Tonight's Weeknight Bible Study of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13

Transformation from the Gentle Savior

[This is the message prepared for presentation at the funeral of Elmer, a member of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. The funeral took place earlier this evening.]

Matthew 11:28-30
Mark 1:15
Galatians 5:22-23
John 11:21-27
Yesterday, I visited with one of the people in our congregation who knew Elmer best. He told me, with conviction, “Elmer was the gentlest man I ever met.” This echoes Sharon’s words: “Elmer was a gentleman.” Someone just told me, "He was a gentle giant."

The dictionary says that one way the word gentleman can be defined is, “...a man whose conduct conforms to a high standard of propriety or correct behavior.” That’s certainly part of what marked Elmer as a gentleman. But even more, I think, Elmer had a gentle spirit, a servant’s heart. In Elmer, love for God and love for neighbor was manifest in a simple willingness to do for others.

Everyone who got to know Elmer at Living Water can attest to his gentleness. On learning of Elmer’s passing, one member of the congregation wrote, “Loved Elmer's hugs and smiles. Heaven has a beautiful saint. I will miss him!”

Elmer was also a man who loved to have fun. He had a ready laugh, liked to dance and play golf (and did so nearly to the end of his life) and spend time with people.

Where exactly did Elmer’s gentle, loving personality come from? Well, genetics played its part, I’m sure. And he likely was nurtured to be such a person by his family. Nature and nurture have their effect. 

But I think that there was a deeper reason for why Elmer was the kind of man he was.

You know, Jesus invites all we human beings--sinful mortals in need of saving--to daily turn from sin and turn instead to Him for the forgiveness of our sins and life with God that begins in this imperfect world and that will be brought to perfection when all who trust or believe in Jesus will be raised from the dead just like Jesus.

Jesus speaks of this promise a lot. 

For example, Jesus once told the crowds that were thronging around Him: “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent [that is, turn from and repudiate your sin] and believe the good news!” [Mark 1:15] 

The good news is what Jesus talked about on another occasion: “For God so loved the world [He said] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16] 

But what interests me in connection with Elmer is how Jesus talked about the good news--the gospel--that saves those who lay down their sins and trust their lives to Him in yet another verse of the Bible. There Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30]

The gentleness of spirit we all observed in Elmer came from the Savior in Whom he believed. 

This is the Savior Who promises that if we will lay down the burdens of sin, death, and futility into which we’re all born, and take on instead, the yoke of being a follower of Jesus, this gentle, humble Savior will give rest, serenity, peace to our souls. 

Once we rest easy in Jesus, we have nothing to prove to God or the world, no incentive to crawl over others in order to stand out or be successful, only to do our best to love God and love others in response to what God has done for us in Christ. 

When we daily renounce our sins and daily follow Jesus, we are infused with the power to live with the joy, hope, life, compassion for others, and being at ease in our skin that we saw in Elmer. 

Through our faith in Jesus, God unleashes the Holy Spirit in our lives and we reflect the very gentleness we all so appreciated about Elmer. 

God’s Word tells us, “...the fruit of the Spirit [the evidence of God living in us] is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” [Galatians 5:22-23] This is what we saw in Elmer.

Of course, the good news of new life through faith in Jesus transforms much more than our lives on this planet. It also gives us an eternity with God, an eternity without fear or death, without goodbyes or grief, without pain or sorrow. It gives us a life with God that never ends. 

In the passage we read a few moments ago, we’re told about Jesus going to the little village of Bethany, where a friend of his, a man named Lazarus, has just died. One of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha, is upset with Jesus and tells Him that if He had been around to help Lazarus, her brother would still be alive. But Jesus reminds her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

Because he believed in Jesus, trusted Jesus as the Lord of his life, the gentleman we remember today, Elmer, will enjoy a perfect life with God that never ends. I’m sure that Elmer wants nothing less than that for all of you. 

Let the gentle Savior Jesus cover your sin, overcome your mortality, and give you life with God. 

Let Jesus into your life to give you life eternally and to transform you in His gentle image each and every day. Amen

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

When I Look at the World by U2

I've had this song in my head and playing on my computer all day long.

It fits perfectly with tomorrow's second Bible lesson, which I'll be talking about during worship, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. I even thought of playing this video during worship. But it would be a bit too long and not leave time to do the passage justice.

In the passage, Paul talks about how being "in Christ," in relationship with Jesus, empowers us to see people and the whole world differently, through the eyes of Christ. I find that this transformation of perspective is far from complete in me. (I know that it will never be complete on this side of the grave as the old Mark still daily battles with the new Mark. That transformation will only be perfected after I have been raised with all the other dead in Christ.)

Like Bono though, I pray that God will help me to feel and see things more like He does.

I aspire to pray with sincerity each day the same petition offered by the late Bob Pierce: "Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”

Frequently, I confess to God the frustration I feel with myself, as Bono does at the end of the song: "Tell me, tell me, what do you see? / Tell me, tell me, what's wrong with me?"

"Change my heart, make it ever true / Change my heart, O God / May I be like You / You are the Potter / I am the clay / Mold me and make me / This is what I pray."

About the Man Who Cried, "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

[I received this on December 7, as one of my colleague Glen VanderKloot's daily emailed inspirations. It tells a story I had never read before. God is still in the business of transforming lives for all eternity!]

The Story of Mitsuo Fuchida

[Mitsuo] Fuchida grew up loving his native Japan and hating the
United States, which treated Asian immigrants harshly in the
first half of the twentieth century. Fuchida attended a military
academy, joined Japan's Naval Air Force, and by 1941, with
10,000 flying hours behind him, had established himself as
the nation's top pilot. When Japanese military leaders needed
someone to command a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor,
they chose Fuchida.


Fuchida's was the voice that sent his aircraft carrier the
message "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!) indicating
the success of the surprise mission. Later, he too was surprised
when he learned that, of the 70 officers who participated in
the raid, he was the only one who returned alive. He had
another close call when he was shot down during the battle
of Midway in 1942, but despite serious injuries, he survived again.

By 1945 he had attained the position of the Imperial Navy's
Air Operations Officer. On August 6 he was eating breakfast
in Nara, Japan, where a new military headquarters was under
construction, when he heard about a bomb dropped on
Hiroshima. He flew to investigate, then sent a grim report
to the Imperial Command.

On the same day, an American POW named Jacob DeShazer
felt moved by the Holy Spirit to pray for peace. DeShazer had
been in captivity since 1942, when, as a member of Doolittle's
Raiders, he dropped bombs near Tokyo and then was forced
to parachute into a Japanese-controlled part of China.

While imprisoned, first in Nanjing and later in Beijing,
DeShazer had become a Christian. He found his heart softened
toward his Japanese captors. After being liberated, DeShazer
wrote a widely distributed essay, "I Was a Prisoner of the
Japanese," detailing his experiences of capture, conversion,
and forgiveness.

Fuchida and DeShazer met in 1950. DeShazer had returned
to Japan in 1948 as a missionary. Fuchida had read DeShazer's
testimony, bought a Bible, and converted from Buddhism to
Christianity. DeShazer had recently finished a 40-day fast for
revival in Japan when Fuchida came to his home and introduced
himself. DeShazer welcomed the new convert and encouraged
him to be baptized. While DeShazer continued to plant churches
throughout Japan, Fuchida became an evangelist, spreading a
message of peace and forgiveness in his native country and
throughout Asian-American communities.


Fuchida died 25 years ago, on May 30, 1976. Like dynamite
inventor Alfred Nobel, who wished his legacy to be one of peace
rather than destruction, Fuchida wanted the message of his
changed heart to supersede the memory of his infamous attack.

He wrote, "That morning [December 7] ... I lifted the curtain
of warfare by dispatching that cursed order, and I put my whole
effort into the war that followed. ... [But] after buying and reading
the Bible, my mind was strongly impressed and captivated.
I think I can say today without hesitation that God's grace has
been set upon me."

Elisha Coffman*


Scripture: James 3:17-18 [NUV]

17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure;
then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and
good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in
peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Prayer:

Lord, use us to bring your peace and hope to others,
even the most unlikely characters.
Amen

*************************************************

[Photos above, top: Mitsuo Fuchida as a young Japanese Imperial Navy officer; bottom: Fuchida, photographed during his later years, while serving as a Christian evangelist.]

*This piece was written in 2001, on the sixtieth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.