Have you ever noticed in football how many players, after making a great play, immediately give credit to God?  And have you ever noticed that after a really great play even an opponent will offer congratulations for the effort?

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I was trapped in my car for a while today.  Frustrated. However, I did have a gift whilst there, so I suppose I should be thankful instead?

I was trapped because I grew so weak that I just could not leave the car. In truth, I should not have driven home.  And I am not sure how I feel about the choice I made in doing so.  For part of the way, I followed Pastor down the highway and did not have to thing much, but I could not hold my arms up on the steering wheel.  So I shoved my jacket beneath my hand and drove with my hands essentially in my lap, hanging on to the bottom of the wheel.

I am not sure why I started to go south.  I was sitting downstairs with the pot-luck folks after the service when I started growing dizzy.  And, as I have tried to describe before, it was as if I sprang a gas leak.  The energy I had leached away until I ended up taking a mini-nap on the table.  The rise of the general cocophany in the room from a meeting that ended roused me enough to get to my car, where I sat in the parking lot wondering about getting home.

When he spotted me still sitting in my car, Pastor asked me if I was going to be okay.  I responded affirmatively, but essentially that was not the truth.  Doing so made me feel badly, but at the same time I just didn't want ask for help.  What could he do?  Drive me home?  Then how would I get back to my car?  After he walked away, I called him back and asked if I could follow him down the highway.  He offered to lead me all the way home instead of just to his exit.  I wanted to accept, but then I didn't want to ask him to haul me out of the car.  For I very much feel that I should not go to church if I cannot get myself home.  The fatigue that has been pulling at my bones kept me from Sunday School, but I was not about to miss Reformation Sunday when I was all ready to join in the Liturgy as I have never been able to do so before.

Heat was not a problem.  I am not sure why wet noodle status arose.  If I were guess, I would wonder if emotion could actually be a factor.  Could it?

For it was with unalloyed joy that I sang all the hymns save those during communion which Pastor did not have a chance to record.  You cannot feel the interloper if you are actually singing bits of hymns from memory!

I found joy, too, in the fact that all three families I had asked to stand in for my family at our work picnic in two weeks agreed to come.  The picnic is actually a fundraiser, a mini-walk, for Help the Homeless.  Our board members are sponsoring the registration fees, so all we need are walkers.  I actually have 13 "family" members who will be joining me, the only two who are not coming are two husbands who are otherwise engaged.  Thirteen!  I was hoping one family would come.  I dared not hope for all three!  Not only will I not be alone at the picnic in the midst of people and their families, I get to hang out with folks from my church during the weekday!

And then there was the sermon.  Last week, I heard Christ say I love you, Myrtle.  Today, He chided me once more than He came to set me free.  Remember the sermon on prisons?  I heard so much Law in that sermon and saw so much of my sin.  Today, I heard more Gospel than Law...

And so you need not wonder: is this for me? Yes, it is for you. For it is for every nation and tribe and language and people. It is for all who are stuck in sin and death and cannot set themselves free. For the Son has come and set you free. And if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Both now and forever. For though the day of judgment is coming, for you it has, in fact, already come. Your Saviour has spoken His “not guilty” upon you here, for He has taken your condemnation on the cross. What then remains for you now is forgiveness and life. Life in Him. Which is true life. The life of the Gospel. An eternal Gospel which gives eternal life.

I write of condemnation just last night and today Christ reminds me of the promise of His Word, reminds me that there is no condemnation for those whom He saved.  A few days ago, Pastor wrote in an email a qualifer of Christ's love:  But Jesus does love you. Yes, so much that He became who you are, that you might be who He is. Think about that a little.


I have been thinking about that.  Thinking about Pastor's sermons and lessoning and Pizza Man's exuberant chastisements and that which I am studying and the words of the hymns that have filled my home and my heart since Wednesday night.

Lord, have mercy.  Words. Song.  Prayer. On my lips.  On my heart.

So, I wonder if just feeling joy, in reveling in the haven of where I was, became too much for such a weak, wimpy, fragile child of God.

When I first pulled up to my home, I wanted to call Pastor and beg him to turn around and drive back over.  I wanted him to haul me inside so that I could collapse in my green chair and watch football and then NASCAR (I tend to record the races because I often fall asleep during them and do not want to miss any crashes!).  I wanted to be in my home with my birds and my puppy dog. I did not, did not want to be trapped in my car.  But after a few minutes of feeling rather sorry for myself, I remembered that, after the service, Pastor's wife gave me a CD of advent hymns.  I was very surprised at the gift.  She knows I am trying to learn the Lutheran hymns and thought I could get a jump start on the next part of the church year.

So, I pulled off the wrapping and popped the CD into the player in my car.  Although the seat does not go back low enough to really be comfortable (I suspect because a driver should never be sleeping whilst behind the wheel), I did recline somewhat and settled into listening to her gift.

Advent hymns, I proffer, are exactly the sorts of hymns you should be listening to when you are feeling a bit down and thinking overly much on many matters of faith and life.  Yes, I knew some of them.  O Come, O Come Emmanuel being a favorite of mine...one I wonder if Pastor would sing with me instead of to me.  Many I did not.  I did not try to learn them, but instead merely allowed their messages to wash over me until I fell asleep.  Nearly four hours later, I awoke and made my way inside.

Come, heav'nly bridgroom, light divine,

And deep within our hearts now shine;

There light a flame undying!

In Your one body let us be

As living branches of a tree,

Your life our lives supplying,

Now, though daily Earth's deep sadness

May perplex us and distress us,

Yet with heavn'ly joy You bless us.

~O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright, 2 (LSB 395)

I am loved by a God who can turn our mourning into joy, who became me, who became all my sin and doubts and fears, walking through the same trials and travails, knowing suffering and sorrow and humiliation Himself, because He desires for me to join Him for all eternity.  Would that I remembered this more, walked in it more, breathed it more...


Pastor's sermon:

Jesu Juva

“An Eternal Gospel”
Text: Revelation 14:6-7; John 8:31-36 (Romans 3:19-28)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

Think about those words that St. John proclaimed to you this morning from the book of Revelation. For they are what the Reformation is all about. For this day is not about Luther, though it includes him; and it is not about the events that happened some 500 years ago, though we remember them. Today is about the Gospel that is eternal. It is about this Gospel that has been proclaimed through the ages, from the very first person to the very last person. The Gospel that is for every nation and tribe and language and people. The Gospel that is happening here and now, for you. For this Gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins that we have in Him. And so it is eternal for He is eternal. It is eternal for His love is eternal.

Think about that. In this Gospel, as we just sang in the chief hymn, you stand in a very long line of patriarchs, prophets, saints, fathers, and martyrs.
For to Adam this Gospel was proclaimed, to give him hope even as he was exiled from Paradise.
To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob this Gospel was proclaimed, to set their eyes on their true home as they wandered this earth with no home.
To Moses and Israel this Gospel was proclaimed, that they might see that their great deliverance from slavery in Egypt was just the beginning.
To Joshua this Gospel was proclaimed that he fear not the powers and kingdoms of this earth.
To David and Solomon this Gospel was proclaimed, that in their kingdoms they see a pale foreshadowing of the glorious kingdom that is to come.
To God’s people in exile this Gospel was proclaimed through the prophets, that they might know that they were not forgotten, and that God’s loving discipline lasts only a time.

And then this Gospel came to earth. All God’s promises were fulfilled as the Word was made flesh, and in Jesus, the hopes of all God’s people were fulfilled. For in Jesus, the Son of God came to set us free. And - as St. John also told us today, in His Gospel - if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
For Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that through His atonement for sin on the cross, we be burdened by it no more.
He is the Good Shepherd who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death - the One who is uniquely qualified to do so - being the only one to pass through that valley Himself in His death and resurrection.
He is the Strong Man who has come and bound satan, stripping him of his power and demolishing his stronghold, that we need fear him no more.
He is the Son of God who has come to make us sons of God.

But now risen and ascended His work has not ceased, but continues. His eternal Gospel continues to be proclaimed, and through it He is calling His people and building His Church. For though this Gospel is proclaimed by many, the Church is built only by One: by Christ Himself. In our Morning Prayer this week, we read a meditation from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that expressed this. He wrote:

It is not we who build. Christ builds the church. No man builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess - he builds. We must proclaim - he builds. We must pray to him - that he may build. (Treasury of Daily Prayer, p. 840-1)

And so the Church is built by Christ in the apostles, who proclaimed this Gospel before governors and kings and were not ashamed.
The Church is built by Christ through martyrs, who proclaimed this Gospel with their blood; that He who held the power of life and death was not the one bringing down the sword or releasing the lions.
The Church is built by Christ in early church fathers, who proclaimed this Gospel though exiled and persecuted.
The Church is built by Christ in the dark ages, when the light of the Gospel could not be snuffed out.
The Church is built by Christ in the Reformation, when an insignificant monk who had some questions proclaimed a Gospel he so desperately needed himself.
The Church is built by Christ in the midst of wars, under the oppression of communism, in the midst of secular humanism, and through the skepticism of modernism.
And now the Church is built by Christ also in you. And this last is not the least, but may, in fact, be the greatest.

For this eternal Gospel has come to you in your fears, your doubts, your sins; in your questions, your wanderings, your despair; in your rebellion, your persecutions, and in your little kingdoms that you think are so great.
But not only in times of trouble and distress, the eternal Gospel has come to you also in the times of your prosperity - when lack of troubles make us fat and lazy, when ease makes us presume on the favor of God, when good times make us think we’re good, and we turn not to God but to ourselves for what we need. Perhaps it is in our prosperity that the work of God is all the more amazing. Which is why we pray in the great litany: “in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our prosperity . . . help us, good Lord.” (LSB p. 288)

And He does. For His Gospel is eternal. And the Lord “who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philip 1:6) He is not like us. He does not start and then not finish. He does not start and then leave us on our own. He is the beginning and the ending, the Alpha and the Omega. (Rev 22:13) He is faithful.

And so His work begun in you in your baptism, making you a son of God in Christ, continues. He is a faithful Father who raises His children in perfect love - not sugary love, and not overbearing love, but perfect love.

And though your mind be filled with many words and many wisdoms, seeking to lead you astray; though your life be filled with riches seeking to capture your heart and love, or filled with troubles seeking to rob you of your hope, the work of Christ continues in you with His Word of life, to lead you in His way of truth. The way of repentance and reliance on Him.

And though satan wants to kill you and constantly holds the sword of your sin and guilt over you, the work of Christ continues in you by continually raising you to life in Absolution: proclaiming that your sins are not held against you - they were held against Christ on the cross. And if they are on Him then they are not on you, and so you are forgiven.

And though your sinful flesh wants to gorge you with the things of this world that do not satisfy, the work of Christ continues in you to fill you with what does truly satisfy the longings and desires of your heart as He fills you with Himself, feeding you with His own body and blood, given and shed for you.

Apart from Him and His work, we would lose, and lose big. Both the pleasures and persecutions of this world would quickly destroy us. But as this eternal Gospel has lasted through so many generations, so many challenges, so many temptations, so many assaults, so many persecutions, so it will last in you. Not because of you; because of Him. The One who is faithful, the One who is true, the One who is your Lord and Saviour.

And so you need not wonder: is this for me? Yes, it is for you. For it is for every nation and tribe and language and people. It is for all who are stuck in sin and death and cannot set themselves free. For the Son has come and set you free. And if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Both now and forever. For though the day of judgment is coming, for you it has, in fact, already come. Your Saviour has spoken His “not guilty” upon you here, for He has taken your condemnation on the cross. What then remains for you now is forgiveness and life. Life in Him. Which is true life. The life of the Gospel. An eternal Gospel which gives eternal life.

Now, it may not always look like the Gospel is winning, or that it’s even working at all. That’s okay. We do not know the plan of God, how He is building, and how He is pulling down so that He may build. But that He is working and building, have no doubt. On this you have His Word, and the witness of generations past. And most of all, you have the witness of the cross - the place where above all places it looked like satan had won; but which was, in fact, the place of his defeat. For there, death did not win - life won.

So come now and receive again that life. Receive Him who has done - and continues to do - such great things for you. Come and join the “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” - all those who have gone before us - at the feast of our Lord. Come and feast on Him who loved you then, who loves you now, and who will love you forever. Come, He is here for you.

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

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord.  Amen.