The Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 10)

(Audio)

Luke 19:41-48; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Jeremiah 8:4-12

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

One of the most poignant ecclesial symbols of Christ’s atoning sacrifice is known as The Pelican In Her Piety. In a time of famine and distress, the female pelican has been known to pluck her own feathers from her breast and to pierce her own flesh in order that she might feed her tender brood with her own blood that they might live. It should be easy to see why The Pelican In Her Pietybecame a symbol for Christ as He sacrificed His own life and shed His precious blood that we might be forgiven and restored and have life in Him, even His life in us. So powerful and evocative was this image that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote of it in his communion hymn Thee We Adore, O Hidden Saviorsaying (LSB 640), “Thou, like the pelican to feed her brood, Didst pierce Thyself to give us living food; Thy blood, O Lord, one drop has pow'r to win Forgiveness for our world and all its sin.” 

Today’s Gospel was not the first time that Jesus visited and wept over Jerusalem. In chapter thirteen of St. Luke’s Gospel Jesus lamented, “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! 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!’”Notice how Jesus compares Himself to a hen seeking to gather her brood under her wings, just like the pelican, but He adds that Jerusalem, that is, the children of Israel, and particularly her religious leadership, were unwilling to be gathered to Him. Thus, Jesus continues, “And I tell you, you will not seeMe until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!’”

I wish to draw your attention for a moment to the words “you will not seeme.”In the Gospels, seeingis often more than general eyesight and vision, but it is a seeing in faith, a spiritual seeing, a seeing what is really real and truerather than what only appears to be true. Many people could see Jesus. They saw Him as the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. They saw Him as an itinerant rabbi. They saw Him as a prophet, maybe even John the Baptist returned from the dead. They saw Him as an instigator. They saw Him as a threat to their power, authority, and wealth. That’s what that whole dialogue with His disciples in Caesarea Philippi was all about: “Who do people say that I am?” “Who do you say that I am?” Many, most, seeing people didn’t seeJesus rightly. But, then there were a few blind people, even a few Gentiles, who could seewhat others could not; they could seethat Jesus was the Christ, even the Son of God. When Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, He prophesied that they would not seeHim until they would see the prophecy of Zechariah fulfilled, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”That day would be Palm Sunday, the very day Jesus wept once again over Jerusalem and spoke the words in today’s Gospel, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your Visitation.”

They did not seeJesus with the eyes of faith, but they were spiritually blind to Him, and this moved Jesus to weep over the city of Jerusalem, for He knew the end of the path they were walking. They were His people, His children, His brood. He was about to pluck His own breast and tear His own flesh and die for them all that they might live in Him, but they refused to gather with Him. And, because of their blindness, because of their rejection, they could not seethe things that would make for peace with God. In fact, the LORD hid these things from them so that they could not seeand believe and be saved. People commonly say, “seeing is believing;” In this sense, they are right! Those who seebelieve, but those who do not believe cannot see, for they are blind. Though Jesus proclaimed the Word of the LORD and called them to repentance that they might find peace with God, they considered themselves secure saying, “We are God’s people, we have Abraham as our father; No evil can possibly overtake us.”As Jeremiah prophesied to Israel long ago, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” Still, Jesus remained among them, teaching daily in the temple, but instead of believing in Him and finding peace in Him and His Word, they believed that He was a deceiver and that His doctrine was false and dangerous, and the religious leaders of the people sought to destroy Him.

What the people of Jerusalem could not seewas that God was visiting His people in grace in His Son, His Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Jesus had visited Jerusalem before. He and His disciples had ministered and taught the Word of the LORD there that hearts might be turned in repentance and that they might know peace with God. However, they did not know the time of their visitation. Now, the Greek word translated visitationhere is episkopē, which also means bishop, overseer, and pastor. That word is used of your pastor every bit as much as it is used of your District President, or Bishop. Both the weekly visitation of your pastor, and the occasional visit of your Bishop, are visitations of grace. They come to you, not in judgment, but with the things that make for your peace with God: The preaching of the Gospel. The forgiveness of sins. Holy Baptism. The Lord’s Supper. Every time we gather here is the time of the Lord’s gracious visitation. This is what St. Paul is getting at when he says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”However, when Jesus comes again in glory at the end of time, His visitation will be one of judgment. And, that is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He saw that so many of the children of Israel, and particularly the religious leadership of Israel, did not believe and could not see the things that made for peace. They found peace in their obedience and works under the Law, as they interpreted it. They found peace in their outward works of piety, in their prayers, in their temple rites and rituals, but they could not seethat these things were truly signs of promises made and kept by God in the sacrifice of His Lamb, His Son, Jesus Christ. Once again, the prophecy of Isaiah rings true: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

Jesus wept over Jerusalem because He saw the coming judgment of their unbelief. The terrible prophecy Jesus proclaimed described the utter destruction and decimation of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans in 70 A.D. The Romans laid siege to the city and barricaded it so that no fresh food and water and supplies could get in, and no refuse, sick and dying, or dead corpses could get out. This went on for a few years before the Roman army destroyed the walls of Jerusalem and entered the city. They found a decimated populace, weak and diseased, with evidence of suicide and cannibalism. The Romans destroyed the city and the temple, leaving not one stone standing upon another, and the remaining Jews were sent out and dispersed into the surrounding nations – because they did not know the time of their visitation.

Jesus wept, not because this destruction could have been averted, – maybe it could have been, maybe not, but that’s not the point – rather, Jesus wept because everything had been provided for them that made for their peace with God. Peace in Hebrew is shalom, which means fullnessand completeness. The name Jerusalem contains a form of shalomand means “Foundation of Peace.”Jerusalem’s history, however, is anything but peaceful, full, and complete. Again, Jesus recounted that city’s infamous history calling it “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”As Jerusalem did to the prophets whom God sent, so would it do to God in the flesh, His Son, Jesus Christ. The city named the Foundation of Peacewould reject and destroy the One who is Peace with God, because they did not know the things that make for peace, but they found peace in things that made for death and destruction, saying to the people, “‘Peace, peace,’ where there is no peace,”and they did not know the time of their visitation.

Jesus is our shalom, our fullness and completeness, and the Foundation of our Peace with God and with one another. Jesus is our Sabbath Rest in whom we find shelter, refreshment, and protection. In His Son Jesus, God has visited His people and has redeemed them. And, when we gather here in His Name as His baptized children, members of His body, He visits us anew, not in judgment, but in grace, mercy, love, compassion, and peace. When you come to church, you must not think that you are doing a good work, that you are serving God, or anything else of the sort, but rather you must believe that you are coming into the presence of God’s Peace, that you are entering His Sabbath Rest, and that you are knowing the Lord’s gracious visitation. I am not suggesting that this congregation alone, let alone Lutherans, have cornered the market on the Lord’s gracious visitation, – not at all – but I am saying that God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is present with you here, for you here, in a way that He is not present for you elsewhere, though He is truly present everywhere. Here, in this place, in Word and Water, Body and Blood, He is present for you in grace, that He may gather you under His wings and heal you with forgiveness, feed you with His flesh and blood, strengthen you with His Word, and send you bearing His gifts just as The Pelican In Her Pietysacrifices herself for the sake of her brood that they might live and flourish and fill the world.

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! This day, and every LORD’s Day, is the day of His gracious visitation; may we always seeit and knowit, and may it be marvelous in our sight! Though the Romans, the Gentiles, the world and its culture have us barricaded, surrounded, and hemmed in, though they threaten to tear us down to the ground, we gather in the LORD’s house of prayer, taking shelter under His gracious wings as we hang on His every Word and are made partakers of His heavenly treasures. Let us never forget the things that make for our peace, and let us cling to them and preserve them, for they are our life and salvation, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen. 

Holy Marriage of Megan Sherburne & Shane Wallace

Matthew 19:4-6; Ephesians 5:1-2, 22-33; Genesis 2:7, 18-24

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Every Christian marriage is a reflection of the first marriage, instituted by God, in Eden, before our First Parents’ sinful rebellion. An important thing to take note of concerning that first marriage is that marriage was created, instituted, and blessed by God. Today we like to twist and bend language so that words mean different things or nothing at all, but twist and bend as we may, we cannot change what marriage truly is as God created and instituted it in the beginning. Indeed, God created the man and the woman whom He joined together in marriage. Adam didn’t have to go out and find his wife, his “soul mate,” but God presented her to him, and at once he recognized her as his own flesh and bone, in a near literal sense. “Therefore,” says the LORD, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Now, there is no human equation where 1 + 1 = 1. Thus, St. Paul says of marriage, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.” Yes, in a mysterious way, the vows you, Shane and Megan, make this day before God and this congregation, and the marriage union you enter into one with the other, is a reflection, if dimmed and tarnished by sin, of Christ’s one-flesh union with His Bride, the Church. Thus, the love you have for each other is analogous to the love that Christ has for His Bride, the Church. And, this is what that love looks like and does: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church, His body, and is Himself its Savior.” “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her, that He might sanctify Her…. […] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.”

You see, the kind of love God has called you to and promises to bless you with is a sacrificial love – a love that lays down it’s selfish wants and desires, even it’s self, for the sake of the beloved. That is how God has loved you and all the world – selflessly and sacrificially, even to the point of becoming flesh and blood and dying the death we all deserved in our place that we might live. This is not the love of warm feelings and romantic comedies, but a love that loves even when that love is not returned, even when that love, at times, seems unloving and causes pain and sorrow. Now, if you are thinking to yourself, “I can’t love like that!” that’s a good thing, because you truly cannot. And, that is precisely why your being married here, in Christ’s Church, before His altar, is so incredibly special and important. For, this ceremony isn’t primarily about tradition, or reverence, or just simply the way we do things, but this ceremony is first and foremost about Jesus’ forgiveness, grace, and blessing. God loved us before we could love Him in return, and He forgave us in Jesus Christ before we could ask His forgiveness. Truly, it is with God’s love for us that husbands love their wives, and wives their husbands. And, similarly, it is with God’s forgiveness that we are able to forgive each other. Today you are asking God’s blessing upon your one-flesh union. He will bless it, and He will make you a blessing to others. For, when we love and forgive each other we reflect the image of Christ who loved and forgave, and still loves and forgives, His Bride, the Church.

If you are hearing me correctly you will understand that love is not primarily a feeling, but sacrifice. And, because of our sinful flesh, marriage takes work, patience, and a whole lot of forgiveness and sacrifice. It is important, it is crucial, that you keep Jesus Christ at the center of your marriage, that you attend the Divine Service regularly and receive the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. For, you can only give of Jesus’ gifts. You can only love with Jesus’ love. And you can only forgive with Jesus’ forgiveness. You know this, Megan, for you made it clear to Shane from the beginning that you were willing to sacrifice your relationship, your marriage, rather than neglect or compromise your faith. And Shane, you were willing to sacrifice yourself for Megan and submit to catechesis, ultimately being baptized and confirmed in the same confession and faith as your bride. I have to say, you are off to a good start! That’s the kind of selfless, sacrificial love that will sustain your marriage through both good times and bad times, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part.

Another thing that you got right, Shane, is that you asked both Megan’s father and mother for permission to marry their daughter. You could have simply told them you were going to get married; that’s the way many do it today. But, no, you felt it important, respectful, and right to seek their blessing. This is good, right, and salutary because it is not just that you and Megan become a new family today, but the Wallace and Sherburne families become a new family today. By asking their permission, you honor your father and your mother, and you honor God, thinking of others before and above yourself in selfless, sacrificial love.

After joining our First Parents in holy marriage, God blessed them that they would be fruitful in love, bearing children whom they would teach in the ways of the LORD, and in showing selfless, sacrificial love to others to the glory of His Name. In the procreation of children, you will be blessed to participate with God in His ongoing work of creation. Truly, in the procreation of children, God’s blessing of fruitfulness is further manifest as now, husband and wife, father and mother, share together a mutual object upon whom to shower their selfless, sacrificial love, a love that is creative, always giving life to others.

Now, I’ve talked a lot about the sacrificial, selfless nature of love, thinking more of the needs and welfare of others above and before yourself. However, there is another aspect of this love that isn’t discussed much and is easily overlooked, and yet it is the most important and sacred of all. Shane and Megan, this day you pledge yourself to love, honor, and keep each other emotionally and physically, but also spiritually. What I mean is that, Shane, you are making a covenant promise this day to love, honor, and keep Megan, body and soul, until the day she or you dies in the Lord. Likewise, Megan, you are making a covenant promise this day to love, honor, and keep Shane, body and soul, until the day he or you dies in the Lord. I want you to understand deeply, profoundly, the promise and responsibility you pledge yourself to this day. This day you marry a Christian soul purchased in the blood of Jesus for eternal life with Him in heaven. Today you pledge to preserve that soul in Christ with everything that you have and with everything you are, with the Holy Spirit’s help, until death do you part. Your marriage, blessed by God, is a sacred trust and covenant promise. As Blake Shelton has put it, “God gave me you.”

Shane, God gave you Megan to love selflessly and sacrificially as your own body. Megan, God gave you Shane from whom to receive this holy love and to return it to him to the glory of God. No longer think of yourselves as two, but as one flesh, one body, one in Christ. And the LORD bless you and keep you and make you fruitful in selfless, sacrificial love towards one another and towards all to the glory of His Name. Today you have asked His blessing. Today He blesses you, and He makes you to be a blessing.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 9)

(Audio)

Luke 16:1-13; 1 Corinthians 10:6-13; 2 Samuel 22:26-34

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

One of the over-arching stories of the Holy Scriptures goes something like this: Once you were free in the LORD, but you rebelled and sinned and, in so doing, sold yourself into slavery. However, in boundless mercy and grace, the LORD did what was necessary to set you free once again: He became a man, obediently fulfilling the demands of the Law, suffering and dying bearing the penalty for your transgression, setting you free through faith in Him. But, what will you do with your freedom? Will you fear, and love, and trust in the LORD above all things? Or, will you put your fear, your love, and your trust in other things, or in other people, or in your self? These are all creaturely, created by the LORD Himself, and yet you fear not having or losing them, you love and treasure them more than the LORD who created them, yourself, and all things, and you trust in them that, by possessing them, you will be independent and free. That is idolatry, for you have made of them to be gods, and you have made yourself a god, a god unto yourself.

“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Now, what is mammon? Mammon is all manner of material and worldly wealth and possessions. Mammon is stuff – all the stuff that you think you have to have, all the stuff you’ve got that you don’t know what to do with anymore, all the stuff that has taken your money, wasted your time, and crowded you out of your house and home. And, mammon is a master that you serve, and a false god that you worship. To live in service and worship of mammon is to be a slave. Moreover, if mammon is your master and god, then you cannot serve and worship the true and only God who made you, your stuff, the world, and everything in it.

However, it is not that mammon is evil. Money isn’t evil, and neither are material things and worldly possessions. God created them, and He looked at all that He made and declared it to be very good. No, mammon isn’t the problem. You are. For, what do you do with mammon? Do you not crave and desire to have it, fear to lose it, covet what is not yours, and greedily hoard what is? Mammon didn’t make you do it. You do it because of your fallen, sinful nature. You continually make idols and false gods out of the stuff the True God has made and has given you to be a steward of.

You see, the so-called “unrighteous steward” of Jesus’ parable wasn’t really unrighteous, was he? I mean, there’s no indication that he was greedy for money and covetous of earthly goods and possessions. His chief concern was that he was soon going to be out of a job and that he wouldn’t be able to provide for himself. Likewise, when he hatched his great scheme to make friends for himself with his master’s money, he didn’t keep a cut for himself. All he was seeking to do was gain the favor of others for that inevitable day when he would be out on the streets without food, clothing, and shelter.

Now, we can speculate on what the steward was thinking as he hurriedly reduced the debts owed his master by fifty and twenty percent, but one thing is clear – the steward was not beholden to mammon, to money. On the contrary, the steward cared so little about money that he spent it, not on himself, but on others in order to help them, and to bring them, relief and joy. True, the steward did have in mind his own welfare when he would be out of a job, but that all the more goes to show that he was not materialistic, or a slave to money. He did not serve mammon. Indeed, he made mammon to serve him!

I know this doesn’t sit well with you. It doesn’t sit well with me either. “That’s not fair,” we protest. “That’s illegal,” we shout. And, that’s why Jesus’ conclusion to this parable confounds us so very much. For, when the master finds out what his steward has done with his money, he is not angry with him, he does not punish him, he does not fire him, he does not have him thrown in jail, but, instead, he commends him for his shrewdness. How can Jesus hold up a dishonest crook as a commendable steward? What does he mean to teach us in this way?

Well, suffice it to say, the parable is much less about shrewdness in the ways and means of the world as it is about fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Jesus ends the parable with a proverb saying, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Here, Jesus is making a distinction between the unbelieving masses and His own believing children whom He calls “the sons of light.” To put it plainly, Jesus is saying that the unbelieving “sons of this world” know how to use money and possessions to get what they want and need. The problem is that they do not recognize that these things belong to, and are given them, by the LORD, and that they are stewards of His providence that they might use it to benefit themselves and others to the glory of His Name. Because they do not recognize God’s providence, they credit themselves for their wealth and possessions, and they are greedy and selfish and manipulative, because they are ruled by the fear of losing or not having enough. They are slaves to mammon, therefore they cannot serve God.

Not so, you sons of light. Your Lord Jesus teaches you to “make friends for yourselves by means off unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Now, Jesus says a lot in a few words here. First of all, it is key that he calls wealth “unrighteous.” This does not mean that money is evil, but that it is not holy or sacred. It has no lasting value, and any value it has at all is only what men ascribe to it. In the eyes of the Lord, money and material possessions are nothing and are worthless. Moreover, they will not last. They will pass away. You know that the saying is true, “You can’t take it with you.” No, money and possessions are not evil, but men use them for evil purposes. Therefore, Jesus exhorts you to receive these gifts for what they are, temporal gifts to help you and others in this life. Don’t make them into masters! Don’t make them into gods! Instead, receive them in thanksgiving and praise to the LORD and use them in fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Use them for yourself and for your family, and use them for the benefit of others, not expecting anything in return, but because you know that all belongs to the LORD and the LORD loves and provides for all.

Jesus concludes His teaching saying, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to the true riches.” Here it becomes clear that how we manage (steward) the LORD’s possessions over which He has given us stewardship here on earth is connected to the spiritual gifts the LORD has given us both now, and in life eternal. Again, the message is actually quite simple, “Don’t enslave yourself to wealth and possessions. Do not put your fear, your love, and your trust in them.” As I said in the beginning, one of the over-arching stories of the Holy Scriptures goes something like this: Once you were free in the LORD, but you rebelled and sinned and, in so doing, sold yourself into slavery. However, in boundless mercy and grace, the LORD did what was necessary to set you free once again. But, what will you do with your freedom? Will you fear, love, and trust in the LORD above all things? Or, will you put your fear, love, and trust in other things, other people, and in your self? “You cannot serve God and money.”

St. Paul writes in our Epistle today, “these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.” Thus, Paul exhorts you saying, “Do not be idolaters as some of them were.” Likewise, the prophet Samuel teaches that the service and worship of mammon produces pride, whereas the LORD values humility saying, “You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.” How you view and understand unrighteous mammon – wealth and material possessions – is directly connected to what you believe about God. If God is your master, then you will receive these worldly and material things as the gifts they are. You will be good stewards of them, not fearfully and greedily amassing them and hoarding them, nor covetously desiring to have those things that belong to others, but using them, as the good gifts that they are, for your benefit and for the benefit of your family, but also for the benefit of your neighbors to the glory of God. These are the little things in which you must be faithful now so that you may be entrusted with the true riches of the kingdom of God.

For, you also have stewardship of spiritual things now, things like grace, mercy, love, charity, kindness, patience, and forgiveness. The LORD so lavishly pours them upon you, and into you, that you simply overflow with His goodness. Of the sheer abundance of these riches you are blessed to be a blessing to others, to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, come, now, and receive of these spiritual gifts that you may be strengthened and filled to overflowing. And, do not hesitate to share them with all you encounter, whoever the LORD causes to cross your path. For, in serving them, you serve Christ, your true master, and you demonstrate that mammon is a gift of the LORD, and not your god.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Festival of St. Mary of Magdala

(Audio)

John 20:1-2, 10-18; Acts 13:26-31; Proverbs 31:10-31

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

You have to face it, there are a awful lot of Mary’s in the New Testament! It can get a bit confusing at times to sort them all out! The Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke each identify Mary of Magdala as a woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons. However, there is a church tradition that also links Mary of Magdala with the unnamed “woman in the city who was a sinner” mentioned in St. Luke’s Gospel who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and kissed them, though there is no scriptural basis for this conclusion. Similarly, another church tradition links Mary of Magdala with the unnamed woman whom Jesus saved from being stoned to death for adultery in St. John’s Gospel, yet once again there is no scriptural basis for this identification. Nevertheless, it is easy to see why, today, the name Mary Magdalene often evokes the image of a prostitute and adulterer, for when something is repeated long enough, whether it is true or false, it is often believed to be true regardless of refuting evidence. Add to this the suggestions of spurious documents often written hundreds of years after the Gospel which claim that Mary Magdalene held a special place amongst Jesus’ disciples and may even have been His wife and the mother of His child, sometimes said to be a daughter, we are left with a most confused conception of Mary of Magdala that can be far removed from the testimony of scripture. As a result, we are want to say, “Will the real Mary of Magdala please stand up!”

What we know about Mary of Magdala must come from the scriptures and not from speculation or spurious extra-biblical documents. And, what we know about Mary of Magdala from scripture is that: Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary. She followed Him, supported His ministry, and witnessed His crucifixion. She lingered at Jesus’ tomb and was the first person to see Him after His resurrection. Jesus called her by name saying, “Mary,” and she answered by calling Him “Rabboni,” which means, “Teacher.” Though she wanted to hold on to Him and never let Him go again, Jesus forbade her to cling to Him, but He sent her to tell the other disciples about His resurrection, effectively making Mary of Magdala an apostle to the Apostles. What we discover when we strip away all the historical speculation and conspiracy theories concerning Mary of Magdala and deal only with what the scriptures say concerning her is that she was a woman of great faith and love for her LORD God and for His Messiah, Jesus, whom she also loved and followed because He was the fulfillment of God’s Word for the life of the world.

And so it is that Mary of Magdala is like unto the woman of valor -- or more accurately, according to the Hebrew, the woman of power-- as described in our Old Testament reading today from Proverbs. Proverbs 31 is much beloved and treasured by all for its vivid depiction of the ideal godly woman. Such a woman “fears the LORD” and is “far more precious than jewels.” Unlike the virgins in Jesus’ parable, “Her lamp does not go out at night,” but she remains ever faithful and vigilant in maintaining and sustaining her faith, and the faith of her husband and children. Idle words do not fall from her lips, but “she opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” Her value is not estimated in jewels, charm, and beauty, but in her fear of the LORD and in her works, the fruit of her faith. And so, you see, that the woman of valor, the woman of power, is powerful in faith in the LORD and is fruitful in works of love, mercy, and compassion which serve her family and neighbors and glorify the LORD. Her beauty is not in vain and ephemeral, fleshly and worldly things, and her strength and power are in the LORD her God.

However, this is not the way you’ve come to think of Mary of Magdala, is it? No, our perverted and fallen world, culture, and flesh, even within Christ’s Church, have made Mary out to be a sexual being, a prostitute and an adulterer, instead of a woman of faith and piety who clung to her Lord Jesus in faith. “But, if she had seven demons she must have been a horrible sinner?” you may ask. No, not necessarily. Neophytes, that is, new believers are often attacked ferociously by the devil as he knows that they are beginning to slip his grasp. Jesus had done a wonderful thing for Mary. He set her free from demonic oppression. She followed Him and served Him with eager devotion, likely from the very beginning of His ministry, and she readily told any and all the great things He had done for her. She was present at Jesus’ crucifixion and she was likely the very first to arrive at Jesus’ empty tomb on Easter Sunday. Mary of Magdala was a woman of valor, a woman of power, for Christ was her strength and her power, the source and object of her faith and works.

Early Easter morning, Mary came to the tomb while it was still dark. Surely she was wondering, like those who would come after her, how she would roll away the massive stone that sealed Jesus’ tomb. Whatever she thought and believed about Jesus’ teaching concerning His resurrection on the third day, Mary had come to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ dead body. Imagine her astonishment, even her horror, when she saw that the stone had already been rolled away! Her first thought was that those who had handed Him over to be crucified had now taken away His body, so she went to tell Peter and the other disciples. Returning to the tomb, Mary eeked up the courage to look inside. There she beheld two angels in white robes standing at the head and the foot of where Jesus had lain. Some early Church Fathers have seen in this an analogy of the Holy Trinity: Two angels representing the Father and the Spirit, standing at the head and foot of where the Son, Jesus, had lain. Hadlain, for He was not dead, but God’s Son had risen, He was alive, just as He had said He would be! Then she turned around, and there He was, though she didn’t recognize Him. You see, some things are truly too good to be true, or so we suppose! There was Jesus, alive and standing right before her, but her limited reason and understanding would not permit her to see. Like the angels before, Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” Her Teacher and Redeemer, her Good Shepherd and Bridegroom was right there before her; there was no need for weeping. But then, Jesus called her by name. “Mary,” He said. And then her eyes were opened and she saw Him and knew that it was Jesus! “Rabboni!” she cried, which means “Teacher!” And, she wanted to throw her arms around Him and hold on to Him, but He said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God’.” Mary went at once and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” and that He had said all these things to her!

Mary’s sins, just as your sins and my sins, once threatened as a large stone to keep her in her tomb. But, Jesus took away the stone and set her free from her sins. The grave could no longer hold Mary, and it can no longer hold you! Released from the burden of her sin, Mary was free to live and to serve her LORD and her neighbor to the glory of His Name. Instead of using her mouth to make excuses for her mistakes, like the woman of valor and power Mary used her mouth to speak wisdom and kindness. The woman Jesus released from demonic oppression had become a mouthpiece for the LORD, filled with His Holy Spirit. It was St. Thomas Aquinas who first gave Mary of Magdala the title “Apostle to the Apostles” saying, “Just as a woman had announced the words of death to the first man, so also a woman was the first to announce to the Apostles the words of life.”

St. Mary of Magdala is but one of a multitude of our LORD’s saints who extol His mighty works and sing His praise in witness to others. She stands with us as our sister in Christ whose sins have been forgiven in the blood of Jesus Christ. As Jesus healed Mary from her infirmities, so has He healed us and has made us witnesses of His grace and mercy, love and compassion. Let us go forth and proclaim His love and forgiveness to all in boldness and hope and joy!

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.Te

Christian Funeral for Marlys Ann Ellison

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; Revelation 7:9-17; Lamentations 3:22-33

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” Now, what is a saint but one who has been made to be holy in the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer? Our sister in Christ, Marlys, was made to be a saint when she was claimed and named by Jesus in Holy Baptism so many years ago. In Baptism, Jesus’ death and resurrection became her very own, as St. Paul has written, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” and “If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Likewise, Jesus Himself did say of His saints, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

Our sister Marlys died in the LORD Wednesday morning, and her death was precious in our LORD’s sight. However, the truth is that Marlys died in the LORD many years ago, when her old sinful flesh was drowned in Holy Baptism into Jesus’ death, and was raised with Jesus in His resurrection to a new life that can never die. In Holy Baptism, Marlys was marked and sealed in Jesus’ Name and with the Spirit of God, along with His unbreakable promise, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” “I am with you always,” and “Nothing can separate you from My love in Jesus Christ.” Marlys did not become a saint of God on Wednesday morning, but she was made to be a saint long ago in Holy Baptism when she passed over from death to life.

That is why she was not afraid to die. Marlys believed and confessed that Jesus Christ was her Lord and Savior who had died for her sins and had been raised for her justification. She believed and confessed that Jesus’ death and resurrection became her own in Holy Baptism through faith. And, she believed and confessed that death would be like sleep, as Jesus teaches, from which she fully expected to wake unto a day upon which the sun will never set. And, that is why those of you who knew Marlys knew her to be a woman of great faith. Most important to her was to be in church every Sunday, (and at the Waverly Veteran’s Post every evening). And, next to her faith came her family. Daily she prayed for her children and grandchildren. She kept her grandchildren’s faith statements from their confirmations on her refrigerator as a reminder to herself and to them of the promises God had made to them in Jesus. Those who have known Marlys for a long time saw her faith in her words and deeds, but even those who knew her only a short while could say the same. Marlys’ cleaning lady in Waverly, for example, and a nurse at the assisted living home in Des Moines that she had only been at for a short while, each acknowledged that, in Marlys, they had found an affirmation of their own faith, and they believed that God had brought them together for that purpose. Someone described Marlys as an iconin the family. I like that term “icon.” It’s from a Greek word that means image. St. Paul used that word to describe Jesus saying, “He is the icon (or image) of the invisible God.” That is why Jesus could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Well, in a very real sense, he who has seen Marlys has seen Jesus, for she was an icon and an image of Jesus’ love, compassion, mercy, and grace to others, as all the LORD’s saints are called to be.

I think that a lot of people today, even a lot of Christians, believe that Christianity is about obeying strict rules, not having any fun, and judging people. That likely is the result of the fact that many who claim to be Christian practice a Christianity of words, but not deeds. Isaiah spoke of such people long ago saying, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” But, that’s what made Marlys so special; she didn’t simply pay lip service to her faith, but she lived her faith every day in countless ways. And, most of those ways were not flashy and impressive, but they were the simple, ordinary, humble, loving, and serving things that she did for others simply because that’s who she was in Jesus Christ. She baked a world famous chocolate cake and loved to share them and give them as gifts. She could drive a combine all day and still come home and cook a wonderful meal for her family. She believed that good food could heal all ailments and she readily applied her remedies to her children and grandchildren. She loved to have fun with her family and friends, playing cards, bridge, cribbage, hearts, and schaafskompf, and cheering on the Hawkeyes and the Cubs. She enjoyed quilting, but she refused to mend socks. She never smoked, but she kept a drawer full of candy and would regularly have a glass of wine, a margarita, or whatever, “for medicinal purposes,” a Platte trait, or so I’m told. When Milan passed away twelve years ago, Marlys assumed the role of matriarch and guided the family in the straight and narrow way. She was a treasure and an inspiration to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who called her “G.G.” – Great Grandma! Yes, in these simply, ordinary, humble, loving, and serving ways, Marlys was the hands, heart, feet, and voice of Jesus to countless many. She was one of the LORD’s saints, and she was, and she is, precious in His sight.

Therefore, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in His Son Jesus, your Savior. For, He has prepared a place in His Father’s house for Marlys, and now He has taken her there. And, He has prepared a place in His Father’s house for you as well. Marlys followed her Lord Jesus along the Way. And now, you may follow her along the same Way, for the Way is Jesus, and there is no other way. And now that great multitude of saints in white robes has grown by one more, even as more continually are being ransomed out of this great tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They hunger and thirst no more. They suffer pain, sorrow, and grief no more. They die no more. And, the Lamb Jesus Christ is their Shepherd, and God His Father wipes every tear from their eyes. Those who die in the LORD are not dead, for indeed, they died in Holy Baptism long ago, and they lived their lives to the LORD. Moreover, we will see them again, not merely as disembodied souls, but in glorified flesh and blood bodies, just as you knew them in this life, but perfected and glorified in Jesus Christ. You will see G.G. with your own eyes. You will hear her with your own ears. You will touch her with your own hands. And you will hug her with your own arms yet again, and not with those of another. And, no one will take from you your joy ever again. This is the wonderful, joyous comfort and hope we enjoy in Jesus Christ so that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. May the God of all hope and comfort sustain you in your sorrow and fill you with His Peace which passes our human understanding until the day He raises your bodies to be like unto Jesus’ glorified body and you see Him face to face with G.G. and all the saints who now rest in Him.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Seventh Sunday After Trinity (Trinity 7)

(Audio)

Mark 8:1-9; Romans 6:19-23; Genesis 2:7-17

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Our Old Testament reading sets the stage: God is the actor. He designs the set and then furnishes it. He selects the actors, and He gives them their roles. He writes the script, and He gives the directions. All is ready and in order. The lights dim, and the play begins. There is one God. There is one man. And, there is one rule: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Now, of course, you know how that play went. The one rule was quickly broken. The one man did not fear, love, and trust in the one God above all things. He took and he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree and, in so doing, he plunged himself and all of creation into sin and corruption and death. However, ironically, because God is good, the man’s fall was not the end of the story, but it was the beginning of a new story. For, the man’s rebellion and fall was quickly countered by the LORD’s Gospel promise: Once again He would set to work to redesign and furnish the set, a new creation, to select the actors, Abraham and the children of Israel, and to rewrite the script. This time, the climax would not be man’s rebellion and fall from grace, but, this time, the LORD Himself would become an actor in His own play. He would plunge His hands into the stuff of His creation, fallen, broken, and corrupted by sin, and become one of His own creatures, so that He could re-create, renew, and restore His fallen creation from the inside out. “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling amongst us.” “And His Name shall be called Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.”

It was Emmanuel, “God with us,” who was present in the garden with our First Parents. The one rule was to trust in Him. The forbidden fruit was merely the necessary ramification of there being a rule at all. When you have a rule, you either keep it or you break it. You either fear, love, and trust in God above all things, or you don’t. Yes, it’s truly that black and white. No, there truly is no fence straddling, no shades of gray. You see, the righteous will live by faith as much before the Fall as after. Will you fear, love, and trust in God above all things, or not?

Likewise, it was Emmanuel who was present in Egypt, providing food and shelter for the children of Israel during the great famine through His servant Joseph. And, it was Emmanuel who was present in the wilderness providing food and shelter for the children of Israel as they made their pilgrimage to the promised land. And, it was Emmanuel who was present in the tabernacle and, later, in the temple, dwelling in the midst of His people. And, it was Emmanuel who marked the division between the good kings of Israel and the bad. And, it is Emmanuel who is the Bread of Life of which a man may eat and live. And, it is Emmanuel who is your bread for the day. For, the righteous will live by faith, then, now, and always – faith in Emmanuel, the one who is present, “God with us.”

Likewise, it was also Emmanuel who was present at the feeding of both the 5,000 and the 4,000. What had they to fear? Emmanuel, God, was with them. Would they fear, love, and trust in the LORD above all things? Or, would they fear hunger and fainting? Would they trust in their own abilities to procure food? Would they love fleshly, worldly, and material things more than the LORD and His Word? The disciples and the crowds already knew of the long and steady history of God providing for His people, often in the direst of situations and in miraculous ways. In fact, our Gospel reading today about The Feeding of the 4,000 follows shortly upon the even more miraculous Feeding of the 5,000! When will we learn? When will we finally believe and trust? The righteous will live by faith, always!

 “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall [a woman], who is ninety years old, bear a child?” “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” “Who then can be saved?” “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” Do you see how all these questions are the same question? They are all questions of doubt and unbelief, questions of weak and little faith. They are questions that arise when you think that you have to solve your own problems yourself, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get to work, and be independent and self-sufficient. They are questions that you ask when you believe that you are on your own and that no one can, or will, help. Therefore, you either fool yourself into believing that you truly are alone and on your own, and that you are quite capable of solving your own problems, or, and more likely, you fall into hopelessness and despair, because you realize that you cannot make it on your own. Either way, your fear, love, and trust is not in the LORD, but it is in yourself. You have become your own god and you have transgressed the First Commandment of the true and only God.

And, when you are so very busy worshipping the god that is yourself, you cannot see and worship the true God, Emmanuel, who is present in your midst to help you. Jesus’ statement about the crowds and their hunger was meant to evoke a confession from His disciples: “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way.” The disciples immediately looked to their own meager provisions and abilities, and they despaired: “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” Their fear, love, and trust was not in the Lord in their midst, Emmanuel, but it was in themselves. They were so very busy worshipping the god that was their self that they could not see and worship the true God, Emmanuel, who was present in their midst to help.

Once again, the Lord Jesus took their meager provisions, blessed them, and offered thanks to His Father, and distributed them to the crowd. Once again, the crowd ate and they were satisfied. And, once again, the disciples collected the leftover fragments of bread, this time seven baskets full. They ate and they were satisfied because God was present in their midst. Truly they had no need to fear. While the LORD may not always provide what you want, He always provides what you need – and what you need is not always what you think you need, but what you truly need, that is, what serves you and preserves you for life with Him. It is the end that matters. What, then, is the end – that is, the result and goal – of your fear? What, then, is the end, result, and goal of your works? What fruits do they bear?

St. Paul addresses these questions in our Epistle reading today. Paul says that when you were slaves – that is, when you were slaves to sin, which is the sinful fruit of your self-idolatry – you bore the fruit of unrighteousness. Paul provides a lengthy list of these fruits in chapter one of his epistle to the Romans: fornication, wickedness, covetousness, envy, murder, deceit, pride, boasting, disobedience, lack of mercy, lack of charity, and lack of compassion, etc. It’s not difficult to see how, when you are afraid of losing, or not having, you can fall into these sorts of sins. Your fear of losing, or not having, bears the fruit of making you greedy, covetous, and envious, proud, boastful, and unmerciful, etc. For, when you are afraid of losing, or not having enough, you are focused upon your own needs and upon your ability or inability to procure them. However, the LORD would have you not think of your own needs first, but of the needs of others. And, the LORD would have you not trust in your own abilities first, but in the LORD, Emmanuel, who is present in your midst to help.

“But,” St. Paul continues, “now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus has set you free from your idolatrous worship of your self. You are free from the fear of having to provide all things for yourself. You are free from the fear of losing, or not having. You are free from being you-centered so that you might be Christ-centered – which is to be neighbor-centered, as you see Christ in the weakest of your neighbors and brothers.

For, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end: There is one rule – You shall have no other gods – not even yourself. What does this mean? You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things. And, when you truly fear, love, and trust in God above all things, then you will have no fear of losing or not having. You will be free – free to love and to serve and to give without fear. By dying to yourself, you are free to live to God in Christ Jesus. And, this is life, indeed.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Jerald William “Jerry” Quibell

(Audio)

John 11:17-27; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Job 19:23-27

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The story of Lazarus is profoundly human. It gets to the heart our struggle to know God and to understand His ways. It exposes the deep-seated corruption of sin that has diminished our reason and our senses and, thus, our ability to know God. And, it speaks to the often unspoken longing we all have for something beyond this flesh and life, beyond death, that fulfills and completes us and reveals in truth what we were meant to be all along but can no longer remember.

Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died. The glaring fact, however, is that Jesus knowingly let him die. When Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick, He did not rush to Lazarus’ side, but He intentionally stayed where He was two days longer before setting out for Bethany where Lazarus lived. On His way to Bethany, Jesus received word that Lazarus had died. Not surprisingly, Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, were upset with Jesus. Both of them appealed to Him saying, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died,” a sentiment to which we can surely relate.

Now, you must understand that Martha and Mary were people of faith. More than that, they and their brother Lazarus were close friends with Jesus. Jesus and His disciples dined regularly at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. It was on one such occasion that, while Martha was busy and distressed preparing the meal, Mary sat and listened at Jesus’ feet. Later, just before Jesus’ crucifixion, Martha and Mary and the resurrected Lazarus were with Jesus and His disciples at another meal in the house of Simon the leper. It was there that Mary anointed Jesus’ head and feet with costly ointment, which, she said, was in preparation for His burial. But now, at the death of their brother Lazarus, even these women of faith questioned Jesus’ delay asking, “Why?”

We know that the wages of sin is death. We know that all people must die. But, why must some people die so young and in such horrible ways? Why are some families seemingly afflicted by continual tragedy, misfortune, disease, and death? Why do bad things happen to, if not perfect, at least, good people? These are questions that speak to our human condition, and these are questions that are surely in the minds and hearts of many of us, to one degree or another as we commend our brother Jerald into the arms of Jesus.

I think that most would agree that Jerald and his family experienced more than what most would consider a normal amount of tragedy and sorrow in their lives. Jerry’s son Todd died suddenly and unexpectedly at work only four years ago. No one expected that to happen and everyone was left asking, “Why?” But, then Jerry’s wife Karen died suddenly and unexpectedly a year later. Again, everyone was stunned and was left asking, “Why?” Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice in the same place. It’s tragic and shocking enough to lose one family member to sudden and unexpected death, but two, and in two years’ time? And now, Jerry has died somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly. Perhaps some are beginning to ask, “Lord, are you with this family or not? For, if you had been here they would not have died.”

The answer to the question “Why do we die” is really not difficult to answer, even if we don’t like the answer. We die because of sin: Our First Parent’s sin, your sin, my sin, Gerald’s sin, sin in general. As the Scriptures teach, “The wages of sin is death” – always and only. We will all die. However, that’s not the end of the story, is it? No! Our God who created us in love, loved us so much that He did the unthinkable – He gave His only Son, Jesus, into death for us, as our substitute, paying the penalty for our sin in His innocent life laid down in death upon the cross. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the power of death has been destroyed. Yes, we still die, but death cannot hold us as it could not hold Jesus. This is what St. Paul is getting at when he says “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes, death still stings, but it’s sting is temporary and fleeting.

Jesus felt the sting of death too when He approached Lazarus’ tomb. When He saw the pain and suffering and the grief of His dear friends and others, Jesus was moved with deep compassion and He wept. Jesus wept that death had to come to His people who were created to live. Jesus wept at the pain, suffering, and sorrow death brought into people’s lives. And, Jesus wept because His people did not understand that, even now, He was the Lord of life and death, who, if they believed in Him death could not hold them and they would live through and past death into life everlasting with Him in His kingdom. The best that Martha and Mary could muster was belief in the resurrection on the last day. What they couldn’t understand is that, for those who trust in Jesus, even in life, death is already defeated. Jesus even says in St. John’s Gospel, “whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Perhaps surprisingly, that is why the patriarch Job could confess nearly 2000 years before Jesus’ birth, “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.” In the midst of his own horrible suffering and impending death, 2000 years before the birth of Jesus, Job could confess that he was already living a life that would never die.

We take great comfort in the fact that Jerry was baptized into Jesus Christ. Long ago Jerry died with Jesus and was raised with Him to a new life that cannot die. Perhaps his was a simple, childlike faith, but there’s nothing wrong with that. That faith gave him a positive outlook on life, even in the face of terrible tragedy and loss like Jerry experienced and suffered. He was always quick with a funny, spunky remark and a comic all the time. He enjoyed laughing and making others laugh. Jerry enjoyed the outdoors: Hunting, archery, fishing, ice-skating and roller-skating. And, he enjoyed his classic cars and could often be seen driving around town in his truck just for the pleasure of it. And, Jerry enjoyed watching his grandson Kyle play basketball, football, and soccer. His grandson was the love of his life.

Yet, all these good things, these blessings and joys, were intermixed with pain and sorrow, suffering, and death. Why? Was Jesus not there? Yes! Yes He was! Through baptism and faith, Jerald was in Jesus and Jesus was in Him. Jerald had already passed over from death to life. Jerry had died and was buried with Jesus in baptism, and he was raised with Jesus to a new life that cannot die. And so, our faith and our hope and our comfort are in our Lord Jesus Christ who claimed Jerry as He own and promised He would never leave him or forsake him, and that nothing could ever separate him from His love. And thus, we grieve, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. No, we have a great hope, even a promise, that those who die in the Lord are blessed and are with Him, and Christ will raise them up on the last day. Therefore, all the faithful and the Church cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly! Come!”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for LeAnn Lois Meier

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; Revelation 7:9-17; Isaiah 25:6-9

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are a whole lot of things that we take for granted in life, are there not? When we are young, we take it for granted that our parents will always be with us. As we grow up, we take it for granted that we will get a good job when we graduate high school and college. As we work our adult lives, we take it for granted that social security will help us out when we retire, and that our kids will be there to support us. Of course, it’s easy to see, when you think about it, why it is extremely foolish to take any of these things for granted. How about water, and sunlight, food, and air to breathe? Yes, we too often take these things for granted as well. However, if you’ve ever had to go a day without water, or a couple of days without food, it becomes all too apparent how desperately we need them. And, if you’ve ever been forced to hold your breath for more than a minute, it becomes all too apparent how desperately we need and depend upon fresh air to breathe, to live. Not being able to take in enough air to breathe is a terrifying feeling, as countless younger siblings can attest to from a childhood swimming experience. Truly, there few more terrifying feelings than not being able to breathe.

Our dear sister in Christ LeAnn knew that feeling as she battled with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) these past five years. Simple tasks like walking to the restroom or even repositioning herself in a chair would affect her loss of breath and her inability to regain it again quickly. Add to that the looming knowledge that things were only going to get worse and it is easy to imagine how very frightening LeAnn’s condition truly was. Something as natural as breathing – That’s a saying we use for things that are supposed to be easy and thoughtless, something we take for granted, “It’s as natural as breathing – for LeAnn became an ever-present struggle, a continual concern and need, and a matter of life and death.

However, for most of us, talking to LeAnn, visiting with her, you wouldn’t know it. You wouldn’t know that something as easy and natural, something so taken for granted like breathing was a terrible struggle and all consuming concern for LeAnn. Sure, maybe those closest to her, Charlie, Chad, Kristin, and Nicole, saw her in a moment of unmasked discomfort and even distress, but for most, and for most of the time, LeAnn showed little evidence of the true struggle she was facing simply to breathe. However, that was LeAnn – always concerned about others, their needs, their comfort, their happiness and welfare. She didn’t want to be a burden to others, but she wanted to serve them, to care for them, and to make them happy and comfortable. Thus, it is not really ironic that LeAnn’s symptoms began to manifest when she was serving as caregiver for Charlie during his battle with prostate cancer. Pushing Charlie in a wheelchair at the hospital, LeAnn began to huff and puff and wheeze, all out of breath. Charlie thought she sounded like a horse and lovingly joked, “The old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be!” Neither of them could have guessed the reason or cause of her shortness of breath. Didn’t matter, there was a job to do. Onward she pushed, right through the huffing and puffing.

But, that was LeAnn – always concerned about others, their needs, their comfort, their happiness and welfare. LeAnn loved her family, she loved her grandchildren. She loved attending their school events, she wrote poems for them with clues for scavenger hunts. What she enjoyed most in life was being with her family: Being a homemaker, boating, and bowling, just hanging out around the house with her family and her friends. When her IPF made it difficult or impossible to do those things, LeAnn apologized to her family and friends for being a burden. Of course, she wasn’t a burden, but she wanted them to be happy, because she loved them – she loved you all so dearly.

When the diagnosis came five years ago, you were informed that IPF is a relatively slow-progressing, but terminal, disease. I know that five years doesn’t seem all that slow, especially considering LeAnn was only in her early 60s. And yet, there were five years, and that was time to reflect and prepare, time to spend together and really grow, not taking anything for granted, not even breathing. Most of those years weren’t really too bad. And, while, the last couple years were a bit more of a struggle, it’s really been since your premature return from Texas this Winter that the symptoms have really become more severe. Now on the highest level of oxygen assistance, a trip to the kitchen or restroom became too much. And in the last month or so, an adjustment of position in a chair would leave LeAnn breathless, even with the highest level of oxygen. That is truly terrifying, and it would not be wrong to say that LeAnn began to suffer. They said the disease was relatively slow-progressing, but terminal. It was becoming clear that the terminus was on the horizon.

Why does God allow suffering? Philosophers and theologians alike have been asking that question for millennia.  While God does indeed allow suffering – He allowed, even willed, that His own Son suffer and die for our sins and the sins of the world – it is simply wrong to conclude that God created suffering. He did not. Suffering was introduced into the world because of the sin of our First Parents, a sin that we have inherited and are equally guilty of with them. The wages of sin is always, and only, death. Why is there suffering in the world? Because of sin. Why do we die. Because of sin. Did LeAnn suffer and die because of her sin? Well, yes, but not any specific sin. We all die because of our sin, and because of sin in general. This is not the LORD’s doing, but an enemy has done this, God’s enemy and our enemy, Satan. Satan causes suffering, and he uses it to destroy your faith. And, God permits Satan to cause suffering, but He uses it to create and strengthen faith, in ways we most often never know or realize. For a Christian, the diagnoses of a terminal disease can be a very faith-affirming thing, for it motivates us to hone in on what really matters in life, and in death, with a laser-like focus. What mattered to LeAnn? Her faith, and her family; that’s what mattered. LeAnn’s faith permitted her to put others first and her personal needs second. And, her beloved family became most important. She was intent to enjoy the time that she had and to take nothing for granted.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge. God so loved the world, God so loved LeAnn, and God so loved you that He gave His only Son into death and raised Him up again that you might so pass through death with Him and live with Him in His kingdom forever. Our enemy Satan was defeated in Jesus’ death upon the cross, and in His resurrection He left death and the grave abandoned and powerless. They could not hold Him, and they cannot hold those who trust in Him, those who have been baptized into Him; they have died with Him in His death, and they will be raised with Him in His resurrection. Isaiah foreshadowed this saying, “He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.” Likewise, Jesus said “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.” And, our Lord Jesus revealed to St. John in the Revelation a preview of the saints in heaven, a multitude in white robes, saying: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. [They shall breathe freely and shall not suffer pain, or sorrow, discomfort, or death.] For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” That countless multitude in white robes has grown by one precious soul in the sight of the LORD. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ.

Our heavenly Father has seen fit to call His precious saint LeAnn to her heavenly home, prepared for her by Jesus her Savior and Redeemer. As painful and real as her loss is, and as much as we will miss her, in faith and truth we do not wish her back. No, we do not wish her back, but our only wish and hope is to be with her where she is. And, that is precisely the promise our God and LORD has made us in His Son. We will see LeAnn again. Charlie, you will see your wife again. Chad, Kristin, Nicole, you will see your mother again. You will see your grandmother, your friend, your sister in Christ again. You will see LeAnn with your flesh and blood eyes. You will hear her with your flesh and blood ears. You will touch her and hug her with your flesh and blood hands and arms. Each of you had a private moment to say goodbye, to reassure LeAnn that you would be ok, and then LeAnn went to Jesus. That goodbye is temporary. You will see her again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you ever again.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.