Title: Jesus has given you joy!
Text: John 15:9-11
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
The complexities of Mother's Day:
To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you
To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you
To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you
To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you
To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.
To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you
To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you
To those who have disappointment, heart ache, and distance with your children – we sit with you
To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you
To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience
To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst
To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children – we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be
To those who step-parent – we walk with you on these complex paths
To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren -yet that dream is not to be, we grieve with you
To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you
To those who placed children up for adoption — we commend you for your selflessness and remember how you hold that child in your heart
And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you
Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you.
http://timewarpwife.com/open-letter-pastors-non-mom-speaks-mothers-day/
On this Mothers day it is certainly a day where we remember and thank our Mother’s for all that they do and have done for us, but it is also a day where we thank the Lord - those who stand in their place - and care for us with their love.
Jesus has given you joy!
As we celebrate the continued blessings on this day! Mother’s Day, Confirmation Day, the Lord’s Day … it doesn’t get much better than this.
But it does! Jesus says:
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
To abide in Christ is to be connected to him, and to be connected to him is to receive Christ’s love – which is the same love that the Father has for Jesus Christ.
So how are we to remain, or abide in Christ?
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
All of this is connected to verses 1-8 that precede our text for today where Christ says:
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Apart from Christ we can’t keep the commandments, but in Christ, we abide in him and, the commandments are already kept perfectly for us by Jesus himself … and as a result we merit what Christ has earned for us … the love of the Father.
Jesus has given you joy!
Ill.
I had the joy of Christ this past week as I traveled to Wittenberg, Germany –the heart of the Reformation - where Martin Luther preached, taught and wrote. The Old Latin School building that was dedicated this past weekend is only 25 steeps as you walk from the door of the Old Latin School to the entrance door of Luther’s church, St Mary’s where he preached.
As I was there it was hard not to think of the history of this place and the connection to our church and what we teach to these Confirmation students and all that they studied and learned to be prepared to be confirmed today/ tomorrow. Luther’s catechism and the teachings of the Bible it contains, is still relevant today at keeping these students and us all connected and abiding in Christ and bearing good fruit.
President Matthew Harrison of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod took us on a tour of historic Wittenberg and as we went he brought to life many parts of Lutheran history and the Reformation and people involved in Wittenberg. The place where Luther nailed his 95 theses, where he burned the papal bull of excommunication and the place he went to following his time in the Wartburg castle translating the Bible. But regarding the Small Catechism, Luther considered this to be one of his most important works, because it teaches the faith to children and by faith that is what we all are. As Luther neared death, and who was very ill, said to his wife Katy … “Remember your Catechism and read it daily.”
These students know this very well. They all did great on their exams after being prepared and will now be confirmed as communicate members of this church - abiding in Christ through word and sacrament and receiving Christ’s joy that it may dwell in them.
Jesus has given you joy!
We all were once God’s enemies having inherited the fall into sin from our first parents Adam and Eve. By this we too, who were born in sin, had no hope, and death was our reward.
Ill.
Cable television mogul Ted Turner [once] criticized fundamentalist Christianity and said Jesus probably would "be sick at his stomach" over the way his ideas have been "twisted," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Turner made his remarks at a banquet in Orlando, Fla., where he was given an award by the American Humanist Association for his work on behalf of the environment and world peace. Turner said he had a strict Christian upbringing and at one time considered becoming a missionary. "I was saved seven or eight times," the newspaper quoted him as saying. But he said he became disenchanted with Christianity after his sister died, despite his prayers. Turner said the more he strayed from his faith, "the better I felt."
Spokesman-Review, May 1, 1990.
It is what we all face and what these students too face. The devil has no interest in those who stray from the faith as they are already on the road that leads to destruction, but for those who name the name of Christ, he is gearing up to attack them where he can and where it can do the most damage … in the family. So, it is important now more than ever as we see the attack on the family and the Christian faith throughout the world grow, to abide in Christ and his word and gifts to us and love one another as he has loved us.
John sums it all up in his epistle for today when he says:
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith [the pure gift of God]. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Dear Christian and fellow confirmed we are God’s children by grace through faith and this is not a work we do but it is a gift of God so that there is no boasting on our part. Christ is the one in whom we boast because it is his work on our behalf that brings us the salvation we receive.
Jesus has given you joy!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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