Sunday School: The Holy Family Moves to Egypt

Encore Post: King Herod the Great is a figure that the Jews have mixed feelings about. He was not Jewish, although his family converted to Judaism and he was raised in that faith. He ruled because the Romans appointed him King of the Jews. He adopted a Graeco-Roman life style. In many ways, he represented everything they hated.

Yet Herod built many things that improved the lives of the Jews greatly, including its only Mediterranean port — Caesarea Maritima. His most important project was the rebuilding of the temple into its most glorious form. He was also ruthless. He killed anyone he even imagined threatened his throne, including his sons and favorite wife. A joke going around Rome at the time was that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son. It takes little imagination to believe that he killed all of the young males in Bethlehem.

It is no wonder, then, that the arrival of the wise men from Persia upset Jerusalem, asking for the newborn king of the Jews. The talk of the Messiah was a real problem for him. This kind of thing could provide a focus for those who would rebel against him and Rome. His offer to worship the young child rings hollow to anyone who knew him.

Matthew tells us that the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Ancient wisdom valued dreams and so they paid attention to it. For Joseph, a man named after the most famous interpreter of dreams in the Bible, the appearance of an angel in a dream for a second time moved him to act. He quickly took his family to Egypt.

A Jewish family moving to Egypt was not unusual. For centuries the Greek rulers of Egypt were patrons of the Jewish people. Legend tells us that the second such king had commissioned the Septuagint — the Greek translation of the Bible used by Jesus and his disciples. A larger population of Jews lived in Alexandria at that time than in Jerusalem. As it turned out, they didn’t have to stay long. Herod died just a few months after he killed the innocent boys of Bethlehem. Matthew tells us the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus’ life would repeat the history of the people of Israel in one person.

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©2019 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: The Wise Men Worship Jesus

Encore Post: The Wise Men were scholars in Babylon, in Iraq today. One of the things they studied was astrology. They saw a star that told them that a king would be born in Israel. to they went to see Him. They did not arrive on Christmas Eve at all, but a few months to a year afterward. They found Mary and Jesus at home in a house.

There are lots of theories as to what the Star of Bethlehem actually was. Some scholars think it was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which appeared to approach each other in the sky three times around the time Jesus was born. Others point to the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which occurred about the same time. Also suggested has been comets, novas and other signs in the sky. Any of these would inspire ancients who believed in astrology to go visit the newborn king. Christian scholars have pointed out that God was quite able to create a star to use just for the birth of his son.

Assuming a newborn King of the Jews would be in King Herod’s palace, it made sense to visit him. What they didn’t know is that, in the last few months of his life, Herod was very paranoid. He was known to viciously kill anyone, including his wife and his sons, whom he thought were planning his overthrow. So, then, when the angel warned the wise men not to go back to Herod, it was a very good thing.

Even though tradition says there were three of Wise Men (Think: We Three Kings of Orient are) no one knows how many came. Matthew doesn’t number them. Perhaps it is because they presented Jesus with three Kingly gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

They were the first Gentiles to realize Who Jesus was and to worship Him. The church celebrates the coming of the Wise Men on the twelfth and last night of the season of Christmas.

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©2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: The Presentation of our Lord

Encore Post: Childbirth was an exciting and frightening event at the time of Jesus. Many children and their mothers died soon after a birth. When both mother and child survived the ordeal, God’s law required male children to be circumcised on the eighth day following their birth. After forty days — when the greatest danger to the life of the mother and the child had passed, they were to present themselves at the temple to make a sacrifice. For the woman, this sacrifice made her clean again and able to return to worship God.

During the time of Jesus, Rabbis gathered in the temple in the court of the women, the closest to the Holy of Holies a woman was allowed to go. They would take each child in their arms and bless them. So it was that the Holy Spirit directed Simeon to Joseph, Mary and Jesus. The Spirit revealed to Simeon that Jesus was the coming Messiah. By the prophecy given to Him, Simeon pointed to Jesus’ mission to save both Jews and Gentiles and to the cross. Simeon’s song of joy is still sung by the church in worship.

Anna was a prophetess, like Miriam and Deborah, one of very few women God used to speak to His people. She likely served in the temple to help with a variety of tasks. In her devotion to God, she also saw Jesus and had the privilege of telling everyone that the Messiah had come.

On February 2, the Church celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the temple and the singing of Simeon’s song, known as the Nunc Dimittis. We also sing this song every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

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©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: Jesus is Born

Encore Post: About one hundred years before Jesus was born, the Jewish people rebelled against the Greek king of Syria and won their freedom. To this day, the Jewish people celebrate that event during the season of Hanukkah. At that time people from the area around Jerusalem and Bethlehem settled in Galilee and built little towns like Nazareth. Likely the grandparents or great-grandparents of Mary and Joseph settled there. When the Roman rulers of Palestine required all its peoples to register in their home towns, Joseph and Mary had to travel the 80 to 90 miles to Bethlehem on foot. The census was an achievement of pride for Augustus Caesar. The emperor had it inscribed on his tombstone. It likely took decades to complete — especially on the edges of the empire and in its client kingdoms.

When Mary and Joseph arrived in the small town of David, there was no room for them to stay in any of their homes. The word the King James Version translated “inn” means something more general that a place to rent a room. It means more like, “guest room.” So likely one of their relatives let them stay in the stable — actually a fairly warm and somewhat private place to give birth in that day. The people of Bethlehem had built their homes into the caves on the hillside, a very efficient way to maintain steady temperatures year round and protect people and their home animals from the elements. 

Our traditional crèches show the scene more like it would have been if Jesus had been born in medieval Germany rather than Roman First Century Judea. Because most people in the middle ages could not read, art work told all of the stories of the birth of Jesus together in one scene. They often include a baby Jesus, Mary Joseph, a manger with hay, cattle, sheep, donkeys and camels, shepherds, wise men and their gifts. Yet it is unlikely that the original scene was that crowded. Most families in that time and place likely would have at most a donkey and sheep — no cattle.

Shepherds were common folk, looked down on as working class people are looked down on today. Those on the night shift would not be a group to which an announcement from the throne of God would be made. Yet the angel, God’s ambassador to announce the birth of his son, chose them.

Martin Luther summed it up in a Christmas Sermon:

If Christ had come with trumpets sounding; If he had a cradle of gold, His birth would have been a stately thing. But it wouldn’t comfort me. So, He had to lay in a poor girl’s lap and be scarcely noticed by the world. In that lap I can come to see Him; In this way He now reveals Himself to the distressed. Yes, He would’ve had greater fame, if He’d have come in great power, splendor, wisdom and high class. Yet, He will come some day, in another way, when He comes to oppose the great nobles. But now He comes to the poor, who need a Savior.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

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©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: Mary and Elizabeth

Blog Post: At first glance, Mary and Elizabeth do not seem to have much in common — other than King David as their common ancestor. Mary was a very young woman, barely out of childhood. Elizabeth was very old and had no children. Mary lived in the outskirts of the Holy Land, out in small town Galilee. Elizabeth is at the center of Jewish life, the wife of a priest, living in the bedroom communities of Jerusalem. It is clear that the women knew of each other, but not that they knew each other. Elizabeth’s pregnancy is a obvious blessing from God. Everyone knew her to have been barren until old age — like mother Sarah. Mary was a teenager pregnant outside of marriage. Likely everyone assumed Joseph was a bit too eager and frowned upon it.

One this is sure. A prompt visit  to a distant relative was a wise thing — it allowed the community a chance to calm down about something they didn’t approve of. So imagine the joy of yet another miracle. The Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth. The baby John the Baptist, still in her womb, recognized the presence of the Messiah, still in her cousin’s womb, and leaps for joy. Elizabeth suddenly knew the full truth — that God had become man in the womb of her young relative. She was the God Bearer, the Mother of God. God had kept his promise — the Messiah had come to save his people from their sin.

Mary responded to Elizabeth With thanksgiving to God. She sings the first song in Luke’s musical. Called the Magnificat, we sing it in Vespers services. In this song, she marvels that God has so richly blessed a poor girl. She remains with Elizabeth for three months.

The early church fathers saw something special in the faith of these two women. Both of them believed what God revealed to them from the very start. Their husbands — Zechariah and Joseph — at first doubted. In the end, all four of them firmly trusted in God who finally came to save — and did so through two very unlikely women, neither of whom should have conceived, one very young and one very old.

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Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

© 2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Worship as Reliance Upon Jesus

When you think of “Worship,” what do you see in your mind’s eye? What do you associate with the term? Do you see “pomp and circumstance”? Do you see a well ordered ritual activity? Do you see hymns and songs of praise? That is all fine and good. But none of that conveys what worship really is.

Worship is reliance, at least that is what Luther and the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church convey. It also is part of the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods,” implies that there is nothing or anyone else upon whom we ought to rely for the needs of body and soul or for the things which lead to everlasting life.

In the Old in particular we have a few instances were the Lord God wants Israel simply to be silent as He works to save them. Exodus 14:14 is a prime example. Israel need only to be silent while the Lord fights for them. Abraham and Sarah are also another example even earlier in the Pentateuch. In their situation, rather than relying solely on the Lord and waiting for Him to act. Sarai persuaded Abraham to take Hagar as a surrogate of sorts. Sarai sought to short-circuit the promise of God and bring it about in a quicker fashion. That is not relying on God. That is not proper worship of the Lord. To worship Him properly is to rely upon Him. What is proper worship is seen in the woman who seeks out Jesus when her daughter is oppressed by a demon. She relies on any word that Jesus speaks. She does not expect a full meal, but merely a bit of the crumbs of His mercy. She lives and breathes that come from the very Word of God made flesh. The woman worships Jesus as she relies upon Him to do what He has promised to do, which is to save her and her daughter from eternal death.

That is why Jesus is adamant when He cries out to those who are weak to come to him so they would have rest. He cries out that He is the bread of life. He is the one that one drinks from in order to have life. He wants you to rely upon Him for your very life!

Since He has accomplished your salvation, receive it from Him. Seek out His absolution. Seek the preaching of His Word. Pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread,” and mean it. To rely upon Him for mercy is to trust Him and His promises. To trust Him is to worship Him. Jesus always delivers what we need for both body and life. Hence, we too can and should see relying upon Jesus as worship of Him.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

©2023 Jacob Hercamp. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Is Lutheran The Only Right Church?

I frequently get some version of this question, “Do you really think the Lutheran Church* is the only right church?” (*the LCMS and those Lutherans in our global fellowship)

Yes, I do.  And, you ought to thank the Lord if your pastor isn’t some unfaithful, vow-breaking squish, who believes one thing and says another.  Summer is the season of installations and ordinations in the LCMS.  Nearly every weekend from mid-June through August, there will be such an event at an LCMS congregation.  The Vows taken by your pastor and the others like him are these:

“Do you believe and confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice?  Yes, I believe and confess the canonical Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” (LSB Agenda, p. 165)

What does this mean?  This means that the Christian faith must never embrace what scripture condemns and never condemn what scripture extolls.  There are a good number of Christian churches and pastors falling outside of this first vow.  Anyone denying infant Baptism or infant faith, denies scripture’s plain teaching.  Anyone denying Baptismal regeneration, denies the scriptures.  Anyone denying the forgiveness of sins and the true, bodily presence of Jesus in Holy Communion, denies the Word of God.  Anyone engaged in the ordination of women into the Holy Ministry, despises the Word of God.  Anyone teaching the re-sacrifice of Jesus in the mass, rejects the scriptures.  This list is far from exhaustive.

“Do you believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds, namely, the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, as faithful testimonies to the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and do you reject all the errors which they condemn?  Yes, I believe and confess the three Ecumenical Creeds because they are in accord with the Word of God.  I also reject all the errors they condemn.” (ibid.)

What does this mean?  All heresies rejected in the creeds, we reject.  In current terms, that means things like the constant, popular, gnostic view of death.  Death is not a release of the soul from the body.  Death is the unnatural, violent separation of soul from body.  Death is not the final destination.  The resurrection of all flesh and the restoration of soul and body together on the last day is the completion of all things promised to Baptized Christians.  Also, the creeds may not be rejected by Christians, as some do (Joel Osteen, many Baptists, et al).

“Do you confess the unaltered Augsburg Confession to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church?  And do you confess that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord—as these are contained in the Book of Concord—are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith?  Yes, I make these confessions my own because they are in accord with the Word of God.” (LSB Agenda, p. 166)

What does this mean?  This is where the rubber meets the road.  The Lutheran Confessions are correct in their entirely.  Lutheran Pastors vow this BECAUSE they are the right exposition of and in accord with the Word of God.  As stated above, we can identify errors in other Christian confessions.  In my short 47 years upon the Earth, I have neither discovered an error in our confessions, nor been shown one.  If I or any other Lutheran pastor were convinced of such an error, we would be bound by the first vow to the scriptures alone to fight ceaselessly and publicly against the error, or leave the Lutheran Confession.

“Do you promise that you will perform the duties of your office in accordance with these Confessions, and that all your preaching and teaching and your administrations of the sacraments will be in conformity with Holy Scripture and with these Confessions?  Yes, I promise, with the help of God.” (ibid.)

What does this mean?  All Lutheran pastors are bound by these vows to conform themselves to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions of the Unaltered Book of Concord (1580 AD).  We must condemn what they condemn and extoll what they extoll.  There is no wiggle room or lateral movement.  Lutheran pastors are or are not faithful.

Christians teaching a different confession are in error.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX
And
Mission Planting Pastoral team
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX

©2023 Jason Kaspar. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: Mary and the Angel

Image of open Bible

Encore Post: In the small town of Nazareth, not far from the Sea of Galilee, the Angel Gabriel appeared a second time. He visited a young girl, likely about twelve to fourteen years old. Mary of Nazareth was preparing for her marriage. Her parents and Joseph’s parents had likely arranged their wedding years before. 

Like all the Jewish families in the area, her ancestors had settled there when God’s people won their independence from the Greek rulers of Syria about one hundred and fifty years before. They were from David’s town of Bethlehem, not far from Jerusalem and descended from the king. She was related to Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah, to whom Gabriel had appeared just six months earlier. 

Just as startled as Zechariah, Mary responded very differently. The elderly priest had doubted God’s word, sent by his messenger. If anything, the message brought to her was even harder to believe. She was a virgin and she knew what everyone knew — it takes a man and a woman to conceive a baby. However, she did not doubt the word of God’s Angel. She didn’t even ask why. She asked how. When told the Holy Spirit would cast his shadow over her, as he did in the beginning over the face of the deep, she consented. “I am God’s slave,” she said, “Let it be.” And it was. The eternal Son, God of God, Light of Light, became a baby in her womb.

She would treasure this visit it her heart. She would need that strength. Difficult days lay ahead. Her Joseph would doubt. Wouldn’t you if your beloved said, “Good news! We will have a baby. No, obviously he’s not yours, he’s God’s son. An angel told me!” He would plan to divorce her until an angel appeared to him. A Jewish man named Joseph knew better than to doubt dreams!

Yet it meant the first century equivalent of a shot-gun wedding, whispered gossip in the shadows, a quick visit to cousin Elizabeth until everything calmed down and long, uncomfortable walks while very pregnant. Yet God’s word was enough for her. She was blessed to bear and raise God’s Son. He would suffer and die while she watched. Yet she knew what his name meant: he would save his people from their sins. She would indeed be blessed — and honored by God’s people as the Mother of God himself.

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©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: Angel in the Temple

Encore Post: Four Hundred years had passed since the prophet Malachi spoke to God’s people. God had been silent all those years, but had not been idle. Now an elderly priest named Zechariah was chosen to burn incense in the Holy Place of the temple, right outside the Holy of Holies. The Angel Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God himself appeared to Zechariah to announce the miraculous birth of a son. He was to be named John (God’s gift) and would fulfill Malachi’s last prophecy to send a herald to prepare the way of the Messiah. The last time this angel appeared, he brought dreams to Daniel.

You’d think Zechariah, who should have known better, would accept the news that he would have a son with joy. Yet the idea that like Abraham he would have a child in his old age, when he was barren, was too much. Gabriel punished him by taking his voice until the day his son was to be circumcised.

When John was born, his relatives asked Zachariah what name to give his son, Zechariah wrote on a Roman wax tablet, “His name is John.” Then the silence of God was broken. Zechariah prophesied about the coming salvation and the role his son would play. We sing this prophecy in the liturgy of morning prayer. It is called the Benedictus. This old priest was therefore the second last prophet of the Old Testament. His son, who we know as John the Baptist, would be the last and greatest.

John the Baptist had almost all the credentials to be the Messiah. His Father was a priest, descended from Aaron. His mother was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so descended from King David. Gabriel the Archangel announced his birth in the temple, while his father was offering the prayers of the people to God. Both of his parents were very old, like Abraham and Sarah, and barren, like Hannah, mother of Samuel. God named him in the same way he named Isaac and changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The angel announced that he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets. Yet from the very start, he and his parents understood that John was not the Messiah, but the one who would reveal him to the world and prepare the way for him.

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©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

Sunday School: Malachi, The Last of the Old Testament Prophets — Almost

Encore Post: The people of Judah had returned from exile in Babylon. Through the Persian ruler Cyrus, the people had resettled in the promised land. They rebuilt the temple — although not nearly to the glory of Solomon’s Temple. They rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem — and their lives. And then the people felt forgotten and isolated, a small province of a foreign empire — vast and worldwide. God sent the prophet Malachi. His name means Messenger, Angel.

Malachi assured Judah of God’s love, called on them to repent — especially the priests. He then lifted their eyes to look towards the future. He would send another Malachi — a messenger — Elijah — to prepare they way of the Lord. He would turn their hearts to each other, so that the Lord would not need to destroy them completely. With that the voice of the prophets falls silent. It would be at least four hundred years before God would again speak through a prophet.

The people would not forget this time. They would bring together all the prophecies and types of the Messiah and his Malachi — Messenger. They came to look for an earthly kingdom and the day of the Lord. And so they missed the return of the Prophets — a Son of Levi and David — a second Zechariah and his son, the last and greatest prophet. But that is another story!

While God was silent, he was not absent or idle. In the time of between the testaments, God began to prepare the ground for his prophets — and for his Son. The next few posts will go into the ways he did this.

©2018 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com