WEBVTT 00:00.810 --> 00:04.778 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 00:04.954 --> 00:05.950 Amen. 00:06.930 --> 00:14.880 Praying for God's will, losing life, gaining everything. 00:18.360 --> 00:21.270 It's stark, isn't it? 00:22.520 --> 00:27.470 Bearing the mark of the ashen cross on your your body. 00:29.840 --> 00:34.190 Dust of the earth mixed with a lot of water. 00:36.000 --> 00:37.390 That's what you are. 00:39.060 --> 00:43.120 We hold on to life as a thin veil. 00:44.020 --> 00:52.704 When God draws back the veil, we see behind it the lifeless dust that 00:52.742 --> 00:54.050 is our mortal life. 00:56.500 --> 01:01.830 Death lurks right under the skin all the time. 01:04.140 --> 01:12.120 Polycarp, whom we commemorate this day, knew that. The leading figure 01:12.190 --> 01:16.876 in the Church in Asia Minor in the fourth century, carrying forth the 01:16.898 --> 01:17.852 heritage of St. 01:17.906 --> 01:24.908 John the apostle Polycarp, in his 80s, returns from Rome to Smyrna in 01:24.914 --> 01:30.304 the midsecond century, where he is martyred by being burned at the 01:30.342 --> 01:31.040 stake. 01:32.100 --> 01:38.736 When the pro consul calls him to curse Christ for the final time and 01:38.758 --> 01:46.916 proclaims that he will burn Polycarp. Polycarp responds why do you 01:46.938 --> 01:47.700 delay? 01:49.000 --> 01:49.604 Come 01:49.722 --> 01:51.430 do what you will. 01:53.820 --> 01:57.530 Polycarp knew what the will of God was. 01:59.980 --> 02:03.720 The wages of sin is death. 02:05.340 --> 02:08.430 Death is God's will. 02:11.300 --> 02:13.520 Now that's stark. 02:15.060 --> 02:18.290 And that's where the struggle begins for us. 02:19.220 --> 02:20.950 We treasure life. 02:21.400 --> 02:24.944 It's embedded in this country's Declaration of Independence. 02:25.072 --> 02:29.824 We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created 02:29.872 --> 02:35.400 equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights, 02:36.460 --> 02:39.770 that among these are life. 02:42.540 --> 02:48.090 And the struggle deepens because apparently God treasures life too. 02:48.540 --> 02:51.290 He created all living things, after all. 02:51.820 --> 02:56.552 And in our reading today, Jesus says for my Father's will is that 02:56.606 --> 02:59.710 everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him 03:00.170 --> 03:08.000 shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 03:10.810 --> 03:18.082 So we struggle to know God's will. Transforming the words supposedly 03:18.146 --> 03:25.286 attributed to the American patriot Patrick Henry give me life or give 03:25.308 --> 03:26.230 me death. 03:28.530 --> 03:34.334 And we know the struggle from experience, all those little deaths we 03:34.372 --> 03:35.470 die daily. 03:35.890 --> 03:42.900 The times when children or parents or spouse or friends or community 03:43.350 --> 03:52.293 fail us, the deteriorations of the body, the dying we inflict when we 03:52.332 --> 03:53.400 fail others. 03:54.730 --> 04:00.182 And then there are those more severe that decimate life, those 04:00.236 --> 04:05.834 breeding threats against our theological expression even within the 04:05.872 --> 04:06.570 Church. 04:08.190 --> 04:13.894 The threats of the planet falling to hell in a handbasket. Threats 04:13.942 --> 04:19.360 that an unstable worldly peace might be destroyed by war at any time. 04:21.250 --> 04:23.534 A young girl travels to St. 04:23.572 --> 04:29.986 Louis from Tennessee for volleyball tournaments, and suddenly the 04:30.008 --> 04:34.930 recklessness of another human being costs her both her legs. 04:38.340 --> 04:44.340 Death not only lurks under the skin, it's right around the corner. 04:46.840 --> 04:51.830 And we beg of God, what is your will? 04:53.240 --> 04:56.409 Death or life? 05:00.060 --> 05:05.000 And the proper preface for Lent, which we heard yesterday. 05:05.420 --> 05:11.532 We pray that with cleansed hearts we might be prepared joyfully to 05:11.586 --> 05:19.100 celebrate the Paschal Easter feast in sincerity and truth. 05:21.060 --> 05:25.596 We can't celebrate the Paschal feast in sincerity and truth 05:25.707 --> 05:32.450 apart from knowing what God's will for us is regarding death and life. 05:33.560 --> 05:39.669 And to know that we have to discern how God's will is done. 05:40.440 --> 05:45.552 Luther says God's will is done when God breaks and hinders every evil 05:45.616 --> 05:52.372 plan and purpose of the devil, the world and our sinful nature, which 05:52.426 --> 05:58.712 do not want us to howl God's name or let his kingdom come, our sin, 05:58.736 --> 05:59.240 sinful nature. 06:00.330 --> 06:03.678 There is the ultimate enemy to God's will. 06:03.844 --> 06:08.682 As we will sing in Luther's Lord's Prayer him momentarily curb flesh 06:08.746 --> 06:12.880 and blood and every ill that sets itself against your will. 06:14.130 --> 06:19.950 The flesh and blood set against God's will is yours. 06:21.090 --> 06:27.446 We want life and we seek to guarantee for our ourselves that we can 06:27.468 --> 06:29.990 hold on to it life at all cost. 06:30.140 --> 06:35.622 There is no place in my life for death and certainly not death that 06:35.676 --> 06:36.966 God might bring. 06:37.148 --> 06:40.540 I will not have it. 06:44.080 --> 06:52.480 Yet we pray, let us celebrate the Paschal feast in sincerity and 06:52.550 --> 06:53.360 truth. 06:55.460 --> 07:01.308 And it is in the Paschal feast that we find how God curbs our flesh 07:01.324 --> 07:02.220 and blood. 07:02.380 --> 07:07.300 Jesus treasured nothing more than the will of his Father. 07:09.240 --> 07:14.836 For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of 07:14.858 --> 07:16.630 him who sent me. 07:17.800 --> 07:22.680 When some Greeks asked the disciples, we wish to see Jesus. 07:23.020 --> 07:26.890 Jesus makes very clear what the will of the Father is. 07:28.060 --> 07:31.576 The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. 07:31.768 --> 07:32.344 Truly, 07:32.392 --> 07:34.190 truly, I say to you. 07:34.720 --> 07:40.664 Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains 07:40.712 --> 07:41.420 alone. 07:42.260 --> 07:45.680 But if it dies, it bears much fruit. 07:47.060 --> 07:50.210 Whoever loves his life loses it. 07:50.900 --> 07:56.384 And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal 07:56.432 --> 07:57.030 life. 07:59.560 --> 08:06.790 This will of his Father is more than life itself. 08:08.460 --> 08:12.996 He will lose his life in the hate filled death of a cross. 08:13.108 --> 08:22.076 In that kernel of wheat falling into the ground, into the dust is the 08:22.098 --> 08:28.904 seed, the fruit of new life the life of God in human flesh. 08:29.032 --> 08:33.900 This is the will of the one who sent Jesus. 08:34.059 --> 08:40.655 And it is His will that Jesus should lose nothing of all that the 08:40.678 --> 08:46.370 Father has given Him but will raise it up on the last day. 08:47.060 --> 08:54.992 All that the Father has given Him he will raise up along with all 08:55.046 --> 08:59.830 those the Father has given Him all of the creation raised up in Him 09:00.090 --> 09:01.998 and for Him. 09:02.164 --> 09:06.320 All of it, including you. 09:08.910 --> 09:10.122 As the sainted Dr. 09:10.176 --> 09:15.740 Nagel used to say, it's the whole lot and more. 09:17.630 --> 09:22.140 This is the Father's good and gracious will. 09:25.070 --> 09:26.490 Now don't be fooled. 09:27.670 --> 09:29.970 The struggle will persist. 09:30.390 --> 09:32.210 It's unrelenting. 09:33.190 --> 09:34.450 What is it, God? 09:34.600 --> 09:36.260 Death or life? 09:38.410 --> 09:45.846 But that's exactly why you pray this petition thy will be done on 09:45.868 --> 09:48.310 earth as it is in heaven. 09:49.130 --> 09:54.618 We pray it so that God's will, a paschal death to life, may be done 09:54.704 --> 10:02.026 among us also and that we may celebrate it joyfully in sincerity and 10:02.128 --> 10:02.970 truth. 10:03.410 --> 10:05.520 That's what St. Polycarp did. 10:06.450 --> 10:12.526 As they tied him to the pire, he prayed lord Almighty God, I bless you 10:12.548 --> 10:18.098 for judging me worthy of this day and this hour, that in the company 10:18.184 --> 10:21.940 of martyrs I may share the cup of Christ. 10:22.710 --> 10:30.274 Let me be received among the martyrs in Your presence today as a rich 10:30.402 --> 10:32.390 and pleasing sacrifice. 10:35.330 --> 10:36.640 What is it, God? 10:38.610 --> 10:49.276 Unless the kernel of wheat falls into the ground. In these gray and 10:49.298 --> 10:55.710 latter days, we pray that the Spirit will keep us in faith and trust 10:56.319 --> 10:58.030 that God's will is done. 10:58.960 --> 11:00.590 His kingdom comes. 11:01.600 --> 11:06.380 His name is holy among us until we die. 11:07.680 --> 11:14.384 This is the will will of the One who came down from heaven, losing 11:14.432 --> 11:18.390 life, gaining everything. 11:20.120 --> 11:24.230 So we pray Your will be done. 11:26.120 --> 11:30.500 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 11:30.840 --> 11:31.280 Amen.