A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 26, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Colossians 3:12-17. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the third chapter:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It is the First Sunday of Christmas, and, if you’ve been here the last two days, you know that, as always, we’ve focused heavily on the incarnation of Christ. After all, that’s what we are celebrating, that we can see our God face-to-face in the person of Jesus and that we’re invited to do so. We’re not like Moses, who wasn’t allowed to see God’s face lest he die. We’re not like Jacob, who wrestled with God, not knowing it was Him, and then feared, when he found out, that he would die. We’re not like Gideon who talked with God and then freaked out in his weakness because he ought to have died. No, we are invited to gaze upon the lovely face of Christ and see God there. We’re given a face, an image, to look at and to love. We’re given Jesus.
The fact that our Lord has taken on human flesh is something I think we so often blast right past. This is God from before all worlds. Jesus is the Son of God, eternally begotten. That doesn’t mean He was created, but that He has always been the Son to the Father. He has always been and always will be. This is the mighty God who speaks and the universe and all that is beyond it bends to His command. This is He who has been in communion with God forever, and yet, at one point in time, decided to make a people for Himself and so created not just a garden but a planet, and not just a planet but a solar system, and not just a solar system but a galaxy, and not just a galaxy but a universe, and not just a universe but the heavens beyond all comprehension. All things came into being by His Word, Let there be, and all things bent to obey, all so that He, Jesus, would make a people that He would love. That He would make you.
This is the God who is greater than all things, and yet knew that His people would rebel. So, before He ever spoke the first light into existence, He made up His mind that, no matter their rebellion, He would love them, and He would love them as a dearest friend, to lay down His life for them. This is God. God cannot die. God is spirit. God has not a body. God cannot be killed by that which is less than Him. But, He knew that He would come to save the people He made, and, to do that, He would die, for salvation could only come through the shedding of blood. So, He made the earth and the heavens and all that is in them, and, as He knew, Adam and Eve rebelled against Him and plunged all that He had made for them into decay and despair. All the beauty of creation was made for Adam and Eve and their descendants, and they didn’t care. They wanted to make creation in their image. And they got what they wanted. All of creation would be made in the sinful image of man, subject to corruption and death. They had taken the image of God in which they were created and drove it into dust and destruction.
And yet, the Lord knew this would happen and had already planned to redeem Adam and Eve and all their descendants back from sin, death, and the devil, those evil taskmasters who would preside over a mass of obscenity. While we would have, perhaps, hoped He would come in such a way that all may see Him, He came in the way that He had desired for His people to live: humbly and in service. Hence, while the Messiah was hoped to have come in strength and with a sword, He came otherwise. He humbled Himself so far, from the mighty God of all creation to be placed into human flesh and to be put into the womb of a woman. He would come into this life as all life does, through blood and tears. He who created Eve in His own image now took the image of Eve from His mother, Mary. He who is mighty beyond all ken became completely dependent upon the breast of His mother. He who spoke creation into being now spoke through the cries of a baby, cries of dirty diapers and hunger and surprise.
This child we think of today grew in wisdom and stature, in every way identifying with His beloved people, except that He was without sin. He did all things well, obeying the Law that He might exchange His obedience with our disobedience that we might be saved and He condemned. And so, the boy became a man, and laid down His life at the hands of the Romans and the Jews that He might die for all people, all of His beloved, His chosen, and rose from the dead that those who believe in Him might have life and have it eternally. By this, you know that your sins, your disobedience, your contribution to the decay and destruction of His creation, have been taken away from you and, instead, you have been given the robes of righteousness that have won for you everlasting life.
In this knowledge of the incarnation then, Paul writes to the church at Colossae, instructions for life together, life which imitates our beloved Lord. Now that you know you are chosen, now that you know you are holy and beloved of God, live like Christ. Put on compassion, as Christ had compassion over His fallen creation. Put on kindness, as Christ has befriended you. Put on humility, as He deigned to lower Himself into the flesh of man, to make Himself a little lower than He was for a time. Put on meekness, as Christ never assumed His Lordship over His people as He lived among us. Put on patience, as Christ bore up under the yolk of those who were over Him, bearing their scorn and shame. We imitate Christ in His life that His life might be seen by all, though Christ is not with us bodily. We bear the life of Christ into the world, first by the Word and our sharing of it, and then by His works.
We endure other people, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. We forgive one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. We love one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. For Christ has bound us all together in His Church, that we might be a beautiful tapestry, more beautiful than Joseph’s many-colored coat, more beautiful than Christ’s robe woven together in one piece, more beautiful than your favorite Christmas outfit. He has put us into harmony with one another, not that any part is more important than another but that all of us, playing our part, sing in concert together to make a concerto beyond all music.
Most of all, Christ has called us together in one body, His body. He has called all of us to Himself in the very body He assumed from Mary. He has made us members of one another. He has made us members of Himself, with Him as the head. He has made us one that we might live in peace, moving and breathing and having our being in Him. In Him, we are made righteous. In Him, we are made thankful. In Him, we are made rich by His Word. In Him, we are one together.
The mystery of the incarnation is one which we should ponder, and now that Christ is risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father, we also should ponder, wonder, at Christ’s bringing us into the mystery, being made one in Him. In Christ, we are part of His mysterious, mystical body in that we speak His Word and do His work in the world. There is not one person who is living, has lived, or will live that Christ has not died for. There is not one person who doesn’t matter to Him. Thus, we bear with one another to teach us to bear with those still in the world.
While the world does not see the mystery of Christmas and rejoice that our Lord would wish to be with us, we, by our very act of being here, teach them that there is something greater than opening presents on Christmas morning, listening to 24/7 “Christmas music” on the radio, big feasts, friends, and family. There is more to Christmas than just what the world has to offer; there is Christ, come for us in His body to save all people, and come again today in Word and Sacrament.
You have come together in the one body of Christ today to receive the forgiveness He won for you upon the cross. Do so. Receive it by His absolution, His word of forgiveness. Receive it through Baptism, which you remember daily in drowning your hard-hearted Old Adam and finding the New Adam, Jesus Christ, rising in you. Receive it through the Supper, by which that very body and blood which came out of Mary, which lived perfectly, and was crucified, died, buried, and was resurrected for you, come to you to strengthen your faith and deliver you to the day of everlasting life. You have come together in the incarnate body of Christ that you may be His own. You are. You have been chosen. You have been made holy. You have been blessed with the very presence of Jesus, the God from all eternity who saw fit to make you, that you may be with Him forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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