Loneliness of Prayer

Prayer can be a lonely exercise. When life is good, and troubles are few prayer is rather easy, (Praise the Lord!) or nonexistent. After all, when you have few or no trials in life, you have little to no reason to pray. However, when troubles are many, prayer can become lonely and desperate, for when our needs are strongly felt, when danger is near, help is needed as soon as possible.

David, in Psalm 13 reflects the often lonely struggle we can have with prayer. In painful words, this Psalm begins, “How long, O Lord?” The emotional thrust of a God silent to pleas for mercy and help is viscerally felt in these words. Perhaps you have been at a time and place where, in desperate hope, you wondered why God was silent to your need, why His face seemed to be turns away from you in your moment of sorrow.

In Matthew 15 we read the account of a Canaanite woman whose need and sorrow over the affliction of her daughter knew no end. Though she was not a “lost sheep of the house of Israel” because the Word of God was known to her from her Jewish neighbors, she was waiting for the promised messiah to come and make all things new. Hearing the work of Jesus, of His mercy in healing the sick, and driving out demons, she came with a desperate prayer on her lips, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

We expect Jesus to be a man of compassion. When a needy person comes, when a trouble soul finds his or her way into the presence of the Lord, we expect His response to be one of compassion. Not so here. Jesus is cold, and maybe even a little racist toward this person in need. God in human flesh and blood is silent in the face of this need – or so it appears at first.

“Faith is the conviction of things hoped for, the assurance of things not seen.” In prayer, this unnamed Canaanite woman grabs hold of Jesus, and by faith wrests from the Lord of all a blessing. Such is the faith that Jesus says can move mountains. Never giving up on the promises of God’s Word, she finds hope and healing. This same promise is yours. By faith in Jesus, even in the hour of desperate need and prayer, Jesus, who is faithful, will always do as He says.

The Devil is Real

Before the devil gets you to fall for the lie that there is no God, he deceives you into thinking that there is in fact no devil. Stories of supernatural evil, according to this deception, are nothing more than tales intended to scare you into behaving right, or listening to authority. In large part, the devil has succeeded. Fewer and fewer people, even those who confess faith in Jesus, and the Holy Bible, believe that there is a devil.

This is dangerous, as the devil is in fact real. The Bible is full of examples of this, including our Gospel lesson from Matthew 4. Jesus, newly baptized, and anointed to be the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” is led by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to face Satan, and his tempting power. As Adam fell to the poisoned lies of the devil, Jesus, must face the same that He may stand as our champion, and crush the head of the ancient foe. (Genesis 3:15)

What was hidden from human eye behind flesh and blood, the devil knew, for he heard the promise of the Father to send one born of woman, yet begotten from eternity to save humanity from death and sin. Even so, Satan met our Lord in battle, and with high arrogance thought that just as Adam and Eve fell to His temptations, so will the only Son from heaven.

This same devilish arrogance can be found in each of us. Call it falling for the devil’s temptation, call it weakness of sinful humanity, whatever it is, each time we fail to live up to the sacred vows of the Ten Commandments, we arrogantly tell God that we know better than Him, that He must conform His ways to what we want. In ways big and small, we fall for this, and wait for God to surrender to us.

Lent is a season of repentance. As the clear mirror of the Law of God is directed at our lives, our words, our actions, it becomes abundantly clear that we have fallen far short – that we are sinners. In this moment, when the full size of the giant of our sin is seen raging down on us, our Lord Jesus steps into the fray. With the promise of God to give victory, armed with the written Word of God, our Lord sends the devil away, defeated.

Jesus, by His written Word invites us into this victory. Following our captain, we move from spiritual victory to spiritual victory, moving ever closer to the final victory over sin, death and devil in the resurrection.

Deliverance From Evil

As humans look out on the world in which we live, it is clear that this is a place of evil. In our age of 24 hour news, this reality is only highlighted as more and more the media pushes sensational, shocking stories to keep viewers tuned in. As the Bible clearly shows, God is all powerful. In light of this, then, why doesn’t God simply end all evil in the world He has the power to do so.

This is a good question, and the answer is all about you, or more specifically, the salvation of all humanity. In order for the Lord to remove all evil from the world, He would have to destroy everything, and everyone who is evil. It sounds good until you realize that this includes you. All of us are mired in the evil of sin in this world, and when the Law of God is taken at its full meaning, it is clear that no one can escape form this truth. If God were to simply destroy all evil in the world, then He would have to destroy you as well. This, as you know, is contrary to the will of God for humanity.

As Jesus was making his final journey back to Jerusalem, His eyes were set on doing exactly what needed doing that His own creating may be restored to perfection. Jesus goal and plan was to do exactly what most desire, destroy all evil in the world. Only, Jesus set out to do it in such a way that He would preserve us from the purge. However, the godly wisdom of His cross is hidden from our human thoughts. That we humans are in need to salvation is clear. What is not so clear is that we cannot save ourselves. By nature we try to make up for our failings. Hidden is that Christ Jesus saves us from death by death and resurrection.

Jesus chose the hardest way as a glorious demonstration of His deep, abiding love for us. Jesus shoulders the load of sin for us. In His flesh our Lord carries all the evil, injustice, and suffering of this world, and on the cross all that is evil is destroyed in the dead body of God. This suffering in our place is the ultimate sign of our Lord’s love from which spring forgiveness and hope. The life we now live, we live in Jesus, as such, as we live in His Word, share His Word in our lives, the mission of ending evil in the world continues until that day when our Lord shall come with the final end of all suffering. As that day draws near, keep your eyes n Jesus. He will never fail you.

Hidden Things

Romans 10:17 reminds us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” This speaks not only to how God calls us to faith in the saving work of His Son Jesus, but how that faith is sustained, feed, and increased in us. All things work by the sowing of the Word of God. The danger then in not keeping Holy the Sabbath day, and gathering to hear the Word of God is that your faith, starved of the word of Jesus loving Gospel of forgiveness, will shrivel.

The fact is, the Law is our daily and constant companion. A typical day begins with law – the sound of an alarm to wake us up, or the rush of having to get ready, feed, dressed, all packed up in time to make it to work or school.

These places of work, be it a classroom, an office, or a construction site are places of law. Do this, don’t do that, get it done on time, make sure it is your best work, and if you get something wrong, someone will definitely let you know about it.

In the midst of all this law, is that simple fact that you just can’t do it. An answer is wring on a test, a number was typed incorrectly on a report, a deadline was missed. Added to all the stress are the people you are called to live the most, who always seem to get less and less of your time, because your too tired, too busy, too distracted to give attention to spouse, children and grandchildren. No wonder so many people think they can eek out a little time by skipping what is in reality the most important time – time hearing God speak by His Word.

The sown seed is the Gospel, which means good news. While the Law predominates in our lives, the Gospel is often a forgotten echo, something we once learned, and maybe trusted once, but now we have things to get done. The devil loves it when we stay away from the Words of Jesus. When we skip coming to receive the very body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

You see, the church is the place where you find Jesus. In His good news word of forgiveness all the law is covered by the embrace of God’s love. Rest from labor and sorrow is found here. Joy and peace mingled to bring you to heaven. To give you the sown word of life that yields to your soul a hundred fold and more.

God does it, not You

The Bible is an amazing document. A collection of 66 books spanning 1600 years, written by 36 different human authors, yet all saying the same thing. The whole of the message of the Bible can by encapsulated by this one phrase, God speaking, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” The Bible is the ongoing story of the creator whose desire is to rescue the people He made from the sin that they themselves created by the giving of Himself to them.

God is God when He puts on human flesh and blood, and carries the sinful acts, thoughts, and words, every transgression to the cross, and there shed divine blood, that we may be His people, holy, beloved, and clothed with Jesus. God, by His blessed Word, gives, and we, as His blessed children receive.

Even so, we do not always live as though what our Lord says is true. It is easy for us to see what we do not have, rather than give thanks for the blessings we have been given. When we perceive that we do not have something that we think we are entitled to, our sin rears its ugliness, and in our hearts, in our words, and in our deeds, we cry that it is not fair.

The things is, God’s kingdom makes no economic, social, or even religious sense from our human perspective. God always acts contrary to human reason, as He simply des whatever He wishes to do with what belongs to Him. He gives what isn’t earned, while visiting punishment on one who is perfect, and giving grace to those soiled by sin. God is gracious to whom He is gracious, and shows mercy to whom He will show mercy.

All this our Lord accomplishes in the shocking manner of the destruction of His only Son in place of sin idled humanity. We who have stood all day in not doing what we have been given to do, in looking to earn our own way to the reward of heaven, God saves. Our Lord simply wants to be our God, to give us all we need spiritually that we may be saved form this place of death, and brought into the place of life. Jesus asks nothing form you in exchange for His love. He needs nothing form you. His work alone does what we need. Jesus, our God brings to us, His people salvation in His Holy Name.

Lies and The Truth

The devil is a liar. Everything that he says, or does is a lie, and the purpose of his lies is to separate you from God, to ensure that you do not receive the mercy and love of Jesus.

Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers recently made headlines, not for losing a playoff game, but for publicly rejecting Christianity. The quarterback said, in rejecting his Christian upbringing, “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell.”

To Mr. Rodgers, and anyone else who thinks this way, I agree. The god described here is not the God of the Bible. 2 Timothy 2:3-5 says, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” God wants no one in hell.

His desire is to save all people. That He may accomplish this, Jesus was sent into our human flesh and blood that in His body Jesus may carry our sin, be nailed to a cross of wood, suffer what we deserve for our rebellion, die in our place, and be placed in a tomb. Jesus blood is shed by God, that God may not send anyone to a fiery hell. Whoever taught Aaron that God wants to send people to a fiery hell never taught him about Jesus, about the mercy, grace, and love of God that covers all who trust in Jesus with forgiveness, and spares us from the wrath of God. Aaron was taught a lie in place of the truth.

As Jesus set Himself for the final stage of His journey to the cross, He revealed Himself to a select few of His followers. In the transfiguration of our Lord, we see Jesus for who He really is, as the voice of the heavenly Father declares. Jesus is God’s beloved Son, loved all the more for the mission He was on to die in the place of sinners. In the shining face of Christ is found destroyed the two deadly lies of the devil.

The first is that you own your own life, especially the successes of life. That you save yourself by being good. The second is that you own your failures, that you must make up for your sins on your own. By the Word of Jesus we know that He is God, He has saved us by His cross, and He will lead us to life eternal.

Education

Recently, at a public school in New York, a young man was beaten up because he expressed support for the president of the United States. Politics aside, shouldn’t kids be safe to express their support, or lack of support for our President, or any other elected official at our publicly funded schools?

At another school in Chicago, parents of kindergarten kids were told they had no right to take their own children out of a sex ed class, that included instruction on how to perform sex acts. Shouldn’t five year old kids be safe from such abuse in our schools?

Here in Minnesota, biological males, who self-identity as female, must be allowed to use the locker room, and bathroom of their choice, even if it increases the danger to biological girls. Shouldn’t young women and girls be given a basic level of protection in our schools?

What we see going on in our society now is the fruit of the devil’s ultimate lie that there is no God. Satan’s strategy is to attack kids, so that as they grow into adult hood, they will no longer trust in the saving love of Jesus.

While these are scary times, they are also a tremendous time for us in the church. We have a message of hope, light and life. We know the God who suffered, died, and was buried, rising again to new life all to bring comfort, hope, and healing to a lost and hurting world. Ours is a message of love, reality, and wholeness, a message our world is in desperate need of.

For us as the church, now is a time to pray. Now is a time to reflect the light of Jesus by standing on His blessed Word. Now is a time for us to be purposeful about being in the Word, studying what God says, and intentional about sharing the hope we have in the midst of a world gone crazy.

As we celebrate National Lutheran Schools Week, Now is the time to stand up for the rights of children in all schools to have a safe learning environment, were they are not social experiments, but loved, nurtured, and guided into adulthood.

Truth and Popularity

It is clear that the truth is never popular.

Recently, the Hallmark Channel, purveyors of simple and sweet romance movies, and of course their popular Christmas romance movies suffered under public scrutiny. The channel ran an ad for a wedding planning website that featured a same sex wedding. A group called “One Million Mom’s” asked them to reconsider showing these images on a “family friendly” channel, and at first they complied, removing the said advertisement. With predicable precision, the power elites of our culture learned of this, and Hallmark reversed their decision. The truth simply is not popular.

One thing, however is clear. Weddings are universally seen as moments of joyful celebration. A young couple, male and female, making promises of devotion and faithfulness to one another, to love, serve and share each other’s life. These images hearken back to a time before the fall, when God made male and female in His image and likeness, and blessed all humanity in this union.

What is also abundantly evident is that marriage is the setting into which God gives the gift of life. In the blessing of the union of husband and wife, God opens his hand, and gives the mysteriously wonderful gift of children. Weddings, then, from the perspective of the Bible, are celebrations of God’s gift of life.

It is in supreme arrogance then that in our own age, we have decided to redefine this truth. Marriage is not about the gift of life, as demonstrated by the anger poured out on anyone who dares say such a thing in public. Rather, marriage has been turned in on itself, as sin does to each of us, and is now defined by personal fulfillment. Instead of turning our eyes, hands, and deeds outward in acts of love and service, marriage is turned into self-interest. Such selfishness is evident in broken families, broken homes, broken lives, and, tragically, dead children.

As distressing as the loss of truth is, what remains is that Jesus loves marriage, and families, and life. He showed this love by His presence and blessing at a wedding in Cana, and He continues to shower this love and blessing upon us by His Word of forgiveness and life. Even though this world has abandoned what is good, and right, and true, Jesus has not. By His gifts, He continue to abide with you in your home, in your family, that in Him you may have the full blessing of His forgiveness and life.

Righteousness Fulfilled

The only hope sinful humanity has in light of God’s just wrath against our sin is His grace and mercy. Sure, we hear this from the Word of God. Yes, we confess this when we memorize the Small Catechism, in, for example the 3^rd article of the Apostle’s Creed. This Biblical and true teaching is present in our congregation, in our schools, likely even in our homes. The danger is that this has become little more than lip service. Yes, we say we believe that we cannot believe unless the Gospel Word brings us the grace of God the Holy Spirit, that we may believe, but our lives, and actions can say a different word. A word not born of the Bible, nor of God, but of our own sinful flesh. A word that says God, who is love, must give me what I say is loving. Is there room in our spirituality for repentance, suffering, and humility?

John the Baptist was sent by God the Father with a message of repentance. Long promised by prophets who shed their blood as they spoke God’s Word, John called a people full of themselves to repent, and see that in truth, even as God’s chosen nation, they were in need of God’s salvation as much as anyone else. Repentance is not something you do for God. Rather, it is a work done in you, and for you by the Word of Jesus. John was sent with this Word to make ready those who would see the Lord fulfill His Word of salvation.

As God commanded, so Joshua sent into the water the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The ark was the symbol of the Holy presence of the Holy God among the people made holy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. In the same way came Jesus, not the symbol of God’s presence among us, but very God of very God. Immanuel, God with us in human flesh and blood, and to John the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who takes away your sin, Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness.

Baptism is for broken, stained, self righteous, repentant people. Baptism is not for the perfect God. Even so, for you Jesus is plunged into the water of human iniquity and sin, so that for you Jesus may take away your sin. Your hope is in this one, whose Father proclaimed Him beloved, who shed His blood for you, that in Him you may have life, the forgiveness of all sin.

Holy Innocents

The history of the Christian church is marked with the stories of sacrifice and martyrdom of those who, even in the face of persecution and death, held on to their faith, and confessed Jesus’ saving Name. For this example of faith, we can give thanks to the Lord, and pray that we too would be strengthened to face such trials in firm trust in the Word of Jesus.

The reason for their confidence in clear, yet not so easily recognized, even among people of faith. The reason is that this world is not the best thing ever. The best thing ever is yet to come, when Jesus will return and restore all creation, including you and me, to the perfect peace that God intended it to be when he first spoke us into existence. Nothing that happens in this world and life is eternal. What is eternal are the promises of God in Christ. Knowing the joy of sins forgiven, Christians in each and every generation can face the struggles of this life and world with confidence and hope.

The first Christian martyrs were likely too young to really know what was going on in the first place. Typically remembered on December 28^th, the feast of the Holy innocents marks the event in Bethlehem following the visit of the wise men. Recorded in our Gospel lesson for the second Sunday after Christmas in Matthew 2, we read how King Hared, in a rage over the fulfillment of prophecy, and unable to find the baby Jesus on his own, orders the death of every male children two years and younger in the area surrounding Bethlehem. Innocent blood shed for the sake of the powerful in the world. For the sake of the coming of Salvation.

Little has actually changed in this sinful world. Still, innocent children must suffer death at the hands of the powerful, for the sake of individual ambition, or fear, or ignorance, or a lust for earthly power and wealth. Abortion is the slaughter of innocent children. As a Christian people, our calling is clear. We must stand up and be a voice for those who are at the mercy of others more powerful then they are.

Even as these little ones shed their blood to sate the rage of a tyrannical king, we can take hope in the fact that Jesus shed His innocent blood to bring you, by faith in Him, forgiveness and life.