There he was, outnumbered. One against the many. There seemed to be no way to win, no escape. He hadn’t been the same since this all started. It had taken its toll on him, both physically as well as emotionally, and spiritually. And there was no peace in any of it. His situation left him in a desperate way, tormented, ostracized from his family and friends, all alone.

We love to root for the underdog. There is something about overcoming great odds, of surprising everyone, of getting the upper hand. But that’s only when there is hope, as slight as it might be, that one can overcome the odds.  This man had no hope. He was at the bottom, and the only way to go was further down, down to the abyss where torment awaited.

So when this demon possessed man sees Jesus, he cries out and falls to the ground. “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do no torment me.” He knows who Jesus is, the Son of the Most High God. Maybe another way of saying it is, “Why don’t you leave me alone, Jesus.” That’s what demon possessed man wants, to be left alone, to have nothing to do with God, for he knows that eternal hell is what he deserves. They beg Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. They fear going to hell, and rightly they should, for it is a place of eternal torment and separation from God.

But really now, who is speaking here: the man, or legion?  “Why do you not leave me alone?” if voiced by the demon, is answered by Jesus as Lord who has conquered Satan by his death and resurrection.  Jesus has authority even over the demons, and they know it. And it scares legion.  Jesus won’t just leave the demon alone because he has come to destroy evil in all its forms and drive it from the face of the earth.

But, “Why do you not leave me alone?” is also the question of the man, who has been possessed and beset by evil. From him (and from us) it’s a cry of lament, of complaint. In the midst of terrorism and war, bloodshed and shootings, the need for a Savior is all the more pressing and obvious. Make no mistake, evil is all around us, and all that is evil is of the devil of His followers. God could justly abandon us to the sin, pride, and arrogance of our society and of each one of us. And there is no victory over them by our own willpower or our own efforts.  Do you think this demon possessed man wouldn’t have tried to fight? Most assuredly he did, and he failed over and over again. The underdog who would always fail.

We feel outnumbered, like we’re one against many. And we are. There are more non-Christians in the world now than there are Christians.  According to the 2010 census, Nampa, Idaho 59% of people claimed to have no religion whatsoever.  These are commonly called the “nones.”  About 16% of the population is Mormon. That means that only 34% of our population, only 1 out of every three people in town, is Christian.

And it makes us afraid, or feel helpless, and all alone. Maybe you struggle in your school or work to publicly live out your faith because when you look into the world it seems like everyone is against Christ.  Maybe you fear speaking up in a church meeting because you think you’re the only one who feels a certain way and you don’t want to be the lone naysayer.  Maybe you struggle with depression, or loneliness, or pain and you don’t think anyone will understand. Maybe you walk into church on Sunday mornings broken by the last week because of your sin and the sins of others, but you feel as though everyone else is ok and doesn’t have any problems. Your bad thoughts, your malicious deeds, your evil words outnumber all the good that you can muster up in your heart.

What do you have to do with me Jesus. Just leave me alone. I’m not worth it. Maybe you have felt at time that life would be easier if God would just stop. God has every right, in His justice, to leave us alone and abandon us. Sometimes it is easier to face a legion of demons leading us into sin and despair than it is to face a holy and righteous God. But this is a question, ultimately, of faith. But for the grace of God, He does not leave us alone. He breaks in to our world to be with us, to become one with us, to deal with sin decisively in his body. Here is only begotten Son of God, the One and only, taking on the sinful world. Outnumbered. Alone. One vs the many.  He visits His people, His fallen and sin broken creation, in the incarnation of Christ and He takes the many sin and evil of the world upon Himself. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me”, Jesus cries out before His death. Alone, with the weight of the sinful world upon His shoulders. He dies upon the cross. The loneliest place on earth is the cold and dark grave because Jesus isn’t there. He is risen!

And He calls you out from among the grave of your sin, He snatches you out of the clutches of the devil through the waters of Baptism and by the power of His Word, and He gathers you into His family. So that when you are outnumbered and overwhelmed, you may call out with assurance, Abba, Father. The Church is the home of the broken, the lonely, outnumbered by sin.  Christ is for sinners. He is for you who are outnumbered.  He is the One vs the many, and He takes the many sins, the many hurts, the many demons and He dispels them. He casts them out of us as easily as He did the possessed man. He commands and they obey. Your sins are forgiven, and they are. Your fears are dealt with, and they are. Your security with Him is assured, and it is! You are joined together with the One who stands against the sinful world and deals it a lethal blow by His death. The one and only sacrifice for our sins.

We don’t come to church to escape the world, but we come to receive God’s healing and Gods’ grace in Christ while living in the midst of the world, to not be alone with our sins or our faith, but surrounded by the family of God and in the presence of Christ Himself.  Only then can we return to our homes and declare how much God has done for us. With our families. We should be talking about the service and the sermon, the Scripture readings, Bible study and Sunday School over lunch and dinner on Sunday nights. We should be taking that message into our work and our schools throughout the week. When we see others who are hurt, who are suffering from the pains of living in this sinful world, who are tormented by the devil day and night over their sins, where healing is to be found.

Here Jesus demonstrates, again, his all-encompassing power to us. In this text we are driven to faithful confidence. Even in the midst of crushing and overwhelming forces which we cannot comprehend or battle, the power of Jesus is undiminished. “What do you have to do with me?” can be the yell of the enemy, the unbeliever, opposed to God and his power. But it can also be a cry of faith, a cry of wondrous confidence in the God who always responds to save His people. The psalmist praises, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (Psalm 139). “What a God,” we say, “who has to do even with me!”

The time when Mary, the mother of Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, is called The Visitation. While the two mothers meet, the real visitation occurs with the children in the womb. John, the forerunner for the Christ, is brought into the presence of Jesus, and leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. Already now the new creation is beginning and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb knows, believes, and hails his redeemer.

Why don’t we do this more often? Why don’t we leap for joy when we come to church? We are brought by the Spirit so that Jesus could visit us in His Word and Sacrament, so why don’t we jump with joy at His presence?  Why don’t we jump at the chance to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ and our community with the Gospel, of making introductions and fostering the relationships between God and man?

Instead, we treat it more like drudgery, like a chore. I have to say, I sometimes look out into the congregation and see people who look bored out of their minds throughout the service. Who mumble along the words of Scripture, tight lipped when singing songs of praise to God, and stare at the ceiling during the sermon.  We’re all guilty of this, there’s no denying it.

Your inattention doesn’t stop God from visiting His people, in fact, He comes because you are prone to not pay attention to Him. He comes to take sinners like you and me to forgive us, to save us, to renew us, to lead and conform us into His image. That’s why we here, that’s why God has gathered us to Himself this morning. We come to church because Jesus visits His people here. The church is about Christ and His gifts. The Church is here to give you Christ through the Word, forgiveness, and His Sacraments.

At the beginning of Romans 12, St. Paul urges, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

We all fail to live up to this standard. But as living sacrifices, as recipients of God’s visitation, we have been transformed to live according to God’s loving will. This serves as a powerful witness to others. God in Christ has first loved us, and by His mercy, God considers us according to His love for us and not our love for Him. How can we not rejoice at this?  How can we be any different than John the Baptist? Than Elizabeth and Mary? Than Paul? Than the saints of God throughout the centuries?

God does not want you to conform. He wants you to be transformed in the likeness of Christ.  Once the Gospel transforms us, God calls us to service toward others. We serve the Lord as He enables us with our own gifts. God wants you to actively serve your church family and your community through His Church. We have received everything freely from the hand of God, how can we not share what our Lord has given to us? How can we not use it for the glory of God? How can we not have genuine love for others?

Unfortunately, a harmful concern plagues the Church, and we at Zion are just as guilty as anyone.  A handful of people end up doing much of the work while the rest sit by and do little to nothing, paralyzed by disappointment, by fear, by ignorance.  Our own pride and impatience gets in our way and it discourages others. Why should anyone come to church, hear of God’s love, receive his gifts, if we treat it so lightly ourselves? How many of you have thought that you don’t want to be on a committee or a board because you feel like it’ll be too much time in a meeting, too much arguing, too much frustration?  Is there some truth in that? Probably. How many stay at home because you feel like you’re neither needed nor wanted nor appreciated? Or probably the excuse I hear more often that not, “I don’t know how, I don’t know what to do.”

All too often we fill our time with things that do not encourage us or anyone else in the faith. Christ and His body, the Church, often takes backseat to work, sports, staying out late on Saturday night, and the list goes on and on and on.  It’s no wonder we feel inadequate, we don’t visit our Lord in His Word and prayer as we ought.  As Christians, we should occupy our time with those things that are good, right, and salutary before all people that they may also glorify God.  He wants you to leap with joy in His merciful presence, just as John the Baptist did while still in the womb. He wants you to remember His mercy in Christ. By virtue of your Baptism, you a child of God, given His mercies and continues to renew us daily by His Holy Spirit. He has given the life of His Son, Jesus, for your salvation. In Jesus, He continues to bless you and sustain you in this life and into the next, for He has already prepared a place for you in His kingdom.

Paul explains what a life of genuine love looks like in our Epistle for this morning. This is what it looks like to have been visited by grace of God in Jesus. This “genuine” love is one that is without hypocrisy. It’s real, authentic, true, and good.  In other words, it gives with no expectations in return. This is so important nowadays.  The younger generations in our world smell out hypocrisy, bait and switch schemes, ulterior motives. We don’t have a school or a daycare so that we can back door people into the pews of our church. We have a school to teach our children what is good and acceptable and perfect in the eyes of God and to point them to Jesus. The same goes for our Daycare. We don’t decorate our church building or keep up the grounds so that others may pat us on the back for doing such good work. We don’t give our time, our effort, our money because it’s deserved.  We do it because it is good. It is right. It is genuine love. We do it so that others might see Jesus and glorify God because of what He does in this place through His Word and Sacraments. So that Jesus might meet them, stuck in the dirt and muck of this fallen world.

People loved by God, Christ has come to visit His people, He has come to visit you. Welcome Him with open arms, with faithful heart, with leaps of joy and genuine love throughout your life. Do not be discouraged, nor worry if it is enough, if you are enough. For Jesus visits His creation to forgive sin, to save sinners, to bless those who believe that there would be a fulfillment of the Lord’s Word, and that fulfillment is in Jesus.

Luke 7:1-10

Healing the Unworthy

Proper 4C/ 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost

May 29, 2016 (Memorial Day Weekend)

This is the kind of thing we see in our Gospel reading today. A centurion has a servant who is sick and dying.  He is Roman soldier in a prominent military position, a Gentile, mostly likely a worshipper of Roman gods but apparently has some respect towards Judaism.  He hears about Jesus and sends some Jewish elders to Him asking Him to come and heal the servant. These Jews come to Jesus, pleading for Him to come and basically tell Jesus that this centurion is a good man who deserves what Jesus has to give. He is worthy of this healing.

But really, what does it mean to be worthy?  What does he really deserve? They tell Jesus says that he loves the nation, which is significant because it’s not his native land, he’s not Jewish.  He’s even built a synagogue. That probably wasn’t cheap, nor easy to do.  And he actually has some compassion for his servant, who is probably a slave, at a time when it was easy to treat them more like property than with dignity as another human being.  It’s all pretty impressive really, especially from a Gentile.

But it isn’t until this centurion sends friends to Jesus that the Lord marvels at him. He didn’t presume to come to Jesus because he knew he wasn’t worthy. Not worthy of approaching Jesus, not worthy of having Jesus under the roof of his house, not worthy of having Jesus heal his servant. This is where Jesus flips everything upside down.  It’s because the centurion isn’t worthy of anything good from Jesus, and that He knows His unworthiness, that Jesus comes to Him with healing.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. More often than not, while we know better, we function more like those elders of the Jews who pleaded with Jesus that the centurion’s worthiness is because he loves our country and built the synagogue. So is that what God really cares about? It’s Memorial Day weekend here, a patriotic time where we tote the flag and our Christian foundations. So do we feel like God ought to bless us because we love our country and have built churches here.  Like God owes us more than what He has already given us.  There’s words for that – greed, envy, selfishness, idolatry, a different gospel.

This is whole thing about the Gospel. Jesus comes for the unworthy. He dies for those who deserve death. Grace is God’s undeserved favor.  Undeserved.  You don’t get what you deserve, which is the wrath of God, eternal death. Jesus gets what you deserve as He hangs upon the cross.  This is why He says, “My Lord, My Lord, why have you forsaken Me.”  God forsakes His Son, He turns His gracious favor from Jesus and because of Jesus, He looks at you. 

 We get mixed up pretty often, don’t we?  We pray and pray and often times feel as if God’s owes us something because of what we’ve done. I’ve been good this week God, I deserve next week to be good.  I helped someone out at the grocery store, so I deserve someone else to help me out. I put a big chunk of money in the offering plate, or donated a bunch of time, so I deserved to be blessed by God with health, wealth, and happiness. Someone is more important in church if they are on the Board of Elders of Ministry Council. It’s the unchristian and sinful idea of karma, which is simply self-righteousness - If I do good, I deserve good. If I do bad, then I deserve bad. And all in all, I try to be a good person, so God should give me what I deserve, what’s coming to me.

When the Holy Spirit gathers us together each week for worship, we come thanking God and giving Him praise because He doesn’t give us what we deserve. We justly deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment – punishment both here on earth and into eternity.  What we are saying here is the same thing as the centurion, “I am not worthy to have you under my roof.”  Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner. Do not give me what I deserve.  Instead, give me Jesus.  The confession of our unworthiness is a confession that there is someone who is worthy, and that is Jesus. If you don’t recognize your need for a Savior, then what’s the point of having a savior. If your sin isn’t that bad, then Jesus isn’t that good. If you are worthy all by yourself, then Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead for nothing.

This is a hard lesson we need to learn, and we need to reminded of on a regular basis. God doesn’t owe you anything good because of you. He owes you everything good because of Jesus. God does not promise you an easy life. He promises you Jesus. God does not promise that you will be happy. He promises you the peace of God that passes all understanding. God does not promise that you have all that want. He promises that Jesus gives you all you need. God does not promise that you will be healed of your sickness or advert your impending death.  He promises deliverance from sin and death, He promises the eternal life of the very Son of God. St. Paul writes in our Epistle, “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…” (Galatians 1:3b-4)

Beloved in Lord, you are worthy to stand before a holy and righteous God without fear or worry and without any merit of your own. By faith not by deeds you are worthy. Luther once wrote concerning Communion, He is truly worthy who has faith in these words, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  You are worthy because of faith. Because faith receives the worthiness of Jesus.

This morning we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity, that Sunday in the church year when we read together that really long Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and we scratch our heads but confess our faith in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Half of this Creed talks about the Trinity, how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another.  But just as important is the second half of the Creed, which speaks of the two natures of Christ, God incarnate.  And so it is very fitting that today we hear in both our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading that Jesus is true God, and true man, the second person of the Holy Trinity.

Now, our Gospel lesson comes right after Jesus speaks to some of the Jews about who their father was.  He had just finished telling them that their father is the devil because they refuse to hear the Word of God and they do not listen to Jesus because they are not of God. Their comeback is basically, “I know you are but what am I?” – that Jesus is a demon possessed Samaritan. To which Jesus replies, “Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

Is there anything more preposterous than saying if someone keeps His Word, they will never see death.  Everyone dies, there’s no getting around it. But they misunderstand, just like so many today misunderstand. This isn’t primarily about doing what Jesus says.  It isn’t talking about obeying the 10 Commandments perfectly.  It’s not about being a moral person, a good Christian. Here, “keep” refers to maintaining possession of something, and in this case, the Word of God. That if you keep, hold on to, have the Word of Christ, you have life.

And just who does this Jesus think He is to say that keeping His words could do any such thing?  And there’s the rub.  Only God’s Word has the power to do any such thing.  By the Word, God spoke creation into existence. By the Word, He brings dead souls to life through faith. By the Word, God will call all out of their graves on the last day, the day of resurrection.

And this is exactly Jesus’ point. “Before Abraham was, I am.” Grammatically, this makes no sense.  Before Abraham was, I am. It should be, “I was,” past tense, not present tense.  But Jesus says something way more important here. “I AM.”  Present tense, in the past, in the present, and into the future. Not just the He is, but who He is and what He does. With these words, Jesus says that He is God. 

Here we confront the Creator who became a human creature. But how is it possible that this man is the “I Am,” the creator of the entire universe? Everyone knew that he was only in his fourth decade of life on earth. He had been born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. And so we encounter the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus can say that he is “I Am,” the Creator, because it is the person of the Son of God who took on a human nature. The one who speaks is the second person of the Trinity. Yet He speaks through His human nature, He speaks as a man.

Now, to the Jews there is no greater blasphemy, no greater insult to their religion or their station in life than to claim to be God.  They picked up stones to throw at Jesus. Jesus claim, and ours as well, that Jesus is true God and the only way to heaven receives intense and sometimes violent opposition. There is no other claim more serious and more offensive to our culture than to say that Jesus is God, that He is more than a man, but divine. Not like a god. Not a god. But God in the flesh, the Creator, the Redeemer and Sanctifier and that in Him and only in Him is there true life. To confess that Jesus is Lord and God is also to confess that He is the Creator. And because He is the creator, He has a claim on His creation.

In Proverbs 8, Wisdom speaks to us and describes His existence before the world was created.  Before the foundations of the world were laid, says Wisdom, I was there.  Before the mountains and hills, before even the first tiny particles of dust were made, I was given birth.  I was brought forth in eternity, before the Lord had done anything else, before the world began, before there was even such a thing as time.  There was never a time when I did not exist, says Wisdom.

This may seem unimportant to us, since no one else was around before the Creation of the world.  Why should we care how the Son of God came into existence as long as He does exist?  Why should we care if what He says in the Bible is true, or if it just has a moral of the story?  The answer to that is an old saying, “All theology is Christology.”  In other words, the Bible testifies to Jesus.  All the points of doctrine, the stories, the parables, the miracles, all relate to Jesus. All the truths of Scripture, including the doctrine of the begetting of the Son, are vitally important to us because before Abraham was, “I AM.”  If Jesus is any less than fully God, then it sets the forgiveness of sins in jeopardy. If Jesus is a lesser God, or if He is not the only-begotten Son, then the Cross would not be enough. 

The Blood that was shed upon the Cross for you is the Blood of the Eternal One.  It is the Blood of God. You need never wonder whether the Cross is enough.  Great as your sins may be, (and they are indeed very great) the Cross is greater.  If you agonize over the guilt that your trespasses have earned, hold onto Christ crucified.  If you look only upon your sins and feel the weight of their burden, look to the Son of God, for in Him your sins are done away with.  If death rears its ugly head, keep the Word of God, for in Him death is defeated.

This pure Gospel removes all uncertainty from the Christian soul.  When He existed before the world, even then He planned to take your human flesh to redeem you. Because Christ is the Word, the author of life, He is the Redeemer of the lost.  Because of Easter, death has no more power, it is an enemy without teeth.  Christ is the great I AM and so whoever keeps the Word of God, this Christ, Jesus our Lord, whoever has received Him by faith and grabs ahold tightly to the Son of God shares in His eternal life. 

Acts 2:1-21

Believing and Confessing

Pentecost Day C

Confirmation Sunday

May 15, 2016

Audio only.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! It is so fitting that we say these words loud and clear today. First, because we are still celebrating Easter. Christ lives! Second, because He lives we are gathered here today from all over Utah and Idaho because He has given life to we who believe. And third, Life is God's business, and as those made alive in Christ we are moved to act and share the life of Christ. 

Now, I want to share somethign with you that I would guess is new for most, if not all, of you. Zombies. I bet you've never heard a sermon that has zombies in it, have you? For some reason, zombies are all the rage right now. And, though I'm still fairly young, I just don't get these kids these days and their strange facinations. I don't get zombies. Zombies wander around aimlessly, no point other than to make more zombies

Dead men walking. I think it’s fascinating in part because it’s more true than many people realize. St. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are all, by nature children of wrath, dead in our trespasses and sins. By nature, we are conceived sinful, dead to God, deserving only death and eternal punishment.  People walk around in this world spiritually dead, without life, without hope, without direction and a future of eternal damnation. Once how we were

But you, ladies of the LWML, members of St. Paul Lutheran Church, you are not zombies.  No more walking around without a purpose. You who were once dead have been brought to spiritual life in Christ. By Water and the Word, in Your baptism, you were brought to new life in Christ. By the Word and the Sacrament of the Altar, your life is sustained and strengthened. Sin has been forgiven, death has been defeated, life has been earned by the cross and delivered through the means of grace. You are saved to serve.

Bringing life from death is what God does.  It is the Easter joy, the joy of a resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. A reality and good work that God has already begun in you by the power of His Spirit. And it transforms lives. The Scriptures tell us that those who believe in Jesus Christ begin to live differently.  No longer zombies, those who have been given the Holy Spirit are empowered by Him to begin to live a new life, to strive to follow God and His will ever more closely. We begin to seek out good works to do.  As the Lutheran Confessions say: “As soon as the Holy Spirit has begun His work of rebirth and renewal in us through the Word and the holy sacraments, it is certain that on the basis of His power we can and should be cooperating with Him, though still in great weakness” (SD II.65). But this is not because we are coerced to do so, not as if our salvation depended upon it, but because we are saved.  Luther once wrote in his commentary on Genesis 17, “Works do not make a person righteous, but a righteous person does righteous works; and yet the works demonstrate that faith is being exercised in doing them, and through them it increases and shines forth.” (LW 3.169-170)

Lutherans rightly proclaim the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone. That’s how we’re saved: by grace, not by works. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” St. Paul writes.   But there is a danger that some people misunderstand this to mean that works are somehow not important. That we are now freed by the Law by the blood of Christ so we can now do whatever we want, or not do whatever we don’t want, and the Law of God in His Holy Word be damned.

The opposite is true: we are saved by grace in order that we might be freed to do good works, not out of fear or guilt or compulsion, but rather out of love and a living spirit. St Paul also writes, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10). The God who brings life to His people also prepares His people for good works. He moves us to love the Lord with all our heart and mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves, the 10 Commandments summarized down into two things – Love God and love others. You cannot have one without the other.  Good works is not some outward activity, but love that arises outside of our nature, a gift and work of the Holy Spirit whom we receive through faith. (Chemnitz, Loci Theologici III 1116).  Our love and works of service have their source, their direction, their sanctification only in Christ. Romans 14:23, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Dead men can’t do good works. I’ve stood next to dead bodies before and they don’t seem to want to give hugs to their relatives and loved ones.  Dead men don’t serve Lutheran coffee at their own funerals.

But many of you do. Because of Easter. Because Christ is risen, He has delivered that risen life to you, so that you abound in love and good works. And this is all very practical. It includes feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the imprisoned, as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 25:31-46. In includes changing the diaper of a baby. Watching your grandkids. Praying before meals. Devotions with your family. Taking your faith into the workplace. Simply put, faith in Christ manifests itself in good works of all kinds. We have been saved to serve. We have been made alive in Christ, no longer zombies walking around as the living dead without purpose, without direction, without hope but for this life only. Because we are no longer under the condemnation of the Law, we are free to do willingly what the Law commands. We are motivated by love, not by fear, by the Gospel, not by the Law. You don’t have to wander around aimlessly looking for something, or nothing, to do. God has prepared them, laid them out, for you to do in faith.  In Christ, you have been saved to served.

So, no, you aren’t zombies, at least not anymore. You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for a purpose. Though your old sinful self still rears its ugly head, and you struggle in this sanctified life, stumbling down the path of holy living, you are led to see your own sins more clearly. The Law daily brings to our eyes our failure, leading us ever back to Christ and the forgiveness He has won for us at the cross. And indeed, it is here at the foot of the cross that the path to holy living finds both its beginning and end. For here we see both our sin and our Savior. Christ takes upon Himself our guilt and gives us instead His righteousness. He takes our death and gives us His life. He saves us to serve others with the good works love of God in Christ our Lord. Alleluia, Christ is risen. He is risen indeed alleluia!