Always (Advent 3C, Gaudete Sunday 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments


Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Rev. Todd Peperkorn

Advent 3C (December 16, 2012)

Luke 7:18-25

Advent3c-2012

TITLE: “Always”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for today is from the Gospel just read from St. Luke chapter 7. We will also be looking at the words of St. Paul from Philippians chapter four.

Hear again the words of Paul in Philippians four:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4–7 ESV)

Always. Rejoice in the Lord, always. Really, Paul? Really? Always is such a big word. You are calling me to rejoice while I am in prison, waiting to have my head chopped off for speaking the truth to King Herod? Paul, I think you’ve lost it.

Always. Rejoice in the Lord, always. Really, Paul? Always is such a big word. You are calling me to rejoice when my child has just been killed in Newtown, Connecticut? Paul, I think you’ve lost it.

Always. Rejoice in the Lord, always. Really, Paul? Always is such a big word. You are calling me to rejoice with so much death all around us, so much heartache and fear. Fiscal cliffs and frightened children. There are more problems in this world now than there ever were. Paul, I think you’ve lost it.

You have to admit that Paul’s words sound a little delusional sometimes. I think this is why I like John the Baptist more than Paul. John asks Jesus the question, “Are you the coming one, or shall we look for another?” That’s John’s question. John sends the question to Jesus through his disciples. John, is currently stuck in prison, awaiting his execution because he spoke the truth to King Herod. Telling the truth to people in power is dangerous business, if the truth isn’t something they want to hear.

John, you remember, is Jesus’ cousin. He has gone into the wilderness to preach the Gospel. His whole life has been spent leading up to Jesus’ day. Jesus has been baptized, and has begun His ministry of proclaiming release and forgiveness to a lost and dying world. John was the one, when he saw our Lord, who pointed to Him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

At this stage in Jesus’ ministry, by all accounts, things are going well. Jesus has forgiven sins. He has cast out demons. He has healed the sick. He’s even raised the dead! All in all, things are looking up for our Lord.

But there’s one thing Jesus hasn’t done. He hasn’t released John from prison. There’s John, the forerunner. He is the greatest of those born among women. Surely he deserves to be at Jesus’ side, ruling alongside our Lord as He comes into His kingdom! But no. He’s stuck in prison, wondering if this whole Messiah thing is really that great of an idea.

I don’t think we can blame John a whole lot for this question, “Are You the coming one or should we look for another?” John, I think, might have asked that same question to St. Paul. Really, Paul?

Christianity is, perhaps as much as anything else, all about waiting. Faith is about anticipation. Faith is about looking to what we cannot see. Faith is about recognizing that things don’t make sense, that they may never make sense, but that God will carry us through to the end.

It is impossible to think about John waiting in prison to die this week without thinking of the parents of these poor children who were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut. What are those parents thinking right now, as they look to Christmas? One of the little girls killed in was a member of the local Missouri Synod congregation. They had just joined the church.

So if you put yourselves in the position of those parents, we have to admit that it is hard to recognize the good in the world. That’s John the Baptist right there. That is John saying to Jesus, “Lord, I know your promises. I’ve read my bible. I know all the words. But get on with it, for heavens sake! We’re dying here left and right. We’re broken. We need you.”

John is you and I, here. But truth be told, so is St. Paul. Remember that when Paul wrote those words from before, the “Rejoice in the Lord always”, remember that Paul was in prison in Rome at the time. He was waiting to see if his head would be chopped off just like John the Baptist’s was. So when Paul writes these words, He is not doing so as a Pollyanna. He is not just being the eternal optimist, always finding good even if there isn’t any to be found. No, what Paul is saying is NOT “be happy,” but “rejoice.”

Rejoice in the midst of hardships. Rejoice in the midst of trials. Rejoice even, yes, even in the midst of death itself. How can this be? How can there be true joy in the midst of such things? Perhaps Zephaniah can help us here, from our Old Testament reading,

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV)

Rejoicing, both here, for John the Baptist, for St. Paul, and for you and I, rejoicing doesn’t mean being happy. It means recognizing that what you see and experience now isn’t the whole story. Let me say that again, because it’s important. Rejoicing means recognizing that what you see and experience now isn’t the whole story. Only God has the whole story. What’s more, the story ends not with John’s head, or St. Paul’s, or the little ones who died in Bethlehem, or the little ones who died Newtown, or anywhere else. The story doesn’t end with death. Or sorrow. Or suffering. Or heartache and hardship. The story ends with resurrection.

Resurrection, you say? That’s an Easter word! We can’t talk about that during Advent. Well, we can and we will. Advent is about our Lord’s coming, after all. It is about His coming in lowliness as a little child. It is about His coming hidden under Word and Meal, Water and Forgiveness. And Advent is about His coming again in glory on the Last Day to raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. That means on the Last Day He will raise John the Baptist, with his head. And St. Paul. And the little ones of Bethlehem and of Newtown. And your loved ones and me. And it means He will raise me and you.. And on that day there will be no more sorrow, no more tears.

There will only be a joy completed, fulfilled by communion with Him forever. It is no accident that Saint Paul says we are to lay our requests before our Lord with Thanksgiving. That’s Eucharist, friends. That’s the Lord’s Supper. For wherever that Eucharist, that Great Thanksgiving is, there we have a glimpse of angels and archangels, sinners and saints redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Today we receive a foretaste of the great Rejoicing to coming.

But until that day of ultimate joy, dearly baptized, until that day we rejoice in the Lord always. We do this because He rejoices over you. He will quiet you with His love. We rejoice today because God holds all things in His hands. And beloved, that is a very good place for everything to be.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, to life everlasting. Amen.

 

Empty and Full (Advent 2C, 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Rev. Todd Peperkorn

Advent 2C (December 9, 2012)

Luke 3:1-20

For an audio version of this sermon,advent2c-2012

TITLE: “Empty and Full”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for today is from the Gospel just read from St. Luke chapter 3.

Somehow when I think of this time of year, it always reminds me of our sluggishness as a people. We pray “Stir up our hearts, O God…” in our collect this morning. And how many times during this season do we hear WAKE UP or PAY ATTENTION or things to this effect? Truth be told, we are weighed down this time of year. This season, for many at least, it can become a burden.

So what is it that we are burdened with, you may ask? We are burdened with stuff. Now, I don’t mean only things, the earthly possessions we cling to so much. That is the beginning. He says, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” (Luke 3:7–8 ESV) In other words, let the actions of your life, the words and deeds that make up every day, let these actions of your life reflect what is in your heart.

Now I don’t know about you, but I for one do not like people talking about the relationship between my heart and my wallet. Or the relationship between my heart and my mouth. I would like to live in this fantasyland where what I believe and what I do have nothing to do with each other.

But that is not reality, dearly baptized. The reality is that your heart, your soul, your mind and your body are all interconnected. There is only one you. So if what you DO is not in keeping with who you ARE, then eventually what you DO is going to change who you ARE.

I am speaking, with John the Baptist here, about what we call repentance. Repentance means to turn or to be turned away from one life and toward another. It means turning your back on this empty way of life that the world’s sirens would call us to.

This is why we get this little interchange in our text:

“And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”” (Luke 3:10–14 ESV)

It would be easy, even tempting, for John to say something like, “Well, Jesus is the reason for the season, here. Keep Jesus in your heart and everything else will work out.” That kind of John the Baptist wouldn’t wear camel’s hair. That John the Baptist wouldn’t lose his head for speaking the truth to King Herod about his adulterous life.

No, our John the Baptist, the John of the Bible, speaks and gets to the heart of the matter. What bogged these people down was, quite simply, their stuff. Their food and clothing, their money and their love of money. That is what weighed them down.

How do the things of this life weigh you down? Are you so defined by your things that you don’t have time to hear God’s Word? And remember, your things may mean your physical stuff, but it could also mean your time, your activities, the myriad of things your kids do or you make them do. There are so many ways that you and I can get weighed down with the cares of this life, it is hard to even know where to begin.

The same was true for them just as it is for us. Setting aside even a few minutes a day to pray can become an almost impossible task, even if we even want to do it in the first place.

Yet the things of this life, they can weigh you down. Even if in and of themselves they aren’t bad, maybe even good, all of this stuff put together, well, it can get you to the point where you are so worried and full of care and anxiety that it is impossible even to lift up your eyes. This is why Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 ESV)

You see, beloved, that is what Jesus offers you, which we all so desperately need. He offers you rest. The things we cling to seem so important at the time. They seem so central to our identity. Yet when the things of this time pass and fade away, the longing remains. It is that longing, that desire for something more, that is what Jesus seeks to fill.

So repent. Empty yourself of all your stuff. Lay it all at the cross of Jesus. Your doubts and fears, your greed and your possessions, lay it all down before Him. For Jesus comes to give you something far, far greater than any of these gifts that are here today and broken and gone tomorrow. He comes to give you an eternal rest. He comes to put your soul at peace in the forgiveness of sins.

It is when you are emptied of all this stuff that God’s proper work really begins in you. When all of these things are swept away as in a refiners fire, it is then that God enters in to give you the peace which only He Himself can give. Remember our words from the Epistle, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6–7 ESV)

Sometimes being in the refiner’s fire is, well, sometimes it is painful. Purifying hurts sometimes. The fuller’s soap may grate, but the cleansing which only God can bring about is worth it. Don’t be afraid of God’s gifts. These things which seem so important, they all pass away. And in their place, God puts a little Babe, Christ Jesus, our Lord. And that is far greater.

Another way of putting this would be to say that in order for the good stuff to go in, the bad stuff has to get out. God does this purging by teaching you and I to let go of the things we cling to so much. But like Lot’s wife, we are tempted to turn our backs toward and look back to Sodom. Salt can be pretty appealing. Sodom, I’m sure, had a very good side somewhere. But it was all a lie. Only the real thing from our Lord will suffice.

So today come and be cleansed of your sins. Lift up your hearts to the Lord, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He comes to you today, humble and lowly, riding under bread and wine. He comes to you to wash you, to purify you and to make you clean in the blood of the Lamb. Come to the Table of the Lord, be free of all things things which weigh you down. Jesus has come, and what He brings with Him is far greater than anything the world has to offer.

Let us pray:

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith to life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

Coming (Advent 1C, December 2, 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

1 donkey

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1), December 2, 2012

Luke 19:28-40

12-02-2012advent1.mp3

TITLE: “Coming”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the words from Zechariah, Behold, your King is coming to you.

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance…we begin our Advent season with that ancient prayer.  Stir up your power, O Lord.  You almost get a picture of someone rousing out of a deep sleep to come and save us.  Or maybe of God baking a great big batch of salvation.  God rises up and comes down to earth to save us.  As Paul wrote in Romans, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  Advent is a time when we look forward and prepare for our Lord’s coming to save us.

But what are we saved from?  We are saved from the threatening perils of our sins.  If you were to ask people today what are the dangers in the world, I think the perils of our sins would be pretty low on the list, wouldn’t it?  This time of year, the threatening perils would be the economy, the Middle East, the violence that seems to shape our world today.  Those are the dangers.  To this list we could perhaps add things for some like materialism, hunger and how to put food on the table.

But what do I need to be saved?  Why does God need to stir anything up?  Why did our Lord have to come down as a humble servant?  This Palm Sunday reading really draws attention to the fact that the way the Church celebrates Advent and Christmas is totally different from how the world celebrates the holidays.  Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly, with palm branches and cries of “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  But He enters on a donkey, the animal of peace, and He enters from the Mount of Olives, the sign of mercy, and He enters as a King who comes to die.  What kind of an entry is this?  What kind of a King comes into His Kingdom in such a humble and lowly fashion?  Only the true King of Israel.  Only your King.  Only Jesus.  And He came because of your sins.  Nothing more, nothing less.

But this is something that is lost on all of us.  For the world and those all around us, Advent is a time of hurried preparations and excitement.  Advent is a time for baking, a time for parties and a time for buying presents.  For many, too, Advent becomes a time of great stress.  The bills go up, you see friends and family more, which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good.  Oftentimes you see people you frankly don’t want to see.  It’s a time when we long for peace and tranquility, but it always seems just around the corner, always just out of our grasp.

To this our Lord says, “step back, and remember that my life is your life, and that what is important to me is what makes you who you are.”  In other words, Advent is about Jesus, about who He is, and about why He had to come to earth to save us.

Our Lord comes down to earth to save you from the threatening perils of your sins.  You are held fast in Satan’s chains.  He is the one who has control over you by nature.  Your sins cling to you with cords of death.  The trials and troubles of this life are just glimpses of that great battle which goes own for your soul every day.  But our Lord enters into this world as a humble King, lowly and sitting on a donkey.  And when He enters into this world, He enters into your life.  The crazy, topsy-turvy nature of your life then becomes His life.  For you.

Think back to our text for a moment.  Jesus enters into Jerusalem, the Holy City, on a donkey.  People wave Palm branches before Him, and since this was the Feast of Tabernacles for the Jews, they are all wearing white robes, which they lay down on the road before Him.  But Jesus is not a King that comes to destroy.  He doesn’t ride a horse, the animal of war.  He rides a donkey, an animal of peace.  For He brings a peace that cannot be bought, it cannot be negotiated or won in the usual way.  The Prince of Peace comes to bring peace by His own death.

For dear friends, peace always has a price.  It’s true in places like Iraq and around the world, and it is especially true when it comes to our everlasting peace with God.  Sometimes when we search for peace, we want a peace with no cost.  Dear friends, that isn’t peace, that’s appeasement.  That’s avoiding the conflict which has caused the war to begin.

This is why Jesus great and wonderful title as the Prince of Peace is so comforting.  He is the price for your peace with God.  He is the payment for your sins.  That is why we pray that God would stir up His power and come.  It is a wonderful and amazing thing, but when God stirs up and power to come down and save us from the threatening peril of our sins, He does it in a way that we cannot even dream of.  He comes to take your place.  He comes to make everything right which you because of your sin have ruined and messed up.

What a comfort that is to hurting sinners like you and I!  You don’t need to feel guilty for your failures and shortcomings.  The burdens which plague you and trouble you are now his.  He takes them off of your shoulders and puts them on himself.  And in their place He puts His own life.

This is why we can say with the crowds that day, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!  Hosanna means Lord save us!  God has promised to come and save us.  This Advent we remember the beginning of that great journey for heaven to earth and back again for you.  God stirs up his power, and in His work things are far better than they ever were before.  We pray:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

 The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting.  Amen.

A Feast to Remember (Trinity 27, 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

ArtBook 053 053 ParableOfTheTenVirgins

11-25-2012-Trinity27.mp3

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for today is the Gospel just read from St. Matthew, chapter twenty-five, the parable of the 10 virgins.

In all of the hubbub about the end of the world that comes this time of year, we often miss one really fundamental reality: the end of the world isn’t doom and gloom and fear and disaster for you and I: It’s a party. Time and time again in the Bible the end times are called a Feast, or a Wedding Feast, or a Banquet or something to that effect. Now I don’t know about you, but every wedding reception or wedding banquet I’ve ever attended, well, they aren’t exactly dull affairs, with everyone clinking their glasses dutifully every seven and a half minutes for a pious peck on the cheek. A wedding is above a celebration that God has joined two people’s lives together as one. It is a cause of celebration and joy!

In our parable for this morning, the parable of the ten virgins, we have two basic ways we can look at the end of the world, for that is what this parable is about. It is about the kingdom of heaven, and the coming of the Son of God. Now, we can look at the end as getting your things together to go get a shot at the doctor’s office, or as getting ready for a wedding.

If the end of the world is going to the divine doctor’s office for a little heaven shot, then you really only have one goal: to get in and out as quickly as possible. You don’t want to linger. You don’t want to chit-chat about the weather. You want to get on with it and be done with it. The sooner the better.

If we look at the end times in this way, it is no wonder we dread the end of the world! Who wants that kind of divine pain? The answer is nobody. Nobody wants that. If heaven, and I would like to add going to church, if heaven is simply the divine inoculation program against sin, well, then there isn’t really a lot of joy in that, is there? Get in, get it done, get out. In this view, the kingdom of heaven is a divine tetanus shot against whatever it is that ails you. Necessary, but painful.

The problem, you see, is that is exactly how Satan wants you to view heaven. If Satan can convince you that heaven is just a big bore where God’s going to tell you to stick out your tongue and “this won’t hurt a bit,” well, then heaven doesn’t sound so appealing. You may forget that divine appointment. You may convince yourself you don’t want to go at all.

But that view of the kingdom of heaven is a lie. It isn’t a shot in the kiester; it is a party.

Now to be fair, if you are preparing for a wedding, there is more than a little bit of work that goes into the planning. Men usually try to duck out of as much of this work as possible, but it is there nonetheless. Clothes, food, seating charts, flowers, drinks, table settings, music, what kind of fru-fru goes on the end of the pews. You name it. It’s all there. If you have ever planned a wedding, or paid for one, you know that there’s lots that goes into it.

This is the same in many respects for us and the Last Day. Be ready, have your oil trimmed, wear the wedding garments of faith, all of these things are in place. But at the end of the day, the point isn’t the preparations. It isn’t the color of bridesmaids dresses or what kind of herring is served at the reception or whatever. The point is the wedding. The point is new life, given by God and bound up together in Him by the blessing of His Word. Everything else, as important as they are, everything else flows from the reality that this is a wedding, and it’s going to be awesome.

But it is easy, oh so easy, to turn something as joyful and wondrous as a wedding into, well, work. It is easy to slough it off and pretend that all of the preparations can happen at the last second. Can you imagine a wedding where the groom forgot to ask the girl if she wanted to marry him? Can you imagine waiting until the organ starts playing to pick out a wedding dress? Or the rings? Or the music?

Yet that is exactly what we can do when it comes to the end times. Jesus says be ready, not because he wants you to wince and this won’t hurt at all, like that shot from the doctor. No, Jesus says be ready because it is going to be FANTASTIC and you don’t want to miss this for anything! This is when you get to see your uncle Vino who always brings the best vintage. These is when aunt Thelma Louise tells you the rest of the family story, you know, the fun stuff that makes you laugh so hard you cry. This is the feast where all the work, and hardship, and trials of this life fade away into nothing. This is the feast where all of your hunger is taken away, your thirst is slaked for good, and everybody, everybody, is welcomed at the Table.

Now, sadly enough, some won’t come. Some can’t believe that God would throw such a wedding feast and invite everyone to the party. Some can’t stand the thought of letting go of their old garments, the sins which we all have, some can’t stand the thought of losing those, and so they turn away from the banquet. Some see the shot in the kiester and not the new life of the party. But you can’t fill their lamps with faith for them. You can’t make them believe. If they don’t want what God has to give, at the end of the day that is between them and God, not you.

I think this is why the Lord’s Supper is such a mystery for so many. All of this is going on every time we come to the Altar and Feast with Him and on Him. Every time we come here, this is the cake tasting party for the wedding. Every time we gather in this house, it is in preparation for this incredible, wonderful Last Day when the party to end all parties will take place. In many ways, this is the beginning of the party. It is, as we pray after communion sometimes, the foretaste of the feast to come.

Frankly, all too often we get so stuck on the sin and muck of our lives that we forget to look up and see what’s coming. It’s hard to look up. I know. The suffering and trials of this day are very real, and may be painful indeed. Jesus, the bridegroom, He knows your fears and hardships. He will fix you up so that you are ready for the wedding. He’s not going to leave you behind, stuck at home and lost when heaven and earth come together for the Banquet that has no end. Don’t be afraid.

Today we celebrate the coming of the bridegroom, even Jesus Christ our Lord. We celebrate His coming by receiving Him in His meal, where He is both host and guest. And make no mistake about it. The end is coming. With it will come angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, and uncle Vino and Aunt Thelma Louise, all those crazy relatives you can’t believe you get to see again. In fact, they are here, now, in this foretaste of the party to come. And there will be others there, lots of others, more than anyone can number. You won’t know them right away, but you will love them all the same. They are part of the family, after all. As are each one of you.

So join the party! Rejoice and feast. The best is yet to come.

Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith to life everlasting. Amen.

 

Nadia after Eight

ToddPeperkorn2 Comments

Each year the day after Thanksgiving begins a period for me where a whole bunch of anniversaries begin. The first is the death of our unborn daughter, Nadia. After that comes the death of our unborn son, Emmanuel. Then it is the death of my mother. Finally is the time when I went on disability for clinical depression.

In many ways my grief is less raw than it once was. It is less primal and fear inducing. My grief now has taken on another character. That character is grief as guilt.

I remember when Nadia died eight years ago. No one knows what to do with a miscarriage. Is it a big deal or not? How do people react to such a thing? And because no one knows what to do, that generally means that most people do nothing. We had a lot of family staying with us when Nadia died, and sure enough, they really did nothing.

I remember being angry at them, so very angry. WE LOST A BABY! Why don’t you care?

Eight years later, I can see that my anger at them was really not directed so much at them as it was at God. They were simply an easier target. When someone dies, above all you want someone to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Fix it, somehow. The least you can do is die with them. But it doesn’t work that way. Someone dies, and everything else just lingers on. Eventually things return to normal, whatever that means. But that smoldering anger remains.

The fact is that God did do something about Nadia’s death. He sent His Son into another womb, helpless and in complete and utter need. And He lived that life of no consequence, just like everyone else’s life. You wouldn’t know Him by looking at Him. And so it is that He died. He died for all of the Nadias out there. He died for all the children born and unborn who are enslaved by this grip of death. He died for the grieving and lingering. He died for them and for me. And you.

I’m not angry at God anymore. Not about that, at least. Ok, not as much. But the grief remains. I cling to this grief, believing that by holding onto this grief (and anger) I can somehow maintain the rightness of my cause. Surely God will do something about this. Surely He will call her from the dead. Surely we will feast together at the Last Day. Surely God will dry our teachers. Surely…

Zion hears the watchmen singing,

And all her heart with joy is springing;

She wakes, she rises from her gloom.

For her Lord comes down all-glorious,

The strong in grace, in truth victorious;

Her star is ris’n, her light is come.

Now come, Thou Blessèd One,

Lord Jesus, God’s own Son,

Hail! Hosanna!

We enter all

The wedding hall

To eat the Supper at Thy call. (LSB 516:2)

Todd A. Peperkorn
November 23, 2012