Savior of the Nations, come, Virgin’s Son, make here Your home! Marvel now, O heav’n and earth, That the Lord chose such a birth.
Jesus is the Savior of the nations. From the very first line, we realize that Jesus comes for more than Israel, but also for the Gentiles, also for sinners. The virgin birth is the miracle of Christmas. Though we do not understand it in our ways of thinking, we most certainly believe that God became man.
Not by human flesh and blood, By the Spirit of our God, Was the Word of God made flesh– Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.
Walking through the Apostles’ Creed, we find the following line, that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This “Word made flesh” language is taken right from John 1, the Gospel reading for Christmas Day.
Here a maid was found with child, Yet remained a virgin mild. In her womb this truth was shown: God was there upon His throne.
Jesus’ birth appeared to the world like a peasant’s birth, or a servant’s birth. But this stanza reminds us that Jesus is the King of all creation coming to redeem all creation.
Then stepped forth the Lord of all From His pure and kingly hall; God of God, yet fully man, His heroic course began.
Where is Christ the King? Firstly in heaven with God the Father, the Son lived and reigned. So for Him to step forth from heaven to earth we realize He has come to wage war for us against sin, death, and the devil.
God the Father was His source, Back to God He ran His course. Into hell His road went down, Back then to His throne and crown.
Now this verse refers to the descent into hell. If we consider this in terms of location, we might think that the descent is part of Christ’s humiliation, “going down.” But the descent into hell is the first act of the exaltation, that Christ declares the victory over the devil forever and it is finished and can never be changed.
For You are the Father’s Son Who in flesh the vict’ry won. By Your mighty pow’r make whole All our ills of flesh and soul.
This verse shifts toward us. It almost sounds like the prayer of the people, that by His suffering, He sympathizes with our suffering. But by His resurrection, we have the promise of redeemed and glorified bodies without suffering.
From the manger newborn light Shines in glory through the night. Darkness there no more resides; In this light faith now abides.
This verse makes clear that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, and that darkness has no power anymore. Faith now abides in us.
Glory to the Father sing, Glory to the Son, our king, Glory to the Spirit be Now and through eternity.
Rev. James Peterson St. John Lutheran Church Curtis, Nebraska
Once He came in blessing, All our sins redressing; Came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy; Bore the cross to save us; Hope and freedom gave us.
This verse speaks of Christmas, the First Coming of our Lord, born of the virgin Mary. He came in blessing, but how did He bless us? He blessed us by dying on the cross for us and forgiving all of our sins. Perhaps we do not often think of “bless” and “death” in the same sentence. But this is grace, that God died for us instead of us, and this is a blessing we could never accomplish on our own. This is why Jesus came to us on earth in the first place. He came in likeness lowly, like us, but was God most holy. There is no other god that would come so humbly and die so terribly. What a blessing this truly is for all of us!
Now He gently leads us; With Himself He feeds us Precious food from heaven, Pledge of peace here given, Manna that will nourish Souls that they may flourish.
Here we see the Good Shepherd language, that He gently leads us. This is what Christ does for the Church now, for each of us now. He leads us and He feeds us, not only with the things we need for body and soul, but even with something greater than the manna from heaven in the wilderness. Jesus Christ offers to us His very own Body and Blood at this altar, not as a re-sacrifice, but as the cross and Passion of our Lord personally applied to us and granted to us. While the first verse retold Christmas and Good Friday, this verse applies what Christ did to us, that Christ is still doing among us this work of forgiveness. The cross is only past, but present, received and believed in our life as the Church.
Soon will come that hour When with mighty power Christ will come in splendor And will judgment render, With the faithful sharing Joy beyond comparing.
The first verse was set in the past. The second verse was set in the present. This third verse is set in the future. Here we sing of the Last Day, of the Second Coming of our Lord. Jesus regularly referred to “that hour” as the hour when He would die for the sins of the world. But we know that there is another “hour” that awaits us. And now the Lord comes not to forgive sins nor to defeat the devil, but He comes in splendor for judgment. As Christians we do not need to fear this judgment, for we believe the first verse of this hymn and we receive the Lord’s Supper that the second verse mentions. The judgment that we shall receive is simply this: “Not guilty!” And that is most certainly “joy beyond comparing.”
Come, then, O Lord Jesus, From our sins release us. Keep our hearts believing, That we, grace receiving, Ever may confess You Till in heaven we bless You.
This final verse is not a doxology like we have seen in the past. But the writer of this hymn has reversed the thought he began with. In the first verse, he sang of Christ’s First Coming, and that this was a blessing. But in this verse, he encourages us to confess the Lord until we bless the Lord. Once again, this “blessing” word shows up, and this is eternal worship of the Lamb on the throne. This we even do witness on Sunday mornings. After receiving the Sacrament, toward the end of the Divine Service, we sing, “Bless we the Lord.” Perhaps we say it without faith. But in reality, this then is what Christianity seeks in the end of days, to “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name!” It doesn’t get any better than that!
Rev. James Peterson St. John Lutheran Church Curtis, Nebraska
I’ve been reading articles and watching spots most of my life lamenting the earliness of Christmas-ish stuff every year. It doesn’t just seem as if the pre-Christmas shopping season has gobbled-up all dates and times preceding it. The shopping season has done exactly that.
In the foggy early reaches of my growing memory, I recall days before there was a Black Friday shopping spree. The phenomenon appeared in the 1980s. I’m quite certain there was consternation in the decades before 1980 over the encroaching commercialization of Christmas. Those earlier and earlier mercantile sales dates scheduled on their way toward Black Friday weren’t welcome then either.
We, Christians, habitually grouse about symptoms. It’s as if symptomatic abatement cures the underlying illness. See my articles about fathers and the children’s future attendance here, here, here, and here. Christmas cheer getting sucked up before “the holidays” is a symptom, not the illness.
The illness is this: we are seeing civic festivals and pagan consumerism crossing the boundaries into the life of the church. Instead, let’s reset those boundaries, and get our minds around the days of the church. Dear Christians, we are to be in the world, but not of it.
Halloween and Thanksgiving are not church festivals.
Halloween falls on the official church day of All Hallows Eve, October thirty-first. Lutherans more commonly celebrate Reformation Day on the same day, commemorating Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church, sparking the reformation.
All Saints’ Day is November First. Christians will often observe All Hallows Eve/Reformation and All Saints’ Day by shifting the former back and/or the latter forward to the nearest Sunday. Both days fall within the season of Trinity (Pentecost in the three year lectionary) just ahead of the end of the church year.
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November and can fall between November twenty-second and twenty-eighth. That makes for seven variable relationships between Thanksgiving and Christmas, between twenty-seven and thirty-three days apart. 2023 was an infrequent occasion with Thanksgiving falling before the last Sunday of the church year. Thanksgiving is still always before the beginning of the new church year.
The pagan world would have us believe all of those holidays are part of the Christmas season. They are not. Those days and commemorations are not even in the same church year as the seasons of Advent or Christmas.
The church year ends with the last Sunday of the church year and the week following it. The day can also be called Ultima Sunday, after the last syllable of a Koine Greek word, or Christ the King Sunday, commemorating Jesus’s second Advent at the end of days. The last Sunday of the church year is always the fifth Sunday before Christmas Day.
After the first two civic holidays, the church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, always the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent can consist of between twenty-two and twenty-eight days. It begins between November twenty-seventh and December third, always containing four Sundays. Advent contains three or four Wednesdays. The three Wednesdays are slightly more common, occurring in four of the seven variations, excluding Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve is a day of Advent. It is not typically celebrated as a Wednesday of Advent, when falling on Wednesday. When the fourth Sunday of Advent is December 24th, like this year (2023), we observe Rorate Coeli (Advent 4) in the morning and Christmas Eve in the evening.
This means that those cute, premade, every-year advent calendars are seldom actually right. It’s a lot of fun to open the doors for the little prizes. But, Advent rarely has exactly 24 days. So, a better Advent calendar would have 28 days, with six indicated as days that may not be in Advent (2023 & 2028), or may be in Advent (2022 & 2033). The same calendar could include the twelve days of Christmas, making an even 40 days, encouraging us to celebrate Christmas in its time. Perhaps something like this:
Like the Advent Calendars, Christians used to decorate progressively. By adding a bit each week heading into Christmas, it adds to the excitement of preparation. This is opposite of the Christmas fatigue caused by all decorations going up the day after Halloween or Thanksgiving, before Advent even started.
The twelve days of the Christmas feast begin on December 25. They can contain two Sundays, but more commonly just one. The days of Christmas are December 25th through January 5th. On December 26th, we also celebrate the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. We celebrate the feast of St. John, the only apostle to die a natural death, on December 27th. December 28th marks the feast of the Holy Innocents, killed by Herod upon the magi’s visit to Bethlehem. The celebration of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January first is also a named feast within the twelve days. Christmas ends on Twelfth Night, preceding the Epiphany of Our Lord, which is celebrated on January 6th.
It is suitable for Christians to decorate and sing seasonal hymns beginning on Christmas Eve. In decades past, we would have it no other way. Now, it may be impossible to forego all of the civic festivities around us. We should at least save the bulk of our revelry for the actual celebration of the incarnation of our Lord. We should not allow the pagan world to suck all of our Christmas cheer before we’ve even begun the Christmas feast.
The exceptionally short Advent of 2023 gives us a great example of our modern distortion of the Christmas season. In trying to cram all of the programs, “family Christmases,” professional parties, and church social activities into the Advent weeks preceding Christmas, how many of us have considered for even a moment displacing the festivities into the eleven days of Christmas following Christmas day? Prob’ly very few have. I’m also guilty of missing this consideration.
This year and in years to come, spend some time in thought and prayer concerning the harrowing of the End of Days, the preparation of our hearts in Advent, and the joyous gift of Christmas (the whole season of Christmas). There’s more to it than the Christmas shopping season. Beyond just thought and prayer, avail yourself of the Lord’s house, receiving His gifts for you.
Blessèd Advent preparation!
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX And Mission Planting Pastoral team Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX
Encore Post: Great forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods are all over our news. Acts of unspeakable evil and cruelty occur on almost a weekly basis. A nation routinely kills babies in the womb, celebrates immorality and lectures the church when it doesn’t join them. All the signs of the end of days fill our T.V.s, cell phones and computer screens. It makes you just want to scream, “Tear open the heavens and get down here, Lord, and do something about it! What are you waiting for? (See Isaiah 64)
To most of the world’s religions, the high god who made the world is a distant god, who made the world and tired of it, going away to leave it to lesser gods and our own devices. We are left alone to deal with the mess that is our world and our part in making it worse. Even more modern thinkers, like the Deists, thought of God as a great watchmaker, who made the world capable of running itself, wound it up and walked away. Pop songs muse: “God is watching us… from a distance” and “The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died.” We just have to cope, they advise.
Advent breaks into that mood and reminds us that is not true at all. The God who made the world and called it “very good” intends to do something about it. He promised to come himself, in the person of his Son, born of a woman, to become one of us. It reminds us that he kept that promise and to prepare to celebrate that coming, receive him as he comes to us each day and how he will finally come to set things right.
The season of Advent developed over the centuries to do just that. Like Lent prepared the church to celebrate Easter, Advent would come to celebrate Christmas. For some, it was also a season of repentance, as a deliberate counter to the wild and immoral way pagans celebrate their December holidays. So in many places, Advent’s color is purple or black, the Gloria is not sung and people fast. For others, it is a season of hope, with the color being blue and carols sung to anticipate Christmas.
Either way, the church cries out: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and come!” Come as you did, born to die that we might live. Come with your grace and live among us. Come and bring us all home to be with you. Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
The advent of our King Our prayers must now employ, And we must hymns of welcome sing In strains of holy joy.
“Advent” means “to come toward.” When we use the word Advent, we speak about Jesus’ First coming toward earth and His Second Coming on the Last Day. In this verse and during this season, we recall when Jesus first came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem.
The everlasting Son Incarnate deigns to be, Himself a servant’s form puts on To set His servants free.
Jesus is the Son of God. This verse reminds us that Jesus is “everlasting,” both before the creation of the world and after He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Son became flesh as a servant, the opposite of King, to set His servants, all of us, free from sin, death, and the devil.
O Zion’s daughter, rise To meet your lowly King, Nor let your faithless heart despise The peace He comes to bring.
“Zion’s daughter” is an Old Testament phrase for the Church. And here there are two meanings for the word “rise.” The obvious meaning is to stand up while we sing for “the King is coming.” But here also, the hymn means for us to consider the resurrection, that the Church shall rise from the graves on the Last Day and see the King, our Lord Most High.
The Advent of our King As judge, on clouds of light, He soon will come again And His true members all unite With Him in heaven to reign.
Suddenly the hymn shifts from the First Coming to the Second Coming of our Lord. Now the Lord Jesus the Judge of the living and the dead comes on the clouds as the Scriptures testify. This verse puts the hymn in our own context, for we await the Last Day with patience and joy in the midst of suffering.
Before the dawning day Let sin’s dark deeds be gone, The sinful self be put away, The new self now put on.
What can we do while we wait for the Last Day? We put the new self on. While we worship we ask for God’s forgiveness of our sins, and He forgives them. This He has promised to us. Then we hear the Word of God, which works faith in us. Finally, we receive the Sacrament, the foretaste of the feast to come.
All glory to the Son, Who comes to set us free, With Father, Spirit, ever one Through all eternity.
The triangle reminds us that this is a doxology. “Dox” means “glory.” These final verses of some hymns give glory to God. In this particular hymn, the doxology serves as a profound conclusion, that our lives in heaven on the Last Day will be endless refrains of giving glory to God forever and ever.
Rev. James Peterson St. John Lutheran Church Curtis, Nebraska
Encore Post: For those outside the church and those in our midst, the answer to our complaints and questions can often be so easy that it escapes our notice. Plain as the nose on our face, we still miss it.
“I don’t feel like people at my church know me/want to talk to me.”
Have you tried going to church more often? We tend to engage with folks we see on a regular basis. The folks there are more likely to notice you, when they see you more. The folks there are going to feel like you’re interested in them, when they see you more often. Give them a chance. You may be surprised. Some of us are shy too.
“I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.” (Psalm 35:18)
“The hymns/songs are unfamiliar/hard to sing.”
Have you tried struggling through singing them? Have you tried being in the house of God more often to hear and learn the hymns you know less well? There are around 635 hymns in our hymnal. Some share tunes, but let’s assume there are 450 unique tunes. When you find one you don’t know, try this. Search for the hymn on your favorite video streaming service. In particular, checkout the short videos on the Rumble channel: Learn Every Hymn with Rev Kaspar. The channel is an ongoing project quickly introducing the melody of every LSB hymn and coaching us through rhythmic challenges. The project will be finished in early 2024.
In the long-long ago, we had to take our hymnals to a piano. I did this for most of my youth and young adult life. Plunking out a melody the old-fashioned way still works too. These hymns are our heritage, and are worth your time in learning.
The hymns in our hymnal are carefully selected to contain only true Christian doctrine using the words and concepts of the scriptures themselves. They are suggested for use and chosen to reinforce the lessons of each Sunday’s scriptural themes. Each one may not be your favorite. But, each one is good and useful in teaching us the faith.
“Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! … For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” (Psalm 84:4, 10)
“The liturgy is confusing. I don’t know what page to turn to or when.”
Have you tried attending church more frequently? At Mt. Calvary, we use two settings of the Divine Service, and switch between them 4 times each year. Divine Service, setting Three (LSB 184) is used for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and the 1st half of Trinity each year. Divine Service, setting 2 (LSB 167) is used for the seasons of Lent, Easter, and the 2nd half of Trinity each year.
Many other churches observe similarly long use of the settings of the Divine Service throughout the year. The service is quite literally the same each Sunday. The more we attend, the more familiar we will become. Also, when you know what is going on and see someone else struggling, help them to find their way.
“O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” (Psalm 26:8)
“I don’t know how to contact the office/my elder/pastor.”
Have you tried coming to church? The office number and email are on the front of every bulletin, every Sunday. They are also on the website. The church can be contacted by phone, text, through social media, via the website, email, snail mail, and in person during office hours. We don’t make a habit of concealing the methods of communication.
“In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.” (Psalm 18:6)
“I don’t feel like Pastor knows who I am.”
Have you tried coming to church more often? Every pastor’s life actually revolves around preaching, teaching, and serving the people of God, in the Lord’s house on Sunday mornings (or it should). Putting your face in front of his more often will increase the likelihood that he’ll be able to get to know you. He’s also accessible via the contact methods listed above throughout the week. But, his primary day will always be Sunday. Those people will always be his people.
“Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.” (Psalm 111:1)
Here is an incomplete list of additional psalm references encouraging frequent church attendance.
“But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.” (Psalm 5:7)
“The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.” (Psalm 11:4)
“I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you… From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.” (Psalm 22:22,25)
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” (Psalm 23:6)
“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
“The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” (Psalm 29:9)
“They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” (Psalm 36:8)
“I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.” (Psalm 40:9-10)
“These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.” (Psalm 42:4)
“We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.” (Psalm 48:9)
“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.” (Psalm 52:8)
“We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.” (Psalm 55:14)
“Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! … Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” (Psalm 65:4, 29)
“I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you.” (Psalm 66:13)
“Bless God in the great congregation, the LORD, O you who are of Israel’s fountain!” (Psalm 68:26)
“Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.” (Psalm 74:2)
“They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.” (Psalm 92:13)
“Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.” (Psalm 93:5)
“Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.” (Psalm 107:32)
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX and Mission planting pastoral team: Epiphany Lutheran Church Bastrop, TX
