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Festival of St. Mary Magdalene 2012 – Luke 7:36-50

22. July 2012
Festival of St. Mary Magdalene
Luke 7:36-50

The appointed lectionary and calendar of festivals and commemorations of our Lutheran Service Book offered us a unique opportunity this weekend, that is, to celebrate the festival of St. Mary Magdalene. Why bother? First, St. Mary Magdalene is not well known. Increasingly, Christians lack basic Bible knowledge nor do they crack open the Scriptures during the week for prayer and meditation. Despite Mary being one of the chief female disciples of Jesus, she is relatively unknown.

Second, much of what passes for knowledge of St. Mary Magdalene is really idle speculation and often contrary to the faith. Consider The DaVinci Code continued the millennia old speculation Mary was somehow Jesus’ wife. Author Dan Brown drew on sources hundreds of years after the Apostolic era and drudged up this long disproved theory to make a buck. Of course, people are gullible and easily fall into error when they stop reading the Scriptures and have no answer for such fictional nonsense.

Knowledge of the story and characters of Scripture is essential because it is your story and they are your family. An article in the Smithsonian Magazine in 2005 sought to disprove that St. Mary Magdalene is the model for Christian devotion, defined as a life of confession and absolution. True! Yet, certainly, the understanding and tradition surrounding her is often sketchy. This ought not stop us from trying best to know her from the evidence of the Scriptures alone. Why?

Every disciple of Jesus is an embodiment of the Christian discipleship and thus your life with Him. Even in Judas, we see how our sinful nature clings to our bones and given a willing heart can overcome the gift of faith. To ignore or confuse St. Mary Magdalene, is to ignore and confuse a model example of faith. Any distortion of Jesus’ own disciples is a confusion of Jesus, just as author Dan Brown, his friends in the scholarly world, and the gnostics of old have done. They get Mary wrong and thus get Jesus wrong.

What do we know of St. Mary Magdalene? First, there are many named Mary in the Scriptures: Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, Mary, mother of James and Joseph, and Mary, wife of Clopas. Plus, there are three women identified as sexual sinners who come to Jesus. There are many other women who follow in the train of disciples of Jesus, whom Luke says were cured of evil spirits and ailments. (Luke 8:1-3) Here, the Evangelist lists Mary, called Magdalene, from who seven demons had gone out.

This comes immediately following our Gospel reading for today, of which, St. Augustine, Gregory the Great , and others agree is about St. Mary. But because the account of Magdalene’s exorcism is not recorded, nor is she given a name in our Gospel, many have come to assume that today’s Gospel is not an account of Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet with her tears but rather some generic woman sinner. Yet, we know that Jesus had already exorcised her seven demons. We also know from all four Evangelists that St. Mary Magdalene was at the cross with the other Marys for the crucifixion and also went to the tomb early on the first day. While the accounts are slightly different, all agree she saw the resurrected Lord. Thereafter, she went and told the disciples.

Even if our Gospel for today is not a literal account of St. Mary Magdalene, it does demonstrate precisely what a disciple of Christ is like, both male and female. It also shows exactly how Christ our Lord deals with us with His Word. We know St. Mary fits the mold of Luke chapter seven, as she is one of the few, all women, who persist to be with our Lord to the bloody end and even thereafter, caring for his body. This is the duty of Christians, especially those who serve in roles of mercy and service. They care for Christ’s own body, the church, with their tears, their crowning glory, their wealth, and their kisses of friendship.

One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

Mary is a virtuous example for every Christian of discipleship. This woman of Magdala followed after Jesus whom she knows is her savior. She shuns all social norms and taboos and serves her savior. This woman of ill repute does not belong at table with Jesus, nor in the house of the noble Pharisee. She

“Ah, what of that!” she says. “I am a sinner and I must meet my savior. My sins have brought me to the point of despair. I have violated God’s holy law and deserve punishment. I will go to Jesus with tears of sorrow and pleas for mercy. For surely, He will be gracious and forgive me, underserving as I am.”

And so she does, wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair wet with tears, and kissing them with affection, and anointed them at great cost. So it ought to be for the Christian. We come before Jesus humbly, acknowledging our sin, confessing we deserve death, but trusting in the promise of mercy, the forgiveness of sins, and thus serving his body with tenderness and compassion. This is self-sacrificial love, love as our savior Jesus has shown to us.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” Simon the Pharisee is far from the kingdom. Jesus did come to save the righteous, especially the self-righteous, but the sinner. He does not desire to see the sinner dead but that they repent and believe in Him. Such holier-than-thou attitudes are unbecoming of the Christian. Why?

The Pharisee wants all grace and no correction. He wants the benefits of God’s abiding presence in Jesus without either the knowledge or correction of the holy Law. He wants his preacher to turn his church into a social club of like-minded and righteous good people. He doesn’t want the adulterer, the idolater, the prostitute, the hypocrite, the gloomy and depressed, the alcoholic, the crack-head, or anyone not like him to come and sit at table with him.

He wants a church without acknowledgment of sin, without godly correction, and most especially without forgiveness of sins. He doesn’t want his church to turn him off by telling him he’s a miserable sinner. He doesn’t want anyone to disturb his perfect little dinner, especially anyone who makes him uncomfortable, be it woman, black, hispanic, child, or whatever.

And Jesus answering him, said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 

While Magdalene has already been brought low by the holy law, this Pharisee has yet to acknowledge and confess his sin. He cannot possibly understand why St. Mary who give of her tears, her hair, and even expensive ointment to serve her savior. He cannot comprehend what has moved her with such great love for this man. Yet, Jesus, out of compassion, tells the man a story to help him know. The woman has had a great debt forgiven in Jesus. And even he likewise has had his debts, though fewer, forgiven. All are debtors. All need the lender to forgive.

The turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We do well to follow our savior and heed His every word. When He speaks a crushing Word of Law that humiliates, disgusts, or is shameful, we dare not hide this sin away like Pharisee. Nor should we act as if its nothing of consequence. Quite the opposite, we heed this sinful woman’s example and bring everything that burdens our conscience to the feet of our savior, even to the foot of the cross. We weep and mourn our sin, true, but our Jesus would never leave us in despair.

Jesus has granted his church the authority to bind and loose sins. (John 20) This does not mean we turn away the sinful woman from the door of this house, where a feast is celebrated and Jesus is the host, butler, and meal. Quite the contrary, we recognize her despair and grant unto her the forgiveness of sins just as Christ has forgiven us. She may come with “baggage,” whoring and six other unnamed demons. She might make us uncomfortable. So what? She who has been forgiven much loves much. She may be 100 denarii worth of sinner but listen to Jesus. You’re 50 denarii worth or worse.

For those who only want to feast with Jesus like this Pharisee but don’t want anything to do with sinners, they need to hear the holy Law. Those holy Ten Commands, good and right, are proclaimed, calling even the 50 denarii “righteous” sinner to repentance. All righteousness is obliterated first, and then all come to the feast with tears of sorrow and gifts of humility.

Luther says: “Neither of these can be neglected. The call to repentance and the rebuke are both necessary to bring people face to face with their sins and humble them. The proclamation of grace and forgiveness are necessary too, lest the people lose all hope. Therefore, the office of preaching must walk the middle way between presumption and despair, to preach so that the people become neither proud nor despairing.”

Therefore, it might be said that your story is the story of St. Mary Magdalene. But it is also the story of this Pharisee. The Christian, while he may not be an adulterer, murder, or thief, yet has sins that wage war against his soul (1 Peter 2:11), that is, against faith and a good conscience. Everyone according to the flesh remains a sinner in the eyes of God, hearts full of it, not delighting in God or His word, nor loving neighbor as himself. Its a sort of demon-possession, like St. Mary Magdalene, of which only Jesus can free us. Indeed, it sticks to us until the day we die and only then will be finally free of the horrible burden.

But as much as we are like the Pharisee, we are also like St. Mary Magdalene, who trusting in the promise of God fled to Jesus for refuge. While we know and feel the sinful nature, we do not let it rule over us or rage against the hope we have in Jesus. Nor do we let it drive us to despair nor drive us back to the Pharisaical pride, presumption, or arrogance against God. This is a life of struggle, waging each day in our prayers and meditation upon the Word and each week in the confession of sins and forgiveness of the Gospel.

Our hope is not in a righteous life. There is no one righteous, no not one. There is no hope for those who refuse to confess their sins, but on the contrary, defends them and refuses correction. Our hope is like St. Mary Magdalene’s: even while feeling our sins, we confess, submit to the discipline of the Word, and resists all our foes, confident in her sins are forgiven.

Thus, our Lord still ministers to us. He rebukes all sins and forgives them, and will do until the Last Day. We will never achieve in this life absolute purity and sinless perfection. We will be like St. Mary Magdalene, a sinner in need of forgiveness, and also the Pharisee, a sinner in need of rebuke, until the day we die. May God grant us His grace, that we may not fall into such error as to reject Him or His name, but rather let God be just and his words right, so that he may justify us.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

(Adapted from Luther’s House Postils, volume 4.2 p. 365ff)

The Sunday of Fatherly Mercy ’12 – Luke 6:36-42

01. July 2012
The Sunday of Fatherly Mercy (Trinity 4)
Romans 8:18-23; Luke 6:36-42

Our prayer this day is that God would order the world by His governance according to His peace. This is asking for a lot and a lot more than we could ever manage. Our world is a chaotic and messy place. Order is the last word we’d use to describe politics. Backbiting, slander, and deceit are the marks of the government.

The reason for the chaos is simply this: this is a world of corrupt sinners, utterly unable to serve their neighbor with his best interests in mind. Even when we try to aid those without health insurance through a health care law, we can’t do it without trampling on individual rights of the free exercise of religion and unjust taxation.

This does not mean that government is evil. Far from it. There is good government and bad government. And as long as we live in this flesh, in this unjust country, on this corrupt planet, we will always see both the good and the bad. Nothing we do can be done without sin. Everything, even the most good natured attempt to care for the sick among us, will be done in sin.

Yet, you prayed that in the midst of this corrupt and fallen world, governed by unjust and wicked men (yourselves included), that God would bring peace and order. Every week you pray for our government, especially that they would rule justly and according to God’s peace.

The hope for peace on earth is not a bad thing. The desire for good government is something we ask for each day when ask for daily bread (in the Lord’s Prayer) and confess God as creator of the heavens and the earth (in the Apostles’ Creed). Yet, this is a hope that we know will always be more or less and never perfect the last day when the Prince of Peace rules in His kingdom that never ends.

It is the height of man’s hubris to think we can bring perfect peace though rule of law or anarchic lawlessness. Some advocate socialistic legislation with more and more laws to bring about peace. John Lennon’s solution of “giving peace a chance” doesn’t work either. “All we need is love” by his definition is freedom to do whatever one wants as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody. Unfortunately, liberty without law results in anarchy.

In the end, you can’t make perfect peace here. Creation groans in pain, all subjected to futility. You can try to make peace but it will always be corrupt, imperfect, and unjust. Everything is in bondage to decay. Don’t believe me? I’m not surprised. Most people don’t think of themselves as sinners to the core. It is your fallen nature to think of yourselves higher than you ought.

For example, you are apt to complain to the me about how I always talk about sin, death, and hell. Why? Because you don’t actually believe it. Well, you believe these things exist but that either they are not that important to consider or they don’t apply to you. Sin? That’s talking about the next guy. Death? Nah, that’s a long way down the line. Hell? It might not even exist.

It’s true. Most people, and probably you included, act as if this world and your lives are how they should be. You act as if you are immortal. You naively hope that God will not punish the evildoers like yourself as He promised. You live as if there is a tomorrow. You live like there’s nothing gone horribly wrong with the world and you. You think there’s no need for God to regularly give you His Word and the blessed Sacrament.

Ah, but pastor, you’re judging us. Didn’t Jesus say, “Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned?” Doesn’t that mean you’re supposed to just tell us how good God is, how high and mighty He is, how we have such an awesome God, and leave all that talk of sin, and death, and especially hell at the door?

This would be true if Jesus were speaking to the preaching office. But not so. Preachers speak God’s Word faithfully, completely, and rightly distinguishing the Word for the hearer. Preachers are commanded to speak the Word that always judges, condemns, and even kills. But they also must and even more so speak a Word of forgiveness, mercy, and new life. Preachers speak in the stead and by the command of Christ, declaring God’s own judgment and condemnations but all the more proclaiming His forgiveness, His grace, and His mercy for the sake of the blood of Christ crucified.

Today, Jesus is speaking directly to you, His church, in this Holy Gospel. He is telling you how to joyfully serve Him in godly quietness. You serve God by serving your neighbor. Today’s Gospel tells you precisely how you are to relate to your neighbor, whether spouse, child, and fellow pew-sitter. Do not judge him for his faults. Do not condemn him for his errors. Forgive him even his worst and most terrible sins against you. Give to him even when you seem to have nothing. In a word, love him to a fault. That’s the Christian life.

Who has joyfully held back a word of judgment? Who has served their neighbor by loving them even when they are in error? Who has forgiven the one who has grievously harmed you? Who has shown mercy when utterly undeserved? Be honest. Not one of you. Not me.

There is yet a problem. The thing we ought to do, we don’t. The things we shouldn’t, we do. The Christian life is more than not judging, not condemning, forgiving, and giving. The Christian life is more than simply being merciful. The answer is that the Christian life begins outside of us. It begins in the freedom of the glory given to the children of God. It begins with God the Father. It begins, continues, and ends by receiving the Father’s mercy.

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Understand Jesus. Your Father is merciful to you first. Your Father is merciful. Your life is a testament to His mercy. You do not love God completely and He has still spared you the death you deserve. You fail to pray in time of joy and in time of need and he mercifully has not forgotten you. You are unwilling to hear His Word preached and taught and to receive His body and blood often, and yet he still mercifully speaks and gives when you finally show up.

God the Father is merciful for He has not punished you as you as you deserve. He has spared you from judgment, condemnation, and sin. He has given to you Jesus. Not a little Jesus. Not just enough Jesus. More Jesus than you could possibly imagine. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

In the trial of Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate, your judgment is declared upon another. In Christ crucified, dead, and buried, your condemnation is suffered by another. In the shed blood of the Lamb of God, atonement is made for you and your sins are forgiven. For the sake of His Son Jesus, God the Father mercifully gives you to great spiritual and earthly blessings.

This mercy in Jesus is the source of every good and gracious gift of God. Every blessing of body and soul is given to you by your gracious Father. His chief gift is Jesus and everything else is given to support you in the faith until He comes again. You are fed and clothed to wait eagerly for the adoption of sons. You have house and family to order your days in His peace though preaching and study of the Word of God. You are given society and government so that you may serve your neighbor in godly quietness and thus testify to the mercy of the Father.

The world is a chaotic and messy place. Government is full of lies and deceit. Our families and our own lives are as corrupt and tainted as the world and the our government. But for the sake of Jesus Christ crucified, the Father is merciful. He does not judge us according to our sin, condemn us according to the just verdict, but instead forgives and gives every good blessing.

Not just a little Jesus. Not even just “enough” Jesus. Jesus in good measure. Jesus proclaiming. Jesus teaching. Jesus baptizing. Jesus hearing confession and absolving. Jesus giving us his own body and blood for our forgiveness. Jesus in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, and put in your lap.

He is given abundantly not just for you but for your neighbor. Be merciful because you have received mercy in Jesus. Judge not for you have been freed from judgment in Christ. Condemn not for you are not condemned to death but will receive eternal life. Forgive as you are forgiven. Give because you have received.

This is not like anything in this world. This is the sort of ordering for church, family, and community you will never see apart from the Father’s mercy. This is a life received and given. We pray that the course of the world be ordered according to his governance and that we, His church, would receive mercy and show mercy in all godly quietness. May God grant it. Amen.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist ’12 – Luke 1:57-80

23. June 2012
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Isaiah 40:1-5; Acts 13:13-26; Luke 1:57-80

No one knows what to think of John. Yes, as we hear in Advent, he’s an odd fellow, camel hair, dieting on locusts and honey, and preaching and baptizing in the wilderness. The strangeness of John began long before that. John’s ancestry is one of note. His father is a pastor and his mother a pastor’s kid. Preachers beget preachers. The Word of God dwelt richly in his family, with his father serving and his mother listening. And as you know, pastors aren’t normal and their children even less so.

Yet, even pastors and their families struggle with the same manner of sin, disease, and death as the layperson in the pew. Elizabeth is no exception. She is barren, infertile, and unable to conceive. Not the sort that God can use—whole, undefiled—right? Well, not unless you think of Sarah, Rebekah, Hanna, Rachel, and Michal. Come to think of it, God seems to think barrenness, a consequence of the curse, to not be a barrier to His working great things, much like our sin, death, and not even the power of the devil can stop Him from saving us. Strange and wonderful.

All changes when Zechariah is visited by the angel Gabriel. Even the priest is scared of the messengers of God. We don’t blame him. An angel swings a flaming sword to bar entrance to Eden. Angels show up and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. An angel wrestles Jacob all night. Angels are terrifying. Yet, what seems strange to the people is now common appearance. God sends angels, that is, messengers, to terrify us every week. Zechariah prays but is rightly terrified with God speaks. We should fear God and so does John’s father.

But this is no normal angel. This angel comes with good news. He is an evangelical angel, a messenger of the Gospel. He comes and announces that Zechariah and Elizabeth will conceive! John is the miracle baby, the “surprise” child that the elder parents didn’t expect. Much like his cousin Jesus whose conception came by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, John was given to unlikely parents. But that’s how God works. He miracles with even unlikely and underserving folks, especially with them. He glories in weakness. He gives joy where we least expect it and gladness in the midst of sorrow.

And God’s blessings are infectious. They are given and they multiply. He blesses this barren couple and many rejoice. He gives a small infant child and God makes him great before the Lord. A child is born where no child is expected and the whole community rejoices. Such is the way of God, giving gifts personally but also overflowing into the whole people of God.

John is strange and wonderful. He is blessed with the same Spirit that conceives his cousin. The Spirit of the Father and the Son comes forth from Mary’s womb and causes John to rejoice in the presence of the savior. He is unlike anyone since the days of Elijah, the great prophet who defeated the prophets of Baal, who condemned wicked Jezebel and called Ahab to repentance. John is like every prophet before but greater, turning the hearts of the fathers to care for the spiritual health of their children, calling to transgressor to repent of his wickedness, and pointing all to the promise fulfilled in Jesus.

But this is not easy to believe. For no woman conceives, barren or fertile, but by a miraculous creative Word of God. No prophets has come in the greatness of Elijah. Angels almost never have come bearing good news. We doubt God’s holy messengers. We do not believe God can create from nothing. We do not think a Word of God can bring about exactly what it says. No different for Zechariah.

Even faithful Zechariah let his stupid reason cloud his faith. The angel Gabriel speaks and the response is “what? are you nuts?” Ah, Zechariah, we know how you feel. God the Father says: Behold, I wash you with water and the Word and you are now my beloved. We ought to say amen, that is, it shall be so! Instead we say, I only see water and hear plain words. Ah, foolish Christian! This is God speaking and promising! When He speaks, it shall be so! And so it was for John’s parents, having heard the Word, doubted or hid themselves.

While doubt may have clouded these faithful parent’s will, they dutifully served God by following His command to be fruitful and multiply, trusting this Word even when age and barrenness seemed to prevent it. God glories in weakness. He gives according to His good and gracious will. And so Zechariah and Elizabeth returned to the way of the Lord, walking blamelessly in this command and bearing a child where God has now spoken. Strange conception? To be sure. Miracle baby? Absolutely! Surprising to us? Not anymore. We know that God works His wonderful act of salvation through weakness, poverty, messy, and infertile means. He makes the weak strong, the poor rich, the broken whole, and the barren fertile by His holy Word sent by His messengers.

This is not some distant future event but an ever present reality. God glories in you when you struggle with your sin and plead to Him for mercy. As you confess that you are without any merit or worthiness, utterly poor in spirit, God blesses you with the richness of forgiveness. Your hardened heart is a barren, parched wasteland without love for God, and yet, miraculously, by God’s own grace and favor, He speaks and thereby creates a new and clean heart within you. This Word blesses you with rich supply, restores you to righteousness, and gives you love for God and neighbor. And stranger yet, this Word comes to you from the mouth of fellow sinful men, appointed to God to carry it worth by their own weak voices and poor spirits.

But God’s Word comes not only through his holy prophets, apostles, and pastors, it first comes from the father. Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. (Incidentally, exactly as Gabriel told Zechariah they would!) And on the eight day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, but his mother answered [because dad could not; remember: his tongue was tied by the angel for doubt], “No; he shall be called John.” 

The Word of God, given by the angel, is spoken by Elizabeth. But the people did not want to hear it. And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.

Yes, St. John the Baptizer’s prophetic ministry in the wilderness was odd. Camel hair, locusts, baptizing in the Jordan… strange. But the story of his birth is just as bizarre. A barren and aged couple conceives. Angels visit during the Divine Service. The father and priest’s speech is bound. The child, filled with the Holy Spirit, leaps in his mother’s womb. And his name is John. Strange and wonderful.

While much is learned from the birth and life of St. John, just like his cousin, his importance is not merely his ancestry, his miraculous conception, or his name. St. John is remembered by the church for what he does. And even before the child grew and became strong in the spirit, his father Zechariah prophesies what he does. He sings the great Benedictus which we still sing in Morning Prayer and Matins. And as hymns go, He speaks of the great and awesome works of God in His son Jesus and even through His holy prophet John.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. Who? Jesus. Does what? Visits in the flesh and by His death redeems. Redeems who? YOU. And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Who is He? Jesus, the son of Mary and thus son of David. What is He? The very source of salvation. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. How do we know he is the one? Jesus fulfills what was spoken by the prophets. Who does he redeem us from? Our enemies and all haters of God. What compels Jesus to do this? To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham. What was the promise to Abraham? To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Why has Jesus saved us? He restores us to life again with him by granting us His Word and Spirit for repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

Ah, but how does this happen? How does one know to repent? How does one know he is forgiven? First, St. John is sent. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways. Why is he sent but to prepare the way for Jesus. How? To give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins. Why would God do this? Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high. And no ordinary sunlight but a special sun, the Morningstar, Christ, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

What are we to think, then, of St. John? He is a bit strange from conception to ministry. But he is the one sent to prepare the way for Jesus. He comes speaking a holy Word of preparation: “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!” The whole playing field is leveled. Jew, Gentile, man, woman, white, black, all are leveled, humbled by his call to repentance. Everyone humbled so that in Christ’s own forgiveness, all who believe in His name are exalted.

So also, God still send to you his angel, his messenger, his prophet—with strange stories, odd names, and bizarre families. Listen to him. For in this message, odd as the messenger may be, there is forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus. I am not he. I shouldn’t even touch his sandals. Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, the horn of salvation, the way of peace, the sunrise from on high, the holy visitation.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana