TITLE: “Knowing the Mind of God”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson from St. John chapter one, particularly verse fourteen: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NKJV) This morning we will reflect in wonder upon the mystery that in Jesus Christ, God bares His soul to us and gives of Himself in a way that none of us can ever truly comprehend.

Every one of us has a sort of running conversation that goes on within us. You know what I mean. You talk to yourself. You talk to yourself about whether to get out of bed, what clothes to wear, how you feel, what you want to do, how much coffee to drink. You can have pretty extended conversations with yourself. Luther talks about this as follows:

Furthermore, we must realize that this Word in God is entirely different from my word or yours. For we, too, have a word, especially a “word of the heart,” as the holy fathers call it.4[1] When, for example, we think about something and diligently investigate it, we have words; we carry on a conversation with ourselves. Its content is unknown to all but ourselves until such Words of the heart are translated into oral words and speech, which we now utter after we have revolved them in our heart and have reflected on them for a long time. Not until then is our word heard and understood by others. St. Paul touches on this in First Corinthians (2:11): “No person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to know another person like that, to peek in to their interior monologue? None of us ever knows another person that way. First of all, we would all be too afraid. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, we would run and hide at the thought of another person truly knowing our thoughts. They are too close, too private, too personal. They are too full of sin and selfishness and heartache and sorrow and want and need and pain. None of us could bear that level of self-disclosure. None of us could handle being that exposed. Not to our children. Not even to our spouse. It would be the ultimate in too much information.

Yet that is exactly what God does in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into our flesh. The divine life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, have existed in all eternity with that holy conversation going on. The Father showing His will to the Son. The Son receiving that will of the Father and returning it to Him, all happening in the Spirit.

But God, who is rich in mercy, did not wish to exist simply in Himself. He spoke the Word, and it went forth in creation, making a world out of nothing. God bared His soul to the world. But sin entered in, and the voice of God was not heard. We stopped up our ears to His voice. We refused to listen to all of the great and mighty things that He wanted to tell us. So He sent His prophets. Time and time again God sent them, so that His mind would be made known to us. But what did we do? We killed them. We threw them out of our cities. We were too busy, too bored, too uninterested in the things of God to care about such trifles.

God bared His soul to the world in a way that none of us could ever truly comprehend. He sent His Son, His Word made flesh. The author to the book of Hebrews put it this way:

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV)

God has bared His soul to you. He has opened His mind to you by sending His Word, His Son, His voice into your flesh and blood. It is unfathomable. It is mysterious and wonderful. It is the greatest gift that anyone has ever given, anywhere. And it is all for you. That river of God’s mercy which flows from Jesus’ birth now flows to you. For after all, remember the words from Isaiah:

Unto us a Child is born.
Unto us a Son is given.
His name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God,
The everlasting Father, the | Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Our heavenly Father, you see, has no secrets from you, none that matter to us anyway. His bares His very soul to you in sending His Word into your flesh and blood. Trust Him now. Believe in Him, and live. Know that the God who would do such a great and mighty deed would never seek to hurt or harm you. He loves you, with every fiber of His being. Could there be any greater gift? No. That is the gift of Christmas. God becomes man so that we might become like unto God. He comes down, here and now, so that you might ascend to him. Another early pastor (St. Cyril of Alexandria) put it like this:

He found humanity reduced to the level of the beasts. Therefore he is placed like feed in a manger, that we, having left behind our carnal desires, might rise up to that degree of intelligence which befits human nature. Whereas we were brutish in soul, by now approaching the manger, yes, his table, we find no longer feed, but the bread from heaven, which is the body of life.[1][2]

So come, feast upon the Word made Flesh for you. Feast and rejoice, for God has drawn you up into Him! Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.


[1] 4Here Luther seems to be referring to a distinction which originated in Stoic thought and which appeared in Philo between the λόγος ἐδιάθετος (the Logos as He was in God) and the λόγος προφορικός (the Logos as He emanated from God). The first church father to employ the distinction appears to have been Theophilus, To Autolycus, II, ch. 10; II, ch. 22.
Martin Luther, vol. 22, Luther’s Works, Vol. 22 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 1-4, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther’s Works (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1957), 22:8.
[2] [1] COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 1. Just, A. A. (2005). Vol. 3: Luke. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 3. (39). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.

I’ve always loved that phrase at the end of Luther’s hymn, “While angels sing with pious mirth A glad new year to all the earth.” Pious mirth. It is easy in the hustle and bustle of our lives, to forget to laugh and have true joy. Truth be told, often laughter is pretty low on our “to do” list of things for the Christmas season.

But the angels have something to teach us about how we look at these things. The events themselves are pretty simple. We just heard the story from our children, and from Dr. Luther’s marvelous hymn. But simple does not mean unimportant. Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. While they are there, Mary gives birth to her Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord.

That’s it. Oh, there are more details to be had, things to be said, and the like. But the bare facts of it are quite simple. Jesus is born. And with this event, everything changes for you and me, indeed for the entire world.

Because Jesus is born, the story, your story, now has an ending in joy, not sorrow.

Because Jesus is born, these children here have a future that is bright with the light of eternity.

Because Jesus is born, your griefs will come to an end.

Because Jesus is born, the road to the cross is set, and your salvation is at hand.

Because Jesus is born, your sins do not define you. They will be cast off with His death and resurrection.

Because Jesus is born, all of Satan’s plans have come unraveled like so many loose beads on a string.

Because Jesus is born, the gates of hell itself are shaken at the cry of this little babe.

Because Jesus is born, you can sing with the angels of God’s glory now come to earth.

Because Jesus is born, you can now depart in peace. Death is but a quiet slumber, the sleep of a child who will awaken at the call of their Father.

Because Jesus is born, no matter how dark the night is for you, the dawn of a new day in Christ is here.

Because Jesus is born, you can now laugh with the pious mirth of the angels, knowing that your champion is now at hand.

So this night, as we hear the story anew and learn from our children about the Christ child, laugh with the angels. A glad new year is here for all the earth. You are at peace. God loves you. He comes to you now in Word and Meal, ready ever to forgive and to draw you into that gracious embrace.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake, and Merry Christmas in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Christmas01-2010

TITLE: “Perspective”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from Luke 2, with focus on the words from Leviticus, “My eyes have seen your salvation.”

The Bible is always talking about how you look at things. Each one of us has a perspective, a way of looking at the world which is unique to us. Now many of these perspectives are good, and oftentimes they even make us who we are. Sometimes when you look at something, you think its funny, even if no one else gets it! It’s a part of the way you look at the world. It’s a part of what makes you human.

There was another man who had a perspective on things. His name was Simeon. He was, by many accounts, an old man. He was what the Israelites of Jesus’ day called “righteous.” That means he placed his hope in the coming of the Messiah, who would be the consolation of Israel.

Simeon spent his time in the Temple in Jerusalem. We might call it the church. This was where the people of God gathered for sacrifice and prayer and thanksgiving. It was the center of their worship life. This Temple was over seventeen acres in size, so we’re not talking about a little country church here. It was massive, and but the looks of things, if God was going to be anywhere, it would be in a big, impressive place like Herod’s Temple.

So there sat Simeon, waiting for the consolation of Israel. He was looking for something. Or more accurately, he was looking for someone, he was looking for the Messiah. He had been waiting, along with Anna the prophetess, for a very long time. For Simeon knew, because the Holy Spirit had revealed it to him, he knew that God was going to send one who would come and save His people from their sins. And so he waited. And waited. And waited. Many people had given up waiting on God. But God, as St. Paul reminds us today, works in the fullness of time. God works when and where He wills, and when He determines that things are right as they need to be, then that is when it will be so.

Into the picture came Jesus. He was forty days old, and H

is mother and step-father came to present Him at the Temple. When Simeon saw this little baby, He knew that the time had come. God had revealed the Messiah to him in the person of the infant Jesus. So Simeon took our Lord into His arms, and said “Lord, now you are letting your servant go in peace, according to your Word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people. A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

It’s all about perspective, dear friends in Christ. It’s all about how you look at things. For the people of Jesus’ day, most of them saw a little baby from a poor family. They couldn’t even afford a lamb for the sacrifice, so they had to bring two turtledoves! They were the lower element in society. But it was not so for Simeon. What he saw when he held the infant Jesus in his arms was God in the flesh. He saw the salvation of God come down to visit His people. Simeon saw in that little child life itself, eternal life for him and for all of the people of God.

So then let’s ask the question: what do you see when you come to church? Do you see a pretty building with lovely flowers and a manger scene? Do you see people you know and don’t know, like and don’t like? Do you see Laws and obligations and trials? When you come to this place, what do you see? God wants you to see what Simeon saw according to the Word of God. God wants you to see with your ears, if you can believe it. For looks can be deceiving. What your eyes see is sinners, brick and mortar, bread and wine. But what you see by faith in this place is far, far greater. For with Simeon, here you see the very Word made flesh for you. Jesus says to you this day, This is my body, this is my blood, given for the forgiveness of your sins. What you see here in this place is no less than the very gate of heaven, and eternal life coming into your flesh and blood.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? It’s hard to believe that anyone would stay away from such a place, isn’t it? Can you imagine knowing that the almighty God is coming down by His Word to this very place, and not coming? Yet that is sadly what often happens. We all make decisions about whether to come to church or not, whether to make it a priority or not.

But rather than blast away with the Law, God gently and continually comes down to this place. Day after day, week after week, year after year he comes. He comes for you. He comes to forgive your sins and to carry you home to be with Him in heaven. His love and patience knows no bounds.

This is one of the many reasons why our Lord came to earth as a little baby. He does not want you to be afraid of Him, but to take Him into your lap and, if you will, make Him a part of your family. For our Lord longs to be with you, to take your sins into Himself, and for you to worship Him as He truly is.

This Christmastide we remember the saints of old like Simeon and Anna and all the others in these familiar stories who had perspective. Here in the church, it is not simply a matter of diversity and differences of opinion. It is the difference between the perspective of faith and of unbelief. God grant you the perspective to see what is truly important in your life, and to look with the eyes of Simeon. For your eyes have seen His salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, the infant God.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols (Dec. 24, 2010)

Lessonsanscarola2010_01

TITLE: “Lover of Humanity”

God loves to be with His people. We fascinate Him. This fascination is not the fascination of a scientist, performing experiments upon us to see how we behave. Nor is His fascination like going to a circus or some kind of horror show. There are some things, or people, we are fascinated with because they are so bizarre or so wrong that we can’t tear our eyes away from them. It is no accident that movies of war and disaster and heartache are so popular. They are popular because we love to play the social scientist or the crowd at the zoo or the voyeur on other’s pain.

But when it really comes down to it, by nature you and I want to run away from actual people and their problems. It is easy to become modern monks and nuns, hiding away in ghettos of our own making. It is easy to talk about love and happiness and peace and joy this season, as long as it is on our own terms. If I am going to be a philanthropist, if I am going to be a lover of humanity, then it has to be on my turf. I don’t want to love all of humanity. I want to love humanity if it is safe, if it doesn’t inconvenience me overmuch. I want to love humanity in a way that doesn’t affect my budget. I do not want to love humanity if it puts me or the ones that I really love in danger. I will love humanity if it doesn’t mean actually dealing with people and their problems.

Let’s face it, our love may be deep for one, shallow for another. Our love is imperfect, frail and weak. The millstone of sin still hangs upon us, keeping us from loving as we ought, even in this most holy of seasons.

But unlike you and I, God loves to be with His people. Even with our weaknesses. Even with our rebellion and shallow plastic love. Despite all of our shortcomings and sins, God loves to be with you. His love for you is such that He comes to be with you in a way that no one could really fathom. He comes to you helpless as a little child. Who could fear a God like that? He comes to you to take on your slavery so that you might be free.

Where we run away, God jumps in. God jumps right into your life. He jumps into broken marriages and messed up families. He jumps into the prisons and the bars of our own making. He enters into the cancers and heart attacks and strokes and pains that only you and He can truly know. He jumps right in, wades through this muck and gunk, and says to you, “Here I am! Don’t be afraid.”

What kind of a God is that? This God, the God of love, the God who loves you, the God who takes on your flesh and blood, He comes here to save you from sin, death and the power of the devil. St. Paul put it this way,

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3–7 ESV)

This is a night of rejoicing. Christ has come to you as one of you. He has come to pour out His love for you. The Word was made flesh and now gives that flesh of Himself to you on the altar. God loves to be with His people, and you are His people, the sheep of His pasture. You are His family. Rejoice with the angels and shepherds and sinners this night. God loves you dearly. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith until life everlasting. Amen.

Jesus Was Born in a Stable of Dung. Jerome: He found no room in the Holy of Holies that shone with gold, precious stones, pure silk and silver. He is not born in the midst of gold and riches, but in the midst of dung, in a stable where our sins were filthier than the dung. He is born on a dunghill in order to lift up those who come from it: “From the dunghill he lifts up the poor.” On the Nativity of the Lord. (Just, A. A. (2005). Vol. 3: Luke. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture NT 3. (39). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.)

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Advent 4 (Dec. 19, 2010 rev. from 2003)

John 1:19-28

Advent4-2010_01

TITLE: “Losing the Cares of the Season in the Blood of Jesus”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is from John chapter 1, Prepare the way of the Lord, and also the words from our Epistle: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

This is hardly the time of year for us to be talking about letting go of anxiousness.  There is more anxiety this month than the other eleven months of the year combined.  Don’t you ever wonder why that is?  What is it about the way we celebrate and remember our Lord’s birth that makes it so that we hardly have time to sit down, far less meditate and reflect upon the Word of God that was made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary?

And yet here it is.  These two messages from God’s Word, side by side: Prepare the way of the Lord and don’t be anxious.

So let’s do a little bit of self-examination according to the Word of God right now.  What is it about your preparation for the coming of the Messiah which makes you anxious?  In other words, how do you prepare for Christmas?  What does it mean to prepare for Christmas?

What it means for the world is decorating the house, making cookies, buying lots of presents, eating, drinking, maybe caroling, being with family, and the like.  Church, I suppose, might fit in there somewhere.  And, as we talked about last week, everything that can go wrong will go wrong in the month of December.

Now I’m going to tell you something that is very important and yet may offend your sensibilities a little bit, but in keeping with John the Baptist it seems both appropriate and necessary.  The Lord doesn’t care what your house looks like on Christmas.  He doesn’t care how nice your presents are or what the tree looks like.  He doesn’t care what you have for Christmas dinner or whether Aunt Thelmalou is going to make it from up north this year.  That is not what the Lord means when he says prepare.  Well, I should back up a little bit.  It’s not that He doesn’t care.  He cares very much.  But that’s not what he means when he says to prepare for Christmas.

What He means when he says prepare is repent.  Repent of believing that you have everything under control.  Repent of believing that Christmas is all about you and all about your traditions and niceties which seem so very important at the time.  Repent, for if these things distract you from the real point of Christmas, then they do not serve you and your family, they have enslaved you by pulling your attention away from Jesus and His work for you.

Is that possible?  Is it possible in this most holy of seasons that in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle and silver bells and cockleshells that we might actually forget about Jesus?  It certainly seems that way.  Maybe you read the article in the paper this past week about the public school here in town that forgot to put any Christmas music in their holiday concert.  The answer, of course, was that in the midst of Kwanza and Hannukah and all of the other really important holidays, well, it seems like they just forgot.

Now it’s easy to poke fun at others, but John the Baptist preaches to you today, not them.  We shouldn’t expect the world to understand the Gospel.  But John asks you the question today, have you prepared your heart for the coming of the Righteous One?  Have you reflected on why Jesus had to come to earth as a little baby?  Do you know why He came?  He came to die.  That’s it.  It is your sins that caused Him to come down and die.  That is something worth reflecting on.

This gets us a long way toward letting go of the anxiousness of the season that the devil and the world try to thrust upon us.   It is his goal to see to it that all of the “stuff” that makes your life crazy and stressed and hard to deal with will draw your eye away from the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So enough talking about you.  Let’s talk about Jesus.  For that is what the season is really about, isn’t it?  In fact, that is exactly how Paul understands this whole question of rejoicing and anxiousness.  Remember Paul’s words again from our Epistle reading: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God

Paul calls on you to rejoice this season and be gentle toward everyone you meet.  Why?  Because Santa is watching?  Hardly.  Paul calls on you to rejoice because the Lord is at hand.  The Lord is at hand.  He is waiting at the door.  Right around the corner.  He is nearby.  He is so near, in fact, that he is in your ears by His Word and in your mouth by His Sacrament.  That is how close the Lord is.  And that is what Advent and Christmas are all about.  Jesus.  For He comes down mightily to save you.

So think of it this way.  The Almighty Lord and King of the Universe is just about to rain down His salvation from heaven in the form of his only begotten Son.  The He is coming down for you, and only for you.  That is the message of the preacher, John the Baptist.  Right after our Gospel reading for this morning, John points to Jesus and says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as our choir sang so beautifully a few minutes ago.  He is the very Lamb of God, who takes away all your sins.  And if your sins are gone, then what is there to be anxious about?  If God will come down to earth to die for your sins, then I believe that he will take care of whatever it is that causes you worry and anxiousness.

Jesus is coming soon, dear Christians.  He is coming soon for you.  Cast aside all of your troubles and worry that this and every season seem to bring on.  Cast them away!  For in the light of His eternal love, they are but a gentle snowfall on a midwinter’s day.  Jesus is coming.  Let us pray:

Stir up your power, O Lord, we implore You, and come among us, that by Your grace whatever is hindered by our sins may yet be speedily accomplished through Your mercy and satisfaction; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Christmas 2 (January 4, 2009, revised from 2003)
Matthew 2:13-23

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Flight of the Christian Life”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this morning is from Matthew chapter 2, the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt.

Many, many years ago God called a man named Jacob to go to Egypt.  Jacob was an old man, he was tired and hungry, and there was no sign of rest for his soul.  His soul had been restless and in pain since the loss of his son, Joseph, so many years before.  Imagine what it must have been like, to believe your favorite son was lost and killed all those many years.  No father should ever have to bury his own son.  And there they were, left in the land of Canaan, in the midst of a famine.  No food, enemies on every side.  Where should they go?

Egypt.  That is where God commanded that they go.  It was a foreign land, a land of pagans and strangers to the Lord God.  And yet that is where God sent them to go.  Jacob didn’t know that his son Joseph was the governor of Egypt.  Joseph was really their protector, and he was the one that God would use to keep his father Jacob and all of his brothers’ safe, especially Judah.  But God is always taking strange circumstances and bringing about great blessings.

Thousands of years later, another son of Jacob would go down to Egypt, but this son of Israel was not fleeing hunger.  He was fleeing the wrath and hatred of Herod the Great.   Herod could not bear the thought that their might be a King in Israel.  He couldn’t stand the idea that anyone but he would be in charge and in control of his little kingdom.  His hatred for Jesus ran so deep that Herod ordered every male child under two years old in Bethlehem be murdered.

It’s hard to imagine that kind of hatred for the Prince of Peace, isn’t it?  This is the part of the Christmas story where most people kind of want to close the book.  What could be so threatening about a little infant?  Would he start a rebellion?  Would he lead the people to go against King Herod?  What could he possibly do to deserve such hatred?

That’s the thing about Jesus.  For Herod, Jesus represented everything that was wrong in the world.  Herod could not understand the concept of forgiveness, or that God would pay the price for our sins.  It was unfathomable, unthinkable that God would pay for our trespasses.  He must have something else in mind!  He must be trying to take away my power as the king, or so Herod thought.  But Herod did not, could not understand, just like the world cannot fathom the depth of God’s love in the Gospel today.  The world cannot understand God’s love, and so the world rejects Him.

So Jesus fled to Egypt, just like his father Jacob did so many years before.  And just like his great-great-great-grandfather Jacob, Jesus was protected by a Joseph, this time His foster-father.  God used one Joseph to keep the family line and the promised Messiah coming so many years before, and he again used another Joseph to protect this little infant King and his mother.  You see, this is all about timing for our infant King.  His time to die had not yet come.  God protected Him now, but there would come a time when God would unleash His own wrath upon His only-begotten Son, so that your suffering would have an end.

We’re getting a little glimpse into Jesus’ life here, and already we see that this life is not an easy one.  Born amidst the animals, no place to lay His head, this little one will do battle for your soul His entire life.  But the battle He fights will not be fought with swords and guns and weapons.  No, His weapons are poverty and weakness.   He survives on the charity of strangers, but that charity will run out.  He does all of this because of His great love for you, His wayward children.

So what does this mean to you?  What Jesus does this morning is teaches us how to understand our lives of suffering and hardship.  St. Peter tells us in our Epistle that if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.  In order for us to understand this suffering, though, we really have to see ourselves in Jesus’ life.  He left His home for a foreign land, and God saw Him through.  The foreign land to which He traveled, though, was not finally Egypt.  It was death itself.  For truly, what could be more foreign to the eternal Son of God that the road of death?

Yet that is the road that He took for you.  His journey is the road to death, so that your journey does not end in death, but life.  That is the miracle of Jesus’ birth into our flesh.  The real miracle does not lie in how humble was His birth, or the beauty of the scene, or any of these things.  No, the miracle lies in the reality that when He takes on our life, He gathers all of our hurt and suffering and sorrow into Himself.  So when you look at His life, that is your life in Him.

As we near the close of this Christmas season, this is an important lesson for us pilgrims here on earth.  When we talk about the Christian life here on earth, God calls us to look at it through the lens of Jesus’ life.  God does not call you to a life of perfection, victorious living, happiness and fulfillment.  That is what Satan falsely promised Adam and Eve in the Garden.  No, God has bigger plans for you and I.  He calls you in Baptism to a life of suffering and trial, but a life that is shaped by the cross of Jesus Christ.

This is a far greater life, because it is a life of sacrifice that is lived in God.  Only God can bring this about in your life.  You and I just don’t live lives of sacrifice by nature.  You and I are inward focused, self absorbed and possessive, not unlike our friend Herod from our text.  That is how you live.  But by your Baptism, God creates you anew, and gives you this life that is lived in Him and in your neighbor.  You are Joseph and Mary, taking care of the Christ child.  It’s a strange though, isn’t it?  And yet that is the reality of Jesus’ birth.  Jesus puts His very life into the hands of sinners like you and I.
His own life is wrapped up in yours.  When you hurt and suffer, He hurts and suffers.  When He lives the perfect life of obedience to the will and Word of God, you live that perfect life.  And when He finishes His great journey to the cross and the empty tomb, your pilgrimage is complete.

Oh, to be sure, we still have these trials and hardships here on earth.  But look at this babe fleeing in the arms of His mother.  If God can live such a harried and difficult life for you, don’t you think He’ll take care of you here on earth?  That is the gift that He brings to you this Christmastide that goes beyond all understanding.  He gives you the gift of peace, peace that He is in charge.  Peace that He has suffered all things for you.  And peace that will bring you eternal life.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

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TITLE: “Knowing the Mind of God”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel lesson from St. John chapter one, particularly verse fourteen: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NKJV)  This morning we will reflect in wonder upon the mystery that in Jesus Christ, God bares His soul to us and gives of Himself in a way that none of us can ever truly comprehend.

Every one of us has a sort of running conversation that goes on within us.  You know what I mean.  You talk to yourself.  You talk to yourself about whether to get out of bed, what clothes to wear, how you feel, what you want to do, how much coffee to drink.  You can have pretty extended conversations with yourself.  Luther talks about this as follows:

Furthermore, we must realize that this Word in God is entirely different from my word or yours. For we, too, have a word, especially a “word of the heart,” as the holy fathers call it.4 When, for example, we think about something and diligently investigate it, we have words; we carry on a conversation with ourselves. Its content is unknown to all but ourselves until such Words of the heart are translated into oral words and speech, which we now utter after we have revolved them in our heart and have reflected on them for a long time. Not until then is our word heard and understood by others. St. Paul touches on this in First Corinthians (2:11): “No person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to know another person like that, to peek in to their interior monologue?  None of us ever knows another person that way.  First of all, we would all be too afraid.  Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, we would run and hide at the thought of another person truly knowing our thoughts.  They are too close, too private, too personal.  They are too full of sin and selfishness and heartache and sorrow and want and need and pain.  None of us could bear that level of self-disclosure.  None of us could handle being that exposed.  Not to our children.  Not even to our spouse.  It would be the ultimate in too much information.

Yet that is exactly what God does in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into our flesh.  The divine life of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, have existed in all eternity with that holy conversation going on.  The Father showing His will to the Son.  The Son receiving that will of the Father and returning it to Him, all happening in the Spirit.

But God, who is rich in mercy, did not wish to exist simply in Himself.  He spoke the Word, and it went forth in creation, making a world out of nothing.  God bared His soul to the world.  But sin entered in, and the voice of God was not heard.  We stopped up our ears to His voice.  We refused to listen to all of the great and mighty things that He wanted to tell us.  So He sent His prophets.  Time and time again God sent them, so that His mind would be made known to us.  But what did we do?  We killed them.  We threw them out of our cities.  We were too busy, too bored, too uninterested in the things of God to care about such trifles.

But finally, God bared His soul to the world in a way that none of us could ever truly comprehend.  He sent His Son, His Word made flesh.  The author to the book of Hebrews put it this way:

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” (Hebrews 1:1-2 NKJV)

God has bared His soul to you.  He has opened His mind to you by sending His Word, His Son, His voice into your flesh and blood.  It is unfathomable.  It is mysterious and wonderful.  It is the greatest gift that anyone has ever given, anywhere.  And it is all for you.  Two of God’s children had that Name and Word put on them this morning in Holy Baptism, as each of you did at just the right time.

Our heavenly Father, you see, has no secrets from you, none that matter to us anyway.  His bares His very soul to you in sending His Word into your flesh and blood.  Trust Him now.  Believe in Him, and live.  Know that the God who would do such a great and mighty deed would never seek to hurt or harm you.  He loves you, with every fiber of His being.  Could there be any greater gift?  No.  That is the gift of Christmas.  God becomes man so that we might become like unto God.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

And now may the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

The Christ-Mass is ended.  The children are in bed.  All the presents are wrapped and under the tree.  The nog has been drunk.  The morning will bring two baptisms and the festival divine service.  It’s time for a long winter’s nap.

Except for the long part.

Sleep well, dear friends.  We rise with our Lord.

-LL