The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
St. Matthew 4:12-25; Isaiah 9:1-4
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
His was a life seemingly filled with setbacks and continual difficulty. And it all started while He was still in the womb.
Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, who was pledge to be her husband, was filled with doubt and confusion. “She’s pregnant, but I didn’t do it. What will the people think if I take her to be my wife while she’s pregnant? Or, better yet, what will they think if we get married and the baby is already here?” So, he sought to divorce her quietly. How could he take Mary and the baby to be his own?
Next, after Jesus had been born, and while He was still an infant, there was a call for his life. Herod demanded the lives of all newborn males in order to keep his power on the throne. So, off to Egypt does this trio ventured, Joseph having overcome his doubt and confusion by a vision from God. “[O]ut of Egypt I called My son,” (Hosea 11:1) the prophet declared. Word fulfilled.
The Baptism of Our Lord
St. Matthew 3:13-17
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The people flocked out to see him. He preached repentance to them. They met him in the river. There they were baptized by him, a baptism of repentance. Sinners flocked to John the Baptizer and heard the Law of God:
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father,” for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7b-10)
Many did bear fruit in keeping with repentance as they were baptized by John. Down into the Jordan they went, one after another, to be washed by him, crucified, as it were, by his preaching of repentance. From John, the greatest of the prophets and that preacher sent by God, they received the forgiveness of their sins. But then he said it:
I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11-12)
They all looked up, and that’s when they saw it. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.”
The Epiphany of Our Lord
St. Matthew 2:1-12
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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?
The Second Sunday after Christmas
St. Luke 2:40-52
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Jesus asked, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
The Circumcision and Name of Jesus
St. Luke 2:21
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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.
