The lutheransermons's Podcast

Preparing for Worship - August 28, 2022

The readings this week cover many topics, but we notice often a call for humility before God and with one another. In the very short Psalm, Psalm 131, David seeks to be humble before the Lord, not with a haughty heart and eyes. Though he is king, he does not focus on things “too great or marvelous for him,” but hopes in the Lord always, and calls us to do the same. A nursing child can be very fussy, but David seeks the Lord’s help to be like a “weaned child,” calmed and quieted” in his soul.

The Old Testament lesson is from Proverbs 25:2-10. Proverbs give us wise advice.  We are encouraged to be humble before a king or other “great” people and especially before God, who keeps many things “concealed” that we would never fully understand. We are better off, when there is trouble, first to deal with others, one-to-one, and care about them and not reveal their secrets in a public way, as Jesus also teaches in Matthew 18:15-18.

The Epistle lesson, Hebrews 13:1-17, also gives us much advice about living with “brotherly love” toward others, in the various situations we face in life, and with care for the needy, too. The Lord will be our “Helper” and “will not leave or forsake us.” We are to respect our spiritual leaders, and they are reminded to speak the Word of God to us and “strengthen us with God’s grace” and “watch over our souls.” Above all, we are to remember Jesus Christ, who is “the same, yesterday and today and forever,” and who suffered and died for us, that we might have our sins forgiven “through His own blood.” We “continually praise His Name,” as we await the eternal “city that is to come” in heaven.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 14:1-14, Jesus shows mercy to a man who is ill and heals him in his time of need, even though it is the Sabbath Day. The Pharisees want to condemn Him for breaking their legalistic rules about the Sabbath, but they remain silent, knowing that they do not always follow their own rules. Jesus also taught a parable about being humble and not always pushing for a place of honor. “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” God is the one who finally humbles and exalts, in His own wisdom. Jesus teaches about doing good also to those who “cannot repay you,” like the “poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” God calls all people to faith in Him and cares about all.

Study of Galatians Part 12 - Galatians 4:21-5:1

Last week, we heard of Paul’s very personal concern for the Galatian Christians. The Lord had opened their hearts to believe in the Good News of Jesus as Savior and to being so kind and helpful to Paul, even with the bodily ailment he had. Paul was very concerned, though, that people had quickly turned to “a different Gospel” (Galatians 1:6-7) which was enslaving them in trying to follow laws and regulations from which Christ Jesus had freed them and making them think they must follow these rules in order to have salvation (Galatians 4:8-20).

Paul went on to challenge the Galatians by asking them if they had really ever “listened to the law,” and if they really wanted to be slaves under that law (Galatians 4:21). Paul took the Galatians to what had been written in Genesis 16, 17:15-21, 18:9-15, and 21:1-21. (Remember that for the Jews, Moses was the great lawgiver and that his five books at the beginning of the Old Testament were the most important parts and the summary and essence of all the rest of the Jewish Scriptures, the Old Testament. So, Paul was taking an important part of what Moses had written, as inspired by God, and asking the Galatians to look at that.)

Turn to Genesis 16. We find out that Abraham and his wife, Sarah, as good and faithful to God as they were, were at times not so good and so faithful. God had clearly promised Abraham a son of his own in Genesis 12 and 15, but Abraham and Sarah became tired of waiting upon God. Sarah told Abraham to go to her Egyptian servant, Hagar, and have a child by her. Abraham did so, and a child, Ishmael, was born.

This was clearly against God’s plan of one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment of marriage. It was clearly also Abraham and Sarah taking things into their own hands instead of trusting God and His plans. Trouble then began right away when they sinned, as Hagar had contempt for Sarah for being barren, and Sarah treated her very harshly in return, and she tried to run away. There was trouble between Abraham and Sarah over all this too (Genesis 16:1-6).

The angel of the Lord sent Hagar back to Sarah and said that her son, Ishmael, would have many of his own descendants; but he would be “a wild donkey of a man,” and many conflicts would follow. Ishmael laughed in contempt of Isaac when he was born, too (Genesis 16:9-15, 21:9). (This trouble did happen, as the Arab nations trace themselves back to Ishmael; and Mohammed said in the Koran that Ishmael was the true child God had spoken of, and that Mohammed was his descendant and the true prophet of God. What conflict there has been, since, between Jews and Arabs, and between Islam and Christianity and others.)

This passage and others (see Genesis 12:10-20, for example) indicate that Abraham was not acceptable to God because he followed the will of God well enough. He failed miserably, at times. He could only be “counted righteous” by faith in God’s mercy and forgiveness and the ultimate Child of Promise, Jesus, and what He would come and do for him and for the world.

Remember how Paul had earlier quoted also from the Book of the Law, Deuteronomy 27:26, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” That would include Abraham (and you and me, too, as being under a curse, for we are all imperfect sinners). So Paul said, “now it is evident that no one is justified before God by keeping the law” (Galatians 3:10-11). Help could only come through Christ and what He did for us all.

Yet as we read on in Genesis 17:15-21, and Genesis 18:10-15, both Abraham and Sarah laughed when some years later God came again and promised that they would have a son, Isaac, born of the two of them, who would be the child promised, the child of the covenant. Abraham still wanted to bring up the birth of Ishmael: “Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’” But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him” (Genesis 17:18-19). Then, in Genesis 21:8-20, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away. God protected them and Ishmael married an Egyptian, but he was not the child of promise.

Go back now to Galatians 4:22-23. Paul summarizes these events in this way: “It is written (in the law of God) that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh” (by the human will and choice of Sarah and Abraham and Hagar) “while the son of the free woman was born through promise” ( by Abraham and Sarah, but through the promise and miracle of God).

Then we have a word that is used only here in the whole Bible: “Now this may be interpreted“ ‘allegorically’” (Galatians 4:24). This is a literal rendering of the actual Greek word. It is a combination of two Greek words: “allos,” which means “other,” and the word “agoreuo,” which means “to speak in a place of public assembly,” an “agora,” a marketplace. What Paul was saying is something “other” than what the literal words say, but with an application that “corresponds with,” is in line with them (Galatians 4:25) and does not change the literal meaning. 

The two women represent or typify two covenants. The slave woman, Hagar, represented the old covenant of Mount Sinai, which imposed the Law upon people and kept them enslaved to that law, “imprisoned” and “under a guardian,” as Paul had said earlier (Galatians 3:22-24, 4:24-25).

The city of Jerusalem at the time of Paul was wrapped up in that slavery to the many laws and rules of Judaism. The city was focused on human effort and activity, like the human effort that produced Ishmael. Paul knew and lived in that slavery himself, until he was set free by Christ.

In contrast, the child of Sarah, Isaac, came through the promises and working of God. This represents the “Jerusalem above,” the freedom of those who are children of God, not by their own efforts, but by the working of God Himself, who are “born according to the Spirit of God” (Galatians 4:23,26,28.29). It is the children of the free woman who will inherit the promises of God - those who live in the freedom and love of Christ the Savior. The children of the slave woman will lose out, because they are still living in slavery to themselves and their own attempts to earn God’s favor by their works (Galatians 4:30, 31, and 5:1).

Paul added two more thoughts. He quoted an Old Testament passage, Isaiah 54:1, which predicted the fall of Jerusalem in future days. God’s people would look like barren Sarah at that time, waiting for deliverance. As Sarah was finally blessed with a child, so God’s people would be blessed through the promises of God and be free people again, by God’s work and mercy. There would be times of persecution where the Jews of old Jerusalem and the law would persecute the free children of God, in Christ, “as it is now,” Paul added (Galatians 4:27-29). But Christ has set us free, and we will be free and hopeful people, in Him, as He helps us avoid the “yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

This is a long, hard presentation in just a few verses. We’ll have a few more comments next week and then move on to Galatians 5, where Paul emphasizes again how important what he is saying really is for us all.

Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost - August 21, 2022

Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Ezekiel 36:25-27

Colossians 2:6-9, 12-14, 16-19

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon originally delivered August 4, 2013

Preparing for Worship - August 21, 2022

The Psalm is Psalm 50, written by Asaph, a Levite working with music and song before the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. Asaph is inspired to speak of God the Lord summoning His people for judgment. There are “faithful ones.” But He will not accept the offerings of others, who think they are earning God’s favor by what they do for God. He does not need their animal sacrifices, as He is the owner of all things. Rather, He wishes that they “glorify Him” and offer “sacrifices of thanksgiving” in gratefulness for God’s “deliverance” of them in times of trouble, when they call upon Him” in faith.

The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 66:18-23. God predicts a time when “His glory will be declared among the nations,” and people will come in faith to Him from “all nations,” no matter their “languages.” This will be the greatest “offering” to Him, as they worship Him forever in “the new heavens and the new earth that He makes for them.” (See the fulfillment of prophecy like this in Revelation 21:1-8.)

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 13:22-30, someone asks Jesus, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Jesus simply says that the important thing is “to enter through the narrow door.” There are not many roads and doors that lead to heaven. In another place Jesus said, “I am the door of the sheep… I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved” (John 10:7,9). Jesus also said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Many people will lose out because they do not trust in Jesus and they wait too long to come to faith, until the door is already shut. Sadly, Jesus predicts that many of His fellow Jews will resist and reject Jesus as the Savior. On the other hand, many people from every direction, from all over the world, will come to faith in Jesus.

The Epistle lesson is from Hebrews 12:4-24 (25-29), written at a time when persecution of Christians was increasing and temptations to leave behind the faith were many. As a father needs to discipline his children at times, so the Lord needs to discipline us, “for our good,” and to help us, so that we can “lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees” and follow in the way of “the grace of God” in Christ. We are not motivated by fearful sights and sounds and Words of Law, as at Mount Sinai long ago. Rather, we are motivated by the hope of “the heavenly Jerusalem” through the saving work of “Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant,” and “the sprinkled blood” of Jesus, shed at the cross, that speaks of God’s love and forgiveness. We may be “shaken” by trials in this life, but we keep listening to our Lord and “are grateful for receiving an (eternal) kingdom that cannot be shaken” and “keep worshiping our Lord Jesus with reverence and awe.”

Study of Galatians Part 11 - Galatians 4:8-20

Last week, we heard Paul saying again that God’s Law has important functions, but that we can never be saved by trying to do what it says well enough. That is an impossible task, except for Jesus, who did it all perfectly in our place. Now, no matter who we are, we can be “Abraham’s (spiritual) offspring, heirs” of eternal life, and “sons,” children of God, “through God” and “by faith” in what he has done for us through the saving work of His Son, Jesus Christ. All this is ours, personally, “through faith” that God gives us, through His Word and promises and the gift of baptism (Galatians 3:23-4:7).

Beginning with Galatians 4:8, Paul reminded the Galatians of what they had been before they “came to know God.” They had been “enslaved” to false ideas and to what are “not gods,” though they thought they were gods. (Read, for example, Acts 14:6-18, where Paul had earlier gone to Lystra, in Galatia, and had preached the “Gospel” of Jesus and also healed a man “crippled from birth.” The people were so amazed that they thought Barnabas was the god, Zeus, and Paul was the god, Hermes, as “the chief speaker.” Even the “priest of Zeus” wanted to offer sacrifices to them, as gods. Paul had to try to convince them that he was an ordinary man, but was proclaiming the One True "living God who made all things.”)

In Galatians 4:9, Paul reminded the Galatians of how they “had come to know God” - or as Paul said, “rather, to be known by God.” (See how Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 8:2-3 and in 1 Corinthians 13:12.) He is emphasizing that the Galatians had come to true faith in Jesus; but that did not happen by their own work or effort. God Himself had known them and loved them and brought them to that faith in Him, by His grace.

Skip ahead to Galatians 4:12-15. Paul also reminded the Galatians of how open and kind and helpful they had been in accepting him and his good news in Christ, even though he had “a bodily ailment” when he was “preaching the Gospel to them at first.” We don’t know exactly what this bodily ailment was. Some think that Paul had malaria and needed time to recuperate in the better climate of Galatia and so came there to preach, even in his weakness.  Others think that Paul had eye problems and that is why Galatians 4:15 says that the people would have been willing, if it were possible and would help, to gouge their eyes out and give them to Paul to use. Still others point to Acts 14:15-23, where Paul was stoned and left for dead by crowds stirred up by Jewish enemies of Paul. It was surely a miracle that Paul could still get up and go on with his ministry in Galatia, though he must have looked very bruised and beaten. He was a living example of what he was preaching, “encouraging the people to continue in the faith” in Jesus, even though there might be “many tribulations” in their lives before “entering the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:20-22).

Whatever the situation, Paul writes to the Galatians in Galatians 4:14, “Though my condition was a trial for you, you did not scorn or despise me, but you received me as an angel of God,” as His messenger, almost as if Christ Jesus Himself was speaking to them. The people had “felt so blessed” to hear this Good News of salvation earned by Jesus and given to them by God’s grace through faith.

Because of all this, Paul was surprised and “perplexed” (Galatians 4:20) that the Galatians had so quickly listened to the false teachers who came by. These teachers were clever, as “they made much of” the Galatians and must have flattered them, but “for no good purpose” (Galatians 4:17). They were offering new ideas, but actually taking away the Galatians’ freedom and hope in Christ alone and enslaving them in another way, not a slavery to unreal Greek and Roman gods, but slavery to worldly Jewish rules and regulations which the Judaizers, the false teachers, said they must follow if they really wanted to be saved (Galatians 4:9).

Paul knew exactly what this meant, because he had been enslaved to these sorts of Jewish laws and rules himself, before he became a Christian. Circumcision was absolutely required for all males. The Sabbath Day, sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, had to be followed strictly, with no work allowed and many other limitations. Festivals like Passover and the Day of Atonement had to be followed. There were years like the year of Jubilee and on and on.

That is what Paul was referring to when he said, “You observe days and months and seasons and years” (Galatians 4:10). He said to the Galatians, “Brothers, I entreat you, became as I am” - free from all these rules and regulations as a necessary means for obtaining salvation (Galatians 4:12). Paul had Christ Jesus as His Savior, and that was enough.

Paul was afraid that he might have “labored over the Galatians in vain.” That is why he had to tell the Galatians “the truth” again and again in this letter, even if he seemed like an “enemy” of some.  (Galatians 4:11-14).. Christ Jesus’ completed work was enough for salvation. Paul wanted the Galatians to be sure about that key truth again. He knew that only God could bring faith and new life to people, so that they become “His little children.”

But Paul also wished that he could be an instrument by which “Christ might be formed" more strongly in the Galatians and in other people, too (Galatians 4:19). That would happen by God’s Word and promises, centered in Jesus, though, and not by Jewish rules and regulations.

Next week, we will hear of another example of the difference between Gospel promises and Jewish law; and we will think about what an “allegory” really is. The Lord’s continued blessings. 

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost - August 14, 2022

Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Genesis 18:20-33

Colossians 2:6-19

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon originally delivered July 28, 2013

Preparing for Worship - August 14, 2022

The Scriptures this week are challenging because they speak of the “fiery” challenges we may face at times in our lives because many are opposed to God and His will and will be a challenge to us, too

The Psalm is Psalm 119:81-88, at the very middle of this long psalm praising God and the blessings of His Word. The psalmist admits that he has “persecutors,” “insolent“ people who are against God and His Word and Law and therefore oppose him, too, with “falsehood.” The psalmist feels as worn and shriveled as a “wineskin in the smoke” above a hot fire. Yet he “hopes in God’s Word” and prays that he may faithfully “keep the testimonies of the mouth of the Lord.

The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 23:16-29. The Lord sees many so-called prophets around Jeremiah, “who speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.” They create many problems and much confusion for people with their lies. The Lord commands Jeremiah to keep speaking the truth. “Let him who has my Word speak my Word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? Is not my Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” That powerful Word of God needs to be shared, even in the midst of opposition.

Jesus is “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 8:9, John 14:27). Yet in our Gospel lesson, Luke 12:49-53 (54-56), Jesus says that He has come to bring “fire” and “division” on the earth. He does not wish that, but knows that many will oppose Him and His believers and that a “baptism” of “distress” and suffering is coming for Him, as He dies on the cross to pay the penalty for all sins. Sadly, people can predict the weather from signs in the earth and sky, but too many cannot see and believe that Jesus is the Promised Savior, coming to rescue people.

The Epistle lesson continues a reading from last week from Hebrews - Hebrews 11:17-31 (32-40) 12:1-3. We hear of more people who lived “by faith” in God’s promises, from Abraham and his descendants to Moses to David and the prophets, and so many more. “Some were tortured. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.” They kept the faith and will have life, yet did not see the ultimate fulfillment in “Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith.” We can “run with endurance the race set before us,” too, with our eyes on Jesus, who “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

The alternate Gospel reading for St. James, Revelation 21:1-8, reminds believers in Christ that they, and we, too, will enjoy eternal life with Him. Though there will be sorrows and trials in this life, in heaven there will “not be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” and those opposed to God will be in “the lake of fire” and will not trouble the children of God any longer.

Study of Galatians Part 10 - Galatians 3:23-4:7

Last week, we heard Paul teaching again that our only hope for life, now and forever, is in the promises of God in Jesus Christ, brought by faith to those who believe in Him. The Law is important, but in showing us that everything, including us, is imprisoned under sin because of our inherited “original sin” and our own failure to keep all of that Law as we should. There is no Life in the Law - only a recognition of our sinfulness and our need for a Savior (Galatians 3:21-22).

Paul used similar terms for what the Law does in Galatians 3:23-24. He said that people were confined, held “captive,” “imprisoned” under the law, until the “coming faith would be revealed” in Christ. He said that the Law was like our “guardian until Christ came” and we could be “justified,” counted righteous, simply “by faith” in Him and what He did for us.

Twice Paul used a term that means “a leader of a child.” We get our English word, “pedagogue,” a teacher,  from this Greek word. In the ancient Greco-Roman world, though, the word meant something more like a “guardian” for a child, until he comes of age, with more adult responsibilities. See Paul’s comments a little later, in Galatians 4:1-2, about a child who is an “heir,” but is under guardianship and is little different from a “slave” until “the date set by his father” to receive his privileges as a son. A Greek dictionary defines such a “guardian,” as “usually a slave, whose duty it was to conduct the boy or youth to and from school and to superintend his conduct” - to try to keep him out of trouble and care about his physical well-being and give him a sense of right and wrong, for his own good.

The Law serves such purposes for us, too, as a sort of guardian for us. Our Lutheran catechism for children (and all of us) says that the Law of God primarily serves as a “mirror,” showing us our sins and our need for Christ. But it also serves as a “curb,” with warnings and judgments for us if we “jump the curb” and, in doing so, hurt or harm ourselves and others, by going where we don’t belong and doing what we shouldn’t do. The Law also serves as “a ruler,” showing us “the straight and narrow way” that is best for us and others and will do good - and reminding us that we sin even by neglecting to do the good that we should do.

Do you think that children of old always did what their “guardians” wanted them to do? Do you think the guardians themselves were perfect and always led in the right way? If you look in the mirror of God’s Law and compare it with the way our world looks or the way our own country looks or the way we ourselves look these days, how are we doing? All of us fall very far short of God’s expectations. The Law is about what we are to do, and we are not doing so well. The Law of God does not give us hope and comfort. When we really listen to it, we are also forced to say, with the tax collector in Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

That is why Paul, in Galatians 3:25-26, then takes us back to the Gospel, the Good News of what God has done for us and continues to do. There is our hope. Paul writes, to the Galatians and to us, “Now that faith has come,” that faith brought to us by Christ Jesus, “we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, we “are all sons of God,” children of God, “by faith.” While we were still enslaved in sin, following the sinful “principals of this world,” and not keeping the Law as we should, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” of God, children of God (Galatians 4:3-5).

It was by the coming of Christ Jesus and His perfect life, keeping all the Law in our place, and His death on the cross in payment for our sins, in our place, and His resurrection from the dead for us, that we “are no longer a slave, but a son, a child of God, and if a son, also an heir” of all that God promised (Galatians 4:7). Paul also added that this was all “through God” and all His grace and mercy for us (Galatians 4:7).

And how did we personally receive all these promises earned for us by Christ Jesus? Paul writes in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” God the Holy Spirit has also been at work, through the Word of God and that Word connected with water in baptism to bring us the gift of faith in the one true Triune God. We have Christ in us, and the Holy Spirit, too (see Galatians 4:6), and we are enabled to cry out in faith, “Abba, Father” - trusting our “Father, dear Father” as His dear children.

These are promises for all of us, as we are brought to faith and baptism. For our salvation, it does not matter if we are “Jew or Greek” or any other nationality. It does not matter if we are “slave or free.” It does not matter if we are “male or female”. We are “all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). And, Paul adds, “If we are Christ’s, then we are offspring (descendants by faith)) of Abraham, heirs according to promise, counted righteous in God’s eyes, simply by faith in our Savior, Jesus (Galatians 3:29).

Notice again that there is not a word in all that Paul has written about our good works somehow contributing to our salvation. It is not faith plus works, but faith alone that saves, as the gift of God’s grace. Paul wants the Galatians and us to know that as clearly as possible, and so he keep repeating the Gospel hope we have in Jesus.

The Lord’s continued blessings to you all, as you live confidently by faith in Him.

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost - August 7, 2022

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:

Genesis 18:1-14 

Colossians 1:21-29

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon originally delivered July 21, 2013

Preparing for Worship - August 7, 2022

The Scripture readings for this week encourage us to live by faith and trust in our Lord’s promises and His love for us and what he has done for us in Christ.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 15:1-6, where God renewed His promise to Abraham to give him many offspring, many descendants, even though he and his wife were still childless. It was difficult for Abraham, but the Lord strengthened his faith, and we hear, “He believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” He was counted righteous, not by his own good works, but by faith in God’s promises and work for him, including the eventual coming of the Savior, Jesus.

The Epistle lesson is part of the “By Faith” Chapter in Hebrews 11:1-16. We have a long list of people in the Scriptures who lived "by faith” in God and the power of His Word and promises, from the Creation onward, including Abraham. Faith is defined as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We have the great privilege of knowing from Scripture about Jesus and His saving work already done for us, unlike those who lived beforehand and “greeted these promises from afar”
(Hebrews 11:13).

Jesus speaks to us all in the Gospel lesson, Luke 12:22-34 (35-40), encouraging us to trust in our Heavenly Father and in Him, even about the everyday challenges we face. Jesus reminds us that worry and anxiety won’t accomplish anything. God knows what we need, and if we “seek His kingdom,” He will take care of the rest, as He knows best. Above all, He has already given us the promise of His Kingdom through Christ and by His grace, His “good pleasure.” He promises that He will return for us, one unknown day, and we need only to be ready and waiting for Him, “by faith.”

The Psalm is Psalm 33:12-22 and the Psalmist speaks about concerns we all have, about leaders and nations and sometimes their misplaced trust in themselves and their power and their wisdom, instead of trusting the Lord. The Psalmist assures us that Lord is watching, though it may not look like it, and as “we wait for the Lord” and “hope in Him,” His “steadfast love will be upon us.”

The alternate Gospel lesson used at St. James is John 20:11-18, as we hear that Jesus conquered death with His mighty resurrection, and showed Himself alive to Mary near the tomb. If Jesus could rise from the dead, He surely could take care of everything else He promised. With joy, Mary then went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” We can tell of the hope we have in Christ, too.