SPEAKER_00: Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean in his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father.
SPEAKER_00: To him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: A blessed first Sunday after Christmas to all of you.
SPEAKER_00: And also a happy third day of Christmas to you as well.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not a myth.
SPEAKER_00: The season of Christmas does actually have twelve days until we reach Epiphany, when we celebrate the visitation of the wise men.
SPEAKER_00: The departure of the wise men is where our gospel text begins today.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: That's who the wise men represent.
SPEAKER_00: They came from afar from the east.
SPEAKER_00: How far east, we'll never know, but they represent those who are not Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Thus, Epiphany is Christmas to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, it was important for Joseph, his wife, and the infant Jesus to remain in Bethlehem until they came and saw and worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: The wise men worshiped Jesus, who is the Christ, the King of the Jews, even though he was not of their origin, and found in such lowly estate.
SPEAKER_00: Not much to look at, not much to see, not what you would imagine for a king, but they believed nonetheless.
SPEAKER_00: This tells us something about faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is not created by the eyes, but through the ears.
SPEAKER_00: Even though they saw with their own eyes, anyone else might have thought that his parents were either beggars or homeless.
SPEAKER_00: But they had believed before they saw.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the eyes of faith that Saint Matthew is addressing in today's gospel lesson.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't telling us about something or anything miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: He's not regaling us with stories of wind or waves or people being raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's only recounting what the Lord once preached into the ears of hearers long ago, and then connecting them with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here again what St.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew writes.
SPEAKER_00: An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.
SPEAKER_00: This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Out of Egypt I called my son.
SPEAKER_00: God's word isn't fulfilled because the prophet spoke it.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is fulfilled because the word of God spoken through the mouth of his messenger is still efficacious.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is the one preaching.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one running the verbs.
SPEAKER_00: If he plans it, it comes to pass.
SPEAKER_00: If he speaks it, it comes to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: With his word he creates.
SPEAKER_00: By his word he redeems his people.
SPEAKER_00: Through his word and spirit he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies his whole church on earth.
SPEAKER_00: With his word, he forgives your sins.
SPEAKER_00: The task of every preacher, of every prophet, is only to speak God's word in order that God's truth would be revealed to the hearer, and faith created in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is the tool of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Three times in today's reading, Saint Matthew shows us that the word of God spoken is realized in the word made flesh given.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Three times in today's gospel, Saint Matthew demonstrates what Saint Luke actually captures in the last part of his gospel, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: Three times in today's text, the apostle preaches what the word of God does, what the word of God says.
SPEAKER_00: This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: But in today's world, we often misinterpret God's word and make it about us.
SPEAKER_00: In this world, we often misinterpret the role of his prophet or his preacher.
SPEAKER_00: We like to think a prophet's sole vocation is to tell the future or perform miracles or some combination thereof.
SPEAKER_00: But he preaches to give you the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches to show your sin and even more to proclaim the good news of your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: When a prophet of the Lord preaches, he can only preach what the Lord has given him to preach, or he is not a prophet of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But so that you know Jesus, and so you have him, St.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew only does what the Father has always done.
SPEAKER_00: He points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches so that you may believe in him whom the Father has sent.
SPEAKER_00: But how can anyone believe in him of whom they have never heard?
SPEAKER_00: And how can they hear without someone preaching?
SPEAKER_00: So then this is why Saint Matthew recalls the words of the prophets, in order that you might hear and believe in the incarnation of God, Jesus, who is called the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that you might believe in the one that was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger made of stone, as a foreshadow of him who would be laid in a rock-honed tomb after his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: But so that you might believe and hear, God's Holy Spirit preaches faith once again into your hearts through the mouth of a prophet by demonstrating that these early events in Jesus' life were just as God had ordained them.
SPEAKER_00: This way you too would see with the eyes of faith, your ears, and believe it in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in today's day and age, when it's really easy for us to look around at any situation and see all the things wrong with it.
SPEAKER_00: Even more when it's easy for us to look at our own circumstances and dream up what could be better.
SPEAKER_00: But it's very difficult for us to look at our current state of affairs and see our lives as the Lord does.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't give us that 30,000-foot view.
SPEAKER_00: We don't see the events of the world the way the Lord sees them.
SPEAKER_00: My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, he tells us.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot guess what he's up to.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get to look over his shoulder and see how he's ordered our days or the life of his church.
SPEAKER_00: And from our point of view, we only see the battlefield of our daily lives lived out in this sin-sick-filled world, which always seems to end in death.
SPEAKER_00: And chances are, without the eyes of faith that He gives you, we would judge God the same way the unbelieving world does if we could peer into the hidden knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: If we were to pull back the curtain and try to observe all that God has done and is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Without the eyes of faith, we too would believe him to be an angry God, persnickity, torturing the world with plight, and letting the innocent die at the hands of evil men.
SPEAKER_00: Without the eyes of faith, we may wonder why Herod's evil was given reign, or simply turn a blind eye to the killing of innocent children, as many do today.
SPEAKER_00: Or why this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, a voice was heard in Rama, weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted because they were no more.
SPEAKER_00: But Saint Matthew has a way of redirecting our eyes and our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: With it, he points us to that which God has given us.
SPEAKER_00: His word made flesh.
SPEAKER_00: With it, he reassures us that God is aware of everything, even innocent lives lost at the hands of evil men.
SPEAKER_00: That what Jesus later tells his apostles are not two sparrows sold for a penny, but not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father who's in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is always efficacious, dear baptized.
SPEAKER_00: It always accomplishes what he sets it out to do.
SPEAKER_00: With his word he creates.
SPEAKER_00: Through his word he redeems, by his word he makes a thing what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the Lord says will come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Baptized, St.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew causes us to hear again from the mouth of the prophet long ago what our Lord has promised, so that you might have comfort and hope while living in this valley of tears.
SPEAKER_00: This is for your certainty.
SPEAKER_00: This is so that you know that you have a Savior that rescues you from sin and death by making himself to be like us.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus, who is the Christ, is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, who came down from heaven and was made man.
SPEAKER_00: He was an infant.
SPEAKER_00: Which means God came to us in the lowliest of means, in very humble estate, just like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Christ was born to a mother, just like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: He wept, he ate, he became tired, he slept.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt, his hunger satisfied, his crying comforted, his diaper changed.
SPEAKER_00: And if he was in any danger, then he too would have to be protected and cared for through the means arranged by his heavenly Father.
SPEAKER_00: This means God knew that when Jesus was born, the unfit earthly ruler of that kingdom would become extremely jealous.
SPEAKER_00: And like all those opposed to Christ, he too would try to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: But that death would have to wait.
SPEAKER_00: It would have to wait for the cross on Calvary, when and where God had ordained Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, to redeem back all mankind, to redeem you back, dear beloved.
SPEAKER_00: For only God's Lamb could take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins.
SPEAKER_00: My sins.
SPEAKER_00: But so that you know that God foresaw it, so that you know that he kept his promises, he reveals his view enough for you to see with the eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: How Jesus was kept safe so that he could die on the cross for you and me and all the infants who died under Herod's hand.
SPEAKER_00: Today you confess with your mouth what you believe in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Today you believe it in your hearts because it has been preached into your ears.
SPEAKER_00: The word of truth was proclaimed to you, and by faith you have received it.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord promises something, it will come to pass.
SPEAKER_00: He always fulfills his promises.
SPEAKER_00: And he promised us a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: You have life, you have salvation because God kept his promise, and the seed of the woman crushed the devil and sin and death forever on that cross, once for all mankind, and he delivers that today to you through his holy absolution.
SPEAKER_00: So hear the word of the Lord spoken to you once again through the mouth of his messenger.
SPEAKER_00: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.