Galatians 3
In between visits to members in a
nursing home, one of the staff members came to me and asked, “Are you a
Lutheran pastor?” Having answered to that
I am, she said, “There is a lady here who is very upset, she’d like to talk to
a pastor and she’s Lutheran.” So I went
to see her.
The lady was around ninety years old and
was in bad shape. Pain throughout her
body, she had lost the ability to taste, smell, and was now too weak to
walk. Her family had chosen this nursing
home for its good care and cost, not for its proximity to them, so she rarely
had visitors. Having been introduced,
the lady said, “Pray for me to die.”
“Okay, we can do that,” I said, “But why
don’t you tell me a little bit about why you want to die first.” So
she told me about her life and all the good things she had done in service to
the Lord … which had been much! She had
helped with Sunday School, Ladies Aid, and more. She was involved in missions and had supported
multiple missionaries over the decades.
She had even funded building a seminary in Africa to train indigenous
pastors to minister to their people.
With all this to her credit, she simply could not understand why God
would allow her to be in her current state, and therefore she wanted to
die.
I smiled at this dear lady, and said, “Oh,
you’ve done so much, but you’ve got things a little mixed up!” So we talked about why God loves us, what He’s
done to show that love in the cross of Christ, and how we love Him in response
to His love.
We often get a little mixed up in regard
to God’s goodness and our righteousness.
We feel that there should be a quid
pro quo relationship between our good behaviors and God’s kindness to
us. Paul says in Galatians 3 that God’s
blessings, especially the blessings of justification, forgiveness, and eternal
life, are not ours because of the things we do.
“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law.”
God’s promises are rooted in His love
for us, not in “any merit or worthiness in me” (as it says in the Small
Catechism). It is such a relief when we
let go of our deeds and allow God to be the giver of every good and gracious
gift. We can then receive each moment as
an undeserved blessing.
Father, forgive my ingratitude. Help me to see how blessed I am. Amen.
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