"I AM" - For You!

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

“Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.”

Jesus knows all things, creates all things, redeems all things. And, knowing all things that would happen to Him, steps forward, that there be no doubt, if there ever were any, as to His identity as the one who was destined to suffer at the hands of this angry mob.

But let us stop and consider who this is of whom St. John speaks. The mob seeks Jesus of Nazareth, and they find Him, but what does that mean for you? Let us consider who this is, of what sort or how great He is, and finally why He would suffer so.

The Lord and His Offerings

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

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.

Each year, as we begin this season of Lent, as we mark the occasion called Ash Wednesday, the Church hears again the words of the prophet Joel, calling the people of God to repentance and faith in the Lord God of Israel.

Such is the portrait of repentance the Holy Scriptures teach you. Return to the Lord with all your heart. Rend your heart, and not your garments. Be broken inside, where the Lord sees and knows what is in your heart.

IfWeCanJust

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

Success is a goal often discussed, but not often achieved, at least depending on your standards of success. Browse the self-help section of any major bookstore, and you will see this high and lofty goal discussed in all sorts of terms, depending on what you want your life to be like. But what does it look like? And what does it take to get there?

For one thing, success is a moving target, and it fades quickly, as the next guy in line achieves more success than you, so you have to go out and succeed some more. Consider this: how many people on the street do you think can name the quarterbacks who led last year's Super Bowl teams? They were showered in praise and glory, being at the pinnacle of their profession, and now what? We derive amusement from “where are they now” sorts of reality shows.

"When You Say You Love Me"

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

Several years ago, a pop song came out, entitled “When You Say You Love Me”. Over the course of several verses and a refrain, the singer muses about all the wonderful things that happen when his beloved says “I love you.” The world seems to stand still, he feels lighter than air, and all that sort of mushy stuff. Finally, the in last couplet of the song, the singer asks, “When you say you love me / Do you know how much I love you too?”

How wonderful love is, at least when you listen to love songs on the radio and read how the romantic poets wax on about all the joys and beauties and wonders of love. Love makes people do all sorts of funny things. Untold scores of people have been killed for the sake of love. Wars have been launched for the sake of love. The stories of the stupid things a boy will do for a girl litter the internet and the history books. And on the other hand, people will sacrifice themselves wholeheartedly for the sake of those they love.

"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.