. And in conjunction with that Name, our infant priest shed the first drop of His holy, precious blood as He was circumcised according to the Law. This was His morning sacrifice, so to speak, between the crib and the cross; thirty-three years later our Great High Priest would offer the full measure in the evening sacrifice on Good Friday.

Long ago God made a covenant with Abraham that his seed would be the heir of the promise, the Messiah. God sealed that covenant with a sign in Abraham’s flesh, circumcision. Through the outward sign of circumcision, men were brought into the covenant with God and were brought under the Law. Our Lord submitted to circumcision in humble obedience to the Law and to His Father’s will and because it was necessary as a part of man’s redemption from sin and death.

Circumcision is, of course, a cutting off of the flesh. That is clear enough. The question is “Why?” and “Why that particular member?” As to the “Why?” of circumcision, it is because the flesh is sinful and corrupt, even after conversion; it must die and be cut away. As to the “particular member” involved in circumcision, we might wonder “Why not the hands, or the heart, or the tongue?” While those members are indeed corrupt and the instruments of great sin, they are but the symptoms of man’s sin problem. Circumcision gets directly at the root of our problem: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. We come from corrupted seed and the corruption is passed on through our fathers. We aren’t sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. And so to show that it’s the root of the whole matter that’s gone wrong, circumcision. So what needs to be changed is not behavior, but our very selves, our hearts, the core of our very being. Each time you pray “Create in me a clean heart, O God” you are crying out for that of which circumcision is the sign.

But what about the women? Had they no such sign? No, for this was to point to Christ, who would be born of woman, but not of male seed. He would be born indeed, but not from corrupted seed, not born in our sin at all. Born holy, yet fully human, and so not needing circumcision. Free from the curse, free from death itself. And yet, He submitted Himself to be circumcised and to place Himself under the Law to free us who are under the Law by His innocent suffering and death.

And at the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the Name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. The eighth day transcends our time which is bound up in endless series of sevens. The eighth day points us to a new day on which the sun never sets, the first day of eternal life. Hebrew boys were brought into this new life through circumcision. Jesus too was circumcised on the eighth day to fulfill that sign for all humanity. After His suffering and death, He rose again on the eighth day, never to die again and the firstfruits of those who die in the Lord. Now, Christians are born again unto eternal life through Holy Baptism which replaces circumcision as a circumcision of the heart made without hands. Thus our fonts are marked with eight sides, signifying that we have died and have been raised with Christ and that even though we die, yet shall we live.

And, as Christ received His Name on this day, so too we have been baptized into that Name that is above every name: Jesus, God is salvation. This is the Name that God has known from before that beginning of time, the Name that is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

As we begin this new year in God’s grace, let us resolve ourselves to live in that Name that is above every Name and to daily return to our baptism’s through repentance and faith in the Name of Jesus who has saved us from our sins through His innocent shed blood.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

[Portions of this homily are borrowed liberally from sermons by Martin Luther and William Weedon]

Homily for the Feast of St. Stephen, First Martyr

(Audio)

Matthew 23:34-39; Acts 6:8 – 7:2a, 51-60; 2 Chronicles 24:17-22

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

The Church in Her wisdom has chosen the three days following the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, Christmas, to commemorate three martyrs for the Lord: St. Stephen, Saint John, and the Holy Innocents. On the heels of perhaps the second-most joyous day of the Church Year after the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, Easter Sunday, with hymns and carols still in the air and upon our lips, with lively evergreens and cheery poinsettias decking our halls and walls and rooms, we are caused this morning to focus upon blood, sacrifice, and death.

The greatest gift of all, the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that He brings was, sadly, not received by all. Still today, many reject Him and refuse to believe. It was because of their belief in the Son of God made man and their confession of their faith before men that the martyrs died. Indeed, martyrs still die today for this same confession of faith.

St. Stephen was a young and vital man and one of the first seven deacons appointed to help the Apostle’s in their ministry. St. John was one of Christ’s first disciples and an Apostle as well as the writer of the Gospel that bears his name, three letters to the Church, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Though John lived to be quite old and likely died of natural causes, he spent considerable time in exile for his faith and confession, a different kind of martyrdom. Then there are the Holy Innocents. These were the Jewish boys of Bethlehem and the surrounding vicinity, two years of age and younger, that were massacred by Herod in his brutal attempt to destroy the prophesied Messiah that the Magi had traveled to see. These infant boys were martyred for no other reason than hatred and jealousy of Jesus. Thus, we see in the martyrdoms of these three how the entire life of faith in Christ, from infancy through adulthood into elderliness, is marked by the cross and hostility from the world and unbelievers. The Name of Jesus continues to be a Name that is spoken against.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.The history of God’s people is a history of rejection, hatred, and persecution by the world and unbelievers. This is what Stephen recounted before the council.His speech spanned the history of Israel from the days of Abraham. He told how God’s chosen witnesses were always misunderstood, always outcasts. Abraham was forced to leave his family and country, only to live for a promise he never saw fulfilled. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Moses was rejected by the people he was chosen to deliver out of bondage. Jesus met the same destiny!

That is the way God works in the world, for now. God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God has chosen what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. God’s strength and power are made perfect in weakness. Ironically, those words were written by a man who looked on approvingly as St. Stephen was being stoned to death.

Jesus was born to bring the joy and peace of reconciliation with God into the world. This is the light that He brings into a world of darkness, sin, and death. But, so many refuse to have their eyes opened by the Word made flesh. These choose to remain in darkness, though the light was given to them as well. In St. Stephen we have an example of one whose eyes had been opened by the Light of the Word, Jesus Christ. In the midst of persecution, and even as the stones began to fly, Stephen trusted, believed in his heart, and confessed with his mouth what he saw with his eyes, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”This was no hallucinogenic vision, but the very reality of the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus accomplished. Heaven is opened to all mankind through Jesus Christ. Jesus is near and He stands at the right hand of God as the guarantor of life beyond death. The glory of Jesus in heaven is strength for all His witnesses on earth, His martyrs. Though now we see through the mirrors of the divine Word and the Holy Sacraments, then we shall see face to face.

But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. Jesus Himself said that those He sends in His Name, even you, will be persecuted, flogged, stoned, crucified, and killed. But Jesus promises you, even as the name Stephen means, a crown of life, saying, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

The incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ means that you are never alone. The one who has assumed your flesh, who has suffered and died and defeated death reigns victorious and glorious for you. This vision is right before your eyes, especially when you need His strength to persevere. Because of your faith and confession, the world and men desire to harm you; at times, you will be tempted to do others harm. Yesterday Christ was born in the world, so that today Stephen, and you, would be born in heaven. Heaven is opened and Jesus stands at the right hand of God. In this assurance and peace you can face martyrdom with the face of an angel and you can release those who sin against you. And when your eyelids close in death, it will be as falling asleep.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord–Christmas Day

(Audio)

John 1:1-18; Titus 3:4-7; Exodus 40:17-21; 34-38

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

That the Word became flesh and made His dwelling amongst us is a cause of offense to Gnostics, Enthusiasts, Post-Modernists, and to even some High Calvinists. Nothing could be more reprehensible to those striving to escape the trappings of fleshliness, its desires and impulses, its weakness and mutability, than the thought that the pure, spiritual Divine Word would take on the form of a decomposing meat sack like us. Whether they believe that the flesh is evil or simply that the finite is not capable of the infinite, having spent all their time and energy mortifying their flesh, depriving themselves of food, alcohol, sex, and dancing, they have nothing to show for it, for God was pleased to take on a human, flesh and blood body, with all its needs and weaknesses, desires and deficiencies, to be born in blood and uncleanness in a barn for livestock, and to be laid in a feeding trough for animals.

To make such a distinction between spirit and flesh is surely the result of sin, for in the beginning God created both the spiritual heavens and the fleshly earth, and there is nothing before the beginning. God made all things in the beginning, which means that God is the source of all things, spiritual things and fleshly things alike. God made man in His image, male and female He created them, and He took pleasure in walking and talking with His flesh and spirit creatures in the world that he had made. They were the ones who inexplicably shook their angry fists at their Creator in rebellion and sent it all to hell, not God. Their eyes became open to know both good and evil, which is to know God’s will in opposition to their own will, and to choose the latter and die.

Indeed, man’s desire to free his spirit from his derelict flesh is as much the result of sin as is his derelict flesh. God has never viewed humanity that way. God who created the heavens and the earth in a beautiful unity would not allow for it to be ripped apart. And, since finite, sinful man could not approach the infinite, holy God, God assumed the flesh and blood of man to restore the unity of things spiritual and things fleshly. Or, as St. Athanasius put it, God became man so that man might become God.

God prepared His people for the Incarnation, the enfleshment of His spiritual Word, in many ways, but principally through the tabernacle and, later, through the temple where His shekinah glory was present, though veiled, in the midst of His people in the Holy of Holies. But, when the time was right, God’s glorious presence transferred to the womb of the Virgin Mary when the Holy Spirit of God came upon her and she conceived through the very Word the Archangel Gabriel spoke. Thus, our hymn has it correct: Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as Man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel!

So it is that Christmas is what follows the Fall in Genesis three. Man’s sin and rebellion, the uncleanness and corruption of the flesh does not prompt the Creator to destroy His creation, but He is moved, by His own mercy and love, to restore His creation. God restores His creation, not by leveling it and rebuilding, or by wadding it all up into an unformed ball of clay to begin anew, but He, Himself, in His holiness and spiritual purity, stepped right into the muck and mire, the blood and the filth, the uncleanness, pain, suffering, and death of humanity to redeem it and to make it holy. For, God is not corrupted by taking on human flesh, but, rather, human flesh is made to be holy by its union with the incorruptible God. This truth we confess in the Athanasian Creed saying: Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ – one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God.

Further, the union of divinity and flesh was not just for a time that has now passed and the two are now separate, but Christ remains the God-Man for all eternity, seated now at the right hand of the Father that He might fill all things, but soon, coming again in glory to raise our perishable bodies to be like His imperishable body. Thus, though our flesh is still corrupted, though we still sin and though we still die, we are not unclean, for our flesh has been sanctified in the flesh and blood of Christ. We have been given a second birth, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. In believing this you are God’s children.

The Incarnation of the Word of God, the Son of God made man, has changed everything. He was like a seed planted in dry ground, unlikely to flourish, but whose shoots have branched out in every direction far and wide bringing the earth into fruitfulness. The Incarnation means that God has assumed all of human existence into Himself in the very condition of its rebellion and opposition to Him. God loves sinful man in his sinfulness! The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Reflect then, dearly beloved, and in the light of the Holy Spirit carefully turn your mind to perceive, Who it is that has received us into Himself, and Whom have we received within us; for since the Lord Jesus Christ by being born has become our flesh, we also, by being reborn, have become His Body.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord–Christmas Eve

(Audio)

Luke 2:1-20; Titus 2:11-14; Isaiah 9:2-7

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

It is dark, and it is cold. There were many reasons for you to stay at home and to not venture out tonight, many did. It’s been a tough year. Some of you are out of work, most of you are living paycheck to paycheck. You are anxious about having enough money. You are anxious about war and terror. You are anxious about your health and the health of those you love. You are anxious about your children. You are anxious about your marriage. It is dark, and it is cold. It would be easy to stay at home and be warm and safe, many did. You have a lot of expectations about this night – what you will hear, what you will see, what you will feel, what you will sing, who you will see and who you won’t see. Most of you will be disappointed. For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

It wasn’t all that different, the night that Jesus was born. The earth turned round on its axis. The silent stars went by. People watched their p’s and q’s around the Roman occupiers. They made their ways to their ancestral home towns to be registered in a census so they could pay their taxes. Shepherds went about their shepherding, the hotels were full, and a young woman, pregnant outside of wedlock, was about to give birth. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given.

But, it wasn’t Mary alone who was great with child. All of humanity, all of human history, all of God’s creation had been waiting for this moment, groaning in the pains of childbirth. For, creation and all human history were not so unlike a virgin womb or virgin soil, lifeless, with no ability to produce life on its own. When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.

For, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. What a marvelous image, time being full. It gives us the impression that time had been filling, well, for some time. Yes, that’s it precisely! Just as from the moment of conception the child begins to grow and the mother begins to grow, so too, from the moment of the conception of the universe, when God spoke His creative Word into the virgin nothingness, His plan of salvation began to grow and time began progressing towards ever greater fullness. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word who is God before all time became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He who fills the world lay in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His greatness.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. In the hour of man’s deepest darkness, in the deadness of human hope and possibility, once again, into virgin space, virgin womb, and virgin heart, God’s Word is spoken, “Let there be light.” And there was light. Silent night, holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light radiant beams from Thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. O God, You make this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the True Light.

In Jesus, the Lion and the Lamb lie down together, perfect God and perfect Man. And, this Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world for you. Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed.

It is dark, and it is cold. Today was difficult, tomorrow is uncertain. 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. Yes, He was born unto you, He was born for you. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased! Yes, He is pleased with you. He assumed your flesh. He took your sins upon Himself. He suffered your stripes. He died your death. For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. Thus, there is joy in this world, and there is peace on this earth. God and man are reconciled.

While the nations rage and people plot in vain, while the kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne. Behold the Lord’s holy hill. Behold His Zion. Behold your King who is present for you in flesh and blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, for life, and for eternal salvation. This is the Christ Mass. O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Word Becoming Flesh Meditations on the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Unique Perspectives of the Four Evangelists

Advent Evening Prayer (Week of Advent 4)

St. John

(Audio)

John 1:1-14; 1 John 1:1-10; Isaiah 42:1-9

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

The iconographic image for St. John the Evangelist is an eagle. No doubt this image was selected to represent John because his Gospel seems to view the life and ministry of Jesus from a different and higher, though complimentary, perspective than do the synoptic Gospels. Indeed, some of the qualities that are unique to eagles and to other large birds of prey do seem especially appropriate in comparison to John’s Gospel. For instance, an eagle flies high above the earth and with keen vision spots its prey far below. So too, John offers a high and exalted view of Jesus’ life and ministry in that John’s Gospel is very interested in the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in and with Jesus and also demonstrates that Jesus is in full control throughout His ministry, only submitting Himself, when the time had come, to the authorities who would arrest, try, condemn, and execute Him. Also, it is said that an eagle can look directly into the sun without harm and still see clearly. So too, John presents to us a Jesus who claims to be at once in the Father, with the Father, the glory of the Father, and one with the Father. Thus, to behold Jesus is to behold the fullness of the glory of God hidden in human flesh. In these ways, John, amongst the other Gospels, opens to us a high theology and mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, the very Word of creation made flesh and dwelling amongst us.

John’s Gospel begins in a most surprising and unique way and with words that immediately take the hearer back to the opening words of Genesis, “In the beginning….” This is absolutely intentional. John wants his hearers to make the connection between God, the creator of the universe, and the Word of God’s creation that has become flesh in the person of Jesus. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” It was that Word, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, the Word by which all things were made, that John says “became flesh and dwelt among us.” In that one sentence, that one verse, John states what Matthew and Luke labor much more over and what Mark does not mention at all – the child conceived in Mary’s virgin womb and that was born in Bethlehem is none other than God in human flesh. In Jesus, God has visited His people to redeem them. Jesus is “Emmanuel, God with us,” and that has changed everything!

In John’s Gospel, Jesus uses the Divine Name of God given to Moses through the burning bush, “I AM WHO I AM,” seven times in reference to Himself. Each of these statements is descriptive of Jesus not merely as a guide to salvation, such as a rabbi or a prophet, but as the very means of salvation in Himself: I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the door; I am the good shepherd; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the true vine. Jesus locates life and salvation in Himself, even saying to His disciples “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” In the incarnation, the unapproachable God has become approachable, the invisible God has become visible, and the untouchable God has become touchable. Jesus invites all humanity to an intimate relationship and a holy communion with God.

The purpose of John’s Gospel, like Luke’s, is catechetical. John’s Gospel seems to be written to a Greek speaking Jewish Christian audience, likely in the middle of the first century prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. John’s Gospel is deeply spiritual, demonstrating how, through the incarnation of God, spiritual life has been resurrected – now – even as we dwell in a world that is wrecked by sin and death. In John’s Gospel, Jesus continually speaks of a fullness that is available right now through faith. Jesus offers His disciples water that they may never thirst again, food that they may never hunger again, light that they may never walk in darkness again, and life that they may never die – and these, Jesus says, are available to you now through faith in Him. It follows, then, that it is in John’s Gospel that we hear the words of Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John explains the purpose of his Gospel plainly saying, “These [words] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

In his Gospel, John repeatedly refers to himself as “the one whom Jesus loved.” This is not a boast, but rather an expression of John’s selflessness and humility. John knew personally the breadth and depth of God’s love in Jesus shown to him and to all humanity. John’s designation is not a boast, but rather a confession of his faith in Jesus’ love for him. In the letters that he wrote to the churches, John speaks at length about God’s love for men, even saying “God is love.” It is in John’s Gospel that Jesus defines what the love of God is like saying, “Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends.” John the Evangelist and Apostle points us to the love of God incarnate, Jesus Christ, whose self-sacrifice was the fullest expression of God’s love for us. For this reason did God become flesh and dwell amongst us, that He might die for us and redeem us from sin and death.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for Rorate Coeli – The Fourth Sunday in Advent

(Audio)

John 1:19-28; Philippians 4:4-7; Deuteronomy 18:15-19

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

“Who are you?” – That was the question the priests and Levites asked John. It was a legitimate question. Moses had relayed God’s promise to the people of Israel that He would raise up another Prophet like himself. John flatly denied that he was that Prophet, the Messiah, the Christ of God. Then Malachi had prophesied in the closing words of the Old Testament that God would send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Messiah. John denied that he was Elijah too, though Jesus would later teach His disciples that John was indeed the prophesied Elijah come to prepare the way before Him.

“Who are you?” “By what authority do you preach and baptize if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah the Prophet?” – John replied “I am a voice” and that’s all. John was a voice sent to cry out in the wilderness “Make straight the way of the Lord.” This was not John’s message, he was just the voice, but this was God’s message, the Word of the Lord, “Prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by repentance and humility. Repent, that your mountainous pride may be leveled and that the valleys of your hopeless despair might be filled, that, when the Lord comes, He might find a straight and level path.” John was a voice, a prophet, a mouthpiece for the Lord sent to prepare His way by preaching repentance and by baptizing, an outward sign of repentance. And John was sent to point the way to the Lord who was at hand saying “Among you stands one you do not know,” and then, the very next day, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

“Among you stands one you do not know.” To think that the prophesied Messiah, the one to whom all patriarchs and prophets pointed, the Son of God become the Son of Man, born of the Virgin and dwelling in the midst of men who had searched the Scriptures and studied the prophecies, who had watched and waited for His coming – to think that the Messiah could come amongst them and not be known by them is amazing and discomforting to say the least. How could this be? How could they be so blind?

The answer is plain enough: sin. From the moment their eyes were opened to know good and evil in the Garden of Eden, through patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets, men’s hearts became hard, their ears became stopped, and their eyes became dim as the fruits of sin so that hearing they did not hear and seeing they did not see. The prophets were silent for four hundred years before the coming of John the Baptist – four hundred years not unlike the four days Lazareth lay dead in the tomb. The people of the world were spiritually dead, they stinketh. And, the dead don’t raise themselves anymore than the earth plows itself; hard soil must be broken and worked just as hardened hearts. Only the powerful Word of God, the Word that once brought everything out of nothing could change the situation of men’s hearts.

Thus God sent forth Elijah, John the Baptist to prepare the way by preaching repentance, to break up the hardness of men’s hearts that the Word of God could penetrate and begin to grow and bear fruit. But, spiritual death and physical death are not the same thing – yet. Men were still quite alive to pursuing men’s ways, thoughts, and deeds. Men had dreamt up their own ideas for what the Messiah would be like and what He would do – men’s ideas, not God’s, men’s values and expectations, not God’s. So, when the Messiah came, men did not recognize Him, for He did not come in the ways and appearance that they expected. Unless men are turned, unless they repent, they cannot see Jesus for who He is, they cannot receive Him, for they reject Him because He doesn’t meet their expectations.

What about you today? Do you see and hear the one who is present, who stands amongst you now with His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation? Or, do you insist on having it your way, believing that Christ cannot be present unless you feel a certain way, unless we sing your favorite songs, or unless people flock to this church so that we don’t have room to seat them? Who do you think this Jesus is whose birth we are about to celebrate? Is He merely a concept, an icon of Peace and Love that we should emulate? Is He but a wise sage from ancient times who had some good ideas about being kind and charitable toward each other? Is He your spiritual friend and buddy, kind of like Santa Claus for the Church, who’s always looking out for you though you can never see Him or touch Him? Then I will be a voice crying out in your wilderness, “Among you stands one you do not know! – Repent. The Lord is at hand.”

Why did John preach? To point to the one who was present, whom men did not know, the Lord who was at hand. Why did John baptize? To point to the one who was present to baptize with the Holy Spirit and to the Lamb of God who was taking away the sins of the world. John is still preparing the way for the coming of the Lord through the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and through baptism, but these have become vehicles, means for the work of the one who is in our midst, Jesus the Christ. His Word opens the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, releases those in prison in sin and death, and proclaims to the poor in spirit the Good News of redemption. And, John the Baptist still points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as we sing with him and kneel before our Lord who is present amongst us with His body and His blood that we may know Him as He is and live in Him and He in us to the glory of God the Father in His most Holy Spirit.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Word Becoming Flesh - Meditations on the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Unique Perspectives of the Four Evangelists

Advent Evening Prayer (Week of Advent 3)

St. Luke

(Audio)

Luke 1:26-38; Hebrews 2:5-18; Isaiah 53:1-5

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

The Gospel according to St. Luke is the last of the synoptics in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic Gospels because they share, as the word synoptic means, the “same eye” on the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ. The synoptic Gospels share many of the same stories, teachings, events, and miracles in the life of Jesus while the Gospel according to St. John, which we will discuss next week, both adds and omits significant material.

St. Luke, the “good physician” and companion of St. Paul, is with little doubt the author of the Gospel that bears his name as well as its second volume known as The Acts of the Apostles. Luke’s Gospel was likely composed in the middle of the first century prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Luke, alone of the four evangelists, names the audience of his Gospel, “most excellent Theophilus”, a man of distinction in the society who most likely was the benefactor of Luke’s writing. Writing in high literary Greek, Luke establishes the purpose of his Gospel, stating, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” Thus, Luke’s Gospel is primarily a catechetical, or, a teaching Gospel intended to fill in the details for Gentile Christian catechumens who are already somewhat familiar with the narrative and are already believers.

Luke was undoubtedly writing to a Greek speaking audience and his style of writing is comparable with high Greek literature and philosophy of the time. Luke is also the longest book of the New Testament, containing longer and more detailed accounts of synoptic narratives with the unique addition of extensive birth narratives for both John the Baptist and Jesus. In addition, Luke continued well beyond the work of the other evangelists by writing a second volume, The Acts of the Apostles, which gives the account of the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, the Church – a work that continues amongst us today.

Luke’s Gospel emphasizes the absoluteness and the fullness of the forgiving grace which came into the world in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Luke portrays Jesus as the compassionate Servant of the Lord who brings good news to the poor, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, and who brings the Jubilee Year of the Lord, the divinely appointed amnesty for all mankind. Jesus is the Son of Man who came to seek and to save the lost. In His ministry He reaches out to the outcasts of society, sinners, and the unclean. He is the Seeker of the lost and the Savior of the lowly. His birth is announced to lowly shepherds. He is branded in Israel as one who “receives sinners and eats with them.” He pays special attention to women, not highly regarded in Judaism or in the ancient world generally. The infancy story is Mary’s story, not Joseph’s story as in Matthew’s Gospel. Mary and Martha figure prominently in Luke’s Gospel along with other women: The widow at Nain; the sinful woman who anoints Jesus’ feet; the women on the via dolorosa; and the woman in the Parable of the Lost Coin.

Like the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Luke includes Jesus’ genealogy in his Gospel. However, where Matthew places the genealogy at the beginning of his Gospel, Luke places it in chapter three at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, thirty years after the birth narrative and at a time when John the Baptist’s ministry was in full swing. Further, rather than stopping with Abraham, the Father of the Jews, Luke continues Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam, the Father of all Mankind, and ends with God the Father. The result is, still, as with Matthew’s genealogy, Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Savior of all humanity.

Luke takes great pains to set Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection in a verifiable historical context. Luke frequently mentions time, place, and persons of historical import. The names of Augustus and Tiberius appear only in Luke’s Gospel.

Luke also emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministries of John the Baptist and of Jesus. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as she hails the mother of the Lord. Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied over the child of his old age. The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and, inspired by the Spirit, he hailed the Child in his arms as God’s salvation in person. The Messiah’s gift will be the baptism with the Spirit; His disciples have the promise of the Spirit for their witness to the world. The Holy Spirit is the heavenly Father’s best gift to His own. Luke continued to write of the work of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension in The Acts of the Apostles, also sometimes referred to as The Gospel of the Holy Spirit.

If Matthew’s Gospel is at once the most austere and the most compelling of the Gospels, if Mark’s is the most vivid and dramatic recital of the deeds of the Christ, Luke’s is the warmest and most winning story of them all. It is Luke who has filled the church with the moving music of the New Testament canticles (The Benedictus, The Magnificat, The Gloria in Excelsis, and The Nunc Dimittis); it is Luke’s Nativity story that has most decisively shaped the church’s Christmas celebration. And the church’s teaching has been immeasurably enriched by the warmth and pathos of such Lucan narratives as those of the widow of Nain, Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, the look of Jesus that called Peter to repentance, Jesus’ words to the weeping daughters of Jerusalem, and the story of the walk to Emmaus.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Way Beyond Atheism

In this essay, Paul Wallace observes that most Atheists are committed to mere inversions of some brand or another of Christianity that they, in truth, know only on a superficial level. Wallace goes on to explain Christian apophatic theology (or, negation theology) which attempts to describe God by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about God.

Wallace was inspired by an essay written by Denys Turner, a Professor of Theology at Yale in which Turner wrote "The atheisms of most committed, principled atheists are often not more than mirror images—inversions—of the theisms they negate.” “Atheists reject too little,” Turner writes, “This is why their atheisms lack theological interest. The routine principled atheist has but tinkered with religion.”

Wallace goes on to unpack Turner’s statements in the rest of his essay, challenging Atheists to be as honest as Christians in challenging their assumptions:

Most principled atheists do not go beyond the second level of thought, that of simple denial. They refuse to go further, to seriously question the ground beneath their feet. And, by holding on, consciously or not, to their unjustified assumptions, they end up rejecting far too little.

Most atheists reject far too little. They only have to be one kind of atheist: The atheist who stands against some kind of ridiculous super-object in the sky, who stands against a child’s theology. Christians, who, like Jews, are commanded to have no gods before God, do not have the luxury of disbelieving in so few things. In Turner’s words, “In order to deny every kind of idolatry possible, a Christian must be every kind of atheist possible.” We are required to have faith in no thing at all; only then will our faith have any chance of finding its true home in God.

An outstanding and provocative essay. Highly recommended.