The very first prayer I learned and prayed…still often do…began “Now I lay me down to sleep”…you too? But then it went on…“I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” In that short prayer, I prayed about my soul, twice! Then, years later in Confirmation Class, Pastor Kohn, my Pastor, had me memorize both Luther’s Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer and in both prayers, still often prayed by me, I again am talking to God about my soul: “For into Thy hands I commend myself, my body and soul…”

How is it that I can so boldly pray to God about my soul? Keep it, Lord! Take it, Lord! And I commend it into Your hands, Lord, both at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day? Where do I get such boldness? I have such boldness because of the last thing, the last Word, my Lord spoke on this most blessed Friday called “Good.” His last word? “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit, my soul.” Thus, His last word is the source of my boldness. Thus

Obviously, the first thing I need to grasp is the question of “what is my soul?” Equally obvious is the fact that it is only in God’s Word that I shall find any satisfying and trustworthy answers. You know the message of the opening two chapters of The Bible, right? The Book of Genesis, the Creation of the world, in general, and the Creation of man, in particular…so review it with me. All of Creation…sun, moon, stars, oceans, continents, orchids, roses, apple trees, horses, dinosaurs, sharks, and – especially – Rainbow Trout, were brought into being by God’s simple but authoritative: Let there be…! All of Creation but with one classic exemption: Humans, including you and me.

For that act of Creation, God first took counsel with Himself. Yes, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost counseled and decided: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. But God did more than get vocal, He got personal and involved. He formed man out of the ‘dust of the earth’ and then, now watch this, “(God) breathed into (Man) the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” My soul? Your soul? God’s ‘breath of life’ given to me, to you, at the moment of conception. My soul? Your soul? That which God has given that makes me, you, uniquely human and humanly unique. Oh sure, orchids and roses, horses and dogs have life but not God’s ‘breath of life,’ a soul. My soul? Your soul? That gift from God that gives to you, me, all humankind that moral dimension, that moral quality, that nothing else in all of Creation has. Thus, we may say that driving the speed limit is the mark of a “good” driver and that cheating on income taxes is the mark of a “bad” citizen. But we cannot attribute moral qualities to the rest of Creation. We cannot speak about a “good” dog, no more than we can speak of “bad” weather. Dogs and weather have not God’s ‘breath of life…the soul.’ I shall say it again, it is my soul, your soul, that makes us uniquely human and humanly unique. And my soul, your soul, needs to be restored. Thus, because of His Last Word from that Cross and, even more so, what He accomplished on the Cross and His 33 years leading up to that Cross…because of His Last Word, I, you, am empowered to have the last word: Lord, restore it, Lord, keep it; Lord, take it; Lord, to You, I commend it.

Yes, I need to admit, confess, that my soul needs to be restored. My soul needs to be restored because I often neglect it. Your soul needs to be restored because you often neglect it, but I really cannot say that for you. You need to say it for and about yourself. What can be said about parents who invest so much of their being, their life, into their jobs – be those outside the home or inside – that at the end of the day they have little, if any, of their being, their life for the members of their family? What can be said about students, so eager to maintain their good grades, to be outstanding athletes, to be leaders within the school that they just cannot find the time to keep their rooms picked up and just assume that the garbage will be taken out and the dishes done? And what about the person that so exaggerates the virtues of his product just to make a sale or the virtues of a politician just to accumulate votes? I recall a parishioner of mine ordered by his boss to downsize his department at work by 15% within the week. He told me he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep throughout that week anticipating what he had to do. I remember telling him that I appreciated how hard that must have been on him. I was thankful to God for his response…“Pastor, better to have lost some sleep than to have lost my soul because of indifference.” His soul was restored; those parents, those students, that salesperson and those politicians seem to be in dire need of soul restoring.

Yes, I need to admit, confess, that my soul needs to be restored. It needs to because it is often in danger of being diminished. Come back with me for a moment to God’s creation of man there in Genesis. Recall what God said right after He created Adam by giving him that breath of life, his soul? “It is not good that man should be alone!” Yes, Eve, marriage, wife…but beyond…interpersonal relationships. Man was and is meant to be a social being. Social scientists, physiologist and psychiatrists alike agree that the biggest trauma, the most devastating diminishing, that can befall a person is the “death” of a marriage - be that at the graveside or at the rap of the judge’s gavel in a divorce and the second biggest, the second most diminishing is moving from one house, one neighborhood, one city to another. Why? Because relationships are being lost or, at best, seriously reduced. But remember, you heard it first from your Creator: “It is not good that man should be alone!”

There is a theological threat, a spiritual seriousness that needs to be cautioned against when becoming a couch potato in front of the TV; spending hours before the family computer screen; repeatedly failing to sit down for a family meal…to mention a few disasters of diminishing. While it is true that you don’t have to have to be a Christian to have a soul – every human has one – it is equally true that you do have to be a Christian to know that your soul does need to be restored and how to have that accomplished. Thus, I would repeat, His Last Word empowers me, you, to have the last word…“He restoreth my soul.” And He does that through His Word and through His Sacraments. We worship together; we congregate together; we are a congregation together. We commune together. I am added to when I look across the communion rail and see you. Baptisms are normally celebrated in congregated-style to remind us we are together in this parish-family.

Is there someone in your circle today who is suffering from the soul-disease of being diminished? He, she, they have lost a relationship…lost a loved one…lost a job…lost a friend…lost a moved-away neighbor. You haven’t done anything because you are fearful to doing, saying the wrong thing? Your God says: “It is not good that man should be alone.” And you might well be The Good Shepherd’s remedy for restoring. Because of His Last Word, we are empowered to have the last word.

Yes, I need to admit, confess that my soul needs to be restored. Such is true because my soul can wear thin, you know? Yours too! Next to the 23rd Psalm, Psalm 116 is my favorite. In that Psalm, David is “wearing thin.” Listen: “The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord…be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” Whether with David and his worn-thin soul or me with mine or you with yours: it is not God’s role to send those soul-thinning times and events. But it is God’s role to supply us with the strengths, the assurances and the supplies to go on and more than just go on…to grow. Again, because of Christ’s Last Word, and all that preceded it, I, you, we are empowered to have the last word… “He restoreth my soul!”

We are fast coming to the completion of our series of the shapes of the Cross and tonight’s is the “Orbed Cross.” His Cross stand over this orb we call Earth. And, yes, this orb, this earth, is divided, but do not confuse the cause with the effect of such a division. Internationally, we are divided by radical and militant Islam vs. democracy is the effect not the cause. Nationally, we are divided but Republican vs. Democrat and red States vs. blue States is the effect not cause. As a church body, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, but theological liberals vs. theological conservatives is the effect not the cause. Many families are divided but the fact that 25% of Caucasian families have only 1 parent in the house and 47% of minority families are missing 1 of those 2 parents is the effect not the cause.

The cause that affects and infects families, our Synod, our Nation, and our orb is that my soul is divided. Paul admitted that his was: “The good that I would, I do not: and the evil that I would not, that I do. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?”

“Father, into Thy hands I commend my soul…”

He…because of His birth, His life, His death today and His glorious Resurrection in just 3 days from now…He restoreth my soul.

See…His last Word empowers me and you to have the last word.

Amen.