Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“Jesu Juva” or the letters J.J. That simple Latin prayer means, “Jesus, help me.” Whatever the musician Johann Sebastian Bach wrote, whether it was a composition for a wealthy court patron, or simply a liturgical complement to the pastor’s sermon, he included those two letters at the beginning of his work. “Jesus, help me.” It says, in whatever we do, all assistance comes from our Savior through the means of the Holy Spirit, and, all glory of our accomplishments completely belong to Him and Him alone. But more on that later.

The Church commemorates Johann Sebastian Bach today because it was the day in 1750 on which he was “born into heaven,” that is, departed this life and entered the eternal life that was promised to him and given in the water of Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Bach was never really popular as a person or through his music while he was living. He was known only as the organist and choir director in Leipzig, Germany, a position he held over 25 years. His most enduring works were specifically meant not for performance in a symphony hall, but to fit right in to the church’s liturgy. Bach wrote a full cantata based on the hymn of the day for every Sunday’s (and holy day’s) Divine Service. It would follow the assigned readings, just like our hymn of the day does, and it prepared the congregation members of St. Thomas Church for the hour-long sermon that would follow, and the Lord’s Supper that would be served after that. His Passion oratorios, St. Matthew and St. John, were intended to be sung as part of the Vespers services on Good Friday. Bach made his music for a specific purpose: it was not to draw attention to his skills or to make a dramatic show over the themes and subjects of the Bible. The St. Thomas Lutheran Church kantor wanted his music to preach God’s Word and bring the Gospel of forgiveness and everlasting life to those who would hear it. And it does that to this very day, as witnessed by a revival of Bach’s music in Japan that happened late last century, leading many people to hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus. It wouldn’t be the first time that this man was called “The Fifth Evangelist!”

The words of Saint Paul in our reading from Colossians would have been central to the thinking of a musical theologian such as Bach. Week after week, the people who attended his church, as the same with all of you who attend here, were not coming to church in order to consume a product, to get a theological lesson, or even to be urged into world-changing action for the Lord. You have come because God has called you with His Gospel voice. He has washed you clean in the water of Baptism, buried you with Christ and raised you up from death with Him through faith in the powerful working of God in your life. He takes care of the rest. The record of debt that you owed to God because of your sins? That’s been canceled. It was nailed to the cross and set aside because Jesus paid the price for you. No more legal demands hold their sway over you. As an heir of righteousness set free from sin’s slavery, you now are released in the confidence of Christ’s perfection to be Christ’s light simply by being who you are.

How come it isn’t as simple as that sounds? What gets us discouraged? Do we desire recognition, praise, accolades? Perhaps it’s success, results—we’re frustrated with the difficulties and the cross, in short, the thorns and thistles that we encounter as we live our Christian life. Our sinful human nature opposes us and gets in the way of the good that we know from God’s Law that we ought to do. The letter to the Colossian Christians doesn’t sugar-coat it: “you were dead in your trespasses.” This death did not come to you merely because you committed certain sins—you already had this death in you from birth, and your trespasses against your heavenly Father just affirmed the obvious. When you realize this, its impact certainly weighs heavy on your conscience and you are not going to find yourself in a very happy state of mind. Soon you start to believe that you don’t know how to pray. You lose sight of the blessings that your heavenly Father has promised to you each and every day. Because of this, we all could too easily become disqualified because people whom we respect may try to shake us to our senses and insist on the law’s strict demands. They promise success for us if we are just a bit more committed, a bit more organized, a bit more intent on our purpose of what we are supposed to be doing.

Paul says these are not the answers. The substance belongs instead to Christ. He is the head, from whom the whole body of the Church—that is you—are nourished and held together as with joints and ligaments, growing with a growth that is totally from God. Yes it is true, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, there is no getting around that. Even your so-called righteous deeds were worthless rags, yet your Lord still made you alive in Christ, He has forgiven all your sins against His laws. You are declared righteous and perfect because God doesn’t look at you and see your sins on you anymore. He sees Jesus’ perfection instead, and He counts it in your favor by faith. In the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of the Altar, the fullness of deity that dwells in a human body, the Body of Christ, is put into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sins and His Blood is poured down your throat as a testament to the full confession of the one true faith that you believe in unity with one another.

These are the gifts that are handed out to you here in the Divine Service. This blood-bought forgiveness will help and sustain you from day to day and assure you of the life everlasting that you know you don’t deserve, but God wants you to have it at the cost of Jesus’ suffering and death. And because Jesus knew that you needed His constant help, He gave you the privilege of prayer. Jesus was taking a lot of time to pray and His disciples took notice. They also knew that John the Baptist had taught his own disciples how to pray. When they asked Jesus, they then received a very precious gift from Him, a gift that you also have in your possession as a redeemed, forgiven, Baptized child of your heavenly Father. You have the Lord’s Prayer, and every Christian prayer that may be built on its solid foundation of faith. In the Lord’s Prayer you see every attack that comes at you from the devil, this evil world, and your own evil flesh, the sinful nature inside you.

Jesus has conquered all those enemies for you, and provided your spiritual needs and your physical daily bread even before you have asked Him for it. He will strengthen your faith, though it may waver due to struggles and trials. Of all the countless blessings you receive each day from Him, only a small percentage of your prayers might have a slight delay to their answer, or they may not be right for you to have at the moment. Those are only the earthly things that you are asking for, requesting something from God that you can see and touch. It’s not wrong to bring every request to your heavenly Father, but also don’t neglect the fact that many, many more blessings, most of them the spiritual blessings that you cannot yet perceive, are being lavished upon you every second.

If you need more of your Lord’s strengthening through His Word, you might try music. Paul’s letter to the Colossians continues a little further on from today’s reading when he says: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Whether you are listening to a Bach cantata by yourself, or singing a Christ-centered hymn with fellow redeemed believers in Church, that music can convey the Scriptural words in a way that simple speaking can’t quite accomplish. Bach himself understood that, and Martin Luther praised the value of good music as a servant of God’s Word. This is also a good gift from your heavenly Father to help you and prepare you for the day when you will be born into heaven, and leave this sinful world of suffering behind.

Johann Sebastian Bach was largely forgotten by most people soon after his death. He was remembered only as someone who did his job, his Christian vocation week after week, without needing the thanks of the people who heard God’s Word proclaimed through his music. In fact, no one paid any attention to his music until the 1820s, when fortunately enough, the people of Germany were entering a revival of Lutheran theology that many people call a second Reformation. Felix Mendelssohn, a man who was born a Jew but became a devout Lutheran, discovered Bach’s works and conducted his St. Matthew Passion for the first time in almost 100 years. But Bach himself was never concerned with popularity or the accolades of men. He wanted to make it abundantly clear that all glory in whatever we do belongs to God alone, since He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, including our talents in music or any other useful art. That is why at the end of each of his musical compositions, Johann Sebastian Bach included another prayer, this time writing it in three letters, S.D.G, standing for the Latin phrase, Soli Deo Gloria: To God Alone be the Glory. At the top of the page he asked Jesus for His help, since nothing we do is worthy without Him. But with Christ’s once-for-all death for sin and the power of His resurrection, that’s how you, too, can be sure that you are rooted and built up in Christ Jesus the Lord, knowing that He has done all the work of your salvation, so that all thanks, praise and glory be given in the Church to God alone.

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

Readings:
Gen. 18:17–33 I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.
Psalm 138 I will praise You with my whole heart
Col. 2:6–19 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him
Luke 11:1–13 Our Father in heaven

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

I don’t know how much “shock value” Jesus had intended when He began telling this famous parable of the Good Samaritan. He may have captivated His hearers with a violent opening scene, a matter of life or death, not unlike a TV crime drama of today. We see it all the time now, that’s the thing. It’s so normal that the news broadcast seems to have something missing if there isn’t a stabbing or shooting. The violent scenario that Jesus describes can happen anytime, anywhere. So the sad fact of nobody stopping to help one who becomes in desperate need is probably just going to continue getting worse. If you’re dying on the side of the road, the most likely thing you may find is someone wanting to get a picture of it on their camera-phone! Does our world have any more Good Samaritans, those helpful, caring types of people?

Try looking at the story this way, though: What if the bleeding, dying man had waved off the Samaritan? “No thanks, you don’t need to bother. I’ve got it all under control, thanks for the thought, though.” You would have thought the guy was nuts! No one in their right mind, (once they have stopped to help, that is) no one would listen to him, but instead would care for his wounds despite his protests. It would just be the right thing to do.

That may just be how Jesus is seeing it too. Based on what He says and does in this Gospel, we find the Lord actually tending to the spiritually fatal wounds that he finds as He encounters the delusional victim. And who is this victim? It’s the Law expert who brought the question to Him. This religious Lawyer in the Gospel reading wants to know how to keep the Law in order to inherit eternal life. But that is impossible. The Law, even God’s Law, doesn’t save. It kills. There is no nice way to preach the Law. You don’t take the edge off of the statement: “You are going to Hell” by saying it nicely or by smiling. You would only give the impression that either you don’t care or it is a joke. There is another option. You could avoid the Law altogether. Don’t say, “You are going to Hell.” Instead you try holding out the Law like it’s a promise. Pretend that the Law is obtainable. Mankind loves that. The Law still won’t save you, but it will gain you friends. It allows men their delusions for a time, until the wolf sheds his false, sheep’s coat and devours them. Despite the fact that it seems right to us and it can make you prosperous and successful, the Law cannot save. If there had been a law given which would have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law. But the Scripture has confined all sons of Adam under sin!

Besides this the lawyer who talked to Jesus could not do anything to inherit eternal life. It does not matter how hard he tries, how good he is, or how much he wants it. Inheritance is not earned. Even if the lawyer did keep the law perfectly, so what? God wouldn’t owe him anything. They’d just be even. Do you go to the police station to get a reward from them for obeying the speed limit and for not stealing from your neighbors? Those things are what you are supposed to do. What must you do to inherit anything? What must you do, for instance, to inherit the crown to England? That sounds good. I might like to be the Prince of Wales, you say? Too bad. You can’t be. You must be born of the right father and mother. There is no other way. You cannot earn it. You cannot buy it. You cannot even steal it. Inheritance is a birthright, an accident of genetics. It has nothing to do with your skills, abilities, personality, charm, or desire. You can make all the decisions you want about who you want to be but none of them will make you the Queen of England. Heaven is inherited in a similar way. To inherit eternal life you must be born from above by water and Spirit. You must call God Father and Brother. You must be emptied of yourself and filled with Him, adopted by Grace that you did not earn but which He bestows from His mercy. Righteousness comes through the promise by faith in Jesus Christ. It is given to those who believe.

Which brings us to the Good Samaritan parable. The lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And the answer, of course, is: “Everyone.” That is what the Law expects. That is what the world wants. All the world loves this parable. For they think Jesus is only telling us to be nice to one another. This parable is thought to be just like Aesop’s fables. It is a call to good works, a religion of effort, morality, and motivation. But if that is what Jesus means with this parable, if He is simply cutting the Lawyer off from his loophole, saying everyone is his neighbor and he must love everyone perfectly, then He leaves the questioner, and all of us, condemned! For the Law does not save. The Lawyer was looking for a loophole because of his frustration with the Law, because he knows that he has not kept it. If this parable is all about what we’re supposed to do for others, then it’s just like Jesus telling the Lawyer that his case is hopeless, and that there’s no where else for him to go but to Hell. For no matter how good the Lawyer is, no matter how many people he helps, he will never be good enough. He cannot justify himself, try as he might.

But notice that Jesus turns the lawyer’s question around. The Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” That is, “Who must I love?” Jesus asks back, “Who proved neighbor to the man in need?” That is, “Who is the one who loved?” Jesus made the questioner realize he was left in the ditch. He did not call him to do good. He needed to receive mercy from the hand of our Lord. The Lawyer is caught in the ditch of the Law. He is dead on the side of the road, whether he knows it or not. The Law goes marching by. The helpless priest and Levite skitter past not because they do not care, but because they cannot help. They, standing for the Law, can only kill. The Lawyer must find a Neighbor who can lift him out of death, the one Neighbor who is merciful, who will bind up his wounds, pour on wine and oil, walk beside him as a servant while he rides, take him to an inn of recovery, pay for everything, and promise to come back. That Neighbor is an outsider, an ethnic enemy, despised, scorned, betrayed, and killed on a cross. He has no obligation to help. He is moved by compassion. That Neighbor can make the Lawyer a son of the heavenly Father and obtain the inheritance of heaven, to be handed out when Christ returns again on the Last Day.

So the answer then to “who is my neighbor?” is not “everyone.” It is instead Jesus. Jesus is my Neighbor – not for me to serve, for me to love, for me to do good things for Him, but for me to be served by, to be loved, to receive good, from Him. Jesus, the Merciful One, is my Neighbor. He loves me as Himself. He keeps the Law for me. Here is eternal life: not in a call to do good works, to be the Samaritan, but rather in receiving the good services of The Samaritan, our Savior. Jesus finds us broken by the Law, helpless in the ditch, dying. We wound up there because in our sin we hated Him. But still He loves us. He intervenes. He provides. If you want to say oil stands for Baptism, wine for Holy Communion, the Inn for the Church, then go ahead. This is, after all, a parable.

Now, why did you come here today? We all have bad reasons. We like to try and justify ourselves. Maybe you came to Church because you felt guilty and hope your attendance will please God. Or maybe you are just lonely and don’t have anything else to do. You come out of habit or because you have friends here and want to see them. I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter much. Here is the significant thing: You are here and Jesus is here. He is not here to judge and condemn you. He is here to heal you, to restore and refresh you, to love and forgive you, to be your Neighbor and your Brother. It is not that your sins are not significant or that He is enabling you, winking at your sins or looking the other way. Your sins are destructive and shameful, but He forgives them from His mercy. God is love. He loves to love you.

In that mercy you have the power to resist and overcome. You do not have to remain desensitized to sin like our culture is to violence. You do not have to live in drunkenness and lust, in lewdness, anger, and covetousness. You do not have to keep making the same mistakes. He has provided a better way, a good way, the only way. It is the way of the cross, the mortification of the flesh in daily drowning and dying, in emptying and brokenness, in dependence upon Him and His mercy. In His death and resurrection all things are new, all things are clean and pure. But most significantly, in His death and resurrection, you are His and you are perfect. Submit to that; receive it as a gift. Give up. Die to self. Live to Christ. Rest in grace. Wait in hope.

Whatever reason you may have thought you had for coming to this service, or even if you came without any reason at all, the real reason in the end is that God led you here. Your presence is of cosmic significance. The angels see you hear God’s Word and they rejoice. The Lord has not forgotten the promise He made to you when you were Baptized. He claimed you. He put His Name on you. No one steals from Him. This is where He wants you because this is where He is present according to His mercy and grace. He has a surprise for you, for that law expert that is inside you. You do not have to keep the Law. You do not have to be good enough. You do not even have to understand it all. He gives Himself to you. He will lead you. This place is but an inn of rest and recovery. It is temporary, a shadow of the real thing to come. Jesus has paid for everything and He is coming back. He will take you home.

In the meantime, in this humble inn of grace, this spiritual hospital that will not last for eternity, eat what He gives: His Body. Drink what He sheds: His Blood. In Him and in these gifts there is strength to wait and there is strength to believe. In Him there is a promise and a foretaste. Soon, dear believer, soon, your Lord will return.

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

Readings:
Lev. 18:1–5; 19:9–18 keep My statutes and My judgements
Psalm 41 Blessed is he who considers the poor
Col. 1:1–14 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power
Luke 10:25–37 The Good Samaritan neighbor – the one who showed mercy

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Sir Thomas More, the “Man for all Seasons,” described his perfect land of virtue and harmony and called it “Utopia.” He employed a little witty irony in choosing that title, because Utopia is taken from the Greek words that mean, “No place.” He was implying that it doesn’t exist! This theoretical land is unattainable, but yet he could still describe it as an embodiment of enlightened Renaissance humanism. Utopia possesses all the ideals of good and peace and tolerance of others, but the catch is, you’re not going to get there! That doesn’t stop people from trying, nor does there seem to be a limit to philosophies and offers to make it a reality. The revolutionary says, “Let me take over everything in your life, and I will usher in a golden age.” The Muslim says (either with a drawn sword or without), “Submit to Allah, live as we do, and there will be peace.” The Mormon religion can be simply summarized as, “Follow the laws and ordinances that are laid out in the teachings of Jesus and perfected in Joseph Smith, and you can become more like they are and enjoy the rewards of righteousness that they enjoy.” The politician says, “Give me your money and your vote, and I will turn society into a wonderful place to live.” Our nation’s citizens have heard them say everything from, “A chicken in every pot” to “No child left behind.” Utopia. The wonderful place we would love to find someday is really No Place.

But you can’t convince the prophet Isaiah of that. You sense an uncanny optimism here in a man who was called to warn of God’s coming judgment. He seems to be raving about a future Utopia as he concludes his book in the last few chapters. Zion, the symbol of the New Jerusalem, will bear children instantly, without labor pains, and feed them as a new mother nurses her own children. Her citizens will return from exile and drink in her abundant and constant goodness, better than any welfare program could ever dream or claim to provide. The lion will lie down with the lamb, and a little child will lead them. Peace will overflow like a river floods its banks after a downpour. No one will go away hungry, distraught, or without comfort. All will rejoice in the Lord.

How is this possible? What is going on, Isaiah? Don’t you see what the world is like out there? There must be someone else stealing your identity and writing all this cool stuff in your name without your knowledge. Isaiah was sent to preach to his people words of law about their idolatry. The want, the hunger for better crops, a better life, better birthrate, better weather— these were the forces that drove the Israelites and specifically the people of Judah to try their luck with other gods. They used idols to attempt to reach their Utopia! It’s no different from what our society tries to do now. The Utopia is basically the same; the idols and their worship practices are only slightly different these days. God’s prophet rightly condemns all of it for most of the book that bears his name.

Then Isaiah changes tone suddenly. So significant is this change that skeptical academics have actually theorized that somebody else must be writing the rest of Isaiah’s book. There is comfort and peace on the way! Salvation offered to all. A glorious, perfect and holy Servant will appear and earn this perfect bliss for all who believe in Him. He will be the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, stricken, smitten and afflicted. All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Once that happens, then Isaiah turns loose a triumphant song of praise to the God of Israel, full of promises for eternal happiness for His people, like we read today in the Old Testament reading.

That’s the answer to those who wish to bridge the gap between the real world and No Place, the Utopia that the human spirit seems to keep longing for, deep down inside every beating heart. The answer is, there is no bridging the gap! True, the Lord’s Paradise, the home of righteousness, the dwelling place of the whole heavenly host, that really does exist, but your efforts to try to get there or elect a candidate to recreate it here will always be fruitless. Sin has infected and corrupted all that you and I do so much, that even what appears good and righteous to us is actually hideous in the holy sight of God. I know that sounds judgmental, hateful and closed-minded to the world, but it is the truth from our Lord’s Word.

Your thoughts, words and deeds betray the self-worshiping idolatry of your heart, which afflicts you with conflict and anxiety in one moment because you want to do God’s will instead, while at the next moment you forget it all and plunge back into the sinful life that is all too familiar to you. The evil world and its dark prince hold out the hope of a Utopia in which your every selfish desire will come true without any effort or work on your part, and you fall for the trick yet again.

There may be no bridging the gap, yet it is also true that there is now no need to bridge the gap! The advent of a Suffering Servant that Isaiah had predicted long ago before Babylon, came true in the coming of Jesus 700 years later. God had the plan all figured out from the very beginning! Jesus is the One we have been waiting for, not some big name living in our nation’s capital. He is the only Messiah worthy of the Name, since His is the Name that is above every name. Our Lord and Savior began the New Age of Salvation because He was the Man of Sorrows that Isaiah predicted. He went to the cross to suffer, to be shamed, to be punished, without a single sin to His Name. If there ever was a clean and ideal candidate, Jesus was it! If the Church is to avoid prattling on about utopian ideals or principles for a fulfilled life, then we must never give up the Biblical truth that her Lord was born of the Virgin Mary—not because we like quaint Bible stories, not because we merely vote in some Church Convention that we’ll go along with it, but it’s because God’s Word says it is true, and Christ’s utter perfection as historical fact is absolutely essential to His role as Redeemer. We would still have an entire lifetime of sins on our hands if Jesus had begun His earthly life with sin, the same way we did.

Because it is ludicrous to question whether or not Jesus really existed, because there is voluminous historical documentation that Jesus claimed to be God, said that He would rise from the dead, then He did, that is the true strength of the Christian faith. That tells you that being a Christian is much more than just following a certain set of rules. The rules are part of it, and we cannot downplay the rules simply because more and more people in our world won’t accept the rules anymore, but the bigger part of the Christian message is the forgiveness of sins that is free by faith in the Name of Jesus Christ. That tells you that the joy of Isaiah that we read today is not a con game designed to deceive us.

The paradise of eternal life, the promise of resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come—these are real gifts and they are yours, guaranteed by Word, by Baptism, by the Sacrament of the Altar. You will find empty, worthless promises all over this fallen, sinful world, just like you might think that the only freedoms people cherish anymore are the freedoms to be morally reprehensible. But the genuine promises are the ones that come from God’s Word, and the only freedom is that which releases you from your own sinful desire to satisfy your lust for anything that your Creator has not given you. Heaven’s riches now belong to you, because you belong to Jesus.

Here, the far-away, impossible Utopia, becomes a “Topia,” if you will, a certain place that does exist and is within your grasp, simply because God has come to you in Christ. He knew that the blessings of righteousness were going to remain out of your grasp until He came to give you forgiveness and life. The angels sang with joy along with Isaiah that upon Jesus’ coming, that meant peace on earth, goodwill toward men had finally arrived. You have access to all the blessings that God has promised for you, not in your theoretical thoughts, but in your hearing the Word, in eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ, even going back to the day when your sins were washed away in the water of Holy Baptism. Utopia was impossible for man, but for God, all things are possible. That’s not a mere slogan! You who were far away have been brought near to your heavenly Father, and were reconciled to Him and to one another, as unlikely as that seemed.

Come to New Jerusalem, your mother the Church, who has given you the new life that Jesus Christ earned for you on the cross and proclaimed from the empty tomb. Drink deeply from what the Church has to offer you for nourishment in the faith. Study the Word, learn it, pray it, and get to know all that your Lord has done for you. Don’t look for worldly kingdoms and Utopias on earth that promise you success and growth and an easier way. Because even the Church can get discouraged and impatient when good things don’t seem to be happening. But Isaiah says, Rejoice with Jerusalem, bask in the peace of forgiveness that flows over you today like a river. God will relieve your fears and comfort you as you mourn. Whether or not things will ever be great again, God’s hand will be known to His servants, because it is from His hand that you receive precious gifts today, and you are invigorated for service to your neighbor in His name.

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

Readings:
Is. 66:10–14 The hand of the LORD shall be known to His servants.
Psalm 66:1–7 Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
Gal. 6:1–10, 14–18 let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith
Luke 10:1–20 the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few … but rather rejoice because your names are written…

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The demons acknowledge the eternal, almighty Son of God, even though He was hidden in our frail human flesh. They acknowledge Him, as the Apostle James tells us, and they shudder. They shudder not at the mere threat of divine punishment at the hand of Christ, they cringe and backpedal because that judgment is absolutely certain. Everlasting torment and hellfire is all too real, and it is about to be unleashed on all enemies of the Lord God, including all unbelievers, as their inevitable end. That is what Legion fully realized. Those demons who possessed the man and made him live among the tombs saw Jesus and immediately they saw their almighty Judge.

But that final judgment will come only in the Lord’s good time. As Jesus Himself said to Nicodemus, God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. The mission of Jesus in His first coming was not the same as it will be in His Final Coming. Jesus is demonstrating to these people in the Gerasenes, the region on the other side of the lake, just as He is speaking to you today: He is here to have mercy on all, and to save those in the world who believe in Him. Even when that means having temporary mercy on demons.

Can you believe your ears? Jesus is taking the time to hear what devils are saying through a possessed man! What a twisted conversation is taking place—those demons wouldn’t have had a chance if they were actually to approach God in His absolute majesty and glory to say the same thing. That legion of evil spirits would have been immediately destroyed. Probably because they already know this, they are making a begging request, not to mention something so pitiful as “Don’t send us to the abyss!” And what is more, Jesus is here granting that request! What is going on here?

Let it never be said that the Lord does not give everyone, and I mean everyone, a fair hearing. Rather, it must be perfectly clear that Christ the Son of God who made everything in the beginning, wants nothing to perish. He takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner, nor apparently in making demons suffer before their appointed time. It is true from the rest of the Bible’s witness that there is no promise of salvation for the devil and his angels; they have permanently rejected God as committed enemies, and on Judgment Day they will ultimately suffer the fate that they were pleading with Jesus to hold back. As they enter the pigs, they even forecast for the people nearby to see a picture of what that latter-day condemnation will look like—those demons send unclean animals into an unclean mode of death—by drowning in the sea-depths. But what your Savior is making clear to you today in this strange, other-worldly conversation that the Bible records, He makes this central point: you can count on Jesus to have mercy upon you, a sinner.

And yet, how many times have you followed your sinful, inner human nature like some demon-possessed pig and responded like the people of that country where Jesus preached? They responded to the fearful things concerning Judgment that they saw, rather than the words of grace they were hearing or had the chance to hear from Jesus’ mouth. Remember how they responded? They begged the Lord to leave them. Now, it is true you may not at the moment be frightened with future doom and gloom scenarios; you may not overtly ask Jesus to leave you as those people did, but look closely. Examine your heart, as Martin Luther says, in comparison with what God requires in the Ten Commandments.

Do you take offense at the mercy God has toward miserable sinners? Is the life under suffering and the cross just too much to handle? You get frustrated with all the negative things that happen around you, yet when it comes to the time to make a difference about it, you find yourself sitting on your hands, paralyzed with the false notion that you have nothing to offer. Fathers, you’ve now had your day—but it’s time to be honest—have you or your wife exasperated your children or used harsh and unloving words, perhaps convincing yourselves that your kids deserved such sins that you commit against them? There are times when all of you have blamed others, or you have even blamed God in your heart, when all along the person who needs forgiveness and renewal is the one who looks at you every day in the mirror.

You have tried to “chain up” these sins when you try to put your best face forward. You have let those pious and wonderful things that happen to come through in your life endear you to others and they seem to be successful at covering up your miserable inner condition. There are chains of God’s Law that you may like to use, that if only you made more sincere commitments to the Lord in certain areas, then your problems with sin will go away. Another popular man-made chain is to let issues go unresolved and replace the true mutual reconciliation that you need with tense silence, drastic and immature action, or just avoiding the issue altogether. But as you can see with the actual chains that were put on that demon-possessed man, your variety of chains that you use are no match for the struggle you have going on within you as a baptized Christian. Your sinful nature and the devil who constantly attacks you are driving you out to death and self-destruction, just like that man had broken himself free from his chains, yet he was a prisoner still —a prisoner to Legion, and was dragged out to the tombs and the wilderness in all his naked shame.

But remember, Christ is here to have mercy on all, including you. His almighty power that He demonstrates in driving out demons and healing the sick and lame, all of this miraculous power comes with the flip side, too. That flip side is this: every sin He forgives, every spiritual and physical illness He takes away, doesn’t just disappear in mid-air. Your Lord and Savior chooses to absorb all this evil into His own flesh, just like He took your sin when He was baptized and carried it as His burden. It would be a burden that actually became heavier on His shoulders with each healing He performed and every absolution He would speak. Finally, He bore the burden of the world’s sin up until the last burden was added to it, and that was the cross itself. On that cross He would be nailed, on that cross He would suffer even more and die a cursed, shameful, even unclean death. And that death would be the end of the power of Satan and his demons. It would mean forgiveness and life to you, just as the Risen Savior spoke peace to His forgiven disciples before His ascension.

The Jesus who had momentary mercy on the demons, speaks His permanent forgiving Word of healing to you today in the liturgy. Your sins, your infirmities, your complacent attitude, your shortcomings are absorbed into His flesh. Another way to say it is the way St. Paul the Apostle talks about it: that you have been, and are being crucified with Christ—drowned in your own baptismal water—but you are risen again with your Lord and His free forgiveness. Like the demon possessed man, your life was wrapped up in death and the devil, formerly chained up with all the false remedies of the law, and you only appeared to have broken yourself free. In Jesus Christ, however, you truly are free, not naked in shame but clothed in His perfect righteousness, and God has done great things for you. When the man was rescued and back in his right mind, there was nothing he would rather do more than talk about what Jesus had done. It’s precisely the same for you in your daily life and calling.

The Judgment Day that the demons fear will instead bring to you the full salvation that you taste at this altar. Though all the legions of Satan will be commanded to be tormented eternally in hell’s abyss, you will be invited by Jesus Himself to come and partake of the loving richness of the Heavenly Father above all fathers. For He was the one who brought you out of the tombs and wilderness of sin and death to live in the house of the Lord forever. And all your loved ones and the saints who have already departed this fallen world are cheering you on as you run the race, as you fight those difficult battles with your own sinful flesh. Just as all of us here, seen and unseen, are looking forward to the day when we will finally receive the crown of eternal glory that will never pass away.

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

Readings:
Is. 65:1–9 I was found by those who did not seek Me
Psalm 3 You, oh LORD, are a shield for me
Gal. 3:23—4:7 when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son
Luke 8:26–39 Gadarene demoniac

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

If you don’t realize how necessary it is for us as Christians to be clear when we confess our faith in the Holy Trinity, then it would also be difficult to understand why those Jewish teachers pushed themselves to the verge of stoning Jesus to death. It was certainly more than a power struggle or that they felt threatened by a new guy on the block; those leaders were not merely jealous of His popularity. These Jews were hardened heretics, anti-Trinitarians. They could not accept the mystery that no one can explain, but we all must believe anyway. Their ears were shut to the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the Bible that clearly proclaims to all generations the One God in Three Persons. Therefore, they and all who even down to today reject the Trinity, it’s no different from rejecting God. That is why the Athanasian Creed, as it stays true to what the Bible says, condemns anyone who will not keep the catholic faith, that is, the faith of the whole Christian church, whole and undefiled, faithfully and firmly.

It’s not a rule that we must follow just because God is all-powerful and we’ve got to play the game of life His way. He knows that your eternal life with Him is impossible unless He takes care of it all from start to finish. And the way that salvation is delivered to you is through the faith in Christ that He plants within your heart in Baptism, the faith that believes everything the Bible teaches and reveals to you about God the Holy Trinity. The moment you have something you need to do to take away your own sins, that’s the moment you are lost forever. Likewise, if there is any modification to what the Bible teaches about the Trinity, then it most certainly means that man’s futile way of trying to save himself is working its way in, and the spiritual damage would be widespread and devastating. It is that important to know this doctrine and believe it, even though it is impossible to understand it completely.

But God does not leave you clueless and bewildered about His mysterious identity, either. He wants you to know Him as He has revealed Himself to you, nothing more than that. And the Bible’s way of revealing the mystery of the Holy Trinity includes something you desire and crave as one of God’s creation. That is this simple, yet unfathomable sentence: God is love. He certainly demonstrates the qualities and actions of love, that is, we can surely say God loves us. But it’s more than that. God Himself is love. He didn’t even create love, like He created everything else, including human emotion. Love is who He is and has been for eternity. This is much deeper than our concept of love that we describe merely in emotional terms.

For God to be love, He then cannot be isolated or singular. For the fullness of love to exist, there must be a lover, one who is loved, and there needs to be the love they share with each other. Three elements are needed. Though it cannot be grasped or explained in our human minds, God is all three of those, yet He is not three different deities, contrary to what the Muslims and others claim we Christians say, but He is one God in three distinguishable persons. These three persons match up with what is required for love to exist, but we’re still talking about One God who is Love Himself. The Father loves the Son. This is an eternal relationship. The Father has always been the Father, because the Son has always been the Son, and the two of them together have always been and always will be One God. Finally, there’s the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, or the Love that the Father and the Son share. This Holy Spirit has the same relationship with both the Father and the Son, and that relationship that is found in the Bible, is defined in the three Creeds as “proceeding.” The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, because He is the love between the Father and the Son.

Clear as mud, right? Well, that is almost as good as we can do as human beings in talking about it. But thankfully, when God reveals Himself to us, He desires more than just for us to understand it and try to speak about it. The Holy Trinity, complex as He might be, perfectly defines what love is, yet He wishes to include you in that perfect, complete love relationship. The Lord is not satisfied with being love all to Himself. You see, it was God’s design from the very beginning of creation: “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness.” It’s the reason why God said that it was not good for the man Adam to be alone. Because God Himself is not alone; He loves and He wishes to share that love with His most precious creation, and He wishes His created human beings to share that love in a most intimate way with one another as male husband and female wife. Therefore you were created to love, even as you and the entire human race was brought into existence so that you could be drawn up into the Love that God is. The Father loves the Son, remember? Well, the Father desires to include you into that same love, so that He loves you in and with His Son.

Now wait a minute… you are not God, nor are you equal with God the Holy Trinity. You have a definite beginning to your existence. It would be ludicrous to suggest that God would create someone, and then that being would be equal to Him. The Father did not create the Son, as one ancient heretical teaching imagined. So how is it possible for God to bring you into the eternal Love that He is? It was accomplished when God the eternal Son took your human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. He joined Himself to you and you would be in communion with Him, taking part in God the Father’s love for the Son, so that it is also God the Father’s love for you. This is the divine plan into which Adam and Eve were placed together in the Garden of Eden, before there was sin, before there was death.

Sin and death disrupt the love that God the Holy Trinity wishes to share with you, His creation. He cannot allow sin to exist in His presence. He must cast it away forever, or else He would cease to be God, He would cease to be Love. But sin was what Adam brought in, through the help of the serpent and of his own wife. And for that, Adam and all his children (including you and me), excluded themselves from the Love and life that God is and that God gives. And when you exclude yourself from the Holy Trinity, you have nothing in your future but everlasting death. This is what you do every time you look out for yourself for personal fulfillment, when you seek out your own benefit, when you disregard your family and your neighbor. In this rebellion against God and the Love that He is, your life has instead been better described as a life of hate. You have deep down hatred for God and for each other and were it not for the force of law to hold back your sinful nature, this world would have been engulfed in eternal death eons ago.

Your sin, death and hatred that are seated within your human nature had to be destroyed, if there were to be any hope for you to be together in communion with the Holy Trinity and the Love that He is. And so God’s love for you expanded, as love often does. The Son who in God’s eternal plan would come to take on your flesh, would be the same Son who would die for your sin. And when Jesus Christ, the God of Love, died on the cross, He murdered sin, death and hatred. He brought life back into the dying world when He rose from the dead on the third day. And He continues to bring the Life and Love that He is back to you, even though you had lost it.

You cannot explain the mystery, the unexplained reality of the Holy Trinity. You cannot adequately describe even the Love that God is. But, even better, you have become a part of that mystery, and the Holy Trinity alone made it happen. As the water of Baptism into Christ’s death that was poured over you took away your sins, as the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” were spoken, as the Holy Spirit, new life and salvation entered into your body and soul, you were then included into the Love of God the Father for God the Son. You have Holy Communion, meaning you and all those baptized Christians who publicly believe this, take part in this Love that God is, right here at this altar. The Body and Blood that God the Son lived in, died in, and ascended in, that Body and Blood is what brings you into that Love. Yes, it forgives your sins, and that remains the most important thing. Above and beyond that fulfilled promise, that Body and Blood brings you in close contact with the Holy Trinity.

It can get uncomfortable at times when you get cornered and you’re asked to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. Aside from what the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds say, there’s little more you could possibly explain, especially to an unbeliever. The best would be to say that God the Holy Trinity loves you, to describe what Jesus has done for poor, miserable sinners like you, and point to Holy Baptism as the point of contact we as God’s redeemed people have with the Divine, Trinitarian mystery. The confession of faith concerning the Trinity is really telling the good news about Jesus. It is not some disconnected, obtuse doctrine that we would be OK without. It is the Love of God within His own threefold unity and that Love extended toward us that it took a whole Bible to reveal, after thousands of years it hasn’t been fully understood, yet it is a reality that you who confess it eat and drink at this communion rail.

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

Readings:
Prov. 8:1–4, 22–31 Does not wisdom cry out
Psalm 8 O LORD our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!
Acts 2:14a, 22–36 Men of Israel, hear these words:
John 8:48–59 before Abraham was, I AM.

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Three of the greatest, most important days of God’s activity in the world’s history were Sundays. First was the day that began created time—that was a Sunday, the first day of the very first week, when God through His Son the Word spoke light into being. Then there was Easter Sunday, when the Son who took human flesh and died in order to destroy sin, death and Satan—He then rose from the dead, and handed to the world the victory He had won. That leaves the final, fulfilled “great Sunday” in human history, and that was fifty days later, the first Christian Pentecost Sunday. It has sometimes been called, “the birthday of the Church,” even though the Church has actually been made up of believers in Christ ever since Adam and Eve were given the promise of a coming Savior. It seems every time the first day of the week comes around, there’s yet another commemoration of the designated day when our Lord creates all things new.

Back in the shadows of the Old Testament, Pentecost was a Hebrew holiday connected with offerings and gifts that the people presented fifty days after the Passover Sabbath. When Jesus fulfilled everything that the Old Testament said, His light revealed the true offering and cast away the shadows. Instead of an offering coming from the people, the true Pentecost reveals a gift from God the Father and the Son. On this Pentecost comes the gift of the Holy Spirit, who as the creed says, proceeds from the Father and the Son, and together with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is worshiped as Almighty God and glorified.

This is a big day. The world, and especially the Church, has never been the same since Pentecost. Sinful human beings like you and I are have acted in coordination with the devil to mess up ourselves and our world. God Himself is breaking in to bring life, forgiveness and renewal to a crumbling creation that desperately needs it. Though He will ultimately destroy this present world and create a new heavens and a new earth to be our eternal home with Him, He is still here, wherever you hear His voice and His Word, converting and re-creating within you that which sin had torn down and turned against the Lord.

The most striking example of this renewal is laid out for you in the readings for today. Witness what happened so long ago, as recorded in Genesis 11. This was not long after Noah and the flood, and the world had a fresh start. But sinful people took God’s gift of a common language and misused it for their own selfish gain. They wanted to build a fabulous city with a high tower that would make them unified, and give them an identity all of their own. Already they were tired of the unity that God provided as His gift to them; they were sick of being content with His identity that He had already given them. They were going to put all their trust in their building project, in their own works and deeds to give them the blessings they enjoy, rather than turning to the Lord who created them, who saved them through the Great Flood and brought them together in one language.

And the Lord didn’t have to do much at Babel. He simply let their sin, and the chaos that it naturally produces, take over these people. They sincerely desired to proceed in their plans with God totally out of the picture. Often God answers the sinful intents of people by giving them precisely what they want. In many cases, there is no worse punishment possible! That is the frightening thing for you, isn’t it? You may want something so bad, you can’t imagine life without it. You don’t think you’re going to get it, until you do, and you wish you had never even thought about it. That’s when you finally figure it out that whatever you desired actually became for you your god, just like the citizens of Babel made their own god out of building that tower. Out of their disdain for the Lord and their high praise of themselves, God mixed up their languages and scattered them—the result that they had feared the most. This is one teaching you gain from this: You inevitably see that there is always something missing in your hunt for things, fame, identity, power, popularity, and the good life. What is missing? In a word: peace is what’s missing.

And Jesus offers you not the fake peace that the world cherishes and bombards you with like annoying commercials, phone sales calls or Internet pop-up ads. Jesus gives you a Pentecost gift when He simply says: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. The peace comes not as some light-hearted feeling that makes you tingle inside. The peace of Jesus is actually His gift of the Holy Spirit. This is something real, and truly powerful. Note what the gift of the Holy Spirit does to those frightened, bewildered apostles in the upper room: He fills them with joy, gives them boldness to preach in the face of certain resistance, and certainly not the least spectacular, He gives them the gift of speaking in other, clearly distinguishable languages.

Do you see now the great fulfillment that took place? The confusion and scattering due to a multiplicity of languages has now at Pentecost been undone. God is at work uniting His dispersed people, but it’s not by wiping out all those diverse tongues and creating one language. Instead He accomplishes the reversal of Babel’s curse by preaching the Gospel in the mouths of His first pastors in many different languages—the specific languages of the very people who were visiting Jerusalem at that same time! The judgment of God handed down so long ago in Genesis was finally turned on its head in Acts. And all of this was thanks to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, as Jesus promised.

For Jesus Himself had said the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Helper. Why would your Lord give you a comforter if He did not know that you will be needing comfort? He says let not your heart be troubled. Then that must mean He must know that you constantly face fears and uncertainties and temptations to sin. You who could never have helped yourself any day of your life, be assured that Jesus has not left you as orphans. His Holy Spirit helps you as you struggle in this time known as the Christian’s life on earth: a time of trouble, hardship, and evil, but because of your Savior Jesus Christ it is a life full of true Holy Spirit-filled joy. You have His Word and His promise that you are forgiven. The blessed eternal inheritance has been yours ever since the water of Baptism placed the Holy Spirit into your heart.

On this big Sunday of Pentecost, your prideful, crumbling, self-centered Babel heart is rebuilt and re-centered, thanks to the death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. His gift of the Holy Spirit comes to you only one way—from His Word. From the Word you hear and read, from the Word with which you are washed, the Word you eat, the Word you drink. And the renewal of your life, the renewal of the world, the renewal of the Church, leave that up to Him. Put your trust not in the promises or personalities of men, nor in slick gimmicks or sales pitches, nor any fabulous tower-building projects to preserve the Church, for those are sure to crumble sooner or later. Rather secure your trust squarely on Jesus Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit. It is a promise on which your Lord always comes through; He will never fail. Come, O Holy Spirit, and lead us every day to Jesus.

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

Readings:
Gen. 11:1–9 Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth
Psalm 143 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works
Acts 2:1–21 how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
John 14:23–31 the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

On the same night when He was betrayed, on the night in which He left to His disciples the long-lasting legacy of unity with Himself in the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus also prepared them for His departure with the promise of His return and of joy. They were puzzled by it and so Our Lord explains further and He provides us an illustration: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now; but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

He is speaking of the specific sorrow that the disciples will have during His crucifixion, and immediately following His death. But you would do well to apply this to yourselves and to the sorrows you endure in this life while you await His imminent return. For the Church on this side of glory is very much like a woman in labor. For a woman in labor, and I’ll take the Bible’s Word on it since I can’t identify with it for myself, she bears the brunt and consequence of the Law. Remember the curse that was pronounced upon Eve and her children: “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” [Genesis 3] All consequences of the law right there.

Consider that bloody, dangerous passage, for both mother and child, that we call birth (especially with Mother’s Day just last week!). In the process of birthing, the mother is in great pain, she’s just about out of her mind, but she’s clearly focused upon, and caring about nothing but, getting that baby out. So also we still bear the burden of the Law in this earthly life. We are forgiven, like Eve in the garden clinging desperately to that Promise of the coming Christ, but we are still waiting for His Second Coming, waiting for the consummation, the full experience, of our joy. Its fullness is still in the future. And the Law of the present brings pain and sorrow into our lives.

For the present is full of our transgressions. By our sins we have burnt bridges with family and friends, employers and neighbors. With a moment’s foolishness or with a moment of selfish indulgence, whether that be giving in to our rage and frustration and lashing out or whether it be a quiet nurturing of our lust, greed, and malice, either way, we’ve succumbed to temptation, and hurt the ones we love the most. Our words have been spiteful, sarcastic, and unkind. We have served spouse and parent, neighbor and friend, but that service has often been done grudgingly, under duress and with great show of how good we are while we’re doing it. We have needlessly complicated our lives, caved-in, given up, ran away. We have been weak. Sometimes it is as though we are two or more people at the same time. In the back of our minds we watch helplessly, ashamed of what we are doing, but yet we refrain from stepping out and stopping ourselves. And so the Lord calls you to repent. Repent, that is, turn away from your fleshly desires. Remember that this earth is not your home. Let the pain, the sorrow, focus you upon Jesus and the coming joy that He promises to you.

A woman in labor, for all her trouble, is a woman uniquely focused upon the joy, or at least, a moment of relief, to come. She is not distracted by the petty things of this life. She doesn’t care if the doctors, nurses, or passers-by see her exposed, unshaven legs or hear her cries, let alone whether or not her hair is mussed up or her shirt a little wrinkled. She is having a baby, and for a little while, that is all that matters. For a little while, she has sorrow, but then she holds the baby and her sorrow is not only complete, but surprisingly forgotten. It cannot compare to the wonder and joy of the life of her crying little baby now out in the world.

So it is also for you. This life is temporary. It seems long, but in retrospect you will see that it was brief. It is transitory, in fact, because it leads you to a greater, permanent place. Your joy will be complete and no one will take it from you. Hang on. Be as focused as the mother in the delivery room. Jesus Christ did not die and rise in vain. It will end soon. And when the going gets really tough, in the waning hours of darkness, in the midst of your watch, know that you will mount up on wings like eagles and soar. Soon, you will leave all this pettiness, this sweltering sin, these open sewers of false morality and half-hearted tries behind. You shall be totally free! No more pain, no more suffering, no more shame or regret, no more past, no more sin, and as Easter proclaims, no more death. The vision in Revelation that we read today unfolds more joy that lies ahead. You will be free of your sinful self and you’ll finally get to know the real you as God had originally intended for you to be. This is the horizon that rises before you. God’s Grace cuts those cords which had bound you to this awful, dark place.

The payment for your selfishness has been fully paid. There is no more to be done, yet there’s the waiting. Why must I wait, sometimes I’m asked. God loves you in Jesus Christ and He will bring you to Himself when the time is right according to Him, not you. In your travail, ponder this profound and simple truth: that is, for His own reasons, by His almighty will, out of His own goodness, without any merit or worthiness in you, He loves you. He calls you by name. The inheritance of the righteous is rightfully yours, for you are His. In Christ, you are free. You are free from worrying about yourself. You need not defend yourself, or look after your rights and honors, or be insulted by the frustrating behavior of sinners around you. Patience is learned in the cross, for there we see with near-maternal clarity that nothing else really matters. You are free from those who hurt you, free from the devil’s accusations, free from death. Jesus Christ Himself is your Defender, your Advocate, your Friend. He never sleeps or grows faint. Let Him worry about you. For who would dare to stand against you? You are the King’s own chaste Bride. These labor pains are not your punishment, as painful as they seem. Rather, they are the proof of His love.

And while you wait, knowing that your time is coming, be determined for yourself as a confessional Lutheran that nothing else matters but Jesus, whose Joyous Feast is offered at this table. Be strengthened, encouraged, and refreshed for your labor.

Eat His Body and drink His Blood for your sustenance. Your sins are there forgiven and the Church Militant, that is you, joins its worship to the worship of the Church Triumphant, the Church that is at rest in glory, which has already been delivered. For you are truly one Church in Jesus Christ.

Here is your strength to carry on. Here is hope for the future, peace for the tired, troubled heart. Here is unity with Christ crucified and raised, and therein, unity with your fellow confessing pilgrims on earth. You are diverse strangers no more, but now you are brothers and sisters in Him, for faith is thicker than blood, a greater bond than color of skin, language, or economics. And there is unity with the confessing cloud of witnesses that even now surrounds you and prays for you, cheering you on. This is not some sort of epidural anesthetic, a narcotic to numb you and drug you out of your mind. It is a promise of joy to come, and it’s delivered to you now, so that you would endure in confident Hope and Faith. So, relax, Jesus says. Fear not. In a little while you will see Him and your joy will be complete, your travails forgotten. No one will take it away from you.

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

Readings
Acts 11:1–18 Rise, Peter, kill and eat! … What God has cleansed you must not call common
Psalm 148 praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted
Rev. 21:1–7 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men
John 16:12–22 when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth
or John 13:31–35 love one another; as I have loved you, …

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

How do you “make a name for yourself?” That is, get yourself distinguished so that you stand out from all those others who have done your job first. How do you try to compete for mother of the year, when you see there are so many good contenders? Or are you going to make a name for yourself, take a risk and make an impression that no one will ever forget?

Jesus causes quite a stir as John reports his conversation with the Jews in the Jerusalem Temple. The Evangelist specifically says that it’s the winter Feast of Dedication—they’re celebrating Hanukkah. Several decades before, brave Judas Maccabeus and his rag-tag family militia overcame the mighty occupying army and recaptured, and rededicated, the Temple—the very land on which Jesus and His hearers were standing at that moment. There was a real hero. Judas Maccabeus started humble and ended victorious and powerful. Anyone who walked in his shoes would have to be a great and noble leader, the only true hope of making Israel a dominant political power ever again.

So here it is, Hanukkah in Jerusalem, and Jesus is strolling through the courts of the temple. He is well-known by now. His teaching is repeated, His miracles are recounted again and again, and multitudes follow Him wherever He goes. Lots of eyes are on Him, because Judea finds herself in need of another hero, another deliverer. Could Jesus be the Messiah, the Christ they’ve been waiting for? He has potential-He can heal the sick and even raise the dead. But at the same time, He lacks the political zeal of a Judas Maccabeus, and shows no military aspirations against the Romans. Is He the Messiah, or isn’t He?

The suspense is overwhelming, so finally the Jews confront Him: “How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Please note Jesus’ response, for He says so much as He speaks to them.

“I told you, and you did not believe,” says Jesus. He points to the works, the miracles that He does in God the Father’s name, works which the Old Testament said would identify the Messiah. He points to the Word that He speaks with His voice, the Word that gives eternal life to His sheep. He tells them that He has such power and authority that no one can snatch His people out of His hand. He tells them that He and the Father are one.

So, this man Jesus is also fully God who fulfills the Word, works miracles and gives eternal life to all who hear His voice and believe. Is He the Christ? Without a doubt, yes; and He’s made it very clear to them by all that He has said and done. It is not that He is keeping them in doubt, but that they are keeping themselves in doubt by refusing to believe. It’s not that He hasn’t told them plainly, but that they’re looking for a different answer. They want another warrior and conqueror like Judas Maccabeus; this Jesus doesn’t call Himself a warrior, but a shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.

But if Jesus has made it so clear-and if it makes so much sense and He’s confirmed by the Word, why don’t they believe in Him? It is certainly plain to you and me that He is the Christ, so what’s the difference? It’s because they don’t have faith. The Savior stands before them, speaking His faith-giving Word, but they refuse to believe in Him. The Shepherd calls them, but they don’t want to be His sheep. To them, Jesus is no good because He’s no Judas Maccabeus. It’s true: He’s not like anyone who came before Him. In fact, He’s far superior, as superior as God is to man. Judas fought and died, and whatever freedom he won was eventually lost. Jesus will suffer and die; but then He will rise again from the dead. He gives His people eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of His hand.

Our Savior is far beyond imagination and intellect. Jesus is beyond comparison with anything this world has known. It is our joy and privilege as Christians to proclaim Jesus Christ, yet it is at the same time, our challenge to proclaim Him faithfully. We rejoice, therefore, to declare the facts that come so naturally to us. We have big celebrations here in church, year in and year out, because the Son of God took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. The holy and righteous Christ, purer than any dedicated temple building could ever be, who lived a perfectly sinless life, also suffered and died on the cross for the sins of the world. We also joyfully confess that He rose again from the dead on the third day, that He lives and reigns to all eternity, and that He continues to minister to us through His Holy Spirit, providing all that we need for this life and for eternal life.

We believe this to be true because the Lord declares it true in His Word. However, all of this is beyond man’s imagination, intellect and comprehension. It’s so good, that human reason thinks of it as out of reach. A perfect God who becomes flesh may be nice as an abstract concept; but in this world where nothing is flawless, it sounds too perfect. A God who is holy and demands obedience, that is logical; but the same God offering His Son as the Sacrifice for the sins of the world just does not make sense. The human mind wants a god that it can grasp and fully comprehend. A God who is greater than that is too unbelievable in our so-called real world.

Now, let’s be clear. The problem is not that Jesus is too great to be believed in, too good to be true; people often use that conclusion as a cop-out, but the problem does not lie with the Lord. Neither is the problem with the limited powers of our human mind- even if it were true that we simply weren’t created in such a way that we can comprehend all things, for we are the creature, not the Creator. The true problem is sin. It’s that original sin that blinds us to God’s Word. It’s that Old Adam in us that has no intention of letting us believe in a God who is greater than that which we can grasp or control.

The problem does not lie with Jesus and who He is. The problem lies with us; and the problem is sin and lack of faith. It is not merely a matter of misunderstanding, nor is it that the Gospel is just too complex for people. The problem with us sinners is that sin prevents us from believing. We want a personal Savior, a Judas Maccabeus hero to come to our rescue and help us out of our everyday jams. It’s easy to find preachers who will portray our Lord as the one to satisfy all our needs; He’s that good buddy

who can scratch all our itches. We’re all too willing to fit Jesus into the mold of our favorite hero. It may draw people into church if we should identify needs that people think they have and then meet them with a modified, more attractive Gospel package. But in our Godly urge and push to save the lost for Christ, have we drowned out the one thing that truly will save them? For that is the still, small voice of our Good Shepherd.

Hear the words of Jesus, your Good Shepherd, He says: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Our Christian task, our evangelism is centered on hearing that voice of our Lord, the Good Shepherd. God in our daily life in this world calls us to faithfulness: Faithfully preserving the Word of God in its truth and purity, and faithfully proclaiming that Word to all who will hear. And remember most especially, the Good Shepherd’s voice is not just comfort and salvation for people who are out there. He is your comfort and salvation, too. Sometimes, a church can become so wrapped up in missions fervor that as she seeks to evangelize others, she fails to evangelize, that is, preach the Gospel to, herself.

Because this is true: Gathered here as the people of God, you are constantly in need of His grace and presence, too. The joyful truth that God has made you His own in Christ does not mean that you do not face all sorts of trial and difficulty. You may be plagued with guilt. You may be frustrated with where your life seems to be headed. Motherhood is not as easy as you imagined. You may face unfair oppression on the job or at school. You may be sick. You may be dying. And with such troubles, you don’t need a Judas Maccabaeus to set you free for only a little while. In this place, and from this pulpit, you don’t need to hear of a moral example or a counselor or a crusader for social justice. You need a Savior, the likes of which have never been in this world, nor ever will be; a Savior who actually saves you for all eternity. So as we have the privilege of proclaiming Jesus Christ to others, so I proclaim Him to you now. He is your Good Shepherd, who has laid down His life on the cross to redeem you, and who has taken up His life again for you. He has suffered the guilt of your sin, and so He declares you forgiven. He preserves you despite the plots of others and the setbacks, for He has promised faithfully to deliver you to heaven. He has borne your infirmities to the cross so that He might deliver you from spiritual illness.

And where no one else can deliver you from death, He declares to you, His sheep, “I give you eternal life, and you will never perish; neither shall anyone snatch you out of My hand.” The promise is sure, for your Good Shepherd is no less than the risen Son of God who speaks to you in the Scriptures today. Therefore, we rejoice this day to hear the Word of our Shepherd, for by that Word He gives us faith to believe in Him. We proudly confess Christ with one another. We give thanks for the privilege of proclaiming His Word to others, for by that Word He freely gives faith so that they might believe. Jesus our Lord made a name for Himself, so He could place that name upon you forever.

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

Readings:
Acts 20:17–35 I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd
Rev. 7:9–17 a great multitude which no one could number
John 10:22–30 My sheep hear My voice…I and My Father are one.

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Peter must have done it for most of his life, but from this point on, fishing was just never going to be the same for him. What an experience that he and all the disciples and other followers of Jesus had gone through! Betrayal, mob-arrest, illegal trial, the crowd shouting for crucifixion, Pilate complaining but going along with it, the bloody moments, the darkness, the earthquakes, the running back to an empty tomb, the bewilderment, the sudden appearance of the Lord and then He’s gone again. The Gospel accounts of what happened after Jesus’ resurrection all tell the story of disciples constantly in shock, which confirms these documents’ historical authenticity even more. Of course these ordinary men were not making up a new religion, patterned after a fantasy in their minds! But it’s also true in this time following Easter, but not yet Pentecost, that these disciples have to recover a bit. And so, probably for only a handful of times after that first Easter, Jesus appeared in His human body, but He fully used His majestic glory in what is termed His state of exaltation. He always could do anything, and after the greatest miracle of the Resurrection, what other miracle could ever top that? But whatever Jesus does, it’s always for the benefit of His disciples, and for you listening to His Word today, it is a benefit to you as well. Put yourself in the skin of one of those seven disciples sitting in the fishing boat for a few moments…

Here we are in Galilee. Jesus said to meet here. Soon enough we’ll go back up to Jerusalem, but now, Peter says to us, it’s time to go fishing. It was what we’ve done all our lives. But this time, it was pretty hard to talk about anything all night. And it wasn’t getting any easier to pass the time away because we were catching nothing. All we thought we knew what to do, we tried, but it still isn’t getting us anywhere. Then as light was beginning to grow at daybreak we were able to catch a glimpse of the shore about a hundred yards off. We could barely see a figure walking among the rocks, but crystal-clear His voice rang out over the still water: Hey boys, you caught nothin’, did ya? He was expecting the answer to be No! How was He so sure? What did He know that we didn’t? “Cast out the other way, on the right side, and you’ll find some.” Now things were clicking off in our minds. This all is starting to sound familiar to us. He’s no random shore-spotter giving us a suggestion. We haul in a big load, and we’ll know for certain Who He is.

You might have thought we hit a rock or threw our anchor! The fish themselves were keeping us from getting ashore. And, splash! There goes Peter again! The last time this great catch of fish happened, Peter implored Jesus, Go away! For I am a sinful man. But this time it happened differently. He who took a step on these same waters during that one storm and started sinking down, crying out to Jesus, he now puts all his clothes back on, then dives into the water to swim to land! John must have told him who He was, because he was really excited. It is the Lord! You see, He’s no longer just Jesus to us, but rather our Lord and God who by His death on the cross paid for our sins and rose again to fulfill His promise to us of everlasting life. We’ve got to get this boat to shore, because we don’t know how many times we’ll get to sit down and talk to Him. Maybe He has some more things to teach us. Back in Jerusalem we saw Him twice, and He just appeared there in the room! He proved to us He wasn’t a ghost, but rather He had real flesh and blood.

Now that we got our boat to the shores of Galilee, we notice that we’re back at the place where He first called disciples to follow Him. The nets are bulging and swarming with fish, but not one of them is lost and we get to our work. I wonder how many we’ll bring in this morning. The fire is already set. Some fish already prepared, and bread ready for a long-awaited meal after an even longer night. It turns out there were 153 fish in one net, and it didn’t break! Breakfast winds down, but still no further teaching from Jesus. Could He have thought we now know all we need to be His sent Apostles? Now that He is risen from the dead, we’re finally catching on! We’re actually ready to learn now, and boy, it seems like there’s so much to learn!

Now Jesus and Peter are walking off together to talk. John is going to follow after them, just a little ways back. Three times Jesus asks him, calling him by his full family name each time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? The third time it chokes him up. Could it be all that horrible night coming back, and that early morning when Peter denied Him, also three times? Each time, Jesus answers Peter back saying, Feed my sheep, tend my flock, feed my lambs. He told us before that we would be fishing for and catching men; now, instead of teaching us anything more, our Lord has in mind to make us shepherds. I can hear the words still ringing in my ears: Follow Me! …

And so, the first words those disciples heard when they originally met Jesus years before, are the same words they hear from Him now, in this final scene before the Gospel of John comes to a close. The Evangelist writes the account precisely to bring you into the story! He wanted you to walk in the skin of these eyewitnesses for these poignant moments. You could almost smell the fish cooking and the squawking birds flying overhead trying to get a quick peck at anything left in the nets. But most of all, you hear the comforting words of the risen Lord Jesus. He is ever-patient with these overcome followers of His. When He was walking unrecognized with those disciples to Emmaus, He played dumb for a while and asked them, What happened? Little suspecting it was a pop-quiz, those two men recalled perfectly all the vital facts of the Gospel, including the news of the Resurrection. The problem was what Jesus pointed out to them right there on the road: How foolish and slow of heart you are! You don’t believe that’s what needed to happen to the promised Messiah? Here it is, laid out in the Scriptures that you already know…

You have all of the facts. You have heard the Gospel message of salvation. What you are tempted to do is turn it all into just a moral lesson for your life. You make it all about how you need to do something for Jesus. And all along, it has all been about what Jesus came to do for you, to give to you the true, lasting blessings that sin and death can never take away. And your Lord is patient, just like He was with those fishing disciples, and just like He was with dripping-wet, weak hearted Peter. He may soon be ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, filling heaven and earth with full use of His divine glory, but He will not back away from His lasting promise: Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.

Here we are. Not in Galilee, but in Yucaipa. Here we are in Church. Jesus told us to meet Him here. Soon enough we’ll see Him face-to-face in eternal glory, but for now, we have our Christian calling, we have our vocation. It’s time to go fishing. Or go to school, or go to the office, or workplace, or to our multi-faceted vocation called retirement, and to our families, however your calling works out in particular for you. It doesn’t seem to be easy these days. The disappointment we sometimes face makes it hard to think about anything else. Sure in Church services or other bright moments of our week we see a faint glimmer of our Lord, but what comes across crystal-clear is His Voice. That voice is unmistakable because it comes to us from His Word, the Bible, and it travels over the waters of Baptism to reach our ears and invigorate our faith.

Instead of a miraculous catch of fish and a lakeside breakfast, Christ’s miracle with you is a meal of His own Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. (The table is already set.) You don’t need to wonder or ask, is it really Jesus? You know He’s here, because He has promised to be here. Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I. Now things should be clicking off in your minds. For to be sure, He has nothing new to teach you, but there is within His Holy Word the same old story that unfolds ever-new in your heart by faith. Some days, the way your Lord works in your life will shock you. But at all times, He is no longer just Jesus to you, but He is your Savior, your kind, wise, heavenly Friend, your Lord and King, your Redeemer who lives and will never die again. Washed by water and the Spirit you come, dripping-wet in your Baptism, and He has a simple question for you: Do you love Him? He has already forgiven all the times when you acted as though you didn’t, so don’t let that sway or discourage you anymore. You are His sheep, His beloved lambs who have been fed by the Apostles and the Apostolic doctrine that has founded the Church and enriches you with life everlasting. Your sin and the fear of death that lies ahead of you have lost their grip and you are free. The Christian journey will still not always be easy, but there is nothing to fear when you have none other than your Savior giving you comfort and saying, “Follow Me.”

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

Readings:
Acts 9:1–22 “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Psalm 30 Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Rev. 5:1–14 the voice of many angels…Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
John 21:1–19 Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?

Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

You all may be familiar with this story. Thomas wasn’t there the first time. Thomas demanded proof before he would believe. But don’t you think it strange that the physical signs that Thomas asked for were not specifically proof of Jesus’ resurrection, but rather proof that He was crucified? Think about it. This absent disciple declared that unless he saw the nail marks in the Lord’s hands, the gash in His side where the spear went in and he actually touched these wounds, he would not believe what he heard. Of course, Jesus did not get these wounds when He rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday. These wounds are the signs that He was crucified. They were already there after Good Friday. Granted, it would be quite a feat, a real miracle for these same horrible wounds to be found on a living, breathing body, and that’s part of it, but all the same for Thomas the most convincing proof of Jesus’ resurrection and life would be His wounds that came from His crucifixion and death.

But there is more to those wounds of Christ than just mere evidence. Thomas knowingly or unknowingly put his finger on a greater value that these signs on Jesus’ body have. Had he thought real hard about the resurrection of the body, what would have told him that Jesus would still have those scars from the crucifixion in the first place? Now, you believe and confess that at the last and final Judgment Day that your body will rise from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Himself confirms this your hope as true and certain. You also believe that your body will be raised imperishable, without any defect or sign of death caused by sin. So why did Jesus still have those wounds from His crucifixion, if it is true that all bodies will be raised from the dead perfect? You see, Thomas may have known more than we give him credit for.

It was like his mind was focused on those wounds of His Lord Christ and nothing else mattered. The wounds of Jesus, along with the whipping, the beating, the spitting and the dying—these were still seared into Thomas’ memory. Remember, this whole ordeal had only happened a few days ago! But for all those disciples, especially Peter who denied Jesus, the memory was even more vivid that reminded them of their sin. They deserted Him, so He had to suffer all those things and receive those terrible wounds because of them. Nothing could possibly make these disciples forget that they were the cause of those five gaping holes in the hands, feet and side of their Savior.

These wounds stand as a reminder for you as well. For not only the disciples caused the suffering and death of Jesus, but the sinful condition into which you were born, this also was brought down on the innocent head of the Son of God. And that sinful condition in your heart has lived itself out in your life as well. You have wounded Jesus just as much as Peter and Thomas, the Jews and the Roman Soldiers did. Your love of speaking lies and straining to listen for half-truths; your hurtful words to your family, friends, and co-workers; your readiness to complain and think the worst of people and your unwillingness to do your part in making things right. These sins of yours have wounded your Savior. When you overreact in anger, when you entertain a lustful thought, when you set a bad example for others, it caused extreme pain for the God who loves you with an everlasting love. It is from your sins and mine that Jesus has His wounds.

But never forget that from those holy wounds, you have your healing. Those gashes in the resurrected human body of Christ are no mere battle-scars. They do not remain so that Jesus wants you to make sure you feel sorry for Him. They are rather the blood-colored trophies of victory, “crimson trophies” as the hymn puts it, they are rich wounds that are yet visible above in heavenly glory. They are so bright with the Divine triumph of Easter that the angels themselves have to “downward bend their burning eyes.” [LW 278] They are so much a part of who He is that to say the name of Jesus in sign-language, you point to… His wounds on each hand! For much more than a reminder of your sin, the wounds of Jesus are an everlasting assurance that your sins are forgiven. When Jesus died and was buried in the grave, your sins were buried with His Body. When He rose from the dead, your sins stayed in that tomb, dead and buried. The wounds that were full of excruciating pain and the burden of sin upon your Lord, now they are the source of your life and peace.

For you do not worship a Jesus that you have to imagine. Since His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He has been a flesh-and-blood Jesus with a real body, not some far-off God who just sits up in heaven and tells you what you’ve gotta do to please Him. That’s how false gods act. The one true God is your heavenly Father, who sent His only Son to clothe Himself in your human flesh so that with His human lungs He could breathe the Holy Spirit into you to give you forgiveness and new life. You believe in and worship a risen-from-the-dead Jesus who has been seen, heard and touched by His disciples and the other people of so long ago. And though you have not seen, yet have you heard the Divine word that these eyewitnesses preached and wrote down for you in the Bible and because of this, you have believed.

Blessed are you! Jesus says. For from those blessed, glorious wounds that Jesus extended forth to Thomas and the other apostles, you have attained your victory over sin and death. From the hands of your minister, who is a true successor to those first preachers of the New Testament, you eat and drink the Body and Blood of the Risen Savior who came even to Doubting Thomas, that he too may believe. And thanks rightfully goes to Thomas also, who called for those glorious wounds of Christ, because now you know the true source of your healing. It is not from your prayers to God or your thinking positive thoughts or doing any such thing that you receive a blessing, but rather it is the richness of your Almighty, heavenly Father that comes pouring through the mysterious wounds of God the Son to fill the cup of blessing that sits on this holy altar each week.

And at the Last Day when you are raised from the dead and you are rid of all your body’s ailments and all the other fruit of sin and death, then you shall see your blessed Lord in all His glory. You will also see His holy wounds, just as the apostles did, for they are signs of victory for Jesus and signs of the sureness of eternal joy for you. Though for now you may bear some part of His suffering, as St. Paul says he bears in his body the wounds of Jesus, yet you know the risen Lord’s promises to you. Blessed are you, not that you have yet seen, but you have heard and tasted that the Lord is good, and blessed are the works of His hands, the salvation that is yours because of the wounds of Jesus.

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

Readings:
Acts 5:12–32 We ought to obey God rather than men
Psalm 148 He commanded and they were created
Rev. 1:4–18 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last
John 20:19–31 Unless I see in His hands…I will not believe.