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.