The Word is Everything: A Meditation on John 1, upon the Celebration of the 500th Year of the Reformation

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; 

and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; 

and the darkness comprehended it not.

On October 31st, 2017, it will have been 500 years since the German catholic priest, Augustinian monk, and Doctor of Holy Scripture at the University of Wittenberg posted his now infamous invitation to debate his 95 Theses.  As a priest, Martin Luther’s concern was for the souls of those people given to his care as he administered Jesus’ Word and Sacraments to them.  As an Augustinian, Luther was informed by the traditions which dated back a thousand years to the original St. Augustin, who had tirelessly worked to preserve biblical orthodoxy against the popular onslaughts of heretics like Pelagius.  As a Doctor of Holy Scripture, he was at the apex of the theological faculty of his university, and as a condition of his office, took a sacred oath of fidelity to Scripture.  Far from the caricatures made of him by either his devotees or detractors, Luther’s presentation of points worthy of debate were fully within the regular duties of his vocation, his theological formation, and his educational expertise.  Luther was doing what God, the Church, and his university had called him to do:  be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God.

The Reformation which ensued, from a Lutheran perspective, was centered on this idea of Scriptural primacy, because in the end, it was Scripture which affirmed that the Word of God was and would always be everything.  In the beginning, it was the Word of God which called forth the cosmos, setting all things in their order.  It was the Word of God which breathed life into every living thing, and which communicated His Law and Gospel upon which all of existence depended.  It was the Word of God which pursued and saved every fallen sinner from the dawn of time, who would respond to Him in faith and repentance.  It was the Word of God which became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth which the darkness of this fallen world could not overcome; who suffered and died for the reconciliation of humanity to God; who rose from the dead to declare His saving work complete, and to send forth His disciples as His witnesses; who ascended into heaven, sitting at the Father’s right hand of authority, interceding for His people for the sake of His own sacrifice on Calvary; who sent the Holy Spirit to enliven His people in every age, working through His Word and Sacraments to create faith, and raising dead sinners to eternal life; who promised to come again at the end of time, to put away all evil forever in the fiery prison of hell, to preserve His people in their final strife, and to restore all creation through the last, great, and total resurrection.  The Word of God, Jesus Christ, second Person of the Holy Trinity, has and shall always be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.

This is the witness Luther sought to be— a faithful herald of the Eternal Word of God.  Luther knew, as so many other faithful heralds had known across the centuries, that no one could divide the sanctity of the Word Made Flesh from the Word made written, given by the Holy Spirit through the Prophets and Apostles.  Thus to be faithful to Christ in His Person was and shall always be coterminous with faithfulness to His Word in Holy Scripture.  Luther was not alone in his time, nor was he alone in the history of the Church.  Though the 95 Theses were never collected into the formal confessions of Lutheran Christians in the 16th century (they were really just debate points, after all,) the other official writings of Lutherans were replete with references to the Councils and Church Fathers which predated Luther by up to 1500 years, demonstrating their appeals to Scripture were not novel, but reflected the best of the common catholic tradition.  Bound together in the 1580 Book of Concord were the ancient Creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian,) the Augsburg Confession with its Apology, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Smalcald Articles and Catechisms of Luther, and Formula of Concord— each with their appeals to ancient Christian consensus in the Word of God, and how that Word had been appropriately understood across the ages.

The great sadness of the Lutheran Reformation’s drive toward the centrality of Christ and His Word to the people of God, is that the hearts of many men preferred schism and war so as to retain their own power and pride, shattering the outward unity of western Christendom.  500 years before the Reformation, those same human failings erupted in the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 AD— another schism not yet healed.  The Reformation itself eventually shattered into numerous other movements, until we reach today’s cacophonous and confused Christian landscape with dozens of varieties of Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, Calvinists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, and Orthodox.  While Lutheran fellowships argue over who among them is more authentically Lutheran, so to do various Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestant communities.  Debates rage about the legitimacy of bishops, regions of authority, preeminence of people or nations or cultures or liturgies.  In the end, the Reformation is not unique in having prompted yet another schism, when the Bishop of Rome excommunicated Luther as he had excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople and all the East before him.  Perhaps unique with the Reformation was the resulting trend toward endless fracture, as the dark 16th century prophecy was fulfilled in every man thinking himself a pope, starting his own church in his own name, and selling his wares to anyone who would buy them.  But then, fracture, schism, and division is always a great sadness, and a scandalous sin against Christ which St. Paul goes at length to warn against in his epistles.

And so, on this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we can offer no glory to God for reveling in rebellion, selfish pride, schism, and division.  What moved Luther, and other servants of the Word of God in ages past and present, is a call to the unity of Christ.  Christ is not divided from the Father or the Spirit in the perfection of the Holy Trinity, nor is he divided in Himself according to both his divine and human natures.  Christ the Incarnate Word of God is likewise not divided from Word of God he caused to be written, nor are His people divided from Him when they abide in His Word.  The great call of the Reformation is not to schism and discord, but to harmony and fellowship in the Word of God, who Himself is our life, our hope, and our salvation.  As we ponder this solemn milestone in the history of the Church and the world, it is worth remembering that all the human divisions made by sinful men among the people of God are not the enduring truth of our existence; it is not how Roman or how Lutheran, how Anglican or how Calvinist, how Baptist or how Pentecostal we may be which determines our fellowship with God.  Rather it is our fellowship in the Word of Christ who alone creates, sustains, enlivens, redeems, and saves all creation.  There we find the call of the great Reformers from antiquity to the present day, that we find the totality of our fellowship and life in the Eternal Word of Jesus.

As it did to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Elijah, to Isaiah, to John, to Paul, to Ambrose, to Augustine, to Chrysostom, to Athanasius, to Anselm, and to Luther, the Word of God comes to you again this day, calling you to hear the living Word of Jesus which binds you forever to Him by grace through faith.  Hear that Word today, turn from the paths of darkness and division, and find in Jesus through His Word the whole household of faith gathered together in Him.  May the deeper call of the Reformation ring in your heart and mind, that Jesus has come to seek and to save every lost soul who will put their trust in Him, living and abiding in Him by the power of His Holy Spirit.  Let rebellion and schism cease, and the people of God find themselves once again united in the indivisible and everlasting Person and Word of Jesus.  Amen.

A powerful missionary Word: Mediation on 1st Thessalonians 1

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, 

but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; 

as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, 

having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.

So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia,

but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; 

so that we need not to speak any thing.

For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, 

and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, 

even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Paul’s first letter to the newly planted church in Thessalonica is a marvelous example of the early missionary efforts of Christianity, and something worth pondering again in our own day.  He began by bringing the Gospel of Jesus to these people in the old capitol of Greek Macedonia, and living out his witness to them in humility and holiness, while working with his own hands to support the ministry (what we might call today bi-vocational, “worker-priest,” or “tent-maker” pastors).  That living Word of Jesus both preached and manifested in the lives of St. Paul and his companions had a powerful effect on the pagan people of Thessalonica, where many turned in faith and repentance to God as their Savior.  Such was their conversion that they shined like lights among their dark pagan landscape, no longer conformed to the demonic evils which surrounded them in every corner of their society.  Their faith and lives, empowered by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of Christ, became a witness to the whole of Macedonia, and a joyous comfort to St. Paul as he continued his laborious missionary work under constant threat of persecution and martyrdom.  This pattern repeated itself through explosive growth in the early centuries of the church, and we have other writings from the first and second centuries (such as the Didache) which contain warnings against missionaries who didn’t follow Paul’s model— who came with a corrupted message other than what the Apostles had brought, who exhibited pride and lust, and who fixated on money.  Such false missionaries and prophets were dangerous, and were what St. John warned about when he said that others went out into the world as if they had come from the Apostles, but showed by their lives and words that they did not continue in fellowship with Christ or the messengers He sent.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition to much pastoral and missionary work today.  In our age, pastoral ministry has been largely industrialized as a profession, complete with official educational programs young pastors can pursue while incurring tremendous personal debt.  Then such pastors can hope to find a “job” working in a congregation which pays them enough to eat or support their family, and pay down their crushing debt to the seminaries which graduated them.  If they desire to become missionaries, they must promote their mission to countless others, seeking money to support themselves in their travels, and relying on the hospitality of those to whom they go.  Once they get there, who knows what message they bring, which was given them by their seminaries, financial supporters, and church bodies— calls to social justice, political action, building of infrastructure, or other “gifts” which come with expectations of quid pro quo later down the line.  Often wealthy western churches find their way into poor communities, only to promote abortion, LGBTQ initiatives, or various global political agendas.  Such aberrations to missionary work are increasing rejected by these communities around the world for being devoid of the Word and power of the Gospel which shined so brightly with St. Paul, and some of these communities are beginning to send their own authentic missionaries back to western countries in order to return their churches and communities to a Christianity St. Paul or Jesus would recognize.

It is a peculiar time in which we live, where so much of what Scripture describes seems alien to our own experience.  But today as in Paul’s day, the demonic influences of the darkened world are out of step with the Word and Spirit of Jesus.  Those who would be humble servants of the Word of God, who would not be motivated by money, power, greed, lust, pride, or politics, are a minority often oppressed and ridiculed by both the secular world and the industrialized church.  But despite the common disregard and disdain such servants of Christ endure, theirs is a Word which comes in power, through whom the Holy Spirit works to convert hearts and raise the spiritually dead unto eternal life.  They may not have all the titles and degrees which men pour upon each other in their endless pursuit of self-congratulation, but they bear faithful witness to Jesus in both their words and their lives, and through them individuals, families, communities, and nations are changed.  They become lights in a dark pagan landscape which the evil one cannot extinguish, who in turn spread that light to others until the whole of creation basks in the redemptive love of God.

Such a Word and Spirit comes to convict us all today, calling us to turn from the vanities and preoccupations of sinful men, and back to the simple but saving power of Jesus, crucified and risen for the sake of the whole world.  Education is good, as is the physical institution of Christ’s incarnate Church— but where we have corrupted those good things with selfishness, pride, lust, and greed, we should not be surprised to learn that our substitution of Christ’s living Word comes at the price of losing its power.  Hear the Word of the Lord come to you again this day, and like St. Paul, the church at Thessalonica, and all the saints who have come before us, return to the simplicity and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone transforms and saves a lost and dying world.  Become a shining light in the darkness which no evil can overcome, and which lights the way for your neighbor to everlasting life.  Amen

Good Gifts, Given and Taken Away: A Meditation on Mathew 21

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, 

The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: 

this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, 

and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.

And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: 

but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, 

they perceived that he spake of them.

But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, 

because they took him for a prophet.

Matthew 21 records Jesus putting His proverbial finger in the chest of the religious leaders of His day, pointing out not only how they had failed to abide in the Word and grace of God, but the consequences which were coming for remaining in such a state of rebellion and unrepentant sin.  His first parable in this chapter had to do with two sons— one which verbally agreed to do his father’s bidding but refused to live out that promise, and the other which at first refused but later repented and abided in His father’s will.  The second parable discussed vine dressers who were employees of a vineyard owner, who not only refused to give the owner the fruits they were entrusted to produce, but attacked, brutalized, and murdered those whom the owner sent to them... up to and including his own son.  When apprehended in the terms of common stories, the people easily understood the point Jesus was making about the responsibilities of God’s people regarding the good gifts He entrusted to them, and the consequences of abusing those good gifts.  The Pharisees got the point, as well, but their murderous response would have to wait until they could seize Jesus away from the eyes of the multitude, and manipulate the mob to their wicked ends.

Like so much of what Jesus said, it rings throughout history, touching the hearts and minds of every age.  From the beginning of creation, God has always been at work giving good gifts to mankind, which people in turn used badly.  God gave his Gospel Word of promise to His people in the Garden of Eden, together with His warning of Law— but our first parents chose the way of darkness, bringing death on the whole human race, and expulsion from the idyllic perfection of the Garden.  Preserved by God’s grace after the Fall, humanity descended into such evil that the world was destroyed by water, with only Noah and his family left alive.  Preserved after the Flood, mankind again descended into rivalries, tribal warfare, and the worship of bloodthirsty demons rather than the God of Life, until roughly 2000 BC when Abraham was called out of the darkness to be an inheritor and progenitor of God’s eternal people.  Through the times of Moses (about 1500 BC), David (about 1000 BC), and the Prophets (ranging up to around 400 BC), the cycle continued:  God’s Word of grace came to the people, the people abided in it for a while through faith and repentance, then abandoned it through pride or apathy, drew upon themselves the curse of the divine Law, suffered slavery and abuse at the hands of their persecutors, returned to the Lord’s Word of grace through faith and repentance, and were restored once again.  In the times of faith and repentance among the people, the prophetic messengers of God’s Law and Gospel were better received, but in times of pride, apathy, and rebellion— times of unbelief and preference for the wickedness of demons over the holiness of God— such messengers were insulted, ignored, ridiculed, abused, beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered for the sake of God’s Word.

In Jesus’ time, the religious authorities had struck a deal with the Roman occupiers which profited them well, allowing them to retain their outward image of piety while fleecing the people and keeping them subjected.  They had little love of God or His Word, but as a generational majority, were bound to the love of money, prestige, and authority.  This religious ruling class fought among themselves, but united together against Jesus as one who bore the Word of God which they collectively rejected.  Rather than hearing the Word of Christ and receiving it for the gift it was, responding in faith and repentance that they might be restored and live forever in the grace of God, the Pharisees and Sadducees united with the pagan Romans to seize Jesus in the dead of night, trump up false charges against Him, and then tortuously murder Him in the most brutal and defamatory way they could together imagine.  What they could not perceive, was that while their ancestors had done similar things to the bearers of God’s Word who came before them for thousands of years, they were actually fulfilling their ancestral evil in the most profound of ways by attacking and murdering the very Word of God incarnate, the only Son of the Father.  All of the symbolic types and shadows of God’s Word of Law and Gospel at work in the world since its beginning, were being brought to completion in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  

Of course, history continued after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, as well.  Roughly 40 years after that first Easter and Pentecost, the Jewish nation was utterly destroyed by the Romans, and the people dispersed throughout the empire with a decree that they could never return.  While the political Jewish nation was destroyed for their wickedness and unbelief, the remnant of God’s people (both Jews and Gentiles) were preserved in the ark of the Church by grace through faith in Christ alone, as they have been to this very day.  Vestiges of the Jewish people apart from the Church have also remained, in smaller and larger communities around the world, until their remarkable return to Palestine nearly 1900 years after their expulsion by Rome— like a living sign preserved until the end of the world, a reminder of God’s work and promises across millennia.  But throughout these centuries, the people of God have continued to go through similar rises and falls, with some ages being more welcoming to the bearers of Christ’s Word, and some ages being less so.  In our own time, we find church bodies, fellowships, and congregations of various heritages and traditions, in similar states of either faith and repentance, or rebellion and unbelief.  They partner more or less with pagan governments, to either guard the Word or to repress it, receiving or rejecting those whom God sends to them with His Eternal Word of Law and Gospel.  

As in every age, so too in our own, the consequences of how we either receive or reject the Word of God shall be made manifest.  While the modern mind may not think much of its spiritual and physical standing before God, He has left us nearly 5000 years of recorded history which continues to guide and instruct those who will hear it.  Even if the secular and pagan world has rejected the corner stone of Christ upon which the universe itself was created, and through whom alone it shall be restored and live forever, God still establishes it forever before our marveling eyes.  Those people, communities, congregations, fellowships, churches, cities, states, regions, and nations which hear the Word of the Lord and keep it by grace through faith, will receive the eternal life and blessing of God upon their broken and contrite hearts.  But all those who reject the love of God in His Word, those who individually or collectively prefer darkness and evil, who persecute the Word and its divinely sent bearers, this corner stone of heaven and earth shall inevitably fall upon them, grinding them to powder in eternal judgment and perdition.  Whether we choose to see it or not, to listen intently or to scoff in derision, this Word of Law and Gospel remains, enduring beyond time and space, and yet abiding in the present call to every soul, that everyone may have the opportunity to turn from destruction to life.

To you, this eternal Word of Law and Gospel, of warning and promise, comes today.  See in your present moment the eternal scope of all history and future time, of the love of God which saw you and pursued you from before the foundation of the world was laid, that you might abide in His life and fellowship forever.  Heed the warning which He has given to every soul in every age, and turn from the path which leads to destruction, to the ways of eternal life.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you on the lips of those whom He has sent to bear it, through the hands which deliver the Sacramental signs of His grace, blessing, and covenant to you, and the feet which He has made swift to carry His Word to every nation under heaven.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you this day, that your heart may be broken in repentance and bound up in grace by faith before His Law and Gospel, that you might never fear to be crushed and condemned beneath its judgment in prideful wickedness.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Shining as Lights in the World: A Meditation on Philippians 2

If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, 

if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,

Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, 

being of one accord, of one mind.

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; 

but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, 

but every man also on the things of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, 

and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 

and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, 

and given him a name which is above every name:

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 

and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 

to the glory of God the Father.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, 

not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, 

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, 

without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, 

among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, 

that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

Images of light and darkness appear throughout the Scriptures, and this is true also of St. Paul’s letter to the Church at Philippi.  Light is indicative of God— His presence, will, Word, wisdom, love, compassion, mercy, justice, and life— while darkness indicates an absence of God and His attributes, or a corruption of those things which God originally made good and wholesome.  A community which abides in God reflects His compassion and His fellowship, being likeminded in their pursuit of the good, setting aside their own needs and concerns for the sake of their neighbors’ needs and concerns.  Such a community takes on a likeness of Jesus Himself, who though being fully God and the Creator of all things, condescended in humility to become fully human, to set aside His glory and suffer for the sins of the world, that the world might be reconciled through His life, death, and resurrection.  Rather than demanding justice for Himself, Jesus took the abuses and the sentence of a fallen world, that He might satisfy in Himself the just demands of the Law on our behalf, and extend to us the unmerited grace of forgiveness, life, and salvation which we so desperately need.  A community which abides in the light of Christ shows forth His Holy Spirit by thinking and living like Him, conformed to His image, and keeping His Eternal Word of life.  They are a community which shines forth like light in the darkness of a fallen world, calling to everyone to join them in the light of Christ, while pushing back the hordes of wickedness which dwell in the shadows.

St. Paul’s call to the Church in Philippi is an impassioned plea to the churches everywhere and at all times, that they abide in the Spirit, mind, and likeness of Christ their Savior, holding fast to His Word, and living together in a fellowship which reflects the perfect harmony of the Most Holy Trinity, indivisible in their essence and yet unique in their persons.  Such harmony and unity brings forth life and love, nourishing and sustaining all who find their lives in Christ by losing their own attachments to corrupted passions, and in faith and repentance dwell in humility and righteousness before the God of all creation.  This is the high calling which Paul gives to the Christians in His day, as he recalls for them the high calling of Christ to all who would take up their cross and follow Him.  It is a calling not to be conformed to the darkness of the world around them, but rather by the power of Christ and His Spirit in the loving fellowship of the Father, to transform the darkness of the world by His marvelous light.  Just as light does not retreat from darkness but rather penetrates and disperses it, so the people of God are called not to retreat from the world, but to transform it by the light of Christ’s Eternal Word.

It would be easy in our day to look around us, and to despair of ever changing the world.  Our lives, our families, our communities, our nations, and our world as a whole are convulsed by the injustice, insanity, and evil all around us.  Nations rage, imagining vain and awful things against their fellow men, and the God of the universe.  The oceans, the air, and the earth are befouled by the captains of industry seeking their ill gotten gains, while the people who fund them and buy their wares contribute to the slavery, poverty, and fleecing of people on distant shores.  Communities riot and destroy themselves over injustices or slights both real and perceived, reflecting the radical individualism of people who cannot be bothered with the needs of their neighbors while they feverishly pursue their own twisted passions.  Fathers and mothers use each other to gratify themselves at the expense of their children, abandoning their obligations to their families when the sacrifices of duty become too cumbersome for their selfishness or vanity to bear.  Children demand and seize their own satisfactions, while following their parent’s lead in surrendering their intellects to the insanity of the age.  Pompously primped and pampered celebrities of wealth and charm use their public platforms to foment discontent and slander against all things decent, manipulated in their stupidity by media empires which use them to coax mobs into action and dominate their 24-hour news cycles, selling advertising to their benefactors, and delivering profit to their shareholders.  The smoke of civilization rises from the fires set by the careless and the malevolent, while the indifferent and imbecilic prance about in their fiddling like millions of Nero’s watching the world of Rome burn.

But in the end, light is still light, and darkness is still pierced and dispersed by it.  As bearers of the light of God, we are not called to sit terrified or apathetic in shrouded homes or cloistered cells, but rather to rise up and shine light in the darkness which it cannot overcome.  And of course, before the people of God can shine such concerted light into the darkness of our fallen and dying world, that light must shine anew in our own darkened hearts and souls.  We need to hear the love of God poured out to us in His Word of Law and Gospel, calling us to faith and repentance, that we might live in the light of His grace.  Having received such saving grace by faith in Jesus, we are then empowered by His Holy Spirit to offer that same selfless love, compassion, and forgiveness to our husbands and wives, children and grand children, our brothers and our sisters, our families and our friends both near and far.  So reconciled with our neighbors in our families and our churches, we can begin to reconcile the wounded and hurting communities in which we live, offering them the gifts of God in humility and love, that they might be reconciled with their Creator and with each other.  Such healed communities can reach out to their nations that they might live in love and justice both within and outside their borders, and work together to heal a broken and suffering world.

It is in the very nature of light to dispel darkness, and it begins today as the Word of Christ comes to enlighten and enliven your own soul.  Hear the Living Word which seeks and saves you, which pierces and dispels the gloom of your sin, death, hell, and the power of the evil one.  Feel the light of Jesus pour over you in grace, filling every corner of your being with His love and compassion.  Empowered by His Holy Spirit, rise up in the darkness around you and shine into the pain of every wounded soul given to your care, that your neighbors might also be set free from the chains which bind them in their darkness.  Reconciled to God through the Atonement of His Son for you, be reconciled to your family and neighbors, that your homes, communities, nations, and world might also be blessed in the same saving, reconciling light.  Hear the Word of the Lord which comes to you this day.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.