{"id":21,"date":"2021-01-08T23:28:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T23:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=21"},"modified":"2023-01-14T22:27:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T22:27:28","slug":"christ-comes-to-dwell-with-us-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/christ-comes-to-dwell-with-us-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Christ Comes to Dwell with Us in Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/2021-TRINITY-LUTHERAN-CHRIST-FOR-US-01032021-15081.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Christmas Eve 2020&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Luke 2:1-20&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pastor James Preus&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every once&nbsp;in&nbsp;a while,&nbsp;someone, usually from the church, will ask me if he can stop&nbsp;to&nbsp;check on something in&nbsp;the&nbsp;parsonage. And I&nbsp;almost always answer, \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d This&nbsp;annoys my dear wife, not because she has a problem with people stopping by, especially to help, but because I almost never tell her that someone&nbsp;is coming. She likes to have a heads up, so she can&nbsp;tidy up before someone enters our home, in case there\u2019s a mess. It would cause her embarrassment if someone she respected walked into our kitchen and saw oatmeal smeared&nbsp;on the table, milk spilled on the floor, and peanut butter fingerprints on the window and a toddler running around without any pants on. She\u2019s not being&nbsp;weird. This is how we all are.&nbsp;It\u2019s why we clean our homes before honored guests arrive.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, you can&nbsp;imagine&nbsp;the shame that befell our world when the&nbsp;Almighty God, the eternal Son of the Father by whom all things in heaven and on earth&nbsp;are made, who is robed in majesty in heaven and who receives the eternal praise of all the angels of heaven, came down to visit our humble earth. And he didn\u2019t come to us unannounced by any means. Not only did prophets proclaim his coming for hundreds of years, even telling us the very town in which he would be born, but God sent angels to announce to Mary and Joseph! And still, with all this warning ahead of time, our world could not prepare a&nbsp;place fit for him. The finest palace&nbsp;with gilded marble&nbsp;and silk cushions would be too mean an accommodation for such an honored guest, yet all Joseph could secure for him was a drafty stable&nbsp;with a manger for a bed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It makes one blush to think of the state of things when this most noble guest honored us with his presence. And indeed, it is horrifying to think of the behavior of our race&nbsp;as Christ Jesus&nbsp;arrived! No death glare from a mother at her son burping in from of his grandmother at Christmas dinner could suffice for the shameful&nbsp;act with which humanity welcomed the Christ&nbsp;child. Instead of sending precious gifts and welcoming him into his palace, King Herod sent soldiers to murder the baby boys of Bethlehem. And as&nbsp;this perfect child grew up into a man, he saw with eagle eyes our every fault: the weakness of our flesh, our diseases, our stench and mortality. He saw how we treat each other! Each one of us&nbsp;has his own&nbsp;faults, behavior that annoys and even harms our neighbor. Yet, instead of being patient toward&nbsp;the&nbsp;faults&nbsp;of others, we are quick to condemn, complain, and malign those with faults no worse than&nbsp;our own! Jesus didn\u2019t just see our messy kitchens&nbsp;and smell our stinky feet. He watched how the crown of his creation, which he honored by&nbsp;joining in flesh and soul, treat each other with utter hatred, pride, and selfishness.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s embarrassing. Shameful.&nbsp;We humans couldn\u2019t get our act together, even for a little while, to welcome&nbsp;the&nbsp;Son of God himself into our home. Of course, it did not surprise Christ Jesus that we&nbsp;were so awful. He didn\u2019t come to earth expecting to find a bunch of righteous saints nor did he come to sleep in a comfy bed. Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins; to shine a light on those dwelling in darkness.&nbsp;He saw our wickedness and misery even from his glorious throne, and&nbsp;<em>still<\/em>&nbsp;he chose to come to us. Not only to come to us! He came to&nbsp;<em>join<\/em>&nbsp;us. To become our brother! Jesus Christ, our God is a human being. And he didn\u2019t borrow the body of a man. He assumed human flesh. He acquired a human soul.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of the significance of this decision from our God! God cannot change. Yet, by becoming a man, he added something to himself that remains permanent forever! This means that in a billion years from now, yes, in one hundred&nbsp;billion&nbsp;times one hundred billion years from now, our God will still be our brother. He\u2019ll still have ten fingers and ten toes, two eyes and a nose. He\u2019ll be the same human who lied in the manger, who hung on the cross, who lay in the tomb. He will be as human then as he was that&nbsp;Christmas morning over two thousand years ago.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? Why did God join his creation? Why has he become a man, just like us? In order to rescue us from our sinful condition. Christ didn\u2019t expect us to clean up this earth in preparation for his coming. Jesus came to rid the world of sin and death for us.&nbsp;While we with faults judged others for their faults, he who has no faults at all, came to rescue the&nbsp;people of the&nbsp;world from their own misery. It&nbsp;is&nbsp;exactly as the Apostle writes, \u201cGod shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d (Romans 5:8)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christ Jesus came to earth, became a human permanently, bore the worst suffering this world could place on him,&nbsp;bore our sins, sorrow, and punishment, because he loves us. In the Christmas story, we see how much our God loves us; how far he will go to save us. Again, it is as the hymnist&nbsp;reasons,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf our blessed Lord and Maker&nbsp;<br>Hated men, Would He then&nbsp;<br>Be of flesh partaker?&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>If He in our woe delighted,&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>Would He bear All the Care&nbsp;<br>Of our race benighted?\u201d (P. Gerhardt, All My Heart Sings and Rejoices,&nbsp;stz. 5, ELH 115)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer is obvious! Of course, he wouldn\u2019t! In that little baby lying on straw in Bethlehem, we see irrefutable proof that God loves us, that he desires to save us. And in the teachings and deeds of Christ,&nbsp;up to his willing crucifixion, death and burial, resurrection, and great Commission of the Gospel, we see over and over again Christ\u2019s love for us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, by means of this very Gospel, Christ seeks&nbsp;an even more intimate dwelling with us than sharing the same planet. He desires to dwell in our hearts through faith. Yet, our hearts are an even less appropriate place for&nbsp;the&nbsp;Mighty King of Heaven than even the dingy manger in which he once lay. Our hearts are colder, darker, and harder than that stable.&nbsp;Out of the human heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,&nbsp;sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, indeed, everything that defiles us and makes us ashamed comes from our dark cold hearts&nbsp;(Matthew 15:19-20; Genesis 6:5). The human heart is so&nbsp;bad, that the Prophet Jeremiah declares that its deceitfulness is beyond understanding (Jeremiah 17:9).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how can our hearts&nbsp;be an appropriate dwelling place for Jesus Christ?&nbsp;In the same way that our world became home&nbsp;for&nbsp;our dear Lord Jesus. Jesus came into this world to save it from sin, and so he comes to dwell in your heart in order to save&nbsp;you. He shines a light into your heart to expose every crevice, so that he can&nbsp;cleanse it from sin. He gives you a new birth of the Spirit that takes away your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh&nbsp;(Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus enters your heart with forgiveness and peace from God himself.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was God who made our sinful earth his home, preparing everything, even raising up Caesar Augustus to declare a census, so that Joseph would take Mary to the town of Bethlehem in order to fulfill the prophecy of Micah (5:2).&nbsp;And, so it is God who prepares your sinful heart to be a dwelling place for&nbsp;the King of Heaven. He does this through the miraculous power of Baptism, which empowers plain water with the voice of God. He does this by exposing your sins to create remorse for the wrong you\u2019ve done. He does this by declaring forgiveness for all your wrong. God does not demand that you make your heart clean in order for him to enter into it anymore than did he wait until we had cleansed the earth of sin before he was born in it. Rather, God enters your heart with forgiveness&nbsp;so that&nbsp;<em>he<\/em>&nbsp;might&nbsp;cleanse you from your sin.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God made the earth his home, because he loves us. Jesus&nbsp;makes&nbsp;your heart his home, because he loves you. This is the message of Christmas. This is the glad tidings the&nbsp;angel&nbsp;declared when&nbsp;he&nbsp;said, \u201cunto&nbsp;<em>you<\/em>&nbsp;is born a Savior.\u201d This is why this message is a message of great joy to all people. Jesus comes to save us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so, this Christmas season should be a season of peace. God has made peace with sinners. It is we who have sinned against God, not he who has sinned against us. We confess to God in Psalm 51, \u201cAgainst you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.\u201d&nbsp;Yet, it is God who comes to us to make peace! It is our heavenly Father who sends his Son to die for us while we are still sinning against him.&nbsp;Rarely in a conflict&nbsp;is either side not&nbsp;at fault. Yet, it is God, the faultless one who makes peace with the guilty.&nbsp;This is the apotheosis of magnanimity. Yet, even at the time of Christmas,&nbsp;we who have our own faults&nbsp;find faults in others. We who have a need for peace refuse to make peace. We who need forgiveness refuse to forgive.&nbsp;We who are unworthy of God\u2019s grace find others unworthy of our patience and good will. Such behavior is rooted in unbelief! It reveals a heart that has refused&nbsp;to let Christ dwell in it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only way for love to pour forth from our hearts is for our hearts to first receive Christ. Only when God makes peace with us through faith in Christ can we make peace with one another. Yet, when we refuse to make peace with one another, we show that we are not at peace with God&nbsp;in our hearts.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every Advent we sing, \u201cO Come, O Come, Emmanuel.\u201d In the&nbsp;final verse we sing,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cO come, Desire of nations, bind,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one the hearts of all mankind;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And be Thyself our King of peace.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And our dear Lord Emmanuel answers this prayer. He answers this prayer with his Gospel of forgiveness. When his forgiveness dwells in your heart, Christ Jesus dwells in your heart.&nbsp;And from your heart flows peace. Make peace with those who have sinned against you through the peace that God gives you through Jesus, the Prince of Peace. He has made peace with our sinful world. And he&nbsp;has made peace with each of us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also why we pray after receiving the Sacrament of Christ\u2019s body and blood, that&nbsp;through the Sacrament, God would \u201cstrengthen us through the same in faith toward&nbsp;[God] and in fervent love toward one another.\u201d Indeed, how can this Jesus dwell in our hearts through faith and not have his peace pour out from us?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear Friends in Christ, God has made peace with us through Jesus Christ. May his peace spread from us to&nbsp;one another.&nbsp;Let us pray.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled,&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A quiet chamber set apart&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For You to dwell within my heart.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amen.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas Eve 2020&nbsp; Luke 2:1-20&nbsp; Pastor James Preus&nbsp; Every once&nbsp;in&nbsp;a while,&nbsp;someone, usually from the church, will ask me if he can stop&nbsp;to&nbsp;check on something in&nbsp;the&nbsp;parsonage. And I&nbsp;almost always answer, \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d This&nbsp;annoys my dear wife, not because she has a problem with people stopping by, especially to help, but because I almost never tell&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/christ-comes-to-dwell-with-us-in-love\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,17,7],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmaseve","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermonsbyrevjamespreus","tag-christmas-eve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}