Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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If you’re a political junkie at all, then you’ve got to be enjoying the contest that’s going on for the nomination for President. With every Primary election the lead seems to change. So far anyway, no one candidate has a commanding lead over the other candidates. Depending on who stays in the race and who drops out of the race, almost anyone could win.

This morning, we are introduced to another candidate who has entered the race. Not the political race but the human race. He comes not to win an election, but He comes because He has already been elected from all eternity. He does not come to establish an earthly kingdom, but He comes to establish the kingdom of heaven. A kingdom, which He will explain at another time, is made up of citizens from every earthly kingdom on the face of the earth. The citizens of the Kingdom of heaven of which He is the King are not those men and women, boys and girls who have elected Him to be their king and to rule over them. The citizens of this heavenly kingdom are those who He has elected to be His people, that He might rule over them with His love and mercy as no earthly king can do.

In our gospel reading this morning, Matthew reports on the early stages of the Jesus’ campaign. He begins in Galilee and there He recruits four fishermen and attracts great crowds of followers. (more…)

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The text for our consideration this morning is Luke 1:26-35. “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 born will be called holy— the Son of God.”

For those of you who have asked for more sermons that deal with current events and issues of the day, this one’s for you. On Tuesday of this week, January 22nd, this nation will mark the 35th consecutive year of legalized infanticide. An article in yesterday’s Washington Post reported that the rate of abortions in the U.S. in 2005 was 1.2 million, which was the lowest it has been in three decades. Frankly, that is a piece of good news that it’s hard to get too excited about. I can hardly believe that the 1.2 unborn children are celebrating America’s “progress.” (more…)

If you want to keep up with St. Matthew, you’re going to have to think quick and be quick on your feet. Matthew moves quickly from one place to another and one time to another. For example, in his introduction, he moves from Abraham to Jesus, 42 generations in all in just 17 verses.

He moves us from Bethlehem to Egypt and from Egypt to Nazareth and covers three or four years in just one chapter. And then things start to move at warp speed. He begins chapter 3 saying, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.” And, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John…” And with that, he’s covered about 27 years in just two verses.

By the time Matthew gets us to the Baptism of Jesus, we’re practically out of breath. You can’t keep that kind of pace up for very long. And sure enough, from this point on, Matthew slows things down quite a bit. In fact, the rest of his gospel covers only three years in Jesus’ life, and he takes 25 chapters to do so. (more…)

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If you were keeping count, you’d know that yesterday was the 12th day of Christmas. As of midnight last night, the Christmas season was officially over. If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to take the tree down, pack away the ornaments for another year, finish off the remnants of the fruitcake and Christmas cookies and throw away any eggnog that’s still hanging around in the fridge.

Today, marks the beginning of the season of Epiphany. The Epiphany season always begins on the 13th day after Christmas. Which means that it always begins on January 6th. Only occasionally does January 6th fall on a Sunday. So usually, we slide right on by the Epiphany of our Lord and the visitation of the Magi. And before we realized what we’ve missed, it’s already the 1st Sunday after Epiphany, which is marked by the Baptism of our Lord.

But this is January 6th and today is Sunday, so today our attention is directed to the visitation of the Magi. (more…)