James Peterson – Page 5 – What Does This Mean?

How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes our sorrows,
Heals our wounds,
And drives away our fear.

This first verse speaks so beautifully of faith, that we hear the name of Jesus when we are baptized and when we hear the Word and when we pray and when we receive the Supper. Faith is not about what we see with our eyes, but what we hear with our ears. What is it that we hear? We hear comfort during our grief, and restoration after sickness, and peace in the midst of fearful times. What power the name of Jesus has!

It makes the wounded spirit whole
And calms the heart’s unrest;
‘Tis manna to the hungry soul
And to the weary, rest.

This verse refers to the manna that fell from heaven in the wilderness for the people of Israel. It connects us also to the story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 by the Sea of Galilee. It certainly reminds us also of the Lord’s Supper that we eat in Jesus’ name and by His command and institution. This is the manna for our hungry soul, even the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear name! The rock on which I build,
My shield and hiding place;
My never-failing treasury filled
With boundless stores of grace.

In this world there is shaky ground and wavering wind. But on Christ the solid Rock we stand. This name above all names is our firm foundation. In this world there are many attacks waged on souls from all corners. But Jesus is our shield and our hiding place. Here we have a Defender; we do not need to defend ourselves. Here we know we are safe; the enemy cannot find us!

O Jesus, shepherd, guardian, friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my life, my way, my end,
Accept the praise I bring.

This verse sings so many names of Jesus. These titles are found throughout the Bible to comfort those in need. Jesus is the Shepherd, guardian, and friend. What more could we need? He is the Prophet, Priest, and King. We know what He has done for us, and that He is the greatest prophet, the greatest priest, and the greatest king that ever was and ever will be. Jesus is the Lord who offers life eternal and is the way to heaven forever and ever.

How weak the effort of my heart,
How cold my warmest thought!
But when I see Thee as Thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

The hymnwriter understands his own weakness and so do we. We are sinners, unable to believe in God on our own. We cannot save ourselves or forgive ourselves. We certainly cannot pay the wages of sin, death. But when we see the Lord Jesus on the cross, suffering and dying for us, we see how the Lord is, who the Lord is, and what the Lord is doing for us.

Till then I would Thy love proclaim
With ev’ry fleeting breath;
And may the music of Thy name
Refresh my soul in death!

This final verse is placed in the present time, as we sing it with him and all the church on earth. While we live we proclaim the name of Jesus. While we sing we know He soothes our soul. While we worship, we pray, praise, and give thanks for the name of Jesus who accomplished our own salvation. When our last hour comes, we have every confidence in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, that even the name of Jesus that saves us will deliver us from this vale of tears to Himself forever. How refreshing is that thought!

Rev. James Peterson
First Lutheran Church
Phillipsburg, Kansas

O Word of God Incarnate

O Word of God incarnate,
O Wisdom from on high,
O Truth unchanged, unchanging,
O Light of our dark sky:
We praise You for the radiance
That from the hallowed page,
A lantern to our footsteps,
Shines on from age to age.

“The book becomes a boy” is the opening thought for this hymn today. We know that the Old Testament sought the Messiah in earnest for many centuries. But now, as Jesus is born, the Word of God becomes a person born into the world. What a blessing this is!

Proverbs especially speaks of the Messiah as Wisdom. Wisdom of the world offers no grace or mercy. But the Wisdom from on high is first and foremost the Lord Himself, who knows all things because He created all things. Wisdom for Christians is what we often call faith. This is wise, that we follow the Lord.

What is Truth? Pilate says to Jesus on the steps before His trial. And yet, the Truth was standing right in front of him. We live in a world full of lies and liars. But our Lord entered this world to show us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This way is through His death on the cross. There is but one Truth, that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, and that He died for the sins of all the world.

Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. We consider light these days to be an every day all day sort of thing. We do not understand the blessing of light. But in the time of Jesus, when there was no light at night, no electricity at all, there was only darkness and fear. Night was the time for sinfulness. But Jesus casts His Light over the world, exposing sin and bringing us to see Him clearly as the Savior for sin.

The Church from You, dear Master,
Received the gift divine;
And still that light is lifted
O’er all the earth to shine.
It is the chart and compass
That, all life’s voyage through,
Mid mists and rocks and quicksands
Still guides, O Christ, to You.

What is it that the Church believes and receives? We received the forgiveness of our sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. These are gifts, and we do not deserve them. But our Lord and Master gave them, gave them freely and completely. These we do not receive in merely some spiritual sense that plays with our emotions. These gifts divine we receive in certain ways, namely through the Word and Sacraments.

O make Your Church, dear Savior,
A lamp of burnished gold
To bear before the nations
Your true light as of old!
O teach Your wand’ring pilgrims
By this their path to trace
Till, clouds and darkness ended,
They see You face to face!

This final verse points us to the ongoing work in our congregation and to the future of the Church in this world. Like the book of Revelation says, the Church is a lamp in its various places to shine forth the love of Christ for the world. We bear before the nations the marks of the Lord upon us, both on our forehead and upon our heart, that we would shine the true light of the Gospel of Jesus into the darkest places on the earth.

The hymn ends with us considered as pilgrims, not living in the world as the final destination, but living for the sake of the Gospel in this world anticipating the world to come, where we shall see the Lord face to face forever and ever.

Rev. James Peterson
First Lutheran Church
Phillipsburg, Kansas

The Ascension of our Lord

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The theme for this Ascension Day is this: I will be with you always.

When the wind blows in the night, it wakens the children. At first, sister and sister try to console one another. “It’ll be alright. It will go away soon.” But the more frightened one of the two usually won’t go back to sleep. No, the child will open the door, walk down the hallway, and knock on the door, and say, “Daddy, I’m scared.” And Dad gets up, opens the door, and holds his child. And they talk and the child gets back into bed, tucked in just right, and Dad says, “Do not be afraid, my child. I will be with you always.” Holding that promise, the frightened child goes back to sleep calmed and secure.

When a man loves a woman, he asks her on a date. And they get to know one another, spend time together, talk about their lives, and enjoy one another’s company. Inevitably, after the passage of time, the man finds that he cannot live without her. He finds that he cannot share her with any other. He loves her. And so, he heads to the jewelry store and buys a ring with all the money he has saved. And on one knee, he says to this woman, “I will be with you always.” And that is that, and they get engaged and soon to be married, and they have made promises and commitments to one another for as long as they live.

“I will be with you always.” These words cast out our fears, and these words bring us to tears. These words tell us we are never alone, and that some other person cares about us. These are not just the words of father to child or of a husband to a wife, these are the words that comfort us during our greatest sufferings and our greatest moments in life.

But even more, the God of heaven becomes man on earth, and God Himself Jesus Christ, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. And what is the promise? God with us. Far greater than a child’s comfort in the storm or a husband’s promise to his wife, God promised to be with us, to be born like us, to grow up like us, to be baptized like us, to be tempted like us, and even to suffer like us. Through every moment, every struggle, every suffering, every sin, and every moment, our Lord God is with us. There is no other god in this world than our God and Lord.

Quite often, we want to be left alone with our sins. I certainly don’t want you to know that about me. And every time, we find ourselves alone when our loved ones die. And the devil loves to tempt us to go through life alone, to deal with our problems alone, to make us feel like we are all alone.

And this is why Jesus has established His Church, so that He can tell you as He tells you today, “I am with you always.” And this is why Jesus has established His Church, that no matter what our family life is, no matter what our social life is, no matter who is missing or who we are missing, that I will be with you always and you will be with me always, and we will be here together always.

This is why we go to church, not for ourselves, but for those around us. I will never forget Stan and Vivian, Frank and Arlene, Marion, and Wanda. These were the elderly members that showed me how to be a Christian, and they showed me how to love one another. They weren’t at church to see what they could get out of it, but to train up a child in the way he should go, and now he’s a pastor in the Lord’s Church. They reminded me often, I will be with you…when you usher, when you acolyte, when you are confirmed and when you graduate. When I got married, they came to the wedding, when my parents were divorced, it was those examples of faith who I called for help.

For this is how the church works. What good is an eye if it has no ear? What good is a foot if it has no leg? What good is a heart if there is no head? Our Lord has knit us together as one body. If one part is missing, then the whole body suffers. If one part is sick, then the whole body is sick. If one part is alone, then it must be rejoined. The last words of Jesus must be the first words of His Church. “I will be with you always.”

This is important for me to say, for this is what my vows have said and this is what the Lord has commanded: I will be with you always. And this is important for you to say, to one another as often as you need, I will be with you always.

But I suppose this only goes so far. What if we can’t stand each other? What if we don’t care about one another? What if we are afraid or alone and unable to be comforted? What if we want to be the Church, but we just don’t know how?

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, promises you this: I will be with you always. And we may ask, But how is Jesus with us always, even now, even today? Jesus has told us. By baptizing and teaching. These are the ways that He is with us, by making us part of the family, part of the body, part of the Church. By teaching us like a father with his child in the darkness of the night. By telling us His promises more than once because maybe we didn’t hear it the first time. By explaining to us how much He loves us and how much He suffered for us.

When we were baptized, our Lord said unto us, “I will be with you always.” When we are taught the Scriptures and have learned what they say, then we can be sure and certain, that the Lord will be with you always. This is why we always say the salutation in every one of our services. I tell you, “The Lord be with you,” and He is. And you tell me, “And also with you.” And thus we are the Church together, walking together, believing together, never alone and never afraid of whatever the world may throw at us.

This promise of Christmas begun at the Incarnation is the final promise of our Lord when He ascended. His whole life declares to us that He is with us. And He has shown us how He is with us, in His Word and His Sacraments. This means even today, we have the Lord in our midst, not as a thought, but in His own Body and Blood. We have the Lord with us always because Jesus has promised it to be so.

What is true for us now, what is true in this world, will be true for us then, will be true in the world to come, that the Lord our God is with us, even to the end of the age, and ever and ever. Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
First Lutheran Church
Phillipsburg, Kansas