Dear friends, when beginning a new year, every pastor wonders what to say that will make a difference.  After reading St. Paul's words in Romans 8, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" I was tempted to let that be my sermon, to maybe read that verse 2-3 more times, say "Amen" and just sit down.  "If God is for us, who can be against us?"  What more could I add that should give us more hope for a new year than that?  But, of course, I do have something else to add.

          Ladies - made any New Year's Resolutions?  Here are some for you (couldn't find any suitable ones for men).
(1)  I resolve never to tell my husband "I told you so" for at least the first week of January.
(2)  I resolve never to embarrass my husband by wearing "cheap" jewelry and clothes.
(3)  I resolve always to look my best when he comes home, even it means staying out of the kitchen.
(4)  I resolve never to take the dog for a walk because, after all, a dog is a man's best friend.
(5)  I resolve this year not to add prune juice to his pancake syrup on Super Bowl Sunday (like I did last year).
Now I don't know if you ladies connect with any of those, but I think you should be able to keep them!

          Today is Epiphany Sunday, the day we remember the Wise Men coming from the east to find the newborn King.  In Eastern Christianity (that's Russian and Greek Orthodoxy, the Coptic and Armenian Churches) Monday, January 6, is Christmas day.  We call it Epiphany, the day Christ was revealed to the Wise Men.  "Epiphany", you'll recall, means "revealed".  Here at Epiphany, we make sure Christ is revealed as Savior every time we gather for worship.

          Epiphany started with visitors.  The Gospel says, "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 He who is born king of the Jews?'"  The Wise Men followed a star, and we still follow a star, no longer to the manger, but to the Gift that came in it.  At Epiphany, our motto is "Revealing Christ To All People."  That's what we're here for.  Everything we do must reveal Christ.  The Gentile Magi travelled to visit an unknown King.  If they hadn't, we Gentiles might not be Christian today.

          Like those Wise men, we're all travellers.  Sometimes the road is smooth and sometimes it's not, but we all must travel it.  It's up to us how we'll react to obstacles along the way.  Last week's newspaper told us of four more Christian missionaries murdered, this time in Yemen.  Murdering Christians is nothing new.  History is replete with martyrs who died for no other reason than believing in Jesus.  Today it seems Jesus is a growing threat to Muslims, Hindus and other religions, because they're shooting, stabbing, burning and blowing up Christians at an increasing rate all over the world.  But take heart!  The more we are hated, the more Satan is worried.  Jesus is winning the battle!  Satan is willing to try anything to subvert the cause of Jesus Christ, but he won't succeed!

          As believers look towards the future, we know there will be both good news and bad.  No life is easy, and sometimes, even at Christmas, bad news hits us over the head like a board.  Bad news even comes to preachers.  A pastor I heard of has really had a bad Christmas.  It all started just before Christmas when he got sick and was hospitalized.  His Women's Guild voted to send him a get-well card, but then he found out the vote was 21-20.  When he got home, he'd found his trustees had finally added more church parking, but to do it they'd blacktopped his parsonage yard.  When he noted his church attendance had risen dramatically three Sundays in a row, he realized those were the Sundays he'd been gone.  Then he finally found a choir director who liked the same kind of music he did.  So he hired her, but then the choir members all quit.  Then he found out his Elders accepted His revised job description just the way he wrote it.  Trouble is, they were so inspired with this new position, they're trying to find somebody else to fill it.  Well, he got through Christmas and was pleased to find his congregation bought him a ticket to the Holy Land.  I wonder if it's a one-way ticket!  Poor guy!  Like many of us, he doesn't know what the future holds for him in the coming new year.

          It's really tempting at the start of a New Year to be prophetic, to guess what's coming down the road tomorrow.  I know I shouldn't, but this year I decided to try anyway.  Some of what I have to say now may seem out in the left field, but maybe not as far as you might think.

          I think we're going to see a lot more trouble in the Church, from outside and from inside.  Last year's troubles in the Lutheran Church are only the tip of the iceberg.  Our denomination, the Missouri Synod is not going to die soon, but I don't think it will live forever.  I do believe we're moving closer to "Satan's Little Season."  That's the period before the End Times when persecution gets worse and worse, and people's faith grows weaker and weaker.  Before He left them, Jesus told His disciples what to expect when the End Times are at hand.  He didn't do it to scare them, but to prepare them.  Matthew 24 is part of what He told them.  Here's what He said:

          "Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.  Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:4-14)

          Do those words spook you?  They should.  Jesus didn't speak them to soothe, but to shock, to wake them up.  He who could foresee the future did not see things getting better.  We still live under the notion that our world will somehow get better, a kind of Darwinian evolutionary advancement.  But in Satan's Little Season, life will become scary.  With every disease cured, two more will take its place.  With every scientific advance, we'll have a moral retreat.  With every solution will come another problem.  Politics or candidates will not fix our world's problems.  Mankind will keep trying to do better, but will keep doing it wrong, because it will try doing it without the true God.

          Our Sunday adult Bible Class has been studying "Fellowship With God," a manual on Christian teachings.  Right now we're considering the problem of evil and have found the world is Satan's playground, that he is the "prince of this world," (John 12:31).  Learning that in itself was an Epiphany!

          C. S. Lewis once wrote, "Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed [on earth] in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.  When you go to church," he said, "You are really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends;  that is why the enemy is so anxious to keep us from going [to church].  He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.  I know someone will ask, 'Do you really mean, at this time of day, to re-introduce our old friend the devil -- hoof and horns and all?" ... If anyone really wants to know him [Satan] better I would say to that person, 'Don't worry.  If you really want to, you will.  Whether you'll like it when you do is another question'."  (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

          Our world is evil because of sin.  The Bible does not give a complete answer to the problem of evil, but it does say it originated with the devil, and not with God.  Satan hates and opposes the truth, and Christians will be hated more and more.  During 2003, opposition to God and the Church will keep growing.  Satan's Little Season will grow more intense.  More cracks will appear in the walls of the Church.  Evil will spread, and love among Christians will grow cold.  It's part of God's Epiphany!

          During the coming year, disease, reversals, betrayals, famine and tragedy will make our journeys confusing and intense.  You may find yourself becoming more angry and cynical, maybe even doubting God.  Whatever we've depended on in this world will get more shaky.  We must depend on God more completely than ever.

          St. Paul once wrote, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;  perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned;  struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)   The good news is that in Jesus Christ, we will not lose eternity.  We may see the present slip away, but when we have faith in Christ, eternity is still ours.  That's going to be the great Epiphany of 2003 - that in Jesus Christ we will stand firm.  In Jesus, we will not be struck down.  He will bring us through it all, and safe to the other side, His side of joy and peace and no more tears.  What a great Epiphany!

          In 2003, you and I won't be able to avoid feeling crushed from time to time.  We may get shoved off the road by tragedy, foolish decisions, or hateful people.  But it's up to us if we will stay in the ditch or get back on the road.  I can tell you all for certain that a big factor will be how often we worship God.  If we want to walk the road, we can't walk it alone.  I predict that the more you worship God during 2003, the more you'll have strength to stay the course.  That's a great Epiphany - a revelation from God.

          The Wise Men found Jesus and they worshipped Him.  We wise men and women should follow their example and do the same.  During the coming year, never let your business or weariness, or leisure keep you from worshipping God, whether Sunday, Saturday or any day.  Don't give up spiritual food just because you don't feel spiritually hungry, or because the menu looks uninviting.  Spiritual food is needed for your faith to grow.  Come feast in the Lord's House every week.

          Jesus is Lord - that will never change.  No matter what happens during 2003, we will never be alone unless we isolate ourselves from Him.  He loves and He forgives.  He'll never leave us nor forsake us.  We may worry and fret, but He gives peace.  We may have problems, but He brings solutions.  We fear the future, He fixes it.  God give us all a great Epiphany in the new year.  Amen.

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.