The Lord's Crushing Promise - For You

Text: Genesis 3:1-15

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

In the Garden of Eden, things were great.  No shame. No guilt. No toil. No blame. And no fear. Things were perfect.  Yes, there were no deficiencies but only uninterrupted thanksgiving to God.  Everywhere Adam and Eve turned, they were being given gifts from God.  They received warm sunlight, rain, food, drink, and were completely safe with peace of mind and body.  Indeed, they had the approval of God and were happy.  Adam and Eve experienced harmony with the land and complimented each other perfectly.  This is how it was in the beginning. 

However, as we know, this is not how it is for us today.  You see, something happened that ruined this perfection.  Something happened that turned the world upside down. Something happened that destroyed goodness that existed at the beginning. 

As we read tonight from Genesis chapter 3, we heard the sad story of how everything was ruined.  We heard the story of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God.  We heard how they ate the forbidden fruit – how they rebelled against God and how this rebellion disrupted their happy relationship with God, each other, and nature itself.  We heard how things became totally corrupted and infected with sin.  We heard how everything became unraveled into the enormous mess that we have before us today. 

Now, it has been said before that Genesis chapter 3 is the most tragic chapter in all of the Bible, which I think we can agree.  Reading Genesis chapter 3 is no cake walk.  However, we must be careful not to read over Genesis 3 too quickly and then toss it off to the side, as if it is too depressing.  In other words, in spite of the melancholy flavor, Genesis chapter 3 actually shows us why all the other chapters and books of the Bible follow.  Yes, without Genesis chapter 3, the whole Bible will not make sense.  And if the Bible will not make sense, then our Christian faith will be confused at best. 

You see, buried in the midst of this sad story of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, is a shiny gold nugget – a promise to be precise.  And it is because of this remarkable promise made long ago that we celebrate the coming of Christmas here at Zion.  And what is that promise that is buried in the catastrophe of Genesis 3?  In Genesis 3:15 we read,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 

Did you hear the promise?

Dear friends, in the midst of humanities first and most horrific tragedy - in the midst of God cursing Satan - in the midst of God cursing man and woman and all of the earth itself – in the midst of all of this disaster and sin and sadess, God gives the Good News of the Gospel in the form of a Promise.  That is to say; He promises a seed, a male descendant from Eve that would crush the head of Satan.  Yes, right there at the beginning of the Bible – three chapters in – we hear God’s promise of Jesus.  We hear the first gospel!  We hear that there is one coming who will be born of woman, who will deliver mankind and the entire world from sin, death, and the Devil.  We hear the defeat of the evil foe, right there in the beginning.    

Do you know what this means?  It means that Christmas is a fulfillment of the promise made in Genesis chapter 3.  Yes, long ago in Genesis 3:15, God promised a Messiah to the world – a Messiah who would make things right again, which means that when we page through the Old Testament, what we hear is not a collection of miscellaneous stories, but we hear about God keeping His promise throughout the ages.  The Old Testament is the history of our salvation, it is the tracing of the Lord’s promise from Genesis chapter 3 to the manger in Bethlehem.  And as we know from the Old Testament, even when things looked really, really bad, God did not relent on His promise.  The promise did not falter but followed through to Christmas with the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem.   

That is how it goes with promises.  When God makes a promise, He keeps it.  When God gives us a promise, we can trust it. 

And so, this Advent and Christmas Season, we not only marvel at how God kept that promise long ago from Genesis 3:15 by the birth of the Son of God in Bethlehem, but we marvel at the fact that this promise has been fulfilled for you and me this day. 

Dear Baptized Saints, that promise of the Messiah crushing the head of Satan is a promise that we can hang our body, mind, and soul on.  It is a promise that is not only fulfilled but a promise that grants us continual faith and assurance each and every single day.  It points to the clear hope of our victory in Christ and the certainty of our resurrections.  You see, the Genesis 3:15 promise is a promise that the Devil’s head would be crushed, which it was on the cross of Jesus Christ.  And if the Devil’s head was crushed, then your death indeed must be crushed as well.  And if your death has been crushed, then that means that the condemnation of your sin has been crushed.  And if the condemnation of your sin is crushed, then the verdict of the Law is crushed as well.  And if the Law can no longer accuse you, then you have complete and total assurance – assurance that no matter what happens in this life, that there is no shame, guilt, toil, blame, or fear in Christ. 

Baptized Saints, even though this life is upside down and ruined by humanity’s sin in Adam and Eve, we hold fast to this promise given long ago.  We cling – with both eyes open – to the promise that was given to us, knowing that in due time all things will be made anew.  Yes, this upside down world of sin and death itself are indeed awful and tyrannical, but God’s promise and God’s crushing power make sin and death into nothing. 

Like Adam and Eve, we hear the promise of the Messiah this Advent and Christmas Season.  We hear about the Messiah who came to crush the devil’s head, which gives us the same hope and assurance that Adam and Eve had… hope and assurance that death will be taken away, that sin will be abolished, and that the righteousness, life, and peace will be restored. 

In this promise and hope, Adam and Eve lived and died.  In this promise and hope, we live and die as well.  However, in this promise and hope – with Adam and Eve – we all will be raised to newness of life, for Christ Jesus has indeed crushed the head of Satan for you and me.   

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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Your Very Own Personal Pentecost

Text:  Genesis 11:1-7 & Acts 2:1-21

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

There was something like fire and wind and a loud noise that day.  It was a mighty rushing wind, not a nice gentle breeze.  Think of a tornado or gale force winds.  And then there was the fire - flames that divided and rested on each of the Apostles!

What am I talking about?  I am talking about that day of Pentecost long ago.  I am talking about 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Apostle who had come together, just as Jesus had promised. 

It is a day that the Holy Spirit rushed into human history like never before, with a startling suddenness that was impossible to miss. 

The crowds who heard and felt the roar of the wind came rushing together, utterly confused about what was happening.  And what did they find?  They found the Tower of Babel reversed!  Yes, the confusion of Babel had been reversed. 

In our Old Testament lesson from this morning we read about mankind coming together at the place called Babel.  Mankind had gathered together to build a city for themselves and to make a name for themselves.  The people who had gathered were prideful and egotistical.  God had called mankind to multiple and fill the whole earth, but not these people.  Nope, not them.  They were going to stay put and make their own buildings and their own city, not to glorify God but to glorify themselves.  It was about glory to man in the highest.   

As a result, it should not surprise us that God intervened in judgment.  He cursed them by twisting their tongues and giving them a bunch of different languages.  Yes, He foiled their egotistical and prideful plans by confusing their language. He actually applied a divine judgment that led to confusion, suspicion, and even hatred among the people. There is no doubt about it, since the Tower of Babel, we have had the confusion of language, which has led to mankind being humbled ever since.  The confusion of language has broken and driven mankind into disorder and weakness. 

I mention all of this because God cursed the people at the Tower of Babel because they were coming together in the name of mankind.  However, in today’s reading from the book of Acts, we hear about a reversal of Babel, where the Apostles were given the ability to proclaim about Jesus in languages they had never learned.   Instead of language dividing people - this person from that  person – the people from all the nations, heard each of the Apostles speaking and testifying to the great works of God – and each person heard them preaching in their own language.  Just like native speakers.  The confusion of language was undone for the sake of salvation and for unifying mankind in the name of Jesus. 

When some in the crowd tried to explain away this mighty miracle of the Spirit by saying they were babbling because they had drank too much, well… Peter took to the pulpit and began to preach and set things right.

There was no doubt that day that the Spirit was present in Peter's preaching as he charged the Jews with guilt in Christ's suffering and death and yet showed how by the Father's eternal plan the death of Christ was overturned and He was raised and exalted to the Father's right hand, as the one who pours out the Spirit.

By the time Peter was through, the crowds were in a panic.  The Spirit's witness had convicted them.  You heard part of Peter’s sermon in our reading from Acts.  But a little further on we hear the result of Peter’s preaching:

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'"

Peter's answer is one of the most comforting words of all Scripture.  He doesn't give them a list of to-dos they need to perform before God will forgive them.  No.

Listen:

"Then Peter said to them, 'Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and YOU will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:38-39)

That's it.  Turn, he says, toward the Lord and receive what He wants to give you in the waters of baptism: forgiveness and the Holy Spirit.  Peter lets them know that this gift isn't just for some of them, but for all.  "Let everyone of you be baptized" he says. "The promise is for you and for your children" he says.

And no less than 3,000 took him up on the invitation on Pentecost Day.  They ended up in the water, where their sins were washed away and the Spirit of God was given to them.

So even though on Pentecost morning the Holy Spirit arrived with a mighty rushing wind and what seemed to be fireworks, by the afternoon He was entering people’s lives in a far less spectacular way, in fact in what became the ordinary way: through Holy Baptism.  In other words, only some of the people got the pyrotechnic display of the wind and fire; but 3,000 received the exact same Spirit with the splash of water and the power of the Word.  Just like you received the Holy Spirit; just like I received the Holy Spirit.

Now, do you realize what that means?  It means the day you were baptized was your personal Pentecost.  It was the day that your life was turned around.  It was the day that the forgiveness which Christ won on His cross for the whole world was given to you as your very own.  It was the day that the Holy Spirit Himself was poured into your life by the Risen and Ascended Lord.  The Holy Spirit has been given to you.  He is a complete and total gift!

That's why we are filled with joy on this day.  To us who could never believe on our own, never come to faith in Jesus by all our struggling and striving, to us our Risen and Ascended Lord has sent a Helper!

He has sent the One who not only gives faith, but keeps us in faith, and strengthens that faith until our last hour comes.  And then our Helper will not leave us.  No way.  He will sustain us through death and bring us with Christ into the life that never ends. 

He will be the one who raises our bodies from the dead and transfigures them – “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come!”  That's the Holy Spirit's work!

Dear friends, what all of this means is this: the Spirit poured out upon the chosen Apostles on this day landed on YOU too.  It happened in your Baptism (just as it did for the 3,000)!  Your Baptism is your personal Pentecost.  But there is even more.

Jesus Christ doesn’t just pour out His Spirit once and that’s it.  Not at all.  A couple chapters after our second reading today, Luke records that the house where they were gathered was shaken and the Spirit descended afresh on the same apostles.

You receive the Holy Spirit and all of Him and yet there is always more.  Your Lord wants to keep pouring the Spirit into you.  Not just through your Baptism, but through your hearing of the Word (where He is always at work to strengthen your faith) and through the Supper, where by the Spirit’s power Christ feeds you with His body and blood, constantly renewing the forgiveness of sins.

Because the Spirit is the gift Christ keeps on giving us, the holy Church rejoices this day to cry out over and over again – in hymns and prayers to the Blessed Third Person of the Trinity.

In the name of Jesus: Amen.  

The sermon is indebted to Rev. Joshua Reimche from Our Savior Lutheran Church of Bottineau, ND.

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The Pain of Being a Christian

Text: Genesis 32:22-32

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

The theologian C.S. Lewis once famously stated,

“I didn’t go to religion to make me ‘happy.’  I always knew a bottle of Port [that is wine] would do that.  If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

What C.S. Lewis rightly understood was that when a person becomes a Christian, the real battle begins. 

Dear friends, many people wrongly believe that when a person is baptized and converted that they can then take it easy, like someone who has arrived in a safe harbor after a stormy voyage; as if the soul is forever safe and never need fear shipwreck.[1]  “I am a Christian; I no longer struggle; let’s go fly a kite; all is well!” 

While it is true that there is rest in Christ – no condemnation in Christ, peace from the present and future wrath of God – this rest does not mean that there is rest from ongoing struggles.  That is to say, it is somewhat misleading to speak of Christianity in a way to imply that Christians do not experience scrapes and bruises and bumps, for when we are baptized and converted the real struggle actually begins. 

Now, if we were baptized, converted, and ‘taken’ unto Jesus immediately to heaven, it would be true that the Christian life is without struggle; however, after baptism and conversion, we Christians live this life in the vale of tears – life under the sun.  We are not immediately zapped to heaven, but remain in the here and now.  This means that as we live this life in the vale of tears, we continue to live with the constant struggle against our sinful nature, the struggle to put to death whatever belongs to the old Adam.  Furthermore, we are continually attacked by the world and the devil.  This means that if we do not continue to battle against these great adversaries, we risk falling under their control and all is lost.

Even though we struggle against the sinful nature, the world, and the devil, there is yet another struggle that has not been mentioned yet.  This struggle is rather difficult for us to accept and embrace.  The struggle that I speak of is God Himself.  Yes, this other struggle is a struggle with God Himself, a holy anguish, if you will. 

We actually see this struggle with God – this holy anguish – in our Old Testament reading from Genesis.  In our Old Testament reading we hear about Jacob wrestling with God.  Jacob is returning home after twenty years of being away.  Then one night Jacob is confronted by not just any ordinary man, but the Lord of Glory, God Himself.  Long story short, they wrestled down in the dirt, fighting all night, ultimately resulting in the Lord blessing Jacob.  In other words, in our Old Testament reading we hear about God dealing rather crudely with Jacob.  It could be said that the Lord was just playing around with Jacob; however, to Jacob it was much more than just mere play – it was anguish.  For starters, Jacob did not know at first who he was wrestling with; he did not know the outcome of the fight; his face was obviously scraped up from the rough earth; and his hip was eventually put out of joint. 

Now what does all this mean to us?  The answer is that like Jacob, the Christian will experience holy anguish – wrestling matches with God from time to time.  Jacob did it physically, whereas you and I will experience this wrestling with God when God uses different circumstances of life to put our faces into the ground and to figuratively put our hips out of joint.  To rephrase this, contrary to what Jacob may have thought at the time, the Lord wanted to make Jacob a fighter, to teach him tenacity – and faithfulness.  Jacob was already God’s child of the promise.  He had already spoken with God and received God’s assurances.  Jacob had the promise.  But He still had fear!  So God came to wrestle with him and drive out fear and gift him faith.[2]  And like God coming to wrestle with Jacob, God comes to you and me, not to destroy us, but to train and strengthen us in the faith.  So, He gives you and me holy anguish. 

It is sometimes difficult to discern whether our anguish comes from the flaming arrows of the devil or the mocking voice of the world or the self-centered sinful nature or from God Himself.  Thus, we may wonder the source of our anguish; however, the better question is to ask is this, “What does the anguish serve?” 

Dear friends, the devil tries to kill, steal, and destroy our faith.  The world attempts to pull us into its blowing winds of vanity.  The sinful flesh endeavors to turn us selfishly inward.  The Lord disciplines us, refines us, and presses upon us.  This can all come about in the forms of affliction, poverty, sickness, death, disgrace, misfortune, and darkness of the soul.  It can feel like we are alone and that even God is not treating us like His beloved children, but rather an enemy.  Regardless though of the source of affliction, all these afflictions serve the same goal.  That goal is to run you and me back the other way to the security and confidence in the Lord.  Yes, all of these afflictions and this holy anguish are meant to ‘drive’ us back to the Lord’s Word and Sacraments – the Word, our Baptisms, the Bread, and the Wine, which are for us. 

So, when the devil tries to kill, steal, and destroy your faith… run back to Christ and confess,

“I belong to Jesus and He belongs to me.  I am baptized; go back to hell where you belong evil one.  You cannot devour me; I will not fear you; I am a Christian.”

When the floaty and empty ideologies of the world attempt to sweep you into falsehoods… run back to Christ’s Word and confess,

“I am not so easily enticed by your blind speculations and floaty unrealistic desires, for I am captive to the Word of God.”

When your sinful flesh hungers and thirsts for that which is sin… run back to Christ, make the sign of the cross, and confess,

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

And when the Lord disciplines and refines you; when you are experiencing holy anguish – even if the Lord should cast you into the depths of hell and place you in the midst of devils, you shall believe and know that you are saved because you have been baptized, you have been absolved, you have received the pledge of salvation, the body and blood of the Lord in the Holy Supper.[3] 

Dear Baptized Saints, are you experiencing trials and temptations and pain and fear and afflictions and worry and loneliness and darkness and hell and evil and discipline and refinement and misfortune and disgrace?  If so, here is Christ for you in His Word.  Here is Christ for you in the true body and blood, for your forgiveness, you blessing, your comfort, and your strengthening – so that you may know that the Lord is with you. 

Dear Baptized Saints, when trials and temptations and pain and fear and afflictions and worry and darkness and hell and evil and discipline and refinement and misfortune and disgrace come at you, you as the afflicted shall live by faith!  Faith clings to Christ and His gifts, which are yours today.  From faith, we see and receive Christ in the midst of everything that comes at us in life.  “From faith, we see the righteousness of Christ that is ours; and from faith, hope is renewed in the coming glory of the kingdom.” [4]  

Dear Baptized Saints, your flesh and heart may fail, your lives may go upside down, your bones may get brittle, afflictions may come and go, holy anguish may press down and release, the flaming arrows may fly high or low, however, the Lord is the strength of your hearts and is indeed yours forever.  

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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[1] C.F.W. Walther, Walther’s Works: Gospel Sermons Volume 1 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2013), 167.

[2] Robin Fish, “Got a New Name,” LCMS Sermons, http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=4071 (accessed February 20, 2016).

[3] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works: Volume 6 ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1970), 131.

[4] Steven A. Hein, The Christian Life: Cross or Glory (Irvine, CA: New Reformation Press, 2015), 115.

No Hiding, No Fighting; Forgiven And Declared Righteous For Jesus Sake

Text:  Genesis 3:8-15 and Mark 3:20-35

To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.

There are really only two options.  The first is to resort to name calling and fighting.  The second is to run and hide. 

This was how Adam and Eve handled things in our Old Testament lesson and it is the way that the religious leaders handled things in our Gospel reading from today.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about mankind’s reactions to the Lord.  Mankind’s flight or fight reactions when the Lord draws near.

First, let’s look at mankind’s flight response. 

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, (our Old Testament Lesson from today) Adam and Eve were in complete harmony with the Lord, each other, and their conscious was at peace: no shame, no guilt, no fear, no restlessness, and no blaming.  However, all this changed.  It changed when Eve’s teeth bit down on the forbidden fruit.  This was the Devil’s plan all along: to distance Eve from God’s Word.  

After Eve ate the fruit, Adam being the head of the family, should also have trusted God’s Word, put Eve over his shoulder, brought her to God, confessed her sin, and said, “Now take my life.” However, Adam went the route of a deadbeat loser by taking the fruit as well, disobeying and distancing himself from God’s Word.  Yes, our first parents tragically believed Satan contrary to God’s Word.

After sin fractured everything—and I mean everything—the Lord God came to the garden to draw near to Adam and Eve.  But like a bunch of frantic scurrying cockroaches hiding from the light, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves and hid from the Lord. 

In case we begin to snub our noises at Adam and Eve, we must admit that we are no different.  We hide from the Lord, so at least we try.  Like a four-year old child, we cover our eyes while standing in the corner behind a curtain with the lower half of our body totally exposed.  We think we have made ourselves invisible to this seeking God of ours.  However, “God is all knowing and He's present everywhere.  Therefore, He knows us better than we know ourselves and He sees deeper into us than we are able, or, even willing to look.  So, like Adam and Eve, we play our games with God.  We hide from Him.  We bob and weave in a fruitless effort to escape His piercing eye and His angry judgment.  And maybe worst of all we pretend that we aren't as bad as we really are, or, that our sins, our failings, really aren't our fault.”[1]

If the flight tactic of running and hiding from the Lord doesn’t work—because it really doesn’t—we typically have a backup plan, we fight.  This was the tactic of the religious leaders as we heard from today’s Gospel reading from Mark.  In other words, the scribes from Jerusalem were the ‘heavy hitters’ who had come down to assist the local religious leaders in challenging Jesus.  They couldn’t deny the miracles of Jesus, so they accused Jesus of using the power of Satan to cast out demons.  They concluded that Jesus’ power was evil, thus rendering Jesus as someone that could be written off, disregarded, and marginalized. 

This is all starting to make sense.  When the Lord gets too close to you and me, too close for our comfort, we feel the heat of being exposed as failures.  We don’t want to be caught red handed.  We don’t want to be proven wrong.  We don’t want to be told that we are sinners in thought, word, and deed.  So, we run.  We hide.    We cover ourselves and our shame with fig leaves.  If we are cornered by the Lord and our sin is brought out of the shadows and there is nowhere to turn, that only leaves the option of pushing back.  More often than not, we push back towards the messengers of the Lord, those who are merely speaking God’s Word to us.

That didn’t sound too loving! 

That was mean!

You can’t judge me!

You are a hater!

Jesus would never say that!

My Jesus is all about love, not all that negativity!

You are of the devil and not of God!

We use these aggressive fighting words when the Word of God challenges us.  These words attempt to push the conviction back. 

This then leads me to ask, when we are convicted of our sin, do we repent or do we accuse God’s Word and His messengers of being divisive? 

Furthermore, how often do we complain that we are not heard when it is we who refuse to listen to God's Word?  “How often do we accuse others of arrogance when it is we who want our way rather than what God's Word clearly teaches?  If we are honest, we will confess that we have often been like the scribes in today's Gospel.  When God's Word convicts us, we attack God's Word instead of repenting of our sins.”[2]

All of our efforts to run from the Lord and to fight the Lord—to duck and punch—are really our attempts to avoid His authority and avoid being judged.  If we aren’t running from the Lord and if we aren’t fighting the Lord and if we are not blaming others for our sins, we are most likely holding up our own supposed righteousness as a defense, a shield against the Lord’s anger and wrath.  “And the thing is, this is probably the greatest temptation of the children of God.  Having been given God's grace in preaching and the Sacraments, having been made right by God's work and by His grace, we continually want to hold up ourselves as enlightened people, people who know what is best for us.”[3]

All this points to our sinful nature, that our sinful nature doesn’t love the Lord, but loves itself. 

Since we are such sinners, with our running and fighting, how on earth can we possibly be saved?

Oh dear friends, listen now.  The Lord is not content to let us run and fight.   He is not content to let you hide in your sin, leaving you to fend for yourself.  No, He condemned the serpent in Genesis chapter three, He held Adam and Eve responsible, He exposed the logical fallacies of the scribes, and He holds you and me accountable as well. 

You, who have ears, hear.  After the fall into sin, the Lord did not abandon His creation and He is not content to allow you and me to hide behind our fig leaves and rationalize His judgment away. 

Rather than running from your sin and rather than doing what would’ve been rational, to leave you in the dark condemnation of your sin, the Lord did something completely contrary.  He came towards Adam and Eve.  He confronted them and clothed their nakedness. He also gave them the promise of a Savior who would make all things right—Jesus Christ bleeding and dying and rising for mankind.   Ever since then, God the Holy Spirit through the Word has invaded the world of sinners breaking through rebellious hearts, weakening clinched fists, chasing down the ragamuffin, and continually exposing that which is sin in order proclaim,

“Truly you are forgiven of your sins.  It is finished.  Do not be afraid.  Be of good cheer it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  There is no condemnation for you are in Christ.  Let us celebrate for you were dead, but are now alive.”   

Blessed Saints, when Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He not only bound and plundered Satan’s stronghold, but also forgave you of your running and forgave you of your fighting as well.  You are redeemed. You could not out run the Lord.  You could not mount a defense strong enough to keep His forgiveness at bay.  You have been called out of hiding and will commune with Him.  Your blaming, your fighting, and your antagonism are completely forgiven.  Here at the altar He makes all things right again.

 

Christ is the victor and He shares this victory with you.  Shame is taken away, as you are covered with the very righteousness of the One who bore evil on your behalf. 

No hiding; no fighting. 

Forgiven; redeemed: loved; declared righteous for His name sake.

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

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[1] Rev. Alan Taylor, “God Brings us Out of Hiding,” LCMS Sermons, http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2803 (Accessed June 6, 2015).

[2] James T. Batchelor, “Second Sunday after Pentecost” LCMS Sermons, http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2804 (Accessed June 6, 2015).

[3] Ibid.