“Behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” I once heard a person say, “promises are meant to be broken and lies are meant to be kept.” What a sad thing to say and believe that it is ok to lie and alright to break a promise. Thank God he is truth and he always keeps his word. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. It is never ok to lie in order to make someone feel better. That is called deception. It is never alright to lie to someone in order to prevent them from being hurt. That is fraud. God never lies and he always keeps his promises. A promise is a commitment to do or not to do something. It is a pledge, an agreement, a guarantee. For example, “do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” It doesn’t say part or half of the truth but the whole and entire truth. Or in the Rite of Holy Matrimony, “do promise to be true in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and honor each other all the days of your life?” It is meant to be a covenant, permanent, for ever. Or as in the Rite of Holy Ordination, “do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?” These are covenants that we enter into with God and one another. They are not contracts that can be broken or dissolved.  When God guided his People in the desert, he promised to be with them, to feed and guide them, to be their God and protect them but they rejected God and broke their covenant.  The Father promised to send his Only Begotten Son and enter into an Everlasting Covenant with his chosen people but they wouldn’t believe. God made us a promise and the promise is no less than this: eternal life.  Do you believe it? Easter is about encountering the risen Savior who died for us, rose from the dead for us, ascended to Father and promised to return and bring us home. Do you believe that? Jesus is next to the Father interceding for us. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, he remains present to us in the gathered assembly, in his Word, in his priest and in his Sacrament. God loves us and desires to be united to us for ever and that my beloved friend is simply the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.