✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Psalm 8,2.4-7; Philippians 2,10a.11 0717
Tag der Beschneidung und Namengebung Jesu 011 weiß
✠ Circumcision of the Lord, and Name of Jesus ✠
1. Januar 2017
1. О Incarnate Jesus, Thou New Testament of Thy Father’s grace; put Your holy word into our minds, and inscribe it on our hearts, so that we remember Thy faithfulness to redeem fallen mankind. Amen. (Gradual)
2. Now, therefore, O kings, be wise. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field.
3. When the Archangel Gabriel appeared to both the parents of John and Jesus to announce their important births, he was greeted with fear and trembling. Such is the initial response from people when they encounter an angelic messenger from God.
4. But when the shepherds and later Simeon behold the Son of God in the Infant Jesus they are not afraid but give thanks with joy. God took upon Himself human flesh and was born of Mary. Jesus humbled Himself and curbed the full glory of His Divinity so that people would not tremble with fear before Him. The Psalmist declares: »Out of the mouth of babes and infants, You, O God, have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.« This was manifested in the Infant Jesus who was born to fulfill the promise given to Eve long ago: your offspring will crush the head of the serpent. Jesus is the Chosen One to avenge fallen mankind and defeat the devil.
5. The Psalmist asks: »What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?« People often wonder if God cares about them? Does He want them to prosper? How can we know; where does God reveal His will for us? Searching for God in nature will reveal His power, majesty and intelligent design, but nature will not reveal how He is dispositioned toward us. Philosophical pondering gets us a little closer to the will of God, but ultimately philosophy is mankind’s wisdom; there is no certainty that our philosophical thought lines up with God’s. The inspired and inerrant word of God is the only means we are certain of His will toward us, and that very Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
6. The Prophet Moses teaches in Genesis that God created mankind, male and female, in His Divine Image and Likeness. The Psalmist explains this in further detail, writing: »You, O God, have made man a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, yes, even all the animals of the field.« When Jesus was born, He was, according to His human nature, a little lower than the angels, but He was still, according to His Divine nature, higher than the angels. So at the same time we behold the Infant Jesus who is humbled according to His human nature yet also exalted according to His Divine nature.
7. The Son of God entered this world in humility in order to redeem mankind who had fallen into sin and was mired in sinfulness. Gabriel told Joseph to name his begotten son Jesus, for this Child will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1,21). Eight days after His birth (1. January), the baby was circumcised and Joseph named Him Jesus (Luke 2,21).
8. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father« (Philippians 2,10-11). The Archangel Gabriel announced Jesus’ birth; the angelic choir praised His arrival; shepherds and magi knelt down in homage to Him. Angels and men humbled themselves before the Divine majesty of the Infant Jesus who is God with us. Let us likewise join those who have before us beheld Him with glory and honor, praising Him as our Lord and Savior from sin, death and hades. Jesus is the Glory of Israel and the Light of the nations. His light shines more glorious than the evening star that heralds His advent upon this Earth. Jesus is the revelation of His Father’s will that He desires to dwell with mankind and forgive their sin. The birth of Jesus is proof of this Divine intent. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Life-long Blessing; help us to lift up Your Name so that all the world hears the glory of Your birth. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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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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