Candlemas

A transcript of the sermon preached for Candlemas 2012, at St. Paul's in Kewanee, Illinois (for the audio, click here):

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord, his manifestation in the flesh is a fulfillment of the word that was written by Moses: Let there be light and there was light.

From the very beginning, this was to be so: that while darkness shrouded the earth, nevertheless the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep. And the Spirit gave way to the word which proceeded and came out from the mouth of God: let there be light.  And the world shrouded in darkness was enlightened.

This is the way of God.  This is the way also, therefore, of the Gospel.  This is how it works.  The light shines in dark places and enlightens them all by itself.

This is what caused Simeon to exult and rejoice when the Child Jesus was brought into the temple on that great day, the day we commemorate this day, the fortieth day from his birth, the day he was presented in the temple.  And with the song of the angels still resounding in their ears, Mary and Joseph now here Simeon’s exultation and exaltation of Christ, the One come as a light: a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel. 

This is what it means that the world was shrouded in darkness and then was enlightened by the word of God.  This is what it means: that without him we are lost.  Our hearts, that is, are the places where the true and deepest darkness may be found.  The heart of man, the darkened heart of man gropes after but can come nowhere near finding its Creator.  We grope in the dark.  We are lost, we are helpless, we are hopeless.  We are sinful masses who have failed our Creator.  The darkness is we ourselves: our hearts are darkened.  Their foolish hearts were darkened, says the Apostle St. Paul, and he was not only referring to those who happen to be on the outside, but to all of us.  Our hearts are by nature completely shrouded in darkness. 

But thanks be to God that the Spirit of God hovered there, as the word was spoken over them, and the waters over which the Spirit hovered in the beginning, have become for us the waters of the blessed laver and font of Holy Baptism; and we have been brought into the light of Christ by the grace of his speaking: Let there be light.  In him and only in him is light.  And without him, and without his word, there is only darkness.  We are lost, condemned, dead, enemies of God in ourselves.  But Christ has come, as it were out of nowhere, and the light has enlightened the darkness, as it is written by the prophet Isaiah, the prophet perhaps that Simeon had in mind when he said his words.  The prophet said, The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.  We sat in darkness; we have seen a great light. 

But who gets credit for the seeing? You? Your eyes?  They are useless without light.  It is the light that enlightens the room, that gives sight to your eyes; and so also it is the Gospel and story of Jesus that gives light and salvation to our darkened hearts.  So we find on Candlemas, the day on which we celebrate the light of Christ, we find that we have been enlightened entirely by the magnificent, unspeakable grace of almighty God. 

This is the light of Christ toward which we also tend, toward which we are headed.  I love the words of the Introit for a Requiem: Eternal rest grant unto them o Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  The idea that the dead in Christ are in perpetual light is very biblical, because God is light; and light emanates forth from him.  The light of the Transfiguration emanated forth from him.  The light of the glory that shown around the Bethlehem shepherds emanated forth from him.  The light that first enlightened the darkened seas emanated forth from him.  The light that brings us to him emanates forth from him to us poor lost, condemned, otherwise mortal creatures. And the more we tend toward our mortality and weakness and the grave, the more clearly we can see that we are lost in ourselves, and dependent utterly upon him who so freely lavishes the light of his mercy and forgiveness on our darkened hearts; forgiveness wrought by the very incarnate one, the Incarnate One, whom Simeon held in his arms.

The elderly Simeon was now unafraid to face death itself: Now let your servant depart in peace, he cries, unafraid; because he holds the source of light and life and salvation.  So now we receive him here in this holy place, and it is therefore perfectly appropriate and right that we should sing the same words, that  they should be echoed on our lips:

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace—let come what may—because according to thy word mine eyes have seen thy salvation which Thou has prepared before the face of all people. A light, a blessed light, a holy light, an enlightening light, a dispersing of the darkness light.  And the glory, the only glory, of God’s people Israel.  In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus Came for the Desperate and for the Frightened

The audio links for three Christ Mass sermons (Christmas Eve, Midnight, and Christmas Dawn) are here, here, and here.  The transcript of the first is here:

St. Luke 2:1-14

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Dearly beloved in the Lord,

Consider the first people to whom the Lord appeared on the night of his nativity.  There were two humble groups of people.  The first group was the couple, Mary and Joseph.  The other group were simple shepherds.  A consideration of these groups and the fact that these were the ones whom the Lord chose in his mercy first to reveal himself provides abiding comfort and joy to all who find themselves in similar circumstances. For those circumstances are hardly the kind of circumstances to wish for on Christmas Eve when family and loved ones are near, with the warm and cozy feeling you get when everyone is nearby. 

It was frantic for Mary and Joseph.  They did not want to have to go from Nazareth all the way down south in the Bethlehem to be taxed, because they knew that her time of delivering the child was very near at hand.  But there’s no such thing as an exemption from the order of Caesar Augustus.  If he says go, they must go.  So they went; and probably because they had to go slowly, due to the fact that she was so expectant, they were late.  And everyone else who was of the house and lineage of David would have arrived before them, and that’s why there was no room in the inn.  And there was no one they knew. No relatives, no friends, no family.  No room in the inn. No place to go. And the time came when she should be delivered.  How cruel! How dreadful a time this must have been!  Just put yourself in the minds of Mary and Joseph on that night.  Of all times for this to happen!

So they had to take emergency measures, which for them meant finding a cave where cattle lately fed, in the cold and damp and dark of the night.  And there and then was the birth of the Savior of the world. It was to Mary and Joseph in the midst of chaos and all things gone wrong that the Savior came.  The son of Mary was born then and there

And now consider the shepherds, the humble peasants living in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  The angel of the lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid, which means they were terrified.  Wouldn’t you be, if the glory of the Lord shone round about you? And so there they were, in the same cold night, in the same place, terrified out of their minds.  It was to them also that the Savior of the world appeared. 

And so, beloved, get the truth here of Christmas Eve.  He comes to those who need him the most desperately, those who are in the most desperate of circumstances, those whose lives are the most torn apart, whether it be by hardship, calamity, grief, sorrow, fear. All the things that are capable tearing your lives into pieces mounted up against Mary and Joseph and the shepherds on that night and made it appear to their eyes as though all was lost. To them the Savior came, to rescue them who could clearly by no means have rescued themselves. They were sunk, they were lost, they were goners.  No help for them.  No room in the inn. No comfort for troubled shepherds.  To them, as it were, out of nowhere, the Savior of the world comes.

And this shall be a sign unto you in the midst of your troubled lives, no matter how troubled and saddened and stricken they may be.  Never lose heart. This is why Jesus says to his disciples that men should always pray and never to lose heart.  Because he was born in a day when, of all times, one would have thought, it would have been appropriate to begin to lose heart.  On the contrary, the timing was perfect; the night was just right. It was just the way God wanted it, that the Savior should be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, a feeding tough for sheep, or goats, donkeys, or oxen. This shall be a sign unto you: this is how it works; this is how he covers his glory.

This is how he comes also to you, to lay to rest for good whatever fears you might have like the shepherds, or whatever worries or fretting you might entertain like Mary and Joseph. He was in charge of that night from before its beginning, as we now know, as we now celebrate year after year.  It was perfect. We know that now.  But if you were there the first time, the first Christmas, you would not have seen in advance, you would have had to trust in the darkness that God cannot lie.  So now learn from the blessed Christmas Gospel that he does not lie to his people.  And when the night is darkest, and when the day is most troubled, and when death tears at your heart the most sourly, and when you are most sorely tempted to despair, remember this holy Gospel.  He came to them to comfort them in the midst of their troubles, and to comfort you.  For this is a sign also unto you. He is wrapped, he is covered, he is shrouded. His glory cannot be seen except for a brief moment in the Bethlehem countryside.

So tonight he also covers and shrouds his glory, in the simple words of this Gospel, and most especially in this blessed Sacrament, the Christ Mass, you can’t see his glory. You can’t see that he is Immanuel—God with us—here and now, but you know it.  Beloved, you know this.  You’ve been raised with this.  Hold it dear and never let it go.  The message of Christmas is that God is with us in the night, in dark, in the cold, in the cave, in the manger, in the Christ child over which the angel at just the perfect time sang, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Sermon on John, and Divine Mercy

St. Luke 1:67-80

And John’s father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

            Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.  And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

This is a full transcript of a sermon preached December 20, 2011, at St. Paul’s in Kewanee.  The sermon may be heard here.  

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Dearly beloved the Lord:

In these words of Zacharias, we learn the true nature of the ministry of John the Baptist.  We might have been deceived by it, because what we hear in the accounts of John’s preaching and baptizing is that he was in the wilderness, that he was dressed in a way that is rather scary, and he calls out for repentance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  He chides and rebukes the Pharisees and will not baptize them.  He appears to be a harsh man; as is fitting for the last of the prophets of the Most High God. They appeared at first to be harsh men as well, because the Most High God himself appears at first to be harsh, even as we learn from the Epistle to the Hebrews.  Moses said that the sight was so terrible that he—even he—exceedingly feared and quaked. The God with whom we have to do is a consuming fire.  The call to repentance ought to rattle our bones.  So God’s approach is fearsome; and his prophets, last of which was John, appear at first to be fearsome, and are nothing but fearsome to those who will not repent.

But all Jerusalem was coming out to John to be baptized of him in the Jordan; which is to say that most of the people did repent. And when their hearts melted with fear, they cried out for mercy, even as we also must cry, aware of our sins and unworthiness. What are we to do about these things?  Beat on the breast and cry out, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

And then we find John as he truly is, as he was prophesied to be by his father Zacharias, saying, And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us. 

Those who came to John for divine mercy received it, because he came baptizing in the wilderness, and Baptism to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.  For that’s what Baptism does: it forgives your sins, it fills you with Christ the coming one. It brings to you the tender mercy of your God.  This John baptizing in the wilderness was most especially showing forth the tender mercy of God and the visitation of the Most High. This is why his father exulted the first chance he got to speak, after he was struck mute, when he at first would not believe the words and tidings of the angel.  But then, when his mouth was opened and his mouth was loosed and he spake praising God, what he said was this canticle: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people.

So finally our understanding of the Lord God of Israel is not merely that he is a consuming fire, one that causes us to shake, but a Redeemer, a rescuer, a horn of salvation; himself a Child, who grew to be the one who would take away the sin of the world of the world, as John said, the Lamb of God.  In him is the tender mercy of our God; and therefore in John’s preaching also preeminently, and in his baptizing, there is mercy and salvation, and the knowledge of life and light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death. 

Fear God at first; and then be comforted by God at last. For he is merciful and kind, and washes his people in his salvation that they might stand comforted. And rejoice in everlasting life.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Sermon on the Help Meet for Man, that Man might become the Image of God.

St. Luke 1:41-43 “Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

This is a full transcript of a sermon preached December 13, 2011, at St. Paul’s in Kewanee.  For the audio of the sermon, click here.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Dearly beloved the Lord:

She was called blessed among women, the Blessed Virgin. Among all women that ever lived, blessed among women is she. And we recall the first woman , and how she was brought to the man after the man had rejected all the beasts as a suitable help meet for him;  because it was not good that the man should be alone, and the reason it was not good is that God who made his in his image was never alone; from eternity God was never alone, for there was always another within the Godhead.  For there was the Father, and another, the Son, and another, the Holy Spirit, from eternity: the Triune God has never been alone.  So it was not good that the man who was created in the image of God should be alone; so God determined to make a help meet for him; but this help, this helper, would not be meet or suitable for him if it comes from among the beasts or the birds, this help meet for him must be bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. She must be woman from man even as God is from God.  For the Son is from the Father, and the Spirit is from the Father and the Son.  And man is made in the image of God, so woman must be from man.

But it was still not complete; it was not yet good in the sense that it was not yet complete, even when she was made, though this helped.  For now man was more complete, more perfected as the image of God, but not quite there yet.

For the woman and the man after her determined in freedom to take the forbidden fruit. And darkness, the darkness that was enshrouding the entire earth in the beginning now shrouded their foolish hearts, and continues to shroud the hearts of their children even to the present day; which his why we always need repentance. Because our foolish hearts are darkened by the darkness that was in the beginning, that was the absence of light. It was not yet complete; and the man and the woman together in freedom took the forbidden fruit and chose the way of darkness. 

But God was not yet finished. So he sent his Son, born of a woman, a woman full of grace, in contrast to the first woman who was full of freedom. This second Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is full of grace: grace to be the mother of God, to bring forth from her womb fruit for God and man, fruit which is God and man.  She is in the most preeminent sense the helper meet for man by bringing forth from her womb the man who is God. 

So the cycle is complete with the birth of her Son. For her Son is also the Son of the Father in heaven, and so man becomes the image of God.  For this man, our Lord Jesus Christ, is himself at long last both God and man. No darkness in him! For he is the Light of Light, he is the Light that is come into the world that lightens our darkness-shrouded hearts.

The Son of the Virgin is become for us everlasting salvation. She is full of grace and so also we are full of grace in her Son.  The mother of Elizabeth’s Lord is the mother of our Lord. She becomes the mother of God in order that God who came from her might be the completion and fullness of the image of God, come to us. This is why it is that in him we find everlasting salvation. And the image of God is completed in us who are his children. And we rejoice with abiding joy for in him we are completed as man and the image of God.

Behold, I tell you a mystery:  God became man in order that man might become God.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Sermon on finding favor with God

Sermon on finding favor with God
St. Luke 1:26-35

This is a full transcript of a sermon preached December 6, 2011 (this year we are observing St. Nicholas' Day here on the 7th), at St. Paul’s in Kewanee
(for the audio, click here)

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Dearly beloved in the Lord,

It was said of old that it’s a frightful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. According to St. Paul, that day is coming: the Day of Judgment; the day when all who condemn others condemn themselves, all who judge others are themselves become guilty of the judgment. He will render to everyone according to his deeds; which means we are in trouble, which means we have reason to fear, as it was said in Sunday’s Gospel: men's hearts failing them for fear—they are better off fearing ahead of the Day of Judgment than at it, when it shall be too late.

So repent today, while it is still called today, and let your repentance be filed with hope and expectation of the One whose first coming we celebrate in just a few weeks. For he who came and he who is coming is in the flesh, our flesh, And this ought to give us abiding hope even in spite of ourselves and the sins we have committed in the flesh. For the coming One is the One whose first coming was, according to the Gospel we heard today, as the Son of Mary.

This is a wondrous thing, that the Son of God and the Son of Mary are one and the same Person: Jesus, God saving. And his way of saving is by blending heaven and earth, by making of the substance of God and the substance of his mother one indivisible substance, both divine nature and human nature blending themselves into one personal union. Not that the divinity should be compromised thereby, or that the humanity should be changed into anything other than pure humanity, but that God and man should become one Person.

Ponder this mystery, for in this mystery is our salvation. The Son of God and the Son of Mary are one Person. The Son of the Highest gives unto us, by virtue of his holy incarnation, a place beside himself at the throne of his father David; which means that the message of the angel Gabriel to the blessed Virgin is as much a message for you as it was for her, to still her quivering heart: Fear not! Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God. So also we ourselves, who are in the flesh, the same flesh as Mary our sister and our mother, the same flesh in which all the earth, all humanity is wrapped, this flesh, like Mary’s flesh, finds favor with God, because her Son is wrapped in the same flesh, within the quiet place of her womb.

She rejoices finally in this knowledge, aware that with God nothing shall be impossible, taking this mystery into her soul. Take it into your soul, and be confident that in this Jesus Christ you have nothing to fear, for he has put away your sins, and in him you shall find favor with God just as she did. For the favor we find with God is not the kind of favor that results from putting away our own sins, but from looking to him with repentant hearts and in faith seeing that Jesus by this mystery has put away our sins for us.

We therefore in him and never in ourselves, with Mary, find favor with God. So be found in him. Receive him again. Take into your mouth and into your soul his holy Body and Blood with abiding confidence that his flesh and your flesh are become one and the same, again, as they have ever been, and that he who has come in your flesh is the same as he who from eternity is the Son of God. For in this mystery is your everlasting salvation.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost.