Sermon for Christmas Day - Jn 1:1-14

                                                                                    Christmas Day

                                                                                    Jn 1:1-14

                                                                                    12/25/18

            The Greek philosopher Plato taught that the soul was immortal and existed before the body.  Human existence as we know it takes place because the soul has fallen into this material world from a higher order of existence.  It’s not surprising to learn that Plato sharply contrasted the body and the soul.  He said that the soul has been bound to the body against its will, and that the body is a harsh prison.  If the soul is to achieve its true destiny, it must escape the body and return to that higher existence from which it came.  On this view, death is not something bad, but instead good because it means the soul escapes the prison of the body.

            This dualistic view of the world in which the spiritual or intelligible world is “above” and the physical or material world is “below” dominated thought in the Greco-Roman world of the first century A.D.  People were encouraged by philosophers to think of death as something to be welcomed because it meant the escape of the soul from the prison of the body. The soul needed to escape, and according to some it needed to return to the astral regions from which it came.

            Faced with a world that believed this, if you wanted to win over people to a new religion, the words of our Gospel lesson are about the dumbest thing you could devise. They are in fact expressing the exact opposite of what the Greco-Roman culture believed.  Yet the apostle John wrote it, and the early Church believed it, because it is true.  The Church believed and taught this because on Christmas the baby in the manger was true God and true man at the same time.  He was the Word become flesh – the incarnate One.

            Our Gospel lesson begins with words that evoke the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  The apostle is going to talk about creation, but he wants to us know that while there is only one God, there is more to God than just oneness.  Instead he says that in the beginning was the Word.  John is talking about the second person of the Trinity, the Son, and he declares that not only was Word with God in the beginning, he was God.

            Before we have even gotten to the second verse, John has plunged us into the mystery of the Trinity.  The language about the Spirit later in the Gospel simply reinforces what find here. There is only one God, and yet the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct from each other and relate to one another.

            John asserts that the Word is God.  He goes on to express one of the ways we see that this is true: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”  The Word, the Son of God, made the creation.  As God he carried out the action described in Genesis chapters one and two.

            The phrase “in the beginning” and our text’s reference to the Word’s act of creation prompts us to consider what we find in Genesis.  There, God makes a material, physical world and he continues to judge that it is good.  We are told, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  This includes how God makes man, for in Genesis chapter two we get a “close up” of this. We learn that, “God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  In the unity of the body and what we call the soul God created human life as it intended to be lived.  Our bodily existence is not just good, but it is very good, and very necessary.

            In our text we hear that from the start, John sets light in opposition to darkness.  The darkness exists in our world because the devil succeeded in tempting Adam and Eve.  He told them that God was holding out on them.  He told them that they could be so much more.  He told them that they could be gods.

            You know the result.  They sinned and profound darkness entered into the world.  It is the darkness that John describes in our text.  It is the darkness that continues to tempt us.  John writes in chapter three, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”  Even though we are now in the light, the darkness still trips us up.  John knew this. That is why he wrote in his epistle the words that we spoke at the beginning of the service: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

            Sin entered God’s creation because of man.  Yet God did not abandon man.  Instead, to overcome the darkness and enlighten man, God himself entered into his creation.  John says, “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.” 

            In one brief and simple phrase John expresses what we are celebrating at Christmas.  He summarizes a mystery of the faith.  He says that the “Word became flesh.”  God became man, without ceasing to be God.

            The term “flesh” was one that the Greco-Roman world viewed in a pejorative fashion.  It was the exact opposite of all that was good and spiritual and “above.”  Precisely for that reason, John says the Word became flesh.  God’s participation in human existence was complete and total.

            This was not something the world wanted to accept.  In time the world also made its presence felt in the Church. A denial of the incarnation was a cancer that threatened to spread.  John warned in his first letter, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

            Jesus Christ took on human flesh – he took on a human nature – in order to redeem it.  Because of sin, flesh now means death. The Son of God himself became flesh in the incarnation in order to free flesh – our flesh - from death.  He passed through death in his flesh in order to give us life.  Our Lord said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

            Jesus Christ’s flesh was nailed to the cross. He became flesh as a baby in a manger for that very reason.  He cried out “It is finished” and gasped his final breath.  To ensure that he was dead a spear was thrust into his flesh, and blood and water poured out.  And then his dead flesh was buried in a tomb.

            But his flesh did not remain dead.  On the third day he rose from the dead.  He appeared to the disciples on the Sunday of the first Easter and showed them his flesh – he showed them the marks in his hand and side.  He sent the disciples to deliver what he has won through the cross.  He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

            On the next Sunday Jesus showed Thomas his risen flesh, and the apostle confessed, “My Lord and my God.”  Jesus Christ who was the Word become flesh, is still the Word become flesh. He was true God and true man on the first Christmas morning.  He was true God and true man on Good Friday as he hung on the cross. And he is now still true God and true man as the risen and ascended Lord.

            By his resurrection he has redeemed human flesh so that it is once again fully and completely very good.  He has redeemed it so that we can again possess it on the Last Day when Jesus returns in glory and raises the dead.  On that day he will transform our flesh to be like his.

            Jesus Chris is now the risen and ascended Lord. Yet he continues to come to us in the flesh. And in doing so he assures us that we too will share in his resurrection.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” The Son of God became flesh in the humility of a baby lying in a manger. In the Sacrament of the Altar, the same incarnate Lord comes to us and gives to us what he won by his death and resurrection.                        

            The Word became flesh and dwelt among us as baby in a manger.  The Word continues to be present and give his saving flesh in the Sacrament of Altar.  And the Word become flesh will return in glory on the Last Day to transform our flesh so that we can live with him forever in the new creation.

           

 

Sermon for Christmas Eve - Tit 2:11-14

                                                                                                Christmas Eve

                                                                                                Tit 2:11-14

                                                                                                12/24/18

            In order to help us think about history, we divide it up into eras or periods of time.  These are usually demarcated by significant events.  So when we talk about world history, World War II is a dramatic event that marks a significant change in the world and the start of a new era.

            If you had been living in December 1918, you would have thought that the Great War that had just ended the previous month was the “war to end all wars” and the beginning of a new era.  But a war concluded before one side had achieved clear victory on the battlefield simply delayed the need for final resolution of the issues that caused the war in the first place. 

            On Sept. 1, 1939 the Germans invaded Poland and before it was all done, the entire world was plunged into a war.  World War II led to the deaths of somewhere between seventy and eighty five million people.  War was waged on a scale and in a scope that had never been seen before.  And of course, its final conclusion was brought about in part by the invention of a completely new weapon – the atom bomb.

            World War II was a great event and it clearly marked the start of a new era.  It marked the decline of the colonial powers as their colonies became independent countries and Great Britain and France became second rate powers.  It marked the emergence of the United States as the super power it has continued to be to this day.  It marked the beginning of the Cold War which consumed great effort and resources until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  And it marked the beginning of the nuclear age which has threatened destruction on an unimaginable scale, and at the same time has prevented a World War III.

            In the epistle lesson for Christmas Eve, the apostle Paul describes the appearance of Jesus Christ as an event that has begun a new era.  He clearly says that this impacts the way we now live, and that it points forward to a dramatic event that will begin another era.  And at the same time the manner in which the appearance of Jesus Christ took place leads us to consider more deeply how God works now in our midst.

            Paul begins by saying, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”  The phrase “the grace of God has appeared” is what we are celebrating tonight. God’s grace – his unmerited favor and love – appeared when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem.

            The apostle told the Galatians that this appearance took place according to God’s plan and timing.  He wrote, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”  Paul sees this appearance as the beginning of a new era.  It is as he says literally in our text, “the now age.”

            Paul states clearly why this is so at the end of our text when he writes that Jesus who was born is “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”  Jesus is the Savior because he gave himself on our behalf.  He died on the cross to redeem us from all lawlessness.  He has freed us from slavery to sin.

            And Paul adds that this redeeming work has purified for himself a people for his own possession.  Biblical thought deals with the individual, but it can never lose sight of the group.  Jesus Christ has not given forgiveness only to you or to me.  He has done this for all who through baptism and faith are in Christ.

            And when Paul refers to a “a people for his own possession” he is talking about the new era that has begun.  Paul wrote this letter to Titus who was on the island of Crete.  Paul and Titus had begun the proclamation of the Gospel on the island.  Now, Paul had left Titus there on Crete to be in charge of organizing the new congregations.

            While surely there were some Jews present, these congregations were overwhelmingly Gentile.   Paul speaks about Gentiles, and yet he refers to them as “a people of his own possession.”  This is the very language that Yahweh had used to describe Israel when he brought them out of Egypt in the exodus and took them to be his covenant people.  As Paul says in our text, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” The remarkable thing about this new era is that now Jews and Gentiles are together the people of God’s own possession.  The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has begun the era of the new covenant.  This means that although most of you are not descended from Abraham, you belong.  You are part of God’s people who have been purified of all your sins.

            Tonight we gather to celebrate how God’s grace was revealed as Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.  When we think about this event, we certainly remember that Jesus was born in order to die on the cross as our Savior.  We are comforted by the knowledge that the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation in order to save us. And that is usually where we stop. Jesus is our Savior who has given us forgiveness. That’s what he means for us.

            But if our thoughts on Christmas Eve stop there, then we have not really understood Paul’s point.  Paul begins our text with the word “for.”  This relates our text to what Paul has just been saying. In fact it tells us that our text provides the grounds – the reason and justification for what Paul has just said.

            In the previous ten verses, Paul has been telling Titus what he is to teach the Christians on Crete about how they are to live.  He has described how men and woman are to live in their vocations in ways that are reverent, loving, kind, self-controlled, and steadfast.  Indeed, Paul says in our text that 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.”

            Our text provides the reason that Christians are to do these things.  It provides the reason that we are to live in ways that are true to God’s will as we live in our vocations.  Paul leaves no doubt about this when he ends our text by saying that Christ has purified for himself “a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

            The birth of Jesus Christ was the grace of God appearing to bring salvation for you.  It was the beginning of a new era in which we live.  It has led to your forgiveness and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But its meaning does not stop there.  Instead through the work of the Spirit this same saving grace now leads and enables you to live in ways that are true to Christ; that reflect Christ.  Jesus is the reason for the season.  He is also the reason that we live as “little Christs” in every season.  He is the reason that we live in the ways God’s word teaches.

            Paul says in our text, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”  These are grand words for what we celebrate tonight.  God’s grace was a baby lying in a manger, visited by shepherds.  It hardly looked like the beginning of a new era.  And if that was true of his birth, then it was even more true of the goal towards which his life moved.  The great action by which Jesus Christ won forgiveness was his death on the cross.  It did not look like an impressive victory.  Paul granted that this idea seemed like foolishness to the world. But as he told the Corinthians, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

            Paul could say that because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  Tonight reminds us that the ways the risen Lord works in the present continue to look like that baby in a manger.  They are not impressive to the world.  It is the Word preached.  It is the water of Holy Baptism.  It is the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar.

            But because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we know that the Word is the inspired revelation of God through which the Spirit continues to work. The water of baptism is the means by which we have shared in the saving death of Jesus Christ. The bread and wine of the Sacrament is the true body and blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

            On this night we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Born of a virgin, he was placed in the manger of a stable.  The only people who visited him were shepherds.  But because of the resurrection we know that when the world sees Jesus Christ again there will be nothing humble about him.  Instead, Paul tells us in our text that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”   

 

           

           

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent - Rorate Coeli - Jn 1:19-28

                                                                                                Advent 4

                                                                                                Jn 1:19-28

                                                                                                12/23/18

            We live at a time when humility is not valued by society. Instead, quite the opposite, the emergence of social media has fostered a culture in which the way to get ahead is to call attention to yourself.  The level of attention can now be easily discerned.  In fact, this has been called the “quantification of attention.”  A person can see how many friends they have on Facebook, and how many likes and comments their posts receive.  Twitter tells you how many followers you have and how many lists you are on.  YouTube tells you have many times your video has been viewed and how many subscribers you have.

            In order to gain and maintain attention, a person needs to do, say, and post pictures that continually call attention to him or herself. The “I” needs to be placed constantly before the public so that it will notice – so that it will pay attention. Humility is a recipe for failure in the social media era.

            In our text this morning, the priests and Levites who had been sent to John the Baptist find him to be a frustrating mix.  On the one hand, there was no ignoring the fact that John was doing things that attracted tremendous attention.  John showed up in the wilderness of Judea.  Dressed in a manner that evoked the prophet Elijah, he called people to repentance as he announced that the kingdom of God – his reign – was imminent.

            Yet as I mentioned last week, the thing that really stood out and caught people’s attention was the fact that he applied a washing to others.  He baptized them.  Jewish ritual washings were very common, but they were self-administered.  A person applied the water on him or herself.  But John was different.  Instead, he applied the water to others.  For this reason, John became known as “the Baptizer.” He definitely attracted attention as crowds from all over flocked to him.

            John attracted so much attention that it was impossible for the Jewish religious leadership to ignore him.  When we hear the questions they ask him at the beginning of our text, it is not hard to understand why.  John tells us that Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”  John knew what they were wondering, and so he confessed, “I am not the Christ.”  Then they followed up by asking him whether he was Elijah or the Prophet.  To each of these, John responded, “No.”

            False christs and people claiming to be end time prophets had appeared among the Jews and would continue to do so.  These individuals attracted a following, and then at some point the Romans took notice.  The message of these figures always seemed to include ideas that came from the exodus – the notion of God acting to free the Jews.  The Roman rulers were not about to let such ideas take hold, and so they slaughtered these groups and killed the leader.  Agitators like this posed a threat to the peace and order of the land.  It was never a good idea to give the Romans a reason to start killing people.

              In frustration the priests and Levites asked, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”  John replied, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” John used Isaiah’s words that we heard in last week’s Old Testament lesson to describe himself.

            However, John’s interlocutors didn’t find this very helpful. So they asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” They asked John what justified his baptizing ministry. 

            There was no denying that John’s unique ministry was drawing great attention.  But when questioned by the religious leaders, John refused to put the focus on himself.  First, he denied that he was the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet.  And now he said, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”  John contrasted himself with someone coming after him who was utterly and completely superior to him.

            For the reader of the Gospel of John, this humility - this refusal to focus upon himself and instead determination to point to the One coming after him – is not surprising.  In the prologue the apostle John had just said: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

            The Gospel describes John the Baptist as a “witness.”  The exact same word is used at the beginning of our text as it says, “This is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem.”  He doesn’t claim any credit for himself.  Instead, he speaks of the One coming after him. John says that this One is far greater than he.  John may have baptized with water, but later he goes on to say about the coming One, “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.”

            John the Baptist acts and speaks in our text with humility.  He makes it clear that he is there to serve.  He prepares the way.  He is a witness.  This is very different from the way we often conduct ourselves.  We don’t act with humility, but instead are boastful and self-centered.  We don’t want to serve, but instead try to get out of having to do anything.  We are not a witness. Instead we often act like Jesus Christ is the secret we are trying to keep from others.     

            In our Gospel lesson this morning we hear John the Baptist say, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”  These are the same words that we heard in our Old Testament lesson last Sunday.  During this season of Advent we are again reminded about how John went before Jesus Christ.

            Yet rather than emphasizing how John the Baptist called people to repentance, the Gospel of John describes John the Baptist as a witness to Jesus. Immediately after our text, John tells us that the next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  John came to be a witness to Jesus Christ and his saving ministry.  He pointed to Jesus who came to be the sacrifice on the cross.

            In his first epistle the apostle John writes, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”  In and of itself, blood of course is not something we consider to be clean.  It stains clothes.  It is something we have to wash off our skin. 

            But the description of Jesus’ blood here is grounded in the Old Testament sacrifices through which God gave forgiveness and cleansed the tabernacle of Israel’s sins.  These sacrifices were a type – something in the Old Testament that pointed forward to what God would do in the New Testament.  They have found their fulfillment in Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world.

            We prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth – his presence as a baby in a manger.  Yet because of our sin, the Son of God became flesh to be a sacrifice.  The apostle John went on to say in his letter, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

            John tells us that our faith leads us to live in ways that seek to avoid sin. But when we stumble, we have the comfort of knowing that Jesus Christ is the risen and ascended Lord who speaks for us.  He says that no accusation can be raised against us about sin because he is the propitiation for our sins.  By his sacrifice sin has been judged.  It has been atoned for and removed as something that separates us from God.  By his sacrifice the wrath of God has been answered.  Yet it was God the Father who did this Himself by giving the incarnate Son in our place. He sent Jesus to be the Lamb that has taken away our sin.

            In this we see the love of God.  We see the love of the Father for us, that he sent his Son to be the sacrifice for our sin.  We see the love of the Son for the Father, as he carried out his will.  We see the love of Jesus for us, as he offered himself to be the sacrifice for sin – as he offered himself to receive God’s judgment for our sin.

            Born again of water and the Spirit we are taken up by this love in our lives.  Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Through the Spirit’s work, the love we have received from Jesus is now shared with others.  The apostle John writes later in his letter, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” The love of Jesus for us was an action. And so now, our sharing of Jesus’ love with others is also action.  John said, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

            In our Gospel lesson today, John the Baptist says, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”  As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ we see that he is the mighty One who followed John the Baptist.  Yet the humility of his birth reminds us that the mighty One came to be the Lamb of God – the sacrifice that has taken away our sin.