Retirement Gathering Thank You, February 10, 2024

[I shared this thank you during a gathering held yesterday at Living Water Lutheran Church. It was originally scheduled for January 6, but I contracted COVID right before it was scheduled and it was postponed until yesterday. The gathering happened yesterday.]

Hebrews 1:3 says this of Jesus (I’m reading from the Good News Translation): “He reflects the brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's own being, sustaining the universe with his powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of all human beings, he sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.”

Today, I thank God that in Jesus Christ, all my sins and all your sins are totally, completely forgiven.

Jesus, God the Son, achieved the forgiveness of our sins by dying on the cross.

God the Father confirmed this victory by raising Jesus from the dead.

Today, Jesus sits at the right side–the power side–of God the Father, the Conqueror of sin, death, and the devil, all for our sake, all to give us life with God that is ours today and will be forever.

Our call is to daily turn from sin and death–to repent–and to follow Jesus, trusting that–as you’ve heard me say before–when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant it.

He has done everything needed for your salvation, everything needed for you to be reconciled to God, everything needed to set you free to love God and love your neighbor.

Today, I also thank the people who have helped me to partake of the freedom of Christ and who have supported, encouraged, and nudged me not only as a child of God, but in my calling as pastor.

I thank Ann for being my wife for more than forty-nine years, for nagging me into going to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Columbus, where I, a rebellious sinner, an atheist, heard the Word of God that convicted me of my sin and then set me free with the Gospel about Jesus.

I thank Ann that she was supportive to me when I threw her the most unexpected curveball of her life. “Ann,” I said, “I think God is calling me to be a pastor.”

I thank our kids for enduring the lives of “pastor’s kids.” Both planned on being here when this gathering was originally scheduled. But after COVID scrubbed that and our son had to eat the cost of his airfare, we told both kids they didn’t need to be here.

Thank you to Living Water for going to the trouble of putting this gathering together. I feel a bit guilty about it when I consider all of the people who come to the end of their working lives without so much as a pat on the back. But thank you anyway…and thank you for the past ten years!

Thank you to my internship congregations and my internship supervisor and his wife, Pastor Jim and Jan. They gave me opportunities most pastoral interns don’t get: to preach and lead worship every single week.

Thank you too to the other congregations I’ve been privileged to serve as pastor–Bethlehem at Okolona, Ohio; Friendship of Amelia; and Saint Matthew in Logan.

Thank you too, to those from those congregations who are here today–and those who showed up a few weeks ago to find that the event had been indefinitely postponed. It has been an honor to serve as a Minister of Word and Sacrament and to have acquired lifelong friendships in each of these churches and communities.

Thank you to all of our friends–those we’ve known since elementary school, high school, college, seminary, early married life, and through all the subsequent years. We have laughed with you, cried with you, worshiped and prayed with you, in some instances traveled with you…and lived to tell about it. Each of you have been important in helping us to know God’s grace and in keeping our sanity, what’s left of it.

Thank you to all of you!

In retirement, I pray that God will help this saint and sinner to proclaim in whatever ways I can that, because in Jesus Christ, God the Son, all our sins ARE forgiven, we can trust in Him.

“For,” as Saint Paul tells us, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Thank you.

Be still...

A good word from God in the midst of a lethal pandemic: "[God] says, 'Be still, and know that I am God.”

God is still sovereign and as we place ourselves in the loving hands of the crucified and risen Jesus, God the Son, we have nothing to fear.

That, of course, is not a license to take stupid risks. And it doesn't mean that we should not listen to the medical professionals and public health officials when they tell us to maintain social distancing, self-quarantining, frequent hand-washing, and the use of sanitizer.

After all, Christians believe our bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple over which we are called to exercise good stewardship.

Nor does God promise that believers in Christ are immune from the realities of this imperfect and fallen world.

But in the midst of it all, we can be still, knowing that we belong to the God Who saves all who trust in Christ for life with Him that begins now, even in the midst of uncertainties and grief and will be made perfect in the day of the Resurrection.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

THE Hope for Peace

[This message, for the First Sunday of Advent, was shared today with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Recently, a committed Christian, considering the tragedy, violence, and nastiness in the world and the upheaval in his own life, asked me, “Are there times when you wish Jesus would hurry and come back?” 

Yes, there are. 

I want Jesus to return and the dead to be raised. 

I want Jesus to bring an end to this sorry old, death-dealing planet.

I want Him to usher in the new heaven and the new earth in which the eyes of all will be fixed on God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the tears of everyone who has dared to believe in Jesus will be dried and we will live in peace with God, each other, ourselves, for all eternity. 

I want all of that very much!

Even secular, unbelieving people seem to yearn for some version of this new world that we know only Jesus can bring. On his LP released three months ago, Paul McCartney, sings this refrain, “People want peace / A simple release from their suffering / People want peace.”

This yearning isn’t new. 

In 587 BC, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah sat in a prison in Jerusalem. His crime had been to tell the people of his homeland, the southern remnant of God’s people Israel, that they needed to repent for their sin and trust in God. (The God that all the world can now know in Jesus Christ.) 

The northern kingdom of God’s people, Israel (or Samaria) was already gone, eliminated by a hostile foreign power. 

And, now Judah, which itself had endured decades of domination by foreign powers, faced the same fate. 

Not because Judah hadn’t had a strong army. 

Not because Judah didn’t possess economic power. 

Judah had enjoyed these things. 

But, Jeremiah and other prophets told the people, their land would be taken from them because of their three abiding sins: idolatry, injustice, and materialism. (Does this sound familiar?) 

No people, no nation, no church, can long endure if it spits in the face of God through idolatry and the injustice, and materialism that results. 

Just a short time before Jeremiah committed the verses in our first lesson for today to paper, Judah had been under the dominion of the Assyrian Empire. Then the Egyptians chased the Assyrians out. Then the Egyptian Empire crumbled and for a brief period, Judah had enjoyed independence and freedom. But even then, God’s people refused to turn from their sins and trust in God alone. While Jeremiah wrote down the new word God gave to him in prison, the renewed Babylonian Empire was near Jerusalem’s city gates. Jeremiah could probably hear the din of battle as he received the word of God. 

• Judah was going to be conquered. 
• God’s people would face the consequences of their rebellion against God. 
• Their land would be taken from them. 
• Their nation would die. 

Jeremiah had already warned the people of his homeland that it was naive for them to superstitiously cling to the bricks and mortar of the temple or the worthless words they offered up as "worship" to save them from destruction while refusing to let go of their sins and injustices to take hold of God as their only hope.

But as Jeremiah sat in the darkness of prison, he perceived the light of God bringing hope, not just to Judah, but to all the world. Beyond wars, sin, death, and heartache, God was going to bring something new and never-ending. God would (and will) bring everlasting peace to those who trust in Him. 

The Word given to Jeremiah in that prison cell includes our first lesson for this first Sunday in Advent, a Sunday on which we at Living Water have chosen to remember that even as we await the advent, the coming return, of Jesus to our world, we wait in HOPE. 

So, take a look at our first lesson, Jeremiah 33:14-16. We’re going to read it from the English Standard Version, which gives a better and more literal translation than the New International Version here.

It begins: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” 

All of us know what it’s like to have someone break their promises to us. All of us know, if we’re honest, what it’s like to be the person who breaks promises to others. Promises broken, intentionally or unintentionally, make our relationships with each other painful and difficult. 

But God never forgets a promise. God always does what He sets out to do. 

Sometimes though, as is true of God's promise of sending His Son back into this world to usher in the Kingdom of God in its fullness, we have to wait. 

We can get impatient. 

We can begin to think that God doesn’t care or that maybe God isn’t even there. 

The coming of God on the first Christmas, born to a virgin in Bethlehem, should tell us that we can depend on God keeping His promises. 

His death for our sin and His resurrection to give us life should tell us that we can depend on God keeping His promises. 

But, in the world in which we live, it can be hard to wait for God to act--hard to wait for answers to our prayers, hard to wait for God to bring loved ones lost to Him back to faith, hard to wait for God to help those who are hurting, hard to wait for God to reconcile our relationships. 

But God has promised us in Jesus, “I am with you always to the close of the age." 

He has promised those who trust in Him, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.” 

He has promised that all who die believing in Him will live eternally with Him. 

And He has promised that not sin, not death, not the powers of this world, not anything can separate us from the God that comes to us through Jesus Christ. 

All of this is true even when God seems to be taking his good, sweet time. 

The apostle Peter says, “...do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9) 

God never fails to keep a promise. 

And, God told Jeremiah--and through Jeremiah, us--that the promise of a peaceable eternal kingdom would come to pass. 

In the meantime, we’re to live in daily repentance and trust that the God we know in Jesus is giving us the time the world needs to come to know and believe in Jesus, the time we disciples need to tell the world about our Savior.

Our lesson continues: “In those days and at that time [we don’t know the days or the time, because as Jesus reminded us last Sunday, “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)], I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” 

Shortly after Jeremiah received these words from God, the descendants of David were stripped ot their throne and would never again sit on an earthly throne. But God had long before promised that a “son of David” would be the Messiah--God’s anointed, Savior King. God would make the impossible possible: A Savior born into the Davidic line, as Jesus was, when God the Father placed God the Son in the arms of his adoptive parents--Mary and Joseph, descended from David, would come into our world to make things right between God and sinners. 

When the Word became flesh, that is, when sinless God the Son, Jesus, came into this world, He did so with one purpose: To become the perfect offering for sin that no sinful human being--no ancient Israelite, not you, not me--could be and to win a not guilty verdict for those of us who are mired in sin from death. God makes us right through Jesus and our faith in Him. (Romans 3:23-24)

Back to our lesson, verse 16: “...In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” 

C.S. Lewis said, “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.” 

Jeremiah and the other prophets didn’t go to God’s ancient people and say, “You’re bad; try to be good.” 

They said, “Your bad is growing worse because you’ve walked away from God. It's time for you to make it a habit to keep turning back to God so that He can displace your bad with His good! Only God can make you righteous." 

It’s the Lord alone who is righteous and He alone makes righteous those who are bad. It's the God we know in Jesus Who is our righteousness! 

This God revealed in Jesus has even been known to turn renegade atheists into grateful believers...and then make them into reluctant preachers.

We long for the peace that will only come to God’s creation when Jesus returns to this world. But if we rely on our own goodness to prepare for that day, we will regret it eternally. The peace that passes all understanding belongs only to those who trust in the God we meet in Jesus, who have given up on trying to prove themselves, given up on being models of religiosity, because those are sinful, self-worshiping enterprises. 

The peace that passes all understanding belongs, even now in the midst of this fallen, confounding world, only to those who, day by day, let Jesus be their Savior. These are the people who can face the stuff of this world and look for the day of Jesus’ return with hope. 

They hope--we hope--because believers know that it’s Jesus, the Messiah born of the Branch of David, Who IS our peace (Ephesians 2:13-14). 

Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Four Promises from God

[This message was shared today at the funeral for a young woman and mother of three whose death came suddenly.]

Psalm 23
Romans 8:31, 37-39
John 3:16
For all who knew and loved Kelsey, this is an unimaginably hard time. All of you, especially Kelsey’s children, are in my prayers for the days ahead. Her mother and grandmother have both told me about how Kelsey struggled in this life to find herself, to find her place. Her Facebook page confirms that. In the introduction there, she wrote: “God is life. My [babies] make it worth living.” In what little I know of Kelsey, I hear the story of a young woman who adored her three children, even as she yearned, in her own way, for both God and for some happiness in her life.

In the days, months, and years ahead, you who grieve will struggle. And you will yearn to see Kelsey. It would be unnatural for you not to grieve, even wrong. And it would be abnormal for you not to want to see her. You will also have struggles.

I’ve followed the Lord, sometimes well, sometimes poorly, for more than forty years. In that time, I’ve tried to pay close attention to His Word. Despite these things, let me begin today by telling you what I don’t know: I don’t know why this has happened.

But let me also tell you what I do know: God didn’t cause this. We live in an imperfect world in which people get hurt, desperate, and lost. That's what happened to Kelsey.

But there is hope!

That’s why today, I want to share four promises from God that you can hold onto for strength and encouragement as you face the future.

The first is this: The God we meet and can know in Jesus Christ understands all about our struggles, our griefs, and burdens. He understands what you’re going through and what you will be going through in the days and years ahead better than anyone else possibly could.

The Bible says of Jesus that He was: “a man of suffering, and familiar with pain” (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus, God in human flesh, is God’s guarantee that whatever pain, grief, or challenge you confront in life, God gets it.

He understands your grief not as some far-off observer, but as One Who has been exactly where You are today. If you will turn daily to Jesus, bringing to Him your pain, your unanswered questions, your grief, and even your sin, He will understand. He will give you strength. He will give you peace, forgiveness, and hope.

Jesus once said; “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) That promise is for you today and for the days ahead.

Here’s another important promise from God: When you don’t know what to do, this God we know in Jesus can lead you in the right direction. In the passage I read a few moments ago, from Psalm 23, the psalmist writes “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:1-3) When, in our grief, we turn to Jesus, He will lead us.

Here’s another promise I hope that you’ll hold onto today: Nothing can separate you from God. If you will fall into His loving arms, He can carry you through the grief and whatever else you face in life. I know this from first-hand experience.

In the New Testament book of Romans, we’re told: “...neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Reach out for the God we know in Jesus. As long as you want Him in your life, He will never let you go! Never.

And there’s a fourth promise from God that I want to share with you this evening. No matter how many times we break down...no matter how many times we fail...we have a promise that cannot be taken away from those who trust in the Lord. Jesus shared it late one night with a man who came to Him looking for answers. This is what Jesus told them: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Jesus went to the cross to take onto His shoulders all the pain, death, sin, and darkness that meet us in this world. He voluntarily accepted the defeat handed out to us by these things so that, in sharing them, He could lead us out of our slavery to them and into new life.

When Jesus rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday, He was making it possible for all who surrender to Him to have eternal life with God.

That life breaks into this world when we trust in Jesus and rely on Him to take us through this life.

And one day, all who have trusted in Him--believed in Him--will live in His perfect kingdom where, as we live in God’s direct presence, pain and death will be banished, all our tears will be dried, our grief will be no more, and we will know that one thing for which Kelsey always yearned: perfect peace with God...with ourselves, with others.

May these four promises from the God we know in Jesus--that He will always understand us; that He will lead us when we turn to Him; that nothing can separate us from His love given to us through Jesus; and that He will give eternity to those who dare to believe in Jesus--give you strength, encouragement, peace, and HOPE in the days and years ahead. God bless you. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Perfect Though Imperfect?

Matthew 5:38-48
Jesus concludes His words for us in today’s Gospel lesson with these words: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Should my message for this morning then, be, “Just like God, go and be perfect. Amen”? Is that what Jesus is telling us?

As good Lutherans and students of God’s Word, the answers to those questions should be obvious! We know that we’re not perfect and while it’s true that God’s Holy Spirit is at work daily to perfect those who repent for sin and trust in the crucified and risen Jesus as their God, even the most mature disciples of Jesus must confess with the apostle Paul that for now “...we see only a reflection as in a mirror...” [1 Corinthians 13:12] That’s why, when we gather in God’s presence each week, we confess our sins, acknowledging that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.”

So, what do we make of Jesus’ words?

First of all, when Jesus says, in verse 48 of our gospel lesson that we are to be perfect as God the Father is perfect, the word translated as perfect is, in the Greek in which Matthew wrote his gospel, τέλειοι. This is an adjective that can mean perfect, but which also can mean full-grown, complete, consummated.

Jesus uses a related verb, Τετέλεσται, “It is finished,” when He draws His last breath from the cross in John 19:30.

And Paul uses this same related verb when, in speaking of his ministry about to be ended by his own death, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have finished the race.”

Jesus may then be saying, "Reflect the wholeness of God in how you live." God's grace has accomplished or finished its saving work by making you and me part of God's kingdom through Jesus  and our faith in Jesus.

Many scholars believe that when Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, He’s echoing words that appear repeatedly in the Old Testament: “...be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44-45).

To be holy is to be set apart, different from the rest of the world, weird even. The holy, those saved by God's grace, are to reflect the goodness of God in the way that we live.

Why is that?

Remember that earlier in the Sermon on the Mount from which today’s Gospel lesson is taken, Jesus tells us to be salt and light for the world.

This is what you and I as believers in Jesus Christ, people set free from sin and death by His cross and resurrection, are called to do each day: To let others see what God is like, to shine the light of the nations, Jesus, in all of our relationships.

Sounds great, does it? But there's a huge problem.

The fact is that if you set out to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” in your own power at noon today, you’ll fail before the clock hits 12:01.

Instead, if you and I are going to be God’s salt and light in the world, we must rely on the power and life that God unleashes in the lives of those who daily turn from sin and daily surrender to Christ.

Perfection, completeness, in Christ, is a byproduct of surrendered faith in Christ, not the result of our efforts.

Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3. The way it’s rendered in The Message paraphrase of the Bible is particularly helpful: “Nothing between us and God [through faith in Christ], our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]

To be perfect in the eyes of God then, is to be surrendered to Jesus and so allow God’s perfection to be seen in us and experienced through us by others.

We become prisms through which Jesus, the light of the world, is poured onto the world.

In our gospel lesson today, through the use of exaggerated imagery, Jesus draws a picture of what those who are perfect as our Father is perfect look like. This is a picture of who we should aspire to be. This is who, through our faith relationship with Christ, the Holy Spirit is making us. So, let’s take a look at Jesus’ words for us this morning and learn better where Jesus is taking us.

Verse 38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.”

The Old Testament law and other ancient ethical systems said that when someone does wrong to us, the gravity of our response shouldn’t exceed what the other person has done to us. So, if someone insults us, our response shouldn’t be to shoot them. But Jesus goes even further: Don’t seek revenge at all, ever, under any circumstance. In these words, we begin to see just how weird holiness is, just how weird the perfection of God looks in a disciple.

Jesus goes on: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” In the first century world in which Jesus first spoke these words, a backhanded slap across the right cheek of another person was less an act of violence than a way of saying, “You’re a nobody. You're a loser. You're beneath contempt.” Jesus says that if someone does anything that labels us as a nobody or a loser, we prove our assailants wrong by refusing to react to their dehumanizing words or actions.

Verse 40: “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” In ancient Judea, most people only had two garments, a shirt and a tunic. Jesus says to be willing to give both of them up. And in Roman-occupied Judea, a Roman could force a bystander to carry, say a cross, for a mile. It was a hated practice. But Jesus says that His followers should offer to go the extra mile.

Verse 43: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” The only enemies you and I have as disciples of Jesus are those who hate us, since we’re to hate no one. Jesus says that when we love those who hate us and pray for them, we are God’s children. Jesus goes on to say that it’s no great accomplishment for us to love those who love us; even unbelievers and notorious sinners do that.

After reading these words of Jesus, I can think of lots of things for which I need to repent.

I sometimes fantasize about getting at people who have hurt me...or who I think have hurt me.

Sometimes, I say cutting things to get back at people who have said or done unkind things toward me.

And I’m less than keen on loving people who have mistreated me; I want to strike out at them in some way, rather than absorbing their indignities so that they can see the dignity, love, confidence, and hope that resides within me through Jesus Christ.

I can be wary of being generous for fear of having less for myself.

Deep down, I don’t want to offer help to those who treat me like a nobody.

I find it hard to love people who are hateful toward me.

If you can identify with any of these feelings, be glad.

It means that God’s Law is doing its work. It’s convicting you and driving you to Jesus, Who can bring us God’s forgiveness and fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that reflect God’s perfect holiness and love.

But in these words of Jesus today, you will also find the Gospel: the good news of new and everlasting life for all who repent and believe in Jesus.

You see, in the whole history of the world, only Jesus has lived a life of perfection like this. He lived that kind of life for us so that, in its sacrifice on the cross, He could save us from our imperfection, unholiness, and death!

Jesus isn’t telling us to travel a pathway that He hasn’t already blazed for us. Instead, He says, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” [Matthew 16:24] In essence, Jesus says, Own your need and trustingly follow the path I've blazed for you!

When Jesus was confronted by people who mocked Him, spat on Him, whipped Him, slapped Him, and crucified Him, He didn’t return evil for evil.

In the garden of Gethsemane, after one of His companions had pulled out a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, lopping off the servant’s ear, Jesus told the disciple: “Put your sword back in its place...for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” [Matthew 26:52]

In His life, Jesus did fight. He fought for the salvation of others; that’s what He did on the cross. But He never fought for Himself.

When you know that nothing can separate you from the love of God given in Christ, you’re freed to live for God and neighbors, you're freed to fight for the good of others, because you know that you’re taken care of for all eternity. [Romans 8:38-39] You can be a voice for the voiceless, strength for the weak. You can stand up for the despised, the ignored, the nobodies of the world.

We belong to the Savior Who always gave of Himself and always loved others. From the cross, He prayed improbably, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Luke 23:34]

Jesus isn’t just God in the flesh, you know. Jesus is also the human being like which every one of us should aspire to be. He is, in Paul’s phrasing, “the last Adam,” [1 Corinthians 15:45], the first man in God’s new, eternal creation of which you and I are a part when we are baptized and follow Christ.

We can’t resolve to be perfect like God.

But we can let the perfection of God enter our lives each day through Christ.

As we live with Christ more each day, our resistance to the law in Jesus’ words to us today gives way to surrender the gospel, the promise, in Jesus’ words and something amazing happens.

In Jesus’ famous judgment scene, Matthew 25:31-46, the “sheep,” Jesus’ disciples, ask the King: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?" [Matthew 25:37-39]

This is a perfect picture of what happens to disciples as they spend their lives in fellowship with Christ and His Church. Disciples are saved by grace, then God uses disciples as instruments of that grace to bring His salvation to others. As they live with God in daily quiet time, in corporate worship, in small groups that study God's Word together, in mission for Christ, they are transformed.

They have so surrendered to Jesus that Jesus reigns over their lives. They can’t even perceive their own faithfulness because their minds are no longer on themselves, but only on the God they love completely and the neighbor they love as they love themselves.

Folks, don’t worry that you don’t measure up to God’s perfect law. You don’t. And neither do I.

Christ has measured up for you!

Surrender to the Jesus Who has kept God’s law perfectly and is more than willing to cover you in His grace.

Watch out when you do though: You might find as you surrender to Him, Jesus will call you to do things and give of yourself in ways the world thinks crazy. You might end up going on a mission trip to Haiti or India or Cherokee country. You might devote some of your hard-earned money or use some of your leisure time to serve neighbors in places like Chevy Chase or the Saint Vincent's ministry to the homeless. You might commit yourself to the members of your small group, living together in mutual faith and accountability as you grow together as disciples.

Jesus’ love will so fill you though that you’ll hardly give crazy sacrifices like these a second thought.

When you follow the Lord Who has given His life for you, giving your life in return to Him doesn’t seem outrageous.

In gratitude for grace, you’ll willingly live and die for the Savior Who has already lived, and died, and risen for you.

It’s then that our Lord will look at your life and improbably, miraculously, and truthfully call it what it could never be if you were your own lord: perfect! Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This was prepared for worship that happened yesterday.]