Psalm 78:”O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from of old—what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord…”

The psalmist says he is teaching parables, things that are hidden. You remember that Jesus often spoke in parables. For believers, they illustrated and explained what God and his work were like.  Unbelievers were left in the dark. To them, Jesus was only speaking in riddles. To them, the truth about God was hidden.

The problem was not with God, or his word, or the way that Jesus explained it. The problem was with the people. The truth about God had been available to people for thousands of years.  But people aren’t born with this information. It has to be taught to them. And people don’t naturally want to hear. They are not inclined to agree. Even when they are convinced it is true, they don’t always accept it.

Is that true of us to a degree? Sometimes we know what God’s word says. But we don’t want it to say that. Instead, as foolish as it might seem, we do things our own way, guided by our feelings or our own twisted reason. Then, after we have made a mess of the situation, and everyone is miserable, we pretend to wonder what went wrong. Even as adults we are like children who very clearly heard mom and dad say, “Don’t play with that! Don’t go in there! Don’t listen to him!” But even after getting hurt, or breaking something, we don’t want to believe it was our own fault. In that sense the psalmist can say these teachings about God are “hidden from of old.”

Still, the psalmist says, we have known these teachings. And isn’t it interesting HOW he says we have known these things? “Our fathers have told us.” There are many things my father told me. He was the one who showed me how to hold a bat and how to throw a ball. He taught me how to bait a hook, and when I got older he told me how to change the oil on my car. I suppose I have learned from him more than I even realize about how to be a husband and father and how to get along in life.

But these are not the things the psalmist means. The one thing a Christian Father has which is really worth sharing with his children is his Savior from sin. It is the word of his God.  Evangelism work is good, and mission work is good, and pastors and teachers and sermons and Bible classes are good. But from the Old Testament to the New the Lord makes it clear that he wants the next generation to hear God’s word from their own fathers. Then they, too, will have this something worth sharing with their children.

Is this the way we are doing it? As we hurry around trying to give our children all the things we never had, the education we never had, the standard of living we never had, do we forget to give them the one thing we did and do have: the message of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ? Do our own lives and priorities speak louder than our words, and do they betray that the Lord is not really first in our lives, either? Can we, do we, communicate to our children why God’s word and attending church are so important to us?

“We will not hide them from our children,” the psalm writer asserts. But there is more than one way to hide them from our children. Rarely have Christian parents tried to hide their Bibles from their children. They don’t whisper about Jesus behind their children’s backs. More often these saving truths have been buried under an avalanche of material wealth or lost in a sea of secular and social activity. Each of us can now say the grace of God that saves us is something we have known. May we not forget that it is also something worth sharing with our children.

James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

The people in the congregations to whom James was writing felt a need to protect their own interests. But their way of going about getting it wasn’t working. The fought and quarreled among each other to get their own way. They were filled with envy for the things that others had, things they couldn’t have themselves. They may have thought they were looking out for themselves, but all their fighting and coveting accomplished was to make them feel miserable.  James had a different solution: “Submit yourselves, then, to God.”

James was telling them that in order to go up, they needed to go down. Real joy and peace would return when they stopped pushing themselves forward. Real joy and peace would return when they got their priorities straight and put themselves, their lives, and their desires, in line behind the Lord. They needed a humble approach to God.

This is what “submit” means when it is used in the Bible. Take your place in line behind someone else. Let someone else be first. It’s not an idea that enjoys much favor today. Every special interest group feels it needs to defend its territory and grab for more, whether democrats or republicans, conservatives or liberals, blacks or whites, males or females, labor or management, employees or ownership, one percenters or chronically poor. People in general view submitting as only a sign of weakness and inferiority. This very old, very Christian, very noble idea of putting others before yourself, of living a life of service, sometimes looks like it is disappearing even inside the Church.

But this humble approach to God, putting yourself in line behind him, getting your priorities straight and putting him first, is basic to receiving his lift for your life. To rise higher we must go lower. When we do, the Lord promises his blessing. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Submitting to God turns out to be a wonderful help with temptation. If we try to resist the devil all by ourselves, he has no reason to give in. We can’t stand up to temptation alone. Someone has wisely said of the “lift yourself up by your own bootstraps” approach: “When you try to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps, you either break the bootstraps or strain your back.” But when we are living in submission under God, then this promise is true. When we are in line behind the Lord, he is out in front. And when the Lord is out in front, fighting for us and with us, the devil is overmatched. Resist him, and he will flee.

Another blessing is having the Lord near to us. You can’t see what’s behind you very well. It’s so much easier to see what’s up ahead. When we submit to the Lord, when we get in line behind him, then we can see him near. We can realize the promise, “Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”

People who make the Lord number one in their lives want to get close to him every chance they get. They come to hear him speaking to them in his word. They sing about him and receive his own body and blood in his supper. Submitting to the Lord like this is a wonderful thing, because when we come close to him, he comes close to us. We know better and better each day God’s love in Christ, that he didn’t spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. He did it so that MY sins could be forgiven, and MY place in heaven could be sure. Then the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts by faith. Then we can live a life which is truly uplifted, confident that the Lord is near and with us and helping us every step of the way. Shortly before he died, Moses reminded the people of Israel: “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” God is near us, listening, answering, blessing when we are under him.

“Submit” may not be a popular idea. But there is no surer way for peace and joy to rise than to find ourselves under God.

Isaiah 44:6 “”This is what the Lord says–Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:  I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God.”

Maybe you and I have never tried worshipping something made out of a dead tree or lifeless chunk of marble. But we have dabbled in the search for a better god. Where do we think the solution to a world problem like AIDS is most likely to be found? In the Gospel of a crucified and risen Savior? In a science lab on some university campus? Or in the sessions of a state or national legislature? Where is our ultimate source of security as we prepare ourselves for old-age and retirement? A government Social Security check?  An individual retirement account?  Children who understand the responsibility of caring for their aged parents? Or in the God who assures us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing, a God who promises that we are much more important to him than sparrows? Anytime we become discontented with what we have, or how healthy we are, or how we are being treated, you and I are sorely tempted to join in the search for a better god. Certainly he wants us to use the resources he has given us to make things better. But he demands that our trust remain in him, not what he created. He asks us to go to him for help first and not attempt to leave him out of the solution. He expects us to accept his will for our lives, whatever that may be, not set ourselves up as the final judge of what is good for us and what is not. Israel’s idolatry led them right out of a relationship with God. It led them right into famine, war, exile–more problems than they knew how to handle. Our idolatry, hidden as it might be, can do the same. Ultimately it leads to death and hell.

Through Isaiah, the Lord promises there is no one else like our God. In the very names the Lord uses to describe himself, we are reminded of the wonderful care he provides. He says he is Israel’s King. The concept of “king” may not be so clear to us today. The Lord does not mean the powerless figurehead of some weak European nation. Nor are we talking about a Kim Jong Un who lives in senseless luxury while his people starve and die. A king has important responsibilities toward his people. As our king the Lord provides for our defense and protection.  He gives us his own armor: truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, and even the Holy Spirit to protect us from Satan’s attack. We became his own children, citizens of his kingdom, when we were baptized. Now God promises we belong to him, and if anyone else tries to get us, they are going to have to fight him for us.

And hasn’t the Lord always been fighting for us?  When you read the Old Testament, you see that he was always fighting to protect his chosen people.  Even when they chose to defect to other gods, he wasn’t satisfied to say, “Goodbye! See you! Have a nice time over there!”  Nor did he wipe them out in his fury. He fought Satan for them. He loved these people and kept dragging them back. He does the same for us. As our King, the Lord is our protector.  He will do whatever it takes to protect our faith, to protect our salvation.  When we are teetering on the edge, when Satan is sinking his claws into us, our King fights for us with his word, with the power and comfort of his Gospel.  You can’t find another God who protects us like our King.  There is no one else like him.

We know his care even better in his role as Redeemer. Nothing distinguishes our God from all the others more than this. Former missionary to Zambia Ernst Wendland used to tell about the sheer terror the Africans in Zambia and Malawi felt toward their native gods. These were not gods they loved and trusted. They were constantly afraid of what their gods might do to them if the people didn’t keep them happy. But our God is our Redeemer. Not only has he done everything for our salvation himself, he has made it clear he doesn’t want us even to attempt paying for it on our own. He loved us enough to give his own life in place of ours. He loved us enough to give us heaven as a free gift. There is no one else who takes care of us like this. There is simply no one else like our God.

1 Peter 2:6 “I am laying in Zion a Cornerstone, chosen and precious, and the person who believes in Him will never be disappointed.”

Our cornerstones tend to be strictly ceremonial parts of the building. They tell us when the building was made, fill a hole in the wall, and maybe hold a few trinkets, but do little more.

A cornerstone in Bible times was an all-important part of the building. It was carefully chosen because all the lines and angles for the rest of the building would be measured from its sides. If you didn’t want a lopsided building, it was important that the cornerstone be cut just so.  The quality and strength of the building often depended upon the choice of cornerstones.

For his spiritual house, God has chosen Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone. Everything in that house must come into line with what Jesus taught and did.  But not everyone agrees with God’s choice of stones. When God presented ancient Israel with the cornerstone for his spiritual house, they didn’t simply accept it on faith. They tested Jesus out to see whether he met their own standards, and it didn’t take them long to decide that he did not. You know the stories of how they constantly challenged Jesus, resented it when he exposed their self-righteousness, and whined when he ignored their man-made rules. They had been trying to build a spiritual house of their own, but its lines ran in an entirely different direction.

The same thing happens today. Not everyone is interested in being lined up with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Some reject him because his moral standards seem too strict.  What goes on in a person’s bedroom or private life shouldn’t be any concern of his they feel. Others find him much too exclusive. “No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus told his disciples. That sort of thinking doesn’t wash in a “tolerant” society that thinks all roads lead to heaven.

Hardest to swallow, the assertion that Jesus has done everything for us, that we are saved by faith, is too much for many people to choke down. Inside each of us an Old Adam objects that we are really not that bad. We want to believe that we do have something worth contributing to our salvation. When Martin Luther was accused of making salvation too easy, he pointed out that believing we are saved by faith in Jesus is the hardest thing to do in the world. Every fiber of our natural self fights against it. In the end only a miracle of the Holy Spirit can bring us to accept it.

Many may try to replace God’s cornerstone, but it won’t budge. And everything in God’s house must line up with him. As we are built into its walls, not a single one of us lies outside the lines of Jesus’ life and work. The same way of salvation applies to every single member of God’s spiritual house, the Christian church. The lines we follow from our cornerstone intersect to form a cross, and it is our connection with that cross of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness he won there that make us living stones in God’s spiritual house.

That is what makes this cornerstone which is so precious to God precious to us as well. Peter promises, “the person who believes in him will never be disappointed.”  How many things can you say that about in this life? How many guarantees promise you will never, never, be disappointed? Yet that is the unqualified, absolute, emphatic promise of God. We have complete confidence in everything Jesus has done, said, or promised. When we trust him with our salvation, that trust is never misplaced. We will never be disappointed. When we trust him with our lives, that trust is never misplaced. Perhaps we can’t understand everything he reveals to us. Maybe we won’t always see what he is trying to do with our lives. But he promises that the person who believes in him will never be disappointed, and we can take that promise to the bank.

Mark 5:24 “So Jesus went with him.”

Not so long ago a poll was taken to determine which Bible passage Americans know best.  Do you know which one won?  “God helps those who help themselves.”  The problem, of course, is that this proverb is not found in the Bible.  There may be a proper sense in which the statement can be understood, but the more Scriptural idea is: “God helps those who ask him for help,” or even “God helps those who need his help.” And who doesn’t need his help?

Far too often we want to tough it out, fight through the situation on our own, find our own solutions. All the while Jesus stands ready to help. He is delighted to have us ask.  How many times don’t we wring our hands over something that is simply best taken to the Lord in prayer and left with him?  That’s the solution to crises which come in all shapes and sizes.  We can ask Jesus when nothing less than a miracle will solve the problem. But don’t wait for a problem which needs a miracle.  The solution to your life’s problems, my life’s problems, our nation’s problems, and our church’s problems, starts with asking Jesus.

That’s what Jairus did. His daughter was dying, but he knew what Jesus could do.  Jairus knew that, if Jesus wanted to, he could certainly heal his daughter. This worried father did not hesitate to ask Jesus for help.

“So Jesus went with him.”  What an important thing to note!  That is more than a phrase to move the action of the story along.  When Jesus went with him, Jairus had his answer!  Jesus was not going to see how bad the situation really was, to see whether he could help or not.  Jesus was not leading Jairus and his family on.  He was not going to get to the house and say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t heal little girls who are deathly ill.”  When Jesus went with him, that little girl was as good as healed.

Perhaps we sometimes wonder whether Jesus really is interested in helping us when we ask.  How can we know?  If Jesus weren’t interested in helping us, would he have bothered to spend 33 years on earth loving our neighbor for us, keeping God’s law, putting up with all the attacks on his ministry and his work?  Would he have sacrificed his own life and suffered our hell on the cross, and then not care about those faith shaking things that happen to us, or happily stand aside while we fall from grace?  The Apostle Paul says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but graciously gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  The cross of Jesus Christ, where our sins have been forgiven and eternal life has been given, is as far as we need to look to know he still cares when we ask.  The cross tells us the solution to life’s problems still starts with asking Jesus.

That’s how we know he still goes with us.

1 Corinthians 16:17 I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. 18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.

The Church has no formal awards program. We don’t give out Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, or Grammys. We don’t compete for best preacher, best supporting elder, or congregation of the year. The one whose approval we desire is waiting with our reward in heaven. Lutheran musical giant J.S. Bach inscribed each composition, “Soli Deo Gloria,” “To God Alone Be The Glory.” To the best of my knowledge, during his lifetime he never received an award.

That doesn’t mean that it is wrong to publicly acknowledge and recognize the contributions of time and effort that God’s people make to God’s work. Jesus publicly praised John the Baptist, the widow who gave God her last mite, and the Centurion who displayed such uncommon faith in him.

Likewise Paul felt that members of the Corinthian congregation like Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus deserved to be publicly recognized for their work in supporting his ministry. Such recognition not only encourages and affirms those who serve. It holds before the congregation good role models. It makes it possible to see the power of the Gospel in the lives of those who believe. It gives glory to God, the author of their gifts.

Every day Christian people serve in ways that deserves to be publicly recognized. Much of that service goes unnoticed because it is humbly offered when no one else is looking. We are thankful for the steady, faithful, quiet sacrifice of time and ability that makes it possible to preach, teach, and spread the Gospel.

The combined efforts of such people illustrate the truth that the church functions as one body with many parts. Together the contributions of so many refresh the spirits of others in the family of faith. Though not everyone may be publicly mentioned, the role each one plays in supporting the great mission of bringing God’s grace to the world is important.

Everything we have, and everything we can do, is a gift from God. This is no less true of the talents we put to work for the church than it is for cleansing blood of Jesus that saves us, or the Spirit-worked faith in our hearts that makes salvation our own. All is a gift. But now that we have received the gifts, our Lord invites us to put them to use. And when we do, we can expect him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21).

Isaiah 51:2 “Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.”

Abraham had a hopeless situation on his hands.  He was already seventy-five years old when the Lord called him. He and Sarah were beyond the age for having children.  And their childlessness continued until they were in their nineties.  Yet, at an age when Abraham and Sarah could easily have been great-grandparents, along came baby Isaac. God gave Abraham and Sarah a child, and through him an entire nation of descendants.

Isaiah, writing over a thousand years later, reminded the people of his day, “Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many” (Isaiah 51:2). No matter how bad the outlook seemed, God’s people were never beyond God’s power to change things, to help them, and to give them hope.

The Lord doesn’t want us to look back to the hopeless events of our past and despair.  He wants us to see promise and opportunity ahead of us. That confidence will not come from the world around us.  Wars stretch on and on. Scandals plague our government no matter who’s in charge. Powerful hurricanes and raging wild fires remind us that we are at their mercy no matter how much technology we have developed. We can’t expect our world to solve our problems when it cannot solve its own.

That confidence will not come from ourselves. There is one thing every one of my problems has in common:  me, and my sinful behavior, my sinful reactions, and my sinful perspective. When we realize this, then we know that confidence in ourselves is a false hope.

We have true hope because God promises us his care. We see his power to help Abraham, and his willingness to help Abraham, and we know our help comes from the Lord, too.  We can look back at a hundred other Bible characters the Lord helped. Doesn’t the very gospel of Christ’s suffering that saves us show us God’s power to turn the most hopeless-looking situation into great blessing and victory? The death of God on a cross is forgiveness and life for the world!

Our personal histories are sprinkled with evidence God still cares. At times things looked bad, but in the end the Lord saw us through.  The only gifts God gives us are good ones. The only needs the Lord supplies are all of them. God invites us to look to the past, and see that he promises to take care of us now and in the future.

We often hear people talk about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We can bear the pain if only the end of it all is in view.  But for you and me, the light is always on at the end of the tunnel. The end is always in view, because we know it all ends in heaven with joy and gladness and thanksgiving and the sound of singing. It is the ultimate gift of God’s care.

That gives us hope as we face the many threats of this present moment.

1 Corinthians 15:17-20 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Just about everybody knows the story of George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life. As he contemplates suicide, an angel appears. He lets George see what kind of place the world would be if he never existed. The results are eye-opening. His brother dies in childhood because George isn’t there to save him. That, in turn leads to the death of many soldiers in World War II, because his brother isn’t there to rescue them. His wife leads a sad, isolated, lonely life. His entire hometown is dominated by the evil banker, Mr. Potter. George Bailey’s savings and loan wasn’t there to keep him in check. You know the story.

Paul presents a similar situation to us in 1 Corinthians 15. This time the question is, “What if Jesus never came back to life after he died?” “What if Jesus were not alive today?” The results are infinitely more frightening. All Christian ministry and preaching would be useless. Faith would be nothing more than a cruel deception. We would still be responsible, still guilty, for every sin we have ever committed. There would be no hope of forgiveness. When our loved ones die, we would have no hope of seeing them again, except to see them tortured with us in Hell. You know the story.

Thankfully, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is not just the happy ending to a sentimental movie that makes us feel good at the holidays. It is a fact of history. It is a solid foundation for our faith. It is the clear vindication and crowning glory of Jesus’ life and ministry. The ramifications of that one event in Jesus’ life continue to spill over into every corner of our lives every day.

The glorious new life and reign of King Jesus is the truest source of hope for battered believers who live every day in the domain of death. Every day futile struggles, failing health, and fading powers remind us the light is dimming in our own lives. Death is waiting to take us. But the glory of Jesus’ resurrection keeps hope alive. It gives a different vision of how life will end: a vision that, in fact, life will not end with death. Life after death is not a popular wish or a fanciful fairy tale. Jesus’ resurrection is visible proof. It confirms that it’s done and explains how it’s done. Five hundred witnesses saw this man alive again. There is no hidden grave, no decaying body. Jesus Christ is exhibit A, the evidence, the proof, that we, too, will live again.

The glorious new life and reign of King Jesus is the truest source of comfort for frustrated followers and despondent disciples who don’t feel victorious and don’t appear prosperous as they wait for the new life to come. Jesus reigns, and “he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” Jesus Christ is in control, even over the illnesses that afflict me, the people that persecute me, and the circumstances that overwhelm me. His powerful yet loving hands continue to set the limits on every challenge that confronts me. He assures me that in all things he works for the good of those who love him. Every event in life must end in my good and his glory.

The resurrection of the dead is not a piece of shopworn theology with little relevance for our lives every day. It is not the exclusive concern of the senior citizens among us. It is the true hope and comfort in every circumstance for every Christian from the cradle to the grave. And it is the glory of our risen King.

Luke 9:52-53 “He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.”

I have been wearing eye-glasses since I was in the seventh grade, so maybe this is an experience you can relate to only if you wear glasses: you ask, “Has anyone seen my glasses?” and someone else responds, “You’re wearing them.” I remember a similar incident in a college Greek class. My professor was holding his Greek text in his hand and asking, “Did anyone see where I put my book down?”

Sometimes things become so much a part of us that we don’t realize that they are there anymore. I have been looking at the world through glass lenses for so long that I forget they are perched on top of my nose.

Something similar can happen to our spiritual eyesight over time. Many of us have been looking at Jesus and looking at his word through the eyes of faith for so long that we can’t remember what it was like to look at him without that faith bringing things into focus. Faith has been part of our lives for so long that, in a sense, we forget it’s there, and that without it we could not see.

So it is that we are befuddled by our Jewish friend who can read the same words in Isaiah 53 as we do, words which describe Jesus’ suffering and death so clearly, to our way of thinking. But somehow he just doesn’t see it. Why doesn’t he get it? There is that neighbor or family member that we have been witnessing to for years. They seem to carry such misery around with them. So many of their problems are self-imposed. Maybe they have even accompanied us to church once or twice. Why can’t they see that Jesus is what they need?

The problem is they aren’t looking through the miraculous lenses that allow us to see Jesus as he really is. The problem is that so much of who Jesus is lies hidden behind a very plain and ordinary human exterior.

It was no different when Jesus visibly walked through the streets of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. The King and Creator of the Universe lived here incognito. The Samaritans could not see his divinity or his charity. All they could see was his nationality. Jesus was too human and too Jewish for them to welcome. And so they passed on the chance to host the single most powerful, most important, and most giving and gracious person in world history.

Even after the Spirit has fitted us with faith-tinted lenses, we have trouble making Jesus out. He doesn’t fit our expectations for heavenly royalty. We expect more as members of his court. Shouldn’t friends of the crown, even members of the royal family like us, find richer, easier, more trouble-free lives in this world? Shouldn’t they be given a little slack when it comes to the urgency of the work of God’s kingdom? Shouldn’t they receive more privileges, and more accommodation, when it comes to their earthly needs, and their earthly relationships?

But the Jesus who makes everything in life more comfortable, who makes every human relationship happier, is a false god who exists only the minds of those who can’t see the real thing. Following the real Jesus means a life of self-denial, and taking up your cross, not a life of self-indulgence on earth. Following Jesus means a life that often turns a man against his father and a daughter against her mother. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Those are his own words. Following the imaginary Jesus of ease and comfort and heaven-on-earth is a sin for which he calls us to repent.

The loving and gracious Savior who promises rest for the weary may be hard to see in the suffering Jesus whose followers suffer with him on earth. But hidden in Jesus’ own suffering is the unconditional love and unlimited forgiveness we seek. And hidden beyond our own suffering is a real heaven, not an earthly counterfeit. Jesus will reveal it at the proper time to those who continue to fix their eyes on him in faith. May Jesus himself continue to fix our focus.