WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:04.300 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 00:05.400 --> 00:05.700 Amen. 00:08.800 --> 00:13.300 In the early second century around the year 135 a.d. 00:14.400 --> 00:16.100 Ignatius of Antioch writes 00:16.100 --> 00:20.200 a series of letters to several churches while he was a prisoner in 00:20.200 --> 00:22.400 route to his eventual, martyrdom in Rome. 00:24.100 --> 00:25.800 Like many Christians in his day 00:27.000 --> 00:29.200 he was about to be executed by the government. 00:30.800 --> 00:32.800 Not for his political leanings. 00:33.800 --> 00:36.100 Not for crimes of robbery or murder. 00:38.100 --> 00:39.700 But simply because of his faith. 00:41.700 --> 00:43.300 Because he believed in Jesus 00:44.300 --> 00:45.200 and His word. 00:46.900 --> 00:48.000 He would be put to death. 00:50.000 --> 00:54.000 And while on his way to his death, this pastor writes a letter to the 00:54.000 --> 00:55.100 church in Ephesus. 00:56.300 --> 00:57.500 The same church St. 00:57.500 --> 01:02.200 Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians too. And it's in this letter 01:03.000 --> 01:08.600 Ignatius provides us with a glimpse of how the church, endured the 01:08.600 --> 01:10.000 persecution of her day. 01:11.700 --> 01:12.900 Ignatius writes, 01:14.000 --> 01:15.000 Dear Saints, 01:16.100 --> 01:19.900 The Eucharist is the very medicine of immortality. 01:21.400 --> 01:23.900 The antidote which prevents us from dying. 01:25.400 --> 01:29.400 Which causes us to live forever in Jesus Christ. 01:31.500 --> 01:37.100 Ignatius refers to the Eucharist, as the medicine of immortality. The 01:37.100 --> 01:42.100 early, Christians believed that flowing from this sacred meal, that 01:42.100 --> 01:44.000 participant, participant received 01:44.000 --> 01:45.100 healing medicine. 01:46.400 --> 01:51.300 Not just any medicine but a medicine that healed all mortal wounds, 01:52.200 --> 01:53.200 death itself. 01:54.900 --> 01:58.300 But the Lord himself had promised as he faced his own death. 01:59.700 --> 02:03.800 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood 02:04.900 --> 02:06.200 has eternal life. 02:07.700 --> 02:09.699 And I will raise him up on the last day. 02:12.600 --> 02:16.800 Therefore it must be firmly believed by every Christian in the face 02:16.800 --> 02:19.300 of all temptation and persecution. 02:20.500 --> 02:24.500 That the Eucharist gives precisely what Jesus has promised you. 02:25.900 --> 02:27.300 The Forgiveness of sins. 02:28.700 --> 02:30.400 Life and salvation. 02:31.900 --> 02:36.200 And that when you feed on his body and drink his blood, and the 02:36.200 --> 02:39.200 medicine of immortality comes into your body 02:40.700 --> 02:42.200 you cannot help but live 02:43.500 --> 02:50.300 and live, abundantly. Seven years ago, I was sent from this Chapel. 02:51.300 --> 02:54.800 to be to be the pastor at Trinity, Lutheran Church in Clinton, 02:54.800 --> 02:55.400 Missouri. 02:57.600 --> 02:59.700 When I arrived, I found a note 03:00.400 --> 03:04.800 placed within the main central drawer of the newly refurbished wooden 03:04.800 --> 03:10.500 desk in my office. The note was from the previous pastor, faithfully 03:10.500 --> 03:14.100 tended to the flock there with the gifts of the Lord. 03:15.400 --> 03:19.300 On the note were some words of encouragement, a few specific things 03:19.600 --> 03:24.500 he believed I needed to know about the congregation. As a steward of 03:24.500 --> 03:28.300 the mysteries of God, he wanted me to know the state of our homebound 03:28.300 --> 03:29.100 members. 03:29.800 --> 03:33.100 And the last time, each one of them had received the Lord's Supper. 03:35.200 --> 03:38.700 On that list was a woman by the name of Ethel. 03:40.600 --> 03:49.100 The note said, Ethel nursing home in Stover, locked dementia unit. 03:51.300 --> 03:56.900 And then these heartbreaking words, followed last Eucharist unknown. 03:58.600 --> 03:59.600 Unable to commune. 04:02.200 --> 04:03.900 I wept for Ethel. 04:05.200 --> 04:09.100 I Packed up, my traveling communion case and my Bible, and I drove to 04:09.100 --> 04:09.700 Stover. 04:11.500 --> 04:14.900 Ethel would be the first parishioner of Trinity that I had the 04:14.900 --> 04:17.200 pleasure of making a homebound visit with. 04:18.700 --> 04:21.800 And after about a 50-minute, drive up and down the hills of middle 04:21.800 --> 04:27.800 Missouri, I arrived at her nursing home a bit carsick and disoriented. I 04:28.400 --> 04:30.000 stumbled into her room already 04:30.000 --> 04:32.100 a step outside of my comfort zone. 04:34.300 --> 04:39.500 Now, a few things you need to know about Ethel, she was born in 1916 04:40.400 --> 04:46.000 and it was then 2015, which makes Ethel 99 years old. 04:47.700 --> 04:51.300 She was baptized on July 30th 1935. 04:53.000 --> 04:56.200 Suffice it to say, she had been cared for by a lot of pastors. 04:57.200 --> 04:58.000 She knew the drill. 05:00.100 --> 05:04.200 I'll never forget the first image of Ethel when I opened the door. 05:06.200 --> 05:06.300 There 05:06.300 --> 05:10.300 she was lying flat and her bed covered in a white blanket. 05:11.400 --> 05:13.200 Are gray and white here 05:13.700 --> 05:18.700 firmly mad at behind her flattened from the lonely hours in that 05:18.700 --> 05:19.900 white-walled room. 05:21.700 --> 05:25.800 Her hands were laying one on top of the other in the middle of her 05:25.800 --> 05:31.600 chest and her eyes were wide open almost as if in a state of shock. 05:32.500 --> 05:38.300 Fixed straight above staring at the ceiling and yet at nothing at all. 05:39.700 --> 05:43.200 I nearly forgot to introduce myself to her when I pulled up a chair 05:43.800 --> 05:45.600 and I sat next to her bedside. 05:47.400 --> 05:52.900 The room was cold, and the air was stuffy, but it was the sound of 05:52.900 --> 05:56.900 that room that made the hair on your neck, stand up. 05:59.700 --> 05:59.800 You see 06:00.000 --> 06:03.400 Ethel's mind was broken very badly. 06:04.700 --> 06:10.300 Her body was worn and tattered from 99 years of living and her voice 06:10.900 --> 06:16.600 had faded into nothing but a low, cringing constant groaning. 06:17.900 --> 06:23.700 Which filled every square inch of that room with a painful longing of 06:23.700 --> 06:25.300 inexpressible lament. 06:27.700 --> 06:29.800 There were never any audible words. 06:31.600 --> 06:36.000 I could never tell what she was trying to say or if she was trying to 06:36.000 --> 06:37.400 say anything at all. 06:39.500 --> 06:41.300 It was painful to sit beside her. 06:42.900 --> 06:47.400 As it is for anyone who sits besides someone badly broken in a 06:47.400 --> 06:49.700 hospital room or in a nursing home. 06:51.800 --> 06:55.200 I tried to explain to Ethel who I was and why I was there. 06:57.000 --> 06:58.600 I'm your pastor Ethel. 06:59.900 --> 07:03.000 The Lord Jesus sent me to you to care for you. 07:05.500 --> 07:08.600 But Ethel wasn't interested in my introductions or my 07:08.600 --> 07:09.800 explanations. 07:09.800 --> 07:14.100 Her groanings only continued, a constant undercurrent, filling the 07:14.100 --> 07:17.900 room, her eyes, locked straight above with intention. 07:19.700 --> 07:21.700 She never even looked at me. 07:21.700 --> 07:26.700 She wasn't interested in me at all and actually that comforted me a 07:26.700 --> 07:27.700 great deal. 07:29.200 --> 07:34.000 It's always stressful as a pastor when when people look to you to wow 07:34.000 --> 07:36.400 them to impress them. 07:38.100 --> 07:43.800 To make them believe or feel or to do anything rather than looking to 07:43.800 --> 07:48.800 the Lord's words and his gifts as their, sole source of comfort and 07:48.800 --> 07:49.300 joy. 07:51.100 --> 07:56.200 So there I was on my very first, visit as a pastor already confronted 07:56.200 --> 07:58.600 with something a little outside my comfort zone. 07:59.900 --> 08:04.600 So relying on my Seminary formation, that was fresh off the press, I 08:04.600 --> 08:10.100 resorting to my training and situations like this. After some more 08:10.100 --> 08:12.300 listening to her painful groanings. 08:13.300 --> 08:20.800 I began to read well-known passages of scripture to her loudly, slowly 08:21.400 --> 08:26.000 and as articulately as my Missouri draw would allow me. 08:27.600 --> 08:30.500 The Lord is my shepherd. 08:32.100 --> 08:34.400 I shall not want. 08:36.600 --> 08:38.600 But Ethel just kept groaning. 08:40.799 --> 08:42.200 Nothing changed in her. 08:44.200 --> 08:48.900 I thought perhaps she's very hard of hearing, so I began nearly 08:48.900 --> 08:54.100 shouting, The familiar parts of the Liturgy, The Lord's Prayer and the 08:54.100 --> 08:59.400 Apostles Creed but none of them snapped Ethel out of whatever she was 08:59.400 --> 08:59.900 looking 09:00.000 --> 09:02.000 at or groaning about. 09:02.400 --> 09:04.600 So I began to panic a bit. 09:06.200 --> 09:07.800 Nothing was calming her. 09:08.900 --> 09:13.000 And in my panic, I decided to do something that I had never done 09:13.000 --> 09:13.500 before. 09:15.000 --> 09:17.300 I sang to one of Jesus's sheep. 09:19.200 --> 09:27.100 I sang, Jesus loves me as slowly and as loudly as I possibly could. 09:28.000 --> 09:28.700 And Ethel 09:30.000 --> 09:31.000 she hated it. 09:34.400 --> 09:37.300 Her groanings increased substantially. 09:38.500 --> 09:40.800 She grew irritated and I did not blame her. 09:42.100 --> 09:42.900 It's about that time 09:42.900 --> 09:44.000 a nurse came in. 09:44.000 --> 09:48.700 She probably heard the screeching from outside the hall and thought, 09:48.700 --> 09:51.400 perhaps a dying cat had made its way into the room. 09:53.500 --> 09:57.400 I immediately stopped in a sweat and I looked at the nurse and I said, 09:58.300 --> 09:59.200 how is Ethel? 10:01.100 --> 10:06.200 The nurse looked at me and said, son, she's 99 years old. 10:07.300 --> 10:08.800 She's not there anymore. 10:10.400 --> 10:12.700 She hasn't been there for a long time. 10:16.900 --> 10:18.100 I looked back at Ethel. 10:19.600 --> 10:22.100 Her painful seemingly unintelligible 10:22.100 --> 10:24.500 groaning still ever constant. 10:25.300 --> 10:31.600 Her eyes still locked straight above. And so I did what any highly 10:31.600 --> 10:32.000 trained 10:32.000 --> 10:35.500 professional would do when confronted with a situation like that. 10:36.900 --> 10:37.800 I got out of there. 10:40.400 --> 10:44.800 I left Ethel all alone and that cold stale room. 10:46.700 --> 10:49.600 And all the way home and throughout the days and nights of my very 10:49.600 --> 10:51.200 first month of ministry. 10:52.300 --> 10:56.500 The devil taunted me and tempted me a great deal over that visit. 10:58.000 --> 11:00.000 Last Eucharist unknown. 11:01.500 --> 11:02.700 Unable to commune. 11:05.000 --> 11:05.600 Unable. 11:06.900 --> 11:07.600 Unknown. 11:09.200 --> 11:12.300 Unprepared. Unintelligible. 11:13.400 --> 11:14.600 Unsuccessful. 11:16.200 --> 11:19.300 These were the words that described my Ministry, 11:19.400 --> 11:20.600 my visit. 11:21.600 --> 11:26.000 They overshadowed me, the very first month of my work there. 11:26.000 --> 11:30.100 So when I went back to see Ethel, I was hoping to give her the 11:30.100 --> 11:31.400 medicine of immortality. 11:31.400 --> 11:35.700 And so once again, about one month later, I stumbled into that nursing 11:35.700 --> 11:36.000 home 11:36.000 --> 11:41.700 once more. I read Psalm 23, prayed The Lord's Prayer. 11:42.900 --> 11:44.300 Said the Apostles Creed. 11:46.400 --> 11:47.800 Sang Jesus Loves Me. 11:48.800 --> 11:52.700 I sang, all eight verses of I know "My Redeemer Lives." 11:54.500 --> 11:55.600 And all I heard from Ethel 11:55.600 --> 11:59.800 he entire time were those same restless 12:00.100 --> 12:08.200 unrecognizable deep painful groans, which ebbed and flowed, rose and 12:08.200 --> 12:08.700 fell. 12:09.800 --> 12:14.700 While her temperament slowly worsened from mild frustration to shear 12:14.700 --> 12:16.200 and bitter disappointment. 12:17.400 --> 12:20.200 All throughout the scripture, all throughout my prayers. 12:20.200 --> 12:24.800 All throughout my singing, Ethel continued her strenuous groans. 12:25.300 --> 12:27.800 But nevertheless, I pressed on with the liturgy. 12:29.100 --> 12:34.700 And when I said these words, It is truly good, right 12:34.800 --> 12:38.600 and salutary that we should at all times 12:38.600 --> 12:44.100 and in all places give thanks to You O, Lord Almighty Father, 12:44.100 --> 12:50.100 Everlasting God. Ethel, suddenly stopped groaning. 12:53.900 --> 12:56.900 It was the first time in nearly two hours 12:58.400 --> 13:00.600 that the room was silent. 13:02.600 --> 13:07.000 I glanced over at Ethel while I read and her eyes had shifted from the 13:07.000 --> 13:10.200 ceiling to my general direction. 13:11.900 --> 13:13.900 The goosebumps started to rise on my arms 13:13.900 --> 13:18.000 as I continued with the words of institution and all the while Ethel 13:18.000 --> 13:19.200 never made a sound. 13:21.100 --> 13:23.400 And the night Jesus was betrayed 13:23.400 --> 13:24.400 He took bread. 13:25.900 --> 13:29.400 When he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and 13:29.400 --> 13:31.500 said, take eat. 13:32.400 --> 13:34.600 This is my body given for you. 13:35.700 --> 13:38.100 Do this in remembrance of me. 13:39.900 --> 13:40.400 In the same way 13:40.400 --> 13:43.800 also, after supper, he took the cup and when he had given, thanks, He 13:43.800 --> 13:46.300 gave it to them saying, drink of it 13:46.300 --> 13:47.000 all of you. 13:48.000 --> 13:52.900 This cup is the New Testament in my blood shed for you for the 13:52.900 --> 13:54.500 Forgiveness of sins. 13:56.000 --> 13:57.600 This do as often as you drink it 13:57.600 --> 14:04.000 in remembrance of me. I held up the body to of Christ to Ethel's mouth 14:04.000 --> 14:10.100 and she raised her head off of that bed and she ate calmly slowly 14:10.600 --> 14:11.400 peacefully. 14:13.200 --> 14:17.000 Held up the blood of Christ and she drank embracing the moment as a 14:17.000 --> 14:20.400 mother, embracing, her infant for the first time. 14:22.600 --> 14:27.100 And after Ethel received that medicine of immortality, she looked 14:27.100 --> 14:33.000 right at me and said, God bless you, Pastor. 14:36.300 --> 14:41.400 I wished that that nurse who had told me Ethel wasn't there, anymore, 14:42.300 --> 14:46.700 would have been there to see Ethel there in that moment with her Lord 14:46.700 --> 14:52.200 there right beside her. 99 years old in a locked 14:52.200 --> 14:58.600 dementia unit with a mind badly broken by sin and yet she knew all she 14:58.600 --> 14:59.800 needed to know. 15:01.200 --> 15:02.900 All she needed to live. 15:04.600 --> 15:09.300 Jesus Christ crucified for her. 15:10.600 --> 15:13.800 And that medicine of immortality His body 15:13.800 --> 15:17.700 and His blood, it did something that day to Ethel. 15:19.400 --> 15:25.800 It made her live abundantly if not but for a brief moment in an otherwise 15:25.800 --> 15:32.300 dreary place in the midst of clouds and thick darkness. Thus says the 15:32.300 --> 15:32.900 Lord. 15:34.600 --> 15:37.700 I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. 15:38.800 --> 15:42.300 By The Ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country. 15:43.500 --> 15:48.500 I will feed them with good pasture and on the mountain heights of 15:48.500 --> 15:52.100 Israel shall be their grazing land there. 15:52.100 --> 15:54.300 They shall lie down and good grazing 15:54.300 --> 15:59.500 land and on rich pasture, they shall feed the mountains of Israel. 16:00.700 --> 16:03.500 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. 16:04.500 --> 16:08.100 And I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. 16:10.200 --> 16:11.200 Dear Saints. 16:13.200 --> 16:14.900 There are countless sheep 16:15.900 --> 16:17.000 who are lost. 16:18.800 --> 16:23.600 They are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. 16:25.300 --> 16:26.700 And they are groaning. 16:28.100 --> 16:28.800 Praying. 16:30.200 --> 16:30.800 Right now. 16:32.700 --> 16:38.000 Over 1700 congregations within our own beloved LCMS 16:38.700 --> 16:39.900 are without a pastor. 16:42.000 --> 16:43.400 And the number is growing. 16:45.400 --> 16:46.300 The Sheep 16:47.400 --> 16:49.400 are groaning to the Lord. 16:50.700 --> 16:54.200 That he would send to them a pastor. 16:55.900 --> 16:58.400 A Shepherd to care for the flock. 16:59.800 --> 17:06.200 A Deaconess who will carry out works of mercy, a missionary, who will 17:06.200 --> 17:11.700 bring the gospel into their land. Their cries for rescue 17:11.700 --> 17:12.900 go up to the Lord 17:14.300 --> 17:16.800 and the Lord hears their groanings. 17:18.099 --> 17:23.000 He remembers his Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 17:24.300 --> 17:25.700 And God knows. 17:27.599 --> 17:32.600 And when God knows, He calls and he sends 17:33.700 --> 17:42.400 from this place, pastors deaconesses, missionaries, you. To go and find 17:42.400 --> 17:43.600 his lost sheep. 17:45.200 --> 17:46.100 To feed them. 17:47.300 --> 17:51.100 Not with words of man or the food of man 17:52.400 --> 17:56.400 but with the words of God, and the bread of heaven. 17:57.600 --> 17:59.800 The very medicine of immortality. 18:00.800 --> 18:03.700 The antidote which prevents us from dying 18:04.800 --> 18:09.000 which causes us to live forever in Christ Jesus. 18:10.700 --> 18:11.100 Amen. 18:12.600 --> 18:16.600 Now may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding may it guard 18:16.600 --> 18:19.400 your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.