Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 26:15 mark.

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

Sing to Yahweh a new song! For He has done wonders! Marvelous things! “A great and mighty wonder, a full and holy cure: the virgin bears the infant with virgin honor pure” (LSB 383:1)! Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh! After the original creation and the fall into sin, there are only two new things that ever happened in the history of the world: the body created from the body of the Virgin and given to the eternal Son; and the resurrection of that Man from the dead. These marvelous things, full of wonder, incredible to human reason—these deserve a new song.

But all we have are old songs, old words. The same old struggles, the same old sins, the same old sicknesses, the same old selfishness. And, boy, do they get old. But that’s sort of the point. It’s the reason we keep coming around and around through the Church Year. It’s the reason we keep marking this day, on which the Incarnate Son was born. It’s the reason we keep gathering here in this place, even on a Monday—and even when we just had church yesterday! It’s the reason we gather, even if no one else does; even if there are only a few of us, even if the entire world has given up keeping both the Christ and the Mass in Christmass. Jesus may be the reason for the season, but our sin and death are the reason for Jesus. We need Christ and His Body and Blood in the mass. Here you don’t need to do the work, the cleaning, the wrapping, the giving. He does all the work. He gives His eternal life to you. He cleanses you by His own precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, and He wraps Himself in human flesh, in water and words and bread and wine, so that you may receive His forgiveness, life, and salvation.

And He does this in plain sight, though only those with eyes to see will see it. Both Isaiah and the psalmist say it: “Yahweh has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isaiah 52:10). “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (Psalm 98:3). He has remembered His steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel, His promise to David that He would build David a house and a line, fulfilled in Joseph and Mary, and Mary’s Child. His steadfast love and faithfulness in causing a shoot to grow from the stump of Jesse.

Yahweh has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of all the nations. And He isn’t worried about the ways in which His salvation, His yeshua, His Jesus get made known. Think about it: at what other time of the year could you hear praise of God, declaration of the eternal Son taking flesh in our world, and the proclamation that Jesus is Lord, all happening over multiple radio stations and coming out of the speakers of all the stores, while everyone is shopping? What other event in the history of the world has singers and bands, who expressly say they don’t believe in it, recording entire albums in praise of the Savior’s birth? Whatever they say about their reasons and motivations, the words are still there, still being sung, still being heard.

Of course, the words still get lost, they still get obscured, they still get ignored, as they always have. The Word can still get lost in the selling and buying, the cooking and baking, the decorating and wrapping. Nothing really changes in “this world of sin” (LSB 361:3). The Word is made flesh and dwells among us; He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. God makes known His salvation; and who notices? Mary and Joseph do. And some shepherds, who say, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us” (Luke 2:15). Then they make known the saying that had been told them concerning the Child, that He is the Savior born unto you, and that this good news is for all the people.“How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n!” (LSB 361:3).

And so it goes today: God does His wondrous, marvelous work, but silently in the deaf ears of unbelief. But, as the prophet says, “O Yahweh, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O Yahweh, do I fear. In the midst of the years, revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). Into the midst of the years, He made it known. “For lo, the days have come to pass by prophets seen of old, when down into the circling years came Christ as was foretold” (LSB 366:4). Silently, the Word is spoken into flesh. And in His wrath, poured out on the cross, He remembers mercy: “Good Christian, fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you; hail, hail the Word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary” (LSB 370:2)!

Here is the fearful, wondrous thing. This is how God reveals His steadfast love, His righteousness, His faithfulness: in a baby, in a crucified man. This is how He makes Himself known before the eyes of all people, in the sight of all the nations. No one has ever seen God, so the divine Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. “O sing of Christ, whose birth made known the kindness of the Lord, eternal Word made flesh and bone so we could be restored. Upon our frail humanity God’s finger chose to trace the fullness of His deity, the icon of His grace” (LSB 362:1). “And while the angels in the sky sang praise above the silent field, to shepherds poor the Lord Most High, the one great Shepherd, was revealed” (LSB 385:4).

And all creation rejoices: “While thus they sing your Monarch, those bright angelic bands, rejoice O vales and mountains, and oceans, clap your hands” (LSB 383:3). “Let earth receive her King…and heav’n and nature sing. … He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love” (LSB 387:1, 4). “All creation, join in praising God the Father, Spirit, Son, evermore your voices raising to the eternal Three in One” (LSB 367:5). Because the creation knows, as God’s people do, that His birth into this creation, His resurrection in that created body, means the end of futility, the end of sin, the end of death. And creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God in the righteousness of the unique Son of God. Then, every knee will bow, every tongue confess Christ as Lord, and all creation will be set free to make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the rivers clap their hands and the hills sing together for joy before Yahweh, because He comes to judge the living and the dead; He judges the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. He judges you believing ones by His own righteousness, because He has taken flesh in humility and weakness to raise you up out of your sin and death. “Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies; with the angelic host proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’” (LSB 380:1).

For now, no doubt, the years go around and around: the same struggles, the same sins, the same sicknesses, the same selfishness. But into the circling years, the Christ of God was born, to make known to you God’s salvation and deliverance from all of it. From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace upon grace: words, water, bread and wine: forgiveness, life, and salvation in the conceived, born, crucified, risen, and ascended body of Jesus. Sing to Yahweh a new song, for He has done marvelous things!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 12/21/23