Sermon in Minneapolis 12.05.2013

May the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us this morning hour and always.

Let us join in beginning our services with prayer and thanksgiving. Our dear Heavenly Father, holy, righteous, all-knowing God, we humbly draw an eye on you in prayer asking for your presence and blessing for this morning's services.

Father, you know our needs, our cares, our trials, our temptations, and our failings. And you alone are able to give us that which we have need of from your word, by your spirit. Open your word unto us. Refresh and strengthen us in faith. Give us power to believe and understand that as your grace children, we are traveling on the way of life, peace, and hope.

Father, we have many cares, trials, difficulties, and temptations in our lives. Oftentimes, we struggle and try to understand what is your good and gracious will. We pray, Father, that you would give unto us understanding to so believe and trust in you that all that affects our lives, touches us, touches our near and dear ones, we would accept as being from your hand and according to your will.

You know that which is to come in the days ahead of us and you know best how to bless our lives. And we add to our prayers a prayer of intercession for all those who struggle with illness, infirmities, and even for those families with parents who struggle with illnesses and old age. Grant all of us strength to understand your will and give us power to believe that you know that which is best for each and every one of our lives.

You know the beginning and you know that day that our lives end and you take us from time to eternity. But Father, our prayers are weak, our petitions are often lacking and failing so many of them. We are not able to voice that which we feel in our hearts, so we enclose all those said and unsaid in that prayer as your Son has so taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Before I proceed to read a text for this sermon, as we just heard from the Sunday school children singing for mothers, I will read a poem that Lauri Tuskela wrote in the book Hiltinen Matka or Fiery Journey. He titles it Eidile. I've got it my own weak translation of it also:

Yksi päiväkä vuodessa vainen riitti päiväkses armahainen jos te oikein käsitetteisi päivä jokainen sinun sinun päiväes olla saisi on tehtäväsi suuri ja ylväs olla äitinä eläväin se tehtävä on kyllä raskas mutta sisällä tänsä rikas sun sydämesi väsymys usein täytti olt uupua kiusauksiin tulokset niin niukoilta näytti varsinkin iltaisiin niin harvoin harvoin me sanoiksi saimme tuoda työstäsi kiitokseen vaikka niin usein kokea saimme kodin onnen lämpöisen suo isä liekesi pyhää palaa myös rinnassa lapsosten älä kasvojasi koskaan salaa sinä ystävä ihmisten tämä huokaus rinnastasi nousi aina hämmyssä iltojen kun pienoiset levolle saattelit herran nimehen siunaten me äidistä kiitämme luojaa äitiä mikään ei korvata voi sinun luotasi etsimme suojaa kun pohjoinen viima käy olet äidistä maailman parhain sen lapsesi kertoa voi olet avu puoliso armain sulle sydämein kiitos soi

For brother by Lauri Taskela:

Do we on only one day each year bring our thanks to you my dear? If we could comprehend it correctly every day your day would be. It is great and noble your duty, a mother of the living and the most precious. And a mother of the living to be, that duty is truly weighty but its content is so precious.

Weariness filled your heart so often, you were exhausted in temptations. The results seemed to be so meager especially in the evenings. So seldom we put into words to express thanks for your work though so often we have experienced the warm happiness of our home.

Grandfather, thy holy flame to burn also in the hearts of the children. Never hide thy face, thou the people's friend. From your heart arose this sigh so often in the twilight when you put the little ones to rest in the name of the Lord they are blessed.

Our Creator, we thank for our mother. A mother nothing can replace. By your side we sought for protection when the northern winds did blow. You are the best mother in the world, your children of this can tell.

You are my spouse most precious mother, my spouse most beloved to you my heart rings out in thanks.

Lauditascula, for our mutual study this morning I shall read from Paul's letter to the Romans, its eighth chapter beginning with verse twelve the following holy words of God:

Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live.

For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father, Abba Father.

The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Amen, amen.

This portion of Paul's letter to the Romans is the epistle text signed for this sixth Sunday after Easter. But when I read this text it came or seemed also to me to be a message of the gospel.

It came to my mind the thought that this is especially a battle that is fought on so many fronts by us, by the children of God in the world today.

When we look at the world around us, we look at the flood of entertainment and distraction. We see temptations of course for the flesh. Then the other side, the other aspect of that of those temptations is the great abundance of information or knowledge in that also surrounds us in this world.

And I think that's the most important thing in this world. I would hesitate to call it wisdom because so often it seems that people of our time have become so enamored with physical knowledge, knowledge of our planet, our world, our solar system, the intricacies of God's nature down to the sub-molecular level.

We just know that God is nature and that's it. We just learned from our daughter Mario when she defended her thesis the other week. All of that understanding is just marvelous and God blesses the people of our time, blesses us with those things, that knowledge, that understanding.

But it isn't wisdom, not least in the sense that I'm thinking of wisdom where one is able to contemplate and then decide on those things that are those aspects of our lives which go so far beyond physical, so far beyond that which is this world and our own natures.

If we think of the life that we live, the blessings that God gives us, they are huge and abundant. And because of course we are so stuck in our time, we are prisoners of our time, we of course can't see what is to come in the future and we can't really understand fully all those things that were part of the lives of those who have gone before.

But those critical aspects of life that pertain to understanding one's place in this world, understanding that there is a creator, giver of life, there is a creator who has made all things and when he completed that creation he said it is good.

So the world is still here, it is still spinning, it is still our world to be lived in and taken care of as God has so given us to do.

But understanding those aspects doesn't help a person understand sometimes the most critical aspects of life that pertains to faith and therefore connected with faith, love, peace, forgiveness.

You just think of the many rational things that we can do. We can do things that we can do rationalizations and the use of the carnal rationale people of this world make.

It's so easy for them to get off into tangents that destroy faith, destroy love, destroy forgiveness.

In fact, to think of our minds and the rational ability or the thoughts that we have, it is a gift of God but if it is not controlled or governed by the spirit of God, what does it spew out?

It spews out all manner of vile and things which are not correct and even evil thoughts which are destructive, destructive of relationships, destructive of love.

And so because people of this world are not being loved and they are full of that kind of garbage, we could say it is so easy for us to also get wrapped up into those same debates, those same rationalizations, those same justifications of the carnal rationale of man.

So this portion where Paul says that we are not debtors of the flesh, in other words as Luther teaches that the old Adam should be mortified daily with all sins and evil lusts.

In other words, as we just sang and as I read from the poem, the teaching of the home where we teach our little ones about life, about living, about the boundaries of life and living and faith.

From the we now love the life and living and faith and the boundaries of the Kingdom of God and where it is dangerous to tread.

That foundation of faith is an issue where parents often, and they send their little ones to those first days of school, so pray.

As the children sing, and as we sing, that those teachings of Mother would be the foundation also for life, so that faith would not be destroyed.

And to think, dear parents, if it was dependent on only that which you have accomplished, been able to teach, certainly none of our children today would be believing.

The world would take them all.

But isn't it wonderful that He who is in you, He who is also the ruler of the hearts of your children, is greater than the power of this world, than the ruler of this world, greater than the prince of darkness.

He overcame all.

Even though He says, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

So dear boys and girls, you certainly will run into those kinds of trials and tribulations. You will confront them. But God is with you. Jesus has promised to be with you every day. Amen.

On to the end.

And so it is secure, secure to be, to travel, to endeavor, to be a citizen of this world, to learn the ABCs of faith, to learn the ABCs of our nation, of our society, to learn that which we need for our temporal lives, but above all, of course, to know that which we need for our salvation.

To know that which we need for our future.

That is why, of course, parents, you accept children as gifts of God. You bless them with the heavenly gospel, so that their lives of faith are nourished.

One of my grandsons stayed with us the other weekend, and he was playing a game where, if he didn't eat enough food, the warning came that health is critical.

So he came into the kitchen on Sunday morning. He says, health is critical.

I didn't know where he was coming from. I didn't know he saw that in the game.

But it gave me a chance to discuss after that morning's services, discuss spiritual, and I said, if you don't have spiritual health, just think, if mother and father weren't blessing you with the gospel, your health, your spiritual health would become critical.

You wouldn't have what to eat that your soul needs.

And such, of course, is the condition of all those who are born into families where mother and father are not believing.

They are not able to bless with the gospel. They are not able to feed the life of faith.

God gives every day that which we have need of. He gives grace and abundance. He gives strength. He gives us access to his gospel where we can be such priests of God and Christ as John wrote in Revelations, who reign, reign in the gospel, and reign in the kingdom of God because we have access to the mercy seat.

In the Old Testament, Levitical priesthood, only the high priest went once a year with blood into the mercy seat to sacrifice on behalf of his sins and the sins of all the people.

Once a year, on the great day of atonement, he went.

But you, my dear brothers and sisters, you dear boys and girls, have access to that mercy seat, as Jesus said, as often as you have need of it.

We don't have to wait for once a year. Don't have to wait for Sunday even. Don't even have to wait for the evening to come.

We can ask whenever we have need.

It is a wonderful gospel.

It gives God, God's power.

As Paul wrote in the beginning of this letter to the Romans, the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.

It is your power, dear parents, by which you will raise your children.

It is your power, dear elders, by which you will face even the last day of your life, even the last enemy of death.

It is the power of God, dear brothers and sisters, to help each other on the way of life.

Help each other remain as travelers of this narrow way of life.

So that we are not then reacting in the flesh, but let us react in the spirit.

We need to always mortify the deeds of the flesh by the power of the spirit, the spirit of God.

God gives us access to that power so that we do not have to always be suffering with the flesh.

Even though we do.

Isn't it so that so often times we wish we wouldn't have reacted in the flesh.

But when we mortify the deeds of the flesh, God gives us access to his spirit so that we are able to be traveling as free children of God.

And if, Paul wrote earlier, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall die.

But if you live through the spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

We are led by the spirit of God.

And it keeps us away from the vain philosophies and the rationalizations of the people of this world, of the prince of darkness by which he attempts to ensnare us.

It keeps us away from those even former travelers in the kingdom of God who have fallen from faith and decided that there is no God and there is a more rational way to attain heaven.

For such who fall away, John writes that they went out from us.

They were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.

But now they went out so that it may be made manifest that they are not of us.

So it is.

As Ustila wrote in his book In the Grace of the Caller, that the greatest of all is love.

Mutual and brotherly love.

The love that we experience in the kingdom of God.

It is greater than any great deeds.

There is nothing that anyone can bring.

No great physical effort.

No great amount of treasure.

Gold and silver of this world or trillions of dollars, euros to try to appease God and attain salvation.

And not even any great rationalizations of the mind.

It is all but sin and defilement before God.

All of that which man brings is sin.

And that is why love is the greatest.

It is the greatest of all because it overcomes all.

And we take it with us to heaven.

So if you are led by the Spirit of God you are a child of God.

And therefore you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.

But you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father.

In other words, being children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus.

We have access to the Father.

Access to our God, our Creator.

And He is so close.

He knows us so well.

That He is a dear Father.

He is a Father who hears our prayers.

He hears your prayers to your brothers and sisters.

And He is able to provide.

He is able to give that which we have need of, which our children have need of.

Do young people always look at your lives that are before you.

As you approach those decisions even thinking about where does your pathway of life take you.

How will God bless your lives?

He knows your needs.

He knows your prayers.

And He is able to bless.

He is able to give direction to your life and your footsteps that will be for the blessing of your life and your family.

So the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children then heirs.

Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

If so be that we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.

So here in this world we suffer.

Here in this world we will experience the attacks of the enemy.

As even we have experienced recently.

Here in this world those who do not have faith attempt to destroy faith.

But God is still the creator and God of this world.

And He knows.

He knows where this world is going.

And He knows how to bless His own.

He will bless you dear brothers and sisters.

He will bless your footsteps.

He will bless you dear mothers.

And He will bless each and every one of us with that greatest of blessings.

That one day as an heir, joint heir with Christ of eternal salvation, we should be able to step from this time, from this time of life, from this time of tribulation and difficulties and trials to the glory of heaven.

Where all of this is wiped away.

All the cares.

All the sorrows.

All the difficulties and struggles.

All the trials and temptations are left behind and not remembered.

In the glory of heaven we can rejoice forever over our own personal salvation with all the other saints of God who have been called to glory.

This is our journey.

And this is where we experience the power of God.

Here in this life we have tribulations and trials and we struggle and we fall.

But once those end, we are taken to the glory of heaven.

Lift up your hearts dear brothers and sisters and believe that your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

On to peace.

On to freedom.

And on to joy.

Therein is the power of God.

Dear boys and girls, even Sunday school children, you have spent this Sunday school year also studying the ABC's of faith.

As you heard your Sunday school teachers sing for you at this closure of this Sunday school year about the blessings that God gives.

That is the highest of heavenly callings that you can be blessed with the name of a child of God.

That you are able to hear and believe the heavenly gospel.

Therein God keeps you as his child.

Keeps you spiritually healthy so that you know how a person is justified.

You have the keys to heaven.

And you know that if someone wants to believe and you preach their sins forgiven, they are forgiven also.

And you are also in heaven.

Such is the great blessing and the authority that God has given unto you.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us close with the Lord's benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us his eternal peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.