Written Sermon 3/8/2026

 Pastor John Eich

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Alma, MI

Jesus is Your Living Water

Sermon for 03.08.26  John 4:5-26 

He sits near you every Sunday. She  sits across from you in class. You  see him every day at work. Rarely  do they start a conversation. From  what you can tell, things are going  well. Yet, day after day he  struggles with depression. A list of  things he has done wrong swirls in  his head. His marriage. Her children. His job. Her home life. It  is overwhelming. It is said still waters run deep and, if you were to start an honest  conversation with that person, you would find that true. Beneath his calm  demeanor, lies a depth of depression troubling his soul. Yet deeper still  runs the Word of God. So deep that it has the power to restore your soul as the psalmist writes, “He leads me besides the still waters, He restores  my soul.” Jesus is our Living Water. 

So, this Samaritan woman came to draw water at the hottest time of day. Normally women would draw water in the cool of the morning or  evening. But this woman came during the hot time, probably to avoid the  sneers and whispers of the town gossips about her sordid past. The well wasn’t a faucet or pump like we are used to. You had a clay jar which you  lowered 30 feet into a hole. You let it submerge and fill with water. Then  you had to pull it back up by a rope. And you had to do that multiple  times to get enough water for the day. It was hard work. Hard work made  harder by the burdens she carried. The men she had known. Or rather,  the men who had known her, had used her, and had divorced her. 

So marked was she by all these failed marriages, that she was now living  with a man who was not her husband. He was just one more man in a  line of men, using her, and leaving her, each time a little less human in  the eyes of others. She came to the well wanting water to quench her  thirst. But what she needed was someone to restore her soul. 

The Samaritan religion was a mix of Judaism, paganism and nationalism.  She has a vague understanding of the Scriptures. The kind you get from  T-shirts and coffee mugs. And she had an even more vague idea of the  Messiah. With her patchy knowledge of God, she also faces a dilemma in  her personal life. She knows she is wrong to be living this way. She’s  ashamed of it. Yet she can find no peace. Her vague religion leaves her  with Band-Aid fixes for her sin, like coming to the well when nobody is  around so she doesn’t have to confront her issues. Workarounds and excuses lead to more workarounds and excuses, until you’re tangled in  this knot you can’t untie. It’s like having to draw water from a well day  after day: the task will never be finished, and she will never have her  thirst for peace quenched. 

How does one restore a soul? The body can be healed. A surgeon’s hands  can open your chest, reach in and actually touch your beating heart. But  your soul is a different matter. It cannot be seen. It cannot be touched by human hands or examined on the operating table. Yet it feels the traumas  of life. Abuse that ends one’s childhood too early. A miscarriage that  abruptly ends one’s parenting. Divorce that tears marriage apart. These  things cut deeper than any surgeon’s knife, touching your soul. Making it  restless. Longing for life as God meant it to be. 

Augustine said, “You made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are  restless until they find their rest in You.” So, this woman at this well is  not the only one who longs for restoration. We all have moments of  restlessness. It could be 3 am, as you lie there in bed, awake and unable  to stop yourself from thinking. It could be 3 pm, as you worry about  going home to a fractured family, wondering if it will ever turn around.  Restlessness flows like an undercurrent through life, pulling us, dragging  us downward, making us weary of living even as we go through the  normal motions of a day. 

When Jesus speaks with her, He doesn’t address her behavior. Jesus  addresses the condition of her heart: Everyone who drinks of this  water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water  that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I  will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to  eternal life. You are thirsty, dear woman. Not just in the bodily way. Your soul is parched. 

Ask yourself what thirst(s) do you have in your life? What has sin caused  you to be thirsty for? Better yet, ask yourself what people, places, and  things have you attempted to use to satisfy your thirst? Was it in human  relationships, real or imagined, like the Samaritan woman that had been  married five times? The world tells us that it has what we are thirsty for is  more everything--more money, more fame, and the latest one of these or  the newest one of those. And then in our sinful nature we think we can  satisfy our own thirst, which leads to pride, selfishness, and addictions of  various kinds. But, of course, all those things leave us thirsting for more.  Nothing in this fallen world will quench our thirst. 

King Solomon attempted to satisfy his thirst with everything this world  offers. But he was left thirsty! And he tells us why in Ecclesiastes 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set  eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God  has done from beginning to end. Then he concludes, 13 This is the  conclusion of the matter. Everything has been heard. Fear God  and keep his commandments. For mankind, this is everything (12:13). When you get down to the deep recesses of the human heart the  only thing that will satisfy our spiritual thirst is a right relationship with  God. He offers that to us through the living water of salvation found in  Christ alone 

To this woman, to you, the Shepherd comes. 

John does not speak of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in this passage but  that is what I see: A shepherd who knows when a sheep is weary and  comes to offer care by sharing the water of life. The Lord is my  Shepherd, we have learned to say. He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul. Today, we see Jesus, coming as a shepherd,  offering still waters, restoring a soul. 

The water He offers does not come from any well. It comes from Him. Jesus is the source of all living water. His life, His death, and His  resurrection are a life-giving stream. Only in the gospel of John does  Jesus cry out, I thirst, at His crucifixion. He becomes the thirsty one,  longing for life. Bearing our suffering. Enduring our shame. He enters  the depths of Hell itself and dies in our place that He might rise and offer  us His eternal, life-giving stream. God’s grace to us in Christ is flowing. It  does not run out. It is active and moving and life-giving. 

Jesus sits by the well as a shepherd, coming to offer this woman a life giving stream-God’s grace, forgiveness power and the Holy Spirit who  gives new life. What He gives makes her a child of God. The life she finds  in Jesus is a gift that will never go away. 

He still sits there, our Shepherd, by the well where, with a splash of water  and God’s word, you are made a child of God. It is that fountain of living  water that is held before us in the sacrament of baptism. Long after the  water has dried from our heads we are assured that the Holy Spirit leads  us and directs us; that he empowers us and encourages us and enlivens  us to live the way of Jesus. Be assured today that this living water can and  will sustain us through the driest and weariest days. 

Confession. Most of us do not like to admit our faults, our sins, even to  ourselves or our Savior. What God’s Word says about our favorite vices  may make us angry, ashamed or afraid. Yet this Samaritan woman didn’t  hide the fact that she was living in sin. However, God’s call to repentance is one of love. Jesus didn’t confront this woman to harm her but to love  her. 

Absolution: For us, repentance or turning from sin and to Christ is no  theological abstraction, but a concrete practice of Christian living.  Pastors restart our crushed hearts with Jesus’ words of ultimate love: I  forgive you all your sins. 

Holy Communion. Eating and drinking His Body and Blood refreshes us.  Through this Sacrament, we experience God’s love in the resurrected  body and blood of Jesus in the bread and wine. 

The words of our Lord run deep, deeper than any of your troubles, deep  enough to conquer Hell itself that He might rise from the depths with life  for you. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden, I  will give you rest Jesus cries. Today, Jesus comes to restore your soul. 

Is your soul parched from thirst today? Is your spirit longing for a place  of acceptance and healing? Do you have holes in your life through which  your life is draining away? Jesus says, “Come to me, come to the well  spring of life and received God's gift of living water. It's yours for the  asking.” 

There's an old song that says it well, “There is a fountain filled with blood  drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood  lose all their guilty stains.” The cross is God's own fountain of living  water, refreshing, and gushing for all eternity. Come to the cross today  and drink deeply of the gracious forgiveness offered there to you. Claim  the great promise of God's Word, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a  new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

When we face the thirsts caused by sin, as long as we live in this sinful  world, we repeatedly need to drink the Water of Life—salvation found in  Christ alone! 

And our thirst is quenched. Amen.

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Written Sermon 3/1/2026

Pastor John Eich

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Alma, MI

Genesis 12:1-8

The Miracle of Faith and the Promise

Have you ever thought about how impossible faith is? How  there is really no good,  demonstrable reason that we  should believe anything the  Bible says? Think about it. None of us have seen with our  own eyes the people and events  on which the Christian faith is  based. Have you ever seen one  of the Great Lakes spilt in half  leaving only dry ground? Then  why do we believe it happened at the Red Sea? Have you ever seen a dead  person come back alive? Why do we believe the several recorded  instances in the Bible? If you stop and think about everything that is  working against faith – it’s nothing short of miraculous that anyone  living in 2026 has it. And so today we’re going to talk about the miracle  of faith and the promise that comes with it.  

Our text for today relates a portion of the life of Abraham, or Abram, as  he was called at this time. God told this 75 year old man to pack up his  belonging and family and move to a foreign country. God didn’t even tell  Abram where he was going. He just said, “Go and I’ll tell you when to  stop.” And we read that Abram packed his house, his nephew Lot’s  household and all of their servants and flocks and set out. He went, not  so much in obedience to a command, but because, as the Bible says, he  believed that God was telling the truth – that God really would bless  Abraham and give to him and his offspring that land, and much, much  more. 

What faith! Where did that come from? I’m not sure that Abraham would  have been my first choice. Just think about everything that was working  against him. He didn’t have a Bible like we do that is full of accounts of  God’s faithfulness. He lived in a country that was idolatrous. We don’t  know anything about his background as to whether he was raised in a  believing home or not. It seems the Lord called him out of the blue. How  quick would you be to pack up everything and leave based on literally  nothing more than the promise of God? On top of that, the Lord told  Abram that he would make him into a great nation – as innumerable as  the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). And you know what obstacle stood in  front of that promise, right? Abram was 75 and his wife, Sarah, was 65 – and they had been childless the entire time. 

Certainly, by all appearances, it made no sense to believe God’s promises. And at certain times, Abram showed that he didn’t – at least not  perfectly. He got impatient with God. He challenged God: you haven’t  given me any children. He didn’t trust God’s plan or timeline. He tried to  take matters into his own hands; sleeping with his wife’s servant to work  around God (Genesis 16).  

Do we ever get impatient with God – expecting him to act on our  timetable – and when he doesn’t, we take matters into our own hands?  Abram’s wavering is meant to comfort us. To show us that even the  “father of faith” was by no means the perfect believer – especially in the  face of real, seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  

Perhaps the biggest obstacle believers face today in holding onto faith is  that they’ve been led to believe the wrong thing. For example, that when  you put your faith in God then life will automatically get better (that  having faith is like having an all-powerful genie on your side). Perhaps  more believers have fallen from faith in recent decades because they  believed this lie than any other single reason. The truth is that faith is not  a guarantee that your life will get better – in fact it means that you will  face more challenges in your life than you otherwise would. Don’t be  surprised by this, because Jesus didn’t say “take up your La-Z-Boy and  follow me.” He said “take up your cross and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  

So how do we get faith like Abram to pack up and follow Him wherever  He leads? Romans 10:17 tells “faith comes from hearing the  message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” Faith is a miracle because faith is totally God’s work since it doesn’t  depend on reason or proof. If it did then it would be knowledge not faith. For most of us, that miracle first happened in baptism – which is a  beautiful picture of this. There at the baptismal font, God used nothing  but his Word and some water to adopt us into his family, to wash away  our sins, to plant the seed of faith and write our names in the book of life. 

Our conversion was worked entirely by God. It had to be, because by  nature we were spiritually blind (Ephesians 4:18), but ”The Lord opens the  eyes of the blind” (Psalm 146:8). We were spiritually dead (Ephesians  2:1), ”But God . . . made us alive together with Christ…” (Ephesians 2:4-5).  We were enemies of God (Romans 8:7) and could not receive the things of  the Spirit, for they were foolishness to us (1 Corinthians 2:14), but ”we have  received . . . the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things  that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). 

If it were not for God’s grace bringing us to faith in Christ, we would still  be lost with the rest of the world which thinks the Bible is foolishness.  

Thank God every day that He has come to you in His Word ”to open your eyes, in order to turn you from darkness to light, and from the power of  Satan to God, that you may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance  among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ” (Acts 26:18). 

But we have done ourselves a disservice. We say, “I have faith.” But when  the Bible speaks about faith, it never stands by itself. It is always faith in  something. 

Saving faith starts with a specific knowledge of what the one true God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – has said and promised in his Word.  Then, saving faith agrees with those words and promises. Faith agrees or  confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, that his death has  wiped away the sins of the world, that he did, in fact, rise from the dead  after three days and will return again to judge the living and the dead.  And finally, saving faith trusts these things, making them personal, uses  them in life. Saving faith trusts that Jesus loves me, saved me, protects  me, provides for me, leads me and so much more. Saving faith recognizes  that all of God’s promises find their center and their answer in Jesus  Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).  

This is faith that lasts. This is faith that is unshaken by challenges and  obstacles because this faith is not rooted in me and my ever-changing  circumstances. It is founded on God and what he has done for me in  Christ. That will never change, not even when this body and this world  are destroyed (Isaiah 54:10). You will be tested, of that you can be sure – just like Abram, just like the apostles, just like every saint who has gone  before you. But this faith does the impossible: it trusts God’s promises  despite challenging circumstances because it sees beyond the present to  the ultimate, unshakeable proof of God’s goodness: the cross of Christ.  The cross is the one thing you can, you must hold onto – because it will  not move, even when the rest of life is falling apart around you.  

And so when our faith is challenged, what do we need? Abram, we need  to hear God repeat his promises over and over to sustain our faith. What  promise does God attach to faith? Philippians 3:9 “and be found in  him, not having a righteousness of my own, which comes from  the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the  righteousness that comes from God by faith.” 

Abraham believed God’s promises, staked his life and his eternity on  them – and through this hand of faith God gave Abram the righteousness  that he needed to be saved from final judgment and receive the gift of  eternal life. 

You have God’s promise too that, solely on account of Christ Jesus – The  Offspring of Abraham – God declares you to be righteous. God declares  you to be forgiven and loved. 

You who believe in Christ Jesus as your righteousness and innocence  before God, you who know God to be favorable to you on account of  Christ alone – you are, in part, God’s fulfillment of his promise to Abram. You believers make up the stars in the heavens that Abraham couldn’t  possibly count. You are his offspring. You are his heirs, because you are  in Christ, by faith – the same faith that Abraham had. Your baptism has  brought you into that saving faith in Christ Jesus. Since Christ is  Abram’s heir, and you are in Christ, you, too, have become Abraham’s  heirs, heirs who will inherit eternal life in the eternal kingdom of the Son  of Abraham. 

Do you believe that? Then see how your perspective on life changes! You  begin to see life on earth not as your goal, but as a pit stop along your way  to your heavenly home. 

Yes, this faith is a marvelous and miraculous thing. Not because you’ve  got to be crazy to believe it, but because it is all God’s doing, from  beginning to end, through his powerful Word. Amen. 

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Written Sermon 2/15/2026

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SERMON for February 15, 2026 by Pastor Himm 

The Glorious Reappearing of Christ 2 Peter 1:16-21  

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

Although February is the shortest month of the year – even with the extra day in leap year  – sometimes it seems like the longest. What accounts for this? Could it be a couple warmer  days that get you excited for spring only to be followed by another blast of arctic air and  snow? Could it be because there is still more than a month before Easter? All these make  February feel like a very long month. 

March isn’t much better, is it? Perhaps there is more hope for spring since some of the days  get much warmer. But will it come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, or will it come in  like a lamb and go out like a lion? Combined with February, it is easy to get the winter  blues.  

To combat the winter blues we need to look ahead. We look forward to a warmer and  more pleasant time of the year. We look forward to spring and summer. We need to start  thinking about getting out and playing baseball and softball, soccer and golf, tennis and pickle  ball, planting a garden and going on walks. So, as we look forward to these things we still  must live one day at a time. Yet we wait with eager expectations for what lies ahead. We  set our hopes on the better times ahead. 

February and March are not only long months according to our physical & emotional minds,  they can also be long months for our spiritual minds. There can be a depression between  the happy Christmas season and the joyful Easter celebration. Satan tries during this time of  the year to put doubts in our heads about our faith and/or need to faithfully hear the Word  of God. 

At times such as these, we need to look forward to a better time. And that is exactly what  the Apostle Peter is proposing in our second lesson this morning. He proposes that we  eagerly await THE GLORIOUS REAPPEARING OF CHRIST. He tells us why we can set our  hope on the glorious reappearing of Christ. First, he tells us that it is based on his  eyewitness account of the Transfiguration. Then he tells us that it is also based on the sure  prophetic word. 

St. Peter writes: 16 To be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when  we made known to you the powerful appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we  were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 

In his 2nd letter, Peter was proposing for his readers to look ahead for comfort and strength.  He told them to set their sights on heavenly things, to the glorious reappearing of Christ their  Savior. He assured them that is was not simply a made-up story that Christ would come again in glory. It wasn’t a fable. It was true. And the reason Peter knew that it was true was because  he had seen the Lord Jesus in his full glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. He, together  with James and John, were privileged to witness Jesus in his glorious, exalted state. 

Do you remember what took place at Jesus’ Transfiguration? You heard Matthew’s account  of it in the Gospel this morning. According to Peter he declares this about Jesus:  17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to  him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with  him I am well pleased.” 18We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when  we were with him on the holy mountain.  

Jesus did indeed receive honor and glory when he was transfigured. According to St. Matthew,  His face was shining like the sun. His clothing became as white as the light. Jesus  for this brief moment in time, once again displayed his full power and majesty that rightfully  belonged to him as true God. Remember, how Jesus laid aside his full power, honor, and glory  when he left his heavenly throne to become true man? Now Jesus was being strengthen for  what was laying ahead of him – the payment of our sins by his suffering and death. For that  brief moment he was once again in his full glory. It was like having his battery recharged so  that he could faithfully and perfectly carry out his Father’s plan of salvation for us. 

While on that mount, Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus. According to Luke’s Gospel,  they spoke to Jesus about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment in  Jerusalem. They were there to encourage Jesus in the last days of his life. 

We might wonder why the Son of God needed this encouragement, or why he needed to be  transfigured at all. If we fail to realize that Jesus is both true God and true man, we will  undoubtedly never understand it. We need to remind ourselves that Jesus was every part  human as you and me, except he was totally without sin. That is why we see Jesus hungry or  thirsty, tired or troubled. That is why he would often go off by himself to pray. Jesus needed  encouragement in much the same way we do. He needed it especially now as he faced going  up to Jerusalem to die. As true God he knew exactly what laid ahead. He knew he had to  fulfill the Scriptures. That is why he needed the Transfiguration. It was like a shot in the arm  so that he could set his face toward Jerusalem to suffer and die for you and for me. 

The voice from heaven was extremely comforting to our Lord. Just like at his baptism, the  Father once again confirmed that Jesus was his Son and that he was well pleased with him.  When Peter heard this testimony, he must have been reminded of Psalm 2 where it says; He  said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your Father.” The testimony of  Peter is true, he not only saw this event with his own eyes, he heard it with his own ears. 

It is interesting that as Jesus and the three disciples – Peter, James, and John – made their way  down the mountain, Jesus told them not to tell anyone about what happened up there until  after his resurrection. For prior to his resurrection, no one would have fully understood the  events of the Transfiguration. Peter had waited to tell of the events just as Jesus said. Now 

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he tells how these events support that Jesus will once again return, not as he had once humbly  come, but that he would return with his fully glory, the glory Peter had witnessed at the  Lord’s Transfiguration. 

During these long months of winter, sometimes we get the blues. We just go through the  motions. We forget that our Lord and Savior could come at any moment. We forget what a  marvelous time that will be. With Lent beginning this Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) we think  of Jesus as an unfortunate man who was betrayed by his own disciple, Judas, suffered the  whipping and ridicule of the soldiers; condemned by the religious leaders; sentenced to death  by the Roman governor, Pilate; crucified and buried. These horrific things we need to once  again ponder. But may we never forget he did it all willingly to redeem us from our sin and  its penalty of eternal death. This was God’s plan of salvation. Remember, Jesus as true God  didn’t have to be subjected to any of that suffering and death. But he did! He did it because  that was the only way you and I could ever to heaven, Love for us and faithfulness to his  Father compelled him to take the beatings, mockery, and the agony of crucifixion to save you  and me – and every follower of Jesus. 

Yes, Jesus could come again at any time. But he will not come with a crown of thorns on his  head or with a purple robe on his bloody shoulders and back. He will come with his awesome  glory and majesty, the same glory and majesty that Peter witnessed on the Mount of  Transfiguration. We can look forward to seeing Jesus’s face shining like the sun and his clothes  being as white as the light. Like, Peter, we too, will be able to say, “Lord, it is good for us to  be here!” 

The eyewitness account of the Transfiguration is not the only basis for the glorious  reappearing of Christ. The sure prophet Word is also. Peter states: 19We also have the  completely reliable prophetic word. You do well to pay attention to it. 

The Scriptures give us hope. It gives us the hope of the glorious reappearing of Christ. For  the Old Testament speaks time and time again of the coming of the Lord for Judgment. It  speaks of the glory and splendor of which he will come. Therefore, my friends, pay  attention to the sure prophetic and inspired Word of God. 

Peter describes this prophetic Word: as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the  day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts, 20 since we know this above  all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own  interpretation. 21 In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men  spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit. 

What does it mean when Peter writes: the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in  your hearts? Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us how the gospel shines in our sin-darkened  hearts. Peter here tells us something else. He is writing to Christians. This 2nd letter of his  is addressed to: To those who have obtained the same kind of faith as ours in the  righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Therefore, the dark place cannot be our hearts since our hearts have already been illumed by God’s Word. No, Peter means  that the Word shines in this sin-darkened world in which we live. The sure prophetic and  inspired Word gives us hope, joy and peace. But it also give provides hope to others as it  calls them to the cross of forgiveness. This light shining in this dark world gives us hope in  confidence of the glorious reappearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

But what does Peter mean by Morning Star rises in your hearts? In the book of  Revelation, it tells us who this Morning Star is. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you  this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the  bright Morning Star. Jesus will rise in our hearts as he reappears in his full glory, majesty,  and splendor on the Last Day. He will shine brighter than the star that appears in the  morning – the sun. He will shine with unimaginable splendor as he returns to take us to be  with him forever in heaven. What a wonderful day that will be when we see our Lord who  loved us, died and rose for us. What a marvelous day when we here him say, I love you, I  forgive you. I am pleased with you. Enjoy my heavenly banquet. Celebrate with all the saints  and angels. 

What a glorious occasion we can look forward to. This will keep the spiritual winter blues  away. So just as you look forward to spring and summer with eager expectations, look  forward to the glorious reappearing of Christ. It isn’t a make-believe story, nor a fable,  simply a parable. It isn’t a mere hope that can be snowed on. It is a solid hope based on the  eye witnessed account of our Lord’s Transfiguration by Peter and the sure prophet and  inspired Word of God.  

Yes, the Lord is coming with his full glory and majesty. You can be sure of it. Amen.


Written Sermon 12/28/2025

  Pastor John Eich

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Alma, MI

 

Today we turn to Romans 1:1-7 

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart  for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised in advance through his  prophets in the Holy Scriptures. 3 This gospel is about his Son— who in the flesh was born a descendant of David, 4 who in the  spirit of holiness was declared to be God’s powerful Son by his  resurrection from the dead—Jesus Christ, our Lord. 5 Through  him we received grace and the call to be an apostle on behalf of  his name, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the  Gentiles, 6including you, who were called by Jesus Christ. 7 To all  those loved by God who are in Rome, called to be saints: Grace to  you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

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

It’s a topic that perhaps drives you nuts. Is it “Merry Christmas,” or  “Season’s Greetings”? “Blessed Christmas,” or “Happy Holidays”? Which  greeting do you prefer? I believe most Christians would say they like a  greeting with the word “Christmas” in it. After all, the reason for the  season is Christ’s birth. But what exactly do you mean if you say to me,  “Merry Christmas!” Are you expressing your hope that I have a good  time opening presents with family? Oh, I think we Christians can do  better than that. The Son of God didn’t take on human flesh and  endure a birth in a barn so that we could look forward to unwrapping a  doll or a new tablet under the Christmas tree. His birth has brought so  much more meaning to our lives than that. The Apostle Paul helps put this birth into perspective by offering his readers a greeting which could  be described as God’s Christmas greeting: “Grace and peace are yours!”  Let’s find out why that greeting is worth sharing. 

“Grace and peace are yours.” That’s a greeting Lutheran pastors often  speak from the pulpit. Because we’ve heard it so often have we stopped  thinking about what those words mean and treat the greeting like the starting gun for the sermon? It was a greeting that the Apostle Paul  loved too, and included in twelve out of thirteen of his epistles. His use  of this greeting in his letter to the Romans makes it clear that this was  not just a throw-away phrase. The Christians in Rome could be certain  that grace (undeserved love) and peace from God was really theirs even  though Paul would also say to them: “The wrath of God is being  revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness  of men” (Romans 1:18). God is angry, explained Paul, at our sexual  impurity, our envy, gossip, and the disobedience we show our parents  (Romans 1:29, 30). These were just a few of the sins that Paul  specifically pointed out in his letter to the Romans. 

But does such talk about sin get tiresome – especially at Christmas?  Aren’t we supposed to be talking about cheerful things like sugar plum  fairies, eggnog, and presents under the tree? If that’s what we think,  then we are like the people of the prophet Isaiah’s day. God said of  them: “They say to…the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what  is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way,  get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of  Israel!”…This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel,  says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and  trust is your strength, but you would have none of it” (Isaiah 30:10,  11, 15). 

God wants your pastor to talk about sin because he loves you. He’s like  the doctor who subjects you to various medical tests and then tells you  everything that’s wrong with your body, not because he gets a kick out of seeing you squirm, but so that you will take action before the  bacteria and viruses lurking in your body can do fatal damage. So  friends, don’t treat your sins like the salty grit you track into your car at  this time of year. You can shrug off that mess because what can you do  about it? That’s life in Michigan. Keeping your car mats clean at this  time of year is impossible so why waste time worrying about it?  Likewise, we sin every day, often committing the same sin several times  

in an hour. What can we do about it? Just shrug it off? No. God says that  every sin is a problem, for it has the potential of forever separating us  from his love. God’s message to us this morning is to be sorry for those  sins – the way you would be sorry if you tracked mud across Mom’s  clean kitchen floor whether you meant to or not. 

But being sorry for my sins doesn’t repair my relationship with God any  more than being sorry I muddied Mom’s clean floor will make the floor  clean again. Action must be taken…but not by us when it comes to the  matter of sin; God must act to restore the broken relationship. God did  act in the person of Jesus. Paul said of Jesus in our text: “…who as to  his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through  the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God  by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans  1:3, 4). 

Jesus is like no one else in this universe. He has human ancestry, yet he  is God from eternity. Ponder this mystery with me for a minute. When  Jesus was brought to the temple eight days after his birth, he was at the  same time eight days old…and older than the dirt on which his parents  stood. At that point in his life his legs weren’t even strong enough to  support the weight of his tiny body…and yet he was powerful enough to  keep earth from being pulled too close to the sun and scorched. Later  in his stepfather’s wood shop he learned for the first time how to nail  two boards together…while at the same time was the one who had put  hydrogen and oxygen together to make water on Day 1 of Creation. 

We ponder this mystery because it shows how much God loved us - so  much that he came down to us. He took on a shoe size and shirt size – not just to hang out with us but to save us. He did that by diving into  this manure pit of sin, wrapping his arms around us, and then pulling  us out by climbing the ladder of the cross. The result is that Paul could  write to the Romans and now to us: “Grace and peace to you from  God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:7b). 

Grace! Not grapes of God’s wrath. Peace! Not punishment. This is good  news indeed and this is God’s Christmas greeting to the whole world.  Paul put it this way: “Through him and for his name’s sake, we  received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the  Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5). 

Like every Christmas, people this year are looking for something to  make them merry and jolly. Some hoped that Christmas parties will do  that for them. But the buzz from the wine, beer, and hard liquor won’t  last. Others hoped that for once the family would get along when they  get together for Christmas. But what hope is there for people who by  nature believe the way to happiness is to insist on having things their  way? A Christmas tree with presents stuff underneath seemed like a  sure way to joy, but how do you feel now after all the presents have  been opened and there’s nothing left under the tree except shredded  wrapping paper? It’s a lonely feeling isn’t it? Still others hoped to find  peace in giving instead of getting this Christmas. And so they buy tons  of presents, even for people they may never meet. But if they do this to  attract attention and love, they are disappointed on that front too.  Thank you cards are often late in coming if at all. But Christmas can be  different. You can be the one to tell others: “Grace (underserved love)  and peace are already yours! You have heaven. You have eternal life!  That’s what God has given you through his Son, Jesus.” 

Please understand, I’m not suggesting that it’s wrong to wish someone  a merry Christmas. But let’s not forget what makes Christmas merry - not presents, family, or turkey. God gave us the reason to rejoice when  he sent his Son to save us from sin. Share the reason for your joy with  those who think there is none. For God’s grace and peace are not just  for you; they’re for all. Enjoy the true Christmas greeting – grace and  peace to you! Amen.


Written Sermon November 16, 2025

 Written by Pastor John Eich

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI

Jesus Gives Us Certain Hope

Luke 20:27-38 

27 Some of the Sadducees (who say there is no  resurrection) came to him. 28 They asked him a  question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a  man's brother dies leaving a wife but no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up  children for his brother. 29 So there were seven  brothers. The first took a wife and died childless.  30 The second took her as a wife, 31and so did the third, and in the same way the seven  died and left no children. 32 Finally the woman died too. 33 So in the resurrection, whose  wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.” 34 Jesus said to them, “The people of  this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to  experience that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in  marriage. 36 In fact, they cannot die any more, for they are like the angels. They are sons  of God, because they are sons of the resurrection. 37“Even Moses showed in the account  about the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord: ‘The God of  Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38He is not the God of the dead, but of  the living, for all are alive to him.” 

What happens after death? Everybody agrees that something happens. But what?  

Despite all of its advances, science has stripped away any reassurances  about life after death. Most people in the modern world accept the  scientific model. In doing so it logically follows that when the physical  body dies, in all likelihood the immaterial aspects of being human — mind, soul, memory personality, thoughts, and feelings, etc. — are  extinguished at the same time. 

Or one asks, “Where do we go after we die?” the two main ideas — we go  to heaven/hell or we vanish into a cloud of atoms and energy waves. They  confront a mystery that refuses to reveal its secrets. 

And as people do, when they don’t know or when they reject the facts,  they make up their own. That’s what the Sadducees did. 

First things first, who were the Sadducees? The Sadducees were the  elites, the 1%, the super-rich and super-powerful of Jesus’ day. They  controlled the temple and ran the Sanhedrin, the governing body of  Israel (Acts 23:6). They were also “fundamentalists” of a sort, meaning  that while they may have paid lip-service to the entire Old Testament,  they really only considered the books of Moses, Genesis through  Deuteronomy, to be authoritative. That’s why they didn’t believe in an  afterlife or the resurrection or angels and demons (Acts 23:8). They didn’t think there was anything in those books which supported those  doctrines. Thus, they set out to destroy Jesus’ teaching about the  resurrection and confirm that this life is all there is. 

So the Sadducees come with a life after death question for Jesus. It may  be a sincere question on the minds of some, but it was not a sincere  question from them. This is the question about the widow who married  her seven brother-in-laws, and whose wife would she be in the resurrection on The Last Day. They were using the Levirate Law of the  Old Testament. By like all those “hypothetical” questions posed trying to  trap someone, it was an extreme distortion of the issue. They hoped to make Jesus look foolish. 

The answer that Jesus gave the Sadducees all those years ago is just as  important to us today as it was then. 

Jesus answers, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.  35But those who are considered worthy to experience that age and the  resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  36In fact, they cannot die any more, for they are like the angels.” They  are like the angels. I want to be sure you heard that right. Jesus doesn’t  say that we will become angels. So you can shake the images of floating  around in the clouds and halos and wings and harps out of your head. He  says we will be like the angels. Meaning that 1) we will not die; and 2) we  will no longer marry. We like the not dying part. But that second part,  that we will no longer marry can be disturbing. “Well, what if I kind of  like my spouse? Does God intend to tear marriages and families apart in  the resurrection?” While those questions may seem innocent, they  actually come from a heart that doubts God’s goodness and love. God  wouldn’t do away with marriage without a good reason and Jesus gives  us the reason: Marriage is only for this age. Marriage is God’s gift to  build closeness, unity and family. In heaven we won’t miss marriage  because we will all be members of God’s perfect family. In heaven all  things will be made right, everything that disrupts and destroys our  relationships in this life will be gone (Isaiah 65:17). Because through faith  we will enjoy the perfect unity in God’s family where the only marriage  that matters is the marriage of Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:25-33). That will make our relationships in heaven even more wonderful than  our marriage relationships on earth. 

Then Jesus addresses the Sadducees’ real problem. They denied the  resurrection and the afterlife. He reminds them 37“Even Moses showed in  the account about the burning bush that the dead are raised, when he  called the Lord: ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive  to him.” God didn’t use the past tense, “I was the God of…” He used the  present tense “I am the God of…” indicating that to God those patriarchs  were still alive.  

But what is eternal life and how does one achieve it? Achieve is not  exactly the right word: The baby just baptized, the teenager, the adult, the old man or woman just baptized receive this resurrection of Jesus as  a guarantee and gift. In the combination of the water and the Word of  God, it is not just plain water but a blessed Sacrament where sin is  forgiven, where the Holy Spirit enters in and gives the gift of faith in  Christ Jesus. It folds them into Jesus’ side on the cross in His death,  burying them into Jesus’ death in the tomb, and raising them with Him  in His resurrection. And since God has declared us alive in Christ He sees  us already seated with Christ at the Father’s right hand until the Last  Day. Are you baptized? This gift is yours from your Heavenly Father, in  Christ, through the working of the Holy Spirit. He gives you lips to  confess this faith to be true, your very possession by grace through faith. 

That’s why it is called a living hope. This new life, God’s promise of  eternal life, lives and breathes in us now on earth. If fills our hearts with  peace and joy. It fills our lives with a hope that this world is not all there  is.  

In the midst of grief this can be hard to see, even sometimes for the  Christian. The World says, ‘dead is dead.” The World says, ‘you are no  different than an animal, all that awaits you is nothingness and  decomposition.” The World says that once the water is dried off after  your baptism if you still believe what was promised to you there then you  are a complete fool.” These are not new complaints. That’s what the  Sadducees believed. So Jesus proclaims to them and to you and me that  our Father in Heaven is not the God of the dead but of the living.  

This new Life, this Eternal Life involves your personal resurrection from  the dead. What is this resurrection going to be like? Listen carefully: All  your dear ones who have had a recent surgery, those of you who are going  for surgery, all of you that are even now suffering with illness, suffering  with chronic pain, you who face your coming physical death, you who  deal with abnormalities, and diseases, sicknesses of all sorts, conditions  of the mind - frailties of the body, corruption of the soul by sin. Listen  carefully.  

When we become alive in Christ – when our sin is washed away in the  blood of Jesus, when this happens God also had, and has, a plan for our  bodies – for in The End we will be made whole: body and soul made perfect on The Last Day, and sin will never touch your soul again for the  rest of eternity. Arthritis will be gone, germs and viruses will never kill or  injure again, our eyes will see perfectly, our hearts will pump perfectly, our nerves will feel and operate perfectly. If a loved one has wasted away  with cancer leaving them a shell of their former self, they will be made  perfect on that Day by the power of Christ Jesus. If their bodies have  turned to dust, they will be made new. Look at your hands; these hands  you will see on that day, missing fingers restored, broken tendons made  perfect, swollen knuckles relived from their suffering, wrinkles and liver  spots washed away. 

Again the ascended Lord Jesus also promises this from the Father’s  throne in heaven when He says, “Behold, I am making all things new. 

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O  death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin  is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our  Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The Sadducees may not have been looking for a real answer to their  question but once they received Jesus’ answer that day and then  ultimately in Jesus’ Easter morning bodily resurrection from the dead. They couldn’t deny it without lying to themselves and calling God a liar.  

We trust in God our Heavenly Father and we trust in His Son Jesus, we  confess every Sunday, week in and week out, that the Resurrection of the  body is real and forthcoming, the promise of it is true for you and for me  and it is part of our great Christian hope. With confidence, by the grace of  God, we then confess together: “I look for the resurrection of the dead  and the life of the world to come.”  

Amen.