Sunday, May 23, 2010

Send, O Lord, Your Holy Spirit (John 15:26,27; 16:4-11)

Dear friends in Christ.

Back in the 1800’s or possibly even earlier than that, an unknown hymn writer wrote the words to the hymn which our hymnals number as 545, Send, O Lord, Your Holy Spirit. Originally appearing in a book containing both secular and sacred songs for use in Lutheran elementary schools, the heading for this hymn read, “For the installation of a Teacher.” And if you think about it, what better song or hymn could be sung at the installation of a Teacher than a song that is a prayer to the Lord that he would send his Holy Spirit upon this servant so that he might faithfully carry out his duties of teaching young children the precious truths of salvation in Christ Jesus our Savior. Well, today, as we celebrate the festival of Pentecost, we join our hearts and voices in that same prayer as we ask the Lord our God to send his Holy Spirit just as he promised to do. In fact, this is the very thing that our Savior is promising to do for us as John records in our text. Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. ” “I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ” (John 15:26,27; 16:4–7, NIV)

Now, when Jesus spoke these words, it was the second time he had clearly promised his disciples that he would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to them who would teach them all things, remind them of all he had told them, and enable them to testify to the Word. Though he had promised to send the Holy Spirit maybe an hour earlier while he and his disciples were reclining in the upper room, they had now left the comfort of that room and were most likely sitting together in Gethsemane where Jesus would soon be arrested and taken from their side, be handed over to be crucified, and give his life over to death. Though the disciples would see him again after his resurrection, no longer would have spend time with them like he did before his crucifixion. Thus in his last moments with his disciples, he promises them that he would not leave them alone, but that after he had departed, he would send them the Comforter—the Holy Spirit who would testify about Jesus, who would enable the disciples to testify as well, and who, through that very testimony, would convict the world of sin and unbelief.

It was this very promise, to send the Holy Spirit that Jesus fulfilled as he sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples roughly two months later, on the Day of Pentecost. Just, as Luke told us in our second lesson, from Acts 2: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. ” (Acts 2:1–4, NIV)

What an incredible day it must have been for the disciples when Jesus delivered on his promise to send the Holy Spirit. What an incredible thing it must have been to be in that house, hearing the sound of a rushing wind moving through the house and yet, not a single curtain, drapery, or even shade fluttered in the slightest. What an incredible thing it must have been to see the tongues of fire separating and lighting on their heads, yet not one of the hairs on their heads was singed. What an incredible thing that suddenly these men who had received little to no schooling were able to speak in other languages as the Holy Spirit enabled them! What an incredible thing it must have been for them to realize that this was the very thing of which Jesus had been speaking when he had told them, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. ” (John 15:26,27; 16:7–11, NIV)

Jesus delivered exactly what he had promised when he sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples on that Pentecost Day, for just as Jesus had said, the Holy Spirit came to them testifying about Jesus to the disciples upon whom he came and through the disciples upon whom he came. On that day, the Holy Spirit testified about Jesus to all the peoples of the world who had gathered in Jerusalem. Through the disciples whom he had blessed with the ability to speak all sorts of different languages, The Holy Spirit testified about Jesus and convicted those present in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment. Just listen to what Peter had to say in his sermon to the people present that day: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. …Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. …Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. …Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. ” (Acts 2:14–17, 22–24, 29–33, 36–41, NIV)

Through the work of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to his disciples, 3000 people were cut to the heart and convicted of their sins. 3000 people realized that they were sinners who had not believed in the Jesus, the Messiah whom the Lord had sent to save them from their sins. 3000 people came to realize that the righteousness they thought they had could not possibly measure up to the righteousness of Jesus, the Sinless Son of God. 3000 people realized that if they continued on in the way they were going they would receive the very same judgment that satan had received when Jesus died and rose again. Through the testimony of the Holy Spirit proclaimed by the disciples on that Pentecost Day, 3000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, received the declaration of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus and found that since they had been judged as God’s chosen people through faith, they were free from the judgment that the Lord had declared on the prince of this world.

This is what the Holy Spirit is still doing for you and me today, which is why our prayer today is that the Lord would send his Holy Spirit to us so that he might still testify to us about Jesus Christ our Savior. Our prayer is that the Lord would send his Holy Spirit to us so the Holy Spirit might continue to testify to us about Christ Jesus our Savior, so that we too, through the Holy Spirit might go out and testify to the world about our Savior. This is why it is so important for each and every one of us to gather regularly for worship whether we are enjoying time at home or we’re away on vacation. This is why it is so important for each and every one of us to be in the Word of God on a regular basis. This is why it is so important for our children to gather for Sunday School and confirmation Class. This is why it is so important for our Adults to gather each week to delve deeper into the truths of God in Bible Study. It is so important to us because it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit still comes to us, speaks to us, testifies to us about Jesus, and prepares and enables us to testify about Jesus whenever we are asked about our faith.

This is also why I have often encouraged you to consider sending your children to Christian Grade Schools in St. Peter or Belle Plaine, and to consider sending your children to MVL for a Christian High School education. I have often encouraged you to consider our Lutheran Elementary Schools and High School because it is in these schools that children are surrounded with the word of God in the same way that children in our public schools are surrounded by evolution. Not please understand what I’m saying. We have a great public school system here. Our children receive an excellent education in our public school. Never the less, many of you parents have spoken about how your children speak about evolution as fact, and I have had students question the validity of the Creation account in Confirmation Class, and even argue against it. This is why I have encouraged you to consider utilizing our Lutheran Schools so that your child might be surrounded with the Word of God, so that your child will be taught from the perspective of Scriptural authority, so that through that daily connection with God’s Word, the Holy Spirit can continually work in your children’s hearts and strengthen their faith and their love for their Savior. In fact, if you want an example of this, just look at my children know about their Savior and how their faith shines through in everything they say and do simply because the Holy Spirit has the opportunity to testify to them through God’s Word on a daily basis.

Because the Lord Jesus has sent his Holy Spirit to us through his Word, we now hear him testifying to us about Jesus our Savior. He is also the one who now enables us to testify to the world about Jesus our Savior. He is the one who enables us to share our faith with others in the world so that they too might know what we believe. He is the one who uses those small testimonies to convict the world in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. For through those moments when we share our faith, he is able to speak to the heart and convict that person in regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment. Sometimes it will be a clear victory as the person reacts like the 3000 on Pentecost who recognized their sins and were called to faith in Jesus and were added to the kingdom of God on that day. Sometimes it will be a more prolonged process as the Holy Spirit continues to convict that person in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment through our regular discussions of faith or our continually invites to worship. But sometimes it will be victory that displays the Lord’s glory and righteousness as the person simply refuses to listen to the Holy Spirit, remains trapped in their sins and unrighteousness and continues on the path that will lead to their eternal judgment. Though God our Savior does want all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth not everyone will. Though we are saddened to see those who reject the Holy Spirit in this way, God’s righteousness shines through in their choice to refuse the gift of salvation which the Lord Jesus has given us through the Holy Spirit.

Thus, our prayer today, has been that prayer written so many years ago, by an anonymous German hymn writer, “Send, O Lord, your Holy Spirit,” which is exactly what our Savior has done for us. He is the one who promised to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples, even before he was taken from them. He is the one who delivered on that promise on the Day of Pentecost when he sent the Holy Spirit in a stunning display of power and might. He is the one who continues to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts through the Word that he has given us.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN

Sunday, May 9, 2010

What will heaven be like? (Revelation 21:10-14, 22,23)

Dear friends in Christ.

How many of you have ever been asked the question, “What will heaven be like?” How many of you found yourself giving an answer something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure.”? How many of you have wished that you had a better answer to that question, not only for the person who asked it of you, but also for yourself? Well, if you’ve ever been asked that question, or simply wished for a better answer, you are not alone, because the truth is, so often we simply aren’t exactly sure how to answer the question of what heaven will be like. We aren’t exactly sure how to answer that question so we take the most “heavenly” thing that we do here on earth and imagine that is what heaven will be like and use it to draw a picture for ourselves of what we think heaven might be like. Well, this is very much like what the Lord our God does for us as he gives us a glimpse into what heaven will be like in our text today. Though we may not find all the specific details about heaven that we might have hoped to find, we will certainly find that heaven is a place that is filled with the glory of our God and it is a place that the Lord our God designed specifically for his people. Just as John tells us in our text this morning: “And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb…I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ” (Revelation 21:10-14, 22–23, NIV)

What an incredible picture the Lord our God paints for us through the pen of the Apostle John. What a beautiful picture of the glories of heaven that are waiting for us, and what a beautiful sight it must have been for John to see. What an amazing thing it must have been for him to witness the City of God shining in all of its splendor and coming down from heaven. What an incredible vision of heaven as the place filled with the glory of God, and yet, even though you and I have never been blessed with such a remarkable vision as this, we have all still received a taste, a glimpse of the type of glorious brilliance that John saw when he saw exactly what heaven will be like; for the truth is, we have all seen the brilliance of the sun. We have all had many an opportunity to drive East as the sun is breaking the horizon and slowly creeping its unblinking way across our windshields. We have all had the opportunity of driving West as that unblinking eye grows redder and more weary, finally allowing the lid of the horizon to close over it for the evening. Though it can be more than frustrating to get locked into a staring competition with God’s great light in the sky, we have all seen how, during those special times of day, everything that the sun’s gaze touches seems to glow with its own special kind of radiance.

Though this is nowhere near the glory that was revealed to John in his vision, it does give us a taste of what heaven will be like as it gives us a glimpse into the glories that he saw when he saw the Holy City, Jerusalem, shining with the radiance of the glories of the Lord. For in that moment, he saw the brilliance that Moses saw on Mt. Sinai when he asked the Lord if he could see him face to face. He saw the same brilliance the Israelites saw as the glory of the Lord descended on the temple after Solomon had finished construction on it. This was the same brilliance that Elijah saw when the Lord God called him to be his prophet, it was the same radiance that John and the other two disciples saw as Jesus was transfigured before them, and this is the glory that John saw revealed in the kingdom of heaven which he has recorded for us in such beautiful pictures.

Yet, some of you might be asking yourselves, “Why in all the world does the Lord use pictures to explain what heaven will be like for us? Why doesn’t he just simply tell us?” Well, the answer to that is quite simple, we cannot fully understand what heaven is like because of our limited, sinful minds, so the Lord uses pictures to help us grab hold of and imagine the place where he dwells in glorious majesty. When Martin Luther described heaven to his 6 year old son, he described it as a garden where he could play with other children, ride ponies with silver saddles, and pick the best fruit from all the trees. When I’ve described it to my own children, I’ve talked about heaven as a place where their favorite toys will be, they can play games with their friends and relatives who are waiting for them, and even Jesus himself will sit down and join in the games with them. I’ve heard many other people describe heaven with many different pictures, but truly what better way to describe the place where our God dwells in all his glory than the way that John did in verse 23 of our text when he said, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Revelation 21:23).

It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God helps us to understand the incomprehensible beauties of heaven. It is through these very pictures and images that the Lord our God makes the abstract nature of eternal life a concrete thing for us to focus on. Though we do not know the exact glories that await us in our heavenly home, we look forward to the day when our Lord will call us to shine with the brightness of his glory in the place that he has so lovingly and carefully designed for each and every one of his people.

Though there are many places in the Scriptures where the Lord reveals just how lovingly and carefully he has designed the halls of heaven for his people, I believe that one of the most beautiful descriptions can be found right here in our text as John writes beginning with verse 10: And [the Angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” and jumping down to verse 22: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.” (Revelation 21:12-14,22-27).

This is what the Lord has prepared for us—a place where we will live with the Lord our God, forever; a place where we will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones, who through faith, have been called home, before us; a place that Jesus himself has prepared for us. But even with such beautiful and stirring descriptions of what heaven will be like, I have actually had a few people ask me why they needed to be looking forward to the beauties of heaven and why the Lord needed to design such a beautiful home in haven if this earth is already such a beautiful place? Well, the answer to both of those questions can be summed up in one word, sin! Though the Lord did truly design a beautiful home for us here on this earth, when Adam and Eve listened to satan rather than the Lord our God it destroyed the perfect beauty of God’s creation and brought an end to the perfect relationship that our first parents had with the Lord their God. When sin came into the world it separated people from their God and because of sin, we continually fall short of God’s glory even though we daily struggle to follow his will.

Though we might strive to live perfect, sinless lives, constantly showing our love for our Savior by always obeying his will, because of our sins, we are simply unable to live the perfect lives our God demands, and we find ourselves kneeling at the foot of the cross begging forgiveness on a daily and even hourly basis. Though we know our sins have been forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we still face frustration and hardships in this life, pain and suffering, even heartache and pain. Though there are times when the stormy Navy blue skies are contrasted by the bright spectrum of the Lord’s rainbow, and we see great beauty in this world, it is nothing like the sinless beauty that our Savior designed for us in our heavenly home. Thus, we look forward to the day when the Lord our God will call us from this life to the life that is to come. We look forward to the day when we will be freed from this world of sins and delivered to the home of righteousness, which our Savior has so lovingly prepared for each and every one of his children.

What an incredible picture the Lord has painted for us through his servant John! What an incredible picture of the beauties of heaven which the Lord our Savior has designed for his people! What an incredible picture of beauty and peace where we will live with the Lord forever! For there, in the halls of heaven, we will be safe with the Lord our Savior forever. We will be free from the curse of sin. We will be free from our enemies. We will be free from all that is not God pleasing, and we will live with him forever serving our God in everlasting righteousness innocence and blessedness. We will be reunited with all our friends and loved ones who in faith have gone before us. We will live with the Lord Jesus himself. That is what heaven will be like!

What greater thing could there be for us to look forward to than the beauties of heaven which Jesus himself has prepared for us. What greater place could there be in all the world than the glorious kingdom of our God! Though we may not have received all the details we had hoped for, we have received a great picture of the glories of our heavenly home, which the Lord has prepared for us. If nothing else, hopefully we will be better prepared to answer that question when it comes, “What will heaven be like?”

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Live in Your Savior's Love (John 13:31-35)

Dear friends in Christ.

Back in 2005, a 92 year old man named Dick Hillis went home to be with the Lord. Now, I don’t know about you, but Dick Hillis was a man I had never heard about until this past Friday when I ran across something he had written. After doing a little research into who he was, I learned that he was a man who lived in his Savior’s love and his love for his Savior. From a young age, he served as a missionary in China. He faithfully founded and formed partnerships with a number of missionary societies for the purpose of proclaiming salvation in the Nation of China. He wrote books about his experiences which revealed how he daily lived in his Savior’s love.

In one of his books entitled Love is a Costly Thing, Hillis writes about a woman who willingly paid the ultimate price out of love for her little girl. Hillis writes, “She was lying on the ground. In her arms she held a tiny baby girl. As I put a cooked sweet potato into her outstretched hand, I wondered if she would live until morning. Her strength was almost gone, but her tired eyes acknowledged my gift. The sweet potato could help so little -- but it was all I had. Taking a bite she chewed it carefully. Then, placing her mouth over her baby's mouth, she forced the soft warm food into the tiny throat. Although the mother was starving, she used the entire potato to keep her baby alive. Exhausted from her effort, she dropped her head on the ground and closed her eyes. In a few minutes the baby was asleep. I later learned that during the night the mother's heart stopped, but her little girl lived.”

Because of her great love, this woman gave up her own life so that her little baby might live. In the same way, it was because of his great love for us that the Lord our God did not even spare his one and only Son, but graciously gave him up for us all. It was because of his great love that Jesus Christ our Savior orchestrated the events of his life so that they would lead him to the cross where he willingly laid down his life for his people. This is the very love that our Savior is revealing to us today. This is the love that led Jesus toward and through his passion, and this is the very love in which our Savior is calling us to live today. Just as he tells us in our text: “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:31–35, NIV)

Now, when Jesus spoke these words, he was in the upper room with his disciples. It was Maundy Thursday evening and Jesus had only a few hours left with his disciples. What a special time it must have been as Jesus had so clearly revealed his love to his disciples in everything that he said and did, from the washing of their feet to identifying Judas as his betrayer. In fact, just before Jesus spoke these words, he gave Judas the bread he had dipped in the dish and Judas went out, setting into motion the very events that would lead to Jesus’ death. Yet even as Judas goes out into the night to put his nefarious plan into action, Jesus sees himself and his Father as glorified by what Judas does. The painful scene with Judas is replaced by a blessed scene in which Jesus shows the eleven the glory that is his as the Scriptures are being brought into fulfillment, and his love for his disciples as well as all of fallen mankind now leads him to go forward stepping through his passion, his suffering and his death so that through it he might free us from our sins.

This is the very love that we remembered during the Season of Lent as weekly we reviewed the Passion History. This is the very love that Jesus revealed as he spoke to Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, calling him friend, even as he betrayed Jesus. This is the love that Jesus revealed as he stood silently before the courts allowing himself to be mocked and ridiculed, whipped and beaten, convicted of death and finally crucified. In the same way that the mother in the introduction willingly sacrificed herself so that her baby could live, so also Jesus’ love for us led him to sacrifice himself for us so that we might live. This is the reason we have a cross in front of our church. We have it as a reminder of our Savior’s love for us; the love that led him through his passion. We have it as a remember of our Savior’s great love for us, the love in which we now live—the love that now leads us to put our own love into action by loving each other as we live in our Savior’s love for us.

Let me illustrate that point with another story. In his book, Dad, The Family Coach, Dave Simmons writes, “Two weeks after the stolen steak deal, I took Helen (eight years old) and Brandon (five years old) to the Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As we drove up, we spotted a Peterbilt eighteen-wheeler parked with a big sign on it that said, "Petting Zoo." The kids jumped up in a rush and asked, "Daddy, Daddy. Can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?" "Sure," I said, flipping them both a quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away, and I felt free to take my time looking for a scroll saw. …A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong. She looked up at me with those giant limpid brown eyes and said sadly, "Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter." Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto…"Love is Action!" She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy take my steak and say, "Love is Action!" She had watched both of us do and say "Love is Action!" for years around the house and Kings Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen "Love is Action," and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her. What do you think I did? Well, not what you might think. As soon as I finished my errands, I took Helen to the petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence and just watched Brandon. I had fifty cents burning a hole in my pocket; I never offered it to Helen, and she never asked for it, because she knew the whole family motto. It's not "Love is Action." It's "Love is SACRIFICIAL Action!" Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love is expensive. When you love, benefits accrue to another's account. Love is for you, not for me. Love gives; it doesn't grab. Helen gave her quarter to Brandon and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She knew she had to taste the sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total family motto. Love is sacrificial action.

As we live in our Savior’s love, Jesus calls on us to love each other, which is exactly what he is doing in our text as he says, “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ” (John 13:33–35, NIV)

In the same way that Helen showed her love for her brother by giving him her quarter, so also our Savior desires to see his love for us lead us to love each other, yet, how often don’t we do the exact opposite? Even though we are a close knit community of believers, how often don’t we allow gossip and juicy stories about this person or that person permeate our minds and seep into the stories we tell to each other. How often aren’t we more ready to go to our friends and complain about what Pastor said here, what the council did there, what a member did or said in your hearing, but we are not even willing to go to the person who offended as Scripture calls us to do and make things right. Or just last week; how many of you compared your own confirmation with this year’s confirmation class? How many of you compared what you had to learn, memorize, recite and answer with what they were required to do, and how many of you found fault with it because in your opinion it wasn’t nearly enough? Or you felt that they hadn’t been pushed hard enough or simply felt that more could be required of them. How many of you, if you had been in the same situation as Helen and Brandon, how many of you would have insisted that you get the quarter so that you could go in to the petting zoo, grudgingly given your quarter away, or simply kept your quarter in your pocket figuring that if you couldn’t go, neither would your brother?

So often we allow our own sinful attitudes get in the way of letting our Savior’s love for us lead us to love each other. So often we have walked in these doors and sat in these pews weighed down with the burden of our sins. So often we have come here knowing our failures and cried out to our Lord begging his mercy and his forgiveness, and that gentle whisper of the Gospel assures us of his love and his forgiveness. So often we have come up to this altar to receive our Savior’s body and blood and have left with tears in our eyes because we have been overwhelmed by his love and his mercy and his forgiveness. So often we have come bruised and battered almost ready to give up, and something in one of the lessons, or the sermon, or one of the hymns stirs in our hearts and we are strengthened and assured of our Savior’s love, and we are ready to go out those doors and continue living in his love. We are once again moved to action by our Savior’s Sacrificial love for us, by his crucifixion and resurrection, by his work in our lives; we are moved once again to love each other in all that we say and all that we do. We are moved to give our first and our best offerings to the Lord so that we might continue on serving him in this location. We are led to work along side of each other, as I saw so many people doing at our clean up day yesterday. We are led to defend each other, speak well of each other, and take each other’s words and actions in the kindest possible way. For when we are assured of forgiveness and feel that burden lifted, we are once again ready to live in our Savior’s love and reveal ourselves as his disciples as we show our love to one another in every aspect of life.

This is the love that our Savior has for us, and this is the love in which we live. I pray that as you continue to live in your Savior’s love you would always recognize just how great that love is! For in the same way that the woman in our introduction willingly sacrificed herself so that her baby might live, so also our Savior’s love for us led him to the cross and death in our place. In the same way that Helen put her love into action by giving her brother her quarter so he could get into the petting zoo, so also our Savior’s love for us now moves us to put our love into action as we love each other in the Lord. May the Lord build you up in his love so that his love continually overflows in your live and extends to those around you so that through your words and actions, others might know your Savior in whose love you continue to live.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN