Exodus 15:22-25; 17:1-7

Septuagesima

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Here’s the scene:  Israel had just been brought out by God from their slavery to the Egyptians.  He delivered them through the water of the Red Sea.  But now they are out in the wilderness where there is no water to drink.  For three days they have nothing to satisfy their thirst.  Finally, they come upon a place called Marah where there is some water.  But when they get there, they discover that the water is bitter, stagnant, and they can’t drink it.  Desperate and frustrated, they complain and lash out against God’s servant Moses.

Now isn’t that in many ways a fitting description of how life is in this world after the Fall?  In comparison to the original creation which God made, this sin-cursed world is like a barren wasteland.  People walk through this wilderness world with spirits that hunger and souls that thirst for something that is eternal and real and true.  We search for what can satisfy us and make us content.  And there are times when we think we finally see the answer not too far in the distance, something in this world that can quench our soul’s thirst.  We expend a great deal of energy to get there, working hard to achieve the goals and acquire the things we think will finally make us happy.  We embrace some new self-help philosophy or a political cause; or we indulge our desires and dreams, thinking that will bring us happiness.  But the goal we seek always seems to be just out of reach.  The things we’ve pursued and set our hearts on inevitably let us down.  All such worldly water sooner or later becomes stagnant and undrinkable, or even worse, just a mirage atop the burning sand.  And then comes the bitterness and grumbling, looking for someone to blame, often God or His representatives.

Repent of this.  For despite their grumbling, God did not leave Israel to perish.  He intervened on their behalf.  When Moses cried out to the Lord, the Lord showed him a special tree.  When Moses cast this tree into the waters at Marah, the waters became sweet and drinkable.  The thirst of the Israelites was satisfied and quenched because of the renewing power of the tree.  

Now we don’t know exactly how the tree made the water drinkable–if it was through some natural chemical process or simply and miraculously by the power of God’s Word attached to it.  But we do know this: the tree points us to Christ.  For it is written of Jesus, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch.”  Jesus is the descendant and Branch of David, who was raised up for us on the tree of the holy cross.  Through Christ our Lord, the rancid cesspool of sin has been changed to the sweet spring of the Gospel for you.  Jesus cast Himself into this stagnant world, descending from heaven to become true man.  And by His bitter death He took away the sin that dehydrates your spirits and saps your strength.  From Mt. Calvary there flows now a pure and healing fountain that refreshes and renews you with the forgiveness and the life of Christ Himself.  Believing in Him, your spiritual thirst is forever quenched, and your souls are eternally satisfied.  Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. . .  Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  Just as God showed Moses the tree of Marah, so He directs our attention to the cross of Christ, and calls us to rely on Him.  For it is through this crucified One alone that our souls are truly revived.  He gives us to kneel and drink from the limitless pools of His mercy; He fills us with His life-giving Spirit.

In fact the water of Marah is a good picture for us of Baptism, isn’t it.  For in baptism God takes ordinary water and puts the tree of His cross into it, that the power of His death for sin might be applied to you to refresh you with His forgiveness for your whole lives.  To those embittered by what the curse has brought to their lives, God here gives true peace and consolation and contentment.  You have been put right with God.  All is well.

God continued to be present with the children of Israel in the wilderness.  He gave them victory over the Amalekites in battle.  He gave meat to eat and manna day by day.  But there were times when they began to doubt the Lord’s goodness and waver in their trust in Him.  Very soon they faced a situation similar to that at Marah.  They came to a place called Rephidim, where they camped.  But again there was no water there for the people to drink.  The Israelites grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  By speaking to Moses in this way, they again showed their distrust in God’s care.  Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me?  Why do you tempt the Lord?”  Such faithlessness invited God’s judgment upon the people of Israel.  

So it is with us.  Despite the way in which God provides for us day by day with all that we truly need, despite our having received God’s goodness in Christ and having passed through the Red Sea with Him in our baptism, there are still times when we begin to doubt whether God really cares for us, whether He really will provide for all of our needs of body and soul, whether the faith is really true and worth following.  Like Israel, we can tempt the Lord and test His patience by questioning His presence among us.  

But the Lord remains merciful.  When Moses cried out to the Lord, the Lord told him to go before the people bringing with him his wooden staff.  God told him to strike the rock there with his staff, so that the people might drink.  And when Moses did this, water gushed forth from the rock.

This teaches us that God will provide for all of our day to day needs.  Even more, it teaches us that God will provide for all of our eternal needs in His Son.  For in the Epistle St. Paul makes a very interesting statement in connection with this story.  He says, “(Our forefathers in the wilderness) all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”  The Scriptures specifically tell us to see the Lord Jesus in this Old Testament story.  We are to perceive the real presence of Christ in and with that rock.  

Now how was it that the rock provided water for Israel?  Moses struck it with His staff.  How can we not think of how Christ also was struck in a similar way on the cross?  It is written in the Gospel of John, “When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”  Just as Moses struck the rock with his staff and water flowed, so also Christ, the Rock of Ages was struck with a staff-like spear, and water and blood flowed forth from Him for the salvation of His people, water that fills the font for our cleansing, blood that fills the chalice of His supper for our forgiveness.  

On the cross Christ said, “I thirst” for you, so that in your thirst you might drink deeply of Him.  Jesus took your thirst into Himself, receiving the withering judgment of sin in His body.  In so doing the power of sin has been undone, and now there flows from Christ an everlasting stream of living water to purify and refresh and sustain all of you who believe in Him.  It is as the old hymn says, “Let the water and the blood from Thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure.  Cleanse me from its guilt and power.”  And truly the Lord has done that for you.  He is indeed your Rock in the midst of the desert of this world.  And the river of life will continue to flow to you from Him in the Sacraments until He comes again to bring you into the Promised Land.

Let us take heed, then, to the Scriptures.  These things were written down as examples for our learning, so that we might not suffer God’s judgment.  Remember how the Epistle said that God was not well pleased with most of Israel; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.  Such is the judgment that came upon them because of their unbelief.  So let us not grumble as the Israelites did, or complain as the laborers in the Gospel did who thought God was somehow not being fair with them.  For the truth is, God is much better than fair with us, He is merciful to us.  He gives us what we don’t deserve, the free gift of forgiveness and life in Christ.  Let us find our refuge in Him alone.  For it is written in Isaiah, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” And of our eternal dwelling place in heaven, Revelation 7 says, “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. . .  For [Christ] the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Matthew 17:1-9

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Because God is merciful, He does not permit us to see everything.  We’re already fearful and phobic enough about so many things.  And so God limits our vision.  We cannot look into the future.  We don’t see the warfare going on around us between angels and demons.  We can’t see viruses and bacteria.   Nor can we see the air, or electrical waves, or even things hidden by walls.  We couldn’t live day to day if everything were visible to us.  It would overwhelm us and paralyze us.

We confess in the Creed that God is the “maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”  And that means that He is Lord over all that is, both seen and unseen.  And one of the things that in mercy He keeps us sinners from seeing is His own glory.  For even a glimpse of God Almighty would be more than we could handle.  The people of Israel even became afraid of the face of Moses after he spoke with God on Mount Sinai, to the point where Moses had to wear a veil to keep them from seeing his face shining with the reflected glory of God.

And as much as we think that we would like to see beneath the veil, God knows that we are not really equipped to see Him as He is.  Consider the very genuine reaction of terror from Peter, James, and John when our Lord Jesus Christ unveiled Himself on the Mountain of Transfiguration.  Unlike Moses, whose face only reflected God’s glory, our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and shines with the very glory of God.  

The three disciples also saw something normally hidden to us: those who have departed this life in the faith.  Normally, they are part of the “invisible” realm.  Scripture warns us against even trying to communicate with the dead.  But Jesus allows Peter and James and John to see Moses and Elijah in a heavenly vision.  Both of them were there talking to Jesus.  And the disciples are given to behold the glory of the Son of God that Moses and Elijah already knew.  Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light.”

Transfiguration is the Latin version of the Greek word “metamorphosis.”  Both words mean the same thing, “to change form.”  The ordinary Jesus that they knew so well revealed His hidden nature as the fully divine Son of God.  And they perceived this now-revealed form as pure radiant energy, as a blast of light like the sun.  St. Peter called this incident to mind in our epistle reading, saying that he and James and John were “eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

One of the earliest preserved paintings of Jesus that we know of is an icon of Him from the sixth century.  I’ll show it to you in Bible class today.  In it you can clearly see how the two halves of our Lord’s face are intentionally different, reflecting His two natures: divine and human.  And this is what the disciples saw that fearful but joyful day of Transfiguration.  Jesus unveiled His face to show them the glory of God.  It was still the truly human face of Jesus.  But in and through His true humanity, His divine glory shone forth.  

It is important for us to recognize and cling to the fullness of who our Lord Jesus is.  For the Transfiguration means that not only was Jesus one of us, a real man who could stand in for us; it also means that Jesus’ death on our behalf was a God-sized death.  It wasn’t simply the death of a good man and a great teacher, it was the death of God Himself, which is a big enough death to include you and me and every last person on earth without exception.  It contained the power to atone fully for your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world.

Jesus says not to tell anyone about His transfiguration yet, not until after His resurrection.  Only then would they fully understand it and be able to talk about it rightly.  For now, this vision was given to them to strengthen them for the faith-shaking events that would soon be coming during Holy Week.  They needed to remember that the glory of God is hidden beneath His true humanity, even beneath suffering and the cross.  For only in this way would they be able to truly see God without fear and to share in His glory forever.

We, too, need this vision of Jesus.  We need to know how the story is going to end to help us endure through the hard times.  In His Transfiguration Jesus gives us a glimpse of the end of the story–and it’s not just His story, it’s the story of all those who are baptized into Christ.  1 John 3 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  In other words, when you look at Jesus here, you are seeing your own future in Him.  And St. Paul says in Romans 8 that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  The glory of God is hidden for you, too, even under suffering and the cross.

But don’t only look at Jesus here.  Even more importantly, listen to Jesus.  The Father’s normal silence was broken here, and His voice came from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”  You may not yet see His glory in the same way that the disciples did, but He does come to you in His glorious Word: the Word of His mercy, the Word of life and salvation, of forgiveness and eternal joy.  He comes to you robed in light, for He is the Light of the World, which you see with the eyes of faith.  

“When the disciples heard this,” says Matthew, “they fell on their faces and were terrified.”  Like the people who saw the glory of God on the face of Moses, their natural reaction was one of fear.  But this is not all bad, for it is written, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  Jesus even said that we should not fear the people and the things that can only kill the body, but rather fear God who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  What is it that you fear more than God?  What is it that runs your decision-making and vetoes His Word?  Repent of it.  For in the midst of all our misdirected fear, Jesus comes to us to comfort us. “Rise and have no fear,” He says to the disciples.  And His words bring about what they say.  Whatever it is that you fear–violence, viruses, rejection by your peers, government tyranny, anti-government extremists, economic uncertainty, social instability–Jesus says to you, “Rise and have no fear.  I am with you; I am on your side.  And if that is so, who can be against you?  What do you need to be afraid of?”

Note how it says that Jesus came to the disciples and touched them.  It’s that human touch of the divine Jesus that brings comfort.  It’s the human touch of Jesus that you receive in preaching and the Sacraments.  He makes tangible contact with you in a way that doesn’t terrify you but consoles you and raises you up.  You kneel here with your heads bowed, and He comes to you with His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.  And He lifts up your heads and your hearts and says, “Peace be with you.”

“And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”  When it comes right down to it, that’s all we need to see as well–Jesus only.  In seeing Him, we see the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form.  In Him we see our salvation in the flesh.  In Him we see the glory of God that doesn’t terrify us but comforts us and draws us to Himself in mercy.  Don’t look to your own works and your own merits to get you into God’s good graces.  Don’t look to other spiritualities or other authorities to make things right.  Along with the disciples, see Jesus only–as He said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6)

Moses and Elijah now return behind the veil.  The radiant face of Jesus becomes the familiar face of their Teacher once more.  And the voice of the Father will be found again only in the Scriptures.  The veil is put back in place–but Peter and James and John know what they saw.  It’s no cleverly devised myth.  It’s the prophetic Word of Scripture confirmed and fulfilled.  And Peter reminds you that you will do well to pay attention to this Word as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

Where do you come into contact with this transfigured Jesus?  In His Word.  For the Psalmist says that the Holy Word is a “lamp to my feet” and a “light to my path.”  Peter says, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation."  Rather, the Word of God was given to the writers of the Scriptures as they were “carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  In the written Word of God we experience the Word made flesh, Jesus.  That’s where the light is for you.  Pay attention to it.  Or as the voice of the Father said, “Listen to Him.”

Listen to Him as if your life depends on it–because it does.  Listen to Him, for He has the words of eternal life.  Where else would you go?   Come and step behind the veil today, and by the power of His words receive the radiant body and blood of your Lord, that you also may be transfigured with Him.  For it is written in 2 Corinthians 3, “We all, with unveiled face”–you can’t receive the Sacrament without taking off the mask, can you?–“beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”

So remember, in His mercy God will not permit you to see everything.  But He will allow you to see everything that you need for eternal life–even Jesus Christ our Lord.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Fr. Larry Beane)

John 2:1-11

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

We don’t usually picture Jesus at a party, do we.  But that is exactly where we find our Lord today, taking part in a celebration, a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.  It is likely that either the bride or the groom was a relative of His mother and therefore also of Jesus Himself.  I am sure that in this gathering of family and friends Jesus didn’t sit stoically on the sidelines but joined in the conversation and the merriment of such a joyous event as a marriage.  While Jesus is without sin, He remains fully human as well as fully divine.  He takes part in the common aspects of human life to sanctify them and us.  He shows here that He fully approves of marriage and blesses it.  For He Himself created and instituted marriage in the beginning.

Marriage is not honored nearly as highly as it ought to be.  More and more people see it not as a good and necessary and foundational thing–a God-given estate–but as an optional legal formality and perhaps even a trap and a prison.  Most people think it’s perfectly normal and fine for unmarried people to have sexual relations and to live together apart from marriage.  But when people join themselves together sexually without God first giving them to each other, they are rejecting Him and degrading His gift of marriage.  And too often even within marriage, husbands and wives don’t love and respect each other the way they should.  But Jesus shows us the proper attitude that we should have.  Here at Cana He gives His stamp of approval to marriage by gracing it with His presence.  Whether we’re married or single, we also should honor marital life highly, both by how we talk about it and by how we conduct ourselves in the body.

Now at this particular wedding feast, a problem arose.  They ran out of wine.  Sure, there are worse things that could happen, but still this was a significant problem, something akin to having the caterers or the DJ call you up at the last minute and say they’re not going to show up.  It’s a social embarrassment.  When our Lord’s mother becomes aware of the host’s problem, she tells Jesus, “They have no wine.”  That statement is really a request, isn’t it.  She’s not just giving Jesus information; she’s asking him to intervene and help.

In doing this Mary is an excellent picture of how the church should pray to Christ in faith.  For she lays the needs of her host before Jesus boldly and with confidence that He can and will help.  In the same way we also should pray to Christ firmly trusting in Him and believing that He will hear us and respond.  And Mary persists in this faith even when Jesus appears to brush her off.  Though He answers her a bit roughly, she simply turns and tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”  It doesn’t matter to her exactly what His words will be, for she knows and trusts that whatever He says will be good.  So also should we trust and be confident, even in those rough times, that the Lord’s answer to our petitions will be for our good.

When Jesus answered His mother, He said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come.”  That’s a little bit of a strange reply, isn’t it?  What does that mean, “My hour has not yet come”?  Throughout this Gospel of John, Jesus’ “hour” is a reference to His impending death.  The hour in which He will manifest His glory is when He will offer up His life on the cross in love for the world to save it.   So the fact that the wine ran out is somehow related to the necessity of Christ’s death.  

And the relationship is this:  The reason that the things of this creation fail us and run short is because of the destructive entry of sin into the world.  It is only since the fall of man that these things happen.  The word that is used here to say that the wine failed and ran short is the very same word in Greek that is used in Romans 3 where St. Paul writes, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”   We ourselves have failed to fear, love, and trust in God as we should.  We ourselves have come up short of reflecting the image and the glory of God in our hearts in our lives.  This has not only brought judgment on us; it has brought a curse on all things that He has made.  And so now the blessings of this creation don’t last.  The wine runs out, clothes wear out, cars rust, pandemics and diseases strike at our health, lawlessness overcomes order, even marriage vows end with the words “until death parts us.”  The Scriptures say that the entire world in its present form is in bondage to decay and is passing away.

So, when the wine failed at Cana, that drew attention to the hour of Christ’s suffering and dying in order to redeem His sapped and fallen creation.  Jesus reminds His mother that if she is going to appeal to him for a miracle, she must also deal with his death.  Miracles don’t come cheaply.  They all are anchored in the cross and point there.  

Through this first miracle of our Lord, then, the changing of water into wine, Jesus was beginning to bring about the redemption of creation.  For He was reversing the draining force of sin so that there was bounty and joy once again.  

In order for this to be fully accomplished so that all of creation would be made new, the curse had to be removed and broken.  And Jesus accomplished that in His flesh at Calvary.  Galatians 3 declares, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”  Jesus took the curse into Himself so that by His death sin’s crippling domination over creation would be undone.  He has subdued and destroyed all that brings deterioration and degeneration.  His holy cross conquered and did away with the impermanence of this old order of things.  

It is written here that the miracle of the changing of water into wine occurred on the third day.  So it is that our Lord performed the greatest miracle of all on the third day by rising from the grave in everlasting triumph over death.  The risen body of Christ is the beginning of the new order of things.  In Him and through Him creation is renewed and revitalized.  We perceive that now only by faith.  But we see signs of it in miracles such as this.  For it was prophesied of the Messiah’s kingdom that there would be an abundance of wine.  The prophet Amos said, “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when . . . sweet wine will drip from the mountains and flow from the hills.”  And Isaiah foretold a day when the Lord would swallow up death forever.  He said, “The Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine–the best of meats and the finest of wines.”  In this miracle, then, we begin to see the very kingdom of God and the new creation breaking in, which will be revealed in all its glory on the Last Day.

The water pots were filled to the brim. For the fullness of time has now come.  Jesus fulfills all that was written in Moses and the Prophets.  Out of the water of the Old Testament promises we draw the finest wine of Jesus Himself.

Indeed, just as Jesus used six stone jars in this miracle, so also it was on the sixth day of the week, Good Friday, when He broke sin’s curse.  And just as in the beginning the creation of man took place on the sixth day of the week, so now man is recreated by the water and the blood that came forth from Christ's holy side at Calvary.  Do you see what the water and the wine are signs of at Cana?  They are nothing else than the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which flow to us from the cross of Jesus.  This Gospel tells us that the six jars were used for ritual washing and cleansing.  And don’t the Scriptures say that Baptism is a washing of regeneration?  Likewise, it is written that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.  Our Lord renewed the gifts of creation at Cana’s wedding feast, and now He renews us through His sacramental gifts in water and wine, so that we might be restored to the sweetness of life with God.  As it is written, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!”

You must learn to see and believe, then, that the miracle of Cana is still going on; it hasn’t stopped.  The heavenly groom, Jesus Christ, is here in the Divine Service for His bride, the church.  He who showed Himself to be Lord of the elements at Cana now shows Himself to be Lord of the elements on the altar.  He causes His blood and body to be present under the wine and the bread, and through this miracle He recreates you with His abounding forgiveness and His indestructible life.  These elements of creation won’t fail you; for they deliver to you the Lord Himself who will never fail you or divorce Himself from you.  His grace doesn’t run out; there is always enough and more.  His wine-blood gladdens your hearts.  So it is that the Scriptures say, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish.”

Dear bride of Christ, the Lord has given you a vintage sign:  at Cana, at Calvary, and on the altar–a sign of His glory, glory revealed in His love for you.  Both then and now, He has saved the choice wine for last.  He has given His best; and it is all for you.  Come, then, in faith to His table, that you may partake in the great wedding feast when He returns.  For it is written, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rev. 19:9)

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Matthew 2:1-12

Mt. Zion Lutheran Church/Our Father’s Lutheran Church Joint Epiphany Service

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  That is the question of the Wise Men from the East.  It’s important to note that these Wise Men, these Magi, were probably not worshipers of the true God prior to this time.  They were royal counselors and advisers.  And their title as Magi suggests that the wisdom they offered to the king came at least in part from occult magic, astrology, the seeking of power and knowledge from various sources other than the Word of God–“reading the tea leaves,” reading the stars, and other pagan things.

Of course, they would have had written wisdom, too, and among that wisdom was portions of the Old Testament Scriptures.  For remember where these Magi came from, from the East, from Babylon and Persia east of Israel–the place where the Israelites had been carried away captive as exiles centuries earlier.  Several of those Israelite captives became counselors to the king, Wise Men of sorts–people like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who wouldn’t bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image, or Daniel who was thrown into the lion’s den for continuing to pray to the Lord against the official edict.  And those Jewish Wise Men would certainly have brought with them not only the practice of their faith but scrolls containing the words of Moses and other parts of the Old Testament.  

The Jews returned to Israel a few decades later.  But the Gentile Magi surely would have retained copies of those words over the years, such as this prophecy in Numbers 24, “A Star shall come out of Jacob, a [royal] Scepter shall rise out of Israel. . .”  Now the Magi probably only understood that to be about the birth of an important earthly king.  But when this heavenly body appeared at the time of Jesus’ birth, God by His grace still used their imperfect and muddled wisdom to lead them to seek out Him who is Wisdom in the flesh, the King of the Jews, Christ our Lord.  

And that’s one of the first points that we should take out of this Gospel today–by the grace of God, He draws even people like this to Himself: semi-pagan astrologers and Magi, people who are enmeshed in false belief and false religion, and He calls them away from all of that to the Truth. He draws Gentiles like us who fall so easily into superstitious thinking, we who are tempted to look for guidance and power in all sorts of things other than God’s words, we who love to get enmeshed in mystical and spiritual speculation about the spirits of the dead and the supernatural.  Even people like us, with our muddled hearts and minds, God still draws to Himself through His Word, in spite of ourselves, because of His grace and mercy.  It is that grace and mercy that caused the Lord to become flesh in the first place to redeem us and save us, to lead us into all truth.  This epiphany of Jesus to the Wise Men, then, is good news for us, for it shows Jesus to be the fulfillment of Simeon’s words, “a Light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the Glory of God’s people Israel.”

You can tell that the Magi were thinking in terms of an earthly king, because the first place they go in Israel is to the capital city, to Jerusalem.  “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  That’s where they expect to find Him.  But the Messiah King is not one who comes surrounded by the finery and the glories of the capital.  He comes rather in the lowliness of the humble village of Bethlehem.

Our fallen nature thinks God is to be found in places of power, that true religion is about that which brings health and wealth and success and happy feelings.  But that’s not where Jesus is at.  Herod has all that.  Jesus, on the other hand, ends up having to flee from Herod’s murderous scheme, carted by Joseph and Mary to exile in Egypt for a time, living an ordinary and common life for us.  The life of the true and eternal King is marked from the beginning by suffering and the cross.  That’s where Jesus is, not surrounded by earthly glory, but robed in humility for us.  True religion still today is also marked not by political power and victories, but by this humility of Jesus.  The church is not dependent on what happens in the capital but on what happens right here in divine service.

It’s very important to note in this story the difference between the Gentile wise men and the Jewish priests and scribes.  On the one hand, the Jews who possessed the Scriptures in their fullness and knew the prophecies of the Messiah were greatly troubled at the thought that the Messiah was born.  It says here that King Herod and all Jerusalem was troubled by this news.  That seems a little strange, doesn’t it?  You would think they might be glad, joyful.  You would think that they would want to personally escort the wise men to Bethlehem so that they could see for themselves.  Instead, they’re more concerned about how this might upset their lives and the political structure.  Instead, they quote the Scripture they know so well and stay home.  

This still happens today.  Far too many people think that if you just learn enough facts from the Bible, or learn enough morality from the Bible, then you're all good.  You can stay at home with your private spirituality and forsake the presence of Christ in the flesh in His gathered Church.  But such people are sorely deceived; they are not Christian.  We also must guard against priding ourselves on our Bible knowledge or our good living rather than glorying in the One whom the Bible is all about, our Savior Jesus.  We must be careful not to let God’s Word simply become window-dressing in our lives lest we stop praying and meditating upon it.  

The Magi are our example here.  They receive the Word of God properly, in such a way that they are moved to seek out Christ in the flesh.  The Magi rely on the written Word, but they are not content with the Bible for its own sake.  They cling to it for the sake of Christ to whom it leads them.  That is always the purpose of the Word, to lead us to the Word made flesh, Jesus.  He is there for us, too, concretely and tangibly in the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments, no less so than He was for these Wise Men.

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  That title, “King of the Jews” might well spark some connections to Holy Week in your hearts and minds.  It’s actually a title that only shows up in two places in the Gospel–here at the beginning of Jesus’ life, and later at the end of Jesus’ life.  And the two situations are parallel. The Jewish King Herod was envious and tried to protect His power when Jesus was born, seeking to have Him killed; He ordered the deaths of all the boys two years old and under in Bethlehem.  So also in the Passion narrative, we hear of how the Jewish leaders handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate because of envy.  They, too, wanted to protect their position and political power.  In both cases it’s the Gentiles who see Jesus more clearly as He is.  Pilate finds no fault in Him, and Pilate’s wife even calls Jesus a just Man.  But in the end, Pilate caves to the pressure, and in fulfillment of God’s will, perhaps to mock the Jewish leaders, He places over our Lord’s head the inscription “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”  

So near the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we are given a crystal clear answer to the Magi’s question at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel.  “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  He is there, the humble Child, God in the flesh, the light of God’s love broken into the darkness of our sinful world.  And above all, He is there on the cross, with the inscription over his head declaring it.  He is the King who is given gold for His royal nature but who chooses to wear the crown of thorns.  He is the King who is given incense, used at the time of prayer and sacrifice, who answers our prayers by being the sacrifice for the sins of the world.  He is the King who is given myrrh, a spice used for Jesus’ burial in the grave, which He would conquer in His victorious resurrection.  This Jesus, the King of the Jews, has come to redeem all people–wise men from the east, Roman conquerors from the west, Jew and Gentile, you and me.

God grant that His Word would continually accomplish its purpose of leading you to the Word made flesh in this new year, that with the Magi we might come and kneel before Jesus week by week as He gives His gifts to us, His true body and blood offered up for the forgiveness of sins.  For just as the Wise Men returned home by a different path, walking along a new way, so God gives you also to return by a different path than the old ways of this world.  You are given to return home by Christ Himself, for He is the Way and the Truth and the Life for you.  Behold your King!

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Matthew 2:13-23

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

As we approach the end of the Christmas season on this 9th/10th day of Christmas, we recognize that it is a season of great mysteries.  There are so many things about it which to human logic seem would to contradict each other but are true nonetheless.  A virgin has a baby.  God, whom all the heavens cannot contain, lies contained in a manger.  The exalted King of the universe is first worshiped by lowly shepherds.  And in today’s Gospel, we are presented with another mystery directly related to those:  In Christ, God is both weak and all-powerful.  He is controlled by circumstances, and yet He is in control of everything.  Today we are going to look more deeply at this reality and discover that within this mystery there is a great deal of comfort to be found for our own seemingly contradictory lives.

One thing that comes through loud and clear in this passage is that Jesus was vulnerable, at risk of being hurt or killed.  First, He has to be whisked away in the middle of the night to escape the murderous reach of King Herod, as the angel warned Joseph.  Just imagine that, the Son of God having to escape under the cover of darkness and flee to Egypt!  And then, even after Herod dies, Jesus isn’t completely safe, since Herod’s son Archelaus is on the throne in Judea.  And so, being warned in a dream, Joseph took the child and His mother north, to an area outside of Archelaus’ territory in Nazareth of Galilee.  Clearly, as a true human being, Jesus was vulnerable to danger and death.  By all appearances, it would seem that circumstances were beyond His control.

And yet as we read through this passage we discover that all of this occurred in fulfillment of prophecy, according to God’s plan.  What at first appeared to be an unwanted vacation in Egypt turned out to be a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  God's eternal will was here being carried out.

And this is not just some minor prophetic detail.  The fact that the Messiah was to come out of the land of Egypt was a significant part of God’s plan to save mankind.  For Hosea’s prophecy was originally spoken concerning the entire nation of Israel.  You recall that the Israelites were once a nation of slaves under the rule of the Pharaoh in Egypt.  But despite their condition, God chose them to be His own people and powerfully saved them from their bondage.  He brought them safely out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and finally led them into the Promised Land.

That is why it was important that Jesus also would be called from Egypt.  For it was His task to be the embodiment of God’s people, to do perfectly and without sin what Israel had failed to do.  The children of Israel had grumbled against God and complained and rebelled against Him.  They did not live as His holy people or glorify His name among the nations.  But now the Child of Israel, Jesus, has come to do that perfectly, accomplishing God’s will completely on behalf of Israel and all people.  So in the seeming minor detail of the calling of Jesus out of Egypt, we see that He was fulfilling the Law for us, actively doing all that was necessary to rescue us.  Jesus is the new Jacob, the new Israel, going down to Egypt and coming up again to be our Redeemer.

And we also find that there was an important reason for why the holy family had to live in Nazareth in Galilee.  Though political circumstances seem to have put them there, God reveals to us that all of this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets, “He will be called a Nazarene.”  Again, we see that God was working in and through the complexity of human events to accomplish His good and perfect will.

But why would it be that Jesus had to be a Nazarene?  Well, in the Old Testament we learn that, paradoxically, the Messiah would be humble and ultimately even despised.  And if there was ever a lowly town in Israel, one that you didn’t want to admit you were from, it was Nazareth.  Because it was an obscure little town and very near Gentile territory, Nazareth and its inhabitants practically became interchangeable with the word “despised.”  Even one of Jesus' own disciples once said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”  That is why Jesus was a Nazarene, because the Messiah was to be humble and despised.

All of this, then, brings us to the cross.  For if there is anything in the Scriptures which epitomizes both the all-powerfulness of God and the weakness of God, it is the crucifixion of Jesus.  On the one hand we know that the cross was a part of God’s plan from the beginning.  It was His almighty will that the events of Good Friday take place.  And yet, when it actually happened, God the Son was utterly helpless.  This time He didn’t escape from the murderous authorities.  There He was, so horribly vulnerable to the taunting and the nails and the spear and the death–completely despised and rejected.  Nevertheless, through that all-powerful weakness, God paid the full price for our sins and brought eternal life to all who dare to worship and place their confidence in Him.

And that brings us finally to the place where we can apply all of this very directly to our own lives.  For since we have been joined to Christ by water and the Word, this mystery of Christ’s power and weakness shows in our own lives as well.

We see that first of all in the paradox that we are at the same time both saints and sinners.  No matter how much we may desire to lead God-pleasing lives in thought and word and deed, we know the truth of what St. Paul said in Romans 7, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”  That’s no excuse, but the reality is that we are constantly vulnerable to the attacks and temptations of sin, of failing to do what we should, and of doing what we shouldn’t.  At first glance it would seem as if we are under the same eternal curse as the rest of this fallen world.  And yet God’s almighty Word has declared us righteous and holy for the sake of Christ.  We are saints in God’s sight.  Time and time again in Scripture, the Christians at various churches are referred to as “the saints” in this or that place–because of the holiness of Christ which has been placed upon them and which they trust in.  And so it is with you; you who believe are the saints at Mt. Zion, for you are forgiven and holy in Christ.  Even in that Romans 7 passage where St. Paul is lamenting his sinful condition, he points us to our sure hope when he says, “O wretched man that I am!  Who will save me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord!”  Though you are sinners, you are nevertheless declared to be pure and righteous in Jesus.

The almighty weakness of our lives as children of God also shows itself in everyday events.  Much of what happens to us is beyond our control and seems quite random.  Some have had loved ones die recently.  Others have been having a rough time of it in their families, with their spouse or children or parents.  Still others have been struggling with tough situations at work or in their neighborhoods.  There often doesn’t seem to be much order or purpose to the way things happen.

And yet into the midst of this messy and complex world comes God’s Word to us in Romans 8: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  Not only in Jesus’ day, but also still today, God is active in human history working out His good and perfect will.  God is certainly not the cause of sin or evil or trouble.  But nevertheless, God is not above delving into this sinful and fallen and troublesome world to direct all things for the sake of His chosen ones.

And so we trust that despite any appearances to the contrary, God is with us and graciously working in our lives.  For we are the called ones, chosen in Holy Baptism, made to be the forgiven children of God.  Even in the midst of your human vulnerability, God is working out His almighty will for your benefit.

As you look back on your lives, I’m sure that you can think of an example where that was the case.  A time of trouble or suffering strengthened your faith in God.  A seeming setback turned out to be an opportunity for something new and better.  A chance meeting brought you your spouse or a good friend.  Whether or not you realize it, you have all experienced God's gracious working in your lives.

And in those times when you can’t make sense of things, when you feel like the parents of Bethlehem, whose infant children were slaughtered before their eyes, when there seems to be no valid purpose or meaning to what’s going on in your lives, God points your eyes again to the cross.  For there in that greatest display of God’s all-powerful weakness, there in that senseless and yet most meaningful death of Jesus, you are assured that God’s love for you is limitless and unshakable.  There is nothing in all of creation that can separate you the love of God in Christ.

In fact, the Lord comes so near to you with His love that He actually gives Himself into you in the Sacrament of the Altar.  He imparts to you His very own life with His body and blood.  If the almighty Lord would go so far as to take on your vulnerable human flesh, to die in the flesh and shed His blood, and then give you His resurrected flesh and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, then certainly you can trust Him even in those times when there seems to be no reasonable answers to your questions.  For in the end, the answer to all of those questions, the solution to all of those problems is the One in the manger and on the cross and under the bread and the wine.  It may not all make logical sense to you, but it is the truth of the mystery of the Gospel.  There in that marvelous paradox of Christ is your strength to live for 2021.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Luke 2:1-20

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

People like to say when they make mistakes, “Well, I’m only human!”  But that’s not right.  The problem is not that we’re human.  The problem is that we’re less than human, that we’ve lost our humanity.  Ever since the fall into sin, we’ve become a shadow of what we were created to be–still in the image of God, but now the image is broken, like a cracked mirror.  What we actually need is to become more human, to get our full humanity back.

This Christmas 2020, we are of course still in the midst of a pandemic, which is a living metaphor of what the fall into sin has done to our humanity.  COVID cuts us off from each other.  We can’t shake hands or embrace.  Our faces are covered up so that we don’t truly see each other.  We keep our distance.  There is stress and conflict as we fear our neighbors as if they’re walking bioweapons.  Most importantly of all, many are cut off from the fellowship of the Church, from the communion of the body and blood of Christ.  Of course, the precautions we are taking may indeed be necessary as short-term measures to deal with the virus and to show love to our neighbors–we don’t deny that.  But the effects of the virus physically are a reminder of what has happened to mankind spiritually.  Even for all our efforts to “stay safe” and preserve life, we can sense that we’ve lost some important elements of our humanity along the way.  

So perhaps this year more than most years, we can find deeper joy and meaning in the good news of the Christmas message.  For what we are celebrating tonight is not merely a birthday.  We are celebrating the fact that God has embraced our humanity in order to redeem it and ennoble it and raise it up.  The Son of God took up our flesh and blood, our body and soul, and was born of the Virgin Mary in order to sanctify us and make us holy and right again.  He shared fully in our humanity in order that we might share fully in His divine life.  

When it comes right down to it, Jesus is the only one who can say that He is truly human, without any sin polluting or corrupting His nature.  And the joyous message of this night is that by embracing your humanity and joining it His divinity, He has made the way for you to become truly human again.  His birth cleanses you and gives you new birth.  Through faith in Jesus, the image of God is restored to you.   Baptized into His body, you find your humanity again.

That’s what you’re looking at when you see the baby in the manger. You are seeing your life restored to God.  You are seeing peace and reconciliation between God and man.  For Jesus is both God and man in one undivided person.  The unmasked, unveiled face of this holy Child is both the face of God and the face of redeemed humanity.  The breath of this newborn baby brings healing.  For this Jesus will grow up to breathe out words that are spirit and life.  Here is God not keeping His distance from us.  Here is God with us, Emmanuel, God so close to us that He shares in our very life, our flesh and bones.

So the Christmas message is not only given to the shepherds this holy night, it is given to each and every one of you.

To you who are faint-hearted, to you who are weary, to you who feel the burden of your sins: To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who Himself will become weary, who will bear your heavy load to set you free.

To you who are broken-hearted, to you whose loved ones are far away, to you who feel depressed and downcast and taken advantage of: To you is born this day in the city of David of Savior, who is near to those who are have a broken heart and saves those who are crushed in spirit, whose heart will be pierced for you on the cross to mend you.  

To you who are fearful, to you who are burdened by the darkness of doubt, to you who are struggling with bodily pains and chronic ailments: To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who will go through the valley of the shadow of death for you to bring you through it all and into the light of the resurrection of the body.

To you who have wandered from the Lord, to you who have squandered what the Lord has given you, to you who feel useless and cut off: To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, the Shepherd who has become a little lamb in order to restore you to the flock so that you may dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  

And to you who are puffed up and proud, to you who have arrogantly trusted in your own merits and strength: To you also is born this day in the city of David a Savior, born in humility so that you might learn to humble yourselves, that the Lord might lift you up in due time.

To a world full of anger and conflict and anxiety, out of heaven comes the angelic message: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  God is glorified in the high places by sending His Son to us in the depths.  To you is born this day the Prince of Peace, God and man brought back together in Him.

To the helpless ones is born this day the Helper.  To the sons of Adam is born this day the new Adam.  To those battered by the storms of life is born the One who stilled the storms with a word.  Are you weak? Look, Jesus becomes weak for you!  Are you sad? Look, Jesus comes to share your sadness, and to give you His joy in return!  You who are dying, see in the manger your Life!  You who are lonely, see in the manger the Friend of the outcast and the forsaken!  You who are unrighteous, see in the manger your Righteousness, freely given to you as a gift!  Behold in that feeding trough the Living Bread from heaven, born in Beth-lehem, the house of bread, in order that even beasts like us might feed on Him and become human again and live forever.

So put every dark thought out of your mind this night.  For the Lord has heard your prayers and your cries.  This Child comes to you and says, “Peace be with you! Do not be afraid. I have come for you to save you. You matter to Me.  You are My treasured people. I have come to be your life.  Do not be anxious.  Take heart!”

A blessed and merry Christmas, then, to you all.  For your humanity has been restored in Jesus.  There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠ 

With thanks to Christopher Esget

Matthew 11:2-11

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

There is a painting by Matthias Grunewald that depicts Jesus on the cross and John the Baptist to one side.  John had actually already been martyred before Good Friday, but the artist makes an important theological point by depicting John the Baptist with a larger than life hand and finger pointing at Jesus as if to say, “Focus your attention on Him; behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Everything John the Baptist did was about Jesus, even when he was still in his mother Elizabeth’s womb. He leaped for joy when, while yet an unborn child, he heard the greeting of the Blessed Virgin Mary, come to visit her cousin Elizabeth. John knew that his Lord, God in the flesh, was near, and so he danced in her womb, and Elizabeth knew this was no ordinary kicking that a baby does.  John knew the Messiah.

And later, when he made the wilderness his home and made locusts and wild honey his food, despite the crowds that had amassed from all around to hear him preach and receive his baptism–John knew that suffering was in his future.   After all, if Jesus is the Lamb of God who will be sacrificed, what will happen to the forerunner of the Lamb?  John would later say of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

However, when that decrease came, when John was thrown into prison for preaching against King Herod’s adultery, John’s disciples may have become more than a little distraught at what was happening.  John had been languishing there now for many months. “If Jesus were really the Messiah, wouldn’t He free John from prison or do something to help him?  What’s going on?” Such was the darkness of their thoughts.

Our own thoughts are prone to similar darkness. Afflicted with degenerating bodies, strained relationships, or an uncertain economic future, there is the darkness of our hearts, prone from their core towards sin. It is the darkness of lust that drives you like an animal; the darkness of greed and envy that has you measuring life by what you possess and idolizing things; the darkness of loneliness, resentment, bitterness, and despair that has you wondering if the promises of God are real.  Why am I suffering?  Why doesn’t Jesus do something?

The Christmas cookies, the drinks, the sentimental Christmas shows and music, the delivery guy arriving with a package you ordered, that pushes back the darkness, but it is only for a moment. The darkness always returns. And the only ending, it seems, is the final darkness of closed eyes in a casket.  All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers and the flower fades.  

Repent, then; turn from the shallow emptiness of this world, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  The King Himself is near.  There is only one remedy for the darkness of our souls, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him we pray every year during this Advent tide, “Lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation.”

That advent, that visitation of our Lord Jesus, is the ultimate cause for all true rejoicing.  This Sunday is called Gaudete Sunday, rejoicing Sunday, for the words of St. Paul ring out in the Introit, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Rejoice in every circumstance, every time, both good and bad, and especially when the darkness of our hearts seems as if it will suffocate and overwhelm us.

Now that is not to say that the Christian faith is built on the power of positive thinking, on having a “Don’t worry, be happy” attitude.  Rather, we “rejoice in the Lord always” precisely because “the Lord is at hand.”  The Light is here that pierces the darkness, even the darkness of a dungeon.

In the midst of tribulation and uncertainty, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus a question, and by doing that He pointed them to Him.  That’s where he would point us still to this day in the midst of our doubts and troubles and uncertainties.  Look to Jesus.  And so Jesus’ reply in today’s Gospel is for us, too, “Report to John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  

Notice what kind of people Jesus came for–not those who are proud in their own righteousness and self-sufficiency, but the weak and the helpless and the unrighteous.  Are you beginning to lose your sight or your hearing?  Are your legs and your arms not working like they used to?  Are you contending with some ailment or disease?  Are you living from paycheck to paycheck?  Do you feel unclean?  Do you sense the death in you that sin brings?  Then Jesus is for you.  He took on your flesh and blood in order to redeem your humanity, to cleanse you, to restore you in both body and soul to the fullness of His resurrection life.

In Jesus’ response there was one phrase in particular that both John and his disciples needed to hear.  Our Lord sees into the days ahead when these men will be weeping and brokenhearted, when John is put to death so cruelly and senselessly.  Jesus’ reply contained these precious words:  “and the dead are raised up.”  John would rejoice at those words too, and maybe they were the last words he whispered to himself when the sword was raised to behead him:  “The dead are raised up.”  With their beloved John dead, where else could they turn, but to the One who raises the dead–back to the One whose every deed revealed the secret that He is the Lord in our flesh and blood, the Eternal Son of the Father come to save us from sin and death.

The dead are raised up.  That’s a word that we need to hear, too, especially in these darker days as Christmas approaches when griefs and burdens can weigh heavier.  We remember those we love, whose presence brightened our days who are separated from us either by distance or because they are now departed from this life.  John sends us to Jesus, because only Jesus can give us what we need.  Only He is the God who came to know all our sorrows, who lightens our darkness, who forgives sin and raises the dead.

“Comfort my people,” says your God.  Cry out to the church that her warfare is ended.  All that you’ve been battling–the world and its troubling ways, the devil with His damnable lies, your own flesh that wants you to give in to the enemy–know that the Lord has taken up the battle for you, and in Him the war is already won.  Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.  

Though the grass withers and the flower fades, Jesus took the withering curse of sin into His own body and He broke the curse, putting it to death on the cross.  All the power of the devil to drag you down to hell, all the power of sin to condemn you was completely destroyed and abolished in Jesus.  Your iniquity is pardoned, freely, abundantly; you have received from the Lord’s hand double forgiveness for all your sins.  That Word of God spoken to you stands forever, even as Jesus Himself stands forever, risen and reigning at the Father’s right hand.  Deliverance is coming!  On the Last Day, the deaf will hear and the blind will see, the lame will run and dance, and the diseased will be healed, for the dead in Christ will rise to everlasting life. No man was greater than John the Baptist, and yet the most insignificant participant in that glorious resurrection is even greater.

Like John’s disciples, then, you are now given a mission.  Go, tell your neighbor, locked in the dungeon of sin and death, what you have seen and heard from the mouth of Jesus: that their sin is covered, that they have been put right with God, that there is light in the darkness, and life in death, and meaning in suffering, and gain in loss all thanks to Jesus. Tell your neighbor about the signs–sinners cleansed from the leprosy of sin in Baptism, the dead raised to life by the word of forgiveness, the hungry and thirsty refreshed by the Body and Blood of the Lamb, given and shed for the life of the world.

Blessed is the one who is not offended because of Jesus or His cross. Blessed is the one who sees the light of Christ in the darkness. Blessed are you, trusting that Jesus is the One who is to come and you need not look for another.  The Lord is at hand, here at the altar. Here is your Comfort.  Here “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. Christopher Esget)