A Picture of Reality

 Luke 16:19-31

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day.  And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

“Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.  And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.’

“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’

“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’

“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’

“But he said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’

“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”

Sermon for First Sunday After Trinity                                        06/07/26

A Picture of Reality

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I have preached this Gospel lesson at least a dozen times.  I have heard it preached at least a dozen more.  Most of what I remember about the preaching I have heard is a misapplication of the text.  The text is so inviting for misunderstanding.  This is one where the reader must struggle to apply the principle of the point of comparison.  When one does, this parable is a picture of reality, drawn in terms of life in the first century.   Our theme is, A Picture of Reality.

One of the reasons that this parable is so hard to keep straight on is that it is so real.  Jesus doesn’t indicate, for example, that this is a parable.  He is talking just before this pericope about the permanence of the Word of God and about divorce, and suddenly we are into this lesson about the Rich Man and Lazarus.  It sounds like a story, and yet Jesus gives one of the characters a name - so some have speculated that Jesus was telling about a real event, learned by divine observation of two real people.  It is a parable, however.  The  contents of the story are realistic, but stylized and the name given to the poor man is an explanation of why the rich man and the poor man are differentiated.  “Lazarus” means “He whom God helps”, and indicates that this one is a faithful child of the heavenly Father.

Knowing that this is a parable tells us that not every detail is significant.  Some details are there to inform the story – like the details of the moral character of the rich man – and some are there just to make the story work - like the dogs licking the sores of poor Lazarus - but have no meaning in terms of the truth which the story is intended to teach.  Knowing it is a parable means that we look for the point of comparison - the touch-point between the parable and reality.  In this parable, it is all very real, and so it is easier at times to sort out what the parable does not teach than to tell what it does teach.

Most preaching on this parable is Law - but the parable is Gospel.  Let me illustrate what this parable does not say.  The parable talks about the rich and the poor.  It is true that there are and always will be both rich people and poor people.  Neither condition all by itself automatically indicates anything about our standing before God.  Some of God’s people will be affluent, and some, probably many, will be financially challenged, if not downright poor.  Neither condition means that God loves you more, or loves you less, or that you stand in His favor or His displeasure.

This parable also does not suggest the promise that everyone will eventually have both “good things” and “bad things”.  Some people will never know hardship, and yet they will be found to be God’s people, and others who are poor and desperate will go to hell for their unbelief.  I have often seen this mistake made when people go to foreign countries and see the intense fervor of the religion of the poor and judge them as “wonderfully Christian” for their fervor, without recognizing that their fervor is established on false doctrines and sometimes pagan rather than Christian foundations.  Some people are fervent about their religion because it is all they have - no other forms of entertainment or public contact is permitted by their culture and their poverty.  The “pious poor” can and will be condemned to eternal destruction if their piety is not Christian piety.

Another thought you often hear in connection with this parable is that the rich man was facing his troubles because of the way he used his riches during his lifetime.  There is nothing to indicate that his is true, in this parable.  The use of his wealth did not determine where the rich man was going - it only reflected it.  How he used what he possessed was a reflection of what sort of man he was, and what was going on inside of him.  His hoarding of his money and ignoring the needs of Lazarus did not earn his sentence to hell - it just illustrate that he was the sort that goes to hell.

By the same token, the poverty of Lazarus did not determine his eternal destination, nor did his use of it, but his use of it also reflected who he was, as shown by his name, and therefore where he was going.  He did not go to heaven, called “Abraham’s Bosom” here in accord with the custom of Israel in those days, because he was poor, or sick, or maltreated.  He went to heaven because He believed.  He was identified by Jesus as one of those whom God helps - the faithful.  He remained faithful in spite of his outward state - although there is no indication of that in this parable other than his name, and his final disposition.

So, we learn from this that your condition in this life does not tell us anything about how you stand in the favor of the Lord.  We also observe that how you use the things with which you are blessed - the “stuff” of life - does not determine either your standing with God, nor your eternal destination, but can only reflect who you are as you stand before God.  In other words, the details that seem to scream so loudly, because we can relate to them, are just there to hold the story in shape so Jesus can get to the tertium - the point of comparison and the point of the story.

The description of the chasm between heaven and hell may or may not be realistic.  Such judgments are way outside of our ability to make.  You may not be able to see from one to the other - no one knows except those who are there, and they are not talking, at least, not to us.  The details of the parable do underline the teaching of the finality of the judgment, but that is not the point of the lesson, just a truth that happens to fit into the story-line.

We come close to the meaning of the parable when the Rich Man and Abraham are talking about the brothers of the Rich Man.  Here he pleads for special assistance for his brothers.  Here he blames God for his circumstances - saying that the Word preached is insufficient for salvation, and that we need signs and wonders - like someone rising from the dead - to get our attention and bring us to faith.  That is a common theme of television religion, Pentecostalism, and really, of most religion - Protestant and Roman Catholic included - today.  They all want you to feel something, to be impressed, to have a wonder or a sign to look at, an experience to validate your faith-commitments, a relic to adore, or a decision that you made to look back on.

Abraham is the voice of God in this story, and Jesus speaking through him says, “No!”  He says, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”  When the Rich Man argues, I hear in the back of my mind, in the response of Abraham, the words of Jesus in another place in John, “He that is of God hears the word of God.”  But what He says, and what the parable is all about, is this, “If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if someone should rise from the dead.”

Only the Word of God has power to convert.  Only through the Word can anyone be saved.  The messenger is of secondary importance, if that much.  Only the Word has the power to work faith, and cause one to be born-again to living hope which Jesus purchased for us with His own blood and death on the cross.  Jesus proved the absolute truth of this statement of Abraham in the parable by rising from the dead.  His resurrection did not change the hearts of His enemies.  It made them more bitter and determined to destroy Him.  It has the same effect today.  Wonderful signs and terrifying natural disasters do not have the power to change men’s hearts.  The tragedy of the collapse of the twin towers of September 11, 2001 only made people go to church for a couple of weeks.  Within a couple of months, the bubble in church attendance was gone, and in its place was an even more furious rejection of the simple truths of the Gospel - both inside the churches and out.

Should we have compassion on those less fortunate than we are?  That is the meaning of this parable I have heard preached before.  Surely, that seems like a reasonable idea - but it is not what this text is about, nor what it teaches.  If you want to do that, it is a godly thing to do, but find your motivation in the love of God for you - it is not part of this parable.

Should we use our resources for the welfare of others?    Again, this is another nice idea - it just not the heart of this lesson.  You can find that thought in the Law, but that is not what this parable is about.  It is about finding the truth where it is, and hearing the Word of God - not trusting feelings, or signs, or whatever else may appeal to our sinful flesh.

I could preach abut the torments of Hell, based on the description in this parable, but it isn’t really taught for that purpose.  The depiction of the agony of hell is impressive, but the reality of the agony of hell is, I suspect, beyond our comprehension.  It simply fills out the motivation of the rich man in the story.  It isn’t the love of the truth that moves the rich man, it is the realization of what awaits his brothers - everyone who, like him, lives their lives without thought for God and eternity and judgment and justice and  – well, everyone who lives like modern Americans tend to live - for the moment, in the pleasures of life and for the sake of enjoying it to the fullest.

Is this a condemnation of you and your life?  You might hear it that way, but that isn’t what Jesus was saying.  If you think your life ought to be different than it is because you are the redeemed and chosen child of God in Jesus Christ, perhaps you ought to listen to yourself and be faithful and do something to make it different.  But not so that you get to go to heaven.  Jesus already made that difference, and has done everything you need done for your salvation, and has poured it out on you in baptism and feeds you eternal salvation in the meal of His body and blood which brings us also forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

All Jesus is really saying, in a most persuasive way, I might add, is, “Be careful to hear – and believe – the Word of God.”  That is why this is such a great picture of reality.  This is true for rich or poor.

 6 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  19 We love, because He first loved us.  20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 

My, what a perfect picture of reality we have in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

These Things They will Do

 John 15:26-16:4

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

"These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling.  They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me.  But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you."

Sermon for Exaudi Sunday                                           05/17/26

These Things They Will Do

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Today is the Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost.  It marks the period of time between Jesus removing His visible presence from among His disciples, and the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  In my mind, I liken this to that time in a race when the starter is crying out, "on your mark . . . get set . . ." just before he fires the starter's pistol to begin the race.

The Gospel is perfect for this day.  It records the words of Jesus during His last great discourse with the disciples before the Passion.  This is a warning and a promise, and none of it was spoken to us, directly, but to His disciples who were soon to be promoted to Apostles - from ‘students' to those who were the "Sent Ones", sent out to bear witness to what they had seen and heard and to spread the Gospel.  Our task this morning is to take these words, aimed squarely at the disciples, and see what they actually teach us.  Our theme is "These Things They Will Do".

Jesus warns the disciples about troubles that they will face.  He says that He warns them "that [they] may be kept from stumbling."  It is easy to understand this.  They have followed Jesus.  He has cared for them, and shielded them from all of the dangers and troubles that might have happened to them.  They may not have understood or even seen the providential care of Jesus for His disciples, but nothing happened to them.  He fed them and led them around the whole of the once "promised land".  They had enemies, and there were all sorts of local issues and parties, just as there are today in the middle east - just different parties, but the same old hatreds and animosities.  The disciples never seemed to have been confronted by them.  None of the enemies of Jesus attacked them physically - or seemed to have any success in shaping public opinion against them.  Jesus simply gave them a few years of peaceful instruction, as He modeled the faith and showed them how they were to live once He was gone -- without telling them in advance that this was what He was doing.

But now they were about to be cast out on their own - Jesus was going to die and rise again and ascend and leave them to be His witnesses.  He was going to take His visible presence from them, and withdraw the providential care that gave them such peaceful times with Jesus.  He was not taking His care away from them, but things were going to change, and God knew about it.  In fact, it is all part of God's plan.  Jesus told them, "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."

This meant that they were going to become targets of hostility for those Jews – the ones who were supposed to be God's people – who did not believe.  That part applies to us too.  The specifics that Jesus spoke of really only fit the first Christians.  I have never been cast out of a synagogue, nor would it bother me if I were.  I don't believe the stuff they teach in their synagogues anyhow, and I have no emotional attachment to them, either.  The disciples did.  The first Christians all - or nearly all - came from the synagogues.  Being thrown out of the synagogue was almost like ending life as they knew it.  It was extremely painful, and came with broken relationships, lost friendships, and hostility from those who should have been, and once were, friends.

You may have sampled some of that community gossip.  Those who were called fellow members of the congregations, suddenly became hostile to us, unwilling to take the time to come to worship, and seemed to want nothing more to do with us.  And the reason for our sorrow is pretty much the same as the reason for the hostility of the synagogue toward the disciples - "And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."  It was doctrine.  They did not believe what we believed, and they rejected both us and our faith.

Jesus had to tell the disciples that this was coming because they were likely to be tempted with the idea that just because they worked for the Savior, things were going to go smoothly (as they had up to this point), and God would pave the way before them.  He would, of course, prepare the way before them, but not by removing obstacles like the hatred and violence of the world.  That remains - and in fact, that is a tool in the arsenal of God for getting the world's attention, and demonstrating His power, and our weakness, and making converts in the most unexpected of ways.  The early church even had the proverb, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."  Their patient endurance, with so little evident power, made many sit up and take notice, people who only understood the unbridled use of power and who could not comprehend what might lie behind patience and forgiveness and stubborn goodness such as they witnessed in the Apostles.

We are not witnesses.  We never saw Jesus.  We are confessors.  We confess what we have heard and believed.  We speak what God has spoken to us through His Word and through His called speakers - preachers.  We confess with the Church what those original witnesses bore witness of - and to.  We confess that Jesus is the true Son of God, come down in human form and having taken on human nature on our behalf.  We confess that Jesus kept the whole will and law of God, where all mankind has failed, and having earned and rightly deserved eternal life, has suffered and died in our place, and for our sins, and on our behalf.  His death on the cross is ours, taken for us to meet the justice of God against our sins.  That is what those first witnesses bore witness to.

Then we also confess that God raised Jesus from the dead, because those first witnesses saw it, and spoke with the risen Jesus.  We confess that His resurrection shows us that the death of Jesus has been accepted in our place and for our sins, and that it was sufficient, so that now we are forgiven and we stand in the good will and favor of God (we call that "grace").  We confess that there is nothing for us to do to earn our salvation - Jesus did it all - and that we fail to qualify to even start to work out our salvation, because we are sin-filled, and sin-corrupted, and fall short of the glory of God before we can even start.  We also confess that even our coming to faith is not possible for us by our own wisdom or will-power, but God must call us to faith and cause us to believe, and that He does so by the preaching of the Gospel.

It is those things, human weakness and corruption, and divine power and grace, that cause those who should be our brothers in the faith to respond to us with hostility and rejection.  Some of them want to be able to earn and deserve something of their salvation for themselves - and the idea that they cannot insults them and infuriates them.  Others want to claim that at least they chose the right path, they "decided for Jesus", and the doctrine of divine monergism - that God alone works faith in us against our nature and beyond our abilities - causes hostility in their hearts towards us.  The Law of God strikes hard and enrages us.  Most of the Protestants we know cannot accept a God they cannot understand, so the Sacraments, and the durability of the incarnation - that Jesus is always and everywhere fully and truly human even now, with His body and human nature still with Him wherever He goes - is unreasonable to them, and our stubborn confession of those truths makes them angry.

No matter which way we turn, we face the hostility of those who call themselves Christians, but do not believe what we believe.  They have another Gospel, and believe in another Jesus.  Please understand that I am not saying that those of other denominations are not Christians.  I cannot look into their hearts and judge that.  I can only look at the Gospel they proclaim, and say that it is not the same Gospel which we confess.  Individuals in these other bodies may  - and some surely do - believe exactly what we believe about Jesus and salvation, just as we have all encountered Lutherans who are not Lutheran - who do not hold to what we teach and confess, and believe something entirely different, but still call themselves "Lutheran".

But the doctrines of works righteousness, and the doctrines of decision theology, and the doctrines which place Christ in heaven, as to His human nature, and deny the very possibility of forgiveness in either Sacrament, or of the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper - these doctrines are unbiblical, and unchristian.  They paint a picture of God and of Christ which is unlike our Savior, and they hide the comfort of Christ and the hope of salvation from many that believe them.  As Jesus said, "they have not known the Father, or Me."  

And they will reject us, and try to marginalize us, and often when they have the power, they will try to drive us out of the church.  They will do so with the complete conviction that they are right, and that they are serving God and God's truth.  Of course some will not count God in the picture - they will be convinced that they are serving "truth" and "all that is reasonable" and that they are fighting "superstition"

We have the Helper, that Jesus promised - the Holy Spirit.  And Jesus warns us of the truth of the hostility of the world to our confession, through the warning to the disciples of the hostility of the world to their witness.  It still applies by extension.  "But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them."

Jesus wanted them to know that when they came upon these pains and sorrows and troubles, that it was to be expected.  Nothing was out of order.  Suffering is part of the confession.  We share in Christ's righteousness, so we also share in His suffering.  Ours has no redemptive quality, but it does carry some power, by the will of God, in confession, and speaking to the mind and hearts of the unbelieving world.  And since we are Christ's, we should know that this is coming, and, as Peter put it in His first epistle, chapter 4, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation."

When the pain comes, and people turn on you, and speaking the wonderful good news of Jesus gets you into trouble, or your friends and even your family turn away from you, you may be tempted to be confused, and wonder why this is happening.  Jesus warned the Disciples, and through their warning He warns us - it is coming.  Expect it.

  Knowing that pain is coming doesn't change the pain, but it explains it - and it is for your strengthening and comfort that Jesus tells us about it.  These things they will do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Therefore, Pray!

John 16:23-28

"Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name.  Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.  These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.  I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father."

Sermon for Rogate Sunday                                                             05/10/26

Therefore, Pray!

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

There are few Bible passages that have caused the kind of confusion that our Gospel lesson has.  Jesus speaks to His disciples about prayer, and what He says sounds to some ears as if Jesus is giving us the authority to use God like a catalog - you phone in your request and, shazam!, there it is, delivered right to your door.  That isn't exactly what Jesus is saying.  It is, however, about prayer, and about our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus does promise to answer to every prayer, so our theme, this morning, is what the text finally says to us - Therefore, pray!

Part of the problem with under-standing the text is the translation we use.  It says, "If you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you."  All of the translations tend to sound the same - some use the word "Whatsoever" instead of "anything", but it tends to come across in the English as a broad guarantee that we can get anything and everything from God simply by asking.

And we can!  The fact that I have to point that out is part of what makes this so difficult to understand for so many people.  But Jesus was not promising that we will get everything we can conceivably pray for.  That is where the language barrier still stands in our way sometimes.  Jesus was not promising that anything we asked would automatically be given as much as He was promising that every prayer would be answered, that God the Father was listening to our prayers, and wanted to hear our prayers, and that we could count on God the Father just as we have counted on Jesus Himself.  Jesus was also actually subordinating Himself to the Father.

Remember that Jesus was speaking to His disciples.  We are the recipients of the promises, but we were not the original audience.  Those disciples were accustomed to Jesus, in the flesh.  This text comes in the middle of Jesus warning them that He was going away, and they would not see Him, and their hearts would know sorrow on account of that.  These disciples were accustomed to asking things of their Master - and receiving something in response.  They were not accustomed to asking for motorized toys, or even candy bars, but when they asked Jesus a question, He answered.  When they wanted to eat, they got to eat - now and again they ate miraculously.

Jesus was telling them that when He was gone from among them, they were going to have the same relationship with the Father that they had with Jesus.  They would not be praying to Jesus, but to God, and He would deal with them just as they might expect Jesus would.  He would answer.  Whatever it was that they needed, God the Father would provide.  Jesus even made the point that He wasn't going to have to intercede with the Father for them, in order to get what they needed, but the Father Himself would listen and answer their prayers because He loved them!

He loved them because they believed.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.  Jesus takes His place behind the Father - we call that the subordination of the Son to the Father - and God the Father deals with us, just as lovingly and just as intimately as Jesus did with His inner circle of disciples.  He loves us because we love Jesus and believe God's Word about Jesus.  Praying in Jesus name doesn't here mean just stapling the name onto our prayer, but praying to God on account of Jesus 

– because we know what He did 

– and because we know why He did it 

– and because we know what it means for us and our relationship with the Father.  

– It is, in other words, a prayer which flows from a heart of faith.

Jesus tells us these things for our comfort and our peace of mind.  Life is not going to be comfortable at all times, and we will be tempted to despair.  Jesus tells us of the Father's love for us so that we will be able to approach any situation with faith in Him.  More than just comfort, Jesus says He wants us to know this that our joy may be full.  Our joy is filled up by trusting what we know, and by making use of what He teaches us.

What we know is the Gospel.  We know the reality of sin.  We know how frequently we go our own way, and feel as if we can handle life without considering Jesus.  The verses just preceding our text talk about how the disciples will have sorrow, but the world will have joy, but then our sorrow will be turned to joy.  Jesus uses the image of a woman in labor; the pain before, the joy afterwards.  That is how the gospel works in us and for us.

While we live in this world, we have the joy of the Gospel, but the sorrow of the hatred of the world, and the sorrow of our own sinful flesh longing and lusting for sin.  We have the sorrow of guilt and of the knowledge of our sins.  The world has no problem with sin.  It rejoices in sin.  The world loves to lead us to sin for it understands on a primal level that sin separates from God.

Of course, when I speak of the world as a sentient being, I am not referring to grass and trees, but to the society of men under the guidance of the "ruler of this world," as Jesus described the devil.  Men have consciousness and intelligence, and so does the leader of all those who live without Christ.  He leads and plans, and so do those who follow him.  That's where persecutions come from.  We have been safe from persecutions, in this country, at least open and overt persecutions, but that time is coming to an end.  

I read this past week or so, an on-Line  column about the senseless and growing violent hatred towards Christians in this country - coming from the Main Stream Media, certain politicians, and the intellectual elites.  There was a report about the Biden administration deliberately targeting Christians: "The Biden DOJ aggressively targeted and harassed Christians, privately called them "CULTISTS" and sought out HARSH prison sentences for peaceful protest." It is growing.  Strong language and virulent aspersions are aimed with increasing frequency and energy at just-plain-old-fashioned Christians.  We are called ignorant, demented, backwards, dangerous.  Our intelligence is impugned in speeches and in print.  We are accused of doing things we don't do, of trying to commandeer the country and force our values on the world.  We are likened to Hitler, accused of being insane, and pictured as an enemy that must be eradicated - and this by people who don't think that Islamic terrorism is really a big problem in the world.  

Jesus said the world would hate us.

Those who spew such hate language at us are "the world" of which I speak.  They have effectively removed historic Christianity from the public square in our culture, and they want to silence anyone that might bring a Christian perspective into the arena of politics or government policy or education.  Think of Assassination attempts against President Trump ands the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk.  They have likened the humble confession of the Christian faith - or Christian-based morality - to terrorism.  They make the lives of God's people difficult and bitter, as in, the disappearance of religious symbols from the streets and buildings of our towns, and hearing our current president castigated for speaking about being a Christian and viewing his responsibilities as president from a Christian faith perspective.

The sorrow we know now is the sorrow of the cross.  It includes our sins, and the sins of those around us, and the displeasure of the world - even that part of the world that calls itself our friends, our family, or, sometimes, fellow Christians.  The joy the world knows is the joy of seeing the influence of Christian thought and morality diminish.

It is in the face of these pains and pressures that Jesus reminds us that we are not alone, nor are we bereft of any help.  Just as He would stand up for His disciples and speak against the hostility of the world toward them, and give them peace, and provide for them - so will our heavenly Father do for us.  He gives us the promise that God will listen to us and answer any and every prayer.  "If you shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name.  That is, He will listen to every prayer, and answer it just as Jesus would - not necessarily giving us every single thing we might think to include in a prayer, as though He were an on-line catalog service, but guiding us, blessing us, protecting us, and providing for our needs, and helping us in every trouble and in every circumstance.

Our joy now is that we are never alone, and never without resources.  We have God standing here, ready to hear, eager to answer, promising help and supply in every need.  He promises all of that to us because He loves us.  He loves us particularly because we love Jesus, we believe in Him and hold to Him and serve Him and call ourselves by His name, and stand with Him for blessing, or for the abuse and hatred of the world.

And how could we do anything other?  We are filled with Him.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us, and we stand in the world as Christ, with His holiness and with His glory, 

– and with His power.  We have His Word.  We eat His body and drink His blood.  We love with His love, and we suffer the hatred of the world for Him.  And the heavenly Father loves us and desires to help us stand faithfully in Him and in His love.

Of course, our joy will finally be made complete on the great day of the Lord, when He shall bring us to Himself, body and soul reunited and outfitted for eternity.  And He gives us this privilege and power of prayer so that we may stand firm, and may finally taste that ultimate joy.  And knowing the truth of all of these things, our theme this morning is, Therefore, Pray!

Use this gift of God and call upon Him in every need, and never doubt that God desires your prayers, and He will listen, and He will answer with everything you need, and all that will be of blessing for you.  After all, it part of your birthright and inheritance as the child of God in Jesus Christ.  It is comfort when you need it.  It is power when you need that.  It is the source of wisdom and a fountain of strength and protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in a world stacked against you.

Therefore, pray.  Pray often.  Pray with confidence.  Never give up on prayer.  Take advantage of the love of God for you - because that is precisely what He wants you to do.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

The Helper

 John 16:5-15

"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.  And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you."

Sermon for Cantate 5/03/26

The Helper

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

One of television's most interesting devices is what we call a flashback.  In the middle of the story you can jump back to an earlier episode and explain the meaning of the present situation.  That is not a new idea.  The lectionary has been doing it for thousands of years.  Our Gospel lesson is something akin to a flashback.  It takes us from after the resurrection and on the way to Pentecost back to just before the crucifixion so Jesus can explain what is coming up in very near future, in terms of our Gospel lectionary progression.  As we approach the celebration of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the official start of the Christian Church, Jesus tells us that He is going to give His Spirit, whom He calls "the Helper", and describes His work and the meaning of the gift.  Our theme, this morning, is "The Helper".

Contrary to the ordinary expectations of men and women, Jesus explains that His departure from His disciples is actually a good thing.  They will gain much more than they will lose.  It was hard to see that from a human perspective.  All they could imagine is that their master is going to be going away.  Jesus explained that He will send the Helper to them, which will be a great advantage and blessing.  If you read these words casually, you might not find the blessings Jesus is speaking of.  You need to read them carefully, and apply the words to the situation.

For example, Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit – the Helper – will be making everything work.  Jesus says that He, when He comes, will accomplish all the things Jesus names.  What isn't so obvious is that Jesus is talking about the work He is leaving His disciples to do.  The Spirit is the One who will make it happen.  That is how He is "the Helper".  He makes whatever they are doing effective and accomplishes the mission Jesus sets before them.

And what is that Mission?  "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment."  That is the Mission.  The first thing we see is that the scope of the mission is the entire world, and that is what the Helper will enable them to reach – the world.  What the disciples are charged with is a mission to the entire world, and every man, woman, and child in the world is included in their message.  The Spirit will convict the world, that is, the Spirit will work faith and give the message power.

First, He will convict the world of sin.  Jesus then went on to say that the world will be convicted of unbelief: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.  That is the chief sin, not to believe in Jesus.  All other sins flow out of the failure to believe that Jesus is God and to trust in Him.  Now that Jesus has paid the cost of sin, the only thing that stands to convict anyone is unbelief.  And we all stand convicted of unbelief before Christ.  Aside from the aid of the Spirit, not even Christians would believe.  Our natural state is unbelief.

The history of the church demonstrates this truth.  Time after time, the church wanders from the simple and pure Gospel.  We would expect the world around us to reject Christ and the faith, and they do, but the most aggressive attacks come from within the church.  There are those who simply cannot accept the incarnation.  ‘God could not do that, or if He could, He would not!'  They reject the atonement.  ‘It is too little,' or ‘it is too much,' or ‘it is too violent,' or ‘it is unreasonable to demand the bloody death of His Son for the sins of others.' Over and over, so-called teachers have led the way to unbelief and irreligion, showing how clearly all men are convicted of the sin of unbelief prior to the work of the Helper.

The world has no appreciation for the reality of this sin.  It is all the same to the world if you believe in God or not – or which deity you choose.  The world is worried about those "sins" that mess up their dealings - murder, or adultery, or theft.  They don't always condemn or punish those evils, but they feel them and see them.  This sin, unbelief, they do not feel or see or care about.  They do not know that this sin is the foundation and food for the evil of the world.  This is the sin in which a man says "I am God".  "I come first."  "Whatever I want at whatever price, I claim it!"  And we all stand convicted.

Then the Helper convicts the world of righteousness.  That is the proper work of the Spirit, proclaiming the Gospel through the agency of the messengers sent by Christ, and bringing men to faith.   But the righteousness of which the world is to be convicted is not its own, worked by the hands of men.  It is that alien righteousness of the grace of God, imputing Christ's complete righteousness to men that believe.  You can hear this in the way Jesus describes it: and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me.  Now who would describe righteousness like this?  Only Jesus.  

He describes it this way because it is not our righteousness but His that He speaks about.  It is the only righteousness that avails before God for salvation, but it is totally His work and not ours.  It must be accounted to us and given to us – and it is.  That is the work of the Spirit.  Luther often said that this is the reason the Holy Spirit is called Holy, because He makes us holy.  These words show us clearly that Christ is not speaking here of outward, secular righteousness, which is important and necessary for this life, which Moses or judges and philosophers teach in their books, and which man has the ability to practice.  This righteousness is of an entirely different sort - it is the sort of righteousness for which God looks, the righteousness of the heart and soul, cleansed of sins and humble before God.

This is why the world hates this righteousness - this Gospel - because it is not something they can accomplish or establish or even sense and feel.  There is no personal credit or glory in it.  It is all Christ.  That is why He speaks about the world being convicted because He goes to the Father.  The world has no use for it if it is not serving their felt needs or egos.  This righteousness, however, is completely concealed, not only from the world but also from the saints.  It is not a thought, a word, or a work or a feeling in ourselves, as the preachers fantasize about grace when they teach that it is something poured into our hearts – or something that we sense.  No, it is entirely outside and above us; it is Christ's going to the Father, that is, His suffering, resurrection, and ascension.  Christ placed this righteousness outside the sphere of our senses; we cannot see and feel it. The only way it can be grasped is by clinging to the Word preached about Him, which tells us that He Himself is our Righteousness.  Even for believers, it is received only by faith, and perceived only by hearing the Word of it, and that with the aid – the conviction – of the Helper.

Finally, the Helper will convict the world concerning Judgment.  Jesus said, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.  We naturally think of earthly judgment, laws broken, crimes committed, and guilt established and punished.  But Jesus is speaking here of the work of the Helper which places all human righteousness in the scales of justice and condemns all of it.  Here we are presented with the work of the church in preaching and teaching the truth, both Law and Gospel, rightly divided.  We proclaim the freedom of the Gospel from the regulations of the law, and this silences and condemns the "ruler of this world", the devil, with all of his guilt-mongering and fear. 

The devil is the father of lies, and so any false doctrine stands judged by the clear preaching of the Word of God.  It is not important to this convicting work of the Helper that the world around us recognize that judgment today.  It will recognize it and confess it as true and correct in the end, but today it is enough that we know that it is true.  The Helper convicts the world by contradicting the wisdom and judgment of the world with the forgiveness of sins and by changing the hearts of men.  The world looks at the outside and makes its judgment.  God bestows His grace, and changes the spirit of men and women with a new righteousness which is true and pure and saves you.  The world judges falsely and condemns and persecutes the people of God, and so it is judged in turn, and condemned along with its evil ruler.

All the while, we stand by watching as the Helper does all of these things.  We hear the Words of the Absolution, and believe by the power of the Spirit, and we are forgiven.  We hear the Words of Institution, and believe by the power of the Spirit, and we receive holy food.  We are not idle, for we are the messengers sent to preach, but the work and its success belongs to the Spirit.  He takes what Christ has earned, and pours it out on us in Word and Sacrament.  As Jesus said in our text, "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you."  He brings all glory to the Father by glorifying Christ in everything so that we know and believe, and are comforted here, and are rescued for eternity.

Our Gospel for Cantate Sunday prepares us to celebrate Pentecost, and to find the true blessing of Christ's Ascension.  Christ needed to go away from us to the Father in order to send the Spirit to help us, and teach us this divine understanding of sin, and righteousness, and to know that the judgment has come already, on Good Friday, when the ruler of this world was judged, and our sins were punished, and we were redeemed and set free from death into everlasting life.  The Helper had to do it because, by ourselves, we could not believe.  We need help, and so He sent us the Helper.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

A Little Sorrow, A Lot of Joy

John 16:16-23 

"A little while, and you will no longer behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me."  Some of His disciples therefore said to one another, "What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, ‘because I go to the Father'?"  And so they were saying, "What is this that He says, ‘A little while'? We do not know what He is talking about."

Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.  Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world.  Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.  And in that day you will ask Me no question."

Sermon for Jubilate Sunday                                                                 4/26/26

A Little Sorrow, A Lot of Joy

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

This morning is I want to begin by reminding all of you who have been parents of the reality of parenting.  Parenting is bears a certain similarity to our theme, this morning: a little sorrow, and a lot of joy.  Children can be a challenge, and heartbreak, and an opportunity for unneeded and unwanted worry.  But I have met remarkably few parents who would trade their children to avoid or eliminate the little bit of sorrow that their children occasion.  Children can bring us a little sorrow, but they also bring us a whole lot of joy!

I can remember the early years myself.  When I was a young father, and working two jobs to support my family – full-time in the Air Force and full-time at any of a host of different jobs I held, I would often wonder why I bothered working sixteen hours a day – until my son would run across the room when I got home at night hollering "Daddy!" and wanting to be held, and thinking I was just the greatest guy alive.  Then I would remember.  It was the little sorrow and a lot of joy kind of thing.

Our text holds just such a thing before our eyes this morning.  For the Disciples, the little sorrow was seeing Jesus die.  The lot of joy was seeing Him alive again.  That was then.  Later, it became something else for them, as it is something else for us.  Let us consider the words of Jesus in our Gospel lesson this morning and measure a little sorrow, a lot of joy.

Jesus didn't always make sense to those who were listening.  He always made sense, but those listening didn't always hear it.  Our text is such a case.  Jesus said, "A little while, and you will no longer behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me."  Of course, the Disciples weren't tracking very well that day.  They give us hope.  We don't always follow what God is telling us, or understand what He is doing with us, and on this day the Disciples didn't understand too well or too consistently either, until God made it clear to them by special enlightening after Jesus rose from the dead.  So, our text says, Some of His Disciples therefore said to one another, "What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, ‘because I go to the Father'?"  And so they were saying, "What is this that He says, ‘A little while'? We do not know what He is talking about."

Jesus was speaking to them about His approaching crucifixion and His subsequent resurrection.  They were not ready to hear about the approaching crucifixion so they were not going to understand what Jesus was saying.  That's okay, of course.  Jesus used the same principle with His Disciples that we use in Catechetical Instruction leading to Confirmation.  He taught them the stuff now, and figured that it would make more sense later, when they were ready and the circumstances were right.  We make our adolescent students memorize facts and doctrines and Bible passages now, and we know that they will spend an entire lifetime saying, "OH!!  So that's what that passage meant! – Now I understand!"  Of course, if they had never learned them, that sort of discovery would never happen.

The Disciples were learning at this point in the work of Jesus what would only make sense to them later.  Jesus was preparing them, just as He prepares us.  They asked, and He wanted to explain, so He did.  He explained like this, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.  Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world.  Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.  And in that day you will ask Me no question."

He described their pain and sorrow that they would experience when He died – and the joy that the world would have at the same event.  The unbelieving world was almost giddy with delight when Jesus died.  Not everyone, of course.  Not everyone knew.  But the Jews who knew who Jesus was and hated Him anyhow were thrilled.  They stood at His cross while He was suffering and mocked Him.  At the same time His Disciples were bewildered, and terrified, and horror-stricken.

But it was only for a time, Jesus said, like the labor pains of a woman giving birth to her child.  Sort of like the woman who swears she will never have another child, while she is in labor, but four hours after the baby is born – or four days later for some of you – wants to have another, or a whole bouquet of them!  The deeper their sorrow, the brighter the joy of the Disciples on Easter when their Lord and Savior was risen, and alive again!

Of course, that is not what Jesus was actually talking about.  It fits, except that the Disciples did ask questions of Jesus after the resurrection.  The Bible tells us about them.  And Jesus said that on that day they would ask Him no questions.  Besides, if that were all this text was about, then it would be about them, way back then, and really have nothing to do with us.  But it does have to do with us.  We live in that little while, and endure that little sorrow right now.

The pains and troubles of our lives are the sorrows that Jesus was referring to.  The world rejoices.  They are delighted to see us suffer.  They are pleased when life gives us no immediate evidence to support the existence of God, or we fail to perceive for a time His goodness and gracious guidance in our lives.  When illness strikes, when sorrow comes a'calling, when hardship knocks on our door – the world tells us to keep a stiff upper lip, to tough it out, and reminds us that if God were real, if He really loved us, we wouldn't be suffering like this.  And sometimes were are strongly tempted to believe it.

Add to that our sorrow over the corruption of our world.  Who can watch the decay of our society, and know what is wrong, without sorrow?  And yet no one who can make a difference seems to listen to us!  We see the sowing of so many sorrows in the lives of young people, and it is at the insistence of the world!  They are trained to use drugs in the schools, and then told to be responsible when the message should be to avoid them like the plague.  They are instructed in sexual behaviors in classes, even sexual deviancies, and then encouraged to act responsibly within them without any moral foundation being added.  They are told to not just tolerate but to celebrate the perversion of others around them.  They are counseled to hate authority, and despise teaching, and to feel good about themselves without having accomplished anything to which they might anchor that self-esteem.  So we have poorly motivated, undisciplined, immoral people crowding our society, which leads to a drug problem, children killing one another with guns, children giving birth to children, and a troubling sense that too many simply do not understand how life works.  Our leaders, charged with preserving public decency and paid handsomely to enforce laws and maintain that which is good in our society, pander to the corruption of our nature and manipulate the sorrows of our age for their own short-sighted advantage.  We can see this working itself out in the issues in the news.

We sorrow.  We groan.  We pray.  We cry out in pain at what we see and must endure, and our world plays and sings and says everything is just fine.  It is nothing new.  Lot experienced it.  Peter wrote in His second epistle, about righteous Lot who was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men in his society, saying for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds.  Like Lot, we often feel almost physically assaulted by the growing corruption around us.

But it is only for a short time.  In the scale of humanity, in the time of this world, our lives are short.  They seem long, at least when we are in pain.  It always seems long, too long.  But God has promised that our sufferings have a limit.  However long they may seem, or however great they may appear as we endure them, they are soon over – and God has something wonderful for us.  It is so good that Paul, writing on this same topic says by God's inspiration, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Jesus said that we would weep and lament, that we would be sorrowful, but that our sorrow would be turned into joy!  He has already accomplished that on Calvary!  He has taken our sins and the causes of our sorrows and sicknesses and borne them to the cross.  There He died for us – the death that we have earned, and the death that we should have died.  And God the Father raised Him from the grave to declare to us that His death was a sufficient substitute, and that our sins have been forgiven.  The answer to sorrow and pain and sickness and even death is Jesus Christ.  He is our hope and our joy.  He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Of course, in this world that is so hard to see.  When a loved one dies in the flesh this good news does not stop our tears or our sorrows.  It is a comfort, yes!  But we still cry and we still sigh and we still suffer the torment of this world.

That is why the words of Jesus are so precious here!  Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.  And in that day you will ask Me no question.  Sure, we have sorrow here and now, and pain and frustration!  But when Jesus returns, and He is coming soon, that will all be over with.  When we see Jesus, our hearts will be filled with rejoicing and glory and praise and delight!  The world will then have the torment, and will draw a collective gasp on that day.  But we will rejoice!  We will see at an instant how wise and good the plan of God has been.  We will delight in His grace and love and will be so utterly happy that God held us steadfast that even the worst of our sorrows and trials here will seem well worth it – insignificant by comparison.  

In that day, we will ask Him no question.  That is the day that Jesus was actually pointing His Disciples toward.  That is the day they were waiting for – the day when they would finally see Him again, with the vision that will not dim and the sight that will not go away.  That is the day we wait for.  The day of the full victory of Christ, and the last enemy to be destroyed will be death itself.  That is the day when we will see that the sorrow has been little – by comparison – and the joy will be a lot.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen) 

The Power to Forgive

 John 20:19-31

When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you."  And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.  The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you."  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.  The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!"  But he said to them, ""Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be with you."  Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing."  Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"  Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed?  Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."  

Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Sermon for Quasimodogeniti Sunday                                               04/12/26

The Power to Forgive

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Every year, when I come to the Sunday after Easter, I think about the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  His name was Quasimodo.  This Sunday is called "Quasimodogeniti."  It means, "Like new-born babes".  The name is drawn from the first words in Latin of the traditional introit, "Like new-born babes, long for the pure spiritual milk of the word."   The reason that Quasimodo was so named was that he was left - or found on the steps of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France (according to the story) on the Sunday after Easter - Quasimodogeniti.

And, every year I come to the gospel lesson, I see something different about which to preach.  Some years, I preach about Doubting Thomas.  Although I have often heard him ridiculed, I think doubting Thomas is a divinely worked piece of evidence for us.  Here was the skeptic, and the evidence, evidence we cannot personally see, brought him to his knees, confessing Christ. 

Some years I preach about the peace which John writes about.  Still other years I focus on the last verses of the passage, which say that these things have been written that you may know and believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life in His name.  I then preach about the Word of God as a means of Grace. 

This year our theme is "The Power to Forgive."  Our verses are the first few in our Easter Gospel lesson; "When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.'  And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.  The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.'"

This was not the first time Jesus had ever said anything like this to His disciples.  He actually said it two other times.  First time is reported in Matthew 16 when Simon Peter had answered the question, "Who do you say I am?"  He answered that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus answered that Peter was blessed because God had revealed this to Him, not merely human reason.  Then He said, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  The second time happened when Jesus was talking about correcting a brother – what we call "Church Discipline" today, in Matthew 18.  In Verse 18, just after the verse we are familiar with about confronting a brother privately, and then publicly, Jesus spoke the same words, "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The words were not precisely the same as in our Gospel today, nor in either account in Matthew, but the context, particularly in Matthew 18, shows us that forgiveness - or retaining sin - is what Jesus was talking about.  In the Matthew 16 situation, Jesus even calls this authority "the keys of the kingdom of heaven". 

Some have taken these passages to mean that only the ministers have such authority, because Jesus spoke these words to Peter or to the twelve.  And it might be argued from the Matthew 16 passage that Jesus was apparently speaking to Peter - although in the presence of the others.  And Matthew 18 is spoken to, and I quote, "the disciples", without actually limiting that title to the twelve, and John 20, our gospel this morning, just says that the disciples were there.  So, we have understood these words as being spoken to the entire Church, as it existed in that day, and this authority to forgive sins as being given to the Church, and not to any specific member of it.

The Church has been granted by Christ the authority, or the power, to forgive sins.  Since Christ earned that forgiveness by His obedience, and then His death, and finally His resurrection, which we celebrated just last week, it is His to give such authority.  Whenever we exercise that authority, we make it clear that it is not a personal power, but a borrowed authority, one which has been granted to the one doing the forgiving - or, as we say, pronouncing the absolution.  You will note that I say, "Upon this, your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you . . ."

I also want you to notice that Jesus gave this authority both before His death, and after His resurrection.  This authority to forgive is an important thing.  You wouldn't be able to tell that, of course, the way some people talk about it.  Some churches, and their leaders and teachers, speak boldly against this authority, just as the Pharisees did when Jesus exercised it in His day.  They say they don't need it.  They can go to God and get forgiveness.  They claim that no human being really has the power to forgive.  It is just a personal thing between them and their God.

Judging by our text, I would say they are calling Jesus a liar, and that is blasphemy.  Yes, it is true that God forgives.  You can repent and confess your sins before Him all by yourself, alone, and in your closet.  And God does forgive.  But Jesus called this power the Keys to the kingdom of heaven.  And Jesus also granted to the Church the power to retain sins - that is, to deny forgiveness to one who is not humble and penitent, and when their sin have been retained, there is no forgiveness.  That power would be useless if someone could go behind the back of the Church, as it were, and get forgiveness outside of and without the body of Christ.

No, the power to forgive is given to the Church.  No single individual has the power all to themselves.  It is not given even to the visible church abuse in order to manipulate people - although that has been done by some in history.  The authority is granted, however, and so it is safe to say that there is no forgiveness outside of the church - and anyone who despises the absolution of the pastor, when He speaks it in the course of faithfully performing the duties of his office, has no forgiveness.  If there is no church near, and you cannot come to confess your sins and hear the words of the absolution, yes, you can go directly to God.  But if you seek to deny your sins and deny the words of Christ by keeping it all internal and silent and private, then you are despising the gift of Jesus Christ in the absolution, and you should not expect any forgiveness that does not include the absolution from those in whose hands Christ has placed it.

He has given this absolution for your comfort.  How easily we could turn forgiveness into some abstract thing, not a reality at all, if we just pray silently about it, and take it for granted that we are forgiven.  Soon it would become an intellectual exercise, not unlike a fantasy.  But Jesus has given this authority to the Church, to be exercised publicly by pastors, and privately by any Christian as we forgive one another in our daily lives.  He has given this power to be used out loud and in response to the confession of sins so that we may know that this is not just an intellectual game or a fantasy, and were are not just pretending or imagining it, but we hear the words, spoken by the command of Christ, and we know that our sins - our personal sins - have been forgiven.

Now and again, we may find little comfort in the public, communal, absolution.  It is valid, but it is also impersonal.  Sometimes we need to know that it is aimed right at us, and focused on our sins.  We need to silence that guilty voice within that say, "If the pastor knew what I have done, he would not forgive me.  These words are spoken for the others standing around me, who haven't sinned the way I have."  In those moments, we still offer private confession, and personal absolution.  Then you can speak of your sins, as hard as that is, and be sure you have truly confessed.  And you will then hear the absolution, spoken just to you, so that your guilt cannot deny that your Lord has sent this man to speak His pardon to you.  In those moments, we truly sense the wonder of the gift of the power to forgive.

And this power to forgive is all wrapped up in Easter.  It was the death of our Lord that paid the price, and His resurrection that declares the divine verdict of righteousness on all who believe.  Jesus cried out, "It is finished!", and with that declaration, announced that forgiveness, life and salvation were purchased, won, and available.  When He gave the power to forgive, He was just working on the distribution side - giving us all the right to hear, and the right to say that when Jesus died, it was finished, and our sins are atoned for, and we are redeemed by Christ, the Crucified.

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool."  Ahhh, the power to forgive.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)

Do Not Be Amazed!

 Mark 16:1-8

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  And very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.  And they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"  And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.  And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified.  He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said lo you.'"  And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Sermon for Easter Sunday                                                     04/05/26

Do Not Be Amazed!

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

He is Risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

How exciting that first Easter must have been!  And yet the women were filled with fear -- so much fear that they did not tell anyone what they saw, at least not right away.  They did not do as the angel told them.  They were confused - such a quick trip from the deep grief to the excitement of the resurrection.  And they saw the angel, and they were amazed!

Amazement is always the response of humanity when it sees God at work!  The angel told them not to be amazed - not that this was not God at work among us, but that this is what Jesus came for, and this is what Jesus promised would happen, and this is what we ought to have expected.  But we did not, and they did not.

It seems a little silly telling twenty-first century Christians not to be amazed on Easter.  I mean, who is?  We have seen this day come and go for years - and our families, often, for centuries.  What is there to amaze us?

That is a good question, and one that we will answer this morning.  It should amaze us that all of this Gospel stuff is true.  God is not like mankind always pictures Him, when they depart from the book.  He is not a God who demands human sacrifice.  He is not the sort of God that wants to make man miserable.  He is not a God of caprice, like the ancient Gods of the Romans and the Greeks, who came to earth with human lusts and human weaknesses and overweening pride.  Nor is He distant from us and disinterested in us.

These are the evil things man imagines about God, depending on whether his experience of life is good at the moment or pain-filled and frustrating.  We should stand in utter amazement at God, He is loving.  He is just.  He has granted us nearly perfect autonomy of action, even though we are totally dependent on Him and His blessings.  He is intimately involved in our lives.  And He balances all of these seemingly contradictory attributes while blessing us and protecting us.

We abused our autonomy in order to reject Him who is life and well-being.  We sinned.  We need to understand that we have no way to comprehend the depth of the offense of sin against His holiness, and we sinned by direct rebellion and rejection of Him even though we need and depend upon Him daily. That rejection is called sin, and it is evident in our gossip, in our easy and unprovoked angers, in our lies, and in our wickedness toward one another, all of which should have brought us immediate and eternal death.  We had spurned and rejected Him who gives us life and all things.

But God loves us.  We should be amazed at that, all by itself.  He loves us not only so much, but in such a way that He found the way to punish our sins with death and so maintain His perfect justice, and yet still preserve and save us.  That is what Jesus accomplished.  In point of fact, God did require human sacrifice, because He had declared that the soul that sins shall die.  And, to accomplish both His justice, and our salvation, God laid upon Jesus the sins of us all, and put Him to death in our place.

On Easter morning, the one we celebrate today, and every Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead.  His rising was God the Father s declaration for all who would see it that Jesus was the perfect substitute, and that the payment was accepted, and that our sins were forgiven, and that God was freely bestowing the gift of salvation and eternal life on all who would take Him at His Word, believe what He proclaimed about Jesus and promised in connection with Him and His life and His death and His resurrection and trust Him.

We should be amazed at the love of God.  What a price He paid to redeem us from our own sin and rebellion!  What a marvelous and incontrovertible sign of His love He has given to us. What glorious evidence of forgiveness and life everlasting He has provided in the resurrection.

We should be amazed that it is true!  Who has ever seen a resurrection? Ordinarily, the dead stay dead!  But the message of the resurrection of Jesus is that they will not stay dead forever.  These all will rise body and soul, just as Jesus did.  We, too, shall rise!  Jesus rose - all the scoffing of the skeptics aside.  Jesus rose, teeth, hair, bones and all!  He rose to show us what rising from the dead will be like, and to demonstrate the truth of the promises.

We shall rise one day, body and soul reunited.  We shall be whole and well and alive for eternity, on that day.  We shall be ourselves and recognizably so.  Christians often celebrate Easter in a cemetery because the cemetery looks to be our final and utter defeat, and yet it shall be the field of our victory in Jesus Christ on that last day.

The world has long denied that Jesus rose.  The Jews said the body was stolen, just as the Bible reports they did.  Unbelievers inside the church and outside of her have said that it never happened.  But we have the eyewitness reports.  We have the testimony of hundreds, encapsulated here on the pages of Scripture.  We have the reluctant testimony of the Jews - the grave was empty and they did not have the body! We should be amazed that it is true!

We should be amazed that we can look at the details of the most exciting story in human history and not cry aloud with joy and praise to God for all that He has worked for us!  Or perhaps we should be ashamed that we can look at such wonderful gifts and promises, so clearly witnessed and proven, and yet we are often not brought to shouting our joy and triumph!  Our sins are paid for and forgiven – taken away, and nailed forever to the cross in the body of Jesus.  We have evidence of eternal life beyond death.  We have the promise of God that we too shall rise.  We should be amazed, and thrilled, and shouting for joy, He is risen!

Do not be amazed, the angel said.  What he meant was, You should have known.  You should have expected this.  He told you Himself.  Those words apply to us too.  We should not be surprised.  We should, however, be delighted and rejoice this morning.  Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, first-fruits of those who believe.  We too shall rise!

Let us rejoice this Easter morning!  He is Risen!  He is risen Indeed!!  Hallelujah!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)