Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

Today is the 3rd day of Christmas and according to the carol, our true love is scheduled to send us three French hens to go along with those two turtle-doves and that partridge in a pear tree. Don't be surprised however if, due to inflation and hard economic times, you get three domestic hens instead of the more expensive ones imported from France.

And don't expect anything at all from St. Matthew. He skips the 12 days of Christmas completely and leaves you wanting until the Magi visit nearly two years after Christmas day.

St. Luke sends along a gift on the 8th day of Christmas. Luke writes, "And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

It's not that St. Luke is a scrooge, it's just that he's got the song all wrong. According to Luke, it's not until the 40th day of Christmas that the two turtledoves arrive. Luke writes that 'When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, two turtledoves or a two young pigeons." The law of Moses said that this was to take place on the 40th day after the birth of a baby. (more…)

1st Reading: Genesis 3:8-15

This may seem like a strange way to begin the Christmas story. We were expecting a woman named Mary and a man named Joseph and a newborn baby named Jesus. We had it pictured differently than this. We pictured a little town called Bethlehem with a stable and a manger and a couple of cows and sheep gently milling around, all under a clear sky where the stars are brightly shining.

But instead, we begin the Christmas story in a garden in a place called Eden. The woman's name is Eve and the man's name is Adam. And instead of cows and sheep, there's a serpent, and its not just gently milling around either. It's trying to kill the man and the woman. The serpent wants the woman to eat of the tree of evil so she will die. God had said, "the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." This serpent believes God's Word even more than the man and woman do.

It's forked tongue licks it's serpent lips just thinking about the death of this woman. For if she dies, there will be no baby. This is why the serpent goes after the woman rather than the man. It knows where babies come from. And this serpent doesn't like babies. It hates babies. It hates one baby in particular. (more…)

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It was confirmation day at a Lutheran Church in the mid-west. Each of the confirmands were to memorize Romans 8:38-39 as part of their oral exam before the congregation. One at a time, the pastor asked each confirmand, "What can separate you from God's love in Jesus Christ?" And each one responded in his turn, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present not the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Then it came to Sarah. Sarah was a Down's Syndrome child. As she stood before the congregation everyone worried if she would be able to recite the text. The pastor asked, "Sarah, what can separate you from God's love in Jesus Christ?" Sarah smiled, and she said, "Nothin'!" It is said that the congregation remembered her "Nothin'!" for a very long time.

Mary's confirmation day came as a real surprise to her. No time for her to memorize a bible verse. The question that Gabriel indirectly put to Mary was this one, "Mary, what is impossible for God?" I wonder how nervous the angels and the congregation of saints in heaven were as they awaited Mary's answer. She answered, "Behold, let it be to me according to your word." (more…)

A little boy wanted to land a part in the school play. He was so excited that his parents were concerned how he would handle it if he didn't get a part. So when he came home from school they quickly asked him how the auditions went. The boy was ecstatic. He joyfully told his parents that his teacher had picked him out of all of the other kids to sit in the audience and clap as loud as he could.

I think that John the Baptist would have been wanted to land a part in his school play like that one too.

John was "supporting cast" and definitely not the "lead role." He was the announcer who was to announce that the time had fully come and the curtain was about to rise. He was the light man, not worthy to tie the shoes of the lead man. His part was to shine the light on the main character when He came onto the stage. John's big line in the divine drama was, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

Artwork from the early Church depicts John the Baptist with an overly large mouth and a hyper-extended index finger pointing to Jesus. John was perfectly content to be known as the "big mouth with the big finger." (more…)

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The Church's season of Advent is a time to prepare. "Be prepared" is a good rule to live by for more than just Boy Scouts. The question that we wrestle with during this season is always, 'prepare for what?' 'What are we to be prepared for?' Kohl's, Best Buy and Home Depot have an answer for that question. 'Prepare to buy everything that money can buy.' Incredibly, there's not one WalMart in Thailand or Cambodia – WalMart couldn't touch their prices. Nonetheless, as I was taxied around Bangkok a few weeks ago, I counted at least two, inflated Santa Clauses in one of the markets. Even Buddhists like Christmas. Even if its only because its good for business.

The Church of course, has a much different answer to our question, 'prepare for what?' Its spokesman is not the voice of L.L. Bean or J.C. Penny calling us to prepare for Black Friday. But the voice of John the Baptist, calling us to prepare for Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, and the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

Jesus Christ is coming into the world. Not born of a virgin named Mary. Not hidden away in a manger in a stable in a little town called Bethlehem. It's hard to prepare for something that already happened 2000 years ago. In the wilderness, John cries out, "Prepare the way of the Lord." He is coming a 2nd time. And when He does, it will not be to die for your sins and be raised for your justification. Once is enough for that. "Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous." Once is all it takes. When He comes again, it will be to judge the living and the dead.

See if that doesn't give your Christmas season a new perspective. So what if you don't get that 40gig Apple I-pod, or that Xbox 360 Elite wireless Controller or that 32" LCD HDTV, (I totally don't know what that means) its not the end of the world. But when Jesus comes again, it is. And this is what the Church's season of Advent wants to prepare us for. (more…)

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"O that you would rend the heavens and come down," prays the prophet Isaiah. What a preposterous prayer. Isaiah expects God to come to him. He expects God to come down out of His high and lofty abode and enter into this corrupt and stinking world. The world that God made and declared to be very good, but which we, by our sin have turned into something that God could never bless, Isaiah summons the living God to come down from heaven and clean up this mess that we've made.

What presumption. What arrogance. It takes a lot of guts to ask God to come down from heaven to do 'awesome things.' Who does Isaiah think that he is to ask such a thing? And, who does Isaiah think that God is that he should expect God to stoop so low and humble Himself so totally as to come down from heaven.

Any decent and self-respecting God would tell Isaiah to fix his own mess. 'You made the mess. You clean it up. And don't bother me again until you've got your life and my creation back to the condition in which I gave it to you.' At the very least, a God worthy of calling Himself a worthy God should expect to be properly persuaded to come down. 'What will you give me that will want me to come to you?' 'What will you do for me that will motivate me to do something for you?' Certainly He could not be expected to offer His services cheaply, let alone freely. (more…)