joyful beggars

We rejoice in the fact that we are living in these last days - we are so blessed to be living in these
times. For we not only have Moses and the prophets, we have the apostles and
evangelists, We have the Word of God and the Holy Gospel. We have the Means of
Grace, the Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting. We know how this whole thing is going to play out -
we know how the story is going to end!

And in the mean time we are privileged to be part of the story of God's great
plan of salvation for all people, as God uses us as His ambassadors to reach the world.

We reach out to others because we know what Jesus did for us, that He died for
our sins and the sins of all the world; that He became the last and the least for us, losing His life to win us back, laying down His life in order to save us. For though He was the richest of the rich, for your sake He came down from His great heights to become poor - poor, wretched, and miserable. He was crucified and He died in order to save you. How true it is, that "The last shall be first, the first shall be last."

“We are all beggars,” Luther wrote as his dying words. Beggars - every one of us.
Hungry, wounded, sick, sore. But the good news is that Jesus has met us there,
He has joined us there, among the dogs, the outcasts, the lost and the last and the least.
A beggar to save the beggars. A slave to set the slaves free. By His wounds we are healed. Through
His suffering we have salvation. In His death we now have life.

Rejoice! Your sins are forgiven. Your debts are paid. Death has been destroyed. The devil has been
defeated. Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again. Amen.