7th Sunday of Easter; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11

Christ is risen!

            Her name is Meriam Ibrahim; and she has been sentenced in a Sharia court to 100 lashes and to be executed because she refuses to recant her Christian faith.  But her story goes a deeper than that.  She was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother and even though her father left soon after her birth, even though she has been raised Christian her whole life, according to Sharia, Muslim, law, since her father was Muslim, she also is considered to be of Islamic faith.  She’s never bowed toward Mecca, she’s never called on the name of Allah, but because this court considered her Muslim from birth because of her father’s faith, she has been convicted of converting away from Islam. 

Moreover, she married a Christian man, she had one child before her conviction and was pregnant with the other until just days ago when she have birth to a little girl.  She’s also been convicted of adultery, Muslim women are forbidden from having relations with non-Muslim men, even though he’s her husband.  

The judge did show a little compassion, if you could call it that.  He stayed the 100 lashes until the child was born and he stayed the execution until the child has been nursed for two years.  So, the child having been born, the lashes could be given at any time.  Then she’ll wait in a Sudanese prison cell until the child is weaned.

This whole matter could just go away if she just did one thing: renounce Christ and praise Allah.  But she’d rather face prison, lashes, and death than deny Christ. 

I tell you this not so to fuel the flames of anger; we’re called to love even our enemies.  Not so that you would call this an injustice of the highest degree, we’re called to bless our persecutors.  I tell you this so that Meriam may be an example of faith to you.  That if you ever face the prospect of being persecuted for the faith, you remember Meriam, and the rest of the martyrs, who spilled their blood rather than deny the faith.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because of Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

Peter is writing to people who know what it is to suffer.  His letter is addressed to “those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.”  Exiles scattered, dispersed, presumably because of persecution that they endured for bearing the name of Christ.  Being Christian, contrary to what you may hear from some T.V. preachers, offers no exemption from suffering.  With baptism comes no “Get out of Suffering Free” card.  It’s a mistake to think that since Jesus suffered, we’ll get out of it in this life.  But as, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, those who are hungry, thirsty, poor in spirit, the meek, the persecuted are blessed.

The kind of suffering that Peter is talking about isn’t the general sort of suffering we face because we live in a fallen world, you know, that aches, the pains, the heartaches; but Peter’s talking about suffering specifically for the faith.  Suffering for being a Christian.  Suffering for holding fast to the faith once delivered to you, His saints.  He’s talking about the suffering that St. Paul once afflicted God’s people and the suffering that he ultimately endured himself.  Peter’s talking about the suffering that he would eventually go though as he was martyred for the faith.  He’s talking about Meriam Ibrahim kind of suffering.  Suffering for the faith.

I don’t know if we’ll ever endure such suffering in our lifetimes here in America.  The Christians in the next generation may; the storm clouds seem to be looming on the horizon.  But for the moment the sufferings that we endure are more the sufferings of insults, ridicule, loss of friendships, even discrimination, perhaps, or a loss of credibility.  Even small, momentary sufferings like those have caused people to fall away, what will happen when walking into this building may mean the loss of your life?  Are God’s gifts that important to you or not?  Do you take seriously your confirmation vows or don’t you - that you would face death rather than falling away?  Face 100 lashes and the hangman rather than deny the faith?

As strange as it may sound Christian suffering is a gift.  Peter says if you suffer for being a Christian, don’t be ashamed, glorify God in the Name of Jesus and entrust your lives to your faithful Maker and Redeemer.  He will see you through your time of trial and testing. 

In the book of Acts, persecution is the engine that drives the spread of the Gospel.  The apostles and the believers are scattered and the Word of the Lord spreads like seed blowing in the wind.  The Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin tried to get rid of Christianity and purge it from Russia. But he finally concluded that Christianity is like a nail.  The harder you drive it, the deeper it goes. Suffering for Jesus’ sake drives faith even deeper.  It galvanizes and tempers faith.  It refines and purifies faith.

You will suffer for Jesus’ sake in your own way, from time to time.  But know that Jesus suffered for you first.  Suffering is the way of Christ.  Jesus came to suffer as the “Man of Sorrows.”  His suffering was our suffering.  Indeed, no man has ever suffered to the degree Jesus suffered.  We suffer for ourselves.  He suffers for us.  We suffer for our own sins.  He suffers for the sins of the world.  We suffer as one man, one woman.  He suffers as collective humanity, Everyman, all of humanity as one suffering Man.  His suffering was the great necessity of His mission – it was the will of God, it was prophesied in the Scripture, it was necessary the Christ must suffer and enter into His glory.  The way to the right hand of the Father was the way of the cross, of death, of suffering.

Jesus knows what it’s like to suffer.  He understands human pain to His own flesh and bone.  He experienced the anguish of God’s silence.  He knows the darkness of facing one’s death alone.  He knows our pain; He identifies with our suffering.  He is one with our suffering and He is with us when we suffer.

You will suffer for Jesus’ sake, probably not in the way Meriam Ibrahim suffers, but that’s certainly never out of the question.  Jesus suffered for you first.  His suffering saves you; your suffering honors Him.  His suffering is the gold of your faith.  Your suffering brings that gold to 24 karat purity.  HIs suffering was for your sins; your suffering if for His Name.  His suffering sanctifies your suffering.

You will be humbled, you can expect it. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  You will be humbled. Jesus was humbled to death on a cross to save you.  He humbled Himself for you, reaching down to you, joining His suffering life to you.  He was humbled in order to exalt you to the right hand of God. And in your humbling, you will exalted.  He will lift you up. He will raise you from death.  He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

The Ascension of Our Lord; Luke 24:44-53

Christ is risen!

            It’s now 40 days after the Resurrection of the Lord.  He’s spent these 40 post-Easter days showing proofs of His resurrection to those whom He chose.  He has eaten boiled fish for breakfast.  He’s allowed a doubter to place his hand into His pierced side.  He’s wandered down the road to Emmaus with some disheartened disciples.

            It’s 40 days after Easter and the last thing that He has to do, having completed the work of salvation on the cross, having been raised from the dead sealing your justification before God, having shown the battle scars to the witnesses of His resurrection, He now gives the disciples a mandate, a charge, a duty.  He sends them to go out to proclaim the very first sermon that we heard Jesus preach in the Gospel of Matthew, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem…”  “That repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name,” Jesus says.

            So, there you have it: what the apostles are sent out to do.  There you have it: the Church’s duty.  There you have it: the kingdom of heaven on earth when a sinner repents of his sin and trusts that the Lord has put them away.

               Repentance.  That’s what Jesus tells His disciples turned apostles – sent ones – to go out and do.  Call sinners to repentance.  Calling you and me and the world to confess that we’re sinners.  Big time sinners.  Sinners who aren’t even worthy to stoop down and untie our Lord’s sandals.  Sinners who hear the Law of God and shrug it off to follow our own wants and desires.  The Lord says, “Do this.”  “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.  Love your neighbors.  Love your enemies.  Go to church and receive my gifts.  Honor your father and your mother.”  God says “do” and you don’t do it, it’s never done.  The Lord says, “Don’t do this.”  “Don’t commit adultery.  Don’t have any other gods but Me.  Don’t tell lies about your neighbor or gossip about him.  Don’t hurt his reputation.”  And you know what?  That’s exactly what we do.  The things that God has commanded us to do we don’t do and the things that He forbids, those are exactly the things we do.  Repent.

            We’re helpless sinners, who can do nothing but stand shoulder to shoulder with people like King David and repent.  Confess your sins.  “I have sinned against the Lord.  I, a poor miserable sinner, deserve nothing but death and hell; His temporal and eternal punishment.” 

            But our repentance isn’t in despair.  Because the Lord has another Word, a greater Word.  Jesus sends these apostles out to call sinners to repentance but He also sends them out with a Word of forgiveness for those sinners who repent.  We repent, but Christian repentance has two parts: first we confess our sins, lay them before God; those sins we know and even those sins which we’re not even aware.  But the second part of Christian repentance is hearing those words of forgiveness, that, like King David, we hear those beautiful words, “The Lord has put away your sins.  You will not die because of them.”  Law and Gospel.  Confession and absolution.  Repentance and faith.  That’s what the Church is all about; because the Church forgiving the sins of repentant sinners, that’s how our crucified, risen, and ascended Lord reigns among us.  In His Word, in His Supper, at the font, the Lord is closer to you than He was to the apostles there at Bethany.

            That’s why Jesus ascended.  So that He would be with you, there forgiving through His Word of gospel, through His body and blood there on the altar, through the cleansing and forgiving waters of baptism.

In His Word, Jesus is there, forgiving sins.  Wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, proclaiming His cross for the forgiveness of your sins, there He is, doing exactly what He said He would do: forgive sins.  At the altar, under bread and wine, He’s there for you.  He Himself said, “Take eat, this is my body given for you.”  “Take drink, this is my blood shed for you.” 

The Ascension of our Lord is testimony that Jesus is who He said He is and that He is with His church, really, truly, bodily.  Though our eyes only see a sinful man proclaiming mere words, and bread and wine don’t seem like much, but now isn’t the time of seeing, but believing.  Not the time of ignoring but hearing.  Hear with your ears, because Jesus has died for you, taking upon Himself all of your sins.  You are forgiven.  See with your eyes of faith, because though you only see bread and wine, Jesus has promised to come to you with His body and blood and commune with you. 

            That’s why Jesus ascends into heaven, so that He wouldn’t be bound but could be in Cavalier, in St. Thomas, in Langdon, in Grafton, Grand Forks, in Germany, in Russia, and present with His Church throughout the world.  You’re His!  Jesus is with you always to the end of the age forgiving repentant sinners like you, bringing to you His most splendid gifts that He so loves to give to sinners!

            Jesus sends the apostles out with this message: call sinners to repentance and forgive their sins.  Your sins are forgiven.  The Lord has taken those things that He’s commanded that we do, yet have failed to give them a thought upon Himself.  The Lord has taken those things which you’ve done, the sins you’ve commit against God and paid for them.  In full.  The work of salvation is complete and His salvation Jesus still speaks into your ears, is placed on your tongue, and poured over your heads. Everything needed to accomplish your salvation has been completed in the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  For you.

Jesus has not abandoned you, He never really left.  And He’s seeing to it that through His church there is preaching done in His Name so that you repent and believe, and trust that because of Jesus’ cross you are forgiven.  In His Word and Sacraments the crucified and risen Jesus reigns among us sinners.  Reigning with His word of forgiveness that gives life and salvation to sinners like you and me.  .  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

4th Sunday of Easter; John 10:1-10

Christ is risen!

            Happy Mother’s Day!  It’s been said, and I think there’s some truth to it, the first voice that a child learns to recognize is the voice of her mother.  She hears the voice of her mother all the time as she develops in the womb.  After birth, the mother is the one who often stays home, at least for a time, taking care of the baby.  So it makes sense that since it’s the mother’s voice that rings in the ears of the child the most often, the child learns to recognize her mother’s voice. 

            Think back to when you were a child.  Many of us heard the voice of our mothers as a sign of comfort, care, nurture, and safety when things weren’t going so well in our lives.  But as we grew older the voice that was once the loving, caring, and nurturing voice was, at times, the voice of correction, the voice that wouldn’t allow you to have your kind of fun.  There were plenty of times when we didn’t want a mother but a maid who would give her nodding approval to anything we wanted to do.  “Mom, why can’t I see Killer Martians from Outer Space?  All the other kids are seeing it.”  “Mom, why can’t I play in the street?  The road is the smoothest place to play with my toy cars.”  “Mom, why can’t I have a plate full of Snickers bars for supper?  If you want me to eat all my supper, that would be the best thing to feed me.”  “What do you mean I have to be home by 9:00?  The party doesn’t even end until 2:00.” 

            The voice of our mothers rings out in love; but sometimes love sounds like a voice telling you that you can’t see a certain movie, that’s saying “absolutely not” when you want to play in a dangerous place, that insists on you being home at a certain hour.  There were times we would have like to divorce our families, not claim them anymore.  In our immature minds, they were holding us back from the fun we wanted to have, telling us “no” when we wanted to head off into the barren pastures.

            And so it is with our Good Shepherd.  As much as we love the idea of having Good Shepherd Jesus, there are times that we’d rather have a hireling than a Good Shepherd.  There are times we’d rather pray that the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want… anything other than what my heart desires.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, but I see some better, more desirable pastures over there.  He leads me beside still waters, but I know of better waters where I can fill my belly.  He leads me in paths of righteousness but I’d rather run into the open fields of the world, doing what I want, sleeping with whom I want, speaking the way I want, doing worldly things in the worldly meadow, living like the beast I am.  He leads me for His name’s sake, but I want to make a name for myself, I want others to look to me and covet what I’ve done.  His rod and his staff are stifling and restrictive.  He wants to lead me through the valley of the shadow of death, but I can find the way on my own.

            So it is for you.  So it is for me.  Our beastly hearts don’t want a good shepherd, but a hireling.  We don’t want to be owned, but have free course to do as we see fit.  We don’t want the Good Shepherd leading us to green pastures, because we think that we know well enough how to recognize the pastures that are best for us.  Repent.  You’re the sheep that has gone astray; wandered from the path set down by the Good Shepherd.  Return to the shepherd of your soul.  The pastures that look lush and green to your sheep eyes are a barren wasteland.  The freedoms that you crave are chains in disguise. 

            The Lord is your Good Shepherd and all He wants is you.  Yes, you who so often turn your back on the Good Shepherd.  Yes, you who have gone your own way.  Yes, you who have been more like a wolf than obedient sheep.  Yes, the Good Shepherd wants you to have life and have it abundantly - eternally. 

            “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  To him the gatekeeper opens.  The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers,” Jesus says. 

            There are all kinds of voices out there calling to you, tempting you, urging you to jump the fence into another pasture.  Sometimes that voice is your own, convincing ourselves of the fun you’d have somewhere else.  But our Good Shepherd calls you each by name, to follow where He leads.  And where He leads isn’t glamorous or flashy.  It doesn’t look like a place a competent shepherd would lead his sheep, but He calls you to follow Him up to a hill where the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep – for you.

He saw the devilish wolf approach, dressed in sheep’s clothing.  He put Himself between the devil and you, between your sins and you.  He’s the gate that separates you from your wandering ways, from your sinful trying to go it on your own, from your straying from the Good Shepherd.  Your sins aren’t on you, but on our Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for them, sheds His blood to pay the price for each and every one of them.  He’s the gate that’s been slammed shut, like the stone that sealed His tomb, forever removing your guilt, your sin, your shame from you. 

            He raised you up from the pit into which you have fallen.  He placed you on His shoulders and rejoiced to carry you home.  He washed you in cleansing waters, bound up that which was broken, and healed all your wounds.  He prepared an altar before you in the presence of the devilish enemy and anointed your head with oil, and His chalice continually runs over—over your lips, over your sins, quenching your thirst. 

            All this He does for you.  And because He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you, you’re His good sheep.  He gives His life for you and makes your life His own and His life your own.  He became what you are in order to make you what He is – good – worthy of being called to the heavenly meadow.  Surely goodness and mercy shall chase after you, shall precede you, shall be on your right and on your left, above you and below you, all the days of your life, and you shall dwell in the flock of the Lord forever. 

            Hear His voice, as the Good Shepherd becomes the sacrificial lamb.  He cries out that it is finished for you.  Your sins are covered in the blood of the Lamb.  He calls you.  He loves you.  He died for you.  He forgives us wandering sheep again and again and again.  Thanks and eternal praise be to our crucified and risen Good Shepherd.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds n Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

             

            

2nd Sunday of Easter; John 20:19-31

Christ is risen!

            We call him “Doubting Thomas.”  I don’t know why he has forever been branded with that nickname while the other disciples remained unlabeled.  Certainly there’s no question that he doubted, even refused to believe the testimony of his brother disciples; but, after all, Peter denied Jesus but we don’t call him “Denying Peter.”  Judas betrayed our Lord but we rarely call him, “Betraying Judas.”  But poor Thomas is still lying in his grave, awaiting the resurrection with the label “Doubting Thomas.” 

            But maybe he deserves it, maybe the moniker “Doubting Thomas” is even charitable.  After Jesus had appeared to the other ten disciples in that locked room, Thomas didn’t respond to their testimony by saying, “Now I highly doubt that.  That seems to be a bit preposterous,” leaving room for a glimmer of hope.  No, he boldly proclaims, “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.”  “I will never believe,” Thomas says.  He really couldn’t put it in stronger language than that.  “I will never believe unless I see the physical evidence, tangible proof.  I demand to see the wounds of the cross, and what’s more I want to stick my fingers into them.”  

            So, what was Thomas’ problem?  It was Thomas who had previously said, when Jesus was about to go back to back to the dangerous place of Bethany to raise Lazarus, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”  Thomas saw the nails driven through Jesus’ hands and feet, He saw the body of His Lord hanging on the tree, he beheld the cross stained with the blood of Jesus, he heard the testimony of the women, probably even saw the empty tomb.  He heard from Jesus Himself that it was absolutely necessary that the Son of Man be handed over into the hands of sinful men but on the third day rise.  So what was Thomas’ problem?  His problem is that he’s exactly like us.

            He’s known as Doubting Thomas; but perhaps we should call him Unbelieving Thomas.  But either way, for his doubting, for his unbelieving, for his hard-headedness, for his dyed-in-the-wool skepticism, we ought to give God eternal thanks because in Thomas we see ourselves.  In Thomas we see our error of insisting that our own experiences are what matter when measuring God’s love.  In Thomas we see how our Lord deals with our sinful unbelief, our insisting on seeing a tangible sign to prove God’s mercy instead of trusting in the comforting Word of the Lord.  In Thomas we see our faith that, at times, is a bruised reed and fainting wick.  For Doubting Thomas and for us seeing is believing.  We trust our eyes instead of our ears. 

            Like Thomas we count these things to be real: a body giving up the spirit, a dead Jesus on the cross, a freshly enclosed tomb.  We count as real our stresses in life, our frustrations at work, our dwindling bank accounts, our own hurts, sufferings, and pains.  These are the things we see and the temptation is to think that God’s holding out on us, doesn’t really love us, or He isn’t really a God of mercy.  For this we should repent.  Repent for coming up with our own litmus test to measure if God really loves you.  Repent for our self-centeredness.  Repent for not trusting what God has spoken to us when He promises that He loves us even unto death – trusting our eyes and ignoring what we hear from our Lord.

With our Lord, believing isn’t seeing.  We live by faith, not by sight – hearing the Words of Jesus and trusting in His Word of promise, not testing them against what we see and experience.  Faith is believing exactly the opposite of what we see.

That’s why we ought to give thanks for Thomas – he’s exactly like us – trusting his eyes, his experience, his senses over – and - above the testimony of Jesus that He would rise again after three days. 

Yet when Christ appears in that locked room the second time, He goes to Thomas and doesn’t chastise him for his doubt, Jesus doesn’t take him by the shirt and give him an angry shake for his skepticism, He doesn’t slap Thomas on the face for his unbelief.  The Lord simply reveals to Thomas His nail-pierced hands, shows him the handiwork left by the spear-wielding soldier.  Jesus goes to Thomas and the first words out of His mouth are words of absolution.  “‘Peace be with you.’  Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.’”

And Thomas, moving his fingers over the Lord’s redeeming scars, believes.  He sees with the eyes of faith who Jesus really is.  His disbelief turns to faith.  His tongue which once spewed forth doubt in His Lord’s promise of death and resurrection now makes the great confession of John’s Gospel, “My Lord and my God.”

This is the way of the Lord, the way of grace and mercy.  He doesn’t leave Thomas crawling about blindly in his unbelief, but reaches out with those scarred hands and pulls Him in close to see Him by faith.  And so it is for you.

He takes your doubts and your fears and your shame and your bitterness and Jesus makes them His own.  And He takes His faith and His hope and His life and His joy and His glory and He makes them your own.  He doesn’t remove your outward troubles; He gives you something better: peace.   His peace.  The peace that flows from His cross and empty tomb to you.  He may leave in place your stresses, your frustrations, your diseases, your pains, your hurts, but He won’t leave your heart empty of His peace.  For that’s what He’s all about: giving to you the peace that surpasses all understanding, the kind of peace that knows that no matter how unfaithful you’ve been, God will never be unfaithful to you.  The kind of peace that knows that no matter how great your sin, Christ’s love and forgiveness is always greater.  The kind of peace that knows that no matter how bad this world may get at times, any suffering here isn’t worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed on the Last Day.  That’s the kind of peace Christ gives: peace of heart when surrounded by ten thousand enemies. 

As real as your doubts, hurts, frustrations, and fears seem to be, faith looks to Christ, beholds His wounds and says, “But the love, mercy, and peace of God is more real.  The blood that was shed on the cross for me is the greater reality.  The resurrection of Jesus for me is as tangible as it gets as His raised body and blood are placed on my tongue.  Those nail - pierced hands and punctured side of my Lord is for me so that His peace is given to me.  No matter what.”  

In Thomas we see ourselves.  We see our own unbelief, our own skepticism, our own putting the Lord to the test.  But in Thomas we see a doubter turned believer through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We see a man blinded by His own unbelief to a man gifted with the faith to see Jesus as His Lord and God.  So it is for you.  Christ comes to you, not willing to take you by the shirt and shake you in anger, but to come into your midst and speaks a word of forgiveness and peace.  And He has, in your baptisms and through the words of the absolution.  He brings you peace through the proclamation of the Gospel and through His body and blood given and shed for you.  All gifts which flow from the cross.  So that the label that is placed on you isn’t doubter or unbeliever, but baptized, forgiven, and redeemed child of God.  Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.