Pentecost 13 Mark 7:14-23

Have you ever notice how many different categories we have for our relationships these days? Those of you who have set yourself up with a page on the online social networking site Facebook might have discovered that you can indicate your “relationship status” on your Facebook page, There are lots of different categories to choose from.

Of course you can select the typical categories of “single” or “married”, but beyond that you can identify yourself as “in a relationship”, engaged, widowed, or even the more progressive “open relationship”. And those whose love lives tend to the more turbulent can identify their status as “it's complicated”.

These are the relationship choices available on Facebook, but in today's world they are by no means exhaustive; especially when you begin to add in the generally accepted category of “preference”. Modern people will unabashedly and unashamedly identify themselves according to “preference” - GLBT is a common label being proposed these days – with a cultural attempt to make “mainstream” lifestyles that only a few years ago were consider deviant. Our relationships have certainly taken on a whole new dimension.

So this is how we have come to answer these questions within the culture. As Christians we are “in the culture but not of it”, “in the world but not of it”. So, the question is, how do we approach the issue? How do we answer the question?

Being Christians, we are not answerable to the culture. What the rest of the World decides to do has no bearing on what the Church does; on what the church thinks and how the church behaves. As Christians, as members of The Holy Christian Church, as baptized believers in Christ, we have been redeemed by Christ and we have been purchased by Him to be set apart from the world. Therefore as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven we are answerable first and foremost to our King. The Church is answerable to Christ. Therefore as members of Christ's Church, we hold ourselves to the standard of what we find in the Word of God.

So what is your relationship status? The world would offer you categories of gay or straight or even bi. The world would have you think of yourself as single, or committed, or casual, or open. Scripture doesn't acknowledge these categories. Scripture talks about the people of God as married and as single. See yourself as married to your spouse, to your husband or to your wife. If you are married, your Christian duty is to be faithful. If you are single, your duty is to be pure.

Much less complicated, is it not? Not so many categories to choose from. Not so many options to confuse the issue. It is much more simple and straight forward.

Now, to be sure, scripture does acknowledge that there are different ways to be single. There are those who are single because they are not attached to a spouse, there are those who are engaged, (scripture calls it betrothed). There are those who are widowed. The scriptural requirement for how you relate to one another as a sexual being is always the same – be chaste. Be pure. Avoid sexual temptations.

Scripture also discusses what it means to be married. We received clear instruction on this in our text last week. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Wives honor your husbands. If you read elsewhere in scripture, God's requirement for husbands and wives is that they be faithful to each other... because God is faithful to us. God does not give himself to His church and then remove the gift. God is faithful. Husbands and wives should therefore be faithful to each other.

As far as these categories of preference – do you prefer men or women or both. Scripture only and always calls this sin. Romans 1 very clearly states the following:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

[26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Romans 1:24-27 (ESV)

In spite of Scriptures clear teaching on this issue, Christians still struggle. We still struggle with our sexuality. We still struggle with how to relate to one another as sexual beings. We are faced with all kinds of sexual temptations. Everywhere we turn, whether it be in books or magazines or on TV or in the movies, on the internet, in common every day advertizements, everything is saturated with sex. We always fight against it. We are always pulled in by it.

With all this sexual temptation, with all this temptation to legitimize what the Scripture clearly identifies as sin, it is helpful for us to remember what Jesus teaches us in our text.

Jesus says, “²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. ²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

We always want to think about sexual sins in terms of what we have or have not done. I have had this thought, but I have not carried through on it. Therfore I am not guilty. I have seen this movie but I didn't see that one, therefore I am not guilty. I have done this action but I haven't done that one, therefore I am not guilty.

We want to think of sexual or sinful pollution like it is something that is out in the world.

That's what the Pharisees were doing. That's what Jesus was teaching. The pharisees would go to the marketplace and treat the experience like they were your bleached white Sunday best making their way through a minefield of mud puddles. They avoided contact with anything and anyone that might make them unclean. And then, just in case, when they went home, before they ate, the did a quick little hand washing ceremony to get the sinner off the outside of their hands – like the sinner was outside, on the surface, like it came from someone or something else.

Jesus says “No. Not so.” This sinner isn't out there in the world around you. You are not pure as the driven snow trying stay clean. You are polluted swimming in pollution. You are dirt swimming with the dirty. We are a part of the problem. All those sins live in our own hearts. They don't stick to us from the outside we vomit them up from the inside. They are in our hearts and we can't get rid of them.

A few years ago, Christians would have quickly pointed out that homosexuality is sinful. These days Christians are not even so sure. “Didn't God make them that way?” We ask. “Shouldn't we love and accept everyone?” We ask. “It's not like they are hurting anyone.” We tell ourselves.

We allow ourselves to be convinced by these arguments. They sound legitimate, don't they? They do, but we buy into them because we have already used them to justify ourselves. I am only thinking, doing, saying what everyone else does. I can't help it, it's who I am. “Boys will be boys”, “I'm only human.” And besides, “I'm not hurting anyone...”

My fellow Christians we are in no position to condemn. For in condemning others we only condemn ourselves. We are all guilty. Every single one of us in one way or another bear this same guilt. Our hearts are filled with sin. What can we do but confess.

So what category are you? Married, single, widowed, divorced, in a relationship, or on the rebound. Scripture would see you as married, or single. If you are married scripture would have you to be faithful to your spouse in thought word and deed. IF you are not scripture would have you be chaste and pure in thought word and deed.

We are neither of those things. We are neither faithful nor are we pure. Regardless of what we have done with our bodies we are guilty in our hearts. But God is faithful. God is pure. In spite of the fact that we are sinful, God in not. God is perfect, completely and fully without sin. And God has not condemned us.

Remember the account in the Gospel of John of the woman who was caught in the sin of adultery. She was brought before Jesus, judged for her sin by her community. They were ready to execute judgment and stone her for her actions. Knowing the sin in her heart but also in theirs, Jesus said to the crowd let him who is without sin throw the first stone. Each one was guilty. Each one had sinned in his heart. Every last one was guilty, every last one except for Jesus. Jesus was chaste. Jesus was pure. So Jesus remained.

He said to the woman, “Is no one left to condemn you?” “No” came the reply. “Then neither do I condemn you.” said Jesus. “Go and sin no more.”

Go and sin no more! This is the command of Jesus. You who have come with an adulterous and sinful heart, you who have come stained with sin, Go. Sin no more.

Go and sin no more because your sin has been removed.

Jesus has taken your sin from you. If we are the polluted swimming in the pollution Jesus is the pure. As Jesus comes, his touch takes from us our sin and takes it into himself. He exhanges our pollution for his purity. The sin that has arisen from within, the sin that lives in your heart. The sin that you have explained away and have justified in yourself has been washed away.

Jesus, your Lord and your savior has had mercy on you. He has not condemned your sin as you have deserved. Not even the sin in your heart. Instead Jesus has taken your heart, your corrupted and sin filled heart and he has carried it with him to the cross. Your heart became Jesus' heart and Jesus died with your heart on his back. Your punishment has been served. You are set free. Go.

Go. But Sin no more. Jesus did not say, go and sin all you want. Jesus did not say Go and do what feels right. Jesus did not say Go and do what comes natural. Jesus said go and sin no more.

Yes the sin is in your heart. Yes boy are boys and girls are girls and boys and girls experience all kinds of temptations from all kinds of desires that have been born out of the sin that lives is their hearts. But, boys and girls, men and women, you have been set free from that sin. Jesus has released you from it. You are no longer its slave. Sin no more.

The rest of the world is quick to sin and quick to justify. The rest of the world is comfortable in their skin and pleased to live a life that God condemns. But not you. You have been bought and paid for. You have been set free from your sin by the blood of Jesus. Go and sin no more.

Amen.

Pentecost 9. John 6:22-35

When I get hungry I get grouchy. Maybe you do too. This past Thursday Julie and I ran a 4 mile road race in Dublin. As we have been training we have been altering our diet a little bit – eating less, limiting our snacks, cutting back on the unnecessary calories – because each extra little snack comes back to haunt you when your are out on the road logging the miles. It slows you down and causes you to be less efficient as a runner. The bottom line is that lately I have been hungry. And when I am hungry I am prone to being grouchy, irritable, and uncomfortable.
I suppose that is not unlike the Hebrews in our Old Testament text for today. They were out in the wilderness. They ran out of food. They were hungry and before you know it, sure enough, they were irritable and grouchy and angry. Looks like I share the same sinful human nature as the Hebrews, the same nature that is quick to complain when I am not fat and well fed.
In their grouchiness, they complained against the Lord. “If only we had died in Egypt, when we had meat and bread and our bellies were full. You brought us out into the wilderness to starve us to death.”
Oh the foolishness that lives in the hearts of sinful men!
God came to the Hebrews in their slavery to rescue them. In our modern sensibilities we tend to think of this freedom in terms of personal liberty. All people are endowed with certain inalienable rights – life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Hebrews were slaves. They needed to be liberated. Not too different from how we view our political processes – Iranians, Iraqis, early American colonists, the plantation slaves from our own history – oppressed people who need to be emancipated. As far as God and the Hebrews were concerned, sure that was a part of the deal, but that was just a small part of the deal. More than emancipation from human oppression the Hebrews, and the whole Human race needed to be emancipated from sin, from death and the devil. When God rescued the Hebrews from Egypt, he had in mind to save them not just from Pharaoh and his task masters – the Lord had in mind to save them from sin.
So God did. God raised up a savior – Moses, from among their midst. He called Moses to be his mouthpiece before the people and before the Egyptians and to call the Hebrews to freedom through God's saving action. God rescued them from slavery and God brought them out into the wilderness on their way to the promised land. And then God brought them to Sinai where he gave them the covenant and the promise. He would be their God. They would be His people. They would sacrifice and He would not count their sins against him. And just as he raised up Moses to save them from the Egyptians, God would raise up a Messiah, Jesus, who would save them and us from sin for all eternity.
So there they were, making their way through the wilderness. They consumed the supplies they brought with them from Egypt and they ran out. They were a congregation a million strong. They were out in the wilderness and desert of the Sinai Peninsula. There were no fields to harvest, no grocery stores where they could stop and buy food. How would they survive? How would they live? Perhaps God hadn't thought this through – bringing a million people out into the desert without provisions for food. They were better off as slaves in Egypt.
Have you ever found yourself in the same boat?
Bread and water are pretty basic needs. You can't live without food to eat and water to drink. These things are important. Beyond that, we have standard of living that we maintain – necessities for life in the United States in the 21st Century – a house, a car, utilities – electricity, telephone, and the like. We have bills to pay. Have you ever wondered where the money is going to come from to meet these living expenses? Have you ever wondered how you are going to make it and keep up and keep ahead of your bills and keep the creditors from dialing your number? That can be stressful. You, like the Israelites, might be tempted to think and to say those same things the Israelites said, that they grumbled when they found themselves out in the wilderness, without bread, and hungry. Where's God when I need him? What good has he done for me lately?
At times, like the Israelites what we want is for God to be a bread god? A God who feeds us, fills us up with earthly food, food that perishes, that is here today and gone tomorrow. We want God to fill us with food that can be taken away, that can spoil, with food that you will demand for today but turn around and throw out tomorrow.
This was the god the Hebrews wanted. When the Lord no longer suited their needs, they melted down their gold, turned it into a bread god – a golden calf, a god who they would pray to to give them what they wanted. Have you done the same? Constructed your own god that feeds your belly and pays your bills?
Hear the words of Jesus: “Do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.”
The food that endures. These days if you want food that endures you have to fill it with preservatives. Saturate it with chemicals that make it taste bad. And even then it still has an expiration date. The best we can come up with is food that endures for a few months. Yet God gives to us eternal food. Food that does not spoil. That has no expiration date. Food that strengthens and sustains. Not just the food that fills us for today, but the food that fills us forever. Jesus tells us to labor for this food.
“But,” we tell ourselves, “there's no free lunch, right?” What will this food cost us. Doesn't Jesus even say it himself - “Labor for the food that endures to eternal life.” What is that work? What is the labor that results in eternal life?
We can't conceive of something for nothing, something that comes that we have not fully deserved. But Jesus tells us: “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom he has sent.” That you believe. Believe in Him. In Jesus. In the Son of God who has been sent into the world to pay for the sins of the world. This is the work that results in food that does not perish, that lasts without preservatives, that satisfies that doesn't need to be eaten over and over again, that fills us for forever. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and feed on the food that lasts forever.
Our sin that condemns us and leads us away from the Lord is our desire for the food that perishes, that fills our bellies but does not fill our souls. We want that food that satisfies our hunger pains and strengthens our bodies. We don't care how it comes or what we have to do to get it so long as it comes.
God knows that you need this food.
When the Children of Israel grumbled against the Lord in the wilderness, in spite of the fact that they were motivated by sin and selfishness, in spite of the fact that they wanted a god who would be their bread god, the Lord gave them what they needed. God hadn't forgotten that they had need of food for their bellies. God made us. God created us with bodies that need to eat and be filled. God created us with bodies that become weak when we don't eat. God doesn't want us to go without. God doesn't want us to be weak. God doesn't want us to go hungry. God found a way to feed one million hungry Israelites out in the middle of the wilderness. There were no farms or fields where they would plant and harvest. There was no grocery store out along the way. The Sinai Peninsula didn't even have one Super Wal Mart. Yet somehow God found a way to feed them. God sent bread from heaven – manna, that had all the nutrition they needed to survive and thrive out in the wilderness. And God will feed you. He will give you what you need. He will provide for you. You will have food on your table when you are hungry. “The eyes of all look to you,” writes the Psalmist, “and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”
But God has greater things to give you than just food for your mouth and bread for your stomach. God has food for your soul. The bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
God has for you Jesus. Jesus who calls himself the bread of life. Jesus who says of himself “whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
When we do the work of the Father, when we believe in the one whom the Father in Heaven has sent to us, when we are turned in faith to Jesus, believing that he is the sacrifice for our sin, believing that he is the one who was sent for us to believe in to have faith in, then he fills us up.
When our bodies are hungry, we feel empty, we feel a pit in our bellies that needs to be filled, we are uncomfortable, we are irritable. We need to be filled. We are not satisfied until we have eaten and through that meal are strengthened and sustained.
When our spirits, when our souls are hungry, when we are emptied out because of our need for salvation from sin, because of our need to be restored to our relationship to god there is an emptiness in our souls that cannot be filled, a weakness that cannot be overcome until we have eaten and been filled.
This emptiness is not filled with a mere bread god, with a god of our own making who gives us what we want of with what we think we need. Have you noticed the spiritual emptiness, the vacuousness, the desperate hunger for meaning in the world today? We live in a world with people who need to be fed and filled with the bread of God.
The food that God gives, the bread of God that he has sent down from heaven, the spiritual food that fills our souls is the food that addresses that need that no bakery could fill. God gives the food that lasts to eternity. The food that fills the emptiness, that strengthens, that satisfies, that fills and that sustains. God gives Jesus. Jesus dead on the cross for our sin. Jesus risen from the dead victorious over sin. Jesus ascended into heaven as the one who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. This is Jesus for you. This is God for you. This is salvation for you. This is your bread. May you eat and be filled of the bread of life and may you never hunger or thirst.
Amen.

Pentecost 8 - Ephesians 3.14-21

Recently within the halls of St Paul Chuckery discussions have been taking place as to the financial stability of our Church and School. Since it has been the topic of discussion in council meetings, at last Sunday's Voter's Meeting, in the news letter and in the bulletin, it is likely that you have caught wind of this already. According to our treasurer the congregation is currently about $30,000 behind in meeting our expenses. Or, to put it another way, we have spent $30,000 more than we have taken in.
If you do the tedious work of balancing your checkbook at home, you will know that it is not good to spend more than you earn. A prolonged stint of such behavior can ruin an entire national economy, let alone a small church and school in central Ohio. It has happened to others. It can happen to us.
The “how and why” of this predicament is mulct faceted. There are many sides to the issue, details to be discussed that have to do with how we fund the mission and ministry of our church and school. God has blessed St Paul with just the right people for this task. And it is a good and God pleasing thing to be wise stewards of the material gifts as God gives them. That is a discussion for a different day.
Today, what guides the proclamation of the Word of God is our Epistle text from Ephesians; God's promise through the Apostle Paul that God is able to do far more abundantly than we either can ask or can think. And this God is at work within us and among us. To Him is all glory in the church and in Christ forever. This text has something to say to us today.
Chances are, there are a number of contributing factors to our present predicament. Certainly the cost of maintaining a church and a school is not cheap. Factor in the general belt tightening that is common among most households around the nation and you begin to tap into at least one source of our congregational economic downturn. People either have less or are worried about having less money.
Our text speaks to this situation in a handful of ways. The first is to remind us as a congregation not to worry. Again, “To him who is able to do far more abundantly that we can ask or think.”
God is not worried about recessions. God is not worried about depressions, God will not loose sleep over even a full fledged economic collapse. God doesn't care about projections of economists. God is not waiting for His stimulus check. God doesn't care about tax breaks or tax hikes. God isn't up for a performance review in his current employment and he can't be fired or downsized or let go. There isn't even the option for a buy out. God is God. He sits in heaven and pulls the strings on our little recessions. And those things we refer to as “mine” or “yours” are simply just His. Therefore, when recessions effect budgets and bottom lines, they do not handicap God from accomplishing His work of preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Those things happen for free.
The money needed to pay the people who do them is God's gift. If he desires that these things occur, he is able to do far more than we can either ask or think. So don't worry. The Church as the people of God is secure. We are in God's hands and God will provide for us what we need, when we need it.
But there is more to our text and therefore there is more to be said about our congregational predicament.
Paul tells us that he gets down on his knees to pray to God our Father and that He prays for three things.
1.That according to the riches of His glory he grant to us to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.
2.That, being rooted and grounded in love we might have the strength to grasp the full breadth and length and height and depth of the Love of Christ
3.that we might be full with all the fullness of God.
So what does that have to do with the Chuckery budget?
It has everything to do with the Chuckery budget.
Usually when we think about what Christian churches have come to call “stewardship” we often make the mistake of associating that too closely with the term “fund raising” We need money. People have money. We have to figure out a way to separate people from their money. We come up with all kinds of rules and principals and assume that will do the trick.
That's not what the church does.
Here at church you give offerings. There are 2 reasons for that. First of all, you have hired help: a pastor, teachers, professional staff. These people serve you. You owe them their wage. Paul makes that point elsewhere. He tells the church that just as they owe their farm animals food for the work they do on the farm, churches owe their church workers a wage for the work they do in the church. That is your duty.
The second reason has to do with these three things Paul prays for in his prayer for the Ephesians: God's strength in the inner man, a full comprehension of the Love of Christ, and being filled up with the fullness of God.
With this prayer Paul was making the point that all Christians, both the Jews and the Gentiles were one big happy family. God is the Father, no matter who your daddy might be, no matter what the color of your skin – no matter if you can trace your family history back to Abraham or to the families who founded St Paul Chuckery. God is the Father of the One heavenly family that exist in heaven and here on earth. Through Christ we are brothers and sisters. God has filled us up with with faith. God has filled us up with the Holy Spirit. We are blessed in him with an eternal inheritance that is hidden away for us in heaven, it can't be taken away, it can't spoil, it doesn't have a shelf life or a rate of depreciation. All of heaven's glory in Christ is yours.
That is the fullness of God.
Now if God's fullness overwhelms you in His love and in his goodness and in his generosity, and if we are then connected to one another through sharing in His Gospel, how then do you suppose that will effect our attitude and our action toward one another? Paul was talking to Jews and Gentiles about being of the same identical family. There was in His time often some bad blood between the two groups. Paul called for fullness in the Gospel. Paul called for love between Christians and charity and works of mercy. Paul called for Christians to give even as they had been given to.
Again, as far as our Chuckery budget goes, there are lots of possible and plausible reasons for why we are behind in our budget. Each family must privately make their decision about what money they give and how much money they give. Each of you decides this in your own home.
As you make that decision test yourself. The human heart is above all things sinful. The human heart is plagued with stinginess. Drawing lines of “mine” and “yours”. Withholding gifts from those who we determine in our hearts are not worthy. God does not do that with us. We aught not do it with one another.
The human heart is also plagued by fear. The notion that “I can't afford to be generous because I have bill to pay.” The cattle on a thousand hills belong to God (Ps 50:10). God feeds the bird of the air so that they do not go hungry (Matthew 6:26). Why do you worry about such things? (Matthew 6:27)
Having experienced the fullness of God, we are set free to give according to what our conscience sets us free to give. There is no compulsion. There is no minimum requirement. There is no requirement at all. If your heart and your conscience leads you to give nothing at all, that is between you and God. If your heart is convicted of sin but you still struggle with fear, that is between you and a God who drives out all fear with his perfect love (1 John 4:18) but who is also patient and enduring in his love (1 Cor 13:4). If you feel compelled to offer greater gifts out of the joy and thanksgiving afforded to you through the fullness of the gospel, than God will bless your gift.
Know this: God is your heavenly Father. He loves you. He cares for you. He provides for you. He will not let you go without those things that He knows you need.
Through faith you are also joined to your fellow Christians as brothers and sisters. God also provides for their needs – sometimes he provides for them through you.
God is also the father of our Brother Jesus whom God loved so much, (John 3:16) yet in spite of this love he commanded him to go out from heaven to take upon himself our flesh and to suffer and die as less than a slave. Jesus did this gladly and willingly. Jesus shared His Father's love for you and was glad to give of himself everything that he had.
Because of God's love, because of God's generosity, because of God's grace, because of the fullness of God's love for you, He has provided for you, he has given to you, he has signed sealed and delivered to you the fullness of His love in Jesus through his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. God has done all of this, through the fullness of His Love for you.
So here's Paul's prayer; for the Ephesians, but also for you. Be transformed in your inner man according to the Christian faith given to you by the Holy Spirit. With this as your foundation may you understand the full breadth and length and height and depth of the Love of God. And finally, may you be filled with all of God's fullness given in the Gospel.
Amen.

Pentecost 6 - Ephesians 1.3-14

God's will. What is God's will for my life?

Maybe you have asked yourself that very question at some time. Maybe you have wondered if God had some specific plan that he had laid out for you, some specific thing that you are supposed to do, that He wanted you to do. Maybe you have been waiting for him to show you what that plan might be.

If you have ever wondered about God's plan, about his purpose for your life, than I have some good news for you: today in our text Paul tells you what that plan is; he lays it out for you. No more searching. No more prayers are needed. No more late nights and early mornings wondering what God wants from you. The whole thing is revealed.

And here it is, God's will for your life. The one thing that he has set aside for you to do from the foundation of the world is this: salvation! God's plan, God's purpose, God's will for your life is that you come to salvation from your sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

That might not be quite what you were hoping for. Maybe you wanted something more. Or at least something more specific. Perhaps you were hoping that God had some great new career choice for you, a job that would be that one thing that is just perfect for you. Perhaps you were wanting to know if you should get married, quit your job, go back to school, start a family, all kinds of different things. Often people want a lightning bolt, something that falls from the sky that tells them what they are supposed to do. Is that what you were hoping for?

People search for their purpose and for God's plan, they look for that lightning bolt for the exact same reason that people read their horoscope, or go to see palm readers. People want some kind of assurance that if they make some drastic change in their life it will all come out okay. If I change my job, loose my job, quit my job, go to school, get married, have a child, adopt a child, move around the world, will it all turn out okay? Will God's favor follow me into this new adventure that I am considering? We say our prayers and wring our hands hoping that God will smile upon us. Hoping that whatever it is we do is within God's plan.

Oh you of little faith. Why do you test God so? Don't you know that he loves you? Don't you know that he cares for you? Don't you know that he has numbered even the hairs of your head? Why do you worry about these things? Your father in heaven knows what you need and He will provide it.

Yes, we say, but what is His will for me? What is His will for my life. I know God loves me. I know he provides for me. But isn't there more? Isn't there something more specific?

In fact there is. There are a whole list of specific things that are God's will for your life. There are 10 of them. We call them the Commandments. If you want to know what God wants you to do in your life, that's a good place to start. Read the commandments. Luther said that there was enough in the commandments to keep you busy your entire life. Given that everyone of us breaks them all each and every day, it's hard to disagree with him.

But what about all those other things? What about my job, my career? My education? My family? Where I live? That new house or new car that I want to buy? You have the commandments. Use them to evaluate your question:

Why do I want a new job? Am I coveting? Am I lusting? Am I tired of showing honor and respect to my boss? Or have I found a job that will bring me joy as I serve my neighbor and my family?

Or what about that young lady to whom you might “pop the question”, or that young man who has just presented you with a ring. Why are dating him? Her? Again, is it lust? Has that person become your god – the one you trust for your security? Or have you found one who truly encourages you in your faith and who directs you to a closer walk with God. Have you found someone to whom you will be faithful and who will be faithful to you? Have you found one to whom you will devote yourself as a servant for life?

What about your home or your car. Why do you want a new one? Maybe you are coveting. Or maybe you have a legitimate need to replace the one God has already given to you.

As we wring our hands worrying about God's plan what we loose sight of is the freedom that God gives to us in the gospel. Jesus died to set us free from the law. Therefore we are free. Therefore everything is a gift; God's good gift to you, for you to enjoy. So often our search for God's purpose turns every decision back into the threat of God's law.

God allows us great freedom in these things. He does not have one spouse, career, home or hometown that he wants you to have. God gives you the freedom to choose. Evaluate your motives according to the commandments. Confess your sin. And enjoy the blessings and the freedom that God gives in all of life's choices.

We often forget that God is a good God. He blesses us, no matter what we choose. Even when our choices are sinful God blesses us. If you change your job, get and education, get married, start a family; God will bless you. He is your Heavenly Father. He always provides for you. If you don't. God will bless you. He is your Heavenly Father. He always provides for you. Enjoy his many gifts. Obey the commandments, Confess your sins, and live in the freedom he has given to you.

Now to God's will. Because he does have a will, a very clear and specific will for you and your life. God does have a plan.

In the Lord's prayer we pray for that plan. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray.

The catechism teaches us what this means:

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What does this mean?--Answer.

The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.

How is this done?--Answer.

When God breaks and hinders every evil counsel and will which would not let us hallow the name of God nor let His kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh; but strengthens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and in faith unto our end. This is His gracious and good will.

Luther borrows his understanding of God's will from our Epistle Text for today.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Can it be any clearer than that? God has a purpose. God has a plan. His plan and purpose involve Jesus on the cross for you to die for your sin. And not just for your sin but for the sin of the whole world.

And don't worry, it does get more specific than that. God, as we said, wants you to obey the commandments. You don't. You disobey them every day. You hate God and rebel against God and run away from God and do everything you can to remain your own god. So when God made his reservation list for heaven, a list that he composed long before he ever spoke those words “Let there be...” so that this world sprang to life, God wrote your name down. Your name is written in heaven in His book of life because he predestined it to be there.

God planned that you would be in heaven so he sent someone to baptize you. You needed that because otherwise you would fight against him. He moved you to faith. You needed that because otherwise you would continue to resist him. He preserved you in that faith. You needed that because otherwise you would jump overboard and swim back to your sin. God's plan and his purpose for the whole entire universe has your name written on it in a prominent place.

God has a plan for your life. Not just the little stuff. Not just jobs and spouses and families, these are God's gifts to you and he sets you free to enjoy them. God's plan is for eternity, for salvation, for a life that he wants to give to you when this life is dead and gone. He has made his plan a reality, sending his only son Jesus to die for you.

Amen.

Pentecost 5 - Mark 6:1-13

Everyone loves a hero. And what better weekend to talk about heroes than the anniversary of our Nation's Independence. The history of the United States is filled with tales of heroism from men and women who have fought valiantly and with great personal sacrifice to preserve the freedoms that we celebrated just yesterday. The many wars and conflicts that our nation has been involved in has proved time and again that the men and women who defend our nation are heroes in the truest sense of the word.
And it's a good thing, because there have been many an occasion when we have depended upon our heroes. It has often been the bravery of a few that has been the salvation of the many – it has often been the willingness of the few to risk personal harm and injury in the interest of protecting the rest of us. It is good that we show them respect and gratitude.
The fact of the matter is that the world needs its heroes. The reason we celebrate them, the reason we love to tell their stories, the reason that we honor them and revere them, the reason that we need them is quite simple. The world needs heroes because the world needs saving. Heroes step in when the world gets dangerous, when the world becomes treacherous. Heroes do that job that the rest of us cannot do. The world needs saving from itself.
With as much as we all love to recognize and honor our heroes, as much as we love to celebrate their heroism, it is ironic that when the hero of heroes came along, no one was able to recognize him. With all the hope, all the longing, all the desire for a hero, you would think that when the One True Hero actually does show up, that people would flock to him, get behind him, honor him and follow him.
Yet that is not what we find in our text. When Jesus, the Hero of heroes arrives, when he shows up at his home town no less, he isn't given a “Heroes welcome”, he isn't received with open arms, a ticker tape parade, and the key to the city. Instead people are scandalized by him. They are turned off. They turn up their noses. They turn their backs on the Hero that God sent to save the world from itself, that God sent to save the world from its sin. It is strange that this hero would be so un-reconizable to them. Then again, truth be told, this hero is often un-recognizable to us.
Take the account given in our text. The hero is Jesus. Jesus is the one sent by God to defeat Satan, to pay the debt of our sin, and to be the salvation of the entire Human Race. Yet here in our text he seems barely capable of even saving himself.
Often when we consider the work and the ministry of Jesus, the thing that stands our to us is the fact that He performed so many miracles. He healed the sick, he turned water into wine, he walked on water, and he fed thousand with only a few loaves of bread and fish. We know that he did these things because he was the God's son – God in the flesh, a miraculous joining of human and divine substance.
If Jesus is God and if God can do anything, than why in the world does our text tell us that Jesus couldn't do any miracles. Here he is at his home town, he didn't receive the warmest of receptions, people doubted him, rejected him, and refused to believe in him; and so the Gospel writer includes in his recounting of these events that Jesus was unable to do any miracles. Seems rather un-heroic, does it not? Aren't heroes supposed to be heroes regardless of what everybody else thinks? Aren't heroes supposed to be heroes by virtue of their own character and power? Jesus seems to be rather un-heroic, does he not?
Yes. But this exactly the kind of Hero that Jesus came to be. Jesus didn't come to win us through his power and strength. Jesus did not come to defeat our enemies through earthly power and might, by showing everyone all the really cool tricks he could do. Jesus came to be a man of sorrows. Jesus came to be stricken smitten and afflicted. Jesus came to die. Jesus was God in the flesh, But Jesus was God hidden behind human weakness, un-heroic, anti-heroic so that he could die in our place on the cross for our sin.
We have lots of heroes who will save us from each other. We need these heroes. We need police men, firemen, soldiers and warriors who will step in when a conflict arises, when a dangerous situation arises, when there is a need for the skill and the strength and the training to perform these tasks to preserve life. We need these men and women who will save sinners from other sinners. God gives these heroes in common everyday people. Any one of us could step into that role at any moment. That was not the kind of hero Jesus came to be. Jesus did not come to save sinners from each other. Jesus came to save sinners from themselves.
Our biggest enemy that any one of us faces is not somewhere out there in the world around us – the biggest enemy we face is the sinner that lives inside of us. We are our own worst enemy. We are sinners. We are weak. We are doomed to death and destruction because of the sin that lives within us. We need a hero who can save us from ourselves. Jesus is that hero.
When it comes right down to it, our ultimate need is not a hero who carries a gun or a sword or a shield, or even a fire hose. Our ultimate need is a hero who carries a cross. And that is exactly the kind of hero that Jesus is. Doesn't look very heroic on the outside, but hidden beneath the outer weakness and underneath the surface failures is the son of God who came to save the world from sin.
You see, most heroes win their victories by defeating their most bitter of enemies. The go into battle and they overpower the opposition. Had Jesus been that kind of a hero he would have been the death of you and me. We, after all, were his enemies. We were the ones who stood opposed to him. We were the ones who would have wanted to be rid of him. Take the account in our text. Jesus came to his hometown crowd to offer to them the forgiveness he came to bring and they rejected him, they were offended by him, they were scandalized by him. They wanted to be rid of him. We would treat him the same way. So instead of coming to defeat his enemies, he came to become his enemies. Jesus came to be one of us, the be one with us so that he could die in our place. Jesus was weak, he was offensive, he was scandalous because it was necessary so that he could die for us.
And die he did. Jesus stood in our place as his own enemy and he died our death. He died in our place as those who stand opposed to God, as those who hate God, as those who are God's enemies and he received from God the punishment that we deserved. He suffered at the hands of sinful men, but as our great hymn suggests, the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke of justice – the stroke weighted down upon him by God himself.
The heroism of Jesus is a heroism that often goes largely un-recognized. Jesus didn't come with great earthly power and might, he didn't come with outward power and strength to defeat his enemies. Jesus came to become his enemies and then to be defeated for them on their behalf in their place so that they might be friends with God.
For you and for me there is peace with God. Our hero has been defeated for us. He has taken our weakness and he has taken our punishment so that we might live. It is in him that we have peace with God.

Amen.

Pentecost 2 - 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

These days we have been hearing lots about the economy. There has been conversation about the housing market, more recently we have heard plenty in the news about the failure of General Motors, and locally things have been slowing down at Honda. People and businesses and corporations are tightening their belts and looking for ways to weather the economic storm.

In the most uncertain of economic times, Paul's message to us today is a welcome reminder. Paul says that he is of good courage. He is hopeful about the outlook for his life and for ours. When we are uncertain about the size of our paychecks or whether or not we will be receiving one at all, “good courage” is a thing that can be hard to muster up. A little dose of “good courage” would be a welcome thing.

Paul's “good courage” is not simply the power of positive thinking. Sometimes people would have us believe that if we just had a better attitude, if we changed our way of thinking we could change our situation or turn our luck around. All the positive thinking in the world isn't going to sell more automobiles or make your house payment. Those are realities that require some substance. No Paul has something different in mind. Paul is talking about Gospel Courage. Paul is talking about a hope that is founded upon the promise and guarantee of the Gospel as God's promise of salvation to all who believe. According the gospel, regardless of your situation, Paul wants you to know that you too can be of good courage.

Paul tells us we are living in tents. Our lives here in this world is comparable to living in a tent. These days we live in tents for fun. We go for a weekend out into the woods, build a fire, toast some marshmellows, make smores and call it camping. That's not what Paul is talking about. Paul is taking about living permanently in a residence that is temporary, a bit drafty, and entirely undesirable. Even for those of you who enjoy camping, after your weekend of fun is over, you are happy to get back home. It is after all more comfortable and more secure.

Think of it this way: we have all heard ample amounts about the fema trailers sent to provide temporary housing for those displaced by hurricane Katrina. The government sent hundreds and thousands of trailers down to give people a place to stay, a roof over their heads while they were waiting for their homes to be rebuilt.

Now, the people living in FEMA trailers didn't really care to stay there too long. They didn't do a whole lot of landscaping and home improvement projects because the housing arrangement was temporary. It wasn't meant to last. They had the hope of a better home and a better life as they were waiting for their new home to be reconstructed.

That's the point of view that Paul wants you and me to have. That is how Paul envisions that you and I will consider this life. It's like a fema trailer. It's temporary. It's trashy, it's a little run down, it's not very safe or secure. It is undesirable. The good stuff is still to come. God has much better things in store for us.

And that is why Paul says that he is of good courage. He is focused, not on the current situation. Not on the here and now. He is focused on the joy of what will be, on the promise of what is still to come. Paul's hope and joy and courage is based on the promise that God has given that there is a new life and a better life, you might even say a permanent life, that God has in store for the Christian.

That new life is a life given for the sake of Jesus. Remember, as we have said this is a gospel hope and a gospel courage. This is a hope and a courage, an attitude and a perspective that we take on because of the Gospel. Because of what God has promised us in Christ Jesus.

When Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast of the United States, our government recognized the need to care for and provide for the people who were devastated by that storm. Since that event has taken place, most everyone agrees that the governments overall handling of that disaster was poorly orchestrated on all levels. The local government failed, the state government failed. The federal government failed. Yet our earthly authorities despite all their failures recognized that they couldn't simply leave these people on their own without providing some food and shelter and aid. The FEMA trailers were a part of this aid.

Now if these man made governments operated by sinful men can figure out the responsibility to provide for people when a disaster has occurred, how much more then, will our Heavenly Father who is good and merciful and loving provide for people when the bigger disaster of sin has occurred.

Stop and think about the devastation of a hurricane. It's big. It's bad. It's messy and ugly. Now stop and think about the devastation of sin. Stop and think for a moment about the disaster that has come upon the earth because we have disobeyed God. Every evil act. Every act of war and terror. Every hurricane and earthquake and tornado, every act of terrorism and murder every death every sickness has come about because of sin. The devastation we see in the world around us is the aftermath of sin.

God, however, loved us too much to wipe us out and start over. He could have, maybe he even should have. But he did not. Instead he decided to rebuild. Not just the world, but also the people. He decided to accept the responsibility for our disobedience and sin. He decided to claim our guilt as his own and pay the penalty for it. So he did.

Imagine sending one man with a rake a shovel a hammer and some nails to clean up the entire region after a natural disaster has occurred. You might think to be poor planning. You might think that one man to be in over his head. That was God's plan. When God saw the total devestation brought about in the world because of sin, he sent one man to fix the whole thing single handedly. That was a tall order. Too big for your average man. So an average man wouldn't cut it. God needed an above average, an out of the ordinary sort of man. So God sent Jesus – the God/man. No body else could get the job done.

But Jesus did it. If we had an entire lifetime we couldn't reverse the damage that we have done to God's world. Indeed, every new generation has a plan for what's going to save the world. Some think it's technology. Some think it's environmentalism, some think its education, some think its government. They are all dead wrong. Men have tried to fix the world and they just wind up breaking it even more. Only Jesus has ever had a plan that will work. His plan involved his death. On a cross. IN our place. AS the sacrifice for our sin.

When Jesus died on the cross he stepped in to the place where you and I aught to be. He stepped in to take the punishment that we have earned. He stepped in to repair the devastation left behind because of the disaster of human sinfulness. He took it all. Every bit of it. He was like that one guy with the hammer and nails and shovel and rake sent in to do the job all by himself and he got it done. He accomplished it all. We never could. But he did. The job is done. Your sin is forgiven. Washed away. Cleansed. Scrubbed clean.

Sometimes when something is really dirty, when you want to remove a lot of dirt as quickly as possible, sometimes the best thing to do is get out a power washer and let the power of the water get the job done. God has His own power washer – He calls it baptism. In your baptism you were power washed – the sin that clings so closely that nothing else can get it off lets go when God dunks you into the bath of water and His Word. You get so clean that even your future sins, your sins you have still to commit are washed off and you are permanently clean!

This promise is yours now. But there is more to come. You see, in spite of the fact that we have the hope and the guarantee of new life and salvation given to us for the sake of Jesus we still live in the FEMA trailers. Our heavenly mansions are ours, we have the paper work that says we are the owners. No one can take it away from us. But we are still waiting for the full gift to be delivered. We are still living in the shanty town, we are still living in the FEMA village.

And this place stinks. It's dirty. It's run down. Its broken. Its dangerous. There's crime and death and sadness and grief and sickness and disasters and pain. There's all this stuff. Christians know that there is all this bad stuff in the world and that there are lots of times that because of it we suffer. But we don't loose hope. In fact we are of good courage. Because of the gospel – we have gospel courage!

So we are of good courage. We are hopeful. Even when life in the tent seems to be going to wrong direction, even when the stress levels go up, we still have that hope – that gospel hope of a place reserved for us, built especially for us with our own name on it, in heaven. Jesus has cleaned up the mess of this world. He has cleaned up the mess of our lives and we have the guarantee of life forever in heaven.

Amen.

Easter 7

It's graduation season. Over these next few weekends, our local high schools (not to mention our own St Paul's jr high) will be saying goodbye to their graduating classes. The students have completed their obligations, they have done all that needs to be done. And the students are ready to depart; to move on to the next thing and to take their next step.
The students have prepared for their departure. They have prepared personally and academically. They have grown in their personal responsibility on their march toward adulthood. They have grown in the competency and knowledge with the academic subjects: they have met the necessary standards and completed the necessary courses to make them ready to take on the next thing.
As we observe the departure of seniors from their high school class or seventh graders from our own seventh grade class, we also take note of another departure – not the departure of students, but the departure of a teacher. And not just any teacher, the teacher. The one who came to teach and to preach the Word of God as the very Word Made Flesh. Today we observe the departure of Jesus from his disciples. This past Thursday was Ascension Day. The day 40 days after Easter when Jesus was taken up into the heavens and returned to His heavenly Father after he had completed his work on earth.
Just as our high school and jr high students are preparing to depart because they have fulfilled their obligations in school, In our Gospel text today we see Jesus as He is preparing to depart because he in on the verge of fulfilling his obligations. Jesus speaks the words of our text as he was preparing for his death and the culmination of the things he was sent among us to do.
While students prepare for the departure that is graduation with study and with testing and with course work, Jesus prepared for His departure with teaching & preaching, He prepared for his departure with his perfect sacrificial death and resurrection to pay the penalty for the sin of the whole world. And finally, as we see here in our text, Jesus prepares for His departure with prayer. Jesus prays for his disciples. Just as the parents of our graduates are sure to be praying for their children who will be out of the house, away at college or working, and off on their own; Jesus prays for those who he has taught and guarded and kept and who will be out performing the tasks that He has prepared for them to do..
In our text, Jesus prays that God the Father would guard those who had been given to him as his disciples. “I am no longer in the world,” prays Jesus, “but they are in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in Your name that you have given to me that they may be one even as we are one.”
“Guard them. Keep them. Watch over them.” This is Jesus' prayer. Jesus understands, he knows, he foresees the dangers that the disciples will face. He knows that he will be sending them into a world that will not receive them with warmth and welcome but that will hate them, that will seek to silence them and that will seek to intimidate them and force them into submission. Jesus prays that His Heavenly Father would preserve them from the attacks that they are sure to undergo.
As we pray our own prayers, we would do well to take note of Jesus' prayer, to notice the things that he prays for. His prayer demonstrates a much greater faith and wisdom than what ours so often do. More often than not, when we pray, the things that we pray for have to do with the immediate concerns of our bodies. These days and under our current economic climate, there are likely to be lots of prayers that have to do with employment, with finding or keeping or maintaining a well paying job. Because of the constant talk of the economy we are worried about our finances. Or, a recent concern has been the swine flu – perhaps people have prayed that God would keep them healthy and protect them from this virus or from some other type of illness.
God has given to us the gift of our bodies. God is absolutely concerned to provide for the care of our bodies. This includes your health, preserving you from sickness so that you don't get sick in the first place and/or helping you to heal when you find that you are. This also includes your occupation. God knows you need a place to live, a roof over your head, clothes for your body and food to eat and he provides these things for you.
We often become very overly concerned with the pursuit of these things and are tempted to think that they are the most important, the most necessary of the things that God should provide. They are not. They are further down the list. They are, at best, secondary. When Jesus prays his prayer, he doesn't even mention those things. God knows that we need them and He will provide them for us in abundance. Instead Jesus prays for that thing that we most need. Jesus prays that God keep us in the name that he has given to us. That he keep us in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the name that was given to us in our baptism, Jesus prays that God the father would preserve us in the Christian faith.
To be preserved in the Name is the same as to receive the Word and the preaching of Jesus. It is to be a Christian. To be a Christian is to have God's name. It is to have written into our hearts the Word of Christ; that He is our savior, that He is the one who has died for us to save us from sin. That our salvation is caught up in him.
In His prayer Jesus says of the disciples and of us, that he has given to us His Word and that the world has hated us. The world hates those who bear the name of Christ. The world hates Christians.
I recently saw a bumper sticker that read, “I don't have any problem with God, it's his fan club I don't like.” Now, to some extent Christians have made themselves targets of the world's hatred because of their own at times bad behavior and at other times short-sitedness. We need to remember who we are talking to. Christians live in two kingdoms. In the right hand kingdom the Gospel rules and the Word of God holds sway. In the left hand kingdom, that is to say, in the civil realm we are ruled by the law, and thus by reason. At times Christians loose sight of this. While Christians can engage the world in topics of abortion, the definition of marriage and even questions of science we would do well to use God's gift of human reason. We would do well to remember Paul's example who used the scriptures as his authority when talking in the synagogues, but then used secular poets and philosophers as his authority when he spoke in the Areopagus.
That being the case, there is a hatred of Christians and people of faith. There is a cultural push to cast Christians in the light of ignorance and stupidity. There is an intolerance that is unleashed on those who do not hold to atheistic and pseudo-scientific ideals.
Paul talks about a man of lawlessness. The spirit of the Antichrist who will come into the world. Paul tells us that the spirit of lawlessness is already at work in the world. There is a desire among sinful men to be a law unto themselves, to have no rule of law, to be able to wiggle out from under morality if it suits your purposes. We want to make morality situational; you do your best to obey the commandments, but lets face it, there are times when being moral is just impractical and you do what you've got to do. We are all lawless. We all struggle with lawlessness in our own hearts and in our own lives and we all have behaved as if the law did not apply to us.
Jesus was only too well aware of this struggle that we would find ourselves embroiled in, that we would be tempted to see ourselves as above the law, and outside the law. We would be tempted to dismiss the law when it did not fit our needs or when it got in the way of our goals. And so Jesus prayed for his disciples. Jesus prayed for us. “Keep them in the name that you have given to me.”
When we are tempted to see ourselves as above the law, when we are tempted to believe that the law does not apply to us, the danger is that we forget how greatly we need God's forgiveness. We tell ourselves that God's law has not applied to us because of our special circumstances. We justify ourselves in setting aside the truth and therefore we don't need Jesus.
We do need Jesus. We are absolutely sunk without Jesus. Every last one of us is corrupt through to the core, is hell bent on destruction and is convinced that we are not that bad. We need Jesus who teaches us the fullness of God's law. We need Jesus who teaches us the depth of our falleness. We need Jesus who reveals to us the height of God's forgiveness and love. Who while we were yet sinners came to die for us on the cross, to pay for all of sin and to save us from our certain destruction in hell.
Jesus prays for us that we may be one even as He and the Father are one. When we have heard the preaching of Christ, when we have taken into our own hearts the truth of God's Word, it proclaims us to be sinners. What causes division among sinners is pride that points out the sins in others and denies the sin in the self. When we have all seen ourselves as equally sinful we are unified in that we are condemned. We all deserve God's punishment. We all deserve to go to hell. Likewise then are we unified in forgiveness. While we all deserve hell, we have been given heaven. While we have deserved punishment we have been given blessing. While we have deserved destruction we have been given life. We are unified as common recipients of God's grace, his love, his peace, his blessing, his forgiveness, his salvation.
When in faith we see ourselves as bringing nothing to the table and taking away from it every good gift that God has to offer, we are nothing but joy filled. We are unified in the fullness of Joy that God has done with us that very thing that we have not deserved. We are brought together by the satisfaction of salvation. What can we express but joy? What can our hearts express but praise and thanks to a God who has dealt so graciously and generously with us.
Jesus was on his way. His time on earth was nearly done. He knew he was coming to the end. He also knew his disciples and the would-be Christians who would follow them; he knew us. We are foolish. We are sinful. We are prideful. We are easily misled and easily deceived. So he prayed for us. He prayed that we would be preserved, that we would not so easily abandon all the good gifts he had given to us.
Christ has prayed for you. May you be preserved in the blessings of salvation he has won for you.