Sunday, May 10, 2009 Easter 5 Cantate John 16:5-15

"And now, I go up to the One Who sent Me; and no one of you asks me, `Where are you going?'; but because these things I have spoken to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I Myself speak the truth to you, it is an advantage to you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And having come, That One will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Concerning sin on the one hand, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, on the other hand, because I go up to the Father, and you no longer see Me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. Still, much I have to say to you, but you are not able to bear now. Yet whenever that One comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide your way into all truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears, He will speak; and the things to come He will announce to you. That One will glorify Me, because of that which is Mine He will take and announce to you. All which the Father has is Mine; through this I said that out of Mine He takes and will announce to you.



In the Gospel today, Jesus gives His disciples fair warning that He is returning to the Father in heaven soon. Although He knows that it brings them sorrow, He then proceeds to tell them that the Spirit is coming to *convict* the world. And this news is supposed to be a comfort? Who wants to be convicted?! But it is the first task of the Holy Ghost, and a needful task that everybody be convicted by God's Law. That's why the Spirit pricks your conscience whenever you do wrong, convicting you of your own sin.



Yet that is not the only job of the Holy Spirit. He also has the task of *convincing* believers of the truth. After He points out your sin through God's Law, then He points out God's better way in the Gospel. This good message is one which convinces you that it is nowhere near enough to simply stop sinning and attempt to change your ways. The Spirit guides you to the Way of all Truth, which is Jesus Christ alone. He convinces you that success is not found in what you try to do, but in what your Savior accomplishes.



First, the Spirit convicts the world with respect to sin, namely the specific sin of unbelief. In the end, this is the only sin which is damnable, since by resisting the Spirit by not believing, a person rejects the only way of receiving the grace of God. Salvation comes through faith, and without it we are lost. May God bring us to repentance for our doubts, and for our shameless disregard of the Faith which we confess.



In you the Spirit has worked the gift of faith, creating a believer where a non-believer once stood! He did this when His gospel word first came into your life, probably at your Baptism. There the water and word forgave your sinful unbelief, and faith was given to you in your heart. Now you are a believer, trusting in Jesus and His truth--the faith of all the Saints which we believe from Holy Scripture. A baptized child of God, you now trust in Jesus and what He announces to you through His Spirit–your salvation!



Next, the Spirit convicts the world regarding righteousness. This one seems odd, since we would suppose that things that are *right* would not need to be convicted. But now that the Righteous One– Jesus has returned to the Father, there are many who assume His good works vanish with Him. So they try to substitute their own works for His. May God bring us to repentance for such self-righteousness.



But it is the Spirit Who convinces us of true righteousness. He teaches you about the first kind of righteousness, that of Jesus Himself who kept the Law perfectly in your stead. He did everything right, even his passive obedience of death on a cross where it was finished. This righteousness of Jesus is yours, given to you at the Lord's Supper when you eat of His perfect flesh and drink of His holy blood. Now, forgiven, He uses you to bless others for their sake in His second kind of righteousness–your good works.



Lastly, the Spirit convicts the world about judgment. The prince of this world, the devil, has been defeated and the cross and judged already. Yet many today will make their own judgments based upon whatever this world embraces. You too can quickly fall into the temptations of tolerance, greed, laziness, lust or envy. May God grant each of us repentance for those times we have readily embraced worldliness.



The Spirit convinces you of a better judgment. His gospel message announces to you a different judgment than Satan received. You are judged faith-full by the power of the Holy Ghost. You are judged righteous with Christ's Own righteousness credited to your account by faith. You are judged saved by grace, in the merits of Jesus alone. God's judgment glorifies the work of the only Savior of your soul. So convicted that your works merit nothing toward your salvation, you are convinced of the way of truth.


Hymns for today from LSB:
# 633 At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing lyrics
#556 Dear Christians One and All Rejoice lyrics
#478 The Day of Resurrection lyrics

Sunday, May 3, 2009 Easter IV John 16:16-22

A little, and no longer will you see Me, and again, a little, and you will see Me. Then His disciples said to each other, "What is this which He says to us? ‘A little, and you will not see Me, and again, a little, and you will see Me,' and that ‘I go up to the Father'?" Then they said, "What is this, ‘the little'? We do not know what He says." Jesus knew that they wanted to question Him, and He said to them, "Concerning this you seek out with each other, that I said ‘a little and you will not see Me, and again a little and you will see Me?' Amen, amen I say to you, you will weep and mourn yourselves, yet the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow, into joy will become! The woman whenever she labors she has sorrow, because her hour has come. But whenever she births the child, no longer does she remember the anguish, throught the joy that a human has been born into the world. And you, therefore, now on the one hand, sorrow you have; on the other hand, I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy, no one takes away from you!"

If you watch the most popular TV preachers, like Joel Osteen or Robert Schuller, you will notice that 99.44% of the time, they will seem happy. With perma-smiles pressed upon their faces, they give the impression that being a Christian means always being glad, and never being sad. Their preaching and teaching reflects, this, as though there is something wrong with, and something downright sinful with a Christian ever being down in the dumps. They seem to be saying that true believers are never sad.

But nothing could be further from the truth! Even the very best of Christians get melancholy sometimes. Those with a very strong and Christ-focused faith can get depressed. It is to be expected while we live in a world filled with disease, decay, and death. It is just plain natural for us human beings to have the real emotions of sorrow when evil occurs. It would be downright un-natural if we didn't feel badly when bad things happen. Sadness is simply a part of life for every faithful Christian.

Jesus affirms as much in His words to the disciples. He tells them that they are soon to be filled with sorrow. In a very short time in fact Jesus would be seized from them to suffer and be crucified. Then, for a brief period after His resurrection, Jesus would be leaving them to ascend back to His Father in heaven. And as is typical when someone close to you moves away, they would be sad to see Him go. But this sorrow at Jesus' departure is necessary. It is part of God's plan for the disciples.

Why does God want us to be sad? You would think, logically, that the Lord would want Christians to put on attractive smiles all of the time and be happy. But He doesn't, at least not this side of heaven. That's because, since Adam and Eve's fall into sin, sorrow and sadness has entered the picture. Adam was cursed to work hard all his days and then die. This death–the wages of sin–he has passed on to each one of us. And Eve was cursed too, with labor pains and the rulership of her husband over her.

But praise God that it doesn't end with the sorrow of these curses. Just as a woman must endure the anguish of labor and delivery, God quickly provides the blessing to her of a newborn baby boy or girl. The joy far outweighs the brief suffering she just endured, for she now has a child to love for years! She quickly forgets the pains she went through, and may even desire to go through them again and again, because of the much, much greater joy that results from the suffering, pain and anguish.

You see, suffering, sorrow, and sadness are not *bad* things. Oh, they may *feel* bad for a time, but through them, God is well known for producing much good! That's just what God did through the painful, sorrowful, suffering and death of His only-begotten Son Jesus. He came for the express purpose of feeling pain, to suffer the anguish of death, on a cross. It didn't feel good to Him, no doubt, but it was worth it to Jesus. He did it because through His suffering and death, you are saved!

Jesus went through the eternal sufferings of hell as He hung upon that cross, forsaken in death. Your sufferings pale in comparison to His. So consider then how much less your sufferings compare with the everlasting joys you have as a child of God! You are cleansed with the washing of salvation in Baptism. You are fed with the bread of life eternal in the Lord's Supper. You are proclaimed forgiven by Jesus' Own words of absolute forgiveness. You have nothing but joys in heaven forevermore.

So consider it all joy whenever you suffer. If you are sad, rejoice at the joys to come which will soon replace and far surpass all your sorrows. For Jesus, for the joy set before Him, has endured the cross, scorning its shame, and has ascended to the right hand of God, as your Savior and Advocate. Amen.


Hymns for today from LSB:
#795 Voices Raised to You we Offer
#483 With High Delight Let Us Unite!
#818 In Thee Is Gladness

Sunday, April 26, 2009 Easter III John 10:11-16 Good Shepherd Sunday

I AM the Shepherd, the Excellent one. The Shepherd, the Excellent one, His life He lays down on behalf of the sheep. The one, a hireling and not as a shepherd, that one is not the sheep's owner; he sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters; because a hireling, he is, and has no care in himself about the sheep. I AM The Shepherd, the Excellent one, and I know Mine, and Mine know Me. Just as the Father knows Me and I Myself know the Father, and My life I lay down on behalf of the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; those it is necessary for Me to bring in, and My voice they will hear and they will become one flock–one Shepherd. Through this the Father loves me because I Myself lay down My life, in order to take it up again.

*Good Shepherd* Sunday is once again upon us, and the message is the same each year at this time, "You are God's sheep, and Jesus is your Good Shepherd!". I suppose there are not too many variations on this particular theme. In fact, I was accused a while back of "recycling my sermons" most likely with reference to this day, since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of *new* things to say about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. He's the Shepherd, we are His lambs. That's about it.

So let's take a different approach--from the perspective of those outside of the Good Shepherd's flock. The unbeliever will hear all of this talk about a faithful shepherd laying down his life for the sheep, and to them it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If the shepherd is killed by wolves, how does that help the flock? There would be no one left to protect them, and then the pack would have a field day, feasting on notin' but mutton! It sure doesn't seem like a dead Shepherd is of much use.

Now, there are some that would try to take away from Christ's words here, as though He were only saying that He would be willing to risk almost everything, even to the brink of death, to protect the sheep. Such a pretty-good shepherd would be acceptable to even an atheist, I suppose. But it is not good enough. Jesus is an excellent Shepherd, as good as good can get. He is a Shepherd Who does exactly what He says, laying down His life, unto death, for the sake of you, His sheep.

This is just how it had to be. For Jesus, your Almighty, Divine Shepherd does not choose to remain so very different from you, His sheep. He becomes one of you, sheep-like in every way, except that He never fell into the habit of wandering that sinful sheep like you know all too well. He came in your place, becoming the sacrificial lamb for you at the cross. There, He suffered all the punishments for your wanderings, and died your death there for you on the hill called Calvary. He laid down His life for you.

Jesus does this to show how His death for you is a paschal death, that eternal death would pass over you completely, and kill Him instead! For Jesus is not only your Good Shepherd, but He is also your passover lamb, Whose blood marks your doorposts as those who are redeemed by His sacrificial death in your stead. Just as the 1st-born were spared back in Egypt, so are you now spared by He Who is called the First-born of all creation, Christ Jesus, your Lord & Savior–your Good Shepherd!

For your most Excellent Shepherd had both the authority to lay down His life unto death, and also was able to take that life up once again on Easter Sunday. He did not allow death to have a victory, but took His life back up to continue being your Good Shepherd even now! He leads you beside the still waters of baptism, which for you become living water unto life everlasting! He brings you to the green pastures of His Own Supper table, feeding you with His body and blood for your forgiveness.

Not only does He Shepherd you in this way, but He provides under-shepherds to care for you in the individual flock of this congregation. These men are no hirelings who work only for a paycheck, but those employed by the Good Shepherd Himself. He is even given the title of those who shepherd the flock to good pasture–Pastors. They proclaim forgiveness with the Good Shepherd's Own voice, which you the flock recognize in the pulpit, and in the blessed sacrament of Holy Absolution.

So, what good is a dead Shepherd anyway? The ultimate good, since by Jesus' death, the Good Shepherd has destroyed death for you eternally. By His rising to life again Easter Sunday, this most Excellent Shepherd has restored everlasting life to you and He has brought immortality to light for you as well. By His laying down His life unto death, your death sentence is removed forevermore. By His taking up His life again for you, you now live in heaven with Him as your Good Shepherd's flock.

Today's hymns from LSB:
#710 The Lord's My Shepherd, I'll Not Want
#709 The King of Love my Shepherd Is
#740 I Am Jesus' Little Lamb

Sunday, April 19, 2009 Easter 2 John 20:19-31

Jesus came and stood in the midst and says to them, "Peace to you!" And having said this He showed the hands and the side to them. The disciples then rejoiced, having seen the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! Just as the Father sent Me on a mission, I also am sending you." And having said this He breathed and says to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If ever you dismiss of anyone sins, they are dismissed from them; if ever you hold against anyone (sins), they have been held fast." But Thomas, one of the 12, the one called Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Then the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "If I do not ever see in His hands the mark of the nails and I thrust my finger into the mark of the nails and thrust my hand into His side, not at all will I believe." And after eight days again His disciples were inside and Thomas with them. Jesus comes, the doors having been locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace to you!"

During the Vietnam war, the "flower children" demonstrated for peace. Oddly, they would hold up two separated fingers (formerly the symbol for victory) as a call for peace. No doubt they were supporting the troops and hoping for the peace that came from total victory. The nuclear disarmament crowd also utilized signs with their popular peace symbol. Middle East peace proponents make use of a dove with an olive branch, symbolic of the peace which God gave to Noah and his family after the flood. Yet Jesus offers a different peace altogether for us..

The peace Jesus bestows is one that is beyond our full human understanding. It is like the greeting of peace which Jewish people use even today when they say "Shalom"; yet from Jesus, it means much more. For our Lord & Savior, this is not just some sort of holy-howdy. It's not simply wishing folks a peaceful life here on earth. It does not offer peace for our nation against its enemies. The peace Jesus bestows to the disciples here is not a horizontal peace between two worldly warriors, be they individuals, or groups of peoples.

The peace Jesus offers is the incomprehensible peace of heaven! The Lord gives a vertical peace, between His heavenly Father above, and sinners down below. Jesus offers the peace of forgiveness, and the disciples are overjoyed. For their Savior could have been angry with them for running away and abandoning Him in his hour of great need. He could be showing up there in the upper room to really lay into them for all their faults, and they know they deserve such a reprimand. They are pleasantly surprised to hear Him offer instead, "Peace to you!"

The peace Jesus gives.is the peace of holy Absolution–you know, that fancy word for God-flavored forgiveness. Jesus offers complete, total, and absolute forgiveness to the disciples, which results in complete Peace between them and God above! Their sins have been removed from them, washed by the Baptist all the way to the cross of Jesus where He bore them as His Own personal burden. He shows them the marks on His hands and side, so they can see for themselves that He has already suffered their punishment for them, in full. It is finished.

Foreshadowing His death the next day, Christ Jesus offered to the disciples His body given in the bread, and His shed blood in the cup for their forgiveness in the Lord's Supper. Jesus was all about the peace which only His forgiveness could bring. Now, He offers them a trinity of *Peaces*, for their jobs were about to change. No longer disciples who follow after Jesus, now they are Apostles, sent out before Jesus on the mission of bringing this forgiveness and peace to others. They received His Spirit. They went out. They forgave sins. They brought peace.

Fast forward. You are now part of one apostolic church. This means that what Jesus gave His apostles to do, namely forgive and bring peace is now the task given to the church. Publicly, your pastor is called to baptize sinners, to preach the gospel, to absolve sins, and to serve you Holy Communion for your forgiveness. Your sins are washed to the Cross in Baptism; the sacrificed body and blood of Jesus from Calvary are given to you in Communion; the voice of Christ proclaims His love to you from the pulpit; you may also come and your pastor will absolve your sins.

Now most of you have been baptized, heard sermons, and come to the communion rail for Jesus' body and blood. But not very often are people here absolved, and that's a shame. You know what Luther once said about coming to your Pastor for private confession and absolution is? It is simply being a Christian! Yet how quick we are to forget what we learned back in Confirmation class about Confession and Absolution: That before the pastor we should confess those sins which we know and feel in our hearts. And you know what sins grieve you the most...

Recall what you learned from your Catechism: "I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they...absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself". If Jesus were standing here, wouldn't you want to hear His voice say to you, "Peace to you!"? Of course you would. Since you confess that your pastor proclaiming the same words of Jesus is just as desirable, it should be offered all the more.

For this reason, the time has come for this congregation and its pastor to hold regular hours each month for private confession and absolution. To begin with, one Saturday per month, your Pastor will make himself available to hear private, confidential confessions in the sanctuary, and absolve those who come to confess, no strings attached. Each time, you will be dismissed with Jesus words of absolution to you this day, "Peace to you!" Amen.

Hymns for today from LSB:
#467 Awake My Soul with Gladness lyrics
#470 O Sons and Daughters of the King lyrics
#487 Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain: below

Sunday, April 12, 2009 Easter 1 Mark 16:1-8

And the Sabbath, being over, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the one of James, and Salome bought spices, that they may come and anoint Him. And very early, on the first day of the Sabbath, they come to the tomb, the sun having risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will cast aside the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they see that the stone had been cast aside, though it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they marveled. And he says to them, "Do not marvel; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, Who has been crucified. He is risen! He is not here; look, the place where they laid Him! But go, say to His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into the Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.' " And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had taken hold of them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

There are monumental events which leave people dumbstruck. On your wedding day, at the moment you become husband and wife, you may find yourself tongue-tied. As the clock winds down, and your team wins the championship, your may find yourself at a loss for words. As your first child is born into this world, that moment may overwhelm you, and find you speechless. An even greater event took place on Easter Sunday, and the woman were so bewildered at the event they were dumbfounded!

Yes, resurrections from the dead are pretty amazing situations. But the resurrection of Jesus was different. Jesus had made a habit of raising folks from the dead well before Easter. Jairus' daughter was awoken from her sleep of death at Jesus' words. The widow's only son was raised as Jesus ruined a perfectly fine funeral. And after four days in the tomb, Jesus raised Lazarus to life again. But these were resurrections performed by others. Never had a dead man raised himself to life again!

But that's just what Jesus did! Most dead folks do nothing but stay dead and rot. Not Jesus. He was one of the busiest dead men you'll ever meet! On Friday, He ascends to heaven to be with the thief on the cross in paradise. Then sometime before dawn on Sunday He descends to hell to ruin the devil's evil *God is dead* party by preaching a sermon Satan and his minions don't care for. Then, early on Easter morning, Jesus raises Himself from death to life once more, as described by the angel.

What can you say to such an amazing action of a dead man! You may be tempted to speak words of disbelief. "It's just not possible!" you might want to utter. But with God, all things are possible! "It's all so unbelievable!" you may want to say. Yet a God-given faith is capable of moving mountains! "It's just too good to be true!" you may want to exclaim. But remember, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! And Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life for you as well. He is risen, amazing though it is.

The women trembled in fear, because they were taken hold of by their astonishment. So they said nothing to anyone, even though the angel told them they should. Perhaps they were afraid to say words of disbelief, so they chose to say nothing, discretion being the better part of valor and all. Or maybe they feared the Romans or the Jewish leaders, who might come after them if the news got out that they were the first to find the empty tomb. But more likely they were just overcome and speechless.

Today, almost 2000 years removed from this amazing resurrection event, what can you say now about it? Do you tell others what Jesus rising from the dead means to you, or do you find yourself speechless instead. You can't blame the shock of the resurrection event for making you tongue-tied. Perhaps it's been a long time since you've been in a bible class, so you are not sure exactly what it means. Or perhaps you do know, but fear your friends or family won't understand it like you do.

But be reminded how important Jesus' resurrection is for you. For you know that you died with Jesus on the cross too, and you were buried with Christ by baptism into His death. If Jesus hadn't raised Himself, you'd stay dead in the tomb as well. But Jesus is risen, and so are you! Jesus has raised up you as a new person, forgiven in the cleansing of Holy Baptism, and given opportunity to walk now in newness of life. The New You walks here in time with Jesus, and hereafter with Him in eternity!

Jesus' rising is vital for your triumph over sin and death as well. His resurrection Easter Sunday is proof positive that His death on the Cross indeed has conquered death for you, once and for all. His body given at Calvary, and His blood shed for you there are offered you for your forgiveness this day in the Lord's Supper. The victory of Jesus is no longer His alone, but now yours to share forevermore!

Hymns from LSB for today:
#457 Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia lyrics
#475 Good Christian Friends Rejoice and Sing!
#458 Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands lyrics
#489 Hail Thee Festival Day (Easter stanzas)
#463 Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia! lyrics