Lent 2c General Prayer

Gracious heavenly Father, remember this Your congregation which You have purchased with the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ to be Your heritage and hear our prayers:

Grant us a renewed zeal for Your house, that we would love to hear Your Word and receive Your sacramental gifts.  Especially do we pray for our brothers and sisters who have wandered away from this place, that You would once again gather them to Yourself.

Help us to take seriously the warnings that we hear from the Law so that we would mend our ways and our deeds and obey Your voice.  Let this Lenten season be a time of spiritual renewal for Your people throughout the church.

Continue to raise up faithful men like Jeremiah who will speak Your Word without compromise.  Bless the schools of the church and all of those preparing to shepherd Your flock.

Forgive our nation and our fellow citizens for shedding the innocent blood of the unborn.  Grant our nation time to repent of this grievous sin before Your judgment falls.

Empower us by Your Holy Spirit so that we would faithfully follow the holy example of the saints who have come before us and in this way be an example for the saints who come after us.  Remind us that we can daily return to our baptism where You called us to walk in newness of life.  Especially do we give You thanks for the baptismal gifts granted to Dolori, Chad, and Hope.

Remind us again and again that our citizenship is heaven and there is coming a day when our bodies will be raised from the dead and will be transformed into the likeness of Christ’s resurrected body.  Especially do we pray that this promise would give hope to the Rabalais family as they mourn Colleen’s passing and the Graf family as they mourn Rosalie.

Grant that the leaders of this world would serve to help rather than hinder Your mission.  Guide and bless our own leaders and protect our military men and women.  Help all of those who are persecuted for their faith to courageously stand firm in the Lord.

Give the church and especially this congregation the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ and his love for the lost.  Make us long to see our friends and neighbors in this community come to Christ in faith.  Continue to add to our number those who are being saved and especially do we pray for Rhett, that You would bring him safely to the waters of Holy Baptism.

Whatever else You see that we need, whatever is good for our neighbor and brings glory to You, grant to us dear Father in heaven for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ in whose name we pray.  Amen.

Matthew 26:41 A Funeral Sermon For Colleen

The text that I have chosen for our meditation on God’s Word is Matthew 26:41, Colleen’s confirmation verse:  “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially you, Colleen’s family:  I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

As most of you no doubt realize the church has entered into the season of Lent—that time in the church calendar when our focus is especially upon the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.

It is traditional within our Lutheran Church that we observe this time of the year with special services where we once again hear some part of the passion history and meditate upon those last few days of our Lord’s life before he went to the cross for us.

And over the last several Wednesdays in our Lenten services we have been with our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

We have seen the weakness of the disciples who, even in that moment of great need, could not stay awake long enough to comfort the Lord.  We have witnessed our Lord praying with such fervor that the sweat fell from his brow like great drops of blood. 

We have heard our Lord beg his heavenly Father to let the cup of wrath pass from his lips-- but also his willingness to go to the cross and die.  And we have heard the words that Jesus speaks to his disciples:  “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

These words were spoken by our Lord to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane that first Maundy Thursday.  But they were also spoken to every disciple who would ever follow him as Lord and Savior for they capture the struggles of the child of God:  the brokenness of our human condition—the new person that we are through faith in Jesus—and the necessity of spiritual struggle and reliance on God to get us safely to our heavenly home.

I have no doubt that all of this was in the mind of Pastor Edwin Wolf in the spring of 1944 as he chose confirmation verses for his confirmands. 

Lutheran pastors take this seriously and they give it a lot of thought and prayer.  And so on April 2, 1944—Palm Sunday—little Colleen, just 14, knelt at the altar of St. John Lutheran Church in Corpus Christi, Texas and felt Pr. Wolf’s hands upon her head as he prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon her and she heard these words applied to our her own life:  “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

These words were true of her life from that day forward as they are true for all of Christ’s disciples.

When Colleen was born on the 23^rd of July 1930 she was a healthy little baby girl—but spiritually, she was broken just like the rest of mankind since Adam and alienated by nature from God. 

The Bible says that all people by nature are dead in sins and trespasses and that because we are children of Adam we are subject to death.  Jesus said that flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit must give birth to Spirit.

Colleen’s faithful Christian parents believed God’s word concerning their little girl and so they brought her to the waters of Holy Baptism to receive the new birth that comes by water and Spirit. 

On January 18, 1931 Pr. Deffner baptized Colleen in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas.  From that moment when she became God’s child and by God’s grace she had that willing spirit which desired to follow the Lord.  But of course she also had that weak flesh that is also a characteristic of even those who believe in Jesus. 

Paul talked about that in his own life:  that the good he wanted to do, he didn’t do and the bad things he didn’t want to do—that’s what he ended up doing. 

That was true of Paul and it is true of us and it was true of Colleen and so her life in the church was spent like ours is:  confessing her sins and hearing God’s forgiveness. 

So it was last Saturday when I visited her in the hospital.  One last time she confessed that she was a sinner.  One last time she heard that by the death and resurrection of Jesus she was forgiven and God’s child.  One last time she received Christ’s true body and blood in Holy Communion to personally assure her that she was a child of God and could look forward to eternal life in heaven. 

Less than a day later she entered into eternal life where she rests in God’s presence, basking in his glory and light, and waiting for that great resurrection reunion that is still to come for all of those who have trusted in Jesus.

Her birth and baptism and confirmation and entrance into eternal life were those spiritual milestones that marked her journey to heaven.  But there was a lot of life that was lived in between those markers. 

Jesus knew that would be true for his disciples that night in Gethsemane and he knew it would be true for us too and so he spoke those words:  watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Watching and praying.  Can there be any better summary of the life that a child of God is called to live—particularly when that person is a Christian wife and mother and homemaker?

On June 8, 1948 Colleen was given the greatest earthlygift that God bestows upon his children:  the gift of a spouse to share her life with.  She and Sam had a long and happy marriage and just enjoyed one another’s company whether it was playing softball when they were younger or fishing later in life. 

God also blessed them with children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren—a legacy of love that was a testament to their love for one another and God’s love for them. 

When I met with the children after Colleen passed away they said about their life together as a family that they could not have had a better childhood or better parents.  What a testimony to a mother’s love!

Colleen cared for her family in all of the ways that were common in her generation but oh so rare in ours. 

She was an excellent cook and baker.  She managed the household budget and stretched a dollar so that, despite a modest salary, her kids said they never did without.  She also made their clothes—the Easter dresses and bonnets that I can remember girls wearing when I was a child—even up to prom dresses and wedding gowns. 

She and Sam made sure that they passed on these skills to their children—Colleen teaching them all how to cook and clean and care for a home and Sam teaching them home repairs and how to care for the yard.

Hers was a married life and family life that I suppose many would consider ordinary but we know to be extraordinary because it was marked by care and concern for those God entrusted to her.

And her concern for her children did not only extend to their physical well-being but to their spiritual well-being, seeing to it that they too were brought to the waters of Holy Baptism and taught the Christian faith and confirmed in the church. 

Watching and praying marked her life as a wife and a mother and how richly God answered her prayers is attested to in the people seated her in front of me—the members of her family—the legacy of her love.

The words that our Lord spoke to his disciples that dark night in Gethsemane were words spoken to all his disciples—Colleen included, but us too:   “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”   

These are words that our Lord would have us hear with fresh ears today.  All of us know the temptations that come during this earthly life—the temptation to put material goals over spiritual goals—the temptation to live life as if this world was all that matters and will go one forever—the temptation to neglect the one thing needful and that is our faith in Jesus.

We know today, in a fresh, painful way—that this earthly life does not continue forever—that there is coming for each of us a last year and month and day and hour—and then eternity.  Colleen knew this about herself and acknowledging her sins, and hearing God’s forgiveness and confessing her faith in God and receiving Christ’s true body and blood she was strengthened in her faith and ready to face eternity. 

Can we say the same thing about ourselves?  Nothing has changed much in the last two thousand years when it comes to human nature:  the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak.  God has graciously brought us to this place so that Colleen’s prayers for her family and friends and family members might be answered:  that we would be renewed in our faith in Jesus Christ and so be ready to be reunited with her in heaven.  God grant it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Rev. Franke's Theme Thoughts

The Third Sunday in Lent, Series C                                                                                                                   March 7, 2010

Lessons for Third Sunday in Lent (Lutheran Service Book)

Ezekiel 33:7-20 –  Ezekiel was sent to warn the house of Israel and call them to return to God’s love.

Psalm 85 (antiphon: v. 8)

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 – The example of Israel’s sin and suffering serves as a warning to us.

        Luke 13:1-9 – Suffering around us should draw us to God’s protecting care and redeeming love.

GATHERING THE TEXTS: Open Your Eyes in Suffering!

God sent Ezekiel to proclaim to the people of Israel that their sufferings did not indicate God’s rejection, but rather His call for them to return to Him.   God’s ways are not in question, but the wayward ways of sinners.  St. Paul reminds his readers that many Israelites forsook God and perished; their sufferings serve as warnings for us.  Jesus explained that when suffering is seen in the light of God’s love, it is an invitation for the sufferer to seek comfort and courage in God’s steadfast mercy.  Suffering opens our eyes to the presence of God in our lives.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERVICE: Gracious God, help me remember that suffering in my life is not a sign of Your displeasure but a loving call to repentance.  Help me see the suffering in Jesus’ life as a sign of Your love that He would share my life and my sin.  Help me be a servant to others to ease their burdens of suffering and to call them to Your love.  Amen.

STEWARDSHIP THOUGHT: God provides us with material blessings to sustain us in life and to ease the sufferings of those who travel beside us through life.  We are His hands to reach out to the hurting and sorrowful.

OFFERING PRAYER:     Lord, in our sorrows You are near

                                                        And when we’re lost You hold us dear.

                                                Give each of us strong hearts to care

                                                        For those who suffer anywhere.

CONVICTION AND COMFORT: When we suffer affliction, we think God is not fair.  Why should we undergo such trials when others seem to have comfortable lives?  Such an attitude is a reversal of the relationship of Creator to creation.  In other words, it is idolatry.  We make ourselves the judge of God’s ways.  When we understand our place before God correctly, we see God’s hand as he sustains us in suffering.  That is how God comes to us in the death of Jesus Christ.  Through Jesus’ suffering, God reaches out to claim us and cleanse us.  When we suffer in Christ, we are drawn closer to God’s love.

Jesus' Victory Over the Devil's Temptation

From the moment we became God's children, the devil has tried to steal us away from God.  It has been that way for believers throughout salvation history.  Adam and Eve faced temptation and failed.  The Israelites faced temptation and failed.  The great heroes of the Bible faced temptation and failed.  And so it went right up until the moment that Jesus entered into the field of battle.

            Jesus was not defeated by temptation.  He is the new Adam who got it right.  He is faithful Israel who was obedient to the Lord in every way.  He is the faithful Son God wants all of us to be.

Jesus’ obedience is the best possible news for us because his victory against the devil is counted as our own-- and he provides the model we need to remain faithful in temptation, taking our stand on the Word of God.  The Bible says that:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.

            When are tempted it is not because you are a bad person or because you are weak.  You are being tempted because you are a child of God.  It is BECAUSE you are a Christian that you regret it when you fail.  Being tempted doesn’t mean that you have lost your faith.  Struggling against it means you are still a believer.

            There is a spiritual battle that rages against us and in us and each of us must fight against temptation.  Since the day Satan and his angels rebelled against God, a battle has raged on and they have done everything in their power to wreck the fellowship that were created to have with God--and that certainly included tempting Jesus who was not only a human being like we are--but also the heaven-sent Savior of us all.

Right before his temptation, Jesus had been baptized--the Spirit had descended on him--the Father had announced his pleasure in him, identifying him as his Son--and yet immediately Jesus faced temptation from Satan. Jesus did not seek this out--he wasn't looking for a fight--it came because he was filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit. 

In the same way, we should not intentionally put ourselves in harms way spiritually.  If we have problems with alcohol we should stay away from places where it's served.  We should be circumspect in how we interact with the opposite sex.  And so on.  But even when we do all that we can to avoid it, temptation will still come to us because Satan is a destroyer and we are his goal.  The Bible says that:

Jesus ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

            If you remember the stories of Israel wandering in the wilderness for those forty years before entering the Promised Land, you know how they struggled with trusting God to meet their physical needs--how they grumbled and complained about their food. 

            Being hungry is no more a sin than being thirsty is a sin or desiring companionship is a sin.  God made us creatures with physical appetites.  But because of sin those appetites have become distorted and the devil tempts us to meet them sinfully.

Adam and Eve ate the one thing they were forbidden to eat in a whole world of food.  Noah served God faithfully and kept mankind from complete annihilation in the flood by building the ark but got drunk to celebrate.  David sinned sexually with Bathsheba.  That sorry list goes on and on and includes us.

            And so when Jesus goes hungry in the desert there was no sin in that--there would be no sin in turning a stone into bread (and certainly within his divine power) but what Jesus would not do was take his cue from Satan on how to meet a legitimate bodily need. 

            Jesus is the faithful Adam who says "no" to Satan.  He is the faithful Israel who is satisfied with his Father's provision no matter what it is.  He is the faithful Son God wants us to be, who find their sufficiency in God himself and trust his Word.    

            Jesus' faithfulness is our salvation and his method of remaining steadfast is something that every child of God can make use of.  In fact, the Bible says that we are to take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  Now this doesn't mean that we simply quote some verse of the bible when we are tempted—though there is sure nothing wrong with that!  What it does mean is that who we are and what we desire and the direction and purpose of our lives is to be drawn from the Word of God. 

            The devil and the world want us to believe that we are nothing but animals at the mercy of our appetites.  But we are much more than that!  We are God's children and we find our life in his Word that has called us forth from death to life through the Good News of his death on the cross--The very thing which the devil would have wrecked in the next temptation.  The Bible says that:

The devil took Jesus up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

            The really sinister thing about Satan's temptations is that truth and lies are always twisted together.  When the devil tempted Adam and Eve he promised them that they would be like God—knowing good and evil.  And sure enough they did know good and evil-- but what they discovered is that they were evil and God was good and they weren't like God at all and would die. 

That's the way it always is with temptation--Satan shows us the pleasure but hides the danger--the glass of wine with a meal that becomes an early death and a ruined family--the innocent friendship at work that becomes a destroyed marriage—and so on.

            That is how Satan tempted Jesus.  He showed him that which was rightfully his:  kingdoms and glory and power and honor and all Jesus had to do was render one act of worship to Satan.  Who would ever know?  They were all alone.  Why go through the rejection and suffering when what is rightfully yours, can be yours, right now?  Why die?

              This temptation cut to the very heart of Jesus' mission.  He had come for this purpose:  to offer up his own life upon the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world--to do what we have failed to do in giving our all to God.

But Jesus did not fail.  He did not abandon the way of the cross.  He set his face towards Jerusalem and never looked back.  After his death and resurrection he ascended to the Father and the ceaseless worship of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven sing his unending praises and on the last day every knee will bow before him BECAUSEthe way of glory went through the cross.

            So it must be for us.  We are constantly tempted to take short-cuts in our spiritual life--to get joy and peace and hope apart from hard work of taking up our cross and following Jesus.   

The day will come when the hardships of this life will be no more--but that journey goes through the cross--not around it--and so we take our stand on the promises of the Word of God while recognizing that even there, that Satan is at work.  The Bible says that:

The devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”  And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

            How often do we say to ourselves:  “Well, if God really loved me…then this or that would take place”.  But who we are in God’s sight and what his attitude is towards us is certain!  It is Satan who tempts us to seek assurance in some external sign.

With Jesus, Satan used the Word of God itself—inviting him to put God’s promise to the test and cast himself down from the pinnacle of them temple with the promise that the angels would catch him as a sign to himself (and a testimony to everyone looking on) that he really was God’s Son.

But Jesus had already heard God’s Word concerning his identity at his baptism and that was sufficient.  The same is true for us.  When you were baptized God said:  you are my child.  You can be certain that promise is true and unchanging until the day that God calls you to your eternal rest.  Luke writes that:

When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.

            The devil never gave up on Jesus—the devil was right there beside him trying to undermine his mission and destroy his purpose.  But Jesus was faithful each step of the way—going to the cross—laying down his life—rising again and descending to hell to announce—not only his own victory—but ours as well.

  The devil will never give up on us—but the Good News is that Jesus’ faithfulness in temptation is God’s promise to us of our own victory over Satan as we put our faith in Jesus and take our stand in his Word.  Amen.