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THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMASJanuary 5, 2025Pastor Tom SteersChrist the Savour Lutheran Church, TorontoOPENING HYMNN: 376 “Once in Royal David’s City” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szx3U1mHrwM The Invocation Page 184 Confession and Absolution Page 184-185The Introit Ps 147:1, 3-5, 11-12; John 1:14 Praise the LORD!For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.3 He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. 12 Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. Our Collect Prayer: Heavenly Father, as Your only Son honoured Your house, help us to honour Your church. May we be faithful in worshipping you and in bearing witness to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.Bible Readings –Old Testament: 1st Kings 3: 4-15 Psalm 119, verses 97-104 Epistle Reading Ephesians 1: 3-14 Gospel Reading Luke 2: 40-52 THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192 HYMN OF THE DAY: 410 “Within the Father’s House” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W24SCEG_-9UTHE SERMON –Brothers and sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God the Father, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.We enter the Church season of Epiphany tomorrow.Epiphany means revealing, the revelation of Christ to the world. Today is the Twelfth Day, or the Second Sunday after Christmas. In our Gospel we see Christ, when He was 12 years old, revealing Himself.Christians confess the truth that God became incarnate – took on flesh and blood, in the person of Jesus. Here we see the One who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Almighty God became a child. More than that, He willing becomes a servant. Though true God and true man, He didn’t fully use His divine power, knowledge, and glory. This is difficult for us. We may ask – how can the unlimited God put limits on Himself? How can the all-knowing God grow in wisdom? Christ never ceased to be fully God – so that at any time He could have made use of His deity to know all things, and do all things. But Christ restrained Himself, in submission to His Father in Heaven, wearing this form of a servant, in His earthly state of humiliation, so He could redeem us from sin.We, on the other hand, have been the exact opposite of Jesus. He was true God, yet was content to live as man. Yet we, who are only human, and sinners besides, often try to be like the Almighty. This was the first sin, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit believing the serpent's lie that they, “would become as God.” Each one of us, as the children of Adam and Eve, acts this same way – whether we know it or not. Whenever we sin against God's Commandments, we’re saying we know better than God. Whenever we ignore the clear words of Scripture, we’re saying we are wiser than God. Whenever we think that we know spiritual truth apart from God’s Word, we are saying our word and reason is infallible, is above God’s reason and will. Whenever we try to justify ourselves, we’re saying we don’t need God to justify us.But Christ came to rescue us from the sinful mind and the rebelliousness of our disobedience. He submitted in obedience when He had no need to.And all these things He did, He did to save us – from ourselves.Our Gospel text today is the only account of Jesus between infancy and maturity. It’s unique.And we can learn something from the behaviour of the young Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple.Our text from Luke reads: “And thinking that he was in the company, they went a day's journey, and seeking him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, and finding him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him."They found him in the temple three days later.Can you imagine your feeling if you weren’t able to find your child, or a child you loved and were responsible for, for three days.But here’s Jesus among the Temple priests, the scholars, the religious elite of the day, hearing them, asking questions and answering. Luke tells us, “And all who heard him were astonished at his intelligence and his answers.” At age 12, Jewish boys entered a secondary school, the Beth-ha-Midrash, the foremost of which was in the Temple of Jerusalem. And it was here that Mary and Joseph found Jesus sitting among the teachers, gathered for advanced instruction in the Word of God. There He sat, seemingly in the role of a student, actually in a serious conference, in which He functions as teacher. Jesus didn’t lecture, He asked questions. He didn’t expect them to get it all at once.And He left them amazed at His questions and answers – pleasantly surprised, and learning.How do we know He was teaching? He was sitting among them and asking questions. Rabbis and scholars sat as they taught.A student at this time would have stood.And questioning is the ancient method of teaching, that’s why Jesus often asks questions of those who come to Him. He’s teaching them. He wants them to think.Jesus was preparing the way for His ministry to come. He was giving due attention to the explanations of the scholars of the Law, but His answers were an amazement to all who heard them.Yet when Mary, Jesus’ mother asked, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Your father and I have been searching for you and were really worried.’Jesus answered, not in arrogance, but with the truth of His calling, with innocence: "Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I must be about my Father's business?" Jesus understood that the study, and the teaching of the Word of God is of utmost importance. And He knew the critical importance of understanding it in a Godly way, not only as Law, but also as Gospel.The truth of God, the truth of Jesus, is that while the Law is not taken away by Him, the Good News of salvation through Him by faith is the saving Word. The Law convicts, it doesn’t save.The Bible and the Lutherans Confessions explain that God’s Laqw has three functions.The Law is a curb on evil.It’s a mirror that shows us our sins.And it’s a guide to God’s perfect will for our life.But the problem, as sinners, is: we can’t fulfill it.We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.And that saving faith in Christ comes through the Holy Spirit using God’s means of grace: His Word and Sacraments.Which means the Word has to be preached and taught correctly.That’s why the Temple priests were amazed, because all they had was an understanding of God’s Word through the hammer of the Law.Jesus knew something else, and His life later demonstrated it, while still a relatively young man, about 30.Christ submits to Baptism, knowing it is God’s will, and that through Baptism the Holy Spirit comes and dwells with us, with those He later commands receive it – adults, children, and infants.And this is because Baptism is God’s work, not our proud pronouncement of our own righteousness or ‘decision.’ Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper gives us and teaches about another Sacrament, in which Jesus promises He will remain with us, feeding us His body and blood, sustaining us, until He returns.Christ said in John, Chapter 6:53-54, “Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” For Jesus, respectfully hearing God’s Word preached in His house was not to be considered a burden, but a privilege, a precious gift, and something commanded in the Third Commandment.Whenever someone ignores, or avoids, the Sacraments of the Lord’s Supperthey are saying Christ cannot be taken at His Word.Whenever the Word of God isn’t heard and studied – it is saying the Words of Jesus aren’t important.Christ obeyed all the Commandments, without a single flaw, in our place. The path of obedience, for Jesus, led to Jerusalem – the city of His destiny,– the city where the final sacrifice to end all sacrifices was to be made – by Him. Here, Christ came when He was an infant, on the day the Church calls the Presentation, remember that in the Song of Simoen we sing in our liturgy. And to Jerusalem Christ returned, year after year, at the festival of Passover. But on the final Passover, Christ became the Lamb that made eternal death ‘pass over’ us all. Today, God the Father doesn’t see the disobedience of our flesh, because we are redeemed and called the children of God, covered with His righteousness because of Christ.We, as saints, for the sake of Christ, love Jesus, and give thanks for the mercy, grace, and forgiveness He won for us at Calvary. Out of the same love for us that led Him to the cross – Christ left us His true Church we find His Word rightly preached, and His Sacraments properly administered.Receive God’s gifts.Receive His salvation.Receive eternal life.Amen. PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Pages 198 The Distribution(Our Communion Hymn is “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” by Martin Luther https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpymOuSeIz0) The Nunc Dimitis (Song of Simeon) Page 199 Post-Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 CLOSING HYMN: 386 “Now Sing We Now Rejoice” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNR7EuA6cY