Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

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Jesu Juva

“A Firm Foundation”

Text: Luke 24:13-35; Acts 2:14a, 36-41

 

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.

One of the things I really appreciate about the Scriptures is their honesty - the people in these pages aren’t superheroes! They’re just like us. They fail and sin. They get confused. They are slow to learn. They mourn. They get all tied up in knots. Think of all the people in the Bible who don’t get it, who sin and fail, and often times spectacularly! And not minor figures, either. The main guys.

So it was with those two disciples as they left Jerusalem after the Passover - a Passover unlike any other! - and made their way back to the village of Emmaus. They weren’t celebrating Jesus’ victory. They didn’t have it all figured out. They weren’t paragons of great faith. They were sad and dejected, just as we would have been. Just as we often are.

And we see the mercy of Jesus - mercy that He showed all through His life, that He showed especially on the cross, but which He continues to show here, to these two disciples. Just two. Which is the way of it with Jesus, isn’t it? Talking with Nicodemus by himself (John 3), to a Samaritan woman by herself (John 4), searching out the man born blind after restoring his sight (John 9). Jesus doesn’t care just how big the crowds, like when He fed the 5,000. Where even two or three are gathered . . . (Matthew 18:20)

So Jesus comes to these two. He doesn’t expect them to figure it out on their own. They can’t. We can’t. I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him . . . we confess that in the Creed according to the Catechism. We need to be taught. We need to be straightened out. 

This is the problem we are born with. In the beginning, God created everything good and perfect and straight. But sin has us twisted up in knots. Satan cannot create anything - only God can do that. But he can twist and pervert what God has made good and straight. And he has. So in the First Reading today, from the book of Acts, we heard Peter say to the people in Jerusalem, 50 days after Jesus came to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus: Save yourselves from this crooked generation. And crooked is a good word, a word that describes every generation. It’s what sin has done to us. Bent us, curved us, curved us in on ourselves. So it’s no longer God first but ME first. No longer my neighbor first but ME first. Think about what our world is all about today . . . what I want, what I feel, what I need, what I think, what I want to be true, what makes ME happy, what I deserve, what I have coming, what’s good for ME. Sound like what we see in our world today? And what, perhaps, you often see in yourself?

So what does Jesus do with these two men? He straightens them out. Note what they said, how they were curved in on themselves and so confused and jumbled and tied up in knots. WE had hoped. WE thought. But what they thought was wrong. Just as what we think is often wrong. So Jesus straightens them out, bends them back out, and directs them away from themselves and what they hoped and thought, and to the truth. To the Word of God. To what the Scriptures, the Old Testament, said. Here’s the foundation. Here’s the truth. And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

And their hearts are burning, their eyes are opening. They are believing in a new way, seeing in a new way. They are being straightened out until, finally, it all comes together at the Table. All their catechesis “clicks” and they see Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And then they stop going the wrong way, back to Emmaus, back in sorrow, sadness, and mourning, and they turn around and start going the right way, back to Jerusalem, back to the other disciples, back in gladness and joy. No longer tied up in knots of confusion and guilt and dashed hopes, but straightened out and set free in forgiveness and faith. Focused on Jesus, not themselves. Focused on what He did, not what they have done. Focused on life, not death.

Which is the same thing Peter did 50 days later on the day of Pentecost when he preached to the crowds in Jerusalem that day. Peter who, himself, needed straightening out a time or two. And was, by Jesus. It’s a shame we didn’t hear those twenty-two verses in Acts skipped over in the reading today (we’ll hear them once we get to Pentecost ourselves). For in those verses Peter is doing what Jesus did and using the Old Testament to straighten the people out and point them away from themselves and to Jesus. To Jesus once crucified, dead, and buried, but now risen from the dead. 

So when they ask, what shall we do? Peter doesn’t point them back inside themselves, back to their hearts or faith, back to the confusion and twisted knots inside them - that’s not the answer! Instead, he points them to where the living Jesus - and His word and promises and forgiveness and life and salvation - is for them now: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here is your foundation. Here is the truth. Here is Jesus for you. And that day, as we heard, about three thousand stopped going the wrong way, their own way, their own crooked and twisted and sinful way, and were turned to the right way, the straight way, the way of gladness, joy, and hope. In Jesus.

And so it is for you and me today. For you and me who go the wrong way, who get twisted up in knots, who are often confused and dismayed, who sin and fail (often times spectacularly!), and who are curved in on ourselves. For us who need straightening out. Who need to hear: it’s not all about what you want, what you feel, what you need, what you think, what you want to be true, what make you happy, what you think you deserve, what you think you have coming, what you think is good for you. That’s not what life is all about! That’s kind of blasphemous to say in our world today. But it needs to be said. So that we begin to think differently, rightly, biblically.

Which is really as big a change in thinking as the Copernican Revolution was in the 16th century. Now, what was that? Maybe some of you remember learning about Copernicus in school. Before his time, it was thought that the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved around . . . well, us! Copernicus, though, changed that thinking to the sun being the center and everything revolving around it. And it’s that kind of change in thinking that we need - that everything doesn’t revolve around ME. That’s it’s not all about what I want and think. Everything really revolves around the Son - the Son of God. He is the source of life and all that is needed for life. My life now and my life eternally.

So we come here every week, after another week of going the wrong way, of being confused, of being crooked and tied up in knots . . . and we’re pointed not to what we can do, or should do, or have to do, because what we can do and do do is the problem! Instead, we’re pointed to Jesus and what He has done for us - His death and resurrection for us. His forgiveness for you, His washing for you, His teaching for you, His feeding for you. And with all these He straightens us back out, He unties the knots we have twisted ourselves in and cannot undo, and He sets us back on the foundation of His Word and truth. That we be no longer in sorrow, sadness, and mourning, but joy and gladness in being His children and living in His victory. 

So like the people Peter preached to in Jerusalem, we are pointed to baptism as the source of our life and hope. How do I know I have life and hope? Not because of anything in me! But because I am baptized! Because Jesus made me His own. There I have His Word and promise. 

And like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we see and receive Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Here He gives Himself to me, and with Him comes His forgiveness, life, and salvation. How do I know? Again, not because of anything in me! Not because I am somehow worthy - cuz’ I’m not! But because Jesus put His Word and promise here with His Body and Blood. 

And like the people in Jerusalem who heard Peter’s preaching and like those two disciples who heard Jesus’ teaching, we hear that same word today, here. We’re not left to figure it out on our own - we can’t. So Jesus, in His mercy, gives us churches and pastors and preaching and teaching to give us a foundation and that we know the truth. To constantly point us away from ourselves and to Jesus. To Jesus promised, to Jesus incarnate, to Jesus the fulfiller, and to Jesus the victorious one. Which is to say, Jesus for you.

And then like those two disciples, we go back out - not as superheroes or super-believers - but just as regular people. But regular people who have been with Jesus, who have been given Jesus, and so different. And to live like it, act like it, speak like it, love like it. Like we’ve been re-oriented, straightened out, unknotted, able to see rightly again. Because we have. That’s it’s not all about ME, it’s all about Jesus for me. And that’s better. A lot better! 

For how much is Jesus for you? Peter used the word ransom today. A ransom is a payment that is made to buy someone back, and the more valuable and precious and important they are, the higher the ransom. So this is what Peter said: you - you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers - from the self-centered, curved-in-upon-ourselves sin we inherited - you were ransomed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. You see, you are so important, so valuable, so precious to God, that the very life and blood of Jesus were given as the ransom for you. Which makes you more valuable and precious than you can imagine. That’s how much God loves you. That’s how much God wants you. That’s how much God is willing to give for you.

That’s what those two disciples on the road to Emmaus needed to learn. That Jesus’ death on the cross was no out-of-control tragedy, but exactly according to plan, according to Moses and all the prophets, to give them life. For that’s how this story ended - not with death, but with life. Not with burial, but with resurrection. That’s our foundation, that’s our hope. Nothing in us, but all Jesus and what He has done for us. The foundation that Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] So that no matter what is happening in the world or in our lives, we need not walk in sorrow. Jesus is risen. 

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

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter

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Jesu Juva

“The Confidence to Go On”

Text: Acts 5:29-42; John 20:19-31; 1 Peter 1:3-9

 

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.

See? This is exactly what they were afraid of. This is exactly what they were afraid was going to happen. And it is. This is exactly why they shut themselves in that room and locked the doors and windows. The Jewish leaders were after them. They had crucified Jesus, and now they were after them. The book of Acts tells us how disciples were being arrested, threatened, imprisoned, and beaten. And more than that, the Jewish leaders wanted to kill them, just as they had Jesus. It was all happening. Like the fears you have that show up in your dreams. Like that you have a presentation at work or school and the day comes and you don’t have it! Except you wake up and go on. For them, it was real.

And yet they went on. They were arrested and threatened, yet they went on. They were thrown in prison, yet they went on. They were beaten, yet they went on. Not because they were the ones who woke up from a bad dream, but because Jesus did! Jesus is the one who “woke up” from the dead after being threatened, arrested, imprisoned, beaten, and finally crucified. All that the Jewish leaders threw at Him and all that Rome could do to Him had been done. They were out of ammo. They had nothing left. And they lost. Jesus was alive, risen from the dead. So the disciples could go on.

So they could unlock the doors and windows of that room they were hiding in and go back out. Jesus had come to them and given them the peace they needed, the forgiveness they needed, and the joy and assurance they needed. That was real, too. It was no dream. They heard Jesus, they touched Jesus, they ate with Jesus. And it was the same Jesus. The nail holes were still there, the hole in His side was still there - just ask Thomas! But one thing was no longer there - death. Death had met its match, and lost. 

So the disciples who were there that night went out and told Thomas, and after receiving the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised to send them, they went to the Temple to tell everyone. Which was like going into the lion’s den, isn’t it?Why go there?

Well, they went to the place where the curtain had been torn in two from top to bottom at Jesus’ death (and perhaps hastily repaired and replaced by the Jews) to proclaim what that meant - that it was torn in two because it was no longer needed! God and man were no longer separated, but had been reconciled, brought together again, by Jesus. 

They went to the place also where sacrifices were offered - to proclaim that they, too, were no longer needed! For the Lamb of God had been sacrificed and His blood cleanses us from all sin. His blood now poured upon us in Baptism and poured into us in His Supper. The forgiveness and life we need is the forgiveness and life we have, in Jesus. They proclaimed these things in the very Temple where they were and were happening . . . and people were listening. And people were believing. And so the Jewish leaders were fuming.

Perhaps here is a good place to stop in the story and think a bit about our situation today. Are there things that we, too, are saying that cause other to fume and rage? Some who may be powerful and some who may just be loud. Who say: You must say this. You must do that. You must go along with what we say is right and true and just, or else! And if you dare to disagree, you must do so quietly and not in our modern-day “temples” - the public squares, the social media sites - of our world today. 

And you know the issues, what is causing this today. You must not say that marriage is between one man and one woman. You must not say that men are men and women are women, and that gender is of the body and not of the mind. You must not say that all lives matter, no matter what color, no matter if they are in the womb or out of the womb, no matter how old or weak or confused or disabled they are. You must not say that what someone thinks is right is wrong. You must not say that Jesus is the only way to the Father. In fact, do you remember the story of when a lawyer asked Jesus what the great commandment in the Law was (Matthew 22:35-40)? Today, I think, the expected answer would be: Thou shalt not judge! Thou shalt not judge what anyone believes. Thou shalt not judge what anyone does. Or else.

So some people lock themselves in - in their rooms, in their houses, in their own little worlds - like the disciples did that night. Afraid. Afraid of what will happen to them. And if we’re honest, we all at least have moments like that; maybe more than a few. When we should speak but remain silent. When we should act but don’t. When our fears get the best of us. Which is why we confess our sin here every week. And this is one of the things I know I confess every week - maybe you, too? That I have lived in fear, that I have lived as if Jesus is still in the tomb and lost, that I have lived more worried about what the world thinks than what God thinks, that I have lived as if the world and those in the world have power over my life, whether I live or die. 

But they don’t. They don’t! For just as a risen and living Jesus came to those frightened disciples who locked themselves in that room, so He comes to us here with the peace we need, the forgiveness we need, and the joy and assurance we need. The same Jesus with the same victory, the same life, and the same gifts. The same Jesus they thought they had power over. Turns out, they didn’t. He is the one with the power of life and death. He is the one who woke up from death and came out of tomb, alive. And now He says to you: I forgive you all your sins. And He baptizes you into His resurrection and raises you to a new life with Him. And He feeds you with food that will not and can not perish - His own Body and Blood. And so like the disciples, we can now go out from this place. We came locked in our fears and sins, and we leave with His forgiveness and life. Free.

So the Jewish leaders were fuming and wanted to kill the apostles, still thinking they were the ones who had the power of life and death. But one of them, named Gamaliel, had some wise words. Don’t fight against God! If this is from men, it will fail. History shows us that. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop it.

Which is good for us to hear as well. Those things we see in our world today, the sin which seems so pervasive, the rebellion against God and His Word and truth, this movement that seems to be winning, it is of men and so will fail. And what is of God, His Word, His life, His forgiveness, will go on. It will not, it can not be stopped. Jesus had said the same thing earlier when He told the disciples: the gates of hell would not be able to stand against the confession of His Church (Matthew 16:18).

Not that it will be easy. The Jewish leaders beat the apostles before letting them go. I’m not sure exactly what that means - were they whipped? Beaten with a rod? Did they receive 39 lashes? Whatever it was, I’m sure it wasn’t enjoyable. But it also did not stop them. It could not. In fact, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus. Which is quite a turn around! From being afraid of this very thing to rejoicing in it! And not only did it not stop them, it compelled them even more to continue. To go out and go on. 

So maybe you will be beaten; tongue-lashed maybe, at the least. If you are, rejoice and be glad, Jesus said, for your reward is great in heaven (Matthew 5:12). You are among the blessed who have not seen and yet have believed. And while we often seek the blessing and approval of the world and our peers, that, as Gamaliel reminds us, is of men and so will pass away. And sometimes very quickly! How much better is the blessing and approval of our heavenly Father, which will not pass away. Which, as Jesus showed us, not even death can end. For it is not the world or anyone in the world who has the power of life and death, Jesus does. And that life He has given to you. You have that inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, as we heard from Peter today. For (as Peter also said) you have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead through your Baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection. And He is keeping your life and inheritance and guarding you, through trials and challenges, through joys and sorrows, through all the ups and downs you go through. For in a world that is ever changing, there is one thing that does not: Jesus. The one still coming to us today with His peace.

So what’s going on with you? Maybe it’s something you’re battling, maybe something that’s happening to a loved one, maybe a fear of tomorrow and what lay in the future. Satan tries to magnify all these things and make them look really big and powerful and block out Jesus. Make you think you’re on your own. Make you try to take him on by yourself. Don’t try it! You’ll lose. Big. 

But Christ crucified is our North Star. Christ crucified is our guiding light. That is, not just Christ crucified - but as we are celebrating this season - now risen from the dead. So that is and must be what shines forth here, in this place, in the Church. That in the midst of a world and life seeking to block out Jesus, to block out our hope and joy and forgiveness, we constantly come back to where Jesus is, where the same Jesus with the nail holes and hole in His side are for us today, to be re-oriented, to be forgiven, to be raised to life again, to be filled with confidence and joy. To know that He lives, and if He lives, so do I, and so will I. For He who unlocked the bars of death and the grave, can also unlock the fears in our hearts.

So like the disciples, we can go out, and we can go on. Until one day we go out from this world and go on to that life where there is only life, where death is no more, sin is no more, and evil is no more. For that is of God and so - as Gamaliel rightly said - the life and kingdom that will not, can not fail. 

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

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

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord

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Jesu Juva

“Our Faithful and Living Bridegroom”

Text: Matthew 28:1-10; Jeremiah 31:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4

(Introit: from Exodus 15)

 

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.

In our marriage liturgy, the bride and groom vow their faithfulness to one another until death us do part. And one day it will. As joyous as they are, all marriages begin with that reality - they will not last forever. But on the wedding day, the joy far outshines that reality. That part of the future can be safely tucked away. For now.

That was the situation for the disciples. At least three times, Jesus had told them that their relationship was going to end - with death. His death. He told them that He was going to be betrayed, arrested, and crucified. He didn’t tell them when. So the joy of being with Him, hearing Him teach, witnessing His miracles, enabled them to safely tuck that reality away.

And when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, with the large crowds and the shouts of Hosanna! it seemed that reality would be in the distant future. But how quickly things happened after that. It took only a couple of days. And death parted them. And suddenly they were alone. And felt very alone.

So after the Sabbath, the women went to the tomb, as many a grieving widow visits the grave of her beloved now parted from her. That part of the story is no surprise. What is is who else went to the tomb of their beloved that day - an angel who came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. An angel whose appearance was like lightning, and whose clothing was white as snow. An angel who made even hardened guards tremble and become like dead men. An angel who basically said this: you think that death has parted your loved one from you; that this is the end. It is not! He is not here, because he has risen, as he said He would. This is not the end! For there is one marriage that death cannot end - the marriage of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church. That’s why Jesus died - so He could rise and defeat death. That our joy have no end. That we be with Him forever.

Well, as you can certainly understand, it is not easy going from sadness and mourning to joy that quickly! The women departed from the tomb both with fear and great joy. Probably more than a bit befuddled, wanting to believe but cautious, not wanting to believe and then crash back down again. But then Jesus met them, and their joy was the joy of a wedding day! They were united again, and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Now I bring this up about marriage and put Jesus and His resurrection into this kind of context - which is perhaps a bit unusual for an Easter sermon! - because this is what the prophet Jeremiah does in the words we heard from him today. Now I have to confess, in all the weddings I’ve performed and all I’ve been to, I don’t think I’ve ever - ever! - heard Jeremiah as one of the Scripture readings. And, I think, with good reason. Jeremiah isn’t a very cheery prophet. Most aren’t! Most are sent by God to call His people to repentance, and Jeremiah was no exception. And the time of Jeremiah was a low point for the people of Judah. They had not just been unfaithful to God, their heavenly Bridegroom, they had been very unfaithful. They had been spiritually adulterous with not a few false gods. And so the death of the nation was imminent.

And yet, in the midst of these words of warning, Jeremiah also speaks words of hope - the words we heard this morning. Words filled with marriage hope and joy.

For first, the Lord declares through Jeremiah, I will be [their] God . . . and they shall be my people. You probably don’t realize it, but those are Old Testament marriage words. In our marriage liturgy, we ask bride and groom if they will take one another, and they say: I will. Here, it is God who says: I will. Even though His people had said we won’t, even though His people had been unfaithful to Him, the Lord continued [His] faithfulness to [them]. I will! And then notice the second half of that sentence: I will be [their] God . . . and they shall be my people. Even though they, right now, are saying we won’t, God is doing something, God is going to do something, so they shall be His people. That’s a statement. That’s a promise.

For, the Lord says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. That’s not a love that runs hot and cold, a love that’s here today and gone tomorrow, a love based on feelings or what have you done for me lately - an everlasting love could come only from one who is everlasting Himself. And be not because of anything in you or me, but because of Him; because that’s the kind of love He is and has for His Bride. An everlasting love is what brides and grooms promise, but which only the Lord can deliver and give. And He does. You are loved with that kind of love.

Then He goes on to say, Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Which, if you read through the book of Jeremiah to this point, you say: What? Huh? Israel is anything but a virgin! She has been unfaithful all over the place and with all kinds of gods! She is filthy and unclean; Disgusting, really. 

So what’s going on with these words? Well, two things. First, this is what forgiveness is. To speak of Israel as a virgin means that all her past - and all your past, too! - her sins, her unfaithfulness, her adultery, her rebellion, her I won’t! - is gone! Is forgiven. For God’s forgiveness is so total, so complete, that it’s as if the sin never happened. Jeremiah says later in this chapter that your sin is remembered no more (31:34). The Psalmist says your sin is separated from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), and there is no distance as great as that. So when you are forgiven, you are restored, you are perfect.

Which is also hinted at with the word build in that verse. That’s the verb used for Eve in the Garden, when God created her, or literally built her, for Adam. The sinless bride for the sinless husband in the first marriage. So the way it was is the way it will be again. Just as the perfect bride, Eve, was built from the side of Adam, so will the perfectly forgiven Church, the Bride of Christ, be built from the side of Christ, when His side is pierced on the cross, and His life-giving, forgiveness-giving blood and water pour out.

Then next for Jeremiah, there is music and dancing, and vineyards and their fruit - a party, a wedding feast. And then these words: Arise - and if that word doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb on the day of Easter, the day of our Lord’s arising, His resurrection! Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God. These are Easter words, new life words, because these words don’t make sense for the people of Jeremiah’s day, for Zion, the city of God, the dwelling place of God, according to Jeremiah’s prophecy, was about to be no more, destroyed, wiped out. But there was coming a day, when God’s people would arise - rise from their graves! - and go up - ascend - to the city of God, to the dwelling place of God! And then would begin the marriage feast that has no end. 

These words of Jeremiah are his vision of Easter, some 500 years before it happened. Though things were about to get very bad for the people, and there would be much death and destruction, God was going to raise them up. God was going to make things right again. God is faithful, and when He makes a marriage vow, He keeps it.

Which means that unlike our marriages, because of Jesus’ resurrection this day, death cannot part us from our Saviour. Though we die, His resurrection means that one day we will arise and go up to the Lord our God. For as we heard also from St. Paul today, When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. That’s another promise for you. 

Which we need, right? Because like the people of Jeremiah’s day, we look around and there’s a lot of death and destruction in our world. I don’t have to go through the litany of things again - you know them. You see them. You are saddened and sorrowed by them. But we are not without hope. For Easter is not about bunnies or chocolate, but about our Bridegroom who so loved His Bride that He laid down His life for us, so that dying He defeat our death, so that He wash away the stain of our sins and unfaithfulness, and fulfill His promise: I will. And I never won’t.

And until that day, until death no longer parts us and the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom begins, He feeds us now. The Lamb’s High Feast, as we will sing (LSB #633). A foretaste of the feast to come. Take eat, take drink, this is My Body, this is My Blood, the Blood of My promise, the Blood of forgiveness, the food you need, My beloved. And as you come and eat and drink, set you minds on things above. Don’t get mired and stuck in the things of this world and life. Yes, there is much to fear and worry about. But your life is not here or dependent on these things. Your life is safe with me, Jesus says. And when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. For as Jesus has already said through the prophet Jeremiah so many years ago: I will be your God, and you shall be my people. He has made it so.

So as we sang in the Introit, [We] will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously! And here is where these words will become a reality for us: until death us do part. For when we die in Christ, we will rise to life in Christ, and then we will finally and fully be parted from all sin, from death, and from the devil. Our divorce - not from God, but from evil - will be complete. And final. For the Lord will reign forever and ever. And because of this day, because of Jesus, because of His resurrection, we will reign with Him. Never to be parted again.

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

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

Easter Vigil Homily

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Jesu Juva

“Our Hope and Joy This Night”

All good things must come to an end. That’s what they say anyway. And there’s a reason that’s what they say. It’s what we see. It’s what we experience. It’s life in this world, because we live in a sinful world, and sin brings all good things to an end. You know it. Good things in your life have ended, and if they haven’t yet, you know they will. Sometimes one good thing ends and we move onto something else good. But sometimes a good things ends and nothing replaces it; or, something not good does. Good health ends with disease. A good marriage is ended by death. A good friendship ends in division. A good life ends in death. Those are moments we dread, even as we know they’re coming.

That’s the dread those women felt as they went to the tomb very early in the morning, on the first day of the week. A good life had ended in death. Their hopes had ended. A young man, an angel, robed in white told them otherwise, but how could they believe that? They know what they saw. They knew all good things must come to an end.

But actually . . . that morning, and that empty tomb, say not so fast! For with Jesus’ resurrection, there is now a life that will never come to an end. A life that had come to an end, broke the end! That there be no end. The sin that had brought a good and perfect creation to an end, plunging it into sin, had been atoned for. The death that robs us of life has come to its end with Jesus’ resurrection to life. And the dominion of the devil and hell which want to bring all good things, all the things of God, to an end, is itself brought to an end. There is one good thing that will not and cannot come to an end - Jesus! But that one thing, one person, one victory, is all we need.

So as we heard tonight . . . 

A world created good will be re-created and be good again, in Jesus. 

A world flooded by sin is washed in the flood of Jesus’ blood to be good again.

The son of Abraham not named Isaac, but named Jesus, would be sacrificed for us, that God’s promise live on and not die.

We who are slaves to sin are brought out of our slavery to freedom through the waters of Baptism, in Jesus.

This goodness and salvation is offered freely and abundantly to all people, in Jesus.

This goodness and forgiveness is for all, even the worst of the worst, in Jesus.

And not even the fiery furnace of hell can bring to an end those in Christ Jesus.

And as baptized children of God, as we remembered tonight, all that is yours. All good things do not come to an end, in Jesus. That is our hope this night. That is our joy this night. Thanks be to God!