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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

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

Happy Mother’s Day this coming weekend!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.

God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Let us prepare our hearts for study in God’s Word, using this Sunday’s Collect of the Day, which restates the unifying theme of this week’s readings.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord’s resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Acts 5:29–42
Look at verse 29! What gauntlet is this, that Peter and the other apostles have thrown down? “We must obey God rather than men!” Wow! Do we dare say something like that today? What if obeying God will make it harder on us? What if obeying God will bring us further pain? These apostles are careless; they don’t seem to care about their family members who suffer along with them, while they get dragged off into prison or worse for their boldness in preaching the Gospel. But if we do suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ, then these same apostles also teach us, that suffering is a high privilege. What matters the most is what Jesus accomplished for us. As Gamaliel advised his fellow Jews: if this is God’s work (and we know that it is) then there will be no way to stop it, ever. We live and survive now and forever thanks to this precious Word of truth!

1 Peter 1:3-9
Having various trials is nothing new for us. We will always have trials. We know that we must go through them. God’s Word from the Apostle Peter encourages us to be convinced that our trials test the genuineness of our faith. How does someone pass the test? How do we withstand the inevitable trials? We claim the inheritance to which we have been born. We have been baptized into God’s family, and that is more precious than gold or silver. This salvation is something we believe, not see—even though there will come a time of inexpressible joy when all will see it. Come, Lord Jesus and save us! Give us this joy that You have promised us!

John 20:19-31
This Easter reading says a lot about Thomas and his doubting. And there’s more. Thomas is absolutely correct about one thing: without the wounds of Jesus, not only he, but nobody ever will be able to believe. We need Jesus to come to us, just as He came to Thomas, just as He came to the 10 other disciples the week before, we need Jesus to come and announce Peace and forgiveness to us in His name, forgiveness based on those wounds that He showed to them all. To us, Jesus shows His wounds in the Body and Blood that He gives us to eat and drink in the Sacrament. May the day that we eat and drink that Sacrament together again come quickly, by God’s grace.

God’s power is unstoppable—of that we have been convinced from God’s Word, the Bible. That power has a look to it that is totally different from the power that the world is looking for. Of course, we would like our lives to be more comfortable; no one looks for inconveniences, trials, struggles and so on, at the very least we don’t look for these problems to happen to ourselves. We also know that the power of God is bad for us if we reflect on our sins and how we have disobeyed God’s Law that rightly condemns our thoughts, words and deeds. The true power of God, though, is not in His righteous Law, but in Jesus Christ who fulfilled the law for us. It’s in the Peace that passes understanding that comes from our Savior’s mouth and gives us peace in our hearts and boldness in our witness. We may not always be comfortable, but we have the inheritance that Peter wrote about! No one will ever take that away. And it is ours to share so that all will be rescued by the powerful grace that we have enjoyed. As is sung in today’s Hymn 470:

How blest are they who have not seen
And yet whose faith has constant been,
For they eternal life shall win.
Alleluia!

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

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

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

Pr. Stirdivant

The Lord be with you!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Let us prepare our hearts for study in God’s Word, using this Sunday’s Collect of the Day, the perfect summary of our Easter celebration, and our desire to regather in God’s gracious presence as His redeemed Easter People.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Jeremiah 31:1-6
We have all been reminded lately (due to our present pandemic) of those verses in the Bible that speak of God’s judgment against the land of Israel in Old Testament times due to the people’s lack of faith toward Him and their lack of love and justice for their neighbor. But this word of promise from Jeremiah, the promise that the Lord who loves us with an everlasting love will build again His virgin Church, it rings ever clearer in our ears. Keep on reading this amazing chapter! It’s the good news we’re looking for at Easter.

Colossians 3:1-4
Now, more than ever, it is time for us to set our minds on things above, and not on earthly things. How futile and fleeting are the things of this world, that so relatively little can take those comforts and conveniences away from us in the blink of an eye! We must remind ourselves that we are blessed, and this momentary affliction we’re going through will not rob us of the blessed Easter hope of our own resurrection and our life that is hidden in Christ, but will be revealed in glory on the Last Day.

Matthew 28:1-10
The account of Jesus’ resurrection in Matthew notes the interplay between “fear” and “afraid” on the one hand, and “joy” and “rejoice” on the other hand. The guards shook in unbelieving fear at the sudden appearance of the fearsome Angel of the Lord to roll back the stone from the tomb. It seems as though Jesus is already risen and gone, by the way. The women approached in fear, as could be guessed from the Angel’s immediate announcement of “Do not be afraid.” The Easter good news is that the Lord who once lay there dead in the tomb, God in flesh who gave up His life, is risen and has taken Life back up again as His prize to share with all who believe. The women leave the tomb, still with fear, but now that fear is tied in with God-given joy, as the risen Jesus Himself appears to them and says, “Greetings,” or literally from the Greek, “Rejoice!” May we too rejoice this Easter and for the rest of our lives, for we shall rejoin all the disciples and meet with our Savior at His appointed time, to live before Him in righteousness and purity forever.

Joy is not a feeling that we can stir up within ourselves. Joy must come to us from God, who gives everything, including Himself, to us. Just as we could not have saved ourselves from eternal death, so too we could not have concocted a feeling to replace the joy that can only come to us from Jesus. This is why we set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. And Hebrews proclaims, our Savior “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father.” He suffered, knowing that pure joy was ahead of Him, joy that His sacrifice would earn forever. And that Easter joy that we hear this day will rebuild us as God’s people, until the glorious final day of our own resurrection from the dead. What a joyful day that too will be!

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

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

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia.

God bless you!

Pr. Stirdivant

The Fourth Chief Part: Holy Baptism
Good Shepherd Lutheran – Yucaipa, California
April 9-10, 2020
✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝ ✝

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

Two days, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, bring together in one all to which the words of our Lord Jesus Christ pointed us. When He promised Nicodemus a new birth, a birth from above by water and the Holy Spirit in Baptism, He kept that promise when on the night He was betrayed, He washed His disciples’ feet in loving, sacrificial service, and when He poured out His blood like water on the day of His crucifixion. When He said that His body is true food and His blood is true drink, He backed up the Christian’s spiritual feeding on Christ in faith with a real, in-the-mouth gift of His true body and blood, sacrificed on Calvary and hidden in, with, and under bread and wine in the Holy Supper that He hosted for the Twelve, saying, “Do this, often, in remembrance of Me.”

It never does well for us to doubt the words of Christ. I don’t think we intentionally do so, but when we react in fear or anxiety at our situation around us, or when our faith doesn’t seem as strong as we wanted it to be, then we fall for the temptation to doubt the words that give us salvation and life. The words of Christ on these two days, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, remove not only our anxieties and fears, but most importantly they remove our sins, our barriers to God our Father and the eternal life He designed for us to enjoy. The words of Christ accompany the holy actions of the God-Man Jesus that are described on these two days with the richest detail in all four of our Gospel books. When He says, whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, that means Jesus has done everything necessary to back up that unbelievably comforting promise that’s given to every Baptized Christian.

The Words of our Lord are spoken not only on Maundy Thursday, the night that Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Altar, but every time we participate together in Holy Communion. This repetition of Christ’s Words comprises the remembrance that Jesus desired from our hearts every time our lips receive the purchase price for our heavenly home. When Jesus said this Bread is His Body, we should believe His Word. When He says this Wine is His Blood, we should believe His Word. No further thought on our part is needed; we don’t need to guess whether the bread changes into Christ’s Body at the moment it touches our lips or sometime before. Or that the wine has to be red in order to look like Christ’s Blood. Just believe the Words, and it is so. Jesus takes care of all the rest. And on the Cross, when Jesus says, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, we can be certain that we are forgiven too. The suffering and death that He went through on these two important days guarantee those words and bring them home to us.

Good thing that Christ’s Words bring salvation home! That’s where we are stuck for another couple weeks! We must remember that we are the Church, and no amount of government-mandated separation or social-distancing can destroy the Church. Even though we are robbed of our usual way of gathering to hear Christ’s all-important words on these two big days, we still have the Voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, guiding us with His saving Words, and backing up those words with the actions that we recall and worship with holy adoration. Blessings to you on these two holy days, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday!

Pr. Mark Stirdivant

Pr. Mark Stirdivant:

The Lord be with you! This Sunday, April 5, is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Even though we aren’t gathered together in the usual way, the facts remain that this is the week of our Lord’s gracious gift of His sacrifice for our eternal salvation.

Let us prepare our hearts for study in God’s Word, using this Sunday’s Collect of the Day, which gives us a helpful theme to begin our contemplation on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:
Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Isaiah 50:4-9
Isaiah depicted the Messiah with vivid terms throughout the latter part of the book that now bears his name. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch in the book of Acts who asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet speaking, himself or another?” You can see the man’s confusion, because Isaiah spoke of the Christ’s sacrificial passion as though it were happening to himself. Jesus was the Suffering Servant, who was actually willing to suffer, verse 6: “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced.” Yet when Isaiah asks the question, “Who will declare me guilty?” the ironic twist is that for Jesus, before He is vindicated ultimately by the Resurrection on Easter, first He must be “declared” guilty on the cross and die for your sins and mine, that He didn’t do, but willingly took responsibility for.

Philippians 2:5-11
This is probably a song or a chanted text that Paul quoted from the Early Church hymnal, if you will. The Passion of Our Lord is His great humiliation; He lowered Himself not only to be a man, but to be the lowliest of men. Then we have the early Easter announcement that God the Father raised Him to glory, as Jesus Himself said at the end of Matthew 28: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me…”

Matthew 27:11-66
The Passion reading has been used on Palm Sunday for a couple generations now. It will be repeated as Holy Week goes on. This year, the focus is on Matthew’s perspective of the all-important Good Friday events. I suggest you include the entire Matthew chapters 26 and 27 in your home devotions this coming week.

The saying “In like a lion, out like a lamb,” tends to remind us of what to expect of the weather in the month of March, as the seasons change from end of winter to beginning of spring. We can see a similar pattern, though, in this climactic week of our Lord Jesus Christ’s mission of mercy for the salvation of the world. On Palm Sunday, the triumphant Messiah entered the city gates of Jerusalem with cheers of the crowds and hopes of victory in the air. On Good Friday, the great Lion of Judah has become the Lamb who gave Himself willingly for our ransom.

The hymn that rejoices in what Christ’s sacrifice has won for us is “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” LSB 438, especially stanza 4:
  Lord, when Your glory I shall see
  And taste Your kingdom’s pleasure,
  Your blood my royal robe shall be,
  My joy beyond all measure!
  When I appear before Your throne,
  Your righteousness shall be my crown;
  With these I need not hide me.
  And there, in garments richly wrought,
  As Your own bride shall we be brought
  To stand in joy beside You!

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

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