A Mighty Hand

Grace and peace to all of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I trust everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year. Lisa, the kids, and I truly cherished our first Christmas in North Carolina, and we eagerly anticipate many more years here with you all.

During the Advent and Christmas season, as we remember the birth of Christ, we may find ourselves reflecting on our thoughts more deeply than usual. Mixed in with feelings of hope, love, excitement, and gratitude, it is natural that we might simultaneously ask questions about our relationship with our neighbor and God. This is a good thing. This season is full of reminders to fix our eyes and hearts on the things of Heaven and God. The lights on the ground outside remind us that Jesus is the light and illuminates salvation. The decorations worldwide were meant to herald that something extraordinary has come among us: God’s only Son, our Immanuel, was born.

Last week, I caught an interview with a famous Christian author who has written numerous books about his faith and Christian life. This interview was part of a holiday special for a podcast I occasionally listen to. The interviewed author often shares his faith journey, which has deeply connected with millions globally. I genuinely enjoy listening to others share their experiences, which is why Sunday School is so meaningful to me; when we stray from the lesson to discuss our unexplainable moments, often summed up with, "It was God." I find encouragement in other people's experiences in faith and feel I grow from them as though they were my own.

While the author recounted his journey from atheism to Christianity, I contemplated the role of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures and gospel reading as I prepared for this morning's sermon.

“Great are the works of the Lord” (Psalm 111:2). I kept hearing this in my ear and pondering, “What is this great work of the Lord?” John’s Gospel gives us the answer in the sixth chapter: Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29) Summarizing Martin Luther’s commentary on the Psalms, he says of this particular verse in relationship to the Psalm verse, “God’s greatest work is the creation of believers…new creatures in Christ through the Holy Spirit.” Believers!

Belief is not something that originates from within us. As Lutherans, we teach this in the Third Article of the Apostles Creed (I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting)

Luther teaches, “I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ, the one true faith.”

God said to Moses: “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place” (Exodus 13:3). God’s power to create faith in us is manifested in what he has done apart from us. From the Old Testament to the New, God has created and recreated, provided, redeemed, established, delivered, humbled and exulted His people. He does all of this for us today even in the hearing of the Law and Gospel in scripture and partaking in the sacraments. The more I think about what Luther said “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe,” the more I imagine the relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. With my limited thoughts, I come up short, but inspired by the scripture, I can imagine an outstretched arm or hand as the full power of the trinity: God the Father, in concert with the Son Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, calling His people to repentance, gathering His church, and teaching them and creating faith to believe the “Good News,” of the kingdom of heaven.

And here is the good news of the Kingdom “For this is how God loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Some of us resist this good news at first. In the interview I referenced earlier, the man interviewed only became an author in his quest to disprove the faith so he and his wife could go back to living the way he was accustomed to living. Well, it didn't work out that way. At the end of his research, he understood that Christ is real, the Resurrection happened, and the life he had been living was over, and a new one was about to begin. He got down on his knees, repented for his sins, and asked for forgiveness in that hour. He went from an ardent unbeliever to an evangelizer, and all his failed work to disprove Christ became a bestseller for all who might want to look at the biblical, extrabiblical, and historical evidence for Christ.

Not all of us share the journey to faith like the author I mentioned. In the case of Simeon and Anna, they represent a righteous faith. Simeon is described as devout and righteous, waiting for Israel's consolation. In Advent, we take on this posture of Simeon, where we prayerfully watch and wait for our salvation—in Simeon's case, that time had come. Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, he knew that he would see Christ. We do not know how long Simeon waited or when the revelation came to him, but when he was in the presence of the baby Jesus, He knew that God's word to him was true. He knew that salvation had come for Israel and a light for people everywhere because the power of the Holy Spirit was on him, and he was holding the hope of the world in his arms.

Anna, like Simeon, was in the temple when Jesus was being presented. Luke gives us some insight into why she was there. She had been married and widowed after seven years and had spent her adult life in the temple, worshipping, fasting, and praying. Luke doesn't describe Anna's presence in relationship to Simeon, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; she just says that at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. It would not be a stretch to think that she was standing nearby in prayer and overheard the words of Simeon or he was speaking loud enough for others to hear him in the temple. What is important, that even in her advanced years, she heard the good news and was excited by it to preach to others about it, that the hour had come for redemption. God is faithful to his covenant promises.

Without any miracles, without any signs, and without any words, Anna and Simeon saw and believed because of the external power of the spirit to do the work of God – make believers in Christ.

As believers in Christ, we become one body with Him. The power of the Holy Spirit calls us together in the hearing and exposition of the preached Word of God. We mature together in our respective Bible studies with the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides us in the wisdom of God through Christ Jesus. Our Lord encourages us through our shared experiences and testimonies as we disciple one another in Sunday Schools, in each other's homes, and in all places Christians come together around the Word of the Lord. We become a family born in the spirit of the living God through Christ in baptism and faith. We have received the gift of salvation and should share it with our neighbor. God has done wonderful things for us all in His Son Jesus. He has brought light to those in darkness and made the way for prisoners to be free through His Son. “By a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.”

Let us end this year with thankful hearts for the many blessings God has given us in our daily bread, the Word he speaks to us through scripture, and the Grace He gives us in Sacrament. Let us end this year with confidence in what the Lord has done and hope in the promises He has made to us, which are still to come. Let us begin this next year in heavenly peace, the only true peace in Christ Jesus that surpasses all understanding. - Amen