"And to whom will you compare Me, and I be placed next to?" says the
Holy One. "Lift up, on high, your eyes and see: Who created these? The
One Who separates out in number, their armies; to all of them, by name,
He calls; greatness of strengths and mighty of power: a man is not
lacking. Why do you say, Jacob; and you speak, Israel, "Veiled is my way
from Yahweh, and from God my judgment is passed over. It is not known to
you? If you have not heard? A God, everlasting, is Yahweh–Creator of the
ends of the earth! He does not become weary, and He does not become
labored. There is no searching into his understanding. Giving to the
weary–power, and to the one lacking might–abundant strength. And youths
become weary and labored, and young men become weaker and weaker, but
those who hope strongly in Yahweh renew power, and they go up wings as
eagles. They run and are not labored; they walk and do not become weary."
There are times when you are just wiped out. You feel spent. You've
stuggled with problem after problem and your energy is drained. You've
done all you can, and you are simply labored-out. You grow weary & tired
from everything that you've had to do. You can't do a single thing more,
and even if you tried, it simply wouldn't help anyway. You just grow
weaker & weaker, and there doesn't seem to be much hope in continuing
on. You've reached your wit's end, and want to just give up.
We've all been there, at one time or another. Maybe it was when you were
giving birth to your first child, and the labor was so intense that you
didn't think you could do it. Perhaps it was a test or project at school
that seemed so overwhelming that you thought you'd never complete the
task. Or you or a loved one may have had a health problem that seemed
insurmountable, and you didn't think you'd ever recover. Whatever the
circumstance, you simply ran out of gas, and needed some help!
In the sorrow of feeling over-whelmed, it sure seems like God has
abandoned us. But He hasn't. Just as Jesus tells His disciples that they
shouldn't sorrow because He physically goes away for a little while, so
too you shouldn't feel like God has left you just because Jesus is up in
heaven now. For heaven isn't really a place far from you at all! Heaven
is wherever God is found, and you know that you have a bit of heaven on
earth this morning, with Immanuel, God-with-us in our midst today!
Jesus comes to be with you today in the daily bath of your baptism. It's
not a coincidence that all of our worship services begin with the Name
into which we are all baptized. This serves as a repeated reminder that
God calls you by name, by *His* name, as a baptized child of God. This
thought should perk you up a bit, knowing that no matter how weary &
tired you become, God, your heavenly Father provides you the strength
you lack, His Own almighty power if need be, to see you through anything!
Jesus also renews your strength this day in His word. Your Pastor is
privileged to preach from the pulpit the proclamation of God's gospel
love in Jesus to you. This message is not the preacher's word, but it is
Jesus' Own love delivered to you this day! He loved you so much that
with you on His mind, He went to the + to receive the judgment of death
you deserved for your sins; so that, in trade, you get the judgment He
deserved by his perfect obedience–life eternal in the paradise of heaven!
Jesus comes to strengthen your weary soul in the spiritual sustenance of
the Lord's Supper. In the bread, He gives you His very body which was
given unto death at Calvary. In the cup, he gives you His very blood
shed for you on Golgotha's hill. He feeds you with Himself so that His
omnipotent strength, come down from heaven, may be within you! No longer
is your soul weak & weary, but now it is strengthened in the forgiveness
& salvation Jesus brings to you in the gifts of Holy Communion.
So you no longer need to sorrow as though you are too overwhelmed to
function any longer. Nor do you need to search for some sort of inner
strength within you, that isn't really there. You have a Savior Who is
God. He never grows weary, weak or tired....well, He did once at the +.
There Jesus bore all your weaknesses in His Own body on the tree. But
now He is risen and has ascended to the right hand of His heavenly
Father. He is now your source of strength, here & now, and hereafter in
eternity! "I come, O Savior, to Thy Table, for weak and weary is my
soul; Thou, Bread of Life, alone art able to satisfy and make me whole.
Lord, may Thy body and Thy blood, be for my soul the highest good!" Amen.
Rev. John C. Drosendahl
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