Commemoration of Lucia, Martyr

Today we remember and give thanks for Lucia, Martyr.  One of the victims of the great persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian, Lucia met her death at Syracuse on the island of Sicily in the year A.D. 304, because of her Christian faith. Known for her charity, “Santa Lucia” (as she is called in Italy) gave away her dowry and remained a virgin until her execution by the sword. The name Lucia means “light,” and, because of that, festivals of light commemorating her became popular throughout Europe, especially in the Scandinavian countries. There her feast day corresponds with the time of year when there is the least amount of daylight. In artistic expression she is often portrayed in a white baptismal gown, wearing a wreath of candles on her head.

Collect of the Day:

O Almighty God, by whose grace and power Your holy martyr Lucia triumphed over suffering and remained ever faithful unto death, grant us, who now remember her with thanksgiving, to be so true in our witness to You in this world that we may receive with her new eyes and without tears, the crown of light and life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent - Gaudete - Isa 40:1-8

                                                                                                  Advent 3
                                                                                                  Isa 40:1-8
                                                                                                  12/11/16

On a number of occasions while I was a student at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, I took the Metrolink light rail train out to Lambert International Airport. I enjoyed doing this, because of course, I love to ride trains.

I would board the train at the Delmar Loop station. This was a very interesting place, because it was actually the site of the old Wabash Railroad passenger station. The station itself, a handsome stone structure, still stands to this day at street level. The rider descends to track level where the platforms exist on the same location where the Wabash Railroad platforms used to be.

In each phase of the Metrolink construction, the planners have attempted to use as much abandoned railroad right of way as they can. They have done this because it helps to keep construction costs down. The railroad right of way is a strip of land that is already prepared for construction of railroad track. There is no problem with having to buy property from multiple individual owners in order to build the line. Since the right of way has already been constructed to meet the needs of a railroad, there is no grading or heavy earth work necessary. Often, any bridges that are needed are already in place and usually can be used as they are.

Riding the line out to the airport is interesting, because you can tell exactly when you leave the old Wabash Railroad right of way and begin running on the section of the line that was brand new construction. After the Rock Road station, the track curves off to the left. And suddenly everything changes.

Where the ride had been very level and straight with broad, gentle curves, suddenly it is full of tight curves as the train climbs steep grades and then drops down the other side. The change has been produced by the different requirements of a railroad and a light rail line.

In order to run hundred car freight trains, whenever possible, the grade of a railroad is kept to a minimum. Heavy trains running at speed need broad curves and gentle changes in elevation. In order to achieve this railroad construction requires cuts in the earth and fills in order to deal with hills and low places.

However, the requirements of a light rail line are quite different. Trains are short – in St. Louis they are two cars – so tight curves are not as big a deal. The cars themselves are light and have powerful electric traction motors that give them amazing acceleration. So steep grades are really not an issue. This means that when new light rail lines are constructed the engineers don’t have to worry as much about hills and low spots and this keeps costs down. Where necessary, the light rail line can climb steep grades and drop down the other side.

In our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah this morning, the prophet speaks about the need to prepare a right of way. He is not talking about a railroad, but rather about a highway. Yet the same needs of preparation come into play: valleys need to be filled and hills need to be brought down in order to make a straight and level way. This needs to be done in preparation … because God is coming.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in the eighth century B.C. – during the 700’s. He lived at a time when Israel was divided into northern and southern kingdoms and the great threat was the near eastern superpower Assyria. During Isaiah’s life Assyria conquered the northern kingdom and took the population into exile. They tried to do the same thing to the southern kingdom where Isaiah lived, but God miraculously rescued Jerusalem from the Assyrian army as he killed 185,000 of the soldiers in one night.

Judah was spared, but they didn’t take the hint that they needed to change their ways. Instead, they continued on in unfaithfulness as they took part in worshipping false gods. So in his prophecy, Isaiah also looks ahead to events of the sixth century B.C. – the 500’s. He describes how Judah will be taken into exile by the Babylonians as punishment for their sin. But God will not leave them there. Instead, he will bring them back to their land – back from exile. Our text begins by saying, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.”

The exile would happen. Judah would be punished. Sometimes we forget that this is how it works. We think of sin only as something that threatens our standing before God or makes us feel bad – and certainly this is true. But God means what he says in the Ten Commandments as he punishes sin. As Martin Luther says in the explanation to the Close of the Commandments in the Small Catechism, “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore, we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them.” God had punished Judah, but now he was going to restore her. He was coming to bring deliverance, and the people needed to be ready. He was going to act. The prophet says, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God was going to reveal his glory through his act of deliverance. He did it in 538 B.C. Rather unexpectedly, Cyrus had led the Medo-Persians against the Babylonians and defeated them. He issued an edict that the people of the southern kingdom could return home and rebuild the temple. Isaiah declares in his eighth century B.C. writing that Cyrus will be Yahweh’s instrument – in fact he calls him Yahwehs’s anointed one, his “messiah.”
This action by God may sound like a boring bit of ancient history. But because it involved God’s people it meant so much more. God’s action to rescue Judah from exile was a type. It was an event involving Israel in the Old Testament that pointed forward to something even greater that God would do in the New Testament. It pointed forward to the rescue from sin that God would give through Jesus Christ. 

We hear words from our text again in Matthew chapter 3. There we read, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” 

John the Baptist was the voice sent by God to call people to prepare for the great revelation of his saving glory. He called people to prepare the way – to lift valleys up and level hills – by repentance.

Repentance means confessing sin and asking for forgiveness. But it is about more than receiving a “Get out of hell free” card from Jesus. John the Baptist went on to say to the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

John told them to bear fruit that was in keeping with repentance. In particular, he warned them not to assume all was fine because they descended from Abraham. John the Baptist helps us to understand what Isaiah’s words mean for us. We are called to repentance. Yet repentance does not just involve admitting that we did something wrong. It also includes striving to turn away from those sins – to avoid them and instead to live differently. It means that we don’t take our status as God’s people for granted. We don’t engage in what amounts to planned repentance: “I know this is wrong, but I will be forgiven so it is ok to do it.”

This is not something we can do on our own. Instead it is fruit produced through the forgiveness that we receive. In our text Isaiah says to get ready because “the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah describes how God is going to reveal his glory to all people as he acts to save.

God’s action through his “messiah” Cyrus pointed forward to the fulfillment that has now occurred in Jesus the Messiah – the Christ. God has revealed his glory in the incarnation of the Son of God. As John tells us in his Gospel, “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.” God’s glory dwelt in the flesh of the baby born in Bethlehem. And he revealed this glory as Jesus the Son of God went to the cross to make atonement for every sin. He went as the One who offered himself in our place as he received the penalty against our sin and gave us his righteousness. God’s saving glory was revealed in the darkness of Good Friday and Jesus’ dead body was placed in a dark, sealed tomb.

But the Spirit of God who gives life raised Jesus from the dead. The glory of life that has conquered death emerged from the tomb, and after forty days Jesus ascended and was exalted to the right hand of the Father as our Lord. He poured out his Spirit on the Church at Pentecost – the same Spirit who raised him from the dead. And the Spirit has continued to give life – new spiritual life – through water and the Word. The Spirit of Christ has given us rebirth, and now leads us in bearing the fruit of repentance. 

The Spirit leads you. The Spirit supports you. But the Spirit doesn’t force you. That’s why, when it comes to living in response to the forgiveness of the Gospel, the Lutheran Confessions use the language of “cooperation.” There’s no cooperation in why you are forgiven. There’s no cooperation in your salvation. But God’s saving glory has been revealed in Jesus Christ whose birth we are preparing to celebrate. Because of him, you are forgiven and saved, and so the Spirit now draws you into his work as you follow his leading in seeking to resist sin and to love others.

Sermon for second mid-week Advent service - Mt 1:18-25

                                                                                                  Mid-Advent 2
                                                                                                  Mt 1:18-25
                                                                                                  12/7/16

We know that when it comes to having a child, it’s the mom who does all the work. She carries the child for nine months and takes on the all the discomfort that goes with it. Her body is stretched and changed in ways that would be hard to fathom if we didn’t see it happen all the time in pregnancies. And of course after nine months of work, the real labor begins. Either she actually has to go through labor or she has surgery that that then requires a period of healing and recovery.

 Yet while mom does all of the work, she has absolutely no role in determining the sex of the child she carries. As we now know every egg created by the woman carries a X chromosome. It is in fact the sperm created by the man that carries either a X or a Y chromosome. Whether the mom carries and gives birth to a boy or a girl is determined by something that is completely outside of her. It is the father who contributes the sex determining chromosome.  

In our text for tonight we hear about the announcement to Joseph regarding why Mary is pregnant and is going to have a child. This was, of course, news to Joseph. Mary was betrothed to him. This was more than engagement in our day. Instead it was a legal agreement. The couple was not yet married and certainly had not consummated the marriage, but they were committed to one another in a way that was legally binding.
Mary and Joseph were not married, and they had not been carrying on as if they were. There was nothing here like in our world where a man and a woman move in together as the relationship progresses so that they can “try it out” before deciding to get married.

Instead, we learn that Joseph was a righteous man. This means that Joseph was committed to living according to what God had revealed as his will in the Ten Commandments. There wasn’t going to be any “messing around” before he and Mary were married. However, Joseph had his world turned upside down when he learned that the nice girl he thought he was marrying had been messing around on him. She was pregnant. And Joseph was absolutely not the father.

Joseph was a righteous man. He was not about to marry an unfaithful, fornicating woman. But he was also a merciful man. He was not going to put her to shame. He was not going to make a public example of her and subject her to all the ramifications that could have. So instead, Joseph had decided that he was going to divorce her quietly. He was going to end the legal agreement of the betrothal.

This what was on his mind when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The first piece of news was that Mary was righteous too. She had not broken the Sixth Commandment. She had not been unfaithful to Joseph.

Instead, God was doing something amazing. The child Mary was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It was God’s miraculous action that had caused the virgin to be pregnant. She was carrying a boy, and when she gave birth to this son the name had already been chosen by God. The couple was to name him “Jesus” – which means “Yahweh saves” – because he would save his people from their sins.

Joseph was to still take Mary as his wife. And this was important. Unlike a normal pregnancy, Joseph wasn’t going to contribute the factor that decided whether he and Mary were going to have a boy or a girl. Joseph wasn’t going to have anything to do with the biology of this child. But he was in fact going to contribute something – something of far greater importance. Matthew begins his Gospel by saying: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” In the previous seventeen verses Matthew has traced the ancestry from Abraham to Jesus. This is important, because Jesus is to be the fulfillment of the promise God had made to Abraham that in his offspring all nations would be blessed. He is to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to King David that he would have a descendant who would rule forever.

The key contribution of Joseph would not be biology. Instead, he would bestow a royal lineage on Jesus. Joseph descended from Abraham and David. By taking Mary as his wife, he was taking Jesus to be his own child. He was taking Jesus into his family line and by doing so he was fulfilling all of God’s promises.

This is surely not what Joseph had planned. For starters we are told, “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” Now let’s face it. One of the really appealing things about getting married – something a guy in particular really looks forward to – is the wedding night. But for Joseph, his wedding night was not going to be anything like he expected. And for that matter, his first child was not going to be anything he could imagine.
Yet Joseph obeyed the angel. He took Mary as his wife. He took Jesus as his son and in so doing gave Jesus a Davidic lineage. And he cared for Jesus and Mary.

We see Joseph trust and obey God in spite of the fact that things are not going the way he expected. They are not turning out as he planned, and yet he walks the way of faith and demonstrates this by his actions.

As we hear our text, it provides both comfort and guidance. Because the fact of the matter is that there are many times when our lives do not go as we have planned. And when this happens our reaction is often to get angry at God or we doubt his love and care. We don’t want illness and physical hardships. We don’t want our family members to have great struggles. We don’t want failures and setbacks.

But in our text we see first, that God forgives us for this. Jesus came “to save his people from their sins.” His very name means “Yahweh saves.” The baby who was born in Bethlehem made his way to Jerusalem. As we heard on the First Sunday in Advent, he entered the city on Palm Sunday in order to die on the cross on Good Friday. By that death he won us forgiveness. As Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And then on the third day he rose from the dead.

Jesus has won forgiveness for us. And now he continues to give it to us. He gives it through his Word. He gives it in the baptism we have received as we continue to turn to this saving action of Christ in faith. And in the Sacrament of the Altar he gives us his true body and blood, given and shed to forgive our sins.

Not only does Christ give us forgiveness, but in our text we receive encouragement to trust in God no matter what is happening. For we see here that God keeps his word. God had promised Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. He had promised David that his descendant would reign forever. He had promised through Isaiah that his Messiah would bring a victory over all that sin has done.

And then he did it. We see a key moment in this fulfillment happening as Joseph trusts God’s word and obeys the instruction he has received – as he takes this child conceived by the Holy Spirit into the royal line of king David. 

Because we have seen what God has done in Christ, it leads us to renewed trust and faithfulness. The Spirit leads us to renewed confidence that God is still in charge, no matter what is happening. And just like Joseph, the faith sustained by the Spirit moves us to live in the vocations where God has placed us. It gives us strength to do the thing that is not so easy; the thing that is not so fun. We can, because we have already seen what Christ has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Commemoration of Nicholas of Myra, Pastor

Today we remember and give thanks for Nicholas of Myra, Pastor.  Of the many saints commemorated by the Christian Church, Nicholas (d. A.D. 342) is one of the best known. Very little is known historically of him, although there was a church of Saint Nicholas in Constantinople as early as the sixth century. Research has affirmed that there was a bishop by the name of Nicholas in the city of Myra in Lycia (part of Turkey today) in the fourth century. From that coastal location, legends about Nicholas have traveled throughout time and space. He is associated with charitable giving in many countries around the world and is portrayed as the rescuer of sailors, the protector of children, and the friend of people in distress or need. In commemoration of “Sinte Klaas” (Dutch for Saint Nicholas, in English “Santa Claus”), December 6 is a day for giving and receiving gifts in many parts of Europe.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, You bestowed upon your servant Nicholas of Myra the perpetual gift of charity.  Grant Your Church the grace to deal in generosity and love with children and with all who are poor and distressed and to plead the cause of those who have no helper, especially those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief.  We ask this for the sake of Him who gave His life for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who live and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.