Funeral sermon for Stephen Newton - 1 Th 4:13-18

 

        Stephen Newton funeral

                                                                                    1 Th 4:13-18

                                                                                    1/11/25

 

 

            When Steve and Lori Newton arrived at Good Shepherd and became members, I began to learn about their background. Before very much time had passed, I learned something about Steve that I thought was really cool: he had flown the Cobra helicopter gunship while he was in the U.S. Army.  At the height of the Cold War in the 1980’s he was stationed in Germany along with NATO forces facing off against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.

            As someone who has always been interested in military aviation, I found this to be fascinating. But Steve’s arrival coincided with events in my own life that made this relevant for another reason.  My son Timothy is in the Army ROTC program at Illinois State. Although his original intention was to be an infantry officer, he was now hoping to be branched to Army Aviation so that he could fly helicopters. When Steve learned of this he engaged in conversation with Timothy on a number of occasions about this topic.  He was a helpful encourager for my son as he pursued this goal.

            Of course, flying the Cobra was not the only thing that Steve did while he was in Germany.  It was there that Steve and Lori met and were married.  They were married for thirty seven years, as they had children and grandchildren in the life they shared together. And of course, during his years at Good Shepherd we have known Steve to be an active member, attending the Divine Service and Bible class; singing in the choir; serving on the Safety Committee; and serving as congregational president.

            Steve’s death was completely unexpected. We have suddenly been deprived of a husband, father, and grandfather; of a son and family member; of a friend and brother in Christ. There is grief as we experience this.  Yet in our text this morning, the apostle Paul addresses our situation.  He gives us encouragement and hope in the face of death.

            Paul begins by saying, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”  The apostle had preached the Gospel in Thessalonica, but we learn from the Book of Acts that his time there had been cut short by Jewish opposition.  He had not been able to do as much teaching as he would have liked. And the concept of the resurrection was foreign to Greco-Roman thought.  They viewed the body as a kind of prison that the soul needed to escape.

            Paul had preached that the risen Lord Jesus will return in glory.  But in the time since Paul had been there, some of the Thessalonian Christians had died.  This had raised questions about what would happen to the Christians who had died before Christ’s return.

            Steve too has died before Christ’s return. The medical report will say that he died of a heart attack.  But that’s not why he died.  Steve died because of sin.  Sin entered into our world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  It brought death to them as God said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It has continued to bring death to all people.  Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

            Steve was conceived and born as a sinner.  And then he lived as a sinner.  He did not love and trust in God above all things.  He did not love his neighbor as himself at all times.  We know that Steve was a sinner with absolute certainty because we are here at his funeral.  Paul told the Romans, “The wages of sin is death.”

            Yet sin does not merely bring death. Every sin of thought, word, and deed is committed against the holy God.  Sin evokes God’s wrath and judgment. Paul says, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” God’s condemnation of sin brings the eternal judgment of damnation and hell.

            However, we have just celebrated during Christmas that God did not leave Steve and all of us with no hope in the face of our sin and God’s judgement. Instead, in the fullness of time he sent his Son into the world as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

            God sent his Son into the world in order to die on the cross for us.  The sinless One took our sin, and received God’s judgment. Paul told the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

            God judged Steve’s sin in Christ as he died on the cross.  But death was not the end, for Christ was the means by which God defeated death.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead.  The resurrection of the Last Day began when God raised Jesus with a body transformed so that it can never die again.

            Through his Spirit, God called Steve to faith in Jesus Christ.  By this faith in Christ, Steve received justification before God.  He lived knowing that had been declared innocent by God on account of Christ.

            Steve had the assurance of this forgiveness because of his baptism into Christ.  Paul told the Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.”  Steve knew that through baptism he had shared in Christ’s saving death.

            Baptized into Christ, Steve lived his life in Christ.  He was united with his Lord as he received Christ’s saving benefits. That was true during his life, and it is still true now. Death has not separated Steve from Christ.  When Paul contemplated the possibility of his own death he told the Philippians, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”  Steve is with Christ, and for that we give thanks.  No longer does he face the struggle against sin, or experience the hardships of this fallen world.

            This is better.  But in our text, Paul shows us that God has something more complete and final in store.  He says, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”  Death is a source of grief because God created us for bodily life.  Death does not reflect God’s created intention for us.

            But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.  Instead, we have the living hope of Christ’s resurrection.  Paul says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” 

The resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

In our text Paul describes Christ’s coming.  He emphasizes the fact that those who are alive at the Lord’s return will not precede those have already died.  He says, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”

We learn that the return of Christ will be a dramatic event that all will witness.  The apostle says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

Next he adds, “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Paul emphasizes that all Christians will always be with the Lord.

The word “meet” used here describes the procedure by which the residents of a city went out to greet a visiting governor and then escorted him back into the city.  It points us in the direction of what Paul says later in Romans chapter 8 when he describes how “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”  Christ will raise Steve and all who have died in the faith.  He will transform those who are still living. And together we will live in God’s creation that will be very good once again.

Paul concludes our text by saying, “Therefore encourage one another with these words.”  We encourage one another with the knowledge that Steve was a baptized saint who is now with Christ.  We rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord who will return in glory on the Last Day. 

We find encouragement in the knowledge that when he does he will raise up Steve and all the saints who have died. Scripture uses the metaphor of “sleep” for death, because it is temporary. People who are asleep wake up.  Christ will raise the dead and give them resurrection bodies like his own.  He will transform the bodies of those who are alive so that they can never die again.  And so Steve, and all who believe in Jesus, will always be with the Lord.    

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas - Mt 2:13-23

 

         Christmas 2

                                                                                                Mt 2:13-23

                                                                                                1/5/25

 

            After eighteen years as your pastor, you are now well aware that the Magi – the “wise men” – will not show up at Good Shepherd during Christmastide – the season of Christmas that lasts for twelve days.  Despite the fact that the Magi appear on innumerable Christmas cards, and are found in manger scenes displayed in homes, they are not part of the Christmas event.

            Instead, the visit by the Magi marks the beginning of the season of Epiphany as we celebrate that Christ’s saving glory appeared in the world. It is only then that we bring out the Magi for display behind the altar.

            Now this creates a rather puzzling state affairs this morning.  Our text begins with the words: “When [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’”  Everything in our text occurs after the magi have visited, and then left. 

            However, we won’t celebrate the visit of the magi until tomorrow – the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. Clearly, we have things out of order here. The explanation for this is that in these first two Sundays after Christmas the lectionary has provided us with the two earliest events that we learn about in our Lord’s life after his birth.  Last week we heard about his presentation at the temple as Simeon took the child in his arms. This week we hear about the flight to Egypt.

            We learn that after the magi had left – having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod – Joseph had his own dream. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

            The magi had come to Jerusalem looking for the King of the Jews.  Instead, they found Herod the Great who ruled the land of the Jews.  Herod had displayed remarkable tenacity and ruthlessness in establishing his kingdom.  He eliminated potential threats – including killing one of his wives, and three of his sons.  Caesar August is reported to have quipped: “It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son,” since Jews didn’t eat pork.

            Herod learned from the scribes that according to the prophet Micah, the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. So he sent the magi to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.’”

            Herod had no intention of worshipping the child. As the angel told Joseph in the dream, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”  Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God was in this world.  And almost immediately his life is threatened with death by evil.

            Joseph took Jesus and Mary in the middle of the night, and fled to Egypt and stayed there until Herod died.  It was a fearful trek that turned their life upside down.  Yet Matthew tells us that this threat by Herod did not negate God’s work in Christ.  Instead, this hardship was included in God’s plan.  Matthew tells us, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”

            Matthew quotes the first verse of Hosea chapter 11.  Hosea’s statement recounts Israel’s history.  He says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.”  God had brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, but the nation had been unfaithful.

            Yahweh had said to Pharaoh through Moses: “Israel is my firstborn son.”  Then he had said to Kind David about his descendant: “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.”  The Davidic king would be Israel reduced to one.  Jesus was the Son of David – he was the Christ.  And so he was Israel reduced to One – he stood in the place of the nation.

            God was working through Israel to bring salvation to all people.  He had told Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Israel was to be a light to the nations.  But the people had been unfaithful to God and brought dishonor to his name.  Now God was doing something new. He was acting in his Son Jesus Christ to fulfill all that Israel was meant to be.  God was bringing Jesus his Son out of Egypt just has he had done with the nation.  Next week we will learn about how Jesus passed through the water of his baptism just as Israel passed through the Red Sea.

            God was at work in Christ as he went to Egypt in preparation to be the fulfillment of Israel’s role in the plan of salvation.  But that didn’t mean there was an absence of evil and suffering.  Herod soon realized that he had been tricked by the magi.  Furious, he had all the male children two years old and younger in the area of Bethlehem killed.  Matthew explains:

“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’”

            Matthew quotes Jeremiah chapter 31.  The chapter is a word of hope to Judah that though destruction and exile were coming at the hand of the Babylonians, God would yet restore them.  God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!”  In fact, at the end of the chapter Yahweh promises the day when he will make a new covenant with them.

            The words of Jeremiah 31 quoted by Matthew are in fact the only sad statement in the whole chapter.  The Holy Spirit teaches us through the evangelist’s words that the world’s evil cannot deny God’s saving plan.  In fact, our Gospel text shows us that God’s plan occurs in the midst of sorrow.  Ultimately it will be accomplished through sorrow.

            We learn in our text that when Herod died, and angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.”  Joseph took Jesus and Mary back to Israel.  But because Herod the Great’s son, Archelaus was reigning in Judea, Joseph was warned in a dream and he went to live in Nazareth in the region of Galilee.  Matthew tells us this occurred so that “what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”

            For Joseph, the conception of Jesus seemed to be the very worst news.  Before they had been married, Mary was found to be pregnant.  It was apparent that Mary had already been unfaithful and broken the Sixth Commandment. Joseph was preparing to divorce her and end the betrothal 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.”

            Joseph learned that the unique status of this child was tied to the unique role that he would play – he would save his people from their sins.  Jesus Christ the Son of God entered this world to provide us with forgiveness.  He came to provide us pardon before the holy God for all our lustful thoughts and actions; for our angry words; for our jealousy and coveting.

            We see in our text this morning that God acted in Christ as he brought him to Egypt so that he could accomplish what Israel had failed to do.  Yet this took place because Herod the Great sought to kill Jesus.  It meant that Jesus and his family experienced the fear of fleeing at night to a foreign land.  It meant the little boys around Bethlehem were murdered by Herod.

            We learn in our text that God’s saving action in Christ occurs in the midst of sorrow and hardship.  This continues during our Lord’s ministry as the Pharisees and religious leaders continually oppose him.  They accuse him of being in league with the devil.  They conspire together about how to kill Jesus.

            Jesus said that it would be this way. After Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ, Matthew tells us, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

            Our Lord entered this world to win forgiveness.  But he came to accomplish this through his death on the cross.  The cross – the instrument of brutality and humiliation – would be the means by which he offered himself as a ransom for many.  From the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” as he received God’s wrath against your sin.

            The Jewish religious leaders meant the cross to be the end of Jesus.  On Good Friday, when his dead body was taken down and placed in a tomb, it looked like it was.  But on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus was vindicated as the One through whom God had been working to give us forgiveness and resurrection life. He appeared to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and declared, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.”

            Jesus’ death and resurrection underscores what we find in our text today.  It tells us that the world’s evil cannot negate God’s plan. It tells us that God’s plan occurs in the midst of suffering and hardship.

            We all want our life to go well.  We want our plans to work out.  We want to have success and comfort. When this is not the case, we are tempted to doubt God.  We feel the desire to question his love and care.

            The death and resurrection of Jesus provide us with the assurance that God continues to love and care for us no matter what is happening.  Jesus himself passed through rejection, suffering, and death.  This was not the absence of God, but instead was the presence of God working to give us forgiveness and everlasting life.  His suffering and death led to resurrection and exaltation.

            You have now been baptized into Christ.  Paul told the Colossians you have “been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”  Through baptism you already share in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This provides us with the ability to trust in God’s love and care no matter what is happening.  In the midst of tragedies and hardships we cling in faith to Jesus Christ, for in Christ God has revealed that his love is present no matter what things may look like.  Through his Means of Grace, Christ sustains us in this faith – a faith that knows that the risen Lord will return on the Last Day to raise us up as we live with him forever.

 

 

 

     

 

 

   

 

 

    

             

 

Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord - Christmas Day - Jn 1:1-14

 

          Christmas Day

                                                                                                Jn 1:1-14

                                                                                                12/24/24

 

            Recently I had the ballast in one of the fluorescent lights in the train room go bad.  The train room where my model railroad is located is the unfinished side of our basement.  The basement windows there are no longer visible because a background for the scenery runs around the entire layout.  It extends from the layout up to the ceiling, and it has been painted blue with clouds.

            I turned the power off to that part of the house so that I could replace the ballast. But I soon realized that this created an unforeseen problem.  With the power out, the train room is completely and utterly dark.  There is no source of light whatsoever in the room, and you can’t see anything.  I found that I would have to bring a source of light in so that I could see what I was doing and repair the light that was supposed to be there.

            In our Gospel lesson today, the apostle John describes the world as being a place of utter darkness.  This darkness is a metaphor for the rule of the devil, and the sin and death that he brings.  This darkness encompasses all people, because since the fall, all people have been conceived and born in sin. We are born with the devil as our lord. We are unable to escape the sin that the always in our lives.  And this sin leads to death for all people.

            Today, as we celebrate Feast of Christmas, we learn from our text that God acted to change all this in his Son, Jesus Christ.  The baby in the manger on Christmas Day was God present with us to bring the light of life.

            John begins our text by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  John refers to the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.  He describes him as the Word because he is the revelation of the Father – he is God speaking to us.

            John tells us that the Son is God.  He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

            Then at the end of our text John writes, “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.” This verse captures the mystery and wonder of what we are celebrating today.  John tells us that the Word – the Son of God – became flesh.  God became man, without ceasing to be God.  The baby in the manger is the creator of the cosmos.

            John says that the Word became flesh and “dwelt” among us.  With this word the apostle signals that incarnate Son of God was the fulfillment of how God had dwelt with this people in the Old Testament. 

God told Israel in Exodus, “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”  Yahweh commanded Israel to make the tabernacle.  In our Old Testament lesson we hear what happened when the tabernacle was completed and was set up.  We learn, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”  The glory – the perceptible presence of God – filled the tabernacle.  The same thing happened when the tabernacle’s replacement, the temple was dedicated.  God demonstrated that through the tabernacle and temple he dwelt in the midst of his people.  It was the place of his located presence.

John tells us that now, the same thing is true of the flesh of Jesus Christ.  He is the located presence of God in the midst of his people.  And just as the temple and tabernacle were the place where sacrifice occurred, so Jesus Christ came to be the sacrifice for us.

John says that we have “we have seen his glory.”  During his ministry Jesus revealed his glory.  John says about Jesus’ miracle of turning water in to wine, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

Jesus revealed his glory, and this pointed forward to ultimate way in which he would reveal his saving glory – in the cross.  John tells us that during Holy Week Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Then Jesus went on to say, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”  John adds, “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

            The Son of God became flesh to be nailed to a cross.  Jesus was the Lamb of God who was sacrificed to take away the sins of the world. Christ died because you do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  He died because you do not love your neighbor as yourself.

            Jesus gave himself into death on the cross.  But he had said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” On Easter Jesus took it up again as he rose from the dead.

            Sin brings death.  But by his death and resurrection, Jesus has brought life.  John says in our text, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”  Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, was the light that entered into the darkness of this world.

            John tells us, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The darkness of Satan, sin, and death were not able to overcome Jesus.  Instead, he conquered them as died on the cross, was buried, and left the tomb as the risen Lord

            Jesus is the light who gives light to all and rescues them from the darkness.  John says in our text, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”  However, many do not want this light.  They want to hang on to their sin.  They refuse to give up their false gods.  John says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

            Yet for those who are called to faith, Jesus gives us the right to be the children of God.  We hear in our text, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

            We learn that it is only God who can give us the gift of faith.  Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”  And so in the water of baptism, God gave you new life.  You were born again of water and the Spirit.  By his grace God has called you to faith in Jesus Christ, and so you are God’s children.  John said in his first epistle, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

            Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Our life is lived in the light of the life that Jesus gives.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”  Because of Christ we already have eternal life now. We live in the forgiveness that Christ has won, and know that this forgiveness will be true on the Last Day.

            Because of Christ, we have already passed from death to life.  For this reason, physical death cannot end our life with God.  Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Our life with God will never end, even if our body dies. And Jesus the risen Lord will raise our bodies and transform them to be like his on the Last Day.

            As we live in this new life, Jesus tells us that we will be different from the world. The Lord who served us by giving himself into the suffering and death of the cross, now sends us to serve one another.  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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

            At Christmas, the Word – the Son of God – became flesh.  He became flesh to reveal his saving glory by dying on the cross and rising from the dead.  He was the light of life that came into a world of darkness.  We already share in that life through faith.  And the risen Lord will enter this world once again on the Last Day to give us resurrection life that will never end.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord - Christmas Eve - Lk 2:1-20

 

          Christmas Eve

                                                                                                Lk 2:1-20

                                                                                                12/24/24

 

            The beginning of our Gospel lesson leaves little doubt about who was in charge.  It says, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”  Caesar Augustus ordered that a registration be done for the purposes of taxation.  And when Caesar ordered … things happened.  We learn, “And all went to be registered, each to his own town.”

            This had not been the case four decades earlier.  From 133 B.C. to 31 B.C. the Roman world had been racked by civil war.  Large, highly skilled armies had fought against each other in unceasing carnage. The movement of these armies was a constant hardship for the locals because the soldiers forced people to supply and move the army.

            However, Octavian – now known as Augustus – had made moves to play off leaders against each other.  He allied with leaders to eliminate other leaders.  And then he turned against the leader with whom he had been allied.  Finally, in 31 B.C. at the battle of Actium, Augustus had defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

            Augustus became the sole ruler of the Roman world.  He claimed to be “restoring the Republic,” but in fact he was cleverly reorganizing things so that he was the absolute ruler.  He formed a professional army that would carry out his will for conquest as he extended the borders of the Roman Empire.

            Caesar Augustus’ was in charge, and he had brought peace to the Empire.  People were thankful.  This genuine thankfulness was mixed with flattery in a 9 B.C. inscription in Asia Minor.  It described how providence had sent Augustus as a savior.  Augustus was called a god, and his birth was described as “the beginning of the good tidings for the world,” where the Greek word used is the plural form of the word we know in the New Testament as “Gospel.”

            It was Caesar Augustus’ world into which Jesus was born.  Prompted by Augustus’ order, Joseph and the pregnant Mary had journeyed from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David. The timing could not have been worse since Mary was almost due to give birth.

            The registration had brought many people to Bethlehem, and the couple was not able to find lodging.  Instead, they had to settle for the place where animals were kept. When Mary gave birth in that crude place, she wrapped her son in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. She placed her child Jesus in an animal feeding trough.  Caesar Augustus was in a palace in Rome.  Jesus was in a feeding trough because of Caesar’s order.

            We learn that in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The shepherds were terrified by the sight.  But the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, 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.”

            The angel told the shepherds not to be fearful because he was bringing them good news that would be the source of great joy.  He said a Savior had been born for them – a Savior born in the city of David who was Christ the Lord.  The angel was announcing that the long hoped for Messiah – the descendant of King David – had been born.  He declared that the One who would bring God’s end time salvation had come into the world.

            Yet, since this was the case, what he said next was very puzzling.  He announced: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  The angel gave the shepherds a sign by which they would be able to identify this Savior – this Christ. He would be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

            Newborn children were wrapped in swaddling clothes. But why would this Savior be lying in an animal feeding trough – in a manger? Yet before the shepherds could ponder this, there suddenly appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

            Prompted by the angels, the shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” They went and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus lying in a manger just as the angel had told them. They made known to others what had been told to them about this child, and returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

            Caesar Augustus was born into a family of equestrian status – a family of substantial wealth.  His father had been governor of the province of Macedonia.  His great uncle was Julius Caesar, who in his will adopted Augustus as his son and named him as his heir.

            Jesus Christ was born to a couple of no significance in Galilee.  His father was a carpenter. The circumstances of the place of his birth indicated the humble nature of his existence.

            Yet God was working in the midst of this humility to do something mighty and powerful – something of cosmic significance.  The baby in the manger was far more than he appeared to be.  He was a human being, born of his mother.  But he was also the Son of God. His mother Mary, was a virgin, and yet she had become pregnant.  The angel Gabriel had told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.” The helpless infant was Immanuel – God with us.  He was true God and true man.

            Joseph and Mary had gone to Bethlehem because Joseph was from the house and lineage of David.  When Joseph took Jesus to be his son, he made Jesus part of the house of David – he made him a son of David.

The angel had announced to the shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, 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.” The angel said that Jesus was the Savior.  He said that he was the Christ – the promised descendant of David who brought God’s end time salvation.  He said that he was the Lord, and he was indeed God present with us.

Jesus Christ was the Son of God – the Savior who had come into the world.  He had come to save us from Satan, sin, and death.  Since the Fall of Adam and Eve we have been conceived and born as people ruled by Satan.  We have been trapped in sin.  We have been destined for death.

Jesus was present in the world to free us from this.  Yet he had come to do so in a way that reflected the humility of his birth.  Christ freed us by dying on the cross for our sin.  Here again, it looked like Caesar was in charge – this time Tiberius, Augustus’ son.  It was his prefect, Pontius Pilate who condemned Jesus to death and had the crucifixion carried out.

As Jesus died on the cross it appeared that Caesar was in charge. But it was God the Father who had sent the Son to bear our sins upon the cross. It was Jesus who willingly submitted to what he knew was going to happen.  He received the judgment and wrath of God against our sin to win forgiveness for us.

Jesus’ body was buried. And then on the third day, God vindicated Jesus as he raised him from the dead.  By his crucifixion Jesus won the forgiveness of sins.  And in his resurrection he defeated death.  He began the resurrection that will be ours on the Last Day.

The risen Lord has now ascended into heaven and has been exalted at the right hand of God.  His saving work continues as he creates faith and delivers forgiveness.  Yet like the baby in the manger and the man on the cross the means by which he does so appear humble and easily overlooked.  He uses the preached word and the water of baptism to create faith and wash away sins.  He speaks absolution through the mouth of a pastor.  He uses bread and wine to give us his true body and blood, given and shed for you.

It is tempting to look around and think that Caesar is still in charge.  Our government and culture promote every sexual perversion that violates God’s will.  They describe the murder of unborn children as a matter of “reproductive rights.”  The Church continues to diminish in social standing as the culture becomes more and more secular.

But the Church is the creation of the risen Lord.  You are the creation of the risen Lord through water and the word.  You are a new creation in Christ through the work of his Spirit. God has called you out of the world and made you his own.  You live as those redeemed by the Lord.  You are justified.  You already know the verdict of the Last Day.  This is the status you have now, and the world cannot take this way from you.

And while the means through which Christ works seem humble in the present, they point forward to the return of Jesus Christ on the Last Day.  Angels announced the birth of Christ when he was born in Bethlehem. And angels will accompany Jesus Christ as he returns in glory on the Last Day.  Every knee will bow before him and will have to confess that he is Lord.  He will raise the dead and transform creation so that it is very good once again. And we will live with our God forever.