Epiphany 6, 2012, Immanuel Chapel, Psalm 30
Psalm 30 v.11 You have turned for my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
Nearly every day I walk through St. Lucas cemetery. The residents’ are a quiet and laid back crowd. Their below ground homes are marked by staid stones of granite, with names and dates carved upon them. But if I am walking at 1pm on a nice day, I can see little bodies bobbing up and down moving on one of the roads that passes between the immovable granite stones. These are preschool children on their way to the playground set in one corner of the cemetery. In the midst of death they are life and liveliness. They are a sign that our old enemy, death, will not be forever dragging us down to its basement apartments.
One day the trumpet of God will blow and our Lord Jesus will return and call forth that quiet crowd who populate the cities of granite. Those who were let down into their underground homes trusting in Christ’s cross and empty grave, though their bodies were worn and broken, though they went down surrounded by mourning and grief, will burst forth into the light of Christ, changed, given imperishable bodies. The Lord will, according to his promise, turn their mourning into dancing. Then they will be free and able, with joy filled hearts, hands, legs, and feet, to dance upon their graves.
The writer of Psalm 30 begins, “I will exalt you, O lord, for you have drawn me up…you have brought up my soul from Sheol.” In some way he had descended into the pits like Joseph, thrown into the well by his brothers or Jeremiah cast into an empty cistern by his enemies. Clinging to the rope of faith the Lord had pulled him out of his deep well of despair. He rejoices because the Lord has not let his foes dance upon his grave.
I wonder how Homer and Janet Drew are hearing Psalm 30 this morning. Their story was featured on the sports page of Friday’s edition of the Post Dispatch. Homer had retired as basketball coach of Valparaiso University last spring. Son Bryce took over as coach. Like many retired couples they had planned to travel, to spend more time together. Their oldest son is coach at Baylor University. Daughter Dana had her basketball number retired at Toledo University this weekend.
In September, Homer and Janet were diagnosed with cancer, his prostate and hers bladder. They had surgeries one week apart. He is recovering well. She is in the fourth round of chemotherapy. Theirs is a story of life, love and the Lord. In many ways it’s the story of our lives, things going along swimmingly, then it all changes. It’s a story of love as Homer, often absent during his coaching days, now surprisingly, at least to his family, devotes his time to caring for his wife. It’s a story of the Lord. Son Bryce said, ‘So, it has changed the plans somewhat. But God is good, and we’re being faithful.” Older son Scott said, “The good thing is I know they’re going to Heaven when they pass, so I don’t have to worry about that.” Daughter Sana mentions twice that she feels blessed living only minutes away after spending more than a decade in Europe where her husband played basketball, and for the good times they had before both were diagnosed.”
But falling into the pit from which only God can pull us out is not limited to illness. The pit that saps our life can be long term difficulty in finding a job, or trapped in a job from which one dare not escape. Family crisis, abuse, unfaithfulness, divorce, addictions, depression all can leave us in the pit. The psalmist cried out to God for help “and you have healed me.” The word translated “healed” is also means “saved.” And what pit is there in which our Lord has not already entered? What depths of death and despair has he not already experienced? What cross might we bear that he has not already born?
Remember the Gospel lesson? “A leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, ‘if you will, you can make me clean.’ Pay particular attention to this, “Moved by pity, (Jesus) stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “Be clean.” Do you know what that meant when Jesus reached out and touched him? The man was clean, but Jesus became unclean. Jesus had turned the leper’s mourning into dancing. Jesus changed his life of separation from people, into one in which he could come right up to another person and, “Shall we dance?” Jesus took off the man’s life of sackcloth and clothed him in garments of gladness. In his gladness he danced right out and “began to talk freely about it and to spread the news.”
The Psalmist continues, “For (God’s) anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” What may seem like an endless time of living in the pit is but a moment in time when compared to the great compassion of the Lord. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
Once more the psalmist takes us back to the time of his affliction. He tells us of an interesting argument he used with God. “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?” What a great argument. “God you created me to praise you. And I have invited the congregation to join me in singing your praises and giving thanks to your holy name. Well, if you let me die, you won’t get anything out of it. The value of the praise rising up to you will be diminished without my voice. We will both lose out. But if you pull me out of my situation, it’s a win win situation. I praise you and you get the praise you want.”
Yesterday, I met with the elders at IHOP. At one point in our rather freewheeling discussion, one of the elders opined that I would like nothing better than to be able to just keel order in the middle of a sermon. In other words, die doing what I enjoy doing. I had to think for a moment. Then I said, “I’m having too much fun to die.” To go down into those underground edifices.
When I think of the Psalmist’s question, I picture God asking himself that question. “What profit is there in the death of Ron Jansen?“ The Lord has turned for me the mourning of my doctors and the life of sackcloth that they foresaw last June, into joy of the daily dance of ministry and clothed me with gladness; that I might continue to praise the Lord and tell of his faithfulness.
Let the words with which the psalmist concludes be our words as we praise him for our life and salvation, “O Lord my God, I will give thanks to your forever!” We shall Dance.
I found the article about former Valparaiso University basketball coach Homer Drew and his wife Janet who have both been diagnosed with cancer to be a story of life, love and the Lord.
Letter of Acceptance and Philosophy of Ministry
The following is excerpted from a much longer document that Dr. Aaron Jansen addressed to “the people of God at Peace in Christ Lutheran Church,” Walkersville, Maryland in accepting their call to be Minister of Music. My apologies, if I have cut out too much.
“We as heirs of Adam are bound in sinfulness and unrighteousness, deserving punishment before God today and for all tomorrows…Solely by the grace of God and faith alone in Christ Jesus…we are justified and credited as righteous before God. By faith, given by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, we are given the benefits that Christ earned on the cross.
…God…first acted to establish a relationship with us…A vertical relationship based upon love was established from God to us…Out of pure grace in Christ and without any merit of our own, we are forever assured of eternal life.
Now we...begin to understand why a group of .people who identify themselves as children of God gather and what makes these people and these gathering different from any number of clubs and organizations that exist…God loves us not for our works and accomplishments but because he created us in His own image and redeemed our fallen, sinful selves by His grace because of His love. God has chosen jus to proclaim that the love of God is the true source of life.
The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians describes the .purpose of music in a congregational setting…’when Christ’s people, the Baptized, gather for worship they receive God’s love in the word and sacrament, and through the gift of music, praise, pray, proclaim and recount the story of God’s grace in song.’
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, described music by God’s children. ‘It is not you that sing, it is the church that is singing, and you, as a member of it, may share in its song.’…One aspect of music ministry that is fulfilling is the ability to interact with all of God’s children at all age levels from the toddlers to adults…many times the small children have raised my spirits and quelled cynicism with their inherent exuberance for Jesus.
Jesus teaches us to replace power with love in our ministry, replace control with the cross and replace leading with being led. Henri Nouwen reflects in In the Name of Jesus, ‘It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life…It is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks the word of truth, not I; Jesus who is Lord, not I.’”
Aaron concludes, “God has blessed me with the opportunity to serve Him in a vocation that gives me great satisfaction, joy, and confidence.”
Speaking as a parent, I think back 32 years sitting in a farm house kitchen outside Marshfield, WI. while our seven year old sat at the piano in the living room with his first teacher, of our Norwegian elk hound laying by the piano in our living room listening to him practice, of a recital at Christ the King chapel at Valparaiso University.
“It’s well built,” said my younger brother Wayne. He is tearing down the farmhouse in which the three Jansen brothers grew up. “I’m doing it because it has to be done,” he explained.
According to story Rasmus Chritiansen, who homesteaded the farm on which I grew up, built the house around the turn of the century for a young wife he had just married. The house is in a T shape lying west to east. The leg of the T is a large kitchen - dining area. Open porches, which my parents enclosed, lined the north and south sides of the T. The T is crossed by a two story portion with three bedrooms and a stairway landing area large enough for a fourth room, making up the second floor. On the first floor is a roomy living room, a bedroom and another room which became a TV room, once we got a TV.
My parents bought the farm in the late 30’s. In prior years the house had been occupied by a number of renters. It was full of bugs. The maple flooring in the kitchen showed chop marks from when the area was used as a wood shed. The recommendation was to just tear it down, but my mother would not hear of it.
I recall a number of improvements were made in the late 40’s. Electricity was run. The wood burning cook stove was given to my newly married cousin “Bud” and his wife Doris. An electric range was installed. Running water allowed an indoor bathroom to be built out of a portion of the back porch. A wood furnace provided a central source of heat, though the heat never quite got to the upper back bedroom. When the temperature outside dropped to -20 or -30 frost appeared on the walls.
My earlier memories are of my mother sitting in front of the only register in the kitchen reading to me “The Song of the Lazy Farmer” from a farm magazine. I never thought about the racist overtones in “Little Black Sambo.” The thought of a tiger turning to butter caught my imagination. Tigers are still my favorite wild animal.
There are memories that aren’t so good, but the mind keeps them in the background. What emerges to the fore are birthdays parties, holiday meals, “thrashing” day supper, church choir practice, 4-H meetings, listening to radio comedies and dramas in pre TV days, watching Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show once we got a TV, making sausage and rendering lard on butchering day, the endless hauling of wood for the furnace, a skunk in the basement. Older brother Laurin spent most of one summer painting the house red while listening to baseball games on the Mutual Broadcasting Co.
No one has lived in the house for at least six years. It’s being lived in that makes a house a home. It is becoming a home to varmints of varying varieties. Like everything and everyone on this mortal coil, it has served its purpose well and its time has come. The location can be returned to the condition in which Rasmus Christiansen found it before he dug the cellar and laid the stone foundation for a house that became a home.
Epiphany 5, Immanuel Chapel, 2012, Mark 1:29-39
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our life this week would follow the pattern of the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 40? “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Perhaps we will soar like the eagles floating on currents of air above the Mississippi. Perhaps we shall run all week and come Saturday we are still refreshed. Perhaps our week will be walk in the park. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Our Gospel lesson presents a day in the life of Jesus. At the end of that day, not even Jesus was soaring on wings like an eagle.
Following the Sabbath service Peter invited Jesus to his house for some evening refreshments. Peter’s brother Andrew and James and John came along. When they arrived, they told Jesus that Peter’s mother-in-law was down with a fever. They took him to her. He took her hand, helped her up and she was well. She immediately began serving her guests.
When the Sabbath ended with the setting of the sun, people flocked to Peter’s front door hoping that Jesus would come out and heal them. Jesus willingly did so. He proclaimed not only in words but by his healing acts that the kingdom of God was invading this world to win it back to God. Jesus confronted Satan’s power in the arena of everyday life.
That night Jesus stayed at Peter’s home. While the rest were still sleeping, he got up and walked to an isolated place outside of town. Here, he prayed. When the rest of the household arose they discovered that their honored guest was absent. When Peter and some others found Jesus they informed him that everyone was hoping to see him. But for Jesus it was time to carry the good news of God’s kingdom to other villages.
As we reflect on our text today, it is important that we let it teach us in our life in our “today?”
First, Jesus has the authority to free us. On one occasion a person went back to a college for a reunion at homecoming. Part of the annual homecoming event was a tug of war between freshman and sophomores. At the center a mud filled pit awaited the losers. The struggle began between the two groups. It wasn’t long before the freshmen pulled the slipping, sliding sophomores through the muddy pit. After it was all over a sophomore, dripping with mud from head to toe, met an unmuddied classmate walking with his girlfriend. The muddy sophomore said to his classmate, “Where were you when we needed you?”
In the midst of life’s pain and crisis I’m sure many of us want to say to God, “Where are you God, when I need you?” We sing: “My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness…” yet we find ourselves standing on sinking sand of doubt, despair, lack of faith and trust in God, anguish and anxiety. We find our bodies no longer respond to the wishes of our minds. We awake day by day to face a life of uncertainty. The Devil, the world, and our sinful self will do its best to hinder and defeat our faith.
But Jesus, who said “yes” to Peter’s mother-in-law, who said “yes” to the people gathered outside the door, is present to touch us with his “Yes.” We too have been freed by this same authority of God working in our baptism. In the name of Jesus, Satan’s bondage has been broken. Evil must now give way to his authority. Let God be the authority each day in of our lives, though our conscience accuses us, our self-esteem be low, and the devil tempt us with feelings of guilt. Then look to the cross, hear him saying to us again and again, “I have freed you.”
A certain tribe of Native Americans who when they came to faith in Christ called him, “Jesus the Changer.” In their old religion there was a story of a time when everything was out of balance. The animals that were ordinarily large were tiny. Then their god sent a changer who put everything right again. He shrank the animals which had become oversized. Jesus was just such a changer. He shrank the power of evil. He put the world right again. He put things into balance and order.
Our text mentions another need which Jesus fulfilled. Prayer for us, as for him, is our life’s resource. The long hours of ministry sapped even Christ’s strength, his emotions and his spirit. Therefore, he rose early and began the day with prayer. The disciples correctly observed that Jesus’ fellowship with the Father and his power in ministry were directly linked to his prayer life. The disciples did not request that Jesus teach them to preach or how to teach, but they did request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
When Peter and his friends found Jesus in prayer they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” Jesus responded by directing his new day to other towns, synagogues and people. For Jesus has a concern for all. He traveled to other villages to meet people where they were in their lives. He is for you also.
Then he said, “Let us go on to the next town.” Jesus is not only concerned for all, he includes all his own in his ministry. He enlisted everyone as a part of the task force in his generation and in our generation to carry his claims and promises to every city, village and town. The message is, “Jesus, the One who is, meets us where we are; where we are in our ups and down, our joys our sorrows, our pain or pleasure.” The message of Jesus has to be told. He was more than a miracle worker. He has a message to share. People may know much about us by our love and by our compassion, but they won’t know why we do what we do unless we share with them what God in Christ has first done for us. Jesus has a strong desire to tell his story and to touch people where they are with the proclamation of the coming of God’s kingdom. He wanted his followers to catch the same enthusiasm and to get the good news out to all. He has disciples all over the world who are called to share his good news. In this area of north St. Louis County we are among those disciples called and sent to place Jesus in the lives of people in our community today.
At Week’s End
The Plight of Men
Friday afternoon I was at Johnny’s Market to pick up a bottle of 0live oil. Becky called. Well as long as I was there, would I pick up some honey sliced turkey, a package of buns and a box of Rice Krispies. “I’ll have to get basket a now,” I commented. I had the requested items in the basket when she called again. “Get a bag of potatoes,” she added. “Now I’ll have to get a cart,” I said.
So I sat the basket down in an out of the way place. Didn’t want to take the basket all the way to front with unchecked out grocery items, let someone think I was trying to abscond with the goods. I grabbed a cart, went back to the basket, transferred the gathered items and took the basket back to the blue plastic basket stack in the front of the store.
As long as I had a cart, I might just as well get a couple of sweet potatoes. Another older man and I arrived at the potato and onion place at the same time. I told my tale of woe to the man. He said, “I have yet to get the right items from the store. I always get it wrong. This time I had my wife write down exactly what she wanted." As he walked away he called back, "including the brand.”
Before getting the cart I was standing in the cereal aisle pricing Rice Krispy prices. I noticed a woman pushing a cart down the aisle, so I scooted closer to the shelves. As she passed she said, ‘I won’t run you down…at least not today.” I think she was joking.
St. Ansgar, Iowa is a little town, pop. 1063, located northeast of Mason City, Iowa and directly south of Austin, Minnesota. I had a wedding in the Lutheran church there while serving in Albert Lea, MN in the 1970’s. I wondered at that time and since, “who was St. Ansgar?” I assumed he had a connection to Scandinavia.
Ansgar was born 801, the year after Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Ansgar is a fitting person to remember during Epiphany because he was a missionary who brought the light of Christ to the peoples of Scandinavia He first preached in Denmark and then in Sweden where he built the first church. He was noted for his care of the poor.His work ran into difficulties with the rulers and he was forced to withdraw to Hamburg, Germany where he was appointed bishop in 831. Nevertheless, he persisted in his mission work toward the northern countries. He later helped consecrate Gothbart, the first bishop of Sweden.Numerous churches, societies and educational institutions are named for him He is honored on February 3, the day of his death, particularly by the Danes.During this season of Epiphany when we celebrate the coming of the light of Christ to the nations, we can use this day to ask ourselves where and to whom we are shining the light of Christ’s salvation.
The crowd milling about the scene this morning in Punxsutawney, PA waiting for Phil reminded me of a scene that might have happened in the temple when Jesus was forty days old. Everyone in the temple was concentrating on something, beggars were begging for alms, money changing stalls were busy, and marketers had set up convenience stores featuring whatever visitors needed the necessary product for a proper sacrifice.
Everyone was busy with meeting someone, or with prayers or putting temple money (couldn’t have a picture of Caesar in the temple) in the offering boxes. Out of all the milling crowd the Holy Spirit was only able to break through to two people, Simeon and Anna. They saw the couple with the six week old baby for who they were. They saw the six week old baby for who he was.
It was thirty two days after Jesus had been circumcised and named. It was the time for Mary’s purification as mandated for mothers by the Law of Moses. As the firstborn, son Jesus belonged to the Lord. He certainly was the firstborn, not only of Mary and Joseph, but of the Lord. He certainly did belong to the Lord because he was the Lord. Mary and Joseph had bought either two turtle doves or two pigeons from the marketer’s. To buy a lamb for the sacrifice was a bit out of their range. Of course there was no need for Mary and Joseph to buy a lamb since they were carrying the Lamb of God in their arms. He would be the Sacrifice to end all sacrifices, at no cost to anyone other than himself. The price for this Lamb was beyond the means of everyone, for it was his life.
I wondered if Mary and Joseph were started when the two strangers, Simeon and Anna, broke into the proceedings. Well, they had been startled before, by shepherds visiting the stable maternity ward only hours after Jesus was born. Of course, before that there was the angel breaking into Mary’s day a startling announcement. We dare not forget Joseph’s dream. “Startled,” seems to have become a way of life for them.
Then among all the hubbub of the temple court, Simeon takes the baby and begins to sing. He is now ready to die peacefully. He eyes have seen salvation itself. He is holding in his arms the Light and Glory of all peoples. Anna came up and giving thanks to God hurried off telling everyone, who like her was waiting for God to redeem Jerusalem from oppression that the Messiah had come.
What a day. So what did Mary and Joseph do? They finished up what they had come to do and then started the 70 plus miles journey back to Nazareth to resume their life.
That’s what we do today. We go on with our life. But we go having another One present who is the very favor of God upon us.
An Acrostic
Since I used the acrostic psalm 111 for the sermon text on Sunday, we used an acrostic for the children’s message. Becky wrote the following one. We gave the kids a little bag of Alpha Bits cereal.
S is for Savior, A to Z
A is for Angels
B is for Baptism
C is for Creation
D is for Deliverance
E is for Everyone
F is for Father
G is for Grace
H is for Holy Spirit
I is for “I am”
J is for Jesus
K is for King
L is for Love
M is for Mary
N is for Nativity
O is for Opportunity
P is for Prayer
R is for Righteousness
S is for Singing
T is for Thanks
U is for Unconditional
V is for Victory
W is for Worship
X is for Xross or Xrist
Y is for You – forgiven
Z is for Zest for the Lord.
Epiphany 4, 2012 Immanuel Chapel, Psalm 111
On the outer wall at the entrance to the library at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota are the words, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” These words from Proverbs and our Psalm today suggest that before a person sets out to study the ABC’s of human events, it is wise to begin with the ABC’s of the works and words of God. The Psalm is set in the congregation of believers, giving whole hearted thanks for the great works of the Lord.
This morning, gathered as the congregation of the faithful, we peer into the glory and grandeur of God’s favor toward us as He forgoes punishing us for our sins. First, God acted in grace and mercy in the past through his saving actions in bringing Israel of out slavery in Egypt. Today we receive God’s grace and mercy through Jesus in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The Passover was instituted by God for Israel to eat and drink in remembrance of and participation in the Exodus to freedom from slavery and death. The sacrament of the Altar was instituted by Jesus Christ for us Christians to eat and drink remembering and participating in the Lord’s death until he comes.
Israel suffered at length under the enslaving thumb of the Egyptian authorities. When their numbers increased, it became national policy that all newborn boys be killed. A woman’s pregnancy was not a cause for joy but was filled with apprehension and fear. It was a shortsighted policy. The Egyptians had set in place the destruction of their own workforce. At the same time they forced their labor force to scavenge for their own building materials, but did not reduce the quota of bricks to be produced. These were horrific policies designed to grind down God’s people.
The great works of the Lord started quietly with the midwives outsmarting the Egyptian authorities and the number of Israelites continued to grow. They became more noticeable when one of those infant boys saved from death was called out of exile as an 80 year old senior citizen to lead the people out of slavery. The Lord’s great and wondrous deeds burst in to the open through the plagues. The Nile River, the only source of water in Egypt, turned to blood. Frogs inundated the land. Flies infested everything. Hail flattened crops. Locusts stripped the fields bare. The magicians of Egypt acknowledged, “This was the finger of God at work.” Finally, in an ironic parallel to their national policy God sent an angel of death who in one night took the life of every firstborn male in the realm, from the lowest family to Pharaoh from the newborn to the older adult, from the bulls of the herds, the bucks of the sheep flock and the stallions of the stable.
Protected by a lamb’s blood painted on the doorways of each Hebrew hovel, God’s people ate the first Passover meal anticipating the great and wondrous works of the Lord which were yet to come.
At the Red Sea Israel passed under Moses’ outstretched arms plunging into the depths of the sea, now made a dry highway by God’s breath. Emerging on the other side they joined Moses in singing, “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.” As the bodies of Egypt’s soldiers and charioteers washed up against the shore, the congregation of Israel acclaimed the Lord, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Having passed through their baptismal waters, Israel journeyed into the wilderness. God’s great deeds continued. He provided food, raining manna and quail upon the encampment. At Sinai, God provided his sure and eternal precepts on tablets of stone to be performed faithfully and with uprightness. He commanded a forever covenant with them in which he would be their God and they would be his people. Finally, he gave them the land, the land promised long ago to Abraham. God’s great works were remembered every year in the Passover meal.
Jesus celebrated those great deeds of the Lord in the Passover festival, first with his family and then with his disciples. The promise in the Old Testament lesson was fulfilled in Christ. Jesus was the promised new prophet like Moses whom God raised up from the womb of Mary, an awesome and wondrous deed in its own right. God put His words in Jesus’ mouth.
We heard God’s words in the gospel lesson. Jesus silenced the powers of evil. His words entered into the ears and hearts of his listening with astonishing authority. His deeds were viewed in amazement. The people had never seen anything like this. “What is this?” they asked. This was the good news of God’s kingdom breaking into a world of enslavements of every kind, the worst of which was being held captive by sin. He came to destroy all the powers that would undermine, oppose and stand in the way His rule of grace and mercy. Because of these deeds his fame spread. But those were not the Deed and the Work he came to complete.
His greatest and most majestic work was done on the cross and in his resurrection. During the Passover meal, he took the unleavened bread, eaten for more than a thousand years to remember the Exodus and giving thanks to God broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “This is my body.” Wondrous deed. He took the cup of wine used in the Passover and said, “This cup is the new testament in My blood…shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Awesome words. The next day Jesus, the firstborn of God, was crucified and died. as evening descended on Calvary his cross stood vacant. As morning dawned on the next Sunday his tomb stood empty.
Today in the Lord’s Supper Jesus provides food to sustain our journey of faith. He remembers his new covenant ensured forever through his blood shed on the cross, his body given into death for our life and salvation. He remembers, as we remember, that he gave himself into death for our life.
I remember Mrs. Keys who was a shut in when I first met her. She had been raised in a church which didn’t regard Holy Communion as a sacred action bringing, forgiveness, life and salvation. More than once she told how thankful she was to have discovered the power of God’s work in the bread and wine of the sacrament investing it with Jesus’ own body and blood.
For her, the works of God in Jesus death and resurrection came alive as she received Communion. Today in the company of our congregation we have reason to give thanks to the Lord with our whole heart as we receive the power of Christ for our life and for our salvation, God’s food for the journey.
Each of us can exclaim, “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.” This is the beginning of wisdom.