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The Eternal Gifts

Text: Matthew 2:1-12
Date: Epiphany + 1/6/07

      Today we celebrate the Christian festival of the incarnation more ancient than Christmas. And thank God for the Gospel of the Epiphany of Our Lord through the pen of St. Matthew. For without it we could be in danger of falling into the same conundrum of King Herod “and all Jerusalem with him,” also the chief priests and scribes of the people, for they were concerned only about a child, a rival king, born in a little (as Luther called it) “cow town” of Bethlehem. To everyone involved it seemed too strange to be believed that this might be the promised Christ. I mean, even though the chief priests and scribes of the people knew the prophecy of Micah that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, did you ever wonder why they didn’t go to see him too? There is a reason. Continue reading “The Eternal Gifts”

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O Blessed Day

Text: Luke 2:21

Date: Circumcision and Name of Jesus + 1/1/07

      There are two reasons we gather this day. The second reason, that is to say, the reason of least importance, is that it is New Year’s Day. Happy New Year 2007! The primary reason, of greater importance, is that it is the eighth day of the celebration of Our Lord’s human birth, the day on which he came under the knife of God’s Law and already began to shed his infant blood in the Mosaic covenant of circumcision. For our Lord took on our human flesh from his mother Mary in order that he could take away our sin by his bloody sacrifice and restore us by giving us his holiness and righteousness and deathless, resurrection life. In other words, this feast changes everything. Continue reading “O Blessed Day”

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Marvel and Be Blessed

Text: Luke 2:33-40
Date: Christmas 2 + 12/31/06

      This text before us today—St. Luke’s account of Simeon’s blessing of Mary and Joseph after his song of praise and prophecy concerning the infant Savior in the Jerusalem temple—is a perfect text for the instruction and encouragement both of preachers of the Gospel and for hearers as well. We center on only two details: the reaction of marveling or wonder on behalf of Joseph and Mary, and the “blessing” spoken to Mary. In these two details we find encouragement for faith in the face of all false teaching and false belief, and every doubt or temptation that seeks to tear us away from true, saving, joyful, steadfast and unswerving faith. For it reveals the offense, the “cutting edge” of the Gospel, if you will, that is always there and is the cause, as Simeon says, of both “the fall and rising of many,” that is, the wakening of true faith or the hardening of disbelief in those who hear it. Continue reading “Marvel and Be Blessed”

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Homily for St. John, Apostle and Evangelist Day

Text: John 21:19-24

Date: St. John / Third Day of Christmas + 12/27/06

      On the third day of Christmas my True Love gave to me Three French Hens. According to the explanation that this song is a 16th-century hidden catechism, this is a reference to the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. We recall that St. Paul listed these and then added the comment, “but the greatest of these is love.” How appropriate the coincidence, then, that the third day of Christmas should also happen to be the commemoration of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, as he is remembered, above all the others, as the Apostle of Love. That’s the way he always referred to himself in his Gospel, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” His famous “Gospel in a nutshell” tells what it is in God that made Him redeem and save his fallen creation: “God so loved the world.” He is the only Apostle who remained steadfast at the scene of the crucifixion where he alone was entrusted by Jesus in His dying woes to care for the blessed Mother of our Lord for her remaining days. Not only his Gospel but especially his three catholic Epistles repeat the theme of love. Symbolized by an eagle we remember the height and depth of the vision given him on the Island of Patmos in the final book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse or Revelation. Continue reading “Homily for St. John, Apostle and Evangelist Day”

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The Light Shines in the Darkness

Text: John 1:5, 12-13; Isaiah 52:6-10

Date: Christmas Day X12/25/06

      Today is our dancing day, our day of great rejoicing and gladness. Let our gladness have no end, alleluia! For today we celebrate the Incarnate Word, the Creating Word, the Living Word, the Word that is the Light shining in the darkness. On the Eve of Christmas we tell the story, the history of how God, the Son of God, took our human flesh upon Himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and was made man. Today we celebrate the depth and meaning of this mystery; that He was born to be our salvation, our hope, our love and our light. Continue reading “The Light Shines in the Darkness”

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Et Incarnatus Est

Text: Matthew 1:18-21
Date: Vigil of Christmas / Advent 4 + 12/24/06

      I don’t know which is the greatest mystery—the cosmic transaction of holiness for sin and sin for holiness that took place in those dark hours on the cross of Calvary on Good Friday, or that God should take on our human flesh in the first place in dulci jubilo, “in the quiet joy” and incarnation of the Son of God as the Son of Mary. Indeed, you cannot have one without the other. For it was necessary that God become a Man in order to provide the one, perfect sacrifice beyond our ability, to atone for the sins of the whole world, for the life and salvation of the whole world. But to speak of our Lord’s earthly ministry as “necessary,” and to explain his sinless life, his atoning death, his resurrection triumph over the grave and ascending to the right hand of the Father—to “explain” the Gospel is not necessarily to believe it, and much less to adore it. As the hymn says it, our noblest work is to adore! [LSB 811:2] Continue reading “Et Incarnatus Est”

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A Reed? A Man? A Prophet!

Text: Matthew 11:2-10

Date: Advent 3 + 12/11/05

      A news reporter is expected simply to report the news, to document the facts in an objective way. When a news reporter becomes part of the story, however, or becomes the story him or herself, the original story gets skewed or lost and news turns into editorial, opinion about the news rather than just the news itself. The news was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The news anchor Walter Cronkite cried on camera. The news was the resignation of President Nixon. But suddenly everyone knew the names of the reporters Woodward and Bernstein.

      The Good News (the Gospel)—what I’m supposed to be telling you here—is supposed to be about Jesus Christ. But today the reporter, the one sent to prepare the way, John the Baptist, becomes the news, the focus of attention. Jesus asks the crowds, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see” when you went out to see John? He gives them two wrong answers—a reed shaken by the wind or a man dressed in soft clothing. And then he gives them the right answer: a prophet! Continue reading “A Reed? A Man? A Prophet!”

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The Kingdom of God is Near

Text: Luke 21:25-33

Date: Advent 2 + 12/10/06

      Today Jesus tells us about signs appearing in the sun and moon and stars that forecast his second advent or coming on the Day of Judgment and deliverance. As the angel said, when Jesus ascended into heaven and a cloud hid him from his disciples’ sight, so he will come again as you have seen him go. Today Jesus says he will come “in a cloud with power and great glory.” In this last public discourse before his Passion, Jesus gives his disciples some final words to help us prepare “to stand in the presence of the Son of Man” on the Last Day. In fact, this is the goal of Luke’s entire gospel. The words of Jesus, which he says will not pass away, accomplish what Luke promised Theophilus in the beginning, “that you come to recognize completely the reliability concerning the words by which you have been catechized.” Continue reading “The Kingdom of God is Near”

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Today This Scripture is Fulfilled

Text: Luke 4:14-22
Date: Wednesday in Advent I + 12/6/06
Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit

      This week of the First Sunday in Advent Holy Church has begun again to tell the whole story of salvation. Though it takes six months from Advent through Pentecost just to sketch the details of our Lord’s earthly ministry and another six months to draw out the implications of it, there is one main theme, one fundamental truth, one purpose whether we speak of Jesus as the Babe of Bethlehem, the preacher of Galilee, the miracle-worker of Capernaum, the sacrificial Lamb of Jerusalem, the risen Lord on a road to Emmaus, the ascending King of Bethany, or the Lord of heaven and earth who will return on the Day of Judgment, and that is, as we Lutherans have said it, “the justification of the sinner by God’s grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ.” In a word, salvation—salvation from our captivity to death, the blindness of sin, the broken heart of separation from the God of life; salvation to be the people of God. This is the significance of our Lord’s first Sabbath day sermon in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth. When he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, he carefully turned to the place we today call chapter 61, reading it as the grand summary of everything he was about to preach, teach and perform from beginning to end. Continue reading “Today This Scripture is Fulfilled”

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Hosanna!

Text: Matthew 21:1-9
Date: Advent I + 12/03/06

      Once again we are given the grace and the mercy to say “Happy New Year” as Holy Church marks the passing of days with the Divine Agenda of telling the Good News, the story of the salvation of the world, to the world in an orderly way for all to hear. From the Advent anticipation of prophesies fulfilled, to the Christmas crisis of the incarnation of the Word made flesh, to the Epiphany lightshow of our Lord’s earthly ministry, to the Lenten litany of His passion, the Easter emancipation of resurrection, and the Pentecost proclamation of the Spirit, we mean to reveal the true meaning of the passing of days. We begin again to tell the whole story, the really good story of new life even as our old, tattered 2006 calendars are nearly filled with the record of an aging year, the old story of our broken promises, devastating reverses, the dark turns of life incessantly marching to a destination we either deny or ignore. This story, God’s story, means to say that death no longer has the last word and that life has been restored. Continue reading “Hosanna!”