“The Gathering of the Body of Christ” Heb. 10.11-25 Pent. 26B, Nov. ‘24

 

1.                Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word today is taken from Hebrews 10:11-25. It’s entitled, “The Gathering of the Body of Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. He wrote: "I've gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can't remember a   single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time, the preachers are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all". This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column of the newspaper. Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now.  In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals.  But, for the life of me, I can’t recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.  If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment! As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

3.                As we see in our Epistle lesson from Hebrews 10 today, the imagery of a worship service in Scripture is not one of consumers being entertained, but of God’s people being gathered around the Throne of the Lamb, joining the heavenly chorus of saints and angels to sing God’s praise and receive Christ’s benefits. What is the point of gathering for worship? What is the role of the Church at all? Why can we not just watch the service online? What difference does it make if we are gathered in a building? These questions become important as we are witnessing the “Great De-Churching” of our society.

4.                How do we view church attendance here at Grace? Would you say our worship attendance numbers are back to what they were before April of 2020? Or have many of our members decided they prefer “participating” in online services and remain away from in person worship to this day? Or, have they completely fallen away from the habits and rhythms of a life of worship altogether? After all, why get dressed up to sing a few songs and be entertained in worship when you can wear your PJ’s, grab a bowl of Cap’n Crunch, sit on your couch, and watch a screen... or just go golfing instead?

5.                The Church has a tough time with these questions, due in no small part to cheap catchwords about church attendance which have become full blown doctrinal stances. This week’s reading from Hebrews 10 gives us as the Church a chance to correct such flimsy cliches like, “The Church is not a building, but a people;” “Don’t go to church, be the Church;” “My faith is not about rituals, but a personal relationship with Jesus.” Such sentiments fail to grasp the profound importance of God’s sheep gathering as one body around His Word and altar to be served by their Good Shepherd Himself. After all, if gathering for worship is not foundational for what it means to “be the Church,” why does the Holy Spirit admonish us to, “Stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25)?

6.                Despite the nonsense spewed forth by some online theologians (I once actually saw a Facebook post saying the Bible never tells us to go to church), the Scriptures depict the Church as “people gathering” for preaching, praying, sacrament, and service. Acts 2:42-47 says, “⁴² The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

7.                The imagery of a worship service in Scripture is not one of consumers being entertained, but of God’s people being gathered around the Throne of the Lamb, joining the heavenly chorus of saints and angels to sing God’s praise and receive Christ’s benefits (Revelation 4-7). Hebrews reminds us you can’t “be the Church” unless you go to church. Why do we go to church? Well, it’s quite obvious, so we have a church to go to. Going to church, after all, is more about what Christ does for us than it is about what we do, do not do, or even are. To be the Church is nothing else than to be sheep fed and nourished by Jesus our Good Shepherd. The life of faith depends on Christ feeding us with His Word and Sacraments. In worship, Christ our Good Shepherd  gathers the flock of His sheep to Himself. Hebrews reminds you cannot “be the Church” unless you go to church.

8.                Hebrews 10 says we should, “not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some” (Hebrews 10:25). Hebrews shows us how Christ distributes the forgiveness won on the cross to the saints in the worship service. For example, when someone says, “I don’t have to go to church because Christianity is about a relationship, not a ritual.” In response to that, Hebrews tells us to, ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water’ (Hebrews 10:22). Such sprinkling takes place when Christ’s forgiving body and blood are placed on your tongue. It’s a relationship established by the ritual reception of the Lord’s Supper. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 4:1 the Apostle Paul refers to himself and his colleagues as "stewards of the mysteries of God." That means that Pastors are entrusted by Christ the Chief Shepherd to give the gifts of Word and Sacrament to His flock, and this takes place in the worship service. A Pastor can’t be a proper steward if he doesn’t see the people receiving the Sacrament of the Altar, if they are trying to take Lord’s body and blood virtually. How can proper church discipline also take place virtually as to who should receive the Sacrament and who shouldn’t? In fact, the Sacrament of the Altar was never intended by Jesus to be taken outside a physical space.

9.                The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Jesus with words and actions spoken and carried out by him in the direct presence of his disciples (Matt. 26:26-28). Throughout history, the church has sought to be faithful to Christ’s practice in this regard. Pastors speak the words of institution in the presence of the congregation, giving assurance that we are “doing this” as our Lord has instructed us to do (Luke 22:19). Whenever the actual words and actions of the celebrant in consecrating the elements are intentionally separated (by time, distance, or technological means) from the distribution and reception, no assurance can be given that our Lord’s instructions are being heeded and that the body and blood of Christ are actually being given and received for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith.

10.             “Why do we go to church?” The first part of the reading from Hebrews 10:11-18 points out how Christ, who has “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:12), distributes His forgiveness through all time in the preaching of the Church. It is in the worship service, through the preaching, that, “The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us.” Through Christ’s atoning work God “will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Hebrews 10:15, 17). Second, Jesus our Great High Priest “draws us near” to His Father in Heaven by sprinkling our hearts clean and washing our bodies with pure water (the Lord’s Supper and baptism). There, Jesus sanctifies us by His blood, perfected for all time (Hebrews 10:14) to present us to God. Finally, we gather to be strengthened in the confession of our hope and to encourage one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:23-24).

11.             The author of Hebrews preaches Christ for us; past, present, and future. He begins our Epistle reading by discussing the sacrifice of Jesus in the past, “once for all” for the forgiveness of sins. The emphasis is on the substitutionary atonement, where Christ’s death on the cross 2000 years ago (past) covers all our sins. Thus, there is no need for any more sacrifices. “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18).

12.             So, if Christ’s work is completed in the past, why do we need to go to church in the present? Because it is there where Christ exercises His rule from God’s right hand (Hebrews 10:12). He sends His Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Word to distribute the forgiveness earned in the “once-for-all” sacrifice (Hebrews 10:15-17). What is more, Christ will return in the future when “His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet” (Hebrews 10:13). But, as we “see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25), we are beset by trials, temptations, doubts, and fears. Christ has given us His Church not only to deliver forgiveness to us, but to sustain us to the end with our brothers and sisters. Remember how God said in the beginning, “it is not good that man be alone (Gen. 2:18).” We are the communion of saints. In the church, as one body, we once again confess our hope and encourage one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:23-24).

13.             We are not to neglect this gathering because it is within the Body where Christ, who paid the full atonement price with His blood, reigns and distributes His gifts which sustain us into life everlasting. Gathering before the Altar of God, with our brothers and sisters, is the very work of God to sustain us into life everlasting. That is why we go to church. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

 

“Confident in Christ” Heb. 9.24-28 Pent 25B Nov. ‘24

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 25^th Sunday after Pentecost is taken from Hebrews 9:24-28, it’s entitled, “Confident in Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Don’t you admire people who seem to be full of confidence? I’m not talking about bigmouths, people who are prideful or full of themselves. I mean those people who don’t get frazzled or defensive when criticized or who don’t become easily fearful when faced with a new challenge or problem that they need to confront. That kind of coolness in the face of adversity is considered an important characteristic of leadership.

3.                It seems that a lot of people wish they had more confidence, at least by the quantities of books on the topic. A search on Amazon.com indicated that they sell over 23,000 books on the topic of building confidence in oneself. But that’s nothing! A web search came up with over 143 million Internet sites that deal with the topic of overcoming doubt and increasing confidence. There are several blogs with titles such as “Nine Steps to Increase Your Confidence,” “Ten Characteristics of Confident People,” or “Seven Ways to Be More Confident in Yourself.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have more confidence?

4.                Do you know what it’s like to live confidently, and do you wish you could? Don’t we often make commitments to ourselves that we won’t get angry at the insults of others, or that we’ll keep our cool when our ideas are challenged or dismissed? Yet when things don’t go our way, or when what we think or say is rejected, we can find our confidence shaken, and we still may react with anger or self-doubt.

5.                The problem is that there are many things that work to tear away at our confidence. Maybe you’ve been hurt too many times by those who build themselves up by tearing you down. Maybe you feel you simply don’t have the opportunity to be heard in our busy world. Maybe you’ve found that the “venom of perfectionism” can make it impossible for you to live up to your self-imposed standards. Maybe you’ve suffered a big loss—like of job or a loved one—that can shake your confidence. Finally, we’re all plagued by our inability to live up to God’s Law. We don’t love God with our whole heart, and we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves. Our sin convicts us, shattering any self-confidence built on ourselves.

6.                Yet our text from Hebrews 9 talks about those who are confident, those who are eagerly waiting for Christ. There is a source of confidence in the face of any self-doubt or challenge in life. That source of ultimate confidence is rooted in the person (who he is) and work (what he has done) of Jesus Christ. We Can Confidently Live Our Lives in Eager Expectation in Christ.

7.             Once and for all, Christ has dealt with the root cause of our lack of confidence. The writer to the Hebrews compares a sacrifice carried out by a human with the perfect sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:24–26 says, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Jesus entered not a temple made by humans, like the Old Testament priests, but heaven itself, where he appears before God on our behalf. Jesus is God himself, so only one sacrifice, rather than repeated sacrifices, was needed. The forgiveness, life, and salvation Jesus accomplished were accomplished for all people. Hebrews 9:28 says, “so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” The text saying he was offered up to “bear the sins of many” means “of all.” He died for all! No sin is too grievous, no sin is too serious or heinous, that it hasn’t been covered by the sacrifice of Jesus.

8.             Jesus “put away” sin by sacrificing himself (Hebrews 9:26). That sin is “put away” means it has been dealt with; it’s no longer a factor as God looks at us. That is a source of real confidence, knowing that all those things, both big and small, that tear away at us, have been put away. What confidence we can experience, knowing Christ has dealt with it all!

9.             In Christ, God has promised to give us all things, so we need not doubt in ourselves. It’s not about us; it’s about Jesus. That’s how the widow in today’s Gospel could give her last pennies. That’s how the widow at Zarephath could trust the instructions of Elijah in the Old Testament. That’s why our Introit for today could exclaim: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” That is why we can eagerly wait for the Lord, living confidently, knowing Jesus has done it all.

10.          “Judgment Day.” “The End Times.” “Armageddon.” Throughout the history of humanity, people have been fascinated by predictions of doomsday. For example, versions of the story of Chicken Little, who thought the sky was falling when an acorn fell on his head, go back at least 2,500 years. But especially in recent years, it seems that talk and rumors and predictions about “the end of the world as we know it” have captivated people more than ever. There have been countless movies based on disastrous scenarios with aliens invading or entire cities collapsing or an asteroid headed for our planet or some virus that’s about to kill off the entire human race or any number of other things, all designed to terrify us at the thought that the world as we know it is coming to an end. And people love it!

11.          You probably remember how a number of years ago the end was going to come—on Dec 21, 2012, to be exact. It was based on some calculations in the ancient Mayan calendar. It seems that Dec 21 of that year completed a cycle of 5,125 years in the Mayan tradition. It didn’t take long for some writers and pseudoscientists and pseudoarchaeologists to pick up on the idea, suggesting various astronomical alignments and making use of numerological formulas to come up with the idea that there will be something big, something really big, on that date—maybe the end of the world.

12.          People have frightful views of the end of the world, but those who trust in Jesus know that yes, the end will come; yes, Jesus will return. But it is not something to be feared. In fact, it is something we can eagerly await because we can be confident of our salvation (Heb 9:28).

13.           What’s your source of self-confidence? There certainly are psychological explanations for why some people seem to lack confidence and others have more confidence, and no doubt there’s truth to some of those factors. But the message of our Epistle from Hebrews is that we can all live in confidence. We can confidently live our lives in eager expectation, because in Christ we can be confident of God’s love and forgiveness. We can expect it because it is done. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen

 

 

 

“A Bright & Glorious Future in Christ” Rev. 7.2-17 All Saints’ Day Nov. ‘24

 

 

1.      Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate All Saints’ Day is taken from Revelation 7:2-17, it’s entitled, “A Bright & Glorious Future in Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.      There was a pastor of a Lutheran congregation with a large old red brick church founded many decades before he arrived. The church building had a large cemetery that flanked the left side of the sanctuary and wrapped around the back behind where the chancel stood. At an anniversary service of that congregation the pastor reminded the members sitting in the pews that their congregation was much larger than the people who were in church. The members immediately nodded, most of them thinking that he was referring to those inactive members. He then said something startling: if we wanted to make room for the rest of the members, we would need to knock out the side and back walls of the old brick church. He went on to explain that even though the bodies of many members were resting in the ground to the side and behind the sanctuary, these fellow saints were alive with Christ and were a vital part of the church. The Lutheran pastor reminded his congregation that their focus is to be on continuing to baptize into Christ, to teach the Christian faith, and to receive the Lord’s Supper, so that Christians are born and nurtured in the faith until they join the saints after death. He reminded his church that the true size of the congregation would only be seen on the Last Day, when Christ will raise in glory all the bodies from that cemetery and take the faithful members still living at his return to experience restored creation with the entire church of all ages for eternity (Rev 7:9). That, dear friends, is the future to which all of us can look with eagerness. Your future is bright and glorious in Christ!

3.      Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes.” This part of the vision recorded by John in the book of Revelation helps us to see that the life of a Lutheran congregation isn’t just about living Sunday to Sunday or year to year or decade to decade or even a hundred years together. This vision helps us to see the goal of every Christian, every congregation, and the church militant across the earth: to be part of this great multitude for eternity that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before God’s throne, standing before Christ, the Lamb slain for our sin, clothed in resurrected glory for eternity. Why do we establish congregations? Why do we seek to be faithful in reaching out to the lost in our community? Why do we call pastors, build sanctuaries, teach Sunday School, give offerings each week, and continue planning for the future? So that we and many others from this congregation, this community, this generation of sinners may be part of this great multitude before the throne of the Lamb!

4.      Why did God first give this vision to John to share with the seven churches and many others in future generations? Because he knew that the faithful saints of these congregations had struggles in the past, they were going through struggles in the present, and they would encounter more in the future. Sin was alive and well in these pagan cities of ancient Rome. In the seven letters that Jesus dictates in Revelation 2–3, we hear of false apostles, false teaching, sexual immortality, the Jezebel-like priestess, spiritual lukewarmness, and much more.

5.      This sounds a lot like the world today! Even much of the church is confused on what marriage is, how sexuality should be experienced, and who created this world in the first place. As we heard in the Beatitudes of our Gospel, Jesus promised his faithful church would face challenges: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Mt 5:11–12).

6.      God gave this vision of the future, of the Church Triumphant after the day of resurrection, to encourage us about what our individual future is and what our future is as a congregation. This is your future: risen, living, worshiping, and singing for all eternity, “Salvation belongs to our God,” namely the one sitting on the throne, and “the Lamb. . . . Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Rev. 7:10, 12). Knowing this is our future encourages us to be faithful and active witnesses in the present.

7.      What is the reason given here for these saints being in heaven? Are they there because of the great lives they lived, the number of boards on which they served, or the church council meetings that they attended? No, there is only one reason given for their status: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (Rev. 7:14). Your future as a congregation, your future as the church militant on earth, and your future as the Church Triumphant in heaven is based upon the blood of the Lamb, Jesus the Christ, that was shed on Calvary’s cross to atone for your sin, for all sin! As John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). You are saints, holy ones, now and forever through the holy blood of Jesus.

8.      This vision in Revelation 7 is dripping with irony. The last thing you usually want on white robes would be blood; it stains permanently. But the blood that Jesus shed cleanses permanently, because it is a payment in full for sin. It is a blood that continues to cleanse you from sin today as you hear of it here and as you drink it at this altar. As the earlier hymn to the Lamb in Revelation 5 states: “For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”(Revelation 5:9).

9.      This vision is one of the most extensive descriptions in the Scriptures of what we as the Church will do after Christ’s return into eternity. Listen to your future as Christians, as a congregation, once again: “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:15–17). None of our years on earth have been without tears of pain and struggle. There will be more tears in the years you have left in your earthly journey, of that you can be sure. You have shed some tears, no doubt, in saying a temporary goodbye to some of the saints of your extended family and church family who are now with the Lord. But nothing ever has, nor nothing ever will, separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He refreshes us daily for our work in the world and our service to him in his Church. But one day sin will be no more—no more hunger and thirst and struggle. Our baptismal garments will be exchanged for the permanent robe of resurrected glory, and God will wipe every tear of pain and suffering from our eyes.

10.   Revelation 7 helps you to see your ultimate and certain future as forgiven saints through the blood of Christ: God himself with be with you, and he will wipe every tear from your eyes. Death will be no more, neither shall there be any mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore—and you will see the face of your Savior Jesus! That is your bright and glorious future as saints through the blood of Jesus. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“Always Enough” 1 Kings 17.8-16 Martin Luther High Nov. ‘24

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message today is entitled, “Always Enough,” and it’s taken from 1 Kings 17:8-16. I need some help from all of you today. I want you to take a moment and think about things that you would never want to be empty. I mean, if you had your way, what would be perpetually full? I’ll give you a moment to think about that. . . . Okay, help me out: what did you come up with? That’s all good stuff, things like food, coffee, your gas tank, money in your bank account, energy, and maybe an endless supply of Mountain Dew. Wouldn’t it be great if these things never ran out! But here’s my question: Has that ever actually happened to anyone, for real, and not just because you get free refills with your meal? Truth is, it never happens. Our everyday experience tells us time and again that eventually things run out. Eventually it’s empty. Eventually what we have is gone. What we live with day in and day out is this cold reality that there never seems to be enough. Maybe you have those fears of not having enough to provide for your basic needs. Remember the theme for your school year is “Fear Not,” from Isaiah 41:10, which says, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” This passage from Isaiah is based on a longer passage from the Book of Isaiah that God will be with His people in the midst of their exile in the foreign land of Babylon.

2.                What we live with day in and day out is this cold reality that there never seems to be enough. This thought leads us into an interesting set of Scripture texts in 1Kings that begins with a widow on the verge of running out. Before we dive in, let me give a little setup as to what’s going on. At the end of 1 Kings 16, Ahab becomes king and marries Jezebel. Together they do evil in the eyes of the Lord by leading the people to worship false gods. Elijah pronounces God’s judgment on Ahab and on the land by predicting a drought. The word of the Lord directs Elijah to go into hiding, where God miraculously meets his every need. Now the word of the Lord sends Elijah to a widow in Zarephath, whom God has instructed to feed him, and that brings us to today’s text. Obediently, Elijah does as he is instructed. Here we learn the gravity of her situation. The widow has nothing to offer. She is living in a land of scarcity. She is ready to prepare a final meal for herself and her son “that we may eat it and die” (1 Kings 17:12).

3.                That’s a rather dramatic response. Maybe she meant to match what she perceives as an absurd request. Or it may serve to further highlight the severity of her situation. We can understand her hesitancy. We would probably do the same because that is the logical thing to do.

4.                There’s another widow in the Gospel of Mark 12:41-44. Let me read for you the text from Mark 12: “And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Our same logic makes that a hard story to understand. The camera zooms in on a poor widow. She’s virtually invisible—nothing more than a speed bump to avoid as the rich go about their daily lives. She pulls out two copper coins and with no fanfare, no pat on the back, drops them into the treasury. The smallest drop in an ocean!

5.                Again, our logic kicks in. Why would she do it? What’s she thinking? If that’s all you have, why give it away? Our conclusion: it’s utter foolishness! Today we are confronted with two different stories, but human logic gets us to the same place. If your last supper is on the way, don’t give it away. If you’re down to your last penny, don’t give it away. That’s how we think. We will even justify it in our minds saying, “Certainly God understands the nature of scarcity.” Yes, he does. The problem isn’t with him; it’s with us.

6.                Scarcity prompts preservation and protection. If I don’t have a lot of money, I will do my best to take care of my car to make it run well up to 200,000 miles. I will try to keep my cell phone and my laptop running well, maybe for three to four years, so that I don’t have to spend money on new technology. I will try to maintain my clothes and watch how much I spend on groceries, if I don’t have a lot of money to pay for clothes or food. That’s what logic tells us to do. We’re happy to feed the poor when cupboards are full, happy to give . . . donate . . . give our offerings to Church when the account is overflowing. When it gets down to it, we tend to trust in our abundance.

7.                Our logical way of thinking is to trust in abundance. But, how often does abundance reveal itself as a hindrance to the movement of God in our lives? Remember, for example, a few weeks ago: Mark 10 told the story of a rich young man. He goes away sad because his heart and trust were in his riches, in his abundance. Logic is a gift from God, but sometimes the way we depend on logic gets in the way of what God is trying to teach us.

8.                The accounts of both widows teach the same lesson: God uses scarcity as a doorway to trust. Trust in the Lord and his provision is the only way either of these stories makes sense. A widow obeys, and they all eat for days. The Bible doesn’t say what happens to our other widow, but the point is clear: When We Trust in the Lord, There Is Always Enough.

9.                That’s easier said than done, of course, but it really should be no surprise, because God has been using scarcity to lead his people to trust for a long time. He provided manna, bread from heaven, to the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 16). God brought water from a rock (Exodus 17). With just five loaves and two fish, how many thousands of men, women, and children did Jesus feed (Lk 9:10–17)? There was so much abundance they even had leftovers, because with Jesus there is always enough. Yes! Jesus is always enough! A lesson we struggle to learn, but one that time and again points us to the cross.

10.             Jesus came to be enough—enough to pay the full price of our sin. His mission was not about multiplying food to fill our stomachs but about ransom and restoration to free our souls and fill us to overflowing with grace and forgiveness. The Old Testament sacrifices were never enough to cleanse us from our sin permanently. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that Christ came to be enough: “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Jesus is always enough.

11.             It is into the full sufficiency of Christ that you have been baptized. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 6 that you have been joined with Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. You are credited with his righteousness, empowered with his grace, crowned with his glory, and loved with a never-ending love. So maybe the next time you find yourself hurt, wondering if you have enough to forgive, remember that with Christ there is always enough. Or maybe you’re down to the last dollar in your wallet and you happen across that person in need of a helping hand and you’re wondering if you can afford to give; remember with Christ there is always enough. As God’s redeemed children, we need not fear scarcity because our Heavenly Father is a God of rich abundance. When we put our trust in the Lord, when we put our trust in Jesus, we can be sure, no matter the circumstances, there is always enough. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.