We hear again these words from our Gospel reading. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here." In our lives, much like in the realm of social media, we often strive to capture and hold onto moments of joy and glory, attempting to freeze time in our happiest states, avoiding the realities of suffering and loss. This mirrors Peter's reaction during the Transfiguration of Jesus, where he wished to build tents and stay on the mountain, basking in the glory of the moment with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, away from the harsh realities awaiting below. However, Jesus teaches us that His path and ours involves descending from these glorious moments to face the world's suffering head-on. This descent is not a departure from glory but a deeper entry into the human condition--embracing the cross, embodying sacrifice, and ultimately providing salvation. Jesus does not remain in the untouchable splendor of the mountaintop; instead, He walks with us, sharing in our burdens and transforming our sufferings with His presence. In this, we find the truest form of love and glory--not in the fleeting moments of earthly joy, but in the profound peace of Christ's continual presence in our lives, especially in times of trial.

Today, on the third Sunday of Epiphany, we delve into the profound revelation of Christ as the Savior for all, transcending the boundaries of Jew and Gentile, and we also recognize the Sanctity of Life Sunday. In our contemporary society, where the sanctity of life is often overlooked, we see troubling endorsements of euthanasia and abortion, which starkly contrast the self-giving love of Christ who says, "This is my body given for you." In our Gospel reading, we witness Christ's miraculous healings of a leper and a centurion's servant, emphasizing that salvation is not earned through the law but is a gift of faith. Christ's interactions highlight His authority and willingness to bear our curses to bring forth healing and salvation. This narrative challenges us to consider under whose authority we live--Christ's or our own. As we navigate a culture increasingly centered on self-deification and autonomy, we must choose to live under Christ's authority, embracing His life-giving truth and rejecting the self-centered ethos that pervades our world.

At the wedding of Cana, Jesus performs His first miraculous sign, turning water into wine, revealing His divine nature and foreshadowing the abundant blessings He brings. This act is not just a display of power but a profound symbol of Jesus as the groom and the church as His bride, highlighting the eternal feast He prepares for us. In this miracle, Jesus ensures the wine does not run out, symbolizing that in Him, our joy and sustenance are everlasting. He invites us to this eternal banquet, not as mere spectators but as honored guests, clothed in His righteousness, sustained by His word, and nourished by His sacraments. This first miracle sets the pattern for His ministry, emphasizing that Jesus is the host who lavishly provides for His guests, ensuring our rejoicing never ends, and affirming His role as the groom who loves and cherishes His bride, the church, forever.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Acknowledging our sins is crucial, for it is through confession that we reconnect with God, the source of life, much like a phone reconnects to power through its charger. In the life and death of our brother Robert, we see a reflection of our own finite existence and the universal truth of human sinfulness. Yet, in the midst of this, we find hope and redemption through Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, offering us reconciliation with God and eternal life. Robert's life, marked by his love for God's creation, his community involvement, and his passion for helping others, exemplifies the transformative power of this divine love. As we remember Robert, we are reminded of the everlasting peace that comes from God--a peace that transcends the trials and sorrows of this world, a peace that Robert now fully enjoys.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our text today from Galatians 4 verses 4 to 5 reminds us of the profound reason for Christmas, which extends beyond the cultural celebrations that often conclude prematurely. In these verses, Paul speaks of the fullness of time in which God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, under the law, to redeem those under the law so we might receive adoption as sons. This timing was not only historically opportune but divinely appointed. The imagery of Mary having a little lamb, as echoed in the nursery rhyme, beautifully illustrates the sinless nature of Christ, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. His birth under the law and subsequent fulfillment of it through a life without sin, culminating in His sacrifice on the cross, was for our redemption. This act of ultimate love and sacrifice ensures our adoption into God's family, making us heirs of His kingdom. As we continue celebrating Christmas and move into the new year, let us embrace the fullness of this truth, living as children of God, redeemed and restored by the Lamb whose fleece was once stained with our sins but now is white as snow.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, revealing the true essence of Christmas, which transcends the consumer-driven frenzy of gift-giving that dominates our cultural landscape. This season, rooted in the Christ Mass, celebrates the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, who came to offer Himself as the ultimate gift of redemption. Through His birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus ransomed us from sin, death, and the devil, not with perishable items, but with His holy and precious blood. This gift is continually bestowed upon us through the sacraments, particularly in Holy Communion, where we receive the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. As we navigate a world often oblivious to the true meaning of Christmas, we are called to remember and proclaim that the heart of this holiday is not the gifts we can buy, but the gift of salvation freely given to us through Jesus Christ. This profound truth invites us to live in gratitude and to extend this message of hope and grace to others, especially those who have yet to understand the depth of God's love revealed in the gift of His Son.

Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for Thou art with us. Throughout history, God's people have traversed valleys of shadows, encompassing loneliness, pain, and injustice, yet we are comforted by the presence of the Lord, our shepherd, whose guidance and protection are symbolized by His rod and staff. This Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, prefigured by Old Testament shepherds like Abel, Abraham, Moses, and David, each foreshadowing aspects of Christ's mission and sacrifice. Abel's story, marked by humility and the shedding of innocent blood, mirrors the lowliness and ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, whose blood cries out for mercy and peace. Abraham's miraculous fatherhood of many nations parallels Christ's spiritual fatherhood over countless believers. Moses, who led his people from bondage, reflects Jesus's mission to liberate us from sin and death, guiding us towards the promised new heavens and new earth. David's humble beginnings and victorious kingship foreshadow Jesus's reign over all as the eternal king. The shepherds at Jesus's birth, familiar with every lamb and manger, recognized the sign of the Savior's arrival, not needing to search extensively because they knew exactly where to find Him. This narrative ties into the profound joy and sorrow of Christmas, a time when the birth of our Savior brings great joy, yet is marked by the sorrow of Herod's massacre, reflecting the ongoing battle against evil. The paradox of Christmas--joy intertwined with sorrow--is evident in our celebrations and decorations, which remind us of both Christ's birth and His sacrificial death. Ultimately, the message of Christmas emphasizes that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, laid down His life for us, taking upon Himself all our sins, showing us the path through the valley of shadows towards eternal life with Him.

We hear again these words from our reading. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. God said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. The sacrifice of Isaac, surely one of the strangest accounts in Scripture. It almost seems bizarre. A man taking his son upon a mountain to sacrifice him? And the sacrifice would be his own son. And God told him to do this. Our eyes are on the man, on Abraham. Will he do it? Every step up that mountain, ripping his heart out. Every step, tearing him with doubt. Does he really want to have faith in a God who would have you sacrifice your own son? How are you to feel about a God like that? Maybe you doubt him? How could you not? How could you love a God who makes you do something like this? Our eyes are on Abraham. What does he feel? How far will his faith take him? What will he do? Now, God can raise from the dead. That is true. He is the God of life, the God of creation, the God who brought every living being, including Abraham's son Isaac, into life. Can he not raise the dead? Yes. And Abraham knew that. But did God say that he would? God only says to Abraham, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. In that command, we hear nothing of God speaking of resurrection. We hear no promise to Abraham that he would see Isaac, his son, alive again. Yet, Abraham did know that God could bring life from death. He did have faith in the resurrection, as the author of Hebrews tells us. But is that what God would do with Isaac? How is Abraham to have any certainty? So Abraham goes up that mountain, just he and Isaac. And Isaac asks this. Father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? How do you answer a question like that? Do you know that God has told you to sacrifice your son? And now your son, in all innocence, asks, where's the sacrifice, dad? What a sorrowful trip up that mountain when Abraham answers. God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. But what did Abraham mean by that? Was it just a false answer to divert his son? Did Abraham really think that God would provide a sacrifice other than Isaac? If Abraham did believe that God would ultimately provide a substitute sacrifice for Isaac, we certainly don't see that in his actions. In fact, the next thing he's doing is binding up Isaac as a sacrifice. When Abraham and Isaac came to that place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. This is hardly the actions of a man confident that God would provide a substitute lamb. Our eyes are on Abraham, the distress, the pain, the thoughts of faith and of doubt, of love for God and of hatred for God, who would demand such a thing as that. The turning of the stomach, the thoughts of what he would have to say to Sarah, his beloved wife, and Isaac's mother should he return home with no son. Our eyes are on Abraham. What will he do? Abraham, in great faith, knowing that the Lord would somehow work it out, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead, did as the Lord told him. But let's turn our eyes towards God, the one who created Abraham, the one who gave Abraham Sarah as bride and gave to Abraham and Sarah Isaac as son. Let's turn our eyes to God, who created all life, who names himself as the God of life, not of death, who put all people under the command not to kill, but to uphold life and to care for one another. What is God doing in this account? It is clear that he is commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son. But what is he doing with this seemingly impossible and actually outrageous command? What is God's end game here? And why does God have this strange account written down in Holy Scripture so that the church throughout the generations would hear it and live from it? What is God doing? On that mountain with Abraham, God is actually giving us a shadow of the incarnation of Jesus. God was, in this most extraordinary way, a way never seen before and never to be seen again, giving the promise that there would be a sacrifice for the sins of all the nations. Now, recall that God gave Abraham the promise that he would be the father of all nations. In Genesis 17 5, we hear, no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. And God also gave Abraham the promise that in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Significantly, offspring here in the Hebrew is actually the word seed. And in the Hebrew, it is singular. So the seed is only one. In this promise here, there would be one seed to be a sacrifice to save the sinners of all the nations. And this would be a son of Abraham, not his son Isaac, for Isaac only bore the wood of the sacrifice, and God withheld Isaac from sacrifice. But the seed, who was Abraham's greater son, who would bear the wood of the cross. A greater son, but like Isaac in that both had miraculous births. Isaac had a miraculous birth that was a result of Yahweh's promise to Sarah, a barren woman. Abraham's greater son also had a miraculous birth, born of a virgin. But Abraham's greater son, the promised seed, who was the sacrifice to save the sinners of all nations, was many generations away. From Abraham came Isaac. From Isaac came Jacob. From Jacob came 12 sons. From these 12 sons came the people of the Jews. From the people of the Jews came the Virgin Mary. From the Virgin Mary came our Lord Jesus Christ. The son born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ is the promised seed of Abraham and the promised sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. The promised seed and sacrifice would be God the Son in the flesh, the seed of Abraham, both fully God and fully man. God the Son, Jesus, given as the full, complete, final sacrifice to atone for the sins of every family, tribe, and nation of every generation. And that, dear people, is what God did on that mountain with the story of Isaac. He made a promise in blood, an oath by His own name, that He would give His own Son to die for the sins of Abraham, for the sins of Sarah, for the sins of Isaac, for my sins, and for your sins, and for the sins of the entire world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever has faith in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through Him. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

We are all under the same divine sentence of death, a consequence of our separation from God, the source of life. Yet, in this shared fate, we find the profound truth of Christmas: God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, joins us in our sentence. He does not remain distant but shares in our mortality, embodying both judgment and mercy. Through His crucifixion, flanked by thieves, He presents a microcosm of humanity's plight and His redemptive embrace. This act of self-sacrifice offers us reconciliation with God, cleansing not just our sins but also the imperfections in our good deeds. As we remember the life of Robert, a man of service and love, we see the embodiment of Christ's teachings, yet we also acknowledge that no human righteousness matches God's standards. Only through Christ's atonement are we redeemed, and this promise of mercy and resurrection is our comfort, especially poignant as we face loss during the Christmas season. Thus, as we reflect on the symbols of Christmas and the assurance of baptism, we find solace in Christ's unending grace, welcoming all who seek Him into eternal life.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." What a beautiful event portrayed before us in the scriptures this day. Two pregnant women, cousins, coming together. Pregnancy being an image of enduring discomfort, pain, sleeplessness, all for the sake of the joy that is yet to come. In these two women, we see two types of the Old and New Testaments joining together. Indeed, we see in fact a kind of cosmic chiasm. A chiasm being an X-shaped structure where the outsides will lead you to the inside. Named, by the way, after the chi, the Greek letter X, turned on its side, the cross. But if we start at the ends, we would see Adam, and from Adam comes the woman, his bride. On the other end, we would see Christ and his bride given to him. If we trace these all the way to their centers, we will see these two pregnant women. At the very heart of the world, the very heart of history, the very heart of the scriptures, these two pregnant ladies. We are told that it is at the mere greeting of Mary that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist, her baby in the womb, leaps for joy. Perhaps it is the case that Mary said, Shalom, or peace be with you. Those words having all the more weight since the Prince of Peace was in her womb. Perhaps she simply said, the Lord be with you, as was common for the time. But those words also carrying all the more weight because the Lord was indeed with her in the very womb of Mary. But perhaps even more subtly, Luke doesn't give us any specific language, but the mere sound of her voice, at the mere sound of the voice of the New Testament, the Old Testament is fulfilled, and filled with the Holy Spirit, and rejoices in the womb. I like to use a little poetic license, especially with the kids. If you picture these two women, these two cousins, coming together, both miraculously pregnant, as they embrace one another, their two bellies are smushed up against each other, and inside one is John the Baptist, and inside the other is Jesus, and John is going wild with joy. Can infants believe? Yes, apparently even infants in the womb. Our Lord Jesus says that it would be better for a man who would take one of these little ones who believe in me, and scandalize him, cause him to fall away from me. It would be better if a millstone were tied around his neck. But did you catch what he said? One of these little ones, these micron who believe in me, and we see that embodied in John the Baptist. Not only do we see a convergence of the Old and New Testament, but we see the old giving way to the new. We see the barrenness of Elizabeth giving way to the virginity of Mary, and both of these giving way to the fertility that comes. We see the agedness of Elizabeth giving way to the youth of Mary. We see the waiting giving way to the arrival. If you trace Elizabeth's name back into the Old Testament scriptures, you'll find that a woman by the name of Elizabeth was married to the very first of the priests, Aaron. And this Elizabeth of the New Testament is married to Zechariah, who is also a priest. In other words, it's as if the entire Old Testament priesthood is pointing us to John in her womb, and John is soon to point us to Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God who will be slain to take away the sins of the world. If you do a similar exercise with Mary, you trace her name back, Miriam, you'll find that she is the sister of Moses, the great prophet of whom we heard in the Old Testament scriptures. And the husband to whom Mary is betrothed is Joseph in the line of Christ. Here it's as if all of the prophets and the kings direct our attention to Jesus. So that in the interconnections between the names of these two women, we see that the Christ to be born is truly prophet, priest, and king. Blessed are you, says Elizabeth to Mary, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. These words take us all the way back to the very first gospel promise that God makes. He says to the serpent, after he has led Adam and Eve into sin, that the seed of the woman, the fruit of her womb, if you will, will crush your head. You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head and bring to an end all that you have done. This blessed fruit of Mary has come, and it is indeed he who will crush the serpent's head. The book of Hebrews describes Satan as the one who has the power of death. We can picture Satan loosing death with all its unstoppable rage. And as it comes for Christ seeking to swallow him up, in swallowing up the man, it simply discovers the divine. That this fruit of Mary's womb is indeed true man, but also true God. And in swallowing up the man, death finds that it's only grasped hold of the heel of God. And God drives that heel down to destroy death forever. Elizabeth also says that Mary is the mother of her Lord. She asks, and why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, saying that the little baby in Mary's womb is in fact her Lord. Mary's son, but Mary's Lord. Augustine liked to talk of these two births of Christ. One outside of time, where in Christ is birthed or begotten by the Father and without a mother. And then here on earth, he is birthed by a mother without a father. These two forming a mysterious and beautiful symmetry of heaven and earth being joined into one in the person of Christ. True God, true man, our Lord, who comes to purchase and redeem us poor, miserable sinners. Not with gold or silver, but with his own precious blood. After recounting once more what happened in her womb to her baby, leaping for joy, then Elizabeth says these words, Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Blessed is she who believed. We are all called to the same faith as Mary, to believe the promises of God. Indeed, Luther goes so far as to say that Mary in her faith is the mother of all the faithful. He argues that if you won't have Mary as your mother, then you won't have Jesus as your brother. So Mary becomes icon of our faith to believe and thus to have our souls magnify the Lord also. As Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, may our prayer at the end of this Advent season be the same, that God would pour out his Holy Spirit upon us through his word, that we might confess the very things that Elizabeth confesses, that the fruit of her womb is blessed indeed, that the fruit of her womb is our Lord. Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then we will see that all things are being made new, that the Old Testament has given way to the new, just as the old and fallen world is giving way to the new world that Christ has come to create. Indeed, this reality takes place in each and every one of us as the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts. The barrenness of our sins is replaced with the fertility and fruitfulness of God. As the agedness of this world catches up with us, runs us down, we remember that though the outward man is perishing, the inner man is being renewed day by day. And while indeed we are still waiting, waiting is giving way already to what has come, what continues to come, and what will come definitively with the return of our Savior Jesus. Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit, that we might ask Elizabeth's question with a slight modification. She says and asks, why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Indeed, we may ask, why is this granted to us that the Lord himself Why is this granted to us that the Lord himself should come to us? Because indeed that is what's taking place. In the service of the sacrament, our Lord Jesus comes to each and every one of us and gives himself to us freely for the forgiveness of our sins, to erase all that which is in the past, and to set before us nothing but blessed hope and joy that are found in him. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.