1 Corinthians 12:1 - 11 On Spiritual Gifts

Grace and peace to you from Him who is and who was and who is to come,

            A while ago I read a long book about the last 500 years in western countries. The author claims that we live now in a time of decadence. Our society lacks direction and this floundering around affects the daily lives of millions of people, for many folks struggle with boredom, routine, frustration, and repetition. It’s not God’s intention, however, for people he made in his image, redeemed in Christ, and whom he loves with an intensity that we can’t imagine to lead mediocre lives.  His will is that people live fruitfully, abundantly, and joyfully in faith. The church provides God’s remedy for the problems that the scholar I read believes afflict many people now. The church doesn’t offer a temporary cure or one that changes with the fashions. Jesus’ death clears a pathway between us and God. He comes to us with friendship and forgiveness and life. He gives direction. He blesses his people with active, meaningful days. He uses us to build up his kingdom, as Paul wrote in this morning’s epistle reading, to which we’ll return in a moment.      

            By our knowledge of God and the times, we Christians say that the troubles that afflict our neighbors and sometimes even ourselves, such as frustration, boredom, and lack of direction have a spiritual cause that is resolved through faith in Christ. You probably remember that just before he performed the miracle of the loaves and the fish, Jesus looked on a large crowd and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The same applies today. Folks without a shepherd stumble into all kinds of frustrations. We find relief through faith in Christ and our appreciation of the fact that he works through his church and by the Holy Spirit.

            Paul tells us how the Spirit proceeds. He blesses God’s people with a variety of gifts that serve the common good. We’ll mention some of them now – the ability to speak wisdom and knowledge, faith, healing, and prophesy. These spiritual gifts aren’t the same thing as talents, though the use of them may involve talents, and each  person has one or more gift. Our Saviour surely has a good share of gifted people. 

            We’ll use a made-up example. Suppose someone who has persistently declined invitations to attend Sunday worship finally admits to us that he’s bored with his work and that his relationships don’t bring him any joy. He feels as if he’s on a treadmill repeating the same actions day after day so that they no longer have any meaning for him. He asks for help. We reached into the store of wisdom God has blessed us with and tell him that while he may find work that suits him better he probably won’t be able to change radically the external circumstances of his life, since most people contend with the same limitations, but with the help of God he can find new ways of thinking. We tell him about Jesus’ love for him and the new dimension he brought to life on earth with his life, death, and resurrection. We assure him that as time goes by, the Lord will turn liabilities into blessings, and burdens will become joys as he learns that he is walking in the footsteps of the Savior. Wisdom like that is a great blessing, so somebody said that the ability to spread the gospel is the highest gift from God.

            The knowledge that Paul mentions is related to wisdom, but it has a different emphasis. It has to do with the good news of Jesus, of course, but it involves explanations and teachings and the application of gospel truths to daily life. Let’s take another imaginary example, a member of Our Saviour who has decided that that the balance of the Lutheran way doesn’t help him cope with the frustrations and tedium that now characterize his life. He’s made up his mind to join a cult that promises its members a direct, personal encounter with God. He says that this will give him a lift. We remind him that the Cross is the center point of the Christian faith, by means of which Christ redeemed the world and calls all people to repentance and faith. Anything that detracts from salvation by way of the cross distorts the faith. What’s more, God does not promise to come to us directly. He uses the Bible and the sacraments to communicate his good news to us. If he reads his Bible faithfully and comes to worship regularly, our friend will discover that the Christian faith as Lutherans practice it is the best way to contend with the conditions of life. The church uses this kind of knowledge – and we have a lot of it – to build up the body of Christ.

            Paul also mentions faith as a spiritual gift. He doesn’t mean in this case the saving faith that brings us life with God now and the expectation of happiness in heaven. He means the faith to endure in hope, to overcome boredom, say, and the God-given ability to rise above ourselves when times get tough. I bet the folks of Our Saviour have this kind of faith in abundance – steadiness when youngsters are ill, coolness in crisis, the ability to endure discomfort, and cheerfulness in stormy weather. This kind of faith includes the belief that troubles will end and that difficulties will turn out well. This practical faith, a gift from God, benefits ourselves and makes a powerful witness to others. Who knows what questions our neighbors ask in the privacy of their hearts?  Where does their ability to keep on going come from? How can I get it for myself? We have the answers should anyone ask us. Everything good comes because of our tie with Christ.

            I suspect you noticed that Paul included healing as a gift of the Spirit for the building up of the church. Many miraculous healings took place in the days of Paul and the other Apostles. Some are recorded in the New Testament. These cases of healing are very selective and they took place at the bidding of the Holy Spirit. Cures that seem to be miracles take place in the world today and maybe you know of a case or two, and we thank God for them. we praise him for the skills he gives to physicians and other health care workers. We also thank him for the freedom to approach him with our prayers for the sick, which benefit the ailing and comfort those who offer them. Even though out situations are very different from the apostles, we take part in the work of healing. Our prayers and our visits to the sick help to build up his kingdom, as God intends.

            We mention prophesy last of all. For Christians, prophesy doesn’t mean simply telling the future. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of prophesy in the Bible. One is to receive and pass on to others direct messages from God. The apostles were prophets in this sense of the word – Jesus spoke to them directly. Another kind of prophesy is the ability to talk about the saving will of God to others. We are prophets in this sense of the word. We may tell erring neighbors that a certain way of behaving will get them into trouble, but they have time to repent and turn to God’s Word for guidance and find better ways. We also prophesy that no matter how frustrating and tedious life can be, God is stronger than all life’s negatives put together and he’ll continue to work through his Word and the church to pull us out of the swamp of boredom and repetition onto the joyous, lively path that leads to him.

            So God addresses the spiritual illnesses of our time and any time by building up his church with spiritual gifts – wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophesy and others that Paul mentions. God blesses us with a strong spiritual framework that enables us overcome in our own lives the decadence of the world around us. Our Saviour’s people have what our neighbors need and God wants them to have. He provides opportunities for her people to bring them into Our Saviour’s gifted community.

            We thank our Lord, then, for giving us a picture of the world today and how the church fits into it. He teaches us about his cure for spiritual ailments and equips us to take part in the solution. It’s important work, so we never need to ask if Jesus has anything for us to do. He wants us to use our spiritual gifts in faith and confidence. In our Savior’s name we give thanks. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your heart s and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.                              

                        

John 6:22 - 35 Three Hungers

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

            We learn a lot from Jesus’ meetings with various people during his earthly ministry.  These conversations focus on common human problems – illness, want, what to believe.  They show the solutions that we frail humans think up and then the solution that God brings to us.  Folks don’t always accept his answers, and so conflict arises between mankind and heaven.  Jesus solved that problem, too, when he died for the sins of all and rose again from the grave.  We can always be sure of his friendship for us.

            We need him because earthly life is full of troubles and challenges.  This morning’s gospel text deals with one of them – different forms of hunger: physical hunger, hunger for life, and hunger for God.  The point of the passage from John is that God satisfies all these needs for people who look in faith to his Son.

            I’m sure you remember the time when Jesus turned a small quantity of bread and fish into enough food to feed a crowd of thousands of people.  Then he walked across the Sea of Galilee to catch up with his disciples who were traveling ahead of him in a boat.  Now he’s in another town.  Some of the people who’d seen the miracle the day before followed Jesus to Capernaum.  We know that people don’t all think alike, but when folks gather into crowds they form a collective personality, and the crowd that sought the Lord did not have worship on their minds.  Jesus suggests they were looking for more food.

            Food is a necessity.  We won’t stop needing it till we die.  The search for food takes up a lot of our time.  We know that some people don’t have enough, a problem that Our Savior’s food bank helps to resolve.  It’s not God’s intention that anyone go hungry, and so he enables the fortunate to help out the ones in need.  This is part of good stewardship, not to hoard, but to share, in imitation of our Lord.

            But Scripture doesn’t tell us that the folks who went to Capernaum were starving or in great need.  They were ordinary people looking for a way to solve the problem of food supply.  Perhaps they could get more out of the Lord than he had already given – a week’s worth of food or a month’s.  What if he had the secret of everlasting abundance, so they wouldn’t have to work again?  This is a normal human question, especially for people who consider the duties of life to be impositions on their free time.  They didn’t mind going to a wonder-worker in search of a favor.

            Jesus understood their need for food and other material things, as he understands ours and provides for us out of his abundance.  Because he promises to provide, he didn’t want them and he doesn’t want us to focus exclusively on earthly things, which are useful for a time, but they perish.  Who wants to spend their lives in a search for stuff that fades away?  Jesus invited the folks in the crowd to put their need for material goods in second place and work instead for God’s kingdom, which will last forever.  He brought them a wonderful opportunity.  The search for our daily bread can be monotonous and uninspiring.  It can reduce our horizons and shrivel our souls.  Jesus lifted the crowd’s spirits and invited them to focus on something worthy of people made in God’s image, to think about their souls more than their bodies, and not their own souls only but also their neighbors and families.  Jesus worked a great miracle the day before, not so that people would come looking for more but so that they would recognize him as God, who solves the problem of hunger for food and other challenges as well, for those who trust him.

            Once the need for food is met, another hunger can swoop in and take its place – a desire for more and more life.  Generally speaking, there are two kinds of life, the eternal life that God gives us that includes mercy, forgiveness, love, and faith in Christ, and then ordinary daily life that is never certain and always changing.  This morning’s texts don’t give a favorable picture of every day earthly ways.  The Israelites in the desert grumbled when they discovered that life in the wilderness was less luxurious than the slavery they’d left behind.  In later chapters in Ephesians, Paul wrote that pagans give themselves over to every kind of impurity and constantly lust for more.  When the crowd that followed Jesus heard about eternal life, they responded in an earthly way and asked what they themselves must do to acquire it.

            Knowing ourselves, we may wonder if the hunger for earthly life will get the best of us, too, so that we forfeit the eternal life that Jesus brought to earth.   Paul warned his readers not to live like pagans, for the lure of pagan life is very strong.  We’d be lost on our own, but Paul said that God’s Spirit works on us so that we put off the old self that deceitful desires corrupt, while God makes us new in our minds so that we put on new selves.  God works on his children to rebuild and renew us.  He creates in us a hunger for this kind of life rather than for the perishing fascinations of the world.

            More than this, he pardons us through our faith in his Son, he washes away our sins, he restores us to favor.  The world and the devil do work on us so that we come to desire earthly finery more and more.  Gods’ people are constantly tempted.  We waver.  Sometimes we give way.  His mercy picks us up.  His forgiveness saves us.  His compassion for us, which he showed most sublimely in his death on the cross, works against the influence of the world so that we ache for the world less and less and desire him more and more.

            There is, we don’t forget, an ineffective kind of hunger for God, the sort the crowd expressed when they asked what they needed to do to do the works of God.  Human nature loves to assert itself before God.  Look what I have done. See my wonderful life and my exceptional abilities.  Surely you must be pleased with me.  Such pride in ourselves succeeds only in turning the Lord away from us.  It’s to add sin to sin.  What God wants from us is that we believe in Jesus – that he lived and died for us and rose again.   He asks us to be sorry for our sins and to take hold of his forgiveness in faith.  Repentance isn’t easy for proud human flesh, but it’s a joy for those who seek God in a way that pleases him, not with the ravenous appetites of those who assert themselves, but with humble and grateful hearts that his love doesn’t fail, that his mercies are new every day, and that he has included us in his embrace.

            Now, the Lord knows we are people of strong appetites, so he spoke to the people of Capernaum in language that they and we would understand.  He used an intentionally vivid, maybe even unrefined picture, to make people think.  He said that he is the bread of life.  If people want to live, they should come to him.

            Martin Luther said in an old sermon that Jesus is referring to a hunger and a thirst of the soul.  The soul longs to live forever.  It doesn’t want to stand condemned.  It desires a gracious God and wants to stand victoriously before the judgment seat on the last day.  The soul doesn’t want to be accused by sin or the law and go to hell.   To satisfy this spiritual hunger and thirst, spiritual food and drink are offered to us, when the Holy Spirit draws near and says, “If you do not want to die and be condemned, come to Christ, believe in him, cling to him, eat this spiritual food.”

            This offer is intended for our comfort and the strengthening of our faith.  Luther said that Christ’s promise that everyone who comes to him shall not hunger and thirst should be inscribed in every heart with golden letters.  Then everyone will know where to entrust his soul and where he will go after this life is over.  Anyone on earth may acquire this knowledge and be able to say at night when retiring or early in the morning or when engaged in the day’s activities: “My soul remains with Christ.  I will never hunger or thirst.  Jesus will not lie to me.”  We should go on to say that whether we sleep, wake, work, or go out walking, our soul remains with Jesus.  Even if everyone around us goes to pieces – father, mother, friend, enemy, employer, neighbor, we run to Jesus and find help from him, for his words are true.  He says: “Hold on to me!  Come to me and you shall live.”  But isn’t it true that we’ll die, we might ask.  Jesus answers this way: “Though you die, yet shall you live.  Come to me.”

            Luther said that the sixth chapter of John is precious.  We should not only hear it, but believe it and accept it and impress it on our consciences.  We regard his promises as true, come what may, believing that he is trustworthy and that he never lies.  Like the people of Capernaum, we should say to Jesus, “Give us this bread always,” and he will reply, “Yes, I will give it with all my heart, for that is why I came from heaven.  Accept only me.  Let me be your food.  Do not pin your hope on another food.  Beware of that, for I am the bread, not prince or ruler or any other person on earth.  No one expect me will help you.  And if you cling to me, no person or devil will do you any harm, for here is the bread that won’t let you go hungry.”

            Our Lord chose a vivid image to deal with a serious problem – spiritual hunger.  When we eat bread, we take it into ourselves.   When we draw near to the Lord in faith, we take him into ourselves.  In reality, he is already there, knocking on the doors of our hearts, waiting to fill our empty spaces with the fullness of his love.  The important thing is that we trust him and welcome him.  It’s so easy to let our faith turn into an automatic thing, a question of words and customs, and this apathy is what Jesus wants to prevent.  He uses startling language to wake us up and get us turning to him, not top grumble or to think that we can do everything on our own, but to accept him and receive him always as our true bread.  He can satisfy any hunger; he can fill any need.  Our part is to believe in him, to trust him, to be grateful that he is  part of us, like our breathing.  May he continually come to us.  May he never let us go.  We ask the Heavenly Father to keep the bread of life as our one true sustenance.  In our Savior’s name, we rejoice.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Jesus.  AMEN.

Ephesians 3:14-21 The Power of the Gospel

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

            This morning’s epistle text is a prayer Paul made on behalf of the Christians in Ephesus, which was in what we now call Turkey. I found it hard to take hold of until I consulted a trusty reference book, but before we get to it, we’ll review the basics of Ephesians.

            Someone once sent me a list of one-liners, such as, “It’s easier to preach ten sermons than to live out one.”  This may be true for many Christians, but it wasn’t true for St. Paul. By the time he wrote to the Ephesians, he was an integrated man. God’s power had brought him in tune with Christian teaching at every point in his life. There was no gap between what he said and what he did. The Letter to the Ephesians glows with vigor and integrity and faith.

            It’s very short. You could read it in half an hour, but it would take more than a lifetime to absorb its insights. With the guidance of God, Paul wanted to expand the horizons of his readers’ minds so that we’ll understand God’s grace and his eternal purpose. He instructs us about the goal God has in mind for his church and what it means to walk with our Savior day by day.

            Paul began by describing the blessings we receive because we’re connected to Christ. He chose us before the beginning of the world and he redeemed us through his blood. A day is coming when he will bring everything together in heaven and on earth under Christ. Paul then focuses on the topic of salvation. Two verses from the second chapter must be familiar to most of us: “By grace you have been saved through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” We receive salvation as we take hold of Christ and his mercy on us by faith. And even faith is a gift from God.

            Paul points out that God doesn’t grant us salvation only for our own personal benefit. Our salvation brings praise and glory to him and we give a testimony to our neighbors. Salvation takes us out of ourselves, and this is healthy for us. Luther said that sin comes from being curved in on ourselves. Salvation breaks up the curve so that God – Jesus – becomes the center of our lives and not we ourselves.

            Paul wrote that God has a plan and a purpose. When the time is right for him, as we said, he’ll bring everything that exists in the universe together under Christ. As it is, plenty of harmful things fly about that have nothing to do with Jesus. A day is coming when God will banish all alien influences and everything will exist in orderly harmony with him.

            Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit brings people together in the church, concerning which, here’s another one-liner: “Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, we couldn’t belong.” Anyway, by grace God reconciled individuals to himself through Scripture and the church, and by the power that radiates from Christ’s death, he reconciles one Christian to another. Paul wrote that God uses his church to display his wisdom to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Not earthly rulers, you’ll notice, but heavenly ones. This means that God is putting you and me to use to serve his eternal purposes in ways that we don’t perceive. He uses our faith as we pass through the ups and downs of life, let’s say, as a demonstration of his power to overcome evil and to build a kingdom of saints who cling to him in faith while we live on earth – going to work, shopping, helping our families, and trying to get along with our neighbors. Jesus upholds us as we help him with the work of reconciliation. He gives eternal meaning, purpose, and significance to our lives.

            We live in two places at once, so to speak, on earth and in heaven. Eternity touches our lives at every point; our daily living works out God’s purposes. You and I have places in his blueprint for eternity

            Now, we ought to say something about the prayer in this morning’s epistle text. Paul prayed that all the blessings of salvation that we’ve been talking about come to the Christians in Ephesus. Basically, he prayed for one thing – that God strengthen the Ephesian Christians and by implication Christians everywhere with his power so that Christ may live in our hearts.

            Paul didn’t ask for wealth or riches or worldly honor. He wanted the Heavenly Father to use his power for a spiritual purpose, to allow Christ to dwell in the hearts of his people. We ought to say a few words about what Paul meant by God’s power. Our human minds think of power as physical, earthly strength. The most powerful country is the one that has the most guns, say, or the person with the most money has the most clout.

            God’s power is different. It has to do with the gospel. “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul wrote in Romans, “because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” The power of God’s love and grace along with the teachings about salvation work faith in the hearts of human beings. He uses what we think of as physical power to help his gospel spread. Jesus guards his church and protects believers. His power opens paths for the gospel and keeps the devil from destroying the church, which Jesus continues to rule even though his enemies kick up a great fuss. God uses this kind of power so that the gospel and his grace and the church may do what they’re supposed to do – bring about sorrow for sins, trust in Christ, new life, hope for the resurrection, and perseverance in faith.

            Now, God’s power, which comes to us through his Word and the sacraments, strengthens the faith of his people and makes our spirits alive and empowers us to assert ourselves on behalf of the gospel – coming to worship regularly, reading the Bible at home, talking to our neighbors about God, and other things that take a bit of courage. We infer from what Paul wrote that our Christian strength grows. Faith makes progress. Christ takes possession of us bit by bit, in ever-greater degree, as someone put it. Now here’s another one-liner that sounds like it comes from somebody who know what it means to grow in Christ. “The task ahead of us is never so great as the Power behind us.”

            Now, God’s power makes us rooted and established in love, as Paul put it, so that we may begin to grasp the extent, the vastness of Christ’s love.  One of our Lutheran experts says that God’s love is a love of intelligence and purpose. He creates mature people with sensible goals, strong and determined. He persists. He doesn’t give up on us if we fall. He sees the best in us. His love will keep on molding our hearts and minds and souls so that we’ll be ready for his return in glory. God’s love for us, as we understand it more and more, awakens our love for him and the love for our sisters and brothers in Christ and our neighbors in general.

            So God’s power creates faith and love rises out of faith. Then come knowledge and understanding, which are important, because most everything we do starts with what we think. Paul prayed that the believers in Ephesus receive power to grasp the extent of Christ’s love – to  know the love that surpasses knowledge. Paul meant that we take hold of God by knowledge and understanding. We read the Bible and we come together for worship, where we improve our understanding of God’s Word and his plans and our places in them. The more we know about God, the more filled with his Word we become. And that’s what Paul wanted for the Ephesians – that they be filled as much as they could be with the fullness of Christ. Nobody will ever know as much as Jesus but we can know something and we can build on our knowledge and do our best to live by it. It pleases God when his people make small improvements step by step, knowing a little bit more each day.

            So, to conclude we’ll say that if somebody ever asks you what God is doing, you may say that he is using his power to spread the good news about salvation in Christ and that he calls his people to receive a portion of his power so that we may be built up ourselves and take part in the work of getting out the gospel.

            I’d to close with another one-liner. “You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him or her.”  Now, after I’ve been with you a month and gotten to know you some, I’ll say you don’t look like discouraged people to me, and for that we thank our God and Savior. In his name we rejoice. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.

          

                       

                     

     

                                                             

Mark 6:20-44 Jesus' Compassion

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

            The key word for our message this morning is compassion.  I found a dictionary definition that offers a useful guideline. Compassion means sympathetic awareness of the distress of other people along with a desire to relieve the distress.  In other words – seeing our neighbors problems and taking steps to help them.  This is Jesus’ frame of mind.

            The apostles have just returned from their first independent missionary journey.  They have a lot to talk over with the Lord, but so many people are coming and going that they can’t have a really fruitful conversation.  Besides, they’re tired and need something to eat.  Jesus understands their situation; he knows they need rest and privacy.  He take steps to provide for them.

            Jesus knows everything and his knowledge never fails.  He knows all there is to know about you and me.  You may recall these verses from Psalm 139: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.  If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  I praise you,..wonderful are your works.  Search me, O God, and know my heart....lead me in the way everlasting!”

            Our Lord’s knowledge is filled with compassion.  He knows out situations – our worries and fears as well as what brings us joy.  He takes steps to relieve our woes.

            Anyhow, Jesus and the apostles found the quiet place they wanted, but they didn’t get to enjoy it very long after a crowd descended on them.  A wise person once said to me that there are always interruptions, and they can come as great tests, especially if they call out to us when we’re trying to concentrate on something.  Jesus dealt with the interruption of the crowd in a way that only God could manage.  He didn’t go into hiding, nor did he call for security guards to chase the people away.  He understood their distress: they had spiritually and hadn’t found anyone to bring their troubles to.  It was at this time, by the way, that Herod had John the Baptist killed and the murder of a great leader may have been on their minds as well.  As it was, Jesus understood that the people were like sheep without a shepherd or a ship without a rudder.  He wanted to help them.

            He isn’t like a highly placed politician or celebrity whom you and I would never dream of approaching, because they build protective walls around themselves, and often with good reason.  Jesus is available to us and to everyone at all times.  “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Now, we shouldn’t expect our earthly leaders to be different from the way they are.  They are not God.  They are limited like ourselves.  If we want someone to talk to at any hour of the day, we may talk to our Lord and Savior, who knows us and will hear us and who won’t disappoint us.  His compassion will never falter.

            Now, Mark tells us how the Savior expressed his compassion.  He taught the crowd.  We make a connection between teaching and understanding and compassion.  We often associate teaching with school, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Though it may not look like it at the time, the things we learn in school benefit us for the rest of our lives.  Even reluctant students like myself most of the time come to see later in life that the learning we receive in school is an act of compassion from God and our society to us.  Anyhow, Mark tells us that Jesus expressed his compassion by teaching.  We don’t know what he said to them, but we do know the sorts of teaching he offered at other times – about righteousness and sticking with God, about hope and love and endurance, and the difference between the kingdom of the world, which is ruled by Satan, and the imperishable kingdom of heaven, which is full of love and mercy, governed by God, that Jesus brought with him when he was born with our flesh.

            While I was putting this message together, I thought about how wonderful it would be to have Jesus as our teacher.  Then I realize that he is our teacher, especially when we choose to pay attention.  He knows about the stresses and strains of daily life, the temptations we pass through, the sins that need to be washed away, and our questions about death.  “God sent the Son into the world,” he said to Nicodemus, “not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  And later, he said to the disciples as he was on the way to Calvary, “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms...I go to prepare a place for you...I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

            Jesus’ compassion for us means that he wants us to have everything that he has – friendship with the Father, faith and wisdom in our hearts, peace and rest,  and the hope of joy in eternity.  He carried out his plan to relieve our distress and the distress of the whole world, not only with a generous nature and loving words, but also with action.  He knew that sinfulness stands between us and God, so he took all the world’s sins upon himself and died to pay the penalty we can’t pay.  He took away our condemnation; the Heavenly Father seeks peace with the world, not war; the gates of heaven are open wide to every believer.

            We live in the world; it knocks us around.  We may ask how we can be sure that we’ll stay in touch with God’s compassion.  Partly by remembering that faith is God’s doing, not ours.  We don’t come to faith on our own but by the actions of the Holy Spirit.  Our Lord wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of him, including you and me.  His Spirit will keep us in faith and open our minds and hearts to listen to him.

            We do one or two things to help ourselves.  We cast our cares and our worries and our sinfulness onto Jesus.  We don’t let the troubles or the delights of the world take us over. Nor does the flutter of the world get the best of us.  The Lord has his reasons for keeping the church and his people on a humble path.  If we experience hardship and adversity, we know that we are blessed in the eyes of God.

            Another thing we do with God’s help is to focus our wills on our Savior.  Someone said  centuries ago that distraction is the greatest problem anyone faces.  There must be fifty times more distractions in the world today than in the 18^th century.  God’s Spirit brings us to worship and guides us in reading the Bible.  In addition, he blesses us with quietness of heart, persistence, and day by day faith in God.  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” one of the Psalmists wrote.  “Your testimonies are my heritage forever....the joy of my heart.  I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”  Our compassionate Lord makes a steady walk with him possible for us.  He guides us safely through the vanities and distractions of the world around us.   He brings us rest and peace even though the devil tries to vex us and interrupt us and tear away at our centers of repose.  We are calm in the midst of storms.

            The Lord changes our minds and wills to want what he offers and then he softens our hearts to extend to others the compassion he showers on us.  Paul wrote that the God of all comfort comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  We show compassion to our neighbors in material ways as we are able.  We pray for our neighbors.  We help them carry their burdens.  Companionship often does a lot. Here’s a story to illustrate.  A farmer was once plowing his field in the spring thaw.  After he chugged into one of many muddy places, his tractor stuck.  The harder he tried to get himself out, the deeper he got stuck.  He finally walked over to his neighbor’s place to ask for help. The neighbor came by, he looked the situation over, shook his head, and said, “It doesn’t look good, but I tell you what.  I’ll try to pull you out.  If we can’t move the tractor away, I’ll come and sit in the mud with you.”  We can define Christian compassion, then, as sitting in the mud with a friend – having his pain in your heart.

            So, to sum up we say that compassion includes fellow-feeling for others in their suffering along with a desire to relieve distress and eagerness to spread the word of God.

            Jesus looked about him and saw thousands of lost sheep who needed spiritual leadership.  He carried their pain in his heart. He brought healing by the word of God.  Every problem has a spiritual root, which the Bible addresses with the truth about human nature, about God and the work of his Son.  There are plenty of lost sheep in the world today and we help relieve the distress of some by sharing the hope of the gospel with them.  We speak the truth about God’s love to folks who are spiritually injured, to the troubled, to wanderers in search of a compassionate guide.  Our Heavenly Father assures us that his word never returns to him empty, so he invites his to bring his comfort to the folks around us.  What a joy to teach the love of Christ.  If we want to show our compassion and our love for others, we do what our Lord did: we make ourselves available to listen, to help, to encourage, and to share God’s Word, as we’ve all been doing, I suspect.  The point is to keep on going, trusting that the Lord will sustain us.  In his name we rejoice.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of  Christ Jesus.  AMEN.        

Ephesians -- Chosen as God's People

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

            Football coaches and hockey coaches often give their players a few words of encouragement before the start of a game. Sometimes as well they gather their teams together between periods for additional encouragement. Everyone needs encouragement, athletes, working people, ordinary citizens.

            We Christians also receive encouragement. We like to hear words from God that build us up and send us out into the world with renewed confidence that God is on our side and that he will get us to the eternal destination he has in mind for us. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians offers the encouragement we need. It’s different from Paul’s other letters because he doesn’t take up a particular problem or misinterpretation of doctrine. He wants instead to widen our horizons so that we better understand God’s grace and his eternal purposes, so that we appreciate even more than we do the high goals he has set for us and for his church, so we’ll refresh our minds about what Paul wrote to the congregation at Ephesus so that we, too, may draw encouragement from God’s everlasting Word.

            Near the beginning of his letter, Paul wrote that God chose the Christian people in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. All believers in Christ enjoy a special status in God’s eyes. He considers us to be holy and blameless for Jesus’ sake. He promises to protect our bodies and souls. He will keep alive the faith that is active in our hearts this morning. He wants us to be vigilant, while he invites us not to worry that five years from now we will wander away from his kingdom to revel in pagan joys and pagan miseries. He has put a seal on us. he promises that life in his kingdom will always be available to us.

            We need to say something about those two wonderful words “holy and blameless”. As we pass through a variety of experiences, we may sometimes feel poorly about ourselves, that we have messed up badly or that we aren’t worthy of God’s love. Insights like that about ourselves are often partly accurate, especially when we compare ourselves with Jesus, but God brushes aside these judgments for Christ’s sake and declares that we are blameless in his sight, without spot of blemish. He wipes the slate clean. He has forgotten our past sins for Jesus’ sake. We give thanks with joy in our hearts that God has forgiven our sins ad that we may move into the future with renewed minds and hearts. And what’s even more reassuring is that our heavenly Father promises to wash away our sins every day as we turn to him in trust and with repentant hearts – all for the sake of Christ.

            Paul tells us that God washes us clean so that we may come to praise his grace and also play a part in his plan for the universe. The world and people’s lives seem muddled and confused without God, but the lives of Christians have meaning and purpose because of Jesus’ friendship for us and what’s more, a time of fulfillment is coming in which God will bring everything into focus under Christ’s leadership. Our lives with him now are a foretaste of this time to come. As we make our way with God’s help through his immense and beautiful world, we think of ourselves as pilgrims moving toward a goal that God has chosen for us. We are strong and happy in the Lord, knowing that he is working out his purposes through us and that we will see the glorious day when everything in the universe is subject to Christ’s wisdom and righteousness. We should feel encouraged, then, that our tea is safe on the hands of God.

            Now, all coaches tell their players something about strategy or their plans for the game.

The same is true for God. A bit later in Ephesians, Paul tell us about God’s way of working. We are by nature strangers to God and his enemies. He reconciles us to him through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. He calls us to look on him as our Savior and friend.

            As he performs his mighty work, according to Paul, God also reconciles us to each other. Enmity between one person and another, between one group and another, seems to be a permanent feature of life on earth. As Jesus said, the devil is the prince of this world. But God breaks down barriers of hostility between his people and builds up bonds of friendship and love. This happened in the Ephesian congregation, where Jews and Gentiles worshipped together in a spirit of fellowship. Surprising friendships take place among Christians today. People with different backgrounds and customs come together in the Lord and form ties of mutual support and encouragement. When the world at large is so often impersonal and uncaring, we Christians trust that our spiritual family will nourish us and reach out a hand to us in times of need.

            Another wonderful thing about God’s actions for us is that sometimes a Christian or group of Christians who help us are people we might normally expect to be in sharp disagreement with. We find ourselves helped sometimes by people we thought of as antagonists and we may find ourselves helping Christians we thought we didn’t care about very much. God often works this sort of wonder among his people. The possibility of unexpected friendships encourages us and emboldens us to think that we may even break down a barrier or two ourselves.

            We’ll move along now to have a look at another aspect of God’s strategy. He takes the people he has reconciled to himself and to one another and he gathers us together into the church. He makes one body out of us with Christ as our head. The church isn’t always fun. Sometimes we get mad and sometimes are feelings get hurt. We even hear about people who stay away from the church for years and years because of something that happened or because they don’t get their way. But God’s people belong in the church, for as Paul says it is through the church that we express our citizenship in God’s kingdom. Our salvation comes through the church. As one Christian who lived centuries ago put it, “No one can have God as his father unless he has the church as his mother.”

            So the Lord reconciles us to himself and to one another and he invites us into one body, the church. After giving us these insights, Paul then reveals another feature of God’s plan – that he gathers his church together so that he may show his many-sided wisdom to the rulers and authorities in heaven. So our lives together in Christ has a heavenly dimension that we may not think about very often. God uses Risen Christ to reveal his wisdom to the angels in heaven. God’s wisdom works through us in ways we’re now only dimly aware of, but that will become clear to us when we assume the places in heaven that Jesus has prepared for us. The unity of the church works for God’s glory, then, both in heaven and on earth. I suspect that Risen Christ and the other congregations of the Lutheran Church-Canada will learn a lot as God continues to build his unity among us.    

            Paul begins the second half of Ephesians by saying: “Therefore, I…implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one other in love…”   So we have a part to play, too, in building up the kingdom. As we our lives by the teachings of God’s Word, we benefit ourselves and our neighbors in the building up of God’s kingdom and give a testimony that God is at work in us.  Living in faith and love isn’t easy, but we have God’s assurance that he has chosen us for life with him now and in eternity and so he won’t abandon us to struggles with temptation and the world around us and the devil who loves to toy with the weaknesses of our minds and our flesh. The Lord who pardons us will strengthen us and give us courage and joy as we make our way through the perils and advantages of city life. We trust that Jesus will keep on guiding us along the path of truth and that we’ll stay full-fledged members of his team, remembering that he has a special, heavenly use for each one of us and places for us to shine in the church and our families and the communities in which we take part.  I’m suspect that what’s truth for other Lutherans I’ve known is also true for St. Peter’s – that you’re talented and creative in many ways and that God will use you in many fruitful ways.

            God blessed the Christian church during the years when Paul and the other apostles were active. Christ doesn’t limit his blessing s to one time ad one place. God has chosen St. Peters, too, and you should be confident that as you stick with him he will bless your lives together with Christ. He will use the team he has brought together here for your blessedness and his glory. In his name we rejoice. AMEN.

 The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.     

           

                     

     

Mark 6:1 - 13 "I Send You to Them"

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

            In the first half of this morning’s gospel we hear again Mark’s account of the time the people in Jesus’ home town rejected him.  Jesus kept on going, however.  He didn’t let opposition stand in his way.  The second half of the reading gives us a sample of his determination and his unquenchable spirit.  Instead of brooding on the unfairness of life and looking for a safe retreat, he sent his apostles out on their first missionary journey.  He gave them the strength and courage to act as leaders in an environment that might not welcome them.  He did a lot for his helpers, and does a lot for his people today, and that’s our subject this morning – what Jesus does to equip believers for life in the world into which he’s placed us.

            When I was in the American army many years ago, I learned that the military always has two things in mind – first, their mission and then the welfare of the people who carry it out.  If a battalion of soldiers, say, has orders to capture a certain city, they must do it, no matter what.  Their objective is foremost.  Casualties are often an acceptable price to pay.  Concern for the fighting people comes second.  They need to be clothed, housed, and fed.  Injuries need to be tended to.  Morale has to be kept up – all for the sake of the mission.

            Jesus is different.  He is just as concerned about the needs of the people who work with him as he is with the building up of his kingdom.  The two go together, as we see in today’s reading. 

            Nearly everyone wants to be useful, to be needed, to take an active part in life.  The way our world is set up, it sometimes seems that only a lucky few get to use their abilities to the full – movie stars, top politicians, heads of large organizations, and so on, while the rest of us live on the sidelines, so it seems, either watching or carrying the burdens.

            Jesus set up his kingdom on a different basis.  He uses the lowly and the humble of heart.  Some of the apostles were fishermen, ordinary people in the world’s eyes.  Matthew was a tax collector, a man on the margins of society in those days.  The apostles lived close to the earth; they knew about simple things and had no contact with the powerful or the great.  They probably expected to live obscure lives, dulled by routine.  Then Jesus came and lifted them up.  He called them to important tasks that brought significance to their lives.  He gave them power to cast out demons and to heal.  He instructed them to spread good news about the possibility of a new lease on life through repentance and faith.  God had come to earth in human flesh with forgiveness and redemption from sin and salvation.  How committed and eager for life the apostles must have been as they set out on their first independent errand for the Lord.

            We’re not apostles, of course, with a unique assignment from Jesus and most of us aren’t  at the beginning of our walks with the Lord, but our Savior still calls us and satisfies our yen for significance and freedom from anxiety.  He gives us earthly tasks such as homemaking, raising children, going to school, and earning our livings.  Plus, he empowers us to spread the good news by showing our neighbors through words and actions God’s love for them.  We forgive trespasses; we help others carry their burdens; we tell them about the church.  Jesus gives us something significant and worthwhile to do by making us his ambassadors who work for the building up of the kingdom.  His Spirit working on us makes us open, affirming, confident people, grateful to him and eager for the life he gives.  If you stop and think about it, thanks to Jesus, everything we do is on the side of life.

            Now, when he sent the apostles out, Jesus gave them simple instructions about what to take with them.  The message they conveyed was so important they didn’t have time to think about luxuries.  They traveled light.  Earthly goods often weigh us down, especially after we accumulate a few decades of stuff.  Somebody once said that things are in the saddle and ride mankind.  Jesus gives his people a new focus, so he told his disciples to leave their possessions at home.

            It wasn’t that he planned to turn them into puritans or make their lives uncomfortable.  He wanted to deepen in them a quality every believer needs – trust and dependence on him.  He wanted to convince them that the Heavenly Father would provide them with food and hospitality. He would take care of their needs while they were in his service.  He wanted them to have a feeling of security. They might meet opposition. They might be rejected or mocked.  They might occasionally wonder – with their very human minds – where they’d sleep at night or where their food would come from.  Jesus instilled in them the trust that he always takes care of his people.  He will never run out or change his mind.  He provided for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert for forty years; he looked out for his apostles; he takes care of his kingdom people today, as you and I can testify.

            We humans  often resist turning to God.  We like to rely on ourselves and sometimes our neighbors.  Human means bring partial success, of course, but they never carry us as far as we need to go.  Jesus rescues us from the anxiety and frustration of natural, earthly life, so he trains us – sometimes by means of hardship and adversity – to depend on him.  He gives us new minds so that we know him and come to lean on him more and more.

            He builds up our faith so that we trust that everything we do we do for him.  Our worship, prayers, reading the Bible, chatting about the Gospel – all these serve the kingdom.  We also serve as we clean the house or wash the car, carry out our tasks at work or school, and take care of church property, as your pastor has told me the folks at Risen Christ do very well. 

            Christian living is about more than doing things, however.  Jesus is concerned with what takes place inside us – what we think, what we want, our feelings.  He gives us his own standards to live by and then empowers us to follow them – faith first and then love, which we express with gentleness, kindness, forbearance, patience, self-control.  He transforms us bit by bit – sometimes without our being aware of what he’s doing for us – into his image so that we become like him.

            The apostles were later disappointed with some parts of their first missionary journey.  Jesus counseled them gently.  He invites us, too, to be loving and patient with ourselves.  If we take up a project and good results don’t come as quickly as we’d hoped, we may blame ourselves.  Self-criticism is good, of course, but it’s not our Lord’s intention that we tie ourselves up in knots of reproach.  Nothing we humans do will ever be perfect. We bring our concerns to him, for he is the judge, not we, and his ways are loving.  He doesn’t want us to be proud, but neither do we sink into despair.  We accept his assurance that labor for him is never in vain and we keep on going.

            Another way of saying what Christ did for the apostles is that he gave them life in full abundance.  He freed them from fear and dependency.  He gave them a portion of his freedom as a gift, so that they’d be free to serve him.  He blessed them with new life.

            A Christian thinker who lived near the start of the church said that the greatest work of God is a living human being, who possesses eternal life in Christ, which God shapes and molds.  Scripture tells us that he worked on Peter and Paul and Thomas, the apostle who doubted, to make them fully alive.

            He makes us alive, too.  We pass through turmoil and trials, both as individual believers and the church as a whole.  We’re tempted and we sin.  Sometimes we’re sorrowful.  All the while, the Lord shapes us to endure, to persist, and to prevail.  He trains us in faith and love, so that we are capable servants who live by his grace.

            The apostles must have picked up profound insights into themselves and human nature and our common spiritual needs during their missionary journeys.  Jesus helped them overcome their uncertainties and trust that they would be safe and useful in his care.  Some of the folks to whom they brought the gospel must have seen God at work in them and wondered how to acquire faith in Christ themselves.  We can imagine people wondering – how can we find a better way than the everlasting frustration of daily living?  The apostles brought them the answer – look to Jesus.  He will provide for you.  He will give your lives meaning and keep you safe for eternity.

            The same is true for you and me.  If we’re weak, the savior forgives and restores.  The light of his grace shines through the chinks in his armor as he transforms our minds and souls.           Our neighbors may notice Jesus’ actions in our lives.  They see that the Heavenly Father loves his children and gives us work to carry out, that we are confident, loving, and strong, alive in the hope of ever lasting blessedness.  The people we come in contact with may never say anything about what they notice in us, but some will wonder how they can live in faith, joyful, persistent, and strong in stressful times.  We are equipped to show them the way.  Jesus, who does not withhold himself from anyone who seeks him, will fulfill their desire to know him.

            To keep us humble, the Holy Spirit may never show us the results of our work for the kingdom.  Nevertheless, the Heavenly Father wants us to carry in our hearts the assurance that we are following in the footsteps of our Lord and his apostles.  He encourages us to be certain that he will use our faith and that in his loving way he will keep us fruitful servants of the kingdom. In his name we give thanks.  AMEN.

The  peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.   AMEN.

Mark 4:26 - 34 The Growth of God's Kingdom

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

            God’s people, sisters and brothers of Christ, you and I, live in two places at once – in the world as it comes to us day by day and also in the kingdom of God, which Jesus brought to the world when he was born in Bethlehem.  God rules both kingdoms, of course, but the kingdom of heaven especially belongs to Jesus, because it expresses his nature.

            Earthly kingdoms are pale imitations of God’s heavenly kingdom.  There are lots of earthly kingdoms.  They raise kings and leaders up and bring them down.  They create rulers and subjects, masters and folks who do as they’re told.  I have an old video that gives an example of an earthly kingdom in action.  It tells the story of Alexander the Great who lived three centuries before Christ.  His ambitions ruled him.  He fought with most everyone, including his own father and waged many bloody wars.  He had more earthly power than anyone else of his time, he left deep footprints on the history of the world. He believed that he was a god.  He died when he was very young. 

            The true God is very different from Alexander.  Everything is subject to him, even the strongest of emperors.  He doesn’t rule by force or bloodshed or powerful armies.  He is a God of love, who pardons and heals and makes alive.  His kingdom is filled with mercy, pardon, faith, and hope.  All believers, as we said, live in his kingdom by faith, when we abide in his promises to care for us now, to pardon our offenses, and to bring us into blessedness when Jesus returns in glory.  Even now, our Lord does not call us subjects but his friends, his brothers and his sisters.  He considers us kings and queens of heaven already.  When he returns and reveals his kingdom in its fullness for all to see, there will be no subjects, only kings and queens, and all who have lived by faith in him in the mixed and troubled world will wear glorious crowns.

            The church, which is the visible part of God’s kingdom, puts Jesus’ promises before us to encourage us and to give us meaning, hope, and the strength to keep on going.   God’s kingdom is hidden from sight right now, but one day it will be revealed.  Jesus promises that everything that’s secret will come to light and his kingdom will shine out with everlasting glory.  He gives us the faith to stay in his kingdom now, even after worship is over and we resume our lives in the kingdom of earth. 

            This review of familiar ideas helps us understand the fourth chapter of Mark’s gospel.  It begins with a parable.  A sower casts seed in a field.  Some falls beside the road, other seeds fall on rocky ground, and still others fall among thorns.  A goodly number of seeds fall on good soil, however, and these seeds yield a crop that is 30 or 60 or 100 times the amount that was sown.  The sower is God and the seed is his Word.   The different kinds of seed stand for the various ways people respond to his Word.  Some produce no crop because Satan takes away the Word immediately.  Some accept the Word joyfully for a time, but affliction and persecution cause them to fall away.  Others succumb to worry and to the deceitfulness of wealth; they come to desire other things, and they are no longer fruitful.  Then there are those who accept God’s Word, stay with it, and produce an abundance of fruit for the kingdom.

             We’ll focus on the last group this morning, for it’s the one to which St. Peter’s people belong.  God’s word works on us so that we will do good works for kingdom throughout our lives.  God’s word in our hearts spreads to other hearts.  We repent of our sins; we take hold of Christ in joy; we live by faith.  The fruits of the Spirit that St. Paul described are present in our lives – joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

            The second parable about the Kingdom of God, which starts this morning’s text looks at a man scattering seed from a different angle.  It expresses Jesus’ confidence in his Word, which grows automatically, all by itself.  The kingdom doesn’t run by human huffing and puffing but by the Lord’s patient, loving, ceaseless care.  There is power in the Gospel, and efforts to adapt it or change it get in the way.  What’s more, we don’t take a lot of time trying to figure out how it works or why or when.  We believe in it and receive its benefits.

            An old Lutheran put it this way: “the spiritual fruits of God’s kingdom are present whenever a person receives power and wisdom from God and says in humility, ‘I stand in faith and know how precious my faith is’ or whenever a man or woman discovers in humility that this faith he or she has received has become a force to defeat sin, wrath, and ungodly passion and who can cast off whatever displeases God and put on what delights Him.  The gospel is at work whenever a woman or a man overcomes by the faith that he or she has received the cares and lusts of this world and carries an inner peace that the world can’t give or take away.  The kingdom is present wherever a Christian grows in love and humility of heart through the faith that he or she has received from Jesus.”

            The Lord of the harvest lets none of the crop spoil.  He turns it into seed instead for new planting; he will make more new fruit grow until the last harvest when Christ returns in glory, at which time all the hidden growth of God’s kingdom that we can’t see with our eyes will become visible and all our moments of pain and all our striving to rise will resolve themselves into blessed praise of our Lord and his Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit who have been active without stopping.

            Jesus didn’t look to man-made things to describe the growth of his kingdom, but to nature.  I suspect that many of St. Peter’s people love the outdoors and growing things and the beauty and ruggedness of the Canadian landscape and will feel comfortable with our Lord’s choice.  You might have been willing to answer the question he asked the people who heard him in Galilee: what shall we say the kingdom is like?  Maybe we’d compare it with a flock of migrating birds that knows exactly where it’s going or with a vegetable garden that provides for a family’s needs and never lets them down.  Jesus compared the kingdom with a mustard seed that is smaller than other seeds but becomes the greatest plant in the garden.  The mustard seed is Jesus himself.  We think of the baby born in Bethlehem, the small following Jesus gathered when he began his ministry, his death on the Cross, and then the rapid spread of the faith after he died.  The beginnings were nothing very great in worldly terms.  He didn’t lead an army to big victories.  It’s a miracle that one man, trained as a carpenter, without highly placed contacts, could start a movement that would spread throughout the world and whose glory will shine forever.  The Lord spoke through Ezekiel, saying that he would plant a cedar that would produce branches and bear fruit and become splendid.  Birds of every kind would nest in its branches.  The cedar is Christ and the branches are believers all over the world, like the ones at St. Peter’s, in whom others may find rest and shade, courage, hope, and joy, and the faith to endure.

            It’s common for folks nowadays to express concern about the state of the church.  We won’t do so this morning.  The parables in Mark 4 give us courage and invite us to rejoice in the kingdom God has created.  Its power comes from Him.  The church is a living community.  The power and the life that God has given it will last forever.  The kingdom will continue growing until the end of time.  It’s not confined to one group but is spread over the whole world.  Numbers are important, but they are not the main thing.  Neither is outward organization.  Christ rule of grace is spiritual, and no one can see the Spirit.  Still, we can see the Spirit’s effects in many ways, such as the sturdiness of our own worshiping community.

            To sum up, then, God has made us good soil that produces kingdom fruit for his glory and the benefit of our neighbors.  We are strong branches on the everlasting tree that God has planted.  He blesses us with the hope that we will continue strong and fruitful.  We give God thanks and praise that he keeps us in his kingdom.  In Jesus’ Name.  AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus.  AMEN