The Word creates faith that clings to the Word

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Epiphany 3

Matthew 8:1-13  +  2 Kings 5:1-15  +  Romans 12:17-21

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!” “Lord, just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  We have before us today in the Gospel those two spectacular prayers of faith – the leper and the centurion.

Should I stand up here in the pulpit and tell you to “be just like them!”? Or to “have a faith just like theirs!”?  – confident and submissive, humble and content to believe without having to see.   I could command you to have that kind of faith, but that would be foolish.  Because you don’t form your faith. You don’t make your faith more humble, more submissive, more “faith”ful.  God himself does that.  God molds your faith and makes it into a tested lump of gold.  He does it, not by telling you what to do, but by simply telling you who Jesus is, what Jesus is like.  He does it all by himself, by means of his powerful Word, the very Gospel that we are considering today.  Faith does not come by doing, but by hearing.  So listen again to God’s word in the Gospel. The Word establishes the pattern for us: The Word creates faith that clings to the Word.

Jesus had just finished his sermon on the mount and was coming down from the mount when that man with leprosy came running up to him and knelt on the ground at Jesus’ feet.  “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  What was it that brought him to Jesus’ feet?  First, it was the very obvious fact that he was unclean with the skin disease of leprosy, that he was sick, and that no one in the world could help him – except for Jesus.

What was it that made him so confident that Jesus could help him, that Jesus could do whatever Jesus wanted to do, even the healing of leprosy which was impossible for any other man?  He had heard the word about Jesus.  He had heard that Jesus was kind and good, that he welcomed sinners and all the downcast and the downtrodden, that he healed with the power of God, and that he preached a message about a God who both condemns sin and offers a way of forgiveness, through faith in Jesus.  The leper had heard that word about Jesus, and the Word created faith.

Then faith clings to the Word.  Faith brought the leper to Jesus’ feet, trusting that Jesus wouldn’t be offended or repulsed by his leprous uncleanness, knowing by faith that Jesus could do whatever Jesus wanted to do.  “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  And then faith waits.  It waits for a word from Jesus to reveal what his will is and how he will help.  It makes no demands.  It offers nothing to Jesus.  It doesn’t go looking for signs of what Jesus’ will might be; it doesn’t presume to know what Jesus’ will is unless Jesus says what his will is.  Faith clings to Jesus’ Word.

And rightly so.  In the case of the leper, faith was not disappointed.  “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  “I am willing,” Jesus said.  “Be clean!”  And just as Jesus’ word had already created faith in that leper, now Jesus’ word created clean skin where only diseased skin had been.  His word accomplished everything, including the faith of the leper that clung to his word.

The same is true for you.  Your sin is just as destructive as leprosy and you’re just as unclean by nature as the leper.  How do you know you’re a sinner?  You know it from the Ten Commandments, which you and I have failed to keep.  And Jesus is the very same good and kind Jesus who loves sinful lepers and who promises to help them by making them clean from their sin, that is, by forgiving their sin, by taking the punishment for the whole world’s sin upon himself and pouring out his blood to make atonement for all.  If that word about Jesus has reached you and has brought you to a constant posture of kneeling before Jesus, looking up to him for help every day in every need, then faith is yours and you are right where you need to be. 

The Word creates faith that clings to the Word. So the question isn’t, when do you find yourself on your knees begging for Jesus’ help.  The question is, when don’t you? When is the pattern broken? When do you think you can handle it on your own?  When do you think you’re not so unclean after all and don’t really have such need of constant cleansing?  When do you wish to go on living in your uncleanness rather than have Jesus take it away?  That’s when faith disappears and you return to sin; you return to the law.

It’s true, your flesh never wishes to have you down on your knees looking up to Jesus for help.  Your flesh is not satisfied, not willing to submit to what Jesus wants, because submitting to what Jesus wants is to acknowledge him as God and Lord, and a good one at that! – and your flesh rebels against that. The devil will not tolerate that.

But even as your flesh rebels against the will of Jesus, faith holds on. It may hold on feebly at times, it may hold on in tears and through great pain as the cross presses down and the world around you asks, “Where is your God?”  But even under the cross, especially under the cross, the cry of faith is still, “Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean,” or as the Psalm says, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

In the midst of every hardship and need, faith cries out – or sometimes just whimpers, “I know he died for me! In spite of everything, I know he did.  And I know he is good and kind, even when I don’t feel it, because he came and lived and died for me.”  Why can faith say such a thing?  How can you know that, when things are falling apart all around you and he doesn’t seem to be giving you what you think you need?  Because God’s Word creates faith, and faith clings to Jesus’ word, and not to anything else.

Then we have the example of the centurion, who came to Jesus – or actually, according to Luke’s Gospel, sent some friends to Jesus, to ask for healing for his servant.  We see a man who loved his servant and cared for him.  We see a man who had heard the word about Jesus – that he was kind to everyone, even well-known sinners, even Gentiles.  He had heard the word that Jesus was powerful and taught and healed with authority.  That simple word created faith in the centurion.

And it was a faith that, in turn, went looking for a word from Jesus to heal his servant.  Just a word, nothing more.   “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.  But I have heard that you have authority, and I know authority.  Just say the word and my servant will be healed.” The centurion’s faith had nothing to do with what he could touch or taste or see.  Faith clings to the word of Jesus.

You remember how Jesus reacted to the centurion’s request?  He marveled at it.  He was amazed by it.  He hadn’t found that kind of faith even in Israel.  In Israel, Jesus would speak and the people would argue.  In Israel, Jesus would invite and few would come. He would speak of forgiveness and life and most in Israel doubted.  But in the most unlikely place, in a commander of the Roman army, Jesus found a man who was simply convinced that, no matter how impossible the request, if Jesus said the word, then nothing in heaven or on earth could stand in the way.

And Jesus once again proved that faith in his Word is well-placed.  He granted the centurion’s request.  “Let it be done for you as you have believed.”

What amazed Jesus about the faith of the centurion also amazes me about the faith of so many of you.  You look, and what you see is weakness in yourself, and sin, and physical hardships, and family hardships, and one affliction after another.  You see opposition to the Christian faith, you see Christians falling away from the Church and not acting like Christians.  You look, and what you see is a Christian nature in yourself that wants to do good, but that’s always opposed by your sinful self, a sinful self that screams at you, “You’re not good enough for God,” or even, “God is not good enough for you!”

But the word of Jesus overcomes your doubts and fears and weaknesses.  The word of Jesus shows you a loving Father behind the cross.  It shows you the full atonement Jesus made for sin on the cross, and it speaks of the glory that is to be revealed in us, who now appear so weak and frail.  You have no earthly reason to believe it, and yet you do.  The word has created faith.

And then faith seeks a word from Jesus and clings to his word.  Just his word, nothing else, which is why you’re Lutherans.  You don’t go looking for a foundation for your faith within yourself, or out there in nature or in the stars.  You don’t turn to your feelings to see if you’re really close to God today or not.  You don’t rely at all on what you can see, and you don’t wait for Jesus to come over to your house to help you. You simply go to Jesus for a word.  The Word creates faith that clings to the Word.

So again, the question is, when do you see this pattern broken?  The Word has brought you to baptism and faith.  But if you turn away now from the Word of Jesus, if you have no desire to grow in it, to live in it, to pass it on to your children; if you have no desire for the Sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood, for the gifts that he showers on you here in the Divine Service – then you will shipwreck your faith, and you will have no one to blame but yourself.

What’s the answer, if you find your faith flailing like this?  The answer is to acknowledge it and repent of it.  The answer is right here in the Church, in the ministry of the Word, where Jesus has placed his Word on earth.  It’s right here in our worship, in our divine service, where Jesus speaks through this ministry of the Word and says the word, “Listen to me! I forgive you.  Here is grace and peace and mercy and life. Take, eat, drink, the body given for you, the blood of the New Testament shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  Where faith has been created by the word, there faith will always continue to cling to Jesus’ word and Sacraments.  Where there is no faith, there people find “better” things to do on Sunday morning.

 “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!” “Lord, just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  I don’t need to stand here and order you to be like the leper or be like the centurion.  I just want you to know the word of Jesus, that word that draws you to him and to his family of believers, that word that makes you willing to submit to his will and ready to latch onto his Word.  And I trust that he will help you through his Word, and that his Word will transform you into the people God intends for you to be, people who are being renewed each day in the image of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Water 2 Wine

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Epiphany 2, January 15, 2012, by Pastor Jim Connell

John 2:1-11  +  Amos 9:11-15  +  Romans 12:6-16

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Baptism is where Jesus’ life meets your life

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Baptism of Our Lord

Matthew 3:13-17  +  Isaiah 42:1-7  +  1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Every year, every Sunday, we spend our time here in church following the life of Jesus through the church year.  So far this church year, we’ve celebrated two key events in our salvation history.  Jesus, our Savior was born. Jesus, our Savior, was circumcised. The Law of Moses required that Jesus be circumcised in order to bring him into the covenant God made with Abraham and receive the inheritance promised to Abraham. But in today’s Gospel we come across another one of those key events in our salvation history, and this one – this one the Law didn’t require.  The Law didn’t require Jesus to be baptized, and yet your salvation demands it; your very life depends on it, and here’s why:  baptism is where your life intersects with Jesus’ life.

What I mean is this:  picture your life along a vertical timeline.  You were born.  You will die.  You will rise from the dead – you and everyone else, believer and unbeliever alike.  And you will face judgment for the things you did, the things you said, the things you thought, even the very person that you were, between your birth (your conception!) and your death.

Your timeline is your death sentence, because from the time your mother conceived you, you were not the person God’s Law required you to be.  God’s law requires obedience, but not a forced and compelled obedience.  God’s law requires obedience that flows from a willing heart, a glad heart.  What God’s law requires is love, love that is defined by the Word of God, not by some inner feeling in yourself, a down-to-the-bottom-of-your-heart king of love that shows itself in unquestioning submission to God’s will, pure selflessness, sacrificial devotion to God and to your neighbor.  What God’s law requires is good.

But you’re not.  Your timeline started out in sin and your thoughts, words and actions demonstrate that sin along the way.  It’s not love for God to put your family before God and the hearing of his Word.  It’s not love for God to dishonor his name in the world through filthy language and dirty deeds.  It’s not love for your neighbor to ignore him or neglect him, to abandon him in his need, to cheat him or cheat on him, to grow angry and bitter toward him, or to refuse to forgive him when he repents. Your timeline, the story of your life has the thread of sin running all the way through it, and it ends in condemnation and eternal death.

So God, in his mercy created another timeline, the story of someone else’s life, the life of God’s Son, born as the Son of Man.  His timeline is what man’s timeline was meant to be.  It runs parallel to yours and is like yours in many ways.  He’s every bit as human as you are.  He was born as a man.  He died man’s death.  He rose from the dead.

But in between his birth and his death, the story of Jesus is so unlike your story.  His was a sinless life, a life of love, and willing obedience to his Father in heaven, even willingly submitting to that pain and suffering and death that he didn’t deserve.  But it was God’s will.  And so he suffered it.  Gladly.

So, whereas your timeline ends in condemnation, his ends in justification – in victory, salvation, and life. Your salvation is not in your timeline, but in his.

Here’s the problem:  Your timeline runs parallel to his.  Your life is yours; Jesus’ life is his.  Your birth is yours; Jesus’ birth is his. Your works are yours; his works are his.  Your unrighteousness is yours; his righteousness is his. Your death is yours; his death is his. Your condemnation is yours; Jesus’ eternal life is his.  And that’s how it remains.

Unless…the two lives intersect at some point in between birth and death.  Baptism is that God-appointed point of intersection, the point at which the life of the sinner and life of the sinless One meet, and don’t just meet, but trade places in the sight of God.

Matthew tells us that Jesus intentionally went from his home in Galilee to theJordan Riverfor the purpose of being baptized by John.  But why?

Baptism was a very public confession to the world that the person being baptized was a wretched sinner. It had a stigma attached to it.  The “good” people ofJerusalemwouldn’t be caught dead being baptized by John.  I would compare it, maybe, to enrolling in a modern-day drug or alcohol rehab program.  Who does that?  Drug and alcohol addicts.  Why?  To get the help they desperately need, because their lives are being ruined by their addiction.  To enroll in a drug rehab program is to admit publicly, “I have a problem.”

That’s the kind of stigma that was attached to John’s baptism.  Sometimes I wish there were still such a stigma attached to baptism instead of the glamorized notion people have of baptism today in our country.  It’s just the thing to do for some families.  It’s a tradition, a family ritual.  It’s nice. It’s pleasant.  Safe and sanitized. People have gotten this idea in their heads that baptism is “cute.”  It’s not cute.  It’s dirty, or at least, it’s a confession that this baby – or this adult! – is dirty, filthy dirty with sin, one of the damned who needs rescuing from damnation and who is about to be rescued by Jesus by means of water and Word. Because that’s the reality of baptism.

Why did Jesus go to be baptized? He had no sins to repent of, and no need of forgiveness.  Jesus knew that.  So did John.  It’s why John objected at first to Jesus’ request to be baptized by John, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

Why did Jesus go to be stigmatized as a sinner, to be “with sinners numbered,” to be counted among sinners in those baptismal waters?  Because this is where the life of Jesus and the life of sinners meet.

“Let it be so now,” Jesus told John, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

If we unpack that phrase a little bit, “to fulfill all righteousness,” we’ll see that Jesus already had a timeline – a story full of righteousness.  The law didn’t require that Jesus be baptized at all.  Rather, it’s the bridge that moves his righteousness from his timeline to yours and mine and fulfills all righteousness for us who lack righteousness. This is where Jesus, in his baptism, trades places with the sinner in his or her baptism.  And isn’t that pure grace! That it’s not in death where we meet Jesus, but before death – but in the cleansing waters of baptism.  What’s yours becomes his; what’s his becomes yours.  Your sin gets laid on him and he pays for it.  His righteousness gets laid on you and you’re praised by God for it.  Your death sentence is transferred to him and his life-sentence is transferred to you who believe in him, who have been baptized in his name.  Now, in this baptismal intersection Jesus becomes the sinner he was not so that you could become the child of God that you were not.  Now, all that belongs to him becomes yours, just as all that belonged to you became his.  It all hinges on baptism and faith in Jesus who instituted the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

The climax of today’s Gospel is at the end, when Jesus steps out of the water and the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and God the Father’s voice is heard from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”  When you grasp the fact that baptism is where your life meets Jesus’ life, those words have a whole new meaning.  Because God the Father, the Father of all grace and mercy and compassion, the Father of love and forgiveness and glory and might – that Father doesn’t just claim Jesus as his beloved Son.  He claims you who are baptized in his name.  And he isn’t just well-pleased with Jesus.  By faith in Jesus, through your baptismal connection to him, God the Father is now perfectly well-pleased with you, not because of your timelines, not because of your story, but all because of Jesus’ timeline and Jesus’ story and baptism, which has pulled you into Jesus’ story and Jesus’ life.

The Bible calls that “baptismal regeneration,” being born again, that God now reckons you to be his child, by faith in Jesus.  You see what that means for you – for you, and for your baptized children, and for your baptized parents?  It means that you stand justified before God, welcomed into eternal life.  What can the devil or the world do to you, if that is true?  No sickness, no cancer, no crisis at all can change the fact that you were baptized. And that goes for your baptized children and your baptized parents as well.  They have a Father who loves them and is committed to their care, to see them safely through this vale of tears to their heavenly home.  You have a Father who loves you.  All things must work together for your good, because you are God’s child, with whom he is well-pleased – because your sinful story is covered by the sinless story of Jesus.

All this is by faith in Jesus.  Baptism is of no value to anyone if he or she walks away from the faith that comes from baptism.  But for those who believe, God the Father not only accepts you as his child, but he also sends his Holy Spirit, who spends the rest of your life making your life look like Jesus’ life.  Here something wonderful takes place and Jesus gives much more than he receives.  When you cross timelines with Jesus, your sin doesn’t cause him to sin.  But his righteousness does have an effect on you; his righteousness does rub off on your life.  So you don’t live for yourself, but for him who died for you and was raised again.  You don’t fight temptation by yourself. You fight temptation together with Jesus.  You remember what he did right after he was baptized?  He went out into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the devil, and not just to be tempted, but to fight against temptation and come out victorious.

That’s what your baptism means for you, too.  It means a life of fighting temptation, of saying no to sin and yes to righteousness.  It means a life of suffering, too, of bearing the cross, a life of humility, a life of daily and painful self-denial, a life that looks ever more like the life of Jesus.  The Bible calls that “renewal,” being renewed in the image of Christ.  It’s a life-long process that will only be finished in the perfection of heaven.  But baptism is where that life-long process begins.

Nothing can summarize all this any better than Paul’s words to the Corinthians today: And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.  Jesus has always been all those things, but he became all those things “to us” when our timelines intersected, when baptism brought us together. Baptism is where Jesus’ life meets your life, where all that is bad moves from you to him, where all that is good moves from him to you.  That’s why you’ll never have any reason to boast, because all the good came from outside of you, from your Lord Jesus Christ.  That’s why it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Amen.

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Our Savior had to be circumcised

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

Luke 2:21  +  Genesis 17:1-14  +  Galatians 3:23-29

Consider this question for a moment: What are the absolutely essential events in the life of Christ, revealed in Scripture, that had to happen in order for him to be our Savior from sin – in order for us to have peace and hope and comfort and a future in heaven instead of hell?  There aren’t that many, actually, only a couple hands full.  The Christ had to be born of a virgin.  We celebrated that last Sunday on Christmas.  He had to be baptized – we’ll cover that next Sunday.  He had to institute a new covenant in his blood. He had to suffer and die on a cross.  He had to rise from the dead on the third day, ascend into heaven, and send his Holy Spirit from the right hand of God so that his Gospel could go out and save sinners.

For all those key events in the life of Christ, the Church has set aside a day of celebration each year in its calendar.  Which one did we miss? We missed that one event that we don’t talk about or think about very often, but the Church Fathers wisely built it into the Church calendar to be celebrated every year, on the eighth day of Christmas, January 1st.  Without this event, we are lost in sin and doomed to eternal death.  Without it, we have no Christ, no Jesus, no Savior.  So today on the eighth day of Christmas, we remember with joy that Our Savior Had to Be Circumcised.

You heard about the origin of Hebrew circumcision in the Old Testament Lesson today.  It all started with Abraham when he was 99 years old and still childless.  For a quarter century God had been promising him a son, an “offspring,” and God made a covenant between himself and Abraham and Abraham’s yet-to-be-conceived offspring: “To your offspring I will give this land… And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

Now, finally, when Abraham was 99 years old the promise would be fulfilled.  A son would be born to him within a year, but first, a sign – a sign commanded by God to seal the covenant in Abraham’s flesh and in the flesh of every male descendant of his, a sacred but painful sign for every man and every boy, a sign that every Israelite family would be reminded of whenever a child was conceived, and whenever a male child was born:  Circumcision, to be performed on the eighth day of a baby boy’s birth.

That’s the brief history behind circumcision.  What’s the meaning behind it?  Why would God subject his chosen people to such a mutilation of the flesh?

Circumcision served several purposes for Old Testament Israel.  This sign of circumcision set the Jewish nation apart from every other nation on earth.  No one else had such a practice; only Abraham’s offspring.  That’s important, because God had made a special covenant with Abraham’s offspring – they had to be kept separate.

Circumcision was also a minor form of punishment from God, marking a man as a sinner who needed to have sin cut away from him.  And notice when!  Not after a long life of sinning, but after only eight days of being alive outside the womb.  And here we see another Scriptural teaching highlighted – the doctrine of original sin.  It’s not just the bad things people do and say that make them guilty before God.  It’s the very sinful nature we inherit from our parents, and they from theirs.  It’s the source of all our actual sins, the sick, twisted flesh in all of us – believers and unbelievers alike – that always runs away from the true God, that runs away from his love and mercy in Christ, that rebels against him and spends all its time looking out for #1.  Because of that sinful flesh that dwells in all of us, Jewish baby boys got to be marked with a sign – a sign that we can’t save ourselves from this inborn sin.  It needs cutting around and cutting out, a circumcision done by someone else.  And circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant to do just that for Abraham and his children.

So fast forward 2000 years from the time of Abraham.  There were Mary and Joseph and the baby boy that Mary bore, still in Bethlehem.  And as the Law demanded, they had the baby circumcised on the eighth day, just like every other Jewish boy.

But this one wasn’t like every other Jewish boy.  This one was born of a virgin, without the intervention of a sinful man.  This baby had no sinful flesh – no natural corruption or sickness that turned him away from God, because this baby boy was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

So why did he have to be circumcised?  There’s a very important verse in Galatians 3 that gives us the answer: Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. And that right there changes everything.

What it means is that neither Isaac – Abraham’s son, nor the nation of Israel itself were the intended recipients of the covenant God made with Abraham.  There was only one intended recipient, one heir of the promises, the coming Christ.  Christ, the baby born of Mary, was the intended recipient of all the promises of God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to the whole nation of Israel.  The nation of Israel, Abraham’s descendants, were brought into this covenant, too, but only until it should be fulfilled in the intended recipient.  Christ was the offspring who was to be born to Abraham and, according to the covenant, Christ is the one who would be the heir of that covenant, who would inherit all the promises of God, including the earth itself and an eternal place in the family of God, not just as the Son of God, but also as the Son of Man, which is what helps you and me.

But if and only if he is circumcised according to the Law and brought into this covenant God had made with Abraham long ago.

Our Savior had to be circumcised so that, as the Son of Man, he could inherit all the promises of God made to Abraham, and then, give away his inheritance to others.  That’s why we celebrate also the name of Jesus today, because God’s purpose from the beginning, was that the offspring of Abraham, circumcised on the eighth day of his birth, should be called Yeshua, Jesous, Jesus, Savior.

Savior of whom?  Of those who are circumcised like he was?  Yes, but also of the uncircumcised – of all who trust in him.

By that first infliction of pain in the innocent baby Jesus, in that first shedding of his holy, precious blood, God’s covenant with Abraham and his offspring was fulfilled, and the sign of circumcision was brought to an end as the sign of that old covenant.  Now Jesus, the heir of all things as both God and Man, could open the way for a new covenant to be made, a covenant in his blood.  That first shedding of his blood was just a foreshadowing of what his life was meant for.  Did you catch that in the hymn stanza we just sang?  “His infant body now begins the cross to feel; those precious drops of blood that flow for death the victim seal.”

Every other Hebrew baby who was circumcised was marked for death before he was born because of sin.  But this Hebrew baby, Jesus the son of Mary, was not marked for death by sin, but only by choice.  His blood never needed to be shed, except as the price for the sin of his brothers.  His name is rightly called Jesus, Savior!  And this is how he would save all who trust in him, by shedding his blood.  That’s the cost of your sins.  That’s the price of your forgiveness.  And that’s the sign of God’s love for the world.  His blood, the blood of Jesus, whose name means “Savior.”  Because your blood wasn’t worth enough.  But his was!  His blood was worth enough to open a new covenant.  And since he was the heir of the first covenant made with Abraham and his offspring, only Jesus has the right to make a new covenant, to pass on his inheritance to anyone he chooses.

And he chooses, not the one who deserves it, not the one who works for it.  He chooses sinners.  His Gospel goes out, even now, to sinners: Repent! Turn away from your god-less life and believe in the good news, that a Savior has been born to you, that a Savior has been circumcised for you, and that this Savior holds out a new covenant of the forgiveness of sins to you, and also, a new sign for the new covenant.

You know what that sign is?  It’s circumcision! But it’s a different kind of circumcision.  This is what it says in Colossians 2, In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having 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.  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Baptism is the sign of the new covenant, God’s way of bringing you into the family of Jesus and his Father, just as circumcision brought a Jewish baby boy into the family of Abraham and of God.  You heard what Paul said in the Epistle Lesson, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Jaimie and Jeremy were baptized just a few months ago.  They put on Christ.  They have become his heirs.  And now, today, Jaimie will be confirmed in the faith and welcomed into the family meal as well, the family meal of the continuous forgiveness of sins in which Christ himself comes to us and gives his own body and blood to us, the actual blood of the new covenant, the actual blood that was shed on Calvary, but that first was shed in Bethlehem, on the eighth day of his birth, when Jesus, our Savior, was circumcised.

Our Savior had to be circumcised, so that you, too, could become Abraham’s offspring, and heirs of all the promises of God.  As sons of God by faith in Christ, baptized into his family, all of us – men, women, boys, girls, rich, poor, Jew and Gentile – we all receive from our Father in heaven the inheritance that belongs to Jesus our brother, the inheritance of a righteous status before God, in spite of all our sins; eternal life, heaven, earth, past, present, future – all things are yours, because your Savior was circumcised, and you have been baptized in him.  Amen.

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The gift of the Word given again

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Christmas Day

John 1:1-14  +  Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38  +  Titus 3:4-7

Today is gift-opening day in the Church, just as it may be also in your homes.  It’s the same gift we open every year.  For that matter, it’s the same gift we open every week, the same gift God gives to the world over and over and over again, but Christmas – Christmas marks the very first time God gave this gift to the world, the beginning of God’s giving of a gift that both has a beginning and has no beginning at all, a gift that is the perfect union of created and uncreated, the perfect union of God and man.

Although now, through faith in the One born in Bethlehem we are friends of God, the very family of God, when God first gave His gift to the world, we were neither of those things.  We were His enemies. We had sinned against Him, not He against us.  We had written Him out of our lives and had no intention of apologizing for it, no means to make up for it, no hope of reconciliation even if we had wanted it.  But just at that moment, God took His eternal, beloved Son – God the Son!, God the Word who was with God in the beginning – and wrapped Him up in human flesh and gave Him to the world.  God made reconciliation into a tangible, flesh and blood gift, a gift that can be given and also received, and he held it out to mankind – His Son, His Son born to us, given to us – and also crucified for us – that all who put their trust in him might have light instead of darkness, life instead of death, peace instead of punishment, and joy instead of fear.

God first held out his gift to the world at Christmas, his gift of reconciliation and peace, light and life to all.  He gave us his Word! He gave us his life and his light! The Word of God took on your flesh. He took on your sin, your condemnation, your punishment, your death. He took it all on himself as your brother.  And he did it, not just for you but for all men.  All men who are born of woman have been given the right to call the child of Bethlehem their child. All the sons of men have been given the right to claim this child as their peace with God.

But not all men do. Not all believe his Word. Not all are enlightened by his light, nor do all live by his life.  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.

So many men try to figure out life on their own.  So many try to live their lives apart from God’s Word, and still fool themselves into thinking they’re getting by all right without Him.  So many look to their families for peace and comfort and joy at Christmas.  And families can give great joy, but they can’t give life. They can’t give peace, and their comfort is only temporary, and sometimes, fickle.

Only the Word of God who became flesh – only he can give light and life.  He’s the source of all light and life, as John says, the source of all joy and peace.  He is God’s gift to the world.  If you have him, you have everything.

But the world didn’t receive God’s gift when he gave it for the first time, and the world still does not receive it.  The world doesn’t want everything.  The world wants one thing: to be its own god.

Remember St. Stephen, the first Christian Martyr whose feast day is tomorrow.  He preached Christ and was stoned to death for it.  The world did not receive God’s Christmas gift.

Remember the Apostle John whose day is December 27th.  He was sent away into exile for his preaching of Christ, and all of his fellow apostles were put to death for the same.  The world did not receive God’s Christmas gift.

Remember the Holy Innocents.  Their day is December 28th. They are the baby boys of Bethlehem whom King Herod slaughtered in his attempt to snuff out the light of Christ.  The world did not receive God’s Christmas gift.

The world is no different today.  But here’s what’s different: Some sinners did receive him when he came at Christmas, and some still do.

Here you are – you who have received the Word of God in faith, you who believe in the name of Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of his Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary as your Lord; you who claim Jesus Christ as your peace with God –  all ye faithful who have come to adore him, Christ the Lord.  Here you are to receive God’s Christmas gift.  You have been given a special privilege, a special right that does not belong to all men – the right to be called children of God.

What gives you the right to call yourself a child of God?  Only this: That God himself speaks the Word that gives you that right. For 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.

God’s Word has come to you and converted you from dead to living, from sinner to saint, from a child of the devil to a child of God!  This is your family, right here!  If you have no other family, so what? This one lasts forever.  This one has God himself as the Father and Jesus Christ as Brother.

And in this Christian family, you still sin every day, but every day your heavenly Father forgives your sins anew.  You are covered by the blood of your Brother.  You still carry around your sinful flesh with you, but you are not ruled by it.  You are God’s child.  God’s Word dwells in you, and each day you are being renewed in the image of the Word made flesh, your Brother, Jesus Christ.

God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Only you who call Jesus your Brother and your Savior have the right to call God your Father and yourself his son, his child. That’s your Christian birthright.  That’s God Christmas gift to you, first given to you at your baptism when the Word made flesh first covered you with himself.  Since then God has been renewing this gift to you again and again in the Word of the Gospel.

To you, baptized children of God, has been given another special right, a right not given to the rest of the world.  Today we celebrate again the Christmas mystery, the Word that was with God in the beginning, the Word that was and remains God, given to us in flesh and blood who gives his flesh and blood to you again from the humble manger of this humble altar, to you and not to the world.  Here in this “Bethlehem – House of Bread,” the Bread of life is given to you, the very body knit together in the virgin’s womb and then born in Bethlehem.  Here, too, is wine, the wine of celebration and feasting, and with this wine, the blood of Mary’s Son, the Word who became flesh so that he might have blood to shed for you.  Here he makes his dwelling among us again, not just in the room with us, but within our very bodies and souls, and gives us his life to sustain and comfort and strengthen and forgive.

Here today, the gift of the Word made flesh is given to you again, in a way that you can actually receive him – with your ears, with your eyes, with your mouths and with your heart. He has come and called you to bask in the light of his grace, to share for awhile in the glory of his cross and suffering, and then to share eternally in the glory of his empty tomb and his eternal reign.

Open God’s present.  Unwrap it. Turn it around and admire it from every possible angle.  It’ll take you a lifetime to do it.  The gift is the Person of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, with all his love, his power, his strength, his victory over sin, death and hell; his light and life, his joy and peace, his companionship, his protection, and his gracious Father in heaven.  All of this is yours.  All of this God pours into your lap on Christmas morning, and he’ll do it again next week, too.  You can count on it.  God gives you – His Word!  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And here in his Gospel, we, too, here in this place, have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  A blessed Christmas to you all.  Enjoy your Christmas gifts!  Amen.

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