Tonight, dinner and church at the old home church, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Duncan, OK. The worship service was p.42 TLH, the Order of Vespers.

Tonight’s sermon by Pastor Childs was based on Matthew 26:57-58.

Following are my notes, standard disclaimer applies:

My dear friends in Christ Jesus, as we grow older we find rules that just can’t be broken. If a store has more than one checkout line, we’re always sitting in the slowest line. If we drop a buttered piece of toast, it always lands butter-side down on a newly cleaned floor. If we buy an item, we often find a store that sold that item for less, or that item goes on sale the very next week. Murphy is the man of our age.

This must have been how Peter felt in the courtyard of the High Priest. The week had started out well—Jesus was hailed coming into town. The crowd was calling him the Son of David. They wanted Jesus to be king. During the week things fell apart, especially on Thursday night. There was an incident at dinner. Judas left, and Jesus was quite troubled. They go off to pray. He tells them to stay and pray while he prays, but they fall asleep. This happens two more times!

They awake to find Judas approaching with a detachment of Roman guards. Peter waits for the signal to draw his sword. Hearing none, he draws it anyway to strike the priest’s ear. What does Jesus do? He chides Peter, “Put the sword away.” The disciples decide they’ve had enough, and they run away and hide.

A man’s family heard a tornado siren and went downstairs. After the siren stopped, there was another warning, and the family prepared again while the tornado skirted town. The kids were scared. He tells them, “my family isn’t afraid of tornadoes”.

The kids reply, “We take after mom’s side!” The father was deflated.

Peter was deflated, too, but he and John got up the courage to go into town. Peter tries not to be noticed, but he’s cornered. Peter denies Jesus Christ three times, each more vigorously, even swearing and cursing. Realizing what he’s done, Peter cuts his losses and cries.

A mother said, “Use your napkin. Elbows off the table. Sit up straight.” As soon as her husband did so, her kids would come in, and she’d have to start all over again. After we deal with one problem, another arises, then another, and another. The same thing happened to Peter. All our problems are the result of sin. Sin is our Murphy. Sin, death and the Devil give us our difficulties. Worse, they mislead us into thinking we can take care of ourselves. They lock us into a cycle of trying, failing, and getting frustrated.

The Devil called a strategy meeting with three of his higher minions. The first devil said, “Send me to earth. I’ll tell everyone that God’s Word is false.”
“No, nobody will believe that,” the Devil replied.
The second devil said, “Send me. I’ll tell everyone there’s no Hell, no Heaven, and no God.”
“No, nobody will believe that either.”
“The third devil said, “Send me. I’ll tell people God’s Word is true, and there’s a Heaven and Hell, but I’ll say ‘There is no hurry to turn to God to believe.’” The Devil approved.

Isn’t that the way of the world? We procrastinate, but we still have the same problems. We ask people for advice, but it doesn’t work. Some people we ask for advice turn right around and tell us that we deserve everything we get. We may even get the, “Oh, you think you’ve got problems?” and get dumped on by someone else.

When we take our problems to Jesus Christ, he doesn’t do the things the world does. He points us to the cross. He’s forgiven our sin and our problems. He’s forgotten them, and if He can forget them, then so can we. Jesus assures us that he’s with us, in his Word and Sacrament.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Mary Jane & Chauncy. Their family was aboard an Amtrak train that derailed in a bayou. Their 15-year-old daughter, Alicia, was their miracle child, born with cerebral palsy. She sat in a wheelchair but wasn’t disabled. As the Amtrak train filled with water and the parents were drowning, they pushed Alicia through the window and out to safety. God’s promise to us is that even when everything goes wrong, he pushes us through His Word and sacrament to eternal life with him.