Second Sunday after Pentecost (A-Proper 6)
June 18, 2017
Text: Matt. 9:35-10:8
Guest Preacher: The Rev. Timothy Rossow - Lutherans in Africa
http://lutheransinafrica.com/
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
The Holy Trinity
The Holy Trinity (A)
June 11, 2017
Text: Matt. 28:16-20
“Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the
undivided Unity. Let us give glory to
him because he has shown his mercy to us” (Liturgical Text for Holy
Trinity). Our God, in His essence, is a
glorious and profound mystery, not for us to comprehend, but to worship and
adore in reverence and awe. One God, who
is three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Three Persons, who are one God, of one divine essence. In our confession of this God, we dare
neither confuse the Persons, nor divide the Substance. We can only say what God has said of Himself. Beyond that, we must put a finger to our
lips, neither adding nor subtracting from His self-revelation. And we dare never think we have it all
figured out, the Tri-Unity of God. It
doesn’t work mathematically, at least not to our fallen understanding. Three is One, and One is Three. It doesn’t even work grammatically. We speak of Him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We speak of Them as one God. That’s the
point. He is beyond our reason and
comprehension. Dr. Luther says, “It is
not the function of reason to inquire in what manner the Person differs from
the Deity itself; not even the angels understand this mystery.”[1] No, we cannot figure Him out. No, we cannot master Him. He is God, and we are not. He tells us what we need to know of Him, and
no more. Our speculation is
useless. He is who He is. “I AM
WHO I AM,” is His Name (Ex. 3:14; ESV).
And no other is who He is. We
fall on our knees before the glory of His majesty. “Holy,
Holy, Holy,” we sing, as we bow before Him with angels and archangels and
all the company of heaven.
But
He does not leave Himself inaccessible and unknown to us. He comes to us in the flesh of His Son,
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, the
Christ, our Savior. If you want to know
God, you look upon Jesus. Apart from
Jesus, you cannot know God. Jesus is the
self-revelation and the self-giving of God.
God the Son, the Second Person of the incomprehensible Trinity, became a
man, took on our flesh, made Himself one with us. “For
in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9). And what does our God reveal of Himself in
the Person of Jesus? He reveals His
profound love to save us. He reveals His
compassion, His determination to rescue us from death and the devil, to forgive
our sins. He will do Himself to death to
make this our reality, to reconcile us to Himself. If you want to know God, and particularly how
He is toward you, look at Jesus on the cross.
That is who God is. That
is God for you.
But
this God for you doesn’t do you any good unless you know about Him. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ, after His
victorious resurrection from the dead and prior to His ascension into heaven,
provided His Church with the means of making disciples, those who walk in the
discipline, the teaching, of Christ. “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations,” He says in our text, and He bids us make disciples in a very
specific way: “baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). He does not give the Church a slick new
program for growth. He does not command
the Church to be innovative or winsome to the world. Here’s what you do, Church of God, to make
disciples. Holy Baptism: water joined to
God’s Word and Name for the forgiveness of sins. You place the Triune Name of God on the
disciple: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And then you teach. You teach the
Word of Jesus. And you don’t just teach
the stuff you like. You don’t get to
avoid teaching the stuff that isn’t politically correct. And you don’t get to avoid topics that are
incomprehensible, like the teaching on the Holy Trinity. No, what does Jesus say? Teach them “to observe all that I have
commanded you,” the whole counsel of God.
Now,
baptizing and teaching, these always go together. You dare not separate the two. For infants and young children, we baptize
them first because they cannot intellectually understand the teaching. As sinners, they need Jesus, and Baptism
gives them Jesus, and gives them faith to believe in Him. But then the rest of their lives we teach
them. That is why Sunday School and
Catechism class are absolutely imperative for raising your children in the
faith, and your own teaching them at home by Scripture readings and devotions
and prayers are vital. And make sure
they are here in the Divine Service. Use
the cry room, sure, if you want to. But
I’m telling you now, if you ever decide the children are going to go somewhere
else during the Sunday morning service, to a nursery or “children’s church,” or
whatever, I will preach against it every Sunday until you run me out. They need to be here. And we can put up with a little noise for the
sake of teaching our little ones how to sit and listen, and how this is
precisely for them. Jesus has something
to say about this when His disciples try to keep the little children away. He is indignant with them, and what does He
say to them? “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder
them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). We should always rejoice to hear the children
in this congregation, because that means they’re here and they’re listening and
learning and being fed by the Savior.
And that’s the future of our Church.
Then
there are those who come to faith as adults by the hearing of the Word. These we teach and then baptize. And then we teach them some more for the rest
of their life. The order of it isn’t the
important part (although we should never unduly delay Holy Baptism, even for
adults), but that the two always go together.
Baptism is the new birth from above, from the Holy Spirit, and the
teaching and learning of God’s Word is the life of the baptized, those washed
at the font. They are inseparable. And by these God-given Means of Grace,
Baptism and teaching, the Holy Spirit makes disciples for Himself. Of all nations. That means everybody. Young and old (are infants not part of the
“all nations” we are to baptize and teach?), male and female, rich and poor,
from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue.
We saw this last week in the Pentecost event. The Spirit blew through and the apostles were
preaching in the languages of all the people in the miraculous gift of
tongues. The Gospel is for all.
Which
means the Gospel is for you. You see,
this is the glorious truth of this Day, the Feast of the Holy Trinity. This God, who is incomprehensible, almighty,
all seeing, all knowing, immutable, eternal, omnipresent, faithful, holy, good…
This God has made Himself known to you in Jesus and His Word. That’s incredible. It’s unbelievable, until the Holy Spirit
gives you the faith to the believe it.
This God is for you. This God loves
you. This God gave His Son into death for you, to make you His own. You don’t know everything about Him, nor does
He owe you an explanation of everything about Him. But you know
Him. You know Him in Jesus, and you know
Him intimately. He is your God. You are His, and He is yours. His Name is on you. His Word is in you, in your ears and in your
mind, in your heart and in your soul.
You are Baptized. You have been
taught and you are ever learning more and more of Him. You are precious to Him and loved. He made Himself one with you in the Person of
Jesus. He came down to you in the
flesh. He comes down to you, and makes
you one with Him, baptizing you into Christ and feeding you with His body and
blood. You cannot know everything about
Him, but you can and do know Him.
Now
we should say a couple of things about the parts of the Athanasian Creed that
always bother everybody. First of all,
the word “catholic” does not mean Roman
Catholic. You’re just going to have to
get that out of your mind. “Catholic”
means literally “according to the whole,” as in according to the whole teaching
of Christ believed and taught in His whole Church, as He commanded in our Holy
Gospel this morning, “teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you.”
We are good catholics, beloved.
Don’t let our Roman friends have all the good stuff.
We
also get all hot and bothered about the idea that whoever desires to be saved
must hold this catholic faith, namely, what we confess in this Creed about the
Trinity and the Person of Christ. What
about all those nice people who say they’re Christians, but don’t teach the
Trinity like we do? There are some
strains of Pentecostalism, including some very prominent TV evangelists, like
T.D. Jakes just to name and example, who do not confess the Trinity in Unity
and Unity in Trinity, One God, Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. They say there is one God, who
was the Father, then came as the Son, and now works as the Holy Spirit. It’s an ancient heresy called modalism. Beloved, it isn’t nice to say, but these do
not worship the same God you do. They
are not Christians. And what about those
nice people who say that Jesus is a god, but not the same god as the
father. He’s a really good man, so good,
in fact, that he can be called god, but he’s not really god. That’s the Jehovah’s witnesses. They are a newer version of the ancient
heresy called Arianism, against which this Creed was written. The Mormons, likewise, deny that Father, Son,
and Spirit are one God. We say this in
love, but what else can you say? They do
not believe in the one true God. They
are not Christians. And love doesn’t
shirk the responsibility to say hard things like that. If you do not love your neighbor, let them go
on in their demonic deception and so perish eternally. If you love them, confess the one true God to
them, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, and Jesus Christ who is God
and man in one Person, who died for your sins and has been raised from the
dead. Love does the hard things.
Finally,
there is this bit that especially bothers the Lutherans about those who have
done good entering into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal
fire. No, this is not a teaching of works righteousness,
beloved. This is simply Matthew 25 and
the sheep and the goats. Those who are
in Christ, you who are baptized and believe in Him, have been forgiven all your
sins, all your evil works. And you’ve
been given credit for all Jesus’ good works.
And all your own works have been washed by His blood. So you enter eternal life. But those who do not believe in Him have only
their own works to rely on, and those works have not been made holy by Jesus’
blood. They are still in their
sins. They go to eternal fire.
If
this Creed makes you uncomfortable, good.
Repent of fashioning your own gods and your own religion. Then rejoice.
God is for you. He loves
you. He has given Himself to you in
Christ. Your sins are forgiven. His Name is on you and you know Him. “Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the
undivided Unity. Let us give glory to
him because he has shown his mercy to us.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Ascension of Our Lord & Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 25, 2017
Seventh Sunday of Easter (A)
May 28, 2017
Text: John 17:1-11
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
“I’m praying for you.” How often do we say that to one another when one
from our midst is suffering or facing uncertainty, when their faith is weak or
they have been caught in some particular sin, or perhaps they have forsaken the
faith altogether? We also say this to one another as an expression of our
common faith in Christ. When someone is leaving on a trip, or when we
speak with loved ones we rarely see due to distance, or even just when we want
someone to be encouraged, we speak these words: “I’m praying for you.”
And it’s a wonderful thing to say. We have the prayer list in our
bulletin, and it’s so encouraging when I can tell people that I know a number
of you pray through that list faithfully, daily or weekly. And of course
I’m always telling people, “I’m praying for you.” Speaking those words,
we encourage and comfort others. Hearing those words, we are encouraged
and comforted. And if that is the case, how much more so when we hear
this morning that Jesus is praying for us. Jesus prays for His
Church. Jesus prays for you.
We heard about this on Thursday at our Ascension service, that one of the
things our Lord Jesus is continually doing for you now that He has ascended to
the right hand of the Father, is praying to His Father and yours for His
Church, which is to say, for you. He prays on the basis of His
sin-atoning self-sacrifice for you on the cross, which is the same basis, by
the way, of your prayers. He is always praying through His blood, through
the merits of His suffering and death. He is praying for His Body, the
Church, that she be kept and preserved through the Word and the Sacraments in
faithfulness and holiness and righteousness, that she be one in the oneness of
the Holy Trinity. He is praying for you as a member of that Body, a
member for whom He suffered. Jesus prays for you in your
afflictions. He prays for you when you are sick or hurting or
alone. He prays for your marriage and your family… if you are single for
your chastity and patience. He prays for you to be faithful in your
vocations. He prays that you be sanctified by the Truth of His
Word. He prays for your loved ones. He prays for you when death
causes you grief, and he prays that you have a blessed death in the faith of
Christ, that He may bring you to Himself in heaven. Yes, Jesus prays for
your eternal life and salvation. He prays for your repentance. He
prays for your forgiveness. And what does the Father answer Jesus?
What else could He answer? He answers, “Yes. Yes, My dear Son, I
forgive their sins. Yes, My dear Son, they have salvation and eternal
life. Yes, My dear Son, I will sustain them by My Holy Spirit, by My Holy
Word. For You have shed Your blood to purchase them for Me. You
have suffered and died that they might live forever. Their sins are
forgiven already. My ministers declare it so. And they are My dear
children.”
Jesus prays for you, and the Father hears and answers. Jesus gives you a
little glimpse of His prayer for you in the Holy Gospel this morning, what is
known as our Lord’s High Priestly prayer. Priests sacrifice for the sins
of the people, and priests pray for the people. And so Jesus, your High
Priest, makes the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself on the altar of the cross
for the forgiveness of your sins, rendering all other sacrifices unnecessary
and useless for your salvation. Your atonement is complete in Him.
And now as your risen and ascended High Priest, He prays for you on the basis
of His sacrifice. Now here in the Holy Gospel it is the night of His
betrayal, just before His crucifixion. He is instructing the disciples,
washing their feet, commanding them to love one another, and instituting the
Supper of His Body and Blood. And as we hear in John Chapter 17, He is praying
for His disciples, and for you who believe on Him according to their
word recorded in Holy Scripture (John 17:20). And what does He pray in
this beautiful text? He prays that, now that the hour has come,
the appointed hour upon which hinges the whole history and destiny of
the world, that He, the Son, may be glorified, and in so being glorified, thus
glorify the Father (v. 1). Don’t misunderstand what He is saying.
Jesus is praying that the Father would lift Him up on the cross to die, for
you. And that His death would make atonement for your sins.
That His death would free you from death and from hell. That the Father
would accept Jesus’ sacrifice and raise Him from the dead, and give you, with
Him, eternal life. That is the Son’s glorification, and in the Son’s
glorification, the Father is glorified. For His delight is in your
salvation, in bringing you into His Kingdom to serve Him in everlasting
righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
Jesus prays that you may know the Father by knowing Jesus Christ, knowing, not
just about Him, but really knowing Him, which is to say,
believing in Him. For in so knowing Him by faith you have eternal
life… “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent” (v. 3; ESV). Jesus has the authority
to give eternal life to all who believe in Him, all whom the Father has given
to Him, called to be in Christ (v. 2). And He does give that life, in
Baptism, Word, and Supper. He gives you life in Himself. He does it
by manifesting God’s Name to you and to the whole world (v. 6) in
preaching and Sacrament. The Name, of course, is “Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit,” the Name the Father has given the Son to bear in Himself and reveal to
you, the Name of our Triune God. That is the Name placed upon you in Holy
Baptism. God writes His Name on you in the Blood of Jesus. And why
do you write your name on something? Because it is precious to you and
you don’t want to lose it. God has written His Name on you because you
are chosen and precious to Him. The Father gives you to the Son, who
keeps you for Himself by giving you His Word. He gives you the words that
the Father has given Him, and so you come to know in truth that Jesus is the
very Son of the Father, made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, for you and
for your salvation (v. 8). Jesus prays for you. He prays that you
be kept in His Word. He prays that you be kept in the faith. He
prays that you remain His and that He be glorified in you by your justification
and sanctification, your life of faith and works of love, and your eternal
salvation in Him (v. 10). He prays that God would keep you by His Spirit,
in spite of this fallen flesh and fallen world, in the midst of so many dangers
to your body and soul, in this time when you cannot see Jesus with your eyes,
but can only know Him by faith. Jesus prays that the Father would keep
you in His Name (v. 11).
And that is what He does here in the Church. He makes you one with His
Church. He makes His Church one as His own Body. The whole thing is
a Trinitarian action. The Father keeps you in the Name that the Son has
given you, the Triune Name, by His Holy Spirit, who works upon you in Word and
Sacrament to give you faith in Christ, join you to His Body, and sustain and
strengthen you in that faith. That is what we will celebrate next Sunday
in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus prays for you, that you remember your
own Baptism, where the Spirit is given to you personally, and that you be ever
faithful and bold in your confession of Jesus Christ. Jesus prays that
you be preserved when you must suffer the fiery trial of persecution and
rejection on account of His Name, as St. Peter warns you in our Epistle (1
Peter 4:12). Jesus prays that you rejoice and be glad as you share in
Christ’s sufferings (v. 13), knowing that you are blessed, “because the
Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (v. 14). Jesus prays that
you would humble yourself (5:6), that you would cast all your anxieties upon
Him and recognize that He cares for you (v. 7), that you would be sober-minded
and watchful, resisting the crafts and assaults of the evil one, firm in your
faith, suffering in patience in the hope that God Himself will restore, comfort,
strengthen, and establish you (vv. 8-10). And again, what is the Father’s
answer? What else can it be? He says, “Yes.” God does
it. He does it for you, for Jesus’ sake.
“I’m
praying for you,” we say to one another, to comfort and encourage one another.
That is good and right and very important. But even better and more
important is what Jesus says to you this morning: “I’m praying for you. I’m praying for you and for the whole
Church of God. Be at rest. I have the Father’s ear. I
intercede on your behalf. And because of My blood and death, the Father
hears and answers, and He delivers.” What do you do when you need the
comfort of this promise? You simply trace the sign of our Lord’s
glorification upon yourself, and speak the Name He manifested to you by writing
it upon you in His own blood: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+),
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sixth Sunday of
Easter (A)
May 21, 2017
Text: John 14:15-21; Acts 17:16-31
He is risen! He
is risen, indeed! Alleuia!
St.
Paul’s mission strategy in Athens is brilliant.
He begins with what is familiar to the Athenians, talks philosophy with
the Epicureans and Stoics, tours the marketplace and the main street, all the
while making conversation with those around him. And he knows something about the Athenians,
the key to grabbing their attention.
They fancy themselves a thinking
people. Athens is a lot like a
university town. Paul knows that the
Athenians love to spend their time in nothing else but the telling or the hearing
of new ideas, new concepts, new philosophies.
And Paul has something extraordinarily new to tell them. A man, a flesh and blood God, died the accursed death of the Roman
cross. And this man, this flesh and
blood God, has been raised from the
dead. And He will come again to judge the world in
righteousness, therefore the people should repent and believe in this man,
Jesus, the Christ.
Now,
he just gives them a little hint of this here and there as he’s walking
about. He leaves them begging for
more. “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears”
(Acts 17:19-20; ESV). They bring Paul to
the Areopagus, the natural amphitheater where court is held and the important
business of the city is done, and they invite him to speak. He begins with a backhanded compliment. “Men
of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the
objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an
unknown god’” (vv. 22-23). This was
actually very grievous to Paul, this rank idolatry and polytheism. And of course, this altar to an unknown god
is not directed to the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This altar is simply meant to cover the
Athenians’ bases, make sure they don’t leave anybody out, lest they offend some
powerful deity. When it comes to the gods,
more is better, or so the thinking goes among the Greeks. But Paul will now tell them about this
unknown God. He’s the only one! And He is
the Maker of heaven and earth and everything that is. The Athenians know something of Him by
nature. Their own poets know that “In him we live and move and have our being,”
and “we are indeed his offspring”
(v. 28). This is what we call the
natural knowledge of God. But now Paul
will fill in the gaps with God as He reveals Himself in Christ. It is this
God whose Son became a man and died and rose for the salvation of the world and
is coming again to judge. Repent and
believe. Brilliant rhetoric! St. Paul would get an A+ in his seminary
homiletics class. Megachurches have been
named after this address. The English for
“Areopagus,” is “Mars Hill.” But what
happened? Hearing this ridiculous idea
about the resurrection of the dead,
most dismissed the Gospel as utter foolishness.
Many mocked. Some said they would
hear Paul again, but really they were just being polite, or at best, always up
for more intellectual discussion. Only a
few believed. Brilliant mission strategy,
yes. But even the great St. Paul does
not have a silver bullet for effective evangelism. Brilliant strategy or no, the Christian is
simply called to speak the Word of the Lord in the world. Our God will do with it what He will. Once in a great while, over 3,000 souls will
be added to the number of believers, as happened when Peter preached on
Pentecost. More often than not, most
will consider the preaching of Christ crucified and risen from the dead utter
foolishness. Some will mock, some will
hear politely, and only a few will believe.
Why
is this? St. Paul answers the question
for us in 1 Corinthians: “The natural
person,” the unconverted person, left to his own reason, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because
they are spiritually discerned” (2:14).
That is to say, because natural fallen man is born spiritually blind,
dead, and an enemy of God, he is unable to comprehend the Word of the Lord, no
matter how smart he may be. The Greeks
represent the very highest of human wisdom.
Really, you should study them.
They’ll teach you how to think, which (this being no commentary on the
present company) is a skill sadly lacking in this current generation. The very highest of human wisdom, beloved, is
unable to comprehend the things of God, unable to believe Jesus Christ and His
salvation. Foolishness. That is what the Gospel is to the highest of
human wisdom.
That
is why we need the Holy Spirit. “I
believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my
Lord, or come to Him.”[1] “I believe that I cannot… believe.” We’re born incapable of comprehending the
things of God, believing in Jesus Christ, and so, if we are to believe, God must do it in us. He does it by His Spirit, in the Gospel. He does it in Holy Scripture and
Preaching. The Spirit is poured out upon
you in Holy Baptism, even as He descended upon Jesus in Baptism. The Spirit delivers the forgiveness of sins
to you in Absolution. And He unites you
to Christ your Lord in the Supper of Jesus’ true body and blood. In other words, the Spirit does His work
where the Gospel is being done, which is to say the Holy Christian Church which
He has gathered together and in which He is daily and richly forgiving your
sins and the sins of all believers for Christ’s sake.
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Helper,” Jesus says in our Holy Gospel this morning (John
14:16). “Helper.” There’s that word again, Paraclete, meaning
also Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, literally the One Called to your Side in
time of trouble. This is, of course, the
Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
What a tremendous reading for this Sunday in the Church year. Here we get a little foretaste of the three
upcoming Feasts: The Ascension, Pentecost, and the Holy Trinity. The Ascension, which we get this Thursday,
because Jesus says He is going away (from the disciples’ sight, anyway… He
really isn’t going anywhere). But He
promises the Spirit will proceed from the Father and the Son so that we will
not be left as orphans. That’s Pentecost,
the coming of the Spirit. And Holy
Trinity: In this way, the Spirit will teach you that Jesus is in the Father,
and you are in Jesus, and Jesus is in you (v. 20); perfect fellowship with our
Triune God. Beautiful stuff. Stuff we only know now by faith, not by
sight.
Because
this is what the Spirit makes known to us.
The “Spirit of Truth,” Jesus calls Him (v. 17), because He leads us into
all truth. And we heard last week that
Jesus Himself is the “Truth” (v. 6). The
Spirit ever and always points us to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, for the
forgiveness of sins. That is His
job. The Spirit rarely talks about
Himself. He is always talking about
Jesus. That is why every sermon is about
Jesus. That is why the cross is our
theology. The Spirit brings you to faith
in Jesus and keeps you in the faith of Jesus so that you have fellowship with
the Father as God’s own child. This
Spirit dwells with you and is in you and you know Him (v. 17). He is in you in His Word, which is the Word
of our Father, which is all about Jesus.
And here’s the kicker… It’s what St. Paul preached to the Athenians:
Because the Spirit is in the Word uniting you to Jesus and thus restoring you
to the Father, and because Jesus lives… you live (v. 19). That’s what Jesus says. Because He is risen, you have been raised
already spiritually, and He will raise you from the dead bodily on that
Day. Or as we say it in the Catechism,
“On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me
and all believers in Christ. This is
most certainly true.”
Now,
what does that mean for missions, and for a mission cogregation? What does it mean for preachers? What does it mean for the Church, for
you? It means the only mission to which
God calls His Church is to preach Jesus Christ.
Not to be hip. Not to be relevant
(as if God’s holy Church and His precious Gospel could ever be
irrelevant!). The mission of the Church
is not to conform to the world and make itself more palatable to the
world. Because Jesus says right here in
our Holy Gospel, “the world cannot
receive” the Spirit of Truth, “because
it neither sees him nor knows him” (v. 17).
If you go meet the world on the world’s terms, you may gather a lot of
people into the Church building, but they’ll leave here as unbelieving and dead
as they were when they came. The mission
of the Church is not simply to fill the pews and the offering plate, which is
too often how we think of missions. It
is to preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
And in that Word, in the Gospel, the Spirit is present, creating faith
where and when He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (AC V). It’s all up to Him! Wow, that takes the pressure off! We aren’t called to succeed. We’re called to preach. Whatever happens as a result is the Holy
Spirit’s problem! Is there someone you
know who doesn’t believe in Jesus, someone you’ve been aching to bring to the
Savior? Say a prayer for that person and
invite them to Church. Tell them you
love them and Jesus loves them and you want them to know Jesus. They might say no. Or they might come. They might not believe. But they might. That’s God’s problem, not yours. When Paul preached to the crowd in Athens,
some mocked and others dismissed the message.
Most didn’t believe. But some
did. Because Paul preached Jesus, and by
the preaching of Jesus, the Spirit created faith.
And
you… rejoice, because you were once in the world that cannot receive the Spirit
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
But the Spirit, by grace, apart from any work or merit or worthiness in
you, called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and
has kept you to this very moment in the one true faith of Jesus Christ. Jesus promised you the Paraclete, and He gave
you the Paraclete. Baptized into Christ,
the Holy Spirit sent the evil spirits packing and took possession of you
whole. You live by the Spirit, the Lord
and Giver of Life. And because the
Spirit dwells with you and is in you, you have no altars to an unknown
God. Your altar is to the one true
God. You know Him by Name, and call upon
Him by Name. His Name is on you, and His
body and blood is in you. In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
He is risen! He is risen,
indeed! Alleluia!
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Fifth Sunday of
Easter (A)
May 14, 2017
Text: John 14:1-14
He is risen! He
is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
We call it the scandal
of particularity, what Jesus says in the Holy Gospel this morning. It
is a verse beloved by many, but those same people, maybe even you, are
horrified when you stop to think about what the verse actually says: “I am
the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me” (John 14:6; ESV). This is not the touchy-feely verse we
so often think it is. Jesus is saying He’s the only way of
salvation, the only way to eternal life, the only way to
heaven. No one comes to the Father except through Him. He’s the
Truth, the Truth by which the truthfulness of everything else is
measured. And He is the Life, for outside of Him there is only death and
condemnation in hell. Do you hear how politically incorrect all of this
is? The scandal of particularity, a scandal because Jesus, this
Jesus in particular, the Jesus proclaimed in the Bible, is the only way,
the only truth, the only life, by which you come to the
Father. He’s the only true God, with the Father, and the Holy
Spirit. All roads do not lead to the same place. Jesus is
it. He leads to life. All other roads lead to death.
And if that bothers you, remember, Jesus is the One who said it. If you
have a problem with that, your problem is with Jesus Christ.
Repent.
But also rejoice, because here Jesus has told you the way to the Father, the
way to eternal life. It is Himself. You don’t have to guess.
You don’t have to try this road, then that road, this truth, then that truth,
making your best educated conjecture about which is the right one when your
eternal destiny is on the line. Stick with Jesus and you have it.
You don’t have to work for it. You cannot earn it. Jesus gives it
to you freely, this eternal life, by His suffering, death, and resurrection,
handed over to you in His Word and Holy Sacraments. You want to go to the
Father, to the Father’s House in which there are many rooms, and a place
prepared especially for you? You know the way. Follow Jesus.
He’s the way.
Now, Philip wanted just a little glimpse of the Father, and that would be
enough for him. Then he could know for certain that Jesus is speaking the
truth. We often want the same thing, just a little glimpse, some evidence
that all of this is true. Show us heaven. Show us the Father.
That’s why books and movies like Heaven is for Real are so
popular. Now, I know some of you have enjoyed that particular movie and
book, and that’s fine, but I do want you to understand something. Your
comfort and assurance do not come from the subjective experiences of people who
have had near death experiences, who may or may not have seen heaven, and who certainly
have filtered their experiences through their own fallen reason and worldview,
not to mention erroneous theology. And certainly your comfort and
assurance are not to come from dramatized versions of those subjective
experiences in movies. What you’re wanting out of a movie like that is
what Philip wanted. Just a little glimpse. Just a little
evidence. As if Jesus and His Word, which is Truth, is not enough.
What does Jesus say to Philip? “Have I been with you so long, and you
still do not know me, Philip?” (v. 9). “Well, that’s Philip,” you
say. “He got to see Jesus with his own eyes.” True enough.
But you get to hear Jesus with your own ears in His holy Word. You get to
touch His Body and Blood in the Supper, eat it and drink it, that same Body
that was crucified for you, that same Blood poured out for you, His
resurrection Body and Blood now coursing through your veins. And you have
His promise that wherever two or three of you are gathered, there He is in the
midst of you (Matt. 18:20). You have His promise that He is with you
always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20). So has He been with you
so long and still you do not know Him, not so well anyway that you don’t have
to seek comfort and assurance from those who have allegedly “been there”?
Come on, beloved! Jesus is here right now, for you, and He’s telling you
that you don’t need that when you have Him! Because if you’ve seen Him,
you’ve seen the Father! And you have. You’ve seen Him with your
ears. You’ve seen Him with your tongues. You’ve tasted and seen
that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8). And so you’ve seen the Father.
You know the Father. You know Him in His Son Jesus. You get all
your comfort and assurance right here in the Father’s House, where He gives you
Jesus. “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own
authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John
14:10). The words of Jesus are the words of the Father. Hearing
Jesus, you hear the Father. If you know Jesus, you know the Father.
When Jesus comes to you, the Father comes to you, and you have eternal life and
a place in the Father’s House, at the Father’s Table.
Jesus says He goes to prepare a place for you (vv. 2-3), a place in the
Father’s House. He’s not talking about doing renovations to your room
somewhere up there in heaven, though He does use wood and nails to accomplish
His preparations. He’s talking about the cross. That is where He
does the work. He takes the nails, the wood, up onto the mountain, to be nailed
there, to suffer and bleed there, to die there, so that you have a place in the
Father’s House. Sinners cannot live in the Father’s House. Sinners
cannot live in the presence of God’s holiness. That’s a big problem for
us who just confessed ourselves to be poor miserable sinners. And that’s
why Jesus is the only way to the Father and to eternal life. He takes our
sin away. He does it to death on the cross. He buries it in the
tomb forever. He washes us clean with His blood in Baptism. He declares
us righteous in His Absolution. So even though we still sin and we’re
still sinners for the moment, now in this earthly life, our old sinful
nature is daily put to death in Baptism, daily crucified in repentance, along
with all sin and evil desires, and our new self in Christ Jesus is daily
brought forth to new life by the power of Christ’s resurrection. As a
result, the Father does not look at you as the sinner that you are. He
looks at you and sees you covered in the righteousness and holiness of His Son
Jesus. You are clothed with Jesus. God looks at you and sees His
Son, and calls you sons and daughters, and gives you the place Jesus prepared
for you in His death and resurrection.
It is not only a place for your soul in heaven when you die, though it
is that. It is also and especially a place in the new heavens and the new
earth, in your body, on the Day of Resurrection. But it is not only a
future place. It is a place right here and now in the Body of
Christ that is the Holy Church. It is a place right here and now around
the Lord’s Altar, the Christian family Table. You are, after all, named
with God’s Name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism means you are
God’s own child. That makes the place Jesus has prepared for you in the
Father’s House a present reality. You have a place where you
belong. Right here. Right now. The place Jesus has prepared
for you by His death and resurrection.
And because that is the case, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (v.
1). Believe in the Father. Believe in Jesus. For when you
believe in Jesus, you believe in the Father. You can’t have one without
the other. And be comforted. Even when being a Christian is
hard. Even when being a Christian is scandalous. It is, you know.
There is the scandal of particularity that Jesus preaches this morning, that He
is the only way of salvation, the only way to the Father, that our Triune God
is the only true God. Then there are the scandalous things you believe
because the Bible teaches them, things that the culture rejects, like marriage
between one man and one woman for life, like sexuality being reserved for the
holy estate of marriage, like life being sacred from conception to natural
death, something only God can give and only God should take away. Being a
Christian is scandalous. You may lose friends over this. You may
suffer family strife over this (Jesus said it would happen – Matt.
10:34-39). You may suffer the loss of your possessions, your freedom,
your life. So be it. Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus
has prepared a place for you that no one can take away. It is the
Father’s House. And Jesus is the way. Believe in Him and you have
it. Take your comfort and assurance from Him alone. You don’t need
to see it to believe it. You have Jesus’ Word on it. You
have Jesus’ Body and Blood on it. And in having Jesus in His Word and
Body and Blood, you have the Father. And in having the Father and the Son
you have the Holy Spirit who proceeds from them. You have the one God,
who lives and reigns to all eternity, the God who has written His Name on you:
The Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. He is risen! He is
risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fourth Sunday of
Easter (A)
May 7, 2017
Text: John 10:1-10
He is risen! He
is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
When
Jesus refers to us as sheep, it is not a compliment. He is not calling us cute, cuddly fuzz balls. Sheep need the vigilant and meticulous care
of the shepherd, particularly the way they raise sheep in the Middle East. The shepherd leads his sheep out to graze on
the hillsides where there are predators and other hazards. The sheep are unbound, and for the most part,
unthinkingly follow the rest of the flock, which offers its own perils. “If everyone jumps off a bridge,” and all
that… But worse is when one sheep
wanders off on its own. Now, some
shepherds will argue this point (and methinks they doeth protest too much), but
sheep are not the smartest animals on earth.
They get themselves into all sorts of predicaments. When a sheep is threatened by a predator, it
is literally paralyzed with fear. It
doesn’t run. It doesn’t hide. It lies down and refuses to move. Sheep have been known to get so close to a
pond or a stream for a drink, their wool starts to soak up the water, and
before you know it they’ve fallen in and they’re too heavy with water to get
themselves out again. This is why
shepherds carry crooks. They aren’t just
walking sticks. They yank the wanderers
and the stragglers out of harm’s way.
This is why there are sheep dogs.
They may be man’s best friend, offering companionship to the shepherd,
but they’re there to bark and growl and nip and bite to keep the sheep in the
safe orbit of the shepherd. No, sheep
aren’t all that smart, and frankly, they’re a pain in the neck. Jesus calls you a sheep, O sinner. Chew on that one awhile. He’s talking about how you run off on your
own, away from your Shepherd, Jesus, off to gnaw on poisonous weeds, the
fleshly pleasures of this world, the things that take you farther away from our
Lord; how you meander right into the clutches of the wolves and the robbers and
even play with their fire as if you can escape them, only to lie down paralyzed
when they come in for the kill; how you run from the still waters of your
Baptism and fall into the Dead Sea of sin and unbelief. Repent, O sinner. Repent, O sheep.
But
know this. You aren’t just any
sheep. You are a sheep of the Good
Shepherd, Jesus Christ. You belong to
Him. A good shepherd is one who will lay
down his life for the sheep. Like young
David in the hills of Bethlehem, he’ll wrestle with the lions and the bears. He’d rather be torn to pieces than let a
predator make off with one of his precious lambs. It’s the strangest thing. These silly, rebellious, stupid sheep… The
shepherd loves them! And there is one
thing sheep have going for them. They
know the voice of their shepherd. They
won’t follow the voice of a stranger.
Shepherds will often gather their flocks together for grazing. They’re all mixed up with one another. But when evening comes and it’s time to
return to the sheepfold, each shepherd will call, and the sheep know which
voice to follow. This is also what it
means that you are sheep. You may not
know much, but you know your Shepherd’s voice.
You know, in the cacophony of all the would-be shepherds calling you in
the world… you know the voice of Jesus.
You know His Word. And you follow
Him.
Now,
at night, the shepherd calls, and the sheep gather to him, and he leads them to
the sheepfold. Here the danger is that
thieves and robbers will break in and steal, or predators may try to sneak in
through the gate. So the shepherd sleeps
in the entrance of the fold. If you want
my sheep, you’re gonna have to get through me!
And so Jesus says, “I am the door”
(John 10:7; ESV). He means that quite
literally. He’s saying, “If anyone wants
to get my sheep, you’re gonna have to get through me!” You’re safe in the sheepfold. And what is the sheepfold? You’re in it!
It is the holy Christian Church.
Jesus is the door to the Church.
You enter by Him. That is to say,
you are baptized into Christ. The water
and the Word, the font, that is where you enter through Jesus. You enter through His death and
resurrection. You are made one with your
Lord. And here, in the sheepfold, He
tends you. He cares for you. He leads you in and out with His voice, His
Word. He provides you with green
pastures, sets a table before you in the presence of your enemies, His body,
His blood, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. Your cup overflows. And He keeps you safe. He teaches you His voice, and warns you
against the voices of others, the thieves and the robbers and the snarls of the
adversary who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour. You Shepherd puts Himself on the
line, lest these enemies steal or consume you.
And it’s not just for show, God against some lesser creatures that are
no match for Him. Your Shepherd, your
God, is a man, Jesus Christ. And He dies
for the sheep. He dies for you. That is what it means that He is your Good
Shepherd. When others would run away, He
confronts the danger head-on, and gives Himself in sacrifice. For you.
To save you. And on the Third
Day, He rises from the dead, and now He ever tends you and cares for you,
vigilantly and meticulously. You belong
to Him, and you are precious in His sight.
In our
text, Jesus spends a great deal of time and energy warning us against the
thieves and robbers. Who are these
characters? These are the false teachers
who, by trickery and sneakery, and in service to the wolf, Satan, want to steal
you away from the sheepfold. Now, this
is the part of the text nobody likes.
This gets a lot of pastors in hot water with the sheep. But I don’t work for you. I work for the Good Shepherd. So here you go. There
are false teachers who claim to be Christians, but are not. And there are false teachers who sincerely
think they are Christians, but are not.
And there are false teachers who are, in fact, by a felicitous
inconsistency between their teaching and their faith, Christians, but are
nonetheless dangerous because they lead other sheep astray. That is to say, some of the books and movies
and television programs you like because they claim to be Christian, aren’t good for you! (I told you you wouldn’t like this part.) And some of the religious personalities you
admire may lead you astray. “But Pastor, they’re so sincere!” Yes, yes they are. They are sincerely wrong. You’ve heard the old saying, “The road to
hell is paved with good intentions.”
“But Pastor, a little bit of false doctrine isn’t going to hurt anyone.” Neither is a little bit of arsenic, until it
builds up in the system and kills you.
“But Pastor, some of the stuff they say is pretty good.” And not everything the serpent said to Eve
was wrong. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after
all for her to give him a hearing, and take the good and leave the bad. (That was sarcasm, by the way, for those of
you in Rio Linda. The point is, no, she
should not have listened to the serpent, at all!)
Now,
don’t walk away thinking I’m saying things I didn’t say. No, I am not unchurching all the Christians
who aren’t Missouri Synod Lutherans. No,
I am not saying all the other Christians are going to hell. If you walk away thinking that, you aren’t
listening. What I’m telling you is, doctrine matters. All of it.
Jesus’ voice matters. If He said it, it’s important. Even if you don’t think it is. Even if you don’t understand it. Even if you don’t like it. He does not lie. He is your Good Shepherd. He knows what is good for you and what is bad
for you. You follow His voice, and His
voice only. All other voices lead to
deadly peril.
And
this teaches us something about the Holy Ministry. The word “pastor” means “shepherd.” When kids get this wrong and accidently call
me “pasture,” they aren’t all that far off.
Same root for both words. Pastors
are undershepherds of the Good Shepherd.
Which means what they speak better be the Word of Jesus. It better be the Good Shepherd’s voice you’re
hearing. There are thieves and robbers,
and they’re sneaky. They love to pose as
pastors. Now, on the one hand, God gives
pastors to help you sort out the voices, to warn you against false teachers. That is my job. To warn you, and to name names. But on the other hand, it is so important
that you, as a sheep, know your Good Shepherd’s voice, in case I turn out to be
one of those false teachers. How do you
know? How do you learn to discern the
voices? This is where it is so
important, beloved, to drink deeply of God’s Word. To be in it always. To immerse yourself in it. As we pray in the collect, God grant that we
hear the Word, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. The very most important thing is to be in the
Divine Service at every opportunity.
Don’t be a sheep wandering off by yourself! God will send the sheep dogs after you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Be in Bible study and Sunday School. Be in prayer and devotion at home each
day. This is so important. Be like the Berean Christians, who heard
Paul’s preaching gladly, and then searched the Scriptures daily to see if these
things were so (Acts 17:11).
Then
recognize what God has given your pastor to do for you. He’s to be Jesus’ mouth and hands in this
flock. In other words, he’s to do the
dirty work. Shepherds don’t just hike
around the hills all day in the green grass with their sheep. There is the sheering and the binding of
wounds and the manure and the stink of it all.
There is the constant counting and watching and, for the Christian
shepherds at least, the leaving of the 99 to go find that one rebellious sheep
who wandered off, and carry him back as he kicks and bleats and bites the
shepherd. The life of the pastor isn’t
all glitz and glamor. Yes, there’s the
preaching and teaching and baptizing and feeding with the Supper. All wonderful stuff. It’s the stuff you usually see. There is also the wrestling in prayer for
your soul, the spiritual battle that goes on daily behind the scenes. There are the visitations, the delinquent
calls, the vigil at the bedside of the dying Christian, making sure the sheep
can hear the voice of the Shepherd through the Word until he hears that voice
for himself before the throne in heaven.
There are the wounded and angry sheep to be tended. There are the frank discussions about
sin. Sometimes there must be
discipline. There is Confession, and of
course, Absolution! There is joy, and
there is sorrow. There are the tragedies
of the sheep, and there are the triumphs.
When a bishop is consecrated for his office, he is given, quite
appropriately, a shepherd’s crook. Every
pastor ought to have one. It’s a rod and
staff of comfort for the sheep. It’s
also a hook to yank you back when you wander and sometimes give you a little
knock on the behind. In other words, the
pastor’s job is Law and Gospel. It’s the
Word. It’s the voice of Jesus.
Beloved,
Jesus calls you a sheep, and it’s not a compliment. But it is a comfort. Don’t be insulted. Embrace it.
It means you are loved and cared for by the Good Shepherd, your Savior,
Jesus Christ, who will never leave you or forsake you. So good is He, He gave His life for the
sheep. He gave His life for you.
But that’s not all. He is
risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Third Sunday of Easter
Third Sunday of
Easter (A)
April 30, 2017
Text: Luke 24:13-35
He is risen! He
is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
“Stay with us, for it
is toward evening and the day is far spent” (Luke 24:29; ESV). They
did not even know it was the Lord when they spoke this petition. As yet
their eyes were kept from recognizing Him (v. 16). But their hearts had
burned within them as this Stranger opened the Scriptures (v. 32) to Cleopas
and his traveling companion on the road to Emmaus, showing them from Moses and
the Prophets (what we have come to call the Old Testament) that the Christ must
suffer these things, be condemned to death by the religious and secular
authorities and be crucified, and in this way enter His glory (vv.
26-27). To be sure, their invitation was a customary act of
hospitality. It is dangerous to be out on the road at night. There
are robbers and wild animals and other hazards of the road better dealt with in
the light. But it is more than that. They do not want their time
with this wise Traveler to end. There is something about Him that
comforts them. He gives them peace when their life is anything but
peaceful, having just suffered the traumatic death of their Teacher and Lord,
their hopes profoundly disappointed, grief and fear their constant
companions. And now this confusion, the reports of the women about the
empty tomb and preaching angels declaring that He is risen from the dead.
In the midst of all of this there is this Man who, by the simple speaking of
His Word, gives them hope and faith that this is all according to God’s plan,
that somehow in all of this God has worked salvation, and in the end, the God
who brought about the defeat of death by dying, who raised Jesus from the dead,
will make all that is wrong in our world and in our lives right.
So
stay with us Lord. It’s getting dark. We don’t want to be
alone. It feels like You have forsaken us, like You have gone away.
After all, we can’t see You. Not with our fallen eyes. And there
are dangers here in the darkness: the sin that seeks to destroy us and those we
love; Satan and his minions who want to rob us of our faith and hope; sickness
and pain and death, which leave us in the meantime with our constant companions
of grief and fear. But here when You speak Your Word, our hearts burn
within us, for You give us faith and hope and peace in the midst of all these
perils. For You open the Scriptures to us. Beginning with Moses and
the Prophets (the Old Testament) and continuing with the writings of the
Apostles and Evangelists (the New Testament), You show us that in Your
suffering and death you enter into Your glory and You take us with You.
You do not leave us or forsake us. You do not leave us in sin, for You died
for our forgiveness and You daily forgive us in Holy Absolution. You do
not leave us a prey for Satan and the demons, for in Your crucifixion, You
crushed the serpent’s head. You do not leave us in death and the grave,
for You are the risen and ascended Lord. You have prepared a place for us
in heaven with You, and on the Last Day, You will raise us bodily from the
dead.
“Stay
with us, Lord, for it is evening, and the day is almost over” (LSB 243).[1]
The disciples’ petition has become the cry of the holy Christian Church.
It is a prominent petition in the Church’s Evening Prayer liturgy. We
sing it in hymns like “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The
darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide” (LSB 878:1). It’s not the strongest
Christmas carol we sing, but my mother often sang “Away in a Manger” with me
before bed when I was a child. The third verse is priceless in the
petition, “Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever and
love me, I pray” (LSB 364:3). Around the dinner table we often pray,
“Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.” We don’t just mean at our meal, but in
our homes and in our lives. These petitions echo Luther’s evening prayer
which we learn in the Small Catechism: “graciously keep me this
night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all
things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no
power over me.” If you haven’t memorized that prayer, please do, and pray
it every night. Memorize some of these evening hymns. Memorize and
pray this verse from the Holy Gospel: “Stay with us, for it is toward
evening and the day is far spent.”
And
Jesus does. He stays with you. He does not make Himself visible to
your eyes, but He is with you as assuredly as we’re all together here this
morning, with you as your God certainly, but also as your fellow Human Being,
as a Man, a flesh and blood Presence. Your eyes are kept from recognizing
Him. That is until He is at the Table with you, the Altar, and He takes
bread, blesses it, and gives it to you. That is how the disciples at
Emmaus recognized Him, in the breaking of the bread. And so you.
Faith recognizes the Lord Jesus in the bread that is His Body, the wine that is
His Blood. We recognize Him in the Supper, really and substantially
present. And we realize that just because we cannot see Him, that doesn’t
mean He’s gone. After breaking the bread before the Emmaus disciples, He
vanished from their sight (v. 31), but He didn’t go away. They knew, as
we know, that He is always with us, hidden in the Sacrament. He is always
with us, hidden in His Word, for when He speaks, our hearts burn within
us. He is always with us wherever we go, because that is what He said: “I
am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
And
so, the time is getting late. Do you recognize that it is toward
evening? Do you recognize that these are the gray and latter days of the
world? You may know it by whatever darkness is in your life. Sins
that plague you, guilt that won’t go away, deteriorating bodies, your own and
those of loved ones, and finally the grave that you know will one day be your
bed. Change and decay in all around you see, as the hymn puts it (LSB
878:4). There is certainly the darkness that surrounds the world: wars
and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, corrupt politicians, decaying
morals, abortion, homelessness, the hypersexualization of the culture, gay
marriage, the list goes on. What good news for you and for all people
that the risen Lord Jesus comes to you where you dwell and He stays. He
abides. He never goes away. He died for the darkness. He
covered it all in His blood, washed away all the bad, all the sin, all the
fallen-ness. And He blew a hole through death, opened up the grave,
exposed it to the light of His risen glory. “Jesus Christ is the Light of
the world, the light no darkness can overcome” (LSB 243; John 8:12; 1:5).
He stays. He lets His light scatter the darkness (1 Cor. 4:5) and
illumine His Church (2 Cor. 4:6). He casts the bright beams of His light
upon you, enlightens your mind, your heart, your soul, so that you see Him even
where He is hidden from your eyes, but really present for you. You
see Him by faith, and you know that He has answered your prayer. He stays
with you. And the evening has no power over you.
The
Emmaus disciples reported these things to the Eleven in Jerusalem that same
evening. And just as Jesus had vanished suddenly from their sight at
Emmaus, so also He appears suddenly in the midst of the disciples in Jerusalem.
And He speaks His peace. He shows them His hands and His side, His
crucifixion wounds. He eats some broiled fish (Luke 24:36-42). And
there is no doubt about it. This is no ghost. Jesus Christ is risen
from the dead. For 40 days He appears here and there among His people,
out of nowhere, and then vanishes again. But there is no doubt it is
Him. On day 40 He ascended into heaven and was hidden by a cloud.
But He is not gone. He is with us, just as He was with the Emmaus
disciples and the apostles. We do not see Him with our eyes, but one day
we will. In the meantime, come to the Table. You will recognize Him
in the breaking of the bread. Here He answers your prayer. He stays
with you. For He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
[1] Hymns and liturgical texts from Lutheran
Service Book (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006). Catechism texts from Luther’s
Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986).
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