Encore Post: When the Bible speaks about good works, it really is not talking about the everyday things we think about when we mention good things people do. The good things people do are always colored with mixed motives. Maybe we did them so that people would sing our praises. Maybe we expected to get something from them, a reward, a trophy or a good deed in return. The Hindu idea called Karma is supposed to work that way. If you do good, good will be done to you. Sometimes the things we choose to do are our own ideas. All-night vigils, long fasts, pilgrimages and similar feats are very impressive, but God never actually asks us to do these things.
So, none of them save us or even especially please God — unless we do them because we have faith in God and want to thank him for his love and mercy towards us. Strictly speaking, non-Christians cannot do good works. All the things they do are motivated by the desire to get something out of it. Even Christians who love and trust God aren’t perfect when it comes to doing good with pure motives.
Truly good works, then, are the product of faith in Jesus Christ. Every thankful thought, grateful prayer of thanksgiving, things done because we love God, are good works. Even though a sinful thought or motive might tarnish them, because Christ earned our forgiveness on the cross, God does not count these sins against us, but sees only those things done because we love him.
Encore Post: Military planners labor long hours to plan every detail of a campaign before the first soldier or sailor even receives their orders. They consider carefully all of the strengths and weaknesses of their enemy and their own troops. They weigh every possible variation and the effects unforeseen weather might have on the battle. Yet the moment the battle begins, all of that goes away. “The fog of war” sets in. You can’t see clearly. Sometimes you mistake enemies for friends. The battle might be won everywhere but where you are.
In this sin-filled world, you are at war and in the middle of a battle. The old and new man compete for control of your life. The world and the devil try to bend you to their will. Sin, sickness, grief and death explode all around you. In the middle of this chaos, the Holy Spirit fights to keep you in the true faith. The good news is that he will. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39) The Holy Spirit who began a good work in you will complete it on the day Christ returns. (Philippians 1:6)
We can be sure that we will be with Jesus when we die because he promises we will. (John 12:26) It does not depend on how many good works we do, whether we confessed and repented of all of our sins, whether we really accepted Jesus as our Lord or not. It all depends on God, who does it all for us and promised we would be with him forever. He guarantees it. After all, he gave us the Holy Spirit.
Encore Post: Because God loved us before he made the world (Ephesians 1:3-4), we love God and want to keep his commandments. But where do we start? The Rabbis count 613 commands in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses) alone! While they kept track of each one in great detail and invented traditions to be sure and keep them, they found it helpful to ask each Rabbi for his opinion. “Which commandment is the greatest of them all?” became a common question for disciples to ask their teacher. So it is not a surprise that people discussed with Jesus this question several times. (Matthew 22:36, Mark 12:28, Luke 10:25-28)
Jesus taught that two commandments summarize the whole of God’s Law — “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:45 ESV) and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) In a sense, the second of the two commandments is contained in the first. Every command in the whole of the Scripture will be kept if you love God with your whole heart.
As sinners, we cannot do this perfectly, of course. But because God loved us first, sending Jesus to die so that we might be forgiven. By his Holy Spirit God has created faith in our hearts, so that we can truly love him. So, then, because God loves us, we also love our neighbor as ourselves and in the same way that we have been loved by God. (1 John 4:7-12)
Encore Post: In American culture, love is everywhere. It is a constant theme of movies, TV programs, stories, songs, poetry and even commercials! At Valentine’s Day especially, images of couples planning romantic moments are everywhere. At some point in the dating life of many lovers, men and women obsess over whether they should tell their dates that they love them.
But the English word love is more than that. We love our pets, our favorite food, good weather, our sports teams, our friends, freedom and truth — just about everything. The Greek language of the New Testament uses several words to cover it all. φιλέω (phileo) is the love and affection between friends. ἔρος (Eros) is sexual love that is obsessed with another and is not satisfied until it gets what it wants. ἀγαπάω is a love that sacrifices for the good of the one it loves. (See 1 Corinthians 13) ἀγαπάω is the word the New Testament uses for God’s love and the love God wants us to show to him and our neighbors.
God loved us before he made the world. (Ephesians 1:4-5) He loved us so much that he sacrificed his only Son to save us. (John 3:16-17) Because he first loved us, we love him and want to please him. He commands us to love him and our neighbors. Jesus tells us that the whole of God’s law is to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-40) In a very real sense, our love is itself God’s gift to us. While our love in this world is not perfect, God’s love for us is perfect. It lasts forever and conquers even death.
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.
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 1st 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
Encore Post: A child is born in ancient Rome. The baby is carefully cleaned and tenderly wrapped. She is brought to the father of the family (pater familias) and set at his feet. The household watches to see what the father will do. If he picks up the child and says, “this is my son,” the baby will be an heir in the family, even if the mother is a slave. If he turns and walks a way, the child will be set outside in the street, exposed to the fates and not a part of the family. By this and similar legal proceedings, a free Roman could adopt anyone he wishes and grant all the rights and privileges due to his children to that person. In Greek, the word is υἱοθεσία (huiothesia, the placing as a son, the adoption as a son)
Because he loves us, God arranged for us to be adopted as his sons (Ephesians 1:4-5). At just the right time, the Father sent his Son, to be born of the Virgin Mary, to redeem us by his sinless life, suffering, death on the cross and resurrection, so that we might be adopted as his sons in our baptism. He then sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts, so that now we can call him “Abba” — “Daddy.” (Galatians 4:4-7) The Holy Spirit testified to all of this. Now, since we are God’s heirs — heirs with Christ, we share in his sufferings in order to share in his glory. (Romans 8:15-17) We await the final adoption decree, the resurrection of our bodies at the end of time. (Romans 8:23)
“You will have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
In a previous post, we considered what it means to have a god. What it really is all about, Martin Luther tells us, is who or what are you going to trust. As Christians, we know that well. After all, the Holy Spirit planted trust — faith — in our hearts. So, we love God. We also remember that God is holy and know that sin has its consequences. So, we respect and fear him too. What challenges us is the “above all things” part.
There are many precious things that claim a place in our hearts. We love our spouses. We love our children. Perhaps we love our country, our home, our hobbies or possessions. These are great blessings that do have a proper place in our lives. The trouble comes when they compete with God. We can easily come to invest a trust in them. We build our lives around them, invest time and money in them. It is easy to come to trust them as much if not more than God.
The problem is that, no matter how precious these things are, they cannot bear the weight of our trust. Spouses and children become ill and die. Our nation may turn on us and make us choose between it and God. Possessions break, fade away and are lost. The only thing that endures forever is God’s word. God made the world by his word, his Word became flesh and lived with us. His suffering, death and resurrection earned for us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Because he lives forever, we know that we will rise to live with him forever.
So we fear, love and trust God above all others. Then other blessings fall into their proper place as we thank God for them. This love and trust, then, in turn, leads to obey the rest of the commands as well.
