Thy Kingdom Come

Festival of the Ascension

May 29, 2014

Ephesians 1:20-21

Thy Kingdom Come

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Jesus rising up into the heavens wasn't unprecedented. Others have had it happen to them. Moses recorded that Enoch walked with God and was taken into heaven alive and well (Genesis 5). The prophet Elijah was taken up into heaven alive and well in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2).

But completely unlike Jesus, they hadn't died first and come back to life.

Jesus had died to buy you back from death. Because of your wickedness—up to and including the stubborn idea that your wickedness isn't that bad—the only direction you were headed was down, not up. So He had to bleed to forgive unforgivable sinners like us.

In Him we have been redeemed [we have been bought back] through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:7)

And His blood shed for us pleased His Father in heaven. And it was the Father's good pleasure to

[raise Christ] from the dead and [seat] Him at His right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:20-21)

Many saw Jesus' suffering under Pontius Pilate. Many saw His crucifixion, His death, and His burial. Many saw the humiliating and shameful death of God's Son.

On the other hand, no one saw His glorious resurrection. Only a relative few talked and ate with Him during His final 40 days on earth, and among even those few, some still doubted Him.

But did He let them see His glorious rising into the sky. And they looked intently upon this astonishing spectacle. They stared with unblinking eyes upon the One who returning to His Father's right hand to rule His kingdom.

II.

In heaven now Enoch and Elijah see God's glorious kingdom with their eyes.

But for us now His kingdom is hidden. Jesus rules the world and is over every kingdom and state and home, but He doesn't rule directly. He sends us lawmakers, governors, and parents to rule for Him. Naturally we wonder if this is true. The world is a mess, some of politicians are corrupt, many lawmakers believe that their constituents have the divine right to be happy, and all of them are tempted to do whatever takes to make the voters like them right away.

Many of our families are broken, our churches in disarray, our personal lives just hanging on, day to day. Our eyes fight against the promised Word, “Thy kingdom comes.”

But His Word gouges out our old eyes and pops in clean eyes that we can see the coming of His kingdom. Our new eyes grasp that our hidden Savior, who sits at the Father's right hand in heaven, is also standing over that new rebellious and wicked baby as she is brought up to His holy sink. And there in that holy sink Christ through His pastor kills that little rebel with the Word and water, and lifts up a new clean and holy baby.

Thy kingdom comes through the Word, which is brought to us by the Holy Spirit. Sainted Dr. Luther wrote in the Catechism,

God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead a godly life now on earth and forever in heaven.

Leading a godly life begins and ends with receiving His gifts of forgiveness. As you pray every day the words that Christ has given to His body, the Church, you are receiving His kingdom.

III.

Adam was still alive for almost 300 years after Enoch was born. What do you think Adam talked to his great-great-great-great grandson about? About the coming Savior from sin. Thy kingdom come and it came to Enoch.

Elijah lived by himself and even thought he was the only believer left. How did he survive? Through the promise of the coming Savior. Thy kingdom come and it came to Elijah.

Thy kingdom come and it has come to you. And because it has, when He descends in glory, it will be to take you home to join Enoch and Elijah and all the saints.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Jesus Loves Us to Keep His Commands

Sixth Sunday of Easter

May 25, 2014

John 14:15

Jesus Loves Us to Keep His Commands

In the name of Jesus.

I.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commands.” Jesus said that love for Him will naturally lead you to keep His commands. But you look down at your shoes and mutter, “I love Jesus, but I don't keep His commands. So what is He saying? Is He saying that He doesn't love me? Or is He saying that I don't have to keep His commands?”

Praise be to God! The answer is that He does love you because of His Father's love for you and that you will keep His commands because of the Son's love for you. We can dig into Jesus' words by unlocking a couple of key words.

First of all, keep. Jesus doesn't mean perfectly keeping ourselves perfect by perfectly carrying out His commands. This word means more precisely to keep watch over someone or something. In this case, you will keep careful watch over Jesus' commands.

And secondly, speaking of commands, just what commands is Jesus referring to? The first commands we think of are probably the commands of Mt. Sinai, often called the Ten Commandments. Have no other gods. Remember the Sabbath. Honor your parents. These are the commands of the Old Testament.

But Jesus gave us other commands, commands of the New Testament. These came from the hill where our Jesus died, Mt. Calvary. Through His triumph over Death with His own death on the cross, His commands mean what He says, “Baptize sinners. Eat My body. Drink My blood. Preach My resurrection that proclaims My death for you.”

II.

So this is the truth that Jesus is getting at, when He said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commands.” Take the if out of it because you do love Him; you are adopted children and you have a holy family through Jesus.

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

He has made you a part of His family and now you love Him, just as He promised. He comes to rescue you every day when you hear the Old Testament commands of Mt. Sinai and you see a sinner who spends their time and money on false gods, ignores the rest that Jesus offers to us in His house through His Word, and dishonors the members of their family by losing our temper and with our reluctant obedience.

And daily He comes to you with His living Word of the New Testament that is found throughout all of Holy Scripture. And our New Testament, Jesus, forgives you, saying,

because I live, you will live also.

So these commands of Mt. Sinai push you to the commands of Mt. Calvary. And the promises of Mt. Calvary push us back to the promises of Mt. Sinai. And back and forth. And back and forth. Repent. Trust. Live. Every day. Every night. For the rest of our lives.

Jesus promised, “You love Me, so you will keep careful watch over My commands.” So every day we keep careful watch on the Living Man, Jesus Christ, and His living Word.

You keep careful watch on His Words by praying them. He gives you a mouth to pray aloud, whether alone or with others, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. He gives you hands and arms to pick up little babies and tickle their noses and to pick up your toys. He gives you ears to hear your mom and dad singing hymns next to you here at church and at home. He gives you eyes to watch the birds and bunnies run around your yard and ears to hear your brother give them silly names and a mouth to laugh at his comedic chops. All this and much more Jesus gives to you.

Jesus promised, “You love Me, so you will keep careful watch over My commands.” He truly does. The proof is His death and resurrection and your Baptism. And now you see, hear, and speak as Living People living under the Living Man.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Messiah Had to Suffer and Rise from the Dead

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 18, 2014

Acts 17:3

The Messiah Had to Suffer and Rise from the Dead

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Hours before Judas betrayed Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prepared His disciples for what was about to happen. They were confused, so Jesus comforted them with the truth of what would happen to them in the future (heaven), with Whom they had already seen (the Father and the Son of God), and with the evidence of what they were about to see (His suffering and resurrection).

John 14:2, 7, 10b, 11

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? . . .

If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. . . .

The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

And so wherever he went, the practice of St. Paul was to point his hearers to the facts of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.

Acts 17:2-3

As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead.

Paul went to the synagogue, the Jewish church, there in Thessalonica. And Paul went back to the beginning of the Old Testament and proved that the Messiah, the Anointed Savior from God, had to suffer and die and rise from the dead. And this happened with only one Man: Jesus Christ.

II.

Jesus had to suffer. Paul would have quoted to his fellow Jews the clear first promise of Jesus made to Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.

Jesus had to be a man. The Lord promised to Moses:

Deuteronomy 18:18

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.

Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah correctly predicted:

Micah 5:2

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.

Paul would have reminded the Jews of all these things that they had learned by heart from birth. But above Paul stressed that this suffering and rising was the ultimate fulfillment of all these prophecies.

Paul would have quoted the Psalms, and his hearers would have heard the striking words:

Psalm 22:1, 7-8

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from My deliverance and from My words of groaning? . . . Everyone who sees Me mocks Me; they sneer and shake their heads: “He relies on the Lord; let Him rescue Him; let the Lord deliver Him, since He takes pleasure in Him.”

And also from the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 53:3, 7

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. . . . He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And then Paul would have concluded his words from Isaiah:

Isaiah 53:10-12

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer . . . After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

III.

This was the Lord's will: that He had to be crushed and suffer. And then after His suffering, He will live, “He will see the light of life.” This is the way God wanted to save us—through the suffering and resurrection of His Son. This is the exact point that Jesus made to His disciples on their way to Emmaus.

Luke 24:25-27

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.

Jesus' suffering and rising is the only way. There seems to be many better ways to be saved. Trying to be a good person is a popular way to live. Being humble is popular, too. Others seek a good life through fame and celebrity. All these well-traveled ways to truth and life may indeed involve suffering, but they hold no promise from Jesus to bring true peace and forgiveness.

Instead He gives us Himself. Through His Word in water, bread, and wine, He joins us to His suffering, death, and resurrection.

Like His first apostles, we are easily confused and scared. So Jesus comforts you with the truth that because He has suffered and risen from the dead, you too have a future that is sure and certain.

John 14:1-3

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Door That Is a Man

Fourth Sunday of Easter

May 11, 2014

John 10

The Door That Is a Man

In the name of Jesus.

I.

If you have a job where there are doors that can talk to you, then you probably can't talk about it. Movies show us high-tech doors that scan your retina or your hand print or your voice before opening for the right people.

But the more high-tech the door, the easier to get in. Think about all those movies with the fancy door. Why was the door in the movie? Because the wrong people were successfully breaking into it.

Never has the threat and reality of identity theft been greater. I'll bet you have ten, twenty, thirty or more passwords. That seems secure, but you live in fear of having your life invaded by thieves and robbers.

II.

Doors in Jesus' day were much less fancy, and much harder to trick. In His day sheep usually spent the night outdoors inside a circular wall of rocks. The door wasn't really a door; it was just an opening in the wall. And this opening is where the shepherd slept. There wasn't a door or gate of wood or iron. He was the door.

John 10:7-10

I assure you: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

With Jesus it's simple. He's the door. You're the sheep.

You didn't want to go in.

You didn't want to follow Him.

But He called with His voice and you became one of His sheep and you follow Him. You learn His voice and enter safely into His fold. You know His voice and follow Him out into the world.

III.

Because Jesus is the only way in, the only door, this coming in and going out is an apt description of our lives that follow Jesus.

We come through the Door, through Jesus, through His voice calling you in Holy Baptism. And so you come into the Church to hear His voice calling you to repent and to receive His forgiveness. He calls you to remember our first mother Eve who rebelled against His voice. Then through God's voice she came to trust that her Savior was coming into the world to save her. He calls you to remember His mother Mary who trusted His promise that she would give birth to her Savior from her sin. And He calls you to remember His violent and shameful death on the cross. This is where He laid down His life for His sheep, for you. Jesus predicted His own death that would destroy the power of Death, saying,

John 10:11

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

IV.

Jesus' dear sisters receive great comfort in His voice. Whether they are mothers with children, mothers without husbands, women without husbands, wives without children, or widows whose children have grown up, they hear the voice of the Door that opens for them, and they are glad, even though they may be weeping and sad.

You, dear sisters, come in and go out by the Door who is the Man. He opens for you.

Why?

Because He knows you.

Come in and go out by hearing His voice in Word and Sacrament this morning. Come in and go out by hearing His voice in your prayers at home.

Our man-made doors break and can be tricked. And we often run into the our own doors that we make ourselves. We trust in our children or our husbands or our independence. We trust in the belief that Jesus wants us to be lonely by depriving us of good families. These doors lead to empty rooms without any promise.

And then we hear Him. Our Door to life calls us, sometimes sternly with a rebuke, but often gently with His sweet voice that says, “You have entered by Me and you are saved. I have come to make you alive and have life to the full.” This full life is only in Jesus.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Christ Known through Ear Alone

Third Sunday of Easter

May 4, 2014

Luke 24:16

Christ Known through Ear Alone

In the name of Jesus.

I.

They seemed to have almost all the facts at their fingertips. They knew that Jesus was a preacher of renown—perhaps they had heard Him preach in person. They knew what had happened during the past week—perhaps they'd shouted His praises with the crowds, perhaps they had seen Him hanging from a cross on Golgotha. And they knew that it was the third day since Jesus had died.

There were some things they didn't know or weren't sure about. They had heard reports of angels at the tomb—they sound uncertain on this point, perhaps because they hadn't heard the angels' report with their own ears. They had heard that the tomb was empty—they sound a bit more certain about this fact, perhaps they had been to the tomb to see for themselves. But what did it mean?

They seemed to have almost all the facts at their fingertips, except for the Last Big Fact, who was talking and walking with them. It's practically a horror movie in reverse, “Cleopas, it's Jesus! It's Jesus! Don't turn your back on Him! Don't let Him get away! It's Jesus!”

That mysterious Jesus is saying something to His disciples by purposely appearing in a different form to their eyes. He's saying something remarkable by making their ears do all the work.

† Jesus wants to be know through His Word and His Word alone. And your ears are the receptacles of this Word. †

II.

When the Holy Spirit sent His angel to the blessed Virgin Mary, we hear how her ears heard the promise. Gabriel said,

Luke 1:31

“Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. . . . The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

There have been other miracle babies, but our Lord used the natural way with Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth. Not so with the Word who is God. God sends the Word and the Word through Mary's ears is fulfilled.

At the beginning of time we hear how the Word works His purpose. At the beginning of Jesus' life we hear how the Word works. And at the beginning of His glorious return to life we hear how the Word works.

III.

The Emmaus disciples weren't the only ones who didn't see and recognize the face of their Savior. Mary Magdalene failed to see Jesus at first, but she also learned to know Him as He spoke to her.

John 20:14-17

Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not know it was Jesus. “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Supposing He was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve removed Him, tell me where you’ve put Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said, “Mary.” Turning around, she said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!”—which means “Teacher.” “Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father—to My God and your God.”

Jesus told her not to hold onto what she could see, but instead sent her to His family of disciples to speak His Word to their ears.

IV.

And this is so often what Jesus calls you to do. Like Mary at the empty grave, Jesus sends us away from Himself and sends you to tell His Word to others in our family. And like Mary it is often met with doubt or even disbelief. Perhaps there's a good reason why they didn't mention Mary's report, but they didn't when speaking with that mysterious stranger on the road to Emmaus. I suppose it was unbelievable.

Luke 24:22-23

Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find His body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.

You face doubt and disbelief in these Words. This doubt starts within you. Can this full cross and empty tomb really be true? Can this risen Christ really be for me?

As pastors we see how helpless this Word seems to be.
You see couples who want the Word at their wedding who don't want the Word in their home. You see members who want to go it alone; they want to be homeless Christians, church-less Christians. You see scared souls who can't believe that the very Body and Blood of their crucified Savior can be for them. You see pastors, and mostly the one in the mirror, and a Synod that is good at being positive and creative, but not so good at confession and repentance. You see and hear a lot that can make Him, the Word of God, seem helpless.

All we know and have is what Jesus gives to us through our ears. And our mouths. And our hands. And our eyes! We sing after eating and drinking His feast the words of blessed Simeon

Nunc Dimittis, Luke 2:29-32

Lord, now You let Your servant depart in peace

according to Your Word.

For My eyes have seen Your salvation,

which You have prepared

before the face of all people,

a light to lighten the Gentiles

and the glory of Your people Israel.

We have seen Christ because His Word promises it is so. Whatever other words we hear, whatever other visions we see, we must return again and again, Sunday after Sunday, with Christians around the world, with Christians in your parish, to His Word that is preached and administered.

Like blessed Cleopas we learn sometimes slowly and oftentimes painfully that the Word is all we have and the Word is everything that we need. The tomb is empty; Christ is with you. His table is full and so are your ears.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

A Lot of Breathing Between Dying and Living

Second Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2014

John 20:21-23

A Lot of Breathing Between Dying and Living

In the name of Jesus.

I.

St. Mark notes that the last thing that Jesus did on the cross before He died was to breathe. John notes that one of the first things Jesus did when He returned from the dead was to breathe.

Mark 15:37

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed His last.

John 20:21-23

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Whether His breathing stops or starts, His breath is always working for our forgiveness. He stops breathing purposely to have it out with Death once and for all. He resumes breathing so that He might return and proclaim His victory over Death for us.

II.

And then He breathes on those first preachers of the Word and gives a promise to them and all His pastors. When a pastor forgives the sins of penitent sinners—sinners who by faith don't defend their sins—the pastor must send those sins away and dismissed forever for the sake of Christ alone.

On the other hand, when a pastor encounters sinners who defend their sins, Jesus promises that those sins stick to them for as long as they continue to defend their sin. The pastor must refuse to forgive their sins for the sake of Christ alone.

The Catechism specifically mentions this responsibility of pastors and congregations. They must exclude or excommunicate

from the congregation those who are plainly impenitent that they may repent. . . . when this is done, it is as valid and certain in heaven also, as if Christ, our dear Lord, dealt with us Himself.

This responsibility of forgiveness is the same promise given to fathers and mothers as they care for the souls of their household. And the forgiveness or excommunication of a pastor and the congregation is just as valid as a father forgiving a repentant child or refusing to forgive a disobedient child.

As fathers and mothers know, disciple within the home is a great responsibility and burden. But it is a responsibility that must be carried out of love for the family. Though bad children do come from good homes, a home without disciple is a sure foundation for a life without peace or hope.

Some angry or sad souls complain that only God can forgive their sins. But pastors hear this complaint from those who claim that you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. To put it into language that they can understand and to work within the boundaries that they have established, pastors must tell them that if you refuse to go to church, you cannot consider yourself a Christian.

They are wrong because the Church is where Christ chooses to be found. And this gathering of believers joyfully goes beyond the walls of a church, but this is where starts and ends. This is where you are forgiven for the first time in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is where your funeral will be and the forgiveness of sins through Christ alone will be preached to your family. And between then and then Jesus is breathing upon you through His pastor. At church you are receiving the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacrament.

III.

There are many evil winds that blow at us in this world.

Many breathe lies and even truth at your face at work, which fills you with fear. They are right about your shoddy work; they are lying when they say you slandered a fellow worker. But all that breathing is scary.

Many breathe lies and even truth at your face at home, which brings you pain. Your spouse is right that your hiding from your family and that you don't spend enough time with your kids because you're always on your smartphone. Your kids are lying when they accuse you of intentional unfairness in how you discipline. But all that breathing hurts.

Many breathe lies and even truth at your face at school, which fills you with fear. Your teacher is right when she points out that you didn't read the whole book; your friends are lying when they accuse you of changing who you are to join a better group of friends. But all that breathing hurts.

All that bad air, which we breathe in, has only one antidote—the breathing of Jesus Christ. He breathes the Holy Spirit upon you through His Word and drives your sin away. So make breathing in His last breath and His breath of forgiveness a daily routine like your breathing.

And instead your automatic lungs, you'll have to think about when to prayer and when to go to church. But you'll go and you're here to receive the divine oxygen of Christ that refreshes your troubled and hurting soul. Peace be with you.

In the name of the Father

and of the † Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.