Sing with All the Saints in Glory

Our hymn for the month of November is "Sing with All the Saints in Glory," hymn 671 in Lutheran Service Book. This hymn was written by William J. Irons, a 19th Century Anglican priest. The hymn first appears in the book Psalms and Hymns for the Church, published in 1873. Originally the text had four stanzas, but in our hymnal two of the verses have been squeezed together into one. We have used this hymn at St. Paul's previously, but it deserves a place in your mind and heart.

In the Proper Preface of our Communion liturgy we confess that, in the Divine Service, we join our worship "with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven." Our hymn is a firm confession and reminder that our loved ones who have departed this life in the faith continue to worship with us as they rest from their labors. 

As we celebrate the Feast of All Saints on November 1 (and observe it in worship on November 2), this is a message of great comfort to us. "Death and sorrow, earth's dark story, to the former days belong." The day is coming when death will be no more. As St. Paul tells us, "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:26). And in Revelation our Lord tells St. John, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:5). That Day is surely coming: "Soon the storms of time shall cease; in God's likeness we awaken, knowing everlasting peace." 

As we await that glorious Day when the image of God, distorted by sin, will be perfected in us, we know that death is not the end. We know that a blessed rest awaits us. “God has promised, Christ prepares it; there on high our welcome waits.” And then, on the Last Day, shall come the sound of the trumpet that shall raise us all, and the faithful shall rise to endless day. “Life eternal! Oh, what wonders crowd on faith; what joy unknown, when, amid earth's closing thunders, saints shall stand before the throne!” What a glorious Day that shall be!

By the way, as I said above, this hymn was written by an Anglican priest. We Lutherans do not insist that our texts be written by Missouri Synod Lutherans. Lutherans are not the only ones who confess the truth of God's Word, and we are not the only ones who can write theologically solid hymns. And good, solid hymns were written long before there was a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. However, we do insist that we should only use theologically solid hymns, no matter their source.

Here is the text, which is in the public domain, from the hymnary.org website:

1. Sing with all the saints in glory, 
Sing the resurrection song! 
Death and sorrow, earth's dark story, 
To the former days belong. 
All around the clouds are breaking; 
Soon the storms of time shall cease; 
In God's likeness we awaken, 
Knowing everlasting peace. 

2. Oh, what glory, far exceeding 
All that eye has yet perceived! 
Holiest hearts for ages pleading 
Never that full joy conceived. 
God has promised, Christ prepares it; 
There on high our welcome waits.
Ev'ry humble spirit shares it, 
Christ has passed the eternal gates. 

3. Life eternal! Heav'n rejoices; 
Jesus lives who once was dead. 
Shout with joy, O deathless voices!
Child of God, lift up your head! 
Life eternal! Oh, what wonders
Crowd on faith; what joy unknown,
When, amid earth's closing thunders,
Saints shall stand before the throne!

To hear me read the text of the hymn, CLICK HERE.

To hear the hymn sung, CLICK HERE.

Sermon for 10/26/25: Festival of the Reformation (observed)

CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for the service video.

Our Heritage and Inheritance

John 8:31-36

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.
         

We do not simply sin by mistake or weakness; we also sin on purpose. We’ve all known what we were doing, and we have done it anyway. We’ve sinned with full knowledge, repeatedly. We’ve heard the voice of the new man in our minds, telling us to stop gossiping, but we’ve also noted how our friends were hanging on our words, looking at us with admiration, and we wanted to keep it going. So we’ve suppressed the good. We’ve embraced the evil. We’ve harmed not only our neighbors, but also ourselves. We’ve enslaved ourselves to sin and let it rule over us.

How dare we say that we have fellowship with Christ while we willingly walk in darkness? We lie and do not practice the truth. If we are ruled by sin, we do not have fellowship with Christ. We are not His brothers. We are the sons of devil who do the work of the devil. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. When Jesus tells us to abide in the Word, it is not simply an admonition to know right doctrine. It is an admonition to live by His Word, to obey His commandments, to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.

We Lutherans are proud of our heritage. It is a good thing to be faithful to the Word of God. But do not say, “But we have Luther for our father and we love the Gospel and have never been slaves to anyone.” You have been slaves to your flesh and your heritage. You have been bored with the Gospel and have been angry when it doesn’t look the way you want it to look. You have twisted the Gospel into an excuse to sin, and you dared God to notice. Well, He notices. He is not amused. He does not think it is cute or somehow your rightful liberty. He hates gossip. He loathes the behavior of acting like you’re married when you’re not. He hates drunkenness. He despises abortion. He hates lustful eyes, greed, and evil thoughts. God threatens to punish all who break His commandments. So repent. Let every mouth be stopped. May the law bring knowledge of sin to us sinners, so we may recognize the truth about ourselves and turn away from our sin.

You have enslaved yourself to sin, but you do not belong there. Repent. Turn from your sins. The Son sets you free by being sin and guilt in your place. He sets you free by suffering your punishment in your stead. He sets you free by being declared guilty so that you are declared innocent. He sets you free by dying and rising again for you. And if He does all of this for you, then you will be free indeed. You might sin, but you will not be cast aside. You are not a slave; you are a son. He restores you to fellowship with the Father because He still loves you, no matter what you’ve done. You are a son, made so in the waters of Holy Baptism. And because you are His own child, you remain His child forever.

So confess your sins. He is faithful and just. He forgives your sins. He cleanses you from all unrighteousness. “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” So if you say you have not sinned, go back to eating with the pigs like the prodigal son until you wake up and find the Father waiting for you. Otherwise, if you insist on wallowig in your sin, you die and go to Hell. But if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just. He forgives sins. He restores fellowship. His accusations are taken from you and placed on the Son, the One who became your Brother and has declared you to be God’s child forever: forever innocent, forever holy, forever His. You walk in the light just as He is in the light, for He is the Light. You have fellowship with Him and with one another in the blood of Jesus which cleanses you from all sin. Thus you abide in His Word, in His Gospel. You are truly His children, His disciples, His Bride, and even His friends.

This is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. This is the truth upon which the Reformation is founded. If Martin Luther has left us a legacy, let it be this and nothing else: “We are justified by His grace as a gift received by faith.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.

 

Sermon for 10/19/25: Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for the service video.

Grace and Peace
I Corinthians 1:(1-3) 4-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Christians hear the words I just spoke a lot. Many pastors begin their sermons, newsletter articles, and other correspondence with their members with those words. After all, if it’s good enough for the Apostle Paul, it certainly must be a salutary greeting between Christians, especially when a pastor communicates with the people he has been Called to serve. There’s nothing wrong with starting a sermon without those words, of course.

But there is something a little deeper behind this greeting. In our text, Paul lauds the church in Corinth for its faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the church in Corinth is not without its problems. They have become complacent and even arrogant in their faithfulness. The church itself has divisions and factions. If you read on through the rest of this epistle, Paul takes the congregation in Corinth to task for a number of things: a laxity in church discipline; tolerance of sexual immorality; the tendency of congregation members to bring civil law suits against each other; and even a tendency to practice open communion, inviting the uncatechized and the unreprentant to receive the body and blood of Christ to their judgment.

With all these problems, you might expect Paul to open his letter with a scathing rebuke of the people. But Paul is their pastor. Yes, it’s his job to lead God’s people to the truth of the Word, and he would do them no favor by letting them remain in their sin. However, he is also Called to preach the Gospel to them. He is Called as an apostle to love them with Christ’s love. And he does precisely that. Even with all the problems this Corinthian congregation is struggling with, Paul says, “I thank my God always concerning you.” And he does this in quite a few of the Epistles we have recorded in the New Testament. We should always be thankful to God for the brothers and sisters we have in Christ.

This is not always the easiest example to follow. We in the Missouri Synod should understand that very well. We are a body divided. We don’t agree on what hymns should be in our hymnals, how we should interact with those with whom we have doctrinal differences, where our missions should be focused. Even at the congregational level, the fight can be fierce. When we Christians fight, we tend to “lose our religion.” Disagreements between us often turn ugly. The Eighth Commandment? Throw it out the window! Matthew 18? Why would I speak to my brother who I feel is sinning against me when I can tell my fifty closest friends? We call each other hypocrites. We assume the very worst about each other. And then we threaten to stop coming to worship or leave the congregation entirely if our way isn’t found to be the “right” way. Even in the most faithful of congregations, we allow disagreements to divide us, distract us, and turn us away from what our Lord Jesus calls “the one thing needful.”

Paul calls the congregation at Corinth—and us—back to this one needful thing, to what unites us. He names us “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ....” This brings us back to the Apostles’ Creed, where we confess, “I believe in the holy Christian Church, [which is] the Communion of saints.” We first confess who God is and what He has done, and then we confess what we are through Christ: the communion of saints; the body of Christ; God’s holy people.

As we see in how Paul greets the congregation in Corinth, it begins with grace. It begins with God giving us life, with Christ giving us new life, with the Spirit granting us faith as we live that new life. Without these gifts, without this grace, we have nothing and we are nothing. The grace of God is not something we have earned or were born with or have made for ourselves. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died in our place, and He rose again so that we would rise with Him and so that we would receive all the blessings and benefits God has for us.

Once that grace has been applied to us, peace follows it. In Baptism we are made children of God. When we speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ, this is no exaggeration. And because we are family, we join in our family meal: the body and blood of Jesus. We should treat each other as family. The people in the pews and in the whole Christian Church are not enemies to be defeated, no matter how much we disagree. They are brothers and sisters in Christ, family to be loved fiercely, forgiven freely, and even, at times, endured patiently. We bring our siblings before the Lord in prayer, thanking God for them, no matter how much we may disagree with them. We thank God that He has loved our brothers and sisters, that He has died for them, that He has made them His through Holy Baptism, that He forgives their sins with Holy Absolution, that He feeds them in the Holy Supper.

That grace from God is the source of the peace we share with each other. Because Christ has brought us to reconciliation with the Father, we are now also reconciled to each other. And now, because it begins with grace, let us live our lives sharing that grace, and let us rejoice at the eternity which is already ours. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

 

HYMN: O Lord, Send Forth Your Holy Word

Well, I am once again at a pastor meeting, this time the Iowa District East Fall Pastors' Conference. You know what that means, right? Yep, I wrote another hymn text. I know it shocks you that such a faithful son of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod would not direct every last ounce of his attention to the conference speaker. I promise that I'm praying attention. We're listing to speakers, one of whom is talking about the LCMS battle for the inerrancy of Scripture which led to the 1974 walkout from the St. Louis seminary and a division of Synod; and the other about a more recent controversy about a group of so-called LCMS Lutherans with, shall we say (with an eye toward the Eighth Commandment), interesting view of race and racial purity.

Anyway, in our opening worship service we heard the words of Isaiah 55. In the midst of this glorious chapter of the Bible is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (vv.10-11). Hearing these words, I was inspired (small-i, not capital i) to write. I don't think this is one of my best text, but it is faithful to the source material.

So here it is. As always, feedback is love.

O Lord, Send Forth Your Holy Word

1. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To lead us in Your ways,

That we may trust in You alone

For pardon all our days.

2. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To satisfy our need.

Oh, teach us evermore to strive

For worthy fruits indeed.

3. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

As fall the snow and rain

So faith may sprout and grow within

And You in us shall reign.

4. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To draw Your children in.

Then send us forth to share Your love

With neighbors lost in sin.

5. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word,

And send it not in vain.

But let it work abundantly

As You in grace ordain.

CM (86 86)

Text: Alan Kornacki, Jr., b.1974

Tune: ST ANNE (LSB 733) or CONSOLATION (LSB 348)

Isaiah 55:1-11

I Walk in Danger All the Way

Beginning this month at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Marion, Iowa, we will sing a "Hymn of the Month" each month, at least for a while, This selection will often be a new hymn to us—sometimes a new text. sometimes a new tune, and sometimes both. Though sometimes they may be difficult to sing or unfamiliar to our ears, they are, indeed, worth your time to learn. And since you may be unfamiliar with the text or tune, I wanted you to have an opportunity to become familiar with it before we sing it this coming Sunday. 

Our hymn for the month of October is "I Walk in Danger All the Way," hymn 716 in Lutheran Service Book. It is a hymn from the 18th Century, written by Lutheran pastor and bishop Hans Adolph Brorson. The hymn is comprised of two parts. The first three stanzas focus on the threats we Christians face from sin, death, and Satan. The truth that the life of the Christian is a life where we "pass through trials all the way" and bear our crosses as our Lord bids us do. We are forced to come face to face with our own mortality, with death stalking us like we are his prey. The concluding three stanzas show how our Lord provides for our protection and deliverance from these fearsome foes. Angel hosts accompany us on our journey along the narrow way of our life in Christ. Because we are baptized children of our heavenly Father, we "walk with Jesus all the way" throughout our lives, until, finally, we come to our heavenly goal. 

This is a beautiful text which describes our life in Christ, both in the hardships we face because the world hates us as much as it hates our Lord Jesus, or the triumph which is already ours now and which will be perfected at the Last Day. God grant you great comfort and joy in your walk with Jesus with this song on your lips!

Here is the text:

1 I walk in danger all the way,
The thought shall never leave me
That Satan, who has marked his prey,
Is plotting to deceive me.
This foe with hidden snares
May seize me unawares
If I should fail to watch and pray.
I walk in danger all the way.

2 I pass through trials all the way,
With sin and ills contending;
In patience I must bear each day
The cross of God's own sending.
When in adversity
I know not where to flee,
When storms of woe my soul dismay,
I pass through trials all the way.

3 And death pursues me all the way,
Nowhere I rest securely;
He comes by night, he comes by day,
He takes his prey most surely.
A failing breath, and I
In death's strong grasp may lie
To face eternity today
As death pursues me all the way.

4 I walk with angels all the way,
They shield me and befriend me;
All Satan's pow'r is held at bay
When heav'nly hosts attend me;
They are my sure defense,
All fear and sorrow, hence!
Unharmed by foes, do what they may,
I walk with angels all the way.

5 I walk with Jesus all the way,
His guidance never fails me;
Within His wounds I find a stay
When Satan's pow'r assails me;
And by His footsteps led,
My path I safely tread.
No evil leads my soul astray;
I walk with Jesus all the way.

6 My walk is heav'nward all the way;
Await, my soul, the morrow,
When God's good healing shall allay
All suff'ring, sin, and sorrow.
Then, worldly pomp, begone!
To heav'n I now press on.
For all the world I would not stay;
My walk is heav'nward all the way.

To hear me read the text of this beautiful hymn, watch this video. 

To hear the music and words of this hymn together, click this link. 

HYMN: As I Approach Your Altar, Lord

I find myself with a little bit of time on my hands at the moment. I do so like to be productive, but there’s not a lot I’m able to do as I deal with a foot issue. But the foot issue itself actually gave me just a tiny little spot of inspiration for a hymn text about Confession and Absolution. (If you look at the first verse—stanza, whatever—you’ll see that I talk about “faltering feet” that don’t walk the “narrow way” of Matthew 7:13-14. Yes, I know it’s the gate that is narrow; allow me some creative license here!)

Anyway, here’s the text. It’s fairly on-the-spot as far as Confession and Absolution go, but I didn’t think it needed much adornment. The tune, at least temporarily, is the tune for "Baptismal Waters Cover Me." Feedback is love. 

As I Approach Your Altar, Lord

1. As I approach Your altar, Lord,

On falt’ring feet that go astray, 

I kneel and cry to You alone

That I have left Your narrow way. 

2. I fail to love You as I should.

I fail to love as You love me. 

I fail to be the helpful good

My righteous God demands I be. 

3. My words are hurtful, petty, mean. 

My thoughts are selfish, turned within. 

My every deed is foul, unclean,

And ev’ry breath is stained with sin. 

4. Your holy Word declares my shame. 

In truth, Lord, I deserve to die. 

Oh, hear me as I call Your name. 

Give ear, my Savior, to my cry. 

5. I lay my sins before my Lord,

I speak, and You who bore each one

Declare to me in mighty Word

That all my guilt and shame is gone!

6. For You who died upon the tree

Have taken all my sins away. 

My bonds are loosed and I am free!

My debt of sin You did repay. 

7. My conscience clean, my soul is healed. 

My pastor speaks, and You forgive,

For You, God's perfect grace revealed,

Speak sweet forgiveness, and I live. 

8. I thank You, Christ, for comfort sweet. 

I sing the triumph You did win. 

Receive my praise for grace complete, 

For love which covers all my sin. 

LM (88 88)

GOTTLOB, ES GEHT NUNMEHR ZU ENDE (LSB 616)

Confession and Absolution

Sermon for 7/27/25: Sixth Sunday After Trinity

CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for the service video.

“Do This, and You Will Live.”

Matthew 5:17-26

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

 

The Law of God requires you to love God with all your heart, mind, strength, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. “Do this, and you will live.” Yet you cannot even make it to the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer without sinning, without your thoughts wandering, without your attention wavering. You are filled from your first waking moment with daydreams of power, wealth, prestige, and the pleasures of the flesh. How many times have you thought you could do a better job than your boss? How many times have you thought you could do a better job than the President? How many times have you thought that you would use great wealth better than those who already have it?

Within the depths of your soul, ask yourself: Why don’t I love my neighbor as myself? Why don’t I daydream about my neighbor striking it rich? Why don’t I imagine my coworkers being promoted? Why not imagine President Trump being admired and respected and loved all over the world, receiving the adoration I imagine for myself? Your dreams center on yourself because you don’t love your neighbor like you love yourself. The Law is as simple as it is impossible, but we strive to complicate it. We look for loopholes, exceptions, and excuses. So vain are we that we think we’ve done better than most. We are not so bad as Osama bin Laden or Charles Manson or Adolf Hitler; we have only sinned out of weakness because of the great stress we are under. But in truth, the difference between sinners regarding the magnitude of our sins is insignificant to God. You might as well compare two ants running a race. That’s the difference of magnitude between your sins and those of the greatest sinner, or between your good works and those of the greatest saint.

Repent. You are a sinner; you have failed to meet the Law’s perfect standard. You have put yourself first. You are a sinner; you cannot earn heaven, and you do not deserve it. You are a sinner; you should be condemned. You have been angry. You have called men “fool.” You have led others astray. You have sinned. You have failed. And you have no complaint to make against the law for exposing your sin, because you know that the law itself is good and true. Lord, have mercy.

But there is a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. He kept the Law. He obeyed it perfectly. He carried the wood to Golgotha, just like Isaac. Jesus perfectly loved God; He perfectly loved His neighbors. He was obedient unto death. He paid the price for every last sin—for you and for every last man, woman, and child to ever live. Jesus was forsaken by His Father as the Sacrifice for sins that he did not commit. He did not complain, not even when they drove nails into his hands and feet. He loved with all His heart, with all His strength, with all His soul, with all His mind. He loved you, and He made you His neighbor, fulfilling the law for you. He took your place; He took your sins and guilt and shame into Himself, and He gave you His righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. He cleansed you with His Word, breathed his Spirit upon you, called you by His name. You are baptized into his death, and so you belong to Him and to His resurrection. You are free from sin, from damnation, from accusation, for Jesus has fulfilled the law for you. He has loved you with His whole heart, mind, strength, and soul. He feeds you with His perfect love in His own body and blood. This is how He has fulfilled the law for you.

So believe in Jesus Christ. Put your trust in Him. Be washed in His blood, named with His name, clothed in His perfect righteousness, fed by His body and blood, covered with the peace only He can give. “Do this, and you will live.” For all that Jesus has done, He has done for you. You are His precious, beloved bride, made perfect by His forgiveness and mercy. In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

                  

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

 

Sermon for 7/20/25: Fifth Sunday After Trinity

CLICK HERE for sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for service video.

“On the Mountain Before the Lord…”

I Kings 19:11-21

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 

 

To use the language of modern psychology, Elijah was a victim of spiritual burnout. With the help of God, he had just won a great victory over the prophets of Baal. After such a contest, you might think that everyone would end up confessing that the Lord is God. But that didn’t happen, and Elijah saw that as just one more piece of evidence that he was a failure as a prophet. And on top of that, Queen Jezebel, infuriated by Elijah’s victory over her prophets, issued a death warrant against Elijah. Understandably, Elijah ran for his life.

It’s important to understand why Elijah ran. His flight was not really prompted by fear. Far from Jezebel and her agents, out in the wilderness all by himself, Elijah plunked down in the dirt and asked the Lord to take his life; he wanted to die. His courage and determination had melted away—not so much because of the threats of his enemies, but because his spirit had been broken by their impenitence. Elijah had faithfully done the work the Lord had given him to do. But in spite of much good that had been done, the people still rejected the Lord and His way. They had taken away the joy of Elijah’s work, and so he grew severely disillusioned and depressed. In response, God’s angel told Elijah to rest, and he provided the prophet with food and drink in the wilderness; then he told the burned-out Elijah to keep going. The Lord was not yet finished with Elijah. The Lord spoke to Elijah in a whisper—“a still small voice”—and Elijah heard and recognized the Word of the Lord.

You and I have experienced times and situations in which we have extended ourselves greatly, above and beyond the call of duty, only to end up bitterly disappointed and disillusioned. Whether here at the church or at home or work or school, we’ve made great plans. We executed those plans with near-flawless precision. We did everything we thought we could, but it seemed as though we found little or no success. The people whom we thought would faithfully receive our work and even God’s Word wouldn’t listen or act as we desired. After a while, we had the opportunity to step back and analyze. And what did we see? While aspects of that situation stood outside the realm of our control, we also had to admit that our own sins and flaws helped to mess things up. We did not completely trust the Lord to take care of the matter, instead focusing on our work and effort. We can be left, sort of like Elijah, stewing in our own juices, indignant with God, even as guilt comes crashing down upon us for faithlessly presuming that God must dance to the tunes we choose.

          We are told in Epistle to the Hebrews, “In many and various ways, God spoke to the people of old by the prophets; but now in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” The Apostle John called Jesus “the Word.” In Him we have the Word from God that we need most of all: the word of forgiveness that comes from His cross. “It is finished,” Jesus said there. After He rose from death, He breathed on His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” It may be a comparatively quiet voice that speaks the word of forgiveness to us today; it may seem almost inaudible due to the noise of this evil and dying world and our own selfish thoughts and words; yet this is the very Word we need to hear. The Lord is in this Word with all His saving power.

          God’s Word works! To Elijah’s surprise, there were still seven thousand faithful people in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. By God’s grace, these people had kept the faith. All of them were going about their business quietly, like a low whisper, staying under the radar. And they could do this because they had heard the Lord’s voice in His Word, and His Word worked the way God meant it to work.

          God’s Word works today, too, when God’s people make the good confession. This is true even in times of adversity—and sometimes especially when they confess God’s Word in times of adversity. When our way seems difficult; when there isn’t that calm and quiet that really should characterize life in the Church; when there seems to be so little, if any, tranquility; we can still be comforted to know that the Lord is at hand in the midst of our difficulties. Like Elijah, we may not like where we find ourselves after some especially bitter experience. But do not underestimate God’s power in this. If we are driven back to His Word and the comfort it gives, then the bitterness becomes a blessing, however well disguised.

You will never go wrong clinging to the Lord and His Word. Even though He does not seem to bring decisive victories in this world, the fact remains that, in Jesus Christ, He has overcome this world. God’s Word yields the victory for all eternity. As St. Paul said: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” So keep your ears open. Listen for His Word. God isn’t finished with you yet. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.