The Lutheran Hour

"A Kind God"

#72-15
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on December 26, 2004
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: Isaiah 63:7

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. The coming of the New Year cannot be denied. What it will bring remains unknown. Still in the presence of the Babe of Bethlehem, in the company of the crucified and risen Christ, Christians are, in advance, able to tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which He is to be praised.

Christmas is over. I can’t believe it. The piles of packages have been distributed and disbursed. Most of the bows, wrappings, and ribbons have been shoveled into great plastic bags and dragged out to the garbage. Some, those which were really too pretty to be disposed of, have been saved. They have been tucked away neatly in zip-lock bags and are deposited in a very safe place. When Christmas rolls around next year, they will be resurrected for use – if I can remember the safe place where I put them.

Christmas is over. Those of us who were pleased with the bounty we have received are glowing that our subtle suggestions like, “I want one of these for Christmas,” have paid off. Those of us who were disappointed with our haul are learning to live with the pain. Christmas is over. The refrigerator is chock full of leftovers that will slowly disappear, or not, according to the taste of the household. Some, like the spongy sweet potatoes and syrupy cranberries, are even now, slowly migrating to the back of the fridge where they will, in a reverse example of evolution, become over the next month an unrecognizable fuzzy fungus. We have drawn names for next year’s gift exchange, and decided who will host the 2005 celebration.

Christmas is over. Dad, ready to get on the road, has been impatiently sitting in the car for half-an-hour while his wife keeps saying her “good-byes.” Christmas is over. We’re not sure where to put everything. Parents are debating if it would be silly to bring in the plastic snow shovel from the garage and use it to scoop the children’s toys into one corner of the family room. Christmas is over. The excitement has exited stage left. Christmas is over. It’s time to put the spirits of anticipation and participation and expectation on the shelf for another year. Christmas is over. Thank heaven the holiday fell on a Saturday, and we have Monday for recouping, relaxing, and regenerating. Christmas is over, and there ain’t nothing as over as Christmas.

And then, from way in the back of your mind a thought begins to form. The overwhelming festivities of Christmas had kept you from remembering – Christmas is over, but the holiday season isn’t. New Year’s is next weekend. New Year’s, a chance to begin again. New Year’s, a time of resolution and recommitment to the future. New Year’s, a time of possibility, potential and promise. New Year’s, another Monday off of work, and this time you don’t have to run yourself ragged going out to buy presents. New Year’s 2005 is coming, and you will, if the Lord wills it, be given a time to look forward to the future. It is usually when you reach this Zen-like plain of euphoria, at the precise moment when you are most looking forward to the future, that reality rears its all-
too-honest head. Reality, cold, hard-hearted truth, comes calling. You know that resolutions are a wonderful way to initiate the New Year, but reality says you don’t usually keep your resolutions and you finish one year, pretty much the same way you started it. Reality says we’re not so good at being powerfully charged self-made men and women.

Not so long ago, a man brought his boss home for dinner. Like many people of authority, the boss was patronizing, pompous, and pretentious! The little boy of the household, never having seen a man act in such a way, had difficulty tearing his eyes away from the boss. He stared at the head-honcho for almost the entire meal. Finally, the boss stopped and asked, “Young man, why do you keep looking at me like that?” The little boy shyly said, “My daddy says you are a self-made man.” The boss was pleased to hear someone else had recognized what he had known about himself all along. He admitted, yes, it was so, he was, indeed, a self-made man. Then the little boy asked quite innocently, “Sir, I was wondering, if you are a self-made man, why did you make yourself like this?” Why indeed? Why do we as individuals, as communities, as countries, as the global human family do the things we do? Why have we made ourselves the way we are?

Every nation hates war, but at this moment there are wars. Every human being wants to live in peace and harmony, yet homes and households are torn by dissensions and wracked by divisions. Why have we made ourselves the way we are? Why, after centuries of human struggling and striving for improvement, will this New Year’s arrival be met with a dollop of hope and a mountain of fearful uncertainty? At the end of 2005, will I have a job or will I be waiting in the unemployment line? Will my investments pay off, or will my balance sheets be filled with red ink? Will my health hold, or will I get to know the first names of all the nurses and aides at the local hospital? When the family gathers together next year for Christmas, will they all be there, or will there be some empty chairs?

Christmas is gone and the New Year is coming; 2005 gives every indication that it will be just like every other New Year: 365 days filled with uncertainty, insecurity and anxiety. Things seem so unsure, uncertain, undecided. We are no longer confident of the things which, just a short time ago, had commanded our absolute confidence. Two months back when I spoke in Illinois, I talked to a business executive. He had spent three years serving as the “Big Brother” of an inner-city boy. On one of their outings he asked the young man, now in sixth grade, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “I want to be a good person.” Fine answer. “OK. But what do you want to do when you grow up?” “I want to be a drug dealer.” The Big Brother controlled his shock and pushed on, “You want to be a drug dealer? That’s interesting. Why?” “Because drug dealers are good. They treat people right. They make money and they take care of their family and friends.” What can this new year bring when the division between good and bad has become so blurred and baffling? What can tomorrow hold when the world’s children are being taught right and wrong by drug dealers and militant maniacs who serve their young charges a steady diet of hatred. Christmas is gone and the new year is coming. And if you’re being honest, you have to admit on a personal level, you don’t have the answers that can carry you through 2005. Oh, you have answers. Watch enough of the TV game shows and you will have a warehouse filled to overflowing with answers. You will have answers like, the average lifespan of a major league baseball is seven pitches. You will learn answers like, a duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why. If someone asks you the official rock song of Ohio, you will have the answer: it’s “Hang On Sloopy.” You will know the eye of an ostrich is bigger that it’s brain; the longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds; Hershey’s Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it’s kissing the conveyor belt; and you will know, pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.

Yes, you will have a lot of answers. But the answers the world supplies are pretty ineffective and ineffectual when you’re facing an uncertain New Year. You have a lot of answers, even more opinions, but you don’t have the answers on how to find happiness, hope, harmony, or heaven. In this you are not alone; because when it comes to these things, to the really important questions of life, the world without a Savior must remain silent, and all must approach each New Year’s in the dark. The best advice the world without Christ can give, is to encourage you to remember that although life is bad, unfair, and lonely, it can always get worse.

We believe that, don’t we? Life can always get worse. Recently I read about a young military lad who was about to make his first parachute jump. His sergeant reminded him, “Count to 10 and pull the rip cord. If the chute doesn’t deploy, then pull the second ripcord for your auxiliary chute. After you land, the truck will pick you up.” With those words echoing in his ears, the paratrooper took a deep breath and stepped out into space. Following instructions to the letter, he pulled the first ripcord. Nothing. He pulled the second ripcord. Nothing. As he hurtled toward earth he thought to himself, “I’ll bet the truck won’t be there, either!” Yes, things can always get worse. And knowing things can get worse only adds to the darkness.

If you feel you must approach this New Year, and all your tomorrows stumbling through the darkness, I would like to remind you of another time, another place, another dark night. On that night, through the world’s deep darkness, messengers from God appeared and said, “Fear not, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” Fear not, Jesus is born. Fear not, Immanuel has come. God is with you. Fear not, the Christ has been born to take you through the world’s worst times and be the Light which will illuminate the path to heaven’s unending good times. Two thousand years ago on a dark night, God’s angels came and assured some shepherds and anyone else who would listen, that with faith in the Savior, a person can have peace. On a dark night God’s messengers came and said, “Unto you has been born a Savior, Christ the Lord.” With Jesus, the Light of the world, we can see our sins being forgiven and the darkness of tomorrow being dispelled. Let the New Year come, Christmas is not over. Christ, Christmas, the crown of life the Savior has given us, remain.

Surrounded by the light of the Lord, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah could proudly proclaim, “I will tell of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which He is to be praised, for the many good things He has done.” Surprising words when you realize that the times in which Isaiah lived were dark indeed. The people were threatened; the nation was in danger. Still, Isaiah knew that darkness does not have the final victory over those who live in the light of the Lord’s love. If it did nothing else, Israel’s history showed that darkness cannot stay when the Lord’s Light illuminates. The Lord had brought His people out of slavery in Egypt. The Lord had given them a land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord had regularly defeated their enemies. Through mighty miracles, the Lord had protected and prospered His people. “Look,” Isaiah told his listeners, “You are God’s people. No matter what the passing of years may bring, you are the Lord’s people. God remains at your side.” In this dark world filled with fear, terrors, and tears, Isaiah spoke of the kindnesses of the Lord.

Isaiah is not alone in having such feelings. Read the Psalms. They tell of the Lord’s love. Psalm 46:1-2: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” Don’t believe those words are only for a long time ago. They are for us. Listen to the lady who was rescued from an earthquake-flattened house. When the reporters talked with her, they asked, “Weren’t you afraid?” “Not really,” she replied, “I was kind of glad to know I have a God who can shake the world.”

Christians who have Jesus as their Savior; who have looked into the Christmas cradle; who have seen Calvary’s cross; and the empty tomb of Resurrection Sunday rejoice that they have a God who can shake the world – who can rock Satan and death – who can conquer evil with good – who can dispel the deepest darkness. New Year’s is coming. Let it come! Those who have faith in Jesus Christ meet the new year in the presence of the Savior who has promised never to leave or forsake them. Let the new year come, for we have a Redeemer who has volunteered to have all our cares cast upon His broad shoulders. Let the new year come, believers greet it with the power of the Lord who has told us to call upon Him in the day of trouble.

Understand, I am not saying that because Jesus is your Savior you will be immune from pains and problems in the new year. The Sunday after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, I saw the interview of a woman who had lost her husband, and the father of her three children. She was hurting from the horror, heartbroken by her loss; still she said, “I don’t know why this happened – why my husband and their father was taken away, but I do know that one day, if I look hard enough, I will see the good that is sure to come from this tragedy.” She knew that the darkness would disappear if she only held on to the Savior who had lived for her, died for her, rose for her, and promised, especially in the dark times, to be of support to her.

The New Year 2005 is coming. Let it come. So say those who have Christ as their Savior, who know they have a good God. Like Isaiah, they will, at year’s end, be able to tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which He is to be praised. And for those of you who don’t have Jesus as Lord, let me tell you what having Jesus means.
In the 1890s, the family of a boy moved into a New York tenement. Normally, this would mean that the boy would spend a long time making friends and trying to fit in. Not this boy. He was big, he was strong, and he was a bully. After thrashing some of the neighborhood kids, he was given a wide berth by all, with the exception of one very little boy. The bully swaggered up to the boy and snarled, “What’s da matter wit you? Ain’t you afraid of me?” The lad replied, “Course not. My big brudder’s the boxin’ champeen, and if you touch me, he’ll take you to pieces.”

Christians are pretty sure that in 2005, humankind’s bullies, the devil, the world, and death will, someday along the way, swagger up to them and demand to know, “Ain’t you afraid?” When that happens, Christians know they can, like the little boy, confidently say, “My big Brudder’s the Champeen, and if you try to touch me, He’ll take care o’ you.” If in this New Year, you’d like such a big Brudder, a Champeen, call us at “The Lutheran Hour” and we will be glad to make the introduction. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for December 26, 2004
Topic: Celebrating Christmas

ANNOUNCER: Stay with us now for Lutheran Hour questions and answers with Pastor Ken Klaus; I’m Mark Eischer. First, a blessed New Year to you. Pastor.

KLAUS: And to you as well, Mark, and to all our listeners.
ANNOUNCER: Last week we talked about using the word “Xmas” as a substitution for Christmas. Today we’ll deal with another Christmas-related question, and this comes to us in a letter from some sort of Christian group. Their argument boils down to this – they say since we don’t know when Jesus was born; they say we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas at all.

KLAUS: Wow. What’s happening here is someone is attempting to dictate to others how they’re supposed to worship, how they’re supposed to celebrate. If the Bible tells us not to celebrate Christmas on December 25, we would naturally do so. If the Bible told us to celebrate Christmas on March 21, we would do that; but the Bible doesn’t speak to us either way. For someone to dictate to others is usurping the power of the Lord, our Christian freedom in such a way that’s simply not acceptable. We can’t speak to such things when God is silent.

ANNOUNCER: So you would definitely reject this idea?

KLAUS: I certainly would. I’d probably celebrate Christmas all the more to show them that such a celebration fits within the scope of Christian liberty.

ANNOUNCER: But do we really know that Jesus was actually born on December 25 in the year 0 A.D?

KLAUS: Mark, without fear of contradiction, I can say that we are absolutely 100 percent positive that Jesus was not born in 0 A.D.

ANNOUNCER: Now that’s a very bold statement.

KLAUS: I’m pretty sure about myself here. I say it with confidence. Certainly the Bible doesn’t say that Jesus was born on December 25. That doesn’t mean however, that Jesus’ birth can be relegated to the “once upon a time, long, long ago” sort of thing that starts out the fairy tales. Jesus’ birth is very much an historical event. It really happened at a specific time and place.

ANNOUNCER: And that’s why the Bible tells us Jesus was born “during the reign of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.”

KLAUS: Exactly. We know that King Herod was ruling in that area as well.

ANNOUNCER: So we’ve narrowed Jesus’ birth down to a specific window of time, but how can you say He wasn’t born in the year 0?

KLAUS: We could beg to question it at this point and say, “I know that is absolutely so” because there is no year “0.” Zero means nothing. But that’s too easy, and a little bit too direct for what I usually do here. We do know that Jesus wasn’t born in the year we call 0 or which might have been 0, because King Herod died around the year 4 B.C. Since we know he’s ruler when Jesus is born, tries to kill the infants of Bethlehem as he tries to get to Jesus, we know that Jesus had to be born earlier than the 4 B.C. date.

ANNOUNCER: Does that mean all those dates in the Bible are wrong?

KLAUS: We’re talking about those dates that some of the Bibles have in their margins or the top; those dates are not part of the original text of Scripture. They were calculated and added in later on. All we can say for sure is that Jesus was born before the year 4 B.C.

ANNOUNCER: And how about December 25? The Bible doesn’t say anything about that either?

KLAUS: It doesn’t say a word. Even today, not all Christian churches celebrate Christmas on that day. However, December 25 was chosen because at the time, it coincided with the winter solstice. What it means is, through the fall the days, the light gets shorter, and the nights are longer. Right around that time, it reverses where the light starts to come back; the sun starts to come back. The Romans celebrated that with a Festival of Saturnalia. Christians, to avoid persecution, tied their celebration of the return of God’s Son who brings light into this world, with what the Romans were doing. They did so quite unnoticed. Now, we don’t know that Jesus was born on December 25; we don’t know that He wasn’t. But because we don’t know, it certainly doesn’t preclude a celebration of God’s great gift, our Good News of great joy.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus, and once again, Happy New Year to you and to all of our listeners. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.