Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today we find ourselves in kind of a strange situation. If you’re feeling a little out of sorts today, perhaps it’s not the weather after all. Today we find ourselves a little more than half-way through the Church Season of Lent, which you liturgical purists out there will remind us is the “purple season” of the Church Year, the season of penitence, the season of reflection, the season of somber music, the season where even the word “Alleluia” has disappeared from the vocabulary of our worship services.

Yet today, thanks primarily to Lisa and Scott for picking March 22, we find ourselves joined in an “out-of-character for the season” joyful celebration, a reminder that while we might be technically in Lent, Sundays do not technically belong to Lent. Every Sunday – even during Lent – is actually a little celebration of Easter, a little celebration of that big celebration we will observe in just three short weeks, when our worship service will begin with the joyful hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia!”

Well, my friends, Lent or no Lent, Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Through the waters of Holy Baptism, Jesus Christ is Risen in the heart of Levi Addis Vila.

Five years ago, we all had to wonder what God was up to. We certainly know the familiar Scripture passage that God’s plans are not our plans and that His ways are not our ways [Isaiah 55]. Five years ago, though, it was really tough to complete the rest of that Scripture passage that as the Heavens are higher than the earth so also are God’s plans are higher than our plans and God’s ways are better than our ways. Five years ago, somehow in the midst of a lot of pain and a lot of exhaustion and a lot of anger and a lot of tears, we heard God say to Baby Laureen and to Lisa and to Scott, “For I know the plans that I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” [Jeremiah 29].

I think for once – and this doesn’t happen often – God has allowed us as mere human beings to figure out His plans, to catch a quick, microscopic glimpse into how He works.

Five years ago, God knew that on March 6, 2008 a little boy would be born in Hanoi, Vietman [Psalm 139]. God knew that little boy would find his way to an orphanage, where he would stay until new parents would be found for him. Not just any parents would do. No, in God’s plan, these new parents had to be “cream of the crop” parents, parents who could not only provide that little boy every imaginable physical blessing, but, much more importantly, parents who could and would provide that little boy every imaginable spiritual blessing. And that’s where God had some work to do.

It’s only been about 4½ years now since my telephone rang one afternoon. It was Scott, informing me that he wanted to be baptized. I knew that day would come as so many of us had been praying for that day. What I didn’t expect was that after I said I would be honored to baptize Scott, he announced that he’d be here at church in half an hour. And he was.

To human eyes on that midweek afternoon – July 22, 2004 to be exact – Scott and I stood alone here in this big, empty, quiet church. There was no throng of people. There were no family members or friends. There was no advanced announcement in the bulletin or on the web page. There was no powerful organ music. There was no formal liturgy. There was simply me and Scott and a snake on a pole. Scott had been dead in his transgressions and sins [Ephesians 2:1]. He was living in a wonderful world, but he was living in darkness. He had been bitten by the venomous snakes of this world [Numbers 21], but none of that had changed God, Who so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that, simply and solely by His unmerited saving grace, salvation would be worked in Scott’s heart through the waters of Holy Baptism so that a proper home would be found for that little boy God already knew would be born in Hanoi on March 6, 2008.

To God, it was most important that that little boy born in Hanoi would not just find a home in the United States of America. That would be an easy task for God to accomplish. To God, it was most important that that little boy would find a home in His eternal Kingdom. That has today been accomplished. God has again proved that His ultimate purpose is not to condemn the world, but to save the world through Jesus Christ.

And He has saved not just Scott and Levi. God’s grace and mercy and love are too great to be that exclusive. God has saved you and me. We have all been bitten by those venomous snakes. We have all walked in the darkness of this world, but God has broken into our existence in Jesus Christ, Who lived and died and rose again, for you and for me, for Scott and Lisa and Levi.

When you stop to think about it, is that not the message of Lent? The message of Lent is precisely that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena