The Mystery (Epiphany II, 2012)

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read from St. John chapter two. We will be looking at how God is present with us in grace for all the events of our lives, big and little, important and what seems unimportant to us.

Jesus came to the wedding. It’s really that simple sometimes. Jesus came to the wedding, and everything was different. We don’t know why He came. We don’t know the couple. We don’t know who the master of the feast was. We don’t know why they were such poor planners when it came to the wine for the feast, although to be fair, a wedding feast in Jesus’ time typically lasted seven days. That’s a lot of planning. We know Jesus was there, and Mary, His mother. And some of the disciples. And we know that with Jesus’ presence, everything changed and became new.

So often when it comes to the days and events of our lives, can feel like Jesus isn’t there. Accidents. Mess ups. Problems at home or at school or at work. We may be tempted to ask the question to God much like Moses, “Show me your glory.” “Look, Lord,” we might think to ourselves. “I know you’re God and that I’m not. I know that you can do all things. But people depend on me, and truth be told, I’m afraid. I’m afraid they won’t trust me or you. I’m afraid that when the going gets tough, that you won’t be there.”

If we are honest with ourselves, every one of us has these doubts and thoughts from time to time. Another variation is this, “Would God really care about all of these little problems that I have in my life? Shouldn’t He worry about bigger problems like world hunger or the salvation of mankind?”

There’s actually been some talk about this question in the news lately, although you may not have noticed it. For football fans, you know who Tim Tebow is. He’s the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. This has been a remarkable season for him, pulling out wins when it seemed impossible against all odds. What’s more, Mr. Tebow is an outspoken, overt Christian. It has gotten some people asking the question, “Does God want Tim Tebow to win? What if he plays someone else who is a Christian? Would God pick sides?” And what does it mean now that their season is over with the loss yesterday?

It almost sounds silly, doesn’t it? I mean, really. Does God really care about football?

The question could even be asked about more serious matters. You have probably heard the stories from World War One, when the Axis and Allies were on opposite sides of some trench in France on Christmas Eve, when they started sining Christmas carols to and with one another. Would God take sides when two Christians are both doing their duty against each other?

Speaking of war, let’s get back to this wedding, shall we? In marriage one can easily become obsessed with keeping score and determining who is right and who is wrong in any given matter. Like both football and war, the battle of the sexes in our homes can really make us wonder where God fits into the day to day events which we all face and struggle with. A wife brings that one chore up that isn’t getting done, and the husband loses his temper. Who do you think was blamed for running out of wine at the wedding? The master of the feast? The bride’s family? Somebody else?

The reality is that little things do matter to you and to me. In a marriage, putting your shoes away or taking care of the car when it needs work matters. It matters! Why? Because those little things of everyday life show your spouse, or parents, or children, or whomever it is that you believe they matter, and that what is important to them is important to you. Husbands, if you give yourselves up for your wives, as St. Paul exhorts in Ephesians 5, that shows your wife that you truly love her and that she is the most important person in your life. Wives, if you submit to your husbands, as St. Paul exhorts in Ephesians 5, that shows him that you trust him and trust his judgment, even (frankly) when it doesn’t make sense. The little things matter.

Now I agree with Paul here. This is a great mystery. But what we’re really talking about here finally is Christ and His holy bride, the Church. It’s like this. Christ loves the Church, His bride. He gives up everything for her. He cares as much about the little things as He does the big things. He wants her to be spotless and holy, pure in every way at the wedding feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end. And for that reason, He washes her with water and Word, He cleanses her, and puts upon her that most beautiful of white garments, the white robe of righteousness that He paid for with His own blood. Christ wants to spend eternity with His bride, not just a one night stand or “until love parts from us”.

His love for you, His Church, His bride, is such that every little thing matters. God has numbered the very hairs on your head. He knows every joy and sorrow you have had or will ever have. He rejoices when you rejoice and weeps when you weep. Even if it’s over a football game. (That, by the way, is no prediction of anything this afternoon!) You see, beloved, there is nothing too small or too great for our heavenly bridegroom, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus came to the wedding. And Mary, as a picture of the Church, tells our Lord what is wrong and then simply says, “do whatever He asks.” Today Christ Himself comes to you in preaching and Word and water and holy meal. He takes the little problems and the great into Himself. Your problems are His problems, and His righteousness is now yours.

So come to the wedding feast now. There’s plenty of wine, which is His blood, and bread, which is His body. He gives you Himself, completely. Come and believe. Come and live. Come to the wedding feast. All things are now ready.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

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

Knowing the Mind of God – Christmas Day 2011

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Christmas Day 2011 (rev. from 2008)
John 1:1-14

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.

“Because” Christmas Children’s Evening Prayer – 2011

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In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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.

Mary – Advent 4 (alternate) 2011

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read, the visitation of Mary and Elizabeth, as well as the song of Mary, the Magnificat.

I’ve always loved the texts centered around Mary. Maybe that makes me a bad Lutheran, I’m not sure. But there is something simple, profound and beautiful about how the mother of God is portrayed, especially in Luke’s Gospel. It is time to take a brief pause from our Christmas preparations, and reflect for a moment on what is really going on here. One author wrote about Mary’s *Magnificat* that it is like an aria in an opera. Everything is moving along in the plot, things are happening, people are dying or loving or fighting or whatever is going on, and then up steps the soprano to sing about what is in her heart. All of the action stops. Everyone turns to her. And listens. Let’s hear what the mother of our Lord has to say this morning.

This morning we hear the story of Mary’s visitation to her cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth at this time is six months pregnant. You might remember that she was well past child rearing age when God came to her husband, Zacharias, through the angel Gabriel, to tell them that they would be having a son. The son’s name would be John, which means “God is gracious”. This son, we know him as John the Baptist, is the greatest of everyone born of women, according to Jesus.

So imagine the scene. Elizabeth is bearing a son, in fulfillment of prophecy. Elizabeth is the bearer of the Old Testament. Images of Sarah, of Ruth, of Hannah, and of all the other women who had miraculous births all come to mind. In Elizabeth we find the pinnacle of God’s Word that He always keeps His promises. Well, not quite the pinnacle. For now we have Mary, a young maiden probably fifteen or sixteen years old, who bears not just a prophet, but the very Son of God Himself. At the greeting of Mary, John leapt in his mother’s womb! Even John, not yet born, knew that this was a big deal that Mary would be in their midt.

But Lutherans don’t like talking about Mary. Well, I guess we don’t mind it as long as it is a part of a manger scene or it’s straight out of the bible. But to Lutheran sensibilities, to talk too much about Mary just sounds a little too Roman Catholic.

Perhaps so. We don’t worship Mary, and to do so would be as horrific to her as it would to any Lutheran. But at the same time, when we honor Mary and call her blessed, as she reminds us in the Magnificat, when we do this, we are not honoring Mary, but her Son.

Recognizing the place of Mary in our lives as Christians is really confessing that God became Man. It’s that simple. God didn’t become human, in some vague, androgynous sense. No, He became man. It was a long process. Prophesied for thousands of years, all the way back to Eve and Adam in the Garden. Slowly in type, from age to age, the nations saw their coming Lord. 9 months in the womb of a young girl named Mary. Yet it is that very ordinariness, that very humanity of His journey into our lives that opens up the wonder of God to poor sinners like you and I.

The fact is that Jesus came into the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. When he did this, he sanctified and set apart all wombs as holy and sacred in God’s sight. God works through real life and death, people like you and me, to bring about His mightiest deeds. God Himself lifted up Mary and made her the Mother of God. Why did He do this? God did this because of grace. That’s actually what the text says. Remember again Gabriel’s words to her at the Annunciation, ““Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28 NKJV) And Elizabeth adds the following, “and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

In other words, dearly beloved, Mary is blessed by God because she is the mother of God. It is grace, pure and simple. But what’s even more important is that because she is blessed, you are blessed. God used her to bring our Lord, Jesus Christ, into the world. We celebrate His birth in but a few short days. So when we rejoice that Mary is the Mother of God, we are rejoicing that God has become man.

In so many ways, you and I have lost that sense of wonder at our Lord’s coming. We treat God’s merciful presence in our midst as an imposition. Going to church is one more task to tick off on the “to do” list of our lives. Even Christian congregations today don’t want to have church on Christmas! I will never get over how tragic that is.

Yet it is precisely for this reason that our Lord’s coming in human flesh and blood is so important. Mary cries out “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly estate of His handmaiden. For this day forth, all generations shall call me blessed.”

What this means for you is that God has come into your very midst. God is with you every bit as much as He was with her. God enters into your body and soul in His Holy Supper. God washes you with His Holy Baptism. God speaks to you by His Holy Word. God Himself has blessed you beyond all measure. You receive that blessing again and again in His Word of Absolution and Forgiveness spoken over you, the lowly sinner. Just like the Mother of God.

This coming week we will hear the story of our Lord’s birth told by the children of our congregation. How appropriate it is that our children teach us this story! It is the story of the ages. Mary’s story is your story, for in her womb lies your very lifeblood. We pray:

Remember, Lord of life and grace,
How once, to save our fallen race,
You put our human vesture on
And came to us as Mary’s Son (LW 45:3).

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

Advent Donkey Preachers

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We’ve all heard how if He could use a donkey then perhaps even me. Commendable humility, but don’t stop there looking at your humility–there’s more to being His donkey than that, gloriously much more. You are His donkey as you are no one else’s. Now there’s freedom! Let no one take it from you or lay on you some other yoke. …The yoke He puts on you at ordination. You belong, then, to no other lord, no other work, than what He puts you to do, than what He does by His use of you. You instrument. You donkey. For His use, for His doing, and so, Holy Ministry. …A yoke can be bondage, but not our Lord’s. He knows His donkeys and exactly where they are as Mark tells us with vivid locatedness. He has promised to be with them whom He sends. He is not a burden who crushes them. Quite the reverse. Who’s carrying whom? Dr. Luther has faithful donkey Peter say if we drown He does too. Royal donkeys. If that got through to us we would, as Luther was wont to say, die of joy.

 

Norman Nagel,

In the Name of Jesus, Advent 1, 1994