Jubilate Sunday
Notes from Grace
Last week was a hard week in our community as we were visited by death. When these things take place, it is a reminder of the urgency of our work as Christians, in faith toward God and love to our neighbors. The Lord may call us and death may come to us, or to those we love, when we least expect it. We also are reminded to be aware for those who may be deeply hurting and need to be shown the love of Christ.
We have hope and joy to bring to a world that is hopeless and depressed. Jesus is risen! Jesus who knows the depth of our sins and took them to the cross. Jesus the Good Shepherd who comes to find us and pull us out the thorns and the deep holes that we have fallen into. Stay close to Him, and no one will take your joy, even in difficult times. If your last hour should come, if Jesus is with you, then it will be a joy to follow Him to the Father's house. If you see someone despairing as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, come alongside them, and show them Jesus leading you both through the darkness towards the eternal joys He won for you in His dying and rising again.
Looking Ahead
This Sunday is Cantate (Latin for "sing" from "Sing to the Lord a new song" from Psalm 98:1) , we'll be reading from Isaiah 12:1-6 and James 1:17-21, which speak to finding comfort and joy in God's abundant blessings, and having pure and loving hearts. We'll also be reading from John 16:5-15, which teaches us about the Holy Spirit's role in guiding us towards truth and righteousness.
Our hymns will include "Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds," "Dear Christians One and All Rejoice," "Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," "Alleluia, Alleluia! Hearts to Heaven," and "This Joyful Eastertide," which are all joyful expressions of praise and worship to our risen Savior.
Devotional Life
Salt, Light, & Signs of the Times
During my sermon on Sunday, I mentioned that there was something I wanted to discuss, but due to time constraints, I had to leave it out. So, as promised, here it is:
In our Gospel reading, Jesus likened the suffering we endure in this life to that of a woman in labor. He reminded us that once the child is born, the anguish is forgotten in the joy of the birth. In the same way, through His resurrection and ascension to the Father's right hand, He promises to pray for us. By having hope in His promise to return on the Last Day, we have joy that cannot be taken away by anything in this world.
Jesus uses a common experience in our lives, the joy at the birth of a child after the suffering of labor, to illustrate something more difficult to see, the hope of eternal life in the midst of suffering. Jesus takes it for granted that a human being born into the world is a source of joy, something that is not as obvious in our world today.
We place conditions on how we judge the birth of a child. Is the child wanted? Can the family afford all the luxuries we've come to expect in modern America? What is the child's carbon footprint? Are there any possibilities of genetic abnormalities? In Iceland, almost no children are born with Down syndrome because they are killed before they are born. Even a Missouri Synod pastor in California said that overturning Roe v. Wade "set us back as a nation, a people, and a culture," hurting those who can least afford to have children because "you're not allowing people to be who they want to be." Last week in the World-Herald, we saw pictures of a Satanic imitation of joy as people celebrated their continued ability to kill babies.
If we don't believe that Jesus died for all men, that Jesus rose again and opened the way to eternal life, and that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, then our world becomes very dark very quickly, and the most vulnerable among us suffer.
But if we know that our Redeemer lives, that He lives eternally to save, that He lives to bless us with His love, to plead for us above, to feed our hungry souls, to help us in times of need, to grant us rich supply, to guide us with His eye, to comfort us when we're faint, to hear our soul's complaint, to silence all our fears, to wipe away our tears, to calm our troubled hearts, to impart all blessings, to grant us daily breath, to enable us to conquer death, to prepare our mansions, and to bring us safely there, then we have peace, hope, love, and joy between us and God and can serve our neighbors. We see each person as a unique and loved creature of God, as a person Jesus loved enough to suffer and die for!
We acknowledge that life brings great difficulty and suffering, but the answer is not to kill the sufferers or those who inconvenience us. Instead, we should draw near to them with Christ's love and hope, taking the Good Samaritan as our model. If we believe that God will bind up all our wounds and that by Christ's stripes we are healed, then we have service and love to give that doesn't require cruelty and murder. Contrary to Rev. Williams, we may not get to be who we wanted to be, but we will be who God wants us to be, putting on the mind of Christ and growing up into His love, trusting that he has treasures of joy stored up for us that no one will ever take from us.
That's it for now.
In Christ,
Pastor Sherman