Rev. Cwirla's Blogosphere

Immanuel

2011-12-24T20:12:00-05:00

IMMANUEL - Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel - God is with us.

A word-sign for a fearful faithless king

Inspecting his aqueducts

and negotiating for Egyptian horses

to defeat his enemies.

Fear not, Ahaz!

In nine short months

the time it takes a maiden to conceive and bear a son

you will know Immanuel.

Be still and know that I am God.

Trust the Word-sign.

God is with you..

We fear too in our faithlessness

Shoring up our leaking portfolios

and striking strange alliances

to ward off those dreaded foes called

Sin and Death.

And in the still of Christmas night

the prophet’s voice rings out again

echoing in the depths of our insecurity:

“A Virgin will conceive and bear a Son”

Fear not!

Immanuel!

God is with you.

Bethlehem

2011-12-24T10:45:08-05:00

BETHLEHEM (2001)

God works hiddenly and quietly

Subversively toppling thrones and kingdoms

With nothing stronger than a Word

Whose sharp-edged syllables gnaw at false foundations

Until the walls come a-tumbling down

And everyone says, “Have you heard the news?”

We expect a God big and mighty

Our higher power above, our heavenly superhero

Able to leap our expectations in a single bound

Our great big Santa in the sky.

Give us daily bread and lots of cool stuff,

And thank you in advance for your cooperation.

But God appears barnyard born

An infant older than the stars

Who was when there was not a thing.

The Word through whom all things were made

And in whom all things hold together still.

The Virgin’s Son, Creator, King.

He chooses for His birthing place

Not Jerusalem or Rome

But Ephrath’s Bethlehem

A shepherd’s town, the runt of Judah,

Whose name means “house of bread.”

Living Bread! Maranatha!

As shepherds watched their flocks at night

And Bethlehem fell sound asleep

The little shoot from Jesse’s stem

Nestled at His mother’s breast

And sighed a deep, contented sigh.

God with us in Bethlehem!

O Come, All Ye Faithful

2011-12-24T10:34:04-05:00

Some reflections of a Christmas past. Thanks to my friend Henry V. Gerike for sending this to me. From Christmas Garlands, Ed. By O. P. Kretzmann, Chicago: The Walther League, 1950. Authorship of the following is presumed to be O. P. Kretzmann’s, although without certainty.

Adestes Fideles

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, but, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1)

OH, COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL!

It really was—and is—a strange and small place for such a great gathering. There was the first cry of a baby and the sound of angels singing—band both were the signal for a crowd of people, uncounted and countless, to come to the mange to touch and see the life and heart of God. The earliest arrivals were a few shepherds, but they were soon joined by a magnificent company, the poor is spirit and the lowly of heart, kings and emperors and scullery maids and little children, philosophers and scientists and grandmothers and babies with a sign and water on their forehead—the most catholic gathering in the history of mankind. The manger is the place for the family reunion of the Church. The invitation to the reunion has many forms—“Oh, come, all ye faithful”—“Ho, everyone that thirsteth”—“Come unto Me”—“Come, let us see”—but is is always the same warm, compelling kindness which brings the unnumbered host of the years since Bethlehem to the Child. This is where we belong. This is really the home of four wandering hearts. This is the lighted lamp in heaven’s window.

Now, as Christmas comes again, I am writing this in a world of disunity and fear. Many of my generation have no home, and they are lonely in the dark. They see ghosts and shadows in the night of their confusion, and they hate the strange and fearful things that are abroad in the dusk. They have some demonic dogs in their hands—bombs and planes and guns—and somehow they feel that these may bring them peace and a little happiness, just a little before their dark world blows up in an unearthly and final flash of light.

They are wrong, of course. The things they fear in the night, crawling and flying and touching their stricken souls, are very real; but the manner in which they want to drive these hateful things away is unreal and bad. Above all, their fear of one another—of other members of the human family—can drop away only at the family reunion to which they are once more invited in 1949. “Oh, come, all ye faithful” is an invitation, not only for saints, but above all for sinners. And that is what we are, terribly and stubbornly, now in 1949.

Many of us will be home for Christmas. The house will be warm and lighted. There will be a tree and toys and children singing and music from the far corners of the earth. But it will mean very little, even all this joy, if it is not an echo of another homecoming with God’s family at the manger. He wanted us to come that first night, lying still under the roof of a stable. He still wants us to come, and since we really have no other place to go to see God, we had better come quickly and quietly.

Surely, now in 1949, the world’s inn is noisier and more crowded than ever before. It would a bad place to stay this Christmas Eve. But the manger! The great company there, the faithful, stand quiet and forgiven, the joy of heaven in their hearts and the peace of God on their faces. With happy eyes they see the dusty rafters as the dome of heaven and the manger as the cradle of the Eternal, the straw on the floor as the Milky Way under His feet, the angels still singing, as they have these many years: “Oh, come, all ye faithful!”

O Emmanuel

2011-12-23T10:04:21-05:00

December 23
Isaiah 7:1-8:10; Matthew 1:18-25

O Emmanuel, our King and our Lord, the anointed for the nations and their Savior: Come and save us, O Lord our God.

“God helps those who help themselves.” It sounds biblical. Some people think it comes from the Bible, but it doesn't. It's actually unbiblical, even anti-biblical. God helps the helpless, those who cannot help themselves. God saves those who cannot save themselves.

We confess this in one of our liturgies of confession. “We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” If God helps only those who help themselves, then we are in a heap of trouble, because when it comes to sin we are powerless to help ourselves. Prisoners can do nothing to free themselves. God must come to us to help us. He must reach down to us, we cannot reach up to Him. God must come and be with us.

The promise of this last night of Advent is the promise of Immanuel - God is with us. Immanuel was the word-sign spoken by Isaiah to a panicky king. Ahaz's enemies had struck an alliance. Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel had struck a deal. Ahaz was the odd man out. He cut a deal of his own with Tiglath Pileser, the king of Assyria. That would prove to be Ahaz's undoing. Assyria would be like a flooded river pouring over its banks, sweeping away Judah in the process.

Isaiah tried to warn Ahaz, and encourage him that God was with Him. “Rezin and Pekah are nothing but smoldering stumps under the foot of God's judgment. They have a plan but it will not stand and will not come to pass. You must trust Yahweh; take Him at His word. But if you will not believe, surely, you will not be established.” Isaiah offered a sign to Ahaz, though Ahaz refused. It was the sign of Immanuel. “The virgin is conceiving and bearing a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” In nine months Ahaz would know that God was with them. In ten to twelve years, before Immanuel knows right from wrong, Rezin and Pekah would be history. Immanuel would eat curds and honey. Good and bad news rolled into one. Agricultural land would be laid waste. Crops destroyed. But there would still be plenty of milk and wild honey. Wilderness food. It is back to the wilderness for God's people. But God is with them.

Isaiah had a son. His name, written in stone on a large tablet was: Maher-shalal-hash- baz. “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens.” Destruction is at the door. There are always two sides to God's being with us - destruction and salvation. Immanuel and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. He is with us to save, and He is with us to destroy whatever gets in the way of His saving us. When we pray “Thy will be done,” we call upon God's good and gracious will to save us. We are also calling Him to break and hinder every will that opposes his good and gracious will, including our own. The Lord kills in order to make alive. He brings down in order to raise up. He crushes in order to create anew.

God's last word is not death, but life. Not Maher-shalal-hash-baz, but Immanuel. “The Lord is with you,” the angel said to Mary. And the Virgin conceived and bore a son. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us. The fulness of God dwelling in a human body. True God and true man in one Person. The Word made flesh, living among us.

God has drawn near to us in His Son Jesus. No longer may we speak of God way out there somewhere or way up there in heaven. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is the God who gets involved. The God who puts on the uniform and plays the game. He doesnÊ¼t sit by watching us make a mess of things. He doesn't watch helplessly from his throne heaven while we destroy each other here on earth. He sets down his crown, takes off his royal robes, puts on the work clothes of a servant. He takes on our humanity. And in our humanity He humbles himself to death on a cross. Immanuel works and weeps and suffers and sleeps and bleeds and dies. He is with us in every facet of our lives. Nothing is left out of His being with us to save us.

The signs of Immanuel are all around us. Advent calls us to them and invites us to see them anew. Where is God with you to save you? In the water of your Baptism. There He is with you to make you His own - the Spirit descending, the voice of the Father, Jesus at your side, with you always to the end of the age. You are joined to JesusÊ¼ death in Baptism, and He is joined to you.

He is with you in the word that speaks forgiveness to you. “He who hears you, hears me,” Jesus said of those He sent. “Do you believe that my forgiveness is GodÊ¼s forgiveness,” the pastor asks the penitent. That is the Immanuel question. Do you believe that God is with us in this? To hear this forgiveness as God's forgiveness? Such a gift Immanuel is to arrange to speak with us in a way that we can hear Him!

He is with you in His Supper, His very body and blood, born of Mary, sacrificed on Calvary, raised from the dead, enthroned in heaven yet humbly mangered in bread and wine for you. There is no greater His being Immanuel for you than for you to eat His body and drink His blood.

Jesus is Immanuel, the only Immanuel there ever was, the only one there ever will be. When He appears in glory, He will be the same Immanuel who came by the Virgin, who laid in a manger, who died for you on the cross, who come to you now in His Baptism, Word, and Supper. The good news, on this last night of Advent, is that you are never alone as one of the Lord's baptized believers. God is with you. Immanuel.

O King of Nations

2011-12-22T11:06:55-05:00

December 22

Zechariah 9:9-10; 1 Peter 2:4-6

O King of nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people: Come and save us all, whom you formed out of clay.

Jesus is both King and Cornerstone. As King he governs by His gracious reign of forgiveness and peace as King of kings. As Cornerstone He sets all the angles square and unites His church together as one.

He is the potter, we are the clay. He is the King, we are His subjects. He is the Cornerstone, we are living stones built into a temple for His Name. We want this, and then again, we donÊ¼t want it. The sinful nature resents the potter, refuses the king, resists the cornerstone. Sin is the overthrow of GodÊ¼s reign, the attempt to be a god in place of God. It is the rebellion of the clay against the potter who shaped it. It is our attempt to determine the lines of our future and destiny, to be our own cornerstone.

The outcome is chaos and death. A kingdom in which everyone is king is not a kingdom at all. It is anarchy. A building in which every stone is the cornerstone is a pile of rock. Individualism ends in isolation. It is death to family, to community. It was not good that man was alone. God put us into community. Sin erects walls, both visible and invisible, barriers to community. We define the boundaries of our own little kingdoms and vow to defend them to the death.

Christ has come as King and Cornerstone. His coming was without the trappings of royalty. A virgin mother. A manger crib. He rode atop a donkey to his death. He wore the purple robes of royalty only as He was mocked. His crown was made of thorns. His throne was a cross. He is a beggar king in a kingdom of beggars.

The crucified King is the King of kings. The rejected stone is the cornerstone.

O Dayspring

2011-12-21T11:23:05-05:00

December 21

Isaiah 9:1-7; Malachi 4:2; Revelation 22:16

O Dayspring, splendor of light everlasting: Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Today is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. And the longest night. Though it is the darkest day, the Advent candles burn brightly. The church calls from the darkness to her Lord, the Dayspring from on high, who is “the joyous light of glory.”

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. God spoke light into the darkness. Light means life. Without light there is no life. Darkness is death, the silence of God, the absence of God.

Our sin plunged the creation into darkness and death. Sin loves the darkness and hates the light. Sin loves the death and hates the life. Man turned away from God hides in the darkness. Adam hid in the darkness of the trees. Judas betrayed his Lord at night. Sin seeks shelter under the cover of darkness. Darkness cannot produce light. It is nothing, formless and void, empty. Light must be spoken into darkness from the outside.

God sent His Son, the light of the world thrown into darkness. He is the light no darkness can overcome, the light of GodÊ¼s love, His promise of mercy. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” Jesus is the Morning Star, the Dayspring, the signal of the coming morning. Day is at hand. The Dayspring has risen. The sun of righteousness rises with healing in His wings. He was born in darkness that we might be reborn as children of the light. He died in darkness that we might live in the light of His life. He rose at dawn to usher in the new day of His resurrection. He shines into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who works through the Word, dispelling the darkness, killing the death, bringing light and life.

Advent calls us out of the darkness to live in the light of Christ, to be the children of the Light that we are. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The night is over. The Day has dawned. Christ has risen from the dead. He has cast the bright beams of His light upon you.

Flee the darkness. Confess your sin. Expose the darkness, the death, to His light. Cling to the light of His Word. Live in the warm brightness of His Light. “You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

O Key of David

2011-12-20T11:01:29-05:00

December 20

Isaiah 22:15-25; Matthew 16:13-20

O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, you open and no one can close, you close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death.

Keys are authority. The one who has the keys has authority. Shebna was King HezekiahÊ¼s chief-of-staff. He held the keys to the palace. He misused his authority by having his tomb carved where kings were buried and to enrich himself at his masterÊ¼s expense. The servant wanted to be king. And so he was stripped of his office, and Eliakim was called to replace him. Shebna had to turn in his keys. ItÊ¼s a dire warning to all who hold authority not to use it for personal profit.

God used this little bit of palace power politics to prophesy something greater: “I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” Those words are applied to Christ in the Revelation. He is the one “who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.”

Sin locks the doors on us. It makes our lives a prison house of fear. Like the disciples in the upper room on Easter evening, we are locked up into ourselves, locked away from others. We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. No matter how much we struggle against the chains and rattle the bars, we are unable to break out of the prison.

But Christ has come and entered the prison house. He took on the LawÊ¼s death sentence. He stormed the gates of death and hell with His death. He turns the key to our prison cell. He is the key, the key that unlocks us from the Law and breaks the chains of death that bind us in fear. He sets us free to live as free children in His free city.

Jesus is the key of David, who opens and no one can close, who closes and no one can open. And He entrusts the keys to His church, to bind and loose from sin in His name. He established the office of the keys in the church, that is, the office of the ministry.

That is the office that turns the keys which bind and loose. We donÊ¼t have to wonder where the keys to heaven are. They are in the mouth of Peter and of the pastor God has called and ordained to speak forgiveness to you. His mouth is the LordÊ¼s mouth to forgive you. The sins he forgives are forgiven; the sins he retains are retained. He turns the key that unbinds you from your sin and frees you. He does it no on his own authority, but by the permission of the One who is the Key of David.

Advent disciplines us in the discipline of being forgiven, of living in the freedom of forgiveness, of delighting in the Key of David that unlocks us from our sin.

O Root of Jesse

2011-12-19T09:59:53-05:00

December 19

Isaiah 11:1-16 / Revelation 22:16

O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom the nations will do homage; Come quickly to deliver us.

“In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” Leave it to the Lord to make an unsightly root his banner, the flag at which all kings will be silent and all nations will bow. Roots are best left unseen, underground, invisibly drawing up nutrients from the soil, feeding the branches which produce leaves and fruit. Expose the root and the whole tree dies. But cut down the tree even to a stump and it will return, as long as the root is alive.

The Root of Jesse is GodÊ¼s Promise that DavidÊ¼s throne would stand forever. That a son of David would establish his kingdom and sit on his throne. That promise is the root of Israel. Even when the tree was cut down, when Israel was reduced to a lifeless stump, the promise lived. “Then shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Our sin goes all the way to the root. Not only the fruit, but the whole tree is bad, roots and all. The axe of the Law must be laid to the root. We must die and rise anew. ItÊ¼s the only way to save us. We must be grafted to new rootstock. We must be joined to the stump of Jesse, fed by the Root of Jesse, nourished by the Promise of God to save.

God grafted His Root to our sin, nailing it to a cross. The Root of Jesse became a banner for the world to see. Jesus of Nazareth. DavidÊ¼s son, DavidÊ¼s root, DavidÊ¼s Lord. “"I am the root and offspring of David,” Jesus said. The last of His I AMs. He is both DavidÊ¼s root and DavidÊ¼s son. He was lifted up on the tree of the cross, a banner for the nations to see. As Moses lifted up the bronze serpant in the wilderness as an emblem of healing, so the Root of Jesse was lifted up the cross. Here is how God saves from sin and death. He sets the axe of the Law against His own Root, His Son, and then joins you to His death. The cross is the meeting place of God and man, Law and Gospel, wrath and mercy. There the Root takes up your sin. There He feeds you His righteousness.

You were grafted to the Root of Jesse in Baptism. DonÊ¼t let the graft dry out; always keep it immersed in baptismal water. Draw on His forgiveness, His life, His salvation. You are living branches grafted to the living Root of Jesse. Jesus is your Vine and your Root. Apart from Him you can do nothing. Joined to Him, believing in Him, you will bear much fruit.

Wait patiently on this Root of Jesse. He is the source of your life, who now feeds and forgives you, who nourishes and sustains you, and who will come to raise you.

O Adonai

2011-12-18T09:18:09-05:00

December 18
Exodus 3:1-15 / Philippians 2:5-11

O Adonai and ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai: Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.

Adonai is Hebrew for Lord. Lord is the substitute term for Yahweh, the sacred, saving, Gospel name of God. “Say this to the people of Israel, Ê»Yahweh the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.Ê¼” This is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” To say Adonai is to say Yahweh, the Name that saves.

“Whom shall I say sent me? What is His Name?” To have the Name of God is to have God Himself. “Tell them Ehyeh asher ehyeh sent you.” I am who I am. Ehyeh. I AM. YHWH. He is the One who is. The God whose saving Name is a verb. His Name is action.

Every day, in the morning and in the evening, the Name of the Lord was proclaimed:

Shema Yisra'el YHWH Eloheinu YHWH Eá¸¥ad

Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD alone.

Where GodÊ¼s Name is, there He holy ground. The Lord is present. Where His Name is, there is Gospel fire, fire that burns but does not consume. His burning love and passion to save. Where His Name is, there He is mighty to save. “I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am Yahweh, your God.”

“Hail, O favored one, Yahweh is with you,” the angel said to Mary. “You will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, YÊ¼shua. Yahweh is salvation. Jesus incarnates the Name of God. He is YHWH in the flesh. “Before Abraham was, I AM,” Jesus said. To reject this Jesus is to reject the I AM of the burning bush, YHWH of Sinai and the Red Sea, the Lord of Israel, the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is no other Name, no other Lord who saves you.

To have a Lord is to have a redeemer. Jesus is your Adonai, your Redeemer. You didnÊ¼t make Him so. He became your Lord by dying and rising for you, and by baptizing you into His death and resurrection. He will come to raise the dead. And then you will confess with resurrection lips what you now confess by faith: Adonai YÊ¼shua Hamashiach. Lord Jesus Christ.

O Wisdom

2011-12-17T16:08:19-05:00

December 17

Proverbs 8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Wisdom is God's spokesman, the One who speaks the truth about God from the mouth of God. By wisdom the simple gain prudence, and the foolish gain understanding. Wisdom is more precious than jewels; wisdomÊ¼s gifts are worth more than gold.

Wisdom is a gift from God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Wisdom is knowledge and understanding shaped by the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Wisdom left its mark on the created order. Through Wisdom all things were created. Wisdom was with God before all things, and through Wisdom all things were made. The beauty of the stars, the splendor of the seas, the marvelous variety of birds and fishes, the intricacies of a DNA double-helix, the mystery of distant galaxies. These are WisdomÊ¼s fingerprints. Science studies the fingerprints, but cannot see the Suspect. He can only be perceived by faith.

Man turned away from God seeks knowledge without the fear of God. Information and facts. Study of the creation without knowing the Creator. Worship the creature instead of the Creator. Attribute to the creation the attributes of the Creator. Best get Him out of the way. He is inconvenient to our endless syllogisms. “You can be like God,” said the original Lie. “You can have knowledge without God. Just reach in for yourself and grab it.” That is not the way of Wisdom but Folly, foolishness, unbelief. “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” The end of Folly is death.

Jesus Christ is Wisdom incarnate, wisdom in the flesh. He is the “power of God and the wisdom of God.” “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He reflects the very glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” He is the “glue” that holds the universe together. Your cells, your DNA, a table, a chair - they hold together by the power of His word. ItÊ¼s what the scientists search for and long to find. The ordering wisdom of the universe. He is Jesus Christ - the One born in Bethlehem who hung on a cross and rose from the dead.

He teaches us the way of prudence, the way of Wisdom that leads to life. That way is the way of the cross, of dying and rising, repentance and faith. This way is foolishness to the wordly-wise, yet to those made wise through His Word and Spirit, it is GodÊ¼s creative wisdom to save. He will come to raise us one day. And then you who are wise in Him will shine as the brightness of the heavens.