✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Ephesians 3,2-3a.5-6 0716
2. Sonntag nach dem Christfest 012 (Epiphanias 013 transf.)
Enoch. Genesis 5,18-24
3. Januar 2016
1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who has given us the Light of Your Holy Word, the Guiding Star, which leads us to the Christ-child: Send, we beseech You, Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, so that we may receive this Light and make use of it unto our salvation, and that we, like the magi, when they were seeking the star, may not be afraid because of any hardship or peril, but put all our trust in Your Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, as our only Savior; devote our earthly possessions to the advancement of Your reign, and in all things serve Him, Your Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord). Amen.
2. You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
3. Simeon proclaimed when Jesus was 8 days old that this Holy Child is »a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel« (Luke 2,32). The shepherds had been the first Israelites to worship Jesus on the night of His birth. Two years later the magi were the first Gentiles to worship Jesus. They had told King Herod the Great that they had seen the Child’s star rise in the heavens to herald His birth. Starlight had alerted the magi of the arrival of a Royal Light, for stargazing was one of the vocations performed by the Mesopotamian magi. The heavens told the magi when a majestic prince had been born who was destined for great things.
4. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »the mystery of God’s grace was made known.« Saint Paul echoes the praise spoken by Simeon forty years earlier: »a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel«. Paul proclaims that same truth with these words: »This mystery that God has revealed is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body of Israel, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.«
5. The wisdom of the mystery is that outright pagans and unbelievers now have the same access to God that He had given Israel. The magi worshipped their old Babylonian gods, like Baal and Asherah. The Gentiles worshipped a pantheon of Greek and Roman gods, like Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo and Diana. God’s gospel went out to these idolatrous nations and called them to forsake their gods and follow the True Light that is Jesus the Christ. God has sent that same gospel to us and called us to forsake our old religions and gods so that we only follow Christ Jesus. The sun rises in the East and traverses West across the Earth,and often the Light of Christ has likewise traversed across the world enlightening the nations to the Glory of the Son of God. The old pagan religions of France, Germany, Britain and Scandinavia all gave way to Christ. The gospel continued to move west and converted the native peoples of Central and South America. Still farther west the Light shone until it reached the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, China, Korea and India. West of Asia lies the heart of Islam, and the Light of the gospel also shines in those Middle Eastern lands too. The old Mesopotamian home of the magi now has the gospel proclaimed there as a Light to overcome the darkness of Islam. No nation can escape the sunrise each day, and no nation can escape the rising of the Light of Christ and the gospel He brings.
6. In the American philosophy of manifest destiny, the old adage was: Go, West, young man. God does the same thing with His Heilsgeschichte (salvation history). He chose Abraham who originally lived in ancient city of Ur in Chaldea. God told Abraham to go west, and Abraham went west: first to Haran and then to Palestine. Through Abraham, God began His celestial journey with Israel and completed His circuit with the Gentiles so that in Christ Jesus all the nations of mankind are saved.
7. The Prophet Jeremiah declares: »The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness« (Lamentations 3,22-23). Thus Cynewulf proclaims in his Anglo-Saxon poem:
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!
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,
(Crist 104-108.114-120).
8. The arrival of the magi assure us that Christ is for all men and women. He has redeemed both the pious and the publican, the holiest man and the vilest sinner. Let no one say that he or she cannot be forgiven; let no one lament that Christ has not shown His mercy upon them; for Christ Jesus is the Light of the Father’s heart, and His heart is full of love and compassion for men and women.
9. The magi brought Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. Jesus has given us such gifts too. Jesus gives us faith in Him, »a faith that is more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, for this faith is purified by the light of Christ so that it praises, glories and honors Jesus Christ« (1. Peter 1,7). The Psalmist sings: »“Let my prayer rise before You as frankincense« (Psalm 141,2). »Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us« (Romans 8,34). »When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought myrrh, so that they might go and anoint Jesus« (Mark 16,1), but Jesus’ resurrection is the very sweet spice of myrrh that transforms our death into the pathway to paradise and promises the very resurrection of our body to new life on the last day. Thus St. Paul: »Christ has been raised from the dead, for He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a Man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive« (1. Corinthians 15,20-22).
10. »Behold, the star that the magi had seen when it rose went before them until it went to rest over the place where the Child Jesus was« (Matthew 2,9). »“Arise, shine, for your Light has arrived, and the Glory of the Lord has risen upon you« (Isaiah 60,1). »For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore Isaiah says: „Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.“« (Ephesians 5,14). Thus did the magi bow down and worship the Child, and so too do we even so this day, for the Christ Child is the Savior of the nations. Amen.
11. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou the Praise of Thine Heavenly Father and the Lord of all nations! May we ever laud You among all peoples so that they hear that their salvation has risen in You the Light of the earth. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
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