Sermon: Pentecost – 2023

28 May 2023

Text: John 14:15-21 (Gen 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus spent the last few moments before His arrest preparing His disciples – which includes us – for living out our Christian life in a different way.  For the disciples were still not aware what was going to happen next, even though Jesus told them several times.  And in spite of His knowing what was coming, that even as He was comforting His disciples and getting them ready, the police were already nearby, and all of His disciples were on the verge of running away.  Nevertheless, Jesus continues to love them (and us) in our weakness of faith.

And we see this in the entire sweep of history in the Old Testament.  According to God’s promise, of which we are reminded when we see the rainbow in the sky, God will not again destroy us all with a flood.  Rather, the waters that God uses are applied individually: waters that save us from sin and death rather than punish us for sin and by death.

We can call to mind the Israelites of little faith, who were delivered from being trapped at the Red Sea, as God parted the waters and drowned Pharaoh’s army.  And yet, even after having seen that, as well as God’s miraculous and glorious presence in the pillar of cloud and of fire, many grumbled at Moses, cursing him for leading them into the desert to die.  And God did not respond by wiping them out, but rather by providing them with miraculous food: bread from heaven to sustain their lives. 

And as Jesus is about to be arrested, and although the disciples will scatter in fear and faithlessness, Jesus remains faithful to them.  For He will show them mercy, shepherd them like a flock, ordain them, and send them out armed by the Holy Spirit, the Word, and the sacraments as apostles, to bring the Good News to people of every nation and every language.

For the world was divided up into various languages and national linguistic groups at the Tower of Babel.  Being of the same nationality draws us together as a people, but being divided from others has led to warfare and hatreds.  Though many languages are beautiful, and though we can indeed learn to speak them through study, the fact that we have many languages at all is a curse from God: a punishment because of our universal human disobedience.  And it is that sin that Jesus has come to forgive by means of His own blood, dear friends.

Jesus tells His disciples: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  And the Greek word translated as “Helper” can also be translated as “Comforter.”  For listen to our Lord’s teaching on the Holy Spirit’s coming: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  Jesus reminds them that He has told them that He was “going away…. So that when it does take place you may believe.”

For belief, that is, faith, is the opposite of fear.  And it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, dear friends.

St. Luke’s account of Pentecost from the Book of Acts includes spectacular miracles.  When God wants to get His people’s attention, He makes use of such signs that defy reason.  Pentecost means fifty.  It was an Old Testament feast of celebration of the first-fruits of the wheat harvest.  It took place fifty days after Passover.  And that is where we are, dear friends.  For Jesus celebrated the final Passover: the one that is continued in the Eucharist.  Forty days after His resurrection, He ascended.  And ten days later, He sent the Holy Spirit.  We have retained this seasonal pattern in the church year.  And Pentecost in the New Testament is a harvesting of the first-fruits of all nations to hear the Good News preached in their native tongues, to believe and be baptized, and to become part of the Holy Christian church.

We tend to focus on the spectacular miracles: the sound the rushing wind – reminding us of what our Lord said to Nicodemus that the “wind” (the same word in Greek as Spirit) “blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit,” that is born again of “water and the Spirit.”

Then “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.”  This glowing light calls to mind the face of Jesus that glowed at the transfiguration, the face of Moses that reflected this divine light, the pillar of fire of God’s presence in the tabernacle, the chariots of fire that surrounded Elisha, and our Lord describing Himself as the “light of the world.”  Indeed, in the Creed we confess Jesus as “God of God, light of light, very God of very God.” For even God’s first act of creation was the Word speaking, “Let there be light.  And there was light.” 

Artists throughout history have used a ring of light around the head of Jesus and of the saints to show this glory of God resting upon the people to whom He gives the gift of grace.

The next spectacular miracle is the gift of tongues.  The real gift of tongues is not a “secret prayer language” or being emotionally ginned up to speak in gibberish.  For we see it at work here on Pentecost.  These real Pentecostal Christians who were speaking in tongues were preaching the Gospel to those cursed by the diversity of languages, as everyone heard the Good News of Jesus in their own native languages.  The curse of Babel was overcome not by a world language or a world government, not by mandatory language education in schools, but rather by the Holy Spirit’s establishment of the church, the drawing together of a diversity of peoples and nations and languages into one kingdom.  The Holy Spirit has done this, and continues to do this.

But the greatest miracle of all, dear friends, may not seem like it.  But it is Peter lifting up his voice, loosening his tongue, and preaching.  St. Peter points out that this first Christian Pentecost fulfills the prophecy of Joel, that in the last days, God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh.  And just as the first disciples of Jesus were called to be watchful for the Spirit’s coming, we are to be watchful for when “the day of the Lord comes.”  For indeed, “it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This sermon and its reception is indeed the greatest miracle of that Pentecost, dear brothers and sisters.  For if you keep reading the second chapter of Acts, you will find St. Peter’s sermon is all about Jesus and His mission of salvation.  Peter openly preaches the law against his hearers, calling them to repent for crucifying Jesus, allowing Him to be “killed by the hands of lawless men.”  He shows them Jesus in the Psalms.  He shares with them that Jesus is God, the Messiah, the Son of David.  And instead of stopping up their ears and stoning him to death, as they did St. Stephen, who preached a similar sermon, the people, “when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do.’” 

This was the greatest miracle, dear friends: the conversion of sinners to confessors of Jesus by means of the Holy Spirit delivered through preaching the Word of God.  Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”  Peter preaches to them and to us: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

That very day, three thousand were baptized, having “received the Word.”  They immediately did what the church does: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  And this we continue to do in the Divine Service to this very day, dear friends.

The greatest miracle of the Holy Spirit is giving us the gift of faith, and drawing us into the church, to receive God’s gifts and to worship the God who provides for us each and every day: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Let us give thanks and praise to God the Holy Spirit, thanking Him for calling us through water and the Word, and keeping us in the one true faith by the preaching of the Gospel.  For indeed, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Exaudi (Easter 7) – 2023

Sermon: Exaudi (Easter 7) – 2023

21 May 2023

Text: John 15:26-16:4 (Ezek 36:22-28, 1 Pet 4:7-14)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

“I have said these things to you,” says Jesus, “to keep you from falling away.”  St. John records Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit, and we have heard these promises over the past three weeks.  John recorded these words of Scripture – under inspiration of the Holy Spirit – as he explains: “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name.”

“So that you may believe.”

People “fall away” from belief, which means falling away from life, because they fall away from the Word of God as it is read here, where Christians gather around the altar, the font, and the pulpit.  It’s important to reflect on why we come to church. 

We don’t come here to impress anyone, to make God think we’re pious, to make our children moral citizens or “good people,” to be politically correct (whether liberal or conservative), to put on a show for our neighbors, to continue a family tradition, or because it is the American thing to do.  We don’t come here to feel good about ourselves or to get a pep talk about worldly wealth.  And if this is the real reason you are here, you won’t last long.  You will fall away.  And you will forfeit your eternal life.

The Good News is that sometimes we start coming to church for one reason, but then the Holy Spirit grabs us, drags us to Jesus, whose Word changes us from the outside, to bring us ever closer to the Father.  The Word of God (which includes the Sacraments), is supernatural.  The Word causes us to have faith, to hunger for more, and to become more alive than we ever were before.  It is not because we are better than everyone else.  Rather, it is because we are “poor, miserable sinners” and we know it.  The Holy Spirit convicts us, and we see ourselves for the walking death that we are.  And so, like the many people we meet in Scripture: the blind, the deaf, the mute, the leprous, the lame, the broken, those cast out of society, those with regrets and sorrows, those oppressed or possessed by demons – even those who have died; we are brought to Jesus.  And Jesus gives us new life by His Word!

How sad that so many do “fall away.”  We see that in the Bible too, as St. John also records.  When Jesus told His followers that they would be eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and this would give them eternal life, and He would raise them up on the last day, many of His disciples “no longer walked with Him.”  These were (in John’s words), grumblers.  Jesus says to them (and to us): “Do not grumble among yourselves.”

And this, dear friends, is also why you need to know the Word of God.  For over and over, the children of Israel grumbled in the desert.  And the grumblers and their leaders eventually fell away – some quickly and dramatically, and some slowly and gradually – until their faith died, along with their souls.

We come here because it is a hospital for sinners.  If you think you are a “good person,” if you think you are better than the rest of us, then you will think that you don’t need to be here.  You will resent all of these hypocrites and people who are beneath your dignity.  You will invent reasons to resent your pastor – especially if you are engaged in a pet sin that you are holding onto and justifying.  You will collect grievances against other members.  You will be the classic grumbler. 

Dear friends, you are here, and you are listening to the Word of God right now, because Jesus does not want you to fall away.  You may find your faith slipping.  You may find your grip loosening.  You may find your discipline lacking.  And you can see it.  Well, that’s good.  That means the Holy Spirit is diagnosing your problem by means of the Word.  You need to listen to the Word – and keep listening.  Keep coming.  Don't grumble.  Don’t make excuses.  Don’t justify yourself.  Repent and commit to come here each and every week, to hear the Word of God, and to be transformed by the renewal of your mind – all by the work of the Spirit, through the Word, and all by Jesus and Him crucified for you.

My job as the shepherd is to keep you in the flock and to point you to “green pastures and still waters.”  The grass is the wheat that becomes the Bread of Life.  The life-giving waters were placed on you at baptism, when you became “God’s own child.”  You may be tempted to leave the flock, whether out of boredom, grumbling, or other priorities.  Dear friends, this flock is your very life.  Don’t take my word for it: listen to Jesus.  “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away.” 

Jesus says that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, “will bear witness about Me.  And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”  In other words, you remained.  You did not wander.  You did not grumble and walk with Jesus no more.  So don’t let that happen, dear friends.  Continue in your walk with Jesus and with the flock.  Continue to hear the voice of your Good Shepherd, the voice borne by the Holy Spirit.  Don’t let something silly rob you of your life.  Don’t be the foolish sheep who leaves the flock, only to be a meal for the wolf.

Jesus says that there will be trouble in the lives of Christians.  It is not always easy to walk with Jesus.  The world considers attacking us to be “service to God.”  Jesus says, “They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me.  But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

Our reading from St. Peter the apostle elaborates on what our Lord means – also by the Spirit’s inspiration: “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”  You members of this congregation have been placed into a Christian family.  Don’t grumble against each other.  Love indeed covers a multitude of sins.  And grumbling is the opposite of love covering sins.  Grumbling will make you self-righteous and convince you that you are too good for that pastor, for those people, for that church.  Your spirit will shrivel and shrink, and you will become a lost sheep.  You will wander where you should not go, and you will be eaten.

Stay in the flock.  Stay in the Word.  Stay in the sacramental fellowship of your parish church: not for the sake of tradition or family or routine.  Not because you are just looking for a club to belong to.  For this is a hospital.  We come here to receive the very procedure that allows us to live another week. 

St. John tells us that after the grumblers got mad at Jesus and walked with Him no more, Jesus asked the Twelve: “Do you want to go away as well?”  Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go.  You have the words of eternal life.”

Treasure these words, dear friends.  Treasure the Word of God.  Come to where the Word is taught and taught properly.  Come to where the Word is proclaimed and proclaimed boldly, for you.  Come to where you are protected from the wolves of this world.  Don’t be a grumbler.  Don’t let pride or misplaced priorities be the spiritual death of you – whether sudden and rooted in anger, or gradual and rooted in distractions.

For it is in Jesus, the one to whom the Spirit guides us, that the prophecy of Ezekiel finds its fulfillment: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…. I will put My Spirit within you.”

Once again, dear friends, “I have said these things to you,” says Jesus, “to keep you from falling away.” 

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Ascension (observed) – 2023

17 May 2023

Text: Acts 1:1-11

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The Rev. Dr. Chad Walsh said, “Christianity is a vast process initiated by God Himself to undo what Adam and Eve accomplished for us.”  And it is the nature of a process to change over time.  This rescue operation known as “Christianity” has stages.  For although God doesn’t change, and as the author of Hebrews says, our Lord Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), our situation changes.  Where we find ourselves in the plan changes.

Think about the apostles.  One day, they are living their lives as fishermen, merchants, at least one tax collector, a radical revolutionary, disciples of John the Baptist, or whatever else they were doing, and then they meet Jesus.  They quit their jobs, sell all of their things, and they walk with Jesus for three years as His students.  Think about what they saw, dear friends!  Miracle after miracle, preaching with the authority of God, forgiveness of sins, healings, exorcisms – even raising the dead and seeing Jesus in His full divine glory on the mountaintop.

And then, just as they expect one thing, something else changes: Jesus is arrested, put on trial, crucified, and put into a tomb.  Their lives have changed again.  And then, on the third day, the risen Jesus appears to them.  He explains the Scriptures to them.  He ordains them and sends them out to preach and administer sacraments.  And then, forty days after Easter, things change again.  He rises into the heavens as they watch – even as an angel scolds them for standing around looking up.

Their lives change again, dear friends.  They go their separate ways all over the known world: preaching and starting churches.  Other men will join them as pastors and evangelists.  In time, all of the apostles but one will be put to death for the sake of Jesus. 

Empires will rise and fall.  Nations will be born and die.  Languages will come and go.  But the Word of the Lord endures.  There are preachers and hearers.  Today’s baptized babies are tomorrow’s elderly, passing along the Good News of Jesus to younger generations in dire need of good news.

There is still yet one more major change, dear brothers and sisters.  For Jesus is coming back.  “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”  We do not know when this will be, but Jesus has told us many times and in various ways to be ready, to be watchful, to be prepared.  Don’t let your guard down.  Stay focused on Him and on the Christian life of grace and of the Gospel.  And so we continue to preach and listen, to administer the sacraments, and be ministered to.  We continue to baptize and be baptized.  And we know the world is changing too, dear friends.  And not for the better.  Jesus has also warned us of this.

For we Christians are among the last in the world to believe in reality: that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, that a baby is a person bearing the image of God, and not just a clump of cells.  We know that there is a difference between good and evil.  We know that there is a distinction between truth and falsehood.  And we know that Jesus is with us, when and where two or three of us gather to worship Him, just as He promised.  He is present in His Word – though in a different way than He was present with the Eleven on the Mount of Olives.  He is present with us – “always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).  He is present with us in His body and blood.

So while His presence takes different forms, it is still the same Jesus.  While He “sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” nevertheless, He is still with us.  And while He is coming again “to judge the living and the dead,” He still remains with us, forgiving our sins, and giving us eternal life as a free gift.

He had told us that it was necessary for Him to return to the Father so that the Spirit would come to us – the same Holy Spirit that empowered the apostles to preach and build the church; the same Holy Spirit who works through us to this very day, dear friends.

And so, let us not be surprised when life presents us with changes, whether gradual or sudden.  The “vast process” of our rescue, of undoing the “accomplishment” of Adam and Eve is being carried out.  And no matter what changes in our own lives, Jesus doesn’t change.  The plan doesn’t change.  The end of the story doesn’t change.  We are headed there.  And there is no stopping it.  And this kind of change is not to be feared or dreaded.  It is to be embraced and rejoiced in.  For every passing day is a day closer to the fulfillment, to our eternal, heavenly promise of a new heaven and a new earth, of a new body, and a completely renewed mind, of a new way of living, and a new way of relating to the Jesus who never changes.

So when will this next change happen?  The Lord’s disciples wondered the same thing.  And so they asked Him.  But our Lord says simply: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.”  No, dear friends, Jesus tells us to be about the spreading of the Gospel, starting in Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, and then “to the end of the earth.”  We preachers preach, we hearers hear.  We pastors baptize, and all of us bring our children to the font to be baptized.  We gather even in twos or threes to hear the Word and to receive the Lord’s body and blood.  We confess our sins, and we confess our faith.  We remain followers of the unchanging Christ in good times, and in bad times, in wealth and prosperity, and in poverty and persecution.  We come into the faith one day or one year, and we remain until we leave this world, whether a day, or a century later. 

Our lives change, but the Jesus we confess does not.  And in the words of the unbelieving world, we “trust the process,” for we trust of the God who has initiated and is carrying out this vast process of our faith and life, of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And instead of staring up into the sky, we heed the word of the angels, not watching where He was, but fixing our eyes where He is, and being ever-watchful for His coming again in glory – busying ourselves for when He returns in His kingdom, “which will have no end.”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 6

16 May 2023

Text: Luke 16:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! 

Our Lord tells a story: the Parable of the Dishonest Manager.  In this parable, the hero is really an antihero: a crooked manager who is getting fired.  So during his transition out of employment, he makes quick friends with his boss’s “debtors,” doing so “one by one.”  He unilaterally and secretly renegotiates their contracts, offering them huge discounts. 

He does this so that “people may receive me into their houses,” hoping for some kind of opportunity after his management job is finally terminated.

The company’s owner finds out about it, and is amazed at the audacity, the “shrewdness” of his crooked employee.  For as our Lord points out, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”  Jesus encourages us to be spiritually shrewd and focused on the good of the kingdom, with the zeal that a crooked manager has in feathering his own nest.  And Jesus also teaches us that we cannot have “two masters,” for we “cannot serve God and money.”

Missing much of the meaning of this parable, owing to their self-centeredness and refusal to be called to repentance, the Pharisees rightly perceive that they are guilty.  But instead of hearing the Word of God from the mouth of Jesus with humility, “they ridiculed Him.”  For this is often the reaction of those who refuse to repent.  They do not offer a counter-argument.  They do not explain where Jesus is wrong.  Instead, they mock.  It is all that they have.  For they were indeed “lovers of money.”  Our Lord’s words hit too close to home.

Jesus’ parable and the reaction of the Pharisees, as recorded by St. Luke by the Spirit’s inspiration, teach us to hear the Word with open hearts and minds, ever willing to repent.  Instead of loving money and applying worldly cleverness to amassing more of it – even resorting to crookedness – let us shrewdly labor in the fields of the Lord’s kingdom.  Rather than loving money and serving ourselves, let us love the Lord and serve our neighbor, let us love “the Law and the Prophets” and the “good news of the kingdom of God” that are preached to us and recorded in Scripture.  Let us store up treasures in heaven rather than mock and cheat and embrace the ways of the world. 

For Jesus has torn up the bill of our debts, writing “paid in full” in His very blood, and justifying not Himself before men, but rather justifying us before His Father in heaven.  Let us amass “a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches” (Luke 12:33).

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Rogate (Easter 6) – 2023

14 May 2023

Text: John 16:23-33

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Our Lord teaches us that there is a time for teaching using “figures of speech.”  And Jesus does this quite often, using parables and illustrations and even humor to teach His disciples about the kingdom.  But then there is also a time for plain talk.  A good teacher knows when to use each.

Jesus has chosen to teach first using “figurative speech,” and only later “speaking plainly.”  And though they have heard Him teaching in the temple, preaching in the synagogue, working miracles in the city and in the countryside, casting out demons, healing the sick, restoring sight and hearing, and even raising the dead – now that He has already celebrated His last supper with them, now that He is on the verge of being arrested, tried, beaten, crucified, killed, and buried – from which He will rise from the dead – now Jesus is giving them the plain talk about His departure and return. 

And in response, the disciples say: “Now we know that You know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe that You came from God.” 

But their belief is a curious thing, dear friends.  For it isn’t constant.  We saw Peter kneel before Jesus when Jesus first called him and worked the miracle of the great catch of fish.  That miracle led Peter to leave behind his boats and his business, to go to Jesus’ seminary and prepare for the pastoral ministry.  And we saw Peter confess Jesus as the “Christ, the Son of the living God,” one moment, and a few verses later, scolding Jesus for speaking plainly about His upcoming passion and death.  Our Lord rebuked him by calling Him “Satan” and a “hindrance.”  One minute, Peter is walking on water, the next minute he is sinking.  One minute, he is pledging that he will never fall away, and the next minute, he is denying Jesus while the rooster crows.

Only about three days after the disciples saying that they now believe in Jesus because of this plain speech, Thomas will deny the possibility of the resurrection unless he puts his fingers into the wounds made by the nails.  In only a few hours of this “Ah!” moment, all of the disciples will run away from Jesus in disbelief of the very thing that Jesus spoke plainly to them about.  And Judas was already on his way to betray Jesus when the disciples were saying, “We believe that you came from God.”

All of this shows that even among the men who would become the apostles, the ones who would preach the Gospel to the entire known world, all but one dying martyrs’ deaths, all suffer from a weak faith, a faith that has its ups and downs, its peaks and valleys.  And who can ever forget the man whose son Jesus delivered from a demon, who prayed to Jesus with such plain-spoken bluntness: “I believe; help my unbelief!”?

Satan will try to take advantage of both of these, dear friends, both the peaks and the valleys.  For when you are immersed in the Word of God, when you are hitting your stride in this great marathon that is the redeemed Christian life, when your faith is strong, you will be tempted to take your eyes off of Jesus and put your faith in your faith.  You might begin to take the Word of God for granted, since you know all of this already.  The plain-spoken Gospel that Jesus died for your sins is no longer something that you need.  Or so you think.  You are walking on the water with Peter, and saying to Jesus, “We… do not need anyone to question You.”  If you catch yourself being arrogant like this, you need to repent and keep looking at Jesus, and not on your successes.  It is then that you need to hear the plainly spoken words of Jesus yet again.

Satan also uses the troughs, the low points, dear friends.  When you are struggling, when you have stopped walking on the water and are sinking, when your life is out of control and falling apart, once again, you will be tempted to focus on yourself instead of Jesus.  You may wallow in self-pity.  You may start looking to drugs or alcohol or to other vices.  You might turn to psychology or the latest nonsense on TV – that will only drive you further away from the plain-spoken truth that Jesus went to the cross to pay the price of the very sins that has brought suffering and death to all of us.  You may be tempted to refuse to believe, like Thomas, or worse yet, like the earlier disciples who left when Jesus told them to eat His body and drink His blood.

Once again, we must hear the plainly spoken words of Scripture in such times.  For as St. Paul teaches us, when we are weak, we are strong.  For it is then that we put our faith not in ourselves or the world’s quackery, but in our Lord’s words.  For it was Jesus who pulled Peter out of the water, and his faith was restored.  It was Jesus who showed Thomas His wounds of flesh and blood, and he believed.  It was Jesus who refused to take away the thorn in Paul’s flesh, that Paul would learn that our Lord’s grace was sufficient for him.  Indeed, it is Jesus who pulls us out of the water and gives us the new birth.  It is Jesus who brings us His body and blood and invites us to partake in them.  It is Jesus who uses His consoling Word in our suffering to give us the gift of His sufficient grace and eternal life.

On this day, it is customary to honor our mothers – our own as well as those among us who are mothers.  For we came to life in their wombs, and they nourished us from the very beginning.  In many cases, our mothers were the first to speak the name of “Jesus” to us, to read the Word of God to us, and to bring us to our second birth in Holy Baptism.  And in addition to our earthly mothers, we remember and honor our spiritual mother: the church.  We are birthed eternally from the womb of the baptismal font, and fed the milk of the Word from our churchly mother.  St. Cyprian, a pastor and bishop who was born only about a century after the death of the last apostle, taught us: “No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the church for his mother.”

For we encounter Jesus through the church, that is, through other Christians: whether they are our mothers and fathers, our grandparents, pastors, teachers, friends, strangers whom God has placed into our lives, a person who handed us a pocket-sized Gospel of John, a friendly soul who greeted us when we wandered into a church for some reason, a doctor who taught us that there is more to life and healing than medicine, a kindly stranger who helped us when we were hurt, our sponsors who confessed the faith when we were baptized, and the other people who kneel with us at the communion rail, blending their voices with ours in the liturgy and the hymns.

In the church, we speak the Word of God – both the figurative language of Jesus in the parables, as well as the plain-spoken truths of God’s Word that we have put into the catechism – with which we teach the children.  For these children who are learning to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things” will themselves grow up and bring children to be mothered by the church and fathered by God.  They too will go through ups and downs in their Christian life, and Jesus will likewise speak to them, both in parables and in plain speech.

For let us not forget the plainly spoken truth that Jesus gives yet again, dear friends: “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

And we reply together, also speaking plainly, “Christ who has redeemed us with His blood, is risen and has appeared unto us.”

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Funeral of Paula Boutian – 2023

12 May 2023

Text: John 3:16-17 (Isa 25:6-9, Rom 5:1-5)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Dear Ronald, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, Peace be with you.

Easter was almost six weeks ago, but the church is still in the Easter season.  You might even say that we are always in the Easter season, because Jesus rose again from the dead, pointing us to our own resurrections, and the resurrections of our loved ones who confessed our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And the first words that the risen Jesus said to His grieving disciples when He appeared to them that Easter evening was, “Peace be with you.”  So I say again to all of you, “Peace be with you.”  For we have all heard this famous passage, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  In the next verse, Jesus adds: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Jesus came into our fallen world to die, in order to destroy death.  And He rose again to lead the way that shepherds His people from death to life.  And this is why Christians all over the world greet one another in the Easter season with, “Christ is risen!”  And the response is: “He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”  This defiant note of life is meant for such times as these.  For to lose a wife, a mother, a sister, a grandmother, a loved one, a friend, a colleague – is a crushing blow.  It saddens us, and causes us to grieve.  And when I lose loved ones, I am reminded of St. Paul’s words from 2^nd Corinthians: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (4:8-11). 

The words of Jesus comfort us in our worst times.  And St. Paul reminds us to comfort each other with the hope that we Christians have of our confession of “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”  We take comfort knowing that our beloved ones who confess Jesus will live again, in the body, and we will be reunited never to be separated again.

For Paula is not an angel floating in the clouds.  She is higher than the angels.  She is a flesh and blood person created in the image of God, with a body that was redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ.  Unlike angels, Paula will again eat and drink and embrace her loved ones in the flesh.  As the prophet Isaiah reminds us about eternity, we look forward to: “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine” for “He will swallow up… the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces… for the Lord has spoken.” 

The Lord has spoken, dear friends.

And though we mourn and suffer, we do not lose hope.  We have the audacity even to rejoice, for Paula does not suffer.  She has finished the race.  Christ’s victory at the cross is Paula’s victory.  Christ’s resurrection is Paula’s resurrection.  Paula’s namesake St. Paul reminds us that “we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

So let us mourn, dear friends.  Let us lay our sorrow upon the Lord, the Man of Sorrows, who was crucified, died, and rose again for Paula and for all believers, who promises to raise Paula and all believers on the Last Day.  And even in our mourning and sorrow, let us rejoice in our hope.  St. Paul reminds us that we grieve, but not “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13).

“For God so loved the world,” dear brothers and sisters, “that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” 

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 5

9 May 2023

Text: Luke 12:13-34

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! 

Our Lord has been teaching about the kingdom, when a man shows up, not seeking deliverance from a demon or healing from a dread disease.  He is not asking Jesus about heaven, or even how to interpret God’s Law.  He wants Jesus to be a kind of court arbiter, to settle a dispute about money.  Jesus asks him rhetorically: “Man, who made Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”  For while worldly justice is important, and there is a vocation of judge for those kinds of cases, Jesus has not come for anything like that.  He has come not to condemn the world’s injustice, but to offer the world mercy in spite of its injustice – even to the point of His being lynched in an unjust court with unjust judges and unjust witnesses.

Our Lord has come not to deal in justice for the temporary, but to outwit the eternal justice and punishment that we deserve, all by His divine, sacrificial mercy.  And so all of the things that occupy us in this flesh and life pale in comparison to the sublime gift of the abundant life that Jesus gives us as a free and eternal gift!

It is a bit like Mary and Martha.  Martha was annoyed that Mary was serving guests, while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard the preached Word.  Sometimes those most active in the church become annoyed at those who only show up on Sunday for Word and Sacrament, but don’t engage in other work for the church.  Of course, Martha’s service and our congregation members’ hard work are all important.  But when the Word is being preached and taught, when we are sitting at the feet of Jesus, we should pay attention.  We should be present.  That is the “one thing [that] is necessary” (Luke 10:42).  As the Psalmist says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”  Similarly, St. Paul asks rhetorically, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).  Of course, the whole world can be against us, but it doesn’t matter, since God is for us.  And this is where our treasure should be, dear friends, not on the things of this world, but in heaven, treasuring the Word of God.

This is why our Lord tells us not to be “anxious” about worldly provisions, for God provides for us.  He points out how birds don’t have barns and lilies don’t have a textile manufacturing infrastructure.  Jesus bids us to believe that the Lord will see to our earthly needs just as He does the birds and plants.  “O you of little faith,” says Jesus, “if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you?” as our Lord also asks rhetorically.

“Fear not, little flock,” says our Good Shepherd.  For faith leads to a calm reliance upon God.  Doubt leads to anxiety, anxiety to worry, and worry to fear.  “Fear not,” dear Christians, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Our treasure is in heaven, and where our treasure is, there is our heart also.  “Lift up your hearts.  We lift them up unto the Lord.” 

Thanks be to our Lord for His providence, grace, and mercy – even unto eternity! 

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Cantate (Easter 5) – 2023

7 May 2023

Text: John 16:5-15

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Last week, we heard Jesus preparing His disciples for the “little while” between the time of mourning His Good Friday death on the cross and rejoicing in His Easter Sunday resurrection from the dead.  This week, we hear Jesus preparing His disciples for another “little while” – the ten days between His ascension into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

For Jesus does indeed “go away” for a little while – even as we await His return in glory.  But He doesn’t leave us as orphans.  He doesn’t throw us to the dogs.  He sends us help.  And not just impersonal help, but a real Helper.

This word translated as “Helper” is the Greek word that we sometimes just pull into English as “Paraklete.” He is the one who will come and convict the world concerning “sin and righteousness and judgment.”  Paraklete is a hard word to translate.  It doesn’t mean “helper” in the sense of someone who just gives us a little bit of assistance.  It is more like someone who comes to your saving aid when you are trapped in a burning building, or who pulls you out of the water as you are drowning.  The Paraklete is a life-saver.  Sometimes Paraklete is translated as “advocate,” like an attorney who stands up for you and defends you when you are accused.  As long as we understand “Helper” in this sense, it’s not a bad translation.  For the kind of help we’re talking about isn’t just like a spare set of hands holding a screwdriver for us, it’s more like the doctor’s hands holding our beating heart in the middle of a transplant.  We cannot live without this Paraklete, dear friends: this Helper, this Advocate, this Holy Spirit that drives out all evil spirits that vex us.  Jesus has more to say about this coming Holy Spirit, but “you cannot bear them now,” He says.  But “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.”

So even though the disciples will no longer see their Lord face to face as they did before, even though they will no longer be able to hear Him and be present with Him – who is “the way, the truth, and the life,” the Word Made Flesh – in the same way as they did before, the Holy Spirit, the Helper, will continue to point them (and us) to Jesus.  For the Holy Spirit “will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”

As we know from Scripture, the Holy Spirit is God.  He is neither the Father nor the Son.  But He is also not an impersonal force.  He is also not a creation of the Father.  He is equally God.  He is the third person of the Trinity.  And yet, look at how He does not draw attention to Himself.  Rather, He points us to Christ.  “He will glorify Me,” says Jesus, “for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

So many people misunderstand the Holy Spirit, and turn Him into a kind of alternative god of personal glory and empowerment.  There are groups of Christians who treat the Holy Spirit as if He were their own personal a worker of magic, a superpower independent of the Father and the Son.  Some think they are honoring the Holy Spirit when they elevate Him above the Son, or when they begin to speak as though the Spirit reveals things to them apart from Jesus and apart from God’s Word.  But, dear friends, the Holy Spirit revealed the Scriptures to us, and the Holy Spirit continues to illuminate you through the Word of God.  You are not a prophet.  I am not a prophet.  There are no more prophets.  We don’t need any more prophets, for we have the Son and His Word.  His Word is final, dear friends.  For we have something far better than more prophets: the Word.  We have the Holy Spirit-inspired Scriptures that testify of Jesus, who is the Word Made Flesh.  Jesus is the one who died for us that we might live, the one who fulfills all of the prophets.  Jesus saved us from sin, death, and the devil.  Jesus gives us this Good News and shares His body and blood with us.  And the Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus, and fills you with a desire to hear the Good News that the Holy Spirit Himself inspired: the writings that we call “The Bible.” 

Why is the Holy Spirit willing to point us to Jesus instead of Himself?  For the same reason that Jesus points us to the Father and is willing to suffer in obedience to the Father.  God is love.  The persons of the Trinity are not in competition with one another.  They are not jealous of each other.  They carry out the one divine will of the one true God, out of love for us, out of love for you.

So, dear brother, dear sister, the Holy Spirit – who was given to you as a gift when you were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and when you first heard the Good News of the inspired Word of God, your Advocate and Helper – is even better than some kind of genie in a bottle.  For He is God, and He holds infinite divine power and mercy.  He draws you to Jesus.  He calls you to be part of the church.  He brings you ever closer to the Father.  And unlike the spirits of this world and the fallen spirits who follow the devil, this Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, who speaks only truth, bringing you to the Truth, the “way the truth and the life,” who is Jesus Christ our Lord. 

In our Small Catechism, we summarize what the Spirit-inspired Scriptures testify about the Holy Spirit: “He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.”

And what beautiful Help this Paraklete gives us, dear friends.  For we are weak.  We are subject to powerful forces that we can’t control.  But Jesus doesn’t leave us as orphans or throw us to the dogs.  He sends us help.  And not just impersonal help, but a real Helper.  And as we confess, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him: but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

The Holy Spirit draws you to Jesus by drawing you into Holy Baptism, to remember your baptism, to remember what Jesus has done for you at the cross.  He draws you into the church, dear friends, and “in this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.”

And as for that “little while” between the cross and the resurrection, the Holy Spirit is there too, dear friends.  For the “little while” that is death itself will come to an end by the Holy Spirit’s mighty work.  For “on the Last Day, He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.”

Yes, indeed, Jesus has sent us help.  Jesus has sent us a Helper.  And Jesus says, “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” 

He is the Spirit of truth.  He has come to the world, and He has come to us.  “This is most certainly true.”

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.