WEBVTT 00:00.700 --> 00:01.500 Be seated. 00:03.800 --> 00:09.100 We have heard the text for the day, although epistle lesson for the 00:09.100 --> 00:14.000 fourth Sunday or the epistle lesson for the first Sunday after 00:14.000 --> 00:19.000 Christmas, from Galatians, 4. Grace, mercy and peace 00:19.000 --> 00:23.200 be to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus 00:23.200 --> 00:24.100 Christ. 00:24.600 --> 00:25.400 Amen. 00:26.400 --> 00:30.200 I would guess that this text was chosen for today because of it's 00:30.200 --> 00:33.500 almost immediate mention of the fullness 00:33.600 --> 00:39.500 of time. The old year now, with all its challenges and 00:39.500 --> 00:45.700 successes. Its challenges and difficulties or even failures has been 00:45.700 --> 00:50.000 wrapped up and now we stand at the beginning of a new year. 00:50.500 --> 00:56.000 When undoubtedly, something new is going to happen. What you think it 00:56.000 --> 01:02.300 is going to be like? For some of us, we expect that it will be a very, 01:02.600 --> 01:03.400 very good 01:03.600 --> 01:08.600 year of fulfillment, a year of blessing. For others 01:09.300 --> 01:10.100 we are not 01:10.100 --> 01:16.800 so certain. We made it through the last, but how can we be sure that 01:16.800 --> 01:20.400 the road ahead will be filled with promise? 01:21.400 --> 01:25.700 That's the challenge that Saint Paul puts before us and wants to 01:25.700 --> 01:29.100 discuss in this little piece of Galatians. 01:29.800 --> 01:36.900 He says, God has made and is making relationships, new, and based on 01:36.900 --> 01:42.000 his new, on these new relationships, our new relationships with our 01:42.000 --> 01:47.100 Father, we can live free and confident lives. 01:48.800 --> 01:53.700 I think what is particularly helpful about this text is that Paul 01:53.700 --> 01:58.100 wants to help us to recognize and find our way through the challenges 01:58.100 --> 02:03.300 of in life that we simply accept and take for granted and hardly 02:03.300 --> 02:09.000 notice that, they are shaping our lives, all too often because they 02:09.000 --> 02:10.500 make us afraid. 02:11.700 --> 02:13.400 Way back in the last century, 02:13.400 --> 02:18.400 when I was a missionary in Nigeria. I traveled with some church 02:18.400 --> 02:20.800 leaders to visit a congregation deep 02:20.800 --> 02:26.200 in the rainforest. The meeting lasted far into the night and we were 02:26.200 --> 02:31.000 returning traveling in a four-wheel drive vehicle along a track in the 02:31.000 --> 02:31.900 forest. 02:32.500 --> 02:36.800 We saw that there was a great deal of commotion in the village ahead, 02:36.800 --> 02:40.300 people carrying torches and running back and forth 02:40.600 --> 02:40.800 and gathering 02:41.500 --> 02:42.800 close to the road. 02:43.800 --> 02:49.800 We stopped to find out what was going on and see if help was needed. 02:50.700 --> 02:56.600 We learned that a young woman had gotten up to go to the outhouse 02:57.200 --> 02:59.700 and had stepped on a night Adder that 03:00.300 --> 03:01.800 promptly bit her. 03:02.700 --> 03:07.300 Now she was being treated by The Village healer with the help of his 03:07.300 --> 03:09.500 medicine and the spirits. 03:10.300 --> 03:15.600 He had prepared a sickening mixture of animal blood and milk. 03:15.800 --> 03:19.600 The woman did not want to drink it and they were trying to force it 03:19.600 --> 03:22.300 down her throat. For me 03:22.300 --> 03:25.300 that was appauling and sickening enough. 03:26.100 --> 03:30.000 But in the background, there were the calls from the other huts in the 03:30.000 --> 03:30.900 village. 03:31.600 --> 03:35.400 We did not have anything against this woman and her family. 03:36.000 --> 03:38.800 We did not cast a spell to hurt her. 03:39.100 --> 03:44.100 We did not send a snake to bite her and that was what all the 03:44.100 --> 03:46.200 commotion was about. 03:46.500 --> 03:47.800 Who did it. 03:49.000 --> 03:54.400 For the people of that village was not a matter of bad luck that she 03:54.400 --> 03:56.000 stepped on a snake. 03:56.700 --> 04:01.400 There would surely be questions about who use the elemental spirits of 04:01.400 --> 04:02.500 the world that St. 04:02.500 --> 04:07.600 Paul has just mentioned in the verse before, our text to send the 04:07.600 --> 04:09.600 snake to bite this woman. 04:10.800 --> 04:15.000 You know, you think that, you understand your situation in the 04:15.000 --> 04:18.800 community and everyone is nice and friendly and supportive. 04:19.399 --> 04:23.500 But someone has something against you and they're waiting for an 04:23.500 --> 04:25.400 opportunity to strike. 04:26.300 --> 04:29.600 It's easy to be afraid in that kind of situation 04:29.600 --> 04:34.600 when you don't know what people are really thinking. It is easy to be 04:34.600 --> 04:35.600 afraid. 04:36.700 --> 04:41.500 We tried to persuade them to send the woman and her father with us to 04:41.500 --> 04:43.300 seek help in a hospital. 04:43.700 --> 04:48.600 But they would not agree because they were afraid, the woman could not 04:48.600 --> 04:53.100 leave the village where the spirits of the ancestors would protect her 04:53.900 --> 04:58.100 and it would be better if we outsiders left. 04:59.000 --> 05:04.200 The poison of a night adder should make you very sick, but it should 05:04.200 --> 05:06.400 not kill an adult. 05:07.300 --> 05:13.100 Yet we learned a couple of days later that the woman had, in fact 05:13.100 --> 05:14.000 died. 05:16.100 --> 05:19.600 Well, that was then and this is here 05:19.600 --> 05:20.300 and now. 05:22.100 --> 05:26.300 In our world, we do not speak much about the elemental spirits of the 05:26.300 --> 05:27.000 world. 05:27.800 --> 05:33.800 And even Satan is not mentioned much as a personal actor aside from 05:33.800 --> 05:36.800 what is said in sermons and Bible classes. 05:37.900 --> 05:41.000 I do not know what makes you afraid. 05:41.800 --> 05:45.800 I do not know what takes the joy out of your life. 05:46.400 --> 05:51.300 I do not know what keeps you locked in a situation that you know, is 05:51.300 --> 05:52.600 not right. 05:53.200 --> 05:58.500 But you cannot change because you are afraid of a future that you 05:58.500 --> 05:59.800 cannot see clearly. 06:00.200 --> 06:01.800 or understand. 06:03.100 --> 06:08.200 In our world, we do not speak much about Elemental spirits of the 06:08.200 --> 06:14.600 world, but it does not mean that suspicions and doubts and fears are 06:14.600 --> 06:16.500 not a part of our lives. 06:17.300 --> 06:24.200 Now, they are attributed to impersonal forces like the economy, to race 06:24.200 --> 06:30.600 and color, to political views, to differences in culture and so many 06:30.600 --> 06:32.800 other issues that make people of 06:32.900 --> 06:34.400 afraid of each other. 06:35.600 --> 06:37.800 And the world we live in. 06:39.100 --> 06:45.900 I learned over the years, that Satan, our enemy is very clever. In 06:45.900 --> 06:47.600 every land in place 06:48.000 --> 06:53.600 he learns, what we fear most, and that is what he uses against us. 06:53.600 --> 06:57.500 Enslaved to the way things are. Live with it 06:57.900 --> 07:00.600 you can't do anything about it. 07:02.000 --> 07:03.800 And indeed, we can't. 07:05.400 --> 07:11.200 But there is a solution that God has provided at just the right time 07:11.200 --> 07:11.900 in the 07:12.000 --> 07:14.800 moment of our deepest need. 07:15.100 --> 07:20.700 He entered our world in the person of his Son and there will never be 07:20.700 --> 07:21.700 another time 07:21.700 --> 07:26.100 like it. He completely shared our experience. 07:26.100 --> 07:31.000 He was born of a woman, the Virgin Mary and He did not come just a 07:31.000 --> 07:34.700 watch from a bubble of Holiness and security. 07:35.500 --> 07:41.300 Watch all that is done wrong and leads to death. But he lived a life 07:41.300 --> 07:46.900 obedient to the law with all of its demands, that finally leads to 07:46.900 --> 07:48.500 death itself. 07:48.900 --> 07:52.300 God did all of this through his Son 07:52.800 --> 07:55.600 He paid the price to ransom us. 07:56.000 --> 08:01.000 He adopted us and declared us to be his children. 08:02.300 --> 08:07.100 Now we are a part of God's family, adopted into his family, through 08:07.100 --> 08:11.400 the waters of baptism and all the benefits of family 08:11.400 --> 08:13.300 membership are ours. 08:14.400 --> 08:20.400 In the midst of a world that is falling apart and consumed by constant 08:20.400 --> 08:23.200 conflict. In a lost world 08:23.200 --> 08:26.800 where so many have no idea where to turn. 08:27.500 --> 08:30.200 He is the one who listens to us 08:30.200 --> 08:33.299 when we pray Abba Father 08:34.700 --> 08:42.200 Even when we don't know what more to say, He answers. He answers us as 08:42.200 --> 08:47.200 a dear father answers, his dear children as Luther teaches us in the 08:47.200 --> 08:48.200 catechism. 08:49.100 --> 08:51.200 Indeed, may His Kingdom 08:51.200 --> 08:57.500 come. May His will be done among us as it is done in heaven, in Jesus 08:57.500 --> 08:59.400 name and for his sake. 09:00.100 --> 09:00.700 Amen. 09:02.400 --> 09:03.400 The peace of God 09:03.400 --> 09:05.200 which passes all understanding 09:05.200 --> 09:09.800 keep your keep your hearts and minds in faith in Christ Jesus. 09:11.300 --> 09:11.800 Amen. 09:12.800 --> 09:15.800 Congregation please rise and we will sing together. 09:15.800 --> 09:16.900 The Kyrie.