\u201cLong ago, at many times and\u00a0in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,\u00a0but\u00a0in these last days\u00a0He has spoken to us by\u00a0his Son, whom he appointed\u00a0the heir of all things,\u00a0through whom also he created\u00a0the world.\u00a0 He is the radiance of the glory of God and\u00a0the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.\u00a0 After making purification for sins,\u00a0he sat down\u00a0at the right hand of the Majesty on high,\u00a0having become as much superior to angels as the name\u00a0He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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For to which of the angels did God ever say,<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou are my Son,\u00a0today I have begotten you\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Or again,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be to him a father,\u00a0and he shall be to me a son\u201d?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And again, when he brings\u00a0the firstborn into the world, he says, \u201cLet all God\u2019s angels worship him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the final Word. At many times and in many ways through the Old Testament, God spoke to His people of old. Law here, Gospel there, a message condemning wickedness and then a sudden prophecy that the Savior was coming. As people waited for the Savior, it was sort of a bunch of puzzle pieces to put together, but everything that people needed to know about the Messiah was there. It all pointed to the anointed One who was coming: but once He came, He would no longer be a puzzle. He\u2019d be the final Word. If you want to know salvation, listen to Him. Listen to the only-begotten Son of God. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the heir of all things. We sang it in the psalm this morning, one of those prophetic puzzle pieces of the Savior. The Father declared in Psalm 2:8, \u201cAsk of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.\u201d If you\u2019re interested in authority, there\u2019s some authority for you. God the Father declares that all things are the Son\u2019s inheritance. I don\u2019t know what sort of inheritance you anticipate from family, but it hardly compares to being the heir of all things. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the One through whom all things were created. Genesis 1 declares that God created all things by speaking. He said, \u201cLet there be light,\u201d and there was light. So He spoke throughout the six days of creation, and everything that He spoke to make was good. But you heard more today in the Gospel of John: \u201cAll things were made through him (through the Son of God!), and without him was not any thing made that was made.\u201d If you\u2019re interested in power, there\u2019s some power for you: when Jesus speaks, He does. He accomplishes. He spoke to create the heavens and the earth. He spoke to the blind and they could see\u2014He spoke to the deaf and they could hear. Now, in Hebrews 1, we hear that God speaks to you through His Son in these last days. God, who spoke through His Son to create all things, now speaks through His Son to you. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the radiance of the glory of God. Remember your Old Testament accounts: wherever God appears, there is radiance and glory. When the Lord descended on Mt. Sinai to give the Ten Commandments, there was glory to be seen\u2014the pillar of cloud and fire, the light and the lightning. When He filled the tabernacle and the temple, there was that radiant glory again. It was scary stuff: the people saw it, cried in fear and kept their distance. But they could point to the glory and say, \u201cThere is our God.\u201d Likewise, they could point to His Son and say, \u201cThere is our God.\u201d If you\u2019re interested in the glory of God, there\u2019s some glory for you. The Son is the radiance of the glory of God. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the exact imprint of God\u2019s nature. If you\u2019re interested in majesty, here\u2019s some majesty for you. He is not just another prophet, telling you what God-up-in-heaven says. He is not half-God and half-man, possessing some of God\u2019s attributes but missing others: He\u2019s not the love-half of God while the wrath-half is lurking somewhere else. He\u2019s the exact imprint of God\u2019s nature. The Son of God is fully God Himself, nothing less. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He upholds the universe by the word of His power. There\u2019s that \u201cword\u201d word again. It is not just that He created all things in the past, set the world in motion like a spinning top and stepped back to see what would happen. If you want a hands-on God, then here\u2019s some hands-on for you. The Son of God still speaks His powerful Word to uphold the universe. He is both Creator and Preserver of all things. There will be a tomorrow not because the earth completes another rotation and the sun comes up again, but because God the Son tells the earth and sun to keep going. Without Him, nothing. With Him, all things are preserved. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He is the final Word. He is the Heir of all things. He is the Creator. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the exact imprint of God\u2019s nature. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. That\u2019s completion, authority, power, glory, majesty, ongoing supremacy. That\u2019s six things about the Son of God. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a seventh: He\u2019s in a manger. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the miracle. That\u2019s the point. That\u2019s Christmas. The Son of God is born of Mary. She\u2019s given birth to her Creator. To keep Him alive, she\u2019s nursing the One who provides daily bread to the world and keeping warm the One who commands the sun to rise each day. Mary has immobilized the all-powerful Son of God in swaddling clothes so that He can\u2019t really move a muscle. The Radiance of the glory of God is lying in a food trough for animals. The One who upholds the universe by His Word still has to learn His abc\u2019s. (Well, His aleph-beth-gimels and His alpha-beta-gammas, anyway.) <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Word has become flesh to dwell among us. God has become man. He hasn\u2019t given up His divinity: He\u2019s still fully God. He\u2019s all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present and eternal. But He has also become man: fully man. Fully able to be tiny, vulnerable, hungry, tired…even able to be hurt and to die. He\u2019s become flesh…and He hasn\u2019t even got a decent bed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why? Why is Jesus born of Mary? And why not in a palace with warmth and silk and, well, far better circumstances than this? Our epistle announces another amazing truth: He has come to make purification for sins. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He has come to make purification for sins. Note that. He hasn\u2019t come to see what it\u2019s like to have flesh and bone. He hasn\u2019t come to see who\u2019s been naughty or nice. He hasn\u2019t come to tell you to knock off the sinning and slap you around until you do. (It\u2019s not that He\u2019s okay with sin, but that you\u2019re dead in it and can\u2019t save yourself.) He hasn\u2019t come as \u201cMoses Part Two\u201d to give you more rules to live by. He hasn\u2019t come to give you a happier, more prosperous life before you die eternally. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He has come to make purification for sins. In other words, He has come to give you what you most need by doing what you cannot do. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How does He make this purification? You know how it goes consistently in the Scriptures: sins are removed and purification is accomplished by one means\u2014sacrifice. The sacrificial preparation has begun, and it continues as Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit, begotten of the Father and born of the Virgin Mary. He\u2019s the perfect Child\u2014literally. Unlike every other baby born in this world, He is without sin; and He is without sin because a sacrifice for sin must be pure and without blemish. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t stay in the manger. He grows up\u2014and He grows up perfect and holy, without sin: not just because He can, but because He\u2019s doing it for you. He lives to be the pure and perfect Sacrifice, yes; and He also lives to give you the credit for His pure and perfect life. When He takes away your sin, He also gives: He gives you His purity before God. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The time of the Sacrifice comes. As strange and miraculous as it was that the Creator\/Preserver\/all-powerful\/radiance of the glory of God spent His first day on earth in a manger, try this one on for size: He spends the Last Day of His humiliation-life on a cross. It\u2019s not astounding that sinners have rejected Him and want Him dead. It\u2019s truly amazing, though, that He permits them to crucify Him. It is not that He is overpowered, but that He submits to be the Sacrifice. It\u2019s by His death on the cross that He accomplishes the purification of sins. The Father\u2019s joyous declaration, \u201cYou are My Son, today I have begotten You\u201d is replaced by the Son\u2019s cry, \u201cMy God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?\u201d This is the Sacrifice: the Father judges the Son for the sins of the world. He condemns the Son for your sin. For mine. That is how this purification of sins is accomplished: the One who was born for you and lived for you also dies for you. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He rises again! Death and grave are no match for the One who keeps the world turning. Why does He rise again? For you\u2014so that He might raise you from the dead. And what does He do now, in the meantime? He has \u201csat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.\u201d Why? For you: to joyfully declare to His Father, \u201cI have died for them. I have purified them by My death, and they are now yours, forgiven for My sake.\u201d And the Father who declared, \u201cYou are My Son, today I have begotten You\u201d to Jesus, now declares to you, \u201cYou are My beloved child, for the sake of My only begotten Son.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That is why Christ the Savior is born\u2014to make purification for your sin so that you might be born again. So you are born again in the waters of Holy Baptism, joined to His death and resurrection there so that you might be a child of God. And the One born of Mary isn\u2019t done with you yet: He who upholds the universe with His powerful Word speaks His Word of grace and forgiveness to you, so that you might remain purified before God. The Radiance of the Glory of God, become flesh and once wrapped in swaddling clothes, now gives you His very body and blood, swaddled in bread and wine for the forgiveness of your sins. For your ongoing purification. For life and salvation.<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
That is why you rejoice in Christ at Christmas, and that is why you repent when you\u2019re distracted by those messages that would rob you of true joy and life. It\u2019s why you don\u2019t follow the world\u2019s gambit: the world only finds Jesus acceptable when He\u2019s a baby in the manger, because then He looks like any other helpless baby and Christmas is all about us doing stuff for Him! It\u2019s why you don\u2019t see this holy day as a mere commemoration of something that happened long ago, but a milestone in the Lord\u2019s ongoing plan for your salvation. It\u2019s why you don\u2019t turn Christmas gifts into idols, the be-all and end-all of Christmas: for as nice as all sorts of gadgets and toys and clothes can be, they\u2019re going to wear out if they don\u2019t perish in a fervent heat first. No, you don\u2019t turn these gifts into false gods; when you do, you repent, and you see these gifts as little reminders of the gift Christ gives to you\u2014His Incarnation, His person and work to make purification of sins for you. It\u2019s why you don\u2019t idolize family this holiday season\u2014for as much of a great gift is love among family and friends, far greater is the love of Christ for your family and friends that He has been born to lay down His life for them. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why you join the joy of the shepherds in the fields, keeping their flocks by night. When the Father brought His Firstborn into the world, He commanded, \u201cLet all God\u2019s angels worship Him.\u201d They did. They sang to the shepherds, and remember what the angel said: \u201cUnto you is born in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Note it, and note it well. The angel didn\u2019t just say, \u201cA Savior is born.\u201d The angel said, \u201cA Savior is born for you.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dear friends in Christ, that is the miracle we celebrate today: Christ is born for you. And He who was born for you also lived for you. And He who lived for you also died for you. And He who died for you also rose for you, and sits at the right hand of God for you. Why? So that He who made purification for sins might continue to purify you from all of yours. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A blessed Christmas, then, to you all: because you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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