​Life Sunday – 2026                                                                                  LW 475, LSB#’s 790, 877
Text – Genesis 2:7
 
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, & the man became a living creature.
 
FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY MADE
 
 
Carefully handmade items are naturally of more value than items that are mass-produced.  It is far more common for a hand-stitched quilt to become a priceless family heirloom than one that was bought at a store.  One will be carefully preserved & passed on from one generation to the next.  The other will likely get tossed in the trash after a few years of regular use.  
Why do handmade items have this inherent value?  It’s because every handmade item is, in a way, a picture of its maker.  The desire to create proceeds from the heart, so the design & plan reveal the essence of the maker.  The finished product is an incarnation of heart & mind, produced by skills that were honed & refined over years of practice.  
Carefully, lovingly hand-crafted items become invaluable keepsakes because they are more than just items; they are a lasting connection to the one who made them.   If that is true of a quilt or a piece of artwork, how much more is it true of you & me?   God’s Word from Genesis 2 reminds us that God made mankind differently than He made the rest of creation.  
Everything else God made simply by speaking it into existence – but not Adam.  Yahweh carefully & intentionally fashioned Adam’s body from the dust of the ground.   After the physical form was made, God breathed His own life-giving breath into the dust & it became a living creature.  
The same thoughtful care is given to the creation of Eve.  God took one of Adam’s ribs & fashioned a body from it – giving her life.    All of creation is God’s handiwork,   but Adam & Eve were His masterpieces.  They were designed & made in His image – filled with Yahweh’s own breath.  They were the goal in mind when He uttered the first “let there be.”  He gave Adam dominion over creation & placed him in the garden to work it because all of it was made for Adam & his family.  They were reflections of God’s loving character & divine skill.  By this act of careful & intentional creation, God bestowed upon human beings inestimable value.  
Still, we can’t deny that sin has deeply corrupted God’s masterpiece.  We heard this morning that God had put the tree of the knowledge of good & evil in the midst of the garden, commanding Adam not to eat of it, lest he die.  Sadly, we know the choice that Adam made.  As a result, sin & death entered our world & cursed all of our Lord’s creation.  
Since that moment, Adam, Eve & all their children have been broken by sin.  We have bodies that can be malformed, become filled with disease, grow old, weak & die.  Our minds & souls have been warped by sin.  Instead of thinking the way God thinks & loving the way that God loves, we live in fear – our minds & souls filled with evil & with selfish thoughts & desires. 
But sin does not in any way devalue God’s handiwork!   He tells us that even now, He fearfully & wonderfully creates each of us.  King David was a sinner like the rest of mankind, yet the Holy Spirit inspired David to write the words of Psalm 139:
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully & wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”  (Psalm 139:13-14 ESV)   It was not just Adam & Eve who were hand-crafted by God.  Every single human being is still carefully handmade by the heavenly Father.  
He plans & designs our form & skillfully knits us together in the womb of our mother.  Does the curse of sin & death affect us?  Of course, yet we are all still God’s handiwork even while we are terribly marred by sin.  From the moment of conception, till the day God has determined for death, each person, in every stage & condition of life, has immeasurable value to the Lord.  Because sin has twisted our souls as deeply as our bodies, we don’t always see that great value in each human being.  We live in a world that values production.  We find value in things that give us something in return.  That’s the line of thought often used to devalue unborn children or those with severe disabilities.  
The argument states that since the size or the condition of their bodies leaves them less able to perform what some consider to be normal functions; they must not have the same value as other people.  Since our thinking is corrupted by sin, we can fall into similar thinking about the elderly, the dying,   those with untreatable illness.  
Instead of seeing the value inherent in people – as lovingly made & cared for by God –   an economic value is placed on them.  The sick & dying may require a level of care necessitating the sacrifice of time & money.  Thus, the argument is made that some people should be allowed to, or encouraged to, die as quickly as possible under the humane care of a doctor.  
There are times when the manifestation of sin prevents us from seeing the value in a person, or even in ourselves.  When people make bad decisions or transgress God’s Law, we may be tempted to think that God loves them less because of it.  Then we end up loving them less.  
Make no mistake, the woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock, the young girl who in desperation ended her child’s life, & the homeless addict are still precious to the Lord who knitted each of them together in their mother’s womb.  If we try to deny the value of any human being for any reason, think of the price God was willing to pay to rescue them. 
St. Paul wrote, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV)   What was that price?  St. Peter wrote that you were ransomed from your sins, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:18-19 ESV)  The Second Person of the Trinity, the only-begotten Son of God, became man.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit & allowed His flesh to be knitted together in Mary’s womb.   The Son of God was born & grew & lived like all human beings.  Jesus did so, that He might shed His blood & lay down His life for every man, woman & child broken by sin.  God was willing to pay the ultimate price for you.  That gives you unimaginable value. 
God humbled Himself, undergoing every stage of human life & development from the womb to the grave.  He did this to grant you holiness, to ransom His precious creation in any & every condition, or any & every stage of development.   Jesus was conceived & grew in Mary’s womb to sanctify & save all those who never make it out of the womb alive.  
He lived in the flesh & “took our illnesses & bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:17 ESV) to redeem the sick & the broken.  He bore the shame of the cross to grant peace to those weighed down by the shame of their poor choices.  He laid down His own life to give everlasting life to all the dying. 
By His own self-giving, God has atoned for the sins of the entire world, & has gloriously reaffirmed the value of every single human life that He creates.  You, who were fearfully & wonderfully made by God.   You were even more wonderfully re-created by Christ.  You are washed in the blood of Jesus through the waters of Holy Baptism, just as Henry Knoll is now.  
You’ve been given new life in God’s Son, life that will never end.  For “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration & renewal of the Holy Spirit … so that being justified by His grace  we might become heirs  according to the hope of eternal life.”  (Titus 3:5, 7 ESV) 
 Your failure to love God above all things   & your reluctance to see the value in every person   is forgiven.  That forgiveness was won at the cross, delivered in your Baptism, promised to you by God’s Word, & confirmed for you by the crucified & risen body & blood of Jesus that you receive in Holy Communion.   Although your body will weaken & give way to physical decay & death, it will be raised again to live with God without corruption for all eternity.  And what Jesus has done for you, He offers to everyone.  As Christ has given us this new life in Him, He calls & empowers us to live like Him.  
Though sin still dwells in our flesh, God is working in His children to refashion His image in us.  Your heart & mind are being renewed day by day to love like Jesus loves; to think like Jesus thinks.  Your eyes are being opened to see to others – the unborn, the weak & the aged, the sick & the dying, the guilty & the shamed – the way that Jesus sees them.  
He sees them as He sees you, as His masterpiece, wonderfully & fearfully created & recreated by Christ to live with Him & the Father & the Holy Spirit today & forever.  All human beings are God’s creation.  They are far more than a blob of cells.  As handmade creatures, each of them is a lasting connection to the One who made them.  Amen.  
 
 
Praise to the Lord, who over all things is wondrously reigning &, as on wings of an eagle, uplifting, sustaining.   Have you not seen all that is needful has been sent by His gracious ordaining?     Praise to the Lord, who has fearfully, wondrously made you, health has bestowed &, when heedlessly falling, has stayed you.   What need or grief ever has failed of relief?  Wings of His mercy did shade you.      Praise to the Lord!  O let all that is in me adore Him!  Let the Amen sound from His people again; gladly forever adore Him!  Amen.  LSB 790:2-3, 5. 
 

​2nd Sunday after Christmas – A                                                                     LSB #’s 410, 523, 376
Text – Luke 2:48
 
And when His parents saw Him, they were astonished.  And His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you treated us so?  Behold, your father & I have been searching for you in great distress.”
 
WHY HAVE YOU TREATED US SO?
 
 
You can imagine the anxiety a mother would feel.   Satan would have a field day stoking the guilt of having left behind a child, alone, in a large city.   “What were we thinking, Joseph!  Why didn’t we make sure that Jesus was with us on the day we left?   He’s just a boy!” 
Jesus may not have ditched you while on a family vacation, but the words of Mary are not unknown to us.   Each one of us has at some point in our lives wondered why God was treating us in such a way to cause us great distress.  Whether the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or a wayward child, it’s common to wonder why God treats us like that. 
Of course, wondering why God treats us as He does, reveals more about ourselves than we care to acknowledge.  The Word of God makes clear that everything He brings, or allows, into our lives will in some way be used for good in the lives of God’s people.  The crucifixion of Jesus is the ultimate example.  Yahweh abandoned His Son on the cross to bring us salvation. 
We live in a sinful world.  It’s normal for bad things to happen.  Our wondering why God allows it, shows that we lack trust in the heavenly Father’s wisdom, or in His love for us.  Much of our disappointment in God stems from the reality that we are going through life here on earth trying to find success & happiness.   Happy New Year! 
Do you think that is the heavenly Father’s plan for you?  Is that what Yahweh is chiefly concerned about for your time here on earth – that you find happiness & success?  The wording of my question obviously warns you not to answer “Yes.”   No, Jesus is often not about doing what we want Him to do.  The Bible reveals His disciples having the same problem on numerous occasions.  When the soldiers came with Judas, Peter wanted Jesus to fight back.  The last thing Peter wanted was for Jesus to surrender.  When a Canaanite woman was crying out for Jesus to heal her, how did His disciples respond?   … “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”  (Matthew 15:23 ESV)   Wouldn’t we prefer to have Jesus send all our problems away? 
Yet, those problems are often the means through which our Lord is working to bring us to glory.   We are looking for success & happiness.  Jesus is looking to rescue us from the clutches of a roaring lion.  That’s necessary, first because we cannot rescue ourselves.  Second, it’s necessary because we are often clueless to the evil behind the lion’s roar. 
Jesus is often not where we want Him to be.  He is frequently not doing what we want Him to do.  We easily forget Who Jesus is & what He was sent to do.   He came to destroy the sinful nature of mankind; to create human flesh & blood that can never be corrupted by sin.  He came to rescue us from the clutches of a roaring lion.  We are looking for success & happiness. 
Eve heard words she’d never heard before, “Did God really say…”   Yet, Satan was actually roaring the word Rebel.   Neither Adam nor Eve heard the roaring of the lion, until after they bit into the forbidden fruit.   They did hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, & a feeling gripped their hearts that they had never known before. 
Their lives on earth would never be the same, because now they knew what it was to be afraid.  And in that fear, Adam might as well have said to His Creator, “Why have you treated us so?”  Here are Adam’s exact words, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, & I ate.”  (Genesis 3:12 ESV) 
In blaming God for giving Eve to him, Adam was essentially wondering why God had treated him so.  Adam’s wondering about Yahweh’s motive was actually revealing something about Adam.  He now lacked trust & faith in the goodness of his Creator.  That was new to Adam, but you & I have struggled with the lack of faith & trust all of our lives.   You & I have also failed to fear the roaring lion.  In fact, as sinful creatures, we were born deaf to that roar.  We have always struggled with doubting the goodness of our Creator.  That doubt is the motive behind teaching evolution as the source of all life on earth.   Darwin doubted God’s goodness. 
Our doubts are real even if they are a result of sin.  The question is, “What do we do with them?”  Do we make those doubts our guiding light, such as Charles Darwin did, or do we confess those doubts & turn back to our Creator?  Whatever your specific doubts may be Jesus Christ is waiting for you to turn to Him.  He will forgive your doubts & comfort your fears. 
Maybe you have doubts about who or what you are.  Maybe you have doubts about your ability to be a parent, or a student, or doubts about God’s willingness to provide everything you need.  All of us have doubts, in some way, about our future & what is in store for us. 
If we obsess over those doubts, if we allow them to become our guiding light, we are listening to the roaring lion.  It is he who plants the question, & the doubts that about our heavenly Creator, “Why have you treated us so?”  That question & those doubts are not from our imagination.  They are real because of what sin has done to us. 
Yahweh is completely aware of our struggle.  That’s why, shortly after the sentimental manger scene of the infant Jesus that drives our Christmas celebration, this account of Mary’s doubts & guilt over “losing” her son is recorded for us by St. Luke.  Mary & Joseph dealt with real fears.  You & I deal with real fears. 
Jesus does not so often speak the words, “Do not be afraid!” because He’s angry with us.  He says them because the lies of Satan are what cause us to be afraid.  Those lies are real because of sin, but the lies are not in control.  Jesus overpowered them when He rose from the dead.  As Luke recounts this event in the life of the 12-year-old Jesus, Luke is moving us beyond the sentimental story of an infant baby Jesus in a manger.  Luke is accelerating us toward the mature ministry of the One Who was chosen to die in our place.  The sense of leaving infancy behind & jumping ahead toward Jesus’ mission is integral to the text.  
The so-called “infancy narrative” of Luke’s gospel (1:5–2:52) does not paint us a Hallmark Channel portrait of Jesus.  Rather, it prepares us to witness & believe His life, ministry, suffering, death, & resurrection that you & I might be rescued from the clutches of a lying & roaring lion.  Jesus foreshadows that ministry with His reply to His mother Mary:
“Did you not know that I must be (about the things of my Father) in my Father’s house?”  (Luke 2:49b)  Years later, Jesus would again go to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to be about the things of His Father – accomplishing His work as our Savior.  When Jesus was 12, His parents were still struggling to figure out who Jesus was & what His purpose in life was. 
They wondered why Jesus treated them so, & we do the same.  We also struggle to figure out who Jesus is & what His purposes are in our lives.  We continually face problems & plaguing questions of faith (Where is the Lord?  Does He really love us?) & we grieve Him by neglecting the truths & promises of His word.  We grieve Jesus by failing to turn back to Him in trust. 
Through complaining & doubt we rob ourselves of the comfort & encouragement Jesus wants for us.  He patiently continues to urge us, in our weakness & confused thinking, to seek His truth in His word.  He freely offers them to us.  That’s why it’s said, “Confession is good for the soul.”   Jesus is patiently waiting to forgive us, & to restore us to life forever.  Amen. 
 
 
The Church from You, dear Master, received the gift divine; & still that light is lifted o’er all the earth to shine.   It is the chart & compass that, all life’s voyage through, mid mists & rocks & quicksands still guides, O Christ, to You.      O make Your Church, dear Savior, a lamp of burnished gold to bear before the nations Your true light as of old!  O teach Your wandering pilgrims by this their path to trace till, clouds & darkness ended, they see You face to face!  Amen.  LSB 523:2-3.