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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is away on vacation. This morning for our reflection on today’s Third Reading, Pastor Galler adapted a sermon originally written by The Rev. Jeffrey A. Stone, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Parma, Ohio. Rev. Stone’s sermon was published in the current volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (28:1, 28-30), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The adapted sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Malachi the prophet died, the Word of the Lord seemed to fall silent. No longer was the prophetic Word of the Lord to be heard as spoken through a living prophet. There was no one on whom the Spirit of the Lord had come to rest. The tongues of the prophets were stilled and the Word of the Lord was silent for four hundred years. (Pause here for a moment of silence—long enough for people to begin to feel uncomfortable.)
The silence makes us uncomfortable, does it not? Silence in a church service especially makes us feel uncomfortable. Some of you probably wondered what was happening; maybe you were thinking I had lost my place. And, the silence might have made you uncomfortable. The point is, we do not like silence when we expect to hear someone speaking.
[1. The silence is shattered when John announces the Lamb
—as God’s people have longed to hear.]
Imagine, then, how the people of God must have felt. The voice of God speaking through living prophets was silent for four hundred years. For a time much longer than the United States has been a country, the prophets of God were not speaking.
There have been times when all of us have been alone with our thoughts. Sometimes silence can be soothing. But, if silence goes on too long, it can be devastating to the mind and heart. Lack of communication destroys marriages, ruins friendships, and can end your career very quickly. The silence after Malachi must have been terrible for the people of God. Where was the living voice of God? Where are His prophets? What has become of God and His promises? If God is now silent, then what is my hope? Are His promises still good? Has God abandoned us? It was a terrible, godly silence.
Then at just the right time, the voice was back. The silence of the prophets was shattered. From the wilderness and barren regions, the voice of one came just as Isaiah had foretold. “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain” (Isaiah 40:3 – 4). The voice is the preaching of John the Baptizer that prepares the way. He draws people to his message that a greater One is coming to gather the wheat and burn the chaff. The Messiah is coming, and is even here, John said. Everything Moses and the prophets said is to come is coming to pass right now. Don’t miss this! Hold on! Get ready! Like St. Louis seminary professor Reed Lessing is supposedly fond of saying, “Bachman-Turner Overdrive was right: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet!’ ”
With fire and Holy Spirit power, the Messiah comes, but instead of being a terrible judge, awesome to behold, He’s a lamb. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John says (John 1:29). The Messiah, with gentleness, heals and teaches. In lowliness, the Messiah calls disciples and raises the dead to life. Gentiles will follow Him; sinners adore him; little children call him “Son of David.” The Messiah of God loves the lame, the mute, the seeing, and the blind. In humility, this Messiah touches lepers and washes feet. To be the Lamb of God means to be lowly and gentle and humble to the point of death, even death on a cross.
[2. The silence is shattered by Jesus’s own voice
—and some know they need to hear.]
We need that Lamb. In this world where death lords over us, we sinners long for that gentle Lamb, Who is also our Good Shepherd, because the enemy stalks us with cold efficiency. From the moment we are born, the enemy is doing his evil best to turn us into a spiritual corpse. Satan’s purpose is to fill your soul with darkness and make sin seem like the good, right, and noble thing to do. When this happens, we ignore the importance of God’s Word for our faith. We ignore our neighbors, turn against them, whisper against them, and generally treat one another as if they were not someone for whom Christ died. When you and I sin in this and every other way we can possibly dream up, we offend God and His holiness. Yes, our sins are no small things; they are personal offenses against God! For them we deserve death now in time and torment in hell for eternity. There is no nice way to say it: Sin is a God-sized problem, and you and I are nowhere near big enough to solve it. If we understand anything at all, we cover our mouths in silence.
After all those centuries of silence, after our own penitential silence, we now hear the new voice of the Prophet, of the Prophet, the voice of God. Jesus of Nazareth. John had pointed to him, told us to listen to Him, and now Jesus’s own voice shatters the silence.
After all those centuries of silence, some knew they needed to hear Him. As God called to Samuel in the First Reading (1 Samuel 3:1-10), Jesus invited Andrew to come and see, and Andrew did—came and saw and heard and stayed . . . and brought his brother Simon. Simon heard Jesus call him by a new name, Peter, the Rock, and Peter followed. (John 1:35-42.) Then Jesus called to Philip, “Follow me!”—and Philip did.
Philip heard, and Philip understood. “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote”, he told his friend Nathanael (whom Scripture apparently sometimes also calls “Bartholomew”). The long-promised Messiah has come to the world and shattered the silence of the prophets. This is the one of whom Moses in Deuteronomy 18 said, “Listen to him”. In Jesus, the promised new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) will come to pass on the night of His betrayal. Isaiah foretells of his suffering, and Nathan tells David that his kingdom will be forever.
[3. The silence is shattered by Jesus’s birth, death, and resurrection
—are we ready to hear?]
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2). This is the prophetic proclamation of the Son of God. With the incarnation of God and the revealing Epiphany light, the Messiah, Christ Jesus, invades the world, and the kingdom of the enemy has no chance. This invasion of God is one where the only cry is that of a baby being born. There are no huge machines of war, but rather a tiny hand that grasps Mother and Father’s hands. No uniforms with medals and generals’ stars, but rather strips of common cloth to swaddle a newborn and a bright, single star to light the way for travelers bearing gifts for a king.
The silence of heaven is broken with Jesus’s infant cries, and John’s recognizing Him as the Lamb to be slain. Christ will save those who trust in him, just as Moses and the prophets said. He will save them by dying for them. We cannot fully comprehend the wonder and majesty of the baby in the manger unless we embrace the truth that he is revealed to be the man on the cross for us sinners. On that hill called Calvary, it looked as if Satan had won the battle. The Messiah was wounded and nailed. The Son of Mary looked to the sky and shouted to His Father, but on that occasion heaven was silent.
Then, on the third day, that silence was shattered by the sound of an earthquake. That silence was broken by the announcement of an angel, “He is not here, for he has risen” (Matthew 28:6). Death and grave were no match for this Lamb, this Savior, this Christ. He is ours, and He is for us forever.
After all the centuries of silence, some hear eagerly. “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” But others answer like Nathanael: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. With our God-sized problem, will we try to hold out for a voice more to our liking?
The Divinely-inspired St. Paul reminds the Colossians and us that Jesus “is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). And, Jesus’s own voice promised Nathanael, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”. What Moses preached and what the prophets declared is the final, ultimate, and eternal yes to all God’s promises. All history of heaven and earth comes to its apex in Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Child of Bethlehem, bathed in Epiphany light, redeems you and me. And soon enough, Nathanael, too, believed: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”. Thanks be to God, you and I also trust him, and he will save us by grace alone through faith.
For, God is not silent with you and me. In our time the Word of the Lord is heard from pastors who receive a special gift of the Holy Spirit in their ordinations. They are sent to preach, and we hear. Silence in shattered by God’s Word combined with water in Holy Baptism. Silence is shattered not only by our private confession but, more-importantly, by the pastor’s individual Holy Absolution as from God Himself. Silence is shattered by God’s Word combined with bread that is Christ’s Body given for you and for me and with wine that is Christ’s Blood shed for you and for me. In all these ways heaven is opened to us as we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. As we heard in the Second Reading (1 Corinthians 6:12-20), this congregation as a body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Whom we have from God; we are not our own, for we were bought with a price, so we glorify God in this body of His Church. And, we shatter the silence for others, with our voices inviting them here, to come and see, as Jesus had said to John the Baptizer’s disciples and Philip said to Nathanael. Then, their voices can join with ours and shatter the silence by our rejoicing that the long-promised Messiah is revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +