Dear leaders,
These last few days have felt like years. Opinions range from “Nothing is wrong and you all are crazy” to “We’re never going to survive.” We’ve gone from no guidelines in MN to restrictions on gatherings of 250, to the closure of schools, to restrictions on gatherings of 50, to restrictions on gatherings of 10 for the next 15 days. A good pastor friend of mine has said, “Never waste a good crisis.” Today is a day when we can be particularly and peculiarly Christian in the way that we spend our time, the way that we demonstrate our values, and the way that we love our neighbor. What we’ve done so far. Community leaders met and formed a network of communication among our Janesville community organizations. We have a Janesville website on COVID-19 matters. Our Foodshelf has stepped up to change protocols so that they can be safe and meet what will be growing food needs in the coming days (and possibly weeks or more). Our school had a Teacher Workday on Monday and one final class day for students on Tuesday. On Monday, the teachers made a plan for flexible / distance learning and on Tuesday, they distributed packets of work, explained the rhythm of instruction for the coming weeks, and had a final devotion for kids. This will be a combination of paperwork sent out, video chat, chatroom, and phone conversations. Our school is following the guidance provided by Gov. Walz and is shut down at least until March 27. Unlike some public schools, March 17–28 will remain class days for us. Our church took precautions with last week’s Sunday services, and we have suspended Wednesday and Sunday services for the next two weeks, while offering a live-stream option on Facebook and continuing to burn DVD’s for use on the local access cable channel. What we’re doing. Our school has instituted flexible / distance learning and will be in contact with families and students on how to improve wherever improvement may be needed. Our pastors gathered with circuit pastors on Tuesday and formed this statement of consensus: We will take into account the CDC guidelines and continue to provide opportunities for Word and Sacrament ministry to our congregations. Our church office has begun regularly calling members, beginning with our oldest and most vulnerable members. We have asked elders to call all those on their member lists to check on them. Our Youth Ministry has been doing the same with youth. We have postponed our Annual Meeting indefinitely and will be using the Elders meeting to consider how to abide within CDC guidelines while continuing to provide opportunities for Word and Sacrament ministry. We realize the economic toll that this situation takes on businesses, people, and communities, and the church is not immune to it. What we hope to add. We hope to add Bible study opportunities to our social media presence. We also hope to provide a regular devotional time each day. We finally hope to provide opportunities to allow people to love their neighbor, even when they cannot physically come near that neighbor. What we ask you do. We ask that you would 1) Engage with your church: worship and study your Bible however you can, 2) Engage with your neighbor in appropriate way and listen for needs your church can help fill, and 3) Engage in giving so that your church and school finances might stay healthy. In Christ, Pastor Muther
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In the Wilderness, we come to you thirsty.
Third in a series of four John 4:1–26 // Romans 5:1–8 // Exodus 17:1–7 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon text for today is John 4, where Jesus meets a woman of Samaria and says to her, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” Our text thus far. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, In the wilderness, we come to you thirsty. During the Sundays of Lent, we are in the wilderness. What does that mean? We are thinking about our scarcity, how it seems that we never have enough. We are thinking on our debt; we’re thinking about our lack. Two weeks ago we saw Jesus led into the desert by the Holy Spirit and tempted in the desert by the devil, and yet in his lack he did not sin. Last week we saw Nicodemus come to Jesus in the night, searching and seeking a question he didn’t know and finding an answer he couldn’t handle. And today we think about the Samaritan woman and her conversation with Jesus at the well, and we see that she was thirsty. Not necessarily physically thirsty. If you read along you would see that Jesus is the one who starts the conversation by asking her if he could have a drink. But nonetheless she was thirsty. I mean, she desired something. She knew that she lacked something. We go to our text. Notice this, that the “living water” line I read at the beginning of the sermon, that’s pretty early on in their exchange. At this point she was puzzling out that he wasn’t talking about the well in front of her. Jesus begins this second part of the conversation by telling her that he has living water, that this water will never make you thirsty again. It will begin to do more; it will begin to well up to eternal life within you. Three areas were this woman is thirsty, where she desires for more than she has. Three areas where we too may in fact have great desire. Three ways then that we see Jesus as the living water who quenches our thirst. Way #1 We all search for someone to love. Jesus says, “Go home and bring back your husband.” “I have no husband.” You’re right you’ve had five.” Her love life has been rocky, but notice what this means: she’s searching for something that she hasn’t found: Deep love. Care. Stability. What could be more human than this? Who among us hasn’t longed for someone to hold, hasn’t longed to be understood, hasn’t longed for someone to go through life with? This woman is thirsty for that, but one could infer that she has been looking for it in all the wrong places. And that is remarkably human too, isn’t it? Wanting the right thing but looking in the wrong place. We have a bad day, we look to a bag of chips to make us feel better. We have anxiety, so we buy a couple dozen cases of toilet paper to make us feel better. Now, I’m not telling you to stop buying toilet paper, and I’m not telling you that anxiety and depression are easy to deal with. I am inviting you, as Christians, once again to the foot of the cross, to find your worth in Christ, to find your identity as a precious and redeemed child of God. Way #2 We search for something to worship. The woman says, “We worship on this mountain, and you in Jerusalem.” The Samaritan culture pulled together a lot of threads. They were the ragtag accumulation of peoples: the ones kicked out before Israel invaded the promised land, the northern kingdom of Israel that had rebelled from Judah, set up it’s own temple (on the mountain this gal is referring to), was exiled by Assyria and came back to the land under Babylon, only to be shunned by the people of Judah as they rebuilt Jerusalem. They were a beaten, battered, torn ragtag group that had finally scratched out a territory here. They didn’t know who they were and they didn’t know what kind of God they worshipped. But the bottom line is that everybody worships something, whether or not what you worship has a name, everybody worships something, everybody puts something first. So, what do you worship? I’m not asking, “Where do you go on a Sunday morning?” but “What consumes your time? What do you sacrifice for? What do you put first?” We don’t know what the woman at the well would have said to that, but we do know what Jesus said in response, not only to the words of her mouth but moreover to the thoughts of her heart, “The hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” The hour is coming when the presence of our God will be wherever the church gathers, wherever the Word is preached, wherever the sacraments are administered, because when God breaks into this place, then, the people of God go out to show what he did in every other place. Way #3 We search for someone to save us. “I know that Messiah is coming. When he does he will tell us all things.” In this case, she is searching for someone to tell her plainly what she wanted. She was looking for someone with knowledge to enlighten her, to be saved from her ignorance. We all desire a savior. For some it is the government. For others it is an outsider. For others it is an institution. For others it is a relationship. But we all desire to be saved, to be helped, to be led. And here is a great truth. She is recognizing the great and terrible truth that we cannot do it on our own. We are not enough. We are, in the end, inadequate to the task. As a man, as a husband and as a father, I see this clearly enough. I remember as Benny’s due date was coming close, a friend of mine told me about the birth of his daughter. He said, the hardest thing was to see his wife in pain and not be able to do anything about it. We are, in the end, inadequate to our tasks. But notice how she phrases this: the Messiah will TELL us all things. She says, when I am saved, I need to be saved by more knowledge. She says, I’ll know the right things and I’ll be okay. Notice what Jesus says back to her: he says, “I who speak to you am he.” She longs for a savior who will give her perfect knowledge. The savior who is in front of her perfects her by the knowledge and the more than knowledge that comes to this world in the form of Jesus Christ, the God who is man, the God who makes his dwelling among us. And he is more than just a God who walks among us: he is a God who walks among us and sympathizes with our weaknesses, and more than that He is a God who walks among us and sympathizes with our weaknesses and dies our death for us, and .... More than that. Because the one who died was raised to life, and his life has become our life, so that every desire we have, every lack we feel, every place of scarcity we come to is formed by Who He Is and is filled In His Time. Amen and amen. Jesus, the Son of God
Second is a series, “Who Is Jesus?” Matthew 3:13–17 // Isaiah 42:1–9 // Romans 6:1–11 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon text is Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus, especially when Jesus speaks to John, “Let it now be so, to fulfill all righteousness,” and as God the Father speaks to everybody, “This is my beloved Son, in him I am well-pleased.” Our text thus far. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Today we continue with the second sermon in a series Who Is Jesus? During the season of Epiphany. The season of Epiphany is a season of light, a season where Christ reveals who he is not only to the Jews, but as we saw last week, to the Gentiles as well. Last week, we saw the Magi come to worship Jesus, and we asked the question, Who is Jesus? Their gifts answered the question for them: Jesus is King, that’s the gold. Jesus is Priest, that’s the frankincense. Jesus is the sacrifice, that’s the myrrh. Today, we ask the same question again, Who is Jesus? But we ask it at a different time, of different people. Today, we see the identity of Jesus revealed first in Jesus’s own words with John and then by the voice of the Father. We see Jesus as the Son of God who fulfills all righteousness. Two parts for our sermon: first Jesus is revealed from the bottom up. Second, Jesus is revealed from the top down. First, from the bottom up. Out of the four Gospels, Matthew is the only one that notes John tries to prevent Jesus from getting baptized, and do you notice why? It’s because John believes who Jesus is. John says, I know who you are, and I need to be baptized by you, Jesus. I am not worthy of you, Jesus. I am a forerunner of you, Jesus. And, what’s more, he’s right in every respect. Jesus did not need to repent of his own sin, because he had no sin. Jesus is the Son of God from eternity; he doesn’t need God the Father to part the clouds and remind him of it. Jesus was born the Messiah, the anointed one. And yet, listen to Jesus’s response. Did you think about it when we read it in the lessons? “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to” do what? “to fulfill all righteousness.” What does that mean, that Jesus is being baptized to fulfill all righteousness? It means that Jesus is baptized from the bottom up. Now, I can imagine you thinking, when you’re getting baptized in a river there’s no other way besides from the bottom up, and you’re not entirely wrong. But here let’s dig a little deeper. Jesus is baptized from the bottom up. He is baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness, for you and for me. Let’s break that down into two parts. First, righteousness. Jesus does everything that the law requires, and more than that. Jesus is in right relationship with his Father in heaven. Second, he is righteous for you and me. What does that mean? It means that he gathers up the whole of humanity into himself. The righteousness that he fulfills, he gives to you and to me. That’s the point of the Gospels. All of his righteousness is a righteousness for all who believe and are baptized into his name. That’s what it means, from the bottom up. He is baptized for you and for me, so that he can share all the righteousness that he has fulfilled with us. This is what Paul means in Romans chapter five when he says right at the end, right before our reading for today. By Adam’s disobedience many were made sinners, but by Christ’s obedience, many will be made righteous. All of humanity is gathered up into Christ. That’s why he can say what he says in Romans 6 that you are baptized into Christ’s death, because Jesus dies your death for you. He fulfills your righteousness for you. He is raised to life for you. Jesus is righteous from the bottom up. First, we saw Jesus revealed from the bottom up. Second, From the top down. We get this literally when he steps out of the water and from the top down, God the Father opens up heaven to say, “This is my beloved son. In him I am well-pleased.” Let’s revisit a statement I made earlier. Jesus does everything that the law requires because he is in right relationship with the Father. He’s in right relationship with the Father. That’s a step beyond simply doing the law. Not only has he done everything that the law requires; to him fulfilling all righteousness—doing what the law requires—is merely a by-product of being a beloved son of his father in heaven. What an impossibly high standard that is! It’s hard enough to do all the right things at the right times, but this is a step beyond it. Jesus is in right relationship with his Father. He knows his Father and his Father knows him. He loves his father and his father loves him. He does all that his Father loves, and in him his father is well-pleased. If this is the standard for salvation (and it is), then only Jesus can fulfill it. It isn’t a matter of trying harder or doing better; salvation is a matter on an entirely different level: salvation is about being, being right with God and so being right with all of creation and so being able to act in the way that all other need you to be. So, knowing that, how great of a wonder is it that Paul writes in Romans 6, You are united with Christ. You are united into his death thus avoiding eternal death. You are united with Christ in his life, gaining eternal life. What you and I could not do on our own has been a free gift of God, because every time you pray to God, he hears the prayers of his Son Jesus Christ. Every time you look to God, he sees the face of his son Jesus Christ. Every time you repent to God, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jesus reconciles you to God. Who is Jesus? Jesus fulfills all righteousness from the bottom up, for you and for me. Jesus is the Son of God from the top down, a Son of his Heavenly Father. In the end, the answer is one and the same: Jesus is the Son of God who fulfills all righteousness. Amen and Amen. It’s all about Jesus
In a Series, The Future is Behind Us Isaiah 63:7–14 // Galatians 4:4–7 // Matthew 2:13–23 // Hebrews 4:15–16 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon text for today is from Matthew 2 and more, all centering on this sentiment, Matthew 2 verse 14, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.” Our text thus far. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, It’s all about Jesus. Today we consider the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and this extraordinary story of his young life, one that only Matthew records, the departure of the Magi, Jesus and the Holy Family fleeing from Judea to Egypt and from Egypt to Nazareth. Today we consider who Jesus was, why the Scriptures had to be fulfilled in this way for him and for Mary and for Joseph, and to what end Matthew records these events. Today we FIND ourselves getting LOST in the story of Jesus. And when I think of that, I think of way back in Seminary school when I had a creative project. I wrote a little book and illustrated it, I printed it, and then someone asked for about 15 copies of it. And I tell you, making those was about the most fun that I’ve ever had. Writing and illustrating, printing and cutting, stitching and taping, I remember getting lost in the work, in the rhythm, getting lost in the action, I found myself getting lost in the story before me. Three points for today as we find ourselves getting lost in how it’s all about Jesus. Three points for today and two directions in conclusion. First, Jesus goes where Israel has gone. Second Jesus succeeds even where Israel has failed. Third, Jesus dies as Israel’s ransom payment. First, Jesus goes where Israel has (gone). Matthew makes that very clear in our text. That, he says is the reason behind the reason why Jesus and the holy Family go to Egypt.... yes, to escape the wrath of King Herod but even more to be walking in the steps of ancient Israel. Israel had gone down to Egypt to escape famine and came back named as God’s firstborn son, bought and paid for by the Passover Feast and by the Parting of the Red Sea. Jesus, God’s own son from the very beginning, follows the course of the people Israel down to Egypt and back again. He goes where Israel has gone. Or, to say it in a different way, this new thing that God is doing in Jesus is not so different from the way God has worked in the past. There are themes to God’s work. The work feels familiar even when God does something new. Or, perhaps to say it best, as Numbers says, as James says, as Isaiah says, as Malachi says, as the Psalms say, God does not change, and it’s always been all about Jesus. He has laid out Jesus’s path in a way that is consistent with his work in all time, and every action of Jesus in the Gospel carries with it echoes of all the ways God has already worked. It’s all about Jesus, and Jesus goes where Israel has gone. Second, Jesus succeeds even where Israel has (failed). Israel went to Egypt because the children of Israel sold Joseph into slavery, but “what you desired for evil, God worked out for the good of many.” The Holy Family goes to Egypt in obedience to an angel of the Lord. Israel left Egypt with fear in their hearts, longing to go back to their former masters. The Holy Family goes back in obedience to what God had commanded succeeding where Israel had stumbled. Even beyond our text for today, we find this to be true. Israel had been tempted 40 years in the desert, but “they rebelled and grieved God’s Holy Spirit.” Jesus, in just the next chapter, starts his ministry by going out in to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil himself for 40 days, withstanding temptation when Israel had failed. Israel received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and they were not able follow them, even the moment after they were given. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expands those commandments. He raises the bar. He increases the requirements of God’s Law, and he keeps them, every little bit. Israel was to be a light lifted up among the nations that would draw all peoples to the One True God, but in the end they were scattered and lost. Jesus was lifted up on a cross on Calvary, drawing all of the sin of the whole world to rest upon his shoulders. It’s all about Jesus, and Jesus succeeds even where Israel has failed. Third, Jesus dies as Israel’s (ransom payment). Great Exodus event where God frees Israel from 400 years of slavery was a great and mighty work, but in the end, it was merely a sign of something greater. What is that greater thing? God had ransomed Israel from Egypt in the first Exodus, and in the second Exodus, God ransoms all believers from death. The author to the Hebrews sums it all up like this, in chapter 4: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Dear friends in Christ, Jesus is the ransom payment that all of Israel points to. Jesus is the promise of Israel, the hope of Israel. Jesus is the point of Israel, that God would be drawing all people to himself in Jesus, that God would be blessing all the nations through Jesus, that God would be placing the whole of his Divinity into Jesus to be tempted in every way, to cry all of our tears, to suffer as we suffer, to rejoice as we rejoice, to live as humanity lives so that by his death, we might live. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He reigns over us on a throne of grace. OK, Pastor Muther, that’s great, but what’s the payoff? What does this all mean? The author to the Hebrews gives us two directions in the end: Let us receive mercy. Let us find grace to help in time of need. Direction number one: In light of all of this, let us receive mercy. Or, in other words, we look (back). We look back to know what we’ve known from our mother’s knee. We look back to hear the Word of God that we’ve always known and realize that the Christian journey is more a journey deeper than it is a journey beyond. That is the direction of the Christian life. We look back to find ourselves lost a little bit more in the wonder of the Christ-child, in the audacity of his grace, in the poetry of his salvation. Direction number two: Let us find grace to help in time of need. Or, in other words, we look (around). Whether Mary and Joseph were in Egypt, in Bethlehem, or in Nazareth, their calling was the same. Whether Mary and Joseph’s nearest neighbors were the Magi or fellow construction workers, their calling was the same: to receive the grace given to them in their time of need, and to spend the rest of their days giving that grace out to their family, to their neighbor, to their community. That is the direction of the Christian life. We receive all that God would give us in this sanctuary so that we can go out from this place into all of the other places where God would send us, so that his grace might be apparent to others in their time of need. The kingdom of heaven is like a large church in a small town that finds they are losing themselves in the story of Jesus today. They find themselves looking back to remember God’s grace for all their years. They are looking around knowing that God is using them to show his grace in times of need. The kingdom of heaven is like a couple for whom every chapter of life serves to deepen their understanding of God’s love and grace. Every grandchild that they hold serves to remind them that God loves that little one more deeply than they can know. Every neighbor that they see reminds them how God helped them in their time of need and reminds them that it’s all about Jesus. Amen and amen. The Future is Behind Us: Future Comfort
Isaiah 7:10–17 // Matthew 1:18–25 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon text for today is both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading for today, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Our text thus far. Dear friends in Christ, The Future is Behind Us. Three weeks ago, we dwelled on the past promises of God. Two weeks ago, we considered the enduring hope given to us. Last week, we remembered that God does not change. And today, we think about the Future Comfort that the Gospel gives. Life is not always comfortable. I remember being a little kid on Christmas Eve and having to wear the pants that my mom told me to wear. They were too hot. They were itchy. They didn’t fit. I told her, I’m not comfortable. These pants aren’t comfortable. She said, in the sweetest, kindest way that my mom talks, she said, “Tough. Life’s not always fair.” Life is not always comfortable. But it’s not just that. For many of us, life can be downright hard. Nobody plans for the roof to leak or for the battery to go dead or for the lower control arm to go out. Nobody gets up and says, “Boy, I’d really like to twist my ankle on the ice today.” Today’s a really good day for everything to go wrong.” Nobody sets out thinking, I’m hoping to crash my car.” Life is not always Life wasn’t comfortable for Ahaz. He’d inherited the throne from his father Uzziah, and he’d inherited a whole lot of problems too. Israel to the north and Syria to the northwest were ganging up on him, and verse two says that when he heard that they were coming for him, the heart of Ahaz and all the people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Life wasn’t comfortable, and more than that, it was downright hard. His back was to the wall. He only had one option: he could ally himself with the power north of Syria – the Assyrians. They were the huge empire, the regional power. They were cruel and harsh and excellent warriors, and Ahaz thought, if he could ally himself with the Assyria, then Assyria would keep Israel and Syria occupied. He felt as though he only had one earthly option. What else could he do? Life wasn’t comfortable for Joseph either. He finds out that the wife he obviously cares for is pregnant, and not by him. She must be far enough along that it’s beginning to show, and you know that there are no secrets in small towns like Nazareth. Things are going to be uncomfortable, but. Life wasn’t comfortable, and more than that, it was downright hard. His back was to the wall. He only had one option: he could divorce her quietly. Whatever Mary says, she obviously didn’t want to be with him. He was a righteous man, and so he had only one earthly option. What else could he do? Have you ever been there? With only on option left, and even that option isn’t a good one? Then God does something. Do you see? It’s the same something in both instances. In fact, it’s the thread that draws these two texts together. God does something. He takes their one earthly option and he does what only God can do. He says to Ahaz, “Ask of me a sign. Be it as high as the heavens or as deep as Sheol. Ask anything, and I will do it to prove this prophecy.” And Ahaz does not believe. He comes to Joseph with an angel and tells him, “Don’t do the thing that you were thinking to do. Take Mary to be your wife because the son is conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.” And Joseph believes. And then, as a promise of this extraordinary thing that he has done, he says to Ahaz and to Joseph, “Here is the sign. When you see this, you will know that all I say is true: behold the virgin shall be with child and you shall call his name Immanu El. Immanu WITH US. El. GOD. In this child, God is present with us.” So, you might be thinking, “That’s great for them, Pastor Muther, but do you know how many angels have come to me with visions? Do you know how many times God has told me to ask for a sign as high as heaven or as deep as Sheol? A big goose egg. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.” That’s, for the most part, true. God doesn’t part the clouds to tell me whether I should toast a bagel or eat cereal in the morning. But notice what the sign for both of these things was: Notice that it is the same thing for both prophecies. You see, because this sign was the guarantee that God was going to do what he said he would do. This will be a sign for you: Immanuel. God with us. And THAT is something that we DO have. Dear friends in Christ, every time that you confess your sins and ask forgiveness, that often does God dwell WITH YOU to break the chains of your sins. Every time that you would say, “I am not enough. I need to be fed with God’s strength because I’m too weak on my own. “I need to thirst for God’s Word, because nothing else satisfies,” that often God starts filling your hunger. Every time you begin to say that gathering in the fellowship of the church is your priority, that often and more is God WITH YOU, by your side, leading you forward, assuring you of a future comfort. What is that comfort? It is the future comfort that the Christian has always known. It’s the comfort that God is with you, that in your baptism you are united WITH Christ in his death so that you might be united WITH Christ in his life. Whatever the political situation might be these days, whatever side you’re on, know that the comfort that reigns over all that chaos is this: death is not the end, that death which was a wall has become a doorway, and because Jesus lives, so shall we live. Whatever your social life might be, know that your life is hidden with Christ on high, and all of your treasure, all of your worth is in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy. Whatever your family life might be these days, know that Jesus Christ is your brother and God is your father, and they give you a crown and a home that thieves cannot break in and steal. The future comfort we receive is that God is with us, Through all the trials, God is with us. When we don’t know what to do, God still feeds us. When we cannot find the strength God is with us. Through all the unknown God is with us. There’s a story about a doctor who made house calls, and one of his patients, a terminal patient, asked him what was going to happen when he died and what heaven would be like, and the doctor said, “I don’t know.” “I don’t know? Aren’t you a man of faith? How can you say, I don’t know?” He replied, “Do you hear my dog?” Yeah “He’s on the other side of the door. He doesn’t know what’s here. He doesn’t know what’s here, but he doesn’t really care. All he wants to do is be with me.” To be with you. In the middle of the unknown. Whatever may be, he will be with us, and that is our future comfort. And again and again, we find that God’s future for us looks far different than we thought it could look. As we walk one step at a time, we find that the future that is laid out by the cross of Jesus unfolds in God’s time, in God’s way. Time and time again, we see what Ahaz saw from Isaiah: somehow by God’s grace, he does something that we never expected, in a way that we couldn’t even guess. Again and again, we see life from Joseph’s perspective: we have a small part to play in the gloriously big plan of salvation, and whenever we need comfort, we look to Jesus Christ, the center of our faith. Amen and Amen. |
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October 2022
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