Our Saviors Lutheran Church - Beldenville, WI

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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Sermons
    • Newsletter
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Worship Service
    • Photo Gallery
  • Calendar
    • Volunteer Schedule
  • GIVE
    • eGiving Options
  • Youth Ministries
    • Sunday School
    • Sunday School Registration
    • Teacher Registration
    • S.O.S Kids Crew
    • Confirmation
    • Youth Newsletter
  • Adult Ministries
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  • Stewards of Our Savior's

Sermons

Christmastide Reflections

3/27/2023

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This Sunday's sermon is a series of scripture readings and poetic reflections for the first Sunday after Christmas, which was January 1, 2023 this year.
I. “For unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord”
Lesson: Isaiah 12:2-6, Matthew 1:18-21
 
What is a Savior?
 
With all the
          dangers and
          worries and
          stresses of the world,
we would be forgiven for imagining that a
                                                  SAVIOR
​          must be someone who comes with
                    power and influence,
          changing our circumstances
so that we can live the lives we’ve always wanted,
freed from all of those
          dangers and
          worries and
          stresses.
 
But
 
that’s not the savior we got.
 
The savior we got was
          a tiny child,
          born in obscurity,
          with no power or influence to change our circumstances
                    in any way we’d recognize.
 
And yet, they are changed.
 
How different are our lives because the savior turned out to be
          a baby, and not a general, leading armies--
          a child, and not a statesman, guiding policy--
          a poor infant, and not a businessman, leading global markets?
 
How could our lives not be different,
 
          since this is how
 
                    God chose
 
                              to save us?
 
II. “For unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord”
Lesson: Isaiah 61:1-3, 11, John 1:19-23, 29-34
 
Destiny can feel like such an out-of-the-way thing,
          like a bygone idea of purpose and direction given to us by
                    God
                    or Fate
                    or the Universe.
 
Destiny can feel out of place in a world that seems to have
          lost meaning in so many ways,
          lost direction in so many ways,
          lost purpose in so many ways.
 
But
 
Destiny sat on the head of that tiny baby boy, born in Bethlehem.
“Anointed,” they would call him--
Messiah, Christ.
          Anointed,
                    Destined,
                              Chosen
                    to be the one who would bring good news to the world.
 
To bind up the brokenhearted,
          to proclaim liberty to the captives,
          and release to the prisoners,
          to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.
 
Could it be that his destiny, his anointing,
          would lead to our own?
Could it be that this child in the manger,
          named by the angel as the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One,
          was anointed to blaze a trail that we are called to follow?
Could it be that the babe born in Bethlehem,
          who would take away the sin of the world,
          was destined not simply to free us once,
                    but to free us each and every day?
 
Freeing us to do what he, too, was anointed to do?
 
Is his anointing your destiny, too?
 
III. “For unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord”
Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 1:26-35

He is the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
                                                            ​He is the Child, nursing and small.

With only his voice he welcomed creation into being,
transforming the darkness into light and the formless into body.
                                                            With small, new eyes he could barely focus on his mother,
                                                            his tiny systems just learning how to turn her milk
                                                            into usable energy for his growing body.

He knows where the rain is stored,
and commands the sea to stop at the shore--
                                                            He cannot lift his head,
                                                            ​and waits for his father’s strong palm to lift him.

The edge of his robe fills the Temple--
too much for earth to contain.
                                                            He barely makes a dent in the hay of the manger--
                                                            do you remember how small newborns are?

The angelic hosts are constantly with him,
listening to his commands and praising his goodness.
                                                            The ox and the donkey watch over him,
                                                            not sure what to make of the baby in their food-trough.

The six-winged seraphs attend him,
singing in angelic choirs such that
their voices shake the pivots of the thresholds,
stunning prophets into silence!
                                                            The shepherds kneel, quietly,
                                                            to see him sleeping,
                                                            cooing in tenderness
                                                            at the tiny child still wet with birth.

Exalted and holy,
the earth will come streaming to Zion to learn from him
and find their everlasting hope.
                                                            Humble and unknown,
                                                            he won’t even make it onto the census record
                                                            that forced his place of birth.

He is the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

                                                            He is the Child, nursing and small.
 
 
                              ​He is the Word made flesh.
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Location:
N6450 530th St.
Beldenville, WI 54003

One mile east of US Hwy 63 and Pierce County Rd N intersection. Approximately 6 miles NE of Ellsworth, WI and 5 miles East of Beldenville.
Office Hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday
10:00 am - 2:30 pm
     

Pastor's Hours: 
Monday's, Tuesday's, Wednesday's, Thursday's
11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Directions:
One mile east of the US Hwy 63 and Pierce County Rd N intersection. Approximately 6 miles NE of Ellsworth WI and 5 miles East of Beldenville.

Contact Us:
Ph: 715.273.4570
Email: 
admin.os@hbci.com

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