Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve - Lk 17:11-19

 

         Thanksgiving Eve

                                                                                                Lk 17:11-19

                                                                                                11/27/24

 

            As soon as we can after the service tonight, Timothy, Matthew, and I will get on the road.  It’s a ritual that we’ve been doing for eighteen years now.  Our family leaves right after the service and drives three and a half hours to Bloomington, IN where my parents live.  There we celebrate Thanksgiving with the family and enjoy the break before returning on Sunday afternoon.

            The trip has changed over the years.  It used to be that the whole family would leave after the service.  The kids would make the trip in their pj’s, ready to be put into bed when we arrived.  However, over the years, some of the Surburg family got soft.  The drive meant we often wouldn’t arrive until 12:30 a.m. – which was 1:30 a.m. Indiana time. The late night driving and arrival became less and less appealing, and so now, some members of the family drive over during the day and enjoy having supper in Bloomington on Wednesday night.

            Of course, the Surburg family is not the only one making a trip at this time of year.  The Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving are usually the busiest travel days of the year.

            In our text for Thanksgiving Eve, we find that Jesus is also making a trip.  Our text begins by saying, “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.”  Like many Jewish pilgrims, Jesus was making his way from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south to celebrate the Passover.

            In order to make this trip, it was necessary to pass through an area where Samaria and Galilee bordered each other. As you are certainly aware, there was great tension between the Samaritans and the Jews.  Samaritans were very similar to Jews in many ways.  But it was the differences that prompted such antagonism.  The Samaritans had their own version of the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament.  They had their own temple on Mt Gerizim – that is until the Jews came and destroyed it.  The two groups jockeyed to one up each other as they interacted with the Romans.

            We learn that as Jesus entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance.  This is exactly where would expect lepers to be.  Because of their skin condition they were ritually unclean.  They were not able to live amongst other people and instead existed on the fringes of inhabited areas.  Their family and friends could provide for them, and they could also beg for help.

            These lepers were asking for assistance.  But because Jesus was passing by, the nature of the help for which they hoped was different. They lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  This was the cry of faith. They addressed Jesus as “Master” – and in Luke’s Gospel the only other people who do this are Jesus’ disciples.  And they said, “Have mercy on us.” This was the plea for Jesus to help them. 

            Jesus did help, but probably not in the way we would expect.  We are told, “When he saw them he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’”  Jesus didn’t touch them and heal their leprosy.  He didn’t speak a powerful word and heal them.  Instead, he told these men who were still lepers to go and show themselves to the priests – the people who could certify that a person was no longer a leper.

            Jesus spoke these words to men who still had leprosy.  Then we learn, “And as they went they were cleansed.”  The lepers received Jesus’ words and believed in him – they trusted in him. When nothing had yet happened they set out to show themselves to the priest.  And as they went they were cleansed – they were healed by Jesus.

            We learn that one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.  He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving thanks. The surprising fact was that this man was a Samaritan.  Jesus called attention to this as he said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

            It’s not very hard to figure out why this Gospel text was chosen for Thanksgiving.  We have a miracle performed by Jesus as he heals ten lepers.  Then we have the contrast between the nine lepers who did not give thanks, and the one leper who returned in order to do so.

            Thanksgiving is the yearly occasion when we make a point of giving thanks.  Of course, in order to do so, we also find it necessary to make a sumptuous meal of turkey, stuffing, pie and all kinds of other good food.  In some ways, it does seem like a self-serving holiday. We give thanks by eating one of the best meals of the year.

            Thanksgiving should lead us to ponder all of the blessings that God has given to us.  God is the One who gives us daily bread – everything that has to with the support and needs of body. The Small Catechism gives us a list of these blessings when it refers to “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

            There are many blessings in this list that we take for granted. We forget that God is the One who has provided us with things like this.  And he often does so in an abundance that makes us the envy of much of the world.

God has not only given us material blessings that support body and life.  He has given spiritual blessings that lead to eternal life. God has given us his Word to be read and studied.  He has given us Holy Absolution, Holy Baptism, and the Sacrament of the Altar by which he delivers forgiveness to us.  He has given you a pastor to preach and teach God’s word to you; to administer the Means of Grace; and to provide spiritual care. These too are things that we often fail to recognize as gifts from God for which we should give thanks.

In our text we find Jesus journeying to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.  We learn from John’s Gospel that Jesus made this trip on a number of occasions.  However, the trip narrated by Luke is different. The evangelist tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

Jesus journeys to Jerusalem with a purpose. Near the end of the journey account our Lord left no uncertainty about what would happen.  He told the apostles, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

As he celebrated that final Passover meal with the disciples, Jesus said, “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”  Jesus was numbered with the transgressors as he died on the cross for our sins.

This is what he had said would happen. And then in fulfillment of his passion prediction, God raised him from the dead. On Easter the risen Lord appeared in the room where the disciples were gathered and told them: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we have forgiveness for the ways we have been unthankful.  We receive this forgiveness through the faith that Christ’s Spirit has worked.  In baptism we have received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit, and so we are a new creation in Christ. 

So led by the Spirit, pause and take note of the blessings God gives to you.  Recognize all the ways that God provides you with daily bread – the things needed to support your life.  Consider how those blessings outstrip your basic needs and provide an abundance that can be shared with others. 

Ponder the blessings of the Means of Grace by which God created faith, and continues to sustain it.  Recognize them as God’s greatest blessings for they deliver not merely life – but eternal life in fellowship with God.

And then, give thanks.  Give thanks to our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who blesses us so richly.  Praise and glorify God for his goodness toward us.

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

           

 

             

           

 

 

 

Last Sunday of the Church Year - Mt 25:1-13

 

         Last Sunday

                                                                                                Mt 25:1-13

                                                                                                11/17/24

 

            It is the elder’s worst nightmare.  As with every Sunday, the crucifer, acolyte, and pastor are lined up at the back of the nave.  The organist has begun playing the introduction to the processional hymn.  When the congregation begins singing, it will be the signal for the crucifer to start the procession and head down the aisle toward the altar.

            This same pattern is repeated Sunday after Sunday.  And part of that pattern is that as the organist begins to play the introduction to the hymn, the elder lights the wick for the acolyte.  Yet this time, the elder clicks the lighter … and nothing happens.  He clicks it again, and sees the faintest suggestion of flame which then immediately goes out.  He clicks it again, and again but gets no flame.

            The congregation is about to start singing, which means the crucifer will head down the aisle.  After several more desperate clicks, the elder realizes that the lighter must be out of fluid.  He looks over at the back wall of church in order to get a new lighter. But his hopes are dashed as he sees none there.  The congregation begins singing, the procession starts down the aisle, and the elder has no flame for the acolyte with which the candles can be lit.

            In our Gospel lesson this morning we hear about a similar event as five virgins realize they have no flame at the moment when a procession takes place.  We learn from Jesus’ parable that our Lord’s return may seem to be delayed. We do not know when it will occur.  But we must be ready, because everything depends on it.

            Our text begins with the words, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like.”  We immediately find that once again, Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven. As you know very well by now, when Jesus refers to the “kingdom of heaven” he is not talking about a place.  Instead, he is talking about the reign of God which had arrived in him – the reign of God that was overcoming sin, death, and the devil.

            Jesus declared that he was the presence of God’s reign.  When he cast out demons and the Pharisees said that was able to do this because he was in league with devil, our Lord responded: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” However, in our text Jesus now describes a future aspect of the reign of God.  He says the “kingdom of heaven will be like.”

            Our Lord tells a parable about ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.  They were waiting to honor the bridegroom when he arrived, and to accompany him into the marriage feast. 

Jesus had already referred to himself in Matthew’s Gospel as the bridegroom, when he explained why his disciples were not currently fasting.  In the Old Testament the bridegroom was Yahweh.  He was described as having this role in relation to the nation of Israel.  Yet now Jesus is the bridegroom.  He is because he is the Son of God.  He is Immanuel – God with us.

            We learn that five of the virgins were foolish, and five were wise.  The foolish virgins did not bring any extra oil for their lamps.  However, the wise virgins brought flasks of oil. They were prepared to refill their lamps.

            We hear in our text, “As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”  Jesus is the bridegroom, and he is teaching us about his return on the Last Day.  Our Lord has ascended into heaven. He has been exalted to the right hand of God.  But he has declared that he will return in glory.

            In the parable the arrival of the bridegroom was delayed.  After two thousand years, it certainly seems to us that our Lord’s return is delayed! However, we must recognize that God’s perception of things is very different from ours.  The psalmist writes, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” God sent his Son into the world in the fullness of time, and the Son will return when God’s timing and purposes have been accomplished.

            We learn that the arrival of the bridegroom was delayed.  But when he arrived, it was sudden and unexpected.  Jesus says in the parable, “But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’”  Our Lord teaches us that we do not know when he will return.  The history of the Church is filled with examples of people who predicted when Jesus would return … and were wrong.  In the verses before our text Jesus says, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” He says, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” We hear at the end of our text, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Jesus really does mean it.

            When the bridegroom arrived the virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.  This action seems to indicate that while they had been asleep, the lamps had expended their oil and gone out.  Now the virgins lit their lamps in preparation for the bridegroom.  The wise virgins had additional oil for their lamps.  But the foolish virgins ran into a problem. They said to the wise ones, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” Without oil, they would not stay lit.

            However, the wise virgins replied, “Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.” If they shared their oil, it was possible that all of virgins would run out and no one would be ready to honor the bridegroom.  So the foolish virgins went to buy oil. But while they were gone the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

Later the foolish virgins returned, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.”  However, they were not admitted to the marriage feast.  Instead the bridegroom answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

            The Son of God, Jesus Christ, entered into the world so that we can join him in the marriage feast – the fullness of salvation and life with God.  This is not something that we could ever achieve.  We are instead sinners who repeatedly reject God’s will in what we say, do, and think.  We sin as we give time, attention, and trust to the false gods in our lives. We sin as we ignore opportunities to love and support our neighbor, and instead harm their reputation by the words that we speak.

            The Lord Jesus was the presence of God’s reign bringing forgiveness for our sins and the defeat of death.  Jesus Christ had no sin, but at his baptism he took on the role of being the sacrifice for us.  He came to take our place, and drink the cup of God’s wrath against our sin.  Jesus received the judgment that we deserved.  From the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” so that we will never be abandoned by God to the punishment of hell.

            The dead body of Jesus was placed in a tomb.  But God was acting in Christ in order to defeat death itself.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead. The reign of God conquered death as Jesus was raised with a body that can never die again.  The resurrection of the Last Day started in Jesus Christ on Easter.

            Jesus humbled himself to the point of death on a cross in order carry out the Father’s saving will. And now, he has been exalted as the risen and ascended Lord.  After his resurrection he told the disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

            God has brought his saving reign to you through the work of the Spirit.  He has called you to faith in Jesus Christ through the Gospel. In the waters of baptism you were born again, as all your sins were washed away. You live knowing that you have been justified – that you are a saint in God’s eyes.

            This is true, and we give thanks for it. But Jesus’ words this morning teach us that we must be ready for his second coming – a return that will be sudden and unexpected.  We must be ready in the way that God defines it.

            It must not escape our attention that all ten virgins expected to go into the marriage feast.  They all thought they would go in with the bridegroom.  However, the foolish virgins were not ready. When the bridegroom arrived there so no time to get ready.  And so, they were locked out as the bridegroom said to them: “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”

            Many people say they are Christians. Many people say they have faith.  But faith that is ready for Jesus’ return is faith as it is defined by God’s Word. 

You received God’s reign and became a saint through the Means of Grace.  But you still have the old Adam present in you.  You still have the devil and the world seeking to draw you away from Christ.  And so, you need to continue to receive God’s reign through the Means of Grace.  That’s what God tells us in the Third Commandment.  We cannot despise preaching and God’s Word, but instead need to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

This means that the Divine Service needs to be the weekly foundation of your life of faith.  Here you receive Christ’s word of absolution.  Here God’s Word is read and preached by his called servant. Here you receive the true body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar.  Through these means the Spirit nourishes and sustains faith as he gives forgiveness.  Those who are regularly receiving God’s reign in the Means of Grace are ready for its arrival on the Last Day.

And at the same time, faith that is ready for Christ’s return is not merely a passive thing.  Instead, faith that is worked by the Spirit is active – it alive and at work.  It is, as Paul told the Galatians “faith working through love.”  So put the needs of our spouse, father and mother, brother and sister, friend and neighbor ahead of our own.  Support and encourage those who are troubled and distressed.  Take the time to pray for those who are facing difficulties.  Weep with those who weep. Rejoice with those who rejoice.  In this way you become Christ to your neighbor – you share his love - as the Spirit of Christ works in you.

At the end of our text today Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  We do not know when our Lord will return.  But the risen Lord calls us to be watchful because he will return.  And in this we find comfort and hope.  Jesus who was vindicated by his resurrection, will vindicate us before the world for believing in him as every knee bows before him and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Our Lord will give us a share in his resurrection as he raises and transforms our bodies. He will renew creation and make it very good once again. The problems of this sinful, fallen world will be gone forever.  And instead, we and all the saints will live with God forever. 

 

   

 

      

           

           

         

           

           

                   

 

 

 

             

           

           

 

Sermon for the Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity - Ex 32:1-20

 

Trinity 25

                                                                                      Ex 32:1-20

                                                                                      11/17/24

 

          Forty days. We come to expect that things are going to take forty days in the Bible.  Prior to our text we learn that Moses went up on Mt. Sinai for forty days.  When Elijah travelled to Mt. Sinai as Jezebel sought to kill him, he travelled for forty days.  Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted for forty days. The risen Lord was with the disciples for forty days until his ascension.

          Yet what seems obvious to us, was not apparent to the people of Israel. Yahweh had brought them out of slavery in Egypt as he sent ten plagues upon the Egyptians.  The last of these was the Passover as God killed the firstborn of the Egyptians, but spared Israel which was marked with the blood of the Passover lamb.

          He had brought them through the Red Sea on dry ground, as the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned in the water.  Israel had journeyed to Mt. Sinai where God had descended upon the mountain in an awesome display of thunder and lightning, as the mountain trembled and was wrapped in smoke.

          Yahweh had taken Israel into a covenant with himself.  Moses had read the Book of the Covenant to the people and they had said, “All that the Lord had spoken we will do and we will be obedient.” Then Moses took blood from the sacrifices that had been made and them it on the people as he said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Israel was now God’s covenant people. They were as God had told them, “my treasured possession among all peoples.”

          After these events we are told, “Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”  Now as readers of Scripture, we know that Moses was going to be gone for forty days.  However, the Israelites did not know this.  They did not know how long he would be gone.  Moses had disappeared up a cloud covered mountain and as week after week passed he had not come back.

          Our text begins with the words: “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” 

          The people became impatient.  So they gave up on Moses. And more importantly, they gave up on Yahweh.  They told Aaron to make for them gods who would now go before them.  So Aaron collected gold from the people and made a golden calf – a common religious idol among the cultures of that area. Then he announced, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”  Then he built an altar and the people offered sacrifices to their new gods.

          Like the Israelites, we become impatient.  We know how we want our life to go.  But when setbacks occur, or when illness becomes part of our life and things are not going as we want, we are tempted to doubt God.  Or we become impatient because we don’t know how things should go.  We don’t now what our future should be and we are looking for guidance and direction but none seems to arrive. This too can lead us to doubt God.  We can begin to question whether he really is in charge; whether he really does love and care for us.

          And of course, in the golden calf we see an example of the false gods that always threaten to occupy our lives.  We don’t make golden images.  Instead, we find other things that we value more than God. We find things that give us our real sense of security and worth.  We find other things on which we would rather spend our time.  Money and wealth become our real source of confidence.  Hobbies and sports occupy our time and attention in a way that God and his Means of Grace do not.

          Yahweh announced to Moses what the people had done.  He said, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.”  Forty days had been too long for the people to remain faithful.  Already, they had ignored and forgotten the awesome demonstrations of power that God had carried out in redeeming Israel from slavery in Egypt.

          Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”  And in this, we see God’s reaction to sin.  God is the holy God.  All sin is sin committed against him.  It evokes his wrath and judgment. We just confessed that we deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment because of our sin.  Those aren’t just words. Because of our sin we deserve judgment right now, and we deserve the eternal punishment of hell.

          God had said that he would destroy Israel and start over with Moses.  But Moses implored Yahweh and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”  Moses called God back to the mighty work that he had just accomplished for Israel. Next, he pointed out that the Egyptians would say that God’s purpose in bringing Israel out in the exodus was in order to destroy them. 

And then Moses employed his most powerful argument.  He used God’s own word.  Moses said, “Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

          Moses held before God his own promise. It was the promise that he had repeated to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It was the promise that God had sworn by his own self – the ultimate affirmation that it was true. Yahweh had promised to give them numerous descendants.  He had promised to give them the land of Canaan.

          And in speaking this promise, God had said one more thing.  He announced it the first time he spoke the promise to Abraham.  He said, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

          Repeated in the word spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the promise that through their offspring all nations would be blessed.  God promised that he would send through their descendants the Savior – the answer to sin that had entered into the world in the fall of Adam.

          The Old Testament is the history of how God fulfilled this promise.  He identified that this One would descend from the tribe of Judah.  Then he said it would be through the descendants of David.  And finally, in the fullness of time, he fulfilled this promise as he sent his Son into the world.  Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Mary’s husband, Joesph, was from the line of David and when he took Jesus to be his own, Jesus became the son of David.  He became the fulfillment of God promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  As St. Paul told the Galatians, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”

          Jesus Christ was the promised offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God sent him because as sinners we could never have fellowship with God.  We are unable to live according to his law – we cannot keep his will perfectly.  Paul said, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”

          However, Jesus has freed us from the curse. The apostle went on to say, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Christ took our place when he died on the cross.  He freed us from the curse – from the wrath and judgment of God. Because of his death we now are forgiven before God.  We are justified through faith in Christ.

          Jesus was buried on Good Friday as the One who had been cursed by God.  He had died in weakness and shame.  He had been killed by the Romans and so it was obvious that he was a false Messiah.  But on Easter, everything changed.  God raised Jesus from the dead.  He vindicated Jesus as the Messiah.  He demonstrated that the curse had been God at work in Christ in order to redeem us from sin.

          For forty days the risen Lord was with his disciples. He ate and drank with them. He was even seen by five hundred disciples at one time.  And then Jesus ascended into heaven.  This was not merely the withdrawal of the Lord’s visible presence.  It was his exaltation, for Peter tells us that he “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”

          In our text we see that Moses spoke with God on behalf of Israel.  He interceded for them.  We learn, “And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.”  As Moses carried out this role, he pointed forward to what Jesus now does for us.

          St. Paul told the Romans, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”  The Lord who died for our sins has been raised from the dead.  He has been exalted to the right hand of God.  And now he intercedes for us.  He continues to declare to the Father what he has done for us.  He pronounces us justified – righteous – for that is the verdict he has won for us, and that is the verdict he will declare when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

          In our text today we are reminded of how we grow impatient and fail to trust God. In the golden calf we see all the ways we fail to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  And so we repent and confess our sin.  We turn in faith to Jesus Christ who bore the curse for us on the cross and then rose from the dead.  Because of Christ we are justified – we are innocent before God.

          But forgiveness is not the end.  Instead, it is a new beginning as we struggle against sin.  St. Paul told the Romans, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” 

          As we return to our baptism in faith; as we read and study God’s Word; as we receive the Sacrament of the Altar the Spirit enables us to be patient in faith as we trust God.  He prompts us to recognize those things in our life that act as false gods and to put them in their proper place.  He leads us to make God our true source of worth, security, and value.  For God is the One who has revealed his love in his Son Jesus Christ.