Second Sunday After Christmas RCL C 2022

Second Sunday After Christmas RCL C 2022

St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church

John 1.1-18, Eph 1.3-14

Happy new year, and Merry Christmas

Happy new year and merry Christmas. Yes, you heard that right. In particular, happy 9th day of Christmas. No, the season did not just end on the 25th of December, it began on the 25th of December and it runs through 12 days up until Epiphany on the 6th of January. So I say again, Merry Christmas. But don’t worry. I’m not so painfully tone-deaf as to not clue into the fact that what’s on all of our minds is not in fact Liturgical seasons in the church year, but is instead of the new year that we just started yesterday. So I say again, Happy new year.

And with that, of course comes, as they say, new years resolutions. And with that, comes new Laws and restrictions that we place upon ourselves. New plans for self betterment. New year, new me. New beginnings. Yes. Beginnings. But the problem with a beginning, is that it’s a clean slate. And the problem with a clean slate, is that its blank. Its a story left untold, a canvas left unpainted... a to do list not yet done. A clean slate says hurry and get to it. It says pick yourself up from your boot straps and work through it. Sure; your past shortcomings will be wiped away. But will anything at all be left in their place? A clean slate, for all the good that it very well might do for us. Will not, can not, give you rest. It comes with it the risk of failing yet again. The risk, of never attaining anything more than emptiness.

Beginnings, they’re a volatile thing. An unpredictable thing. IF they do not come with the finality of the finished end. The beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Where do we find these things together? Perhaps I should say like Paul, “IN WHOM” do we have these things together?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being

All that begins, is found, is rooted in the pillar and the foundation and the ground of being itself, God. Creator of all things seen and unseen. Eternal and uncreated, maker of all things, creator of all things. Who spoke light into being, from nothing. Who spoke matter into existence. If you ARE you are because He IS.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us

Because it was not merely enough that He would create us, and give us this beginning. He would not leave us in that volatile state of to-do-lists that are left undone, and commands that will never be fulfilled, of endless resolutions for self-betterment, He was going to come into what He had begun to finish it Himself. For He knew that a beginning which is empty – is not “made up for” by uncertain possibility.

16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; butgrace and truth came through Jesus Christ

The newness that we have in Christ Jesus is not a newness that is left undone. It is not a newness of the law. It is not a blank slate. It is not as if Christ has wiped clean our sins so that we can try be our own righteousness yet once again. It is the newness of Christmas, of free gift. He GIVES you His righteousness. The very righteousness of God, Paul says. It is yours. You are not seen this Lord’s Day, as a blank slate. This year, this year is not a blank slate. The to do list is not left undone, the song is not left unsung, the canvas is not left unpainted, the story is not left untold, but everything about you, everything within you, is seen by the all-knowing Father and God of all, to be full-to-bursting with every righteousness, every blessedness, ever fruit and bountiful beauty that the whole universe could e’er contain. For He has plundered heavens treasuries that He might bless you,in Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. All that heaven has, is yours. For He who spoke the beginning into existence, spoke it for THIS REASON. Because He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love, by GRACE. All that came forth beyond His choosing to see you as Holy and Blameless came forth for this one singular purpose.

And so, the Word that was with God, the Word that was God, the Word that was in the beginning, who gave all things their beginning, became flesh, that He might be that righteousness, that holiness, that blamelessness for you. He lived, that He might diefor you. He who was before the beginning, from before the beginning chose to name you, to call you, blameless, holy, righteous IN HIM by His blood. For it is, v. 7, 7 In him that we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. It is through His death that we have life. Just as it is through the end of 2021, that we have the beginning of 2022.

Every beginning comes off the back of an ending. Every Ending is followed by a newbeginning. Death and Resurrection – this is the ministry of the Word, this is why He who was in the beginning, who caused the beginning, caused it in the first place. This is why He who caused the beginning, who wasfrom before the foundations of the beginning – became flesh and dwelt among us. To die for us in our stead that we might have a new beginning. But moreover, that that beginning, because of His life, death, and resurrection, might be finished and full,in His eternal end.

To bring us back to this sermon’s beginning, the reason, dear friends, that I wanted to begin today’s sermon by reminding you about the liturgical season of Christmas, was to remind you that what sometimes seems to be the end, is the beginning. And what sometimes seems to be the beginning, is in fact the end.

Fromdeath, springs forth new life. But that new life that is given to us. That new life that we are resurrected into in Christ, is finished and complete. It is not something left undone, but it is something finished, something eternal, something that was before the beginning of time thatwe are being invited into. It is the beginning of eternity. The end of all ends. For listen here to the word that Christ spoke when He was on His cross; “Tetelestai”, it is finished. And those words – they are thetelos, the endof God’s predestined purpose for your soul that was declared from even before the beginning.

You do not begin new life in Christ in the mode of possibility. The New life that you enter into in Christ is one of an eternal righteousness that cannot be detracted from or added to. You are entered into perfection, and fullness.

So I say to you intentionally in this order;

HAPPY NEW YEAR, and merry Christmas

Because the new beginning that Christ has invited you into in Baptism, in the preaching of the Gospel, in the Lord’s Supper, is the beginning of the eternal rest that you have in the eternal ONEwho is your righteousness, your holiness, and your blamelessness. For 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; possibility, clean slates, new fresh beginnings of work that had yet to be done.

But fullness, free gift of a finished story that we can find eternal rest in. The gift to be accepted and loved in spite of who and what we are, for the sake of mercy and love, well, that, has comethrough Jesus Christ.

You have now heard the Word of truth, the good news of your salvation, I now mark you with the seal of the promise,

+ in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

believe this.

Glory be to God.

Amen.