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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Beloved Hollywood actresses Carrie Fisher, who is perhaps best‑known for her role as Princess Leia in “Star Wars”, and Debbie Reynolds, whose break-out role was as Kathy Selden in “Singin’ in the Rain”, reportedly were buried today at Forrest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, a sprawling cemetery that holds the earthly remains of a number of other celebrities. After the daughter and mother died one day apart last week, fans improvised a “star” for Fisher on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, where both of her parents are so-honored (since Fisher died without such a star, apparently she cannot have such an official one until five years from now). Of course, a “star” on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame is not the kind of “star” that we heard about in tonight’s Gospel Reading. The “star” we heard about in the Gospel Reading appointed for Epiphany seems to have been some sort of miraculous light that, in connection with the Word of God’s holy writings, led the wise men to Jesus. As we tonight consider the Gospel Reading, we realize that God likewise uses His Word and miraculous means to lead us to Jesus.
The Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew does not narrate Jesus’s birth, but he does record an event from months before Jesus’s birth (Matthew 1:18-25) and, as we heard tonight, events months after Jesus’s birth. Through words of the Old Testament, such as God’s prophecy through Balam of a star rising from Jacob (Numbers 24:17), and through a star, which miraculously appeared and presumably disappeared and then reappeared, God led wise men, whom you would expect to interpret such things as stars and dreams, to Jesus, Who was born King of the Jews.
One of the things that has always struck me about tonight’s Gospel Reading is that Herod the Great, the man who was then serving as King of the Jews, had to assemble the chief priests and scribes of the people and inquire of them where the Christ was to be born (and that is not even to mention his bad motives in doing so). Kings were supposed to have their own copy of God’s Word and read it all the days of their lives, in order to learn to fear the Lord their God by keeping all the words of the Law and doing them, that their hearts would not be prideful and that they would not turn aside from the commandment, so that they would continue long in their kingdom, they and their children (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). Of course, Herod was a foreigner, who should not have been king over the people of Israel to begin with (Deuteronomy 17:15), but, as we have been discussing in our Midweek Bible Study, even the kings of David’s line, like David himself, could be more faithful or less faithful. The kings’ and people’s unfaithfulness ultimately resulted in them being exiled to Babylon for a period of seventy years.
In tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 60:1-6), the prophet Isaiah speaks of darkness that covers the earth and thick darkness’s covering the people. I was reminded of the three-day plague of pitch darkness with which God through Moses struck Egypt (Exodus 10:21‑23), but we perhaps better think of a night of sin, punishment, suffering, and mourning (Keil-Delitzsch, 409-410). That night of sin, punishment, suffering, and mourning includes us! For, by nature we are as unfaithful as the kings and people of the Old Testament, and, apart from faith in Jesus Christ, on account of our sins of thought, word, and deed, we deserve eternal exile in hell. Yet, the night of sin, punishment, suffering and mourning does not last forever but will give place to light. The Lord Himself rises and His glory is seen upon His people so that all nations come to their light, even kings to the brightness of their rising. God calls and enables us to repent of our sin and sinful natures and to trust Him to forgive us our sin and sinful natures for Jesus’s sake. In short, God uses His Word and miraculous means to lead us to Jesus.
When tonight’s Gospel Reading mentions the miraculous star and when our hymns sing of Jesus as a Bright Morning Star, we understandably can be a bit confused. Such hymn‑references to Jesus certainly are based on Holy Scripture (see 2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 22:16), but Jesus Himself is not necessarily the miraculous star of tonight’s Gospel Reading. Rather, in the Gospel Reading, we see Jesus primarily in the house with Mary His mother. Jesus is God in human flesh, miraculously born to die on the cross for you and for me. At Christmas His birth as Savior is gloriously proclaimed to Jewish shepherds (Luke 2:8-14), and at Epiphany Gentile wise men are miraculously led to Him as King. In tonight’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 3:1-12), St. Paul by Divine‑inspiration calls the Gentiles’ being fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel part of the mystery of Christ—the mystery not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Christmas Day we at Pilgrim focused on that and other parts of the mystery of the Word become flesh revealed. In Him was life that was the light of all people, shining in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it (John 1:4-5). Apart from the Holy Spirit, everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to it, lest their works should be exposed (John 3:20). But, God uses His Word and miraculous means to lead us to Jesus, the light of life, that, repenting of our sin and sinful natures, we might be forgiven through that same Word and those same miraculous means.
In the Epistle Reading, St. Paul referred to His stewardship of God’s grace that was given to him for the Ephesians’ benefit. He was a minister of the Gospel according to the gift of God’s grace, given to him by the working of God’s power, to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God Who created all things. Likewise God through the years has given us pastors, under‑shepherds of the Good Shepherd, who preach the Gospel and apply it to us individually in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar. We have boldness in Christ Jesus our Lord and confidently access Him and His forgiveness in all of these ways. Such are God’s riches at Christ’s expense! As God used the Word and miraculous star to lead the wise men to Jesus, so we follow His leading us through His Word and miraculous means, so that He moves us from our darkness into His marvelous light.
We may be glad that the Christmas season is now over; perhaps the tree and other decorations have come down now, for you as they have for me, if they had not already. Yet our real joy comes from God’s using His Word and miraculous means to lead us to Jesus. As the wise men did when they saw the miraculous star presumably reappear and lead them to Jesus, so we rejoice exceedingly with great joy as God leads us to Jesus. We arise and shine, for our Light has come, and we reflect that light to those whom God places around us in our lives, so that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known and so that they and we can offer our own gifts, including the praises of the Lord. The wise men worshiped Jesus right there before them, and so do we, for He is present with us through His Word and miraculous means here and now, even as He prepares us to worship Him in heaven for eternity.
I do not know what Carrie Fisher, who did not have a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, or her mother Debby Reynolds, who did, thought about God’s Word and miraculous means that lead to Jesus, but I know that on the Last Day we will find out. They and all the dead—celebrities and otherwise—will rise, and all those who lived lives of repentance and faith will stay with Jesus. To that end, we pray now as we will in the Closing Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 872:5):
Light us to those heav’nly spheres, / Sun of grace, in glory shrouded;
Lead us through this vale of tears / To the land where days unclouded,
Purest joys and perfect peace / Never cease.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +