Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

The Fourth of July is a great holiday for us. What do you think of when someone mentions the 4^th? A picnic in the park? A family get together? Fireworks? The holiday has been around as long as each of us and many of us have developed traditional things that we do on the July 4^th. It is wonderful to mark such a special day in our history and to remember it every year. It makes that first 4^th of July apart of our own history almost as if we were a part of that original party that declared independence from tyranny.

With all the things that we do on the 4^th, I know that I don’t often think about the battle that followed that original Independence Day. Our country’s fathers declared independence, but it was another eight years or so before that independence was realized by the citizenry. Imagine the joy and the celebrations of those early July 4^ths when the participants could remember the hard fought battles that gained that independence from tyranny. The food maybe wasn’t as plentiful as now and the fireworks maybe didn’t exist, but those celebrations must have been grand for the joy that each shared as people that once were at the mercy of a far away government but now were independent and free. I imagine that they celebrated as often as they were able, regardless of the date or a declared holiday. Can you imagine not celebrating our Independence?

“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18

Your independence from the law and freedom from the slavery to sin is something you get to celebrate daily in the joys a praying and knowing that your prayers are heard by God because He has promised to hear the prayers of His children. Freedom from slavery to sin is something you get to celebrate every Sunday as the forgiveness of sins is given to you through the means of grace.

Every Sunday you get to celebrate your independence from the tyranny under the devil who only sought your demise. In the Divine Service we have God’s Word of promise declared and sung in the liturgy; you remember the declaration of your freedom in Holy Baptism immediately in the invocation and you celebrate throughout as God’s Word bursts forth grander than any fireworks display.

But it is there on Sundays also that you get to participate in the sacrificial battle and not just remember it as something that happened long ago. Jesus continues to give you Himself in His body and blood that you may be nourished and strengthened for your daily battles with that old evil foe who lingers around trying to pull you back into slavery.

You have a day set aside every week that you get to celebrate the great victory over sin, death, and the devil; a holiday every week that reminds you of your freedom. It is a day of rest, when we greatly remember that our labor under the law is completed in Jesus and a day in which we celebrate that great declaration of justification for us in the resurrection of Jesus. I cannot imagine trading this liberty we have in Christ by failing to celebrate it at every opportunity.

I look forward to seeing you at our Sunday celebrations of freedom.

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Say!
I like prayers to God in Jesus name!
I do! I like them, to Him the fame!
And I can pray in a boat.
And I can pray near a goat…

And I can pray in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
It’s so good, so good, don’t you see!

So I will pray in a box.
And I will pray when I see a fox.
And I will pray in my house.
And I will pray like a church mouse.
And I will pray here and there.
Say! I will EVERYWHERE!

I do so treasure prayer to God!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Jesus, dear Son of God!

+ Pastor

It is the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The first of those many Sunday’s that are just listed by their sequence after that great day of Pentecost. This year we number twenty-four of them that are just ordinary Sundays that fall during that part of the Church Year known to us today as the Season of Pentecost. At other times it has been known as the Time of the Church or the Season of Trinity. But, whatever the name and no matter if a minor feast falls on any of these Sunday’s or not, they are hardly “just another Sunday.” They are Sundays like all the rest, filled with the work of the Pentecost Spirit of God. Sundays set aside as holy days for the hearing of God’s Word of grace and receiving the gifts that He brings in the Sacraments. Days when His name is to be hallowed through hearing and eating; through faith. As we begin this lengthy season of the Church Year, remember that Jesus comes to you on these days and when He comes, how can we ever think of it as “just another Sunday!”

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Have you ever had your birthday fall on another holiday? I have a brother who’s birthday is Christmas Eve. The running joke for those like him is that they never really get to observe their birthday because it is always overshadowed by the greater holiday.

This Sunday we have two festivals of the Church Year falling on one day; Pentecost which comes 50 days after Easter (not counting the Sundays) and The Visitation which is observed on May 31. Neither of these holidays or feasts as they are known overshadows the other though. Both show us the amazing work of the Holy Spirit and His purpose in pointing to the Savior of the world

We should respond as Elizabeth, “And why is this granted to me that…my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43). She and we know that Jesus did not come because we deserved Him. But we also have the words of Peter, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). Repentance and faith go hand in hand as the Holy Spirit continues to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

These past several weeks we have pondered on the wounds that our Savior suffered during our Wednesday evening Vespers. As the hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded led us on our way, we have seen how the wounds of betrayal, apathy, denial, and mockery were reflected in the events of the first Holy Week. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss; Peter, James, and John had such apathy for His request to pray with Him for but an hour; Peter denied Him despite his promise never to do so; and the soldiers jeered and mocked. For all of these reasons, Jesus faced His Passion and death. For these reasons and all the additional reasons of our own betrayal, apathy, denial, and mocking did Jesus choose to suffer and die. Yet even these wounds do not hurt as much as the wound of abandonment. For your sake, Jesus chose to accept the wound of being abandoned by His Father. He chose to face hell and aloneness so that you would never have to know what it is like to not have God. Jesus was abandoned so that you would know that He shall never leave nor forsake you. He will be with you until the very end of the age; and on to eternity.

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“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.” 1 Corinthians 9:19 (ESV)

Do you remember winning over your sweetheart? Perhaps you are still in that process of winning her/his heart. Part of that process of winning another’s heart is to demonstrate that you love them enough to give of yourself; that you care enough about her/him to set your own concerns aside for their sake. Paul speaks in this verse from Sunday’s (Feb. 8) Epistle, of making himself a servant to all that he might win their hearts. His concern is for those he is with and not for himself. He is confident already in his own justification. Now he is giving himself over that Christ’s love for them might be known in him. Paul makes himself a servant so that they would comprehend and believe in the Lord who was made servant for all. Paul sacrifices himself to be their servant so that he may win their love and in so doing display Christ’s love for them and win their love for Him.

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Mark 1:21-28

Our Gospel reading from Sunday (Feb. 1) reveals to us how Jesus teaches with authority like those in the synagogue had never seen. “I shall put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak them all that I command him” (Deut 18:18). He teaches with divine authority. It also reveals to us the authority Jesus has over demons: “Even the demons believe - and shudder!” (James 2:19). Speaking and acting in the authority He possesses; the authority of God, He sets things right. He speaks the truth and creates faith. He castes a demon out, silencing its words and frees a man from such evil oppression. Jesus speaks and immediately things that have gone wrong are redirected into the right. Jesus still speaks to you today where He is constantly correcting what has gone wrong and redirecting, healing, and casting out evil. This He does in His Word preached and His Sacraments administered for the forgiveness of sins.

Greetings to all who wander here!

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Christmas should make us merry shouldn’t it? It should make us down right giddy, just like children waiting to open gifts on Christmas morning. Think on it for a moment - God gives the greatest gift we can imagine. He gives us the gift of His Son for our salvation. What could make us merrier?