December 6, 2020                                                                            Text:  Mark 1:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

            A few years back was a cartoon of a husband and wife sitting in their nicely decorated living room getting ready for Christmas.  The wife had a frown on her face and looked completely exhausted.  The husband says, “Of course, you’re depressed – ‘tis the season to be jolly.”

            Where are you at as we get into the month of December?  One thing we tend to do in these days is to look backward.  We romanticize our childhood or when our own kids were little.  We get a little melancholy.  But Christian people follow a star because we are not looking for the way it used to be but what we need.

“GOD’S REPLY TO NOSTALGIA”

            I think you will find this Merriam-Webster definition of “nostalgia” quite enlightening.  “Homesickness.  A wistful yearning for something past or irrecoverable.”  This is mostly an adult emotion.  Why?  Because as adults we would like to go back to being children at Christmas.  No responsibilities.  No decorations to get out.  No cards and letters to send.  No gifts to buy.  No baking to get done.  We all got Christmas without the anxiety.  Open gifts.  Play with toys.  Dad and mom telling us where to be and when.  We didn’t have to worry about politics or religion or uncomfortable family gatherings.  We had no idea what was going on.  Heck, it was a great time to a kid.  As somebody once said, “Some of our most vivid memories are of things that never happened, for we remember the images and the imagination of our childhood dreams.”

            Earlier I said we get melancholy.  This definition is not pretty.  “Mental condition marked by extreme depression often with delusions.”  Ouch!  Add in the preceding nine months before December and melancholy and depression and anxiety are bursting out all over.

            We need a future.  We need something stable.  What’s the answer?  How do we get the merry-go-round to stop?  Our text is the starting point.  “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (v. 1)  It is good news from God.  What He gives does not change.  God replies not with a nostalgic look at our past but a present look at what He has given us through His Son Jesus.  We look forward to all that Christ brings and that will never, ever change.

            Mark reports, “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (v. 4)  You know John, right?  Isaiah speaks about him in our Old Testament reading this morning.  John’s message was not a morbid groveling around in what was but a spiritual lift to what is.  Repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  The grace of God through Christ who comes to forgive and take away our guilt and remorse of our yesterdays – our todays – and our tomorrows.

            It is a message that is pointing forward.  “And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” (v. 7-8)

            This is Advent and Christmas.  It’s joy to the world because Jesus loves us with an everlasting love that cleanses our sinfulness.  Christ has come to guide us through this world by His Word – the Holy Scriptures.  Christ goes to a shameful cross to spill His blood so that the guarantee of our salvation would be sealed.

            During these times we are so concerned about everyone’s mental health or their physical health.  Important, yes.  But what about the spiritual health of every God-created man and woman?  Is that too going to become nostalgic?  “O I remember the faith I once enjoyed.  The church that was so beautiful.  The singing that was uplifting.  The message of Christ crucified that Pastor delivered.”

            The voice is crying in the wilderness.  “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”  The past is past.  God in heaven knows our sinfulness.  He forgives us so that we can be givers and not takers.  He minimizes our nostalgia and helps us let go of our melancholy.  We stand with John on that first Advent.  We stand in the light of a life of service to Jesus Christ.  The One who loves us with an everlasting love.  And you know something?  That is how God replies to our nostalgia.

                                                                                                                                    Amen.

December 2, 2020                                                                            Text:  Luke 1:26-38

Dear Friends in Christ,

            It was the spring of 1996 and we found out we were with child.  This child would someday have a name that you know – Karson Calder Lueck.  How would we let family and friends know we were expecting a child?  Well, if you live with me or work with me things are never done in a normal; everyone does it that way fashion.  It has got to be different.  It makes life more fun.

            My mother and father were coming for a visit.  Toni and I at this time lived in a condo in Overland Park, Kansas.  They arrived on a Friday evening but we didn’t release a news bulletin.  When finding out we were pregnant (please remember it is a husband and wife thing, not just the wife) we were given a diaper bag that included a few diapers, formula, baby powder etc.  We would let Doug and Pat Lueck of Argenta IL figure it out by themselves by putting these items around our home.  Diaper bag behind a chair, formula on the counter, baby powder on an end table.  This condo had an upstairs landing, so I observed the grandparents-to-be until my mom figured it out and got all excited.  It was a wonderful way to share the glorious news that we were going to be parents.  Wow!  What a day that was.

            How have you told others that you were expecting?  Something more elaborate?  More low key?  Tonight we begin our Advent/Christmas Series of sermons on everything involved in having a baby.  Tonight we join the Virgin Mary as she finds out that she is . . .

“EXPECTING”

            Since we celebrate Christmas on December 25 then we can celebrate Jesus’ conception on March 25.  We call this observance the Annunciation because Gabriel announced it to Mary.  It was a special pregnancy – Mary was pregnant with God.

            What was conceived in Mary was God.  The angel promises two things to Mary in verses 31-32:  “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.”  He “will be called Son of the Most High.”  In other words God.  In verse 35 the angel makes the promise even stronger, “the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

            Ok, then, this is a little stronger way of announcing a child is coming.  It’s not a diaper in a condo; it is an angel of the Lord telling the mother she will give birth to the Son of God.  See, our God likes to do things differently, too.

            But what is Mary going to do now?  How will she tell family and friends that her womb will be growing in the months to come?  Joseph!  What will I say to Joseph?  Why is this a problem for Mary?

            Jewish betrothal was binding in ways that modern engagements are not.  Betrothal usually preceded marriage by at least nine months to assure that the bride was not pregnant.  The young man would then present a gift to the bride’s family and the fathers of the would be bride and groom would sign a marriage document.

            There are going to be some challenges.  We get just a glimpse of these in Matthew’s Gospel.  Joseph thinks at first that Mary has been unfaithful and he will “divorce her quietly.”  The other problem is that if the community thinks Mary has committed adultery, she can be put to death by stoning.  The Lord’s plan as we now know was not stymied, but it was unexpected.

            The startling announcement for us this night is that this news of expectation included you and I.  Mary was pregnant with God.  She had to be.  Our salvation depends upon it.  Psalm 51 tells us that we were conceived and born in sin.  Isaiah tells us that are good deeds are nothing but filthy rags.  Paul reminds us the wages of sin is death.  The wrath and punishment we deserve was put upon God.

            God in the person of Jesus took our place in the womb and in birth, redeeming us from our sinful beginning.  He took our place in life to cover our filthy rags of deeds with His perfect deeds.  He took our place on the cross to save us from the punishment of hell.  He took our place in the grave and rose again so we would be spared the sting of death and it would give us a sure and certain hope.

            What else can we learn about this conception?  You are not the product of some biological assembly line.  We should all have a stamp on us saying, “Hand made by God.”  Toni and I were excited that spring of 1996.  We were equally excited about three years later when we got to announce to many of you that we were expecting another of God’s wonderful creation – Holden Shay Lueck.  What joy and awesome responsibility God gave us twice.  He allowed two sinful human beings to shepherd two of his own through life.  We are eternally grateful.

            Eternally grateful to God for the gift of Jesus almost seems to not be enough.  He gave you life.  He gave your children life.  God loves life from the moment of conception.  Little Amanda wrote God a letter in Sunday School, “Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love everybody in the whole world.  There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.”  God did it.  He loves everybody equally.  He saved everybody equally.  God and man from the moment of conception.  Mary was expecting and now we have a Savior from sin.  Isn’t that great?

                                                                                                            Amen.