Proper 13 - G - 2011 - The Miraculous Feeding

Isaiah 55:1-5          Romans 9:1-13            Matthew 14:13-21

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Jesus is a Lutheran, and if you doubt it look at today’s text, 5000 people, all satisfied.  It’s the very first church pot luck.  Thousands of people eating after church, .  The people came to Jesus hungry, they came with their sicknesses, and their struggles.  They came to Jesus, and he satisfied them, because he had compassion upon them. 

It had been a tough time for Jesus.  His cousin John had just been put to death, beheaded by King Herod in exchange for an erotic dance by his step daughter.  With only a little while by himself to mourn, he comes and sees countless people struggling in their daily lives.  He sees the people of that day and age who are sick with illnesses, sick with cancer, with blindness, with hurt with pain.  He sees those who need compassion and he gives it to them. 

And after they have spent the day out in the wilderness receiving healing and compassion and sympathy from Jesus, they are hungry, for they have nothing to eat.  The disciples think they should take care of themselves, “Send them to the villages Jesus, make them buy their own food.  After all this is a desolate place”  And who can blame them?  The disciples themselves were hungry, having spent the day helping control the crowds as they came to Jesus.  But Jesus says, “they don’t need to leave, you disciples shall give them something to eat.” 

  Can you imagine the disciples response?  But Jesus, we are hungry ourselves!  We need something to eat too, after all, we have been out here all day and all we have to eat is five loaves and two fish.  How in the world can we feed these 5000 people with only this small amount?  So Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples.  The disciples pass it out, and all are fed.  Can you believe it?  5000 people fed from 5 small loaves and two fish.  5000 people fed, and even then Jesus provided so much to them that the disciples had to pick up 12 basketfuls of leftovers.  It was a feast, a buffet, a place where they could eat and eat and finally be satisfied.  Jesus provided the meal, and all got their fill. 

Friends, Jesus does the same for you and me today.  For just like those people so long ago, we have many needs.  We have family and friends, and maybe even ourselves that are sick and who are tired.  We suffer from cancer, from Alzheimer’s, from broken and dying bodies, and we need compassion.  There is so much hurt in our world, yes even in our own small town.  There are so many people who struggle so much with sin, and with pain.  There is not one of us who hasn’t felt its effects on our lives, for each and every one of us are so infected with guilt and sin that it is inescapable. 

And so just as in our text, Jesus comes to us.  He comes with healing in his wings, with compassion for us and our sin, he comes to make us well.  And as he comes, Jesus provides for us a feast as well.  Here at this altar in mere bread and wine he gives all the gifts of eternity.  Here he feeds us with such a feast that it provides for us more than we can possibly comprehend.  Here he gives us life and salvation, so that we might be his own and live in his kingdom forever. 

But how Pastor, how can a tiny little wafer that tastes like cardboard really satisfy me?  How can a tiny sip of wine quench my thirst?  It doesn’t make sense.  There isn’t enough there in that small piece of bread and the tiny drop of wine.  It must be our imagination, it must be a silly custom we do. 

Friends, the same Jesus who fed 5000 people with a few loaves and fish feeds you today.  He feeds you yes with a little wafer and yes with a swallow of wine, but in with and under them he gives you himself.  He gives you his own precious body, the body of God which was born of the virgin Mary so that it might be bruised and bloodied for you.  He gives you in the bread the body that had nails driven through his hands and his feet, so that he might suffer and die on the cross for you.  In that tiny wafer you get the whole Jesus ever little bit of him for your forgiveness, your life and your salvation. 

He gives you his blood, in with and under the wine for you to drink.  It is the same blood that flowed through His own veins, until it was poured out as a sin offering for you.  It is the blood that flowed from the wounds of his body, so that you might be rescued in his name.  Jesus, in bread and wine gives you himself, so that you might receive forgiveness for all your sin, for all your doubt forever and ever.  He gives you himself, so you may eat and be satisfied.

And what Jesus gives you in this bread and wine he gives freely.  You do not need to purchase it.  You do not need to earn it.  You do not need to do anything, for it is a beautiful precious gift for you.  “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”  For Jesus has paid the price. 

And the feast that we eat here at this altar is the same feast we will one day eat forever and ever in heaven. It is a foretaste of the feast of the lamb in his kingdom which will have no end.  You will be satisfied, for you will always be full.  You will be satisfied, for the feast will always be given to you.  It’s a feast we share with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  It is a feast, prepared for you, so you might be filled. 

Dear friends in Christ, are you hungry?  Do you need healing?  Do you need to be satisfied?  Friends, Come today, and eat the bread.  Come today and drink the cup.  Come today, receive Jesus and be satisfied.  For it is truly his body and his blood, and in it you have life forever.  Be satisfied.  Amen. 

Proper 12 - G - 2011 - You Are Jesus' Treasure

Deuteronomy 7:6-9     Romans 8:28-39          Matthew 13:44-52

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  When we look out into the world, everywhere people are looking for answers.  What is this life for?  What is the point?  Is there life after death, is there a purpose for me?  Who is God, and where do I find Him?  Our modern day culture has convinced us that part of being human is to discover what the truth is for us.  And so people are always searching, always looking, always trying to find a god in our own image.

At first glance that is what it seems like our text is about, a man who goes searching, trying to find something worthwhile.  Finally after years of searching the man finds a treasure hidden in a field, and upon finding it he is elated and excited.  He quickly buries the treasure again where it is, and goes and sells all that he has and buys the field for himself.  Now the treasure is his.  Now he can use it for whatever he wants.  Now he can truly serve himself. 

Friends, it seems like this is us.  We wander around and a few of us finally find a treasure, a purpose in life, a meaning.  When we find it we give up all we have for it, and we keep it all for ourselves.   After all, it makes us happy doesn’t it?   It becomes the thing we live for. 

We see this is so many ways in our world.  I love this person, and I will live with them and sleep with them no matter what, because they make me happy.  I love this job, and I will give up all I have to make sure I do the very best I can at it.  I will even give up my family and friends.  I love the latest fashion, and I will always make sure I look my best.  I want my name listed first, I want my children taken care of first, I want, I want, I want. 

You see what happens don’t you?  We become idolators.  We love things, even ideas of things more than we love God, and more than we love those around us.  We turn inwardly on ourselves, and the ‘treasure’ we have discovered, curved so dreadfully inward that we cannot see past our own noses.  And that friends, is the very definition of sin. 

We search in other ways as well.  We search for a God that we think will fit our own desires and goals for life, wrongfully thinking that if we like the God we discover, that will mean it is the true God.  People in our world search for god and discover the false god of Islam, one that tells them what they must do to save themselves, and the blindly and foolishly follow that idol.  They find the false god of Buddhism that tells them that they must find inner peace by meditation and fasting.  They find the false god of Mormonism, who tells them that they too can be their own god and sleep with their many god wives as much as they want.  For thousands of years, people have searched for the true god, but all that anyone has found are false gods, misleading gods, gods that cannot truly rescue from your sin and death. 

Friends, you cannot find god on your own.  Your sin is so great, it stinks so much it is so huge, that it cannot come into the presence of the True and Holy God.  And your sin, your own guilt, and your own turning your back on the true God is so great that you have been blinded so that no matter how hard you search you cannot see and find God even if you want to.  Your are guilty.  You are sinful.  You deserve death.  And because you are lost and cannot find God, that is what you will get… if you are on your own. 

So you see friends, today’s parable cannot be about you at all.  It cannot be about your need to find “truth” in this world of lies.  It cannot be about your finding of a god that suits our needs and wants.  It cannot be about you, for in your sinful blindness, you could never find the field, let alone a treasure hidden within. 

This parable is about Jesus.  This parable is about him searching for and finding you.  Hear the entire parable again.  “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”   Do you see your God searching for you?  Do you see your Lord Jesus purchasing and winning you for himself?  The parable says we were buried in a field, something that one day will happen to us all.  For because of our sin, one day each of us will be dead, and as a dead man buried with other dead.   But even as you are dead in your sin, even as you are already seemingly buried in guilt and damnation, your God comes to find you. 

Your God searches high and low, he looks everywhere for you.  And when finally he finds you buried under your own sin, under your own guilt, he goes and gives up all that he has to buy you.  Yes, all that he has.  For your God gave up his high and mighty throne in heaven, and became a man like you and me.  He came down here into the muck and mire of this world to buy you back, to bring you to heaven.  Your God, came and fixed his eyes on the death you deserved, and he giving up all his possessions, even his clothing, hung on a cross to give up even his blood, his body, and his life on your behalf. 

You see, God has searched for you – yes even you who turn your backs on Him in sin, you who chase after other gods.  He searches for you, and finding you purchases your from sin death and the devil, “not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, innocent suffering and death.”  And now that he has won you, you “may be his own and live under Him in His kingdom.   In other words no longer do you have to search, for you are free.  No longer do you need to find something to give meaning to your life, for your meaning is Christ crucified for you.  No longer do you search, for you have been searched for and you have been found. 

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  You belong to him, and always will. 

God searches for you, His people, and when He finds you his treasured possession, he buys you on the cross.

Now you have life.  Now you have grace.  Now you belong to your God who found and rescued you.  Amen. 

Helen Emma Bertha Wolfe - July 18, 2011

 

April 30, 1915 – July 13, 2011

Baptized into the Name of Jesus: May 23, 1915

Confirmed: April 13, 1930

Job 19:21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!  22 Why do you, like God, pursue me?  Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!  24 Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!  25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,  and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!
 

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

John 11:17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles [1] off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. [2] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

 

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is Helen’s Confirmation Verse, Revelation 2:10, especially these words, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ, especially family and friends of Helen.  A few days ago, on Wednesday, our dear aunt, cousin, and friend Helen received the crown of life.  She faithfully passed from this earthly life into an eternal life without end with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  She who had struggled through toils and trials of this sinful world is now victorious, not in herself, not because of anything she has done, but rather because her Lord granted her faithfulness in Him – in Jesus the resurrection and the life.

Helen’s life was not always an easy one.  She lost a baby daughter, she lost her husband nearly 50 years ago.  She faced many trials and temptations and through them all, her faith stood strong and intact.   These last few months had been especially tough for her, as the sins of this world weighed down on her.  She who once had been a strong teacher, passing on her knowledge to many of the people in town as their elementary teacher, slowly began to forget many of the events and things from her life.  And some physical injuries finally would bring her life to a close. 

These struggles are all a result of the sin that affects each one of us.  Each one of us too faces struggles in our life, we face hurt and pain and loss and suffering.  There is no escape for it here on Earth.  There is no magic solution for the trials of our sinful lives.  Just as Helen faced them bravely in faith for so long, so too must we as we deal with our own personal trials and tribulations. 

And that, friends, is the key - faith.  Throughout her entire life, Helen had a strong faith in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is a faith that wasn’t based on her works, or her abilities or even her strengths – especially these last months as she began slowing down.  No, her faith was a gift from God.  And even as physically she deteriorated her faith in God was strong, always looking to the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Friends, that is what our faith looks to.  In the midst of our sinful struggles, in the midst of our trials and in the midst of our loss, we have comfort in Jesus Christ.  God loves you, and loves Helen so much that he sent his son to take our sin onto himself, to bear it to an old rugged cross and to die in your place.   And now, Jesus wants to give you the benefit that he earned from that sacrifice.  He gives you life, just as Helen now experiences it forever with Jesus.  He gives you forgiveness, even in the midst of pain and struggles, just as Helen so wonderfully demonstrated in her life.  He gives you comfort in loss, just as he did to Helen as she lost so many in her life. 

And most importantly, Jesus promises you that one day you will rise again, along with Helen, and see God with your very own eyes, face to face.  Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life will raise you and all believers to be with him forever.  As Job confesses, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”  That is your promise, and that is the promise that God gave to this blessed saint before us, Helen Wolfe. 

Dear friends, “be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” Jesus says.  “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  This is the promise that Jesus makes to you.  It is the promise that Helen clung to for 96 years of baptized life, through pain, through sorrow, and now through death into life.  It is the only promise that matters, and it is the only promise that can never be destroyed.  In Jesus is Life, and life to the full.  We have lost a beloved aunt, a cousin, a teacher, a friend, but we have not lost her forever.  For in the faith she had, she lives now and forever with her Lord and God.  She lives with Jesus, and we shall see her there again one day, to live forever in His kingdom.  Amen. 

 

Proper 11 - G - 2011 - Wheat and Tares

Isaiah 44:6-8 Romans 8:18-27 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is the Epistle and Gospel lessons that were just read, especially these words, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear Friends in Christ.  Recently my wife and I watched an episode of a television show called “Top Shot.”  The show consisted of some of the best rifle and pistol marksman around, competing against each other in different trick shots to finally eliminate players one by one and to declare one to be the “Top Shot.”  As we watched it, we kept asking ourselves, “who will make it?  Who will be kicked off.”  It was so much fun to try and figure out who could shoot the 500 yard target, and who couldn’t.  There are countless other television shows with the same premise today.  American Idol, who will win?  America’s Got Talent, who will get the votes?  The list goes on and on.

Friends in our text today, we are asked a different question, who will be in heaven, and who will not.  Is there a way that we can look at someone and know they are saved, and look at someone else and know they are damned?  We want to know who will be in eternity with us so that we can start planning our heavenly days to visit with dear friends and loved ones there.  And we also want to know – and sometimes more – who will not be there, so that we can mock and ridicule them behind their backs.  As our Epistle says, “The entire creation waits with eager expectations for the sons of God to be revealed,” or in other words to find out who will make it, and who will not.

It seems easy doesn’t it?  I mean is this really a question that matters?  After all we all know how people get into heaven don’t we?  They just have to be good people, they just have to have more love then they have hate.  They have to be the people that we get along with and that make us happy, that is what determines if someone will be in heaven or not, isn’t it? 

But in our Gospel lesson today, Jesus paints a much more difficult picture.  He says, “A man sowed good seed in his field.  But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.  When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.”  Now in the Greek the word for weeds is one that means “A weed that looks like Wheat,” or as we say in the Old King James, tares.  These tares when they finally sprouted would look exactly like the wheat.  There would be no way to tell until the harvest which plants were actually good wheat, and bad and weedy tares.” 

So in order to not disturb the wheat, and to still harvest a crop the man lets both grow, so that come harvest time he can bring in what he wants, and burn and destroy the rest.  The man and his servants sat and waited, with “eagar expectation” for the wheat to be revealed, and the weeds removed.  Finally the truth was made known, and that which was good for the man would be harvested and brought into his granary. 

Friends, Jesus tells us this parable, because it describes our world.  It answers that question above, who will be in heaven?  Can we know who will finally make it and who will not?  Here on Earth we cannot know.  We can only judge each other on outward appearances.  Yes we can make our opinion on whether or not a person is good or not.  We judge in human terms, “That person is such a pillar of our community.  That person is not very smart.  That person does so much good work for the poor.  That person looks like a shady person.  That person seems like such a friendly person.  I wouldn’t want to hang out with that person.”  But these things do not tell us if they are a wheat or a tare.  Outward appearances are deceiving.  Just as the man cannot tell the wheat from the tares, so too we cannot judge the holy from the unholy.

Friends it is not what you do, or how you look or even what other people think of you that earns you a place in heaven.  There is not one person who is worthy on their own merit of being saved.  “For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”  There is not one who is righteous (on their own), no not one.  Dear brothers and sisters in the faith, you have sin, sin that infects every part of you and that sin makes you not wheat, but a tare.  It makes you guilty.  It makes you do vile disgusting sins that you know deep inside are wrong – yet we do them anyways.  It makes us turn our backs on God and only worthy to be thrown into the fire at the end of the age. 

But we are not, for Jesus has come to us.  He has come to us while we were yet still sinners, and he has poured out his blood upon.  He has given to us the gift of salvation.  Jesus came to live among us weeds and tares.  He came to us so that he could die in our place.  SO that he could suffer the fate of those who had sin.  He came so that he might be nailed to a wooden rugged cross for your sin. 

And he still comes to you today.  He comes to you bodily in bread and wine to give you faith and trust in Jesus.  He comes to you in Baptism so that you might no longer be a tare or a weed, but rather that you might be a tiny wheat plant, full and ready to be harvested and brought to your heavenly home forever and ever without end.  For it is the faith that Jesus gives that makes one from a weed into a wheat.  It is the gift of God that you might be rescued.  It is not what you do.  It is not how you look or how you are perceived.  It is completely and totally God’s gift that determines where you will be. 

And it is the same for you.  So often it is easy for us to meet someone and say, “They are  a weed, they don’t really belong here, I’ll just ignore or forget about them.  But friends, that person whom you wrongly judge may be a holy Saint of God.  And that one that you judge to be a “true” Christian may also be a weed that only looks like wheat.  For that reason we must continue to care for all people, to show the love of Christ to all, so that we do not scandalize that brother or sister who we are uncertain of but who has faith in the gifts of God.  We must care for all people so that through us Christ may continue to take weeds and tares and make them in to faithful Christian people. 

For that is what Christ has done for you.  You who once were not worthy, are now worthy because Christ has come to you and for you.  You who once faced the eternal fires of Hell has now been given the kingdom.  It is the gift of God, the gift of faith that looks to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We wait in eager expectation for the revealing of the Sons of God.  And as we wait we know that we will be among them, for we share fellowship in the Gift of God – Jesus Christ crucified.  He is our God and we are His people.  We know that “On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.  This is most certainly True.  Amen. 

Proper 10 - OT - 2011 - God Accomplishes His Purpose as Rain Falls

Isaiah 55:10-13   Romans 8:12-17 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text today is the Old Testament lesson read, especially these words, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ.  I have been here for almost exactly one year.  And if there is anything I have learned about North Dakota in our time here, is that we have two seasons, Snow and Monsoon.  All winter it snowed and snowed, eight months in a row.  And now that it has warmed up, we have gotten rain, rain, and more rain!  It has been a wet year since we have moved here, there is no doubt about it.

But we all know that there is a benefit from all the precipitation.  The rain that falls helps to water the fields of corn and soy beans in our area.  It helps to ensure a crop that grows and provides us with food and income and so many other things.  In our own garden we have onions that are taller than I have ever seen, and Tomatoes and Zucchini have grown like crazy.  The rainfall came down from heaven and watered the earth, bringing forth sprout and brought seed to the sower and bread to the eater, as our text says. 

In our text, Isaiah compares this process to the word of God.  Just like rain and snow, God’s Word is continuously coming down to us.  And as our text says, it will accomplish the Will of God wherever it goes.  Just as rain makes plants grow and live, so too will God’s word accomplish what God wishes.  And what God wishes is that you know the truth.  That you realize your situation, and the solution for that situation.  God wants His Holy word to do its work in you. 

And its work is this: First to tell you that you are a guilty sinner.  To show you how you cannot on your own do what God’s word wants you to do.  And God’s Word accomplishes that in each one of us.  For God’s law clearly tells us where we have fallen short.  You shall not murder God says.  But every time that we think a bad thought about someone, we are murdering them.  Every time we want to hurt some one physically or emotionally, we break God’s command.  We demonstrate that we are sinners.

You shall not steal, but every time we wrong our neighbor in his possesions we are in effect stealing.  Every time that we take a work break without clocking out, or every time we receive something we didn’t earn we are in essence stealing it.  We are sinners.  You shall not covet, but every time we look around us and see something we want and desire, we covet it in our heart.

And this leads to the most grevious sin of all.  The sin against God’s first commandment:  You shall have no other gods.  This command is broken as we love all variety of things more than we love our God who created us and sustains us day to day.  If we love our car, our home, our family and friends, our job or rest, our hobbies.  Anything that we love more than God becomes and idol, and separates us from our heavenly father.  It is sin within us, and God’s word comes down to show us that sin, and to show us what we can expect if left alone in our sin.  For the wages of sin is death.  And because God’s word clearly says we are sinner, we know that is what we should expect. 

And so, as God promises in our Old Testament lesson, God’s word does the work it is sent for.  In God’s word we read how we are truly guilty and in need of repentance. But God’s word does not stop there, for God’s word also speaks a word of hope in the midst of this sin.  God’s word speaks of Joy and forgiveness.  God’s word says “you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”  Friends these words are not the words of law that we have spoken of this far.  These words are words of Gospel, words about Jesus.  For Jesus too is God’s Word – the Word made flesh that dwelt among us.  Jesus is God’s word who has come to fulfill God’s will, in just the same way. 

For just as the rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, so too does the Word of God, Jesus come down from heaven and pour out his blood upon the earth for your sin.  He comes down and takes on your human flesh, so that he can live a perfect life in your place.  He becomes flesh so that he can pay the price for sin, suffering on a cross, and dying and being laid in a tomb so that you might have life just as he is resurrected.  The Word of God incarnate “accomplishes that which God purposes, and shall succeed in the thing for which God sent it,” to speak forgiveness, life and salvation to your ears dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The Word of God accomplishes God’s will in your life too, as newly forgiven you go forth and live a Christian life, one openly acknowledging your sin, repenting of it, and receiving the countless gifts and blessings of your God in heaven.  In the waters of Baptism, that word has drowned your sinful nature, and has destroyed that part of you that would ignore God’s “Thou Shalt Not’s” and instead a new person has arisen, washed in the blood of the lamb Jesus.  In the Word of God, you have life and life to the full. 

Dear friends, as the rain and snow continues here in North Dakota, as it is sure to, remember how it waters the land and allows it to bring forth many fruits.  In the same way, as God’s word comes to you, know that it will accomplish God’s purpose in you, to show you’re your sin, to lead you to repentance, and to point you to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  For then, and only then, can God’s will be accomplished in you, forgiveness, life for you and salvation.  Amen.