A Waiter, Matchmaker and Wedding Planner for Christ - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

The Confession of St. Peter 
   and the 2^nd Sunday after Epiphany
January 18^th, A+D 2026
A Waiter, Matchmaker and Wedding Planner for Christ
John 2:1-11, Mark 8:27 – 35, Ephesians 5:22-33

Audio of the Sermon available HERE. 

   In the Name of Jesus, our Heavenly Bridegroom. 

   How do we conceive of the pastoral office?  How did St. Peter understand the ministry into which he was called?  How does Christ want the ministry He has given to His Church to be understood and conducted? 

    During our time as Lutheran missionaries in Spain, we knew a young man, for convenience sake we’ll pretend his name was Mario.  Mario joined our Sevilla congregation.  He had been studying at a Roman Catholic seminary to be a priest, but midway through he became convinced that the theology of the Reformation was correct.  After a time of searching, he found and joined our congregation, after studying with us and confessing the faith of Scripture, as taught in Luther’s Small Catechism. 

    Mario was interested in becoming a Lutheran pastor from the start.  Although we had a two-year membership requirement before any man could begin formally studying to become a pastor, we were happy to have Mario help out in many ways, for example, preparing for and cleaning up after services.  This was a great way to get to know him better, and let him learn more about the Lutheran way, that is to say, the Biblical way of being and doing Church. 

    Now, from April through October the weather in Sevilla, Spain varies from warm to scorching hot.  So I almost exclusively wore my “Panama” style clerical shirts, short sleeved and square at the bottom, not to be tucked in, allowing a bit more air flow, a bit cooler.  Black shoes, black lightweight dress pants, black short-sleeved “Panama” clerical shirt, my chosen pastor clothes fit the basic expectation of Spanish culture for clergy garb, and also kept me from melting in the Andalusian sun.  I could have worn a suit jacket, or any number of complicated, fancy clerical accessories.  But not me.  I treasure my right to bare arms, after all. 

    Now, one Sunday morning, Mario and I were setting up for service, and, feeling comfortable with me, I guess, Mario asked me why I didn’t dress up more, try to look fancier, wear more impressive clerical accessories.  I really didn’t know what to say, and so my reaction was basically a blank stare, I think.  I only remember that Mario pressed his point with the following:  “I mean, you’re the Bishop of the Spanish Lutheran Church, but you dress like a camarero, like a waiter in a restaurant.” 

    Mario thought my clothing made me look like a Spanish waiter.  I thought for a moment, and replied, “You’re right, I do look like a waiter.  And that’s o.k., because in many ways, that’s what I do!” 

    Mario did not like my response.  He had a certain image of what a clergyman was, from his Roman Catholic and Spanish upbringing.  Many Spaniards, especially from the left side of the political spectrum, quite despise Christian clergy.  But, in the mind of a faithful Catholic Spaniard, which Mario had been, a priest, and especially a bishop, is an important, upper class person.  And so, he should dress and act the part.  The bishop should have people serving him, and wear expensive and impressive clothes.  Mario’s conception of the ministry would prove to be a problem.  While he did pursue ordination, in the end, he was not pursuing the reality of pastoral ministry in a Lutheran mission congregation.  It didn’t work out for him; he never became one of our pastors. 

    So now Karla Efird knows why we have this photo on the bulletin cover.  She was very confused last Thursday, and I wouldn’t tell her why we were using this picture.  I have to do something to make sure she comes to church.  The funniest part is, this young man on our bulletins, modeling an all black waiter uniform for an online store, actually looks quite a bit like Mario. 

   No earthly analogy of Biblical realities works perfectly.  But thinking of a pastor as a waiter is a good one.  The congregation gathers, hungry for the bread of life.  I wonder what the main dish will be today, something from Luke, Matthew, John?  The pastor waits on the gathered guests, delivering the life-giving food of Word and Sacrament, helping to insure each “diner” receives the good meal of the Gospel that they need for spiritual health, for eternal life. 

    In fact, I once heard South Dakota native LCMS preacher Wally Schultz, long time Lutheran Hour Speaker and editor of the “Good News” magazine, speak about preachers as waiters.  He said, “When I go to the restaurant, I don’t much care what the waiter looks like, how eloquent he is, how fancy he’s dressed.  I just want the steak he delivers to be good.”  In the case of a pastor-waiter, the steak Wally referred to is God’s Word, His soul-saving message of Law and Gospel, served to God’s people through Word, Water, Wheat and Wine. 

    St. Peter had a lot of ups and downs in his itinerant seminary training.  The Gospel for celebrating his correct confession of Jesus as the Christ is a great example.  Jesus asks the Twelve who they say that He is.  Peter rightly identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, the new king, the Son of David, sent to save Israel.  Who else could do the mighty miracles Jesus did?  Who else would be able to explain the Word of Moses and the Prophets so clearly? 

    Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ of God.  But then things fall apart quickly, because Peter’s idea of what Christ and His Mission were all about was totally wrong.  Peter was up, but then he fell down.    

    Matthew’s version of the same event adds details that show Peter’s high was actually even higher than St. Mark describes.  Jesus asked who His disciples said He was, and Peter answered:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.  (Matthew 16)    

     It is hard to imagine higher praise than what Jesus said to Peter.  He must have been exhilarated, flying very high.  Which made what followed devastating.  For Jesus “began to teach them that the Son of Man (that is Jesus favorite way of referring to Himself) the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  This always amazes me.  Peter knows who Jesus is, and yet still thinks he should correct Jesus, that he should rebuke the Son of God! 

    But he did it.  Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Him.   And here it comes, for then “turning and seeing his disciples, [Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

    Mario’s misconception of Christian ministry led him to correct and almost mock his bishop about his clothes.  But at least Mario didn’t rebuke the Son of God. 

    Poor Peter simply couldn’t conceive that the promised Messiah, the Christ of God, come to save His people, would be rejected by the Jewish elite and be killed. 

    It seems from the rest of the Gospels that the prophecy of the Cross always filled the disciples’ ears to overflowing, so they couldn’t hear “and after three days rise again.”  The thought of Jesus dying, of allowing Himself to be executed, was unthinkable, too terrible.  That cannot be what God would want, could it?  The disciples never could understand, let alone rejoice, in the Resurrection, until they saw Jesus, still bearing His scars, standing before them, risen from the dead.     

    To reject the very idea of the Cross, as understandable as it is, is Satanic.  It is to set our minds on the things of man, and not the things of God, and that is where the Devil wants us to focus.  God’s Way is not our way, his thoughts and plans are impenetrable to us, until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, our hearts, our minds, to perceive that God’s strange Way is the Way of Life.  The only Way.  The Way that leads to and flows from the Cross of Calvary.  Without the Cross, the ministers of the church cannot loose sins, that is to say, without Jesus’ death, there is no forgiveness for the Church to proclaim.      

    There are lots of useful ways to conceive of Christ’s Church and the vocation of pastor, as well as the vocation of every Christian within God’s mission.  All good comparisons for understanding the reality of  pastors and congregations always keep Christ and His Cross at the center.  The Cross must be central, because it was and is the only Way for God to achieve His goal, which is to save sinners and have them living with Him in glory, forever.  A clear understanding of Christ’s Gospel will always focus on delivering this strange Good News to the people the Holy Spirit gathers. 

    To serve with the Cruciform Gospel is always the heart of a pastor’s calling.  If the suffering and Cross of Jesus and the forgiveness they bring to repentant sinners is not clearly at the center of what your pastor says and does, then you, dear Christian, owe it to him, your fellow members, and to yourself to ask why.  Someone needs to gently, or not so gently, help such a wandering pastor get back on the right path.  Because if a pastor will not stick to the Way of ministry that Jesus established, he is not serving the cause of God.  God’s people are being neglected, and sooner or later, such a ministry will end in ruin.      

    Another earthly vocation that is helpful in describing the pastoral office is that of a flight attendant.  In fact, both flight attendants and pastors are also called ‘stewards.’  Set aside for a moment that flight attendants are both men and women, while Christ has restricted the Office of the Holy Ministry just to men.  Just think about what the flight attendants do, and don’t do.  They are on a journey through the air with the people on the plane.  Flight attendants don’t fly the plane, the pilots do that.  The captain is upfront, unseen.  The attendants communicate from the pilots to the people, and they serve the people, both helping them with needs, feeding them, showing them the right way, and also directing them, to keep them safe.  “Seatbelts please.”  “Sir, I need you to sit down.” 

    There is even a liturgical connection between the work of flight attendants and pastors.  As flight attendants serve the passengers, on behalf of the pilot, they face the people, who always face forward.  If the attendants need to go to the pilot with some concern of the passengers, then they face forward, and head up to speak to the pilots on behalf of the people. 

    Liturgically, pastors follow a similar pattern.  The pastor and people are together in a vessel, traveling through time, to eternity.  The pastor is not piloting the Church; God the Holy Spirit and His two divine co-pilots have that honor.  Our Captain is unseen, but truly present.  The pastor, steward of God’s mysteries, attends to the passengers, the people who sit in rows, of pews.  On behalf of the Pilot, the Captain, the pastor serves.  When the pastor speaks to the people, on behalf of God, in the readings, the sermon, the blessings, he faces the congregation.  When the pastor speaks to God on behalf of the people, as in the prayers, he faces the front, toward our heavenly Pilot. 

   One more comparison: the pastor as matchmaker and wedding planner.  Which brings us to one of my favorite passages, the Wedding at Cana.  Marriage is God’s institution, given to mankind for our benefit, and also to fill God’s kingdom with souls.  If Adam and Eve had not sinned, growing the church would have simply meant having babies, and raising them.  Without sin, our first parents, and all their descendants, would have naturally raised their babies to know and trust God, and rejoice in His love.  There would have been no other Way. 

    But Satan slithered into the first marriage and destroyed God’s good creation, opening up the way to perdition.  The evil one successfully tempted the man and the woman to leave God’s Way, and follow him into darkness.  Curses and sadness followed.  But also, right away, God promised the Seed of the Woman would come.  All was not lost. 

    As Paul describes in Ephesians 5, Jesus has come to restore marriage.  He is the Seed of the woman, and the New Adam, the Good Bridegroom, who does all that is necessary, even giving His own life, to win back His bride, the Church.  Since the Creation, and also in His re-Creation project, marriage is important to the Christ.  So, Jesus attends the wedding at Cana, and goes out of His way to bless the newlyweds, just because His mother Mary asked. 

    Notice how our Lord works this earthly blessing through servants, ‘deacons’ in the original.  Deacons who have been given wonderful advice by Mary, in her last words recorded in the Bible:  Do whatever [Jesus] tells you.  The wedding party is saved, the newlyweds are spared embarrassment on their special day, and Jesus’ wedding-crashing disciples believe in Him.  The Twelve learn that this Teacher from Nazareth has miraculous power, starting Peter on the way to his great confession. 

    God loves marriage.  He created it as the means by which He would fill His heaven with saints.  And marriage is still essential, to life, and to Christian mission.  So, the pastor’s job has a bit of matchmaking involved.  Pastors sometimes literally play matchmaker, trying to connect single Christian men with single Christian women, for their good, the good of the Church, and for the joy of God.  This is not central to the pastor’s role, but it happens.  Pastors also support and teach about marriage, seeking to help the couples in his congregation to protect, build-up and rejoice in the marriages into which God has called them. 

    But even more essentially, pastors, serving God’s people and reaching out to unbelievers, are trying to cement a match between Christ and one more soul, who by faith becomes and lives as a member of His Body, as part of His Bride.  And the Divine Service is very much a wedding party, a celebration of the Bridegroom’s sacrificial proposal, a rehearsal for the celestial wedding reception, even offering a foretaste of that heavenly feast to come.  The very best wine possible is served here, best not because it’s Mogen David, but because, by the power of the Bridegroom’s Word, spoken over the bread and wine on the night He was betrayed, the wine we drink here is truly the blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of all our sins. 

    Jesus called Peter ‘Satan’ for denying the Cross.  The future Apostle’s expectation and understanding of Christ and His mission were all wrong, demonic even.  So that Peter could serve Christ’s mission for the rest his life, he had to be corrected, changed, and aligned with the shocking and life-giving reality of the Cross.  God is faithful; He completed this work in Peter.  And He is bringing this saving work to completion in you, for the great joy of having you with Him forever and ever in glory. 

    It is my great privilege to wait on your table, to help you find your seat in God’s airplane, and to oversee the joyful details of this wedding banquet rehearsal.  Together, having our conception of Christ and His salvation constantly renewed, we journey together to meet face to face with our Pilot and Captain, the Giver of the Feast, the only Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who reigns on high with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever, Amen.            

Baptism of Our Lord 
January 11^th, A + D 2026
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Walking the Watery Way
Joshua 3:1-17, Matthew 3:13 -17

Audio of the sermon can be accessed HERE.  

   Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸ Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.  James 1:17-18

    Living faithfully, walking in the way of Jesus, is hard, because we can’t see the future.  And we can see all the confusion and problems and challenges of life.  We can see the struggles of Christianity, unfaithfulness in the Church, and declining numbers.  We are supposed to be bound for eternal life, but our bodies are not holding up that well.  We are supposed to be the victors, but do we see victory in our lives?  How can we walk in God’s old way, when change seems to be the one constant in our lives?  What good does being faithful do for us? 

    We might be tempted to despair, to give up hope.  We might be tempted to just live for today, to pursue pleasure, and not think about eternity.  After all, so many of the most respected voices in the world say God and heaven are myths.  So, why not eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow, who knows? 

    As he wrote to Christians who were likewise struggling to live faithfully, James, the brother of Jesus and the head of the Jerusalem Church, warns against giving in to these temptations.  Then James offers the encouraging reminder that, while our lives are full of shifting shadows, change, and uncertainty, it is not so with God.  God, the Father of lights, is the Giver of every good and perfect gift, and He does not change.  His gracious, loving, giving nature is, always has been, and always will be.  And He is our Father, because He has brought us forth, (given birth to us!) by the Word of Truth. 

    The God who does not change creates and gives life to His children, through His Word.  So, it follows that to be faithful requires that we stay close to God’s Word, that we hear it regularly, and let it have its way with us, learning from the Holy Spirit to trust that God’s Way will be good, even when it seems the opposite.  James makes this advice plain in the next sentence, where he pleads with his hearers to “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

    God is always the Giver of good gifts; He does not change.  He delivers those gifts through His Word, most especially the gift of rebirth, of being reborn, transformed from an enemy of God to being His child.  And so, you might expect that the Holy Bible, the written repository God’s unchanging Word, would display some repetitiveness, some recurring themes, as the unchanging Father of lights works out through time His plan of rebirth and salvation.  If you have this expectation of repetition, you are right!  And, there are few better Sundays to recognize the recurring themes of God’s good gifts of regeneration and rebirth than the Baptism of Our + Lord. 

    Because God does not change, there was, already in the beginning, a foreshadowing of the scene at the Baptism of Jesus.  There in the Jordan River, after John the Baptist reluctantly administered his baptism of repentance to his Lord and cousin Jesus, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, hovering over the waters, and from above the Father spoke: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” 

    In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said: Let there be light!  That speech of God, the Word of God, is the Son, the Light of the world, present at the creation, who would later enter into His Creation, to redeem it, to win it back from Satan, who by sin had destroyed what God created very good.  The Baptism of Jesus is the public launching of His Ministry of Re-Creation.  A new beginning, that looks like the original beginning, because God does not change.    

    At the Creation, sin and the decay and death that it brings were not present; all was new life and growth and good.  But the holy peace of the Garden was shattered, and reconciliation between God and man would require renewal and rebirth.  And so Noah and his family, eight souls in all, were rescued through water from the destruction earned by the utter wickedness of mankind, as humanity was given a do-over, a re-birth, if you will.  Later, God’s faithfulness was proved through a miraculous human birth, gifted to 100-year-old Abraham and 90-year-old Sarah.  Isaac was born, Abraham and Sarah’s son of promise, through whom all the nations would be blessed. 

    Later, baby Moses, floating in a basket in the Nile to avoid the wrath of the Pharoah, was rescued out of the water and spared, by Pharoah’s daughter.  Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer!  The little Hebrew boy rescued out of the water would become God’s deliverer, rescuing the children of Jacob from a later Pharoah’s army, leading them to pass safely through the Red Sea on dry ground.  The divinely supported walls of water then came crashing down to destroy their enemy, horse and rider thrown into the sea.  God’s chosen people were set free, through the water.  They were given new birth as the Nation of Israel.     

    Today we heard another watery victory story, with a few twists that teach us more about our unchanging Father of lights and His desire to give good gifts to His people.  In Joshua, chapter three, we are a little over 40 years past the baptism of Israel in the Red Sea.  The people’s fear and lack of faith and desire for the idols they worshiped in Egypt condemned them to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  All those who for fear refused to enter the land promised to them by the LORD had to die off in the wilderness, before their children and grandchildren could enter the land, to conquer and prosper.  Moses also, Israel’s deliverer and lawgiver, due to his own failings, was not allowed to lead Israel into their new home.  This task fell to his faithful right hand man, Joshua, whose name means “the LORD saves.”

    The LORD God had been present with Israel throughout the 40 years in the wilderness, veiled in a pillar of cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night.  After Moses had built the Tabernacle, that tent-temple was where the LORD dwelt with His people.  When the cloud and fire of His presence was above and around and in the most Holy Place, Israel stayed where they were.  When the cloud was taken up, it was time to break camp and move on, following the LORD, present in the cloud, going before them on the Way. 

    And so we see God, who has always desired to dwell with His people, arranged a way to do so, while still protecting the sinful Israelites from His holiness.  For God’s unveiled holy glory would destroy any sinner.  For this same reason, since the Ark of the Covenant was the seat of mercy, the place where God sat in the Holy of Holies, the Israelites were instructed to stay back a safe distance, 2,000 cubits, as the Ark was carried into the Jordan River. 

    The LORD had built up Moses’ credibility, with the Egyptians before their Exodus, and with the Israelites all along, by performing great miracles through Moses, most dramatic of all being the parting of the Red Sea and their escape from Pharoah’s chariots.  Now, as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, the LORD says to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you…when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”  Through another water miracle, a variation on the Red Sea crossing, our unchanging God again delivers His people, leading them from the struggle of the wilderness to enter into a good land, flowing with milk and honey.  

    More good gifts from the Giver, the Father of lights.  And those gifts should have been enough.  This new miraculous water-crossing should have led Israel to be faithful, brave and true to follow on the “derek YHWH,” the Way of the LORD.  That’s all God was asking.  That’s all He ever asks, that His children trust Him, and follow in His Way.  But just as the leopard can’t change its spots, so also we sinners can’t erase the blot of sin; the leprosy of our sin-disease runs too deep.  Israel entered the Promised Land, but they would not walk in the LORD’s Way.  Reading the rest of their history might cause you to lose hope, to imagine that nothing could ever change.  God’s special, chosen people almost never displayed any faithfulness.  They could not change. 

    But change was coming.  It is depressing to read Israel’s history, except that the Giver kept repeating His promise to save.  From his people Israel, despite their epic unfaithfulness, the LORD promised, again and again, and with ever greater specificity, to bring One faithful Israelite, One anointed Servant, a Messiah, sent from heaven and revealed to be also Mary’s Son, come to cure Israel’s sin disease, once and for all. 

    Unsurprisingly, that anointed Servant started His ministry of salvation in the water.  The waters of the same Jordan River, to be exact.  At the Baptism of Jesus, or Joshua of Nazareth, (they are the same name), we come to realize that all of the water rescues that came before, and there are plenty more that we didn’t mention, all of those ancient water rescues were pointing to this moment, when the sinless Son of God would step into the place of sinners, taking onto Himself the sins that John had washed from them. 

    The Law of Moses, or better said, the Law of God delivered to Israel by Moses, is holy and good and right.  Anyone who keeps God’s good law will live, forever.  But Moses’ Law is of no help to us, for it always reveals our sin and accuses us in our guilt.  We need something stronger, something better.    

    Moses couldn’t lead Israel into the Promised Land, that task had to wait for Joshua.  So also, the Law of Moses, as good and right as it is, cannot save.  That task had to wait for the New and Greater Joshua, Jesus, the Christ of God.  Mary’s Son, the Father’s perfect gift to the world, He would do it all.  Perfectly fulfilling, for us, all the requirements of Moses’ Law, Jesus sets us free from fear.  The good works required of us to be pleasing to the Father of lights?  Fulfilled by Jesus.  The punishment we have earned by our sins?  Swallowed up and washed away by Jesus, in His second Baptism, the Baptism by fire that was His suffering and death at Golgotha. 

    As He promised to the John the Baptist, this is the way that Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness, for us.  In Him, we are declared not guilty, holy and good in the Father’s eyes, for Jesus’ sake.  Trusting in the work of Jesus, the Father calls us His beloved.    

    But how do you know?  How can we be sure that this great gift is really meant for us? 

 

   We know that the Father of lights accepts us as His beloved children, because He has publicly declared it.  After His devil and sin destroying death, and after His glorious resurrection from the tomb, Jesus extended God’s watery rescue, one more time.  His Baptism by John in the Jordan is combined by the Holy Spirit with His Baptism by fire on the Cross.  

    Christian Baptism is empowered by the Word of the resurrected Christ: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” 

    This is the same implanted Word that James exhorted his readers to meekly receive.  God’s Word teaches you to trust and rejoice in the adoption as sons that you received, at this font, or one like it.  Rebirth, adoption by the Father, union with Christ, death and resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, life and salvation: the Word of Truth declares that all of this, and more, are yours in your Baptism. 

    So, how can we live faithfully, when we can’t see the wonderful future God promises to us?  How can we live victoriously, when it doesn’t seem like the Church is winning?  What good does being faithful do for us?

    Well, first we should turn that last thought around.  We aren’t faithful in order to get good from God.  No, rather, we are faithful because we know the Father of lights has already been good to us, giving us every good and perfect gift.  Then, once we get that straight, we listen to James, and see with our ears.  Receive the implanted Word, which is able to save your soul, the Word which will remind you, from Genesis to Revelation, of your unchanging Father, who loves to play in water, who rejoices to give new birth. 

    Speaking of new birth, you should also see with your skin.  Every time you wash your face, stand in the rain, take a shower, or quench your thirst, every time water touches you, remember your Baptism, where God washed away your sins and joined you to His Son Jesus, the sinless One who was baptized as a sinner, for you. 

    In Him, joined to Jesus by baptismal faith, you can walk in His Way, for He has walked that Way for you, and still walks with you, in the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.                                                                                              

Wise Men, and God's Mission - Sermon for the Observance of Epiphany

The Epiphany of Our Lord, (Observed), January 4^th, A+D 2026
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Wise Men, and God’s Mission – Matthew 2:1 - 12

 Audio of the sermon can be accessed HERE.

     Epiphany, Christmas for the Gentiles, sometimes called Three Kings Day.  Today’s Gospel is much loved, but also much questioned.  These Wise Men, or Magi, (they weren’t kings), how many were there?  We tend to say three, because there were three gifts.  But we don’t know.  And what are Magi, these  Wise Men?  Magicians?  Astrologers?  Counselors to some far eastern king?  Which king?  We don’t know.  What was this star that they saw, and how did it reappear and go before them to Bethlehem?  Lots of questions on Epiphany, which is ironic, because Epiphany means shining forth, revelation, uncovering.  The Church has named this day for the fact that the Savior of Israel is revealed, made manifest, known, to these Gentiles, these non-Jewish Magi.  Epiphany, a day for revelation, and yet we have so many questions. 

     One of the biggest questions is, “How did they hear about Jesus?”   Somehow these Magi recognized that the appearance of a new star in the sky was a sign of the birth of a new King of the Jews.  Even more amazingly, this event prompted them to pack up and leave home, making a long and dangerous journey across the wilderness, all in order to come and worship this Baby King, and bring Him gifts.  Theories abound as to how the Wise Men knew of the coming King of the Jews.  Most likely, it has to do with the captivity of Israel in Babylon and Persia, when Daniel and the three young men were high officials of these kingdoms.  Perhaps they taught the Persians the promises of the Old Testament, and the Holy Spirit maintained the remembrance of this word through the centuries, down to the time of Christ.  Or, God could have of course simply spoken directly to the Wise Men, or sent an angel messenger to them, or a message in a dream, as He does frequently throughout the Bible.  We don’t know for certain. 

     In the end, it doesn’t matter so much how God’s Word of Promise came to the Magi, only that they heard of the birth of Jesus, and were moved by this Good News to come and worship Him.  Indeed, while God has always established regular, public offices for the teaching of His Word, the Word of God is not limited by these divinely appointed structures. 

     The Word of God has a tendency to leak out, the Holy Spirit causing it to be repeated again and again, whether by prophets or pastors or parents or neighbors, and it is through His Word that God accomplishes the actual work of His Mission.

     We are right to think and plan and try to find the best ways to get the Promises of God into the ears of people, both into the ears of Christians, (for we are all in constant need of being renewed by the Word and Spirit), and into the ears of unbelievers.  Right now, our Black Hills Circuit is about to conduct a survey of our members who live in Box Elder, Rapid Valley, East Rapid in general, as we try to figure out how we might best seek to serve this rapidly growing area with the pure Gospel.    

     But we sinners need to plan with humility, and great care, always remembering two things:

First, the Mission belongs to God, from beginning to end.  We are merely forgiven sinners, believers now privileged to be a part of His plan. 

Second, we need to remember that the content of what we say is the first priority.  That is, we can make great plans to find ways to connect with and speak to people, but if what we have to say is something other than what Jesus comes to say and do, all our efforts will  be for nothing. 

     In this concern for speaking faithfully and specifically about Christ, the story of the Wise Men is very helpful.  We should take note that God leaves a lot of things unanswered concerning their journey, including how they learned of the Christ, and what happened to them after they returned to their country by another way.  God has left out these details, which should tell us that the main points we should take away from this story lie elsewhere. 

     The first of these main points is that this story is not principally about the Wise Men.  No, Epiphany is about the Child they came to worship.  Epiphany is about the shining forth of God’s light in Jesus, not in the Wise Men.  Jesus, God come into human flesh, is always the main character.  His works and words are always the center of the Scripture story, and so also should always be the center of what we say and do as Church. 

     The Wise Men learned this.  We should learn it too, again and again.  Because we really like to talk about ourselves, about the good we are doing, about the knowledge we have, maybe even about how as successful Christians we can get our whole lives squared away.  Which of course is always a lie, in part, at least, if not for the most part.  We are not that squared away. 

     Even more, we know that nothing you or I could ever do can win the salvation of anyone, and all our efforts to live good lives are continually falling short of God’s standards.  When we speak honestly of ourselves, we always have to speak of our sin and weakness.  This is one more reason why our focus in what we say and do as Church needs to be centered on Jesus Christ, Son of Mary, Son of God.  Focusing on ourselves will end in ruin.  We are the beneficiaries of the Mission of God.  But that Mission is found nowhere else, but in the flesh and blood Son of God. 

     Without the God-Man Jesus, there can be no mission, no true Church, no forgiveness, no salvation.  But, with the God-Man Jesus, even when He is a tiny baby or a little child, with Jesus, God in the flesh, there is always mission, and forgiveness, and salvation, even when all outward appearances say different. 

     Could there be a more unlikely candidate for the worship of these wise men than the Child of Mary.  He was born into poverty, born in a barn, born under a cloud of assumed impropriety, his birth coming less than nine months after Joseph and Mary’s wedding, so they must have committed adultery? Or else, Joseph is not the father?   Who would have believed Mary, if she told of Gabriel’s message and the Child’s miraculous, immaculate conception? 

     The whole situation doesn’t look very impressive.  And yet the Spirit who showed the star to the Magi, the Spirit who somehow brought the Word of this Promise to their ears, the Holy Spirit who moved them across hundreds and hundreds of dangerous miles, all to come and worship a newborn king, this same Spirit in the end brought the Wise Men to the house where Joseph, Mary and Jesus were dwelling, in sleepy little Bethlehem.  The Holy Spirit brought the Magi to Jesus, so they could worship, and also so He could use them, to teach us.    

     The Spirit of God teaches us in the gifts the Magi offered to Christ.  We know very little of how the Wise Men knew about the promised King of the Jews .  But we are told exactly the gifts they brought: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  As prophesied in Isaiah chapter 60, these travelers from the east come bringing gold, a gift fit for a king.  And they bring frankincense, which was burned by the Levitical priests in the tabernacle and temple worship of Israel. 

     Both of these gifts are appropriate, for this little Child is the true King, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the true ruler of heaven and earth.  Also, He is also our great High Priest, the One man who is worthy to carry our prayers into the sanctuary of Almighty God, the One who prayed, and still prays, for us, all the time.  This Child is the One whose prayers are pure because He is pure.  He is also the One who has shared with us His prayer, teaching us to call His Father ‘Our Father.’ 

     Jesus of Bethlehem is the fulfillment of the Words of the Prophets, the promises of God appearing in human flesh.  Jesus, our Great High Priest, intercedes for us at God’s right hand.   Jesus, King of the Jews, and Savior of the Nations, came for every sinner.  All of this, the story of the Magi teaches us, when we read it along with the rest of Scripture.  We learn all of this, and one more thing, too.  One more thing, in the third gift. 

   Gold for kings, frankincense for praying priests, and also myrrh.  What of the myrrh?  What is myrrh?  It is an ointment, a spicy, aromatic ointment.  Valuable, yes, mentioned many times in various Old Testament passages.  Our world is quite clean and antiseptic, much more than in centuries past.  Not so long ago, perfume and aromatic ointments were especially important, to cover bad odors. 

   The Hebrew Scriptures speak of myrrh quite a bit.  But, myrrh is mentioned only twice more in the New Testament.  And, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the third gift of the Magi looks forward more than back, forward to its most important uses. 

     St. Mark in his telling of the Gospel says that, right after they nailed Jesus to the Cross, the soldiers offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, a mild narcotic which passed for Roman mercy.  Wine with myrrh would slightly numb the pain for those condemned to hang on a tree as the worst of criminals. 

   And so of course, Jesus refused the wine mixed with myrrh, for He did not go to the Cross to avoid suffering.  No, Jesus went to Calvary to drink the cup of woe to its bottom, taking on all of the just, well deserved suffering for all of us.  Jesus took our sins and our punishment from us, forever, suffering under God’s wrath, so that we need not suffer, but rather we could know God’s grace and blessing.   And so we see that the Magi’s third gift of myrrh foretells this Baby’s suffering.

      The third appearance of myrrh in the New Testament comes as St. John tells us about Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jerusalem city council.  Joseph was also a secret believer in Jesus, a secret he kept until that Friday afternoon, when he was made brave by the self-sacrifice of Jesus.  After Jesus proclaimed:  ‘it is finished,’ Joseph goes, and asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.  With the help of Nicodemus the Pharisee, Joseph wraps Jesus’ dead body in linen cloth, along with 100 lbs. of myrrh, mixed with aloes.  Myrrh was traditional Jewish burial perfume, intended to cover the stench of death.  The Magi’s third gift foretells the Baby’s death. 

      But, there was no stench of death to cover, for God the Father did not let His Holy One see decay.  Just as there was no stench of sin in the life of Jesus, so also there was no bad smell, no decomposition of His Holy Body, as it rested in the tomb on the Sabbath.  For God was perfectly pleased with Jesus and the completion of His mission.  Bursting forth on Sunday morning, Jesus turned the burial smell of myrrh into the sweet scent of eternal life, for all who trust in Him. 

      Did the Wise Men understand all this?  Did Mary and Joseph understand all this?  I don’t know.  God in His Word doesn’t exactly say.  Which is fine, because whether they completely understood at first, or not, God knew what He was doing, and He still does.  God in Jesus Christ has achieved the reconciliation of every sinner to Himself.  All who by the Holy Spirit’s power are made to believe this Word of Promise are thereby declared righteous and holy by God.  You are forgiven and claimed by God, through faith in the Cross of Jesus. 

      This is the center of Christian life, and it is the heart of Christian mission.  We, today, right here, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, are blessed to have and to hear the whole truth of Jesus, passed down from the Apostles, recorded in Scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit, delivering forgiveness and salvation through Word, Water and Wine, the Good News of Jesus death and resurrection, and His future return in glory. 

      By His Word, God brings to consummation His plan of salvation, He brings to completion His mission, which is for you, and me, and for all who trust in His blood bought forgiveness.  And so, on this day when we celebrate the Epiphany, with the Wise Men, and with believers from every nation, we rejoice, for God’s Mission has found us, and continues to go forth, in Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

 

The Good Way to Go - Funeral Sermon for David Hill

 

David R. Hill
Born:  April 12^th, Year of Our + Lord 1944
Baptized into Christ: the Lord knows the date.
Confirmed in Christ: March 21^st, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Died in Christ: December 15^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be Glory

 

Audio of the Sermon is available HERE. 

   To the friends, which is also to say, to the family of David Hill: Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

  The good way to go.  David Hill went the good way.  He died the good death.  Not an easy one.  David clearly expressed that his final months living on this earth were not pleasant.  Nevertheless, David’s death was a good one, and for that we give thanks. 

    David and I never got the chance to discuss which Bible readings he would like used today.  These last few months, some topics were just too hard.  I’m always happy to work with the preferences of my members and their family as we choose readings for a funeral.  But, I also like to bring up another approach, to just use the readings from the previous Sunday, or the last special holiday that the Church has celebrated.  This helps us remember that death and a funeral fit within the bigger picture of the Church’s life, that our Lord has these things under control, even if it doesn’t seem like it.  For today, that’s what I did.  On January 1^st, the 8^th day of Christmas, we traditionally celebrate the Name and Circumcision of Our + Lord, when 8-day-old Jesus was circumcised and publicly given the name that the angel Gabriel had relayed from God: You will name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.  The Name Jesus come from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua, and it simply means “the LORD saves.”  As we face the death of our friend David, focusing on the Name of Jesus and what He has done to save us seems perfect.     

    The three readings chosen for the Name and Circumcision are all about your name, and God’s Name, and how the Holy Spirit brings the two together, today by faith, and one day soon, face to face in eternity.  We know a lot about how wonderful God’s Name is, but not nearly all of it, it runs too deep.  But, one day, all who trust in the Name will know those depths. 

   David’s soul enjoys that blessing right now, and so, even as we miss him and mourn his death, we are also filled with Christmas joy, because the Child of Bethlehem has finished another soul-rescue project.  David was named and claimed by God, clothed in Christ through the the watery gift of Holy Baptism.  He was thus adopted into God’s heavenly family by faith, a life-givng connection worked by the Holy Spirit, through His powerful Word.  God’s Word is the key, the engine, the means by which God works, for our good.  He causes His Word to be printed in the Bible, proclaimed aloud, combined with plain water in Holy Baptism, and invoked over Bread and Wine as we gather at the Lord’s table to receive the Good News of forgiveness, and the life and salvation it brings, the Gospel that we even get to eat and drink.  By the power of His Word, the Lord gives faith, and a new name to each of His children: Forgiven, Beloved, Redeemed, Christian.  

   All of the saving miracles the Holy Spirit works by His Word are empowered by the kind of death Jesus died.  That’s important: the Good News of salvation is not just human words, not just a nice idea or hopeful sentiment.  Salvation is grounded in concrete historical events, things God did, and suffered, under the governorship of Pontius Pilate.  This is why I added an extra Gospel reading this morning, from John chapter 12, in which Jesus teaches His disciples the kind of death He would die.  This is a wonderful outreach text, as some Greeks, some non-Israelites, some foreigners, had heard of and were drawn to Jesus.  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  The team effort that is usually central to true evangelism is displayed: Philip receives this request from these Greeks, and shares it with Andrew, who in turn takes it to Jesus.  What a wonderful picture of disciples of Christ working together to connect more people to Christ.  More about such teamwork later. 

    But first, before we run too far down the outreach and evangelism road, Jesus needs to reveal the heart of the matter.  Outreach, expanding the Church, saving souls, is always and essentially about one thing, empowered by one thing, made possible by one thing: the kind of death Jesus died.  He was lifted up, that is, he was unjustly convicted and nailed to a Roman Cross, suffering not just the worst earthly punishments, but also the punishment of God against the sins of the whole world.  This is the glory of the Cross, that there Jesus drew all to Himself, opening the Way of Salvation to all sinners, which is to say, to all people.          

   This story of the Lord’s salvation, running from Bethlehem to Calvary, this news of the Good Death of Jesus is what enables us to die well, and also to live well, until the day the Lord calls us home.  And this morning it is my privilege to share with you the joy that was revealed as our resurrected Lord did His work during the last months of David’s earthly life. 

   Many times over the last five years, David and I shared the same corny joke: You see, he lived in the wrong town.  Because he was David Hill, but I was the David who lived in Hill City.  Still, it was clearly good for David to live in Custer, because it was here that the Lord worked out all things for his good.  

   Here in Custer, by God’s grace and power, David lived in community.  David lived in his Christian congregation.  Here the Lord brought Christians to love David, even when he didn’t join their particular congregation.  Here in Custer, David, who in many ways lived a very solitary life, found companionship and joy.  At the library, where David read and read, and found friends who cared for him, just because.  At the senior meals at the Catholic church, on Friday evenings listening to live music at the Custer Beacon, and here in this room, and downstairs after services, God cared for David through His Word, and through the people God put around David. 

   David had plenty of regrets.  It didn’t take much to get David to complain about this or that, from years ago in his life, or from the latest injustice of the world today.  But his troubles didn’t consume him; he kept on living, kept on going to the places he could be with other people. 

   David didn’t take care of his health as well as he could have.  No doubt five years ago when we met, David should have been having cancer screening tests.  That might have lengthened his life, and improved his health.  If you, like David, aren’t taking care of your health as well as you could, I encourage you to change that.  But let us never forget, salvation is not found in pursuing perfect health.  We should take care of these bodies the Lord has given to us, but we must also remember that death is coming.  As much as I encourage you to take take care of your physical health, I’m much more concerned that you attend to your spiritual health, because those stakes are everlasting. 

   And David did attend to his spiritual health.  With the Holy Spirit’s help, overcoming his resistance from time to time, David stayed connected to God through Jesus Christ, who forgave his sins, day by day, to the end.

   Which was necessary, because David was a sinner.  He certainly made no bones about that; David was refreshingly honest about his faults.  He had doubts and struggles about what God thought of him, to the very end.  I wish that David, after he learned of his terminal cancer, wouldn’t have talked about wanting the .45 caliber pistol he used to own, so that he could end it.  I’m sure many of you heard him say the same.  And that’s not o.k. 

   I wish David hadn’t thought such things.  But, since he did, it was better for him to be honest.  It’s better for you to be honest and speak such thoughts, when you have them, so that your pastor, or some other Christian friend, can apply God’s Word to your error, your sin.  Sin that is hidden festers.  Sin in the light of day can be forgiven and washed away, by speaking the truth of Jesus, by speaking of the the kind of death He died, for us. 

   As death drew near, David struggled with past sins.  The same will likely happen to you and to me, if it isn’t happening already.  The Devil loves to dredge up old sins, and approaching death is his most powerful shovel.  But what the Devil meant for evil, God used for good.  It was my privilege to hear David speak of his sins, multiple times, hearing him confess things he was ashamed of, things he feared.  Into his doubt, each time I was privileged to proclaim:  “Yes, David, you have sinned.  But the blood of Jesus washes away all sin.  And so, in the stead and by the command of Jesus, I forgive you.”   

   The last time we talked, on the day he transferred to Hospice House, David was upset, and nervous, about moving, about dying.  I preached the Gospel again at the table in the dining room at Assisted Living, reminding him that Jesus would not leave him or forsake him, that the One who shed His blood for David would see him through.  “David, your sins are forgiven, and your future, your eternity, is wonderful, because Jesus is your Savior.”  David looked at me and said: “That’s really good.”  Yes, indeed, the very best.   

   This is what we Christians are here on this earth to do, first and foremost.  Oh yes, Christians are called to avoid sin, to flee from evil, to live lives of love and good works.  Your good works are very important to God, they are a necessary fruit of faith.  But faith doesn’t depend on our works.  Rather, saving faith clings to one thing.  Faith clings to the kind of death Jesus died, His substitutionary death on the Cross of Calvary, to pay for and wash away the sins of the whole world.  And so we Christians, pastors as the central task of their vocation, but also all Christians, should be speaking words of forgiveness, to each other, and to our neighbors, whenever and wherever the Holy Spirit provides opportunity. 

   And then, where forgiveness reigns, love follows.  This blessing has been very clear in these last few months.  On a Friday in August, I learned David was hospitalized.  I was able to stop in to see him.  Then after service the next Sunday, I headed over to the hospital again.  As I pulled up, one of our members here, Allen Canete, parked next to me.  As we headed to the ER entrance, we ran into Bob and Lisa Parsons, who were also there to see David.  Later, also in David’s hospital room, I met Cheri Hartman and her husband Mark.  And I met other friends of David at the hospital, all there to encourage him.  A couple of my members took time to tell me that David had spoken to them about his regret over selling his .45.  Members from Our Redeemer and friends from Custer, most especially Cheri, helped David transition to Assisted Living, and get out of his apartment.  His vehicles were taken care of.  I want to highlight Bobby and the staff at Assisted Living, who treated David with great kindness and respect, as they do for so many precious souls.   And all along, Christian friends were speaking words of encouragement and peace, from Jesus, to David.     

   It is a sadness to have no family at the end of life.  It is clearly painful to die of cancer.  But no matter, David died a good death, with a family that flowed from his place in this community and his place in Christ’s Church.  Many biological families fail to show the care that David received.  It has been an honor to be in the midst of all of you as you loved David to the end.  

   All of the care David received was wonderful to see.  Thank you.  But that isn’t the best part, nor the most important.  The love shared, the services rendered, the mercy shown, these were humbling for me to see.  Humbling, and awesome, because they all flowed from that most important thing: that God’s Son, at just the right time, was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those condemned by the law, so that in Jesus, we might receive adoption from God, that we might be declared sons and daughters of the eternal King.  And trusting in Christ Jesus, this is what you are.  And that is the greatest thing of all. 

   Jesus fulfilled His Name, “the Lord saves,” all the way to the kind of death He died, for us sinners.  Jesus also fulfilled this work in David’s life, for he was firmly connected to the crucified and resurrected Jesus, firmly bound to His forgiveness and His victory.  David was connected to Jesus, through His Word, through His Church, attending the Sunday service here at Our Redeemer for the last time on Dec. 7^th.  He heard God’s Good News proclaimed, and he called upon the Name of the Lord.  David took up the cup of salvation, the very Blood of Jesus, poured out for his forgiveness.  David communed with Christ and His Church one last time on earth, right over there, in the back, where we brought the Supper to him, because David was too weak to come forward to the rail. 

   On Dec. 7^th David gathered with the saints here at Our Redeemer, to be forgiven, strengthened and blessed by Jesus.  On Dec. 11^th he transferred to Hospice House in Rapid City, where, by God’s grace, his friend Lisa Parsons happened to on duty, there to welcome him.  Thank you, Holy Spirit.  On Dec. 15^th, the Lord ended his struggle and gathered David’s soul to Himself, to the heavenly congregation of all the Saints, gathered around the throne, and around the Lamb.  The good way to go, indeed.      

   As you go forth, as you live in community, as you struggle, with the injustices of life in this fallen world and with your own sins, remember the kind of death Jesus has died.  For in Him, there is forgiveness, eternal life and limitless joy, for all people, including David, and including you. 

    Finally, as Aaron blessed ancient Israel, I offer you the Benediction: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace,” in the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.