WEBVTT 00:01.000 --> 00:02.400 In the name of Jesus. 00:03.400 --> 00:03.900 Amen. 00:07.000 --> 00:10.400 How do we grieve as the church? 00:11.800 --> 00:15.400 And as the church, how do we remember our grief? 00:17.100 --> 00:24.800 The Students for Life on campus, first helped organize a service, like 00:24.800 --> 00:25.300 this 00:26.200 --> 00:32.100 maybe, five, six years ago, certainly by 2018, we had a service here. 00:32.900 --> 00:38.100 And what became abundantly, clear, then and still is to me now, is 00:38.100 --> 00:39.500 that part of the answer 00:40.600 --> 00:43.600 is that the church is to grieve together. 00:45.700 --> 00:51.700 When it comes to miscarriages too long and too often we have let 00:51.700 --> 00:55.000 mothers and fathers quietly grieve alone. 00:56.900 --> 01:00.300 I preached a service like this in Kansas some years ago. 01:01.100 --> 01:08.600 And what surprised me most was about how many women 70, 80, even 90 01:08.600 --> 01:13.200 years old would come up to me after the service and talk about the 01:13.200 --> 01:14.500 children they lost. 01:15.700 --> 01:17.500 The children that they never held. 01:18.500 --> 01:23.800 Because all this time, they had to carry their grief alone. 01:25.600 --> 01:27.800 But we are part of one another. 01:28.100 --> 01:31.500 We are members of the same body and our bodies belong 01:31.500 --> 01:32.400 to the Lord. 01:33.400 --> 01:34.700 What happens to one of us 01:35.600 --> 01:37.700 it happens to us all. 01:39.900 --> 01:43.900 It's also become a tradition at this service that we pray a song 01:43.900 --> 01:44.500 together. 01:45.700 --> 01:47.300 This Psalm, Psalm 30. 01:49.000 --> 01:55.400 Truly the Psalms are one of the church's, most precious gifts filled 01:55.400 --> 01:58.400 with the crosses and sweet comforts of the Saints. 01:59.900 --> 02:05.700 And as such praying, the Psalms together continues to bind us to one 02:05.700 --> 02:11.500 another as the church. I'm reminded of Luther's preface to his 02:11.500 --> 02:15.700 translation of the Psalms where he says, that when one finds words in 02:15.700 --> 02:18.300 the Psalms that fit his or her situation. 02:19.400 --> 02:25.500 They become sure that they are in the communion of the Saints. And that 02:25.500 --> 02:27.500 as it has gone with all the saints 02:27.500 --> 02:32.600 so it goes with them since all the saints, pray with them. 02:35.300 --> 02:42.600 But the Psalms also teach us, they teach us how we should think and 02:42.600 --> 02:45.300 how we should pray and how we should believe. 02:46.700 --> 02:49.500 And Psalm Thirty does that well for us today. 02:51.200 --> 02:53.500 In it, we are reminded 02:54.700 --> 02:58.300 to rejoice in the resurrection 03:00.000 --> 03:02.000 even as we remember our grief, 03:04.000 --> 03:06.200 Weeping may tarry for the night 03:07.600 --> 03:10.000 but joy comes with the morning. 03:10.800 --> 03:14.600 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing, you have loosed my 03:14.600 --> 03:17.300 sack cloth and clothed me with gladness. 03:19.700 --> 03:22.900 It is a beautiful but difficult word. 03:25.100 --> 03:29.500 How are we to rejoice to praise God for his goodness, for his healing 03:29.500 --> 03:34.200 as if the tears have already been wiped away or as if they would never 03:34.200 --> 03:35.000 come again. 03:38.000 --> 03:40.200 What is lost in a miscarriage? 03:41.900 --> 03:44.300 The doctor told my wife, not to worry, 03:45.500 --> 03:49.100 that she had, merely had a chemical pregnancy. 03:50.500 --> 03:55.800 When I first heard that I wondered a chemical pregnancy, I thought it 03:55.800 --> 03:57.600 was a real pregnancy. 03:59.200 --> 04:01.500 Now, of course, a chemical pregnancy 04:01.500 --> 04:06.600 just means that the miscarriage occurred when it was too early to hear 04:06.600 --> 04:10.900 a fetus with an ultrasound, but not too early to determine its 04:10.900 --> 04:13.300 presence and implantation through a blood test. 04:15.400 --> 04:16.600 So what did we lose? 04:18.700 --> 04:19.399 A baby. 04:21.000 --> 04:23.400 A son a daughter. 04:25.700 --> 04:31.200 I actually don't know what we lost but my wife and I lost twice in 04:31.200 --> 04:32.300 fact. 04:33.000 --> 04:34.800 But I can tell you what it felt like, 04:36.800 --> 04:39.600 it felt like we lost hope. 04:41.200 --> 04:43.700 You see we were hoping for a baby. 04:44.900 --> 04:47.100 We were hoping for a son or a daughter. 04:47.100 --> 04:53.100 We were anticipating expectant filled with hope for a future for a 04:53.100 --> 04:53.800 person 04:54.900 --> 04:56.000 that did not arrive. 04:57.500 --> 04:58.400 And that's hard. 05:00.300 --> 05:06.400 It's hard strangely because we know that our God is a God of Life, who 05:06.400 --> 05:11.800 loves us. A faithful, heavenly Father and whom we trust in whom we hope 05:12.700 --> 05:14.800 in a strange way that made our loss 05:14.800 --> 05:16.100 all that much darker. 05:18.400 --> 05:22.300 That made the silence to our whys that much lonelier. 05:24.000 --> 05:27.200 The psalmist writes, you hid your face 05:27.200 --> 05:27.900 Oh God 05:29.100 --> 05:30.300 I was dismayed. 05:33.300 --> 05:36.900 It's here that I would also like to extend the circle of our 05:36.900 --> 05:38.300 remembrance and grief. 05:39.300 --> 05:44.600 To mothers and fathers who have never been able to have children. 05:46.200 --> 05:50.600 Though they've longed-for prayed for hoped for such a gift. 05:51.700 --> 05:53.400 That hope has never found a home. 05:54.400 --> 05:57.400 And there is a quiet sadness that mothers and fathers who could not 05:57.400 --> 05:59.500 have children endure. 06:01.900 --> 06:04.000 And too often, they endure it alone. 06:06.900 --> 06:07.700 But not today. 06:09.500 --> 06:16.900 Today, we have this Psalm this word to God, this word of God. Today 06:16.900 --> 06:22.900 it teaches us, how we as individuals as couples together as the church 06:23.600 --> 06:26.400 ought to think about our grief and our loss. 06:28.100 --> 06:34.300 It teaches us that it is right to believe, enjoy more than sorrow. 06:35.500 --> 06:38.800 For joy will have the last word. 06:40.500 --> 06:44.600 It teaches us to praise the Lord for his goodness, for his Redemption 06:44.600 --> 06:45.400 for his healing 06:45.400 --> 06:49.600 as if it has already happened to us. As if the tears have already been 06:49.600 --> 06:53.500 wiped away, as if our hope has not been disappointed, but has found a 06:53.500 --> 06:54.000 home. 06:55.900 --> 06:57.300 Because it really has. 06:59.400 --> 07:01.300 We don't pray this song Psalm alone. 07:03.100 --> 07:03.800 Our lord 07:03.800 --> 07:09.200 Jesus also prayed this Psalm as undoubtedly, he prayed all the Psalms. 07:11.200 --> 07:12.000 And for what 07:12.000 --> 07:13.700 did he praise God 07:14.700 --> 07:15.900 if not for this? 07:17.300 --> 07:23.800 You have brought up my soul from Shoal; you restored me to life 07:23.800 --> 07:26.100 among those who go down to the pit. 07:28.200 --> 07:30.700 What is more splendid than these words? 07:30.700 --> 07:35.300 Words that you and I speak and pray together because Jesus made them 07:35.300 --> 07:36.000 true. 07:37.400 --> 07:43.000 In his resurrection, all of our hopes, all of our tears will yield to 07:43.000 --> 07:44.300 the joy of dawn. 07:44.500 --> 07:47.600 All our morning will turn into dancing. 07:49.300 --> 07:53.400 And now present to us is His Spirit. 07:55.100 --> 07:59.400 His Spirit who lives and dwells in us as a guarantee of this joy. 08:01.100 --> 08:06.000 Perhaps, the most treasured and poignant of the Spirit's sevenfold 08:06.000 --> 08:06.600 fruit. 08:07.800 --> 08:08.700 This joy 08:09.800 --> 08:15.000 like grief is often inexpressible and so the spirit prays with us, he 08:15.000 --> 08:16.500 praised even for us. 08:17.000 --> 08:18.900 So that we may truly be comforted. 08:22.700 --> 08:27.800 I've often been asked to share Luther's words of consolation, to 08:27.800 --> 08:31.500 mothers who had lost children in the course of their pregnancy. 08:34.299 --> 08:40.600 In 1528, Katie and Luther lost their five month, old daughter, 08:40.600 --> 08:41.400 Elizabeth. 08:43.100 --> 08:46.900 And in 1540, Katie had a miscarriage which left her so weak that she 08:46.900 --> 08:49.500 was confined to her bed for nearly three months. 08:51.200 --> 08:57.000 And in 1542, Katie and Luther would be overcome with grief as they 08:57.000 --> 08:59.400 lost their 13 year old daughter 09:00.000 --> 09:00.800 Magdalena. 09:02.800 --> 09:05.800 But earlier that year Luther would write the following words of 09:05.800 --> 09:07.700 comfort to mothers. 09:08.900 --> 09:09.600 He writes. 09:11.300 --> 09:13.400 Too often devout parents 09:13.400 --> 09:17.600 particularly women have sought consolation from us because they've 09:17.600 --> 09:22.100 suffered such agony, and heartbreak in childbearing when there was a 09:22.100 --> 09:25.300 premature birth or a miscarriage or stillbirth. 09:27.100 --> 09:30.600 We ought not to frighten or saddened such mothers with unkind words. 09:30.600 --> 09:32.100 It is not their fault. 09:33.600 --> 09:34.600 Generally speaking 09:34.600 --> 09:36.700 let us speak with grieving mothers like this. 09:38.000 --> 09:38.700 First. 09:40.500 --> 09:47.000 We may not know and cannot know the hidden counsel of God in such a 09:47.000 --> 09:47.600 case. 09:48.700 --> 09:49.000 Why 09:49.000 --> 09:51.500 after every possible care had been taken 09:51.500 --> 09:56.000 that God did not allow the child to be born alive and to be baptized? 09:57.300 --> 10:00.000 Still these mothers may find comfort and have faith. 10:00.000 --> 10:02.600 They need not doubt 10:03.200 --> 10:05.200 God is not angry with them. 10:07.500 --> 10:12.800 Second. Because this mother is a Christian, 10:14.800 --> 10:15.700 a believer, 10:17.200 --> 10:23.400 she may hope that God will accept her deep desire to have her child 10:23.400 --> 10:27.400 baptized as an effective prayer. True 10:27.400 --> 10:29.200 a Christian in deepest 10:29.200 --> 10:34.100 despair does not dare to name wish or even hope for the help that she 10:34.100 --> 10:37.700 would absolutely gladly purchase with her own life and were that 10:37.700 --> 10:39.900 possible find comfort in such help. 10:41.600 --> 10:42.800 And so St. 10:42.800 --> 10:47.800 Paul properly applies here, likewise the Spirit helps us in our 10:47.800 --> 10:54.300 weakness, says Paul. For, we do not know how to pray as we ought that 10:54.300 --> 10:58.600 is as was said, above we dare not express our wishes but that very 10:58.600 --> 11:04.200 Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. 11:05.700 --> 11:12.400 God regards Christians as precious and their prayer is powerful and it 11:12.400 --> 11:13.300 is great. 11:14.400 --> 11:18.600 They have been sanctified by Christ's blood and anointed with God's 11:18.600 --> 11:24.200 spirit whatever Christian sincerely pray especially in the unexpressed 11:24.200 --> 11:28.900 tearing of their hearts becomes a great and unbearable cry and God's 11:28.900 --> 11:29.400 ears. 11:29.500 --> 11:31.200 God must listen. 11:33.200 --> 11:37.800 So it was with Moses by his groans and the deep cry of his heart 11:37.800 --> 11:41.500 divided, the Red Sea and dried it up. Likewise Isaiah against 11:41.500 --> 11:42.100 Sennacherib 11:42.100 --> 11:44.200 and Saint Monica for her son Augustine. 11:46.200 --> 11:54.300 Therefore, do not be dismayed or grieved about your child or yourself. 11:56.200 --> 11:58.900 Know that your prayer is pleasing to God. 12:00.400 --> 12:05.000 And that God will do everything much better than you can comprehend or 12:05.000 --> 12:05.700 desire. 12:10.700 --> 12:16.700 So for those of you who have lost. For those of you who have longed for 12:16.700 --> 12:18.300 but never received 12:20.500 --> 12:22.000 know that you're not alone. 12:24.600 --> 12:26.900 Our Lord Jesus prays with you. 12:28.700 --> 12:32.100 His Spirit is present with you. 12:34.100 --> 12:38.300 And know that even in the unexpressed prayers of your hearts, God will 12:38.300 --> 12:43.100 do everything much better than you can comprehend or desire. 12:44.800 --> 12:50.600 Sometimes we get glimpses of that now, and other times we must wait in 12:50.600 --> 12:53.000 faith and remembering 12:53.800 --> 12:56.300 but also rejoicing. 12:59.000 --> 13:00.500 Sing praises to the Lord 13:00.600 --> 13:04.600 Oh you his Saints and give thanks to His holy name for His anger is 13:04.600 --> 13:09.700 but for a moment and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for 13:09.700 --> 13:10.400 the night 13:11.800 --> 13:15.000 but joy comes with the morning. 13:16.900 --> 13:18.000 The peace of God 13:18.200 --> 13:19.500 that passes all understanding 13:19.500 --> 13:21.700 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 13:22.300 --> 13:22.700 Amen.