Bother Me

I had intended to write a bit about Ascension Day. It’s something of a forgotten day. If you lived in Europe you’d have the day off thanks to the remains of Christendom. But in the USA it’s the only festival of the life of Christ – right there in the creed! – that gets shuffled off. I suppose that’s its own fault for not falling on a Sunday.

But I got a call midweek that changed my intended topic, because as important as Ascension Day is, this seemed more so. Dad called and let me know that a cousin of my had committed suicide. I share this not in searching for sympathy. As with many family ties these days, it had been years since we had talked, more specifically played Euchre while eating on Thanksgiving or Christmas. He was significantly older than I was, but at a time in life when I was playing sports, he had just embarked on a coaching career in the Texas High Schools. And in remembering Mike I started to remember too many others. The hometown friend. The high school roommate and friend who I had just reconnected with not long before he took his life. The HS basketball teammate. Two college hallmates and study partners. And it struck me that six people with whom I had been close at least for longer stretches seems like a lot. Although these days I’m not sure. As another correspondence friend said, “there seems to be a unique despair in the air these days.”

Now I don’t have any great insights. Maybe I was just a lousy friend for losing contact over the years. In many of those, opioids were involved. Another correspondent brought up marriage. I replied that 3 had never been married, but two were still married and 1 was in the midst of divorce. The social scientists that track these things have all kinds of correlations, but they are quick to say correlation is not causation. My intuition is that everyone is fighting their own private battles. And ranking misery is always a losing game.

The only thing I really have to say is, if you find yourself at that point, please give me a call first. Don’t call the church line. That is only watched Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you don’t have my cell number, it is on the outgoing message there. It is in the bulletin every week not far from here. Take this home and program it into your phone today. If you find yourself there, bother me. I’m not going to solve your misery, as much as I might like to. I’ve read the book of Job too much and been in this office too long to think I have that power. But the one common thread of all of those is they were alone. If you are there, trouble me. I can make sure you are not alone at that point.

Slight Momentary Affliction

Biblical Texts: Mark 3:20-35, 2 Corinthians 4:2-5:1
Full Sermon Draft

I list some biblical texts above, and it is correct to say those are the seed bed for this sermon, but this sermon is more topical that is my normal pattern. The specific topic might be suicide, but the more general one would simply be The Christian Life. It is hard for me to summarize or evaluate this work. There are all kinds of ways I can pick it apart, but I think it stands as an emotional whole. The promise of the gospel is not that it gets better. The promise of the gospel is that what we experience here, any slight momentary affliction, is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. Today we have this treasure – life – in jars of clay or in tents. Not yet, but soon, we will have the resurrection body, the building not made with hands. And yes, this rests on faith and out experience of God in Christ. So do me a favor, and believe it.

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On An Untimely Death

Text: Psalm 103:1-22

Law
Usually in the first words we attempt to paint a picture of the deceased. And there are an awful lot of good words to remember. You heard many of them in the family remembrances. Edward, Jr was a sensitive kid. Kind, gentle, and whip-smart. Thinking about others. Always having a cute grin.

There is also something that we will never understand. How all those great reasons to know Edward didn’t add up to a reason to keep living.

We tend to think that is a bright line. But what I want to suggest is that we all have more in common with Edward, with each other, than our safe sides of those bright lines.

The psalmist sings:
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

A box, a few words, a spot in the ground…that is all of our fates. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin are death. We are all on the same side of that bright line. The last writing of Martin Luther reflected on that – “We are all beggars”.

Gospel
While we don’t understand the sin that lives within us. While we will never understand the why’s around Edwards actions, it is my job to proclaim to you what we do know with rock solid certainty.

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

That cross, and that God-man Jesus took care of sin. God stopped counting. God said this is what I think of your bright lines and erased them all, replacing them with pure grace. We know we call on a God of grace.
4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy

Christians confess in the creed that Christ descended into hell. There is nothing that we might experience that He has not. If I go up to the highest heaven, You are there. If I descend into the pit, you are there. Neither height nor depth…neither death nor life…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Even in the depths, we know God crowns us with steadfast love.

“All of us who have been baptized into Christ…were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too…will be united with Him in the resurrection.”

We have called on the God of grace and mercy and love and He has made us His children in those waters of baptism. Where we waver, God never does. He is steadfast. We know that exactly when we might be faithless, God remains faithful to his promises. “The steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting.”

And the last known is that resurrection. “this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” That is our Hope. He’s the first-fruits. The Spirit in baptism in the deposit. It is a certain Hope…a known Hope. A Hope we long for the fulfillment of.

Conclusion

When surrounded and confronted with the things we don’t understand…turn to that we do…we know Our God, revealed in Christ…on that cross, we know the Steadfast Love of God, who redeems our lives from the pit. Amen.