Listen, now, to the Word that God has spoken;
listen to the One who is close at hand;
listen to the Voice that began Creation;
listen even if you don’t understand.
At that moment, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and he prayed, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike – the ones unspoiled by worldly attitudes. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.” (personal translation of Matthew 11:25, Luke 10:21)
The topics of conversion into which I’m often drawn are wide-ranging in scope, and the matters for which I’m often asked to pray are as varied as the wind. Take for example my recent conversation with a local farmer in this season of silage-chopping, corn and bean harvesting, and late nights spent in cabs of combines, tractors, and semis. Surely the goodness of God is on full display in the bounty of the land.
Yet within such generous provision comes the very-real danger of a hot and dusty combine catching fire. So the conversation with my farmer-friend turned toward whether the fire extinguisher he first installed in his combine cab in 1986 was up to the task should his rig catch fire. And thus I join so many others in praying for farmers and all those laboring to bring another year’s crop to market.
I trust that God so also is at work amid the filling and dumping of gravity wagons, amid the replacement of broken belts and the repair of cracked metal, amid the nourishment of hot meals when the wise decision is made to rest and recharge. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers for this time of gathering, for it pleases you to do it this way –
From all that dwell below the skies,
Let the Creator’s praise arise:
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung
Thro’ every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends thy Word;
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore
Till suns shall rise and set no more.
The need for mercy feels particularly present here in our church neighborhood as our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers at St. Patrick’s last week bid a tearful goodbye to their pastor, Fr. John Moser, whom according to his obituary the community remembers as a “pillar of strength, compassion, and devotion.”
Sometimes the glory of God is on full display – as with the Lord’s provision in the fall harvest. Other times, not so much – as when death snatches away the life of a faith leader who influenced and inspired, and a whimper is all you’re able to muster, no thanks to the pain in your heart.
Grief, it is said, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to share with the other but cannot. All that unspent love gathers in the corners of your eyes, in the lump of your throat, and in the hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. So, Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers for all who sorrow and mourn for a beloved pastor, or a cherished spouse, or a close sibling, or a high-school classmate, for it pleases you to do it this way –
I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
My only trust and Savior of my heart,
Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray Thee from our hearts all cares to take.
Our hope is in no other save in Thee;
Our faith is built upon Thy promise free;
Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,
That in Thy strength we evermore endure.
If grief is just love with no place to go, then the love trapped within one family’s grief surely found a place to go – into our friend and neighbor Mitch Duncklee, a son of this congregation and newfound recipient of a liver transplant from an individual who died of a heart attack.
Love found a home in the care and support offered to Mitch and his family through a long, grueling, and anxious wait.
Love found a home, along the way, in selfless offers to serve as living donors.
Love found a home, through it all, when heartache and tragedy left beleaguered spirits hanging at the end their rope.
As is so often the case, love finds a home by holy means that elude the understanding of mere mortals. By God’s standards, the wise are the childlike. They are the trusters, the innocents excitedly fed by and lovingly attached to their heavenly Parent. These are to whom God chooses to give wisdom, to whom God chooses to reveal Jesus, to whom Father and Son choose to bestow the Spirit.
So, Lord, in your abundant mercy, hear our prayers, for it pleases you to do it this way: “Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy word success; Spirit of holiness, on us descend.”
At that moment, according to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and he prayed, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike – the ones unspoiled by worldly attitudes. Yes, Father, it pleases you to do it this way” – when the Spirt comes down, and love finds a home.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message during worship on Sunday, October 20, 2024. Scholarship, commentary, and reflection by Jamie Anderson and Scott Hoezee inform the message.