Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

In a recent news story about sales of this past Christmas season, it was reported that over 50% of all retail sales for holiday shoppers was for gift cards. They have become immensely popular and it is easy to understand why. You don't have to worry about getting the right size or model that would fit the recipient, or even the specific item. And you don't have to worry about wrapping it all up or paying some large package shipping charge. The gift card is a no hassle gift item. Did you get one or more of them as gifts this Christmas? Of course, we understand that the term, A gift card@ does not accurately describe what these things really are. The card is not the gift itself. Rather, a vendor has made a promise to grant a gift of some specified worth under certain terms which include payment in advance. In this regard, he devised a special card as a token or visible sign of the arrangement and gave it to the purchaser. And then - Merry Christmas! This token was given to you; and with the token - the gift card - the promise of a gift has also been extended to you. You are free to redeem it any time you wish and receive your gift. Merry Christmas!

Our Gospel this morning presents the baby Jesus as God's Christmas present to us, and one that He initially extended in much the same way as these so called, gift cards. As Jesus received his naming and circumcision, God served notice that He is about to make good his promised gift to father Abraham and his descendants. Lets review the background. When Abram was dwelling in the land of Canaan where he was told to go, the Lord came to him and promised to give the land to him and his offspring - offspring that God promised would number as the dust of the earth. Although still childless, and with some attempts to help God along, Abram trusted God's promise and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Later on, God again comes to Abram, now 99 years old, and adds even more to His covenant promise. His real wife, now his old wife - 90-year-old still barren Sarah - will bear him a son. And now God promises that Abram is not simply to be the father of a great nation . . . but he is to become the father of a multitude of nations. And moreover, from a particular seed of Abram, all the nations would received a special blessing. Both Abram and Sarah laughed because they thought that God was making a joke. But it was no joke. It was as God promised. And as a visible sign of this promised gift, God instructed of that every male descendant of Abram, for generations to come, was to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Circumcision would be the outward sign of the promise handed down - kind of like the modern day gift card. For like the gift card, circumcision was just an outward sign of the promised gift that God made with Abraham and his descendants. It neither was the promised gift, nor did it automatically extend the gift. There were terms and conditions and, of course, the gift would have to be paid for. God Himself would step in at the appointed time, see that the terms and conditions were fulfilled and then make good his promise. But also as a sign of the promise being extended, Abram's name is changed by God to Abraham, as he would be the father of many nations. As he is named, so he would be - both the father who received the promise, and the father of the promise that would then be extended to a multitude of nations.

But now, about those terms and conditions . . . There would be two conditions that would have to be met. First, God's Law would have to be fulfilled by Abraham's offspring, and secondly, the guilt of the sins of the people would have to be atoned for. Even with the promises of God there is no such thing as a free lunch. But as we page through Old Testament History, we learn that the efforts of Abraham and his offspring to fulfill these conditions by their own initiative were not successful. The first seed of Abraham, little Isaac, would not qualify as an acceptable sin offering. And over the course of Old Testament history, animals would only serve as a holding action until the proper Seed of Abraham would be provided. Moreover, 1500 years of the History of Israel and a gazillion additional chances could not produce a single individual who would fulfill the demands of the God's holy Law. How many Sons of Abraham had received circumcision - the sign of the promise - but had no power to fulfill its conditions? How many had received the gift card and the promise, but without the means of redemption?

Now . . . now we come to the fullness of time, 2000 years after Abraham, when the unusual Star was beginning to appear in the East, and the manger in Bethlehem was filled with food for sinners. Now, 8 days after the birth of the Christ Child - a son of Mary and Son of God - is presented to be circumcised and receive the name God had chosen, Jesus. He receives God's appointed sign of the promise, his gift card as a Son of the Abraham. Here at last is the chosen seed of Abraham who will execute the terms and conditions of the promise so that the blessing might be extended to all nations . . . so that God might be gracious to sinners . . . so that God might call you . . . you to become a citizen of his everlasting Kingdom, as paradise is restored.

As we look in on this event which installs this child into the covenant promise, and commissions him by his naming to be the chosen seed by which God will get his holy things done . . . we need to learn from Abraham and many who followed in his line, not to laugh. Abraham laughed and so did Sarah at the annunciation of the first seed, Isaac. God would get his program off to its appointed start with a child to born brought forth from two dottering old centenarians. Don't laugh. And now we are to also behold that he will conclude and fulfill this promise through a virgin's offspring, who is crowned Savior by name while he is still is a seemingly helpless baby without speech, mobility, or bowel control.

But here he is, and here we are all gathered around to become believers in the foolishness of God and the crazy methods he uses to accomplish his promises. This son of Abraham, this baby Jesus of Nazareth now circumcised, bears not simply the sign of the covenant, but he also bears the covenant itself. He is the blessing that has been promised. He has come into the world to fulfill that Law that we cannot fulfill. To be the righteousness of God, the Lamb of God, the Favor of God, the Child of God by which you are able to become righteous, to gain favor with God and become his child. In this babe, circumcism and name, we may behold that final seed of Abraham by which we, in our baptism, have become children of the promise, sons and daughters of Abraham by faith, and sons and daughters of God by adoption.

Can this babe, this baby Jesus do all this? You bet. In the weeks and months to come, see him grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God. See him teach the Bible teachers as a kid in the temple. See him live the life we have all been called to live, but are not able. See the righteousness of God who lives and serves the Father for you. See your Savior suffer and die for your sins and be raised for your justification. See the promise made to Abraham fulfilled by the chosen Son that makes each of us sons and daughters of the Lord most high. Let us realize that all of this is entailed in the name Jesus. He is as he is named. Savior. He is named as he has been given a sacred vocation, a holy calling from God. To be the Savior from sin. Yours . . . and yours . . . and mine. As we now get ready to behold the outworking of the name of Jesus as we follow the unfolding of his vocation, let our response be as that of Mary in her response to hearing of the advent of this child and his name. Let it be, according to your word. That would do Abraham, the father of faith, proud. Of course it would. We are now, by this Jesus, his offspring. A-men!