Dear Friends in Christ,
Would our celebration of the Savior’s birth have been as joyous had the angels’ message been, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born for everyone but (insert your name here.)” That scenario would have made you and me like the poor beggar with nose pressed against the restaurant window locked outside on a cold and snowy night.
We are observing Epiphany even though Epiphany is Tuesday. The apostle’s word to the Ephesians assured them, and assures us that God has included us in his grace. That Savior is born “for you,” plural, a universal gift. We are not, as they say, on the outside looking in. No, We All are Members of God’s Forgiven Family. Because of Jesus’ work.To make plain Jesus’ work.
We did not know for sure what our Christmas presents were until we opened them. Every present was a mystery waiting to be revealed. Paul writes in this vein about the “administration of God’s grace.” God had not made this mystery known to previous generations. Now the Holy Spirit had revealed it to “God’s holy apostles and prophets.”
Here is that Epiphany, “through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
No matter who you are, Jew or Gentile, Jesus was born, lived, died and rose again for you. In this day of inclusiveness, this is the greatest. God has excluded no one from his grace. Because of Jesus’ work, every one of you is a member of God’s forgiven family. The Father has declared “Joy to the World” because the Lord has come.
Because of Jesus’ work, we may approach God with the knowledge of and repentance for our sins. We may lay our anger, our lust, our covetousness, our spiritual apathy and all other works of the flesh before God confessing this is all we are and all we have. We may look to our Father in heaven for full forgiveness because of Jesus’ work of never sinning, and because of his dying on the cross. Paul wrote, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
Paul knew first-hand the blessing of this grace. He had been an enemy of Christ and the church. Now he would write, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” Paul, and later Luther, and now we have come to know this mystery of Christ as the Spirit has revealed it to us. By his power, he has given us faith in that gospel that I am a member of God’s forgiven family because we all are members of God’s forgiven family because of Christ’s work.
As members of God’s forgiven family we have a variety of things to do. The apostle mentions one of those; to make plain Jesus’ work.
Recall Paul intended this letter particularly to assure the Gentiles in Asia Minor that God’s grace in Christ was also for them. God wanted to bring them together into that one body of the church, sharers in the promise of forgiveness.
They and we are to take that message and “pay it forward” we might say. You know that expression to describe someone who paid for your coffee in the drive through at Starbucks, so you pay for the coffee of the car behind you. We take what we have received and give it to others.
“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made know to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” The Spirit has made Christ known to us especially in the knowledge of faith. We are to make that mystery known to others in the gospel so that the Spirit may work on their hearts. How are we doing this as individual Christians, as Bethlehem, as the WELS?
We make plain Jesus’ work through personal evangelism. This is a clichéd way of saying that I tell others that because we all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, Jesus is their Savior who died on the cross and paid for their sins. We make plain Jesus’ work in our preschool outreach. We have shared with the unchurched, Muslim and Hindu children and their families that we all are members of God’s forgiven family. We make plain Jesus’ work through our Congregational Mission Offerings to the synod. In our name, missionaries go out into the world with the gospel.
This work can be uncomfortable, even dangerous at times. It is expensive and requires no small sacrifice on our part. We can become apathetic or self-satisfied as we see a new sanctuary rising up. The work of making plain the truth that we all are members of God’s forgiven family needs more than faint heart and weak effort. The apostle used himself as an example that suffering in those things is for the glory of the gospel, “I ask you therefore, do not to be discouraged because of my suffering for you, which are for your glory.”
There are more hearers of our witness. The angels are “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” When we make plain Jesus work,even the angels grow in wisdom and rejoice as sinners repent and turn to Christ. Since angels are not all knowing, as God’s plan of salvation moves through the New Testament era, they come to see the multifaceted wisdom of God. God’s wisdom is not unlike Joseph’s coat of many colors in the many ways God plans and employs the “eternal purpose he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Continue in this New Year to make plain Jesus’ work. Tell others that they too are members of God’s forgiven family. The Spirit calls all nations to join the caravan of the Magi as they come to worship their King and Savior. Tell those with noses pressed against the window that the door is open; there is a seat at the feast reserved for them. Amen. <SDG>