In the Bible, there are two aspects of God's glory: a light side and a dark side. These are the two aspects of God’s glory. There is a lightness to God, a tender touch, and a weighty, dense side to God, which is a heavier hand. These two aspects of course come from looking at how glory — the kabod of God — appears in the Old Testament, especially how it is sometimes presented as light, while it is other times (and maybe even most of the time) presented as a dark cloud, a heaviness, a shadow that covers.

When we come to Sinai and the giving of the Law, there’s blood shed everywhere. Anything that makes unclean before God has its appointed sacrifice for blood atonement. But the doing of the thing isn’t what atones, but rather faith in the word of promise attached to blood. They were a “shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1), namely Jesus. For God’s people, everything and everyone needs to be atoned for, covered with blood. And no one is without sin but One alone. Jesus needs no atonement but sheds His blood to atone for my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world. He covers everything in His blood, forgiving all.

Permit us to be assertors, to be devoted to assertions and delight in them, while you stick to your Skeptics and Academics till Christ calls you too. The Holy Spirit is no Skeptic, and it is not doubts or mere opinions that he has written on our hearts, but assertions more sure and certain than life itself and all experience. (LW33:24)

Jesus told His disciples as He commissioned them to be His apostles, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” St. Stephen sees Jesus “sitting at the right hand of God.” St. Paul to Timothy and St. John confesses in his Apocalypse that Jesus is Kings of kings and Lord of lords. Every authority, from the angels in heaven to the demons below, from rulers on top and peasants at the bottom, is under Christ’s authority. As the Apostle confesses, “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Today, then, you are given to each other by Jesus: husband and wife, parent and child. That's enough. Christ honored and supported marriage at Cana. Christ will care for your tomorrows. Today, Christ lives at the center of your life. He focuses your heart and mind on the law of love. He creates godly order out of social and cultural chaos for you. He gives you clarity amid confusion. He provides your marriage and family life in a world that eagerly hopes for their demise.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

You might even be surprised that God’s Word can do what no other instruction can. He makes you like children again. Jesus softens the ossification of behavior and breaks the bad habits down one by one. Jesus reverses the normal course of aging, opening your hearts to a new life and innocence. He makes you curious and imaginative, delighting in things you’ve heard a thousand times before, giving you insight into yourselves, your neighbor, and the world that you’ve never seen before. In Jesus, you have child-like faith, hope, and love again.

Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

We have heard the Word of promise and know and see the signs. They may not be what the world expects, but they are precisely what it needs. Look around and see! We are like the Magi in heeding our Lord’s call and remaining where our Lord is to be found. We feast upon His saving Word. We receive his body and blood in the most humble means: bread and wine. We receive the forgiveness of sins, the crown of life, and the exceedingly rich joys of eternity.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,

And put away evil from your flesh,

For childhood and youth are vanity.

What began on His eighth day culminates in your eighth day, the day of your baptism, the day of your resurrection! You are sons and daughters of the King through the new circumcision of the heart, that is, faith. As St. Paul writes, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). You have received this more excellent mark than circumcision, the giving you the new name, Christian. You are marked by Holy Baptism, wholly covered by Christ’s flesh.

That’s what Jesus does for you. He releases you from the obligation to treat every gift as a debt owed. The old way of gifting, the old way of defining a gift as an obligation, is put to death by Jesus at his birth, in His ministry, and at His death and resurrection. And that’s good news. The old way is awkward and hopeless, and it depends on your loyalty and service. God’s whole purpose for being bodied is to give you a graspable gift, the gift of Himself, as a constant reminder that the new way of gifting has come into the world, bringing joy, peace, and freedom with it. 

If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Jesus is the Light no darkness can overcome. This Light shines forth for you today in enlightening gifts, the brilliant flame of faith stirred by the mighty rushing wind of the Spirit. Every promise we once only saw as in a mirror dimly, now we see with the brightness of Christ’s rising. You cannot help but shine now aglow with Christ’s life because you are in Him, and He is in you. You were adopted, made new, and resurrected into Jesus by the washing of water and the Word. The joy of Christmas Day is the joy of those newly born who have unwrapped the greatest gift of all—Jesus, the light of the World.

The answer to all of these questions is the same: Emmanuel. God is with us. He is with us and comes closer to us than our next breath. Our God comes in the flesh, dressed in faithful, loving-kindness. He comes with words that bless, that forgive, that create a new life; a new husband and wife life, a new child and parent life, a new home life, a new church life.

In this unassuming ancient village, where the Bread of Life first drew breath, you find your breath in the breaking of this bread — Jesus, the Christ, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the source and sustenance of your life.

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, But the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, And the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be; Who can tell him what will be after him?

So, John is a bridge between the old and the new. He’s there to announce that the old growth is being cut down. It has to go. It has to be cleared away so the ground can be prepared for this seed coming from above, the seed that will sprout and grow into a tree, and its fruit will feed all of God’s people. And who are God’s people? All the people baptized in the Name of the Tree, Jesus. He’s the Seed from above. He’s the shoot that grows out of Jesse's dead stump. He’s the tree of life that stands in this holy orchard of God’s planting.

The outsiders—shepherds, Magi, Mary, and Joseph—gather around the babe, who cradles all creation in His hands. In the simplicity of this scene, we find a cosmic reversal, where the high stoops low and the low is lifted high. The nativity story, a tale of outsiders invited into the heart of salvation, is spoken of throughout history because it is a divine declaration of love for those the world overlooks and judges unimportant.