Monday, January 25, 2021

Sermon for Epiphany 3: "Jesus Goes Fishing"

 + 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany - January 24th, 2021 +

Series B: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 



 

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

 

Last spring, when there was no hockey, soccer, or college basketball to be found on TV, my kids and I started watching reruns of bass fishing tournaments. An act of desperation? Perhaps. Turns out it was fascinating. One guy caught 27 large mouthed bass in under 2 hours. Fishing never looked so easy.

 

Now, anyone who’s been fishing, or knows a fisherman, knows it’s rarely that easy. You could have the finest boat on the water, the best equipment, and still fishing is hard, patient, uncertain work. 

 

Fishing was even harder work in Jesus’ day. Peter and Andrew didn’t have depth finders or BassPro sponsorships. And Zebedee’s fishing company didn’t have tackleboxes full of specialized bait and bobbers. This was no relaxing day on the water. No fancy flies or hooks. No expensive reels and carbon fiber rods. No six-pack of PBR sitting under your bench. Just good old fashion nets, calloused hands, and hard work. Day in, day out. Casting your a broad net into the water in hopes of coming up with something in your nets. Sometimes you’d get a few fish. Other times you’d fish all night – like Jesus’ disciples – and pull your nets in only to find them empty. Nothing glamorous. No trophies. Just an uncertain, demanding, daily grind. 

 

If we’re being honest, this kind of fishing, and the hard life of a fisherman in the first century, hardly seems like our idea of being Jesus’ disciple. Where’s the kingdom, the power, the glory? And yet, Jesus calls his first disciples then, and disciples now, to the same hard work.

 

Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

 

As is often the case, what seems strange to us makes perfect sense to our Lord. It’s no accident the first men Jesus called to be his disciples were fishermen. Jesus doesn’t just angle this idea of fishing for men out of thin air. Jesus went trawling in the depths of the Old Testament. In Jeremiah, YHWH sent out many fishers to catch his people who were caught in sin and idolatry. In Ezekiel and Amos, YHWH himself is the fisherman, casting his dragnet over his wayward people of Israel, to haul them back to himself.

 

In the Scriptures, when God goes fishing, he catches his people, closes them into his nets and pulls them out of their sin and idolatry. 

 

And if God is the fisherman, we his people, are the fish. And when you’re the fish; when you’re caught in God’s net, your sinful old life as you know it is over. He hauls us, flipping and flopping, out of our sin and idolatry, and into a radically new life. Into something completely different; a new life in his kingdom – his rule and reign – that is far better, full of grace and his love for you. 

 

This is what’s happening when Jesus came into Galilee – the region of the Gentiles – preaching and proclaiming the Gospel of God. The good news that the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. The good and gracious rule and reign of God has come at last in Jesus. And even though Jesus’ victory on the cross will not happen for another 3 years from this point in Mark’s Gospel, with Jesus on the move, the battle is as good as over. In Jesus, God’s victory over sin, death, and the devil is assured. Every word he preaches, every prophesy he fulfills, every miracle he performs, every sick person he heals is yet another sign that our sinful life as we knew it is over. When Jesus goes fishing, he casts the net of his life, death, and resurrection over all creation, to catch sinners in his nets, and draw us to himself. Just as he did his disciples.

 

That’s what’s happening when Jesus calls his first disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Like fish, Peter, Andrew, James, and John are caught in Jesus’ nets – and life as they knew it is over. Jesus calls them to a radically new life. Jesus calls them to live as his disciples. To the hard work of fishermen serving the great captain of our salvation. To take up their cross and follow Jesus. 

 

“Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

 

As Jesus called his first disciples, they had no idea that the words “follow me” would lead to Jerusalem, to arrest, to trial, to the cross and the open tomb. They had no clue what it meant to be “fishers of men.” Fishers of fish, they understood. But fishers of men was a whole different thing. Fish you caught with nets and a little knowhow concerning the way of fish. But how do you catch men who don’t wish to be caught, and whose ways are far more complex than fish?

 

Jesus would teach them, and in teaching them, he teaches us as well. The net in which men are caught is the net of Jesus’ own death and resurrection. This is the net that drags everything to the shore of the resurrection on the Last Day when the catch is finally sorted out. Instead of casting nets they would cast the Word. Instead of boats there would be pulpits and congregations. Instead of fish flopping in a boat there would be men and women and children of all nations rescued from Sin, Death, and the Law by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

Their fishing is a picture of the kingdom of God in action. They weren’t going to catch men for the kingdom by outsmarting them or by loading their hooks with attractive bait, but rather they were going to proclaim the kingdom of God in the crucified King, the Lord Jesus Christ, casting their net far and wide and deep, and letting the Lord and His angels sort out the catch. 

 

But Jesus’ work of fishing for men doesn’t end with his disciples. That’s just the beginning. Jesus the Fisherman catches us in his grace and releases us with his grace just as he did his disciples. Sure, we each have different vocations, different callings in life. And yet, we who are caught are sent to go and catch. As a congregation, Jesus calls us to make disciples by baptizing and teaching in his name. To cast the net of His Word and catch men in the nets of his grace and haul them into the boat by his gifts of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. 

 

That’s how we live as Jesus’ disciples in this world, as fishers of men swimming in a sea of Sin and Death. We’re not called to transform the world, save society, or clean up its morals. But to make disciples. Cast the net. Haul in the world for whom Jesus died. Proclaim the Gospel, the good news, that in Jesus the Kingdom of God has drawn near. 

 

And when Jesus goes fishing, you are delivered, rescued, and saved, hauled into his kingdom through his cross, and given a completely new life in Jesus. 

 

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

In Memoriam - Don Gutz: "The Gardener"

 + In Memoriam – Donald Gutz +

Job 19:23-27; Romans 8:31-39; John 14:1-6

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA




 

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

 

One of my first memories of Don is when my family first arrived here at Beautiful Savior and he asked  if we liked pears, and that if we did, he would be by later that week. True to his word; he stopped by and he brought pears alright. Let’s just say, it’s a good thing we like pears.

 

That introduction revealed a lot about Don. Not only did he love gardening. He loved to be generous. He loved to talk. He loved his family. He loved his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. He loved our Lord and his gifts. And he loved all these things because God had planted the love of Christ within him and he was rooted Jesus crucified and risen.

 

And the more I thought about this memory, and other Don Gutz moments this week, the more I found myself thinking how much Don’s love of gardening has in common with our Lord’s love and life and faith given to Don and given to us all in Jesus.

 

Gardening is a school of many lessons. Gardening, like life, isn’t always easy. So too with our life of faith in Christ. Hard times come. Blackberry thorns prick. Weeds and worries creep in and choke. There are plenty of Trials. Troubles. Tribulation. Sickness. Danger. Death in the garden. And yet, as Paul writes, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

And yet, if gardening reveals life’s hardships, it also reveals God’s greater blessings. For there are certain things a garden needs to grow and thrive: food, water, light, a good gardener. So it was for Don and it is for us in our life of faith in Christ. Only when it comes to faith and life, we are not the gardener. Don knew this. Don knew that our Lord is the gardener and we are his plants. He makes our heart a fertile soil for his Word. He sows the seed of faith and life within. He waters us daily in the holy waters of Baptism. He feeds us with the holy food of his own body and blood. His cross and resurrection give us light and life. Such is the faith that Don knew and confessed.

 

And this gift of faith is no small thing. After all, anyone who’s spent time with their hands in the dirt, gardening or farming, knows that while there’s a lot a gardener can do – till the soil, weed the garden, trim, fertilize, water, and forth – still there’s a certain act of faith once you place that seed in the ground. One of gardening’s other lessons is realizing that while our Lord places many things in our hands – to care for and tend – there’s far more in life that’s out of our hands. 

 

But Don was ok with that. For he knew that whatever was in his hands, and whatever wasn’t in his hands was safe and secure in the Lord’s hands. As Paul declares, If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Like Paul, Don knew that he, along with all his loves in live – his family, his faith, his church, his garden – rested firmly, yet graciously and safely in the hands of our Lord Jesus. 

 

In the hands of the Great Gardener himself. Who stretched out his hands upon the tree of the cross to make all things new, to save and rescue Don, and me, and you, and all. This same Lord who wonderfully created all things and planted a garden in Eden more wondrously made Don a new creation in Holy Baptism, planting faith and life in Don by water, word, and the Spirit. 

 

This same Lord who wonderfully formed Adam from the dust of the earth has more wondrously redeemed us in our flesh by Jesus our second Adam. This is why we join Job and Don in confessing, “I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God”

 

This same Lord who filled creation with such wonderous, bountiful fruit and plants that Don enjoyed gardening and giving away, also deals with us in his bountiful grace. Jesus climbed the tree of the cross for you and for Don, to rescue, redeem, and restore. Then God the Gardener cast himself like a seed into the earth – down into our grave and Don’s – so that in Jesus’ resurrection we would receive the first fruits of his life, death, and resurrection. Like a plant in spring Jesus rose from the earth three days later so that when he returns, Don and you and me and all flesh will stand and see our Redeemer, our Savior, our great and gracious gardener. And He will pull us out of our graves as easily and as quickly a skilled gardener pulls up his vegetables.

 

Now, Don would be the first to tell you that he received all of our Lord’s blessings, not because of anything special or remarkable or particularly deserving that he had done. But because of everything the Lord had done for him. Like the growth of a garden, Don’s life and faith and love were all gift from our all gracious Lord Jesus. 

 

And that is why Don was comforted in life and in death. He knew he was in the hands of his gracious Lord and Savior and Gardener. And so are you.

 

Our Lord comforts you today as well. Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.

 

It’s hard to say exactly what the new creation will look like, but I wouldn’t be surprised that along with our Lord’s house, in the new heavens and the new earth that Jesus has prepared for us, that in the resurrection along with Don’s glorified and risen body, and ours, that there will be a garden for us to sit and enjoy with Christ as we rest under the tree of life with our good and gracious Gardener.

 

Until that day of Don’s resurrection, and ours…

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Monday, January 11, 2021

Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord: "Water, Spirit, Life"

 + Baptism of Our Lord – January 10th, 2021 +

Series B: Genesis 1:1-5; Romans 6:1-11; Mark 1:4-11

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 



 

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

 

It’s no exaggeration to say that water is life. It’s true in our daily life, and even more so in our life before God. 

 

It’s no surprise, then, that Scripture is saturated with the way God gives life through water. In the beginning, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Deep. Tehom, those primal, swirling, chaotic waters. God brought order out of chaos. Light out of darkness. Life out of nothing. Water, Spirit, Life.

 

In Genesis 8 water covered the face of the earth; it was Genesis 1:2 all over again. The Flood was a washing with water of a creation gone bad. And yet through the water, God saved Noah and his family, 8 souls in all. The dove held an olive branch in its beak. A sign of a new creation. A sign of the new creation yet to come. Water, Spirit, Life. 

 

In Exodus, God saved Israel through the water. Isaiah reminds us that God placed his Holy Spirit in their midst as they walked through the water into life (Is. 63:11-12). Israel emerges from the Red Sea waters a redeemed people, baptized in the Red Sea, Paul declares. Egypt is the womb of Israel and the Sea is its birthing water. As the Israelites walked through the Sea, they went from being slaves to free men, from nothing to a nation. Water, Spirit, Life.

Time and time again God drenches his real promises and with real water. Scripture teems with God’s ever-flowing life and love. It all leads us downstream to the Jordan River. To John, whom God sent baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. To Jesus, who stands in the Jordan River as the convergence of all God’s watery, grace-soaked, promises. Water, Spirit, Life. That’s how God works here in Mark 1 as well.

 

John’s baptism in the wilderness is not the same as the baptism Jesus will establish. But it is important. John’s baptism marked a transition, a bridge between the old covenant and the new. all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. a new life through water. 

 

In the old covenant, you dealt with sin by blood sacrifice, the blood of an animal for your blood, life for life. But with John came something new – a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. You came to John standing there in the Jordan river, confessing your sins, and you were washed by him and forgiven. Your sins were washed away. And the whole while John would be preaching and pointing ahead to another One, a greater One for whom John was not worthy to be the lowest slave untying His sandal. He would bring an even greater Baptism – the Holy Spirit.

 

John’s baptism, like his preaching, pointed to the true fountain and wellspring of eternal life in Jesus, the source and confluence of God’s promises.

 

Still, we wonder  why was Jesus baptized? How did…It come to pass that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 

 

Think about how shocking this is. John’s baptism was for repentance and forgiveness of sins. The people came to John confessing their sins. And here’s Jesus, the sinless Son of God walking into the water of sinners. Bathing himself in the sins of Israel. Stepping into the dirty, sin-polluted waters of the Jordan River. Jesus, the Holy One of Israel standing in the Jordan River soaking up our sinful water like a sponge. Jesus’ baptism is the opposite of our baptism. Where our baptism cleanses us, Jesus’s baptism reveals him as the sin bearer. 

 

In the Jordan River, Jesus steps into our place, that in his life, death, and resurrection, we would stand before God in his place. In the Jordan River, Jesus comes to do what we cannot do, to turn us back, to return us to God the Father. In the Jordan River, Jesus steps into the water to open the flood gates of his love that will finally be revealed on the cross. Shocking, yet wonderful indeed.

 

And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.

 

Just as the Spirit of God hovered over creation. Just as the dove came to Noah with an olive branch. Just as the Spirit of God was in the midst of God’s people as they walked through the Red Sea. So too, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. It is God’s signal that in Jesus he will bring about a new creation – order out of chaos, light out of darkness, life from nothingness of sin. In Jesus God brings us true rest, true peace, as we too are saved, given life by water and His Spirit. In Jesus God leads us on a newer and greater exodus; an exodus from slavery of sin to the freedom in Christ, from darkness to light, from death to life. 

 

Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River and on the cross in fire and blood, so that when you are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, you are baptized into him. 

As St. Paul writes, We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

The same Lord who tore open the waters of the Red Sea to rescue Israel, emerges from the Jordan River waters, standing in the sinners’ place, to bring about your rescue on the cross, when the curtain of the temple was torn in two and paradise is opened for you.

 

It’s a Trinitarian event. Like all baptisms, Jesus’ baptism is the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is in the water with sinners and for sinners. The Holy Spirit descends. And the Father speaks. 

 

God’s voice cries out from the heavens. “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Pleased to send His Son for you. Pleased to save you. Pleased to give you life by water and the Spirit. Pleased to give you His own Son that in him he would declare, “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.” 

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

 

 

 

 

Monday, January 4, 2021

Sermon for Christmas 2: "Knowing Jesus"

 + 2nd Sunday after Christmas – January 1st, 2021 +

Series B: 1 Kings 3:4-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Luke 2:4-52

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 



 

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

 

I remember one of my professors at seminary once saying that one of the best answers you can give when someone asks you a question in bible study is, “I don’t know.” 

 

Wise advice. Especially when you don’t actually know the answer! A good reminder that whenever we approach God’s Word, we do so in humility. 

 

I imagine that I’m not alone in finding myself reading or hearing a bible story or passage and thinking… “What does this mean? What’s going on? I don’t know.

 

When it comes to Luke’s account of 12-year old Jesus in the temple of Jerusalem there is a lot about this story we don’t know. 

 

We’d probably all love to know what Jesus was doing between Luke 2:40 when Jesus is 40 days old in the temple with Simeon and Anna, and Luke 2:41 when Jesus is back in the temple at age 12 only this time he’s out-rabbi-ing the rabbis asking questions and answering better than Hermione Granger. But, we don’t know.

 

And I bet, like me, you’ve wondered on more than on occasion, “what was said during that conversation between Jesus and the rabbis?” As the Teacher incarnate sat in the midst of the teachers of the temple. As he who formed the ear listened, and he who spoke creation into existence astonished them with his answers. Oh to have been a fly on the temple wall and listen in on the questions and answers that flew back and forth between them like a humming bird, buzzing with biblical intensity and fulfillment. But, we don’t know.

 

In not knowing we find ourselves in good company. Ignorance may not always be bliss, but there is such a thing as a blessed ignorance, where God invites us to lean, not on our own understanding, but rather on his and the way in which He chooses to reveal his Word and Wisdom and Love for us. 

 

St. Luke invites us to join Mary and Joseph in seeing, hearing, and knowing Jesus through their unknowing turned to knowing. To join them in their travels from unknowing to knowing who Mary’s Son really is and why he came.

 

The whole time Jesus is in the temple, amazing the teachers, St. Luke places us alongside Mary and Joseph, ignorant of what is going on. With them, we take our leave of Jerusalem. With them, we discover Jesus is missing. With them, we search for Jesus. And, with them, we find Jesus in the Temple. Even after finding Jesus and conversing with Him, Mary and Joseph still don’t understand. They walk away full of amazement but yet empty of understanding. Luke tells us, “…they did not understand the saying He said to them” (50).

 

Like Mary and Joseph there is much we do not know, much we do not understand about our Lord and this life. 

 

On the one hand this not-knowing can be a good thing. A time for humility. But, we all know that in our sinfulness, we aren’t always good at exercising humility. Just as we’re not so good about not-knowing either. And so in the darkness of our sinful ignorance, our sinful flesh drives us into one of two ditches, despair or pride. To despair that we don’t know anything and therefore nothing really matters at all. Or to pride ourselves into foolishly thinking that we can know and must know all things. Such is the deeper, darker ignorance of sin. 

 

And yet, even in the midst of our ignorance, Jesus is walking with us. Jesus joins us in our ignorance, just as he did for Mary and Joseph. That’s the amazing and wondrous thing about this story. God dwells with His people, even when they do not understand. 

 

Faith in Christ does not rest on our perfect knowledge of God, but on Jesus’ perfect sacrificial love made known to you by his death on the cross. Our hope and salvation is not found in how much or how little we know, but in God’s grace made known to you in Jesus who was born for you and lived for you and was crucified for you. 

 

And while it’s true that there is much we do not know about in Scripture, God has given us His Word that we might hear and rejoice in what he desires us to know: His unending, unconditional, unmerited love towards us in Jesus.

 

As Paul writes…Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love

 

When Mary and Joseph found Jesus, He told them that He it was necessary to be in His Father’s house, doing His Father’s business. They may not have known or understood exactly how this would unfold. Even so, God was there, with them in their journey on the road. 

 

The same is true for you today, in this new year or 2021 with all the unknowns that are racing through our hearts and minds. Jesus is with us on our journey. With us in our unknowing, making known God’s great love for you in him. 

 

Jesus knows our sin and He who knew no sin became sin for us. Jesus knows our pain, suffering, and sorrow, and came to make that his own that you might be his own. 

 

Jesus came to be the shepherd who walks through the valley of death with you. Nothing will prevent God from being with you. He willingly bears your sin. He graciously dies your death. He victoriously defeats your enemy, that He might rise and walk forever with you.

 

Yes, Luke reminds us how much of God’s wisdom is beyond our understanding. And yet God isn’t beyond our reach. For Luke also reminds us that God has chosen to dwell with us. To enter our lives through His Word, to claim us as His own in baptism, and be present with us in his forgiving and healing body and blood in simple bread and wine.

 

Faith is not always knowing. After all, it’s ok to say, “I don’t know.” Rather, faith is holding-on to a mystery. The mystery of God who comes to dwell with you in Jesus. 

 

Yes, Jesus amazed the teachers in the Temple, but there is something even more amazing going on in this story. The fact that Jesus has chosen to be with you. To love you. Save you. To know you and be known to you in His Son. 

 

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

Sermon for New Year's Eve: "God is For Us"

 + New Year’s Eve – December 31st, 2020 +

Isaiah 30:15-17; Romans 8:31-39; Luke 12:35-40

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church

Milton, WA

 



 

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

 

Whenever our family would go to the Oregon Coast growing up, I remember my dad telling my sister and I, “Never turn your back on the Pacific.” And for good reason. Breakers would roll in. Left. Right. Double stacked. One after another. Wave after wave. If you didn’t keep your eye on the ocean you’d most likely end up with the waves against you. One wave knocks you down and just when you try and get up you get knocked back down into the wash machine current again. 

 

I imagine for all of us - in one way or another, and perhaps in more ways than one - this year 2020, has felt like it feels to get knocked over by a sneaker wave on the shores of the Pacific. As if the waves of the world are against us. Perhaps to the point of wondering if even God himself is against us.

 

St. Paul mentions some of those waves in our reading from Romans this evening. Waves that the saints in the first century felt pounded by as well. Suffering. Tribulation. Distress. Persecution. Famine. Nakedness. Peril. The sword. Earlier in this same chapter, Paul says that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs.  

 

“Not only that,” Paul goes on to write, “but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” 

 

I’ve always found it helpful that when Paul wrote these words to the saints in Rome, he doesn’t name the exact kind of suffering or tribulation they were going through. He doesn’t define what their distress or persecution looked like, only that they were enduring it. Suffering it. 

 

Why is that helpful you might wonder? For one thing, it’s comforting to read the Scriptures and know that we are not the first Christians to have endured wave upon wave of difficult days. We are not the only ones in the history of the Christian church to have lived in times of great danger and distress. From history we know some of what our brothers and sisters in Christ in Rome endured. But not all. And yet, Paul says, we are not alone. 

 

Not only do we share with them in their suffering, but more than that, Paul writes, “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. The Holy Spirit makes intercessions for us.” When we know what to pray for and especially when we do not. 

 

And there’s been a lot of that this year. Plenty of not knowing. Plenty of waiting. Wondering. I’m sure a fair amount of worrying too. Like breakers rolling one on top of another, pounding us with distress, despair, and tribulation.

 

And that’s another important reason why Paul doesn’t get specific in the kinds of distress and suffering and weakness he writes about to the Christians in Rome in the first century. For our Lord also sent him to write to you here in the 21st century, wherever this year has found out feeling like a little kid being battered by the surf.

 

We have been knocked down by waves of suffering, distress, and tribulation. A pandemic of disease. A pandemic of worry. A pandemic of despair and doubt. A pandemic of political unrest. And underneath it all, the real pandemic of sin, of life in a fallen world.

 

Although we probably haven’t suffered nakedness, famine, or the sword this year, we’ve certainly feared those things. We’ve seen a rising tide of peril and persecution that comes with life in a fallen world surrounded by fallen sinners.

 

And perhaps greatest of all, when standing before the awesome lighthouse of God’s Word, he reveals the deep abyss of our own sinfulness. It is a treacherous whirlpool of iniquity. A churning tide, a raging storm inside each of us. 

 

And yet, our Lord does not leave us to float adrift. He will not let us be drug out to sea. He saves us from drowning in our own sin. 

 

St. Paul writes to declare to the saints in Rome, and you tonight, that the Lord Jesus, the great Captain of your salvation, has come to redeem you. Rescue you. Restore you. 

 

For There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 

 

And make no mistake. You are in Christ Jesus. Baptized. Redeemed. Rescued. In Jesus, God is not against. God is for you. If anything in life ever causes you to doubt or question that, you need look no further than the manger where he was born for you and the cross where he died for you. 

 

Jesus, who entered the raging storm of this fallen world and let wave upon wave of our sin fall upon him on the cross in our place. Jesus, who stepped into the flood of our sin that he might soak it all up like a sponge, take it to the cross where the Father would wring out all his wrath upon him, in order to give us safe harbor and an eternal haven in Jesus. Jesus, who was baptized in fire and blood on the cross that we might be baptized in his name, into his death and resurrection by water, word, and the Spirit. The same Spirit who intercedes for you. 

 

Whatever we have endured this year, whatever comes this new year, this we know. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. God is for us. And God is with us in Jesus, Immanuel. 

 

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

 

 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

 

 No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, [nor Covid-19, nor political unrest, nor economic uncertainty] nor anything else in all creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

A blessed and happy new year to each of you…

 

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