The Gottesdienst Crowd

[Gottesblog] The Sacrament of the Star, by Jonathan Shaw

The Sacrament of the Star

by Jonathan Shaw

 

        Today the Christian Church celebrates the riches of God’s glorious grace manifested for us sinners in the Epiphany of our Lord.  Wise men from the East led by a star and the Word fall down before the Christ Child to worship Him, offering gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

        To manifest means to show or reveal.  Whereas Christmas demonstrates the lowliness of our Savior born in the humblest of circumstances, Epiphany shows the glory possessed by the Son of God from all eternity breaking into our lowly world as Light shining in the darkness.  The season of Epiphany bears witness to Jesus as the true God and Savior through star, Word, and wise men; worship, promise, and baptism; miracles, signs, and visions . . . leading us to awe, joy, and comfort.

        The star documented in the Epiphany account of St. Matthew 2:1-12 bears special consideration as it is usually misunderstood.  “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘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’” (St Matt 2:1-2).  These wise men, literally Magoi, were probably from Babylon.  In the Book of Daniel, the Magoi are often called Chaldees or the wise men of Babylon (Dan 2:48).  Remember that God had made Daniel chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon, when the tribes of Judah were taken into exile around 586 BC.  Through Daniel, the wise men would have been instructed in the Holy Book of Israel, the Torah.  Although they didn’t have all of the Scripture, they had its critical core, promising that God would send a Savior, the eternal King, through Israel.  In particular, they had the Numbers 24:17 star prophecy: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; a Star shall come forth from Jacob, and a Scepter [of a King] shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of Sheth.”  The wise men awaited a star that was coming to mark the birth of this King from God, who would establish a spiritual kingdom and destroy sin and death (Moab and Sheth).  This truth, revealed by the Word of God, would have been passed down from one generation of wise men to the next, each looking to the heavens for the fulfillment.

        Finally, a spectacular star arose in the East, apparently at the time of Jesus’ conception by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.  Many scientists have undertaken to figure out the nature of this phenomenon.  Using Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and computer analysis, some scientists calculate that at the time of Jesus’ conception, and again at His birth, there was a unique conjunction of the planet Jupiter (the so-called King of Planets) with Venus (the so-called Mother Planet), which would have appeared to the naked eye as a single, brightest-ever star (http://www.bethlehemstar.net).  The how is open to discussion, but the fact that God caused the miraculous light in the heavens is not.  The wise men trusted God’s Word, they saw the star, and they understood it correctly as the fulfillment of the Word of God, the sign of the long-awaited Savior, the King of the Jews.

        It is important to note that unlike certain carols suggest, the star disappeared.  It was the star which they had seen in the East, at its rising (St. Matt 2:9).  The wise men were required to walk not by sight following a star, but by faith following the Word of God.  A 1,500 year old promise, delivered to fellow wise men some 600 years past, would have certainly required significant financing for the journey and likely drawn ridicule from colleagues and neighbors.  But the wise men drew strength from the sacrament of the star and walked in faith according to the promise of the Word.

        They set off for Jerusalem, the Jewish capital.  It would be logical for the Jewish King to be born in the capital, a gleaming city with solid fortifications, a rich temple and worship center, and an educated people.

        The problem was that the wise men did not have the full Word of God, only the Torah.  They did not have the prophets, to include the prophecy of Micah 5:2: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.”  Herod provided this Word, by way of the chief priests and scribes, and off went the wise men immediately, continuing their journey, now on their way to Bethlehem.

        So it was that “when they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (St Matt 2:7-11).  Note well: Only after they had left Herod and the power center which was Jerusalem, only then did the star reappear which they had previously seen in the East.  Then they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.  It led them to the Christ Child, their newborn Savior and King!

        St. Matthew’s account brings the sacrament of the star together with faith in the promise to reveal Christ, our great Savior and King, as Light shining in the darkness.  The wise men did not listen to cultural voices of doubt, ridicule, or so-called common sense.  They were not dissuaded by the fact that Jesus was not to be found among the rich, the educated, or even the religious elite of Jerusalem.  They turned a blind eye to fact that they had to enter the small, back-water town of Bethlehem and come into the presence of a peasant woman and her poor Son.  Against all power, against all perceptions, against all personal prejudices, they held onto and believed the simple Word of God, testified to by the sacrament of the star, and were received into the presence of Christ.  They fell down and worshiped Him.

        This is what wise men still do.  By Sacrament and faith they are received into the presence of eternal, enfleshed Christ.  There they worship, there they offer back to Go

TGC 096 - Liturgical Biography: Paul H.D. Lang, Part II

Who are the men behind the liturgical renewals within our Synod? Who are the men at the tip of the spear when it came to talking about the importance of retaining the historic liturgy, rites, and ceremonies of the Western Church? The next installment of the liturgical biographies we're going to cover is Paul H.D. Lang. Mark Braden (pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) walks us through his early ministry, highlights some of his writings, and then dives into two of his most notable works: What An Altar Guild Should Know and Ceremony and Celebration. This is part two of a two-part series. 

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[Gottesblog] A Postmodern Society That Won't Consider Evidence, Burnell Eckardt

A Postmodern Society That Won't Consider Evidence

by Burnell Eckardt

 

There is in my view a strong connection between the philosophical characteristics of what is called postmodernism and the rather mind-boggling things that have been foisted upon our society in the past several months.

Maybe it began when Jean-François Lyotard brought the term “postmodern” into the philosophical lexicon when he published La Condition Postmoderne in 1979, but then again maybe it was when Ludwig Wittgenstein delved into language games and other nonsense back in 1953. Lyotard saw philosophy as seeking to legitimize new narratives for science in the form of “the dialectics of Spirit, the hermeneutics of meaning, the emancipation of the rational or working subject, or the creation of wealth” (Lyotard 1984 [1979], xxiii), whatever that means. But maybe such language games are really the product of Wittgenstein. Honestly I don’t have the patience to delve much into it (if you really want to, have at it). Playing with language wearies me, probably because pastors must deal with truth and objective reality.

In short, when I think of postmodernism, I think of the scuttling of objective truth, and that is something our society has become very good at. So, for instance, we have people thinking they can be whatever gender they choose, without regard for the physical plumbing they were born with. Or people who prefer to ignore that fact that, biologically, babies are really people, both inside and outside of the womb. And that willful ignorance was writ large already in 1973, as we all know.

What was once a new thought, not to say ridiculous, is now a somewhat old adage: What’s true for you is true for you and what’s true for me is true for me. That is, simply put, postmodernism in a word.

So I can’t help thinking that the societal and political climate of 2020 is an outgrowth of this madness, and it has produced more madness. The media are culpable, routinely providing unsustainable opinion as newscasting.

So for instance, what we could easily see and recognize as riots and violence last summer they didn’t see, or didn’t choose to see. They called it peaceful, or largely peaceful. And we saw the obvious mayhem everywhere and we said, What? How in the world? What are you smoking? But they didn’t care, because of the permission postmodern had given them to do so.

And they think the idea of defunding the police might even have merit. Why? Because, well, why not? It’s all relative; it’s all what we want to call our truth.

And so on.

And so also—here’s where I may be venturing in, I know, where angels fear to tread—there is this election business. I simply can’t help wondering, and being stunned, really, by the mountains of evidence of fraud which I have heard and seen for myself, hundreds of sworn affidavits, numbers that don’t add up, etc. It’s right there for anyone to see. But there are so many who refuse to look. The only response I ever hear from the other side is that it’s been looked at and set aside by the courts, by legislatures, by politicians, by a great host of people. But will someone, any one of these people look at the evidence themselves? and respond to that? or are thousands making this all up? was there really some miracle by which somehow a few key regions in the country suddenly came up with just enough votes to push Biden alone, without any coattails, over the top? They won’t explain this, or even acknowledge the possibility of there being evidence to the contrary. And I wonder, why not? Whether a person is Republican or Democrat, whether he voted for Trump or Biden, or didn’t vote at all, it shouldn’t matter, because there’s something there that needs investigation, right? But no. Heavens, not even the Wall Street Journal wants to look. I note that at least The Federalist has been looking deeply into all this, beginning with this eye-opener right after the election (go ahead, read it if you don’t believe me), and the refusal of people to look at the evidence, for anyone who wants to see. Recently they wrote on it again. Why don’t people look?

Yes, why not? Well, maybe, I can’t help wondering, it’s postmodernism, or at least, in the case of people who should know better, the deleterious effects of its influence on unsuspecting minds.

The consequences are not merely political, either. For how can we preach the Gospel to a people who don’t want to acknowledge the existence of evidence, or proof, or truth? We find ourselves, like Jeremiah, needing to warn people about the prophets who prophesy lies. Yes, there are liars, and they lie. And there are, sadly, people who just believe the lies. We cannot settle for the true-for-you kind of mushy thinking, because there are lies, and there is truth. And ultimately, it is true-objectively true— that Jesus is the incarnate God, that he came down from heaven, that he gave his life into death, and that he rose from the dead, and that hundreds of people saw this and bore witness to it. And there is, objectively, sin and righteousness, right and wrong, and finally, heaven and hell.

And there is still one thing that the postmodernist cannot deny, though he will try. There is death. Play with words all you want, but you cannot play with the graveyard, though you can whistle in it. So you can call funerals “celebrations of life,” and you can speak in platitudes of death as a beautiful passing, a circle of life. But you can’t get around it. Who knows, maybe that’s even at least partly why the fear of COVID is so irrationally gripping for so many people, to the extent that they are willing to give up freedom and everything else just to ensure somehow that they don’t die. But people die every day, some days more than others, as it has been since the beginning of the world, and when you must look at the numbers it can be frightening. We are going to die. And there is really only one vaccination against that, and only the Church has it.

I don’t really think that what I am posting here is political commentary. It’s about what kind of madness the Church is faced with. Because people who are not interested in evidence won’t be too interested in even beginning to consider the words that God has to say to them either, the words they really need to hear, alas. Because they have come to the point that they’re really not too interested in anyone else’s words at all. And so the world slouches toward Gomorrah.

[Gottesblog] Let there be light: a meditation on the incarnation, by Burnell Eckardt

Let there be light: a meditation on the incarnation

by Burnell Eckardt

 

It came to mind during the past year that while Genesis 3:15 is often referred to as the protoevangelium, or first Gospel, with its announcement to the serpent that the Seed of the woman would crush his head, there is actually an earlier protoevangelium of sorts. Arguably the first Gospel is found already in the first thing God ever said, namely, “Let there be light.” I preached this on Christmas Day this season:

              In the beginning was the Word. And this Word was with God, and this Word was God, for God is one. And that which came forth from him in the beginning was God, was Let there be light. And therefore there was light. For the world had been shrouded in darkness, thick darkness, oppressive darkness, as the Spirit of God brooded over the deep. But here was a prophetic word, a word that dispersed the darkness and the gloom, a word that would henceforth and forever be bound to the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters. For from then on, the Spirit and the Word would never be found separate but always together.  For the Spirit that hovered required an accompanying Word of God, even as it is today. Never can the Spirit of God be found where the is no Word, no Gospel. And so the Word sounded forth in the beginning: Let there be light, and there was light. Behold, there was light. And the light shined in the darkness, and brought order to a world that had been formless and void. The Word thus separated the waters that were above from the waters that were beneath by a firmament called Heaven. And the Word brought forth dry land out of the waters, and the Word assigned the light to substances, to bodies, to heavenly bodies: the sun and the moon and the stars. And the Word filled the waters and the heavens with life: birds and fish of all kind, living, and breathing, and reproducing (for the Word is never void or dead, but full of life). And the Word then filled the earth with life, with beasts and all manner of creeping animals. And then, the Word took of the earth and fashioned a man, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. And behold, this man, unlike any of the other living things, was made in the image and likeness of God. Here was God’s crowned creation, the reason he made all other things, to culminate and finish in man. This was all the work of the Word, which was with God and which was God, the Word bound to the Spirit of God and making all things, the Word, I say, creating at last man in his own image.

And so it was that in the fullness of time, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word, now at last fashioned as the very image and likeness of God, the Word, who in the image of God was first foreseen in Adam, the Word, who from the beginning had intended this, that he should become one with his creation, the Word which first shined in the darkness, the Word, which was Let there be light, and there was light.

And nothing could dissuade the Word from his aim, nothing could render it ruined. For the Word was God, and with God nothing shall be impossible. So nothing could stand in his way: not a disobedient man and his wife, not a ruined Garden, not a world then filled with a history of darkness and ruin and horror and terrors and wickedness and murder and death.  Nothing could stand in his way. For the word was, Let there be Light, and there was light, and the light shines. The darkness and the void of the world at the first could not stop this, nor can any darkness today stop it: no sin, no terrors in the way, no orders that all the world should be taxed, no cold Bethlehem night without lodging, no murderous Herod, no cruelty, no corruption, no thievery, no brutality, no disasters, no sickness, no pandemics, no mortality, no death, no grave. Nothing could stop this from happening, for the Word was Let there be light, and there was light. Behold, there was light, because the Word was, Let there be light! And so it was that the light of the world became flesh: the Word himself became flesh. He came down from heaven, to rescue a world enshrouded in darkness and misery and sin and death. He came down to us, as it is written, Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.

Or did you think righteousness was unattainable? Did you think Adam’s fault was too great to be undone? Did you think sin and guilt were too great? Did you think mankind must at last be excluded? For all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. So did you think it too much to be atoned? Did you think the darkness was too deep, too great, too overwhelming? For, alas, how overwhelming it sometimes seems to be, and how bitterly we sometimes come to lamentation and grief and sorrow! Did you think your tears must forever flow? Did you think there is gloom and despair and terrors that await us in the end? Did you think the darkness was too deep, too great, too overwhelming? Did you think it too much for the righteousness of God to undo? Did you think he had somehow lied when he said, Let there be light? But God cannot lie, for he is the Truth. And thus when he said, Let there be light, there was light! For God alone is true, and every man a liar. And the righteousness of God has come to earth, when the Word became flesh. And in beholding his glory, that is, in believing that he is  the Christ, the Son of God, you shall have life through his name; for his righteousness shall fill you and drive away all unrighteousness and sin and darkness.

Fall on your knees, O man! Turn from the darkness. Turn to the Light which lighteth every man. Turn to it, for it is Christ your Lord. See, look, behold his glory, for the Word became flesh: your flesh. Lying in a manger now to look upon. What did Mary see? What did the shepherds see? The ox and ass, the angels? What did they see? They saw their Maker, their God: they saw the Word that was God become flesh. And so has he adorned humanity with his deity, for he bound himself to it this happy Christmas day! O turn to the Light, for this is your Maker and your Savior.

This is where you were destined to be: bound to your Maker for all time and eternity. God was bound to man that man might be bound to God, and so be saved from all manner of darkness and death. The sin of the world is taken away because there is no sin in God, and thus when the Word became flesh and took upon himself all of our fallenness, and swallowed our sins, and so died, still even then, nothing could stop him. He had to rise from the dead, for he is the Word, and the word was Let there be light, and the light shines in the darkness.  For in him is no darkness at all.

And thus do the departed saints now dwell in perpetual light, and thus shall we be destined also to dwell  there, and thus shall he return in glory and wrap the world in his marvelous light, and thus shall all good dash all wickedness to the ground, and thus shall even death be swallowed up in victory, because the Word was God, and the Word was, Let there be light, and there was light. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above. Glory to God in the highest. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord, the Word made flesh, the Light of the world.

TGC 095 - Liturgical Biography: Paul H.D. Lang, Part I

Who are the men behind the liturgical renewals within our Synod? Who are the men at the tip of the spear when it came to talking about the importance of retaining the historic liturgy, rites, and ceremonies of the Western Church? The next installment of the liturgical biographies we're going to cover is Paul H.D. Lang. Mark Braden (pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy) walks us through his early ministry, highlights some of his writings, and then dives into two of his most notable works: What An Altar Guild Should Know and Ceremony and Celebration. This is part one of a two-part series. 

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• You can subscribe to the Journal here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/subscribe/
• You can read the Gottesblog here: https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/
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Please like, share, and review this podcast. It only takes a few minutes for you, but it means a lot to us. 

 

[Gottesblog] These Are the Ones Who Follow the Lamb, by Rick Stuckwisch

These Are the Ones Who Follow the Lamb

by Rick Stuckwisch

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a rather shocking celebration. It is painful and hard even to think about such a brutal crime as the slaughter of those little boys of Bethlehem. But, why, oh why, for God’s sake, must we celebrate that sad memory on this Fourth Day of Christmas?

Yet, here it stands, precisely for God’s sake, for the proclamation of His Glory, and for the sake of our life and salvation in Christ Jesus. In fulfillment of several Old Testament Prophecies, under the good and gracious will of God, and according to His Word, the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents is part and parcel of the Christmas story — no less so than the Shepherds of St. Luke’s Gospel, or the Magi who have just departed for their own country by another way.

We observe this day — indeed, we celebrate this Feast — not out of any morbid fascination with the gruesome details of Herod’s wickedness. This is not Herod’s story, in any case; nor was he the one calling the shots, his evil machinations notwithstanding. No, it is in the humility of repentant faith, under the Cross of Christ our Lord, that we confess His Cross and Passion on this day — His holy and precious Blood, and His innocent suffering and death — which are the real heights of His divine glory and the living fountain of peace on earth and good will toward men.

This is what Christmas was and is about, the birth of the one Child who was born to die for us all.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, like every other Christian Feast, is a celebration of His Cross, which these young martyrs of Bethlehem were given to share in advance by a Baptism of blood.

As throughout the Holy Gospel, you are given to find yourself in this story and to hear this Word of God in Christ addressed to you and to your circumstances under His Cross. It’s not a checklist of rules and regulations with which to work your way into heaven, but a Word of the Gospel of the Cross whereby you are washed in the Blood of the Lamb. Thus are you called by this Gospel, not to work, but to be crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus, in order to be raised with Him, as well, to live with Him in His Kingdom in His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Thus are you called by God the Father Almighty to be His own dear child, to be united with His only-begotten Son in His crucifixion, death, and burial, unto the Resurrection of His Body and yours, to the Life everlasting of body and soul. Covered by the Blood of this Lamb, you are called out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea; fed by the living Bread from heaven in the desert; and led through the waters of the Jordan River into the Promised Land. This is the true Exodus, fulfilled in the Christ-Child, Jesus, by way of His own innocent death and sacred blood-shed.

He gathers up into Himself (and He fulfills) the entire history of Israel, that He might then become and accomplish the salvation of the true “Israel,” that is, of all those who are the children of Abraham by faith — who are sons of God in Christ Jesus.

He is Isaac, who was spared a sacrificial death at the hand of his father, that the Child of Promise might become the blessed Seed of Abraham in whom all the nations of the world are blessed. And He is Joseph, the son of Israel and Rachel, who was spared a murderous death at the hand of his kin, that He might prosper in Egypt and accomplish the Lord’s great salvation for all people.

And He is Moses, who was spared from the slaughter of the innocents at the hand of a tyrant Pharaoh, that He might be raised up by the mighty, outstretched arm of the Lord — in order to lead His people Israel out of slavery and death, into the freedom of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Yet, this same Child who is spared on this occasion, who is called out of Egypt as the very Son of God, He shall be the Firstborn Son who is sacrificed and slaughtered in the place of all the others. For He is the Lamb whom the Lord Himself provides for the requisite sacrifice. Indeed, He is the true Passover whose Blood covers His people — including you — from the angel of death, and whose Flesh is Meat indeed, your Meal of salvation.

What Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, and all the others sons of Israel could not do (and could never have done or accomplished for themselves), He — the Son of God and Mary’s Son — has done and accomplished for all of them, and so also for you and yours and all mankind. He has done so, ironically, by the way of His own voluntary suffering and death upon the Cross.

Yes, it is by His death that He has conquered death and sheathed its sword. It is by His stripes that you are healed. It is by His Blood that you are cleansed and forgiven, your iniquities pardoned.

Of course, the irony is that the victory of His Cross appears to be anything but a victory in the eyes of the world. It is so contrary to the so-called wisdom of the world and to anything that man would ever hope or expect. So, also, when you are given the Cross to bear, it feels like crushing defeat, and it can surely seem as though the Lord has abandoned you to the punishment, suffering, and death that you deserve for your sins. Then come the tears of mourning and loud lamentations, when you stubbornly refuse to be comforted, as though your life and every hope were done for.

Truth be told, your old Adam is — and must be — crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ Jesus. And yet, it is precisely by and through His Cross that you are rescued from sin, death, and hell. Your death is life indeed in Him! That is, to be sure, the great paradox and divine mystery of the Christian faith and life, beginning with your Holy Baptism. It is by dying with Christ Jesus and bearing His Cross in faith that you share also in His Resurrection and live with Him forever.

It is this divine paradox of the Cross and Resurrection — and therefore, also, the mystery of Holy Baptism — that we are given to perceive and celebrate in the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The wickedness of sin, death, and the power of the devil is not able to prevent or to thwart the great salvation of the Lord, because He has taken even the last and most fearsome enemy, death, and He has bent this terrible opponent to His own will, to serve His own good and gracious purposes for Life, for you and for all people. So it is that even the wicked death of innocent children must bow before Almighty God and serve to the praise and glory of His holy Name, for Christ Jesus’ sake.

In the death of the Holy Innocents, you are given a picture of your own death with Christ in Holy Baptism, wherein you are reborn as a child of God and enter His Kingdom with childlike faith. In each case, death is swallowed up in victory by the death of Christ Jesus Himself, the incarnate Son of God, upon the Cross. The blood of the infant martyrs of Bethlehem, like the blood of all the righteous martyrs from Abel to the end of the world, proclaims and gives witness to the precious Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses you from sin. Thus are the tears of mourning sanctified, like the waters of Holy Baptism, to become a gracious and life-giving flood of salvation.

Out of Egypt the God and Father of our dear Lord Jesus Christ calls you to be His own dear child. He calls you through the waters of Holy Baptism into the Resurrection and the Life everlasting. He opens your mouth to show forth His praise in both life and death, by placing on your tongue and on your lips the “new song” of the Cross. So are you called to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and so do you follow Him through suffering and death into the Promised Land of heaven.

There before the Throne of God and of the Lamb — gathered together with the Holy Innocents and with all the dear children of our Father in heaven (whose angels always behold His face) — there you feast upon the Lamb of God who is your Life and your Salvation, now and forevermore.

Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. In the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil. Even in the land of the enemy, the Lord is with you. Here in the desert, between the Exodus and the verge of Jordan, you are fed by the hand of God with the very Bread of Life, and your thirst is quenched with the spiritual Drink that flows from the side of Christ, your Savior.

“There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord, who speaks the Truth and does not lie. It is the sure and certain hope of His own Cross and Resurrection. This promise is for you and for your children, and for your children’s children. It is for all who believe and are baptized in His Name. So shall you rise to see the Lord in His own territory, and you shall abide in the land of the living.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[Gottesblog] Merry Christmas! by Larry Beane

Merry Christmas!

By Larry Beane

 

Merry Christmas, dear readers, brothers and sisters in Christ! At last, this festival day has once more come, and we reflect upon the mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord, and we connect His manger with His cross, and we celebrate Christ’s Mass as He continues to come to us in His Word and Sacrament: the Gottesdienst.

Of course, nothing gets everyone riled up quite like the coming of the Prince of Peace. Every year, we Christians - and especially we cranky Lutherans - wage the annual Advent war over “Blue vs. Purple,” or sometimes “Purple vs. Violet” and “Rose vs. Pink.” We have the annual donnybrooks over whether or not to put the tree up before December 24th, singing only Advent hymns until that date, and scolding people for attending Christmas parties during a penitential season. Then there is the conflict over whether XMas is appropriate: does it “cross out” Christ from Christmas, or does it signify the letter Chi: the first letter in the Greek word for “Christ”?

Of course, the big scuffle involves the world and its insistence on “Happy Holidays” as a politically correct and inclusive alternative to “Merry Christmas.” In addition, there is the annual bruhaha of whether or not Christmas is actually a Pagan festival of Sol Invictus and the Solstice, or whether it actually is the birthday of our Lord - only to be appropriated and aped afterwards by Pagans.

Regardless of where anyone stands on these issues, let us remember the true meaning of, well, adiaphora. There is neither command nor prohibition from Scripture to celebrate Christmas, or to say one greeting or another, or regarding seasonal colors and music. We are free in such matters, but of course, this is not to say that such matters are unimportant. I believe it is a sad thing when churches use their freedom to celebrate a Massless Christmas, whether opting for a Mass without the Mass, or calling the whole thing off for the sake of “family time” or to accommodate the schedule of the Feast of Our Lord and Savior Football. And as far as making changes to longstanding practice, perhaps Chesterton’s Fence and the Book of Concord’s repeated suspicion of novelty and change in the way we practice our faith make for a good rule of thumb.

A lesser fight involves the English word “merry” as opposed to “happy” in conjunction with our Christmas wishes. This one is particularly interesting. While some claim “Merry Christmas” dates back to the sixteenth century, I can’t find any real proof of this. It is certainly at very least Victorian, as any reader of Dickens will attest. The British royal family has, in recent years, taken to saying “Happy Christmas” instead of “Merry Christmas.” I’ve read a few people make the case that “Merry Christmas” has connotations of drinking and debauchery - which reminds me how the Babe of Bethlehem will thirty years hence be called “a glutton and a drunkard” by the very people He was born to save, and for whom He will die.

The etymologies of “happy” and “merry” are interesting.

“Happy” is a Germanic word related to the older English word “hap” which means “chance” or “fortune.” This makes sense when we consider the words “happen” and “happenstance.” Happiness is therefore a kind of good fortune or good luck. When we wish someone “Happy Birthday” or “Happy New Year,” there is the connotation of a desire for material prosperity and good fortune in the turning of this page of life.

“Merry” likewise traces its origin to the Germanic part of the English language family tree. It has more of the connotation of celebration, of “making merry,” of feasting and laughing with others. It is related to the word “mirth.” It actually seems to come from the older Germanic form of a word, “murg,” meaning “short” (as in time). Linguists speculate this is because when one is celebrating, time seems short.

Of course, these original nuances embedded in the words have largely become lost in the sands of passing time. We say “Merry Christmas” largely because it is simply traditional. But having considered the etymology of the word, it is fitting that we use the word “merry” - for it is the stuff of celebration. Christmas is a feast of the church. The pastor leading the feast is known as the “celebrant.” And feasts involve food and drink. And the Christ’s Mass involves feasting upon His body and blood.

And in spite of the world’s loathing of Christ and the Church, and in spite of our own sinful flesh that results in bitter infighting within the Church - on this day, we make merry and feast on account of Christ’s birth, for “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And yes, He will confound the self-righteous Pharisees and the scolding Pietists by insisting on eating and drinking with us poor, miserable sinners: the very people He was born to save, and for whom He will die.

And so it is fitting that we make merry and greet one another with a hearty “Merry Christmas!” For as the hymnist Johann Allendorf (1693-1773) taught us to sing:

“Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal,
Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End;
Godhead, humanity, union supernal,
O great Redeemer, You come as our friend!
Heaven and earth, now proclaim this great wonder:
Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal!”

— "JESUS HAS COME AND BRINGS PLEASURE" (LSB 533)

[Gottesblog] Christmas Memories with John the Baptist, by David Petersen

Christmas Memories with John the Baptist

by David Petersen

 

There is something diabolical in us that fears John the Baptist will ruin Christmas. He disrupts things. John is not here to help you have fun. Rather, he is trying to help you prepare for the last day.

In that office, he is prone to noticing inconvenient things, such as when people are living together outside of marriage. In fact, this is what Herod Antipas behead him for. He tries to warn Herod, but Herod doesn’t want to be warned. He wants to live with his brother’s wife as though she were his wife. It would have been fine if John had secretly disapproved but not to spoken against it out loud, if he had remained silent, saying to people that even though he personally disapproved of Herod’s lifestyle, it was really a matter of taste without consequence, and the main thing was to keep up appearances, to not make waves because he loved Herod no matter what. It would have been fine if John disliked what they were doing deep in his heart, secretly, because he preferred the old ways, but at the same time if he would do everything he could to pretend as though Herodias, the wife of Herod’s brother, was a legitimate wife to Herod. If he would have just avoided making them uncomfortable. Then he could have lived and probably even been rewarded.

But not John. John wouldn’t do that. He was more concerned with Herod Antipas’s eternal fate, with the damage and pain that his infidelity was causing, than he was with being liked by him or even living.

Now if your goal this Christmas is to create warm, life-long memories for your family, then don’t be like John. The secret to a Christmas without controversy or pain is to avoid all topics of any weight or seriousness and certainly don’t warn sinners of the danger of their sins. Don’t talk about anything that matters. Stick to clichés about how much you love your family and how special they are. Make sure that no one feels judged. Encourage people in their defilements and they will like you. And then you’ll never be accused of the most unforgivable of all sins: taking yourself too seriously. Agree with their blasphemy, their perverse and uninformed opinions, and they might even call you wise.

To create life-long, warm family memories, focus on the food and gifts and sentimentality. You can say it is Jesus’ birthday if you want, but keep Him in the manger, off the cross and off the altar. Hide Him under a Christmas tree. Make sure the real focus is presents and fun and family. Above all don’t let Jesus speak. Don’t contemplate His sorrows and self-giving on the cross. For warm family memories, keep Jesus and the Prophets silent and nothing like John.

The problem with those sorts of memories is they don’t bring any comfort in Hell. The good memories of having the good opinion of your loved ones and friends is nice while it lasts. It is not fun to be thought a bigot or arrogant by your family at Christmas time, and certainly to lose access to your grandchildren. But those things, at worst or best, only lasts as long as this life.

Can you imagine knowing the truth about our children and not warning them because we feared they would withdraw from us and then have them curse us from Hell because we cared more about a moment’s pleasure or a conflict-free Christmas than we did for their eternal fate? May God protect us from such cowardice!

Despite the discomfort it might bring, invite John the Baptist to your Christmas dinner. Let him speak the truth in love, say what hurts, what is inconvenient, but necessary. Let him say it with compassion and kindness. Not just because it is right but also because in the long run it is worth it.

But, of course, John is not coming back from the dead so you’re going to have to do this yourself. Maybe your kids will be outraged and go crazy if you warn them about the dangers of fornication or homosexuality or the necessity to be in Church on Sunday. But will they really be surprised by these ideas? Is this a change from what you used to think? Is it different from how you raised them? If so, then repent to them and tell you’re sorry and want to do better from here on out. I know there is risk but will they not love you even if they disagree with you? I certainly hope they will. I hope they are not so petty and manipulative, and you are not so desperate, that you must bribe them with your silence and pretend approval or that you must placate them with lies for the sake of a pretend peace even if it is harmful to them.

I think we can do better – by grace, in humility, for the sake of love. Every family is different. We all have baggage and dysfunction. The lines fall in different places. But it is possible to speak civility and to actually talk about things that matter because they matter. I am not here to cast stones. I know there is risk in speaking the truth to anyone who is caught up in his sin. But sometimes Dad needs to be told to turn off the football game and pay attention to his children, or Mom needs to be told that no one needs a third glass of wine, or your friend needs to be told that he is not being fair to his parents. If you love people, the risk is worth it. If we were talking about how to please customers because we want their money, how to win friends and influence people this would be a different conversation, but we are talking about how to live together in love according to God’s Word. We are talking about actually looking out for one another and we aren’t trying to manipulate each other. Who hasn’t been afraid of the outburst a drunk friend will make if you suggest that he not drive or that he will look judgmental? But at the same time, who wants to go to that friend’s funeral and face his widow having made no attempt at all to stop him? None of us. We don’t do this because we think we are better than others. We do it because we love others.

So also John the Baptist is unfairly characterized as all Law. But his fiery calls to repentance are matched by a Baptism of forgiveness. His stern words to the priests and Levites and Pharisees are balanced by his welcoming of Gentiles. He not only warns of the day of wrath, he also points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Speak the whole truth of the God’s Word to your loved ones, Law and Gospel, ethical admonition and rebuke along with encouragement and confidence in God’s love and goodness in Christ.

John is a voice crying in the desert: “Make straight the way of the Lord.” Making the way straight isn’t John’s job, it is theirs. He is crying out to them. He is telling them, the priests, in light of the coming day of wrath, that they are to comfort the repentant, to embrace the Messiah, to recognize Him in their midst because He has come to save them and He fulfills the Law and the prophets. He cries to the priests and to us: “You there, make straight the way of the Lord. I can’t do it for you. You need to repent and believe.” John is there not only to kill with his watery Baptism but also to make alive by the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Messiah comes to us and join and us to Himself. He comes to make atonement, to spare us the punishment of our sins, to be our God.

That sort of preaching and witness doesn’t ruin Christmas. It is Christmas. Christmas will not be ruined either by angry people or ignorant, self-righteous people or by broken families and a lifetime of regret. Christmas is not defined by our failures or our imperfect families. Christmas is not defined by us, nor is it defined by food and tradition and the making of memories. Christmas is defined by Christ who came to us and for us as the gift of the Father to be our righteousness and redemption.

The world is evil. Our flesh is weak. Our families are a mess. But Jesus has joined us. He is with us as one of us. He has died and He is risen. He takes away the sins of the world. He is Christmas.

So you who mourn beneath sorrow’s load, whose children and loved ones have not lived up their promises, whose parents have failed them, you who are fearful or lonely or ridden with guilt: The Messiah comes for you. He comes with healing in His wings. His Father is well-pleased that He brings you peace, comfort, and joy.

So make straight the way of your heart for Him. Lift it up to Him. Ponder nothing earthly. Rest in the grace of His Holy Sacrament. His manger was recycled as a cross, but now the tomb is empty. The cross becomes an altar. Christ speaks in His Word. You hear His voice. He hides Himself from the wise in bread and wine, in water, and in your neighbor. You know Him and see Him by faith. These hard times and disappointments won’t last. These embarrassments and worries won’t last. These jealousies and hurts won’t last. Jesus will. He lasts. He endures. He does not fade. His communion with you will last. It is everlasting. Your warfare is ended. Your iniquity is pardoned. Merry Christmas.

TGC 094 - Preaching on Christmas Like Walther

In my experience, preaching for the high feasts (Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter) are the most difficult. There is always that pull to bring out the best, to preach so that people will come back the next Sunday, to wow the crowd with your deep theological insights, high-sounding poetic words and rhetorical flourishes. In short, there's a pull to be cute and edgy. But when you read our forefathers' sermons for these days, they don't fall into this pit. They take seemingly simple biblical truths and open them up for the hearer to bask in their simple but profound glory. Dave Petersen (pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, IN, and Departmental Editor of Gottesdienst: the Journal of Lutheran Liturgy with his column "Commentary on the War") shows us how C.F.W. Walther preached one Christmas day. We look at this sermon (in this book of a collection of his sermons) and see the beauty in simplicity and the glory of God's truth in the well-known Gospel message. 

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[Gottesblog] Fear Gives Way to Peace at the Voice of the Lord, by Rick Stuckwisch

Fear Gives Way to Peace at the Voice of the Lord

by Rick Stuckwisch

 

The Lord your God has given you a Savior, Christ Jesus, who has redeemed you from sin and death, delivered you from all your enemies, and set you free to live without fear.

That is what the nativity, the circumcision, and the name of St. John the Baptist mean, because everything about this boy points to the Christ, to the Redeemer of Israel, the Holy One who comes after St. John. The greatness of the Forerunner derives entirely from the Greater One who follows, to whom he points and whose way he prepares, the Horn of Salvation whom God has raised up for us from the house of His servant David.

It may seem unnecessarily complicated that the Lord should bother with St. John the Baptist, instead of simply sending Jesus in the flesh, the Son of Mary, and starting the story there. What is the point in sending St. John, when his role and service are so relatively brief, and then he must decrease and make way for the Christ, the Coming One? The Lord could certainly have given Zacharias and Elizabeth a son, in any case — and several decades sooner, as far as that goes, instead of leaving them childless for so many years — and then let well enough alone in the giving of His own beloved Son.

After all, it’s not as though Jesus needed any help in accomplishing redemption for His people. And what is there for St. John to do, anyway, who is not worthy to untie the sandals of the Lord’s feet? St. John is not the Redeemer. He is not the Christ.

What then? He is but a Voice who cries out in being born from his mother’s womb and in being circumcised on the eighty day, and who will cry out the Word of the Lord in the wilderness. He is a prophet, and more than a prophet, who preaches what the Lord has given him to preach, and with his preaching he points to the Lord Jesus Christ and prepares His way.

It is by such a voice of preaching, by His Word spoken and proclaimed, that the Lord visits His people and gives them life and grants them peace. He does so in this way and by this means, not arbitrarily, nor simply as an accommodation of human weakness, but by His good and gracious will, by His own choice and design, according to His own divine nature. As the Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity, and as the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so does the Father create and give life and accomplish all things by His speaking of His Son, by whom He breathes and bestows His Spirit upon His good creation and upon His people.

It is, therefore, not so much that God works through preaching because we “happen to be” verbal creatures, but He has created us to be verbal creatures after His own Image, because He is a Verbal God — and there is no other God than the Word by whom and for whom all things are made.

Thus, for the purpose of giving His Son, the divine eternal Word who would become Flesh when the time had fully come, God spoke to His people of old by the Prophets — and precisely as He spoke, so has He fulfilled. There is consistency and perfect continuity in the Lord’s speaking, even as that Word of God becomes true Man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And now, in anticipation of and preparation for that gift of her Son, there is the conception and birth of the last and greatest prophet, St. John, who goes before His face as a messenger.

The message and the messenger are all-but-inseparable, especially in this case of St. John the Baptist. Again, everything about him points to the coming of Christ Jesus, though He who is the Lord in the flesh will be that much greater in every way. St. John’s miraculous conception of old and barren Elizabeth anticipates the greater miracle of the Lord’s own conception and birth from the young Virgin Mary. St. John’s divinely-given name, which means grace, anticipates but yields before the gracious name of Jesus, which testifies that He is Yahweh, our Savior. The rejoicing of St. Elizabeth’s family, friends, and neighbors anticipates the rejoicing of heaven and earth at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus. And the canticle of Zacharias at the circumcision and naming of his son, John, already begins to find its fulfillment in the presentation of our Lord Jesus at the Temple, in the canticle of Simeon, who departs in peace in accordance with the Word of the Lord to him.

With all that, fear is giving way to Peace as the Glory of God is “seen” in His Word of the Gospel, and as divine comfort is granted in the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins.

This is how the Lord God works, and He does so in love. So much so that the almighty and eternal Son of God is revealed to be the Voice, the Speaking, the Word of God the Father. So, too, it is by the preaching of that Word that God the Holy Spirit is given, and by which the Spirit lays Christ Jesus upon your heart and mind, upon your body and soul, for divine Life and Salvation.

Which is also why those who are filled with the Holy Spirit do one thing in particular: They speak as the oracles of God. They pray and sing His Word. They confess. They prophecy, proclaim, and preach, each according to his own vocation. As they believe with the heart, so do they speak.

Apart from the Holy Spirit man is unable to speak. Not that fallen man will actually keep silent — for he fills the world with his endless chatter, noise, and confusion — but he cannot speak truth, or beauty, or wisdom, or anything of any lasting value and importance. He cannot speak life and love, because he cannot speak Christ Jesus until the Holy Spirit enters in by the divine Word.

So does the Holy Spirit enter in and make ready the way of the Christ by the preaching of St. John the Baptist. And the same preaching continues to this day, in order to open the way of the Lord Jesus Christ unto you. That is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

That is the preaching that levels mountains and fills up valleys. It shatters both pride and despair. It straightens what is crooked and bent, and it makes flat and smooth what is rough and uneven. It is the preaching that wounds in order to heal, the preaching that kills in order to make alive.

Whatever it is in you that would oppose or prevent the coming of the Christ, the preaching of the Forerunner removes. Where you are arrogant and exalt yourself, he humbles you. Where you are doubtful and afraid, he silences your unbelief and quiets your fears, that he might speak the tender mercies of God to your troubled heart. For the Lord is at hand to visit and redeem His people, and this Word of salvation comes to all who fear God — not in terror, but in the reverence of faith.

In the preaching of St. John the Baptist there is the culmination and crescendo of all the Law and the Prophets before him. He comes in the spirit and power of Elijah, to be sure, but his preaching is also that of Moses and Samuel, of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Here the rolling thunder of the Law with all of its demands, with all its promises and threats, with all its holy perfection and fiery judgment, becomes a deafening roar that warns of a terrible storm. All hell is about to break loose in the righteous wrath of God against idolatry, unbelief, and the lawlessness of sin; and even now the axe is poised at the root of every fruitless tree, to cut it down and throw it into the fire.

As this preaching is the Word of God, it certainly does what it proclaims. It is a fire and a hammer which crushes and destroys the sinner. But where is the comfort of the Gospel in this? Where is the peace of forgiveness and salvation? And how does such dire preaching point to Christ Jesus and prepare the way for His coming? It is actually the key to understanding the point and purpose for which St. John the Baptist was born, and for which he was sent — in ways that even St. John did not fully comprehend or understand at first.

He was sent to preach, not only repentance, but a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And in that baptism was all that he preached, all the Law and the Prophets, all the promises and threats, the blessing and the curse — the wound and the healing, the falling and the rising, the death of sin and the Life everlasting in the way of the Christ.

Thus, the Lord Jesus comes on the heals of the Forerunner, and He submits Himself to St. John’s baptism of repentance. Though St. John tries at first to prevent Him — knowing that Jesus is the Greater One, and that He should be the Baptizer — it is necessary for St. John to baptize Jesus in order to fulfill all righteousness. For in this way the Lord Jesus submits Himself to the Law, and He takes His stand with sinners in order to become their Savior and Redeemer — and yours.

St. John was not the M.C., called upon to introduce the Guest of Honor. Nor was this some kind of “bad cop, good cop” routine, in which St. John comes preaching fire and brimstone, and then Jesus comes in all soft and sweet. But something else altogether is at work and going on here.

The Lord Jesus comes, not to wave away the fire and brimstone, but to take it upon Himself. He is the Lamb of God, as St. John will proclaim, because He takes upon Himself the sins of the world in His Baptism by John, in order to remove iniquity by His own sacrifice and bloodshed. He cleanses the world of unrighteousness through the waters of Holy Baptism, by soaking up all the dirty bath water into His own flesh and then handing Himself over to His death upon the Cross.

Indeed, it is already the death of His Cross to which He submits Himself in St. John’s baptism of repentance. Thus He dies, in order to raise you up. He comes down from the lofty mountain in order to bring you up out of the deep dark valley of death and despair. He enters upon the way of the Cross for you and for all people, that your way might be cleared and opened up, so that you might enter through His death into His Resurrection and Ascension and His Life everlasting.

This is the mercy of the Lord that He reveals in the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, not only to Elizabeth and Zacharias, but also to you. The birth of this child, his naming and circumcision, proclaim that Christ Jesus is now at hand, that the Lord your God has come in the flesh to save you from your sins, and that He will indeed deliver you from every evil of body and soul.

The birth of St. John the Forerunner is the promise and the evidence that God the Father shall continue preaching to you, and that He shall do all that He has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets, and that He shall henceforth speak to you by His own beloved Son in the flesh.

He remembers His holy Covenant in that flesh of Jesus Christ and in His holy precious blood, given and poured out for you. He remembers you in love; and remembering, He acts to save you, to give you life. He makes Himself known to you, gives Himself to you, and shines His Light upon you through the preaching of His Word — the preaching of His Christ — which is the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins. Truly, this Word does and gives exactly what He says.

This Word gives you peace because it fills you with the Holy Spirit, so that you now also speak as the oracles of God. You live before God in the righteousness and purity, the innocence and blessedness of Christ Jesus, and thus you are free to worship the Lord without fear. For here there is no condemnation or punishment, but only the tender mercy and compassion of your own dear God and Father in Christ Jesus. The One who promises is faithful, and He loves you. As He speaks, so He does, and so shall you live, both now and forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.