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| Pastor Gustav Knak |
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| great-great-grandson Paul G. Preuss |
Translation of sermon by Gustav Knak published in the 1901 book Predigten über die Evangelien auf alle Sonn= und Festtage des Kirchenjahres; translation is a composite of the work done by Pastor Knak’s great-great-grandson Paul G. Preuss of New York and BackToLuther; underling follows the printed emphasis; highlighting, red text in square brackets [ ] are mine.
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A Christmas Sermon By Rev. Gustav Knak
On the First Christmas Festival Day.
text: Luke 2:1-14
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!
Lord God, Holy Spirit, stand by Thy poor servant, who is quite unfit in himself, who is to proclaim to these immortal souls the great and godly mystery that God has been revealed in the flesh. Alas, Lord, thou knowest how wretched thy servant is, how clumsy in proclaiming the love of God in Christ Jesus that transcends all thought. But thou also knowest how much he loves the most beautiful among the children of men, the most blessed Lord Jesus, and so would like to paint Him before the eyes of these souls that they would be drawn all together completely to Him (page 53) and must love Him and give themselves to Him with body, soul, and spirit for eternal possession. Alas, dear Lord God, Holy Spirit, come to the help of your poor servant; it is thy real office to transfigure Jesus, to testify of Him, to exalt His grace in the hearts of poor sinners and to convince them inwardly that He is the promised one, in whom all generations on earth are to be blessed. O then let thyself be abundantly settled upon us all, open ears and hearts and make all these souls equal to that of Lydia, whom thou once opened the heart, so that they may grasp the great Word of the grace of God in Christ Jesus with faith and be saved, and that the Father may be honored in the Son. Amen.
My dear, dear friends in the Lord! Our dear Lord God does everything well in His time. This is why St. Paul also says in the letter to the Galatians: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” [Gal. 4:4-5 KJV] Already in Paradise He was promised, the wonderful, glorious Savior, who, as the “second Adam” of the first Adam, would make up for the deep Fall. [1 Cor. 15:45-47] He was promised as the seed of the woman, who would crush the head of the serpent who would strike Him in the heel. [Gen. 3:15] Our ancestral mother Eve already said, when she gave birth to her first son, that this must be Him, the promised Messiah. [Knak takes Luther’s understanding, as the Hebrew reads] Therefore she said this — oh, how she was so bitterly mistaken! —: “I have the man, the Jehovah!” [Gen. 4:1, Luther 1545: “HErrn” or “Lord”] God's time was far from coming; centuries, millennia passed. Indeed, He always pointed out new things through the prophets, to the One who was to come; He confided the great mystery to His friends — as to Abraham — when He said to him: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” [Gen. 22:18] But many prophets and kings wanted to see Him in whom they believed with all their hearts, and on whom they hoped with fervent longing, and yet they had to fall asleep without having seen Him. Because God our Lord's time had not yet come. King David, full of a burning desire for Him through whom the world was to be saved, bursts into a sigh: “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad!” [Psalm 14:7] But he, too, from whose house the blessed seed was to come, was gathered to his fathers without seeing Jesus. The time determined by (page 54) God was not yet fulfilled. One prophet after another appeared, and the promise of the coming of the wonderful Savior became more and more clear. Finally, after almost 4000 years had passed, the time of waiting and waiting for the Messiah was fulfilled, as the arch-father Jacob had prophesied on his deathbed, when he looked at Judah and cried out with a piercing eye: “Judah, thou art he!” [Genesis 49:8] — and: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” [Genesis 49:10]
Let us now look into our Gospel today, dear ones, and be amazed and adore the wonderful wisdom of our God, who, when His time comes, will put everything in order and arrange everything in such a way that his good and gracious will must be done.
[sermon continues in Read more below]
Caesar Augustus ruled the then known world, and the people of Israel were also under his authority. The Scepter had been taken away from Judah, Judah was no longer an independent kingdom for its sin and iniquity. Then the hero had to come, as the dying arch-father Jacob had prophesied, and so Caesar Augustus became the instrument in the hand of the King of Kings, because it happened that the Messiah was born in the very city of which the prophet Micah testified: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” [Micah 5:2] For the mother of the Lord dwelt in Nazareth with Joseph, her betrothed; but when Caesar Augustus let go forth that commandment that all the world should be counted, there was nothing else left; Joseph and Mary also had to set out and go from Nazareth to their ancestral city of Bethlehem. And when they had arrived there, the time came for Mary to give birth, according to the words of the angel who spoke to her: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” [Luke 1:35] And she gave birth to her first son in Bethlehem (so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled), and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and took Him to a manger, for they had no other room in the inn.But we, my dear ones, we stand today in spirit at the manger in Bethlehem and contemplate the wonderful little child (page 55), of whom the church sings: “If this little child had not been born to us, we would be lost at all times.” [“Ein Kindlein so löbelich”, v. 1] And when we ask: “Who then is that poor child in the manger?” the prophet Isaiah, chap. 9:6, answers us: “A child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” [Isaiah 9:6] So this poor child is a ruler. “And his name shall be called Wonderful”, for this child is God and man at the same time, as it is written by Him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”, [John 1:1, 14 – after Luther’s 1545 Bibel] and as St. Paul exclaims in the first letter to Timothy 1:16: “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” [sic, 1 Timothy 3:16] According to His human nature, He comes from the fathers, He, “who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” Rom. 9:5. Yes, His name is called “Wonderful”, because the Church sings of Him:
Once did the skies before Thee bow;
A virgin's arms contain Thee now;
He becomes one of a foreign race
and yet all the heavens are Thine;
He has set the course for the sea
And is covered with swaddling clothes. [composite by Knak from Luther, Gerhardt: “Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ” #3, “Wir singen dir, Immanuel”, #8 (TLH #80 (de), #108); (en)]
Yes, this is the child in the manger, of whom St. Paul writes: “We know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.” [ref. 2 Cor. 8:9] His name is called “Counselor,” for He is the independent wisdom, and in His light we see the light. This child, El-Gibbor, is called “mighty God,” the God of strength, for He bears all things with His powerful Word. He is just that “Shiloh” whom Jacob saw in spirit on his deathbed, the hero who was to come when the Scepter of Judah was taken away.
- - - - - - - - - - - - Note by Paul Preuss:
* Shiloh, Shilo, or Silo is mainly known as the name of the biblical city which preceded Jerusalem as the central worship site of the early Israelites. One Bible line might indicate that it was also used as the personal name of a biblical figure.
Gen. 49:10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Concluded in Part 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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