The Crux of the Matter - From the Executive Chair

The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of Augsburg Lutheran Churches

Vol. 3, No. 2 (November-December 2003)

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Lenae Rasmussen

“O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion”

In these gracious words from Isaiah, God gives his heralds Good Tidings to share with all the world:

⁹Get you up to a high mountain,
     O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
     O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
     lift it up, fear not;
say unto the cities of Judah,
     “Behold your God!”
¹⁰Behold the Lord God comes with might,
     and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
     and his recompense before him.
¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
     he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them in his bosom,
     and gently lead those that are with young.

Isaiah 40:9-11

Many of us heard these familiar verses sung in Handel’s “Messiah” as we prepared to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. But, this bold and comforting Advent proclamation brings life and light in any season. The striking command, “Behold your God!” declares that Christ’s birth is God become flesh to save us from the power of sin, death, and the devil. This babe in the manger is indeed “the Good Shepherd” for you and for me. Now is the time to forsake our sight, our reason, and our feelings, and to cling to God’s Word alone: Behold your God! This babe, born on Christmas morn in a Bethlehem stable, is truly our God. He does not come as an earthly prince or a powerful ruler, but lowly, meek, and helpless. He is the Prince of Peace, yet he sleeps in his mother’s arms with cattle lowing at his side. He came to save the world by dying on a cross. Such a simple beginning with such a harsh ending is hardly what we would expect of Almighty God. Yet, this is exactly how God chooses to reveal himself to us and to reconcile us with himself.

We have much to be thankful for this year. God has blessed our Augsburg Lutheran Churches with new member churches and pastors; more will join in January 2004. Our mission churches have grown in members and mission partners as they boldly declare the Gospel to God’s children. Pastors open for call have received letters of call, and the truth of the Gospel is being declared in Word and Sacrament all over the country in the ALC. It almost seems too incredible for such a small fellowship as ours, but that is the way God works. He uses the lowly and blesses his mission with the humble means he provides rather than the pomp and glory that we attempt to make with our own human hands. For all of this, we praise God.

Christmas declares God’s humble coming and his saving grace given for you in Christ. He comes for you this Christmas morn, and every day in good tidings that will never die. So, “lift up your voice with strength . . . lift it up, fear not, say unto [all the earth] ‘Behold your God!’”