Getting Ready for Sunday: John 1:43-51 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, January 14th

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, January 14, is from the Gospel of John chapter one, verses 43 through 51. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, he found Phillip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus entered him. Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel entered him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these? And he said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man, Here ends the reading. This passage takes place right after Jesus is identified by John as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then we see Andrew and Peter following him. Then Jesus goes up, and he finds Philip and says, Follow me. Philip, then goes and finds Nathaniel and says, we found the Messiah, it's Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel has doubts. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Mean Nazareth is the podunk town out in the middle of nowhere, everybody's poor, nothing is good. It is the sticks. It is the hillbillies of Israel. Philip doesn't argue, and this is what I love about this passage. He doesn't argue with him. He doesn't try to debate him. He doesn't say, Oh, he does all these things. It's no evidence. It's just come and see. This is how we do it. Right? We we, we don't present evidence. We don't tell people like, here's a long list of why Jesus is awesome. We say come and see, experience Christ, experience His Word, experience His grace. It's not like being a Christian is good for your health. Being a Christian is good for the country, being a Christian will make Western culture great and wonderful. None of that it's experience Christ. Come and see. And so much of that is just like you invite someone to worship, you invite someone to hear the word of but God proclaimed to read the Bible, you, you gather together around Christ in His Word, and you just say, Come and see. And when Jesus sees Nathaniel, he shows Nathaniel right away, something is different about Jesus. He sees Nan Nathaniel says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. And Nathaniel says, what? You don't know me from Adam. How do you know me? He says, before it filled, Philip called you. When you're under the fig tree, I saw you. We have no idea what this means. There are hints, legends about fig trees and studying God's Word. And people have tried to fill in the gaps and understand what what it means about the fig tree or whatever it is. But what really matters is that Jesus proved himself to Philip or to Nathaniel. And Nathaniel responds, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel, whatever it was about the fig tree, and the no deceit and whatever it is. It was enough for the Nathaniel to know something was going on. And Jesus says, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things Cindy's. So Jesus is predicting that Nathaniel and the rest of the disciples will see some pretty amazing things more amazing than Jesus knowing what was going on. And then he says, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. They will see greater things, they will see miracles, they will see Jesus feeding the 5000, they will see him die, and then they will see him alive. These are amazing and great and powerful things. But what soulmate, what also is amazing about Jesus is that the end of this gospel, he turns to another disciple, who saw and only believed, because he saw Thomas, he says, Do you believe because you see me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And what we have is the witness, and of the apostles and the testimony of them, we get to hear their eyewitness versions of what Jesus did and said, and we get to believe, even though we weren't there, we get to believe their witness, and without seeing, and what a joy it is, we can hear what they saw, and understand what they did. Jesus ends this passage with truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. This reminds me of the story of Jacob, Jacob after he had deceived his brother, he runs off on his way to his uncle Laban. And while he is in the wilderness, he sets his head down on a rock, and he has a dream. And the dream is that there is an a ladder, going up into heaven on the place where his head lies. And he sees angels ascending and descending on that place. And he when he wakes up, he's he says, surely this is the house of God, and I did not know it. What Jesus is doing is he's referencing this passage from the Old Testament about the God's house being in this place, this place called Beth l, a house of God. And we see Jesus now is God in this place. And many people would see him and not realize it, as the angels are ascending and descending. He is the Word made flesh, who who dwells among us, and we get to see the glory of God. And that's what this passage is referencing this Jacob's Ladder, and the location of God in this place is now Christ. And that is the most amazing thing. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, January 14th

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, January 14 comes from First Corinthians chapter six, verses 12, through 20. All things are lawful for me. But not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never? Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her. For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Here's the reading. This is a challenging passage, because it seems like St. Paul is reacting to some ideas that are coming out of Corinth. In the in the text, he repeats a couple of things that are in quotation marks. It begins with, quote, All things are lawful for me, and quote, but not all things are helpful. What St. Paul doing, it seems like is that he must have gotten some comments from Corinth. And he's using them to react to what what is going on. The idea that they would have said is that all things are lawful for me, I can do whatever I want in Christ, right? Because the law of God, the Old Testament law has now been fulfilled and no longer applies to the church. It applied to ancient Israel, but in Christ, the Gentiles and the Christian church, we do not have to follow it. So All things are lawful. But then he says, but not all things are helpful. Again, he goes, All things are lawful, but I will not be dominated by anything. And then here's another, quote, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and quote, and he goes, and God will destroy both one and the other. What must be happening here is someone has taken the freedom that we have in Christ. And what they're doing is using it as an excuse for lawlessness for sin. Specifically, what we have going on is sexual immorality. Because that's what he says, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord, for the body. This is a huge problem that people misunderstand about the gift of the gospel and the free gift of grace that we have in Jesus Christ. Because we hear Jesus forgives your sin. It is all by grace, there is nothing you can do. In fact, no act you can do can please God in any way. And we go, awesome. That's fantastic. I love that news. That means I can go do whatever I want. And all I have to do is come back on Sunday and say, Oh, forgive me for this thing I did. I love it. I'm going to do it again. Of course, that's not how it works. But that is a common misunderstanding about Christianity is that you just go out and sin and then you say you're sorry, and then you can do it again and just keep up keep at it. What Christian churches often do then is that we say, we, we think we have to threaten someone salvation, to be able to get them to obey. And so we say, Ah, if you're going to be a real Christian, you have to, but that's not how St. Paul goes about it. St. Paul does something different. He calls on the nature of God's salvation, to tell us how to behave. So he goes the body is not And for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, and God raised the Lord, and will also raise us up by His power. So our body is not meant for this evil thing. It's meant for God. And so what it means is this, this is not a salvation thing. Paul is saying that we have been saved, we have this promise, we've been raised from the dead with Christ. And he claims us, which means that there's there are implications for our behavior. And then he goes into that, in this particular issue about prostitution. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make the members of a prostitute? Never? Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her, for as it is written, the two will become one flesh. So what he says is that we who are in Christ, we've been saved by Him, we are members of His Body. But when we commit sexual immorality, we join ourselves with the other person. Now, this is true in that day, when it would have been a prostitute someone you pay to have sex with, or maybe even someone like a temple prostitute might have been the situation there, where sex is a part of the ritual of worshipping a false god. And they're just like, I can do whatever I want. And he's saying, when when we join together in this act, to become one, and then you take that and you bring that into your communion with Christ. Now, most of us don't have this challenge of paying someone for this kind of thing. But the sexual immorality is just as a big bigger deal today, as it always has been, because we have urges, and we'd like to act them out. And the same thing applies for us in in our sexual life, is that when we have partners outside of marriage, we are joining ourselves into this into this act that we should not. And we're making Christ a part of that since we are members of His Body. That's why we we live in holiness. Say St. Paul continues, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him, Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. So here he's talking about how this particular kind of sin is, is, is not outside of us, but inside of us, and it affects our bodies that God has chosen for us. And he uses the language of a temple of the Holy Spirit. And the idea behind this is that our bodies are like temples set aside for God, and they should be holy and sanctified. Which means that joining into into these acts our bodies, actually is a way of de sanctifying the temple. And so what we want is our bodies to be holy and righteous before God. Now, the my body is a temple is often something that people will talk about when they're talking about fitness. Right? My body is a temple. So I only put in, in organic food and I, I run and I work out so that I can have six pack abs because my body is a temple. That is not at all what St. Paul is talking about. That is totally wrong. He's saying your body is holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells within, keep it holy. Now, of course, this this passage is is his law, right? He's saying, we are we are saved, we are made holy, we should act that way we should glorify God in our body, and not by joining in in these difficult and sinful acts. But we know that we're sinners too. And so as we we we rest in the promise, the Holy Spirit is in us that God has saved us even as we fight against these these urges that sometimes we lose too. But we have to remember that the battle is worth fighting. The job is worth it. Glorifying God in our bodies is worth fighting against these urges, because we have the salvation of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit in us. We need to keep at it, even if it's tough.

And that means we just don't Give up, not to people who've just given up on this and acted as if you just can't stop it. Or even worse, a human being just isn't living a fulfilled life unless they have lots of partners and they go out and they sow their wild oats before they get married, and settle down. Now, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Glorify God with your body. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 139:1-10 The Psalm for Sunday, January 14th

Psalm 139:1-10

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, January 14, is Psalm 139, verses one through 10. Oh, Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways, even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, oh, Lord, you know it all together, you have me in behind, and before you lay your hand upon me, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence. If I ascend to heaven, you were there. If I make my bed in shale, you were there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me. And your right hand shall hold me. Here ends the reading. The psalm begins with the sure knowledge that God knows us, and is with us in all things. Oh, Lord, you have searched me and know me when, you know when I sit down. And when I rise up, You discern my thoughts from afar. So God knows us, not just by looking down upon us from up in heaven, but he actually understands our thoughts and our feelings and our paths. And that continues, you search out my path and my lying down, you are acquainted with all my ways. God knows everything that we do. He is with us in all things. And continues, even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, oh, Lord, you know it all together. So God doesn't just know like, watching what we do, he knows what we will do. So even before we speak, God knows what we will say. Even before we wake up, God knows what we will do. God knows all things, the future, the past and everything in between. And he is there with us in all of it. You have me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. Now, you might wonder what Wait, you him me in? Is that like a fence is the blocking? I think what is going on here? Is it saying that God hems the the person onto the right path. It's a little bit like bumpers in bumper bowling. Right? When you go to a bowling alley, and you've got a really young kid who's not very good at it, they'll bring the bumpers in, and then they bowl the ball and a bounces back and forth. But it doesn't go in the gutter. And it's going to hit something right. When God hems in David, it means he's keeping him on the right path. He's keeping him from falling off the path from one side to the other. And it's part of God's good and mighty power. Now, this can feel pretty bad when you really want to run off the path and jump into sin and do some terrible things. But in the end, it's pretty good because God's power to hem us in through his law through His Word through through his the actions that he does in the world. They help us because we want to be on the right path. We want to be heading towards God's salvation. We don't want to run off into shit into great sin and despair and vice and all those things that would would lead us away from God. We want him to hem us in. And so he goes Such knowledge is too wonderful me, for me, it is high, I cannot attain it. The idea of God's presence and his constant care for us is so amazing. It's just it's hard to understand. Because we look at a material world and we see people all around us we don't see God. It's not like he comes down and his. It's like there's this flash of fire and he says, Don't take this job. It's all in human things all through vocation, all through through life and experience and learning and lessons and the word of God that spoken through people. And so it's an amazing thing what God does, how He guides us and cares for us behind the scenes. And the next move is really interesting. He goes, where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in che Oh, you are there. If I take Wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. Now, this passage for Christian is just a wonderful and amazing promise, right? Can I can I get out of God's grasp? Is the question. If I'm up in heaven, God's there, if I'm in the grave, God is there. If I'm if I'm out in the morning, rising with the sun, God is there, if I'm down in the bottom of the ocean, God is there, we cannot be alone. How amazing is it that it's even true, when we are down in shale is that God loved us so much that Jesus Christ entered into the grave with us into shale oil with us, so that he could be there with us. But this isn't just joyful. Because if you are not in a great relationship with God, where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I free from the presence? If I ascend to heaven? You're there. If I go into my bed and shale you're there to if I'm making the wings of the morning and I dwell in the uttermost parts of the seat, even there, you are there to judge me. Because we can't escape God. The question is on this is, what is that presence of God for us? Is it justice and righteousness through Christ, joy and salvation? Or is it the judgment of God in His presence around us, seeing what we do? The only difference is by being in Christ, following him, hearing His Word, and following his path. That ends the reading for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Samuel The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, December 24th

1 Samuel 3:1-20

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lordwas calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, January 14, is First Samuel chapter three, verses one through 20.

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Ely. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no frequent vision. At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, were the ark of God was

then the Lord called Samuel. And he said, Here I am, and ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call lie down again. So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call my son lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he rose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore, Eli said to Samuel, go, lie down. And if he calls you, you shall say, speak, Lord, for Your servant. Here's. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood calling as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak for your servant. Here's.

Then the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel, at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day, I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice, or offering forever.

Samuel Leigh until morning, then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, and he said, Here I am. And Eli said, what was it that he told you do not hide it from me? May God do so to you and more, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.

So Samuel told him everything, and he had nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him.

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. He runs the reading.

This is a rather famous reading from the book of First Samuel, often called the call of Samuel. So the young man, Samuel, the lad, probably, you know, 13 ish, was ministering to the Lord. And it says that there was no frequent vision. So this would have been a time in the history of God's people when there wasn't a prophet or an ongoing revelation of God coming to the people. Something that happened occasionally throughout the history of Israel. Eli was the high priest who was taking care of the temple. Excuse me, not the temple, it was the tabernacle. And Samuel would have been given to him by his mother when he was old enough to be raised in the temple.

So Samuel, He lives down and goes to sleep. And he hears the voice of God. Three times he runs to Eli and says, Here I am for you called me. And Eli says, No, I didn't call you. I can imagine that the second time. Eli might have been a little grumpy, having been waked up woken up in the middle of the night. But the third time he realizes something is up. So he says,

Go lie down. And if he calls to you say, speak, Lord for your servant hears.

So Eli, no

What's going on? He realizes after the third time that the voice had called for Samuel that something was happening. Samuel was not hearing things. Nobody was playing a trick. It must be God.

So it happens. Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel says, Speak for your servant hears. And here are the words of the prophecy that Samuel gets for the very first time. Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declared to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.

Yikes.

This is not often where the reading ends. This is actually an optional part of the reading. Very often, the reading for this Sunday ends at verse 10. Where it goes, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel says, Speak for your servant. Here's.

And that's much more fun, isn't it? You get you imagine the boy Samuel, he hears the Word of God, and He shall think, yes, I get to hear from God isn't this wonderful. And then we end the reading, and we can think it is wonderful and cute and be done.

But that's not where it ends, right? A prophet is not someone who hears from God. A prophet is someone who hears from God and speaks the message.

And Samuel gets one that will make everyone's ears tingle, their spines will shiver, when they hear about what happens to Eli, the high priest,

his house and his family will be destroyed, punished. That's because Eli, the bad father is allowing his sons, the priests, to use their offices for their own good to abuse the tabernacle to steal from the people. And he's not putting a stop to it. That is what it says when his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

And God looks at his tabernacle, and his high priest, and he knows that something needs to be done.

And this poor boy, Samuel is the one who has to share this message.

Think about it. Samuel had been raised by Eli from right after he was able to be separated from his mother. He had lived in the tabernacle with Eli helped out all this time, worked with him taking care of him doted over him. And when Eli's became blind, he served him. And now he has this message.

And best of all, he can't hide it from Eli, because Eli wakes up Samuel, and he's like, tell me what the Lord said to you. And you better not hide a thing. He threatens him. He says, May God do so to you? And more. Also, if you hide anything from me of all he told you.

So Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him.

And here's something that I think we often overlook in this story, this little saying, and Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.

There's a lot going on in this little passage. I think one is it shows that Eli is still a faithful follower of Israel. Yeah, he screwed up. He's a high priest, and he failed in his duties. But he still accepts God's judgment on him.

He still says it's the Lord. He knows what he's doing. He'll do what's right. And so he just takes it. And there's a there's a level of faith in there that just says, Okay.

And the other thing I think is Eli knows that God is right.

I'm sure that Eli has spent a lot of time like stressing out about his sons like wondering how did they fall so far from the tree? Why were they so evil and using their position as priests of God to extort from the people and do horrible things and blaspheme against God? He's like, didn't I raise them? Right?

Well,

he knows that God is punishing him justly. It's very simple. And I think that's going on here.

What's interesting, I think about this story, is that this one

What is halfway through the story, a very cute, loving, classic Christian story, the kind of story that you put in children's bibles to be like, yes, the children too can hear from God

flips into a judgement story, that being a prophet of God is not always fun and good news. Sometimes it's judgment. And so what we hear there, I think, is a

thing that we often have as Christians, as we sometimes leave out half the story of God's message to the world. We like to talk about Jesus's love. We locked it like to talk about his sacrifice. But we don't talk about his judgment. We don't talk about his law.

And what that means then, so often, we just get a whole bunch of saccharin sweetness. And everybody just miss it, that God is going to come and break judgment on the world, that all who are in Christ will be saved and all who are not will be condemned. The Gospel means nothing. Without without the law.

No one will flee from the coming judgment and turn to Christ for salvation. Unless they know the coming judgment is happening.

What we need to do is what Samuel did, tell, tell everything and hide nothing.

That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Word of God Over The Water: Sermon for January 7th, 2023

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had a lot of holidays in the Christian church, beginning with Christmas Eve and Christmas day and then stretching through now there's a whole lot of things to celebrate. That happened. The day after Christmas is a big day. It is St. Stephen's day, the very first martyr in the Christian church. And, you know, you probably knew this already because of the song Good King once this law, right? Good Kingdom once this law worked out, when on the feast of Stephen, right, the day after Christmas, we also have other days of celebration. New Year's Day is a holy day in the church. It is eight days after Jesus was born, when he was circumcised, and first shed his blood in fulfilling the law for us. You might think, well, that's a little weird day to celebrate. But it's a big moment. In the Christian church. There's also the holy innocence. That is the day that Herod sent out his armies after the wise men left. And he went and killed all the young boys in Bethlehem, two years old, and under the first martyrs of Jesus's day. And yesterday, we celebrated the Epiphany, when the wise men came and saw Jesus for the first time and worshipped him, and gave him gold and frankincense and myrrh. Lots of holidays, in the last couple of weeks. And today, we finish out these series of holidays with the baptism of our Lord, Jesus being revealed for the first time as Son of God, to the people who would hear him speak, going out to the Jordan River and being baptized by John. Sometimes I think we forget how cool this moment is. It's only a few sentences. But I want you to imagine what it might be like, actually seeing it happen experiencing it, whether you're Jesus or someone, they're just watching. The heavens are torn open. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove, and a voice cries out from heaven, you are my beloved son with you. I am well pleased. That's kind of a cool day. I think if that happened to me, it might make my day. Probably I'd be pretty happy after that. might even make my year or perhaps best day in my lifetime. Pretty cool stuff going on. And we read through it, just a few sentences, and it's gone. We don't always reflect on the amazing thing that happened. When Jesus is revealed as the Son of God in this baptism. The Spirit and the Word come together. And it's on this day that our lectionary pairs an odd reading. You know, I have chosen to preach on the Old Testament readings throughout this year. And they often pair readings with their gospels and the Old Testament along a theme, especially on holidays like today. And in Genesis one. We're talking about this creation story. In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. Now, we often read the creation story, Genesis one all the way through in our lectionary pops up at least once, usually. And when we do that, it's pretty clear that it's focusing in on the idea of God being all powerful, and over creation. God has made the world and everything and everything is underneath his control and power. And then he hands off managing his creation to the human beings He created, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion, he says. But here today, it's only got the first day. It's a little hard, right? Why is it that God or our lectionary has paired this story with the baptism of Jesus? And I think what it has to do is the Parents have the Holy Trinity in this creation story, because it says In the beginning God created the heavens in the earth. And then a little bit later, in the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. So what we get is, there is the father, a voice, the spirits hovering over some water, and the Son of God in the word, let there be light. It actually kind of sounds like Jesus's baptism, right? You've got the father of voice being spoken, the Holy Spirit coming down like a dove over the water, and the sun is there to hear it all. What an amazing day. And this Genesis Reading helps us to see the power of God's word. Because when God says something, it happens. God says, Let there be light. And then there was light, it came into being God's creation was just a voice spoken into the void. It did not say God got together and he bound up a whole bunch of hydrogen atoms. And he smashed it together with his hands until it's really tight, and then formed into a star. Let there be light. And there was light. God's voice did it. And it's the voice of God that is important, the word of God. That is important as we consider Jesus's baptism. So as we celebrate Jesus's baptism, we celebrate two things. First, this baptism is a revelation of Jesus is God's Son and the beginning of His ministry. From here, he goes out into the wilderness, and then he preaches the kingdom of God is here. Until we remember that Jesus is baptism sanctifies, the waters of baptism for us. That the experience of Jesus paves the way through his life, desert, death and resurrection, for us to be chosen as God's sons with Jesus, and be fellow heirs with Him. And to be filled with the Holy Spirit just as He is. By His life, death and resurrection, that he makes this happen for us. And Genesis, points us to the power of God's Word. And it makes me ask a bit of a question. What is it that makes a baptism, a baptism? When we splash water on someone, what makes it a baptism? Now, this question may seem weird to you, because you know, especially if you've been a Lutheran your whole life, you're just like, well, it's just is right. We know what it does. When someone comes forward. We say the words we pour the water on their head, and they're baptized, and then they're one of us, right? That's just how it works. And I do that with a lot of things in my life, right? I have a computer. I do not know how it works. It is a box. And it might as well be magic. I mash my fingers on the keyboard. Cool stuff happens on the screen. And it's great. I don't need to know how it works. Until it breaks, right. Kristen had a computer that stops charging not too long ago. And we're like, oh, no, what's going on? And I did my magic thing. You know, the magic thing that you do when your computer doesn't work? You turn it off and you turn it back on again. And it didn't fix it. I'm like, Oh, I'm out of things to do. We had to take it all the way down to the Apple Store. And they figured out that it was an IO board. Just wasn't working wasn't charging. Do you know what an IO board is? I know input output that doesn't fix anything. It just makes the name longer. Once that was fixed, it was back to being a perfectly good magic box again. Sometimes you have to take things apart. Sometimes times you got to know what's going on to be able to understand the thing you need to really look at it.

So what is it that makes baptism work? What is it that makes a baptism? A Baptism? You can go to a pool, splash people with water, that's not a baptism. My brother and I, we love the Super Soakers back in the day and we pump those things up and he spray each other down. And that's not a baptism. What makes it work? What makes it so that when the father looks down on the person who is being baptized, he says, You are my son, whom I love with you, I am well pleased. Well, Luther gives us some help. He asked the question, what is baptism in his Small Catechism, and he says, baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God's command, and combined with God's word. Then he goes, which is that word of God? He writes this, Christ, our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. There says something pretty simple. What is baptism? It is the water, included with God's command, and combined with God's word. So what you get is, Jesus says, do it. And then he gives us the words, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And it's the word that empowers the sacraments to do their thing, because it's the same word that said, let there be light, and there was light that sends us to baptize. See, there's nothing magic about the water. We, we take the water from the tap, pour it into the bowl, we bring it out, and we set it down. And then when we're done, we take it back out and we dump it. It's the same water that you drink. It's nothing magic about it. We don't order it from the Jordan River and have it shipped in so that the magical properties of Jesus's baptism can be given to you. That's not what makes the baptism work. It's the voice that said, let there be light. And there was light. That also says, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. It's not even the pastor who makes a baptism work. There is no indelible quality, no magical gift that the pastor receives that makes a baptism happen. Sometimes we think that I want you to imagine for a second, the wizard Gandalf probably have an image of him or maybe any other wizard there. There's a common image right? wizards in our mind, and in our imagination, they typically are wearing a well. A white robe, right? I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm wearing a white robe. They usually have a rope tied around their waist. You don't get to see it. But you know who's wearing a white rope when he's up here. The vicar. We call it a Cincture. They often also wear a really tall pointy hat. Do you know who wears really tall pointy hats? Bishops, right. Gandalf also walks around with a really big stick could dunk right? Everywhere he goes, who also walks around with a really big stick a bishop. They call it a Crozier. I bet you never really thought about why are our wizards in fantasy look just like pastors. Because some people think that pastors can do magic with the waters of baptism, or with Holy Communion. But it's not because I wave my hands over the cauldron of God's word and the baptism and say Ah, now it's a baptism. It's very simple. The same voice that said, let there be light sends me to say, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. That's what does it. The command of God, and the voice of God. Luther says it this way. How can water do such great things? Certainly not just water. But the word of God in and with the water does these things along with the faith which trust this word of God, in the water, or without God's Word, the water is plain water, and no baptism. But with the Word of God is a baptism. That is a life giving water rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth of the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three, he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit comi poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. Jesus gives us this amazing thing when he sends us to be baptized. We have the word of God, the same word of God that spoke in creation that said, let their light be light and brought light into existence. That same voice said, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it's that word that makes a baptism into a baptism that saves you because it's the power of the Word of God at work behind it all. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What God Has Done! Sermon for December 31st, 2023

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.

For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
    and her salvation as a burning torch.
The nations shall see your righteousness,
    and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will give.
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Merry Christmas. Every year we tell the story of Jesus birth. And then we get to see the stories of the times unfolding after that. I love the story of Simeon and Anna, and seeing the history of the people who get to get to see Jesus for the first time and recognize him. And their amazement at the salvation that God brings when he brings his son to the temple through Mary and Joseph. I love the stories of all of the things that we hear in the church. And the traditions that we carry on in every congregation, every place has a different way of celebrating Christmas of the different decorations, schemes, the different traditions that they hold. These things go on and on. And they tell the story of who a congregation is and what a people is. And one of the things that we in the church need to remind ourselves of it sometimes is our history, and the amazing ways that God has worked through the church over the years, and how he brings his grace forth, in times of difficulty, and in times of joy throughout the history of God's people. And one of the reasons we look back at the book of Isaiah, looking at chapter 61, and 62, is to see the pattern of God's grace at work over and over and over again through history. We look back at what God did with his people. And we can see examples of what he does for us in that as well. What I'd like to do is take a look at what God says. In this passage. He says, For as the Earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up. So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. It continues for Zion sake, I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem sake, I will not be quiet until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nation's cells shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, that the mouth of the Lord will give you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. What this says is that God is going to do something amazing for his people. God is going to bring about a change in their fortunes, that they would not have expected. To understand that of course, we have to remember that Isaiah is looking at a time of challenge for Israel. Israel is about to face Babylonian invasion, destruct destruction, horrible tragedy, perhaps the greatest tragedy in all of Israel's time up until when Rome comes in, and destroys Jerusalem again. They will come they will tear down the city, tear down the walls, and worst of all, destroy the temple and carry off all of the instruments of God from the sanctuary. Everything except for Well, we think the Ark of the Covenant, which has been lost ever since. Can you imagine the tragedy the thing that is the symbol of the presence of God, where God says it was his footstool, or maybe his throne. All of it is now gone. The city that was the sign of God's presence and love destroyed and people sent into exile last forever. Now, you could look at that. And you could say, Ah, yes, we see. God's people have been defeated. They've been destroyed. God was not strong enough to save them. And the Babylonians were too powerful for him. That's certainly what ancient people would have seen. Looking at a story like that. God wasn't strong enough. His promises weren't powerful enough. The gods of the Babylonians when but that's not what happened. What's amazing about what God did in the Old Testament story He is that he used tragedy and sadness, to bring about even greater righteousness amongst his people. They were hauled off out of Babylon, into Babylon. And there they rediscovered God's promises. They realized where they had gone wrong. And we get to see some amazing examples of God's showing his mind and his power, even in Babylon. We know the stories of Daniel. Now he's protected from lions, how he shows up the advisors of the people around him. We know the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the fiery furnace and how God shows His power protecting them from that it's disaster. God led his people through this terrible time. And when the new King Cyrus of Persia comes in, he brings the people back. And they return from exile, dedicated to God. And for the next 300 years, the people of Israel are studying his promises. They are rebuilding the temple, bringing back the sacrifices, and they become the dedicated people of God that would produce Pharisees, as the leaders of God's religious people. But the people who hold strictest to the law are the ones that are high in the esteem of the nation. A total reversal of what had happened before that God used this tragedy, the Babylonian exile, to turn his people back to his promises. And the faithfulness of Israel grew out of that. And it was into that the gods sent His Son Jesus Christ. So that there would be people in a temple who would rejoice when the child came in, who would be looking for the promise, so that when John the Baptist went out into the wilderness, people knew what he was talking about, and we're excited and ready. When Jesus went preaching from town to town, they would know that a Savior was on his way. And they'd be able to see through His miracles and His sermons and his workings, that this was it. But then, tragedy struck again. That same Savior, who had come to free them, was arrested. He was killed, and laid in a tomb. But of course, this tragedy, it didn't stop God, either. He used this tragedy, the killing of the Son of God to save the world. In fact, this was his plan the whole time. To send the eternal Son in the form of a human being, to live and die for us. So that by His resurrection, he would bring out righteousness for the whole world, that it would sprout up out of this tragedy. And the message of this righteousness went out, all throughout the Roman Empire, out to the east and the west, into Africa and Persia, and everywhere else. And it began to spread. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ could have looked like a defeat to just about anybody. But God turned it into salvation for the world. This wasn't the only historical tragedy that God has used to bring righteousness to the world. We can look at the Roman Empire. The persecution under Diocletian, was a terrible and horrible persecution of the church. This was one of the biggest programmatic persecutions in the Roman Empire. Now, we often think about this history as the whole time, there was just like the emperor was out trying to kill Christians everywhere. But most of the time, that wasn't the case. Most of the time, Christianity was persecuted in pockets. Every once in a while some guy would get it in his head that he needed to impress the Caesar, and he would do something to the Christians in that place. It wasn't until Diocletian that we got that systematic programmatic persecution of all Christians in the empire. And what they would do is they would go to these churches, and they would go after the pastors, the bishops, the priests I tried to take their Bibles.

And the idea was you turn over your Bibles, you offer up a little sacrifice to the Caesar and for the good of Rome, and you are set free. And if you didn't, sometimes they would throw you to the lions. Sometimes they would do terrible things or crucify you or whatever. But the standard one was to hamstring the church, the bishops, what they would do is they would take on one leg, slice through the hamstring on the other leg through the Achilles tendon. pretty terrible, right? What a horrible thing. And now, when you're sitting around as a pagan, under Diocletian, you would look at this persecution, the destruction of churches and Bibles, and you would see, look at this, we're winning. That's not how it worked out, right. The persecution under Diocletian, actually became the the beginning of the growth of the church in the Roman Empire. You've heard it before that the blood of the martyrs is the seeds of the church. It was the dedication and faithfulness of God's people through this difficult time. That led to the explosion of Christianity through the Roman Empire. God took a tragedy, by the power of His grace, and turned it into righteousness and glory for the church. The people suffering under this horrible persecution. It led to expansion and growth and the message of the Gospel going forth into the whole world. Is it an amazing how God does that? We see tragedies happening like that, all the time. One of the great tragedies that happened after that was when the the Christian Center of of gospel and study Africa and the Middle East, fell to conquerors. We don't think of the places today as centers of Christian power and study places like Egypt, Arabia, Africa. That was where Christianity was strongest, where the great minds of the church were produced all the way up until they were conquered and forced to convert. Now, you might say, What a terrible tragedy. What a horrible thing God had had allowed this to happen. And people would look at that and say, Oh, what a defeat, Christianity must have lost in this region of the world forever. You know, it took a while. But that's not true. If you look at the places where we think that there aren't any Christians, places that are centers of Islam, where it's the only legal religion, these are the places where Christianity is growing fastest, where God's people meeting in secret, and underground are sharing the gospel, where the word of God is growing, and righteousness is springing forth out of the ground in amazing ways, and people are fleeing these places, and converting in droves, in Europe, in America, all over the world. It only took about 1000 years. But God is doing something amazing, isn't it? We see the growth and the power of Christianity and God's grace springing forth amongst the nations. What God does, very simply, as he uses the same things, the means of grace, His word and Sacraments, to spread the gospel and righteousness, to cause righteousness and praise to sprout up almost out of the ground before the nations you can see that in story after story in place, after place. You can see that in the United States. Now we have a story of America as being a place that was always extremely Christian. All right, way back in the day, we called ourselves a Christian nation. Some of that comes from the early settlers, who came specifically to establish a Christian utopia. You know, the pilgrims, they wanted to come here and everybody was gonna be amazing Christians, they're all gonna believe all be perfectly faithful. And it worked great for like 20 years. And their kids were not. As the colonies expanded, Christianity was actually pretty rare. I bet you don't know this, scholars estimate that in 1776, when we became a nation, only 17% of Americans belonged to a church. I bet you thought it was a lot more 6070 80% 17%. Kind of crazy. The greatest growth and expansion in the Christian church in America happened just prior to 1850 in this timeframe, where 35% of Americans were members of a Christian church, it doubled all the way up to 35%. This was what we call the Second Great Awakening. This is camp meetings out in the wilderness. This is hundreds of people gathering together, converting and joining the church and still only 35%. What an interesting thing as we look back at our history compared to what it would have been like, in the 50s and 60s, the great Christian America, that was the 1850s is nothing, right? So we are sitting around here with about 46% of Americans are members of a church or synagogue, according to Pew Research, which means that we are doing far better than any time in our history. And yet, compared to when many of you were young. It's horrible. A terrible tragedy. In fact, in the last, I don't know, 20 years, we've dropped 10 15%. In the United States. We can see that and say What a tragedy. Our churches are shrinking. The United States is becoming more and more secular, and people are getting crazier and crazier because of it. And you can say, Wow, maybe the church is losing. Maybe this tragedy shows that the power of the gospel just doesn't work the way it used to. The God's people have moved on. All we have to do is hunker down and hide and hope that something changes. But God has always caused his righteousness to spring up before the nation. He has used difficult times and tragedies, year after year after year, century after century to cause amazing things to happen. All you have to do is look at the history of the church. Look at places all around the globe, where God's people looked defeated, where they looked destroyed, where the power and promise of the gospel seemed not to do anything. And then a switch flips. Something happened. And out of nowhere, God causes righteousness to spring up almost as if it came out of the ground.

We can trust in this promise. We can look back at the history of the church and take a bigger picture, a picture bigger than our own youth or the history of first Lutheran Church. We can take a look at the way that God has always functioned. He has always delivered His grace and His promises through congregations going up and down in times of history. And he has always used times of decline and persecution for the good of his church. And as we consider our lives now we can say God doing something again? Is he taking this time in the United States of America, to prepare the church for something new? Are we taking a time of examining ourselves, dedicating ourselves to faithfulness, hearing the gospel and understanding who God is to prepare for another explosion? Maybe it might not be in the next 10 years, 20 years, 50 years who knows, could be tomorrow. God has always used these times, to prepare his church for more, to prepare the gospel to go out into the world and be heard and received by 1000s. Millions. We can trust that same promise that it will always be at work. That's what he did in Babylon. He brought about a rebirth of the people of Israel dedicated to the promises. What he did under Diocletian, when the new emperor Constantine came in, and Christianity became legal, it's spread across the whole empire. What he did under Islam, as he's doing it now. And I think it's what will happen with us. The grace and mercy of the gospel can go out into a world that so desperately needs. And people are aching for I can see it. I think God is doing something amazing. And that's the promise we have is that God's grace and his mercy is always at work through the power of His Word. This promise will always go out, sometimes to deaf ears and persecution. But sometimes, God is getting ready to produce amazing things. It's just our job, to wait for him to be faithful and have God come through on his promises. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Your God Reigns! Sermon for Christmas Day, 2023

Isaiah 52:7-10

How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
    who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
    together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Merry Christmas. It is joyful to be able to wish you all a Merry Christmas, once again as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I love Christmas movies. And we in our household have a stable of movies that we like to watch around this time of year. It's interesting to see what they say the meaning of Christmas really is. We watch things like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, either the old short version with the song, you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch to go to one right. Or the new one with Jim Carrey. What is the meaning of Christmas there? It's about community. Right? The whole point of that movie is it's not the President's it's about getting together and singing nonsense songs. Daboo Doris, right. Whatever that is. About It's A Wonderful Life. What's the meaning of that one? I have to admit, I haven't seen it in a long time because I think it's the most boring movie ever made. I know. I know, breaking your hearts. But there's something about the person being a place a cog in society, and that everything depends on all of us working together. Oh, yeah. And every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. The meaning of Christmas. What about Miracle on 34th Street? The importance of believing in Santa. Right? That's kind of what it's about. Nobody believes it's actually the Santa's Christmas story. It's one of my favorites. It's all about a family that smell kind of quirky, a little weird. But they're together. I had one for Christmas vacation National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I thought, coming into watching it last night. That the meaning of Christmas, there was a family that gets together. But having seen it, I realized that the meaning of Christmas is how great it is to get a bonus check. Which is really everything is terrible until he gets some money. And then they celebrate. Do you notice what's missing? In every single one of those Christmas movies? Absolutely. Jesus. Hidden behind all of the things that we watch on television, or the things in the celebrations in our culture hidden behind all of that is the actual reason we are gathered here today in the celebration of the incarnation of the Son of God, as Jesus Christ was born to poor parents in a faraway land who had to hustle off to Bethlehem so that they could register for attacks that was coming and living in a relative's house that was so full with the other relatives who came that day that they had to stay with the animals. A poor child who was the king. That's what our readings today are all about. About a hidden King, underneath the poverty of Mary and Joseph. It's not just a king, God himself who comes down to lie in a manger about that big. Right. Jesus is a king who is hidden. Are Old Testament reading for today. Talks about the reign of the king, God himself. It says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness who publishes salvation who says to Zion, your god rain That's the message of Christmas, your God, rain. And Isaiah is day, this would have been a message of hope that someone would come and free the people from oppression. This time, oppression from an army of nations like a Syria, or Babylon or Persia or later the Romans would send armies into Israel and take over. And the people would expect a king, someone like King David, who rode around on a chariot who had a sword and a spear. And they wanted a king on a throne, full of power with a sword in his fist. And they look back at the mighty kings like David and say, Will there ever be a king like this again? Will someone come to save us?

But the mystery of today is that God reigns over all of creation, even without a king. What they missed at that time is publishing this message your God reigns with that God was actually the one behind Assyria and Babylon, sending the armies to punish and unfaithful Israel. And giving them a promise that He is the one behind everything. But even behind all this sadness that they were experiencing, he would not forget them. In Isaiah 10, God calls a Syria, the rod of His anger. And then he says because they took it too far, he would punish them as well. You see, God would reign over Israel, whether there was a king on the throne or not, God reigns. We can see that from 1000s of years later, as we look at the history of Israel, and we see them go from conquered by a Syria to conquered by Babylon off in exile. And then finally back and we see how God's plan was laid out over the years to lead us to the glorious day of Jesus Christ. That there would be a king who was born in Bethlehem, just as Isaiah predicted, that everything would happen exactly the way Isaiah said, throughout all of history. Your God reigns. That's the method and message of Christmas. For us, the story of Christmas is kind of similar to those expectations. Human beings always expect a king to come with power. Right? The Son of God, though, is born in that poor family. spends his first nights lying in a feed trough next to the animals. It's so strange, isn't it? For a king. Nobody expected that way. Nobody in Israel, nobody who was far away. And we know that because when the Weizmann hear about the King of the Jews, and they see the star, they don't go to the town of Bethlehem do they? Do they go to Jerusalem to Herod the king, where the palace is where the soldiers are, where the gold is in the mind and the power, they expected a king on a throne full of power with a sword in his fist. And they expected it to be a king like that. And they went, whereas this new baby King and the news shook Herod and rightly so. Because he wasn't in charge. God was you couldn't see it. If you only looked at the soldiers. You couldn't see it if you only looked at the gold and the parades and the power and the catapults and whatever they had. But if you knew the message of Isaiah, you would know your God reigns. And he is there in a manger in Bethlehem, hiding behind this tiny child ruling over all of creation. The King has come to God has become man. Your God reigns. That's the message that we have on Christmas Day, the message for all of us and the message of Jesus's ministry. When he was baptized, he went out and he said, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here. And if you looked behind him, there were no soldiers, spears, no armor, no wagons, or Treasury or anything like that. It was service, and miracles. He didn't amass wealth or power. He didn't do it any way, any way that anyone would expect. They wanted a king on a throne will full of power with a sword in his fist. But that wasn't Jesus. Even Peter wanted that, right. When Jesus started to say what he would do, where he would be crowned by being lifted up on a cross, Peter said, No way. You're gonna fight and you're gonna win. And it was the opposite, that Jesus would go and die on a cross and lifted up to his throne, which wasn't made out of gold, but wood, and nails with a crown that wasn't made out of precious gems, with thorns. And then he would die and rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, where now he sits at God's right hand reigning over all of creation. It's just not what you'd expect. If you thought that our God was the kind of king that everybody expects. You see, even today, we think that when we hear the message, your God reigns, that it should be powerful. It should be exciting. It should be big and loud. And it should win all the time. We don't have a message like a king anymore. We in America, we don't think kings are winning. What do we do? If the tech gurus, Steve Jobs is kind of the ultimate Epitome, which is why so many churches look like tech gurus speeches. Right? It's an empty stage, and a giant screen, and a guy in skinny jeans. And we look at those pastors and we say, look how successful they are. They're big and powerful and strong. They're exciting and amazing. But what are they missing? Jesus is the King. Your God reigns not in power, and might with a throne with a sword. rains in hidden ways, just as he always had, just in the same way he did when he came on earth. And yet, we still want something to be powerful. We want to worship experience that excites us and gets us moving. Even though Taylor Swift can do the same thing, can't she? Maybe it's more about those emotions than it is about the Holy Spirit. We want Christians who live the way we preach right? We preach the good news of Jesus Christ and it's all about love and service and then we don't do it. Right. And we get mad at the church because it's filled with sinners who aren't Jesus and yet, your god rains. He rains here in hidden way. He rains here through the Word and Sacraments. In the same way he lived the same way he died. He is hidden in the message of the gospel. The message is your God ray that he is coming back again. It's not that day, it will no longer be hidden by the King who is on the throne in heaven will finally come with the power and might we expect it He will make all things new. Until then he stays hidden behind the words of a faithful pastor in a congregation that may have five or 5000 people under the bread and the wine in our congregation, and every place where God's people gather. The message is your God reigns. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Prince of Peace Sermon for Christmas Eve, 2023

Isaiah 11

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
    and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Merry Christmas to you all. It's a joy that we get to celebrate Christ's incarnation and birth every year. This is the night where we do that. We remember that God became a human being came down to earth to join us in our human existence, and live as one of us. The readings tonight tell the salvation story over the course of the history of Israel, looking at Genesis, the fall into sin at Abraham and his gift of His Son, the predictions of a Savior who would come and then the story of Jesus being born, that same savior that was promised. Today, I'd like to take a look at this, the passages from Isaiah, that help us to see who Jesus is to be. Isaiah chapter nine, says that he will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace. Peace sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? I bet just about every one of you has a piece of your life, where you would like to bring that Prince of peace into right? At least to bring just regular old, plain old normal peace because we all something the Prince of Peace. What's amazing about this Prince of Peace is what the other passage in Isaiah describes his reign will be like, and it's pretty outstanding. He has the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. You shall not judge by by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness, He shall judge the poor. Righteousness, wisdom, understanding. And what an amazing result happens. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them. Oh, amazing, is that? It's actually kind of crazy, isn't it? To put a wolf and a lamb together in a pen pretty soon you only have one. You know which one it is, right? You put the leopard. And the young goats in the same space, you get a very short chase. And just a leopard remains. Wolves and lambs they fight. Leopards eat goats. What kind of piece is that? It's a crazy kind of piece. Right? Outside of our experience, something so crazy that you could set down a toddler with a cobra, and be happy about it. Can you imagine? We won't even let our kids play outside these days. The Prince of Peace? We could all use that kind of peace. Couldn't we? Wouldn't it be great if we could have leaders who are like this Prince of Peace? Perhaps the craziest thing about this prediction is that there might be a leader out there who has wisdom and understanding. When it'd be great if they would just not fight. If politics wasn't about blasting the other person if all they did was trying to bring about peace, justice. Couldn't we use that kind of peace? Wouldn't it be great if the people in our own lives could disagree with one another in love? Like we have a disagreement, and it doesn't devolve down to name calling bashing the They're running off to someone else and complaining about them. But we could simply just talk it out. Wouldn't it be great to have that kind of peace? But it's so rare? Wouldn't it be great if you could get along with your neighbors that way? I don't know about you, but I have really great neighbors. But not all of us do. Sometimes we fight about where they put the garbage can. Right? Sometimes what we do is we ask a simple request, and they yell back at you. Maybe it's not your neighbor, maybe it's your co worker. person you see every day classmate? Wouldn't it be great if we could have peace? Wouldn't it be great if our families, even just our families, could have peace all the time? The people who are supposed to love each other the most sometimes we fight each other, the hardest? And then we don't talk about it. And it builds up until we all get together for Christmas. And there is an explosion. Right? Wouldn't it be great if we could even have peace in our families? Wouldn't it be great if we could just have peace one place in our own hearts? I don't know about you. I'm a pretty happy guy. And even I have struggles. Don't always find peace in my own heart. Wouldn't it be great if we could have peace? That is what Jesus is about. He is the prince of peace, who comes to end all conflict, make wars cease. And his reign even is so radically peaceful that the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the goat with the leopard. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And we see the peace of Jesus in the way he came into this world. Not as a warrior king in Great King Herod's halls, but with the sheep and the donkey in a small house, in Bethlehem, lying in a manger, where it wasn't the mighty and the powerful, who heard the announcement of the Savior being born, but shepherds out in a field working hard all night long. who suddenly get to hear that a Pete a prince has come the Prince of Peace. And he comes to end all this conflict by taking care of the heart of conflict itself, our own sin. You see, conflict isn't just out in the world and other people's faults. It always starts in here with each one of us. That's what our opening reading from Genesis is all about. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the very first thing they do is blame each other. Right. Adam blames God for putting the woman there. Then he blames Eve. He blames the snake and no one takes responsibility. And they set the pattern for the rest of us. We don't have peace in our lives because we have sin in our hearts. And that peace causes conflict inside of us, in our families, and our neighborhoods, our workplaces and in the world. And what we need is the Prince of Peace, to come to us with his reign and rule to bring us peace. And that is Jesus. That's why He came to earth

to end the hostility between each other between us and God and to get rid of all All of our sin, the Prince of Peace came to bring that peace to you. And He does it by bringing his kingdom here. The Prince of Peace can come to you. Does that very simply, humbly and lowly. In a church, talk to the end of a parking lot, every Sunday morning. You've got normal human beings, none of whom who have true peace all on their own. With sin that brings about conflicts with problems in our families with hurts in our past with pain in our lives. And we come here because we need that Prince of Peace. Just like you, just like everyone, we need a Savior who came to earth to die for us, to rise for us, and who will make all things new. That Prince of Peace is wherever this ministry happened. So I encourage you, everyone who wants peace in your life, if you're seeking it in your own heart, in your communities, in your families, wherever it is, the only way to get it is to be where the Prince of Peace comes to fill you with His peace, to receive His Word, and Sacraments, to have him fill you with His peace. So that you can have it both now and when he returns to raise you from the dead. And so we come here tonight we celebrate a birth we sing the carols that we sing every year we think about the sheep and the shepherds and all of those cute and wonderful things. But at the heart of it all, is the Savior who wants to bring you peace wants to give that to you every single day of the year and calls you to come and receive it. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Can I Do For God? Sermon for Sunday, December 24th

2 Samuel 7:1-16

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in?I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

One of the nice things about the strangeness of this schedule for the church here is that we get to have the the last prediction of Jesus Christ birth, which happens on the fourth Sunday in Advent. Almost immediately, right before we celebrate it actually happening. See, that's what's going on this morning. We're in the Advent season. And we get the reading of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary. And he announces the good news to her. And she goes, Great, that sounds awesome. Which is kind of funny, because if an angel came to me in that position, I'd have some questions. We have a similar prediction. That is the prediction of what would happen in there with the story of David. Our Old Testament reading has the beginning of the covenant with David God's promised to him that he would establish for him a house and a kingdom that lasts forever. But it's kind of a weird story. Because it begins with a strange thing. David has an idea. Let's see what that idea is. So goes. Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord God had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the Lord of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan, Nathan said to the king, go, do all that in your heart for the Lord is with you. So this beginning verse helps us gives us some context. David, who had been made king of Israel prior to this had been fighting wars all the time, because that's what kings did in those days. He had to conquer cities, he had to defend Israel from their enemies. And in fact, the city he was living in now Jerusalem was a city that he himself had to take and make his own, make the capital city of the nation of Israel. So he had finally found rest, there was no war. And he had finally built himself a house in his capital city. And he looks around and he says, Wait a second. We've got to city, we're not wandering anymore. And I built myself a house. But God is living in a tent. This seems weird. Now, there are two reasons. God, David might have wanted to build a permanent temple for God in his city. One of those reasons was a good old political reason. David was a king. And he wanted the people to listen to him. Which meant if he built a temple for God that could not move. And he put it in his capital city, the city that he had newly conquered, it would mean that everybody in all the nation of Israel would have to come to his city to worship. And they would have to do that for all the required festivals. Because the tabernacle it moved around, it was wherever the priests decided to place it. So if they had to come to Jerusalem, they would be there for for the Passover, for Pentecost for the day of atonement for tabernacles, five times a year, everyone in Israel would travel to his city. And David thought, well, this is a good way to secure my power, and to show everyone that God had chosen him. But I think there's another important reason there to not just the political. David simply wanted to honor God. And I think that's what is, is hidden there. When he says, See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. David is saying, I've got this really cool house, and it's pretty amazing. But God's in this funky old tent. He deserves more than that. And it's a holy desire, a desire to do something for God, to say, God, I want to honor you, I want to serve you, I want to take care of you. And I think every Christian can have can associate themselves with that desire, right? When we think about our Savior, our God, we often think to ourselves, God, you've done so much for me, You sent Your Son to die for me, you you've chosen me forgiven my sins, I want to serve you. I want to do something for you. And anyone who has faith has that desire, I think it is simply springs from the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what we want. So the Nathan the prophet turns to David and says, What a great idea, go for it. Except God comes to Nathan in the middle of the night with a different word. Here's what he says, go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? Have I not lived? I have. Have I not lived in a house since the day I brought my people up from Israel from Egypt to this day. But I have been moving about in a tense for my dwelling in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? God almost sounds offended here. At least that's how I read it. He goes, Well, wait a second. You I get that you want to serve me? But why this way? Did I ask anybody to build me a house? Did I tell you, you know, this tent, it's no good. I really need something super impressive. Really. When God chose to be with his people, he did command something. He said, Build me a tent. We'll call it the tabernacle. And this is where my presence will be. When the people of Israel move, I will move with them. When they walk, I will lead the way. When they go out to fight, the Ark of the Covenant will often go out in front. I will travel with my people. He set up a whole system where there would be the ark and the candelabras. And there's a table for bread and there's an incense for altar and a place to sacrifice and a place to burn the offerings. But he never commanded a place built out of wood, or stone, or anything that's permanent. Was David being presumptuous? Was David trying to tell God what he needed? Rather than simply listening to what God said? Perhaps his desire to do something for God was good. But the action was misplaced. Because God didn't need a temple. Maybe God didn't even want a temple at this point. David thought he was doing something for God, but God never asked him to do it. You see the timber tabernacle. And later when Solomon built the temple, was never designed to be a place that was for God. Did God need a place to live? Of course not. He dwells in all things. Did he need an ark of the covenant for himself? Of course not. The Ark of the Covenant was a sign of God's promise to his people. Not something that made him feel good. Did he need the gold and the offerings that people brought to the temple or to the tabernacle? No. This is Psalms say that the cattle on 1000 hills are his. All the earth is gone. Even the tabernacle wasn't there because God needed their worship and prayers. The tabernacle was so that God could serve His people

so that God could live amongst his covenant people and offer them His grace, it was a place where they could come and offer up their prayers and see a sign of His presence among a place where they could do their sacraments of sacrifice, and receive the forgiveness of sin. Where God could remind them that He is their God and he chose the tabernacle wasn't for God. It was for the people.

And David, well, his desire to honor God meant that he was making up something that maybe God didn't command. And I think sometimes, the Christians good and holy desire to serve God can turn us away from doing what God actually commands, and to create things that we do for God. Right? Because you ask yourself, when we put money in the offering plate, is it because God needs it? Does God say, Ah, if only I could buy a car. I need Christians to put that envelope in that offering. Of course, God doesn't need our money, or our stuff. Does God say, Ah, I just don't have the almighty power. unless everybody is praying to me. I need to build up my power battery by your prayers. No, of course not. He doesn't need anything from us. He doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our prayers. He doesn't need buildings for us to worship in. He doesn't need anything at all from us. What he wants is to give us His grace. This misunderstanding about serving God leads to all sorts of things. The clearest historical examples are things like the indulgences you could receive for doing devotional work back in the days of the Reformation, when they would come up with a whole long list of things that you could do, that might be good devotional practices. But the church said these things merit, some sort of gift of grace. Like if you do these things for God, God will return a gift to you. And today, we Christians, sometimes we create things like that ourselves. We say to ourselves, the only good work that a human being can do is volunteering in the church. Because that's where real service is. We say to ourselves, I have to go across the world to serve someone because I need to be doing mission work. Because that's what God demands. And we think to ourselves, I have to do something for God. But that's not how it worked with David. That's not how it works. Today. Christianity isn't about doing something for God. It's about God doing something for us. Let's take a look at the text. God says in verse eight. Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant, David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people, Israel, and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and we'll plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people, Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. And moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So what God is doing here is he's saying, first of all, wait, wait, you're gonna build me a house? No. I'm gonna build you a house. He says to David, your response to serve is holy. But that's not how it works. I am the one who gives. I am the one who serves. I'm going to build you a house that will last forever. When Nathan, the Prophet gave this, this promise to King David, it might have seemed like a bit of an exaggeration, right? Who's going to be able to be on a throne forever? David certainly wasn't. Even his son Solomon didn't live forever. Now, his son had a son, and those sons were on the line of the house of Judah all the way as long as it was a nation. But none of them were on a throne forever. But we know that behind the words of Nathan, the Prophet was a promise even greater than what David could have imagined. That there actually wouldn't be a son, who would actually be on a throne for all time. And we heard about that promise, in our gospel reading, when an angel came to Mary and said, You're going to have a son, and he will be on the throne of his father, David and his kingdom will last forever. God made a promise to David, that there would be a king for his people for all time. And then he sent his son Jesus Christ, to die on a cross and rise from the dead, and ascend into heaven, where he is now seated on that very throne, at the right hand of God reigning over his church, and over all of creation for all time. God did it. He built David a house that lasts forever, and a kingdom that never ends. But not as a reward. He did it, because he chose David and his family, to serve. Listen to why David was chosen as king. He wasn't chosen because he would be awesome or because he thought David was super cool. He was chosen to be king to do something. He says, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be my be Prince over my people, Israel. And I have been wherever you cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name like the great ones of the earth. And I will point a place for my people Israel, and we'll plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly. God chose David, not because he wanted David to be happy. But because a king has a responsibility to protect his people. David, the king was supposed to protect them from violent men, use his armies to defend the nation of Israel. His service to God was not building a temple. But serving God's people. That's what God sends us to do. Our desire to serve God is good and holy. But it doesn't mean that we're actually doing anything for God. God doesn't need our offerings. God doesn't need our volunteer time. God doesn't need us to go to work, or feed children. Other people do, right? We offer our offerings here, because the ministry needs to happen. And without the ministry, you cannot hear the Word of God. You cannot hear the promises of Jesus Christ who died and rose for you. That's why we get we don't go to work because God commands it. We go to work because people need to eat. Right? Especially parents raising the young children, they go to work because there are hungry mouths at home. And without some job, well, they're gonna stay hungry. We take care of people, not because God commands it, but because people need it. And what that means is that we don't have to make up Our service to God. We don't have to, to create some sort of task that looks good and holy to God. All we have to do is look around us and see the need. And do it. I mean, there is no questioning, right? You don't have to wonder like, What does God need, I have to dive into the Bible to figure it out. Now, there is plenty of need around you.

Plenty of need in our congregation, plenty of need in your families, in our communities. Serving God means serving them. Because God is the one who serves us, so he doesn't come to extract from us worship and prayers and praises and offerings. God is God who served. That's why he sent the tabernacle. That's why he chose David to be king. And it's why he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for because God serves us. Our service to Him is simply to do the same for the people around us to see the need and to do it. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Luke 1:26-38 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, December 24th

John 1:6-8, 19-28

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be bornwill be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, December 24, comes from Luke chapter one, verses 26 through 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, oh, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the sang and tried to discern what sort of grieving this might been. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, For you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, He will be great. And we called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me, according to your word. And the angel departed from her appearance, the reading. This is the classic annunciation story. It is such a treasured piece of the gospel, where the angel Gabriel appears to marry. And so let's begin with what the angel says, says greetings, oh, favored one, the Lord is with you. Now, many of you may be familiar with an older version where it says hail Mary full of grace. One might ask, what's the difference between a translation that reads Oh favored one, and one that means full of grace, full of grace points us to a quality that Mary has. The angel comes down looks at Mary and says, Mary, look at you, aren't you wonderful? Oh, favorite one is different. It is, Mary. There's something that God favors God favors you. God is looking on you with favor. Now full of grace means that Mary is chosen because she's extra special. Oh, favorite one means Mary has chosen because she's chosen. And Luther likes to point this out when he talks about the magnificant. The song that Mary sings, is that Mary was really not all that different from any one of us, is that she rejoiced in God not because she was extra Grace filled or she was amazing as a human. But because God had decided to choose her for this amazing moment, to bear his one and only son. Now, the honor that we give to her is definitely an honor higher than any other human beings, a of Jesus Christ himself. But still, it is only God's grace and his choosing. That makes Mary this special. Now, Mary responds, the text says, but she was greatly troubled at the saying and trying to discern what sort of greeting this might be. I have to say if an angel appeared to me after freaking out, and if it said, Greetings, oh, favorite one, the Lord is with you. I would also be troubled. I wouldn't know what is going on. Because when an angel appears, you know something dramatic is going to happen. So the angel comfort Sir, do not be afraid, Mary For you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. So here again, the angel after calming her down, do not be afraid Mary says you have found favor with God. God has given you this favor. And behold, you will have a child and you will call His name Jesus. Now Jesus means he saves it or Yahweh Saves. It's actually the word for Joshua, which was used in the Old Testament that we transliterated as Jesus because of weirdness in history. The annual goes on, he will be great, and we call the Son of the Most High, I'd say, that's great, being the Son of the Most High, he wasn't just called Son of the Most High, he was actually the Son of the Most High. And he continues, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end. Now we know why the Old Testament reading for this week was chosen from the promise, the covenant given to David is because the Gospel reading is the fulfillment of that promise, the angel appears to Mary and says, King David, his child, his offspring, will come from you. And that offspring will reign over the house of Jacob forever. How is that possible? How can anyone reign over a house over a kingdom forever? Well, if you are the Son of God, perhaps you just might be able to do it then. Because when Jesus is both human and divine, his humanity can live forever, can be eternal. And so Jesus will be on that throne forever. Now, of course, Mary is puzzled, she says, How will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. That's it. No big deal. Holy Spirit's gonna come, he'll handle it. Isn't that nuts? Like, oh, okay, that's fine. Now, the angel gives some evidence to support this, but just a little more than just evidence, and it says, And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is a six month for her who is called parent for nothing will be impossible with God. So I bet it's likely that Mary had heard that Elizabeth had had a child. And this would be a ping of evidence like, yep, you know, God has done this, God can do that. But there's also an interesting thing here is that not only is the angel saying, Yep, look at this, God has done something amazing with Elizabeth, who was called barren. But it's also look, you've got someone who you can go to for this. When I have to give this insight. I heard it from David Schmidt. At a podcast, he suggested that not God offered up this connection, so that Mary could go to Elizabeth and find someone who understands what's happening. Because she also had an angelic miracle with Gabrielle. And Elizabeth, receives Mary right after this. So Mary finds out she's pregnant, and she goes down to visit Elizabeth and Elizabeth Baby John, the Baptist leaps in her womb, because he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And then they sing the Magnificat. And it's amazing and wonderful. And Mary spends all this time with Elizabeth, probably because I don't know, being a virgin with a baby. At that time, nobody would really leave you. You know, if if someone got pregnant and said, Well, I didn't do anything. I just did just happen. I wouldn't believe them either. Be pretty isolating. But Elizabeth is there for her. But then comes the most amazing part. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Wow. Imagine hearing this news, your, your young girl 1614, whatever it is, that she would have been an angel appears and said, You're going to have a baby, he's going to be God. And it's going to be from the Holy Spirit. And she's like, yep, awesome. Let's do it. What a sign of faith. I you know, I said before that Mary was just like one of us and she was as like, just like a human. But at the same time, God had granted her such faith that she could simply accept what the angel said. Remember, Zachariah, he was in the temple, and the angel appeared to him and gave him a promise that Elizabeth would have a baby and he was like, No way. But Mary, simple girl. Yep. Let's do it. Wow. May we have that kind of faith? That's all I have for today. We'll see you On Sunday bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Romans 16:25-27 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, December 24th

Romans 16:25-27

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, December 24, is from Romans chapter 16, verses 25 through 27. Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel, in the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings, has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ, amen. This reading in Romans, chapter 16, comes near the very end, where St. Paul is doing all of his sort of random stuff at the end of the letter. Romans is almost an introductory letter that Paul writes to the church in Rome, with the hope that he will come and visit them and establish a missionary base, I think. And so, chapter 16 has a lot of greetings, he greets everybody and their brother, because he's trying to say that he knows a whole bunch of people there. And let them know that we've got all these connections, and you can trust me, I'm a good guy, you can you can welcome me and my theology is good. But this doxology at the end is really fascinating. It's only a few lines long, but there is so much going on. So it goes Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ. So it begins by offering up a description of God, and what he does through the gospel and through the preaching of Jesus Christ. And it's to strengthen people, certainly not in in physical strength, but in strength of their spirit, as they grow in their ability to trust in God, as they follow Him faithfully as they deal with persecutions as they struggle with doctrine. It's the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ that strengthens them in their faith as they hear it, and the Holy Spirit works on them. And then he adds something, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed, and through the prophetic writings, has been made known to all nations. So there's a revelation and a mystery here. This mystery was kept secret for long ages. One of the great mysteries that St. Paul often highlights is the mystery that God has made the Gentiles, co heirs with the Jews. And a big piece of Romans is talking about this Jews and Gentiles thing that the Gentiles have now been brought into the promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the crazy thing is that this seems like the opposite of what the Old Testament was saying. For so many Jews, it was about exclusivity, about being that God's chosen people against the Gentiles against the nation's always fighting them off the enemies, the bad guys coming to invade. And the great mystery of Jesus Christ is that he came, not to destroy the enemies, but to make them friends, to gather them together with the Jews into one, united people. What an amazing mystery. This could be, how crazy this might have sounded to the Jews of old, as they were thinking about the battles they would fight and the persecutions they would face as they're coming back from Babylon and exile. And they're dedicated towards being God's chosen people and following his law, and God sends a savior, to make them one with the dreaded Gentiles. And yet, it's so beautiful, and so wonderful, that you end the hostility not by destroying the enemy, but making them your friend. How amazing. And this has been made known through the prophetic writings. And we see that St. Paul highlights a number of things throughout the Old Testament. And if we look back, especially at books like Isaiah, and it talks about the servant of the Lord coming to be for the Gentiles, for the nations for the coastlands far away We can all of a sudden see the hints of what God had planned, even though it didn't make a ton of sense, when, when it was written. Now, when we see Jesus, when Paul sees Jesus, we can see, loud and clear, amazing. This is what God has planned all along. And now everyone knows through the prophetic writings, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The next phrase, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith. And so this mystery was not an accident. It is not like God came down and was like, Oh, those Jews, they just don't like me and they turned away my savior. Now I'm going to go to the Gentiles. It's not an accident. This was God's plan, right from the beginning. And it points back to the prophetic writings, again, two books like Isaiah, two, two books, where it would talk about God's law going out to all nations to, to the places that are far away. God was always about gathering together the people who are outside of his promise into the promise to make them part of it. And as part of that command that happens through Jesus Christ, and it goes to bring about the obedience of faith. Now that phrase, obedience of faith, it could be the obedience that leads to faith, or obedience that comes from faith for me. You know, I'm a Lutheran, we always translated that faith leads to obedience, or faithful obedience comes from the faith that God has already given us. And that's what this gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ does, because it's the gospel that actually brings about faith that leads to obedience. And without it, you've got nothing. There is no faith, there is no obedience. And at the end of this, it's the gospel that produces everything that gathers people together, that contains the mystery that is now revealed, that produces faith. And so St. Paul can only do one thing is praise God for His plan. And that's what he does to the only wise God be glory forever. Through Jesus Christ. Amen. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 89:1-5, 19-29 The Psalm for Sunday, December 24th

Psalm 89:1-5, 19-29

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
    with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
    in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
    I have sworn to David my servant:
‘I will establish your offspring forever,
    and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,
    your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!

Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:
    “I have granted help to one who is mighty;
    I have exalted one chosen from the people.
I have found David, my servant;
    with my holy oil I have anointed him,
so that my hand shall be established with him;
    my arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy shall not outwit him;
    the wicked shall not humble him.
I will crush his foes before him
    and strike down those who hate him.
My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
    and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand on the sea
    and his right hand on the rivers.
He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,
    my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
And I will make him the firstborn,
    the highest of the kings of the earth.
My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
    and my covenant will stand firmfor him.
I will establish his offspring forever
    and his throne as the days of the heavens.

James Huenink 0:00

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, December 24, is Psalm 89, verses one through five and 19 through 29. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever in the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness. You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant, I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations. Let the heavens praise your wonders, oh Lord, Your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones. Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one and said, I have granted help to one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people, I have found David, my servant, with my holy oil, I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him, my arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, the wicked shall not humble him, I will crush his foes before him, and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name, shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers, he shall cry to me, You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love, I will keep for him forever. And my covenant will stand firm for him, I will establish His offspring forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens. Here ends the reading. This psalm ties in with our Old Testament reading, pointing out the steadfast love of the Lord for David, and the covenant that he gave David, that his offspring would be kings forever, on the throne of Judah. It starts with that celebration of that steadfast love. When he sings, I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. And it moves on, you have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant, I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations. Now, this psalm isn't a Psalm of David, David isn't singing this with joy, saying, God has made a great promise to me. It's interesting that this is a Psalm that says that God's promised to David is a great promise for Israel, or for the nation of Judah, is that God will establish a king for them to defend them. And that's a very important aspect of the promise that God gave to David is that God would give Israel a king, a king, who would protect them from their enemies, who would fight for them, who would save them. And so this covenant with David is not just a promise for him and his family, but for all of the people of God throughout the Old Testament. And now, this promise goes on in verses 19, through 29. And it talks a lot about the things that God will do for the servant, David. And so it says, I have granted help to one who is mighty, I have exalted one chosen from the people, I have found David, my servant with my holy oil, I have anointed him. Now, this reminds us of the anointing that Samuel did when he found David and pulled him from the sheep and chose him to be king. And it reminds us of the anointing that happened with Jesus when he was baptized, or even later, when his feet were anointed by the woman who washed his feet and anointed them with expensive oil. It continues, so that my hand shall be established in him, my arm also shall strengthen him, the enemy shall not outwit him, the wicked shall not humble him, I will crush his foes before him, and strike down those who hate him. Now for the faithful kings of Israel, that would happen in a pretty literal way. The enemies wouldn't, wouldn't defeat them, the armies that would come against them would be destroyed. We see faithful kings, trusting in God and God saves them in battle after battle, including David himself. But it looks a little different when we understand that Jesus is the final one, the one who is a part of this throne of David. When David goes up again, when excuse me, not David, when Jesus goes up against his enemies. He looks like he's the one who's outwitted. It looks like he's the one who is defeated. The Pharisees they nail Him to across the Romans, they put him there. He looks defeated. But of course, Jesus's enemies aren't actually human beings. It wasn't the Pharisees of the Romans that Jesus came to defeat, but sin and death itself. And Jesus entered into death, to destroy that. He took on our sin, to destroy sin. And so the psalm continues, it says, my faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name, shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea, in his right hand on the rivers, he shall cry to me, You are my father, my God and the rock of my salvation. That is, of course, what what happens. Now, again, in the Old Testament, the power of the king, his right hand on the sea, and on the rivers, was somewhat metaphorical, that God would be with him and exalt him and protect him, but he wouldn't give him power over the sea or the rivers. But with Jesus, he called the storm, he walked on water. Pretty amazing, right? He called out to the father and said, You are my God, and the rock of my salvation. And the next promise goes, is pretty amazing as well. It says, I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love, I will keep for him forever. And my covenant will stand firm for him, I will establish His offspring forever, and his throne as the days of the heavens. This was certainly hyperbole for the human kings of ancient Israel. I don't think there could be any point in Israel's history, where he was the highest of the kings of the earth. Perhaps the closest we got was Solomon, who was wise and powerful and rich, but he never had a an empire, or the beauty of like Nebuchadnezzar or Babylon, or Cyrus the Great with Persia. He was still just kind of a local power. He was not established forever, because he grew old and died. But with Jesus, He is definitely the highest King. His throne is in heaven. He rules over all of the earth. And he will be on the throne of David his father forever and ever and ever, even past the day when he returns and makes a new heaven and a new earth and gives us eternal life. What an amazing promise that God gave to David and seen in Jesus. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, December 24th

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in?I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, December 24, comes from Second Samuel chapter seven, verses one through 11 and verse 16. Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him restroom, all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in the house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwelling? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel, Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now, therefore, thus, you shall say to my servant, David, Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people, Israel, and I had been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies, but from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them. So they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more has formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people, Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. Here ends the reading. So the beginning of this reading marks the end of time of warfare for David, David had built himself a home in Jerusalem, the enemies that he had been fighting constantly, his whole life, the Philistines, and all the others, were finally done. And the king looks around and he says, Now is the time to build God a temple. So David says to Nathan, see, now I dwell on a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. So David is seemingly with with good intention, and with good heart, he wants to build God a temple. Now, some of this could have been to honor God and offer him, you know, the beauty and worthy building that he deserves. But another part might simply be that David is trying to establish in his city, the presence of God, Jerusalem was almost a neutral city for David because no Israelites had it. So he conquers it, he makes it his capital, and then he wants to plant God there firmly and squarely so that he will not move. So this could be a way for David to say, I am establishing my kingdom in my capital city, and God is here to he's not going to move away. So I think there's probably a mix of those two things. So Nathan thinks it's a great idea. Go for it, you can do it. But while he's sleeping, God comes to him and gives him a different word. He says, would you build me a house to dwelling? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I had been moving about in a tent from my dwelling. So God is pointing back to what happened with Moses, they came out of Egypt, God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. This tabernacle had been the place where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt, for all of those years, they wandered through the wilderness, they carried the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle, through the conquest through the judges through all of this time, all the way up through Samuel, Saul, and now, David. And nowhere did God say, Hey, why have you not built me a house? Why have you not built me a permanent temple? God kind of liked the idea of having a tabernacle. It moved with the people. Now this was especially important when the people were moving themselves wandering through the wilderness, but it all Also it was kind of cool that God would move around in Israel that he could be in any place that there or he could go to the north or to the south, even though it doesn't sound like he was often moving around. It's kind of God is in the midst of his people. So he cites some of the things that he did not tell the judges to build him a house, and he did not tell anyone to do it. And so God turns around, and says this to David, instead, he says, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people. And I have been with you that you should be Prince over my people of Israel, and I have been with you, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make your you a great name like the great ones of the earth. So he says, this is sort of a, a piece of the political puzzle here, like David might have wanted to establish this temple in his capital city, to establish his name and his house and his people. And God says, no, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. You don't have to build me a house to establish your name. I have already done it, look at this, I took you from the sheep, I made you a great warrior, I made you king. And now you are the shepherd over all of my people, and I will take care of you. And even better that through you, I will take care of all of Israel. He says, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formally. And then he goes, for an the last, moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house and your house in your kingdom shall be sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. So some of this is David saying, I'm going to do something for you, God, some of this is I want to establish my position in Israel by setting up the temple in my capital city, and God goes, and he knocks down both of them. First is God is the one who establishes David. And he does it not by building a temple, but by protecting him and being with him. And the second is, he goes, Wait a second, you think that you're going to do something for me? Oh, no, no, you won't build a house for me, I will build a house for you. And that's really the heart of who God is, is that God doesn't really need anything from us. He doesn't need David to build them a house of theater, he doesn't care about having a temple or a palace or a giant church, or whatever. He isn't into those things like we are. Our buildings are for us. Like we build nice churches to remind us about God, not because God cares whether we He has nice churches or not. What God cares about is what he gives to us. And so he turns to David and says, I will establish a house for you. And your throne in your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. This promise goes to David, that one of his children will be on the throne of the kingdom of Israel forever. Now, this seems like exaggeration. How could it be possible that someone would be on there forever, it just might means a really long time or in perpetuity. And that was true. All the way up until we get to Jesus, who is of the house of David, and is actually now on the throne of God's kingdom forever. He rules over all of us. And so David thought he was gonna build this neat little house made out of cedar, it's gonna be really pretty, and do something for God. But instead what God does is He does something for David, and through David. He protects the whole world by sending His Son Jesus to give us eternal life and a king that is on the throne forever. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Good News! Sermon for Sunday, December 17th, 2023

Isaiah 61:1-4

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.

The good news. That's what we call the gospel, it is the good news that we are sent to proclaim. And it's the good news that the prophet Isaiah is talking about. He says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God. What is this good news. To help us understand this, the gospel of Luke is pretty helpful. Jesus actually quotes it. In Luke chapter four, Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth, it's a Sabbath day. So he's in the synagogue. And they asked him to read, he opens up the scroll to the prophet Isaiah, and he says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. You may have noticed that there's a little bit of a difference there. Jesus talks about recovery of sight for the blind. That's not in Isaiah 61. That's the difference between the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament that the Church used during its first centuries, and what we have as the Hebrew now today, they have different manuscript traditions. But what we see is that the prophet Isaiah was not thinking just about the good news for people coming out of exile. But the good news through Jesus Christ. And the good news of Jesus Christ is very different from good news that others might seek, especially if you are good news for the poor, for the blind, and for the capital. Because not all those who are poor, not all those who are rich, or wealthy, not all those who are free of liberty. And not all those who are sighted can see. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing that frees us. So let's start with that. He says to bring good news to the poor. What is that good news. A story from Mark chapter 12 helps us to see what good news for the poor is. Jesus is sitting near the temple and are watching people put in offerings. Many people come up and they put in large sums. And it goes, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny and he called his disciples to him and said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box, for they all contributed out of their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had all she had to live on. What can cause a person to do this? I think if if someone looked at this situation, they see a widow with only two coins that add up to a penny and you go what are you doing? This is crazy. This is all the money you have to live on. And you put it in the offering box. What about your children? What about your future? Isn't that crazy? Is that the kind of thing that you would do? If you pulled out your bank statement? And you found one cent there. Give up everything that you have to live on. The question is, how could this widow do such an amazing thing? Because the gospel of Jesus Christ Some good news for the poor. She had something, riches that are greater than any amount of money could be. She had faith in a God, who would take care of her. The widow trusted that the true God would be there for her. And that he would offer her a future, he would offer her something that she could hold on to that he would take care of. The wealthy who trust in their wealth, they're not rich. They don't have any. They have far less than that poor widow did. Because Jesus Christ's riches, are greater than anything we could ever want. He promises a day when he comes and gives us the whole world. Whether you are rich or poor, now, doesn't matter. The good news for the poor is that Jesus is coming. He will take care of us. He gives us salvation. Not everyone who has lots of money has true riches.

What about the blind, that Jesus came to restore sight? There's a story in John chapter nine where Jesus comes up to a man born blind. He goes to the man, he makes mud, puts it on his eyes, and he tells the man to go wash in the pool. The man goes off and he washes his eyes off, and all of a sudden, he can see. But the story isn't about the man being able to see in the miracle that Jesus does does. The real story is about the reaction to it. After Jesus heals the man, the Pharisees call him and they get mad about this. They get upset. Can you imagine? A man comes he's been blind from his birth, and all of a sudden they can see and they're angry. Can you believe it? But they were angry because he did it on the Sabbath. So they call him in front of them they and it says, so for the second time they called the man who had been born blind and said to him, give glory to God, we know that this man is a sinner. That is Jesus. The blind man answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind. Now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them. I told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? And they reviled him. What a statement. This man, he was not well read in the Scriptures, obviously, because he had been blind his whole life. He did not have a complex theology of who Jesus was. He simply knew one thing. One thing I do know, he says, that though I was blind, now I see. Isn't that fake? Jesus had come to Him and given Him a miracle. But the miracle wasn't that his eyes were opened and that he could see. The true miracle was that Jesus revealed Himself to him as his Savior. That's what happens now. Jesus heard that they had cast him out. And having found him he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? The blind man answered? Who is he, sir, that I may believe in Him. Jesus said to him, you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe and he worshipped him. Then Jesus says to those who are around for judgment, I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees heard him near him heard these things and said to him, are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you are blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see your guilt remains Not all who are sighted can see this blind man, you could see, because the true gifts is not the vision that comes from his eyes, or having the photons that bounce off particles hit your retinas. The true vision is understanding who Jesus is that he brings resurrection from the dead and eternal life and that he is the center of our life. He is the good news that gives us life. It's not just the poor. It's not just the blind. But it's also those who are in prison that Jesus has come to proclaim liberty. There's another story from the, from the Bible that talks about that, where Paul and Silas were in prison. Paul and Silas had been going out on their missionary journeys. And in Acts chapter 16, they get to a town of Philippi. In the town of Philippi, they are preaching and teaching, and a slave girl who is filled with a demon follows them around shouting, these are the servants of the Most High God, listen to them. Paul gets annoyed, like you would write someone walking around shouting all this time. And he says get out of her and the demon leaves. For me, I have to say, isn't that a weird reason to cast a demon out of someone? Like, lady, you are so annoying, I'm gonna cast this demon out. Yeah, I think it's weird. But it creates a problem. The owner of the girl was using her to tell fortunes. And this created quite a bit of income. And when the demon was gone, he could no longer sell those services. So he gets people excited, goes to the authorities and Paul and Silas are arrested. They're put in this inner part of the prison. And not only that, they are fastened their feet into stocks. This is an extra level of imprisonment. So not only are they locked behind bars, but they're also cuffed around their feet. Maybe even their hands too. I don't know about you. I think if that happened to me, I'd be pretty upset. If I were locked for no good reason inside a prison and then and then put together in chains. I might be a little depressed. I might be a little angry. I certainly wouldn't be happy. This is what the Bible says. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them singing hymns to God. Can you believe it? Paul and Silas, singing probably the Psalms, prayers, praises to God and that horrible situation. Because not all the people who are free have liberty. And not all those who are in prison or without freedom. You could stick Paul and Silas wherever you want it in the deepest, darkest dungeon. And they would always be free because they have Christ. Same is for us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is freedom in all our circumstances, because we have a Savior, who lived and died for us. And what's really cool about this story is that God comes and brings freedom to these men who are already free. An earthquake happens, the doors pop open, and their chains follow. Now I don't know about you. But I think the last time we had an earthquake, it did not open up handcuffs. But that's what happens here. And when Paul and Silas go free, what do they do with it? They use that opportunity to bring the Gospel to their jailer and that man is baptized along with the rest of his family. So that's the good news of Jesus Christ. It's not about giving money. It's not about getting people out of jail or helping people see With our eyes. The good news of Jesus Christ is a freedom that each one of us has, in all our circumstances. Because not all the people who are free, have liberty. Not all those who are sighted can actually see. Not all the rich are truly wealthy. The good news of Jesus Christ, it's only they who have that. It's only us who have the sight to be able to see God at work in our lives and the process, the promise of the resurrection, who have the riches of the kingdom to come and freedom in our Savior, despite all our circumstances. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 1:6-8, 19-28 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, December 17th

John 1:6-8, 19-28

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, December 17, comes from the Gospel of John chapter one, verses six through eight. And then 19, through 28. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John, He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He confessed and did not die, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to Him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now, they had been sent from the Pharisees, they asked him, Why then are you baptizing? If you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet? John answer them. I baptize with water, but among newstands one you do not know. Even he who comes after me, the strap of who sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. He runs the reading. The Gospel of John has an interesting approach to telling the story of Jesus. And it has a different approach to telling the story of John as well. It doesn't introduce him using the standard formation, formulation, the guy who had the camel's hair and the belt around his waist, and then he's out eating locusts and wild honey, and then repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All that stuff that you see in Matthew, Mark. And Luke begins by telling us about John, who is a witness about the light, and is very emphatic that he is not the light. He is not the guy. He is a witness to the light. And it could be really easy for someone like John the Baptist, who got crowds to come out to see him who had baptizing people in the wilderness, and they were repenting and doing all this stuff to be well to make it about himself. But he doesn't. He came to point the way to Jesus. And the same thing happens when the Pharisees come to him, and ask him, Who are you? It's interesting, he says, it says he confessed and did not deny but confessed. John wants to make sure that you know that what John, that John the Baptist is saying is absolutely true. He is not claiming to be the guy. I am not the Christ. He said, he's not Elijah. He's not the Prophet. No, he's very simply a voice. He says, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said, I like how John is, is taking the light away from him, so to speak, like the spotlight is not on John the Baptist, saying, No, it's not me. I'm not the Christ. I'm not the Prophet. In fact, I am nothing. There is one thing that matters. The Lord is coming. Make his pads straight. May ask him again. Why are you baptizing? And again, John takes the spotlight off himself. He doesn't say, I baptized because I'm also more because I do these things. He says, don't think about me, someone is coming, who's greater than me, strap of who sandals I am not worthy to untie. So he even takes that moment to point away from himself to Jesus. And I think that's a great model for us to understand within the within the church, for pastors, for teachers, for congregations, is that our job is to point away from us towards Jesus, which and it's really hard to do that because anytime a congregation gathers a little success makes a name for themselves. We like to think yeah, look at me, I did this but just always, like, point to Jesus. He's the one. I'm not the man. I'm not the one gathering people. I'm not the one doing ministry. It's all about Jesus. It's his power. It's his word. It's his mind. It's not me. Everything is about Jesus. And I think it's amazing that the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, spends this moment when they come and they ask him, what's your testimony? It's Don't worry about me, guys. Jesus is coming. And that's what we should consider. Let's not worry about ourselves and always point to Jesus. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 The Epistle Reading for Sunday, December 17th

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, December 17, is First Thessalonians chapter five, verses 16 through 24. Rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may our your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it. Here hence the reading. This passage begins with a number of statements that seem relatively unrelated to each other are kind of like a grab bag of commands coming from St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Now, sometimes these passages can be talked about as if they're supposed to be like the joyful thing. Rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. But sometimes I also think it's a little bit like what happens when my wife comes to me with a problem. And I tell her, don't you think you're overreacting? And she goes, Wow, that she actually never does that. Because I'm not that's, that's silly. I would never do that. Sometimes these commands that seemed wonderful are actually heavy burdens. For people who are really sad. And it's it can be a burden when your life is difficult to say, Well, Paul says that you should rejoice. What really we should be telling people is helping them to see how we rejoice in difficult circumstances. And I think that's what St. Paul really wants the Thessalonians to do. The Thessalonians, who just recently had gone through a difficult persecution, after Paul had left them. They had been arrested, they had been beaten up, find things were really bad. But they could rejoice always and give thanks in all circumstances, because they knew they had Jesus. Because Jesus was more and better than having good circumstances. He was eternal life. So the next thing he says Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything. So he says Do not despise prophecies. So when someone speaks, this could be called a prophecy from God. We often think of prophecy as like predicting the future. But that's not the only kind. Prophecy could be any utterance that is supposed to be from God. And so St. Paul is saying, Do not quench the Spirit. When someone says they're speaking for God. Don't tell them to stop. Don't despise prophecy and say, Ah, this is this couldn't be from God. But He does say test everything. And what we do is when someone says they speak for, for God, we should go and test what they say against the scriptures. Just like the Berean Christians did when St. Paul came to them, and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, they were faithful, and they went back and they studied their Scriptures to see if that was true. And that's what we do when someone proclaims a sermon, or stands up to teach in a congregation, as we test everything. Next, he goes hold fast to what is good abstain from every form of evil, relatively straightforward, at least to say, difficult to do. Right? And finally, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? Who calls you is faithful? He will surely do it. Now here we could get some misunderstanding when it talks about sanctifying you completely are kept blameless at the coming of the Lord. One might think is, Paul is saying that human beings can be fully sanctified in Jesus so that we do not sin anymore. But I don't think that's what's going on here. He's saying Now may the God of peace sanctify you completely as in, give you Jesus so that in Christ you may be found blameless it's the righteous pneus of Christ that makes us completely sanctified and keeps us blameless. And that's why he ends it with he who calls you is faithful, He will surely do it. Because it's not something that we can do for ourselves, but it's only Christ in us. The gift of the Holy Spirit through his means of grace keeps us holy, so that when Jesus returns we will be found blameless, not because we've been sanctified and have perfect actions, but because Christ's righteousness is in us. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 126 The Psalm for Sunday, December 17th

Psalm 126

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
    we are glad.

Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, December 17, is Psalm 126. A song of a sense. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter in our tongue with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us. We are glad restore our fortunes, oh Lord, like streams in the Negev, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, baring the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Here ends the reading. Psalm 26 begins with the title, a song of a sense, the song of a sense, or a series of psalms that were likely to be prayed, as people were ascending the road towards Jerusalem. So wherever you are in Israel, you would always go up to Jerusalem because it was on the top of, of a hill, they called it Mount Zion. And so as you were taking a pilgrimage, going towards the temple for worship, there were all of these psalms that you could say along the way, the psalm of a sense, similar psalm of a sense is, my eyes, look up to the hills, from where does my help come, My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And you can imagine them going up and looking to Jerusalem, where, where the temple was where God's presence was, and you say, My help comes from the Lord as you look up at the city. So here we have another song of a sense. And it begins with the remembrance. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream that our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongueless shouts of joy. They said, among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, we are glad. Now, this psalm shows a generic description of restoring the fortunes of Zion. You could say this has happened any number of times since the building of the temple. And it's when God defends his people from invaders. Anytime God had brought about some sort of punishment due to their idolatry, he could also bring about a restoration of the fortunes of Zion. And so the idea here was that the Lord God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, would defend his people. And when he does that, people would have shouts of joy. For me, I'm thinking especially of the story with Hezekiah Hezekiah, surrounded by a Syria, and the armies are outside and they are so overwhelming, and what happens? A plague strikes them. And hundreds and 1000s of people die in the night. And Israel saved. And you can imagine people want on the morning, the day before looking out on this, this mighty army surrounding the city of Jerusalem, knowing there is no way regular spears and swords was going to take care of this army, Jerusalem was doomed. And then you look out the next day, and they're all dead. The enemy defeated. It would be like, we were like those who dream. Our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue was shouts of joy. The psalm recalls the promises that God had given those people. And it then turns and says, now restore our fortunes. Oh Lord, like the streams. And the Negev says people are looking up to Jerusalem. It says, restore our fortunes have us who are now sowing in tears reap with shouts of joy, we who are now weeping, burying the seeds for sowing, she'll come home with shouts of joy bringing his sheaves to him. This is a reminder that when we come to the Lord, we who are maybe when things are terrible, when you're mourning when you've lost a loved one, especially as we're heading into the Christmas season, and there's an empty chair around your table, or the family isn't what you hoped it would be, or, you know, something has changed and you're mourning that loss. We can turn to the Lord with our weeping and he can give us joy, not always by fixing everything that doesn't happen. But by giving us Christ and the promise of the resurrection, so that when he returns we can have that Fold joy as we look up to heaven not to Mount Zion but to heaven and ask for our God to give us his good and gracious well that's all I have for today we'll see you on Sunday bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 The Old Testament Reading for Sunday, December 17th

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.

For I the Lord love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
    and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
    that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, December 17, comes from Isaiah chapter 61, verses one through four. And then verses eight through 11. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified, they shall build up ancient ruins that shall raise up the former devastations they shall repair the ruin cities, the devastations of many generations. For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrong, I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations and their descendants in the midst of the peoples, all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring of the Lord has blessed, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in my god, For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself, like a priest with a beautiful headdress. And as the bride adorns herself with jewels, for as the Earth brings forth, it sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up. So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before the nation's Here ends the reading. The first thing we should consider when we think about this passage is the position of what this might mean for the people of Israel who would hear it. Isaiah is talking about how God has anointed him a prophet, to bring good news to the people who were punished during the unfaithfulness that Israel experienced. God's people were turning away from him, they turned to false gods, they turned to go after a Syria and other gods and all sorts of things. And because of that God was going to send in Babylon to destroy the city, and the them as a nation. And now Isaiah is saying that there is a piece of good news that goes out to the broken to the poor, to the brokenhearted, to the captives. And it says, To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and to grant those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. And what we see with the prophet Jeremiah, and all of the terrible things that happened to Jerusalem was definitely a time of ashes and a time of mourning for God's people. The death and destruction that Babylon would have brought in the bad guys tearing down God's temple, would certainly brought mourning. And that's what the book of Lamentations is all about. And one of the comforts that Isaiah brings is that he is there to proclaim that God has not left his people, that he has sent good news to them, to bind them up, that eventually they would be brought back to their land. But more than that, Isaiah is pointing us to something deeper, something beyond what would just would happen with God's people going to Babylon and then returning. And Luke points that out in his Gospel in chapter four. Here, Jesus comes to Nazareth, and he goes into a temple synagogue and reads this passage. It says, He reads, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. He rolls up the scroll. And he says, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Now, what did Jesus been doing? Jesus had gone around in all of Galilee and proclaimed the kingdom of God, and he was starting to heal people. He was casting out demons he was proclaiming the good news. And that's exactly what Isaiah is predicting good news to the poor liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberty to the oppressed. Isaiah is looking ahead to Jesus, who would proclaim liberty, not from Babylon, but from all the evil forces that oppress us. But not only that, to give us a spirit of righteousness. There's some things here that are fascinating where he calls them that they may be called oaks of righteousness. or later on, it talks about free as clothed me with garments of salvation us covered me with a robe of righteousness. And then later for as the Earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up. So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise sprout up before all the nations. You see, bringing God's people back to the Promised Land did start a sort of renaissance in their religiosity. When they came back, they were far more dedicated to God and His law. And yet, even in that, they were still unrighteous. And that's the same thing for us, right? We are dedicated towards to our God, if you're listening to this, you are care about his word, and you want to learn more about who he is. And yet you still find yourself not being the righteous person you want to be not being as good or as holy, or as wonderful or as generous or kind, or, you know, all of that stuff. And what we have is Jesus coming to us to be our righteousness. And in him when you're brought into Him through baptism, or through faith, or by being a part of him, the righteousness that he gives us, sprouts up within us and changes us. Christians are given the amazing righteousness of Jesus Christ, the one who was truly anointed to bring this good news to us. And we know that while we struggle with Christ's righteousness, causing us want to be good and holy, and then our sin causing us to want to turn against it, we are waiting for a day when all the righteousness will be made visible, when Jesus will bring in us true fruition, his perfect righteousness, so that we can serve Him and everlasting righteousness innocence at blessedness, as Luther says in his explanation to the second article of the Apostles Creed, and we all can't wait for that day, when we who are oppressed and bound by our sin, by death, and the devil can finally be free. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever, Sermon for Sunday, December 10th, 2023

Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.

A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are looking at the book of Isaiah today, Isaiah chapter 40. And this passage begins with some wonderful words that we often will sing in hymns during this time of year. Comfort, comfort my people says your God, the hymnal that I grew up in the old read hymnal 1942. The hymn goes for comfort he might be people speak up start says our God. Maybe you know that one. Maybe you don't. It's that old read him No, right? I see some of you nodding, some of you not so much. This book marks a transition in the in the book of Isaiah, as it moves from a discussion about the old conflict that has been going on to the the words of comfort that Isaiah is going to be bringing to Israel, to Jerusalem, specifically in this passage, and all her people, that the warfare is ended, that she has received double from the Lord's hand for all her sins, that God is coming, and he's going to fix some things. And what I'd like to focus on today is a passage towards the middle of it, where it says in verse eight, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. The word of our God will stand forever. Why is this an important message to the people of Israel and Isaias day, it was a big deal. The situation that Isaiah is confronting before all of this, in the first piece of Isaiah, is the great conflict that was in a part of Israel's political conflict, the fight with the northern kingdom, and an alliance with a Syria so very early on, you get, you get a conflict. There is the southern kingdom of Judah. This is David's family, running things with the promise of God. And then there's the northern kingdom of Israel, and they are all allying with another kingdom to fight against the nation of Assyria. A Syria is the big bully in the land, a Syria is gobbling up kingdoms and empires and building this huge tribute network taking over everything. And Israel goes down to Judah and says, ally with us against Syria, or else will attack you and make you ally with us. Now, I'm not sure whether it makes a whole lot of military sense for you to fight your nearest neighbor and kill their military to make them fight with you. But that was what they were trying to do. The king of Judah he thinks he's got a better idea. What he does is he writes to a Syria and says, Hey, uh, Syria, why don't you come in and attack Israel? And then we'll join your side? What a great idea, right? You get the big dog to go fight the little dog and then all you do is watch. Isaiah does not think this is a good idea. That's because God has given his people a promise that he will defend them. That if they remain faithful to Him, they do not need to make alliances with other kingdoms and more specifically, with their gods. Because in the ancient world when one people fought another, it was not just a battle with spears and shields. It was a battle between their city's gods. And if you asked the kingdom of Assyria to come in and fight for you, it meant that your God could not defend you that the Assyrian God was the God that was in charge. And it meant that your king had to worship that Assyrian God. And so the whole book of Isaiah the beginning part is all about out. Can we trust a Syria? Are we do? Do we trust the one true God? I bet you know which side Isaiah fell on. Not too hard to figure that out. And it's back and forth. Do you trust a Syria? Or do you trust the true God? And when we get to this point, Isaiah is looking around and he says, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Promises of God stand forever. For the people of Judah, this was both a promise and a threat. For those who waited for the Lord to come and save them, as they are looking at their political situation, the dangers and the threats and all of the problems around them. And they wait for God to save them. It's a promise. It's a promise that Assyria is not the final word that the king of Assyria is like grass, as it says, All flashes grass and its beauty like a flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. Compared to the Lord, the King of Assyria is nothing. His power comes and it goes it fades over time. And they don't need to worry about it. Trusting God. The same thing is true when Babylon comes in many, many years later, King the king of Babylon comes through and he destroys the city of Jerusalem and he knocks down their walls and he burns the temple and knocks it over and they take all of the temple stuff and bring it back to Babylon along with the best and brightest of the people to serve in the kings in the Kings administration. And Isaiah reminds them, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Assyria was destroyed, and Babylon would be next. And we see Isaiah as promises towards the people come true in the book of Daniel. Whenever there is a conflict between Daniel or the faithful of, of Israel. God comes out on top. Daniel gets caught praying when it's against the law and the king throws him in a lion's den. And what did the hungry lions do? They snuggle. Right? Like a kitty. I imagined Daniel given the little scratches behind the years of the lions while he's down there after a little bit, right? Because God's promise lasts forever. The power of Nebuchadnezzar was nothing compared to that. When Nebuchadnezzar builds up a statue and says Everyone must worship it, whenever they hear the sound of music Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego get thrown in a fire. And they come out. That's because the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. And finally, when Nebuchadnezzar gets to be too proud to grade a king, God makes him go crazy. And he spends a few years crawling around like an ox, eating grass, before God restores him. God shows that he is the one who has power. He's the one who has mite. And finally, Babylon gets taken over. And the very man that Isaiah predicts would send the people back to Israel, help them rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. Cyrus the Great does exactly what Isaiah says he was. The word of the Lord will stand forever. These are the promises that God gave His people through Isaiah, but they're also threats. If you're on a serious side, if you're the ones who are helping them out if you move their gods into your home and worship them outside the temple this is all heard against them.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but God is coming. Right? If you go into Babylon, and you decide to worship the Babylonian gods and follow the King Nebuchadnezzar, and you're one of the people who bow down before the giant statue, watch out, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Babylon is going down, Nebuchadnezzar is going down, and God is coming. God gives promises. And these promises, the opposite of them are the threats. When he comes he comes with grace and he comes with judgment. It's just as true now. As it was back then. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. We have to ask ourselves what flesh? What people? What things of this world do we trust in the grass withers, the flower fades with the word of our God stands forever is just as much a threat as it is a promise for us today. The things that we trust in the world that is going on around us. It is like grass. As Isaiah says, The Voice says cry in what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. And its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever

we have so many things that we trusted it's just part of being a human being is that our our hearts are trusts our minds end up resting on the things that we interact with. Luther explains the first commandment when he says we should fear love and trust in God above all things. And there's always something that we end up fearing, loving or trusting more than God. Isaiah reminds us, just like a Syria just like Babylon. These things will fade away. Your fear your love your trust in these things. They cannot take the weight of it. They will collapse. They will fall and only God's word remains. Ask yourself what do you trust? What do you put your heart on? And how can you change that? That him that I pointed out comfort comfort ye my people. It has a companion him. It's called or Jerusalem that we passed. You know it's old 1942 hymnal, right? It uses the same melody. It's refers to the story where Jesus is looking out over Jerusalem. It starts or Jerusalem thou we pierced in compassion, dearest Lord, and the hymnal uses the melody, the same melody to remind us that the same thing Isaiah said to Jerusalem comfort comfort ye my people was the opposite of what Jesus said when he looked at the city. Because Jesus came to a city with His love and His grace. And they rejected him. And they trusted in the things of the flesh. The powers in the politics, and he said, Oh Jerusalem, how I would gather you in like a hen gathers her chicks. But you would not. grass withers. The flower fades. But the word of the Lord endures forever. We have a promise from Jesus. All of us. who are gathered here? And he will come and raise us from the debt. And the reason you're here is because you know, this promise is the most important, even as our hearts drift to put trust in other things. And Isaias call to you today is simply to remind Jesus Christ promise is the only thing that lasts. His death and resurrection for you for the forgiveness of sins, is the only thing that will last forever. This world will burn. As Peter says, The heavens will fade and melt. Just like all of the other things around us. The promise of Jesus lasts forever. He will raise you from the dead. He will give you eternal life and the new heavens and the new earth that he will make on his return and he will live forever with Him. This is the one thing the one thing that lasts forever in Jesus name, Amen.

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Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 1:1-8 The Gospel Reading for Sunday, December 10th

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
    ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight,’”

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, December 10, is from Mark chapter one verses one through eight, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the country of Judea, and all Jerusalem, we're going out to him, and we're being baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, John was clothed with camels hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, After me, comes here, who is mightier than I, the strap of who sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Here ends the reading. Mark is a different gospel than the others because it begins very briefly and very simply, with the title almost the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so the gospel of Mark is really just the story of Jesus, as he goes on this mission, the Son of God, a heroic mission to go to the cross. And his heroic journey is what actually brings him to death. It's kind of a tragedy in the in the, in the literary sense that Jesus is this heroic figure, whose mercy and love leads him into conflict with the Pharisees. And that ends up causing his death. And then his resurrection raises him to new life. This Gospel begins with a messenger, a quotation from Isaiah, Behold, I will send my messenger, the one crying in the wilderness. We read that in the Isaiah passage earlier this week, and I got to talk about that a little bit. Isaiah points forward to this man who appears next John, called John the Baptist, because he baptizes in the wilderness proclaiming this baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, one of the questions that people might ask is, what is the difference between a Christian baptism and John the Baptist baptism? I'm not sure if this text actually gives it to us. But we do know that the Christian baptism is what happens after Jesus comes. And so it's a different thing. I think perhaps the the phrase that we're looking for is at the very end where it says, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And so we see after Jesus, the baptism comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of faith, which is why we baptize children as well as adults, because it's God's gift given to us. Now, John has an interesting figure. All the country goes out to see him and they're baptized, and they confess their sins. And so we see John's baptism focusing on this repentance and forgiveness of sins. And as she tells us about him, now John was clothed with camels hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. This is an image of a kind of a crazy man, right? You've got the the the camels hair and leather belt, and he's out eaten this weird food. I kind of want to imagine him with crazy hair and the giant bushy beard and the wild eyes. The idea of sort of like Elijah, the prophet being out there in the wilderness, this great prophetic model. And he says, After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of who sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This is the great thing of John the Baptist is that he doesn't point to himself. He doesn't develop a church, a mega church out in the wilderness and then get ready to pass it on to his children and build mighty ministries and get his name on books and billboards. He says, Don't look at me. Look at Jesus. He's the one you got to pay attention to. Don't follow me. Jesus is coming. And that is the message that every pastor and preacher in our age needs to say A it's not about me it's all about Jesus that's all I have for today we'll see you on Sunday bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai