Sermon on Mt21:12-17: Cantate +

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Here’s this mornings sermon held during Matins in the chapel of St. Timothy at our Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria, South Africa) on the gospel of St. Matthew the 21st chapter. You can read it here: Mt21,12-17 Matins 2016.4.28 or listen to it here:

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Dr. Nordling’s report on his time at LTS

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber
Dear John: Thank you very much for your kind and most gracious report. It was good to have you here and I’m especially glad that it worked out well with your teeth. That might be something others would like to try too – even if the trip that far to a dentist might seem extraordinary.

It was good for our Seminarians to have you here. I like the idea, that these 25+ students, who you taught regularly are going to hear you a number of times still God willing. They are just beginning and your love for the NT, Greek and the gospel in all its rich facettes and comforting tones is so inviting, encouraging and an excellent example. Thank you for going out of your way during your Sabbatical even to teach Corinthians here.
Lastly I also want to thank you for your friendship and pastoral kinship, with which you edify me and my family. It is a great blessing to have you in our house and we look forward to the next time already and not only because we get to see some far off places of our beautiful land.
We are grateful to the congregations and individuals, who support you and make this trip possible – also to your president Dr. Rast and academic dean Dr. Gieschen for letting you come here regularly to teach, preach and be a great torch-bearer for the Word of God and Luther’s teaching.
Please give my kindest regards to your dear wife Sara + hopefully she can join you one day to visit here with you.
The peace of our Lord be with you + Wilhelm
Here is the report from Professor Dr. John G. Nordling (CTS Ft.Wayne, IN): Nordling Report.26April16
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Dr. Böhmer on John 6:66-69

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Here is Dr. Böhmer’s sermon on John 6:66-69  held at the chapel of St. Timothy at our Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria, South Africa) yesterday morning during Morning Prayer: After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain – the author of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and many other great works of literature – had many problems with Christianity. He called it “bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing and predatory,” and he defined faith as “believing something you know ain’t true.” Small wonder then that he was not the most gracious listener of sermons. The story is told that Mark Twain attended a divine service somewhere and said to the pastor afterwards: “I have heard this sermon of yours before. In fact, I have already heard it several times.” The pastor immediately tried to defend himself and protested that he had not copied his sermon from his anybody, but that it was the product of his own hard work. Clemens insisted that he had a book at home containing every word the pastor had preached. The pastor insisted that his sermon was original and challenged Clemens to send the book. The next morning, a parcel arrived. The pastor opened it to find a dictionary inside. And inside the dictionary was a note from Clemens that read: “Words, just words, just words.”

No pastor likes being told that his sermons are boring or long-winded or difficult to follow. But Twain went one step further. He claimed that the pastor’s sermon was in fact meaningless. “Just words.” Is that what sermons are? Just words? What would have made the pastor’s sermon better? More wit? More humor? More stories? Should it have been longer? Shorter? How do you, in fact, distinguish between a good sermon and a bad one?

Dear students, as you begin to prepare for the Holy Ministry, as you take classes on preaching or as you begin to practice the craft, as you take what you have learned and use it to evaluate preachers on TV or online or in mass arenas or simply in church on Sundays, you will need to become able to answer that question. What is it that makes a sermon good – or bad?

I will submit that it may very well be that the best sermons pastors ever delivered in the history of the Christian faith have been lost forever. That they were never recorded. Why? Because what we have in the historical record is some of the sermons of some of the most popular preachers in history. And it may very well be that the best sermons are not among them. That the best sermons were held not in cathedrals, but in shacks; not by superstar preachers, but by obscure figures; not in power, but in humility. Dear students, as you prepare to become preachers, you will probably choose one or the other preacher figure to model yourselves after. You will be tempted to adopt a foreign persona to do so. You will be tempted to adopt a style that does not come naturally to you. You will be tempted to emulate those who have made it to fame and fortune. You will be tempted to preach what the people like to hear, and to avoid what they don’t. You will be tempted to go for the greatest impact and to work for the most visible change. You will be tempted to measure your preaching by the results it brings, by the responses the people make, by the number of Facebook likes or by the number of shares, or by how long the youth can still quote you. You will be tempted to measure your preaching by the number of people who join the church, or who come back to the church, you will be tempted to measure your preaching by the money that people put in the collection plate or who stay after church to talk. And not only will you be tempted in all these things, but your people will too. They will also be tempted to measure you in these ways, and to put pressure on you to change your preaching to produce the best results. And you will be hard-pressed to find an appropriate answer when people respond the way Mark Twain did.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I do not mean to say that pastors should not be sensitive to their people’s reactions or that they should not endeavor to preach as best as they possibly can. Far from it. Sermons communicate, and so it is vital that they communicate well. But I do mean to say that the standard for good preaching is not the standard of the world, nor the common standard of success, nor the standard of popularity. This leaps out at us as we study John 6. According to worldly standards, this chapter sees Jesus go from hero to zero. At the beginning of the chapter, he’s got thousands of disciples, followers, and hangers-on, hanging on his lips and handing out plates for bread. Jesus is walking on the water, the Lord of Creation, the God of the Storm. But as his preaching goes on, the people get disillusioned. They start grumbling at his preaching. The problem wasn’t that they didn’t understand him. Oh, they understood him very well. But they didn’t like what he was saying. He, Jesus, is the bread of life? He is the bread from heaven? But we know this man! That can’t be true! And then he says that no one can come to him and believe in him unless the Father in heaven draws him, that to believe in him means to eat his flesh, that unless you eat his flesh and drink his blood you have no part in him and are destined for death. So we see that they were offended at Jesus’ preaching, they did not like it, and they voted with their feet. In dribs and drabs, in fits and starts, they staged a mass action campaign, and the numbers dwindled; a mass exodus was taking place. John says that “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. They went back to their old preachers and to their old standards and to their old ways of life. Ways of death, more like it. The point is that Jesus was no longer hot news, no longer the preacher du jour, no longer the go-to guy. The people sent Jesus a dictionary and flipped the channel to Joel Osteen or Creflo Dollar or Jesse Jackson or Ray McCauley. Best go preacher-shopping someplace else.

Do you see the irony? This is Jesus preaching, and the people leave! That’s many times worse than Mark Twain’s reaction. What else could you possibly do to keep them and persuade them and save them? Now if this were you or me in Jesus’ position, we might well become thoroughly alarmed and ready to try anything to get them back. We might conduct exit interviews with them and ask them: What would it take to bring you back? What would have kept you under my pulpit? But Jesus does none of these things. The fact is that Jesus knows these people are not losses. They never believed in the first place, or if they did, their faith had withered and died like a shoot on rocky soil in the noonday sun. Instead, Jesus calmly turns to the Twelve and asks them: “You don’t also want to leave, do you?” Now it is not as if Jesus wants to seek comfort and solace for himself and the reassurance that his chosen few will not leave; no, he is gently testing them.

It is clear that the Holy Spirit has worked faith in Peter, for no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Peter speaks for the Twelve when he says: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God. They are “in statu confessionis,” called upon to make a confession, and the Spirit of God produces it in them. Yes, Jesus has been speaking words. But not just any words. Harsh as they might sound, unpopular as they may be, Jesus’ words are words of life. They are words of life giving through eating; Jesus is the living bread, and he must be eaten for life to be imparted. This is what faith does. It lives not on itself or on popularity, but on the death and life of Jesus. Now the vocabulary Peter uses is the vocabulary Jesus has been using throughout this chapter. Peter is speaking back to Jesus what Jesus spoke to him: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him… whoever believes has eternal life… As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feed on me, he also will live because of me. Amen!, says Peter. You are of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the Holy One of the Holy One. Jesus has spoken the words of life, and Peter speaks them back. This is confessing, this is God-pleasing, this is faith, this is faithfulness.

Dear students, every time you speak the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, you are joining in this confession, separating yourself from the world and standing with Christ, by grace, through faith. This then it also the secret to good preaching. It is preaching on a full stomach, a stomach that has eaten of the bread of life, it is preaching with the breath of the Spirit, which proclaims none but Christ, and him crucified. It is preaching, not pandering, it is proclaiming Jesus and not the flavor of the month, it is faithful even though and even when it is unpopular, it speaks the words of life and does not sugarcoat Jesus’ unpalatable words with the syrup of sentimental speech. It calls you and your people to die to yourselves and to die to sin and to be raised up with Jesus by forgiveness, to sing the song of Jesus and the song of the church. Where else will you go? What else would you preach? It is my prayer that the Lord God will use you to speak those words and be faithful to that Lord and know that Holy One and confess that name and have faith and life in that Jesus and none other. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Pastor Karl Böhmer

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Latest from our Mission

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Skipping the long feature by Dr. Martin Pörksen (Brecklum) on holy Baptism as break with the pagan past and also the news from the mission field around the world, there follow now the latest issues news items from “our mission” in South Africa concerning the mission board in Germany, books for a library down in Africa and a Lutheran Mission conference down in Durban, Natal. This is the final page of the first “Missionsblatt” edited by Rev Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf DD, the director of missions in Bleckmar in January 1951: Neuste aus der Mission MB 43(1951)1 Pg.12

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We need missionaries!

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

On the 7th December 1950 Superintendent of Lutheran Missions Christoph Johannes jr wrote the following request for younger missionaries as the present generation was getting on in years. This request was published in the first “Missionsblatt” edited by Rev. Dr. Friedrich-Wilhelm Hopf: Send Missionaries MB 1(1951)43 KPPW

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Vater Wilhelms Rundbrief

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber
Hier auf Welbedacht und in der ganzen Gegend freuen wir uns über, und sind herzlich dankbar für guten, durchdringenden Regen, 112 mm hier auf Welbedacht. Hier hat es im Januar und Februar immer etwas geregnet, dass Soja gesät werden konnte. Die Länder sahen wunderschön grün aus. Karin freute sich auf ihren Spaziergängen über das besonders schöne Grün der Weiden und Länder. So erwähnenswert war das wohl in vergangenen Jahren nicht. Das empfand sie besonders in diesem Jahr wohl auch, weil es sehr lange in den Sommer hinein noch immer sehr winterlich trocken aussah mit großer Hitze und auch oft viel Wind und Staub. Noch warten sie in weiten Teilen des Landes auf guten Regen, vor allem auch auf Sturzregen, dass die Flüsse wieder einmal gut in Flut kommen und die Dämme für die Wasserversorgung der Städte und Dörfer wieder einmal richtig voll werden. Gerade in Paulpietersburg und Vryheid war und ist das Wasser noch knapp. In Paulpietersburg hatten sie tageweise oft nur ein paar Stunden am Tag Wasser. Hier auf Welbedacht fließt uns das Wasser von einer Quelle ununterbrochen ins Haus, dass sogar Sprinkler den Blumengarten schön begossen haben und besonders Ruths Gemüsegarten, aus dem Karin für unseren Gebrauch z. B. Salat und Spinat regelmäßig holen kann.
Pandaan ist selten und dann nur kurz über die Brücke geflossen. Auch Pongolo läuft seit dem samften Regen nur ein wenig stärker.
In diesen Tagen freuen wir uns über Magdalenes Besuch. Sie brachte Thomas mit. Johannes ist gerade unterwegs mit der ersten Hockymannschaft ihrer Schule. Robert konnte mit Gelegenheit von Pretoria gestern dazu kommen. Er brachte mir mein Hörgerät von Pretoria mit. Walter und Ruth fuhren zu einem Arzttermin nach Pretoria. Von Roberts Kommen wusste Karin, und sie schmiedete den Plan, dass Walter und Ruth das Hörgerät mit nach Pretoria nehmen könnten, Renate es dort zum Hörinstitut für einen Wartungsdienst bringen könnte, um es Robert mitzugeben. Das hat gut geklappt. Das eine Röhrchen vom Hörgerät zum Ohr hatte sich gelöst und konnte nicht mehr ordentlich festgemacht werden. Während der Passionsandachten und Gottesdiensten in Lüneburg konnte ich von einem der sehr guten Hörgeräte, die für die Schwerhörigen zur Verfügung stehen, Gebrauch machen. Sonst genügen mir die beiden eigenen.
Magdalene konnte trotz der schlechten Grundwege gut hierher kommen. Nach dem Regen war es so gut abgetrocknet, dass sie
gut hierhergekommen ist, ohne dass ihr Auto gleich abgespritzt werden musste. Weil Michaela Freunde mitgebracht hatte, war von Walter und Ruth auch zum Empfang von Schnackenbergs für gestern abend zu einem Fleischbraten eingeladen worden. (Inzwischen habe ich erfahren, dass z. B. Simone an diesem Wort Anstoß nimmt. Man solle von Grillen sprechen, höchstens das Afrikaanse Wort Braai gebrauchen.) Heute sind die Besucher mit Ruth und Walter nach Luiperdsvlei zu Besuch bei Eckart, Kirsten und Philippa gefahren. Die jungen Leute werden mit Michaela morgen von dort nach Newcastle zum Gottesdienst fahren. Nach Michaelas Zumajahr in Emseleni hat sie eine Arbeit als Diätberaterin in Krankenhaus in Newcastle angefangen. Sie plant allerdings mit einer Freundin, in England Erfahrung zu sammeln und hofft, dass sie dazu noch das nötige englische Visum bekommt.
(Inzwischen schreiben wir den 21. März.) Michaela hat erfahren, dass eine Art Falken in der Nähe zu Tausenden zusammenkommen sollen, und sich für den Flug vor dem hiesigen Winter angeblich nach China zu sammeln.. Auch wollte Ruth sich die Falken ansehen und abends mit Andile und Zanele zum Zirkus gehen. Ruth konnte uns etwas Bargeld vom Automaten mitbringen vor Ostern und Benekes Fahrt nach Pretoria, wo Walter operiert wird am zweiten Ostertag.
(Inzwischen schreiben wir den 2. April. Gestern sind Ruth und Walter wieder nach der gelungenen Operation von Pretoria zurückgekommen. Peter mit Familie machen auf Luiperdsvlei Urlaub, und sie besuchten uns gestern. Christoph mit Cornelia haben uns auch  kürzlich besucht und jetzt um den 16. April erwarten wir ihn in nächster Zeit wieder mit dem Missionsdirektor anlässlich einer Wanderung, die Thomas mit Interessenten von Dirkiesdorp mit Übernachtung bei Johann Klingenbergs auf Paardekraal hierher organisiert hat.
Inzwischen schreiben wir den 23. April. Da soll nun dieser Brief endlich postfertig gemacht und auf den Weg gebracht werden, zumal in diesen Tagen wiederholt gefragt wurde, warum man vergeblich auf meinen Wochenbrief warten musste.  Missionsdirektor Zieger und Christoph sind in den vergangenen Tagen hier gewesen. Wir freuten uns über die Grüße von der Missionsleitung, die ausdrücklich für die Alten aufgetragen und bestellt wurden. Leider hätten auch wir nicht an dem geplanten und nicht stattgefundenen Treffen der Emeriti teilgenommen. Ich hätte den Bericht vom Missionsdirektor gern gehört. Nun bei dem Kurzbersuch hier sind wir wieder gut daran erinnert worden, dass wir nicht müde werden wollen, täglich, wie vor Jahren von Präses Harrison angeregt, das Kuyie eleison für die an Schrift und Bekenntnis gebundenen Lutherischen Kirchen und unsere Mission und Missionare zu beten.
Mit herzlichen Grüßen
Euer
Wilhelm Weber aus Welbedacht,
dem es noch so gut geht, dass er an den Arbeitstagen eine Andacht in Zulu morgens um 7 Uhr halten kann mit Gang über den Hof zum Wagenhaus, wo die Arbeiter sich vor der Arbeit zusammenkommen. und auch regelmäßig seine lectio continua in Griechisch und Hebräisch zwar langsam aber doch weitermacht, und an einer Andachtsbuchübersetzung in Zulu bis Dienstag nach Kantate und an der Tswanaübersetzung von C.. F. W. Walters bis Seite 386 vorgedrungen ist. Das habe ich dazu geschrieben, die ausbleibenden Wochenbriefe etwas zu entschuldigen.
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Our “Missionsblatt”

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

65 years ago Rev. Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf started as editor of the “Missionsblatt”. This was one of his many tasks, which he faithfully fulfilled many years – even decades. In the first edition that he published he gave the following summary of the mission work as he understood it, which contained favourable references to his predecessors in editing the “Missionsblatt”: Pastors Conrad Dreves, Friedrich Wolff and Adolf Blanke.  Lastly D. Rudolf Rocholl is also quoted at some length. There pictures are seen above. Here the translation of Hopf’s introduction to the “Missionsblatt” from January 1951: Our Mission Newsletter MB 1(1951)43 KPPW

 

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“In the name of the LORD Jesus”

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Here’s a translation of a devotion on Colossians 3:17 written by the late director of Lutheran missions (Bleckmar) Rev.Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Hopf in the first “Missionsblatt” edited by him in January 1951. May it be read in the same Spirit as it was written: 1951 Januar Nr 1 43 FW Hopf Translation KPPW

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Sermon in the morning on 2Co5:19-21

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Here is this morning’s sermon by Dr. Karl Böhmer held in the chapel of St.Timothy at our Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane: 2 Cor. 5:19-21 In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting [men’s] trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Is it possible for you to be in Russia and in South Africa at the same time? Yes, it is. Just go to the Russian embassy here in Pretoria. In some of the suburbs around here, you find a different embassy on every street corner. Now here is the principle on which embassies work: The soil an embassy encompasses belongs to the country concerned. So, if you’re standing in the Russian embassy, you’re simultaneously in Russia, and inside the boundaries of South Africa. The property an embassy is built on is technically foreign soil. For this reason, when countries are at war with each other, sometimes even if they are offended by each other, they will close their embassy in the other country. When war breaks out, they’ll pack things up and withdraw their ambassadors and go home.

Now the apostle Paul tells us that Christ’s death was all about God reconciling the world to himself. Reconciliation is a complete reversal of the relationship between God and the human being. So what was there in this relationship that had to be reversed? Reconciliation puts an end to hostility and enmity. The brutality and the relentless ruthlessness of Jesus’ crucifixion and the events of Good Friday show us what we would never have imagined. The horrific death of God’s Son demonstrates the severity of this fight, this war between God and the human being, and it reveals that it was a war of life and death.

Sin in us and in others is a symptom of a fundamental damage. Sin is the root cause that pushes out shoots and causes deeds, thoughts, words. Sin denies that God is God, it wants power for itself, it stubbornly refuses to acknowledge Him and talk to Him. Sin has declared war on the Almighty God in the deluded notion that it can win the battle. And so sin has distanced us from the Kingdom of God, retreated from the reign of God, embassy closed, ambassador withdrawn, communication shut down. Sin has become the power that holds us captive.

Judging by what usually happens during a war, though, something really strange happened. When war breaks out, mutual embassies get closed and all communications shut down. Sin certainly did this from our side. God should have done that too. By rights, when our parents fell into sin, God should have withdrawn and shut down communication also. End of story. But that’s just it: God has kept the communication open from His side. Not only does He not close the embassy, He keeps sending new ambassadors!

But the power of sin remains. And sin keeps us in debt, keeps the wall up, turns it back on God. A soldier who goes AWOL, who deserts his post and his troops and takes off, can’t just come back to the unit after a couple of months and say: “Hi guys, I’m back!” A gambler who’s lost it all and played himself into major debt can’t just suggest to his creditors: “Hey, let’s just put that all behind us. Let’s be friends again.” There’s something severe between them. Debt is binding, it doesn’t just go away. So it is with sin. Sin has power over us. There is a debt that must be paid. Sin has caused war. And it’s not as if we’re sitting in no-man’s land, able to choose sides, either going with God or going with sin. No, we have already taken a side. We chose sin. It’s war. But God in His tremendous patience and love keeps sending representatives; He opens up embassies; He sends His ambassador. And then we kill Him. Good Friday puts it all into perspective:That’s how it stands between God and us. The Lord dies at the hands of our sin.

You would think: That’s it! For real this time. It’s all over. The ambassador has been killed. Last chance gone. But thank God, it is not so. The cross totally reverses our situation. God takes the biggest war crime of them all – and uses it to make peace with his enemies. God turns the whole situation on its head and puts an end to the strife. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We need to be clear on this: This is the war crimes tribunal. The guilty are put on trial, put on the stand. And then the judgment is given, the verdict is spoken. But it is not the sinners who are condemned to die, but the ambassador. The ambassador, Christ, identifies himself with the root cause and its consequences: He becomes your sin and mine. That’s sin, dying on the cross. That’s sin being executed. Sin is killed, has nails through its palms, has its body hanging for 6 hours. Why? So that God, when He looks at you, can say: Someone else is your sin. But you? Where you go, righteousness goes, where you stand, righteousness stands, where you live, righteousness lives. Because of Christ, that is so. So Luther also prayed: Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin; you took what was mine and gave me what was yours; you took on what you were not and gave me what I was not.”

That’s the foreign ambassador becoming your advocate. And it is reason for joy, great joy. The war is over, peace is declared, call it out, shout it out, let the message be heard. The great news is that he’s still at it. Still sending his ambassadors, establishing new embassies, sending his request: Be reconciled to God. Repent and rejoice. And now be his mouthpieces and his missionaries, his ambassadors bringing a message of peace to a world at war. Even to Russia, if need be. Amen.

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Cantate Domino canticum novum…

Posted on April 22, 2016 by Wilhelm Weber

Watchword for the 5th Sunday in Easter called “Cantate Domino”: “Sing to the Lord…” The introit is Psalm 98:1-2: Sing to the Lord a new song, alleluia; for the Lord has accomplished wondrous deeds, alleluia; he has revealed his justice in the sight of the Gentiles, alleluia, alleluia. His right hand and his holy arm have given him victory.

The Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah in the twelfth chapter:  In that day you will say: “I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.  2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”  3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  4 In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.  5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.  6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

The epistle from Colossians in the third chapter:  12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The gospel of the evangelist St. Matthew in the 11 chapter: 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.  27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

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