Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity

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Jesu Juva

“Mysterious but Good”

Text: John 3:1-17; Isaiah 6:1-8 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We worship the trinity in unity and the unity in trinity. 

That’s what we just confessed in the Athanasian Creed. We worship this God. This God that cannot be explained, only proclaimed. All attempts to explain the mystery of God the Holy Trinity have failed. How God can be one yet three, three yet one. One God in three persons, three persons in one God. Finite, limited minds cannot fully understand an infinite, limitless God. All attempts to explain the Trinity (and maybe you’ve heard some of these) - that God is like a clover, one plant with three leaves; or like an apple, one fruit with three parts, the core, the flesh, and the skin; or that God is like water which can exist three different states: solid, liquid, or gas - all fail because they either divide the three persons of the Trinity, collapse them together, or limit each person in some way. Better instead is to be like the prophet Isaiah and just stand in wonder and awe before this Lord, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all co-existing, all 100% God, and yet one God, and confess that we have no right to do so. That sinners like us have no place before a holy, sinless God - and yet He wants us here. He wants us to come before Him to receive His forgiveness. Like Isaiah did.

Now, that doesn’t work for some people. For some who will only believe what is logical to them, what they can figure out, what makes sense to them. A God who fits their categories, checks their boxes, fits their expectations, thinking, and understanding. The next step then is that what this God does must also fit their expectations, thinking, and understanding. And if God doesn’t do or command or approve of what they want or think is right, then He is rejected. 

There are a couple of problems, of course, with that. First, making God fit us rather than us fit God is to put ourselves above God and make ourselves God. But also this: there then will be as many gods in this world as there are people, each person fashioning his or her own god based upon their own expectations and thoughts and dreams, which all are different for just about everyone. Which is, when you think about it, not far from where our world is today, with its abundance of gods and religions and denominations. There is Tom, Dick, and Harry’s god, Oprah’s god, this god and that god, but not one true God. Which is exactly what satan wants. For if everyone has a god, then no one has God.

But God is not so easily tamed; not so easily controlled. We may want a God who is domesticated and behaves how we think He should, but as CS Lewis once famously said: God is not tame, but He is good. So if we change Him and tame Him, then we will also be losing His good.

So we are left with a God we cannot fully understand, because He is so different and above us, but one we can trust, because He is good. And that is far better.

And that is what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus that night when Nicodemus came to Him seeking answers. He knew Jesus knew something about God, that God was with Him. So Jesus teaches him about God - about a God who is mysterious and beyond our understanding, but who is good and trustworthy. That while Nicodemus may not get all the answers he was looking for, he get what he needed - the gift of faith in the God in the flesh that was sitting right in front of him.

So first Jesus says to him: Truth. Unless one is born again, born from above, born of God, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 

And that leaves Nicodemus befuddled. He cannot fit what Jesus says into his own thinking and understanding. This teaching does not fit his earthly categories. It’s not logical. He knows something of birth, perhaps having children of his own. So based on his own knowledge and experience, being born again just isn’t possible. You want me to climb back up inside my mother? No, but Jesus wants him to think of God differently - as Father. Not as a God he serves, but as a God that serves him and cares for him. A God who fathers, who begets life - and not just physical life or in a physical way, like his children at home. That it is not good enough to be a child of Abraham, a physical descendant of Abraham - he must be a child of God. Born. Born of God. Born of water and the Spirit. Okaaaay. Nicodemus is going to have to chew on that a while . . .

So Jesus then moves into phase two of His teaching, and starts talking about the work of God the Spirit like the wind. And that just as you cannot control the wind, so you cannot control God. God cannot be tamed to fit how we want Him to be.

Now that makes a little more sense . . . because we know something about wind and that it doesn’t always blow where you want it to. A sudden gust of wind messes up your perfectly combed hair. The wind blows the leaves you worked so hard raking into a pile all back over your yard. There is the hard and devastating winds of hurricanes, and terrible and unpredictable winds of tornadoes. But there is also the cool breeze on a hot summer day, and the refreshing breeze that comes off the ocean. 

The work of God is like that, Nicodemus. Not according to our thoughts, wishes, desires, and control. Sometimes He comes and messes up things in your life, because sometimes things in your life need messing up! Sometimes He needs to grab our attention and turn us back to Him. But there are also times when He will be that refreshing, cooling breeze to give us the relief we need. And just as birth pains come upon a woman quickly and often unexpectedly - earlier than was expected or much later - so it is with God and the children He fathers. It is His doing, not ours. When and where it pleases Him. When and where He says it will be, not us.

Well this is so completely different than what Nicodemus was expecting! From what he thought he knew and the way he thought things were. His mind is blown, blown wide open. His finite, limited mind blown open by an infinite, limitless God. To think on things in such a new way . . .

Well, yes. But Nicodemus, Jesus has saved the best for last! The best, but also the most mysterious and hardest for us to comprehend or understand. That God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is, that God the Father would send God the Son into a sinful world filled with sinful and rebellious people to die for them, so that they could be His born again, born from above, born of God, children. And that God would consider this a good thing - to trade His life for yours. His life of limitless value, for your life of what value? Of nothing close to that, that’s for sure. To love a world that doesn’t love Him. To save a world that turns away from Him to sin. 

Who does that? What category of this world does that fit into? That’s who God is, Nicodemus. That’s what God does. He’s not a God of laws, rules, and demands, but of fathering, caring, and saving. And you’ll see that when you see His Son lifted up like that bronze serpent in the wilderness was for Israel - the Son of God lifted up on the pole of the cross. Look at Him, see your God there for you, believe that He is there for you and your sin, and you will live. Eternal life.

I wish John would have told us more of their conversation! What Nicodemus said next. But maybe he didn’t say anything. Maybe he was just in awe of all that he had just heard, how utterly different and mysterious and beyond anything in this world. But John does tell us this - that Nicodemus saw Jesus on the cross, that he helped to take Him down and bury Him (John 19:39), and that Nicodemus actually defended Jesus a bit (John 7:50). Like maybe by water and the Spirit he had been born again, born from above, born of God, without having to climb back into his mother!

And so it is with us. The Spirit, who like the wind, works when and where God wills, has worked in you. And the when and the where is where God has told us: in His Word, in His Word combined with the water of Baptism, and in His Word combined with the bread and wine of the Supper. How that works is mysterious and beyond our understanding - like the wind. How the Word and Spirit works in hearts, how the Word and Spirit works as we proclaim the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins, how the Word and Spirit works as we pour the water of Baptism and eat the Body and Blood of Christ in the Supper - but work He does. Begetting children of God, sustaining us with His life and forgiveness, and keeping us in His care. Probably not how we would do it, if it were up to us. But good. God working His eternal good in and through these ordinary ways and means.

Which - like with who God is - all we do is proclaim these things, His works and ways, and stand in awe. That we can stand in the presence of God, and that God wants us here with Him! That while we cannot tame or control God, we can trust Him and His Word. In all parts of our lives. Following His will and His ways, loving, forgiving, and serving, giving and helping generously and sacrificially and confidently. For if He sent His only-begotten Son for us to die for us - if He would do that for us, will He not along with Him give us everything else we need (Romans 8:32)? 

So that’s what we proclaim this day we celebrate the Holy Trinity. And what we proclaim, we live. That’s why, as the Athanasian Creed said, it is necessary to think of God as Trinity. Not just so we know the right answer on a final exam we have to pass to get into heaven! But so we know what God has done for us - God the Father, who sent His beloved Son, who gave us His Spirit, to save us and give us this new kind of life to live. If God is not a Trinity, then that didn’t happen, couldn’t happen. But it did. A mysterious, not-like-this-world God, acting in a mysterious, not-like-this-world - but GOOD - way. Being good, giving His good, for you. To raise you with His Son to a new and eternal life.

Which is also mysterious. For what is an eternal life like? How can we think of life without end? We can’t. But again, we can trust. That as the one who gives it is good, so will it be. And so we are. Good, not because we’ve done it, but because He has. 

So this we proclaim. This we trust and believe. This we live. And this is our joy! A good God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, working and giving His goodness to us.

So this day we joyously proclaim: 

Blessèd be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity.

Let us give glory to him because he has shown his mercy to us (Introit).

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

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Jesu Juva

“The Impossible, Improbable Work of the Spirit”

Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26–16:15 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

You want me to do what? Seriously? What’s the point? I mean, really, what’s the point? They’re dead. They’re dried up. Very dry. They’re bones, for cryin’ out loud! You want me to preach to bones. Bones that have no ears, no hearts, no minds. Bones. You want me to preach to bones. Lord, Ezekiel must have thought, you’ve asked me to do a lot of weird and unusual things in my prophetic career, but this! This takes the cake! But it is not for prophets to question, but to do as they are commanded. So Ezekiel preaches . . . to a congregation of dry bones.

But at least bones won’t hurt you or strike back at you. They may not listen; but bones just lie there. But for Peter and the other apostles, their congregation was dangerous. The Jews in Jerusalem, just 50-some days ago, had turned their frustration and anger against Jesus, yelling out to Pilate “crucify Him! crucify Him!” Jesus had been an enigma. The healings and miracles were cool and all, but He ran with the wrong crowd, and when He had the audacity to turn His preaching against them, good Jews, children of Abraham, He had to go. Some of them had hoped He was the promised Messiah, but He sure didn’t act like one. He spoke against them as much as against the Romans! With Messiahs like that, who needs enemies?

So now, to this crowd, Peter and the others will preach . . . their first sermon. Tough crowd! They probably envied Ezekiel. Those dry bones were more likely to listen than these folks! If they didn’t listen to Jesus, why would they listen to them? And maybe they would turn their frustration and anger against them now. After all, that’s what Jesus had said. That they will put you out of the synagogues. And that the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. Maybe that hour had come. But it is not for apostles to question, but to do as they are commanded. And Jesus had commanded them to make disciples of all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Acts 1:8). So here, in the very place where just weeks ago Jesus was crucified, they would preach this same Jesus into the ears of those who didn’t want Him around and wanted nothing to do with Him. God is gracious. Preaching to these people who surely didn’t deserve it.

And Peter uses the prophet Joel as his text, to explain to them what was now happening. That remarkably, God was pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. Years ago, it was Moses who had wished for that very thing. While Israel was in the wilderness, God had taken some of the Spirit He had given to Moses and put it on 70 of the elders of the people. To help him. Another unlikely congregation, for all the people of Israel did in the wilderness - pretty much from day one! - was grumble, complain, rebel, and wish they were back in Egypt. But when Joshua raised some concerns, Moses said, “Oh that God would pour out His Spirit on all the people!” (Numbers 11:29) And now it was happening. God was taking not just a part of the Spirit that had been given to Jesus, but the fullness of the Spirit and now pouring it out. And on all flesh. Not just Jews by birth, this was a promise for all the nations - Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. . . . That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And so the Old Testament festival of Pentecost was being fulfilled. Pentecost, the beginning of the harvest; and now God was beginning His harvest of souls. And where better to begin than in the shadow of the cross. The cross that made it all possible.

So Peter and the others would preach - just as Ezekiel had, just as Moses had. And the Spirit would work through that Word. The Spirit that actually made those dry bones live and come to life. The Spirit that worked through Moses and gave life to Israel in the wilderness. The Spirit that would now work in the hearts of the nations that day in Jerusalem. Don’t underestimate the Spirit of God! The Spirit of God that created all things in the beginning ex nihilo - out of nothing, can certainly give life to dry bones and to those dried up and dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2). Including the most unlikely and sinful people of all . . . YOU!

Oh, you didn’t see that coming? Too busy patting yourselves on the back? Thinking like the Pharisee in the Temple one day: Thank God I am not like that! Like that man, a sinner! (Luke 18:11) Oh but you are. Chasing after the pleasures and cares and desires of this world has dried you out and robbed you of the life God has for you. And have you not grumbled, complained, and rebelled against God as much as Israel in the wilderness? And you’re not even in the wilderness but abundantly blessed! And still you want more, better, different, higher. And those folks in Jerusalem that day? They killed Jesus! But do you not crucify Jesus anew when you continue in your sins and live as if God did not matter and as if you mattered most? 

And so to you, too, God preaches and sends preachers. Because whoever you are and whatever you’ve done, however dried up and rebellious you are, your Father loves you, Jesus died for you, and the Spirit is working in you. God wants you as His child. Which is pretty remarkable. A love and grace far beyond anything in this world and life. 

So through His Word God continues His work, which Jesus described in the words we heard from John this morning. Teaching that when the Spirit of truth comes . . . He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. . . . He [the Spirit] will guide you into all the truth. 

That is, the Spirit will first teach you the truth about yourself and your sin; the sin that blossoms from not believing in the goodness and loving kindness of your Father and so taking matters into your own hands. Doing what you want, believing what you think, exalting yourself and relying on yourself. You need first to know that hard truth about yourself.

Then after teaching you the truth about the righteousness you lack, the Spirit then points you to the righteousness that Jesus is and has and gives to you. The righteousness He has perfectly fulfilled for you and all people. Righteousness shown and proved in His resurrection and ascension - that the sinless one bore the sins of all the world, atoned for them, and defeated death and hell in His resurrection.

And then the Spirit will teach you that the ruler of this world is judged. He who accuses you is himself accused and judged and his fate is sealed. His actions lead not where you want to be, his words all lies. He has not your best interests in mind - only his own. What a contrast to Jesus! Who always has your best interests in mind, even when that meant going to the cross. So do not listen to and follow the one who is judged, but the one who is coming again as Judge.

That is the truth the Spirit teaches through the preaching of the Word, the preaching of the Church. The Word that is able to bring dry, dead bones to life, that is able to crush hard and stoney hearts, and that is able to turn crucifiers into confessors, kindling a fire of love in our hearts (Introit). Which is pretty remarkable. 

So what a day of hope is Pentecost! This Old Testament harvest festival that pointed forward to this New Testament day of Pentecost and the beginning of the Spirit’s harvest of souls. Continuing down through the ages - the time of the apostles, the early church, the persecutions, the middle ages, the dark ages, the renaissance, the enlightment, and down to our day and age today. The Church and Christians have been attacked and assaulted time and time again, and yet the preaching continues, the work of the Spirit continues. In unlikely places, to unlikely people, and with amazing results. The visible Church on earth waxing and waning, growing in one place and shrinking in another, but the Kingdom of God always growing. One Baptism, one Absolution, one Supper at a time. The Spirit being poured out on all flesh, but each one important, precious, and valuable to Him. 

As you are. That’s why the Spirit has brought you here. That’s why the Spirit came to you in Baptism. That’s why the preaching here continues and the Body and Blood of Jesus continues to be placed into your mouth. Because you matter to your Father in heaven. He wants not one soul to be lost. So He is here for you and will not stop. That you be His own and live under Him in His kingdom.

In His kingdom not just one day in the future, but already here and now. For His kingdom is already here and now. So He has gifts here for you and has prepared good works for you to do. He has forgiveness here for you, that you live not a life of guilt and shame, but of joy and confidence. And with His Body and Blood, He feeds you with His own life, that you have the strength to live in this world of sin, death, and opposition to His Word and ways. In all these ways the Spirit coming to you, working in you and keeping you in Christ.

Dried up you, dried up no more. Hard-hearted you, hard-hearted no more. Sinner you, now son of God! Which is pretty remarkable.

And then think . . . who do you know who is all dried up and dead? Who do you know who thinks Jesus not a Messiah or Saviour worth following? Who do you know for whom the Word of God . . . well, just isn’t going to do any good? Useless, like preaching to dry bones! Or dangerous, like preaching to those who kill and crucify Christians? Don’t underestimate the Spirit of God! For those dry bones came to life. Many who shouted “crucify!” repented and were baptized. And today, you are here. Raised by the Spirit from being dead in your trespasses and sins to a new life in Christ. The Spirit is continuing the harvest. Pentecost is still ongoing. 

So be bold, dear Christians! And when you’re tempted to say with Ezekiel, Lord, you want me to do what? . . . You want me to give what? You want me to do good to who? You want me to forgive who? You want me to follow you where? Just do it. Don’t underestimate the Spirit of God! Our remarkable God who specializes in doing the impossible and the improbable.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

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Jesu Juva

“Chosen, United, and One in Christ - Now and Forever”

Text: Acts 1:12-26; John 17:11b-19; 1 John 5:9-15

Alleluia! Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

I wonder how Joseph felt. Yes, you heard me right - Joseph, not Matthias. We often focus on Matthias, ‘cause he won. He’s the one who replaced Judas. But I wonder how Joseph, called Barsabbas, also called Justus, felt. You know, the loser. Was he sad? Or was he relieved? Was he happy for Matthias, or jealous? Was he really hoping to be chosen - and get his own verse in the hymn By All Your Saints in Warfare (LSB #517) that we’re going to sing again today for Matthias - or was he waiting for the result with much fear and trembling? Were his parents there, with their camera, so proudly waiting to take a picture of their son, the newest apostle? Or his wife, waiting to proudly embrace him? The seminaries had their Call Days a couple of weeks ago - Joseph was the guy who didn’t get a call. . . . So when the result was announced: Matthias, I wonder how Joseph felt.

Maybe you know. From that time when you weren’t chosen. For that promotion at work. For the team. For the school you applied to. For an award. They chose someone else. Your submission wasn’t good enough. You weren’t good enough. And as it has been famously said: No one remembers who came in second. Could you have named the one who wasn’t chosen to replace Judas before you heard the reading for today? Maybe. But I’m guessing not. 

Of course, the world doesn’t always - and we don’t always - make good choices. Sometimes after an election, people have election regret and wish they would have voted for the other guy or gal. Maybe the job you chose or were chosen for turns out not to be exactly what you thought it was going to be. And the crowd on Good Friday chose Barabbas over Jesus. 

Well, that last one . . . that one was a good choice. Even though the people didn’t realize it at the time. For in Barabbas being freed and Jesus bring rejected - and ultimately crucified - the salvation of a world plunged into sin because of the original bad choice of Adam and Eve to listen to the serpent and eat the forbidden fruit was accomplished. For Jesus was the one chosen by God to be the sacrifical lamb, to be the sin offering for the sin of the whole world, for the life of the whole world. Jesus was chosen to be the one upon whom all the sin of the world would be heaped, and all the wrath of God against sin would be poured, that we be rescued from our bad choices, from our sin and death, and set free. Jesus was chosen, not in a contest with others, but because He was the only one who could accomplish this for us.

And how did Jesus feel about that? Chosen to be the loser? Chosen to be the biggest loser, the biggest sinner, ever in the history of the world? He wasn’t sad or disappointed, but joyful. Not happy to endure all that He had to endure - the rejection and mocking, the whipping and spitting, the pain and torture, and the forsakenness of the cross - but joyful in knowing that His losing would mean your winning. His rejection would mean your being chosen. So Jesus dies that you might live. He is condemned that you be forgiven.

Which means that even if all the world rejects you, even over and over and over, God does not. Not because you’re good or good enough or better than the others, but because Jesus died for you. In Him you are blessed. In Him you are chosen. From loser to winner. From sinner to saint.

Which is what we have been rejoicing in this whole Easter season now drawing to an end as we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost next Sunday. But while the Easter season is coming to an end, its reality is not. For your baptism is your everyday Easter. Your baptism is your dying and rising with Christ. Your baptism is that daily reality that you are a child of God, chosen and precious. That your heavenly Father never regrets choosing you, but delights to call you His beloved - and forgiven - son or daughter. Even if no one else delights in you or chooses you, your heavenly Father does! And that’s no little thing.

And it’s what Jesus was praying for in the words of His prayer that we heard today. These words from the prayer Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He was arrested and crucified. He’s praying for His disciples and He’s praying for you - for you who believe because of the apostles’ testimony. Keep them in your name, Jesus prays. That is, guard, protect, watch over all who bear the Name of the triune God. Keep them in the faith. And sanctify them - holy them - in the truth; your word is truth. The Word of forgiveness poured upon you in Baptism, applied to you in the Absolution, proclaimed to you in the Gospel, and fed to you in the Supper. In all these the truth that God chose you and is giving Himself and all that He is and has to you. That’s what Jesus is praying for. That’s how precious you are to Him.

Because while His time of suffering and death is almost here and will soon be over (when He prayed those words), He knows that while He will no longer be in the world, you will be. A world filled with words not of truth but of untruth. A world filled with sadness and disappointment. A world filled with sin and death. A world that will reject the disciples of Jesus (which includes you) in the same way that it rejected Jesus. A world filled with division and where the evil one will seek to divide you from your Saviour. A world that is not easy to live in.  world that you are in but not of, and the world hates that. Hates that you won’t go along with what they want. Hates the truth that you believe and live.

So Jesus is praying for you. Not that you be taken out of this world, because you are needed in it. The world needs Christians; needs the salt and light you provide (Matthew 5:14-15). In your homes, in your neighborhoods, in your workplaces, in your schools. In all those places Jesus using you, His chosen ones, His children, to be a blessing to others. To provide for them what is needed in body and soul.

Which isn’t easy. And so maybe you find yourself hoping that someone else will be chosen. Not that you don’t want to be a child of God - of course you do! But to speak, to act, to love, to forgive, to give . . . well, where’s a Matthias when you need one! And maybe there will be Matthiases chosen instead of you. But maybe also, at times, you will be the one chosen. To speak, to act, to love, to forgive, to give. Maybe even to lay down your life. Which, according to sources, Matthias did, either by crucifixion or by being chopped apart.

I don’t know if that will happen to you or me. Maybe. But if you are so chosen, it is not the end for you - just the completion of your baptism. For in baptism you die and rise with Christ. And what has happened to you in the spirit will also happen to you in the body. When you die, you will rise. To life eternal. For to that you were chosen. Not just to live now, but to live forever.

And so the Father is sanctifying you, the Son is praying for you and laying down His life for you, and the Spirit is coming to you. Not bad! God choosing you, loving you, coming to you, saving you. And now the Body and Blood of Jesus for you. That whether you’re a Matthias, a Joseph, or one of the other 100 or so other believers there that day whose names we’ll never know, you rejoice in the life you have been given, and the vocations you have been chosen for. For all receive the same Baptism, the same forgiveness, and the same Body and Blood. And all are important and vital. Just different. But none unimportant. A mother and father raising their children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord just as important as a pastor teaching His flock. For the most important title you can have is not apostle, bishop, pastor, or martyr; not president, general, CEO, celebrity, or influencer; not the one with the most hits, likes, follows, or friends; but this: child of God. Reconciled, sanctified, and unified with God. 

So while I don’t know how Joseph felt, or what happened to him after this day, and even though no one remembers who came in second, I do know this: Joseph’s name and identity wasn’t loser or the one not chosen, because even before this Joseph had been given a new name and identity in His Baptism. The name of the one who won the victory forever. The name of the triune God. Which is the name you, too, now bear. And with that name, in that name, there are not winners and losers, nor is there equality or sameness - things which seem so important in our world today - but something far greater and better: oneness and unity. Oneness in Christ and so unity with one another. As one Body. All in one for one is for all - that one in His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. For you.To make us one. And He did. All is accomplished. 

For Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

And Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!]

And one with Him, so are you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Ascension of Our Lord

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Jesu Juva

“On the Offensive”

Text: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53; Ephesians 1:15-23

Alleluia! Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Ascension of our Lord takes place 40 days after Easter, as we heard in the reading from Acts tonight. 40 is a significant biblical number. It is also a number that frames Jesus’ salvific, incarnate work for us. 

For when Jesus began His public ministry, He was baptized by John in the Jordan, and after the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, He immediately was thrown out into the wilderness for . . . yup, 40 days. And as you know, He was thrown out there to be tempted by the devil. But Jesus was not on the defensive out there in the wilderness, trying His best to survive this onslaught of the old, evil foe. The reality was exactly the opposite. Jesus was invading enemy territory. He was going out into the place created by sin - a place of nothingness and death - to go on the offensive against the one who brought sin and death into a perfect world. The Son of God, with the Holy Spirit, goes out to fight. And win.

Now, 40 days after His great victory, His great resurrection from the dead, the heavens open yet again and Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father. Not a physical location, but the place of His authority and power. He is the Father’s right-hand man. And as He does, as He ascends, He promises His disciples that same Holy Spirit that had descended upon Him. Not because they will now be on the defense because Jesus is gone - but quite the opposite! To go on the offensive yet again against the devil. To go out into all the world with the Gospel - the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins; the Gospel of the resurrection victory over death; the Gospel of Jesus’ triumph over hell and all its powers; the Gospel that the one who overcame by the tree in the Garden of Eden has been overcome by the tree of the cross. Now, with Jesus’ ascension, the battle, the fight goes on - now Jesus fighting and working through His Church. And again, He will win.

For a wrong understanding of the Ascension is that Jesus is now gone and we are alone. He was here, on earth, but now He is there, in heaven. And now the big, bad, satanic wolf is out there, lurking, prowling, beneath every rock, around every corner, waiting to pounce . . . and so we are on the defensive. Until Jesus comes again, we’re in survival mode, just trying to hang on and get through this world and life until Jesus rescues us! Either taking us out of this world in death, or coming again in glory. But either way, hang on! It’s going to get rough and tough. That’s how satan wants you to think. How weak you are! How vulnerable you are! What danger you are in!

And without the Holy Spirit, it would be so. That would be true. But Jesus promised His disciples I will not leave you as orphans (John 14:18). We’re not abandoned street children just trying to survive. Rather, Jesus says, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. [S]tay in the city until you are clothed with [this] power from on high. Did you hear that? This power. We are not powerless. Jesus ascends in order to send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, as Isaiah tells us, of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2). And when Jesus does, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Jesus says, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. That is, the disciples - now apostles, sent ones - will go on the offensive! They will go out into all the earth with the power of the Word and Spirit of God. And so, Luke tells us, they returned to Jerusalem not in sadness that their friend, Master, and Saviour had left them, but with great joy that Jesus’ powerful work of forgiveness and life would now continue through them.

And it did. Beginning the very day the Holy Spirit descended upon them and 3,000 people were baptized! That’s the church on the offensive, people saved and rescued from the dominion of satan and brought into the kingdom of God. And the church has been continuing that work ever since.

Though sometimes it seems like we’re on the defensive, doesn’t it? The power of the world seems so great and the church and Word of God seem so weak. And ignored. So we cower in fear. We hunker down in survival mode. We don’t believe that the power of the Word and Spirit of God is greater than any and every power on this earth. And of that we need to repent.

Because no matter how things seem to us, the world and the evil one are not winning. Period. Jesus already won the victory over sin, death, and hell. Period. Maybe that power is hidden now, as it was when Jesus looked just like a poor carpenter from Nazareth, when He looked like just another condemned criminal on a cross. And maybe the church looks similarly poor and condemned today. Do not be deceived or misled into false belief and despair! Hear Jesus’ words of forgiveness and life, know that the tomb is empty, and that the victory has been won. Sin couldn’t defeat Jesus, death couldn’t hold Jesus, and hell couldn’t stand against Jesus - and it still can’t. That, too, Jesus promised, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church that confesses Him as Saviour (Matthew 16:18).

That’s why the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy that day of Jesus’ ascension, and why this is a day of great joy for us. For while we still live under the cross, we do not live in defeat. The cross is the hidden glory of God, the unlikely but oh so powerful instrument of God’s great victory for us. And where the cross is today for us - in the water of baptism, in the proclamation of forgiveness, in the preaching of the Gospel, and here again tonight in the Body and Blood of Jesus - is that same power and victory.

So after being baptized and receiving the Spirit, Jesus goes on the offensive in the wilderness. And after being baptized and receiving the Spirit, so does the church today. On the offensive every time a person is baptized and made a child of God. On the offensive every time we forgive and do not take revenge. On the offensive when we proclaim the grace and favor of God that is gift and not earned. On the offensive when we confess the victory of Jesus here in His Supper. On the offensive against the sin and darkness in the world. We have a light to shine that scatters the darkness and gives hope. A light that shatters even the darkness of the grave and points us to an eternal home.

So like the disciples, return to your home tonight with great joy and be continually blessing God. 

For Christ is ascended! [He is ascended indeed! Alleluia!]

And His Spirit and victory and power are yours.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Friends of God in Jesus”

Text: John 15:9-17; 1 John 5:1-8; Acts 10:34-48

Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends.

Jesus calls His disciples friends. Marvel at that, please. 

And let’s think a little about friendship today. And not the virtual kind, where being friend only means agreeing with that person and hitting a button on a computer, but true friendship, which seems to be a lost art today. A rarity these days, in a dog eat dog world, a selfish world, a “get all I can” world. True friendship, which is personal, which gives of yourself for another.

The government does not call you friend. You are taxpayer, citizen, subject, voter, but not friend. The government makes laws and expects you to follow them. It has law enforcement for you if you don’t. And if a politician does something for you, it’s likely not because you’re a friend, but because he or she wants your vote, or a donation.

You may be friends with your boss, but at work, he is the boss and you are the employee. What he or she says goes, and you are expected to do what you are told.

Pontius Pilate, you may remember, wanted to be in the exclusive “friend of Caesar” club, but that was not easy, or cheap. He’d have to earn his way in, and the Jewish leaders were threatening to torpedo that if he didn’t crucify Jesus for them. 

And some of you will remember when Bill Clinton was in the White House, there was a group of people calls FOBs - for “friends of Bill.” People who had donated enough to his campaign that they were given the favor of staying in the White House and sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom.

Friends today aren’t what they used to be, and people are suffering for it. In this world today there are the haves and the have nots. Those above and those below. The high and the low. The rulers and the ruled. Masters and servants. 

And Jesus has turned all that completely upside-down!

For in Jesus, the one above all has come down to us. In person. The Most High has become the most low. The Ruler of all has put Himself under the Law. The Master has become the servant. All for you. He was born not in wealth but in poverty, as one of us. He lived not a life of privilege but of service. And He laid down His life - not because He needs your vote, your service, or your money - everything is His and whatever you have came from Him! There is nothing you have that He needs. But everything you need He has. So Jesus laid down His life for you, to provide for you. To give you the life, the forgiveness, the love, the future you need. But this too: to make you friends. His friends. More than mere servants, subjects, workers, creatures, or disciples (followers). But friends of God.

Marvel at that, please.

For by nature sinful and unclean, you are by nature an enemy of God. And born dead in your trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2), there is nothing you can do to earn or deserve friendship with God. But as Paul said to the Romans: Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6b-8). Christ didn’t die for His friends for their weren’t any to die for! So He died for His enemies. To give us life and make us His friends.

And you are, because what God calls something, that it is. God calls what is not into existence through His Word. And so if Jesus calls you friend, you are. Not because you have done it, earned it, or deserved it, but because He has gifted that to you. 

The Jewish leaders noticed this about Jesus, and didn’t like it one bit! He should be their friend, not the friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 11:19). But He keeps hanging out with them. He keeps forgiving them and eating with them and rejoicing in them. But that’s not the way it works, Jesus! They have to change. They have to become friends of God and then maybe God will help them. Jesus isn’t doing it right! God would never do such a thing.

But it’s exactly what God would do. And did do. It’s not Jesus who needs to change, but us. It’s not Jesus who is upside-down, we are.

So in His death and resurrection, Jesus sets things right again. He does what a friend does. The one who is life dies, that those captive to death might live. The sinless one becomes sin, that those filled with sin might be righteous. The Son of God is forsaken by His Father, that we who are estranged from God might be His friends. And it is so. The empty tomb the proof that death did not win. The empty tomb the testimony that sin is overcome. And the empty tomb our joy, that the one come to be the friend of tax collectors and sinners is alive and still befriending sinners, hanging out with them, forgiving and eating with them, and rejoicing in them. 

For that is what Jesus does here. He comes, as John says, by the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Speaking to us and forgiving us by His Word, befriending us with the water of His Baptism, and sitting at Table with us, the Table with His Body and Blood for us. The Spirit working through all of these means to give you what you do not have, to make you what you are not, to overcome that which had overcome you. For Jesus is the one who has overcome the world, and by faith in Him - that is, the gift of new life and forgiveness we have received from Him - that victory is ours. And so we, too, have overcome the world and the ways of the world. To live right-side-up in an upside-down world. As friends of God.

Friends who don’t just know God from a distance or through a computer, but know God personally. The God who came to us as a person. And still is. The God who speaks to us in the Scriptures, as friend, that we know Him. For the Scriptures aren’t God’s rule book. They’re not God saying “Do this” because I said so! Because I’m God, I’m the boss, I’m the authority. That’s what some people think, and so “friend of God” is a very foreign concept to them. So if they want to be a friend of God they must follow the rules; they have to be good and earn it. 

But how did Jesus really use His authority? We heard Jesus speak of that that two weeks ago, actually, on Good Shepherd Sunday. He came into our world with the authority to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:18). To die and rise for us. To be our friend - for greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. But His love is greater, God’s love is greater, because He did it to make us His friends. And this is what He has been teaching His disciples all along. Servants do not know what the master is doing or why. They just obey. But Jesus has made known all He is doing and why, to make us His friends. And if you hear all the Scriptures like that, you begin to have the mind of Christ. To see things in a new way. To see others in a new way. With no partiality, as Peter learned. But to see others - no matter who they are or what they have done - as those for whom Jesus died to make His friends.

And with such a mind, such vision, such faith, such a love received, such a joy given, we abide in that love and love one another. Because that’s who you are. We show we are friends of the one who befriended us by befriending others. As His life and love and joy abide in us.

And when those things don’t . . . when by our thoughts, words, deeds, and desires we show that friendship with the world is more important to us than friendship with God . . . that’s when Jesus’ friendship shines brighter than ever. Because it’s not one strike and you’re out - or even two, three, or seven (Matthew 18:21) - but forgiveness as great and as limitless as the cross. For if you could discover a sinner too big or a sin too often committed for the cross, then you could worry; should worry. But what is greater than the God of the universe, the God who created all things, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, the alpha and the omega, without beginning and without end, laying down His life for you? You got a sin bigger than that? . . . I didn’t think so. 

So when you fail, when you fall short, when your sinful and worldly thoughts, words, deeds, and desires get the best of you, when your friendship runs cold or you put it in the wrong place . . . the one who calls you friend still does. He doesn’t unfriend you! He instead says to you I forgive you, My friend. Take and eat, My friend. Go, you are free, My friend. I don’t burden you with commands, I set you free to live a new life. To overcome the world by faith - the faith that receives from Me this new life and friendship that now lives in you, My friend. 

Marvel at that, please. Friend of God.

For it really is quite extraordinary. In a world that more and more seems to be overcoming the faith, Jesus says it is our faith in Him that overcomes the world. In a world more and more hostile to God, Jesus is still calling tax collectors and sinners His friends. In a world more and more going its own way and accelerating away from God, Jesus calls us to try a new way. Which is really not new at all, but old. His way. The way of love. How He created things in the beginning, before we were injected with a lethal dose of sin and death. So Jesus comes to make all things new again (Revelation 21:5). To make you new again. And again and again. To live a new life. To live an old love. As His friends. And you are. Because He said so. And what He says, happens. What He says, is. And one day He will say rise, and you will. 

For Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

And so your life, dear friends of God, will never be the same again.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Fifth Sunday of Easter Sermon

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“An Unexpected Easter”

Text: John 15:1-8; Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-21 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Alleluia.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Ethiopian man was lost. He didn’t know how to read the map. He didn’t know how to get home. 

He wasn’t dumb. He was anything but. You don’t get to be in charge of all the treasure of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, if you’re dumb. 

He knew what road he was on. He had probably traveled that way before. He knew how to get to his house. That wasn’t the kind of lost he was. Besides, he probably wasn’t alone. An official of his standing would certainly have had others with him. We know he had at least a chariot driver with him, whom he commanded to stop by some water. Probably others, too, for protection from bandits and thieves, if for nothing else.

For he was traveling with wealth. He was no ordinary pilgrim. Given his position, it seems likely he had been sent to Jerusalem, going on behalf of his queen. To worship, that is, to take gifts from her to the God of Israel. And while there, perhaps to purchase the scroll he now read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah. For it was quite extraordinary that he would have such a thing in his possession. It probably wasn’t his. Such scrolls were very expensive and rare. They were usually limited to synagogues, temples, and libraries. People didn’t own their own personal copies like we do today. So it seems likely that this, too, was at the queen’s behest.

So being an educated man, an official of some calibre, why not read this scroll on the journey home? 

And so it was that Isaiah confused him. He was lost. He had read almost 53 chapters (where he quoted from today) because with a scroll, you didn’t start in the middle. You start from the beginning and unscroll it. But even after so much reading, he couldn’t understand. What was the prophet talking about? Who was the prophet talking about? A man of his position probably wasn’t used to being confused . . .

And then he heard a voice - but not the voice of one of his companions. A strange voice. Do you understand what you are reading? It was almost as if this prophet’s God had arranged for someone to explain to him . . . someone to lead him home.

Which, of course, is exactly what was happening. Isaiah’s God had sent an angel to send Philip on this mission. Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, he told Philip. And then later, when Philip was on the road, the Spirit told him, Go over and join this chariot. And Philip didn’t wander over, he ran! And then he heard familiar words. The words of Isaiah that spoke of Jesus and that Jesus had fulfilled as the Lamb of God. The Lamb led to the slaughter. Words that Jesus had explained to His disciples after Easter. Words that the Apostles were now teaching the people. And words that Philip now was given the privilege of unpacking to this Ethiopian man. The chariot his pulpit. The desert his church.

There was so much to say! Philip began with what Isaiah said here, but said so much more! He told him the whole story as Isaiah laid it out. Isaiah chapter 7 about the virgin birth. Isaiah chapter 11 about the new kingdom that was ushered in by the one who is both David’s human son and David’s divine Lord - God and man in one person. Isaiah chapter 35 about how this promised one would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, and how the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. And how Jesus of Nazareth had done all those things. And then in chapter 53, that Jesus was this lamb led to the slaughter, and how this was God’s will. That God sent His Son to be born as a man and be the sin offering for the sin of the whole world - no one excluded. And that He was not dead, but risen from the dead! To now give life and an eternal home to all people. It is hard to imagine a better book for Philip to have to preach Jesus than Isaiah!

And like Peter and the other Apostles, Philip must have also told this man that in baptism, by water and the Word, a person receives this new life and new home. That in baptism, one is born again, born from above. For when he sees some water, immediately the Ethiopian wants this gift. That is for all people, right? Even him! He had likely gone to Jerusalem with gifts from his queen. Now he is the one receiving a gift for him! And one even greater. And he is no longer lost. He goes home rejoicing. But which home? Ethiopia? Surely. But his new home, too. With Christ. 

That day was Easter Day for this Ethiopian man. That was the day he was raised from being dead in sin to a new life in Christ. Or as John put it today, the day he was grafted into the vine of Christ. Just like you.

Now I wanted to give you this new way to think about the story of this Ethiopian man because I want to give you a new way to think about the Holy Gospel that you heard today as well. Because when we hear these verses about the vine and the branches and bearing fruit, I think many people, maybe most people, hear them as a command. That you have to bear fruit! This is something you have to do! And if you don’t, or if you don’t have enough, you’re going to be cut off. So get to work! . . . But that’s not what it says. There is an imperative, a command, in those verses, but it’s not to bear fruit. The command is this: to abide in Jesus. That’s the emphasis. It’s said seven times in those verses. To remain in Jesus. Connected to Jesus. Getting your life from Jesus. And when you do, you will bear fruit. That’s the reality.

For notice: this is all God’s work. As it was with the Ethiopian man. The Father is the vinedresser, Jesus says, which means He is the one who grafts branches onto the vine and He is the one who prunes and takes care of the branches so that they bear fruit. All the branches do is be branches and drink from the vine, and from that nourishment - and the Father’s care - fruit is produced. Good vine, good nourishment, good branches, good fruit. Pretty simple. 

Or, at least, it should be. But the very fact that Jesus must teach this shows it is not. That there is a constant temptation for us to receive our nourishment, our food and drink, from other sources. Sources that do not produce good fruit. From when Adam and Eve drank in the serpent’s lies, to when Joseph’s brothers ate the food of bitterness and revenge and sold their brother into slavery, to King David who thirsted for his neighbor’s wife and drank from that well, to the people of Israel who hungered for worldly success and honor and so became like the faithless nations around them, to Judas whose eyes feasted on the glitter of 30 pieces of silver so that when Jesus spoke these words we heard today, there were sadly only eleven disciples listening, not twelve. 

So abide in Me, Jesus says to them. Because He knows the past, He knows the present, and He knows the trials, temptations, struggles, and threats those eleven are about to face. And they will not be small, easy, or few. So abide in My word, He says to them. My Word will not mislead you. My Word will give you the strength and nourishment you need. And joy. The Ethiopian went home rejoicing, remember? And you know what Adam and Eve, Joseph’s brothers, King David, Israel, and Judas all had in common? No joy. Oh, maybe for a moment they did. But it didn’t last. In the end, there was just regret, fear, resentment, anger, bitterness, sadness, and loss.

So test the spirits, John wrote in his Epistle that we also heard from this morning. That is, think about what you are listening to; who you are listening to and learning from; from where you are receiving your spiritual food and drink and nourishment. Is it leading you farther and deeper into God’s Word or away and apart from it? It is causing confusion or clarity? Is it giving joy or regret? Fear or confidence? Doubt or certainty? So abide in Me, Jesus says to us, too. That we be not like Adam and Eve, Joseph’s brothers, King David, Israel, and Judas. Abide in Me, Jesus says, to us who - like the apostles - live lives in this world where trials, temptations, struggles, and threats are not small, easy, or few. This world where those who are anti-Christ are constantly trying to get us to listen to them - if not by worldly logic and wisdom, then by sheer repetition and wearing you down. So abide in Me, Jesus says. For your life.

Or maybe put it this way: do you remember when Jesus taught that you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24)? To put that same teaching into the words of Jesus that we heard today: you cannot be grafted into two different vines. You can only get your life and nourishment from one. Drinking from the world’s vine, you will bear the world’s fruit. Drinking from Christ, you will bear His fruit, which is good fruit.

So back to the Ethiopian man . . . do you think the next day, the next week, the next year, to the end of his life, that man remembered that moment when he and Philip stepped down from his chariot and not just baptized, but baptized into Christ, the true vine? Think that was a defining moment in his life? Then maybe for you, too. To remember that you are not just baptized, but baptized into Christ. That that day was your own Easter day! And abide in those words. That you are not just a person, like any other person, but a forgiven child of God. Abide in those words. Find your life in those words. Christ’s words.

And while we do not know anything else about this Ethiopian man, what he did after this story . . . do you think that maybe after Philip left him, he went back to reading the scroll of Isaiah, pouring over it, reading with new eyes, finding Christ in those words? Then maybe you, too. Finding in the Scriptures not just rules or laws, but Christ and His life. The wonderful and glorious truths that led up to Easter and now flow forth from Easter, of forgiveness, creation and re-creation, resurrection, goodness, mercy, a loving, caring, giving, and gracious God. Abiding in those words, living in those words, in Christ, and finding a joy that lasts. 

And while we do not know anything else about this Ethiopian man, we do know that Christianity flourished in Africa; that it was a center of the early Christian Church; a Church that produced a lot of good fruit as it spawned many of the great, early Christian theologians, like Athanasius (whose commemoration is today, by the way!), and Augustine, and Cyprian, and more. A church that perhaps started with the baptism of an Ethiopian man . . . that started that day in the back of a chariot . . . a vine growing from the back of a chariot . . . Wouldn’t that be just like Jesus? 

Abide in Me, Jesus says. To you. Who live in a world that is often confusing, filled with contradiction, rife with division, quick to accuse and persecute, ready to knock you down and run you over, eager to insist on its way or the highway, constantly changing, not always right but never wrong, ever conning, phishing, scamming, and always ready to dive headfirst into the latest sinful fad, and tempting and luring you to go with them. How do you stand in such a world? How can you? What can you rely on? What foundation? What truth? 

Abide in Me, Jesus says. To get you through such a world. To get you through death to life. To forgive your sin. To raise you up. To strengthen you. A vine growing not out of your chariot, but in your house, in your life, bearing good fruit, His fruit. He’ll do it. He said so. Just abide in Me, He said. That’s the command. Remember your Easter Day, your baptism. Drink deeply of His Word. Rejoice in His forgiveness. Come eat and drink His Body and Blood. Often. He’ll grow in you. As He abides in you.

For the simple fact is this: the life of the vine is the life of the branch. It was for those apostles, it was for that Ethiopian man, it was for the early church, and it is for you. So abide in the true vine. Abide in Christ.

For only Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

Just be who you are. He’ll take care of the rest.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.