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Sunday, November 11, 2012 Sermon for 11/11/12--Third Last Sunday of the Church Year Signs and Warnings Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We have begun the countdown to the end of the Church Year, when the Church turns its attention to the Second Coming of Christ and to the new heaven and the new earth. But until that day arrives, the Lord warns that there will be false messiahs and false prophets running around in this world, seeking to deceive God's people and steal them away from Him. So He warns you not to believe it when you hear preachers who point to some messiah who is not the real one. As sincerely as you warn your children away from strangers, hear the Lord's warning today. His Words will save you! The thing about false prophets is that they try to look and sound like Jesus and His preachers. Every day people are fooled by preachers and religious leaders who sound like they are preaching Christ but really are not. People especially fall for what looks like miracles and signs done by those who claim to be Christ or represent Christ. The devil’s greatest tactic in opposing Christ is not by sounding like he's against Christ—though he does that too. But more effective is when Satan tries to sound like he is Christ. Consider the golden calf. The people made the calf, and then Aaron said, “Tomorrow is a festival to the Lord!” It was an idol, a false god, but the Lord's name was attached to confuse the people and lead them astray! So it is with false prophets today: they'll sound a whole lot like Jesus and Christians—so much so that many will follow their lies. But there is a difference between false prophets and the true Christ. The True Jesus is the Son of God who is also true man who saves you from your sins. Did the golden calf rescue the Israelites from Egypt? No; the Lord did! Jesus Christ is true God and true man who died and rose for our salvation. That is not what you will hear from false teachers. False prophets will tell you what your itching ears want to hear: that the life of Christians is a life of ease, that God wants you to be wealthy in the things of this world, that your best life is now. What you won't hear from the false preachers is that Christ came to be made sin for you. On the cross, He was cursed for your sins. Your sins are so awful that the Son of God had to shed His blood and die to get rid of them. Christ does not save you by showing you how to live or by teaching you some path to inner peace or anything else like that. He is your Savior hanging the cross on Calvary and bleeding and dying for sinners—for you. He rose from the dead to raise sinners—to raise you. His death and resurrection for sinners set Christ apart from every impostor. So how do you tell the difference between the impostors and the real deal? Christ has given you His Word and Sacraments; by those alone you know Him. By those alone you have His forgiveness. Christ tells you to hear and believe His Word, not look for miraculous signs. If a preacher doesn't preach Christ crucified and risen for the remission of sins, then run from him. If a preacher denies Baptism's power to save you, run away! If a preacher doesn't point you to the body and blood of Jesus given in His Supper, then close your ears to what he preaches! A false preacher will direct your attention away from God's Word in the Scriptures, away from Baptism and Absolution and the Holy Supper. The false prophet will astound with his exciting teaching, his wonderful and fake gifts of prophecy and knowledge, his wealth, his charisma—even with miracles which seem to confirm that he is authentic. But if he does not preach Christ crucified for sinners, then don't believe him! Run away! Close your ears! My brothers and sisters in Christ: the Lord has given you His Word. He gives you forgiveness at the font in Baptism and from the lips of your pastor and at the altar of His Supper. Cling to those things, and you will not be led astray. When Christ returns, you will know it without a doubt. Until then, the devil and his preachers will impersonate Christ and try to fool you. But don't be fooled! You are washed in water and the word, fed with the body and blood of Christ, and declared forgiven! Only the true Jesus who has made you His own gives that to you. He will keep and protect you from all the devils out there who will try to steal you away from Him. Devils will fill the world, eager to devour you. Jesus says there will be. But resting in His Word, they will not overcome you. Until that great and glorious day when the new heavens and the new earth will come, the Church prays with the saints of all times and places: “Amen! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” 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. Posted by revalkorn at 8:31 AM 0 comments Links to this post Monday, November 05, 2012 ONE THING'S NEEDFUL released today! Christmas has come to Narnia! Er...umm...okay, so that was a bit dramatic. I'm sure you know how aggravating it is to start reading a book, only to realize it's one of a series, and the complete series hasn't been released yet. I've been there myself, and it makes my teeth itch. Well, the wait is over. "One Thing's Needful", the third and final book of the "Thy Strong Word" series, has been released today! It is available in Kindle and print formats. Pastor Justin Corwin of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Carousel, New York, and his wife, Detective Beth Corwin of the Carousel Police Department, find themselves in the midst of tribulation. Beth's body has betrayed her, making an unwanted surgery a necessity. Justin is dealing with uncertainty regarding his effectiveness as Pastor and as Chaplain of the Carousel Fire Department. Both of them are finding that it's not as easy to live their God-given vocations as they had hoped. Will they require a change of scenery to again find the joy in the Lord which seems so hard to obtain? My intention in writing these books was to make sort of a poor man's "Hammer of God". They're about vocation and Lutheran apologetics, with a touch of romance and at least a little humor. If you've read the first two books, it's time to complete the set. If you were waiting for the last book to be released, it's time! If you're looking for a Christmas gift for a friend, this could be what you've been seeking. Click the link to find links for all three books in both formats: CLICK HERE! For those of you who are waiting for the ePub versions, send me an e-mail, and I will make arrangements with you. You can reach me at revalkorn AT gmail DOT com. (Sorry. Trying to block the spammers!) Thank you for your time and consideration. Posted by revalkorn at 9:44 AM 0 comments Links to this post Labels: books, pastoral life, vocation, writing Sunday, November 04, 2012 HYMN: A Son Abides Forever This idea popped into my head as I was writing my sermon for this past Sunday, on which we observed the Festival of the Reformation. Based on John 8:31-36 and Revelation 14:6-7, this hymn focuses on the central theme of the Reformation: faithfulness to the Word of God. It's a little rough, so any advice would be appreciated. A Son Abides Forever A son abides forever, Remaining in the Word. In faith shall nothing sever Disciples from their Lord. We thank you, Holy Jesus, Who from our sin released us. God's children are restored. Fear God and give Him glory. His judgment hour is nigh. Adore and serve Him only-- He is the Lord Most High. Tell ev'ry tribe and nation Of Him who won salvation And lives that death would die. All glory to the Father, All glory to the Son, All glory to the Spirit-- Almighty Three-in-One. All worship and thanksgiving To God from all things living While endless ages run. (c) Alan Kornacki, Jr. HERR CHRIST, DER EINIG GOTTS SOHN (LSB 402) Posted by revalkorn at 6:25 PM 0 comments Links to this post Sermon for 11/4/12--Feast of All Saints (observed) Blessed Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Like much of Scripture, the Beatitudes are not easily understood. There have been as many interpretations of the Beatitudes as there have been interpreters. The most obvious interpretation is that these are principles for Christian living, moral lessons for your best life now. Rationalists have seen them as a structure for establishing a humane society—which ignores the fact that these were given only to Christians. But if they’re not either of these things, what are they? The answer is found in what they are named. A beatitude refers to a state of blessedness, and blessedness is something we can never give ourselves. It must come from outside of us. Perhaps the problem is that the Beatitudes are given by Jesus in a scene that reminds us of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai: a divine revelation of truth from the mountainside. But Jesus is not a new Moses; He is the fulfillment of what was given through Moses. And the Beatitudes are not a new Law or new interpretation of the old Law. The beatitudes are pure Gospel! Look no further than the word “blessed.” There are no threats in the Beatitudes. There is no admonition. They are words of promise, and so they are descriptions of what we are by grace as Christians. When we hear the words of the Beatitudes, we hear them as descriptions of who and what we are. But when we take an honest look at ourselves, we see that we are none of these things. We are not poor in spirit; we are prideful and full of arrogance. Though we do mourn, our mourning is self-indulgence, a way of drawing the sympathy of those around us. We are not meek; we are brash and loud and disrespectful, especially when it comes to how we think God has been too hard on us or is giving us too much to handle. We do not hunger and thirst for righteousness; we satisfy ourselves with material wealth and instant gratification. We are not interested in showing mercy—unless, of course, someone has shown it to us first. We are certainly not pure in heart; it doesn’t take the Shadow to know what evil lurks in the hearts of men. We are not peacemakers; we carry our grudges like badges of honor. And we are never in the mood to be persecuted; the Christian faith should make us comfortable, at ease. How can the Beatitudes be speaking about us? We aren’t these things…and yet we are. How can this be? Remember that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. First and foremost, the Beatitudes describe Him. He was truly poor in spirit, humbly becoming Man to save us. He mourned the sin that afflicted creation, and was comforted in knowing He would redeem His creatures. He was truly meek, allowing men to do their worst to Him without flinching. He hungered and thirsted for righteousness, and, indeed, came to fulfill all righteousness. He was merciful in all ways—look at the cross and try to deny His mercy. He was pure in heart, always in communion with the Father, always doing His Father’s will. He was the great peacemaker, for He reconciled man to God through His blood. And He was persecuted to make us righteous. Jesus was and is all of these things; we are none of them. And yet, in Him we are all these things too. This is the great paradox St. Paul described when he said of Jesus, “He was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” All that we are, He took upon Himself and bore it to death on the cross. In return, He gave us all that is His—His innocence, His blessedness. In Christ, we are everything the Beatitudes depict. This is our blessedness, and it comes as every blessing does: as a gift. On the Feast of All Saints, our thoughts often and rightly turn to those who have gone before us—mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, friends and congregation members like Adele, Karen, David and Tillie—all the faithful of the Lord who have lived and died, clinging to their Baptism. In one respect, our lives are diminished by their passing, for we have lost something we will not regain in this life. But our faith has been strengthened also, for we commend them to the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Surely they are saints. But so are we. The difference between them and us is not one of blessedness. The difference is that we see the truth of the Word of God dimly, as St. Paul wrote, through a dark glass. We continue to walk by faith; they see our Lord and the truth of the Word of God clearly. Or as we just sang, “We feebly struggle; they in glory shine. Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia!” We share blessedness with all the saints of God. We are His blessed ones, forever united with all who have called upon our Lord Jesus Christ by faith—“with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” And we sing together our praise to the Lamb who was slain, evermore praising Him and saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; Hosanna in the highest!” 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. Posted by revalkorn at 7:49 AM 0 comments Links to this post Sunday, October 28, 2012 Sermon for 10/28/12--Festival of the Reformation (observed) Slaves and Sons Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” It would not be a mistake to say that these words explain the central truth of the Reformation. Abiding in the truth of the Word of God was Martin Luther’s main point. That main point was reflected in his translation of the Holy Scriptures into German, so that anyone—not just the clergy—could read the Bible. That main point was reflected in Luther's Catechism, written so that anyone could understand and teach their children the basic doctrine of the Bible. Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Sadly, the people who heard Him took offense to His words. The astonishing thing is that those who took offense were those described as “those who believed Him.” But if they truly believed Jesus, why would they be offended by what He had to say? And the answer is simple: though they believed what Jesus said to them, their confidence was in their ancestry, their heritage. “We are Abraham’s descendents,” they said. Abraham was their idol; it was as if he was a god to them, and their heritage as his sons was their salvation. Many of you have been Lutherans since the day you were baptized as an infant. Some of you come from generations of Lutherans. Some of you are descendents of founding members of St. Peter. Some of you even attended our day school. You know the Bible, the Catechism, and the great hymns of the faith. You’ve learned the truth of the Word from your parents and from faithful pastors and teachers. You come to this place to hear the truth. You sit in your pew and you listen as your pastor preaches the Law to you and then speaks to you the comforting message that Christ has delivered forgiveness to you through His death and resurrection. You come here to return to your baptism through repentance and faith. You come here to hear the word of Holy Absolution, spoken to you by your pastor as by Christ Himself. You come here to receive in your mouth the body and blood of Jesus Christ, given and shed for you. You have a heritage of faith, and that’s a wonderful blessing from the Lord. And yet…and yet, there are times when the message is not what you think you should be hearing. Your pastor preaches, and you can’t help but think that the sermon is being preached to the choir, that there’s no need for the pastor to preach to life-long, every-Sunday churchgoers the way he does to real sinners. It makes you uncomfortable, for example, when he speaks of individual confession and absolution. It irritates when he preaches about the Lord’s Supper on days when it’s not offered. His message makes you squirm in your pew because he’s telling you that ‘the way things have always been,’ the way your parents and grandparents did things, does not cut it as a reason to refuse the gifts of God. “But isn’t it enough that St. Peter has been a faithful outpost in Campbell Hill for nearly 125 years?” “Isn’t it enough that our Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has been bringing the Word to our country and the world for 165 years?” “Isn’t it enough that, 482 years ago, Martin Luther gave us a theological heritage?” These earthly institutions become idols, slave chains that bind you to sin. Being called “Lutheran” or even “Christian” cannot save you. Many who claim those names have abandoned the Word. Neither Martin Luther nor CFW Walther can free you from slavery to sin. Membership here does not give you an eternal heritage. Only the truth of the Word of God sets free repentant sinners. That is the true, eternal heritage we have as sons of our heavenly Father, disciples who abide in the Word of God. Our true heritage as sons is that our Father’s dwelling place is our home as well. The Divine Service is our family gathering. In this house we are clothed with the white robe of Christ’s righteousness in Holy Baptism. In this house we are fed with the body and blood of Christ, our Brother—a meal which fully nourishes us and quenches our thirst. Our Father spends quality time with us in the Word, where Christ’s faithful preachers share our family history, telling us the good news of how our Brother took our sins upon Himself, bearing them to the cross, suffering and dying in our place, and then raising us up with Him in baptismal waters. That sacrifice has broken the chains that bound us to sin. The Gospel is an offense. The Word of God will never be popular in the eyes of the world. The children of the world are happy to be slaves. They have their reward: earthly treasures of fame, popularity, and fortune—all of which will fade away, all of which leave them as slaves of sin. But as sons of our heavenly Father, our heritage, our eternal inheritance, is freedom from sin and a place in the house of our heavenly Father. “The Kingdom ours remaineth.” 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. Posted by revalkorn at 9:30 AM 0 comments Links to this post Sunday, October 21, 2012 Sermon for 10/21/12--Trinity 20 The Wedding Banquet Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The imagery of marriage is one of Scripture’s richest and most beautiful pictures of the relationship between God and His people. It is expressed frequently in the New Testament as an image of the “marriage”, if you will, between Christ and His Church. We see this as early as Jesus’ miracle at the Wedding at Cana. But this was also a picture not unknown to the Old Testament. Now and again, the prophets would speak of God as the “husband” of His people, which meant, of course, that they were like a “bride” to Him. He would love them and care for them and provide for them, and they were to honor and love Him in return. And when they would not, it was as if they were committing adultery; evil, treacherous, destructive, and even self-destructive. And that is how this text finds Israel. She has had the invitation for years, but has made one excuse after the other to justify her spiritual adultery. The succession of servants sent by the king with his invitation have been met with anger and spite; they were treated shamefully, and some were even killed. Finally, the patience of the king ran its course. Angrily, he sent his troops to kill those who had murdered his servants, and then burned their cities to the ground. Keep in mind that this feast was not just any feast. It was a marriage feast, and a royal one, at that. It was a feast given by the king for his son, the prince. It was a feast to end all feasts. To be invited to it was a mark of profound privilege; to reject such an invitation was an offense like no other. The meaning was plain for those who would see it. Jesus Himself was their last invitation. If they rejected Him, they would suffer the consequences of that rejection. To spurn the personal invitation of the king, delivered by his son, would be the height of arrogance. There would be no more invitations. It’s easy for us to look at this parable in a detached sort of way. After all, we are those who were out on the thoroughfares, as the parable describes it, those in the streets to whom the king sent his servants with the invitation. The feast was all prepared, but there was no one to enjoy it; no one to share the king’s joy in the marriage of his son. That is where we come in. The invitation has gone out to others. They are called the Church, literally, the “called-out ones,” those whom the king has called to fill up His banquet hall. But, are we not faced with the same danger that overcame those who were first given the invitation? Don’t we find excuses to turn a deaf ear to the king when he calls out to us? Don’t we find it too easy to neglect that invitation that is always new and always fresh with its promise of the king’s blessing? Consider the man who tried to crash the party without the appropriate wedding garment. Today, entrance to a great feast would be gained by means of an engraved invitation, most likely. In this instance, the king gave to each one invited a garment that would be instantly identifiable as his; there would be found his name or his mark, something which would set his garments off from all others. And that is just what we have been given. We have been “clothed with Christ”, St. Paul said. His reference was to Holy Baptism. In Holy Baptism we have been named with His name. We are unmistakably identified with our Lord Jesus Christ, set apart by Him for a life that is eternal. But, what happens all too often is that Baptismal faith is not fed and nourished. It is not sustained with the Word of God and prayer, and thus withers up and dies like a branch that is severed from the vine. And only because of neglect, only from taking for granted the king’s invitation, not taking seriously his wish to bring us and to keep us at his eternal feast. Does this, in any way, describe where you are at this moment? Is it possible that, though you may be here frequently, still you have, in truth, neglected the invitation of the Lord to enjoy His eternal feast? There is one above all, and that is the feast our Lord spreads at His table for us, the blessed meal of His holy body and blood, a “foretaste of the feast divine,” as it sometimes called. And that it surely is! As we confess in the liturgy, it is that point at which we join with angels and arch-angels and the whole company of heaven. It is a preview of the marriage feast of the Lamb, whose Kingdom will have no end. If you have neglected this invitation, here is where to make amends. The wedding garment you were given in Holy Baptism still bears His name. It is still the guarantee of your entrance to the eternal feast. As you confess your sins and have received the Lord’s word of absolution, come to this table and partake of the very body and blood of the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the world. Even now He prepares that eternal feast of His love and joy for you, and you are an invited and welcome guest at His table. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 8:20 AM 0 comments Links to this post Wednesday, October 17, 2012 HYMN: Your Sins Are Now Forgiven You It may be a little ambitious, and I don't expect to be done any time soon, but I've embarked on a project to write a hymn for every Sunday of the Church Year in the 1-year Lectionary as we have it in LSB. I already have a bit of a head start from hymns I've already written, and I don't mind using work I've already done on a new project (since this isn't school and I'm not passing it off as new work anyway). My latest is based on the readings--especially the Gospel--from this past Sunday, the Nineteenth Sunday After Trinity. The Gospel is Matthew 9:1-8, and, as is revealed by the repeated theme, my text focuses especially on verse 8: "Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men." As always, I'd appreciate any feedback, as this is a very raw first draft. Your Sins Are Now Forgiven You "Your sins are now forgiven you. Arise and go your way." Our Lord, who bears the keys to death Holds all sin's might at bay. He speaks forgiveness unto us Who sin and sin again. All glory be to God on high Who gives such pow'r to men. He bore our sins unto the cross. He paid redemption's price. He showers us with grace through His Atoning sacrifice. As God and man He knows that we Are paralyzed by sin. All glory be to God on high Who gives such pow'r to men. Authority to loose our sins Belongs to God alone. But Christ, who intercedes for us Before the Father's throne, Calls men to serve, and in His stead They preach God's grace again. All glory be to God on high Who gives such pow'r to men. All glory to the Father be, Who sent His Son to save. All praise to Christ, our Paschal Lamb. His life He freely gave. All praise the Spirit, working faith In blood-bought, baptized men. All glory be to God on High Eternally. Amen. (c) Alan Kornacki, Jr. Tune: ALL SAINTS NEW (LSB 661) Posted by revalkorn at 2:31 PM 2 comments Links to this post Sermon for 10/14/12--Trinity 19 A Man Forgives Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus forgave and healed a paralyzed man. The scribes were outraged because only God can forgive sins. But the crowds were amazed, and they glorified God who had given such authority to men. What amazed them, even more than seeing a paralyzed man suddenly able to walk, was that a man could forgive sins. With that forgiveness, every accusation of the Devil against the forgiven man is dropped. That's what forgiveness does. It turns everything around. It rescues us from eternal punishment, cancels every accusation, destroys all evidence for our judgment and transfers us from the darkness of eternal despair to the everlasting life and light of God Himself. The Jews thought only God could do that, but here was a man doing it! Of course, as we heard last week, Jesus is true God and true man. But this is the same authority Christ then gave to His church. The center, the big deal of the Christian faith is the forgiveness of sins purchased for us with the blood of Jesus. The paralyzed guy and his friends come so that Jesus can heal him and make him walk. But Jesus gives him something extra. He forgives the man's sins, granting him everlasting life. Jesus is all about forgiving sins. Sins bring condemnation. They are the reason we are separated from God. But Jesus came to forgive sins, to cancel debt. This forgiveness comes at the price of Jesus' blood. On the cross, Jesus has our sins. Every last thought, word, deed and curse upon us is taken by our Lord and washed away by the blood He sheds. Every last accusation of the Devil is turned aside. Every punishment of sin is lifted from us because Jesus is now the lightning rod of God's judgment. By His death, Jesus takes away sins. By His resurrection He triumphs over death. Sin has been overcome. And then Jesus makes sure that this forgiveness is delivered to us and bestowed upon us. How do we get this forgiveness? How does what happened at the cross become ours? Praise be to God who has given such authority to men! By the hand of your pastor, you were washed at the font with God's Word and water. By the mouth of your pastor your sins are forgiven every time the absolution is spoken either publicly or privately. By the hand of a man, your pastor, Christ places His body and blood into your mouth for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. The same thing Jesus says to the paralyzed man is the same thing you pastor says: Your sins are forgiven. When your pastor, called and ordained by Christ, preaching and teaching Christ's word, forgives you your sins, then have no doubt that they are forgiven. How can this be? It is so because God has given such authority to men! The forgiveness your pastor speaks to you is Christ's own forgiveness. What Jesus won at the cross, it's your pastor’s job to deliver and give to you. Our Lord doesn't keep you guessing as to whether you sins are forgiven. He speaks His word of forgiveness plainly through the mouth of your pastor who says, “In the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive your sins.” But there's more. The authority given to men to forgive sins is given to you, too, because you are a new creation in Christ. You have the same power, from Christ Himself, to lift the burden of sin from others. Think about this carefully! Parents, when your children are crushed by the wrong they've done, scared that you don't love them, worried that they're out of the family, forgive them! Lift from them the burden of wondering whether their sins have made your and God stop loving them. Husbands and wives, when your spouse is troubled that whatever they've done or failed to do means you have every right to stop loving them and throw them out the front door, then forgive them! Lift from them that burden of their sins which brings them to despair. Lift them up with such forgiveness as you have received, that they are comforted. Pay close attention to people around you. You will see that most are struggling with the burden of their sins. Something they've done. Something they've failed to do. The devil can get at consciences so easily, fooling people into thinking their sins are enough for God to stop loving them and have nothing to do with them. As a baptized child of God, do your job! Exercise the authority Christ has given to cast down Satan and rescue sinners: tell them that their sins are forgiven. Forgive them if their sins are against you and deliver to them the forgiveness of Christ. When someone sins against you and they tremble to seek your forgiveness, give it gladly! And rejoice that Christ has given such authority to you! Receive the forgiveness Christ has for you so that in confidence you may forgive others with that same comforting gift. Christ's word of forgiveness, spoken to us by men, truly rescues us from our sins and makes us, like the paralyzed man, leap up and glorify God. And just as the paralyzed man could now walk and go home, so now we, forgiven of our sins, go home to be with Christ. Let us glorify God, who has given such authority to men! 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. Posted by revalkorn at 2:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post Wednesday, October 10, 2012 Sermon for 10/7/12--Trinity 18 Son and Lord Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. If Jesus is David’s Lord, how can he also be David’s son? The religious leaders of Jesus’ day didn’t even try to answer. And because they couldn’t understand, they wouldn’t believe that Jesus was the Savior. What about you? Can you answer that question? This question separates Christians from non-Christians. It’s the question which shows whether a person’s religion is about them or about the Lord. How can Jesus be David’s Lord and a descendant of David? Here’s the simple answer—and I hope it sounds very familiar to my catechism students: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.” As God, He is David’s Lord. As a man, he is the descendant of David. That’s all well and good, but what does that have to do with the commandments of which Jesus speaks? He says that you are to love God and love your neighbor, and He adds, “On those two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” What hangs on those commandments? Jesus does! When He hangs on the cross, He’s hanging on “Love God” and “Love your neighbor.” Those two commandments judged and condemned Him for your lack of love for God and your neighbor. But also while hanging on the cross and dying for our sins, Jesus is keeping those two commandments. On the cross, He loves His Father above all things and is obedient even unto death. And on that cross, since He’s dying for you, He is loving His neighbor. The Law is God and neighbor. The Savior is God and man. What Jesus does on that cross has everything to do with who He is as both David’s Lord and David’s Son. Some want to imagine that Jesus is only God. He is high and exalted and almighty. How are we supposed to relate to a God who is pure awesome holiness when we’re just miserable sinners? They are disgusted to think that God could become man and take on human flesh. They believe that should be beneath Him. But a timid God doesn’t save us. Our Lord must become man to be human like His creatures and take what is ours—our sin and death. On the other hand, some think that Jesus was just a man. But no mere man can save you. No man’s sacrifice can be for the whole world. No mere man can overcome the devil and death. Jesus wasn’t just a moral example. He is the God-man Who gave Himself as a sacrifice for us so that we may have eternal life. It is so easy to look at Jesus and see what you want to see. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, you are Christians because Jesus is God and man. Jesus is not so big that He has nothing to do with you. He is not out to get you. He doesn’t see you as small and insignificant. And He is not so small that He is unable to handle all your sins, worries, doubts and fears. He knows your doubts and fears, your struggles and temptations. As a man, He faced them, too. But as God and man both, He knows your struggles, your needs, and your sins, and He has the power to overcome them So how can Jesus be David’s Lord and also His son? Because Jesus is true God and true man. There He is, keeping the commandments. There He is: the sacrifice for our sins. There He is: the salvation of the world. He is your confidence that you are the Lord’s forever. In a world where every man tries to be “god” and every so-called god is really just a man, the true God becomes a real man and loves God and neighbor perfectly. He dies on the cross and rises again, and in doing so He takes away your sin and gives you life. At the font and the altar, this God-man comes to you, washes you, and lifts you from your sins to be with Him. He feeds you and promises to raise you to everlasting life on the last day. He who is David’s Lord is our Lord, and He who is David’s son has made you a child of God. 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. If Jesus is David’s Lord, how can he also be David’s son? The religious leaders of Jesus’ day didn’t even try to answer. And because they couldn’t understand, they wouldn’t believe that Jesus was the Savior. What about you? Can you answer that question? This question separates Christians from non-Christians. It’s the question which shows whether a person’s religion is about them or about the Lord. How can Jesus be David’s Lord and a descendant of David? Here’s the simple answer—and I hope it sounds very familiar to my catechism students: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.” As God, He is David’s Lord. As a man, he is the descendant of David. That’s all well and good, but what does that have to do with the commandments of which Jesus speaks? He says that you are to love God and love your neighbor, and He adds, “On those two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” What hangs on those commandments? Jesus does! When He hangs on the cross, He’s hanging on “Love God” and “Love your neighbor.” Those two commandments judged and condemned Him for your lack of love for God and your neighbor. But also while hanging on the cross and dying for our sins, Jesus is keeping those two commandments. On the cross, He loves His Father above all things and is obedient even unto death. And on that cross, since He’s dying for you, He is loving His neighbor. The Law is God and neighbor. The Savior is God and man. What Jesus does on that cross has everything to do with who He is as both David’s Lord and David’s Son. Some want to imagine that Jesus is only God. He is high and exalted and almighty. How are we supposed to relate to a God who is pure awesome holiness when we’re just miserable sinners? They are disgusted to think that God could become man and take on human flesh. They believe that should be beneath Him. But a timid God doesn’t save us. Our Lord must become man to be human like His creatures and take what is ours—our sin and death. On the other hand, some think that Jesus was just a man. But no mere man can save you. No man’s sacrifice can be for the whole world. No mere man can overcome the devil and death. Jesus wasn’t just a moral example. He is the God-man Who gave Himself as a sacrifice for us so that we may have eternal life. It is so easy to look at Jesus and see what you want to see. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, you are Christians because Jesus is God and man. Jesus is not so big that He has nothing to do with you. He is not out to get you. He doesn’t see you as small and insignificant. And He is not so small that He is unable to handle all your sins, worries, doubts and fears. He knows your doubts and fears, your struggles and temptations. As a man, He faced them, too. But as God and man both, He knows your struggles, your needs, and your sins, and He has the power to overcome them So how can Jesus be David’s Lord and also His son? Because Jesus is true God and true man. There He is, keeping the commandments. There He is: the sacrifice for our sins. There He is: the salvation of the world. He is your confidence that you are the Lord’s forever. In a world where every man tries to be “god” and every so-called god is really just a man, the true God becomes a real man and loves God and neighbor perfectly. He dies on the cross and rises again, and in doing so He takes away your sin and gives you life. At the font and the altar, this God-man comes to you, washes you, and lifts you from your sins to be with Him. He feeds you and promises to raise you to everlasting life on the last day. He who is David’s Lord is our Lord, and He who is David’s son has made you a child of God. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 9:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post Tuesday, October 09, 2012 HYMN: See the Son Arise with Healing I enjoyed an introvert's holiday today. I spent most of the day huddled in my office, working either silently or with some quiet music playing in the background. I was looking through the Propers for upcoming Sundays in the Church year, and I came upon the Propers for the Second Sunday in Advent. An idea popped into my head to blend the readings together, and I ran with it. As always, any feedback would be appreciated. See the Son Arise with Healing See the Son arise with healing, All His righteousness revealing For the saints who fear His name. They shall prosper without measure Who in Christ have found their treasure. They shall ne’er be put to shame. Sun and moon and all creation Sun and moon and all creation Wait in eager expectation. Nations rage in deep distress, For the Son of Man is coming. With His pow’r the earth is humming. Lo, He comes to curse and bless. Yet the proud the Lord will chasten. They have spurned their own salvation Given by the Lord Most High. In that day the Christ will snare them. Cares and drunkenness—beware them, For the Son of Man comes nigh. Stir our hearts and make them steady, That we might be ever ready To prepare Your blameless way. Cleanse us, Lord, to serve You solely. Make us humble, pure, and holy For that great and glorious day. © Alan Kornacki, Jr. Tune: ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN (LSB 732) © Alan Kornacki, Jr. Tune: ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN (LSB 732) Posted by revalkorn at 7:18 PM 0 comments Links to this post Sunday, September 30, 2012 Sermon for 9/30/12--Tnity 17 Healing on the Sabbath Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Why can’t just anyone commune in our churches? Why must they be baptized and learn the Scriptures and the Catechism and be confirmed? Why must they be examined and absolved by the pastor before being given Christ's body and blood? The answer to all this is given in the Gospel: You don't just come in and go straight to the head of the table as if you belong there! Rather it is Christ who invites you to His altar and supper. Jesus uses the example of the Pharisees and experts in the Law who would throw a dinner and then they would all scramble to sit up near the host instead of farther away. The closer you sat to the guy throwing the party, the higher your social status. For the Pharisees, a dinner was a chance to show off how important you were. For the Pharisees, the Sabbath was a chance to show off how religious you were. For many people, going to church and receiving the Sacrament is the same thing: it's a chance to prove to others how pious you are. It's an opportunity to remind God how lucky He is to have you show up for church! But that's not what the Sabbath is all about. The Sabbath is the day for hearing God's Word and being healed from our sins. For the Pharisees, the Sabbath is a day to act religious and holy. For Jesus, the Sabbath, like any other day, is an opportunity to speak God's Word and heal those who are sick and hurt by their sins. The reason to come to church is not to impress God, but to receive from the Lord the forgiveness we need—without which we will perish eternally. The Sabbath is all about Christ healing people. The Sabbath is all about the Lord taking the broken and the humble and bringing them to the place of honor while taking those who are proud and religious and haughty and knocking them down. For those who are humbled by the preaching of repentance, the Lord brings healing and an exalted spot at the table. Those who in their pride need no repentance, the Lord casts aside. In short, the Sabbath, our Sunday liturgy, is not about us telling God what we're owed. It's about the Lord telling us what He has given us in Christ. That's the problem with sinners. We like to make going to church a work that we do to show we're religious—just as the Pharisees would never think of the Sabbath as a day for healing. We figure we had better show up because that's what's expected of us. Worse, we think that because our name is on some membership list somewhere or because we call ourselves Christians, that we are entitled to just walk into God's presence and expect Him to acknowledge us. That is not repentance and faith. That is pride and arrogance. But in truth, you have no worthiness. Learn the repentance that brings you to the foot of the table, the worst place, the place you deserve. Leave it to Christ to lift you up and bring you higher. You see, Christ is the very person of whom He speaks. The Father prepares a wedding feast. Does Christ jump to the head of the line? Does our Lord shove everyone else out of the way and put Himself first? Does Jesus come into this world to dethrone kings and emperors and take their place, lording it over the world? “I'm Jesus! I'm the Son of God. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Jesus comes and takes the lowest place. Born in a barn, raised in the backwater of Galilee, He never has power or money or any of those things the world prizes. But then He goes to the cross. There, on the cross, He is condemned as a common criminal and judged by His Father as the worst and only sinner. There, on the cross of Calvary, Jesus is the lowest, the most despised, the most humble, the worst, the weakest, the least. There, He has the lowest place of all. By taking that place, He takes our sins on Himself and takes them away by His bloody death. Then what? Jesus says, “Take the lowest place and then you will be asked to come up higher.” So Jesus defeats sin, death and the devil. He rises from the dead. He ascends and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ has been brought up from the lowest place—suffering for our sins—to the highest place: the right hand of the Father. He has been crowned with all glory and majesty and honor. As Saint Paul writes, “God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” So He lords it over us now, right? Not at all! He is lifted up so that we are lifted up with Him! Jesus says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles Himself will be exalted.” We who have been humbled in our sin are now with Christ who is seated at the right hand of God! If the Sabbath for you is nothing more than showing off your religion, then repent! If you expect you are owed the Sacrament but don't want to learn Christ's Word and Catechism, then repent! Be humbled. If, on the other hand, you are humbled by your sins and recognize your unworthiness, then rejoice! For Christ has lifted you up. Having been brought from your sins in humble repentance, hear again the Lord's invitation to come up higher. Come now to the feast, be welcomed as Christ's holy guests and be given the gift once more of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 8:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post Sunday, September 23, 2012 Sermon for 9/23/12--Trinity 16 Power Over Death Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus walked up to the open coffin, and everyone stopped. He said to the woman, “Do not weep.” Then He told the boy to get up. That is how our Savior deals with death: He treats it as a nothing. There was weeping and wailing and a widowed mother burying her son. And Jesus just strolled up to the coffin and brought the boy to life. It’s as if He has power over death, as if death must yield before him. And it must. Death runs from Christ because He defeated death. He died on a cross with our sins. But on Easter, the third day, death flees from Him. Jesus is alive. Death is powerless before Him. The one thing that the world cannot control is death. You could probably argue that there are plenty of non-Christians out there living happily without any sort of faith at all. But they will face death. Death can come without any warning. The world fears death. It spares no expense trying to avoid it or overcome it. But it can’t. And every person—the poorest and the richest, the oldest and youngest and even the unborn—eventually will be lowered into that hole or shoved into that vault or poured into an urn. There are no exceptions. My brothers and sisters in Christ, this is where the Christian faith matters most. Many religions have morality. Even people without religion have some sort of right and wrong. There are many who seem to get along just fine in this life without any reference to God or faith. But the great equalizer is death. And for death, for which the world can’t find an answer, we Christians know the truth: Death is defeated. It’s not natural. It’s not a natural part of life. Death is an enemy, but it’s an enemy that has been defeated. When it all comes down to it, nothing in this world can answer the question of what happens when we are put into the ground other than the Christian faith: namely, that on the Last Day we will be raised up again and live forever. Death may seem a long way off, but we know it can come at any time. In order to teach us not to fear death or think that it’s the end or buy into the world’s silly idea that it’s just a part of life, Jesus rescues us from it. The young man of Nain is an example of this. Jesus touched the coffin, spoke His Word of life, and handed him to his mother. He does the same thing for you. You were born into this world dead. But at the font, Jesus spoke His Word and raised you from the dead. And then He handed you over to your holy mother, the Church, who cares for you in life and when you die. Your whole life in Christ is a denial of death. Now, we don’t pretend we’re never going to pass away. But we do deny the power of death. We deny that death is the end of our lives, that it will keep us down. Against all these things Jesus’ victory over death and your Baptism into that victory mean you have the victory over death as well. When Jesus raised this widow’s son, the people were amazed. They said, “God has visited His people.” That’s what happens when God shows up. He takes your sin and your death into Himself and gives you life. He raises the dead and gives them to their mother. He gives you victory over death by your Baptism and His Body and Blood, and He puts you into the care of your mother, the church. And on the last day, He will speak to you in that hole in the ground or that urn on the shelf and say, “I say to you, arise!” And you will rise. You will live forever in the new heaven and earth that your Father has prepared for you. “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The Lord has conquered death, and it no longer has any power over you. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 8:59 AM 0 comments Links to this post Thursday, September 20, 2012 HYMN: The Blood of Martyred Children Cries Here is my latest work. It's meant for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the day the Church commemorates the martyrdom of those children murdered by King Herod when he sought to kill the Christ child. The text is Matthew 2:1-18. As always, any feedback would be appreciated. The Blood of Martyred Children Cries The blood of martyred children cries. Innocent, Rachel's children die, Victims of Hero's heedless rage. War on the helpless he did wage. The wise men from the East drew near. "We seek the King of Israel here. Lo, we have seen His glorious star And come to worship from afar." Then Herod, with a troubled mind, Asked his advisers Christ to find. "Seek Him in Bethlehem," they said, "Who would be King in Herod's stead." He sent the wise men to the Child To lead him to this King reviled. But they returned a diff'rent way. His dreadful plan was held at bay. He schemed to murder Jesus still, His earthly kingdom to fulfill. Blameless young boys he put to death, Robbing them of their life's last breath. We thank you for the Innocents, Martyrs for Christ without offense. Grant that we share their holy rest, Clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness. We praise you, Father, holy Son, And Holy Ghost, forever one. To You all laud and honor be Now and for all eternity. (c) Alan Kornacki, Jr. Tune: ERHALT UNS, HERR (LSB 655) Posted by revalkorn at 1:18 PM 2 comments Links to this post Monday, September 10, 2012 Sermon for 9/9/12--Trinity 14 Where Jesus Is Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. What lesson does Jesus want to teach us when He says, "Where are the other nine? Did only a foreign Samaritan come back to give glory to God?" Is Jesus upset because they didn't come back and say "thank you?" Was He disappointed in their parents for not teaching them better manners? Is our Lord insecure? None of the above. Rather, Jesus wants to teach us, as the one Samaritan leper learned, that to glorify God means coming back to where Jesus is for more good gifts and blessings. Let that sink in for a moment. To glorify God, to give God glory means to be where Jesus is, receiving His gifts. That means you are glorifying God right now because you are here where Jesus is giving out His gifts. Jesus isn't glorified when we tell Him how great He is. He's glorified when He gives out His forgiveness and life and salvation and we receive His gifts by faith, trusting that He always has more for us. To glorify God is to daily live in the promises of your baptism. To glorify God is to say "amen" to the forgiveness of the absolution. To glorify God is to hear the reading and preaching of His Word which calls you to repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. To glorify Christ is to kneel at His altar, receiving His body and blood as the gift that heals us from our sins just as He healed the ten of their leprosy. To give God the glory isn't just to say that He's great, but that He's great because He saves sinners. When we think of God's glory we usually picture the Lord seated on the throne in heavenly splendor. The disciples saw that when Jesus was transfigured. That reminded them that Jesus is indeed the God who made all things and rules over all things. But His biggest display of glory was the one nobody realized at first: the cross. The truth is, the big deal about God isn't that He can be shiny and mighty or heal people. The big deal about God is that He became man to suffer and die for your sins and wash them all away by His blood, and then on the third day rise triumphant from the grave. In other words, the truest glory of God is not that He looks like we imagine God should look. It's that He takes what belongs to us—our sins—and saves us by His death and resurrection. The big deal about God is that He is not afraid to get near lepers and sinners and heal them. Now don't misunderstand me. We should give thanks to God. We should always in our hearts and with our mouths give thanks to the Lord and acknowledge that He is the One from whom we have every good gift. “In everything give thanks.” But we need to learn that Jesus with these ten lepers isn't teaching us that He's a God who has to fish for compliments as if we exist merely to make Him look good. Rather, the Lord does what He does to make us look good, to have us stand before the Father clothed in His own righteousness. Christ became man and went to the cross because we need Him to take away our sins. We need Him to heal us and forgive us and take care of us, and that's exactly what He does. The problem with the other nine lepers isn't that they weren't happy or grateful. They just didn't seem to need Jesus beyond getting their leprosy cured. It's the same for us. When we seem to get what we need from the Lord, it's easy for our prayers to fall off or for us to pay less attention to the Word of God. Until we need Him again. Repent! Repent of thinking you only need the Lord when something's wrong. In Christ you have a God who is there for you all the time. He always has more gifts, more forgiveness, more of his Word, more comfort, more peace. With Jesus there's always more. And like that Samaritan leper, we return here to receive what He has for us. What does Jesus want us to learn from His words? Learn that He alone is the one who can save us, heal us, and forgive us—and not just when we're in trouble but always. There is never a time when we don't need to be healed from the leprosy of our sin. There is never a time when we don't need the Lord's grace and mercy. And so we come to Jesus in His church—not to show off that we have good manners or to tell Him how great He is. We come to receive what He has for us. And what He has is water, word, body and blood: forgiveness, life and salvation. We praise Him for that and glorify Him as we receive His gifts with joy. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen. What lesson does Jesus want to teach us when He says, "Where are the other nine? Did only a foreign Samaritan come back to give glory to God?" Is Jesus upset because they didn't come back and say "thank you?" Was He disappointed in their parents for not teaching them better manners? Is our Lord insecure? None of the above. Rather, Jesus wants to teach us, as the one Samaritan leper learned, that to glorify God means coming back to where Jesus is for more good gifts and blessings. Let that sink in for a moment. To glorify God, to give God glory means to be where Jesus is, receiving His gifts. That means you are glorifying God right now because you are here where Jesus is giving out His gifts. Jesus isn't glorified when we tell Him how great He is. He's glorified when He gives out His forgiveness and life and salvation and we receive His gifts by faith, trusting that He always has more for us. To glorify God is to daily live in the promises of your baptism. To glorify God is to say "amen" to the forgiveness of the absolution. To glorify God is to hear the reading and preaching of His Word which calls you to repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. To glorify Christ is to kneel at His altar, receiving His body and blood as the gift that heals us from our sins just as He healed the ten of their leprosy. To give God the glory isn't just to say that He's great, but that He's great because He saves sinners. When we think of God's glory we usually picture the Lord seated on the throne in heavenly splendor. The disciples saw that when Jesus was transfigured. That reminded them that Jesus is indeed the God who made all things and rules over all things. But His biggest display of glory was the one nobody realized at first: the cross. The truth is, the big deal about God isn't that He can be shiny and mighty or heal people. The big deal about God is that He became man to suffer and die for your sins and wash them all away by His blood, and then on the third day rise triumphant from the grave. In other words, the truest glory of God is not that He looks like we imagine God should look. It's that He takes what belongs to us—our sins—and saves us by His death and resurrection. The big deal about God is that He is not afraid to get near lepers and sinners and heal them. Now don't misunderstand me. We should give thanks to God. We should always in our hearts and with our mouths give thanks to the Lord and acknowledge that He is the One from whom we have every good gift. “In everything give thanks.” But we need to learn that Jesus with these ten lepers isn't teaching us that He's a God who has to fish for compliments as if we exist merely to make Him look good. Rather, the Lord does what He does to make us look good, to have us stand before the Father clothed in His own righteousness. Christ became man and went to the cross because we need Him to take away our sins. We need Him to heal us and forgive us and take care of us, and that's exactly what He does. The problem with the other nine lepers isn't that they weren't happy or grateful. They just didn't seem to need Jesus beyond getting their leprosy cured. It's the same for us. When we seem to get what we need from the Lord, it's easy for our prayers to fall off or for us to pay less attention to the Word of God. Until we need Him again. Repent! Repent of thinking you only need the Lord when something's wrong. In Christ you have a God who is there for you all the time. He always has more gifts, more forgiveness, more of his Word, more comfort, more peace. With Jesus there's always more. And like that Samaritan leper, we return here to receive what He has for us. What does Jesus want us to learn from His words? Learn that He alone is the one who can save us, heal us, and forgive us—and not just when we're in trouble but always. There is never a time when we don't need to be healed from the leprosy of our sin. There is never a time when we don't need the Lord's grace and mercy. And so we come to Jesus in His church—not to show off that we have good manners or to tell Him how great He is. We come to receive what He has for us. And what He has is water, word, body and blood: forgiveness, life and salvation. We praise Him for that and glorify Him as we receive His gifts with joy. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen. Posted by revalkorn at 9:51 AM 0 comments Links to this post Sermon: The Funeral of Tille Gerberding A Future of Peace Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is Tillie’s Confirmation verse, Psalm 37:37. We consider this verse: Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace. Thus far our text. Our Gospel for this past Sunday was the parable of the Good Samaritan. You may recall the tale: how a man is beaten by bandits and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite, seeing the man, pass by on the other side of the road, lest they become ritually unclean. Finally a Samaritan, an enemy of the Jews, passes. He sees the man on the road, takes him to town on his own donkey, tends the man himself, and provides for the man’s further care. The Samaritan was the true neighbor to the beaten man, even though he was supposedly an enemy to him. The priest and the Levite, men who knew the Law of God and should have been willing to help the man, passed by him, making themselves dead in sin in their desire to avoid a moment of ritual uncleanness. The example of the Good Samaritan illustrates what David meant when he wrote, “Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace.” Certainly the Samaritan was upright; he demonstrated love toward his neighbor by helping him when no one else would dare to help—not even those considered most upright in the eyes of the world. And it makes even more sense when we realize that, when Jesus is talking about the Good Samaritan, He is really talking about Himself. No one can perfectly love his neighbor except for Jesus. And so, when we sinners try to love our neighbors, it is only by the power of Christ within us through the waters of Holy Baptism that we succeed. The psalmist tells us that the future of such a person is peace. I know that I’m preaching to the choir when I say that Tillie Gerberding demonstrated the love of Christ throughout her life. So if the future of the blameless and upright is supposed to be one of peace, then why did she suffer so long? Why was so little of her later life spent in the nursing home in pain? Why didn’t she get to experience the peaceful future that David says is the reward for such a life? The unfortunate truth is that, as loving and as generous and as compassionate a woman as Tillie was, Tillie was also a sinner. Sinners suffer and die—not because God wants us to suffer or die, but because through our sin we have brought death upon ourselves. Sin demands payment, and that payment is death. This is what our hearts fear when we see death at work among us, and it is good that we do. We know then that whether we live or die is a question that is taken out of our hands. We cannot stop our death; we cannot save ourselves. And that moves us to recognize that, unless God has an answer to our sin and death, there can be no hope for us. It is our supreme joy that God does, indeed, have the answer to sin and death. Someone else has paid the price for our peace, and that was our dear Lord Jesus Christ. The price was His own life. The purchase price of our peace was the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our only Savior. Our sin has been met with His redemption. Our death has been met and overcome in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He died, and He has risen from the dead! Our sin could not hold Him forever. Death could not bind Him in the grave. He came out of His grave alive, with the promise that those who live and believe in Him will never really die, but will live in the hope of the resurrection, when all our bodies will come out of their graves, and the bodies and souls of His faithful ones will live eternally in peace with Him. How, then, does His life become our life? How does his righteousness make for our peace? When all else fails, our Baptism remains. On those days when Tillie could not recognize what was going on around her, she remained a baptized child of God. When our ears can no longer hear God’s Word, when our eyes can no longer see the altar of His presence, when our bodies fail us, when our minds can no longer comprehend, Baptism remains. In Holy Baptism our Lord called us by name and made us His own. We die with Him in those waters. Our sin drowns. And just as Jesus has risen, He raises us with Him into new lives, blameless lives in Christ, lives that, even when our bodies die, will go on forever. That is our future peace. That does not give us a license to sin or to live in sin, but we have the comfort that, when we repent of our sin, it is forgiven, no longer held against us. As we await that day when His peace becomes fully ours—as it has now for Tillie—let us take our comfort in the fact that, in Holy Baptism, He has called our names and linked them forever with His own. Because we are His, there will be no trouble—not the battle of living, not the struggle of dying, not the fight with grief—that will ever overcome us and take us away from Him. Tillie was a baptized child of God, and He has now given her in full that peace which the world cannot give, the peace which is her legacy as a child of God. As baptized children of God, that peace is your legacy, too, your inheritance from your heavenly Father. 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. The example of the Good Samaritan illustrates what David meant when he wrote, “Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace.” Certainly the Samaritan was upright; he demonstrated love toward his neighbor by helping him when no one else would dare to help—not even those considered most upright in the eyes of the world. And it makes even more sense when we realize that, when Jesus is talking about the Good Samaritan, He is really talking about Himself. No one can perfectly love his neighbor except for Jesus. And so, when we sinners try to love our neighbors, it is only by the power of Christ within us through the waters of Holy Baptism that we succeed. The psalmist tells us that the future of such a person is peace. I know that I’m preaching to the choir when I say that Tillie Gerberding demonstrated the love of Christ throughout her life. So if the future of the blameless and upright is supposed to be one of peace, then why did she suffer so long? Why was so little of her later life spent in the nursing home in pain? Why didn’t she get to experience the peaceful future that David says is the reward for such a life? The unfortunate truth is that, as loving and as generous and as compassionate a woman as Tillie was, Tillie was also a sinner. Sinners suffer and die—not because God wants us to suffer or die, but because through our sin we have brought death upon ourselves. Sin demands payment, and that payment is death. This is what our hearts fear when we see death at work among us, and it is good that we do. We know then that whether we live or die is a question that is taken out of our hands. We cannot stop our death; we cannot save ourselves. And that moves us to recognize that, unless God has an answer to our sin and death, there can be no hope for us. It is our supreme joy that God does, indeed, have the answer to sin and death. Someone else has paid the price for our peace, and that was our dear Lord Jesus Christ. The price was His own life. The purchase price of our peace was the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our only Savior. Our sin has been met with His redemption. Our death has been met and overcome in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He died, and He has risen from the dead! Our sin could not hold Him forever. Death could not bind Him in the grave. He came out of His grave alive, with the promise that those who live and believe in Him will never really die, but will live in the hope of the resurrection, when all our bodies will come out of their graves, and the bodies and souls of His faithful ones will live eternally in peace with Him. How, then, does His life become our life? How does his righteousness make for our peace? When all else fails, our Baptism remains. On those days when Tillie could not recognize what was going on around her, she remained a baptized child of God. When our ears can no longer hear God’s Word, when our eyes can no longer see the altar of His presence, when our bodies fail us, when our minds can no longer comprehend, Baptism remains. In Holy Baptism our Lord called us by name and made us His own. We die with Him in those waters. Our sin drowns. And just as Jesus has risen, He raises us with Him into new lives, blameless lives in Christ, lives that, even when our bodies die, will go on forever. That is our future peace. That does not give us a license to sin or to live in sin, but we have the comfort that, when we repent of our sin, it is forgiven, no longer held against us. As we await that day when His peace becomes fully ours—as it has now for Tillie—let us take our comfort in the fact that, in Holy Baptism, He has called our names and linked them forever with His own. Because we are His, there will be no trouble—not the battle of living, not the struggle of dying, not the fight with grief—that will ever overcome us and take us away from Him. Tillie was a baptized child of God, and He has now given her in full that peace which the world cannot give, the peace which is her legacy as a child of God. As baptized children of God, that peace is your legacy, too, your inheritance from your heavenly Father. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 9:47 AM 0 comments Links to this post Sunday, September 02, 2012 Sermon for 9/2/12--Trinity 13 “Do This and You Will Live” Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” That is the summary of the Law of God. Love God; love your neighbor. “Do this and you will live.” There are lots of preachers out there who will tell you that if you have faith and if you try hard and if you learn the life-enrichinging principles they teach, that you'll be able to keep God's Law. We like to think it's just a matter of making good decisions so we'll be able to love God and love our neighbor. But to see what the Law apart from Christ looks like, just look at the priest and the Levite. Seeing a guy half-dead in a ditch, they pass by on the other side of the road. When we take the Law—love God, love your neighbor—and we give it a go apart from Christ, this is where we end up. Like the young expert in the Law, we try to justify ourselves. We show God how good we are by doing the commandments. But when someone falls into a ditch by their sins, we don't pull them out. We pass by on the other side. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, dear Christians: do you think that you can despise each other and still claim to love God? Do you think that you can hold a grudge and be angry at someone and still say you love God? You can't love God. You can't love your neighbor. You can't get yourself out from under the judgment of the Law. When you think you are demonstrating love as you are commanded, Satan beats you up, robs you, and throws you in a ditch. The Law won't do you any good there. But then, along comes the Samaritan. The Samaritan, despised by the Jews, sees the poor man in the ditch and saves him. Who is that Samaritan? Who could possibly live the Law like that? That's Jesus keeping the Law. He comes to rescue sinners who have been tossed aside by the Devil, robbed of righteousness and left for dead. Jesus comes to keep the Law to save us. He comes to love God and to love His neighbor. How can that be? Look at what the Creed teaches us about Him. Jesus is true God, begotten of the Father, and He also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. That makes Him both God and neighbor. When the Father commands the Son to save sinners, Jesus does it. He goes to the cross for you. He hangs there for you. He dies there for you. Jesus is crucified, bearing the wages of sin, perfectly loving God in His obedience and perfectly loving His neighbor in His sacrifice. The Law is fulfilled. There, on that bloody cross, God and neighbor are loved perfectly by the Savior who is God and Man. He perfectly keeps the Law. He saves the man in the ditch. It is Jesus who loves God and loves His neighbor. That perfect obedience, that salvation, that perfect love is given to you. It is given when Jesus, the Good Samaritan, pours His healing medicine on you in the waters of Holy Baptism. He carries you to the Inn, His holy church, where puts you under the care of His innkeeper, the pastor who Jesus sets apart to care for you until He comes again, leaving your pastor the Word and the Sacraments to provide for your health. Have you loved God and your neighbor as you are commanded? Of course not. The Law shows us so. But Jesus kept the Law perfectly. He loves God the Father and He loves His neighbor. He has put His perfect obedience on you in Baptism and has fed you that obedience in His body and blood in His Holy Supper. Do you love God and your neighbor? In Christ, the answer is yes. Christ within you has kept that Law. This is what St. Paul means when He says that the Law kept us under sin until the time of the Promise. By itself, the Law condemns us. But in Christ, the Law is kept. Your sins are forgiven. That's the rescue the Good Samaritan has given you. To tell you, “Do this and you will live,” is now nothing more than to tell you that Christ lives in You for the benefit of your neighbor and the glory of God. 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. “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” That is the summary of the Law of God. Love God; love your neighbor. “Do this and you will live.” There are lots of preachers out there who will tell you that if you have faith and if you try hard and if you learn the life-enrichinging principles they teach, that you'll be able to keep God's Law. We like to think it's just a matter of making good decisions so we'll be able to love God and love our neighbor. But to see what the Law apart from Christ looks like, just look at the priest and the Levite. Seeing a guy half-dead in a ditch, they pass by on the other side of the road. When we take the Law—love God, love your neighbor—and we give it a go apart from Christ, this is where we end up. Like the young expert in the Law, we try to justify ourselves. We show God how good we are by doing the commandments. But when someone falls into a ditch by their sins, we don't pull them out. We pass by on the other side. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, dear Christians: do you think that you can despise each other and still claim to love God? Do you think that you can hold a grudge and be angry at someone and still say you love God? You can't love God. You can't love your neighbor. You can't get yourself out from under the judgment of the Law. When you think you are demonstrating love as you are commanded, Satan beats you up, robs you, and throws you in a ditch. The Law won't do you any good there. But then, along comes the Samaritan. The Samaritan, despised by the Jews, sees the poor man in the ditch and saves him. Who is that Samaritan? Who could possibly live the Law like that? That's Jesus keeping the Law. He comes to rescue sinners who have been tossed aside by the Devil, robbed of righteousness and left for dead. Jesus comes to keep the Law to save us. He comes to love God and to love His neighbor. How can that be? Look at what the Creed teaches us about Him. Jesus is true God, begotten of the Father, and He also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. That makes Him both God and neighbor. When the Father commands the Son to save sinners, Jesus does it. He goes to the cross for you. He hangs there for you. He dies there for you. Jesus is crucified, bearing the wages of sin, perfectly loving God in His obedience and perfectly loving His neighbor in His sacrifice. The Law is fulfilled. There, on that bloody cross, God and neighbor are loved perfectly by the Savior who is God and Man. He perfectly keeps the Law. He saves the man in the ditch. It is Jesus who loves God and loves His neighbor. That perfect obedience, that salvation, that perfect love is given to you. It is given when Jesus, the Good Samaritan, pours His healing medicine on you in the waters of Holy Baptism. He carries you to the Inn, His holy church, where puts you under the care of His innkeeper, the pastor who Jesus sets apart to care for you until He comes again, leaving your pastor the Word and the Sacraments to provide for your health. Have you loved God and your neighbor as you are commanded? Of course not. The Law shows us so. But Jesus kept the Law perfectly. He loves God the Father and He loves His neighbor. He has put His perfect obedience on you in Baptism and has fed you that obedience in His body and blood in His Holy Supper. Do you love God and your neighbor? In Christ, the answer is yes. Christ within you has kept that Law. This is what St. Paul means when He says that the Law kept us under sin until the time of the Promise. By itself, the Law condemns us. But in Christ, the Law is kept. Your sins are forgiven. That's the rescue the Good Samaritan has given you. To tell you, “Do this and you will live,” is now nothing more than to tell you that Christ lives in You for the benefit of your neighbor and the glory of God. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 7:35 AM 0 comments Links to this post Monday, August 27, 2012 Sermon for 8/26/12--Trinity 12 Opening Ears and Lips Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. There's a reason Jesus needs to open our ears and loose our tongues. The healing of this deaf and mute man shows us what we are in our sin: unable to speak and unable to hear. Of course, we already practice selective hearing. When we hear a juicy story we can usually repeat it pretty accurately. When we hear a sermon, we'd be hard pressed to say what it was about much past lunch on Sunday—and that’s true of the one who preaches the sermons, too. We are deaf to the Word of God and can't repeat it clearly. The Lord opens the ears of this deaf man and looses his tongue. Jesus does it to show this man and us that He is the Savior. Part of what we need saving from is being deaf and dumb when it comes to God and His Word. The world around us is that way. The world closes its ears to God's Word, and it can't say anything understandable about God's Word either. One the one hand you have the so-called "experts" and "scholars" that can say all kinds of nothing and use big words to do it. On the other hand you have the charlatans and frauds, the false preachers who do nothing but babble nonsense. And of course there's our sinful flesh, which just loves to cover our ears and drown out the Word with childish noises. We need Jesus to open our ears and loose our tongues. And He can do it because He's the Lord. He's the One who was not deaf to our cries but heard them and answered them. Jesus healing this deaf man is about more than just showing He can do it. It's about showing that He can do it because He's the Son of God who came to save sinners. Since it is our sin which makes us deaf to God and unable to speak clearly what He says, He takes away our sin—and in doing so, He opens our ears and looses our tongues. Jesus is the only one who can open our ears and loose our tongues. We can't hear God's Word by trying to pay close attention. We need Him to stick his fingers in our ears and to spit and touch our tongues! How does He do it? The Apostle John called Jesus “the Word made flesh.” Whenever we hear His Word, whenever the Word goes in our ears, that is our Lord, touching our ears to open them. In Holy Baptism, in the preaching of the Word, Jesus opens our ears. And when He gives us His body and blood to eat and drink, there He touches our tongues to loose them so that we might confess His Word and speak and sing His promises! It is by Christ's Word and through His forgiveness that He gives that our ears are opened and our tongues are loosed to speak. But such clear speaking only comes from hearing Christ's Word. If the deaf man's friends didn't bring Him to Jesus, his ears might never have been opened! Just so, if we cut ourselves off from Christ's Word, our ears are shut and our tongues just babble nonsense. If your children had a speech impediment, you'd do everything to make sure they got therapy to help them to speak clearly. If they were deaf, you'd seek medical help or teach them sign language or seek another avenue of help. How much more do you need to bring them to hear God's Word so that Jesus will open their ears and loose their tongues to hear and confess Christ and His forgiveness! The Divine Service, Sunday School and Catechism and Bible Study: those are the places where Jesus opens your ears and teaches you to speak plainly. If your confession of Jesus isn't clear, then be where He opens your ears so that the Word that goes in will come out of your mouth clearly. In the order of Matins we pray, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.” Jesus opened the ears and looses the tongue of a deaf man. According to the prophet Isaiah, this identifies Him as the true Savior of sinners and healer of those who are under the curse of sin in this world. This Jesus is the One who has also opened your ears by His Word, who has touched your tongue and loosed it. Because of this, we can confess: “He has indeed done all things well.” 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. Posted by revalkorn at 1:29 PM 0 comments Links to this post Sermon for 8/19/12--Trinity 11 We Are Beggars Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Two days before his death, almost as if he somehow knew his end was near, Martin Luther wrote: “We are all beggars, it is true.” What a strange way to add up a life, especially his life! This was the man who stood up to kings and councils and popes and not only survived but thrived! This was the man whose written work compromises dozens of volumes, whose translation of the Scriptures actually shaped the German language, and whose courage helped to reshape the geography of Europe. Surely, at the end of such a life there must be time for a bit of boasting. Yet, like St. Paul, his boasting was in his weakness and, above all, in the power of the cross. “Not worthy.” Those words are almost like a liturgical refrain on the lips of all the beggars that inhabit the pages of the Scriptures, and indeed, the history of the Church. There was Zacchaeus, who was content to merely get a glimpse of Jesus as He passed by, and received infinitely more. The woman who suffered from massive hemorrhages did not dare to ask of Jesus. “If only I can touch the hem of His garment,” she thought. Mary, who sat at the feet of her Lord soaking up every word He spoke, was also one of the humble. At his death, the thief on the cross chastised his cynical companion and humbly asked Jesus to remember Him. Unworthy beggars, all of them, and yet each of them ended up more wealthy than they could ever dream. They received those precious gifts of healing, forgiveness, and the presence of the Lord. They received grace upon grace. As surely as the exalted are humbled, the unworthy who come to Christ in faith are exalted. And so it was that two men, one a Pharisee, the other a publican, a tax collector, came before the same altar of God. Each of them prayed. The Pharisee, no doubt a sincere man, thanked God that he was not like so many others, especially that tax collector over in the corner. He laid out his many accomplishments for God to see. Not only did he avoid dishonesty in his business and unfaithfulness in his personal life, but even exceeded the legal requirements in piety by fasting twice a week and figuring his tithe before taxes. The publican, however, could find nothing worthy of boasting. His only plea was for mercy. And both men received what they asked for. The Pharisee asked for and received nothing; He had no need for God. The publican received just what he prayed for: mercy. In a world that attempts to eliminate guilt, if not deny it altogether, and where most efforts are not aimed excusing sin or denying that sin even exists, the publican seems unnecessarily hard on himself. It is difficult, if not nearly impossible for most people, maybe even some of us, to really understand the publican’s repentance, or when Luther described himself as “poor stinking maggot fodder.” That is beggar language, and in most circles such language doesn’t get it. But in the kingdom of God, the picture of a beggar is one with profound meaning. It is an eloquent description of your relationship to God. You come to God with nothing; neither morality nor religious affiliation mean anything to Him. You come to Him poor and humble and empty, or you do not come at all. You enter the waters of Holy Baptism as strangers and aliens, and that flood washes away everything to which a sinner would cling. You emerge washed, cleansed, and named children of the Father in heaven, a gift that gladdens the heart of every beggar, large or small. If being children of God depended on what you do, or how well you have performed, or even how sincere your faith happens to be, you can never be certain whether you have done enough. You can read all of the best-selling pop psychology books you like, and everything that has been written about the power of positive thinking, and you will look in vain for anything that will help you deal with your greatest need; the need for mercy. What happens when broken human beings find the “gospel of self” just one more burden to bear? What happens when the great movers and shakers of this world falter? When you have tasted the bitter tears of failure and have grown weary of trying to save your own life, there is little hope found in “positive thinking.” That is when you turn to a Gospel for beggars, and learn of a gracious God who understands your weakness, and lifts your burdens, and delights in showing mercy. When you gather for the Divine Service, the first thing you do is beg. It’s not pretty, but you have no choice—you are beggars. And so you say, “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” And when you come before God as beggars, He graciously gives you what you need. He speaks His Word of forgiveness and life to you, and then He feeds you with the body and blood of our Savior: a meal filled with forgiveness and joy and hope. It is a feast of victory, a foretaste of the eternal banquet where, after a lifetime of begging, you will gather to eat as sons of the King, receiving all that is His. Until that day, uplifted by His Word, filled with His Supper, you come to Him with empty hands awaiting His gifts to make things right, to make you right with Him, and to sustain your lives. In all of life, as Luther said, “We are beggars, it is true.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Two days before his death, almost as if he somehow knew his end was near, Martin Luther wrote: “We are all beggars, it is true.” What a strange way to add up a life, especially his life! This was the man who stood up to kings and councils and popes and not only survived but thrived! This was the man whose written work compromises dozens of volumes, whose translation of the Scriptures actually shaped the German language, and whose courage helped to reshape the geography of Europe. Surely, at the end of such a life there must be time for a bit of boasting. Yet, like St. Paul, his boasting was in his weakness and, above all, in the power of the cross. “Not worthy.” Those words are almost like a liturgical refrain on the lips of all the beggars that inhabit the pages of the Scriptures, and indeed, the history of the Church. There was Zacchaeus, who was content to merely get a glimpse of Jesus as He passed by, and received infinitely more. The woman who suffered from massive hemorrhages did not dare to ask of Jesus. “If only I can touch the hem of His garment,” she thought. Mary, who sat at the feet of her Lord soaking up every word He spoke, was also one of the humble. At his death, the thief on the cross chastised his cynical companion and humbly asked Jesus to remember Him. Unworthy beggars, all of them, and yet each of them ended up more wealthy than they could ever dream. They received those precious gifts of healing, forgiveness, and the presence of the Lord. They received grace upon grace. As surely as the exalted are humbled, the unworthy who come to Christ in faith are exalted. And so it was that two men, one a Pharisee, the other a publican, a tax collector, came before the same altar of God. Each of them prayed. The Pharisee, no doubt a sincere man, thanked God that he was not like so many others, especially that tax collector over in the corner. He laid out his many accomplishments for God to see. Not only did he avoid dishonesty in his business and unfaithfulness in his personal life, but even exceeded the legal requirements in piety by fasting twice a week and figuring his tithe before taxes. The publican, however, could find nothing worthy of boasting. His only plea was for mercy. And both men received what they asked for. The Pharisee asked for and received nothing; He had no need for God. The publican received just what he prayed for: mercy. In a world that attempts to eliminate guilt, if not deny it altogether, and where most efforts are not aimed excusing sin or denying that sin even exists, the publican seems unnecessarily hard on himself. It is difficult, if not nearly impossible for most people, maybe even some of us, to really understand the publican’s repentance, or when Luther described himself as “poor stinking maggot fodder.” That is beggar language, and in most circles such language doesn’t get it. But in the kingdom of God, the picture of a beggar is one with profound meaning. It is an eloquent description of your relationship to God. You come to God with nothing; neither morality nor religious affiliation mean anything to Him. You come to Him poor and humble and empty, or you do not come at all. You enter the waters of Holy Baptism as strangers and aliens, and that flood washes away everything to which a sinner would cling. You emerge washed, cleansed, and named children of the Father in heaven, a gift that gladdens the heart of every beggar, large or small. If being children of God depended on what you do, or how well you have performed, or even how sincere your faith happens to be, you can never be certain whether you have done enough. You can read all of the best-selling pop psychology books you like, and everything that has been written about the power of positive thinking, and you will look in vain for anything that will help you deal with your greatest need; the need for mercy. What happens when broken human beings find the “gospel of self” just one more burden to bear? What happens when the great movers and shakers of this world falter? When you have tasted the bitter tears of failure and have grown weary of trying to save your own life, there is little hope found in “positive thinking.” That is when you turn to a Gospel for beggars, and learn of a gracious God who understands your weakness, and lifts your burdens, and delights in showing mercy. When you gather for the Divine Service, the first thing you do is beg. It’s not pretty, but you have no choice—you are beggars. And so you say, “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.” And when you come before God as beggars, He graciously gives you what you need. He speaks His Word of forgiveness and life to you, and then He feeds you with the body and blood of our Savior: a meal filled with forgiveness and joy and hope. It is a feast of victory, a foretaste of the eternal banquet where, after a lifetime of begging, you will gather to eat as sons of the King, receiving all that is His. Until that day, uplifted by His Word, filled with His Supper, you come to Him with empty hands awaiting His gifts to make things right, to make you right with Him, and to sustain your lives. In all of life, as Luther said, “We are beggars, it is true.” 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. Posted by revalkorn at 1:28 PM 0 comments Links to this post Sermon for 8/12/12--Trinity 10 Knowing What Makes for Peace Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The deepest longing of the human heart is for peace. And that is really the same thing as saying that our deepest longing is for God Himself. St. Augustine put it this way: “Our souls were made for Thee, O God, and they find no rest until they rest in Thee.” Peace was the condition of our first parents in paradise before they fell into sin and set this world into chaos. And peace is where the faithful of Christ are heading, because there is nothing in heaven that will upset the peace of eternity. In the meantime, however, peace is not a word that we would often use to describe our present condition. Life is anything but peaceful. It is disturbed all too often by disappointment and regret, by pain and grief, and we know too well that the storms that “rock our boats” are often of our own making. Instead of peace, we have opted for chaos. Instead of God, we have chosen ourselves. It is enough to make a man cry, which is just what Jesus did. He wept because He knew what could have been, and what should have been; and He knew what now would be. Jerusalem, the holy city, had chosen the way of wickedness. Instead of peace with God, she had chosen to turn God away at the gate by rejecting the very Messiah He had promised. She did not know the things that made for her peace. How much of this description fits the Church today? How well does it describe us as individual Christians? Do we know the things that make for our peace? Christ gives Himself and His peace to us in particular ways. He gives to His Word the power to do more than merely inform but to give us the fruits of His peace made with the Father in heaven for us: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In Holy Baptism our sin is drowned in the death of Christ, and we are pulled out of those waters into a newness of life that is full of the peace of God which surpasses all understanding; so far beyond our understanding that we often fail to realize that it is there. In the Sacrament of our Savior’s body and blood we are given the remission of our sins, and there is nothing more conducive to a godly peace than to know that our sins have been taken away. These are all simple things really: Word, and water, and bread and wine. These are things we can hear, feel, and taste. But there is also a complexity behind these things that defies our understanding and tests our faith. What is in the mind of God? Why would He do what He has done, and say what He has said? When we question God’s ways, we question God Himself. And we have all done this. We have questioned God’s timing in taking a loved one from us. We cannot seem to get it though our heads that there is a profound peace that is given in the death of a Christian; he is now with Christ forever. We have questioned God’s wisdom in putting us where we are in this life. We fail so often to see that all of life is a gift from His hands, and thus is a part of the peace He offers. But often, all we see is a difficult job with difficult people, or children who test not only our patience but our sanity, or those many circumstances over which we have absolutely no control. And, sadly, what frequently happens is that peace with God is broken. We forget what makes for our peace. We let our fear and frustration, our pettiness and anger, get in the way of God pouring out His peace on us in measures we would never expect. We forget that the peace of God does surpass all understanding, and that it is present wherever Christ is with His grace and His gifts. But we tend to come at such things the opposite way. If only we can understand something, then we will be able to accept it. If only I can understand why this death occurred, then I will be able to accept it. If only I can understand why these terrible circumstances have hit me now, then I will be able to accept them. But that is not the way God works with us, nor is it the way He works with His Church. We are called to faith first; then understanding, as much as we are able, will follow. It is only when we first believe God’s Word of promise to us that it begins to make sense to us. It is only when we believe that water joined with the Word of God cleanses us from all sin that we will begin to understand, as much as we able, how powerful the ongoing blessing of Holy Baptism really is. It is only when we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ gives us His very body and blood with the bread and wine for the remission of sins that we will begin to understand, as much as we are able, that this blessed Sacrament is “the medicine of immortality,” as early Christians loved to call it, the food of eternal life. It is only when we know that God has made peace with us, through the blood of Jesus Christ, that we will begin to understand what makes for our peace. It is only when we know that God has visited us in Jesus Christ, His dear Son, that we will begin to understand that He continues to visit us in His Word and His Sacraments, that He gives us Himself there; that He is really present with us when we gather in His house of worship and prayer to receive the gifts He has invited us to receive. It is only when we know that this same visitation of grace is what sustains and strengthens us in the midst of grief, and pain, and suffering, that we will begin to see the gracious hand of God in everything, even in that grief, and pain, and suffering. And when we know and accept these things, then we will begin to understand one other thing of supreme importance. When peace has been broken, when sin has brought its stain into our lives, God is also in the business of restoration. And He restores peace in the very same way He makes peace; He gives, and gives, and gives beyond our understanding. Even as He gave His own Son into death for the sins of this world, He continues to pour out the gifts of this salvation for the life of the world. He continues to visit this world with His peace and will until the end of days, until He has restored His peace to all His people, that they might have it unto eternal life. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 1:28 PM 0 comments Links to this post Sermon for 8/5/12--Trinity 9 Unrighteous Mammon Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. This servant is ripping off his boss, and he gets caught. He's about to lose his job. So he does the only thing he knows how: he rips off his boss some more, but this time to the benefit of his boss's clients. Then his boss praises him? And Jesus tells us that Christians can learn from that? Just what exactly is Jesus trying to teach us from this? The answer is this: the people of this world know how to spend what belongs to others better than we Christians know how to spend what is the Lord's for the benefit of others. Jesus is teaching us to stop being stingy with what is His and to spend it like there's no tomorrow. Because of what Jesus has done, we have been given unrighteous mammon to spend lavishly—unrighteous because it's not ours. The steward knows what God's people seem to have a hard time grasping. He takes what belongs to someone else and uses it for the benefit of others. Do we do that with what belongs to the Lord? Jesus is talking about a currency that isn't earned but that is given—the forgiveness of sins. Think about what our Lord does. He's Lord of heaven and earth, but He lives as if all the glory and righteousness the Father has given Him is His to give away! On the cross, He is so free with that righteousness that He even forgives those who nailed Him there! And by that death, Jesus piles up such a treasury of forgiveness for you that it will never run out. The debt of your sins has been paid in full. Your death has been overcome. Through baptism, like young Carter, you have been made dead to sin. You have nothing left to lose. You can live by spending what is the Lord's to make the lives of others better. That means you can dish out forgiveness as if it's yours to spend! When someone wrongs you, sins against you, hurts you, goes against you, then you forgive them. The forgiveness for your sins that is given by your Baptism, which you receive in Christ's body and blood, is for you to give away to others. It’s an embarrassment of riches that you can share by refusing to hold the sins of your neighbor against him, by refusing to hold grudges, by treating him as if he has not sinned against you! That's what it is to live by spending what belongs to Jesus. You see, when you think the forgiveness is yours, you hoard it for yourself. You might, if you thought they were worthy, give a little bit to your neighbor, like you might to a charity. This is why Jesus says the sons of this world are more shrewd than the sons of light. The world knows how to spend other people's money, but we Christians can be really stingy with the Lord's forgiveness, withholding it from those who don't deserve it in our sight. It's not your forgiveness; it belongs to Jesus! Spend it foolishly! Dole it out like it costs you nothing. After all, it didn’t. The Lord has more forgiveness than the world has sins. Jesus says that His people can't serve both God and mammon. By dying and rising for you, by washing you and feeding you, He replaces the mammon of this world with the riches of His forgiveness. He rescues you from the idolatry of worldly mammon by dishing out His forgiveness. He rescues you from a life lived for yourself to a life in which you have His goods to spend on others, to better their lives with the forgiveness that was first shown to you. Jesus knows that the world is good at spending what belongs to others. So He gives you something even better to spend on others: His forgiveness. And with such a gift, you will be more shrewd than any of the sons of this world. 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. This servant is ripping off his boss, and he gets caught. He's about to lose his job. So he does the only thing he knows how: he rips off his boss some more, but this time to the benefit of his boss's clients. Then his boss praises him? And Jesus tells us that Christians can learn from that? Just what exactly is Jesus trying to teach us from this? The answer is this: the people of this world know how to spend what belongs to others better than we Christians know how to spend what is the Lord's for the benefit of others. Jesus is teaching us to stop being stingy with what is His and to spend it like there's no tomorrow. Because of what Jesus has done, we have been given unrighteous mammon to spend lavishly—unrighteous because it's not ours. The steward knows what God's people seem to have a hard time grasping. He takes what belongs to someone else and uses it for the benefit of others. Do we do that with what belongs to the Lord? Jesus is talking about a currency that isn't earned but that is given—the forgiveness of sins. Think about what our Lord does. He's Lord of heaven and earth, but He lives as if all the glory and righteousness the Father has given Him is His to give away! On the cross, He is so free with that righteousness that He even forgives those who nailed Him there! And by that death, Jesus piles up such a treasury of forgiveness for you that it will never run out. The debt of your sins has been paid in full. Your death has been overcome. Through baptism, like young Carter, you have been made dead to sin. You have nothing left to lose. You can live by spending what is the Lord's to make the lives of others better. That means you can dish out forgiveness as if it's yours to spend! When someone wrongs you, sins against you, hurts you, goes against you, then you forgive them. The forgiveness for your sins that is given by your Baptism, which you receive in Christ's body and blood, is for you to give away to others. It’s an embarrassment of riches that you can share by refusing to hold the sins of your neighbor against him, by refusing to hold grudges, by treating him as if he has not sinned against you! That's what it is to live by spending what belongs to Jesus. You see, when you think the forgiveness is yours, you hoard it for yourself. You might, if you thought they were worthy, give a little bit to your neighbor, like you might to a charity. This is why Jesus says the sons of this world are more shrewd than the sons of light. The world knows how to spend other people's money, but we Christians can be really stingy with the Lord's forgiveness, withholding it from those who don't deserve it in our sight. It's not your forgiveness; it belongs to Jesus! Spend it foolishly! Dole it out like it costs you nothing. After all, it didn’t. The Lord has more forgiveness than the world has sins. Jesus says that His people can't serve both God and mammon. By dying and rising for you, by washing you and feeding you, He replaces the mammon of this world with the riches of His forgiveness. He rescues you from the idolatry of worldly mammon by dishing out His forgiveness. He rescues you from a life lived for yourself to a life in which you have His goods to spend on others, to better their lives with the forgiveness that was first shown to you. Jesus knows that the world is good at spending what belongs to others. So He gives you something even better to spend on others: His forgiveness. And with such a gift, you will be more shrewd than any of the sons of this world. 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. Posted by revalkorn at 12:54 PM 0 comments Links to this post Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
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PRIPRAVITE PUT GOSPODINU, PORAVNAJTE MU STAZE... Doći k sebi i krenuti Bogu Bog nam je dao pamet, razum, inteligenciju da možemo doći k sebi. A doći k sebi, znači biti čovjek. A biti čovjek znači umijeti se služiti mogućnostima svoje pameti. Pavao u 12. poglavlju svoje Poslanice Rimljanima kaže: »Nemojte se prilagođivati ovomu svijetu! Naprotiv, preobličavajte se obnovom svoga uma da mognete uočavati što je volja Božja: što je dobro, ugodno i savršeno!« Evo prvoga pravila koje treba poštivati da mognemo doći k sebi. Ne smijemo se prilagođivati ovomu svijetu. Zašto? Zato što se duh ovoga svijeta protivi Duhu Božjemu. Ovaj svijet ne živi po Božjim principima. Mlađi, izgubljeni sin iz Isusove prispodobe otišao je u daleki svijet i tamo se izgubio. Otišao je od Oca i došao u opasnost da prestane biti čovjek. Kad se čovjek udalji od Boga, u opasnosti je da prestane biti čovjek, da se posve izgubi. Isus to lijepo kaže u svojoj prispodobi: »Došavši k sebi, reče...« Treba jednom doći k sebi i uvidjeti svoje pravo stanje pred Bogom. Vratiti se Bogu - znači povjerovati u njegovu ljubav i zaželjeti stalno ostati kod njega. Povjerovati u ljubav Božju - znači povjerovati da je Bog nježnost sama i milosrđe, da nas ne osuđuje, nego spašava. Kad se uskrsli Isus ukazao Magdaleni, evanđelist kaže: »Ona se okrene« i vidi i upozna Isusa. Obratiti se znači okrenuti se prema Gospodinu, odlučno sebe usmjeriti prema njemu. Došašće nije samo vrijeme čekanja dolaska Gospodnjeg nego i hod prema Gospodinu... pa... što čekamo: krenimo... Tko kome dolazi? DA BISTE DOŽIVJELI ADVENT... Darujte sebi vremena za molitvu, razmišljanje, razgovor Darujte svojim bližnjima najvrjednije što imate: svoje vrijeme Potražite čovjeka koji treba pomoć i – pomozite mu Svjesno se svakog dana nečeg odrecite – što tako uštedite podajte siromasima Ako još dosad niste, odlučite postati glas koji viče: «Poravnite put Gospodnji!» ...JOŠ UVIJEK MOŽETE PRAVO DOŽIVJETI ADVENT! Kad budem trava Možda će onda bolje da bude Kada se jednoga dana preselim U crve i u zemne grude. Ljuljat ću se u travama veselim, Mjesečinom i suncem poliven, Rasitnjen i dobro skriven. Ništa mi neće ostat od uma, Nijedna misao mrtvoga duha; Ja neću imat ni uha ni sluha, Da slušam tišinu svojega šuma. Ako me kada stanu i kosit, Neće mi bola nanijeti kosa - Jedini teret koji ću nosit U novom životu biti će rosa. Dobriša Cesarić Luka Rađa, SI Memento mori Groblja su oduvijek mjesta posvećena i bogata inače nečujnim glasovima. U našu dušu se uvuku poruke onih koji prijeđoše na drugu stranu vječne obale. Ti glasovi, glasni od tišine groblja i osvijetljeni treptavim svijećama utiru put prema našoj duši. Opominju, potiču, pričaju nenaviklu priču i uznemiruju živote. Grob tako postade propovjedaonica i ustrajno otvorena knjiga poruka i vječne škole. Koračamo li onim istim putovima naših predaka utrtim ljubavlju i dobrotom? Nosimo li dostojno ime iza kojeg se krijemo? Boravak na groblju postade tako bogat razgovor i neobičan susret kojemu se, možda, i nismo nadali. Hoćemo li pobjeći ili dovršiti započeti razgovor? Za mnoge je vječni dom već sazidan. Njihov je put dovršen i mir zaslužen. Pohod groblju nije samo običaj i puka tradicija. Grob postaje vidikovac s kojeg se bolje i jasnije vidi i moj vlastiti život. Došao sam na mjesto prema kojem koračam svakim dahom svojeg bića. Strepim i nadam se. Od opeka prolaznog života gradim vječni dom, svoju kuću zavazda. Svaki dan po jednu ili više njih pomalo ugrađujem u buduću nastambu mira i radosti. Satkane su od ljubavi prema živim ljudima. Malo je ljudi koji shvaćaju što bi sve Bog mogao učiniti s njima kada bi se predali u njegove ruke i dopustili da ih oblikuje njegova milost. Ignacije) Molim za milost potpunog predanja Božjoj ljubavi. Daj, Gospodine, da uvijek budem svjestan i zahvalan za sva dobročinstva koja si mi udijelio. Neka taj blagoslov uvijek dijelim s drugima. Božja Riječ nam dolazi po Sv. pismu. Neka Duh Sveti prosvijetli moj razum i srce da odgovorim na poruku evanđelja: da volim svoje bližnje kao samog sebe i da se brinem za braću i sestre u Kristu. U svakome od nas živi i farizej i carinik. Danas je teško pronaći kriterije "dobrog kršćanstva". Različita polariziranja i napetosti unutar Crkve zavode nas da branimo svoju poziciju, a druge gledamo u ulozi farizeja. Farizej loši sud vjerojatno nije primio bez protesta: "Gospodine, znam da imaš svoja mjerila i da često odlučuješ drugačije od naše logike. Ali, je li to još pravedno? Ja se čitav život trudim, pokušavam svoj život uskladiti sa zapovijedima. Misliš li da mi je posebna radost danima postiti i mučiti se žegu? Misliš da mi to nije nikakvo odricanje kad od svega dam desetinu tebi? Priznajem, često sam promatrao ovoga carinika i njegove prijatelje, ponekad sam čak poželio - oprosti mi, Gospodine - živjeti po svome, bez morala, bez materijalnih briga. Ali ostao sam ti vjeran. Je li to sada tvoja plaća? I prije svega izobilje: je li sada ovaj carinik pravedniji od mene? Nemoj se čuditi, Gospodine, kad to tvoje najvjernije izbaci iz ravnoteže. To je svojevoljnost, a ne pravednost." A Bog bi mu možda odgovorio: "Imaš pravo kad svoje velike zasluge nabrajaš preda mnom. Trudiš se i veoma si pobožan i iskren. Ali kukolj neljudskosti koji raste u tvojoj pšenici nadvisio je sve plodove. Tvoj način življenja vjere je postao uzak i nemilosrdan. Kako možeš tvrditi da poštuješ moje zapovijedi, kad tako postupaš sa svojim bratom carinikom? Kako se taj tvoj prezir slaže s tvojom pobožnošću? Tvoj te ponos zaslijepio. U svojoj pravednosti postao si sam sebi bogom. Stoga u vjeri više ne nalaziš mir i ispunjenje, zato ti ne mogu darovati novi život i novu pravednost." Glavna pogreška farizejeva nije u nabrajanju njegovih dobrih djela. Smijemo i moramo se radovati zbog svojih pozitivnih djela i za to Bogu zahvaljivati. Ali ne smijemo zaboraviti milosrđe. Farizejeva je molitva mogla i ovako glasiti: "Bože, zahvaljujem ti za to što jesam. Ti mi želiš dobro. Jer znam da mojim djelima prethodi tvoja milost. Daj i drugima milost da te spoznaju i časte, Gospodine. Daj da budem dobar brat onom cariniku i svim drugim ljudima." Molite i dat će vam se... Još dok smo bili maleni, učili su nas da je molitva razgovor s Bogom. No, tijekom vremena shvatili smo kako ne uspjevamo čuti odgovore na naša pitanja, zazive... Neki su i posumljali u opravdanost naučene definicije molitve. Zaboravili smo vrijeme kad nam se naučeno predstavilo. Bilismo maleni i trebalo nam je uzvišeno objasniti razumljivim riječima. Zato smo čuli: Molitva je razgovor s Bogom. Ako upoznaš molitvu, upoznat ćeš predanje onomu koji nas okuplja u zajedništvo molitve. U molitvi Očenaša prije svega iskazujemo svoju pripadnost Bogu Ocu. OČE NAŠ. Otac je naš, moj, tvoj i on nas okuplja u zajednicu. Ako dalje nastavimo pažljivo moliti naići ćemo na riječi BUDI VOLJA TVOJA preko kojih preletimo a da ih nismo svjesni. Ako moliš BUDI VOLJA TVOJA onda bi lijepo bilo upoznati volju Oca nebeskoga kojemu se moliš. I uvijek ti treba biti na umu da je to volja Očeva a ne tvoja. Bog Otac nalazi sebi prikladne trenutke u kojima će ti odgovoriti i donijeti milost na tvoje zazive. Te trenutke treba čekati, upoznati i prihvatiti. Vrijeme za zahvalnost Ovih dana po crkvama, župama, školama, vrtićima... obilježava se Dan zahvalnosti. Taj dan posvećen je posebno plodovima zemlje, te se zato i slavi u listopadu kad su mnogi od tih plodova prikupljeni, ali, preko njih želimo se zahvaliti za sve što primamo na dar – od Boga i od ljudi. Ne samo da se želimo zahvaliti. Želimo proširiti u svom srcu mjesto za zahvalnost. Jer, zahvalnost nije nešto što se «obavi» pa se ide dalje. Reći «hvala» - radilo se o Bogu ili o ljudima – ne znači dati nešto za uzvrat, sročiti lijepu zahvalu, «odraditi» dan ili sat ili trenutak zahvalnosti i onda mirne savjesti s osjećajem ispunjene dužnosti zaboraviti onoga kome smo se zahvalili. To nije zahvalnost. To je možda pristojnost, možda koristoljublje, možda obzirnost, ali nije zahvalnost. Zahvalnost je životni stav koji nije nešto što se pojavi u određenom trenutku, po narudžbi ili po potrebi - a ostatak vremena smo «mirni». Zahvalnost je svijest da nam je sve što imamo i što jesmo darovano. Da živimo od Božjih i ljudskih darova. Da ništa od onog što imamo, pa ni sam život, nije samo po sebi razumljivo. Zahvalnost je svijest da smo sve primili od nečije ljubavi. Božje i ljudske. I po ljudima koje poznamo i koji su nam bliski, ali i po tolikima nepoznatima i dalekima koji su nam - a da mi često toga nismo ni svjesni - veliki dobročinitelji. Biti zahvalan znači stalno otkrivati darove i darovatelje, otkrivati dobre stvari i dobre ljude. Zato je zahvalnost put do sreće. I zato nas zahvalnost odgaja da i sami budemo darovatelji drugima, da budemo spremni drugima dati i ono što nije samo po sebi razumljivo. Berislava Grabovac Daruj nam čvrstu vjeru Isuse, umnoži nam vjeru,otkloni sve naše sumnje,otkloni sve naše krive pojmove o tajni svog uskrsnuća. Daruj nam čvrstu vjeru i spremnost da svjedočimo za te kao za živog Gospodina Isusa, za koga je vrijedno i život svoj položiti. Apostole si, Gospodine, poučio: Kao što je stvarna tvoja smrt na križu, tvoje trpljenje, tvoje poniženje, tako je stvarno i tvoje uskrsnuće iz groba. Tako je i pisano. Pažljivo čitanje Svetoga pisma dovest će do istih zaključaka svakoga koji je otvoren u srcu. Poučeni tvojim riječima i obogaćeni Silom odozgor, tj. darom Duha Svetoga, to će shvatiti i apostoli. Zato ih i pozivaš da ostanu skupa sve dok ne dobiju Obećanje, dar Duha što si im ga ti pripravio za čas rođenja vidljive zajednice svojih svjedoka. Otvorio si svojim učenicima pamet da razumiju Pisma. Otvori tako danas i naše pameti, naša srca da razumijemo poruku tvoje muke i smrti sve do uskrsnuća, ali jednako tako da razumijemo svoj život i umiranje te nadu novog i istinitog života. Otvori nas za istinu svoga uskrsnuća i daj da u tebi prepoznamo stvarnog Boga i čovjeka, Gospodina i Spasitelja, Isusa Krista! Fra Zvjezdan Linić PAKAO I RAJ Jednog je Dana Svetac imao priliku popričati s Bogom te Ga upita: - Gospodine, bilo bi mi zadovoljstvo znati kako izgleda Pakao i Raj. Bog odvede sveca do dvaju vrata. Otvori jedna do dvoja vrata i dozvoli mu da pogleda unutra. Na sredini sobe, stajao je veliki okrugli stol. Na sredini stola, nalazila se velika posuda s jako finom i mirišljavom hranom. Svetac osjeti kako mu naviru sline na usta. Osobe koje su sjedile za stolom bile su izrazito mršave, ljubičaste boje i bolesnog izgleda. Izgledali su svi izgladnjelo. Imali su žlice s jako dugačkim drškama koje su bile pričvršćene na njihove ruke. Svi su mogli dohvatiti tanjur s hranom i uzeti malo, no kako je drška žlice bila duža do njihove ruke, nisu mogli staviti hranu u usta. i njihovih patnji. Bog reče:- Upravo is vidio pakao. Bog i čovjek se uputiše prema drugim vratima. Bog otvori druga vrata. Scena koju je čovjek ugledao bila je identična prethodnoj. Bio je tu veliki okrugli stol, posuda prepuna fine hrane, koja mu je opet natjerala slinu na usta. Osobe za stolom su isto imale žlice dugih dršaka. No ovaj su put, osobe bile dobro nahranjene i sretne te su razgovarale međusobno zadovoljno se smješkajući. Sveti čovjek reče bogu:- Ne razumijem ! -Jednostavno je, odgovori Bog, sve ovisi o jednoj vještini. Oni su naučili hraniti jedne druge dok drugi ne misle na ništa osim na sebe same. Kada je Isus umro na križu, mislio je na Tebe... Ima bogataša u zemlji, u novcu, u tvornicama. Netko ima nekretnine, drugi dionice, vrijednosne papire i slično. I nitko se ničega ne odriče, a mnogi im se dive, možda zavide i kako stječu, čuvaju i umnažaju svoje bogatstvo. I Gospodin Isus pohvaljuje okretnost, spretnost i zauzetost za održanjem i očuvanjem svoje slike pred ljudima. Ne valja kvariti svoju sliku o uspješnosti pred ljudima, treba biti i održati se u imanju i upravljanju. Ima i lažnog bogatstva za koje se ljudi bore, a ima i istinitoga koje mnogi ne vide ili ga nedovoljno cijene, pa njime slabo upravljaju. I zdravlje je bogatstvo koje nam je darovano: treba ga čuvati, njegovati i dobro njime upravljati. Djeca su istinito bogatstvo koje ne valja ni sa čim na svijetu zamijeniti. Pametan gospodar na selu je rekao: "Nije bogat tko ima volove, već je bogat tko ima sinove." Tko s djecom ne upravlja kako valja, sam se osudio, ne trebaju ga drugi osuđivati. I sloboda naroda veliko je bogatstvo, za njeno čuvanje svatko ima zadatak, zato će polagati i račun. Kulturna baština je bogatstvo, njoj nismo vlasnici nego čuvari i upravitelji pa je treba neokaljanu i umnoženu predati onima koji će iza nas doći. Naši životi su dar i bogatstvo onoga koji nas je najviše ljubio. Njemu vjerovati i njega ljubiti, od njega se vječnoj sreći nadati, a tonam je na krštenju darovano, najveće je bogatstvo kojim upravljamo, pa se treba najbolje snaći da sve toočuvamo i mirne savjesti položimo račun vječnom vlasniku svega. Prispodoba o izgubljenom sinu Što je Isus mislio rekavši "Hoće li tko za mnom, neka se odrekne samoga sebe, neka danomice uzima križ svoj i neka ide za mnom.“? Kada je Isus nosio svoj križ do Golgote gdje su ga razapeli nitko nije mislio o križu kao simbolu tereta kojeg treba nositi. Osobi iz prvog stoljeća križ je značio samo jednu i jedinu stvar, a to je bila najbolnija i do kraja ponižavajuća smrt koju je netko mogao doživjeti. Dvije tisuće godina kasnije kršćanski pogled na križ je pogled na križ kao simbol pomirenja, oprosta, milosti i ljubavi. Ali za Isusovih dana križ je predstavljao užasnu mučeničku smrt. Zato "Hoće li tko za mnom, neka se odrekne samoga sebe, neka danomice uzima križ svoj i neka ide za mnom.“? znači biti voljan umrijeti slijedeći Isusa. To je onaj izraz „umrijeti sebi“. To je poziv na apsolutnu predaju. Iako je ovaj poziv tvrd i težak, nagrada je neusporediva. Slijediti Isusa je lako kada stvari idu kako mi to želimo. Ali naše odistisnko predanje Isusu otkriva se tek u kušnjama. Isus nas uvjerava da će kušnje i patnje snaći njegove sljedbenike. Sljedbeništvo zahtjeva žrtvu, a Isus nikada nije skrivao tu cijenu koju treba platiti. Zapitajmo se danas: Jesmo li voljni slijediti Isusa ako to znači izgubiti neke od svojih najboljih prijatelja? Jesmo li voljni slijediti Isusa ako to znači otuđiti se od svoje obitelji? Jesmo li voljni slijediti Isusa ako to znači gubitak naše reputacije? Jesmo li voljni slijediti Isusa ako to znači izgubiti svoj posao? Jesmo li voljni slijediti Isusa ako to znači izgubiti svoj život? Kada je Isus počeo govoriti da će trpjeti, biti odbačen i umrijeti – njegova je popularnost opala. Mnogi šokirani sljedbenici su ga odbacili. Oni nisu bili u stanju ukomponirati smrt među svoje ideje, palnove i želje i zamjeniti ih za Isusove. Slijediti Isusa ne znači nužno da će sve ove prije nabrojene stvari i dogoditi vama ili meni ali jesmo li voljni ponijeti svoj križ? Ako dođemo do točke u svojem životu kada se treba suočiti s izborom – Isus ili ovaj svijet – što ćemo izabrati? Odanost Kristu znači dnevno uzimati svoj križ, odustajati od nada, snova, posjeda, pa čak i svojega života ako je to potrebno – zbog Krista. Jedino ako smo voljni uzeti svoj križ možemo se zvati Kristovim sljedbenicima. U porazu se ne unizi Kad su sve procijene krive, i ništa što smo htjeli i željeli nije se ostvarilo, najviše smo naučili, jer da je nekim spletom okolnosti hir naše slabosti, lukavo zaobišao prepreke, ne bi se s tim slabostima suočili, ne bih ih takvima vidjeli. Nitko nije kriv, ništa nije nepopravljivo, a problemi su da se rješavaju, a ne da se nad njima uzdiše i nariče. Svaka slabost krije u sebi skrivenu snagu, ako je se pravilno shvati i doživi. I tu je tako primjerena ova divna molitva: Bože, daj mi snage da promijenim ono što se može promijeniti, Bože, daj mi snage da prihvatim ono što se ne može promijeniti Bože, daj mi mudrosti, da razlikujem to dvoje. U porazu budimo ponosni na svoje skrivene snage i hrabrost, da ih možemo probuditi. U pobjedi se ne uzvisi Svjesnost o tuđim greškama nam ne daje pravo na prosuđivanje istih.Ponekad to nije svjesna umna misao, nego samo osjećaj nadmoći nad svojom sudbinom, toliko duboko potisnut, jer smo se jako namučili nad vlastitim postignućem, kao bogataš koji je sve postigao časno svojim rukama, i zaboravio kako je ponekad bilo teško. A zaboravlja da tek mali hir prirode, može poharati sve njegovo bogatstvo. Treba se čuvati nadmenosti u svilenim rukavicama, kad postignemo nešto nama jako bitno. Lako je biti skrušen u porazu, ali teško je ostati skrušen i zahvalan u pobjedi. Mjera riječi i djelovanja nije vanjski propisani bogobojazni jezik, kojim se obraćamo ljudima, već duboki unutarnji titraj duše pri svakom govoru. Ponekad je gruba riječ, koja pokriva prijateljski titraj duše, vrednija za buđenje od stotine ugodnih rečenica iza kojih se skriva ponos i nadmenost onoga koji govori, jer osoba u unutarnjem sukobu vidi sukob i vani i prividna vanjska prepirka ili ignoriranje je više oslobađa od svih pametnih rečenica izrečenih bez istinitog duševnog titraja. Teško je nositi prikriveno svoje spoznaje o životu do kojih smo teško došli, i ne obznaniti ga svojim jezikom i načinom, ali nakon što znamo, moramo još naučiti i kako da to kažemo da bude razumljivo i inspirativno i drugima. Nikoga ništa ne možemo naučiti, ali možda netko u prolazu čuje neku izrečenu, napisanu, naslikanu ili odsviranu misao i počne misliti malo drugačije na neki svoj način. Zato stvaramo, a ne da nas netko razumije i hvali. U pobjedi budimo skrušeni i zahvalni, odgovorno i oprezno noseći lovorike kojima su nas nagradili. Uđite na uska vrata! Jer široka su vrata i prostran put koji vodi u propast i mnogo ih je koji njime idu. O kako su uska vrata i tijesan put koji vodi u Život i malo ih je koji ga nalaze!“ Dragi brate i sestro lakše je ići širokim putem negoli uskim, lakše je pronaći široka vrata negoli uska. Lakše je ići kuda većina ide negoli se osobno truditi slušati glas Božji koji zove da ga slijedimo, koji je često suprotan glasu mase. Lakše je griješiti nego ne griješiti. Lakše je nedjeljom ne ići u crkvu nego ići. Lakše je ljenčariti nego se truditi tražiti posao i raditi. Lakše je lagati nego govoriti istinu. Lakše je bludno griješiti nego se boriti protiv napasti. Ali dragi brate i sestro korisnije je u samome početku ustati u borbu protiv napasti i grijeha i zajedno s Kristom izvojevati pobjedu i tako ući kroz uska vrata koja vode u Život. BUDNOST Drži svjetiljku upaljenu, jer Gospodin će ponovo doći u noći kad ga ne očekuješ! Prispodobe o budnosti, kad se očekuje Gospodinov povratak primjenjuje se na svakoga od nas jer nitko ne zna čas kad će ga Gospodin tražiti na kraju života. Šansonijer otac Duval dobro je sažeo opomenu: Gospodin će se vratiti, obećao je. Vratit će se one noći kad ga ne očekuješ…. Budi budan te noći…Upali svjetiljku, rasvijetli dušu, Neka ti to osvijetli Njegove korake, Neka se ne muči dok te traži. Čekaj ga u svom srcu. Ne snivaj da ćeš daleko od Njega naći sreću…. Nek mu bude svijetlo i dobro u tvojoj duši. Raznježen kličem mu: “Bože moj! Hoće li to biti ove noći?” U dan kad smrt pokuca na tvoja vrata, kakvim ćeš je darom darivati? Oh, ja ću pred svog gosta iznijeti punu posudu svojega života – nipošto neću dopustiti da odem praznih ruku. Svu slatku berbu jesenjih dana i ljetnih noći, sve dobitke i pabirke mog radinog živovanja stavit ću predanj pri koncu svojih dana, kad smrt pokuca na moja vrata….. Bijah uzvanik na svetkovini ovoga svijeta i zato mi je život blagoslovljen. Moje su oči vidjele i uši čule…. Na toj svečanosti pade mi u dio da sviram na svom glazbalu i ja sam učinio sve što sam mogao. I sad pitam, nije li konačno došlo vrijeme da uđem i lice ti vidim i tihi svoj pozdrav tebi prikažem. "Bdijte dakle jer ne znate u koji dan Gospodin vaš dolazi." Sigurno da i ti moraš bdjeti. Tvoj život nije samo miran slijed događaja. On je i borba. A najrazličitije napasti… Ako uvijek bdiješ, nećeš dopustiti da te nešto iznenadi. Dobro bdije onaj koji ljubi. Bdijenje je osobina ljubavi. Kad volimo jednu osobu, srce uvijek bdije očekujući ju, i svaki trenutak koji prolazi bez nje posvećen je njoj. Tako žena koja ljubi svoga muža u njegovoj odsutnosti nastoji pripremiti i učiniti sve za njega, i u mislima s njim. A kad se on vrati, njen razdragani pozdrav sadržavat će svu radost napornog dana. Tako čini majka dok njeguje svoje bolesno dijete. Kad ode malo otpočinuti, zaspe, ali njeno srce bdije. Tako se ponaša onaj tko ljubi Isusa. Čini sve zbog Njega kojega svakog trenutka susreće u jednostavnim izrazima Njegove volje, a svečano će Ga susresti u dan kad On dođe. Bdijte. Pazite. Budni budite. Na svijetu za mnogošto nisi siguran, ali u jedno nikako ne možeš sumnjati: da ćeš jednoga dana umrijeti. A to za kršćanina znači predstaviti se pred Kristom koji dolazi. Možda i ti kao i većina ljudi namjerno zaboravljaš na smrt. Bojiš se tog trenutka i živiš kao da on ne postoji. Ukorjenjujući se sve više u ovozemaljsko, svojim životom kažeš: smrt me plaši, dakle ne postoji. Ali taj trenutak će doći. Jer Krist sigurno dolazi. Jesi li primijetio kako često ne živiš život, nego ga razvlačiš u iščekivanju neke budućnosti koja bi trebala donijeti nešto lijepo? Činjenica je da to buduće lijepo mora doći, ali ti ne očekuješ to. Božanski predosjećaj te potiče da očekuješ nekoga ili nešto što te može zadovoljiti. I možda misliš na neku svetkovinu ili na slobodno vrijeme, ili na neki poseban susret… Ali kad to prođe, ostaješ nezadovoljan. I nastavljaš uhodani ritam svakodnevice, živiš bez dubokog uvjerenja, uvijek u iščekivanju nečega. Istina je da među događajima od kojih je satkan i tvoj život postoji jedan od kojega nitko ne može pobjeći: to je susret licem u lice s Bogom koji dolazi. To je ono lijepo čemu nesvjesno težiš, jer si stvoren za sreću. A puninu sreće može ti dati samo On. A znajući koliko smo ti i ja slijepi u traženju sreće, Isus nas opominje: "Bdijte dakle jer ne znate u koji dan Gospodin vaš dolazi." "Klonite se i čuvajte svake pohlepe: koliko god netko obilovao, život mu nije u onom što posjeduje." Živiš li ne misleći na svršetak svog života? Ne misliš ni na što drugo osim kako što bolje uživati, obogatiti se i osigurati si ugodnu starost? Svakom takvom Bog upućuje ovo ozbiljno upozorenje: Luđače! Još noćas duša će se tvoja zatražiti od tebe! A to što si pripravio, čije će biti (Lk 12,13-21). Možeš li nakon ovakve opomene ostati ravnodušan?! Ako se to i ne ostvari slijedeće noći, svejedno ti se može dogoditi da s ovoga svijeta odeš bez ikakve najave. Gospodine, nauči me moliti! Kad se jednog dana Isus molio i čenici koji su bili prisutni, vidjeli kako moli, otkrili su, po prvi put, što je molitva, i uočili su da oni nisu, ustvari nikada tako molili, te su mu rekli: "Gospodine, nauči nas moliti. Tako je nastala molitva "Oče naš". Isusa nalazimo u molitvi u ključnom trenutku njegova života. To je u Getsemanskm vrtu prije muke. "Pade na koljena i moljaše". I na križu u trenutku smrti: "Oče, u ruke tvoje predajem duh svoj!" U posljednjem trenutku svog života Isus se prepušta i potpuno predaje svom Ocu. Molitva je bila jedna vrst trajne podloge, neprekinuto ozračje Isusova života u koje je sve drugo uronjeno. Znači da je više bio čovjek kontemplacije nego akcije, više molitve nego djelovanja. Isusova molitva bila je doista neprekidna molitva, ali je nadasve bila duhovna molitva, što znači "u Duhu Svetom". Tajna obnove molitve, kako je otkrivamo u Isusovu životu, je dakle, Duh Sveti: on je onaj moćni dah koji može ponovno dati život našoj usahnuloj molitvi. Produhoviti vlastitu molitvu znači učiniti da u nama sve više moli Duh a sve manje mi. Potrebno je prijeći preko rijeke iza koje će ostati sve ono što nas ometa za ljepotu susreta s Bogom. Gospodine, živim u vremenu kada sam više u opasnosti da zaboravim na svoju molitvu. Želim mnoge stvari učiniti i htio bih na sve stići. Stalno sam u žurbi, stalno u bijegu. Ne znam se osloboditi pritiska svih ponuda koje me zasipaju. Nemam duhovne slobode, nti nutarnjeg mira i radosti. Stoga se trebam pobrinuti za tišinu oko sebe i za mir u sebi. Tek u tom ozračju mogu uspostaviti pravu ljestvicu vrijednosti. Tek tada ću moći naći prostora i vremena za molitvu. Ignacije je govorio da trebamo raditi kao da sve ovisi o nama, a moliti se i pouzdavati u Boga kao da sve ovisi o njemu. Gospodine, to je umijeće vjerničkog življenja. Pomozi mi da se otvorim tvome Duhu koji će me poticati na molitvu iz koje ću ustajti ohrabren da izvršavam svoje dužnosti. Daj mi svoga Duha koji će me i u mojim poslovima poticati da se znam zaustaviti i s tobom u molitvi susresti. Daj da znam izložiti jedra svoje nutrine i pustiti da u njih zapuše snaga tvoga duha koji će voditi moj život. Marta je bila sva zauzeta domaćinskim poslovima, dok je Marija slušala Učitelja, sjedeći do njegovih nogu. Slušanje Božje riječi najvažnija je stvar u našemu životu. Krist je uvijek među nama i želi govoriti našemu srcu. Možemo ga slušati razmatrajući s vjerom Sveto pismo, sabirući se u osobnoj i zajedničkoj molitvi, zastajući u tišini pred svetohraništem, iz kojega nam on govori o svojoj ljubavi. Posebice nedjeljom kršćani su pozvani na susret s Gospodinom te na slušanje njegove riječi, što se najpotpunije događa po sudjelovanju u nedjeljnome euharistijskom slavlju. Kada se, po djelovanju Duha Svetoga, Bog nastani u srcu vjernika, postaje lakše služiti braći, a to se je na jedinstven i savršen način dogodilo s Presvetom Marijom. papa Ivan Pavao II Jedan od prvih tumačenja prispodobe o milosrdnom Samaritancu kod crkvenih Otaca glasi: “Čovjek koji jer silazio jest Adam, Jeruzalem je raj, Jerihon je svijet; razbojnici su neprijateljske moći, svećenik je zakon, levit su proroci, Samaritanac je Krist, rane su nepokornost, gostionica koja prima sve one koji su voljni ući jest Crkva, dva denara jesu Otac i Sin, gostioničar je crkveni pastir komu je povjerena briga, a činjenica da Samaritanac obećava povratak, označuje drugi Spasiteljev dolazak” (Origen, Hom. in Lc. 34). Jedan drugi stari pisac kaže: “Tko bi drugi mogao biti taj bližnji, ako ne sami Spasitelj? Tko je više od njega imao samilosti prema nama kojima je prijetila smrt od gospodara ovoga svijeta tmina s tolikim ranama, bojaznima, strastima, srdžbama, patnjama, lažima i uživanjima? Za sve te rane jedini je liječnik Isus. On na naše izranjene duše lijeva vino, koje je krv iz loze Davidove; on nam u izobilju daje ulje, a to je Božje milosrđe” (Klement Aleksandrijski, Quis dives, 29). Odmor Ljeto je. Vrijeme godišnjih odmora, odlaska na more, u planine..... Odmor nam dopušta da se opustimo od svakodnevnog posla, briga, da predahnemo i "napunimo baterije". Odmor je svima neophodan. Kao što nam treba sna da bismo svježi započeli novi dan tako nam treba odmor da bismo mogli nastaviti raditi, stvarati, sretati se sa ljudima. Ako radimo i ne odmaramo osjetimo zasićenost prostorom, poslom, ljudima... Sve nas to počne gušiti i sputavati. Počinjemo željeti slobodu, promjenu, odmor. No osim tjelesnog odmora možda nam je po nekad potrebniji duševni odmor. Duša se umori u ovom napetom, tjeskobnom, neizvjesnom vremenu. Svaka duša čezne za nježnosti, toplinom, ljubavi i prihvaćanjem. Gdje će to naći? I sam sam tražio odgovore na to pitanje. Ništa nas izvana ne može umiriti, opustiti, odmoriti, kao mir u nama samima. A gdje naći taj odmor? Gdje nahraniti dušu? Kako naći mir? Iskoristite svoje odmore za malo tišine, za osluškivanje onih unutarnjih glasova. Usporite tempo, poslušajte što nam ISUS govori. I kada poslušamo Njegovu riječ osjetit ćemo mir, tišinu, bit ćemo prihvaćeni i voljeni. Odmorit ćemo ¨se i smoći snage za dalje. A što nam ISUS to govori? Govori nam da nas voli i da je uvijek sa nama čak kada mi to i ne primjećuejmo. Govori nam da volimo jedni druge i činimo dobro. “Dođite k meni svi koji ste izmoreni i opterećeni i ja ću vas odmoriti. Uzmite jaram moj na sebe, učite se od mene jer sam krotka i ponizna srca i naći ćete spokoj dušama svojim. Uistinu, jaram je moj sladak i breme moje lako” (Mt 11,28-30). Iskoristimo vrijeme odmora da se jače s Bogom povežemo. Neka vrijeme odmora ne bude praznikovanje bez nedjeljne svete mise, nego baš suprotno. Posvetimo Gospodinu malo više vremena iako smo na odmoru. BEZIMENA „Kad eto NEKE ŽENE koja bijaše grešnica u gradu." (Lk 7,37a) Neka žena! Bezimena! Ime joj je pokajanje,plač, spoznanje vlastite grešnosti, hrabrost, odlučnost. „Vjera te tvoja spasila, idi u miru!" (Lk7,50) VJERA! Ponese ALABASTRENU POSUDICU POMASTI, ZAPLAKANA, SUZAMA KVASI ISUSU NOGE, KOSOM IH SVOJOM OTIRE, USNAMA CJELIVA, RUKAMA RAZMAZUJE POMAST... Koliko nježne ljubavi i predanosti!!! Može li se itko tako duboko poniziti kao ŽENA? Žena koja je svijesna svoje promašenosti, kojoj ljuske s očiju srca spadaju i jecaji srca proizvode spasonosne suze - rijeke koje peru naslage blata. A ON TO DOPUŠTA!!! O moj Isuse, kako si ti drugačiji od svih!!! Kako se ljudima gadi žena grešnica, ni u njenoj blizini ne žele biti, a nekmoli da ih se dotakne...(da netko slučajno ne pomisli da su znanci...) Oh, kako smo čudni ljudi.. Razmišljanje ovih dana nekako mi sve ovo još jače posvješćuje... -dopustiti da mi grešnici budu u blizini, da ih moje srce dotiče,(ta i sama u njih spadam!!!). Ne prepoznajem sebe - pobojah se da opravdavam grijeh a nije to, nazirem tek žeđ za ljubavlju u izranjenosti i pogrešnim usmjerenjima. Ti si onaj koji sudi, moje je da se u mojoj 'kući', u mom srcu, dogodi susret vas dvoje - grešnika i Boga! LJUBAV!!! Moje je da ne mrmljam, nego da upijam miomiris pomasti, da suzu k Tvojim nogama usmjerim i nazirem intimu koja se među vama događa. TI SI BOG LJUBAV!!! "OPROŠTENI SU JOJ GRIJESI MNOGI, JER LJUBLJAŠE MNOGO!" (47) Ne plači Gospodine, osluškujem tvoje riječi i želim da dopru do dubina moga srca: "Ne plači! Utješi se, ohrabri se! Nisam te zaboravio premda ti je teško, premda te pogađaju križevi života. Ne plači, nisi sam: ja sam tu, na putu tvog križa, na stazama tvojih napora i nastojanja, u tajnama tvojih uspjeha i neuspjeha. Ne plači nad sobom, nad svojom ostavljenošću i bijedom, nad svojom prazninom i slabostima. Ja sam veći od tvojega srca i ako te ono u čemu optužuje, ja ću te opravdati. Ne plači nad grubostima života, nad krivnjama i ranama što su ti ih drugi zadali. Ne plači, jer ja mogu iscijeliti sve tvoje rane, sve tvoje bolesti. Ne plači nad tragedijama drugih, nad tragedijom koja pogađa tebe. Suosjećaj, trpi, ali ne plači, ne očajavaj, ne kloni! Ja sam sposoban i od mrtvih izdići ono što ti se čini u nepovrat izgubljeno!" "Mladiću, tebi kažem: Ustani! Ustani iz svojeg mrtvila i klonulosti! Ustani od mrtvih i počni živjeti novim životom! Ustani i otvori se novoj nadi, povjerenju u život, svjetlu i istini! Ustani! Tebi kažem! Tebi danas, ne samo onom mladiću iz Naina! Tebi u tvojim brigama i mučnim okolnostima života! Tebi kažem: Ustani!' Hvala ti, Gospodine, na riječi koja nosi ohrabrenje, koja daje život. Tvoja je riječ i danas živa, životvorna, snažna da iz mrtvila grijeha i zla pridigne svakog čovjeka. Tvoja riječ, Gospodine, i danas poziva na život i zaustavlja povorku smrti. Tvoja je riječ i danas jača od zlih navika i sila tame. Ti nas možeš istrgnuti iz pandža grijeha i smrti. Hvala ti, Gospodine, za tvoju riječ, za ljubav, Nađi se, Isuse, na putu kojim prolazi povorka koja često vodi u fatalizam i beznađe, u ropstvo, ovisnosti, u smrt, Budi onaj koji će zaustaviti povorku tame i usmjeriti moj život prema svjetlu i dobru. Fra Zvjezdan Linić Ustani iz smrti na život Svaki put, kada teško sagriješimo mi ubijamo Boga u svojoj duši, zato je naš život pred Bogom mrtav, nevrijedan život. Ali Bog u svom milosrđu ne ostavlja čovjeka u smrti, nego ga poziva na uskrsnuće, na život. Isus kaže tebi, brate i sestro: „Tebi kažem ustani.“ Ustani iz smrti na život. Tebi, koji svojim jezikom izgovaraš najteže psovke, tebi koji si duboko zaglibio u alkohol, drogu i razne druge opijate, tebi koji se baviš nemoralnim poslovima, tebi koji si izgubio vjeru, tebi koji si izgubio smisao života, tebi koji si zanemario svoj kršćanski život. Tebi kažem ustani. Ima na tisuće udovica na ovom svijetu koje su izgubile svoje sinove jedince, ali je samo jedna srela Isusa iz Nazareta koja je doživjela uskrsnuće svoga sina. Danas mnoge majke plaču za svojom djecom, plaču nad njihovim upropaštenim životima. Plače i naša nebeska majka Marija. Molimo majku Mariju da nas dovede svome Sinu, da i nam njezin Sin kaže kao mladiću iz Naima: „Tebi kažem ustani. Ustani iz smrti na život.“ Bog je posvuda Nauka o Presvetom trojstvu pokaztuje cijelu Božju zauzetost za ljude. Bog nije samo stvoritelj svijeta koji ga prepušta njegovoj sreći ili nesreći. Bog se nije povukao nakon stvarateljskog djela.Bog je stalno tu. On trpi, umire, i uskrsava. Bog ne napušta ljude o osami. On postaje nutarnji glas, nutarnji savjetnik ljudi. Nauka o presvetom Trojstvu nas čini na više načina pažljivima. Bog na nebu, Bog na zemlji, Bog gore, Bog dolje, Bog iznad nas, Bog ispod nas, Bog s nama Bog u nama. I tko bi htio Boga shvatiti samo logičnim razumijevanjem sliči čovjeku koji bi htio žlicom isprazniti more. Bitno u Bogu je da je neograničen, neuhvatljiv, neshvatljiv. Bog je više od suca koji sa bilježnicom u rukama stoji da bi nam upisao dobre i loše ocjene. Bog je više od jednog čovjeka koji osamljen na križu umire,. Bog nije samo vječan i nerođen. Nego u Isus Kristu dolazi na svijet kao smrtan čovjek. Raste i odrasta. Martin Gutl: Što mi snagu daje Deset molitvenih pravila Uzmi dnevno par minuta vremena, budi sam u tišini. Otpusti tijelo, razum i srce. Govori s Bogom, jednostavno i prirodno. Ispričaj mu sve što imaš na srcu. Ne trebaš nikakve formule, nikakve tuđe načina izražavanja. Govori mu tvojim riječima. On ih razumije. Vježbaj razgovor s Bogom, kad si kod svog svakodnevnog posla. Zatvori par sekunda oči, tamo gdje jesi: u dućanu, za pisaćim stolom u autobusu. Sjeti se činjenice, da je Bog uvijek uza te i da ti pomaže. Ne smiješ stalno na Boga navaljivati i moliti ga za blagoslov, nego pođi od činjenice da te on želi blagoslovioti. Moli sa uvjerenjem, das će tvoje molitve preko svih mora i planina zaštiti one koje voliš i da su oni okupani u Božjoj ljubavi. Kad moliš imaj pozitivne a ne negativne misli. Trebaš uvijek u molitvi utvrditi da si spreman prihvatiti Božju volju kako on to hoće. Stavi kod moljenja sve u Božje ruke. Moli za snagu, da možeš činiti najbolje što možeš, ostalo s punim povjerenjem prepusti Bogu. Pomoli se i za one, koji te ne vole, ili koji su ti učinili zlo. To će ti dati izvanrednu snagu. Dnevno izreci molitvu za tvoju domovinu i za mir u svijetu. Najjednostavnija uputa glasi: Govori s Bogom tako kao da sjedi na stolici do tebe u sobi i da ti govori: Što želiš da ti učinim? DAROVI DUHA SVETOG Bože, molim Te za MUDROST. Ona neka mi pomogne da u tvome stvorenju i u Tvojoj Riječi prepoznam tragove tvoje svemoći i ljepote. Gosppodine, molim Te za dar RAZUMA. On neka mi pomogne da tvoju istinu dublje shvatim i tvoju riječ bolje razumijem. Daj mi, molim Te dar SAVJETA. Onneka mi pomogne lakše osjećati što ti od mene želiš i očekuješ. Daj mi, Gospodine, dar JAKOSTI. Neka mi taj dar da snagu za prihvaćanje svake žrtve koju budeš od mene tražio i da mi snagu kako bih mogao pomoći braći i sestrama. Daj mi, Gospodine, dar ZNANJA. Daj mi da uz pomoć toga dara dublje prodrem u Tvoja otajstva, da se ne zatvorim novim spoznajama i da spoznam što je zbaluda. Daj mi, Gospodine, dar POBOŽNOSTI. Neka mi on pomogne predati se tebi bez pridržaja i stalno biti u Tvojoj blizini. Daj mi, Gospodine, dar STRAHA BOŽJEGA. Daj da mi on bude snaga koja će mi pomoći da se nikad ne naviknem na grijeh. DA BUDU JEDNO Jer je sasvim jedno, Bog je savršenstvo. Potpuna razdijeljenost bila bi potpuno nesavršenstvo – zlo. (Riječ "đavao" dolazi od grčkih riječi "dia balein" - razbacivati.) U mjeri u kojoj je nešto jedinstveno u toj je mjeri i savršeno. Jer smo zapućeni k savršenstvu, pozvani smo k jedinstvu. To nije tek puka zapovijed Božja, već naša prijeka potreba, jer čovjek kao pojedinac sebi je neshvatljiv bez drugih ljudi. Nebo je potpuno zajedništvo. Pakao je potpuna osama. U nebu fešta neće započeti dok se svi ljudi, svih naraštaja, nacija, vjera i rasa – u našem srcu ne nastane. Zajedništvo s drugima moguće je samo dok je svatko svoj. Tek s onima koji su profilirani, ljudi od komada, individue. Kao što ni kuću nije moguće graditi od cigli koje nisu kompaktne. Biti zajedno znači biti za-jedno. Jedan za sve, svi za jednoga. Jedno srce jedna duša. Tek ako ljudi imaju živo središte oko kojega se okupljaju, među njima nastaje zajedništvo. Treba postojati koheziona sila koja bi nas povezala, kao što voda ujedinjuje čestice brašna u kruh. Ta sila jest ljubav – i to ona koju Isus za nas moli: "Da ljubav kojom si ti mene Oče ljubio bude u njima." Tu ljubav nazivamo Duhom Svetim. On je "mi osoba", zajedništvo koje povezuje. Popularno kazano, on je "vibra", ono neodoljivo što ljude sjedinjuje. Luka Rađa, SI Molitva za sedam darova Duha Svetoga Duše Sveti, Tješitelju, dođi u srce moje sa svojom milošću i svetom ljubavi i daj mi dar mudrosti, da sa slašću razmatram Božje istine, i da mi Bog bude jedino mjerilo u prosuđivanju svih božanskih i ljuskih stvari. Daj mi dar razuma, da što dublje zaronim duhom svojim u otajsvo svete vjere koliko je to u ovom zemaljskom životu moguće. Daj mi dar savjeta, da se uklanjam zasjedama đavla i svijeta, a u dvojbi da uvijek prigrlim što je većma na slavu Božju i naše spasenje. Daj mi dar jakosti, da sobitom odlučnošću svladam sve napasti i ostale zapreke u duhovnom životu. Daj mi dar znanja, da pravo spoznam što i kako treba da vjerujem i da ne odem stranputicom u duhovnom životu. Daj mi dar pobožnosti, da Bogu, svetima i službenicima Crkve dužno štovanje i čast iskazujem, a nevoljnima za ljubav Božju u pomoć pritječem! Daj mi dar straha Božjega, da se čuvam grijeha, bojeći se uvrijediti Boga iz sinovskog poštovanja prema Božjem Veličanstvu. blaženi kardinal A.Stepinac Majčin dan Bog je položio nebo u naše ruke. Ljudi jedni drugima stvaraju na zemlji ili nebo ili pakao. Bog jest i može djelotvorno biti prisutan samo tamo gdje ljudi daju Njegovoj ljubavi ruke i noge i toplinu vlastitog ljudskoga srca. Jer Bog se daje osjetiti i iskusiti samo u ljubavi. Samo u ljubavi mogu ljudi doći do vjere. U nebu je sve povezano ljubavlju, s Bogom koji je ljubav. Phil Bosmans Htio sam te provjeriti... Blaženi koji ne vidješe, a vjeruju... Htio sam provjeriti tvoje prijateljstvo, vidjeti što se krije iza tvoga vedrog lica, pronaći sjenu na suncu koje se, iznenadno i blještavo, činilo nevjerojatnim. Vagao sam tvoje riječi i nisam dopuštao da olako oduševljenje, bez provjere, odškrine zabravljena vrata povjerenja. Puno njih mi je kazalo da se prijevara raširila poput kuge prostorima življenja. Nisam htio biti jedan od brojnih brodova nasukanih na hridinama iskrenosti. Život prepoznajem po boli, zato sam htio vidjeti koliko si živ dirajući tvoje rane. Sumnja i oprez su poput iskusnog grobara kopali raku mogućeg prijateljstva. Rekoše mi da si dobar i živ, da su sjedili s tobom za istim stolom i da ti mogu vjerovati, a ja se nemoćno oslonih na svoju i njihovu nevjernost. Uživao sam u svojoj sumnji, ona je hranila moj oprez i vraćala me na stazu na kojoj ništa nije živo ni sigurno. Koliko sam toga propustio? Vjeran sumnji, nisam primjećivao prilike koje život samo ponekad ponudi. Oprosti mi Prijatelju moj, što nisam imao više pouzdanja u Tvoju riječ i svoje dobre slutnje. Kroz Korizmu.... ”Okreni se, pogledaj nije li djelo neko ostalo nedovršeno, čeka li briga, kasni li ljubav, boli li bolest, pred plačem jesi li vrata pritvorio? Je li nekog srce zaboljelo ranu gdje si ostavio otvorenu, kuca li tuđa nevolja pod tvojim prozorom, čuješ li je, milost moli da hlad u tebi zasja, čovjeka da ćutiš toplo. Nemoj u korizmu za sebe, učini to za drugog, pomogni mu, nosi ga, podnosi, vodi ga sa sobom i neka ti je teret, uzmi ga kao svog neka vidi, uči, čovjek se ne ostavlja. Nemoj u korizmu sam za sebe, bez tereta djela”-. KRIŽ ŽIVOTA Pouka : Svako od nas nosi svoj križ. On nije lagan, ali upravo skrojen po našoj mjeri. Zato ne tražite lakši teret već prihvatite i nosite svoj križ, jer nikada ne znate kad vam može zatrebati upravo takav kakav je. Što i kako ove korizme? Prvo, to treba biti nešto za, neka pozitivna odluka a ne još jedna zabrana samom sebi kojom ću si dokazivati kako sam jak i karakteran (i koju ću vjerojatno prvom prilikom prekršiti). Drugo, ta me odluka treba nadilaziti, tako da me potiče na molitvu Gospodinu u kojoj ću moliti za snagu da ju izvršavam ali opet ne nerazumna i nedohvatljiva u toj mjeri da će mi se i Gospodin slatko nasmijati i ostaviti me u mojim djetinjarijama. Konačno, ona mora biti oslobađajuća. Divno je kada se događa na nekom području u kojem se osjećam zarobljen i skučen i u kojem vapijem Gospodinu da me oslobodi. Korizma je vrijeme ispovijedi Naravno se ne misli samo na sakramentalnu ispovijed već i na ono svakodnevno preispitivanje sebe pred Gospodinom, mogu li i želim li ići dalje s njime, želim li i ovu korizmu pokušati doći korak bliže njemu, otkriti nešto novo o sebi i o njemu, ponovo riskirati da se ništa neće dogoditi, da ću biti još jadniji i potišteniji i onda dopustiti da me iznenadi kako samo On to zna. Mogu li se još jednom odazvati na Njegov poziv: Reci sebi da No reci sebi da onakvom kakav jesi. Samo onaj tko je sebi milosrdan bit će takav i prema drugima. Bog želi, da ga ljubiš kao samog sebe. Budi dobar prema sebi i prihvati se. Samo onaj koji sebe ljubi, ljubi i druge pokraj sebe. Bog želi da ga ljubiš kao samog sebe. Otkrij sebe i svoju vrijednost. Samo onaj tko svoje darove cijeni, cijeni i onoga pokraj sebe. Bog želi da ga ljubiš kao samoga sebe Oprosti sebi pogreške i krhotine, samo onaj koji vlastite granice pozna, oprostit će onome pokraj sebe. Bog želi da ga ljubiš kao samoga sebe. Bog te prihvaća i dobar je prema tebi, a ti predaj dalje što on dobra učini onima koji su pokraj tebe. A onda će od ja i ti nastati jedan mi. Reci sebi da Kad bih sve ljudske i anđeoske jezike govorio, a ljubavi ne bih imao ... Što je ljubav? u slatkoj nježnosti me pitaš Koja svijetom vlada: Je li iskra nebeske svjetlosti Il je klica zemaljskoga sada. Što je ljubav, kad njezini gosti Plaču bolni s nezasitna glada: Suze roneć bezbrojnih radosti Suze roneć bezbrojnih jada. Ljubav, dušo, na zemlji je tajna, Božji pečat čovječjih povelja Koga stoprv' naša smrt otvara. Ljubav ovdje samo j' duga sjajna Koju sunce, milost Stvoriteljeva Katkad s kišom naših suza stvara. Petar Preradović Isus prođe između njih i ode! On im progovori: "Danas se ispunilo ovo Pismo što vam još odzvanja u ušima." I svi su mu povlađivali i divili se milini riječi koje su tekle iz njegovih usta. Govorahu: "Nije li ovo sin Josipov?" A on im reče: "Zacijelo ćete mi reći onu prispodobu: Liječniče, izliječi sam sebe! Što smo čuli da se dogodilo u Kafarnaumu, učini i ovdje, u svom zavičaju….. "Čuvši to, svi se u sinagogi napune gnjevom, ustanu, izbace ga iz grada i odvedu na rub brijega na kojem je sagrađen njihov grad da ga strmoglave. No on prođe između njih i ode. Ne primijetiše njegova nestanka jer nisu bili spremni prihvatiti njegovu riječ spasenja. On se s njima ne sukobljuje. Riječ jest najviše što im je mogao učiniti, dati, jer je riječ više od čuda. Može se i nama dogoditi da Isus između nas prođe i ode, da ni nad nama ne učini nikakvo čudo i da nas ne zahvati njegova riječ. Zato je sveti Augustin govorio: Bojim se Gospodina koji prolazi! Od tada zvat će ga Nazarećaninom, ali od tog trena njegov grad više neće biti Nazaret nego Kafarnaum. Nevjera zajednice u sinagogi, zajednice koja je uvjerena da je vjernička, Isusu je bila nesavladiva prepreka. Grupa koja je nošena nevjerom postaje nesavladivom preprekom Božjem djelovanju. Koje ste vjere? - Katolik! Danas čujemo kako je narod plakao (na žalost taj odlomak se ne čita) kad su čuli riječi zakona, Tore. Tko danas plače kad čuje riječi Biblije. Isus govori: Duh je Gospodnji na meni ... navijestiti godinu milosti Gospodnje.. Ma koga se to danas, među našim slušateljima, tiče? Mi bismo, kao katolici, trebali slušati Bibliju, čitati posebno evanđelja. Što mi danas slušamo i čitamo, koga slušamo: TV Dnevnik, koji tako manipulira s ljudima, medije svih vrsta: horoskopi, Sai Babe - uzeto kao sinonim - više nam vrijedi horoskop, nego Biblija... nekada sam slušao kao dijete: Jesi čuo što se pjeva u Crkvi: „Kopao je jamu i iskopao ju i pade u jamu koju je načinio..." ili „Jer zao čovjek ili za to živi da se popravi ili da se po njemu dobar čovjek vježba.." Danas čujem „televizija rekla ovo, rekla ono.." Ovaj političar rekao ovo, rekao ono..." Osvrnut ću se na jedan današnji problem u društvu o kojemu bruje mediji, a zove se nasilje u školi ili među mladima. Danas su razne međunarodne institucije naredile kako će se odgajati djecu i teške kazne su propisane ako to prekršiš. Među ostalima i kažnjavanje djece, ograničavanje djece.. I svi se pozivaju na deklaraciju oi pravima djece. A mi katolici, gdje je Biblija? Ma tko gleda što piše Biblija. Posebno što piše knjiga Sirahova, poglavlje 30 o odgoju djece (ovdje je pročitati na propovijedi iz Biblije). I kad bismo mi više slušali Bibliju, a ne razne deklaracije, mnogo bi nam bolje bilo. Samo, mogli bi me pozvati na odgovornost da sam protiv države i državne politike... A Biblija spada među najstarije knjige na svijetu. U njoj je sakupljeno tisućgodišnje iskustvo. A Biblija je, za nas, sveta knjiga, Bogom nadahnuta, u Bibliji je temelj kršćanstva. Koliki katolici to vjeruju, do toga drže i po Bibliji žive? don Ivica Matulić SVADBA U KANI GALILEJSKOJ Isus je u Kani Galilejskoj učinio veliko znamenje na molbu svoje majke. Zaručnici su obilato nagrađeni »novim vinom«. Isus je učinio prvo znamenje i objavio svoju slavu te u njega povjerovaše njegovi učenici, piše u Evanđelju. Marija, Isusova Majka, sudjeluje svojom molbom u toj prvoj objavi Isusove slave. Kao žena puna dobrote, Marija je pozorna i na najmanji detalj zapaža nedostatak vina te shvaća da je radost dovedena u pitanje i reče Isusu: »Vina nemaju.« Isusov odgovor, iako nam zvuči grub u biblijskom jeziku označuje samo izvjesnu odvojenost prema nečemu: » Ženo, što ja imam s tobom? Još nije došao moj čas! « Još nije došao moj čas - označava da još nije vrijeme da se Isus očituje u svojem mesijanskom poslanju ... Svadba je Isusovo prvo čudo i označava početak njegova javnog djelovanja . No ipak Isus je tu …. Pokazuje nam pravi put koji nas vodi u to zajedništvo ljubavi, povjerenja, dobrote i zahvalnosti. Znajmo jednu stvar naš Bog nas voli i zato mu znajmo reći HVALA. Isus je učinio svoje prvo čudo. Oni su imali vjere…. Pitam Vas i sebe danas: Kolika je moja vjera? Koliko znam izreći hvala Bogu na svim dobročinstvima, na svim darovima a i na svim kušnjama? Isus je podnio i kušnju u pustinji, dao i svoj život za spas ljudskog čovječanstva. Zar da mu na te darove ne budemo zahvalni ??? Kolika je naša vjera ????? Imamo li povjerenja u našega Stvoritelja da u svim životnim brigama i problemima, u svim dobrim stvarima On bdije nad nama, bdije nad svakim od nas…. I u trenucima osamljenosti, trenucima kad skrenemo s pravog puta, trenucima kada ulazimo u mračni tunel gdje ne vidimo izlaza … naš Bog je tu … Nudi nam svjetlo ljubavi …. Bog je tu i u meni i u tebi ….. Koliko je danas Isus ovdje prisutan među nama? Potražimo zajedno Isusa, ojačajmo našu vjeru i naša bračna i obiteljska zajedništva. Nije dosta samo krstiti se, nego se treba i roditi iz tog krštenja, kaže nam Isus. Krštenje nas već čini djecom Božjom, krštenje već donosi spas, ali naša odluka za to krštenje, prihvaćanje riječi Isusa Krista i njegove osobe, odlučujuća je kako bismo izrasli iz utrobe krštenja i poput djeteta rasli, odgajali se i sazreli za vjeru u kojoj se mogu drugi rađati i od nas živjeti. To je ono što kršćanima tako očito manjka i to je ono zbog čega Crkva najviše trpi. Ona kao da stalno nosi u svojoj utrobi ljude koji su kršteni, a nisu se rodili iz tog krštenja. Poput majke koja nosi u utrobi dijete koje nikako da se rodi. Jednom treba izići iz svoga roda, doma, iz svoga zavičaja, jednom treba izići iz svoga djetinjeg gledanja Boga i ući u događanje vjere. Jednom treba samostalno Bogu reći odlučujući »da«. Tada počinje novi život, tada i ti bivaš ispunjen Duhom Svetim i tada ljudi zapažaju da si drugačiji, da si uspješniji, sretniji, i da si u duši i tijelu postao zdrav. Do takvog se puta dolazi razmišljanjem, ali još više molitvom. Ali, ne recitiranjem molitava, nego srcem koje traži Boga, koje s njime razgovara i koje ga čuje. Tomislav Ivančić, "Oaza života" TRI KRALJA - BOGOJAVLJANJE Blagdan Bogojavljenja u nas je postao blagdanom "Triju kraljeva". Prihvatimo te povijesne i vjerničke pomake. Povežimo u svojoj svijesti oba sadržaja blagdana. Pismo ih ne zove kraljevima nekog "magima", po našem – mudracima. To su bili ljudi tražitelji, ljudi koji su umjeli gonetati – iz prirode, iz predane ljudske mudrosti. Za mudra čovjeka sve je riječ. On o svemu razmišlja i istražuje istinu: o sebi, o svemiru, o čovječanstvu, o Bogu, o životu, ovomu i onomu – prekogrobnom, vječnom. Ali nije važno samo tražiti. Divno je – naći. No ni to nije dosta. Nađenome treba pokloniti se. Razmislimo o toj divnoj – a tko dobro dvoznačnoj – hrvatskoj riječi. Pokloniti se ne znači samo sagnuti se, nekako kao sagnuti šiju, nego baš – pokloniti se – to jest darovati se. Komu? Bogu. I – radi Boga ljudima. Divno je znati da će mnogi, koji su se iskreno ljudima darivali, "u onaj dan" saznati da su to učinili samomu Bogu. Bonaventura Duda Sveta Bogorodica Marija Nova godina nosi nas ususret novom životu, novim doživljajima, kušnjama, trpljenjima, bolima, ali i sigurnim izlascima iz svega bolnoga u uvijek zdravo, čestito i vječno. Poput dobrog prijatelja Nova godina dolazi ti šapnuti da ne dopustiš da ti dani prolaze prazni. Ona bi ti htjela reći kako ideš ususret vremenu koje neće nikad proći, a to je vječni život. Vrijeme nije neki usud, sudbina koja nas okiva ledenim hodom prema smrti, nego topla ruka koja nas želi voditi u život u kojemu nas čekaju prijatelji, za koji se ovdje neprestano spremamo i gdje ćemo doživjeti ispunjenje svega onoga čemu smo se ovdje uzalud nadali. Nova godina će ti šapnuti da je vrijeme u Božjoj ruci. Nije najbitnije jesi li bolestan ili zdrav, jesu li tvoje godine već pri kraju ili si još mlad, čeka li te mnogo poslova ih te bolest slomila pa nemaš nikakvih poslova. Nije važno kome pripadaš i što radiš, nego kamo ćeš ubuduće ići, što ćeš raditi i kome vjeruješ. Ti znaš da ljude koji su dobri, koji vole čovjeka, koji druguju s Bogom, nitko ne može uništiti, da se oni krvniku koji ih ubija smiju u oči, svjesni da im on ne može ništa, jer je njihov život neuništiv. Ti znaš da ljudi koji čine dobro i koji su pravedni, koji se bore da naše društvo ne bude zatrovano otpacima europske civilizacije, jedini znaju zašto žive i da se oni jedini ne boje budućnosti. Kad god nekome učiniš dobro, ti postaješ sretan, čitavo tvoje biće drhti od zadovoljstva, tvoja savjest je mirna, a tvoje biće doživljava slobodu. Kad, naprotiv, mrziš nekoga, kad ogovaraš, tad osjećaš da si se zabio u neke zidove, da te okiva mrak i nezadovoljstvo, da ne možeš ni k ljudima ni k Bogu. Kad se želiš osvetiti ih nekoga prevariti, tada doživljavaš da nećeš uživati, da režeš granu na kojoj sjediš, da probijaš svoje vlastito srce. Svjestan si da se samo na pozitivnom, svijetlom, slobodnom može živjeti. A to pravedno svjetlo jest jedno srce, to je samo jedna osoba, jedan Bog, Stvoritelj neba i zemlje. Ako uhvatiš njegovu ruku i dopustiš da te vodi, onda si siguran da ćeš prepoznati svaki cvijet, bit će ti drage pahuljice snijega, neće te srditi sklizavica i magle, djeca će ti biti radost, tvoje stare godine neće predstavljati bol, nego sreću, iskustvo i mudrost. Nova nas godina poučava da gledamo vedro u budućnost, da nikada ne vjerujemo negativnostima, izgubljenostima, zarobljeništvima, ratovima i nepravdama. Gledati nam je u Božje ruke, odakle nam uvijek dolazi pomoć. Jer samo je jedan Stvoritelj neba i zemlje, i samo taj jedan ima vlast nad svim našim neprijateljima. Odluči danas da ćeš u svakom danu imati bar pet minuta vremena razgovarati s Bogom. Zakorači hrabro u novu godinu. Ne dopusti da tebe vrijeme gazi, nego ispunjaj vrijeme svojim darovima, te ga oslobađaj od ropstva i straha, a sebe ispunjaj slobodom i budućnošću. Odluči danas oprostiti svima koji su ti neprijatelji, u srcu zamoli sve one koje si povrijedio da ti oproste, zagledaj se u Božje lice i zaželi da ti Bog sve oprosti i da budete prijatelji. Te odluke su dovoljne da ti nova godina bude sasvim sigurno uspješna, sretna i blagoslovljena. To će biti snaga koja će sve ispunjati uspjehom, zdravljem, mirom. Važno je načiniti prvi korak, sljedeći će biti lakši. Važno je vidjeti što hoćeš od svoga života i danas odlučiti ići tim smjerom. Tomislav Ivančić, "Oaze života" Ovdje me više nema klikni ovdje obavijesti o: web prijava sakramenata riječ župnika župa kastav - Povijest i gradnja - Osnutak župe/dekanata - Svećenici Kastva u povijesti - Crtice iz kronike župe - Župe koje pripadaju dekanatu - Razne djelatnosti u Kasvu