Who here is tired? (August 9, 2009)
By Rev. Steve Bagnall

Who here is tired? Who here knows what it’s like to do your best and try and try and still end up further from the goal than when you started?

You work faithfully for a company for many years, and now you have no job – or you retired on a promise of health care that has disappeared. You raise your children in the Faith and as teens and adults they leave the church behind. You don’t sit silently – you join your voice against the injustices of this society and yet the morals continue to decline – abortion continues, hunger continues and violence goes unpunished.

Good, church-going, Jesus-believing young people die – in car accidents and war and other tragedies. You continue to speak God’s true Word, and much of the Church walks farther from our Lord, so rejecting His Word that you hesitate to call them Christian any more. You save and invest and buy a home and after years of saving you have less than you began with. You marry with every good intention, and through your own sin and that of your partner the marriage becomes frayed and damaged – and maybe even broken, and you feel like a failure and you feel so alone.

And then there’s the worst part of all. You see your sin. You know God calls you away from it. And you fight that sin – every day you try to overcome it, every day you fight the world and its temptation, every day you fight that old sinner inside who wants to drag you back to the devil’s road. You try all the methods the pastor suggests. When tempted you remember your Baptism and that you belong to God. When you feel the urge to sin you pray, re-directing your thoughts toward God. You read and hear God’s Word often. You receive the Holy Supper whenever you can. You ask God’s help, you pray for Him to remove this desire, which you want to escape from. You plead and plead and yet the desire remains and each day the battle begins again. You fight your sin, and you fight the troubles and brokenness of this world.

You try and you try until you feel that you just can’t go on. We think, “I want to just stay in bed and hide from the world. I want to drink and drink until I don’t think about my troubles any more. If I can’t find love I’ll at least find a string of partners to give me temporary physical pleasure.” But even those escapes don’t work, and when they pass away we are worse off than before. We feel empty. We feel powerless. We feel defeated and we just want to quit – to lie down and cry, maybe to lie down and die.

If you’ve never felt this way then count your blessings from God, because most of us face this despair from time to time, and some more often than that. But if you do feel like this, you’re in good company. This is where God’s prophet Elijah finds himself in our Old Testament. He’s preached against the kings of Judah who turned against God. He risked his life against Ahab and his wicked wife, Jezebel. Elijah stood in the face of hundreds of priests of the false God Baal and through him God delivered a great victory to His people. The preachers of the false god were destroyed. Elijah had been faithful and victory seemed at hand, only it wasn’t. Now the threat against him is even greater than before. He’s fleeing for his life. What more can he do? He’s been faithful. He’s risked it all and he has nothing to show for it. He wants to quit – he just wants to die.

Broken and afraid, Elijah hears a voice, the voice of God’s messenger, the voice of God’s word, “Arise and eat.” After this meal and more sleep, again God’s messenger calls Elijah, “Come and eat.” Strengthened by this food from God, Elijah is led to Mount Horeb, where He sees God’s glory and is renewed with strength from God. Encouraged and filled with hope He returns to the work God has set before Him. He is not alone. First, and most importantly, God is with Him. But also there are others who are faithful;, others who have not bowed their knee to Baal, others who will join him in the fight of faith and who will carry it on when his days on earth truly have ended. Strengthened by God and entrusted into the care and fellowship of God’s family Elijah moves forward, knowing the end of his struggle is the glorious day of heaven, and that God has promised to sustain him to that goal.

Good for Elijah, but what about you and me? We’re still under our broom trees. The creditors still pursue us. Health problems still assail us and sin most certainly continues to dog us. Where’s the angel of God for you?

Well, this morning, I’ll have to do – Pastor Hinz and I, that is. We’re God’s messengers to you, and to one another, in the disappointments and trials of life. As God’s messenger I say to you, “Arise and eat.” Eat what? Eat the Bread of Life. In your heart, receive Jesus Christ and His soul-nourishing love and strength. He who comes to Jesus will never hunger and he who believes in Him will never thirst. Christ has come down from heaven for you, to lift you from this broken state and to repair and renew your spirit.

Jesus already knows your sorrows. As He endured His suffering and death on Good Friday He knew your pain and need. He was aware of you, personally. He shouldered your loss and grief that day, and He shouldered your sins. His soul bore your soul’s burden to the cross. Your sin and weakness were destroyed there with Him in His flesh and in exchange He delivered for us His forgiveness and strength. With your eyes receive and devour the peace that comes from Jesus, “I forgive you.” With your ears receive and devour the strength and comfort of Jesus, “I chose you. You are mine. I am with you to strengthen you.” With your heart receive the power and renewal of Jesus, “He who believes in Me has eternal life and I will raise him up on the Last Day.”

And wonder of wonders, this Bread of Life for our eyes and ears and hearts is also delivered into our mouths. The life of God, sacrificed on the cross is placed into you in this holy Sacrament. Jesus is the true Host here, we’re only messengers. He invites you to the table. He says, “Eat My body, drink My blood. My strength in exchange for your weakness, My hope for your despair, My life for your death.”

Elijah ate and drank and then later saw God’s glory, but we see God Himself in and under this sacred food. Here is the glory of God to assure you. God has more for you to do, but you are not alone. First, and most importantly, God is with you, the Holy Spirit dwelling within you to carry you through the trials. And you are entrusted into His Church, into the family of God, those who do not bow their knee to the devil and his ways. And together, sustained by Jesus and His love in His blessed Word, we continue on.

But my brothers, sisters, the journey is too great for you alone. So arise and eat and be strengthened by God.
Amen.