Predestined for Adoption

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

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” With these words, St. Paul begins his letter to the saints at Ephesus, giving thanks to God that He had called the Ephesian Christians to faith, as He had planned to do from before all ages.

Like the Ephesians, you too have been chosen before the foundation of the world. What a wonderful comfort this message gives! God has chosen you! Of all the people who have ever lived, God has foreknown your life and being, and He has chosen that you should be saved from sin, death, and hell.

God has chosen you, that He might bless you “with every spiritual blessing” through Jesus Christ. He has predestined you to be created, redeemed, and sanctified by His holy Word and Spirit. He has predestined you “for adoption as sons”, that you might be His own dear children, just as He is your own dear Father. He has elected you for salvation, that you might “be holy and blameless before Him” by the forgiveness of your sins in Jesus Christ. What a wonderful, comforting, hope-giving message St. Paul preaches.

“They Will Know That a Prophet Has Been Among Them”

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

How do you know that God is here? Many people wonder about the presence of God in our midst, and how you can actually know that God is here. Furthermore, even if you know that God is in your midst, for what reason is He here? Does God come to bless and to give love and life, or does He come to judge and condemn and kill? How can you know? By His Word, in which the Lord reveals Himself and His will for you and for all mankind.

Ezekiel reports in today's Old Testament lesson that “The Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet.” He was called by God directly and immediately to preach the Word to the people of Israel. In Ezekiel's time, the people of God were in exile in Babylon, and many had given up the faith of their fathers – however weak that had been – and settled into a sort of sad agnosticism, some paying lip service to the gods of their pagan captors.

Laying Hold of Jesus

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

One of the things common to man is the tendency to doubt the things of God. In fact, during the Age of Enlightenment, it became something of a fad to doubt the existence of God, or anything that could not be empirically measured and analyzed. The French philosopher Rene Descartes asserted that, “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.” It took awhile, but eventually this tendency toward doubt even has spilled over into the Church.

From an human perspective, doubting is much easier than believing. After all, creation is inexplicable. For how many centuries has man been attempting to unravel the mystery of the beginning of the universe? Some propose the Big Bang Theory. Others say it always has been. Who knows? How can we ever really figure out our own origins?

An (In)Convenient Truth

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

A number of years ago, Al Gore released his book, An Inconvenient Truth, a supposed bombshell about climate change and the need for reform in our energy consumption. Regardless of what you think of the book, Al Gore, or climate change, he did hit upon a curious, but helpful way of speaking about the truth.

Often, the truth of a matter is inconvenient. It is unhandy to confront reality in many circumstances. To confront the facts means that you must do something about them. You must change. You must account for your own behavior with regard to them. It is especially inconvenient when the facts of the matter are something you do not want to hear, when they force changes you do not want to make.

Such is the person and work of St. John the Baptist. Even from his very beginning, John was inconvenient to those around him. His conception was announced by the angel Gabriel in such a manner that his father Zechariah doubted the angel's word, and for such was rendered mute for the next nine months. Rather than following social norms, the foretold child received the name John, as was instructed by the angel.

"He Knows Not How"

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

Chances are, you like to feel needed, in some way or another. It feels good to be needed, to feel as though others value your existence, your contributions, your input into the general system of life. You probably do a lot of things because you are needed to do them.

Oftentimes, this is a display of the human desire for appreciation. You want to feel as though your life has meaning, so you look to the work of your hands to gain that appreciation for you. When others see the work you do, they appreciate how hard you work, how skilled you are, how dedicated to your craft. Whether in measure large or small, you want to be appreciated, to be needed, to be wanted.

This is a common motivation for those in various fields of service, as opposed to those who make concrete “things”. Those who serve others generally do so out of a desire to make a difference in the world around them. What that means varies from person to person, as you might see in the wide range of services in which people engage. The common thread is this desire to somehow change the world around you for the better, to leave your mark.

Fear and Hope

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

The fear of God is an awful thing. Stop and think about it for a moment. God has the power to end your existence, simply by willing it. He can crush you like you swat a fly. His judgment is so terrible and so beyond comprehension that it makes the earth itself quake and the seas foam. He makes the foundations of His temple shake, and the angels, His holy servants, hide their faces from Him.

Fear can paralyze and destroy. Luther was deathly frightened of any contact with God before he discovered the Gospel. He thought that God was only a God of wrath and judgment, waiting in heaven to strike down man to hell for failing to keep even the most minute part of the Law. Luther perceived only the sword of the Spirit cutting him apart.

But, as terrible as the fear of the Lord can be, having no fear of God is even worse. Having no fear of judgment leads to lawlessness. What do you do when you think nobody is looking? At the very least, having no fear of punishment leads to laziness, because there is no consequence to not getting anything done.

The Spirit Blows Where He Wills

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

The Spirit blows where He wills. This is a great truth of the Christian faith. It is also a great mystery to Christians. The Spirit blows where He wills: is this Law or Gospel? Is it good news or bad?

In a very real, forthright sense, it is Law. The Spirit blows where He wills. You cannot control Him. He starts where you cannot see Him, and He comes and goes as He pleases. He is here when He presents Himself. He promises to be where the Gospel is preached, but He does not guarantee to remain where He is not received. He blows upon whomever He chooses, and He calls to faith those whom He wants.

You are not the standard of the Spirit's work. He does not visit those you wish He would, simply because you think He should. He does not flow here or there, doing what you would like. As little as you can direct the wind, even less can you direct the Spirit's coming and going. He may convert those filthy heathens that make you recoil in horror, because He loves them too. He may not convert your loved ones who shut their ears and their hearts.