3 April 2022 - Lent 5 - Philippians 3:4b-14

“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless.”

So writes Paul the apostle in today’s lesson from his Epistle to the Philippians, as he describes his life, and the basis for his religious confidence in his former life in Judaism.

The New Testament Greek word translated in our English version as “righteousness” takes its meaning from a courtroom kind of context, and describes the status of one who has received a judicial verdict of approval.

I have righteousness, or I am righteous, if I have been declared and counted by a judge to be “in the right” and acceptable. The verb form of this word is usually rendered as “justify,” meaning to announce or declare that someone is righteous; or to count someone as being righteous.

Now, depending on the context, this could refer to a declaration or recognition of approval by other men, a recognition or declaration of approval by God, or even an abstract and figurative recognition or declaration of approval.

For example, Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew that “wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Good and prudent deeds serve as an outward declaration that the thinking which inspired such deeds was a sound and correct wisdom, rather than foolishness or stupidity.

In today’s Epistle lesson, however, Paul is clearly talking about righteousness before God. And he is talking about the desire he has always had - both when he was a Pharisee, and since he has become a Christian - to be approved by God, and declared to be acceptable to God.

We could say that Paul was at least always asking the right questions: On what basis does God approve of me? And how can I know that he is in fact pleased with me?

But Paul’s understanding of what the correct answers to those questions are, changed, when his heart was changed by his encounter with Christ. We’ll come back to that.

In our time, of course, it is increasingly difficult to find people who are asking these questions. Those who do still believe in the existence of God usually assume without a second thought that of course he finds them acceptable!

They don’t even think that he requires good works from them, in order for their lives to be approved by him - as previous generations often used to assume.

Instead, if he does exist, he accepts them as they are, and is pleased with them, simply because they exist. He requires nothing from them, and he sees nothing in them that is lacking or deficient.

But of course, there are many today who don’t care what God thinks of them. They want everyone to know instead what they think of God, or of the idea of God.

They’ve decided that God does not have their approval, and that he has no “righteousness” that they are obligated to acknowledge: either because he makes them feel guilty in their conscience, which is a feeling they don’t want to have; or because he doesn’t prevent suffering and injustice in the world.

And so they are no longer willing to declare that God is acceptable to them. They have instead rendered a verdict against God: finding him to be unworthy of their faith. Not only do they not want to be justified by God, but they refuse to justify God.

But this does not mean that the people of our time are not eager to be seen as righteous in the eyes of anyone. Many of them very definitely want the approval of the progressive techno-cultural elites. And so in their rhetoric they jump on the popular bandwagons of advocating for critical race theory, transgender rights, and unrestricted abortion.

It’s really just a variation on the kind of juvenile peer pressure that teenagers have always found hard to resist. Do you want to accepted by the “in” crowd? Do you, in effect, want to be seen as “righteous” by the cool kids?

Then smoke this and drink that, snort this and swallow that. Rebel against your parents. Disrespect your teachers. Break the rules. Defy authority.

But God’s approval still is the most important approval that all people - of all ages - should seek and desire to have. If sinful humans are pleased with me and think that I am on the “right side of history,” but if God does not think that I am on the right side of what he is doing in this world, I have a major problem.

God does, of course, have something to say about the challenges that we face, and about the pressures that are being brought to bear against us. God wants us to rebuke the defiant and correct the erring; but to show compassion to the confused, and encourage the fearful; to welcome the lonely, and comfort the weak.

And St. Paul, in today’s text, wants us to care about having a righteousness that counts with God, whether or not it counts with anyone else. He personally always did care about that.

Before he knew Christ, he was already caring about that. And with all of his might he was trying to do what the rabbis told him to do, and to be what the rabbis told him to be, in order to have a righteousness that counted with God, and that would win and earn God’s approval.

But it didn’t work. He was as Jewish as the day is long, with an honorable Hebrew pedigree and the best rabbinic education available, but this wasn’t enough. In his external observance he obeyed all the rules and followed all the traditions, but in his conscience he knew that this wasn’t enough.

And not only were all these efforts of the flesh inadequate for the fulfilling of this goal; they actually got in the way of what really would have allowed Paul to achieved what he was striving for, and to receive the approval of God that he so desperately desired.

When Paul finally found the genuine way of being righteous before God - or rather, when God’s gift of righteousness found him, opening his eyes and filling his heart - all these old, misguided efforts immediately ceased.

And everything that had seemed so important and indispensable was immediately discarded - at least as far as relying on them for justification was concerned. He writes:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

God does demand righteousness. He is holy. He has no tolerance for the rebellion that humanity has thrown itself into, or for the corruption that humanity has brought into itself.

Religious theories about how mortal men might make themselves acceptable to God, and earn justification and approval before God, are all flawed, either because they underestimate what God really expects, or they overestimate humanity’s ability to satisfy what God really expects, or both.

But the great surprise that Paul experienced, is that God is not only holy, but is also unmeasurably gracious. And in his grace, the righteousness that God demands, is the righteousness that God gives.

That’s right. God gives us the righteousness that makes us acceptable to him, by giving us Jesus Christ, who is righteous in his divine-human person, and who is righteous in his unwavering obedience to his Father’s will.

Repentance prepares us for this gift: including repentance for sins that are buried so deep inside of us that we may not be completely aware of what they are, or of what they do to us. In the church in which I grew up, we used to say a prayer of confession that went like this:

“O God, our Heavenly Father, I confess unto Thee that I have grievously sinned against Thee in many ways; not only by outward transgression, but also by secret thoughts and desires, which I cannot fully understand, but which are all known unto Thee. I do earnestly repent, and am heartily sorry for these my offences, and I beseech Thee of Thy great goodness to have mercy upon me, and for the sake of Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, to forgive my sins, and graciously to help my infirmities.”

It is God’s Spirit who works this conviction and repentance in us, so that, too, is a gift of God.

But then the real gift comes: the gift of Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection for all, is the liberator of an enslaved humanity; the reconciler of a hostile humanity; and the forgiver of a wicked and guilty humanity.

This gift - this righteous Savior who makes us righteous - comes with an explosive power when he comes the first time, rearranging and reorienting everything. Baptism has that power, because baptism contains and carries Christ, mystically uniting its recipient to the death and resurrection of Christ.

But the proclaimed and believed Word of God also has that power. The apostle Paul met Christ - who spoke to him - on the road to Damascus. Paul recounted the experience in the Book of Acts:

“I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’”

“And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me, and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles - to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

That was quite a shake-up for a man who in today’s text reminds us that, as to zeal, he was indeed formerly a persecutor of the church. But when the righteousness of Christ was put upon him, everything changed.

The meaning and purpose of his life changed. The pathway that his life would now take, changed. For the first time ever, he was truly and fully righteous in the sight of God, because in the sight of God he was now clothed with the unblemished righteousness of the Son of God!

Paul’s striving for a righteousness of his own by the works of the Law did not simply begin to peter out at this point. That striving was over in an instant.

But the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, was not given to Paul only once; or draped over his sin - so as to cover it in God’s eyes - only once. God’s justification through Christ, and God’s forgiveness in Christ, is a gift that keeps on giving.

Whenever we sin again, we repent again - with sincere regret and deep remorse. And the righteousness that avails before God is again preached to us, is again absolved upon us, and is again sacramented into us.

Jesus said, and says today at his sacred table: “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.”

As God speaks, we believe what he says. We receive what he gives.

If you don’t have Christ, then you don’t have any of this. If you have Christ - who is God’s own justifying bridge and link, between himself and fallen humanity - then you have all of this.

You have God’s judicial verdict of approval. And you carry that verdict with you as you live our your baptismal calling to be - in this world - what Christ’s righteousness has made you to be for the next world.

Your good works and your human faithfulness - such as they are - don’t cause God to count you as righteous. But the righteousness that God gives in his Son does cause you to do good works, and to be faithful to your vocations as the Lord enables you.

The righteousness that God gives enlivens you even in the midst of danger and death. It keeps you busy and active even in the midst of suffering, zealous for God’s will as you press forward to the prize: believing in God, and believing in him again; believing with every step that you take, on your way to eternity.

Paul tells me as a weak and struggling Christian, who depends every day on God and his grace, that God gives me his Son’s righteousness, so that “I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

The righteousness that makes us acceptable to God is a perfect righteousness. But the life that we lead under the covering of that righteousness on this earth, is still imperfect. And it will remain imperfect until the day we depart from this earthly life, and are ultimately elevated to the resurrected glory that will someday be ours.

But as you repent and believe every day, and as you are clothed in the white robe of Christ every day, you will not doubt the final outcome. You will not doubt, because it all depends on Christ and not on yourself.

And this is why Paul goes on to say that, while he has not yet obtained the resurrection from the dead, and is not yet perfect, “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

You press on, dear friends. Press on in the company of St. Paul, and together with each other. Press on under Christ, clothed and energized by the righteousness that comes - and stays - through faith in Christ.

Press on in love for God, and with compassion for your neighbor in need. Press on with a humble devotion to your callings from God, and with a confident trust in the protection of God.

Press on with an eagerness to put on the mind of Christ, for better knowledge and deeper wisdom; and to grow into the image of Christ. And every day, make Christ to be yours, because Christ has made you to be his.

Faint not, nor fear; His arms are near;
He changes not, who holds you dear;
Only believe, and you will see
That Christ is all, eternally. Amen.

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10 April 2022 - Palm Sunday - Matthew 21:9-11

Before his arrival at Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, Jesus - who was known to be a descendant of the royal family of Israel - had also developed a reputation as an awe-inspiring wonder-worker. He had been very compassionate and generous in performing miracles for needy people.

The hungry had been fed. The lame had been made to walk. The blind had been given their sight. The demonically-possessed had been delivered. And even the dead had been brought back to life.

So, when the people of Jerusalem learned that Jesus was coming to their city, the reaction was what we would expect. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Jesus was indeed coming “in the name of the Lord,” and they were quite excited about it! The crowds knew that the power of the Lord had been working through him for the benefit of many people. And now that he was coming to Jerusalem, they expected that this divine power would be manifested also for their benefit.

Those with political and patriotic inclinations expected Jesus to overthrow the Roman occupation. Those with a more religious orientation hoped for a purge of the corrupt temple leadership. Those with more practical and mundane concerns were looking forward to the healing of their diseases, and the filling of their stomachs.

They thought that Jesus was the Messiah. And they thought that these were the kind of things the Messiah would do - “in the name of the Lord.” But in just a few days, they realized that they were not going to get what they wanted from Jesus.

They had welcomed him with rejoicing. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” But now they were deeply disappointed. Where was the divine, miracle-working power they had heard about?

And when their disappointment turned to anger, they turned on him. Before the week was through, some of the people who had welcomed Jesus with unbridled enthusiasm on Palm Sunday, may very well have been among those who called for his crucifixion at his trial, and who taunted him while he hung on the cross.

Jesus had not done what they expected. Jesus had not given them what they wanted. They no longer believed that he he was the Messiah. They no longer believed that he had come “in the name of the Lord.”

A key error that they had made, was in their interpretation of what it would mean for the Messiah to come “in the name of the Lord.”

Jesus was not coming only in the power of the Lord, so that he would be able to do everything they wanted him to do for them. Rather, coming “in the name of the Lord” meant coming for the purposes of the Lord - to accomplish what the Lord wanted done.

The people of Jerusalem did not have the right to set God’s agenda. God, from all eternity, had set the agenda for what his Son in human flesh would accomplish in Jerusalem that week.

Jesus had indeed come “in the name of the Lord.” He had come to procure for the people of Jerusalem, and for all humanity, what they truly needed, and not necessarily what they wanted.

He himself had said it in this way: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

He had also said: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus had not come to give to the people an assortment of miraculous “bobbles” and “trinkets,” for their life in this world. He had come to take away from their hearts their misguided reliance on the things of this world.

He had come to bestow upon them, through repentance and faith, a whole new life; and citizenship in a new world, and a new heavenly kingdom.

They didn’t understand this. But he came anyway, “in the name of the Lord,” to accomplish this for them. And for us.

Does Jesus come to you - today - “in the name of the Lord?” And if so, what does that mean?

We are all willing to pray to Christ in a time of need, to ask him for a certain blessing that we desire, or for success in a certain endeavor. When we have identified something that we want, and that we think he can give to us, we don’t hesitate to ask him to come to us - “in the name of the Lord,” and with the Lord’s power - to help us.

And I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that. But there is a problem, if that’s the full extent of how and when we desire and recognize the coming of Christ into our lives.

We should welcome him, and say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” also when he comes into our lives to accomplish God’s purposes. In fact, that is chiefly when we should welcome him.

And God’s purposes for sending his Son into our lives are often quite a bit different from the purposes for which we may be quick to invite him. Listen to what the Lord says in today’s Old Testament lesson from the Book of Deuteronomy:

“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”

Would you ordinarily be inclined to invite Jesus to come “in the name of the Lord” to wound you, and to kill you? Probably not.

But when he comes into your life “in the name of the Lord” - that is, to accomplish the Lord’s purposes - that’s what he comes to do: not literal homicide, of course; but something like it in the realm of heart, mind, and conscience.

With the severe judgments of his law, he attacks all the pretensions and pride of your old nature. He attacks your idolatrous reliance on anything other than him and his Word, for salvation. And he humbles you.

God’s Son comes, as Scripture says, to wound and to kill. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

But Jesus also comes to heal and to make alive! After he has humbled you, his forgiving and restoring grace immediately lifts you up to the heights of his mercy.

He knows that your old sinful nature is always turning on him and rejecting him, just as the crowds of Jerusalem turned on him and rejected him. But still loves you - just as he still loved them, and came to them.

And so he comes into your life, to accomplish the purposes for which his Father in heaven sent him. He creates in you a new nature.

He comes to heal your soul, and to make you truly alive by the indwelling of his Spirit, who is the Lord, and the giver of life. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Today’s Gradual quotes from Psalm 111: “He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever.”

Through your baptism into Christ, you are now among the people of God. In Christ, God has sent redemption to you.

And the covenant that God establishes with his church is an eternal covenant. God will forgive your sins when your heart is turned toward him, because in the death and resurrection of Christ, he has already turned his heart toward you.

To the Colossians Paul writes that in Christ

“You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, ...having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.”

In a few minutes, Jesus will come to you “in the name of the Lord” yet again, and in a very special way. The church has always recognized an intimate connection between Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, to offer himself as the atoning sacrifice for human sin; and his coming in the sacrament of his body and blood here and now, to distribute to communicants the blessings and benefits of that sacrifice.

As we welcome him into our midst today in his Holy Supper, we join in the song of the people of Jerusalem: “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

We do rejoice on this Palm Sunday, and sing “hosanna in the highest,” as we remember Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem: to die and rise again for humanity’s salvation. In the words of St. John’s First Epistle, “we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

And we rejoice on this Palm Sunday - and on every Lord’s Day - and sing “hosanna in the highest,” as we receive in faith the true body and blood of our crucified and risen Savior, in accordance with the Lord’s saving purpose for each of us. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John:

“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”

In a few minutes, when you leave your pew to come forward for this sacrament, also leave behind you - in heart, mind, and conscience - whatever earthly agenda for God in your life you have devised. Submit yourself instead to his agenda for you, and to what he wants to do for your eternal benefit.

And remember what God says through the Prophet Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

When Jesus “comes in the name of the Lord,” to fulfill the will of his heavenly Father for you, he comes only for good. Even if he comes to do something you don’t expect, it is a good unexpected thing that he does.

He comes indeed to give you a future: an eternal future as a redeemed and justified citizen of God’s kingdom. He comes indeed to give you a hope: an everlasting hope as a forgiven and adopted child in God’s family.

Jesus comes to us, not to satisfy our worldly desires, as we define them; but to fulfill our true spiritual needs, as the Lord defines them. We rejoice in his coming among us. And we sing: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Amen.

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14 April 2022 - John 13:34-35 - Maundy Thursday

In the realm of science, and in regard to an earlier theory of George Robert Waterhouse on how cells are formed, Charles Darwin wrote, “I am partly a disciple of Waterhouse, but not wholly.”

In the realm of philosophy and economics, Jerry Muller observes in a book that he wrote about capitalism that Friedrich Hegel was “at least partly a disciple of [Adam] Smith.”

In the realm of philosophy and aesthetics, W. J. Hipple wrote that Dugald Stewart was “partly a disciple of [Thomas] Reid, and partly an innovator.”

In the real of music and musical composition, music critic Barry Mazor wrote that the bluegrass artist Rhonda Vincent was “partly a disciple of legendary high tenor Bobby Osborne.”

In the realm of literature, literary historian R. H. Fletcher observed that the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope was “Partly a disciple of [William Makepeace] Thackeray.”

In the realm of domestic politics in the United States, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon said: “I am partly a disciple of probably the leading conservative of our history, Alexander Hamilton.”

In all these realms of earthly life, and in the larger world of ideas and methodologies, the concept of someone being a “disciple” of an influential person who has gone before, is a lively concept. But in almost all cases, that discipleship is qualified and limited, and is modified both by an openness to the influence of others, and by personal innovation and creativity.

In the realm of deeply-held spiritual convictions regarding the things of God, the way of salvation, and the hope of eternal life, whose disciple are you? Well, you know that the only acceptable answer is that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ.

But are you fully and completely his disciple? Or at least are you wanting to be his disciple exclusively, yearning always to learn more and more from him, and desiring to grow more and more into the kind of person he wants you to be?

Or is your relationship with Jesus similar to the relationship that Darwin had with the theories of Waterhouse, the relationship that Hegel had with the ideas of Adam Smith, or the relationship that Rhonda Vincent had with the style of Bobby Osborne?

For the sake of the salvation of your soul, and for the sake of what you believe and how you live here and now, are you in an unqualified way a disciple of Jesus Christ? Or are you only partly his disciple, and partly a disciple of others?

Are you fully persuaded that he and his Word are to be the exclusive source of your religious convictions? Or do you rely also on your own human reason and subjective experience in defining what you believe, and what you decline to believe?

In St. Matthew’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper, we read:

“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’”

We are not told that Jesus gave the bread to those who were partly his disciples. The Supper of the Lord is for the disciples of the Lord.

Two chapters later, Matthew reports Jesus’ institution of Christian Baptism in these words:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

We are not told that the definition of a disciple is someone who has been baptized and has been taught to observe only some or even most of what Jesus has commanded. A disciple of Jesus observes, believes, and holds to everything that Jesus commands, teaches, and institutes.

This is one of the reasons why the Christian church historically has always practiced closed communion. Jesus did not institute his Holy Supper during the sermon on the mount, giving his sacred body and blood, for the first time, to a crowd of strangers.

Rather, he instituted this sacrament in the closed circle of his disciples, who had been following him and receiving his instruction for three years. One element of that instruction included what Jesus had said as a part of his “bread of life” discourse:

“It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me... Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. ... I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Jesus’ disciples may not have fully understood what Jesus meant by these words when he spoke them, and they probably did not completely understand these words until after his crucifixion and resurrection.

But these words did prepare them for what Jesus later said, on the night in which he was betrayed, when he declared regarding the bread that he was offering them and inviting them to eat: “This is my body, which is given for you.”

The apostle Paul also understood that participation in the Lord’s Supper is for disciples of the Lord who have been taught to observe everything Jesus commanded; and that this sacramental participation is therefore to be preceded by instruction in the doctrine and practice that the Lord wants his church to believe and to do.

In First Corinthians, just a few verses before Paul says, “Let a person examine himself, ...and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup,” he had said this: “I commend you that you have remembered me in all things, and you are keeping the teachings as I delivered to you.”

The term “closed communion” should not, however, be taken to mean that the Lord’s Supper is permanently closed to those for whom it might be closed right now. In principle, there is a pathway to Holy Communion that is open to everyone.

It is the pathway of discipleship. It is the pathway of teaching and learning, of believing and confessing, that all communicants in our fellowship have traveled, and that has brought them to the Lord’s altar. It is the pathway that we, in the name of the Lord, welcome all others to travel as well.

In many ways, we are still traveling on that pathway. Under the Scriptures, and through what we are continuing to learn from the Scriptures, we are still always being prepared anew for the encounter with Christ that God’s people experience together, in the mystery of his sacred meal.

St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans that

“Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.”

“Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement allow you to live in harmony with one another, according to the command of Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice.”

Jesus in the Four Gospels, and the apostles who speak on his behalf in the New Testament Epistles, do not answer every question we may have. This is certainly the cases with many of the questions people raise in the realm of politics, science, and other earthly matters.

But it is also the case with many of the questions that people ask about God, and about what he is doing, and why and how he is doing it. Many things of this nature are left as mysteries for us.

But where the Scriptures do speak clearly, even if what they say might be hard to accept, a disciple of Jesus will accept what they say. Our Christ-centered sacramental theology will be shaped by this teaching. Our standards of ethics and morality will be governed by this teaching.

Now, this doesn’t mean that our faith in Christ’s Word and authority will always be strong, or that our understanding of his Word and doctrine will always be complete. Indeed, throughout our lives, we will always be growing and maturing as disciples of Jesus.

What is necessary, though, is that we are always growing and maturing toward and into Christ, and are open to his voice, rather that closing our ears to what he says, and listening instead to voices that contradict and oppose him.

Psalm 119 expresses the attitude of a humble and wholehearted disciple of Jesus, who knows that he still has much to learn, but who also knows where he needs to learn it:

“I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!”

“Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life! Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.”

A disciple of Jesus is a baptized person who has been taught to observe everything Jesus has commanded. A disciple of Jesus is a Christian who lives within his baptism every day: in repentance, daily dying to the selfishness and pride of the old sinful nature; and in faith, daily rising in the forgiveness and grace of Christ for a new life of love and service to God and man.

Our love for one another - which, while imperfect, is to be obvious enough to be noticed even by unbelievers - is not what makes us to be disciples of the Lord. But it is a natural and necessary outgrowth of what does make us to be - and to remain - disciples of the Lord: namely, the Word and sacraments of the Lord.

And so Jesus says in today’s Gospel from St. John:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

A disciple of Jesus is honest about his weakness and his need for God’s strength; about the limitations of his understanding and his need for God’s enlightenment; and about his continuing sin and his need for God’s forgiveness.

And therefore a disciple of Jesus is profoundly grateful that God gives him the strength he needs by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; that God teaches him what he needs to know through the clarity and truth of the inspired Scriptures; and that God washes away the stain of his transgressions, and lifts from his conscience the burden of his guilt before God, through the absolving and renewing power of the means of grace that Jesus has left for his church.

Sometimes we do doubt. Sometimes we are afraid. Sometimes we falter and fail, and succumb to temptation. At all times we need the Lord’s mercy, help, and forgiveness.

Where there is forgiveness of sins, there are also life and salvation. According to the Lord’s design and institution, there is a real saving power for the bestowing of forgiveness, life, and salvation, in the preached gospel, in Holy Baptism, and in the Sacrament of the Altar.

A disciple of Jesus - not just partly a disciple but a disciple fully and completely - will believe and confess this saving power. A disciple of Christ knows his need for Christ, and will joyfully receive what Christ gives, precisely where he has promised to give it.

As recorded by St. Luke, Jesus said to his disciples:

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

On the night in which he was betrayed, as recorded by St. John in today’s Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples - and to Peter in particular:

“What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. ... If I do not wash you, you have no share with me. ... And you are clean.”

Also on the night in which he was betrayed, as recorded by St. Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples regarding the cup of wine that he was offering to them:

“Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

As baptized disciples of the Lord who have been taught to observe all that he has commanded, those who will come forward to the Lord’s altar in a few minutes will do so in response to this special command of Jesus: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

As we heed this invitation, may these prayerful words from the hymnist James Montgomery echo in our minds and hearts:

Command thy blessing from above, O God, on all assembled here;
Behold us with a father’s love, While we look up with filial fear.

Command Thy blessing, Jesus, Lord. May we Thy true disciples be;
Speak to each heart the mighty Word, Say to the weakest, “Follow me.”

Command Thy blessing in this hour, Spirit of Truth, and fill this place
With humbling and with healing power, With killing and with quickening grace.

Amen.

---

15 April 2022 - Good Friday

Beginning with Cain’s slaying of his brother Abel, human history has been filled with violence, suffering, and untimely death, as the result of man’s inhumanity to man. Suffering and death, as inflicted by the hand of sinful man, infect the world in which we live in so many ways, and in so many places.

A few days ago someone opened fire on a subway car in Brooklyn, New York. Unfortunately, I am not able to describe this as an unusual occurrence in the cities of our land.

And of course, as we watch news reports from Europe, we are continually shocked by the suffering and death that are affecting many thousands of people in Ukraine. The annals of history recount for us even worse examples of sadistic brutality and heartless cruelty, on massive scales, testifying to the profoundly corrupted condition of the human soul, and showing the depths of depravity to which people are able to sink.

We confess regularly, as members of the fallen human race, that “we are by nature sinful and unclean.” There is plenty of evidence available to confirm the accuracy of that confession regarding the original sin that infects all mankind.

All of these things are distressing to us because there is a part of us that craves peace rather than violence: for ourselves and for others. But these things are distressing also because they are so senseless and meaningless.

The reasons for violence are always so trivial, compared to the great harm that it does to those who are victimized by it, and to the human community as a whole.

It is easy to sink into despair, and to be tempted to conclude that there is no meaning in anything, when meaningless violence is relentlessly inflicted upon us, upon people we care about, or upon others with whom we empathize.

It is especially difficult to see or be aware of cases when children are abused or harmed. I know that when I see images of children in Ukraine enduring great hardship or even being killed, I think immediately of my grandchildren and of how much I love them, and then I put myself in the place of the parents and grandparents in Ukraine who love those kids, too.

I can’t keep a dry eye when I see such pictures, or hear such stories.

The natural knowledge of God, and Holy Scripture, both impress upon us that the God who created the world is powerful enough to intervene in the world, to protect the innocent or to punish the guilty. Sometimes he does this. That he usually does not do this, in most cases of human suffering and human death, can be a source of spiritual doubt for many.

The events of Good Friday, when considered in light of all the other suffering that has taken place in human history - and that is still taking place - can seem to be little more than a particularly egregious example of the same thing that goes on everywhere: meaningless suffering, culminating in an unjust death.

The penitent thief had it right when he said, as quoted by St. Luke: “this man has done nothing wrong.” The Roman centurion on the scene also had it right: “Certainly this man was innocent!”

But Jesus was killed anyway. His kind and compassionate life was snuffed out anyway.

Is his death a reason to believe in God? Maybe it’s a reason not to believe in God. For many, meaningless suffering is a reason not to believe in God.

But... but... his death is not without meaning.

Jesus’ execution would have seemed to those who witnessed it - and it may seem to us, according to its external appearance – to have been caused only by the jealousy and personal corruption of the Jewish leadership, and by the cynicism and arbitrary cruelty of the Roman pagans.

But more than that was going on. At a later time, St. Peter, in the Book of Acts, explained that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”

What Isaiah the Prophet had said many centuries earlier fleshes out what that means:

“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. ...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; ...by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

There was a purpose in Jesus’ suffering and death. It was caused, ultimately, by a righteous yet gracious God: that is, by the intersection and convergence of God’s holiness and hatred for human sin, and God’s redeeming and forgiving love for sinners.

God foreknew and planned this, as a way for him to conquer the sin in humanity that had separated humanity from him.

In his holiness he could not simply ignore or overlook humanity’s rebellion and wickedness. But in sending his Son to be the substitute for humanity under the demands and judgments of his law, he could forgive that rebellion and wickedness, and restore us to his fellowship.

God laid upon his Son - who embodied all peace and truth - the iniquity of all sinners. He crushed him with the weight of every human trespass, until he died under that weight.

And because Jesus - the righteous one of God - is our Savior, through faith in him we are now counted as righteous before God. Jesus bore our iniquities and carried them to the cross, so that we need no longer bear them, and carry them to hell.

In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul elaborates on this, and on what this means for you and me in our conscience before God, and in our life in this world:

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. ...”

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Of course, none of this was forced onto Jesus. Jesus, as God in human flesh, was completely on board with this plan, because it was his plan, too. He says in John’s Gospel:

“I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

Jesus’ dying on the cross was not without meaning. It means a lot. It means everything.

He did this for our reconciliation with God, and our justification before God; and he allowed this to be done to him, so that we would be redeemed by him, and belong to him.

And that gives us a perspective on all other suffering and death in this world. Knowing the purpose that stood behind and in Jesus’ suffering, allows us to endure the suffering that surrounds and envelops us, even when we see no purpose in that suffering.

The suffering and death of humanity’s children may temp us to doubt God or even to fall away from our faith in him. But the suffering and death of God’s only-begotten Son on behalf of humanity, delivers us from that temptation.

It reveals to us the love of God in a way that is so strong and so vivid, that nothing else can obscure the reality of that love.

How do I know that God loves me? Is it because I see and experience no hardship and injustice in this world? No. It is because Jesus died for me, and took away my sins.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,” to quote from St. Peter’s First Epistle.

In the comfort and confidence that flow from the salvation that is ours in the suffering and death of Christ, we are able to join St. Paul in his confession of what it means for us to endure suffering and death in this world: knowing that Christ is our compassionate companion, who sustains our faith and hope in our suffering; and that Christ is our resurrected Lord, who welcomes us into his heavenly kingdom in our death.

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

For the past several weeks I have been comforting my former students and friends in Ukraine with these brief yet powerful words of Jesus, from which we can all derive comfort, even if our hardships are not as severe as is theirs at the present time.

“Страждання зазнаєте в світі, але будьте відважні: Я світ переміг.”

“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Amen.

---

17 April 2022 - Easter

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Atheists and agnostics commonly launch a wide array of criticisms in the direction of the Christian religion, disparaging Christianity as the source of all manner of evils in human history. An exception, however, was Antony Flew, a British philosopher and student of science, who started out as a committed atheist, and who wrote several books defending atheism and rejecting a belief in God, but who then changed his mind.

He came to see - on the basis of his studies in science - that the origin of life points to a divine designer. In 2004 he said publicly that this change of mind came about

“almost entirely because of the DNA investigations. What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.”

So, before he died in 2010, the former atheist Antony Flew had become a theist - that is, a believer in a divine creator and designer of the universe.

He never confessed himself to be a Christian, or an adherent of any particular religion. But he did say - in effect - that the religion that he wished could be true, if any specific religion could be true, is the Christian faith.

Flew didn’t describe Christianity as the source of all evil, but he took an honest look at the actual teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and at the many positive effects Christianity has had in the real history of the human race. He took note especially of the exalted character of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels, and of the admirable intellectual power of St. Paul as demonstrated in his Epistles. Flew said:

“I think that the Christian religion is the one religion that most clearly deserves to be honoured and respected, whether or not its claim to be a divine revelation is true. There is nothing like the combination of a charismatic figure like Jesus and a first-class intellectual like St. Paul. ... If you’re wanting Omnipotence to set up a religion, this is the one to beat.”

How interesting, yet how sad. There was a part of Antony Flew that wished that Christianity could be true.

But Flew’s rationalism - which was dented and weakened by the evidence for intelligent design that he saw in nature - was never fully penetrated and broken by a supernatural encounter with the resurrected Christ.

Still, sometimes, when my faith has been weakened through trials and temptations, I can relate to Antony Flew’s struggles. I always want the Christian faith to be true.

What the Bible teaches about humanity’s fall, and about humanity’s inborn alienation from God and hostility toward God, is clearly confirmed when I see and experience the sin that exists in the world, and in my own heart.

The moral code that Jesus and his apostles teach makes a lot of sense. If everyone followed this code, the human race would thrive and prosper in stable and harmonious families, and in stable and safe societies.

I have also seen the healing power of forgiveness, in the restoration of human relationships that had been damaged by pride and selfishness. The faith that inspires such things would clearly seem to be a good and valid faith.

And I have seen the harm that occurs when people do not live as Jesus and the apostles teach, when they do not love their neighbors as themselves, and when they do not restrain their destructive impulses. I have also seen the enduring pain that marks fractured human relationships that have never been healed and restored in a Christian manner.

So, what I see when people embrace the Christian faith and live by its principles, and what I see when people reject the Christian faith and live in ways that contradict its principles, all work together to recommend Christianity to me as a religion that should be true, and that I want to be true.

I want to believe that the forces of good are more powerful than the forces of evil, and that good will eventually triumph over evil. I want to believe that forgiveness and new beginnings are real, and that everyone gets a second chance.

I always want to believe this. But do I always believe this? Sometimes it might seem too good to be true. Sometimes I might be distracted by the comforts and ambitions of this life, and might stop thinking about the life to come.

Sometimes I might be tempted to live for myself and not for others. And sometimes the world, the flesh, and the devil attack and weaken my faith, so that for no particular reason I begin to doubt that the Christian faith is real, that St. Paul and his intellect are real, or that Jesus and his character are real.

I don’t think any of us are completely free of such occasional doubts. And in some cases these doubts can be very severe.

But today, on this day of our Lord’s resurrection, we are reminded most vividly of what actually stands behind and within the Christian faith, to make it true and powerful all the time - including those dark and weak times when it may not feel true. Without equivocation, St. Paul writes in today’s lesson from his First Epistle to the Corinthians:

“In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also, in Christ, shall all be made alive.”

How can Paul be so sure that Jesus rose bodily from the grave, thereby to establish the unquestionable truth of the gospel that he preached, and of the Christian faith on which he staked everything in his life? Well, there are three reasons.

First, Paul believed in the resurrection of Jesus because Paul had an extraordinary personal encounter with the risen Jesus, on the road to Damascus - at a time in his life when he was still known by the name Saul. And Paul knew that this was not a hallucination, because the people who were with him also experienced something extraordinary when this happened - even though the very personal message that Jesus spoke to Paul on that occasion was not clearly heard and understood by the others in his party.

In the Book of Acts, Paul’s Damascus Road experience is recounted three different times. So, it was clearly important to him. In one of those descriptions, Paul said:

“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’”

“Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’”

Second, Paul knew that the resurrection of Jesus was real, and that the faith which this resurrection established was true, because others had also seen, touched, and heard Jesus in his living and glorified state, after he had been killed and buried. A basic standard of evidence in the Book of Deuteronomy is that “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

This is why Jesus brought three disciples along for private events - such as the raising of Jairus’s daughter or the transfiguration - which he nevertheless wanted to be recorded and believed by the later church. And this is why the many witnesses to the risen Christ - identified by name - confirm the truthfulness of the resurrection.

Paul knew these many witnesses - far more than two or three! - and had personally heard their testimony. Elsewhere in First Corinthians, Paul wrote:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas” - that is, Peter - “then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

One of the Lord’s appearances also involved Thomas the apostle. Next Sunday’s Gospel will unfold the details of that event for us, but for now I would like to quote these words which the risen Savior spoke to Thomas on that occasion:

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Evangelist John then immediately adds this comment, which represents also the third reason why Paul believed in the resurrection:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Those of us who are removed in time from these bodily appearances of the risen Christ are still able to know that Jesus is alive, because of the consistency and reliability of the testimony of these people regarding what they had seen, heard, and touched. And we are able to know - and do most certainly know - that the resurrection of Jesus is true, also because of the supernatural testimony of God’s Word and Spirit, through the message of the inspired Scriptures.

The witness of Paul and the apostles leads us, according to objective standards of evidence, to conclude that what they experienced really happened. But the added witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts takes this certainty to an even higher level, and allows us to know that what we have rationally concluded to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, is in fact absolutely true.

The Word of the gospel - regarding the resurrection of Christ, and regarding everything else that God wants us to know and believe - is full of divine life and power. Not only does the gospel persuade us that Jesus rose from the dead in real history, but it also instills within us a resurrection hope for ourselves, and bestows upon us a new life of faith that is birthed and shaped by the resurrection of our Savior.

In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes that

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ...faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

The assurance and certainty of faith is not a product of human psychology. We don’t have a technique, arising from our inner will power or mental discipline, that enables us to believe in things without wavering, that we then choose to apply to a belief in the resurrection of Jesus, or to a belief in any other Christian teaching.

Instead, the assurance and certainty of faith is produced by the unwavering validity of what we believe, when we are in fact believing in something that is, on its own terms, most certainly true. The resurrection of Jesus is objectively true and real in itself, apart from anyone’s faith in it.

Your faith does not create the resurrection, or make it to be so; even as unbelief does not cause the resurrection not to be so. But the resurrection, as the Holy Spirit impresses the truth of it on the mind and conscience of those who hear the gospel, does create faith.

Jesus did rise from the dead, and is alive forevermore. He is alive as God and man, in soul and body. And as a living Savior, he is personally accessible to those who yearn for his touch and protection.

In his divine power and omnipresence, Christ, after he rose from the grave, “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things,” as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians. Because he fills all things, and can be wherever he wants to be, we can be confident that he is where he has promised to be for us, whenever we need him.

Jesus is both far away, and very close. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, interceding for his church and governing all things for the benefit of his church.

And, he is speaking and working in his Word and sacraments - and especially in the Lord’s Supper. In regard to this Supper, Jesus gives us a specific promise about the presence and forgiving power of his now-resurrected body, and his now-glorified blood.

Jesus lives in the universe. Jesus lives in his church. And Jesus lives in the hearts of all who cling to him and trust in him for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

The Christian faith - filled as it is with such goodness and hope - should be true. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead announces that the Christian faith is in fact true.

And because you are able to know with certainty that Jesus is risen, you therefore can know - in life and in death, for this world and for the next - that the Christian faith is true; that your sins are forgiven; and that eternal life is yours through faith in Jesus Christ, our living Lord.

In the resurrection of Christ, good has triumphed over evil. In the resurrection of Christ, God has given to you - and to all the world - a second chance.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen.

---

24 April 2022 - Easter 2 - John 20:19-31

Many people today believe in life after death, and in ghosts. The increasing number of popular ghost-story and ghost-hunting shows on television testifies to this - as does the common notion that the souls of dead loved ones remain with their family members, and watch over them. Many people find comfort in this belief.

Is this, in essence, what the story of Easter is about? After Jesus’ suffering and death, were his disciples comforted by the idea that their Master, though physically gone, was still with them in spirit, and was watching over them?

Well, no. The story of Easter is not a sanctified version of ghost hunting. And the events recorded in today’s Gospel from St. John, with Jesus communicating and interacting with his disciples, were not seances.

The story of Easter is, rather, the first-hand, inspired account of the risen Christ, appearing bodily to his disciples, showing them the nail marks in his hands, and even eating with them.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just a story about life after death. It is a story about life - God’s life, and God’s power in life - overcoming death, and conquering death.

Many or most people in Jesus’ time believed in ghosts, or “phantasms.” St. Matthew reports that when the disciples, on one occasion, saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And that is very similar to what Jesus said when he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. We read in St. Luke’s Gospel that

“Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ But they were startled and frightened, and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.”

Jesus was not a spirit, or a ghost. And Jesus is still not a ghost. He is still, in every sense of the term, alive.

As God and man - the eternal Son of the Father and also our brother according to the flesh - Jesus is alive. In soul and body, in spirit and in the flesh, he is fully alive.

He is alive in the universe, filling all things. He is alive in the world, governing the forces of nature and the affairs of men for the benefit of his kingdom.

He is alive in his church: speaking and teaching through his called ministers; judging sin and forgiving the penitent in law and gospel; nurturing and sustaining his people through the means of grace.

And, if you are a Christian, he is alive in you, mystically united to your spirit, filling your life with his love and grace.

During the time of his earthly ministry, when Jesus was in “the form of a servant,” those who knew him interacted with him as someone who was physically in only one place at a time. But the resurrection of Jesus, and the exaltation of Christ that has come along with it, have now opened up to him a vast array of options for how and where he appears, to and among his people.

Today’s Gospel reports two of our Lord’s bodily appearances. The Book of Acts tells us of the time when Stephen the deacon, just before his death, “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

We are also told in the Book of Acts of the appearance of Jesus to Saul of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus, when Jesus was surrounded by a brilliant light, and spoke to Saul from within that light.

And today’s lesson from the Book of Revelation describes what John saw and heard, in the extraordinary encounter with Christ that he had while he was on the Island of Patmos. John saw

“One like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ... His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore...’”

It is not impossible for the risen and glorified Christ to appear bodily in these kinds of ways also today. This doesn’t mean that we would automatically believe every claim that such a thing has happened.

The dubious accounts of Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century, and of Oral Roberts in the twentieth, come most readily to mind as claims that we would be inclined to reject.

In any case, we know that on the last day - when we will all be raised from our graves - yet another bodily appearance of Christ definitely will happen.

On that fearsome day, “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.” That’s also from the Book of Revelation.

But usually, as we await the end of this world, the risen Christ comes among us in ways that are very real, but that are also very invisible. There’s an example of that also in today’s Gospel.

Jesus was invisibly present and listening, when Thomas was first told by his friends that they had seen the Lord, and that Jesus was alive. Thomas responded by saying:

“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Now, Jesus heard him say that. We know this, because when Jesus appeared again - to Thomas - a week later, the first thing he said to him was,

“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

He basically ran down the checklist of the things Thomas had said would be necessary, for him to be willing to believe. But in his encounter with the risen Christ, Thomas - instead of doing all those empirical things - immediately forgot about his checklist, and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God.”

At that moment, Thomas knew that Jesus was alive. He knew that Jesus was divine. He knew these things on Jesus’ terms. And, he knew that Jesus knew a whole lot more about him, than he had ever realized.

That is one aspect of the resurrection of Christ, that the old Adam in you does not want to think about, or acknowledge. We are not alarmed in the days leading up to Christmas, when we hear children sing of Santa Claus:

“He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake!”

But everything that is said here of Santa Claus, is really true of Jesus.

Former ULCA basketball coach John Wooden used to say: “The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.” But Jesus is always watching - and listening.

What does he see in the private moments of your life, when you think no one is watching? What does he hear, when you think no one is listening?

We are told in the Book of Job that God’s eyes “are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.”

God, in Christ, was watching, and listening to, Thomas, when Thomas listed all the physical proofs he would require. And he is watching you, and is listening to you, today.

Jesus is not a ghost who comes and goes, who appears and disappears. He is always where you are, wherever that is. And his eyes and ears are always open.

When you are on the computer, or looking at a movie, or viewing a television show, he is watching. When you are talking - or arguing - with your spouse or children, your siblings or coworkers, he is listening.

There is no secret indecency, no personal dishonesty, and no private cruelty that is hidden from him. There is no disgrace, no shame, and no embarrassment that he is not already aware of.

You cannot hide anything from the risen Christ. He is alive, and he is around.

When I was a child, I used to chuckle at the catchphrase of a certain cute and clever French-Canadian cartoon mouse: “Savoir-Faire eez everywhere.” But Jesus really is everywhere.

For habitual transgressors like us, when we embrace sin and turn away from righteousness, the fact that Jesus knows all about it, is no laughing matter. But the presence of the living Christ - with us, and in us - is a matter of rejoicing, to every penitent and believing Christian.

When you let go of your sins, and cling to Christ instead, you have life rather than death, hope rather than despair, direction and purpose rather than aimlessness and meaninglessness, salvation rather than damnation.

A ghost cannot give you any of that, or change your heart and mind in these ways. But a living divine-human Savior can. And a living divine-human Savior does.

When Christ’s inscripturated message of pardon and peace is spoken in his name today, he is speaking. When his words of forgiveness and reconciliation are declared to you by his authority today, he is forgiving you before God, and he is reconciling you to God.

When Jesus appeared visibly to Thomas, he blessed him with a renewed, deepened, and refocused faith. And he said to him:

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

You are blessed when you, without seeing, nevertheless believe - when you believe that Jesus is really alive; and that he is really here.

The resurrection does indeed make possible the various ways in which Jesus now comes to people: both the extraordinary ways and the ordinary ways. But even when we believe that Jesus is with us in one of the ordinary ways - by means of his preached or sacramental Word - the miracle of the resurrection is still very much at the heart and center of what we are believing.

The Lord’s Supper, as Jesus instituted it, could not exist for us today, if Jesus had not been raised from the grave after his death. His sacred body was given into death to redeem us from our slavery to sin, and his precious blood was shed to wash away the guilt of sin.

But the body and blood of Jesus are no longer dead - disintegrated at the molecular level into the soil of Jerusalem. His body and blood are alive, because he is alive.

And Jesus’ living and life-giving body and blood are truly present, and are accessible to us, when and where Jesus’ words of institution cause them to be present and accessible.

They are in the consecrated bread and wine of the sacrament. And, they are in us, and bring it about that Jesus is in us, when we, in faith, partake of this mystery.

Dear friends, Jesus is not a ghost. When he warns you about your sins, and reminds you of God’s judgment against those who turn their back on him and rebel against him, he is not a ghost.

When, through the lips of his called servant, he absolves you, and assures you of God’s mercy on account of his saving work, he is not a ghost. And when he comes to you in his sacred Supper, and supernaturally feeds you with his real body and blood, he is not a ghost.

We close with this warm exhortation from Psalm 105, as chanted in today’s Introit:

“Sing to [the Lord], sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” Amen.