Last week we concluded our worship service by singing the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation.” As we sang, one verse really grabbed me. In verse 4 of that hymn, we sang this about the Church on earth: “Though with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed, by schism’s rent asunder, by heresies distressed.”
Our text this morning is from the book of Galatians. I don’t know how much you know about Galatians, but Martin Luther LOVED the book of Galatians! Martin Luther was that German monk who nailed the 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
The matter at hand in our text this morning is a biggie. In fact, it is THE biggie. People can be busy and concerned about many things in life, but finally, this is the one every person must deal with. There is no avoiding it. In the end, this is the only thing that matters.
Martin Luther said our text is one of the most obscure sections in all of Scripture. There are things about it that are hard to understand! It is difficult to understand why God comes out of nowhere in the form of a man and wrestles with Jacob. Why does he do it on the night before Jacob is going to meet his brother Esau?
Our text for this morning allows us to review, at least in part, that event in the history of the world called The Flood. Most of us have heard the story how after about 18 centuries of world history, humankind had become so corrupt and violent that God destroyed the world in a great flood.
There is no question that the COVID pandemic has changed everything. We are still in the early days of assessing all the long-term effects, but one early observation is troubling. Doctors and mental health professionals are noticing a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression in people.
The story tells itself. As Jesus speaks, who cannot envision the rich man he describes? There he is. He’s got the big luxurious house in the gated community. He is described as wearing purple. Purple cloth was extremely expensive due to the painstaking way in which it was made. The purple dye was harvested from little glands on certain kinds of sea snails.
We have chosen the words of our theme this morning very carefully. “Wealth management strategies.” We hear words like this quite often in our culture. There is an entire industry built around wealth management. Experts write books about it. Recognized gurus on the matter travel the land putting on 2-day seminars teaching eager attendees the “secrets” of successful wealth management.
Has it ever occurred to you that God’s love is such a special and unique thing that it has to have its own word? The word I am referring to is “grace.” “Grace” doesn’t just mean a feeling of affection for someone, but grace is affection for someone who is completely unworthy or undeserving of such affection. It is this grace of God that is the moving force behind all of his saving activity: It is by grace you have been saved…(Ephesians 2:8).
Today we have Pastor Phil Merten leading our worship services. Pastor Merten serves in the Wisconsin Lutheran Institutional Ministries program. His work involves prison ministry.
