Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany: January 9, 2022 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Christian Baptism often is an event that, for most of us, is remembered only as some point in the distant past. And so, I’m afraid, it can also be too easily forgotten . The Word of God and the Holy Supper – on the other hand – they are continually being placed before us. Through these events we’re reminded constantly of the many blessings that God showers down upon us. But our Baptisms have to be brought to light over and over again. We have to set our minds on remembering them. That’s why – in Luther’s Small Catechism – it’s suggested that, as a Christian, you begin each day by making the sign of the cross over yourself as a remembrance of the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the name that was placed on you at Baptism. You would not want to lose sight of the importance of what happened on that day when God first called you to be His own.

And what are you supposed to remember about your Baptism? Is it the faithfulness of your parents, who – in obedience to God’s Word – brought you as an infant to receive this Water of Life? Or, if you weren’t Baptized as an infant, how about that moment when, as a believing adult, God placed the desire in you to be Baptized? More to the point, God wants you to remember that real water was applied, that His Holy Word was invoked, and that – in that very moment – the Holy Spirit worked an amazing transformation by transferring you from this kingdom of darkness and death into the kingdom of His beloved Son. For this is precisely how your heavenly Father gave you life where before there was nothing in your life but death – it’s how He granted you faith where before there was nothing but unbelief. And most especially, it’s how, when all is said and done, your conversion is a miracle wrought straight from the hand of God Himself.

It’s important to remember these things because we live in a world where many people – even Christians – still deny that God’s Holy Spirit does anything through Baptism to grant faith. They are downright adamant about this, much more than you or I ever get excited over the truth, I’m afraid, and so they are constantly winning people over to their way of thinking. What do they teach? Instead of Baptism being God’s gift to man, that in the system of decision-theology, it’s the other way around – nothing more than a public act of the Christian’s obedience and promise to God. Wouldn’t that mean that all Jesus did for you wasn’t enough? How easy it is then to forget or deny what God has truly done in and through Baptism. Perhaps it’s because Baptism defies the cardinal rule that for something to make sense it first has to check out according to human reason and empirical measurement. For the reality is that – to the eye, at least – Baptism doesn’t appear to be much of anything – even though Scripture teaches the contrary. Hear what Dr. Luther had to say regarding Baptism when he wrote: “What God institutes and commands cannot be in vain, but must be a most precious thing – even if in appearance it seems to be of less value than common straw or stubble.”

You would receive the most comfort and gain the most understanding of your own Baptism if you would look at it through the Baptism of Jesus. Even though you were brought to God with nothing – through simple water and His Word God imparted to you everything needful, namely, His forgiveness, His Spirit, and His good pleasure toward you. Now, we heard in the Gospel today that John tried to prevent Jesus, saying, “I need to be Baptized by You, and You’re coming to me?” John perhaps was utterly amazed that Jesus – this sinless Son of God – this One who knew no sin – should through repentance, seek Baptism and forgiveness from his hand! And yet, it’s precisely in the fact that Jesus came seeking John’s dispensing of forgiveness, that God now holds out an incredible comfort for you. Jesus said, “It is necessary for us to fulfill all righteousness.” That means that there’s no sin you’ve ever committed – or ever will commit – that He hasn’t already soaked up in His own body. Jesus came to John as the one and only “Sinner” in the world because Baptism is for sinners. And so, just as John once poured the cleansing water of Holy Baptism upon the Son of God our Savior, so also in the very same way – when those blessed waters were first poured out over you at your Baptism – a cleansing took place as the merit of Jesus, all he lived and died and rose from the dead for – these precious gifts were miraculously and fully imparted to you. We are now in the Epiphany season, and we should recall that Epiphany marks the opening of God’s Christmas gift for the whole world. This week, the Baptism of Jesus fits very neatly with that theme because at your Baptism, that’s when the Lord’s precious Christmas gift of eternal life was opened specifically for you. It wasn’t when you made any kind of commitment to Him.

Another thing you need to note about Jesus’ Baptism is how He received the gift of the Holy Spirit – how, as He came up out of the water; the heavens were opened and “He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest upon Him.” Does it strike you as strange that the very Son of God would have to receive the Holy Spirit? Certainly Jesus hadn’t come into this world without the Holy Spirit. And yet here in Christ’s Baptism we see God granting Him this Spirit in a very special way. But that’s how it was with your Baptism, too. Heaven was also similarly parted, and God reached down to touch you as His child – as He bestowed on you His Holy Spirit in a hidden way and put in your heart a saving faith that looks to the cross alone for salvation and life. Yet sadly, because we can’t see these things happening, we’re tempted to believe there’s nothing to them at all – even though God’s Word teaches very clearly that they are very, very real, indeed. You see, in Baptism God adopted you as His child – He made you to be a new creation who abhors sin – and He brought you from this world of death into His world of eternal life.

The final thing I want you to notice about Jesus’ Baptism is how – when the Spirit had descended on Him – the Father pronounced His great pleasure, saying directly to Jesus, “You are My beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Of course, Jesus had never done anything to displease the Father. Even as He wrestled in the Garden with having to drink from the cup of suffering for us, Jesus remained constantly obedient to His Father’s will. His entire life was a life of perfection – and in that, the Father was well pleased with Him. And this is where you really get to test your understanding of this Gospel and the blessings you’ve received in and through Baptism.

The test comes by way of a question. And that question – a “yes” or “no” question – is this: “Is God pleased with you?” Now, I suspect that when you hear such a question, the first thing that happens is the Law immediately kicks in and you begin to think, “Well, I should do this – but I don’t. And I shouldn’t do that – but I do! So really, how could God be pleased with me? It’s impossible to know!” It’s then that you need to hear the Gospel – this one of Jesus’ Baptism – of the Father’s words spoken at that Baptism – and of the fact that everything Jesus did here in this life He did in your place. And because of that fact, you are compelled by the Gospel to acknowledge that God is also therefore pleased with you. The truth of the matter is this – if God is pleased with His Son, He’s also pleased with those who’ve been Baptized into the name of His Son.

What great and glorious news that is! As members of Christ’s body, the Church, you are all together considered to be God’s beloved Son, and He declares that He is well-pleased! There’s no treasure on earth worth more than knowing that your heavenly Father is pleased with you. His pleasure isn’t something injected into you and you have to make your Christian life grow before He says that He’s pleased—that’s the Law again—rather, you have it in full as God’s gift, but of course along with that sure forgiveness your holy life will simply continue and grow by His grace for the rest of your life. Therefore, so that you might always be reminded of that fact and live in the realization of it – perhaps you might consider starting in your own life the ancient practice of making the sign of the cross over yourself – as the Catechism teaches – so that you would be daily reminded of your Baptism when you pray, and remember the blessings God freely imparted to you – that you might be reminded whose child you are – and of His good pleasure guaranteed to you in Christ.

A story is told about how – when paying a visit on one of his dear friends – Luther found him in a very depressed state of mind. When asked the reason for his sorrow, Luther’s friend responded that he hadn’t been able to determine what it was that had made him so sad. So Luther said these simple words to him. He said: “Don’t you know you’ve been Baptized?” By those words, his friend would later say, he was comforted more than if he’d heard an entire sermon. Well, that is a fitting summary for you to take home with you today: “Don’t you know you’ve been Baptized?” What appears on the surface to be of less value than straw or stubble has been intended by God to be for you a great source of comfort – even though it’s a treasure you cannot even see. Give thanks to God that in Baptism He has cleansed you from all your sin – He’s given you His Holy Spirit – He’s made you a new creation in Christ – and that He has shined His face upon you in the assurance that He is, indeed, as pleased with you as He is with His own dear Son.

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

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas: January 2, 2022 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

We have had a joyous, happy holiday.  Since last weekend we have been celebrating the “good news of great joy,” that to us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  With the angels who give glory to God in the highest, with the shepherds who return glorifying and praising God, with the wise men who rejoice exceedingly with great joy, we too join in the joy of Christmas. We cannot totally get rid of all the negative, unpleasant things that go on in our lives, but at least for a few days, can’t we just block them out?

Just as last week, the death of the Martyr Saint Stephen gave a striking contrast, so also now, on the Second Sunday after Christmas, the Church Year calendar gives us the account of what’s called “The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents.”  Now if there is any other event in the Bible that could be more of an antithesis to an upbeat, cheerful holiday mood, I don’t know what it is.  Herod’s murder of defenseless children of Bethlehem is a singularly horrifying and tragic story.  Yet it comes hard on the heels of Christmas, and is right there in Matthew chapter 2.  What saves the story for us, though, is what can really be called “The One That Got Away.”

King Herod heard of a newly born king of the Jews from the wise men, the Magi who suddenly had paid him a visit. This is not the news that a desperate despot wants to hear.  “Another king of the Jews?  What about me?  Where would that leave me?  I’m the only king around here.  I’m not going to have some little upstart challenging me for my throne.” But Herod is a sly fellow.  He’s not going to come right out and tell the wise men all this.  That would scare them off.  No, Herod wants the wise men to lead him right to the little king.  His advisors find out from the prophecies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but he wants to know the exact location and the exact child.  So he sends them to Bethlehem on the pretense that he wants them to report back to him so he too can go and worship.

Of course it’s a lie.  Herod doesn’t want to worship the newborn king, he wants to wipe him out!  But the wise men are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod.  So Herod gets stood up by the wise men; they don’t come back.  He still doesn’t know which of the baby boys in Bethlehem is the one to eliminate.  So just to make sure he gets the right one, Herod orders the death of all of them–all the baby boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, up to two years old.

Herod the Great was a brutal, murderous ruler, insanely jealous and protective of his power, suspicious to the point of paranoia.  Ancient history records other occasions when he had potential rivals to his throne, whether real or imagined, ruthlessly killed.  He even murdered members of his own family when he thought it served his own interests.  So for Herod to order the deaths of maybe up to 20 baby boys in a small town–if he thought that doing so would be a sure way to get rid of a new “king of the Jews”–this was nothing out of character for him.

The soldiers are dispatched.  The dirty deed is done. This is a crime so unspeakable and heinous, the details are hard to contemplate, much less to describe. What kind of a monster could do such a thing?  What is as senseless and tragic as the violent death of innocent children?  What grief as profound as that of parents mourning the death of their little ones?  Try to imagine the sorrow of those mothers in Bethlehem:  “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Is there any comfort for these mothers of Bethlehem? There is, and it’s all because of “the One that got away,” the one baby Boy who escaped the slaughter of the innocents.  Joseph is warned in a dream to take Mary and baby Jesus and flee the country.  The little, innocent Messiah is safely on his way to Egypt.  God the Father is not going to have the infant Savior cut down before he can get started.

You know, God had done this sort of thing once before, saving an infant savior.  Many centuries earlier there was another evil ruler who wanted to kill a bunch of Israelite baby boys.  But the Lord had a little baby deliverer that he wanted to keep alive.  Moses was his name.  So that time the one that got away was baby Moses.  This time it’s Jesus.  That time the baby was already living in Egypt.  This time the baby goes to Egypt, in order to escape.  Moses had a great mission in front of him:  to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt.  Jesus had an even greater mission in front of him:  to lead people of all nations out of bondage to sin and death and the power of the devil. That’s why baby Jesus needed to flee from Herod and escape to Egypt.

It was necessary for baby Jesus to live, in order for him to grow up and fulfill his saving mission.  Jesus had to live so he could later die, at the right time and in the right place.  Some thirty years later, Jesus would stand before another Herod–Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas–and before a governor named Pontius Pilate, and at that time and in that place, Jesus would suffer and he would die.  His death at the hands of evil men would redeem us from the power of death and deliver us from all evil.  So the Christ of Christmas had to live, in order that the Christ of Calvary could die, for your sake and mine.

That’s the crucial connection between the joy of Christmas and the somber tragedy of the Holy Innocents.  Any celebration of Christmas that can function only on a surface level of sweet, syrupy sentimentality, a Christmas that cannot come to grips with the harsh reality of death and suffering and evil in the world–that kind of a Christmas is not worthy of the name.  But the true Christmas, the real Christian Christmas, does speak a word of lasting comfort to those who are suffering, to those who are struggling with the unanswered, and unanswerable, questions of life—and death.  Maybe you are one of those today who can benefit from this comfort found hidden in the story.

Is there any comfort for people suffering from tragedy and loss?  Is there any comfort for young mothers who lose their children?  Is there comfort for you, when you lose a loved one or are losing one to advancing age or debilitation?  For you, when you come face to face with your own mortality? When a Herod of one form or another threatens to take you out?  Yes, there is comfort for them and for you!  It is all because of the One, the Savior that got away!  Christ Jesus, by winning forgiveness for all our sins has taken the sting out of death. It still is going to hurt, you will continue to miss that person or still endure physical suffering yourself. But the big hurt, the big death–death under the wrath of God–that has been accomplished.  Jesus took that death for us and so took the sting out of death.

Christ’s absolutely “holy, precious blood” and his totally “innocent suffering and death” mean that now we who are connected to Christ are accepted by God as true “holy innocents,” holy before God and innocent of all the guilt that the Law says we had deserved.  Those who belong to Christ will “live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”  So the question then becomes:  How do we get connected to Christ?  The baby boys of Bethlehem–they were connected, for they were sons of the house of Israel. They had received in their bodies the sign of the covenant which God had given to Israel, namely, circumcision.  And so they shared in the hope of Israel, the promised Messiah, who would deliver God’s people from sin and death.

How about us?  How do we get connected to Christ?  We are connected to him in Holy Baptism.  In baptism, we participate in the death of Christ.  Paul says in Romans 6 that “all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death.”  So the big death for each of us has already occurred.  The death we deserve for our sins, Christ has already suffered.  And we participate in that death by way of baptism.  Now the only death left for us is the one that leads to life–everlasting life with our Lord and Savior, where there will be no more pain, no more suffering or sorrow, no more tears and weeping.

There is the source of comfort–and even joy–for all who are surrounded and set upon by the sorrows of this life, this vale of tears.  There is the comfort for the mothers of Bethlehem and the mourners worshiping on Avenue E.  All who are connected to Christ have already died and now are joined to the life of Jesus.  His is life that is truly holy and innocent, life with God, life forever. Now that life is yours. Here in this place.

And so the season of Christmas, which is still going, by the way, is not a time for artificially trying to block out unpleasant thoughts and put on a fake, happy face.  No, Christmas is to be celebrated especially in view of all the tragedy and suffering we experience in life.  Because Christmas is when Christ came into the world, and that makes all the difference.  For the Christ of Christmas is also the Christ of Calvary. That’s why Jesus had to be “the One that got away”—so that he could go to the cross for you.  And connected to him, we have a comfort and a hope and a joy that all the Herods we face in this world cannot destroy.

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

Sermon for the Festival of St. Stephen, Martyr: December 26, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

A lot can happen in a day! It looks like today, the day after Christmas, the Church is jolted out of a joyous celebration of the Savior’s birth into a morbid exhibition of death and the sad story of Stephen, the first follower of Jesus to be a martyr, that is, one who dies for the Christian faith. What is the Church thinking, to put this day in its calendar right after Christmas? Aren’t we already let down enough with trashed houses, gift returns and tight waistbands? Christmas goes on for twelve days, ending with the day before Epiphany—and then there will be reason for more celebration! Couldn’t the joy of Christmas last at least a little longer?

In fact, there are three days that talk of death, and they follow one right after another. Today (Sunday) marks the martyrdom of Stephen, tomorrow is (Monday was) set aside to remember the death of St. John the Apostle, who was exiled instead of killed, and (Tuesday the 28th commemorates/ yesterday commemorated) the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, that is, those baby boys under 2 years old in Bethlehem who were killed by the command of King Herod while he was searching to kill Jesus. There’s nothing very cheerful about these Christmas stories! Right away our attention is turned about-face from the manger, cattle, shepherds and angels proclaiming peace and life—to the cross, angry mobs, bitter opposition and suffering to the point of death.

Thus, our Church calendar reminds us in no uncertain terms—this baby in the manger came to die on the cross. Remember the three gifts the Wise Men brought? The last one was myrrh, an ointment used to preserve a dead body for burial. No one, when they sing the song “We Three Kings,” you wonder why they never include the verse on the gift of myrrh. Here it is:
  “Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume
  breathes a life of gathering gloom:
  sorrowing sighing, bleeding dying,
  sealed in a stone-cold tomb.”
Oh, I guess I can tell why you never hear it. You can count on the fact that the best-selling baby shower present these days is not going to be embalming fluid! But as we well know, this is no ordinary baby, for Christ is true God, even in the flesh of a little child, a child who is destined to die.

Take note how Christ is portrayed today at the end of the Scripture reading from Acts. He is not this time a poor baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Instead, He is arrayed in the full glory of God standing at the right hand of the Father—standing ready to come to the aid of His devoted servant and receive Stephen into eternal life.

The opening of the heavens even had an effect on Stephen’s appearance. As he confessed the faith and God’s work through Israel’s history before the enemies of the Church, Stephen’s face reflected the glory of the Lord, which his eyes were allowed to see. As the Jewish leaders were looking at him, they saw that Stephen’s face looked like the face of an angel.

What a blessing it was for Stephen to behold this vision of heaven! Imagine the throne room of heaven appearing before your very eyes and your Savior standing there just for you! That would be the wish of any Christian who is faced with adversity. But wouldn’t it be even better if those enemies could also see the Lord in all His mighty glory? Maybe that would strike fear in their hearts and send them away running. Perhaps those rotten sinners would simply vaporize in the sight of the Most Holy God—wouldn’t that be great? Jesus will show those bad guys who’s the boss.

But it didn’t happen that way for Stephen. Instead of running away from him, the members of the Jewish council ran at him, covering their ears at what they called blasphemy that they heard coming from Stephen’s lips. He was then dragged out and pelted with stones. The face that looked so angelic just moments ago was probably bloodied beyond recognition.

Yet what is interesting is the way in which Luke, the author of Acts, describes the death of Saint Stephen. While the stones were already flying, Stephen prayed to the Lord Jesus whom he saw standing in glory. His words reflected the very prayer Jesus Himself prayed as He was nailed to the cross. He prayed in the words of Psalm 31: Into your hands I commit my spirit.

Then, falling to his knees, in the posture of humble worship, Stephen forgave those who trespassed against him, pleading for them to be spared from the wrath of God that burns against all sin. Finally, and perhaps the most puzzling of all, Stephen simply fell asleep! The lynch mob didn’t get the last word in the matter. True, by the outward appearance, Stephen’s death was quite violent. But really, this young man entered eternal life peacefully, ready to stand with his Lord in heavenly glory.

And so, Saint Stephen is the picture of true Christmas joy. For the joy of the Christian is surprisingly found in death. But what joy could there be in such a thing? It seems absolutely crazy, how could you even suggest any correlation between the two. From our experience, death brings only sorrow, pain, and the terrible reminder that we are poor, miserable sinners getting what we deserve. We know there are others who hate and insult us, we try to ignore it like it doesn’t have an effect on us, but we just cannot shake it. Nobody’s fooled, and our anger against all that hurt against us just sits there waiting its opportune time.

Yet one Man’s death reversed all that. The Child destined to die went to the cross, and there destroyed the sting of death forever. He suffered the death our sins placed on Him, and so those sins are no longer held against us. The hurt we suffered has been removed so that it hurt Jesus instead. As strange as it may sound to those who hear it for the first time, the death of Jesus Christ is for us a death that gives life: a life that was proclaimed in all its splendor on the third day, when Jesus rose from the dead.

On account of this life-giving death, heaven is opened to us just like it was for Stephen. This happened first at baptism, when we were washed with water connected with the promise found in the Lord’s Word. That promise is: whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and that promise is sealed by the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity into which we are baptized.

Now when you were baptized, there probably wasn’t a sudden vision of heaven and the glory of the Triune God didn’t visibly fill the building. More likely than not, nobody there beheld the angels that proclaimed this new birth of water and the Spirit just as joyfully as they hailed the birth of Jesus to those shepherds. Though it was concealed in plain water and words, to be seen only in true faith, heaven really was opened for you that day as the gates of hell were closed. Our Lord Jesus stood to receive you on the day you were born again at the baptismal font. But even then, a death occurred. It was the death of your sinful nature; it was nailed to the cross along with Jesus so that you may arise as a new creation. How joyful is that death for you!

What’s even better is that this doesn’t happen just once. The risen Savior sitting at the right hand of God the Father stands ready to greet you His baptized children whenever you gather in His name. Though you don’t see it, heaven is opened even here in this humble place. Though it is not audible in your ears, the angels do sing, because forgiven sinners are allowed to come before the presence of the Almighty God, saying Lord, have mercy! Because of your baptism, you are privileged to join this heavenly worship, lifting up your hearts and voices in joyful and reverent praise to our God.

For the heaven that Stephen saw with his eyes, is the very same heaven you hear each week with your ears. Christ is here among you today, and you worship Him who was laid in the manger at birth, hung on the cross to die, and raised from the tomb to live forever—all in order to forgive your sins. He is here now in His glory, not to make your problems flee away and disappear, but to give you strength and wisdom through the Holy Spirit to stand up under any temptation.

A real change takes place right here. When Stephen beheld the face of God as he was confessing the true faith, his own face changed appearance. And so, your appearance before God and the world changes as well. As you look away from your own self and fix your eyes on Jesus, He automatically makes you more like Him. As He speaks His words of life to you and proclaims the shedding of His blood for your sins, He plants within you a new nature, replacing the sinful nature of death that is daily drowned in remembrance of your baptism. Your faces, once bloodied and disfigured with sin, now shine radiantly as you confess the name of your risen Savior.

Though heaven comes to us in the Word of God and in the holy Sacraments, we don’t have to look far to see that we are still in a sinful world. Our lives might not be taken from us as is happening to Christians in many countries even today. Still, in every place and every age the Gospel will have its enemies. Our enemies may be different from those Stephen faced, but by virtue of our new life in the death of Christ, our prayer for them is just the same as his: Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

We can be confident as we stand in the throne room of the Almighty God, because for us, heaven is open. The world may reject us and even throw stones of one sort or another, but they cannot stand up against Christ the wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Take joy these twelve days of Christmas from the presence of your Savior Jesus, who is standing here today, ready to open heaven for you. Thanks to His life-giving death for us, our own death will be like falling asleep, for when we wake, we will see heaven open with our own eyes, and take part in the true Christmas joy that has no end.

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

Sermon for Christmas Day: December 25, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

On this holy day, the celebration of our Savior’s birth, we rejoice that the Word of God was not hidden from us forever, but was revealed for our benefit, instead of our condemnation. It was our heavenly Father’s will not to leave us lost, in our sins and errors pining. He wanted us instead to break forth together with singing, taking part in the comfort that He brought to us as Isaiah foretold, with His bared, holy arm. His Word was never meant to be a dead, cold letter left frozen on a lifeless page in a book closed to the world. Rather, His Word would be a living Word, a Gospel of peace, published for all to hear it and be saved. Not merely would He announce that salvation and good things would soon return to you if you buckle down and do this or that first. No, that’s not Good News. That’s just a con game, a bunch of empty promises that the world knows all too well, and even in all of the festive veneer of a Christmas shopping season (which you can tell is ending today, instead of the real Christmas season that is just beginning), the worldly happiness just doesn’t last.

Christmas tells us that the Good News is Jesus. He is the glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. He is the one who spoke to His people of old by the prophets. He is the Word who was with God because He was, and always has been, and always will be, God. Yet this timeless Word did not stay away from us and send down this or that set of directions like Mohammed and other seemingly enlightened men have said. In a total reversal of what the world would expect, the Son of God Himself came down from heaven and became incarnate—that is, He put on human flesh. God’s Word all of a sudden was not a mysterious voice with booming, thunderous sound that rattled a mountain and burned a bush. Now, thanks be to God, all of a sudden His Word had a human heartbeat, ten little fingers and toes, and most importantly, a human voice to speak peace and human blood to give in sacrifice for all.

What could ever keep such a joyous message from being heard? Why doesn’t everyone realize that beautiful feet come from a beautiful Gospel message meant for the ears of all? As the Evangelist John tells us in the Gospel, He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and their eyes were opened to their now shame-filled nakedness, it was actually what they heard that suddenly urged them to flee and hide. They had to have taken some time in order to sew the fig leaves together and cover what they didn’t want each other to see. You get the impression, there doesn’t seem to be a need to panic yet. Our first parents were still at that time laboring under the delusion that they could fix their own problems with their own cleverness. So stitch by careful stitch, the first green, all-natural clothing made its debut to the fashion world. Perhaps they were proud of their handiwork. This being like God idea, possessing more wisdom from that forbidden fruit, may work out after all.

Yet that fateful day, it was the sound that was worse than the sight. The heat was tapering off, so the day was coming to an end, perhaps around sunset, when a gentle breeze would start to kick up. The sound that Adam and Eve heard came from the Lord God, who was Christ before He put on human flesh, and He was walking in the garden He created. The one sound that should make all of creation rejoice in praise of its Creator, was the one sound that made Adam perk up like prey that just became aware of its hunter, and hide in the trees in vain escape. Something about the sound made it much more terrifying than the sight.

It was because the sound they heard had made these first members of the human race face the consequences that they knew were coming. They had already heard from the Lord, If you eat of that tree, you shall surely die. The Lord’s sound meant certain judgment, even when their sight may have been deceiving them. Even the innocuous, almost playful question, “Where are you?” was the last thing Adam wanted to hear. He was not comforted at the presence of God. He was painfully aware of his nakedness; even with the fig-leaf garments on, it was not going to take the shame of sin away. And so upon hearing the Lord, Adam hid from his own Creator and life-giver. Because he heard the voice of the Deceiver, as did Eve, they both had to hear the bad news about how sin and death would infect their lives, their children, and their world from that moment on.

That curse is the bad news that you and I and the rest of this world know only too well. But we are not mere passive victims of all of it. We have contributed our own part to the sin that runs rampant all around us. We may feel like innocent casualties, especially when others trespass against us, but each of us has chosen to hear and obey our own voice of deception rather than God’s pure voice of His will as we read of it in the Ten Commandments. You and I have not rejoiced at the sound of our gracious God and His forgiveness among us, but we have instead taken His Word for granted, as a liability to be avoided, as an aspect of our lives that we would want to remain hidden and private. Sure, we can say we get too busy, or our work takes us away too much as it is, or the people can be hard to deal with, but it all comes back to that voice. We don’t want to hear it. It bares the shameful nakedness of our sinful hearts, and we can do nothing to cover it up, so we hide from our Lord God, as if we thought that were possible.

But then we come to Christmas, to the time when our Lord God began His walk among us once again. This time, the sound of His voice came from human lungs and lips. His beautiful feet that brings good news would fit into sandals whose straps John said he wasn’t worthy to stoop down and untie. The Almighty Word entered our world not in a lush garden paradise, but wrapped in strips of cloth out of utter poverty and lying in a lowly manger located in a crowded city of people registering for taxes they could hardly afford. The news of His birth startled King Herod and all of Jerusalem, so that they trembled with fear by the time the Magi arrived. But most of all, our infant Lord’s arrival sent the devil reeling, because the battle was engaged. This battle would be decided at Easter, but the outcome was guaranteed to be in our favor already at Christmas.

As you hear the news of your Savior’s holy birth in Bethlehem of long ago, you do not any more need to cover yourself or run and hide as Adam did. Because Jesus completed His mission of salvation that we confess in the creed, suffered, crucified, died, was buried, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, the sound of our Lord is no longer a sound of judgment but of peace, heavenly happiness, good things restored to their originally created Goodness, the reign of God established among His faithful in Zion, which is the Church. Isaiah 52 is so joyful and waxes eloquent about beautiful feet because the next chapter, chapter 53, describes in detail how it all would happen: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, stricken, smitten and afflicted, wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, cut off out of the land of the living, making intercession for us, the transgressors.

This is what changes the sound of the Lord in your hearing today. Instead of condemnation and guilt over your rebellion against God, you hear a message of reconciliation, of peace on earth and mercy mild. Justice and fairness have come to their ultimate fulfillment, and you have been pardoned by grace. Your death, which you know is there and with all the difficulties around you can feel it’s coming, but that death has been transformed into a passageway to eternal life, thanks to your baptism into Christ. Your merciful Father assures you that you do not need to rely on yourself as if you had no God—He will take care of you, for He has called you by name and gathered you by the Holy Spirit with your fellow Christians in the one true faith that you confess together at this altar.

And as you feast this holy day on the human Body and Blood that is mysteriously here because of Jesus’ promise and His spoken Word, you may break forth into singing. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling also in you. The waste places of your heart have been restored to the pleasant planting of the Lord, a new garden in which Christ is pleased to walk and speak His Word of constant comfort to your soul, the Word of forgiveness and absolution that is yours for the strengthening of your faith. You are the Jerusalem that He has redeemed, a Bethlehem in which there is room for Jesus. Your hands come together to make a manger bed for the Bread of His Body to lie in as you bring Him up to your mouth to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Soon, you will be back home or with your loved ones. Some of us will soon get in touch with family that is far away from us. Your rejoicing and celebrating will come to an end and you’ll be tempted to put it all away just like you did those lights and ornaments last year. But the Word made flesh remains true to you, faithful as ever no matter how far you may roam from His smooth, reassuring voice. He constantly calls out to all who would hear His voice and be forgiven of all their sins in Jesus Christ. With a renewed heart that is yours thanks to the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of peace will bring you Christmas joy all year every time you hear the precious Word of God, the promise that you will be with your Lord in the Paradise to come.

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

Sermon for the Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas Eve: December 24, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

What a fine son of David we have here! Joseph of Nazareth may not have given his ancient ancestor a second thought, were it not for the surprise tax letter that was sent to him via the decree of Caesar Augustus; it was the decree that ordered him to make an unplanned pilgrimage journey to David’s little town of Bethlehem. But at about the same time the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and that was the title he called Joseph specifically- Son of David. It will be the dream that would change his life forever. We never know how long he lived after Jesus’ boyhood years, but what calls for our attention right now, tonight on this Christmas Eve, is why Joseph was called “son of David.”

To start with, David was a mighty king. About a thousand years before Joseph, that red-headed youngest son of Jesse was anointed by the prophet Samuel in preference over his big brothers and later famously marched into battle with only his slingshot and shepherd’s staff against Goliath. He grew to be a noble man, refusing to snatch the kingdom from Saul by force or by murder. He cherished a faithful friend in Saul’s son, Jonathan. When he fell to the temptation to take Bathsheba and murder her husband, the king repented when he was finally shown his sin to his face.

There was also a time when David wanted to do, and just about did, the wrong thing for the right reasons. His desire was to build a house for the Lord; a permanent temple building to replace the temporary tent. Instead, as a way of showing that human thinking is not the same as God’s thinking, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to foretell a Son from the royal line of David who would build a truly permanent house, a house that would last forever; a house that you and I know today as the Holy Christian Church. The promise that gave hope to Adam, that was first expressed to Abraham, and confirmed to David was what the Evangelist Matthew recorded as what looks to most people like just a list of names that appears at the beginning of Matthew chapter 1.

But that list of names brings us down, much like when you see a Google map picture of the globe widening out bigger and bigger as we narrow down closer and closer until we finally get to a single location on that map—and for Matthew that single point is Joseph, the son of David. The title doesn’t seem to fit him, though. He lives in Nazareth, not at all like the kingly palaces of Jerusalem. He has no power over anyone else, much less an entire kingdom like his ancient father David. He’s just a carpenter, as we find out later in the story, even though he’s part of a kingly, royal family line. Joseph doesn’t look like a son of David.

The man who occupied the throne at the time, the murderous King Herod, along with his family was nothing like David. He despised the kingdom that he ruled. He wouldn’t stop short of killing anyone who got in the way of his absolute power. His son despised holy marriage and relished unrepentantly in an adulterous relationship with his other son’s wife. When Herod heard the Word of God, he did not rejoice and obey, but rather he trembled with fear, as the Epiphany story tells us, for it is true—those who are bent on evil tremble when God’s goodness comes to them; just ask Adam about his fig-leaf clothes- they treat it as though it were a big threat.

Joseph, on the other hand, is a fine son of David. Even though he himself is not a king, he still emulates his royal ancestor very well. He treasures God’s Word, believes it with all his heart, trusts in its forgiveness that it offers free, thanks to grace. He is very careful to follow God’s laws, and we find this in Joseph when he discovers the news that Mary his fiancée is pregnant. Their engagement was not yet finalized to the last step in the process, and Joseph highly respects God’s institution of marriage. Though many in our day, and maybe a few in Joseph’s, wouldn’t have been disturbed at all about this- King Herod being one of them, for sure, Joseph at least knew God would not be pleased if he would marry someone who, he presumed at the time, had disobeyed an important law of the Lord.

Yet there’s something else about Joseph that makes him a fine son of David. He shows utmost compassion for someone, even while he’s assuming that she had committed adultery against him! Matthew said right up front that this miracle happened by the Holy Spirit’s work. That’s so we’re guaranteed that it did not happen in a blasphemous or physical way as Muslims and others wrongly ridicule the story. But Joseph would not hear that important fact until God’s angel speaks to him in a dream. Actually, that’s another similarity to David, in that Joseph was making it up in his mind to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, too! In his case, he would not expose Mary to public disgrace, or possibly worse, for her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, but instead divorce her in a private way. He was ready to suffer an unjust charge on her behalf in order to show her the love he thought she didn’t deserve.

God’s Word changed all that, completely! The angel of the Lord gave an announcement to Joseph in a dream; a dream that would remove his fears, which was the complete opposite of what would happen to King Herod. “Joseph Son of David!” That voice sounded out like a warm spotlight shining on Joseph as he was sitting in his dark, cold dungeon of fear. “Do not fear,” was the divine message to him, “do not fear to take your wife Mary home.” That is, go ahead and bless to the fullest this union that you’ve already begun—for the Lord has blessed you! This child that you will claim into your family at His birth will be the One to save everyone in the world from their sins. His name is Jesus, for He will be both the Savior and the Lord over everything! All authority in heaven and on earth will be given to Him, so that by that same authority the Church will go and make disciples of all nations.

And forth in the Lord’s name goes Joseph, son of David. After this event, he won’t ever be in the Bible’s spotlight again, at least not as a main character in the story. He will faithfully fulfill his role as guardian of our Lord and for that we give God all thanks and praise this Christmas. He honorably and nobly continued in abstinence from his wife out of respect for the divine miracle that occurred in her womb- the fleshly temple filled with the presence of the Lord as a tiny baby. He had no union with her until she gave birth to her firstborn Son.

He would prove to be the greatest Son of David ever—He’s not only worthy to sit on Jerusalem’s throne, or claim every earthly power that was or ever will be—but this Son of David will be nailed to the throne of the cross. His bloody death would pay the price of your sins and mine, and His resurrection secures our everlasting salvation. He is a true Joshua, a Jesus, a Lord-Savior; the One who would suffer unjustly for the sake of those who really didn’t deserve His love, but He gave it to you and me anyway, abundantly.

May the life and noble actions of Joseph, son of David, guide you this Christmas season as you repent honestly like David did, and worship Jesus Christ, Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary. Thanks in part to Joseph’s faithfulness, Jesus is also the fulfillment of the great, ancient promise made to Abraham and to David. May the Good News of great joy shine on you in your sinful darkness and remove all your fears, as the announcement in Joseph’s dream did for him. Praise God that He led Joseph to honor marriage, so that whenever we see it dishonored in our time, we can be strengthened with forgiving grace to stand firm against a sinful world, and be lovingly bold enough not look the other way when it happens in our own families.

What a fine Son of David is our King Jesus! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! God’s thinking and our human thinking are not at all the same, and boy, what a good thing that is! Joseph had to wait until a dream occurred in order for him to be comforted in his vocation. You, on the other hand, have that divine comfort proclaimed directly from the Bible through the mouth of God’s called and ordained servant; it’s what has changed your life forever. This Christmas, rejoice in the Word that you hear, the grace and forgiveness that you receive, the hope of eternal life that you have and that will never fade away.

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

Sermon for the Wednesday of Advent IV: December 22, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Poor Zechariah had a long, silent nine months. What had he done wrong? This faithful priest of the Lord did his duty for all of his life, in and out of the temple, preparing sacrifices and offering incense. Then, on one fateful day, the Angel Gabriel decides to show up and declare that his wife Elizabeth will give birth to John the Baptist. The long-awaited Messiah would be here, and the baby boy that he would not see grow into adulthood is nevertheless the One God had designated to prepare the Savior’s way.

It can be too much for one man to take in at one time. The sight alone of the Angel of the Lord produced a troubling fear in Zechariah’s heart. The news of “Your wife will bear you a son,” can strike a man off guard no matter who he is, or no matter what the occasion. Perhaps the message that most threw him off was one that we often overlook whenever we read or tell this story. Gabriel had also said to Zechariah the priest, “Your prayer has been heard.”

We are never told when or how many times Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed for a child. Back in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit gave express notice that Hannah prayed and prayed in utter anguish for her firstborn, Samuel. But for this elderly, devout couple, we are left to suppose that the request was often on their lips. They knew that God was fully aware of the empty pain that was on their hearts, so they had every reason to pour themselves out in prayer to Him.

But how many times was it when, after fervently asking the Lord for a child, that the thought soon came afterward, “I guess He doesn’t want us to have children”? Did this pattern happen often enough that the presumed “No” answer had now made itself part of their prayer itself? That is to say, was Zechariah so convinced that they would remain childless, that his prayers started sounding cold to his own ears. Like they were only a formality, like he knew even before he prayed that God already was going to let him down.

If that is so, then his response to the Angel Gabriel, “How shall I know this?” is indeed an expression of doubt and unbelief not merely in the Angel’s message, but also a doubt and unbelief in “The Lord has listened to your prayer.” Which is the same as a doubting unbelief in God Himself.

For this doubting unbelief, this mighty Angel Warrior was authorized from his heavenly General to administer disciplinary measures. Gabriel shut Zechariah’s mouth to remind him of the very thing he had doubted, “Your prayer has been heard.” It was an exercise of mercy, for even though the priest’s muteness brought great inconvenience and difficulty to him temporarily, it was also tailored to rekindle Zechariah’s faith. He was given a gift while he prepared in a spiritual boot camp of sorts for the birth of his only son. And the song of praise that Zechariah sang on John’s circumcision day, the song called the Benedictus, is the result of that spiritual cross- training he received, of the old man’s renewed faith in the Lord of promises kept.

As Christmas is about to dawn upon us at the close of another year, Zechariah’s story teaches us that we too need to remember that our faith needs spiritual training. We are probably not going to be struck dumb for nine months and be forced to walk around talking with writing tablets. Instead, we would do well to remind ourselves of how special and precious our salvation is that has appeared among us in Jesus Christ.

If we were truly appreciative of that precious gift, we would not be dreading our endless preparations and occupying our thoughts with what gifts to buy, what meals to make, what family to see or not see this year. Instead, we would be taking this opportunity at the end of Advent to do as Paul instructed Titus and every other Christian who desires to dedicate their life to the Lord, no matter what vocations that He has called you to fill. We would rather continue our spiritual training, to renounce ungodliness of every form, saying no to worldly passions, and committing our lives anew to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we’re still living in this fallen world.

Most of all, we would best prepare for Christmas, or a new year, or the eventual arrival of the Glorious Risen and Ascended Christ, in this key way: We would believe once again, as Zechariah did, in the Lord who actually does hear our prayers, indeed, who knows them before we pray. For once we have that confidence back in our doubting and unbelieving hearts, we will indeed be ready and waiting for our blessed hope to appear. We would constantly have on our minds not the stresses of life or of the so-called “holiday season,” but instead we would be ever mindful of the One who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all that worldly lawlessness we see around us and looking forward to Jesus who purified us for Himself as a Holy People that are zealous for good works, full of love for Him and for our neighbors.

Thanks to the one-time sacrifice of our Savior, and the continuous forgiving and strengthening of the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, we can believe once again in the Lord who has always promised to be with us to hear and answer our prayers. Along with that stronger and more confident faith, we can also be obedient to rulers and authorities, whether or not they are ruling in agreement with God’s law which is above all laws. We can make ourselves ready for every good work, speaking evil of no one, even at those times when we must warn and rebuke, but at the same time avoid useless quarreling. We should resolve to be gentle and courteous toward all people, since it is a blessed truth that all people have been redeemed in the precious blood of Christ.

Let every Christmas be a reminder of that boundless mercy that led our God and Savior to appear. That is the mercy that saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, as Titus 3 says, but by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, a baptism that not only purifies us with the hope of eternal life, but also assures us with the inheritance that we possess as God’s children even now.

It may come as a shock to you every now and then, that same shock that Zechariah felt when he heard, “Your prayers have been heard.” But as the old priest received mercy from the Angel Gabriel and engaged in a season of training for the revival of his faith, so too you receive mercy from your heavenly Father this Advent and Christmas. During this time of preparation, remember your baptism, through which you were cleansed with the washing of regeneration and rebirth. And like Zechariah, may we sing the Benedictus with joyous expectation for the final appearing of Jesus and the full reveal of that for which we hope.

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

Luke 1:68
benedictus Deus Israhel quia visitavit et fecit redemptionem plebi suae
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 19, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

It is now the week of Christmas and the Church would have us consider the question: “Who are you?” John the Baptist would teach us how to answer. It is not: “I am John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, prophet in the power of Elijah and forerunner of the Lord.” That answer is not sufficient. The names by which we are called, the jobs in which we toil, the people whom we love and who love us, even the offices to which God has called us are secondary. None of these define us so much as the Baby who was born from Mary’s virgin womb.

Who are you? Frantic last-minute gift-shopper, baker, decorator, and party-goer? Grandmother, freeway driver, and dishwasher? Sinner? On the last day none of that will matter. Here is what matters, and John gave the proper answer: I am not the Christ. You are not the Christ. But – but, but!!! There is a Christ! There is a Messiah, One prophesied by the prophets, anointed by the Father in the Jordan’s dirty, sin-soaked water, the Promised Coming One. There is a Christ! He felt the sting of Pilate’s lash. He bore a crown of thorns. He had the flesh of His hands and feet violently pierced by nails. They held Him to the accursed tree made into the Tree of Life, the blessed cross from whence comes all our joy, o fruited wood that delivers the healing medicine of Life.

There is a Christ! He is the One in David’s line who made adulterous Bathsheba into a virgin bride and the prostitute Rahab into a pillar of the community. He made deceiving Jacob’s sons into twelve noble tribes, a people who were no people, and brought them through the sea on dry ground. He is the Christ, our Messiah. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world. Because He is, and always has been, you have come to be, and you will continue to be—in and through and thanks to–Him.

Who are you? You are not Him. You are not the Christ. But –you are Christians. You wear His Name. You’ve been washed in His Blood. You eat His flesh, hear His Word, pray His prayers, die His death, and live His life. He was born, so are you from above. He died, so have you, a watery, drowning death. He was raised, so are you, in faith and grace and He calls you by His own Name. You are His. Who are you? You are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the Name that was placed upon you. You are not the Christ. You are not God. But God’s Name was given to you. That holy Name opens wide heaven’s gates to you. It drives away the demons that want to attack you. It banishes your guilt, fear, and shame to Hell’s deepest pit, and those enemies no longer have control over you.

Hell now hath no fury—at all— because of this holy Name, because God now has hands and feet that can be pierced, and they were, because God has a brow on which He will wear the thorny crown, because God has eyes to weep. Hell hath no fury. The holy Life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has taken care of that. So it is true that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But neither then does it have a fury like a king tricked by wisemen with gifts from the East. It has no fury either like Caiaphas pretending to be outraged at an imagined blasphemy. Hell hath no fury, none at all, not the slightest bit, not even fury like that which you feel when you get attacked on Facebook for having a unique opinion, or even when the gas price goes up yet another nickel or dime overnight! For Hell has no fury, none at all. It has not even a minor annoyance or disappointment. Hell’s fires, Hell’s demands, Hell’s accusations have all been met. The Savior of the Nations has crushed the devil’s head with His bruised heel. And this Hollywood gets right. The cross actually drives off the vampires. The cross of Jesus Christ, that innocent suffering for the sins of the world has satisfied all that Justice demanded. Neither the devil, nor vampires, nor werewolves, nor ghosts or monsters of any form or depraved imagination, nor demons, nor governments, nor synods have a claim on us. There is no one to accuse you. Jesus has saved you. In Him, you are safe. His cross has driven off death. You are not the Christ. But, thanks be to God, there is a Christ.

It is true, of course, that Our Lord Jesus Christ grew up. He is no longer a baby. Nor does He now sleep in a manger. He is risen from the dead and lives. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of His Father. He rules the Universe as a Man, advocating and mediating for us. And yet, come Christmas time, we still place little statues of a baby in the nativity scenes. Empty mangers just wouldn’t do. But putting a baby in a manger doesn’t mean we think that Jesus is still a baby. Still, we want to remember that He was a baby, that He came down to earth and entered our world, that He took up our flesh and suffered all we suffer and worse, that He was weak and lowly for us, in order to redeem us. It’s not required, but still a good thing to remember to bow when we say in the Creed: “and was Incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” It is the same reason we put babies into mangers. This is the highest mystery and the most concrete manifestation of God’s love. Because God loved the world He sent His Son. That is what the word “for” means at the beginning of John 3:16, because. Because He loved the world He sent His Son, and this is how He loved the world: He sent His Son. He took up our flesh. He became one of us to be our substitute, to pay our penalty, to rescue us by a payment made, a Divine exchange.

So if we don’t have mangers without a Baby Jesus, we should also have crosses with Jesus pictured as crucified on them. We want the baby there to remind us of God’s humanity in the Christ and the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. To take the baby out of the manger merely because Jesus isn’t a baby anymore would be as ridiculous as insisting that we only have empty crosses. The cross is a symbol of the Sacrifice Jesus made. We preach Christ crucified. Even an empty cross still represents the crucifixion or it has no place in Christian worship or homes. Of course we prefer to see a body on the cross, even as we prefer a baby in the manger. It is not necessary for worship, but the baby in the manger and the body on the cross reminds us of God’s humanity, that God Himself has suffered for us in our skin, as one of us, in weakness and humility, to make us His and set us free, and that we can approach Him through that very same human flesh and blood of His.

So who are you? You are not the Christ. Neither is John. But there is a Christ. He is your Christ. For you are Baptized. You have been called by the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You wear His cross around your neck. You are One with Him. You are the Temple of His Holy Spirit. Heaven’s gates are open wide to you. There is a Christ! It is Jesus, the Son of Mary, as we will remember again this week He was born in Bethlehem, and you are His forever.

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

Readings:
Deut. 18:15–19 a Prophet like me from your midst … Him you shall hear
Psalm 111 The works of the LORD are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them
Phil. 4:4–7 Let your gentleness be known to all men
John 1:19–28 this is the testimony of John

Sermon for the Wednesday of Advent III: December 15, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The hymn (LSB 561) says that the tree of life, with every good fruit, that once stood in Eden’s holy orchard, is now found within the cross of wood, the tree of Jesus’ shame. We are used to seeing lowliness and humility employed for the Lord’s highest good. Just think of our Infant Savior Himself, as the upcoming Christmas Gospel will recall, He was wrapped up in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The angels announced the good news to poor shepherds who were watching their flocks by night.

However, the cross is in a category that takes us far beyond the humility of our great Savior. Yes, He stooped down low in order to serve us and submit to the worst of the evils of men. He could have called upon twelve armies of angels to protect Himself, but He allowed the Temple soldiers to arrest Him without a fight. What humiliation that was! At least Samson had Delilah who tricked him into giving up his Divine strength. Jesus was conquered with no cunning needed.

As a Baby, He was not exactly shamed or put through great agony just to be laid in a manger. On the other hand, both shame and horrible pain are true when it comes to the cross. The manger certainly prepared us for the cross, but only one is for us the instrument for our salvation. When Jesus was laid in the manger (whether He was crying or not crying, the jury’s out on that question) the time was not yet for Him to die for us. He had to flee to Egypt from King Herod, just so 30 years later, Pontius Pilate could wash his hands and send our Lord to His execution.

It is also significant that our Lord commanded His disciples to take up their cross as they follow Him. Notice that He did not say, lay down and sleep in a manger and follow Me. Take up your cross takes more out of you and me than just, “Take a deep breath and be a more humble human being.” Our sinful nature doesn’t like crosses. Christmas morning is a much happier thought in our minds than Good Friday at twilight.

Take up your cross means, get ready to suffer, to be rejected for My sake, to bear a burden that you think at the moment is going to be too much for you. You want to save your life for yourself? Then you won’t be able to take up the cross, the way Jesus requires of us. Do you want to substitute some other way to show off your Christian faith? It may impress many people, but you aren’t going to fool God. You could gain the whole world, win the lottery, have everybody like you, fulfill your dream- bucket list, but if you forfeit the cross of Christ, you forfeit your soul, your very life for eternity.

Last week we found that you make the tree good by means of a good confession of the truth. Now we realize that the fruit of that tree not only includes the fruit of good works and God’s blessings, but also along with those must necessarily come the suffering of the cross.

Why me? you may ask. What is gained by my suffering if it is true that nothing I do will gain salvation for myself or anybody else? I thought only Christ and what He did for the world was all that mattered. What is there still left to do if Jesus accomplished it all on His cross? What was His reason for placing the burden of a cross on those who follow after Him?

I’m sure Jesus could have seen that question brewing in the minds of His disciples right away, so He set their minds at ease. “If the world hates you,” (Uh, Jesus? You might as well say, “When the world hates you…”) “Then remember that it has hated Me first…. I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The sons of darkness saw the light, yet hated it, and loved and preferred the darkness instead.

Mankind in opposition to God knows what it’s getting when people are told, do better, give more, sacrifice yourself. You’re talking the world’s language. But when Jesus says, Take up your cross, you become passive. You receive suffering. You don’t go out and make a difference and get your reward. You instead do what common sense tells you is the total opposite of what will help you.

It’s the same thing with the cross that Jesus bore. His sacrifice and death did not look like a simple feat of humility and love for fellow men, and all of that sentimental, do-a-good-turn stuff that too often gets the top billing at Christmas time these days. If you remember to be nice to people and think of them with a proper gift, then you’ve fulfilled your duty.

Jesus’ cross, however, is something that we cannot copy. We cannot be perfect like Jesus, or give up our life that will make a sufficient satisfaction for another. Our Lord is far and above us in the category of love.

But remember that it is not a contest. We run the race with Him, but it’s not like we are not trying to match our Savior’s record. Take up your cross is not merely to act more like Jesus, and do the same things that He did. It means instead that we entrust our entire lives to Him, placing our bodies and souls entirely into His hands. We pray to our heavenly Father in His name because He willingly entered His holy presence with His own blood for our sake.

Confess your sins before Him, agree with the condemning Law that you don’t measure up, that you have failed your Lord and His will for you. But as you take up your own cross to follow Him, look to His cross as your lifeline, your tree of life, with twelve kinds of fruit yielding constantly in your life.

The Tree of Life will be found in the cross of wood for a little while longer. For as long as our Advent still looks forward to the glorious coming of our Savior from out of the clouds, we will still struggle and suffer. We will sin, and we’re not going to like it, but our pain will turn our attention ever closer to Jesus.

Then, when He does come, we will wash in the pure water of His forgiveness that streams out from the pierced side of the Lamb who was slain. We will obtain the every good that God had wanted us to find in the tree of life. With Christ as the good fruit that came to us from the tree of the cross, our Advent expectation will be met not only with Christmas joy, but with end of the world glory.

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

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent: December 12, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Have you ever had two Christmases happen in the same year? It happens more often than we tend to realize. The first Christmas is the one we visualize in our mind’s eye, the one we expect to happen, and the second one is the Christmas that actually transpires. Some years there is quite a difference that occurs between the expectation and the reality. For many people, the disappointment is so great that they would just rather not celebrate Christmas at all. The pain is too heavy, whether it was a loved one who died around Christmas time, or a tragic crisis, or an unreconciled hurt in a relationship, it just makes the holidays unbearable.

Multiply that by 10 and you’ll be able to feel some empathy toward John the Baptist. Today’s Gospel pictures him not as the bold prophet preaching with conviction, baptizing thousands in the Jordan River, nor as the fearless critic of the royal family’s marital shenanigans. No, the adulterous King Herod threw John in a miserable prison, to await a certain death by execution, and he had nothing but time to think about how things actually turned out. Instead of two Christmases, John the Baptist was thinking he was witnessing two vastly different Messiahs, and the difference was threatening to debilitate him in his spirit.

On the one hand, John proclaimed a mighty Messiah wielding the utter wrath of God, with winnowing fork in His hand to separate wheat from chaff, whose sandals he was unworthy to untie. On the other hand, the Messiah John heard about in prison was disappointingly gentle in comparison. Sure, he had pointed his finger to Jesus and announced Him to be the “Lamb of God,” knowing full well what happens to any lamb that takes away anyone’s sin, let alone the One who takes away the sin of the whole world. John was clearly aware that Jesus would suffer and die, but it wasn’t exactly looking like what he had imagined. So, he sent his messengers to make their way to Jesus.

Are you the One who is to come, or shall we look for another? John speaks for all of us in the Church. Is Jesus worth all of this trouble? Will it really make a difference in our lives if we were loyal Christian believers or not? Before you know it, we’ve placed ourselves right alongside John the Baptist sitting in that dungeon, feeling disconnected from the joy of knowing Christ our Savior, and disappointed at how short our actual has fallen from the expected.

You’ll be relieved to hear that Jesus did not reprimand John for his brief bout of weak faith. I would suppose that our Lord was even able to keep that look off his face, you know, the look we can’t put away but it always gives us and our true feelings away whenever we’re disappointed in someone. Instead, Jesus praised John for his utter faithfulness to his given ministry as the prophet sent to go before the Lord to prepare His way. Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. He is anything but a reed swayed by the wind, or a metrosexual man of dandy fashion. And John was indeed a faithful preacher of the Word, even while in prison, because just as he had throughout his baptizing ministry shifted all focus to Christ, saying “He must increase, I must decrease,” so he continues to refer his disciples to the Lord, preferring to hang on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God Himself.

And Jesus doesn’t disappoint with the answer John is eager to hear. He reassures His saddened prophet with the signs that Jesus is accomplishing His work: “Go and tell John what you hear and see.” Creation is beginning to be restored, sin and its curse are being put to flight, even death itself is fleeing at the good news that Our Lord preaches. And this in particular for John, and it is also for you and me today: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.” Offended? How can we be offended? For us, it often happens in a more subtle way. You and I can all too easily let the disappointments we face take over our attitude, and then before you know it, you end up offended that you have to suffer so much, that life is too difficult, and the hurt and the pain seem to be too much to bear.

When you’re in a prison such as this, you can recall the signs that Jesus is accomplishing His work among us, too. You can believe the servant of Christ, the steward of God’s mysteries when he tells you, In the stead and by the command of my Lord, I forgive you all your sins. You can remember that you’ve been baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not only for the forgiveness of your sins, but for your guarantee that you are a child of God, with an inheritance that no principality or power can ever take away from you. You can also feast upon the body and blood of Christ, the delivery into your very own flesh and blood of the price your Savior paid for your eternal salvation. These are your miracles that lift up your head and give you encouragement while you wait for the full experience of this salvation that you already possess.

Finally, you can share His encouragement with others who are disappointed, not merely with their Christmas expectations, but they say, if not in words, at least in their actions and attitudes they wonder, Are you, Jesus, the One we are waiting for, or should we look for another Savior? Tell them what you hear and see in God’s house today: You can assure them, as you yourself are assured, that no matter what loss or trial you have suffered, you have all of it restored and even more in the promise of forgiveness, resurrection, and the life of the world to come. That is more than enough to drown out the offense to Jesus that tries to sway us with doubt. With a steadfast faith in Jesus, a faith like John the Baptist had, you and your loved ones possess instead a true Advent joy.

You can trust that even though the wait until Christ comes again is hard and long, and your life’s disappointments, whether they’re over differences in the two Christmases, or they’re of a more significant nature, you have true cause to rejoice. You have right now everything that Jesus paid for with His blood on the cross. You have right now the power of His resurrection from the dead, which conquers all discouragement, anxiety, sin and sin’s curse, and that power is handed to you. You’ve been reconciled to God, and He reconciles you to your neighbor, the one you know who needs to hear a forgiving word from you.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God! Relieve your heavy load of pain, and let your heart rest in pure Advent joy, knowing that although the grass withers and the flower fades, still the Word of our God endures forever, the Word that promises and delivers the one thing that will truly remove all disappointment. Look no further for any other deliverer, for here in God’s house is where Jesus gives you all you need for you to rejoice.

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

Readings:
Is. 40:1–11 Comfort, yes, comfort My people! …
Psalm 85 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him.
1 Cor. 4:1–5 judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes
Matt. 11:2–11 Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?

Advent Midweek: December 8, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

When you typically think about “your faith,” so to speak, you usually think of your own personal trust in God. What comes to mind typically is your own specific way in which you prevailed through all those trials and troubles of life. Many people told me when they were in the hospital or mourning the loss of loved ones over the years, they said, Pastor, I don’t think I could have made it half as well if I didn’t have my faith.

I knew what they meant. They were saying really that the Lord had strengthened them all along, even though they didn’t come right out and say precisely that. They credited it to their faith, or to people’s prayers, not to deny that God was doing all of it all along, but I suppose they just used a sort of spiritual shorthand in order for them to talk about it. I don’t want to come across as a persnickety hair-splitter at those sensitive moments, so I typically don’t say anything to correct them right then and there.

Yet correction needs to come sometime, so why not tonight, right? Your faith is not some inner ability that you have to see a positive spin on everything. If it were, then clinical depression wouldn’t afflict anyone who was a Christian. Sadly, it does. A relentless happy countenance or a dogged sense of positive thinking are not the unmistakable signs of a healthy faith, no matter how good these qualities may look to other people. Nothing is wrong with your faith if right now you are sad.

Once again, the Bible helps us out this Advent with the image of a tree. Jesus said, “Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit will result to be bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” Perhaps that by itself doesn’t help all that much, so He adds some more: “Good people do the good things that are in them. But evil people do the evil things that are in them.” That’s the good treasure and evil treasure that our reading was talking about.

That may get us somewhere. Good deeds can be seen. They are what the Bible refers to as good fruit coming from a good tree. You can measure this kind of fruit. It has a standard to which you may compare them—you know good works and good fruit because you have the Ten Commandments telling you what is pleasing to God and what is an utter offense to Him. A Christian should start doing good works, so that their faith can reveal the good fruit from a good tree.

There’s no mystery to it, then: no tricky feelings to decipher inside, no secret knowledge or hidden code to reveal some dark truth. The Law of God can easily tell you whose tree is good and whose is bad. You just have to examine the fruits in light of the Commandments. Have you changed your tune? Have you dedicated your life to serving the Lord and Him alone? Have you effectively lived out the life of Christ in your every thought, word and deed?

Of course, then the Law leads you to a big problem. You don’t have any good fruit. When that kind of standard gets measured against you, then you don’t stand a chance of being a good tree. I know I don’t, either. I am a sinner, and sinners sin. I know you are, too. God’s Word tells me as much, and I’ll believe that every time, despite anything you may have to say to the contrary.

So the command of Christ, “Make the tree good,” cannot be fulfilled by our efforts to follow the Law. There is no way to good fruit by that route, and yet that’s the exclusive way our world attempts to achieve that goal for ourselves. All have sinned and fall short, Paul told us. The Law leaves us no option but to give up.

Yet, ironically, giving up- that’s our best and only hope! When we thought, with all that we have had to go through in life as Christians, as people stuck with a lot in life that nobody would ever envy, that all would be hopelessly lost for us, that’s when our Savior Jesus stepped in for our rescue! “Make the tree good,” was not your job to fulfill, but His!

Jesus made the tree good when He purified you from your sin. He inhabited your human flesh at every stage of life in order to make your human existence a blessed one. From the earliest stages in the womb to a body laid in a grave, your Lord went through it all in your place. He was assigned the sinful, bad fruit that you bore, and He suffered the penalty for disobeying God, even though He was innocent. When He rose from the dead on the third day, He declared you and all the world free from sin. You are a good tree, by grace!

The Holy Spirit has produced in you not just your own particular faith, your God-given ability to withstand the evils of this world. He has given you a fruit of faith that not even the Law can measure—He has given you the Faithful One, Christ your Savior, so that with your own mouth you may agree with the Word of faith that you have heard with your own ears, from the mouth of one who has been called and sent by Him to preach it.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. To say, “Jesus is Lord,” is not to admit that He should be the one telling you what to do, that you should act more like Jesus. No, to say “Jesus is Lord,” means you know that you can expect no good thing to come to you except through Christ. That whatever blessing you may cherish and hang on to in this life, it is complete rubbish in comparison to knowing that your sins are forgiven. That you are even now a member of our Lord’s kingdom, you are His own. That you are purchased and won from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.

Admitting that basic Scriptural truth is exactly the Word of faith that you proclaim, and that you don’t have all on your own. It is the one Word of faith that you share with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It is the Word that you believe, even though for now you cannot see it or experience it. You may even think that you are still producing bad fruit, the way that the Law measures it. But that does not matter, because in you, because He died and rose for you, Jesus made the tree good already. That has made your fruit good in Him.

You don’t need to call upon any inner strength that you might call “faith” for you to rely on. You call upon God Himself to step in for you. He has promised that He already would. Go ahead and pray for those around you. It’s not your prayer that will deliver them, to be precise. It’s our heavenly Father, to whom you pray, who will make good on His promise to save. Your fruit is good, starting with a good, sound confession, a public profession of the faith that then leads to the works that Jesus Christ is pleased to perform through you.

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