Month: January 2019

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Third Sunday after the Epiphany (Matthew 8:1-13)

Bethlehem Lutheran & Bethel Lutheran Church, Lebanon & Sweet Home, OR

Third Sunday after the Epiphany + January 27, 2019

Text: Matthew 8:1-13

            Throughout the Epiphany season, our Lord reveals who He is and what He’s come for.  So far, we’ve heard the proclamation of who He is—as a child, at the Jordan, and at the wedding at Cana.  Yet we’ve seen very little of how His arrival is received.

            Today we see how the Lord is to be received in two glorious miracles.  First, a leper approaches Jesus, kneeling before Him and says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”  From this brief encounter, we learn how we also ought to approach the Lord with our requests in prayer.  The leper, recognizing that Jesus is the Almighty Lord, approaches with confidence that Jesus will hear his request and has all power to grant it.  But this man also submits himself to God’s will in humility—“if you will, you can make me clean.”  He leaves the answer in the Lord’s hands.  He acknowledges that God’s will is always good, even if that meant staying in his painful and grotesque condition.

The Lord immediately answers the man’s prayer: “I will; be clean.”  And with a Word from the One through Whom all creation was formed, the leper is restored.  His flesh, like Naaman the Syrian, is “like the flesh of a little child.”[1]  All of this was in answer to a simple, trusting prayer to the Lord.

            In the second miracle, we learn even more about what this trust is, which is the root of effective prayer.  The faith of the Gentile centurion is such a shining example, that Jesus actually marvels at hearing it.  This faith, which Jesus praises so highly, isn’t something reserved for a select few figures in the pages of the Bible.  It is a faith which He desires to give each of us: it is the faith which receives God’s abundant blessing and in the end, eternal life.

            This Spirit-work faith has three parts to it—knowledge, affirmation, and trust.  These two men had come to know that Jesus was in the area, and the had probably heard reports about what He had done.  This is simply knowledge about Jesus.  Today, people would have a historical faith, acknowledging that Jesus was a historic figure, an important figure.

The next part of faith is affirmation.  These men knew that Jesus had a reputation for healings.  Affirming that knowledge of Jesus’ reputation, they went to find out more.  This is often where people are when they come to church for the first time.  They’ve heard some vague and spotty reports about Christianity, they’ve known Christians to be kind people.  So, acting on that, they give up a Sunday morning, maybe miss the first part of the Pro Bowl.  They’re willing to affirm that Christians don’t have a disease and aren’t going to try to make them drink the Kool Aid.

But that brings us to the last part of faith: Trust.  This is where the leper and the centurion put it on the line: “If you will, you can make me clean.”  “I am not worthy…but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  In the case of the leper, he staked his life and future in the community on what Jesus was able to do.  For the Centurion, his servant’s life hung in the balance.

This trust is the thing which only the Holy Spirit can work in men’s hearts.  None of us come to God with a true fear, love, or trust.  The Spirit works faith when and where it pleases God in those who hear the Gospel.[2]  And that remains a mystery to us, humanly speaking.  The same Word is preached from the pulpit, taught in confirmation class, and it touches the hearts of some, but others it just rolls off like water on a duck’s back.

But still the Word is true, and the Word is powerful.  It’s the Word of God to which faith clings.  We’ve already seen how the centurion didn’t shrink away because of his sinfulness, but neither did he look to the good he’d done as reason for Jesus to answer his request.  The centurion threw himself on Jesus’ Word—“only say the word, and my servant will be healed.  9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  This is what it means for man to “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”[3]  This is what faith lives on.

In the centurion’s confession, he is saying that he believes that Jesus is the one who can help his paralyzed servant.  Perhaps more people today would believe this if there weren’t such advanced medicine, which makes extravagant promises about itself.  The centurion sees that Jesus is the Almighty Lord, “who kills and makes alive, who wounds and who heals.”[4]  And just as he has a hundred soldiers under him who immediately obey his commands, he sees that Jesus has heaven and earth, life and death, at His command.

Likewise, the leper’s faith is bold enough to come to Jesus with a great request: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”  This man, a Jew (because he was sent to the priest), would have known that only God had the power to grant this request—Miriam was turned leprous by the Lord, Naaman’s servant Gehazi was also turned leprous, but believing Naaman was cleansed.[5]  Yet, he would have believed, even if it hadn’t been His will to cleanse Him.

That’s another part of this faithful trust that’s beyond our human power.  If faith were just a matter of willpower, it would stand to reason that at a certain point, affliction and attack would break someone’s faith.  After all, it so often breaks marriages and other trust relationships between people.  This was Satan’s argument about Job: “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9-11)

So, the Lord allowed Job’s faith to be tested.  In spite of circumstance, in spite of sinful weakness, Job’s faith held firm: “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” and as he sits in dust and his flesh covered in scabs, he says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 13:15, 19:25-27) That’s no human willpower, no naïve platitudes, that is the power of God which binds almighty God to His people.

This is why we should never say that what a person endures is harmful to their faith, whether long-standing illness, danger, or personal strife.  The power to destroy faith doesn’t lie in something external to us—The Good Shepherd knows His own and no one can snatch them out of His hand. (John 10:14, 28-29)  What endangers our faith is our own unbelief, blaspheming and sending away the very Holy Spirit by Whom a person is sealed for salvation.  Faith is weakened when we drift from His Word and the gathering of the saints in worship.  Faith is undermined when we make our trials and troubles greater than the Almighty God who has redeemed us.  Faith is destroyed when we deny the Almighty God who has made Himself known and comes to us in fact through His Word and Sacraments.

But how do you know you have faith?  When, in spite of all that is happening, or has happened to you, you don’t look to yourself or man for help.  When you are at the end of your rope, you look to God and say, “Lord, If you are willing, you can change this…only say the Word and it will be.”  Maybe you’re there, or you’ve been there in the past.  Maybe you’re not there yet.  God grant each of you such a genuine faith which gives up on yourself and completely trusts Him.

In a joyous outcome, the man of faith receives what he asked for, “’Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’  Those who have this genuine and saving faith are blessed.  The Psalmist David sings, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!”[6]  Blessed is the one who has this faith, not because everything in his life will be immediately fixed—all illnesses healed, all debts paid, all broken relationships mended.  The blessing of this faith is union with an almighty and gracious God in heaven.  When suffering comes, it means knowing for certain that God is not out to get you.  Rather, “God is treating you as sons” and “He has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”[7]  And one with this faith is blessed because, though he deserves temporal death and eternal punishment, he also believes that God has made peace with him through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

[1] 2 Kings 5:14

[2] Augsburg Confession, Article V “On the Office of the Ministry”

[3] Deuteronomy 8:3

[4] Deuteronomy 32:39

[5] Numbers 12:1-10; 2 Kings 5:13-27

[6] Psalm 40:4

[7] Hebrews 12:7 ; Galatians 4:6

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Second Sunday after the Epiphany ( John 2:1-11)

Bethlehem Lutheran & Bethel Lutheran Church, Lebanon & Sweet Home, OR

Second Sunday after the Epiphany + January 20, 2019

Text: John 2:1-11

When Moses was leading Israel through the wilderness toward the land of promise, he was content to know that the Lord went with them.  But more than a stranger on the bus, Moses knew that He wanted to know the Lord’s ways and find favor in His sight.  And God responded in kind: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  But even with the Lord’s promise to go with him, the knowing His ways, the promise, “I know you by name,” Moses longed for more.  He said to the Lord, “Show me your glory.”

But this request, the Lord was not going to fulfill.  It wasn’t the right time.  For all the closeness that Moses had, seeing God face to face, being known by Him, even having his face glow from being in the Lord’s presence—it wasn’t time to see His glory, because “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Exodus 32:20)

Around fifteen hundred years later, God is still with His people, but in a new way—a deeper way.  “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Building on the closeness that Moses knew, the Lord indeed is going with His people, He has made known His ways through Moses and the Law, and He is indeed personally present.  Again, there is a request: “They have no wine.”  But the response isn’t simply, “That’s not my concern”; it’s “My hour has not yet come.”  The answer is, not yet.  But even as Moses was given a glimpse of the glory of the Lord from the cleft of the rock, the Lord begins to reveal Himself to His people.

If we get caught up in how Jesus did this, or how much wine, or what quality it is, we miss the greatest thing: This sign is about God revealing Himself in a greater and new way to His people, a way that was not possible in times past.  “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.”  The Lord was unveiling His glory to His chosen people.

What is His glory?  Certainly there’s the technical answers about a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, how Moses could not enter the tabernacle because God’s glory had entered it.  But it’s easier to describe than that.  God’s glory is the unmediated intimacy which He has with man.  This has not been seen on earth since the Fall—ever since then it has been as the hymn says, “Though the eye of sinful man, Thy glory may not see.”  God’s glory has been held back, concealed, clothed.  Just as Adam and Eve could no longer be naked without shame, so God and man could not dwell together in perfect and shameless nakedness.  The union was broken with sin.

St. Paul speaks of this union which God desires with man in terms of marriage:

23 Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish… Christ nourishes and cherishes the church, 30 because we are members of his body…Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

He concludes by saying, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.” (v. 32)  You could say that marriage is an analogy for God’s quest to restore that intimacy with man that was lost in Eden.  And just like the closeness and intimacy of husband and wife, it unfolds over time.

The revelation of God’s glory is akin to man and woman and the road to becoming husband and wife.  Two people meet, and there’s chemistry, but they’re unsure, gradually getting to know one another.  Trust is developed over time and through experience. Infatuation strengthens into genuine love, self-sacrifice and putting the needs of the other above your own interests.  Then there’s the mutual agreement that this is the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with.  And upon being married, declared husband and wife before the community, leaving father and mother and holding fast to each other, that the point of consummation is reached.  Husband and wife become one flesh—bonded together physically, emotionally, and materially.  “What God has brought together, let no man rent asunder.” (Mark 10:9).

And what God has brought together begets children for husband and wife—now father and mother—to nurture together.  This is the order which God established, an earthly reflection of a heavenly reality, the union of man and woman as a parable of the salvation of the world.

But tragically, we human beings have turned over that order and the consequences are palpable.  Today, many Christian churches in America are commemorating Sanctity of Life Sunday, but this isn’t just a problem of abortion.  That’s only a symptom.  There is a culture of casting every tradition aside and fulfilling one’s passions that’s akin to desiring to see God’s glory before it’s the right time to be revealed.  We seek the glory of marriage before the right time and without the burden it involves.  Closeness is sought up front without the time and mutual trust which must come first, and it results in deep secrets being turned into weapons of revenge.  The expectation of sexual intimacy and pleasure are seen as the next step for dating couples, without the duty and commitment that undergird it.  That union is further divided when one turns that mutual enjoyment inward and substitutes an image on a screen.  Couples want to be one life and property, but without the legal obligations from the state which support and enforce that.

Led by hormones and a flippancy toward tradition, it’s actually the next generation that suffers. This is where abortion often shows up, as a desire to eliminate babies from the one flesh union.  Here, the CDC reports that 85.7% of abortions are by unmarried mothers—those who don’t have the stability of a committed husband who does the godly thing and raises the child he has brought into existence.[1]

But God did not jump the gun on His married intimacy with His Bride, the Church.  He revealed His glory when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law to redeem those under the Law.

How much we need God to bring us back to that intimacy we had with Him at the beginning!  And that is His burning desire!  God so often compares Himself to a husband longing to retrieve His wayward wife, because we are the ones who left Him.  We are the ones who left Him and made a mess of our lives and the lives of others.  In spite of our unfaithfulness, Christ, our husband, calls us back to Himself.  Even while we were delighting in immorality, Christ was dying for us.  While we were playing fancy free with His order, He was tirelessly seeking our place in His new creation.

At Cana in Galilee, Christ began to reveal His glory, “glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  That was just the start!  His glory was most fully revealed to us (so far) when He was lifted up on the cross to take away the sin of the world[2]—to take away your sin and mine.  That’s where God, your husband, not only revealed His heart, but also showed exactly what He was willing to do to win you back and restore that perfect intimacy.

And still, we have not seen all of His glory, but only as much as we are allowed to see now.  We have His Word, we have seen and believed in His Son, lifted up on the cross. The light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of His people Israel—is that He came in the flesh to redeem us.  Yet even still, our Bridegroom is with His Bride.  He hasn’t abandoned us or forsaken us while we wander through the wilderness.  To Moses, He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 32:14)  That was true enough then, but even more so now, because now our Bridegroom baptizes us into His death and resurrection.  He gives of us His Body and Blood to eat and drink.  He has made Himself one flesh with us, and we with Him.

So this day in time, as He comes to us with His Body and Blood, I want you to focus on the 2nd stanza of the hymn, “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness.” (LSB 636).  Stanza 2 expresses our longing for our heavenly Bridegroom:

Hasten as a bride to meet Him,

And with loving rev’rence greet Him.

For with words of life immortal

He is knocking at your portal.

Open wide the gates before Him,

Saying, as you there adore Him:

Grant, Lord, that I now receive You,

That I nevermore will leave You.

Amen.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/ss6713a1.htm

[2] John 12:23-24

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Religious Freedom Day

By David Closson

An American flag flies outside a church in Queens, N.Y. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A radical idea from the Founding Fathers that still works today

Since 1993, the president has formally recognized January 16th as Religious Freedom Day. The day marks the anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which cut formal ties between the Church of England and the state of Virginia.

In an age of hyper-partisanship, Religious Freedom Day offers all Americans — religious and nonreligious — an opportunity to celebrate and renew our commitment to safeguarding principles we have historically agreed on: religious liberty and conscience protection.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and passed into law in 1786, the Virginia Statute disestablished the state church, abolished parish taxes, and protected the civil rights of citizens to express their religious beliefs without fear of censure or reprisal. A precursor to the First Amendment, the Virginia law recognized the pursuit of religious truth as a basic human good and acknowledged that citizens should be free to live out their faith without imposition from the government. The law also anticipated Article 6 of the Constitution, which states that there “shall be no religious test” for anyone seeking to serve in public office.

Because religious freedom is largely taken for granted today, it is easy to forget the radical nature of Jefferson’s proposal when he first made it 233 years ago. At a time when cuius regio, eius religio (Latin for “whose realm, his religion”) was still the dominant way of conceiving the relationship between church and state, Jefferson argued that religion is inherently an interior matter between an individual and God and that consequently, faith cannot be coerced. The state has no business interfering with man’s quest for religious truth because God, not the state, is Lord of the conscience.

Moreover, true faith requires sincere adherence to specific doctrines. The state cannot force anyone to believe. While people may feign belief to avoid punishment, the state can never effect genuine belief at the level of conscience. Therefore, civil authorities should allow the free flow of religious opinions and use persuasion, not coercion, to encourage belief in God.

Historically, America’s commitment to religious freedom has enjoyed broad support. In fact, in 1993, when the issue was again brought to the nation’s attention by the Supreme Court’s decision in Employment Division v. Smith (1990), Congress responded by passing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) with a bipartisan consensus. Then-Congressman Charles Schumer drafted the House bill. In the Senate, the bill was introduced by Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.). The law passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and by a vote of 97-3 in the U.S. Senate and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

Article accessed from http://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/religious-freedom-day-vital-founding-principle/ on January 16, 2019. Our congregation does not have any affiliation with or endorsement of this news source.

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The Baptism of Our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

Bethlehem Lutheran & Bethel Lutheran Church, Lebanon & Sweet Home, OR

The Baptism of Our Lord + January 13, 2019

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

One of the devil’s tactics against Christians is to tell them that they are unworthy.  Here’s how it goes: Not necessarily about being unworthy to stand in God’s presence, but he will tell you that you are unworthy of the name Christian. Don’t you know that good Christians don’t cuss?  Don’t you know that a good Christian shouldn’t drink too much and always live a chaste and decent life?  You aren’t good enough to be called a Christian because you’re not sanctified enough and you’re too weak to overcome your sins.  Your life is full of pockmarks that say, this person’s screwed it up too big for even God to want to fix.

Then the devil points you to other people—who you’re to imagine are doing much better than you.  They must be doing something right, because they seem to have it together.  Their devotional life is so godly, their spirit is so gentle, and they bear their cross so gracefully.   Here, Facebook is a wonderful tool because it can play up notions of inadequacy as you scroll through the parts of other people’s lives they want you to see. They must be doing it right—just to make you feel more like you don’t measure up or could possibly never live up to that standard.

The final leg of Satan’s tactic is to make you feel alone.  You must be the only Christian who has ever struggled with sin this hard, and hasn’t been able to overcome a weakness.  God is far away and has far more important matters to attend to than your small requests and griefs.  I should just buckle down and try harder; I shouldn’t be so sad, and shouldn’t struggle in my faith.

The devil will take you everywhere except to the Jordan River where Jesus is.  There the Lord of Glory stands in the midst of sinners.  He does not quench a faintly burning wick, but upholds the weak in faith, the attacked, those who have been humbled by the weakness of their flesh, those whose cheeks are stained with tears from their own sins and the sin and death that has happened to them.

But who do we find in the Jordan?  John the Baptist recognizes Him: “I need to be baptized by You and do You come to me?”  I am not worthy to untie the strap of your sandal. I’m no better than any of these others who stand confessing their sins!

Jesus came to these waters willingly.  “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  He’s come exactly for this purpose and there is no place He would rather be, than in the midst of these sinners to fulfill righteousness for them.  He is truly the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and when He is lifted up on the cross to draw all men to Himself (John 1:29, 12:32).

Where does that leave you and me today?  St. Paul writes to the 1st century Corinthian Christians and us:

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

“Consider your calling, brothers,” he says.  Think about where you were when God worked faith in your heart to believe that Jesus shed His blood in love for you.  So, think about it!  Whether it was a special moment in your life or you’ve just always known it, I want you to think about what brought you to the foot of Jesus’ cross.  Was it like a job interview where you put forth your best foot, showing your qualifications, and waited to be called back?  Was it like buying a house where you put in an offer and hope that you’ve made an appealing enough offer?  Nothing of the sort!

In fact, God’s amazing grace and power is displayed in calling the under-qualfied, the undeserving, the screw-ups and backsliders.  God chooses to do it this way, so that every one of us would know that it is not because of any personal advantage that we have been chosen by God—no merits, no seniority ladder, no coming from the right kind of family.  And that brings us into the dirty waters of the Jordan River with Jesus.  We stand together, a great mob of people who have this in common: none of us have something to boast about before God.  We are all equal recipients of God’s undeserved favor.

St. Paul is a great example of this himself.  He was an enemy of God when he was called, a real soldier of the devil’s cause against Christ and His Church.  He was in the middle of that mission when Christ knocked Him down on the road to Damascus and humbled him.  But it wasn’t a once-and-done conversion.  Even Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, wrestled with doubts about his past sins: “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given” (Eph. 3:8) and “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” (1 Tim. 1:13)  On top of that, he bore sins that he was not able to master or leave behind: “A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Cor. 12:7-9)

But you know, even at this point, we’re not safe from temptation to pride.  500 years ago, this Gospel was so rare that people flocked to hear it.  Today, Christians often go to the point of taking the Gospel for granted.  This is what we tell ourselves: I know I shouldn’t do this, but that’s okay, God will forgive me anyway.  I’m a child of God through faith, so it doesn’t matter what I do because God will always catch me.  That’s another deadly form of pride, because it’s a symptom of a hard heart that refuses to acknowledge what it cost to have Jesus stand in the Jordan and ultimately bear the world’s sins in His body on the cross.  It’s actually the same heart that says, it doesn’t matter what you believe, you’ll go to heaven as long as you’re a good person.

God chose what is weak, low, and despised to shame the strong and proud.  He calls people to Himself who confess that they have no power to save on their own.  What does God do for these weak and needy children?  St. Paul continues: “30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”  You have been given not only forgiveness of sins, but a strong protection against sin, the devil, and death.  Because God the Father called you, you are in Christ Jesus, meaning that you have the sure and certain love and protection that God bestows on His beloved Son.  The Voice that sounded from heaven, and the Spirit that descended on Jesus, spreads to include you.

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  You have a new existence in Jesus your Savior.  In Him, you have consolation in the weakness of your sins.  He gives you a mighty defense against Satan’s accusations, just as He faced the devil in the wilderness.  He daily and richly forgives all your sins, as your risen and glorified High Priest.  He has made you part of a communion of saints which spans time and place, earth and heaven. You are not alone to face sin, death, or devil alone because the Lord is with you to uphold you.

This is what it means to be given the name of “Christian.”  You are a sinner, standing in the Jordan, expectant and hoping in your Messiah and Savior, confessing your sins and believing in that full pardon that Jesus has gained for you.  Yes, you will be attacked, you will have doubts, and you will have weaknesses which the Lord in His wisdom doesn’t remove.  But “resist the devil, firm in your faith” because those evils are all meant by God to continually bring you to Christ crucified.  He is your strength and salvation.

St. Patrick preached this good news to the Irish, and the poem St. Patrick’s Breastplate reflects this confidence that we have from God:

I bind unto myself today
    The strong name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same,
    The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
    By pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation,
His Baptism in the Jordan River,
    His cross of death for my salvation,
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
    His riding up the heav’nly way,
His coming at the day of doom,
    I bind unto myself today.

Amen.

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The Epiphany of Our Lord (Isaiah 60:1-6)

Bethlehem Lutheran & Bethel Lutheran Church, Lebanon & Sweet Home, OR

The Epiphany of Our Lord + January 6, 2018

Text: Isaiah 60:1-6

Today begins the Epiphany season of the Church year.  This tradition of celebrating Epiphany comes to us from the Greek Church, where Epiphany means “to give light and cause to appear”[1]  Originally, this holy day commemorated several instances where God caused His glory to be revealed—the birth of our Lord, His Baptism in the Jordan, the Wedding at Cana, and the visit of the Magi—so it was duly named “Theophany” or God causing Himself to appear to men.  Now, we have each of those as separate holy feast days—Christmas, the Baptism of Our Lord, the visit of the Magi, and the sign at Cana in the season of Epiphany.

But why does God talk about light so much?  Why did we hear on Christmas, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2)  It’s because of what St. John describes at the beginning of his Gospel: “9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:9-11)

But this darkness is so deep, the agnosticism so great, that we are scarcely aware of how bad it is.  John Lennon sings, “Imagine there’s no heaven, no countries, no religion, and no possessions.”  But Mr. Lennon, our race’s problem runs deeper than squabbles over land claims, government conspiracies, religious zealotry, and the psychology of criminals.  True those are all things which plague our existence on earth, but the what’s behind all of it is that human beings have lost sight of their Creator.

“For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples”

Sin has cast darkness over the human race, and over each person’s heart.  Our own reason and strength are hamstrung and unable to know and worship God as we ought to.  The word translated “thick darkness” can also be translated “a fog” which we in the Willamette Valley should be able to relate to.  Imagine being lost in the middle of a field on one of our pea-soup nights and trying to find your way in the right direction.  That’s what sin has done to our ability to find and fully know God.

Not to mention, in that darkness which covers the earth, we are darkened in how we regard one another as fellow creatures of God.  Every violation of God’s good creation springs from the darkness between us and God.  We insert our own ideas about God, and thus invent idols or worship demons.  We spurn the good God does through parents and other authorities and fight against them.  We alienate from our fellow men and devalue their life and wellbeing.  We turn marriage into a plaything for our own pleasure, holding to our spouse when it’s convenient and building walls or casting them off entirely when things get hard.  Our lips become weapons against the good name of others and we give our image a boost by stepping on their back.  All the evil which is committed to us and which we ourselves are guilt of is the result of this darkness.

John Lennon wistfully repeats the chorus, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.”  But it doesn’t matter how many people you get together, the human race cannot and will not be saved by our own actions.

But heaven has seen our wretched state, and God has heard our anguished cries:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

      2           For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

                  but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will be seen upon you.

      3           And nations shall come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your rising.

God has shone His light into our darkened world to work our salvation.  Epiphany is God making His salvation to appear in the midst of darkness.  The incredible truth of that is that He did not wait for us to find our way to Him.

Today, we reflect on how God revealed Himself to people who were not seeking Him, but yet what they found was the true God.  Magi were astrologers, adept at seeking answers from heaven based on what the stars are doing.  Kings would put their faith in these “wise men” just as some people today order their days according to horoscopes and fortune cookies.  When a star like no other appeared, the Magi sought the king whose birth it announced.  Perhaps some of them had heard the prophecy of Balaam (another unlikely instrument of God), in Numbers 24:17: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.”  But with or without knowledge of that prophecy, God used the star to lead these men to Jesus and they worshipped Him and brought Him gifts.

But more importantly, this means that the Gospel has the power to bring salvation to all who believe—even sometimes to those who humanly speaking would be on the wrong track, like the Wise Men, or someone who comes to know the true God after dabbling in many religions.

4     Lift up your eyes all around, and see;

they all gather together, they come to you;

                  your sons shall come from afar,

and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.

      5           Then you shall see and be radiant;

your heart shall thrill and exult,

                  because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,

the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

      6           A multitude of camels shall cover you,

the young camels of Midian and Ephah;

all those from Sheba shall come.

                  They shall bring gold and frankincense,

and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

In our day, I think it’s easy to give far too much credit to the darkness, and far too little to the Light.  The darkness is great, and seems to be increasing.  Hypocrites give God and His Church a bad reputation, sex abuse scandals shake people’s faith, false religion is on the rise with people leaving “denominations” for a pop Christianity that fails to feed them with solid food.  That’s all not to mention the darkness that anyone can see in this world.

But Almighty God shines His light, despite the darkness. On Christmas Day we hear from John 1: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (v. 5)  God will not be overcome by darkness, because His intention is to save people, even though we are lost and scattered in our darkness.

The Light shines in the darkness, and this light has reached you.  Formerly you were wandering through the thick, foggy darkness of this world, but through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, you have seen the bright light of Your Creator and His Son, Your Savior.  As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come,” so God continues to answer that prayer.  The effect isn’t always apparent to us, but when we witness it, it’s a beautiful sight. 

What we need in the darkness of the world and our own hearts is God’s Light, which shines from outside us and shines within us.  God is faithful, and He will truly bring His sons and daughters from the ends of the earth—even through the fog of thick darkness—to share in His eternal Kingdom.  In that place, darkness will be no more, and all who have received His light will praise and exalt God’s Name in the presence of the holy angels and before the glorious throne of grace. The Apostle Paul confesses in 1 Timothy 6, “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.”  And yet, He has called us to approach and give Him our worship and praise now and into eternity.  “To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15-16)

[1] 2 Timothy 1:10