Today is Valentine’s Day. Lovers are telling their beloved throughout the land how much they love them. They use candy and cards and flowers and chocolate. Kids gave cards and candy to their classmates and awkward situations were easy to find in the workplace. Restaurants are making plenty of money, unless people are going some other day because today’s Ash Wednesday. . . .

We recently celebrated Christmas. You gave each other gifts. You’ll think next Christmas about the last gifts husband, dad, grampa, gave you for Christmas. You’ll remember Christmases past with him and wish he was still with you. But he wants you to remember this: the most important Christmas gift, the only gift that truly matters, is the gift God gave us that first Christmas, the gift He still gives us wherever His Word is heard: Jesus Christ, God’s Only-begotten Son. . . .

Have you ever been to Jerusalem? I haven’t. My gramma went once many years ago. Somewhere I have a glass cross she brought back filled with Jordan River water and Jerusalem dirt. I don’t remember anything she said about it, and now it’s too late to ask about it. Yet today The Church invites us, right here in the pews of Redeemer Oakmont, to go up to Jerusalem.

“Let the nations know that Thy Name is Jehovah; Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth.” How is that prayer fulfilled? When we go outside, do we see God’s Name written on the trees or the clouds? Do we hear the thunder or lightning speaking His Name, or animals praying to Him? No we don’t. The last day is not here yet, and the world pays no attention to God. So how does He answer Psalm 83’s prayer? . . .

It’s been 3 months. 3 months ago we celebrated the 500th Anniversary of The Reformation. It’s been 500 years since Dr. Luther posted his 95 Theses to protest the Roman Church’s practice of indulgences. He recognized that system could not deal properly with sin, with the guilt we incur because of our sin, and with how God remits that guilt. So he posted his Theses. He didn’t realize what would happen, but here we are, 500 years later, a congregation of the English District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. . . .

Merry Christmas! People said those words to us many times throughout December, and we said it just as much. Perhaps we truly meant it, perhaps we just said it automatically and thought nothing of it a second later or didn’t even mean it. But if we meant it, we were telling people we hoped they’d have a joyful Christmas, a glad Christmas, a Christmas blessed by the gifts of The Savior, Christ The Lord. . . .

Who is this Baby born of Mary? The shepherds knew. Mary and Joseph knew. The Magi knew. Simeon knew. The Baptist knew. But they did not know just by looking at Him. There was nothing special about Him that would attract us to Him. He looked like just another normal Judean man. They knew Who He is not by sight, but by faith. The Word of God told them Who He is. . . .

Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. His Mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Do these words jump out at you whenever you hear Luke 2? We’ve been hearing this chapter for 2 weeks now. We heard the story of Jesus’ Birth on Christmas, and of His Circumcision on New Year’s Day. We heard what Simeon had to say to Mary about Him last Sunday, and today we hear all we know about Him as a youth. Mary kept all these sayings in her heart. She pondered them and handed them down to us. Luke says at the beginning of His Gospel that he interviewed the eyewitnesses to get the stories, so many people think his source is Mary herself. . . .

“Behold, the Lord, the Ruler, hath come: and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand.” These words, our Introit Antiphon, were composed by the Church long ago to hymn our Lord’s Epiphany. They are inspired by the Psalms and Revelation. They confess that this Child Mary bore is no mere mortal, but God in our flesh. . . .

Happy New Year! Your gift is the shortest Gospel in the entire Church Year: just 1 verse. But hardly any other verse of Scripture is filled with so much. It is so much that The Church has sometimes split this reading up over 2 days, for in it we hear 2 distinct things. The Child was circumcised. The Child was named Jesus. . . .