The First Sunday after the Epiphany, 2018
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual Romans 12:1-5
The Gospel Luke 2:41-52
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #660 Heaven Is My Home
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #267 If God Had Not
KJV Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
KJV Luke 2:41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. 43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? 50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
The Cross Is Contrary to Man's Reason
KJV Luke 2:41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
If someone reads about Luther, one of the first things stated is, "the theology of the cross." However, most writers do not stay with that theme and often abandon it for everything else. So readers may know the phrase but not the meaning behind it. That is why I tell people that one must read Luther's sermons to know Luther and how to read the Bible.
This is a perfect example of a text that strikes us a great example of joy and the miraculous, because Jesus in obedience to His Father chose to reveal Himself to the great and wise in the Temple, thus planting the Gospel in the very place where there would be the most blindness and opposition. Thus we get a perfect picture of how the Gospel works and how gracious God is to take His message of salvation into the most hostile locations.
But Luther begins with the cross and explains that in great detail in his sermons on this passage.
5. Accordingly, this Gospel presents, first of all, the mother of Christ as an example of cross-bearing and of great suffering, such as God permits his saints to endure. For although the holy Virgin was greatly blessed with all grace and was a beautiful temple of the holy God and in preference to all was accorded the high honor of being the mother of the Son of God, and doubtless had the greatest possible pleasure and joy in her child, more so than any other mother, as was natural; yet God so ordered that she did not merely have exalted pleasure, but also great distress, pain and sorrow because of him. For her first distress was that she was in a strange place when he was born at Bethlehem, where she found no place for her child but a common stable. Her other distress was that within six weeks after his birth she was compelled to flee with the child and remain an exile for seven years. Besides she must have endured many things that are not recorded.
And so we can see how easily man observes his own nature in skipping over the main lesson and making this episode devoid of the cross when it is focused on the cross. Thus we are not prepared for a life as a Christian if we follow the whoopee leaders and think only of material success, as if Jesus built an earthly kingdom dotted with marble and gold cathedrals with floors of granite, furniture of rare woods.
Our reason asks, "Why is the cross laid on the most faithful?" The answer can be found among the lax, apostate, and sceptical. Those who follow the road to earthly success must necessarily have no confession of faith, no scruples, no willingness to face any kind of opposition. Life insurance salesmen used to tell me, "Some people instantly hate me because I am in sales." I told them, "Some people hate all police, all soldiers, all lawyers, all ministers, all firemen. Pick a profession. A group of people hate them automatically and tell them so."
But the teaching of the cross builds faith while the whoopee Christians spread their own doubt and sow apostasy wherever they go. Many do not know where they caught that from, this whoopee Christianity, but once they have it, the disease is contagious and difficult to combat.
The Christian Century is a far-left journal that was started to celebrate the fact that the 19th century would be a Christian Century, with the Christian Faith triumphant via missionaries everywhere. It quickly became a magazine for the Left-wing political activists, through the Social Gospel Movement and similar movements after that.
This lesson is important for many reasons. One is that it teaches us how Joseph and Mary were not spared the cross. We also see that Mary was a genuine human, capable of sin, able to misunderstand even when she was warned about the future. But as we can see from history, no matter how clear the Biblical texts may be, someone is able to twist them around a different way. The wrong way is always bound to settle in and capture an audience. But that is also what is consistently revealed in the Scriptures - the fascination and attraction of false doctrine.
The theology of glory is often named as the opposite of the message of the cross, but I prefer whoopee Christianity because it is so close to the real attitudes out there.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year
The simplest phrases have great meaning to them. This was a regular pilgrimage for Joseph and Mary, so they had established patterns and behavior. They were not tourists who stumble around and get lost, who know no one else and must stop strangers to find the nearest pharmacy.
This also means that Jesus was there with Joseph and Mary, so the center of Judaism had a special guest each year. When the time was right, He revealed Himself to the leaders, who had been by-passed years ago in favor of the shepherds.
For the Presentation, we know there was also a dual revelation to the old faithful. That had to have left an impression, a story told for years until some were not sure if it really happened. But the entire world was like those moments before a gigantic weather change. We felt that when the enormous cold front was moving into Arkansas, bringing the temperature down by 40-50 degrees to zero. The air felt like liquid ice - something was going to happen.
Likewise, the world was looking for the Savior and everything alerted people to that reality. The Wise Men came looking for Him and precipitated a reaction, the slaughter of the innocents. That is how anxious the leaders were about a change. They felt it coming. They asked about it and feared for their future.
A Catholic author said in print that the Wise Men may have been real people! He connected them with a nearby kingdom, but Kepler annoyed scientists by saying the Star of Bethlehem was real. I remember when the Hale-Bopp comet appeared in the sky night after night. That elicited all kinds of comments. Imagine a civilization where no one used illumination at night and the sky was black with planets and stars standing out in 3-D relief on that background.
The Wise Men and the Presentation alerted people to the Promises being fulfilled. Jesus in the Temple was the next step in revealing the Messiah to His people.
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
The trip to Jerusalem was routine by this time. Nothing had gone wrong before and everyone knew what would happen. Even by car, a new trip seems especially long. But once we are used to that journey, the trip seems much shorter and easier.
When we take things for granted, surprises await. I missed our exit on I-49 going north, creating some alarm. We had another one to try, where Sassy had been kenneled for a trip. We made our exit and found a short-cut home, never realizing before that alternate route.
43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
The routine nature of their trip, at this point, lies behind the next part, which moved along as God willed. Jesus stayed behind successfully because Joseph and Mary assumed he was with family and friends. We know how this happens children like to be with their own age group, perhaps with cousins they seldom see.
So Joseph and Mary went a day away from Jerusalem before they began to ask where Jesus was. This boils down to, "You had one job, to raise the Savior, and now you have lost track of Him for an entire day."
We all know the panic one feels and worst fears that can arise. To be in a major festival, the people traveled among many sharpies and n'er-do-wells. Conventions attract opportunists, and religious pilgrimages are money-makers.
After exploring all possibilities where Jesus should have been, they headed back, surely one of the most painful trips ever. Simeon warned, "A sword will pierce your heart also" besides revealing that this miracle would be spoken against - two negative and threatening messages of the cross to be borne.
46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
Three long, agonizing days of searching found them discovering Jesus in the Temple. The picture is one that delights us but it was a smack in the face for Joseph and Mary. Jesus was holding His own with the great teachers of the Temple, listening to them and asking them questions with rare understanding. His knowledge of the Scriptures was far beyond anything expected. That is shown when someone listens carefully and asks revealing questions. We can assume He was leading them to realize the Promises were being fulfilled.
So we see how carefully God presented the Savior to the Jewish people, with the shepherds, the Star, the Wise Men shaking up poor Herod, the Presentation Simeon and Anna, and the boy Jesus in the Temple.
We all know that we have trouble believing something contrary to our expectations. We need to be told many times over, often in different ways. One authority ignored but another captures our attention. People doubt the existence of Satan, but if we look at the example and authority of Jesus, there is no question for most. Then, when someone like Liz Easton says, "If Hell exists, it is empty," we know the head of ELCA rejects the Savior and His message.
The cross should teach us God's persistence in getting His message out and getting it across to us. For example, the best way to spread the Gospel is through persecution. People become settled and satisfied and suddenly, they are scattered. That means a new area, a new group of people will hear about the Gospel.
Some have their chance to hear it, reject the Gospel, and it moves on. That is why the Gospel is taken for granted and abused in the West and treasured in the Third World, where people are daily tortured and murdered for being Christians.
48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Many times the leaders would like to bypass the obvious - the parents were not different from any others in this respect - they were steamed that Jesus was having a good time while they were in agony over His loss. Mary used words that my friend uses all the time when someone at the bank or his job has done him wrong, "Why have you treated us this way?"
This and other passages show that the Christians after 400 AD raised Mary to a divine level, without any actual sin, assumed into heaven. The Marian materials really appeal to the emotions, as false doctrine does. But they are not faithful to the Word and ultimately state many things directly contrary to the Bible. To make Mary so gracious, they make Jesus an angry judge who must be stopped and ordered by Mary.
One of the surest signs of a Lutheran pastor leaving the Faith is his obsession with Marian materials.
49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? 50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
And we can see that His parents, with all the revelations given, did not fully grasp what it meant for Jesus to be the Savior and the Son of God. I remember my liberal New Testament professor objecting to the notion of people growing in their faith, as described in the Scriptures. But he eventually showed that he had no faith and treated the New Testament as a toy play with.
Like the disciples later, Joseph and Mary knew but did not fully appreciate what they knew. That is also true of us. We have everything before us, but we often must learn through experience, bearing the cross, and studying the Word to move along another notch.
Opposition? That is good - hard to bear that at the moment. Slander is a blessing? How strange and bitter it is to be slandered when the false teachers are faking slander upon having their dogma revealed for what it is.
For example, two LCMS districts were accused of slandering the seminary in St. Louis for questioning their weakness on Creation - a weakness that opens the door to evolution with a welcome sign on it.
Jesus did not teach the cross for some believers but for all believers. He did not teach the cross as an occasional irritation but as a daily experience - Take up the cross daily.
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23
Not self-denial - but self-fulfillment, self-actualization, self-efficacy (education). Many teach SELF, but God teaches us self-denial and offers us an example in Jesus.
51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
One thing we can always say about Luke's Gospel - this is a special, beautiful, and gracious presentation of Jesus. How poor we would be without this Gospel. In fact, Luke wrote more of the New Testament (in words) than anyone else. And we tend to overlook that fact, even as some tried to undermine Luke as reliable, until defenders dug up important truths about his work.
