Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“The God Who Wrestles For You”

Text: Genesis 32:22-30; Luke 18:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Trust but verify. Some of you will remember when President Ronald Reagan used that phrase when negotiating with the Russians during the cold war. He was clever, because it is actually a Russian proverb that he turned around and used against the Russians themselves! Doveryay no proveryay. I’m sure I’m not pronouncing that very well, but the meaning of the proverb is clear: trust only goes so far. We trust BUT . . . still make preparations, hedge our bets, make sure we have a back-up plan. In case we are betrayed. In case our trust turned out to be foolish.

Well, doveryay no proveryay seems to be what Jacob is doing with God. I trust you God, BUT . . .

You see, Jacob was about to meet his estranged brother Esau for the first time in twenty years. His brother who first he took advantage of to get his birthright, then tricked their father to steal his blessing, and who on that day said he was going to kill that lying, stealing, conniving, no good brother of his. So Jacob fled. Lived with his uncle for the past 20 years. But now the Lord said it was time to go home. The Lord promised to be with Jacob. Even as the Lord had been with Jacob the past 20 years in his exile and had prospered him greatly. The Lord had given him great and precious promises. And even right before this that we heard about today, Jacob had seen the angels of God with him and confessed, This is God’s camp (32:1)! 

But still . . . doveryay no proveryay. Jacob can’t quite trust the Lord. He hedges his bets. He sends gifts to Esau to soften him up. First a servant with 200 female goats and 20 male goats. Then after him another servant with 200 ewes and 20 rams. Then 30 milking camels and their calves, then 40 cows and 10 bulls, and then 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. One after the other after the other, to win Esau’s heart . . . or at least, a little mercy. Then, as we heard today, he sends his family away for their protection, and he is alone. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring. But knowing he’s done all he could. Doveryay no proveryay. It’s the way of the world.

But it’s not the way of God.

So God comes to Jacob that night, as we heard today, in this strange overnight wrestling match. He didn’t have to. God could have just appeared to Jacob, told him to shape up and trust! But Jacob already knew that, just as we know that. This wrestling match was emblematic of what Jacob had been doing all along: wrestling with God. Doveryay no proveryay. Because that’s what sin has done to us. It has made us no longer trust God. Oh, we do . . . but we don’t. We do with this . . . but not that. At these times . . . but not all the time. Sin has made us no longer trust God as we should, and no longer trusting God as we should is why we sin! We take matters into our own hands. To get the outcome we want.

But what has this gotten Jacob? Well, like that night, he’s kind of in a stalemate with God. God has been wrestling for him but all his life he has been wrestling against God. So no more. God injures him. So he will have to just doveryay, trust. Trust in the God who - whether he knows or understands it or not - has been wrestling for him and blessing him all along. A fight that began when Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, and that will not end until we are safely through the gates to everlasting life.

Now, I don’t really have to tell you about this - you know it. The battle against evil in our world. The battle that rages on inside you! That trusts God, BUT . . . but wonders, doubts. Can I be sure? Will He still? Have I been too sinful? Have I used up all my chances? ‘Cause things don’t look so good right now! I’m afraid of what tomorrow will bring, of my Esau on the other side of the river. Doveryay . . . no proveryay! I trust . . . but I have to verify! I have to do this. I have to protect myself. I have to hedge my bets. I have to prepare. I have to . . . what? What do you have to do that God cannot do for you? Why are you relying on yourself, your own reason or strength? Why are you trying to be your own wrestler? Why are you wrestling with God?

So Jacob is forced to trust God, and, turns out, God had it handled! Esau didn’t want the gifts, didn’t want to kill his brother anymore. All Jacob got out of his proveryay-ing was a limp. 

And for you and me, too. Our lack of trust, our wrestling with God is only hurting ourselves. Making life harder for ourselves. 

For yes, we have a God we can doveryay, we can trust, who is wrestling for us, fighting for us. And not just Jacob’s story, but the whole Old Testament testifies to this. God’s care for Abraham, Isaac, and yes, Jacob. God leading His people out of their slavery in Egypt and giving them the promised land. God protecting them from the nations around them. And when the people got in trouble, when things went south, it was because they stopped doveryay-ing, trusting, and took matters into their own hands, doing what they thought best, worshipping false gods. And so sometimes God had to hurt them, so that they would have to turn to Him and trust Him again.

But all that was just the prelude to the real wrestling match to come, when the Son of God came and wrestled for us, fought for us. When He took our sins upon Himself and took them to the cross. When He shed His blood on our behalf. When the Lamb of God was far more than just injured for us, but died in our place. And when three days later, what looked like the greatest defeat of all time turned out to be the greatest victory of all time, with sin, death, satan, and hell all conquered in His resurrection. What we could never do, He did. A victory He now gives to us.

For, to move into the Holy Gospel we heard today, our God is no unrighteous judge, only in it for himself, and not wanting to be bothered. No! Jesus is only using that as an example . . . that if we’re like that widow, with people in our world like that unrighteous judge, why not also with a loving, merciful, gracious, giving heavenly Father, and His Son who not only wants to bless us, but laid down His life for us. Why not go to the righteous one who will always do the right thing?

We should. We know we should. We can doveryay, trust, and we don’t have to proveryay, verify, because Jesus has already done that for us in His resurrection. That’s all the proof we need that the victory is His. That the One who came to wrestle, to fight for us, has won. There on the cross is where we see God face-to-face and our life is delivered. There on the cross is our Peniel - the face of God. And there in the Font is the yad-el, the hand of God, who in those waters made us His own. And there on the altar is the lehem-el, the bread of God, who feeds us and strengthens us. And here is the Word of God and the forgiveness of God and the life of God . . . for here IS God, in the Church of God, for you. The God who wrestles for you, fights for you, and will not stop.

So you come, maybe injured, bruised and beaten up again by the world, and He is here to heal your soul. 

Maybe you come, like Paul warned Timothy, with itching ears, wanting God to approve of what you want and to say what would make your life easier. But you will not hear that here. Your God is here to speak the truth in love.

Maybe you come filled with guilt and shame for what you have done again this week, rolling around in the cesspool of your sins, and the One who died for those sins is here with His forgiveness for you.

And what else? Maybe you come filled with fear, or anger, or bitterness, or sadness, and your wrestling with these hasn’t made them go away or get any better. And here is the crucified One for you, to fight for you, to fight these things for you, and win. You’ll gain the victory no other way. 

I won’t let you go unless you bless me! Jacob said that today, and the widow we heard about did that. Jesus told that parable so we would, too - pray and not lose heart. But even greater than that is having a Saviour who is here for us and says to us, I won’t let you go unless I bless you! And He does. Blessing upon blessing here. Blessing that will never run out. 

And when you’re facing the greatest fear of all, when you don’t know what tomorrow will bring, when your Esau on the other side of the river is the enemy called death, and there’s nothing you can do to win that battle . . . like Jacob, you’ll find out that God had it handled. He took care of it for you. You’ll pass from life to life in your Saviour, who went through death to life for you.

But the story of Jacob teaches us that you can live in that life, that freedom, even now. On this side. Because in the midst of fear, of uncertainty, or whatever, your God who wrestles for you and fought for you is here for you, and your life has been delivered.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng!”

Text: Ruth 1:1-19a; Luke 17:11-19; 2 Timothy 2:1-13

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Collect for Guidance in Our Calling, LSB p. 311)

That’s one of my favorite prayers. I pray it, in fact, every year at our Annual Meeting, as we gather to consider matters for our congregation - where we’ve been and where we’re going. For the truth is, while we know where we’ve been, we don’t always know why, and where we’re going, we don’t know. 

When our congregation was formed, who knew the challenges we would face, the people who would come, even if we would long survive. A rather large tree falling on our building! And I remember back in 2019, I was preparing for our Annual Meeting and planned a whole effort based on the number 2020 - seeing with 20/20 vision for the year 2020. Which I thought was clever. And to which the Lord said, Nope! And sent us a little virus instead which just blew all my plans out of the water! 

Ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Indeed.

And true for your lives as well. Many of you trying to care for aging and increasingly forgetful loved ones. Dealing with disease, job uncertainty, family strife, and more. And there are good things that come into our lives as well that send us off in different directions than the path we thought our lives would take. Someone once said that we make plans and God laughs. Better, maybe, to say that we make plans and God makes better plans . . . even if we don’t think they’re better in the moment.

So give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us. And again, indeed.

And this prayer was embodied in the folks we met in the Scriptures we heard today: (1.) Naomi and her family, (2.) ten lepers who lived on the border of Samaria and Galilee, and (3.) the apostle Paul, who wrote his words to Timothy that we heard today while bound with chains as a criminal.

First there was Naomi and her family, forced because of a famine to leave their home in Bethlehem to go live in the land of Moab for a time. Which was a bigger deal than we might at first think, because this was the land God gave you and your people, and for them specifically to Judah. It took so long to get there. The land was God’s special, promised gift, a sign of them being God’s people . . . and now they had to leave it. Or die. And it was ironic because they were from Bethlehem, a name which means “house of bread” - but there was no bread in their house. So they uproot and go to the land of Moab - who knows for how long or what will happen there. And while the Moabites were distant cousins of Israel, they were kind of the black sheep of the family, for they came from Lot, Abraham’s nephew, after an incestuous affair with his daughters.

Ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.

Oh, there were some good times there - Naomi’s two sons got married, but not to Israelite women. So that was a worry. Would they depart the faith for their wive’s gods, Moab’s gods? And there was sorrow, too. No children for either of her daughters after ten years of marriage, and then death - three deaths, three widows. When the famine finally breaks in Israel, Naomi finds out that even though she feared her sons might be led astray, the opposite has happened - Ruth has become a believer in Israel’s God. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 

Our reading for today ended there, but you might know the rest of the story . . . that the hand of God led Ruth to a husband in Israel, and Ruth became the ancestor of a rather important man in Israel, named David. Which also makes her an ancestor of the son promised to David, another rather important man, named Jesus.

Not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us.

That Jesus then shows up one day on the border of Samaria and Galilee - a kind of “no man’s land” where ten lepers were living. Well, if you can call it living. Really, waiting to die is more like it. Helpless, homeless, and hopeless - that was their famine, their lot in life. This was a venture, a path, a peril none of them had counted on or seen coming! Yet here they were. 

Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! Maybe they were hoping just for a little bread to fill their empty stomachs. But Jesus gives them far more - healing! And while I’m sure all ten were thankful - I mean, who wouldn’t be thankful for being cleansed from leprosy and rescued from this awful life they were forced to live! While all ten were cleansed, one gets an additional gift. Because he was there that day in that place and at that time, he got to see God in the flesh. The one who had come not just to save lepers from their disease, but all people from their sins. As a leper couldn’t go to the Temple, so the Temple had come to him! So he falls at Jesus’ feet - at the feet of the one whose hand had led him there to that place, at that time, in that way, and whose love supported him, cleansed him, and saved him. Not the way he thought, not the way he expected, not according to his plans. A gift not from a God who laughed at him, but who loved him. 

A God who also loved the apostle Paul, though He, perhaps, had a strange way of showing it. Persecutor turned missionary turned prisoner. It didn’t seem to make sense. I mean, why would God allow - or cause! - such a great missionary to be locked up? Which is his irony - the one who imprisoned others now imprisoned himself, bound with chains as a criminal. This was surely a venture, a path, a peril he didn’t see coming! But because of his chains, Roman soldiers were hearing the Gospel and believing. Even people in Caesar’s own household (Philippians 4:22). 

And the same could be said about the cross. And Jesus wasn’t just bound with chains as a criminal, He was executed as a criminal. Those feet that dared to walk into Samaria, those hands that touched and healed and comforted, that tongue that spoke truth and forgiveness and life . . . the one who is love killed in hate, the author and giver of life killed by those He gave life to, the one who came to save killed by those who thought they were saving themselves. 

That’s what happens when we take matters into our own hands. When God makes plans and we laugh at them, at Him, and do what we want. We think we know better, that our ways, our wants, our truth is better. Better than famine, better than leprosy, better than prison. Truth is, we don’t like ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. I want to know! And even more, I want to be in control. And because of that, maybe we get off track. Maybe we need some course correction. And find ourselves in Moab, or on the border between Samaria and Galilee, or some other place we hadn’t expected. Or maybe God put us there because someone else needs us there, and we get to be part of His plan.

So even though we want to know, and sometimes think we know, better to pray Give us faith . . .  and then to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us. Because those hands and that love that went to the cross for you then rose from the dead for you, and He is continuing His work for you. To feed you when famines come. To lead you when you must move. To heal you of your sins. To give you hope when you are locked in hopelessness and despair. To give you a home here in His Church. To make you a member of His family - not an ancestor of your Saviour like Ruth, but a descendant of Him by the new birth of Holy Baptism. Not that your life will be peaches and cream all the time - of course not! The sin in this world and the sin in us see to that. 

So like those ten lepers, we cry out Lord, have mercy! And now just as then, He does. We come to this House of Bread, and our Lord feeds us with the bread that is His Body and the wine that is His Blood. We come with our weakness and receive His strength. We come with our sins and He says I forgive you all your sins. We come beat up and beat down and He says, Me too. That’s why I led you here to this place, at this time. To be with you. That you be not helpless, homeless, or hopeless, but find you help, home, and hope in Me. 

So we prayed in the Collect of the Day for today: Almighty God, You show mercy to Your people in all their troubles. That’s what we heard in the Scriptures today, and in all the Scriptures, of a merciful God who shows mercy to a world in a world of trouble. That’s our confession of the truth and our faith. But then we went on to ask: Grant us always to recognize Your goodness, give thanks for Your compassion, and praise Your holy name. For we don’t always. We don’t always see the good God is working, but help me see it, Lord. We don’t always give thanks for what God is doing in my life, but help me do so, Lord. And we don’t always praise His holy name for what He is doing, but I need to. 

For then maybe I’ll take matters in my own hands a little less, as I take His Word into my ears a little more, and His forgiveness into my heart a little more, and His Body and Blood into my mouth a little more. That what goes into me be also what comes out of me. His life, His love, His Word, His forgiveness. That on this road of life, which leads from Judah to Moab to Samaria and Galilee to a Roman prison cell to Vienna and to who knows where next . . . not knowing where we go, but knowing that the gracious and merciful hand of the Lord is leading us and His love supporting us, as we live in Jesus and He in us. As He leads us - by grace through faith - through this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven (Small Catechism, Seventh Petition). And not alone, but with Ruth and David, Paul and Timothy, and a nameless leper. A rejoicing pilgrim throng (LSB #813), until we are with Him - our help and hope - forever, home at last.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“Forgiveness for Me AND for Thee”

Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 17:1-10; 2 Timothy 1:1-14

 

This is an encore presentation of a sermon from yesteryear because I like it and because I think it would be good for folks who were not in the congregation when I preached it the first time to hear.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Violence. Iniquity. Destruction. Strife and contention. Lawlessness increasing, justice perverted. The wicked are winning.

 

Is that a description of what we see today? What is happening in our country and world? Maybe so. But that’s what we heard today from the prophet Habakkuk. That’s what he saw. In his own country. Among his own people who should know better. So Habakkuk complained. He had a bone to pick with God. Why aren’t You doing anything, God? Why are You just letting this go on? Why aren’t You saving? Questions many - maybe you - are asking today, as well.

 

God answers Habakkuk, in verses that (unfortunately) were left out of the reading assigned for today. He didn’t have to answer, God doesn’t owe us any explanations, but He did. And God tells His prophet, It’s okay. I’m sending in the Babylonians.

 

Wait . . . you’re what? That’s the nuclear option! The Babylonians are evil to the core. They are merciless, cruel, and bordering on the inhuman in how they wage war and treat their foes. Lord, that’s not what I meant! Seriously? You’re not really going to use a nation even worse than Your people to discipline them, are You? I mean, they just need a rap on the knuckles, not be blown up!

 

But that’s exactly what God is going to do. It will surely come, He tells Habakkuk. It will not delay. The soul of my people is puffed up, it is not right. But do not fear. Trust. Believe. In Me. The righteous shall live by his faith. Faith that trusts and believes in God not only in the good times, but the times when nothing seems to make sense and everything seems to be falling apart. Such times are not the times to turn away from God and seek help elsewhere, but to turn toward Him and trust that He is working good, even if we cannot understand how.

 

And God did work good. It wasn’t easy, though. The sin and corruption of His people ran deep. So they spent seventy years in exile from their land, living in Babylon. But even that was merciful. They deserved far worse. Then God brought them back. Chastened. Humbled. They rebuilt. And at just the right time, back in their land, God dealt with their sin again, for from them was born the promised Messiah. The same God who used the Babylonians to save them from their wicked ways, now came Himself to save them - and not just them, but the world - from their sins. Then, too, using the wickedness of men - betrayal, hatred, perverted justice, and a cross. A cross which didn’t look good at all! And yet God used to work the greatest good, and exactly what we need.

 

But Old Testament times and Babylonian hordes are, you know, a little hard for us to relate to, even if Habakkuk’s description of their evil ways sounds eerily familiar to what we see today. So let’s bring it a bit closer to home . . . using the words of Jesus from the Holy Gospel we heard today, when He talked about . . . forgiveness.

 

Just like in Habakkuk’s day, there is sin in our world, no doubt. You know that. It seems to be getting worse every day. You sin. Others sin against you. And maybe like Habakkuk, you find yourself having a bone to pick with God about that. About why He lets it go on, why He isn’t doing anything about it, why the wicked seem to be winning. Why God? Do something God!

 

And maybe, like Habakkuk, you don’t like His answer. His two-fold answer, which basically boils down to this: I am doing something about it. I’m sending you in. Wait . . . what? That’s not what I meant!

 

So first, in the first part of His answer, Jesus says, yes, My child, there is sin in the world, I know it. And temptations to sin are sure to come. But don’t just look at others, and point the finger at others - don’t you be the source of them! For the one who causes My little ones, My believers, to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea. Which sounds a bit like the nuclear option God told Habakkuk about, sending in the Babylonians. For a millstone!? Don’t we just need a rap on the knuckles? Is our sin really that bad? It is.

 

Then second, and even more than that, when you are sinned against, when you are hurt, when others trample on you and take from you and cheat you, forgive them. Rebuke them, show them their sin, but not to shame them and hurt them back, but to lead them to forgiveness, which you will give. And not just once or twice. Over and over. Seven times in a day, if that’s what it takes. And even more. For seven is just a number. Jesus said seventy times seven in another place (Matthew 18:22). The point being: forgiveness doesn’t keep count. Just forgive them.

 

Now it was the disciples turn to say: wait . . . what? Let’s get this right. Don’t cause others to sin, and if we do, the millstone around our necks and all that. OK. Got it. But when others sin against us, they don’t get a millstone, we have to forgive them?? Do you know what you’re saying, Jesus? What you’re asking? We can’t be that! We can’t do that! You’re asking the impossible! If you want us to do that, increase our faith!

 

Maybe you feel that way. For forgiveness . . . that’s just not the way the world works. If you point out someone else’s sin against you, that’s just an invitation to get screamed at (or these days, shot at!) and be told to shut up, sit down, and mind your own business. And to forgive, that’s just an opportunity for others to continue to walk on you and take advantage of you. But if we, as Christians, won’t do those things, those who aren’t Christians won’t do those things, and the sin and wickedness in the world just continues to grow, with more necks being fitted for millstones. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy.

 

Maybe the disciples had Habakkuk in mind when they said to Jesus, Increase our faith! Since, as we heard, the righteous shall live by his faith. But faith is so hard. To trust, to believe, when it doesn’t seem to be working, when nothing seems to make sense, and everything seems to be falling apart. At such times, don’t turn away from God and look to take vengeance yourself, or harbor that grudge, or make them pay for what they did to you. Turn instead toward the Lord, who is working good, in the world, in the church, in you, even if you cannot understand how.

 

For He has given you the faith you need. For really what matters is not the size and strength of your faith, but the size and strength of the one your faith is in. If your faith is in yourself and what you are able to do, then no amount of faith will be enough. But if your faith is in Jesus, then even faith as small as a mustard seed is more than enough.

 

For there is nothing Jesus is not able to do. In fact, far greater than a flying mulberry tree, Jesus took all of your sin, and mine, and of His people from Habakkuk’s day, and all the sin of all this horrible, no good, very bad world and hung it around His own neck, a weight bigger than the biggest millstone, and He was cast into the sea of God’s wrath against it. Taking it all and atoning for it with His own blood and death. And it is atoned for - His resurrection showing that. That there is no longer any sin, any death, any condemnation that could hold Him in the depths of the grave. He won. Life won.

 

And that victory and life He now gives to you. For He’s the Master who came and served His servants. Quite the opposite of God using an even wickeder Babylon to discipline His wicked people - is God using His perfect Son to serve us with the forgiveness and life we need. We may think, like Habakkuk: Oh, they just needed a rap on the knuckles. But nope, God knew they needed even more. And today, maybe we think: Oh, we just need a little more faith, a little more grace, a spiritual boost. But nope, God knows we need a lot more than that! Much more. And so He gives even more. He gives us Himself. He comes and serves us. First on the cross, and now giving us the fruits of the cross in the Body and Blood of His Son. The Master serving the servants. It’s not the way the world works! But why would God do that? The world isn’t working very well! So He does better, and what we need. Forgiving us, feeding us, washing us, absolving us, mercying us.

 

And while that really doesn’t make much sense, and it’s hard to wrap our minds around a God who would do that, for people like us, thank God He does. So that you can forgive. You can help others stuck in their sin. That’s how God’s dealing with sin today. Sending His Son for you, and sending you for them.

 

Do not fear. No, it’s not easy. But the righteous live by faith. Faith not that I know everything and how this is going to turn out, but that Jesus knows. And faith that, as Paul later wrote to the Romans (1:17), that it is not the Law but the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation, for saving. Or in other words, you are never so weak as when you exercise your power and hold someone’s sins against them, and you are never so strong as when you exercise God’s power and forgive them, and let God and His Gospel do the rest.

 

Maybe that shocks you and doesn’t quite make sense. That’s okay. Habakkuk felt the same way! But it did work out, perfectly, according to God’s plan. It is not for us to know and understand everything; it is for us to trust and believe.

 

And when you do, and when you forgive, you may feel like you’re doing something heroic. It might seem that way. But, Jesus goes on to say, don’t expect a standing ovation from heaven! Rather, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ You see, we don’t earn or deserve anything by what we do, even something as hard as forgiving! It is, start to finish, all gift, all grace, from God to you. From the one who took the millstone with your name on it and hung it around His own neck. And instead, drowned you in the gracious water of baptism, to raise you with Himself to a new life. A forgiving life. A trusting life. The life you now get to live. A life of freedom, knowing the outcome isn’t up to you - God already has that worked out. And if He can use the Babylonians, He can use you and me, too, to accomplish His good and gracious ways.

 

For as Paul told Timothy and the congregations he was serving, God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed . . . The world isn’t going to like the Gospel you speak and live, it isn’t going to like God’s kind of love, it isn’t going to thank you for pointing out their sin. What’s new? But in Habakkuk’s day and in our day and all the days before, in between, and yet to come, our loving and merciful God and Saviour is working to save each and every soul. Through His cross. Through His forgiveness given by you. Not the way we’d do it! But it is not for us to know how and understand everything; it is for us to trust and believe. And the empty tomb the evidence you can. The righteous live by faith. For faith receives that new and resurrected life. And then lives that new and resurrected life. A life to live now. A life to live forever.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.