From the Pulpit

Christmas Eve 2016
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
December 24, 2016
Various Christmas Lessons

Picture yourself for a moment on a clear, moonless summer night out in the country away from all the city lights.  You are lying on your back in the grass looking up at the stars and there are a lot of stars.  It is incredible.  You can see airplanes 30,000 feet away and satellites 22,000 miles away and the North Star 433 light years away.  You can see constellations and the Milky Way and you see an occasional shooting star.  In moments like this you almost cannot help but to contemplate God.  God created all of this.  God created the heavens and the earth.  God created you and all people.  There is no way this all came about by random chance.  God is amazing.  God is truly awesome.  The vastness of the stars in the night sky gives a faint glimpse of the limitlessness of the eternal God.

When you think about God, what words come to mind?  I asked this question at school chapel on Wednesday.  Answers came back such as, “All powerful, all knowing, present everywhere.  God is awesome.  God is frightening.  God brings fear and trembling.  God is righteous and just.  Moses and Elijah learned that God’s glory is so great that you cannot look upon Him or you would die.

God is the one who created the heavens and earth with just His Word. God caused a global flood to wipe out evil.  God sent plagues on the Egyptians and made the Red Sea separate to save the Israelites.  God is powerful.

God is righteous and awesome.  God is fearsome and incomprehensible.  God is omniscient and omnipresent and all powerful.  As you ponder about God it is hard to understand His Divinity; difficult to comprehend that kind of power, impossible to fathom that God is eternal; without beginning or end.  It is easy to become overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God made Himself more accessible?  Wouldn’t it be great if God were more like you and me?  Wouldn’t it be great if God were one of us?

Just imagine that.  The all-knowing, all-powerful God coming to earth to be like one of us?  The authority and understanding of the entire universe coming to earth.  How would He come?  What kind of entrance would the awesome, almighty God need to make?  Maybe he would descend in a flaming chariot accompanied by an army of angels bearing swords to destroy anyone who gets in His way.  Maybe He would enter into our world like a conquering king in all his glory and might.  Maybe He would come with an elaborate spectacle of lightning and thunder and great clouds and wind and in the midst of this tremendous weather display God would appear and reign over the people as a great king ruling his domain from a colossal golden throne.  Maybe there would be huge marching bands and fireworks and fighter jet flyovers and lots and lots of pomp and ceremony.  Almighty, awesome God coming to earth to be… God with us.

What would it be like for God to come to earth?  If God did this it would be easier to understand Him.  If only He could be one of us.  Be God with us.  What would it be like?

         If only He could be one of us.  Be God with us.  What would it be like?

Well, as you know of course, it has already happened.  God has come to be with us.  God has come to live with us.  God did come to be God with us, but He did it in a most unexpected way.  He did not come in a flaming chariot and He did not sit on a golden throne.

God comes to be God with us in a most surprising way.  God comes as a helpless little baby born to simple parents.  He is born to parents who have been forced to travel far from home because the Roman Emperor wants to count all his subjects so he can better tax them.  The baby is born, subject to Roman authority, far from home with no proper bed.  God comes to us as a newborn baby wrapped up tightly and laid in an animal’s feed trough.

Where is the flaming chariot?  Where is the fighter jet flyover?  Where is the golden throne?  What kind of God is this that comes in this utterly simple way?  What do we learn about God from this far-from-majestic entry into the world?  There is a lot to learn.

That’s why you are here this evening, 2,000 some years afterwards, gathering on this night to remember and celebrate this baby boy born in Bethlehem.  Because you know some of the lessons learned from this baby’s birth.  You know the secret about who this baby is.  This baby, lying in a manger, is Christ the Lord.  And it isn’t much of a secret really.  For even though baby Jesus, God in flesh, God incarnate, did not come with a flaming chariot and a fighter jet flyover he did have an army of angels.

Luke 2:8-14 (ESV) ⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”^[1]

What an incredible contrast.  Even when God does things that we would expect Him to do, He does them in unexpected ways.  Here we have an angel of the Lord making an announcement and then the angel is joined by a multitude of the heavenly host; a multitude of the heavenly army praising God.

Who are the privileged ones who receive this message delivered by angels?  The king?  Caesar himself?  The religious leaders at the temple in Jerusalem?  It must be someone very important to get this message delivered this way.

But if you look around you see that the army of angels is not at the Temple.  They are not at Herod’s palace or the House of Caesar Augustus in Rome.  The angels seem to have missed their mark for they are out in a field with sheep and a handful of shepherds.

What kind of God is this that announces His arrival with an army of angels, but announces it to shepherds in the fields?

Now, the setting for this announcement does bring a lot of things to mind.  The shepherds are in the fields outside of Bethlehem.  These are quite possibly the same fields where young David was a shepherd boy 1,000 years earlier.  David was the shepherd king and now there is a new shepherd king born in the city of David to a descendent of King David.

What an amazing contrast.  The shepherds receive this grand announcement from the angels about the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord.  But what are they told to look for?  A baby, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.  What a contrast?  How strange?  What kind of God is this?  It is a God who understands your trouble.

Life in this world is hard.  This supposedly happy time of year is, for so many, not so happy.  Life is a struggle.  There is sickness and suffering and evil and death.  There are personal battles against sin and addiction.  That same stupid sin that you promised God you would never do again keeps finding its way back into your life.  You are a natural born sinner and sin comes to you far too easily.  Life in this human flesh is not an easy life for anyone.  And yet into this struggling human flesh Jesus enters.  Jesus takes on this flesh only He is without sin.  He will offer Himself as the spotless Lamb of God.

This is our awesome, amazing, powerful God veiled in the flesh of a Jewish infant; the humble savior, the suffering servant, God in flesh who is destined for humiliation, anguish and death on the cross for your sins.  Jesus comes as that baby in Bethlehem in love and service to you.  He saves you by His Word, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and “I forgive you all your sins.”  He feeds you with His body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.  What kind of God is this… who does His saving work with words, water, bread and wine?  It is the kind of God that comes to earth and chooses a manger and a cross.

God indeed has come to earth to be one of us.  Jesus is the Word.  We are very familiar with the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke.  This is the Christmas story from the Gospel of John.  John 1:1-4 (ESV) ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  John 1:14 (ESV) ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.^[2]

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.  You know God the Father through Jesus; God with us; Immanuel.  You know Jesus through faith worked in you by the Holy Spirit.

God came to be with us but He did not come as we expected.  He did not do what we expected him to do.  He did what he needed to do.  He saved you by His death and resurrection.

And so, as a redeemed child of God washed in the waters of baptism, live your life in love and service, fight the good fight, keep the faith, keep spiritually awake and keep watch for Jesus coming again on the last day with great power and glory.  Tonight we celebrate God coming to earth in a most unexpected way. O come, O come Immanuel.  God with us.  Amen.

[1]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

[2]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

Advent 4 2016
Immanuel Lutheran, Hamilton, Ohio
December 18, 2016
Psalm 24:1-10, Isaiah 7:10-17, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25
Pastor Kevin Jud

Sometimes being a follower of Jesus can feel like a long, monotonous slog through life.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Worship service after worship service.  Sin and forgiveness.  Sin and forgiveness.  Get up, try to do what you are supposed to do, go to bed.  Repeat.  Read your Bible, come to worship.  Hear the Good News.  Repeat.  There is, at times, a desire for more; more excitement, more emotion, more direct revelation from God.  More direct interaction like back in Bible times when angels would appear to people.  How cool would that be to have an angel appear to you?  How exciting would it be to have an angel come and talk to you and bring you a message from God?  That would be pretty amazing, but for the most part we live pretty average lives as followers of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Joe is one of the good guys.  An average Joe.  A blue collar kind of guy who makes his living with His hands.  He is loyal to one girl.  He is patient.  They have been pledged to each other for quite a while and Joe has been a perfect gentlemen. He is concerned about his own reputation and he is concerned about the reputation and honor of his future wife.  He is a hard worker and is very much looking forward to getting married and starting a family.  Life is going along pretty well for this good guy from a small town. Life is good for this average Joe.

Everything is going good, that is, until it all comes crashing down on Joe with two words from his fiancée, “I’m pregnant.”  What?!?  How can this be?  Joe has been chaste; he has been waiting until the wedding night; how can this be?  Oh no!  No! No! No!  This can’t be true.  This sweet young lady that he has been waiting to marry has been with another man. This one that Joe had been waiting for and protecting her honor; she has given herself to some other guy. Life for this average Joe went from good to terrible with just two words, “I’m pregnant.”

        Life for this average Joe went from good to terrible with just two words, “I’m pregnant.”

Joe’s head is spinning.  Joe is concerned about his reputation.  Everyone is going to think that he took indecent liberties before the wedding day.  They will think Joe is a cad.  They will think that he was not willing to wait until the wedding.  Everyone is going to blame him for getting her pregnant.

Now Joe could be very clear to everyone that this is not his child; he did not get her pregnant.  It’s not his fault.  She is a loose woman.  She cheated on him. This is all her fault.  Joe can make sure everyone knows the truth.  He could do this, but Joe is a good guy and even in the pain of his heartbreak and humiliation he is still concerned about her reputation and her safety.  Joe still cares about her and he is still a good guy.  If Joe blames her, people will accuse her and shame her and shun her and maybe they will even hurt her or kill her for cheating on Joe.

Joe decides he will try to do the best for both of them and quietly break off their engagement and be on his way.  Maybe she can leave town or lay low for a while and all this will somehow blow over.  Maybe he can go back to being just an average, albeit lonely, Joe.

Then this average Joe finds out he is no longer average. That night, while he sleeps, Matthew 1:20 (ESV) ²⁰ …an angel of the Lord appear[s] to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”^[1]

This average Joe is going to be the step father of a miraculous baby boy.  The angel tells him, Matthew 1:21 (ESV) ²¹ “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”^[2]

Joe is going to be stepfather to Jesus, in Greek, ihsous, in Hebrew, Ya-shawa which means YHWH Saves; the Lord saves.  Joe is going to be responsible for caring for Immanuel; God with us.

Joe is going to get married after all.  He will step up and do what the angel instructed him to do.  He will take upon himself any shame and scorn that people might otherwise direct towards his pregnant wife Mary.  He will make sure no one hurts Mary or the baby.  Everyone will think that the baby is his baby and he was the one to pressure Mary to compromise her honor.  Joe will take the shame and protect Mary and the unborn child from harm.  Joe’s life is changed completely with two words from Mary and then changed completely again with a visit from an angel of the Lord.  How crazy must this all be for Joe?  How frightening.  How disconcerting.  How life-altering.  Jesus’ arrival on the scene has brought with it great trouble and turmoil.  And Joseph is transformed from being an average Joe to being the stepfather of God in flesh and his adventures are only beginning.

This world is full of darkness and trouble and turmoil. The world loves the darkness and Jesus brings difficulty into the lives of those who love him because Jesus is not of this world.  Jesus does not bring friendship with the world.  Jesus is the light and the darkness does not understand the light.  The world is a world of selfishness and greed and indulgence and evil; Jesus brings a message of peace, love, and service.  Jesus bring peace; God and man are reconciled.  As a redeemed child of God you are called out of the ways of the world and called onto the path of God to delight in His will and walk in His ways, doing what you are supposed to be doing in your various vocations of life.  Life as a follower of Jesus can be difficult.  It means living as a child of light in a world of darkness.  It means feeling out of place in so much of the world.

Now, you likely will never be spoken to by an angel of the Lord like Joseph was and given immediate, life-changing instructions.  You likely will never have an angel of the Lord appear to you in a dream and that is a relief because the messages Joseph received were life-altering.  You may never be spoken to by an angel of the Lord like Joseph was, but you were spoken to by an angel with a message from the Lord for you.  The word “angel”; “angelos”, in Greek means messenger.  In English we think of angel as like the angel Gabriel.  But angel simply means messenger.  So an angel has spoken to you.  A messenger of the Lord has spoken to you the word of the Lord, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Those words changed you from being an average person in this world and called you into the Kingdom of God as a child of God; an heir of the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It called you out of being an average person to being a royal priest of God Almighty offering yourself as a living sacrifice.

That messenger of God who baptized you may have worn a white robe, but he was just a man speaking on behalf of God bringing you the Good News of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  There are still angels bringing you the message of God and that message is still, “your sins are forgiven.”  The message is still radical in calling you to live in love and care for others.  The message is still about that baby who is God incarnate; God in flesh, who has come to give Himself for you.

The message is still about that baby that Joseph cared for and protected while being knit together in Mary’s womb and cared for and protected and taught once He was born.  It is about that baby that Joseph, being instructed by an angel, escaped with to Egypt along with Mary to flee Herod’s sword and then brought back to Nazareth when Herod the Great was dead. It is about that child that Joseph raised. It is about that child who is the one; the Christ; God in Flesh.  This child placed under Joseph’s care by an angel is God in flesh who grows up to offer that flesh on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for your sins and the sins of the world.  The one protected from shame and scorn by Joseph takes on the shame and scorn of the world for you.  God came into the world to save the world.  Jesus coming in the flesh into the human story changes everything. God came to be with us to live the perfect life and die as the spotless Lamb of God.

An angel comes to the Virgin Mary to announce to her that she would give birth to the savior conceived by the Holy Spirit. An angel comes to Joseph to tell him to take Mary as his wife because she is pregnant with God.  Angels are still around you guarding and protecting.  Messengers are still bringing you the Good News about that baby boy.

Sometimes being a follower of Jesus can feel like a long, monotonous slog through life.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Read your Bible, come to worship.  Hear the Good News.  Repeat.  Even those working in full time ministry as teachers and pastors and missionaries can feel the grind of getting through life one day at a time trying to live God’s way of love and service.  Life in Christ is often a daily, repetitive struggle.  Life in Christ is generally not a series of exciting events.  Even for Joseph, who received multiple instructions from an angel in his care for Jesus, most of his life was spent in quiet obedience, loving and caring for Jesus and Mary and their other children and that is okay.  Quiet obedience and humble repentance and loving and serving others is a good way to live because you have the Good News of the Christ who came to save you.  Jesus came for you.  Jesus brought light into a world of darkness and you have that light.  In service to God Joseph guarded Jesus from the womb through birth and childhood.  Joseph made sure Jesus was safe so He could die at the right time for you.  And because of that you are destined to live forever in the heavenly kingdom because that baby that Joseph saved came to save you. Amen.

[1]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

[2]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

Advent 3, 2016
December 11, 2016
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
Psalm 146:1-10, Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-11, Matthew 11:2-15

Has it ever gotten so dark for you that it was hard to see Jesus?  It is hard to live in the darkness; the darkness overwhelms the light and threatens to snuff it out.

You are a baptized child of God.  You have the light of Christ.  In Christ you are the light of the world.  You have the light and yet the darkness comes.  You can almost feel the darkness as it rolls into your life like a thick fog.  The darkness of grief and depression rolls over you and makes it hard to see Jesus.  The darkness of illness and suffering pushes into your life.  The darkness of death comes suddenly to take away loved ones and leave you reeling in the gloom.  The darkness of addiction and sin creeps silently into your life trying to extinguish the light of Christ.  For many, the darkness of confinement in jail or prison or a nursing home or even your own home can be a deep gloom that overshadows everything in life.  Sometimes it gets so dark that it is hard to see that Jesus is the one who has come to save you.

Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?  Is Jesus of Nazareth the one?

John the Baptist knew Jesus was the one when John was a six month old fetus in his mother’s womb and he leaped for joy at Jesus’ presence inside His mother Mary who came to visit.  John the Baptist knew Jesus was the one when John said, Matthew 3:11 (ESV) ¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”^[1]  John the Baptist knew Jesus was the one when John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  John knows Jesus is the one and yet, in our Gospel reading today, we find John in prison sending messengers to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

John is in a dark place in his life.  John believes that Jesus is the one, but the darkness is starting to make that hard to see.  John is literally sitting in the darkness of Herod’s dungeon and the darkness is starting to overwhelm the light of faith.  Every time John hears someone coming and the door opening he doesn’t know if it is just someone bringing food, or someone bringing freedom, or someone bringing a sword to cut off his head.  John is in a very difficult, dangerous darkness and he wants reassurance from Jesus.

When we are trapped in the darkness of life we can find that it is hard to see that Jesus is the one.  Like John, we want reassurance.  “Are you the one or should we look for another?”

Jesus sends a message of hope.  Matthew 11:4-5 (ESV) ⁴ …“Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”^[2]

Jesus is the one who is to come even in the darkness of John’s imprisonment.  Jesus is still the one to come even in the darkness of your trials and troubles; your doubts and despair.  Like John, we have the record of Jesus’ miraculous restoring of the blind and the deaf.  Cleansing of the lepers.  Raising of the dead.  But not only do we have that, we also have the eyewitness accounts of the greatest miracle; Jesus rising from the dead.  We know that Jesus is the one because He died on the cross that Friday on Calvary and rose from the tomb on Sunday morning.  Jesus conquered death… for you.  Jesus is the one to come and give His life as a sacrifice for your sin and to rise again to give you eternal life.

This is the good news that we hear in the darkness of this life as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.   This is the Good News that we hear even when Jesus seems far away.

In the darkness of John the Baptist’s prison cell Jesus must have seemed so very far away; but the darkness is not evidence that Jesus is far from John.  Jesus’ promises are still very much in place.  Jesus’ promise of eternal life still holds firm for John in the darkness.  It still holds firm even as John loses his head to Herod’s henchmen.  Matthew 10:28 (ESV) ²⁸ …do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.^[3]  Jesus’ promise to John is still good even when things do not go as John wants them to go.

God does not always act the way you want him to.  He does not always remove you from the darkness of life, but rather is there, with you, in the darkness.

Even in your greatest darkness you can declare, “I am baptized.”

As Jesus reassures John that indeed He is the one to come He adds one more statement.  Matthew 11:6 (ESV) ⁶ “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”^[4]

Very often, Jesus does not act the way you want him to.  He does not remove you from the hard things of life.  He does not eliminate evil.  He lets good people suffer while wicked people prosper.  This is not how you would do things, but God doesn’t act the way you want him to act.  God does things that you would never do.  God threatens to send unbelievers to hell.  This is very difficult; why does God let anyone go to Hell?  Why doesn’t He get rid of Hell altogether?

People say things like, “I can’t believe in a God who would send someone to Hell.  I can’t believe in a God who would allow this person I love to die.”  “I can’t believe in a God that doesn’t do things the way I want them to be done.”

Basically we are in the same place as John.  We want Jesus to come in great power and glory and destroy evil forever; rid the earth of disease and death.  Take from us depression and sinful temptations.  We want Jesus to do what we want Him to do.

And indeed, Jesus is the one who is to come, and He will one day return in glory and destroy evil forever and rid the earth of disease and death, but we still live in the time of now and not yet.  Jesus has come; He has taken the sin of the world upon himself but He has not yet returned in glory to destroy evil and restore the kingdom.

For now, like John, we trust in the Lord knowing Jesus is the one even when life is spinning out of control.  In the darkness of life you still have the light of the world shining in the gloom.  In His time of ministry Jesus was a humble teacher.  He did many of his miracles quietly without making a big show of it.  Jesus is the one who is to come, He is the Messiah; the Christ, but He is a humble, serving Christ.  In many ways Jesus comes as a hidden Christ with His glory concealed in his humility.

Seeing baby Jesus laying in the manger you would not first think, “This is God with us.”  Seeing Jesus with His disciples you would not first think, “This is God Almighty.”  Seeing Jesus hanging on the cross you would not first think.  “This is God in flesh.”  Jesus is not the God that people expect and because of that, many are offended.  Many resent that Jesus is not the Jesus that they want him to be.  Jesus may not be the Jesus you want Him to be, but Jesus is the Jesus you need Him to be.

American prosperity pastors preach about how Jesus wants you to have your best life now and how, as Joel Osteen tweeted recently, “When you have the boldness to believe big, to ask big and expect big, that’s when God is going to show out in your life.” This kind of preaching of the American dream is all a big pile of steaming fertilizer.  “You have to have the boldness to believe big?”  Tell that John the Baptist sitting in Herod’s dungeon.  Tell that to the dying man in hospice.  Tell that to the person struggling with addiction.  Tell that to the one battling depression.  Tell that to the one enveloped in darkness.  What a crock of man-centered, fabricated theology.

Jesus is indeed the one who came for you.  Even in your darkest days Jesus is still there for you.  He is with you through the darkness.  Here in the darkness of the season of Lent we light the pink candle to remember the joy we have in the Lord.  Jesus comes to you in the waters of Holy Baptism and in the promise of your baptism. Even in your greatest darkness you can declare, “I am baptized.”  Jesus comes in His word of cleansing, “I forgive you all your sins.”  He comes in His Body and Blood to strengthen and preserve you to eternal life.  Jesus comes to you in the darkness with the promise of eternal life in His light.  In Christ you have joy in the darkness.  Amen.

[1]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

[2]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

[3]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

[4]  The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001