Author: Higher Things

 by The Rev. Mark T. Buetow

St. John 20:19-31

Sometimes words are just information. For example: I could tell you I had Steak ‘n Shake for lunch last week. Or that Washington crossed the Delaware on a cold, winter night. Or that Perry County had almost 7 inches of rain over a week ago. Those are just facts. Take them or leave them. Maybe they’re true. Maybe they’re not. But sometimes words are more than facts. Words do things. They announce and declare and accomplish. For example, when the boss says, “You’re fired,” your job is over. Or when a jury says to someone on trial, “Not guilty,” that person is set free. Or when the government says, “We’ve found an error on your return and now you owe more money,” then you suddenly have a new debt. Sometimes words are information. Sometimes words actually do or give or accomplish something.

Most often, I think, the words of Jesus and about Jesus are thrown into the first category. We can say that Jesus was born, that He lived and preached and taught and did miracles. That He died on the cross and that He rose and ascended into heaven. But we live as if all those words are just information. Just facts. They sound nice. They tell a nice story. But they don’t do anything. The Christian faith is all about learning the facts and accepting this information as true. But, brothers and sisters in Christ, the Christian faith ISN’T just information. It isn’t just cold, hard facts for you to take or leave. No, true Christian preaching does something. It gives something. It bestows something. It delivers gifts! This is why Jesus appears to His disciples on the evening of Easter and declares to them, “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.” With these words, Jesus establishes the Office of the Holy Ministry for the comfort and forgiveness of sinners and the judgment and call to repentance of the the self-righteous.

We heard Jesus’ words from the cross: “It is finished!” The work of salvation is complete. The water and blood have flowed from Jesus’ side and the sins of the world have been wiped out. The Lamb has been sacrificed. Redemption has been achieved. The price of sins has been paid. The punishment for our iniquities and transgressions has fallen upon Jesus. By His stripes we are healed. By His death our sins are wiped out. By His resurrection we have victory over sin and death. But Jesus’ salvation wouldn’t do us any good and we wouldn’t know anything about it if our Lord had not sent His apostles into the world preaching the Gospel and forgiving sins. If you look at all the other religions of the world, they all teach you some path, some way of life, some rules for making yourself religious. Only in the faith of Christ, only in the Christian church is salvation something that is given out to us from outside ourselves. We don’t have to find it or achieve it. It is given to us. Delivered to us. Given as a gift to us. In the Holy Ministry, the Lord sets apart men to go into the world and to preach that He has died for your sins and risen to life again in victory. These men are given the job of working as Christ’s ambassadors and spokesmen, preaching about what He has done, baptizing, absolving and administering Jesus’ body and blood.

It is in this way, and in this way only, through the word preached and the sacraments, that Jesus comes to us and actually does something with His words: calls us to be sorry for our sins, brings us to repentance and faith in His forgiveness. This is why Jesus sent those disciples out as the first Christian pastors: to forgive the sins of those who repent and to bind the sins of those who refuse to repent. That way, those who are troubled by their sins will have no doubt that their sins don’t stand against them. And those who are not troubled by their sins will have a witness on the Last Day that they were indeed sinners!

And this is why YOU have a pastor. And this is your pastor’s job: to forgive sins and to bind sins. To comfort troubled sinners and to call hard-hearted sinners to repentance. We need to learn what this is all about, brothers and sisters. We need to learn why the Lord gives us pastors and what to expect from our pastors and how they are to carry out the work Christ has given them to do.

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is true good news! When you have sins which weigh you down and trouble you, which seem to loom larger than you and block out the light of your heavenly Father’s face, then run to your pastor. His job is to forgive your sins! If this seems too much or too great a thing for a human being to do, then just listen to Jesus’ words again: “If you forgiven anyone his sins, they are forgiven.” Does this mean that if you want forgiveness, you should talk to your pastor? That’s exactly what it means! Your pastor is not given to you just to give you some information about Jesus, as if he’s nothing more than a salesman to show you the best religion for your money. He’s not here to be your life coach or insurance salesman. My job isn’t arguing politics or even recommending a good TV to buy. The pastors Christ calls to serve His church are to be concerned with one thing: the forgiveness of sins.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord has sent His preachers into His church to bring the comfort of the forgiveness of sins. It’s that simple. If you have sins that trouble you, if you are aware that all you have deserved is eternal death and damnation for your sins, then hear what your pastor has for you: your baptism! The absolution both public and especially private, where you can give voice to the sins which trouble and bother you and have them swept away by Christ’s word of forgiveness. The supper which your pastor gives you, to forgive your sins and by which Christ strengthens you in the faith. If you have sins, if you know you’re a sinner, if your sins trouble you—then you’ve come to the right place. Here there is limitless forgiveness for you. I’ll tell you about your baptism. I’ll remind you what the Scriptures teach about Jesus death and resurrection for you. I’ll absolve you of your sins. I’ll feed you with Jesus’ body and blood. That’s what it means when Jesus says to His ministers, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.” Forgiven, as the catechism reminds us, in heaven as on earth, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

But hear also these words of Jesus. These are the harder words to hear. “If you retain their sins, they are retained.” The ministers of Christ also have this responsibility: to call sinners to repentance and, when they do not want to repent, but live in their sins, hang on to their sins, not give up their sins, in those cases to bind their sins. What does that mean to “bind” or “retain?” It means to speak in Christ’s place to declare that sins are not forgiven. And if such impenitence continues, a person might die in their sins and be eternally condemned. What does this look like? It’s when the pastor comes to you and calls you to repent of what you’re doing. To call you away from sins which, if you keep doing them, will drive you away from Christ. Sometimes a pastor has to do this, just as parents come to their children and warn them their behavior has consequences. Just as a boss might come and warn you that if you don’t do your job you’ll be fired. So a pastor, when he finds out that someone is living in sin, has to go to them and warn them that their sins can be eternally fateful.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: I will try to be as plain as possible. If I discover that you are living in some sin, then my call is to come and warn you away from that sin. To call you to repentance. To tell you to stop doing that sin. If you want to hang on to that sin, then I have no choice but to declare to you that you won’t be forgiven as long as you persist in this sin. It means I won’t be able to give you the sacrament or tell you that your sins are forgiven. How awful! I never want to do that! And I never want you not to care if I do! It is one thing to fall into those sins that we do every day, even our habitual ones, for which we desire to be free and forgiven. It is quite another thing to be told that you are sinning and not care. To keep on doing it no matter what the Word of God says. So there is our repentance: to hear what the word of God says about our sins, to believe it and tremble at our sins and flee to Christ’s Word and holy gifts which make certain our sins are forgiven.

When our Lord tells St. Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” He is speaking about us. We can’t see Jesus with our eyes as Thomas did. Yet He is not far away or gone. He is in His church through the ministry of the Gospel and the Sacraments. To those whose sins aren’t a big deal, that’s no big deal. But to you, whose sins ARE a big deal, a terrible curse, a frightening burden, this is nothing but Good News. For the Lord has not left you to work things out on your own or to get rid of your sins yourself. He hasn’t just sent some information to you to think about. No, He sends you the Holy Ministry, with words that actually do something: Words that make you God’s child. Words that forgive your sins. Words that give you the Savior’s body and blood. Words that save you. Spoken to you for your comfort and salvation. These are the words that can make dry bones come to life because they deliver Jesus who was dead and is now alive. Amen.

The Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, IL, and the Internet Services Executive for Higher Things. He edits the Daily Reflections. He is married and father of three.

by The Rev. Mark Buetow

Dear Christians, on this Friday called “Good,” rejoice in the blood and water that streams from Jesus’ side. The Lamb is pierced. And “it is finished.” There is nothing left to do for your salvation. Nothing left to be done to bring you to the Father. It’s all been done by Jesus. Tonight, it all comes down to this: your sin and Jesus’ water and blood. Your transgressions. Jesus’ water and blood. Your hating God and not loving your neighbor. Jesus’ water and blood. Your breaking of God’s holy commandments and earning everlasting punishment. Jesus’ water and blood. Death and the eternal and awful judgment of God against sin. Jesus’ water and blood. It all comes down to this, through history, to this day, the day our Lord’s side was opened and water and blood flowed out.

It shouldn’t surprise us. The Lord’s been saving people with water and blood since the beginning. Consider the blood of animals shed to make clothes for Adam and Eve. Consider the water of the flood which wiped out the world and saved Noah and His family in the ark. Think of the blood and water which flowed in Egypt, warning Pharaoh to let God’s people go. Then the blood of the lambs painted on the doorposts and the waters of the Red Sea through which Israel walked on dry ground while Egypt was destroyed. Consider the blood and water which flowed freely in the Tabernacle and later the temple as over and over the priests washed in water and sacrificed the animals, shedding their blood. Over and over, always pointing ahead, water and blood were the ways in which the Lord was caring for His people.

And now, on the cross, water and blood. Jesus was born in the flesh. Born of the water of His mother’s womb and shedding the blood of His circumcision. Baptized in the water of the Jordan. Bloodied by the bullies who crucified Him. But finally, there, on the cross, once for all, water and blood. From the side of God’s Son. Who has finished it all. There is nothing to add to that water and blood that came from Jesus’ side. Not our faith. Not our giving our heart to Jesus. Not our good works. Not our good intentions. Not our desire to be saved. Nothing can be added to His water and blood. His water and blood flows and takes with it our sins. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you ever even for the smallest moment, doubt that your sins are terrible and great, then ponder the water and the blood that had to flow from the Son of God to take them away. And if you ever, even for the smallest moment, doubt that your sins are gone, then consider again that water and blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

But the water and blood don’t stop on Calvary. They flow from Jesus side down to the ground, down from that hill. The water flows into the font of Christ’s churches throughout the world. And His blood spills into the chalice of His churches. And there, at the font, from the cup, water and blood are given to you. Put upon you. What flows out of Christ flows upon you and into you, saving you. Your Baptism gives you Jesus. The Supper gives you Jesus. THAT is how you are saved, dear Christian, by the water and blood of Jesus, not just “back then” but here and now, given to you at the holy font and from the holy altar of Jesus. The soldiers pierced Jesus to make sure He was dead. Water and blood flowed so that you would be sure that you are saved. Your Baptism and His Supper are given to you for that purpose: that you never doubt God’s mercy and forgiveness, but cling to them, and live by the water and blood of Jesus.

It’s tempting, as we live in this life, to put Jesus out of our minds most of the day. We live our lives and suppose that faith and religion are all about something going on inside of us. My “believing” or my piety or how I practice my religion. Repent, dear Christian of any thinking or believing or religion or piety that does not include the water and blood of Jesus. Repent of any living that doesn’t acknowledge all that is given to you in Holy Baptism. Repent of any faith and piety that doesn’t include the Supper of Jesus in which His body and blood are given to you. Repent of ever wanting to add anything to His water and blood. It can’t be done. His water and blood are the proof that it is finished. Your salvation is a done deal by His water and His blood. Don’t ever listen to any voice that tells you there is anything more to your faith than the water and the blood. Run from any preaching or teaching that doesn’t point you to the water and the blood.

When Adam was alone, the Lord caused Him to fall asleep and took from His side a rib with with to make Him a wife. On the cross, when Jesus falls into the sleep of death, His side is opened and water and blood flow out. From that holy water and holy blood, a bride is made for Christ, His holy Christian Church. She is born of His water and blood from His side. She is born from above in water and the word and nourished and fed by His own body and blood. For her, and for you who are a part of her, the water and blood of Jesus are life. In His death, Jesus poured out water and blood. The water and blood of His death are the water and the blood of your life. That’s why this Friday is called Good. Amen.

The Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, IL, and the Internet Services Executive for Higher Things. He edits the Daily Reflections. He is married and father of three.

I have heard it said that everything in the Christian Church is about gifts. We usually associate gifts not with Lent and Easter, but with Christmas: The gift of God made man in the birth of the Messiah. Jesus becoming flesh for our salvation is the beginning of that greatest of all gifts we call salvation. Christmas is just the beginning.

If you think about it, though, this night is about gifts and giving just as much as Jesus’ birth. It is the night in which He was betrayed into the hands of sinners. He knew it was coming, and in just a few short hours he would agonize over that in the prayer of the Garden of Gethsemane. With all of this going on, how could He be thinking about gifts and giving?

Jesus knew His disciples. He knew that Judas would betray Him; he knew that Peter would deny Him three times; and He knew that they would all desert him at the Garden. Furthermore, He knows us. He knows that we betray Him every day; He knows that we deny Him with our words and with our actions; and He knows that we have all deserted Him and fled. You are no better than those disciples those many years ago, and neither am I. We, like sheep, have each split off in our own direction, not paying a moment’s notice to our Lord and His sacrifice for us.

As we look at this text from Mark, our unworthiness comes out strong and true. Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray Him. What is their response? “Surely not I?” (v. 19) They were saddened by the news, but you almost get the impression that they were more worried that they were going to get stuck, or get caught.

This is often our own response to God’s Law. Rather than repent and admit our guilt, we try to deny it, get around it somehow, blame our parents or some other circumstances, and so forth. This is who we are as human beings since the Fall. Guilty, but constantly trying to squirm our way out of it.

This brings us back to the gifts, and in many ways down to the basic question of why. Why would God send His Son into our flesh to be our Savior? Why would He care? The answer to that is very simple. It is God’s very nature to give. One church father put it this way: “God created man in order that He might have someone upon whom to bestow His blessings,” (Saint Irenaeus; Adv. Haer. IV.14.4).

If you think of it that way, one can see how incredibly painful and hard it must have been for our heavenly Father to see His children, us, denying and refusing the gifts He has given. I can hardly imagine the pain He must have felt at knowing that His own disciples would desert Him and flee at the sight of trouble. What could He do to strengthen them in their time of need? What can He give to us as we struggle with sin and death every day of our lives?

Looking at it from that perspective, we begin to get a glimpse of the wonders that Jesus has given to us in his Holy Supper. We live in a culture that glories in self-help. Self-help medicine, business plans, exercise equipment, self-serve gas stations, etc., etc., etc. But where do you turn when you are out of the “self-help” mode? Some would try to turn to positive imaging and visualization. I know when I was in elementary school fifteen years ago this was a big hit. Visualize your problems gone, and they will disappear!

Other groups would try to comfort the hurting sinner with doctrine. Sometimes I think that we in the church try to use the Bible as a Band-Aid. If you have a problem, pull out your cross-reference index, and then all of your problems will magically disappear. Now obviously our Lord wants us to use His Word, the source of our strength and life. He doesn’t want us to use it like a glorified self-help manual for living. There is a difference.

So what is that difference? The difference is Jesus Himself. Jesus in our text does not try to comfort or console or strengthen His disciples with pithy sayings and quick answers. He gave them the one thing that could heal their pain, and take away their sin: He gave them Himself. The Christian faith isn’t about a book or a doctrine; it is about a Person, the one and only Jesus Christ. That is what the Lord’s Supper is all about.

This is why Lutherans consider the Real Presence of Jesus in the Sacrament so important. Our faith is not based on remembering something that happened long ago. Faith is given and created through the Word, Jesus Himself, and probably the clearest place in all of Scripture where we see that is in the words of institution. Jesus body and blood are given to you for the forgiveness of sins.

Think of these words for a moment. Jesus gives you Himself. He gives you Himself for the forgiveness of your sins. As you kneel at the Altar and receive Him under the bread and wine, think of all of the blessings that He gives to you. Communion with Christ. Forgiveness of all your sins. Life. Salvation. Communion with the whole Christian Church, both in heaven and earth. In the Lord’s Supper heaven and earth are joined together, and you become one with all of the saints who have gone before. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, the Apostles and martyrs, and the whole heavenly host. That is why we say in the liturgy, “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name . . .” Those are just words on a page or in your mouth. That is reality.

Considering the wonderful gifts and promises that God has attached to this blessed Sacrament, how can anyone stay away from such a blessed gift? Many feel that they are unworthy, and that they must become pure before they can receive communion. To this Dr. Luther answers with these words from the Large Catechism:

Here stand the gracious and lovely words, “This is my body, given for you,” “This is my blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.” 65 These words, I have said, are not preached to wood or stone but to you and me; otherwise Christ might just as well have kept quiet and not instituted a sacrament. Ponder, then, and include yourself personally in the “you” so that he may not speak to you in vain.

66 In this sacrament he offers us all the treasure he brought from heaven for us, to which he most graciously invites us in other places, as when he says in Matt. 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you.” 67 Surely it is a sin and a shame that, when he tenderly and faithfully summons and exhorts us to our highest and greatest good, we act so distantly toward it, neglecting it so long that we grow quite cold and callous and lose all desire and love for it. 68 We must never regard the sacrament as a harmful thing from which we should flee, but as a pure, wholesome, soothing medicine which aids and quickens us in both soul and body. For where the soul is healed, the body has benefited also.

Our Old Testament lesson for tonight told of how after the sacrifice the priest was to turn to the people and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice over them. The sacrifice was made once and for all for you on Calvary, and Christ now offers you His body and blood to seal you in that forgiveness of sins. Here we become one with God. Here we truly are the Church, the body of Christ. Here, we may journey with Christ to Calvary, so that we may journey with Him to heaven at the end of our sojourn here on earth.

Come, then, and feast on the body and blood of our Lord for your salvation. The table is set, and the banquet is ready. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.

The Rev. Todd Peperkorn is pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He has contributed in many and various ways to Higher Things.

by The Rev. Jonathan Naumann

John 12:12-24

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This morning we will meditate upon the Gospel according to St. John, where we are told that ‘…the great crowd that had come for the Feast (of the Passover) heard that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting, “Hosanna!”, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. “Blessed is the King of Israel!”

At first His disciples did not understand what was really happening. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that his Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem had been written about Him centuries before it happened. Meanwhile they were carried along by the circumstances.

I am sure that all of us have know times when we were so carried along by circumstances that we didn’t know what was going on until after it was finished and we were able to look back on it, haven’t we?

In his Gospel, St John admits that for him and Jesus’ other disciples, the first Palm Sunday was one such occasion. They had no idea what was really going on behind the cheers of Hosanna and their master entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Only with the benefit of hindsight could they make sense of what had happened. At the time, they didn’t have a clue.

Wasn’t it great that God didn’t leave them permanently in the dark? In their case, God shed light on their lives through His Word. We are told that, ‘…after Jesus was glorified (they realised) these things HAD BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT HIM and that they had done these things to Him’. God still does shed light on life.

I now feel that this favour God does for us, of helping make sense of life, is one of the most wonderful gifts He gives us. ‘All things will work together for good for those who love God, those whom He called according to His plan’, the Bible tells us (Rom 8.28).

I suppose it is a sign that I have lived a few years that I can finally see that this promise really applies to me. It applies not only to the resolution of individual situations, but it applies to all of life.

Sometimes, just living day by day can feel like being swept along by circumstances doesn’t it? Yet, wouldn’t it be pathetic if that were all that life was about and nothing more? – just being swept along by circumstances, until we are finally swept into a grave and forgotten?

Yet, that pathetic view of life is all that many people may actually see, unless they know better than that and are able to grasp the reality of that which is unseen or behind the scenes.

People need to know the rest of the narrative to make sense of what they see happening in our lives, even what is happening before their very eyes. For example, imagine how mystified someone from a primitive culture who had never seen a cell-phone would be to see someone conversing on a cell-phone. They would conclude that anyone speaking into a plastic banana-shaped object was mad. They would go back to their tribe and say that they saw a pathetic sight – a mad person speaking into a plastic banana. The truth, of course, was that the whole thing would have made much more sense, had the foreign observer been able to hear the voice speaking from the other end of the line.

I think you see the analogy. Life itself can seem mad and pathetic, a matter of being swept along by circumstances, unless you hear the voice of God speaking to you from His word. Those who don’t listen to Him, cannot really make much sense of life.

You can imagine how St. John and the other disciples would have felt about life if they had not listened to God’s explanation to what happened to Jesus on that Passover weekend. They had given three years of their lives to following Jesus. They hailed Him as Messiah. They heard Him cheered as He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and they saw circumstances change – leading finally to Jesus gory execution and death. Had they not listened to God’s living-word and met the risen Christ, they would have written Jesus off as a pathetic victim of circumstances just as they would have regarded themselves as such.

Perhaps they initially did write Jesus off. After all, they all forsook Him and fled. But when Jesus came back from the dead and spoke to them, He helped them understand and make sense of all that had happened. From listening to God, they were able to see that even Jesus’ crucifixion made sense in the plan of God to redeem the world.

St Paul is another great example of listening to God, even when His message practically contradicted the man’s whole approach to life. St Paul was originally a Jewish scholar , and more than that, a Pharisee, who among all the Jews in history were the ones who were the most confident that they had everything all figured out. This Pharisee, Saul certainly felt that he had it all figured out – even to the point of forcing his views on others. Jesus Christ met that persecutor of Christians and explained Himself. Then St Paul too was able to see how the picture really looked.

Take the Passover as an example. As a Jew Paul knew that God had instituted the Passover as well as many other times of sacrifice. By listening to God, even the crucifixion of the Messiah made sense. So he was inspired to write: ‘(The Messiah) Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us – therefore let us celebrate the Feast’ (1 Cor. 5.7).

For many of us, having it all figured out, means concluding that we are all right as we are – we don’t need to change. Our philosophy of life works – and, as they say, “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it”. Yet nothing quite shakes human beings out of our complacency like being face to face with what happened to Jesus.

Maybe that’s why Lent comes around every year – to expose us to the most life-changing thing of all: the suffering crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Because we know that if God had to suffer that way to redeem us from eternal damnation, then something was indeed broke and in need of fixing.

And, when we listen to God, we hear Him says to us, ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus’ (ROMANS 3.23-26).

Why the Passion of the Christ? Because ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself …God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God by means of Him’ (2 COR. 5.19.21)

‘God was pleased …to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross’ (COLOSSIANS 1.19,20).

God saw that our relationship with Him was broken. So He sent His Son to pay for the repair of that breach. ‘Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God’ (EPHESIANS 5.2).

‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us …hanged on a tree’ (GALATIANS 3.13). ‘(He) …gave Himself as a ransom for all’ (1 TIM.2.6).

St John the author of today’s reading from the Gospel agreed with St Paul:

‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’ (1 John 4.10).

Likewise that other, once disillusioned disciple, St Peter saw how it all made sense and wrote: ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed …but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect’ (1 PETER 1.18,19).

‘Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God’ (1 PETER 3.18).

Carried along by circumstances? – yes and no. Yes, God, the Son, volunteered to let His saving plan carry Him along. But, no, it was all more carefully planned and executed than it appeared to be at the time. As it is said of Christ “I have come to do Your will”.¹

Parachute troops, (or ‘Paras’ as they are called in the British army), who jump from aeroplanes into battle may not know the whole plan as well as their commander, but they have thrown their lot in with their commander. They go where he carries them, and they listen closely to their commanders’ instructions.

Every Christian baptised in infancy can look back at his own baptism, and see an example of being carried along by circumstances. But for Ian and Helene today, their baptism is more than that. And for Steve and Julianna, their Christian life has become more than that.

They, as individuals and as a family, have listened closely to God’s word. Now, like the rest of us, they may not know the full plan of God for their lives, but they do know enough to know that no matter what life will throw at them, they must listen to His voice. He will instruct them. He will explain Himself to them. He will comfort them and He will sustain their faith in Him. Finally He will carry them to Himself to live with Him forever.

They are baptised that they might share their lot with Christ in life eternal. Today the God into Whose neverending family they are baptised and confirmed will express His love for them by giving them the body and blood of His sacrificed and risen Son, Jesus Christ, in the form of bread and wine.

Here again something happens for which we need God’s explanation for us to make sense of it. Jesus took bread and wine and gave it to His disciples, but not before explaining to them that “This is my body” and “This is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins”.

Perhaps we need to re-consider those words, lest Holy Communion be reduced to mere circumstances when it is intended to mean much more to us.

It is because of Jesus’ words that we cherish this sacred meal as we do. It is because He tells us that He feeds us with His very Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins that we seek to receive this sacrament as often as we do. And the more we contemplate those words of promise, the more frequently we wish to receive that Sacrament.

The word of God is His explanation to some of the most important circumstances of our lives. It is a letter written in love and His holy Sacraments act as a seal of that love.

Today we thank God that he has brought the Traceys to us that they and us may be swept along together by the circumstances that He in His gracious will has brought into our lives. We welcome this family to take comfort with us in both God’s love letter to us and in its seals, confirming that God does give us His Holy Spirit and wants us to be sure that His love and His grace apply to us all.

Amen.

The peace of God that surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

 1 Hebrews 10.9

The Reverend Dr. Jonathan Naumann is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church & School in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. He previously served as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in England… and he is Stan’s Pastor!