Text Box:     Text Box: Alleluia!  Have no fear little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.   Alleluia!   Reflection:  Singing the Faith.  (Read Romans 3:19-28)                There lay Grandpa.  Getting old and tired, slow and forgetful.  Mom often had a hard time waking him up when she got to Elwood, Nebraska midmorning.  “Daddy, I’m here” she would say...no response.  “Daddy, wake up, let’s eat breakfast...” nothing. Being the wise mother of both the young and aged, my mom would then break into song:   “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey, You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away…”                His eyes were still closed.  His face, still buried in his pillow.  His whiskers were sharp and glasses on the dresser but his lips would never fail to move, and unite with my mom’s in singing their lovesong from the past, even in the most awkward of positions.                The Church needs music because the Church has a message, a message to raise us up from our stupor, you could even call it a “lovesong.”   God loves you.  He sent His Son to save you from yourself, and bring you from certain death, to certain life.  That is good news!                 But years ago, Martin Luther saw the Church in desperate shape, without good news and therefore without a song.  What joy is there is the law?  It condems, threatens, and convicts!  The Law doesn’t lift you up, but keeps you in sin’s stupor.  So Luther, after having uncovered the Gospel he gave it to the people to hear.  To hear spoken and  to hear proclaimed.  He gave it to the people to think of, to talk about and most of all to sing!                Lutherans therefore, out of great appreciation for the Gospel of Salvation sang in their homes, sang before supper, sang before bed, sang in the church, sang at devotions and even sang in the streets!  Luther knew that the best way to drive away the assaults of Satan and to embolden faith in Christ was to hear the good news of Jesus’ love through song.  Yes, Lutherans sing.                 My fondest memories of Grandpa Schmeeckle (member of “Our Redeemer Lutheran Church” in little Elwood, NE) are of us singing.  We’d sing around the piano, around the table, around the guitar and finally around his nursing home bed.  But the songs that united us most of all were the hymns that we sang, because they bridged our generations with the enduring message of the Gospel.                            At Grandpa’s funeral his body sure looked like it wasn’t going to wake up.  But we knew better.  Our lovesongs —that he taught us—told us so, for they were drawn from words first taught us all by our God.  Jesus lives the victories won!  Death no longer can appall me; Jesus lives!  Deaths reign is done!  From the grave will Christ recall me.  Brighter scenes will then commence; This shall be my confidence. Romans 8:11, 35-39; 2 Cor 5:15, Phil 1:20-21                  “Let this word of Christ dwell in you richly…”

The Word In You