Dear Christian friends:

A Ventura County trustee of a community college and his wife were found guilty of stealing from the district by padding expense accounts, overestimating mileage and misusing public funds for expensive clothing and gourmet dinners.

Frequently the TV news magazines such as 60 Minutes, 20/20 and Dateline, show segments documenting how unreliable and unfaithful many of our public servants are. How refreshing it is when we read and hear of a faithful, reliable public servant and occasionally we do.

That, no doubt, is one of the reasons why our Lord Jesus Christ is so trusted and adored by millions and millions of people. He has proven to be a trust-worthy, reliable Lord and Savior. Our text, which is the gospel lesson for this Sunday beautifully shows this. We need to be reassured of this because at times in our life we may doubt that our Lord is reliable and trust worthy.


He may seem unreliable at times. He must have seemed unreliable to Jairus for a time. After all Jairus was a respected member of the community, one of God's servants, a ruler of the synagogue. No doubt, he lived a good life obeying the laws of Israel. One might expect God to favor him and his family because of his position and good life. But that does not seem to be the case, for his beloved twelve year old daughter is seriously ill and dying.(verses 22-23)

He doesn't seem to give Jairus' trouble the priority that it demands. After all this other person's illness was not an emergency. She had her problem for twelve years. And so the worst is allowed to happen.

Servants arrive from Jairus' house saying to him bluntly and cruely: "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher any more?" (verse 35) Surely at this point in time Jairus was tempted to agree with his servants that Jesus wasn't really able to help in this situation, that he wasn't all that reliable. At times Jesus may seem unfaithful and unreliable to us also.

We have been called to faith in him through Baptism and the Gospel. He calls us his brothers and sisters, children of the heavenly Father. We pray to him, worship him and serve him with our time, talent and treasure. And yet we are afflicted with all sorts of troubles and calamities, just like the unbelievers in the world. On top of this we have the troubles of bearing the cross, suffering ridicule and rejection from the hostile, unbelieving world.

We cannot dismiss these troubles as if Jesus knows nothing about them. For he does indeed know, and as we heard in the lasts Sunday's Gospel he is in control. When He commanded the wind and waves to be still. Whatever happens to us, both the so called "good" and "evil" happens because he allows it to happen.

It is a very real problem: why does Jesus permit these troubles to happen? The unbelievers conclude that life's miseries show God's lack of concern. The unbeliever argues this way: God must be displeased, therefore, He visits trouble upon people; on the other hand, when God bestows so-called "good" He must have seen something He liked, therefore was pleased, and therefore responds. Unbelievers think that pleasing or displeasing God is within our capacity so that God is therefore attracted or repulsed by us. This is human reasoning and philosophy; it is not Biblical.

The Bible teaches that God's love is not attracted by the loveable in us so that he therefore blesses. The Bible teaches that in spite of our sinfulness and sins, God loves and redeems. It teaches that all are sinners and deserve his wrath and displeasure, temporal death and eternal damnation. It teaches the beautiful Good News that we are saved only by his grace.

Jesus is reliable and faithful in the worst of troubles, even when he seems not to be. He proved to reliable here in Jairus' case. When the servants of Jairus brought him the terrifying news that his beloved daughter had died and that he need not bother the teacher any longer, Jesus ignored their words of unbelief and reason and said, "Don't be afraid; just believe." (verse 36)

When they arrived at Jairus' house Jesus addressed the wailing and despair of the mourners, saying "The child is not dead but asleep." When they in unbelief laughed at him he rebuked their unbelief by putting them all out of the house. (verse 40) Then, taking the three believing disciples and the believing parents with him into the room of dread, he who is the resurrection and the life raised the daughter from the sleep of death. (verses 40-41)

Jesus is also reliable in our case. Jesus would say to us also today: "Don't be afraid; just believe." Take heart! Have faith that Jesus is faithful and reliable although there are times when he seems not to be. Though life at times seems dismal, dark and hopeless, nevertheless God's mercy is endless and he saves his own, even from temporal and eternal death.

How do we know? Because of his promises. We have his promises in baptism. St. Paul tells us, "The kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:4-7)

We have his promises in Holy Communion, "Take eat, this is my body which is given for you; take drink, this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins." We have his promises in every evangelical sermon which we hear preached from this pulpit.

His promises are in the whole liturgy which we go through each Sunday when we gather here to worship. Don't sell liturgy short, as some are wanting to do today. Our order of worship is not an empty, insignificant ritual. The phrases repeated Sunday after Sunday provide regular reminders that our focus and confidence must be rooted in God's grace and in his promise to save us in the worst trouble, even death. Our liturgy which is based on "Jesus" promises, provides regularity and stability amid the change and decay of this life.

Every morning brings new mercy. As surely as the sun comes up, God's mercy continues and saves. That faith and confidence sustained Jairus. It can sustain us also.

In the Old Testament lesson for this Sunday from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the prophet assures us that our Savior is indeed reliable, even in the worst of times. He writes, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." (Jeremiah 3:22-23) Great is our Saviors reliability!

Dear Savior Jesus, Give us one more grace; help us to humbly rely on You and Your mercy always.

Amen.