In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

     Often, when I have chapel for our preschoolers in the Children's Center, I begin by asking them if they notice anything different in the church. Usually, I ask that after the altar colors have changed, or the banners, or maybe when the Advent Wreath goes up, or the Nativity Scene appears in front of the altar. And it's a great teaching tool, because it uses a concrete object to teach the faith, whether its candles, or colors, or figures in the banners. Its interesting, though, how often they come in, and I ask if they notice anything new, and they look at me with blank stares-not noticing something that is very noticeable indeed. And I almost asked you that last weekend, but we had enough going on with the Baptism of our Lord, and the dedication and all. But, did you notice anything new last week? Surely you noticed that the entire sanctuary had been painted, and the accent within the arch had changed from teal, to gold. I'm sure you noticed. What you couldn't have seen, however, was the struggle we had the week before over whether we might not just change the accent to gold, but have the area within the arch, behind the cross, painted, what I call, "Swedish Lutheran Blue". It's actually a very common color in European churches, and especially traditional German churches, where cream and gold and blue serve to give the nave a very celestial quality-reminiscent of our psalm for last Sunday, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. But, with all the changes already in the church, and even the change to gold, it seemed better to not make such a big change. And yet, it makes one wonder, why the use of Swedish Lutheran Blue in so many churches? What's the significance? On the one hand, I think there is the fact that blue is celestial-blue is the color of the sky, the heavens, the morning dawn. There's certainly something of that in the churchly blue. But if you think about it, and if you've seen many of those historic churches, often, the light blue is paired with artwork, paintings, murals of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Curiously, I took out several books I have of church art and architecture, and in churches, cathedrals, vestments, when you see a depiction of the Lamb of God, often, the Lamb is surrounded by light blue. And it got me wondering why this might be so? And the only answer I could come up with is-maybe it's "baby blue". Think about it, the confession of Jesus as the Lamb of God, comes in the Church Year, from John the Baptist, just two or three short weeks after we've celebrated Christmas. It seems we've only just put away the Christmas tree, and packed up the Nativity Scene, when today, we hear John saying, not once, but twice in our gospel lesson, "Behold the Lamb of God!" So in a way, the two are blended in the collective imagination of the Church-and what's blended is, the baby born at Bethlehem, who is the Lamb of God. So, what color to better bring those two images together, than a picture of the innocent, unblemished Lamb, surrounded by baby blue-the color used to signify a baby boy. Now, don't get caught up in political correctness and the issue of stereotyping little boys by using blue, and girls by pink-because still, when you see a baby wrapped in a baby blue blanket, most do think-boy. And who knows when that that connection, that pairing started in the Church, but you sure see it in lots of traditional artwork. And maybe the use of blue originated in churches, because of the birth of the baby boy in Bethlehem, and maybe not. But the fact remains-this Lamb of God proclaimed by John the Baptist, was the very same baby boy who was born in Bethlehem, to be the Savior of the world. And that is significant this Second Sunday after Epiphany, when we are asking throughout this season, now that this Baby has been born for us, who is He? Why did He come? What's the meaning of the Christ child, born into our hearts and lives and world? And right here, so soon after Christmas, the lectionary tells us-the Church year reveals to us, the Scriptures proclaim, that this baby boy, is the Lamb of God.

     And that, of course, is what's difficult, not just for us, but for most of the world! This whole notion that a baby was born to die, that Mary's child whom we romantically imagine being born, not in a harsh, rude stable, but rather, in an idyllic scene, with cattle lowing, and the baby lying in soft, warm hay, with starlight glowing all around, this fantasy we have of the nativity, is shattered by the dark shadow of a cross, falling across the baby's brow. We wonder, why would God send His Son, His only begotten Son, to die? Who would do such a thing? And once His Son was baptized, and the rejection started, and it became clear that the path was leading to a confrontation with the Jewish authorities that would surely end in the death of Jesus-seeing this, why didn't the Father intervene, and stop the madness, and keep Jesus from the cross? Why? Because what is being revealed to us today, is the fact that in spite of the horror of it all, Jesus, the Christ child, was born, to be a sacrifice.for us, for our sin, for the sin of the world. And John the Baptist, last in the lineage of great prophets, foretells this. John sees and knows early on, that this Jesus would be, the Lamb of God. In our gospel lesson, John says it not once, but twice-Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, the Lamb of God!"

     And that, says it all. That designation, that name, that description is really all we need to know about who Jesus is, and why he came. Jesus was a teacher, a rabbi, a wise sage, a friend.as there are many teachers, rabbis, wise sages, and friends. But that's not why God became incarnate, by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, in Jesus. God didn't become God with us, just to walk with us and talk with us. God became Emmanuel, God with us, to die for us-to be our scapegoat, once and for all, bearing the sins of the world, on his body, on the cross. As once a year at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest in Jerusalem laid the sins of the all the people on the so-called "scapegoat", and sent it off into the wilderness to die as a sacrifice and atonement for sin, so Jesus was given to have our sins placed upon him, to have our sins nailed with him to the cross, to have our sins buried in the tomb with him on Good Friday, to have our sins burden us no more, to have our sins no longer be a heavy weight on our shoulders that we carry through life, getting heavier and heavier with each passing step, each passing day, each passing year. Our disobedience, our worship of money, job, and self, our self-centeredness, our greed and jealousy and pride, our lust after people and things, our tendency to want to satisfy our every desire, our addictions, our low self-esteem, our shame-our sins, are indeed a tragic burden that keep us from living fully and fully serving God and our neighbor-which is why Jesus came, and why Jesus is, the Lamb of God-the unblemished, divine Lamb of God who alone would be a worthy sacrifice-a sacrifice that could atone for-pay for, expiate-the sin of the world. So that what we see, when we heed John's call and behold the Lamb of God, is not just a poor little lamb who was led to slaughter-what we see is not just an innocent baby boy being nailed to a cross wrapped in his baby blue blanket-what we behold, is new life and freedom! What we behold is not just the Son of God dying on the cross, but the Son of God dying on the cross, that He might then be raised, to new life-conquering death, burying our sins once and for all, that with His resurrection, we might be resurrected, to live new lives-lives of freedom and hope and joy! The early Church Father, Romanus Melodus, writing in Constantinople in the sixth century, said in a sermon, "Now the garment of mourning is rent; we have put on the white robe, which the Spirit has woven for us from the lamb's fleece, of our Lamb and our God; Sin is taken away, and immortality is given us, our restoration is clear. The Forerunner, John has proclaimed it.O, the message of the Baptist, and the mystery in it! He calls the shepherd-Lamb, and not only a Lamb, but one to free us from sin-now there is no need for the scapegoat, who was ineffective-lay your hands on the Lamb of God, all of you who confess your sins, for the Lamb has come to take them away-the One whom the Father has sent is the One who carries away evil, He has appeared and illumined all things."

     Today, we heed the Baptist's words, and we behold the Lamb of God, still draped in the baby blue swaddling cloths. Today, we behold the Lamb of God, and we bring our sins and brokenness to Him, that we might lay on Him, all our sins, and the sins of the world. And we are forgiven! We are renewed, and restored, and resurrected-today! We have come, with those first disciples, to see, to behold the Lamb of God-and we leave, ready to live again, fully, and to serve Him, fully-because we are free-to love and serve, and live and praise, the Lamb who was slain, who has now, begun His reign. Alleluia!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.