Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“Filled with the Life and Love of God”

Text: John 14:15-21; 1 Peter 3:13-22; Acts 17:16-31

 

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.

We just heard Jesus say, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you weren’t in church, you might think that was a father or mother speaking to their child. Maybe they wouldn’t use the word commandments, but keep the rules, do your chores, things like that. But do them in love, not just because you have to. And not just because it’s Mother’s Day! But every day. 

Because we sometimes (maybe often times?) keep rules or do chores without love. Fine! I’ll clean my room - then slam the door. Set the table by slamming the plates and glasses down on it. There! Happy? No. The chore was done but lacking love, it really wasn’t. It wasn’t a loving service to your family. And no one is happy.

Old Testament Israel fell into this kind of rule keeping from time to time. They would offer sacrifices, but were just going through the motions. Their heart wasn’t in it, and they just wanted to get it over with so they could go back to business and doing what they wanted to do. And God said: I don’t want sacrifices like that. Don’t bother. 

Sometimes we keep rules not out of obligation but out of fear. We don’t speed for fear of getting a speeding ticket. We do what the police say because we fear getting arrested if we don’t. But keeping the commandments out of fear - so I don’t get in trouble with God or get thrown into hell - is not what God wants either. It doesn’t work anyway. Maybe you can avoid the speed traps and the IRS audits and get away with breaking the law in the world, but God sees everything. And while doing the right thing but for the wrong reason might be good enough for the world, and keep you out of trouble and out of prison, it’s not good enough for God. For God isn’t just about the doing, but about the heart.

So, Jesus says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Keeping the commandments is all about love. They are about loving God and loving our neighbor. If we could love perfectly, we would automatically keep all the commandments, for the commandments are what love looks like. The commandments are what the love in our hearts looks like when it comes out in what we do. So when our love is wrong, or when our love wanes, keeping the commandments goes with it. Sin is lack of love, or maybe better to say, lack of the right love. We serve what we love, whether that’s a person (including myself!), a thing, or a sin. 

But as important as all that is - and loving and doing the good works of the commandments is important to God - it is what comes next in what Jesus says that is more important. For it is what enables us to keep the commandments - not because we have to and not in fear - but in love, as God wants us to keep them.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans . . .

Now, Jesus doesn’t send the Spirit because we love and keep the commandments, but so that we will. The Spirit as the Helper. To help us so we will not be orphans - on our own with no one to help. He will dwell with you and be in you. Jesus calls Him the the Spirit of truth. For He will teach us the truth. The truth that our love is lacking, or wrong, and so we do not keep the commandments as we should. And the truth that Jesus did. That in His perfect love He kept the commandments perfectly for us. And the Spirit not only teaches us that, and gives us the faith to believe that, but is constantly pointing us to Jesus and constantly connecting us to Jesus, that His love - His perfect love - live in us. The love we need. That our love be right. 

AND giving us the forgiveness we need for our lack of love and our wrong love and our failure to keep the commandments in love. That forgiveness is why in a little while - mere hours from when Jesus said this, in fact - they will see Jesus no more. He will be sealed in the tomb. For in His perfect love, He is going to the cross to lay down His life in love. His life for our life. So that when they see Him again, after His resurrection, they will live because He lives. They will live a new life. A life filled with His love. And filled with his love, a life then also of good works, of keeping His commandments. 

As orphans, on our own, we could never do that. Sin has disordered our lives and our love. Even our best works are tainted with sin, are not good enough (Isaiah 64:6). But Jesus does not leave us as orphans. He comes to us. He comes to us in the preaching of His Word of truth. He comes to us in the water of Baptism which, as Peter said, saves us by washing us from the inside out. He comes to us in the word of Absolution which forgives and cleanses us and gives us a good conscience. And He comes to us in His Body and Blood which forgives, feeds and strengthens us. In all these ways Jesus comes to us with His forgiveness and love to fill us with them. That with rightly ordered lives and loves, that as sons of God in the Son of God, that with God as our Father in Jesus, we love as He loves and live as He lives. 

That’s the work of the Spirit in us.

And that is the reason for the hope that is in us, as Peter talked about. Some people think that when Peter says you should always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, that means we have to be able to answer every question people might ask you. But I think that is a rare person who can do that! (Maybe as rare as a sparkly unicorn!) Rather, our hope is Jesus. Jesus’ perfect life and love. Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus sending the Spirit as our Helper. Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins. Jesus’ promise that because He lives, we will live. We will rise from death to life with Him. That’s our hope. That’s what people need to hear. Just give ‘em Jesus! Tell them of Jesus. 

That’s our hope, though Peter also says, it might be a reason for suffering. 

For when we speak of our hope, of Jesus, with regard to life, sexuality, marriage, fathers, mothers, families, and other hot-button issues in a godly way, and also the truth of the one and only true God, there will be those who disagree with us and so oppose us and persecute us. Sometimes harshly. Which is hard. But if such suffering drives us to our knees, drives us to prayer, drives us to the Word, drives us to Jesus, then, as Peter said, it is good. God uses it for our good. It isn’t pleasant, but it is good.

And that God can use suffering for good, the cross is our proof; exhibit number one. For there God used the greatest suffering for the greatest good.

And the cross is the altar of the known God. In Athens, as we heard in the First Reading today, they had the altar to the unknown god. But the cross reveals God to us; makes Him known to us in a way nothing else can! For there we see how much He loves us. There we see His glory, that He uses His strength to serve and to save. There we see how much He gives up for us and how much He wants us as His children. What the people of Athens did not know, we do! And so Paul gave them a reason for the hope that was in Him. 

That’s what we do now, too. Mothers to their children; fathers, too. To friends and neighbors and co-workers. Why do you do what you do? Why do you live how you live? Why do you forgive? Because of the life and love given us by Jesus that now lives in us. The life and love of Jesus given us by the Spirit who Jesus has sent to be with us always. The Spirit which is not a power or a thing, but the very God living in us. 

So in the Collect of the Day we prayed earlier, we prayed: O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration - that is, by Your Holy Sprit - grant that we may think those things that are right - and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them. That with Your Spirit, we may have rightly ordered lives and loves, do those things that He commands, and always be ready to confess our hope. 

Which is what we will do in the closing hymn today. Confess that my hope is not in me or what I can do. Not in my obedience, my dedication, my good works, my love, or anything else in me! Because I fall short, and always will. My hope is that Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Yes, Jesus lives! The victory’s won! This shall be my confidence! (LSB #490) Now, and forever.

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

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

No sermon to post today as we were privileged to have Rev. Dr. Roland Ziegler with us this weekend who preached for us. Click here to listen to his preachment on our livestream recording.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter / Good Shepherd Sunday

LISTEN

Jesu Juva

“The Good Shepherd vs. the Death Shepherds”

Text: John 10:1-10; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:14 (Introit)

 

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 question is not whether you will have a shepherd or not, but which shepherd?

The question is not whether you will follow another or be your own boss, but who will you follow?

Life is not multiple choice. You can do it this way, this way, or this way - whatever you think or like best. Certainly there are choices we make in life, to do this or that. But those choices also come with consequences. Life and death consequences, sooner or later. And contrary to popular belief, like gender, life is binary. There is a way and choices that leads to life and there is a way and choices that lead to death. 

Which will it be for you?

Stupid question, right? Except it’s not. It’s something not just other people, but you are choosing everyday. To help us think about this, consider these words from Psalm 49 (vs. 10-14a):

For [we see] that even the wise die;
    the fool and the stupid alike must perish
    and leave their wealth to others.

Their graves are their homes forever,
    their dwelling places to all generations,
    though they called lands by their own names.

Man in his pomp will not remain;
    he is like the beasts that perish.

This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
    yet after them people approve of their boasts.

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
    death shall be their shepherd.

Did you hear that? At the end? Death shall be their shepherd. So there it is: that’s the choice before you today, on this Good Shepherd Sunday. Which will it be for you: the Good Shepherd or a death shepherd?

Again, stupid question, right? I mean, who would pick a bad shepherd, a death shepherd? But people are. Because the death shepherd isn’t going to call himself that. He’s going to call himself the good shepherd and make himself look good, and life-giving, and fun, and logical. Let’s look at a few, shall we?

How about first, one of the more popular ones: yourself. Follow your own instincts, your own desires. Do what you think is best and best for you. Do what feels good. That’s living! But is it? Does that give life? A lot of really smart people make really bad decisions. What feels good has led to record setting levels of drug addiction. And how often have you done something today that tomorrow you regretted? It may have felt good to play that video game instead of studying, but . . .

How about the wisdom of the world? Or, let’s say, of the majority of people in the world. The pooled wisdom of the world. That’s got to be a better guide, right? Well, how often have we been told one thing today and then later the exact opposite? What’s good for you today is bad for you tomorrow. And has the majority always been right? And not just 55, 60, or 75 percent - in the days of Noah, all but eight people - 99.99 percent or so! - thought one way, and it was the eight who were right, who lived.

Science! Follow the science! Well, science can be good, no doubt. Science has done some wonderful things. Science has also caused a lot of death. See Covid. And pain. See transgenderism. And how often has science changed it’s conclusions? What we were so sure of today, new data proves wrong tomorrow. 

How about social science? Social science which tells us any lifestyle you choose is good. But look at the evidence all around us. Same-sex relationships cannot create life. Has unbridled sexuality led to fuller and more abundant life? Or an epidemic of broken families, abandoned families, fear, poverty, crime, unwanted babies, and abortion? Has social media brought us life and brought us closer together? Or actually caused us to be more unsocial than ever before? And caused more separation, isolation, confusion, and stupid challenges that lead to death?

Well, those things could be good and life-giving, we’re just doing them wrong. We just need better leaders. This is those who look to politics to be their shepherd. . . Do I even need to go there? Look how politics is driving us farther apart, not closer together. And how about this delicious paradox: we’re fighting a war to prevent a future war! Using weapons of death to prevent weapons of death. 

And I’m sure you can think of a few more for this list . . .

But how many are following these, looking for life? Thinking that this will make my life better? When the reality and the evidence show exactly the opposite. How many times do we have to keep running head first into the same wall before we realize that’s a stupid thing to do! That wall called death. That wall we cannot go over, under, around, or through. We’ve been trying for a very long time now. Thousands of years, or millions or billions if you’ve bought into the myth of evolution. And we’re still dying. There is no fountain of youth. No magic potion to make you live forever. No progressing beyond death. If fact, if anything is evolving, it’s death! Not life. New ways to die keep cropping up - new diseases, new weapons, new lifestyles, new ways to strip away life.

Death shall be their shepherd. Yeah, when you look around, pretty accurate isn’t it?

And so it is into this world, into all this, that Jesus comes and says: I am the Good Shepherd, and I am the door. The door through death to life. And then says, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Pretty bold claim! How do we know we should follow Him? That this is the way we should go? That He is the way of life? How do we know? Well, one very simple fact. The fact that we are proclaiming especially this season: because His is the only grave that is empty! Everyone else who says Follow me is still in the grave that swallowed them up. Still on the wrong side of the wall named death. Only Jesus punched a hole in that wall and passed from death to life. And so to follow Him is to find that way to life. And not just life, or a little life, but, Jesus says, abundant life. Lots of life. Overflowing with life.

Because that’s the kind of life Jesus is, and has, and gives. Life filled with love and hope and joy and peace and contentment and forgiveness. Life filled with Himself and His Spirit. Life as He created it to be in the beginning, but which we, following our first parents, like straying sheep, have wandered away from. 

But Jesus still wants that life for you and has that life for you and so is here with that life for you and has brought you here to give that life to you. Yes, the fact that you are here is the work of your Good Shepherd, who brought you here to restore you and heal you from the disease of sin with His forgiveness, to give you the water of His Word to refresh you with the truth, to wash you clean from the filth and stench of sin in His Baptism, and to feed you with the food of His Body and Blood. That after another week of life-stealing sin, persecution, attacks, doubts, fears, lies, and death, Jesus is here with His life-giving Spirit. For there is life in no one else. Jesus is the door from death to life.

Which makes Him the Good Shepherd. There are lots of death shepherds. Only one Good Shepherd. Only one who can make things good again. Who can make you good again. Objectively good, not just what you think is good. Good as in what creation was before sin came into the world. That’s the good your Good Shepherd wants for you. 

But is that even possible? I mean, there is so much sin in us and in our world, is it even possible to restore it all? In all people and in a creation falling apart because of sin? We certainly can’t do it! But nothing is impossible for God, right? So He will. But as Jesus showed us, the way to that good, the door to that life, is through death and resurrection. So there will be a new heavens and a new earth, Jesus said (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). The old will die and a new will be brought forth. A new creation. Good again. But there must be a new you as well. So you must die and rise with Jesus.

And that begins for you in Baptism. That’s where Jesus joins you to Himself, so that you join Him in His death and resurrection and begin to live a new life. A good life. But not what the world thinks is good. God’s good. And as we heard from Peter today, you might suffer for doing that good, for living as the Christian you are. As He did. For what did Jesus do to warrant His death? Healing the sick? Casting out demons? Raising the dead? Speaking the Word of God? But, you see, living that good also highlights the bad and the errors that are in the world. And we don’t want to admit, confess that of ourselves. That we are sinners. That we haven’t been good. That we’ve gone our own way. You know it. You don’t like to do that.

But that’s the good breaking into this sinful world. You see, that’s what the door also does. When Jesus knocked a hole in the wall of death to life, that also enables life to flow into this world of death. And so after His resurrection, Jesus sends back His Spirit of life to give us life, and sends out His apostles to give His life-giving forgiveness and to baptize. To baptize more people into His death and resurrection. That more people pass through death to life already now. That you do. To live a new and good life. A good and godly life. Following the Good Shepherd, not the death shepherd.

It seems like such an easy choice! And maybe on paper it is. But in real life it’s hard. Because those decisions not to sin and not to follow the crowd and not to do what everyone else is doing and not to do what you want . . . that’s not easy. Others will think you strange at best, dangerous at worst. Dangerous to them and the way they want to live, and so persecute you. Even if you’re not really doing anything against them and just want good for yourself and for them. Maybe you’ve had that happen to you. In words of ridicule, in actions at work, some Christians having lawsuits filed against them. Sure doesn’t seem like abundant life when those things happen to you!

But don’t be fooled. Don’t be deceived and misled. That’s exactly what the devil wants you to think. The devil wants you to think the way of Jesus, the way of life, is actually the way of hardship and death so you’ll give up and give in and follow others. The death shepherds. Which promise life and good and fun . . . but as we considered earlier, cannot deliver in the end. Which many find out too late. That they’ve been swindled. Robbed of the life they were pursing. 

But Jesus isn’t here to rob you of anything, but to give you life. He died for you so you may have life. A brutal death by crucifixion! But He did so to break death and the grave for you, to punch a hole in that wall of death with His resurrection, so there be life for you. And that you not have to wait for that life, He gives it to you now. And yes, living this life in a world of death will be hard. But it is also good. And good trumps hard! Because hard is only for a while. Good will be forever. 

So take a look at your life. How’ve you been? Who have you been following? If you’re like me, it’s a mixed bag! Some good, some . . . So repent, hear those wonderful words of absolution, remember you are baptized and have passed from death to life in Jesus, and come through that door to the green pasture of His Supper, to eat His Body and drink His Blood and be nourished in the good life. Abundant life. Because with Jesus, there is no other kind. 

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

To life! And so in Him, so are you. 

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

Virginia March for Life Pre-March Homily

no audio

Jesu Juva

“God Became Man for Life”

Text: John 10:11-18; 1 Peter 1:3-25; Psalm 1

 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

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

Yesterday was the day of commemoration for Anselm of Canterbury, who lived in the eleventh century and whose most famous work was Cur Deus Homo, or, Why God Became Man. The answer to that is both simple and mind-boggling. The simple is that God Became Man to die. The Son of God takes on human flesh to die for human flesh. The Son of God takes on human flesh to take upon Himself the sin of all human flesh and atone for it. The Son of God takes on human flesh to give our human flesh hope. The hope of life now and life forever. That’s the simple answer. Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for us.

But that’s also the mind-boggling part! That God would do that for us. For a world and people who ever since Adam and Eve said to God and His creation: Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll do things our way. We don’t need you. Yes, we know what You said, but we disagree. We’ll take what we want, use our sexuality as we want, end our marriages when we want, love myself, not my neighbor, and anyone who gets in my way . . . yeah, they’ve got to go. The elderly, the inconvenient, the bothers, the troublesome, even the baby You gave in the womb.

That’s the world into which the Son of God came. A world definitely in need of His love and saving, but completely undeserving of it. And He came anyway. Because that’s who He is. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Exodus 34:6, et. al.). He saw His good creation taken captive - captive to sin and death, and did not stand idly by. He acted. He invaded. To battle for us. To battle sin, death, and the devil. To rise from death victorious. To undo death. All death. All the death caused by sin. And not just the death of people, but also the death of families, marriages, and faith. To give us new life and hope.

Which is what we heard from Peter this morning. That we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And Peter knew a little something about that. He knew the struggles of life and hope and toil; of working all night and catching nothing. He knew the fear and threats of a creation gone wild. He knew rage and spite and lashing out - both against him and from him. He knew despair, he knew failure, he knew death. 

And because Peter knows all that, he also knows joy. The joy of Jesus’ victory. The joy of salvation. The joy of forgiveness. The joy of hope. The joy of having an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us. A joy that can last even when grieved by various trials, because we are being guarded by God - by grace through faith. 

So we gather today in hope and joy. Hope that by the Word and Spirit of God, hearts will be changed and we will change from being a culture of death to a culture of life. Hope that every life will be valued and wanted. Hope that those in positions of authority and responsibility will use their vocations for good and for life. 

Such hope is not easy. It is a struggle. It’s not easy to endure when there is so much death around us, and contrary to what we sang in the Psalm, when the way of the wicked does not seem to be perishing.

At such times, though, we know where our hope and strength will come from. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord - the Word of the Lord. Who drinks deeply of the words and promises of God  and so is that tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither. And, we could say, whose hope does not die. So even if we do not see the way of the wicked perishing now, we know that it will. It must. Just as the darkness perishes in the light, so will all wickedness and evil perish at the coming of Jesus. 

Knowing this, Peter exhorts us to prepare our minds for action. To be holy. To conduct ourselves throughout the time of our exile in fear and faith, knowing the struggle, but also knowing our future, and knowing the victory of Jesus. That we have a Good Shepherd who died for all and wants all as His children and in His flock - even the littlest boy or girl in the womb. And if marching today means even one baby saved, one heart changed, one more person hearing the Word of God and repenting, it is worth it. The Good Shepherd knows each and every sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one.

Peter knew what it was like to be that one. Hopeless and lost. And so he knew the joy of being found and born again to a living hope. A faith and hope tested each day by fire, but a faith and hope also renewed each day by the love and forgiveness of Jesus. 

So Peter doesn’t blow smoke - he speaks the truth. And so must we. For only from the depth of sin comes the joy of forgiveness. Only from the depth of the grave comes the joy of the resurrection. And from the deception of the lie comes the joy of the truth. The truth that the Author and Giver of Life is also the lover of Life, who in love laid down His life for your life. He is the man who is blessed, and gives that blessedness to us. 

That is Why God Became Man. That great sinners, grave sinners, all sinners . . . that the deceivers and the deceived . . . that the abortion provider and the abortion user . . . that those blinded by sin and those who see sin and welcome it . . . that all those and all that and more - be subsumed in the love and forgiveness and cross of Jesus. That all be dead and buried with Christ, and rise to life with Him. To a new life, a living hope, a genuine faith, a steadfast love, and an endless joy. 

Joy, for Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] 

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.