Working for wages or relying on grace?

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Septuagesima

Exodus 17:1-7  +  1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5  +  Matthew 20:1-16

Today we celebrate grace, God’s grace, grace alone.  Today, through the Parable of the workers in the vineyard, Jesus shows us God’s favor, His generosity at work, and to whom He shows this favor, and why.  Today, the Holy Spirit teaches you about grace and calls on you to assess yourself: When it comes to God, are you working for wages, or are you relying on grace?  It’s either one or the other.  There is no in-between.  And you need to know the answer.  If you’re working for wages with God, then you will receive the true wages you deserve, which is everlasting death.  If, instead, you are relying on grace, then the gift you will receive from God is eternal life.

This parable bothers some people.  If you’re a store owner or employer, especially if you’re a staunch capitalist, you don’t do what the landowner in the parable did.  You don’t hire some people for a full day’s work and then, at the end of the day, pay those who worked only an hour the same as those who worked all day.  And as an employee, you can relate to the full-day laborers.  You can understand why those who put in 12 hours of work expected to receive more than those who worked only an hour, and you would complain against your employer, too.  And children, if one of you spent all day pulling weeds in the yard, and your brother or sister came out for only a few minutes to pull weeds, and then you all got a $5 bill from your parents afterwards, you would complain.

And if you’re working for wages, you may be right to complain.  The very nature of things, the very morality that God has woven into the fabric of our hearts says that if you work harder than someone else, then you should get a bigger return, a bigger reward than someone else.  And if God’s kingdom were a business in which God evaluates how hard you worked and the quality of your work and then paid out wages to people based on how well and how hard each one worked, then…then everyone would still receive the same wages at the end of the day.  The wages of sin is death, and all have sinned.

That’s it, just that simple.  If God’s kingdom is a business where you work hard (or not so hard) and expect wages for your work at the end of the day, you will receive the wages of death, and so will everyone who works for wages with God.  You could be an Apostle Peter or an Apostle Paul or a Mary, mother of God.  If you’re waiting for wages, then you will get paid in God’s righteous wrath against your sin, and you will surely die forever.

But see, Jesus says that God’s kingdom is not like that.  It’s a kingdom of grace. The word “grace” can be defined as the undeserved love that God shows.  Grace, by definition, cannot be deserved, cannot be merited.  It is given freely.  It is given abundantly.  It is given equally to all, through Jesus Christ, not apart from Christ, because He is the one who merited, who deserved God’s love by His hard work, by His righteous life, by His obedient death on a cross.  Christ is the very Throne of Grace where God’s anger is stilled, where God’s generosity is on display.

So where God pays out wages, where God looks at what you deserve, there is wrath and death.  But where God hands out grace, where God looks at what Christ has deserved, there is forgiveness for sinners and life and every blessing.  Those who approach God for wages, for repayment, relying on their hard work—they will die eternally.  Those who approach God for grace, relying on Christ Jesus—they will live eternally.

The Apostle Paul says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Grace is where the Lord Jesus is.  The Lord Jesus is here, for you, in the Word of God proclaimed from this pulpit, in the Absolution proclaimed to sinners in private.  The Lord Jesus is here, for you, in Baptism, in Holy Communion.  Here is grace.  Here is forgiveness.  Here is where you receive from God’s generosity, not where you offer Him your goodness or where you tell Him how deserving you are.

Jesus says at the end of the parable, the last will be first, and the first last.   Here He comforts us and warns us, too.  The workers in the parable who were hired later in the day, the ones who were hired last, didn’t work out a deal with the landowner.  They relied on His grace to give them what was right, and they received His kindness and favor.  Those who were hired first, who worked the hardest and relied on their work for wages—they were not only paid last, but they were viewed as last by the landowner who wanted His generosity, His grace to be praised, not complained about.  With them He was not pleased, in spite of their full day’s work.

Of course, that wasn’t the first time this had happened.  It had been happening throughout history.  It happened in the first lesson you heard today with the children of Israel.  God showed them pure grace by choosing them out of all the nations to be His people.  He rescued them out of slavery in Egypt with mighty signs and wonders.  And as soon as they got a little bit thirsty, they grumbled and complained about God’s providence.  It wasn’t up to their standards.  After all, the Egyptians weren’t His people, and yet He gave them lots of food and water.

The children of Israel, the Jews, were God’s chosen people, the first ones hired into God’s vineyard.  But, as you heard in the Epistle today, most of their bodies were scattered in the desert.  God was not pleased with them.  The first became last. Why?  Because they were working for wages, as if they deserved something from God.  The Gentiles came along late in the day and were given the same portion in God’s kingdom, the same promises, the same blood of Christ, the same baptism, the same salvation as the Jews. And many of the Gentiles believed God; they relied on His grace and were saved.  The last became first.

Now, let’s say you really were among the first, the hardest workers.  Let’s say you were an Apostle Peter or an Apostle Paul or a Mary mother of God.  Let’s say you grew up in the Church and never left, never strayed to the right or to the left. If you’re looking for wages, if you think God will reward you for the hard working and the saintly living you’ve done, then congratulations on being first, but guess what—the first shall be last.  The first shall be turned away. 

Or let’s say you really were the chief of sinners and could think of no one in history worse than you.  Of course, the Apostle Paul already claimed that title for himself, chief of sinners, but let’s say you’re right there with him.  Let’s say you’ve spent your life absent from God’s house, either never baptized and never serving God, or once baptized and then walked away from His Word and His people.  Let’s say you deserve all the fire in hell and the full wrath of God to be poured down on you. Nonetheless, there is One who has already suffered that fire and wrath for you and who has deserved God’s grace and favor for you, the One Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.  God gave His Son for sinners, for those who could never earn their own way into His grace, not all the way, not most of the way, not part of the way.  He gave His Son for sinners who can’t earn God’s grace at all.  So that everyone who tries to earn His grace will lose it for sure, while everyone who trusts in Christ alone for grace will find it for sure.

That doesn’t mean that works are thrown out, or that Christians can go out and be lazy good-for-nothings.  Grace does not mean that works don’t matter.  It means that works don’t gain or merit God’s gifts. Works are thrown out when it comes to how sinners are justified. Works are not thrown out when it comes to the good of your neighbor, and so Christians wouldn’t think of abandoning good works, because our neighbor needs them.  Our neighbor needs our kindness and thoughtfulness, our consideration and respect, our rebuke and correction, our invitation to come and see Jesus here in His Word and Sacrament.  Your parents need your honor and respect; your children need your tireless care and instruction.  Your husband needs your loving submission.  Your wife needs your complete self-sacrifice and commitment. Your neighbor needs you to respect God’s institution of marriage between one man and one woman for life.  Your neighbor who is your employer needs your faithful and diligent work, and your neighbor who is your employee needs you to be honorable and fair in the wages you pay.

Your neighbor needs these things, and if you are God’s child, you will be diligent in serving your neighbor, not because you’re working for wages from God, but because you rely on His grace to you.  I translated stanza 8 of the Hymn of the Day today because it stated this same thing very clearly:  For faith it is that pleaseth God, but love will do thy neighbor good, if thou art born of heaven.

The first shall be last.  That should frighten every saint.  When you think you’ve done enough and surpassed enough other people to earn your reward from God, when you think you’re successful enough to prove that God’s face is shining on you, when you think you’ve suffered so much that God just has to reward your suffering with His favor, then know that the first will be last. Repent.  Abandon your works and return to Christ, the Throne of Grace!  The last shall be first.  That should comfort every sinner.  No one is too lowly, no one is too far gone. No one comes along too late in the game to receive God’s mercy and grace, and the grace that is received last is the same as the grace that is received first.  The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of pure grace.  And you are sons and daughters of the kingdom, through faith in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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Glory paves the way to the cross

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Transfiguration of Our Lord

Exodus 3:1-14  +  2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

The Epiphany season is very short this year, just three weeks.  Two weeks ago it was the visit of the wise men.  Last week we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus, and now already we’re at Transfiguration Sunday.  And having Jesus’ Baptism and transfiguration so close together really puts the spotlight on those similar words spoken from heaven on these two occasions when God the Father said about Jesus: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

In between these two events, Jesus had conducted the majority of His three year ministry.  He preached; He taught; He healed all kinds of sicknesses and diseases and performed striking signs and miracles.  Just before the Transfiguration—six days before, as our Gospel tells us—Jesus’ disciples had reached the climax of their faith as Peter boldly confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”  Then, Jesus began to explain how He, the Christ, the Son of God, would endure the cross and shame, and be mocked and put to death.  And in one moment, Jesus’ disciples went from the height of faith to the valley of despair and taking offense at the cross of Jesus.  They were ready to confess Him as the Son of God, but they were not ready to see Him crucified, to see Him treated, by man and by God, like a sinner.

And so Jesus chose to give three of His disciples—only three! —a vision of His glory, so that they could see—one time with their eyes—Jesus, looking like the Son of God, before they would be forced to see Jesus looking like a common thief, like the chief of sinners, hated, condemned, and hanging on a cross. 

God has determined that you and I need to see this vision, too, before going back out into the world and facing the cross of the Christian, the hostility of the devil and the world and our own sinful flesh, but to see this vision, not with the eyes in our heads, but with the eyes of faith, and as someone once put it, the eyes of faith are the ears.  So see (with your ears) again today the glory of Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration. The glory of the transfiguration paves the way to the cross.

What happened up on this mountain?  First, Jesus was glorified in His appearance.  His appearance changed.  He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  Jesus went from looking like an average man to looking just like the Son of God.  And here for a moment, the disguise of humility was removed.  Not the disguise of humanity, because Jesus’ flesh and blood were no disguise.  He really took on human flesh and blood and still shares in our humanity even now.  But the disguise of His humility, the disguise of looking just like the rest of us sinful men—that was gone now, and Jesus’ true identity as the Creator God was manifest.  Notice that His face didn’t shine like the moon, which has no light of its own but merely reflects light from the sun.  No, Jesus’ face shone like the sun, as the source of light.  That’s also how the Apostle John spoke of Him in the first chapter of his Gospel, All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

No, the darkness didn’t recognize Jesus as the Light, because Jesus put on this disguise of humility and weakness, so that He could only be known by the eyes of faith, so that the darkness thought it could do whatever it wanted to Jesus. And it did.  This glorious Son of God was about to submit Himself to the darkness of rejection and shame and torture and death.  These brilliant white clothes would go back to looking normal, so normal, so average that the soldiers at the foot of Jesus’ cross didn’t think twice about ripping some of them to shreds and casting lots for the rest of Jesus’ garments. This glorious Son of God—this is He who is about to die.

Then there was the glorious conversation that took place on that mountain top.  Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus and were talking with Him.  Both of the Old Testament prophets had been, in a lesser way, where Jesus now was. 

Moses stood on Mt. Horeb, as you heard in the Old Testament lesson today, before the glory of the burning bush, and there He spoke with God.  God had chosen Moses to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land.  But in order to do it, Moses would have to go down from this mount of glory and face rejection, shame, and rebellion. Moses would doubt and disobey God along the way, and so he would have to die so that the children of Israel could enter the Promised Land. 

So Jesus, too, was chosen by God, sent by God to deliver sinners from slavery to sin and death and the devil. He would have to descend from this mount of glory and face rejection and shame and hard work in order to carry out God’s mission.  Unlike Moses, Jesus would never doubt, would never disobey God along the way, and yet still Jesus would die for the sins of sinful men so that sinful men could enter the Promised Land of heaven through faith in Him.  But God the Father would be with His Son every step of the way, as He was with Moses, and in the end, there would be glory waiting on the other side.

Elijah went up a mountain once, too, Mt. Carmel, where he defied the priests of the idol Baal, and in a blaze of glory, God sent fire down on Elijah’s sacrifice and showed His approval of it and of Elijah.  But then Elijah had to go down from that mountain and face rejection and the people of Israel trying to kill him, to the point that he despaired and gave up and wanted to die, until God Himself brought Elijah back up onto a mountain—Mt. Horeb, just like Moses—and revealed to Elijah that God’s plans were still being carried out, and His people were still being kept safe, in spite of how it looked.  Elijah is especially unique because Elijah never died, but was taken up to heaven in a flaming chariot.

So Jesus, too, on whom God placed His seal of approval on the Mt. of transfiguration, would have to go down to face the people of Israel trying to kill him.  But unlike Elijah, for as hard as it got Jesus never once despaired of God’s love and God’s plan, but put God’s love on display by allowing Himself to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Like Moses, Jesus died. But like Elijah, Jesus ascended into heaven very much alive.

The glorious conversation with these Old Testament prophets paved the way to the cross, as both Moses and Elijah confirmed that this very Jesus was the Christ who was promised in the Old Testament, He who would come, live, die and rise again.  Peter refers back in his Epistle to these prophets and to all the prophets and reminds us that they didn’t speak on their own about the coming Christ.  The Holy Spirit moved them, inspired them to talk about Jesus ahead of time. And here at His transfiguration, Peter says we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Finally, the glory that paves the way to the cross is the glorious praise Jesus received from the Father.  This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him! By repeating the same words He spoke at Jesus’ Baptism, God the Father makes it absolutely certain for us that no man can please God by offering his own good works to God.  If you’re looking for God’s love, for God’s acceptance, for God’s forgiveness and God’s righteousness, you have it only through faith in Christ, the beloved Son of God who gives you full and free access to God’s grace through Him and only through Him.

Hear Him!, the Father says.  But what Jesus says doesn’t always—doesn’t ever!—make sense to our human reason.  If He is the glorious, beloved, well-pleasing Son of God, then He shouldn’t have to suffer; He shouldn’t have to die.  If we are God’s beloved children through faith in Jesus Christ, then we shouldn’t have to suffer; we shouldn’t have to die.  And yet Jesus says that He must, and so must we. Hear Him, the Father says.  Because your eyes will deceive you.  But Jesus’ words will never deceive you.  After death there is resurrection for Jesus and for all who hope in Him.  Behind the suffering and the shame there is a loving Father who is well-pleased with Jesus and with all who trust in Him, because the blood of Jesus covers your unpleasing sins and offenses and makes you righteous before God.

When the glorious vision had faded, the disciples were cowering in fear until Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” They lifted up their eyes and saw no one but Jesus only.  And that’s really the point of this transfiguration narrative.  When your sins threaten you, when your conscience accuses you, when fear seizes you, when the cross looms ominously on the horizon and you don’t understand why this Christian life can be so hard, don’t just sit there staring at your belly button.  Don’t turn to your pitiful human reason for the answers. Don’t cling to your sins, don’t look to your good works for help. Look up and see Jesus only—the glorious Son of God who, most of the time, looked like the biggest loser of all.  The glory of the transfiguration paves the way to the cross and makes it OK to suffer and die, because you know that there is glory on the other side.  See Jesus only.  Hear Jesus only.  And you will be safe.

After all, you’ve been baptized haven’t you?  And Baptism is tied to transfiguration, even your present transfiguration from sinner to saint, and your future transfiguration from this image of dying and death to the image of the glorified and risen Christ.  The washing away of sins in Baptism is tied to the future glory that will be ours, if we continue in this faith.  As Paul says to the Romans, Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.  Amen.

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A Baptism in Common with Christ

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 42:1-7  +  1 Corinthians 1:26-31  +  Matthew 3:13-17
What do you have in common with Jesus?  I should put it this way: What do all people by nature have in common with Jesus?  The answer is, hardly anything.  Jesus is the very image of God, pure, spotless, clean.  We are, by nature, sinful and unclean, having inherited the sinful image of our first father, Adam.  Jesus is righteous; but God says that no one else is righteous.  Jesus is good; we are, by nature, bad.  Jesus is light; we are darkness.  Jesus, with His righteous life, earned His Father’s favor and eternal life; we, with our unrighteous lives, have earned our God’s displeasure and eternal death.  Jesus is the very Son of God; we, by nature, are children of wrath.  When it comes right down to it, the only thing all people have in common with Jesus is human flesh and blood.

Ah, but consider that.  The eternal Son of God didn’t even have human flesh and blood until He was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary.  Why did He come into the flesh in the first place?  He came into the flesh to become like sinners, to have something in common with us in order that we might have much more in common with Him.

That brings us to today’s Gospel.  In the Gospel we hear of this other thing that not everyone has in common with Jesus, and yet all men are invited to have it in common with Jesus, even as most or all of you here have it common with Jesus.  In the Gospel, we hear that Jesus was baptized.

Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. Luke tells us that Jesus was about thirty years old at this time when He stepped forward to be baptized.  What had He been doing for thirty long years?  Growing, in wisdom and in stature. Trusting His Father in heaven. Hearing and learning the Word of God.  Praying.  Gladly making the regular trip to the Temple in Jerusalem, as he was supposed to. Remembering the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Being obedient to His father and mother. Learning a trade and working—as a carpenter with His earthly father. Living as a Jewish citizen out in the Jewish country, living as a neighbor to his neighbors in the small town of Nazareth.

Nothing uncommon, really, and yet everything uncommon to us, because it was all done without sin.  It was all done without complaining or whining at His parents.  It was all done without the typical self-centeredness of childhood, without the narcissistic focus on self and self-image that typically describes the teenage years, without the rebellion of youth and the pleasure-seeking of the flesh and the worrying about the future that occupies the rest of our race.  It was all done perfectly, humbly, compassionately, with love for His Father in heaven and love for His neighbor—always!

Nothing uncommon, and yet everything uncommon, because Jesus was born under the law in your place, to fulfill the Law that you have broken, to keep the commandments that you have not kept.  And all this, not to rub your face in how bad you are or to make you jealous of how good He is, but to fill in for you so that His righteousness might cover your sins.

Jesus came to John to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent Him.  Of course he did.  Thirty years earlier this same John leapt for joy in his mother’s womb as Jesus approached in His mother’s womb. You remember that encounter between Elizabeth and Mary? The Holy Spirit had taught John who Jesus was since before either of them was born.

We don’t know how much, if any interaction John had with Jesus up until this time.  But we do know that John was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  John was a sinner baptizing sinners.  They had everything in common.  But as Jesus approached, John knew that Jesus was different; that Jesus had no need to repent of anything, nor did He have any sins that needed forgiving. “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

It’s a complete reversal, the opposite of the way things are supposed to be.  The sinless One approaches the sinner for help.  The sinless One goes to the place where sins are washed away and insists on being washed in that very same water. It had to be this way, Jesus says. “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Where is the righteousness in the baptism of the Righteous One?  That’s just it.  Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, brings His righteousness to those waters so that all who are baptized in those baptismal waters might have a righteousness to take away from Baptism—not their own righteousness that comes from doing good works, but the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of someone else that is credited to the account of all who believe and are baptized.  You see?  Sinners bring their sins to baptism.  But Jesus brought His righteousness to baptism so that, when sinners are baptized, they don’t walk away from those waters with their sins still being charged against them.  Instead, Jesus’ righteousness is washed onto them; they walk away covered in Jesus’ righteousness.

Jesus was baptized, and then a miraculous event took place.  Behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  And suddenly, several things become clear.  Several things are made manifest.

That God is the Father, who has one—and only one—beloved Son, and that the Spirit of God proceeds from the Father to the Son (and then, of course, from the Son to the world). You heard in the Old Testament Reading today from Isaiah about these three Persons in one God.  Did you catch it? “Behold! (says God the Father) My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! (that’s the Son) I have put My Spirit upon Him;  (there’s the Spirit)  And now, here are the three distinct Persons of the Holy Trinity, in perfect harmony and unity at the Baptism of Jesus.  One God in Three Persons—who among us could ever have anything in common with this God?

Something else is made manifest here, and the words of Isaiah help us to understand what Jesus’ baptism was for.  This was Jesus’ official ordination, His inauguration ceremony into the Office of Christ, the Anointed One—anointed with water and the Word, anointed with the Holy Spirit.  Everything that Isaiah said about the Servant of the Lord, the Elect One—the Chosen one of God—was said about Jesus.  That He would be the source of righteousness for the nations—there it is again, the righteousness of faith.

The other thing that is made manifest here at the Baptism of Jesus is God the Father’s immense love for His Son and His pleasure with His Son.  What child wouldn’t want to have his or her father say about them what God the Father said here about His Son, Jesus?  Which of us wouldn’t want to hear these words spoken of us by God, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  The Father spoke those words, not just about Jesus as the eternal Son of God, but also about Jesus as the perfectly righteous Son of Man.

But those words can never be spoken about any other man, because every other man is a sinner.  And God is not well pleased with sinners.  He is righteous; we are not.  We have nothing in common with Him.

But here, in the Person of Jesus Christ, God has approached sinners by taking on our human flesh.  And here at the Baptism of Our Lord, God has given us a way to have everything in common with Him.

What do you have in common with Jesus?  Jesus was baptized; you have been baptized.  This is the point of departure.  This is the thing that Christians have in common with Christ that the rest of the world cannot claim.  And if you are baptized into Christ, then everything that is His is yours.  Is Christ the beloved Son of God?  Then so are you. Is Christ declared righteous and well-pleasing to God His Father?  Then so are you.  Did Christ die to sin once for all?  Then hear what God proclaims, that you, too, have been buried with Christ through baptism into death.  Was Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father?  Then you, too, have also been made alive together with Christ, so that you may go and sin no longer. And you, too, will live, even though you die.

Oh, you get the rest, too, as baptized believers in Christ; you have more in common with Him.  Was Christ hated by the world?  You, too, will be hated by the world.  Was the glory of Christ hidden behind shame and the cross?  So your glory, too, will remain hidden behind shame and the cross.  And just as Christ lived to please His Father in heaven and to serve His neighbor in love, so also we who share a common Baptism with Him must live to please our Father in heaven and to serve our neighbor in love—not to earn God’s favor with works of the law, but because we are sons of God in common with Christ, through faith in Christ, for all of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, as the Apostle Paul says.  You are sons of God, and that’s what sons do.

Now, consider your calling, brethren, as Paul said to the Corinthians in the Epistle.  God has chosen people who are foolish, weak, base, and despised to be brought into Christ, and through Christ, into the eternal kingdom of God.  You are the ones God wanted to have everything in common with.  Isn’t that amazing?  Isn’t that grace?  And it all starts and it all flows from this divine promise that we have in Holy Baptism—this Baptism that we have in common with Christ, so that we may have all things in common with Christ, who has become for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.  Amen.

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We celebrate Christmas because of Epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Ephesians 3:1-12  +  Matthew 2:1-12

The Christmas season officially ended yesterday.  Happy Epiphany to all of you!  I don’t suppose you’ve planned an Epiphany party, or set up an Epiphany tree, or sent out any Epiphany cards to anyone, and that’s OK.  It’s good that we celebrate Christmas and keep our focus on the birth of Christ.  Epiphany doesn’t have to get the same amount of attention.

But we should realize that we would have no reason to celebrate Christmas if it weren’t for the mystery God reveals at Epiphany through the visit of the wise men.  It’s a mystery that we, living in America 2,000 years after the birth of Christ, take for granted.  But we shouldn’t.

Up until Epiphany, God had only revealed to a handful of Jews that the Savior who is Christ the Lord had been born in Bethlehem.  A Jewish Savior had been born in Jewish territory to save the Jews.  The wise men—the magi—were the first non-Jews, the first Gentiles to learn about the birth of God’s Son, the first Gentiles whom God Himself drew to Jesus by the light of the star and by the light of the Holy Scriptures, and in so doing, teaches us that Jesus was born to be the Savior, not only of the Jews, but Savior of Gentiles, too, even Gentiles like me and you.  We Gentiles celebrate Christmas because of Epiphany!

I know that seems terribly obvious to you—that the Gentiles are included in God’s plan of salvation through faith in Jesus.  The Gentiles have been included in this plan for some 2,000 years.  2,000 years of things being a certain way have a strong influence on us.  But the same was true for the Jews at the time of Jesus.  For 2,000 years, since the time of Abraham, only one sin-filled nation of people on this sin-filled earth had been chosen out of all the other sin-filled nations to be the people of God.  There was no salvation outside the people of Israel, with a few exceptions of Gentiles who heard of the God of Israel and were brought to faith in Him.  There was only darkness and death outside of Israel, and in Israel—there was plenty of darkness, too.

But the birth of Christ, who is the light of the world, started to change that.  It’s as you heard from Isaiah today, both in the First Lesson and in the Gradual, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Now, were the wise men kings?  Probably not.  Where were they from exactly?  Maybe Persia, maybe Babylon—we don’t know; some eastern country far away from Israel. How many of them were there?  We don’t know.  What exactly does it mean to be “wise men” or “magi”?  We’re not sure.  They were probably astronomers, astrologers, philosophers, historians, theologians and court officials, all wrapped up together. What is clear about the wise men is that they were Gentiles—Gentiles with access to the Jewish Scriptures; Gentiles who had seen a star appear over the land of Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth.

What was the star?  We don’t know.  It seems clear, though, that it was not a star way up in outer space.  It was a special star that appeared, then disappeared, and then was able to guide the wise men from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, to the very house where they found Mary and Jesus, so it was too low in the sky to be anything we can explain with science.  It could have even been an angel blazing with fire, as angels are often pictured.  All we know for sure is that it was a special sign from God intended for these special men.

How did they know what the star was for?  Again, we don’t really know.  There are at least three prophecies from the Old Testament that may have influenced them.  The first was spoken by Jacob about his son, Judah, in Genesis 49: The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples.  Well, the scepter departed from Judah when Rome conquered the land, and especially when King Herod—who wasn’t even a Jew—took the throne. The wise men could have figured out that Christ the King could be born at any time.

The second prophecy was from Daniel, who interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about a giant statue, and the three nations that would arise after Babylon was defeated—the Medes and Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.  And, according to Daniel, it was during the time of this last empire, the Roman Empire, that the Lord would raise up His eternal kingdom, like a rock that would crush the rest.  So again, the time was right for the Christ to come.

Finally, there’s a cryptic prophecy in the Book of Numbers, uttered by the pagan prophet Balaam, yet still serving the will of the Holy Spirit: I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel. Was that the prophecy that guided them, or did God give them some special revelation about the significance of the Bethlehem star?  We don’t know.

What we do know is that it was no coincidence.  God led these wise men from Gentile lands, not straight to Bethlehem, but to Jerusalem, where the priesthood was and where King Herod and the royal palace were.  Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him. These Gentiles sound excited about the birth of the King of the Jews, don’t they?  They surely expected to find all the Jews celebrating the birth of their king with even greater excitement.  But instead, Matthew tells us that when Herod heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

That was an important lesson for the wise men, and for us.  The birth of Christ will never inspire the joy and celebration that it ought to in the world.  Instead, it troubles most people.  Why?  It’s just as Jesus said, light has come into the world, but people loved darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil.

But Herod did consult the scribes, who knew the Scriptures well, and they quoted from the prophecy of Micah, chapter 5, that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.  Luther suggests that this is one reason why God led the wise men to Jerusalem first instead of leading them directly to Jesus by the star, or by the bare prophecies of the Old Testament.  Instead, He led them to the ministry of the Word—to those entrusted with teaching and preaching the Word of God.  God wants to deal with us through the ministry of the Word.

Well, the priests did their job.  But the priests themselves didn’t seem all that interested in the information they passed on to the wise men.  The priests, who, like most of the Bible “scholars” today, were indifferent to the birth of Christ, only interested in the information itself.  “Where will the Christ be born?  In Bethlehem.  Anything else?  We have life as usual to get back to.”And then there was Herod’s reaction, who, as we find out later, was enraged by what the Scriptures revealed about the Christ and sought to kill Him. Here we see three different reactions to the Scriptures, don’t we?  The same reactions we see to Christ today:  Unbelief and indifference, unbelief and hostility; and then, the reaction of the wise men: faith and worship.

The wise men might have been deterred by the apathy they found in Jerusalem.  The wise men might have been offended at the humble birth and the humble circumstances in which they found baby Jesus with His mother.  But they were undeterred.  They heard the Word about Christ, and went to Christ, believing in Him, to lay their treasures before Him—gold and frankincense and myrrh—not because you have to bring expensive gifts to Jesus, not in order to appease His wrath or to purchase His pleasure. The wise men were not acting in obedience to the Law or under any kind of compulsion.  They sought out the Christ and presented Him with gifts, because they recognized Him as the true gift from God to them; because they knew they were sinners who needed a Savior, and God had been so good to them in revealing to them that the Christ is born, the King of the Jews who would also be the Savior of the Gentiles.  It’s only fitting to bring these gifts of faith to the newborn King.

In this entire story, we see God’s grace on display, and especially God’s revelation—this Epiphany—that Christ came to save all nations, that His Word is to go out to all nations, for, as Paul says to Timothy, God, our Savior, desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, that, there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

That testimony has reached you, and through it, the Holy Spirit has called you Gentiles into fellowship with the one Mediator Christ Jesus, to know that He was born for you, too, and died as a ransom for you, too. The Holy Spirit has taught you to rely on His righteousness so that you can stand before God, innocent in His sight.

It’s easy to take God’s grace in Christ Jesus for granted and to slip away from Him into self-confidence, into thinking, you’ve been a Christian for a long time—so long, you’re entitled to a place in God’s Kingdom; so long, you don’t even need to grow in faith, you don’t even need to cling to Christ for dear life.

That’s the terrible self-confidence and unbelief that many of the Jews fell into as they relied on 2,000 years of Jewish history to save them, so that they didn’t join in the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ, whom God had sent to earn for them forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  Now that we Gentiles have 2,000 years of history under our belts in the Christian Church, don’t think for a moment that we are immune to the same sort of self-confidence in taking our salvation for granted.

And so on Epiphany, God calls us back to the celebration of Christmas by telling us about the visit of the wise men and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the body of Christ, that we might appreciate again that we who are completely unworthy have been grafted into this Tree of Life by faith, and we remain in Him by faith.  This is why we celebrate Christmas, because Epiphany means that Christmas was for all sinners who need a Savior, even for the Gentiles, even for you and me.  Amen.

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The birth of Christ brings joy and thanksgiving and the cross

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for First Sunday after the Nativity

Isaiah 11:1-5  +  Galatians 4:1-7  +  Luke 2:33-40

Merry Christmas, my brothers and sisters in Christ!  Today, on the sixth day of Christmas, we are exactly half-way through our Christmas celebration.  Is that news to you?  Have you already started taking down some decorations and winding down?  Have you gone on to wishing people a Happy New Year already?

We should not view Christmas as “over.”  The birth of God as a man, the arrival of the Word made flesh is too monumental an event to have just a day, or a day plus an “eve,” especially for us who know Him, who confess Him and believe in Him—there’s too much joy and thanksgiving to cram into a day plus an “eve.”

But see how the Church has taught us to celebrate the birth of Christ; see how the Church has encouraged us to rejoice. After the pure joy of December 24th and 25th, December 26th brought us the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr—stoned to death for confessing Christ.  December 27th was the Feast of St. John the Apostle, exiled for his confession of Christ and forced to witness countless murders of his faithful brothers.  December 28th was the Feast of the Holy Innocents—all the baby boys of Bethlehem slaughtered by King Herod in his sinister attempt to snuff out the life of the newborn King.

In all of this bloodshed, amid all of this suffering that surrounds the birth of Christ, the Lord teaches us a vital lesson:  the birth of Christ is a joyful event, but it does not bring joy in a worldly sort of way.  It brings joy together with the cross. Living side by side with the cross there is a joy and a peace that surpasses all understanding.

It’s this joy that filled the aged saints who greeted Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the Temple, as we heard in the Gospel—Simeon and Anna.  They rejoiced to see the child of Mary, but theirs was no carnal pleasure, no earthly joy.  They knew full well what Jesus’ birth meant for Israel, and for Mary, and, ultimately, for Jesus, for the rest of the world and for us.  Through them the Holy Spirit reinforces for us that the birth of Christ brings joy, thanksgiving, and the cross.

First, remember what brought the holy family to the Temple in Jerusalem that day. The law of Moses required a sacrifice for the purification of the mother after childbirth—40 days after giving birth for a boy, 80 days for a girl.  A lamb was to be brought and offered up, or, if the mother was too poor, two turtledoves. And another law required that every firstborn son be presented before the Lord as holy to the Lord.  Again, the sacrifice required to redeem the child—to buy him back from the Lord—was a lamb.  Another day we’ll come back and study al that.  For now, just notice that Mary and Joseph brought no lamb to the Temple that day, except for Jesus Himself, The Lamb of God, who was, as Paul said in the Epistle, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

OK, that’s some background. At the Temple in Jerusalem, 40 days after Jesus’ birth, probably after the visit of the wise men but before the flight into Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous reach.  Our Gospel picks up the account with the words, And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. What things were spoken of Him?  The things spoken by Simeon.

Simeon was an old man, an aged Israelite. Luke says that he was righteous and devout, and waiting for the consolation of Israel.  In other words, he was a penitent sinner who was waiting eagerly for the Messiah to arrive, to make atonement for sin and to console Israel with the forgiveness of sins. And as he waited, he lived his life in service to the Lord.  Somehow, the Holy Spirit had informed him that he would not die until he saw the Messiah with his own eyes, and somehow, the Holy Spirit made sure he was in the Temple when Jesus arrived, and, somehow, the Holy Spirit identified baby Jesus to Simeon as the Christ. 

The things he said or sang that caused Mary and Joseph to marvel were the words that you sing almost every Sunday, if you attend church here regularly.  Simeon took the baby Jesus up in his arms and spoke or sang the words of the Nunc Dimittis, the Song of Simeon.  Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace according to your Word. For mine eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all people. A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. 

There’s plenty in that song for us to think about, but for now, notice the joy and the peace that filled old Simeon when He saw Jesus.  Now, he knew, everything would be OK.  Now, he could depart this life in peace. And see how he pictures death as the Lord dismissing His servant after a long life of humble service. Simeon can depart in peace, because the Lord has fulfilled His promise to send the Christ.  Mine eyes have seen Your salvation.  There’s not a thing you or I need to do in order to be saved from our wretched sins.  Christ is God’s salvation—born to save the Gentiles and the Jews from sin, death and the devil.

Mary and Joseph marveled at Simeon’s words, and we marvel, too.  They’re joyful words that inspire our praise and thanksgiving, fitting words to sing after Holy Communion when we, too, have seen with our eyes and touched with our mouths the very same Jesus, the very same salvation that Simeon held in his arms.

But Simeon had more words for Mary and Joseph.  He blessed them all, but spoke directly to Mary: Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Notice the joy and the thanksgiving mixed right in with the cross and pain, the suffering and sword surrounding Jesus.

Destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel.  Falling and rising.  It all revolves around Jesus.  He and He alone is God’s plan of salvation.  And people will either reject Him as such and fall into eternal condemnation in hell or believe in Him as such and rise to eternal life.  The Apostle Peter says the same thing about Jesus, Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.”

It is very much as Simeon says:  He will be a sign which will be spoken against. How true that was in Jesus’ life, and how true it still is today.  See what joy and thanksgiving Christ inspires in us who believe in Him.  And see how bitterly the world speaks against Him, especially against Him as the only God and the only Savior.  Some hate even the mention of Jesus’ name, and try to rid our society of “Christmas” altogether.  But most people speak pleasantly enough about Christmas, about Jesus as a harmless baby, as a teacher of love, or a model of self-sacrifice, but only if you’re willing to tolerate Him as one option among many “great religions,” only if you present Him as a Savior, not The Savior.  Friends, there is only one great religion—the religion of salvation by grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone.  Every other religion is of the devil.

Simeon warns Mary that a sword will pierce her soul as well, another allusion to the cross that accompanies this child.  Mary would know one day the pain of seeing her Son rejected, despised, mistreated and crucified.  See, even the most pious Christians, the most godly believers suffer under the cross that Christ brings.  There is no Christianity, there is no faith, there is no Christ without this blessed cross.  And yet, God assures us, and Simeon confirms it again, that it’s worth it.  Because through the cross, Christ earns the forgiveness of all our sins.  And through patient cross-bearing, God is molding us in the image of His beloved Son, even as He molded His beloved Son into the image of our humanity in the first place.

We can’t close today without a word about Anna.  Her words aren’t recorded for us, like Simeon’s are.  But the Holy Spirit has honored her with a prominent place in this chapter of Luke’s Gospel.  She’s not Simeon’s wife or “companion.”  She is a widow; her husband died after only seven years of marriage, and depending on how you read the text, she’s either an 84-yr-old widow, or she has been a widow for 84 years, making her about 110 years old, and that seems to fit the text the best.  She’s an extraordinarily old woman, a prophetess, of which there are only a handful mentioned in the Scriptures.  And as a widow, without a husband or children to take care of or to take care of her, she has spent about eight decades going to the temple almost every day, fasting and praying regularly.  It’s safe to say that everybody in Jerusalem knew who Anna was, and that Anna knew a good number of people in Jerusalem.

Somehow, the Lord also favored her by revealing to her the identity of Mary and Joseph’s son.  And when she saw Him, she broke into thanksgiving and spoke of Jesus to “all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”  Of course, those who were looking for redemption also knew what the price of redemption would be—even the precious blood of the Lamb of God, the death and resurrection of the Messiah.  So here, even in Anna’s thanksgiving and her faithful witness to those people in Jerusalem, you see hints of the cross.

Not only that, but it’s also safe to say that as Anna spread the word in Jerusalem about Jesus, this is how King Herod found out that the wise men had not returned to him, as he ordered them to do.  And this very rejoicing and thanksgiving of Anna fueled the fire of Herod’s jealousy that led him to give the order to massacre the children of Bethlehem.

And yet, in spite of the darkness that raged in the world at the birth of Christ, the light didn’t die out.  Jesus was kept safe.  And, as Luke says, He grew and became strong.  Light grew. Life grew and the darkness couldn’t put it out.  As the darkness of the earth grew thicker, the light of Christ began to shine brighter and brighter until it reached the height of its glow from the cross itself—a light that still shines through the ages and has reached us with the light of Christ, with His word of forgiveness, and with the Sacraments that cover us with Christ.

The birth of Christ brings joy, thanksgiving, and the cross.  But the cross won’t last forever.  When Christ comes again, He will bring joy and thanksgiving, and an end to the cross.  Until then, Merry Christmas!  Amen.

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