Saturday, November 30, 2013

11-30-2013



Good Morning All,
    John 10:27; “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me        
     I read a story the other day about a young girl of about 4 years old.  She had been deaf since birth but they were going to try cochlear implants.  After they had completed the operation, the first voice she heard was her mother waking her up.  Given that almost everybody has a cell phone with a camera on it; they caught the expression on the little girl’s face.  It showed surprise and excitement; it showed happiness and delight.  She had heard her mother’s voice for the first time and she was ecstatic.
    Watching people respond when they hear a voice that they know is just as interesting.  My grandson is at that stage.  The other day his parents were trying to get him to talk to his other grandparents on “Skype”.  He went up and tried to grab through the screen of the computer and wasn’t too happy when he couldn’t touch them.  Now in church, if he is not looking when I come out, he really looks up when he hears me speak (I get a kick out of that).  He is at the age where he recognizes voices and he knows who they are.
     When Jesus speaks these words to the Jews who did not believe in him, he was explaining to them that the reason they didn’t understand his teachings was because they had no faith.  Without faith, they could not hear Jesus.  Without faith, we can’t either.  That is what Jesus is telling us as well; without faith we won’t hear his wonderful words of grace and forgiveness.  Those words will only be so much mumbling.
    It is by faith that we hear and accept those wonderful words.  It is through faith that we receive the blessings of God’s grace in Holy Communion.  It is faith that lets us hear.  Without faith we are deaf to God’s beautiful sounds of love and mercy.  It is faith that allows us to follow Him. 
    Yet even this faith is a gift from God.  He gives us the desire to cling to his promise with hope.  That is what faith is; it is the desire to cling to God’s promise.  It is the desire to trust the Words of Jesus, “He that believes shall live.”  Isn’t that what we all desire?  Isn’t that what we all want, to know that we are forgiven of our sins?  God tells us over and over, “Your sins are forgiven.”  All we need to do is trust this saying, trust in this promise.  We don’t have to do anything especially hard, like climb a mountain, we only have to believe, to trust those words to be true.  When we do, we will be like that little girl who heard her mother’s voice for the first time.  We can be excited that we are saved; we can take comfort in the certainty of our salvation.  We can find our contentment as we follow Jesus down the path that he leads us.
Dearest Father, we hear the voice of Jesus and we rejoice in the love that we have.  Comfort us with your words of hope and forgiveness.  Keep us mindful of our salvation in you.  Reach out to those who do not hear your words and do not know you.  Help them to leave their pain behind and to trust in your gracious love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret     

Friday, November 29, 2013

11-29-2013



Good Morning All, 
    John 1:16; “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” 
    You can have cold turkey sandwiches.  You can make turkey potpie.  You can make turkey chili.  You can make turkey tostados.  You can try turkey lasagna.  You can try turkey tetrazzini.  You can make turkey a la king and the list goes on.  Many people face leftover turkey today, tomorrow and the next few days.  Thanksgiving Day meals are very often a massive feast.  One thing we can usually figure will happen and that is leftovers.  Leftover turkey, leftover stuffing, leftover cranberry sauce, leftover green beans; lots of leftovers. 
    One thing about having leftovers is that you know that you are full from the first time you ate it.  You ate and ate but still have some leftover for later.  Sometimes you have more leftover than you ate the first time.  Then you have all that left to eat.  The interesting thing is that there are some foods that taste better as leftovers than as “first overs”.  I think oyster stew and most chilies taste better a day or two later.  But you have to have a lot to start with so you can have enough leftovers to enjoy.
    That is the point of our verse for today.  Because of the fullness of the grace that Jesus brings into our lives.  He brings it into our lives through his all availing death on the cross.  He confirms it with his resurrection from the grave.  Through that single event, his death on the cross, our lives are completely changed.  We are never again what we were.  We are no longer just toys and playthings for the devil; we are God’s redeemed children.  We no longer are the devil’s tools; we are God’s beloved children.
    We have enough grace, more than enough, to face the devil’s challenges.  The devil can no longer assault us but rather must deceive us and he tries and tries.  Painfully, sometimes he succeeds.  We slip and fall into his trap and we suffer for it but God is there, through Christ, waiting for us with grace upon grace.  He keeps calling us back to his redeemed family, calling us with his grace.
    Now this grace is never “just enough” grace; we have tons of “leftover grace.”  We will have grace upon grace.  We have more than enough grace to bring us through.  This is an incredible truth to hold onto.  No matter what occurs in our life, not matter how horrible the sin we commit seems to us, we have grace upon grace.  God will always forgive us and, with true faith, we receive the forgiveness of sins.  We don’t want to waste it nor do we take it for granted.  The cost to God was far too great to treat our grace cheaply.  But the grace is ours, grace upon grace, more grace leftover than we will ever use no matter how much we need. 
Father of all grace, we give you thanks for the grace that you bestow upon us.  We know the wonders of your love as we look to Jesus.  Keep us mindful of your love and guide us to see the devil’s lies and tricks.  Be with those who feel that there is no grace available for them.  Bring them to the truth of your amazing grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret          

Thursday, November 28, 2013

11-28-2013



Good Morning All, 
    Matthew 22: 9-10; “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.   And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
    It was to be the wedding feast of all times.  The king’s only son was getting married and it was going to be a party to end all parties.  All the really important people were invited, the date was set and the preparations were under way.  There was to be all kinds of special food, only the choicest cuts of meat, the finest wines, the most delectable desserts, wonderful music; absolutely the greatest event of a lifetime.  People would talk about this for ages to come.
    Then some cracks started to form.  Some of the nobles, who thought they should have been the king anyway, decided that they “had a prior engagement” or that they “would be unable to attend”.  The banquet hall would not be full.  It was rapidly becoming obvious that the hall would probably be more empty than full.  Eventually, it would be almost entirely empty.  Those who were invited thought that the king was of no importance and they really did not want to bother with going to a reception for his son regardless of how good the food was.  They assumed that the king would crawl to them, begging them to come to the party.
    The king had a different idea.  He still wanted this celebration to go on.  So he had his servants go out into the city and into the countryside and invite anyone they met.  They invited the lepers and the homeless.  They invited the sick and the lame.  They invited everyone to fill the banquet hall.  The feast went on and on; the invited guests were excited because they never expected to be invited to such a wonderful party and those who were invited but stayed home; they missed it all.
    Jesus told his disciples this story to show them how great God’s love for us truly is.  We are the outcasts.  Our sin puts us in that position.  Our sin also causes us to feel the pain of this separation.  When we struggle, we are all alone.  When life goes down a hard or difficult path, we are lost.  The pain of sin is like being a leper; we are left on the outside looking in.  Yet God has a better way.  He comes to you and he comes to me and he invites us in.  We are taken in, we are cleaned up, given new clothes and then fed a most wonderful meal, the best ever. 
    That meal, our heavenly meal, awaits us.  The king’s messengers invites us in.  We are being cleansed even as we wait for the wonderful feast.  God loves us, cares for us, comforts us, defends us and gives us hope.  We are no longer on the outside looking in; we are in the banquet hall.  We are waiting for our table to open up.  When it does, the feast will be beyond anything we can ever imagine here on earth.
Father of love, you bring us to your feast by the Spirit.  You fill us with your splendor.  Renew us by your grace and keep us in the certainty of your tender mercy.  Guard us and guide us.  We ask that you especially be with those who feel excluded from life’s joy.  Give them the comfort of your loving arms and lead them to know your loving will.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen
God’ Peace    
Pastor Bret