April 14, 2024
The Resurrection Means God’s Light is Our Delight
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
1 John 1:5–2:2 –This is the message we heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him but still walk in darkness, we are lying and do not put the truth into practice. 7 But if we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us…. My children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the entire world.
This past Monday, parts of the United States were able to witness an awe-inspiring sight – the total eclipse of the sun. Isn’t it amazing that the universe is laid out so perfectly that we can calculate the exact time down to the place, day, and minute that such phenomena occur? That could not happen if the universe was just a random accident. It is another proof of the divine majesty of the Creator. By the way, the next full solar eclipse will come right over mid-Michigan … in the year 2205. I’m keeping my eclipse glasses. How about you?
People travelled from all over the United States and the world to see the awe-inspiring sight of moving from daylight into darkness. The birds stop singing. The temperature drops. And there is an eeriness that falls upon the land. Then as the moon keeps moving, light begins to shine again and warmth, and life begins to stir from its unnatural sleep.
Most of these folks, however, miss the real darkness and the real light they should be paying attention to.
How can some not see the darkness in this world? The violence? Shootings in our schools, threats of terror, bombings, wars? Do we not see the collapse of the family and the embrace of an “anything goes” sexuality? Do not we witness a world where neighbor has turned on neighbor for even the most foolish of reasons, including that they belong to the “wrong” political party. Many of you know of someone who wrestles with a personal darkness. Drugs, porn, alcohol, depression? There is darkness out there! But before we get too caught up in the darkness out there in the world, let us remember the darkness that is in here, in us.
That darkness is our own sin, our own failure to live up to God’s standard. This is not just an occasional eclipse of God’s will. It is continual darkness trying to obscure the light of God’s will. At times we may even embrace it. We embrace the idea of getting even with someone who has wronged us. We willingly gossip and spread the rumors we have heard. We let our eyes feast on the images that lead us into sexual sins of thought and deed. We turn our backs on God’s expressed will so that we can do what we want.
It is death that shows us that there is darkness within us. Death is proof that we are not perfect, that salvation is not something we can obtain on our own. That darkness points us to a need for light.
The resurrection of Jesus proves that Jesus is the light we need. God’s light is our delight.
This light John writes about is not simply some warm, fuzzy feeling. It is the light of God’s glory – glory that shows itself in diverse ways at various times. In the Old Testament, God would reveal his glory in flames and smoke. In the New Testament God’s glory is seen in Jesus. Today we see that glory in His word and sacraments.
God is light. I think John chose the word light because it carries a positive connotation. Light helps you avoid danger. When you walk in darkness, you may stumble over an obstacle, or fall off a cliff or down the stairs, or worse. Darkness is full of threat and fear. But light changes all that. It exposes dangers and frees you from fear. It is full of hope and promise.
This is the gift that God gave to each of us. He looked at us and saw how broken and how lost we were in the darkness of sin. He saw how sin eclipsed the relationship He wanted to have with us. He saw the shadow of death that hung over us all…and he loved us. He loved you. He came into our world with a bright beaming light and placed it in a manger. That light, Jesus, then lived among us, he was what you and I could not be, he was perfect, he never sinned. He did what you and I could never do, he offered his life as a sacrifice for all sin, everyone’s. He did this to save you and me from darkness, from death, and from hell. This is the light we needed. This is the Savior we still need. He shines upon us lighting the way, being our guide in the darkness leading us home to be with him always, forever, in heaven.
But not everyone wants God’s light to illumine their sin. Satan works hard to get people to sluff off sin as a joke, narrowminded, outdated thinking or the way the church controls simple minded people. Scripture says they hide their sins in darkness because it would shame them if they did them in the light.
But John writes in our text: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
For most of us saying we have no sin is not our problem. God’s light has revealed our sin, and we admit it. Yet our problem may be that we tend to generalize our sinfulness. “I’m a sinner, forgive me.” But do we honestly look at our specific thoughts, our specific actions, and specific words and compare them to God’s law? We admit we are generalized sinners. But our sin tries to eclipse that we are also specific sinners.
But does not John also write here, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” We know not only that we have sinned, but will still sin today, tomorrow and for however long our Lord allows us to live in this broken world. The mark of the saint is not sinlessness but sin-consciousness! In this life we never get beyond the awareness of remaining sin. Therefore one of the great signs of maturity in Christ is a deep and abiding awareness of one’s brokenness in sin.
Yet no one who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually practices sin. A believer will struggle with sin and sometimes give in, but giving in to sin is no longer the norm. As we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord we are growing in holy living. The light returns daily in our lives through repentance. As the Spirit leads us, we will walk increasingly in the light of God’s word.
Only through that awareness can we find the cure, the light that shines into our hearts. Not only to show our sin, but to lighten us with God’s grace, mercy, and peace. God’s light is also His love. A love that transcends our understanding. A love that knows no limits or conditions. The love of God shines the light of his forgiveness into our hearts.
And when we do sin, through faith in him, Jesus is our Advocate, who does speak in our defense. He does not claim that we are innocent of the charges against us. Rather He declares that He has appeased the eternal wrath of God by becoming the sinner for us and being punished with our deserved punishment. He paid our debt.
Think of sin as snow that falls in April. In a day or two the powerful sun melts it, and it disappears! The powerful Word of God assures us that Jesus paid for our sins in full. In Christ’s forgiveness, God no longer sees our sin. The Son has taken them away. As Christians, God sees us as saints through Christ’s perfect life no matter what we do! What great news this is for us!
So, we daily fight against our sins in Christ’s strength! How do we get that strength? John wrote, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” (v.7) John pictures Christians gathering together around the Light of God’s Word. If a group of people are camping on a cold April day and someone lights a large campfire, it does not take long for everyone to gather to it to get warm. We gather together here around the light of Jesus to warm ourselves and each other in His love.
Miraculously, the light of Christ is enlarging God’s kingdom. We see it in baptism. It happens as you listen to God’s Word and take it to heart. We reflect his light as we patiently wait for the Lord’s deliverance in dark and trying times. Sometimes sin will try to eclipse the light of God. But it will not happen. God’s light keeps shining and breaks through the darkness with the aura of his grace and mercy.
As extraordinary as an eclipse is, it is simply the natural world behaving in the way the one and only God who created it set it up to behave. But I think anything that can give us a little jaw-dropping awe and wonder to stop us in our tracks — to quiet the din and buzz of everyday busyness — can be a terrific opportunity to reflect on God’s grandeur.
God’s light is our delight. The grandeur of God’s light causes us to quiet the din and buzz of everyday busyness and so we say with the psalmist:
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Set this glory of yours above the heavens. (v.1)
Amen
April 7, 2024
Proofs to Confirm our Faith
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
John 20:19-31 On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were together behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you! Just as the Father has sent me, I am also sending you.” 22 After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 But Thomas, one of the Twelve, the one called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 26After eight days, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Take your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue to doubt, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
There are times that we need a boost of confidence and a lone voice rings out to give you that boost. Perhaps it is when we are standing at the free throw line in basketball and your team needs only one point to win the game. And you hear the coach shout from the sideline, “You can do it!” Or when you are facing the congregation on your confirmation to give witness to your faith and you think you are going to fail. But then the pastor says “you got this!” Or maybe when you have heard that a dear friend was seriously ill and you give them a call just to hear their voice to regain your confidence that they will be alright.
On this Second Sunday of Easter, the Risen Lord Jesus comes to you and to me to confirm our faith. That’s confirmation we all need. For you four young adults about to be confirmed, you have been listening to Jesus’ voice these past years in Sunday School and confirmation instruction. Jesus was speaking to you through the voice of your teachers and through my voice. He was confirming that your faith isn’t a matter of opinion but God’s revelation. He was confirming that what you are confessing this morning isn’t a matter of your choice, but God’s will.
This is what we read in this morning’s Gospel. After Mary and the other women told Jesus’ disciples they had seen the Lord, the disciples did not really believe. By Sunday evening the disciples are behind locked doors huddled in fear. This is the Church at its absolute worst. Hunkered down, huddled together, letting fear rather than faith control their every thought and action.
Then suddenly, Jesus comes and stands among them. It’s Jesus who speaks the first word. And just as was the case at the sound of God’s voice in creation, the sound of Jesus’ voice creates something wonderful and new: “Peace be with you,” he says (v 19).
This is not a wish or a hope. It is his gift to them. This was the whole point of what Jesus had just been through. Jesus’ death on the cross was to reestablish the peace between God and man that had been shattered when we first sinned. Sin will always stand as separation, conflict, between two parties. In sin, we live for ourselves, not for the other. In sin, we cannot be in harmony, gladly yielding for the sake of others. In sin, we could never be with God, because his holiness cannot be in relationship with unholiness. But by taking our sin to the cross, Christ removed the separation and reconciled us to God, bringing us back into peace with him.
The whole scene repeats a week later when Thomas, at last, is with the disciples. He speaks the same word. “Peace be with you.” Rather than scolding, Jesus encourages Thomas to touch and see the wounds. “Do not disbelieve, but believe” (v 27).
Even though two thousand years have passed since that first Easter evening, the church still struggles to get out from behind locked doors and into the world. The fear that kept the first apostles locked up is as crippling in the twenty-first century as it was in the first century.
You young adults have lived in relative safety until now. Soon you will move into high school and college and later the working world. You will be confronted by those who think Christianity is silly or narrow minded. You will be encouraged to open your minds to new ways of thinking, new morality, a new way of living. Some will be subtle, and some will be forceful, even violent. Fear can make you huddle behind the closed doors of not speaking up or even giving in.
For example: A while back there was an article in which a Florida State University professor claimed that Jesus did not walk on water as the Bible maintains. Rather he speculated that some mysterious meteorological phenomena caused the Sea of Galilee to freeze over so Jesus actually walked on ice. Nothing miraculous about that! Would you have the confidence to stand up to a university professor and tell him that he’s wrong? Would your children? Your grandchildren?
Example number two: Have you ever heard of the “Gospel of Judas”? The “Gospel of Judas” was written long after Judas ended his own life after his betrayal of Jesus. This document contends that Jesus told Judas to betray Him as a part of some clandestine scheme to “manipulate” the Old Testament Messianic prophecies to make it look like He was the fulfillment of those prophecies. Would you have the confidence to stand up and say that’s why the book of Judas was discovered in a garbage dump, because that’s where it belongs?
The irony of the disciples’ locked doors is that they weren’t really keeping out the soldiers. The One they were locking out was Jesus. They locked out the word he had so clearly spoken to them about dying and rising again. And in locking out that word, they locked out Jesus. When fear becomes our focus, we fall into the same trap; we lock out the Lord, who time and again tells his Church, “Do not be afraid!”
Jesus will have none of it! And so, he comes and stands among them and among us and speaks words that brings the very thing they say: “Peace be with you.” “Peace, your sin is forgiven!” “Do not fear the world. I have overcome the world. Peace be with you.”
That word comes to you and me today, with exactly the same power as it came to those first disciples on the first Easter and to Thomas a week later. With his resurrection, Jesus barges through our self-made doors that don’t provide us the peace and security we thought they would. Jesus gives us what we most desperately need, but have only failed to find on our own – peace; true, lasting, blood bought peace with God. The peace of Easter is the peace to know that because Jesus lives, the holy God is not an angry ogre waiting to squash you into hell forever – because Jesus has paid the debt of your sin. The peace of Easter is to know that because Jesus lives, you don’t have to be afraid of that day when it’s you who’s lying in the casket – because Jesus has defeated your death with his resurrection. The peace of Easter is to know that the anxiety and the worry and the fear that drain joy from your life, peace from your heart, and sleep from your eyes – to know that all of those pressing concerns that seem to smack you in the face as soon as you wake up aren’t the final word. Instead, with his resurrection, Jesus promises, Peace be with you! The peace of Easter is to know that Jesus lives, and he is alive for me.
This peace is for all of us even if we ran away from Jesus like the disciples, if we denied him like Peter, if we doubted him like Thomas. And we all have at times. Perhaps more than we want to admit. Jesus speaks his reassuring words of peace to even us.
Jesus spoke his peace to us in the water of our Baptism, where we were joined to his death and resurrection and we died to sin and rose to new life. That peace is spoken to us every time we return in repentance to our Baptism, and he says to you through your pastor, “I forgive you all your sins.” That peace is spoken to you at his table, where in, with, and under bread and wine, he comes through space and time to feed you his body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins and to lift from you your fears. There his voice speaks peace. “This is for you,” he says, “for the forgiveness of sin.”
And we rise from the table at peace, ready to go into the world. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (v 21). The Lord cannot be bound; his word will not be bound; and his followers do not live behind locked doors. He sends us out into the world, but we do not go empty handed.
He breathes his Holy Spirit upon his disciples, and to his Church, he hands the keys to the kingdom of heaven. And so we have confidence that our message isn’t make-believe. It is the very word of God that stands opposed to the foolishness of this age that pretends to be wisdom. Our voices, our human voices, become voices of power, not because they are louder, wiser, or more entertaining than other voices, but because through our voice, Jesus himself speaks.
“Peace be with you.” And our confidence soars! Amen
March 24, 2024
Sermon for Palm Sunday
Rethinking Real Strength
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us get rid of every burden and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patient endurance the race that is laid out for us. 2 Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is the author of our faith and the one who brings it to its goal. In view of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. 3 Carefully consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart.
Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, arrested by a mob, humiliated by the Sanhedrin, brutalized by the soldiers, and nailed to a cross. If we did not know the back story to these images, we would have to agree that these are pictures of weakness not strength. Yet through the words of our text we see real strength as Jesus entered the week of his passion 2000 years ago. It was a marvelous show of strength because He had his eye on the goal – your salvation and mine.
When Jesus arrived in the city to shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David, he was fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy. This was about making a statement! And the people knew what he was doing. Thousands of hands stripped the palm trees bare on the ascent to Jerusalem to hail the new king who had come to set them free at Passover, the original Independence Day.
The Passover Feast was to Jews what the fourth of July is to Americans only much bigger. It was a rallying point for intense, nationalistic zeal. That is what the palm branches symbolized. Two hundred years before Palm Sunday, there had been a successful revolution led by a man named Judas Maccabeus. He even minted coins with the symbol of a palm tree. This became the symbol freedom for Israel. The people surely hoped for another Maccabean-like revolution. Perhaps they thought Jesus had just been buying time with his teachings but now his intent was clear: to throw the Romans out! And here at the time of festival he had around 2 million zealous Jews gathered in pilgrimage from every corner of the empire. All Jesus had to do was just make the slightest move to revolt—and he would have had massive popular support.
But then, only four days later, we see Jesus arrested, tortured, and crucified. The crowds turned against him. They felt their dreams betrayed. They hoped he was strong enough to throw off the Romans. But now he looked so weak.
Palm Sunday shows us an example of something that happened often in Jesus’ ministry: People give Jesus an identity that is not his, an agenda that is not his, and a schedule that is not his. Then they get upset when his plan is not their plan, when he does not serve them the way they want him to.
From a human perspective, Jesus made all the wrong moves between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. But from his perspective, it was all part of the plan. All the details had to be right, fulfilling prophecy. The place had to be right. The timing had to be right. Even the method of execution had to be right.
Do people still today force Jesus into their personal agendas? Sure we do. We all try to fit Jesus into our own molds. We imagine our priorities must also be his. We praise God when we think our prayers will be answered the way we want. But then we get frustrated when it does not turn out that way. We always try to use things, even God, for our own personal advantage. But thankfully, Jesus refuses to fit into anyone else’s agenda.
It took real strength to not give in to the popular but false notions of who He was supposed to be. It took real strength to endure the scorn, the beatings, and the pain of crucifixion. It took real strength, the strength of divine love to hold him to that cross for sins he did not commit, but for which he was being punished. It was the strength of his divine love for you that helped him endure. He kept his eye on his real purpose-winning the world’s forgiveness and our salvation. His strength was not to be sidetracked or deterred from that goal.
That is why he is our Savior. That is why the writer of the Hebrews tells us to take courage for our own sufferings by fixing our eyes on Jesus and drawing from his strength. “Carefully consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinful people, so that you do not grow weary and lose heart.”
It is easy for us to lose heart and grow weary, isn’t it? Let us face it, we battle our sinful natures every moment of every day. We battle the sin around us. We battle the effects of sin on our bodies, souls, and minds. Our expectations and agendas for our life and our faith are often derailed. So we need to refocus our attention on Christ and the great crowd that surrounds us. It is not the Palm Sunday crowd, cheering one moment, condemning the next. It is the crowd of witnesses, who have run the same course as we are running.
This cloud of witnesses is our encouragement to stay faithful. It is through their lives, weaknesses, and struggles that we see what a great God we have. Encouraged, not just because they got through their troubles, but also encouraged because we can see that by placing faith in Christ in each and every circumstance we too will be delivered.
You have been placed into this cloud of witnesses by God’s grace through seemingly weak things. But they actually have God’s strength for you behind them. Though some see baptism as a mere tradition, you know that through the strength of God’s promise your whole life has been placed in Christ. You are forgiven of all of your sins and recreated in the image of God. Your body is now a temple where the Holy Spirit lives, the guarantee of eternal life. That is real strength!
Though some see only bread and wine, you know that through the strength of Jesus’ words you are given his very real body and blood for your forgiveness. And where there is forgiveness there is also life and salvation. There is God’s strength, still focused on you and your eternal life.
In times of stress, trial, and fears the Spirit enables you to focus not on yourself but on your God who is an ever-present Help in times of trouble. Your strength lies in the God who strengthens you through these Means of Grace. Just as He has helped sinners in the past, so too He will deliver you as well. Do not focus on your sinfulness or inability, focus on Christ. Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He has authored all of your days, as clouded and complex as they may seem. He is in the midst of your life giving you strength and hope for each day. In and through all of these trials you are made more like Him. And in the end, you will fully realize this on the Last Day when Jesus comes again to make all things new.
That is why we need to keep our focus on him. Because when we see Jesus as he really is, not just one to make us comfortable now, but one to secure us safely for eternity, everything else starts to fall into place. We will bear crosses in this life and suffer tremendous sorrow and hardship. But we have the strength to endure. Because of Christ’s victory our struggles will not last forever. A time is coming when we will bid this world’s problems, and sorrows farewell and join our Savior in the perfection of eternal life. Will that problem in your life still be troublesome? Yes. Will things still need to be worked out? Yes. But if our focus is on Jesus, we will continue to have eternal perspective. No temptation will overwhelm us. Nothing will separate us from his love. We can trust him today and for eternity that He will be there to save.
Difficulties which make unbelievers surrender in despair can be the means of bringing us closer to God strengthening our faith, deepening our trust, purifying our love. Jesus is the assurance of your victory. Because of his strength the Easter conquest of the grave has given you a title to a room in the heavenly mansions. The decay of the grave gives way to the resurrection of the body. The separation at Christian funerals prepares for the never ending reunion in our better homeland.
In short, let all the enemies of your soul stand in formation against you! Let the devil whisper that there can be no pardon for your sins! Let your conscience protest that you have sinned too often to be restored! Let the world mock and scoff—and it will! As you clasp your Savior's hand more closely, cry out in this triumph of trust: “The Lord is my strength and my song. Of whom shall I be afraid!”
As we journey through this Holy Week, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. See him give his very body and blood with bread and wine for you. See him allow himself to be betrayed for you. See him allow himself to be condemned for you. See him suffer not just crucifixion, but hell on the cross for you. See him conquer sin by his death and conquer death by his resurrection.
Keep your focus on him. He is your real strength!
Amen.
March 17, 2024
Rethinking Commitment
– It’s What Changes Transforms a Promise to Reality
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
John 12:20–33
Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew. Andrew came with Philip and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain. 25Anyone who loves his life destroys it. And the one who hates his life in this world will hold on to it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, this is the reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said it thundered. Others said an angel talked to him. 30 Jesus answered, “This voice was not for my sake but for yours. 31 “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate what kind of death he was going to die.
No other human power can match that of determination or commitment. It has the potential to create heaven or much worse not just for oneself, but also for the world. It is the ultimate terminator, unstoppable and invincible; nothing can stand in its way – not obstacles, not dangers, not even death. Nations rise and fall on the backs of a few determined souls. The most glorious as well as the most heinous pages of human history belong to individuals, who are totally committed in their single-minded pursuit, regardless of the costs.
Commitment. Determination. We see it here in this reading about Jesus. And this tells us so much about how Jesus is committed to you.
We meet up with Jesus during Holy Week after his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem. Some people from Greece had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. They had heard about this Jesus from Nazareth. Perhaps it was about the miracles. Perhaps it was because he openly loved the Gentiles. Regardless, they want to check him out and understand what he was about. So, they track down Philip and make a simple request, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
We don’t know if Jesus met with these Greek people to talk with them. But he does take the opportunity to point ahead to what is coming. In the future, this will be his disciples’ job—to show Jesus to those who need him. But for now, Jesus is set on what is coming in the near future: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it continues to be one kernel. But if it dies, it produces much grain.” Jesus uses this agricultural analogy to point to what he is going to do in just a few days. These Greeks really did not need to see and meet with him; they needed the work he was going to do. He, one person, would be sacrificed, so that all people would benefit from it—many seeds from one seed.
Jesus knows what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, the suffering, and the cruel death. Yet he goes through with it anyway. Christ is committed and determined to carry out his mission, knowing full well what it will involve. That will mean a cross. There Christ will shed his holy blood. There, on the cross, the Son of God will suffer and die. For you. To atone for your sins including your lack of commitment to him. To lift the burden and the guilt off of your shoulders and place them on his own. To put you right with God, even as he, the sinless one, experiences the utter abandonment that we sinners deserve. That is how committed and determined Jesus is for your salvation.
But this was no easy commitment. This is weighing heavily on Jesus. We will see it clearly in the Garden of Gethsemane just 4 days later. But even now Jesus is showing the pressure and the hardship that his work is putting on him, “Now my soul is troubled,” Jesus says. But there is no other option. “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” Jesus asks, as if it is the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever said. “No, this is the reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Should Jesus retreat from what is ahead of him? Should the Father change the plan at the eleventh hour? No! This was the whole reason that Jesus came into the world in the first place. He came to be the seed that dies in the ground which then produces a gigantic harvest!
The Father is as committed to our salvation as His holy Son is. Every step of the way from the fall into sin in Eden to this moment has revealed his determination to save us. Despite mankind’s sin, he promised a Savior. That Savior would be his only-begotten, eternal Son. God worked to mold history to bring about Jesus’ arrival. Even when Israel repeatedly lost their commitment and dedication to Him by worshipping false gods, God stayed committed to them. When the baby was born in Bethlehem, and nobody except some shepherds cared, God stayed committed to his plan of salvation. As Jesus spoke the things the Father gave Him to say, and people rejected his words, he stayed committed to proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. And now, as Jesus talks about his impending death and the disciples were slow to understand, Father and Son showed an unswerving commitment and determination for our salvation.
It continues to happen repeatedly over the coming days. When the Father tells Jesus that he cannot take the cup away from him, they stayed committed. When Jesus submits to the abuse of the Sanhedrin, the High Priest, and Pontius Pilate, he stays committed. When Jesus is tortured, humiliated, and stretched out over the cross, the Father does not change his mind. Would we be so committed to ungrateful people that we would let our child suffer like that and not change our minds? Would our hearts not break, and we change our minds? God stayed committed. When Jesus suffers hell itself, over your sins and mine, there, too, God stayed committed to you and your salvation.
Here is the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This news of Jesus’ work is for all people. That is exactly what Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be thrown out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Jesus’ death would hurl Satan from any position of power that he might have thought he had and proclaim Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. And in doing so, He will become the Savior for all people of all time. Because he committed to the cross, all people, you and I included—are forgiven.
Now, let us take it from there. If Jesus was so determined and committed for you, will he not see you through your life? Of course he will. Your risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is committed to see you through, all the way. He is determined to get you home safe and sound. Christ your Lord will do whatever it takes to keep and preserve you in the Christian faith so that you make it home. How can I be so sure? Because in your baptism you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of eternal life.
Do you doubt, do you worry? Jesus will see you through. Are you weighed down with a guilty conscience? Hear the freeing words of the gospel preached into your ears. Do you struggle with a lack of commitment and dedication to God? Come to the Lord’s Table today and hear Jesus say to you, “This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus will do whatever it takes to bring you home safely.
How is your commitment to following Jesus? Determination is the ability to make tough decisions and accomplish God’s goals based on the truths of God’s word, regardless of the difficulty. It is the ability to set ourselves toward Godly pursuits, and not allow ourselves to be distracted or discouraged. Is your commitment total and complete? Or does it have weak links? Are there things that, at times, are more important to you than Jesus? Jesus expects the same dedication to him that he has for me, but does he find it? Hardly. When my frustration with other things leaks out and negatively impacts my family, I am committed to my frustration or anger, not Jesus. When laziness leads us to prioritize leisure over responsibility, we are committed to recreation, not Jesus. When we let our focus and energy be on money, we are committed to our greed, not Jesus.
The athlete who fails his carefully regimented diet and spends a day eating junk food is not disqualified as an athlete. But he needs to recommit himself to following the training plan. Likewise, you and I are not rejected by our Savior because we have had poor commitment today, this week, this month, this past year, or even the past decade. Jesus solves our lack of commitment to him by his total commitment to us. And then, in turn, his total commitment to us is what produces our total commitment to him.
So strengthen your feeble knees today, be refreshed and encouraged by means of what Christ gives you.
He is totally committed to you.
Amen
Written Sermon March 10, 2024
Rethinking the Solution for Sin
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
Numbers 21:4-9
Number 21:4-9 They set out from Mount Hor along the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, but the people became very impatient along the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Look, there is no food! There is no water! And we are disgusted by this worthless food!”
6 The LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and the snakes bit the people. As a result many people from Israel died. 7 The people went to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD to take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed on behalf of the people. 8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 9 Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole. If a snake had bitten anyone, if that person looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Have you ever been told to do something or believe something so bizarre that you thought somebody had lost their mind even suggesting it? The whole snake-on-a-pole thing must have sounded bizarre to some of the Israelites. Stare at a bronze serpent and you’ll be healed? That sounds ridiculous. It must’ve sounded just silly enough that some Israelites started looking for more reasonable solutions for the snake bites.
God finally had enough. His divine patience with the Israelites’ constant whining had run out. They complained about having to wander in the wilderness, they complained about the heat, they complained about not having enough water, they complained about Moses being their leader and they even complained about God’s miraculous food that appeared on the ground every morning.
What would you expect God to do with those ungrateful Israelites? What do you do with your children when they whine, complain, and talk back to you? You need to get their attention so that they understand that what they are doing is not acceptable. It is disruptive. It is contagious. But, above all, it is a
sin. A sin against you. And especially a grievous sin against their holy and just God.
How do we handle their sin? A time-out. A not-so-stern-talking-to. Taking away electronics. Most often they just back to their sinful ways once the discipline is over. That’s because we haven’t gotten to the root of their problem – sin. Our discipline didn’t lead them to repentance, and, ultimately, forgiveness.
Let us take a journey back in time to see how some of the Israelites might have mimicked us if we were in the same situation.
Some might have tried to ignore the snake bite. They called it by other names. They made it a joke. They claimed it wasn’t real. And to look at a snake on a pole-ridiculous! They died. Today many don’t admit there is such a thing as sin. They laugh at the idea. And to look at a man hanging on a cross as a cure that’s even more laughable than suggesting they are dying from sin’s bite. Like the ancient Israelites, they die.
Others didn’t dream of telling the people that these poisonous vipers were the result of God’s judgment on their bad behavior. They didn’t want to wound people’s self-worth. So instead of directing people to the snake on the pole, they tried to make people feel better about themselves. But they still died. Self-esteem thinking has its place, but it doesn’t deal with the root cause – sin. If a person never sees that they’ve been bitten by sin and are dying they will not look to Jesus on the cross--to be saved.
Others suggested that if the people believed hard enough or worked hard enough that they would recover from the snake bit, they would. So instead of looking at the snake on a pole they looked to their own faith and works. They died. It isn’t the amount of faith that saves, or the amount of work or mindless repetitions that save, it’s what one believes in.
Others denied that God really had said to Moses to do this snake-on-a-pole thing. Any healings that might have taken place could easily be explained by natural causes. So some people looked to other cures. And they died. Denying God’s solution to sin doesn’t spare anyone from dying from sin’s curse.
Another solution was that each person had to decide for themselves if looking at the snake on a pole was the way to go. Everybody’s choice was of equal quality. There was no right way or wrong way. All paths lead to the same cure. Those that chose to not look at the snake on a pole died.
We could go on, there are many more modern-day snake oil cures, but I think you get the picture. When the poisonous snakes attacked, God had set up only one way for the children of Israel to survive. Everything else had to be rejected. They had to look up at the bronze snake that Moses made and placed upon the pole. If they were bitten and did this, they would live; if not, they would die. It didn’t matter what else they did, how they felt, how spiritual they seemed. If they didn’t look at the bronze snake, they would die. For that snake on the pole was how God said He would come to them and save them.
Let’s bring this home. There are many different ideas about how to deal with the venomous bite of satan. His bite injects sin into our lives. And sin kills. It kills a person’s life, the lives of people around them, and it kills their eternity with God. And try as hard as some do to ignore sin, to explain it away, to look to counseling, education or other religions to deal with it, they will die. All who sin will die. It’s time to rethink the cure for sin.
There is only one cure God has given – His Son hanging on a cross. This is how much God loves this snake-bitten world. He doesn’t simply love it abstractly: “Oh, nice world, I love you.” He loves the world in a very specific and personal way. He sent His Son Jesus, who provided the cure by being made in the likeness of that which was wounded. Though He was perfectly free from sin, yet He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3).
Jesus, who knew no sin, was made sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. God laid the sin of the world--your sin and my sin--on His Son made Man. He nailed Him to the wood of the cross and raised Him high--not on a pole, but on a cross--for the entire world to see. Here we see the image of our sin and God’s wrath. The Son hangs dead, forsaken by His Father, cursed and damned in our place. How despicable He looks!
On the cross, Satan’s serpentine fangs sank deep into Jesus’ flesh, pumping the poison and venom of sin into His divine blood. But on that cross, Jesus absorbed the serpent’s strike against His heel so that He might step down hard crushing the Ancient Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).
As the bronze snake was lifted up and people could fix their eyes on it and live, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross, so all may fix their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and receive life in Him (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus was lifted up and became a spectacle to the world so that the world might be saved through Him.
Jesus is the anti-venom for the snake-bite of the Law; the cure resembles the sickness. Why did God put that snake on the pole? Not just to save the Israelites from death, but to show us how He was going to save this world from death. The snake on the pole pointed forward to Jesus’ crucifixion for our sins. As John 3 says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15). That’s this story with a New Testament twist!
On the pole, the Israelites saw their healing and God’s mercy. On the cross, we see our healing and God’s mercy. As Isaiah the Prophet wrote, “By His wounds we are healed” (Is.53:5). There but by the grace of God go we. There but by the grace of God goes He for us!
Just as God told the Israelites to look at some bizarre bronze snake hanging on a pole for life, so He tells us to look to seemingly foolish things to find Christ hanging on a tree, and so live.
God says look for the crucified Christ in Water, Words, Bread, and Wine. For as many of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). You see Christ crucified every time I absolve you of your sin. You see Christ crucified every time you receive the body and blood of the Christ in His holy supper.
In Baptism, the Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, your pastor makes the sign of the cross over you. I don’t do this because I’m superstitious. I make the sign of the cross to remind you that the forgiveness you are receiving all flow directly from the Christ who hung on the cross for you.
Through such seemingly bizarre ways, God gives to you--not a snake on the pole--but His Son on the cross. Through these means of grace, God gives to you His anti-venom, His medicine of immortality, for the forgiveness of your
sins. For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
When you are tempted by that ancient serpent to deal with your sin by ignoring it, forgetting it, or trying to work it off, rethink the cure for sin. Let nothing--nothing!--turn your attention from your Savior on the cross.
He is the only cure for sin.
Amen.
Written Sermon March 3, 2024
John 2:13-2228
Rethinking the Worth of Worship
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
John 2:13–22
The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers sitting at tables. 15He made a whip of cords and drove everyone out of the temple courts, along with the sheep and oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those selling doves he said, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a place of business!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 So the Jews responded, “What sign are you going to show us to prove you can do these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.” 20 The Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! And you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. 22When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and what Jesus had said.
What gets in the way of your worship? You can probably come up with a long list. How we feel, whether we had an argument in the car on the way to church, if our kids are rambunctious during the service, if the pastor or the subject that Sunday isn’t interesting. All of those things and so much more can get in the way of worship.
I wonder about our commercialization of faith and worship. The church with the slickest advertising, the most throbbing music, the most dynamic preacher, or the most delicious coffee and donuts seems to attract the most attention.
I wonder about the personalization of worship. Some complain: “I don’t get anything out of worship at your church.” I get that. Everybody has different tastes. Others are even more blunt, “Worship doesn’t do anything for me.”
Are those ideas of worship Jesus would shake up? Would he say “wait a minute you’ve got it all wrong. You are missing the focus and purpose of worship?”
So I come back to the question, “What gets in our way of truly worshiping God?” What cleansing do we need to do this Lent that will free us to more fully worship God?
In our text, Jesus enters the temple to celebrate the Passover. Instantly he is surrounded by the commercialism which had become a part of the Jews daily worship. During Passover, moneychangers and merchants did big business. Those who came from foreign countries had to have their money changed into temple currency because this was the only money accepted for the temple tax and for the purchase of the sacrificial animals used during Passover.
Now selling animals and exchanging money was not wrong. Normally, you bought animals and exchanged money outside the temple’s outer court, called the Court of the Gentiles. Since the Gentiles were not allowed to enter into the inner court and worship with the Jews, there was an outer area for them to worship. But now these peddlers set up shop right there in the Gentiles’ worship space. Can you imagine what that did to the Gentiles’ worship?
Imagine someone bringing a barn into our church. As you pray, a cow steps on your foot. You lift your eyes up to heaven in prayer and cannot help but notice a sheep butting heads with another sheep. The lemony pine smell of your incense blends in with the pungent odor of manure. You try to sing, but someone shouts over you: “Exchange your money here!”
Jesus was angry because all of that had caused something to get lost in the shuffle. That something was the most important thing of all. The forgiveness of God. So in anger Jesus overturns tables and scatters the money. He makes a whip out of cords and drives men and animals from the Temple.
This is not the Jesus we’re used to seeing! It is not gentle Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. It is not the Jesus who dines with tax collectors and sinners and touches untouchable lepers. And yet this is not a different Jesus. This is Jesus still acting out of love and caring for His people. This is Jesus’ love that cannot stand by and watch people lose worship’s true blessing - forgiveness.
It's easy to lose the purpose of worship. Our lives can become so commercialized with the ideas of this world that we have little or no desire to pray, or study God’s word. They can become so busy that we can’t imagine being still before the Lord. Our lives can become so personalized that the thought of serving God or others seems an interruption. Worldly filth can spoil our worship - Greed. Pride. Arrogance. The stubbornness to refuse admitting that you are wrong. Refusal to admit that your lifestyle actually does not match up to God’s commandments. Thinking that your cursing and swearing is acceptable; that your thoughts are yours to think. Your heart can get filled up with all this filth.
If this spiritual filth remains there, then, like these Passover-marketers, you find no reason for Jesus, even if you go through the motions like so many of the Jews of Jesus’ day did. Worship is no longer a hunger for the forgiveness you need, but a desire to get what you want. It’s an empty habit. So many of those who say “I don’t get anything out of worship” are looking for the wrong thing. They are looking for fast-food in a gourmet restaurant.
We don’t go to worship looking to be comfortable. Sometimes the sanctuary is too hot, or too cold. Sometimes there are crying babies or someone has a coughing fit. The reason we attend worship is not to be comfortable, but to be comforted by receiving God’s precious gift of forgiveness.
We don’t go to church to get rules for a better life. We already have those anyway – the Ten Commandments. If we could keep those we wouldn’t need any other rules. But we can’t even keep those simple commands, so why add to the burden of more rules we can’t keep? We worship to be assured of forgiveness for every commandment we have break – which is all of them.
We don’t go to church to get excited. Many want God to be their cheerleader. They want to hear how proud he is of them. But if hearing about the forgiveness of your sins doesn’t excite you, then you don’t realize the severity of your sin. The Jewish offerings pictured that. Constantly the scream of dying animals, the smell of burning flesh and the pools of blood causing them to slip as they walked, reminded them how serious sin was and how much they needed forgiveness. Or at least it should have. Unfortunately the rush of daily living, the lure of money, and the apathy of self-righteousness took the meaning out of their worship.
Many Christians assume that the word “worship” is the same as the word “praise.” This is why many churches, even Lutheran, have a “Praise Service” or a “Praise Team”. The first word for worship that occurs in Genesis actually means to “bow down.” Bowing down is quiet and reverent and submissive. But the lure of the exciting can rob us of being still and knowing God.
Look at Jesus in bloody sweat in Gethsemane’s garden. See the torment of body and soul of God’s perfect Son dying for your sin on the dark enshrouded cross. To pay for your sin God had to die. No animal sacrifice would cut it. Not even your eternal torment in hell would pay for your sin. The sinless, perfect, and holy God had to sacrifice himself willingly for your forgiveness. How could that not bring comfort and passion.
St. Paul wrote, “we preach Christ crucified.” Not a God we can control to hand out the blessings we want. Not a God who is content to let us go our own ways, or who ignores our wrongful actions. We proclaim the holy Son who worshipped His Father in perfect obedience that lead to him sacrificing himself on the cross. He is holy, unstained, while you are stained with the guilt of your sin. Your lack of holiness and perfection is covered by Jesus. This means that when you feel condemned by your sins, when you know you deserve temporal and eternal punishment, when you feel shame, guilt, sorrow, Jesus stands with you before His Father and speaks on your behalf. You are forgiven! You are saved!
When we are confronted by our sins and accused by satan, we need that assurance. That’s why we worship!
As much as we know that worship is about God, we somehow manage to make it about ourselves: how we feel, how passionate we are. We tend to measure worship by crowd size, volume, or how attentive others are. What we are missing is that our desires, planning, and actions aren’t the essence of worship. The essence has been taking place from time eternal. The work of our salvation.
Acceptable worship does not start with human intuition or inventiveness, but with the action of God. In worship, God invites us to join him in what he is already doing. Our response, initiated by God, grounded in the reconciling work of Christ, and enabled by his Spirit, is to gladly participate in the perfect worship of Jesus, who through his once-and-for all sacrifice has made all our offerings acceptable to God (1 Peter 2:5).
Far from being a moment in a Christian meeting God-honoring worship is the natural state of our hearts when we seek to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). That’s real worship, whether in this building, in your home or on the street.
The season of Lent is an opportunity for us all to rethink our worship, to be sure that God’ grace is why we are here. Amen.
Written Sermon February 25, 2024
Rethinking Suffering Under the Cross
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
Mark 8:31–38
31 Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. 32He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” 34He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36After all, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 In fact, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Death is an uncomfortable subject for most people. When a loved is extremely ill and begins to talk about death, family members tend to change the subject or say, “that’s not going to happen, don’t talk like that.” If the person isn’t ill and starts talking about death, they are referred to a suicide prevention hotline. Death is uncomfortable for many people to talk about. When Jesus begins to explain that he will soon suffer and die, that’s too much for Peter. He rebukes Jesus. After all, who ever heard of a Messiah suffering and dying? That’s no one’s idea of how to save the world and rescue God’s people!
Yet from our perspective, we know Jesus’ death on the cross is exactly how God saves the world. God is revealed to us most clearly through Jesus hanging on the cross, willingly giving his very life for us. In that moment of suffering, anguish, and death, we see the full extent of God’s love. And as Jesus’ followers, we are called to testify to that love. We are called to bear that love into the hurting places of this world, knowing there is no suffering, no sorrow, no pain that is too much for God. As God brought resurrection and new life out of even the horror of the cross, so too God is bringing resurrection and new life for us and for this hurting, broken world. When the crowds that were following Jesus heard him say, 34 “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it,” that was too much for them. They were following Jesus for his miracles, for teachings about love and to hear him put the Pharisees in their place. But to be his followers you have to carry a cross, suffer and die? Ridiculous. Time to find a new spiritual leader.
When Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of God” his statement of faith is bold, but it’s incomplete. He’s looking for a messiah through a human lens. When humans come up with a savior, or a god, it looks a lot like mighty
military leaders, powerful, glorious, triumphant. That’s what Peter’s expecting.
Peter is on the right track—God is glorious and almighty—but his confession is incomplete because he doesn’t know about the cross. When Jesus tries to fill him in with the information he’s missing, telling him the Son of Man—that is, Jesus—must suffer and be rejected and die, Peter gets upset. “Lord, I think you’re a bit mixed up. You see, you’re the Messiah. You’re the Savior. I’m pretty sure you’re actually God. You can’t suffer or die. That doesn’t make any sense! Maybe go meditate, pray for a bit, and get your head on straight, Jesus.”
Jesus rebukes Peter, calling him Satan, telling him to get out of the way, to take his mind off human things and focus on divine things. Stop trying to make sense of Jesus’ mission—God’s mission—from a human framework. Stop trying to limit God to working the way you expect.
It’s a tough rebuke to hear, because we’re often on the same page as Peter looking for something glorious—at least I am. When I think about God I know better (at least, most of the time I hope I know better) than to picture some Greek titan, or an idol of a Roman nature deity. I hope we know better than to imagine that any politician or emperor or president can be the divine savior of the world. Yet, do we put our trust in them as if they were?
We do worship the Lord God, creator of the universe, maker of all that is, seen and unseen. We serve the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who rescued the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land, the God who has the power to shake the foundations of the earth. We serve a mighty God, the Lord almighty.
And that God chooses to be revealed to us in Jesus. Our God comes not as a human king or emperor, but as an itinerant Jewish rabbi; born not in a palace, but in a humble home stable. Our God chooses to come and to suffer and die. That’s hard to accept. This savior who submits to suffering, humiliation, and death on a cross is hard to follow.
Why does Jesus, why does the anointed Messiah need to suffer? The answer is because we suffer. We need a God who understands our suffering because of sin. In Jesus’ suffering and death, we see how far God is willing to go for us. The cross reveals the extent of God’s love.
Martin Luther wrote that “the visible and manifest things of God [are] seen through suffering and the cross.” (Heidelberg Disputation, #20)
What he means by this is that the best way of seeing who God truly is, isn’t to look at the beauty of a sunrise, or the grandeur of a cathedral. God’s love for us is ultimately revealed in Jesus, God with us, hanging on a cross. That’s the gospel, the good news.
And we need that, because if God isn’t present with us in the midst of suffering, if we can’t enter into the deepest places of evil and suffering and find God has something to say there, what’s the point?
The cross gives us evidence that God is present in refugee camps, hospital beds, nursing home rooms, in bombed out buildings and living rooms filled with loneliness and loss. God is with you in those times when you feel like the Psalmist, entangled by cords of death, with the power of death and the grave gripping you.
God is the creator of beauty and joy. God is the giver of life, the source of all good things. We serve a beautiful savior who created a wonderful world, sparkling stars, blooming flowers, all of that.
But a god who isn’t present at the Ground Zeroes of our lives wouldn’t be worth following. A god who wouldn’t weep on the side of a highway next to a smashed car or at the side of a runaway teen selling herself on the streets, wouldn’t be worth following.
Jesus understands suffering, the worst our world can offer, because Jesus has gone through it. God has chosen to enter into our world. The Son of Man must undergo great suffering and rejection and be killed.
Most importantly, suffering is not the end of the story. After three days, Jesus promises, the Son of Man will rise again. And he does. On the third day, the tomb was empty. Death was defeated, and death remains defeated. God is in the business of life and restoration.
And we are called to be part of that mission. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him. We are called to be bearers of the cross into places of tragedy and pain knowing there is no anguish, no sorrow, no pain that is too much for God.
In the meantime, we will have suffering in this life. In our time—which I am sure is not unique—we often assume that this life should be free from suffering. We try to remove suffering at all costs. In truth, this is impossible. The reality is that we will still experience our sin, we will still experience death, and we will still experience the tyranny of the Devil over this world. We will still experience the cross and suffering in this life especially because we are Christians.
There is a special component to sufferings for the Christian. Not only has Christ made our suffering holy by joining in our suffering, but there is also special hope. There is the hope that points to this work of God which conforms us to the image of Jesus. This work points to God’s own words and promises to overcome the world and the evil one. This work draws us to eternal hope. There is hope in who this God is as the Almighty One who loves us and cares for us. He is the God who proved His love and sent His Son to suffer and die for us. If He has done this, will He not certainly in His love do what is best for us in all things? Yes, yes, it shall be so.
Our sufferings make sense not because of explanations that merely satisfy human inquiry or curiosity, but because Christ lives his life in us through our sufferings as a call to put our trust in him. We reflect the life of Christ who called us to take up our cross and follow him.
Lifting high the cross doesn’t mean waving it like a talisman in front of a conquering army (although Christians have done that). Lifting high the cross means proclaiming a God who comes into our suffering and suffers alongside us, proclaiming both the reality of suffering, and the promise that death never gets the last word.
As the hymn we’ll sing shortly says, it’s a call for us to follow where our master trod, an invitation for us to proclaim the hope of resurrection, even in the face of suffering and death.
Amen
Written Sermon February 18, 2024
The Testing of Your Faith
Genesis 22:1-18
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
Trust. If you were to pull out a one dollar bill right now, on the back it would say: “In God We Trust.” Have you ever looked at it and wondered just how much we as Americans really do trust in God When horrendous evil happens, you can hear many voices.
But how about closer to home. When sudden illness strikes, do you trust God? When your teenager strays far away from God, do you trust God? When your IRA tanks, your home is robbed, you get laid off, do you trust God? When your life takes an inexplicable turn south and God seems far off, do you trust him? Not just pray to him but trust him. Trust would be seen in a calm reliance, a willingness to put it in his hands, a quiet confidence in his promise that it will turn out alright.
These are tough questions that we all need to answer. And, if we are completely honest with ourselves, all of us would have to admit that we don’t trust God, at least not the way we should. Adam and Eve didn’t trust God enough to obey him in Eden. And we know what happens from that point on. Since the fall we have continued to struggle, and we constantly doubt our Creator.
That’s what makes today’s Old Testament lesson so amazing. Abraham was tested by God. He has already lost one son. When God had promised to make Abram the ancestor of a great nation Abraham believed. But he and his wife Sarah had no children. So Sarah told him to have sexual relations with her servant, Hagar. Well, Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishmael. Sarah had become jealous of Hagar and wanted her, and Ishmael gone. The previous chapter says that Abraham was very displeased, but God came to him and told him to listen to Sarah. Then God told Abraham that it was through Isaac that his offspring would be named. Upon hearing God’s word, Abraham rose early in the morning and sent Hagar and his eldest son, Ishmael into the desert. This had to have hurt Abraham tremendously to watch his son leave. For those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, either by death or the circumstances of this sinful world separating you from them – you know Abraham’s hurt all too well. Abraham trusted God enough to listen to him.
God then assured Abraham that the son that He promised would be born from Sarah who was 90 years old! His name would be called Isaac. And everything happened just as God had said. Isaac was born!
Now, just a few years later, God is telling Abraham to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves, and offer him up as a burnt offering. It was bad enough that Abraham had to send his first-born son into the desert, but at least God promised that he would make a great nation out of him. Now, God wants Abraham to take the son of the Promise and sacrifice him. And no comfort is given to Abraham here like it was with Ishmael.
Was it too much for Abraham? Did he question God and refuse to do it? No!!! Our text says that Abraham, “rose early in the morning,” got everything ready and set off. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Abraham hesitated in the least.
This wasn’t a short journey. It’s not like Abraham heard the voice of God, woke up, took out a knife and killed Isaac before he had time to think it through. He had three days to think about what he had to do. Three days to walk with Issac holding his hand, watching him play, listening to his plans for when he grew up. Three days to convince himself that maybe God didn’t really mean what he said. Three days to put his own reason above the word of God. But he chose to trust God instead.
Think about it. God told Abraham that the promise would come directly through Isaac. Now he’s telling Abraham to kill Isaac. Reason would say that if Abraham killed Isaac he would be killing the promise.
When Isaac finally questioned his father why they didn’t bring a sacrifice, Abraham replied “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” The book of Hebrews says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise from the dead, from which figuratively, speaking, he did receive him back.” Now that is an amazing faith!
God promised “Issac would be the start of many descendants” and now “God said offer Issac.” God can’t and won’t break his first promise so somehow, he will achieve it. So he must be planning to resurrect Issac.
So Abraham bound Isaac and laid him on the wood. He had the knife out and was starting to sacrifice his beloved son when the Angel of the Lord
stopped him and told him not to do it. And then the Lord provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac.
Can you imagine yourself in either Abraham’s place, or even Isaac’s? Personally, I’m glad that was Abraham’s and Issac’s test and not mine. I’m not sure how I would have done. How about you?
Abraham wasn’t perfect, was he? He was a sinner just like you and me. He made mistakes. He doubted at times. He lied at times. But Abraham also trusted in God. When he sinned, he repented and turned back to God – and God forgave them.
Abraham was given a substitute, a ram, to sacrifice instead of Isaac. All of this points directly to Jesus and the cross. Jesus is our substitute. He took our sins upon himself and was offered up once for all the sins of the whole world. It was his blood that was spilled. By his wounds we are healed.
Instead of trusting in God, do you trust in the strength of youth. We as a culture spend billions to preserve it. All in vain, for no matter how hard we strive to maintain the vitality of our youth, we all eventually succumb to old age, frailty, and death. When the economy tanks it is popular to trust a political party to legislate us back into affluence. That doesn’t work very well, does it?
Instead shouldn’t we trust our God? Afterall, he promised “A”- “Your heavenly Father know you need these things” and so if “B” happens, shouldn’t we trust that God won’t break his promise but will fulfill his promise through “B?” Do we trust him like that?
Like a great conductor, He sees our lives laid out like a musical score. Nothing surprises Him. We, on the other hand, experience life like an audience gathered to hear the concert, one note at a time. Rather than worry about which note is next, we are called to trust the direction of the conductor.”
Do we always trust God? The answer is no. We are sinners and because of our sin, our natural instinct is to doubt. When we are faced with situations that don’t make sense, often times we let our own reason cloud our judgment rather than trusting in God’s Word. Abraham’s test teaches us “The LORD will provide.”
Our greatest need was to be rescued from our sin and death, eternal death. Every one of us, even the most righteous among us, is guilty as a sinner before God and is deserving of death. Every one of us, could be Isaac, bound fast in the guilt of our sins, laid on the altar, with the knife of God’s justice
ready to come down upon us. That is our helpless situation, according to the law. We are sinners, and sinners must die.
But God spared our lives by providing his own Son as that substitute sacrifice in our place. Like the ram caught in the thicket, like a lamb led to the slaughter, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He takes our punishment. Bound by nails to the wood of the cross, bound even more by the cords of his love for his Father and love for us sinners, Jesus the Lamb of God dies in our place.
“The LORD will provide.” Yes, on Mount Calvary, the Lord provided the answer to your greatest need. For in the sacrifice of his Son, God has provided you with forgiveness for your sin. He has provided you with life in place of death, the life of Christ, now risen from the dead, victorious over the grave, who now lives forevermore.
“The LORD will provide.” God has provided you with the assurance of his love, knowing that, if he has provided for you in your greatest need, he will also be there for you in your every need. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
So rethink your trials, troubles, and temptations. They don’t prove God has forsaken you. See as them paths to God’s blessings.
We really can't tell what our next trial will be or when it will happen to us. But at least we now know what we should do when it comes. When that happens keep your eyes fixed on the cross. Cling to the promises of your Savior. Trust in His will for you: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Amen.
Written Sermon February 11, 2024
A Glimpse of His Glory
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing. 4In the case of those people, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from clearly seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is God’s image. 5Indeed, we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
On January 9th, 2007, Joshua Bell sold out Boston's Symphony Hall. Seats were nearly $100 each. Bell plays a violin worth more than $3 million and is one of the best musicians in the world. Three days later he entered a metro station in Washington, D.C. wearing casual clothing and a ball cap. He opened his case and played his violin for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped, 20 gave money (a total of $32), but no one recognized him. They didn’t expect to see a world class musician in a subway.
When it comes to the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, many don’t recognize it. They are not expecting God to show up in Jesus because Jesus isn’t what they want in a god. They do not see his beauty and majesty, and therefore do not give him the honor he deserves.
When we see someone’s face, we get a lot of information that we can’t when we use electronic communication. There have been a number of times when I’ve been trying to say something through text message or email when my words have been misinterpreted because the other person couldn’t see the look in my eyes, or hear the inflections or tone in my voice. When we talk face to face, there are a lot of things in our faces and voices that help to clarify our message.
The god of this age, Satan, works the same way in this world. He blinds people so they don’t see the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus. How? He blinds their eyes by placing their own needs, feelings, and desires before what God is saying. Since he isn’t what they want, they can’t see who he is.
That is what makes the Transfiguration of Jesus an amazing event. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and revealed his heavenly glory to them, they were seeing something that very few people had ever seen. Jesus gave his three closest disciples a glimpse of his heavenly glory to help them understand who he is. While Jesus is an ordinary person according to his humanity, his transfiguration showed his followers that there is much more to him than meets the eye. Jesus was the presence of God with them. He brought the fullness of God’s goodness to them so they could know God face to face rather than having to rely on what others said about God or who they thought God might be. In the face of Jesus, we see the face of God – not what God looks like, but who God is.
Understanding the nature and character of God through the person of Jesus became critical for the Apostle Paul. When he wrote to the Christians in Corinth, Paul described the light of the gospel as “the glory of Christ, who is God’s image.” For Paul, seeing God’s glory in the face of Jesus means that we can see clearly the heart of God.
We see the full glory of God not so much in the transfigured face of Jesus, but in the human face of Jesus. That is where we see a God who does what no one else has ever done. Jesus is different from every other religious, philosophical, or political figure. He reveals to us the glory of a God who meets us in our broken humanity. Jesus shows us a God who doesn’t try to explain why people suffer in the world, but instead enters into our suffering. In Jesus we meet a God who would rather die than see his children separated from him by sin and death. Jesus shows us how high, how wide, how long and how deep God’s love is for us by sacrificing everything for us on the cross. In the resurrection of Jesus, we see that God’s love is stronger than death itself. Nothing in this world can overcome God’s love for us. The ‘light of the Good News’ of Jesus shows us a God who is compassionate and kind, who forgives sinners and justifies the unrighteous, who does everything to reconcile with those who have turned away from him and restore broken relationships. The glory of God we can see in the bruised and bloodied face of a crucified man is the glory of the God who sacrifices everything in love for people who deserve it the least but need it the most.
This is why so many miss it. This is a very different way to think about glory. Usually we think about God’s heavenly glory, seated on his throne, surrounded in light with angels singing his praises. God’s glory is seen in the blessings he gives. But to see God’s glory in the face of a dying Savior? That they don’t want. Paul says they do not believe, because they do not want the light of the gospel to shine into their lives. They don’t want to give up their sin or their self-righteousness. They want to live for themselves, not for Christ.
Paul is not the only one to make this sort of statement in Scripture. The Apostle John writes similarly in his Gospel, where he explains that although Jesus came unto His own people, they did not accept Him (John 1:1-8). .John explains why later. He says that they did not accept Him because their deeds were evil and they loved darkness rather than light (John 3:18-21). They did not want the light to shine in their lives, because they knew that if it did, they would have to change their beliefs and their behaviors, and so they chose to remain in darkness.
When Paul points us to look for God’s glory in the face of Jesus, though, he wants us to see the glory of the God who suffers with us, who suffers for us, who gives everything out of love for us. Paul wants us to see the face of the God whose love is stronger than anything in this world and who promises us something better than what we are experiencing right now.
As Paul knows from his own personal experience, seeing this kind of glory in the face of Jesus can change our lives.
You are so blessed that you see God in the face of Jesus Christ. In grace beyond imagination God has shone the light of grace into your hearts. You see His grace, his love, his forgiveness and his hope. That’s why you come each week and during Advent and Lent, more than once each week, so that you can keep the image of God clearly in your mind. This world takes its toll on us. It veils the Gospel behind troubles, persecutions, and our own sinful flesh.
Why do we sin? You might say, the world and the devil tempt us. But that’s not why we sin. Perhaps, building on last week’s sermon, you’d answer “because we are sinful.” That’s more fundamental, but still not the reason we sin. We sin…because…we love to sin. We enjoy it in our fallen nature. It excites us with pleasures. It satisfies us with revenge. It fills our greed. If we didn’t love sinning, we wouldn’t do it. As shocking as that might sound, it is also a freeing concept. Because if we sin because we love it, how do we overcome sinning? Rules don’t help. Scolding does help. If we want to stop loving something, we need to love something else more. A greater love overcomes sin. And so we need to grow in our love for Jesus. Love Jesus more and so love sin less.
That’s why we come to church and have home devotions. We want to keep the veil of sin from hiding the face of God’s love in Jesus. So we come to receive the Good News of salvation through word and sacrament. And so come to love him more and more.
Just as every good relationship means spending time face to face together, when we grow in our relationship with Jesus, and with the body of Christ that is our Christian family, we also grow in our relationship with God. This growth equips us to live as people who carry the light of God’s glory into the world by living and loving others the same way Jesus did, full of forgiveness, compassion, mercy and grace. This connection, growth, equipping and sending is what it means to live with the light of God’s glory in us.
We shine our lights into the world because we know that it is all about what Christ has done for this fallen world – starting with us! We sin, we fail to shine our lights, we allow the veils of this world to hide our Jesus, so every day we need to remember that Christ is for us too. Because He faithfully served as the Light of the World, even though it would lead to His death, He has given us what we don’t have; a new relationship with God. You are forgiven. You are forgiven for failing to be faithful in your vocations. You are forgiven for hiding your lamp. You are forgiven for hiding behind the veils of the god of this age. Because you then have a new and loving relationship with God, you have a new relationship with those around you. You aren’t just family, friends, or neighbors, you are saints, children of God, to whom He has entrusted the Salt and the Light of Christ Jesus.
We can try to get to know God in lots of different ways, but most of them are like trying to get to know someone through text messages, emails, social media or even phone calls. There’s nothing like seeing someone face to face. In Jesus we see God’s glory as we encounter the God who sacrifices everything to overcome the distance between us and who gives us new life as the people he loves. Our God comes to die to reconcile us to himself– dying to destroy our death, and rising to restore our life.
That’s the glory of God in the face of Jesus.
Written Sermon February 4, 2024
Jesus Makes Our Suffering Glorious
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
1 Peter 5:6-11
Therefore humble yourselves under God’s powerful hand so that he may lift you up at the appointed time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8Have sound judgment. Be alert. Your adversary, the Devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him by being firm in the faith. You know that the same kinds of sufferings are being laid on your brotherhood all over the world.10After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you. 11 To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
“Cheer up! Things could be worse. So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse!” This anecdote often describes how we feel about life in general. We hope things are going to get better, but in some ways, we always have that fear that sooner or later, things are actually going to get worse.
But Peter tells us in our text today is that the best is yet to come. Yes, He says, there is suffering in this world. But it doesn’t last forever. It does get better, much better, eternally better, for those who trust in Jesus Christ. He says: 10After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you.
Why? Because Jesus came to undo the devil’s work.
All your present suffering, all your future troubles, all your questions, doubts and fears are the result of what satan accomplished millennia ago in the Graden of Eden. His deception of our first parents plunged this world into chaos and suffering. Adam and Eve’s sin and its consequences are passed down from generation to generation, parents to children. This is called original or inherited sin. It results in a sinful condition, like a blue color in clay. Any pot made from that lump of clay will have that blue color. And so we are sinful because we have been made from the clay of Adam and Eve.
But the blame isn’t just on Adam and Eve. The blame falls squarely on us too. Our sinful condition shows itself daily in our sinful actions. Our sinful flesh continues to deceive us into defying God with our choices. Adam and Eve loved God, and so do we. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and so do we.
Adam and Eve suffered the consequences of their disobedience and so do we. Adam and Eve believed in the promised Savior, yet they continued to sin and eventually died. And so do we.
Satan continues to do his dirty work. If there is one thing the devil hates, it is to see people believe the truth about Jesus. The devil is at work to destroy our faith with all the pain and sorrow that sin brings. He will do anything he can to destroy our hope and confidence in God. He will do it through persecution, through fear, misunderstanding, through temptations, disappointment, and suffering.
So be alert. Not like one who is half-asleep, but like one who is fully awake. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. A lion doesn’t seek out the strong and healthy in a herd. But the weak, the wounded and the young. Easier prey, right? And the devil is good at what he does. He knows just which buttons to push in us. He knows our
weaknesses, our wounds, our youthful impetuousnesses. Afterall, he put them there. He knows the things that are most likely to cause us to question God and His ways. And the devil will keep pushing. He will keep at us because trying to upset our faith and turn us away from God. Then he wins. If we think we have it bad in this world, scripture reminds us that all the pain of this life is nothing compared to the greater torment of hell.
But all is not lost! While there may be those times when we have trouble understanding why God allows all this trouble to happen, He does promise that He will be there to see us through it all.
Peter said: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” Peter knows that the suffering is there. But he also knows what God can and will do for those who trust in Him. So he says: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up at the appointed time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” When we find ourselves overwhelmed by the devil’s attacks, there is only one thing we can do, and that is to put our burdens on the Lord. He is the one who can help because Jesus came to undo the devil’s work.
I think Satan understood the prophecy of Genesis 3 that the seed of the woman would crush his head. That is why Satan has been so active through Old Testament history, in trying to destroy the line of the Messiah again, and again, and again. That’s why Satan endeavored to kill all the male children at the time of the birth of Christ that were two years and under, in order to slaughter the Messiah. But as crafty, as powerful, as ruthless as satan is, he is not too smart. He tried to overthrow God in heaven and that didn’t turn out
so well, did it? Then he tried again and again during Jesus’ lifetime. But God’s plan wouldn’t be thwarted.
Jesus came to destroy Satan's power. The word destroy means "to dissolve or loosen completely." In other words, when Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross in our place, and rose eternally to usher in the Kingdom of God, He smashed Satan's grip on us. The heel of the seed of the woman would be bruised. That’s an attack from the rear, but it’s a minor thing. Isaiah says, “He was bruised for our iniquities.” As you go to the cross remember Jesus confessed that “this is the hour of the power of darkness.” The cross was a bruise on His heel. But in that wound satan’s head, his power, was crushed. Jesus provided the atonement that paid in full the sin debt of all the people. He destroyed hatred with His love. He destroyed lawlessness with His righteousness. On the cross Jesus satisfied the justice of God. Then through his resurrection he conquered death opening the gates of paradise for all who believe.
So for those who trust in Jesus, satan is nothing more than a dog with a painful bite but which inflicts no lasting damage.
Stand firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by Christians throughout the world. Resist satan, like you would an opponent, standing firm in our faith toward God. Hold onto what has been planted in our hearts.
So why does suffering continue? It will in this fallen world. If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, then why does Satan continue to operate freely? As long as people are willing to entertain and obey the lies of Satan, he will have a hold over them. But Satan has no claim on a believer unless that believer hands him the keys to their life. I think this story illustrates well what our approach is to be.
A while ago I read a story about a young teenager named Sally who made herself miserable over the smallest failures and setbacks of her life. Early one fall, while the leaves were still on the trees, there was an exceptionally heavy snowstorm. Sally’s grandfather took her for a drive and said, "Notice those elms, the branches are so badly broken that the trees may die. But just look at those pines and evergreens. They are completely undamaged by the storm. My child, there are two kinds of trees in the world. An elm holds its branches rigid. As it becomes weighted down, eventually its limbs break. But when an evergreen is loaded, it simply relaxes, lowers its branches, and lets the burden slip away. And so it remains unharmed. Be a pine tree, granddaughter."
Christians who give up all their cares to the Lord can face life's burdens much better than those who try to bear the weight themselves. We will bend under the heavy load of suffering, but we won’t break. Satan wants you to be rigid, to try to do it yourself. You will break. God wants you to bend, so that you learn that He will support you. But more than that, the Lord can, and does, see us beyond those troubles.
God has a purpose in suffering: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the appointed time he may lift you up…” God’s pathway to exaltation is through humiliation, through humbling ourselves before him. Jesus too was humbled by taking on the form of a servant, being obedient even to death on a cross. And then he was exalted to the right hand of the Father. So as suffering drives us toward God, He lifts us up, strengthens us and draws us even closer to him.
The ascended Lord is still in charge, and in His time, the Lord will act for the good of His people. The day is coming when the Lord is going to set things right. At the right time, He will bring an end to the suffering and troubles of our lives. He will bring us to the wonderful glory of His eternal home. Knowing that our suffering is limited in time makes it easier to bear. Since we know that it will come to an end we can put up with it for now.
Yes, the best is yet to come, for our friend and Savior has undone the work of the devil. He will bring an end to our suffering. He will give us greater blessings than we could ever imagine. And even now, as we stand firm in our faith, He gives us the help and strength we need to overcome the sufferings and problems of this world by looking for God’s blessing in them.
Friends, suffering will come but don’t give in. Remember that God is at work, and the best is yet to come. Amen.
Written Sermon January 28, 2024
Teaching We Can Trust
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
Mark 1:21-28
Mark 1:21-28 21 Then they went into Capernaum. On the next Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 They were amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them as one who has authority and not as the experts in the law. 23 Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit in their synagogue. It cried out, 24 “What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” 25 Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” 26 The unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions, and after crying out with a loud voice, it came out of him. 27 Everyone was so amazed that they began to discuss this with each other. They said, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28News about him spread quickly through all the region of Galilee.
Grace and mercy which brings peace to from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In our modern world – or as some would say, our postmodern world – today’s gospel reading must seem old-fashioned and hopelessly irrelevant. Jesus rebuking unclean spirits? We don’t believe in unclean spirits anymore, do we? Exorcisms are for the movies, not for real life.
How about Jesus teaching with authority? In our postmodern world, nobody can teach with true authority anymore, can they? Everybody’s thinking is right for them. There is no authority of right and wrong. We’re taught from a young age to question authority,
and not to trust everything we see or read. And with good reason! Because not everything that we see or read is true! Advertisers stretch the truth. Politicians twist the truth. And the news media all seem to share different versions of the truth. We have good reason to question authority, and any claim to the truth.
But here we are, with an old-fashioned reading that I is more important than ever. Because in the midst of a world without any clear and certain truth, Jesus continues to offer a clear teaching, with authority – eternal truths that we can trust and believe, and even build our lives upon. And then, Jesus helps us to live these truths, by driving away anything that would prevent us from living as he teaches.
Jesus has come to Galilee, proclaiming the good news. He has called his first disciples to follow him. Now, on the sabbath day, Jesus enters the synagogue and begins to teach. We find out quickly in Jesus’ ministry that teaching is crucial to Jesus’ mission. He didn’t come just to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Or simply to call disciples to follow him. Or
Teaching We Can Trust January 28. 2024
merely to heal the sick. Or even to die on a cross for the sins of the world. He came to do all those things, of course. But he also came to teach.
There are clearly some important truths about this world that Jesus wants us to learn. But he is not going to teach in the same way that everybody else does. He is not going to quote one person, and then another – some say, others say … – he’s not going to “beat around the bush.” No, he is going to teach with authority. Not as the scribes. Not as the other teachers of his day. Why can Jesus do this? Very simply, because he is the Son of God. That is the source of his authority. And the reason that he can teach in this way. And only he can teach in this way!
The Teacher Who Is the Son of God
If Jesus was not the Son of God, then his teaching would be just like any other teaching, mere opinion. We would be left wondering whether it can be believed. We would be right back at square one. That is why it is so important to realize who this teacher is, and why we can believe him.
As Christians, we accept Jesus’s teachings not because we like them, or even agree with them; not because he is a great teacher, or because he makes a great point. We accept his teachings, all of them, whether we wish he hadn’t said it or not, simply because he is the Son of God. That’s why he can teach with authority, and that’s why we can believe him without hesitation.
C.S. Lewis, in his famous book, Mere Christianity, speaks directly to those people who claim that Jesus is a great teacher, but nothing more. In a very famous passage, Lewis puts it this way:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Jesus is, quite simply, the Son of God. Or everything that we have built our lives upon is a waste of time. Jesus is the Son of God, or everything he said came the mouth of a madman and can’t be trusted.
But he is true God. He proves it. Even the demons had to obey his commands. No mere human, no good teacher, no wonderful example has that kind of power. Only God.
Teaching We Can Trust January 28. 2024
Because Jesus isthe Son of God, there is no teaching that is more important for us to pay attention to, and to trust, than his.
So, what exactly does Jesus teach? Well, we have a lifetime to discover that, don’t we?! But a good place to start might be the one sentence sermon that he preached when he first came to Galilee:
The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. MARK 1:15
Jesus teaches us, as clearly as he can, that when he comes into this world, the kingdom of God comes into this world. Now we are invited to repent and believe this good news. The Son of God came into this world to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3:8).
Satan brought sin and death into our lives. He continually hounds our heels, nipping and biting and prodding us to sin. But Jesus proved his power over the demons by expelling them. That display showed that he had the power to overcome the devil’s work, which he did on the cross of Calvary. There Jesus offered himself as full payment for the world’s sins. There Jesus took the full weight of our sin’s penalties upon himself. There on that tree Jesus suffered the total anger of God against our lawlessness. And by doing that, he crushed that ancient serpent’s head. Sin was paid for. The debt was cancelled.
Through faith that victory becomes yours personally. In the waters of baptism satan is chased from your soul and you became God’s holy and precious child. The new birth is the sovereign work of God in which he turns the light on in our heart so that we see things the way he does. We see God as awesome in holiness, sin as horrible in ugliness, and Christ as a beautiful Savior. We bow before God in worship, we confess and turn from sin, and we embrace Christ as our hope.
We are invited, in other words, to change the way that we look at the world, to turn from our selfish ways, and to embrace the good news that Jesus came to teach and proclaim. And then, we are invited to follow him.
But what if we struggle to accept Jesus’ teaching? What if we doubt? What if we find it difficult to repent and believe this good news? What then? The truth is that if Jesus only taught with authority, we would not have much reason to hope. But he not only taught with authority. He also consistently acted with mercy. His life, death, and resurrection shows us that he not only came to teach us, but also to help us to live by his teaching.
Go back to today’s reading. Jesus is busy in the synagogue, teaching with authority, when a man with an unclean spirit comes in and starts shouting:
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
Jesus immediately sends this unclean spirit out of the man. The crowd is stunned. Jesus not only has the authority to teach us. He also has authority over the unclean spirits.
Teaching We Can Trust January 28. 2024
Now, putting aside what it means that this man had a demonic spirit for a moment, think of what Jesus did, and who he did it for. This man did nothing to earn Jesus’ favor. He came into the synagogue, and totally disrupted what Jesus was doing. He didn’t ask Jesus to heal him. In fact, through the unclean spirit, he accused Jesus of coming to destroy him. This man clearly could not “repent and believe the good news,” as Jesus was teaching, because he was being controlled by this unclean spirit. So how did Jesus respond? By immediately rebuking the unclean spirit, and healing this man.
Do you see? Jesus is going to do whatever it takes, to help people live by his teaching, to repent and believe the good news. And what Jesus did for that man with the unclean spirit, he would eventually do for all the world, when he went to the cross and died for our sins. Not because we asked him to. Not because we deserved it. But simply because he chose to. He went to the cross to set us free from our captivity to sin. That is why we can live by Jesus’s teaching.
This makes me think of one of my favorite parts of the Rite of Holy Baptism, which is probably the most old-fashioned and “irrelevant” part of all: It is the renunciations. Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God? Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God? Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?
And only then are we asked: Do you believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Then as the water and the power of God’s word are splashed over our heads, those baptismal waters fill our soul and the devil drowns under that flood of God’s grace. And that water, like the water powering a hydroelectric dam, powers our lives to follow Jesus’ teaching.
Now, we can turn away from all the dead-ends in our lives, in other words, and turn back to Jesus, because Jesus sets us free to. We can fight against evil and injustice in our world, because Jesus helps us to. We can live our lives without fear, because Jesus died to give us the promise of eternal life.
This is what Jesus teaches us today, and offers us: The power to say no to sin, death, and evil in our world. And the ability to repent and to believe the good news that he came to teach us. In this postmodern, sophisticated world of ours, we are reminded that this is all that will ever save us – What Jesus teaches us, and what he died to give us.
We can believe this, and trust this, because Jesus is not just a teacher, but is, now and always, God’s beloved Son.
Thanks be to God. Amen
Written Sermon January 21, 2024
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Alma, MI
Luke 5:1-11
One time, while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. 2He saw two boats there along the lakeshore. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3Jesus got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
5Simon answered him, “Master, we worked hard all through the night and caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets were about to tear apart. 7They signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” 9For Peter and all those with him were amazed at the number of fish they had caught, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Have no fear. From now on you will be catching people.” 11After they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
In churches all across America, there’s been a long slow decline in membership over several decades, since the end of the Baby Boom, really.
On top of that, we’re fighting the culture. Whereas church membership and church attendance used to be commonplace back in the Fifties and early Sixties, that ship has sailed long ago.
Everybody wants the church to grow, there’s no dispute about that. But “Here’s the Catch”: How? How should the church grow? Well, today Jesus–who, after all, is the Lord of the church–today our Lord gives us direction on how he wants his church to grow.
Here’s the Catch: He calls us.
Jesus’ first disciples Simon-Peter, James, and John, are fishermen. That is their trade and profession: to catch fish. They have boats and nets and business partners. They have loads of experience. And while it is true that they caught nothing all night, still, they are pros who know what they’re doing.
But to be Jesus’ disciples and to catch people. That they weren’t equipped to do. No training. No experience.
When we talk about evangelism, witnessing your faith serving as a leader in the church, is your first inclination to react like Peter, “Lord, I’ve been doing what I’m good at for years. Now you want me to talk to others about God’s kingdom? Seriously, I’m not the one you want to talk to.”
Here’s the catch. It doesn’t depend on us.
Now Jesus impresses a lasting lesson on his disciples by way of a fishing expedition. Jesus was not a fisherman, but he tells Simon Peter to take his boat and “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Can you imagine that? Here is this itinerant rabbi, the son of a carpenter, and he’s giving advice to experienced commercial fishermen on how to work their own lake! They ought to laugh him off!
At first it sounds like Simon might do just that: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” A reasonable objection. The fishermen used all their skill and techniques, their best practices, all night long and came up empty. And now Jesus wants them to go out and drop their nets again in the wrong place at the wrong time of day. It doesn’t make any sense.
But Jesus’ word overrides Simon’s objection. “But at your word I will let down the nets.”
So that’s what they do. And of course you know what happens: Nets full to breaking, full of fish. So many fish the boats are on the verge of sinking. Fish in abundance.
What is Jesus teaching his disciples, soon to be apostles, about how his church will grow? The application is clear: The church will grow, not by human skill or effort or technique, but by the word of Jesus. We may think we have all the knowledge and tips and the latest surefire techniques but here’s the catch: Jesus would have his church trust in Him and his word to do the job.
Here’s the catch. We are sinful and weak.
Simon Peter realizes that he, the experienced fisherman, had absolutely nothing to do with this great catch of fish.
Like Isaiah in today’s OT text, when he is brought into the presence of God, and like all of us, gathered before Him at confession of sins this morning, the presence of the Holy
One of God causes Peter to become keenly aware of how unholy and powerless he really is. Peter says who he is: a sinful man, for whom God’s presence is not safe. So it would be best for everyone if Jesus went somewhere else. He confesses: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Can we say that too? Oh, yes. We doubt God’s word, don’t trust His promises, ignore His commands and rely on ourselves more than him. Like Peter, we are sinful people. Who am I that the Lord should use me to catch his fish? YET,
Here’s the Catch: Jesus Still Calls Us
Jesus says to Peter, and he says to us: “from now on you will be catching men.” Jesus has just given them the biggest success in their fishing careers. Never, in all of their whole lives, have they caught as many fish at one time. This was the money-making chance of a life time. Their boat had finally come in. And now, Jesus says to them, “Leave it. From now on you will catch men.” He says, “You think this is a big success? It’s a bigger success to catch men. You think catching a boatload of fish is exciting. Reeling a human life into the kingdom of God is even more exciting.”
Obedience to Christ’s commands always results in divine blessing. For these fisherman it was a huge number of fish.
When God tells you to do something, do it, even if it doesn’t make sense. God told Noah to build an ark because a flood was coming when nobody had ever even heard of rain. And Noah did it. God called Abraham to pack up his possessions and start walking. And Abraham did it, even though he didn’t know where he was going. God told the people of Israel to march around Jericho for seven days if they wanted the walls to fall down, and they did it.
God wants to work through you. God wants to bless you. But you have to be like Simon who says, “That doesn’t make sense, but nevertheless, at your word, I will obey.” Disciples obey Jesus even when it doesn’t make sense.
We are in the fishing business. We are called to fish for people today. Your worldly profession may be homemaker, or contractor, factory worker, or businessman, but that is just something to put food on the table. Your real profession is to be a fisher of men. And you can catch people wherever you are, and whatever you are doing. Fishing for people begins with telling others about why faith matters in our lives. You may say, “Oh Pastor, I know I am supposed to be a catcher of men, but I don’t know how! I get scared. I don’t know what to say. I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer their questions.”
Guess what? That is okay. Everybody feels that way. But do you want to know how to overcome it? Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” You become a fisher of men by following Jesus.
We are answering that call to a degree. Our congregation provides a generous mission offering to our synod and supports both Michigan Lutheran Seminary and a student training to be a pastor. That is truly wonderful as we work to cast the net of God’s church wide. We have garnered a world wide following of our live stream. But this catch of fish in the deep waters of the world wide audience, isn’t our doing. It’s Gods.
But what about casting our nets closer to home, in our community, our neighborhood, our family? Have we even been telling others about Jesus? Have we shown any zeal in reaching out to our neighbors with the gospel? This too we should repent of.
God invites You to receive his forgiveness and love and saving grace. Don’t be afraid. Our Lord knows how sinful we are, but he does not strike us down. forgives all his fearful disciples because of the holy innocent blood he shed for us on the cross. His resurrection didn’t make any sense, but it brought Him new life. Ouir resurrection through His blood makes no sense, but brings us new life to be His witnesses.
So here’s the catch: It’s all about Jesus, and it’s all up to Jesus. It’s not our techniques or programs or education or smooth delivery that will produce true growth. Rather, it is the word of the Lord.
And so here is the catch: The catch of people that Jesus promised is right here, sitting all around you, watching from somewhere out there. We are the catch of fish that the church has caught in her net.
And the net result (pun intended)? The gospel, the word of Jesus, gives us life and rescues us from death and the devil. Christ Jesus gives us eternal life as a free gift by his word of forgiveness, the forgiveness he won for you on the cross.
Keep your fishing pole handy. Talk with friends and neighbors, tell them about how God is active in your life. Invite them to come to hear God’s word with you.
And it is that word, that will reel them in.
January 14, 2024
Romans 6:1-11
Baptism-A Watery Tomb and Womb
January 7, 2024
Numbers 24:15-17a
A Star is Born
December 31, 2023
1 Corinthians 10:31
In the New Year Do All For the Glory of God
December 17, 2023
Sermon for 12.17.2023 Advent 03
Isaiah 61:1-3,10,11
The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn,3to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a faint spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD to display his beauty. I will rejoice greatly in the LORD. My soul will celebrate because of my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation. With a robe of righteousness he covered me, like a bridegroom who wears a beautiful headdress like a priest, and like a bride who adorns herself with her jewelry. 11 For as the earth produces its growth, and as a garden causes what has been sown to sprout up, so God the LORD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up in the presence of all the nations.
The Christmas songs are blaring. Aside from the occasional religious carol, which usually is only the tune not the words, and the occasional kids’ song, have you listened to many of the themes? “All I want for Christmas is my two Front teeth.” “All I want for Christmas is You.” “It’ll be a Blue Christmas Without You.” “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” The list could go on, but I think you see the reoccurring theme. It’s what I want for Christmas. The way Christmas is promoted and thought of is that it is a time of joy based on getting what you want. Most people have a long list of what they want -toys, clothes, cars, a happy family gathering and the like. And if they don’t get it? Or get the wrong color, size, or style? Well, it’s gonna be a blue Christmas.
God promised a Savior King who would come and the people filled out their wish lists of what they wanted this king to do for them. But was God’s plan what they wanted? Is it what you want?
In Isaiah’s day the people had their idea of what would bring them joy. Freedom from the Babylonian invasion. A return to the glory of David’s kingdom. So when they heard Isaiah’s message, which had nothing to do with their wish lists, their response was “So what? That’s not what wewant.” 700 years later, the people of Israel hadn’t changed their list much, except the Babylonians were replaced with the Romans. And their response to Jesus was the same.
This section is quoted by Jesus both in the synagogue of Nazareth and when he answered John the Baptist’s disciples. When John the Baptizer was put into prison, he sent a few of his disciples to ask Jesus whether or not he truly was one who was to come, or whether they should wait for someone else. John had preached about the coming Messiah using the Old Testament pictures of his coming judgment saying that the Messiah would clear his threshing floor and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. John had his expectations of what Jesus would do. But that wasn’t happening. Jesus told those disciples, “Go and tell John what you see and hear. Then he gives a clear reference to Isaiah 61.
The people of Isaiah’s day missed it. The people of Jesus’ day missed it. John missed it. Can we be in danger of missing it?
You may be someone who agrees with the Christmas song: "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" But I've been a pastor long enough to know that this season isn't always the most wonderful time of year for many. They, maybe even you, wouldn’t use the word joy to describe this time of year at all. You might use the word dread. Or grief. Or stress. Unhappy memories are brought to the surface and toxic relatives are seated next to us at the table. An untold number of Americans will wash down their antidepressants with eggnog this Christmas.
So many problems throw a big bucket of water on the yule log. Death, divorce, children spending Christmas without a parent, mom or dad spending Christmas without their kids. That’s Christmas in the real world, ripped out of the Hallmark movies where everything works out in the end. It’s Christmas in a corrupted and fallen creation where heartache and grief don’t take time off for the holidays.
Sometimes, just like John the Baptist, we miss the joy in knowing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world because we are wrapped up in what we think he should be doing. It is amazing how many don’t want a Savior from sin. They want a Savior from their earthly problems.
Perhaps part of the mistake we make is forgetting that the first Christmas, started out as the worst of times. Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem because the Roman overlords had forced them to undertake this journey to pay their taxes when no pregnant woman should be on the road. No warm, sanitized room awaited them after their trip. When this young mother went into labor, where was she supposed to lay down to give birth? On rough hay littered with cow manure? It’s a wonder both mother and child didn’t die that night. This is not the way any baby, least of all Jesus, should have been born.
And yet in the dark, the cold, in the mess God was born. It’s a story that gives meaning and hope to our own dark, cold, messy stories of Christmases that seem anything but joyful. For it was on this night that God began to teach us that we don’t need to have a Hallmark Christmas to find peace and joy.
Shepherds were out in the fields doing their shepherd thing that night, when an angel of the Lord shows up to bring a message from God: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
If the sentence, “A Savior has been born to you,” is no longer a life-changing sentence, if it no longer causes you joy, than it’s time for each of us to take a moment with ourselves and remember the facts.
Fact 1) I am a sinner. You are a sinner. It’s a short painful sentence, but it cuts through a whole bunch of the devil’s lies spooking around in your head, like these: “I’m not that bad, not any worse than anybody else, in fact, probably even a little bit better.” Recognize what you are by looking into God’s holy law! You are a sinner, from the souls of your feet to the hair on your head, in total need of saving or you will die forever. You need saving.
Fact 2) A Savior has been born! There’s hardly ever been a more theologically packed sentence. God saw of world of you’s and me’s, who were going to die because of their sin, and though deeply hurt by a world lashing out against him, he didn’t lash back! Instead, his heart was moved to give. His heart was moved to save, and he gave a Savior. And not just some measly pawn as a sacrifice in the game, but the King of it all, his Son, all the fullness of God in bodily form.
Fact 3) A Savior has been born to you! It’s time to get your pointer finger out and lay it softly on your heart (come on, let’s do it together), and say these words: “For Me, a Savior is born for me. The Savior I didn’t even always want, but the one I would die without. He came for me. He left heaven for me. He suffered hell for me. He saved me.” Let those truths sink in until your heart melts.
When the angels sang of the Savior's birth, God was bringing His Christmas present to this world. When Jesus defeated the devil in the desert of temptation, he was proclaiming victory to those afflicted by temptation. When the Son of God healed the sick and spoke words of forgiveness to the repentant, He was binding up the brokenhearted. When Jesus cried out on the cross, "It is finished" he was proclaiming freedom for all held captive by sin. And when He rose from the dead, overcoming every obstacle that would try to steal away hope and joy, He was proclaiming the eternal year of the Lord’s favor.
Christmas is a delightful disruption of the way things normally go. Christmas is not about what I want or what you want. It’s about what we need. It’s about God taking on our flesh and blood, being born as one of us, to share our griefs, to bear our sorrows, and to unite us to himself. You do not have a Savior unable to sympathize with your weaknesses, but one who has experienced them all, so that no matter what your hurt is, he redeems it, and carries you through it. Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God. And born for you is “Emmanuel” God with us. God with you -ever, always.
Maybe for you this is the happiest time of year. Rejoice, God’s joy is for you. Joy is your enjoyment of God and the good things that come from God.
But even if it isn’t a happy time for you, God's joy for you still holds. You are right with Him and He will bring you perfect joy in a glory that overshadows all trouble. Count on it. With His living Word as comfort for your heart right now and with the assurance that all will be well one day with Him in eternity, Jesus gives you the strength and the faith to hope for holiday joy.
For unto you is born a Savior who brings a joy that lasts past Christmas and in all circumstances.
I pray that all of us will keep him at the top of our Christmas lists. Amen.
December 10, 2023
Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort & Cry Out !
Thanksgiving Eve 11/22/2023
Habakkuk 3:17-20
Give Thanks-For What?
November 19, 2023
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18