Funeral Sermon for Betty Lubcke

Revelation 21:1-7

March 16, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Hear again the words of the Revelation to St. John chapter 21, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

Now, we are here with tears in our eyes. A wonderful woman has died, and it is sad for us. We feel a great loss.  What a wonderful comfort, and what a wonderful message we hear from God today. God makes His dwelling place with us. This is talking about the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, became man. But it’s not just about what happened 2000 years ago, it’s also about what is happening now, and what will happen.

What we see here is God who cares for and comforts His people. This is no absentee God. He breaks into His own creation, He makes His dwelling place with men as a man so that He might bring eternal life to all who hear His word and believe in Him.  That was Betty’s hope. That is Betty’s life. This fact shaped her whole identity. It’s no secret that Betty loved books and that she loved the Good Book. It was more than a love of reading and learning. She read these books and talked about them and led Bible studies, she was involved in all kinds of church activities, she raised a family, that she may know you here in order that she may know you there.  She believed Jesus’ words to His disciples that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name. She was not perfect, she knew it. She confessed throughout her life that she was a poor miserable sinner who was forgiven for Jesus’ sake solely out of His grace. She loved the Lord because He loved her.  And she wanted her family and her friends to know this, to believe this, to trust in the same promise of God. 

God has made a promise. This promise was confirmed through the death of His own Son. The Father promised Jesus, His only begotten Son, that anyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and be raised up bodily on the Last Day. Jesus came into the world for that purpose – to restore our eternal relationship with God. Because Jesus came, because God made His dwelling place with man, everyone who believes in Him will be raised. 

Jesus faced many troubles and struggles in His life. He saw the sickness, decay, and death in the world. He saw hatred and deception, the hated and the deceived. He watched children and loved ones die.  When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, Jesus wept. Think about that for a moment. Jesus, the Lord of life, who was able to call Lazarus out of the tomb to life again, wept. He cried over death because it is not how we were created to be. Death is not a part of life. Yet, even Jesus died, betrayed, abandoned, alone. 

But we are not here to shed a tear for Jesus.  Nor are we here to shed a tear for Betty. Our tears are for ourselves, for our loss and sadness. We are here to have our tears wiped away by the nailed pierced; living hands of God in the flesh, of Jesus. For Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, alleluia! In Christ, God made His home with man unto death. And in Christ, God makes a home for man unto life. Jesus lives, risen from the dead, the defeater sin and death itself. A time is coming, it is coming soon, when there will be more tears or mourning or pain because the cause of these things is gone, the former things passed away. We’ll see Betty there, it was her prayer that she see you as well. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Lent 3 2020 Oculi

Psalm 25

March 15, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Lenten Midweek 2 2020

Psalm 6

March 18, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

God’s wrath is real.  We don’t like to think about it much, and often times it is thought of as an ambiguous mystery that might or not be something to be nervous about. In tonight’s reading from St. Paul, however, we see it plain and clear.  Three times in Romans 1 Paul writes of God giving up the hard-hearted.

This is what the wrath of God is revealed against: “all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth" (Romans 1:18).  Because of this ungodliness and suppression of the truth God gave them up to the lusts of their hearts, to impurity, and dishonoring their bodies, to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Those things led them to unnatural relations and shameless acts. Sound familiar? These are the very same moral evils that our society no longer call evil but thinks them to be the stuff of holy marriage. Sodom and Gomorrah have nothing on us. The wrath of God is revealed in God giving us up to these things until such time as He delivers us and separates the sheep from the goats.

Repent. Repent of turning a blind eye of such things among your family and society. Repent of thinking it is ok if someone else sins as long as it doesn’t really affect you.  It does affect you, as it affects them. Repent for treating the wrath of God lightly or as not that big of a deal, for it is real, it is revealed in history, in the Word of God, in Christ upon the cross. 

Psalm 6 is a perfect Psalm to consider. It is the first and shortest of the seven penitential Psalms we are considering this Lenten season. Penitential here doesn’t mean wallowing in self-pity and terror, but it means to make a plea for and a confession of Messianic forgiveness and mercy.  These seven psalms all have this in common: they all explicitly ask God for forgiveness of sins.

So here in Psalm 6 David begins with the reality of God’s wrath. This isn’t directed toward others, but David is afraid for himself because of what he has done. He has deserved God’s wrath and he knows it. This is the prayer of a man who feels the weight of his sin, the guilt and shame, the burden. It laments the great suffering of the conscience when one’s faith and hope are tormented by the law and anger of God and driven to despair or misbelief. God’s love is hidden from him.  God’s wrath seems to be all there is, all he knows and experiences. So he prays to be delivered from it: “O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger, neither discipline me in Your wrath.”

“Divine wrath is not some sort of irritation; God does not become peeved or annoyed.”[i]  He is not sulking because we hurt His feelings. His wrath is “a deliberate resolve in response to a specific state of the human soul” particularly toward those who are hard of heart, unrepentant, or who have turned their backs on God and refused His grace. That is what David is up against. He knew better but he turned his back on God’s grace. That is why He begs God not to rebuke him in His anger.

We must also pray in this way – not just in Lent but always. We must ask to be delivered from God’s wrath – not as those who didn’t know what they were doing, but as those who have hardened their hearts and planned to repent later.  A love of sin remains within us all. Every deliberate sin hardens our hearts. Sin, especially deliberate sin, leaves us in “a very weakened state. It is felt in our inner frame, our very bones, as it were.” Thus David: “Be gracious to me, O Lord; for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is also greatly troubled: but You, O Lord – how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love. For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” (Psalm 6:2–5).

David certainly is not unique in this. In fact, his sin makes perfect sense: lust and greed and pride are well-known by us all. That is why we need to keep on repenting, confessing, and praying, and that is why God in His mercy keeps on speaking in the Scriptures, absolving us through the pastors, and feeding us in the Sacrament of the Altar.

David needs mercy now because death is too late. No one gives thanks in the grave. That, by the way, is how the hard-hearted behave now: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.” The hard-hearted don’t ask God for forgiveness. They also don’t give thanks.  Death is the culmination of sin, the place without thanksgiving, “in the grace who shall give the thanks?” We have suffered a foretaste of that in our own lives. We have been discontent, envious, and hardened our hearts so that our bones ache within us. Like David, we want no more of that. So like David, we pray: “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.”

Sin and death form the context of this Psalm. They give cause for the lament and plea. We need rescue, deliverance. We are in danger because of the sins of our society and family and church, and because of our own sins. But David also shows us how to pray in hope, how to cling to a promise. He knows the Holy Trinity hears and answers him: “The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer” (Psalm 6:8b-9).

And what has the Lord heard? He has heard those who trust in Him, who have come confession and sorrow over sin, whose tears have stained pillows, whose bones ache with sorrow for their children, for their past, for their failures.  The Lord has heard faith. And the Lord answers.

The Lord is merciful. He pours out His wrath over your sin upon His only begotten Son and He casts the dregs upon Satan’s crushed skull. “The taking away of sin required the shedding of Christ’s blood on the Cross. This fact itself tells us how serious” sin is even as it tells us what we are worth to the Father. The Lord, risen from the dead, comes in peace to you, not to rebuke you, but to wash away the ashes of repentance, to prepare you for Jesus’ resurrection and your own, to restore you from death and the grave of Sheol. 

[i] The quotations in this sermon, other than quotations of the Psalm, have been taken directly from Patrick Henry Reardon’s remarks on Psalm 6 in Christ in the Psalms. Even where there aren’t quotes, the argument and ideas are also mainly his from the same section. Patrick Henry Reardon, Christ in the Psalms (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2000), 11–12. https://cyberstones.org/sermon/thursday-after-ash-wednesday-psalm-6-2016/

Lent 2 Reminiscere 2020

Matthew 15:21-28

March 8, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

In Genesis 32, the patriarch Jacob is about to meet his brother, Esau, who is coming toward him with 400 men. This was frightening to him given that he had stolen Esau’s birthright, but also now that a Man had wrestled with him all night until dawn. That Man was the Son of God. Jacob maintains that He will not let go of this Man until he is blessed by Him.  After the Lord renames Jacob to Israel, meaning one who strives or wrestles with God, Jacob says of this Man, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (Gen 32:30). 

            In our Gospel reading we hear of this same struggle which “spiritual Israel” sometimes has to undergo with God and Christ by faith. Not only do we have to struggle against flesh and blood, against the evil world, and the devil, but often Christ hides His face from us, and presents Himself against us as a stranger with whom we have to wrestle. We have an example of this spiritual wrestling match with a Canaanite woman who wrestles with Christ the Lord until she finally obtains a blessing from Him. 

            There are several things that we can learn from her godly example. The first thing is that faith is often tempted through various trails and hardships. Here is a believing woman who comes to the Lord, complains about her need and by faith, asks for help. But she doesn’t receive it immediately.

            Christ still deals with His own in the same way today. He tests and exercises faith, as St. Paul highlights in the Romans 5, “we know that suffering/tribulation produces endurance.” God sends hardships into our lives so that faith shines through endurance and patience. We should regard the crosses that we bear as we follow Jesus as a testing of our faith for the strengthening of our faith. These crosses ought to move us to pray, to call upon Christ for mercy and help the way that this Canaanite woman did. In her prayer, as simple as it is, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon” (Matt 15:22), she trusts in Jesus’ power and authority to heal and His promise, and appeals to His mercy. So we too, in our own prayers, ought to be grounded in the same. 

            The testing of her faith also comes with Jesus’ silence. For as Christ gives her no answer, so it still often happens that God does not help right away. We see this throughout Scripture with Job, David, Jeremiah, Paul, and even in our own lives. Yet, she does not give up, instead, she holds on with prayer. So we too shouldn’t regard God’s silence as refusal, but rather an exercise in faith. If the longing for God’s help and blessing is genuine, then it will not put out by such a thing.

And so Jesus’ encourages us to pray, “Ask, and it will be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened (Matt 7:7). Jesus is saying, if there is a need, pray. If you don’t immediately receive help, then hang on and seek. If it still doesn’t happen, then knock. 

Another thing we can learn from this woman is the way she responds to Jesus when He finally does answer her. He certainly comes across as harsh saying that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. But she doesn’t allow it to drive her away from Christ, instead she chases after Him all the more.  

By ethnicity, this Canaanite woman is not a sheep of Israel. That would be presumptuous. She is not one of the children, but she does belong in the house. She doesn’t want to steal the bread out of the mouths of the children. She wants the master’s bread, and that belongs to His pets as well as to His children.  She catches Christ by means of His own words. He compares her to a dog, which she admits and she asks no more than that He let her be like a dog. He was caught. No dog is denied the breadcrumbs under the table. She belongs in the house, not by presumption or privilege, but by grace. Therefore, He takes heed of her and submits to her will, so that she is no longer a dog but becomes a child of Israel. (Luther’s Sermon, 1525). And Jesus marvels and rewards her faith. Her daughter is healed. Let us marvel at her faith as well. And let us marvel even more that the Lord feeds sinners and welcomes them into His family.

Could we give a more profound lesson? God will test you. He will appear to be worse than indifferent to you, in fact, you will be sure He’s just ignoring you. It’s okay. Hold tight to His words and promises.  The truth is always what His Words reveal. Hold them in your heart. Wrestle with Him and refuse to let Him go until He has answered, until He has fed you. And He gives you more than bread for children or scraps for pets. He gives you His risen body and blood in the Sacrament to cure and heal your soul, to send the demons away running, to strengthen and preserve your faith.  Come, take and eat the crumbs from the Bread of Life, the drops of Divine Blood. Be it done for you as you desire.

Psalm 32

Blessed are the Forgiven

Midweek Lenten Service

March 4, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Last week we heard of Psalm 51, which David caught in his sin, in the midst of the anguish of his soul. For a whole year after his adultery, David was like one under the sentence of condemnation. Tonight, we heard Psalm 32, composed by David after his deliverance.  The theme of this psalm is the treasure which David brought up out of His spiritual distress after Psalm 51 and his sins with Bathsheba.

Psalm 32, then, begins “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” There is blessedness in forgiveness, and that comes with the covering up of sin.  This is an interesting concept.  Usually when we think of covering up something, we think of hiding, of sweeping it under rug so that no one can see it.  But that isn’t at all what David is talking about here.  To cover up doesn’t pretend it isn’t real.  In fact, it is just the opposite. This cover exposes the sins. It brings it to light. Attempting to hide sin leads David to say, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” (Psalm 32:4). But there is no forgiveness received when there is no repentance and confession, and sin is left uncovered. Bondage to sin is not a defect to be corrected by self-discipline. It is enmity with God and carries with it the verdict of guilt and a divinely imposed death sentence. 

But like David, we don’t like to admit when we’re wrong. We are good at confessing the sins of others only to make ourselves look less guilty.  We seek justification, of self-defense and rationalization our actions. We see this all too often at funerals and in eulogies. They are, more often than not, attempts to vocalize why the deceased person’s life was worthwhile. They seek to justify their life. But if one is not justified by faith in Christ, one will seek justification somewhere else. 

David realized this, and so he acknowledged his sin.  He did not seek to justify his actions or make excuses or cover up his iniquity.  He confessed his transgressions to the Lord.  In confession, the sinner acknowledges that God is right. It agrees with God’s verdict because of sin: guilty.  That’s what iniquity means.  It is the guiltiness of sin.  Now, usually today we talk about guilt as a feeling, a subjective reaction, how I feel about a deed. If I feel bad, it is guilt. If I don’t feel bad, then I’m not guilty. But that’s not how the Bible speaks of guilt and iniquity.  It is not based on how you feel, but on an objective declaration that the Law has been broken. A criminal may or may not feel remorse, regret, guilt, or shame.  But really, it doesn’t matter. The verdict of guilty doesn’t depend upon his feelings, but upon the declaration of the Judge who decides what is right and what is wrong. God’s Word of the Law establishes His judgment. There is no appeal. 

To deny this verdict means that the truth is not in us, as St. John said, “If we say we have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us… If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us,” His word of forgiveness, nor His Word incarnate.” (1 John 1:8, 10).  The heavy and of the Law cannot be overcome. To be a sinner is to be captive in death and condemnation, and no amount of self-justification can provide a get out of jail free card. 

Confession is the acknowledgment of this reality. Sin is named, not to get if off your chest and let you breathe easier, but to acknowledge it before the Lord, to whom no secrets are hidden. When sin is confessed and Absolution received for the sake of Christ, God does not hold that sin or the guiltiness of it against the person. But where sin is not confessed, it remains destructive and festering. Confession admits this defeat and leaves the person open for a word that declares righteous, not guilt, a verdict that justifies. 

God grants a verdict of not guilty in light of a true confession. And with that verdict of not guilty, of forgiveness, comes the covering of sin. You cannot cover your own guiltiness, but Christ covers it with His blood, forgives your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness. 

David is a perfect example and teacher that even saints are sinners. They cannot become holy or blessed except by confessing themselves as sinners before God. Saints are holy only because God in His grace covers those sins. There is no distinction between saints and non-saints. They are all sinners alike, only that the sins of the saints are not counted against them, but are covered; and the sins of the others are not covered but are counted. 

David is the perfect example and teacher. That which David promises to do in Psalm 51, he now does – the instruction of sinners in the way of salvation.  David teaches us that confession ought to be used evangelically for the comfort of guilty consciences.  Everyone who is godly ought to walk in this way. Confession is not a good work that we perform, but it is the occasion to God’s word of pardon for the sake of Christ and how to apply them to our lives. The goal is faith in the divine promise. He leads us to repent, He forgives, He makes Himself available, He instructs and teaches, He makes glad the heart and opens your lips for praise. 

I would encourage you this Lent, to take advantage of the wonderful sacrament, of God’s Word applied directly to you, personally, through private confession and absolution. God has given you a pastor for this very purpose, to be the ear and voice of Christ. The ear of the pastor is the grave for your sin as it is acknowledged and confessed. The voice of the pastor, O Lord, my lips that my mouth shall declare your praise is to announce that your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, to declare the verdict, “Not guilty” for the sake of Christ, to deliver justification by faith, to stand in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ , “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

Lent 1 Invocabit 2020

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

March 1, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Think back to your favorite pastor, or Sunday school teacher, or youth worker, or Lutheran school teacher, parent or grandparent. What was it that made them so special? How often do you think they prayed for you? How many hours did they prepare Sunday School lessons, activities, opportunities for you to know Jesus?  St. Paul gives us a godly example of the labor and work of a child of God. This shows the importance of the message.

Oh, the memories of those beloved saints who have preceded us in the faith.  Now think of this.  The Church is always one generation away from extinction in any given place. The preaching of the Gospel is not an eternal, lasting, and continual teaching at every place in every time.  Certainly, the Word of the Lord endures forever and Christ will preserve His Church until His return.  But it may not be here and it may not always be among us or our children. Do not neglect the grace given. Let’s not disappoint those who have brought us the grace of God, nor abandon the faith.  We should live and practice such a life because now is the time of grace. 

For the day of salvation is today. That is what St. Paul was trying to get across to the Christians in Corinth, and it still applies to us.  The Epistle is an admonition to Christians to do what they already know they should do. The words are easy, but carrying them out is hard. All these difficulties that St. Paul mentions such as endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, and the like, it is easy to understand how we serve God in them, since God does not want lazy, idle children. He hits very well at our laziness.  We labor, working together with Him, we serve God but also show that we serve God. 

For in Holy Baptism we received the grace of adoption to be sons of God.  We don’t need to wait for the grace to be given, for it is ours already.  It is ours in spite of the sins of our past, ours to conquer the power of inward sin, and our now, for now is the day of salvation.  Every temptation is directed against our position as redeemed children of God. In the desert, Christ’s temptations were directed against sonship.  We should remember how much we stand to lose if we should forfeit our baptismal birthright because our of sin. 

On this first Sunday in Lent, we enter into a season of intense preparation for Easter. In Baptism, we were buried with Christ into death, and as He was raised from the dead, we also should walk in newness of life. That’s what we focus upon this Lenten season. We examine our lives to discover what of the old life still remains in us or has crept back in our new life. The main Lenten task is to prepare for a Christian life to have God sanctify our heart and cleanse it of sin by the blood of Jesus. 

With sin out of the way, there is nothing to separate us from the holy God. We are His, brothers and sisters in Christ, children of God. God’s children have all their needs supplied.  God will supply all that is needed to remain faithful, feed with the bread of life in Word and Sacrament, guard and protect from all evil, and preserve for His heavenly kingdom. 

For help to resist and overcome, for assurance and strength, we come to the Lord’s Table to receive the grace again, to have our sins forgiven, to have endurance unto the end. The Son of God calls the children of God to His table to assure us that we too are working with Him in our battle against temptation. We eat His body and drink His blood, we partake of Him, we have fellowship, communion, partnership with Him. He joins us to Himself, and so we share in all that He has, in all He has done, and all that He will do for our salvation. 

Do not receive the grace of God in vain, but trust in God to persevere and patiently bear all in Him who defends and delivers in every temptation those who are faithfully His own. 

Ash Wednesday 2020

Psalm 51

February 26, 2020

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

The circumstances of Psalm 51 are well known. David was idle while his men’s lives were in danger. He spied Bathsheba the wife of Uriah bathing while Uriah was off at war. David seduced her and after he had impregnated her, in order to cover his tracks, he arranged to have Uriah murdered. Then he took Bathsheba as his wife as though he were concerned for the widows of his soldiers. The object of his lust and murder became an opportunity for political posturing. 

The prophet Nathan was sent to confront him and confront him he did.  In no uncertain terms, he calls his friend and his king a thief and murderer who deserves death for his horrible crimes.  David could have thrown Nathan out, he could have pretended he was within his rights, but instead David repented. He repented and found unexpected mercy from God through the Messiah to come.

That mercy was unjust. It did not bring back Uriah. It did not save the child of Bathsheba. It did not undo what he had done. Yet we celebrate this injustice because Christ is merciful to sinners. And we thank God that even the greatest saints, saints like David who was a man after God’s own heart, have sometimes fallen into terrible crimes and that their faults and repentance have been recorded for us in Holy Scripture. In this way, we poor sinners might learn to be careful of the dangers that surround us and also to rejoice that God is indeed merciful to sinners and bestows life where death is deserved.

It is in response to, and in praise of, that incredible mercy that David wrote Psalm 51. This is not a Psalm for good people. It is a Psalm for sinners – even terrible, intentional sinners who in no way deserve our pity, whose lives are messy and full of regret. It is for sinners, by a sinner, because Christ died only for sinners.

There are thirteen imperatives/commands in Psalm 51. Taken by themselves in the order of the Psalm the imperatives make a powerful impression of what David is after. “Have mercy upon me,” He says, “blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, hide Your face from my sins, blot out all my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me, restore to me the joy of Your salvation; uphold me with a willing spirit, deliver me from bloodguiltiness, do good to Zion in Your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem.”

David is asking, demanding really, that God do something to him in regard to his sins, iniquities, transgressions, and bloodguiltiness. All of them phrases are directed to God. Eleven of them are personal requests. The other two imperatives are both in the last verse. They request that God do something to His people, that is, to us sinners and transgressors whom he had mentioned earlier.

David is after forgiveness. He is not a man without regrets or shame. He doesn’t stand upon his confirmation or the great education that he got in a Lutheran grade school or how often his parents read from the Bible. He doesn’t appeal to how often he went to church or how much he gave in the offering plate. He is not proud. He is ashamed. He has done real harm to the world, to people. He is not innocent. He is guilty, and he knows it.  And so he comes for mercy.

So do we. We come for mercy. That is why the heart of this Psalm is prayed by Lutherans as the offertory every week. Week after week, year after year, before receiving the risen Lord’s Body and Blood we Lutherans sing with David: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence; And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; And uphold me with Thy free spirit.”

As serious as this Psalm is, as horrible as the circumstances were that surrounded it and the terrible consequences that followed through the death of his son, David still praises God in the midst of it. We take up that praise in our prayer offices, in Matins and Vespers. We begin those services with David’s words from verse 15: “O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall declare Your praise.”

Don’t be ashamed to identify with David. You too were shaped in iniquity and have sinned against the Lord and have come for mercy. A broken and a contrite heart, He will not despise. He has already paid for those sins you have committed, and the ones you will commit. Jesus died for them all, no matter how evil or cruel they might be. 

David, his loved ones, and his country had to live with some consequences because of his sins. They were many victims. But David was not forsaken. The Holy Spirit was not taken from him. You have sinned against God and our neighbors, in thought, word, and deed, by what you have done and by what you have left undone. And yet you are not forsaken. No matter how many times you have been divorced and abused, no matter how much your children hate you, no matter how filled you are with regret and shame, you are not worse than David. Your family is not more dysfunctional, more embarrassing, or less worthy of Christ’s love. You have sinned against God and your neighbor, in small and in great ways, sometimes with petty and malicious motives, and other times cruelly unaware of how you are hurting others, and yet you have not been forsaken. The Holy Spirit given in Baptism has not be been taken from you.

Modified from a sermon. https://cyberstones.org/sermon/good-friday-2-2015/