That first year of our Lord — when God was in the flesh in Christ — it might be said that Christmas started a little early. Though the world did not yet know, Mary, Elisabeth, and John the Baptist (though he was only 6 months in his mother’s womb) knew that Jesus had come! It was Christmas before Christmas. The account is amazing and tomorrow I relate to you how the Virgin Mary, the mother of John the Baptist — Elisabeth — and the unborn John the Baptist are little pictures of you and of me. We learn about our own great need for a Savior through these holy people in sacred Scripture and each of them demonstrate their own great need to be blessed and to receive the grace of God. The best part is, is that when we receive this good news that the Lord in grace prepares us for Christmas, we leap…we leap in great joy!

In addition — and as always — we will receive the ongoing sending and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (the holy mass) in the precious body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Once again, God would have it that you be assured that your sins are forgiven; that God is for you; and that you are called to saving faith through this medicine of immortality which prepares you for Christmas.

I rejoice to serve you and look forward to seeing you in the morning!

Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

But here in our Gospel this morning — one more canticle; one more special song for us to consider before Christmas on the occasion of what the Church calls “The Visitation,” when Mary traveled for about four (4) days to visit her cousin Elisabeth — the Lord surprises us that there was a coming of Christ (a sending of Christ to appreciate the actual word “Christ-mass” before His birth; a kind of “Christmas” before Christmas). That is, we mustn’t forget dear Christians that before the birth of our Savior, there was for Him just like there was for you, a conception — the vehicle used by God to initiate the incarnation insofar as it touches our lives in this world — God taking upon Himself flesh; true God becoming also at the same time true man nine months before His birth; your brother who was and is true God. He became a true human like you and was therefore able to be your human representative and human substitute to save you from your sin and to save you from death. As the great Athanasius wrote, “This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, when He had fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, [the law of death] was thereafter voided of its power for men…[and I especially love this part]…Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire (On the Incarnation, 34).”

We see that Jesus is God even at conception! Pieper wrote, “Not only as a man (Matt. 16:13-17; 26:63f.), not only as a boy (Luke 2:49), not only as the child in the manger (Luke 2:11), but already as the child in His mother’s womb He is [The Lord], the Lord God, called that by Elisabeth (Luke 1:43). He was then already received into the Person of the Son of God (Volume II, 79-80). The Augsburg Confession summarizes exactly what the Word of God is presenting us through the conception of Jesus: “Also they teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, did assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary (Trigl. 44, Art. III, 1).”

In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,

Pastor Espinosa

p.s. remember that our Christmas Eve (candlelight service) is Monday, December 24th at 7 pm and that our Christmas Morning (communion service) is Tuesday, December 25th…Karissa has planned some great music for us as well!