God Is For Us All Year Long

God Is For Us All Year Long                                       

Romans 8:31-39

     I don’t think that St. Paul wrote the words of our text on New Year’s Eve.  He probably didn’t intend for them to necessarily be read on New Year’s Eve either but they certainly are appropriate for us to consider as we close out another year and look ahead to the new year.  They are encouraging words for any time in a Christian’s life but as we pause to worship on this last day of 2012, they speak to us in such a way that we are warned, encouraged and challenged to go forward into the new year or into whatever we have to face next in our lives.  As we consider what Paul was telling the Roman Christians in this text, may we see that we can look forward to the new year confidently because God is for us all year long.

     As you do look back on the old year, you are often tempted to say good riddance.  So often when you look back you can only see the trouble and the problems that you had to face.  2012 has had its share of problems.  Economically, things were not that great.  There are not many people who could say that their lives have not been touched by the slumping economy. You might think of health problems that you have faced.  Good health doesn’t usually stand out in your minds but you do remember the illnesses that were diagnosed or the cold that seemed to hang on for weeks.  There may have been family problems that left you worn out and confused, wondering which way to turn.  There are a lot of negative things that could fill your minds as you say good bye to the old year.  Saying good bye to the old year does not necessarily mean that you say good bye to the old problems.  You hope that you could but they will no doubt be with you at least for a while as you turn the page and start to use a new calendar. 

     It is part of our human nature though to focus on the negative and either forget or give little attention to the many wonderful things that have happened to you in the past twelve months.  There are many good things that that you have experienced that often balance out the bad for some reason, they fade from your mind rather quickly.  Maybe the reason they fade from your mind is that many of those good things just seemed to come and go.  They come into your life and then they leave.  They have no real lasting value.  When you think about it though, that same thing is true of the seemingly bad things that have happened to you.  In the whole scheme of things, very little that happens to you on earth is of much lasting value.  As a child of God, you know that you will have eternal life with God and that all earthly things are temporary.  When you compare your time here on earth with eternity in heaven, things that happen here, whether you see them as good or bad, are actually very fleeting. 

     Again, as a child of God who has been reminded of the great gift of the Savior at Christmas time, you can look back on the year now coming to and end and think about some of the blessings that you have received and really look back then with joy.  Things that are earthly and temporary give no lasting joy.  Things spiritual though have a value that will benefit us now and for eternity.  God’s love is yours now and forever. The forgiveness of sins that is yours through Christ is for now and it assures you that you will enjoy the perfect joy in heaven.  Those blessings are lasting.

     Therefore you can look back with joy because you can see how God has kept His promises of love to you.  For help in listing some of those blessings we can turn to our text from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  In verse 32 Paul says, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?”  The greatest blessing that you have as a child of God is Jesus.  God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.  Over this past year you have been reminded often of what God did for you in giving His Son.  You have just celebrated and are still celebrating the birth of Jesus and are still meditating on all that His birth means for you.  As you look back on the year you can also recall how you celebrated Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.  You were led to the cross to consider your sin that caused Jesus to suffer and die.  You were drawn to the empty tomb on Easter morning to celebrate the fact that death could not hold Him and that because He lives, you shall live also.  Thinking back on those truths, you can be filled with joy.

     The rest of that verse reminds you also that God gives us all things.  Because He did not even spare His own Son, He will also give you all the other things that you need.  In His divine wisdom, He knows what you need and He lovingly provides for you.  You also have celebrated that fact in the past year.  Each day you gave thanks to God for His blessings but as a nation and as a church we set aside a day of Thanksgiving.  It is a time for you to stop and think about the blessings that you have received from our gracious and merciful God. 

     As you read farther in the text you are also reminded by Paul that nothing can separate you from the love of God which is Christ Jesus.  When you look back on the past year, you can see how this has been true.  He still provides you with what you need, both physically and spiritually.  In terms of your spiritual needs, you can see that He continues to provide you with the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments.  The Word is still preached and available to you.  I think I would be correct in saying that every household in our church family has at least one Bible.  The church is still open and is regularly offering the Word of Life.  The Sacraments are still being offered for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith.  Because these things are given so freely and regularly, we often take them for granted.  You have to remember what a great gift from God these things are.  It is God’s way of providing you with the spiritual food that is necessary for your soul’s survival.  Without them you would perish.  The Means of Grace are truly a blessing and as you think of how they have been given to you during this past year, you can be joyful.

     Paul also says that in the difficulties of life, you are more than conquerors through Him who loved you.  As you look back on the past year, you can say the same thing.  His love has sustained you and the victory is yours.  When you think of those in the family who have died in the past year can say that they too are more than conquerors.  They especially know what it means to win the victory.  Those who have died in the Lord now have the victor’s crown of righteousness, the crown of life, promised to all who are faithful unto death.  You truly can look back at the old year with joy.  In spite of all the problems and struggles, you can say with Paul, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

     As you now look ahead to the new year you can reflect on how God has helped you in the past and look ahead with confidence.  As you think of how He has shown His love to you in the past, there is no reason for you to think that His love will not continue.  God’s promises are sure.  You can depend on Him and He will never leave you.  You have His promise that nothing can separate you from His love.  The last two verses of this chapter assure us of that.  “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

     Of special interest to us on this New Year’s Eve is that statement, “nor things to come.”  Nothing to come can separate you from the love of God.  There is nothing in 2013 that can separate you from God’s love.  What a promise!  What confidence that promise can give you!  Nothing, not even your own unworthiness, can separate you from God’s love.  It will always be there for you.  It will always be offered to you through the Means of Grace.  It can overcome any obstacle.  With that assurance you can look forward to the new year with confidence that can keep you going through difficult times, with confidence that can make you to accept challenges in your life of service to the Lord and with confidence that, should the Lord call you from this life during the year to come, nothing will be able to separate you from His love and you will be with Him forever in the perfect joy of heaven.

    May God grant you the grace to look back on this year with true joy, joy that comes from knowing that God has richly blessed you and may you be given the faith to look ahead with confidence, knowing that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord.  Amen.

New Year's Eve 2012
Rev. Gerald Matzke

Waiting For Our Blessed Hope

Waiting for our Blessed Hope                                          

Titus 2:11-14

     Christmas is a time of the year that is full of symbolism.  When you think about it, there is probably no other time of the year that has generated so many meaningful symbols as Christmas.  The decorations that we put up at Christmas time give us a good example of what I mean.  As you look around the church you can see shapes and colors that are rich in meaning for Christians who are celebrating the birth of their Savior.  Our trees for example are decorated with a simple color scheme that says a lot about the purpose of the Savior coming into the world.  The white lights and decorations remind us of the purity of Jesus, who lived a perfect life for us, but the white also tells us what we are like now as a result of what Jesus did for us.  We are reminded of the prophecy in Isaiah 1:18 that says, “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow.”  The color green that is so prominent in our decorations is the color of life.  The use of evergreen trees for Christmas even adds the meaning of everlasting life which is ours through the coming of the Messiah.  Wreaths remind us of eternity with their round shape.  The circle has no beginning and no end.  So it is with the love of God.  It will never end.  Certainly we would have to agree that the decorations and colors of Christmas are rich in meaning. 

     Sometimes we don’t even realize what the meanings are until we stop to think about it for a while.  That is often the case with certain Bible passages.  There are some passages that we know are especially meaningful for us and at the same time there are some passages that we either don’t understand or they just don’t seem to say much to us.  Our Epistle lesson for this Christmas Eve is one of those passages that might be passed by because of the company it keeps.  It is a rich passage of the Bible but yet we might pass it by because the other passages with it are so rich themselves.  The Old Testament passage is a familiar prophecy about the Messiah.  The Gospel lesson is the beautiful Christmas story from Luke 2 that you heard before.  The words of Paul to Titus express to the early church and to us the real purpose of the coming of the Savior into the world.  To celebrate Christmas without focusing on the real meaning of the event for our lives would be like putting up a lot of decorations without understanding what they meant.  That would seem like a great waste of time if the decorations had no meaning.  Without understanding the purpose of Christ coming into the world, Christmas would seem like a waste of time and money.  All we would be left with would be a modern version of the pagan festivals that were so prominent in the world before the celebration of the birth of Christ was established by the church.  As we celebrate Christmas this year, as we look at the decorations, as we share gifts, as we light candles, may our hearts turn first to God in thanks and praise that He loved us so much that He sent His Son to earth to be our Savior.  Let us also understand and appreciate what that gift of a Savior means for us not just during the Christmas season but throughout our lives. 

     Paul’s words to Titus in our text seem to be addressing this very issue.  The letter to Titus shows a concern for life of the church.  It touches on such things as the requirements for pastors, standards for teaching and relationships with those around us both inside and outside the church.  All of this instruction has as its center an appreciation for the grace of God.  All we do as God’s people is possible only because of His grace.  These verses that serve as our text for tonight revolve around two uses of the word, “appear.”  Paul talks about two appearings that ought to be the focus of our relationship with God.  The first is described in verse 11.  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”  That could be called Paul’s Christmas message.  That verse is one of the truly rich passages in the Bible.  The grace of God tells us that our God is merciful and loving to people who in no way deserve the goodness that He brings.  Grace means undeserved love.  Our disobedience, our selfish attitudes, our rebellion against God is put aside because the overwhelming love of God sees through the sin and focuses instead on our need: our need for rescue and our need for eternal salvation.  His grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men in the form of God’s Son, made flesh, made under the Law, the Word, Jesus, born of Mary.  He came for all people.  This is almost an echo of the message of the angels to the shepherds that we heard before.  “I bring you good news of 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.”  Our gracious God has shown His salvation to the world.  That appearing has happened.  It is that appearing that we celebrate tonight.

     That is not the end of that sentence though.  That is not the end of what God intended when He sent His Son into the world.  We do not just pack up the decorations after Christmas and forget about Jesus.  His coming has meaning and implications for our lives each day.  Paul goes on to say in verse 12, “For the grace of God has appeared training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”  Does that come as a surprise?  When we think about the coming of Jesus we usually think about the fact that He came to save us, which of course, is true.  But He also came to call us to repentance.  His ministry involved teaching about the Kingdom of God. 

     Much of what Jesus had to say to the crowds, especially to the Pharisees, the so-called religious men of His day, was instruction about living a God-pleasing life.  Paul summarizes Jesus’ teaching very well in this one verse.  He taught that we should put away ungodliness and worldly passions, in other words, all things that our selfish, worldly nature would try and get us to do, say and think, and instead we should live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we are here on earth.  It doesn’t mean that our lives are to be spent in a monastery, shut off from the world around us.  We must live in the world in order to witness to the grace of God through Jesus Christ to those around us.  It does mean that our lives have new priorities.  We can draw on another passage from Paul’s writing to emphasize that point.  In II Corinthians 5:15, Paul writes, “He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”   Having seen the grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ, we now praise Him for our salvation by living our lives for Him, for His purposes.  Serving God with lives of obedience and humility should be our first priority.  Jesus came to serve and His example gives us direction for our lives.  His Word also gives us the power to be able to make such a transformation in our lives.  He promised His disciples the power of the Holy Spirit and we know that through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit works in us to empower us to live the kind of lives that Paul describes here as living lives that are self-controlled, upright and godly. 

     The reason we do this it to, first of all, give praise to our gracious God with our lives.  We show our gratitude for our salvation through our godly lives.  But we are also looking forward to the second appearance that is mentioned in the text.  The first appearing of the grace of God came when Jesus was born.  We also look for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, to use the words of our text.  We wait in hope for the time when Jesus will come again.  This will not be in a humble stable with only a bed of straw.  When He comes again it will be glorious as Paul says.  The angels will once again announce His coming but this time He will call all His faithful to the mansions of heaven.  The time of repentance will be over.  The present world that Paul spoke of will come to an end.  Paul’s message then for Titus and the early church is the same essentially as the message of John the Baptist and Jesus.  Now is the time to repent and prepare yourself for the next appearing of Jesus Christ.

     That is the essence of Paul’s Christmas message.  As you sing your songs of joy, remember that the joy does not end tonight or after church tomorrow morning.  The songs of joy continue all throughout your life as you live for the Lord who redeemed you, who purified you, and who empowers you to do His will.  Christmas is a time of renewal as you once again reflect on the appearing of the grace of God.  May the light of the candles also have a rich meaning for you as you thank God for sending you the Light of the World, that light that shines in the darkness and may the flames remind you of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life through Word and the Sacraments to strengthen you for your life of righteousness and godliness as you wait with hope for the glorious second appearing of your Savior Jesus Christ.  In that we you can keep the true Christmas spirit alive in your heart throughout your life.  Amen

Christmas Eve 2012

Rev. Gerald Matzke 

An Upside Down Christmas

An Upside Down Christmas                                          

Luke 1:39-56

     You can’t get much closer to Christmas than what we are today.  If you are all ready, today can be a good breather day before all of the fun and excitement begins.  Isn’t it interesting how much time and energy we expend to make sure that Christmas turns out just right.  We may try to duplicate Christmas celebrations of the past to help us relive the good old days.  We may want to start some new traditions but they have to be well thought out and planned very carefully.  We plan, organize, decorate, cook and clean so that everything turns out just perfect.  There is no room for surprises.  In a perfect world that might work.  We know that too often there are things that happen that we never expected or that we hoped would not happen.  When they do, they turn our world upside down.  No one wants to have an upside down Christmas.

     Our Gospel lesson for today picks up the story of Mary right after the angel Gabriel appeared to her to announce that she would be the mother of the Promised One, the Messiah.  That news certainly turned her world upside down.  She was planning to settle down with Joseph as soon as the wedding celebration could be held.  She probably wanted to have everything turn out just right, just the way she always dreamed it would be when she and Joseph would begin their life together as husband and wife.  Now the angel told her that she would be with child, a miracle of the Holy Spirit.  She then travelled to Judea to visit her relative Elizabeth whose life had also been turned upside down.

     Imagine being well beyond child-bearing years, resigned to the fact that you would never have children, and then being told that you would have a son.  That just doesn’t happen.  But it happened to Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah.  Talk about having your world turned upside down.  There was a close relationship between these two miraculous events.  The child that would be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth would be John, who would be the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, the child that Mary was carrying. The conversation that we find in our Gospel lesson between Mary and Elizabeth shows us that the Holy Spirit had revealed to both of them the impact that their children would have on the world.  The baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy to be in the presence of the baby in Mary’s womb.  Elizabeth could sense the blessings that would come through Mary’s child.  He would turn the world upside down. 

     It is then in the text that we hear Mary’s song of praise, which we call the Magnificat from the first words of the song.  In this song of praise, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mary speaks of the significance of the recent events in her life that turned her world upside down.  Think about some of the lines in that song.  Verse 51 says,  “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.”  Often it is the proud who like to show their strength.  Yet the true Mighty One who has done great things for Mary, has scattered the proud.  Mary, whom the world would look down upon as a humble servant, will be called blessed and the proud would be scattered.  What a surprising turn of events.  In the next verse she presents another example of the world being turned upside down.  The Lord, “has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.”  She could be referring to her own situation but the implications of that statement go way beyond Mary and her circumstances.  The mighty of the world would be brought down when they stand before the Lord.  The humble will be exalted to the bliss of heaven through faith in the Messiah who would come. 

     She continues this line of thinking with the next couplet, “He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent empty away.”  Once again the coming of the Messiah in the person of Mary’s child would turn the world upside down.  Instead of the rich receiving all the good things, it will be the poor who will be blessed.  When you think about what these passages say, you have to notice the similarity between these words spoken by Mary and the words of Jesus in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.  In the section that we call the Beatitudes or the Blessed statements, Jesus’ words touched on some of the same themes.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart.”  It is no coincidence that Mary would praise the Lord for the way in which he works in a way that turns the world upside down.  That is what her son, the Son of God, was going to do when he would begin his earthly ministry.  His coming was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, a covenant that pointed ahead to the Messiah in everything that the people were required to do under the Law.  When He came into the world, He established the New Covenant, a covenant based on faith in His perfect life and His suffering, death and resurrection as our substitute.  He turned the religious establishment upside down.  They weren’t ready for that kind of change, even though their prophets had foretold His coming for centuries.  They had become comfortable in their way of doing things.  The temple establishment was making good profits from their money changing and sale of sacrificial animals.  A change in their routine would mean a great change in their life-style and no one wants to do that.  Power, prestige, and pride, along with profit can be hard to set aside in favor of a new way of thinking that stresses humility, meekness, hunger for God’s Word and mercy.  When it seems like your world is being turned upside down, people will fight against it as hard as they can.  That is what the leaders of the religious establishment did.  They fought against Jesus until that had Him put to death on a cross.  Even when they thought they had put a stop to His teaching, He still turned the world upside down. 

     We can be thankful that He did.  His true Church has been proclaiming that Good News ever since.  There have been a few bumps along the road but the Word of God endures forever and the message of salvation by grace for Christ’s sake through faith is still being taught and believed by people throughout the world.  Each year we celebrate the coming of Jesus with our Christmas observances.  Each year we have another great opportunity to tell more and more people about the love of God shown forth through His only begotten Son who came into the world as a tiny baby and gave His life as the sacrifice for our sins.  In view of the fact that there are millions and millions of people who either have never heard that message or have chosen to ignore it, we still have the opportunity to turn the world upside down with the Gospel.  Imagine some of the things that we could do in our world today.  Imagine in our secularized world being able to draw people’s attention to Christ at Christmas.  You might be tempted to say that we do that all the time.  But do we?  Is our celebration of Christmas centered on Christ or have we drifted just far enough that Christ has become an add-on to our Christmas celebrations.  Are we leading the world to Christ or are we allowing the world to lead us away from Him at this time of the year?

     We can turn things upside down.  With the power of the Holy Spirit, who works mightily through God’s Word, we can start in our own families to influence them to put Christ first in all of our celebrations.  We have the opportunity to also have an influence on our businesses, and our neighborhoods and our community.  Our example may be just the thing that helps turn our world upside down at Christmas time.  It’s not as hard as you might think.  A greeting here or there that emphasizes the Christ in Christmas can become contagious.  It could go viral.  Before you know it we just might have an upside down Christmas.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.   

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

December 23, 2012

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come 

Luke 2:8-18

     One of the wonderful things about the Christmas season is the music.  I know that I’m not the only one who feels that way.  Stores are filled with the sounds of Christmas music.  Some radio stations are playing Christmas music all day long.  It seems like every entertainer has a Christmas album of some kind.  This isn’t just true for our time.

Down through the history of the Christian Church, the Christmas story has been told in music.  One of the great Christmas hymns in our heritage is one that will be the focus of our meditation this evening and next Wednesday as well.  “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” goes all the way back to the time of the Reformation.  It was written by Dr. Martin Luther.  Originally it was put to the tune of a popular folk song but later it is thought that Luther himself wrote a new melody, the one that we are using this evening.  This song was actually written by Luther as a Christmas pageant for His family.  He enjoyed putting together something special for Christmas each year.  The first five verses were to be song by an angel and the next two express the thoughts of the shepherds.  The last eight verses were sung then as our response to the angel’s announcement.  Tonight we will look at the first half of the song and next week we will meditate on the second half.

     To really get into the mood of this hymn you have to use your imagination.  First of all you have to take yourself back to Wittenberg, Germany and the Luther home in 1534.  Imagine the excitement of Christmas and the anticipation of the beginning of what Father Luther had prepared for his children and his wife Catherine as well as the students and other family members who shared their home.  Suddenly in walks a man dressed as an angel and he begins to sing the words that we sang a few moments ago.  At the same time we are taken back to the hills outside of Bethlehem, two thousand years ago on that first Christmas night.  As the shepherds watched their flocks, suddenly a bright light shown all around them and an angel appeared to them and announced the greatest that ever had been proclaimed. 

     Imagine also the great thrill that it was for everyone involved. The greatest privilege belonged to that angel.  The angel had been sent from heaven by God to bring the news that a special child had been born.  This child will bring joy to all the earth.  The world had been waiting for centuries for this news to be proclaimed.  Now the time had come and who better to announce God’s Good News than a special messenger from heaven, one of God’s holy angels.

     To hear the heart of the angel’s message, we will sing verses 3, 4 and 5 of hymn 358.

     The angel’s message in Luther’s hymn presents the message that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds as we heard it in Luke 2.  This Child is the Christ, the Son of God.  When the angel uses the title Christ, we are reminded of the fact that this child is the Anointed One.  He is the Christ, the one anointed by God to be our Prophet, Priest and King.  First He is our Prophet.  Through His teaching, the will of God would be revealed.  As our Priest, He would offer Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world once, for all.  We would learn from His perfect life how a child of God should live.  He would also show us how to pray as He Himself prayed for us.  As our King, He would lead His people in battle against the forces of the devil and He would lead us in the victory march to our heavenly home.  He is the Christ, the Anointed One, who responded to our great need for reconciliation.  He hears your sad and bitter cry as the hymn says.  Just as God heard the cry of the Israelites in their slavery in Egypt, God heard the cry of His people in bondage to sin and sent the Savior to set us free.  We are set free from the punishment that we deserve because of our sin.  Even the name of the little child would tell us that He is the Savior.  The name Jesus that was given through the angel’s messages to Mary and Joseph means “the Lord saves.”  He saves His people from the power of sin, death and devil, all powers that would try and separate us from God.  

     This was all part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  It might be surprising to some that the Father planned this wonderful blessing to begin with an infant.  When you think through what God did though you can understand why it had to be this way.  Jesus came as a tiny baby so that as a true human being, He could be subject to God’s Law throughout His life.  We often forget that Jesus did more for us than die on the cross.  He also lived a perfect life in our place.  He had to be a true human being to live under the Law and be subjected to the temptation of the devil.  While He was subjected to the temptations of the devil and the requirements of the Law, He lived a perfect life and that satisfied God’s requirement as our substitute.  The end result of all that Jesus did through His perfect life, His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, is that we can share with Him the glory of His heavenly kingdom.  The barriers have been removed and by faith we can enjoy the hope of heaven now in our lives and the blessing of heaven when the Lord calls us home.  That is the Good News that brings joy to all the earth. 

     One might expect that such a wonderful gift from heaven would be found in the grandest palace surrounded by the most comfortable accommodations and a host of servants to see to every need of mother and child.  But the angel had a different description for the place where Christ, the Savior, would be found.  You will know that you have found the Christ Child when you come to a manger bed and the child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, in other words, strips of cloth, the only thing that could be found to keep the little child warm.  What an amazing contrast!  The Son of God, the Christ, the Promised One of God, the Savior of the world is born in a stable with a feed box for a bed.  There is no warm blanket knitted by grandma in which to wrap Him.  He is laid in a bed of straw and has strips of cloth, perhaps torn from the bottom of Mary or Joseph’s robes, as His first royal clothes.  Instead of an army of servants surrounding Him, the animals look on in wonder as their Creator and King shares their home.

     Let us now follow the shepherds as they heed the angel’s directions.  Let us sing verses 6-7 of hymn 358.

     These verses describe what the shepherds found when they left their fields and came to Bethlehem.  The circumstances and surroundings were more familiar to the shepherds than a palace would have been.  Perhaps that tells us something about the fact that this baby came for all people.  He came to be one of us.  He came to touch our lives.  He came as a humble, human being so that we could relate to Him.  We could see that He would understand our hurts, our pain, our sorrows.  He would know what it meant to be in need, what it meant to suffer shame, what it meant to experience loss.  He would know and He could help.  Yet with all the humble circumstances, He is still the Son of God.  His coming was announced by God’s own messenger, the angel.  His coming was in fulfillment of the prophecies of old.  His coming was part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  That is reason for joy and celebration.  Christ the Savior is born!

     Just like the angel said, the shepherds found Him in the manger.  In the same way, we encounter our Savior in the manger each year as we celebrate His birth.  We have to be impressed each year as we think that this little baby in the manger is the Son of God.  He left His throne in heaven to be a traveling preacher where He would encounter criticism, ridicule and hatred from the leaders of the church.  He left His throne in heaven to suffer the worst kind of execution that the Romans could dish out.  He did all that for you and for me.  He did it so that we could be rescued from the power of sin, death and the devil.  He did it so that would have the hope of heaven.  This baby is our Savior.  He is the Son of God.

     This is wonderful news.  It is news that was fittingly announced by a glorious messenger of God.  It was news that came to humble people here on earth.  It is news that calls for a response.  The shepherds came to Bethlehem and saw the baby.  They left the stable with hearts filled with joy.  They went and told everyone they saw about the wonderful experience they had that night in the fields and in the stable.  We are called to gather around the manger bed once again this Christmas season.  What difference will this Christmas celebration make for you?  Will you simply shuffle back to your home when the season is over, put away your decorations, find a place for your presents, vow to go on a diet and then get back to your old sad routine?  That’s not why the Savior came.  Advent is a time for repentance and forgiveness.  It is a time to repent of your old sinful way of life and to grow in your faith through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is a time to leave behind those things that have held you back from expressing your faith with joy.  It is time to leave behind those things that have prevented you from growing in the Word.  It is a time to prepare your heart to meet your Savior when He comes again.  One day it will not just be an angel who says, “From Heaven above to earth I come.”  It will be Jesus Himself who comes from heaven above to earth.  When He comes He will pronounce judgment upon the world.  Those who are prepared for His coming through faith will be taken to heaven to enjoy the eternal celebration in the glory of God’s presence.

    As you consider your response to the angel’s message announcing the Savior’s birth, may you be moved to seek out the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can grow in your faith and be better prepared for the Savior’s return.  Next week we will return to the world of Luther’s Christmas pageant as we look at the second half of the hymn “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.”  May your response to the angel’s message and your response to this Christmas season be one of joy, hope and service in God’s Kingdom as you wait for your Savior’s return.  Amen

Welcome to Earth, O Noble Guest

The Sermon Hymn is LSB 358 verses 8-9.  Looking this over before you read this will be helpful.

Welcome To Earth O Noble Guest 

John 1:14

     One of the memorable parts of the Christmas celebration for many people is participating in the Christian’s Christmas Service, like the one the children will present on Sunday.  It is exciting for the children to be able to proclaim the wonderful news that Jesus is born.  It is exciting for parents to see their children standing in front of the church to sing their songs or say their lines.  It is exciting for the teachers and the directors to see all of their plans fall into place and know that through the children that they have touched, the message of salvation is being shared.  I can recall the many times that I got to participate in acting out the Christmas story, mostly as a shepherd. The telling of the Christmas story by and for the children has become an important part of the Christmas season.  Perhaps the custom came from Martin Luther who enjoyed putting on special Christmas presentations for his family back in Wittenberg in the 1500’s

     If you were here last week you will remember we looked at the first seven verses of the Christmas hymn, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.”  This hymn was written by Marin Luther as a Christmas pageant for His family in 1534.  The first five verses were sung by a young man dressed like an angel.  The next two expressed the wonder of the shepherds as they considered the message that the angel proclaimed.  The final eight verses form the second part of Luther’s pageant  and tell of our response to the Christ Child.  As we think about these verses tonight as part of our Advent meditation, may we feel the same joy that Luther must have felt as he thought about the wonderful gift of a Savior and expressed his joy in the words of the hymn. 

     In the verses we sang before, we are taken back to Bethlehem.  Imagine that you are one of the shepherds who heard the angel’s message out in the countryside.  Imagine that you followed the angel’s direction and came into the village of Bethlehem and found the baby just as the angel said, wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.  Remember that the angel said that this is Christ the Lord.  When you finally see the baby, what would you say?  Luther’s opening words of this second half of the hymn may just be the best thing to say.  “Welcome to earth, O noble guest.”   It sounds simple but it expresses our faith that the words of the angel are true.  This child is the Savior from heaven, Christ, the Lord.

     The coming of Jesus into the world is filled with surprising twists.  We have already considered that the Lord of all came as a tiny baby.  His coming was announced to lowly shepherds.  Verse 8 presents another one of these surprising twists.  He came to share my misery, that He might also share the greatest joy with me, the joy of heaven.  Verse 9 points out another amazing irony.  The Lord who created all things is brought into this world in the humblest of circumstances.  He lays his head where lowly cattle lately fed.  How could this be?  Perhaps the answer can be found in John’s Gospel.  In his simple comment on the Christmas miracle, John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  The Word, who was from the beginning, became flesh, a human being.  He became one of us so that He could become our substitute.  He took our place and lived a perfect life and then took our place on the cross.  That is why He became a tiny baby.  He had to be like us so that His life and death could be the sufficient price for our rescue from sin, death and the power of the devil. 

     For more of our response we will sing verses 10-13.

     

     When many people see a little baby, one of the first things that they want to do is pick the baby up and hold it and cuddle it and try to make it feel warm and secure.  When you put the baby back down you want it to be comfortable and content.  The bed for the baby needs to be just right.  Luther’s youngest daughter was only a little over a week old at the time that this Christmas pageant was presented.  He had close, personal knowledge of how you would treat a little baby.  You can see that feeling coming through in the verses we just sang.  

     We are brought back again to the reality of the stable.  The baby’s bed was filled not with velvet and silk but with hay and straw.  The contrast is so striking that we have to stop and consider why this should have to be.  The noble guest from heaven come to earth to be a human being, not one with privilege and wealth but one who would know humility and the simple things of life.  He would be one who would show us the importance of spiritual blessings.  His simple life was itself a parable about seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these earthly things will be given to you as well. 

     If a cradle of gold and jewels, although appropriate for a king, was not the cradle for the child and the manger bed seems too simple, although it was where the child was found, what would be the proper place for the Christ Child?  Verse 13 has a surprising answer for that question.  The place for the Christ Child is in my heart.  It is a place that He prepares for us through the power of the Holy Spirit.  My heart is the dwelling place of the Lord when I am made His child through my Baptism.  The Lord lives within me and comforts and strengthens me every day.  The Lord is with me to assure me of the forgiveness of my sins.  He is with me as I seek to give Him my life for His service.  He will be with me when all the earthly supports begin to fall away.  He will be with me when my heart fails.  He will be with me at the end of my life when I will go to live with Him forever in heaven.  That is the place for the Savior to be, right here with in me. 

     Christmas time gives us an opportunity to respond to the great gift of a Savior.  Luther concluded his Christmas pageant of 1534 with a fitting response.  Let us sing the final two verses, 14 and 15.

      

     Have you ever felt like your heart was ready to leap for joy?  That is what Luther described in verse 14.  Probably the greatest thing that I can remember that would come close to this feeling is the birth of our son.  Once, again, remembering that the Luther family just had welcomed a baby girl into their home about a week before, Dr. Luther probably had that feeling of joy in his heart.  But the feeling of joy that he was describing was not about his own baby girl but about the birth of the Christ Child.  As much as I love my son and we all love our children, the birth of Jesus has much more significance for us than any other human birth in history.  The fact that the Son of God was born to Mary means that God’s plan of salvation for the world has been put into motion.  That has eternal significance for us.  It means that the sin that separates us from God has been forgiven.  We have been given the gift of eternal life.  Our hearts should leap for joy when we think about the birth of the Savior.

     You can’t keep all that joy to yourself.  You have to join with the angel choir to sing the praises of our God who loved you so much that He sent His only Son to earth to be your Savior, to bring peace between God and man and to teach peace to all mankind.  Your joy should show in your voice.  The translator of the hymn uses the words, “pious mirth” to describe the way in which we sing our praises to God.  That is an interesting way to express the kind of joy we have over the birth of Jesus.  We certainly recognize with pious hearts that this is the Son of God. A pious heart is one that is worshipful and stands in great awe of this holy child.  But at the same time you have the feeling that you are just going to break out in laughter any second because you are so happy.  It’s like one of those times in your life when you know you are supposed to be serious but something happens, you hear a strange noise or someone makes a mistake that makes you want to giggle and the more you try to be serious the harder it is to hold the laughter in  until it finally explodes.  It is with that kind of joy that you can come away from the manger and to out into the world and sing “Glory to God.”  You can proclaim God’s great love to all the world.  You can proclaim a glad new year to all the earth.  It will be a glad new year because you have been reminded once again of God’s great love.  You have been reminded that Jesus came to be your Savior.  You have been reminded that His life, death and resurrection made your forgiveness and eternal destiny possible.  You are also reminded that He is coming again some day.  With that good news ringing in your ears and in your heart, you will have a glad new year.  The problems and challengers of life will come, but you will have the strength to deal with them and overcome them.  You have the promise that nothing can separate you from the love of God that is yours in Christ Jesus your Lord.  The joys of life in the new year will be that much better because you know that your Savior is with you always.

     Often when we think of Martin Luther, images come to mind of a staunch fighter for the truth of the Gospel, willing to stand up against  the Emperor and the Pope and even risk his own life in order to proclaim God’s Word.  Some even picture him as a mean-spirited man you wouldn’t want to cross. But it was that same Martin Luther whose tender side is evident in this Christmas pageant that he put together for his family that we now have in our hymnal.  We could see his love for the Savior  as well as his love for his own children coming through in the verses of this hymn.  May you learn from our meditations on this Christmas song that the gift of the Christ Child is very special to you.  Your Christmas celebration needs to be focused on that Gift and what it means for you now and for all eternity.  Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

The Lord Is Our Righteousness

The Lord is Our Righteousness                               

Jeremiah 33:14-16

     When we observe the beginning of a new calendar year, one of the things that you hear a lot about is making new years resolutions.  You think about something in your life that needs improvement and you resolve that in the new year you will change and you will leave behind the old bad habits and adopt some new behaviors that will make you happier, healthier and maybe even wealthier.  All it takes is a little will power and discipline and you will be successful.  That’s the problem.  You have to rely on your will power and your self-discipline.  The results usually aren’t very good.  Most new years resolutions are broken in the first few days. 

     Today is the beginning of a new church year.  What better time to make some new church year resolutions!  Happy, healthy and wealthy are probably not exactly the things you might think of as end results of your new church year resolutions.   You might be thinking though that you would want to increase your time spent in Bible Study, increase your financial support of the church’s ministry, increase your time spent in service to the Lord or increase the time that you spend in volunteer work in the church or the community.   

     Just as you might have trouble keeping your regular new years resolutions, you might also have difficulty keeping your new church year resolutions.  There are several differences between the two though.  Most of the time, new years resolutions are motivated by your own self-interest.  You want to improve the quality of your life so that you can be happy, healthy or wealthy.  The only thing that stands in your way is your own self discipline.  In the case of new church year resolutions, the roadblocks to successful accomplishment of your goals are more than your lack of self-discipline.  You also have the influence of the devil and the world that don’t want to see you grow in your relationship to God.  Add to that your sinful nature and you have three formidable enemies.  

     The themes for the beginning of the church year provide you not only encouragement but also the spiritual strength that you need in order to really accomplish your goals.  You are reminded that Jesus came into the world to carry out God’s plan for your salvation and you are also reminded that Jesus will come again.  It is there that you find the Gospel motivation for any changes in your spiritual lives.  A Gospel motivation is much stronger than simply self-determination because the Gospel comes with the power of the Holy Spirit, the only power that will help you to make the changes needed to improve your spiritual walk. 

     This is now the Advent season.  The word Advent tells us that someone or something is coming to you.  It doesn’t take long for you to figure out that it is Jesus, the Promised One, the Messiah, who is coming to you.  All three of our readings for today mention the coming of Jesus.  The Gospel lesson speaks of Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  It may seem a little strange to hear a Palm Sunday event on the first Sunday in Advent but the purpose of having that reading now is to remind you that when Jesus came into Jerusalem, He came as a humble servant, who was willing to give His live for the sins of the world.  Through His suffering and death and resurrection, He won for us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven.  That was His purpose in coming to the earth from His throne in heaven.  It was God’s great love that caused Him to send His only Son into our world to be our substitute under the Law and then give Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. 

     The Epistle lesson then speaks of the time when Jesus will come again.  Through the power the He gives we are prepared for the time when Jesus will come again.  God gives us the strength to increase and abound in love for one another and for all as we wait.  By faith, our hearts are established blameless in holiness.  This is all according to God’s plan which was made know through His prophets of old.  That is where the Old Testament lesson comes in for today.  Through Jeremiah the prophet, the Lord tells us that the days are coming when He will fulfill the promises made to the house of Israel and Judah.  The righteous Branch will spring up for David.  One of the memorable lines in the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke echoes this statement.  Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem for the census because they were of the house and lineage of David.  When the Child was born, it fulfilled this and many other prophecies regarding the Messiah. 

     This passage from Jeremiah also says that the name associated with this blessing would be “The Lord is our righteousness.”  That gets right to the heart of why Jesus came into the world.  It also gets to the heart of why we will be able to stand before God when Jesus comes again.  It will not be our own righteousness that will make us acceptable to God.  It will be rather the righteousness of Jesus that covers us.   

     For many people, that element of the Christian message is hard to accept.  The sinful nature that lurks within us does not want to acknowledge that we need help in order to stand before God.  That voice within you would rather say, “I can manage just fine by myself, thank you.  I don’t need anyone’s help.  I have lived a good life.  I have given of myself to help others.  I think I have done quite enough to earn my place in heaven.”  The truth from God’s word is that you can never do enough to earn your place in heaven.  God’s Word of Law, if you listen to it, will point out that you have sinned over and over again.  You are not exempt from the blanket condemnation that
says plainly, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  You have the same need for rescue that is common to all mankind.  You need to hear once again the wonderful words, “The Lord is our righteousness.”  It is His righteousness that stands in your place. 

     He kept God’s Law perfectly for you.  What you could not do, Jesus did for you.  We call that His active obedience.  He did all that God required.  He then allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross as the punishment for your sins.  We call that His passive obedience.  He allowed it to happen.  He had all power in heaven and in earth and if He wanted to stop the whole process, He could.  But in His great love for the Father and for you, He allowed the soldiers to hammer the nails into His flesh.  You needed that kind of obedience from One who is able credit that obedience to you.  His suffering and death was for your benefit and eternal blessing.

     That is the motivation that you need in order to be able to make your new church year resolutions.  In response to God’s great love, demonstrated in Jesus’ coming into the world and in eager anticipation of the time when He will come again, you can resolve to grow in your love for the Lord.  You will want to be in His Word to receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit who works through the Word.  You will want to show your love and appreciation for the Lord’s righteousness that has been given to you by generously supporting the work of the Lord through His church.  When the Lord has given you His only Son to suffer and die for you, can you be anything else but generous in your response?  God not only gives you the blessings in the first place, He also gives you the motivation to use those blessings in a way that will give glory and honor to Him alone in everything that you do. 

     What will your new church year resolutions be?  Will they reflect your appreciation of God’s love?  Will they be a response to Jesus’ first coming?  Will they demonstrate an eager anticipation of His second coming?  Paul’s prayer in the Epistle Lesson is a good prayer for us to pray for one another.  “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”  Amen.

December 2, 2012    

Feasting on the Living Bread                                          

John 6:22-35

     I’m sure that most of you have heard the old saying, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  I don’t know if that is exactly true but it points out something about human nature.  We spend a lot of our time and energy centered around food.  Food is necessary for life.  You need to fuel your body in order for it to work properly.  That helps us to understand why Jesus used this word picture to talk about the importance of staying close to Him and feasting on the bread of life. 

    The whole idea of bread and eating dominates this chapter of John’s Gospel.  It started two weeks ago in our Gospel lesson when we heard about the feeding of the five thousand.  With five loaves of bread and two fish Jesus demonstrated his divine power by multiplying the bread and fish so that everyone had something to eat and was satisfied.  Last week we heard about what happened after the miraculous meal and how Jesus walked on the water to his disciples as they were struggling with a contrary wind.  In today’s reading we hear what happened when the crowds caught up with Jesus again.  They were very interested in Him but Jesus could perceive that their interest was only in the free food.  His words to them went right to the heart.  He said, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you.”  Try to put yourself in their sandals for a moment.  If you had been there or if you had only heard about the miraculous sign that Jesus did, how would you have reacted.  Would your first thought be to hear more of Jesus’ wisdom and teaching about repentance and forgiveness or would you be interested in how he fed so many people with so little food and wonder if and when He was going to do it again?  If you are honest with yourself, you would probably have to admit that you would be more interested in the food. 

     Our human nature is often tempted to ignore the important spiritual matters in our lives in favor of the material needs that seem more pressing.  What am I going to have for dinner seems a lot more important at times than where am I going to spend eternity.  That concern with material things can even become a distraction to the church.  Down through the history of the church there have been times when leaders were more concerned with building the biggest and most ornate churches they could.  At the time before the Reformation, the material excesses of the church caused them to lose their focus on Christ and the Gospel.  Even today, there are often many distractions in the church that cause us to put the spreading of the Gospel to the world on the back burner when it should always be right up in front.  We find ourselves consumed with church work but it is only material things that take up all our time.  To try and prevent that at the district and synodical levels, the conventions that are held always have time for worship and spiritual growth.  At our district convention in June, for example, we had a presentation on understanding true Biblical Stewardship.  The speaker, Dr. Joel Biermann from the St. Louis Seminary, helped us to remember that true Biblical Stewardship involves more than just how much money is put in the plate.  All of life and life’s resources are a gift from God and the Christian steward has been charged with the faithful use of those resources to the glory of God.  After being spiritually focused, the convention can then get down to the business of the district. 

     In our congregations, we also can get so caught up in the business of running a large operation that we can easily forget that God has placed us here to carry out His task of making disciples, spreading the Gospel and caring for those in need.  That, by the way, is a summary of our mission statement as a congregation.  Is that what we are really doing?

     Jesus was not exactly talking to congregations though.  He was talking to people who were curious about what He was going to do next.  You have to look at yourself then figure out why you are interested in Jesus.  Often today when people look for a church, their search is not necessarily for the bread of life.  The question becomes, “What can this church do for me? What programs do you have for my children?  Will I get to make new friends?”  These are all good questions but they are, as Jesus put it, about food that perishes.  Things that are only about this life seem important to us because they have an effect on our lives right now but those things change.  There aren’t many of us who have the same interests that we had when we were younger.  Those things are here today and gone tomorrow. They have no lasting value.  Jesus, on the other hand, calls you to feast on the bread of life. 

     That bread of life gives you something that you can’t find anywhere else.  It brings you the forgiveness of sins.  That is the most important blessing that you receive from the bread of life.  When your concerns are merely on the things of this life and satisfying your hunger for material things, you are tempted to turn your eyes away from the true giver of all things.  You are tempted to take the credit for the earthly possessions that you have accumulated and forget that all good things come from God.  When you do that you have sinned against the First Commandment which tells us to have no other gods.  Luther explains it by saying, “We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.”

     The Bread of Life came to bring you forgiveness for this sin and all the others that are related to breaking that First Commandment.  With that forgiveness of sins then comes the restoration of the broken relationship with the Father that was brought about by sin.  With sins forgiven, the barrier between you and God has been broken down and you can have the sure and certain hope of being with the Lord forever in heaven.  The Bread of Life brings you eternal life.  With the certainty of that eternal life, you also have a new outlook on your life now.  You live now in joyful response to the blessings that you have received through the Bread of Life. 

     The word picture that Jesus used here also can be extended to describe your life of response to God’s grace.  Bread, when it is used in the Bible, is a kind of all-encompassing word that describes everything that we need for the support and wants of everyday life.  Think of what Jesus said when He taught His disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer.  After praying about God’s kingdom and His will being done, the next line says, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  In the Catechism, Luther describes daily bread as everything that belongs to the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.  The faithful stewardship of all those blessings is part of the joyful response of the child of God who feasts on the Bread of Life. 

     In addition to that, the reality is that we daily need to have nourishment for our bodies.  We are told to eat the right kinds of food so that we can be healthy.  That too is part of good stewardship of the blessings that God has given to us.  In that same way, you need to feast on the Bread of Life, our Savior Jesus and His Word, regularly so that you can remain spiritually healthy.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit who works in you through the Means of Grace, God’s Word and the Sacraments, your faith in Jesus as the only source of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life is strengthened.  At the same time you are given strength for your life now.  You are still living in a world where your faith is under attack all the time.  You are being tempted daily to look away from God and look instead to your own wisdom and accomplishments as the basis for your claim to heaven.  When you give in to those temptations, it’s like eating the wrong kinds of food for your body.  Only now you are taking the wrong kind of spiritual food for your soul when you yield to the temptations of the devil, the world and your own sinful nature.  Why would you want to do that when you have the opportunity to feast on the Bread of Life regularly in worship, in your own private devotions and in regular Bible study? 

     Listen to Jesus and follow Him alone when He says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”    Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen

Rev. Gerald Matzke
August 5, 2012