2012-01-01T16:53:00.003-06:00

Christ: Our Consolation And Redemption In The New Year.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Merciful God, we humbly implore you to cast the bright beams of your light upon your Church that we, being instructed by the doctrine of the blessed Apostles, may walk in the light of your truth and finally attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Lord in your mercy... hear our prayer.

The Word of God which the Holy Spirit has caused to be written by inspiration for you is recorded in the 2nd Chapter of the Gospel According to St. Luke. Of particular importance are the words, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, the Holy Spirit was upon him.” … “And there was a prophetess, Anna, she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” This is the Gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Beloved Saints in Christ Jesus,

As we enter this New Year 2012 under the rivulet of blood circumcision)and Holy Name of Jesus, the Holy Scripture reminds us that God is always running our spiritual lives according to his Word and Promises and by his Spirit.

This is something that we need to keep in mind in these days when our post modern world is educating us to discover our own personal truth or truths through our own reason and feelings and /or personal experience and intuition.

King David, in the Old Testament Reading, was relying to a certain extent on his reason and experience when he made the decision to build a house for God. Everything about this plan that David came up with made perfect sense, everything about this plan felt right.

It did not seem reasonable or feel right to David that he himself lived in a glorious palace of cedar wood while God dwelt among his people in a tent. And when you think of it, it does not really make much sense or feel right does it?

This logic of David even prevailed upon Nathan and convinced this Prophet of the Lord to agree with his plan and even place God’s blessing on it. A servant of the Word of God can certainly avoid a great deal of trouble for themself by putting God's blessing on what people want to do.

Messengers of God are however only supposed to say what God gives them to say and not to add or take anything away from what the One who sends them gives them to say. It seems to me that Nathan runs dangerously close to those prophets who later said things and the LORD said, "I did not give them to say what they are saying. "

Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
And that night the LORD came to the Prophet Nathan and told Nathan to tell David, “When did I ever tell you or anyone else to build me a great house. Never did I speak a word about anyone building me a house or ask anyone why they have not build me a house yet.” It seems that David had not relied on God’s Word, but had launched out on his own plan.

You see David and Nathan, as they relied on their reason and instincts were both “ready to roll” on something that God had never spoken a Word.

Martin Luther once wrote, “We must not judge by what we feel or by what we see before us. The Word must be followed, and we must firmly hold that these truths are to be believed, not experienced; for to believe is not to experience. Not indeed that what we believe is never to be experienced, but that faith is to precede experience. And the Word must be believed even when we feel and experience what differs entirely from the Word.”

As so now as you enter the New Year, I certainly do not want to be like Nathan the Prophet and say, “Do whatever your heart tells you to do.” or “Do everything that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

This is the same kind of thinking that the post modern world and the churches which are so influenced by it are telling you right now. "Do what is in your own heart, trust your heart, trust your own instincts, your truth is your truth and no one else has the right to tell you that their truth should be your truth, the LORD is with you." And people, even well intending Christians, are buying into this lock, stock, and barrel.

But the Scripture tells us that "The heart of man is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick;" Then the question is asked, "Who can understand or know how sick it really is?"(Jeremiah 17:9)

Sinful humans are always wanting to do whatever is in their hearts, to think whatever they want to think, to say whatever seems logical or feels right to them and then to have God’s blessing put on the whole mess.

As we enter into this New Year, I want to tell you as your Pastor, that in things pertaining to God and faith and your spiritual life, do not do whatever is in your heart; do not trust your heart; do not trust your logic or your instincts or intuition, trust God’s Word alone and the correct explanation of God’s Word that is found in the Lutheran Confessions, the Book of Concord.

In matters that deal with God and how God wants you to believe and live in this New Year, I exhort you to live God’s by Word alone and to rely God’s Word for the truth of who God is and how things are going between you and him.

Beloved we are already “living in the days when men are not putting up with sound doctrine, but instead, in order to suit their own desires, they gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3) These men find teachers who consent to their plans and then put God’s blessing on it.

As so as we come to the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus and to his dedication at the Temple in Jerusalem, nothing about the situation makes sense according to our reason and senses.

Does it really make sense or feel right that God s born into a family so poor that they can only afford two pigeons or doves as a sacrifice to God?

Does it really make sense or feel right that Mary must be purified from the blood of childbirth before coming to God’s Temple?

Does it really make sense or seem right that Jesus, the first born, who will become the greatest High Priest ever, when he is taken to the Temple, is taken to be purchased back from God so that he does not have to be a Priest.

If Simeon and Anna, had been going by their reason or sense or feeling or intuition or instinct, they would have missed the Christ "by a mile".

They would have not recognized the Savior for whom they were waiting. However since they went by the Word of God and what that Word said about the Messiah Savior, the Holy Spirit came through the Word and enabled them to understand and revealed the salvation of the world to them and enabled them "to believe with their hearts and to confess with their mouths."

As St Simeon looked at the baby Jesus, according to the Word of God, the Holy Spirit enabled him in faith to understand that it would someday take the shedding of this baby’s holy innocent blood and his death to save the world from sin, death and from the wrath and punishment of God.

St. Simeon and St. Anna looked at the Christ child, according to the Word of God they understood the enormous price that this child would someday pay with his suffering and with his body and blood and this is what would bring Consolation, Comfort and Redemption not only to Jesus' people the Jews, but also to all the Gentiles or non-Jewish nations of the world.

So Simeon and Anna went confidently into the futures God had prepared for them, they had peace and were assured and comforted by the Christ child and the forgiveness of their sins and peace with God that Mary’s Son would someday purchase for them with his flesh and blood, and with his holy innocent suffering and death.

We all want to know that we are going to be alright in the New Year, safe and secure and that God’s goodness and mercy will fill our lives and that someday when the time comes we will depart in peace according to the Word of the Lord.

There is no greater way of being assured of this than seeing Christ according to God’s Word; than seeing the Christ who meets us here and now bodily, in his flesh and blood (as he once met Simeon and Anna).

Christ our Consolation and Redeemer meets us here and now to speak his words of peace and comfort, his words of security and peace; to assure us with the promise of well-being and goodness even as he speaks words to us those precious words of Absolution that give forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith. As he places himself, body and his blood into us through eating and drinking.

In this way beloved, by the proclaimed Word of God and by the Word of God made flesh and given to us in the Eucharist, God is fulfilling the promise he made to us in our baptisms so that now we are being prepared by God the Father, in God the Son, through God the Holy Spirit to enter with renewed faith and hope, confidence and joy into the New Year 2012.

Depart in peace...Amen

Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Crestview, Florida