​ 
’Twas the night before Christmas,  when all through the house   not a creature   was stirring,   not even a mouse;  the stockings were hung by the chimney with care,  in hopes that St. Nicholas  soon would be there;  the children were nestled all snug in their beds,  while visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;  & mamma in her ’kerchief,  & I in my cap,  had just settled down  for a long   winter’s nap…[1] 
Those words evoke so many of the feelings that millions of people have surrounding their experience, & their anticipation,   of Christmas.     Silent Night,   O Little Town of Bethlehem,   Away in a Manger, those hymns & many more stir up feelings of the power of Luke’s Gospel message:
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.    And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house & lineage of David).  
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn son, & wrapped him in swaddling clothes, & laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, & the glory of the Lord shone round about them: & they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day   in the city of David   a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:1, 4, 6-11 KJV) 
Then the Gospel of Matthew chimes in: “Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him.  He sent soldiers to kill   all the boys in & around Bethlehem who were two years old & under…”  (Matthew 2:16 NLT) 
The Word of God is not nearly as enamored of human emotions & feelings as the secular culture is.   And if you & I are honest, we too are enamored with our feelings & emotions.  It’s probably the main reason why we sing Silent Night by candlelight on Christmas Eve.  ’Twas the Night Before Christmas is so memorable because it touches hearts.
Just as Herod interrupts our warm & fuzzy thoughts of sugar plum fairies, & refrains of Silent Night, so the prophet Isaiah interrupts his overview of the gifts that God Himself has bestowed upon His people:
“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord… that He has granted them according to His compassion…  For He said, ‘Surely they are my people…’ & He became their Savior.    In all their affliction He was afflicted, & the angel of His presence saved them; in His love & in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up & carried them all the days of old.”  (63:7-9 ESV) 
“But   they rebelled   & grieved His Holy Spirit;   therefore   He turned to be their enemy, & Himself fought against them.”  (Isaiah 63:10 ESV)    The Lord of the universe rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt: “Surely they are my people…”  (Isaiah 63:8 ESV)    However, being a child of God is not a walk in the park. 
By 700 years after their rescue from slavery, God’s people had become so lost that Yahweh Himself had turned against them.   It may sound harsh to our tolerant & sensitive American ears, but it’s no different than any parent who must finally resort to discipline when a child has utterly refused to listen.   In spite of all the blessings that Isaiah details in the OT reading, the sermon text describes how God’s hand was forced by their stubborn refusal to acknowledge Him alone as Lord & Creator.  If Yahweh did nothing the entire nation would have marched blissfully into eternal suffering.  Eventually, the ten northern tribes of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians as God fought against the very people He had rescued. 
Isaiah writes mainly to the two southern tribes that they might turn back to their rescuer.  But child sacrifice, along with many other abominations, had been adopted from their pagan neighbors.  Eventually, the southern tribes had to be overthrown as well.  The citizens of God’s earthly kingdom of Israel had failed to be the Son of God that they were called to be. 
A new Son was needed.  A new kingdom to be created.   The sinful powers of the world in which we live are well illustrated by Herod the king who “…sent soldiers to kill all the boys in & around Bethlehem who were two years old & under…”  (Matthew 2:16 NLT)   Herod could not tolerate competition, & any inkling of a new king in town had to be destroyed. 
Being a child of God is not a walk in the park, because the powers of this sinful world cannot tolerate competition even if you or I are never meant to be kings.  Once the Holy Spirit creates faith in us, we enter into the realm of God’s justice.  People only respond to that act of God’s creation in one of two ways – belief or unbelief. 
By the time of Isaiah, the people had: “…rebelled & grieved [God’s] Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, & Himself fought against them.”  (Isaiah 63:10 ESV)   Their land had been lost.  Jerusalem had been destroyed.  The temple lay in ruins.  God did all that, not out of a desire to destroy His people, but out of love in order to turn them away from evil.   
By the time of Jesus’ birth, Herod, the Romans & the Pharisees all   were grieving the Holy Spirit.  If we’re being honest, we admit that we grieve the Holy Spirit.  Occasionally our sin is so vile that we even grieve ourselves.  As you & I well know, giving up sin is not easy, nor is it completely possible.  Isaiah describes that in well-known words of the chapter after today’s OT reading, “Behold, You were angry, …in our sins we have been a long time, & shall we be saved?  We have all become like one who is unclean, & all our righteous deeds   are like a polluted garment.  (Isaiah 64:5b-6a ESV)   The citizens of God’s earthly kingdom of Israel had failed to be the Son of God that they were called to be.  
Is response, Yahweh sent His only begotten Son to create new human flesh & blood – not corrupted by sin.  We receive that in Holy Communion as a down payment until the resurrection.   Then our bodies will be raised in flesh & blood that can never again be corrupted.  We are now descendants of the New Adam – Jesus Christ, & citizens of a holy kingdom in heaven. 
On this earth, nothing is as over as Christmas when it’s over.  The empty boxes, the wrapping paper on the floor, the stray tinsel from the tree that the cat played with & left on the couch, the empty cartons of eggnog stuffed into the trash.  The ornaments & lights are packed away again along with the star or the angel from the top of the tree.  
And what is left?  A war in Ukraine, homeless people in every city, hungry people begging for food, worries about health, children that concern us, jobs that wear us down.  We’re right back to where we left off before Christmas.  As Isaiah wrote a few verses after the OT text:
“Oh that you would rend the heavens & come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence.”  (64:1 ESV)    But now, we are the new Israel that Jesus came to earth to create.  Yahweh answered the prayer of Isaiah when the greatest deed of all begins the NT – Jesus Christ is born to suffer with us.  On Mt. Calvary, Herod’s business was finished.  
The baby is finally dead,    but He does not stay dead, & neither will we.  Amen.   


[1] https://www.lyricsondemand.com/christmascarols/t/twasthenightbeforechristmaslyrics.html

​Christmas Eve – 2025                                                                                    LSB #’s 331, 361, 376
Text – Micah 5:2
 
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
 
THE KING’S ROYAL ROOTS: BACK TO THE FUTURE!
 
 
There’s something about going back to one’s roots that can re-establish a sense of identity.  With the frantic nature of our lives, sometimes we lose our way.  It can happen slowly & in such tiny steps that we don’t even notice it is happening. 
When getting lost in the woods, suddenly the realization can set in, “I don’t recognize where I am,   or where I’m going.”  What can we do?    It may be possible to retrace our steps, to get back to familiar landmarks,   & find our way home.   
People get lost in how they live also.  We have plans, even strategies, for achieving them.  We have values & priorities.  We have a sense of who we are, who we want to be, what we want to do – & then life happens. 
Sometimes we continue on the path, following our life’s map, as it were.  Other times we get off track, because life happens & things rapidly pull us this way or that.  One day we wake up & find ourselves far away from the course we had set. 
So, it should be no surprise that this can happen in our spiritual lives as well.  We receive baptism into the death & resurrection of Jesus as infants, totally dependent upon God’s grace, His action in Christ, for us.   Then we begin thinking God needs our help; we value our spiritual gifts & life based upon what we have done instead of based upon what God has done. 
We reconfirm the vows taken at our baptism to remain faithful even unto death.   Next comes high school, college, a career, or lack of a career, & then, well, life happens, time flies.   We may find that we’ve wandered quite some distance from the Way that Jesus tells us He is, in John 14:6, “I am the Way & the Truth & the Life.”   This can happen to an entire Christian church.  In fact, it did happen by the time of Luther.  The Reformation was a course correction for a church that had, over time, drifted away from the basic truths which then became the great themes of the Reformation: Grace alone!   Faith alone!   Scripture alone!   Christ alone! 
We can also major in the minors.  We emphasize truth & doctrine for its own sake & not for the mission of the church.   Or we chase any which way to do mission but lose a theological mooring – the very things Jesus taught.  At other times we focus so much on who we are that we forget what we are to be – & to be about – the mission of revealing God’s truth & God’s love. 
It can certainly happen to a congregation.  Like the story of the rescue station that becomes just a club for its members, a congregation can drift from its mission & central message, which is to be the body of Christ in this place for all the people around it.  How do we as people, or as a congregation, make a course correction in our spiritual living? 
We need a recalibration of the GPS in our lives, as a congregation, as the church, as the kingdom of God.  This is happened in the time of Micah, the prophet of this sermon text.  As we have heard now week after week during our Advent journey, the people of God had lost their way.  They had drifted off the path, or even run away from it. 
The kings of the house of David acted as though they were the real king, & not servants of God for the kingdom of God.  The people of Israel & Judah had become more interested in themselves, in their own success, than in serving God or their neighbor. 
And the prophets had some hard words, as we have heard.  Of the great citadel Jerusalem & its temple, Micah said, “Zion will be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins.”  (Micah 3:12 ESV)    Yet,   their message was not without hope.  They spoke of a new king, another son of David.  There was a sense that the new king was not just another David, as though maybe just one more generation was needed to get it all back on track.    No, this was not just about going forward,  this was a message of going back,  of remembering where they came from,  & getting back on the true course. 
For the king, this meant remembering David & his humble beginnings, back in his home town of Bethlehem.  It wasn’t “David’s royal city” back then.  It was a small rural town.  Jesse & his sons were shepherds, far from being the elite of Wall Street or Washington DC. 
Remember, Samuel looked for a son to anoint as king, & they brought past him all the sons but David – he was the youngest & out in the fields watching the sheep.   His father Jesse didn’t even consider him, yet lowly David was the chosen one. 
Of course, when he became king, David himself quickly outgrew his humility.  It didn’t take long for the house of David to get off course.   God would have to find those who lost their way & win them back – back to the beginning, back to Bethlehem, back to a new birth of a new king, a King of a completely different quality. 
Friends in Christ, we began our advent journey toward understanding God’s king & His reign by talking about “home,” the place, the city that is the king’s capital which identifies his kingdom.  We talked about the importance of a place to call home, with its safety & security.  
We noted that even the king of the nation of God could confuse his ideas about the kingdom with what God really wanted & intended it to be.  And so would be born One to be ruler in Israel (notice, Micah doesn’t call him “king”).  His origins & His coming forth were part of God’s everlasting plan to send a savior, who would work all things together for our good. 
Jesus came to save the world, save the church, save you & me, from our irresistible tendency & temptation to get ourselves lost, to drift off course, to wander from God’s plan & then   even to wonder, “Are we still the people of God?”  In the sermon text, on this Eve of Christmas itself, God calls us to consider not just our home, as we did when we began this journey, but our roots – not where we live, or have lived, but where we were born; where we started out, where our family originates.  We think immediately of our family home, but in our spiritual lives let us consider where & when we were born into the family of God. 
For some of you, that was right here, at this baptismal font.   For others, it was in at churches in other places, but still, in the waters of holy baptism, which is the same power of God unto salvation wherever & whenever it comes to call His people home. 
As we celebrate our Savior’s birth, we recall that little town of Bethlehem, not for the sentimental scene we find on Christmas cards or in a Nativity, but for the holy history it conveys.  Bethlehem was the birthplace of the kingdom of God.   As you prepare for Christmas, remember how God Himself went back to the beginning, back to the basics, back to Bethlehem. 
This time the Son of David got it right.  No losing His way.   No selfish self-interests.  This Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve; to give His life as a ransom for all.   Yet He was a king, a true & greater king than any ruler of Israel had been,   & greater than any president of the greatest democracy on earth ever could be. 
An angel choir announced His birth – not to people of power in high places   but to shepherds, out in the fields, doing their job like David was doing back in the day, just outside that little town of Bethlehem.  Jesus was God’s true king: David’s son yet David’s Lord. 
He would come to His capital city in royal procession & be crowned with a crown of thorns.  He would take upon Himself the sin & suffering of all, to bear our sin & to be our Savior, securing God’s forgiveness for our sin & self-interest.  This Jesus, who reconnected mankind with its heavenly Father, would rise from the dead & ascend to His heavenly throne. 
Already now, though behind the scenes, He lives & reigns to all eternity, for you & for
your salvation.  One day, not just for the house of Israel, but to the very ends of the earth there will be true & complete peace!  As the Advent season has drawn to a close, we draw nearer to the manger itself.   Our preparation too, turns back to the beginning, back to the basics, back to the font & the baptismal waters where God begins His reign in the lives of His people.  
There we received our own new life.  There the Christmas message became a lasting truth for all the days of our living.  There we became God’s people, forgiven, to live under Him in His kingdom, to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence & blessedness!   It is there that our heavenly Father established our identity – child of God. 
It is there that He began to call us home, that we might never lose our way again.    Oh, there will be plenty of lost times yet before Judgment Day, but the Almighty Creator is working even those together for the good of those who love Him.  Amen. 
 
 
 
For Christ is born of Mary, &, gathered all above   while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wandering love.   O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth, & praises sing to God the King & peace to all the earth!         O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;   cast out our sin, & enter in, be born in us today.    We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;   O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel.  Amen.   LSB 361:2, 4.  

​3rd Sunday in Advent – A                                                                              LSB #’s 338, 524, 333
Text – Matthew 11:6
 
And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
 
OFFENDED BY JESUS
 
 
In the childhood I experienced, the time leading up to Christmas totally revolved around expectations.   We eagerly looked forward to family parties, many prior to the great Christmas Day celebration that everyone attended.   We anticipated multitudes of delicious Christmas cookies at every event, & hours spent playing in the snow that was normal back then. 
As students, we could not wait until Christmas break began, because it brought the end of the early bed times that ‘school nights’ required.   And yes, what gifts were inside   all of those carefully wrapped presents? 
Growing up in a rural farming community meant that fall was hyper busy with the stress & the difficult labor of the harvest.  That was usually past, once the days of December began to roll by, & a certain calm would settle in for the gradually building excitement of Christmas. 
Parties, presents, friends & family, cookies, snow & Christmas lights, all topped off by Christmas vacation.   It was a magical time to be alive.   And at the age of 8 or 10 it never occurs to you that Christmas will not always be that way.   Far more of the people who made those childhood Christmas memories of mine are now in heaven than are here on earth. 
For many in this nation, & certainly around the world, Christmas was never that way to begin with.   Harsh conditions exist for Christians in many nations.  Even if people believe in Jesus, families are fractured, people don’t have time, or know how, to make multitudes of Christmas cookies, & it almost never snows before Christmas   in Michigan anymore. 
No matter how amazing God’s blessings are in this life every last one of them is temporary.  Each blessing, as with every life, has an expiration date attached to it.  We easily get used to, & take for granted, the blessings our Lord showers upon us.   It is much more difficult for us to adjust when any specific blessing, or loved one, expires.   Last Sunday, John the Baptist confidently cried, “…Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.”  (Matthew 3:3 ESV)  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit & fire.”  (Matthew 3:11b ESV) 
Today, the victim of earthly power, might & wrath, the Baptist meekly sends word to Jesus from prison, “…Are you the one who is to come, or   shall we look for another?”  (Matthew 11:3 ESV)   John was ready to welcome a God of power & might & wrath, but Jesus came to be the victim of God’s power, might & wrath. 
All Christians, saints but still sinners, at one time or another, struggle with doubts.  “Why did that happen to me?”  “How could God allow this?”   “Where is Jesus when I need Him?”   “Does God hear my prayers?”  “Does my faith make any difference in this world?” 
People find themselves stuck between a rock & a hard spot, imprisoned not by Herod, but by the world, by our flesh, & by the works of Satan.  Evil still thrives in our day.  Terrible things happen & God does not prevent them.  There are the silent struggles of long & lonely days at nursing homes.  Illness & disability take their toll on our bodies & on our mental health. 
At times, God does not provide the support & strength we so desperately ask of Him.  The resultant doubts are real & pressing.   Like John, we are tempted to wonder if Jesus is ever going to get around to bringing true justice to the weak & the downtrodden of this life?  The rich & famous, politicians & billionaires, never get held to account for their lies or their greed. 
John’s doubts & frustrations revolved around his expectations.  The same is true in our lives.  Learning that Jesus is not a genie, who is come to grant all our wishes, is one of the difficult transitions of faith.  When we struggle to understand how Jesus is working through the brokenness of this world, rather than looking at our doubts as adversaries, God would have us see our doubt as an invitation to prayer.  During prayer, the Holy Spirit will guide us to reflect on our lives, our faith & how Holy Scripture can educate, strengthen & comfort us.   Reading through the Psalms is especially helpful in that regard. 
We see it all through our culture, that human beings naturally assume power & control are the way to make things happen.  Despite all the rhetoric, our political elections are not about democracy.  They are a crass struggle for power & control.  Every side wants to have the winnowing fork in their own hands to weed out what they define as evil. 
After last year’s elections, the current Democratic party is offensive to many of its own constituents because they see it as weak & totally ineffective.  Their people are demanding that their leaders fight for power & control.    Maybe that’s what John the Baptist was expecting from Jesus, the destruction of earth’s evil rulers & to bring about God’s earthly kingdom. 
As Isaiah wrote in the OT reading, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come & save you.”  (35:4bc ESV)   It sounds like a human version of power & control.  Yet, the heavenly Father interpreted that verse in a very different way.  He sent His Son to be the victim of holy vengeance. 
In that way, it would not be just like the days of Noah, when everything was destroyed.  Instead, all the evil the universe has ever seen, or will see, has already been punished in the death of God on the cross at Calvary. 
However, hanging on that cross, to human eyes, the Son of God looked totally weak & ineffective.  People were demanding that He show some power & might by coming down from the cross to save Himself.   Yet, Jesus remained there even as His father in heaven abandoned Him to die, alone.   It can be seen as a ghastly act of horror, or as an act of supreme love. 
If your heart revolves around power & control, the death of your messiah is a ghastly act
of horror.  If your heart revolves around repentance & humility, the death of your Messiah is an act of supreme love.  And in love, Jesus says to you, “…blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”  (Matthew 11:6 ESV)   Jesus recognizes that He is not acting according to human standards, nor human expectations.  The ways of God are not the ways of men. 
However, this is not the only time Jesus encounters a follower struggling with doubts.  Historically, the name Thomas has been connected to doubt because of one man, doubting Thomas.  And what Jesus said to him closely parallels what Jesus said to John the Baptist: “Blessed are those who have not seen & yet have believed.”  (John 20:29b ESV) 
It’s one of the most difficult transitions of faith, that of moving from seeing & believing to believing without seeing.  When we doubt God’s plan, as we see it in our own struggles of life, we are blessed if we do not take offense at what appears to be the weakness of Jesus.  When we doubt God’s plan, as we see it in our own struggles of life, we are blessed if we believe anyway. 
Christmas is almost here & a song you may be hearing tells us, “Once again, as in olden days   Happy golden days of yore   Faithful friends who are dear to us   Will be near to us once more.     Someday soon, we   all will be together   If the fates allow.   Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”[1] 
The lyrics are rather weak, as theology goes, but one point is valid.  Someday soon, all God’s children will be together, & it will be even better than the happy golden days of yore.  “And blessed will be all those who were not offended by Jesus.”  (Matthew 11:6 ESV)  Amen. 
 
 
 
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!  It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, & drives away our fear.     It makes the wounded spirit whole & calms the heart’s unrest; ’Tis manna to the hungry soul & to the weary, rest.  Amen.  LSB 524:1-2. 


[1] Written in 1943 by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane