Feb 17, 2002

It is great to have a wedding ceremony today at the end of the 11 o’clock worship service. I think we all share the joy with the two and we extend our congratulations. They are great people and they are active members of our congregation, and both are serving on the church council.

It is unusual to have a wedding as part of the worship service but the combination fits very well. Once I conducted a worship service combined with a wedding and baptism of the two children of the couple.

Keep in mind that the Old Testament prophets several times used the word "wife" as a metaphor to explain the people of Israel’s relation to God. In the New Testament the Church is pictured as "Bride" and the fulfillment of God’s kingdom is like a wedding banquet. As church of Christ we may consider ourselves as invited and dressed for the wedding banquet! So let us also take the wedding for today as a reminder to all of us about our relationship to Christ.

This year we are reading the Gospel of Matthew and step by step he is unfolding the story of Jesus. After he has told us how Jesus was born into this world, he goes on to the story of his duties to his parents and his home before he began on his duty to the world. Jesus had to show himself faithful in the smaller tasks for 30 years before God lead him into his greatest task. So after reporting about his baptism and God’s confirmation of his call and how his way to accomplish lay through the cross, it was Jesus’ turn to respond to his greater task. Would Jesus accept and if so how would he fulfill his call?

If a man has a vision, he is challenged to clarify how to put that vision into reality. He has to find some way to turn the dream into fact. This is precisely the question to Jesus. He had come to lead men home to God. He had come to restore what was destroyed. His call was to invite people to God’s kingdom. How was he to do it? What method was he to use? Was he to emerge as a mighty conqueror, or was he to adopt the method of patient, sacrificial love? This was the question he had to answer in his temptations.

For that purpose Jesus went into the wilderness. There he could be more alone than anywhere else in the country. He had to get things straightened out in his life and find out how he was to attempt the task that God had given him to do.

Actually, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The devil represents the original evil, he took the opportunity to tempt Jesus to bad. He wanted Jesus to walk a different path. He wanted him to use his son-ship and to use God for his own purpose. But at the same time this was a test if Jesus wanted to be used by God for his purpose and to remain faithful to him.

The purpose of Evil is to make us bad. God’s purpose is to make us good. His test is not meant to weaken us, but to strengthen our love and faithfulness to him and to keep us on track.

It may well be that we often go wrong simply because we never try to be alone. There are certain things that a man has to work out and clarify for himself. There are times in life when no one else can give proper advice. There are some crossroads in life that really takes us into the conflict between what is good and what is bad and we have to make our decision of our own. Our response to the situation must somehow be founded in our personal life and in our faith and our values. We have a busy life and we try to meet so many different challenges and expectations from out there and from in here. Sometimes it might be good to take a break and spend some time alone for reflections and prayer. That might accomplish some extra blessing and sometimes a big change. And for us as a church fellowship a retreat could be a great opportunity for the purpose of finding the right path.

There are times when a man has to stop acting and start thinking. Therefore, we should all of us at least sometimes during life, maybe once a year, to give ourselves a chance to be alone by ourselves and with God. Although we are married, it could be a good thing to separate for a few days for the purpose of being alone. The Lenten Season is proper for that purpose.

I am confident that there is an axis of good beginning in God. God is good. God is love.

After September the word "Evil" has become a political word, but it used to be a spiritual word.

I can see there is both bad and good in human beings.

I can see the network of churches as an axis of good. I can see the network of marriage and family life as axes of love.

We are all invited to be an active partner in the axis of good and to grow in faith, hope and love.

Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716