Acts 6:8-7:2a,51-60 - “Good King Wenceslas”

St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr
Sunday, December 26, 2010

These are the notes and outline for the sermon I preached.

Tune of “Good King Wenceslas” is played

• What does Good King Wenceslas have to do with today? (Solicit answers)
• It takes place on the Feast of Stephen—December 26

It’s a song about the legend of Duke Wenceslas of Bohemia who lived from 907-935. Let’s look at the words and see what this story is all about.

ALL:
Good King Wenceslas looked out,
upon the Feast of Stephen,
when the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even:
brightly shone the moon that night,
though the frost was cruel,
when a poor man came in site,
gathering winter fuel.

KING:
Hither page and stand by me!
I you know it telling:
yonder man who is he,
where and what his dwelling?

PAGE:
Sir he lives a good way hence,
underneath the mountain;
right against the forest fence,
by Saint Agnes' fountain:

KING:
Bring me food and bring me wine,
bring me pine logs hither:
you and I will see him dine,
when we take them thither.

ALL:
Page and monarch forth they went,
forth they went together,
through the wild wind's loud lament,
and the bitter weather.

PAGE:
Sir the night is darker now,
and the wind grows stronger;
fails my heart - I know not how,
I can go no longer.

KING:
Mark my footsteps well my page,
follow in them boldly:
you shall find the winter's rage,
chills your blood less coldly.

ALL:
In his masters steps he trod,
where the snow lay even,
strong to do the will of God,
in the hope of Heaven:
therefore Christians all be sure,
grace and wealth possessing,
you that now will bless the poor,
shall yourselves find blessing.

So the duke or King sees a poor man out in the cold gathering wood for his fire. So the duke decides to go to find this poor man and bring him food and wine. The duke and his page, his servant, start walking to go where this poor man lives, very far from the duke’s mansion. As they’re going through the snow, the page becomes too cold. So Wenceslas tells him to walk in his footsteps, that miraculously there’s heat in those footsteps that will warm the page.

• What’s that carol have to do with St. Stephen? (Took place on feast day, the day the martyr is remembered)
• What is this day known as in England and other countries? (Boxing Day)
• A shopping holiday now, but began as a day to give to the poor—a way to remember St. Stephen
• He originally was designated as a deacon, the ones set aside to serve food to the widows, so that the apostles could focus on preaching
• So in that sense, Boxing Day does celebrate St. Stephen
• How then could “Good King Wenceslas” celebrate St. Stephen? (serving the poor)

• But something makes me a bit uncomfortable about this carol.
• Any guesses?
• Focus is misplaced if we ONLY focus on Wenceslas and his good actions
• Serving the poor rises out of faith in Christ, so the focus starts with faith in Christ
• The actual Wenceslas was a duke, killed for his faith—not his good deeds
• St. Stephen is celebrated for his confession of Christ
• In the end, Stephen was killed for his preaching—not for serving the poor

• So do we serve the poor? Yes.
• But is that our only mission? No.
• Today we also celebrate that we go out to preach Christ to the world

• Why do we sometimes end up focusing on good works like in this carol instead of focusing on sharing the Gospel? (Solicit answers)
• It’s easier to focus on results in this world
• Results in this world makes it easier to define Wenceslas as a good man
• And we desperately want to define our lives as good lives
• It’s much fuzzier to focus on the spiritual, the eternal, salvation
• It’s much fuzzier to focus on whether we’ve shared the good news
• It’s much fuzzier but it’s what St. Stephen was focused on
• It’s much fuzzier but it’s our focus
• It seems fuzzier but it’s why Jesus came
• And He made it completely unfuzzy—salvation is secure in Jesus

• We’re called to go and serve others, but also called to do fuzzy, spiritual work
• For instance, the Breakfast Club at Viking Middle School
• Start relationships with them so we can share the Gospel
• Do we serve others who don’t have enough? Yes.
• But is that our only mission at Breakfast Club? No.
• Will we also look for ways to share God’s love with them? Yes.

• So what would be a way to celebrate St. Stephen’s Day? (Solicit answers)
• How would you change “Good King Wenceslas”? (Solicit answers)
• What do you want to walk away remembering on Boxing Day? (Solicit answers)

• Morgan Pursley is back home and going to share an anthem with us
• a portion of Handel’s Messiah based on Isaiah 40
• O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,
get thee up into the high mountain,
O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem,
lift up thy voice with strength,
lift it up, be not afraid,
say unto the cities of Judah: Behold your God!
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,
arise, shine, for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
• Listen to how this portion of the Messiah, while about John the Baptist could also be about St. Stephen
• Listen to how this portion of the “Messiah” reminds us to go and tell the good news of Jesus Christ
• Listen to these words can be Boxing Day words, celebrating St. Stephen not just for serving the poor but also celebrating the way God used him to announce Good News to the people

Psalm 2 - “The Heir to the Throne is Born This Day”

Christmas Day (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Saturday, December 25, 2010

Please turn your bulletins back to Psalm 2. We’re going to look at Psalm 2 this morning. It’s the appointed psalm for Christmas Day; it’s used by the New Testament writers to point to Jesus; and it continues the psalm theme we’ve had here at Bethel during Advent.

Psalm 2 is a coronation psalm—a hymn written to celebrate the coronation of the king, the ceremony where the crown is placed on the king, making him the ruler of the kingdom. We don’t know which of the Old Testament kings this psalm was written about, but the psalm shows how much the king is celebrated. Yet, even more than celebrating the king, it celebrates the true king of Israel, the One who gives the king his power, God Himself.

I’m going to ask you to imagine the scene at the coronation, because I want you to see the drama in Psalm 2.

But I’ll give you a hint about what’s coming after we use our imaginations: we’ll see how this coronation is connected with the birth of Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. The heir to the throne is born this day, so it’s no mistake that Psalm 2, a coronation psalm, is our focus today. See if you can guess the connections to Christmas as we go along.

But first I want you to imagine that this is the throne room of a king. I want you to imagine with me that today is a huge day of celebration as the new king receives his crown. Looking at Psalm 2, we can see all of the different voices heard in the throne room that day.
(center aisle, halfway back into nave, facing the altar)
It begins with the people who have come to the court for the ceremony. They’re asking,

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his anointed.

The people are distressed over how the other nations, their enemies are rallying against God and the anointed, God’s chosen king for Israel. The people are asking,

Why are the nations up in arms, and men drawn into insane dreams?
The world’s rulers are in accord—against God and the Lord’s Anointed

So the people are in the court of the king asking this question, distressed by what’s happening. They’re asking God, “What’s going on?” And they report what those enemy nations are saying.
(outside back doors of sanctuary)
Outside of the court, outside of the kingdom, that’s where the other nations are saying,

Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.

In other words, those nations plot to overthrow the king, to reject any rule that Israel might have. The nations are standing at the door, so to speak, watching as the new king receives his crown, and they think they will beat him.

Old God’s authority is at an end
– long live the Revolution!

(front of nave)

But then from inside the court of the king comes laughter, laughter that fills the room and echoes all around, echoes that are heard by those enemy nations.

He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury.

Perhaps these words are a report from a priest who answers the distress of the people. The people are concerned about what the other nations are plotting, but the priest reports that God Himself is not concerned. God finds it humorous that the nations think they will win the day.

The Lord in heaven is laughing; to him their threats are a joke.
But one day his top will blow; and his fury flow like lava.

(from in front of the altar)

Then we hear the very words of God. In the throne room of Israel, these words would have been spoken by the High Priest or a prophet, speaking for God.

As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.

The nations can plot all they want, but God has crowned his new king, God has put his king on the throne, God has given his king power and authority, God has established the kingdom, God will follow His will and the enemy nations will not disrupt God’s plan.

Here on my holy mountain, behold the man, the Anointed

(from the pulpit)

In response to this, we finally hear the new king speak. He says,

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me,

The new king’s response to the enemy nations and their evil plots, the new king’s response to the worried questions of the people is to read the decree of God, the decree, the document that makes him king. And so the next words are again the words of God Himself.

(from in front of the altar)

You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

This decree from God has placed the new king on the throne, and God has given a strong promise—a promise to be the king’s father, a promise to give the king victory over the other nations, a promise to give the king strength and power.

You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.
The nations are yours for the asking, the ends of the earth your estate;
With a sceptre of iron judge them; smash them to smithereens.

(from the pulpit)

The new king reads this decree to give confidence to the people—no more do they need to worry about the enemy nations. The new king reads this decree to warn the other nations—they need to know what they’re coming up against. The new king reads this decree to remind everyone that he is king at the invitation, instruction, intervention, institution of God—he is God’s representative on earth.

(center aisle, halfway back into nave, facing the back)

The new king’s reading of the decree is just what the people need to hear. Here they had begun standing in the court with their hands wringing, worrying about the other nations, and now that the king has reminded them that God Himself is in charge, now the people turn as if to talk directly to the enemy nations.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

The people warn the other nations—while perhaps inviting them to realize the truth—that the only way to be safe is to worship the true God. The only way to avoid destruction is to pay homage, give respect to the new king, the one who is like a son to God the Father.

Learn wisdom smartly, O Captains and Rulers, remember your place
Bow to the Lord in fear, and rejoice in him with trembling;
the blessed he shelters.

The people are now ready to truly begin the celebration of the coronation of the new king, because now they see that all is God’s hands. Now they see that God will win the day. Now they see that salvation, power, honor, and glory belong to the Lord. God has given them a new king, but God is the true King who will save His people.

// (front of the nave)

Do you remember that I said we’d connect this to Christmas? Do you remember that I said this coronation psalm has everything to do with Jesus because He is the heir to the throne born this day?

Take the picture that you just had in your head of the throne room and the people and the enemy nations and the priests and God and the new king, and now let’s imagine this scene is in the throne room of God. Watch as the scene unfolds and leads us straight to Bethlehem and a baby born in a manger.

(center aisle, halfway back into nave, facing the altar)

God’s people since Adam and Eve have been aware of their sin. We come before God knowing that His enemies surround us. We ask,

Why are the nations up in arms, and men drawn into insane dreams?
Why are they against your ways, God?
The world’s rulers are in accord—against God and the Lord’s Anointed
The people are against you, and they’re dragging us down with them.

(outside back doors of sanctuary)

The people who are against God are all around us—as they stand and sneer at God:

Old God’s authority is at an end – long live the Revolution!

(front of nave)

But then from the Church, from God’s Word, from God’s messengers comes the reminder that God isn’t concerned about His enemies. He’s not concerned about the evil ones who surround us. God’s Word tells us,

The Lord in heaven is laughing; to him their threats are a joke.
But one day his top will blow; and his fury flow like lava.

(from in front of the altar)

Then we hear the very words of God.

As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.

God has a plan to break the evil of the world; God has a plan to save us from the enemy; God has sent One who will be King.

Here on my holy mountain, behold the man, the Anointed
The Anointed—an English word for the Greek word, Christ—which is a translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah. God is crowning His king, Jesus Christ, who will come to break the cruel oppressor’s rod and save His people from their sins. This Messiah, Christ, Anointed One, the newly crowned King, was born this day in the town of Bethlehem.
(from the pulpit)

The heir to the throne is born this day, and when He grows up, He will rightfully claim His throne. But He doesn’t make this claim on His own authority; the authority comes from God the Father. So Jesus Christ-Messiah-Anointed One says,

I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me,

(from in front of the altar)

You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

God is the Father of Jesus from all eternity. God gives Jesus victory over all enemies—sin, death, and the devil. God gives the Son strength and power. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to this new king, this heir to the throne born this day.

(from the pulpit)

The new king has announced this decree to give us confidence—no more do we need to worry about the enemies—sin, death, and the devil. The new king reads this decree to warn those who don’t believe—they need to know what they’re coming up against. The new king reads this decree to remind everyone that He is king at the invitation, instruction, intervention, institution of God—He is God’s representative on earth.
(center aisle, halfway back into nave, facing the back)

The new king’s reading of the decree is just what we need to hear. We began standing in the court with our hands wringing, worrying about the other people, the enemies of the Lord, and now that the king has reminded us that God Himself is in charge, now we have the confidence to turn as if to talk directly to all of the Lord’s enemies.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

(front of the nave)

Today we celebrate Christmas, and perhaps it serves as a warning to those who don’t believe in Christ—while also inviting them to realize the truth—that the only way to be safe is to worship the true God. The only way to avoid destruction is to pay homage, give respect to the new king, the Son of God the Father, the One born today. More than just warning the non-believers around us, our announcement today to all people is that you will be blessed if you take refuge in Jesus. You will have the promise of forgiveness and eternal life if you believe in Jesus.

We are now ready to truly begin the celebration of the coronation of the new king, because now we see that all is in God’s hands. Now we see that God will win the day. Now we see that salvation, power, honor, and glory belong to the Lord. God has given us a new king, Jesus, the true King who will save His people.

1 John 4:7-16 - “Get Connected This Christmas”

Christmas Eve(Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Friday, December 24, 2010

Get connected this Christmas.

Stretch out the UNLIT lights down the center aisle.

Something’s missing, isn’t it? Something’s missing, because these lights aren’t looking too festive.

And frankly, sometimes you might feel like there’s something missing from your Christmas celebrations. And I don’t mean that you forgot to put out the potatoes or the Jell-O salad. I mean, sometimes you just feel like there’s something missing from your Christmas celebrations, something missing in your spirit, something missing about the real meaning of Christmas.

I don’t know what brings on that feeling for you, but let me throw out some guesses. It’s the busyness of the season. It’s the commercial focus of Christmas. It’s the fight you had with the kids trying to get out the door to Grandma’s house. It’s the stress at work about the end of the year. It’s the memories of loved ones. It’s all of those things or none of those things, but come on, you know what I’m talking about. Sometimes something’s missing from our Christmas celebrations.

But when there seems to be something missing, well, there’s also a part of you that’s really desiring to Get Connected This Christmas. Get connected to God. Get connected to other people. Get connected to what Christmas is really about. There’s this deep desire in your soul to get connected this Christmas. It’s time to get connected to God. It’s time for God to work on your soul, to let His love reach into your soul and infuse into your whole life. It’s time to realize that you can be connected to something that goes beyond stress and fights and commercialism and sadness. It’s time to realize that even though it seems like something’s missing, well, the truth is that God has given you everything you need to be connected this Christmas.

The passage we heard tonight from 1 John tells us that we can be connected this Christmas. We can be connected to God the Father through His Son, Jesus. We can have a true, eternal connection to God through Jesus.

John says, “We know we live in Him and He in us.” We know we live in God and God in us. We are connected to God.

Plug in lights.

Get connected this Christmas. Get connected. Shine with the light of Christ. Shine with that true, eternal connection to God. Shine like these lights. Get connected this Christmas.

But how do we know if we’re connected to God? How do we know that are shining with the light of Christ? I mean, it’s one thing to be here on Christmas, but really, really, don’t we still find ourselves wondering if we’re with Christ, if we’re connected to God? John says, “We know we live in Him and He in us,” but how do we know that this is true? How do we know that we live in God and God lives in us? How do we know that we’re connected to God?

Well, it’s like the Christmas lights. How do you know they’re connected?
They’re connected to a source of power and they shine.

FIRST, THEY’RE CONNECTED TO A SOURCE OF POWER. (Unplug the lights and hold up the extension cord still connected to outlet). It’s an invisible source of power, but it’s there. And that’s the first thing that John says about how we know if we’re connected to God. “We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Think of the Spirit as the electricity, the power, the source of our faith. The Spirit is invisible, but He’s there. We know that we are connected to Jesus, because He has given us His Spirit. He has electrified us. He has powered up our faith. We are connected to Him. THE SPIRIT IS THE SOURCE.

That’s an incredible source. That’s an incredible thing to know. That’s something that deserves incredible music and praise to God. To think that He has given us of His Spirit, that He has put His Spirit in us, that He has connected us to His power, His love, His grace. That’s definitely something to celebrate, to praise God for.

Plus, what a comfort, what a thing to know, what a thing to build our confidence. We’re connected to God in an intimate, powerful way. We’re connected to God, because of what He has done, because of what He has given us.

I’m not sure that I realize this enough. I’m not sure I’m always aware of what God has done for us, has done for me. He has really promised to pour out His Spirit on me, on you. He has promised to get us connected to Him. He has promised to work in us, to power us, to be the source of power for us.

And if He’s the source of power, I can move and live and have my being from that sense of confidence, from knowing that He is empowering me. When I am faced with tough decisions, His power is with me. When I am called on to speak my faith, His power is in me. When I am challenged in my views and beliefs and convictions, His power sustains me. When I face great temptation, His power strengthens me.

I am connected. I am not disconnected. I am connected. I am with God. God is with me. I am connected and am not standing all alone. I am connected to the greatest source of power in the universe. God has connected me to His divine, eternal, beyond all things power. I am not alone.

That’s what this little reading from 1 John chapter 4 really drives home—that there’s an incredible set of ways that God connects us to Himself. We are born of God and know God. We have His love. He sent His Son for us. He lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

But now, what’s the other way that you can tell whether these lights are connected? Besides the fact that they’re connected to the outlet, connected to power.

THEY SHINE. (Plug in lights) And that’s another thing that John says about knowing whether we’re connected to God or not. He says, “Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.”

Think of this as the shining lights, the brightness, the evidence of faith. We know that we are connected to Jesus, because we have a source of power, because God is our source of power, but we also know that we’re connected to Jesus because we shine, we confess our faith. He has made us shine with faith. He has given us words to speak. He has made us glow with the confession of faith. We are connected to Him. THE CONFESSION OF FAITH IS THE EVIDENCE.

After the sermon, we’ll all stand and confess the Christian faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, and that’s one way in which you shine, one way in which you shine as evidence that God is in you and you are in God. When we confess, when we tell the world that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that’s evidence of the fact that we’re connected to God, that’s evidence of what’s going on inside, that’s evidence that we have God’s Spirit.

We cannot truly confess our faith, we cannot truly state our faith in Jesus, unless we are connected to God, unless He is living in us. Without God, without His Spirit, we would reject Jesus every time. But with God, with His Spirit, by the power of God working in us, we are able to confess, to tell the world that we believe in Jesus.

The confession of faith is the evidence of being connected to God. It’s evidence that God is working in us.

So how do we know that we’re connected to God? He has given us His Spirit, a source of power, that causes us to our lives to shine, our lives to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. How do we know we’re connected to God? He lives in us, and we live in Him. We have His Spirit, and His Spirit enables us to tell the world that Jesus is the Son of God.

But knowing this, knowing that we have a source of power in the Spirit and our confession of faith is evidence of our connection to God, knowing this, what does that mean for us when we’re feeling like something’s missing?

Unplug the lights.

What does it mean for us when we’re feeling disconnected at Christmas, when we’re dealing with all of the stress that’s going on around us? What does it mean for us when we just don’t feel like Christmas is a festive celebration in our lives? What do we do when we feel like something’s missing?

Well, what we don’t do is go about trying to fix it ourselves. Think about it like Christmas lights. Have you ever tried to fix one of these strings of lights where if one bulb stops working and the whole set or at least half of it stops working? Have you ever tried pulling out each bulb, one at a time, replacing it with a new one, and trying to find the one that’s broken? And if there’s more than one broken bulb, well, you’ll never find it.

In that same way, when you’re feeling like something’s missing in your life, you can’t just muscle up and start doing the work yourself. You can’t do it, because you’ll never fix your spiritual problems by your own work.

Instead, go back to what John says. We know that we live in God and God in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We need to know that we’ve got our power source, we need that power that doesn’t come from us. We’re connected to God; we’re connected to the source of power.

Plug in lights.

And we know that it is the Spirit that enables us to say that Jesus is Lord. We’re shining with His light; we have evidence of our faith. There’s evidence that we’re connected to God.

Later John goes on to say that we’ll be confident on the day of Judgment. We have confidence because we have His Spirit. We have confidence because His Spirit prompts us to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. We have confidence because God is working in us. We have confidence because we are connected to Him.

I don’t know what’s left you feeling disconnected. I don’t know what’s left you feeling like an unlit string of lights, but if we’re honest, there are many things that leave us feeling disconnected, feeling distant from God.

But go back to what’s true, go back to what you’ve heard, go back to what God has done for you. God has connected you to a source of power—His power, His Spirit. You are connected.

And God has made you shine, made you able to tell the world that you believe Jesus is the Son of God. God has made you shine. You are connected.

God is in you, and you are in God.

This is true for you whether you feel it or not. This is true for you whether your life is a celebration right now or not. This is true for you whether you’ve been bad or good, because God has been making his list, checking it twice, and every time you’re on His list, you’re on the list of people that He has saved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You’re on the list of people He lives in and who live in Him. You’re on the list, because of His power, His Spirit, because He makes you shine, He connects you to Himself.

So if you’ve ever felt like you’re not connected to God, if something this year has left you feeling disconnected from God, I want you to remember these lights. I want you to remember that you are connected to a source of power, God’s power by His Holy Spirit. I want you to remember that you are shining with evidence of God in you, shining every time that you tell the world or show the world that you believe Jesus is Lord. You have power and shine with God, because He has connected you to Himself.

If you came here tonight and weren’t sure if you’re really connected to God, I hope that you have heard assurance for your soul, assurance from God, assurance that He lives in you by His Spirit. And if you are struggling in your faith, struggling to believe that God is in you, I hope that you will talk to someone about this—talk to the person you came to church with, talk to a Christian friend, talk to me, but talk to someone, get connected, and see how God is working in your life, how God is here for you, how God does forgive you and give you the promise of eternal life. Because each of you is one of these lights. You are one of these lights. You are connected to God because of what Jesus has done for you. You have His Spirit and you shine. Praise God that you are one of these lights. Amen.

Normally we would stand for the Apostles’ Creed, but I want you to stay seated, because I want you to be able to see these lights. As you confess your faith in God, I want to remember that you are these lights, you are shining with God, you are connected to God, you have His Spirit in you.

Psalm 24 - “The Field is Ours”

Fourth Sunday in Advent(Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, December 19, 2010

The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
The Earth is His, the Lord has won the battle for the Earth,
The Lord has defeated the enemies—sin, death, and the devil,
They will no longer win the day,
They will no longer possess God’s people.
Because of what Christ did on the cross,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
God declares the battlefield to be in His hands.

Psalm 24 begins with this declaration of victory:
The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
Psalm 24 begins with declaring God’s ownership, possession of the whole Earth,
It’s like a king in battle declaring that victory is His.
And so,
Since God is our King,
Since God is our Lord,
And since God is declaring victory, declaring that the Earth is still His,
Well, then, we can declare,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.

God created the Earth and everything in it,
But evil forces of sin, death, and the devil threatened to take away God’s Earth,
Threatened to take away God’s people and places,
Threatened to destroy what God had made,
And so God sent His Son, God sent Jesus to win victory for Him.
God sent Jesus to defeat sin, death, and the devil,
God sent Jesus to once and for all time defeat evil,
So that we can shout out the words of Psalm 24,
Shout out those opening words,
Not just as a notice of the facts,
Not just as stating what was true in Genesis,
what was true at the beginning of the world,
This is more than declaring that God created the Earth.
This is declaring that God is victorious,
That the Earth is His,
That everything in it is His,
That the Earth is the Lord’s possession,
That God has victory over sin, death, and the devil,
That nothing can wrest the Earth out of His grasp,
That we are the Lord’s,
That He has declared victory for us,
That we are His people.

But perhaps we’re not sure what this means for us.
Perhaps we’re not entirely sure that we’re a part of that winning team.
We see that God has declared victory over sin, death, and the devil,
And we find ourselves asking, “Can we be a part of that?
Can we be a part of the victory?
Can we be there in that number?
Can we be there when the saints go marching in?
Can we come with You on your victory march, O Lord?”

And the answer comes back in Psalm 24:
Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
The answer is clear that those who are clean and pure,
Those who are without sin are the ones who are victorious with the Lord,
The ones who don’t worship false gods,
Those are the ones who are part of the winning team,
Those are the ones who are marching with God in victory.

And when we hear that answer,
We cry, “Oh, no! I’m not clean,
I’m sinful,
I don’t always respect the Lord.
What will happen to me as the Lord goes marching to victory?
I don’t always trust in the Lord above all things.
Will I not be in that number?
Will I not go marching in with the saints?”

And then the answer comes back:
He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

This is what we trust in,
This is where we gain our confidence,
Not that we have always been clean and pure of heart,
Not that we have always trusted in the Lord above all things;
No, when we consider those things, we have to confess our sins,
Have to confess that we have failed to keep God’s ways.
But where our trust is,
What we trust in,
What we rejoice in,
Is that God blesses us,
That God will give us His righteousness.
We are a part of that number,
We’ll go marching in with the saints,
We’ll go up in victory with the Lord,
Because God has given us His righteousness,
Has covered us with the cleanness and purity of Jesus,
Has given us the true nature of Jesus,
Has made us to be righteous and holy in His sight.

And so that’s why we can say that God’s victory is ours.
That’s why we can rejoice that the Lord is going forward in victory.
That’s why we can say:
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.
We are part of God’s winning team,
We are part of God reclaiming the Earth,
We are part of God renewing the Earth,
We are part of God’s grand plan to restore His people.
Jesus took the field through His death and resurrection,
Jesus took the battlefield,
Jesus took the victory,
And He did this to share it with God’s people,
Did this to bring us with Him in that victory.
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Today you will be with me in victory over sin, death, and the devil.
The field is the Lord’s. The field is ours.
The battlefield is the Lord’s. The battlefield is ours.
The victory is the Lord’s. The victory is ours.

And so here comes the Lord,
Here comes Jesus to be born at Christmas, born to bring that victory,
And so in the Advent spirit,
We realize that in Jesus the Lord is drawing close,
Drawing close to His victory,
And so in the Advent spirit,
We hear the words of Psalm 24,
Hear them as words about the approaching baby in Bethlehem:
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Lift up your heads, look to the sky, look to the Bethlehem star,
Who is this One born to Mary, born in Bethlehem?
He is the Lord Almighty, He is the King of glory,
He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One,
He is the One born to bring about victory,
He is the One born to reclaim the Earth,
He is the One who will win the battle.

So then Advent is preparation to celebrate the victory of our Lord,
The victory that began when Jesus was born,
The victory that Jesus brought by His life, death, and resurrection,
The victory that Jesus had over sin, death, and the devil,
The victory that Jesus shares with us, so that we can say,
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.

But we can also hear these words of Psalm 24,
Hear these words in the Advent spirit,
The spirit of waiting for Christ to come again,
The spirit of Christ bringing final victory over sin, death, and the devil.
In that spirit of the Second Advent, hear these words again:
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
Lift up your gates, lift up the gates of the Earth,
Pull back the skies, pull back the clouds,
Pull back the heavens and reveal Jesus coming again,
Jesus coming with all of His glory and power,
Jesus coming again to bring about final victory over sin, death, and the devil,
To bring about the destruction of evil,
To bring an end to the dying,
To bring an end to all those things which drag us away from the Father,
Lift up your gates, lift up the gates of the Earth,
Reveal Jesus coming again in His Second Advent,
Reveal Jesus coming to rescue His people, to take us to Himself forever,
Reveal Jesus coming to His people and giving us these words to say:
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.

So declare victory with me today,
Rejoice in the Lord’s victory today,
See that His victory is your victory.
We sing words about His final victory,
We’re not just saying that Earth is His because He made it a long time ago,
We’re saying that the Earth is His because He reclaimed it by the cross,
We’re saying that the Earth and everything in it is His because He won,
He has the victory.
He has given that victory to you.
He has given that victory to all of the people around you.
He has given that victory to all people.
He has given tremendous, incredible, eternal victory
to all people who believe in His Name.

Look up, lift up your heads, and watch for the victorious Lord to come.
Live your lives with your eyes to the skies.
Live your lives with your eyes to the skies
Expecting victory,
Expecting the glorious Lord to come and bring His victory to us,
Expecting the victorious Lord to come and bring us to be with Him forever.
Look up, lift up your heads, and sing with all your might.
Sing that
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.

And that’s what we’ll sing now,
Those are the words of victory that we’ll sing in a final stanza of the hymn of the day,
We’ll sing:
Christ Jesus, Lord and Savior, come,
I open wide my heart, your home.
Oh, enter with your radiant grace,
On my life’s pattern shine your face,
And let your Holy Spirit guide
To gracious vistas rich and wide.
Our God, we praise your name,
Forevermore the same.
Look up, lift up your heads, and sing.
Look up, lift up your heads and sing that
The field is ours. The battlefield is ours. The victory is ours.

Psalm 146 - “Savior of the Smushed”

Third Sunday in Advent (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, December 12, 2010

Do you ever feel like a grilled cheese sandwich? I don’t mean a really good grilled cheese sandwich, with gourmet cheese and grilled to perfection. I mean, do you ever feel like this kind of grilled cheese sandwich? (Pull out sandwich from box). Do you ever feel like this kind of grilled cheese sandwich—the kind that’s been burnt and smushed? The kind that’s old and cold? The kind that had to be scraped from the pan? Do you ever feel like that? Burnt and smushed?

Well, if you feel burnt and smushed, the first thing you need in your life is a spatula (pull out spatula from box),, something to scrape you up from the ground.

OK, maybe you’ve never thought of yourself as a smushed grilled cheese sandwich, but you have to admit it—you’ve felt like that sometimes. Sometimes when life has really gotten you down, sometimes when life has run you over, sometimes when life just crushed you, you’ve felt burnt and smushed.

And that’s what came to mind when I was reading Psalm 146 this week. I read the Psalm, and I imagined that Jesus is the spatula and we’re the smushed sandwich. Psalm 146 verse 8 says, “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.” Don’t you hear it? “The Lord lifts up” (motion with spatula) “those who are bowed down,” in other words, those who are smushed. The Lord lifts up those who are smushed. And a burnt and smushed grilled cheese sandwich is certainly a sad sight.

If you’re feeling like a smushed sandwich today, Psalm 146 is coming with a lot of hope, the hope of Jesus being the One to lift you up, Jesus being the spatula to scrape you off the ground, lift you up, and save you. “The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.” Jesus is the uplifter. Jesus is the spatula. Jesus is your Savior. Jesus saves us from sin, death, and the devil, saves us from the things that smush us.

And whatever is leaving you feeling smushed, pretty much every category gets covered in the vision of Psalm 146, the vision of the Messiah that comes to save people, the vision of the Lord saving all kinds of smushed people.

Take a look at Psalm 146 in your bulletins. Notice all of the different situations that the Lord saves people from. He saves people who are oppressed, hungry, prisoners, blind, bowed down, alien, fatherless, and widowed. In other words, he saves the smushed. He saves all kinds of smushed people.

And it’s not so much about finding yourself in one of those categories. These aren’t the only categories that God is concerned about. This is representative of what God can do. So you feel like you’re experiencing some unique kind of smushness. Well, be assured. Jesus the spatula is coming to save you, too. This list, this list of categories, it’s not meant to cover everything. Instead, it’s meant to show that Jesus is going to save people from all kinds of smushness. It’s about seeing that the Lord comes to save all people, save people from whatever kind of smushness they find themselves in. He is the spatula. He is the Savior of the Smushed.

Saving people from smushness, that’s the sign, that’s the signal of the Messiah. Psalm 146 shows that the Lord will come to save people from their difficulties. Psalm 146 points to all of these ways that the Lord will save His people. It’s a promise of the Messiah; it’s a promise of the great things that God is going to do through the Messiah. Saving people from smushness, that’s the sign.

So then in our Gospel reading for the day, the reading from Matthew, John the Baptist is in prison. He sends his disciples to Jesus, sends them to find out if Jesus is the Messiah.

And John knew the Scriptures, knew the signs of the Messiah, so when the disciples come back with the answer from Jesus, John knows exactly what Jesus is saying. Jesus answers in a way that’s similar to the list of Psalm 146, Jesus says, “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[a] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” In other words, the smushed are finding hope and salvation. The Savior of the Smushed has come. Jesus is fulfilling the promises of the Old Testament, all of the promises about God saving His people.

What joy John must have had when he heard this answer. What joy he must have had knowing that the Savior had come, that he had prepared people for His coming, that God had used him in the divine plan of salvation. What joy he must have had knowing that Jesus was healing people and calling people to believe in the Father. What joy—and John clearly needed that joy being locked away in prison. In fact, if John was thinking about Psalm 146, he would remember that the Lord would come to set the prisoners free.

Except John was never set free. John ends up being beheaded. So then it looks like Jesus came to save some of the smushed, save some of the poor, free some of the prisoners, feed some of the hungry, but he didn’t come to save all of the smushed. These are certainly signs that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is fulfilling the promise of the Old Testament, but it looks like God isn’t going to intervene for everyone. And that conclusion could leave us really struggling in our faith. In fact, there must have been times when John the Baptist struggled in his faith, wondering why the Lord was leaving him there in prison, leaving him there to die.

And that’s probably the hardest thing about this message, that Jesus is the Savior of the Smushed, that’s the hardest part: we can’t see it. How do we declare that Jesus is the Savior of the Smushed when people are still hungry, oppressed, poor, and prisoners? How do we say that Jesus is the Savior of the Smushed when His followers still suffer? How do we say that Jesus is our Savior when we still get smushed in life? (Solicit answers).

That’s right, our hope in Jesus isn’t just for today. It isn’t just for the here and now. In the here and now, you and I might continue to feel like smushed sandwiches. We might still get burnt and smushed by life. But what we believe, what we hope in, isn’t that Jesus is going to make all of those troubles go away. Jesus doesn’t automatically make our lives perfect and happy. Jesus gives us the hope that one day, one day He will rescue us, one day He will reach down with His spatula to lift us up forever.

When Jesus was out healing the lame, giving sight to the blind, helping the poor, He was giving glimpses of His glory, glimpses of His power, glimpses of the future, glimpses of what He will do in the end. Jesus didn’t come to just make this life a better place. Sometimes He intervenes and changes our things in our lives; sometimes we suffer through things.

But the reason Jesus came was to give us eternal life, eternal hope, eternal peace. Jesus came to be the Savior of the Smushed for eternity. Jesus came so that when we die, we will no longer be smushed, we will live with Him forever, we will live in a new world where we will no longer be smushed.

So in that way, Psalm 146 is a vision of the future, a vision of eternity. It’s not only a prophecy, a promise of what Jesus would do while here on Earth. It’s not only a prophecy, a promise of what Jesus would do for His followers through all generations. It’s a prophecy, a promise of what Jesus will do for eternity. That’s the real vision here.

And that’s what we tell the world, that’s what we tell our friends and family who don’t understand, that’s what we tell them when they wonder how we can call Jesus the spatula when we’re still getting smushed. How can we believe that Jesus will lift us up when we’re still getting burnt in the pan? How can we trust that Jesus is going to save us when we’re still ending up smushed by life?

Well, that’s when we tell people that our faith isn’t just for the here and now. Our faith isn’t just about what Jesus has done for us lately. Our faith isn’t just about whether Jesus is going to make life better now.

Our faith is about the future. Our faith is about what Jesus will ultimately do. Our faith is about not being burnt and smushed for eternity. Our faith is knowing that Jesus will lift us up to be with Him forever. Our faith is for the future. Our faith is for the Second Advent, for the Second Coming, for the time when Jesus will return to take us to be with Him forever.

And in that way, in that way, we get through being smushed now. That’s what keeps us going in the face of being burnt and smushed by the things that happen from day to day. We get through these days, because Jesus has promised to be the One who will lift up those who are bowed down, will lift up the ones who are smushed.

So take your faith with you today. Take your faith not because Jesus is going to make everything work out for you. There are still going to be times when you are burnt and smushed by life. There are times when you will feel like a smushed grilled cheese sandwich.

Instead, take your faith with you today, because you know that ultimately your Savior has come and will come again. Your Savior will lift you up for eternity. The Savior of the Smushed will give you eternal life. The Savior of the Smushed will rescue you from sin, death, and the devil. The Savior of the Smushed gives you hope for what happens when you die. The Savior of the Smushed has promised to rescue you no matter what has smushed you, no matter what kind of smushness you find yourselves in.

Rejoice in the Savior of the Smushed. Rejoice that He is your Spatula. Rejoice that the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down.

Psalm 72:1-7 - “Jesus: The King of Psalm 72”

Second Sunday in Advent (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, December 5, 2010


Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does it successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till moon shall wax and wane no more.

Published in 1719, Isaac Watts wrote that hymn as a metrical paraphrase of Psalm 72, a way of putting a Hebrew psalm into an English hymn. This, in itself, wasn’t that surprising in those days in England. For the English people had been singing English psalms for awhile. What was different about Watts was that he was breaking out, he was doing something with the psalms that wasn’t being done before. Whereas before the hymns stuck very close to the words of the psalm and the church had stressed that they only use the psalms in their worship, now Watts came along and made a significant change.

Oh, Watts still was using psalms, but notice what’s so significant about his version of Psalm 72. The difference is right there in the first line. “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun.” Do you see the significant change that Watts made to his translation of Psalm 72?

That’s right. He uses the Name of Jesus where the psalm, of course, doesn’t.

Watts must have been very aware of this big step, because when he published the hymn, his introduction to it explains his reasoning, explains that he uses the Name of Jesus in his version of Psalm 72 because we live in the New Testament era, we live after Christ, we live now knowing that the Old Testament pointed to Jesus Christ. So where Psalm 72 talks about the coronation of a great king, where Psalm 72 talks about what this king will do, we can see that it means the king is Jesus. Jesus is the King of Psalm 72.

Well, this was kind of dangerous territory. This was going beyond using psalms in worship. This was like writing a hymn for worship, and the Church at the time in England was only using psalms if they even used music. There was such a fear of using something that wasn’t directly from Scripture, such a fear that they kept themselves from using hymns unless they were translations of the psalms.

Watts was in dangerous territory, because he was expanding his version of Psalm 72 to include the Name of Jesus, expanding his version to be more like a Christian hymn rather than just repeating what Scripture says exactly. Watts was in dangerous territory for the situation in the Church at his time, but Watts wasn’t doing anything truly dangerous. Rather, he was recognizing the truth in Scripture, the truth that all of the Old Testament points to Jesus, that Jesus fulfills all of the Old Testament promises.

You see, theologically, this really isn’t dangerous territory. Jesus is the King of Psalm 72. Even if the psalm was originally written about Solomon or some other king of Israel, even if the psalm was originally used at the coronation at the king of Israel, still the psalm is saying more than can be said about an earthly king. The psalm is pointing to truths beyond an earthly king. The king of Psalm 72 is endowed, gifted with righteousness and justice that flows to all of the people. The king will reign forever, as long as the sun, till moons shall wax and wane no more. This is more than we can hope for from an earthly king. Instead, there’s something cosmic going on here.

Something cosmic, something divine. There’s a promise here in Psalm 72 of something grand, a grand design that goes beyond this world. There’s a promise here in Psalm 72 of a way in which God will bring about His righteousness and justice, will bring about His rule over all the Earth.

And that’s the thing, that’s why Watts could pen a hymn based on Psam 72 and include the name of Jesus, that’s why we can be confident that ultimately Jesus is the King of Psalm 72, the reason is that the psalm points to cosmic consequences of the king’s reign. The king will reign will righteousness and justice, and that righteousness and justice will flow to all people.

That’s the cosmic consequence for us: righteousness and justice in our lives. A righteousness that the King has and gives to us. This psalm points to a cosmic consequence, points to a king that can give righteousness to His people, points to a time when the righteousness of God will flow to the people like fruit growing on the hills. Righteousness will flourish and last forever. Righteousness will abound in the land.

That cosmic consequence begins with the fact that the king is endowed, is gifted with righteousness and justice. Those things are given to the king, God gives those things to the king, so that the king is righteous and just. That’s what we see truly happen in Jesus. Jesus is the King of Psalm 72, He is the One who is righteous and just, He is the true and honorable king.

But this king, it’s not just about the king; it’s not just about what the king has. God endows the king with righteousness and justice, God gives these things to the king, so that He will in turn give them to the people. God’s righteousness and justice flow through the King, flow through Him to the people.

Again, that’s the cosmic consequence for us. We are righteous in God’s sight because of Jesus. We have been given His righteousness. God’s righteousness, His holiness, His rightness comes to us through Jesus. We are made right in God’s sight through the King, the King of Psalm 72, through Jesus Christ.

That kind of cosmic consequence couldn’t happen through any other king but Jesus. That’s why Watts can write the hymn about Jesus and still have it be a version of Psalm 72. Watts puts into words what our theology already teaches, puts into words what we already know to be true, puts into words this great truth that the Great King has come in the person of Jesus, the Great King has come to bring us righteousness and justice, prosperity and hope.

You see, we believe that when Jesus was born, there were great cosmic consequences for the people of the world. Jesus wasn’t just some feel good teacher who taught us how to live. Jesus didn’t just leave us with instructions on how to live our lives. That’s what many people may believe about Jesus, but we believe that Jesus brought about cosmic consequences for the world. Everything spiritually changed for us when Jesus entered the world. Our entire spiritual, cosmic, eternal situation changed when Jesus was born.

That’s why it’s no problem for us to see that Jesus is the King of Psalm 72. Psalm 72 talks about cosmic consequences of what happens when the king rules, when the king reigns over the kingdom. This isn’t just some other king; this isn’t just superfluous, exaggerated language about the reign of a king. This psalm points to great things happening through the reign of a king; this psalm points to things completely changing for the people and the Earth, the people are given righteousness and justice, the Earth becomes prosperous, the king defends the poor and oppressed, all of these cosmic consequences take place during the reign of the king, and so Jesus has to be the King of Psalm 72.

So that’s what I want you to take away today from reading Psalm 72: Jesus is the King of Psalm 72 and He brings with Him cosmic consequences. The Cosmic Consequence of Christmas. That’s what I want you to remember this Advent Sunday.

For instance, how many of you are familiar with “A Christmas Carol” by Ebenezer Scrooge. Right. It’s the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy man who doesn’t believe in Christmas. He sees a vision of three ghosts that show him the error of his ways, scare him about future, and Scrooge wakes up a changed man, wakes up on Christmas Day ready to give to the poor and celebrate the season with friends.

What do we usually think is the moral of the story, the point of the story?

Share. Be generous. Live for others.

Now we could debate whether Charles Dickens meant for there to be something more to the story than this, whether he meant to story to point to Christ in a richer way, but suffice to say, we’re usually just concerned about not being a Scrooge, about sharing with others.

And if Christmas only is about that, if Christmas is just about learning how to share with others, we’ve missed the cosmic consequence of the event. Christmas is not just about getting us to share with others. Christmas is first and foremost about what God shared with us, about what happens because Jesus was born, about the cosmic consequences, the spiritual reality change that took place through Christ. Christmas doesn’t just change our day-to-day actions; Christmas changes our eternal destination, our relationship with God, our cosmic reality.

Through the righteousness of the King, through the righteousness of Jesus, now we are righteous in God’s sight. Through the work of the King, the Earth will be renewed and made whole again. Through the work of the King, the poor and oppressed will be lifted up and rescued. Through the King of Psalm 72, through Jesus, there will be great cosmic consequences, cosmic prosperity, cosmic safety, cosmic life, eternal life.

Now “Jesus Shall Reign” isn’t really an Advent or Christmas hymn normally, but since Psalm 72 is appointed for today in the church calendar, it becomes an Advent hymn. It’s a celebration of the coronation of Jesus. Jesus who was crowned as King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Jesus who was born to become the King. Psalm 72 celebrates the great eternal event that took place 2000 years ago on a night in Bethlehem.

Psalm 122 - “Let Us Go to the Kingdom of the Lord”

First Sunday in Advent (Year A - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, November 28, 2010

This Advent we’re going to be focusing on the psalms appointed for each Sunday, looking to see how the psalms, the hymn book of the Old Testament, how these psalms prepare us for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

Of course, Advent is more than just about waiting to celebrate Christmas. Advent is also a season that reminds us that we’re waiting for Christ to return again, waiting for Him to return and bring us to eternal life with Him. Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and so Advent prepares us to celebrate when Jesus came the first time, arrived at Christmas—His first Advent. But Advent is also about waiting and watching for that Second Advent, waiting for Christ to return to bring this world to an end and bring us to the new world, the eternal life, a promise we have because of what Jesus did on the cross, a promise of living forever with God because our sins are forgiven.

With all of that in mind, we could decide that Psalm 122 is a good psalm for Advent because of verse 1: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’” It’s a verse to encourage people to go to church, and Advent certainly is a time of encouraging people to come back to church if they’ve been away, it’s a time to be in church and prepare for Christ returning, a time to be in church not just for Christmas but also a part of your weekly routine. Advent is a time to renew your commitment to church, and so maybe that’s why Psalm 122 is chosen: “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

But then that would mean the original meaning of the psalm was just about going to the temple, was just about going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the feasts. And that doesn’t seem quite right, because if you look at Psalm 122, it does talk about Jerusalem, the focus is on being in Jerusalem, but there seems to be something more going on. The psalm identifies Jerusalem with joy, justice, peace, and security. That’s more than a city can offer.

Joy, justice, peace, and security. We’re not just talking about the city of Jerusalem. This psalm is talking about what it means to come to God, what it means to have faith in God. This psalm is pointing to Jerusalem as a symbol for coming to God. Joy, justice, peace, and security, those are things that we can only truly find in God.

So if Psalm 122 isn’t just talking about going to Jerusalem, if Psalm 122 is really talking about having faith in the true God, then when it comes to our lives, Psalm 122 isn’t just about going to church in Advent. It’s about faith in Jesus. It’s about finding joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus. It’s about having faith in Jesus as we wait for Second Advent. When the psalm says that we have joy when people say, “Let us go to the house of the Lord,” we’re talking about something deeper. We’re talking about what it means to have faith in God, to go to God in faith, to have a relationship with Him. So it’s more than saying, “Let’s go to church.” It’s saying, “Let’s go to God in faith.” It’s saying, “Let’s go to the eternal house of the Lord.” “Let’s go to the Kingdom of God.”

That’s the promise that comes to you. That’s the promise we celebrate every day, but we especially can see this in Advent. We celebrate the promise of the eternal house of the Lord in Advent, in knowing that there’s a Second Advent. We celebrate that because Jesus came the first time, so then we’ll go with Him when He comes a second time. We celebrate that there’s forgiveness and mercy for us at the Last Day. We celebrate that we do not need to be afraid of the Last Day. We can rejoice in the Last Day, rejoice that Christ is coming to take us to be with Him forever.

That’s the promise that comes to you, and that’s the promise that we can hear in the words of Psalm 122. More than being about the earthly Jerusalem, it’s a hymn of rejoicing about the heavenly Jerusalem. It’s a hymn of rejoicing about the true joy, justice, peace, and security we will have in the New Jerusalem.

This seems good and right to me, because I’m not interested in people coming to Bethel Lutheran Church. I’m not interested in growing the congregation.

You heard me right. I, your pastor, am not that interested in growing Bethel Lutheran Church. I’m not that interested in growing the congregation.

I’m not interested in that as much as I am interested in Kingdom Growth, more people becoming part of the Kingdom of God, more people having faith in Jesus. I want people to be in the New Jerusalem, the new world, the life after death that they can only have if they have faith in Jesus.

I know, it’s a whole different way to think. We’re kinda programmed to think it terms of how we can grow our congregation, get our congregation to be bigger, and honestly, I do think about that, too.

But what I see in Psalm 122, what I see in Advent is that this shouldn’t be our primary goal. Our primary goal can’t be getting people into Bethel Lutheran Church. Our primary goal has to be seeing that people hear about Jesus, hear about how to be in His Kingdom. Our primary goal is telling people that they can have that joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus Christ.

Remember: Psalm 122 is not about going up to the temple; it’s about faith in God. And our message isn’t just about coming to Bethel Lutheran Church; it’s about faith in Jesus, being a part of the Kingdom of God.

It’s a whole different way of thinking. It’s Advent thinking. It’s rejoicing to be in the house of the Lord—and really we mean, it’s rejoicing to be in the Kingdom of God.

Do you know what I mean? Our first priority isn’t Bethel Lutheran. Our first priority is that people are in the Kingdom of God. That’s why we support missionaries including Heather Wickstrom who will be going to Greece. That’s why we support our District and Synod, the missions that happen through the District and Synod. None of those things helps Bethel Lutheran Church get bigger. But we do them because we’re most interested in making sure that people get to know Jesus, and if there are some missionaries out there spreading the Word of God, well, we come along and support them in their work.

Do you know what I mean? We’re interested in Kingdom Growth, not Church Growth. We’re interested in people coming to the eternal Jerusalem, coming to the eternal house of the Lord, more than we’re interested in having them come to Bethel Lutheran Church on Grand Avenue. That’s why as much as I want you to invite friends to church, and inviting friends to church may be one of the best ways to introduce someone to the faith, and in the process, your friends may get to know Jesus, as much as I will keep encouraging you to invite friends to church, your primary goal should be helping your friends find a place to worship Jesus. Not everyone will find that Bethel is going to be their place of worship, but we certainly want our friends to know Jesus, to be involved somewhere in their faith, to be someplace where they are hearing the Word of God on a regular basis. That’s Advent thinking; that’s being focused on the Kingdom.

That’s why when people stop coming to Bethel or when visitors don’t keep coming to Bethel, we’re disappointed, but our biggest concern is whether those people are worshipping elsewhere. Our concern has to be on their eternal spiritual life—and not just their temporary spiritual life, whether they are at our congregation or not. We want to know that those people who are not coming to Bethel are involved in a church somewhere, are still in the faith, still have the promise of eternal life.

It’s a whole different way to think; it’s Advent thinking. It’s rejoicing to be in the house of the Lord—and really we mean, it’s rejoicing to be in the Kingdom of God.

Because let me be direct for a moment: as Christians, we want other people to also have faith in Jesus. That’s the bottom line. No matter what other things we might do as Christians and as a congregation, the bottom line is that we want people to believe in Jesus so that they too can go up to the eternal house of the Lord, so that they can have true joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus.

That bottom line affects how I read Psalm 122, so that I don’t just see it as being about going to Jerusalem. It’s about going to the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city.

That bottom line, wanting others to believe in Jesus, that bottom line affects how I see Advent. Advent isn’t just about preparing to celebrate Christmas; Advent is a reminder that the clock is ticking, the time is coming closer, that Jesus is going to return, that people who don’t have faith in Jesus will go to hell, that there are people around us who don’t have true joy, justice, peace, and security in their lives.

That’s what I mean by Advent thinking. That’s what it means to be more concerned about Kingdom Growth than Church Growth. That’s what it means to be read Psalm 122 through the eyes of Advent, through the eyes of faith.

And Advent thinking begins with rejoicing in what you have in Christ, rejoicing that you have been invited to the New Jerusalem, rejoicing that you will go to the eternal house of the Lord, rejoicing that you have true joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus.

Advent thinking, Kingdom Growth thinking means rejoicing in what you have and then remembering that you want others to have that same thing, that you want others to have that hope of eternal life, too. It means remembering that Christ is going to come back, that Christ will return, there’s a Second Advent, and you want the people around you to go to the eternal house of the Lord, too.

And Advent thinking, Kingdom Growth thinking begins with remembering that bottom line, remembering that you want people to have life after death, remembering that you have the promise of life after death, remembering that you have true joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus. Advent thinking starts with remembering what you have, and then seeing how God calls on us to share this with the world, share this with the people around us.

So go and invite someone to church. Go and tell them the joy you have when you go to church. But more than that, go and invite someone to go to the eternal house of the Lord, invite someone into the Kingdom of God, invite someone to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, invite someone to know true joy, justice, peace, and security in Jesus. And when they come with you, or when they go somewhere to worship, sing Psalm 122 together, rejoice together that you have the New Jerusalem through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 95:1-7a - “Crash of Words”

This sermon was inspired, in part, by a quote from Marvin E. Tate’s Word Biblical Commentary XX (Psalms 51-100) where Tate says: “The Psalm opens with a crash of words: The psalmist calls upon his hearers to ‘shout’ and ‘sing aloud.’”

Thanksgiving Eve
Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.
It’s a crash of words, a crash of words and sounds, a crash for our Lord.
This praise, this thanksgiving, this hymn of praise we offer,
It’s a crash of words ringing and singing the Name of the Lord
Forever to be praised.

There’s joy from knowing our Lord,
Joy from knowing that He is our Lord and we are His people,
So let us speak up, sing out, shout out, lift our voices,
Let us shout the Name of the Lord for He is the Rock of our Salvation—
Christ the Rock, Jesus the Savior, Immanuel the Redeemer,
The Rock of our Salvation who died upon the cross,
Died and rose again,
Died and rose again to the shouts of great rejoicing in heaven,
So now, so now, let us lift our voices, too.

Thank, praise, extol, raise,
Sing with all our might,
Sing with all our hearts,
Sing with all our soul,
For the Lord has been good to us—so good to us,
The Lord has done everything we need for salvation,
The Lord has brought us back from the depths of death,
Certain eternal death,
Has brought us back so that we have the promise of forever life with Him.

Thank, praise, extol, raise,
Declare, sing, echo, ring,
Let everything that is in us praise the Lord.

This crash of words,
This hymn that crashes words together,
This psalm of praise,
This psalm is on our lips for this evening of thanksgiving.
Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.

Praise, sing, praise,
Come on, let’s go, let’s go before the Lord, let’s go before our Maker,
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
Let’s go and thank Him for all that He’s done for us—
From the creation of the world until now,
Let’s thank Him for all of the ways He provides for us,
Let’s thank Him, praise Him, raise His Name to the heights of sound.
This crash of words is cranked to 10,
The volume cannot be higher,
Blow out the speakers trying to raise enough praise to match what He has done—
And we’ll never match it—
But we’re gonna have a good time trying.
We’re gonna shout out, speak out, sing out,
Let our lives shine with the joy that we have in Christ.
We’re going to shine with praise, shine and beam and smile and laugh and rejoice.

And when have shouted with all our might,
We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion,
Exhausted from dancing and singing and ringing
and drumming and making noise to the Lord,
We’ll collapse in exhaustion,
And then we’ll bow down before the Lord—

Take a breath.

Relax.

Rest in Him.

We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion,
And then we’ll kneel before the Lord our Maker—

Take a breath.

Relax.

Rest in Him.

We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion and stop and pray,
Stop and pray and listen,
Listen to what the Lord has to say,
Listen to the ways that the Lord is working in our lives,
Listen to what God has to say in His Word.
We’ll collapse in exhaustion, that good kind of exhaustion,
And the Lord will be there, too.

But that good kind of exhaustion also leaves you vulnerable,
Leaves you open to reflecting on your life,
Leaves you open to seeing just what God has done in your life,
Leaves you open to the pains that are still there,
Leaves you open before the Lord, realizing just how much you need Him.
You need the Lord.
All of that singing and ringing and drumming, all of that noise to the Lord,
Well, it brings you to that point again of realizing just how much you need the Lord.
And in this moment of vulnerability,
In this moment of taking a breath and relaxing before the Lord,
In this moment of listening to the Lord,
You hear the word that you need,
You hear that the Lord is our Shepherd and we are His sheep,
We are His flock,
We are under His care,
We can rest and be assured of His constant care.
When we find ourselves vulnerable, open, and honest about who we are,
Just when we realize just how fragile and broken and sinful and forlorn we are,
Just then, we find ourselves in His flock.
And no matter what happens to us, no matter what danger we’re open to,
We’ll still find ourselves in His flock.

You see, we don’t praise the Lord today because everything is always so great,
Because certainly we know everything isn’t always great.
We aren’t thankful for everything that happens in our lives,
There’s plenty of things that we’d rather not see, rather not experience,
There’s plenty of things that we’re not adding to our thankful list,
There’s plenty of things that we’ve seen plenty of—take them away Lord!
So we don’t praise the Lord today because everything is always so great,
We praise the Lord because through all things, in all things,
He is still our Lord,
He is still our Shepherd,
He is still our Maker,
He is our sustainer, provider, caretaker,
He will be our guard on high.
So when we have come to the limit of our strength and energy,
So when we take a breath and rest and look up,
We will find the Lord watching over us, caring for us, guarding us.
And it’s from that moment of being in His flock, being safe under His guard,
It’s from that moment that our praise arises.

His care picks us back up.
His care raises our spirits.
His care renews our energy.
His care calls us back to where we started this whole song.
His care calls us back to make noise unto the Lord for all that He has done.
We’re under His care—Give Thanks!
He is guarding us, body, mind, and soul—Give Thanks!
We are the sheep of His flock—Give Thanks!
Give Thanks! Let the song begin again.

Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.
It’s a crash of words, a crash of words and sounds, a crash for our Lord.
This praise, this thanksgiving, this hymn of praise we offer,
It’s a crash of words ringing and singing the Name of the Lord
Forever to be praised.

Praise, sing, praise,
Come on, let’s go, let’s go before the Lord, let’s go before our Maker,
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
Let’s go and thank Him for all that He’s done for us—
From the creation of the world until now,
Let’s thank Him for all of the ways He provides for us,
Let’s thank Him, praise Him, raise His Name to the heights of sound.

Colossians 1:13-20 - “Reconcile”

Last Sunday of the Church Year (Year C - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, November 21, 2010

I was sitting on a bench outside the bank in Evanston. This was my senior year at Northwestern, I was saving up money to buy Susan’s engagement ring, and I had just found out that I had overdrafted my bank account for the second time in a month. It was time that I started taking math seriously. It was time to actually reconcile my bank statements and my checkbook.

This was in the days before overdraft protection. This was in the days of needing every dollar I had between buying textbooks and buying that engagement ring. This was in the days when an overdraft charge really, really hurt. This was in the days when two overdraft charges in a month really, really, really hurt.

I was sitting on that bench outside of the bank, and I was feeling pretty glum. The big bank building was at my back. I didn’t want to look at the bank. I didn’t want to look at my checkbook. I didn’t want to face what I had done. I didn’t want to reconcile my bank statement and my checkbook, but it was time to do some reconciling. It was time to make sure things were adding up. It was time to stop just fudging the math and hoping it would work out alright. It was time to take reconciling accounts seriously.

Sometimes when we hear about the end of the world, it feels like we’re sitting outside the big bank wondering how we’re going to reconcile our account. When we think about Jesus coming back to bring an end to this world, we start wondering how we can possibly reconcile our account with Him. We’ve made so many overdrafts, we’ve sinned so much, we’ve gone against Him in so many ways, and well, it’s hard to believe that we’ll be able to reconcile this. It’s hard to know how we could possibly make the situation right.

But when we hear about the end of the world, we think that we must reconcile with God, we must be the ones to take action, we must make the situation right.

Except with God, there’s true overdraft protection. You have sinned, you have overdrawn your account, and He makes it right, He reconciles your account. With banks, with overdraft protection, usually that just means you’re borrowing from your own savings account or borrowing from the bank. The bank isn’t giving you anything for free.

But with God, with our spiritual account, it is a true overdraft protection. He gives us a righteousness and holiness to fill up our account, a righteousness and holiness that isn’t ours but He gives it to us to keep. God takes the initiative. He takes action to make us right. He takes action to reconcile us to Himself.

Look again at Colossians chapter 1, verses 19-20. See how it is God’s action that does the reconciling, the balancing of accounts, God does the overdraft protection.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Or if we go on in Colossians, because Paul continues there talking about reconciliation. In verses 21-23, he says:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

God reconciles our accounts. He makes the empty, overdrawn accounts to be full again. He makes the sinners to be righteous again. God does the action. That’s true overdraft protection.

But man, it’s hard. We hear those end of the world passages, we hear about Jesus coming back, and we think that we’ve got TO DO something in order to make sure that Jesus will take us to be with Him. We think that we have to get right with God. You and me, spiritually, we find ourselves sitting outside the bank, wondering how we’re going to reconcile our account, thinking of all the actions we’re going to take to get right with God.

In 2001 country singer Lucinda Williams won a Grammy Award for her song, “Get Right with God.” It’s a country Gospel song whose chorus says just that, “I’ve got to get right with God.” The whole song talks about ways that people try to get right with Jesus in some off-the-wall ways, by handling snakes and walking on hot coals and sleeping on beds of nails. We’ll start to believe that getting right with God is like that, that you have TO DO some out of the ordinary things, that you’ve got to prove your faith, that you’ve got to put yourself on the line in order to reconcile yourself to God.

The song, I don’t know, I don’t think the song actually supports the idea, but rather is kind of second-guessing this idea that snakes and coals and beds of nails can make you right with God, but the chorus, the chorus seems to speak of the true desire, the desire to be right with God. Sure, these off-the-wall ways might be the wrong ways, but the desire is still there, the desire to be right with God, the desire to make ourselves reconciled to God.

It’s like the people surrounding the Colossians in the days when Paul wrote his letter to them. The Colossians were surrounded by a culture, a Greek culture, that had always focused on people taking action to get right with the gods. The people had to do something to be right with the gods, to keep the gods from being angry. That was how you got reconciled with the gods. You did something—you sacrificed something, you gave up something, you did something, you followed some ritual, you did some action.

And here Paul comes along with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, comes along with something that turns that completely around, makes reconciliation to be God’s action. That’s what God Himself had promised in Jesus Christ. We aren’t able to reconcile ourselves; we aren’t able to make ourselves right with God; we’re not capable of saving ourselves, so God steps in, so God sends His Son, so God does the action to make us right with Himself, does the action of living and dying and rising again.

Again, it’s what Paul says in Colossians:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

That’s true overdraft protection. That’s no snake-handling, walking on coals, sleeping on beds of nails kind of theology. That’s Gospel. That’s Good News. That’s a promise from heaven that God will take care of us, will make our accounts right, will fill us up where we’re empty, will make us righteous where we’re sinful.

So the question is: when do you find yourself trying to get yourself right with God? What do you think you need to do to get right with God? What do you find yourself thinking and doing that makes it seem like being reconciled is your action? Do you find yourself bargaining with God—you’ll do some spiritual actions if God will just fill you up the rest of the way? Do you find yourself planning spiritual steps to take to get back to God? Do you think of your actions as a Christian as actions that get you right with God?

I mean, we talked about this in the last class I had this week with some of our new adult members. The last class is about what it means to live as a Christian. And I said that sometimes you’ll hear Christians talk as if living for Christ means taking the right steps so that we become God’s children. If we do the right things, then we’ll be in God’s family.

But really it’s the opposite, and that’s what this passage in Colossians is showing us too. God has already made us to be His children. God has already taken us into His family. You are righteous and holy in His sight because of what Christ has done for you. Your account is reconciled.

The rest of it, the rest of your life, the part about living for Jesus, that’s all a response. That’s all about rejoicing. That’s all about living as the person God has made you to be.

So when you live for Christ, when you follow Christ with your life, that’s you responding to reconciliation, that’s you responding to what Christ has already done in you. You’re not trying to prove anything. You’re not trying to get right with God. He’s already taken care of that. Now you’re simply living as the person God has made you to be.

For instance, we’re not going to look at those Time and Talent surveys that you filled out today, we’re not gonna look at them and see whether you’re proving yourself to be a Christian. We look at those to see who God has made you to be, how you want to respond with your life, how God is going to use you in the work of His kingdom. It isn’t proof of your status; it’s a response to your status. You are God’s child, so now let’s see how He’s going to use you.

So when you hear talk about the end times, about Jesus coming back, about this world coming to an end, about Judgment Day, I don’t want you think that you’re sitting outside the bank with too many charges against your account and no one to pay them back. I don’t want you to think that you’re got to do a bunch of stuff including off-the-wall things in order to get right with God.

I want you to know that you’ve got a true overdraft protection in Jesus Christ. That your account is reconciled. That you are right with God. That you are righteous and holy in His sight. That He has taken you to be His child. That everything that needed to be done was done by Jesus on the cross.

You have been reconciled to God. Rejoice in that with your life!

Malachi 4:1-6 - “Jump Like a Calf”

25th Sunday after Pentecost(Year C - Lutheran Service Book readings)
Sunday, November 14, 2010

Picture courtesy of www.wildnatureimages.com

This is a rough draft of what I eventually preached. The beginning got people answering the questions, seeing that fattening up a calf in a stall meant it was destined for slaughter.

Why did they put a calf in a stall?

So why would a calf leap and rejoice to be let free from a stall?

This passage in Malachi isn’t a passage for vengeance or judgment or punishment or condemnation or damnation. This passage in Malachi is all about helping the calves see that they can be set free. It’s all about helping the calves see that they are no longer destined to be slaughtered. It’s all about opening that gate and setting those calves free.

You see, Malachi wasn’t sent as a prophet just to announce doom and destruction. Malachi was sent to the people of Israel, sent to bring them back from their sinful ways, sent with a word of warning and a word of hope, sent to cause the people to repent and turn back to God. Through Malachi, God addressed the people, His people, addressed them as His own people. He had not yet given them over to destruction and damnation. There was still time. There was time for them to repent. There was time for them to return to Him.

The passage we have in Malachi today comes from a section where God is pronouncing judgment on the people, but He’s also offering them hope. Notice, if we read it again, notice that instead of saying that the people will be condemned, notice how God speaks to them as God-fearers, as people who fear the Lord, as people who honor and revere Him. Notice what God is doing here. . .

Notice what God is doing here in His speech. He isn’t lumping them all into one heap that’s destined for the fire. No, He’s offering them hope, offering that they are not in that group that will be condemned, He’s offering them the promise of salvation. It’s like the people are calves in stalls and God is pointing out the fact that the gates have been opened. They can go free. They can leap for joy.

Why does God have to point this out? Why does God have to point out His promise of salvation to people who already knew it? Why does God come to the people of the Old Testament over and over again to tell them that He loves them and forgives them and will give them life? Why does God have to tell the calves that the gate is open?

Because from where the calves are, it looks like they’re still trapped. To the people of Israel in the day of Malachi it looked like God wasn’t coming to their rescue. They were under oppression from a foreign empire. Their economic state was in question. They lived in a country that was no longer their own. Their society wasn’t theirs. Their society was overrun by outsiders. AND The Messiah, the Promised One, the Savior of the nation had not shown up yet to save them from the empire.

So the people stared at the fence. They stood in their stalls. They looked at the fence that surrounded them, and they kept forgetting to look behind them, kept forgetting to see that the gate behind them had been opened, and so they stayed in their stalls, stayed like fattened calves destined for slaughter, stayed and never noticed their freedom. Why did God have to tell the calves that they were free to go, free to leap in joy? Because the circumstances of the people’s lives kept them from believing that God was keeping His promise, the circumstances clouded their vision, the circumstances made it seem like God wasn’t going to show up.

But meanwhile, God had been there all along. God had kept that gate open. God had made a way for His people to go free and be saved and be kept from slaughter.

To me, it sounds a lot like where you and I might be today. There’s so many ways in which the fences around us could seem to be our only reality. There’s so many ways that could cause us to easily forget that the gate’s open. There are so many circumstances in our lives that could keep us from believing that God has worked out salvation for us.

You know, we say we trust in God in all things. We say we believe that God will come to the aid of those who love Him. But don’t our circumstances sound a lot like the circumstances that the people of Israel faced, the same questions they had are on our lips. They wondered about the political situation, whether they would be able to continue in their faith, and sometimes it seems like the politics of this world will threaten our faith. The people of Israel suffered under economic uncertainty, and we’re definitely facing those questions today in our country, in our world, in our families. The people of Israel may have felt like society was no longer their society, and as Christians, we may wonder what happened to our voice, where can our faith still be expressed, where has society gone.

The more and more we look around, the more and more it seems like there’s fences all around. The more and more we look around, the more and more it seems like God isn’t showing up, God isn’t keeping His promises, God isn’t watching over His people.

And just when you’re starting to get caught up in all of that worry, caught up in the circumstances, caught up like calf in a pen, caught up and unable to see a way out, caught up in all of those questions, caught up in asking each other where God could possibly be, just when you’re caught up in all of this, God enters your world with this word from Malachi.

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.”

Just when you’re getting caught up in thinking that there’s no possible way out, God comes and again points out that He has opened the gate, that He has sent Jesus who said I am the gate, that Jesus has opened the way to paradise, that through Jesus, through His death on the cross and through His resurrection, through Him we have access to eternal life. Just when you’re getting caught in feeling as if there’s no hope, God thankfully comes with a message of hope.