Circumcision and Name of Jesus
Sunday, January 1, 2023
“Jesus!” (Luke 2:21)
[In 2022 and now into 2023, we are celebrating the 175th anniversary year of our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Today, on this eighth day of Christmas, we are observing the Circumcision and Name of Jesus. And today is January 1, New Year’s Day. Our message this morning brings together all three of these themes. This past week I came across a sermon by Friedrich Wyneken, the second president of the Missouri Synod, on the Circumcision and Name of Jesus, preached on New Year’s Day, January 1, 1868. I read it and thought it was excellent. So I edited it down to manageable size–sermons back then were over a half-hour–and I adapted it for our use today. This message blessed me, and I know it will bless you. The text is the Holy Gospel, Luke 2:21, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”]
Beloved in Christ: By the grace of God we are starting a new year today. Not for nothing did God arrange it that the world’s celebration of the new year coincides with the church’s celebration of the Lord’s name-day and the day of His circumcision. Therefore, on this first day of the new year, together with the Holy Spirit, let us consider the meaning of Christ’s circumcision and the name Jesus, and how these apply to us at the beginning of the new year.
St. Matthew Lutheran Church 