I’ll start this sermon by saying that I believe that there is no salvation outside of the Church. Let me explain… St. Mark put it this way: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) Faith is begotten and nurtured in the Church; outside of the Church, faith withers and dies, if it existed at all. Jesus saves—it is all His work; it is only unbelief that condemns. Is it possible for someone outside of the Church to believe? I suppose it could happen if God wills it, but everything I’ve seen and read is that belief outside of the Church is no different than that of the demons who believe and tremble (cf. James 2:19), and that’s not saving faith. Believers, those who have faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their redeemer, are found in the Church; hence, outside of the Church, there is no salvation.

Well, what can be done then about those wise men who visited the young Child Jesus? These men were magi or magicians, astrologers, very likely descendants and disciples of Babylonian wise men—the same Babylonians who brought the Judeans into exile some 600 years before these wise men saw the star rise. Did they believe in God, trust in His promises? If they did, their faith was incomplete—that is to say, their knowledge of their creator was incomplete, likely only having fragments of what Daniel and the three young men (and other Judean wise men) had left behind after their captivity. So, seeing the star, they knew something was up—they knew that a promised King had been born to the descendants of the Judeans.

So, these pagans packed up their belongings for a long trek. They brought along gifts with them to give to this King, tribute which prefigures his Divine Reign and Death—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

What did they know? What would they find?

Jesus asked, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Dear Redeemed of God, God has a name! And it is that name by which you are saved.

Now, God had revealed His name once before. While the people of Israel were still in bondage in Egypt, it was to Moses that God appeared in a burning bush, telling him that he was going to free his people from Egypt. Moses complained, “The people aren’t going to believe me if I tell them that ‘the God of your Fathers’ has sent me to you. Whom shall I say sent me?” God replied, “Ehiya esher ehiya.” From that is derived God’s proper name used but seldom translated in the Old Testament: Yahweh—the Existing One, the One Who is.

People throughout the ages were given names that included this proper name of God: Elijah, meaning my God is Yahweh; Abijah, meaning my father is Yahweh; Jonathan, meaning the gift of Yahweh; Jeremiah, meaning whom Yahweh has appointed; Hezekiah, meaning the might of Yahweh; Obadiah, meaning servant of Yahweh; Zechariah, meaning Yahweh remembers; Zephaniah, meaning hidden by Yahweh. The funny thing is that, outside of an occasional sermon or Bible study, hardly anyone ever calls on God by this name, except in the names to which it is attached, especially this one: Joshua.

Eleven days ago, you sang this wonderful hymn about the heralding angels’ message to the shepherds in the field as Jesus was born:

Having closed the hymnal on that stanza, the Church now comes to the Fourth Day of Christmas, often observed as the feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs. As it turns out, the Gospel appointed for Holy Innocents is the same as the one appointed for the First Sunday after Christmas in Year A. In that text, you heard:

The Prince of Peace is “born that man no more may die,” and today is “celebrated” the deaths of the male children in Bethlehem two-years old and younger. Jesus’ birth and the celebration thereof is marked by slaughter, there is blood on His birth.

It should come as no surprise. Where Jesus is, there sinful man knows nothing but hate. Jesus comes that you may not die, and your Old Man wants to off Him, too, because He and the Life He comes to give are a threat to your way of life. So, there’s no use in thinking of yourself better or holier or more pious than Herod because you didn’t kill those innocents in Bethlehem, because you think you would welcome such a one as Jesus the infant where Herod did not. Would it be any different with adult Jesus? Maybe…maybe not.

And then, to make matters worse, God sent His Son and family into Egypt to escape the tyrant’s rage. Mary, Joseph, and the Christ-child uprooted from their home in Bethlehem, having just received the gold, frankincense, and myrrh from the sages, and high-tailed it off to the land of slavery. “Out of Egypt I called my Son,” was of little comfort for weeping Rachel who refused to be comforted because her son is no more. “God’s Son gets to live, but mine is killed in His stead. It just doesn’t seem fair; it isn’t right.” It’s little consolation, but it wasn’t Jesus’ time yet, even though He had just received burial spices from those sages.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...”

It’s so easy this time of year to get caught up in the Christmas story as told by St. Luke, even if, because of how things are done here, you only hear it at the Lessons and Carols service or in the candlelight portion of last night’s service. Nevertheless, it is a prominent thought, even here, at this time of year. Pregnant Mary, no room in the inn, finding room in a stable, giving birth, manger, swaddling cloths, angels singing, shepherds wondering. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” (Luke 2:14) These are all great things, things to marvel over, things to rejoice about. “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

But John gives a different perspective. He fills in the blanks that, as you read Luke, you might not realize are there. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word of God is God; practically inexplicable and wholly incomprehensible beyond what John says. There is another person to this Godhead, the Word, and He is God. He was there in the beginning; of course He was, since He is God.