Sermon 01082012 1st Sunday After Epiphany

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer!!  AMEN!!

Let us pray!  Lord Jesus Christ, in the Jordan River, John in order to fulfill all righteousness, baptized You.  But our baptism into Your life death and resurrection imparts to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.  May we embrace our redemption because it is only accomplished by what You completed on the cross of Calvary for all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.

One of the things that most children experience when they are growing up, is knowing someone who ‘talks big’.  Whether it is my Dad was the best football player or wrestler of the Mustangs, or my Mom is the best cook in the church, or my Dad’s truck is bigger than your Dad’s truck, boasting, which this is, continues to be something that is in our DNA.  We always want to have the biggest and best toys, the best house, the best vehicles or even the best clothes like the Michael Jordan logo or the latest Pioneer hat, jacket or Fontanelle apparel.  And boasting even occurs in the Bible.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus Christ has come to the Jordan to receive the greatest gift from John the Baptist.  In order to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus asks John to allow Him to be baptized by him in the Jordan.  Rewind 1480 years and we are reminded that Joshua and the people of Israel came to the same river Jordan and crossed it, on dry ground.  God stopped the river’s flow in order to allow the Ark of the Covenant and the people of Israel to pass through the Jordan on dry ground. 

This same river now we hear, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ being baptized in by John the Baptist, by the one who ‘prepared the way for the Lord’ and told the people, ‘make your paths straight’.  John is now baptizing Jesus Christ to fulfill all righteousness.  And what occurs, God Himself boasts about His own Son saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  And it was not only boasting by the Father’s voice, but the presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove that descended and lighted upon Jesus Christ head.  In this one moment, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was manifest for all to see, hear and experience.

But, why is the river Jordan so important for us today in Western Kansas?  Of what significance is God’s boasting of His Son’s baptism in the Jordan River for us today?  Why should the words, righteousness, sanctification and redemption take special meaning for us today?

The reason is that Jesus baptism by John in the Jordan, just as His circumcision in the temple in Jerusalem that we heard about last week was to fulfill the law for each and every one of us.  In and through our baptism into Jesus Christ, life, death and resurrection we have been sanctified by the blood of the lamb and our redemption draws nearer and closer to each of us.  By our being baptized in the name of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we have been claimed and made His through the Water connected with Word and our weakness of sin which we have been conceived in has been made a strength through the transformation in us and for us of what occurred in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for all of mankind.

Though we come here to Emmanuel and more often than not, just go through the motions of church, reading the bulletin, singing the songs and making ourselves look to others like we are Christian on the outside, Jesus Christ in entering our lives with the gift of faith in baptism made us His own.  We no longer are mere spectators, but God calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us through the Work of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.  God is calling us to action, not reaction, but proactive action to be His followers in our daily lives.  We are empowered by the Water and Word and made righteous before God, sanctified by the Work of the Holy Spirit and redeemed from sin, death and the devil, because of what Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary.

The reminder for us this morning is that we have a history with the river Jordan, not only with Joshua and the people of Israel who walked through the water being held back, but also and especially with Jesus Christ Who was baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness.  When we wash our face in the morning, remember our baptism and recall God’s saving act for each of us when Water and Word intimately connected gave us the gift of faith, we recall, reclaim and renew the life of Christ that resides in each of us.  And being renewed with our daily remembrance of our baptism we are reminded that God can say the same of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ that He is well pleased with us.  For Jesus came into this World to save all of mankind, especially all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

Sermon 01062012 Epiphany

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer!!  AMEN!!

Let us pray!  Lord Jesus Christ, tonight heralds the end of the Christmas season where we celebrate the coming of the Three Wise Men.  May our hearts be overjoyed that again we have against the devil come again to hear Your Word preached and proclaimed in its purity.  For we know Your Word will not return without accomplishing Your purpose and Your purpose is the proclamation of the saving message of the Gospel for all mankind, especially we Your saints gathered here at Emmanuel, this Epiphany night.  AMEN.

On Epiphany 1532, Martin Luther preached a sermon with Matthew 2:1-12 as the text.  Hear a quote from that sermon:

“All the cunning of the devil is exercised in trying to tear us away from the Word.  If in the external preaching he does not succeed in making people unwilling to hear the Word, yet he succeeds in the heart by persuading them not to cling to it.”

Even nearly 500 years ago the symptom we face daily of not coming to hear the Word of God was persistent and pervasive.  Satan with the cunningness unmatched by any wielded the means and power to ‘tear us away from the Word’ and we here today in Goodland, KS this January 6, 2012 are no different.  Around every bend and every turn, we encounter the draws of our society, our life and our world to pull us away from the proclamation of God’s Word.

Yet, tonight we hear from sacred scripture about three men who enter Jerusalem and find the same disdain for sacred scripture and the prophecies of old.  The three wise men, learned men from the East in the natural sciences thought they would encounter a people who would know who the Savior of the World was and where He would be at.  Their question to Herod of “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” was met with such uncertainty since they were in the capital of Jews that the wise men probably wondered why nobody knew Who or Where the King was.  We know, He wasn’t born in a palace, His entrance into the World was not on satin sheets with hot running maids and a team of doctors.  But the Savior of the World came in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.

But tonight three men enter the story of salvation coming from a far to worship the “King of the Jews.”  They bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  They enter into salvations history to offer gifts, but take away the greatest gift of all, being in the presence of Jesus Christ, Savior of the World.  These three men of story and song come to worship the long foretold King.

Tonight we have that same opportunity to Worship the King.  In my office, I have a very small nativity set that I have had set up for most of Advent and Christmas.  One of the traditions that has been passed down for generations is how the Wise men always are on a journey from the beginning of Advent until Epiphany.  So tonight the wise men finally reach the place where the star stopped moving.  Tonight we come to worship the King, and like the wise men we bring our burdens we carry daily, they are not Gold, Frankincense or myrrh, but we like the wise men depart having heard the Word of God in its truth and purity.  For we know Jesus Christ came into this world to bring us salvation for all mankind, including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel, this Epiphany night.  AMEN.

Sermon 01012012 1st Sunday After Christmas

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer!!  AMEN!!

Let us pray!  Lord Jesus Christ, we have celebrated Your Holy birth.  Your Word has been fulfilled and we have beheld Your Glory in a babe in a manger.  For in finding in the manger the beginning of the fulfillment of the plan of salvation we now can with Simeon ask that You let us depart in peace according to Your will.  For Your coming into the World was for all of mankind, including we saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

It is interesting that this morning, January 1, 2012 the beginning of the new year we gather to celebrate the dedication of a babe in the temple in Jerusalem.  Seven days ago, we gathered and heard the celebrated Christmas story of Luke and opened Christmas gifts, ate turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and all the fixings.  Yet now, we come to celebrate the dedication of a child according to the “Law of Moses”.

In the temple Mary and Joseph meet a man named Simeon, who is a devout and righteous man, upon whom the Holy Spirit rested.  Being led by the Holy Spirit to come at the same time as Jesus parents, Simeon had been promised “not to see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”.  And now is fulfilled the promise of God to Simeon.  In his arms he holds the Messiah, Jesus Christ!  For me as Pastor, when I hold children that God has used me as towel holder to baptize, I can begin to understand Simeon’s joy in beholding the Gift from God of a child.

Yet this was not any child, this was the Messiah, the Christ.  We heard Simeon’s ballad we know as the Nunc Dimittis or “Song of Simeon”.  This canticle used in the liturgy is a result of the reformation and its influence upon the liturgical canticles and songs used in worship.  What is imparted, besought and received is a peace that Simeon receives in holding the long foretold Christ Child.  For the words, “mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” apply clearly to Simeon’s life and now the fulfillment of the scriptures is taking place.

But what does that matter for us today here in Goodland, KS, with snow on the ground, a cold wind blowing off the prairies and now the first day of 2012?  What matters is that the peace that Simeon felt at holding the Messiah we can feel as well.  This canticle is used most often during the Vespers service at the end of the service.  It is to be a stark reminder for us of the peace that God gives to us through the birth of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  In the lowly manger, because there was no room in the inn, Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ Who came into a world of His making to save and redeem mankind from sin, death and the devil.  In this one act the plan of salvation came into action and we now are partakers of it through our partaking of His precious body and blood.  As we eat His Body and drink His Blood the peace that Simeon felt is given to us as partakers of eternal life.

We celebrate the Glory, Honor and praise of Jesus Christ as we remember His being brought to the Temple in Jerusalem in fulfillment of the Law of Moses.  Yet, in His birth, being brought to the temple and His sacrificial death on the cross for all of us on Calvary, Jesus Christ sets us free and gives us the greatest peace we could ever hope to feel, a peace that Simeon felt when He saw, held and sang his canticle of praise.  May we celebrate with Simeon, Mary and Joseph and understand that this peace is given to all people, including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel on this January 1, 2012.  AMEN.