60. First Sunday after Epiphany. I.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants,
and thy glory unto their children.
Gospel Lesson, Luke 2, 42-52. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem, after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
❦
Jesus grew up in the same way as do other children. But his heart was pure, and his development was undisturbed by sin. “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” These words, — the first recorded for us from his lips after he was made flesh, and the only ones that we hear of all that he spoke as a child, — are very significant. He was about his heavenly Father’s business; always obedient, and doing his will.
Our children are baptized into Jesus, and they, also, shall by him grow up, and increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. The good Spirit of God, which is given them in their baptism, shall surely accomplish this in them; but we parents are to be the servants of the Lord in furthering this work of grace. Here four things are especially important. 1) Be diligent in prayer for your children. Speak with God about them early and late, from their conception and birth until your death. When they weep, and when they smile; when they are well, and when they are ill; when they sleep, and when they are awake; let your prayers for them ascend with thanksgiving and faith to the Father in heaven; moisten and refresh them with your tears of supplication, and thus place them in the arms of the Savior. Follow them with your intercessions for them to the school, to their confirmation and holy communion, out from the home into the world full of dangers and temptations; let your prayers everywhere encircle them like a chain of mountains. If your child be poor, yet it is rich, if many prayers for it have been lodged with God. This heritage the child could not afford to exchange for all the gold of the multi-millionaire. 2) Begin early to teach your children the word of God. Jesus has said: “Baptize them, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Tell your children about Jesus; about his birth, childhood, obedience, love, suffering, death, and resurrection; about the glories of heaven, and the happiness of the blest with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; about the saints of God, and his pleasure in them; about Adam and paradise, Cain and Abel, Joseph and Daniel. Teach them the Ten Commandments, the Articles of the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and other prayers; do not leave this to the school; let the home be the temple of the Lord, and let this instruction in the word of God be the mother’s sacred privilege. Alas, what is to become of the unfortunate children who do not learn the word of God in their homes? 3) Administer correction to your children with good judgment and in love. The Spirit of God will strive against the evil which is in them, and which early comes to the surface; but their new life is like a tender plant needing support, and this you must give it by administering timely correction, and thereby helping them to practice self-denial and obedience. “He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes,” says the wise Solomon. For willfulness, lying, obstinacy, and similar sins you must punish your child, but never in wrath and bitterness; always calm, loving, suffering with the child, and zealous only against its sins. Do not scold or threaten, or exasperate; be firm, and true to your word; never effeminate and cowardly, never capricious and partial. 4) Set them a good example in holiness. Take care that you, yourself, walk before God as his child; let your children breathe the atmosphere of true piety in their homes. Keep up your faith and courage by the grace of God, in spite of all your infirmities; live in the covenant of your baptism, and renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways. God, who loves both you and your children with everlasting love in Christ, shall certainly strengthen you herein. It is a sorry condition of affairs when children are exhorted to that which is good, and punished for doing wrong, and at the same time see that their parents and teachers themselves live in sin. Woe to him that offends one of these little ones!
Practice these four things. Then if a strong and conscious growth of the new life does not appear in your children in their early age, it shall nevertheless not fail to appear later on. You and your house shall be saved. God himself has said it.
Help us hereto, heavenly Father, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.*
O blest the parents who give heed
Unto their children’s foremost need,
And weary not of care or cost:
To them and heaven shall none be lost.
Blest such a house, it prospers well,
In peace and joy the parents dwell;
And in their children’s lot is shown
How richly God can bless his own.
[TLH 625, LSB 862, ELH 190; listen here]
61. First Sunday after Epiphany. II.
We will hear what the Lord
has commanded thee to speak to us.
Epistle Lesson, Romans 12, 1-5. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
❦
Christ has, once for all, brought the sin- and guilt-offering for us, when he sacrificed himself. Shall we, then, not make any sacrifices? Yes, certainly, Christ sacrificed himself; we, also, shall give ourselves as an offering. We shall give God our heart, and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God. There is no more room for any atonement-offering, but we shall gladly bring to the Lord our thank-offering and our meat-offering. The children of the world give their bodies to the service of sin, and make them instruments of the devil. The believers shall use all their members in the service of Christ, and perform all their work on earth for him. We belong to him, and he employs us in the several vocations in which we are called to labor, as father, mother, child, servant, laborer, teacher, magistrate, etc. It is his will that we use all our faculties in deeds of charity, and employ our tongue in praising God, our hands in helping our neighbor, and our means in promoting the happiness of the poor. The world makes progress in that which is evil, and places an ever increasing distance between itself and God. The serpent in the wicked is nourished by their evil deeds, and grows from day to day; but the saints become more good every day; they reach a better understanding of the ways and the will of God, the humility of their heart increases, Christ takes a more pronounced shape in them, and their whole walk becomes more pleasing to God. The lower a level they reach in their humility, the deeper do they also penetrate into the sacrificial fire of Christ, into God’s holy love; and the more tenderly are they united as members of one body. They understand that they live for the purpose of serving one another, and being sanctified with one another, until the whole church, the most pure, most glorious, most precious body of the Lord Jesus, becomes perfectly holy and pleasing before God.*
Give me a calm, a thankful heart,
From every murmur free;
The blessings of thy grace impart,
And let me live to thee.
Let the sweet hope that thou art mine
My path of life attend;
Thy presence through my journey shine,
And crown my journey’s end.
[Common Service Book 406; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.
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