MAY 2023
MAY 2023
7 May 2023 - Easter 5 - James 1:16-21
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
It is often observed, as a general rule, that wives want their husbands to change, while husbands want their wives to stay the same. It is said that wives are unhappy if their husbands don’t improve in their habits. And it is said that husbands are unhappy if their wives start doing new and different things.
I’m not sure how true any of this really is, but these thoughts do prompt us to ask a deeper question. What about God? Do we want God always to stay the same? Or do we want God to change?
Well, in all the ways that really count, God does not change. As today’s lesson from the Epistle of St. James expresses it - with respect to “the Father of lights” who created all the stars and planets - “there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Another translation says that with God there is no variation “due to change.”
The times and seasons change. The weather and the temperature change, as the earth cycles through spring, summer, fall, and winter each year. But God, who stands above all this, and who controls it, does not change. He is always the same.
Do people here below tend to think that it is a good thing, that God does not change? Well, it depends. Farmers, and those who consume the food they produce, don’t mind having predictable planting, growing, and harvesting seasons each year.
In St. Matthew, Jesus tells us that our Father in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Nobody minds that, and everybody would like those unchanging blessings from an unchanging God, for all who live upon the face of the earth, to continue in perpetuity.
But in some ways, people often think that they would like God to change. People often think that God should change the requirements of his law. They want him to lower his standards, and to ease up on what he demands of human beings, because what he requires and demands is too severe, and too hard.
God’s moral standards for us are pretty strict. As Jesus explained the full meaning of the law of God and of what it demands, in his sermon on the mount, he concludes with this statement: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
St. James, elsewhere in his Epistle, adds this thought: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
And so, a common objection arising from fallen men, who are stung by these requirements for perfection and complete obedience, is that these requirements are impossible to fulfill. And our common human sinfulness is often pointed to, as an excuse for our lack of perfection.
After all, as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” And by nature we are all in the flesh.
Paul also writes that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” How is it fair, then, that God demands from us what we are not able to fulfill?
He seems to be setting us up for failure, by saying, “be perfect,” when he knows that we cannot be perfect. So, how can it be a good thing that God does not change, and that there is no variation with him?
Well, when God first created man and woman, he created them in his own image and likeness, with pure hearts, uncorrupted minds, and obedient wills. In the Garden of Eden, when the Lord said to Adam, “do this,” and “don’t do that,” this was not burdensome on Adam at all.
Adam and Eve were without sin. They were able to be perfect, and to do everything God told them to do. And they were perfect.
They cheerfully complied with God’s directives to them; and they cheerfully complied with God’s one prohibition: that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They didn’t think that they were missing out on anything, or that they knew better than God, but they honored God’s good and gracious will. In their original state of innocence - as God created them - they obeyed God’s unchanging law: without failure, and without complaint.
Our first parents received God’s gifts to them with thanksgiving, and they joyfully lived out God’s purposes for them. They were happy that God was good, holy, and righteous. And they were grateful that he had created them to be like him in those ways.
This is the way things originally were in Eden. This was the way things originally were with the human race that God created, and with which he established a relationship of love and fellowship. And this is what God had a right to expect would always be the case, in his relationship with humanity, and in humanity’s relationship with him.
There was nothing unfair about how he made man, and there was nothing unfair in what he expected from man. All was harmonious and full of life. That is, all was harmonious and full of life, until Adam and Eve changed.
God didn’t change, but they did. Humanity changed. We changed. “In Adam all die,” as St. Paul states in First Corinthians.
And Paul writes to the Ephesians that all who are sons of Adam are, by nature, “sons of disobedience,” who live in the passions of their flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and are “by nature children of wrath.”
Why does God need to lower himself and his standards to where we are now, in our sin and degradation? He didn’t compel us to sin, and he doesn’t compel us to sin now.
This was and is our choice: our collective human choice, in Adam and Eve; and our individual personal choice, every time each of us decides to do or say the wrong thing, rather than what our conscience tells us would be the right thing.
St. James speaks to this in the verses of his Epistle that immediately precede the beginning of today’s appointed lesson:
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and [is] enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
God doesn’t need to change in order to accommodate this. Indeed, as the holy and righteous Lord of all that is good and pure, he cannot change. He cannot go back on his word. He cannot compromise with sin and evil. He cannot tolerate it or embrace it.
So, the expectations of his law remain what they have always been. The bar that he set for Adam - which Adam in his original righteousness could easily negotiate - is the same bar that he sets for us. God, in regard to these things, does not change - even if we, in our sin, might think that we want him to.
But God also does not change in his enduring love for his creation. And in his love, God found a way to be reconciled to fallen humanity without violating or compromising his holiness and righteousness.
In Christ Jesus, God’s Son became a man. And according to God’s plan for the redemption of the human race, the man Christ Jesus, who was without sin in his own person, became - by imputation - the worst of sinners, and the stand-in and the representative of all sinners.
God, of course, had always planned to do this. And the Prophet Isaiah had already described it, several centuries before it happened in human history:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... ...he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ...”
“By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? ...he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”
In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul explains that “by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,” God “condemned sin in the flesh” - when he condemned his Son in sinful humanity’s stead.
And because God has already condemned sin - our sin - in Christ, and in Christ’s death, God will therefore not condemn that sin again, by damning us personally for it as our disobedience and imperfection deserve. Instead, he will forgive us, and will accept us and embrace us, as we come to him in Christ, by repentance and faith.
As this gospel invitation is held out to God’s beloved creatures, we can be confident that God will not change his plan or break his promise. We can be confident that God will give what he has pledged to give, by grace, through his Son.
The death and resurrection of Jesus cannot be undone. And therefore God’s redemption of humanity and his reconciliation with humanity cannot be undone.
God will impute his Son’s righteousness to you, and will clothe you in it - even as he imputed your sin to Jesus on the cross. God will bestow the Spirit of his Son upon you, and cause you to become a new creature in Christ.
God will call you back to the fellowship with him from which humanity turned away in Eden, but which God - in his unchanging love - has always wanted to restore. In you, he has restored it. That’s what St. James is talking about when he writes:
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
God, in general, does not change. And God, especially in the Person of his Son in human flesh - the Lord and Teacher of the church - does not change. The Epistle to the Hebrews states:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings.”
Jesus teaches his disciples that they should always be willing to forgive one another, especially when there is repentance, even if - in human weakness - the sins and the repentance are often repeated. St. Matthew tells us of a time when
“Peter came up and said to [Jesus], ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.’”
In saying this to Peter, Jesus was also saying something about himself. Jesus was telling Peter - he was telling us - about his willingness always to forgive, whenever forgiveness is needed.
When your conscience, perhaps overcome with guilt and remorse, tells you that God is tired of forgiving you, and has given up on you, don’t believe it. That is not coming from God’s Word.
You may think - in fear - that God has changed, and has lost his patience with you. But he has not changed. He will forgive, and he will heal.
Whenever the absolution of Christ is spoken, you can believe it. That absolution is true for everyone, since it comes from the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And therefore it is true for you. It is always true for you.
Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” has not been rescinded. The authority of the loosing key that Jesus entrusted to his church and its ministers, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them,” has not been taken back.
According to Psalm 145,
“The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.”
The Lord is always like this for you, in Christ. The Lord always does this for you, in Christ.
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” Amen.
14 May 2023 - Easter 6 - Numbers 21:4-9
The first of the Ten Commandments, in its complete biblical form, is longer than the more abbreviated version that we use in our Catechism. The full text says this, as recorded in the Book of Exodus:
“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image - any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.”
Through the centuries many have taken this to mean that it is a sin, in itself, to make artistic representations of things or people, for use in a religious context. But this cannot be the Lord’s intended meaning.
Soon after the Ten Commandments were delivered to Moses on stone tablets, Moses was commanded to construct an ark in which these tablets were to be housed. And God’s directions to Moses for the ornamentation of the top of this ark included these words:
“You shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them... The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, ...their faces one to another...”
Cherubim are angelic beings who exist “in heaven above.” And God explicitly commands Moses to make two images of them, for a religious purpose.
These golden statues are not, of course, to be used as objects of worship. And that is the point of the First Commandment.
God does not forbid the use of symbolic artwork and statuary in a setting of worship, for purposes of ornamentation and education, or as devotional aids that remind us of an important aspect of our faith, or that call to memory an important event recorded in the Bible that is of significance for our salvation.
What God does forbid is allowing such an image to be the focus of our faith, with the idea that God somehow personally dwells within the image, so that he is served by the worship of the image as such; or with the idea that an image somehow causes God’s blessings to be accessible to us, in ways that would not be so, if there were no such image.
In other words, God prohibits us from turning images into sacraments, that supposedly bring God closer to us, and that supposedly give us more and better access to God than what is enjoyed by those who have no image in front of them when they sing or pray.
Today’s lesson from the Book of Numbers recounts another time when God commanded Moses to make an image, for a religious purpose.
The people of Israel has begun to grumble against God, and against Moses his servant. And instead of being grateful for the manna that the Lord was giving them for their sustenance, they declared: “our soul loathes this worthless bread.” We pick up the story there:
“So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
Martin Luther refers to this incident in his defense of the use of crucifixes. In response to fanatics in his time who were going from church to church destroying religious statues, paintings, and stained glass windows, he wrote:
“I do not entirely reject images, chiefly not the figure of the crucified Christ. We have an image of Christ in the Old Testament, the brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, that all who had been bitten by the fiery serpents and looked at this brazen serpent should become well. We, too, should do this. In order to become well in our souls, we should look at the crucified Christ and believe in Him.”
Today’s Old Testament lesson can certainly be applied in that way: that is, as a repudiation of the notion that Christians who see a benefit in being reminded of the suffering of Christ for their redemption when they gaze upon a crucifix, are guilty of idolatry.
But that is not the chief application of this text. Its chief application to our context is the application that Jesus makes in the Gospel according to St. John, when he says:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The Old Testament “type,” or “shadow,” deals with people who have been bitten by poisonous snakes, “looking,” with their eyes, at the bronze serpent.
The New Testament “fulfilment,” or “reality,” deals with people who have been spiritually afflicted and wounded by their sins - and by God’s judgment against their sins - “believing” with their hearts in Christ crucified, for forgiveness and salvation.
This tells us something about faith. Faith in Christ is the spiritual equivalent of looking at something. Faith in Christ is not a work that we perform.
Physically looking at something is the means by which we passively receive a mental impression of the thing at which we are looking. Faith is the means by which we passively receive the reality of Christ, and his mercy, into our lives.
For the people of Israel, God actually did attach a promise of physical healing to the bronze serpent that was lifted up before them. He invited them to receive this healing, by his grace, through looking at that serpent with their bodily eyes.
For us, God attaches a promise of spiritual healing and eternal life to his Son Jesus Christ, and to the gospel message of the cross on which Jesus was “lifted up” for us. And God invites us to receive this healing, by his grace, through faith.
This is the main thing that impresses us, when we read the account from the Book of Numbers - in light of what Jesus later says about it. But there is also something else in that Old Testament account that we should not miss.
When the people repented of their sin against God and Moses - a sin that has resulted in the Lord’s sending of the poisonous snakes as a punishment - they asked Moses: “pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” Not only did they want forgiveness of their sins, but they also wanted to be rid of the serpents that had come among them as a consequence of their sins. But that didn’t happen. God allowed the serpents, at least for a while, to remain among them.
And the people would continue to receive painful bites from the serpents, at least for a while. Yet God did give them a remedy for the bites, so that they would no longer perish as a consequence of those bites.
This is a microcosm of the whole story of human sin, and of the consequences and effects of human sin.
Adam and Eve had been created to be righteous, and to be immortal - sustained always by the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. Their descendants, too - according to the original divine plan - were to be righteous and immortal.
But when Adam and Eve defied God, embraced the lies of the devil, and fell into sin, an immediate consequence of this is that they became mortal and destined for physical death. Someday, they - and all their descendants after them - would now die.
The earth was also cursed because of their sin. By the sweat of his brow, Adam would now eat his bread. The earth would bring forth thorns and thistles for him.
Now, after their fall into sin, Adam and Eve were forgiven. They heard and believed the promise of the Seed of the woman, who would come someday to crush the serpent’s head for their salvation. God was reconciled to them, and they trusted in him once again.
And the shame of Adam and Eve was covered by the garments of animal skin that God had fashioned for them - emblematic of the covering of Christ’s righteousness that is draped over all who believe in him.
But, the earthly consequences of their earlier fall into sin remained. They - and we - still faced the eventuality of bodily death.
In Christ we do have the hope of the resurrection of our bodies on the last day. But as far as this life is concerned, our first parents were not immortal any more. And neither are we.
The earth likewise remained under a curse - and still remains so. Christians are not transplanted to a different planet, where everything is always fair, just, and happy. We stay here, with everyone else - in this cursed and corrupted world - sharing in the same earthly experiences that all other people have.
In the midst of these common human experiences - which are often painful experiences - we do look by faith beyond the horizons of this world, in the sure and certain hope of a new world yet to come. And as we live now in the hope of the resurrection, we invite our fellow human travelers on earth to join us in this hope, by believing with us in our common Savior.
That’s what the great commission is all about, as we fulfill it - according to our respective callings - one soul at a time. But this does not erase the curse of sin that mars the earth, and that affects all who are still residents on earth.
This applies, too, not just to the universal inborn sinfulness that infects all of Adam’s descendants. It also applies to the personal sins of each of us.
For us who repent of these sins, and believe in the gospel of Christ, that gospel delivers us from the fear of divine judgment and damnation on account of those sins, and fills our hearts with peace and hope.
The eternal consequences of our sins are removed by the Lord’s absolution. But the temporal consequences of our sins often do remain in this world, and in our lives.
If you murder someone, or kill someone through negligence, God will forgive that sin. But the person whom you have killed will remain dead. If your sinful words and actions have brought outward harm to yourself, or to others, that harm is not automatically erased when the sin is forgiven.
David was forgiven of his adultery with Bathsheba. But the child conceived in that adultery still died. And the deadly serpents that the Lord sent to bite the people because of their sin, remained among them, and continued to bite, even when the sin was forgiven.
Our sins often alter the trajectory of our lives, and permanently change the nature of our relationships with people, in ways that cannot be reversed or corrected on this side of eternity. A particular sin often sets in motion a sequence of events that result in continuing hurt to ourselves and others - even after we have repented of the sin.
This is a sad truth of the enduring brokenness of this world, and of life in this world. We often wish that we could go back in time, and undo things that we deeply regret having done. But we cannot.
And of course, this is an important reason why God wants us to avoid sin in the first place - as much as this can be done. It is obviously much better for us and for those around us, if we - with the Lord’s help - are able to overcome a temptation to commit a sin that would bring harm and hurt to many people, so that we never need forgiveness for that sin.
But even so, all around us in this world is the evidence of past and present rebellion against God’s goodness, past and present disobedience of God’s law, and past and present rejection of God’s ways. These stains and scars of human failure also continue to bite at us, to humble us. God does not take them away.
To a prayer of repentance, asking God to forgive our sins, God will always respond with “Yes.” His Son “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
Our Savior’s atoning sacrifice for all, and his glorious resurrection, can never be undone. And our Father in heaven does not forget them.
But to a prayer of embarrassment, asking God to erase the lingering consequences of our sins, God will usually respond with “No.” Still, in the midst of it all, God does give us a remedy to our discouragement and weakness.
He continually gives us his Son Jesus Christ, who in his suffering bore all our griefs, and who has promised never to leave us or forsake us in our griefs. God invites us to look upon his Son; to dwell by faith in his Son; and to trust in the healing power of his Son.
We don’t do this through physically gazing upon a bronze serpent, or even through gazing upon a crucifix as a physical object - although an artistic portrayal of the passion of Christ can indeed be a very effective reminder to us of what Jesus did to save us. Rather, we look upon Christ himself with the eyes of faith: as he comes to us, speaks to us, and reveals himself to us, in his Word and Sacrament.
This is where God has told us we can find him, and so this is where we look for him. Whenever you are bitten or stung by a painful residue of an old blunder, or whenever something reminds you of past sins and of their present effects, look for Christ in the means of grace that he has left for us in this world. Look for him there, and find him there.
When there is a rekindling of a tough memory of a time and place where you did and said things that you now deeply regret, the Savior who comes to you in his Holy Absolution, and especially in his Holy Supper, will rekindle your memory of other things - other very good things!
“This do in remembrance of me,” Jesus says in his blessed sacrament: In remembrance of my life lived for you, and of my life given into death for you on the cross; in remembrance of my resurrection, and of my promise that I will raise you up on the last day.
As you look in faith to Christ, and receive Christ and his mercy through faith, Christ will heal your pain, and renew your hope in the joyful future that he has prepared for you. And knowing about this joyful future now, gives you joy now: joy in the midst of grief; hope in the midst of sadness; light in the midst of darkness.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned.” Amen.
18 May 2023 - Ascension - Acts 1:1-11
We read in the Book of Acts that forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, after he had given some final directions to his disciples,
“He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.’”
The “two men” were angels, and were very likely the same two angels who had appeared at Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter morning, to announce to the women who had gone there that Jesus had risen from the dead. On that occasion, when the women saw that the tomb was empty,
“While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
In both cases - Easter and the Ascension - the people who were addressed by the angels were looking for Jesus, but were not finding Jesus.
On Easter, the women were looking for him in the tomb. But they were not finding him there. And now, after his ascension, his surviving disciples were looking for him in the sky. But they were not finding him there.
There were, of course, plausible reasons why these two groups of people were looking for him in those places, on those occasions. St. Luke tells us that “The women who had come with [Jesus] from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.”
Some of those same women were the ones who then went to the tomb on the first Easter. They were looking for Jesus in the tomb, because that’s where they had last seen him.
In today’s account from the Book of Acts, the reason why the disciples were looking in the sky - squinting and trying to get another glimpse of Jesus - is because that is where they had last seen him.
But on both occasions - at the resurrection, and now at the ascension - the two angels told the people involved that they were not going to find Jesus where they were looking for him.
Maybe that is where he used to be. But that is not where he is now - or at least, that is not where they would be able to find him now, with the use of their eyes or other physical senses.
Today, we might be helped by this kind of angelic visitation, when we may be looking for Jesus in places where we are not actually going to find him. Of course, we are not looking for him in a particular tomb in Jerusalem, or in a particular location in the sky above us.
But perhaps we do sometimes look for Jesus in, say, the world of nature, or in the emotional experiences of the heart. People often think that God - more broadly speaking - can be found in these places. So why not the Son of God?
But if we are looking for Jesus anywhere other than in his Word and Sacraments - where he has promised to be, and to be accessible to us - we will not actually find him. We will not see him. We will not hear his voice. We will not receive from him what he wishes to give us.
We abide in Jesus by abiding in his Word. And Jesus pledges - and gives his word - that he is with his church always, to the very end of the age, as his church administers his Baptism and teaches all that he has commanded.
And that is actually the point of the ascension of Jesus. When the disciples were gazing upon Jesus as he was lifted up before them, we are told in our text that “a cloud hid Him from their sight.”
But his having been hidden and taken out of their sight, does not mean that he is now nowhere. It means that he is now everywhere. St. Paul writes to the Ephesians that God’s Son, also in his humanity, “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”
As the angels declared, we do believe that on the Last Day Jesus will return visibly to this earth to raise all men from the dead, to judge all men, and to inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth where his saints will dwell with him forever.
But while we wait for that Day, Jesus is not absent from us. He may not be visibly present, but he is present invisibly. In his ascended glory, Jesus - as God and man - is close at hand to all people, all the time and at the same time.
And he can be seen with the eyes of faith, and his voice can be listened to with the ears of faith, whenever his gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation is proclaimed and heard. He is really present as well - in body and not only in spirit - in the sacrament of his body and blood.
The ascension of Jesus in his body, and his filling of all things in his body, certainly has to mean - at the very least - that he can and will keep his eucharistic promise to nurture and sustain his church with his own living and life-giving presence, as he supernaturally feeds us with his body and blood for the strengthening of faith and hope.
It is not likely that we today will be visited by the two angels described by St. Luke - in his Gospel and in the Book of Acts - to correct us when we are looking for Jesus in the wrong places, and to steer us to the places where he can be found.
But maybe your Christian friends can be like these angels for you, when you need them to be, to invite you to come back to the Lord’s house when you have wandered away; and to hear and believe the voice of Christ in his gospel when you may have begun to attune your ears - and your heart - to something else.
And when it is necessary for you to point out to your friends - or to anyone else - that the saving grace of Jesus is not available to them in any place other than where the Word and Sacraments of Jesus are at work, then you can be like an angel for them.
We are here this evening, and we gather here on the Lord’s Day as well, because Jesus is here, according to his promise to be where two or three are gathered in his name. He is not in the tomb in Jerusalem. He is here.
We are here this evening, and we gather here on the Lord’s Day as well, because Jesus is here, speaking and working through the means of grace. He is not somewhere in the sky. He is here.
He is absolving you, and is lifting from you the guilt and condemnation of your sin, when his called servant speaks in his stead and by his command. By the hand of his minister, he is baptizing.
By the lips of his minister he is blessing the bread and wine of Holy Communion to be his body and blood, through which he comes to you to renew his forgiveness to you.
And all these things - all these marvelous things - are not happening only here. Jesus is not only here. Jesus - as the ascended and glorified Lord of the universe - fills the universe.
He is therefore with his people - saving and comforting them - wherever his people are, gathered around his Word and Sacrament. Don’t look for him anywhere else. As your Savior from sin and death, he will not be found anywhere else.
Because he as God and man fills all things, he as God and man can be wherever he wants to be. And where he wants to be, is with those who cling to his Word in faith, who hope in his promises, and who receive from him the heavenly blessings that he offers and bestows by means of his gospel.
Tho’ visibly from earth You’ve gone, already now ascended,
And here to us remain unseen, til’ this brief time is ended -
Until the judgment shall begin, when we will stand before Your throne,
And joyfully behold you -Still, You are here - as says Your Word - with us, Your congregation;
With now Your flesh and bones, O Lord, not bound to one location.
Your Word stands as a tower sure, none can o’erthrow its truth secure,
Be he most shrewd and subtle. Amen.
21 May 2023 - Easter 7
A few minutes ago, we sang a well-known Lutheran hymn about the ascension of our Lord that begins with a prayer of thanksgiving that might - at first thought - seem to be expressing an odd and unexpected sentiment:
“We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.”
If a friend whose company you enjoy has been visiting you, but then has to leave, and go home to a distant place, this is a sad and disappointing thing. You might accept the necessity of the end of the visit, but you’re not thankful that you will no longer be spending time with your friend.
In the first line of that hymn, though, we expressed our thanks to Jesus - to our dearest friend Jesus - that he has gone into heaven. Is that something to be thankful for?
Sure, we would have to accept this, if this is what must happen. But we don’t have to be happy about not having Jesus here with us, as his disciples had him with them during his earthly ministry. Do we?
Even at a human level, having a trusted friend around as a part of your life is a good thing - especially if that friend is an influence for good in your life. A friend like that can warn you away from dangerous temptations, when your own judgment may not be as reliable.
A good friend can often get you out of a tight spot, or give you the encouragement you need to stick with something important that you have committed yourself to. A friend who is right there with you can defend you and protect you, console you and rejoice with you.
But if such a friend has departed, moved away, or returned to a distant home, and is accordingly no longer there with you for the ups and downs of your daily life, none of those benefits of the friendship will be actively experienced any longer.
It is a sad thing when such a parting between friends takes place. It is not something for which to be thankful.
But, in this hymn, we thanked Jesus for ascending to heaven. Why? And according to Luke’s reporting of Jesus’ ascension, the apostles were also joyful on the occasion of their Master’s physical departure from them.
We are told that while Jesus blessed them, “He left them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God continually in the temple.” Again, why?
In our human relationships, those who are dear friends to us, usually also have other friends besides us. And just as these friends are a source of many blessings to us during the times when they are with us, so too are they a source of the same kind of blessings to others, on those occasions when they are with their other friends.
If all of these various friends, and friends of friends, do not, however, live in the same locality, then this sharing of friendships means that everyone has to take turns, as it were, in spending time with the mutual friends whose companionship is desired by everyone.
If I have friends in Minnesota, in California, and in New York, I cannot be with all of them at the same time. In order to be with some of my friends in one place, I will have to be separated from other friends who are in different places.
I cannot be the kind of friend to all of them, or to any of them, that I might want to be - continually spending time with them - because of the physical distances that exist between them and me, in various directions.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was able to cultivate deep and meaningful friendships with his apostles. He did a lot for them during the three years he was with them as a constant companion, which inspired within them a deep devotion toward him.
And at one point, as recorded in John’s Gospel, he told them this, regarding his impending suffering and death on the cross for their sins:
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. ... I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
But the specific thing Jesus mentioned that demonstrated that he was their friend - namely, that he had made known to them all that he had heard from his Father - does not apply only to the twelve apostles. God’s message of salvation through his Son is something that Jesus wants to be made known to all nations, and to all people in all nations.
When the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners is proclaimed, heard, and believed for the forgiveness of sins, new Christians are created. And new friends of Jesus are made. That’s what allows all of us also to sing: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.”
But can all of us continuously enjoy this friendship, and this special companionship with Jesus? During Jesus’ earthly ministry, when he was physically accessible to his disciples in Galilee and Jerusalem, and among the people of Israel, he was not in those years physically accessible to people in other parts of the world.
But Jesus did have people in other parts of the world in mind, as those whom he intended someday to befriend and claim as his own. Drawing on the imagery of sheep and their shepherd, Jesus said, also in John’s Gospel:
“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father - in heaven - was not like an astronaut traveling from the earth to another planet within our solar system - going from one specific place in our three-dimensional material universe, to another specific place in our three-dimensional material universe.
Rather, in the ascension, Jesus entered into a different dimension. He is not nowhere. He is everywhere. St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians that Jesus has “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”
Jesus is no longer in his state of humiliation: living according to the limitations of his human nature; making himself known and being physically present in only one place at a time. He is now fully exalted, and his human nature is now fully permeated with all the powers and qualities of his divine nature: his omnipotent and omnipresent divine nature.
And if Jesus - in his divinity and in his humanity - now fills all things, that means that he fills his church, all around the world. He fills our congregation.
He fills the ministry of Word and Sacrament that is carried out here in his name and by his authority. And as you repent of your sins, trust in his forgiveness, and daily seek his help in your life, he fills your life. He fills you.
Again, in the first line of that hymn, we sang: “We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.”
The hymn says “we,” not “I.” Together with all of the Lord’s disciples - those who knew him on earth 2,000 years ago, and those who know him by faith now - we are singing this prayer, jointly and collectively.
We are together thanking Jesus that he has changed his way of interacting with his friends, so that he is able now to interact with all of them - all of us - all over the world, all the time.
With Jesus being at the right hand of God the Father almighty, where he intercedes for us, we do indeed now have “a friend in high places.” But since God is everywhere, the right hand of God is likewise everywhere.
So, we also have a friend who is intimately close to us. Both of those things are true - mysteriously and wonderfully true.
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is one of the best times to recall that Jesus, though invisibly present, is really present among us: to do for us what a close and trusted friend would be expected to do for us, according to his divine power and gracious desire to help us in all our needs.
He comforts us in our sadness: in our sorrow over having offended God, and our brothers and sisters, by our sins. He strengthens us in our weakness: in our yearning for God’s grace and healing in our lives.
He embraces us in his love: uniting his true and glorified body and blood to our bodies and souls, and filling us with a resurrection hope. He fortifies us in our convictions: renewing us by his Word, and giving us sound minds and devoted hearts.
And he encourages us in the fulfillment of our duties; and in our resolve to amend our sinful lives, and to do better in how we think, speak, and act within our vocations, as God enables us.
The hymn also speaks of such things, when it says:
“Ascended to His throne on high, Hid from our sight, yet always nigh.”
“O blessed Savior, bid us live, And strength to soul and body give.”
“Through Him, we heirs of heaven are made; O Brother, Christ, extend Thine aid, That we may firmly trust in Thee, And through Thee live eternally.”
And this all helps us to understand the first line of the hymn:
“We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.” Amen.
28 May 2023 - Pentecost - Acts 2:1-21
We have now passed through the first half of the church year, punctuated especially by the four chief festivals of Christ: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Ascension. These festivals mark vitally important events in the earthly life of our Savior.
Today - the Day of Pentecost - is the chief festival of the church of Christ. Jesus had departed from the earth as far as his visible presence was concerned.
But he had promised that he would be with his disciples always, even to the end of the age. And he had also promised that he would send the divine Comforter, or Helper, to be their companion and guide in the important mission that he had entrusted to them. That’s what happened on the first Christian Pentecost.
This was not the first time that the Holy Spirit was present in this world. He had always been present. King David, in a prayer of repentance, had implored God the Father, “take not Your Holy Spirit from me.”
But now, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came afresh in a new and different way. He came to create and empower the church, and to energize the mission and ministry of the church.
And he came to stay. He is still among us, and within us: building up our faith, emboldening us in our confession of faith, and inspiring within us the fruits of faith. And so we pray, as all Christians in all generations have prayed:
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.” Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus had told his disciples that they should remain in Jerusalem until they had received power from on high. And this is what happened to them on the Day of Pentecost.
Some pretty spectacular things did occur on that day. In today’s text from the Book of Acts, St. Luke describes these events:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
For many people, these things - the flames of fire resting on the apostles, and especially the speaking in tongues - are chiefly what is associated with the Day of Pentecost. In the twenty-first century, the most popular and fastest-growing churches in the world are in fact those churches that directly identify with these extraordinary “Pentecostal” events, and that seek to appropriate for themselves these and similar “charismatic” phenomena.
They believe that speaking in tongues - as they define it - and similar extraordinary signs, were and are evidence of the presence of God’s Spirit, and of the working of God’s power. And they believe that Christians who are able to experience these kinds of things today, can and will tap into this divine power for their lives today.
Churches like ours, where these things are not going on, are seen to be quite dull and lifeless. The word “dead” is often used to describe congregations that do not actively seek after such spectacular miracles.
Is it possible that we are missing out on something that God wants us to have? If miracles like speaking in tongues occurred among the first Christians on the Day of Pentecost, might it be so, that such miracles should be occurring among us too - so that we can have a stronger faith, and a greater confidence in the presence and operation of the Holy Spirit among us?
Well, before we go down that road, let’s make sure we understand what was really happening on the Day of Pentecost. Was the power that was received on Pentecost really connected primarily to those extraordinary phenomena? Or was the power of Pentecost primarily connected to something else?
It is certainly true that some remarkable events did happen on the Day of Pentecost. And those remarkable events definitely did get the attention of the crowd. But how beneficial was the speaking in tongues, in itself, for the spiritual life of those who heard and witnessed this?
Were the people who heard the tongues touched by God’s Spirit through that experience, in such a way that they could see right away that this was evidence of God’s power? Did they immediately fall to their knees in repentance, and put their trust in Christ? St. Luke tells us what the reaction of the crowd was:
“And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. ...they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘Whatever could this mean?’ Others, mocking, said, ‘They are full of new wine.’”
The reactions included everything from confusion and perplexity to mocking derision. But nobody - I repeat, nobody - was brought to a state of repentance and faith as a direct result of the tongues and the other extraordinary occurrences that took place.
This does not mean, though, that the Holy Spirit did not work on the Day of Pentecost, to call people to repentance, and to instill a saving faith in them. Actually, about three thousand people became devout followers of Christ on that day.
But it was not on account of the speaking in tongues. It was on account of the deeper and more profound “miracle” of preaching. After the speaking in tongues got the people’s attention, St. Peter rose up to preach a Biblically-based, Christ-centered, law-gospel sermon.
He pointed out that the prophet Joel had predicted the events of this day, and that these events marked the beginning of “the last days” of the world’s existence. He went on to tell them about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ - declaring that Jesus was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God”; and also declaring that God raised him up, “having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.”
After a couple references to the Psalms of David, with explanations of what those Psalms mean, Peter finally concluded his sermon with these words: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
A few verses beyond the place where the lesson appointed for today ends, St. Luke describes the reaction to this sermon:
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’”
“And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
That’s quite a different reaction than the reaction they had to the speaking in tongues. Instead of confusion and perplexity, Peter’s sermon brought the crowd to see their need to repent of their sins.
Instead of an attitude of mockery and derision, the people are now filled with the joy and peace of divine forgiveness, as they embrace and experience the blessings of Holy Baptism, and as they are incorporated into the ongoing liturgical and sacramental life of the Christian community.
The Day of Pentecost was indeed characterized by great miracles. But the speaking in tongues was not one of them. To be sure, this was a miracle, brought about by God for his own purposes on that day.
But it was not one of the great miracles of that day. The phenomenon of speaking in tongues, all by itself, did not result in the salvation of even one soul.
The great miracles on the Day of Pentecost were the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacrament of Holy Baptism, and what God did in and through those seemingly ordinary and unspectacular actions, in the hearts of more than three thousand people.
Through these means of grace, those people were saved from their sins, and destined for eternal life. They were born again, and were filled with the living presence of God himself.
On the Day of Pentecost, the working of God’s Spirit for the creation of faith and the saving of souls, was linked, not to the tongues, but to St. Peter’s Biblically-based, Christ-centered, law-gospel sermon. The reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness of sins, were linked, not to the tongues, but to Baptism, administered by the authority of Jesus according to his institution.
What does this mean for us? A lot! If you want to taste and experience the miracle-working power of Pentecost, don’t seek out that power in the spectacular claims of modern-day TV preachers and flashy mega-churches.
Instead, seek out that power where that power resided on the Day of Pentecost: in the preaching of the gospel. A biblically-based sermon that declares God’s judgment against sin, and that points you to Christ as your only hope, is a sermon through which the Holy Spirit is working, even if it is not accompanied by external signs and wonders.
Listen, too, to the hymns that we sing. Many of our hymns are really just sermons, written in poetic form and set to music. That’s why all of you should join in the singing, as well as you can. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good singer or not.
When you sing one of those hymns, you’re not performing for people - and you’re not performing for God, either. Basically, you’re preaching - to the people sitting around you, and to your own soul. And it is through the preaching of the gospel that the Holy Spirit works faith and spiritual strength in the heart - just as on the Day of Pentecost.
When you join in the singing of a hymn that is addressed to God, you are thereby being taught how to “call on the name of the Lord,” and thus to “be saved.” And you are helping those with whom you are singing in their prayer, and encouraging them in the exercise of their faith.
Likewise, as St. Peter pointed the penitent crowd to Baptism on the Day of Pentecost, so too are we, in our penitence, pointed by God’s Word to Baptism.
Those who have not yet been baptized are pointed forward to their baptism, with the expectation that a great blessing will be received in that sacred washing. Those who have been baptized are pointed back to their baptism, so that they can be comforted to know that the gift of God’s Spirit has been sealed to them, and that the gift of God’s forgiveness has been bestowed on them.
We are weak in many ways. Sometimes we are emotionally weak, as we struggle with our fears of the future, with our regrets of the past, and with the uncertainties of life in general. Sometimes we are physically weak, as we are afflicted with various infirmities that sap our bodily strength and rob us of our health.
As we are, over time, “worn down” by such discouragements, we can be tempted to be led astray by the “siren song” of spectacular miracles, and by the claims of those who say that we can receive such miracles through them.
Now, when it is his will to do so, God certainly does occasionally perform extraordinary miracles of healing, for those who are in physical need. We would never deny that God is able to show mercy to people in these ways.
But the chief miracle that God wants to perform in your life - in the lives of all of you - is something different. It is the healing of your soul, through the forgiveness of sins. The deepest need of all people, whether they are weak or strong, is the need for reconciliation with God, and eternal life with God.
And God’s Spirit performs that miracle - over and over again - in the ministry of Word and Sacrament that he offers to us in the fellowship of the church. God’s Spirit performs that miracle through the message of Christ crucified for sinners, brought to us, and applied to us, in both sermon and Supper.
After the events of the Day of Pentecost, the Christians in Jerusalem “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This was not a let-down or a “low,” after the “high” of Pentecost. This was, instead, a continuation of the true power of Pentecost.
The apostles were teaching the people - expounding the Scriptures to them, and recalling the life and deeds of Jesus for them. The members of the congregation were sharing together in the breaking of bread - the sacramental bread of Christ’s body in the Eucharist.
And through these simple yet profound activities, God’s Spirit was working, vigorously and effectively, to draw the people ever closer to their Savior, and ever closer to each other.
As they continued in “the prayers” - that is, the ordered discipline of public prayer that the early Christian liturgy provided for the people - they were built up in their faith.
And all of this is available to you, too. All of it. Even after two thousand years, the true power of Pentecost is still here, alive and well, in the church of Jesus Christ.
Extraordinary and spectacular miracles come and go. But they’re not really all that important anyway, in the eternal scheme of things. The enduring miracles of Pentecost are not those - not the speaking in tongues, and not a temporary healing that may prolong a life on earth for a few years or decades.
The enduring miracles of Pentecost are the deeply refreshing, deeply moving miracles of faith and hope, heavenly peace and everlasting life, which God’s Spirit gives us in the preaching of the gospel and in the administration of the sacraments.
In Christ we are not confused and perplexed by these wonders, and we certainly don’t mock and ridicule them. These miracles, in all of their exhilarating power, remain among us today.
As God’s Word comforts us, and as God’s sacraments seal to us the pledge of his forgiveness, we know and experience, now and always, the true power of Pentecost. We close with these words from the hymnist Henry Hallam Tweedy:
O Spirit of the living God, thou light and fire divine,
Descend upon thy church once more, and make it truly thine.
Fill it with love and joy and power, with righteousness and peace;
‘Till Christ shall dwell in human hearts, and sin and sorrow cease. Amen.