Lent 3 – 28 February 2016 – Year C

Lent 3 – 28 February 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 31 – 35:

³¹ At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” ³² And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. ³³ Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵ Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

There comes a time in each of the Gospel accounts when Jesus makes a transition in His ministry.  The beginning of His ministry is about getting the word out.  We see Him preaching, teaching, and healing.  Then, as the time of His death draws near, He focuses more and more on what He must do in Jerusalem to save us from our sin.  The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to describe this with these words: ^{[Luke 9:51]} When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Throughout our Lenten Meditations we have talked about how Jesus knew from the beginning of His ministry that His path led to Jerusalem.  We also discussed the devil’s effort to tempt Jesus away from that path.  In today’s Gospel, some Pharisees come to Jesus and warn Him that Herod wants to kill Him.  Is it possible that the devil used these Pharisees to tempt Jesus away from His path to the cross in Jerusalem?

It is difficult to determine the motives of these Pharisees.  They seem to have good intentions toward Jesus.  Is it possible that these Pharisees have a genuine desire to help Jesus, or is it possible that these Pharisees simply want Jesus to avoid their territory and they are using the Herod story as a convenient excuse to hurry Jesus on His way?  It is difficult to say.

What we do know is that whether the Pharisees had good or bad intentions, they were urging Jesus to abandon His mission to Jerusalem.  Whether their intentions were good or ill, they were agents of temptation – temptation to abandon the way that led to the cross.

The response that Jesus made to these Pharisees made it clear that He was on a schedule.  He had an appointment with the cross.  He would be on time for that appointment.  Jesus would take time out from His travels to preach and teach, but at the end of each day, He would be a little bit closer to Jerusalem – a little bit closer to the cross. 

Jesus knew that Herod would not kill Him.  Jesus knew because of His office as prophet.  It was not that, as a prophet, He knew the method and time of his death.  Rather, it was because Jerusalem is the place that killed prophets.

How ironic that Jerusalem means “city of peace,” for the history of Jerusalem has been anything but peaceful.  Jesus expressed His great sorrow over the rebellious nature of His own people:  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”  Over and over and over again, the Son of God had sent His messengers to Jerusalem only to have them die at the hands of the very people they were trying to save.  This is the great burden of the servant of God.

The Old Testament gives a primary example of this violence to the prophets in the ministry of Jeremiah.  Notice that the people were not interested in the truth of Jeremiah’s words.  They condemned Jeremiah because they didn’t like the message he brought from God.  The people refused to believe that Jeremiah’s message was from God, not because it wasn’t true, but because it was something that they did not want to hear.

Nothing has changed over the centuries.  If I were to ask any one of you about the value of the forgiveness of sins, no doubt all Christians would readily admit that it is beyond price.  It is worth infinitely more than a million, a billion, a trillion, or any amount of wealth this world could ever produce.  It is worth the life and death of God’s only begotten Son.  Friends we say that, but I ask the hard question; are we really sure we believe it?

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these words to the congregations in Rome: ^{[Romans 3:24‑25]} [All] are justified by [God’s] grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  Then a little on in the same letter Paul wrote: ^{[Romans 10:17]} Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  Paul is saying that we receive justification by faith and that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.

These should be words that stir us up, these are words that should have us enthusiastic to hear and learn more of that Word of Christ.  If we are serious about building our Faith in God’s plan for our salvation, we should be seeking more opportunities to gather together around the word of Christ.

Friends, my experience is that some people will actually get insulted and angry when encouraged to put in a little extra time to feed their souls with the Word of Christ.  Think about it.  Forgiveness is beyond price.  We receive it by faith.  The Holy Spirit has promised to work faith by hearing the Word of Christ – and yet - the greatest insult and inconvenience that can be offered to some people is to encourage them to join others over the very Word of Christ that will strengthen their faith.  I ask the question - How can this be?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, It is in our own natural, sinful nature to reject God.  We inherited that nature from our ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve who sinned and lost their innocence.  We are all born as enemies of God with hatred for His gifts.  That is the reason the people of ancient Jerusalem killed the prophets and stoned those whom God sent to them.  That is also the reason we find it hard to get to church on Sunday 8:00am when we can get to work or school much earlier during the rest of the week.  That is the reason we sometimes stay home to get a little work done around the house.  That is the reason we treat the priceless treasures of God like worthless pieces of junk.

Fortunately, God loved us even while we hated Him.  Jesus is God’s Son sent to rescue us.  The events of today’s Gospel happened while Jesus was on His way to complete that rescue.  He was taking His farewell tour of Israel before He went to Jerusalem to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for us.  That is the reason He said, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”  That is also the reason He had no fear of Herod.  He knew that His death would take place in Jerusalem, not in Galilee.

After He arrived in Jerusalem, His journey would continue.  At the end of that journey, He would carry a cross to Calvary.  He would also carry our sins.  Jerusalem is the place He would complete His journey.  It is the place where He would proclaim, “It is finished,” as He finished His mission to pay the penalty for our sins.

Jerusalem is also the location of an empty tomb.  It is the place where His friends laid Jesus’ body after He died on the cross.  It is also the place that the angels proclaimed, ^{[Luke 24:5-6]} “Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.”  For Jesus did not remain in the grave, but rose to live again.  Jerusalem is the place of the resurrection from the dead that promises us eternal life.

How often do Christian ‘outreach programs’ fall flat and we are filled with frustration.  You know, it is so easy to be discouraged with the low attendance at Divine Service, the lack of interest in Bible Class, the lack of respect for the Sacraments, and a general apathy toward God’s Word.  There are times that we want to scream out, “Don’t you people understand the priceless nature of God’s gifts?  Don’t you understand that God wants to gather us together under His protection?”

When we have these feelings we can remember that we people don’t make Christians; the Holy Spirit does that.  Instead, God asks His church to remain faithful to His Word, proclaim the forgiveness of sins, administer the sacraments according to His command, and teach all the things that Jesus has taught us.  We can rejoice that God has blessed us with all these gifts and rely on Him to sustain His Holy Christian Church until the end.  That is certainly worth more than all the treasures of this earth.  Amen

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 2 – 21 February 2016 – Year C

Lent 2 – 21 February 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 9.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ² And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you ^rrepent, you will all likewise perish.”

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had ^ta fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

Today’s Gospel presents a very hard and very important question. In fact, it is so important that theologians have a special name for questions like this.  Theologians call this the Question of Theodicy.  The basic form of the question is, “If God is both almighty and good, why is there evil?”  There are all sorts of variations on this question: 1). Why do bad things happen to good people; 2). What have I done to deserve this; or, as in today’s Gospel, 3). Why did Pilate kill these men and mix their blood with their sacrifices?  Jesus Himself reminded the questioners of the tower disaster in Siloam that killed eighteen.

The cultural belief at the time of today’s Gospel was that that bad things did not happened to good people. (I still hear it today!)  They thought that if a catastrophe struck, it was because you had done something bad.  Likewise, they thought that if good fortune came your way, you had done something good.  They didn’t see God as a God of love, but as a God of justice.  He punished evil and rewarded good.

Other cultures dealt with the Question of Theodicy in other ways.  For example: the myths of the Greeks and Romans simply assumed that the gods were not totally good.  The gods had the same weaknesses of character that humans had.  Read the mythology and you will read about petty gods who were sometimes very selfish and immature.  Sometimes it seems as though their supernatural powers caused them to be spoiled brats.

Jesus taught that both of these ideas were wrong.  He showed that we ask the wrong question when we ask why bad things happen to good people.

You know we can begin to understand the mistake in this question if we just think about some words that we fundamentally use in the words of confession. Though confession of sins in worship services differ among parishes and denominations in actual wording; we all basically confess; (1)  “that we are by nature sinful and unclean”. (2) We have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. (3) We have not loved God with our whole heart. (4) We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. (5) We rightly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment.”  - Friends, with these words, we confess that we are not good people.  We are bad people.  We deserve misery on earth and torment in eternity.  How legitimate then is the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

We confess our sins in this way because God’s Word clearly teaches that we are sinful people.  Here are just a few of the many passages that teach of our sin. ^{[Psalm 51:5]} Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  ^{[Romans 3:9-12]} We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ^{[Romans 3:23]} All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ^{[1 John 1:8, 10]} If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us.  These are but a few of the passages that teach us that we are sinners before birth and we only add to our sin every day.

We sometimes use theological words and forget what they really mean.  When we say that we sin, we are saying that we are bad people.  When the Bible tells us that all have sinned, it is saying that all people are bad.  They are not good.  It follows therefore that the question “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is neither helpful nor useful.

When we ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” we are assuming that there are good people out there somewhere.  The Bible clearly teaches that there are no good people.  In our confession of sin, we clearly confess that we deserve bad things now and forever because we are bad people.  So, the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is not a question about real people.  We have no clue what would happen to good people because there are no good people.

Since we confess that we are bad people and deserve both present and eternal punishment, we should be very, very afraid to ask why God does not take evil out of the world.  If God were to take all evil out of the world, He would have to start with you … and me.  We are the sinners.  While the devil and his evil angels are the ultimate source of evil, we humans are a great source of evil in this world.  We should ask, “If God is both almighty and good, why doesn’t He destroy us for being so evil,” or, “Why do good things ever happen to us sinners?”

We have confessed that we deserve a bad day every day and yet, that is not what happens.  Our normal days are actually pretty good.  For one thing, we wake up.  If you think back through your life from birth until now, most of our days are pain free.  Although we get sick from time to time, there are many more days when we are not sick.  Once in a while, we put the key in the ignition and the car won’t start.  Most of the time, it starts just fine.  Think back through your life.  Yes, there have been some life changing tragedies, but for the most part, we have to admit that life has been pretty good.  We can be very thankful that, although God is almighty, and He is good, He is also merciful.  His justice demands punishment of evil, but He has worked out a way to punish evil without punishing us.

You see, while the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is useless, the question, “Why did all those bad things happen to the one and only good person,” is very, very useful.  There actually was and is only one good person.  That person is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is God’s answer to the question of evil in the world.  That is because Jesus Christ is both God and man in one person.

Many bad and horrible things happened to Jesus.  He was beaten, flogged, and crucified, but those were not the worst things.  In a transaction that we cannot even begin to understand, Jesus cried out, ^{[Matthew 27:46]} “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  From these words, we learn that all the bad days that we deserved and all the eternal punishment that should belong to us came down on Jesus as He hung on that cross.  In suffering that we can’t even begin to understand, God the Father forsook God the Son.  These are the bad things that happened to the one and only good person, Jesus Christ.  This is what the almighty, good, just, merciful, and loving God did in order to deal with evil.  He sacrificed Himself in order to show mercy to evil sinners.

Jesus Christ did not remain dead, but He returned to life.  He now offers the forgiveness of sin to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  He and God the Father send the Holy Spirit to work repentance and the forgiveness of sins in us.  The Holy Spirit; gifted at Holy Baptism; works these things in us through faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only good person who was crucified and lives again.

Jesus Christ continues to intercede for us before God as the Holy Spirit inspired John to write, ^{[1 John 2:1]} “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  Jesus illustrated that intercession with a parable.  Just as the gardener interceded for the fig tree with the owner, so Christ intercedes with God’s justice on our behalf.  Jesus intercedes for patience while the Holy Spirit works on us.  God is looking for the fruit of repentance in us.

Jesus intercedes, but there is a limit.  Two times, Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  There is a limit to the amount of time God allows for the fruit of repentance to form.  There comes a day when it is our turn to leave this world.  Those who grieve for their sin, but rejoice in the forgiveness earned for them by the one and only God man, Jesus Christ will live in eternity with the good man who loved them enough to suffer for them.  Those who do not show the fruit of repentance will join the devil and the evil angels as they suffer forever in hell.  Jesus illustrates this in the parable with these words: “If [the tree] should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”  

There is one and only one good man, Jesus Christ.  The rest of us are all bad.  Jesus Christ, the one and only good man suffered the punishment we deserved for our sin.  Through that suffering, He earned the forgiveness of sins for us.   He now works through the Holy Spirit to offer that forgiveness to us.  Jesus lovingly and urgently calls for us to repent now and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins whilst our tree of life is still standing.  Now is the time for forgiveness.  Now is the time of salvation.  ^{[Acts 16:31]} “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  Amen

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Lent 1 – 14 February 2016 – Year C

Lent 1 – 14 February 2016 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 4^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verse 1 – 15

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ² for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. ³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” ⁴ And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” ⁵ And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ⁶ and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. ⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,

and him only shall you serve.’ ”

⁹ And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are ^jthe Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰ for it is written,

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

to guard you,’

¹¹ and

“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

¹² And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” ¹³ And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

¹⁴ And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. ¹⁵ And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

What image comes to your mind when you think of an epic battle?  Perhaps you think of the ancient battles with thousands of troops facing each other on a great field of battle … maybe something more modern … bombs, artillery, computer guided rockets.  If you are into fantasy or science fiction, you might visualise energy beams and force shields.  Imagine a great battle.  What image comes to your mind?

Today’s Gospel is an account of a great battle in the greatest of all wars.  What kind of cosmic spiritual powers do the Lord of Life and the lord of death bear against each other?  The answer might surprise you because all these two great warriors did was talk.  They had a conversation out in the wilderness.  The weapons used in this great battle were … words.  That’s it … just words.

You see the devil is the ultimate con artist.  When he uses words, he lies … he misleads.  Jesus said, ^{[John 8:44]} “[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that ^{[2 Corinthians 11:14]} Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  He can disguise himself as polite … caring … nice … helpful … and so forth.  He has the ability to make us think that the loving thing is cruel … that the right thing is wrong … that the truth is a lie … and so forth.  The devil knows how to spin the facts.  He is always politically correct.  He knows how to present his case in a way that will boost our self-esteem.  He is the master of deception.

Jesus, on the other hand is the truth. ^{[John 14:6]} Jesus said … “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  He also said, ^{[John 8:31–32]} “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  Jesus does not spin the facts.  Jesus knows that the truth is not always politically correct.  Jesus knows that the truth does not always make us feel good about ourselves.  Jesus knows that sometimes love means telling someone a truth that they do not want to hear.

We underestimate words.  We think of the massive military powers of the past as great powers, but they are nothing compared to words.  Words convinced the German voters to elect Adolph Hitler to lead their country.  Words convinced a group of young men to hijack some airliners and fly them into buildings.  Words convince men, women, and even children to strap on explosive vests and detonate them in crowded areas.

Words persuade people to elect governments.  Words convince extremist that their cause is just.  Words cut into people’s hearts, causing them to give up hope and the will to live. Words decimate loving families. Words mean things and have more power than we can imagine.

The devil bends the power of words to his will.  He lies.  He even bends Holy Scripture in order to mislead.  Today’s Gospel shows the devil lifting the words of the Psalm out of context.  He blasphemes against the very Word of God and omits a small word here and another small word there until the remaining words conform to his lie.  In this way, he hopes to mislead and corrupt.

The first temptation is very subtle.  Think back to the first time you thought about the details of this account.  Sooner or later most people will wonder what the big deal is about converting stones into bread.  The Gospels record two accounts of Jesus multiplying loaves in order to feed thousands of people.  What could possibly be so terrible about making a little bread out in the wilderness where no one else even needed to see what Jesus did?

The bread itself isn’t the problem.  The problem is doubt … lack of faith.  Jesus, in His state of humiliation, is living in our place.  Therefore, just as we should trust God to give us all things, so also Jesus must always place His trust in God.  The devil tried to plant doubt in Jesus’ mind.  God has forgotten you.  He is willing to let you die of hunger.  His promises mean nothing to you.  Your concern is for bread; forget about God’s Word.  Take matters into your own hands.  Don’t rely on God.  The devil hoped that these words would enter Jesus’ thoughts when he said, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

This temptation has been around for a long time.  When God led Israel out of Egypt, He baptised them in the Red Sea and then led them into the wilderness.  They listened to the words of the devil and complained against Moses and against God.  They didn’t trust God to care for them in the wilderness.

A similar thing happens in our time as well.  At the first sign of any trouble, we are ready to turn to the world for advice.  We trust the words of the world.  We trust the words of the devil.  We trust our own words.  We don’t trust the Word of God.

The second temptation seems very daring on the part of the devil.  He asks Jesus to worship him.  At first glance, this seems to be beyond belief.  Surely, anyone who still has a few working brain cells knows that worshipping the devil is really, really wrong, incredibly stupid, and very, very dangerous.  Here we forget two things.  The devil is the ultimate con artist, and any form of worship that does not worship the true God, worships the devil.  This means that we can worship the devil without knowing that we are worshipping the devil.  Jesus Himself said, ^{[Matthew 12:30]} “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

The devil offered the world to Jesus.  Today, I notice that many people are willing to do almost anything just to get along.  The devil uses this against us.  He will find a Biblical truth that makes people uncomfortable.  Then he will tell us that it’s not an important doctrine … just a few words in a part of the Bible that most people don’t even read.  “Worship me,” he says, “by ignoring those few, insignificant little words and I will guarantee you peace and unity in your congregation and in your lives.  All you have to do is give up a few words that most people don’t even know are there.  Is that really so bad?”  Suddenly, the devil has us judging what parts of the Word of God are important and what parts we can let slide for the sake of peace.  By suggesting that we can judge God’s Word, he is suggesting that we can judge God Himself.  When we are arrogant enough to judge God’s word, we are worshipping the devil.

In the final temptation, the devil put on the robes of the preacher.  He quoted from the Word of God, but He only quoted the words that suited his purpose.  He left out four words that change the very meaning of the passage.  In this way, the devil changed the psalm from God’s promise to protect us into God’s permission to do stupid things … like jump from the pinnacle of a very tall building.

False preachers still do this sort of thing.  They pick and choose which words they will use and which words they will discard.  Even though Jesus said, ‘This is my body;’ ‘This is my blood,’ there are many in theological authority who advocate that what Jesus really meant was, ‘This represents my body;’ ‘This represents my blood.’” – No – No!!  Even though Jesus told the church to teach all that He commanded, we draw the line at enough – enough for me to get by! … and then we decide what is enough.  We simply forget that telling God that we don’t need any more of His word is the same as telling Him that we don’t need any more of Him.

Sadly, we must all confess that we do not listen to the Words of God as we should.  We often let the devil, the world, or our own sinful nature pick and choose the words of God that we will hear.  The devil and the world seduce us with the words that we want to hear, and we have especially made ourselves into false gods by listening to the world’s misleading wisdom instead of God’s Words.  We all deserve punishment both here in time and forever in eternity for listening to the words we like instead of the words we need.

Never the less, there is comfort in today’s Gospel.  Friends, our champion, Jesus Christ, saw through the lies of the devil.  He never gave in to the temptations that the devil placed before Him.  In fact, Jesus endured temptations greater than any we must ever endure, but He never sinned.  He clung to His perfect righteousness; a feat we are incapable of ever doing.

At the same time that He lived a perfect, sinless life, He was filled with sin … not His own sin for He had none, but He was filled with our sin.  All the sins of all the people of all times and places were heaped on Him.  When the time came to punish our sin, the punishment fell on Him.  He took on Himself the punishment for all the time that we listened to our own words, Satan’s words, instead of His words.  While Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He paid for our every sin.

Yet Jesus did not remain dead. ^{[1 Peter 1:3]} According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  According to this great hope, we look forward to the day when Christ will raise all the dead and all who believe in His Word will join Him in eternal peace.

This world is a dangerous place.  The devil and the other evil angels constantly tempt us to turn away from the truth of God’s Word and listen to the devil’s lies, the world’s lies, and the lies of our own sinful hearts.  In this way, they hope to rob us of our salvation.  Never the less, Christ, our champion and saviour has endured the temptations of the evil one and remained without sin.  He has taken our sin on Himself and endured its punishment.  He has triumphed over sin, death, and the power of the devil.  In this way, He has defended us and made us His own forever.  We now wait in the safety of His protection and look forward to eternal life with Him.  Amen

The love and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen