February 9, 2025 Text: Isaiah 6:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

A few weeks ago I was sick, something I am not used to, except I was also sick this week. Two times in January, more than the last ten years combined. Crazy. Anyway, what I had was the runny nose, the watery eyes, the sinus pressure. This is when Kleenex and Puffs make their money. While I go with the Puffs plus lotion, when you are blowing the ole schnazz that many times there is bound to be redness, dryness, you know, not a good look. My lips hurt. So, I applied Chapstick. Owee. Those first few minutes after application my lips were burning. Eventually the burn goes away and by morning the lips feel a lot better.
Whenever this has happened to me over the years, I am always reminded of our text. Isaiah and the burning coal put on his lips for his guilt to be taken away and his sin atoned for. This morning then . . .
“THE LORD’S TOUCH FOR UNCLEAN LIPS”
When Isaiah gets to encounter God, he is not giddy about it. He wasn’t on an emotional high. Why? Because he knew he was a sinner in the midst of a holy God. He sees God in humble reverence.
Isaiah found himself in the presence of the great “I Am.” Creator of all that is seen and unseen. He says, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips.” (v. 5). Isaiah saw what he truly was – a miserable sinner. He mourned for Israel and feared for his life. He had nothing to earn forgiveness. He stood before God in his naked shame.
What happened to Isaiah also happened to Peter in our Gospel. After the miraculous catch of fish, Peter fell down before Jesus and begged, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Lk. 5:8). That is the reaction of those who get just a small glimpse of God’s divine nature. They are crushed by the reality of their sin.
What about you? You have come to this holy place. You stand on holy ground. You are in the house of the Lord – His temple. You have called upon the name of the Lord, invoking his holy name – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are in the presence of the same God that Isaiah could not abide. We too are men and women of unclean lips. We live in the midst of people with unclean lips. We can’t hide. Our sin is exposed. We stand naked in our sin, without even a single fig leaf to cover ourselves.
For Isaiah, this is when he got the Lord’s touch for unclean lips. An angel flies to the altar, gets a burning coal, a remnant of the burnt offering, and placed it, burning, on Isaiah’s lips, owee, but because of this Isaiah’s sin is forgiven. He was made clean.
We, too, have been made clean. You need no fig leaf, for you are clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness. He who did not covet the glories of heaven came down from heaven for the salvation of his people. He has removed your filthy garments and clothed you with pure vestments. The cross is the only door to heaven and Christ is the only image of God.
We no longer mourn our sins. In the Holy Supper the flesh that suffered the holy fire of God’s wrath for you is placed on your lips and tongue, and you are purged of your sin, made holy and righteous in God’s sight. The Lord’s touch for unclean lips.
Say it once, you might mean it. Say it twice and you add weight to you. Say it three times, you must really mean it. In the movie A Christmas Story, a boy named Schwartz first dares another boy, Flick, to touch his tongue to the frozen flagpole on the school playground. Unimpressed, Flick declines. Schwartz ups the ante by double-dog daring Flick to do it. Flick laughs at that. Finally, Schwartz applied the coup de grace by triple-dog daring Flick. Flick couldn’t laugh this off without losing all credibility. Nothing could be more serious than giving the challenge three times. What happens? Watch the movie. It’s a great scene.
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” (v. 3). Three times Isaiah tells us who the Lord is. We are condemned no more, we stand with the angels and archangels and all the saints of heaven and sing with them the threefold hymn of praise, “Holy, holy, holy.”
Your tongue is loosed to sing God’s praise and tell of His glory. You no longer have to fear because you have received The Lord’s Touch For Unclean Lips.
Amen.

February 2, 2025 Text: Luke 2:22-24

Dear Friends in Christ,

When the Gospel was read today, how many of thought, “I remember hearing these same words recently.” Well, you would be correct. You are dismissed. No, please stay. Our text for today we also heard on December 29, 2024. That day the sermon was also on the Gospel, but we concentrated on Simeon and his words. Today we focus on the first three verses which are right before Simeon enters the picture.
Back in 1931 Universal Studios produced the movie Dracula. In that movie you may remember the creepy black and white details of the interior of the eerie castle. Spider webs are everywhere. The white webs remain undisturbed as the Count makes his way through them. On the other hand, Mr. Renfield, who is following the Count, must cut through the webs. Dracula pauses and remarks, “The spider, spinning his web for the unweary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.”
As we focus on Mary’s purification today and Jesus’ presentation in the temple, we tie these happenings together with the Old Testament commands. It helps us to see . . .
“THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE”
As Lutherans one of the things that we believe is that “Scripture interprets Scripture.” That is so true today. Mary and Joseph are going for Mary’s purification because it was commanded in Leviticus chapter 12.
In this chapter God speaks to Moses who then passes on these instructions to the people. The Lord tells him that when a woman bears a male child she shall be unclean for seven days. On the eight day the child is to be circumcised. That happened to Jesus right before our text in Luke 2:21. Then the woman is to continue in the blood of her purifying for thirty-three more days. So, we know that Jesus when presented is 40 days old. The first verse of our text says, “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, the brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.”
We don’t follow the Old Testament laws today, there is no 40-day purifying for women, but they do need time to recover from childbirth. We could say we do present our children, either at the birth, the baptism, a gathering. There is a moment of “welcome to the world.”
Mary and Joseph did this for Jesus. They presented him to His Father. Back to Leviticus. The Lord commanded that after the purifying the parents bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering or a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering. This made atonement for the mother. She would be clean from the flow of her blood. Since Mary and Joseph gave the birds instead of the lamb for the sacrifice, we know that they were poor. Again, our text, verses 23 and 24. (“As is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’? and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’”
A sacrifice meant blood was spilled. This whole thing is bloody. The circumcision would have been bloody. The purifying was bloody. But you see, the blood meant something. The blood is the life.
We can bloody ourselves up pretty good with our behavior. A right cross to the mouth when we talk about others. A left jab to the eye when we see things differently than the Lord. An uppercut to the nose when we sniff around in places we shouldn’t be. Then the knockout punch to the side of the head when we downplay our deeds. We are bloodied. We are down . . . and we are out. We need some help getting back to our feet.
The blood is the life, but not our blood. It is the blood of the circumcised child who became an obedient Son of the Father all the way to the cross. It is the blood mingling down to take care of our questionable behavior. God set aside animal blood in the Old Testament as a picture that pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 12:23a says, “Be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is life . . .” But Jesus freed us from this restriction through his blood. So much so that the Apostle John writes in chapter 6, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Jesus was born to shed his blood and give us life. The blood is the life.
Amen.

January 26, 2025 Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Dear Friends in Christ,
You receive a gift…and there it is a Mr. Potato Head. You pull out the potato head with all the holes that you will fill with body parts. This is going to be fun. You continue pouring out the contents, but you have 10 eyebrows, no nose or mouth, one eye and no ears. What’s going on here! How will Mr. Potato Head hear and believe?
Did you ever have this joy or see it in your child or grandchild? A nose where an ear should be? A mouth on top of his head? It probably brought on some good laughter. But children at a young age realize something. We have and need different body parts, and they have their necessary place.
Today in our text Paul is comparing the Christian Church to the parts of the body. We all play a part. You are part of a living body, and whatever function the Lord has assigned to you as part of the body, you can know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
You get to see yourself as a body part this morning. The question . . .
“WHAT BODY PART ARE YOU?”
Paul addresses the Corinthian congregation because this is becoming a problem. They see themselves as separate – Jew, Greek, slave, free – Paul is pushing their commonality. They are one body. One Spirit. Why does this text matter to us?
It matters because we distort our place in the body of Christ. We can divide ourselves in one of two ways. 1. We labor with a misplaced sense of inferiority, or 2. We labor with a misplaced sense of superiority.
It is easy to go after those who have an elevated view of themselves. The Corinthian church had many such people. Paul has already taken many of these folks to task in the preceding chapters. But here in the text he starts with those living with feelings of inferiority.
“Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” or “because I am a not an eye, I do not belong to the body.” (v. 15-16) Brilliant Paul, just brilliant. He is forcing the superior feeling people to empathize with those who feel inferior. They don’t even know what happened. So gracious.
Both groups need the stinging word of God’s Law. If you do not feel you are part of the body, you are accusing God of bad design. You have just broken the 1st Commandment. You have also broken the same commandment if you grovel in your greatness instead of God’s.
God knew what He was doing when He designed the body. “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” (v. 18-20) Beautiful. Look at it this way, we don’t want all mouthy people in the body of Christ. We don’t want those just good at listening. We need a combination. Those who speak well, but those who listen well. It is even better if people communicate and hear.
To those on the high horse, Paul has these words, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” (v. 21) Every member needs every other member. That is how bodies are made.
Paul says we were all “baptized into one body” (v. 13). We are incorporated into the Body of Christ. Think about that. Whatever you can do or can’t do, flashy or pedestrian, if you are in Christ by your Baptism, you are a treasured member of the most exalted Body in the entire cosmos.
We are to have no division, because we are one in Christ. Loved, forgiven, saved. Made for this time and place. Giving of self for the body. Sharing the heartaches and the joys.
Could we have a better verse for today? See how the Lord planned this celebration for our body today. Verse 26b: “If one member is honored, all rejoice together.” The baptism of Ezra Simon Kirchner. It has been a long time coming. Patience has been needed. Ups and downs. Mary Anne and family made it to this day. My family has been praying for this day. Many of you have been praying for this day. The Lord brought it all about in His time. Today the body rejoices, like we always do when we witness a soul being baptized into Christ. Ezra’s joy, is my joy, is your joy, is the joy of the worldwide Christian Church.
So, have you answered the question? What body part are you? In Christ, we mesh, we care about each other. Everyone belongs, no matter what part you see yourselves as, we are united in Christ.
Amen.