"They Shall Come Back"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.” Thus took place the slaughter of the boy children of Bethlehem, known to the Church throughout the ages as the Holy Innocents. These otherwise innocent children had committed no extraordinary sin, except that they had been born the same gender as our Lord.

Herod had been tricked, and he became furious. And then he sent an order and had all the male children under two in the region of Bethlehem killed. It is unclear the extent to which those two facts were connected. Given Herod's violent history, it is entirely possible that he may have had the Innocents slaughtered regardless of the word sent back by the Magi.

Death-Defying Life

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Water, blood, and Spirit crying,

By their witness testifying

To the One whose death-defying

Life has come, with life for all (LSB 597.1).

So you just sang, and so you have witnessed once again this morning. The Life of the World who has defied death has come and brought life for all, for this little child, and for each one of you so joined together in Christ through these holy waters. The three-fold witness of which St. John speaks testifies to the life that has conquered your death and now lives in you.

The miracle of Baptism is a great wonder. Consider this – this morning, this child awoke as an unbeliever, lost and condemned, enslaved to sin, death, and the devil. Now, having entered the font and having been washed with the waters of regeneration, this same child is now a purchased and won child of God, free from all guilt and shame, whose will is now held in captivity not to death but to Christ Jesus our Lord.

You, who have been baptized into the death and life of Jesus, also awoke this morning. You awoke with the sins and evil desires of yesterday drowned and dead, left behind in the blessed font of our Lord. You awoke with the forgiveness, life, and salvation which were first poured upon you from such a font as this. You awoke to walk in the newness of life to which you awaken every day of your life, because your life is secure in Him who is the Life and Light of all things.

The Wisdom of the Wise Men

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

After Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the King, look at that – Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem. They wanted to know where to find the one born King of the Jews, because they had seen the rising of a star, or some other astrological phenomenon, and they wanted to fall down before this child, who was no longer a babe in arms, but a toddler.

At this question, Herod the Great – perhaps better called Herod the Terrible – was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. They were not troubled in sympathy with their great leader; they were shaking in their boots because when Herod was troubled, bloodshed happened.

Herod gathered together the smart people, the theologians of Judah, and asked them, “Where is the Christ to be born?”, and they told him, according to the words of Micah the prophet, that the Ruler to shepherd Israel would come out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. The greatest would come out of the least. And Herod laid plans to discover this new usurper, with the Magi's unwitting help.

"Since God So Wills It"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In peace and joy I now depart

Since God so wills it.

Serene and confident my heart;

Stillness fills it.

For the Lord has promised me

That death is but a slumber (LSB 938.1).

So goes the first stanza of Luther's hymnic paraphrase of the Nunc Dimittis – the Song of Simeon which you heard read in today's Gospel lesson. What an amazing song of faith Simeon sings! His song, so simple in its words, gives voice to a faith that is unshakeable in its trust in God to do what He says.

Throughout the Advent and Christmas season, you have heard a great deal about death. Jesus came to die. He came to die the death due for your sins. This is the reason for His incarnation, the reason we celebrate and highly exalt the mystery of His birth in the flesh. But what connection does Jesus' birth have to the death of a Christian?

"We Beheld His Glory"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!” Rejoice and sing this bright Christmas morning, because the Eternal Light has dawned upon this benighted sphere. The Light of the World has come upon the world, and we behold His glory. The everlasting Son of the eternal Father has been born this day into your flesh.

The virgin has conceived and has borne a son. Why do you marvel at this? The eternal Father, existing before all worlds, begot a Son from all eternity without a mother. When did this happen? That is beyond knowing; that is the wrong question. But the Blessed Virgin bore a son without a father. When did this happen? That is a good question. For the birth of the Son of God happened not in eternity, not in abstraction, but in the flesh, of the flesh and blood of Mary in the stable in Bethlehem. Marvel not that God has a Son, but that the Son of God is born of a woman.

Glory and Peace - Now!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” So called out the multitude of the heavenly host who appeared in the Bethlehem sky on the occasion of our Lord's birth. The glory of the Lord has broken out upon the earth. No longer is God merely an unseen force above the highest heavens.

What an odd juxtaposition we have on this night! In the same sitting, you sing “Away in a Manger” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. You are called upon to contemplate the baby born in a stable, and the words of the army of heaven who lit up the dark Judean wilderness. Fear not, proclaims the angel. Your savior is born this night in the City of David. And what a savior He is, indeed! Your savior is a baby. A child born of the flesh of a woman, born of natural means following the natural course of man. And yet that baby, so frail and feeble and dependent, is at once the Lord of Hosts, the King of the Universe, the Creator of all that is and all that ever shall have been. Consider this: the angels light up the sky and their song resounds through the cosmos to worship one who suckles at the breast of a virgin mother.

Fighting with Food

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, you are the tiniest of the towns in all of Judah. You are nobody. You are of no account. Why should anyone even know where you are? After all, nothing of any account can come of such a small and insignificant place.

But you, O Church of God, you are the weakest of all the institutions of mankind. You are nobody. You are of no account. Why should anyone even listen to you? After all, nothing but nagging and hate-mongering and oppression can come of such small and limited minds.

But you, O people of God, you are the most pitiful of all the myriads of people who wander this terrestrial sphere. You are nobodies. You are of no account. Why should anyone take heed of you or care about you? After all, you are meek and sad and poor and helpless. Nothing of any great value can come from you.