Advent 2 – 4 December 2016 – Year A

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

The text for this meditation is written in the 3^rd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 1 – 12:

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”^{* 3} For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare¹ the way of the Lord;

make his paths straight.’ ”

⁴ Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

There are several people in the Bible who fit the definition of the word intense.  If you were to make a list of these people in their order of intensity, John the Baptist would probably be in the top five.  The word eccentric would also be word that you would apply to John as well.

John was the last of the Old Testament prophets and we could apply the words eccentric and intense to most of them.  Like Samson, John had taken the Nazarite vow for life.  That meant no haircuts or shaving ever.  He wore camel’s hair and leather.  He ate locusts and wild honey.  If you saw John wandering around the streets of your suburb, you may even call the local authorities to get him checked out.

John’s message is appropriate for us at Advent.  He is warning us that someone very important is coming.  Today’s Gospel begins with John’s warning that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  It ends with the promise of one whose sandals John is not even worthy to carry.  In between these two proclamations of the one who is coming, John warns of judgment and urges repentance.  As we hear John’s proclamation, we are inclined to think of Advent; but the judgement part makes me think “which one?”

We know that the word Advent means coming.  Since we are so close to Christmas, it is natural to think about His coming into our mortality as a baby in a manger.  He came in that way so that He could grow up to die and save us from our sins.  With His suffering and death He earned the forgiveness of our sins.  With His resurrection He certified the authenticity of that forgiveness.

Advent also teaches us that Jesus comes to offer that same forgiveness to us.  He offers that forgiveness to us here as He comes to us today.  Next week He will come to us in a very special way as we receive Him by mouth at the Lord’s Table.

Then there is His coming at the Last Day – a day of judgment.  There are those who reject Him as He came to earn forgiveness and as He comes to offer forgiveness.  When the Day of Judgment comes, they will learn that He will reject those who reject Him.  He will ban them from any sense of His presence forever.  On the other hand, those who received Him will join Him on that day and live with Him forever.

So, which Advent is John proclaiming?  Listen to his words.  “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  “He who is coming after me is mightier than I … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  “… brood of vipers … wrath to come … the axe is laid to the root of the trees …  His winnowing fork is in his hand … burn with unquenchable fire.”   To me it surely sounds as though John is proclaiming the Advent of God’s judgment.

Prophets seem to do that a lot.  When you read the prophets most of them seem to proclaim judgment.  This may be the reason that many people think that the God of the Old Testament is somehow different from the God of the New Testament.  If you were to take a survey of those who have average Bible literacy, you would find that most people think the God of the Old Testament is all stern and judgmental while the God of the New Testament is all sweetness and light.

Yet as we delve into ancient Biblical text we find that it was Job of the Old Testament who said, ^{[Job 19:25–27]} “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”  Here is a proclamation of the Gospel from one of the most ancient texts of the Bible.

The as we read the New testament we find that shortly after Jesus gave us the Gospel in a nutshell, He said, ^{[John 3:18]} “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”   Jesus also had a tendency to end many of His parables with words of condemnation such as ^{[Matthew 25:41]} “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

As we read and study the Bible we come to understand that the bible proclaims two Advents in all of its pages.  One Advent is the coming of Judgment.  The other Advent is the coming of Grace.  These Advents have a variety of names.  In one place, Jesus calls them Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins.  Other times they are called the Law and the Gospel.

Now, it’s a fact that most people, including preachers, tend to stay away from the proclamation of the Law – the coming judgment – and all that negative stuff.   People don’t like to hear about sin and they surely don’t like to hear about the punishment of sin – temporal death here on earth and eternal death in the suffering of hell.  That is not a popular message, nor is it considered to be politically correct.

People would much rather hear about how good they are and what they could accomplish if we all just worked together.  People want to believe that they are basically good and if everyone worked hard enough and long enough, the world would be a better place.  What a tremendous message this would be.  If only it were true.

Why, then, is it necessary for John and all the prophets to proclaim sin?  Why should faithful priests and pastors continue to proclaim sin even today?  Can’t we just skip over that part?

The fact of the matter is that we have the resources now to feed, clothe, and house every human on planet earth.  Never the less, some children still go to bed naked and hungry.  We have always had the resources to stop war – the aggressors simply need to stop starting them.  If people were basically good and just needed a little guidance, we would have solved all of humanities’ problems long ago.  The problem is that people aren’t basically good.  Dictators, government bureaucracies, criminal elements, and others work to suppress their fellow man.  None of us is immune from the desire to exploit others for our own purposes.  The fact is that humanity’s greatest natural enemy is humanity itself.  We have met the enemy and he is us.

People who are expert problem solvers tell us that the first step toward any solution is an accurate description of the problem.  Sin is an accurate one word description of our problem.  So, although people don’t like to hear about sin and its punishment, faithful prophets warned about sin in the past and faithful priests and pastors continue to warn of sin in the present.  Neither prophets nor Christian preachers enjoy telling people of their sin, but it is a necessary first step toward a solution to sin – a first step toward our salvation.

The warnings of John – the warnings of the prophets of old – the warnings that faithful pastors proclaim in our day – they all have one purpose.  The goal is to get the problem out into the open.  Is it painful? Yes.  Is it harsh?  Yes.  Does it make people angry?  Yes.  Never the less, the Holy Spirit does not present us with the solution to the problem of sin if we refuse to acknowledge that we have a problem.  God’s faithful servants simply want us to know what our problem is so that they can proclaim the solution to the problem.

John proclaimed the solution to the problem in today’s Gospel.  As the last prophet, John followed in the foot steps of the prophets before him and proclaimed a mighty saviour.  He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”

This mighty saviour is no one other than Jesus Christ.  He is the one whom the prophets proclaimed and He is the one in whom they believed.  He is the one who earned forgiveness for our sins and offers that forgiveness to us for free.  He is the one who makes us holy in God’s sight.

How did He do this?  As mighty as Jesus is, He demonstrated His might in weakness.  Even though we are not worthy to touch His feet, He allowed mere men to nail Him to a cross.  It was from the apparent weakness of that cross that Jesus demonstrated His greatest might.  In the apparent defeat of death, Christ conquered death.  He became the solution for sin by taking our sin onto Himself and paying the price for it.  It is only through Him that we receive the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus Christ on the cross is the Advent of God’s grace.  He changes us from slaves of sin into children of God.  He makes it possible for us to stand before God with confidence instead of fear.  He converts the Advent of God’s judgment from an eternity of terror into an eternity of joy.  He is the only true solution to our one great problem.  He is the salvation that saves us from our sin.  Amen

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

Christ the King – 20 November 2016 – Year C

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

The text for our meditation is written in the 23^rd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 27 – 43:

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸ Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰ Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

³¹ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. ”And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Pain tends to bring incredible attention to things we often ignore.  I don’t often give a lot of thought to my toes, but that changes when I stub one of them.  Suddenly, every effort of my entire body is bent toward relieving the pain in that toe.  I take a sharp breath.  I grit my teeth.  Tears start to well up in my eyes.  A little bit of pain can get a whole lot of attention.

That tendency to focus on pain is one of the many things that causes me to marvel at our Saviour as He endured the cross for my sake.  In spite of the unimaginable pain, Jesus focused on the people around Him.  The crowds who followed Jesus were weeping over Him and He thought of them as He warned them of tragedy in their future.  The soldiers pierced His body with nails and He prayed for their forgiveness.  One of the criminals confessed his sin and Jesus absolved him of his sins.  Jesus was thinking about the people around Him while He Himself was suffering the pain of flogging and crucifixion.

How different Jesus is from our culture today.  We live in a culture of narcissism.  We are in love with ourselves.  If it makes me feel good, then it is right.  If it makes me feel bad, then it is wrong.  Instead of searching for truth, we search for pleasure.  We don’t care if something is right or wrong.  We just care if it is fun or boring.

Ask someone why they are opposed to something.  The reply is often, “I don’t like it,” or “It bothers me,” or “I disagree with it.”  We have become so self-centred that we don’t even realise that such statements are not reasons.  They don’t answer the question, “Why!”  All these statements do is restate the opposition.  They do nothing to make a case.

Sadly, each of us is guilty of relying on our own opinions, feelings, and desires instead of looking to the Word of God.  When we go with our own thoughts and desires instead of studying the word of God, we are saying, “I am the ultimate authority in this universe.  Therefore, if I disagree with it, it is wrong just because I say so.”  If we insist something is wrong for the simple reason that “I don’t like it,” or “It bothers me,” or “I disagree with it,” then we are bullies and we are making ourselves into God.

Jesus said, ^{[Matthew 15:19]} “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  Never the less we trust the thoughts and feelings that come out of that evil heart more than we trust the Word of God.  If it makes me sad or angry, it is wrong.  If it makes me happy … If it gives me pleasure, then it is right.  This is nothing other than worshipping our wants, our desires, our thoughts, our opinions.  This is nothing other than the “Playboy philosophy” of Hugh Heffner saying, “If it feels good, do it.”

What kind of arrogance does it take to place our feelings over the Word of God?  What kind of arrogance does it take to complain that we don’t feel heard, when we ourselves refuse to listen to God’s Word?  It is the arrogance that the serpent suggested to Eve in the garden. ^{[Genesis 3:4–5]} But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  You will be like God.  That is the temptation.  That is the sin when we place our wants, our desires, our opinions, our feelings above the needs of others … especially when we place them above God’s will for us.  We want to be God.

^{[Matthew 20:25–28]} Jesus … said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, ²⁸ even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  How sad it is that we decide to follow the example of the Gentiles and lord it over the people who disagree with our feelings, our wants, and our desires.  How often do we even disagree with God and try to boss Him around.  That is not just sad, it is destructive.

Jesus Himself gives us a different example as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, ^{[Philippians 2:5–8]} “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Jesus actually is God and yet He did not grasp for the equality with God that was rightly His.  Instead, He emptied Himself and humbled Himself in order to die for you on a cross.

This is what we see in today’s Gospel.  Here is Jesus, flogged to the point of death, staggering toward the place that is called the Skull in order to be crucified for the sins of the entire world.  Is He thinking about Himself?  No!  He noticed the mourners following Him and He cared enough for them to warn them of their future troubles.  In His extremity of pain and sorrow, He continued to serve others.  He continued to place others above Himself.  He offered Himself up for them.

The same is true of the soldiers.  No doubt the two criminals cursed these soldiers for inflicting such pain on them.  Jesus, on the other hand, prayed for the soldiers.  When the soldiers pierced Jesus, He asked the Father to forgive them.  Here they were crucifying the very Son of God and Son of God served them with prayer.  He offered Himself up for them.

Then there was the criminal.  This criminal had no reason to expect anything from the Son of God.  He knew that he had earned the death sentence with his crimes.  He knew that he deserved eternal punishment for the life that he had led.  His only prayer was that the innocent Son of God would remember him.  Jesus served him with absolution.  Jesus assured him that they would meet again … in paradise.

Jesus served you as well on that day as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, ^{[Romans 5:8]} “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  While we were still curved in ourselves … while we were still trying to satisfy our feelings … while we were still busy trying to impose our will on others … while we were even trying to impose our will on God, Christ died for us.  Christ, the true God, died for us while we were busy trying to become god in His place.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of us … not us-all as a group, but us, each and every one of us … personally … as an individual.  He was thinking of each and every way that we personally sinned and earned eternity in hell and He paid for each and every sin.  In a way that we cannot understand, He took on the eternity of hell that we deserved and suffered it for us.  He served us in a way that we can never repay.

Because Jesus’ service was perfect in every way, it was impossible for death to hold Him.  It is as the Apostle Peter said in his Pentecost sermon, ^{[Acts 2:24]} “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”  After His resurrection, He ascended and poured the Holy Spirit out on us that the Holy Spirit might work faith in us so that we receive the forgiveness He earned for us on the cross.

The Son of God died to serve us, and He lives again to serve us forever.  He serves us through the proclaimed and written Word of the Holy Scriptures divinely provided for us in the Holy Bible; and through the sacred Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion.  Jesus invites us to join the criminal on the cross and confess our sin so that we too may be served with the promise of paradise as we receive His holy absolution in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

On this day we, as Christians, celebrate ‘Christ the King’. In a time when sovereign titles can have political, ceremonial and / or dictatorial connotations, this can detract from the real purpose of our Lord. In the Old Testament there were more than one hundred prophesies of a coming Messiah; a man anointed by God for the specific purpose of restoring the birth right of God’s chosen people. Today Jesus has come to be known by Christians as that Messiah of the Hebrew prophecies and the Saviour of humankind; but the Jesus we know is not just and man, but is in fact God Incarnate – that is both God and Man. God taking on the form of mankind that he may experience all that we experience and suffer as we suffer.

Today we celebrate our Saviour, our Messiah, because in His love for us He took upon the suffering that we could not bear as punishment for our sins. Jesus died that we may live, and because of His Godly nature he defeated Satan and overcame death that we also may have eternal life. By the grace of God, we are forgiven! We can go forward with optimism and joy, regardless of the circumstances, knowing that we have our eternal home in paradise. Amen

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

Pentecost 26 - 13 November 2016 - Year C

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

The text for our meditation is written in the 21st chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verse 6:

“  for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of will be thrown down.”

In ancient days, the Lord asked Abraham to go to a very specific mountain and sacrifice his son Isaac.  Abraham demonstrated his faith by preparing Isaac for the sacrifice, but at the last moment, God intervened and spared Isaac.  About 2,000 years after Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, another son climbed the same mountain carrying a cross.  This time there was no reprieve, for unlike Isaac, Jesus, the Son of God, offered Himself up to death in order to take away the sins of the world.

Both of those events happened in the same area and that area has a lot of history in between those two events.  A group of people built a city on that site.  The city’s name was Jebus and the people were known as the Jebusites.   King David conquered Jebus and changed its name to Jerusalem.  David’s son, Solomon, would build the temple in that area and Solomon’s temple would stand until the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.  That area lay in ruins for seventy years until Cyrus of Persia allowed the people to return and rebuild.  The second temple remained on that site until about 20 BC.  At that time, Herod the Great began an eighty year building campaign that greatly increased the size and the beauty of the temple and the surrounding areas.  Herod hoped that this building campaign would improve his image in the eyes of the people, but it didn’t work.  No one mourned for Herod the Great when he died a few years after Jesus was born.  Never the less, his improvements to the temple grounds were pretty spectacular in size and scope and they continued on after Herod’s death.

The disciples were, quite naturally, impressed by the new buildings as well as the stacks of stones and other materials that would soon be part of other buildings on the temple grounds.  It was all pretty impressive.  That is, it was impressive until Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Of course today, we know that that is exactly what happened.  Rome attacked Jerusalem in 70 A D and destroyed it so that not one stone was left on another.  On the other hand, the disciples didn’t know that.  The temple buildings were huge.  They were impressive.  They were made from native rock.  The history of the temple site was already ancient.  As I said before, the history went clear back to Abraham and Isaac.  What Jesus said would be very shocking.

Jesus was about to fulfil the purpose of the temple.  In a couple days, Jesus would be hanging on a cross outside of Jerusalem.  His sacrifice for our sins would fulfil the role of the temple, the altar, the sacrifices, the festivals, and everything else about the temple.  All these things were there to point forward to the one time for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Once Jesus died on the cross, the entire purpose of the temple would be fulfilled.  This became clear when Jesus died and the temple curtain tore in two.  At that point in time, the temple became obsolete.to

In its day, the temple was not just a building, but it was a message.  The message was the same two part message that we find in the rest of the Bible: Law and Gospel.  Every sacrifice proclaimed, “This is how bad your sin is.  What you see in this sacrifice is what you deserve for your sin.  At the same time the death of this animal and its blood point forward to the innocent suffering and death that will one day pay for your sin.”  As the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, ^{[Colossians 2:17]} “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”  These words teach us that Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all the sacrifices offered on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem.  Our sin demands blood and Jesus Christ is the source of that holy blood.

Now that Jesus Christ has made the sacrifice for sin and offered up His own body and blood for us, we no longer need something to remind us of His future sacrifice.  Now we have reminders that look back to the sacrifice that He already made and bring the benefits of that sacrifice forward in time to us.

Our ^{[1 Corinthians 11:23–26]} Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  In this sacrament, Jesus gives us His own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and by this sacrament we proclaim His death … the sacrifice that He paid for the sins of the world.

Then there are the words that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to the church in Rome and to a young pastor named Titus: ^{[Romans 6:3–4]} Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ^{[Titus 3:5–7]} He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  In Holy Baptism, Jesus washes us with water and word and so pours the forgiveness of sins out on us even as He joins us to Himself.  He joins us to Himself in His death so that we may also rise from the dead just as He also rose from the dead.

Finally, there are the words of authority that Jesus gave to the Apostles: ^{[John 20:21–23]} Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”  With these words, Jesus gives the authority to administer the very forgiveness that He earned on the cross.  He makes His forgiveness available through the mouth of the pastor so that all who hear the words of forgiveness receive the gifts of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

The proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins are the true building blocks of the church.  In the Old Testament, the proclamation pointed forward to the future Messiah in the many sacrifices offered up on the altar.  In the New Testament, Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper point back to the Messiah as we eat His body and drink His blood; as we receive the washing of Holy Baptism; and as we hear the words of forgiveness from the pastor as from Jesus Christ Himself.  These are the true building blocks of the church.

The disciples in today’s Gospel were distracted by the beauty of the stones and other decorations of the buildings on the temple grounds.  The most amazing thing that was happening in that place was the spilling of blood that pointed forward to the blood the Jesus would spill in a few days … the blood that washed away the sins of the world.

There are times when we are also distracted by our buildings.  We get so preoccupied by cleaning and repairing that we forget that the most amazing thing that happens in this place is the forgiveness that comes as we hear the promises of God in the spoken word of the absolution, the wet word of Baptism, and the word that enters our mouths in the Lord’s Supper.  The important thing is the presence of Jesus Christ to give us His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, but the Holy Spirit preserved the Holy Christian Church.  Jesus still comes to the church with His gifts.  Someday, the building in which we worship will fall into ruins, but the Holy Christian Church will continue.  Jesus will still bring His gifts to His people.  The day is coming when the very power of the heavens will be shaken and the world as we know it will disappear.  Never the less, the Holy Christian Church will carry on for the gifts of Jesus Christ are eternal.

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  Let us not put our faith in the buildings and other things of this world that will all come to an end, but let us dwell in the eternal word of God that promises life everlasting … the life everlasting that Jesus earned with His perfect life and His innocent suffering and death.  It is the gifts that Jesus earned for us on the cross that are the noble adornments of His Bride, the Holy Christian Church.  Amen

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