Holy Trinity Sunday, May 30, A+D 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches                      
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
God Loves the World               John 3:1-17

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

   On this Trinity Sunday, with all the talk of majesty and divinity, unity and distinction, it seems reasonable to ask:                                                                                                         What does the Holy Trinity mean for you and for me? 

   It means that God Himself lays down His life to redeem rebels who have forsaken Him. Even though they don't love Him, He loves them. And this is how He loves them: He dies their death; He receives His own wrath; He satisfies His own justice. Then, three days later, He rises out of that death, the Victor.  But not just Victor for Himself. He dies and rises so that those rebels, that is, us rebels, might also rise and live with Him forever.

   God did not die for an abstract idea.  The Son did not come because of God's generic love of people, the way we might love hiking, or Harleys or chocolate. No, our God deliberately laid down His life for specific individuals, for you, and you, and me.  A special, specific love for each one.  God has loved all, perfectly.  But He does not love everyone in exactly the same way. No parent loves all his children exactly the same. Parents love each child individually, specifically, according to the uniqueness of their personalities and relationships, according to the needs of each one. So, too, our God.

   His love is so great and precise that He knows the intimate details of each person, even counting the hairs on your head. And yet the list of specific individuals for whom He died includes the whole world, even those who reject Him. He knows us all, even our secret sins and evil desires. And, yet, while we were still sinners, rebels, bent on destroying Him, He loved us and laid down His life for us. Whoever believes in Him is drawn to Him by the hoisting up of that cruel cross, and there finds eternal life. There is no other way to approach God.  But in this way, the way of the Cross, there is not only access to God; there you find acceptance, special favor, and even adoption.  You are God’s own child, by faith in Jesus. 

   For us, the Holy Trinity means the rebellion is over, a rebellion which ended in the most unlikely of ways. The King sent His Son into the hands of the treacherous rebels, knowing full well what would happen.  God the Father allowed them to kill God the Son.  God the Holy Spirit, who has proceeded back and forth between Father and Son for eternity, leaves the Son as He dies on the cross.  The Sinless Son is forsaken as the Sinner, and so in Jesus Christ, the impossible happens: God dies.

   All the while, the Father held back the vast angelic armies that could have come and stopped the rebellion in an instant. The eternal Heir to the throne made himself brother to those rebels, joining in their humanity, and the thanks He received was to be killed.  And it was not just any death.  Rather Jesus died in our place, under the wrath of His Father. 

   But, in the great mystery of God’s love, Jesus submits to this willingly, with His mind set on the future joy that would come.  For His joy is to pass on His inheritance to His former rebel brothers and sisters.  Peace and restoration have come by the ultimate violence. The terms of Jesus’ surrender were absolute: total annihilation, unconditional, no negotiating. He met those terms in Himself, in His own body and soul.

   So the war is over. Peace reigns, for you. Who can understand the ways of God? No one.  They are beyond our understanding.  But we do find life in His mysterious ways. 

   The Holy Trinity is a profound mystery, often named the greatest mystery by theologians.  Everything, all the universe, all wisdom, all energy, all life, everything flows from God, who is both one undivided God, and also three in perfect eternal relationship, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We cannot make sense of it according to our reason, but we can marvel and rejoice.  For from this nature of God flows the great miracle of love, love that brought the Son from His throne at the Father’s right hand, to become flesh, a human embryo in the womb of Mary.  The mystery of the Holy Trinity becomes our life, and our joy, as the eternal Son of God becomes a human being with a strange and specific mission in mind, a mission which reveals God’s love in the best way possible for us. 

   Rejoice in the merciful mystery of the Holy Trinity, His unfailing, steadfast love. There are thousands of signs of God’s mercy and steadfast love throughout the story of Israel and the Church.  But the ultimate image of God is the Son, nailed to a Roman cross, suffering to save His enemies. 

   And so the murderous rebels are declared sons, just as if they had never sinned, never rebelled. The murderers are rebels no longer, but instead are declared to be princes and princesses. Because the One they murdered is not dead, but lives.  He is the First-born, the elder Brother, the Advocate and Mediator, the Redeemer and Restorer. This most Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - has created, redeemed, and sanctified. Or, to say it more simply: He has loved.  He has loved you. 

   This Holy Trinity has rescued and recreated us in the waters of Holy Baptism, naming us as His own. We are no longer who we were. We have been drawn into His death and resurrection, born again of Water and Spirit, renamed and reclaimed into His name. Because we were born inheritors of the sin of Adam and Eve, we had to die.  And in Baptism, we have died! 

   For we were drowned, buried with Christ, in order to also rise with Him.  In Christ, and by Christ, we are the living, for we have His new life. We are the sons and daughters of the Most High, heirs of the living God of Life. This most Holy Trinity, God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, abides in us.

   God has demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the good for the bad, the right for the wrong, God for the ungodly. He was lifted up on the cross for our salvation, and so we glory in that cross. Ye Sons and Daughters of the King, beloved and honored by the Most High, come to the Feast He lays before you. Come again, in the unity of the Spirit, to be guests at the Father's table, with the Son as the Host. Enjoy food for which earthly kings and heroes are not fit, but which, in His unfathomable love and mercy, He has prepared for you. Dine on His Body. Drink His Blood. Lift high the Cup of Peace. Be purged of your sins. The rebellion is over. You have won!

In + Jesus' Name. Amen.

Pentecost and Confirmation Sunday              
May 23^rd, Anno + Domini 2021   
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
D’em Dry Bones                                     
Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:22 - 36

Back bone’s connected to the shoulder bone, shoulder bone’s connected to the neck bone, neck bone’s connected to the head bone, now hear the Word of the Lord. 

“D'em bones, d'em bones, d'em dry bones.”  Why is it that this beloved song, based on today’s Old Testament reading, is not included in our hymnal? 

Well, I suppose it’s because 'D'em Dry Bones’ is less a hymn and more a folk song to teach children the parts of the body.  Which is great.  Our confirmands have been busy in recent weeks, reading and reviewing and discussing the nuts and bolts of the Christian faith, preparing themselves for the examinations they all have successfully completed.  Creation, sin, promise, Jesus, cross, death, resurrection, forgiveness.  Essential stuff.  But it’s a nice change of pace today to have this very different kind of story to consider.  Our Old Testament reading is a fantastic account from the prophet Ezekiel, one for which you might close your eyes as you listen, to imagine it in your mind’s eye as you hear it.    

The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.  Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.  And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."  Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!  'Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.  "I will put tendons on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the LORD."  So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.   Indeed, as I looked, the tendons and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.   Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."   So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Great story.  At this point perhaps you're thinking you can see why it became a children's song for teaching anatomy, but so far it's hard to figure what this strange story has to do with the Gospel.  No worries, God never leaves us without the answer we need.  His Scripture explains, or interprets, itself.  So we read a little farther. 

Then [the LORD] said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'

The bones are a metaphor, for God's people.  Ezekiel was a prophet of the Babylonian exile.  The exiled remnant of the people of God were captives, living in a strange land, constantly under pressure to adopt their captors' way of living, their captors' way of worship.  Israel had been sent into exile as punishment for their idolatry and lack of faith.  Now, in captivity in Babylon, they felt abandoned and without hope.  Cut off by God.  

What happened to Israel in captivity was due to a military conquest by a powerful empire.  The same thing happened again in our Acts reading, due simply to the preaching of Peter.  Today we have the first section of Peter's Pentecost sermon.  On that 50^th day after the Resurrection, Peter and the other believers are together in Jerusalem, when a sound of rushing wind fills the house they are in, and tongues of fire settle on them, and they receive the Holy Spirit.  Through His power, they proclaim God's glory in a variety of languages that they have never spoken before, a noisy miracle which attracts a great crowd. 

 Our reading from the book of Acts ends on a hopeful note this morning: ‘And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’  If you read further, you’ll discover that Peter’s sermon suddenly gets a lot sharper.  He really lays it on the line.  Peter preaches Jesus of Nazareth.  He declares that this man, recently crucified, who taught many and did great miracles, had been raised from the dead by God His Father.  Jesus, Peter explains, is God's Son, the Messiah, the promised Son of David, come to be the Savior of Israel.  God the Father raised Him from the dead, and exalted Him to His right hand, giving Jesus power over all things.  Peter closes this next section of his sermon with these words: Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. 

 Ouch.  God sent you a Savior, and you killed Him.  You’re guilty.  Not just guilty of some garden variety sin, but guilty of killing God's Son.  And now the One you crucified has risen from the dead and rules over all things.  Ancient Israel, captive in Babylon, no doubt felt cut off from God, without hope.  But what could compare to the agony of those Jews who heard Peter's sermon, especially those who had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus?  Or the guilt of those who had shouted ‘crucify him, crucify him,’ when Pilate tried to let Him go? Could they have any hope of escaping God's wrath?

 Pentecost is a day we especially focus on the Holy Spirit, on the third person of the Trinity, and how He works.  Which is a great day to celebrate confirmation, for, as our confirmands know, true faith in Christ is a gift, that can only be created in us by the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit who brings sinners to faith in Jesus also took Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones to show just how badly the people of ancient Israel were cut off from God.  The Spirit also leads Peter to lay the guilt of killing God's Son on his Pentecost congregation.  The Spirit speaks the Word, through Ezekiel's prophesying and Peter's preaching, in order to reveal the truth.  The truth about our condition, the desperation of our status as sinners before God. 

 Do you think of the Holy Spirit as a preacher of condemnation?  I suspect we tend to associate the Spirit with hazy thoughts of emotion and feelings of rapture and joy.  And the Spirit's goal is to give us joy, in the end, perfect and everlasting joy.  But first must come the bitter truth.  You killed God's Son.  Not just those Jews 2,000 years ago, but you, and me, and ancient Israel, and every person who ever sinned.  Jesus had to die because of your sin.  And mine.  Guilty.  The Spirit's first Word to everyone concerning the crucifixion is “guilty.”  Ouch.  The Truth can hurt.  But do not fear the Spirit's Word.  Don't shy away from hearing Him speak to you through the Scriptures.  Yes, He will point out your sin, just like He did through Peter.  But He does always this with the same goal in mind, which is to get to the next part of Peter's sermon.  Listen, as the Spirit speaks to the Jews on Pentecost, and to you today: 

 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Now when [the congregation] heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"  Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." 

And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

 The Holy Spirit promised Ezekiel that as the dry bones came to life through the power of the Word, so too God would open the graves of His people and bring them up from them.  The Holy Spirit worked this miracle at Pentecost, cutting His hearers to the heart with the truth about their sin, in order that He could bring them back to life through the Water and the Word.  Today our confirmands confess the gifts they were given in Baptism.  We cannot value our Baptisms too much, for in Baptism the Lord gave us forgiveness, new birth, and the Holy Spirit's indwelling.  We cannot value God's Word too much, for it is the Spirit's tool for bestowing on us the blessings of Christ, including most importantly forgiveness, life and salvation.

 The Spirit's Word is always about Christ.  Because only Christ has redeemed us from our sins.  Only in Him can sinners find new life.  Only Jesus has won the forgiveness of sins for all the world, including you.  So the Spirit speaks, through the Word, through the prophets and the apostles, about Jesus and what He has done to forgive your sins and give you new life.  He gives you the truth, which will hurt at times, but which He will always use to forgive your sins and lead you once again to your Savior, Jesus. 

 We celebrate with our confirmands today as they confess this faith publicly, and join all the communicant members at the altar to receive Christ’s Body and Blood, the special form of the Gospel that we eat and drink.   For those who will not commune here today, if you are looking for a Church home, we would be honored to help you find you one; if you live here in Custer, perhaps with us.  If anyone here has yet to be Baptized, I would be honored to talk with you about this wonderful gift.  And for all gathered here today, here these words: The Spirit’s Gospel of truth, His sweet news of free forgiveness, is for you.      

 Come Holy Spirit, and always speak Your Gospel Truth to us,

in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

 

Conscripted for Jesus: The Christian Adventure

 Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 16^th, A+D 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Conscripted for Jesus: The Christian Adventure 

   In 1942, as WWII was just beginning, my 19-year-old father was working in the shipyards in Portland.  He was helping the war effort as a civilian, all the while he regularly touched based with the folks back home in Powder River County, Montana, following the draft board process.  He wanted to know when his number was about to come up.  When the day came that he was about to be drafted, he went down to the local Navy recruiter and enlisted, exchanging the construction of warships for manning the guns on one, a destroyer, to be precise.  Dad wanted to enlist in his preferred branch of the military, rather than be conscripted and leave the branch selection to a lottery. 

    The Apostle Matthias didn’t get the same choices as my dad.  One minute Matthias is just one of the disciples of Jesus, marveling at the Resurrection and Ascension of his Lord.  Then Peter gets up and starts talking, and before he knew it, Matthias was ‘conscripted with the Eleven Apostles,’ declared to be a foundation stone of the Church of Jesus Christ.  Our translation says Matthias was ‘numbered with’ the Eleven.  You could also say ‘enrolled among,’ or drafted, or conscripted.  Not necessarily against his will, but not by his own choice, either.  Matthias was enrolled on the list and put to work as the latest member of that most special band of brothers, the Apostles of Christ, who would take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  Matthias was conscripted into the great Christian Adventure.    

    What might we learn from the story of the conscription of Matthias?  We should not expect that the ways of worldly organizations always apply to the Church.  For the Church has its own way, the way of faith and love, motivated and guided by the Spirit of Christ. 

    One lesson would be that we can trust God, even on big things.  In fact, the bigger the decision or choice, the more we should let God lead, even if it seems sketchy, even if it makes us nervous to give up control.  The conscription of Matthias was an interesting mix of following the rules and letting the Spirit lead.  The Eleven remaining Apostles knew they should fill Judas’s place, and they knew the prerequisites to be an Apostle.  The man chosen needed to have been a follower of Jesus since the Baptism of John, and a witness of His death and resurrection.  But when it came time to choose between the two qualified candidates put forward by the company of believers, they left the final choice to God, by casting lots.  Which is like flipping a coin, or drawing straws.  Picking a name out of a hat. 

   You see, the Apostles knew that the testimony of God is greater than the testimony and opinions of men.  He who has saved us through the life, death and resurrection of His Son will certainly not abandon us in such momentous decisions.  We will never have to choose an Apostle.  But perhaps we can take away from this example the understanding that we don’t have to control every little detail in the affairs of Christ’s Church.  It’s not necessary for us to arrive at the perfect solution by our own understanding.  Rather we need to follow God’s clear directions, and trust He will also guide us in less clear matters.  Follow the general principles we know God has given us, and then pray for the Lord to guide us.  And He will. 

    We don’t know what Matthias was thinking or feeling during this process.  I don’t think it’s unlikely that his prayers in the moment were that the other guy, Barsabbas, also called Justus, would be picked instead of him.  The history of the Church is littered with stories of men avoiding various calls to service.  Moses made a bunch of lame excuses at the Burning Bush.  Jonah took a ship sailing in the opposite direction of the place that God had called him to go.  St. Martin of Tours is said to have hidden in a barn in a vain effort to avoid being named Bishop, but cackling geese gave him away.  One pastor I know plugged his ears to numerous suggestions he received to go to seminary, until God made his job unbearable, and he finally gave up and went.  God made all these reluctant men into the useful preachers and servants He wanted them to be.   

     But it’s not just with prophets, apostles and preachers that we see men, and women, avoiding God’s call to service.  We see the same phenomenon when we try to fill other roles in the local church, don’t we?  The perennial struggle to find Sunday School teachers, fill boards and councils, staff a VBS.  Each of us has a responsibility to serve, to play our part in the life of the congregation.  We all need to help one another.  But this responsibility is also a privilege and source of joy.  Playing whatever part, great or small, in the life of Christ’s Church is the Christian Adventure.  Sadly, we too often think and talk about serving within the congregation with dread, as if it were punishment.  And so the requests for volunteers in the bulletin go unanswered another week.   

    So, why should a Christian say yes to a call to serve in the Church?  Well, to be clear, service in the Church is not about gaining fame and popularity.  The Bible never mentions Matthias by name again.  In fact, the specific missionary work of most of the Apostles is unmentioned.  The only Apostles we learn much about are Peter, James, John, and Paul.  This doesn’t mean the other Apostles didn’t do great things.  They certainly did.  The Christian Church exploded from those original 120 believers, and all the Apostles certainly played an important part. 

    By the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of the Apostles, Christianity grew from a tiny break-away group of Jews to becoming the dominant faith in the world.  In the meantime, the Church changed the world for the better in many ways.  Still today, for all our problems, God continues to work through His people to snatch souls from the Kingdom of Darkness.  God inspired the authors of the New Testament to focus on just a few of the Apostles.  Which is not a problem.  The reward of the other Apostles was not to have a lot written about them.  No, same as for Peter and Paul, their reward was not fame.  The Apostles’ reward was and is Jesus, to know Him and be part of His Kingdom, and also to have the privilege to work in God’s mission and bear witness about Christ, until He called them to Himself.  This is the true reward of every child of God.     

    Jesus talks in our Gospel about His joy being fulfilled in the disciples.  Being a part of His ongoing mission and ministry is a big part of how the joy of Jesus is fulfilled in us.  Because saving souls is what gives joy to Jesus and all His angels.  Being involved in the ongoing movement of the Church will give you joy, even in the midst of evil and suffering.  This was God’s will for Matthias, and all the Apostles, and it is still His will for all Christians.  He wants you to have a share in the joy of ministry and mission, of being there when God reels in another one.  There is nothing better.  God gives us no guarantees that any one of us will see spectacular results.  Sometimes the work is hard, and the mission goes slowly.  But we’ll never see anything if we aren’t involved. 

    I’m not saying we all need to be missionaries or pastors or evangelists.  Maybe some of you should.  But God works through all His children, wherever they are, as they live their lives.  God works through us as we serve in our individual vocations, our roles and relationships of life, all the while being a faithful follower of Jesus.  This is the Christian adventure.   

    So the adventure of Christian life is not far away from any of us.  Christian adventure doesn’t just happen across the ocean; it is all around us, in our daily lives.  And the source of proper Christian adventurousness is being first and foremost a well-fed member of His Body, the Church.  A spirit of joyful service starts in and is sustained by receiving for ourselves God’s ongoing love and forgiveness from our Resurrected and Ascended Savior. 

    For God’s love and forgiveness give us joy, and the freedom and humility to serve.  God’s love and forgiveness also keep our service Christ-focused.  Trusting in Christ Jesus, we have joy, and we have this confidence toward God: if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us.  Including if we ask Him to show us how we might serve in His Church. 

   The joy of Jesus is why the Psalmist writes, I am happier to be a (lowly) doorkeeper in the House of the Lord than to sit (in luxury and leisure) in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:10. Or as St. Paul says, I consider all things to be loss, mere rubbish, compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:8.    

    How did Matthias, or any of the Apostles, do the tremendous things they were called to?  They did it filled with the joy and confidence that Jesus Christ is risen today, and that He is the King of the Universe, ascended to the Father’s right hand, where He rules over all things, for us, His Church.  The Apostles fulfilled their callings in the unity that the Holy Spirit gives, the unity Jesus prayed for His Apostles, and for us.  The Holy Spirit creates unity when believers pay close attention to the Word, which delivers all the gifts of Christ to us, and then sends us out into the world, to be the Church in motion, loving our neighbors, and ready to give the reason for the hope that we have. 

    Like all congregations, we have needs to fill.  We would benefit from more people accepting roles of service.  From intercessory prayer to ushers to taking care of the building to encouraging each other and greeting visitors, there are ways for each of us to serve.  There are opportunities for us to care better for each other within the congregation, and opportunities for us to share the Gospel more effectively in our community.  (We here at OSLC could hardly ask for a better location for outreach than we have here in Hill City.  The question is, how can we best maximize it?)  (So many people visit and then want to move to Custer S.D.  How might we take advantage of the opportunities God is bringing us at Our Redeemer?)

    As we head into the summer and think about next fall, I think maybe we need a “Matthias Initiative, Conscripted in the Joy of Jesus.”  What I mean is a joy-based effort to discover how God would use all of us for His purposes.  We won’t use guilt, that is poisonous.  Our salvation doesn’t depend on our service, we aren’t saved by our works.  Rather, our service depends upon and flows from our salvation, the free gift of new life in Christ.  Like Matthias, may the Holy Spirit help us to marvel at the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Savior Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many, including for you.

 God grant you joy in knowing Jesus, and joy in serving in His Name, Amen.   

Who Are You Listening To? Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9^th, A+D 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, SD
Who Are You Listening To?

    It’s Mother’s Day.  Are you listening to your mother?  My mom has been in glory for 17 years, but I can still hear her voice.  We don’t always like listening to our mothers, but very often, it’s a good idea.  Mom may not always be right, but she’s not always wrong.  And in the vast majority of cases, she truly does want what’s best for you.    

    Mother’s Day and high school and college graduations usually happen around the same time.  And mom’s have an intense interest in the graduation of their kids.  My guess is that moms in Custer and Hill City really enjoy the banners with the graduates’ senior pictures, smiling from the lampposts downtown.  Pretty cool, something that could only happen in a small town.  Do you look at those banners and wonder, “What will those young people do?”  Their mothers almost certainly worry, “How will our graduates do?”  “Who will our graduates listen to?”  As they head out into the next phase of their lives, as they exercise their independence and face new challenges, opportunities, and temptations, who will they turn to for advice?  Who will they believe?  What will they believe is true? 

    Along with all those mothers, I also wonder about these questions.  And not just concerning our graduates.  Day by day and week by week, I ask this same question, about all our neighbors and fellow citizens.  And about you, because I have been called to preach the truth to the members of our churches, and anyone else who happens to listen in.  I pray that God keeps me preaching rightly, because I know that He will work through the Truth of His Word.  Above all I rely on the promise that He will build and care for His Church.  But still I worry.  Who are you listening to?  Whose testimony do you consider true?

    I worry, because even at our best, we don’t hear that much faithful testimony each week.  Maybe an hour or two on Sunday.  If you are blessed with the habit of personal devotions and Bible study, maybe another few hours during the week.  At our best, most of us don’t hear more than 5 or 6 hours of faithful preaching and teaching each week.  But that’s certainly not the only proclamation you hear, not by a longshot. 

    Outside of church, you, and I also, hear the constant proclamation of a world under the influence of the devil.  We turn on the computer, radio or T.V.  We open our phone or maybe even a newspaper or magazine.  We head down to the coffee shop. 

    From all of these sources you and I hear other voices, some impressive preachers among them.  A few admit they are peddling their religion.  But most are sneakier.  They claim to be just giving you the news, or entertainment, or advertising their political cause, or their merchandise in hopes you’ll buy.  But they are proclaiming a message. 

    Knowingly or not, there are a multitude of preachers trying to get your ear, trying to tell you all about life, how you should live, what you should believe.  And they preach a different message than Jesus does.  They proclaim a different way of life than the Holy Spirit offers.  And so I worry.  Who are we listening to?

    What is the most important thing in life, according to what you hear outside these walls?  Being a good person?  Living a good life?  Having a little time and money to indulge your pleasures?  Having a good reputation downtown?  Now, I’m not saying the world is against all religion.  The world is happy to encourage you to have a little spirituality; how often do we hear: “You gotta have faith.”?  Just don’t go overboard.  The message of the world is “go ahead and believe something, but don’t live like God is the most important thing in your life.”  Because that’s no fun, and you’ll make other people uncomfortable.  And whatever you do, don’t suggest that there is only one Truth about God and faith.  Because that would mean other people don’t have it right, and we don’t want to upset anyone.  That’s not nice.

    The world, at the devil’s behest, preaches to us that we shouldn’t focus our time and energies on God and His Word, but rather on living a good life, now.  We should try to get along with people, and not rock the boat.  Religion is fine, in small doses.  But really, don’t you think there will be time for that later?  Do you really want to be a fanatic? 

    That’s the world’s testimony.  But what is God’s testimony to us?  What does He say life is to be all about?  Jesus says you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and you are to love your neighbor as yourself, (Luke 10:27).  Furthermore, Jesus says that we are not to relax the law of God, not even a little bit, (Matthew 5:19).  Love God, totally, with your whole being.  Love your neighbor, as you love yourself.  Period.  There’s nothing in there about enjoying the good life, nothing about getting a good job, or preparing for retirement, nothing in their about indulging your pleasures, not even about being comfortable.  Not that those things are bad, but they’re not God’s priority.    

    The world tells us to relax.  Sure, do the best you can to be a good person, but don’t let all that God talk run away with you.  Be nice to people, that’s enough.  And whatever you do, don’t start to wonder about what comes after this life.  That will just lead to stress and conflict.  Besides, lots of scientists say nothing happens, and lots of religions say good things happen to everybody.  So why should we be so radical about what Jesus says concerning eternal life and eternal suffering?    Just relax, says the world, watch another episode of your favorite show, play another game, work a little longer on your garden, drink another beer, and forget about what the Bible says.  That gets to be so controversial.  Isn’t it just another book?  And besides, says the world, you can’t do it.  You can’t really love the Lord with all your heart.  You don’t love your neighbor as yourself.  So just forget about it.          That’s what the world says, on behalf of the devil.  Who are we listening to? 

    Now, the world is right on one point, at least.  We can’t do it.  Truly trying to live in love toward God and neighbor is good, and it makes for a better world.  But we are not capable of perfectly loving the Lord with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves.  But that’s no reason to ignore God’s testimony.  Our inability to fulfill it doesn’t make the Lord’s testimony false.  Our failures to live in accordance with God’s truth do not change that truth.  Those who ignore God’s testimony are cutting themselves off from Him, both now, and without a change of course, also for eternity.  We need to listen to God’s testimony, not because it’s comfortable or because you can achieve His standard, but rather because His testimony is true. 

    Even though we fall short, we need to listen.  And you want to listen, because God has more to say.  His demands for your perfect love are part of His testimony, but they are not His final Word.  This first part of God’s testimony is His Law, how He expects us to live, in relation to Him, and in relation to our neighbors.  The Law of God is holy and good, and we must hear it.  But thanks be to Jesus, in the end we are a church of the Gospel; we are gathered in this place to hear Good News. 

    As we consider our struggle to love God and our neighbors, the Gospel is good news indeed.  For instead of leaving us with nothing but instructions for a good life that we can never accomplish, God’s final word is the promise of a good life that He gives to us, freely, as a gift.  Like John teaches in our epistle:  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, …  and   everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  

    Now this is a different word, a different testimony, a testimony that promises victory over the world, and at the same time declares this victory is available to all people in the world. God’s final testimony is not about what we are supposed to do, but rather it is about what God has done, which He calls us to believe.  This is the testimony about Jesus, which calls us to trust in the One who came down from heaven and became one of us, living to die, and rise again, for the sake of giving us not just ‘good lives,’ but real life, everlasting life. 

    Jesus is the One who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ, not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: The Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, (and it is constantly in our ears), the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

    A true testimony concerning our love toward God and our neighbor is not good news for us, because we do not love as the Lord commands.  But the Spirit, the Water and the Blood proclaim a better testimony, about a better Man, the Man Jesus who came by Water and by Blood.  Jesus came, sinless and good, and was baptized in water to enter into a ministry of service and sacrifice. 

   In His life Jesus loved God, and His neighbor, perfectly, with His whole being.  He did that for you, in your place, in order to be able to share the credit for His good works with you.  And Jesus did not come only to keep the Law.  Jesus also came by blood, that is He came and bled, on the cross.  He was crucified into a death which wins eternal life for you, because it pays for all the times you failed to love as God desires.  The blood of Jesus covers all your sins, you are forgiven.

    This great victory was won for you 2000 years ago.  And today, God continues to love you by testifying to you of Jesus and His love, by the Spirit, the Water and the Blood. 

The Spirit, the Author of the Holy Scriptures, speaks the truth through His Word, written, spoken and sung.  This truth is the good news that God in Christ has reconciled you, and the whole world, to Himself. 

          The Water of Holy Baptism testifies, publicly, that God has adopted you, through Jesus Christ, washing away your sins and joining you to His life, His death and His resurrection. 

          The blood of the Supper testifies, week after week, that God continues to love you, continues to forgive you, strengthens you to resist the lies of the world, and empowers you to love others. 

    This is the testimony we all need to receive, the testimony of God, through the Spirit’s Word, and through Baptism, and through the Supper.  When you receive this testimony, you are abiding in the love of Jesus, poured out on Calvary, for you.  Through this testimony Jesus joins Himself to you and goes with you out into the world. 

    And then a wonderful thing happens.  When you abide in Jesus, you live differently.  You begin to love, because you are filled with His love.  Rooted in Jesus, your life is not driven by fear of failure and punishment, but rather you move in joy at your good fortune, that you have received the testimony of Christ, which leads you to love your neighbor, and look at life differently.  You may still watch a TV show, or play a video game, fix up your garden or even drink a beer.  But you do so secure in the knowledge that God in Christ has called you to be His own.  Do everything in the knowledge that every good gift comes from God, and give thanks.  Joined to Jesus, you can still enjoy the best things, but you are not fooled into living for things.  Rather you learn to live in and from Jesus.  Joined to Jesus, you live in the freedom of forgiveness, which also frees you to love your neighbor selflessly, to share your good things with them.  Living from Jesus, we are moved to forgive one another, and to rejoice, for God in Christ has met all our needs. 

    Today, and for the rest of your life, listen to the testimony of the Spirit, (found in God’s Word), and the testimony of the Water, (with which you were baptized, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit), and the testimony of the Blood, (shed for you to drink, for the forgiveness of your sins).   These three testify, these three agree, that God, in and through Jesus Christ, will always love and care for you.  Listen, rejoice, and live from this testimony, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen. 

Pruned Clean, Living in the Vine Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, on John 15:1-8

Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 2^nd, A+D 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, SD
Pruned Clean, Living in the Vine                John 15:1-8

 

     It’s almost time.  The ponderosa pines are evergreen, but lots of other trees look pretty dead in the winter, naked and spindly, their leaves dead and blown away.  We’re ready to see some green leaves.  And it’s almost time.  The cottonwoods, oaks, willows and aspens, and all their deciduous cousins are getting ready to burst forth in green leaves.  Of course, they weren’t really dead, just dormant, sleeping through the winter, conserving their strength until the days grew longer and less cold.  Their strength is hidden in their sap, filled with nutrients drawn from the soil through the roots, already last year, sap that now surges out the branches to the buds, food for new leaves and flowers and seeds.  And so the life of the tree goes on, supported by the trunk and its roots. 

     It’s almost time for trees to bud out, which makes today the perfect Sunday to hear Jesus declare:  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Not exactly a tree and its branches, but really close.  And of course using a vine as the source and foundation of this metaphor about the Christ and His Church makes other connections for us.  For the fruit of the vine is the grape, which when mashed together naturally turns into wine because of the yeast on its skin.  God’s chosen beverage, which He graciously and strangely transforms, in order to draw us into the deepest mysteries of the faith.  There’s a sycamore and a couple of oak trees in the Bible, and but you can’t get wine from acorns.  So Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches. 

     But what strange branches we are.  First of all, we come from all over, as we see in our first reading today, the story of the conversion and baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch.  God through His Word about Christ grafts new non-native branches into the One True Vine.  The Lord had been using Scripture to draw this Ethiopian toward Himself for a while, so much so that he had traveled all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship.  But much is still a mystery to this official from Queen Candace’s court.  When Philip comes to him, he is struggling to understand Isaiah, specifically, Isaiah 53:7-8, where the Suffering Servant is described as a sheep, silent before the slaughter.  Starting from that very passage, Philip preached Christ crucified and resurrected, and pruned clean the heart of the Ethiopian, grafting him into the Vine, the Body of Christ, the Holy Christian Church, through the washing of water with the Word.  Praise be to God, the Church in motion, God’s tool for growth. 

      Christ is the Vine, and the Apostles, and also all believers by extension, are His branches.  But what strange branches we are.  The branches of a literal tree or vine don’t need to be told they must remain connected to the source or they will die.  Separating from the vine would never enter their minds, if they had minds.  We on the other hand, sometimes doubt the very existence of the Vine.  Or in our pride we somehow imagine that we are the ones who grafted ourselves into the Main Branch.  We foolish human branches are also prone to thinking we could strike out on our own.  We imagine that separation from Jesus doesn’t mean the end of faith and the beginning of eternal death.  But of course, just as a branch torn from its tree will die, there is no life, no lasting and eternal life, outside of the Vine, Jesus Christ.   

      But we’re not done being strange branches.  We not only doubt our need for the Vine, we often take a machete and hack away at our connection.  Can you close your eyes and imagine the branches of a literal tree, branches wielding tiny axes, who then suddenly turn them against their own base, chopping away, trying to disconnect themselves from the trunk?  That would be crazy.  But, knowingly or not, this is exactly what we do when we neglect the Word of Christ.  For as Jesus says, it His Word that prunes us clean.  It is His Word that draws us to the Father.  The Word of Christ goes out and achieves His desire to forgive, restore and recreate sinners.  Abiding in Jesus means staying in contact with His Word, so that His Word can prune us clean and keep us alive. 

    And yet, how do we treat God’s Word?  How often do we choose to let the cares and pleasures and struggles of this life keep us away from hearing the Word of Jesus?  And far too often we fill our ears, minds and hearts with garbage words, and shameful images, strengthening our bond to this decaying world, all the while hacking away at our connection to the True Vine, who gives real life.  

    Branches of literal trees and vines don’t need to be taught how to stay connected to the trunk or vine that gives them life.  But we do.  And so the Church of Christ teaches good habits.  Do, or did your parents make you attend the services of Christ’s congregation, whether you felt like it or not?  Good.  Parents can’t believe for their kids, but they can expose them to God’s Word and try to instill good habits.  They can bring them to God’s house, and make the Word a part of life in the home.  They can seek to reflect the discipline, forgiveness and love of Christ in their daily lives.  Good habits, all.   

    To speak of another habit, we say the Lord’s Prayer a lot, over and over again.  You could probably pray it in your sleep, and I hope you do.  Maybe sometimes you pray it without thinking, and that’s not good.  Jesus warns against mindless repetition.  Still, if the grooves of this habit run deep enough, when a crisis strikes, or when you approach the sleep of death, the Words Jesus taught us to pray will be there, with the power to help you finish the race in faith. 

    The Vine and the Branches should also make us think about proximity, about being close to the Lord.  Planted in God, if you will.  St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, is Himself our Justification and our Sanctification.  Justification, that means being right with God, being in a peace filled, loving relationship with the Creator.  And Sanctification means being day by day transformed more and more into the image of Christ.  Both of these things, according to Paul, are Jesus.  Which sounds weird, but it’s true.  To be justified, Jesus must draw near to you with His forgiving love,  To be sanctified, He must give you His Holy Spirit.  We need to be close to Jesus, like sheep stick to their shepherd, or like branches are connected to the vine, receiving the life giving sap.  Abide in Jesus, get close to Him by receiving His Word, for He promises to be present to bless you there, in the Word. 

    God makes us into good vines, holy, chosen, intimately connected to Jesus.  God does this because He loves us, and so that we will produce good fruit.  Which, connected to Jesus, we will naturally do.  But, do you ever feel like there is little to no good fruit in your life?  Do you think you aren’t living up to what you know God would have you say and do?  Me too.  What’s the solution?  Is it simply to try harder?  To really commit to being holy and loving?  If you’ve really tried that, you know it really doesn’t work.  No, if we want to be holy, if we want to be loving, if we want to bear fruit, we need to get closer to Jesus.  For He is our holiness; He is God’s love, poured out for us; He is the One who can work through us to bear fruit.  Abide in Jesus, by hearing and studying and praying and eating and drinking His Gospel, and He will make you the fruitful vine He wants you to be.  

    Of course, seeking out Jesus in His Word isn’t comfortable.  We know we need
pruning, we need our rotten parts cut away.  But pruning hurts, so we tend to avoid it.  So we need the good habit of confession too.  The Father ‘pruning us clean’ starts with repentance.  It starts with the Spirit using His Law to force us to own up to our sins, to confess, our particular sins and our innate sinfulness.  That hurts, but repentance is good, for it leads to the cleansing of forgiveness in Jesus’ blood. 

    The Father also has other pruning shears, like the shears of suffering, of pain and trouble and problems that persist, which God uses for good as they drive us to Jesus.  And the Father even uses persecution, the hatred and injuries we suffer from the world for confessing our faith in Jesus.  We don’t want nor should we seek out suffering and persecution.  But when they come, remember, they too are within the Father’s control.  He will not prune us farther than we can handle. 

    In the weakness of our flesh we see repentance, suffering and persecution as bad.  Kind of like the grapevine sees the pruning shears of the vinedresser.  Luther said if the grapevine could speak, it would cry out against the vinedresser: “Why must you tear at me with those horrible steel teeth? Why must you cut me so deep?”  The grapevine sees the wheelbarrow of manure coming and cries out “Why me?  Why must I endure this horrible smell?  Who will want my grapes if they know they grew from such foul stuff?”  The grapevine struggles to believe that pruning and fertilizing are good.  But they are. 

    In the same way, we naturally see repentance, suffering and persecution as bad.  But Jesus teaches us to see them as good, in the hands of His Father.  Just as a competent pruning and a load of manure make a grapevine healthier and more fruitful, so even more God’s pruning and fertilizer are true blessings, blessings that are proven in the life of Jesus.  For Jesus had no need for repentance, but nevertheless He went to the Cross as ‘The Sinner,’ in our place.  Jesus suffered.  He suffered unjustly, and to a depth we cannot imagine.  Jesus was persecuted for righteousness’ sake, that is, to pay our debt of sin and give us His own righteousness in exchange.  God the Father put His Son Jesus through all of this, for you.  And now, Christ is risen!  (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!)   Jesus has risen, so you can trust the Father, even when He comes at you with a pruning shears and manure.  

    You can trust the Father, because He has held nothing back from you.  He has given His only begotten Son, in order that He might have you with Himself, in glory, forever.  He grafted you into the Vine Jesus, and He will not abandon you, especially not when trouble comes.  Indeed, pruning in your life is evidence of your salvation, for God disciplines those He loves.  God’s goal is to keep you in the Vine, Jesus Christ, forever and ever.  Abide in Him, Amen.