Dear friends in Christ.
John G. Wendel and his sisters were some of the most miserly people of all time. Although they had received a huge inheritance from their parents, they spent very little of it and did all they could to keep their wealth for themselves. John was able to influence five of his six sisters never to marry, and they lived in the same house in New York City for 50 years. When the last sister died in 1931, her estate was valued at more than $100 million. Her only dress was one that she had made herself, and she had worn it for 25 years. The Wendels had such a compulsion to hold on to their possessions that they lived like paupers. Though they were undoubtedly some of the wealthiest people of their day, they had completely missed out on the true wealth that can only be found in the Lord our God. In fact, as we study our Gospel lesson this morning we will hear Jesus calling on us to find our true wealth in the Lord our God.
To do this, to find our wealth in the Lord our God, we want to take a look at what Luke has recorded for us in our Gospel lesson, so I invite you to open your Bibles to Luke 12:13, which can be found on page 1031. Now, before we begin reading in Luke 12, let me give you a little bit of background. Very recently Jesus had been at the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany which was just a couple of miles to the East of Jerusalem. Jesus had taught his disciples the Lord’s prayer as we heard in our sermon last week, and now Jesus was most likely traveling around the region of Perea, which was the area to which Jesus had sent the 72 disciples in preparation for his coming there. As Jesus traveled through the area preaching and teaching the crowds that gathered continued to grow larger and larger, even as Jesus gave the people many warnings and took the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law to task by pronouncing woes on them—stirring them up and causing them to oppose his message of salvation through faith in him. Now, as we come to the parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:13 a crowd of many thousands of people had gathered to hear Jesus and Jesus began teaching them to find their wealth in the Lord their God. “13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:13–15, NIV)
Obviously this man had a problem with his brother and the dividing up of the inheritance from their parent’s estate, and he wanted Jesus’ help in the matter. At first glance this might have seemed like a natural thing for him to ask, after all, Jesus was the Rabbi of Nazareth, and Jewish Rabbis were often asked to act as judges in legal disputes because they were so well versed in the Law. However, when Jesus responded to this man’s request, Jesus revealed that he was not about to encroach upon the work of the legally appointed judges. He was not about to involve himself in the midst of a dispute on the division of inheritance when his mission to the world had to do with much more important things. His mission was to teach the people to find their true wealth in the Lord their God, which is exactly what Jesus did! In such a simple way, Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter calling on those two brothers, along with that crowd of thousands, to guard their lives against greed and find their true wealth in the Lord their God as he began to tell his parable. Take a look at verse 16: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’” (Luke 12:15–19, NIV)
Did you see what Jesus did with this parable? In such a clear and concise way, Jesus tells us that there is nothing wrong with being wealthy. There is nothing wrong with having a great deal of material possessions. There is nothing wrong with planning for the future and making the most of the money and possessions that you have been given here on this earth. That, in fact, is the very thing that this rich farmer had done. The Lord had blessed him with wealth. He had given this man wisdom and aptitude as a farmer and as a business man, and now the Lord had blessed him with a bumper crop. Because of this bumper crop he had to build bigger barns to store his grain and all his goods. He could see that from this harvest he would more than he needed for a long time, which meant that he could essentially retire, take it easy, and enjoy his retirement. The problem, however, was that though this man had been blessed by the Lord with great wealth, he did not possess the true wealth that comes through faith in Jesus. Rather, his life essentially consisted in the abundance of his possessions. His life consisted in the desire to acquire more and more. His life consisted in an attitude of greed and not in an attitude of trust in the Lord, or thankfulness for all his possessions. Instead, in his pursuit of possessions, he had fallen into idolatry, placing things before the Lord God, which is why verses 20 and 21 are so poignant: 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20-21, NIV)
Though this man had been extremely shrewd and wise in all of his business dealings and his acquirement of wealth, somewhere along the line he had lost his true wealth; faith in Jesus as his Savior. Though he may have though he had plenty of time to enjoy the finer things in life and then re-establish his true wealth in God, that very night was his last on earth. Not only did he lose everything that he had prepared for himself to others who would claim it, and possibly fight over it when he was gone, but he also found that the result of replacing his true wealth in God with the wealth of the world was that on his death bed he would be cast out of the presence of the Lord and found himself suffering the torment of unbelief forever in hell.
This is our Savior’s warning to us today! He is not warning us against being wealthy! Rather he is warning us against replacing our true wealth of salvation through faith in Jesus with the endless acquisition of things. He is calling on us to understand that our lives as his children do not consist in the abundance of our possessions but in the abundance of his grace. He is calling on us to recognize that everything we have is a gift from our God. It is no ours to possess but ours to manage! Whether he has given us great earthly wealth, moderate earthly wealth, or little earthly wealth, God gifts are for us to manage. They are for our use in providing for our families and for others. They are for our giving back to him.
Yet, how often haven’t we acted just like this foolish rich man? How often haven’t we pushed God out of our thoughts while we planned our financial futures? How often haven’t we put away money for that new car, new house, new computer, dream vacation, or even retirement, yet we couldn’t find anything to give back to the Lord? Or look at it from the other side of things. How many of us are suffering under the weight of credit card debts, because we simply had to have that new toy now and we couldn’t wait until we had saved for it? How many of us are suffering under the weight of car payments because we just had to have that brand new car that we couldn’t really afford? How many of us have found that the money we had planned to give to the Lord has been reduced because suddenly we need it to make ends meet?
If we are honest with ourselves, then we must admit that we have acted like the foolish rich man in the parable on many, many occasions. We must admit that there have been times when even we, Christians, have though that our lives consisted in the abundance of our possessions rather than in the true wealth of God’s Word. But even though we have acted in this very way, our Savior is speaking to us and assuring us that he has forgiven us. He is assuring us that through faith in him we have been washed clean of every greedy longing for more and more stuff. He is assuring us that through faith in him we have once again found the source of our true wealth in the Lord our God. Though we may have to deal with the consequence of our actions that brought the debts upon us, now that we have been reminded of the source of our true wealth, we can give thanks to the Lord our God for all his gifts to us. We can live as managers of the wealth we’ve been given, not setting our hearts on their increase, but setting our hearts on the Lord. In this way, whether our wealth increases or decreases in this life, our focus is on our God and Savior who has made us his own through faith in Jesus Christ.
Though the Wendles completely missed out on the true wealth of salvation through faith in Jesus, today we have been reminded of that very thing. Today we have rediscovered the true wealth that our God has given us—the wealth of salvation that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior who gives us all that we have. Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Showing posts with label Faithful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faithful. Show all posts
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Raise your hearts in fervent prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)
Sermon Hymn 410: Our Father, Who from Heaven Above
Tune: Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, Der Du: 88 88 88
1. Our Father, who from heav'n above Bids all of us to live in love
As members of one family And pray to you in unity,
Teach us no thoughtless words to say, But from our inmost hearts to pray.
2. Your name be hallowed. Help us, Lord, In purity to keep your Word,
That to the glory of your name We walk before you free from blame.
Let no false doctrine us pervert; All poor, deluded souls convert.
Dear friends in Christ.
A story has long been told about two monks who were discussing the Lord’s Prayer and their ability to pray it completely while concentrating on it fully. The first monk said with sorrow and frustration, “I can’t do it! I try and I try, but invariably somewhere in the middle of the prayer my mind wanders and I start thinking about other things.” “Really,” said the second monk. “I have no problem praying the Lord’s Prayer or concentrating on what I am saying.” The first monk looked quizzically at the second and said, “I don’t believe you! I’ll bet you my horse that you cannot say the Lord’s Prayer without being distracted and thinking about something else.” So the second monk took the bet. He took a deep breath to help clear his mind and focus his thoughts. He folded his hands, closed his eyes, bowed his head, and began praying. But before he even reached the petition asking that the Lord’s will be done on heaven and on earth, he stopped, looked at the first monk and said, “I guess you were right. Everything was going fine. I was focused and concentrating on what I was saying, and then I suddenly wondered if the saddle would come with the horse.”
How often doesn’t the same thing happen to us? How often don’t we begin speaking the words of the Lord’s Prayer when suddenly three or four different thoughts crowd their way into our minds and we simply stop paying attention to the words we are speaking? How often doesn’t it happen that we hear the Pastor say something like, “We join to pray the prayer that Jesus taught, and the next thing we realize is that we are saying, “Amen” and we are continuing on with the Communion liturgy or sitting down to sing the next hymn? How often haven’t we simply taken the Lord’s Prayer for granted? How often haven’t we simply prayed it without considering what we are praying for? How often haven’t we been upset because we were in a church that used that other version of the Lord’s Prayer, the one with which we are not so familiar, and we had to open our hymnals and read it, and think about the words we were saying; instead of simply reciting it verbatim without a care in the world? We’ve all done this! We have all failed to focus on what we were praying as we fervently prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It is for this very reason that we want to take a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer today so that we might grow in our understanding of what we are praying, and so that we might be better able to focus our attention on what we are so fervently praying to the Lord with these words.
To our text! Take a look at Matthew 6:9” “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’” (Matthew 6:9, NIV). With these words, Jesus himself is inviting us to believe that God is our one true Father in heaven and that through faith in him and his Son Jesus, we are his true children. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can pray to the Lord God our heavenly Father as boldly and confidently as children speak to their parents here on earth. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can bring any problem, hardship, frustration, concern, item of joy or praise to our heavenly Father at any time and he will hear us, he will listen, and he will answer our prayer as we fervently pray to him and ask that his name be kept holy.
Now, if you think about it, God’s name is already holy in itself, even without our asking. But when we are praying that the Lord’s name be hallowed, we are asking that we too might keep it holy. We are asking for his help and his blessing in keeping his name holy, because God’s Name is hallowed, when his Word is taught in its truth and purity. God’s Name is hallowed when we, as God’s children, live holy lives according to his Word, and as we pray that his name be kept holy, we are asking our Father in heaven to help us do that very thing so that through our lives others might see our faith and have the opportunity to learn about their Savior through the message of the Gospel. This is God’s will for our lives that his kingdom comes to us and many others through the message of his Word. Join me in singing about his kingdom and his will in stanza’s 3 and 4 of hymn 410:
3. Your kingdom come, we humbly pray, That Christ may rule in us today
And that your Holy Spirit bring Still more to worship Christ as King.
Break Satan's pow'r, defeat his rage; Preserve your Church from age to age.
4. Your gracious will on earth be done Just as in heav'n around your throne,
That patiently we may obey Throughout our lives all that you say.
Curb sinful flesh and ev'ry ill That sets itself against your will.
Such beautiful words the hymnist uses to expound what we are praying in those two very beautiful petitions form Matthew 6:10: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, NIV). How strange it is that we as Christians should be praying such a petition as, “your kingdom come.” After all, we know that God’s kingdom will certainly come even without our asking, but when we speak these words, we are asking that God’s kingdom would come to us and to many others through the Holy Spirit whom the Father sends into our hearts through his Word and Sacraments. We are asking our heavenly Father to send his Holy Spirit into our hearts and the hearts of many others so that we all might believe his Word and lead a holy and godly life here on earth, through faith, and forever in heaven by God’s grace. This is God’s good and gracious will for our lives!
Again, God’s will would certainly be done without our prayer! Yet, whenever we pray, “Thy will be done;” we are praying that the Lord our God would break down and defeat every evil plan and purpose of the devil, this sin-filled world, and even our own sinful flesh. We are asking the Lord to strengthen us and keep us strong in our faith and firm in his word so that we might keep his name holy with our lives and his kingdom might come to others through our words and actions. That is God’s good and gracious will for our lives, that satan would be defeated, that the Lord would use us to spread his word to the nations, and that he would call many others to faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
This is our fervent prayer to the Lord as we speak the words which our Savior has given. Though the petitions, to this point, have been rather straight forward and easy for us to speak, as we come to the Fourth and Fifth Petitions, we find ourselves in a little more difficult territory. Though these words roll off the tongue so easily without a thought, when we stop to consider their meaning, they become that much more difficult for us to speak. Join me in singing these petitions from stanzas 5 and 6 of hymn 410:
5. Give us today our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed.
From hardship, war, and earthly strife, From sickness, famine, spare our life.
Let selfishness and worry cease That we may live in godly peace.
6. Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore, That they may trouble us no more;
We, too, will gladly those forgive Who hurt us by the way they live.
Help us in our community To serve each other willingly.
So how did you feel as you sung the words of these two stanzas? Did you find these words easy to sing or did you find them a little more difficult than you expected as they so clearly expounded on what Jesus tells us in verse 11 and 12 of Matthew 6: “Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:11-12, NIV). But why is it that these petitions are so difficult for us? The answer is quite simple; because we are asking our God not only to teach us to rely on him for all things, but to live in love and forgiveness for each other. In fact, just think about what we are saying when we ask our God to give us our daily bread. We are asking him to provide everything that we need for our body and life on a daily basis. We are asking him to help us realize that he graciously gives us all these things and more, even without our asking, even to those who are wicked. But we are asking him to help us realize that all our blessings come from him and that he will provide all that we need, which is something that so few of us do because it is so contrary to our human nature. All we have to do is look at our budget and calculate how much we are paying in credit card interest and other deferred payments for things that we may not have needed but simply felt that we couldn’t live without in order to find our level of trust in the Lord’s ability to know what we need and provide all that we need every day.
Yet even as we have sinned against the Lord by not trusting him, we are asking him to forgive us. Yet this is also where it becomes difficult for us. Though it is easy to pray that the Lord would forgive our debts, our sins; it is not as easy to pray, as we have forgiven our debtors—those who have sinned against us. This, too, goes completely against our human nature. We long to hold on to our grudges and remember what this person or that person did against us. We see it as a source of pride to withhold forgiveness from someone who sinned against us. Yet we fervently pray for our God to forgive us, we are asking him for the strength to forgive others as well. We are praying that the Lord would neither look upon our sins, nor deny our prayers because of our sins, even though we sin on a daily basis and deserve only his wrath and punishment. Yet, as we approach our heavenly Father, we ask him to act in mercy because of our Savior, forgive us of all our sins, and help us to do the same for those who have sinned against us. We ask him to help us reflect the love our Savior has for us by forgiven others, even as Jesus has already forgiven all of us.
This is the forgiveness in which we all live; the forgiveness that is ours through faith in Jesus, who poured out his blood and took back his life to save us. This is the forgiveness that now moves us to live in his love, love our neighbor as our selves, and forgive those who sin against us. This is the forgiveness that no moves us to pray that the Lord deliver us from temptation and all evil, just as we sing in stanzas 7 and 8 of hymn 410:
7. Into temptation lead us not. When evil foes against us plot
And vex our souls on ev'ry hand, Oh, give us strength that we may stand
Firm in the faith, a mighty host, Through comfort of the Holy Ghost.
8. From evil, Lord, deliver us; The times and days are perilous.
Redeem us from eternal death, And, when we yield our dying breath,
Console us, grant us calm release, And take our souls to you in peace.
Just as we sang so beautifully in our hymn we pray so fervently with those words from verse 13 of Matthew 6: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13, NIV) Though we know that God does not lead anyone into sin or even tempt them to sin, with these words we fervently pray that the Lord our God would guard us and keep us so that satan, this sinful world, and our traitorous-sinful flesh would not deceive us, or lead us into false belief, despair, or any other sins for that matter. Instead, with these words, we fervently pray that with God’s help we may overcome these and other temptations and win the victory over them as God himself delivers us from the evil one—our enemy, the devil.
This, too, is our fervent prayer that God our Father would deliver us from every evil that would threaten our body and soul, even our property and reputation. Not only that, but we also pray that when our time comes, the Lord would grant us a blessed end by calling us out of this life to his side forever in heaven. This is our fervent prayer to the Lord our God who promises to hear us, answer us, forgive us, provide for us, and deliver us from every form of evil.
Thus, we come to the end of the Lord’s prayer as recorded in the Bible. Though it was a little different in the account in Luke than it is in Matthew, there is no place where the doxology is recorded in the Scriptures. So I cannot point to you any specific passage in the Bible where you can read, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” But even though they may not appear in any specific passage of Scripture, they undoubtedly echo many of the praises found in the Scriptures which describe how the Lord’s kingdom, power and glory shall endure forever. Interestingly enough, these very words were included with the Lord’s prayer in the Didache, which was essentially the Catechism for Christians back in about 100 AD. They were the words that we sang in response to the reading of the Lord’s Prayer during the communion service back when we used The Lutheran Hymnal, and they are words that have stuck. They are words of praise and glory that we proclaim before we say Amen, which is our statement of confidence that the Lord will hear and answer our prayer. Thus we say Amen at the end of our prayer, for this simple word declares, “Yes, it shall be so.” Yes, it shall be so thus declares our confidence in approaching our heavenly Father in this way, for not only has he commanded us to pray and promised to hear us, but these are the very words that Jesus has given us to pray.
So now, as we continue fervently praying the Lord’s Prayer, each and every week, I pray that this brief explanation will help you more thoroughly concentrate on what you are saying as you speak those familiar words that our Savior gave us. Thus, as we bring this sermon to a close, let us join our hearts and voices in singing the Amen from stanza 9 of hymn 410:
9. Amen, that is, it shall be so. Make strong our faith that we may know
That we may doubt not but believe What here we ask we shall receive.
Thus in your name and at your Word We say, "Amen. Oh, hear us, Lord!"
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Tune: Vater Unser Im Himmelreich, Der Du: 88 88 88
1. Our Father, who from heav'n above Bids all of us to live in love
As members of one family And pray to you in unity,
Teach us no thoughtless words to say, But from our inmost hearts to pray.
2. Your name be hallowed. Help us, Lord, In purity to keep your Word,
That to the glory of your name We walk before you free from blame.
Let no false doctrine us pervert; All poor, deluded souls convert.
Dear friends in Christ.
A story has long been told about two monks who were discussing the Lord’s Prayer and their ability to pray it completely while concentrating on it fully. The first monk said with sorrow and frustration, “I can’t do it! I try and I try, but invariably somewhere in the middle of the prayer my mind wanders and I start thinking about other things.” “Really,” said the second monk. “I have no problem praying the Lord’s Prayer or concentrating on what I am saying.” The first monk looked quizzically at the second and said, “I don’t believe you! I’ll bet you my horse that you cannot say the Lord’s Prayer without being distracted and thinking about something else.” So the second monk took the bet. He took a deep breath to help clear his mind and focus his thoughts. He folded his hands, closed his eyes, bowed his head, and began praying. But before he even reached the petition asking that the Lord’s will be done on heaven and on earth, he stopped, looked at the first monk and said, “I guess you were right. Everything was going fine. I was focused and concentrating on what I was saying, and then I suddenly wondered if the saddle would come with the horse.”
How often doesn’t the same thing happen to us? How often don’t we begin speaking the words of the Lord’s Prayer when suddenly three or four different thoughts crowd their way into our minds and we simply stop paying attention to the words we are speaking? How often doesn’t it happen that we hear the Pastor say something like, “We join to pray the prayer that Jesus taught, and the next thing we realize is that we are saying, “Amen” and we are continuing on with the Communion liturgy or sitting down to sing the next hymn? How often haven’t we simply taken the Lord’s Prayer for granted? How often haven’t we simply prayed it without considering what we are praying for? How often haven’t we been upset because we were in a church that used that other version of the Lord’s Prayer, the one with which we are not so familiar, and we had to open our hymnals and read it, and think about the words we were saying; instead of simply reciting it verbatim without a care in the world? We’ve all done this! We have all failed to focus on what we were praying as we fervently prayed the Lord’s Prayer. It is for this very reason that we want to take a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer today so that we might grow in our understanding of what we are praying, and so that we might be better able to focus our attention on what we are so fervently praying to the Lord with these words.
To our text! Take a look at Matthew 6:9” “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,’” (Matthew 6:9, NIV). With these words, Jesus himself is inviting us to believe that God is our one true Father in heaven and that through faith in him and his Son Jesus, we are his true children. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can pray to the Lord God our heavenly Father as boldly and confidently as children speak to their parents here on earth. With these words, Jesus is teaching us that we can bring any problem, hardship, frustration, concern, item of joy or praise to our heavenly Father at any time and he will hear us, he will listen, and he will answer our prayer as we fervently pray to him and ask that his name be kept holy.
Now, if you think about it, God’s name is already holy in itself, even without our asking. But when we are praying that the Lord’s name be hallowed, we are asking that we too might keep it holy. We are asking for his help and his blessing in keeping his name holy, because God’s Name is hallowed, when his Word is taught in its truth and purity. God’s Name is hallowed when we, as God’s children, live holy lives according to his Word, and as we pray that his name be kept holy, we are asking our Father in heaven to help us do that very thing so that through our lives others might see our faith and have the opportunity to learn about their Savior through the message of the Gospel. This is God’s will for our lives that his kingdom comes to us and many others through the message of his Word. Join me in singing about his kingdom and his will in stanza’s 3 and 4 of hymn 410:
3. Your kingdom come, we humbly pray, That Christ may rule in us today
And that your Holy Spirit bring Still more to worship Christ as King.
Break Satan's pow'r, defeat his rage; Preserve your Church from age to age.
4. Your gracious will on earth be done Just as in heav'n around your throne,
That patiently we may obey Throughout our lives all that you say.
Curb sinful flesh and ev'ry ill That sets itself against your will.
Such beautiful words the hymnist uses to expound what we are praying in those two very beautiful petitions form Matthew 6:10: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10, NIV). How strange it is that we as Christians should be praying such a petition as, “your kingdom come.” After all, we know that God’s kingdom will certainly come even without our asking, but when we speak these words, we are asking that God’s kingdom would come to us and to many others through the Holy Spirit whom the Father sends into our hearts through his Word and Sacraments. We are asking our heavenly Father to send his Holy Spirit into our hearts and the hearts of many others so that we all might believe his Word and lead a holy and godly life here on earth, through faith, and forever in heaven by God’s grace. This is God’s good and gracious will for our lives!
Again, God’s will would certainly be done without our prayer! Yet, whenever we pray, “Thy will be done;” we are praying that the Lord our God would break down and defeat every evil plan and purpose of the devil, this sin-filled world, and even our own sinful flesh. We are asking the Lord to strengthen us and keep us strong in our faith and firm in his word so that we might keep his name holy with our lives and his kingdom might come to others through our words and actions. That is God’s good and gracious will for our lives, that satan would be defeated, that the Lord would use us to spread his word to the nations, and that he would call many others to faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
This is our fervent prayer to the Lord as we speak the words which our Savior has given. Though the petitions, to this point, have been rather straight forward and easy for us to speak, as we come to the Fourth and Fifth Petitions, we find ourselves in a little more difficult territory. Though these words roll off the tongue so easily without a thought, when we stop to consider their meaning, they become that much more difficult for us to speak. Join me in singing these petitions from stanzas 5 and 6 of hymn 410:
5. Give us today our daily bread, And let us all be clothed and fed.
From hardship, war, and earthly strife, From sickness, famine, spare our life.
Let selfishness and worry cease That we may live in godly peace.
6. Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore, That they may trouble us no more;
We, too, will gladly those forgive Who hurt us by the way they live.
Help us in our community To serve each other willingly.
So how did you feel as you sung the words of these two stanzas? Did you find these words easy to sing or did you find them a little more difficult than you expected as they so clearly expounded on what Jesus tells us in verse 11 and 12 of Matthew 6: “Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:11-12, NIV). But why is it that these petitions are so difficult for us? The answer is quite simple; because we are asking our God not only to teach us to rely on him for all things, but to live in love and forgiveness for each other. In fact, just think about what we are saying when we ask our God to give us our daily bread. We are asking him to provide everything that we need for our body and life on a daily basis. We are asking him to help us realize that he graciously gives us all these things and more, even without our asking, even to those who are wicked. But we are asking him to help us realize that all our blessings come from him and that he will provide all that we need, which is something that so few of us do because it is so contrary to our human nature. All we have to do is look at our budget and calculate how much we are paying in credit card interest and other deferred payments for things that we may not have needed but simply felt that we couldn’t live without in order to find our level of trust in the Lord’s ability to know what we need and provide all that we need every day.
Yet even as we have sinned against the Lord by not trusting him, we are asking him to forgive us. Yet this is also where it becomes difficult for us. Though it is easy to pray that the Lord would forgive our debts, our sins; it is not as easy to pray, as we have forgiven our debtors—those who have sinned against us. This, too, goes completely against our human nature. We long to hold on to our grudges and remember what this person or that person did against us. We see it as a source of pride to withhold forgiveness from someone who sinned against us. Yet we fervently pray for our God to forgive us, we are asking him for the strength to forgive others as well. We are praying that the Lord would neither look upon our sins, nor deny our prayers because of our sins, even though we sin on a daily basis and deserve only his wrath and punishment. Yet, as we approach our heavenly Father, we ask him to act in mercy because of our Savior, forgive us of all our sins, and help us to do the same for those who have sinned against us. We ask him to help us reflect the love our Savior has for us by forgiven others, even as Jesus has already forgiven all of us.
This is the forgiveness in which we all live; the forgiveness that is ours through faith in Jesus, who poured out his blood and took back his life to save us. This is the forgiveness that now moves us to live in his love, love our neighbor as our selves, and forgive those who sin against us. This is the forgiveness that no moves us to pray that the Lord deliver us from temptation and all evil, just as we sing in stanzas 7 and 8 of hymn 410:
7. Into temptation lead us not. When evil foes against us plot
And vex our souls on ev'ry hand, Oh, give us strength that we may stand
Firm in the faith, a mighty host, Through comfort of the Holy Ghost.
8. From evil, Lord, deliver us; The times and days are perilous.
Redeem us from eternal death, And, when we yield our dying breath,
Console us, grant us calm release, And take our souls to you in peace.
Just as we sang so beautifully in our hymn we pray so fervently with those words from verse 13 of Matthew 6: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13, NIV) Though we know that God does not lead anyone into sin or even tempt them to sin, with these words we fervently pray that the Lord our God would guard us and keep us so that satan, this sinful world, and our traitorous-sinful flesh would not deceive us, or lead us into false belief, despair, or any other sins for that matter. Instead, with these words, we fervently pray that with God’s help we may overcome these and other temptations and win the victory over them as God himself delivers us from the evil one—our enemy, the devil.
This, too, is our fervent prayer that God our Father would deliver us from every evil that would threaten our body and soul, even our property and reputation. Not only that, but we also pray that when our time comes, the Lord would grant us a blessed end by calling us out of this life to his side forever in heaven. This is our fervent prayer to the Lord our God who promises to hear us, answer us, forgive us, provide for us, and deliver us from every form of evil.
Thus, we come to the end of the Lord’s prayer as recorded in the Bible. Though it was a little different in the account in Luke than it is in Matthew, there is no place where the doxology is recorded in the Scriptures. So I cannot point to you any specific passage in the Bible where you can read, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.” But even though they may not appear in any specific passage of Scripture, they undoubtedly echo many of the praises found in the Scriptures which describe how the Lord’s kingdom, power and glory shall endure forever. Interestingly enough, these very words were included with the Lord’s prayer in the Didache, which was essentially the Catechism for Christians back in about 100 AD. They were the words that we sang in response to the reading of the Lord’s Prayer during the communion service back when we used The Lutheran Hymnal, and they are words that have stuck. They are words of praise and glory that we proclaim before we say Amen, which is our statement of confidence that the Lord will hear and answer our prayer. Thus we say Amen at the end of our prayer, for this simple word declares, “Yes, it shall be so.” Yes, it shall be so thus declares our confidence in approaching our heavenly Father in this way, for not only has he commanded us to pray and promised to hear us, but these are the very words that Jesus has given us to pray.
So now, as we continue fervently praying the Lord’s Prayer, each and every week, I pray that this brief explanation will help you more thoroughly concentrate on what you are saying as you speak those familiar words that our Savior gave us. Thus, as we bring this sermon to a close, let us join our hearts and voices in singing the Amen from stanza 9 of hymn 410:
9. Amen, that is, it shall be so. Make strong our faith that we may know
That we may doubt not but believe What here we ask we shall receive.
Thus in your name and at your Word We say, "Amen. Oh, hear us, Lord!"
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Be Faithful Tenants of the Lord's Vineyard (Luke 20:9-19)
Dear friends in Christ.
In 1870 a young man named William Wilberforce began his political career as an independent member of the British Parliament for Yorkshire. Just five years later this young man underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a life-long concern for reform. When he came into contact with Thomas Clarkston and a group of anti-slave trade activists a couple of years later, he was persuaded to take up the cause of abolition, and he then spent the rest of his life faithfully devoted to the cause of abolishing slavery in England. Though he faced daunting odds, mockery, critics, and some serious discouragements that simply made him want to throw in the town and chuck the whole thing, he continued to labor faithfully in the vineyard of parliament hoping that one day the harvest would be the ending of slavery. Finally, in 1833, some 46 years after he took up the cause, William Wilberforce passed away a mere 3 days after he learned that his faithful labors had finally brought about the Slavery Abolition Act.
Well, in the same way that William Wilberforce labored so faithfully in the vineyard of politics, this morning our Savior is calling on each and every one of us to be faithful laborers in his vineyard through the parable that he is teaching. Now, when Jesus spoke these words, it was Tuesday of Holy Week. He was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel to them, when the Chief Priests, the teachers of the law and even the Elders of the people came to him, demanding that he tell them by what authority he was doing these things and teaching as he was. Though most people would have grown a little fearful and not a little nervous to see representatives from the Sanhedrin, the Israelite’s board of religious leaders, Jesus simply looked them in the eyes and took control of the situation by asking them about John’s baptism. This stopped them in their tracks, because they simply weren’t prepared for Jesus to be asking questions. They huddled up, and after discussing the question among themselves, they decided that they didn’t know the answer to Jesus’ question. So, Jesus, in turn informed them that because they didn’t know the answer to his question, he would not provide them with the answer to theirs, and he turned to the people and continued teaching as he had been before telling them this parable. Jesus said:
“A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!”” (Luke 20:9–17, NIV)
Can’t you just imagine the tension in the air as these religious leaders listened to Jesus telling them their own sad history? Can’t you just see the Chief Priests, the Elders, and the Teachers of the Law simply glaring at Jesus as he looked directly at them with his divinely authoritative gaze? Can’t you just imagine the hatred welling up inside of them as Jesus simply sat before them and told them and the crowd how these religious leaders had not been faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard because they had let go of the Word of truth and replaced it with their own righteous ideas? After all, as Jesus spoke about the owner who sent his servants to the vineyard to receive his share of the harvest, he revealed exactly what the Israelites had done throughout their history. They had not been faithful tenants of God’s vineyard. They had not held on to the Word of truth. Rather, they had wandered away from the Lord. So the Lord had sent prophets to them, prophets to proclaim God’s Word to them and to lead them back to him, but they refused to listen. Instead, they mistreated the prophets, drove them away, and even killed them. Even now as the very Son of God was speaking to them, they were making plans to kill him so that they might take the inheritance for themselves. You see, they wanted to get Jesus out of the way so that they could continue to rule the people. They were not worried about holding on to the Word of truth, which Jesus was proclaiming to them rather, they were worried about holding on to the word that they proclaimed. They were more concerned about keeping the status quo in which they were looked upon as the brightest and best of society because of all their righteous acts, than they were about serving God. The religious leaders would rather have all the Israelites follow and emulate them than see the people flock to Jesus and listen to him.
But it was because of their unfaithfulness that they finally lost everything. Though the Apostles went around Jerusalem proclaiming the message of the risen Christ, it was the religious leaders of Israel who tried to stop them at every turn. When persecution broke out against the church and all the believers left Jerusalem, they took the gospel with them and began the fulfillment of Jesus’ words that the vineyard would be taken away and given to others. Finally, in 70 AD the Lord carried out his judgment against those who had rejected him when the Roman armies marched into Jerusalem and completely destroying the Temple, the City of Jerusalem, even pretty much bringing the Nation of Israel to an end until it was re-established by the United Nations in 1948. But even though Israel has been re-established as a nation, the Temple is still lost, their religion is an empty shell of what it once was, very few Israelites believe in Jesus as their Savior, and those who once had everything in the gospel of salvation which the Lord communicated to them, have lost everything because they were not faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard.
But before we start acting all high and mighty, we need to realize that the same thing could happen to us. Though we have the gospel now, though we know who Jesus is and all that he has done for us, if we are not faithful tenants of God’s vineyard, if we do not hold fast to the word of truth, our fate will be the same as the Israelites. If we begin to take God’s Word for granted and let all sorts of worldly reasons keep us away from worship, we will begin to grow weak in our faith. If we come up with all sorts of excuses why we have no time read and study God’s Word for ourselves, we will begin to distance ourselves from the Lord. If we begin to listen to the world’s ideas on religion rather than what the Bible teaches us, we will be walking the same road of unfaithfulness that many of the Israelites did, and we will be in danger of turning our backs on the Lord. This is why the Lord is warning us to hold fast to the Word of truth, for it is only in the Bible that we learn about Jesus. It is only through that word that we receive the comfort of knowing our sins have been forgiven for Jesus’ sake. It is only through that word that we come to know our Savior.
Sadly, much of America has become like Israel was at Jesus’ time. There are many in our great land who may have once been very faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard, but now they are more interested in keeping that vineyard for themselves. Though it was once expected that everyone believed what the Bible had to say, now there are many more who question the Bible and place their faith in other teachings—teachings that make sense to their reason and their logic. There are many who would rather trust in false teachings like Scientology, or false religions like Mormonism, rather than trust what God says in the Bible. If fact, all we have to do is take a look at what has been going on in Lutheranism over the past year, and we know that there are many religious leaders who are no longer serving as faithful tenants in the Lords’ vineyard, because they are rejecting the precious cornerstone of Christ and are building their faith on something other than their Savior.
Well, that is what the religious leaders of the Israelites were doing as unfaithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard. As Luke tells us, “Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.” (Luke 20:17-19 NIV)
Now, if you go home after Church and look this section up in your Bibles, you might come across a little number or a letter following the word capstone. If you follow that letter or number down to the foot note it is indicating, you will find out that the this passage could also read, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This is quite interesting because cornerstones were the most important stone of the foundation. It was the stone used to set the foundation straight and give the building strength. The capstone, though it was not part of the foundation was also an important stone. For the capstone was stone found at the top of an arch or a dome, and it was the stone that held all the others in place. While it might surprise you that this passage could be translated either way, don’t let it bother you. For both the capstone and the cornerstone were very important stones for the building process, and if you left one out the building would fall. In other words, as Jesus looked directly at those unfaithful tenants who had murdered his prophets and were now seeking to kill him and do away with him, Jesus was telling them that by rejecting him they were rejecting the most important stone of all. They had left out the very stone that held the entire building together. Not only were they trying to build their church and their religion without him, but they were trying to push, pull, and drag Jesus away from the building site altogether.
Sadly, that is what many churches in our day and age are trying to do. They too are acting as unfaithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard as they try to build without building on the rock of Christ. Though they might talk about Jesus and tell what he did, they try to hack away at that rock by teaching that Jesus really didn’t do all the miracles the Bible says he did. They try to break it to pieces by saying that Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God, but he was just a regular human being. They try to haul it away by saying that Jesus really didn’t die on the cross, he just fainted and was revived later by the cool air of the tomb. Though they try to break this rock up by driving bulldozers over it, all that happens is that the bulldozers are smashed to bits. Though they dig holes underneath it to plant explosives, the rock falls on them and they are crushed by the Lord’s judgment
This is why the Lord is telling us to build on the Rock of Christ, because he is the most important stone. Not only is he the cornerstone of our faith, he is the capstone. Without him, we would have nothing, because he is the one who has freed us from sins by his death and resurrection. Without him, we would be nothing, because he is the one who sustains us in the faith that he is our Savior. But with him we have everything. So continue to build your faith on the rock of Christ, through the Word of God that he has given you in the Bible. This is what it means to be a faithful tenant in the Lord’s vineyard.
Yes, be faithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard, just as you have been faithful tenants in your other rental contracts. Be faithful tenants of the Lord who hold on to the Word of truth as your most treasured possession. But as you hold on to it, don’t simply keep it for yourselves, rather use it to build God's church on the Rock of Christ. Use it to build each other up in your faith as you travel together on the path to heaven, and use it to tell others so that they too might be added to the Lord’s vineyard and share in our pleasure of being his faithful tenants.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
In 1870 a young man named William Wilberforce began his political career as an independent member of the British Parliament for Yorkshire. Just five years later this young man underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian, which resulted in major changes to his lifestyle and a life-long concern for reform. When he came into contact with Thomas Clarkston and a group of anti-slave trade activists a couple of years later, he was persuaded to take up the cause of abolition, and he then spent the rest of his life faithfully devoted to the cause of abolishing slavery in England. Though he faced daunting odds, mockery, critics, and some serious discouragements that simply made him want to throw in the town and chuck the whole thing, he continued to labor faithfully in the vineyard of parliament hoping that one day the harvest would be the ending of slavery. Finally, in 1833, some 46 years after he took up the cause, William Wilberforce passed away a mere 3 days after he learned that his faithful labors had finally brought about the Slavery Abolition Act.
Well, in the same way that William Wilberforce labored so faithfully in the vineyard of politics, this morning our Savior is calling on each and every one of us to be faithful laborers in his vineyard through the parable that he is teaching. Now, when Jesus spoke these words, it was Tuesday of Holy Week. He was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel to them, when the Chief Priests, the teachers of the law and even the Elders of the people came to him, demanding that he tell them by what authority he was doing these things and teaching as he was. Though most people would have grown a little fearful and not a little nervous to see representatives from the Sanhedrin, the Israelite’s board of religious leaders, Jesus simply looked them in the eyes and took control of the situation by asking them about John’s baptism. This stopped them in their tracks, because they simply weren’t prepared for Jesus to be asking questions. They huddled up, and after discussing the question among themselves, they decided that they didn’t know the answer to Jesus’ question. So, Jesus, in turn informed them that because they didn’t know the answer to his question, he would not provide them with the answer to theirs, and he turned to the people and continued teaching as he had been before telling them this parable. Jesus said:
“A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “May this never be!”” (Luke 20:9–17, NIV)
Can’t you just imagine the tension in the air as these religious leaders listened to Jesus telling them their own sad history? Can’t you just see the Chief Priests, the Elders, and the Teachers of the Law simply glaring at Jesus as he looked directly at them with his divinely authoritative gaze? Can’t you just imagine the hatred welling up inside of them as Jesus simply sat before them and told them and the crowd how these religious leaders had not been faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard because they had let go of the Word of truth and replaced it with their own righteous ideas? After all, as Jesus spoke about the owner who sent his servants to the vineyard to receive his share of the harvest, he revealed exactly what the Israelites had done throughout their history. They had not been faithful tenants of God’s vineyard. They had not held on to the Word of truth. Rather, they had wandered away from the Lord. So the Lord had sent prophets to them, prophets to proclaim God’s Word to them and to lead them back to him, but they refused to listen. Instead, they mistreated the prophets, drove them away, and even killed them. Even now as the very Son of God was speaking to them, they were making plans to kill him so that they might take the inheritance for themselves. You see, they wanted to get Jesus out of the way so that they could continue to rule the people. They were not worried about holding on to the Word of truth, which Jesus was proclaiming to them rather, they were worried about holding on to the word that they proclaimed. They were more concerned about keeping the status quo in which they were looked upon as the brightest and best of society because of all their righteous acts, than they were about serving God. The religious leaders would rather have all the Israelites follow and emulate them than see the people flock to Jesus and listen to him.
But it was because of their unfaithfulness that they finally lost everything. Though the Apostles went around Jerusalem proclaiming the message of the risen Christ, it was the religious leaders of Israel who tried to stop them at every turn. When persecution broke out against the church and all the believers left Jerusalem, they took the gospel with them and began the fulfillment of Jesus’ words that the vineyard would be taken away and given to others. Finally, in 70 AD the Lord carried out his judgment against those who had rejected him when the Roman armies marched into Jerusalem and completely destroying the Temple, the City of Jerusalem, even pretty much bringing the Nation of Israel to an end until it was re-established by the United Nations in 1948. But even though Israel has been re-established as a nation, the Temple is still lost, their religion is an empty shell of what it once was, very few Israelites believe in Jesus as their Savior, and those who once had everything in the gospel of salvation which the Lord communicated to them, have lost everything because they were not faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard.
But before we start acting all high and mighty, we need to realize that the same thing could happen to us. Though we have the gospel now, though we know who Jesus is and all that he has done for us, if we are not faithful tenants of God’s vineyard, if we do not hold fast to the word of truth, our fate will be the same as the Israelites. If we begin to take God’s Word for granted and let all sorts of worldly reasons keep us away from worship, we will begin to grow weak in our faith. If we come up with all sorts of excuses why we have no time read and study God’s Word for ourselves, we will begin to distance ourselves from the Lord. If we begin to listen to the world’s ideas on religion rather than what the Bible teaches us, we will be walking the same road of unfaithfulness that many of the Israelites did, and we will be in danger of turning our backs on the Lord. This is why the Lord is warning us to hold fast to the Word of truth, for it is only in the Bible that we learn about Jesus. It is only through that word that we receive the comfort of knowing our sins have been forgiven for Jesus’ sake. It is only through that word that we come to know our Savior.
Sadly, much of America has become like Israel was at Jesus’ time. There are many in our great land who may have once been very faithful tenants of the Lord’s vineyard, but now they are more interested in keeping that vineyard for themselves. Though it was once expected that everyone believed what the Bible had to say, now there are many more who question the Bible and place their faith in other teachings—teachings that make sense to their reason and their logic. There are many who would rather trust in false teachings like Scientology, or false religions like Mormonism, rather than trust what God says in the Bible. If fact, all we have to do is take a look at what has been going on in Lutheranism over the past year, and we know that there are many religious leaders who are no longer serving as faithful tenants in the Lords’ vineyard, because they are rejecting the precious cornerstone of Christ and are building their faith on something other than their Savior.
Well, that is what the religious leaders of the Israelites were doing as unfaithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard. As Luke tells us, “Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.” (Luke 20:17-19 NIV)
Now, if you go home after Church and look this section up in your Bibles, you might come across a little number or a letter following the word capstone. If you follow that letter or number down to the foot note it is indicating, you will find out that the this passage could also read, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This is quite interesting because cornerstones were the most important stone of the foundation. It was the stone used to set the foundation straight and give the building strength. The capstone, though it was not part of the foundation was also an important stone. For the capstone was stone found at the top of an arch or a dome, and it was the stone that held all the others in place. While it might surprise you that this passage could be translated either way, don’t let it bother you. For both the capstone and the cornerstone were very important stones for the building process, and if you left one out the building would fall. In other words, as Jesus looked directly at those unfaithful tenants who had murdered his prophets and were now seeking to kill him and do away with him, Jesus was telling them that by rejecting him they were rejecting the most important stone of all. They had left out the very stone that held the entire building together. Not only were they trying to build their church and their religion without him, but they were trying to push, pull, and drag Jesus away from the building site altogether.
Sadly, that is what many churches in our day and age are trying to do. They too are acting as unfaithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard as they try to build without building on the rock of Christ. Though they might talk about Jesus and tell what he did, they try to hack away at that rock by teaching that Jesus really didn’t do all the miracles the Bible says he did. They try to break it to pieces by saying that Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God, but he was just a regular human being. They try to haul it away by saying that Jesus really didn’t die on the cross, he just fainted and was revived later by the cool air of the tomb. Though they try to break this rock up by driving bulldozers over it, all that happens is that the bulldozers are smashed to bits. Though they dig holes underneath it to plant explosives, the rock falls on them and they are crushed by the Lord’s judgment
This is why the Lord is telling us to build on the Rock of Christ, because he is the most important stone. Not only is he the cornerstone of our faith, he is the capstone. Without him, we would have nothing, because he is the one who has freed us from sins by his death and resurrection. Without him, we would be nothing, because he is the one who sustains us in the faith that he is our Savior. But with him we have everything. So continue to build your faith on the rock of Christ, through the Word of God that he has given you in the Bible. This is what it means to be a faithful tenant in the Lord’s vineyard.
Yes, be faithful tenants in the Lord’s vineyard, just as you have been faithful tenants in your other rental contracts. Be faithful tenants of the Lord who hold on to the Word of truth as your most treasured possession. But as you hold on to it, don’t simply keep it for yourselves, rather use it to build God's church on the Rock of Christ. Use it to build each other up in your faith as you travel together on the path to heaven, and use it to tell others so that they too might be added to the Lord’s vineyard and share in our pleasure of being his faithful tenants.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
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