[Machine transcription]
Brothers and sisters kind of looking at all of the readings tonight as part of
the text. Please be seated. Physical touch is oftentimes more than simply a
physical connection. There’s usually more behind it. An example is a handshake.
when agreements are made and sealed by the physical touch that joins the two
people together in that agreement. And another example is comfort that’s
conveyed in physical touch. Perhaps you can relate. For me, 27 years ago when I
was a youth minister at a church. This is before Marcia and I were married. I was
going through a particularly difficult and dark time and at Sunday worship one
morning, in fact it was a Sunday in Advent now that I think about it, during
worship during the Lord’s Supper I had communed and I went back to my seat
which was the end seat on the last row in the church is where I oftentimes sat
and I was sitting there with my head down praying and kind of contemplating
my dark situation at that time when one of the church members yeah I’m gonna
call him out his name was Bob Boynton he knows I talk about this so it’s okay he
was returning and he knew what was going on in my life at that time he was
returning to his seat from the Lord’s Supper,
and as he walked by me,
he simply put his hand on my shoulder,
conveying comfort to me,
as if to say,
Richard, it’ll be okay.
Maybe you’ve had something similar in your life.
I’ll admit that I’m sometimes jealous
of people such as those
in the Gospel reading for tonight
that physically touched Jesus
or that He physically touched
and healed them.
Wouldn’t it be great
to have Jesus physically touch
and heal and comfort you?
Or like the woman
who got to touch Him.
Or to be able to say,
like John in his letter
tonight in the second reading,
that we too,
we’ve heard Him, we’ve seen Him, we’ve touched Him, we touched the Word of Life.
Wouldn’t that have been great? Wouldn’t it be great to have physically
experienced Jesus in this way? I’m oftentimes jealous of those people
because of course today followers of Jesus we’re people of faith. We
haven’t heard, seen, or touched or experienced Jesus physically as they did
almost 2,000 years ago. But we do. We do hear, see, and touch Jesus today. No, not
in the same way as they did back then in the Bible, but with just as much healing
and comfort today. Jesus touches us today with means that we can relate to.
And maybe you know where I’m going with this, but I’m talking about God’s
Word and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through them, Jesus is
truly present and are means of Him touching us with His grace. And it’s a
means also to build up and strengthen and nourish our faith about God’s Word.
Okay, when you hear, when you read, when you sing, sign, or even remember God’s
word, Jesus touches you with healing and comfort, because in that word are the
promises of eternal life, the shining light of the gospel for the forgiveness
of sins. That’s all in God’s Word. And when you’re baptized, it’s Jesus who
applies the water to you, washing you and cleansing you from all sin. Sure, a
pastor or someone is involved in it, but it’s Jesus’s baptism. Jesus touching you.
And in the Lord’s Supper, okay, it’s here that Jesus puts the bread and the wine
into our hand and mouth,
His very body and blood
given and shed for you.”
We talk about physical touch.
We hold it.
We drink it.
We eat it.
We’re receiving the very physical touch
of Christ’s body and blood.
I’ll also admit that sometimes
during the Lord’s Supper,
whether I’m receiving it
or administering it and giving it to you.
It’s all I can do sometimes to keep myself together,
realizing what’s happening here
and that Jesus is touching us with His forgiveness,
His healing and comfort.
So although I’m sometimes jealous of those people
who got to see and hear and touch Jesus,
I also feel sorry for them
because they don’t get to experience it
the way that we do today
because Jesus still does physically touch us.
And in celebrating Christ’s birth at Christmas,
we celebrate what’s probably the most incredible
and yet unexplainable theological event,
the Incarnation of God.
Jesus being both fully God and fully man.
That dual nature of Christ,
it’s an incredible thing
that God would choose to enter our world
and live with us physically
and touch us
and heal us
and comfort us we we dark and sinful people that’s incredible that God would
do that it’s incredible that God would come into our dark world of sin my sin
and your sin that’s ruined his creation he comes into it invading it with the
light of his grace and forgiveness in Jesus physically and Jesus would
physically suffer and die for us walking in walking with us in in fellowship it’s
incredible that despite your sin that God still wants to be around you and
even still physically touch you how God could do this is is beyond imagination
but why he did it is easier because he loves you in your difficult dark times
of life Jesus walks over to you puts his hand on you as if to say it’ll be okay
I’m with you and if you’re in a difficult and dark time because somebody
has hurt you and you you’re the victim and you’re you’re really hurt by this
Jesus walks up to you puts his hand on you and says it’ll be okay I comfort you
and in the difficult and dark times of your sin when you’ve done said or or
thought things that are really dark Jesus walks up to you puts his hand on
you and says it’ll be okay I forgive you Jesus says to you arise shine your light
me he says has come and my glory is on you the glory of my comfort and my
healing and my forgiveness I give that to you like John in the in his letter
tonight that’s the word of life and comfort and healing that I proclaim to
you the word of life of Jesus, who touched people then and touches them now. And we
do enjoy that now, we enjoy Jesus’s touch now, we have this physical touch now, but
also to look forward to in heaven. See Jesus, He physically rose from the dead
and he physically ascended into heaven. Jesus still has a physical body and we
will too in heaven. We’ll physically be in the light of Christ’s fellowship in
eternal life. We’ll get to see and touch him and we won’t have to be jealous of
for those who did get to 2,000 years ago, okay?
But until then,
we enjoy now the physical touch of Jesus,
healing us, comforting us,
lighting our lives with His loving grace
in word and sacrament.
May this light always shine on you,
especially in your difficult and dark times.
Amen.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
