Rising and Falling of Many: A Meditation on 1st Samuel 1 and Luke 2, for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany

And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,

Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel;

and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,

that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

 

In our Gospel lesson from Luke 2, Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the Temple according to the commands of the Mosaic Law, to redeem the child before the Lord.  Since every male who opened the womb was considered sacred to God, and in particular the first-born male as a remembrance of God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, Jesus was brought to the Temple with a sacrifice to offer in his stead.  What was revealed to Mary and Joseph was that Jesus was sent not to be redeemed before God, but to be the Redeemer of the world, and a miraculous sign by which the thoughts of many hearts would be known.  Jesus, as the Incarnate Word and Eternally begotten Son of God, was the Messiah that had long been foretold and foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures for centuries, as in the stories of the Prophet Samuel.  Yet while Samuel was sent to rescue ancient Israel from political abuse by pagan civilizations, and religious corruption within his own land near the end of the age of the Judges, Jesus was sent in the fullness of time roughly 1,100 years later to rescue His people from sin, death, hell, and the devil.

 

The story of Samuel contains much foreshadowing of Jesus’ later arrival: his birth was an act of God and a gift to his previously barren mother; though sacrifice was made for him, he was not redeemed from service to God, but rather devoted to God’s service entirely; God spoke to Samuel, and Samuel was faithful to the Word of the Lord even when present religious authorities were not; God worked through Samuel to establish the Davidic Kingdom and the rescue of Israel from all their harassing enemies round about them.  Even Eli, who was the priest and Judge who allowed his sons to desecrate their priestly office and lead pious people into sin, recognized the blessing which was upon Samuel, harkening forward to faithful Simeon who greeted the Holy Family in the Temple at Jesus’ Presentation.  Samuel became the last and greatest of the 400+ years of Judges, and an important pivot from an era of tribal chaos into an age of order and promise.  Yet unlike Jesus, Samuel was merely a man in need of the same salvation that all other people required, and in his service to God and the people, he lived out his faith in repentance and hope, always grounded in the saving Word of the Lord.

 

It is a common and repeated problem across history that people misunderstand the purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, and of the foreshadowing of that momentous event found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.  Since the dawn of man and our fall into sin, and through the millennia which transpired until Jesus’ time, God promised a Savior to the world by His Word given to the Prophets, and His people looked forward in hope for that Savior.  While many saviors or messiahs were sent by God to rescue His people from the lesser perils of temporal calamity, such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, David, and others, the true fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation would come through Jesus Christ.  Jesus didn’t overthrow the Romans or their puppet government in Jerusalem, anymore than He would overthrow the religious authorities of the Sadducees and Pharisees.  While Jesus knew that people would need their daily bread and rescue from physical dangers, He also knew the greater danger and oppression of man was that of his sin—an enslavement of the mind and soul to the devil, destined for destruction in the fires of hell forever.  No matter what political or ecclesiastical phenomena were present in this or any age, the real need of man was rescue from his own just condemnation, and reconciliation to God their Creator.  No matter of temporal consequence held even the faintest candle to the consequences of eternity.

 

And so, Jesus came and accomplished His mission of salvation through His Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.  His Word, as the Word Incarnate, exposed the pride and hypocrisy in the hearts of fallen men, calling all people to faith and repentance that they might live in His grace rather than die in their sins. For Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world—they had accomplished that all on their own.  Rather, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, who could not of their own power save themselves from hell.  He became in His life, death, and resurrection, the Sign which would be believed by the faithful even as the reprobate rejected it, so that the true thoughts of all men might be brought into focus.  Jesus forced no man to receive His Light and eternal life, but offered it through His own shed blood to all people, so that the rain of His grace and providence might fall upon the good and the evil alike.  No one could be saved apart from Him, no matter how pious they thought themselves to be, and no one was beyond the preaching of His Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.  While the physical blessings of health, prosperity, and joy in our work are lesser things God would continue to grant according to His wisdom, grace, and measure, the riches of His grace in His Son would be lavishly poured out upon all who would call upon Him in faith.

 

Throughout the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament, the Apostolic Age though the present parish and missionary work of the Church in every land and tongue, the work of the Lord has always been the salvation of His people.  No one is beyond the love of God in Christ Jesus, and no one is beyond the Vicarious Atonement of His blood shed for the sins of all people.  While He will grant the desires of a heart that prefers hell over His fellowship, His desire is that no one would be lost, and that all might come to a saving knowledge of the Truth:  that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners, just like you and me.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you this day, that you may live in faith and repentance before the throne of the God who has always sought you, will always love you, and will forever give to you the blessings of forgiveness, life and salvation—all for Jesus’s sake.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Gifts of the Spirit: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 12 and John 2, for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

 

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;

to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

To another faith by the same Spirit;

 to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy;

to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues;

to another the interpretation of tongues:

But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,

dividing to every man severally as he will.

 

Though St. Paul is sometimes rough in his admonishment of the saints in Corinth through his epistles, chapters 12 through 14 are a master class in the role and purpose of the Holy Spirit’s gifts to the Church.  Paul began by reminding the previously heathen Corinthians that they were once drawn away by all sorts of spirits into all kinds of incoherent errors, but that the Holy Spirit who indwells Christians is one and the same for all.  Not only does the Holy Spirit bring forth in a person the faith to declare Jesus as Lord, but no one can have such faith apart from the Holy Spirit, since only the Word and Spirt of Christ are effective unto salvation.  There is no Christian apart from the Holy Spirit’s work to create faith in his heart, and no Christian can claim to have some other spirit which is at odds with Jesus.  After correcting this ignorance in his readers, Paul continued to teach that the same Holy Spirit is the author of various and sundry gifts among the people of God, and that all are of the same Body of Christ, with every gift given to each individual for the edification of the whole.  While the Holy Spirit’s administration of gifts among individuals is diverse, He is not divided against Himself, and all that He does is united in His testimony of Jesus and the care of His people.

 

The wedding feast at Cana has a similar point.  While the revelry had consumed all the wine and disgrace might have come upon the patrons of the feast for running out of libations, the real point of Jesus’ turning over 100 gallons of water into the best wine anyone had ever consumed, was to point people to faith in Him.  There was grace for the patrons of the feast, of course, and joyous celebration for the drunken wedding guests (note here that Jesus certainly wasn’t a teetotaler, and was derided by Pharisees later as a “wine-bibber,”) but like His later miracles of healing and even raising Lazarus from the dead, the earthly benefits were not the primary objective.  Everyone who drinks wine and parties today, will be sober later; just as everyone who is healed of a disease today, will be sick or injured again someday.  What is much more important than the fleeting pains and sorrows of this earthly realm, is the condition of the soul which lives forever, either in the friendship or under the judgment of Almighty God.  Jesus knew this, and worked toward the edifying of all who would hear Him, so that the Holy Spirit would work faith unto eternal life in those who would receive Him.

 

Like the people of 1^st century Corinth, a cosmopolitan city full of industry, trade, and wealth, modern Christians also can lose the point of why the Holy Spirit gives His gifts to the Church.  No gift is given to anyone for their own glorification or exultation, anymore than the Holy Spirit exults Himself in the work of creating saving faith in the hearts of those who trust in Jesus through His power… and the Holy Spirit is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise, because He is fully God, together with the Father and the Son, the Most Holy Trinity, unto ages of ages without end.  The gifts given to people by God, are for the glory of God and the care of His people, that others might have that same gift of saving faith in Jesus which surpasses every earthly treasure.  Just as the Holy Spirit works to produce faith and repentance in the hearts of those who will hear the Word of Christ, so, too, do all His various and sundry gifts working through the Body of Christ, testify of the same.  There is no gift given to an individual that is intended for the glory of the individual, though human pride will often try to take honor and glory it does not deserve.  Every gift of God to a person is reason to rejoice and give thanks to God for His providence and grace—not to elevate or celebrate the one through whom God has chosen to work.

 

Also worth noting, is that St. Paul did not provide an exhaustive list of gifts, but noted that each is given to accomplish the good of the whole Body of Christ.  For the farmer and the teacher, the doctor and the preacher, the engineer and the mechanic, the artist and the novelist and the song writer, every gift given to them is to be used for the glory of God and the edification of others.  The work we do to provide our families, care for our neighbors, support our local congregation, defend our country, and every other talent and gift under heaven, are all for the good of our neighbors and the testimony of God’s good will toward men.  God has given to each person His own gifts for the vocational duties He has given them, that they might produce good fruits and accomplish the good works He ordained for them from before the foundation of the world.  Yet chief among those good and salutary works, is the testimony of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the salvation of the world—that all may come to a saving knowledge of the Truth which seeks and saves everyone who will repent and believe.  Every good gift comes from God, and every good gift is a testimony of His love and grace, pointing toward eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for the Lord of Glory has not left His people orphaned in this tumultuous world, but rather has given them every gift necessary to accomplish His good and loving will, through the power of His Holy Spirit which testifies to salvation in Jesus.  Give thanks to God for the gifts He has given you, and see in your neighbor the purpose for which He has given them to you:  that all may be edified and made stronger in faith, receiving the gift of salvation which surpasses every temporal pleasure and every transient desire.  For the Lord has given His good gifts to you for the good of your neighbor, just as He has given His good gifts to your neighbor that you, too, might be strengthened in grace, faith, and life everlasting, all through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.