​God With Us
Luke 2:22-40
First Sunday after Christmas
December 30 and 31, 2017
In Old Testament days, it was easy to believe that God was with you if your children were healthy, your reputation was solid, your land was paid for, and your nation were free and prosperous.
In these days, it’s easy to believe that God is with us when we get to tuck our children and grandchildren in their beds at night, warm and safe as they can be.  It’s easy to believe that God is with us and is providing for us when our cars start right up on the coldest of morning, when our family holiday meals are festive and pleasant.  It’s easy to believe that God is with us and smiling on us when we’re on our way to getting our houses paid for, our benefit plans are in order, and our vacations are planned and paid for in advance.
Our sermon theme today is “God With Us,” and for many of us, including my family, that’s a pretty easy proposition to believe. For many of us, if you were to put blessings on one side of the scale and troubles on the other, it wouldn’t even be close.  
But if you’re one of 34 million children worldwide who are suffering from severe and acute malnutrition, you’d have to wonder about this faraway father in heaven who has supposedly redeemed and adopted you as sons and daughters.  And if you’re one of over 600,000 homeless on any given night in the United States, you’d have to wonder about that Christmas joy the angels were singing about and that good news the shepherds couldn’t stop talking about.  
And just to make it personal, if your name is Maria and you and your ten year old daughter are walking the cold streets of Minneapolis this afternoon, your story includes all kinds of addiction, all kinds of domestic abuse, all kinds of mental illness, you just finished eating a meal provided at a soup kitchen, and you know it will be three hours yet before you can check into a shelter for the night, you have to be wondering if God really is with you, and if he is, is this the best He can do?
 To our text we go this morning, where we find that God was in fact with Mary and Joseph, He was with Simeon, and He was with Anna.
God was with Mary and Joseph in the prescribed (rituals).  One advantage of belonging to the Jewish faith was that your days, weeks, months, and years were structured.  There were the daily major feasts, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread / Passover, the Feast of Weeks / Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths.  There were minor feasts, including the Feast of Trumpets, The Date of Atonement, and the Day of Assembly.  Jewish believers knew where to go for the forgiveness of their sins, they knew where to take their stained and soiled hearts, they knew what sacrifices needed to be offered, they knew that God was with them in the prescribed rituals of their faith.
Mary and Joseph knew that God was with them, as Jesus first sheds blood on the (eighth day).   Keep in mind that everything that happened to Jesus all that that He did was in fulfillment of OT prophecy and for the salvation of the world.  Mary and Joseph knew exactly what to do on the 8th day.  This ritual would take place in their home, and at the when his blood is first shed he receives the name given by the angel, Jesus.  Paul teaches us in Colossians 2 that for New Testament Christians, to be uncircumcised is to be sinful and in rebellion against God.  The benefits of Jesus’ circumcision are received by us in Baptism, where our hearts and minds are circumcised or changed.  New Testament believers know where to go for the forgiveness of sins and to be incorporated into the family of God – we go to the waters of Baptism. 
Mary and Joseph knew that God was with them, As they fulfill the law on the (40th day).  Keep in mind that Jewish firstborn sons and animals had been spared and passed over by the angel of death in the Exodus from Egypt. At every Passover meal, the son would ask what was meant by all of these detailed rituals in the Passover, and the father would teach the family the story of the Exodus.   For this reason, firstborn sons and animals belonged to God, and needed to be bought back or redeemed with a sacrifice of animal blood. Families who could afford it would sacrifice a lamb, poor families like Mary and Joseph could offer two turtle doves or pigeons. On the 40th day, Mary and Joseph knew that God was with them, as they brought the baby Jesus to the temple, rituals were followed as prescribed.
 Mary and Joseph knew that God would be with them as Jesus would grow and fulfill his mission in life.  Simeon reminded them that this child was appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, that he would meet up with all kinds of opposition, and that as Jesus taught and made his way to the cross, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed.  They knew that God was with them As the sword pierced their hearts (from that day forward).  One can only wonder how the Spirit guided them through the ups and the downs of God’s story unfolding in and through them, but we of this we are certain, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. 
Application #1 today is to rejoice  in the presence of God as often as we meet up with God in those places he has promised to be found, in the preaching and teaching of His Word, in the waters of His baptism, in the bread and the wine of His Supper.
God was with Simeon in the (fullness of time). (Story of roommate in college who would eat a wonderful meal and then would say, “I can die and go to heaven now.”  Or he would look out our dorm window with his binoculars and see a beautiful girl walking by and would say, “I can die and go to heaven now.” A bit of exaggeration there, to be sure.
It was no exaggeration for Simeon, after he held the baby Jesus in his arms, to say, “I can die and go to heaven now.”  Luke makes it clear in our text that Simeon was connected in a strong way with the Spirit of God.  One pastor writes it this way, “Simeon didn’t have the Holy Spirit because he was righteous and devout.   Simeon was righteous and devout because he had the Holy Spirit.”  Three indications we have in our text that God was with Simeon, as He is with us in a perfectly timed kind of a way.
First, God’s Spirit was with Simeon as he received direct (revelation).  Like Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph, Simeon was a righteous member of Israel.  Like all of them, the Spirit of God was leading and speaking to him in a direct fashion. 
Second, God’s Spirit was with Simeon As he predicted nation-wide (conflict). Simeon prophecies that the word of revelation brought by Jesus would pass through Israel like a sword.  The ministry of Jesus would compel men to reveal their secret thoughts.  For those who had eyes to see and ears to hear, Jesus would be received as Savior and Lord.  For those who were blind and deaf to what God was trying to give them, Jesus would produce misunderstanding and ignorance.  Many would be scandalized and crushed by Jesus, only a few would be lifted up and rescued.
Third, God’s was with Simeon, As he departed in (peace). Once he held the infant Jesus in his own arms, he could die and go to heaven.   His bucket list was complete.  Check list completed.  The peace the angels had promised, the peace the world had no idea of how to give, the peace that Jesus gives was his.  All was well with his soul.
If application #1 was to rejoice in the presence of God as often as He meets up with us in Word and Sacrament, application #2 is to rejoice in knowing that God keeps every one of His promises and that He does so with perfect timing.
If part #1 was that God was with Mary and Joseph in prescribed rituals, and if part #2 was that God was with Simeon in the fullness of time, then part #3 is that God was with Anna in all the (chapters of life). Anna had lived through all three vocations a woman can live.  Until she was married, she was a virgin and cared for by her parents.  For seven years she was married and protected and provided for by her husband.   From the time her husband died and until she was 84 she lived as a widow and was cared for by other family and her local church. 
Luke records that coming up at that very hour Anna began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.  In other words, she was famous for spending her days in the temple worshiping and fasting and praying.  She may very well have irritated the highly educated priests and scribes and Pharisees who wanted nothing to do with this old foolish woman.  But that didn’t seem to matter to Anna. What mattered is that the Lord God of Israel was her God, what mattered is that He was with her and could be trusted.  Two observations come to mind regarding Anna.
Observation #1is that She found what she was (looking for).  As often as she went looking for the presence of God in the temple, she found the presence of God.  As often as she went looking for the forgiveness of sins in the prescribed rituals of her day, she found the forgiveness of sins.  The Spirit of God had worked inside of her a confidence that the Messiah was on his way, and when He came her way, she recognized him.  To this very day, dear friends in Christ, the gifts of God are received only by those who are looking for them. 
Observation #2 regarding Anna the prophetess is that Like the shepherds, she couldn’t keep good news (to herself) In our text for today, Simeon is like the angels, he is the herald of Good News. Anna is like the shepherds, she responds to the good news by spreading the message of the Nunc Dimittis. Whereas the shepherds couldn’t stop talking about the birth of Jesus, Anna couldn’t stop talking about the death of Jesus and the redemption of souls it would bring.
Application #3 is to recommit ourselves to living every chapter of life to the glory of God and for the spreading of the Good News especially to those who are having a hard time believing that God is with them.
The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town full of folks who like Mary and Joseph wake up every morning  comforted  by the presence of God but at the same time uncomfortable with the reality that so many are waking up without a roof over their heads and even worse, these folks are convinced that if there is a loving God, He is far away.   Like Simeon, they rejoice that God’s Spirit is leading them through life, but at the same time they are haunted by the reality that millions are living and dying without the peace that only Jesus Christ can give.  And like Anna, they are as grateful as they can be that Christmas joy is ruling in their family, and at the same time they wonder which neighbors most need their help in these days.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.   

​Christmas Day, 2017
“God Loves Me Dearly”
Hebrews 1:1-3 - Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
“Let all God's angels worship him.”
 
Dear Friends in Christ,
 
We begin with three little stories about folks who didn’t quite get Christmas right.
 
Story #1 is about little Annie who summarized it this way, “A lady named Mary and a man named Joseph went to Bethlehem.  They couldn’t get a place to stay so they went to a stable that had cows and horses and mary had a baby in a manger, so far so good.  The baby was crying and nobody could get any sleep and so his mom rocked him till he got quiet.  But then the shepherds from the field came in and woke him up.  When the lady got the baby quiet again, some wise men rode up on camels and gave the baby Jesus his Christmas presents, and in summery it was a busy night.”
 
Story #2 is about a woman who fell victim to the overwhelming pressure to go to every party, to taste every bit of the holiday food, to get the perfect gift for every single person on  her shopping list, to make sure that her house was perfectly clean, and after a long day of shopping with two crabby children, as she pushed her way into a crowded elevator, she could be heard mumbling, whosever started this whole thing should be found, strung up, and shot.  To which someone replied, “Don’t worry, we already crucified him!”
 
Story #3 is a favorite of mine, “It’s about an11 year old girl who gave her annoying little 8 year old brother a nice gift and a nice card, and on the inside she wrote, “Dear Johnny, merry Christmas.  I hope you have a nice Christmas.  I’m glad God gave you to be my brother.  Love, Sally.  P.S.  Don’t read this note out loud or I will twist your head off!”
 
We miss the main point of Christmas when we imagine that it’s primarily about making the best possible memories or giving the best gifts possible.  Christmas assignment #1, our text for today suggests, is to hear what God is trying to say to us, that God loves us dearly.   In Old Testament days, He spoke that message through the prophets, in New Testament days, He speaks that message through His Son Jesus Christ.
 
Andrew Greely speaks about God loving us dearly in this way, “Our God is not patiently standing by and waiting for us to offer love but He is actively and vigorously perusing us. In the Old Testament we see this God of grace wheeling and dealing in the desert seeking men.
 
In these New Testament days, we see in Jesus all prophecies fulfilled.  We see Jesus born in a manger, living to perfection, and offering up Himself as a bloody sacrifice to end all required sacrifices.  The writer to the Hebrews gives us seven statements pointing out Christ as superior, directing our attention to Christ as the perfect revelation of God, teaching us again and again the simple truth of Christmas that Jesus loves me, this we know, Jesus loves us, this our grandparents and parents wanted us to know, Jesus loves, this is what we want our children and grandchildren to know with all of their hearts and souls and minds. 
 
Seven statements of who Christ is and the offices that He holds and all that He has done, and then three takeaways, three lessons, three thoughts on what it means to receive into our hearts that God loves us dearly.

1. Whom he appointed as heir of all things - At the end of time, Christ will be acknowledged by all as the heir, as owner and ruler of all.  (Story of dear Christian woman.  As I thanked her for a large gift to our church, she responded in matter of fact fashion, “Well it all belongs to God.”  
2. Through whom also he created the world - At the beginning of all he stands as creator of all of heaven and earth. How amazing is it to stand at the manger in these days and realize that the creator of all gave up the riches of heaven to dwell among us in our poverty.   
3. He is the radiance of God’s glory - Even more than that, Christ is the radiance of God’s glory. Radiance is an inner brightness which shines out like the sin in the sky with its streaming light.  To see Jesus in the fellowship of His Church and to hear Jesus in his word that is written is spend time basking in God’s glory.  
4. He is the exact imprint of his nature.  Jesus said that anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…..and again, “I and my Father are one.”  And again, “whoever receives me receives my Father who sent me.”
5. He upholds the universe by the word of his power – Not only was Jesus active in creation, but he sustains all things by his powerful Word.  Scientists can theorize and test all they want, Christians know by faith who holds all things together and leads us toward our final goal.  In the strong hands of Jesus Chris, no matter what life throws our way, we are safe, we are secure, we have found a way not to be afraid.
6. After making purification for sins, This sixth statement takes us to the heart of the matter.  The hymnwriter says it this way, “Jesus my Savior, himself did offer, Jesus, my Savior, Paid all I owed. Therefore I’ll say again, God loves me dearly, God loves me dearly, loves even me.
7. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Right hand is a position of honor and power. Our ascended Lord holds the world in his nail scarred hands.  He rules over all in heaven and earth for the benefit of His Church.  He works all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes.    

 
In closing on this Christmas Day three takeaways, three lessons, three thoughts on what it means to receive into our hearts that God loves us dearly.  1) God’s love is personal. 2) God’s love give us value.  3) God’s love compels us to love one another.
 
God’s love is personal.  The kingdom of God is like a little boy who was separated from his mother in the mall.  He was looking around for his mommy, he was getting scared. He began to cry because everyone was a stranger. Everything looked confusing.  Every store was packed, nobody could tell him it was ok.  Until his mother found him, she picked him up, his eyes began to dry.  He was safe in his mother’s arms.  When you have someone who loves holding you, it doesn’t matter anymore what everyone else does or what the circumstances are or what the future holds.  God’s love is personal.
 
God’s love gives us value. Just a couple of days ago, I was dusting the top of the shelf that hadn’t been dusted for a time.  There I found something I had forgotten we even possessed.  It was my dad’s old baseball glove, my hunch is he played with it as a young man, in the early 40’s.   I have no idea how much it cost, but it’s value to me has nothing to do with how much it would be worth on ebay.  It’s value has to do with the memories it brings to my heart.  Memories of my dad loving dearly loving me not so much with words but with actions.  Dad loving us by providing, by protecting, and by sacrificing.  Even more than that, dad loving me by making sure I was baptized, dad and mom making sure I was sitting still in church and making sure I was sitting still in Sunday School and making sure I was sitting still in Confirmation Class learning the Christmas story, learning the Good Friday story, learning the Easter story, learning even the Pentecost story.
 
Which brings us to our final takeaway, our final thought, our final lesson learned, that God’s love compels us to spend our days loving one another.
 
A Vietnam veteran and Air Force Colonel John Mansur tells a story of an 8 year old orphan girl wounded by a mortar attack. It was determined she would die if a blood transfusion did not take place. It was further determined that no Americans present had the correct blood type, but several of the uninjured orphans did.  The doctor spoke a little bit of Vietnamese, a nurse spoke a smattering of high school French, and together they explained that unless someone gave blood, this little girl would die.
 
Eventually a small hand slowly went up, dropped back down, and then went up again.  His name was Heng, and he agreed to give blood. They swabbed his arm with alcohol, they inserted a needle into his vein, he was silent for a time and then began to sob.  His eyes were screwed tightly shut, his fist he put in his mouth to stifle his crying.
 
They stopped the procedure long enough to explore what was wrong.   The nurse finally figured out what was happening.   Heng though he was going to die.  He thought he was required to give all of his blood so that a little girl could live. They asked him why he would be willing to do that.  To which he answered, simply, “She’s my friend.”
 
No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.  The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town full of folks who don’t really look any different than other people, but they are.  They are set apart simply by knowing they are dearly loved by God. They spend their days receiving God’s kindness and patience, and then they go looking for folks who need a listening ear and a kind word.  They spend their days first of all holding onto what they have learned from their  mother’s knees, and then they make sure the next generations know and will never forget that God’s love is personal, God’s love gives them value, God’s love compels them to love one another.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

​The Loving Way of the Lord.
 
Dear friends in Christ,
 
Our sermon series in preparation for Christmas has been called “The Way of the Lord.” In the last few weeks, we’ve explored the Faithful way, the Mighty way, the Peaceful way, and this morning, the Revealed Way of the Lord. Tonight, our theme is the Loving way of the Lord.
 
Our text begins, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
 
What is love? That’s the question that we’re asking tonight. But before we ask that question, there is a broader question that we need to ask. What is the way that we know what love is? How do we even know what we know? What basis do we have for answering the question, “What is love?
 
Tim Keller tells the story of a young man from a healthy family that grew up with a loving mother and a loving father who ended up marrying a loving wife that grew up in a healthy family with a loving mother and a loving father. But when it came time for them to divide up the work of life together, they had deep-seated conflict. He said, he was working on a sermon and noticed a dirty diaper. He called out “I think so and so needs to be changed.” She looked up from washing the dishes, “Why don’t you do something about it?” He felt something deep inside of him angry and he didn’t know why.
 
How does that happen? How can two fine and healthy people from fine and healthy families have conflict?
 
You see, he had been raised in a family where his mother’s outpouring of love for his father was to do everything that needed to be done at home. That was his definition of love. She had been raised in a house where her mother had a debilitating disease and her father’s outpouring of love was to do everything that needed to be done for her mother. Each is extraordinary, but if you have one picture and not the other, your understanding of love is still shallow.
 
And I tell you that to tell you this: love, and our expression of love, is normed by our culture and experiences. It seems natural. We base our opinions on what we know, on what we’ve seen, on what we’ve experienced.
 
But the point of our meditation tonight is that for the Christian, our definition of love is not defined by our experiences. It is not defined by our culture. It is instead defined by the Scriptures. Now, what do I mean by that? I mean that for the Christian, we believe that life is bigger than our senses can experience, and if we are going to have a deep understanding of love, we need to look outside of ourselves, we need to go to the Scriptures.
 
Three particular ways that we would describe love, three peculiar ways based on our reading of 1 John 4 tonight. Let’s go to our text.
 
“In this.” Those are the first two words of verse nine, and they form the refrain we find through the rest of our text. In this, for the Christian, is the totality of our love. That there is no other place in heaven or on earth where God has made his love more manifest. In fact, the opposite is true: in this the entirety of God’s love is ours. The next phrase, in this the love of God was made manifest. It was revealed. It was shone to be what it is, that God sent his son. Usually when we think about sending, we think about God sending his son off, on a mission to someplace else, on a journey far away, but here’s the point of John’s opening statement, here’s the surprising fact, that God sent his Son, and he sent his Son to be with us. Love is first presence.
 
If you’ve done premarital counseling or marital counseling here at Trinity, or if you’ve talked to a pastor here about the subject of love for more than five minutes, you might be familiar with the Five Love Languages, a book about the ways that we give and receive affection. It states that there are ten ways (jk, it’s five) ways that we love: Words of affirmation, acts of service, the giving of gifts, physical touch, and quality time. But if we are talking not-so-much about the surface ways that we express our affection, it seems that each of these has a corner, a piece of the deeper need filled by love, and behind all of these, I would submit that the deep need we see is the need for presence.
 
That when I use kind words, I am showing that you are in my thoughts, and I am hoping that these words convey my presence to you, even when I’m not there. That acts of service are demonstrating that I am taking care to do what you need. Gifts convey the amount of time and energy it takes to find them. All of these convey a desire that we would be present with the one we love, and they would be present with us, even when we’re not around.
 
That’s what Isaiah writes when he prophesies Jesus as the Immanuel – as God-With-Us. The first truth that we see is that in the Christmas story, we see our God fully present with us. Which is hard to do.
 
But then our text goes on to make our second point. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
 
Point number two for tonight is that love is, for the Christian, propitiation. In this the love of God is made manifest. In the – and get this word right – propitiation of our sins. Can you imagine that? Someone comes up to you on the street and asks, What is love to you, and you say, “Propitiation.” They ask what is that? You say, “I don’t know! My preacher told me to say that.”
 
So at this point, you might be saying, “Hold on a second preacher man” – because I’m sure you have an inner dialog about the sermon and in your inner dialog you always call me preacher man – “Hold on a second, what does that have to do with love?”
 
Propitiation is a word that means atoning sacrifice. That is to say, for the Christian, our understanding of what love is is rooted in our understanding of how God has been interacting in the world. From ancient times, from the Levitical laws, from the time that God set up his people as a people on Mt. Sinai, the children of Israel had been once per year sacrificing an unblemished lamb for their sins and sprinkling its blood on the assembly, atoning for them in the sacrifice of that animal. In the New Testament we find that those sacrifices were effective because they pointed toward what Christ would do once for all on the cross.
 
As Christians, if we want to rely not so much toward our own experiences or on the whims of our culture but instead on the wide swath of what the Bible has recorded of God’s action from the beginning of time, we would remember that love is first presence, it is the presence of God in our lives and second, propitiation, the sacrifice that our God has given to atone for our sin.
 
The Love is Jesus Christ. The point is, for the Christian, Jesus Christ is love incarnate. Paul said it like this: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” John says it like this, “In this, not that we have loved God but that he loved us. In this is love, In this, that when we love each other, it is not we who love but God who loves others through us. God is love and love is this: Christ has died; Christ is raised; Christ will come again. It is in Christ we find love, and it is Christ who is in you.
 
Now, let’s know that truth. Let’s own it. Let’s chew on it. It’s an interesting exercise to read through the Gospel with this thought in that back of your mind, that Jesus Christ is love incarnate. That mean, the time that he calms the winds and the waves and calls his disciples “O you of little faith” it is love incarnate doing it. The time that he tells Peter, “Get behind me, Satan,” those are the words of Love itself. The time that he says, “let the dead bury the dead” to his family and the time that he says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
 
What does that do to your definition of love? His is the loving response in every one of his situations, his is a love for friends, a love for enemies, a love for disciples who love him, a love for the crowds who don’t care about him, a love for the heroic, a love for the cowardly, a love for the sinner, a love for the repentant. He is love. In every situation. In every word. What does that do for your love?
 
We read verse 17…  By this, love is perfected with us – the word there is the same one that Jesus spoke on the cross, Τετελεσται, It is finished. It is completed, it is made perfect and made whole, it is love, fully orbed and fully known. It’s in your baptism that his love sets up shop. It’s in the words of absolution that we stir embers of his love. It’s in the Lord’s Supper that you taste love incarnate, which is Christ in you.
 
Lesson number three, and this is the lesson for all the marbles, for tonight is that love is Jesus Christ. And if you are a Christian, and if you want to know what love is, if you see love fully orbed, outside of yourself, sent to the world to bear your sins and be your savior, then you would spend your days following around love incarnate. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God… Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another… (and from beyond our text) By this is love perfected with us.”
 
If you want to learn how to love, if you want to fill your life and your marriage, your friendships with good things, then follow around the man, Jesus Christ, as we see him save his people. Hear him speak truth that hurts to people who need to hear it. Watch him dole out unconditional love when he sits in the dust next to those who’ve really screwed up. Let his grace first wash over you and all your imperfections and then, and then, when you recognize yourself as a redeemed Child of God, then take up your role to look like Christ in the life of others.
Amen and Amen.

​The Peaceful Way
December 16 and 17, 2017
Third in a Series of Five Sermons
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it.
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11 /I Thessalonians 5:16-24 / John 1:6-8,19-28
Dear Friends in Christ,
Why is God doing this to me?
Recently I visited and prayed with an elderly lady whose long time gentleman friend had passed away, and now she was alone.  We visited at length about how good he was to her over the years, how he had protected and provided for her in her days of trouble, and how afraid she was of what was to come.  Her large and friendly dog named Buddy had finally settled down and was sitting at her feet, as if he was watching over her and a bit suspicious of me.  At a certain point I handed her a booklet of devotions with the title, “I am trusting God.”  At this point, she erupted with tears and with anger.  She cried out, “I have been trusting God all my life. Why is God is God doing this to me? “ She looked me squarely in the eyes and wanted to know, “What is the purpose of God taking him away from me?”  At the height of her emotion, the dog Buddy stood up and came towards me, as if to say, what’s going on here?
No doubt you have had those kinds of days.  Days when you had a hard time understanding God’s ways and thinking, days when you felt alone and as if God were far away, days when you may have shaken your puny little fist at Almighty God and cried out, why is God doing this to me? In all three lessons appointed for this Third Sunday in Advent, the Spirit of God would invite us to know the peace that only Jesus Christ can give.  A peace that the world has no way or idea of how to deliver.  A peace we forfeit  as often as we worry about the things we cannot control.  A peace we forfeit as often as we fail to recognize the realities of life.  A peace we forfeit as often as often as we excuse the things we could, in fact control.
Two Sundays ago we focused on the Faithful Way of the Lord, last Sunday the Mighty Way of the Lord, next Sunday the Revealed Way, and Christmas Eve candlelight, the Loving Way.  Today the Peaceful Way of the Lord is our theme.
Three parts to our sermon today focused on feeling and sensing and knowing the peace which our world has no way of giving us, the peace that only Jesus Christ can give.  God’s peace comes our way as often as we know Christ as 1) Evangelist, 2) Preacher, and 3) Light.
(Old Testament lesson)  First, God’s peace comes in knowing Christ as (Evangelist).  We learn this from the prophet Isaiah who writes, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
In these first verses of Isaiah 61, the Messiah Himself is speaking.  He has been anointed to bring good news to the poor.  Evangel is good news. Evangelism is the bringing of good news.   Christ is the evangelist commissioned to bring  good tidings to the meek.  The meek are the poor in spirit.  They are persons whose hearts have been rendered receptive by God’s grace.  They are folks who cry out for forgiveness, and know the peace of having their hearts and souls declared blameless.
God’s peace flows and even floods into every nook and cranny of our lives as often as we know Christ as Evangelist.   The kingdom of God is like a couple whose marriage broke apart years ago, but in this Advent season, they realize that God’s grace is slowly but surely healing their hearts.  The kingdom of God is like a man captured by his own addictions, but in these days, by God’s grace, he is experiencing a new beginning.  The kingdom of God is like a family bent over in grief over the loss of a lost one, but these days – the Christmas story is helping them to know what Isaiah meant when Christ spoke of giving them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit…
Lesson #1 today is bring all of our faint spirits, all of our bleeding hearts, all of our troubled souls again and again to the One Who knows what we need even before we ask, it is to spend time with Him Whose great desire has always been to have mercy,  it is to know again and again the God of peace himself who is able to sanctify us completely.
(Epistle) Second, God’s peace comes in knowing Christ as (Preacher)   19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good….
In verses preceding our text in I Thess. 5, Paul is admonishing the early Christians to be patient with those who are causing trouble in their midst.  He warns them against seeking revenge.  He invite them to keep on pursuing that which will be beneficial to others.
In our text, Paul first gives us a description of the sanctified Christian life, and then tells us how the God of peace will sanctify us through and through.  Isaiah had described the people of God as oaks of righteousness who have been planted by the Lord for the glory of God.   And now Paul describes us as people who have found a way to be rejoicing in all the circumstances of life, as people  who prayerfully work their way through the ups and downs of life, and as people who develop the habit of counting their blessings and living life with cheerful hearts. Proverbs 15:15 comes to mind,  ….he that is of a cheerful heart [hath] a continual feast.
So how is it that we get to have this continual feast of cheerfulness and prayerfulness and thankfulness?  By knowing Christ as Preacher!  Luther explains the Third Commandment in this way, we should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
The kingdom of God is like a family who has gotten out of the habit of attending Divine Services.  They are finding that when life is going well, all seems well with their hearts and souls. But when their days of troubles and trials come, it seems as though nothing is right.   The kingdom of God is like a young person drifts away from the Church, and as he does so, his Christmases  seem more and more to be getting emptier and emptier.  Something is missing, he’s not sure what.
Dear friends in Christ – the best solution we know for the problem of emptiness is spending time with Christ the Preacher. Jesus declares,  Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it.  The Psalmist says it this way, “Blessed is he whose delight is in the law of the Lord.  Blessed is he who on his law meditates day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water that yield their fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that they do, they prosper. Paul says it this way in our text for today, “Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good.”
Lesson #1 on the subject of the God of peace sanctifying us completely was to know Christ as the bringer of good news / Evangelist.  Lesson #2 is to know Christ in the preaching of His Word/ Preacher, and Lesson #3 is to know Christ as Light.
Third, God’s peace comes in knowing Christ as (Light)   6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
Darkness is all around us, darkness is nearby, darkness is world wide, perhaps the worst darkness is on the inside of us.  Just a couple of days ago, we were visiting our daughter Michelle and family near Lewiston, and for whatever reason, I stopped at the Church of the Brethren cemetery where our little grandson Gabriel is buried.  You won’t be surprised to know that as I approached the fresh grave, the tears began to flow one more time.  The wind seemed colder and the darkness seemed darker out there.   I wasn’t sure exactly how to pray, and so I thanked God for His promise of resurrection, and I asked God to help me be a better grandpa, I asked him to help me be a better husband, I asked him to help me be a better pastor. If I would have been thinking about our Gospel lesson for today, I would have asked God to help me be a more faithful witness to the light of the world.
Dear friends in Christ, I don’t know what kinds of darkness is holding you back in this season of Advent, but I do know that it doesn’t stand a chance as often as you spend time in the presence of Jesus Christ.  I don’t know exactly what are your specific purposes and assignments are in these days, but I do know what Pastor Muther would say is your number one assignment in all the days of life – namely that you receive the light of the world into your hearts, that you live in that light, that you enjoy the light, and that you bear witness to that light.
He’s dead?
I’ve told this story before, and now I’m going to tell it again.   (Story of Delilah, a nursing home resident I visited, prayed with, and communed month after month for many years.  One of the first times I visited, as part of our devotions and lead up to communion, I reminded her that Jesus had died on the cross for her.  At which time her eyes got big, she got this worried look on her face, she looked me squarely in the eyes and blurted, “He’s dead?”  And when I assured her that Jesus rose up again on the third day, she relaxed, she was as relieved as she could be, and she rejoiced!   In most of my visits from that day forward, I would use the expression that Jesus died for her, just so we could have the pleasure of rejoicing in the resurrection.
Lesson #1 this morning is to know Christ as Evangelist, lesson #2 is to know Him as Preacher, and lesson #3 is to know Him as Light. Dear friends,  this very day and in all of your days, Jesus Christ has this great desire to be a light unto your paths and a lamp unto your feet!
The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town full of folks who from outward appearances don’t really look any different from anybody else, but a closer look will reveal that their God of peace has not only called and gathered them into the Church, He is in fact enlightening them, He is sanctifying them, He is keeping them in the true faith through all the ups and the downs of life.  They know that Jesus Christ does more than just help them survive the season, He keeps on bringing good news of great joy worthy of all kinds of celebration.  They know that the preaching of God’s Word isn’t just to be one option among many activities to be considered, it is their opportunity to be clothed with the very garments of salvation.  They are tempted like everyone else to be swallowed up by the darkness of conflict and failure and cemeteries, but the light is never very far away, in fact it is inside of them, by grace, and through faith in Jesus Christ.  Amen.