In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. Glory to Jesus
Christ. I want to begin this morning by reminding
all of us that we are privileged to be in the
season of light. We have the special privilege
this morning of welcoming the newly illuminated
Son of God, Herman, who is in a sense a visible
reminder, a visible manifestation. of the great
gift of the light that has shined upon all of
us that we hear in the Holy Gospel today. We
need to remember that whatever the world may
be doing now, we remain in the season of light.
And we remain in that season through the meeting
of the Lord that comes up in early February.
So it is especially appropriate for us to reflect
a little bit on what this means for us. The Gospel
is beautiful. It reflects, of course, the prophecy
of... the prophet Isaiah. But when our Lord finally
begins his ministry, what is it that he says?
He begins to preach saying, repent for the kingdom
of God is at hand. That word repent probably
needs to be explained a little bit because if
we actually look at what the gospels say in the
original Greek, what the Lord is really saying
is change your hearts, completely transform that
which is most sacred to you and turn it back
to me. That is really what repentance is all
about. It is not about simply saying, I'm sorry.
That's fine, but that's simply not enough. The
difficulty and the great challenge and the great
privilege that we as Christians have is to change
our hearts. And we will not do this if we think
of this as a solo act. We are saved in community,
and it is through the power and presence of the
Holy Spirit and with the aid of Christ himself.
That we engage upon the task of changing our
whole heart and our whole mind so that we, in
fact, love only the Lord God. And in second place,
our neighbor as ourselves. Now this, in fact,
is a lifelong task. It is not something that
comes easily to us. The epistle that we read
today in Ephesians talks a little bit about this
question. Because he talks about the fact that
we are given grace according to each of us, according
to the measure of Christ's gifts. So what does
this measure mean? It means, of course, as the
apostle explains, that there are different kinds
of manifestations of the Spirit in the church.
We're not all called to be apostles or evangelists.
We're not all called to be bishops. We're not
all called to be catechists. We have different
kinds of tasks. that have been given to us so
that we can begin to measure up to the fullness
of the grace of God that has been given to each
of us. We are to attain the unity of the faith
and the knowledge of the Son of God. And remember,
brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, when
we talk about the knowledge of God, we mean a
relationship with him. This is not an intellectual
exercise. It is part of that transformation of
the heart so that we deepen this relationship
with him. And it is in that that we attain to
the unity of the faith. If we go on actually
a little bit further in this section from Ephesians,
we're reminded that once upon a time in our infancy,
you might say as non -believers or as beginners,
we were tossed about by every word that might
come across us. But it is precisely our task
here. not to be tossed about, but in fact to
come to a knowledge of the truth in love. And
so that, as the apostle says, everything and
everyone, all parts of the holy body of Christ
work together for the building up of Christ in
this world and in the world to come. We know
that we have in fact come in the latter days.
We know that the victory over death, sin, and
the devil have been accomplished. But we also
know that we in fact struggle. The powers of
evil are in fact in retreat, but they are very
dangerous. And we should make no mistake that
this is what we fight against. And the only way
that we have of guaranteeing that we come up
to the measure of the grace that Christ has given
us is to do precisely what we are doing right
now. It is precisely when we come together to
hear the word of God, to sing his praises, especially
to give the great thanksgiving, which we are
about to do. and which the newly illuminated
Herman will be privileged now to receive for
the first time, the body and blood of Christ.
It is that which strengthens us. It is that which
gives us life. It is that which makes us capable
of beginning to come up to that measure of the
grace of God that is given to us. And so in this
season of light, fathers, mothers, brothers,
and sisters of Christ, I encourage us all to
take heart. There is so much that is going on
in the world that is so depressing and is so
upsetting. I don't care whether it's the political
world. I don't care whether it's the condition
of the churches in some cases or in our family
lives or in our communities. But we should, in
fact, know already that the victory has been
won and that in this season of light that is
given to us, we should rejoice because we know,
in fact, that he has accomplished everything
that is necessary and it is now for us to work
out, as the apostle says, our salvation in fear
and trembling, but that only happens with the
grace and presence of God himself. And therefore,
let us give thanks to him on this day, first
of all, for witnessing the holy baptism and chrismation
of the newly illuminated son of God, Herman,
and for all the blessings of this life. And may
the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, therefore, the
Lord of all the nations, have mercy on us and
save us. Amen.