December 11, 2022                                        Text:  Isaiah 35:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

    As I said in the sermon last week and as most of you know I have a certain fear of dogs.  So, picture the Lueck four in Eldorado Canyon State Park in Colorado this past summer.  It was a beautiful day to hike in the Lord’s creation.  We pick our first trail and as we begin up the mountain there’s a sign:  “watch out for mountain lions.”  “Uh, I’ll be in the car.”  No, I am going up this mountain.  One thing to do is make noise.  I talk the whole way – loudly.  We walk two trails that day – no mountain lions.  Thank you, Lord.  It was one of the best days of 2022.

    The wilderness is a dangerous place.  I just watched a recent show on park rangers.  The things they do to rescue people is amazing.  People getting lost, suffering heat exhaustion, encountering wildlife and going off the beaten path.

    Our text today uses “wilderness” as a metaphor, an illustration for the dangerous things we live with that are very real.  The point of the text is that Christ’s coming delivers us from all those things.

“GOD BRINGS LIFE TO THE WILDERNESS”

The wilderness is a great illustration of how difficult life is in a fallen world.  Isaiah pictures burning sand, jackals, lions, ravenous beasts.  God’s people in the Old Testament knew the wilderness as dangerous, populated by deadly animals, water is scarce, and crops don’t grow.  It is easy to get lost.  But the wilderness is also where God’s people learn to trust.  In the wilderness God carried them and gave them water and guarded them and cared for them.

What is your wilderness?  Living a lie?  Personal shame?  A relationship on the outs?  Family members ostracizing you?  Lost on a trail?  Scared of what’s around the next corner?  When you travel this wilderness of life there are serious dangers.  We need deliverance.  We need rescue.  Hello, can someone send a park ranger?

God comes into this wilderness with life-restoring vengeance.  Christ’s coming will make all things right again.  Visualize what Isaiah wants us to see.  The wilderness will flow and flower.  The sufferers of personal “wildernesses” will rejoice in health and vitality.  These were fulfilled in part in Jesus’ ministry as we see in today’s gospel lesson.  They will be fully realized when Jesus returns in glory on the Last Day.  Life, health, joy forever.

The heart of the promise is in verse 4, “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come and save you.”  He will exercise vengeance on his enemies – sin, death, and the devil.  Because of Christ’s coming and going to the cross we are no longer God’s enemies.  We have been baptized into His death.  It is relief and rescue for us as God brings life to our wilderness.  He forgives our lies and shame.  He can restore broken relationships with friends and family.  He can lead you on the trail of life.  He is with you always – even when frightened of turning the next corner of your journey.

I know.  That day in the canyon I trusted His leading.  He kept me alert.  We had to turn some tricky, rocky corners that day but every time we did it was another “wow” moment of what God had made.  After a while you almost forgot the danger.  That is God’s presence.

We celebrate that presence again this Christmas.  It is beyond the superficial feelings that characterize many Christmas playlists.  Christian joy is the natural response of the people of God who are beginning to enjoy the fruits of a creation that will be restored to paradise.

This joy is so different from the world we live in.  In our eternal world there is no more “sorrow” and “sighing.”  No more weak hands or feeble knees.  No more blindness, deafness, lameness, or muteness.  No thirst.  No ravenous beasts to devour which means no more “watch out for mountain lions” – woo hoo!  We will gather together in the city of God in joy and gladness forever.  

Christmas provides us a glimpse.  It is partial and temporary.  Give thanks for these moments during this holy season.  It is a dim preview of the full rejoicing we will have with the return of Jesus.

As a church and as individuals we proclaim this promise to the weak and feeble.  “Be strong.  Fear not.  God will come and save you.”  Tell the anxious you know that God will come with vengeance . . . He will bring life to their wilderness, to save them.

No matter where you are placed, you can tell of these saving promises of God.  Luther calls this the “mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.”  These promises encourage others.  In our rejoicing the joy becomes contagious.  Wouldn’t it be nice if this was the new pandemic?  All of us feeling the joy of knowing Christ as Lord and Savior.

Where in the wilderness could someone use your aid?  Who is stuck on a mountain of apathy?  Who has left the trail of their faith?  The Lord has given you, in his strength, the joy and privilege of speaking uplifting, joyful words to those struggling in their own personal wilderness.  Christ is coming with vengeance to make right that wilderness.  He will come and save you because God brings life to the wilderness.

                            Amen.        

December 7, 2022                                      Text:  Isaiah 9:6

Dear Friends in Christ,

    In his last speech to Parliament as Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill said this:  “Which way can we turn to save our lives and the future of the world?  It does not matter so much to old people.  They are going soon away.  But I find it poignant to look at youth in all its activity…and most of all, to watch little children playing their many games, and wonder what would lie before them if God wearied of mankind.”

    Since that speech the world’s efforts have only intensified in trying to get rid of God’s truths.  We wander around in gloom and uncertainty.  The words of Jesus are but a whisper heard by a few:  “people fainting with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world.  For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”  (Lk. 21:36)

    Here we are moving through another Advent/Christmas season.  We look to another glorious Christmas as we consider the birth of Jesus and his names from Isaiah . . .

“THIS CHILD IS . . . MIGHTY GOD”

    The Adam and Eve sin brought destruction to everything.  Confused thinking, death, suffering, horrible human interaction and worst of all separation from God.  So where was God?

    Amazingly, He was right there with Adam and Eve.  He was making a promise when he said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heal.”  (Gen. 3:15). “He shall bruise your head.”  That’s Jesus.  On the Cross.  The words, “It is finished.”  Everything for our forgiveness and eternal life.

    Many generations later the promise is magnified in the words of God to Isaiah:  “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us).” (Is. 7:14). And shortly after that these words to Isaiah:  “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called…Mighty God…”. And then 700 years after those words it would be fulfilled in the angel’s words to the Shepherds:  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk. 2:11)

    Isn’t that uplifting and assuring?  Progressive churches want to discredit the inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture.  They want to confuse.  Yet a clear look at God’s Word shows its consistency, its understanding of human history and prophecies that have all come true.  This Jesus, whose birth we celebrate, is Mighty God.

    Why must this Son to be born for us, why must He be Mighty God?  Because the filth and monstrosity of every sin would be piled on Him.  He would willingly take it to Calvary.  Only God could pay for the forgiveness and salvation of every sinner.  Only God could extend that love to us in the Word and in holy Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper.

    What this world thinks of Advent or Christmas or Easter does not disturb or threaten our Lord.  The Psalmist writes, “Who sits in the heavens and laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” (Ps. 2:4). What do you think is happening to this God rejecting country and world, today?

    Vance Havner wrote, “Salvation is free but not cheap…the writer of Hebrews speaks of those who count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing.  One translation puts it, ‘who treats as a cheap thing’; another, ‘treated like dirt.’

    “We hear these days about ‘cheap grace’ and how it doesn’t mean much to be a Christian.  But salvation is the costliest item on earth.  It cost our Lord everything to provide it and it costs us everything to possess it.

    “We are a generation of cheap Christians going to heaven as inexpensively as possible; religious hobos and spiritual deadbeats living on milk instead of meat, crusts of bread instead of manna, as though we were on a cut-rate excursion.

    “In a day when tragedy has become comedy, we play fast and loose with eternal issues.  The pearl of great price is not cheap!  I have read that years ago in that part of Africa where diamonds in the rough were plentiful, a traveler chanced on boys playing.  Closer investigation revealed that they were playing marbles with diamonds!  God forgive us today that we handle His treasures as though they were trifles and the coinage of the eternal as though it were play money.  It is not time to play marbles with diamonds!”

    The Mighty God is before us this 2nd mid-week worship service.  This is the One who holds the world on his shoulders.  Ultimately, what the world thinks is of no significance.  In eternity, it will be of no concern as we stand before Him who gives us unending love, light, and life.  Mighty God!

            Amen. 

December 4, 2022                                      Text:  Isaiah 11:1-10

Dear Friends in Christ,

    The well-established convention of expressing historical dates as BC and AD is gradually being discarded in favor of BCE and CE.  Out of sensitivity to non-Christians many textbooks, instead of BC, “Before Christ,” are using BCE, which is “Before the Common Era.”  And instead of AD, which is short for the Latin phrase that means “in the year of the Lord,” various publications are now using the initials CE, which is “Common Era.”

    Even as the world does these silly things like trying to replace “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays,” BCE and CE may avoid the name of Christ, but the numbering system stays the same.  The anchor date is still the birth of Jesus.  The Common Era still begins with the baby Jesus being born.  Scholars and the worldly may do their best to erase any Christ connection but our calendars do not lie.  In the year 2022 Common Era it is still 2,022 years since Jesus’s birth!  What Isaiah prophesied in our text has come to pass:  the “signal for the peoples” has come.

    Let’s delve into the prophecy a little deeper and discover how . . . 

“A STUMP CAN BEAR FRUIT”

    Don’t we love the poetry of Isaiah this morning?  It sounds so idyllic.  Wolf and lamb together.  A leopard with a goat.  Calf and lion.  A child playing near a cobra.  Oh, how wonderful.  Yea, that’s a place I want to live.  Is that the way you see things on earth right now?  Of course not, animals do not play nicely together.

    As someone who suffered a dog bite as a child and is still leery of dogs, I would love to love in this Isaiah world.  But I watch re-runs of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom on RFD-TV and that is not what my eyes see.  Marlin and Jim don’t just walk into a lion’s den.  They don’t play near a cobra.  When approaching a wolf, they don’t greet it with a kiss.  What do they do?  Approach everything with caution.  It is a scary world out there.  There is no peace in the animal world.

    The same can be said in the human world.  People still die from animal attacks.  Humans get blown up by bombs in war.  Men and women are killed in the random shootings that keep occurring.  Peace eludes us as we listen to the news and see an economy in free fall.  Who is safe anymore?

    Is peace as far away as the shepherds on a lonely hillside, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” (Luke 2:14).  Can a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots still bear fruit?  Do we see a wasteland or a garden?

    It has to start somewhere.  How about in Bethlehem?  This prophecy of Isaiah was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born.  His arrival is like a shoot out of a stump.  Judah, at the time of this writing was in rebellion against God and many were in exile.  It looked dead, like a stump.  But God had promised that a Messiah would come one day, and He would be called the Prince of Peace.

    In this prophecy the glory of King David is not mentioned.  His father Jesse is named.  The reason?  To show the birth of the Savior would be from humble beginnings.  A carpenter and virgin wife.  A small town.  A manger.

    This shoot out of the stump is going to bear fruit.  He has the wisdom and the counsel and the knowledge and the might to bring true peace.  Isaiah says his delight is the fear of the Lord.  Every breath He takes is to do just what the heavenly Father has sent him to do.  He was sent to bring to bring peace.  He was sent to bring justice.  He was sent to bring forgiveness.

    He brought peace between God and man.  His death would take care of whatever anger and hostility God had against us because of our sin and rebellion.  We call it forgiveness.  We call it peace.  That peace then bore fruit as it flowed from Jesus to his followers.  He rose from the dead.  The violence done to Him was undone.  These disciples were afraid that day.  Locked in a room.  Then Jesus appeared.  He gave them peace.  He sent them out to share that peace with the world.  Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled, “In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples – of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” (v. 10)

    Lions eating straw and wolves lying down with lambs?  Crazy, right?  The Gospel can do even greater things.  The wild beasts are us, devouring each other.  But a lion going vegan, is nothing compared to God taking a sinful human being, releasing him from all the guilt of all his sin, and giving him a heart that no longer wants to sin but only wants to do the will of God.

    This shoot, this stump, sprouts branches.  That’s you.  That’s me.  We are called to bring peace to this world of hurt and fear.  Where can you bring peace?  A prayer for someone shattered by a crime.  A contribution to a Christian organization that provides an alternative to abortion.  A Twitter message that uplifts instead of tears down.  A visit to a nursing home to bring some joy to a lonely existence.  A word of encouragement to someone confused in their sexuality.  A “Merry Christmas” to that worker running your grocery items.

    The world we want, and Isaiah’s prophecy will be completely fulfilled on the Last Day.  Peace on earth.  Until then, we are the branches from the root of Jesus.  We are the instruments of peace for the Prince of Peace.  A stump that will bear fruit.

                                        Amen.