Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brother(s) and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
As our Lord Jesus Himself told us in the Gospel Reading, “Do not be anxious” (Matthew 6:25-34), so also the Divinely‑inspired Apostle Paul told us in the Epistle Reading (Philippians 4:4-7) “Do not be anxious about anything, . . .” Yet, the reality is that at times we all are anxious, even the women of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League Texas District East Texas Zone! At times we all are anxious about our world, nation, state, and communities at large. At times we all are anxious about the Missouri Synod, Texas District, Circuit #14, and respective congregations. At times we all are anxious about the LWML at the national, district, and zone levels, and in our respective societies. At times we all are anxious about our friends and families. And, at times we all are anxious about ourselves: our own physical health and maybe even also our own spiritual wellbeing. No doubt we can relate to the kind of sleepless nights described in today’s Old Testament Reading (Ecclesiastes 2:22-26). And, measured against the commands of our Lord and His blessed Apostle, we realize that we sin in regard to our anxiousness, just as we sin in countless other ways, meriting death in time and eternal torment for eternity—the things about which, apart from faith in Jesus Christ, we should be most anxious!
Yet, St. Paul does not leave us in such anxiousness but also tells us how, if in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we make our requests known to God, then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity sent into human flesh in order to carry our sins such as anxiousness to the cross and there take our sins away. After parts of three days in the grave, Jesus arose and spoke peace to His disciples, sending them on His behalf to forgive the sins of all who repent and believe in Him. So, in the Lord we can rejoice always, with the joy of God’s Messiah, the Christ, our Savior. Thanking God for the salvation that is ours by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be anxious about nothing as we commend all things to God.
Our thanking God for His past blessings in a sense comes before our seeking His future blessings, even if in the historic Christian liturgy of the Church we pray the Litany, Collect, and Prayers of the Church before we give the greatest thanks to God in the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Altar. In that “thanksgiving” the Lord is most-near, present with His Body and Blood in the bread and wine on this altar, distributed by the pastor, and received by those who commune, for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Not only in the Sacrament of the Altar, but also in preaching, Baptism, and individual Holy Absolution, God brings about our repentance and faith and so also forgives our sin and then brings about our fruits of repentance, the good works that flow from our faith and are in keeping with God’s Commandments according to our respective vocations.
Most‑likely writing to the Philippians from his first imprisonment in Rome, St. Paul no doubt had a concrete reminder of how, in general, a guard controlled one’s going out. That idea of a guard’s controlling what goes out of a cell or a city seems to be behind St. Paul’s writing that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The forgiveness of sins that we receive by grace through faith in Jesus Christ keeps our hearts, the very center of our beings, and our minds, the acts of our wills flowing from our hearts, from having the kind of anxiousness we might otherwise have—about ourselves; friends and families; the LWML and Church at every level; and even our communities, state, nation and world at large. God knows and gives us what we need even without our prayers’ making our requests known to Him, but our commending to God in prayer what otherwise would cause us anxiousness helps us have peace and also makes our “reasonableness” known to everyone. Put another way, our prayers to God show others our humble repentance and steadfastness in the faith, which faith submits to injustice, disgrace, and maltreatment without hatred and malice, and which faith keeps trusting God in spite of everything that might otherwise militate against such trusting in God. Perhaps God made no greater witness through the Philippians than their making their reasonableness known, despite all of their past, present, and, at that time, still future support of St. Paul’s work in His Name; perhaps God can make no greater witness through us than our making our reasonableness known, despite all of our past, present and future support through the LWML of the Church’s work in God’s Name!
Through His Word and Sacraments, God calls and enables our repentance over our sin (such as anxiousness) and our faith that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. And, through His Word and Sacraments, God brings about our commending to Him in prayer what otherwise would cause us anxiousness. We are not anxious about anything, but in everything we make our requests known to God, and the peace of God guards our hearts and minds. As we with daily repentance and faith live in God’s forgiveness of sins, with today’s Psalm (94:12-22), we say,
“When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ / your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many, / your consolations cheer my soul.”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +