Exodus 40:17-21, 34-38/Titus 3:4-7/St John 1:1-18
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Sing for joy, O earth, and lift up your voice in song, all you people of the world! For Christ your Savior has come to dispel the darkness of despair and death. In His great Love for you He has come to shine His Light of the Gospel upon you, in order to give you His Life. In this, beloved, He gives you nothing less than Himself - in flesh and blood just like yours, save only without sin and no longer subject to death. For He has become Flesh, true Man, like you, in order to unite Himself to you and you to Him.
He has come in the flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, in order to bear your sin and carry your sorrows in His Body to the Cross. By this He conquers death and shatters the power of the enemy for you. For He removes from you and takes upon Himself all your guilt and shame, all your doubt and fear, all your frailty, flaws and weaknesses. In place of sin and death He gives you Life and salvation in body and soul, not only in heaven forever, but already now in His Church on earth.
For He is Immanuel, God with us, in order that you may be with Him, where He is, and live with Him in His Kingdom in the glorious Light of His presence, abiding in His Love forever.
This is why the angels sing and glorify God in the highest! They praise His holy Name and give Him thanks for His grace toward all mankind. They rejoice at His holy Nativity. And even at His birth they rejoice and give thanks for His Cross and Passion, His Resurrection and Ascension. They rejoice with us and for us - for you - because they delight in the good and gracious will of God. They rejoice for His forgiveness and salvation to us poor sinners. For that is His glory. He freely chooses in love and grace to rescue His fallen creatures and reconcile the world to Himself.
Now if the holy angels praise and magnify the Name of our Lord, how much more shall we rejoice, give thanks, and sing! For He is not the Savior of angels, but of all the children of men. He did not become an angel, but He Himself has become true Man, not only to save us from sin and death, but in order to share His divine nature and eternal Life with you, in the flesh.
It is truly meet, right, and salutary that you should sing for joy on this most blessed Day, with all the holy angels and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth. Indeed you are able to sing, even in the midst of deep darkness and under the shadow of death, because the Lord Christ has spoken to you and sings His Gospel of forgiveness to you here and now.
True, the shadow of death does lie heavy and thick upon the world. And it presses hard upon you, upon your loved ones and your own mortal flesh and blood. All the bright lights and colors of the season cannot stave it off nor keep it away. Even the unseasonably warm weather cannot mask the death and decay in all around you see. Wars may or may not cease fire for the holy days, but the hospitals and morgues cannot shut down. Remember this day those who serve in those places; the police and firefighters, paramedics and rescue workers who keep working while the rest of the world parties, because death continues day and night. And remember also those who are lonely or afraid, the widowed and orphaned, those to whom death draws near. For not only the world, but Christians likewise suffer and die and are buried, even at Christmas and at any given time in this poor life of labor. It may happen today. The Lord knows.
In the face of all that, the joyous singing and celebration of the Lord’s Incarnation and holy Nativity may seem a pretense, perhaps insensitive to the pain, or inappropriate. And it is fair to ask: Are we only fooling ourselves? Crafting smiles on corpses in the hopes that no one will notice? Who are we kidding? There are ups and down, highs and lows, good days and bad, but all of your days will finally end in death. Its unavoidable.
The problem, dear ones, is not that you are a finite creature. The problem is that you are sinful. You are mortal and die because you are sinful and you sin, from the inside-out. You exist and live at all by the gracious Word of God which created all things in the beginning and without whom nothing that is made (including you) was made. The sad irony is that your sinful heart still doubts, denies, disbelieves, and despises His life-giving Word. This is the darkness in which we grope. This is why we die. We cannot save ourselves. We were conceived and born in this dark valley. Whatever else you have gotten from your parents, you have received from them and share with them the inheritance of sin and death. That is the legacy of sinful man, from Adam and Eve to Moses and all Israel to Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and all the world. To you.
The problem is within us and all around us. Not only in our parents, but in ourselves. We are sinful and unclean. By nature we do not fear, love, and trust in the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - as we must. We do not love our neighbor as the Lord has commanded. The harder we scheme and strive to elude the darkness and escape our fate the worse it gets. Our flesh is so deluded, our minds so corrupt that what we believe to be true is false. What we consider good is in fact evil. What we perceive to be light is only deeper and more sinister darkness. We are overshadowed by the certainty of death.
And despite all of that, we give thanks, rejoice and sing. And its not because we are foolish; nor ignorant. Its not as though Christians are the world’s dupes and fools, conned into believing some fantastical fairy tale peddled on the ignorant and simple. You see with an other worldly wisdom. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is as you sing, O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence (LSB 357).
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing, dear Christians! For into the darkness shines the great Light of God our Savior. Into the valley of the shadow of death strides the Lord; the beloved and only begotten Son of the Father, the Christ, who is the Word Incarnate, Wisdom Instantiated, the Torah Enfleshed. The Word of the Father, begotten from all eternity, was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is true Man with us and for us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, blood of our blood. The Tabernacle of the Lord made without hands, dwelling among you.
He strides into the arena, a greater Jedi knight than this world has ever seen, and He joins the battle against all your foes. He sets Himself against all your enemies, as your own Champion against sin, death, the devil and hell. He scatters the darkness and breaks the gloom because He is the Light and the darkness cannot overcome Him. Death and the grave will swallow Him up in time because He lets them; He actually gives Himself over to them in your place. But having entered into the dark depths of Sheol, He shatters the grim dungeon from the inside-out, breaks all its bars and blows the doors off the hinges!
This Lord Jesus Christ has conquered in the fight and He sets you free, because He has given Himself for your sins. He has died your death. He has destroyed its power over you by His dying. He has atoned for all your sins by the shedding of His blood. No charge remains against you. The devil has no legitimate claim on you, no valid accusation to level at you, because the Lord Himself has redeemed you, exonerated you, justified and vindicated you. He is the only One who can. He is Lord of the Law, who has come in the flesh to remove the curse of the Law for you.
And when God the Father raised Jesus, the Son of Mary, bodily from the dead, the One who bore your sins in His body of flesh and blood and suffered and died in your place, in goodness and loving kindness He raised you up out of darkness into His marvelous Light. That Light is His redemption, His Cross and Resurrection, His Righteousness and Reconciliation with God the Father. And it shines upon you in the preaching and ministry of His Gospel. That is where and how you see Him and know Him, by faith according to His glory, by the hearing of His Voice. He speaks and sings forgiveness of all your sins and with His Word. He gives you Life.
He sounds forth His Voice of the Gospel into the darkness and it permeates and prevails over the darkness. He speaks and there is Light, even as His Word called forth the Light out of darkness in the beginning of Creation, so now His Spirit hovers over the natal waters of Holy Baptism, cleansing you by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit making you an heir of eternal life.
Beloved He speaks to you from heaven through the sending of His witnesses here on earth. They are not the Light, but bear witness about the Light. He is the content and source of their good confession. Christ Himself, the Word made flesh who dwells among you, makes the Father known. In His person and by His work He displays the goodness and loving kindness of God your Savior. For He is Mercy Incarnate; and His Cross is the very way and means by which He saves you and spreads the Tent of His Love over you.
Come, this Christmas Day and behold you the Word your Savior. He is not in the manger. Nor is He on the Cross. But He comes mangered in bread and wine for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins. He comes by way of the preaching of His Cross, by which He draws you to Himself in Love.
Do not be afraid. Do not retreat to the darkness from which the Lord Jesus has set you free. Do not run and hide from the bright Light of His Voice, but hear and believe what He preaches: Your sins are forgiven. You shall not die, but live.
Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord and raise a joyful song to the Rock of our salvation. For He who is our Life and Light, who loves us with a never-ending Love, has done great things for us. Holy, holy, holy is the Name of this Lord, Jesus, who with the Father + and the Holy Spirit is one God, now and forever. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Sing for joy, O earth, and lift up your voice in song, all you people of the world! For Christ your Savior has come to dispel the darkness of despair and death. In His great Love for you He has come to shine His Light of the Gospel upon you, in order to give you His Life. In this, beloved, He gives you nothing less than Himself - in flesh and blood just like yours, save only without sin and no longer subject to death. For He has become Flesh, true Man, like you, in order to unite Himself to you and you to Him.
He has come in the flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, in order to bear your sin and carry your sorrows in His Body to the Cross. By this He conquers death and shatters the power of the enemy for you. For He removes from you and takes upon Himself all your guilt and shame, all your doubt and fear, all your frailty, flaws and weaknesses. In place of sin and death He gives you Life and salvation in body and soul, not only in heaven forever, but already now in His Church on earth.
For He is Immanuel, God with us, in order that you may be with Him, where He is, and live with Him in His Kingdom in the glorious Light of His presence, abiding in His Love forever.
This is why the angels sing and glorify God in the highest! They praise His holy Name and give Him thanks for His grace toward all mankind. They rejoice at His holy Nativity. And even at His birth they rejoice and give thanks for His Cross and Passion, His Resurrection and Ascension. They rejoice with us and for us - for you - because they delight in the good and gracious will of God. They rejoice for His forgiveness and salvation to us poor sinners. For that is His glory. He freely chooses in love and grace to rescue His fallen creatures and reconcile the world to Himself.
Now if the holy angels praise and magnify the Name of our Lord, how much more shall we rejoice, give thanks, and sing! For He is not the Savior of angels, but of all the children of men. He did not become an angel, but He Himself has become true Man, not only to save us from sin and death, but in order to share His divine nature and eternal Life with you, in the flesh.
It is truly meet, right, and salutary that you should sing for joy on this most blessed Day, with all the holy angels and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth. Indeed you are able to sing, even in the midst of deep darkness and under the shadow of death, because the Lord Christ has spoken to you and sings His Gospel of forgiveness to you here and now.
True, the shadow of death does lie heavy and thick upon the world. And it presses hard upon you, upon your loved ones and your own mortal flesh and blood. All the bright lights and colors of the season cannot stave it off nor keep it away. Even the unseasonably warm weather cannot mask the death and decay in all around you see. Wars may or may not cease fire for the holy days, but the hospitals and morgues cannot shut down. Remember this day those who serve in those places; the police and firefighters, paramedics and rescue workers who keep working while the rest of the world parties, because death continues day and night. And remember also those who are lonely or afraid, the widowed and orphaned, those to whom death draws near. For not only the world, but Christians likewise suffer and die and are buried, even at Christmas and at any given time in this poor life of labor. It may happen today. The Lord knows.
In the face of all that, the joyous singing and celebration of the Lord’s Incarnation and holy Nativity may seem a pretense, perhaps insensitive to the pain, or inappropriate. And it is fair to ask: Are we only fooling ourselves? Crafting smiles on corpses in the hopes that no one will notice? Who are we kidding? There are ups and down, highs and lows, good days and bad, but all of your days will finally end in death. Its unavoidable.
The problem, dear ones, is not that you are a finite creature. The problem is that you are sinful. You are mortal and die because you are sinful and you sin, from the inside-out. You exist and live at all by the gracious Word of God which created all things in the beginning and without whom nothing that is made (including you) was made. The sad irony is that your sinful heart still doubts, denies, disbelieves, and despises His life-giving Word. This is the darkness in which we grope. This is why we die. We cannot save ourselves. We were conceived and born in this dark valley. Whatever else you have gotten from your parents, you have received from them and share with them the inheritance of sin and death. That is the legacy of sinful man, from Adam and Eve to Moses and all Israel to Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and all the world. To you.
The problem is within us and all around us. Not only in our parents, but in ourselves. We are sinful and unclean. By nature we do not fear, love, and trust in the Blessed Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - as we must. We do not love our neighbor as the Lord has commanded. The harder we scheme and strive to elude the darkness and escape our fate the worse it gets. Our flesh is so deluded, our minds so corrupt that what we believe to be true is false. What we consider good is in fact evil. What we perceive to be light is only deeper and more sinister darkness. We are overshadowed by the certainty of death.
And despite all of that, we give thanks, rejoice and sing. And its not because we are foolish; nor ignorant. Its not as though Christians are the world’s dupes and fools, conned into believing some fantastical fairy tale peddled on the ignorant and simple. You see with an other worldly wisdom. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is as you sing, O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence (LSB 357).
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing, dear Christians! For into the darkness shines the great Light of God our Savior. Into the valley of the shadow of death strides the Lord; the beloved and only begotten Son of the Father, the Christ, who is the Word Incarnate, Wisdom Instantiated, the Torah Enfleshed. The Word of the Father, begotten from all eternity, was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is true Man with us and for us, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, blood of our blood. The Tabernacle of the Lord made without hands, dwelling among you.
He strides into the arena, a greater Jedi knight than this world has ever seen, and He joins the battle against all your foes. He sets Himself against all your enemies, as your own Champion against sin, death, the devil and hell. He scatters the darkness and breaks the gloom because He is the Light and the darkness cannot overcome Him. Death and the grave will swallow Him up in time because He lets them; He actually gives Himself over to them in your place. But having entered into the dark depths of Sheol, He shatters the grim dungeon from the inside-out, breaks all its bars and blows the doors off the hinges!
This Lord Jesus Christ has conquered in the fight and He sets you free, because He has given Himself for your sins. He has died your death. He has destroyed its power over you by His dying. He has atoned for all your sins by the shedding of His blood. No charge remains against you. The devil has no legitimate claim on you, no valid accusation to level at you, because the Lord Himself has redeemed you, exonerated you, justified and vindicated you. He is the only One who can. He is Lord of the Law, who has come in the flesh to remove the curse of the Law for you.
And when God the Father raised Jesus, the Son of Mary, bodily from the dead, the One who bore your sins in His body of flesh and blood and suffered and died in your place, in goodness and loving kindness He raised you up out of darkness into His marvelous Light. That Light is His redemption, His Cross and Resurrection, His Righteousness and Reconciliation with God the Father. And it shines upon you in the preaching and ministry of His Gospel. That is where and how you see Him and know Him, by faith according to His glory, by the hearing of His Voice. He speaks and sings forgiveness of all your sins and with His Word. He gives you Life.
He sounds forth His Voice of the Gospel into the darkness and it permeates and prevails over the darkness. He speaks and there is Light, even as His Word called forth the Light out of darkness in the beginning of Creation, so now His Spirit hovers over the natal waters of Holy Baptism, cleansing you by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit making you an heir of eternal life.
Beloved He speaks to you from heaven through the sending of His witnesses here on earth. They are not the Light, but bear witness about the Light. He is the content and source of their good confession. Christ Himself, the Word made flesh who dwells among you, makes the Father known. In His person and by His work He displays the goodness and loving kindness of God your Savior. For He is Mercy Incarnate; and His Cross is the very way and means by which He saves you and spreads the Tent of His Love over you.
Come, this Christmas Day and behold you the Word your Savior. He is not in the manger. Nor is He on the Cross. But He comes mangered in bread and wine for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins. He comes by way of the preaching of His Cross, by which He draws you to Himself in Love.
Do not be afraid. Do not retreat to the darkness from which the Lord Jesus has set you free. Do not run and hide from the bright Light of His Voice, but hear and believe what He preaches: Your sins are forgiven. You shall not die, but live.
Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord and raise a joyful song to the Rock of our salvation. For He who is our Life and Light, who loves us with a never-ending Love, has done great things for us. Holy, holy, holy is the Name of this Lord, Jesus, who with the Father + and the Holy Spirit is one God, now and forever. Amen.
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