In the previous quotations, C.F.W. Walther, the first LCMS president, spoke about the dangers of disunity and the blessing of unity. In today’s quotation, Walther speaks about the Devil’s strategy: to sow disunity in the church:

Satan knows all too well what kind of power the Church exercises when it is unity. It then not only greens and bears fruit, but it also stands invincible against all of its enemies, conquering them and extending its borders. Therefore, Satan’s most important and dangerous strategy, which he employs to damage the Church is destroying its unity and sowing discord among its members. And how easily he succeeds! how quickly is the holy bond that binds Christians together torn apart! how quickly an ember of discord among the ashes is fanned into a bright flame that seizes and lays waste entire congregations! How necessary it is, then, that the Church carefully cultivate unity, pursuing it as a precious jewel!

-God Grant It, p564

In the quotation I posted yesterday, C.F.W. Walther (the first LCMS president) talked about the disastrous effects of disunity. Here he speaks about the blessings of unity in the Church:

Christian unity always produces a blessing. If the Church is one in doctrine and life, in faith and love, it shares its gifts and knowledge. It then grows in the wealth of knowledge, the power of faith, the fervor of love, the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and the liveliness of hope. It grounds itself ever more deeply and builds itself ever more gloriously, adorned with all sorts of gifts of the Spirit. It then extends its hands to raise up shepherds and soldiers who pursue the work of converting those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and who struggle against the enemies of the truth.

-God Grant It, p563

The first LCMS President, that is: C.F.W. Walther. Timely as we head into the 2010 Synodical Convention:

If Christians do not cultivate unity in doctrine and in life among themselves, they are misled by their flesh and blood, standing by peacefully as divisions arise and discord grows day by day. God did not give His gifts to only one Christian or to one Christian congregation. Instead, He distributes them in such a way that all must work together to succeed. When divisions surface, success is hindered—errors increase, quarrels become more passionate, confusion grows, false judgments and a spirit of condemnation ensue, and sects become more numerous. When this happens, how many lose the foundation upon which their faith is built! When the poor world sees how disunited Christians are among themselves, it finds little reason to embrace the faith and is even comforted in rejecting it. Many are offend who might have been won to Christianity.

-God Grant It, pp562f

C.F.W. Walther on the Epiphany (which we celebrate this day):

Even more wonderful than the circumstances of this account [of the Wise Men searching for the newborn King] is the fact that God chose to lead the Wise Men to Bethlehem, not exclusively by the star, but also via a detour. The Jewish king, with his chief priests and scribes, first had to show them from God’s Word that Bethlehem was the place where Christ could be found. We cannot imagine that the all-wise God would have done this without a most important reason. God wanted to show all future generations that He did not lead the Gentiles to His dear Son by miracles, by stars, by angels, or by some other extraordinary heavenly appearance. Instead, He directed them by means of men, His already existing church. We see from this that the mission to the Gentiles is a duty of the Church.

-God Grant It, pp99f

As we review the year coming to a close – how have we used it? “Is there one commandment we have not transgressed? Is there one day in which we have not sinned?” Is there one gift for which we have been perfectly thankful and used as God intended? “Is there one rescue from trouble for which we have offered the proper priase to God” (Walther)? Is there one sermon we have heard (or preached) that we have fully applied and taken to heart?

As this year comes to a close, we can only cry out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And for those good things we have done, we can only say, “We are but unprofitable servants; we have only done what was our duty.”

We enter the new year with repentance, and deep thankfulness that despite our unworthiness, God continues to show us His mercy, and still wishes to make use of us in His kingdom. Let this be our resolution, that we will pray fervently to God in the new year for the healing of our souls. “The most necessary thing for a truly happy and blessed beginning to a new year is that we do not carry forward the sins of the old year” (Walther).

Our secular new year coincides with the commemoration of the naming of Jesus, done for Jewish boys on the eighth day from birth. That we remember the naming of JESUS at the new year is fitting, for our new year and each new day should begin in the name of JESUS. “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3.17).

The name JESUS unfolds the meaning of the name prophesied for the Messiah in Isaiah, “Immanuel”: “God is with us.” JESUS means “The LORD is salvation.” In other words, God came to be with us in order to give us His salvation. Mt. 1.21 explains, “For He will save His people from their sins.”

That saving work begins already as an eight-day old infant. On the day JESUS was named, He was also circumcised. It’s such a strange, crude thing to have as a religious ritual. The cutting of a man’s sexual organ? Why does God command that?

What is the purpose of the man’s sexual organ? Procreation. The begetting of children. But since the fall, the children of Adam have been conceived in sin. Man’s generation is sinful and deadly. Circumcision was, for the people of God, a perpetual witness to the fallenness of man’s begetting. Circumcision was a perpetual witness to original sin.

Only One could change that. Only One could wipe out our debt of sin – the God-Man, Jesus, who made atonement for us with His blood. On the eighth day, He allowed Himself to be circumcised – He who was, as the Christmas carol puts it, “Born to give us second birth.” The One whose eternal generation was from the Father, takes on a human generation without a human father in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary. He is born that we might be reborn, without the guilt of sin.

The Circumcision is a graphic reminder that God truly became one of us, truly took on our nature, our flesh and bone. In the cutting of His foreskin, we see that it was no spirit or angel who came to Bethlehem, but a fleshy Word. The Word truly was made flesh and tabernacled among us.

Not only was the Word literally, tangibly made flesh, taking on our human nature, although without sin, He also (who knew no sin) was made to be sin for us. Thus He suffers the indignity of circumcision – not for Himself, but for us. Like with His baptism, He does it to fulfill all righteousness, identify Himself with us poor sinners, and shed His blood for our forgiveness.

So our prayer on this glad night is that all that Jesus did for us, beginning in His circumcision, would be applied to us, and actually change us: “Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit that our hearts may be made pure from all sins.” It was in your baptism that this work began in you. St. Paul writes, “In [Christ] you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” [Col. 2.11f].

No matter what the past year has done to you, and no matter what the new year has in store for you, rejoice and be glad! For in JESUS, all your sins are brought to an end, like the year coming to a close. He is your new year, He is your new birth, He is your new life. Therefore let us live in JESUS, the obedient One, and do all as people washed in his blood and named with His name.

In the political realm, there is a term many of you have probably heard: RINO’s – Republicans in Name Only. Faithful Lutherans sometimes refer to  church bodies that have given up on Lutheran doctrine as LINO: Lutheran in Name Only. Today’s Gospel demands that we answer this question: What kind of a Christian are you? Are you a Christian in Name Only?

There can be no neutrality with respect to Jesus. “He who is not with Me is against Me.” Yet there are those who try to have it both ways. They do not want to openly reject Christ, but neither do they wish to make a real break from the Old Adam, the sinful nature. C.F.W. Walther calls these “half-Christians”:

“They are straddling the fence, and thus do not belong in Christ’s kingdom but in the kingdom of the devil. Such half-Christians are among the most accursed subjects of the devil. They think that, going down the middle of the road, they are on firm footing as members of Christ’s kingdom. But their faith is imaginary, and they are, in the end, traveling the road to hell” (God Grant It, p279).

If you aren’t right now one of these “half-Christians,” you live daily in danger of falling into it. We must not underestimate the power of the devil. He can in a moment “recast and pervert a godly man who has a strong faith, and beguile a pious husband, who today is living chastely in his marriage, to become an adulterer tomorrow” (Luther, HP 1:336). He propels men into fornication, greed, anger, hatred, envy, and holds on to them so tightly that they cannot free themselves. Likewise he drives people into despair, heartache, fear, anxiety, and grief. These things can consume and incapacitate us.

As a result, the experience of the law—God’s just wrath against us—and the power of sin in the world (both our own besetting sins, and suffering from being sinned against) – both these things cause us to feel desolation. That’s the emotional and spiritual condition of the psalmist in today’s antiphon, where he says, “I am desolate and afflicted.” He is lonely in his solitude, and feels he has no one to turn to, no one who will share his suffering. Many of you I know have felt this. The Bible says  it is not good for the man to be alone, but that is what the sin does – it separates us both from God and our neighbor.

But then there is another method the devil uses to turn people away from following Christ and make them “half-Christians” – through “empty words,” as St. Paul mentions in the Epistle: “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” So the Devil seeks to deceive by means of “empty words,” and he does so quite comfortably from pulpits. Those “empty words” are the preaching of forgiveness without genuine contrition and repentance. Empty words are an absolution given to those half-Christians who attend church but are not really “with the Lord,” make no effort at amending their sinful life, and as Luther said in the Large Catechism, leave at the end of the year no different than they were at the beginning. St. Paul gives us a list of identifying markers: those who are do not imitate God, who do not walk in love, who engage in sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness. And what about foolish talking, crude joking, or coveting (desiring what God has not given you)? Do not be deceived: those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Christ and God.

And the truth is, we so easily stumble like drunken fools into this kind of half-Christianity, mouthing prayers and attending services while living a life that is consumed with thoughts and desires for the things of this world.

Today, the Third Sunday in Lent, is called Oculi, meaning “eyes,” from the beginning of the Introit: “My eyes are ever toward the Lord.” If we are going to be kept safe from the devil’s assaults, if we are going to be rescued from our penchant for being “half-Christians,” our eyes need to be constantly directed towards God, constantly praying, constantly listening to His Word, constantly receiving His Sacramental gifts. Otherwise, we will be trapped in the enemy’s net, the snares of sin and false belief, and will perish. The encouragement of this 3rd Sunday in Lent continues last Sunday’s theme: that the Lord hears and answers persistent prayer.

Likewise today’s Gospel, which is a stern warning against allowing the devil to be readmitted to your life, is also written for our encouragement, so that we are comforted by the knowledge that as strong as the devil is, our Lord Jesus Christ is stronger still. He works by the powerful weapons of the Word and the Sacraments, which alone have the potency to drive away the devil and defeat him. Only the Means of Grace, i.e., the gifts of Christ, can free a person from slavery to sin and the devil’s tyranny.

So here is what you should take away from today’s Gospel: Christ has overcome the strong man, the devil. On the cross He is victorious; it was the greatest feint in the history of battle, for by the evil one’s own devices he was overthrown; the moment he thought he had secured victory—the death of Jesus on the cross—was the moment of his defeat. By yourself, you have no power against the devil. But you are not by yourself. You are not desolate and afflicted, solitary and alone. You are in Christ, and so you are never alone in this life’s struggle against the devil, against worldly influences, and against your own sinful flesh. God’s Word has come and turned your eyes toward the LORD, and He shall pluck your feet out of the devil’s net.

Note: In an ordinary year, I would have likely observed the First Sunday after Christmas on the day this sermon was preached, 12/28/08. However, I will be away from Immanuel next Sunday and over the Epiphany holiday, consequently we are transferring Epiphany to the preceding Sunday, thus missing the readings for Christmas II, which also treats the Holy Innocents (as well as the flight into Egypt). Thus, we observed Holy Innocents this past Sunday.

Christmas pageants are cute because they don’t tell you the whole story. They usually end with the wise men leaving, and the kiddos coming out for the big finish. What they don’t tell you is that after the wise men leave, soldiers come. Soldiers sent by Herod the Great.

Now what Herod the Great lacked in good morals, he made up for by an unbounded viciousness. For example, after Antony, at the request of Cleopatra, intervened in Herod’s choice for high priest, Herod had that priest, called Aristobulus, drowned in his swimming pool. He was ruthless in executing rivals, some by beheading. As Herod grew older, he feared that his wife, Mariamme, would marry another upon his death. Despite his passionate love for her, he twice left orders for her death should he not return from a dangerous mission. Their relationship consequently grew bitter, and there was also hatred between Herod’s wife and sister, Salome. In B.C. 29, Herod finally ordered the execution of his own wife. Beset by grief over his action, Herod grew mad. He would call out to her, and order his servants to summon his executed wife. Herod’s sons could not forgive him for the murder of their mother; tensions and intrigue became the daily bread of the palace.

The murder of his own beloved wife demonstrates for us the deep tragedy of Herod; he was unable to deal responsibly with threats to his person and office. And so it was that, when Herod learned of another threat to his rule from a baby boy in the region of Bethlehem, the response that seems so outrageous to us was perfectly in keeping with Herod’s character. A child is born, worshipped as king of the Jews? Send the army, and simply execute every boy two years and under you find in the district of Bethlehem. Completely lacking in subtlety; efficient; mad; cruel – that was Herod the Great.

And so part of the story that the Gospel of Matthew begins to unfold after the birth of Jesus is the radical difference in the two kings, Jesus and Herod. Jesus has come to serve, and will give His life in service. Herod will do anything to maintain his own power, including slaughtering helpless children. The same holds true today. The majority of rulers in our nation, including our incoming president, obtained power by insisting they would absolutely uphold the free and open slaughter of unborn children. In Illinois, those opposed to the fundamental right to life and liberty have fought to ensure medical care is denied to infant survivors of abortion. It is easy to be horrified at the gruesome murders of Herod so long ago, but the gruesome murders continue today, endorsed by the leaders that we as a people have elected. The kings of this earth will stop at nothing to get and maintain power, but this gospel shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom will come in spite of the rage and sins of men.

Now the kingdom of Jesus is a threat to everything that the kingdoms of this earth stand for. The true ruler of this world is the devil, and as much as Herod is threatened by the thought of a new-born king, the devil is threatened more. When Satan saw the Magi worshipping Jesus as God, he saw that Jesus could be his undoing. So he sought to get the jump on Jesus in His infancy.

But our Lord Jesus Christ’s mission from the Father was not to die as a Child, but to learn obedience through suffering, to do good to others by healing and forgiving sins, and to preach the Gospel of the Father’s love and free grace to mankind. Only after He has done all these things, gathered His Church, ordained her ministers, and instituted the Holy Supper, does He suffer death for our sakes.

So being warned in a dream, Joseph takes the Child and His mother to Egypt, in order that Scripture should be fulfilled. He is safe – for now.

But the children remaining in Bethlehem are not safe. And that, for me, is the hardest part of this Gospel. It is horrific beyond imagination, the brutality of the order, and the sadness that must have come to the poor parents of the slaughtered baby boys. What are we do make of it? Why does God allow this madness?

It was already anticipated in the prophetic words Matthew recalls from the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” “They are no more.” When a child dies, the child is gone – no more. Many people know this sadness; from miscarried children who die unheld, abortions that mothers later lament, to children who against nature precede their parents in death. And in this life there is no hope. But the LORD gave comfort through Jeremiah that there is hope for your future, your children shall come back; and in this he tells prophetically of the resurrection, which is accomplished through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What we learn in this Gospel, then, is that where Christ is revealed, there the cross and suffering comes. There is never an easy answer to the question, “Why?” when it comes to you or those you love. In His wisdom, surpassing our comprehension, God allows His people to suffer, and He works it for their good. The best words of comfort I found in wrestling with this passage are from C.F.W. Walther, one of the “founding fathers” of orthodox Lutheranism in America. His words are so rich, they need to be repeated verbatim:

There is a very rich comfort to be derived from the murder of the children of Bethlehem. We can, indeed, be comforted when God allows our dear children to suffer much, for this shows us that God wants to glorify Himself by their sufferings. They, too, become martyrs of Christ, bearing the cross for their Savior. By their suffering, they, too, will enter into glory. When you look upon the sickbed of your dear little one and your weak heart wants to break because of his suffering, do not murmur against your God! He, the all-loving heavenly Father, loves your children as much as you do, and precisely for that reason, He often lets them suffer greatly and bitterly here on earth. They now sow with many tears, but they will one day harvest with much joy. They may now experience great misery, but one day they will be very glorious. You cry over them now, but you will rejoice with them in eternity. Therefore you should say: “Lord, as You will. Your will be done!”

When we suffer much and are troubled by the thought that God is angry with us, we should remember this comfort from the suffering of the Bethlehem children. God often lays great suffering upon the unbelieving world in wrath for the punishment of its sins, but He also allows His dear children to suffer out of love that He may be glorified in them. The bloody end of the Bethlehem children was not a punishment but a glorious deliverance and the greatest grace God could show them. Therefore, we who believe in Christ cannot doubt God’s fatherly love, even when He lays upon us much suffering in this life. God punishes and disciplines those whom He loves, knowing that one day He will make them glorious. He may let them struggle here, but He will one day bring them to a celebration of eternal victory. Those who mourn now will find eternal comfort.

The LORD does not consider it a light or trivial thing to have one of His own suffer death. He highly prizes them, and so continues to value them even in death. Death does not tear the child of God away from Him. He has made a promise, an oath, in the OT sacrament of circumcision, or in the NT Sacrament of baptism, and He will fulfill His promise. The saint continues to belong to the LORD even in death, and He will bring that person to the resurrection unto life on the last day. The little Child that is spared today, our Lord Jesus, is only spared temporarily, until the fulness of time comes, when the right times comes for His death in our place.

That is our great comfort in this vale of tears, living in a world where people seek power at others’ expense, suffering with the consequences of our own sins, the sins of others, and the corruption that is in the world through sin. But through it all the LORD promises to be with you.

The Angel of the Lord told Joseph to stay in Egypt “until I bring you word.” That must have been great comfort to Joseph, that God had a plan for their rescue, and the holy angels would be watching over them. A similar promise is given to you. God already has in place the plan for your rescue, He already has won the pardon for your sins, and you have the protection of the holy angels. So each day, even the days of suffering, are passed in confidence that in His righteousness He will deliver us.

I’m struggling writing my sermon for tomorrow, Holy Innocents (Mt. 2.13-18), because I simply don’t know what to make of those little children who were killed. My mind keeps going to the still-born baby I buried a couple of years ago, the time I visited the hospital to pray with a woman about to have a procedure to remove her miscarried child, and my wife’s own miscarriage. One points to the mercy of God and the hope of the resurrection, but it doesn’t alleviate the sadness that will always be there in this life. I suppose the only thing to say is that why God allows suffering even to “innocents” (and their parents, especially mothers) is a mystery, and we must trust God works it for good. In all that I’ve read in the last few days, C.F.W. Walther comes closest to saying something satisfactory in the following:

Yet there is a very rich comfort to be derived from the murder of the children of Bethlehem. We can, indeed, be comforted when God allows our dear children to suffer much, for this shows us that God wants to glorify Himself by their sufferings. They, too, become martyrs of Christ, bearing the cross for their Savior. By their suffering, they, too, will enter into glory. When you look upon the sickbed of your dear little one and your weak heart wants to break because of his suffering, do not murmur against your God! He, the all-loving heavenly Father, loves your children as much as you do, and precisely for that reason, He often lets them suffer greatly and bitterly here on earth. They now sow with many tears, but they will one day harvest with much joy. They may now experience great misery, but one day they will be very glorious. You cry over them now, but you will rejoice with them in eternity. Therefore you should say: “Lord, as You will. Your will be done!”

When we suffer much and are troubled by the thought that God is angry with us, we should remember this comfort from the suffering of the Bethlehm children. God often lays great suffering upon the unbelieving world in wrath for the punishment of its sins, but He also allows His dear children to suffer out of love that He may be glorified in them. The bloody end of the Bethlehem children was not a punishment but a glorious deliverance and the greatest grace God could show them. Therefore, we who believe in Christ cannot doubt God’s fatherly love, even when He lays upon us much suffering in this life. God punishes and disciplines those whom He loves, knowing that one day He will make them glorious. He may let them struggle here, but He will one day bring them to a celebration of eternal victory. Those who mourn now will find eternal comfort.

-God Grant It, pp97f

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFeDUb8sO68

I pray that you all have a wonderful, joyous celebration of our Lord’s birth. Here are some thoughts on the meaning of Christmas from C.F.W. Walther:

What happened [in Bethlehem] did not apply solely to the residents of Bethlehem, but to all whose nature the Son of God assumed, everyone who is called human and a sinner. For, as the angel of the Lord proclaimed, “I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.”

An unspeakably great, unexplorable divine mystery is at the bottom of all this. God’s holiness and righteousness must shut the doors of heaven to us sinners, and He knows that neither we ourselves nor any creature in heaven or on earth can open them for us. He had therefore determined from eternity that what we could not do, He would do Himself, and He would do it in such a way that His divine, wonderful, incomprehensible, and infinite love would be made known to all creatures, to His eternal praise and glory. God had decreed that His dear, only-begotten Son Himself would be sent into the world, that He would become man, that all of our sins would be laid on Him, and that those sins would be completely and eternally blotted out by His deep humiliation and death on a cross.

-God Grant It, pp72f

Mark Hemingway, in Socialism in the Treasury Chest, observes that if you think the bailout is a good idea, “you may well be an idiot.” R.R. Reno is no idiot, even if he does support the bailout. He’s wrong, but nevertheless has some good things to say about greed over at First Things.

Matthew Harrison details C.F.W. Walther’s depression/breakdown here and here.

Speaking of depression, the poem “Teeth” might make you laugh. I did.

Obama supporters are voting early and often, in states where they may not have legal residency, and may do it again and again, while you fund it.

How did we get in this financial mess? Something about too many subprime loans? In 1994, Obama sued Citibank for not issuing enough of them. [HT: Cruising Down the Coast of the High Barbaree]

Benjamin Harju writes on Private Confession.

Paul McCain revisits the issue of sanctification and good works.

The Missouri Synod establishes a new district around an SMP “pastor”.

On Ocho Stinko and changing names.

ONN reports on a sad case of abuse and neglect.

Here’s an interesting church marketing postcard. I’m curious what you think about it. Let us know in the comments.