A Squirrel in the House

Newsletter article for March 2005

© 2005 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There once was a group of tenants who rented a house. One day a squirrel got into the house and began to make a mess. The squirrel chewed holes in the tenants belongings, knocked over the furnishings, and made a great mess in the house. The tenants complained to the landlord and he sent a housekeeper to clean up the mess and deal with the situation.

When the housekeeper arrived at the house he saw what the problem was right away. He quickly began planning to get rid of the squirrel and clean up the mess in the house. But when he told the tenants what he was going to do they strongly objected. They thought the squirrel was “cute” and they had really grown attached to it and didn’t want to get rid of the squirrel, despite the damage it was doing in the house. The housekeeper had never before heard such nonsense and tried to reason with the tenants, but they wouldn’t let him remove the squirrel so that he could clean up the house. The housekeeper was determined to clean up the house because he worked for the landlord and not the tenants, but so as not to upset the tenants too much too quickly he resolved to move slowly.

The housekeeper thought he would first try to clean up a little bit of the mess the squirrel had made so that the tenants would see how good it was to live in a clean house, and then he would also explain to them all the good benefits of squirrel removal so that they would appreciate when the squirrel was gone. This was the plan, but it didn’t go quite as he had hoped. Whenever the housekeeper tried to clean up the mess the squirrel had made, or repair the damage it had done the tenants objected. They had grown so attached to the squirrel over time that they had gotten so used to the squirrel’s destruction that they couldn’t bear to live without it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper lift one finger to do the work that he had been sent to accomplish.

The housekeeper tried to show the tenants that keeping a wild animal in the house was self-destructive, and it violated the terms of their lease, but they dismissed the words of the housekeeper by calling him such things as “insensitive” and “uncaring.” Some of the tenants might have listened to the housekeeper, but the other tenants told them that the real problem was the housekeeper, and that all their problems would go away if the housekeeper left. So the housekeeper found little support among the tenants.

Most of the time the tenants listened politely to what the housekeeper told them about all the benefits of letting him remove the squirrel and cleaning up the landlord’s house where they lived, but they didn’t believe a word of it, and they wouldn’t let the housekeeper do his work.

As time went by some of the tenants did grow weary of living in a house which was increasingly being torn to bits by the squirrel and its progeny. The squirrel had made a nest and there was a whole family of squirrels just destroying the landlord’s house and despoiling the tenants’ belongings. A few tenants decided to move out, and a little later, a few more tenants moved out. The housekeeper couldn’t blame them for leaving. He would have left himself except that the landlord had given him a job to do and he wanted to see the job accomplished. He also wanted the tenants to see the wisdom of getting rid of the squirrel so that even if they moved somewhere else they would not bring such destruction to another of the landlord’s houses.

When the tenants saw that people were moving out they began to get upset and again blamed the housekeeper. The housekeeper thought that this was just more of their nonsensical rationalizations, but there was a bit of truth to their complaints. The housekeeper had not done his job and people were leaving. It’s not that people wouldn’t have left if he had done the job in opposition to the tenants, but he had tried to accommodate the irrational and self-destructive desires of these tenants, and in doing this he hadn’t done his job.

The housekeeper began to do what he had been sent to do. He found all the squirrel nests in the house and removed them and all squirrels that he was able to find. Then he started to clean up and repair the damage done by the rodents. The tenants had a fit! They complained about what the housekeeper was doing. They told how other tenants in other houses lived in similar squirrel squalor, as if that would excuse their own misdeeds. Then they proceeded to call the housekeeper all kinds of nasty names. They tried to turn all of the other tenants against the housekeeper and the landlord by telling lies about him. When they saw they couldn’t intimidate him from doing his job they began to conspire secretly how they could sneak more squirrels into the house without the housekeeper or the landlord knowing about it.

When the situation had gotten so bad that the house was beyond repair the tenants still tenaciously kept at their destructive ways. They complained that they had hit rock bottom, but they didn’t believe they were really at rock bottom because they still felt that everything would be better if only the housekeeper wasn’t there to clean up the mess that they had allowed to grow, and they still tried to get the housekeeper kicked out of the landlord’s house. A squirrel is not a person, but they loved that squirrel and its destruction more than they loved the housekeeper or the landlord.

What do you think the landlord will do to those wicked tenants? (See Matt. 21:33-44)

Feeling Good can Kill You!

Newsletter article for August 2004

© 2004 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

There is a war going on. Actually, there seem to be several wars going on all at the same time. The war that I would like to consider here has been labeled the “Culture War”. This war is being fought between Christianity and Culture. It is not a new battle. It has been fought since the beginning. Holy Scripture describes it as the “great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14).

Although the Culture War is being fought for the hearts and minds of all Christians, it is parents who are engaged in the most important battles. I say that this is the most important because in the culture wars it is the children who are most vulnerable, and it is also vitally important that our children stay on the Christian side of this war, rather than being recruited for the other side.

Why is this called a “war”? Saint Peter describes it in this way, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) Scripture frequently describes antagonism between the world and faithful followers of God. The “world” are those who follow their sinful desires against God’s commands. Christians are those who, though they are also sinners, by the grace of God live by faith in Jesus and by His grace they do what God commands. The war is what happens when the world tries to turn Christians against God through temptation to sin.

Make no mistake, this really is a war. The worldly side in this culture war would like you to believe that it is something completely different, that is, something which is really harmless and benign, when in fact if the battle is lost it is very deadly. Saint Paul describes it in this way, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.…We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:4-5)

The battles in this war can be most clearly seen in temptations to such sins as sexual immorality and the pleasures of illicit drugs. The world tempts us with such things by trying to get us to believe that such things are good for us because they make us feel good. There is a bit of truth to that, but as they say, “a half truth is a whole lie.” It is true that there is probably nothing that is more pleasurable than drugs such as heroin or cocaine, but the lie in this is shown by the fact that it is a one-time “high,” you can never feel that good again. After the initial pleasure then the person is hooked and driven by a powerful desire to feel that way again, but such a thing can never be attained, and as the person seeks to feel good he or she is destroying their body.

Another front in this culture war is fought concerning sexual sins. God has given us sexuality as a blessing for married couples so that they may “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (see Gen. 9:7). Jesus taught that the Holy Scriptures show us that God intended marriage to be as long as they both shall live (see Matt. 19:4-6), but the world says, “if it feels good, then what harm can it do?” The harm that these sins can do is seen in the betrayal of marital vows, or the betrayal of the physical intimacy between lovers, and also in sexually transmitted diseases, in broken families, and fatherless children and orphans.

In a way, these are relatively easy battles for Christian parents to fight. We can easily show our children that if you take drugs then you might wreck your health or die. We can easily show our children that if you commit adultery then your life will be changed in any of a number of ways, none of them worth the momentary pleasure of the sin. Our children may not listen to us, and still may fall into the temptations of these sins, but the consequences of these temptations are easily seen and can be easily taught. The real tough battles in the culture war are the spiritual battles. These are the temptations to sin against the First Commandment (“You shall have no other gods.”)

The difficulty with fighting spiritual battles is that the bad consequences are not seen. Unlike the physical consequences of other sins, the result of losing the spiritual battles cannot be seen by anyone in this life. No one knows what hellish things that others experience, so when people lose the spiritual battles it is hard to point that out to our children and say, “See, if you turn against God in this way then this will happen to you, too.” The worldly culture tempts us to sin against the first commandment in much the same way as it tempts us to sin against the other commandments. We are told, “Try it, you’ll like it. It feels good, and it won’t hurt you one little bit.” In a way, it can be very fun to follow false gods, but again there is a terrible price to pay in the end.

Parents have a difficult job in fighting the war between Christianity and culture. The best weapon we have is God’s Word. As we teach and live according to God’s Word, then we arm our children to fight and become victorious in the culture wars. One simple, useful, practical way to help our children is to use the word, “no.” If we learn to say “no” to our children at the right time then we can teach them to learn some self control to deny themselves some of the pleasures of life. This is important because if we are comfortable denying ourselves some worldly pleasures then we can be comfortable denying ourselves the destructive pleasures of sin. There are many ways that feeling good can kill you, but if we train ourselves and our children to say “no” to the pleasures of the flesh then with the help of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be victorious in the culture war against Christianity.

Why Is It So Hard to Do What is Right?

Newsletter Article for December 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

It is always a struggle to do what is right. It is rarely easy. Perhaps that is why an act of kindness from a stranger is so special and noteworthy, not only because of the kindness itself, but also for what has been overcome or sacrificed to get to that point. If you have studied Luther’s Small Catechism you ought to remember that we have three major powers working against us which make it hard for us to obey God and do what is right. These three powers are the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.

Our first obstacle is our own sinful nature. Even without any outside help, we are drawn to disobey God. This is our sinful Pride. Our sinful nature leads us to believe that we can do no wrong, and we believe that as long as we do what is right in our own eyes we don’t have to do right in the eyes of others. However, Jesus gave us the golden rule which says that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are not the ones to determine the rightness of our own actions, but instead God and others ought to determine if we do right by them.

The second obstacle to doing right which we face is the world. Because the world is full of sinful people they want to justify their own sinful actions and bring us down to their level. After all, if we are just as bad as everyone else, then we have no right to condemn anyone else. This is the “everybody is doing it” argument which we all know all too well. The trouble with this is that it leads us into an ever deepening spiral of sin and depravity until we destroy ourselves.

This is clearly shown in the struggle for peace in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Soon after a recent peace agreement was reached between the two sides there was a terrorist bombing which was meant to re-ignite the hatred and destroy the peace process. I can’t even remember which side bombed the other, but it doesn’t matter because there are groups on both sides which would rather see both nations obliterated rather than swallow their own pride and live in peace and prosperity with their closest neighbors. Those who don’t want peace must have a death wish, and they will likely get what they want. Those who want peace are afraid for their lives because their own people think little of their lives and will try to murder them. This is an example of how the world makes it hard to do what is right, even when it is clearly in our own best interests to do so.

Behind both of these obstacles is a third obstacle, the devil. The devil is the original enemy of God, and he wants to do everything he can to destroy God’s will, and hurt God’s people. The devil is a powerful enemy, but there are limits to his influence over us. God keeps the devil on a short leash so that he cannot destroy us against our will. Remember that even in the book of Job, the devil couldn’t torment Job without God’s approval, and even then God limited his power. But the devil is a tough opponent, and he knows that we are all sinful by nature. Even though Christians have been reborn as holy children of God, the devil works on our sinful flesh to try to get us to do evil, and kill the new life within us from God.

Any of these three obstacles would be enough to keep us from doing what is right, but with all three working together it is impossible. Fortunately for us we are not alone in our struggle. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” (1 John 3:8) Christ has overcome the devil so we should trust in Jesus to give us the strength to resist the devil’s temptations to sin. Jesus also told us, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) We don’t have to fear the evil intentions of the world, because Christ has rescued us from all that the could do to us. Jesus also rescues us from our greatest obstacle, our own sinful flesh, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) Even though our sinful flesh must die because it is corrupted by sin, we have Christ’s guarantee that He will raise us to life and glorify our bodies so that they are perfect, without sin.

Why is it so hard to do right? Because we are trying to do it on our own, apart from Christ. Let us submit our will to Christ and let Him guide our actions, so that by His grace, we will continue to do good and give Him all the praise and glory.

The Church is a Hospital to Heal Sin Sick Souls

Newsletter article for May 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

After further thought about last month’s article on crime, and discussions with people about it, I believe I made certain assumptions in the article which if you didn’t catch them would give you the wrong idea. Crime is not the problem. Crime is only a symptom of the problem.

Sin is the real problem. Sin is the cause of all crime. Sin is the cause of broken relationships and broken families. Sin is the cause of racism. Sin is what makes people distrust one another. Sin causes envy and obsessive jealousy which destroys people. If we want to get rid of the symptoms of crime, violence, and hatred, we need to address the cause, not just the symptoms.

In last month’s article I in no way meant to suggest that there are somehow two or more societies within American society. Nor did I intend to suggest that black society is somehow responsible for all the problems of crime. There is no such thing as a white society in our country which is removed from, and unaffected by, a separate black society. My assumption is that we are all in this together. What hurts (or helps) one part of our one society, hurts (or helps) all the other parts. White people cannot say, “It’s a black problem, it doesn’t affect me.” Black people cannot say, “It’s a white problem, it doesn’t affect me.” If there is a relaxed attitude about crime and violence in America, it certainly didn’t originate among the African American segments of society, but as the newspaper article I cited pointed out — the black segments of our society are suffering a disproportionate amount of the tragic consequences. My point is that this hurts us all.

The trouble with sin is that it is an incurable disease, and we are all infected. Sin is not limited to any national borders, or racial differences, or gender differences. Sin is much worse than AIDS or cancer, or any other disease, because the mortality rate is 100%. Every day of our lives is a battle against sin. The question is, how can we fight against sin?

Sin cannot be overcome by attacking the symptoms. We cannot become less sinful by sinning less. It sounds like a paradox, but only if we think of sin as only something we do, and not something that infects us. A person with AIDS cannot be cured by simply avoiding sickness. Even if we somehow could stop sinning (an impossible task) the disease would remain.

The danger with treating only the symptoms of sin is that if you are even a little bit successful in keeping yourself away from committing sins, you might convince yourself that you had overcome the disease. This is called “self righteousness.” If you convince yourself that you are healed from sin, or at least that you do not need the cure, then you won’t look for the cure, or you will reject it when it comes.

The only cure for sin is Jesus. He is the only way that we have any hope of surviving this disease called sin. Jesus cured our disease when He died on the cross. Unfortunately, we must wait to see the full benefits of the cure. The good news is that the cure (Jesus) gives us life that lasts forever. The bad news is that we must still struggle against sin and its consequences as long as we live. However, even this bad news is tempered by the fact that we are not alone in this struggle. Even in this life, Christ himself gives us the power to love one another and do the good works that God wants us to do.

The Church plays a strong role in helping us overcome the problems that sin causes. If sin is our disease then the Church is the hospital where we go for treatment. The “medicine” which God gives us for healing are called the “means of grace.” They are God’s Word, and the sacraments. Church is where we hear the good news about Jesus, and where our faith in Jesus is strengthened through personal contact with Him in the sacraments. Just like in the Old Testament where the people who were bitten by the snakes had to look up to the bronze snake on the pole in order to be healed, so we need to look to Jesus for the healing of our sin-sick souls. The focus of our worship at St. Timothy is always on what Jesus has done to save us. When we meet together to worship Jesus we are strengthened for our battle against sin. Those who do not attend worship regularly are at a disadvantage.

Where can a person find strength in Christ, if not at Church? Some may say that they can worship Jesus just as well at home or at the golf course, but do they? That’s like me saying that my car can get over 30 miles per gallon. It can, but I’ve only done it once in two years. If I drive on the assumption that I am currently getting 30 mpg then I will soon run out of gas.

My friends, if we wish to get rid of the problems which plague our society, then we must treat the cause, not the symptoms. Although we all contribute to the problem of sin in the world, Christ’s cure is much more powerful than all our diseases. Christ has rescued us from the deadly infection of sin. We should not be content to stand by and watch others be consumed by this disease when we know the cure, but we need to keep ourselves strong through faith in Christ. If you do not make it a habit to strengthen your faith through regular worship and prayer, then you are depriving yourself of a strong weapon to help you survive your battle against sin. We should also encourage one another to attend worship regularly so that we can help build them up too, as St. Paul gave encouragement to the church in Rome, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)

Since Sin is a spiritual problem and a spiritual disease, next month I intend to discuss what it means to have a spiritual life, and what Christian Spirituality is about.

Throw Open the Jail Doors

Newsletter article for April 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

Well, not quite yet. If nothing changes in our society, then it would be tragic to throw open the jail doors and free the prisoners. Our country has the largest population of imprisoned convicts in the developed world, and I have no doubt that virtually all of them deserve to be where they are, and many more besides. However, this is a tremendous waste and cannot continue. Something must change. I read an article in the paper about a study which projected that if current trends continue by ’10 over 50% of black men ages 18 to 39 will live in jail.

Although the article was a little vague on the exact details of what this means (you can thank either the newspaper joint operating agreement for shoddy journalism, or the subject of this article—perhaps someone currently living in jail would have made a better journalist), this is an astonishing claim, which, even if it means that 50% of young black men will be imprisoned at some point in their lives (and not all at once), and even if it never comes true, the fact that this is the direction in which we may be headed is already a tragedy.

Why is there so much crime in the United States? There are probably many reasons, but the main reason is that we allow it. This may sound simplistic, and although it is simple, that doesn’t mean it cannot fully explain the current situation. We (as a society, not necessarily individually) allow a large amount of crime in this country, otherwise it wouldn’t occur. This much is simple. The complexity comes in determining why we allow so much crime and violence.

The “Village”

There is an African proverb which says that it takes a village to raise a child. This is roughly the secular equivalent to John 13:34 where Jesus says, “As I have loved you, so must you love one another.” Parents are primarily responsible for the discipline and education of their children, however, parents cannot look after their children 24 hours a day. This does not mean that the child is unaccountable to anyone during time spent away from parents. Due to our sinful nature a child left to himself or herself will fall into temptation and sin. Jesus tells us in Matthew 15:19, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, (and) slander.” The enforcement of the law is used to curb these sins when they come out of the heart and into the open. The prevalence of these sins and the breakdown of the family are all signs that the “village” is not doing its job.

You don’t have to be old to remember a time when society was like a “village”. Although there were huge divisions in society because of racism fifty years ago, within those divisions people looked out for one another. It was safe to walk down your street day or night, and you could leave your doors unlocked without reasonable fear that some godless person would come to swipe your belongings or take your life. People looked out for one another. They felt safe, and for the most part they were safe (though there always was and there always will be crime).

Some might accuse me of wanting to return to the past, but that is not the case. You can never return to the past, besides there is much about the past that we don’t want to repeat. I am talking about the future. Just because we can learn from the past doesn’t mean we have to repeat the mistakes of the past. God gave His people the Law so that they would know how to treat one another properly. But so many people in our society have forgotten about God, or have turned away from Him that much the same thing can be said about America that God told Jonah about Nineveh, “Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.”

America’s Split Personality

America has something of a split personality. It is at the same time the most Christian nation on earth, and also one of the most pagan . Because of all the Christians praying for God’s blessings on our nation, God has made us the most prosperous nation on earth. But because of all the non-Christians who despise God and His laws we suffer from violence, crime, and a multitude of “natural” disasters.

For a long time I was puzzled as to why we won such an overwhelming victory in the Gulf War when our society has so much injustice. Yes, the victory was incomplete, but it was overwhelming. But I believe that the answer can be found in the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Tares) in Matthew 13. The farmer tells his workers not to pull up the weeds because they might destroy the wheat in the process. This shows that God has mercy on all people for the sake of the faithful. I see the war as a fight between good and evil. Not that we are always good and Iraq is evil, but we were right in fighting to stop an aggressive lawbreaker. The victory in the war might tell us that God will help us win victory over evil in our society, even though we cannot eliminate evil. If we stand up for what is right here at home then we can live at peace in our homes. Only then can we empty many of our prisons and put the people to constructive work, knowing that we will not tolerate godless behavior.

Jesus has Opened the Jail

Isaiah gave this prophesy about Jesus, “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Now, we know that the prison that it refers to is the prison of hell, and that we are the captives who have been freed from prison. Since we are enjoying the earthly benefits of obedience to God we should not keep it to ourselves, but we should share the blessings with other people.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Since we have been rescued and redeemed by Christ, we are no longer like the folks in Nineveh who don’t know their right hand from their left. Instead we are “the light of the world.” The light leads people out of darkness. In our actions and in our words we should live as witnesses to the truth of God’s word.

In practice this means not letting the lawbreakers rule by fear and intimidation. We should stand up for what is right. St. Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” May God’s people always look to Him for strength and protection in everything.

What is Lent all About?

Newsletter article for March 1998

© 1998 by Rev. Paul A. Wolff

We are now in the church season of Lent until Easter. I’m sure that each of us observes Lent to a different degree, from not at all, to religiously keeping a fast of one sort or another. Whether or not you observe Lent I think that we all could be well served by learning (or reviewing) what Lent is all about, and some of the reasons for what we do to observe this church season.

All you Biblical scholars may notice that nowhere in the Scriptures is Lent mentioned. Nor are any of the seasons of the church calendar mentioned. The observance of Lent is considered Adiaphora. Adiaphora are practices which are neither commanded nor forbidden by God. This means that the faithful Christian can, with clear conscience, either observe Lent, or not. However, Lent has been celebrated in the Christian Church for over 1,500 years. Even Martin Luther, the great reformer, did not abolish the observance of this season, but he did clean up the practice to return the focus to Christ, where it should be in all we do in the church.

Let me begin at the end. Easter marks the end of Lent. It also is the reason for Lent, just as the death and resurrection of Jesus is the reason why we put our faith in Him as our savior. Lent is meant to be a time of preparation. For the six weeks of Lent we prepare for the Easter celebration.

The Lenten season is also a time of contrition (sorrow over sins), repentance (asking God for mercy and forgiveness), and contemplation of our sinfulness. Now, six weeks of thinking about sin may seem to some to be a very depressing exercise, that is kind of the point, isn’t it? What I mean is that the best way we can appreciate just how absolutely tremendously fabulously awesome, wonderful, and amazing Easter is for us, is if we first realize just how much we had to gain from Christ’s death and resurrection. We do this in Lent by focusing on our own unworthiness.

The season of Lent does not portray a flattering portrait of human beings, even Christian people. Instead it portrays a painfully accurate portrait of our guilt and sin. Only when we realize just how much it cost Jesus to rescue billions and billions of disobedient sinners, then we can appreciate the vastness of His infinite love, and with thankful hearts sing His praises on Easter morning.

One of the ancient traditions of Lent is the tradition of fasting. This tradition is most often associated with the Roman Catholic Church because in the past the Pope commanded that all Christians must observe Lenten fasts. This practice is not so common in the Lutheran Church because this is one of the reforms that Martin Luther brought to the church. Based on Romans 14, which speaks about eating (or not eating) certain kinds of food, and the book of Galatians, which speaks against burdening Christians with additional laws and practices, Luther showed that it is wrong to add requirements about different practices in the church. The Ten Commandments still stand and we must obey them, but beyond that, we cannot command Christians to do what God did not command, nor can we forbid Christians from doing what God has not forbidden.

The result of this is that while Luther abolished the requirement of fasting during Lent, he did not condemn the practice altogether. He also spoke about how fasting can be good training in self discipline and self control. When I listen to people talking about fasting for Lent, I think sometimes they think they must give up things which are bad for them anyway, like smoking, overeating, over-drinking, and things like that. While I agree that it is good to stop doing things which harm our health and bodies, that isn’t the purpose of a fast. If we are sinning or hurting ourselves we should stop that for good, not just for the six weeks of Lent. A fast should be a temporary thing where we give up something which we like, but only for a limited time. This is a good exercise because as we deny ourselves something we like (but which doesn’t harm us) we are training ourselves to control our actions. Then after our fast is over, we may be stronger, and better able to stop doing the things which hurt ourselves, or are sinful.

If we do give up something we like, such as meat, or chocolate, or sweets, or alcohol, we may find that it is a struggle to hold to our fast. When we are struggling with the temptation to break our fast, we can also appreciate just what an accomplishment it was for Jesus to go His whole life without sinning even once. In times of weakness and temptation we can also learn to turn to God in prayer, and ask Him to give us the strength we need to resist temptation and do what is right.

We should also remember what Jesus said about fasting in Matthew 6:16-18. Jesus says that fasting should be a private thing, between you and God. You shouldn’t make a show of your fasting in order to elicit sympathy from your friends, or to get their admiration for your strength of will. Instead keep it secret, and humbly accept whatever reward God sees fit to give you (if any).

It is most important to remember whether we fast for Lent, or don’t fast, neither practice makes us better in God’s sight. We are still sinners, whether we can successfully keep a fast, or not. We still need Jesus to forgive us our sins every day. We still must keep our eyes focused on the cross of Jesus, for that is our only hope for salvation. We still trust in the victory of Easter, because that is where Christ has proven His love, and has shown us that He has rescued us from sin and death.

When you come and worship here at St. Timothy this Lent, you may hear quite a bit about sin and guilt. The purpose is not to depress you, or make you feel bad, although it may do that momentarily. The purpose is to help you understand just how much God loves you, and just what a wonderful thing we celebrate on Easter.

May Christ bless you this Lenten season.