Friday, February 23, 2024
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Retirement Gathering Thank You, February 10, 2024
[I shared this thank you during a gathering held yesterday at Living Water Lutheran Church. It was originally scheduled for January 6, but I contracted COVID right before it was scheduled and it was postponed until yesterday. The gathering happened yesterday.]
Hebrews 1:3 says this of Jesus (I’m reading from the Good News Translation): “He reflects the brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's own being, sustaining the universe with his powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of all human beings, he sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.”
Today, I thank God that in Jesus Christ, all my sins and all your sins are totally, completely forgiven.
Jesus, God the Son, achieved the forgiveness of our sins by dying on the cross.
God the Father confirmed this victory by raising Jesus from the dead.
Today, Jesus sits at the right side–the power side–of God the Father, the Conqueror of sin, death, and the devil, all for our sake, all to give us life with God that is ours today and will be forever.
Our call is to daily turn from sin and death–to repent–and to follow Jesus, trusting that–as you’ve heard me say before–when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it.
He has done everything needed for your salvation, everything needed for you to be reconciled to God, everything needed to set you free to love God and love your neighbor.
Today, I also thank the people who have helped me to partake of the freedom of Christ and who have supported, encouraged, and nudged me not only as a child of God, but in my calling as pastor.
I thank Ann for being my wife for more than forty-nine years, for nagging me into going to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Columbus, where I, a rebellious sinner, an atheist, heard the Word of God that convicted me of my sin and then set me free with the Gospel about Jesus.
I thank Ann that she was supportive to me when I threw her the most unexpected curveball of her life. “Ann,” I said, “I think God is calling me to be a pastor.”
I thank our kids for enduring the lives of “pastor’s kids.” Both planned on being here when this gathering was originally scheduled. But after COVID scrubbed that and our son had to eat the cost of his airfare, we told both kids they didn’t need to be here.
Thank you to Living Water for going to the trouble of putting this gathering together. I feel a bit guilty about it when I consider all of the people who come to the end of their working lives without so much as a pat on the back. But thank you anyway…and thank you for the past ten years!
Thank you to my internship congregations and my internship supervisor and his wife, Pastor Jim and Jan. They gave me opportunities most pastoral interns don’t get: to preach and lead worship every single week.
Thank you too to the other congregations I’ve been privileged to serve as pastor–Bethlehem at Okolona, Ohio; Friendship of Amelia; and Saint Matthew in Logan.
Thank you too, to those from those congregations who are here today–and those who showed up a few weeks ago to find that the event had been indefinitely postponed. It has been an honor to serve as a Minister of Word and Sacrament and to have acquired lifelong friendships in each of these churches and communities.
Thank you to all of our friends–those we’ve known since elementary school, high school, college, seminary, early married life, and through all the subsequent years. We have laughed with you, cried with you, worshiped and prayed with you, in some instances traveled with you…and lived to tell about it. Each of you have been important in helping us to know God’s grace and in keeping our sanity, what’s left of it.
Thank you to all of you!
In retirement, I pray that God will help this saint and sinner to proclaim in whatever ways I can that, because in Jesus Christ, God the Son, all our sins ARE forgiven, we can trust in Him.
“For,” as Saint Paul tells us, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
Thank you.
Today, I thank God that in Jesus Christ, all my sins and all your sins are totally, completely forgiven.
Jesus, God the Son, achieved the forgiveness of our sins by dying on the cross.
God the Father confirmed this victory by raising Jesus from the dead.
Today, Jesus sits at the right side–the power side–of God the Father, the Conqueror of sin, death, and the devil, all for our sake, all to give us life with God that is ours today and will be forever.
Our call is to daily turn from sin and death–to repent–and to follow Jesus, trusting that–as you’ve heard me say before–when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it.
He has done everything needed for your salvation, everything needed for you to be reconciled to God, everything needed to set you free to love God and love your neighbor.
Today, I also thank the people who have helped me to partake of the freedom of Christ and who have supported, encouraged, and nudged me not only as a child of God, but in my calling as pastor.
I thank Ann for being my wife for more than forty-nine years, for nagging me into going to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Columbus, where I, a rebellious sinner, an atheist, heard the Word of God that convicted me of my sin and then set me free with the Gospel about Jesus.
I thank Ann that she was supportive to me when I threw her the most unexpected curveball of her life. “Ann,” I said, “I think God is calling me to be a pastor.”
I thank our kids for enduring the lives of “pastor’s kids.” Both planned on being here when this gathering was originally scheduled. But after COVID scrubbed that and our son had to eat the cost of his airfare, we told both kids they didn’t need to be here.
Thank you to Living Water for going to the trouble of putting this gathering together. I feel a bit guilty about it when I consider all of the people who come to the end of their working lives without so much as a pat on the back. But thank you anyway…and thank you for the past ten years!
Thank you to my internship congregations and my internship supervisor and his wife, Pastor Jim and Jan. They gave me opportunities most pastoral interns don’t get: to preach and lead worship every single week.
Thank you too to the other congregations I’ve been privileged to serve as pastor–Bethlehem at Okolona, Ohio; Friendship of Amelia; and Saint Matthew in Logan.
Thank you too, to those from those congregations who are here today–and those who showed up a few weeks ago to find that the event had been indefinitely postponed. It has been an honor to serve as a Minister of Word and Sacrament and to have acquired lifelong friendships in each of these churches and communities.
Thank you to all of our friends–those we’ve known since elementary school, high school, college, seminary, early married life, and through all the subsequent years. We have laughed with you, cried with you, worshiped and prayed with you, in some instances traveled with you…and lived to tell about it. Each of you have been important in helping us to know God’s grace and in keeping our sanity, what’s left of it.
Thank you to all of you!
In retirement, I pray that God will help this saint and sinner to proclaim in whatever ways I can that, because in Jesus Christ, God the Son, all our sins ARE forgiven, we can trust in Him.
“For,” as Saint Paul tells us, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
Thank you.
Friday, February 09, 2024
Thursday, February 08, 2024
Revelation, Part 2 (Video YouTube Version)
[This is the second episode of my study of Revelation. It begins as a Facebook Live event and then gets edited into a podcast. Why the opening logo gyrates, I have no idea. I'm still figuring this podcast and iMovie editing out.]
Friday, February 02, 2024
Thursday, February 01, 2024
A Bit About Revelation
[This is a document I created to which I refer in my first podcast. It introduces some basics about the New Testament book of Revelation.]
“No other book of the Bible has attracted so much attention and caused so much consternation as the Book of Revelation. No other book has been so widely read and wildly misread.” (Richard L. Jeske
1. The first thing to be understood about Revelation is to understand WHO and WHAT it is about. It’s NOT about the antichrist. It’s NOT about what’s called “the tribulation.” The closest thing we have for a title from the author comes at the very beginning of the book: Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. This literally means: “The unveiling or revelation of Jesus Christ.” In Revelation, Christ and the triumph of Christ for all who believe is revealed. That’s the revelation that it gives to Christians.
2. Bottom line: This book which is so often used to incite fear or a false sense of security placed in one’s own righteousness or right actions, is about Jesus Christ, the only place that hope is found for this life or the next.
3. Who wrote Revelation? The author identifies himself simply as John. There were several notable people among Jesus’ early followers named John:
John the Baptist, who died well before Jesus’ death and resurrection and exhibited a less than full understanding of Jesus’ office and ministry and is, therefore, unlikely to be the author of Revelation;
John Mark, part of the ministry team of Paul and Barnabas mentioned in the Book of Acts, is also traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of Mark; and
John, the son of Zebedee and probable younger brother of James. The earliest Church Fathers identified the author of Revelation as this John. The evidence suggests this John lived in Ephesus in what is today Turkey, where he was bishop. He was for a time exiled to the island of Patmos for his faith in Jesus, but returned to Ephesus. He lived through the first seven decades of the Church’s life, living to a ripe old age.
4. Was Revelation always widely accepted as canonical? Some will know that Revelation is often referred to as one of the “disputed books” we today have in the New Testament, along with 2 and 3 John and Jude and even Hebrews. In fact, the evidence suggests that when John first composed Revelation in the late first century, it was received, like other books now in our New Testament, as an apostolic Word from God, equal to both books in the Old Testament and other books accepted in the New Testament. A later-generation Church Father, Dionysus, and others who followed his lead, questioned whether John was the author of Revelation and whether it deserved equal treatment with other books of the Bible. But this was never the prevailing view, nor was it the earliest view, of the Church. We can, I think, safely regard Revelation as the last proclamation of the definitive apostolic Word about Jesus and therefore, part of the canon, the standard for the proclamation of God’s Word today.
Louis A. Brighton writes: “Revelation is…the culmination of the entire salvation contained in the Bible…it draws all of revelation, both prophetic and apostolic, to its final goal: the exalted reign of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords (19:11-16) and the fulfillment of the promise of the new heaven and earth (21:1).”
He continues: “As the last book of the Bible and the completion of God’s revelation to his church, it is the lens through which the entire Scripture is to be viewed. Revelation reveals and confirms the Christ was prophetically promised and that his incarnation, death, and resurrection happened sp that God’s creation could be restored to its original glory and righteousness.”
5. What kind of book is Revelation? John himself describes Revelation as prophecy. Most scholars, conservative or liberal, would say that Revelation represents a kind of prophecy or a separate genre related to prophecy, apocalyptic.
The term is from the Greek noun that actually begins Revelation, ἀποκάλυψις (apcalupsis). The word means uncovering or unveiling. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible uncovers the truth about God for the benefit of believers. Apocalyptic literature is highly visual. Understanding the visual signs God gives to the recipient of them is completely dependent on God’s Word. Usually, God sends angels to deliver apocalyptic visions to particular recipients, like John.
The most prominent Old Testament example of apocalyptic literature is Daniel. Some apocalyptic elements are seen in Ezekiel and in other Old Testament prophetic writings, including Isaiah and Haggai. There are some places in Jesus’ discourses in the gospels and in the writings of Paul where apocalyptic messages are given.
Revelation is the only book of the New Testament that is almost completely given over to the apocalyptic genre, although in a way, it starts out as an epistle, a letter. The entire book, in fact, is an apocalyptic letter written to the seven churches mentioned at its beginning.
Apocalyptic literature was meant to assure people in uncertain situations that God was still in control and that all who trust in Him have hope that cannot be taken from them. This is why, though Revelation was addressed to first-century people faced with particular circumstances, we too can be comforted by its message.
6. John is clear that in Revelation, the events he refers to are not all centuries removed from his time, but mostly in the lifetimes of his original audience. He tells them that they will be blessed in the reading and hearing of his words–just as he had been blessed in receiving the visions and the accompanying words from God–”for [or because] the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)
John wasn’t presenting some gnostic puzzle requiring specially trained guides to solve. And he wasn’t giving some obscure playbook for world history. John was sharing the conquering Lamb of God, Who consoled Christians of his own time and Who consoles us still. The events to which John refers in Revelation were imminent the people of his own time.
7. An important point to remember is this: Like John, like every human being who has lived since the resurrection of Jesus, we live in the end times. The “thousand years” referred to in Revelation is not an exact period of time; it’s not literally “one thousand years.” Apocalyptic language is figurative language. Just as we might say things like “a month of Sundays” or “as old as Methuselah” or “forever and a day,” the phrase “a thousand years” is a way of saying a long time.
8. Revelation tells believers, as Jesus did, to be prepared for Jesus’ return when He will judge the living and the dead, send unbelievers to condemnation, and when the new heaven and earth will descend to believers. Believers, who are part of the Church, need to hold fast to Christ (2:10) and complete our mission of sharing the gospel with others (10:11)
9. Revelation reveals two ongoing phenomena, Brighton says, “the terrifying sufferings and horrors on earth, and the reign of Jesus Christ as Lord in his heavenly exalted glory.” Revelation underscores the truth revealed by Saint Paul in Romans, that no matter how horrifying life in this world may be and no matter if death visits us before Jesus’ return to the world, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
Helpful resources:
Johnson, Dennis E. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation.
Brighton, Louis A. Revelation-Concordia Commentary.
A Bit About Revelation
(Pastor Mark Daniels, January 31, 2024)“No other book of the Bible has attracted so much attention and caused so much consternation as the Book of Revelation. No other book has been so widely read and wildly misread.” (Richard L. Jeske
1. The first thing to be understood about Revelation is to understand WHO and WHAT it is about. It’s NOT about the antichrist. It’s NOT about what’s called “the tribulation.” The closest thing we have for a title from the author comes at the very beginning of the book: Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. This literally means: “The unveiling or revelation of Jesus Christ.” In Revelation, Christ and the triumph of Christ for all who believe is revealed. That’s the revelation that it gives to Christians.
2. Bottom line: This book which is so often used to incite fear or a false sense of security placed in one’s own righteousness or right actions, is about Jesus Christ, the only place that hope is found for this life or the next.
3. Who wrote Revelation? The author identifies himself simply as John. There were several notable people among Jesus’ early followers named John:
John the Baptist, who died well before Jesus’ death and resurrection and exhibited a less than full understanding of Jesus’ office and ministry and is, therefore, unlikely to be the author of Revelation;
John Mark, part of the ministry team of Paul and Barnabas mentioned in the Book of Acts, is also traditionally thought to be the author of the Gospel of Mark; and
John, the son of Zebedee and probable younger brother of James. The earliest Church Fathers identified the author of Revelation as this John. The evidence suggests this John lived in Ephesus in what is today Turkey, where he was bishop. He was for a time exiled to the island of Patmos for his faith in Jesus, but returned to Ephesus. He lived through the first seven decades of the Church’s life, living to a ripe old age.
4. Was Revelation always widely accepted as canonical? Some will know that Revelation is often referred to as one of the “disputed books” we today have in the New Testament, along with 2 and 3 John and Jude and even Hebrews. In fact, the evidence suggests that when John first composed Revelation in the late first century, it was received, like other books now in our New Testament, as an apostolic Word from God, equal to both books in the Old Testament and other books accepted in the New Testament. A later-generation Church Father, Dionysus, and others who followed his lead, questioned whether John was the author of Revelation and whether it deserved equal treatment with other books of the Bible. But this was never the prevailing view, nor was it the earliest view, of the Church. We can, I think, safely regard Revelation as the last proclamation of the definitive apostolic Word about Jesus and therefore, part of the canon, the standard for the proclamation of God’s Word today.
Louis A. Brighton writes: “Revelation is…the culmination of the entire salvation contained in the Bible…it draws all of revelation, both prophetic and apostolic, to its final goal: the exalted reign of Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords (19:11-16) and the fulfillment of the promise of the new heaven and earth (21:1).”
He continues: “As the last book of the Bible and the completion of God’s revelation to his church, it is the lens through which the entire Scripture is to be viewed. Revelation reveals and confirms the Christ was prophetically promised and that his incarnation, death, and resurrection happened sp that God’s creation could be restored to its original glory and righteousness.”
5. What kind of book is Revelation? John himself describes Revelation as prophecy. Most scholars, conservative or liberal, would say that Revelation represents a kind of prophecy or a separate genre related to prophecy, apocalyptic.
The term is from the Greek noun that actually begins Revelation, ἀποκάλυψις (apcalupsis). The word means uncovering or unveiling. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible uncovers the truth about God for the benefit of believers. Apocalyptic literature is highly visual. Understanding the visual signs God gives to the recipient of them is completely dependent on God’s Word. Usually, God sends angels to deliver apocalyptic visions to particular recipients, like John.
The most prominent Old Testament example of apocalyptic literature is Daniel. Some apocalyptic elements are seen in Ezekiel and in other Old Testament prophetic writings, including Isaiah and Haggai. There are some places in Jesus’ discourses in the gospels and in the writings of Paul where apocalyptic messages are given.
Revelation is the only book of the New Testament that is almost completely given over to the apocalyptic genre, although in a way, it starts out as an epistle, a letter. The entire book, in fact, is an apocalyptic letter written to the seven churches mentioned at its beginning.
Apocalyptic literature was meant to assure people in uncertain situations that God was still in control and that all who trust in Him have hope that cannot be taken from them. This is why, though Revelation was addressed to first-century people faced with particular circumstances, we too can be comforted by its message.
6. John is clear that in Revelation, the events he refers to are not all centuries removed from his time, but mostly in the lifetimes of his original audience. He tells them that they will be blessed in the reading and hearing of his words–just as he had been blessed in receiving the visions and the accompanying words from God–”for [or because] the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)
John wasn’t presenting some gnostic puzzle requiring specially trained guides to solve. And he wasn’t giving some obscure playbook for world history. John was sharing the conquering Lamb of God, Who consoled Christians of his own time and Who consoles us still. The events to which John refers in Revelation were imminent the people of his own time.
7. An important point to remember is this: Like John, like every human being who has lived since the resurrection of Jesus, we live in the end times. The “thousand years” referred to in Revelation is not an exact period of time; it’s not literally “one thousand years.” Apocalyptic language is figurative language. Just as we might say things like “a month of Sundays” or “as old as Methuselah” or “forever and a day,” the phrase “a thousand years” is a way of saying a long time.
8. Revelation tells believers, as Jesus did, to be prepared for Jesus’ return when He will judge the living and the dead, send unbelievers to condemnation, and when the new heaven and earth will descend to believers. Believers, who are part of the Church, need to hold fast to Christ (2:10) and complete our mission of sharing the gospel with others (10:11)
9. Revelation reveals two ongoing phenomena, Brighton says, “the terrifying sufferings and horrors on earth, and the reign of Jesus Christ as Lord in his heavenly exalted glory.” Revelation underscores the truth revealed by Saint Paul in Romans, that no matter how horrifying life in this world may be and no matter if death visits us before Jesus’ return to the world, nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)
Helpful resources:
Johnson, Dennis E. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation.
Brighton, Louis A. Revelation-Concordia Commentary.
Revelation, Part 1
Here's the first episode of my new podcast, 'Route 66: A podcast journey through the Bible.' Naturally, we're starting with the last of the Bible's 66 books, Revelation. Please share the podcast with others!
Thursday, January 04, 2024
Gun Violence in America
France24 has details on today's school shooting in Iowa.
I pray in Jesus’ name that God will give us both the wisdom and the courage to act on the wisdom He gives to end the tragic nonsense of gun violence in our country.
No other advanced Western-style democracy deals with gun violence to the extent that we do in America.
Is there more mental illness in America than in other countries? The data I’ve seen suggests that’s not the case. What the definitive answers might be, I don’t claim to know.
Many of the answers will be rendered in the country's political life and, as a pastor, I stay out of politics.
But, as a Christian who cherishes all human life, just as I pray babies will be kept safe in their mother’s wombs, I pray too that those babies, grown older, will also be kept safe in classrooms.
I pray in Jesus’ name that God will give us both the wisdom and the courage to act on the wisdom He gives to end the tragic nonsense of gun violence in our country.
No other advanced Western-style democracy deals with gun violence to the extent that we do in America.
Is there more mental illness in America than in other countries? The data I’ve seen suggests that’s not the case. What the definitive answers might be, I don’t claim to know.
Many of the answers will be rendered in the country's political life and, as a pastor, I stay out of politics.
But, as a Christian who cherishes all human life, just as I pray babies will be kept safe in their mother’s wombs, I pray too that those babies, grown older, will also be kept safe in classrooms.
Monday, January 01, 2024
Ready to Die? Ready to Live?
[Below you'll find the message shared yesterday morning, December 31, 2023, during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. We celebrated the First Sunday after Christmas. It was also the last day of my call as pastor of Living Water. As of yesterday, I am officially retired. I hope you find both the service and the message helpful. It has been an undeserved blessing and joy for me to have been called by Christ and His Church to the ministry of Word and Sacrament these past thirty-nine years.]
Often over the years, when I’ve visited elderly people suffering deeply with no prospect of improvement in their health, they’ve told me.“I’m ready to go, pastor.”
Here’s a question for those of you who are likely healthier and younger than the people who have said this to me, “Are you ready to go? Are you ready to die?
“Well, Pastor,” you may be thinking, “this is kind of an unpleasant question for New Year’s Eve.”
But I ask the question because of the song of praise sung by a man named Simeon in today’s gospel lesson. More on that in a second. We need to look at a bit of background before hearing Simeon sing.
As the lesson begins, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, Whom God has entrusted to their care, are in the temple courts in Jerusalem. They have two reasons for being there.
First, they’re at the temple in obedience to God’s Old Testament Law, Jesus is to be consecrated to God. In Exodus 13, for example, God commands His ancient people, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” (Exodus 13:2)
Second, they’re there in obedience to that part of God’s Old Testament Law which said that the mother of a son was ceremonially unclean, unable to participate in the life of God’s people for forty days after the birth, when she could be purified through the offering of a sacrifice. (Leviticus 12:8)
Now, because we know how this child was conceived–by the Holy Spirit–and Who this child is–God and Savior of the world, it may seem strange that Jesus, the Son of God, needs to be consecrated to God, or that Mary needs purification. After all, what could be purer or more holy than the virgin birth of God into our world?
Well, we’re in the season of Christmas. Do you know what the real miracle of Christmas is? It’s not just that God the Son took on human flesh. The truest and deepest miracle of Jesus’ incarnation is, as the apostle Paul puts it in our second lesson for this morning, “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law…” (Galatians 4:4)
God, Who is holier than the Law and above the Law, intentionally places Himself under the Law–the Law that says we are sinners deserving of death and condemnation–so that He can fulfill the Law perfectly for us and give Himself as the perfect, definitive sacrifice for our sin. For your sin and for mine.
Jesus lived under the Law–God’s righteous commands, everything from “You shall have no other gods before Me” to “You shall not covet”--so that when He died, He could take away all our shame and condemnation, giving us God’s forgiveness, God’s peace, and God’s eternal life for all who trust in Christ!
In our second lesson today, Paul says that Jesus chose to live under the same condemnation of the Law into which you and I are born as descendants of Adam and Eve, “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons [and that includes female as well as male Christians], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:5-7)
Here is the breathtaking truth: Through Jesus, all who believe in Him are adopted by God as first-born-sons, inheritors of everything that has belonged to Jesus before the universe came into being!
This promise is yours, friends. Jesus lived under the condemnation of the Law so that you don’t have to.
Jesus justifies–that is, declares innocent, guiltless, pure–all who see Him as the promised Savior and believe in Him.
All of which leads us to Simeon, the singer in our gospel lesson. Simeon, we’re told was a man who was, first of all, δίκαιος, righteous, meaning that he was a sinner justified by God, declared eligible for eternity with God not because he perfectly obeyed God’s Law, but because he trusted in the God Who had, centuries before, promised a Savior. Simeon was like Abraham, then called Abram, of whom Moses wrote, “Abram believed the Lord, [that is, Abram believed the promises of Yahweh] and he [God] credited it to him as righteousness…” Simeon was right with God because he trusted God and God’s promises. Luke also says that Simeon was εὐλαβής, meaning he reverenced, was devoted to, and trusted in God’s promises.
Over the years, I’ve assumed that Simeon was an old man. But in fact, nothing in what Luke writes tells us that. I’ve come to like the idea that he was a young man, with his whole future life seemingly laid out before him.
Whether that’s true or not, this man, filled with the Holy Spirit and responsive to the Holy Spirit, is led by the Holy Spirit to the Temple that day when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus come in obedience to the Law. The Holy Spirit had already told Simeon that he would not die before he clapped eyes on the Savior of the world.
And there, in Mary’s arms, Simeon sees Jesus.
Simeon scoops the baby up in his arms and sings: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32)
“Now that I see my Savior,” Simeon is saying, “now that I know He is here not just for me, but for all sinners, Jews and Gentiles, I can live and die in peace. I can face death knowing that because of this Savior in Whom I believe, I will live forever in the arms of God!”
Today, Christ comes to you again in His Word and hands you His Gospel promise, “Because of Me, all your sins are forgiven. Not just some of them; all of them. Finally, fully, forever!
He comes to you too in the bread and the wine, His body and His blood, with that same gospel promise to you, “Take and eat; this is My body given for you. Do this, even if you feel far from God or from the believer you mean to be, so that you are re-membered to Me again. And take this cupm which is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people to bring you the forgiveness of sin.”
Christ comes to you today as surely as He came to Simeon at the temple. In Word and Sacrament, you, like Simeon and Anna, see your salvation in Him.
And because Christ shows all this to you, you can, like Simeon, sing to God, “Dismiss your servant in peace. I can die now. I know the good, eternal future You, Christ, have secured for me.”
That can be our song every time we encounter Christ in worship with God’s people, when we read His Word, when we pray or serve in His name.
If this all sounds morbid to you, it shouldn’t. Listen, friends: It’s only when you are ready to die to this life, knowing that Christ has already overturned the condemnation of the Law and destroyed the power of sin and death over you, that you are ready to live in Christ’s freedom today and through eternity under His loving grace.
You’ll live each day anticipating the moment that will come after you’ve drawn your last earthly breath, when the first one you will see is Jesus and the first thing you’ll hear is Jesus telling you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)
Until that day, Simeon’s song is yours: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace…” Amen
Here’s a question for those of you who are likely healthier and younger than the people who have said this to me, “Are you ready to go? Are you ready to die?
“Well, Pastor,” you may be thinking, “this is kind of an unpleasant question for New Year’s Eve.”
But I ask the question because of the song of praise sung by a man named Simeon in today’s gospel lesson. More on that in a second. We need to look at a bit of background before hearing Simeon sing.
As the lesson begins, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, Whom God has entrusted to their care, are in the temple courts in Jerusalem. They have two reasons for being there.
First, they’re at the temple in obedience to God’s Old Testament Law, Jesus is to be consecrated to God. In Exodus 13, for example, God commands His ancient people, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” (Exodus 13:2)
Second, they’re there in obedience to that part of God’s Old Testament Law which said that the mother of a son was ceremonially unclean, unable to participate in the life of God’s people for forty days after the birth, when she could be purified through the offering of a sacrifice. (Leviticus 12:8)
Now, because we know how this child was conceived–by the Holy Spirit–and Who this child is–God and Savior of the world, it may seem strange that Jesus, the Son of God, needs to be consecrated to God, or that Mary needs purification. After all, what could be purer or more holy than the virgin birth of God into our world?
Well, we’re in the season of Christmas. Do you know what the real miracle of Christmas is? It’s not just that God the Son took on human flesh. The truest and deepest miracle of Jesus’ incarnation is, as the apostle Paul puts it in our second lesson for this morning, “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law…” (Galatians 4:4)
God, Who is holier than the Law and above the Law, intentionally places Himself under the Law–the Law that says we are sinners deserving of death and condemnation–so that He can fulfill the Law perfectly for us and give Himself as the perfect, definitive sacrifice for our sin. For your sin and for mine.
Jesus lived under the Law–God’s righteous commands, everything from “You shall have no other gods before Me” to “You shall not covet”--so that when He died, He could take away all our shame and condemnation, giving us God’s forgiveness, God’s peace, and God’s eternal life for all who trust in Christ!
In our second lesson today, Paul says that Jesus chose to live under the same condemnation of the Law into which you and I are born as descendants of Adam and Eve, “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons [and that includes female as well as male Christians], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:5-7)
Here is the breathtaking truth: Through Jesus, all who believe in Him are adopted by God as first-born-sons, inheritors of everything that has belonged to Jesus before the universe came into being!
This promise is yours, friends. Jesus lived under the condemnation of the Law so that you don’t have to.
Jesus justifies–that is, declares innocent, guiltless, pure–all who see Him as the promised Savior and believe in Him.
All of which leads us to Simeon, the singer in our gospel lesson. Simeon, we’re told was a man who was, first of all, δίκαιος, righteous, meaning that he was a sinner justified by God, declared eligible for eternity with God not because he perfectly obeyed God’s Law, but because he trusted in the God Who had, centuries before, promised a Savior. Simeon was like Abraham, then called Abram, of whom Moses wrote, “Abram believed the Lord, [that is, Abram believed the promises of Yahweh] and he [God] credited it to him as righteousness…” Simeon was right with God because he trusted God and God’s promises. Luke also says that Simeon was εὐλαβής, meaning he reverenced, was devoted to, and trusted in God’s promises.
Over the years, I’ve assumed that Simeon was an old man. But in fact, nothing in what Luke writes tells us that. I’ve come to like the idea that he was a young man, with his whole future life seemingly laid out before him.
Whether that’s true or not, this man, filled with the Holy Spirit and responsive to the Holy Spirit, is led by the Holy Spirit to the Temple that day when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus come in obedience to the Law. The Holy Spirit had already told Simeon that he would not die before he clapped eyes on the Savior of the world.
And there, in Mary’s arms, Simeon sees Jesus.
Simeon scoops the baby up in his arms and sings: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32)
“Now that I see my Savior,” Simeon is saying, “now that I know He is here not just for me, but for all sinners, Jews and Gentiles, I can live and die in peace. I can face death knowing that because of this Savior in Whom I believe, I will live forever in the arms of God!”
Today, Christ comes to you again in His Word and hands you His Gospel promise, “Because of Me, all your sins are forgiven. Not just some of them; all of them. Finally, fully, forever!
He comes to you too in the bread and the wine, His body and His blood, with that same gospel promise to you, “Take and eat; this is My body given for you. Do this, even if you feel far from God or from the believer you mean to be, so that you are re-membered to Me again. And take this cupm which is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people to bring you the forgiveness of sin.”
Christ comes to you today as surely as He came to Simeon at the temple. In Word and Sacrament, you, like Simeon and Anna, see your salvation in Him.
And because Christ shows all this to you, you can, like Simeon, sing to God, “Dismiss your servant in peace. I can die now. I know the good, eternal future You, Christ, have secured for me.”
That can be our song every time we encounter Christ in worship with God’s people, when we read His Word, when we pray or serve in His name.
If this all sounds morbid to you, it shouldn’t. Listen, friends: It’s only when you are ready to die to this life, knowing that Christ has already overturned the condemnation of the Law and destroyed the power of sin and death over you, that you are ready to live in Christ’s freedom today and through eternity under His loving grace.
You’ll live each day anticipating the moment that will come after you’ve drawn your last earthly breath, when the first one you will see is Jesus and the first thing you’ll hear is Jesus telling you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)
Until that day, Simeon’s song is yours: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace…” Amen
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