Prayer in the Name of Jesus – Seeking God’s Will, Pursuing His Mission - Sermon for the 6th Sunday after Easter

The Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 25^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Prayer in the Name of Jesus – Seeking God’s Will, 
Pursuing His Mission
John 16:23-33

Audio of the sermon available HERE.

We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus,

asking that His will, the mission of God, 

be accomplished among us.

   The Apostle John continues detailing the long evening of teaching Jesus delivered in the Upper Room, on the night when He was betrayed.  He’s touched on many heavenly topics – the unity of the Father and the Son, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the shape of the Christian life the disciples will live while they are still wending their way through this broken, sinful world.  Now the Lord turns to prayer, and His promise is huge: Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  

    That is a big promise.  You pray in the Name of Jesus.  Do you see this promise fulfilled in your prayer life?  Is the Father regularly giving you whatever you ask for?  How can this Word from Christ be true, but we so often feel like our prayers go unanswered?  Our prayers should flow from faith, and in turn should strengthen our faith, our confidence in our place with God, our assurance of His love and favor toward us.  But this particular promise of Jesus can leave us doubting.  And Satan loves to step into our doubts to attack our confidence in God, our confidence in our own salvation.  The evil one hisses: If your prayers aren’t answered, is it because God’s Word isn’t true?  Or, is it because you aren’t really His child, you aren’t really a Christian? 

    “Satan, be gone!” “Satan be gone” is our proper response to the father of lies.  But for us to have confidence that the devil is truly expelled, we need more from Jesus.  We need Him to teach our hearts how prayer works.  And He does.  He will. 

    We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, asking that His will, the mission of God, be accomplished among us.

   When we mimic Jesus as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and finish our prayers with “Father, not my will, but Thy will be done,” do we pray this with a defeatist tone?  Or do we ask for the Father’s will to be done with bold and joyful expectation?  Is our thought something like: “Father, if it isn’t too much of a bother, and if I haven’t asked for something stupid, it would be really great if you could do such and such”?  Or do we ask for the Father’s will to be done with a happy and confident expectation?  Which should it be? 

   Well, it is true that as sinners, we are still capable of asking for the wrong thing.  Prayer in the Name of Jesus is prayer that aligns with God’s will, even when we can’t quite see how His will is good for us in the moment.  Still, we live in the Resurrection of Christ, so we know that the will of God is wonderful, amazing, life-giving.  Yes, of course Jesus prayed in anguish in the Garden, just hours before He went to the Cross.  He was about to receive all the suffering deserved by every sinner of all time.  He had reason to pray “Thy will be done” with trepidation.  And yet, He also prayed looking forward to the joy.  And that joy, the joy of free and full forgiveness for every sinner, the joy of redeeming a holy people for His Father, that joy should always animate our “Thy-will-be-done’s.” 

   We are not facing God’s just punishment for our sin, that work is finished.  Jesus has taken away the sin of the world, and buried it in His own body on the tree.  The will and mission of God are assured, complete, and revealed to us, in Christ’s suffering and in His resurrection.  So we can and we should pray “Thy will be done” with confidence and joy. 

   Yes, we live by faith and not by sight; it is not always easy for us to see how God’s will is good for us.  But we know the end of the story!  We know how God’s mission turns out.  The Name ‘Jesus’ means “the LORD saves.”  The LORD saves!  This is the reality, this is the Name that animates our prayer.  In the resurrected Christ Jesus you are forgiven, you are loved, your eternal future is guaranteed and stupendously good.  Your eternal home is safe within the glorious walls of heavenly Jerusalem.  So yes, of course we know God will give us whatever we ask for in Jesus’ Name, because in Jesus’ Name we already have everything.

    We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, asking that His will, the mission of God, be accomplished among us.

   Jesus promises that the Father will give us whatever we ask in His Name.  But if we ever think this means that the life of the Christian in this world will be a life of continuous luxury and ease, simply closely reading the rest our Gospel will dispel this idea.  Jesus makes His promise, and He means it.  But God’s good and gracious will looks strange in this evil and vengeful world.  When the disciples proclaim that finally they understand Jesus’ plain words and believe He has come from God, Jesus responds that they will all soon be scattered.  When Jesus submitted to evil, in order to fulfill the mission of God, His disciples all ran away.  The Cross is the fulfillment of God’s will, God’s mission, the place where the Lord saves, and there was nothing luxurious or easy about it.  But it was good.  And gracious. 

   Jesus predicts the scattering of the disciples, their abandonment of Him.  And yet He still goes on to say that their peace will be in Him.  For on His Cross, Jesus would establish peace between God and mankind.  After Jesus’ Passion, tribulation, struggle, trials and suffering would still be part of the life of Christians, as it was for the Christ.  But we are of good cheer, because as frightening as the world may be, Jesus has overcome the world, for us. 

   We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, asking that His will, the mission of God, be accomplished among us.

    Does God allow fear to come into our lives so that we remember to pray?  We should pray without ceasing, daily, habitually, like breathing in and out.  Prayer should be as easy as conversation with our loving father.  Because it is.  God loves to hear from you.  If you ever find prayer difficult, do not hesitate to ask for help, for suggestions to make regular holy conversation with God easier. 

   Often, we fall into the habit of only turning inward, into our thoughts and feelings, seeking for words to pray.  Sometimes this fount flows easily.  But other times our heartfelt prayers run dry, and we need to be reminded God has provided other streams for prayer, streams that continually overflow.  Like the 150 Psalms the Spirit has written for us.  Like the many other songs and prayers that fill the Bible.  Like the prayers and hymns in your hymnal, or the half dozen ways you know how to simply sing “Lord have mercy upon us.”  Your Father wants to hear your voice, and if your voice is repeating His Word, all the better.     

   Still, I think we all must confess that too often it is only when fear strikes us that we remember to call on our heavenly Father.  We turn to prayer most readily when anguish is within us, when the terrors of death fall upon us.  Then we call to God, then we utter our complaints and moan, pleading for the Lord’s help.

   And what does God do with our prayers when we only offer them when fear enters our lives? 

   If we pray in the Name of Jesus, if our faith in the Son of God’s forgiving love is still an ember in our hearts, then the Father always rejoices to hear and answer our prayer, just as Jesus promises.  He may heal our disease and take away the danger that threatens, or He may carry us through our suffering, using it to draw us closer to Himself.  Whatever He knows to be best.  But He never rejects the repentant heart that returns to Him in faithful prayer. 

   And never forget, it is the also Lord’s will, it is His mission to wipe away every tear from your eyes, to give you complete healing, to comfort you and lift you up from every struggle.  The final completion of His will for your body and soul awaits the revelation of the heavenly Jerusalem.  At the same time, He loves to give you relief and comfort today.  So go ahead, pray away; ask your Father for big gifts; He loves to bless you.   

   Letting our prayers falter, only bending our knees and bowing our heads when trouble threatens, this is really no way to live.  God will drag you kicking and screaming across the finish line of eternal salvation, if that is what it takes.  But God has much better for you, now, today, lives of peace and confidence and daily communion with the Almighty.  This too is the will and mission of God, for you, a daily, abundant, joyful communion with Him, even in the midst of troubles. 

   Today we have this promise by faith, in Word and prayer.  Sadly, our sinful frailty means our peace and joy are still troubled by doubt and errors.  Because of our need, God today happily keeps repentance and forgiveness at the center of our conversation with Him.  But someday soon, sin and failure will be gone forever, and we will speak with the Lord, face to face.  In the meantime, God grant us wisdom to exercise the privilege of prayer in Jesus’ Name, every day, until He calls us to Himself.

We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, asking that His will, the mission of God, be accomplished among us.

   Like He did for the Apostle Paul, sometimes the Lord gives us clear, unmistakable direction.  Paul intended to go into Asia, to continue His missionary work there.  God had better plans.  No to Asia, and yes to Macedonia, a divine re-routing for His greatest missionary.  Now, you may, or may not, get a messenger from God in your dreams to tell you what God would have you do next in your Christian life.  If you need it, God will provide it.  More often, the Lord will give you freedom to choose a faithful path.  And we already have plenty of very specific directions for our day to day life.

    Has God given you a spouse, a family?  Then you know for certain that His will is for you to love and care for them.  Do you have a congregation of fellow believers?  Then you know for certain that the Lord has called you to gather with them regularly, to confess your sins and faults together, and receive the Lord’s grace, mercy and strength.  He also calls you to love your brothers and sisters in the faith, and to offer your time, talents and treasure to the ministry we share. 

   Do you have people in your life who are hurting?  Then you know the Lord has called you to pray for them, and serve them in their need, with the abilities and gifts the Lord has given you. 

   Do you know the Name of Jesus?  Then you know for certain that the Lord has called you to confess it, to be ready to give the reason for the hope that is in you.  The conversation of our culture grows coarser by the day.  The way of the world has always been the way of tearing others down in order to build yourself up.  Now we can do it faster and farther than ever, over the internet.  The conversation of our culture is a cesspool.  But you know for certain that your Lord has called you to use your tongue to bless, not to curse, to speak truth, not self-promoting lies, to love your neighbor, not use or abuse them, to give glory to God, not seek glory for yourself.     

 We pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus, asking that His will, the mission of God, be accomplished among us.

   Lydia was a woman of means, for purple dye was very expensive, and so purple cloth was the height of 1^st century luxury.  In earthly terms she had a lot going for her.  But the Word of God spoken and prayed among the Jews had attracted her; she made a habit of giving up her Saturdays to gather by the river to learn to fear and love God, and to pray.  One sabbath, Paul showed up, and God opened her heart to receive his message.  When the Good News of Jesus entered her soul, Lydia knew what to do. 

   She knew the Lord was drawing her to Himself.  So she paid attention, and God gave her faith.  She and her household were baptized.  Then, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit she had just received, Lydia knew she should disregard a bunch of human opinions, and give over her home for the sake of the preaching of the Gospel.  So she invited, she compelled Paul and his companions to come stay with her.    

   There is a lot of cause for offense in her offer to bring Paul and his companions into her own home.  She is a woman, with no husband, it appears, and she invites a bunch of strange men to come live with her.  The Philippian gossip guild will love to chew on this tidbit.  She is a Gentile, a non-Jew, and so according to Jewish law, Paul and his companions should have nothing to do with her.  From the Macedonian-Greco-Roman side of things, bringing Paul in to preach from her home would tell the whole community that she was abandoning the pagan gods.  This would be a problem, because every good citizen of Philippi offered prayers to their local gods, as a civic duty. 

   None of this mattered to Lydia: she was living in the Resurrection.  Her faith in Jesus made her a royal daughter of the Almighty.  And the Almighty needed a place for teaching and prayer in Philippi.  Thy will be done Lord, Thy mission be advanced. 

   God’s will, His mission, was to open Lydia’s heart and claim her and her household through the washing of water and the word, and then put her to work, supporting His mission and will in Philippi.  This is also the will of God, His mission, for you.  The same Lord God has done and is doing the same great work, for you and through you.  So we pray to the Lord of the harvest with confidence, that He send out workers into His harvest field, and provide helpers, like Lydia, helpers like you, to pray and serve and support His will, His mission, in Macedonia, and South Dakota, and to the ends of the earth, Amen.    

  

The Harmony of the Holy Trinity - Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Easter

Fifth Sunday after Easter, May 18^th, A+D 2025   
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota                               
The Harmony of the Holy Trinity, John 16:12-22

Audio of Sermon available HERE.

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

   Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk into a bar…  Or maybe a conference room.  Just the three of them.  And let’s grant that they share a language they can all speak fluently.  How do you think that would go?  In such a face to face, private conversation, do you have much hope that they would work their way to a mutually agreeable solution to the war in Ukraine, and restore harmony in Europe? 

   I wouldn’t hold my breath about that, although I think such a private, no cameras, no interpreters, no lackeys-to-interrupt type of conversation might have more potential than the current ceasefire talks that Turkey is hosting.  Lord have mercy. 

   In my experience, any two distinct persons, let alone three or more, each with their own personalities, priorities, and presuppositions, will always have a difficult time easily and consistently agreeing on one approach and course of action in any important matter.  Selfishness, nervousness, pride, and honest differences of opinion all conspire to make three co-equal voices an unruly crowd.  For example, would any three economists be able to agree about the current outlook and best policies for our collective economic future?  How about choosing three musicians to rank the greatest composers or performers of all time?    Or should we ask three Lutheran pastors to get together and agree on some binding guidelines for our approach to worship? 

   We don’t expect consistent harmony between as few as three distinct persons.  Which might be part of why many people, within Christendom and outside, have a hard time with the Biblical assertion that there is only One True God, but that He is also Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons, joined in a mysterious one-ness.  This teaching, for which the Church coined the term Trinity, as in Tri-Unity, is offensive to some, illogical to others, and ignored by most, including by way too many souls who confess with their mouths that God is three in one.  Which isn’t good.  The Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith.  We should not be ignorant.  We should not confess the Trinity, but then never consider what it means.  We should talk about it. 

   I tend to come at this problem by talking about the math and logic side of it.  In our experience, and according to the logical system that we have inherited, mostly from Aristotle, one and three are not the same thing.  According to human logic and experience, three distinct things cannot at the same time be one thing, not truly.  And one thing cannot at the same time truly be three distinct things.  For some reason, perhaps because each one of us is a unique individual, many thinkers are repulsed, or find the idea of the Holy Trinity ridiculous.  It simply does not compute in their minds. 

   Which of course, is a very important part of the point.  God as He describes Himself in the Bible is not a mere human, bound by human reason.  His ways and His thoughts, to draw on Isaiah 55, are higher and deeper and greater than our thoughts and ways, as far higher as the heavens are above the earth.  We should not imagine that we can understand our Creator entirely.  A fact which doesn’t set well with our human egos. 

   Let’s pursue a thought experiment for a minute.  An inventive chicken farmer creates a biosphere, a high-tech chicken coop, and introduces into it fertilized eggs, at a ratio of four hen chicks to every one rooster chick.  Inside this fancy henhouse there is an elaborate system of devices that provide everything the chicks need to grow into maturity, but the chickens never see, or hear, or interact with the world beyond their fancy coop. Food appears, water and artificial-but-completely-sufficient sunlight are available.  Waste is taken away by a poultry Roomba that plugs itself in to recharge, and slips out a too-small-for-chickens portal to be emptied and cleaned.  The chicks grow and develop and are constantly monitored.  They start producing eggs and offspring.  But they know nothing of their monitor, nothing of their human benefactor.  They can’t see or perceive anything beyond the limit of their artificial world.  For all they know, their coop just is, the coop is all there is, and they will never know anything else.  Unless the chicken farmer decides to break into their world and reveal himself. 

   Can you imagine such a mini-chicken world?... I think you just did.  Are human beings smart enough
to create such a world and care for chickens in this way?  Probably.  Maybe.  I suspect it would be harder to do than I described, but the idea that we could create a space in which animals lived under our care, but never knew about us, this does not seem beyond possibility.  And here’s the key point: Would the fact that the chickens know nothing about their human benefactor change the reality of their benefactor’s existence?  Would the fact that the chickens could never understand how the humans did what they did change the reality of what was done? 

   We are a lot smarter than chickens, right?  But is the chasm between our intelligence and that of the chickens greater, or perhaps smaller, than the chasm between our intelligence and wisdom of the Creator?  Is there any logical reason that we should be able to understand everything about the One who called us into existence and provides for all our needs?  Demanding that the Almighty submit to our understanding and reason is a remarkably man-centered and limited view of things.  We like to be top of the heap, especially in terms of intelligence.  We may well reject the possibility of a Mind and Power so vastly superior to us.  But what evidence, what logic, disproves what Jesus teaches us about God and His nature?   

   This is normally how I come at the questions some folks raise about the One true God also being three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sharing perfect unity and almighty power, one essence, and at the same time also three distinct persons.  I hope that it’s helpful for you. 

   But perhaps it’s not the mysterious math and logic, but rather the mysterious harmony that makes accepting the Trinity so hard.  The Biblical witness also teaches that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been in constant communication within the Godhead, from eternity, and there has never been any disagreement, about anything.  Even when God knew that the humans He desired to create and bless would rebel, and that the Son would need to become a man and die under the Father’s wrath in order to reconcile us to God, even this question was considered and agreed to before time began.  Jesus Christ is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.  (Rev. 13:8)  His loving Cross and glorious Resurrection have always been in view, in the mind of God. 

   Perfect agreement, perfect mutual love, perfect harmony and inter-submission between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, since forever, and until forever and ever!  Can you believe it?  Can you imagine it?  We just don’t work that way.  Most of us struggle to be clear in our own thoughts and desires, let alone harmonize them perfectly with another.  Certainly, the heady bliss of marital love that we sometimes enjoy for brief moments is so profound precisely because the two, the husband and wife, reach unity in their desires and actions.  The two approaching the mystery of being one flesh, one heart, one mind, this is the one of the greatest highs to be experienced.  Marital harmony reflects, however briefly and imperfectly, the image and likeness of God.    

   And there are other wonderful harmonies to be enjoyed.  Not nearly so intense and profound as the harmony of a one-flesh marriage, but wonderful, none-the-less.  Like the harmony of excellent teamwork, when a number of individuals subordinate themselves to a group effort and coordinate with each other to do something great.  The well-played symphony concert.  The gameplan executed to perfection.  Even something as simple as hosting a successful community meal or Church clean-up day can ring out with a lovely harmony.  We hear such earthly harmonies from time to time.  Once tasted, we crave such harmony in our lives. 

   We crave such harmony, which also means that we are crushed when we pursue and think we are approaching harmonious success, and then suddenly it falls apart.  The broken marriage, whether broken by unfaithfulness, neglect, or by sudden death.  The betrayal by a friend.  The deception of being a pawn, duped into thinking you were all in it together, all-for-one and one-for-all, like the Three Musketeers, only to have one team member steal the money and run away, or worse, betray your cause to your competition, or your enemy.  

   Because we know how hard maintaining harmony in a couple or a family or a group is for us, we quickly learn some coping skills.  Surviving life requires accepting and dealing with disharmony, and learning to overcome misunderstandings and failures.  Sadly, we quickly learn to be a bit guarded, to hold something back, to not commit completely, so we don’t get completely crushed if friendship and love turn into betrayal. 

   We cannot fully conceive of the God of the Bible, who is not only One in Three and Three in One, but Who is also the perfection of love, justice, wisdom, submission, patience, unselfishness, and power.  We just never see such perfection of harmony.  Or, better said, we don’t see such perfect harmony, unless we hear the voice of Jesus.  For in His life, death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus has revealed the perfect harmony and love of God.  And this revelation is our salvation. 

   In our reading from John, Jesus is teaching the Eleven in the Upper Room, on the night when He was betrayed.  In this long discourse, Jesus lays out the mystery of the Holy Trinity by describing their ontology, their being, that He and Father are One, and that the Spirit proceeds from both.  He also reveals the Holy Trinity through action:  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ^[14] He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ^[15] All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

   Jesus describes the harmonious intercommunication of the Trinity, and also their shared ministry to save souls:  The Spirit will guide you into all the truth, and, we know from John chapter 8, it is the Truth that sets sinners free, the Truth about Jesus, the Truth that is Jesus. 

   Then suddenly Jesus’ lofty discourse comes down to earth.  Jesus seems to riff on the game “peek-a-boo” that we love to play with babies.  “In a little while you will not see me, and then again in a little while you will see me.  And you will forget your pain and sorrow, like a woman forgets the pain of childbirth, when a new human being is born into the world.”  It’s no wonder to me that the disciples are very confused. 

   On this side of the Cross and Resurrection, Jesus’ intent is pretty clear.  But that night, Jesus’ abrupt shift from discussing the mystery of the Godhead to alluding to the mystery of His Passion, which would begin in a few hours, this would have overwhelmed my brain in an instant. 

   But since from our vantage point we can grasp that Jesus’ “peek-a-boo parable” is all about His suffering and death, His rest in the tomb, and His glorious resurrection, let’s not miss the significance of the repetition.  John records the full phrase, 'A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me,' three times.  This is not an accident.  John could have easily shortened his subsequent references to the phrase, and we would have gotten the point.  He actually does this one time, “what does He mean by ‘a little while.’”  But three times, not two, not four, but three times, John repeats the full phrase.  We should consider that the evangelist did this to drive home the point that the mystery of the Three in One God is finally revealed and believed through the mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.  Now you see me, then you won’t; but when you see me again, you will rejoice, and believe unto salvation.    

   Our first parents played a rebellious note in paradise, and so we were all natural born sinners, unable to free ourselves from our sinful condition, unable to avoid the discord, the disharmony of our fallen reality.  Our disharmony eventually brings ruin and death to everything we are and have and touch.  So, because God is harmonious love, and because He desires to give love and to receive love from you, and you, and me, from all people, for love, Jesus came.  The Son of God became our brother, fully human in every way, like us, but without sin.  Found in human form, He did all that was necessary to restore our human nature, and bring us back into harmony with God, and with each other. 

   Now we see this miraculous mystery dimly; we can perceive the outline and rejoice in the promises attached to the work of Christ.  We can be the Spirit’s mouthpiece by confessing to each other and to everyone that God in Christ has reconciled the whole world to Himself, not counting our sins against us, but rather redeeming us by the One perfect, eternal sacrifice of Jesus, who shed His blood, giving His life, for ours, on the Cross. 

   Even though we cannot fully understand it, we revel, we rejoice in the mystery of the God who is One, and who is also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Indeed, we are wise to dig deep in the Scriptures to understand this mystery as well as we can, for our own faith, and for the sake of revealing the saving Good News of the Holy Trinity, to friends, neighbors, and even enemies. 

   Through His Word, we are also encouraged, by the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Divine Encourager.  We are encouraged that, because we have been drawn into harmonious communion with God through the Blood of Christ, we can also dare to risk committing to harmony in our earthly relationships.  Husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and co-workers, we can dare to risk loving and going all in, according to the God-ordered shape of each relationship God has placed us in.  

   Now, there is a God-given shape and order to every vocation, every station of relationship that God has built into this world.  The love between husband and wife is different than the love between friends or co-workers, and shouldn’t be confused.  The service of parent to child is not the same as the service of a citizen to his nation.  The shape of God’s orders, the ways of being and relating He has built into this world, should be maintained.  And then, within God’s orders, within the way God has organized His creation, we who have been reconciled to God in Christ can give ourselves freely, without reservation.  We can go all in, because Jesus has gone all in for us, and emerged on the other side, victoriously sharing His forgiveness and new life.     

    We know that sometimes we will fail.  Trusts will be broken; we will suffer pain.  We will even inflict pain.  Lord have mercy.  Still, we need not fear trying to love.  We are free to risk seeking harmony with others.  For we know that in God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we can always be re-tuned to God’s perfect harmony.  We can be daily restored and reconciled, and made ready to love again, through the full and free forgiveness Jesus achieved by “hiding away” for a little while.  Through this temporary hiding, through His suffering, death and resurrection, Christ has revealed the harmony of the Trinity, the mystery and the love of God, for you, and for me, and for all people.

    There is no Gospel, there is no Good News for dying sinners, apart from the God who is the Holy Trinity, One in Three and Three in One.  Even more, there is no defeat, there is no lasting sadness, for anyone who has been drawn through baptismal waters into the faith that trusts in Jesus, our Savior. 

   So, rejoice and sing, your sins are forgiven, your death is defeated, your future is eternal and glorious, in the harmonious Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Life Under the Good Shepherd - Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Easter

 Fourth Sunday of Easter                                                   
May 11^th, A+D 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Life Under the Good Shepherd

Sermon audio available HERE.

   Excellent News!  Jesus declares: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  

   Terrible News!  Paul prophesies to the pastors from Ephesus: I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

   And there’s more bad news, as the Apostle predicts his own future: The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

   But wait, hope springs eternal: For John learns from his heavenly tour guide that: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.   "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.   They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.   For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

   From one extreme to the other.  Great promises of protection and blessing, set alongside descriptions of terrible trials.  We regularly hear such extremes in the Bible.  Do you experience them in your life?  One moment full of hope, the next full of dread?  One day your child is an adorable five-year-old, seeking to please you, then suddenly they are sixteen, making bad choices and keeping you up nights?  One day your job is secure, then the company is sold, and you think you might be out?  Healthy one day, fighting cancer the next? 

   What are we to make of this?  Why is Christian living like this, why aren’t things steady, predictable, and always full of obvious blessings?  Well, this morning, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will find our Good Shepherd right at the intersection of blessing and trial, helping us to see and rejoice in God’s good plan. 

   But to start out, we should acknowledge that usually our lives do not seem so extreme.  We may not live boring lives, but neither are they very often so dramatic as the life and death struggles described in our readings, and throughout the Scripture.  Our highs are usually not so high, but we are o.k. with that, as long as our lows don’t get too low. 

   Your life is at it is.  But be warned, even as Satan will try to use moments of trial to tempt us, he can also use an apparently hum-drum life against us.  When life is predictable, neither too high nor too low, we can begin to believe this is all there is, forgetting that the drama of the Bible is also descriptive for life in the Church.  Whether we recognize it or not, we are caught up in a spiritual battle. 

   When life goes along pretty well, especially when we do a little better by trying a little harder, when, to paraphrase a saying of the Marines, when we have all our “stuff” in one sack, well, then it’s very easy to lose your desire for a Savior.  Who really needs a Savior when life is bumping along o.k., maybe not too great, but not so bad, either?  Who needs a Good Shepherd when we can’t see any wolves, stalking us, seeking to devour us? 

   This was life for many of the Jews when Jesus visibly walked this earth.  Their lives were not great, but not all bad.  Sure, they were living under Roman rule, they weren’t independent.  But, they were in the Holy Land, they had Jerusalem, and the Temple, and the Romans allowed them to practice their faith and culture.  They were not free, but they could always take pride in the Maccabees, those brave Jews who three centuries earlier had thrown off Greek tyranny and paganism.  No matter that this independence was short lived; their current situation was o.k., and the daring history of the Maccabees was a still a source of great pride. 

   It was also the source of the Feast of Dedication that provides the setting for our Gospel today, the celebration of those dramatic days when the Maccabee freedom fighters evicted the hated Greeks from the Temple, the day the Jews purified and re-dedicated God’s house to His worship.  It was during this celebration that the Jews surround Jesus, demanding to know His intentions. 

   You see, the Jews of Jesus’ day, or at least the leaders of the Jews, they were doing o.k.  They may not have had it totally great, but they didn’t have it so bad, either.  So Jesus made them nervous.  They were afraid of the turmoil that would result if Jesus publicly claimed to be the Christ, the returning King of Israel.  They were afraid of the trouble He might cause them. 

   They should have been excited to be witnessing the coming of the promised Savior from God.  Instead, Jesus caused them dread, because any revolutionary, religious or political, could upend their fairly livable arrangement with the Romans.  The emperor and his governors allowed the Jewish elite to rule over their people and live well, as long as they kept the peace.  These Jews surrounding Jesus didn’t want Him to upset their o.k. lives.  They weren’t looking for a Good Shepherd to rescue them, and so they missed or willfully ignored the signs that obviously proclaimed Jesus was God in the flesh.  Ultimately, they rejected the idea that they really needed a Savior in the first place. 

   We are not so different.  There’s the pastor who hesitates to address a spiritual problem in his congregation because he’s worried speaking the plain truth might lead to turmoil and confrontation, and could even put his call, his livelihood, at risk.  There’s the parent who ignores a teenager’s drift away from church and family and into lifestyles that mock Christianity, satisfied that at least she isn’t doing anything illegal, she isn’t embarrassing the family publicly.  There’s the employee who decides not to say anything when the new owners of the business cut corners and try to squeeze every dime out of the enterprise, no matter if customers are cheated and the quality of the products and services go down the toilet.  We all live with situations in which we are tempted to ignore problems that Scripture tells us are dangerous, simply because we can, for the moment, ignore them without any immediate consequences. 

   Life may not be as good as perhaps we once believed it should or could be, but most of us are comfortable enough to not want to upset the status quo, even when we know we are drifting away from God’s Way.  Satan is happy to keep us comfortable in our drifting indifference, letting us think it doesn’t matter.  But the ultimate stakes of life have not changed.  The battle raging all around us, and within us, is between good and evil, between the truth of God and the lies of Satan.  The reality of just how serious things are doesn’t often become obvious for us, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

   Sometimes the stakes of life become clear, like when you are travelling on vacation, and suddenly you don’t know where your young child is.  Or when, hurrying to work on a winter morning, you lose control of your car on an icy curve.  Or when you find out you have cancer.  The reality of the struggle we are caught up in reveals itself when death comes unexpectedly, or when you fail someone you love, and you know they will soon find out.  Then you realize, in your heart and in your gut, that drifting along isn’t good enough.  Such moments of crisis help us understand that ignoring the spiritual struggle described in the Bible is the biggest mistake we can make. 

   Most of us don’t like it when our worlds are turned upside down, when the battle between good and evil drags us into the fray.  But such disasters have a silver lining, no actually, a golden lining: When the reality of the spiritual battle breaks into your little world, then you realize, then you remember that you need a Savior, a Good Shepherd.  Understanding the stakes of life and our impotence to control much of anything is the first step toward being made a member of the Shepherd’s flock, or returning to the flock you have wandered from. 

   With this in mind, Jesus came and very purposefully upset the world of the Jews, challenging their assumptions, revealing their disloyalties, threatening their status quo.  Jesus came, teaching and working miracles, confronting pride and unbelief, exposing the drama of Satan seeking to steal sheep from God.  He exposed the ugliness of sin, forcing Jews to choose between the God of Scripture and their religion of convenience.  Jesus drew their anger onto Himself, revealing the power that Satan wields over the hearts of men.  Jesus showed all the sheep of Israel to be disloyal and self-seeking, deserving of God’s righteous anger. 

   Then came a dramatic twist no one foresaw, even though it was predicted many times in the Hebrew Scripture.  Jesus the Miracle Worker and Teacher became the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for His foolish, unfaithful sheep.  Jesus used their anger against His arrival to bring about their salvation.  The Shepherd became the sacrificial lamb, dying at their demand, and for their benefit, pouring out His righteous blood to wash away their unrighteousness.  Jesus died for them, and for you.    

   The Good Shepherd is now risen from the dead.  Having taken up His life again He continues to seek after lost sheep, a fact that helps explain why our world is as chaotic as it is.  God will one day end all rebellion.  There will be finally a judgement for all people, and God’s peace will rule for the blessed.  Jesus will gather His faithful sheep into a new and sinless reality, the new heavens and the new earth, while sending the unfaithful away from Him, away from His peace, away to suffer, forever. 

   But, God is not yet done saving the lost.  For the sake of saving more sinners, God’s final destruction of the power of sin is delayed.  God allows sin and sinners to continue wreaking havoc in this world, for the sake of His mission to rescue more people from eternal death.  To keep this world going, the Lord must provide good things for the righteous and the unrighteous, graciously allowing and supporting and blessing mankind, even in the midst of our rebellion.  God does all this, so that we sinful humans can continue to live, and be made ready to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.  

   And so while we may not think our lives are all that dramatic, Godly wisdom knows that this earthly life is truly the battleground of souls.  The true ferocity of the battle is too much for us.  We can only handle small glimpses, because seeing too much would frighten us.  Our resistance would soon die, except for the Good News that the Good Shepherd is fighting on our side.  He has already guaranteed the victory, laying down His life on the Cross, then picking it up again three days later.  Now He is eager to share the Good News of His new life with everyone, so that many more come to faith.  Abd this is the what and the why of our proclamation of the Gospel in this conflicted world.   

   So, how do we do this?  How do we live in the midst of the battle between good and evil?  How do we resist the temptation to accept the comfort of a so-so life lived in ignorance or denial of the truth?  There is only one way.  We must hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, speaking wisdom from the Scripture.  We must hear His voice speak words of forgiveness over us, His still far-too-prone to wander sheep.  

   Hear Jesus, calling you to speak the truth in love, to step up to the good vs. evil challenges in your life.  Repent of your failures and ask for His forgiveness and strength.  Hear His voice calling you to the green pastures of His rich table, where He feeds you forgiveness.  By His Word He holds you in His hand, and no one can snatch you away from Jesus.  Likewise, no one can snatch you away from the Father, for Jesus and the Father are One. 

   Know the truth of this life, a battle for souls waged by God.  Listen to Jesus, speaking His Word to you, and to the world.  Rest in His hands, in His loving grip, which covers your sin with His forgiving scars.  Your Good Shepherd will keep you safe today, tomorrow, and forever.  For He is the Lamb standing in the midst of heaven’s throne, leading you to springs of living water, wiping away every tear from your eyes, forever and ever, Amen.