Isaiah 9,1-6. Christmas Vesers

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Isaiah 9,1-6    0518

Christvesper  05

Adam and Eve

24. Dezember 2017 

1. О Lord, this is the day You have made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! Save us, we pray, and give us success! Blessed is Jesus who arrives in the Name of the Lord. Arise my soul, use this feast for the glory of God and for our edification, so that we praise our Heavenly Father’s love, grace and mercy (Starck 57).  Amen.  

2. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time the Lord brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. You have multiplied the nation; You have increased its joy; they rejoice before You as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

  3. When the Prophet Isaiah spoke the words of the Lord, Judah was in dire straights; they were in the midst of a 16-year rule by the wicked King Ahaz. He worshipped false idols and had offerings made to them on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree (2. Kings 16,4). Worse still, he offered up one of his sons to the fire of Moloch (2. Kings 16,3). Child sacrifice was part of Moloch worship: the large bronze statue had the head of a bull, the torso and arms of a man and the base was a furnace: children were thrown into the fire and sacrificed. 

4. Isaiah told Ahaz to repent: »If you do not stand firm in the faith of the Lord, then you shall not stand at all« (Isaiah 7,9). »The Lord will bring on you and on your people such days as have not been seen since the day Israel in the north was taken into captivity by the king of Assyria« (Isaiah 7,17). Isaiah promised a time of gloom and anguish for idolatrous Judah; the Lord judged Judah’s sin 100 years later when He sent the nation into Babylonian Captivity. 

5. Nevertheless, the gospel shone forth. »But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time the Lord brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time He has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.« The antiphon for 21. December proclaims: 

℣ O Morning Star, splendor of Light Everlasting and Sun of Righteous- | ness: * 

℟ Draw near and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shad- | ow of death. 

Jesus is the Morning Star whose Divine Light shines upon us, bathing us in His righteousness, and enlightening us who sat in our sin and the shadow of gloom. „Jesus Christ is the Morning Star and Bright Light in the heavens, who descended to mankind upon this Earth, His radiance is brighter than the sun, more radiant above all the stars, who illumines forever all the tides of time! He is God indeed begotten of God, True Son of the True Father, eternal without beginning in heavens’s glory, His handiwork is sorely needed, and He has entered our midst as the Radiant Sun to enlighten us who for too long were wrapped around with darkness and here in gloom, have sat the lifelong night; shrouded in sin death’s dark shadow we have endured. Now we faithfully trust in the salvation Christ brings to the host of men through His Father’s own Word“ (Cynewulf 104-120). 

6. The Prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Lord’s Messiah would: »break the yoke of our burden and the bar across our shoulders.« We celebrate the birth of this Savior tonight. »For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.« »He shall inaugurate endless peace for He shall establish and uphold this peace with justice and righteousness forever and ever« (Isaiah 9,7). 

7. The very Son of God was incarnate in the virgin Mary, has taken into His Godhood human flesh and was born in the city of David. Christ birth brings peace from God to you for He is born to be your Redeemer from sin and the devil. In Christ, you have peace, joyous peace. Rejoice and be merry, for unto you this day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Born this day our Savior, on this day appears to us which God has sanctified. Help us to see this glorious gospel in Word and Carol which proclaims that today the Great Light descends upon the earth, so that we can rejoice in all things and give thanks to You who is the greatest gift given to us by our Heavenly Father.  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. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Starck, Johann Friedrich. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.