Shall We Be Saved?

“Shall We Be Saved?”                                                      Isaiah 64:1-9

     We have come to the beginning of the New Church Year.  I guess I could say “Happy New Year!”  As you know, the Church Year does not follow the calendar year.  Instead it follows the major Church festivals.  Seasons of the Church Year are related to the celebrations of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.  Since Jesus’ birth seems like a logical place to start, then a season of preparation for Jesus’ coming would seem reasonable.  There are really two main themes for the Advent season, which gets its name from Latin and means to come to.  We prepare our hearts for Jesus to come to us.  His first coming has already happened of course so we can’t really prepare for that but we can consider what that coming means for us.  While we do that, we also have to remember that Jesus will be coming again and we need to prepare our hearts for that time when He will come to judge the world and take His people to their heavenly home.  That theme carries over from the last part of the church year when we also talk about the end times.  Advent is a time for us to consider all of what Jesus did for us and what He will do when the final promise is fulfilled through His second coming. 

     Through it all, Advent is considered one of the penitential seasons, a time for repentance as we consider what Jesus did to bring us back to the Father.  Our Old Testament lesson for today calls us to join with God’s people in a prayer for mercy.  When we consider our sin and how it is an offense to God, we may ask the question that we find in the text.  “Shall we be saved?”  That question often comes to mind when we are faced with the reality of our sin.  Can I be saved?  Have I been too rebellious?  Could God really love me after all I have done?  Thankfully there is a positive answer to that question and as we consider the message of Isaiah the Prophet, may we see how that will have an effect on our Advent preparations.

      In our text, the prophet leads the people of Israel in a prayer that acknowledges their sin.  For a long time the people of Israel had put God’s mercy to the test.  They had followed after false gods.  They had mixed pagan worship with the God-given acts of worship and just generally had been a rebellious people.  The only way that they would be shaken from their spiritual slumber would be if God would suddenly come down and bring some kind of destruction on them.  During the time of Isaiah, that destruction came from foreign powers that came in and destroyed their land and carried many of the people off into captivity in Babylon. 

     While the destruction and the captivity was a drastic call to repentance, it was necessary in order to remind them that God was still in charge.  In the words of verse five the people cry out, “Behold you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been along time, and shall we be saved?”  The lament then continued in the next verses where they spoke of being unclean.  Their righteous acts are even like a polluted garment.  “We fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls upon your name who rouses himself to take hold of you.”  Those are the words of a people who know that they have sinned.  They have admitted their sin and that is the first step in repentance.  They look to God even though they know that they don’t deserve anything from Him but punishment. 

     Hearing a cry like that ought to make you feel a bit uncomfortable.  It shouldn’t be hard for you to relate to the sins of the people of Israel during Isaiah’s time because they are the sins of people of all time.  The inherited sin that brought about all of those sinful behaviors is in each of you.  Left to yourself, you would have to say right along with the people of old that you are also unclean, your righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  You may wonder if you will be saved.

     But the prophet Isaiah continues by acknowledging that there is hope.  “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  What a wonderful reminder!  You are our Father.  A father loves his children dearly.  He does not like the disobedient and rebellious behaviors of his children but he disciplines them in love.  The whole purpose of punishment is to help them to see the error of their ways and bring them back in repentance.  That is why we look to God as our Father.  He has created us and He loves us with an everlasting love.  He may discipline us  for a time but it is in love that we often have to deal with suffering.  He does want us to be saved.  He wants what is best for us and that is to be brought back into His loving arms for all eternity.  He also recognizes our inability to do what is necessary for us to be reconciled to Him on our own.  We may try but all of our efforts are going to fail because of our continued sinful behaviors that stem from that sinful nature that is a part of our being. 

     At the beginning of the reading for today, the cry of the people was, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”  Actually that was God’s plan from the beginning.  When sin entered the world, God promised that the seed of the woman would destroy the seed of the devil.  That first Gospel promise would be fulfilled when God would sent His only Son into the world.  True God from all eternity came down from heaven to earth to be one of us so that He could take our place.  He took out place under the Law and kept it perfectly.  He then suffered a horrible death on the cross as the punishment for our sins.  The Son was then raised from the dead to show His victory over sin, death and the devil.  His victory is our victory as well.  He then sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts to believe and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior so that we could be saved from all that we deserve because of our sin. 

      Here we can recall the words of the prophet again when he says that we are the clay and the Lord is the potter.  We are the work of His hand.  He has taken us and molded us into His special people.  He is the creator and He shapes us into His own special vessels.  We are the work of His hand and therefore we live to serve the purpose that He has in mind for us.  The answer to the question about being saved is an emphatic, “Yes!”  We have been saved by God’s grace alone.  He declares us righteous because of His great love, so great that He sent His only Son to earth to take our place under the law and on the cross. He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit in the Means of Grace to believe in Jesus and respond His love. 

     That is what we celebrate as we remember Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.  Jesus came to be our Savior.  That is what moves us to true repentance whenever God’s love is brought home to us as we hear His word.  As we hear the Advent prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, we can remember that it was God’s plan to save us.  As we hear the Advent Gospel lessons about John the Baptist calling people to repentance, that was part of God’s plan to save us.  As we celebrate the birth of the Savior, that was the fulfillment of God’s promise to send His own Son to be our Savior.  Throughout the Advent season, though, we have to remember that there is one more prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled.  We have to remember that Jesus will come again, just as He promised.  May we keep in mind that God is our Father.  He loves us and cares for us and has provided for our salvation.  Because of His great love, there should be no doubt in our minds that, yes, we will be saved.    Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Fall At Jesus' Feet

Fall At Jesus’ Feet 

Luke 17:11-19

     The Gospel lesson for Thanksgiving is the familiar story of the healing of the ten lepers.  As you heard, one came back to give thanks and Jesus commented “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?”  I don’t know if you have noticed, but this is always the Gospel lesson for Thanksgiving.  The thankful leper is always a good example for us of the thankfulness that should be in our hearts when we think about all of the blessings that we have received from our gracious God.  As many times as I have read this passage over the years, there is one detail that is often overlooked in the telling of this story from the life and ministry of Jesus.  We know that the man returned to give thanks to Jesus but the text also tells us that he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.  As we think about the thankful leper on this Thanksgiving Eve, may we consider what it means for our lives of thankfulness to fall at Jesus’ feet.

     When you think about it, your thankfulness is often very shallow.  When you receive some kind of blessing from God, often through the love and kindness of others, you may have thankful thoughts.  You might think to yourself, “Wasn’t that nice,” and then you move on to the next important thing that comes up in your life.  You may say the words that express your thankfulness to God or to someone else who has done something for you.  Saying the words can be easy.  It’s like when you were young and someone had to remind you, “What do you say?”  Then you mumble some words that sound like “Thank you.” That may be good training but it can also reinforce that idea that you can say things when you don’t really mean them. 

     When you think about the other nine lepers, you see a good example of people who may have been thankful that they were healed but they were too busy to come back and give thanks to Jesus because they had other things to do.  They were busy going to the priests to begin the rituals that would validate their cleansing.  Getting back to a normal life was their first priority.  It’s not too hard to find yourself falling into that category also.  Even as we observe a national holiday that is set aside as a time for giving thanks, we find ourselves so busy that the giving of thanks becomes an after-thought because we are so busy.  It has become quite common to think of Thanksgiving as a day for the three “F’s”:  Family, Food and Football.   The order you put them in is up to you.  Now it seems there is another “F” that occupies the day: Figuring out your shopping strategy for Black Friday.  Where is the giving of thanks? 

     As think of the Gospel lesson again, the thankful leper demonstrated his thanks to Jesus for his healing.  The others were no doubt overjoyed about the healing that they experienced because it meant that they were no longer considered unclean.  They could return to their families.  They could return to their trades.  They could return to society.  They had too many things on their minds to come back thank Jesus for what He did.  There was one though, when he realized the miracle that had taken place, turned back and praised God with a loud voice and when he approached Jesus he fell face down at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.  I would guess that there were tears of joy running down his face as he came back.  He praised God with a loud voice.  His shouts of “Hallelujah” mixed with the sobs of joy touched the hearts of the disciples who witnessed this miraculous sign. 

     The action of falling at Jesus’ feet though demonstrated his true, humble submission to Jesus as Lord.  He recognized Jesus as a merciful, gracious and powerful Lord.  All the blessings that he would experience as a result of being made clean from the leprosy began to flood over him and he was overwhelmed with gratitude to the point that simply saying thank you was not enough.  To fall at Jesus’ feet acknowledged that he knew that all he had and all he was came from God’s almighty and gracious hand. 

     When you think about your thankfulness, not just because it is Thanksgiving time, is it the kind of thankfulness that causes you to praise the Lord with a loud voice and fall at Jesus’ feet?  Of course it would be difficult for us to actually duplicate what the thankful leper did but do you really demonstrate your thankfulness to Jesus for all of the blessings that you have.  I don’t think any of you have had leprosy and had to live a life isolated from your family and friends because you were considered ceremonially unclean.  But you share a common affliction that can only be cured by Jesus.  That affliction is sin.  You have been carrying around that sickness since you were conceived.  There is nothing that you can do to get rid of it but Jesus has done what was necessary to remove that sickness from you.  Your sins have been forgiven by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as your substitute. The cross has become for you a symbol of the washing away of your sins.  The blessing of that washing is yours through faith.  As Jesus said to the thankful leper, “Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well.  He demonstrated his faith by humbly submitting himself to Jesus, lying face down at Jesus’ feet. 

     It is Jesus’ love for you that causes you to fall at his feet in humble submission to His will.  That could include daily worship through prayer and hearing of God’s Word.  It would include regular worship with God’s people where you have the opportunity to praise God with a loud voice as you recognize the great blessings that you have received, namely the blessing of the forgiveness of your sins, reconciliation with God, and the assurance of eternal life in heaven.  In the bigger picture of things that you experience in your life, there is nothing that can compare to the eternal blessings that you have through the merciful and gracious hand of God.  The thankful leper could look ahead to the many earthly blessings that would be his as a result of being cleansed of his leprosy.

       We don’t know if he understood the eternal implications of his encounter with Jesus, but we do know what they are.  You have to ask yourself if you have truly been thankful for the blessings that you have received.  Have you, in a sense, fallen at Jesus’ feet to show your thankfulness?  My guess is that you have fallen short of that kind of humble submission to Jesus in response to His love.  If you are honest with yourself, you would have to admit that your thankfulness has probably been a bit lacking.  It is then that you need remember that the reason for your thankfulness is that Jesus came into the world to give His life for you so that by His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, your sins could be forgiven, even those sins of taking His blessings for granted.  Jesus died for all sins.  He has given you the Holy Spirit so that you can believe and trust in Him for the forgiveness that you need.  That power of the Spirit then moves you to show your thankfulness to God by acts of humble service to those around you.  You can’t literally fall at Jesus’ feet like the thankful leper, but you can humbly submit your life to Jesus as you help to bring healing, both physical and spiritual to those around you. 

     I would guess that the thankful leper and probably the other nine had some pretty good stories to tell about what happened to them along the road between Samaria and Galilee.  After they went to the priests and began appearing in their home towns cleansed of leprosy they talked about the man who told them to go and show themselves to the priest because they had been cured of their terrible disease.  They had been cleansed.  Well guess what?  You have been cleansed of your sin-sickness.  You have been forgiven.  You have the gift of heaven to look forward to.  Is that important to you?  Of course it is.  Are you thankful for that gift?  Of course you are.  Then fall at Jesus’ feet and thank Him for all He has done.  Rejoice at the words that Jesus says to you.  “Rise and go your way.  Your faith has made you well.”  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

Thanksgiving Eve

"Let Earth Receive Her King"

“Let Earth Receive Her King” 

Matthew 25:31-46

     When you noticed that the sermon hymn was going to be “Joy to the World”, your first thought may have been, “Oh no!  First it’s the stores that are pushing Christmas so early, then the radio stations have started playing Christmas music already.  Now the Pastor has us singing Christmas songs before Advent.  What next?”   Actually, I’m not jumping the gun by choosing this hymn this weekend.  Earlier this year, my Sunday morning Bible Class did a study of several hymns, looking at the background and taking a close look at the words of the hymns.  “Joy to the World” was one of the hymns that we studied.  In looking up the history of the hymn, I found that Isaac Watts, who wrote a new hymn almost every Sunday to fit the Scripture readings, actually wrote this hymn for the Last Sunday of the Church Year.  It wasn’t intended to be a Christmas hymn at all.  Over the years, churches began to use it as a Christmas hymn and now it is one of the favorites.  It didn’t start out that way though.  To sing it this weekend on the last Sunday of the Church year is very appropriate.  If you look carefully at the words, it talks about receiving the King.  It talks about a time when no more sins or sorrows grow.  It talks of a time when the nations will be made to acknowledge glory of His righteousness.  That all talks about things that will happen when Jesus comes again.  There will be great rejoicing at that time for the people of God.  For the believers it will be a time to repeat the sounding joy. 

     The Gospel lesson for today is another of the lessons that Jesus taught about the end times.  Two weeks ago we heard about the wise and foolish virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom to come.  The lesson was that you need to keep your faith strong.  Have the fuel for your lamp of faith as you waiting for Jesus’ return.  Last week we heard the next section from Matthew 25 about the talents and the difference between those who saw the Master as loving and merciful and the one who saw the Master as a hard and evil man.  Today’s Gospel lesson explains what will happen in the end when Jesus comes in all His glory.  He reinforces that reality that He will be coming again.  There should be no doubt in the minds of the faithful that Jesus will return.  Even when it seemed to the believers that He wasn’t coming because it didn’t happen as soon as they hoped, they should not lose heart.  He will come again.  He spoke about it repeatedly and we know that His Word is the truth.  That is an important lesson for you today as well.  It is now over two thousand years later and He hasn’t come yet.  Should we despair and give up hope?  Not at all.  God’s people had to wait centuries for the Messiah to come the first time.  It shouldn’t surprise us that we are still waiting for Him to return.  The call to be prepared is still there. 

     The second thing that is brought out as Jesus spoke to His disciples is that there will be a separation of the people of the world when He comes.  He used an image that was familiar to people of that day.  As a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so He will separate people.  Those who are on His right are those who will have the place of honor and privilege.  Those on the left are condemned.  The last verse of the reading tells us that those on the left will go to eternal punishment. 

     This reinforces that teaching that there will be difference at the time of the final judgment.  This is nothing new for those who had been paying attention.  Remember that this section was the final portion of a lengthy discussion of the end times.  It actually started near the beginning of Chapter 24 and continued to the end of Chapter 25.  The last three lessons that I mentioned before all talked about the difference between the faithful and the unfaithful.  The foolish virgins were left out of the marriage feast, a picture of heaven.  The servant who buried his talent was cast into utter darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, a picture of hell. 

     Now Jesus becomes clearer in His description of the difference between the sheep, the faithful, and the goats, the unfaithful.  The faithful gave evidence of their faith through acts of love and service to those in need.  The unfaithful demonstrated their lack of faith by their lack of love and service to others.  You have to be careful when you hear this passage that you don’t jump to the conclusion that this passage teaches some kind of works righteousness, in other words, the idea that you get to heaven because you have done a lot of good works.  That would be inconsistent with all that Jesus taught and with all that the other Scripture writers taught about salvation.  Interpretation of the Scriptures must always be consistent with the rest of what Scripture says.  We know that we are justified, or declared righteous, by God’s grace, His undeserved love for us, for Christ’s sake, because His lived a perfect life for us and died on the cross as the punishment for our sins, and the blessings of His work for us become ours through faith, itself a gift worked in us by the Holy Spirit.  Recall Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you are saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.”  By grace you have been saved from eternal punishment because of your sins.  Grace is God’s undeserved love for you.  The salvation through Christ has come first.  Then come the good works that are a response to God’s great undeserved love.  When you truly appreciate the blessings that you have been given by having your sins forgiven, you will respond to that blessing with acts of love and mercy toward others.  That is what Jesus was saying.  The ones who were given the kingdom were actually surprised because they didn’t think that they had done anything for the King but His response was that when they did these things for the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Those works of mercy and kindness were simply done because they reflected the love of God in their life, the love that they had already received from God’s merciful hand. 

     Those on the other side were also surprised when they were consigned to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  Their response was, “What?  We didn’t do anything.”  Jesus came back with the condemnation.  “You are right.  You didn’t do anything.”  There was no response of faith because there was no faith.  When someone tries to base a hope of salvation on works, there may be a great deal of self-satisfaction but none of those works are enough to merit salvation before God.  Because you thought that you could earn your own salvation, there was no compassion for others.  There was no real love and concern for those in need.  There was no response to God’s great love because you figured that you don’t need it.  You thought that you could do it on your own.  You can see how all of what Jesus described depends first on saving faith which trusts completely in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  By grace you are saved through faith in Jesus.  It is a gift from God. 

     That’s what it means to be prepared for the coming of the Lord.  That is what makes the coming of the Lord such a joyful time for the believer.  That is what makes it possible for us to look forward to the coming of the Lord with joy and not dread.  We wait with true faith in our hearts, a faith that responds to God’s love with a life of love and mercy that reaches out to touch the lives of those who are hungry and thirsty for the Gospel.  We love because God first loved us and gave up His only Son for us.  He is the one who rules all things, especially His church here on earth.  He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.  All nations will be gathered before Him.  He will separate the believers from the unbelievers like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  It is then that all will acknowledge the glory of His righteousness that stands in our place and the wonder of His love that ushers the believers into eternal life.  For those on His left, it will be too late.  They will know what they missed by their stubborn insistence that they don’t need anyone’s help.  The believers, on the other hand, will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.  Together we shall sing the praises of our King for all eternity.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

The Last Sunday of the Church Year 

   

Prepare Your Hearts

Prepare Your Hearts

Matthew 25:1-13

     Here we are in the second Sunday of November.  We survived the time change.  We made it through the elections and all of the campaign ads and phone calls.  In two and a half weeks it will be Thanksgiving.  I would guess that there are a number of you who are planning to visit family at that time and you will be travelling.  For some it may just be a day trip but for others you may be gone several days.  Imagine for a moment that you have the car all packed and you are ready to go.  As you pull out of the driveway and start down the street you go through the check list.  Did we forget anything?  Did we turn out the lights?  Did you remember your phone charger?  Did we remember those things that we wanted to show grandma and grandpa?  Everything checks out and you are on your way.  Then there is that one thing that you forgot.  Did you fill up the car with gas?  How easy it could be to forget one of the most important things in all the rush.  You need fuel to get where you want to go.

     In a way, that was like the situation in the parable that Jesus told about the last days.  This parable of the ten virgins was drawn from the experience of the people in order to teach them something about preparing their hearts for the end time.  You get to learn a little about wedding customs but the thing that you need to learn is that each of you needs to be ready for the Lord’s coming and when that time comes there will be no second chances.  You need to be ready when the Lord’s trumpet calls.  In all things you need to recognize how the Lord has blessed you so that you can be prepared for whatever He has planned for you. 

     As you heard, this parable puts us in the middle of a wedding during the time of Jesus.  Part of the typical wedding celebration of that day was a grand procession to the place where the wedding feast was to take place.  Young women were chosen to accompany this procession and especially if it were to happen after dark, they would carry lamps which would light the way and give everything a festive touch.  These lamps were probably more like torches carried on poles.  At the top would be rags soaked in olive oil which served as the fuel.  A good supply of oil would be needed to keep the torches burning throughout the time of waiting and the procession.  We are told that five of the young women were foolish and five were wise.  The foolish ones brought their lamps but not extra oil.  The wise ones had oil in jars that they brought along.  When the procession finally was ready the five who did not bring oil were caught in the embarrassing position of having their lamps go out.  They tried to borrow some oil from the others but that would then not leave enough for any of them to complete their task.  In the end they were left out of the wedding banquet. 

     In looking at any parable, it is important for us to pick up on the one main point that Jesus was trying to make.  As we hear this story it becomes pretty clear that Jesus wanted to show the importance of having your hearts prepared for His coming. The difference between the wise and the foolish virgins was the degree of their preparation.  You have to remember that Jesus was talking to His disciples here.  It was not one of those times when Jesus had to deal with the religious leaders of the people who were out to get Him.  This was told to the disciples.  That makes this even more important for you to listen very carefully to the lesson that Jesus wanted to teach.  All of the young women had lamps.  They all started with some oil.  They all slept as they waited for the bridegroom to come.  This would tell us that to start with they were all essentially the same.  This would tell us that many people start out in the faith and then carry on with the many ordinary activities of life.  But the difference comes in the preparedness for the long haul.  The wise ones had fuel enough for the whole evening.  The foolish ones thought they could get by on their original supply.  They didn’t make use of the fuel that would have been easily available to them beforehand.  When the bridegroom finally came, it was too late for them to get more oil and join the procession and come in to the wedding.

     It was not just a careless mistake on the part of the foolish ones.  There was no second chance at that point for them.  So it will be when Jesus comes again.  You need to be prepared for His coming.  That preparation amounts to simply having saving faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Those who believe in Him when He comes will be a part of the great procession to the heavenly banquet with Christ and His bride the Church.  Those who have allowed their faith to slip, those who have fallen away, those who have placed their trust in themselves and their own works or any other thing, will be shut out.  It will be too late at that time to run off and try to get the one thing needful that was offered so freely before.

     God has given us so many chances that those who reject that gift of grace can only be described by the word that Jesus Himself used, foolish.  Yet those who reject the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit are everywhere.  Again as we look closely at the parable you need to recognize that Jesus was saying that the foolish ones are even among us.  Even though some may be in line for the procession, their hearts may not be ready for the Lord’s return because they have continually rejected the source of power that is necessary for true faith to fill the heart.  That power comes from the Holy Spirit who works through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, to fill your heart with the oil of faith that makes you ready to wait as long as it takes for the Savior to come.  That Spirit-endowed faith not only makes you ready to go when the Lord calls you but it also sustains you for the wait.

     Through that gift of the Holy Spirit, you are prepared to live your life for the Lord as you wait for His return.  That means that you are also ready to serve the Lord in ways that He has made clear in His Word.  A little later in this same chapter, Jesus spoke about the ways in which we serve Him by serving others.  Showing kindness and compassion to those in need, strengthening and building one another in the Lord, spreading the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, praying for and supporting the work of the church are all part of the life of faith as you wait for the time when our Savior will come to judge the world and take His people to our eternal home.  The power to do all those things comes from God.  You need to recognize that great source of spiritual fuel and make use of it in your life.  If you don’t, you are like the foolish virgins who waited with no supply of fuel for their lamps.

      You may have every intention of being a wedding guest when the invitation goes out but without the faith that trusts in Jesus Christ alone, you will be like those who come late and find the doors shut. You may wonder what went wrong but the truth is that there was no oil for your lamp.  There was no real faith and trust in Christ alone.  That is why Jesus told a parable like this to His disciples.  We know that at least one of them did not believe.  Judas betrayed Him in the end.  Jesus’ warning was to all who are His followers.  Stay filled with the power of the Holy Spirit by making good use of the Word and the Sacraments so that your faith will remain strong.  Let that faith show itself in action as you serve the Lord by serving those around you.  Use the power of the Spirit to share the Gospel with others in the time that the Lord will give you.  Just like the young women in the parable, we don’t know when the Bridegroom with come.  We don’t know when Jesus will come again but He calls you to prepare your heart with the spiritual fuel that has been so freely provided.  Then you will be able to join the heavenly celebration of the marriage of Christ and His Bride, the Church, for all eternity.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

22nd Sunday after Pentecost