September 7, 2025 Text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Dear Friends in Christ,
This morning, we will sing as our closing hymn, LSB #738. It is titled “Lord of All Hopefulness.” The first line is this, “Lord of All Hopefulness, Lord of all joy.” The rest of the hymn has the theme of what the Lord grants to us through different parts of the day.
The hymn was written by Jan Struther. She was an English poet who also wrote the book Mrs. Miniver which became an award-winning movie. Ms. Struther lived next to an Anglican priest and knowing her poetry he asked her to compose words that could be made into hymns. Nothing unusual about that, except Jan Struther was an agnostic. While I did learn she attended church, it seems she didn’t believe any of what she was writing for the priest. Later in life she would suffer depression, be in a mental institution and she died in her 50’s from cancer.
In Adult Bible study now, we are studying hymns. Scripture used, reason for the writing, learning about the authors. It has been interesting. The studies have penetrating questions. With this hymn we might ask: Does knowing the hymnwriter is agnostic make a difference when you sing it? Will the words of hopefulness and joy be lessened because Ms. Struther was so depressed? I would answer it “no” and “no.” God uses all his people in ways he sees fit and maybe just maybe, before she died she remembered what she had written about Christ and what He did for her.
Jan Struther is a picture of life in this world. The competing forces of good and evil, life and death. Don’t we all know someone struggling in their faith? Someone looking for answers who is outside the church? Let’s walk the path and see . . .
“THE LORD IS YOUR LIFE”
In our existence as human beings we make choices. What Moses has written here today is a text full of choices. Worship the true God and follow His ways and live or worship other gods and perish. Pretty simple, really. Who is in control of your life?
What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. Look at your world. Everything man does is to the glory of man; to satisfy personal comfort and greed; to honor mother earth and humankind; to feed man’s desires for money, things, power, lusts; to exalt himself with honors in the here and now; to use language that has no place in a civilized society.
It surprises none of us that we are surrounded by death and evil. Let’s be clear: the mass killings are not a recent phenomenon. I read this week about a family in rural Iowa killed by a hatchet in 1912. Look at the killing in the Old Testament. Multiple deaths and what precipitates it has always been in the heart of man. Evil? Don’t you think some people get up each day and think to themselves – how can I screw with society today. Let me use words and depravity and leave my common sense at the door. If there is a God, He owes man. Yes, it is rough, let us not deny that.
It’s a constant process – a check on life – which voices are guiding, comforting, and preparing us? God warns, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6a). Lack of knowledge comes from ignorance of the Word. God help us to think, pray, and act on the truth: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Ps. 119:105)
Our text, “The Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (v. 20)
I know we are not headed to an earthly promised land. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to concerning Christ’s First Coming has been fulfilled. We are looking forward to the eternal. But the truth of what Moses speaks is relevant today: The Lord Is Your Life. The words of Jesus, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)
Martin Luther wrote this about Jesus in a sermon from 1540: “He sacrifices himself on the cross, becomes a sinner and a curse…he dies a shameful death, all for the benefit of the whole human race, to redeem it from the eternal curse. All who believe that their sin and the sin of the world are laid on our dear Lord, who was baptized and nailed to the cross for our sin…receive forgiveness and eternal life. Christ’s baptism, cross and blood become their own.”
What is the crucial issue of life? Standing next to the casket of a loved one, it isn’t hard to figure out. Let’s hear it again: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
THE LORD IS YOUR LIFE.
Amen.