First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

*The Gospel lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.*

*Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.*

*Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*

*LSB 659:1 *

*Lord of our life and God of our salvation,*

*Star of our night and hope of ev’ry nation:*

*Hear and receive Your Church’s supplication, *

*Lord God Almighty. *

*Text: Public domain*

*Introduction*

*Jesus declares at the end of today’s sermon text: *

*“* *Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree,
and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he
answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and
put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good’* *
(Luke 13:7–9). *

This is such a beautiful illustration of God’s patience with us for the
sake of Christ!

But do we recognize that God is patient, but never indulgent?

*Perhaps the following illustration might help:*

A teenager, just four days after he gets his license, gets a speeding
ticket. “I’m so sorry, Dad,” he says. “I just wasn’t paying attention.” Dad
talks about the importance of driving carefully, reminds him that tickets
raise insurance rates, and forgives him.

Two months later, the young driver rear-ends another car. In tears, he
phones his father.

Dad asks: “Is everybody okay? Nobody hurt?” “Everybody’s okay, Dad, but
both cars are a mess.”

Dad responds: “I’m just thankful everyone’s safe. We’ll work on this. Mom
and I forgive you.”

Freshman year in college. Underage drinking at a party, pulled over driving
back to the dorm. What will Dad do now?

*God is amazingly patient with us, but never indulgent. *

That’s because patience is an act of love for the other person, while
indulging someone else’s sin is usually indulging ourselves—not wanting to
offend the other person or not caring enough to correct the sin.

Indulging sin is not loving the other person, because, you see, unless the
sinner repents, at some point he will surely suffer punishment.

God is divinely patient with us, but he does not indulge our sin.

As Jesus says: *“If [the tree] should bear fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down” (13:9).*

*Turn toward Jesus, for in Him There Is Life.*

* I. Jesus calls not just the “greatest” sinners, but all of us to
repent.*

*Some people in Jesus’ following have been “reading the newspapers”
(remember, this is old technology), and they ask him for his commentary on
one of the hot stories of the day (v 1).*

Several folks from Jesus’ own part of the country, Galileans, have been
murdered by Roman governor Pontius Pilate—in a gruesome way.

a. We don’t have further details about this incident from history, but
the social tension between Jews and Romans made revolutionary activity
possible at any time. Galileans were especially likely to revolt since they
were surrounded geographically by Gentiles.

b. What is clear is that they were killed while in worship—like a church
shooting today.

Essentially, the crowd wanted Jesus’ opinion: “Why do bad things happen to
good Galileans?”

Jesus turns the tables (verses 2–3).

a. He dismisses—doesn’t even address—the idea that this was a bad thing
happening to good Galileans.

b. He goes to the next option: Well, then, these Galileans must have been
especially bad sinners. No! All Galileans—and you and me—are bad, in need
of repentance.

4. Jesus even adds another example (verses 4–5).

a. There is no historical record of this incident either, the tower of
Siloam in Jerusalem falling on eighteen people. It must have been another
recent news story.

b. But again, no, these eighteen people were not especially wicked; they
were just like you and me! In sure and certain need of repentance!

*B. Jesus refuses to lean into a theology of glory by attributing human
tragedy to individual sin, as the Jews often did (John 9:1–3). Rather,
Jesus affirms that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and are
thus in need of repentance.*

1. Every human tragedy is a call from God to repent. The world is
irreparably dirty due to sin. Our good deeds, in any attempt to clean up
our own sin, are as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Our rags are soiled beyond
any human ability to make them clean again.

2. Jesus always levels the playing field. He is basically saying, “It’s
just a matter of time before you all suffer the same fate. Death will come
for us all. No one gets out alive. Your only hope is repenting in faith.
Your only hope is turning away from your sin and turning to me.”

3. On May 21, 2021, six-year-old Aiden Leos’s mother was driving him to
kindergarten on the 55 Freeway in Southern California. After she became
angry at being cut off by another car—and made her anger visible—a
passenger in the other car fired a 9mm Glock pistol into her car. Aiden was
killed.

a. No one would suggest Aiden Leos was a worse sinner than countless
others on the freeway that morning.

b. As deeply as his mother might regret her own actions, no one would
suggest she any more earned such a tragic loss.

c. And there is no way to “get into the mind of God” to make sense of
why this happened. But God is not to blame. Rebellious mankind is to blame
for all manner of random loss of life, both through accidents and from
willful wickedness.

d. Every story of tragedy is a call to repentance and a moment in time
to cry out to God for redemption as only found in his Son, Jesus Christ.

* II. To all those who do repent, Jesus promises life.*

*A**. **That’s the subtle inference of the parable Jesus now tells his
hearers (verses 6–9).*

1. For years—even millennia—Israel had been God’s chosen people. He’s
been expecting fruit of righteousness in keeping with repentance and faith.

a. But instead, Israel had responded to his goodness with sin—just as
we, every single one of us, sin against God daily.

b. The time, it seems, has come to cut them down, to give us what we all
deserve.

2. But the vinedresser, Christ Jesus, steps forward and pleads patience.

a. “Let me do everything I yet can for them, and if they repent, bear
fruit, well, that’s what we’ve always wanted.

b. “If they refuse to repent, then we shall cut them down.”

3. The primary point of the parable is to display God’s patience in not
wanting any person to perish, but to repent and find life in his Son.

a. The Christian life is to be daily repentance.

b. Sin’s consequences affect all people, so now is the time to repent
and to live lives which bear fruit.

4. Turn in faith toward Jesus, for in him there is life.

*B. Jesus says elsewhere, in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the
branches. . . . Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [the Father]
takes away, . . . and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and
burned.” But “whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. . . . As the branch cannot
bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless
you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. . . . Already you are
clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:5a, 2, 6, 5b,
4–5a, 3).*

1. Jesus’ call to bear fruit is always an invitation to cling to him.

a. Jesus understands all the tragedies and death of our sinful world in
ways we never can.

b. He knows that we can’t bear fruit apart from him.

c. That’s precisely why Jesus hung on the cross, that we might bear
fruit and live, not be cut down and thrown into the fire.

2. Notice Jesus says we are already clean right now.

a. That’s because we each are connected to him through baptismal waters.

b. We are enabled to bear much fruit.

* III. Jesus teaches that repentance unto life bears real fruit**.*

*A. In turning to Jesus for new life, we are called to lead lives that
produce the fruit that’s really made by the power of the Holy Spirit:
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).*

1. This *is* the kind of life *you* live.

2. Your fruit really is the work of Jesus. God doesn’t need our good
works. We’re connected to Jesus, the vine, to bear fruit for our neighbor,
that the world may know the Father sent his Son.

*B. By the new life we have in Jesus, we can even help to be a salve to
those who have suffered the inexplicable tragedies that result from sin.*

1. The very moving film *The Guys* came out just a year after 9/11. In
it, Sigourney Weaver is asked by a New York fire captain to help write
eulogies for the eight men his unit lost in the attack.

a. One of the heroes, Patrick, was a guy everybody looked up to, wanted
to follow. He had just casually chosen to work that morning shift, rather
than the evening. He died when Tower One of the World Trade Center fell on
him.

b. His eulogy noted how others at the firehouse described him: “work,
church, and home.”

2. We who have life in Jesus, who are no greater sinners, no lesser
sinners than anyone else, will suffer death as surely, tragedy as often, as
everyone else.

3. But we can use our lives in Jesus to witness God’s incomprehensible
love to others in their tragedies.

*Conclusion*

*The tragedy of our text is that Jesus’ hearers were pridefully trying to
position themselves as “better than” those who lost their lives in random
ways. We are called to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Yet, even the
good fruit we bear is not enough to make us righteous before God. The
faithful pastor on his deathbed, the seemingly innocent child, the grieving
mother, the brave hero all need to repent; we are all sinners deserving
only to be cut down.*

*Jesus is the tree that was cut down by his Father on a Roman cross,
unjustly condemned by Pilate. Jesus is the tree that the Father
victoriously raised three days later to invite us, as Gentiles, to be
grafted into that Holy Tree. Our repentance is only possible because of our
redemption accomplished by the crucified and risen Jesus. Turn in faith
toward Jesus, for in him there is life. Amen.*

*Let us pray:*

*LSB 659:3 *

*Lord, be our light when worldly darkness veils us;*

*Lord, be our shield when earthly armor fails us;*

*And in the day when hell itself assails us, *

*Grant us Your peace, Lord:*

*Text: Public domain*

*The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.*

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

*The two readings from Scripture serve as our sermon texts this morning.*

*Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.*

*Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*

*769 Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ*

*Eternal Spirit of the living Christ, *

*I know not how to ask or what to say;*

*I only know my need, as deep as life, *

*And only You can teach me how to pray.*

Text: © 1974 The Hymn Society, admin. Hope Publishing Co. Used by
permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110000247

*Introduction*

*Luther calls it “a miracle of miracles.” *

*That Joseph doesn’t lose hope, *

*that Joseph doesn’t lose faith, *

*that Joseph doesn’t give in to temptation and lose his virginity in a
shameful and wicked sin—*

*it is a miracle of miracles.*

*3. The devil attacked Joseph with many temptations.*

*Let’s not forget that Joseph was just a boy. *

*Or was he a man? *

*He was just seventeen years old when his brothers sold him to the
Ishmaelites. *

*We aren’t told how old Joseph was by the time he rose to prominence in the
house of Potiphar. *

*But let’s say that he celebrated a birthday somewhere along the line.
Let’s assume he’s eighteen. *

*We know that he’s a handsome fellow. *

*And we also know that he has the kind of character and faith and wisdom
that few men of any age possess.*

*The devil is attacking Joseph on two different fronts. *

On the one hand, the devil is tempting him to doubt and despair and defeat,
leading him to conclude that he’s been forgotten and forsaken by God—even
as he was betrayed by his own brothers.

*How easy it would have been for Joseph to abandon the faith he had been
taught by his father. *

*How easy it would have been to give in to despair and depression—or to be
consumed by hatred for his betraying brothers.*

*As if that wasn’t enough, his boss’s wife is trying to seduce him on a
daily basis. It would have been so easy to give in to that temptation—so
easy for Joseph to justify a illicit sexual relationship. *

*What harm would there be? Who would ever know? *

*Luther expressed it this way: “Joseph spurns and rejects an opportunity so
convenient and so full of safety, power, favor, and pleasure” (AE 7:77). *

*But Joseph does not waver. He calls adultery what it is. He calls sexual
immorality what it is. He says, “How then can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God?” (verse 9).*

*From where does Joseph (eighteen-year-old Joseph!) get this strength and
clarity of character? *

*How does he so clearly differentiate between right and wrong? *

*Please bear in mind, he’s got no Sixth Commandment to draw upon, no
catechism to consult, no pastor to preach to him. *

*(The two tablets of stone and Mount Sinai are still over 450 years in the
future, and Luther’s Small Catechism is more than three thousand years down
the line.) *

*Nor can Joseph just crack open his Bible for strength and guidance to
sustain him in his time of trial. (There was no Bible written yet!) *

*All Joseph has is the Law of God written in his heart and the promises of
God passed down from his father. *

*And yet, with only those little crumbs to draw upon—miracle of
miracles!—faith reigns in the heart of this young man. *

*Two thousand years before the apostle Paul would implore the Christians at
Corinth to flee from sexual immorality because their bodies were temples of
the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:18–20), *

*Joseph fled from sexual immorality, recognizing that his body was a temple
of the Holy Spirit.*

*2. We face many similar temptations today.*

*This has all been written down and recorded for you. *

*It’s being preached and proclaimed for you. *

*Because the temptations to sexual immorality and adultery are everywhere
today. *

*Potiphar’s wife, with her promises of sex and sin without
consequences—she’s everywhere. *

*She’s on your television screen and your computer screen. *

*She’s in your phone—your phone that never leaves your side and happily
hides all your secrets. *

*The devil never quits, never eases up, never stops seeking to violate your
chastity and destroy your faith.*

*And so this episode from the life of Joseph comes to confront us here
tonight. *

*And we know that this episode is true—that it really happened—because of
the Bible’s brutal honesty. *

*Because Joseph’s great faith and his steadfast refusal to sin did not
result in applause and accolades and promotions. *

*Instead, no good deed goes unpunished. *

*Things go from bad to worse—out of the frying pan and into the fire—and
Joseph descends into the hell of prison.*

*If that’s what happened to Joseph—*

*whose faith and life were above reproach in every way—*

*should not we expect far worse? *

*With our faltering faith and our sin-filled lives? *

*We should indeed expect nothing but temporal and eternal punishment . . .
were it not for our new and greater Joseph.*

*1. Jesus was tempted in every way for us, as our sacred substitute.*

*Jesus is our new and greater Joseph. *

*He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. *

*Jesus took on the temptations of a thousand wives of Potiphar and never,
ever, took the bait—never did what would have been convenient or easy and
pleasurable. *

*Why not? *

*Because he battled temptation for you—as your sacred substitute.*

*Where you fail, he succeeds. *

*Where you stumble, he stands firm. *

*Where you are weak, he is strong.*

*And—miracle of miracles!—Jesus undertakes a great exchange with you. *

*He takes your guilt and gives you his innocence. *

*He bears your sin and absolves you of everything. *

*He drinks deeply from the cup of God’s wrath against your sin, so that you
might sample the sweet wine that is his blood once shed for you, for the
forgiveness of all your sins. *

*He takes your punishment and dies your death so that you might die to sin
and rise again to life everlasting.*

*Just like Joseph, Jesus humbled himself and made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a slave. *

*Just like Joseph, Jesus went around doing good in all things: *

*preaching the Gospel, *

*casting out demons, *

*cleansing lepers, *

*giving sight to the blind, *

*feeding the hungry, *

*stilling the storms, *

*and even raising the dead. *

*But for Jesus—like Joseph—there would be no applause or accolades or
promotions. *

*No good deed would go unpunished for this good man. *

*Shouts of “Hosanna!” would give way to cries of “Crucify Him!”*

*He came to his own and his own did not receive him. *

*One of his own betrays him with a kiss.*

* So it goes for Jesus. *

*So it goes for Joseph. *

*And so it goes for you.*

* When Jesus, like Joseph, Takes on Temptation, It Is for You.*

*Conclusion*

*This world will little note nor long remember the times when you stand
firm against temptation. *

*When you, by the grace of God, lead a sexually pure and decent life in
what you say and do—when you say no to sin and yes to the Lord Jesus, who
loves you and gave himself for you—the angels may be rejoicing, but their
cheers won’t reach your ears. *

*Luther says, “You must never hope the world will acknowledge . . . your
faithfulness and diligence, for it does the opposite” (AE 7:97). *

*Like Joseph, your good conduct could even land you in prison, or worse.*

*But, miracle of miracles, you are precious to the Lord Jesus Christ. *

*In Holy Baptism, he has made your body to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.*

*You belong to the Lord—body and soul—redeemed by Christ the Crucified.
Amen.*

*Let us pray:*

*769 Eternal Spirit of the Living Christ *

*Come, pray in me the prayer I need this day; *

*Help me to see Your purpose and Your will—*

*Where I have failed, what I have done amiss; *

*Held in forgiving love, let me be still. *

*Come with the strength I lack, bring vision clear *

*Of human need; O give me eyes to see*

*Fulfillment of my life in love outpoured, *

*My life in You, O Christ; Your love in me.*

*Text: © 1974 The Hymn Society, admin. Hope Publishing Co. Used by
permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110000247*

*The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.*

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

*The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.*

*Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.*

*Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*

*O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have
gone astray from Your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and
steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of Your
Word; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with
You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.*

*Introduction*

*60 years ago, on October 16–28, 1962, is probably not known to most people
today as well as it should be. *

*In those thirteen days, a nuclear world war was averted. *

*It is remembered as the Cuban Missile Crisis. *

*The Soviet Union was shipping nuclear missiles to Cuba, only ninety miles
from the US coastline.*

*Soviet ships had every intention of breaching a US naval blockade and
delivering their deadly cargoes. *

*An American reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba, and a US
invasion force was ready to strike. *

*The United States Secretary of Defense later said, “I thought it was the
last Saturday I would ever see.” *

*But through intense negotiations between John F. Kennedy and Nikita
Khrushchev—including, history records, some very harsh words—the Soviet
ships turned around. *

*No nuclear missiles landed or launched. *

*No World War III. *

*Crisis averted.*

*In our text today, God’s people are reaching a crisis point for their very
survival as a nation, and God sends the prophet Jeremiah to speak some very
harsh words. *

*The question is, will they heed those words and the crisis be averted?*

*Whether we today know this as well as we should, we also are ever on the
brink of a crisis:*

*one of nuclear proportions, *

*one that also threatens our very survival. *

*And the question is the same as for Jeremiah’s hearers in our text:*

*Will God’s Word Preached to Us Avert the Crisis of Our Eternal Disaster?*

*I. Despising the preaching of God’s Word creates an eternal crisis,
threatening desolation and damnation.*

*A. That was the point God’s people, the kingdom of Judah, had reached,
because they were rejecting the Word of God; they were rejecting Yahweh
himself*!

1. Jeremiah had just spoken all that the Lord had commanded him to speak
to the people.

2. Through Jeremiah, God was accusing them of going after other gods,
including licentiousness (being wasteful), sexual sins, and evil worship.

3. They were turning their backs on Yahweh, who had redeemed them out of
Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land.

*B. Through Jeremiah, the Great I Am was pronouncing desolation for
Jerusalem and the temple. *

1. “This house,” the temple, “shall be like Shiloh.”

*a. Some 450 years before, Israel had taken the ark of the covenant, the
very presence of God, from its place in Shiloh into battle against the
Philistines and used it as a good-luck charm.*

*b. This was not pleasing to God, so he allowed the ark to be captured
by the Philistines and Shiloh to be destroyed.*

*Because of Judah’s sin and stubborn impenitence, Jeremiah proclaimed that
the temple and Jerusalem would be the same:*

*1. desolate, slain, laid to ruins, dried up, destroyed, taken
away!*

*2. This temple had become Judah’s idol! People don’t take too kindly to
their idols being threatened and taken away.*

*3. But God is not to be toyed with; his patience was running out. The
enemies of God were hearing their judgment, and they reacted with hate and
murder.*

* C. It’s quite a remarkable scene, isn’t it (verses 8–11)? *

*It all happens at once:*

Jeremiah finishes preaching God’s Word;

the corrupt priests and false prophets then lay hold of him and accuse him
and threaten to kill him.

*And like a playground fight about to break out:*

all the people rush to gather around,

the officials hurry to their seats at the place where criminals are judged,

and the priests and prophets demand death for this one who prophesied
against the temple and city they made their god.

*There, before the hostile crowd, Jeremiah tells them that he speaks for
Yahweh, and he calls them to repent of their sins (verses 12–13).*

If they repent, if they turn to the Lord, God will relent of the disaster
he’s pronounced upon them.

But if they refuse . . . (verses 14–15).

*For Judah and Jeremiah, this is the moment of crisis:*

either for peaceful resolution

or for catastrophe.

* D. From the time of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, the whole world
teeters on the edge of a crisis of nuclear proportions; we are all headed
toward eternal catastrophe in hell. *

*We have not given up our gods. We worship our carnal desires. We put our
trust in things of plastic and glass and steel. We lie and cheat for
temporal things that last such a short time. This is rebellion against God.*

*We have heard the voice of our pastor accuse us of our sins and call us to
repentance, yet we are so turned in on ourselves that we have neither the
desire nor the will to do anything but sin.*

*And as we descend into this journey of Lent and continue to live all the
days of our lives, we know we are in a crisis, we know the wages of sin is
eternal death, we know we have been brought forth in iniquity, and we know
we have sinned and done what is evil in Yahweh’s sight.*

*The crisis is before us! We are lost and condemned creatures. No
negotiations, no “trying to do better” on our part can bring a peaceful
resolution.*

*Ah! But there is one way out of this crisis that threatens our
condemnation.*

* II. The living Word made flesh intervenes in the crisis.*

*A. When you heard of Jeremiah being brought before the priests and
prophets and all the people, did this not all sound familiar?*

*1. Could you not see, and could you not hear, the Pharisees and
Sadducees, the scribes and chief priests and all the people scurrying to
their places and bringing Jesus before Pilate and demanding his death?*

*Jesus was speaking all that the Father had commanded him, and the Father
even instructed the people: *

*“This is my Son, whom I love; listen to him.”*

*God had sent many prophets—like Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah—and they
were murdered. *

*As Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to it!” (Luke 13:34).*

*God sends many prophets into the vineyard to preach repentance and
salvation.*

*What happens? Each is beaten and killed. *

*Now he sends his Son, God in the flesh.*

* B. This is the only way the crisis of our damnation could be
averted—if God himself were to live the commandments perfectly in our
place, take the punishment of our sins into his own flesh, and shed his
blood in payment for our sin and hell. *

*It is God’s love for us that averts this crisis, “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son. . . . For God did not send his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him” (John 3:16–17).*

*The Lord relents of this epic crisis by shedding his innocent blood for
you and me.*

a. On the cross, Jesus gathers his wayward children as a hen gathers her
brood under her wings.

b. On the cross, Jesus dies desolate, as the Father forsakes him in our
place and claims us as his own.

c. On the cross, Jesus gifts us with our citizenship in heaven, even as
we now await his blessed return to take us to heaven forever.

d. On the cross, Jesus declares, “It is finished!” The debt is paid;
your sins are forgiven. The crisis is averted!

*III. For us, then, the crisis is averted when we believe the preached
Word that calls us to repentance and delivers to us the living Word.*

*A. It turned out, in the verses immediately after our text, cooler
heads prevailed; Jeremiah wasn’t killed. But twenty-two years later, Judah
was dragged off into captivity in Babylon.*

*The temple was razed; *

Jerusalem was destroyed

just as Jeremiah had warned.

*2. The people had never really taken God’s Word to heart.*

*B. Paul wrote to the Philippians in our Epistle, “Therefore, my
brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in
the Lord, my beloved” (Philippians 4:1). *

*“Stand firm.” *

This means we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of
our faith.

*This means we cling to him throughout this desolate journey of life:*

whether we’re in sadness or joy,

whether we’re prosperous or poor,

whether we’re living in the joy of life

or suffering ills and persecution.

*Jesus is our joy and treasure. *

He is the one thing needful.

He is our life and our salvation!

* C. And we hear the voice of his prophets today, as pastors preach
God’s Word to us.*

1. *When we are convicted of our sins, we repent.*

*Our entire life is a life of repentance as the redeemed children of God: *

The old Adam in us is by daily contrition and repentance drowned and dies
with all sins and evil desires,

and a new man daily emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness
and purity forever.

*This is who we are as children for whom the crisis of damnation is
averted:*

children of faith and repentance and love toward God and our neighbor.

*Conclusion*

*In 2017, Adidas, a German company that designs shoes, sportswear, and
accessories, sent a promotional email to the Boston Marathon participants. *

*It read, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” *

*Adidas could have had a great crisis on their hands, not thinking of the
2013 Boston Marathon bombings. *

*Fortunately, the spokeswoman for Adidas, Maria Culp—yes, her real name—was
quick and clever enough to go on the offensive, accepting responsibility
for the faux pas and issuing a mea culpa, that is, an acknowledgment of the
error that was made: *

*“We are incredibly sorry. There was no thought given to the insensitive
email we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.” *

*The apology was well received. *

*Besides chuckling at the ironic humor of her name, Maria’s audience took
her apology as heartfelt, straightforward, and, most important, immediate. *

*For Adidas, this was a public-relations (and sales!) crisis averted! *

*For us, an eternal crisis is averted when the Lord sends us his Word that
brings us to repentance (Jeremiah 26:8–15).*

*History bears out many crises that have been averted and thousands of
lives saved. *

*But there is none like the crisis of sin and death by which Jesus’ death
and resurrection, and this alone averted a crisis of such epic proportions,
a crisis for your soul and mine. *

*We often feel that crisis now, but the final resolution will come on the
Last Day when Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his
glorious body.*

*Crisis averted! Amen.*

Let us pray:

*Jesus, may our hearts be burning *

*With more fervent love for You;*

*May our eyes be ever turning *

*To behold Your cross anew*

*Till in glory, parted never *

*From the blessèd Savior’s side,*

*Graven in our hearts forever, *

*Dwell the cross, the Crucified.*

Text (LSB 423:3): Public domain

*The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.*

*In the Name of the Father…Amen.*