INI   January 11 & 12, 2009   First Sunday after the Epiphany

Sermon preached at Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), 9931 Foley Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids, MN  55433. Please share this with someone else after you have finished. Thank you!

Bible Text—Isaiah 60:1-6

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

On January 3, 1993 there was an AFC playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and the Houston Oilers in Buffalo, New York. It’s been sixteen years, but maybe some of you remember watching the biggest comeback football game in NFL history. At half-time, the Oilers were handily winning the game 28-3, but in the second half the Bills came back and won the game in overtime, 41 -38.

Imagine what it must have been like for die-hard Buffalo Bills fans. At half-time, my guess is several hundred probably left the stadium because they didn’t want to see their home-town team annihilated. Those who stayed were more than likely sad and depressed because their team was doing so poorly in the playoffs. Vikings fans know that feeling well. As the TV cameras panned the stands, Bills fans were shown with their heads down, very, very sad, not saying anything. But by the end of the game, they were jumping up and down, yelling and screaming in excitement, thrilled beyond belief that their team came back to win! 

This is the same kind of attitude change our Bible text from Isaiah refers to this morning. These words were first addressed to Old Testament Jewish believers to comfort their hearts as they were held captive in Babylon. They were sad, downhearted and despairing. But then the prophet’s Spirit-inspired words reach their ears: Arise, shine! The word arise referred to their bodies, just like when the Bills football fans jumped out of their seats and started yelling and screaming. Shine referred to their hearts and attitudes, just like when the football fans’ sadness was changed to excitement and laughter!

Isaiah’s words also apply to you and me today. We should also ARISE AND SHINE! Why?

1. The light of the gospel rises upon us, and

2. People from all over the world come to the light.

3. We rejoice when we see others drawn to the light.

1.

The 53^rd chapter of Isaiah relates to us the work of the Messiah. During the Lenten season especially, when we consider our Lord’s sufferings and death as our Substitute to pay for the sins of the world, we hear words such as this from Isaiah 53: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (verses 4, 5). Our text for today from Isaiah chapter 60 shows us the wonderful results of this, our Savior’s work. These words are addressed to Zion. Zion is the name of the mountain on which the city of Jerusalem was built. But depending on the context in which we find the word used in the Bible, Zion can also refer to the believers in the Old Testament—those who looked forward in faith to the Messiah. And in the New Testament, Zion refers to God’s family of believers in Christ—the Holy Christian Church.

So Isaiah says to Zion: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Darkness and gloom didn’t just affect the Old Testament Jewish believers in their Babylonian captivity. Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples. Isaiah’s primarily talking about the darkness and gloom that naturally extends over the entire world and affects every single human being because of our sin and unbelief. This darkness and sadness is what hangs over all of us naturally, as humanity awaits the just judgment of a holy God. But in contrast to the rest of the world that lies in such darkness, Zion’s reminded how her light is already brightly shining. That light is God himself.

Let’s jump ahead seven-hundred years or so from the time of Isaiah. “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord,’” Luke 2:8-11. And about thirty some years after that, on the day of transfiguration, “Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light,” Matthew 17:1, 2. Jesus our Savior is the light Isaiah wrote about in our text. Jesus himself is the glory of the Lord: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:1, 14.

2. ARISE AND SHINE! For people from all over the world come to the light.

This light of our Savior—this light of the gospel—this light that brings us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life—it’s not just meant for a certain few. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Just as the darkness of sin encompassed the whole earth, so also the light of the gospel would penetrate all nations. And we see one of the first fulfillments of this prophecy of gentiles and kings coming to the light in the arrival of the wise men to worship the baby Jesus: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him,’” Matthew 2:1, 2.

There’s a scene at the end of the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams,” where car headlights can be seen for miles. They were all driving toward the little baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. The cars were coming and the line of headlights seemed to go on forever. This is the kind of picture we have in our text when it talks about the gentiles—the non-Jews—coming to the light of the gospel as it was shining from Zion. And as the darkness dissipates, Zion sees all these crowds of people coming. They’re no longer just gentiles and kings, but now they’re called sons and daughters. Gentiles are now considered part of God’s family of faith in the Savior. Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.  And when sinners covered in darkness are brought into the life-giving light of Christ’s good news through faith, they’ll be motivated to give their very best for the sake of the gospel—whether its goods or gold or their very lives. Listen to how Isaiah puts it: The wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.

As Isaiah continues this picture of gentiles coming to Zion, bringing their wealth and riches, he uses the ancient illustration of camels. We spoke earlier of the endless line of cars in the “Field of Dreams” movie. They didn’t have cars in Isaiah’s time, but they had camels. Camels were a common form of transportation, especially in the desert. In fact, so many gentiles would come to Zion proclaiming God’s praises for his wonderful light of forgiveness and salvation that it would seem as if camels would cover every inch of ground, just like cars might cover an entire parking lot. We see the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy again with the arrival of the wise men: “When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh,” Matthew 2:10, 11.

3.      ARISE AND SHINE! We rejoice when we see others drawn to the light.

Verse 5 of our text begins with an expression of overwhelming and almost inexpressible joy that believers experience when we see others being brought to the Savior: Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy. There should be nothing more moving, more meaningful or joyful for a Christian than to hear that the Holy Spirit is bringing many into God’s gospel kingdom. The apostle Paul spoke in such a way, too, as he was writing to the Thessalonians: “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy,” 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20.

But at the time of the apostles—after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven—there were a number of Christians with Jewish backgrounds who had a difficult time accepting the fact there were gentiles coming into the church. And there always seemed to be more and more of them. Part of their hang-up had to do with misconceptions about what it meant to be children of God. Some of these Jewish Christians felt they were special because they were descended from Abraham, or because they still kept certain Old Testament rules which the gentiles didn’t. In the book of Galatians, we even hear how the apostle Paul had to reprimand Peter for treating gentile Christians differently than Jewish believers. 

I’d like you to take a moment and look around at the people sitting here in worship with you today. If you’ve been a long-time member of Cross of Christ, you’ll see a number of men, women and children who were not a part of our fellowship just five years ago. We’ve had a large number of individuals and families who have become a part of our Christian family either through transfers from other Wisconsin Synod churches, or they have come to us through our adult Bible information classes.

As we see these new faces among us, are we radiant, and do our hearts throb and swell with joy? Do we rejoice that God’s using us to proclaim his Word so more and more people are brought to the light of the gospel? Do we make these new people truly feel they’re a part of our family of faith here at Cross of Christ? Only you can answer those questions for yourself, as you examine your own personal attitude towards those who are new here, and how you have personally interacted with them to make them feel a part of our congregation—a church that gathers around God’s Word and sacraments.

Just as the Buffalo Bills football fans jumped out of their seats and shouted with excitement and laughter, even so may we ARISE AND SHINE!—for the light of the gospel has risen upon us. People from all over the world have come to that light, and we’ve witnessed such a thing happening in our own midst here at Cross of Christ. May we truly rejoice when we see others being drawn to the light, and may we sincerely make them feel welcome in our Christian family.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.