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Thoughts which draw me closer to Jesus and to the Cross…

1 These are the words of the Teacher, a son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2  The Teacher says, “Useless! Useless! Completely useless! Everything is useless.”3  What do people really gain from all the hard work they do here on earth? Ecc. 1:1 NCV

58 So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.  1 Cor. 15:58 NCV

Faith is not just a matter of feeling, something that we pursue as a private matter in addition to the ordinary pursuits of every day because, after all, man has a longing for religion. Faith is above all the orderliness of reason, without which it loses its standard and the ability to judge its own goals

For such times, when our heart feels too sorely pressed, this comfort of the Lord’s Supper is given to bring us new strength and refreshment.

I have yet to meet anyone over the age of twelve, who hasn’t encountered the feeling that Solomon so perfectly explains this morning. It is a sense of fatalism, a lack of meaning, which attempts to extinguish our meaning. It hits us all, some of us because of things in the world we can’t change, others because of things in our lives, relationships, health, work, And when all those things gang up….what I call righteous depression sets deeply into our lives. And if we are dealing with some form of clinical depression at the same time… life becomes even more miserable.

Even for Solomon, the wisest man in history, one of the wealthiest and famous men in ancient history, who clearly was at a low as he wrote this book. Which is exactly why its in scripture, for if he could survive such, we who have the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, can do the same.

St. Paul shows the counter, that our depression isn’t an accurate feeling, what we are experiencing in the dark shadows of life isn’t what is real. It may seem this way, oh the darkness seems so real, so traumatic, and we seem so alone.  But God promises something radically different a we walk with Him, a promise sthat we need to cling to, a hope that goes beyond our sensibilities, that defies our logic.

A promise that points out that God’s love and peace is beyond our understanding, untouchable by our logic. A peace that is found when we depend on God, (for that is what “to have faith” means) and we let God’s reason overwhelm our reason. We trust His reality more than what we perceive.

ANd this is the reasons for the sacraments. Something physical, something tangible, something which comforts as we realize we are being ministered to by God… as much as Elijah was, when he ran away from his victory. When we hear the words-they should shock you enough to move past your old logic that is failing, for something that is healing, for something miraculous.

This is our hope when we think all is vain, to cling to the hope of Christ, in who nothing is vain.

May you find someone to day to encourage you to look to Jesus, and may you do the same for several others.

“Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Edited by Irene Grassl, Translated by Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth, Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 226.

Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism,” Tappert, Theodore G., editor. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mühlenberg Press, 1959, p. 449.