Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we begin. We begin a new chapter in the history of Christ the King Lutheran Church. One that sees our congregation move just down the road a little bit to 3100 Isle Road. things are going to change. Sometimes there are things we want to change and they do change. Sometimes there are things we don't want to change and they do change. So our physical address has changed, but the foundation on which we Scripture tells us that change is not. I am the Lord, I change not, the Bible says. So, wherever our congregation meets as a location, as a building, we're going to continue to do just what our mission statement says, and that is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead, teach the truth of God's word, and to reach out in service to God and the community. We're going to continue to preach, teach, and reach. Those three planks of our mission statement, which are drawn from Acts chapter 2. So I said that last week, effectively, that we're moving, but our foundation, our mission, it remains the same. And it didn't really hit me until this morning, you know, coming in, it's like going to a new place, a new routine. It's like, wow, this is real. But when you were there and I said, this is the day the Lord has made and you were So the Word will continue to be preached, the sacraments will continue to be rightly administered, and that's happening on this very day. You're hearing a sermon right now, and we will partake of the sacrament of the altar in a little bit later in the service. So we have come now to this second step. Advent candles. We've got our countdown going on. We're halfway there, believe it. The second Sunday of Advent already. We're halfway there. We've got our Christmas tree beautifully lit up and as we sang, it's pointing us to the ever-changing and ever-living God. And it's December 4th, which means that on the church calendar, this day is also the commemoration of a guy named Our sermon texts for today are going to be that Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 11 and the Gospel lesson from St. Matthew 25. The title of this sermon is Serving the Real and the Living Jesus. God the Father promised to send a Messiah so that we may know and worship God in the flesh, serving Him with the talents that He gives us. So John of Damascus is remembered today for his contributions to the Kingdom of God, especially in the areas of theology and hymn writing he made quite the impact. And this is one of those saints of the early church And he is considered the last great Greek theologian, because after his time, no major theologians would write in Greek. He was the last one to really do his writing in Greek, which of course is the language of the New Testament. We actually know a good bit about John of Damascus' life after he was called to the ministry because he wrote so prolifically. Now we know less about his early life, Like many of the early saints of the church, there are many legends about him, things you read. Maybe some of them are true, maybe some of them aren't. But this we know. We know that John of Damascus was born in, surprise, wait for it, Damascus. We know that he was born in Damascus. Let's start there with the But in the early church, the early centuries of the church, many, many Christians were of Arab descent. That was fairly normative. And in fact, some of the most ancient Christian communities in the world are found in Arab-dominated lands. Perhaps you've met some Christians who are of Arab descent. I've met a few over my life. But unfortunately, there are many fewer Arab Christians today than there were even 100 years ago. I just read a statistic in the last week that in Syria, where Damascus is, that it's down to only about 10% of the population being Christian. Just a couple decades ago, it was probably 20-25%. So it was about the time of John of Damascus actually that Islam stormed out of the Arabian Peninsula and it began to conquer much territory and that included Syria and its capital Damascus. So it's about 40 years before John of Damascus was born that Damascus fell to the Islamic armies. So John is growing up in a region which about a generation ago was a Christian region, but now is controlled by Islam. So I would say we are living in a time that just about 40 years ago, just about a generation ago. But John's family, despite intense pressure to convert to Islam for the population there, and most of them would end up converting to Islam over the years, they remained faithful to Christ. They remained Christians. They would not convert. Now, John's father was also named John, which is Sarjan in Arabic, and he was actually very successful financially. It is said that he would use his wealth to purchase the freedom was the most likely the financial secretary, basically the bookkeeper for the Islamic caliph there. Now, as would often happen, especially in years past, it's not quite as common today, but normally if you were born into a family, what was gonna be your job? You were gonna do what your family did, right? You would just go into the family business. So this is the early path that John of Damascus took. He became a financier. And so that emphasis on finance is actually why did we hear that parable of Jesus today on the tablets? That's why this text is often read on the commemoration of John of Damascus, because it has that element of money keeping and stewardship of that. But the life of finance would not be the final calling for John of Damascus. If you think about it, it would have been pretty easy for him to take that path, wouldn't it? Because it was a family business and also, very importantly, it provided you protection from persecution that was occurring because you worked for the boss. You were going to be protected. Now, John had the opportunity to receive a fine classical education, and as I said, he knew and he wrote and he agreed. But John would understand the deeper meaning of our gospel text for today, which is the parable of italics, as I said. Now, when you read the parable of the talents, our gospel lesson from Matthew 25, there are certainly some good business and financial principles you can take from that parable, aren't there? There is an application of that. Basically, if you are given a sum of money, the most foolish thing you could do is simply bury it in the ground. Hide it under your mattress, as some people do, because you're so afraid of losing it. because the servant who did that is the one that is condemned partially when the master returns from the far country, right? But the first two servants, they are both commended. They are both told, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the kingdom and be joyful. So there are some of those practical lessons about money management and things like that. to teach us spiritual truth. So the master, as he always does in the parables, who is the master represented in this story? God. The master always represents God in the parable. So this master goes away into a far country. But what is Jesus talking about there? He's talking about not long after this, he will die, he will rise again, and then he will what? Ascend to death and he will go to this far country A day later, that Master will return. This is the Advent time, right? Because what do we do in Advent? We look forward to the return of Christ. Not only His first coming we celebrate, but we look to the return of Jesus. That Master will return and the accounts will be settled at that point. The final judgment will take place. So He leaves His followers I'm in a modern year. Here's this terrible. We might not be thinking of money when we talk about talents, right? You're thinking of like some of you are good at doing, you know, a talent that you have, but a talent was simply a Roman denomination of money is money. So it tells like gave the servant this many dollars, you know, And of course, the most precious gift that God gives us, better than cash in your stocking, is what? It's the Gospel, right? It's the Gospel. And what does God tell us to do with that gift of the Gospel? He tells us to spread it, right? To increase the Gospel, to let it be known around the world. Why is he condemned? Because he takes what God has given him. And what does he do? Nothing. He does nothing with what God has given him. So John of Damascus started out in the financial business, but he was called out of that into full-time ministry. He understood that money can be used to God's glory, but John also knew that the talents God gave him were more than financial. He wants to make an eternal investment So about the year 716, John would enter the monastery near Jerusalem and he would be ordained. And as I said earlier, John of Damascus is known as a prolific theologian. He wrote on just about something we probably don't talk a whole lot of the church about today, which one of the focuses of John, we actually heard about it in our video when we were in Sunday school. And this is something to do with religious images in art. John wrote extensively about that. And that's because in his time there was a controversy And those things are known as icons. An icon is, you know, the image of something. And they were very much against that. Now John's position is that there was a value in having such images. That having these images in themselves was not sinful. Now, can people do sinful things with them? Sure they can. But he's saying the image in itself, like money in itself, is not sinful. It's what you do with it. How you're using it. Now, this was in the seventh century. Well, this pops up again in the Reformation, as we're talking about in Sunday school this morning, or we saw in the video, we'll talk more about next week, this issue. There were some folks in the Reformation, like John Calvin, who were certainly, what did they say about all this religious art images? They said, it's gotta go. It's gotta go. And that's why if you go into, even to this day, a church that is more Calvinistic, but there's not a whole lot in there as far as decoration or artwork. But Martin Luther and the Lutherans, we did not agree with that, that religious images were bad in themselves. So when you're studying the Reformation, the rule of thumb is the Lutheran and the Lutheran reformers, they did not want to get rid of all the rich history of the church. They just wanted to fix it. They wanted to throw out things That's what he thought about this religious art as well. I mean, think about it. If we could not have religious art, think about everything that would be gone, that all this thing, these rich works of art that would be destroyed or put away. So the problem is not the images themselves. The problem is when people start venerating or worshiping the images instead of God. Now, we maybe wouldn't go as far as John did in some I worship the Creator of the matter, who became matter for my sake, who worked out my salvation through matter." Sounds a little philosophical. That's pretty profound. So let's unpack that a little bit. I think that's a great point that John is making here. In our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 11, we see verses that clearly are prophesied our growth of its roots in verse 1. Well, what's that talking about? It's referring to Jesus, who is descended from who? The line of David, and who is David's father? Jesse. This root of Jesse would be a Savior for Jew and Gentile alike. Verse 10. Jesus is the promised Messiah whom we look forward to celebrating His birth during this Advent season, who we watch and we pray for His return on the last day, and even without the Holy Spirit. The Savior has flesh and blood, as it is said in verse 6, and a little child shall lead them. The second person of the Trinity, the Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is true God and true man. So here we begin to see the connection that John of Damascus making and defending the use of these physical objects by Christians of having religious art and images. Because we worship a God that is spirit, that has created a spiritual world, but we also worship a God who has created what? Matter. The physical world, these pews that you're sitting in right now, this building we're meeting in, all of our things here And then you start to think about that a little bit more deeply. How did God save us? Did He just save us by using something that didn't have matter that was floating around in the spiritual world? No, He saved us by coming to us as one of us, with real flesh, a real body. Now, let me be crystal clear. Jesus was not simply an icon, an image of God. He was true God Himself in the flesh. But the point is here that Jesus is God in the flesh. He is a God that we can see, that we can touch, we can talk to, and we can commune with, and who will commune with us in just a few minutes. He is a God who is a true God, who worked our salvation through what? Through real flesh, through real blood, and that is what He gives us in the sacrament. So when we see a painting of Jesus welcoming those little children, it warms our heart, doesn't it? So when we see a crucifix with Jesus on the cross, we understand that we don't worship the matter of that image, but we worship the One whom that image represents. Again, back to John of Damascus, in fact, think about this, the whole of creation shows of Damascus said this, the whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. So if you want to get rid of all icons, you probably have to get rid of the earth too. Do we worship the earth? Certainly not. Romans 1 tells us that. And he actually contributed both to the liturgy of the Eastern and the Western Church. So maybe if you're a student, you know, in music and all this, you might have thought it was a little bit weird, the hymn of the day that I chose for today. Because it's an Eastern hymn, right? Are we an Advent pastor? I mean, this new building is probably confused, though. You know, and he's chosen the sound. Well, that wasn't random, because again, if you're like me and you like to read the little footnotes on the bottom of the hymns, I guess that's like a liturgical nerd thing I like to do, but, you know, guess who wrote that hymn? John of Damascus. That hymn was written by John of Damascus, that's why I chose it today. And I like these old, old hymns here. I mean, think about this, that Christians in both the East and the West have been singing those very words that we just sang for 1,400 years, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, celebrating His real, live, flesh and blood victory over sin, death, and the devil. Now, actually, the most famous hymn written by John of Damascus is number 487 in the hymns. It's actually Easter 1 too. That one's a little harder to tune than this one, so I was nice and went with the other ones, okay, for you, okay? We will save that one for Easter. But that's what it's about. Jesus came not only to die, but He came to rise again in victory, conquering death for Him and for us. Everybody loves Christmas, right? Why do we celebrate this little baby that came into the world? Yeah, it's a cool story, but why is it so important? Because of what would happen on the cross and with the empty tomb. So it is, I think, a pretty appropriate action to reflect on Easter during Advent. Because that little child Isaiah spoke of came as the baby of Bethlehem. He would grow up and he would die and he would rise again. So today we remember He gave up earthly wealth to pursue and use the talents that God had gifted him with. We remember his theological contributions. We remember his clear witness to God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. And ultimately, we join our voices with John in praising our risen and victorious Savior, as we say, Let all the world keep triumph, and all that is therein, let all things above, seen and unseen, Keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.