In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O LORD our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Who has set thy glory above the
heavens.
Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings
hast thou
ordained strength because of thine enemies,
That thou mightiest still the enemy and
the avenger.
When I
consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
The moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained;
What is man,
that thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that thou visitest
him?
For thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels,
And hast crowned him with glory and
honour.
Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under hi feet:
All sheep and
oxen,
Yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of
the air, and the fish of the sea,
And whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the seas.
O
LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! (Psalm 8, KJV)
Today we rejoice that God has seen fit to deliver our nation
from the tyranny of a supposed right to kill children in the womb. It is by
divine providence, that is, the foreknowledge and working of God in the world,
that this decision by the Supreme Court was handed down on the same day as the
Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Today is a day of great
rejoicing.
Tomorrow, our rejoicing will be slightly tempered. Tomorrow,
we ought to remember that while this decision removes a national mandate
allowing the murder of children, it does not prevent the murder of children.
This decision allows states to decide how and when they will allow mothers to
ask doctors to kill their babies. I give thanks to God that there will be
states protecting children, especially the state of Missouri. Our Attorney
General certified the overturning of Roe vs. Wade this morning, meaning all
abortions not absolutely medically necessary, are illegal in our state. Yet I
still mourn the children sacrificed on the altars of pleasure, self-importance,
and pride because they were conceived in a state unwilling to protect them.
But today, our rejoicing is great. We rejoice for out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings, God has ordained strength in the face of His
enemies. We especially rejoice for that one who is the greatest among men born
of women. St. John the Baptist is the forerunner of Christ, who was called by
God before his birth to announce the coming of the Savior.
Next Saturday, we celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, that day when the Virgin Mary visits her relative, Elizabeth, and
the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the sound of Mary’s voice. St. John, who
was himself around six months gestation, hears the sound of Mary’s voice, knows
the presence of the Christ, and leaps for joy. Like a calf leaping forth from
his stall, St. John rejoices at the presence of His Lord because it means
salvation has come to man in the flesh of Jesus.[1]
There is a plethora of details surrounding the birth of St.
John, each pointing to Christ, and more than could be understood in one
evening. Tonight, we will focus on how and why he came to be named “John.” It
was a surprise to everyone when Zacharias came out from offering the evening burning
of incense and sacrifice and was silent. It was his duty to pronounce the
benediction over the people. Having offered sacrifice to God, it was
Zacharias’s duty to place the name of God on His people.
But his lips were sealed. Zacharias’s lips were sealed for a
lack of faith. He did not believe God was able to give his aged and barren wife
a son, let alone that this son would be the forerunner of the Christ.
The sealing of Zacharias’s lips is a mirror of the duty
given to his son. John would be the voice crying in the wilderness. He would be
the forerunner of the Christ through the preaching of God’s Word, especially
that word of repentance.
Only on the day of John’s birth and only at the occasion of
the gathered crowds who would not believe Elizabeth’s claim that the child was
to be named John, were Zacharias’s lips unsealed. He wrote the name “John” and
simultaneously spoke aloud. The voice of Zacharias was heard for the first time
in ninth months. While his lips were sealed before he could bless the people,
they were loosed for him to say, “His name is John.”
The name “John” means “gracious” or “benevolent.” The high
priest at the time of the building of Solomon’s Temple was also named
“Johanan.”[2]
It is fitting that as the building of the spiritual temple of the Kingdom of
God was being carried out by the heavenly Solomon, namely Jesus Christ, a man
named John would serve as a priest carrying out a ministry greater than any of
the Old Testament in preparing the hearts of man to receive their Lord.[3]
[4]
It was the solemn duty of St. John to prepare the hearts of
man by plowing the hearts inflated by pride and sin until they were plane, and
raising up those who were sunk deep in the valley of despair. Through a baptism
of repentance, St. John prepared the way of the Lord.
When we say that the ministry of John was a ministry of repentance, we mean the term “repentance” broadly, as including both the Law and the Gospel. John proclaimed the coming of the Messiah to fulfill the oath God swore to Abraham, the mercy promised to our fathers of old, and the holiness and righteousness of God who would deliver mankind from the hand of our enemies—sin death, and the devil.[5]
Then came the day when his own cousin, Jesus of Nazareth,
came to John to be baptized. St. John knew Him to be the Christ, the promised
Savior, and at first declined because of his unworthiness. Yet Christ
proclaimed it was necessary that He be baptized by John so that they might
fulfill all righteousness. Thus, Christ was baptized in the Jordan River,
sanctifying all waters to be a washing of rebirth and regeneration.
Jesus declared that John would participate in the fulfilling
of all righteousness. This was not because St. John had distinguished himself
by ascetic living or devotion to God. John himself confessed that he was not
worthy to tie the sandal strap of the Christ, let alone participate in the
filling of righteousness. Yet it is the gracious Lord who brings John into the
fulfillment of righteousness.
In your holy baptism, Christ also invites you to participate
in the fulfilling of all righteousness. You are not then expected to do this on
your own. You are still unworthy to tie the sandal of God in yourself. But you
are also no longer alone. You are the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, the
habitation of the Lord, Himself. The Son of God was made lower than the angels when
He took on your flesh and He has now washed you in His blood. The Father looks
upon you and sees His beloved children. In this state, it is a loving and
gracious act of the Almighty God to invite you to participate in His loving
works by serving your neighbor and showing love to God.
Your participation does not make you holy. It is a
consequence of your holiness, just as John baptizing Christ in the Jordan did
not grant John salvation—it was the consequence of what God declared concerning
John before his birth. John would go before the Lord to prepare his ways, by
preaching repentance and the knowledge of salvation to the people of God.
On this holy day, we celebrate the birth of the forerunner
of Christ at the same time that we celebrate an act of our government to
protect the lives of thousands of children. It is by divine providence that the
day we celebrate the one who leapt in the womb at the presence of his Lord, we
also celebrate the striking down of Roe vs. Wade. We celebrate John the
forerunner and the preservation of the lives of children because God Himself
was born a child at Bethlehem. The Son of God took on your flesh, was born of a
virgin, that by bearing your sins into the death of the cross, He would redeem
your flesh. Jesus ascended into heaven still bearing the flesh of man so that
all mankind, from the smallest child in the womb, to the eldest among us, would
be guided into the way of peace.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
Let us now rise and sing together the
Te Deum, as found in hymn #941, glorifying God for the overturning of Roe vs.
Wade.
[1]
Malachi 4:2.
[2]
1 Chronicles 6:10.
[3]
Johann Gerhard, Postille: Exegesis and Explanation of Sunday and Main
Festival Gospels; Part Three: Apostle and Other Festival Days, translated
by Elmer M. Hohle, edited by Heidi D. Sias (Fort Wayne, IN: Lutheran Legacy,
2012), 67.
[4]
2 Corinthians 3:6-9.
[5]
St. Luke 1:68-79. The Benedictus.
No comments:
Post a Comment