Sure Hope on the Way to Emmaus - Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2023

Third Sunday of Easter
April 23^rd, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota

Who are you who walk in sorrow, Down Emmaus' barren road?
Hearts distraught and hope defeated, Bent beneath grief's crushing load?
Nameless mourners, we will join you, We who also mourn our dead;
We have stood by graves unyielding, Eaten death's bare, bitter bread.

     Sometimes a hymn punches you right in the gut.  One minute you’re celebrating the Resurrection, and then the words you’re singing put you back in the pew at the hardest funeral you’ve ever attended.  The sudden, unprepared death of someone you depend on really knocks you on your heels.  For me, it was my dad, who died of cardiac failure when I was 22.  Maybe you haven’t suffered such a loss in your life.  Many of you have.  Bitter bread, indeed. 

     As with the Emmaus disciples, such gut-wrenching losses can make us question everything, to doubt all that we trusted, to wonder if there really is a God, or whether He is truly loving.  The questions raised by the death of Jesus have these two Emmaus road disciples discussing and arguing, debating back and forth over the meaning of Jesus: who was He; why did He come; why did He die?  As they mourn and ponder, they also go through the motions of life, much like we do after a tragedy.  Numbly, maybe not sure why, they head to Emmaus because… that’s where they are going, for lack of anything better to do. 

     I do not know how, left on my own, I would face such tragedies.  Given the terrible increase in deaths of despair in America, suicide, drug overdoses, and the like, I wonder if the decline of the Church in our country isn’t related.  And yet, even with the Scripture in our hands, we by ourselves cannot arrive at the needed understanding.  We need Jesus to come and open the Scriptures to us.  We need His Spirit to guide our reading, our hearing, our understanding, to open our hearts.  Otherwise we will lose our way, shuffling off to our Emmaus, numb, sad, without hope.  But, thanks be to God, Jesus does join us on our way, in our grief, coming with His teaching, to lift up our hearts and open our eyes. 

Who is this who joins our journey, Walking with us stride by stride?
Unknown Stranger, can You fathom, Depths of grief for one who died?
Then the wonder! When we told you, How our dreams to dust have turned,
Then You opened wide the Scriptures, Till our hearts within us burned.

     The Son of God has joined you and me on our journey.  And He doesn’t just spiritually come alongside us on life’s road.  He hasn’t only taught us wisdom and right and wrong through a book.  No, Jesus has truly joined us, become one of us.  He is our greater Brother, who stands in for us and fights for us.  Our hymnwriter asks if the Unknown Stranger can fathom the depths of our grief; Christ Jesus has plumbed these depths, sinking to the bottom, not just grieving over death, but dying our death.  Jesus died both our physical death, and also our spiritual death, that is the separation from God and the punishment for sin that justly follows the physical death of sinners. 

   Where is God when a loved one dies?  Right there, in the midst of suffering.  Right here, in the midst of His people, truly present with a unique power to comfort.  For He has already taken all our sufferings onto Himself. 

     Who joins the Emmaus disciples on their way?  It is the flesh and blood Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen from the dead.  And yet, in His eternal wisdom, He does not dazzle them with His presence.  He hides Himself, blinds their eyes, prevents their recognition.  The Scriptures must come first, before the heavenly vision.  The full reason why this must be so is a mystery.  But surely in part it relates to the need of those who would come after the Easter disciples, the generations of believers who would not be able to base their faith on a face to face meeting with the Risen Christ. 

   For the Emmaus disciples, as for all disciples of Christ, the Word is the first thing, glorious visions come later.  Which is good for us, because our eyes are prone to illusion, easily fooled.  But the Word of Christ is sure, and powerful.  It cuts to the heart, killing and making alive again, creating faith which sees and believes and receives forgiveness, life and salvation, found in Christ crucified and resurrected. 

     And so Jesus prevents their eyes from recognizing Him, and instead opens the Scriptures, explaining how it always taught the necessity that the Christ would suffer, before entering into His glory.  The central message of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the suffering and death of the Savior in order to make the way back to God for sinners.  This is the key to interpreting the Bible.  This is the kernel of the Word of God that creates faith.  It is also the hardest thing in the world for us sinners to believe, and keep believing. 

     Once, when I served in Montana, I shared a meal, a breakfast, with an oil field worker, and I was reminded just how hard it can be to believe that the Christ’s forgiveness is the center of Christian message. 

   This man had hitched his way into town that morning, coming to Sidney, MT, to look for work in the oilfield.  He was out of money, hungry, and needed to wait a few hours for Job Service to open up.  I was leading a men’s breakfast Bible Study that happened to be, by the Spirit’s arrangement, about the 5^th Chief Part of the Small Catechism, concerning Confession and Absolution and the Office of the Keys. 

   So, we set our guest up with a plate of food, and returned to our study, into which our guest very soon inserted himself.  He jumped into the conversation when he heard the Catechism discuss repentance.   Repentance, he agreed, is important.  You have to really turn from your sin,  he continued, you have to be serious, or it doesn’t mean anything.  He launched into explaining how bad sinning is, complete with a personal confession of his own failures, and how the Spirit had intervened and healed and rescued him from his sinful life multiple times.  But time and again he fell back into sin.  So, he said, it all comes down to repenting for real, by which he meant really changing your life.  Otherwise, he said, God will have nothing to do with you.  As he expounded, he peppered his argument with Bible verses; this clearly was a man who had read the Scriptures and took them seriously. 

     But, sadly, his understanding of Christianity was incomplete and faulty.  He spoke of the many times the Spirit had rescued him at a very low point, and how now God expected him to live out the commandments.  Yet, for all his compelling experience and knowledge of Bible verses, one Big Thing was missing from this man’s exposition of the faith.  A Big Someone was missing.  In all of his lengthy talk about God and his own understanding of salvation, he never mentioned Jesus Christ, or His Cross and Resurrection.  After listening for some time, interjecting a few questions here and there, I finally asked our guest where Jesus fit in his understanding of God.  “Oh yeah,” he said, “we’re saved by grace and Jesus and all that, but now we have to be worried about walking the walk, or it doesn’t mean anything.” 

     Ouch.  Talk about missing the main point.  I tried to tell him that, while he was right, his sin was a huge problem, the solution would never be him overcoming his own sin.  Because in this life, he never would.  Sin, I tried to tell him, is actually a much bigger problem than he understands, because there is no descendent of Adam and Eve who can overcome their sinful nature.  But there is good news, because the central message of the Bible is Christ dying and rising to win forgiveness for all our sins, all sins, of all people. 

   It’s not that walking the walk isn’t important.  The problem is we don’t walk well enough to please God.  So Jesus, in order to present us to His Father for eternity, joins us sinners on the way, every day, coming to us to open our eyes again to the Good News of His Cross, forgiving, restoring, and renewing us, day by day. 

    Our guest listened to what I said, without much response at all.  I don’t know if my attempt to preach the Gospel to him had any effect.  I don’t know how my attempts to speak words of forgiveness to him were received.  He ate the rest of his breakfast in silence, and left a few minutes later.  I pray that Jesus opened this man’s eyes to see the Good News, that despite our utter sinfulness, God the Father has sent Jesus to wash away all our sins, even the ones that we fall back into, after coming to faith. 

   The Christian life, walking the walk, is very important, but it can only follow faith in forgiveness.  It is receiving and knowing the love and mercy of God for us that empowers us to love and begin to truly walk in His Way.  Walking the walk is important, but salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Christ crucified, not by our works, for they always fall short.  Salvation is always a free gift, from God, to you. 

     I don’t know how the Word worked, or better said, is still working on our breakfast guest.  I pray that we meet again in glory.  There are so many people we speak of Christ with, but we don’t get to know whether the Seed took root.  But we are blessed to know what the Word did for the Emmaus disciples. 

Who are You? Our hearts are opened, In the breaking of the bread -
Christ the victim, now the victor, Living, risen from the dead!
Great companion on our journey, Still surprise us with Your grace!
Make each day a new Emmaus, On our hearts Your image trace!

     When you find a teacher who knows his stuff, even more when you find someone who understands your problem and offers the solution, then you do not tire of listening.  You actually dread the end of class.  So it was as this traveling Bible class reached Emmaus, the two disciples begged the Stranger to join them at table.  As our Divine Service moves from Word to Sacrament, so also their experience with Jesus began with the exposition of Scripture to reveal Christ, then turned to Christ hosting a very special meal.  Jesus, even though He is the guest, takes on the role of head of household.  He takes the bread and blesses it and breaks it and gives it to them.  As Jesus did this, the eyes of the two disciples were opened, and they knew that the Stranger was their Lord Jesus, risen from the dead, just as He said He would. 

Who are we who travel with you, On our way through life to death?
Women, men the young, the aging, Wakened by the Spirit's breath!
At the font You claim and name us, Born of water and the Word;
At the table still You feed us, Host us as our risen Lord!

     Who are you?  Look up.  Look outside yourself.  Don’t look inside and contemplate your inner being.  That won’t look so good, not for long.  No, look to the Cross, and the Empty Tomb.  Look to your Baptism, where you died and rose with Jesus, where you were given the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Look to the Word and the Supper.  Who do these things say you are?  Through these things, these Means of Grace, that is to say, these God-chosen channels of forgiveness and mercy, the Lord declares that you, and all who believe, are the people of God, forgiven, restored, beloved, and alive in Christ. 

     Whenever we look inward to contemplate our very imperfect selves, or whenever the cares and struggles and failures of this world and our lives dominate our field of view, hope fades.  Whenever we become consumed with the work and the opportunity and the uncertainty of earthly life, we become more and more likely to lose hope, to think we are just mortal creatures, bound for dust and grave, and no more.  

     So learn to know your true self, by looking up, looking outside yourself.  Listen to the Stranger on the Emmaus road, revealing Himself and His salvation in ever chapter and verse of Scripture.  Because Jesus has suffered for you, the suffering you deserve for your sins has been taken away.  Because Christ has died, your death is not a final separation from God.  Because the Lord has risen from the dead, you too will rise, to take your seat  at His table forever.  Trust in His promise.    Know Him in the breaking of the Bread.  Christ is Risen!  (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia) As our hymnwriter concludes:

Alleluia! Alleluia!, Is the Easter hymn we sing!
Take our life, our joy our worship, As the gift of love we bring.
You have formed us all one people, Called from ev'ry land and race.
Make the Church Your servant body, Sent to share Your healing grace!

Amen, come Lord Jesus, Amen. 

Hymn “Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow” by Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. b. 1923 

Copyright 2000 National Assoc of Pastoral Musicians
Used by permission, CCLI License

An Emergency Meeting in Hell - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter

Second Sunday of Easter
April 16^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
An Emergency Meeting in Hell 
A Strategy for the New Reality

   Satan called an emergency meeting with two of his senior lieutenants, two demons named Enochos[1] and Distazo[2].  A secret transcript of their conversation was recently discovered, posted on the internet social platform ‘Discord.’   

[Beginning of Transcript]

   The evil one opened the meeting:  “Enochos, Distazo, I’ve called you here to strategize with me.  Our situation is quite dire, I’m afraid, and we need a new plan for enslaving people, now that He is alive again.  You’ve both been out, patrolling the earth, so why don’t we begin by hearing your reports.” 

   Enochos went first:  “Well, Lord Beelzebub, as you know, the situation is bleak, even though it started out so promising.  I’ve been piling guilt onto human souls for thousands of years, and I never saw anything like the guilt that crushed His disciples on that wonderful night that He was betrayed, and during the following dark Friday.  It was the most delicious agony to watch Peter cry, the rooster’s morning call ringing in his ears, after he for the third time denied even knowing the Nazarene, much less going to death with Him.  Truly, I’ve never enjoyed watching faithful Israelites mourn quite like I did on that Friday, and into the night and all-day Saturday. 

   But now, all our hard work seems quite undone.  Since He came back to life and started appearing to His own, the reversal, from deepest guilt to utter joy, is, frankly, excruciating for me to watch.  “Peace to you” He said to them. Can you believe it?  Not a word of rebuke, not a bit of anger, no retribution at all for those country bumpkin fishermen and zealots, all of whom abandoned Him.  Not even a hint of a guilt trip.  “Peace,” He said, setting them free.  And then He breathed on them, filling them with His Spirit.  It’s more than I can stomach, and I don’t know what we can do to bring back the guilt.” 

   Distazo joined in:  “This is truly hard for me to say, but I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.  His disciples are convinced that the Mighty One is pleased with them, despite all their failures.  I was hoping that Thomas might keep wavering.  His refusal to believe the news from the other ten, that they had seen Him risen from the dead, I thought maybe this would create the nagging question that could give us a chance.  But 8 days later, He appeared to them again, and this time Thomas became the most certain of all of them:  ‘My Lord and my God,’ he exclaimed.  Ecch.”   

   “But even more disturbing was what the Nazarene said to Thomas, after He showed him His hands and side, and removed all his doubts:  ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’  As usual, the verb tenses the Nazarene uses are confusing.  But I got the sense He was including people of the future.  As in, these Eleven are being sent out to tell this unfortunate story to others, who will also stop doubting and believe, just like Thomas.  Dark master, what are we to do, the whole world could believe, and we would lose them all!”

   Lucifer frowned, the darkness in his being was aching more than normal, more than it had since he first rebelled.  “I knew we should have stayed away from this whole mess, but I couldn’t resist seeing Him suffer and die.  Oh how I hate Him, all the more now because He’s robbed me of all my weapons.  Moses’ law is still true, and human beings still can’t keep it.  But this Son of Mary has completely fulfilled the Law for them.  And, He took into His own death all the suffering and punishment that humanity deserves.  I’ve nothing left to accuse them of; it is finished.  If this news gets out, we’ll be spending eternity with just each other, only demons, with no men or women to torment.  What can we do?”

   Enochos and Distazo were not used to seeing their leader like this.  They had all lived on hate since the earliest days of their rebellion.  Now the evil one’s distress called for empathy that they did not possess.  But after a long, discomforting silence, Enochos spoke up.  “You said the humans still can’t keep Moses’ law?  So I can still try to pile guilt on them, can’t I?  Why don’t we just keep lying and accusing and tempting like we always have?  Why can’t that work?” 

   Distazo wasn’t sure, but his co-demon’s suggestion gave him an idea.  “It doesn’t appear that the Nazarene is going to stick around with the disciples, not to be seen at least.  He has said several things about building His New Israel through them, through the words they will speak.  That seems like a doubtable plan to me. Could we stop the spread of this confidence and innocence before God by attacking the disciples and their ministry?” 

   Enochos nodded in agreement and added:  “Yes, who’s going to believe that the word of those grubby men could really take away guilt?  I mean, did God really say that?” 

   A blasphemous grin crept to the corner of the Accuser’s mouth: “Yes, that’s the wicked spirit, boys.  The last lie will be worse than the first.  The Carpenter’s Son has destroyed the power of sin to accuse those wretched humans.  But if we can make them doubt that the forgiving Word of Jesus’ Gospel is really for them, well that would be something.  How bitter that would be, if we can convince them that they must look for salvation somewhere else, when the Lamb is delivering it to them, right in their midst, through the message of these ridiculous Apostles.  Yes, let’s work on this plan.  We’ll get together again tomorrow.  Come with more ideas about how we can cast doubt on the truth of human guilt being washed away.  I may be defeated, but if people don’t know it, they can’t believe it.”                

[End of Transcript]    

 

Christ is Risen!  (He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!)

 

  A lot of people still believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Son, and that He lived and served and died and rose again.  God be praised, this glorious truth still shapes the thinking and lives of billions of people, despite so many competing religious claims, and centuries of intellectual denial of the accuracy of the Bible.  Fighting against the lies of other religions and the claims of so many elite voices that reject the story of Jesus will continue to be critical tasks of the New Israel, until the Final Coming of Christ Jesus. 

   But another set of lies has achieved a foothold, within the Church, a final desperate rearguard action by the Devil and his minions: an attack on God’s chosen method of delivering the fruit of the Cross.  The diabolic dialogue I began with today is made-up, of course.  But the efforts of the evil one to confuse and denigrate the Office of the Public Ministry and the Means of Grace are very real, and can still cause dangerous spiritual doubts in baptized people, even though they believe that Jesus really rose from the dead. 

   For the Apostles, by worldly standards, are not very impressive, and don’t seem like the sort of spokesmen that the Lord Almighty should choose to build His Church.  And the means by which Christ builds His Church seem even less auspicious.  Satan has been casting doubt about the truth and power of God’s Word since the Garden, and human beings are still susceptible to his lies.  Can the Absolution, the declaration of God’s forgiveness, spoken through a sinful man, really forgive your sins and make you righteous before the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord?

   Yes.  The Absolution truly forgives.  It can and it does, because this is how the
Lord chooses to work in the new reality of Christ’s Resurrection.  He who created everything out of nothing with His Word can certainly deliver the victory won by Christ on the Cross by using this same Word.  In fact, while the Office of the Ministry is the public, official way God delivers His grace and mercy, the mystery of God’s effective Word is even deeper.  For God works forgiveness, real absolution, through you, too. 

   The Public Office of the Holy Ministry is special.  It is critical, fulfilling a deep need of us doubtful creatures, the need to be reassured by an authorized, public spokesman for God.  We thank the Lord for the Gospel in the Word and the Sacraments, and for the Public Office, established by Jesus, into which men are called to deliver His gifts, Sunday after Sunday, and all the days in between. 

  And yet there’s more; God’s not finished giving His Gifts.  The Holy Spirit also works forgiveness through your words.  When Christians speak a word of forgiveness to each other, or to the world, God works through that private Word also.  Luther called it the mutual consolation of the brethren, that is, the comforting word of grace spoken by and between brothers and sisters in Christ, a word that might also be heard and received by unbelievers, where and when the Holy Spirit wills. 

   Satan has worked hard through two millennia to cast doubt on the efficacy of the Absolution, in order to leave people stuck in the guilt they feel for their sins.  Far too often Christian teachers have denied that sins are truly forgiven through the words of sinners.  Something more must be added, they say, the assent of the will, or some satisfying work of penance, a sincere commitment of the heart, or perhaps some amazing outward sign, a charismatic affirmation of God’s grace.  It can’t be just the proclaimed Word, they say, we must add something more. 

   This is all rubbish.  Hear again what Jesus said to the ten disciples gathered in the upper room:  “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” 

   God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, have committed the Holy Name of the LORD to this promise.  As Jesus explained earlier, in Matthew chapters 16 and 18, what is forgiven in the Church on earth is forgiven in heaven, and what is bound in the Church on earth is bound in heaven.  The Christian Church is the forgiveness place.  This happens publicly through the called and ordained servants of Christ, men called to proclaim to all the nations the Apostles’ teaching about Jesus.  This also happens privately in the Godly conversations of all baptized believers.  And the Holy Spirit is truly at work, through His Word, wherever it is spoken.     

   Do not be unbelieving, but believe, and rejoice, and spread the Word: the sins of all men and women and children have been paid for by Christ.  Guilt and doubt are now nothing but worn out lies of demons.  For in Christ, you are forgiven, you are beloved, you are destined for eternal joy. He is your Lord and your God, forever and ever, Amen.        

---

[1] Enochos is a transliteration of the Greek word enocos, which means ‘guilty.’

[2] Distazo is a transliteration of the Greek word distazw, which means ‘I doubt.’

God Shapes His Story, for You! - Sermon for the Resurrection of Our Lord

Resurrection Day, April 9^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
God Shapes His Story, for You!

Christ is Risen!  (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!) 

   Christ is risen from the dead.  But maybe death and resurrection don’t mean so
much to you this morning.  Perhaps like the women at the Tomb, you don’t know what to think about Jesus dying and rising.

   God knows that we don’t all gravitate to the same kinds of stories and ways of telling them.  And so, in His great love, God blesses us with a remarkable array of different versions of the same Story.  He uses different modes and metaphors to communicate the same Good News, about salvation for sinners in Christ Jesus, crucified and resurrected.  The Holy Spirit keeps using them all, searching for the one that will resonate in your heart. 

    Are you a fighter?  Do you like salvation described as a victory over a hated enemy?  In our Introit, our entrance psalm that comes from the book of Exodus, we heard part of the battle victory song of Moses, sung as the Israelites stood on the winning side of the Red Sea, looking out over the drowned army of Pharaoh, horse and rider buried beneath the waves.  God set a trap for the enemy pursuing God’s people, working through Moses to open a dry path for His children to cross.  When Pharaoh’s army had followed them between the walls of water, Christ our Valiant One lowered the boom.  Down came the water, crushing the soldiers with their evil intentions, and God’s people rejoiced, safe on the far shore.

   The first half of Exodus is all about God’s people Israel escaping slavery in Egypt.  This story became a favorite for generations of Africans brought to the New World and enslaved.  Ironically, most of them only learned of Moses, and Christ, after they were captured and brought to America.  Here they learned to pray to Jesus, and longed for the same freedom in their lives that Israel was given at the Red Sea.  Thanks be to God, our forebears ended this peculiar and horrible institution, long ago.  Slavery does not plague our nation anymore. 

   Or does it?  Open slavery is gone, but are we threatened by other forms?  What kinds?  Maybe slavery to fear?  Or money?  Slavery to debt, or poverty?  Or what about slavery to a bad relationship?  Or to a substance?  Or perhaps one could become enslaved to a sense of entitlement and victimhood.  Christ in the Bible tackles all these angles, offering freedom from every slave master. 

    Peter in our reading from Acts speaks of Jesus as the Healer, the great Physician.  Maybe you aren’t a slave, but I know many of you are sick, living with pain, physical, mental and emotional.  Is Jesus as your Healer the way you need to hear about salvation? 

    Paul in our Colossians reading presents us with a mystery, the Gospel promise that all the baptized have already died, dying and rising with Christ, in Baptism.  Living in daily repentance and faith, your true life is hidden, up above, hidden in Christ, who is at God the Father’s right hand.  Paul’s mystery in Colossians is a good balance to the promise of healing we heard from Peter.  Because we all know, and the Bible also very clearly states  that perfect physical, mental and emotional healing will not happen in this life.  But perfect health is the promise of eternity, and by faith in Jesus you are already there.  Right now, even though it’s not yet fully revealed, right now you are healed, in Christ Jesus.  

   These variations on the salvation story are just from our few readings today, but the Bible offers the faithful reader or listener the joy of discovering many more.  Is your family life a bit of a mess?  So far every family I’ve ever gotten to know struggles from some level of disfunction.  So it is good to hear how God worked His salvation plan through Jacob and his four wives and twelve sons. Twelve selfish, stubborn, impetuous boys, full of strife and jealousy.  Ten big brothers conspired to throw brash young Joseph into a pit, and then sell him into slavery.  But what they meant for evil, God used for good, the ultimate rags to riches story, with Joseph ending up ruling over Egypt, just in time to save his family from starving.  Along the way, the family finds forgiveness and reconciliation. 

   Your family is not worse than Jacob’s.  And the same Lord of Jacob and Joseph is your Lord, Jesus Christ, who gives hope for families through blood-bought forgiveness. 

    Marriage and family are a huge theme in the Bible.  God calls Himself the husband of Israel, and Christ is the self-sacrificing Bridegroom of His beloved Bride, the Church.  She, which is to say we, are made spotless and beautiful by the love of the Bridegroom.  And consider what love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God.  And so we are, through the adoption of Holy Baptism, the rebirth by water and the word.

   Are you a closet royalist, always eager to hear the latest about the British ruling family?  Well salvation is also a royal story, with a coronation and enthronement of the One Good King, who then turns to commoners like you and me and makes us co-heirs with Him of His Kingdom.                                                                      

   For farmers and gardeners, God’s Word speaks of deserts suddenly filling up with flowers, and arid wilderness now flowing with abundant, life-giving streams.  And we have seed and sower, abundant harvests and banquets of miraculous bread.  Is fine wine your thing?  Nobody beats Jesus as vintner, he makes and saves the very best wine for last, to give joy to the guests at the wedding feast.

   Feeling lost and lonely?  The Good Shepherd will not quit searching until He finds every one of His precious flock. 

   For you entrepreneurs, Christ is the man who sells all he owns to buy the field with a treasure, and, to our great surprise, the treasure Christ seeks is us.  Likewise, we are the pearl of great price, for which the merchant sold all he had, again a parable of Christ coming down from His heavenly throne to become a man and purchase our salvation, to redeem us from the evil one who by our nature owns us. 

   Are you a builder?  Christ builds up His Church from living stones, by which He means you.  You are constructed by Jesus into His Temple, built on the foundation of the Apostles, with straight, true and sturdy walls, a mighty fortress that cannot fall, because our Cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself.   

   Do you love learning?  Teachers and students will be taught by the Master the way of Wisdom and Truth, which gives you the mind of Christ. 

    Are you dizzy yet?  Just wait, there’s more.  Are you a person of ideas, a speculative soul?  Consider Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Truth and Lies, the wisdom of God’s foolishness overwhelming the foolish wisdom of men. 

   Do you love justice, law and order?  God’s Law will be fulfilled, a promise which should make us rulebreakers pause and worry.  But Good News, Christ is your judge, and your lawyer, and the one who has already paid your debt in full.  So in Jesus, your verdict is “not guilty,” forever and ever, Amen.    

    The myriad ways God has told the story of His saving love is remarkable, and you are free to enjoy the one that suits you best.  At the same time, all of these histories and metaphors and parables are connected to a concrete, historical event which is the linchpin of them all.  Salvation is about life and death.  To miss this is to miss everything.  And it’s easy to overlook, because we live very comfortably most days.  Do we really need salvation?  Is it really a matter of  life and death?  Because I was about to grab the remote and a beer. 

   Well, there’ll be time enough for that later.  But yes, first we should face life and death.  We prefer to think of other things.  But death, the ending of these lives that we love so much, doesn’t go away just because we don’t think about it.  And death is proof of sin, proof of our departure from God and His ways.  Sin and the death it leads us to are really bad.  The only thing that could make sin and death worse would be if they were entirely irreversible, a part of our make-up that cannot be changed.  And indeed, from our experience, from our perspective, from our strength and ability, our sinfulness is irreversible.  And so, by our efforts, death and separation from God is inevitable. 

     But no.  Not so for God.  This is the good news of Easter, the life-giving surprise:  God in Christ has removed the power of sin and the threat of death.  The price God required has been paid, by the Son of God.  The sentence of death and hell we deserve has been served, completed, and destroyed, by Jesus, on the Cross. 

   Turn back in your mind to Good Friday, and learn from the Cross how truly serious sin is, how ugly death and separation from God are.  And now, hear this:  Christ is risen!  (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)  His new life is promised to all who trust solely in Him. 

     Jesus the Valiant One has destroyed all your enemies, even the evil that lurks within you, by His battle on the Cross.  He delivered that victory to you through your Baptism, a sea of living water in which evil is drowned, and from which the people of God emerge safely on the other side, a free people, redeemed to live for God. 

     The Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep, and He has taken it up again.  Now calls His own with the Voice that faith recognizes and follows.

     The merchant seeking the pearl which is the Church has given His greatest treasure, His own life, so that He could purchase and win you. 

     The Sower continues to scatter the seed of His Word, and it has sprung up, even here in the Black Hills, to feed you for eternity, giving you new life, by making you a member of the Body of Christ.  

     Jesus continues to enliven our feasts with the best wine, His own blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins, presented to you, here today, at His altar. 

      The lies of Satan are revealed and rejected by Jesus, who is the Truth of God, made flesh.  Christ died and rose to teach you the difference between truth and lies.  He has become for us “wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and  redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

     Christ is Risen!  (He is risen indeed, Alleluia!)  His death means you can face life and death without fear or guilt.  His resurrection means you have new life, in Him, for today, and forevermore. 

Alleluia, Praise the LORD! Amen.  

The Final Witness - Sermon for Good Friday, A+D 2023

2023 Good Friday Sermon
The Final Witness 

   Back in 2000, once it became apparent that Y2K was not the end of the world, I applied to attend Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, to study to become a pastor.  Included in the application process was a required interview with the president of the district to which the applicant’s congregation belonged.  For me, that was Dr. David Ritt, of the English District, LCMS.  The English District is different in several ways, including that it is non-geographic, with churches in dozens of states, and that they call their senior ecclesiastical leader Bishop, instead of President. My Bishop’s office was not close.  So I met Dr. Ritt at a motel somewhere in Pennsylvania as he was traveling through the area. 

    I only clearly remember two things about this interview.  First, Bishop Ritt explained the need for our face to face meeting, a serious conversation, and background checks.  You see, he knew of cases of convicted felons being admitted to our seminaries under false names and pretenses.  Bishop Ritt paused and looked me directly in the eye:  “So, David, are there any skeletons in your background that I should know about now, before I give a recommendation?”  Objectively and in retrospect, Bishop Ritt was truly caring for the Church by asking this question.  But subjectively for me, that was an uncomfortable moment.  But my skeletons are pretty tame, so we were able to move on. 

    The second thing I remember was that Dr. Ritt gave me one piece of pastoral advice:  “Assuming you make it,” he said, “remember this:  Every time you climb into a pulpit, you will be a dying sinner, preaching to a congregation of dying sinners.” 

    Good advice.  Now, it might seem a little gloomy, and I don’t think Pastor Ritt meant that preaching has to be always dark and serious.  Humor and irony and wonder and joy all belong to Christian preaching.  But if we forget the stakes, if we choose to ignore reality, we will be at risk of slacking off on preaching the truth.  We all tend to avoid the truth sometimes, because it’s uncomfortable to speak frankly about sin and its consequences.  This was Bishop Ritt’s point: we must speak of our sinfulness, for the sake of being able to generously apply the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus has forgiveness and new life for all who turn from sin and seek His mercy. 

    Remember, a preacher is a dying man, preaching to a bunch of dying sinners.  Good advice, and fitting for us this evening.  For the dying Sinner has returned yet again to give the Final Witness. 

   Two days ago we talked about Good Friday at CSC², our Wednesday children’s ministry (at ORLC).  Why, I asked, do we call the day that Jesus died on the Cross “Good Friday”?  It was encouraging to hear the kids correctly answer the question.

    The children knew the answer.  They knew the truth, that God loved the world in this way:  He gave His only begotten Son into the Cross, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.  What was unquestionably unjust, unfair and horrible for Jesus is wonderful for us.  For we, without any worthiness in us, receive from the Cross the justice of God.  And in Christ, the justice of God is an eternal ‘Not Guilty’ verdict.  We are declared by the blood of Christ to be innocent, and so we are pleasing to God.  This is the unearned gift of forgiveness and wonderful, forever and ever life.  The way to real and lasting life with God runs through the death of Jesus on the Cross.  And so, a frightening and terrible and dark Friday, the darkest ever, is truly Good, for us. 

    This is the Witness of the Sinless One, who became the Sinner, in our place.  Now, to be sure, the light that shines in such a way as to enable us to see the Cross as ‘good’ is the light that comes with the Resurrection.  Suffering and dying are followed by rising and ruling victoriously.  It is in the glory of the Resurrection that the Witness of Christ Crucified can be believed as good and right and wonderful. 

    And so, as we live our lives in Christ, we are dependent.  We are still pursued by death, still plagued by our own sin, still persecuted by the sin of the world, which hates the message of the Cross.  So, we are dependent.  Even as we dare to share this story with other people in our lives, we are dependent.  We are joyfully dependent, dependent on the Witness Jesus gave on Good Friday.  Our entire Church Year, our whole Sunday Service, and our best hymns and sermons, all of these seek to deliver, in many and various ways, this Good News that God the Father has spoken to us, by His Son.  Jesus, God made man, is the sinless Sinner who bears witness to our acceptance, our forgiveness, our “beloved-ness” in the eyes of God the Father.  Because of your faith in Christ, the Father sees you in and through His Son Jesus.  The Father sees you through Jesus, and smiles. 

     In dark times, and on sunny days, may the Holy Spirit bless us with eyes and hearts that stay fixed on the love of God, poured out on Calvary, the love that washes us clean and feeds us for eternal life.  This is our witness to each other, and to the world, because this is God’s Final Witness, to all people, in the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

 

What Kind of Witnesses? Sermon for Holy Maundy Thursday - Holy Week, 2023

Holy Maundy Thursday – Lent 2023
What Kind of Witnesses: Holy, or Maundy?

   It’s Maundy Thursday.  Which we also call Holy Thursday.  Do you remember what Maundy means?  Do you remember what Holy means? 

   Tonight we remember and celebrate our Savior’s institution of the Lord’s Supper, when Jesus established this mysterious meal of bread and body, wine and blood.  We are also drawing toward the conclusion of our consideration of our Lenten theme for 2023, which has been the Every One His Witness Lutheran Evangelism approach.  And, as the Holy Spirit will have it, the distinctions and connections between the two different names we use for this day can take us deeper into the nature of the mission work God works through us. 

   It’s common when discussing the Mission of Christ that we refer to Holy Baptism as the missionary sacrament.  I would like to suggest that we can also think of Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, as a missionary sacrament, equally as Baptism. 

   Certainly we can understand why Baptism is associated with missions.  When the Lord blesses mission efforts, there are often lots of Baptisms, especially when the Church is expanding into new territory where the Gospel has not been heard.  Increasingly in our own land today, Baptism is celebrated as the result of a congregation’s witness.  This is because more and more people in America grow up entirely outside the Church, and so have not been given this wonderful gift. 

   But where do we find the will, the energy, the spirit to do what we have been called to do?  What empowers the mission and witness of the Christian Church, which the Holy Spirit uses to draw more people to Christ? 

   Mission draws its power from the Gospel of course.  It is the Good News of free forgiveness that creates and sustains our faith in Christ and His forgiving love.  The Gospel in Word and Sacrament, the Gospel read, preached, sung, … and the Gospel that we eat and drink.  Likewise, the desire, zeal and content of mission outreach is created in us by the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel.  The joy, the intestinal fortitude and the wisdom needed to speak of Christ to our friends and neighbors flow from the lectern, the pulpit, and the altar.  By the Gospel, you have Christ in you, which is both the mystery of God, the hope of glory, and the motor of witness and mission.  As the Apostle Paul writes in the 1^st chapter of his letter to the Colossians: God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. ²⁹ For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.  (Col. 1:28-29) 

   Can there be a better preparation for testifying about Christ in your daily life than to eat and drink His Body and Blood for your forgiveness, life and salvation?  So it is all the more important to understand the significance of this special night’s two names:  Maundy Thursday, and Holy Thursday, so that we can understand what kind of witnesses God wants us to be. 

   Maundy Thursday: what does this name mean?  While Matthew, Mark and Luke record the event of Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, on the night when He was betrayed, John’s Gospel omits this detail.  John instead gives us a lengthy section of Jesus teaching the 12, on that same night.  Among many things, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, and gives them a new commandment, that they are to love one another, as He has loved them.  Commandment in Latin is Mandatum, and from this word Mandatum we get Maundy.  Maundy Thursday, then, accentuates this new commandment which Jesus gave.  Which is a little weird, calling it a new commandment, since loving your neighbor, especially loving fellow believers in the One True God, has been part of God’s commandments since the beginning. 

   A bit more on this new commandment later, but for purposes of understanding what
Maundy Thursday means, we can say it focuses on the shape of the Christian life that Jesus commands His disciples, and by extension all of us who follow the doctrine of the Apostles.  We are to love one another.  It is common on Maundy Thursday for the celebrant to wash the feet of  twelve people during the liturgy.  Also common are giving special offerings to the poor, and also celebrating the Lord’s Supper. 

   What about the name Holy Thursday?  You might say this name is a little bland.  Holiday is simply a word that developed overtime from Holy Day, which historically refers to any special day of celebration in the Church.  And there are lots of those.  But what does holy actually mean, Biblically?  Is a holy day one in which Christians are to be especially careful and good?  A day that should be without sin?  I think many people’s understanding of holy leans in this direction.   But, while holy does carry with it the expectation of sinlessness, its core meaning is quite different. 

   Holy most basically means set apart, for God’s purposes.  Now, to be sure, anyone who has been called to be holy, set aside for God’s purposes, should certainly also not sin.  But Biblically the emphasis is on God choosing and setting aside something or someone, for special purposes.  So one drinking vessel is stored in the kitchen cupboard and is used for drinking water or milk or whatever, in our daily diet.  But another drinking vessel, perhaps very similar in construction, is set aside for use in the Lord’s Supper.   We don’t take the Chalice down to the kitchen and use it for coffee.  It is holy, set aside for a specific use given by God. 

    This special, “set-aside-ness” is how we want to understand Holy Thursday.  For Jesus took what was already a special, holy meal, the Passover of the Jews, and transformed it into the holiest of earthly meals, His Supper.  From the beginning, repeating the meal Jesus commanded the disciples to do, in remembrance of Him, has been central to the life of the Church.  The many names that this meal has been given through the centuries attests to this centrality:  The Breaking of the Bread.  The Eucharist, (which means thanksgiving).  The Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar.  Holy things for God’s Holy people, a meal set aside for the faithful and repentant baptized, given and shed to bind them ever closer to Jesus, and energize them for loving and serving and speaking of Christ to their neighbor, in their daily lives.       

   So which is it?  Should we call this day Maundy, or Holy? 

  I’m going to say both. What we remember and celebrate tonight and Sunday after Sunday is totally other, totally unique, totally Jesus.  What could be holier than the Lord coming to us to feed us with the Gospel of free forgiveness?  The Holy One comes to us to declare us holy, and make us a little more holy, word by word, day by day, Supper by Supper, as He conforms us to Himself. 

   And thus, as God’s Holy Ones, His kingdom of priests, we are prepared to effectively proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.  We are taught again the reason for the hope that we have, which with gentleness and respect we stand ready to explain to anyone who asks.

    And this of course fufills in the best way possible our new commandment, to love one another as Christ has loved us.  God’s people, as we have noted, have always been called to love one another.  But now there is a new revelation of love that we are empowered to share. 

   How could we sinners possibly love anyone like Christ, unless first He comes to us and pours His love into our thirsty souls?  We love, because He first loves us.  And while love can and should take a million forms, from a kind word, to a hand up, to a meal shared, to a listening ear, Christ is always leading us toward His ultimate goal, that we share with others the Good News of the greatest love of all, the love that changes lives, here and now, and for eternity.  We have no greater love to share than to tell of the One who laid down His life for us, so that in Him we would become children of God, forgiven sinners, destined for eternal peace and joy. 

   So, draw near to the Holy of Holies of the New Covenant, the New Testament in the Blood of Jesus, which is your holiness, and your access to God, both today, and for eternity.  And, through this same mystery, the Lord will shape you to be the witness that He desires to work through, today, and tomorrow, until that blessed day when He will draw you to Himself.   For you are loved by God, and God desires to love others through you. 

A blessed Holy Maundy Thursday to you all, in Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

  

Wrestling the Grizzly, for You - Sermon for Palm and Passion Sunday

Palm and Passion Sunday
April 2, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Wrestling the Grizzly, for You

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.  John 15:13

   Is there anything that offers us a comparison to the astounding work that Jesus of Nazareth achieved for us?  Any modern story that helps us grasp the magnitude of the Passion of the Christ? 

   No.  The short answer is no, the project God’s Son undertook and completed is utterly unique.  Of course, poets, novelists and screenwriters continuously try to fashion copycat stories of self-sacrifice that seek to subtly or not-so-subtly mimic what Jesus did.  C.S. Lewis’s “Tales of Narnia” and Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” come to mind.  But these are fictions.  What about in everyday life?  I recently came across a story that shares some of the same contours as the climax of all four of the Gospels, a story that is also pretty close to home for us. 

   Brady Lowry and Kendall Cummings were collegiate wrestlers at Northwest College over in Powell, Wyoming.[1]   They met just last year, at the start of the 2022 fall term.  And, as can happen on a wrestling team, they quickly became good friends, the type of friendship forged in brutal workouts and wrestling against each other in practice day after day.  On October 15^th, along with two other teammates, they headed over near Yellowstone Park to go hunting for shed antlers, an enjoyable way for outdoorsy college students to make some cash. 

   Late in the afternoon, the four friends separated into pairs, and Brady and Kendall headed into a thicket of trees.  Did I mention they were right next to Yellowstone Park?  Brady came across a steaming pile of bear scat, and was about to call to Kendall when he heard it coming.  Brady called our “Bear!” just before a 500 lb grizzly hit him in the chest. 

     The bear knocked Brady into a clearing, and Kendall turned to see his friend being mauled.  What to do?  Run for his friends, one of whom had a sidearm?  But they were hundreds of yards away, and Brady would be dead in seconds.  Kendall shouted at the bear, then threw a stick and hit it, and then a rock.  No reaction; the bear was intent on Brady.  And that’s when Kendall did the unthinkable.  He raced toward the bear and hurled himself on the beast’s back.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friend.  

   Human beings, no matter how fit, stand no chance against an attacking grizzly.  And yet, remarkably, Kendall’s crazy stunt worked, sort of.  He pulled at the fur on the bear’s neck, which finally got its attention.  The bear turned away from Brady and toward Kendall, who had now lept off its back and was sprinting away.  Kendall hoped that Brady would be able to escape during the distraction, even as he hoped to get away.  But Kendall hoped in vain.  As fast as a 150 lb. college wrestler can sprint, the bear still caught up with Kendall in a few bounds.  But Kendall had given Brady a chance to escape, by taking his place under the wrath of the grizzly. 

    We can clearly see Christ-like love in the actions of Kendall.  When I stumbled across this story on ESPN.com, I was blown away, moved as I read the account.  Such self-sacrifice and bravery is stunning.  No one could have faulted Kendall if he had run for help, or even just watched helplessly as Brady was killed.  But he didn’t.  Instead, he exposed himself to devastating pain and almost certain death, on the slim chance that he could save the life of his friend.   

   Kendall’s action is similar to Jesus’s Passion in several ways.  And yet, in the most important ways, what Jesus did is much greater than even the amazing sacrifice that Kendall made. 

   For starters, Jesus did not wrestle His Grizzly on the spur of the moment.  His sacrifice was pre-meditated, decided before the creation of the world.  Jesus did not go to Golgotha wondering what might happen.  He was fully aware of what was coming.  And yet, He continued moving forward, His face set like the flint, toward the Cross.

    What Jesus did was not done for the sake of good friends.  Because Jesus didn’t have any truly good friends.  Oh, Jesus had friends.  Indeed Jesus was the best friend anyone ever had.  He loved His disciples and followers greatly, and displayed great affection for them.  But it’s hard to see why.  Because Jesus’ “friends” routinely failed to reciprocate.  All too often they saw Jesus as a ticket to personal glory, and bickered amongst themselves about who would have the highest ranks in Jesus’ coming kingdom.  Even those closest to Jesus, His chosen Disciples, and the women who supported Him, even they failed to help.  One of the 12 betrayed Him unto death.  The best the rest could muster was to look on helpless and hopelessly, as Jesus tackled His Grizzly. 

   And this is to say nothing of the others.  The crowds who asked for Barabbas to be spared, while demanding Christ be crucified.  The priests, scribes and Pharisees who plotted against Jesus, even though these religious experts who knew the Scriptures could see better than any that Jesus had to be sent from God.  The Romans, who thought nothing of inflicting horrible and unjust torture on an innocent man, just to pacify a mob.  Jesus tackled His Grizzly for them too, for His enemies, for all of sinful humanity, we who collectively reject and declare our independence from God every time we sin. 

   St. Paul captures this difference in Romans chapter 5, (vv 7-8):  Paul writes: For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  I think Kendall fits in this category.  Paul concludes:  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8 

   Finally, Jesus’ Grizzly was far worse than Brady and Kendall’s bear.  And what was Jesus’ Grizzly?  Was it the rejection and shame heaped on Him by the Jews?  The physical torture of the Romans?  Death by crucifixion?  No, none of these, not really.  All of these are horrible, and more than any of us could bear of our own strength.  But the real Grizzly that Jesus faced on our behalf was invisible to human eyes.  Jesus hints at it with His cry: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  The true Grizzly Jesus tackled was the just wrath and punishment of God against human sin. 

   In a sense, since Jesus is God, now made man, He faced His own justice.  But because the debt had to be truly and fully paid in order to save mankind, the deeper reality is that God’s Son accepted His Father’s anger, against our sin, dying the death our sins have earned.  God the Father’s Beloved Son was separated, for a brief and yet eternal moment, separated from the love of His Father, and suffered all the torments of Hell, so we would not have to suffer such separation from God, forever. 

   Stories like Brady and Kendall’s are awesome.  And in case you are wondering, they both survived.  I can point you to the full story, if you like.  There is even a bit of a resurrection angle, in that Kendall, though severely mauled, was able to return to wrestling in just months, and Brady is still working towards the same goal.  A great true story, that inspires us.  

   But as wonderful as it was, Kendall only saved Brady for a time, in this life.  The Grizzly Jesus tackled for us was far more costly, but the benefit is also far, far greater.  Infinitely greater.  For the willing self-sacrifice unto death that Jesus made heals the mortal wounds of our souls.  In His death, and victorious resurrection, we have peace with God and eternal life.  And so we continue to sing Hosanna to our Humble King, the Holy One who rode unto death, in order to wash away our sins, and share with us His indestructible new life. 

   This is our song, a song of love unknown, which has now been made known, and delivered to us, in Word and Sign.  This is the song that sustains our hope and motivates our love, no matter what life throws our way.  This is the song we sing for the whole world, in prayerful confidence that many more will hear and believe what Jesus has done, for them, and for all people.

   Loud hosannas to Jesus, and love and peace to sinners, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.       

 

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[1] From ESPN online story by Ryan Hockensmith, https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/35820049/college-wrestlers-grizzly-bear-attack