Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity - Lk 10:23-37

 

         Trinity 13

                                                                                                Lk 10:23-37

                                                                                                8/25/24

 

            “Measure twice, cut once.”  It is a wise saying that always guides me anytime I am working with wood or any material where I have a limited supply. It is better to measure carefully and make sure you are right, than make a mistake. Cut something too long, and you will have to go back and cut again. Cut something too short, and you have a piece that is of no use and you have wasted material.

            “Measure twice, cut once.”  It appears that would have been good advice for those in the past who chose our Gospel reading for today.  The texts in the lectionary are known as “pericopes” which comes from a Greek word that means to “cut out.”  Each is a piece of Scripture that has been cut out of the whole for consideration on a Sunday.

            It turns out that our text was cut out a little too long.  In it you hear the lawyer approach Jesus with his question, and this then leads into Jesus’ famous parable of the Good Samaritan.  But before that we have two verses in which Jesus says: “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

            These words having nothing to do with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Instead, they are the conclusion of the events that began at the start of chapter 10.  Yet this pericope that is “a little too long” gives us some extra material to work with, and invites us to consider what has just been happening in the Gospel.

            In the previous chapter the disciples had been marveling at all that Jesus was doing.  So he said, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”  For the second time, our Lord predicted his passion. Then a little later we read: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  Our Lord begins to make his final trip to Jerusalem – the one that will result in his suffering and death.

            As Jesus and the disciples began to make this final trip, our Lord sent out seventy two of his disciples ahead of him as a kind of “advanced team.” This is a reminder that the company of disciples who followed Jesus from Galilee was larger than merely the twelve apostles and a few women.

            Jesus instructed them that they were to travel light and quickly.  He provided this instruction: “Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.

Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” 

As we discussed in last week’s sermon, Jesus declared that in his person the kingdom of God – the reign of God had come near.  He was the presence of God’s reign turning back the forces of Satan and sin.  He was traveling to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross.  He was going to be numbered with the transgressors in order redeem us from sin.  And then he would rise on the third day as he defeated death and began the resurrection of the Last Day.

That saving reign was present in the ministry of his disciples. They were bringing his word. They were bringing his healing.  Jesus said, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”  Our Lord assured them that they were sharing Jesus’ word, and that ultimately any rejection was a rejection of Jesus, and of the Father who had sent him.

The disciples needed to hear this because they would encounter rejection.  Jesus told them, “But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,

‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’”

            This is something that we need to hear as well.  The Gospel – God’s Word – is always doing something no matter how it seems to be received.  It brings the reign of God. This is true no matter whether this is received in faith as a blessing, or whether it is rejected and brings judgment.  Our only job then is to speak the Gospel to others.  We can do so in the confidence that God’s Word is always active and at work no matter what response we experience.

            When the seventy-two returned they were excited.  Luke tells us, “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’”  Jesus replied about their ministry, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” 

Our Lord’s words remind us about the spiritual conflict that exists in our world.  There are only two Lords.  Either Jesus is Lord over a person’s life, or the devil is.  The act of proclaiming the Gospel brings God’s reign.  It rescues a person from the devil’s power as the Spirit of God works faith in Jesus Christ – as Jesus becomes that person’s Lord. 

This is something that the devil desperately wants to prevent.  He uses all the forces of our culture in order to work against this.  He inebriates people with the mundane – the music and entertainment, the sports, the socializing and recreation – so that they ignore the ultimate spiritual questions.  He convinces people that they are just too smart to believe in that ancient stuff. He persuades them that they are “spiritual” people who don’t need “religion” as in fact they follow the religion of their own creation.

Just before our text Luke tells us: “In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.’”  We recognize that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ.  Instead, the Holy Spirit has called us through the Gospel.  We receive the Gospel as those who are dependent on God’s grace. We are children – we are the spiritually helpless who have nothing to offer, and instead have received salvation as a gift.

Finally Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  It is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that the Father is revealed to us.  The Father sent the Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Father has revealed his love and forgiveness.  We have no access to God, except through the Son.

The text from our Gospel lesson concludes the response to the return of the seventy two disciples. Luke tells us: “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.’”

Jesus tells the disciples that they are blessed to be living in that moment.  They are experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises as God’s saving reign was present in Jesus Christ.  They are hearing and seeing what prophets and kings of Israel had hoped to experience, but did not.

Our Lord’s words are just as true for us.  We are those who have received the reign of God in Jesus Christ.  We know about the incarnation of the Son of God – that the Creator of the cosmos entered into our world as he became man without ceasing to be God.  We know about his saving death on the cross – that in love for the Father and for us he received God’s judgment against our sin.  And we know about his resurrection – that God defeated death in Christ and began the resurrection that will be ours on the Last Day.

So Blessed are you!  You know that you are living in the Last Days – that God’s end time salvation has begun.  As Paul told the Corinthians, we are those “on whom the end of the ages has come.” 

Blessed are you!  God has revealed to you the fulfillment of the Scriptures in Jesus Christ.  As Peter wrote: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”

Blessed are you!  God’s reign that arrived in Jesus Christ continues to be present through the Means of Grace.  Jesus says to you “I forgive you all your sins” in Holy Absolution.  The risen and ascended Lord comes to you in the Sacrament of the Altar as he gives you his true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

Blessed are you.  But are you living like one who is so blessed?  What role does Jesus Christ play in your daily life?  Do you take time to read God’s Word – the word through which you receive God’s reign in Christ?  Do you turn to him during times of prayer?  Do you think about Christ and what he means for you?

Blessed are you.  But does that blessing become a blessing to others?  Do you forgive others because God has forgiven you in Christ?  Do you serve and help others because Jesus has served and helped you?  Do you speak about Jesus Christ to others, so that they too may receive his saving reign?

In our text today, Jesus says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”  God’s saving reign has come to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We are blessed because the Spirit has called us to faith in Christ.  Now we hold onto that blessing as we receive our Lord’s Means of Grace. And we share it with others by what we do and say.

   

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity - Mark 7:31-37

 

Trinity 12

                                                                                       Mk 7:31-37

                                                                                       8/18/24

 

            I began visiting Priscilla about ten years ago.  She is a LCMS member who had moved to this area from Florida in order to be near family. She is a lovely Christian, and I have enjoyed my visits with her.

            Priscilla recently turned one hundred years old. She was already almost blind when I met her. Unfortunately, during the last few years her age has greatly affected her hearing.  For the most part, it is no longer possible to have a conversation with her.  She knows who I am and is glad to have me there, but we can no longer talk as we once did.  She simply can’t hear what I am saying.

            When I visit I set up my chair very close and directly in front of her. I speak at the loudest level I can without actually shouting.  While she can’t hear well enough to converse, she does hear phrases from the liturgy of the Divine Service.  These trigger her knowledge of the words that she has spoken all her life. And so she speaks the confession, and the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer.

            My visits with Priscilla always remind me of how very precious hearing is.  We take it for granted as part of life until some problem starts to arise.  For those of us who have lived with hearing that works, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be deaf.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus encounters a man who is deaf.  In addition to being deaf, he has some kind of speech impediment.  We don’t learn any of the details about how the man came to be in this condition. But clearly, it was a great hardship in his life.

            Jesus had been north of Galilee in the region of Tyre and Sidon along the Mediterranean Sea.  There he had healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman.  Now Jesus had returned from that area and was on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee in an area known as the Decapolis.  The name itself meant “ten cities” and referred to the Gentile cities that had been founded there.  This was an area where there were a significant number of Gentiles in addition to Jews.

            We learn that they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. The news about Jesus had travelled far and wide.  People knew that he was a miracle working teacher who healed.  And so they brought this man to Jesus in hopes that he would help him.

            It is interesting to note that they begged Jesus to lay his hand on the man.  Jesus’ healing touch was well known.  It is a reminder to us about the incarnation of our Lord.  The Son of God who had created the world, entered this world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  The Word – the Son of God – became flesh.  He became man without ceasing to be God. And it is as man that he was able touch those who were in need of healing.

            Jesus was man.  But he was also the Son of God. And so he was the presence of God bringing healing and relief. We learn that Jesus took the man aside from the crowd privately. He put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and groaned.  Our text has translated this word as “sighed,” but in the New Testament it far more frequently means “groan.”  Jesus groaned as he stood in the presence of the suffering that sin had brought into the world.

            Yet our Lord was here to do something about it.  He said to the man “Ephphatha” which means, “Be opened.”  The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released and he spoke plainly.  Jesus’ word had freed the man.

            Jesus had worked a miracle.  However, we learn in our text that he ordered them to tell no one.  Our Lord does this regularly.  At first glance, it seems surprising. Doesn’t Jesus want the report about his work to spread?  But our Lord does this because he wants to define his ministry, instead of having others draw conclusions about him.  As we will see, Jesus was not here to do things in the way that man expects.

            Jesus ordered them to tell no one.  But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  Mark tells us, “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

            This statement was more than an observation about what Jesus was doing.  The language used leads us to see that Jesus’ actions are fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah.  In chapter 35 Isaiah had spoken about the end time salvation that God was going to bring.  He wrote, “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.”

            Jesus Christ had come to bring God’s end time salvation.  Mark tells us that Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 

            Jesus Christ was the presence of the kingdom of God – the reign of God.  He was the end time salvation of God that was turning back the forces of sin and Satan.  Jesus was the presence of God’s reign that was overcoming the harm that sin has brought into the world.  His miracles show this as he caused the blind to see; the lame to walk; the deaf to hear; and the mute to speak.

            Jesus had come to provide the rescue from sin. This is something that we need desperately. Just before our text our Lord had described the human condition – our condition. He said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”  These are the things that come out of our heart. They emerge in thought, in word, and in action.

            Jesus Christ was the presence of God’s reign. He had come to provide rescue from sin. Yet he would do this in a way that no one expected. In the next chapter, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  They tell him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” Then Jesus asked “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

            Peter was right. Jesus was the Christ. He was from the lineage of King David. At his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and God said, “You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased.”  He was the One who had come to bring God’s reign.

            Yet Mark then tells us, “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.”  Jesus had come to bring God’s reign in a decisive way.  But he had come to do this by dying on the cross.

            Jesus was bringing God’s end time salvation.  He was the presence of God’s reign as he healed the sick; as he caused the deaf to hear and the mute to speak; as he cast out demons.  This was impressive work.  As we hear in our text the people were astonished beyond measure, and said “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

            But death?  There was nothing impressive about that.  And so Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.  However, in response Jesus rebuked Peter as he said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

            Jesus was bringing the reign of God.  But God wasn’t doing things in the way of man. The way of God was the way of the cross.  God was acting in Christ to provide the definitive answer to sin.  Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  The Son of God had entered into the world to be the sacrifice that wins forgiveness for all.

            Jesus died on Good Friday.  Yet Jesus was also the means by which God’s reign was present to defeat death.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead. In Jesus’ resurrection God has begun the resurrection of the Last Day.  Death has been conquered in Christ, and we will receive this final blessing when the Lord Jesus returns in glory on the Last Day and raises our bodies.

            We look forward to that day with hope.  And in the present the risen Lord continues to bring his saving reign to us.  He did it in Holy Baptism for there your sins were washed away, and you were born again of water and the Spirit.  In baptism God has given us the means to which we can return in faith.  We confess our sins and turn in faith to God’s promise that in baptism we have forgiveness.

            The saving reign of the Lord is about to be present in our midst in the Sacrament of the Altar.  The risen and ascended Lord comes to us in his true body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.  Here he gives us food for the new man that strengthens us in faith.  He gives his risen body and blood into our bodies, and so we know that our bodies will share in his resurrection on the Last Day.

   God’s reign is present through all of the Means of Grace.  The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is at work through them to give us forgiveness and to strengthen the new man in us. The Spirit leads and enables us to forgive others just as God has forgiven us in Christ.  He causes us to love and serve others, just as Jesus had done to us.

            In our text we learn that after Jesus healed the man, he charged them to tell no one.  But now that Jesus has died on the cross and risen from the dead, everything has changed.  Now, Jesus commands us to share his saving reign by telling others about him.  He sends us forth to share the Gospel with those whom we know. When we speak about the crucified and risen Lord, we are bringing the saving reign of God to all who hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

  

 

           

  

 

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity - Eph 2:1-10

 

         Trinity 11

                                                                                                Eph 2:1-10

                                                                                                8/11/24

 

            You can expect that a Lutheran sermon will include Law and Gospel.  Law, as you have heard me say many times, is what we must do.  It is a description of God’s holy will.  It describes how we are to live in thought, word, and deed in relation to God and to our neighbor.

            Confronted by God’s law, we recognize the sin in our lives. This is something that we would prefer to ignore.  But God’s Spirit uses the law to reveal the sin in our lives. The Spirit does so in order to lead us to repentance. 

            And of course, this is where the Gospel comes in – the good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of our sins.  In the Gospel we receive the comforting news that our sins are forgiven in Christ.

            Every sermon is going to include Law and Gospel.  Yet in the interaction between the two, the Gospel must predominate.  The Gospel must run the show in the sermon and be the central driving force. If it doesn’t then we end up with moralism.  We have the Law being used to cause and drive good behavior – and you don’t need Christ for that.  You need look no further than Islam and Mormonism to see how that is done.

            The Law will always be present in a sermon. Yet sometimes – in fact quite often – there is no explicit Law in a particular text. The pastor must draw upon other parts of Scripture in order to talk about how we see sin present in our lives.

            However, that is definitely not the case this morning.  Instead, our text from Ephesians begins with one of the most thorough and encompassing statements of Law that you will find in Scripture.  It is a text that leaves no doubt about where we stand apart from God’s saving action in Christ.

            Paul begins by saying, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”  The apostle describes our spiritual condition as being “dead.” Instead of having spiritual life with God, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

            We were dead because we were ruled by the devil – the one Paul calls the “prince of the power of the air.”  He ruled us, and the apostle tells us that he continues to rule those who do not believe in Christ.  These words teach us that we do not live in a “neutral” spiritual environment.  Instead, it is one of spiritual conflict as the devil seeks to maintain his power over those who belong to him.

            Paul says that we were once in that group ruled by the devil.  They are those who live in the passions of the flesh, and carry out the desires of the body and the mind.  They are not guided by God’s will, but instead do whatever seems pleasurable and right to them. 

And the apostle adds the most condemning statement when he says that we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” There are two things we want to note here.  First, Paul says that we were this “by nature.”  Since the fall of Adam we have been conceived and born as fallen sinners who are under the devil’s power.

And second, Paul says that all who are ruled by the devil and live in sin are “children of wrath.”  They will face the wrath of God’s judgment on the Last Day.  For now they seem to be doing great.  They have every Sunday morning as another Saturday.  They have the pleasure of sex while dating and living together outside of marriage.  They can look out for themselves, and not worry about the needs of others.  They can focus on their hobbies, their travel, and their sports.  But all of this blinds them to the reality that God will condemn them to eternal damnation on the Last Day.

We too were by nature children of wrath.  We were dead in our trespasses and sins.  Yet Paul tells us, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”  The apostle says that God acted to save us.  In doing so, he piles up the descriptions of God as he seeks to convey the incredible nature of this action.

Paul tells us that God did this because he is “rich in mercy.”  God is the merciful One who seeks to help those are in need.  The apostle adds that he acted because of the great love with which he loved us.  God’s love caused him to act, even when we were dead in our trespasses – even when we were hostile to him.

The apostle says that God “made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  In this statement, Paul has compressed together several thoughts which he has already expressed in this letter.

Our text makes it clear that our trespasses and sins are what brings God’s wrath. God provided the answer to this as the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on the cross.  Paul said of Christ in the first chapter, “in Him we have redemption through is blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”  Christ’s sacrificial death for us has redeemed us – it is freed us from the slavery of sin – and so now we have forgiveness.

But God’s work in Christ did not end there.  In the previous chapter Paul has just referred to the “working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” 

God exerted his great power when he raised Christ from the dead and defeated death.  The One who humbled himself to point of death on the cross for us has now been exalted by God the Father. Jesus is Lord and he reigns over all things as the One who is still true God and true man.

Paul says in our text that God “made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  God made us alive together with Christ through Holy Baptism.  Paul told the Colossians about how they had been “been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” 

Through baptism we have shared in Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.  The Holy Spirit has worked in baptism to give us the washing of rebirth and renewal.  We are a new creation in Christ, and that phrase “in Christ” explains what Paul is saying in our text. 

Through the water and the word of baptism the Spirit has made us alive with Christ. We have been joined with Christ so that we receive his saving work.  We have spiritual life through the work of the Spirit of Christ. And because we now live our life in Christ, Paul can even say that God “seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  Our future is defined by a present in which we already share in Christ’s victory.

This is amazing stuff!  But having already briefly said once in our text – “by grace you have been saved” – Paul continues on to hammer home the point that this forgiveness and new life in Christ is entirely and completely a gift from God.  He says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Forgiveness and salvation is God’s gift.  It is a matter of his grace – his undeserved loving favor.  In no way does it involve our works or merit.  It is simply received by faith – by trusting and believing in God’s Word.

Christianity is a religion of the Gospel, and this makes it different from every other religion that has ever existed in the world. They are religions of the Law.  They say that you must do something in order to have the favor of a god.  Christianity says that there is nothing that you can do.  Instead, salvation is a gift that God gives in Christ.

Paul says that we have been made alive with Christ. This action by the Spirit has changed us.  And so Paul concludes our text by saying, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  Salvation is God’s gift in Christ, and works do not earn salvation.  But God’s saving work in Christ changes us so that we became his instruments that carry out good works.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ for good works.  So speak the truth to others, and don’t slant stories to your own benefit.  Speak truthfully about your neighbor in ways that seek to protect and enhance their reputation.  Defend your neighbor against those false claims that would harm them.

Husbands and wives love and honor each another as God’s gift.  Wives, recognize the spiritual headship of your husband.  Husbands, in Christ you have the model of sacrificial love. Put the needs of your wife ahead of your own. Husbands and wives seek to meet the sexual needs of your spouse in the one flesh union that defines how God sees you.

Children love, honor, and obey your parents.  Help out around the house in the things that need to be done – even when it is not your assigned chore. Parents provide for the needs and welfare of your children.  In particular, carry out your God given responsibility to raise your children in the Christian faith. Bring them to the Divine Service and Sunday school. Lead them in prayer at meals, and in family devotions.

Work in your job as unto the Lord and not unto men.  Understand that you are the instrument God uses to provide for the needs of others.  Do your best to help others as God works through you.  And employers, deal with your employees in fairness and honesty.  Treat employees in the same way you yourself would want to be treated.

These are not good works that the world thinks are special or cause for attention.  Those kind of good works are usually self-chosen.  Instead, these are the good works that God has given you to do in your vocations – your callings in life. They are often humble and require us to serve others. But we are, after all, God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.  Our good works reflect the sacrifice and love that Jesus Christ has shown to us.

Today’s text leaves no doubt about what we were apart from Christ. We were dead in our trespasses and sins – by nature children of God’s wrath and ruled by the devil. Yet because of his mercy and love God has given us forgiveness and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptized into Christ we have been made alive with him.  In the risen and ascended Lord we have the guarantee of final victory on the Last Day.  Through the work of the Spirit, we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works where God has placed us in life.