The Holy Marriage of Micah Zerbst & Abigail Rausch

The Holy Marriage of Micah Zerbst and Abigail Rausch

Messiah Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington

May 22, 2026

Text: 1 Cor. 13:4-7; John 15:9-13

We’re all very confused about love these days.  We keep using that word, but I don’t think it means what we think it means.  In fact, it seems to me, we have the concept precisely backwards.  Love, to us, has come to have no objective meaning.  It means whatever I want it to mean, and that means love is all about me.  What gives me pleasure?  What do I find comfortable?  What do I think will bring me fulfillment?  What will keep me true to  my self-created self-identity?  Now, I’m not against some good old fashioned romance (and I hope you enjoy some in your marriage), but even the romantic things we say betray us.  To give just one example, “You make me happy.”  Okay, I hope that’s true, and you should probably say that sometimes.  But what about when you’re not happy with me?  That will be the case, sometimes, you know.  Is that the end of love?  Because I’m not living up to whatever it is that makes you happy?

St. Paul has a different definition of love.  Love is patient and kind.  See how that already turns the focus 180 degrees, from me to you?  From self to other?  Because patience and kindness require, not self-obsession, but self-sacrifice.  If love means me being patient with you, that necessarily means that you, my beloved, do and say things, and sometimes simply exist in ways that try my patience.  That do not bring me pleasure, or make me comfortable, or fulfilled.  

Kindness?  That’s all about the other.  I have to get over myself long enough to be kind to you.  To be focused on you, and what is good for you.

How about the other things Paul says about love?  That it does not envy or boast.  That means giving up my own pride and self-interest, and instead rejoicing in, and promoting, what is good for you.  It is not arrogant or rude.  What bothers us so much about another’s arrogance or rudeness?  Their self-absorption, that’s what.  See, love is the opposite of self-absorption.  

How about this?  It does not insist on its own way.  Actually, you know what love does?  Real love, not our confused and backwards definition of it?  Love insists on the way of the other.  Love sacrifices its own way… Love sacrifices itself… its pleasure, its comfort, its fulfillment… for the sake of the other.  And so, yeah, it is not irritable, or resentful toward the other.  And when the Christian lover is irritable or resentful toward the beloved, or arrogant, or rude, or envious, or boastful… When the Christian lover is curved in on the self, instead of lazer-focused on the beloved, and what is good for the beloved, even at great cost to the lover… that Christian repents.   

That’s Christian marriage.  That’ll be you.  Here is the ideal: What St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13.  Striving to live up to that.  Constantly failing.  Always repenting.  Immersed in God’s forgiveness and mercy.  Covered in the blood of Christ.  Dying to self.  Praying for help to do better.  For strength.  For the Holy Spirit.  Covering over one another with the same mercy and forgiveness and blood of Christ (that is what it means that “love covers a multitude of sins” [1 Peter 4:8]).  Praying for each other.  Holding each other up.  Patiently and kindly.  

Recognizing above all else that Christ is the true Lover, by St. Paul’s definition.  He is the only One who fulfills this Chapter.  And you are the Beloved on whom He pours out His 1 Corinthians 13 love.  

How does He love?  Total and complete self-sacrifice on the cross.  He loves you to death on the cross for your redemption, to make you His own.  He loves you to death, to cover over your sins… against Him, and against each other.  He loves you to death, so that you can be plunged into His death and life at the font, bodied and blooded at the holy altar, and spirited with His Spirit by His Word constantly ringing in your ears, and set before your eyes, and therefore churning in your mind, and burning in your heart.

Of course, He didn’t only die.  He is risen, and lives.  In you.  And you live.  In Him.  And so He gives you to love with His love.  Not self-love.  That’s all part of this world’s whirling mass of ever-lovin’ confusion.  But one another.  Love one another.  Love flowing from God, filling you up, and overflowing, not just in your marriage, but through your marriage, to children (God-willing), and family, and neighbor, and Church, and community.  

Self-sacrifice.  That’s what that love is.  That’s what He means when He says to abide in His love, and love one another as He has loved you (John 15:9, 12).  Abide in His self-sacrifice, and so, sacrifice yourself.  The last verse of our Holy Gospel is rather important: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (v. 13; ESV).  That goes for spouses, too.  And it is to say, love… real love… is cruciform.  

Micah and Abigail, your marriage is going to be full of joy, and adventure, and God grant it, a whole bunch of good old fashioned romance.  But don’t kid yourselves.  There will be times when you aren’t particularly happy with each other.  When his way isn’t your way, and your way isn’t her way.  When you sin against each other (that will be daily, just to warn you).  

But love is patient with that.  And kind toward it.  In fact, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  That’s the love you’ve been folded into.  The love of God.  The love of Jesus Christ for you.  Forgiven and forgiving.  Let that be the love with which you love one another.  Because, while it isn’t always pleasant… or comfortable, or fulfilling… it is the love that never ends.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Seventh Sunday of Easter

 Video of Service

Seventh Sunday of Easter (A)

May 17, 2026

Text: John 17:1-11

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            On the night in which He was betrayed... the night in which He gave us a new commandment, that we should love one another, just as He has loved us (John 13:34)... the night in which He loved us such that He gave us His Meal of Love, the Supper of His true body and blood... knowing what would happen to Him... that He would shed His precious blood... suffer for sins, and for sinners (for us!)... be crucified, dead and buried... and the Third Day rise... Knowing all of that, our Lord Jesus prayed for us.  Well, I think if you knew you were going to die in the next several hours, you would spend your time, too, praying for the loved ones you were leaving behind.  Some Christians are given that gift, and it is beautiful.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve been at the bedside.  Those moments are holy. 

            What did Jesus pray when He was about to die?  St. John, God bless him, wrote it down for us.  We call it the “High Priestly Prayer.”  Now, today we only get the first part of that prayer.  The committee that put together the three-year lectionary divided the Prayer into three parts, so that we get one part each year, always on the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  And it’s very important.  Because, when you are about to die, you don’t waste your breath on frivolous things.  No, you speak profound things.  So, what does Jesus pray for us in the text we hear today?  May I suggest that we divide it into three categories.

            1. “(G)lorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1; ESV).  “Glorify Me,” Jesus says.  Now, you may find the meaning of this to be rather shocking.  The world certainly doesn’t understand it.  But in the Gospels, and especially in John, you know where the Father glorifies His Son?  On the cross.  That’s the glory.  Beaten, torn, nailed, and bloody.  And then, hanging there, dead.  Where everything looks least glorious.  God... the Son of God... dead.  See, that is the Hour.  THE Hour.  Jesus speaks of it throughout the Gospels.  The Hour for which the Son of Man came into our flesh.  The Hour to which His whole ministry was driving.  Really, THE Hour upon which hinges the whole history of the world... The Hour of your salvation.  The cross.  The “hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,” Jesus prays.  “Father... time for the Sacrifice.”  Isn’t this astounding?  He’s praying to go through hell.  For you.  He’s praying for His own agonizing death.  For you.  Why?  For the forgiveness of your sins.  For your salvation.  Because He loves you and wants you to be with Him forever. 

            And in this way, He glorifies the Father.  It is, after all, the Father’s love that sends Him.  It is the Father who sacrifices His beloved and only-begotten Son.  Remember Abraham, ready to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac on Mount Moriah?  And then God provides a ram caught in the thicket to take Isaac’s place?  But see, when God raises the knife to sacrifice His Son... no one stays His hand.  Jesus is the Sacrifice God provides.  Jesus is the Ram.  So, the Son glorifies the Father by willingly and obediently suffering the cross for us.  Father and Son, glorified on the cross. 

            And it is in that way, then... and only in that way... that the Son may be glorified by the Father in the flesh now, with the same glory He has had with the Father from all eternity in His divine nature.  That is, this human flesh had to be redeemed before it could be glorified.  Well, how can that happen?  How would that work?  The Son of God has to take on this flesh... and die in it!  Redeem it by His own blood... that it may be raised anew, and eternally, and ascend into heaven, to be seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  He does it in His flesh, that He may then do it in ours.  Redeem us.  So that when we die, we know He will also raise us, and we can follow Him into the glory of eternal life.  So, that is the First Petition: Glory.  Glorify Your Son, Father.  In death.  And then, in life.

            2. We might summarize it this way: “Give eternal life, dear Father, to those to whom I have manifested Your Name.”  “Give My disciples”... that’s you!... “eternal life.”  How?  Well, “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (v. 3).  Faith.  You have eternal life by faith in the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  By faith in the Son, who became flesh, suffered and died, for the forgiveness of your sins, and who is risen, and lives, and reigns for all eternity.  He wants you to live forever with Him.  As a beloved child of His Father.  As a citizen in His Kingdom, and a member of the Royal Household (that’s what the Church is).  After all, that’s why Jesus did all this work of suffering and dying and redeeming sinners.  He didn’t do that just so you could reject Him and go to hell (although He did do it for people who end up doing just that, so great is His love for us).  He did it so you could be His own, and live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness (remember that from the Catechism? SC II:II).  “You gave them to Me, Father,” He says (cf. John 17:6-8).  “You gave them to Me out of the world.  They belong to You, and You gave them to Me (entrusted them to Me).  And they have kept Your Word.  And they know that everything You’ve given Me, which I’ve now given to them, is from You.  And they believe it.  And they trust it.  And they live in it.  And they ‘have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me’” (v. 8).  So... faith.  Faith in Christ.  That’s what that is.  “Keep them in it, Father.  Keep them in Your Name (Baptism).  That they may glorify Me, even as I glorify You, and they may be in Me, and I in You, and Us in them.”  All one.  One in God.  One with each other.  That is what we call the mystical union in theology. 

            And, 3. “That as they remain in the world (even though called out of the world, to be distinct from the world), they would preach the Word that I’ve given them from You.  That more may be called by the Word, and come to faith by the Word, and so have eternal life in My Kingdom.”  This one is, perhaps, more subtle, in the section of the prayer we’ve been given, but listen to this again: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me” (v. 6).  “I have given them the words” (v. 8).  “(T)hey have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you” (v. 8).  And the implication is, He’s sending them out with those Words that they've received and believed.  To speak it into others.  Preaching.  Confession.  He says it explicitly a little later (we’ll get this in year 3): “I do not ask for these only,” (the Apostles), “but also for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20). 

            Now, Jesus prays a number of other things for His Church, which is to say, for you, in His High Priestly Prayer, and I think you ought to just read all of John Chapter 17 when you get home tonight.  And when you do, think about this: He’s not just praying for all y’all (although He is most certainly doing that).  He is praying for you, personally.  On the night in which He was betrayed.  On the night when He gave us to love one another, as He has loved us.  On the night in which He took bread, and a cup, and drew us into the Communion of His very body and blood.  He was thinking of you.  And He prayed that He would be glorified on the cross for your redemption.  And that you would know that, and be kept in it by His Word.  And that you would speak that Word to others. 

            You know, someday you will die.  I hope that isn’t a surprise to you.  It is true, you don’t know when, yet.  But why not pray, now, for those you love?  I hope you already do.  If not, start today.  And whatever else you may pray, you could do a lot worse than praying these three things for them: 1. That the glory of the cross and death... and life... of Jesus Christ be imparted to them, 2. through the Word of Jesus.  That they receive it, and know it, and trust in it, and live in it, all the way into eternity and the resurrection of the body.  And so, 3. That they speak it to others.  Especially the coming generations.  Confess the faith of Jesus.  Take up the cross.  That through them, others may believe and know. 

            Jesus prays for His Church.  The Church prays.  Jesus prays for you.  You pray.  The Father hears and answers.  What tremendous love for us.  Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                     

Graduation Address

Graduation Address for Madelyn Renee Krenz

St. Augustine Lutheran Academy

May 16, 2026

          In this family, we believe in education.

          Not, simply, as a practical concern, although it is.

          Not, merely, to make you marketable to employers, although it will.

          Neither to ensure your acceptance to a good college, although it has.

          Or, earn you scholarships, although that is how you do it. 

          Certainly not to gain the accolades of men.

          Why, then, do we believe in education?

          That we may apply ourselves unto a heart of wisdom, as Moses prays in Psalm 90 (v. 12).  As King Solomon bids us in the Proverbs: “Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth” (Prov. 4:5; ESV).  And again, “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (v. 7).  And then, again, “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver” (16:16).

          What is wisdom?  Not just knowing things... facts, and figures, formulas, and equations.  Not just intelligence (the smartest people are sometimes the greatest of fools... sometime look up Psalm 14:1).  Wisdom, rather, is the ability to employ knowledge, and intelligence, and experience, and whatever else God has given you, toward goodness, truth, and beauty.  (The three transcendentals... remember?)   

          There is a difference, though, isn’t there, between the wisdom of this world, and the wisdom of God.  We are assuredly interested in the very best of this world’s wisdom.  We read the Great Books.  Great literature.  The Great Philosophers.  And we apply our minds to mathematics, and the mechanics of the physical universe, and the methods of empirical learning.  We learn great music and poetry.  We ponder great art.  And in all of this, we’re looking for insight into the meaning of things, and the right application of those things for good.  That is wisdom.

          But we are Christians, and so, we know this wisdom is never enough.  It can lead you to things that are good, but not to Goodness Himself.  It can teach you things that are true, but it will not, finally, teach you Truth.  It may set before your eyes, your ears, and all your senses, things that are beautiful, but it will always stop short of revealing the Beautiful One.  And so, we need something more, don’t we?  We need a wisdom that is both higher, and deeper.  We need a wisdom beyond the very best that man can give.

          “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Ps. 111:10).  Now, what is fear, as urged upon us in this verse?  It is not terror and distress in the presence of the LORD (although this fear is terrified to offend Him).  This fear is a reverence.  Humility.  Faith.  Love.  What we once called piety (which is, Godly devotion).  See, as Christians, that is what we’re exercising in our pursuit of education.  The fear of the LORD. 

          To what end?  In this world, that we be salt and light.  To flavor and enlighten our environment.  Testifying to Christ in speech and conduct and bearing and demeanor.  Loving with the love of God.  His hands and feet, His masks, in our vocations.  Purpose in all we do.  As little christs to our neighbor.  Serving the neighbor.  Sacrificing for the neighbor.  For his prosperity and salvation.  And ever with an eye toward the world to come.  Ordering our lives toward the good, the true, the beautiful, and so bringing goodness, truth, and beauty into the lives of those whom God has given us. 

          That is profound.  We believe in that. 

          In all the years you were in public school, and in the years since, as we’ve educated you at home (well... at St. Augustine Lutheran Academy), our goal has been to give you that.  Or, rather, be instruments of God as He gives you that.  Wisdom.  Christ.  And the things of Christ. 

          We are confident that you now head out into the world, well-equipped.

          But never stop pursuing wisdom.  In this family, we believe in education as a lifelong endeavor.  Wisdom tells us why.  And wisdom is, itself, the end (as in, the goal, the culmination, the fulfillment) of that pursuit.