January 9, 2022 – Baptism of our Lord                Text:  Luke 3:15-22

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Zeno of Elea was a 5th century BC mathematician and philosopher known for paradoxical thought experiments.  Here is one such experiment.  Imagine walking across a street.  Now imagine that after your first step, you are required to limit each further step to one half of the distance of the previous step.  You take a two-foot step and then a one-foot step and then a six-inch step and then a three-inch step.  The paradox occurs because we keep halving our distance in miniscule movements.  In other words, Zeno is observing the possibility of constant, forward motion that never arrives at a destination.  Zeno’s paradox has us always moving, seemingly making progress, but never getting anywhere.

    Ever felt that way about life?  Or equate the paradox with eternity?  Will you get where you want and need to go?  And what does this have to do with Jesus’ Baptism?  Let’s find out together . . .

“THE DESTINATION IS IN SIGHT!”

    Our eyes are directed in our Gospel lesson to people in expectation.  They are waiting for something to happen.  The Israelites could appreciate Zeno’s thought experiment.  For generations they moved a lot but never seemed to get to their desired destination.

    The people were expectant but also in a predicament.  Caesar and the Roman Empire oppressed them.  Herod and their local government abused them.  They were weary of their national heritage and their earthly descendancy from Abraham was getting them nowhere.  Heaven certainly appeared closed on this day.

    We identify with their predicament.  We have our own troubled days.  We too experience weary frustration on the banks of the Covid River.  We have seen the failure of human knowledge, human rules, and human government to bring us to the destination that we seek.  We are men and women endlessly moving, but never getting anywhere.

    Since the Fall we are powerless to do anything about it.  Stubbornly we refuse to admit we have a problem.  After all, we are moving forward, aren’t we?  If we just try a little more we will get there, won’t we?

    The people in our text think the amazing John might be their solution.  John understands his limited power and unworthiness.  He can’t even untie sandals.  Human beings can’t create things that aren’t there.  The dinner you make is limited by the ingredients that you have.  If we expect human solutions from the ingredients of human knowledge, human rules, human politics, human ability, we will always be disappointed, always moving but never getting anywhere.

    Don’t despair, oh little soul.  Everything changes in verse 21:  “When Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.”  The heavens are opened!  The destination is in sight!  For the first time since the Garden of Eden and for all time evermore, the destination is reachable.  The Son of God, fully human, yet fully divine, in future time and timelessly crucified and risen from the dead, enters the waters of Baptism.  In this man the finite and infinite are miraculously made into one.  “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (v. 22)

    Jesus Christ is revealed by the Father’s voice.  Jesus, the only perfect human worthy of perfection has opened the infinite destination.  It is opened because He is the Creator of that destination.  Heaven is open to Christ because it belongs to Him.

    How does Jesus’ baptism end our predicament?  Because Jesus, Word in the flesh, in a miraculous way; remains in the water of Baptism.  He enters the water for all of eternity so that He might meet us in our Baptism.

    In the water of our Baptism, our failures as humans are killed with Christ upon the cross.  The life-giving Spirit creates faith, which gives this life.  Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4)

    Rejoice!  The destination is in sight!  What you could not achieve yourself has been granted to you by the power of God’s Son.  You have the assurance of heaven.  Have confidence in the Baptism of Jesus.  Have confidence in your Baptism.  We were powerless when Water and Word were used at our place of Baptism.  We are still powerless to progress to our destination.  Christ has ended our predicament, He has solved our problem, and He provides the means to arrive at our heavenly home.  True progress has been provided.  The destination is in sight! 

                                    Amen.   

January 2, 2022 – Epiphany                            Text:  Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Are you a skeptic?  Are you a person that questions everything and you have to see things to believe them?  I suppose for many of us our skepticism has to do what we are being asked to believe.

    One of the three definitions of a skeptic in the dictionary is this one:  “one who doubts or disbelieves in religious tenets.”  That number is growing.  Atheists believe we have outgrown God.  Adherence to Christianity is declining and more people are answering “none” when its come to their religion.  

    But we are an odd people.  We never had more Christmas movies than this past year.  Shopping revenue was up to its highest total in years.  Radio stations and TV stations devoted a whole month to Christian hymns and songs.  Commercially speaking, Christmas’s star is rising.  How is spiritual adherence to Christianity waning when the popularity of its holiday is waxing?

    Perhaps because we desperately need hope and positivity in an increasingly cynical and negative world.  Frosty the Snowman and Buddy the Elf offer both these attributes without asking us to make spiritual commitments.  In our divided world we need things that bring us together.

    Today we celebrate Epiphany.  We are still in the Christmas season.  Let’s see where being a skeptic or being a believer takes a person.  

“ARE YOU AN EPIPHANY SKEPTIC?”

    Perhaps Christmas can be on the rise, yet Christianity on the decline, because for too long sincere questions have gone unanswered.  Is it reasonable to believe that someone could be born of a virgin?  Did God guide really guide astrologers – wise men – from the East with a star to visit a child who would be king of the universe?

    Well, in fact, God did.  The skeptic in our story is Herod.  Oh, he does a nice job of disguising his skepticism.  He goes so far as to say that he wants to worship the child.  But this was not true.  Herod was scared of the power that Jesus was bringing.  He saw His kingdom crumbling because there was a new King in town.  Herod was one of the greatest skeptics the world has ever known.  He was skeptical of everyone.  He had many of his own family murdered or imprisoned.  He had no trust, no solid rock to believe in.  He was an island and he always felt he was being invaded.

    Are you an Epiphany skeptic?  Come on, a star to guide these fellas?  A dream to switch travel plans?  We can be a little skeptical about it all.  Commercial Christmas wears off.  The salve does not heal.  We are left with nothing to face the doldrums of January and February.  For many, life has more Januarys and Februarys than it does Decembers.  Shorter and colder days and the festive mood wears off.

    The believers this day – the non-skeptics – are the Wise Men.  They don’t question, they follow.  They don’t hold back, they give gifts freely.  They don’t downplay the birth; they worship with joy at the sight of the Christ Child.  Matthew says when seeing the star “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

    They could do that because they knew that this birth was tied to a Savior.  Christmas is more profound when we tie it with another Christian holiday – Easter.  The heart of the Christian message is that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter to prove that His death on the cross paid for our sins.  Through His resurrection, He shows Himself to be the Savior.  The Bible insists that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, the Christian faith is not worth believing. (1 Cor. 15:14)

    Abdu Murray wrote this, “I was once a staunch critic who demanded evidence for Christianity.  After nine years of researching, I found the evidence so compelling that I became a Christian.  I didn’t outgrow my faith in God.  I outgrew my cynicism about Christianity.  The evidence worked strangely in reverse.  The evidence that Jesus rose from the dead implied that His being born of a virgin was mere child’s play.  Christmas makes Easter possible, while Easter makes Christmas meaningful.”

    The miraculous star that led these men to Jesus is an incredible miracle.  But these miracles are all around us.  The miracle of a baby being born.  Each day your heart and lungs do their work is a miracle.  Each day your Baptism is like a fresh shower washing away your sins, leading you to eternal life in Jesus.  On this special church day we are celebrating Epiphany you are offered a miracle in bread and wine.  The Lord Jesus Christ mysteriously gives you His body and blood in this Sacrament to wipe away your skepticism and strengthen your faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.  Thank God for His Word that allows us to see, follow, and worship Him.  We bring our gifts to Christ and His Church so that the star of Jesus is seen by all.

    Like the Wise Men may the Holy Spirit keep us free of skepticism and firmly believing in Christ who came to save the world. 

                            Amen.

December 26, 2021                            Text:  Isaiah 9:2

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Ever asked an older person what they want for Christmas and they tell you that they don’t need anything, they have everything they want.  I get that sentiment as I get older.  I would not have understood it as a child.  But you and I look around at all the blessings the Lord provides and we really do have everything that we need.

    Almost everything.  We need the Lord.  You light up every room in your house like the 4th of July but it is not the same as being in the sunshine.  You can live places that get over 300 days of sunshine like Toni and I did in Littlefield, Texas and a person can still be in spiritual darkness.

    Without God’s sunrise in our lives, without God’s Light of day, Jesus Christ, the darkness can be frightening and oppressive.  It’s the day after Christmas and we continue to celebrate . . .

“THE GREAT LIGHT OF JESUS”

    Our text once again, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.”  Israel is in darkness at the time Isaiah wrote this.  The Assyrians have invaded and destroyed the land.  A few survivors struggle to hang on in desolation.  When all hope seems lost, God’s promise comes.  A Light will dawn on them.  It is so certain it is even described in past tense.  “They have seen a great light,” and “on them has light shined.”

    This light is not just for those people despairing in Israel.  It is for all people, Jew and Gentile.  That means when we see our nation growing morally and spiritually weak, when we see so many signs of the last times and when we deal with the upheavals in our own lives, the Light shines for us.  The light shining from Jesus shows He is the way to the kingdom of God.  He keeps us safe through faith no matter what darkness we walk through.  When we have faith in Jesus as our Light, guess what happens to our fears of death and darkness?  They melt away.  They are replaced with joy.

    Seven hundred years after this promise from Isaiah, the Light, dawned.  That’s the message of Christmas.  A few shepherds first receive him.  Later a few Wise Men receive the Light of the world.  While the world is filled with those who received the Christ child in faith the last few days, the doubters and rejecters are all around.

    Herod rejected him.  The priests, Pharisees and Sadducees, for the most part, reject Jesus.  Not many people welcomed Jesus as the Light.  Most people liked the way things were.  After three years of Jesus’ ministry, how many were there in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost?  Only about 120.  John says in his Gospel that Jesus “the true light, which gives light to everyone . . . came to his own and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:9, 11)  The people who needed Him the most rejected Him.

    A Pastor once called on a woman who was very ill.  She was not going to get better.  She was so afraid that she kept her light on all the time figuring if she were awake she wouldn’t die.  It couldn’t possibly work.  She got exhausted.  Sooner or later she was going to die.  On a spiritual level, she didn’t understand, she was right.  If she could just see the Light, Light with a capital L, she wouldn’t die.  She didn’t need a light bulb.  She needed the light of Christ.  Living by this Light when she took her last breath she would live.  That is the message for us that shines in the Gospel.  Jesus the Light shines in the darkness of death.  He receives us into the eternal light of His heaven.

    There is another story the complete opposite of the lady who was afraid to die.  This woman was in her 80’s and in and out of the hospital.  Her world was shrinking but she still exhibited her faith and generosity.

    Another trip to the hospital came and the Pastor rushed to visit.  She was barely conscious.  The Pastor read Scripture and said a prayer.  He prayed for healing.  He left things in God’s hands and returned a few days later.  His parishioner was now sitting up and talking.  She scolded her Pastor, “I was ready to go and be with Jesus.  But you prayed for me and I got better.”  That woman did not need electric light bulbs to keep her awake.  She’d seen the light in Jesus and could go to sleep in his arms anytime.  

    We don’t stumble in the dark to find Jesus.  On Christmas, the day after Christmas and all the other days we have, Jesus the Light is God’s gift to us through His Word.  Hear the Word with faith, and the Light will dawn.

                                    Amen.

December 25, 2021 – Christmas                    Text:  Luke 2:1-20

Dear Friends in Christ,

    Have you ever thought of the birth of Christ in terms of technology?  We live in a technological world that is such a part of our every day that we hardly notice it.  But the world has always used technology.   Back in the time of Jesus the technology used was mostly different than what we use today.

Let’s take a few moments this special day to see what it looked like . . .

“A TECHNOLOGICAL CHRISTMAS”

    The first use of technology that got Jesus to Bethlehem was the census.  Joseph and Mary had to go there to be registered.  It was the government at work.  Caesar Augustus was God’s instrument.  His call for a worldwide census unwittingly set into motion the events of Jesus’ birth, thereby fulfilling the prophecy from the book of Micah that he would be born in Bethlehem.

    How did you get to your birth?  Technology.  Your mom had to find out she was pregnant.  Many of you popped up on an ultrasound and they could even predict a boy or a girl.  Almost all of us or maybe all of us were born in a hospital.  Technology was all around us.  Monitors and machines and people who were skilled.  After your birth technology was used to find out about movement and hearing and eyesight and reflexes.  You were coming into a new world.

    Joseph and Mary had none of that.  No ultrasound but it didn’t matter God had told them they would have a Son and he would be the Savior of the world.  They had no hospital to go to but they used the technology of the day and were able to travel on the modern roads.  They had a donkey.  They used technology to get to Bethlehem and then Jesus was born.  He was wrapped in swaddling cloths (technology) and laid in a manger (technology).  

    The birth was not announced on Facebook or Twittered out to the world.  It was announced.  Oh, how it was announced.  To shepherds by angels.  “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

    Why did a Savior need to be born?  Because we are breaking down and altering the way we are relating to one another and God.  Technology can have many negative sides to it.  John Barclay, a New Testament scholar at the University of Durham gave a lecture at Concordia Seminary on the age of the Internet, he said this:

    “In an age when people fear the judgment of their peers far more than they fear the judgment of God, we have become increasingly petulant, critical, even cruel, and it’s proving hard to take…Our contemporaries are not primarily trying to win the favor of God; they are trying to win the favor of one another.  The judgment they fear is not the last judgment, but humiliating comments on social media.”

    We have shifted away from God and toward one another.  Instead of worrying if some faceless person in Uzbekistan likes your puppy shouldn’t we be thinking of our choices according to God’s Word?  Instead of tweeting out some inane comment you have to apologize for, maybe you need to hold your tongue because the world doesn’t really care.  A few years back people were eating laundry detergent pods and putting it on social media.  Others saw it and thought that was a good idea and followed suit.  We chase desires because of some twisted envy.  We then start to lose who God made us to be.  We live in a world of mirages and mirrors, screens and shadows.

    Jesus is no shadow.  Promised by God in the beginning, heralded by the prophets, and announced by the heavenly host, Jesus is God Incarnate.  Jesus is fully human – God in the flesh with bone and muscle and blood and skin and sweat and hair and fingernails.  Jesus is as real as it gets. 

    His birth, like all births, involved blood and pain.  He walked real, dusty streets in real places such as Nazareth and Galilee and Jerusalem.  Then touched the ulcerous skin of lepers.  He wept tears at the tomb of Lazarus.  Jesus permitted the technology of the day to put him on a Roman Cross and have his skin pierced and his warm, crimson blood to flow.  Jesus, the incarnate Son of God is reality.

    Step out of your fantasy world this day and hear the words you’ve known since childhood.  Christ came for you.  Christ died for you.  Christ loves you.  Christ forgives your indiscretions and your listening to the voices of our day.  They are transient.  Do you think they really care about you?  Step away from the screen and into your Bible.  Hear the good news of great joy that Jesus brings.  Down deep, don’t you really want that in your life?  May the Holy Spirit move your heart and mind to what you have always known and been taught.

    Technology.  A blessing when used rightly and as God intended.  It brought Him to Bethlehem and into our lives.  Rejoice in that.  He died and rose for you so that you might live . . . because you are important to Him.

                                    Amen.