✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Galatians 4,4-7 0616
1. Sonntag nach dem Christfest 09
John, Apostle and Evangelist. 98 or 100
27. Dezember 2015
1. O Almighty and Everlasting God, mercifully direct our ways, so that we may walk in Your law, and be made to abound in good works: through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. (Veit Dietrich for the Sunday after Christmas)
2. But when the fullness of time had arrived, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying: „Abba! Father!“ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
3. Our Gospel pericope tells us about the righteous and devout Simeon who regularly went to the temple where he prayed and waited for the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. While he is there, the Holy Family arrives. Mary and Joseph were required by the Torah to present their firstborn son at the temple for two sacrifices: 1. to complete Marys ritual purification after childbirth, and 2. to perform the redemption of the firstborn son (Leviticus 12,1-4; Exodus 13,12-15). Forty days after 25. December puts this arrival on 2. February in our Julian calendar.
4. Upon seeing the Infant Jesus, Simeon snatches the baby into his arms and sings praise to the Lord God. We sing his Nunc Dimittis each Divine Service with Holy Communion: „Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word; for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel“ (Luke 2,29-32). The Apostle Paul comments on this in his Epistle to the Galatians, writing: »When the fullness of time had arrived, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.«
5. St. Paul says Jesus was born when the right time had arrived. The apostle has in mind God’s grand plan of Heilsgeschichte (salvation history). No event in the Holy Scriptures happened by accident, for the Lord’s hand was at work guiding history, the nation of Israel and even the Gentile nations to establish the time when His Son’s advent would be a blessing for the entire world. There are no accidents or coincidences in the Lord’s Heilsgeschichte. Jesus arrived in the temple by design. Simeon was there by design. The Holy Spirit had impressed upon him the imminent arrival of the Messiah by design. All these events are individual patterns in the beautiful tapestry that is God’s plan to redeem His fallen creation, that is each and every man and woman. Some of the other pieces of this Divine tapestry involve the Gentiles. Jesus was born at a time when Rome ruled the Mediterranean. Rome's legions kept the peace: they kept outright warfare to a minimum; their engineers built and maintained well-paved roads that were both efficient for travel and ensured safe conduct. Rome instituted a common language so that most people in the empire had at least a working knowledge of Greek. Jesus and His apostles all knew Greek and could speak it. The first advent of Jesus happened at a time in human history when the proclamation of the gospel could spread quickly and safely. The Gospels and Epistles were written in Greek so most people could read or hear what was written and understand it.
6. The Apostle Paul made the utmost of the timing of God's plan. He was both a Jew trained as a Pharisee and a Roman citizen by birth. He had a foot in both the Jewish and Roman worlds; he was comfortable moving in both of them. His pharisaical training insured that he had a superb knowledge of the Scriptures and that he could engage in grand theological discussions and preach with a simplicity that allowed most people to comprehend his proclamation. His Roman citizenship insured particular benefits afforded to him that the other apostles could not invoke. One benefit was that he could request an audience with the emperor himself to render a judicial decision. When Paul had been falsely accused by some Jews of breaking particular Jewish laws, Paul claimed his innocence and demanded that his case be heard by caesar in Rome. It had been Paul’s desire to preach the gospel in Rome and perhaps use the capital as a jumping off point to conduct missionary journeys in the western half of the empire, so that he could preach Christ crucified in Spain, France, Germany and perhaps as far north as Britain. Paul was able to make his Roman citizenship profitable for preaching Christ.
7. All this sprang forth from the birth of Christ and His arrival at the temple forty days later. Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of man. He is the firstborn heir of both God His Father and Mary His mother. His birth as the Jewish Messiah and the Gentile Christ has impacted every man and woman too. The Apostle Paul writes of this: »Thus you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.« This is what Jesus’ birth means for the world. Once we were a slave to sin, but Jesus has saved us from our sin and in doing so He has made us an heir of God the Father. He did so by fulfilling the law, and in meriting the fulfillment of the law’s righteousness He is free and able to give us His righteousness; He does this as a free gift of grace.
8. Simeon recognized all this in the Infant Jesus. He saw in Jesus the Light to the Gentiles and the Glory of Israel. The venerable Anglo-Saxon poet named Cynewulf describes the meaning of Christ’s Light and Glory this way:
Hail Morning Star, Brightest of angels Thou,
sent unto men upon this middle-earth,
Thou art the True Brilliance of the sun,
radiant above the stars, and from Thyself
illuminest forever all the tides of time!
And as Thou, God indeed begotten of God,
Thou Son of the True Father, wast from aye
without beginning in the heavens glory,
so now Thy handiwork in its sore need
prayeth Thee boldly, that Thou send to us
the Radiant Sun, and that Thou come Thyself
to enlighten those who for so long a time,
were wrapt around with darkness and here in gloom,
have sat the lifelong night; shrouded in sin
death’s dark shadow had they to endure.
Hopeful now we trust in the salvation
brought to the hosts of men through God’s own Word,
which was in the beginning co-eternal
with God, the Almighty Father and is now
flesh void of blemish, that the maiden bare
to help the wretched. God was seen ’mong us
in all His sinlessness; together they dwelt
the Creator’s Mighty Son and the Son of Man
in peace on earth wherefore as it is meet
we may well thank the Lord of Triumph aye,
that He vouchsafed to send to us Himself (Crist 104-129).
May Jesus Christ be with you always, and pour forth the Holy Spirit upon you so that you believe the gospel that promises you that your sins are forgiven, you are an heir of God, His son or daughter and He is your Light of salvation, now and always. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, Thou art steadfast in Thy love and faithfulness, give us peace so that we hope in Thy salvation as our Christ and God. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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