Oculi (Lent 3)

Oculi (Lent 3) – March 23, 2025

Psalm 25; Exodus 8:26-24; Ephesians 5:1-9

St. Luke 11:14-28

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The exorcism of the mute man reveals the reality that satan rules over a kingdom. There are many nations, or kingdoms, in our temporal world but there are only two spiritual kingdoms – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. These kingdoms are invisible to the eye but are as real—arguably more real—than the kingdoms of the United States, Germany, and Russia. We are accustomed to thinking about the kingdom of God but our Lord’s sermon on the occasion of this exorcism bids us to think about the kingdom of satan—it’s origin, composition, and strengths, as well as how a person is delivered from this kingdom.[1]

Satan is a created angel, one of those spiritual beings whose origin is sometime during the first six days of creation and belonging to those things we confess God created visible and invisible. He was created to be a servant and messenger of God Most High but at some point, he rebelled against the heavenly order, against God Himself. For this, he was cast out of heaven. Along with him went a third of the heavenly angels, becoming what we now call “demons.”[2] These are the evil angels. Hell itself was created as the prison for these wicked creatures. Satan and his demons know full-well who God is but because of their rebellion against Him, their sin, they have been condemned to eternal torment.[3]

But Satan was not content to just rebel against God. He wanted to bring the pinnacle of God’s creation with him into the depths of hell. This is why he took the form of a serpent and deceived our first parents, Adam and Eve. He saw the world as the perfect Kingdom of God, and he became envious. He wanted a kingdom for himself. The first human citizens of his kingdom would be the first humans. He drew them across the spiritual border and claimed them as his own.

And while the souls of our first parents had now become despoiled, God was not content to allow Satan to have his way with creation. The Lord gave a promise to Adam and Eve that He would deliver them from the sin now clinging to their flesh.[4] He would take on their flesh and redeem them from their sin.

But the damage was done. No longer is man made in original righteousness, perfectly conforming to the will of God. All his senses have been corrupted by the temptation of the devil. Satan had planted the flag of his kingdom in the world. He had declared war on the kingdom of God and sought to populate his kingdom. The corruption of our first parents is passed from father to son, down to this very day. This corruption means that everyone is born a citizen of the kingdom of the devil. By nature, he is our lord.

When it comes to those who remain in this kingdom of wickedness, we can consider them in at least three groups. First, there are those who slander the Word of God. To these belong the outspoken critics of Christianity, the “new atheists” whose goal in life is to crush destroy the name of Christ before the world. In this category also belongs those who are within the call of the Gospel but whose false teaching is contrary to the Word of God. The Pharisees of our text are among this group. They know the Word; they’ve read it and heard it proclaimed but they teach contrary to it. They refuse to believe what Scripture says and replace the plain words of Scripture with their own teachings.

Today, these would be the liberal theologians who would have you believe that the Bible is a collection of myths and fables, good for morality but not true in any historical sense. Another example is those who might say, “Yes, St. Paul says women cannot be pastors but that was then. In our context, women can do whatever a man can do. We are modern people.”

The second category are those who do not slander the Word of God but who live in manifest sin, including sins against the first table of the Law. To this category belong all unbelievers as they continually sin against the first and second commandments, worshiping false gods and refusing to make proper use of the name of God. They do not outwardly seek to destroy Christianity, but they also refuse to acknowledge the True God. These, too, might live outwardly moral lives but anything done apart from faith is sin.

The third category are those who desire a neutral way. These do not want to slander Christ or harm His Church, but they also do not want to side with Him. The “spiritual but not religious” types, or the “nones” most likely fit in this category. They think it is great that you have your religion so long as you don’t tell them to believe it. This libertine mindset is very common in our age. “There is no right and wrong, we just need to coexist.” To these, Christ explicitly says, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”[5]

You’ve heard me say many times, ‘there is no fence sitting with God.’ There is no neutral territory between the kingdoms of satan and the kingdom of God. You are a citizen in one or the other, whether a man acknowledges his citizenship or not. And these kingdoms are at war. There is no reaching across the aisle, no Switzerland, no peace accords.

The devil’s primary weapon in this war is the flesh of man, yes, even the flesh of Christians. He seeks to use the corruption of our hearts to turn us away from God. He will use your emotions, your desires, your reason, your strength, your memory, your relationships against you. He will leverage whatever means he can find to turn you away from the kingdom of God. And despite the appearance of confusion in the kingdom of satan, it is in fact united. It is united in opposition to God. The slanderers, the manifest sinners, and the libertines are united against God, no matter how they might think of themselves.

If man is born a citizen of the kingdom of satan, how then is he delivered from this kingdom? How does he become a citizen of the kingdom of God? There are three obstacles to man’s deliverance. First, he is born blind to spiritual things. When Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to see their nakedness, their eyes were simultaneously closed to spiritual things. They hid from God because they could no longer see Him clearly. Second, the heart naturally loves sin. It is naturally inclined toward sin. Being born a sinner, every intention of the imagination of the heart of man is sin and we find sin enjoyable.[6] We are not just born without faith but against faith, against God and everything God stands for. Third, man cannot forgive his own sins. He has neither the ability nor the desire to forgive his own sins.

Deliverance from the kingdom of satan is found only in Christ. A man must first perceive that he is under the power of darkness, that his king by nature is the devil. Yet because the heart is born sinful—loving sin and inclined toward it—and being spiritually blind, man cannot come to this revelation by his own reason or strength. Using reason alone, man can perceive that there is something wrong with the state of the world.[7] He may even recognize that there is something wrong with himself. But he cannot know that this imperfection is the result of a separation from God. He cannot know his sorry state is due to his sinful heart. This must be revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Just as a dead body cannot realize that it is dead and rise to life of its own accord, a man dead in sin cannot suddenly come to the realization that he is dead and remedy the situation. This requires the action of someone outside of himself. It requires the activity of the Holy Spirit.

The first activity of the holy spirit is to awaken a sense of dread in man that he is a sinner. The Holy Spirit must reveal the dangerous position a man is born into, that on his own, there is no hope of salvation. Closely connected to this, the Holy Spirit awakens a desire for salvation. First, He brings an awareness of man’s sinful position and then inculcates a desire to be relieved of this state. Finally, the Holy Spirit calls a man to faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior. This faith awakens a hatred of sin, a renunciation of the devil, and bestows a new heart, oriented toward God and loving the truth, beauty, and goodness of the Lord.

These activities of the Holy Spirit do not happen immediately through a burning in man’s bosom. The Holy Spirit works through means. When it comes to conversion, the bringing of a man out of the kingdom of the devil and into God’s holy kingdom, this means is the Word of God. This Word of God may be spoken, preached, read, and even connected to water. In these ways, the Holy Spirit enters into the heart of man and delivers him from the devil. Such was the case of the mute demoniac in our reading. Such was the case with each of you as you were called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And it was for this reason that our Lord amplified the cry of the woman who blessed St. May when He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”[8]

Beloved in the Lord, the kingdom of satan is a real and present danger. Yet the strong demon, satan, is overcome by the stronger man. No matter the armor in which satan trusts, the Word of God is greater. This Word became flesh and dwelt among us.[9] He dwells among us this day. He has sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to bring and maintain faith in your hearts. He has accomplished the victory over the kingdom of satan. The devil’s kingdom has already lost the war. Christ’s victory on the cross has ensured that the war between these kingdoms is a losing venture for satan and his followers. By death, Christ overcame death, casting the strong man into the dry places of no rest.

You, the citizens of the kingdom of God, have been called and gathered into Christ, into His Word, to shine as lights in this world. You have been washed, made clean in the waters of Holy Baptism that you would be made new, made glorious citizens in the kingdom of God. The stronger man, Jesus Christ, is king. He reigns for all eternity. May He remain your King, your Lord, your Beloved, now and forevermore.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] The outline of this sermon is based on the outline of C.F.W. Walther, “Third Sunday in Lent,” Gospel Sermons, Volume 1, translated by Donald E. Heck (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2013), 175-184.

[2] Jude 6.

[3] Jude 10-11.

[4] Genesis 3:15.

[5] St. Luke 11:23.

[6] Cf. Genesis 6:7.

[7] Romans 1:18-23.

[8] St. Luke 11:27-28.

[9] St. John 1:14.

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

 The Second Sunday after the Epiphany – January 19, 2025

Psalm 66; Amos 9:11-15; Romans 12:6-16a

St. John 2:1-11

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The first of our Lord’s active miracles was enacted at a wedding in Cana. It was no accident that our Lord chose a wedding as the occasion for this first and chief miracle. In the beginning, creation was not deemed ‘very good’ until Eve had been given to Adam in the first Holy Marriage. From that moment on, God has blessed the world through the union of man and woman, the one flesh union through which children are created. Precisely through this one flesh union, the Promised Seed, the Savior, was to be born. The entirety of the Old Testament can be viewed as a genealogy, tracing the lineage of the Promised Seed, and as such, it is a story bound to Holy Marriage.

What’s more, is that God has described His relationship to His people in terms of Holy Marriage. Through the prophet Hosea, He said, “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.”[1] In the New Testament, we not only have the parables of the wedding feast and the virgins attending the wedding feast of Christ, but such explicit statements as “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,” and “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”[2] That is to say, the Church has been betrothed to Christ, presented to Him as a chaste and righteous virgin, in purity and holiness, and we are members of His body, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, united in a one flesh union with Christ.

It is for these reasons that Christ highly values Holy Marriage. Our earthly marriages are a picture, an image, of this marriage between Christ and the Church. From the marriage of Adam and Eve to the last union joined before the Last Day, Holy Marriage is a depiction of Christ and the Church.

Since it is God Himself who has created marriage and has declared, “What God has joined together, let not man separate,”^[3] divorce must be of the devil. Divorce is a rending of the one flesh union, a tearing apart by man of something which has been joined together by God. Divorce must of the devil if it is a tearing apart of that which God has created.

Christ makes no exceptions where divorce is acceptable in the eyes of God. Rather, when He speaks of cases of adultery, the one who has committed adultery has already broken the one flesh union. The divorce has occurred in God’s eyes. The question is not if a signed document makes the divorce but if the spouse who committed adultery will repent and the spouse sinned against is willing to enter once again into the one flesh union with the repentant sinner.

It is also for these reasons that our marriages should be blessed by Christ and conducted in the House of God, the church. A wedding in a courthouse, presided over by a judge is just as valid as a “church wedding” because marriage has been built into creation by God. It is a part of natural law. But we, being sons and daughters of God and citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, ought to seek to have our marriages blessed by Christ, attended by the true Bridegroom. The Church is the most fitting setting for a wedding because it is the setting for the marriage between Christ and His Church.

When the wine at the wedding feast in Cana began to run dry, the Blessed Virgin said to our Lord, “They have no wine.”[4] Built into this statement is the request that He do something about it. St. Mary is motivated by a sincere sympathy for the bridegroom and the guests. If the feast ran out of wine, the bridegroom would be embarrassed and put to shame. It would indicate that he was incapable of providing for the feast to which he had invited all these guests. On behalf of the guests, if there was no wine, the feast would end. The joy and merriment would come to an early end. Wine elevates a meal into a feast. The Blessed Virgin is sincerely concerned for all involved and she looks to her Son to alleviate the potential disaster.

However, she is met with a hard response. “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” From this response, we learn a few things about Mary’s request. First, she is asking her Son to do something as the Word of God, through whom all creation was made but she is making her request from her position as His mother. That is, she is leveraging her authority as mother to make a request of her Lord. This is a misuse of her maternal authority. She has no right, as His mother, to request the Christ to make divine acts. Certainly, as a Christian, she has every right to make requests of her Lord, but in this case, she is misusing her office as mother to press Christ into acting.

Ask almost any Roman Catholic about praying to Mary and they will say something like, “We don’t pray that she would do anything but that she would ask Jesus to do it. It helps to have His mother on your side.” That is exactly the error that Mary is making in telling Jesus to do something about the wine at Cana. She is truly blessed among all women and full of grace, but she has no special access or sway with God than any other Christian. Calling her, “woman,” is not derogatory in any way, but it is our Lord’s way of reminding His dear mother that in divine matters, she holds no special office to request His actions.

Speaking of His hour holds special significance in the Gospel of St. John. It refers to the hour of His crucifixion. It indicates that the crucifixion is the culminating moment of the work of Christ. There, His work is finished. It is complete. All the miracles, all the words of Christ point forward to the hour in which all things are completed. Our faith rests on the historic event of the crucifixion and resurrection.

At the same time, because of the crucifixion, Christ may speak of His hour being present in all His actions. Here, it indicates that not only was St. Mary requesting that her Son do something about the wine, but that He do it now. The wine was beginning to run dry, and she wanted to spare the hosts and the guests the shame of knowing there was no more wine. She wanted Him to intercede before the problem was made public.

Here we see the Blessed Virgin’s second folly. She put a specific timeframe on a miracle of God. She as much as told Him, “They have no wine. Give them wine and do it now before the problem becomes an embarrassment.” Such temptation is great for all who call on the name of the Lord. We feel the passing of time. We know that yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is coming very soon. Because of that, we want what we want, and we want it now. If this holds true for a party about to run out of wine, it also holds true for what we deem to be emergencies. Your sister is dying of cancer and may not make it to tomorrow. You want God to act now, or it will be too late. Patient though he was, even Job’s patience ran out and he demanded that God act.[5]

“If our prayer to God is to be acceptable and be heard, then of course we are not to prescribe the time and manner for help, especially in bodily needs. Here we hear from Christ that He has a specific hour, that is, He has actually already in His heavenly counsel decreed when and how He will help us. We should patiently wait for that hour.”[6]

Having been reminded of the proper use of her office as mother and Christian, the Blessed Virgin also gives us a glorious example of faith. She turns to the servants and says, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”[7] Hearing the Word of her Lord, she remembers the virtue of patience and trusts that whatever her Son does, it will be for the good of those gathered at the feast. With Job, she says in her heart, ‘Your hands have molded me and made me into everything I am within and without, and even though You hide it in Your heart, I still know that you remember it.”[8] Christ our Lord may not do exactly what she wanted or when she wanted it done, but whatever He does will be better than she could imagine. And “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”[9]

Hearing a sincere Christian prayer for those gathered at the wedding feast, our Lord performs the first, and chief, of His miracles, for the purpose of manifesting His glory.[10] In the first place, we see by this miracle, and all miracles, that Jesus is truly the Almighty God, Lord and Creator of the universe. Unlike the prophets, He does not need to call upon God to act through Him. He is the God through whom all things are made.

We also see that Christ is revealing Himself as bringing overabundance in joy and grace to those who would receive Him, sympathetic to the needs of man. The stone waterpots formerly held water used to make one ritually clean. Our Lord takes these instruments of the Law and turns them into vessels of joy and gladness, filling them with His Gospel of grace for all in attendance. He makes the understanding of the Law lovely, for that is how the Gospel interprets the Law.

The one who hears and believes the Gospel of Christ, that He has come and delivered you from your sins by means of His death and resurrection, has their heart of stone turned to a heart of flesh.[11] Hearing that the obedience owed to God, that which we cannot perfectly fulfill, has been fulfilled by Christ, our hearts are made glad. “Wine makes glad the heart of man.”[12]

In terms of overabundance of joy and grace, we hear from the master of the feast that the guests had already been well drunk and are now provided with almost 200 gallons of good, strong wine. Our Lord answered St. Mary’s prayer in a greater way than she could’ve imagined.

Not only did this miracle manifest the glory of Christ but “His disciples also believe in Him. They recognized Him as the Son of God and the promised Messiah in whom they placed their heartfelt trust. From this we learn that all miracles of Christ relate to and call for faith; God’s Word and His miracles are the two pillars and the foundation of faith. For from the Word and promises we come to know His gracious will; from the miracles we come to know His divine omnipotence upon which the trusting heart from now on must found and establish itself. May God the Lord sustain and uphold us in such a faith through Christ—the Initiator and the completing Perfector of [our] faith (Hebrews 12:2).”[13]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Hosea 2:19-20.

[2] 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:30.

[3] St. Matthew 19:6.

[4] St. John 2:3.

[5] Job 31.

[6] Johann Gerhard, Postilla, Volume 1, translated by Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: The Center for the Study of Lutheran Orthodoxy, 2001), 161.

[7] St. John 2:5.

[8] Job 10:8, 13; paraphrased.

[9] Romans 5:5.

[10] St. John 2:11.

[11] Ezekiel 36:26.

[12] Psalm 104:15.

[13] Gerhard, Postilla, 163-164.

The Holy Matrimony of Mason Allen Daughters & Ashley Mae Ledbetter

The Holy Matrimony of Mason Daughters & Ashley Ledbetter – September 28, 2024

Psalm 127; Genesis 2:7, 18-24; Ephesians 5:1-2, 22-33

St. Matthew 19:4-6

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, performed His first miracle at a wedding in Cana, when He turned six large pots of water into wine. In so doing, He marked this institution as especially pleasing to God and dear to His heart.[1] Holy Matrimony is pleasing to God because it is man fulfilling to his utmost, his role in creation. God did not declare creation to be very good until He had created woman out of man and joined the two in Holy Matrimony.[2] The institution of marriage in the Garden of Eden is the final act of creation and it is the location of God’s first words of blessing to man, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”[3]

As the crown of creation, man and woman are to live as husband and wife primarily for two purposes. First, to fulfill this blessing and command of God, “Be fruitful and multiply.” God gave the entire world to Adam and Eve that they would multiply and subdue it, that is take care of all creation. The household is the foundation of society and the source of children. ‘Children are an heritage from the Lord,’ the psalmist says.^[4] Man does not create children. No effort of man creates life. The creation of new life is within the power of God alone and he has ordained that new life would spring forth from the union of man and wife.

When the two come together, they produce one new flesh. This is the unique blessing of marriage. Through man and wife, children are created; and through children, fathers and mothers are created. Therefore, the Christian marriage must be open to children. No effort of man may be made to stop the will of God in creating children. Such actions would be sinful, contrary to the Word and will of God.

According to creation, the second purpose of marriage is companionship. God declared that it was not good for man to be alone and that he required a helpmeet, a companion, someone who would be comparable to him. A parade of all the animals in the world could not fulfill this need for companionship. It required woman. It required that God make woman out of man’s side. In a sense, man is truly missing a part of himself until he is joined in holy matrimony to woman.

This purpose of marriage, this companionship, is a lifelong commitment to one another. Mason and Ashely will today vow before God, all of you, and each other, that they will take one another to have and hold for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and health, to love and cherish till death parts them. Man is not free to cut the bonds of marriage. These two will be joined in one flesh. A new creation will be made this day that did not exist before. To separate this union is an act of violence.

It is also central to understand that man did not remain in bliss. Eve gave into the temptations of Satan, ate of the forbidden fruit, gave it to Adam, and he also ate. This sin, this breaking of God’s law, plunged all of creation into sin, corruption, and decay. It introduced death into the world. It also robbed Adam and Eve, and by consequence all men and women, of the original righteousness in which God created them. Now, every thought, word, and deed of man is corrupted by sin, including the institution of Holy Matrimony.

In the fallen state of the world, Holy Matrimony takes on a new purpose. It is for the avoidance of sin. Man is no longer perfectly in control of his faculties, meaning that selfishness, pride, anger, and especially lust now lurk within man’s soul. The estate of Marriage continues to be given to man as the God given outlet for lust and as a special protection against other sins. It is more difficult to be selfish when you have a wife, and doubly so should your marriage be blessed with children…or at least it ought to be. In Holy Marriage, being joined in one flesh means that you now live life for another. You have another person, or eventually persons, for whom to live and care.

However, Satan is crafty. He is cunning. He sees Holy Marriage and hates it. He hates any gift God gives to man and will always seek to corrupt it. For this reason, it will be necessary for you two to always be on guard. Mason, she is your most treasured possession. She is to be your wife, a gift greater than anything else creation has to offer you. You are to ensure she has a home, food, and a joyful life. Recognize her as the precious gift of God that she is. Recognize that focusing on your own wants and needs will always open the door to the temptation to resentment, frustration, and anger. Recognize also that the world will present temptations to neglect her or worse, to find fulfillment anywhere but in the precious treasure of the helpmeet given to you by God Almighty.

Ashley, he is your most precious possession. He is worthy of your time, attention, and submission. He is your head and provider. You are to trust him, provide him a home full of peace and rest. Look to him to provide for your needs. Recognize him as the precious gift of God that he is. Close your eyes to the attentions of other men and remember that he is always worth more time and attention than anything else in the world. You are a precious vessel that has been given to him to cherish. Support him, care for him, trust him, and show him honor by receiving all the good gifts he has to give to you.

To this point, I’ve really only described the purposes and blessings of marriage according to creation. These are incredibly important, especially in our day and age when the world wants to deny creation. From our constant engagement in digital media – streaming services, the internet, social media, etc. – to the denial of creation as fundamental to reality. Our world wants to define creation according to our desires and feelings rather than being that which God has ordered and continues to govern.

But there is a fourth, and perhaps the greatest, purpose of marriage. The union of man and wife in Holy Matrimony is the image of Christ’s relationship to the church. Holy Marriage is dear to the heart of God because it is the image of God’s own sacrifice and love for the church. Adam and Eve plunged the world into sin when they submitted to temptation in the garden. And just as all mankind fell in one man’s fall, so too is all mankind redeemed in the Blood of Jesus.

In prophecy, in parable, and in doctrine, our Lord loves to compare His love for the church to weddings. The Son of God took on human flesh that He would die for us. His death is the ultimate fulfilling of the call for husbands to love their wives even that a man would die for her. Jesus Christ joined Himself to His bride in our flesh when He was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He then died the death that man had earned for himself because of His great love for us.

In the same way, we are called to submit to Christ as our head. He is the God of all creation. Christ is King. And we, while still mired in the filth of our sins, have been called by Him to be washed in His blood, made clean and spotless, washed of water by the Word of God, that we might be presented to Him glorious, holy, and without blemish.

We gather today to witness the joining of Mason and Ashley in Holy Matrimony, but we are called to see this union as the earthly image of Christ being joined to His holy Bride, the Church. We are here to worship the Triune God who has cleansed of our sins.

It is for this reason, that Mason and Ashley, you are called to keep your marriage holy and undefiled. On your own, you can’t do this. I promise you, you will sin against one another, against yourselves, and against others. Satan is cunning and he will lead you astray. Remember that you have been washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. Remember that you have been saved by the Blood of the Lamb. Continue to be steadfast in your faith.

Mason, it is your job as the head of the household to bring your wife to church. It is your responsibility to continue to grow in wisdom and knowledge of God and His Word. Christ willingly endured mocking, torture, and crucifixion because he loves his bride. You are called to do the same. Swallow your pride and love your wife. Be bold in providing for her and protecting her from the dangers of the world. Ensure she remains steadfast in the Word of God and that she raises your children in the faith.

Ashley, it is your job to support Mason in his faith and to encourage him. It is also your responsibility to come to church and encourage Mason to do the same. Remember that he is your beloved. The church lovingly submits to Christ her head but is unafraid to cry out in lament. We look to Christ for every good thing. Even when it seems he is not listening, we trust that he is caring for us, giving us what we need. When Mason needs correction, do it lovingly and in private, that his reputation would not be harmed before others. Should God bless you with children, raise them in the faith. Ensure Mason is teaching them the catechism and reading to them from the bible.

Read the bible together, every day. Pray together, every day. The most powerful words either of you can speak are “I forgive you. I love you.” Do not forget to say them! And, Lord willing many years from now, you two will join with the heavenly choirs of angels and all the host of heaven in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb; when all who trust in Christ will join together in the worship of our Lord forever. Love one another as Christ has loved the Church. Hold fast to one another. May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. John 2:1-12.

[2] Genesis 1:31.

[3] Genesis 1:28.

[4] Psalm 127.

Wednesday Vespers following Gaudete (Advent 3)

Ember Wednesday – December 14, 2022

Psalm 19; Isaiah 2:2-5; Isaiah 7:10-15

St. Luke 1:26-38a

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Annunciation refers to the event recorded in today’s third reading: the Archangel Gabriel is sent from God to announce to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she has been chosen to be the Mother of God. We might choose to number three miracles in this event.^[1] First is the miracle of the Incarnation. “Incarnate” simply means “in flesh.” The Son of God, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is sent by the Father, deposited by the Holy Spirit, and becomes man. God himself becomes a man to redeem mankind.

The Annunciation connects the two greatest feasts of the Church – Christmas and Easter. The Son of God took on flesh precisely so that he could die upon the cross. Christmas must happen first so that Good Friday and then Easter Sunday may follow. The Incarnation makes the Atonement possible. ‘To pay the debt of our sinful state, God, who is incapable of suffering, joined Himself to humanity, which can suffer. Thus, in keeping with the healing that we needed, one and the same mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, was able to die in one nature and unable to die in the other.’^[2] Christ our Lord was born in the city of little branches, Nazareth, that he would die upon the ultimate Tree of the Cross.

Far less grand than the Incarnation, is the miracle of the Virgin Birth. From the perspective of a created being, the Virgin Birth might seem like the greater miracle. For the Creator of the cosmos, such a miracle seems almost a parlor trick, but it is not without purpose.

In the first place, the Savior of Man required a pure vessel in which to be born. God is already without sin, but He must remain so after taking on the flesh of man. He must have been born the seed of a woman, without the help of man so that Original Sin would not stain His flesh.

In the second place, the virgin womb of Mary is to indicate the holiness of God’s dwelling place with man. The Church is to be the holy dwelling of God. It is to be unmarred by the stain of sin. This holy space is set apart from the temporal. It is not like other buildings for it is the house of God.[3] During the gathering of the saints in the Divine Service, heaven comes to earth, and we experience a glimpse of heaven. It is unstained by sin for it is holy.

At the same time, the Church militant—both the location and the people on this side of glory—exists in a sinful world. Outlets need replacing. Walls need paint touched up. Sinners fill the pews and pulpit. This is seen in that Mary herself is not without sin. Twelve years after the birth of Jesus, Mary would forget her Son in Jerusalem and then be surprised to find Him in the Temple. It is also seen in the attacks of the world, those who inevitably whispered of the young woman, betrothed to be married yet becoming great with child. The Church endures sin from without and within.

Yet the womb of Mary is preserved from such sin. The Holy Ghost overshadows Mary and delivers the Son of God to her holy womb. The Holy Body and Precious Blood of the same Savior who grew within the Virgin Mary now sits upon the altars of the faithful, untainted by sin, given to be eaten and drunk by all who would be called holy children of God.

Now the third miracle of the Annunciation might be considered the greatest of all. It is the faith of Mary. This young woman, in her early teens, barely even a woman, hears the words of St. Gabriel and receives them with humility. This humility, this faith, is not a quality of Mary’s own.

The text does not reveal the moment at which Christ is conceived nor when the Holy Ghost overshadowed the Virgin Mother, but it would seem to have occurred during this conversation with Gabriel. The angel appears and Mary is troubled. Gabriel consoles her by saying, “Fear not dear child, for you have found favor with God.”

Mary’s troubled conscience is the reaction of sinful man in the face of holiness and yet it is not the reaction of one who does not believe. Zechariah, met by the same angel, is troubled and fearful. Mary is only troubled. She trusts in the greeting of Gabriel and that the Lord is with her. Gabriel then speaks the absolution – a word of forgiveness that all the faithful, Mary and us included, require – and proceeds to announce the conception of the Savior.

This faith of young Mary is then displayed in feminine virtue. The chief biblical, feminine virtue is submission. Submission is not weakness nor frailty. Submission is the recognition that you are not in authority. You are not in control. Women are called to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ.[4]

At the same time, men must recognize our calling to be the head of woman. We are given authority in the household because God created Adam first, and then Eve. Eve was deceived first, and then Adam. Man is given authority for the sake of caring for and preserving the family—not to satisfy the desire for power.

Blessed Mary exhibits true humility when, barely more than a child, she submits to the words of St. Gabriel and proclaims, “Let it be to me according to Your Word.”[5] She is not accepting a tempting business proposal. She is submitting her will to the Will of God. We do not know if Mary was excited to be a mother in those moments. We don’t know if she was concerned what others might think. She didn’t know exactly what would happen either. She knew her son was to be the Son of God, the Savior who would reign forever.[6]

Faithful and humble Mary is strengthened by the Word of God, spoken to her by the messenger. The miracle of the Word of God turning the hearts of man from stone to flesh is the greatest miracle of the Annunciation. To emphasize this point, God chose a lowly handmaid to be the mother of God. A young woman, of David’s lineage but of humble birth, displays faith only possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit and this gift is delivered on the lips of an angel.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] The outline of the three miracles of the Annunciation comes from Martin Luther, The Christmas Book, trans. by Roland H. Bainton (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1948), 22-23. The original thoughts from St. Bernard come from a series of sermons found in Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, “On the Missus Est,” Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Collection [8 Books] Aeterna Press, Kindle Edition, beginning on p. 1317.

[2] St. Leo the Great, The Feast of the Annunciation: In Mary’s Womb, God Becomes Man, available at http://www.lectionarycentral.com/stmaryannunc/Leo2.html. Also found in the Annunciation file.

[3] Psalm 122:1.

[4] Ephesians 5:22-24.

[5] St. Luke 1:38.

[6] St. Luke 1:31-32, 35.