Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Those are familiar words. We hear them on Christmas Eve every year. Perhaps we could say the same today, some 2,700 years after Isaiah first proclaimed those words. For 50 years now, thousands of people have walked in darkness -- the darkness of the disregard for life in our country. But for 50 years now, thousands of people have walked in darkness because they have seen a great light.

How do you measure wisdom? Some would measure it by age. Some would measure it by schooling. On this day when we celebrate the Epiphany of Our Lord, we again heard the story of the Wise Men. Stories and legends have grown up around them, names have been given to them, but so little is truly known about them. But this we know about them, beyond a shadow of a doubt -- God wanted them there. To see His Son. This epiphany to them of the Almighty God in tiny human flesh.

Happy New Year! Maybe it will be happy for you. But maybe not. We hope it will be. We wish it. So maybe instead of hoping for change... maybe instead we put our hope in the God who doesn't change. But as you've often heard me say, there are two ditches we don't want to fall into here. To do nothing and think God is going to do everything for you is the one ditch, but the other ditch is equally bad -- and that is to think it's all up to me. So the apostle Paul wrote the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

Another year has passed. A New Year begins in just a few hours from now. A year, 12 months, 365 days, seems like such a long time. Perhaps by some measures it is. But not to the Creator of time. That is comforting. We need a God big enough for eternity. But big can be frightening. We also need a God small enough for us to know, and who knows us. Which is what the apostle Paul also said to us tonight, that if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him graciously give us all things?

Today is not only the birth of Jesus, the birth of the Son of God in human flesh, the birth of our Saviour... it is all that, but more. Today, God is speaking to us by His Son. For here, in the manger, the Creator lies as a creature. And not just any creature, but one of us. And not just one of us, but a tiny, helpless, baby. No other god would do this. How greatly God doth love you! That word is being proclaimed loud and clear this day. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

How hard it must have been for Joseph, not to be able to provide better for his wife. How hard it must have been for Mary, not to be able to provide better for her child. The stable would have to do. the manger would have to do. Beggars can't be choosers. You've heard that phrase before, but never like this. For tonight, God is the beggar. The God whose heaven has streets of gold so pure that they are clear like glass, with walls made of precious stones, and each gate made of a single pearl, is tonight as far from that as one can get. He is a poor beggar. We have no room for you.

I mean, would you have believed it? Immanuel. God with us. Really? That's what they will call this child? That must have seemed like a cruel joke to Joseph. Because God certainly wasn't with him! His betrothed was with child. Everyone knows there's only one way for that to happen. God with us. I wish, Joseph perhaps thought. So He could straighten this all out. Make it right. That's what God is for, after all, isn't it?

Why are they there? the disciples of John, I mean. Why aren't they with Jesus? John knows that's not right, so he sends them to Jesus. With a question. Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another? Jesus could have just said yes. But words weren't enough. He points to the Word of God in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaiah. But not just these things. Even more. So that when they did, tell John, John could say to them -- then why are you still here?

You probably know that in Bible times, Jews and Gentiles didn't get along. The Gentiles thought the Jews beneath them, the Jews regarded the Gentiles as unclean. And it became a matter of some importance in the early church, after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, to figure out how to have a Christian church with both Jews and Gentiles in it. Get over yourselves. Humble yourselves. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. But how can you abide in Jesus' word if you cannot understand it? That was Luther's question. They were being told to go to confession and do the satisfactions the priest told them to do. And they were being told that by doing these things, and others, that would set them free. But once Luther began reading the Scriptures himself, he came across the verses like we heard today, that if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

So today we begin a new church year, which helps us keep track of time -- but not our time, earthly time, but God's time, heavenly time. That's why the church uses a different calendar than the world, why the church has different seasons than the world. We look at things differently. Which brings us to the words we heard today from St. Paul -- you know the time, he says -- that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

Jesus doesn't want their tears. Not tears of pity anyway. He wants to go to the cross. Don't weep for Him, He says. No, weep for yourselves. Because this is just the beginning. It's going to get worse. Are we there yet? Maybe. There's a lot of sin and evil in our world. The cross -- and staying on it -- was Jesus remembering. Remembering our need for life. Today, you will be with me in Paradise. That's a good way to end the Church Year, don't you think?

The full title for this Sunday is the Commemoration of Saint James of Jerusalem, Brother of our Lord, and Martyr. That is, James was put to death because of his faith in his brother Jesus, that He was the promised Messiah. Now, James was probably the person most surprised by this of anybody, for he didn't start out believing this about his brother. Who would? But then after his brother appeared to him after being crucified and then rising from the dead, and by the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart, he believed.

Many of the words we heard today, from Malachi, from Jesus, are... how shall we characterize them? Disturbing? Unsettling? Frightening? Many of these things have already happened. The Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem trampled underfoot -- although it has since been rebuilt. The city, at least. But so far, no Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. So until that day, when the Son of Man comes in a cloud with power and great glory, live in quiet confidence.

What the world cannot achieve, Jesus has. We heard today of John's great vision of heaven, of a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Our world seeks such unity and peace, but these noble goals continue to elude us. Unless... unless there was some other way we could be united and at peace.

The parable Jesus tells today is a pretty simple one to understand. There's a corrupt judge. He doesn't care what God thinks about him and the job he's doing. He is 100% in it for himself. But one day a widow shows up. She can't do anything for him, so he ignores her, sends wer away. But she won't go away. So finally he relents. it's a story to cheer, right? But then Jesus turns the parable around.

What's worse? The war you can see or the war you can't? That there is war in our world should not surprise us. We are reaping the wages of sin and the Scriptures are clear this is how it will be. Underneath it all, behind it all, is the evil one. But do not despair! Because of this, too, the Scriptures are very, very clear -- who has won and who will win. And it is not evil or the evil one! But though we should not take him lightly, neither should we cower before him. Remember and remind him constantly of his defeat!

Violence. Iniquity. Destruction. Strife and contention. The wicked are winning. Is that a description of what we see today? Maybe so. But that's what we heard today from the prophet Habakkuk. That's what he saw. And God tells His prophet, I'm sending in the Babylonians. Wait... you're what? That's the nuclear option! But that's exactly what God is going to do. Such times are not the times to turn away from God and seek help elsewhere, but to turn toward Him and trust that He is working good, even if we cannot understand how.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When time is short, your priorities change. What you would have put off, you no longer do. So when the manager in the parable today heard these words, Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager, his life changed in a heartbeat. So Jesus' question for us today is this -- how come you're not like this spiritually? For the day is coming when the Master of all, the Lord of all, is going to call us to account. And then what happens when you are called to account for all this?

Today was a day that a great searching began. September 11, 2001. The searching was frantic and desperate at first. If there were any survivors, surely their injuries would be grave and they wouldn't be able to survive long. But there was more than one searching that started that day, September 11, 2001. The other was the searching for the man and the people responsible for this act. And for Jesus, too, the Good Shepherd searching for His sheep, there was a price to be paid. And Jesus paid it. He took responsibility for all the sin, all the rubble, all the death, all the chaos, all the grief caused by our sin.