Bible Topics – Page 9 – What Does This Mean?

A Life of Washing Feet

Note: The following is greatly indebted to the edifying sermon from the Rev. Dr. Robert Preus, preached at Concordia Theological Seminary on Maundy Thursday, 1988. Find it here.

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

The day we know as Maundy Thursday was a very full day for our Lord. The day began with His disciples asking him where He wished to have what would be the last Passover meal. He likely taught in and around the Temple, as was his custom when He was in the holy city. And then in the upper room, our Lord institutes what we know as the Sacrament of the Altar, where our Lord gives us His body and blood to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In so doing, He ushers in the New Covenant in His blood. Even later that same day Jesus then went to the Garden of Gethsemane as was His custom to pray there. While there He would be betrayed by one of his own into the hands of sinners. He was tried before the chief priests, scribes, and elders. And He looked on in love when Peter denied him those three times. A very long day in deed.

But particular to this service for Maundy Thursday, we will recall the events in the upper room recorded for us in St. John. Jesus gave himself over to His disciples in love and service. As John aptly states, He loved His own to the end. Not just Thursday or at the beginning, but that He loved them to the very end. And I suggest He still is in the process of loving His own until the end of the age.

What does Jesus’ act of washing His disciples’ feet on the night he was betrayed and instituted His Supper mean? What should we take away from this act that John records for us? It certainly teaches us his love for his own. He displays divine love, a love that is humble, a love that is unlike any love known to man in the world. A love not of this world. It is a love that motivates the incarnate God to go to the cross for his fallen creation. The love he displays in the act of washing his disciples’ feet is made even more manifest and apparent when he is nailed to the cross for our sins.

Washing feet is an act of humility. And Christ our Lord calls His disciples to imitate this act of humility. But people do not understand humility. The act of Jesus washing feet and any other act of humility is more often than not understood as a sign of weakness rather than a virtue that should be emulated. Peter, speaking for all of the disciples, gives this vibe when he says that he will not be washed by Jesus. “It’s below my master to do this thing.” It’s eerily similar to the event when Jesus told Peter and the disciples what the Christ must do, suffer, die, and then rise. There Peter thought it all beneath his Master to suffer in that way. But like there, Jesus rebukes Peter, “If I do not wash your feet, you have no part in me.” Peter takes the rebuke and gets the hint that what Jesus is doing is at least signifying something very important. So, he goes whole hog the other direction, “not just my feet but also my head.” He wants it all. But then Jesus teaches him that its only his feet which are dirty and need washing.

So, it is with us. What does it mean then that Jesus is washing his disciples’ feet? He does this to show that his love is perpetual and ongoing. His love does not come and go but remains. It becomes our refuge, our home. It does not fade away, but it continues on. But the disciples of Jesus fail to understand it most of the time. As do we. He’s trying to prepare his disciples for the events that will take place the next day, when He will go to the cross. For there the very nature of God’s love is on display. God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He gave His son to offer Himself as a propitiation for the sin of the world. He was given a body and offered himself as a sacrifice for our salvation. That is God’s love. He humbles himself to the point of going to death, death on a cross. This is how we are won salvation. And when a person understands that the Son of God humiliated and humbled himself in this way for our salvation, then we know and understand God. And we glory in it. We cannot help but say in great wonder, “My God, How Great Thou Art.”

Another lesson that we receive from our Lord’s washing of his disciples’ feet is not so different than our first lesson. But now we see that Jesus teaches that his forgiveness is also perpetual. Sometimes we are led to believe that I have to do something first before I get forgiveness. That forgiveness is dependent upon me rather than dependent upon the work of Jesus at the cross. But this night Christ our Lord teaches again that the forgiveness of sins is His to give, and He gives it abundantly.

Think about the times that Jesus walked the earth. There were no sneakers or boots like we have nowadays. The roads were dusty, people wore sandals if they wore shoes at all. People did not drive cars, some rode on the backs of various animals, but more often than not people walked. If people were walking around, even after a bath, their feet were always dirty. And it was custom that servants would come and watch the feet of anyone sitting at the table. They would wash the part of the body most susceptible to being dirty from the day, feet. So it is with the spiritual life.

You are clean, You are justified, sanctified, forgiven, through the life-giving word of Jesus. Remember what Peter confesses, ‘You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus words are life giving, and his words speak of his love and his words match his action of going to the cross for you and your salvation. You are pardoned for your sins. But until the day of your death, when your soul and body are separated, your feet will get dirty in this world (see stanzas 5 and 6 in particular). You will continue to sin, for you are still in your sinful flesh and you will be tempted to fall. We need the forgiveness of Christ Jesus every day. And you have it every single day. Remember your baptism! Luther would say when being tempted by Satan, “I am baptized.” There is no greater comfort than returning to the promise made by Christ in your baptism. And you can do that whenever you want. Luther encourages us each day to begin the day in Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is in accordance with what Luther writes in the 4^th part in the confession about baptism: “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” See the effects of baptism is daily. We are returning each day to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can go and confess our sins to God daily in the Prayer He has taught us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” You can confess your sins to your brother and sister in Christ and receive the mutual consolation. Or you can speak to your pastor and hear the absolution spoken over you individually. But the point is that God’s forgiveness for you in the Gospel is a continuous thing for you to receive and rejoice in constantly. That is why Christ gives you that forgiveness via different means: baptism, Lord’s Supper, the Word. Rejoice and be glad in them and have your feet washed by your willing Lord and Savior. It is difficult for us to believe this good news of our Lord’s love and forgiveness being continuous and perpetual unto the end, but that is what Scripture says and so we believe.

One final lesson which our Lord clearly wants to teach his disciples on the night before His death is that his disciples follow in his example. So, does that mean we should have had a ceremony to begin the service where we all washed each other’s feet? Not exactly, so what does it mean that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and what does it mean for us to follow in his example? Washing feet is not something that we do just one day a year but it is a command. That is why we call this Thursday Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word Mandatum. This is where we get the word mandate. Jesus gives his disciples a new command. Its Command Thursday. And feet washing is the command. To wash feet means to humble ourselves as our Lord humbled himself.

That means we are to look at ourselves in our various stations in our life, as a husband, wife, son, daughter, worker, boss, student, and take stock of our God given talents and assess how we can use God’s gifts that he has given us not for ourselves but for our neighbors. We aren’t to use our talents for our own gratification but God’s glory. We are to serve them not despise them. Even though they might deserve it because they are sinful and have wronged us in the past. It means we are not to take offense at people when they wrong us and sin against us.

This is what feet washing looks like. And it is hard! It is hard because you are commanded to wash the feet of not just your friends but your enemies! And you are called to do this daily. Humble yourselves before your enemies? Daily you will meet people with dirty feet need to be encouraged, who need to hear the good news that Jesus died for their sins and that they are forgiven. These people will not always be nice people even though they are Christians. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are gloomy, others proud, arrogant, mean.

In the book and class called Love and Respect, there’s a lesson about the different cycles. One is called the crazy cycle. In the crazy cycle, the wife won’t show respect until she is shown love and the husband won’t show love until he is shown some respect. You see how that makes the cycle a continual spiral downward. But we find a connection here. It would be easy to serve those who were nice and appreciative. It takes someone to be mature to break the cycle. To get over the fact of being disrespected or unloved. To show love and respect when it isn’t deserved.

Christ our Lord did that. He came to His own and they did not understand. He came and died while we were still His enemies. He washed the feet of those men who would run away from him when he was arrested. He showed love and forgiveness to His enemies, and He commands us to do this as well. We are commanded to wash feet.

Have in your own mind the mind of Christ Jesus our Lord. Receive His life blood and His body into yourself and be enlivened to live in righteousness and purity before him. Receive the washing which Christ has given to you in Holy Baptism. Return to the promise of the Gospel often. Receive the forgiveness of sins. Go wash your neighbors’ feet. Love them as Christ loved. Humble yourself before them. And the love and the forgiveness He has goes until the end.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Jesus Faces Off With His Opponents

Encore Post: From Monday to Wednesday of Holy Week, Jesus taught in the temple. His opponents challenged him several times, he told parables against them and warned people about him. First, the priests asked by what authority he did the things he did. Jesus countered by asking them whether John the Baptist was from God. Because they would not answer, neither would he. (Matthew 21:23-27)

Jesus’ three parables were his last attempt to call his opponents to repentance. They were the Parable of the Two Sons, the Parable of the Wicked Vineyard Tenants and the Parable of the King’s Wedding Feast. The point of all three was that his opponents pretended to serve God, but really were disobedient. (Matthew 21:28-22:14)

His opponents responded with several test questions: should we pay taxes to Caesar? Who will be the husband of a woman in the resurrection who was married to seven brothers without having a child? What is the greatest commandment? His answers were so profound, they did not follow up. (Matthew 22:15-40)

He then posed a question to them: if the Christ is David’s son, why does David call the Christ Lord? They did not answer.

The majority of what Jesus taught that week, however, was about his second coming and eternity. In this way, he prepared his disciples for his approaching death. One on the evenings of this week in Bethany, Jesus’ friend Mary anointed him with expensive perfume for his coming burial.

Held Captive by the King Who Comes in Hope

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

When we think of Palm Sunday there is a lot going just with the reading from John that began our service. But then throw in the other lessons and the entire reading of our Lord’s Passion and it’s a whole different animal. But what we see when we hear the words of our Lord’s passion is the fulfillment of the word of hope that Zechariah that obscure post exilic prophet spoke of in our Old Testament lesson for the day.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.”

The people who first heard Zechariah preach this had a very hard question before them. Would God do what He promised and give them a king from the line of David who would sit on the throne forever? They had no king; the line of David already then was in shambles and near obscurity. Had God gone back on his promise? Are you also questioning God about something? Does God really love me? Has God forgotten about me and my pains in this life? Am I going to receive relief in my time of languishing?

But rejoice! Yes, shout aloud! Rejoice for the Lord has not forgotten you but brings you this word of hope. Your king comes! He is righteous. And has salvation for you. A word of great hope. God has not forgotten you, but He is working in his time to bring about your salvation. And the son of David, Jesus Christ would come fulfilling the prophesy proclaimed.

But the king would not be like the kings anyone was used to. This king would not come in riding on a war horse but rather a donkey, a beast of burden. He is not wearing armor for war, nor is war what he is about. But rather its all about removing the weapons of war, the chariot, the war horse and bow. Peace and reconciliation is His Word to His people. He does not coerce submission and obedience by force, but rather He showers you with mercy and love. He comes with salvation. He comes to fix the broken relationship between His Father and us. He comes also to fix our broken relationships on earth. Christ’s Forgiveness and mercy rule the day. What a great promise of hope!

And this word of the Lord spoken by the prophet captivated the hearts of his hearers. Just like Jesus captivated those whom He healed and cared for during his earthly ministry. There was hope, and this hope held their listeners captive.

What about you? As we enter into Holy Week, we as Christians celebrate and revel in the Lord’s grace, mercy, and love for us. May the proclamation of hope in Christ Jesus be made your own! We hear again the passion accounts of our Lord. We recall the words of our Lord at the cross, “Forgive them Father”. We remember his crown of thorns. We recall his title: “King of the Jews“. We know why He does it all. He does it all out of love. He does it so that we would have forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. He has come to you and grants you salvation, having received salvation from Him in Holy Baptism. You have everlasting life for the sake of your Lord Christ Jesus who died in your place on that cross and rose again on the third day.

But what now? Are we not like the people of Zechariah’s day? Are we not waiting for the return of the King? Are we not all wondering why He hasn’t come already? When everything will be made right? When the relationships on this earth will be reconciled, when the spears will be beaten into plowshares? When His peace shall reign from the river to the ends of the earth. It has been a long time. But we, like the Israelites of Zechariah’s day, have been granted a word of peace and hope to trust in. Christ our Lord and King who has come now promises to be with us and give us his peace. He is with us always even to the end of the age. And we have his signs and tokens of love in the means of Grace: Baptism and His Supper. They are the ways by which His love, mercy, and grace shown at the cross are delivered and made yours. Your hope is anchored in the one who has come, and He has promised to come again to take us to where He is.

We know the end of the story. We know how this week of our Lord’s passion ends. We see the King of Glory, the King of Peace go to a cross for the sin of the world. Christ the King, battles against Satan, He sizes him up, and beats him at his own game. He rises from the grace on the third day, defeating death once and for all. He swallows up death forever so that you are brought out of the waterless pit and be given new life in Him.

You are living the new life promised to you by Christ now by your baptism. You are a child of the kingdom of peace. Do not forget that, hold on to the promise of your Lord who has bled out for you and gave up his life for you. Be at peace and hope in him. Look to the covenant which he spoke and now gives to you, “the new covenant in my blood,” He says. That is a token and pledge of the forgiveness won as well as the reconciliation between God and us in a vertical direction, and that same meal also promises and reconciles us to one another. Be forgiven by the Lord and forgive one another for the sins committed against each other.

Return to your stronghold. The stronghold is your Lord and Your God, who goes to his throne of the cross to win for you salvation over sin, death, and devil. Be held captive by His Word of Hope and Peace.

Rejoice and Hope in the one who has come, who brings righteousness and salvation to you, now and always, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Sign of Hope We Have Waited For

At this time last year, we were just being told of the impending lockdowns to stop the spread of Covid-19. We would not have celebrated the Annunciation last year as we were in the middle of a Lenten Midweek Sermon series where pastors from area congregations swapped pulpits. And the 25^th of March fell on Wednesday. While I was saddened to see what happened because of the lockdowns and such, I was glad to celebrate this blessed day of joy and hope. The long-awaited sign, prophesied by Isaiah, was coming into existence. The Angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced to her that God was becoming man, and she would be his mother. The Word of God was becoming flesh in order to dwell among us, that we might see his glory.

A day of hope is what we need as we have been walking in the world. Isaiah’s prophesy was spoken as a rebuke against Ahaz’s unbelief in the Lord. But for you who have been called to faith in the true God, it is a word of hope, which holds you captive. It is the sign we all long for, the word which first came Eve and Adam on the day of their fall into sin. That God would become Man. And this Man would defeat sin and death for us by offering his body and blood up for the sin all the world at the cross.

Mary is rightly called the Godbearer (Theotokos) because in the moment of the preaching Gabriel, God assumed human flesh, and the flesh of Word of God Himself was conceived in the incarnation. This is the sign of God working to bring about our salvation. This is confirmation of the Lord’s promise coming true. God had not forgotten.

But the incarnation and Christmas are just half of the story. This Son of the Most High, has to do the work of salvation in His flesh. He is to serve in humanity’s stead, standing in our place, taking upon himself our pains and our sufferings, our sin. He is to suffer what all men suffer, death. But the Lord Jesus does this because it is the will of his Father, whom sent Him.

Jesus will be born to the Virgin. The sign of God’s promise will shine forth, and then He will grow up and will save His people from their sins. He will take up the throne of his father David when he ascends to the throne that is his cross. And he shall become stand as a signal for all peoples. Isaiah prophesies later: He (The Lord) shall raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Christ will lift up the lowly. He will fill the hungry with good things, he will bring down the mighty from their thrones. He will bring the word of love and hope to you who have been sitting and waiting in the darkness of this sin filled and broken world. Be at peace in the word announced to you by the Lord’s messenger. Christ loves you, and He became flesh in order to save you from everlasting death. He has remembered his mercy and now shows you that mercy by his death on the cross, taking the place that all humanity deserves for their sins of unbelief and abandonment of His Word.

God has promised, so He has done. We are very close to Holy Week in the Church year. We will be gathering together to hear the passion accounts as written for us by the Evangelists. We will see our Lord do His Father’s will, offering himself for us at the cross. This is how sin is taken away, the body and blood of God is broken and poured out for you.

May this word of our Lord Jesus Christ, The God – Man for us and for our salvation, give you hope in the midst of the darkness. He has come and He has died and He has risen again. And He remains in His flesh even upon His ascension to the right hand of God the Father. Forevermore is Jesus the God–Man, who serves you as your great high priest having offered himself for your salvation, that you might have everlasting life with God forever. And He now comes to you to give you tangible hope, a sign. He gives you the means by which you are given His forgiveness. He gives you Baptism and His Supper. Look to the promises contained therein. You are made a child of God, receiving everlasting salvation. Then you receive the very body and blood of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. You receive the very body of God in His Supper and it is life giving. What hope and what peace we now have in promises of God. Hope in the One Who has Come Born of the Virgin to offer himself up for us all. And let us now hope in the promise of His return that He might take us to be with Him forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

St. Matthias

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

When you confess your faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and when you confess that the Word of Scripture is God’s Word, do you realize you also then must confess the fact that Satan exists? That Hell and Evil exist?

They most assuredly do, otherwise why would have the Father sent the Son? Surely, the Son was sent for the purpose of saving you from the clutches of Satan, his evil devices, and Hell itself. That is what Scripture says after all. But do you really believe it, or are you one of those people like many people in American Christianity that speak of hell and Satan as imaginary. Or if its real, Hell is empty. It is much easier these days to talk about the presence of evil. But the source of that evil?

It was not hard for the apostles to speak about all of this. They saw evil up-close and personal. The story of Matthias is not necessarily a happy one. Matthias only becomes an apostle, because of the evil that Judas committed against the Lord Jesus Christ, betraying Him into the hands of sinners.

For St. Matthias Day, we find the eleven apostles along with other disciples in the upper room during the days between Christ’s ascension and the day of Pentecost. They were up there in the room awaiting the promise of Jesus, the power from on high, the Holy Spirit. But there’s a problem. There are only 11 apostles when there should be 12.

Evil is real, and the apostles knew it to be real. They had seen Satan and his evil plans go into action. Luke tells us on the night that Jesus was betrayed that Satan entered into Judas. And a little later Jesus was talking to the remaining disciples that Satan desired to sift them like wheat, of whom Peter would be the first. Peter would deny Christ three times that night. Satan would sift them all, as they ran away from Jesus when He was arrested.

And Peter, who was restored by the risen Christ, now stands up and speaks of the great evil deed of Judas. “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” Luke adds, “This man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.” This is not a pretty sight at all. Judas was so overcome by the evil that he committed that he had no hope of being forgiven, and he killed himself. Peter goes on interpreting the events in light of the Psalms of David, “May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it”; and “Let another take his office.”

Enter Matthias, a man who had accompanied Jesus and the other apostles during all the time that the Lord went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from them. There was another man also who fit this description, but the lot fell to Matthias. And He was numbered with the 11, making 12 apostles once again.

Satan and evil exist, this we know. And Matthias and the rest of the 11 now are to go out to preach the truth that evil has been overcome in the one Jesus Christ, who died and rose again from the dead, beating Satan at his own game. The apostles are to declare war on the old Satanic foe just like their Lord did when He came into hostile territory, becoming man, and then going out into the wilderness and ultimately all the way to the cross to defeat Satan for all humanity. Now Matthias and the apostles preach the victory of Christ over Satan and Evil. And one little word of Christ crucified makes Satan fall.

Matthias is barely mentioned (if ever) again in any of the books of the New Testament. The extra-biblical materials we have concerning Matthias are few, and what we do have are quite late. But isn’t that the way of many of the pastors placed into office of the Holy Ministry? Matthias was placed into the office not to make a name for himself but to proclaim Christ and Him crucified to the nations. He was placed into the Office to confront the very evil of Satan that he knew well with the triumphant word of Christ Jesus. That Christ Jesus has overcome Satan and thus has made us His own. That our own acts of evil have been forgiven for the sake of Christ Jesus. That Christ holds the keys of death and hades now and forevermore, and He gives eternal life to us.

Pastors now, are also called to confront the evils that are amongst us and even within us. They are called to preach the truth of God’s Word of the realities of hell and Satan, and evil. And they too are to confront evil with the truth of Christ Jesus. They are called to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that we be saved from everlasting death.

Jesus when teaching, called many people evil. He even called his disciples evil because of their sinful hearts. We too have sinful hearts. It’s our natural heart’s state, another way to say it is it’s the Old Adam in us. We are by nature sinful and unclean. Jesus confronts evil head on and deals with it in a way only He could. He destroys evil by his death on the cross, whereby He swallows up death, sin, and Satan, the source of evil forever, and rises victorious over it all. And He forgives. All the evil of your own heart, Christ has covered with His Blood.

And while Judas spilled his own guts over his evil and wicked deeds, your Lord pours out his blood for you in love that you might be forgiven and be at peace in the forgiveness of sins. In effect being changed from inside out, your heart of evil removed, and a living heart in its place. A new creation for the sake of Christ.

This is what those men placed into the Office of the Holy Ministry are called to confess and to preach, that you might be saved, and not be overcome by the Evil One. Satan and his evil devices are real as Scripture says, but so is their Conqueror, our Savior Jesus Christ. Trust him in just as Matthias did, that you be numbered in great multitude that no one can number singing the praise of the Lamb forever and ever. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

A Sermon for the Purification of Mary and Presentation of our Lord

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, “If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the of her menstruation, she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. Then shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed … And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove … and if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. (Various verses from Leviticus 12)

These words come straight out of the Law of the Lord preached to the people of Israel by Moses. This is why we find Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the temple forty days after our Lord’s birth. It was to be in accordance of the Law. Also, as part of this day Jesus was being presented back to the Lord as the Lord had spoken in Exodus 13 that every firstborn belongs to the Lord. Mary is following in the train of Hannah, giving back to God the gift He had given to her. While Mary might have been at the Temple for her own purification, the events surrounding Jesus take a bit more of a center stage. With this day we see the faithfulness of both the Lord and his people. The Lord was and remains faithful to His promise of sending the world’s redemption, and in thanksgiving His people happily keep the Law. And they rejoice over the redemption so given. And in the words of our Epistle lesson, we see Jesus begin His service as a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God by the act of Mary presenting Him to the Lord, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Being the firstborn son of Mary, he is holy to the Lord, and at the same time He is the only begotten Son of God ready to be the perfect and once for all sacrifice for the sins of the world, saving the offspring of Abraham from everlasting death.

No one is happier or more joyful to see His redemption face to face than Simeon who was a righteous and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And He had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before He had seen the Lord’s Christ. This promise affirms the Incarnation of the Son of God. Salvation only comes from the Lord, and in Jesus, Simeon sees salvation in that little child. It’s Christmas all over again!

The very tangible peace of God is shown to Simeon. He sees Jesus and in Him He has peace, the very peace for all the earth which was proclaimed at Jesus birth is made Simeon’s. It was a promise worth waiting for, worth being in the temple, the very image which testifies to the greater reality that God would dwell in the midst of His people forever, only now the temple of God is the body of Jesus Christ, which is why Simeon takes the child into his own arms and probably didn’t take his eyes off of the child when he began blessing God singing his song. God was there as a Man, a 40 day old baby. Simeon saw his salvation with his own eyes. And in that child, the very Son of God in the flesh, he has his peace.

We should note that the mission of Jesus to be the redeemer of the world is not something placed upon him at his baptism or some other time. No, this mission of the Son of God to be the redeemer of the world was given to him from the very beginning. Jesus does not assume this position or take it up, but He always had it. The angels confess Jesus to be the Savior just minutes after his birth, and here Simeon confesses Him to be His redemption 40 days out of the womb.

Something else that we should praise God over is the fact that Simeon explicitly confesses the mystery that the gentiles also are made a part of God’s redemption. We are brought and welcomed to the table! God’s salvation will be made known to us Gentiles. For you and I have heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He came to save from sin, to bring consolation to us poor, miserable sinners who were sitting in the darkness of sin and death. He, himself likewise partook of the same things (flesh and blood), that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

So on the day of his mother’s own atonement offering, that she might be cleansed and re-enter the temple and join in the worship of the Lord God, Jesus is given back to God that he might enter into His Father’s service and be the atoning sacrifice for all the world. Jesus still is working in service to His Father for your salvation now. He has gone to the cross for you. He dies for your rebellion against the Laws of God. He consoles you with His words of forgiveness, speaking kindly to you in gentleness and love, showing his great mercy and love for you, calling you to believe in this Gospel. He has pulled you out of the great slavery, has cut the shackles of sin around your ankles and gives you freedom in Him. You are free from sin, rejoice and live in Christ Jesus. Be at peace in your salvation just as Simeon was.

May we be at peace even when temptations come because they will come as we still are in our sinful flesh and sinful world. May we not lose our heads and our way but call out to Him who is able to help us who are being tempted for He Himself suffered when tempted. Only when we are in Christ Jesus do we prevail over temptation, otherwise we will fall back into sinful shame, and vice. May our Lord keep us from entering back into the shackles he has broken us out of by his bitter sufferings and death! And if we have done just that, repent, confess your sins to God. For the Lord is gracious and merciful and does indeed forgive our sins for He has died for them and has atoned for them by his own blood.

Come. Hear, and see your salvation. See your Savior at the font where He made you God’s own. There He cleansed you with Water and His Word. And at the Altar he now feeds you His own body and blood. You see your salvation just as Simeon did. And that is why we sing His song right after the distribution of the Sacrament. We have beheld with our own eyes our salvation. We have received the very body and blood that paid our ransom at the cross into our very mouths that we might have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And where those things are there is peace for us. This is no peace which the world can give, but a peace which surpasses all understanding. A peace which only God can give. A peace which is confessed by the faithful: “Yes, Lord, I am ready to go. Ready to go and sleep unto the day of the resurrection knowing that I have seen your salvation, salvation which you have made mine for the sake your Son my brother, Jesus Christ, my faithful high priest.”

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Thread of God’s Love

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!

I love the service of Lessons and Carols because of how many readings we are able to hear. The story of God’s love for his fallen creation is evident all the way through the readings. I would recommend you to read your Bible with this in the back of your mind. Because really, that is what this is all about: How God loves His fallen sinful creation so much that He would dare to send His Son into the world to save it.

What joy and peace one has when that is known and believed! Adam and Eve had fallen from paradise. They had been kicked out. Yet, God’s love for them did not change. His demeanor did not change. They were the ones who changed. They were the ones who tried to hide and cover their shame with fig leaves. It was God who called out to them, found them, and had them come clean about what took place. Yes, they sinned against God and had fallen into and under the curse of the Law, yet God promised that He would act by giving the woman an offspring who would vanquish the serpent by crushing his head. And in this promise did Adam and Eve hope. They hoped and longed for that child to come.

Even in the midst of sin, God was loving his fallen creation, working to bring it back to Himself. But it was not going to come to right away. He was going to show throughout the rest of the Old Testament how He was going to work to bring about His people’s redemption. We learn from Abraham and Isaac that the Lord God would send the Son to be a substitute, like the ram was for Isaac in the end.

When the Son would come, He would show love to those sitting in the darkness of their own sins and sufferings, by shining His light upon them that they be saved. And this for all peoples. And the zeal of the Lord of hosts would make this occur. And his rule would bring peace which only the Lord could bring. This child would bring about peace only known in Eden. Why does God do this? Because He loves us, and desires us to be reconciled to Him. His Son would be the one through whom they would come. So, he sends His Son for you and your salvation.

And with Matthew 1 and Luke 2, we learn who this child is, and how God will continue to show us His Love for us. For He is none other than God in the Flesh, Emmanuel, God with Us. And the God who is us is also the God who saves from sins: Jesus. And we with the Heavenly Host should rejoice and sing Glory to God in the Highest! For by sending us His Son, God and man are reconciled. Sins of all kinds will be taken care by Him because of His great love for his creation.

God is love says John the apostle in his 1^st letter. It is His nature to love. And We know his love in this way: He did what He promised! The love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The birth of Christ is indeed joyful, God is with us! But that is not the end of God’s love in action. No, not by a long shot. God’s love comes to full manifestation a few decades later on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem where the Son given would give himself up for you and for the world. There He would die, and speak words of love: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

And what His love still shines. For Christ overcame death by his resurrection. And we live in His Resurrection. You have been brought into the resurrected life by the waters of Holy Baptism, where you are an heir of everlasting. You now live by the light of Christ! So, live in that light. This is the light that is the true life of men. The Light has come and the darkness cannot overcome it. Live in Christ, who loves you to death, and love one another just as Christ has loved you.

That means speaking to one another and asking for forgiveness and given forgiveness to one another because that is the living in the Light of Christ. Act as children of God, for that is what you are, you are his baptized children. Show mercy to one another for you have been shown mercy and love by God.

The Christ Candle is aptly called the Christ candle for it is lit and prominently displayed during the Christmas season and then again in the season of Easter. You would not be celebrating Christmas if Easter didn’t happen. For why would we celebrate and remember the birth of a God-Man who died but did not rise triumphantly over the grave? And also, we would not be celebrating Easter if the miracle of God becoming Man did not happen, for only the blood of God would suffice to pay our ransom from sin and death. There would be no salvation given to all humanity without the death and resurrection of the Word made flesh.

Remember the loving work of Christ as you look at the Christ candle. Know the Lord’s great love for you, promising to come and save you, and fulfilling His promise by being born of the virgin. And remember that this day is just the beginning of the acts of love that our Lord does for us in His flesh. For He goes to the cross for you. He rises for you in His flesh. He ascends in His Flesh to the right hand of God, and still in love for you now gives you His body and blood in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Look at the Christ Candle and know Christ is here in love for you and for your salvation from sin and death. Rejoice with the angels of the heavenly host. Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to His People on Earth! For the Light has shined on us who were in darkness. The very light of the only begotten. And by Him we have everlasting life!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Lord Kept and Continues to Keep His Promise

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

The People who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The first people to see that light were the people to ever live: Adam and Eve. With their sin, they had plunged both themselves into the darkness of sin and death. But God came to them with a light of hope. A promise. He would fix what they had done. He would restore creation. He would restore them. He would give them a Savior.

How was this to be done? The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.

And tonight, we rejoice that the Lord has done it. Promise kept. In the city of David, the sleepy little Bethlehem, the child Isaiah prophesied would be born, the Wonderful, the Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. That child was born.

And then it was the shepherds turn to see the light. Go to Bethlehem and see, the angel told them, for there is the Christ, the Lord. Don’t let the swaddling clothese or the manger fool you. It really is Him, the prince of peace. Your savior.

For God always keeps his promises. Always.

I don’t. You don’t. Sometimes because I am a sinner and I fail. Sometimes because something happens and I no longer want to keep my promise, so I take it back instead. Sometimes I promise something I can’t do. But even when I want to keep a promise, and try mightily to do so, sometimes I just can’t. Maybe you got promised that someone would be here for Christmas, but they got stuck in bad weather. The Friends Song, I’ll be there for you, is a perfect example of how we wish we could be there for someone but really can’t always fulfill the promise.

But God… He always delivers. Because if He kept this promise, this promise of all promises, which other one would He not keep?

To us a child is born, to us a son is given because of his great zeal and love for you.

God sends His son into our sinful world, our world of sin and death, a world of broken promises. And He sends Him here to take our sin and our shames upon himself and He suffers our sins penalty. This babe which we adore this night, will be rejected by the very ones He is saving as He is condemned and crucified, and then even forsake by His Father. Doing it all for you out of his zeal and love for you and your salvation.

Many years before this God tested Abraham, we heard a little bit of that story in the Lessons and Carols service tonight, where God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice His Son Isaac. God eventually did not make Abraham go through the actual process of slaughtering his son. But the Son of God? That Son would not be spared. He died to save you. Just as the heavenly Father promised. And the Son did it willingly out of his love and zeal for you.

And if God did that and kept that promise for you, everything is else is easy, don’t you think? That’s how much God loves you. A love He doesn’t just speak, but a love that He acts upon. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. Or in other words if you ever doubt whether God loves you, swaddling clothes a manger shows just how much he truly does. And it shows what He will do for you. He humbled Himself when He was born of a Virgin. And He humbled himself to the point of suffering death, death on a cross.

God had done a lot through the many years of waiting for this night. Wonderful works, great miracles, awesome power on display. Splitting seas apart, sending the bread from heaven for 40 years, defeating all kinds of armies. But nothing so great this; as a baby lying is swaddling cloths in a manger. This is his greatest work. His greatest miracle for you.

Sometimes He gets overshadowed by the lights of the world, or by the darkness in our hearts and lives – the struggles, the pains, cares, worries, broken promises that seem to come rolling in one after another.

And so it is exactly to us that Isaiah speaks tonight. Whether you’re in the darkness of the world’s lights, or the darkness of sin and sorrow and death, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Or as Paul puts it, the grace of God has appeared.

God has continued to give a lot. To people of old and to even to us. But no gift greater than this Son. The gift of a promise kept. The promise of life and salvation in this Son, Jesus our Lord.

Some gifts we receive get broken and thrown away. Some change the present and some change the future. But this gift of the Son born to the Virgin, changes us. It changes us from rebels to Sons, from sinners to saints, from being dead to being alive. For when the forgiveness of sins and love of God come to you and abides in you, how can that not change you?

Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. As do we.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God. As do we.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. And the Lord of hosts has. His zeal for you, His strong desire to love you and save you.

A zeal which now also lives in you, as we are the people of which Paul speaks, a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Because this Son now lives in you. His love and forgiveness live in you. And so too his zeal and good works.

So tonight we see again this great light. The grace of God, the glory of God, the Son of God, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. The promise kept.

Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

(Re)Building a House

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!

David had a fine desire. He, who was building his own house in Jerusalem, desired for the Lord to have such a house as well. A temple to dwell in the midst of His people. For no longer were the people wandering in the wilderness, but had finally been brought into the promised land and had taken over Jerusalem and made it their own. It was time for the ark to stop dwelling in a tent, a more permanent structure ought to be built on Mt. Zion. And David had the blessing of the prophet Nathan to go and pursue it.

But then we hear God’s own words about the situation. God did not ask for such a house in all of the time of the people’s wanderings. And in fact, God tells David it will not be you who builds me a house, but rather I am going to build you a house. A house that will not fall. That one of your own offspring will sit upon the throne forever. It’s the continuation of the promise made to Adam and Eve, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and the list goes on. The house of David, which the Lord promised to establish comes all the way down to a virgin named Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph who was of the house and line of David. Joseph was a nobody. David and his house were just a stump, a nub, a memory of better days for Israel.

From an earthly view point, the house of David had fallen on extremely hard times. The earthly kingdom and rule of the Davidic Dynasty did not last very long at least as one united kingdom. David united the 12 tribes; Jerusalem was the capitol. But already, David’s house was filled with strife. Just a few chapters later in 2 Samuel we learn of David’s sin with Bathsheba, the attempt to cover up of a sexual indiscretion, then ultimately having Bathsheba’s husband killed in battle. The same prophet Nathan who gives approval of David’s desire to build the Lord a house is the man who comes and calls David to repentance and speaks to him the consequences of his sin. David’s sons would fight over the throne, Solomon would become king and remain king over the 12 tribes, but with his son Rehoboam, the country unraveled. Split in two. And the kings that followed in David’s line were pretty awful more often than not. Only a few actually had a desire to follow in the ways of their father David, having a living faith and trust in the Lord. And then the kingdom was taken from them. Babylon came and carried off their king. They carried off the nobles and the rest of the people is subsequent years as the Lord has warned for years by the mouths of his prophets. In the day that Gabriel visited Mary, the people of Israel are no longer free, but under Roman occupation. They don’t really have their own place any more. And violent men still afflict them. The house of David was full of violent men, the sword would not leave that house. The promise of the David’s house remaining forever? Not even close.

But God does not work according the ways of the world. As Paul says, the world considers God’s actions and ways foolish. Consider the cross of the Christ. “The Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ”

Here is the folly of the Lord now. He sends his Angel Gabriel to Mary to speak to her that she who is a virgin will bear a son. And its not just any son, but the very Son of God. The Son of the Most High. That house of David, in all its shambles? Yep, its being rebuilt. A shoot is coming from Jesse’s stump. The throne upon which this Son will sit forever? It’s not a kingdom of this world. It is the throne of heaven. And even in the womb of Mary, God would be there sitting on His throne. And He would be coming to establish the house of David forever. But it’s a crazy promise. How can this be? Mary is still a virgin. Gabriel speaks the truth, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

It must be this way otherwise the Son would not be holy. This is a confession of Original Sin. We pass that original sin from Adam and Eve is transmitted through carnal conception and birth from father and mother. But in Christ’s birth? No seed from the father, no original sin. Christ is born without sin and is the perfect man for you. Yet He is also true God come to save and remove from you and all people the sins and the ultimate consequence of your sins: death.

And Mary believed the words of Gabriel, the messenger of the Lord. And like her Father Abraham many generations before, it was credited to her as righteousness. Mary is called the favored one. We sang it today: Most highly favored Lady. She is the Mother of God and rightfully should be remembered. And yet at the same time, she is not a perfect person either. She was a sinner just like you and me. By nature, sinful and unclean. Hence why she goes on to sing her song: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” She knew she also needed a savior. The human house and line she was a part of needed to be redeemed.

You all know the song, Mary Did You Know?, And you probably have seen the facebook memes floating around with that question to the Virgin Mary and words in the mouth of Mary, “Yes, Gabriel told me.” She was told her son would be called the Son of God, but I doubt that she had any idea of when He would be called the Son of God. The Disciples would call Jesus the Son of God, when in the boat after watching Jesus walk on the water. But other than that, only Satan, the demons use that title of Jesus. It’s used very seldomly. But it’s used most prominently during the time of Christ’s passion. And it’s a Roman Centurion who says, “Surely, this was the Son of God” upon seeing what all took place at the time of his death.

Jesus would be known as the Son of God in his act of love for his people. The King would come into the holy city, to much and great fanfare but his crown would first be one of thorns. He would take his position as King at His cross. “Nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross he borne for me, for you. Hail, Hail the word made flesh, the babe the Son of Mary” (LSB 370 What Child is This, stanza 2).

And by his birth, life, death and resurrection, He establishes a house. And it’s a house that lasts forever. It’s a house which you have been brought into, like Mary by the hearing and trusting of the Word. “Behold I am a servant, let it be to me according to you word.” And Christ speaks to you words of comfort and joy. You who were once in the darkness of sin and death, know that Christ has come to carry your burden of sin and death to the cross. You are forgiven for Christ’s sake and welcomed into the house prepared for you.

God speaks wonderful promises. He spoke to David of establishing a house, and now he speaks to you promising that you are part of that house. You are welcomed into that house as His child by the waters of holy baptism. The world says its foolish and weird. How can water do such great things? Its not just water but rather its water with the Word of God along with the faith that trusts this word of God that makes Holy Baptism what it is, a lavish washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. Nothing is impossible with God. Why doubt the Lord’s promises made to you now if he kept even a bigger promise in the past? He sent His Son, born of the Virgin, as He promised David and those before Him. Jesus came and dealt with sin and death by the cross, and rose from the dead. Just as He said He would. Why we sit back and doubt the promises made by God to us in Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper now is beyond me. But we all do from time to time. Repent. The Lord is faithful and true. Do not spurn His Word and His promises but take them to heart and trust them.

If we cannot be like Mary and say, “Let it be to me according to you word, may we be like the Father of the demon possessed son. “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” Because we will have times of forget the Lord and doubt his promise to show us mercy and steadfast love. Even Mary seemed to have forgotten who Jesus was when they searched frantically for Jesus in Jerusalem. He had to be in His Father’s house doing His Father’s business. But that is the reason to run to the altar and to receive the body and blood of your Lord all the more. It is the meal of those of the house. Christ welcomes you with open arms to His table. “Come, you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” “Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.” Be strengthened in your faith, trusting the words of promise spoken to you: This is my body, This is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. What grand promises made to you.

God’s promise to David was kept. The throne of David was established forever, through the sending of His only begotten Son into the flesh via the womb of Mary. And God continues to keep His promises He has made to you. You are part of that house that Christ has established. Let it be. Amen, Lord. Yes, Lord, let it be me to according to your Word.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Advent and Joy

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

There has not been a lot to rejoice over in 2020, at least if you were looking at 2020 from say 38,000 feet. We have seen loved ones die. We have seen businesses shut down and close their doors. We have seen wildfires out west. Riots in the cities. Political and cultural discord becoming much more prevalent in every day life. We have seen friends go to the hospital with the virus. We have not been able to see loved ones in the ways we normally do. We couldn’t celebrate the 165^th anniversary of our congregation with the fanfare it deserved. Events cancelled. From 38,000 feet 2020 looks like a dumpster fire that will still be smoking well into 2021.

But if you land that plane and begin walking around, you would find things that would cause one to have joy and rejoice. Maybe it was getting to be an eye witness of a friend’s wedding. Getting to witness the Lord bring another dear child into His Family via Holy Baptism. Watching your son graduate high school, albeit in a socially distanced manner. Perhaps it was just spending time at home going through those closets that needed cleaning but never got the time due to your busy schedules. Maybe it was the summer months being outside and enjoying the pool deck. Getting your beans planted and harvested, and seeing a good yield. Or having the opportunity to be in this place Sunday in Sunday out, Wednesday in Wednesday out. When we begin to look deeply at 2020, I think we all could find more things to rejoice over than what meets the eye at 38,000 feet.

The prophet Zechariah was a prophet to the people of Israel after they had returned to the land of Israel from exile in Babylon. From 38,000 feet life looked like a bit of a dumpster fire. Yeah, they had returned to their land, but the temple, it paled in comparison to what they had before their exile. They had their own social issues to work through: what do they do with the numerous widows, orphans, and foreigners in their midst? It did not always go well. The once large population was decimated to a mere remnant. Israel was a shell of its former self at best. Broken and beat down, licking their wounds even though they were now back in their own land. Not a lot there to rejoice over either, at least from the altitude of 38,000 feet.

But get down on the surface and you find reason to rejoice. Listen to Zechariah to this despondent lot. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And the Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”

And the prayer that God actually bring this to fruition: the prayer that we heard back on the first Sunday of Advent is happening. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down! “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He has roused himself from His holy dwelling.” God is coming. He is coming to save. So, rejoice Daughter of Zion. Rejoice and be glad. God is coming to be with you: Emmanuel. To save you.

There’s much to rejoice over for God promised to be dwell in the midst of his people and to bring many nations into his fold. For in the middle of the dumpster fire of our time, while we were yet sinners, God the Son came and dwelt among His people. The time had come.

Tonight’s reading from the Gospel gives us Mary’s song. When Mary was told that she would be the mother of her Lord, it had to at least bring upon her some questions. A year when she was betrothed and to be married to Joseph, a very joyous occasion, now would have to clear a very difficult hurdle. I can only imagine that conversation. We know what Joseph set out to do. He had planned to divorce her quietly over the situation. From 38,000 feet Mary was in the middle of her own dumpster fire situation. A lowly girl of humble estate, nothing to look at. But she is not concerned with that. She rejoices in God her Savior. For He was coming to the world which was created through Him that the world might be saved and reconciled to the heavenly Father.

It’s Mary’s womb by which the Word would become flesh and tabernacle among His people. And Mary rejoices in God her savior, playing the part of the faithful servant. She sings and we with her those beautiful words of her song of praise. For in midst of our own times of suffering, Christ, the Lord comes to be with His people. He chose to come and save you. He roused himself from his holy dwelling and came to dwell with you. To give you light in the midst of the darkness of our sin and sin-filled world. To bring you great joy and peace. To make you heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Rejoice. For the Lord whom Zechariah and the faithful remnant of Israel hoped did indeed. He is the babe, the son of Mary.

God literally gets his hands dirty and works to put out the fires and make things right. And He begins by turning the whole world upside down. It’s the humble who will be exalted. It’s the hungry being filled with Good Things. The poor have good news preached to them. The rich are sent empty away. Sins are being dealt with and are being forgiven. The author of life is here for you. And He grants you new life in Him. By His death on the cross and His resurrection you have the promise of everlasting life with Him forever. And it is there at the cross that the nations are joined to Him and together. Rejoice for God has come, He is Emmanuel, God with us. His Name is Jesus. The Lord saves. God is with us to save us. Rejoice, O Daughter of Zion.

Even in the trials and tribulations that we face now we can still rejoice and have joy. It does not mean that everything will be easy in this life. Far from it. And it does not mean that this life will be “fair.” But we can still rejoice knowing that our God cares and actually came to be with us in our sufferings, having promised that our time of suffering will end. In His coming, He has made everything right. And continues to do so, even when we don’t feel it is. When Christ returns at the last, you who put your trust in Him will be vindicated. For now, rejoice in all circumstances. Look at St. Paul as an example. In all circumstances He is able to rejoice in God His Savior. When times are bad, rejoice and lift up your head and know the day of your salvation draws nigh. When times are good, rejoice in the plentiful blessings that God has granted to you for the day. Rejoice in the Lord always.

So, we come here to our Lord’s altar, rejoicing in the faithfulness of God who promises to come and be in our midst. He is here for us in Word and Sacrament that we might be saved from our sin and eternal death. He comes bearing you gifts of forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, filling you with the good things: His body and blood. Remembering you in mercy. Rejoice, for God has shown his mercy and continues to shower you with His mercy. He has not forgotten you but has indeed come into your midst to save you.

The third candle of Advent is the rose color, pointing us to the find our joy and rejoice in the One who has come into our midst to save us. Let us then rejoice with the Mary and the whole church in God our Savior, who did what He promised, and the promise of His return.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO