Lent V B [John 12:20-33] (18-Mar-2018)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Next Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the occasion exactly one week before Easter Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and was welcomed by large crowds waving palm branches, and shouting out words of praise. Our reading today tells about a conversation that Jesus had with his disciples immediately after this happened. And Jesus tells us about why he is coming to Jerusalem. He is coming to be glorified—but not in the way that people think, but through his suffering and death. And he has come to Jerusalem to kick the devil, who he calls the ruler of this world and to draw all people to himself.

So let’s look at the first part of our reading which says: Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. I remember these words very clearly from when I was a child, when I used to attend the Lutheran Church in Magill in Adelaide. There were some very artistic people in that church, and some who did calligraphy. Sometimes after church we might have found ourselves playing hide and seek, and if we hid inside the pulpit, we would read these words written in calligraphy as a bold message to the pastor: Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

These people coming to Jesus were Greeks. This gives us a little foretaste of the fact that the Gospel was going to go out to all nations. Already at Jesus’ birth the exotic and mysterious foreigners had arrived to present Jesus with strange gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Already Jesus had healed the children of a Roman centurion and a Canaanite woman. And Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus knows that there is a time coming when not just a handful of individual foreigners will come to Jesus, but a whole host of foreigners. And it happens because Jesus is about to die not only for Jews, but also for foreigners, and the whole world.

Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The gospels often show us very clearly that Jesus is both true God and true man. Here we see that Jesus knew exactly who he was and what was going to happen to him. He knew he was the Son of Man. And he knew he was going to be glorified. Peter once said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus praised Peter. Jesus knew Peter was telling the truth. Even when Jesus was a 12-year-old boy, he knew who he was, and said to Mary and Joseph: Why were looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?

But how is Jesus going to be glorified? Jesus gives a little picture: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus talks about a grain of wheat dying. Now the funny thing is that a grain of wheat doesn’t die. You can’t murder a grain of wheat. We don’t hold funerals for grain and say: “Here’s lies the late Mr Spelt.” But Jesus compares planting a seed to burying a person. When people die, we bury them in the ground, much like a seed. Jesus says that a seed only produces fruit, if it dies, meaning when it is buried in the ground.

Jesus shows here that he is going to die and be buried. We read about two wealthy men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, giving Jesus his funeral, with the traditional customs and the traditional spices: myrrh and aloes. And they gently lay this dead Jesus in a tomb. And now that Jesus has died and has been planted like a seed in this tomb, now see what’s going to happen. The hour has not come for the Son of Man to fail, but to be glorified. This death is no failure, but the payment for our sin, our ransom, our atonement. It is a glorious thing! And Jesus rises from the dead, and the wonderful fruit of the gospel goes out to all the world.

This picture first of all refers to Jesus himself, but Jesus also gives this picture as a kind of general rule for everyone. The same thing applies to us—like a seed being buried in the ground, our sinful self, our old ways, must be put to death. Jesus then says in our reading: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus says: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Just think what would have happened if Abraham had wanted to keep his old life in Mesopotamia, and had rejected God’s call upon him to go to the promised land?

Jesus often calls us as Christians to go through difficult times, and leads us into uncertainty, where the future seems dark. He wants to sharpen us and tempt us and entice us to good. Often if we are going to bear fruit, some part of us needs to die, and be buried in the ground. We experience hardships and trials as Christians also because that old sinful person we carry around with us needs lots of killing off. But also, when God creates something, he always creates it out of nothing. And so sometimes he has to make us nothing. And also Jesus said to St Paul: My power is made perfect in weakness. And so of course, sometimes God has to make us weak.

There are many passages in the Scripture that speak about this. In the book of Acts, we read about Paul and Barnabas preaching from town to town in cities called Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Also, the apostle James begins his letter by saying: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Peter also writes in his letter: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

The picture of the wheat dying also shows that our trials and hardships won’t last. They will be short, just as the time of Jesus’ suffering was also short. A seed won’t stay hidden and dead in the ground for long, before it bursts forth into an amazing work of God’s creation, with leaves, flowers and fruits. St Paul writes: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. He promises to lead you through the trial and out to the other side of it. Psalm 30 says: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Think about the example of Joseph in the Old Testament. He experienced so many trials and hardships. He was sold to slave-traders by his own brothers, he was falsely accused of raping his master’s wife, he spent a number of years in prison, and when he had the opportunity to get out—when one of his fellow prisoners was going to put in a good word for him to Pharaoh—he forgot about Joseph. But then when Pharaoh had troubling dreams, Pharaoh’s cup-bearer who had been with Joseph in prison, remembered him, and Joseph became the second-in-charge over the whole of Egypt, and organised a rationing program that saved the whole country, and even his own family back in Canaan from starvation during a famine.

Looking back on his hard life, Joseph then says to his brothers: You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. The same goes for us in difficult times. We don’t understand what’s going on at the time, but later we realise that Jesus was with us all along. At the time, we feel like a very small seed under a pile of mud and manure. But later, when we see the fruit, we understand.

In our reading from a few weeks ago, we read: When [Jesus] was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. At the Last Supper, when Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet, Jesus said to him: What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Jesus tells Peter to wait, be patient, and then you will understand. In the Book of Job, he describes his experience of feeling cut off from God in his suffering. Job says: Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.

So it’s a wonderful comfort that Jesus gives in our reading: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Then Jesus says: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. One of the most difficult things to break is our sinful pride. We don’t want to change our lives, but because of Jesus’ great love for us, he sometimes pushes and pushes on us until it feels like we’re breaking. His call upon us feels too great for us. We want to keep our life, but Jesus wants us to lose it and to give us a completely new one.

There are many wonderful examples of this in the bible too. Think about King Josiah. For many years, the bible was hidden, and then when Josiah hears it read out, he begins to hate his own life, as Jesus says, and tears his clothes. But God says to Josiah: I also have heard you, declares the LORD, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. Or when the prophet Jonah after running from God, got vomited up by a fish, and went to Nineveh, and the king commands all his people to turn back to God. And we read: When God saw what he did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster.

Remember the tax collector who was praying in the temple: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus says: This man went down to his house justified. Jesus says in our reading: Whoever hates his life in this world will what? He will keep it for eternal life. If the Holy Spirit could create faith in us through the word, then the Holy Spirit also will protect us in [our] great weakness against the devil, the world, and [our] flesh. [The Holy Spirit] will rule and lead [us] in His ways, raise [us] again when [we] stumble, comfort [us] under the cross and in temptation, and [also] preserve [us] and keep our life for life eternal. What a wonderful promise of Jesus in our reading.

Jesus then goes on in our reading: If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him. Maybe someone wants to serve Jesus, but not go where Jesus wants us to go. When I was a child, I might have been happy to help my parents, but not necessarily to wash the dishes or clean my bedroom or take out the bin. So also Jesus says: If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Jesus sometimes moves, and when he does, we must go to meet him. Jesus also promises: If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.

Jesus continues and says: Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. If Jesus’ disciples should follow him, where is Jesus going? He is going to the cross. And then he will rise, and then he will send his apostles out into the whole world, and they build up the church in preaching the word of forgiveness and baptising people and giving them Christ’s body and blood to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus soul is troubled because of the great suffering that he is about to go through, but he says: For this purpose I have come to this hour.

Then an amazing thing happens. Jesus prays a little prayer to his Father. Father, glorify your name. This is much like the Lord’s Prayer, where we say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We read: Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him”. This thundering voice of God speaks a wonderful message. God’s name has already been glorified. Jesus had already existed from eternity with his Father. And now Jesus has taken on human flesh and he will make atonement for our sins. And in doing this, God’s name will be glorified again.

This is exactly what we read about earlier in our reading where Jesus says: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. To the unbeliever, the naked Jesus, bleeding and wounded on the cross on Good Friday, will look like one of the greatest tragedies and failures of history. But it is nothing of the sort. That terrible place, Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where Jesus will be nailed to a cross with two criminals is the place where the Son of Man will be glorified. This is the place where God will glorify his name again. It is for this purpose that Jesus has come to this hour. This is the glory of our Christian faith: Christ crucified.

And so Jesus shows the wonderful victory and the wonderful glory that occurs as he sets his face to the cross. He says: This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. We also read: He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Here the devil is called the ruler of this world. Jesus says that his death on the cross is the place where the devil will be cast out. He will be kicked in the guts, and his time will soon come to an end.

On one hand, Jesus judges and casts out the devil. On the other hand, he draws all people to himself. The whole history of the world will now rotate around Jesus, and whether we believe in him, or whether we reject him and are offended by him. If we side with the ruler of this world, we will come under judgment. But when we look to Jesus lifted up from the earth, dying on the cross, then Jesus draws us to himself, and into his loving arms. This is the wonderful promise of our reading. We know that everything that Jesus has done for us is not in vain, but is his wonderful and amazing victory. And anything we endure—whether it is hardship or temptation or troubles—is also not in vain, because Jesus is with us through the valley of the shadow of death to forgive us and strengthen us and lead us through it. He is not a failure, and neither are his Christians. Now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen.

Heavenly Father, glorify your name. We thank you for glorifying your name in the death of your Son on the cross. Make your power perfect in our weakness and in our weak lives, and keep and preserve us for eternal life. Amen.

Advent IV B [Luke 1:26-38] (24-Dec-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am.

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

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our reading today, we read about the events which are spoken about in the Apostle’s Creed, where it says: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The reading today begins by talking about an angel, and not just any particular angel, but the angel Gabriel. In the bible, there are only two angels who are named: Gabriel and Michael. And strangely enough, both of these angels are mentioned in the book of Daniel. Michael’s name means “one who is like God” and is called the great prince who has charge of your people. Gabriel’s name means “strength of God”, and brings to Daniel an answer to his prayer in the temple. Gabriel also was the angel who brought a message to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, when he was in the temple, while he was performing his duties as a priest. Here in our reading, Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary.

In our reading today, we read that the angel Gabriel goes to a virgin betrothed to a man. On one hand, the text calls Mary a virgin. And on the other hand, she is betrothed to a man. “Betrothed” is basically what we would call “engaged”. It’s important first of all that when a man and a woman want to live together and share a home and raise a family that they get married. And it’s important when people want to get married, that they enter into a period of engagement. This is a time for preparation, and also for testing. Sometimes an engagement doesn’t lead to a marriage, and it’s much better to call of an engagement than to get married and divorce later. This was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in: they were engaged, or betrothed, and preparing to get married—it was a time of preparation, and testing. It was not the time for sexual relations yet. In those days, particularly, one of the things for testing was to make sure that the woman wasn’t getting married as a show to cover up for the fact that she had become pregnant with someone else’s baby. It would be as if she said, “Oh no! What am I going to do? I know—I’ll marry the first man I can find.”

Now, to stop this from happening—which would have been pretty rough for the men involved—engagements usually lasted around nine months. Nine months was the length of a pregnancy, so if there was any funny business going on, it would give enough time to demonstrate whether she was an honest woman.

So this was the situation that Mary and Joseph were in. She was a virgin betrothed to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. Now all these details are extremely important. If Mary had become pregnant outside of marriage, she would have been in very serious trouble. But the fact that she is betrothed means that Joseph would be able to care for her as her future husband, but also he would be able to testify that the child was not his.

Now in the wider church today, there are many people who simply deny what we call “the virgin birth”. However, as you will see in our text today, the fact that Jesus’ mother was a virgin is a central teaching of Christianity. In the Creeds we say every Sunday that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It is not a side issue, or something that we can laugh off as if it’s not important. The “virgin birth” is not some conspiracy of men in the church to put down real women and mothers. This teaching is not really about Mary at all—it is about who Jesus is. It is about who Jesus’ mother is, and who his Father is. The Virgin Mary is his true human mother, and God the Father is his true Father. This is what we read about in our reading today.

So the angel says to Mary: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! We read: But [Mary] was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. Just imagine—Mary has just seen an angel appear to her, and yet she is not troubled by what she sees, but by what he says. She is greatly troubled at the saying. You see, it is important that Mary discerns. Who is this angel? Why is he coming to me? Is he telling me a lie? Is this the devil in disguise? And so, it says that she tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. If this is a greeting from God, then all well and good. But if not, then she wouldn’t want some angel flattering her, or deceiving her, or leading her down the garden path, away from God.

So what did the angel actually say to her? He said: Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! The word there “greetings” is a standard greeting, like “hello”, or “Good morning”. But literally, the word is Rejoice. The angel is wanting to give her encouragement, joy. He is giving her a blessing. And he calls her: O favoured one. This could also mean: a woman who has been shown grace, or a woman who has received God’s favour. These words are also where the Catholic prayer comes from: Hail, Mary, full of grace. The expression “favoured one” is translated “full of grace”. However, in John 1, it is said that Jesus is full of grace and truth. Here in this passage, it is more correct to say that Mary has been shown grace or shown favour, rather than being full of grace. It is a wonderful gift of God that He chose Mary to be the mother of his Son. It is not as if she earnt it by being full of grace. The angel also says to her: The Lord is with you! This is very similar to the greeting we say in church every Sunday before we say a prayer, where the pastor says: The Lord be with you, and the people respond: And also with you, or in older times, the response was: And with your spirit. The Lord is already with Mary, and the Lord now sends Mary an angel to tell her. The angel then reveals to Mary the presence of the Lord. In Mary’s situation, the Lord is with her in a special way—she is about to be the mother of the Son of God. Nobody has been greeted like this before, and nobody will ever be greeted like this again. And so, it’s no wonder that Mary was troubled, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And so the angel says to Mary: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Listen to those wonderful words from the angel: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. We human beings are all sinners. We are all members of one sinful human race, and we have received and inherited sin from our parents. Just as we get all kinds of blessings from our parents, so also we have inherited the family debt. We know that even right from childhood, we don’t need to teach children to be naughty; they do it all by themselves! And God has every right to completely wipe out every single one of us with one wave of his hand. He is a righteous judge, and loves what is right, and good, and pure, and holy. And we know that we are not righteous, right, good, pure and holy in and of ourselves. And yet, because of Jesus, and his sacrifice for our sin on the cross, because of his atonement, and payment for our sin, justice was paid for us, and our debt was cancelled. And so, because of this, if we ever find ourselves standing before God, knowing our sin and fearing his presence, then we can be comforted in the fact that we have a Saviour, who has paid for our sin, and has earnt on our behalf the favour of God. It is a wonderful thing to believe that when God looks at us, he doesn’t look at our sin, but he looks at Jesus. And because of Jesus, he shows us his favour. He doesn’t blaze his anger at us, but he shines the light of his face, and forgives us every single one of our sins. And when we have this forgiveness, we have God’s favour, his good pleasure, and there is nothing of which to be afraid. This is the same wonderful gift here that was given to Mary, when the angel said: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. She found favour not because of anything that she was, and not because she was sinless, or because of anything that she had done or not done, but purely as a gracious, loving gift of God.

The angel says: And behold—in other words, listen to me, I’m going to tell you something very important—you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Mary is going to be this child’s mother—the Son of God will take his human nature from her womb, from her flesh. She is going to be his mother. She will conceive in her womb, she will bear a son, and she will call his name Jesus. In this sense, Mary is going to have a normal child, in the normal way, and like every other mother, she will give this child a name.

But there is some things that about this conception and birth and this child that are not normal, but are special, supernatural, wonderful. The angel says: He will be great. We can talk all day about all the wonderful ways in which Jesus is great! The angel says: And [he] will be called the Son of the Most High. This is very important: this child will be Son of Mary, but he is also going to be the Son of the Most High. The “Most High” is another way of speaking about God. This child is not going to be a child of God, in the sense that all people are created by God, and are God’s children. But this child will be the only begotten Son of God. He is the Son of the Most High, in the sense that has always existed as true God together with the Father before the beginning of time. This Son of the Most High is one with the Father, and equal to his Father. The angel says: And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This means that Jesus is going to be a king in the line of King David. He is going to rule over the house of Jacob, or the house of Israel. He will be a king, and he will rule over all of God’s people. And unlike the kings of the Old Testament, and the kings and politicians of our time, who only reign for a set number of years, Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Even today, Jesus is alive, he is seated on the throne as a king descended from David at the right hand of the Father, ruling over the whole of creation, and ruling his church, his kingdom here on earth through his powerful word, and there will never be a time when he will not be ruling. The text says that he will reign…forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is no ordinary boy who is to be born—this is not just Mary’s son, but the Son of the Most High. This is just as when Jesus says to Peter: Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And Peter says: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of the living God. The Son of Mary is the Son of the Most High.

Mary asks the angel: How will this be, since I am a virgin? Literally, in the Greek, the question Mary asks is: How will this be, since I do not know a man? In the bible, “know” often refers to sexual relations, just as at the beginning of the bible where it says: Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Mary realises that there is something being promised to her that is not normal, and not the ordinary way things are done. And so the angel says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. It says: The Holy Spirit will come upon you. These words are the basis of what we say in the Creed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel says that this will take place by a special act of God, by an overshadowing of the power of God. We can also see here a wonderful picture of all three persons of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Who will come upon Mary? The Holy Spirit. Whose power will overshadow her? The power of the Most High, the power of God the Father. And who is this holy child who is to be born? The Son of God.

The angel also wants to strengthen and encourage Mary and increase her faith so that she doesn’t worry and doubt what is going to happen. The angel says: And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. Elizabeth is John the Baptist’s mother. And the angel shows to Mary that another miracle has taken place: Elizabeth is old and she was also barren, and yet she also has a child. In a similar way, the angel says: you are young, and a virgin, and you will also have a child. And Elizabeth’s baby was conceived six months ago, so that you will be able to see her round tummy with your own eyes. And the angel says: For nothing will be impossible with God. The angel says that this is a miraculous event. It will happen in a way that no human being, no inventor, no scientist, can come up with. It is purely a miracle and an act of God. This is an important word to all those who ridicule the virgin birth. If we don’t believe that there is a God who can work outside what we think are the normal laws of nature, then of course we won’t believe in a virgin birth. But there is a God, and nothing will be impossible with God. This is a wonderful word for us to encourage us in our prayers too. When we think things are impossible, we should remember that we have a God with whom nothing is impossible.

And so right at the end of our reading, we read where Mary says: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. This is a very encouraging word, and shows the wonderful power of God at work in Mary, and the great faith that he had worked in her. On one hand, she agrees with the word of the angel. God does not force her to comply, but she agrees with the whole plan. She says: I am the servant of the Lord. And also she says: Let it be to me according to your word. This word that the angel has said from a human point of view seems impossible, and yet she says: Let it be to me. The angel has spoken a word, and she has become impregnated through her hearing. In a similar way, when we hear the word of God, and read it, and think about it, it takes root in us, and grows in our hearts and begins to shape us from within. Let’s also pray that the Holy Spirit may work that humble attitude in us that we seek to submit to God’s gracious will for us in our lives in every day of our lives, every day and every minute.

Sometimes we have some bad news or something bitter in our life we need to contend with. There is an old Russian prayer that says: Whatever news I may receive during the day, teach me to accept it tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfil your holy will. I know from my own experience that sometimes I don’t have the strength of faith to think like that. And yet, the alternative is always to be putting our will above God’s will. God is a very gracious Father to us, and sometimes we don’t understand why he gives our deepest sorrows to us. But he also promises to show you his loving face again. Jesus says: A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me. This life is not the only existence that God has made for us—this is a valley of the shadow of death. There is a better country to come yet, a kingdom that will have no end, as our reading says. The king is Jesus, and the future is bright with him. And so, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and not in our own strength, we can look to him and say with Mary: I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Amen.

Lord God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for the conception of your Son, and we pray that you would lead us to trust in your word, knowing that nothing is impossible with you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.