Friday of Pentecost 13 – Matthew 16:13-20

Matthew 16:13-20

¹³ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Did you have some things you misunderstood as a child? My father had us recite Luther’s evening prayer after dinner every night. In the final part of that prayer, we pray that God sends his holy angel “that the wicked foe may have no power over us.” Being something we recited every night, we often spoke it rather quickly and the words sometimes ran together. When I was a small child, before I could read, I thought I was praying for God’s angel to protect us from the “wicked foam.” It was only when I learned how to read and saw the prayer in print that I realized the angel was protecting me from “the wicked foe.” I had spent many hours wondering what the wicked foam was.

This text involves another of those misunderstandings, but this one is not childish. It in fact it was not until many years later that I was disabused of it. Jesus says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. For some reason I always imagined the church being attacked by the gates of hell. In truth, as I think about it, this is not very reasonable. Gates do not attack. They are defensive. But for reasons which I continue to wonder about, I assumed the church was defensive and the devil was on the attack. That is not what Jesus means. It is the church that is attacking the gates of hell, and prevailing.

How do you assault hell’s gates? Every time you forgive someone, you are snatching them from Satan’s power. His power is the power of sin. Forgiveness, the heavenly and earthly loosing which Jesus speaks about here, dissolves hell’s power over people. That takes Jesus. You cannot hope to prevail against Satan’s might on your own. But you are not on your own. Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God has promised his presence. When you speak those words, they are heaven’s words found in your mouth. The gates of hell crumble before those words. Go assault the gates of hell today. Forgive someone.

Thursday of Pentecost 13 – Romans 11:33-12:8

Romans 11:33-12:8

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
    or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has given a gift to him
    that he might be repaid?”

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

¹I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

I was at the post office not long ago. It was warm, the line was long. At one point, a woman ahead of me had enough and rather forcefully expressed her great displeasure at the performance of the postal employees. I could see from their faces that this was not the first time this had happened. It was ugly and unfortunate. She was an adult acting like a self-centered and ungoverned child.

Paul helps you and me in this reading today. He first praises God for the creation. Sometimes, when the world seems particularly crazy, it might be tempting to think that God surely could not have made this place. He did make it. It is fearfully and wonderfully made, but, as Paul notes, we cannot figure out the mind of God. We should expect to be perplexed. I know that I am a little perplexed with what God has in mind right now. I must trust his promise that all things work for the good of those who love him. (Romans 8)

Then Paul does something very important for us. He tells us that our bodies and what we do with them are our spiritual sacrifice. He urges us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed. This world tells us that our bodies are our possessions to do with as we like. Paul sees this another way and urges you to as well. This bodily life which we live is directed toward God. It is a sacrifice. Our lives are our spiritual worship.

The world sees our behaviors through the lenses of desires and self-preservation. We see it another way. I don’t like standing in line at the post office either. Lately, my left foot has been bothering me and it hurts. At the same time, I can see that this is just going to be better if we all take our turn and have a little patience. Acts of mercy can be done cheerfully. Keep reading a little further in chapter 12 of Romans you will find that it is all bound together with love.

The next time you find yourself in line, and it is moving slow, think of it as a way to serve Christ and neighbor. It gets less odious that way.

Wednesday of Pentecost 13 – Psalm 138

Psalm 138

¹ I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
    before the gods I sing your praise;
² I bow down toward your holy temple
    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
    for you have exalted above all things
    your name and your word.
³ On the day I called, you answered me;
    my strength of soul you increased.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
    for they have heard the words of your mouth,
⁵ and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
    for great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶ For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
    but the haughty he knows from afar.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
    you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
    and your right hand delivers me.
⁸ The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
    your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Do not forsake the work of your hand.

I live on the west coast of the United States. Much my family resides in the Midwest. This has necessitated numerous cross-country car trips. Always looking for something new and exciting to see, several years ago we stopped in Alliance, Nebraska, the home of Carhenge. This attraction is a “replica” of Stonehenge made entirely out of old cars painted the same industrial gray color. My kids think it is hilarious. We have stopped numerous times now. I attached a photo I took on a subsequent visit.

The cars have all clearly seen better days. Many of them narrowly escaped being crushed and recycled. As I walked among them, I wondered about all the family vacations that they had facilitated. Now they were the destination for families with awkward tweens, eye-rolling teens, and dads wearing dark socks and sandals and the mom/wife who loves them all.

Did you read that last verse of the psalm carefully? You really need to. David is singing the praises of God who has rescued him from enemies on the day he walked in the midst of trouble. God’s right hand delivered him. But that last verse should bring us up a little short. God will fulfil his purpose for David and for the one who speaks this psalm as his or her own. But please notice, it is God’s purpose. It is not my purpose. It is not even the purpose that we might imagine. I am sure that the men and women who made, sold, and bought these cars from dealers’ lots could hardly have imagined the purpose to which they were finally put, stuck in the ground on the vast prairie of Nebraska, a tourist attraction, an homage to another place thousands of miles away on the plains of Salisbury, England. Yet, here they are, fulfilling another purpose, and doing it rather well.

God fulfills his purpose for us. Will it be pleasant? No promises there. I am sure that the nights get cold on the plains of western Nebraska. The elements are harsh, and these cars will eventually rust and fall apart. Will they someday have to be replaced by spent Priores^* and used up Teslae? Perhaps. The owners of the land and the cars get to make that determination. God has made us and redeemed us. We belong to Him. He gets to make decisions for our purposes. That is not at all bad. Read the next line too. God’s steadfast love endures forever. His purposeful decision making is always done in that love. I look forward to the purposes he has in mind for me.

^*Despite Toyota’s assertion that the plural of Prius is “prii,” Latinists know that the plural of prius is priores.

Tuesday of Pentecost 13 – Isaiah 51:1-6

Isaiah 51:1-6

¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
    you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
² Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
³ For the Lord comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
    her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.

⁴ “Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law (Torah) will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵ My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
    and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

In 1974, an unfocused and confused young, confirmed LCMS Lutheran kid dropped out of college and got a job working for a video game company. He saved some money, did some traveling, ran into an old friend when he got home, and started tinkering with that friend on some computer hardware. They pitched an idea to the friend’s employer, Hewlett-Packard, but were turned down. They sold his VW mini-bus and the friend’s programable calculator to raise cash and started their own business in his parents’ garage. They called their computer the Apple.

Of course, the young man’s name was Steve Jobs and the company he and his friend, Stephen Wozniak, founded was Apple Computers. Today the company is a giant in the tech industry, producing phones, devices, and computers used throughout the world. If you bought some Apple stock many years ago, you have done very well.

Isaiah urges us to consider our roots, the rock from which we were carved, the quarry from which we were hewn. Abraham and Sarah started out as nothing: an old, childless couple, wandering around a place they could not call their own. All they really had was a promise from God. But we know the rest of that story, as we know the rest of the Steve Jobs’ story. They had a miracle baby. Then there were more miracle babies in the next generations, finally a mighty nation, David the king, and much more.

Isaiah writes to people who have seen their fortunes decline. Their once mighty empire has been reduced to a tiny little area around Jerusalem. Their armies are defeated. They pay tribute to the Assyrians and Babylonians for the right to keep the few freedoms they have. They are sad and depressed. Isaiah reminds them that God has always worked with resources and people that seem inadequate. Is your church a small group of people worshipping in a building designed for many more? Do you remember the days when the Sunday school was full, and you needed that second service? It is hard to imagine, but there was a day even before that when the mission pastor who first led your congregation was glad to see 20 folks in church on a Sunday and three or four children in Sunday school. Like Abraham, you have a promise from God. Abraham looked up to the heavens and counted his offspring, more numerous than the stars. He did not have a single child that night, he believed. We are to look up to heaven note that it is only a vapor compared to what God has promised us. It will pass away, but God’s salvation is forever.

Monday of Pentecost 13 – Prayer of the Week

I’m sorry that I didn’t get this posted when I normally do — I actually preached and led worship yesterday and therefore my routine was changed. Dr. Phil Brandt is the author of these devotions and he is continuing his grieving upon the death of his wife. His faith in the Lord supports him.

Prayer of the Week

Almighty God, whom to know is everlasting life, grant us to know Your Son, Jesus to be the way, the truth, and the life that we may boldly confess Him to be the Christ and steadfastly walk in the way that leads to life eternal; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

There was an elephant in the room, one of those things which everyone knew about, but no one wanted to talk about. There was a lot of shame involved with what he had done. People had been hurt, but all the perpetrator could really see was how much it was about to cost him, so he was not about to say anything. This preacher was contemplating how exactly to address this when a faithful woman pre-empted him. She simply and bluntly asked him to verify what she had heard. He admitted it. She assessed it, frankly. It was wrong. She redirected his feelings: Rather than feeling sorry for himself, he should feel sorry for what he had done. Finally, he needed forgiveness, not pity. The first person he should talk to is the woman whose trust he had betrayed. Then she went on being his neighbor and friend, because she did not expect perfection, just honesty.

We pray that we might boldly confess Jesus to be the Christ today. All sorts of things can get in the way of that bold confession, including the desire to avoid offending someone who has done something offensive or our own fear of what will happen if I speak up. It is appealing to take the easy road, to let the sin slide, to be quiet. One rarely gets chastised for being quiet. It might take boldness to open your mouth and confront. It might make you uncomfortable. But Jesus died for that sin which you are quietly enabling. That makes it both very important but also something I can fearlessly contend with. He has already done the hard part.

Stressful moments are often when ears and hearts are more open to loving, honest, and forthright conversations. We all need to consider and pray about our conversations. There is a time to love someone gently and simply, without judgment or condemnation. But there is also a time to be bold and acknowledge the fact that Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life. He died for sinners so they would not walk in their sin anymore. He uses us to call them to repent.

Friday of Pentecost 12 – Matthew 15:21-28

Matthew 15:21-28

²¹ And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” ²³ But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” ²⁴ He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ²⁵ But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” ²⁶ And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁷ She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” ²⁸ Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

One morning my friend walked out of his house with a cup of coffee in hand and stood on his front porch. Immediately his ears were assaulted by a loud crashing sound. He looked up the street and saw a young man driving what was clearly his father’s or grandfather’s great boat of a car. It was garbage day, and the young man was having a riotously good time knocking over one big plastic rolling garbage tub after another as he made his way down the street. They would bounce off the massive bumper, strewing contents down the street.

My friend recollected that not that many years before he might have done the same thing. He sipped his coffee. He calmly watched. Bang, another tub filled with garbage succumbed to the bumper of the car. He did not rush out into the street to upbraid the young man or threaten to call his parents. He only watched because he knew something the young man did not. The garbage cans in this community were huge, their contents hoisted high and deposited into the trucks by impressively large mechanical claws on the garbage trucks. The weekend prior my friend had helped his neighbor remodel a bathroom. He knew that the can just up from his own exposed garbage can was in fact filled with several hundred pounds of broken ceramic tile.

Bang – another victim of the car’s bumper. And then the neighbor’s can was next. Crunch! My friend looked over his cup of coffee and watched the horror spread across the young man’s face. The fender had a large crumple in it. The can had hardly moved. He took a sip of coffee and thought to himself, “Bet he never does that again.”

Jesus has brought his disciples north, far outside Israel to the land of the hated Canaanites. He was looking for this woman. He knew she would come. The Canaanites had led the ancient Israelites into idolatry and God had sent those Israelites into exile. All good Jews hated the Canaanites. But Jesus loved them too. She cries loudly, following the Master and his disciples. The disciples, repelled by this woman, ask Jesus to send her away. He plays along with them for a moment, even calling her a “dog.” I can almost see them nodding in agreement. Finally, they think, the Master is talking some sense. But all the while he is setting up the impact which will crush their bigotry. He is drawing out of her a statement of faith which their own pious hearts cannot make: Even the dogs eat the crumbs…”

“Woman, great is your faith.” Jesus only says those words to two people in the Gospel according to Matthew. The first is a Roman centurion in chapter 8. The second is this hated Canaanite. Both times Jesus is smashing the narrow and closed bigotry of religious people. Who are the people you imagine to be outside the kingdom of God? Is it the woke liberal or the conservative with a MAGA hat? Is the person marching in the pride parade or the Muslim bowing in prayer five times a day? Is it your neighbor who plays loud music at all hours of the night? Look at them again. Look at them with Jesus’ eyes. He loves them just as much as he loves you.

Thursday of Pentecost 12 – Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32

Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32 

¹ I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

¹³ Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴ in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

²⁸ As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. ³² For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

God is the master of irony. He bestowed his favor and love on the children of Abraham when they were enslaved. They were “the least of all people” it tells us in Deut. 7:7. He defeated a mighty giant with a shepherd boy (I Sam 17). When Haman plotted genocide against the Jews, God raised up an unlikely and unexpected hero in a young woman who saved them with dinner parties. (You can read that story in Esther.) In one of his greater ironies, he called a persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, to be the Apostle to the gentiles and to bring many to the Light of Christ.

That same Saul, now called Paul, remembers and counts on God’s irony in this passage from his letter to the Romans. He looks for yet another ironic twist to God’s strange, upside-down kingdom in which the little and least are on top and the powerful are brought low (Luke 1:52). He is looking at the disastrous rejection of the Christ by his fellow Jews and his heart breaks. He does not despair, however. God is the God of splendid ironies and reversals. He imagines that the gentile Christians who are flocking into the Church in his day will goad his fellow Jews to embrace the Christ as well. Some did. Many did not.

But Paul did not lose hope. It looked hopeless. The rancor and hostility were intense. When Paul finished this letter, he went to Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders had him arrested and would have killed him if the Romans had not intervened. That result, however, was just delayed. A few years later the Romans killed him. The Jewish plot eventually succeeded.

Paul died in hope. We cannot forget that. We look around us and see a government that is too often in gridlock, heatwaves and floods which many attribute to climactic change, schools which at times seem to be caught in maelstroms of conflict, war and violence fill our newsfeeds, there are demonstrations, even riots in the streets. Despair sometimes seems like the only sensible option. But Paul knew something about God. He has reversals and irony up his sleeve. That is, after all, the whole message of Easter. What looked like utter defeat was complete victory; and so, Paul hoped. He hoped in the middle of what looked like an intractable first century situation. He would encourage us to hopeful expectation on God in this twenty-first century as well.

God loves irony. This is a perfect moment for his ironic side to come out. Keep your eyes open.

Wednesday of Pentecost 12 – Psalm 67

Psalm 67

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
² that your way may be known on earth,
    your saving power among all nations.
³ Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you!

⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you judge the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
⁵ Let the peoples praise you, O God;
    let all the peoples praise you!

⁶ The earth has yielded its increase;
    God, our God, shall bless us.
⁷ God shall bless us;
    let all the ends of the earth fear him!

I once recognized someone in a movie. It was a former student of my wife’s. We knew to look for her because she had told us about it. She was an extra in a Hollywood film. The film was not really very good, but it was fun to see someone I knew on the screen. The star was walking past a crowd of folks at an airport and there was Taisha in the crowd. We knew it was her because she had one of the most radiant smiles I have ever seen. When she smiled, you almost needed sunglasses.

The psalmist asks that God’s face shine upon us. If you have known someone who had a bit of Taisha’s smile, you might also have an image in mind of a radiant, sun-brilliant smile. When they turn that on, it is impossible to ignore. It makes the whole room a brighter place. All is joyful when God’s radiant face shines upon us, it dispels the gloom and scatters the clouds.

But the psalmist wants us to see something else: God’s face shines on all the peoples. Like the sun it illumines the whole earth and the nations rejoice. There is a funny thing about God. He just will not fit into the boundaries that we want to construct for him. He has a very large-hearted love which puts forth his favor and delight into every nook and cranny of his creation, even the places I might be afraid to go. I love the smile of God upon me. It is like the kiss of sunshine on a beautiful summer day.

God smiles on the whole world, makes his saving power known to all the nations.

Tuesday of Pentecost 12 – Isaiah 56:1-8

Isaiah 56:1-8 

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
    and my righteousness be revealed.
² Blessed is the man who does this,
    and the son of man who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
    and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

³ Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
    “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
⁴ For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
⁵ I will give in my house and within my walls
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
    and holds fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.”
⁸ The Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
    besides those already gathered.”

He was a wealthy man, important, the sort of fellow who had a driver. He sat in the back of his vehicle with a book open on his lap and he pondered what it meant. Suddenly a fellow had come up beside him on foot. Leaning in, he asked, “Do you know what you are reading?”

“Not really, I need some one to help me,” replied the rich man.

He opened the door and the stranger sat down beside him and began to explain what the book said.

It was not a limousine but a wagon the man sat in. The fellow who leaned in to talk to him was Philip, one of the first of seven deacons appointed by the apostles in Acts 6. You are likely familiar with this story, but you might want to read it again in Acts 8.

The book which the rich man had open was the prophet Isaiah and he was reading chapter 53, the great servant song which provides a profoundly meaningful framework to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Acts records that Philip started at that point and explained what Isaiah meant. As he explained “from that point,” Philip must have unrolled that scroll a few turns until he came to this spot in the reading for today. It is the only explanation for what happened next. Remember, the man Philip is talking to is Ethiopian – an official of the Ethiopian queen. He is a very black man, a foreigner. He is also a eunuch, having been rendered above reproach as he served his monarch. His castration had allowed him to be a servant of the queen but at a terrible cost. He would have no children. In the ancient world this was perhaps an even greater sorrow than it is for people today.

What does it mean that Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter and that he gave his life for the sins of many? It means that the eunuchs and the foreigners are not isolated and kept out of the kingdom. God gathers them as well. They have a place in the kingdom and a legacy better than sons and daughters, a name that shall not be cut off. Can you imagine being that foreign eunuch who heard those words? It was like Isaiah was talking straight to him.

It was that same love of God which welcomed my tree-worshiping Saxon forebears into the Kingdom of God more than a millennium ago. There are many today who express outrage and despair at persistent racism and disparity in our nation. It is right that we remember God has a vision of inclusion as well. It began when a Jewish man died on a cross long ago and rose on Easter. It embraced the whole of humanity, every race and every individual and every sort of person, even the one of whom I am afraid or with whom I disagree. Jesus has room in his kingdom for that person and that means I see in every human being a fellow citizen of heaven.

Monday of Pentecost 12 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

Almighty and everlasting Father, You give your children many blessings even though we are undeserving. In every trial and temptation grant us steadfast confidence in Your loving-kindness and mercy; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

In 1347, on March 25, in the city of Siena, Italy, a woman named Lapa Piagenti gave birth, prematurely, to her 23^rd and 24^th children, twin daughters. One of the girls soon died but the other, Catherine, matured into a healthy, precocious little girl. Always religious and over her parents’ objection, Catherine became a sort of nun, but did not want to live in a convent. She wanted to be in the world. The world would never be the same. Catherine was a force to contend with. These were the days of the Plague. While powerful and wealthy people, including bishops and priests, ran at the first sign of plague, Catherine ran toward the plague victims, ministering to their needs. No one was beneath her care. She started a prison ministry, serving men about to be executed. Soon her acts of courage drew attention and she started to call for change. Her influence grew. The pope at the time was living in France. He was the bishop of Rome and Catherine thought the Bishop should come home and live the city entrusted to his care. She told him so, rather forcefully. The old man, perhaps sensing his own impending encounter with his Judge, listened to this young woman and came home.

Catherine had a heart for the people her medieval world rejected, the sick, the imprisoned, the poor and she also had a powerful confidence. That confidence emboldened her to speak strong words to people in power to face down any foe. She believed Jesus went with her into every situation. She was sure that He loved her. You can read some of this in her own words. She authored over 400 letters including a real scorcher to the city fathers in Florence. If go looking for her letters, she is usually called Catherine of Siena.

We pray today for confidence amid trials and tribulations. That confidence, we note, is located in the steadfast love and mercy of Jesus toward us. Christ spoke the truth to us when he declared his love in our baptism and repeatedly in absolutions, sermons, and sacrament. That love also inspires in us a confidence as we address this world. We have more than a few trials and tribulations to contend with these days. There is one sure thing. God’s love for us is rock solid. With God at our back, we can face those trials and tribulations, all that the world can throw at us. It might kill us. Catherine died at the tender age of 33. But the world, sin, and death do not have the last say. God caught Catherine into his arms that day she died. His love is sure.