Worship

“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.”
2 Thessalonians 1:3

When you think of growing, what do you think of? I think about the wisteria in my backyard. I pretty sure that thing can grow one foot in a day, especially when we get the kind of rain that we’ve been having recently. That wisteria is growing on a chain-link fence between my house and my garage. I have to continuously cut it back to keep it from overtaking either. It’s not allowed to grow on to buildings but I let it grow up as much as it wants and out to a point (I want to use all of my driveway).

Reading through Acts, it’s interesting how Paul and Co. are led to go some places but prevented from going others. You get the impression they are willing to go in any direction so that the church will grow but God guides them in particular paths. Wouldn’t that be a nice way to grow in the faith? Wouldn’t it be nice to be willing to grow in your understanding of scripture, in your relationships with other people, in your prayer life, in generosity, in every aspect of your faith and simply let God guide you in the particular paths He would like you to take?

I think we often like to pick the path ourselves. We think that God wants us to pray more and so we try to get better at that. That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there are more aspects to the faith than prayer, just like there are more places in the world than the few that Paul visited. There’s something to be said for being open to all different kinds of growth in the faith. You don’t have to excel at all of them. If your gifts are not there, they’re not there, but a broadly growing plant sure is a lot easier to train than a plant that thinks it needs to grow in only one direction.

In what aspects of the faith do you have room for growth? In what ways can you love God and your neighbor more? June begins the time of the church year that is the longest, the “Sundays after Pentecost”. The color of this season is green, for growth. It’s a time to think about how you can grow personally and maybe even think about how we can grow as a church.

Congregations can grow in many different ways. We can grow in our understanding of scripture and theology. We can grow in our worship life and in our prayer life. We can grow in service to our neighbor, both near and far. We can grow in our relationships with each other and with those we have not yet met. Are we going to excel at all of these things? No, but it is worth trying. It is worth being a little bit better at least in all of these categories. And when you’re growing in all directions God may just have an easier time letting us thrive in the direction He intends us to go, personally and as His people.

For Guidance in Our Calling 193

Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God saw the people of Israel — and God knew.”
Exodus 2:23-25

The book of Genesis ends with the conclusion of Joseph’s saga. Out of jealousy his brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt where he rises up the ranks in Potiphar’s house but then finds himself in jail after the run-in with Potiphar’s wife. In jail, Joseph rises up within the ranks, such as they are in prison, until someone put a good word in for him with    Pharaoh. With God’s help in interpreting dreams, Joseph has the foresight to prepare the entire country of Egypt for an extended famine. Because Joseph’s work during this famine works out very well for Pharaoh, Joseph is allowed to settle his extended family in one of the best parts of Egypt. This is where the book of Genesis ends.

The book of Exodus fills in the 400 some odd years after the end of Genesis. During this time we are told that the Egyptian leaders who remembered Joseph and his family fondly have passed away. New leaders have come to power and they do not recall how they were enriched and empowered by Joseph. All they see is that there is a large group of foreigners living in their land. This is a liability and so, to control them, they enact population control measures (killing the baby boys at birth) and slave labor. This is the context of Exodus 2:23–25 quoted above. This is why the people of Israel are crying out to God for rescue.

At first it might seem superfluous to say that, “God saw the people of Israel — and God knew.” We might think to ourselves, “Of course God saw the people of Israel. He sees everything. Of course God knew. God knows everything.” But from the perspective of the Israelites, this might seem like an open question. Where was God in their lives now? Why has God allowed all these bad things to happen to them? Had God forgotten about them? Did God remember they were still down there? Did God even know all this stuff was happening to them? In response to this, God allows the words we have here in Exodus to be written, “God saw the people of Israel — and God knew.”

You may get to feeling like the Israelites from time to time. Maybe you look around at the circumstances of your life and you see that they are not all that good. Perhaps, like the Israelites, you can look back and remember better times in the past. And like the Israelites, you might begin to wonder if God has forgotten about you. You might begin to wonder if God remembers that you are still down here. Does God even know about all of this stuff that is happening to you?

Yes, God hears your groaning and remembers the promises that He has made to you. God sees you. God knows you. God knows your troubles and concerns and anxieties. God did not forget Joseph when he was a slave of Potiphar or when he was in prison. God saved Joseph. God did not forget His people when they were slaves in Egypt and being  mistreated. God saved them. And God has not forgotten you in your troubles. God has sent His Son to save you from the slavery of your sins. God has sent His Son to save you from the slavery of relying on yourself and the burden of having to figure out how to turn your fortunes around. God has already sent Jesus here to give you eternal life. Is there more to be done? Yes, God knows that there is, and He promises to do that work when Christ returns.

Joseph didn’t know what God’s plan was when he was sold into slavery and worked for years as a slave. Joseph   didn’t know what God’s plan was when he was unjustly imprisoned for years. But during that time, Joseph was faithful. Joseph trusted God. Eventually, Joseph was able to look back and see that, even though he didn’t know it at the time, God had a plan that was good for him and for everyone around him. (Genesis 50:20) You can have the same trust in God. Things may not look good now. It may seem like God has forgotten you and does not know your plight. But God sees and God knows. God has come to save you through Jesus. There will be a time when you too will get to look back and see that even though it didn’t look like it at the time, God had a plan that was good for you and everyone around you.

Paster Mehl

Samuel Medley

I know that my Redeemer lives; what comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my ever-living head.

Samuel Medley was born in the United Kingdom in 1738. The culture into what he was born was fairly Christian but simply being born in a predominantly Christian culture does not make one a Christian. It seems that Samuel wandered from his faith in his early years and even wandered from home, joining the British Navy. The French and the British were at war during this time and Mr. Medley was injured in the Battle of Lagos. The Battle of Lagos was a resounding victory for the British but not so much for Mr. Medley as his leg was injured and he was told that it would need to be amputated if it did not improve. His leg did, in fact, improve the night before the operation was scheduled to begin. It seems that his relationship with his Redeemer also improved through this situation as well.

Upon returning to England after being discharged from the Navy, Samuel Medley went on to become a Baptist minister in and around London. He wrote some 230 hymns during his lifetime. As inspiration for the hymn “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” Medley could have found inspiration in Paul Gerhart’s German hymn “Ich weiß, dass mein Erlöser lebt,” that repeats the phrase “Er libt” (He lives) several times. There were also other hymns at the time based on Job 19:25 that could have served as inspiration as well. In any case, in this hymn we have an Old Testament look at the resurrection set to a memorable and singable tune with bit-sized phrases.

With Job and Samuel Medley, we too can look beyond our current or past suffering and know that our Redeemer lives and that with Him our bodies and our souls will be kept safe.

Pastor Mehl

Our Lenten series this year will focus on Psalm 41. No Old Testament saint attests to God’s grace quite like King David. Raised from the sheepfold to the throne of the house of Israel; raised again (and again, and again) from sin: pride, murder, adultery, and despising of God; lifted clear of the snare of the wicked (Psalm 119:110), of the pit (Psalm 30:3), of the very gates of death (Psalm 9:13); with no merit or worthiness in    himself, David was continually raised up by God’s grace and favor.

How has God’s grace raised you? If you haven’t been set on a royal throne or made ruler over a great   people, maybe you’ve seen improvements in your finances or employment. Or perhaps family strife has been quieted. Or maybe a compassionate helper or valuable ally has entered the picture at just the right moment. Have you shaken off a bad illness, a bad habit, or a bad influence? If so, rejoice and thank God for His grace.

But if you feel like you’re sinking instead of rising, what then? Is there any comfort for the saint of God who looks around to find that “the waters have come up to my neck” (Psalm 69:1)? David knows that saint’s fortunes because they are his as well:

In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
You do not give him up to the will of his enemies. (Psalm 41:1–2)

In the Lord there is hope. Therefore, do not look for hope in your experiences or your emotions, which will portray for you the same bleak scene that David captures in Psalm 41: “My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?”” (v. 5) “When one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while His heart gathers iniquity.” (v. 6) “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” (v. 9)

Faith offers a better vision: despite all that binds and bruises and bleeds you, God will raise you up. He has raised you already. In Holy Baptism, God has “raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). If you are in Christ, how can you sink? How can you fall?

Lent is a good time to meditate on David’s ordeals and your secure position in Christ. Psalm 41 provides a good guide to your meditation. If the laments of Psalm 41 call to mind your numerous difficulties and need for deliverance, they depict even more clearly the work by which your deliverance has been won.

David “prophesied about the grace that was to be yours” and “searched and inquired carefully” concerning your salvation (1 Peter 1:10). And that salvation is this: the Son of David, by grace, “might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

Because you are in Christ, you share in all things with Him, even the prophetic Word. David’s vision in Psalm 41 has become your reality in Christ. In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers you; the Lord protects you and keeps you alive; you are called blessed in the land (see Psalm 41:1–2). As surely as the Lenten journey ascends to the victory of Easter, you shall be raised up.

~ Paster Mehl