Lent 1 2019 Invocabit

Genesis 3:1-21

March 10, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Our OT reading for this morning from Genesis 3:1–19 gives us the account of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and the resulting curses pronounced upon them and the serpent. Though God had given them for food all the trees of the garden, including the tree of life, Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the serpent and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent preached that they would not die because God knew that when they ate they would be as God Himself. Indeed, they would be gods unto themselves. The result of their eating was death, just as the Lord had promised. “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Is it any surprise then, that our Lord, after His baptism in the Jordan, is called into the wilderness? He fasted, and while he was fasting, a voice in the wilderness cried out, “If you are really the Son of God…” The temptation for Adam and Eve was to reject their calling as creatures and become as gods to themselves. The temptation for Christ was to reject His calling as the Son of God, submitting to the Father’s will, and take matters into His own hands. But our Lord does not bite the bait. He keeps the fast that Adam failed to keep.

For us men, and for our salvation, this new and better Adam said “no” to the devil’s temptations. Rather than eat the forbidden fruit of earthly power and glory, Christ ate ashes like bread and mingled His drink with weeping (cf. Psalm 102:9). He refused to satisfy Himself, to indulge His appetite, and denied Himself food and drink for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. He was content to live by the Word of His Father.

The devil tempts Him in three ways. 1^st temptation is one of greed and caring of this life so that you neglect the Word of God. The devil attacks Christ with the worry of His body, His hunger, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”  This temptation is common among Christians, especially by those who have less than most. It is for this reason that St. Paul warns that the love of money is the root of all evil, for it is the fruit of unbelief.  Christ’s answer, “Man does not live by bread alone.”  God certainly gives daily bread even without our prayers, but our life is sustained by the Word of the God, not by the things of this world.

The 2^nd is a spiritual temptation, about tempting God. What happens is that the devil teaches us to put God to the test.  He takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tells Him to tempt God, to throw Himself down to see if the Father will really take care of Him.  It makes perfect sense that this temptation follows the first one very. When the devil finds a heart which trusts in God in lack or need, then he attacks on the others side.  When there is no lack, he tries to create the idea that is one.  Where there is no lack for the body, the devil goes after the soul. It’s like when you start to get bored with God, with coming to church, with reciting the creed or the Lord’s Prayer or the liturgy, when you think you know it all well enough and need no more instruction by the Word. This is a dangerous plague by which the devil deceives the hearts of many, but not the Word of God incarnate.

The 3^rd temptation involves empty glory and the power of this world. The devil shows Jesus the kingdoms of the world and offers to give them if only Jesus would worship him.  How ridiculous this must seem to the creator of all things.  The nations already are His, as are you.  And He is yours. If Christ is with you, what else do you need?  Would you choose to give up glory, fame, power rather than the Word?  This is what happens with us: if we have nothing, then we doubt God, if we have much, they we become tired of it and want to have something else. It’s the idea that whatever God does for us is never right.  

Here Christ gains the victory and teaches us how to gain the victory. All this then is a mirror of bodily and spiritual temptation, with which the devil daily plagues and afflicts us, so that we are in a constant and unceasing fight with him. Church after church is under assault. And the temptation is always to make church less churchy.  No more hymns that link us to the past or teach deep truths to music.  No more liturgy that gives us God’s Word as our language of prayer and praise. No more Scripture readings that are too long regardless that faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. Enough is enough. Fight back.  Abide in the Word. Cling to Christ. Resist the temptation of the devil and the sinful world who seek to make you like them.  You are baptized into Christ and His victory.  By your side we have also the gracious presence of the Lord Christ to comfort us, and His holy angels, as the Lord says in John 14:30, “See, the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing on me.”  The best shield and weapon against this is God’s Word and prayer. That is why this Sunday is called Invocavit, from Psalm 91:15, “He calls on me, and I will answer him.”

Jesus’ temptations are not just a duel with the devil or an example for us to follow.  Rather, the point is that all of Jesus’ temptations are salvific.  They are part of God’s plan of salvation.  By Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness and on the cross, He triumphed over the devil and won the forgiveness of sins for all people. The main purpose of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness was to redeem the history of Israel—and of all humanity—in the person of Jesus. And this, He did, to deliver us. As we pray in the great litany:

“Good Lord, deliver us. By the mystery of Your holy incarnation; by Your holy nativity; By Your baptism, fasting, and temptation; by Your agony and bloody sweat; by Your cross and passion; by Your precious death and burial; By Your glorious resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter:” Help us, good Lord.

Ash Wednesday 2019

Genesis 3:1-15; Joel 2:12-19

March 6, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

This sermon is adapted from the CPH series, The Salutary Gift

Quinquagesima 2019

Luke 18:31-43

March 3, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

It was around the year 1050 BC and it was the end of the era of the judges in Israel.  The prophet Samuel was an old man by this time, his sons were corrupt, and the elders of Israel wanted a king. Not only did they want a king, but they demanded one to judge them like all the other pagan nations, who would go out before them and fight their battles. Samuel didn’t like this one little bit, and neither did God, for making this demand they rejected God from king over them. Samuel warned the people with God’s own words that this was a bad idea and that it would not go well with them. But they wouldn’t listen and doubled down on their rejection and hardness of heart. And so God gave them what they asked for.

For 20 years Saul reigned as king, and it was not good. Saul turned from following God and did not follow His commandments. And so when the time was right, God sent Samuel to the house of Jesse from Bethlehem to anoint someone new, for God had provided form Himself a king from among his sons. Jesse’s youngest son, a shepherd, ruddy in appearance, beautiful eyes and handsome. He wasn’t really considered to be much.  But God’s doesn’t care about the external appearance, rather he looks at the heart and seeks one who will not run after other gods.  David, whose son would be a greater king, was anointed by Samuel and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him from that day forward.

Before Samuel’s time, the Lord’s spirit is not mentioned all that often before the time of the judges.  But now, the rush of the Spirit upon David indicates something important has happened.  The Spirit of the Lord abides with God’s chosen leader. This bestowal of the Spirit ought to make us remember Jesus’ anointing at His baptism, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him.  And on Pentecost the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples.  Unbelievers who repented and believed in Jesus were invited to be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This sets the pattern for the church. Christian baptism is the divine anointing with the Spirit. In the Old Testament priests and kings were anointed, and now all are welcome to receive this anointing into the royal priesthood of all believers in Christ.

When a king of Israel is called the “anointed one” it is always God’s anointed one, not Israel’s.  The anointing, as is Baptism, is God’s choice, and God’s work, not man’s. When God chose Saul He gave the Israelites the king they had requested, their kind of king. In rejecting Saul, God also rejects Israel’s way of choosing. The choice of a new king was not because of the people’s demand, as it was for Saul, but now because of their need, according to God’s criteria – “a man after God’s own heart.” The people got the king they wanted in Saul.  Now, it was time for God to give them the king they needed.  Samuel’s focus is directed away from Saul’s ruined potential to what God will do through the branch of Jesse, David, a man after God’s own heart.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus explains to His disciples, for the third time, what it means that He is the Son of David, that He is the great David, the greater king.  But Jesus isn’t the kind of king that most of them want, but He is the King they need. He doesn't look the way a king should look, yet his heart is Divine. He heals, He preaches, He teaches, He gives life to the lifeless, and forgiveness to the sinner. And His kingship is expressed upon the cross. Crowned with thorns, He is be mocked, spit upon, shamefully treated, flogged and killed. This isn’t how kings were supposed to be treated. Through these things, He will fulfill what was written about Him by the prophets.

The disciples don’t get it. But the blind man does, for by faith, he sees clearly who Jesus is. When He hears that Jesus is coming, he cries out not once, but twice, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:38).  By faith, he recognizes who this Jesus is: the Son of David. Jesus, David’s greater Son, brings health and salvation to him who believes. And what’s more, this man follows Jesus, glorifies God, and others who see it, give praise to God as well.

And so do we.  Jesus isn't the King you always want, but you are no longer blind to Him, and He certainly is the King that you need.  He doesn't bow to your will, He doesn't worship you, He doesn't thank you for gracing Him with your presence in church this morning. He rejects your prideful, self-importance and vanity as surely as He rejected Saul. This is how He judges, not like the nations of the world, but in righteousness and holiness, condemning your sinfulness and taking your sin and guilt upon Himself.  This is how He goes out before His people and fights your battles – by the cross.  And He is victorious, for you, over your sin and over your death.  Here is not just a man after God’s own heart, but in Jesus we see the heart of God Himself, on His way of sorrows but also to His resurrection glory, and now ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

Lent begins this week.  This is not the kingdom that the world wants, and even many a Christian. The ash on the forehead, the sign of the cross, fasting, and almsgiving, and heightened prayer. These things show a theology of the cross, a time centered upon Christ and Him crucified, the King crowned with thorns and pierced for our transgressions.  And we follow Him all the way, to rise with Him in the newness of life. But to follow Him requires much love for Him.  It means more than loving what He has done, but to follow Jesus with seeing eyes of faith, sure and certain hope of the resurrection, glorifying God along the way, living not for ourselves but for Him who died and was raised on the third day.

Sexagesima 2019

Luke 8:4-15

February 24, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Jesus speaks to us in His parable, revealing to us what the reign of heaven is like, how things are in the world are.  You see, things weren’t going quite right in Israel; even Jesus’ family isn’t with Him.  How can people who saw Jesus face to face not believe in Him?  How can people hear that Jesus has died for them, to save them from their sins, and they just don’t care?  Why some and not others?  These are questions we’ve all had.  And this parable is Jesus’ answer.

The disciples, and the church as a whole, are to preach the Gospel of Christ to all the world.  As this happens, they would encounter these four kinds of ground, these four kinds of reactions to the Gospel. Some hearers will be like the hard, bare road, and the preaching yields nothing because the seed is not allowed to even begin growing. Some are like the rocky soil, and preaching will be heard at first, but the faith will quickly wither. Some are in the middle of thorns – the cares, riches, and pleasures of this world – which choke out the life generated by the Gospel. Some are the good soil, the preaching takes root and miraculous fruit results. The Sower sows in 4 places, and 3 out of those 4 produce no lasting results.  Most of where God’s Word falls simply doesn’t bear fruit.  But what does bear fruit, bears it in extraordinary ways.

We can’t help but ask, why are only some given ears to hear and understand Jesus’ parables? Why do some see but not see, hear but not understand? Why do only some bear fruit for the harvest?  The easy answer is that the differences have to do within people. Too often we hear, “Don’t be like the rocky ground, or let the thorns choke out your faith.”  But we don’t need to ask which ground is ours, for we may resemble all. There are no hearts that are good by nature.  We are all equally sinful and corrupt. The hearts that are good have been made that way the plowing of God’s grace, by His deepening of our shallow soil, by His persistent and consistent working in our lives.  The receptivity and the fertility of the ground is pure Gospel gift.  This parable isn’t about the ground, but it is about the seed, which is the Word of God.  Within the seed itself lies the promise and the power of life.  The only answer given is that the mystery is according to God’s good pleasure.   

While it could be easy to be discouraged by this parable, the main focus of Jesus’ parable is on the miraculously abundant growth and fruit.  By God’s grace in the promise of the seed to grow, the promise is that preaching the Word of God will be successful. No matter how grime, no matter how things may look at times, there will always be those who hear the Word of God in faith, who come to Baptism and feast on the body and blood Christ. These will be present at the heavenly feast and will bear abundant fruit.  The kingdom, though hidden at times, will always triumph. The Word of God that goes out from His mouth will not return empty.  

There’s a story I once heard about an Anglican missionary in an island off the south pacific.  He lived there for 23 years and never converted a person.  WWI was about to break out, he didn’t know if he would be able to leave ever again, and a ship was coming for him.  He had all his stuff on the boat, when the son of the chief’s wife came to him begging him to see his mother, who was on her death bed.  She never liked him and was often very mean towards him.  Reluctantly, he went to her side until she died, refusing to believe in Jesus even then.  When the missionary got back to the beach, the ship was gone.  A few months later, he was able to catch another ship back to England.

In 1943, U.S. marines landed on the island.  They were armed and ready for a fight because they believed that this was a listening post for the Japanese.  But when they got there, the whole island was out to greet them.  The chief, who was that boy who convinced the missionary to stay for his mother, said to the marines, “We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  It shocked the marines, needless to say.

What had happened is that after the missionary left, the boy was so impressed with the devotion of the missionary, and his willingness to sacrifice all those years and what could have been his only chance to go home, the he picked up one of the many Bibles was left and began to read the Word for the first time.  Through this, he was converted and then brought Jesus to rest of his people.  One seed fell on good soil, and a whole island began to bear fruit.  The missionary never knew about this because he had died in 1934, and he now rests from his labors with all those who have heard and believed.

And this is extremely important, significant and practical for us here today.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for you has been sown within you and all around you.  Some you will not see the fruit.  The great Sower of the Word hasn’t forgotten you.  He hasn’t abandoned you.  He is still working here, tilling up repentance and providing living-giving water from the Spirit.  God has not lost control, even though some refuse to believe, some stop believing and their faith is choked out, and some have Satan snatch their faith away.  God is just as careless throwing the Word around by your lips as He has ever been.  The Word does accomplish what God intends it to do regardless of our own inadequacies, our own failures, our own times of fruitlessness.

There will be obstacles, make no mistake. When people reject the Word of God, it will not grow.  There is the danger of the sinful world and the devil, who stomps upon and snatches the seed of faith up before it can take root and grow.  The devil, temptations, trials and the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life are the chief barriers that keep the crowds who hear the Word from believing and becoming a miraculous yield. Hold fast to the Word you have heard and received. Bear fruit of faith with patience.

This is the reason for living in a community that regularly hears the Word of God and gathers around Jesus. Jesus is the exemplar of the good soil who withstood the temptations of the devil, overcame the temptations of the world, and shunned the temptations of the flesh. He is the one whose heart is honest and good. But He is far more than the model. He is the one who makes possible the response of faith and bearing of fruit. Those who bear fruit a hundredfold do so because Christ is in them and they are in Him. Those who hold fast to the Word in perseverance do so because He faithfully holds them in His hand and keeps them steadfast in the one true faith.

Septuagesima 2019

Matthew 20:1-16

February 17, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Epiphany 4 2019

Jonah 1:1-17

February 3, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

How do you react when you are told to do something that you really just don’t want to do?  Maybe you procrastinate.  Some people may just not do it at all and then make excuses. Or maybe either out of spite or stubbornness you do just the opposite.  That’s what Jonah did.  When God told him to do something that he had no interest in doing, he didn’t complain or make excuses, he ran.  God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire and call out against it because the evil it was doing.  That would be like going to the New York and Virginia today and marching up to the governor and legislators over their evil acts.

Jonah didn’t want to do this, and who could blame him. So instead of going east to Nineveh in what is now Iraq, he went west.  We are told, “But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”  He got out of town as fast as he could and he went in the opposite direction from where God had told him to go.

Jonah’s main problem isn’t with Nineveh, it is with God and His merciful nature. He is a Hebrew who fears the Lord, the God of heaven, and confesses Him to be the creator of the sea and dry land. He knows that the Lord forgives those who repent of their evil. The word that Jonah was bringing to the Ninevites was not simply a word of condemnation for their sin.  It was a word of hope.  They were being called by God to repentance and God had promised them forgiveness for confessing their sin.  Jonah’s problem is with the Gospel. He thinks the Gospel is for himself and other Israelites, not for pagan foreigners. He would rather die than see God’s grace and mercy freely extended to Gentiles. Nineveh is the epitome of evil and moral poverty. They don’t deserve God’s forgiveness in any way, and Jonah doesn’t like the idea that maybe God would relent of the punishment that they deserve. He is unwilling to let God be God.  As a result, he is unable to be the person whom God intends and unable to see others as God sees them.

In our text we see that God confronts sin.  He speaks a word of Law and He punishes sin in order to lead people to repentance.  He does this with Jonah when he sends the storm that causes Jonah to be thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish.  He does this with Nineveh as he sends Jonah into the city to tell them to turn away from their evil or else they will be destroyed.  Call to repentance and confession is a messy business.  Who among us would rather not run and hide instead of openly admitting your sin?  Who among us would rather skip out on the nasty business of telling someone they were wrong, of calling out sin when and where it raising its evil head?

Except Jesus.  We remember Jonah not as an example of what will happen to us if we run away from God or try to hide from His calling.  It is about the God whose mercy refused to let the Ninevites die without the Law and Gospel being proclaimed to them.  It’s about Christ, in whom the mercy of God is found. Jesus did not run from His mission of mercy but welcomed the gracious will of the Father He was to fulfill.  He knew it would mean suffering and death.  He would spend His three days in the belly of the beast but the consequence of His obedience was not His own justification but our redemption.

The large fish is not a punishment for Jonah, but it is the means of salvation for him, to preserve him in the deep for three days. God appoints a great fish to swallow him up, not as a punishment, but as means of rescue. You see on the cover of our bulletin this morning an icon of Jonah in the mouth the fish.  The scroll in his hand is from the first verse of Jonah 2 when he prayed while still inside the fish, “I cried in my affliction unto the Lord.” The verse goes on, “and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol – out of the belly of the grave – I cried and You heard my voice…” Jonah ends, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.” (John 2:1, 9).

Jonah isn’t the lesson. He is the sign. The sign pointing to Jesus. It is interesting to note that Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet to whom Jesus directly compares Himself. In Matthew 12, some of the scribes and Pharisees want to see a sign from Jesus. They want some miracle to prove that Jesus is who He says He says, no matter that by this time in His ministry He has already performed many miracles revealing that He is the Son God.  He answers them by saying that no sign will be given except the sing of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.  The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matt 12:39-41).  

In our Gospel reading, it’s not that just another great storm comes up. Both Jonah and Jesus asleep in the middle of it.  Jesus calms the storm by His very Word, He is the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land of whom Jonah confesses.  We do not perish, but because of Jesus’ life, because of His innocent blood, our cries, “save us!” are answered. It is Jesus who is thrown into the belly of grave for three days, who calms the great storm of sin so that we are not overcome by the wind and waves of this fallen creation, who is then spit out from the grave, who is the messenger and the message of repentance and faith.

The other sailors have come to believe that Israel’s God is the one and only God over the universe, and the only God who can save them. Jonah’s confession has led them to saving faith. Likewise, the people of Nineveh repent and believe in God.  And the disciples marvel at Jesus’ command over creation and their faith in Him is strengthened.  And we hear this same Law and Gospel, calling us out on our sin and directing us to the Lord, shaping who we are in Christ and seeing others as God sees them.  All unbelievers are potential recipients of God’s grace and holiness. The love of Christians is to extend out even to our enemies. You belong to a royal priesthood, meant to use your access to God and your life in Christ seeking to reconcile lost humanity to God, by the power of the Spirit.

Transfiguration 2019

Matthew 17:1-9

February 10, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Audio Player

Throughout the last month or so we have focused upon the various miracles of Jesus which reveal His divinity to the world.  Today we have come to the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the final and most brilliant Epiphany celebration of the season. Christ gives a few of His disciples a little glimpse of His divine glory, as His face shines and His garments become white as light. Because God is light (I John 1:5), the shining of Jesus' face like the sun, and the whiteness of His garment all demonstrate that Jesus is God, “light of light.”

Jesus takes three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, with Him to the top of the mountain to pray. As He is praying, He is changed. A vision is granted to those three disciples to reveal what He will become, when He endures betrayal and death, burial and resurrection. In His obedience, He fulfills the Law, so Moses stands before Him. He is the righteousness of God for whom the prophets yearned, so Elijah joins Him. The apostles look upon the prophets. The prophets look upon the apostles.  They look upon each other, united by Christ.

 And they are not alone.  A bright cloud overshadowed them.  Moses had foretold that God would raise up a prophet to whom people should listen.  And now the great I AM who spoke out of the burning bush speaks from the bright cloud, answering the question Jesus had asked His disciples earlier, “Who do you say I am?” “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”

And His disciples, and we ourselves, need to hear this prophetic word again, for all who want to be saved ought to listen to this Word of God, for the word proclaimed is the instrument of the Holy Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten His people by the Gospel.  We need to see this glimpse of the glory of the Lord, to have our eyes of faith directed again to see no one but Jesus only; for we must remember it as we begin our coming down from this mount, from Septuagesima next Sunday into Lent, into Passiontide, and finally into Good Friday and Easter.  We must remember this glimpse of the glory of God as we hear again about the lowliness, the suffering, the passion of Jesus.  For too, on the cross Jesus displays His divine glory as He bears the sin of the world, the righteous judgment and wrath of God, and overcomes sin, death, and the devil

From eternity this Jesus is the bearer of God’s eternal glory, and from His incarnation He is the bearer of God’s image now and forevermore in human flesh. Through His suffering He reveals the depth of God’s love; in His rising He reveals God’s victory and defeat over all that opposes Him. He is the Incarnate God in spite of the depths of His humiliation.

The Father bears witness from heaven concerning His Son. He doesn’t say, "This has become My beloved Son," but "This is My beloved Son," indicating that this divine glory is Christ's by nature. From eternity, infinitely before Jesus' Baptism and Transfiguration when we hear this divine proclamation, He is God's Son, fully sharing in the essence of the Father: Jesus Christ is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance of the Father, by whom all things were made.”

The Transfiguration not only proclaims Christ's divine sonship, but foreshadows His future glory when He as the Messiah will usher in the long-awaited Kingdom of glory. The bright cloud recalls the cloud that went before the Israelites in the wilderness, the visible sign of God presence and glory among His people. Peter sees this vision as a sign that the Kingdom has come. Knowing that the Feast of Tabernacles is the feast of the coming Kingdom, a celebration reiterating of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, status as holy pilgrims, and establishment into the promised land, he asks to build booths, as was done at that feast, to serve as symbols of God's dwelling among those made righteous by faith in Christ. But it wasn’t quite time. Jesus tells His disciples to wait until after His resurrection to tell of these things. Jesus still had to bear the cross. His time had not yet come, but soon it would. And now, we teach and confess these things for we share in the glory by faith. And so that we can say with St. John, “we have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son of God, full of grace and truth.”

And it now changes us.  This vision of God in the flesh transfigured in glory transforms us. We are transfigured, the beauty of His glory makes us become glorious and beautiful and righteous in the sight of God for the sake of Christ.  St. Paul proclaims in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed/transfigured 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.” We cannot remain as we were. We must turn and repent. We must reject whatever is not glorious, that is to say, whatever is not of Christ, who is the glory of the Father.

Transfiguration of Jesus not only shapes us here and now, but it is also a foretaste of our coming glory.  The only entrance into the kingdom of glory is through death and the resurrection.  The He shall change our lowly bodies shall be transformed like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself. Amen.