St Matthew 20:1-16/1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5/Exodus 17:1-7

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

When a fish dies the first thing the other fish do is eat out his eyes.  There is no mercy, no compassion, no remorse in the fish bowl.  It is every fish for himself.  And every fish is quite glad to get at the other’s eyes, even if the other was his own brother or child or mate.  The ecology is balanced and fair.  Everything competes.  Everything is food.  To mix the metaphor, if you swim in that bowl you know right where you stand.

Part of what hinders us from the joy of the Gospel is our constant concern for ourselves; for our own advantage over others.  We regularly apply a double standard to everything and everyone around us.  We want the house clean, but we want to live like pigs.  We want to enjoy illicit pleasures of the flesh, but want our wives to stay home and be faithful.  We are disgusted with others even while making excuses for ourselves. 

Repent.  We are such phonies.  There is nothing so humbling as an honest look at one’s own labor and heart.  For we’ve never given enough.  We’ve always held back.  Our motives have never been quite pure or selfless.  Our Old Adam has searched for a loophole and sought to trap God with the Law.  There is no sadder sentence in Holy Scripture than our Lord saying, Take what is yours and go your way.  What is ours is sin.  Our way is eating the eyes out of our friends. 

But we are not fish.  We are men.  And the One through whom all things were created came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made Man.  For us men and for our salvation He was made Man.  And as soon as we men got the chance we strung Him up on a Cross and ate out His eyes. 

This is what fallen men do.  They are no better than fish.  Yet in that horrible, violent act of betrayal He turned the tables.  He became one of us, but not like us.  For He is without sin.  He gave of Himself willingly.  He did what no fish and no man, according to the fall, ever does: He sacrificed Himself for the good of those who hated and destroyed Him.  He was the first, but became the last.  He gave Himself for our Food that we would have His place.  Our eyes, our hearts, and our souls, are safe. 

It is not fair.  It is grace.  It is undeserved, unearned, and unexpected.  It is compassion, kindness, and generosity that exceeds imagination.  It is not the way of the marketplace or of the vineyard or of the fish bowl.  But it is the way of God.  Let not your eye be evil because He is good.  His mercy is His to spend as He sees fit.  The God of Abraham in the Flesh of Mary loves to forgive.  He loves to be generous.  He desires to accept sinners not according to what they have done, but according to His own perfect mercy.  It is not fair, but it is righteous. 

Therefore, those who believe in Him reap where they did not sow and are paid wages beyond their worth.  Even while they escape the heat and burden of the day!  For He is generous even with His own Son, even to the point of the Cross, even to sworn enemies and traitors!  For it was early in the morning that Christ Jesus was bound and delivered over to Pilate.  At the third hour He bore His own Cross to the Place of a Skull.  From the sixth hour to the ninth hour darkness covered the earth while the Light of the World was delivered up to death.  The parable is not about the laborers in the vineyard or socialism or unions.  It is about Jesus.  His Cross and Passion, His suffering and death. 

And dearly beloved, it is now the eleventh hour!  Truth be told, we have wasted the day.  We have not behaved as we should have.  We’ve whittled away the hours seeking some slight advantage over our brothers, engaged in petty politics for self-preservation, seeking the best seat in the assembly. 

But here comes an offer beyond compare: be paid for labor that you did not perform.  Receive what is right for the perfect Son who bore the heat and burden of the day of the Father’s wrath on your behalf.  Reap where you did not sow.  Lose the past.  Lose yourself.  Benefit from mercy.  Come into the vineyard of grace and be treated as the King’s own beloved child.  Eat and drink without money or effort.  Live by faith. 

For you too were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  The waters that crushed Pharaoh’s army rolled off of Jesus’ back in the Jordan and into the font to drown the Old Adam in you.  It is no fish bowl.  It is a cleansing bath.  A washing of rebirth and regeneration.  A grafting into the fruitful Vine, which is Christ. 

And the great cloud of witnesses now surrounds you.  And St John the Baptist is not worthy to loose your sandal strap, for you are in Christ.  He has raised you out of that watery grave to life, for free.  Pharaoh’s chariots are rusting at the bottom of the font.  And you have been brought into a land flowing with milk and honey led by your Joshua.  Beloved, His Word has accomplished what He sent it to do: rescue you.  It does not return to Him void.

Thus you are here.  You could be anywhere, including still in bed.  But He has brought you here.  It is no accident or coincidence.  He follows you even as He followed Moses in the desert.  He loves you.  He dotes on you.  He watches over you.  He wants what is best for you.  He has brought you here today to give you a spiritual food to eat and a spiritual drink to drink.  That food and drink is Christ.  The same as it was for Moses. 

Not fish eyes, but the choicest parts, the very essence of God made Flesh, crucified and raised, to be your Redeemer.  It is His Body and Blood, given and shed to be Food for you.  He comes from outside of you.  He places Himself inside of you through your mouth.  He joins His Flesh to your flesh.  He then changes you from the inside out.  So that what goes into your mouth – His Body and His Blood – comes out again in thanks and praise and confession.  Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. 

For you are made clean, pure, and holy, by what comes from outside of you – from the Rock, from Christ, from His side: the purest water and the choicest vineyard.  You were last, but now you are first.  It is not fair.  It is grace.  It is the way of God, the way of righteousness.  And it is good.  Come.  Be forgiven.  Receive what you did not earn, but what He earnestly desires you to have: Himself; an imperishable wreath.  Live outside the fish bowl in mercy and in love. 

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

St Matthew 17:1-9/2 Peter 1:16-21/Exodus 34:29-35
Rite of First Communion for Cole Organ

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

It is easy to harp on St Peter.  He is impetuous and brash; perhaps a bit opinionated.  The filter between his brain and his mouth at times fails him.  He is simultaneously sinner and saint; at one time boldly confessing Christ, the Son of the living God, at another cowering at the voice of a servant girl. 

We see ourselves in him.  We can relate to Peter.  As we can all the saints of Old and New Testament.  They are sinners, too.  Noah was a drunkard.  Abraham an adulterer.  Moses had a temper.  David was a murderer.  Peter denied Christ more than once.  Their humanity bleeds through.  Ironically, this lends credit to the veracity of Holy Scripture, rather than detract from it.  We did not follow cleverly devised myths about Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  They tell the truth; warts and all. 

And there is something here for Cole today.  We have all stood where he stands.  We have all offered the good confession and pledged our lives for the sake of Lutheran doctrine and the Sacrament.  It’s easy to be brave and courageous in front of your family and congregation.  A little embarrassing, but easy.  Harder to speak up for Christ to the hardened atheist or skeptic. 

But what Jesus here gives at His Transfiguration is for the courage of the hearts of Peter, James, and John; it is for the steadfastness of your heart Cole and for all catechumens.  For that is what you are – you are catechumens – hearers of the voice of Jesus, listeners to His Word. 

And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  And He was metaphorized before them, and His face became as radiant as the helios, and His clothes became white as phos, as light.  And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.  And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here.  If it is Your will, I shall make three eskene, tents,  here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

None of the Evangelists shy away from recording Peter’s blunders; or their own.  Yet perhaps we chastise the Rock too much.  He is the prima inter pares, the first among equals.  He does speak for the apostles. 

Lord, it is good that we are here.  Indeed it is good to be there.  Present on the holy mountain, eyewitnesses of the glorious majesty of Jesus, the Christ.  For that which is good is from the One who alone is good.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (Ja 1:17).  For He who created all things in the beginning, who by the Word spoke them into being as gift, declared them all to be good.  

Now all catechumens speak out of turn.  They say things that are not necessarily wrong, but are out of place.  Yet rather than bring shame and contempt on Peter for his rash statement, St Matthew takes pains to display the true beauty of the moment.  He speaks liturgically, employing temple language!  The Mount of Transfiguration is for the moment the Holy of Holies; for the Ark, the physical presence of God for His people, among them for their salvation, is in Jesus!

Recall Christmas Day, how St John said, The Word became flesh and dwelt, literally “tabernacled,” “tented,” eskenosen,  among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14).  In Jesus the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.  He is the Temple made without hands.  He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature (Heb 1:3). 

It is written, God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6).  Matthew the catechumen, receives and confesses this reality; he leaves no doubt that this is the divine presence.  Peter, James, and John are entering into the presence of the Holy Trinity upon the mountain.  They witness that which Isaiah beheld, what Moses saw, and the Holy of Holies alone contained!

For the cloud that signified the presence of God at the tabernacle, is here!  The Holy Spirit who once hovered over the waters at creation, now envelops these three along with Christ.  The light that shone in the darkness on the first day shines from the face of Jesus!  He is the Light of the world; the Light of men!  And the Father who bespeaks the eternal Word declares the man Jesus to be His beloved Son. 

It is good Lord that we are here!  Peter gets this, in part.  The Psalmist prays, One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple (Ps 27:4).  This is what Peter wants, what every true catechumen, every hearer of the Word, wants.  He wants to remain in the Holy of Holies.  He wants to stay on the mountain; to set up three tents. 

But there is only one tent; only one tabernacle – the flesh of Jesus, the beloved Son.  And His glory is not manifest in power, but made perfect in weakness.   

And that’s what Peter did not understand.  And that is where we struggle.  For here Peter, James and John rely on their experience.  They are enthralled at the “awesomeness” of God.  With fixed gaze and joyous rapture they long to remain on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Yet later, these same three, have no interest in the happenings on the Mount of Olives. 

For there the face that shone as the sun is disfigured in agony and sorrow.  He who was transfigured in glory as God in the flesh, will be disfigured in shame as a worm and not a man.  Moses and Elijah are gone, the Father is silent, it is Jesus only. 

This is where the Christian life is lived, dear ones, in the valley of the shadow of death.  Peter, James, and John had to come down from the mountain.  And the once shining face of Jesus is set like a stone toward Jerusalem, to the Mount of the Skull.  His clothes, white as light, are gambled over in the darkness.  But fear not, for Jesus did not leave behind His glory, but proceeds to the greater glory of His Cross and Passion. 

In Jesus the veil has been lifted and you are given to behold the true glory of God.  Not in the reflected face of Moses and the glory of the Law, for leads only to death.  But in the suffering and death of the beloved Son, which leads to eternal life.  For we glory not in the Christ as He goes up the Mount of Transfiguration, but in the Christ who is lifted up on the Cross of Mount Calvary; Jesus only. 

The transfiguration is meant to give courage and strength of heart to the disciples for what lies ahead.  Liturgically, it serves the same purpose for us.  Next Sunday is the beginning of Pre-Lent.  Ash Wednesday and the forty-six days until Easter are just around the corner.  The Mount of Transfiguration gives way to Mount Calvary.  Christmas and Epiphany must give way to Lent and Holy Week. 

But the Cross and what lies beyond it are our strength for the fast.  Jesus who gave His life for us is the Father’s Son in whom He is well-pleased, then we too, in Him, shall be the Father’s sons and He will be well pleased with us.  For Jesus who took what was yours in His Baptism, here stands as the Father’s beloved Son, the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, ready to lay down His life for you. 

But fear not, for He lays it down of His own accord, and He takes it up again.  And He now gives it to you.  This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him, the Father says.  Indeed, where else shall we go, for He has the Word of eternal life?  Peter got that one right. 

His Word speaks to you now, even as He came to Peter and the others and touched them, saying, Rise and have no fear.  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.  In the Holy Absolution, Christ Jesus comes to you, places His hand on you, and raises you from your grave, saying, “Fear not, for there is no one to accuse you; I have silenced the Law for you.  Death does not hound you nor Satan breath down your neck.  Look about you, goodness and mercy follow you.” 

And you, you catechumens all, hearers of the Word of the Son, indeed you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  David desired to inquire of the Lord in His temple.  It is no longer in Jerusalem.  Peter wanted to stay on the mountain, but the Lord’s glory is not there either.  It is here.  Mt Zion is the Altar of the Holy Communion, where the Word made flesh gives Light, as a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 

For the day will come, dear ones, when you too shall be transfigured, for you reside in the Body of Christ.  When He appears, you shall be like Him, because you shall see Him as He is (1 Jn 3:2).  You shall gaze upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living and see no one but Jesus only.  Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage.  Wait for the Lord (Ps 27:14).

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

St Matthew 3:13-17/Isaiah 42:1-7/1 Corinthians 1:26-31

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

John stands in the river with his unbending ethic.  He calls sinners to repentance.  He hearkens the fallen children of Adam and the progeny of Israel back to the wilderness into which they were driven and from whence they came.  He calls them to die to themselves.  He calls them to leave the false gods of their own making. 

Adam usurped God’s authority and took for himself that which was not given.  Israel erected a golden calf in the desert and called it Yahweh.  Your idolatry is much more subtle. 

You shall have no other gods, so says the First Commandment.  “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  But you fear all sorts of things.  You fear crime and robbery.  You fear loosing your job and being unable to pay the bills.  You fear your credit rating and the car that’s on its last leg.  And so you love what can bring you happiness and pleasure and relief, if even only for a moment: the extra $500 to fix the water heater; the friend at the bowling alley who commiserates about your hard life; the roommate who gets you alcohol.  We trust these things.  We put our faith in them.  They are our gods. 

Repent.  John calls you back to the Jordan, back to the wilderness.  For it was there that the Lord fed Israel with manna from heaven.  The Giver of their daily bread was obvious.  And He was trustworthy.  Still they grumbled against Him and horded His provision in unbelief and fear.  I am the Lord your God, He said, who brought you up out of the house of slavery, out of the land of Egypt.  You shall have no other gods before Me. 

And so it is that tax collectors and sinners, prostitutes and crooks, went out to John in the wilderness; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  Folks just like you and me: husbands who lusted after other women, mothers who antagonized their children, workers who bad-mouthed their bosses, children who ridiculed their parents.  They all come out to the Jordan to receive John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

For there John stood, as the prophets of old, as a shepherd of God’s people, tending to His dear lambs and sheep.  Its as if he would take a sheep from the fold; dirty and filthy, covered in mud and grime and blood and thorns, and he would dip him in the water and bring him out clean on the other side.  A whole flock of filthy, grimy sheep made clean in baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.  Here is the one spotless Lamb.  Pure and holy.  Pristine.  He has no need to be baptized.  He does not require the cleansing for the forgiveness of sins.  He is the Mightier One.  John is unworthy to loose His sandal; yet He submits to his baptism.  Jesus submits to the will of His Father, and takes His place among sinners; among folks like you.  Among those who know their desperation and their need for a Savior; He is not ashamed to be called your God. 

John would have prevented Him.  But in that enigmatic phrase, He says, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.  And John consented.  He dips this spotless Lamb, the Lamb of God, into the dirty water, polluted with our sin, and the Lamb soaks up the filth.  He takes the pollution of our flesh into His own holy flesh. 

In His baptism Jesus is anointed as the Messiah, as the Sin-Bearer.  He who knew no sin, became Sin for us.  Jesus is baptized for you.  His baptism removes your death so that your baptism grants you His Life.  His baptism soaks up your sin so that your baptism pours out His forgiveness.  He is baptized for you and you are baptized into Him. 

Responding to the request of James and John to sit at His right and left, Jesus once said, Are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? (Mk 10:38).  He spoke of His crucifixion; His baptism of blood.  For there, His baptism is complete.  In His death He destroys the power of death and by His resurrection He gives power to Holy Baptism.  For the sin that He bore from the Jordan He suffers and dies for upon the Cross; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

For this reason the Father declares Him to be His beloved Son, in whom His soul delights.  Recall Christmas, He is named Jesus, for He came to save His people from their sins.  To save you from your sin.  And here, in His baptism, He begins that rescue.  The Holy Spirit confirms the Father’s declaration; as it is written, Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth righteousness to the nations.  And we are back to Epiphany – nations, ethnos, heathens; God’s revelation to the Gentiles,

St Matthew records that the heavens were opened to Him.  St Mark’s language is a bit more graphic: the heavens were torn open.  The heavens were closed to Adam and all his posterity on account of his sin.  The gates of Paradise were barred by the flaming sword.  But now, in Christ the Second Adam, heaven is opened once more.  Indeed He is heaven come down to earth, and He steps out of the water bearing the whole world with Him, such that heaven is now opened to you, for you are in Christ by virtue of your baptism into His death and resurrection. 

And the dove that signaled the end of the flood, alights on Christ Jesus, the Ark of Life, in whom you are brought safely through the flood of Holy Baptism.  For is not His side torn open and out comes water and blood, Baptism and the Eucharist?  Life, flowing our of death, from Life Itself.  Is not the Temple curtain torn from top to bottom, and you are given free access in Him to the Holy of Holies?  Beloved, He is the Holy of Holies, come down to dwell with you! 

To dwell with you, unfaithful husbands, poor mothers, wicked children, to dwell with you and call you sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, His beloved.  To dwell with you condemned sinners and ease your troubled conscience with the sweet voice of His Gospel, saying, “Your sins are forgiven.”  

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, says the Psalm, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints (85:8).  The peace of His absolution, His forgiveness.  For He speaks over you in your Baptism, “This is My beloved Child, with whom I am well pleased.”  Hearken to John.  Return to your baptism, drown the old Adam.  For Christ is your righteousness.  He is your redemption.  Jesus is your sanctification.  Baptized into His Name, He lives within you and you in Him.  There is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:1-3). 

Allow your faith to be strengthened in this Baptism of our Lord, for all that Jesus does, He does for you.  For us men, and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.  He was born in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt, raised in Nazareth, baptized in the Jordan, crucified upon Golgotha, for you. 

A bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burning wick He will not quench.  Meaning, He comes not to threaten and demand and condemn.  Rather, Jesus comes as herald of salvation, preaching mercy and life and light.  Fulfilling all righteousness by His Cross, His righteous death for the unrighteous. 

His Cross is traced over you in baptism, marking you are His own.  He is your God.  You are His people.  He has named you with His Name.  He has worked for you forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation.  You are spotless in the blood of Lamb.  The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.  And He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:11). 

And He is the Giver of the Bread of heaven, here in this wilderness beyond the Jordan of the font.  You eat and are satisfied, given the food of paradise, the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God.  Rejoice, dear ones, for heaven is opened to you in Christ, in Him you dwell secure. 

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

Let the Little Child So Examine Herself
Of Early Communion

What is a pastor to do when one of the baptized faithful asks to receive the Body and Blood of Christ?  One who recites the Ten Commandments, Creed, and Lord’s Prayer?  One who confesses the sacramental union of Christ in the Supper?  One who is ongoingly catechized in the chief parts of the Christian faith, who loves Jesus and rejoices in His Passion, who is regularly in church?  One who is not living an immoral or scandalous life, not propounding false doctrine, and not belonging to any other confession or communion than that of our own congregation and fellowship?  One who happens to be six years old?

St Paul states, Let a man examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup (1 Cor 11:28).  What does this mean?  And what does it look like?  Must it be the same in every case?  Or is this self-examination unique to each circumstance?  Ultimately is self-examination simply an internal matter of the heart and head, or does it require a public confession?  Or both?  Or neither?

Concerning confession and absolution, the Augsburg Confession states, “Confession has not been abolished in our churches.  For it is not customary to administer the body of Christ except to those who have been previously examined and absolved” (AC XXV 1).  That the reformers utilized the word “examine” indicates both a correlation to the Corinthians text and an aspect of public, even if individual, examination of the communicant. 

Of what does such examination consist?  And what are its prerequisites?  In short, what is the standard?  In previous generations it consisted of thorough instruction in the Catechism beginning in the sixth or seventh grade and concluding with confirmation at the end of the eighth grade.  Admittance to the Sacrament of the Altar was reserved for the completion confirmation.  In this manner, I believe, the Sacrament was unwittingly held out as a “prize” or a “goal” to be achieved at the end of our work. 

This ought not be.  Our Lord’s Body and Blood are not a “prize” earned by our work.  They are a gift, freely given by Christ Himself, who says, Let the children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God (Mk 10:14).  If the kingdom belongs to such as these little ones (in Greek, paidia, “children,” refers to the very young), as our Lord Jesus says, than why are we withholding the gifts of His kingdom from them? 

Do not misunderstand me.  I am not advocating for infant communion.  I do not believe that to be a Scripturally tenable position, nor practically capable.  Neither am I suggesting we rid ourselves of confirmation.  I am in favor of a standard by which communicants be admitted to the Lord’s Supper.  However, I do not believe it should be a man-made standard of grade-level or age; nor “confirmation,” which can mean most anything at any given congregation. 

Rather, the real standard, which we do not have to invent, is the one identified by Dr Luther in the preface to the Large Catechism and alluded to by Augsburg Confession XXV: namely, catechesis in the basic texts of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Our Father, and the evangelical Sacraments.  He writes: “This sermon [preface to the Large Catechism] has been designed and undertaken for the instruction of children and the uneducated.  Hence from ancient times it has been called, in Greek, a ‘catechism’ – that is, instruction for children.  It contains what every Christian should know.  Anyone who does not know it should not be numbered among Christians nor admitted to any sacrament” (KW 383, emphasis mine). 

Dr Luther then lays out the skeleton of what is necessary to know and confess before admittance to the Lord’s Supper.  He goes on to say, “Therefore let all heads of household remember that it is their duty, by God’s injunction and command, to teach their children or have them taught the things they ought to know [i.e. the Six Chief Parts].  Because they have been baptized and received into the people of Christ, they should also enjoy this fellowship of the sacrament [of the Altar] so that they may serve us and be useful.  For they must all help us to believe, to love, to pray, and to fight against the devil” (KW 476:87). 

Worthy reception to the Sacrament of the Altar is reserved to those who have faith in Christ’s words, Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  That children are not only capable of such faith, but are held up as the epitome, is declared by our Lord Jesus:  Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3).  And, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will (Mt 11:25-26). 

Holy Scripture and our Lutheran Confessions take for granted that catechesis ought to be occurring in the home, around the dinner table, the bedside, everywhere.  Ideally parents and pastors, working together, ought to be teaching these chief parts of the Christian faith and life all the time.  The little children ought to be brought to Holy Baptism, and they ought to be hearing the basic Christian catechism before, during, and after the fact, from the womb to the tomb.  As soon as they are able, according to the abilities given them by their Creator, they ought to be taught to confess that same faith.  This happens in the same manner that children learn to walk and talk – by following the example set for them by their fathers and mothers; mimicking the speech, as it were, of their heavenly Father.  This is the way of faith and confession: to say back to God what has been said to us. 

In the end I am advocating for more catechesis and instruction, not less.  I am becoming convinced that admittance to the Lord’s Table is a matter of pastoral care and concern, done on a case-by-case basis.  Obviously a child born into an environment of daily catechesis and prayer in the home, who is faithfully brought to the Lord’s House to be regularly immersed in the preaching of God’s Word is surely of a different case than a child who is rarely exposed to the Word. 

In the materials that accompany our hymnal, Lutheran Service Book, there is an order called, “First Communion Prior to Confirmation,” which acknowledges the importance of such a practice within the congregation.  These materials state,
            This rite is intended to be used to admit to the Lord’s Supper baptized children who have not yet been    
            confirmed.  Candidates for admission to the Lord’s Supper have learned the Ten Commandments, the Creed,  
            and the Lord’s Prayer.  They have received careful instruction in the Gospel and Sacraments.  Confessing 
            their sin and trusting in their Savior, they desire to receive the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of sins and 
            the strengthening of their faith in Christ and their love toward others (Agenda, 25).

A well-catechized child knows what the Lord’s Supper is, and what it is for, and hungers for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation that is offers and bestows.  Dr. Luther contends that we need such children to join us in this fellowship for the sake of the Gospel.  Not “cute little poopsies,” but courageous young Davids with five smooth stones and hearts of faith in the Lord of hosts, who is more than able to slay an army of Goliaths.  We ought not, like King Saul, encumber the little shepherd boy with a grown man’s bulky armor.  As though the accumulated burdens and weight of life in this sinful world were better able than Yahweh Sabaoth to defend the lambs and sheep of His pasture. 

What is a pastor to do with the little six year-old girl who asked for the Sacrament?  Well, she has continued to receive instruction in the Christian faith both at home and at church, from her parents and her pastor.  As her pastor, it is my intention to welcome her, along with two men, ages 15 and 86, to receive the Holy Eucharist with the members of St Peter Lutheran Church on Easter Vigil of this year (March 30, 2013; 7p).  She will grow and mature in the faith as her catechesis continues throughout her life, pausing to commemorate the sign posts of confirmation and marriage and when she passes from my pastoral care to another man’s, and it will not end until her blessed falling asleep in Christ our Lord Jesus.  Such is our Lord’s desire for all His dear ones of any age. 

A blessed New Year to you in Christ!

+INJ+
Pastor Mierow
Circumcision and Name of Jesus

St Luke 2:21/Numbers 6:22-27/Galatians 3:23-29

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

As we review the closing year, how have we used it?  “Is there one commandment we have not transgressed?  Is there one day in which we have not sinned?  Is there one gift for which we have been perfectly thankful and used as God intended?  Is there one rescue from trouble for which we have offered the proper praise to God?” (Walther)  Is there one sermon we have heard (or preached) that we have fully applied and taken to heart?

As this year comes to a close, we can only cast our eyes down in shame and cry out with the tax collector, Lord be merciful to me, a sinner!  And for those good things we have done, we can only say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.

We enter the new year with repentance and deep thankfulness that despite our unworthiness, God continues to show us His mercy and still wishes to make use of us in His kingdom.  Let this be our resolution, that we will pray fervently to our Lord in the new year for the healing of our souls.  “The most necessary thing for a truly happy and blessed new year is that we do not carry forward the sins of the old year” (Walter). 

Our secular new year coincides with the commemoration of the circumcision and naming of Jesus, done for Jewish boys on the eighth day from birth.  That we remember the naming of Jesus at the new year is fitting.  For our new year, indeed each new day, should begin in the name of Jesus.  It is written, Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col 3:17). 

The name Jesus unfolds the meaning of the name prophesied for the Messiah in Isaiah, “Immanuel,” “God with us.”  Jesus means, “The Lord is salvation.”  He is not named for his father or relative.  His name came from heaven.  And it describes, even at His conception, the purpose of His coming.  You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21).  In other words, Jesus is God with us, among us, in order to give us His salvation. 

And that saving work begins already as an eight-day old infant.  On the day Jesus was named He was also circumcised.  It is such a strange, crude thing to have as a religious ritual.  Germany recently tried to outlaw it.  The cutting of a man’s sexual organ?  Why did God command that?

Well, what is the purpose of man’s sexual organ?  Procreation.  The begetting of children.  But since the Fall the children of Adam have been conceived in sin.  Man’s generation is sinful and deadly.  Circumcision was, for the people of God, for Abraham and his offspring, a perpetual witness to the fallenness of man’s begetting.  Circumcision was a perpetual witness to original sin.  Circumcision was Law. 

But it was also Gospel.  It prophesied of the One who would be born of a woman, the Seed of the woman, who would undo the curse of Adam.  One who would share in man’s flesh and blood, but not share in his concupiscence, his inborn sinful nature.  It is written, Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Rom 5:12).  In other words, we are not sinners because we sin.  We sin because we are sinners.  

Only One could change that.  Only One could wipe out our debt of sin: the GodMan, Jesus, who made atonement for us with His Blood.  On the eighth day He allowed Himself to be circumcised – to be put under the Law, to redeem us who were under the Law (as you heard yesterday).  He was, as the Christmas carol puts it, “Born to give us second birth.” 

His eternal generation is from the Father.  He takes on human generation, yet without a human father, in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  St Paul says it this way, As by the one man’s disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, so by the One Man’s obedience (Jesus) the man will be made righteous (Rom 5:19).  Jesus is born that we might be reborn, without the guilt of sin. 

And the Circumcision of Jesus is a graphic reminder that in order to affect your redemption, your salvation, God truly became one of us, truly took on our nature, our flesh and blood.  In the cutting of His foreskin we see that it was no spirit or angel who came to Bethlehem, but a fleshy Word.  The Word truly was made flesh and tabernacled among us. 

Not only was the Word literally, tangibly made flesh, taking on our human nature, yet without sin, He also who knew no sin was made to be sin for us.  Thus He suffers the indignity of circumcision, not for Himself, but for us.  God with us.  God for us.  Like His baptism, He does it to fulfill all righteousness, to identify Himself with us poor, miserable sinners, and shed His Blood for our forgiveness.  He offers the morning sacrifice in the first shedding of His Blood on the eighth day.  And He completes the evening sacrifice with the pouring out of His life-blood on Good Friday.  There He became your circumcision – cut off from the Father, the sign of high price of your sin, but also the blessed sign of your redemption and life. 

So our prayer on this glad night is that all that Jesus did for us, beginning in His circumcision, would be applied to us, credited by faith to our account, and actually change us.  The collect said, “Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins.”  In your Baptism this work was begun in you.  In Christ Jesus you are all sons of god through faith.  For as many of you are were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.  You are all one in Christ Jesus, Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. 

Elsewhere St Paul writes, In Christ you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Jesus from the dead.  And you, who were dead in your trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This He set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:11-14). 

No matter what the past year has done to you, no matter what the new year has in store for you, rejoice and be glad!  For in Jesus, all your sins are brought to an end, like the year coming to a close.  He is your new year.  He is your new birth.  He is your new life. 

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