Installation of Rev. Aaron Kangas at Trinity Lutheran Church, Iuka, Illinois December 4, 2016

            The winding road that God brings us along can be strange and unexpected.  Last week I found the Christmas card that Aaron and Heidi sent to us last year.  “It was so great to see all of you this summer!  God’s richest blessings to you all in this coming year!”  Little did any of us know that we would see each other again down at their place in Tennessee last June, and now again, here, on this day of great joy for him, and for you – the dear saints of Trinity.

            I do not remember when I met Aaron, maybe he does.  But I know we became friends very quickly as we started at seminary together 19 years ago, with just a few stairs between our rooms.  Great enough friends that within four months, I was getting up early to travel from Ft. Wayne to Wisconsin for his wedding to Heidi.  I vividly remember Josiah’s baptism at the seminary’s chapel during our second year.  And the night in our fourth year when Aaron and Heidi showed great hospitality to my wife and me, inviting us over to their place for supper.  So it was quite an honor when your new pastor asked me to preach this afternoon.

            But then after I got off the phone, reality hit me like a ton of bricks as I realized that writing

this sermon would be hard work!  So many things I could say – too many even!  (And neither you nor I want to be here for a sermon THAT long!)  Recently one of my confirmation kids told that her problem with church is that she has to sit and be so quiet.  She loves to talk, and figured that I loved church services because I get to talk all the time!  Little did she know that when my pastor first asked me to consider being a pastor, I wanted to say, “ARE YOU NUTS?” – except that you don’t ask your pastor if he is nuts!  The idea of it scared me silly since I was terrified of having to say things in front of a crowd of people.

 If it were as simple as just saying whatever I want to say off the top of my head, I would feel a lot less pressure.  However, God did not make me to be a pastor so I could do that.  He gave me the task of just saying whatever He wants, of teaching His ways, of rebuking sin and forgiving it in the name of Jesus Christ.  That same Lord of the Church has created faith in the hearts of people at St. Peter’s and St. John’s in Evansville and Ruma (ironically, the congregation where Pastor Schrader comes from.)  In their faith, these people called me out of the seminary because they want to be taught God’s Word – even as you, dear brothers and sisters, by this church service vow to God that you want my friend to teach the same Word to you and for you.

            I feel the pressure of preaching to you today, preparing you as congregation and pastor to walk together in this new relationship with Christ.  Yet I recognize that just like we had no idea the blessings that God had in store for us behind last year’s Christmas card, likewise we have no ideas the blessings and crosses the Lord has in store for the future of your congregation.

            I was ordained in June of 2001 and within a few months our nation suffered the unimaginable

horror of September 11^th.  Among other thoughts that went through my head that morning was that the seminary never prepared me for a day like that.  Except that they did!  Our professors taught us to preach Christ and Him crucified, in good times and bad - even in the dark valleys of the shadow of death.     

            Did the Disciples feel like Jesus never prepared them for a day like the weekend of Good Friday?  Except that Christ did prepare them, telling them multiple times that He would lay down His life as He was lifted up on the Cross for our salvation, and then rise again on the third day.  As we heard in this afternoon’s Gospel text, He changed their hearts and their futures in an instant by declaring “Peace to you.”  Even though they were still sinners, still weak and afraid, still would make mistakes in the future, God loved them.  Their fears and doubts were not so great as God’s grace, their sin not so deep as His love.  There was no condemnation left against them in Christ Jesus who stood before them alive after death.  Could anything have prepared them for that moment?

            As I finally sat down to write this sermon, I realized that it was not all that different from what we pastors do when we perform weddings, where the Lord joins husband and wife together.  We do our best to prepare the man and the woman for the unknown and unexpected blessings and crosses the Lord will give to the new family, even as I am trying to do this afternoon.

When I meet with a couple where the man or woman has been married previously, I tell them that this new marriage will be different from the previous one.  It seems obvious, but it is important to intentionally keep in mind that the new spouse is not the same person as the former spouse.  They speak differently, think differently, act differently – even if there are some things in common.  Aaron, when you have those conversations you have had 100s of times with members of previous churches, remember that the person you are talking with has not had that conversation yet, and be patient with them.  Members of Trinity likewise, when you discuss things with Pastor Kangas, you may have had those chats with previous pastors, but not with him. 

            I also go over some difficult questions with the pre-marital couple about their prior relationships.  As they look back on their previous marriage, I ask them about the good stuff and the bad stuff, where things went right and wrong.  Specifically I ask where they recognize they were not the husband or wife that God intended them to be – where they were to be a blessing, but behaved with a selfish love for themselves.  Rev. Kangas and members of Trinity, you both have years of experience to look back upon, to see where that relationship between Pastor and Congregation was great, where it went wrong, and where you want to do better.  Be open and honest with one another about this.  Ask one another to pray to God to strengthen the weaknesses so that your relationship will bring Him glory.

            Christ will be the center of your relationship.  I intentionally am avoiding telling you to put

Christ in the center – because you do not put Christ anywhere.  He puts Himself where He belongs.  As we are approaching Christmas, remember what happened when Christ was put inside of Mary – it nearly broke up her relationship to Joseph!  Joseph was no dummy.  He knew the birds and the bees.  So he assumed Mary had not been faithful and decided to divorce her quietly.  Praise God that He sent an angel to tell Joseph that Mary had in fact been most faithful; and it was better than that, for the Holy Spirit had conceived inside of her Joseph’s Savior and our own.

            Like Joseph, my dear friend Aaron, you may jump to some conclusions that are wrong; and dear members of Trinity, you might make bad assumptions too, whether about your pastor, or about each other.  What are you going to do then?  Well, if you want to be Christian about it, then I can tell you what you are going to do – you will ask for forgiveness and you will give forgiveness, just as God in Christ forgives you.    

            Rev. Kangas told me that it will take some getting used to your altar being against the wall because at his previous congregation it was away from the wall, so during the prayers and during the Lord’s Supper liturgy he stood behind the altar, facing the congregation.  My dear friend Aaron, it took me some years to get used to looking away from the congregation also since I serve at an altar against the wall.  However, on Sundays, when you pray and celebrate the Supper, do not think of it as turning your back on the people.  Instead, recognize that you are facing the same direction as your people are facing, turned toward the same Savior Jesus as they are turned toward.  As pastor and people stand together and join in prayer, Jesus is with you; Jesus is hearing you, Jesus is forgiving you – congregation and pastor both. 

            Here at this altar, as you regularly receive forgiveness and peace from Jesus, especially in His Body and Blood – here is where you will find healing and reconciliation.  Rev. Kangas, when you are tired and impatient and frustrated, when you feel the weight of the world on you, or when you are proud and think you have accomplished something, come to this altar and be humbled and comforted as the Lord provides what you need.

            People of Trinity, when you are tired and impatient and frustrated, when you feel the weight of the world on you, or when you are proud and think you have accomplished something, come to this altar and be humbled and comforted as the Lord provides what you need.

            Here at this altar, during the Communion liturgy, your pastor will face you and speak the words which Jesus first spoke to His disciples that Easter evening which has made Christians glad for nearly 2000 years now – “Peace to you.”  Jesus is still speaking those words to you through your Pastor’s voice.  In those words are your forgiveness, your life, and your salvation.  In those words are how you live together as pastor and people.  “Peace to you.”  And did you notice that Jesus says “Peace to you” to the Disciples in the upper room twice?  He gives peace to spare so that you have peace to share!

            As Pastor and people, listen to His Word speak to you together.  Pray to Him at His table here and pray at your table in your homes.  Worship Christ in good times and bad, during church meals and at the hospital bed and at gravesides.  And whatever you are doing, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and minds. 

            People of Trinity and Pastor Kangas, I speak for my brother pastors here this afternoon saying that we are thrilled to celebrate with you this wonderful day of a new relationship.  We pray for you and bless you.  God grant that your life together be a preview of the relationship of peace that all God’s children will have in His Kingdom which has no end.  Amen.

September 7 - Old Testament 2 King 5

Naaman, the commander of Syria's army, 
grudgingly stripped himself of his uniform, the symbol of his greater glory than everyone else, 
and washed like all the common people 
in a river that was not even close to as nice as the rivers back home 
so that he could be saved from death.

The Son of God, the Lord of Heaven's army, 
freely and willingly stripped Himself of His divine glory, 
and washed with all the common people 
in that same river that was not even close to as nice as the rivers of Heaven 
so that we could be saved from death.

August 18 - OT

O Lord God, who am I that you have brought me thus far?  For I have been unfaithful and lazy.  What more can I say to You, for You know your servant, O Lord God.  Yet because of Your promise to David, and according to Your own heart, You have brought about our salvation by the forgiveness of sin that comes to us by the Son of David, Jesus Christ, and You have made Your servant to know this.  Therefore You are great, O Lord God, for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.


Grant that we might follow in the footsteps of grateful David and bless Your Holy Name.  Give to us courage to pray with confidence, asking for what You have promised to give and trusting You will grant us daily bread, pour out upon us Your Holy Spirit, and at the last deliver us from all evil.


Now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant, and do as You have spoken.  And with Your blessing of the Son of David, your servant shall be blessed forever.

Good Friday 2016 and the Annunciation

How do you consider this day? How do you find the words to describe today? It is March 25. In nine months it will be Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Nine months. The amount of time God ordinarily takes to form a child in the womb.

How many parents were uncertain about their child’s future and questioned, “Do I really want to bring a child into this cruel world, filled with such heartache and suffering?” How many husbands and wives see a world on the brink of collapse and decide not to have kids? Whatever anxiety, uncertainty, and doubt that your parents had before your birth, God overcame them.

It is March 25. Nine months before Christmas. And it is Good Friday. God was not uncertain about what would happen to His Son. The Lord knew exactly the torment His beloved Child would face when He came into the world. He knew the mockery and the rejection. Yet He still sent the Angel Gabriel to announce to the Virgin Mary that the Holy Spirit would conceive in her the child who “will be called holy – the Son of God.”

We do not think much of talking about the nine months before the birth of Jesus in the same breath as we talk about His death. Not often, but it does happen when the Church confesses the Apostles' Creed, which moves us straight from the Lord’s conception, to His birth and then to His suffering and death. He “was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.”

Some people wish the Creed would talk a little about Christ’s life of merciful works and His word of truth. Yet in moving directly from Jesus’ birth to His Crucifixion, the Creed makes an important point – The Son of God became man to die for us.

The eyes of the man without faith see a tragic ending. They see a man born to a poor mother and father hung on a tree of death for no good reason. They see a sorrow-filled conclusion to an otherwise well-lived life. The Suffering Servant Jesus Christ makes no sense for those who think that the goal of life is to pursue happiness and avoid pain.

O believer, that is not the way it is with you. For you know this is at the very heart of how Jesus reconciles the world to God. He comes to save us from our sins – our actual sins of thought, word, and deed that reject God and mock His Holiness; and also our original sin that we inherited from Adam through our parents, for we were all sinful at birth, sinful from the time our mother’s conceived. We are natural born sinners, with hearts that are naturally inclined to doubt God. Yet here is the good news that makes this Friday Good – Jesus Christ saves us from our uncertainty, our doubts, and anxieties that imagine God has forsaken us and removed His protection from us.

The Son of God pays for your life with a pain that is real and raw, a death that is dark and cold. Yes, His soul is troubled, but He refuses to ask His Father to save Him from this hour. It is for this purpose that He has come to this dark hour – so that the Father would save you from eternal darkness. Jesus endures it all for your sake.

His sacrificial death melts our cold hearts as we see that it was no small matter for God in the flesh to come into our world, knowing what agony His suffering and death held for Him. And it is no small matter that that same God in the flesh who went the way of the Cross still comes to you today.

However, saying “Christ died for you” does not magically make all your problems disappear in a puff of smoke. This is not Hocus Pocus – but rather this is the body of Christ given into death for you.  There will be tears of pain for you to shed as you take up your cross and follow Jesus – because we are not yet at the Resurrection. Jesus does not show us how get around suffering in this life or how to avoid it. Rather, He leads us through suffering, cross and death to Resurrection. Jesus says to His followers, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16). Soon every tear from faithful eyes will be dried. Soon you will behold that He who died on Good Friday is now alive forevermore.

But until then, as you see a world torn up by war, our country torn by politics and immorality, and even your own body and the health of loved ones being torn up by sickness and death – nonetheless hold fast to your confession of faith in Christ. With confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4). Walk by faith, not by sight. When unbelievers and your old sinful nature tell you to cry out, “Where in the world is God?”, you can honestly reply that God is hidden. Yes, darkness does veil His lovely face. But even though God is hidden in lowly flesh, His Word lights the way for you to find Him. The Lord is in the womb of the Virgin Mary for nine months, in the manger at Bethlehem, in the darkness of the Cross of Calvary on Good Friday, in the water and the blood that streamed from His pierced side. God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us (2 Corinthians 5).

Today “your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” He will overcome all your worries and uncertainties. For Almighty God, our heavenly Father, has had mercy upon us and has given His only Son to die for us and for His sake, forgives us all our sins. Amen.

Keeping and Treasuring The Word: St. Joseph

I'm busy getting ready for Palm Sunday and Holy Week, plus attending a wedding today, so here are some things you can read in the meantime if you aren't quite as busy:

Keeping and Treasuring The Word: St. Joseph
Rev. Stuckwisch on Joseph - the strong, silent type

Wednesday in Lent 2 OT - What others said

My dear friend, Reverend Steve Schave, posted this on Facebook on Wednesday about the Genesis reading:

Knowing what it is to suffer the death of a son... Then to be blessed for the next several years with the births of my three beautiful daughters... Then at the end of childbearing to have our only son, who now lives and is a young man. I know of no more powerful Gospel than that of the Old Testament reading from today's Treasury of Daily Prayer:

Genesis 22:7-8  And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

 Mt Calvary, is the fulfillment of this place where "the Lord provides," because it is here that the Father did not withhold His son, His only son, from me... to save me. I cannot even begin to comprehend this sacrifice of the perfect Lamb, that was made for me, a sinner.

Thursday in Lent 2 - OT and Gospel

Sometimes it feels like God is giving us the silent treatment.  Other times He practically interrupts us in the middle of our prayers by answering them.  "Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24).  These are the experiences of Abraham's servant and of the Canaanite women.  And they are our experiences as well.  But no matter how long He takes, we have this promise - "the LORD hears when I call to Him" (Psalm 4:3, which happened to be brought into my day by the 5th and 6th Grade class' religion workbook.)

For more on today's readings, here is what I wrote about it back on 2010:

In his podcast on depression, Rev. Todd Pepperkorn has an excellent devotion on Mark 7:24-30 (actually Matthew 15's parallel passage) titled, "When God doesn't seem to care"

I'd like to connect this same text to what he posted today ("Abandonment and the Pastor"). Our church's 3 year lectionary last Sunday (Luke 13:34) brought us Jesus weeping over Jerusalem's unbelief. Like the woman in Mark 7:24f, the church weeps as she sees the devil have his way with her children. We pray and pray, and it can feel like we are getting the silent treatment from the Lord. Yet Mark 7:24-30 assures us that the Lord does hear. And so we confidently pray such words as the Prayer on Thursday in theTreasury of Daily Prayer (p. 1308), knowing that the gates of Hell will not overcome the Lord's Church, for the same God who answered Abraham's servant (Genesis 24:12-14) will answer our prayer as well.

Homily - Lent 2c, Luke 13:31-35

            The Pharisees make it sound like they want to help Jesus out.  “Get away from here while you still can.  Herod wants to kill you.”  Of course, the Pharisees had been scheming for a year to do the same thing to Jesus.  They just could not agree on when and how to get it done. 

            Did Herod Antipas really want to kill Jesus?  We do not know for sure, but it would be consistent with the usual ways that family handled things - from his dad who slaughtered the baby boys of Bethlehem when Jesus was born, to Herod Antipas and his adulterous wife Herodias and that nasty beheading of John the Baptist, to his nephew Herod Agrippa who had the Apostle James executed and Peter imprisoned about a decade after Jesus ascended.  But the Pharisees could have just been lying to scare Jesus into leaving town and getting out of their hair.

            However, Jesus did not come to save His own skin.  He came to save yours – and He is determined to do it.  He will not be scared away.  He says, “Go and tell that old fox that I still have work to do… and on the third day I will finish My course.”  On the third day – so much important stuff in the Bible happens on the third day.  Jesus knew what was in store for Him at Jerusalem the next time Passover comes up.  He had already predicted it, that He would suffer, die, and on the third day rise to life again.  Death threats from two-bit kings did not worry Jesus.

            He is the Lord, so He lays down His life on His own terms.  When the crowd in Nazareth wanted to throw Him off the cliff, Jesus slipped through their hands without a scratch.  He goes to Jerusalem, the Lord’s holy city, and He knows His own people will put Him to death there.  They would not have any power over Him if it had not been given to them.  And you know that is the whole reason the Son of God was born to us on earth – so that He could die on earth for us to defeat our death.  He will be slain at the hands of sinners for the forgiveness of sin.  He will be laid in the grave to burst its stone cold grip.  When the going gets tough, or when we know that people will be ungrateful for our help we give to them, we often times have wanted to give up, pack up and go home.  But Jesus is determined to finish what He came to do.  No matter how dangerous it will get.

            Jesus explains that He is our refuge, our protective hiding place.  And not only the Protector for some good people – He is here to be the Protector for all people, even Herod, the Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, and all who had a hand in putting Jesus to death.  You can hear the sorrow and grief in God’s voice as He cries, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

            The picture of Christ as the Good Shepherd is better known, but God’s love is every bit as tender in this picture of a mother hen with her helpless and vulnerable chicks under her wings – while birds of prey soar overhead, hungry beasts prowl around in search of an easy meal, and all sorts of other dangers lurk around every corner.  The only line of defense between the threats and the chicks is mother hen’s wings.  She is willing to give herself for the life of her chicks. 

            Likewise Jesus covers you to protect you from Satan.  In Psalms 17, 36, and 57, the Holy Spirit gives us these words to pray – “Hide me in the shadow of Your wings, O Lord.”  And just like the hen shields her offspring by offering her own back as a target for the predator, so also Jesus “gave His back to those who strike” (Isaiah 50:6) so that you and I would be protected from Death and the Devil devouring our faith.  That is why the prophets like Jeremiah warned the people.  That is why the Apostles took this message of Jesus far and wide – even under death threats from their enemies.  And it is why Jesus Himself spreads His arms wide on the Cross – so that we find refuge and protection under His wings. 

            But then we hear Christ’s heartbreaking words – “And you were not willing.”  And you have that heartbreak too as you think about the people you love who want absolutely nothing to do with Christ and walk away from Him or speak angrily against Him.  Jesus wants only to shelter and love us, to forgive and save us from Hell.  But many want nothing to do with that.  They leave the protection of Christ to indulge in the pleasures of sin without regard to the dangers to themselves, or consequences for those around them.  They expose themselves to the ravenous appetite of Satan and face death all on their own. 

            You can also see this play out in the history of Jerusalem.  The city that rejected Jesus will watch helplessly years later as their city was forsaken.  In 70 AD, the Romans tear Jerusalem’s Temple down.  The mound where that Temple sat is now the location of a mosque.  The land around the city is used for deadly target practice by the enemies of the Jewish people.  And again we hear the sorrow of Jesus, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” 

            That sorrow for those who reject Him in a major way is also warning for us.  Do not presume on the mercies of God.  Do not sin on purpose today and then say to yourself that you will just repent next Sunday.  You do not even have a hold on tomorrow.  Now is all you have.  Now is the time.  Now is the day of your salvation.  Now is the moment of repentance.  Those tears that Jesus shed over Jerusalem He also sheds over the people of His church too, whenever you or I neglect His preaching, whenever we reject God’s eternal Word in favor of our own temporary opinions. 

            The Spirit of Christ seeks to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify, and keep us in true faith.  If you or I are left out of the party, we have no one to blame except ourselves.  Do not blame God.  “And you were not willing.” 

            Left on our own, we are not willing.  Our wills must be broken or we will never want to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus on the way of death to Resurrection.  Lent calls us to return to the Lord our God so that we can discover again that He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger against our sin and abounding in forgiveness and love.  Return to the Lord and see the Son of God rise upon you with healing in His wings and salvation from your sin.  Return to the Lord so that God’s will may be done in our lives as we believe His Word by His grace, and live godly lives according to it. 

            God wills to gather you into safety.  God wills to deliver and protect you from all evil.  God wills to keep us firm in this true faith until we die.  God wills to keep your end from being destruction, and so He warns you against finding glory in shameful sin.  And God wills for you and me to wait for the second coming of our “Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:21) – even to subject to Himself His own rejection and death at the hands of men, which the Lord has turned into the power of your Resurrection.  Amen.

              

Homily - Lent 1C, Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13

(many of the thoughts came from this sermon by Rev Timothy Pauls)

            Sometimes at Church you hear a Scripture passage and wonder what it has to do with your life.  Not today, as we hear of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness each year on the First Sunday in Lent.  You and I face temptations.  Constantly.  And so listening to Jesus oppose our temptations for us and our salvation is a good thing.

            Many of your temptations revolve around the things that you have, or do not have.  Today’s Old Testament is both a warning and a blessing in reminding us that everything that you and I have is a gift from God.  Six times in 11 verses God is said to be giving land and crops to Israel.  Moses is teaching about worshipping the Lord in thanksgiving.  There is nothing they would possess without His blessing.  When the Israelites brought their firstfruits to the Lord, they were to praise Him saying, “A wandering Aramean was my father.”  Without the Lord’s blessing, their ancestor Jacob would have remained just a drifting traveler who never amounted to anything and would probably have died in a famine.  But God provided.  The words they were given to say at worship acknowledge that everything that they have was undeserved gift.  Likewise, we often begin our services by saying, “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You, and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment.”  With those words, we are saying that everything good that we have is an undeserved gift from God.

            Moses commanded an offering of firstfruits.  Before the people enjoyed the full harvest, they were to take a portion of the best of their crops and offer it back to God.  Note that this is not a bribe to buy God’s favor and grease His palm, so to speak.  The reason they had firstfruits to offer was because God had already given them His favor.

            And so it goes with our own church offerings.  The nuts-and-bolts reason for the offering is that while God’s grace in Christ is free, it does take money to run the furnace and pay the electric bill.  We financially support the spread of the Gospel.  Not just here among us, but around the world.   We do it so that people will be told that God raised Jesus from the dead and they learn to call on the name of the Lord with us and be saved (Romans 10, Epistle) – even as past generations of Christians gave offerings that made it possible for you to hear the Gospel and be saved.  The Gospel reason is that Christ has set us free from sinful doubts so that we trust that God has given us more money than we need to for ourselves – and that the Lord will provide tomorrow as well.  Our discipline of giving further impresses upon us the truth that everything we have is a gift of God.  Giving it away reminds us that money is not an idol to cling to.

            But you know how the Devil uses all of those “daily bread” sort of gifts – from food to clothes to cars and medical care - to provoke covetousness, jealousy, discontentment and doubt.  He exploits them as false evidence that God is no use to you.  When you lack the things you would like, the Devil will suggest, “Are you really sure that you are a child of God?  It seems like you should have more good stuff if you were.  Maybe God does not care about you.”  And when you happen to suffer misfortune, then the Devil tempts you to drop God and set off on your own.  On the other hand, when times are good for you, the Devil tries to seduce you all the way to Hell, saying, “Look at all the things you have gotten for yourself.  You did this without any help!”  Left unrepented, these sinful thoughts would lead to flat out unbelief that imagines you do not need God.  Why deal with annoying commandments and God’s talk about sin and grace if you get by on your own? 

           Whether the Devil attempts to get you to doubt God, hate God, or see no need for God, underneath all those tactics is that one ultimate goal – to destroy your faith in Christ.  And material things are some of the most useful for his temptations – because you can see the things you have.  You cannot see your Savior Jesus, and the thing in your hands seems so much more real than a Savior you trust by faith.

            However, to all these temptations, you can respond with Jesus today, “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD!” (Matthew 4:4).  By the word that comes from the mouth of the Lord, you know that Jesus has taken His place with sinners, for you.  Immediately after He was baptized at the Jordan River, Christ was tempted in the wilderness – not only with the physical comfort of food when His tummy was growling, but He was also tempted to pride and power, idolatry and the testing of God as St. Luke tells us.  Tempted continuously for 40 days by the Devil.  As the Son of God, He should have everything.  However, as the

Lord come to save sinners, He has laid aside His glory, humbling Himself.  And with nothing in His hands, He faces Satan’s tempting accusations, “If you are the Son of God… but are you sure?”  All that Jesus sees would gives false testimony against His sonship.  However, Jesus goes with what He has heard when the Father said, “You are My beloved Son.”  He has heard His Father say, “In You I am well pleased,” and so Jesus knows all His work to save us has His Father’s blessing, even while He is weak and alone facing the Devil’s deceitful attacks.

            You have heard the words that come from the mouth of the Lord, and so by that word, you know that Jesus resisted perfectly.  By the word of the Lord, you are told that Jesus gave you the credit for it – as if you have been perfectly obedient to His Father.  That word declares to you that God’s Son died in your place – not by falling from the top of the Temple, but by being lifted up on the tree of death outside of Jerusalem.  That word tells you to be certain that there is no condemnation against you for any of your sins

because you are in Christ Jesus.  No matter who else might tell you or not tell you that they love you this Valentine’s Day, God’s word tells you today and every day that He loves you in Christ Jesus, and that neither death nor life nor anything in all of Creation can separate you from that love.

            The Lord speaks His Word personally to you, so that you can be sure that He cares for you as one of His children – because He said to you the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!”  As the Father called Jesus His beloved Son at His baptism, so the Father has also declared you to be His beloved child at yours.  And God speaks His word to tell you that His favor for you has not changed – each time He declares, “I forgive you for all your sins!”  As long as you are in this wilderness, you know that you are not forsaken.  The Lord is with you, near you, as near as His Word – so near as to give you His own body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  God’s word promises these works of salvation for us – a grace that is far greater than the great deeds, signs and wonders that He performed to free His people from Egypt; for by His Word, God has freed you from sin, death, and Hell.  Eternally.

            Everything you have is a gift from God.  An undeserved gift.  As long as the Devil tempts you and me, that will be tough to believe all the time.  Yet no matter whether God gives you to be a steward of many things or few in this life, you have the Word of the Lord which promises that you are a child of God.  That is why you live by every Word that comes from the mouth of the God Who has forgiven you for all of your sins.  Amen.

            

Saturday after Ash Wednesday - from Yesteryear

I'm busy working on sermon for tomorrow morning, but I re-discovered what I wrote in 2010, and I think it is pretty insightful weaving the readings together.  Check it out. (Oh, and I know now who was responsible for the Psalm selections.)

Ash Wednesday - Mark 1

Mark says the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins in the wilderness.  That is appropriate, because that is where you and I are at.  You do not need me to tell you this is not Paradise.  You have known that since long before the first time you complained to your mommy that life was not fair.  The Bible lets us know that in fact there was a time when life was fair - and more than that, filled only with goodness.  But we lost that through no fault of God's.  And so now we wander around outside of Paradise through a spiritual wasteland, a wilderness filled with wild things and wild people.  And the evidence of where we are at being wrong piles up like dead bodies.

However, the Scriptures let us know that being in the wilderness is not as bad a place to be as it could be.  Because God is there.  He does some of His best work in the wilderness.  Jacob is turned by God into His Israel through the wrestlings in the wilderness.  From Egypt He took a bunch of slaves who had divided loyalties and in the wilderness God made them to be His faithful people.  In the wilderness He taught David and opened his mouth so that David could teach us that the Lord is our Shepherd.  In the wilderness God shook Elijah out of his pity-party that "celebrated" his utter "failure" as a prophet and let Elijah know that there were in fact 7000 preserved who had not bowed down to Baal.  

And then into that wilderness Jesus goes - to stand shoulder to shoulder with sinners at His baptism, and then to face His temptation.  Because that is where you are, and where I am, facing our temptations.  

As we enter the wilderness of Lent, we become a bit more aware in this penitential season of the beastliness of our sin.  We have grown too accustom to it, and even convinced ourselves that we have tamed our wickedness.  Your Lord knows, however, how dangerous your sin is, that it can never be domesticated.  Christ has released us from its jaws, yet He knows better than we do that it is ready to sink its lethal teeth into you again without any warning. 

Yea, though we walk through this shadow of Lent opening up our eyes to our deadly sin, we shall fear no evil.  For the Lord is with us.  And He does some of His best work in the wilderness.  The question for us this Lent is - are we interested in the Lord working on us?  Are we looking to improve ourselves in just minor ways?  Do we just want to limp along in survival mode day to day?

Or do we really desire the Lord to resurrect us?

February 9 - John 3 on the Doorway to Lent

I've been encouraged by a friend to dust off the blog and get back to writing for this.  So here we go.
As far as I can tell, February 9 will not be the day before Ash Wednesday again in my lifetime, but John 3 seems like an extremely fitting text on which to leave Epiphany and enter Lent.  Nicodemus, in the darkness, has the Light of the World revealed to Him.  As we follow Jesus to the darkness of Good Friday, He will be revealed to be the Son of God given by the Father to save us from perishing when He is lifted up on a pole like the bronze serpent of Moses.

(Oh, and I always feel bad about leaving Job where he is at in the middle of the story in the Treasury.  Some years I've added the end of his saga to my daily Lenten devotions just to get to his salvation.  Or at least chapter 19.  I wonder if we get to the end of Job in 2038.)

Proper 5b - Mark 3:20-35 sermon, Who is the Devil Around Here

            “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.”  At least that is what one movie character says.  And certainly, that is one of his tricks.  A 2009 poll of those identifying themselves as Christians found that almost 60% think that the devil is no living creature, just a personification of evil.

            Whatever works is what the Devil will do.  If he figures that his best bet to separate you from God is

In The Screwtape Letters, a supervising demon advises
an underling to keep his human victim in the dark.
"The fact that 'devils' are predominantly comic figures
in the modern imagination will help you.
If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind,
suggest to him a picture of something in red tights,
and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that
(it is an old textbook method of confusing them)
he therefore cannot believe in you.

to terrorize you with his diabolical tricks, then he will do that.  But if you believing his lie that he poses no threat to you – if that will get you away from Christ, then absolutely that is the way he will lead you straight down the broad path that leads to destruction. 

            In an article[1] about the spiritual beliefs of the ¼ of Americans who report no religious affiliation, there was this quote from a young person helping to provide clean water in Africa: “I don’t need ‘magic trick Jesus.’ I’m not interested in that, and I’m not interested in ‘saving my soul.’ I’m not about saving myself.  I want to save the world.”  You do not think you need Jesus to be God if you do not think the Devil is any sort of problem.  A human Jesus who inspires to be good to others – that is all they are interested in.

            Is Satan’s greatest trick convincing people he does not exist?  Perhaps.  Or maybe it is convincing people that God is a devil.  That happens in the OT text where the Devil had persuaded Adam and Eve that God was being rude to them by forbidding them the fruit of knowing good and evil.  And it happens in the Gospel text today when the enemy scribes from Jerusalem accuse Jesus of having an unclean spirit, saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out demons” (Mark 3:20-35).  Meanwhile Christ’s flesh and blood family figure something evil is going on in His brain, giving Jesus delusions of grandeur. 

            In our own day, God still gets accused of being a devil.  A Christian woman who had suffered domestic violence told her story on the radio last week.  She said as she struggled in the months after she left her abusive husband, she could not believe in God – because it was easier to believe there was no God than to believe that God would allow her husband to abuse her.  She now is glad that God did not abandon her, but had loved her in Christ through and past it all. 

            Also this last week was the sad story about Bruce Jenner.  Now if I were to go get plastic surgery so I could look like an alien, people would recognize I was not right in the head – and at best they would hope I would get mental help.  At worst they would mock me.  It would be wrong for people to go along with my lies and say that in fact I was an alien.  Likewise with Mr. Jenner, who needs our prayers, not mockery nor approval.  The surgery does not change the fact that he still has the male chromosomes God gave him through his dad.  Which brings up the worst part about this mess – whether people realize it or not, Jenner’s actions are an accusation that God got it wrong giving Jenner a man’s body. 

            You and I accuse God of getting it wrong with us too.  Just consider how each time we break God’s

holy Commandments, we are accusing the Lord of giving us bad rules.  Just like Jenner, each sin has us pretending to be something different than we are – as if we did not belong to God.  Or think of how we have mocked and insulted our fellow humans – people whom God created.  We might not go so far as to call some brother or sister in Christ “evil” – but our hatred has made monsters out of them, so that we can imagine they deserve for us to treat them as less than human.  We label them as “closed-minded,” “liberal,” “old-fashioned,” stubborn, or just plain dumb – all to make ourselves look good and to hurt their reputation.  The rest of the world does it this way.  But brothers and sisters of Jesus, among us this lack of love must not be!  How can the same mouth praise God and insult those whom He created? 

            Why God made Satan and his demons in the first place is a mystery we will not know the answer to in this life, though we do know that God created them to be holy angels.  However, the demons turned away from goodness.  Satan became envious that God made humanity to be the crown of creation.  Judging God to have gotten it all wrong, the Devil declared war on God to take over the Universe – and quickly recruited Adam and Eve to his side, seeking to turn man away from God.  His weapons are deception and murder – which is why our Savior Jesus calls the Devil the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning.

            When Jesus tells the parable of the strong man in today’s Gospel (Mark 3:20-35), He describes the world as the Devil’s home territory, a world in bondage to that evil and powerful warlord who does not want you to praise the Lord’s holy name, nor let God the Father’s kingdom come.  The prince of demons hoards his plunder in the courtyard, protected by the walls of his fortress, like some legendary dragon asleep on his piles of golden treasure.

            In this case the treasure is not silver or gold or precious gemstones.  The plunder is you.  And me.  The story Jesus tells is no “once upon an imaginary time” fairy tale, but a real life once upon a historical time.  Jesus tells the one true story that makes sense of this messed up world as His Word cuts through Satan’s lies.  Our Lord and Savior tells us that we are right to cry out when the world goes wrong, because it was never meant to be this way.  Tragedies should not have happened.  God, after all, had created humanity in His image for good.  He put us in this world for far more than the meaninglessness of modern life.  However, humanity has lost its way, falling into sinful pride or self-hatred; lusts and cravings that only hurt us in the end.  The human race fell under the spell of the lie of the warlord and we are enslaved – stripped of the true freedom and life God gave to us.

            But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.  And so Jesus says, “No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.”  Jesus Himself is this Stronger One who has come behind enemy lines like soldiers

storming a beachhead to bind the strong Devil for us.  The spoils of this war are you.  Jesus fights indirectly against the Devil when He teaches the words of eternal life in the face of Satan’s deceptive propaganda.  And He fights head on against the Devil as He casts out demons and ultimately crushes the Devil’s head at the Cross.  

            Jesus does all that for you – for you are His treasure.  You are worth everything to Him, in spite of your sinful rebellions.  You are worth dying for, worth redeeming, worth forgiving.  Brother Jesus has taken care of your evil.  “Truly, I say to you, all sins [and blasphemies] will be forgiven the children of man,” is His promise to you!

            But what about that unforgiveable sin?  That is enough to keep a person up at night, worried they are guilty of doing something that could lock them out of Heaven.  However, the very fact that a person gets worried about sinning against the Holy Spirit is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working on that person and has not abandoned them.  The sin against the Holy Spirit is to be completely unconcerned about being opposed to Jesus, consciously unrepentant, stubbornly unbelieving – as the Pharisees were that day.  After all, as we heard on Pentecost, the job of the Holy Spirit is to grant us faith in Jesus – and if we reject that work of the Holy Spirit, it will not go well for us. 

            No matter how many other people think Satan is imaginary, you are in good company to believe the demons are real.  Jesus treats them as real too.  And more importantly, even while the Devil rages and the world continues to live all sorts of lies, you know that Jesus is the Truth, and He is the Stronger One who has already conquered and chained up the Devil.  You belong to Jesus.  You are free from Satan’s chains.  Yes, you and I have ignored God’s goodness, and misjudged His actions to be evil.  However, you have also confessed yourself to be a sinner before God.  You do not claim your sins are good.  You call them evil and pray that God the Father will deliver you from them.  And you also confess the goodness of Jesus and His Cross, and His power over death and the Devil.  You expect and receive forgiveness from Him.  And so even as He is arisen after death, so you shall live forever.  A life that is not meaningless, but eternally meaningful – for you live in Jesus the Stronger One, and in Him you shall die, and you shall be His forever.  Amen.

---

[1] Elizabeth Drescher, “The Gospel According to the ‘Nones’” http://americamagazine.org/issue/gospel-according-nones

Homily for Lent 1 - Mark 1

(adapted from a 2007 sermon by Rev. Todd Peperkorn)

          “We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose,” - Romans 8:28.  That is important to keep in mind as we plunge into the holy season of Lent.  You need to recognize that when Jesus is tempted, suffers, and dies – it is all done to benefit you, to be worked for your good.  It is all going according to God’s plan for you.  Jesus does not get caught by surprise in a hidden trap laid out by the devil.  Martin Luther said, “Even the Devil is God’s devil.”  In other words, God will work even the devil’s works for the good of God’s people.

          That is so easy to forget in the midst of temptations – both when you are pressed up against it, and also when you hear today’s Gospel text.  Still wet behind the ears from Baptism, immediately Jesus goes to

spend His 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil.  Note that Jesus does not accidentally wander into the wrong place at the wrong time.  It was not His idea to go there, but the Holy Spirit “drove Him out into the wilderness,” as St. Mark reveals.  Matthew and Luke let us know a few specifics, detailing three of Satan’s attacks, trying to lure Christ away from righteousness and into selfishness, fake faith, and idol worship.

          However, St. Mark skips those details to get to other things.  As we listened along to the rest of Mark chapter 1 this past month, it might have seemed like everywhere Jesus went, He was battling against demons.  And that is St. Mark’s point.  He wants you to see the temptation as the opening battle of the Kingdom of God invading the stomping grounds of the Devil – and as Jesus casts out more and more demons, the battle intensifies until He gets to the Cross, where He decisively defeats the Devil once and for all people.  Even though Christ’s death looked nothing like a victory – until Easter that is, when Christ’s resurrection proves that Satan does not win in the end.

          Knowing Christ wins in the end strengthens you as you find yourself in this battlefield of sin, the arena between God and the Devil.  Day by day the prince of darkness works to recruit you in his rebellion against the King of the Universe.  “Come, join me, and we will throw God off His throne all on our own.  And you will not have to put up with Him telling you what to do anymore.”  He tempts you to reject, neglect, forget about and revolt against the Kingdom of God that comes to you in Christ Jesus our Savior.  In both good times and bad, Satan would convince you that God is too far from you – so that you falsely believe that God cannot help you out of your failures, or have any hand in your successes.  That serpent constantly asks you, “Did God really say…?” until your thoughts question God’s Word, your words contradict it, and your life shows more concern for what the world says than what God says.  After all, the world that you can see and touch is so much more real to you than the God whom you only know by faith.  But when you fear offending the people at work or in your home more than you fear offending the Holy God, you have broken the First Commandment.  You have committed idolatry.

          St. James warns, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.  But each person is tempted when he is lured and

enticed by his own desire.”  Lured and enticed are the words of hunters and fishermen – baiting the hook with the lure, enticing into the trap, to make the beast or the fish to want to come unknowingly into the danger zone.  And you know what is to happen next to the victim.  This is how St. James describes your sinful nature, your own desires, as baiting the hook to catch and kill you.  “Sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”

          When it is not just the Devil out to get us, but we serve as our own worst enemies when our evil desires get a hold of us – who will save us from these bodies of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord who gives us His victory.  When Jesus went out to be tempted by the Devil, He did not do it for Himself.  He is led by the Holy Spirit to face these temptations for you.  Where you fall into the snare of seductions, Jesus remains steadfast under His trials to give you the crown of life.  He went into the wilderness of this world so He could be your substitute, stand in your place, and earn the credit for you to be counted as blameless and free before God.

          More than just forgiving and cleaning up your past failures at temptation, Christ’s testing in the wilderness also strengthens you for the trials you will face later today and throughout the rest of your life.  Listen to what Martin Luther beautifully said when he preached on this Gospel:

          Christ has served and helped us by His fasting, hunger, temptation and victory. Also, whoever believes on Christ shall never suffer need, and temptation shall never harm him. Instead, we shall have enough in the midst of want and be safe in the midst of temptation because the Lord triumphed in our behalf. Christ’s fasting also encourages us to believe that, by His example, we can cheerfully suffer want and temptation for the service of God and the good of our neighbor, like Christ did for us. Therefore this Gospel is sweet consolation and power against the unbelief. It awakens and strengthens our conscience, that we may not be anxious about the nourishment of our bodies, but be assured that God can and will give us our daily bread. (Luther)

          Note that Luther does not promise an easy life to those who follow Christ.  If you want to avoid suffering then maybe you should be looking to find a different religion.  For a Christian will face many temptations away from faithfulness to God and love for your neighbor.  However, what Luther does say is that even in the midst of hard, dark, and difficult times, you do not need to worry.  Christ’s temptation,

fasting, hunger, and victory demonstrate for you that God will always take care of you too.  You do not need to worry about tomorrow, because God will be there with you.  Christ has come to be your shield as He suffered the brunt of God’s wrath against our sin on the Cross. 

          Now the Lord feeds you not only with daily bread for your body, but also with the bread of His very body to keep you body and soul in Him.  At His Supper, the Son of God calls us in a special way to assure us that He is in communion with us in our battles against temptation.  Not only does Jesus know what we are going through because He was tempted like we are, but as one pastor put it, Jesus shares with us all that “He is and has, in all He has done and will do for our salvation.  His invincible power against temptation is ours... He sat down on the right hand of God and received power over all His and our enemies, also over Satan.  In this power we share, He is at our side in every battle.  With Him at our side, fighting for and with us, we must conquer” (Lindemann, vol 2, pg 60).

          “Even the Devil is God’s devil,” said Martin Luther.  There is so much comfort in those words.  While that evil foe is trying to bring down the Son of God, the Son in the wilderness successfully does His work to save you.  Satan is much more powerful than us, yet his power only goes as far as God will let it.  Even to the point that God actually uses all the evil things Satan does to bring about good in your life – with no greater example than the Cross, when the devil attacked Jesus with death, and the Lord produced life eternal for you. 
          Amazing, right?  What kind of wonderful God do we have who can turn even the evil things of this world for our benefit?  This is none other than the true God come down from Heaven to save you.  Trust that when He gave you His Spirit in Holy Baptism, you are now in His hands – safe from the assaults of the Devil, even when God tests and tries you to strengthen your faith.  When your own sin, or other people’s sin in this world attacks you, take heart.  Find peace in knowing that Christ has overcome the world, and He creates a new world for you.  Believe it for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

January 3 - Luke 2:21 (and Homily for New Year's Day)

            Today’s is the shortest Gospel of the year – and yet Martin Luther found so much beautiful Gospel in our little Lord Jesus being circumcised that Luther’s sermon is over three times the length of mine this morning.  But it is so good, I have stolen most of Luther’s points.  [Also credit goes to Rev. William Weedon, whose sermon I adapted for this.]

            He starts off with the silliness of circumcision.  What man would ever do that to himself – or to his sons – if God had not commanded it?  Even with a command, human reason sees it as ridiculous.  Other nationalities were bound to say, “Can you believe it?  Those Jews think their God wants their men to mutilate themselves there!”  And even in our day, can you imagine if a friend tells you about how great their pastor's New Year sermon was, about how people have been really mean in 2014 and need to be nicer this year, and they ask you what this sermon was about, can you imagine how "eager" you will be to say, "Uhhhhh, circumcision"?  Even Luther makes note of how strange it is.  “Man is made no better by it, for everything depends upon the soul.”

            However, that is the way it goes with all of God’s commandments and works – they appear foolish and useless, so that our proud reason can be put to shame and die.  If God chose something that made sense to us, our know-it-all natures would be left unconfronted and have no reason to surrender.  Then there would be no room for faith.

           Like in the days of Noah, when he preached in word and deed that there was a flood of God’s judgment on the way, so find salvation on the Ark.  How long did Noah’s neighbors think he was a fool as they never saw any flood – until it was too late?  Or what about Lot leaving all his property behind in Sodom and Gomorrah?  Or Moses and Aaron sounding like fools by threatening Pharaoh with destruction?  The list goes on and on.  Yet we see who was right in the long run – the ones who trusted God’s wisdom and promises over human reason. 

            And we also have this going on now in our lives – with a baptism where God calls us to believe that we are really cleansed of our sins and saved with that little bit of water; “also, that Christ’s body is in the bread of the altar; also that we worship the crucified man as Lord and God.  All this is immeasurably far above – and contrary to – reason.”  

            But why mark that member of the body?  Dr. Luther asks, “Why did [God] not command to circumcise a finger, hand, foot, ear, or eye, or some other member?  If evil was to be cut off, then certainly the hand or the tongue… for by the tongue and hands all wickedness is perpetrated among men.”  The answer is that what is wrong with us has to do with our whole nature, our whole being.  We come from corrupted seed, inheriting our sin when we were conceived.  It is not that we do sins and then that makes us sinners.  Rather, we are sinners first, and then out of our sinner hearts comes all sorts of wickedness.  The tree is not good, and so neither are our fruits good.  Circumcision shows that the problem comes to us right at the root.  Done to the infant boys to  make the point that it was done for the sake of original sin and for the future actual sins – and that the original sin is the bigger problem.

            What needs to be changed in your life and mine?  New Year’s resolutions focus on behavior – and

that is a good place to start.  However it is your very nature and mine that really needs the change, our hearts, the core of our very being.  A new nature will automatically lead to a new behavior.  And so we pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” – asking God to give us that which circumcision signifies.

            Jesus did not have this corrupted nature at all, however.  Like us in every way, except without sin.  Fully human and holy, so He did not need circumcision.  And yet He chooses to receive it.  Which sounds funny since Jesus was 8 days old – how could He choose anything?  And yet from eternity God chose to be born of this Jewish family, destining Himself to be circumcised even before He gave the sign to Abraham.  Christ “was born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).  His blood that is shed for the first time today points ahead to the greater bloodshed – when death would take Him. 

            However, death was completely wrong to take Him because it had no claim on the Sinless One.  And because Death owes Jesus big time for the wrong it did to Him, Jesus is now the Lord over it.  This point Luther makes was one that really struck me – that this is how death loses its power over all people who are in Christ as Jesus gives us His victory.  All believers in Jesus will rise at the last day and proclaim

that Death was wrong to take them also!  Because in Christ, we have become completely innocent.  So Death has no right to take us captive!

            Luther relates this to why circumcision happened on the 8^th day of life.  “Seven days signify the time of this world until the Last Day, because this present time is measured by the week or seven days described in Genesis 1.  The eighth day is the last day after the present time, when weeks, months, and years will cease and there will be only an eternal Day… when not only the soul, but also the body, shall be redeemed from sin, death, and all impurity, and shall shine as the sun.”

            Lastly we note that the name of Jesus is given on this day of His life – for He will save His people from their sins, as the angel announced before His birth.  As Christ received this name as His own, so also on that day when you were baptismally put into Christ, you received all that belongs to Him, including His Name.  “Therefore we are all called ‘Christian’ from Him.”  A name by which we God has known us from all eternity.  Before the world began, God wrote this name for us into the Lamb’s book of life.

            Dearly beloved children of God, let this New Year be for us a true feast of the Circumcision of our Lord, a true living in our Baptism.  Let us in Christ put down our old sinful selves, corrupted by its deceitful desires.  Let it drown and die in the waters of Baptism.  In its place, receive from our Lord our new self, our new and clean hearts whose desires line up with those of God.  Let this new year be for us a time of living by faith in the promises of the Christ who shed His blood for us – no matter how much human reason thinks it is foolish.   For there is no way to measure the dignity and honor given to us by the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit.  “These [dignities and honors] are superabundant riches of His goodness, which He pours out upon us, so that our heart may be free, joyous, peaceable and unterrified; and [eagerly] and cheerfully” live according to His good and holy will.  Amen.