Inheritance in Immanuel

This sermon was preached for the Second Sunday of Christmas by Pastor Ted Carnahan on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

I know what it's like to have been left behind, and I know what it's like to have been sought after with great anxiety: When I was a junior in high school, I was involved in speech and debate. (This is one of the reasons why I think, even though I wasn't a faithful Christian at the time, that God was preparing me for ministry, and I thank God for that.)

I was involved in a lot of different things, and I was kind of a leader on my team by that point. The day that my team traveled from St. Louis, where I grew up, down to Springfield, Missouri, which is, well, four or five hours, something like that, I was busy in the library that morning printing off debate evidence off the laser printer in there while others were loading the charter bus and getting ready for our trip for that weekend.

I gave my luggage to a freshman to load on the bus, and I ran that laser printer until literally the last minute, and then I gathered up the stack of printouts that I had made for my team, and I got on the bus, and off we went. Well, everybody had a seat partner, and the seat partner I was with happened to be that particular freshman.

We were going down the road, and we stopped for lunch at a McDonald's outside of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I was at the McDonald's at the exit for Fort Leonard Wood, and I went into the bathroom, and I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the McDonald's did not sit well with me, and I spent a long time in there.

Long enough that they gathered everybody, put them on the bus, did a count, got the right number, and left. Oops! In particular, this freshman I was sitting next to, when everybody was asked, "Is your seat partner on the bus?" He looked around the bus, didn't see me, figured there's no way I wouldn't be on the bus, and said yes.

Then off they went. Now, this was in the era where cell phones were not a commodity, and so it took them a while to realize that I was gone. And when they realized that I was gone, about 45 minutes into the trip, they started looking for me with great anxiety.

Where did they look? Well, first they looked in the bathroom in the back, because that made sense, and then they looked under the seats! I didn't fit under the seats. And then it got worse. They started looking in the overhead luggage compartments! I kid you not. I wasn't there, but I'm told that they opened every luggage compartment on that bus, seeing if I had wiggled my way up there.

Only then did they decide, after searching with great anxiety, that I was not on that bus. And they turned around right as they got the satellite page from the bus company notifying them that I was still at McDonald's. The rest of the story, it's a fun one, too, but suffice it to say, that kid didn't load my luggage on the bus either, and I was borrowing clothes all weekend.

Young Jesus in the Temple

Jesus has disappeared on Joseph and Mary. And it's kind of a hard thing for us to imagine in the modern era, where we're so protective of kids, and we kind of watch over them and kind of hover over them sometimes, that kids would be so free-range that you wouldn't really worry about your kids being gone for the whole day.

Maybe some of you who are a little older would remember growing up in an environment more like that. But Jesus is traveling with the whole village of Nazareth, from Jerusalem back to Nazareth, about a three-day journey, and they're camping along the way. Everybody's walking in a big group.

He would have known the other boys and girls in the village, and they would have gone and done things and had fun. And it was not alarming to Mary and Joseph that he would be gone so long. We'll see him tonight when we all get together to camp along the way.

But when they get to their first stop on their three-day journey, Jesus isn't there. And they search for him, with great anxiety. I imagine that they looked in whatever would have qualified as the luggage compartments, and they decide he's not there.

They do the only thing that they can think of to do: They turn around and walk back to Jerusalem, and they search everywhere in the city. And they finally find him in the temple.

This 12-year-old boy is not with them, but has gone to the temple and is engaging in conversation with the wisest and most learned men in all of Israel. And he's impressing them with his knowledge of the scriptures and the wisdom with which he brings to them.

And when they find him, all he says is, "I must be in my father's house." (I would have a very hard time with that explanation if it was one of my children.)

But before and after this story, the scripture tells us that he increased both in years and in wisdom and in divine and human favor.

Growing in Wisdom and Favor

What does it mean to increase in divine favor? Well, we know that he was continually keeping God's law. That's why they were down in Jerusalem for the Passover anyway.

That law was applied to him at his circumcision and naming when he was eight days old. You all celebrated New Year's Day, but the church also celebrates the Name of Jesus.

And he has increased in human favor by proclaiming good news to the poor and having a good reputation for the people around him.

Today, I want to focus on the idea that he increased in wisdom. Sometimes I think we get the idea of wisdom confused with knowledge or intelligence. These are three separate concepts.

How is wisdom different from intelligence? Well, I've heard it explained this way

• Intelligence is knowing that technically tomato is a fruit.
• Wisdom is knowing that you don't put a tomato in a fruit salad.

Knowing something is not the same as knowing how to apply it. Having the intelligence and the knowledge to be able to know things about God is not the same as knowing how to rightly apply that knowledge. This is the difference between intelligence and wisdom.

And it says in particular that he grows in wisdom. And let's talk today about that wisdom. This wisdom is the through line of all of our readings today. This wisdom is something that God has been using from the moment of creation for our good.

Actually, the wisdom of God was involved in planning all of what you see around you. Today I want to focus primarily on the text from Ephesians as St. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and says:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

That's a remarkable claim! And something that is involving both knowledge and wisdom.

Because God has chosen us in Christ "before the foundation of the world." Which means that before the Garden of Eden, before the act of creation, before even the first words, "Let there be light," God knew how all of this would unfold.

He knew that we would fall and fall into sin before we fell. And he decided that he would create Israel as his chosen people to be the cradle into which would eventually be born his own Son made flesh. He had a plan so that we can truly become his people, be adopted into his family, through the ministry of Jesus Christ.

God's Plan of Adoption and Redemption

St. Paul continues in verse 5:

5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

So he already knew ahead of time that we would fall, but that in his love he would save us. And he also had decided before the foundation of the world to choose you. You in particular!

So that by converting, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, by being transformed by his grace, you might praise the glorious grace of God. He has adopted you into his family. That's who you are now! You've been made God's own child.

In fact, St. Paul puts it this way in verse 7,

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us...

This is how he tells us now here. This is how we are saved. Would you like to know how it is that God has saved you? Well, he has become incarnate of the Virgin Mary, born a human being, gathering up all of what it is to be human into God. And now he has redeemed you by his blood on the cross.

Redeemed is a funny word. It's not one that we use a lot. In fact, the only place I can think of in particular that we use the word redeemed or redemption outside of the church is the redemption value of cans and bottles.

Now, I know most of us are Minnesotans here, but have you ever turned in a can or a bottle to get its redemption value? (By the way, if you buy your can or bottle in Minnesota and you take it to Iowa and turn it in for a redemption value, that's tax fraud. Don't do that.)

Redeemed is an interesting word, right? If you look on your cans and bottles, it'll say redemption value, and then it lists the states and says five cents in these states, ten cents in these states, right?

Why do they do that? Because otherwise people treat it like trash. They throw it on the ground. And they're hoping that we can encourage them to recycle, because that's supposed to be what happens to the bottles and the cans that are gathered up.

Throwing it on the ground by requiring, or not requiring, but incentivizing people to bring their cans and bottles back to the store and give them a little bit of the money that they paid so that hopefully it won't get treated as garbage.

People of God, you are not garbage. You may have been discarded in sin as nothing but garbage, but you are not trash any longer. You have been rescued! You have been picked up! You have been given value again! You have been redeemed!

Now a price is being paid for you at the counter for your life. Not paid five cents or ten cents at a time, like for a can, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You are valuable to God!

And how have you been rescued? How have you been redeemed? You've been redeemed because your sins are forgiven. You are no longer trash lying on the ground, but you have been gathered up into God!

How can your sins be forgiven that way? Through the cross of Jesus Christ. This is actually why Christmas is important. Not just because it's Jesus' birthday. Yes, it is. But because it means that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. That the humanity of the person, Jesus of Nazareth, is gathered up entirely into God. And that God becomes a human being in Christ.

Gathering All Things in Christ

St. Paul continues:

8b With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Do you hear the gathering up? Do you hear the wisdom? It's all about that in this passage. Jesus Christ is the firstborn of creation. He's the firstborn from the dead. He lives again so that you may also live again. He gathers you up into himself so that you can have new life in Christ.

St. Paul puts it this way:

11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

Therefore, in Christ, we have an inheritance. We are not just redeemed to be useful. Picked up off the ground and turned in for redemption value. A nickel or a dime at a time.

But we have been redeemed to be more than just servants in the house of God. And redeemed to be more than just those who know about who God is. We are redeemed to be part of God's family.

Take seriously what he says here when he says that you have been adopted into God's family in Christ. You have obtained an inheritance. And how do you receive an inheritance? When the one who has granted it dies!

In the same way, we who have been gathered up into Christ and made part of God's family in baptism receive a blessing upon the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Being family then, we don't respond in fear, but we respond in joy.

We are not merely servants in the household of God, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And we seek after God's purposes, not out of a sense of fear or command, but that we might praise the glory of God which has made us new in him.

The Pledge of Our Inheritance

Finally, St. Paul says this:

13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

So then how can you know that you are saved? Simple: Hear the word of God and believe that what God has done for you is true. That in baptism you have been adopted into the family of Christ. That you have been received God's glorious grace. And then praise that glorious grace!

When you're marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, that seal given to you in baptism as a mark of the cross upon your forehead has made you his child and has adopted you into his family.

And it is for you, as St. Paul says here, a pledge or a promise. A pledge is about our inheritance. It's a promise that we have redemption. That we are and we are becoming God's own people.

Seeking God's Wisdom in Christmas

Therefore, in this season of Christmas, as we are celebrating the birth of Emmanuel, God with us, seek the God who will give you wisdom. Wisdom not just to rightly apply the Word of God in an abstract sense, but that God will use the knowledge of God to transform your heart.

The knowledge of God which will show you that there is light in the midst of this present darkness. The wisdom of God that will fill you with God's Holy Spirit and let him lead your life every day.

Be conformed to the glorious gospel of Christ. Because you have received an inheritance. And in this inheritance, we receive true freedom. True peace. True joy.

That's the essence of Christmas. God is with us. And therefore, we are redeemed by Christ. Adopted into his family.

The firstborn of many brothers and sisters has been born among us in Bethlehem in a humble manger. So that we with him can receive our own precious heavenly inheritance.

May you live in the peace of this season. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord to life everlasting. Amen.