Notes

The Lord be with you!
I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever!

This is the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost and that phrase, I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, is heard in our Introit.
That’s the psalm verses that we sing antiphonally, or back and forth, immediately after the preparatory confession and absolution. Now the Divine Service proper has begun, and these opening words help us begin to grasp the theme of the particular Sunday. The Introit also includes the curious phrase: Blessed are those who know the festal shout.
What is a festal shout? It is the opposite of a cry of mourning, and it is a communal praise response to the abundant mercy and grace of God who has come among us to bring His precious gifts for us. We praise Him gladly! We don’t consider it a chore to be in church! It fulfills the third Commandment when we don’t “despise preaching and His Word, but gladly hear and learn it,” as we say in the Catechism and repeat this week in the Collect for this Sunday. Let us pray:

Almighty God, by the working of Your Holy Spirit, grant that we may gladly hear Your Word proclaimed among us and follow its directing; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Jeremiah 28:5-9
God teaches His people to trust in His Word, even over the human word of the prophet He has sent. Mankind is prone to error, but the Word preserved for us in Holy Scripture is never wrong. The words of prophets who prophesy peace need to be tested, and if what they say actually takes place, then God has given a clear testimony that that prophet is a true spokesman for God. This came to its greatest fulfillment when Jesus came and died on the cross and rose from the dead, as the Creed confesses, “according to the Scriptures.”

Romans 7:1-13
When a woman’s husband dies, she is freed by the earthly contractual law to the late husband and is free if she should choose to marry another. Paul uses this case as an analogy to what has died in our previous condition, that of a born sinner, and what has been reborn in our new condition, that of baptized believer. It wasn’t God’s law that died or terminated when we believed in God’s grace. Instead, it was sin and the condemnation that we had earned because of our sin that has died, and we are free from its bonds in order to be united to Christ, the church’s true Bridegroom. Our sin hangs on to our flesh in such a way that we are constantly prone to sins of weakness, but we can be certain and confident that Christ has set us free from the wretched condemnation that our consciences feel. Though still miserable sinners, thanks to our Savior we are at the same time joyful saints!

Matthew 10:34-42
Jesus continues His extended speech on the cost of following Him. For three weeks we have seen how directly opposed this sinful world is to Jesus and those who are born of water and the Spirit in baptism into His eternal kingdom. It’s strange to hear Him, the Prince of Peace, say flatly, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword! The sword is the price of peace, just like we remind ourselves on days like Veterans Day: freedom isn’t free. It costs a great sacrifice, and there was no greater sacrifice than Christ’s own holy body given up in bloody death for our atonement, the payment necessary for forgiveness to take place. Even though the cost of following Jesus is great and can feel very steep to us at times, we have assurance of a reward—the reward not of our work or our believing, but the reward earned in our place by our Good Shepherd.

Here’s Hymn 685, stanza 2:
Let us suffer here with Jesus / And with patience bear our cross.
Joy will follow all our sadness; / Where He is, there is no loss.
Though today we sow no laughter, / We shall reap celestial joy;
All discomforts that annoy / Shall give way to mirth hereafter.
Jesus, here I share Your woe; / Help me there Your joy to know.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost: June 28, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Listen to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, as He says: “Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth.” Someone forgot to tell that to the multitude of the heavenly host of angels when Jesus was born. It looks like they might have been mistaken when they announced to the shepherds in the field, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill to men.” Instead of that, you heard it right out of Jesus’ mouth in today’s reading, He said as clear as day that peace on earth just isn’t His thing.

Are you upset? Are you disappointed that you were led to understand that believing in Jesus was going to change your life for the better? Maybe at one time you were convinced that since God loves you, He wants you to be happy. That your family would be free of conflict. That your job would be secure and more than adequate. That your plans for education or retirement would be well-financed. That people would give you the respect you deserve. You tend to follow the desire of most American Christians who long for a God who believes in you, who takes you for who you are and blesses your life. You want your church-going experience to improve your attitude and outlook; you know, make you look on the bright side of everything. Develop a deep relationship with God and grow closer with other people who feel the same way you do. You are led to believe that these things are the best of what Jesus can offer to our hurt and broken world.

So Jesus simply is not helping His cause at all when He claims that He’s the cause of division and strife in this world. When your Lord claims not to bring peace but a sword, it appears to set back the success of the Christian Church and puts it farther from its goal of reaching out. Jesus, are you sure you want to identify yourself with the violent protesters we see on TV? If you are worldly-wise, you know already that it’s best to “choose your battles.” Don’t go out and ruin your prospects by nit-picking over details. Someone should tell Jesus what a grave mistake He’s making. Someone should rush the latest survey results straight to the Son of God so that He stops all this talk about tearing up homes and families. People want peace! It’s a very appealing and popular message. They’ll pay handsomely for it, and they’ll even come to Church to get it. Leave well enough alone. You’ve got plenty of the Bible that you can use to say what you want, and then just ignore the rest of the Bible that seems to contradict it.

But suppose for a moment that Jesus is not making a mistake. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that He isn’t the bad guy, and that all this division, violence and strife He’s causing is really for your good. If that is true, then the peace of God is different from the kind of peace that you have in mind. If a family is at peace, without any contention or division, and yet at the same time does not have Jesus, then whatever peace that family does have is false and misleading. God is not blessing them, rather, the devil is deceiving them. And he may be deceiving you. It’s easy to fall for. It’s easy to have false peace. It’s tempting to make false peace as if it were the kind of peace that Jesus was sent from heaven to win for the world. But Jesus simply won’t let you do that. There’s too much at stake. Your eternal salvation is more important to Him than your temporary comfort in a pleasant state of false peace. Your heavenly destination takes greater precedent than your worldly success. “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

And boy, can that sword hurt. It stings with the rejection and dirty looks that you may get because of your faith. Ask anyone from the Sudan or any veteran who’s done a tour in the Middle East how bloody the sword of persecution can be. And yet the Christians suffering in these areas are perhaps the ones with the strongest faith in the world today. In your own family, perhaps it may come up that a couple is living together without the protection and Divine blessing of marriage. You thought they were raised better than that, but you hold your tongue because you don’t want to start a fight. It’s not my place, so you reason with yourself, while the whole time God’s command as well as His promise of blessing remains ignored and despised. Your kids resist coming with you to church. It gets harder and harder to make it happen like it did when they were small. So you relent and give in to them for the sake of peace at home and rationalize that the Church isn’t giving them what they like anyway.

If that’s the peace you want, then you aren’t going to get it from Jesus. For the peace of God, the peace that passes all understanding, is a peace that hurts like the sword. It hurts you because it also hurt your Lord. It cut into His hands and feet, bleeding with every blow of the hammer to those spikes on the cross. The peace of God ripped open His side with the centurion’s spear, so that the cleansing flood would wash away your sins and offenses. This peace divides the church because after all it was a group of church leaders and teachers that pushed for the passion of the Christ in the first place. This peace even divides you within yourself, as St. Paul describes of his own Christian life in the Epistle: “What I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, that’s what I do.” The victorious life on this side of heaven doesn’t always look so victorious!

For though you have often rejected God and His peace in favor of your own, though you have done wrong against your neighbor and your family, you have the promise of God’s true peace because the blood of Jesus paid the price for you to get it. The Prince of Peace doesn’t promise you the success and creature comforts that false peace offers to you, but He does guarantee suffering now, and glory later in heaven. This isn’t to say that if you aren’t going through strife and struggle right at the moment, that you should go out of your way to pick a fight. No, like any good soldier, always be prepared to fight, but stay true to your orders laid out in God’s Word, remain faithful to Him in whatever your vocation is, and let your Almighty General Jesus choose the battles.

Give thanks that your Lord and Savior came to bring you not the worldly peace you want, but the heavenly peace that you need. Realize that it is for your good that the worship of the church is not merely entertaining and attention-grabbing, but instead it is a solid deliverer of the precious, divine gift of forgiveness. Be grateful that you have not empty success at home, school, work or church, but rather the painful sword and cross to bear in your life. For although Jesus has destroyed the false peace that you had at one time come to love and cherish, He replaces it with the real peace that the world cannot give, a peace that is sealed with this promise from the Prince of Peace: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Dear children of God, you have already in your baptism lost your life for the sake of Christ. Welcome to true peace.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Jer. 28:5–9 The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied…
Psalm 119:153–160 Revive me according to your word
Rom. 7:1–13 sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire
Matt. 10:34–42 he who loses his life for my sake will find it

Notes

The Lord be with you!
In God I trust, I shall not be afraid; What shall man do to me?
Happy Father’s Day! In addition to giving us our earthly fathers, God has been to us a tender Father, source of life and our true protector unto everlasting life!

This is also the Third Sunday after Pentecost and in our three-year lectionary series, we are moving through both the theologically rich Epistle to the Romans and the extensive teachings of Jesus recorded by the Evangelist Matthew. These books follow a certain order, whether it’s a logical progression of thought or a context that helps teach the faith as it follows the historical life of our Lord. Either way, we gain a benefit this year from going straight through these important New Testament books.

Let us pray the Collect for this Sunday:
O God, because Your abiding presence always goes with us, keep us aware of Your daily mercies that we may live secure and content in Your eternal love; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Jeremiah 20:7–13
You may recall the account of the patriarch Jacob wrestling with a strange man in the middle of the night. He later realized that he was wrestling with God, looking at Him straight in the face, and yet Jacob was not destroyed for being an unclean sinner. Jeremiah, several centuries later, also wrestles with God in words: “Lord, you have deceived me! You have prevailed over me for you are stronger than I.” Jeremiah wants to keep quiet about God’s words, but they burn within him like an unquenchable fire that forces him to speak the truth. But the words are no longer violence and destruction, but words of hope for God’s weary people.

Romans 6:12–23
Freedom and slavery are very common themes in the Bible, and in our strange times today, those terms can be clouded or even grossly misunderstood. Sin has an unmerciful dominion over mankind and the fallen world. We were born under its thumb, with no hope of escape by our own reason or strength. Our slavery to impurity only led to more and more sin and lawlessness. Christ our Lord appeared, and willingly offered Himself to death on the Cross in order to secure our liberty. Now that we are free, it would simply not do to offer to place ourselves back on the block to be sold into slavery again to the master we have just escaped! Instead, our slavery is of an entirely new kind- to serve God and our neighbor for the sake of the righteousness that Jesus earned for us and has given us. This is the slavery that leads to holiness and, ultimately, our eternal life.

Matthew 10: 21–33
Persecution is a given for all who follow Jesus. Animosity against the Gospel will even threaten the closest earthly bonds of the family. What an encouraging message for Father’s Day, right? But with the sobering reality comes the truly uplifting promises from Christ’s lips: the one who endures to the end will be saved. Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Those who acknowledge me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father. These are the higher realities with which we are blessed, and no earthly, temporary persecution can ever stamp them out.

With constant distractions, fears and worldly idols, we fall prey to the temptation to doubt that God’s abiding presence always goes with us in our sojourn through this life. Christ’s free gift of forgiveness and everlasting life through His Word, Baptism and His Body and Blood keeps us aware of His daily mercies that He has kept in store for us, so that in Him we live secure and content in God’s eternal love.

Here’s Hymn 863, stanza 1:
Our Father, by whose name All fatherhood is known,
Who dost in love proclaim Each family Thine own,
Bless Thou all parents, guarding well, With constant love as sentinel,
The homes in which Thy people dwell.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost: June 21, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Come on, Jesus! It’s Father’s Day! Where are your words of appreciation? Don’t we have enough of the Violence and Destruction that even Jeremiah complained about 2600 years ago? No, sin and the curse of this world are still up to the same old playbook. Now they do it on 24 hour news channels and you can see its full evil display on your own handheld screens loaded with Twitter and Facebook. Violence and destruction even engulf whole portions of modern cities and the police are made out to be the bad guys even when they’re doing good. For about three months, we were fighting the microscopic coronavirus with staying home, “we’re all in this together” and helping one another in heartfelt ways. Now the last three weeks all that love and camaraderie seem to melted away. All the more we need Jesus to talk about this persecution that comes our way from our evil world. All the more we need the words we heard from Jesus today in our Gospel: “Everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

Think of our Lutheran Fathers—this week we have the 490th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, June 25, 1530—those bold laymen knew on that important day that now was the time for them to acknowledge Jesus Christ and His true message of forgiveness in front of the most powerful man in the land, the Holy Roman Emperor. If they were to shrink back at that time, then they would be turning their back on their Lord, and that was not going to happen; their eternal salvation meant too much to them to put it at risk. Satan and his angry mob were ready to do their worst, and most of them felt it very much.

They also heard the very comforting word of Jesus: Have no fear of them. That means, those things the world throws at you to scare you—don’t allow them to steer you off course even one degree. Be bold! Be courageous! It will not be popular at times to believe in Jesus—so what? You have Him at your side; You have His strength bolstering your heart; there’s nothing else that could be better. The hairs of your head are all numbered, which means that God’s careful watch and loving concern cover every last detail of your life, how much more will He be concerned over the greater, more significant problems you will have to face!

As easy as this is to say and to believe, especially since you are sitting here and listening to it as a very familiar statement you might’ve heard many times, it is immensely challenging to keep reminding yourself about this truth. What happens to you when you get rocked with difficulty? What happens when the temptations of this world lure you away from what our Lord has clearly said? Do you fear that you will not have enough of what you are told that you need? Life will certainly be much easier for you if you were to say: you live the way you want, I will live the way I want. Later on, God will sort all this stuff out. Keep me out of it. I’ll just worry about myself.

Think about this: No matter what political party you like, I’m certain there has been a time or two when you have thought, or perhaps even shouted to the TV at one of our elected representatives in government, saying something like this: Just do the right thing! Stop worrying about where this is going to get you in the polls or the next election! Forget about pleasing the people who had nothing to do with electing you! I’m tired of these men and women of principles throwing those values out the window once they get elected to office!

You may think yourself the last person to get affected by politics, but I must point out to you—those things that drive you crazy about politicians—that same thing’s inside your own human nature too. You have acted as if you and your needs and desires were more important than what God has given you. You have used the free forgiveness of your sins to mean that you can keep on doing those sins that give you the satisfaction you crave. I can keep living like this, just as long as I keep asking for forgiveness, it’s okay. Or your moments of worry and anxiety, however momentary that they were, still they shook up your total reliance on Jesus your Savior and you let fear of men cancel out your love for Him. A mere moment where you might feel uncomfortable in this life seemed worse to you than an eternity without the Lord your Life giver. You know that whenever you did, thought, or spoke that way, you sinned against God in thought, word, or deed. Just like that frustrating politician, you deserve a shakeup of your senses in which God’s Law shouts at you: Do the right thing!

But fear not, nor fret! When you could not do the right thing out of fear of this world, Jesus did, and He did it all for you. He gave you the calm and patient assurance that spoke deep to your soul: you are of more value to Him than many sparrows. He has rescued you from the utter Divine wrath that had every right to destroy your soul and body in hell. Jesus suffered that destruction for you when He was on the cross dying for you. As we read today in Romans, you are not slaves to sin and fear anymore. You are slaves of righteousness, meaning you now have the freedom to love God perfectly because Jesus, who is in you, He already loves God perfectly. By the free gift that your Savior earned for you, you have eternal life and it will be your highest joy to give yourself in love for the good of your neighbor.

You will find that you have no love for the world and its empty promises. There is no longer a tug at your heart to try to please the people and things that try to be your God, but are nothing like Him. Yes, it will still be tough in these last days before Jesus returns at the End of the world. Brother will hand over brother into death, and father his child, children will rise up against parents and put them to death. Even the closest earthly relationships will try to get in the way of you and Jesus, but evil will not win this victory over you.

Instead, you have delivered one another, including children and parents, into a different kind of death. You are all killed in your sinful nature through Baptism! Sin doesn’t reign in your mortal bodies, because it was crucified with Christ. Parents, you have brought your children to the font to drown the sinner in them and they have been brought back to life as fellow believers. Brothers and sisters in Christ, here in the sight of God and one another, we have through confession of our sins handed our sinful selves into destruction, so that Christ our Lord will then make us a mighty Church, bold with the same faith that they had in Germany with Father Martin Luther at the lead over 500 years ago. It means too much to you to think otherwise.

As it was true with our Lutheran forefathers of long ago, Christ will also acknowledge you before the Father who is in heaven. Why? Because you believe the Gospel Word that has forgiven you all your sins. When you say Amen to that forgiveness, when you trust that all Divine gifts are yours as an inheritance, you are also confessing that Jesus is your Lord, and nothing else evil that happens to you in this world measures up in any way or form to what good lies in store for you. Now is the time to be brave and bold! In Christ you will do the right thing without regard for the hatred of the world, because Christ did the right thing—the saving thing for you that would secure your everlasting life.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Jer. 20:7–13 His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Psalm 91:1–16 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night
Rom. 6:12–23 do not let sin reign in your mortal body … the wages of sin is death
Matt. 10:5a, 21–33 you will be hated by all for My name’s sake

Notes

The Lord be with you! Let all the peoples praise you, O God!

The Second Sunday after Pentecost is the debut of an extended series of green Sundays—green paraments on the altar and pulpit, and the pastor wears the green stole. Green gives evidence of growth and life, and it depicts the Church in her activity of living and growing from God’s Word, breathing in forgiveness and breathing out prayer. From now until the end of the Church Year, the Sunday readings are determined by when that particular Sunday falls in a seven-day period that is given a “Proper” number. Because the date of Easter varies each year, the number of Sundays after Pentecost also vary. You can find the readings for this Sunday listed under “Proper 6” on roman numeral page xv in the front of our hymnal.

Let us pray the Collect for this Sunday:
Almighty, eternal God, in the Word of Your apostles and prophets You have proclaimed to us Your saving will.
Grant us faith to believe Your promises that we may receive eternal salvation;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Exodus 19:2-8
This chapter of Exodus, the Second Book of Moses, marks the arrival of the escaped Israelites to Mount Sinai, the holy place from which God gave them the Ten Commandments and the other laws that set them apart as a holy nation. It almost goes by without comment, but there’s a striking phrase that describes the whole multitude. All the children of Israel “shall be to Me a kingdom of priests.” It is striking because there will only be certain men of a certain age in a certain tribe who will be Israel’s priests, and yet God regards all of the people, young and old, men and women, as priests. This points to their role in the Old Testament as a precursor to Jesus Christ, who is the perfect representative of the holy nation of Israel, and He is the Great High Priest for the whole world.

Romans 5:6-15
Paul puts together the story of God’s love like a masterful chain. Christ’s death for us ungodly sinners is the revealing of His love. That death and the blood that God in human flesh shed for the world is what justifies us, that is, it declares us innocent like a judge would declare an accused person free from all blame. That justification achieves a permanent reconciliation with the Father, and that reconciliation has brought us an abundance of life that has drowned out the death that Adam’s sin brought to all mankind. Death no longer reigns, but life abounds!

Matthew 9:35—10:8
Jesus had compassion on the multitudes who followed Him because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He demonstrated that He is their Good Shepherd because He healed them, taught them about the kingdom that has come in Him, and proclaimed His saving will: that He would lay down His life for their sake. This gave Jesus authority to share with His twelve disciples and He sent them out with the same authority to preach and to heal in His name. This divine authority continues in the Church to this day for the forgiveness of our sins and our eternal salvation. Pastors exercise this authority in their vocation for the good of all the congregation, and every baptized Christian exercises the authority to forgive sins in their own personal callings in life. We don’t pray in the Lord’s Prayer “as we forgive those” for nothing! We all hand out the same forgiveness that we receive every day!

Here’s Hymn 856, stanza 3:
O Christ, who led the Twelve / Among the desolate
And broke as bread of life for all / Your love compassionate:
Lead us along the ways / Where hope has nearly died
And help us climb the lonely hills / Where love is crucified.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost: June 14, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Jesus could have taught the message of His kingdom in so many other ways. What if He sent out legions of angels to declare it to multitudes? He could’ve used a loudspeaker from heaven for all to hear at the same time. He could just sit in the temple and summon all nations to come to Himself. He could do whatever He wants: He’s the Son of God. But instead, we see Him picking twelve men to go and tell.

They go, and they know two things at this early time in their education: they’ve been given a Word, and they’ve been sent. There’s no making up the message as they go along, but they proclaim the message that has been generously given to them. They don’t perform wonders and healings out of their own magic hat of powers. Instead, they’re going to work wonders because Jesus has given them the power to do so. They’re not even going out on their own, but they’re going because they’ve been sent. Freely all this has been given to them. Now they may go and give the Gospel out to others for free.

Imagine the crowds that gather around them. They gather in order to see the Savior, but here they get the understudies instead. Perhaps some leave disappointed or disgusted before the disciples open their mouths. Perhaps they feel like Jesus has let them down by not coming personally, or because the student is never better than the master. Those are typical human reactions, but humans are typically wrong with God’s things. The Lord is not unfaithful. This is His way. This is His order. Jews first, Gentiles soon to come. When the disciples heal the sick, the sick are healed. When they cleanse the lepers, the lepers are cleansed. They raise the dead; the dead are raised. They cast out demons; demons flee.

Why? Because it’s not the disciples doing it. Thaddaeus isn’t saying to the sick, “In the name of Thaddaeus, be healed.” Bartholomew isn’t saying, “In the name of Bart, come out of them.” Demons aren’t afraid of Bartholomew. But they are afraid of Jesus, and the disciples speak in Jesus’ name. He’s sent them; and by His Word, He is there with them. When they preach, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” it’s true because the King is there by His authority and Word. And, when the disciples tell the people that their sins are forgiven, their sins are forgiven. Not because the disciples are forgiving them, but because really, Jesus is. That’s what He sent them to do. That’s what He gave them to do. Freely they have received. Now they freely give.

One of the favorite Sunday School and Vacation Bible School stories to tell is the one about the prophet Balaam in Numbers 22. As you may recall, the unbelieving King Balak sent the prophet Balaam to curse the people of Israel. However, as Balaam rides his donkey toward the people, God opens the mouth of his donkey and the donkey talks. The donkey rebukes the prophet Balaam, and Balaam blesses God’s people instead of cursing them. Pastors like to say this:

“If God can speak through Balaam’s donkey, then He can speak through me, too.”

Beyond the laugh, there’s an important point. In His wisdom, with a world full of lost and wandering sheep, God has chosen to spread His kingdom in a most curious way: He wants sinful human beings to speak His Word. He calls pastors in the Holy Ministry to preach that Word publicly, on behalf of His Church; and pastors can be quite a strange bunch. Despite the quirks and personality failings, however, the Lord still uses them as His instruments. Not just them, though: every Christian, tempted though they may be by sin and weakness, every believer has the privilege of telling that Word about Jesus to others. That is how the kingdom of God spreads.

Why is that? It is not the people. It’s the Word. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is present by His Word: the kingdom of heaven is at hand because our King is at hand. The same Savior who went to the cross to die for the sins of the world, now comes in His Word to give that forgiveness to individual people—to you and me and all who will hear. Jesus is present where His Word is. Add that Word to water, and He’s there in Baptism. Add that Word to bread and wine, and He’s present in His Supper.

It’s the Word that’s powerful—not the person speaking it. It’s the same Word with the same power that heals the sick, cleanses the leper and casts out demons in the Lord’s time. By that Word, Jesus comes to give forgiveness and faith and life, to turn wandering sinners into the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand. It’s that simple.

Can the people who are sent get into trouble and stand in the way of God’s Word? Of course, they can; even though the Lord is faithful, sinners are sometimes not. Sometimes though, people place their hope in the preacher’s great charisma. If his style is engaging and holds interest, then that must make the Word powerful. If he is less interesting or has a bad day, then the Word maybe isn’t so powerful. If this is true, that means that God is only as faithful and powerful as the sinful man who is preaching the sermon. It means that God’s power varies based upon how much sleep the pastor got the night before. This is an extremely seductive temptation in our culture and society, because image is emphasized so much. People judge books by covers, and companies spend millions of dollars to make sure that their products have the right packaging and an exciting ad campaign.

We are easily tempted to judge the quality of anything by how well it holds our attention. Old Adam inside you and me makes sure that we judge the power of God’s Word on the same criteria. Pastors suffer this temptation, too; they can believe that their personality or style make the Word more effective. It’s simply not true. So repent and rejoice! The Word’s power is not bound by the personality of the speaker. Where the Word is, Jesus is. Where Jesus is, there is forgiveness and life.

Some may fall for the opinion that only pastors have the ability to share God’s Word. Sure, only a pastor is given God’s holy orders to preach in a setting like this, for the benefit of God’s congregation in the Divine Service, but the misconception is that if a layman shares the Word with someone in their daily life, it’s just information but nothing more, like a recipe or a news broadcast. It tells about salvation, but it doesn’t save the person hearing the good news. But if this were true, then God would have made a mistake when He told us to forgive those who trespass against us! No, you give forgiveness with the same power that the pastor has been given.

In fact, Christians meet and spend time daily with all sorts of people whom the pastor will never meet, and each believer has the joy of telling of the hope they have in Christ. Sadly, many believers balk at the thought of doing so. “I don’t know what to say,” is one excuse, well, why not? With Bibles to read and sermons to hear and classes to attend, what prevents you from not knowing? Simply tell other people about Jesus—about His ministry and miracles, His death on the cross and resurrection; about forgiveness and the hope of eternal life. “Oh, but I’m not a very good speaker.” Neither were Moses or Paul, and I suspect that Balaam’s donkey wasn’t usually eloquent either; yet God used each of them. “People won’t listen to me.” Careful, now; because that’s like saying that the power of the Word depends on you, not on Christ. I can assure you that people don’t always listen to pastors more than anyone else. Once again, it’s the Word—not the person who speaks it. “I don’t like talking to strangers.” That’s okay. Talk about Jesus to each other. To your kids. Your grandkids and other family members. A good friend who’s curious about your faith. The Lord will provide opportunities.

That’s how the Lord spreads His kingdom on earth: He sends out His Word. He gives His people, you and me, the privilege of telling it to others. He gives us the honor, despite our sins and weaknesses, of being His instruments to tell others of Jesus; and He promises that His Word will not return to Him void, but will accomplish what He sends it forth to do, whether or not there’s a huge crowd coming to hear it. Where people do listen to us and rejoice with us, that’s when we give thanks and glory to God. Where people reject the Gospel we proclaim, we remember that people rejected Jesus, too, and we give thanks that He counts us worthy to suffer for His name’s sake.

But as you speak His Word, rejoice most of all in this: Jesus first speaks that Word to you. Freely you have received; only then do you freely give. Your salvation this day is not based upon how well you evangelize, how many people you tell about Jesus, or how well you tell the great story. God’s gifts are already yours because Jesus has already died on the cross to save you. By the mouths of people in your life—parents, pastors, friends, and others—the Lord has told you of forgiveness; and whenever you’ve heard that Word, He has given it to you. He could have done it any way He wanted; this is what He wants.

So it is this day, as we gather here. It has all been about God’s saving Word. As the Gospel is spoken, it speaks and delivers forgiveness. So on this day you rejoice: you have not just heard about forgiveness today. You have not just been told you have to go and spread the kingdom by telling others. But most importantly, by that Word that you have heard today, you have been made a part of that kingdom, you have been healed by Jesus the merciful Savior, you have been forgiven of all of your sins.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Ex. 19:2–8 on eagles’ wings…a special treasure to Me…a kingdom of priests
Psalm 100 Enter His gates with thanksgiving
Rom. 5:6–15 while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Matt. 9:35—10:20 pray to the Lord of the harvest…it will be given to you in that hour

The Lord be with you!
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity!

The Festival of the Holy Trinity begins the extended season after Pentecost. It features the color white on our church paraments and pastor’s stole, because the only way we could know the Holy Trinity is through knowing Jesus Christ. His pure life and sinless sacrificial death are represented in white at Christmas and Easter, so also on this festival day of Holy Trinity.
Another tradition on this day is the substitution of the Athanasian Creed into the Divine Service liturgy. This Creed has been officially accepted as the doctrine of the whole Church, because it accurately and carefully teaches the doctrine of Holy Scripture. God has revealed to us His Name, and His Name is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Let us pray the Collect for Holy Trinity:
Almighty and everlasting God, You have given us grace to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a true faith and to worship the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty. Keep us steadfast in this faith and defend us from all adversities; for You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Genesis 1:1—2:4
Is there one God or three? The Bible answers this question many times, but the most dramatic story featuring the Holy Trinity, one God in Three Persons, is the Creation account. The creative love and desire of the Eternal Father is expressed in spoken Words by the Eternal Son, with the Eternal Spirit of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, hovering, swooping over the chaotic waters at the crucial moment of “Let there be Light!” Then, after each day of creation is documented into history, we hear the conversation that the persons of the Holy Trinity have with one another: “Let us make man in our image…” All mankind, created good and in the image of God, now after sin once again restored to that image in the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, is God’s intended self-expression. Did you see talk about race in this reading? I didn’t either! It has no bearing or difference on God’s plan for all people. Race shouldn’t make any difference for us in the Church either!

Acts 2:22-36
This is Peter’s Pentecost Day address continued. The crowd may have known Jesus as a great Man attested by miracles, wonders and signs. But now, with the event that they could not deny happened—the miraculous arrival of the Holy Spirit with His own wonders and signs, they have no conclusion to make, other than that same Jesus is Son of God, who was crucified, is now raised and glorified to the right hand of the Father. Once again, Scripture speaks explicitly about the Holy Trinity!

Matthew 28:16-20
This is the last chapter of Matthew, where our Catechism reminds us is the words of Jesus that command, that is, give us the gift of, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Matthew did not name all three names of the Trinity anywhere in his Gospel book until this point, when all was fulfilled and Jesus completed the work for which He was sent by the Father to earth from heaven. And how is the Trinity named? Together with the gift of Baptism. That’s how we know the Trinity, through the confidence that we are baptized, forgiven, and included into God’s family, the Church.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity can often sound esoteric and theoretical. We have to suspend our human reason and accept upon the Bible’s say-so that there are three Persons, that is, three distinct entities, but only One God, one essence and not three. How is this? We can only say that it is this way, that’s all. We have so much going on in our world today, is it even worth-while to speak about this subject when we have other pressing matters for the Church to address? In fact, the Holy Trinity is the perfect answer to coronavirus, senseless violence and anything else that grabs our attention. God the Holy Trinity does not stand way above us but constantly helps, forgives and reassures us as we face the sin that is in us, and that is all around us.
Thanks be to God the Holy Trinity!

Here’s Hymn 953, stanza 2:
We all believe in Jesus Christ, / Son of God and Mary’s son,
Who descended from His throne / And for us salvation won;
By whose cross and death are we / Rescued from all misery.

In the name of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity: June 7, 2020 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Could you say that the year 2020 has been up to this point “spiritual”? What is it to be “spiritual” anyway? We could have enough emotion or energy or drive that motivates us to do whatever we determine to be healthy and beneficial and noble. “Spiritual” people may possess some mystical force or feeling that allows them to rise above adversity, to do the most with what they have, to reach the pinnacle of their capabilities. Recently we’ve found anything but “spiritual” in our lives, certainly not in the news. Most decidedly, spiritual things have been sorely lacking in our world of the past several months.

This word “spiritual”-the world uses it because it desperately wants to say that something pious, something religious, something godly and other-worldly lies behind the motives and goals and intent of a certain person or organization or idea or cause. Spiritual has to do with spirit. And there are two kinds of spirit. The human spirit, which leads you to believe that every good you do and every evil you overcome is because of your own inner strength and willpower and innate goodness. “Everyone has a spark of goodness. Everyone deep down is a good person. Seek the good that lies within every human heart.” That is what the human spirit says, and that is what it sincerely believes. And that is what lies behind the talk you hear so much about, not to leave out self-esteem, self-worth, self-interest, self-motivation.

For at its core, the human spirit is self-centered. It’s about whatever makes you feel good, and whatever you think makes you better. And with the utter meltdown of human society that we’ve had to experience lately, the human spirit very glaringly fails to meet its lofty goals. The human spirit looks at Matthew 28, the appointed Gospel for today, and sees marching orders for a Christian to follow so he can demonstrate to others how committed to “Growing and Going in the Gospel” he really is.

But diametrically opposed to the human spirit is the other spirit-the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God does not draw you into yourself and does not urge you to seek the good that lies within you. Because Paul said in Romans, “For I know that in me-that is, in my flesh-lives no good thing.” For even if my human spirit strongly wills and desires to do true and honest good, I can never achieve or accomplish this on my own strength and never to the degree that I would desire. For in the end, “the good that I want to do, I do not do; but the evil I want not to do-that is what I keep on doing.” (Rom 7) For this reason, the Spirit of God opposes your human spirit and works mightily to discipline it.

The Spirit of God does not want you turning into yourself; and the Spirit does not use your desires to motivate and drive you. He knows that our troubled world of sin is not only out there, causing chaos and violence on the streets, but it’s also in us, in you, in the human spirit. Instead, the Spirit of God turns you away from yourself to God. And not just to any god or anything that can sound godly, but to God crucified-the God who unites Himself so intimately with you so that He becomes the very sin that lives out of your every thought, word and deed.

This is the only God who is able to save you from your selfish human spirit, the only God who can save you from coronavirus, from evil people in government authority, from rioters, even save you from yourself. Only this God can overcome doubts even in those first eleven disciples who worshiped Jesus on the mountain peak. For this is the God who suffers your sin in His body; the God-in-flesh whose self-sacrifice appeases the Father’s desire for your blood as punishment; the God who willingly dies the death you must die; the God who endures your sickness and hell, your self-doubts and sinful lusts, your despair and grief-every evil that your evil human spirit papers over with its high-sounding words. The Spirit of God draws you in through your Baptism into God crucified. He calls you to look to Him in time of need and in the hour that God has appointed. Call on Him and He will deliver you, even from yourself.

The Spirit of God urges you to fix your eyes on God crucified even when things are going well-so that you credit and glorify not your spirit but this Holy Spirit. For it is this Holy Spirit who opens your ears to hear and take to heart and hold to the God in your flesh and sacrificed on the cross you must bear. And yet, in doing all this, the Spirit does not promote Himself. For unlike your spirit, this Spirit does not exist for the sake of Himself, to be noticed or applauded or celebrated. The Spirit of God, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, exists only to draw and lead and take and carry you to the Son of Man who is crucified. This leading and carrying that the Spirit of God does-it is not transporting you back in time to lock in on a past significant historical event. This leading and carrying that the Holy Spirit does-it is to bring the God crucified to you, into your heart and mind, into your flesh and blood, into your skin and bones.

Consider this: we say “Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” but we experience God in the reverse direction. For it is the Holy Spirit who immerses us in Christ Jesus so that we have access to the Father. It is the Spirit who cleanses us in the blood of Christ so that we are reconciled to our Creator. And it is the Spirit who breathes back into us the Life that is Christ Jesus so that we live in God our Father.

The Spirit’s desire is to take out the hard-hearted stony heart of your human spirit, and to replace it with the fleshy spirit of Christ. The fleshy Spirit does not float around in the sky or move on the ever-changing winds of emotions or speak in visions or voices or events that no one sees. The fleshy Spirit is fleshy because He deals with flesh- He serves your flesh and blood that has been planted and buried in the flesh of the crucified God, and His crucified flesh and blood is planted into your flesh and blood. In this way, you live in Christ just as He resides and lives in and through you. All because the Spirit of God opens our ears so that we hear and see that we are bathed in the blood of the crucified God, and feed, thankfully, once again feed on His true and actual Body and Blood.

Perhaps now you understand more of what lies within the command that Jesus gave to those eleven disciples in the so-called “Great Commission:” Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them. But this is more about what God does and continues to do in His Church rather than your personal statement of mission. Being baptized has nothing to do with getting caught up in the moment, or getting your head on straight, or making a fuller commitment, or determining to match your spirit with God’s Spirit. And being born of water and the Holy Spirit does not mean having a different type of spirit to focus on when your spirits are down or when you need to rise to the occasion. Jesus put it very well in John 3: that which is born of flesh is flesh. Which means that whatever comes from yourself, your self-interest, your self-desires, your self-willpower is still of the selfish human spirit. But that which is born of the Spirit (capital S) is the Spirit. He breathes into you the breath of Life-the Life God died to present and offer and give to you. It is this Spirit of God who calls you back to Christ, the God who was crucified, so that, gathered together with all the Faithful, you might feed on Him.

For this is the Triune God at work in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. There the Father begets you anew. There the Son cleanses you from all sin and delivers you from every death. All because there, in the waters of Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit gives and delivers you into your Lord’s very own Body so that you also become true sons of God and are born of God. He is your only peace in all time of adversity and prosperity, during life and in death, when things go well and when things get scary. And He is yours in baptism by the Holy Spirit, a baptism that is remembered constantly in the forgiveness of sins that punctuates your daily life and vocation.

And because of this Baptism by the Spirit of the Triune God, we can now say and sing with St. Patrick and Christians of every age:
I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

To this Holy Trinity alone belongs all glory, honor, worship and praise, now and forever.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Gen. 1:1—2:4a In the beginning, God created
Psalm 8 When I consider your heavens, the work of Your fingers
Acts 2:14a, 22–36 This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
Matt. 28:16–20 baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

The Lord be with you!
Come Holy Spirit, and fill the hearts of your faithful people!

The Festival of Pentecost is the great fiftieth day of the Easter celebration. The color is red to recall the fiery red tongues that sat on the heads of those who witnessed the first Christian Pentecost. Before this, the Jewish festival was concerned with gathering the first fruits of crops with thanksgiving that the Lord had provided for them yet another year in the Promised Land. Now, we witness to the truth that God Himself has a harvest of souls that have been called by the Holy Spirit and constantly are being harvested into the Christian Church. As we pray the Collect of the Day, we pray for the same Holy Spirit to give us Godly understanding and enlightenment through hearing the comforting Word of our forgiveness.

Let us pray:
O God, on this day You once taught the hearts of Your faithful people by sending them the light of Your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy consolation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Numbers 11:24-30
The Spirit of the Lord was active also in the Old Testament, even in the barren wilderness where the children of Israel wandered for forty years. The seventy elders, including two who walked among the people of the Israelite camp, were prophesying, that is, speaking the Word of the Lord as a witness to the Holy Spirit being active among the holy people. This activity of the Spirit did not nullify Moses and Aaron’s authority to serve as God’s mouthpieces, but it does help us realize that the treasure of God’s saving Word is for all believers to enjoy and use.

Acts 2:1-20
This is the story of the first Christian Pentecost, and the official beginning of the ministry and work of the Holy Christian Church. Jesus gave the command, Go and teach the Gospel, baptize all nations, then the Holy Spirit came and gave the power that Jesus promised them before His ascension. The Spirit is unseen, but His presence is identified by three signs: the sound of a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire on those who were in the room, and their sudden, miraculous ability to speak other, recognizable languages. And not just any random languages, but the particular languages of those visitors who were able to listen in on the precious Word they were proclaiming!

John 7:37-39
The Holy Spirit proceeds as a gift to us from the Father and the Son. What is it to be thirsty? To desire the gifts of God that we do not deserve but the Lord has nevertheless promised to give to us. Forgiveness, comfort, peace, confidence in the resurrection of the dead at the last day and certainty of the life of the world to come. These are what we Christians thirst for, along with the same salvation to be for our friends and family, yes, for the entire world! Let us come to Jesus and drink of the Holy Spirit that flows like refreshing water from His crucified, glorified body.

The work of the Holy Spirit is often misunderstood. As Jesus said, He is like the wind that blows where it wishes and no one knows from where it came. But at Pentecost, we have renewed confidence that God has chosen us to receive His precious gifts and to witness to the world all the good that He has done for all people. The Spirit is not locked up, not under quarantine or social distance. He blows freely into the hearts of those whom God has chosen for eternal life. Thank God that in the Holy Spirit, He has chosen you!

Here’s Hymn 501, stanza 4:
And so the yearning strong, With which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the pow’r of human telling;
No soul can guess His grace Till it become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Next Sunday is our first Divine Service together. At 9 am we will meet outdoors in the front courtyard to better meet the safety guidelines. We hope to see you, even though we’ll all keep ourselves at a distance. If you are feeling ill or otherwise must stay home, we understand completely and will pray for you. God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
Alleluia!

The Seventh Sunday of Easter, being the 43rd day out of 49 in the season, is the only Sunday in between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost. Those disciples, soon to be apostles, might have been tempted to “count the days” after Jesus left their sight. It seems to be what we’re all doing these days, since our daily routine received its rude awakening a couple months ago! But this Sunday’s Collect of the Day helps us turn our attention from the days of our Lord’s perceived absence to the great promises that lie ahead. Note that the prayer this time is addressed directly to the Ascended, yet ever-present Jesus.

Let us pray:
O King of glory, Lord of hosts, uplifted in triumph far above all heavens,
leave us not without consolation but send us the Spirit of truth whom You promised from the Father;
for You live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Acts 1:12-26
Since this is the Sunday situated between Ascension and Pentecost, the reading from Acts chapter 1 connects those two historical accounts, using the actual events of those intervening ten days. The group of 120, a significant number, followed the directions of written Scripture to replace Judas with another sufficiently qualified disciple. Matthias won the toss, which implies that God Himself made the choice. What is most important is the prayer that accompanied the procedure- a full devotion of the entire ministry of the Word to the Lord who gave it to the Church and promised to bless us through preaching to this very day.

1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:6-11
This reading would have been on the schedule for this Sunday whether or not there was a pandemic! But the words apply to us at any time we feel overwhelmed with trials of any sort. We should not assume that it is something new when we suffer. On the contrary, blessed are we! In the meantime, we heed the warning to be sober and vigilant against the adversary who like a roaring lion seeks to devour us. He uses sufferings, too, but only the God of all grace promises that after the suffering He will perfect, establish and strengthen us.

John 17:1-11
John 17 records Jesus’ high priestly prayer. It is a window for us into the close relationship that the Son of God in human flesh had with the Almighty Father. There’s more to this prayer, however, than simply how close and familiar Jesus spoke with Him. In the very words He spoke, our Lord outlines for us the road map for our own prayer life with the Father. We have been given an important distinction in this prayer- we who follow Christ are not of the world. Normally, the term “world” refers to the beautifully arranged creation that God gave us. But here, as Jesus prays for all who follow Him, He excludes that part of the world that has rejected Him and His salvation. Thanks to His ascension, He prays, even now, for us, and of that we can be comforted and certain!

Many things in this world can try to leave us without consolation and dispirited. Our own sins, failings and doubts compound what we feel with the truth that we are unable to help ourselves. But the ascended Lord Jesus has not left us alone without help. He has promised to be with us. He has prayed to the Father on our behalf to make us one with Him and with one another. No amount of suffering or trial can remove us from that blessing; instead, the temporary difficulties ensure that we belong in His glorious love forever!

Here’s Hymn 492, stanza 3:
O grant, dear Lord, this grace to me, Recalling Your ascension,
That I may serve You faithfully In thanks for my redemption;
And then, when all my days will cease,
Let me depart in joy and peace In answer to my pleading.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.
God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

The Sixth Sunday of Easter is a prelude to the next major festival—the Ascension of Our Lord on the 40th day after His resurrection. It also has historically emphasized the importance of prayer, concerning both God’s commandments and promises that pertain to this precious gift. The Collect of the Day urges our attention to our Lord’s good gift of the Spirit to guide into the way of holiness both our thoughts and our actions.

Let us pray:
O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Acts 17:16-31
The whole city of Athens was entranced by anything new. That’s quite different from the desire of the Holy, Christian Church, which is founded upon “That which is from the beginning.” (1 John 1:1) What sounded so novel was the two foci of Paul’s preaching, and he preached so adamantly that it sounded like he was talking about two gods, Jesus and “Anastasis,” that is, the Resurrection. But they are not two unknown gods, but one known and widely-published message of salvation. Jesus, who paid the price for mankind’s sin and separation from God, was raised to life on the third day, guaranteeing resurrection for all who place their trust in Him.

1 Peter 3:13-22
The defense of our faith that we give to anyone who asks comes from baptism that is the pledge and appeal of our good conscience to God. So with a conscience cleansed from guilt that no longer holds us down to this world, we gladly endure suffering for doing good, even though all we can see from it at the time is anything but blessing. This reading also highlights the confession we make in the creed that after His burial Jesus “descended into hell.” This true, historical event was a descent in glorious victory to declare that hell has no hold on Jesus, nor on us who cling to Him in faith.

John 14:15-21
The love that Jesus has for us is the love that binds us close to the Father who created us. This is a bond that is so close, we are in Christ, and in the Father. How could we not also have the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our Counselor, He who dwells in us as in a holy temple? The Spirit of truth grants us the assurance that we will not be orphans in this strange world, and we have the guarantee in the Spirit that we shall live just as surely as the risen Christ lives.

The risen Lord Jesus Christ is about to ascend out of view into heaven. God and man as one Person will occupy the highest position of glory, and yet will be everywhere on earth as He promised, “Lo, I am with you always.” Though we do not yet see Jesus, we know He is with us because we have His promise—we have the Holy Spirit. There may be days when we feel fear or anxiety more sharply, or we suffer unjustly as Christians in a world that is hostile to our Maker. Thanks to Jesus, our conscience is clear, and our joy is complete, because our Comforter and Helper assures us of His never-ending love.

Here’s Hymn 556, stanza 9:
Now to My Father I depart, From earth to heav’n ascending,
And, heav’nly wisdom to impart, The Holy Spirit sending;
In trouble He will comfort you And teach you always to be true
And into truth shall guide you.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.
God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Happy Mother’s Day this coming weekend!

We’re continuing the 7-week Easter season, and the Collect of the Day clues us in to what’s ahead, that is: the Ascension of our Lord and the Time of the Church, which would encompass all those Sundays after Pentecost.

Let us pray:
O God, You make the minds of Your faithful to be of one will.
Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise, that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found;
through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a, 51-60
The deacons were chosen in the early Christian Church in order to help members in need with the necessary works of love while the Apostles concentrated on the faith-creating Word that they were to preach for the benefit of all. Even though he was not originally sent to preach, Stephen nevertheless was given a Holy Spirit-filled boldness to confess the faith in the face of opposition. God granted Stephen the distinction and the blessing to be the first martyr of the faith, post-Pentecost. As he died by stoning, Stephen prayed for the forgiveness of the ignorance of those who were killing him, much as when Jesus Himself said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

1 Peter 2:2-10
Compared to last Sunday, which had an explicit Shepherd theme, we have backed up to the beginning of First Peter 2, so that we have Peter’s often-quoted words about the royal priesthood of baptized believers in Christ. It can make us feel good, even important, for us to relish in these titles: chosen nation, special people, spiritual house. However, we must remember that for us to be living stones, we must remain connected to Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. We cannot go it alone on our own without growing in the knowledge of our Savior, and still expect to cash in on our exalted baptismal status. As verse two points out, we must ever remain newborn babes, craving the pure milk of God’s forgiving Word.

John 14:1-14
John recorded some very comforting words of Jesus that were spoken on the night when He was betrayed. The entire chapter 14 of his Gospel speaks peace to our souls. Jesus assures the disciples that He is the perfect revelation of the heavenly Father. The Son is one essence with the Father—one God. He became Man and willingly submitted Himself to the will of the Father, and the Father likewise endowed the Son with His authority, yet their equality was not changed. And when Jesus goes to the Father (referring to His death, resurrection and ascension), that does not rob us of our unity with God, but instead it makes that unity stronger and permanent.

In a time when uncertainty, doubt and negativity inhabit our daily routines, we hear our Lord’s reassuring words: Let not your hearts be troubled. There are many changes in this world, as the Collect we prayed points out. Through many changes in our lives, many of us have relied on the support, love and care of mom. From the very first days of life, a baby craves the nourishment only a mother can provide, both physically and emotionally. We thank God for the precious gift of mothers, and we pray His everlasting love to support them for the hard work that their important vocation requires. The other vocation that we should cherish is the calling of faith in Christ, as this calling through our baptism assures us that we are chosen people, special to God, paid for by the blood of Christ. Enlightened with this faith, we like infants crave the pure milk of the Word that continually comforts us with Jesus’ assurance. This builds on the truth last week that our Good Shepherd calls us each by name; we belong in His flock forever.

Hymn 646, stanza 2:
God has called you out of darkness/ Into His most marv’lous light;
Brought His truth to life within you, Turned your blindness into sight.
Let your light so shine around you/ That God’s name is glorified
And all find fresh hope and purpose In Christ Jesus crucified.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.
Happy Mother’s Day!
God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

It’s our congregation’s namesake church holiday! Good Shepherd Sunday has this beautiful Collect of the Day, to help us meditate on our Lord and Savior’s most memorable self-title.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, merciful Father, since You have wakened from death the Shepherd of Your sheep, grant us Your Holy Spirit that when we hear the voice of our Shepherd we may know Him who calls us each by name and follow where He leads; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Acts 2:42-47
Verse 42 summarizes the pulsing heartbeat of the Christian Church. These four activities make us as the Body of Christ tick:
1 continuing in the doctrine, or teaching, that was handed on to us by the Apostles of Jesus,
2 receiving God’s grace in common with all baptized believers,
3 breaking bread in Holy Communion, and
4 praying prayers on our own as well as together with all the saints in the liturgy.
This reading describes precisely how the sheep of God’s flock listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd as He calls each of us by name.

1 Peter 2:19-25
Saint Peter had the prophet Isaiah’s words on his mind as he wrote in this extended sermon to newly baptized believers throughout the scattered exile Diaspora, where persecuted Christians fled to escape the former Holy Land. Christ our Good Shepherd, the Overseer (or bishop) of our souls was the innocent Suffering Servant who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. He bore our own sins in His body on the tree of the Cross so that we would die to our own sins and live for righteousness—His righteousness that was washed over us to cleanse us in Baptism.

John 10:1-10
In this early section of John chapter 10, we have not yet come to the point where Jesus says plainly, “I am the Good Shepherd.” But already the illustration is setting up so that we are very clear that’s where our Lord is leading. It would also be helpful to read the previous chapter 9, in which Christ heals the young man who had been born blind. Here was a lamb of our Lord’s flock who heard the voice of the Shepherd and not only was granted his physical sight, but was led into the fold of the Church, in which he received eternal salvation. We are the beneficiaries of our Shepherd’s own stated reason for coming: “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

What is the Goodness of our Good Shepherd? Does He use His goodness to teach us how to be more nice to one another? Does His voice give us helpful tips to get through all the ups and downs of life? Jesus here highlights that He is the only true Shepherd, the One who stands in stark contrast to all other so-called paths to God—those other options are not valid means to salvation but can only be called thieves who rob, kill and destroy life. Jesus, on the other hand, gave us life in abundance, for He is the true Door to the sheepfold of Divine paradise. Not only do we have the hope of being in heaven someday, but then after that, after we have been wakened from death following the pattern of Christ’s own resurrection, we also have the certain promise of resurrection of our bodies and the life of the world to come, as we confess in the Nicene Creed.

Hymn 709:
The King of love my Shepherd is,
whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am His,
and He is mine forever!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Please feel free to leave a message, a question, a thought, a prayer request. I’d love to hear what you think.
Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.
God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Let us prepare our hearts for study in God’s Word, using this Sunday’s Collect of the Day, which helps us with the bigger picture of this week’s theme.

Let us pray:
O God, through the humiliation of Your Son You raised up the fallen world. Grant to Your faithful people, rescued from the peril of everlasting death, perpetual gladness and eternal joys; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
The promise is for you and for your children, says Peter in his Pentecost sermon. The call to faith is for everyone, regardless of age, race, or location. Everyone whom the Lord calls is to repent and be baptized, but it remains true that it is the Lord who gives the gifts, not the believer who does something to earn them as a payment or a reward. What cuts us to the heart today? How do we get an adequate picture of where we need to repent? Our repentance journey begins with meditation on the Ten Commandments in our Catechism. What brings us around to the assurance of our forgiveness is the comfort that remains ever true for us in the remembrance of our baptism—whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.

1 Peter 1:17-25
The Collect prayer we just prayed made the statement that God raised up the fallen world through Jesus’ humiliation. The epistle reading from First Peter helps put more details on that wide-sweeping theme. Jesus’ time of humiliation can be misinterpreted as only a teaching example of how we are to humble ourselves. While we should learn that lesson in our lives, the main reason why Jesus came is not to teach us more life-tips, but to offer up His life as a precious ransom price—more precious than gold or silver. You’ll hear something very similar in Dr. Martin Luther’s Catechism explanation of the Creed‘s Second Article.

Luke 24:13-35
The disciples were defeated and beaten as they walked from Jerusalem out to the country town of Emmaus. They ironically knew everything we confessed in the Creed, from the life of Jesus, His miracles, down to His sacrificial death and they even mentioned that they heard reports of His resurrection. Yet with all this information they have in their heads, they remained “foolish and slow of heart to believe” as Jesus said. So too we can have all the facts in our head, but we would still despair of our own inabilities if we fail to see Christ and His accomplishment of our forgiveness as the true Key to understanding the entire Bible.

“We had hoped that He would be the One to redeem Israel…” Great irony. Those Emmaus walkers had “social distanced” themselves from the true promise of redemption! Their hope had been placed in a different kind of redeeming, and not in the suffering and death of the Messiah that had already paid the full price for our forgiveness. They were hoping in a salvation that was something other than forgiveness. We thought we were too spiritually mature to fall into that kind of temptation, until we ran into a momentary inconvenience or time of trial, then all bets were off! We are constantly hoping in other things besides what our heavenly Father knows that we need. But Jesus continually comes to us with His precious blood-bought gifts and we can be certain that we have been redeemed as a new people of God, the Church!

Reflect on Hymn 464:
The three sad days have quickly sped,
He rises glorious from the dead,
All glory to our risen Head! Alleluia!

Lord, by the stripes which wounded Thee,
From death’s dread sting Thy servants free
That we may live and sing to Thee. Alleluia!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Please feel free to leave a message, a question, a thought, a prayer request.
I’d love to hear what you think.

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.

God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant