Hope and Future - December 31, 2024 - New Year’s Eve - Text: Jeremiah 29:11

Every year during the season of Advent we invite the children to come forward during the children’s message and we talk about the Advent wreath. Each Sunday we talk about the different candles and the meaning of each one. This year during the Wednesday services and concluding with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we have been talking about the Advent wreath and what each candle represents especially for the adults of the congregation. This evening we conclude our series and this calendar year by looking to God’s Word of hope for us for our future.
 

If you have ever watched any “end times” movies, apocalyptic movies as they may be called, you may notice that none or at least very, very few if any predict a bright future. Most all depict a rather bleak future, one with a lot of death and destruction. Of course, from our sinful human nature as well as how bad we see that life truly is in this world, that idea might be more fact than fiction. And here I would add, at least for the unbeliever who truly has no hope for any future. But what about for us Christians?
 

It is said that the Old Testament has been given to us in light of the New Testament. In other words, because God knew what He was going to do in the New Testament, He has given us the Old Testament to lead us to the New Testament. Which brings us to the example of Israel, God’s chosen people. Remembering that God lives in the eternal present and that He already knows all, not that He predestines anything, but that since God knows all we see His great love for us in His creating us in the first place. Anyway, in the Garden of Eden we have God’s first promise of hope and future in the promise of a Messiah, a Christ, a Savior.
 

Later in Genesis God makes an unconditional covenant with Abram whose name He changed to Abraham that the Christ would be born through His line of descent. Now remember that Abraham was an idol worshiper when God called him as we are told he had to put away his idols and leave his land. God’s covenant with Abraham was unconditional relating back to His covenant with Adam and Eve that is that God would send a Savior for all people (of all places of all times). Later we have God’s conditional covenant with Moses and the Children of Israel, His chosen people. The conditional covenant with Moses and Israel was that if they obeyed His commands they would retain the land and greatness as His people. So we have the unconditional covenant of eternal salvation as complete gift from God to us. And we have the conditional earthly covenant of an earthly land and kingdom, which as we know, has been lost.
 

Of course, as we have followed their history, they failed time and again. Time and again they would allow the temptations of those around them to lure them into sin, idolatry, adultery, and other great shame and vice. When they would fall away God, in His love would discipline them. He would send armies to overtake them and enslave them. Of course, when disciplined they would remember God and cry out to Him for help and deliverance.
 

And of course, again we know their history, God would hear their cries and He would send someone to save them. And we see that this history continually repeated itself during the years of Israel’s existence as a nation, at least up until the time of Jesus. And we well know what happened at the time of Jesus, whose birth we just celebrated. Too many Israelites were still seeking a social political Savior, a Mosaic Savior instead of an eternal spiritual Savior, an Abrahamic Savior.
 

Yet, we may see in their failure and discipline a vision of our own lives. In our own lives we have God’s call to life at our conception wherein we are given a body and soul and a life in this world. Hopefully soon after birth we have God’s call to faith through His Word and Baptism. At our Baptism God, using the hand of the pastor puts water on us and with the mouth of the pastor speaks His name on us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At that moment we are given faith, our sins are forgiven, God writes His name on us and He writes our name in the book of life. All is well, at least for a while.
 

As we live our lives, we also live lives of temptation. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature continue to lead us in to sin, despair and other great shame and vice. We sin in thought, word and dead. We sin sins of omission and commission. Indeed, our nature is to sin and we simply cannot help but sin, and yet that is no excuse. Our personal lives very much reflect the lives of the nation of Israel. We constantly fail, we constantly sin, we constantly break the commandments. And we do not even need practice.
 

And the Lord disciplines us, perhaps not in the way in which He disciplined Israel, in other words, He does not necessarily send nations to enslave us, although having said that we may wonder about our own country and just how sinful it has become and at what point God may indeed allow us to lose our freedoms as we see has happened in countries around the world. Yet, God does call us to repentance so that we do come and we confess our sins and God who is faithful and just does forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And yet, just as Israel did, so do we, we go out and sin more.
 

Indeed, our lives are lives reflecting the lives of Israel in our failure, our sin, our repentance, our forgiveness and our failure and sin again. Thanks be to God that He sent Jesus, again, whose birth we just celebrated, to be born into our time in order to bring us forgiveness.
 

God’s love is shown in this that even knowing our nature, sin, God created us anyway. Even knowing that He would have to enter human history as a man, God created us anyway. Even knowing that He would have to suffer the punishment for our sins, the punishment He instituted, the punishment of hell, for us, He created us anyway.
 

And so, as we just celebrated, God sent Jesus, true God to take on human flesh, to be born as a true human. As we confess in our creeds, true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true man born of the virgin Mary. Jesus came to do for Adam and Eve what they were unable to do, obey one command. Jesus came to do for the nation of Israel what they were unable to do, obey ten commands. Jesus came to do what we are unable to do, live obedient lives. And so He did. The fullness of the Gospel is that Jesus came to live for us. After living the perfect life demanded of us Jesus then took our sins, all our sins, your sins and mine and the sins of all people of all places of all times and He paid the price of hell for us in our place and He died for us.
 

And yet, as we celebrate His birth in the shadow of the cross we know the whole story, He did not stay dead but He rose from the dead defeating sin, death and the devil. And Jesus’ suffering and death earned forgiveness for us and for all people. As we are so often reminded, when we come to the Lord’s Table we eat His body and drink His blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. As we eat His body and drink His blood He becomes a part of us. His life becomes our life. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. And His eternal life in heaven becomes our eternal life in heaven. There is indeed, no greater hope, that is certainty, and future.
 

So, what is our hope and future? What will 2025 bring? Sorry to tell you, but only God knows. Only God knows what will happen and as I say that let me assure you that does not mean that God predetermines nor predestines what will happen. For our part, we may make resolutions of things we might desire to change in our lives. We may make resolutions without God in mind or with God mind. And yet, even though we may make such resolutions, we still continue to be like Israel, not so good at keeping our word. Thanks be to God that His word is certain.
 

On His part, we continually have God’s promise of hope and future. Indeed, for us Christians God has a hope and a future for us, not necessarily in this world, but for eternity. Our ultimate hope and future go back to Eden and to Abraham, that of heaven. And so we live our lives as a response to all that God promises and gives but only with God’s help. As always, not only is our being made just and right in God’s eyes all His work, so our living lives of faith is also according to His work in and through us.
 

So, our encouragement for this coming new year is to continue making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. Be in Divine Service to hear the word, to be reminded of your baptism, to hear the most beautiful words in the world, that your sins are forgiven, the word of Holy absolution, partake of the Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper wherein you are as close on this earth as you can be to those dearly departed saints that are family and friends. Our greatest comfort, hope and future do not come from inside of us but outside, from Jesus to us and then we reflect that hope and future to others, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 

As we end this year, 2024 and look forward to a new year 2025, although we do not know what is ahead, we have the certainty that God is with us, that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that His plans for us are ultimately to be with us in His home in heaven for eternity. And quite frankly, it does not get any better than that. To God be the glory, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.

Bear, Forgive, Love - First Sunday after Christmas - December 29, 2024 - Text: Colossians 3:12-17

We have seen His star. We have been to the place where He was born. We have seen the baby in the manger. We  have celebrated the birth of our King and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are four days into our celebration of that first Christmas day and again I would encourage you, do not be like the rest of the world, continue to celebrate. Celebrate for the full twelve days of Christmas. As we continue celebrating Christmas and Jesus’ first coming, at the same time we continue to look forward to our Lord’s second coming when He will come to take us from this vale of tears to be with Himself in heaven to live with Him there forever. We even encourage His coming again as we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” and by saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
 

Until our Lord comes again we will remain here on His earth striving with the help of the Holy Spirit to live lives faithful to His Word. In our text for this morning we read Paul’s words to the Colossians, and his words to us, words of encouragement in living in this world. Beginning at verse twelve Paul says, “12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (v. 12-13). Here Paul is listing some of what we call the fruits of the spirit, that is the results of the faith that has been given to us through the means of grace, by the Holy Spirit. Please notice that the very first thing we hear in these verses is the fact that it is God who has chosen us. From before the creation of the world God chose us to be His people. At our baptism God made us His own. He claimed us, He put His name on us, He clothed us with the righteousness won for us by Jesus on the cross. The very fact that God chose us and made us His own does not negate our response to His great love for us, rather it is His love, His choosing us which moves us to respond with righteous living.
 

It is only because of what God has done for us that we can do the things Paul is encouraging us to do, namely to have compassion, be kind, be humble, be gentle and patient. It is only because God first loved us that we can we bear with each other and forgive as the Lord forgave us. We just celebrated Jesus’ birth. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, yesterday, today and all this week we continue to rejoice as we remember the birth of baby Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, in Bethlehem. As we celebrate His birth with rejoicing we also sadly remind ourselves that the very reason for His birth was to live for us, that is to live the perfect life demanded of us, to take all our sins upon Himself, to suffer and die for our sins so that we might be forgiven. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us.
 

We read of this love picking up in verse fourteen where Paul says, “14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (v. 14). The type of love about which Paul is speaking is the kind of love that only God can have for us, that is agape love, a selfless concern for us, so much that He gave His only Son to die for us. As you have heard me describe before, that in the same way that the moon has no light of its own, but only reflects the light of the sun, so too the love our Lord has for us is the type of love we can only reflect because we have no love of our own. As the moon reflects the sun’s light so we reflect the light of Christ, the Son of God.
 

It is this love which brings about perfect unity and Christian fellowship. This perfect love is what the Holy Spirit stirs in us to strive for while we are here on this earth, understanding that we will never completely reach this perfect love until we are in heaven with our Lord. Until we reach perfection in heaven we pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us daily to be more and more Christ-like, more and more loving.
 

In verse fifteen Paul continues in his progression of thought by saying, “15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (v. 15).  The peace of Christ of which Paul is speaking is true peace, the true peace which comes only from God.  It is the peace we have at the cost of Jesus on the cross. It is the peace we have from knowing that we are forgiven. You know what I mean, how guilty we feel as we remember our sins.  Our guilt is overwhelming at times. Without forgiveness we would have no peace from our guilt feelings. But because of Jesus’ forgiveness we no longer need to feel guilty and without those feelings of guilt we have true peace.
 

Having true peace leads us to respond by being thankful. We were reminded at Thanksgiving and again today that true thanks comes only by kneeling at Jesus’ feet and confessing Him as the giver of all good gifts and blessings. Unless we acknowledge that Jesus is the giver of all that we have we can never be truly thankful.
 

Picking up at verse sixteen Paul encourages us and gives us hints as to how we are to thankfully respond to all our Lord has done for us. We read, “16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (v. 16-17). We respond by remembering our Baptism, by being in God’s Word, by confessing our sins and hearing His most wonderful words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” and by being given His body and blood to eat and drink in His Holy Supper. Paul tells us to let the Word of Christ live in us. We do this by remembering our Baptism, by taking in God’s Word, that is by reading the Bible, by having personal and family devotions, by attending Divine Service and Bible class and by begin given Christ’s body and blood in Holy Supper. We do this by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, especially in Divine Service and at home devotions.
 

It is God’s word living in us which moves us to live as witnesses of our faith. How do we live as witness of our faith? We have a wonderful example in our children. Wednesday or even Tuesday evening for some, we watched as our children unwrapped their Christmas presents. How they beamed with excitement. How they could not wait to show and tell their friends what they got. They may even have wanted to bring their new toys to church to show their friends. They were bearing witness of their new possessions. What a wonderful example their witness is to us. We have an even more wonderful possession, the gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. How much more do we beam with excitement and anticipation as we share those gifts, the greatest gifts of life and salvation with others.
 

Today is the first Sunday after Christmas. We have “seen” God’s gift of His Son who’s sole purpose for being born was to die. Week after next we celebrate Epiphany the day the Magi came bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. In nine and a half weeks we will celebrate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, followed by Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and the Pentecost season. We celebrate and remember these events year after year. We do this because we need the constant reminder, lest we forget, of who we are, whose we are, and what our great God has done for us.
 

We have just read Paul’s words of encouragement for living. God’s Word is filled with words of encouragement for holy living. We remember the words of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How unfortunate that so often we hear God’s Word in the negative rather than the positive. God gives us His positive words of encouragement and instead we hear them in the negative as, “if someone does not do wrong to me I will not do wrong to them.” Or we hear them with a condition, that is we think, if someone is nice to me I will be nice back to them. God gives us His word in the positive and with action. We are to actively go out and do good to others, have compassion on others, be kind to others, be humble, be gentile and patient with others. God does not say, “if others are to you,” rather He says, “go and do.”
 

God’s Word tells us that as we are going, as we are living our lives in our various vocations we are to be His witnesses into all the world. We are to be good witnesses, showing the faith that is in us through our thoughts, words and our deeds. When we remember all that our great God has done for us, the sending of His one and only Son, the suffering and death of His Son, His resurrection from the dead, the gifts of forgiveness, deliverance from the guilt as well as the punishment for our sins, the promise of new life here on this earth, and life eternal in heaven. When we remember all these things how can we do anything else but let His gifts overflow in us and pour out to others with a great witness to our great God.
 

But, how are we to do it? In and of ourselves we are not able to bear witness, or do anything else for the Lord. It is only with the help of the Holy Spirit that we can bear witness of our great God in thought, word and deed. We give thanks that the Holy Spirit works God pleasing thoughts in us, that He works good words to others through us and that He works good works through us, not that we deserve any credit but, that the Holy Spirit is praised for all our good works.
 

The title of our message for today is Bear, Forgive, Love. These were the three key words to our text. Because God chose us; because God clothed us in the righteousness which Christ earned for us on the cross; because the Holy Spirit works in us we are able to bear with each other, forgive each other and love each other. And we say, all praise and thanks to you, dear Lord. To You be the glory, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The Christ Candle - December 25, 2024 - Christmas Day - Text: Matt. 1:22-23, John 8:12

Let the celebration begin, or if you are like most people the celebration actually began last night, so let the celebration continue and continue for twelve days, the full twelve days of Christmas.  And what an awesome celebration it is, celebrating the birth of our King, not any earthly royal king, but our heavenly King and our Savior, Messiah, Christ, Jesus. Today we light the last candle of the Advent Wreath, the center candle, the White Christ candle.
 

The Christ Candle is the center candle, the candle we have been waiting to light. The Christ candle is the white candle as in pure, holy and righteousness. Indeed, Jesus is the righteous, pure and holy son of God, indeed God Himself in human flesh and blood.
 

The Christ Candle is the last candle, the candle of fulfillment. God’s promise made some four to six thousand years earlier in the Garden of Eden was now coming to fruition. God’s promise to take care of Adam and Eve’s sin, and the sins of all mankind, of all ages, of all nationalities, indeed the sins of all people, of all places, of all times was now beginning to be fulfilled in this baby born in Bethlehem. And this child who would ultimately be seated on His throne in heaven. How can we not celebrate and celebrate with a great and grand celebration, even an eternal celebration.
 

All the candles on the Advent Wreath are lit, our waiting is over, it is finished, and yet, now it is beginning, and now it is time to celebrate. And yet again, in about three months we will hear the voice of this newborn baby say, “It is finished!” Jesus’ birth, perfect life, taking our sins, suffering and death, for us, in our place as our substitute will have been completed. The church year cycle reminds us year in and year out, day in and day out of God’s great love for us. Each year we begin the year, the church year, celebrating Jesus’ birth. And Jesus was born for a purpose, to live for us, to take our sins, and to die for us, in our place as our substitute, to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
 

Of course, we are living after these events have already taken place, so we know the rest of the story. Although we may celebrate this birth in the shadow of the cross, we do not celebrate in sadness, but because we know the rest of the story we do celebrate with great joy. We know that Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead, victorious over sin, death and the devil. We followed along as He showed Himself to be alive before He ascended back to the place from which He descended in order to pay the price for our sins, His life for our life. And now we know that He is watching over us, ruling over us, interceding for us.
 

And we await His return in glory. We are living in the last days of our time on this earth. Yes, God waited some four to six thousand years before fulfilling His first promise to send a Savior and Jesus has promised to come again to take us to heaven. So far He has only waited about two thousand years. Does the mean He will wait another two or four thousand years. We do not know. What we do know is that if He does not return during our life time, we will go to Him. We will pass on from this world and so the most important thing for each one of us while living in this world is to be ready for our meeting Jesus. Indeed, all of this world, all the ups and down, all the everything will be merely a blip on the screen, a snap of the fingers compared to our glory and life in eternity. So, why do we spend so much time and energy on the spats, fights and feuds of this world? Because that is how Satan distracts us from what is truly important, our faith in Jesus. And our celebration of our salvation.
 

Let the celebration begin. We have heard the history as reminded by the candles of the Advent Wreath. The base of the Advent Wreath is the green circle, reminding us that the foundation, the base of our world is our living, infinite God. In the beginning God. God created all things out of nothing. God is our living eternal God. God lives in the eternal present, all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present.
 

We were reminded of the promise God made in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree from which they were forbidden to eat. Their disobedience brought sin and death into the world and God promised to take care of their sin and separation from Him.
 

We were reminded that God’s promise was that in the city of David, in the royal city, in Bethlehem the one who would take care of our sins, would be born. This small insignificant town would be the birth place of our eternal king.
 

We were reminded of the lowly, humble servant shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Indeed, as Jesus is our Good Shepherd who watches over us, guards and protects us, and as Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, how fitting that these shepherds were the first to hear the good news of the birth of our Savior and king.
 

We were reminded of all the work of the angels during that first part of Jesus’ life. They announced to Zechariah that his wife would give birth, in her old age, to the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah and prepare the way for the Savior. They announced to Mary that she would be the mother of God and to Joseph that he would be Jesus’ adoptive earthly father. They announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus. They protected the infant Christ child from the evil army of Satan. The protected Mary, Joseph and Jesus to and from Egypt.
 

And finally we are being reminded of the culmination and fulfillment of all these events in Jesus. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The New Testament points us to Jesus. Our calender, B.C. and A.D. centers on Jesus. All history and all time point us to Jesus. How can we not celebrate Jesus!
 

Let the celebration begin and continue. We celebrate God’s promises fulfilled. We get it right when we point, not to ourselves, not to our own doings, not to our own obedience or good works, or anything, but when we point to Jesus and Jesus alone. When we rejoice in Jesus’ work in and through us.
 

When we point to ourselves, when we look inside ourselves all we see is our sins and it is because of our sins that these events had to take place, that Jesus had to be born. But because of God’s great love for us, He sent His One and Only Son to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. And that is what Jesus did. So, we celebrate, we rejoice because our sins have been paid for, we have forgiveness and with forgiveness we have life and salvation.
 

We celebrate because our redemption is procured. We have been reconciled. Our negative balance has been paid and balanced by Jesus paying the bill, giving His life for ours.
 

We celebrate because we have forgiveness of sins and we know that with forgiveness is life and salvation. By faith in Jesus, His white robes of righteousness have been placed on us so that when God looks at us He sees us as being perfect and holy which is what He demands of us. The white center Christ candle reminds us of God’s great love for us.
 

We celebrate. We rejoice and sing. What else can we do? How can we not celebrate? God gives and we are given to. God gives us life at conception; new life, faith, even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism; forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution; forgiveness and strengthening of faith through His body and blood in His Holy Supper. God gives and gives and gives and we are given to and we rejoice and give thanks and praise.
 

Today we celebrate God’s fulfillment of all His promises. We celebrate what a great God we have, what a loving, gift giving God we have. We celebrate, we rejoice and sing and we say, to God be the glory, forever and ever, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Shepherd and the Angel Candle - December 24, 2024 - Christmas Eve - Text: Luke 2:8-20

So far during this Advent season we have been reminded of God’s promise to send a Savior to be born in Bethlehem through the lighting of the first and second candles on the Advent Wreath. This evening as we have lighted all five candles we move on to hear more about the third and fourth candles in particular. The third candle is  the rose colored candle. Yes, it looks pink, but it is rose colored. The rose-color signifies joy and reminds us of the joy of the shepherds who were the first to hear the good news of the birth of the Savior of the world. And not only were they the first to hear the good news they were the first to come and see the new born King. And we light the fourth candle which is the angles candle, reminding us that it was the angel who came to bring the good news of the birth of the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior to these shepherd. And lest we forget, it was the angel who also announced the news to Mary of her being chosen to be the mother of God in flesh and who assured Joseph that it was okay to take Mary as his wife. Indeed, the angels were very busy during these days.
 

So, what is it about these shepherds? Why were they the first to hear the good news of the birth of the Savior of the world? The work of the shepherd was a work of service. They were not out in the fields being served but serving by tending the flock of sheep. The work of the shepherd was that of caring. They took care of the sheep. They would lead the sheep out into the green pasture so they might eat. They would lead the sheep by the still waters so they could drink. They would lead them back in at night into a safe place so they might sleep and then next day they would do it all over again. The work of the shepherd was at times a dangerous job. The shepherd would guard and protect the sheep even placing his life in danger to keep them safe. The work of the shepherd was a life giving job. The shepherd’s job was a 24/7/365 job, a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year job. The job of shepherding was a life.
 

King David speaks of the Shepherd in what is a favorite Psalm of many people, Psalm twenty-three as in the Lord is my Shepherd. The Gospel writer John quotes Jesus speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd. Just as the work of the shepherd was to serve, care for, watch over and protect the sheep, so Jesus is our Good Shepherd, He is the Lord who serves us, watches over us, cares for and guards and protects us. And the way preparer for Jesus, John the Baptists pointed to Jesus and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
 

Perhaps these shepherds were the first to hear the good news of the birth of the Messiah because they were a type of Jesus. Jesus, the Good Shepherd came to serve, not to be served. Jesus, the Good Shepherd came to care for us, His sheep. He watches over us as His sheep. He cares for us, feeds us and protects us. We are born into this world with nothing and we will take nothing with us when we leave this world. All that we have while we are in this world is on loan to us from God, thus all that we have may be attributed to Jesus caring for us. God gives us life, gifts, talents and abilities. He gives us work, jobs, perhaps a career wherein He gives us the abilities to take care of ourselves, so that we have clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, and all that we need to support this body and life.
 

And the greatest gift Jesus gives as our Good Shepherd is that He lays down His life for us. The very reason Jesus was born as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptists points to Him and says, is so that we might have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness, life and salvation. Thus, we might agree that it was indeed fitting, mete, right, and salutary that God would send His angels, His messengers, to these shepherds to be the first to hear the good news.
 

This evening, we hear the proclamation of the birth of the Messiah by these angels. However, let us not give glory to the angels. Remember, God created angels for the work of proclaiming His message to those to whom He would send, as well as their work is to watch over us as God’s people. Personally I believe we each have at least one or two angels watching over us and I am sure that oftentimes children can actually see their angels. During the time of preparation for the birth of the One promised back in the Garden of Eden, the time of the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world the angels did a lot of work. One of the first works of the angels was to deliver God’s message to Zechariah that he would be the father of the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah, the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah, that message of the birth of John the Baptist. This proclamation came about six months before we hear of the work of the next angel.
 

The next work of an angel, namely the angel Gabriel was to deliver God’s message to Mary, the one favored by God, that she was favored by God, that she was chosen by God to be the one who would be the earthly mother of the One promised. Because of her youth, her not being married, and her understanding of the biology of the birth of children the angel went on to explain to Mary just how this immaculate conception would take place, that is that she would become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit so that the child to be born would be truly God in flesh. And as we know, she consented to be the mother of Jesus.
 

The next work of an angel is that of appearing to Joseph, but not in person as the angels appeared to Zechariah and Mary rather in a vision or a dream. The angel explains to Joseph why Mary is pregnant even though they were merely betrothed and not yet married. The angel had to explain that Mary had not committed adultery or been unfaithful. The angel proclaimed to Joseph that he was to be the adoptive father of Jesus. And of course, Joseph also consents.
 

Finally, we have the work of the angels as we hear in our text, that of announcing the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds. As we began we heard that it was these humble shepherds who were the first to hear of the birth of Jesus and the first to see the new born king. It was the angels who declared this wonderful news to the shepherds.
 

But why are there all these angels and what are all these angels doing there at the birth of Jesus? The angels were created to be messengers of God, to do His bidding and also to be protectors and defenders. Thus we might rightly understand that the angels, this host of angels, intimating an army of angels, were there at Jesus’ birth to work as defenders of the helpless baby Christ child. The angels were there to protect the vulnerable child, especially from Herod’s execution of the children in Bethlehem. The angels appeared to Joseph just in time for him to escape Bethlehem and flee to Egypt to save the baby Jesus. The angels were also there to protect the baby from any attacks of the devil.
 

Also, the angels were there to protect the child and His parents going to, while in and coming back from Egypt. Although the children of Israel had spent many years in Egypt and had fled from their slavery in Egypt, and while Mary and Joseph may have had other Israelite relatives in Egypt, still they were foreigners in Egypt, thus they needed the protection of God’s angels.
 

So, this evening we say, let the celebration begin. We have been preparing for just this moment, for this evening. We have been preparing for this moment for our celebration of the birth of Jesus which and who is the reason for the Advent Season. The Advent Wreath has helped us count down to this day. The Advent Wreath has reminded us that it was the angels who announced to the shepherds that in Bethlehem our eternal, living God fulfilled His promise, the prophecy to send a Savior, Christ the Lord.
 

We are ready to celebrate and remember we celebrate for twelve days. We do not simply celebrate tonight and tomorrow, but we continue to celebrate. Certainly we have heard the carol of the twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas lasts until the day of Epiphany, that is the day we celebrate the visit of the Magi or wise men, the first non-Jewish visitors to see the child Jesus. There are actually some families who celebrate the twelve days by opening a new present each of the twelve days as a reminder to continue on. We leave our lights up to bear witness of the continued celebration.
 

We celebrate and we rejoice in God fulfilling His promise to send a Savior. God loves us so much. We see His great love in the fact that He knew what all was going to happen even before He began creating the world, that is He saw Adam and Eve’s sin, His need to be born in human flesh in order to be our substitute so that He might live perfectly for us, take our sins and pay the price of sin, death for us in our place. He knew His suffering and yet, because of His great love for us He created us anyway. And so we rejoice.
 

We rejoice in Jesus our substitute and His gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Thanks be to God that Jesus is our substitute. What we could not do, live perfectly He did for us in our place. How can we not rejoice and celebrate.
 

Jesus was born for a purpose, to live perfectly, to take our sins and to suffer and die. Indeed, we do celebrate but we celebrate in the shadow of the cross. For some, the Christmas tree, after it has lost all of its leaves, is taken and made into a cross to remind us that this baby was born to die. That may not be the most happy thought or a thought that would make us want to celebrate, except that this baby is God in human flesh. This baby is one who loves us so much that He was willing to do anything and everything that needed to be done for us to save us. How can we not celebrate such great love for us, His children. So, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord. We celebrate that God has fulfilled His prophecy, His promise, with the angels announcing to the shepherds that in Bethlehem the One who lives for us, takes our sins, suffered and dies for us, rose from the dead and gives us forgiveness, faith and life and we say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Christ Accomplished God’s Will - Fourth Sunday in Advent - December 22, 2024 - Text: Hebrews 10:5-10

Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and in just two days, on Tuesday it will be Christmas Eve. Today we have lighted all four candles and we only have to wait two more days for our great and grand Christmas celebration to begin. And let me remind you, in case you have forgotten, our celebration will begin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Remember, Christmas day is not the end or culmination, but the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the world does not get it, instead, for the rest of the world, the celebration usually ends Thursday.
 

Getting to our text for this morning, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives us Christ’s words as He quotes David’s words in the Ps. 40:6-8. We read, “5Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7Then I said, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book”’” (v. 5-7).
 

The reason the Lord gave the ceremonial laws and the sacrificial system and His desire in the system of offering sacrifices in the Old Testament was not simply that sacrifices should be offered for the sake of offering sacrifices. His desire was not that sacrifices should be offered for the sake of earning salvation, or doing a duty, or so forth. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was simply a reminder of sin and its cost, its price, that is that the price for sin was death. Blood had to be shed. And, unfortunately, all the sacrifices of the Old Testament meant nothing, at least as far as paying any price for sins committed. They were simply sacrifices which pointed to what was to come, namely the ultimate sacrifice of God Himself.
 

When Christ came, He came not simply to be obedient for Himself. Sure, He could have lived a perfect life and then ended His life simply going to heaven and omitting the cross, which Satan tempted Him to do, but that is not what He came to do and that is not what He did. Christ Jesus came, God in flesh, to be our substitute. As our substitute He did everything we cannot do and He did it perfectly. As our substitute He lived perfectly. He obeyed all God’s commands perfectly. And He did it all for us, in our place.
 

Christ came to do the will of the Father. And the will of the Father was that Christ came to give His life. This living for us, being completely obedient to the Father’s will, taking our sins on Himself, suffering and dying, was the plan way back in the Garden of Eden and this plan was the plan even before the Lord began His work of creation. This plan was the will of the Father to redeem the world from sin and death.
 

How does the epistle writer understand these words? He gives his explanation beginning at verse eight, “8When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (v. 8-10).
 

Although David was a man of God he was not Christ. David was a type of Christ in that some of the things he did in his life were like what Christ would come and do. David was king of Israel and he offered sacrifices for his people. Yet, as was stated before, the sacrifices David offered did not do anything, at least they did not earn or merit any forgiveness, instead they merely pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ Himself. But the fact remains that David was a type of Christ in this priestly role of offering sacrifices.
 

For His part we say that Christ is the antitype, that is He is the fulfillment of the type. He is the one to whom the type points. Christ is the antitype in that He is the fulfillment of David. Christ offered sacrifices, but not simply sacrifices for the sake of offering sacrifices. Christ offered the sacrifice of Himself. His sacrifice was the once and for all sacrifice to which all the other sacrifices pointed.
 

Thus, with His offering of Himself on the cross, Christ abolished the law. Christ fulfilled the law by obeying it completely, so now we are no longer under the curse of the law, and of course we say, thanks be to God.
 

Ultimately we then understand that Christ’s work brought our justification and sanctification as we understand sanctification in the wide sense. Christ’s work brought our justification because He came as a substitute for us, that is He did what He did for us in our place because we are unable to do and live as we should. So, when God looks at us, by faith in Jesus He sees us as perfect, which is what He demands. Christ’s work also brings our sanctification in that as we make use of His means of grace the Holy Spirit works in us to do the good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do.
 

And so, as usual we ask, “What Does This Mean?” First and foremost this means that we understand our situation in life. We are conceived and born in sin. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission and sins of commission. Indeed, as God speaks of us, every intent of our hearts is evil all the time. We sin without even thinking about sinning. Sinning is simply our nature. Because of our sin, our just reward should be death, eternal death in hell and physical death. Yet, although we know that we may physically pass on from this world, by faith in Jesus, we will never have to face eternal death in hell.
 

So, we celebrate Christ’s birth. We celebrate that Jesus is God in flesh. We celebrate that Jesus came to do what we cannot do, live perfectly, which is what is demanded by God. We celebrate that Jesus came to do what was promised.
 

Jesus came to do, not only what we could not and cannot do, He came to do what all people could not and cannot do. He came to accomplished what all the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to. The bounty on our heads is death. Because of our sin our verdict was death. And there was nothing and is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to change that verdict. This judgement has been the verdict since the Garden of Eden. This judgement has been the verdict to which all the sacrifices of the Old Testament have pointed. Jesus came, not only to offer sacrifices, but to offer Himself as the once and for all sacrifice for us in our place. To be able to offer Himself for us is why Jesus had to be truly human. Just as we understand that we do not substitute or compare unlike items (apples and oranges) so we understand that Jesus had to be human, He had to be one of us in order to be a substitute for us, in order that the giving of His life might be counted as the giving of our life.
 

Jesus allowed Himself to be sacrificed after He had fulfilled all God’s laws and promises perfectly. No one took Jesus life. He freely offered, gave Himself and His life for us. What we cannot do. What the whole nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, the family of Jesus could not do, Jesus did perfectly. He fulfilled all of God’s laws perfectly. He fulfilled all of God’s prophecies and promises concerning the Messiah, concerning Himself, perfectly. Because we are conceived and born in sin and so that He would not be tainted with our original sin is why He had to be truly God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Any ordinary human being could not be born perfectly, nor live perfectly. It was only as He was truly God that He was born without sin and could live perfectly.
 

Hindsight is often twenty-twenty, as the saying goes, that is because we have the ability, we have the privilege of looking back and seeing that what Christ did He did for us. We are conceived and born in sin, Christ was conceived and born in perfection. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness, Christ never sinned. We mess up, Christ cleans up. Left to ourselves we would be eternally lost. Thanks be to God we are not left to ourselves. By faith in Jesus, faith given through His means of grace, He gives us salvation, forgiveness and life.
 

And so, everything is just about ready. We have been planning. We have been preparing ourselves. We have been pointed to the words of promise that a Savior would be born. We have been reminded of the need for a Savior, because of our sin, our being born in sin and our daily sinning. We have been reminded that God keeps His promises and so we can count on Him. I think we are just about ready. Tuesday evening we will return. We will be reminded of God’s fulfillment of giving His Son to be born lowly in a manger. We will be reminded that the reason for the birth of the Christ child is that He was born to die, to give His life as a ransom for all. And we will begin to celebrate. Then on Wednesday we will indeed celebrate. And this is just the beginning. I would encourage you to not be like the rest of the world. Wednesday is not the day to stop celebrating. Thursday the rest of the world will go back to everyday life. The radio stations will cease playing Christmas music. The stores will have their after Christmas sales. Life will go on. I do know some families who have a tradition of giving their children gifts each day for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Perhaps that is one why to remember to keep celebrating. Because the celebration continues until January 6 which is Epiphany. So, again I encourage you to be different, to shine as a light to the world and to celebrate so that others might see your good works and give glory to the Lord who does all and gives all. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Bethlehem Candle - December 19, 2024 - Advent Midweek 3 - Text: Micah 5:2

2But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).
 

Two weeks ago we began our look at the Advent Wreath as a teaching tool, and as a way to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds for our great and grand Christmas morning celebration. So far we have talked about the foundation, the base of the Advent Wreath being a circle with greenery. The circle, which has no beginning point and no ending point reminds us that the foundation of our upcoming celebration is our eternal God who lives in the eternal present and has no beginning and no end. The green reminds us that our God is also a living God. Although we celebrate Jesus, God in flesh, His life and death, we also celebrate His resurrection and the fact that we do worship a living God. Last week we talked about the first candle, the prophecy or promise candle which reminds us of the promises of a Messiah beginning in Genesis.
 

This week we move to the second candle which is the Bethlehem candle, the place where the promise of a Messiah would be fulfilled. The name of the town, Bethlehem, means house of bread or bread of life. Bethlehem or Bethlehem Ephrathah was a small town in the southern part of Judea. According to the Prophet Micah, Bethlehem was considered “too little to be among the clans of Judah,” yet was big enough to be the place for the birth of the Savior of the world.
 

So, although we may not know much about this small Judean town of Bethlehem we do know what we are told. Bethlehem is a town of the clan of Judah. And Bethlehem is as this Prophecy states, the town of the promised line of descent. Remember God’s promise to Jacob that through the line of Judah the Savior of the world would be born.
 

We also know that this town of Bethlehem was the home town of King David. Throughout the Old Testament we are also told that the Savior would come from the royal line of King David and thus, since King David was from the town of Bethlehem the Savior would be born in this town as well.
 

Finally, again, the town of Bethlehem was a little town. After doing a little research the estimates of the size of Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus are from 300 to 1000 people. Most historians believe the population to be under a thousand. Personally I believe the population to be on the low side even around 300 especially the way the town is described by the Scripture writers.
 

Micah prophesies that the one who will come forth from Bethlehem, the Savior, will be the Ancient of Days. What does this mean to be the Ancient of Days? As we understand that Jesus is true God with no beginning this would well qualify Him to be considered and called the Ancient of Days. As Jesus tells the Pharisees at one point, “before Abraham was I am.” Indeed, that Jesus is true God born in human flesh He is from even before the beginning of our earthly creation and time.
 

As we confess in our creeds, Jesus is true God conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. As true God, as we said, He has no beginning and certainly He has no ending which, again, would also qualify Him to be considered the Ancient of Days even an eternal ruler.
 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem the town of David. He was born from the line of David, and although He was not born to be an earthly king, He is King, our eternal King in heaven. Jesus was born of the line of David, but He did not come to be served but serve and give His life as a ransom for us all.
 

As we are told in the Revelation of John, ultimately every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Indeed, Jesus is our heavenly King, our eternal King whose rule will be forever and ever.
 

As we move to this second week in Advent, the Advent Wreath history lesson continues. We have the foundation of our wreath as we have the very foundation of our lives as Christians in our eternal, living God. It is God, the Ancient of Days who lives outside of time in the eternal present who, knowing all that would happen, because of His great love for us, created all things out of nothing, knowing that the perfect world He would create would fall into sin and knowing that He would have to redeem the sin infected world by giving His life.
 

And so God promised to redeem, buy back, pay the price He set for sin by promising to send a Savior, a Redeemer, One who would redeem, that is trade His life for ours. We have heard the promise of the coming Savior a promise which could only be fulfilled in God taking on human flesh and blood, because only God could be born and live in perfection, which was God’s first command to all His creation and which command Eve and Adam broke.
 

We have heard the promise of the place of birth of the Savior a small town, a town considered to little to be of the clan of Judah. Although the Savior was born of noble blood that blood line no longer meant anything, at least anything while living in this world. But of course, we are clued into the fact that this Savior was not sent to be a social/political Savior as many heros of the Jewish faith had been throughout the history of Israel. Indeed, time and time again as Israel rejected God He allowed for them to suffer the consequences of their sin and to be disciplined, and time and time again He would have pity on them as they would repent and He would send an earthly, a social/political Savior. But all these actions merely pointed to the One ultimate fulfillment, the One ultimate Savior a spiritual Savior from sin and eternal punishment and death in hell Savior.
 

So, this week we continue to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds. As you continue to hear me say, we do not celebrate yet, not until December 25. In order to have a joyous, great and grand celebration we take the time to plan so that we do not fall short in our celebration. We take the time to prepare, to be reminded of our part in these plans. We take the time to be reminded that all that we will celebrate will be for us and for our good, for our spiritual well-being.
 

And when we do celebrate we will celebrate for the full twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day until Epiphany, the day we will celebrate the visit of the Magi, the first Gentiles to see the newborn King.
 

We will celebrate the fulfillment of all history in the person of God in flesh, Jesus. The purpose of the prophecies of old are that they point us to the One to be born. The One to be born must be the One to fulfill all the prophecies. Should the One born not fulfill any one of the prophecies then He would not be the One promised. Indeed, the odds of one man accidentally fulfilling all the prophecies concerning the coming Savior are rather astronomical. Yet, Jesus came fulfilling all the prophecies of the Old Testament so that we can know for certain that He is the One promised from of old, the Ancient of Days.
 

Finally, when we celebrate we will rejoice in God’s gifts; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. God’s love for us is seen in that knowing what would happen, knowing what He would have to suffer for us His children, He created us anyway. God’s love is seen in His giving up the glory of heaven in order to take on flesh and blood, in order to be born under the law, in order to obey all the laws and commands of God, perfectly for us, in our place. God’s love is seen in Jesus living perfectly for us in our place and then trading His perfection for our imperfection. What we deserve Jesus took for us. What Jesus deserves He gives to us, freely because of His love for us.
 

We have lighted the second of the four weekly candles. In essence we are half way to our Christmas celebration. We rejoice in God’s great love for us. We rejoice in God’s gifts of forgiveness, faith, strengthening of faith, life and eternal salvation. We rejoice, bow down and worship our eternal God and King, Christ the Lord. We rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Lord Is at Hand - Third Sunday in Advent - December 15, 2024 - Text: Philippians 4:4-7

Last week we noted that in his letter to the Philippians Paul does not dwell so much on any particular sin of the Philippians, rather the intent of this letter is one of encouraging and building up of the people of Philippi. Yet, although Paul does not dwell on any particular sin, as we read his words of encouragement and put them up as a mirror to our own lives, we do indeed find ourselves lacking. We find ourselves lacking because of our refusal of the gifts of the Gospel and this is our sin, as we will see.
 

Before we get to our text for this morning, as we continue on through this advent season, as we continue getting ourselves ready to celebrate Christmas and the birth of God in flesh, let us take a moment to look at the other lessons for this morning. In our Old Testament reading we hear the words of the prophet Zephaniah as he predicts the coming of the Messiah.
 

In our Gospel reading for this morning we hear some of the fulfillment of the words of the Old Testament lesson and we hear the account of Jesus’ response to the question of John the Baptist who came to prepare the people for Jesus’ coming, in particular for Jesus to begin His earthly ministry. Yet, as great a man, as great a prophet as John was, he still had his doubts as we hear in his question of Jesus’ identity. Jesus’ response was not to argue for His identity as the Messiah, nor was it a call to look at anything as proof of who He was, except that He was fulfilling the words of the prophet’s concerning the Messiah.
 

In our text, Paul encourages us as people who have witnessed Jesus’ first coming and who look forward to His second coming. We are to patiently, yet eagerly wait for the day of the Lord when He will come to gather us and all the elect and to take us to be with Himself in heaven.
 

Now, getting to our text in particular. Our text begins at verse four, “4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (v. 4-7)
 

Paul begins by encouraging and exhorting us to rejoice and to rejoice always. As we look at our lives, do we rejoice always? I think we are people who, rather than rejoicing always, more often than not we tend to bemoan our own circumstances in life. We bemoan that things don’t always go our way. We bemoan that life is unfair, at least as we might consider life to be fair. And if we are not always this way, certainly we know people who tend to be this way. Yet, Paul encourages and exhorts us to rejoice always, no matter what our circumstances. As we listen to Paul’s words and as we understand his words as coming from an end times point of view that is as Paul knows what the end result for us is, eternal life in heaven, certain he can encourage us to rejoice always. And as we know, believe and have hope and confidence in our eternal salvation, with the Lord’s help, we can rejoice always.
 

Paul encourages us to be reasonable. To be reasonable means to be gentle, to show forbearance which might mean to put up with each other, to not give offense, and at the same time to not be so easily offended. As we continue looking in the mirror, how often do we get upset and then look for ways to get more upset and more offended, always dwelling on the negative. And so we again go back to Paul’s view of the coming of the end of the world and as we know, believe and have hope and confidence in our eternal salvation, with the Lord’s help, we can be reasonable.
 

Paul encourages us to not be anxious, that is to not worry. Here again, as we look in the mirror the question is not if we worry, but how often do we worry. We worry about our health. We worry about our property, our house, our car. We worry about our family and our church family. We worry because of our lack of trust in our Lord, it is only natural. Someone once quipped, “When we worry we undo our prayers.” And yet, we worry anyway and we worry that we worry. But, again, going back to Paul’s view of the coming of the end of the world and as we know, believe and have hope and confidence in our eternal salvation, with the Lord’s help, we can turn our worries over to Him.
 

Which leads to Paul’s encouragement to pray. Certainly we understand, as we were taught in confirmation class that prayer is a heart to heart talk with God, anytime and anywhere. Paul encourages us to give everything over to the Lord in prayer and supplication and with thanksgiving and to leave it with Him, not to take it back, not to worry and undo our giving it to Him. Yet, how often do we pray to our Lord and then we attempt to go on to help Him out in answering our prayer. How often do we believe that God has not answered our prayer when in reality His answer has been “no”? And how often do we remember to give thanks to the Lord even for answering “no” or for giving us something we may not like or even for giving us the struggles and challenges we face in life? Remembering that prayer is one part of our conversation with God, our speaking to Him. As Paul encourages us to pray, so we might well read this as his encouragement to make regular and diligent use of the means of grace, especially in the reading of the Word which is His speaking to us. Yet, again, going back to Paul’s view of the coming of the end of the world and as we know, believe and have hope and confidence in our eternal salvation, with the Lord’s help, we do take everything to the Lord by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.
 

Paul’s encouragement is that as we do these things, God’s peace will be given to us. God’s peace is a peace which begins with the forgiveness of sins and a removal of guilt. Yes, we may experience some peace and quite, some peace and serenity in this world, at least for a little while, but nothing in this world can compare to that peace which is true peace, that peace which flows from sins forgiven and guilt removed. Unfortunately, again, as we continue looking in the mirror, how often it is that we hold on to our sin and guilt and we let our sin and guilt drag us down. Going back to Paul’s view of the coming of the end of the world and as we know, believe and have hope and confidence in our eternal salvation, with the Lord’s help, we can give Him our sin and guilt and we know that He does give us peace from forgiveness and life.
 

Paul reminds us that God’s peace is a peace which surpasses all understanding. We do have a difficult time understanding God’s peace. As we just said, His peace is a peace which has its beginning in the forgiveness of sins. And yet, even as our Lord forgives us we continue to sin. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness as we confess. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission and sins of commission. We are conceived and born in sin. We are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. How can God forgive us we might ask? How can a Creator God love His creation so much? And yet, this is where God’s peace, where His forgiveness so much surpasses all understanding, because He is a God who does forgive us and forgive us and forgive us.
 

Finally, Paul says that God will guard your hearts and minds. How does God guard our hearts and minds? He guards our hearts and minds in the same way as He gives the gifts He has to give, through means, namely through the means of grace. When we refuse the means of grace, by not being in Divine Service and Bible class, by not reading our Bibles, having personal and family devotions, by not remembering our baptism, then we remove ourselves from the means our Lord has of giving us the gifts He has to give and our hearts and minds are unguarded. But, as we remember our baptism, as we have personal and family devotions, read our Bible and attend Divine Service and Bible class, as we hear His word of forgiveness, Absolution, as we partake of His body and blood with the bread and wine, our Lord works through these means to guard our hearts and minds to keep us in faith, and to strengthen us in faith, until He comes again.
 

What Does This Mean? Christians are different, at least different from the rest of the world. We Christian are forgiven, are given faith, are given life and salvation. These are gifts our Lord gives through His means of grace. These are gifts that we, as Christians cherish above all other gifts.
 

We Christians focus on the world to come, on heaven. Yes, we live in this world. Yes, we are tempted to be in this world and even to be of this world, but we know that there is a better place, a greater world and that is the world to come and so we invest our time, not so much in this world, but in the world to come. We invest our time in this world getting ourselves ready for the real world, the world, not of a few short years, eighty or ninety, but in the real world of eternity.
 

At this time of year we Christians look forward to celebrating Christ’s birth, God in flesh. We do not celebrate just yet. Remember, “advent” means coming. We use this time to get ready. Just as one would not simply call up all his friends and say, come over in two minutes, I am having a grand party, but would instead plan by making a list of invitees, making a list of what will be served to eat and drink and so forth, so too, we do not simply jump into our Christmas celebration. No, we use this time during advent to prepare, to get ready, because on Christmas day, on December 25 we will begin celebrating and we will celebrate for twelve days, until Epiphany.
 

Not only do we look forward to Christmas, we Christians also look forward to Good Friday and Easter. We look forward to God in flesh living, dying, and rising. The reason we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child is because He came for one reason, to give His life for ours. We look forward to Good Friday, not in any morbid way, but knowing, understanding and believing that Jesus’ death was for us, in our place so that we might have forgiveness and life. And especially we look forward to celebrating His resurrection on Easter Sunday, knowing that death and the grave have no power over Him.
 

Finally, we Christians look forward to Christ’s return. Just as God kept His first promise and sent Jesus to be born, to live for us, to take our sins, to suffer on the cross and to die for us, so He will keep His second promise to return to take us from this vale of tears to be with Himself in heaven for eternity.
 

By God’s grace, given through faith, given through means, we are confident in our forgiveness, life and salvation and thus we do rejoice in the Lord. Because of our salvation, because God has His way with us, we do rejoice in the Lord always, we are reasonable in our relationships, we are not anxious, but we do take everything to our Lord by prayer and supplication and we do give thanks in all circumstances. And we bask in our Lord’s peace which passes all understanding. May the Lord continue to pour out His peace on you during this season of preparation. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Prophecy Candle - December 11, 2024 - Advent Midweek 2 - Text: Isaiah 9:6-7a

Our text for this evening is from Isaiah chapter nine, 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7). This is our text.
 

Every year during the season of Advent I invite the children to come forward during the children’s message and we talk about the Advent wreath. Each Sunday we talk about the different candles and the meaning of each one. This year during the Wednesday services we are talking about the Advent wreath and what each candle represents, but we will do so for the rest of us, the adults of the congregation. We will learn to use the Advent Wreath in our own preparation to celebrate the greatest birth and gift to mankind.
 

We began last week talking about the advent wreath by recognizing that it has a circular base reminding us that God is Eternal. Just as a circle has no beginning and no endings so our God has no beginning, He was not created and no ending, He is eternal. Indeed, as we know our God does not live in the past nor in the future, but He lives in the eternal present, as His name is I AM, not I was nor I will be, but I AM, thus we might use the circle to symbolize His eternal existence.
 

We also talked about the greenery of the advent wreath which reminds us that God is alive. As we might look at a lawn that is brown or a tree that has brown leaves and surmise that it is dead, so as we look at a green lawn or a green tree we might surmise that they are alive. So it is with God, the green of the Advent wreath reminds us that we worship, not a dead God, but a living God.
 

This week we move to talk about the first candle that we light which is called the Prophecy Candle. I often call this the promise candle because that is what God’s prophecy concerning the coming Messiah, Savior, Christ is, God’s promise to send a Savior. Thus, the first candle points us back to the Garden of Eden and man’s sin. In the beginning God created all things out of nothing and everything that God created was good. On the last day of creation God looked at all that He created and said that it was very good. Indeed, all that God created was perfect.
 

The first candle points us back to God’s first prophecy, His promise of a Savior, for all people. Although all that God created was good, very good and perfect, when we get to Genesis chapter three and the account moves from the history of God’s creating work to the history of human beings we hear how Eve and Adam fall for the lies of the father of lies, Satan himself. They disobey God and sin, eating from the forbidden fruit the fruit, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil  in the midst of the Garden. Although God’s command and warning was that they were not to eat of the fruit with the punishment of death, and by death God meant physical, bodily death and apart from Jesus death would also mean eternal death and  hell. Although God had given them His command and warning they did eat and their disobedience, their sin brought death into the once perfect world. Thanks be to God that He immediately stepped in and promised a solution, to send a Savior, a Messiah, One who would suffer the punishment for their sin for them, in their place, as their substitute.
 

The first candle also points us to Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Judah, David, and so forth. We are pointed to these men of faith throughout the Old Testament as God reiterated His promise to them that the Savior, the Messiah would be born through their line of descent.
 

The first candle points us to Isaiah and our text. 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7).
 

The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Savior promised in the Garden of Eden, reiterated to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and so on, would be born as a human being and born under the law. In other words, the Savior would be born to be our substitute doing for us what we are unable to do, be perfect. As God’s command in Eden was perfection and because Eve and Adam sinned and brought imperfection, so the Savior would come and live in perfection for us, in our place, as our substitute, thus fulfilling God’s first command.
 

Not only would the Savior be born as a human He would also be born as God. Isaiah points not only to the Savior’s earthly life but also to His heavenly, everlasting rule. The Savior would be truly human to be our substitute, but also truly God to be perfect, holy and eternal.
 

The Savior would be of royal blood, yet not in order to rule on earth, but to rule in heaven for eternity. The Savior would be born and live under the Law, perfectly obeying the Law, for us in our place. The Savior would bring, establish and uphold justice and righteousness which He would do by shedding His blood for the sins of the world. Remember, the price for sin was set at death, thus the Savior would have to suffer death in order to reconcile us for the price for our sins.
 

Finally, ultimately the Savior will rule in heaven for eternity. The promised Savior would be born of the earthly line of King David and King Solomon, indeed born of royal blood. Yet His was not to be an earthly kingdom. He was not born as a social/political Savior, but a Savior from sin, a spiritual/eternal life Savior. His birth was never for earthly rule, but always for heavenly rule.
 

Advent is the season and the time for getting ready. We are getting ready for a great and grand celebration. As someone once said, we do not plan to fail but we often fail to plan. When we are having a grand celebration we begin by planning and the better we plan the better the celebration. The Advent Wreath helps us in our planning. The Advent Wreath helps us remember the history and reason to celebrate Christmas.
 

The Advent Wreath helps us prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate. The Prophecy Candle, or as I like to call it, the Promise Candle and I like to call it the Promise Candle because not everyone knows or understands what prophecy is, and what it is, is God’s promise of future event, anyway the Prophecy Candle reminds us of our first parents and their sin. It therefore reminds us of our sin and the reason Jesus had to be born, for us. We are conceived and born in sin. Every intention of our heart are evil all the time. Yet, because of God’s great love for us He sent a Savior to live for us, to take our sins and to suffer and pay the price for our sins.
 

Preparation and taking time to prepare is important. Just as God took time to prepare to send Jesus so we take the time to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth. How much time did God take to prepare? From the time of God’s first promise to send a Savior, God waited some four to six thousand years. God wanted to make sure everything was just right and it was. Jesus was born at just the right time. All history that pointed to Jesus was in just the right place. So, we take the time (maybe not four to six thousand years though). We plan. We prepare. Especially we prepare our hearts and minds for our celebration.
 

And finally, we will celebrate. We will celebrate the birth of the One promised so long ago, the One promised immediately after Eve and Adam sinned, the One promised and the promise reiterated throughout Old Testament history. We celebrate the birth of the One who would live for us, a perfect life, perfectly obeying all God’s Laws and Commands. We celebrate the birth of the One who took our sins and suffered the punishment which should have been ours, for us, in our place so that we do not have to suffer. We celebrate the good gifts and blessings He has earned for and given to us; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And what a great and grand celebration it will be a celebration lasting twelve days.
 

As we have lighted the first Advent candle may we be reminded once again of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7). We rejoice and give thanks to our great God for the gift of His Son, our great God and Savior, Christ the Lord. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Being Made Blameless for the Day of Christ - Second Sunday in Advent - December 8, 2024 - Text: Philippians 1:2-11

Have you ever wondered where the Pastor gets his opening statement of grace? We copy Paul. This morning our text begins with Paul’s usual beginning, “2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 2). My prayer, as your pastor, is the prayer of Paul on you the reader and hearer of these words, that God would pour out His grace and peace on you as you hear these words which the Lord through Paul has to give. And that you are given the gifts the Lord has to give through the Words He pours out on you.
 

As is his usual custom, Paul begins by giving thanks and by telling why he is giving such thanks. We pick up at verse three, “3I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (v. 3-6). Paul gives thanks because of the good work God began in the Philippians. Notice it is not some innate good work the Philippians are doing, it is not some good work the Philippians have initiated, rather it is the fact that it all begins with God. God began their good work. God works their good works in and through them so that they are indeed good works.
 

Paul gives thanks because of their partnership with him, and this is a partnership which is both financial and spiritual, that is, it is a partnership of financial support and probably more importantly for Paul, a partnership in prayer. The Philippians gave their first fruits, their tithes and their offerings to the Lord which went to support the mission work of Paul, the spreading of the Gospel to all parts of the world. The Philippians also offered prayers for Paul, certainly prayers for safe travel as well as prayers for protection from adversity and prayers for faithfulness and fruitfulness in sharing the Gospel with others.
 

And Paul gives thanks because of their show of faith, love and fellowship. It was not difficult to see that the Philippians were a caring group of Christians as they let their lights shine. They lived lives as Christians giving themselves first to the Lord. They lived lives as Christians encouraging and building each other up as brothers and sisters in Christ. They lived lives as Christians supporting Paul, praying for him, encouraging him and the like. Certainly one could see that God was having His way with the Philippians.
 

Why is Paul so thankful? Paul explains why he loves God’s people so. We pick up at verse seven, “7It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” (v. 7-8). Paul is thankful and loves God’s people because of their prayers and encouragement, especially during his times of trial and imprisonment. Just as being a Christian today is not necessarily an easy life to live, so it was even more difficult in Paul’s day. Paul was put on trial, beaten, stoned almost to the point of death and even imprisoned for his faith and for his missionary zeal. Paul gives thanks and loves the Philippians because of their prayers on his behalf during his times of struggle, and especially during his times of imprisonment.
 

Paul is thankful and loves God’s people because their lives show forth the faith he proclaims. Here again, one’s Christian faith is not something that is simply one part or one compartment of one’s life. One’s Christian faith, if it is true faith, shines through in all aspects of life. The Philippians exemplified what it meant to be a Christian and for that Paul gave thanks for them and expressed his love for them.
 

Paul’s love, then, is an imitation of Jesus’ agape love. Paul’s love was not a conditional love that depended on what the Philippians were doing, rather his love grew deeper because of their response of faith.
 

Finally, Paul offers a prayer for the Philippians. We pick up at verse nine, “9And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (v. 9-11). Paul’s prayer is that the Philippians will continue in faith and love. Paul knows that the world is a difficult place to live. He knows that temptation and sin abound. He knows that our human nature is such that we easily succumb to temptation and sin and so he offers prayers to the Lord to give the Philippians more faith and love to help them fight against temptation and sin.
 

Paul prays that the Philippians will continue to grow in faith, knowledge and discernment. What better advantage, what better way to fight temptation and sin than to be strengthened in faith, in knowledge and in discernment. Just as we are daily bombarded with mixed messages in the world of today, so too were the Philippians of Paul’s day. It is no easy task to discern right from wrong, to understand and know what evil lay behind every door. Certainly growing in one’s faith, knowledge and discernment will give an advantage in fighting temptation and sin.
 

And Paul prays that the Philippians will remain faithful until death when they will be given the crown of life. Although life might seem long as we live it each day, the fact of the matter is life is very short. The greatest gift we can be given, after forgiveness, is to remain faithful until death.
 

What does this mean? As you may have noticed, Paul’s letter to the Philippians is not one in which he deals with too much sinfulness, rather this letter is more a letter of encouragement. As such, as we continue this season of Advent, as we continue to prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, God in flesh, so we are encouraged in our own Christian faith and life. Yes, we do live in a world of temptation and sin. There is the constant temptation to be like those around us, after all, it sure looks like they are having a lot of fun, living in the world, indulging in the debauchery of the world, why should we not have so much fun, after all, we can ask for forgiveness later. Yet, Jesus did not give His life so that we might have a license to sin. Jesus gave His life so that we might have forgiveness and so that we might be encouraged not to sin.
 

As we read and hear Paul’s words this morning my pray is that we are hearing them as being writing about us and to us here at St. Matthew. I give thanks to the Lord as Paul does, for your faith, knowledge, and discernment, given to you by God. Living in this world is not easy, as temptation and sin abound, even daily attacking and enticing us. And yet, as the Lord works through His means of grace, He works to strengthen and keep us in faith so that we do live lives of faith, so that we do grow in our faith and so that we are able, at least to some degree to discern right from wrong and at least some of the time live lives that are well pleasing in His sight. And so, I do thank God for your presence in divine service and in Bible class and for your faith, for your growing in faith in knowledge and in discernment.
 

I thank you as Paul does for your prayers and for showing your faith as confirmation of the Gospel proclaimed. As I pray for each one of you so I continue to ask for your prayers for me as well and I thank you for those prayers. Being a pastor does not negate being tempted, as a matter of fact, as a pastor the devil certainly will attack all the more with the idea, as we have seen in the news, if he gets the pastor that should discredit God and His Word. So, I do continue to ask and thank you for your prayers on my behalf. I would also continue to encourage you in showing your faith as confirmation of the Gospel that you have heard. As we learn in the third commandment, simply going to church, hearing and believe the Word proclaimed is not the fulfillment of this commandment. Rather, going to church, listening, believing and doing, showing forth our faith, is the fulfillment of this commandment and so I continue to encourage you as such.
 

And finally, I pray as Paul does that you may remain faithful. This world is not an easy world to live in, at least, not as a Christian. We are constantly tempted to question God and His Word, “Did God really say . . .?” Or, “Did God really mean . . . ?” We are constantly tempted to deny our own faith. We are constantly enticed and lured by the pleasures and ways of this world, fame, fortune and power. Often it seems there are more enemies than friends in this world. Yet, we have God’s promise that He is with us always, even to the very end of the age. We have God’s gifts of faith, forgiveness and life which He pours out on us abundantly, day in and day out. As we approach our celebration of the birth of Christ, we are reminded that this is the promise God made back in the Garden of Eden and as He fulfilled this promise, as we celebrate as such, so we know that He keeps and fulfills all His promises. He will keep us faithful. He will watch over us and defend us. Thanks be to God.
 

When I begin writing a sermon, I like to capture the central thought of the text into one sentence. This morning that sentence, that central thought is this: God gives faith, strengthens faith and brings faith to completion in heaven and while living in this world, God gives fellowship with other believers and a response of faith to do the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. May the Lord who has “began a good work in you . . . bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” For Jesus’ sake and to Him be the glory. Amen.

Christ, Everlasting God - December 4, 2024 - First Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 1) - Texts: Isaiah 40:28, Ps. 136:1-3, John 10:28

Every year during the season of Advent I invite the children to come forward during the children’s message and we talk about the Advent wreath. Each Sunday we talk about the different candles and the meaning of each one. This year during the Wednesday services we will talk about the Advent wreath and what each candle represents, but we will do so for the rest of us, the adults of the congregation. We will learn to use the Advent Wreath in our own preparation to celebrate the greatest birth and gift to mankind.
 

We begin talking about the advent wreath by recognizing that it has a circular base reminding us that God is Eternal. Just as a circle has no beginning and no ending so our God has no beginning, He was not created and no ending, He is eternal. Indeed, as we know our God does not live in the past nor in the future, but He lives in the eternal present, as His name is I Am, thus we might use the circle to symbolize His eternal existence.
 

The greenery of the advent wreath reminds us that God is alive. As we might look at a lawn that is brown or a tree that has brown leaves and surmise that it is dead, so as we look at a green lawn or a green tree we might surmise that they are alive. So it is with God, the green of the Advent wreath reminds us that we worship, not a dead God, but a living God.
 

Even more, we worship a God who is not a myth nor a legend, but who is truly God, the Creator of all things. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. Not only is He the one true God, but He is a God who loves us, His creation, His creatures as it were such that He entered into our human, mortal world in order to redeem us, to buy us back after we fell into sin. Indeed, He is God who was truly an actual human being, born in time, in history. We have actual archeological proof of our God’s life while on this earth. And yet, even while we may visit the graves of those religious leaders who have lived and died, there is not grave to be found for our God, because He did not stay dead, but rose from the dead, victorious over sin, death and the devil.
 

God, who lives in the eternal present created us for a purpose, and I know you have heard me say it many times before, but I will say it again, God created us in order to love us. Those words are truly Gospel words. While there may be and are many who profess our need to do something for God, worship Him, praise Him, laud Him and so on, we know that God needs nothing from us. As Paul explained to the Athenians on Mars Hill, what does God who created all things need from us, His creatures. Indeed, we need everything from Him. He is the One who created us. He gives us life at conception, new life through the waters of Holy Baptism, forgiveness of sins through Holy Absolution and His body and blood in His Holy Supper. What we are born with and what we take with us when we pass on is all that is truly ours, which is nothing. Indeed, God created us to love us and give everything to us and needs nothing from us.
 

To suggest that God needs something from us, our obedience, our making a decision for Jesus, our choosing Him as our Savior, our worship, our praise, those demands are Law demands and are truly a misunderstanding of God, who He is and what He gives.
 

God created us to love us and God created heaven for us, for our eternal home. When God created all things out of nothing it was never His intent that any should perish, although having said that we do understand that since God lives in the eternal present, even before He began creating the world He already knew what was going to happen and yet even here we see His great love for us in that He created us anyway.
 

God’s plan from eternity was to create us so that we might be loved by Him. Hell was never a part of God’s plan. Hell was created as a result of the rebellion of Lucifer, the light bearer angel who rebelled against God and was cast out with all his followers.
 

God created man in His own image, that is sinless, perfect and holy. Lucifer, the father of lies who hates everything that is good and from God, entered and tempted Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created perfect and holy and did not know evil or sin. So, when Lucifer, Satan tempted them with the lie of knowing good and evil by disobeying God, which I guess was not a lie since before they did not know evil. They ate of the forbidden fruit and with that sin they brought sin and death, evil into a perfect world. God’s threat was if they ate of the fruit they would die, that is they would begin to die a physical death and, part from Him they would die and eternal death in hell.
 

Again, because God created us to love us He took care of man’s sin. God stepped in and promised a Savior, a Messiah, a Christ. At the same time, He did not give any indication as to when this would happen. And because the price for sin was death, human death for human sin, God’s promise of a Savior was the promise of a human as a substitute for Adam and Eve, for all mankind.
 

Just as through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, so through One Man, Jesus came forgiveness and eternal salvation. God, living in the eternal present knew what was going to happen. He knew man would sin. He knew He would have to save man. Because of His great love for us, because He created us to love us, He promised and did take care of our sin.
 

As we begin this Advent Season and as we rehearse the events that we celebrate, the Advent Wreath is a great visual reminder of God’s promises and His fulfillment of His promises. We being at the beginning, with the fact that God is eternal as visualized in the circular base of our wreath. And God is living as visualized in the green of our wreath. As we heard in our Scripture readings, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable”(Isaiah 40:28). “1Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. 2Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. 3Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1-3). “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
 

God gives and we are given to. God does and we are done to. God gives life at conception. God gives new life, even eternal life and faith at our baptism. It is not that we have been baptized as in past tense, but we are baptized, present tense and are still baptized.  God gives forgiveness through Holy Absolution as well as through His Holy Word, which is the power in Holy Absolution as well as in His Holy Supper. God gives strengthening of faith through His Word, as His Word is read and heard it gives the gifts of which it speaks. God gives us Jesus, His body and blood to eat and drink for forgiveness and strengthening through His Holy Supper. God gives life, eternal life and salvation.
 

And God gives us our response of faith. Indeed, as we keep hearing, God created us to loves us and He needs nothing from us but gives everything to us. Although we may understand God’s first command in the Garden of Eden was the obedience of Adam and Eve and even today demands our perfection, because He knows we are unable and cannot fulfill His demands, He sent Jesus to fulfill His demands for us in our place, as our substitute. And because He knows that in and of ourselves we are unable to respond to all His good gifts and blessings, He also stirs in us to respond. Just as when we are children we need to be taught to be thankful, so even God works such thankfulness in us. Thus, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit our response of faith is to live as priests in the priesthood of all believers, that is to live our lives as living sacrifice, serving God by our serving others in our vocations. Indeed, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit we live our lives to His glory, though this side of heaven that is still an imperfect living.
 

And so, we begin another Advent Season. In Old Testament times God required the children of Israel to celebrate several feast and festivals. He did this, required these celebrations so that they might not forget, but remember all that He had done for them and continued to do for them. Indeed, as we follow their history, we know they often failed miserably. Thus, although we fail miserably in our lives, and although the Lord does not require that we celebrate and hold certain festivals we understand the importance of our church year, our Advent and Lenten Seasons and the importance of celebrating, review and remembering so that we might never forget and so that we might be strengthened to face whatever there is to face in this world. As I have said before, do not begin celebrating Christmas just yet, wait until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Until Christmas Eve and Day, use this season to prepare so that your celebration will be even more wonderful. And so that ultimately we may rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.