Job 42,1-6. 1. Sunday after Christmas

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Job 42,1-6       0620

1. Sonntag nach dem Christfest  09 weiß

Jonathan, David’s friend 

29. Dezember 2019 

1. O Christ, our Christmas Joy, transform the world with Your love and justice, so that peace on earth and goodwill to all manifest in our lives.  Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for 1. Sunday after Christmas 2019, § 1-2) 

2. »Then Job answered the Lord and said: „I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question You, and You make it known to me.’ I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.“« 

3. The Season of Advent prepares us for the birth of Jesus the Christ. On Christmas Eve we hear the angels pointing the shepherds to a manger in Bethlehem where they will find the newborn Messiah. Today’s Gospel pericope points us to Jesus circumcised at the temple.  The covenant the Lord had made with Abraham stated that every male born was to be circumcised on the 8. day (Genesis 17,9-13). Mary and Joseph had brought Jesus to the temple to be fulfill the law and that is where Simeon praised Him as the Christ with his Nunc Dimittis. Simeon declared Jesus to be God’s salvation for the world. As Job heard and then saw the Lord, so Simeon had heard the Messianic promises read every year, now He sees that promised Messiah with his own eyes. 

4. Simeon praises Jesus as the Glory of Thy people Israel whose history traces back to Abraham who is the forefather of Israel and through Him the line of the Messiah descends. The Glory of the Lord is the Divine presence (the Shekhinah Glory) that lead Israel as a Pillar of cloud by day and a Pillar of fire at night (Exodus 13,21). When the temple was built, the Glory of the Lord dwelt in the Most Holy Place (1. King 8,10-13). Jesus is this Incarnate Glory of the Lord. »The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His Glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. For from His Fullness we have all received, grace upon grace« (John 1,14.16). The Glory of the Lord appears to deliver, redeem and save. The Glory of the Lord ransoms captive Israel. 

5. Jesus is also a Light to lighten the Gentiles. One of the Advent O Antiphons speaks to this Divine Light: ℣ O Morning Star, Splendor of Light Eternal and Sun of Right- | eousness:* ℟ Draw near and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shad- | ow of death. [1] The Prophet Isaiah describes our Gentile condition: »The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them Light has shined« (Isaiah 9,2). The newborn Jesus is our Light who shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome Him (John 1,4-5). In the darkest of our nights, when all hope is extinguished, when death seems unconquerable and when despair is all around us, Christ the Light of the world burns brightly and illuminates the darkness. Hope is restored. Death is conquered. Despair becomes joy. This Light took up human flesh and bone and became man. Jesus did this to redeem us and to be the Light of our salvation. The Light was extinguished for a time, but the Light rekindled Himself. Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and He rose on the third day. He is the Morning Star who heralds the dawning of a new day, a day full of hope, life and joy. 

6. On Christmas Eve, Luke tells us the story of the birth of Jesus: Behold and marvel at the mercy of God who sent His Only Son into our world to redeem us back to Himself. Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart; the shepherds glorified and praised God (Luke 2,19-20). Today we see the Baby Jesus at the temple where He is circumcised into the covenant as a son of Israel. Next week we see the Epiphany of our Lord and the arrival of the Magi with their gifts and worship of the Christ Child.  Amen. 

7. Let us pray. O Lord, who remembers Your steadfast love and faithfulness to Your people; send forth the proclamation of Jesus our newborn Christ, so that all the ends of the earth see the salvation from You our God.  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 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2019 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

1  O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.