Ready to Serve - Sermon for Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday, October 20th, 2024

Lutheran Women in Mission Sunday 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota 
Ready to Serve 
1 Samuel 3, Philippians 2, Luke 1

Sermon Audio available HERE

    Are we ready to serve?  Are you ready to serve?  Today we celebrate the service of Lutheran Women in Mission, which both refers to a particular bunch of women all decked out in purple, and in general to all the faithful Christian women who belong to our congregations.  Indeed, we celebrate all faithful Christian women of every age, who were ready to serve in the cause of Christ.

    The Lord provides, and I’m again and again amazed at how our Bible readings serve us.  They were chosen for a given Sunday a long time ago by folks who did not know what our current situation was going to be.  But again and again they still manage to say just what we need to hear, in order to face this day faithfully. 

    Today’s readings are a case in point.  The national Lutheran Women in Mission organization selects special readings for this Sunday, well in advance.  Some years I use them, other years we celebrate Lutheran Women in Mission using the readings assigned from our normal lectionary.  This year, the selected readings focus on the service of Samuel, of Jesus, (no surprise there), and of Mary.  The Mother of Our Lord seems like an obvious choice for a day focused on the service of women in Christ’s Church.  But, I don’t ever remember Lutheran Women in Mission selecting readings for this Sunday that focused on her.  So, we had to use them.      

    The Annunciation, the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Mary, that she would miraculously bear God’s Son, comes to our ears as we are fast approaching Election Day.   And there is a life issue on our ballots, the radical abortion Amendment G, which the citizens of South Dakota will either reject, or enshrine in our state constitution.  Amendment G would establish a legal right to kill unborn babies through all nine months of pregnancy, putting our constitution in direct and fundamental opposition to God and His Word.  Because the Lord loves babies. 

   In fact, according to Psalm 139 and dozens of other passages, God is personally involved in the conception of every child.  We need to and we have served the unborn by speaking against Amendment G.  Which is a heavy thing, not altogether pleasant.  Just me bringing it up again has shifted the mood in this sanctuary.  Here we go again. 

   It is true, serving each other and the world as Christians does mean we need to be willing to talk about unpleasant things.  But, we will lose our gumption if we see this as only a grim task, a heavy burden, a responsibility.  To finish the course, we also need some good news, a lot of good news, to keep us going.  And, thanks be to God, working through the folks who picked the readings for this Sunday, we have good news to the max this morning. 

   Samuel’s introduction to the LORD, Mary’s conversation with Gabriel, and the great Christ Hymn from Philippians chapter two, these three readings can transform our hearts and minds and fill us with a joyful determination to share the Good News of Jesus, even when this includes addressing unpleasant realities and rejecting the lies of the world.  God through these readings can make us cheerful servants of His Truth, because they shout from the roof tops the wonderful news that God loves you, and that God has loved you, perfectly, through the life, ministry, death and new life of Jesus.  You have nothing to fear from the devil, or the world.  Even your own weakness and sinfulness need not make you quail or give up, because Christ is on your side, forever.

   Samuel is an unusual figure in the Bible, because we get to hear about his life, from before his conception to his death at an old age.  And we learn quite a lot about his childhood, his life dedicated by the prayer and promise of his mother, Hannah.  Samuel was dedicated by his mom to serve at the Tabernacle of the LORD, serving under the tutelage of Eli, the high priest.  Today we heard young Samuel’s direct divine call into prophetic ministry.  The LORD comes and stands next to Samuel, speaking to him in an audible voice, calling him into service.  “Samuel, Samuel!  Speak, O Lord, your servant listens.” 

   Do you remember little Samuel’s first task?  Our Old Testament reading ends just before the LORD gives it to him.  And it’s a doozy.  Putting a “No On G” yard sign outside the Church doesn’t begin to compare.  Eli, Samuel’s master, had two sons who served as priests in the Tabernacle.  They were both wicked men, using their position to rob God’s people, and enrich themselves.  They were forcing women who served at the gate of the Tabernacle to lie with them.  They despised God and blasphemed His Holy Place.  God had warned Eli again and again to get them under control.  But Eli, old and tired, nearly blind and very overweight, would not, or could not.  The LORD’s first task for Samuel was to tell Eli that the time had come.  His two wicked sons were both about to die, on the same day.  In the morning, Samuel was afraid to speak this truth to Eli.  But with Eli’s urging and God’s help, he did. 

    As 21^st century Christians, blessed to also be Americans, we can get confused about our proper role in culture, society and politics.  In the U.S.A., the government does not establish one religion, and guarantees the right of every citizen to worship as they choose.  I’m glad our government doesn’t determine our religion, because they would mess it up.  And we who have been set free in Christ rightly cherish that our Constitution recognizes our God-given freedom of religion. 

    But the false idea has taken hold that in return for this freedom, Christians are not allowed to speak to the issues, that the Church can’t “get into politics.”  We have had a law since 1954, the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches or religious leaders from publicly endorsing candidates for office, at the risk of losing tax-free status.  This law has never been fully challenged, and is rarely enforced, probably because it would likely be overturned as unconstitutional if it ever reached the Supreme Court.  But, setting all that aside, the Johnson Amendment says nothing about churches speaking publicly on issues.  And that’s good.  Because, when an earthly law or a proposed change to the law evilly contradicts God’s Word, the Church can and must speak, come what may. 

    Of course, we as Church are not primarily called to political action.  We are here to proclaim the Gospel, and care for each other and our neighbors, as we make our pilgrimage to heaven. We are called to speak the truth, to each other, to the culture, and to the government.  If God’s truth is seen as political by some, so be it.  We are still called to serve by speaking God’s truth. 

    Thankfully, we are not called to try to run the government.  But Samuel was.  For Old Testament Israel there was no difference between Church and State.  The People of God and the Kingdom of Israel were supposed to be the same thing.  Samuel was God’s prophet, and he judged Israel, and he led their military.  Eventually, God would instruct Samuel to give Israel what they asked for and anoint an earthly king for them.  The LORD God was their true King, but the people wanted a king they could see, a king like all their neighbors.  So, Samuel anointed Saul to be king.  Then, when he failed and turned from the LORD’s way, Samuel anointed another young man, David, son of Jesse, to succeed Saul.  And so, we can head back toward good news. 

    Despite his excellent name, David was not the perfect king that Israel needed.  Even though he was the LORD’s chosen, and “a man after God’s own heart,” he was also a sinner, who would make a mess of things in his family, leading eventually to civil war and the division of Israel.  Already with David we see that we humans cannot achieve heaven on earth.  We should certainly pray for good, just, competent government, and do our part to support it.  But, there is no hope to eradicate evil and create paradise through good government.  Because every earthly government and every nation is full of sinful men and women. 

    King David could not fix everything.  But God can.  And He promised that through one of David’s descendants, through the “Son of David,” God would make the Way of Salvation, for Israel, and for the whole world.  Through another 1,000 years of history, the people of Israel struggled along, with some high points, but mostly with low points.  There was always a faithful remnant, preserved by God, but most Israelites were unfaithful and eager to mimic the unbelieving nations around them.  To bring them back, God again and again allowed evil to befall His people.  A millennium of mostly sad history, with a thin through-line of hope. 

    Then the archangel Gabriel appeared to a young girl from Nazareth, an unknown and unimportant descendant of David, to make a private announcement that would change eternity.  Mary’s servant task was not to proclaim publicly, but to bear privately.  To trust the Word of the Lord and accept the mysterious miracle that she would conceive and give birth to the eternal Son of God.  God became man, and redeemed humanity, by perfectly passing through every stage of human life, from tiny embryo, to newborn infant, to child, to adult, to death. 

    Gabriel’s announcement was the best news that anyone had ever heard, and good thing, too.  For Mary and her fiancé Joseph would face many trials and persecutions as they fulfilled their unique callings.  No one would believe their story, except a handful of faithful Israelites and a few Gentiles, to whom God chose to share the Good News.  Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, the Magi coming from the East, the Bethlehem Shepherds watching their flocks by night.  The LORD created and sustained their faith in the Promise, that the Son of David, the new King, the promised Savior, was born. 

    Fearful, jealous King Herod did not need an Amendment G to justify his attempted murder of Mary’s Son.  The recognition of the humanity of every person, from conception throughout natural death, is a novelty in human history, a novelty that flows from the Christian message.  In the ancient pagan world, the value of a person was entirely dependent on the whims of the powerful.  In his mad desire to kill the newborn King, Herod could send soldiers to slaughter little Jewish boys in and around Bethlehem, without fear of reprisal. 

    You see, those subjugated people had no inherent value in the eyes of the government, and certainly their children were inconsequential.  In fact, in the ancient world, the approved way to overcome the challenges of a child born without perfect health and vigor was to abandon that child on the trash heap, outside the city walls.  So far, the modern pro-death movement has avoided advocating infanticide.  Mostly.    

    The ancient world was cruel.  But, as the Christian Church grew, soul-by-reborn-soul, the Christians started doing some weird things.  They became known for retrieving abandoned infants and raising them as their own.  They extolled marriage as a lifelong, faithful union between one man and one woman, and so transformed the place of women in society.  And of men.  And of children.  Each individual was known by the Christians to be a creation of God, made in His image, and reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.  And so each person is to be valued, as God values them.    

    This was a radical new perspective.  It took centuries, and has never been a perfected project, but the Good News of God’s grace and mercy, the story of His love poured out for every human being, this Gospel recreated individual souls, and families, and communities.  Eventually, whole cultures were transformed.  Creating heaven on earth is not possible for us.  But the world is a lot better place when it is filled with Christians. 

    How did they do it?  How did those brave Christian women and men serve the cause of Christ so boldly?  How did they love so fearlessly? 

    Because their hearts were transformed, through Baptismal faith.  Reborn into God’s family, they were guided by a new mind, which was theirs in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  (that is, Mary’s Son always knew, from eternity, that He was co-equal with His Father, with every right to claim and exercise His Godly prerogatives)   

    But the Son didn’t cling to His glory and power…. rather He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, (a slave, who came into this broken world) in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, (a poor baby man, laid in a feed trough for a cradle), Jesus humbled Himself (entirely), and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  God’s Son did that all that, because He loved His Father, and because He loved you.  He has loved you, ever since He wove you together in your mother’s womb.  For the joy set before Him, the joy of rescuing you from sin and death, Jesus served.  He finished His course, for you.     

    ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  The humble Baby, who became the abandoned Sinner on the Cross, who died outside the city wall, now reigns in glory over all things.  And He is reigning for you.  He serves, for the sake of all people.  He is the victorious Savior, with forgiveness and new life, for everyone. 

    The blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from all sin, including the sin of abortion.  If this great scourge has touched you or anyone you know, Jesus wants you all to know that He died and rose to forgive this sin, too.  Repent, and believe the good news, your sins are forgiven 

    Every knee will bow to Jesus, someday.  Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ, the humble servant, is LORD.  The question is how many will hear this Good News and believe unto salvation, before the final trumpet sounds, and the opportunity for rescue ends? 

    Here’s where we come in.  First, we come into this story because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have heard and believed in the Promise of Jesus.  What was whispered to Mary and Joseph, what was hidden for the ages, and kept under wraps until Resurrection morning, is now shouted from the rooftops.  That Gospel cry has come to you, and to me.  We sing with Mary, “my soul magnifies the Lord, for He has done great things for me!”  Or maybe “Jesus loves me, this I know, on the Cross He showed me so, Jesus died and rose again, washed me clean from all my sin.” 

    ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  Fearfully and wonderfully made by God, we also tremble in joyful fear to be caught up in His salvation project. 

    From Genesis to Revelation, fear and trembling are a sign of God’s presence with us here on earth.  So, we sinner-saint Christians live with fear and trembling, because God has taken up residence in us.  Temples of the Holy Spirit by faith in Christ Jesus, we know that, as imperfect and error prone as we all are, God is at work in us, both to will and to do, to desire to serve and to dare to serve, as He is pleased to have us do. 

    Sometimes God’s good pleasure for our service is routine and pleasant, like mothers and fathers and grandparents loving and serving the little children God gives us, or like LWiM meeting together to pray and study and laugh with their other purple friends.  Sometimes God’s good pleasure has an edge to it.  Sometimes we are called to speak the truth of God’s love for life to a world that is determined to regress to the brutal ways of the past, before Christ and His forgiving love were revealed. 

    Like Samuel, like Mary and Joseph, we do not face this task alone.  We do not serve by our own strength.  God the Father, for the sake of Jesus, gives us His Holy Spirit, to strengthen our resolve with His joy, and with His peace, the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that passes all understanding, and keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, for life. 

 Let us pray: Speak O Lord, your servants listen.  By your grace, O Father, with Mary and Samuel and all your saints, we are your servants.   O Lord, let it be unto us according to your Word, today, and forever and ever, Amen.     

God Is Near to Us - Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Trinity

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
October 6^th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
God Is Near to Us – Genesis 28:10-17 and Matthew 9:1-8

Audio of Readings and Sermon available HERE

   Nearer, my God to Thee.  Our Lutheran Service Book is a tremendous resource for Christian faith and life, and for the adoration of the One True God.  But it is not perfect.  One weak spot that I have noticed over the years is a lack of hymns that relate Old Testament stories.  Like today’s reading from Genesis 28, Jacob’s Ladder, which is foundational for understanding of how God relates to us.  Also, because of its importance, this is also one of the Biblical accounts most attacked and twisted by Satan, who always seeks to confuse and confound our faith.  Nothing in LSB directly references, let alone tells the whole story of Jacob’s dream.  Nor did I know of any hymn in any other Lutheran Hymnal that interprets Jacob’s excellent night. 

   There are plenty of songs, way too many really, that teach Jacob’s Ladder completely wrong.  “We are climb, climbing, climbing Jacob’s ladder, making our way to heaven, step by step.”  This is the basic misinterpretation you will find.  Jacob’s dream fits perfectly well with the Good News that, because we cannot climb our way to Him, God in Christ descends to us, and not to punish us, nor to exhort us to climb better.  No, God’s eternal Son descends to us, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.   Jacob’s dream is prelude and foreshadowing of this main event of the whole Bible.  But as far as I knew, we have not had a decent hymn to help us get the story right.    

    Then Elma DuChateu asked that “Nearer, My God to Thee” be sung at her funeral.  I know it well.  I grew up singing it out of The Lutheran Hymnal, old red reliable.  But either I forgot, or maybe never noticed that this hymn is about Jacob and the Ladder from Heaven.  Not until I was preparing Elma’s service, and read the words closely did the lightbulb go on. 

 1. Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee.  E’en though it be a cross, That raiseth me,
Still all my song shall be, Nearer, my God to Thee…

   Jacob and the Ladder really are not mentioned in this first stanza, which simply proclaims a pious and faithful Christian desire to be near to God.  And what a nice touch: “Even though it be a cross, that raiseth me.”  Is the hymnwriter referring to the Cross of Christ, or the crosses that Christians bear in this life?  Both, I think, for the Crucified one brings us through cross and trial to Himself in heaven, in His perfect grace and timing.  We don’t climb to Him, but rather, through His Cross, Jesus raises us to Himself.  Even when struggles and trials come into our lives, as they will, the Spirit of Christ carries us through, by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, who reigns on high, his nail-scarred hands and feet testifying to our acceptance by His Father.  

 Jacob’s story appears in stanza two: 

2. Tho' like the wanderer, The sun gone down, Darkness be over me, My rest a stone,
Yet in my dreams I’d be, Nearer, my God, to Thee.

   It’s helpful to remember the background of the LORD’s appearance in Jacob’s dream.  Things were dark for Jacob, a self-imposed darkness caused by his sinful swindle of his brother.  He was sleeping out in the open countryside, by himself, because he was fleeing the wrath of his twin brother, Esau.  And Esau had reason to be angry.  You remember, don’t you, how Jacob, with their mother Rebekah’s devious assistance, stole the blessing his blind father Isaac had intended for Esau?  Esau was waiting for their father to die.  Then he planned to kill Jacob. 

    So, the remarkable revelation God gave Jacob, and His appearance by his side, and the repetition to Jacob of the promises God had made to his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham, all these amazing things did not happen because Jacob was so faithful and righteous.  The LORD appeared to Jacob in spite of who Jacob was and how he behaved towards his family.  The LORD had chosen Jacob and promised to work through him, and so He would, despite Jacob’s sinful character.   

3. There let the way appear, Steps unto heav’n; All that Thou sendest me, In mercy giv'n;
Angels to beckon me, Nearer, my God, to Thee…

   O.k., that’s a little weak.  This stanza may well be the reason “Nearer, My God to Thee” has dropped out of our hymnals.  To sing that the “way” is “steps unto heav’n” leans heavily in the direction of the lie that “I can, and I must climb my way into heaven.” 

   As Christians, as forgiven sinners, we are placed on Christ’s Way and called to walk it, to live the life of faith and love to which He calls us.  And a future in heav’n, living in the visible presence of God forever, is our goal.  But we cannot and do not have to climb our way up by our efforts.  Life forever with Jesus is a free gift, given to us unworthy sinners through the shed blood of Jesus.  Stanza three does not quite proclaim that we must save ourselves.  Bit it misses the directional purpose of the ladder, that God comes down it, to save us. 

    The hymnwriter does preach faith in God’s mercy in this stanza: All that Thou sendest me, in mercy giv’n.   Again, this is a true and right Christian understanding that everything we receive, the good and the bad, is a gift of God’s mercy.  God is always merciful with His People, even when life is hard.  It does not seem Jacob understood this, at this moment in his faith life.  Ultimately, Jacob would trust in the LORD for everything, and most especially for the promise of eternal life.  But it is not clear from Genesis 28 that Jacob in that moment understood.  Indeed, after our reading, Jacob goes on to make a conditional promise to God.  The LORD put no conditions on His promises to Jacob.  But Jacob says: LORD, if you will take care of me and bless me, and bring me back home, if all this comes to pass, then you’ll be my God, and I’ll even give you tenth of all I have. 

    Think of it:  God visits Jacob, gives him a vision of a ladder connecting heaven and earth, and stands beside him.  Then He repeats tremendous promises to Jacob:  "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ^[14] Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ^[15] Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."  God promises all this to Jacob, freely, without conditions.  Jacob responds with a conditional promise to make the LORD His God, and even to give Him a tenth of everything he has, if the LORD first takes care of Jacob. 

     This is not how it works between us and the LORD.  We sinners are in no position to bargain.  Jacob does not express true faith, for true faith trusts and rejoices in the promises of God, even when they are not fully apparent in this life.   

   The LORD does not give Jacob all the details of His Salvation Plan.  He does not explicitly tell of God’s Son becoming a human, living the perfect life in our place, and dying the sacrificial death that reconciles us sinners to God.  He does not quite speak of the resurrected Jesus sending the Eleven out to build His Church by preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins.  But He does promise to be with and protect Jacob, and all his descendants, forever.  This sounds just like the way the resurrected Jesus would commit Himself to be with His people, His Church, always, to the end of the age.  All the details of the Gospel are not present at Jacob’s Ladder, but the essential Promises are there.   

4. Then with my waking thoughts, Bright with Thy praise, Out of my stony griefs, Bethel I’ll raise, So by my woes to be, Nearer, my God, to Thee.

   Our assigned reading today stops before Jacob’s disappointing conditional promises to God, and also before his better moment, when he responded to God’s presence by establishing a place of worship: Bethel, the House of God.  Jacob realizes that God had come to him, that God had been in that place, where he was sleeping.  Immanuel, God with us!  So, Jacob takes his stone pillow and builds a pillar, a shrine to commemorate the event and give focus to his thankful praise.  When God comes to you bearing gifts and making promises, the right reaction is awe, followed by praise and adoration. 

   Which is what those scribes, experts in the Jewish law, should have done when they heard Jesus declare the paralytic’s sins were forgiven.  Instead, they take offense that a mere man was forgiving sins.  They really misunderstand the Hebrew Bible.  God had been forgiving Israel for centuries.  The entire sacrificial system was given to create and strengthen Israel’s confidence that the Lord was loving and gracious, quick to forgive, by His nature.  But when the miracle worker Jesus forgives the paralytic, brought to Jesus by his faithful friends, the scribes think He is blaspheming.  “Who can forgive sins, except God alone?” 

   Well, God can forgive, and so can and so should anyone who knows and trusts in the forgiving LORD God.  Each of us, within our vocations, within the relationships and responsibilities the LORD has called us to, should be forgiving others.  Jacob would eventually be forgiven by his brother Esau.  Jacob’s son Joseph would forgive his 10 brothers, for selling him into slavery.  Speaking for the LORD, the prophet Nathan forgave King David after his horrible sin with Bathsheba, his murder of her husband, Uriah, and his deception and selfishness against the entire nation of Israel.     

   Forgiveness is what God has been aiming at, ever since sin came into the world.  So, when we are united to God by faith in His forgiving love, it is our great privilege, and responsibility, to forgive others.  Forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

   Jesus went on to make it very clear that He was God, by healing the paralytic, in an instant:  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." ^[7] And he rose and went home.  Everyone was amazed, and marveled that God had given such authority to men.  They were so close!  They should have built a stone pillar and worshiped Jesus, right there, like Jacob did when he awoke.  For truly, God was in that place.  That house in Capernaum truly was Bethel, the House of God.  God had once and for all climbed down the ladder, and joined us in our struggle against sin and death, by becoming a man, the Christ, the Savior. 

   God is in this place!  I don’t know if Reverend Uecker and friends had Jacob’s cairn of stones in mind when they built this altar and pulpit and baptismal font.  But these beautiful chancel furnishings remind us that the same LORD who came down to Jacob is still coming to us.  Whenever and wherever Christians gather in the Name of Jesus, He, as He promised, is present, invisibly, but truly present, to bless and forgive.  Christian worship is the way it is because of this most wonderful truth.  We gather around Jesus, with reverence, and with joy and thanksgiving and a sense of comfort and peace.  Because we are still sinners, meeting the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, there is still a measure of fear.  But God is quick to dispel our repentant fear with forgiveness.  And so Christian faith trusts that our meeting with God is going to turn out well, because Jesus has risen from the dead, with forgiveness and new life for all who believe.  We are reverent, and we also rejoice!      

   Jacob took a lot of convincing, before his words and actions began to show forth his trust in God’s forgiving love.  So, God kept after him.  God blessed Jacob through cross and trials, as he labored for his uncle Laban, in order to win his beloved, Rachel.  God came and met Jacob again, years later, when he was headed back to the promised land, back to reconcile with his brother Esau.  On the way, an all-night-long wrestling match with the pre-Incarnate Christ helps Jacob finally believe that the LORD would never leave him or forsake him. 

   The Lord God Almighty is still coming to us, to convince us of His love and forgiveness.  Some days we get it, we feel it.  We embrace a godly fear, and we can also rest and rejoice in the Gospel.  Other days we are drawn to gaudy things of this world, and our faith grows dull.  Still other days we do something terrible, and we are convinced the LORD could never forgive us.   Our confidence in the forgiveness of Jesus waxes and wains.  But God is a rock of faithfulness.  He has promised to be with us, to come to us, with just the Word we need, a word of correction and conviction, and a word of grace and mercy.  The Holy Spirit moves us to gather together around the Word of the Cross, around the gifts delivered through Water, Wheat and Wine.  Jacob’s ladder truly touches the earth, everywhere baptized believers meet. 

   Our understanding and confidence in God’s mercy waxes and wains, and most of us have been receiving His gifts our whole lives.  Whether people fully understand or not, it is the reality of God’s presence in the midst of His people that makes coming to church so hard for so many.  Whether a person is a wandering sheep, who has stopped coming to Church, a baptized child of God with just a smoldering wick of faith, or whether a person has never known and believed in the forgiveness Christ comes to deliver to repentant sinners, all of our excuses for not coming to Church mask a fear of being exposed to Almighty God. 

   Does this mean we should downplay the awesome reality that God Himself in present, that this is Bethel, the House of God?  No, not at all, may it never be!  Jesus says He is with us, and that each believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Why would we lie to ourselves and the world, when God Himself desires to meet and bless sinners in this place?  Why would we ignore the wonderful news that the Holy Son of God comes to us, not in the anger we deserve, but rather in mercy?  Truly, we cannot change the reality of what God is doing.  Faithful Christian worship will always include godly fearfulness, along with relief, and joy, and exultant thanksgiving. 

   And so, knowing how fearful and marvelous it is to meet Jesus, we can show mercy and patience and give a clear explanation of God’s plan to those who are staying away, for whatever reason.  We can speak of the joy that comes with the dawn of forgiveness, delivered to sinners, in this place, by the LORD Jesus Himself.  And in this reverent joy, the peace of God finds us, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting, Amen.