Tag: Deaf Ministry

In Christ we pass through the narrow gate on the way of salvation

Posted on by nfuller

We are all on a pilgrimage, a journey through this life. It is a difficult and rough pilgrimage, requiring patience and endurance.  Every person on this earth is on a pilgrimage, whether we be infant or aged, rich or poor. This pilgrimage extends from here to eternity. But to where are we going? What is our destination?

Some look inward, digging deep into their innermost being, to discover the answer inside themselves. Some conclude there is no destination, only the journey matters. Others believe in humanity’s journey of societal evolution. And still others think of all of us being shaped by the Divine- but not knowing exactly what this means.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 13 that even the view that we are being shaped by God and brought to heaven, whether we realize it or not- is a wrong view.

There are two paths and only two paths. Either one or the other- the wide way to hell or the narrow door to heaven. To think of our earthly pilgrimage as the chief destination itself is a path along the wide way to hell.

To think of it as a group effort, to where all humanity is going, is also along the wide way to hell. To forget hell and to believe that all go to heaven no matter what- this is walking along the oh so wide path to hell.

“Strive to enter through the narrow door” Jesus says.  Right now, the narrow door stands open, and many will try to enter it through their own means, on their own terms- but they will be unable to do so. They will think they’ve lived a good enough life, given enough to others, believed enough. Your life is never good enough for God. You can never give enough to please God. Your belief, when it is not in Jesus Christ, is never enough.     

We chanted the first half of Psalm 50. This Psalm provides an illustration of what it looks like when people try to go through the gate on their own terms instead of through Jesus.

“I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

God is clearly spelling out to Israel that simply offering sacrifices because it is the right thing to do and it hedges your bets to be forgiven by God, that is not true worship. God is saying, do you think I need all of these sacrifices to be fed? The Lord is telling us that such actions translate to “I’m going to earn the way of salvation on my own.”

The true worship of our living God is to offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, to live in a relationship of love and trust with God that we are willing to call upon God in a time of trouble- instead of seeking to rely on ourselves and save ourselves. This is the narrow door of salvation, to have faith in the deliverance God has promised to His people.

The narrow door is standing open, but the time is coming when it will be closed forever. When Jesus returns descending on the clouds and ushering in the Last Day, the door will be closed. It is hard to believe that something that is always open could one day be closed. 

If someone offers you a job and gives you an offer letter you know you have made it through the application process. When you receive a letter that you have been accepted into a college, you know you are in. Once you are in, you can even wait a few months before sending in any confirmation or payment- maybe see if you get in somewhere else. After all you know a spot is being held for you.

But what if the weeks and weeks go by, and then months and you make no reply. The school year starts and you are still just content that you have the job offer or the admission to the degree program. It would be foolish to think you could just start a job two or three years later after you receive an offer letter. It would be the height of pride and folly to let year by year go by and tell yourself, the door is open, I got in. I will go through some day, when I am not so busy with these other life priorities.

The time of grace will end on the Last Day- the time of grace will end when the door that has stood open all this time is finally closed. The owner of the house will turn away from him those who have nothing in common with him. And if you chose to live your life in a way where you tried to enter through the door of faith on your own terms, instead of through the narrow door, you would on that day stand there shocked, desperate, anguished, and enraged.

Then you would begin to say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” We came to church, we gave to the poor, we did many mighty works in your name.” These are the words that will come out of your mouths, as if what you did can save you. 

As if just being in church on Sunday morning will save your soul, or as if just living in a sort of American Christian nation and thinking of yourself as a God fearing patriotic person who really means it when you sing God bless America- as if that will save you.

Jesus continues in our gospel lesson the reply to these protests: “But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me all you workers of evil!”  This is his final reply. There will be no more pleading, the narrow door will be closed. All those supposed good works are counted as filthy and unrighteous before the eyes of God almighty.

Do not be one who hears Jesus, but does not believe. Follow not the wide path to hell, rather strive to enter through the narrow door.

Jesus tells us that people will come from east and west, north and south, taking their places at the royal feast in heaven. The door is not narrow in the sense of only being for certain people in certain places, people from all tribes and languages and places in life will come. But they will all fit into the one narrow criteria of faith in Jesus.

Jesus the narrow door is standing there, drawing all people unto himself. He has come into this church, teaching among us, preaching his saving Word, and calling out to you. He does not wish to slam the door in anyone’s face but wants each one to enter into the feast he has prepared. This is the call of the Gospel, the universal call to all people. And this is God’s call to you.

“And behold some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” Jesus the only begotten Son of the Father, who was first has become last. And you who are sinners, who were last, have become first. This is the point of Jesus’ pilgrimage on earth This is why Jesus of Nazareth was traveling onward to Jerusalem, to his death on the cross, to his glory.

But God doesn’t leave you alone on this earth to find the way. He is the way. He doesn’t force you to labor on your pilgrimage or to labor upon reaching your destination. Rather he grants rest- bestowing on you an honored place at the heavenly feast. On your path, God directs you to the narrow door. This is life under His grace.

God is gracious to you. He speaks his sacred Word of Absolution: “I forgive you all your sins.”  As you partake of the Lord’s Supper, you have already a foretaste of the eternal feast of heaven, the forgiveness of your sins, the very body and blood of Jesus your sacrificial lamb.  God uses these means of grace to keep you on the path to the narrow door. God uses these means to guarantee your salvation.

While we don’t always know where we are going, Jesus knew where he was going. He knew his destination, his destiny. He set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem, to the cross of calvary. And Jesus spread wide his arms on that tree of death, the narrow door to heaven was thrown open.

You need not look inward to find where you are going. You need not be deceived by your own flesh, the world, or the devil. Rather look where Jesus looked. Your destination is the same as his, the cross.

Your pilgrimage ends on that sacred mount- on that altar in which Christ offered himself as a sacrifice to God the Father. Your pilgrimage ends there. He calls out to you, enter the narrow door, Recline at His table, your journey ends here.     

The cross brings peace to us and division to the world

Posted on by nfuller

Brothers and sisters in Christ this morning our scripture reading move us to look at the betrayal and danger that those who are right in our midst can bring into our lives.

Our collect prayer asks boldly of the Lord: “Cleanse and defend Your church”  To  cleanse is to clean up that which is polluted from within. The church always needs to be reformed because the ways of the world should never loom larger than the way of Christ.  To defend the church is to protect from both dangers from the outside and dangers within. 

In the Introit we heard about a particular painful danger from within the church- from someone who has been very close to you: 

12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—  then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. 13 But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend.

What poetic words of bittersweet lament!  An attack from an enemy would be so much more bearable, you know who the enemy is and you understand why they are attacking. An attack form an enemy has a rally effect that brings people together for the common cause.  

It is all together more disarming when the attack comes from someone you put your trust in- a family member or a close brother or sister in Christ. Such betrayal can be so discouraging that it moves people to want to abandon being a part of a church at all. Some people who have been hurt refuse to attend a church again, People say, “I am not going to get hurt like that again.”   Like the psalmist we say that we cannot bear it.

What does it mean for us in worship to join in these words of lament as they were spoken in the Introit? Is there a spiritual gain in lamenting out loud about mistrusting our friends and family and neighbors?  

 It seems the gain is our recognizing that those who are closest to us in our family and in our church can pervert God’s Word and persecute God’s people. 

Included in these ranks of those who distort God’s Word are the prophets who speak falsehood in order to be well liked. This is what the prophet Jeremiah describes.  “They say continually to those who despise the Word of the Lord, it shall be well with you.”

This betrayal theme that is not ready made for a sermon that makes people feel good about life, such as Good Shepherd Sunday, or a reflection on how God’s love for us is like the wings of an Eagle sheltering and protecting us and lifting us up. 

What is more, we are a small congregation, so if I talk about the evil from your neighbor, it is harder to just make those words into a general picture of that neighbor out there in the church who is a danger to you by false teaching- because you can see the neighbor right there beside you.  

And what is more, the one Sunday that this gospel of Luke about divisions in family is read over the three year readings cycle, is the Sunday that I have a larger contingent of family worshipping with us than usual.

Jesus does not mince words in talking about the divisions that his baptism of fire of the cross brings. “I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled.”  An unbeliever hearing the words of Jesus in the gospel lesson might wonder, what is this division Jesus is talking about, what is this fire Jesus is coming to bring?

As the Elvis Costello song goes What’s so funny about peace love and understanding? Isn’t that what Jesus is for?  Apart from the Holy Spirit a person would think Jesus must have been having a bad day.  A person might wonder, why not just focus on other portions of the gospels where Jesus teaches about loving enemies and forgiving and paying forward to others and turning the other cheek?   

It is difficult to take that hard line of Jesus that if you are not with him you are against him, that there is a way of righteousness which is the way of life- hoping in Christ and following him and forsaking the priorities and the false idols of the world.   

It’s much easier to look at our neighbor and say, “it shall be well with you.”  It is much easier to overlook differences in a family with respect to the gospel. We can agree to disagree as a family about certain things or not talk about them for the sake of a peace within the family. But this does not bring peace in God’s kingdom.

As we heard in our reading from Jeremiah, the church just like the prophets are expected to speak God’s Word faithfully no matter what.

What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. 29Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

We cannot overlook the role of the law in serving as a hammer in condemning sin in Christian life.   

Those nearby who can lead us astray because they do not look to Jesus as their life’s foundation.  Jesus talks about division in the family..  verse 50 “I have a baptism to be baptized  with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.”  Jesus is talking about the cross, the greatest news we can ever imagine, the message of our forgiveness because of Jesus’ punishment.  This cross also brings division and shows how helpless we are without Jesus.  So if we give up speaking the law just to avoid conflict, avoid those divisions of father against son- we avoid the cross, we avoid the law that condemns sin. Even those within our own family or in our church can be angry with us.  But this is a loving purpose, so that those who hear the law can repent of their sin and find life.

Avoiding the law will bring division as well, as those who live in Christ are betrayed and disappointed by our compromise. We who believe in the gospel will be undivided from Christ, we will be with him- regardless of what persecutions we face.

Our introit from Psalm 55 was first written by King David in the context of betrayal he experienced in an evil city. Clearly this points forward to the betrayal that Jesus experienced from his own disciple Judas. “He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heal against me.”

 Jesus was betrayed on the night he instituted the Lord’s Supper, that is how the earliest account in scripture of the Lord’s Supper describes it:  “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

The betrayal of Jesus is always mentioned as one of the essential details of the Lord’s Supper, and it is mentioned each Sunday as we celebrate the sacrament.  We can never escape that alongside the heavenly feast that joins us to Christ is the betrayal from within.

The world is never a friend to the church, as long as there is a fallen world we live in there is always betrayal.  We lament at this and sometimes it feels like we cannot bear it.  Those who have been at this church before my time have spoken of feeling abandoned by so many leaving essentially all at once.

People leaving for another church is not exactly betrayal in the sense that they are likely still Christians. But- It is still hard to bear!  When those who were with us are no longer there we feel forsaken.

Jesus was betrayed by not only Judas but many in the holy city of Jerusalem- Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets.  Jesus went through the suffering of betrayal by the very people who the LORD chose for himself.  And we have inherited the curse of this same sinful nature, the nature that considers God the enemy and want to get rid of God so that we can be as “God” for ourselves.

Jesus died for this quick to betray and quick to abandon people that our sin created.  Out of great love Jesus set his face resolute to the cross to redeem us who fail and betray Jesus.

And Jesus rose to call us as his own people so that we would not be like Judas and betray Jesus with a kiss, but instead like the thief on the cross we call to Jesus saying: ‘Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

We call to Jesus, not to the strength of man, because we know that He will never abandon or betray us.  In Christ we always have family and belonging according to God’s perfect will for us.

When we feel we cannot handle the disappointments of life in the church, God’s Word reminds us that those who fear the Lord will lack no good thing. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.”  Amen

Jesus raises you up out of bondage

Posted on by nfuller

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s Word for us this morning describes the bondage that sin brings in our lives. Our Introit talks about the troubles we face as if we are buried in the depth of the earth.  “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.”

Some Christians feel guilt ridden when day after day they feel buried beneath the earth with troubles or despair or depression. They blame themselves for the bondage they find themselves in.  People think, “if I feel this bad, I must be doing something wrong. A good Christian is joyful and not sad and weighed down by grief.”

This is a mistake to feel this way, to feel this guilt over the amount of troubles present in your life. Your guilt means that you think you can free yourself from the bondage of sin. “I should do better, I have a strong faith.” 

This guilt keeps you from seeing that Jesus alone is who frees you, who brings you out of the depth of the earth. This morning God’s Word loudly proclaims that Jesus and Jesus alone has set you free!

In our gospel lesson we can see how helpless a person can be to free himself from the chains of sin.  Jesus and the disciples are in the place called Gerasanes, a land just outside of Galilee. Jesus had not yet made it into the city when already a man possessed by demons met him.  This man’s bondage to the demons and bondage to his own sin was so great that he no longer even lived in the city. He no longer took part in society at all- so great was his torment, no clothes, no interactions, using the cavernous tombs as a place to stay.

It is clear that this man is not in control of his own life, he is a slave to the demons who posses him. Even when people tried to guard him and contain him with chains and shackles he broke out of them- so great was the power of the demons within him. 

One of the signs of a demon in the New Testament is that they know who Jesus is from the start. The Legion of demons greet Jesus in this same way, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 

The demons see Jesus as the Son of God, but they do not see him as someone who can heal them or save them. It’s amazing to think about this, the demons see Jesus for who he is, and instead of worshipping him or repenting before him and asking mercy- they dig in with their defiance and scoff at Jesus. 

This is not much different than what we do in our sinful nature.  We see only the power God has over us to destroy us and we scoff at God, we do not in our human nature have the ability to come to God and trust in God’s goodness to us. That is why we confess in the explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles Creed that “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus as my Lord or come to him.”

But Jesus did not turn his back on us while we were enemies of God.  He set us free from our bondage.  He gave us new life in Him so that we could live for the first time in a freedom from the drive of our sinful human nature.  Now for the first time we are able to live to serve God instead of living to serve our sinful nature.

Sometimes you might doubt if you really are free in Christ, because all you see is your sin and how it holds you from being a child of God in your actions. If you doubt how much different your life really is because of your faith- if you feel your attempts to bear good fruit in God’s kingdom are second rate at best then how important it is that you  see there in the gospel lesson how without hesitation Jesus commanded the demon to leave the victim.

To Jesus there is no reason for a man to stay in bondage and slavery to sin and the forces of evil.  Jesus came to free us from all that would leave us chained up and buried under the earth.

The demon begged Jesus to not send him into the abyss but to enter into the pigs. It is not easy for us to understand why Jesus agreed to this, or for what purpose this served. Jesus knew that the demons would have a harmful impact on the herd of pigs, and that this attention would drive people of the town to be afraid of him.

However, for our benefit this sacrifice of the herd of pigs to the evil demons gives us a clear image of the destructive nature of the demons, that from the time of the possession they drive the pigs to jump off a cliff and destroy themselves. This is such a clear picture for us of the destruction of Satan. 

Many people today, especially younger generations are drawn to have sympathy with witchcraft or satanic arts- almost as if it is a good thing because it is the underdog type of belief that nobody would give a chance for. This is part of the lie Satan tells to our young people, that Christianity is the largest religion in the world, that it doesn’t give a fair view of witchcraft. It is the lie of Satan that the Majority will always oppress the minority.  But here the destructive nature of demons is visible for all to see.

In the same way, what destruction we can invite into our lives when we chose the chains of sin over the freedom of Jesus.  It may not be as dramatic as a herd of pigs falling off of a cliff, but without the shield of our faith the impact of Satan’s influence in our life has the same destructive results.

In our Epistle reading we heard St. Paul talk about how before Jesus was born into the world we were like children or slaves who were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. Living only for this world leads us to play right into Satan’s hands.

If you only have hope for this world, then whatever deal Satan offers can be hard to pass up.  ‘What do I have to lose, I might as well have what I want while I have the opportunity.’  

I am grateful that God’s Word has led me on a course in life where every decision I make in life is not driven by the slavery of what I think I want for myself regardless of any understanding of what good things God prepares for me in his kingdom. This is the freedom Jesus brings us from servitude of our sin.

Here at Christ Lutheran, as of late many of our members struggle with challenges of health and we struggle with building repairs and other needs to keep a congregation moving along.  It is important that we can see a bigger picture, that it is not only for this life that we live, that our church is investing in more than just managing a building and paying of a building loan, or targeting attendance numbers. We are building up treasure in heaven as our faith grows and as we seek to share the gospel- especially now with the Deaf Community.  Being a part of a church is more than just keeping up with what needs doing.  It is participating in the freedom and joy of life lived no longer as slaves to sin, but as heirs of our Heavenly Father.

By the end of our gospel reading, the man who was possessed by the demon Legion ends up in a blessed state.  He went from someone who was an outcaste to the extreme to someone who had the pleasure of sitting at the feet of Jesus. 

He wanted to follow Jesus and continue in the blessed freedom from slavery that Jesus just brought to him. Instead, Jesus tells him to stay in his home town and declare how much God has done for him.  And that is exactly what he did, he told everyone in the city what Jesus had done for him.

You also can speak about how Jesus liberated you from slavery to your sin.  You can tell people that without God’s Word living in you, that you cannot imagine where you would be in life.

You might look at your life and see ways in which Satan had his way with you and you feel like you have not met your potential in your life, that you could be such a greater servant in God’s kingdom if you made better decisions.

The man possessed by demons was healed and all of the damage was undone, he was a new creation in Christ. And in the same way you are a new creation, he heals you of the mistakes from your past, he forgives you and restores you- so that you can tell others about him.    

Brothers and sisters in Christ, know today that Jesus has set you free from bondage. He has raised you up out of the deep pit of your own sin and despair. Even as he will raise you up on the last day. Amen.

Christ’s gifts to us inspire a New Song of Praise

Posted on by nfuller

Peter was praying in the city of Joppa, and an amazing new thing occurred. He saw a stunning vision of animals of all sorts, clean and unclean, lowered as a sheet by four corners by the power of the heavens. The voice of the Lord says: “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” Essentially Peter sees a vision of a platter of potential food set before him as a gift.

Peter could not believe what he was hearing.  For thousands of years it was an undisputed truth, no Hebrew was to eat unclean food. God’s people were supposed to be holy just as God is holy.  Now a new thing had happened. Jesus is risen, and this means new life not just for Israel, but for all people who become part of the growing church, the New Israel.

The gentiles who were once unclean and separated from God, now can become part of the church through the power of Jesus. Peter was being shown that what once looked impossible is now here. Something changed, and not for an arbitrary reason, such as the law changes during the beginning of a new administration in government. Something changed because Jesus has won salvation for the whole world.

“Oh Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things.”  That was the beginning of our Introit this morning, the first message from God’s Word here in this Fifth Sunday of Easter. The new song the psalmist is calling for is a response of joy for what the LORD has done for his people.  A new song is in order- something has changed permanently. Death itself has been swallowed up by life. Now the good news is to spread to all nations.  

When each of my three children were new born, it generated an impromptu composition of songs or lullaby’s to help baby sleep. These were new songs in response to what the Lord has done for us as parents in the gift of a child. I won’t sing them here, that would be embarrassing. But I remember how the wonder of the occasion was the inspiration for the creativity.

Each Psalm, each hymn in our hymnal is a New song sung to the Lord, always in response to the Lord’s saving work to us. Most of us do not seek to write sacred music. I don’t think I will ever try to compose a hymn. But I can recognize how God’s Word changes me and moves me to approach my life with a new sense of wonder, with a new song.

The gifts of God abound and the response we have to His Word can blossom in beautiful ways and in surprising ways at different times in life.  Hearing God’s Word, sharing in the Lord’s Supper with brothers and sisters in Christ, it just moves you to a New Song. 

Today in our congregation, it is a joy to be facing new milestones in our congregation’s ministry.  Our lone eight grader right now Monika, is on track for confirmation on June 12th, and last week she offered to add one more artistic touch to the crayon mosaic project I started as part of Confirmation.

She suggested that she would like to paint the wooden frame to match the colors of the scene created by the crayons. This is a New Song of Praise in response to what has been a steady and fulfilling part of her weekly schedule, learning about God’s Word and taking in the wonder of what the life of faith means to her now and will mean for her future stages in life.

Members of our community and many of us as well are hearing the new song of praise in our Carillon.  For people in this neighborhood, the bells began to chime again out of thin air, people have told us that this was a delightful experience of grace. But we know it was the Lord’s doing. It only happened because we members of Christ Lutheran experienced generosity of gifts and time and talents from many in the congregation that gave us enough time out of a just trying to survive mindset in order to think outward on how to bless others.

What a gift it is to stop what you are doing or thinking about and simply listen and pray and realize the certainty and routine that God’s love to us remains the same, no matter what changes in our lives.

Within months of the start of our Carillon, the Lord has brought to us people who are not able to hear the Carillon, or our organ, or singing, or conversations. Deaf ministry by the Lord’s plan is now a significant part of our congregation’s story.  We will have a guest signing pastor, pastor Engel signing to Deaf members on June 5th during our worship as our first interpreted service for the Deaf community. The grace and love in which signs are made to speak God’s Word, will indeed be a new Song of Praise in our congregation. 

And beginning in August our Deaconess Intern Camille will carry on this song in worship and in Bible studies and even in teaching sign to Lutheran grade schools. This is exciting and this is the Lord’s work years in the making in preparing a young woman for service to the church and assistance of the pastoral office with ministries of care and mercy.

New changes can be encouraging, yet in this world we live in problems always remain.  Even the joyful change of a new baby born to a family also brings the sacrifice of much work and care and lost sleep. 

New opportunities bring more work and stress, and sometimes more than we see that we can handle. There have been times this Spring where the work appeared to be more than our small church can handle. But now the joy of the Lord here is more apparent, His mercies are new every morning.  

Brother and sister in Christ, life in the church in this fallen world contains both joys and sorrows.  In our gospel lesson Jesus prepares his disciples for being without him, and then for seeing him again one day. “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”

Jesus was preparing them for his betrayal and crucifixion in the next few days. In those hours Jesus would be taken from them and placed in the grave. And in 3 days, not 72 hours even, but parts of three different days, Jesus would return to them- how great their joy.

The disciples encountered a paradox, Jesus rose from the dead and conquered death- yet he does not remain in their physical presence, he ascended into heaven. Again, they no longer see him. And again they have the promise that in a little while- on the last day, they will again see him.  

We have faced loss and hardships as a congregation this year.  How much easier if Jesus could just return and spare us further days of struggle. Yet Jesus still gives us an easy path, we always have the promise before us, that in a little while we will be with the Lord.  If the Lord does not return first, death comes to us all in just a short while.  We may want to picture this as a impossibly far off event.  Yet the truth is we have no guarantee how long our days will be.

In a little while we will be with the Lord.  That is why we prayed in our Collect Prayer that among the many changes of this world that our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found- to love what Jesus commanded and to desire the provision he has made for us.

In a little while we will be with the Lord, we will be singing a New Song: “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”  There in that place the former things have passed away, no more mourning or crying or pain. “Behold I am making all things new.”  Amen.