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

Did you know that most Jews enjoyed observing the Sabbath? You might have thought at first that, with all the restrictions and all the things that one could not do on the Sabbath, that this weekly observance would be resented by those who were forced by their religious traditions to stop everything they had going on in the week and do nothing, or at least it would be next to nothing. But the Sabbath, also known as Shabbat, is actually embraced and treasured by the devout Jew. I read a little bit from an interesting book that Senator Joe Lieberman recently published in which he describes in detail his family’s Shabbat rituals and encourages people of all faiths to adopt a kind of rest from everyday work. He admits that there were some Friday evenings when he had to walk four miles home in downpouring rain when he had to stay at the Capitol after sundown and his orthodox Jewish Sabbath tradition forbade him even to ride in a car during those sacred hours. He stunned a reporter who caught him buying flowers every week for the Sabbath dinner table, and she assumed he was the most romantic congressman in Washington. One of our own members grew up in a Jewish home and she recalls very fond memories observing Shabbat, taking a break from ordinary life and enjoying all that God has given out of His bountiful goodness. She also recalled those embarrassing moments when friends would confront her at school and ask her why she was not allowed to answer the phone on Saturdays. The Sabbath was sacred, and oddly enough, the strict discipline it required seemed to most Jews to be a joy.

Then you see these Pharisees constantly hounding after Jesus on the Sabbath, wagging their fingers as it were and telling Him what He cannot do on this particular day of the week. It doesn’t appear from this reading that they would have enjoyed the Sabbath day at all. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to conclude that they hated Jesus more than they loved Shabbat. Yet Jesus seemed to do most of His great healing works specifically on the Sabbath. The Bible records at least seven occurrences when this question of healing and restoring on God’s Holy Day pops up. Notice how Jesus heals here: he told the man with a withered hand just to stretch it out, and it was healed, again, on the Sabbath. What do the Pharisees then do? They boil with anger against the Messiah who had struck them silent with His undeniable logic and they make their plans to kill Him—it’s not at all the joyful response that the rest of the crowd had!

The two places in the Old Testament that establish the Lord’s Commandment to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy are in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. Each place gives a slightly different reason for having the Sabbath. In Exodus, the reason is tied to our Lord’s Creation of the world: “For in six days the Lord your God created the heavens and the earth… and rested on the seventh day.” But the second time around, in Deuteronomy, Moses makes the people of Israel recall another big act that the Lord has done—He saved them. “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” This was what we heard in our Old Testament reading today. These two mighty works are what we focus on whenever we gather for worship, or when we study God’s Word on our own: God made us and He saved us for everlasting life. Both of these are tied to the rest that He has graciously decided to give us, that is, our Sabbath rest.

The Sabbath Day, you must understand, is not just a mere bygone relic of Old Testament history. Nor is it only the peculiar social oddity of certain people who have a different religious heritage than we. The Sabbath Day turns out to be not a day at all, but it is our Lord Jesus Himself, who has come among us in the words of forgiveness we hear Him speak to us. Sabbath isn’t our taking time for church or other acceptable holy activities, really, but it is Our Lord blessing us with a little piece of what we can expect when this life is over and our final burdens of life are laid down, and we will be with the Lord in His new creation after He returns at the end of time. We have rest not because of how diligent we were with our talents, time and treasure, but it’s because we received a precious gift from the Lord who wanted to give to us out of His rich abundance. How can you not enjoy and constantly look forward to that, and make it the most important thing in your life? That would be my challenge to you today.

You know, Jesus made a powerful statement here that sometimes we overlook because it sounds so simple and logical: the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is a good thing for us sinners! For if man were made for the Sabbath, and it were not the other way around, then the Sabbath would entirely depend on how well we kept it. Our works would have to be the cause of our everlasting life, and the forgiveness earned by Jesus when He died on the cross would turn to dust. We would be lost forever, since God’s Law continually condemns us for not measuring up to the requirements our Heavenly Father has imposed upon us in the Ten Commandments. If man were made for the Sabbath, the third Commandment would still be about what day you worship and how perfectly you worshiped. We would be following the Jews and the Seventh Day Adventists to a despairing end for us all, because no one, with us included, would be able to find their way to eternal life.

But oh, how blessed it is that the Sabbath was made for man, and more than that, rejoice that Jesus, the Son of Man, is Lord of the Sabbath! That means He’s not just in charge of a particular day, and we acknowledge Him that one day and leave the rest of the week to make ourselves into our god. No, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and He created the Sabbath of forgiveness, of everlasting mercy, of rest for your souls that are weary with sin, with hurt, with guilt, with all our burdens that you could never carry. But Jesus has already said to you: Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you… Shabbat– rest! He’s the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is His gift to you, a cup overflowing with forgiveness and life!

Yes, taking a break after a long week of work has a practical benefit for your body, as you can read in those popular books. It may be worthwhile to you to follow that advice for sanity’s sake and turn down those temptations to make every time away into a “working vacation.” Yuck! However, the greater point is the spiritual benefit that is not only for your body, but for your soul as well. No matter what day is set aside, what makes it a Sabbath and a holy rest to the Lord is to believe in Jesus, who created you and saved you. It is easy to be impressed with the high level of devotion that is exhibited for us by the orthodox Jews, the pious Seventh Day Adventists, even by the Christian runner in the movie Chariots of Fire, who wouldn’t compete in the Olympics because he would have to run on a Sunday. But all that intense devotion and self-sacrifice falls flat if there’s no faith in Jesus that trusts in His gift of the forgiveness of sins.

The Pharisees’ short-sighted criticism of Jesus is easy for us to point out and ridicule, but that self-centered, legalistic, sour-faced approach to the Sabbath and all our worship of God is found inside each one of us. We make a whole lot more out of the efforts we do and the sacrifices we make, about do this, don’t do that, while at the same time we are tempted to disregard or resent the greatest of Sabbath gifts that is right here in front of us. We have been trained in the six days of our toilsome work to be impressed by results, by measurable successes, by outdoing one another to get ahead. But on the Sabbath, which now in our Christian circles is better called the Lord’s Day, it’s completely the opposite. Instead we are called upon to deny ourselves and our hard-working, sacrificing, constantly doing human nature and turn our complete attention to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath who has graciously come among us. When it comes to God’s gifts, don’t just do something, sit there! Receive, and not work, for in receiving from Jesus what He wants to give you, that is the greatest way to worship and observe your Sabbath rest.

Imagine yourselves walking with Jesus and alongside those disciples in the grain field. Pick the grain that stands here today for you. King David and his men were famished with hunger and they needed the priests’ holy bread to sustain them on their God-pleasing journey. On this table laid out before you today is an even greater bread of Christ’s presence; it has come to you without toil or price tag. You are hungry, exhausted with the burdens of your previous week, but even more burdened with sin and the weight of what this world keeps throwing at you. Your hand may not be withered and useless, but your soul has been shriveled up with all that has caused you anxiety and pain. Stretch out your hand to take the blessed gift of forgiveness, and you shall be restored! Observe Shabbat, not merely in your outward actions and reverent routines, whatever practices you may choose to do, but most importantly, with a joyful heart that is eager to receive forgiveness from Jesus, and with that forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal for another week that your heavenly Father lays before you in the work He has given you to do for your neighbor. Rejoice! Your Lord has made you and He has saved you. Jesus is your Sabbath, and His perfect rest is yours now, and eternal, uninterrupted enjoyment of God’s gifts is yet ahead.

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

Readings:
Leviticus 24:5-9 the showbread
I Sam. 21:1-6 David and the showbread
Ex. 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day
Mt. 11:28-30 Come to Me all you who labor

Deut. 5:12–15 Observe the Sabbath Day
Ps. 81:1–10 I answered you in the secret place of thunder
2 Cor. 4:5–12 we have this treasure in earthen vessels
Mark 2:23–3:6 The disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath … Sabbath was made for man … man with withered hand

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

The prophet Isaiah’s world was unraveling before him. By his time, the once-proud united kingdom under Kings David and Solomon had already been fractured for two hundred years. Almost right after that split, the northern kingdom of Israel fell deep into idol-worship and the evil ways of foreign overlords like Queen Jezebel. And among the faithful people that were left down south in the tribe of Judah, even they were starting to fall away from the Lord. And then as if anything worse couldn’t have possibly happened, King Uzziah suddenly died. King Uzziah was a good king. He followed what the Lord said and governed well as God’s representative in the Kingdom of Power. He reigned fifty-two years, starting from the age of sixteen. He was the only king Isaiah had ever known up to this point.

But then came a dark day in the history of King Uzziah’s reign. The book of Second Chronicles unfolds the fateful story. King Uzziah defiantly took the burning incense pot from the altar of incense right in the middle of the temple. He proceeded to violate the worship of God and nullify the Lord’s grace when he disregarded the warnings of Azariah the high priest along with 80 other priests who tried to get in his way and stop this terrible thing. As the king’s anger flared against God’s holy servants there in the temple, the Lord Himself stepped in and right then and there He afflicted King Uzziah with leprosy that broke out on his forehead like a special-effect in a sci-fi thriller movie. When this happened they rushed him out of the temple, and he went willingly without resistance, and for the rest of his life, King Uzziah suffered the effects of his disease and his gross disobedience against God. He was never allowed to set foot in the temple again. He had to hand over his rule as king to his son, and was left in the leper’s quarters to die alone and in disgrace.

All of the kingdom of Judah was stunned. Isaiah may well have been, too. This beloved king, this great moral anchor of the land, had one brief fit of self-centered pride that turned him against the Lord Whom he had so faithfully served in the past. If King Uzziah could fall to such depths, what hope would there be for the rest of the nation? There seemed to be a crisis on the horizon. All hope would soon be lost for the people of God. When this king whom God deposed in shame finally did pass away, Isaiah the preacher faced a very uncertain future. This once faithful people was getting increasingly corrupt and their lips had already become unclean. If they found themselves in the presence of the Almighty God, there would quite literally be hell to pay.

Not even a year had passed by yet, and suddenly Isaiah is confronted with what could have been his worst nightmare. It is likely that he’s in the temple; he could actually be not too far from the very spot where the Lord’s holy anger broke out against the king. Then the magnificent glory of the Triune God appeared to Isaiah right there where he stood. High and lifted up He was on the judgment throne, with the flowing kingly robes filling up the massive temple building. Imagination itself is too shallow to take in this glorious sight. The burning, white-hot angels, known as the seraphim, were singing the unending song of heaven right in Isaiah’s hearing. This song of heaven whose words you know: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Isaiah may at first have been stunned with wonder and amazement. But it was only a moment. Evidently, when you see the almighty power of God, the blinding light of perfection shines on your sinful, imperfect heart. That’s what happened at least to Isaiah. Immediately, he was painfully aware of the guilt of sin, not only Isaiah’s sin, but the sin of the entire people as well. The uncleanness was evident on the lips, as the prophet pointed out, because hidden sinfulness becomes quite plain when the sinner opens his mouth. The Apostle James (3:7-8) wrote something very similar to this: “Every kind of beast and … creature can be tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” A rebellious insurgent such as this has no business dwelling in the presence of the Lord of Hosts.

The same is true for you. Since you are a sinner, as am I, God’s holy law gives you no right to enter His courts. You may have the freedom of religion and assembly as a citizen of this country, but your thoughts, words and deeds provide clear evidence that you would rather be enslaved to the passions of your own heart and flesh, serving the every sadistic whim of Satan instead. Your lips are unclean because there are those whom you have hurt with your words. Trouble and crisis seem ever on the horizon. Your world may be unraveling before your eyes, whether it is a direct result of your own sin, or perhaps because of somebody else’s sin. It’s as if nothing worse could possibly happen. Isaiah’s nightmare is playing out in real life when you compare yourself to the righteous, perfect, unattainable standard of God’s law. In the prophet’s own words: Woe is you for you are lost, you are undone.

But all of a sudden, a wonderful thing happens. Isaiah saw it himself. A seraph stops singing the heavenly song for a moment. At the Lord’s command, this bright angel heads for the altar of sacrifice and brings from it a burning coal with tongs. He touches the prophet’s lips. The burning kills and cleanses at the same time. Those beautiful words spoken by a messenger of God resound in the sinner’s ear: Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. Isaiah is set free. He is given a vocation with which he gets to do that which is pleasing to God, and with willing heart and voice he exclaims to the Triune God: “Here am I! Send me!”

Is it any different with you? It isn’t, except in your case, your loving heavenly Father did not make a mere angel stop singing momentarily to bring you a lump of coal. Instead, He allowed His only-begotten Son to go forth out of heavenly glory and put on human flesh; the creator of time and space now subject to these things. Rather than carrying a pair of tongs, Jesus instead bore down under a heavy cross, but with that cross was the infinitely heavier burden of your sins and the sins of the whole world. His death under the burn of God’s judgment is the perfect atoning sacrifice that truly belongs on that altar, for it is the only death than can pay the price to buy you back your freedom. Instead of burning your lips with holy fire, your Savior crucifies your sinful nature, and drowns it in the water of your Baptism, so that just as Christ was raised through the glory of the Father, so you may be raised from your death, and walk in the newness of divine life. That’s what those words, “assumption of humanity into God,” mean in the Athanasian Creed: Jesus did not stop being God the Son when He became Man, that would be conversion of the divinity into flesh. But rather, He did restore the divine image to mankind so that you may have perfect unity with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. His called messenger, the servant of the Word, announces this declaration sent straight from God’s judgment throne: Your guilt is taken away, your sin is atoned for. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Three-in-One and One-in-Three God.

And just as Isaiah was given a vocation in which he may serve according to God-given talents, you have been given your calling as well. Note that you do not have the same vocation as Isaiah, yet there’s some little corner of this vast world that God has created where you are already qualified and called to do what He declares to be holy work. Concerning this place in life that the Lord set aside for you, He has set you free from your sin so that you too may respond, “Here am I! Send me!”

The world may still crumble around you. Terror and crisis may still be your lot in this life. In fact, persecution may increase because of Satan’s bitter opposition to the Truth. But one thing is most certainly true: A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. (Psalm 91) Why? Because you have the Lord’s eternal Word to strengthen you. You have Christ crucified so that your eyes may be comforted by the ransom price paid in your place. Hope is not lost. You have Jesus’ Body and Blood to touch your lips with forgiveness, and the song of the angels in the liturgy to lift up your hearts away from this sinful world and unto the Lord. Celebrate the Holy Trinity with Isaiah and with all the host of heaven, because saying the Athanasian Creed may be a mind-numbing, tongue-twisting experience now, but the eternal salvation that it stands for is awesome beyond what words can express.

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity. Let us give glory to Him because He has shown His mercy to us!

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

Readings:
II Chronicles 26 King Uzziah
James 3:7-8 No man can tame the tongue.
Psalm 91 A thousand may fall at your side…
Is. 6:1–8 Here am I! Send me
Ps. 29 The voice of the LORD is over the waters
Acts 2:14a,22–36 God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
John 3:1–17 unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

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

It was back at Christmas time that you heard about God who came in human flesh to dwell among us. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not only could identify with us in our sins and our temptations and our frailties, but He took those very weaknesses from us and put them on Himself. As we walked through the seasons of Lent and Easter, we observed yet again that He died and rose from the dead in order to bring you back into the warm embrace of God your heavenly Father. Since December, Jesus, only Jesus was the focus of every reading from His inspired and inerrant Word this church year, and only by God’s help, Jesus the One and Only Savior is and remains the focus of every sermon.

But scattered here and there in those numerous familiar accounts about Jesus, there was the Holy Spirit. He was always working somewhere in the background. Jesus Himself was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Holy Trinity descended in bodily form like a dove when Jesus was baptized at the Jordan River. The Spirit even accompanied Christ while the devil was tempting Him in the wilderness. In many other accounts, the Holy Spirit is there, but always behind-the-scenes.

Now, the tables are turned, so it seems. The Holy Spirit is coming with His most impressive appearance yet, and amazing things are happening to those disciples gathered in that one place. There is a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire resting on them, and they were speaking God’s Word in all kinds of languages. Now it’s the Spirit’s turn to be front-and-center. After all, the day of Pentecost is the birthday of the New Testament Christian church! You have heard about Jesus and you know He has taken away your sins. Now it’s time to give the Holy Spirit some time in the spotlight. It might even help if some of those amazing things the Spirit does could happen right here, right now. How ’bout it?

Not so fast, preacher. You’re not getting this one past us! There is no change of roles for the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Even on Pentecost Sunday, Jesus, only Jesus is still the focus. You don’t dictate to God how He does His job. The Holy Spirit, then just as now, only brings to your attention the Son of God who became flesh and is made known to you as Christ the Crucified. He, even the Holy Spirit Himself, does not speak on His own authority. Those disciples did not remind their hearers of the miracles they could do: the healing, the speaking in other languages, and so on. Nothing is recorded in any of their sermons in the Book of Acts or their Epistles that those outward, fantastic, marvelous works of the Holy Spirit are now the main thing. And the Bible certainly says NOTHING about requiring these “signs of the Spirit” before anyone is considered a Christian, whether you call them “born again” or otherwise. In fact, the Apostle Paul says that even if he could do all that fancy talking and speak in other languages, it wouldn’t matter at all if he did not proclaim the love and forgiveness of God for sinners. When all is said and done, the Holy Spirit is still in the background. He is still going to point you to Jesus, only Jesus.

And Jesus Himself tells you what the Holy Spirit does: He will convict. He will convict the world of three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment, and this only when the words of God, as preserved and written down without error in the Bible, when these words are proclaimed in the mouth of God’s called servants for the whole world to hear.

First, of sin. The Holy Spirit reminds the world of sin not because you can do anything about it. In fact, He speaks the Law of God to you to make you realize you have broken it and that for your punishment you are to be separated from heaven forever. The Holy Spirit must accuse you to death from God’s Law, accuse you of your sin against His Holy Word, but it doesn’t end there.

Secondly, He convicts of righteousness. The Holy Spirit announces the verdict—but, contrary to what your mind would expect—the verdict upon you is innocent. This is not because God changed His mind or decided to overlook your death sentence. No! It’s because your death sentence has been served in your place. Righteousness is defined as absolute perfection in God’s sight—it’s something you did not have and only Jesus had. But He credits that righteousness, that perfection, to your eternal account and the dividends, namely forgiveness and life together with God, are yours as His gift.

Finally, there’s judgment. The devil, the ruler of this world, stands judged. If you refuse God’s gift of free forgiveness and hope instead that you’ve done enough good deeds to save yourself, then the judgment is hell. But for you who believe in Christ and hold fast to Him, the judgment is Heaven, resurrection of the body, life everlasting. And the Holy Spirit speaks of these three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment, when He proclaims to you Jesus, only Jesus.

This Jesus He brings right to you and places Him into your ears. The Holy Spirit takes the Body and Blood of Christ that was shed long ago and far away and feeds Him to you in your own mouth. And this Holy Spirit that convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment, the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, He brings your prayers before the Father. Because you are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and because Jesus has ascended to the Father’s right hand, God hears your prayer in any situation, in any trouble, doubt, or blessing that you may experience.

By the Power of the Holy Spirit, you hear Jesus spoken, out of the perfect Word of God, and into your ears today, and you hold fast to Christ your bridegroom. For He has cleansed you and made you His beautiful bride, without spot or wrinkle. He made His vow to you that He will not forsake you—and to seal that vow, He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. And His greatest promise to lead you to eternal life forever in union with God will come to fulfillment thanks to, you guessed it, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit, give us Jesus, and bring us at last to the Father.

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

Readings:
Ezek. 37:1–14 Valley of the dry bones
Ps. 139:1–16 I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Acts 2:1–21 We hear them speaking in our own languages the wonderful works of God
John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15 when the Helper comes…He will testify of Me.

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

The twelve disciples had an important decision to make on that suddenly lonely hill following Jesus’ ascension into heaven. There they stood, looking up into heaven, tracing with their eyes the trajectory that His glorified body took, but then witnessed the cloud that came up from below Him and hid His body from their sight. It must have been a while, because it took two men dressed in white to break their intense, searching silence and startle them with their question, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking intently into heaven?” And although it would have been comforting to know that Jesus would return in the same way those apostles saw Him ascend, there had to have been the question, whether it was said or left unsaid, “Now what?”

They could have done lots of possible tasks, and some of them could have been quite useful. Their statement of mission could have been quite clearly written out and each apostle could have walked away with their own specific job description. And there could have been something good that might come out of an organized plan like that. Or the followers of Jesus could have remained paralyzed, looking upward, completely disregarding the entreaties of the two heavenly white-robed gentlemen. The Lord could not be seen anymore. The temptation could have been there to put somebody else in Jesus’ place and simply follow him as if nothing changed. It could have been like when you head out on your vacation and you ask somebody whom you trust to pick up the mail and water the plants. Is that what Jesus is asking us here? We already know that the Lord will return, but what do we do during this time when we don’t see Him with us?

These questions are quite appropriate for us on an occasion like this- not to mention Mother’s Day! Ascension is past, but Pentecost is not yet. This is the Sunday “in between.” The Paschal or Easter candle is temporarily extinguished. This Sunday on the liturgical calendar can give you the impression or feeling that most Christians experience in their day-to-day lives. Is Jesus gone? Did He leave me with instructions while He’s up there somewhere enjoying His vacation? Hasn’t He noticed that I’ve got my struggles here on earth, or is He too busy to listen to my prayers? Isn’t He aware that nations and economies, churches and Synods are in desperate need of His help at a time like this? The Lord answers these questions and more with his directions for His disciples, now apostles, as recorded at the end of the Gospel of Luke. A little bit before His ascension, Jesus reminded them of the “promise of my Father,” speaking about the coming Holy Spirit, and He specifically instructed them, “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

What the apostles did in those few days between Ascension and Pentecost is written for you in the rest of Acts chapter 1, as was just read. They followed the directions of Christ the risen and now ascended Savior. They did not decide to take matters into their own hands, for they did not suddenly imagine themselves to be in charge, now that they couldn’t see Jesus. They recognized that Judas’ betrayal had cut into their original God-given resources by a full twelfth, so by following the clear direction of Scripture, they filled his vacated office with another apostle, namely Matthias. They stated unmistakable qualifications, presented the candidates, then as indicated by the prayer they prayed, left the choice in the hands of God, who knows the hearts of all, and Matthias joined the eleven. That order of business, along with their continual praising God in the temple and worship of the ascended Lord Jesus, was what occupied their time until Pentecost came.

How simple it is! Just wait until the Holy Spirit comes. Replace a vacant position, and worship God, telling of the kingdom of God that has come in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. That’s it. Sounds so passive; it doesn’t have any human initiative or ingenuity in it. Where are the programs? Where are the mission statements and great plans to cover the globe with good news? Where are the blueprints for their impressive buildings to stand as permanent testimonies to the saving Gospel message? They had none of those things, at least not yet. What they had, though, was the Father’s promise. They had the promise of Jesus that, “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20) They had the Lord’s own breath breathed upon them together with His command to forgive the penitent and retain upon the impenitent. All the other things, as important and helpful as they can be, are secondary. They know that the church depends completely on its number one priority, and that is God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, who comes to us through that Word.

That’s where we often go wrong, in thoughts if not also in actions. What the disciples did in these unique and crucial first days can instruct us very well today. The secondary stuff that we have now gets in our way to such an extent that we can often forget the priority of the Word. We would like our human institutions, our buildings, and policies to be better put-together, and that’s all well and good, and may even be necessary, but we dare not crowd out the Church’s one foundation, which as the hymn sings is Jesus Christ her Lord. The Holy Spirit is here among us. We are not as alone as those first followers of Jesus were, looking up into the sky on Ascension Day. We’re not left here on this earth, taking messages for Christ on some “While You Were Out” notepad. Yet you may have acted as though this were still an “in between” time for you; as though God has not yet fulfilled a promise that you thought He had made to you. Perhaps the secondary things, the added blessings of your heavenly Father, have become your highest priority over His Word and promise to you. Trials and struggles have pushed you to doubt God rather than to turn to His Word, praying to Him for what He has already promised to give.

Let the forgiving breath of Jesus remove your doubt and comfort you. You are not alone, you have been washed clean and reborn as a member of the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ. We all must rely on the name of Jesus no matter what life will throw our way. You are called by His name, which is the name the Father bestowed upon the Son, and together with the Holy Spirit, that same name is combined with water in Baptism. You call on this very name when you pray in any situation, both in good and bad times. You are not in some “in between” time, the same way the disciples were, because Jesus is with you, not in your imagination or your intangible “religious thoughts,” but He’s really here in flesh and blood because His Word promises it. Many Christians long for this connection with Jesus, yet they unfortunately are not taught that He has provided what they are seeking. He is here in His Word of Truth that you hear preached, He is here in His Words that are combined with the bread and wine, for He promises that they truly are His Body and Blood given for you for the forgiveness of sins. He has provided all of these things, and you didn’t have to make any of it up. Sure, there are secondary things and added blessings that none of us deserve, but most important of all you have that all-important Word of Christ’s promise from the Father.

Let the Priestly prayer of Jesus in today’s Gospel, John 17, be a comforting word for your soul on this day. Just as a God-fearing mother would pray every day for her child, our Lord prayed for you, for you are His Bride the Church, a congregation of saints who gather together to hear the Word of truth preserved for us by His Apostles. He continually prays for the Father to guard you from the Evil one, and those in the world who will hate you on account of the Word. He prays for your sanctification in the truth. That means that the cleansing and forgiving Word of Christ that you hear in church, and privately from the pastor and from the forgiveness you receive from your fellow brothers and sisters in the faith, that same Word renews you in the image of God and makes you a holy people, consecrated and set apart from the sinful world in which He has placed us temporarily. These things Jesus accomplishes for you now simply by speaking the Gospel to you. The Holy Spirit offers your sometimes feeble prayers before God’s throne, for as St. Paul assures us, “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words… [and] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8) Being a saint, and therefore receiving the benefit of intercession by the Holy Spirit, is not a status toward which you and I work to attain, rather it is a privilege of sonship that you already have by Divine decree. Believe with all your heart that your Savior prays and works daily in His ascended glory for your forgiveness and holiness and growth in faith, until the time comes when you depart this life and join Him.

So in between then and now, you have an important decision to make. Of course, it’s not the decision to believe or not, because you couldn’t have done that—the Holy Spirit accomplished that miracle for your sake. Rather, the decision is whether you dare or not to take hold of the gift you have been given, and trust in the Gospel alone for your salvation and your Christian life, rather than going on like before, looking just to yourself. Do you decide to confront your sinful nature head-on, rather than making excuses to sin? Do you confess the unpopular truth that God still sticks to those things called the Ten Commandments, and that Jesus did everything to save you? There is nothing to fear as you live in this sinful, hateful world, and deal with sinners, including yourself. For no matter how often you have stumbled and fallen, and though you do not see Him, your Jesus is still here to pick you up, and the promises of His Word guarantee it. Why stand and look intently up at the sky? Why look for your Lord in those secondary places where you won’t find Him? He’ll come again, and with glorified and restored sight, you will most certainly see your Lord soon. But in the “in between” time you have been given, look to His Word, His baptismal font, His altar table, His called servant of the Word with forgiveness on his lips—these are the places you’ll find Jesus now. They are the constant fountain and lifeblood of the Church and a more than adequate answer to the question, “Now what?”

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

Readings:
Acts 1:12–26 Let another take his office
Ps. 1 Blessed is the man who walks not… like a tree planted by rivers of water
1 John 5:9–15 He who has the Son has life
John 17:11b–19 that they may be one as We are

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

How good are you at guilt techniques? Can you turn on a burden of shame upon other people just like a faucet? You could just hear it; maybe I’m destined to wield it myself in the future. Why are you doing this to me? Look at all the opportunities and advantages I have given you, and this is what you go and do! Can’t you show any kind of respect or gratitude for all I’ve done for you? Oh, yeah, many of you know how to turn it on, and some of you on the receiving end have figured out that it’s just a trick and you’ve worked some sort of detour around the guilt trip.

This other side of the guilt-laying coin, of course, is something I’ll call minimum satisfaction. If you figure out the least amount of effort that it takes to fulfill a requirement, then you’ve effectively short-circuited the shame. Come on, just eat three more peas and then we all can have dessert. Can’t you get up and dress yourself like a big boy for mommy? Or the teacher says, if you don’t want to read the extra credit book, you don’t have to! And it goes on from the home and school room to the work place, where the general feeling might be that one’s productivity isn’t going to get rewarded, so everyone finds out the most creative way to pass time without getting anything done. Minimum satisfaction even afflicts the church. Our budget is so bleak! One could complain. What’s the least we can do and still get by as a Christian organization? Surely I can “opt-out” of my promised giving to the Lord! He would understand that I need the weekend time or the money for other things. How few a number can there be of our willing volunteers before things start falling apart? It doesn’t come as easily to our human nature to think the other way, like: what potential do we have by God’s grace to do some great things in His kingdom? Or: What creative way can I use my talents for someone else’s good? The temptation to minimum satisfaction is rather strong in all of us and it gets in the way, and it leaves the feeling like there’s no solution in sight. Why is that?

Techniques of guilt and the automatic response of doing the least to fulfill an obligation are both related to the same thing: the Law. The Law is all about requirements, what we are to do, and not to do. Transgressing the Law brings about punishments and consequences. You cannot escape getting measured up against its demands. The guilt that the Law imposes upon you is not a game or a technique. It’s got real teeth in it, so to speak. No minimums are going to be accepted. Full payment is due now, no exceptions! You would agree that such harsh words would be words of the Law.

Now recall the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. …This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Now I ask you: Is this the language of the Law? Are there threats or punishments connected with these words? Where are the teeth to enforce the requirements? Such things are nowhere to be found. Jesus is not using the language of the Law as He is speaking to His disciples, and to you, these words. It’s often misunderstood that He might be laying a guilt trip on you, that you might make Him really upset if you don’t follow what He says. That’s because the Law, and guilt trips and minimum requirements for satisfaction are all that your sinful human nature knows and recognizes, as does mine. When you hear these words of Jesus, what He says is quite literally from out of this world, and so you are led to think that Jesus is setting down new laws and requirements just as soon as He pays for the punishment and condemnation of the first Law. That’s what leads so many people, including Christians, to misunderstand that the Christian faith is only about doing good things, and following a certain code of conduct, and being good people with cheery attitudes so that Jesus will smile on you and reward you with success and prosperity.

That clouds these blessed words of Jesus and strips away their true power. Your Lord is not imposing laws and requirements on you. He is not making you feel guilty so that you can turn around and work out some sort of minimal response to get Him off your back. You hear this quite often: Will you accept Jesus into your heart? Is He Lord of your life yet? What have you done to prove your Christian faith or put it into practice? You should show your gratitude to Christ after all He’s done for you. And so it’s just another guilt technique that you’ve seen before, and quite frankly at one time or another, this makes the one, true faith out to look no different from any other man-made religion. But that’s not the proper understanding of what Jesus is saying. It’s not what He’s about at all.

What your Savior is doing in His words in the Gospel of John is giving you your freedom: right here, right now. Just by speaking His powerful Word, He is crucifying and killing your sinful human nature, then He raises you up as a new creation, made in the image of Christ. He removes the shadow of guilt that hangs over you and unlocks the slave’s handcuffs that continually force you to do only the minimum necessary requirements. All the Law’s threats and punishments and condemnations are removed from you and pressed down along with that thorny crown on the bleeding head of Jesus. To put it another way, He accomplished both blessings for you: first, He fulfilled not the bare minimums, but your Lord kept every commandment perfectly, while acting in your place and for your benefit. Secondly, He accepted the guilt that belonged to you, and He paid the debt you owed, but could never repay.

The Law makes slaves, the Gospel makes friends. And what does Jesus say? No longer do I call you servants (or slaves); but I have called you friends. You did not choose Me or single Me out. Instead, I chose you; I singled you out that you would then go forth into your individual callings in life and bear fruit that will abide. And whatever you ask, it will be given to you. There are no conditions, nothing to take these blessings back. There are no contract stipulations for you to fulfill; it’s all from Him to you.

It all sounds easy. That’s because it truly is! There is no effort necessary for you to make it happen because Jesus did it all. He even sent His Holy Spirit so that God would place the faith in your heart enabling you to trust Him and receive His forgiveness and all the blessings of heaven. Look all you want for minimums and loopholes and you won’t find them because this isn’t about the Law. The Gospel is all about what God has done for your sake, and it would be silly to look for minimums when there are in fact no requirements at all! When Jesus says to keep His commandments, He’s not demanding anything of you so that you would have to earn His love and blessings. The epistle (1 John 5) says clearly, God’s commandments to Christians are not burdensome. His commandment rather is to believe in Him, and with this new commandment He gives you the ability to keep it. You did not have any possibility within yourself to believe in Jesus, but you have received that as a gift in the water of Baptism. The same body and blood of Christ that took away your sin now strengthens you in keeping His commandment to believe.

Now here is where the Christian holy life and love for each other comes in, not as your requirement to fulfill to God, but instead it is the natural result of what God the Father created you to be in the first place. It was just last week when you heard Jesus say, I am the Vine, you are the Branches. These verses today from John 15 simply explain this mystery in practical, everyday life. You have been restored and reconciled to the Lord because the Law no longer stands in the way. Now that same restoration and reconciliation branches out in your everyday calling as you interact with other people whom God has placed in your path. Your love for them that is expressed in prayer, words of encouragement, or helpful deeds are what Jesus is talking about when He says you are going to bear fruit.

Think again about the vine, the branches and bearing fruit. The fruit of love and good works that you produce did not make you a branch; it was the other way around: you are a branch connected to Jesus the Vine, therefore you produce the fruit that He enables you to produce. So, the things you do as a Christian do not make you a Christian, nor do they improve your standing with God. It’s the other way around: God, through Jesus Christ, has made you His very own. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit you can go forth and do not the bare minimum, because there’s no requirements to minimize. There’s no threat of a guilt trip to prod you along. Instead, you have the freedom to love as He has loved you; to give up your very life if that’s what will help your neighbor.

But if it’s so easy, then why aren’t all Christians more like this? What makes my life as a new creation so difficult, if I have nothing to do to add to my faith? What makes it hard is not that your faith isn’t perfect, because in fact everything your Lord gives you is perfect. Rather the problem is still the resistance of your stubborn sinful nature. It’s going to keep on working against you, even though you continually crucify it with Christ, which is what you do when you confess your sins and receive forgiveness in the gifts that God provides for you here. It is necessary for you to dominate and control that part of you that is still opposed to God’s love and mercy. But since you cannot do that yourself, you have the wealth of the Father’s grace in Christ Jesus to overcome and finally win the victory that your Savior has already achieved for you.

There is no need to look at the setbacks, the deceptions, the sufferings you’ve had to go through. Don’t look at what you don’t have among all of God’s blessings. Martin Luther once pointed out that Adam had countless trees to choose from, to satisfy his every hope and desire, but temptation to sin blinded his and Eve’s eyes so that all they could see was the one thing they could not have. So even though you see obstacles in front of you, do you dare to receive all the riches of grace that God has laid out for you? Do you suppose it might just work out if you believed the liberating Gospel word of Jesus that now enables you to love one another? Remember His words last week, He is the Vine, you are the Branches, and so you are free to abide in Him. He can’t wait to produce the fruit of love in you that He’s been planning on since before the world began!

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

Readings:
Acts 10:34–48 God shows no partiality Peter at Cornelius’ house
Ps. 98 The LORD has made known His salvation
1 John 5:1–8 this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments
John 15:9–17 abide in My love … love one another as I have loved you

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

How much fruit is your life bearing? Jesus’ key words today are “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” That can be pretty intimidating when you first look at them or hear them. How can you not think of sometime, somewhere, when your life was not as fruitful as God’s law intended. Since you are connected as branches to Christ the Vine, what kind of fruit have you yielded – good things, important things, beneficial things, eternal things – or merely temporal, earthly things? And, if those things you achieved are, in fact, “good,” have you considered why you did them? Was the good you did, done to glorify God, or just yourself – and, will they stand up under the intense scrutiny and examination of the Judge of all? All of that, as you know deep down, concerns whether it really is good fruit, or not.

And what about our Church? How fruitful have we been as a Church? What have we done collectively – and what have you done individually – to “advance” the work of our Savior? What fruit have you borne in His name? And again, why have you done the things you’ve done – is it for our heavenly Father, or for yourself? Who can you think of that is not helping like they should, and should be chopped off as “dead wood”? How can someone determine that in the first place? When you read or hear the words of our Gospel, at first you don’t tend to hear any good news Gospel message at all. The initial reaction is to look inside, to assess oneself, and even pass judgment on others.

However, that would be a disastrous misuse of Jesus’ words. Analyzing yourself and your own fruit-bearing, or condemning your fellow Christians for their lack of fruit, so far as you can see—none of this is in alignment with “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” Jesus is not giving us some new commandment to bear fruit, but simply to remind us that as Christians we have been given a precious gift over and above the forgiveness of all our sins—we have, in addition, the continuing gift of the Holy Spirit who ensures that we abide and remain in our Lord.

But, you may ask, what about all those statements we just heard in the Gospel itself, concerning the fruit we are to bear? Did you happen to notice that there’s actually only one command that required action? And that command has nothing to do with our bearing fruit, but with abiding in Jesus. That may sound like a petty, hair-splitting distinction, but in fact it is quite important and it needs to be strictly correct. When Jesus speaks of His Father as the Vinedresser, who’s doing the work? Not you! The only One doing anything here is God. You’re not being asked to concentrate on the amount and kinds of fruit your life ought to bear, because there’s something more important to focus attention on – that is your connection with the true Vine, who is Christ. After all, the farmer or rancher doesn’t first get concerned about how large their harvest or yield will be, but instead, he or she concentrates on the condition of the plants, the health of the animals that are going to bring forth the result. If the plants or cows are healthy, then healthy fruit, a good crop, or wholesome milk products will be the natural result.

In one of Aesop’s fables there is a farmer, who, on his deathbed, tells his sons of a treasure buried in his vineyard. Well, you can imagine what happened when he died. His sons went out and dug up the entire vineyard looking for the buried treasure. But they didn’t find a thing. However, that year the vineyard bore its best crop ever – and all because of the extra cultivation the ground received while the sons were digging all around the plants. The inheritance the farmer left to his sons was that they would receive a bountiful harvest from his vineyard thanks to the work they were meant to do anyway.

Instead of concentrating on the fruit your life bears, the how much and why, you ought rather stay attentive to the Who: to Jesus’ reminder that the Holy Spirit keeps you firmly connected to Him, the “true Vine” – for only the true Vine can give the branches what they need to bear much fruit. Only those who stay connected to Christ – the true, life-giving Vine – are able to bear godly fruit in their lives. But how does one stay connected to that Vine? It simply happens to those who remain in Jesus and His fruitful Word. And remaining in Jesus and His Word, by the way, is what Confirmation and professing membership in a Church is all about, and by God’s grace we may look forward to more adults and young people being prepared to promise to do just that.

Everything is tied together by this Word of God, this Gospel of salvation, this Good News of God’s love and how it comes to sinners. It’s Christ’s Word heard in His Church, read in your home, and placed in your heart as you hear it over and over again in Liturgy, hymns, readings, sermons, and prayers. And when you consider what it means for you to abide in Christ – and Christ in you – how can you not be reminded of the Sacrament of the Altar, where Christ’s true body and blood become one with you as you eat and drink it? To be sure, we must never forget that the words of Jesus that we heard today about the Vine, He originally spoke as He was making His way from the upper room where He instituted this Sacrament.

Another image used that might cause us discomfort is the idea of pruning and cleaning. Jesus teaches here that every single branch has to be pruned if it’s going to stay healthy. Fruitless branches, hypocrites who outwardly appear connected, but really aren’t, will be cut off in God’s judgment and thrown into the fire. They don’t bear fruit. They don’t believe. The Vinedresser has to cut them off, for they are no longer useful, indeed all they do is hinder the rest of the crop.

That’s why Jesus says here that even fruitful, believing branches have to be cut, cleansed, and pruned. Even believing Christians abiding in Christ have to be pruned from time to time so that they bring forth the fruit God desires. In the original, the words “pruned” and “clean” are the very same. So reread verse 3, thinking of yourself as a branch: “Already you are pruned because of the word that I have spoken to you.” God alone is the Worker working in you with His Word of forgiveness, and the fruit borne in your life is a gift. It isn’t something you produce, but what the Holy Spirit produces in you, by keeping you connected to Christ the Vine. If God desires fruit-bearing plants, then it’s up to Him to prune them so they remain healthy and flourish.

Even though we are Christians, we still understand, none of us is perfect. We possess salvation, a new nature, and have a new man living inside us, yet the old man of sin inside us is very much alive. That’s precisely what must be pruned and cut back from us. But that sinful old man isn’t always visible. He lives deep down inside the very depths of your flesh. You need to stay healthy and alive, so that sinner inside has to be continually cut back. And to do this, God uses His Word, which cuts deep into your heart to bring you to repentance of your sins and keep you in the faith. The Vinedresser’s Sacrament of His Son’s true body and blood feeds you His forgiveness and gives you the strength to endure what you’re going through. And God also reminds you through the affliction, suffering and pain we all experience in pruning, you must rely on Him for all things. God’s desire is that you realize He is the One at work in your life accomplishing His will—the will that you stay connected to Christ the Vine.

What about that person who tries to get by without Christ? Jesus says, without Him you can do nothing. He doesn’t mean you can’t be “successful” as the world views success – or that you can’t accomplish a great many things that might benefit others here in this world – but that in the most important things – eternal things – you can do nothing without Him. Even if you turn out to be a very successful person in the eyes of the world, without Christ your life will amount to nothing. For if you don’t remain in Him and Him in you, you’re like a branch that withers, is cut off, picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. And that’s what Satan would like more than anything – to cut you off from the true Vine, that you stay away from the Church, that you no longer hear God’s Word, that you stop praying, and that you no longer receive the Lord’s Supper to sustain you. And if Satan has his way, the end, for you, would be eternal death and hell.

But when you remain in Christ, you have everything. No matter what happens, your life will be fruitful. You’ll still need pruning from time to time. But in Christ you’ll have everything you need. Though the fruits of your life may not be visible to you, God knows your heart and what your heart needs. He is the One who lifts up those who quietly abide in Christ’s Word and says to them: “You have produced fruit – yes, much fruit.” As a branch abiding in the true Vine, Christ is at work in you, accomplishing all things for His good pleasure and to the glory of His Father. So, whatever the fruit of your life might be – whether spectacular, hidden, impressive, or obscure – that fruit is God’s doing – and in His eyes it is “much fruit.”

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

Readings:
Acts 8:26–40 an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip … of whom does the prophet say this?
Ps. 150 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
1 John 4:1–21 Beloved, do not believe every spirit…beloved, let us love one another…
John 15:1–8 I am the true vine

“Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest” (LSB 498/499) For centuries those words were sung at Pentecost (this year celebrated on May 20), asking the Holy Spirit to reside among the faithful and bestow His sevenfold gifts. What, exactly are we to expect from the Holy Spirit? Why were there so many powerful and wonderful signs of the Spirit’s presence in the earliest years of the New Testament Church’s existence? Why are those exuberant signs not present among us in the Church today? What caused this change in the Spirit’s work? Can we even be confident that we today have the Holy Spirit working in our midst? Will we even know when or if He has departed us?

Thinking about Pentecost can often leave us with more questions than answers. It doesn’t make matters any better for us when we hear about Christians who claim to have rediscovered the fiery, flashy special effects of Pentecost in their own gatherings. These are people who belong to Pentecostal churches and movements within other established denominations. People who have claimed the special gifts (“charisma”) of the Holy Spirit are sometimes called “charismatics.” Their apparent success at a “higher level” of Christianity makes us wonder, at the very least, whether or not we have the Holy Spirit working in us, especially if we do not witness the effects of direct Spiritual involvement in our lives, like they seem to enjoy. If we don’t observe the Holy Spirit working these mighty signs among us, then that makes us wonder whether we have assurance of our own salvation, another of the Spirit’s gifts. We get confused when we are told that our “mere” water Baptism, especially if it occurred in infancy, needs to be improved upon by some different, somehow more effective “Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”

Pentecost and the Scriptures that teach us about the Holy Spirit all help put these questions in perspective, and set our worries at ease. Jesus taught His disciples in John 15 and 16 about the Holy Spirit as our Helper, a Comforter who strengthens our faith in Jesus, and opens the Scriptures that we read, study and hear preached to us in the Divine Service. The account of the first Pentecost assures us that when we believe in Jesus and His sacrificial death for our salvation, then we have the Holy Spirit and all of His gifts. Fullness of His grace is depicted in the symbolic number seven (as in “seven-fold gifts of the Spirit”). Our Baptism with water, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, follows our Savior’s own command to His Church (Matthew 28) and so with that comes the certain promise of the Holy Spirit. No further action is required in order to give us the Holy Spirit, like the misguided fanatics claim. We have the assurance of forgiveness and the full holiness of Christ granted to us through God’s Word, and God’s Word is not going to change.

The reason why these questions about the Holy Spirit can cause us some concern is that we at times have a tendency to doubt anything so fully free as the Gospel truly is. How can our Father’s love be given to us so freely? How is it possible for the Christian life and faith to be so easy to receive, and yet so many people fall away from it? The Law constantly tells us we don’t deserve it, and the Law is, of course, right in saying that. But do not fear. Pentecost is a great blessing of assurance to you that the Holy Spirit will invigorate the Church that holds to the truth of Jesus Christ in every age. We may not see the exact same “special effects” of the Spirit’s presence as the Apostles experienced, but we should not seek them out or assume that they must come. We will leave that matter up to God, and in the mean time, we will treasure the truth of His Word, that gives us all that we need to know about Jesus Christ our Savior, and the life that is ours in His Holy Name. Thank You, Holy Spirit!

Yours, in Christ’s service,

Pastor Stirdivant

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

Wolves and sheep are, you might say, wired differently. Wolves look to devour and to consume their prey. Sheep, on the other hand, look for cover, and run away for protection. They cower, they readily acknowledge the wolf’s ability to destroy them. Wolves are aggressive. Sheep are timid. Wolves, while they tend to travel in packs, are really quite independent most of the time. They can fend for themselves. Sheep, on the other hand, are communal. They are dependent on the flock, and as a flock all of them are dependent together on their shepherd.

It wouldn’t be right for a shepherd to allow wolves to enter into the sheep’s pen. For sure, the wolves would love it! If the sheep could think, they’d have to wonder about that shepherd who would allow such a thing to happen. What kind of a shepherd would do that, anyway? What kind of a shepherd abdicates his responsibility to his flock, thinking it’s okay to allow his flock to be devoured by their arch enemy? What kind of a shepherd puts his own well-being above that of his flock? Think back to the Old Testament about King David. He was a shepherd before he became a king. He ascended to the throne after having dispatched with Goliath, that giant enemy and blasphemer of Israel. Before facing Goliath, David tried to persuade Saul that he was, in fact, up to the task. Saul was reluctant to send David into battle because he was so small. In fact, Saul was a tall man, so his personal armor was so large that it engulfed the youthful David. David, of course, chose to forego the armor and to fight Goliath with the simpler tools of a shepherd: the rod and staff, and don’t forget the slingshot and stones.

In his momentous effort to convince Saul to assign him the task of slaying the giant, David countered Saul’s skepticism with evidence as to why he, of all people, should be able to go up against Goliath. In his defense he drew on his experience as a shepherd, faithfully tending to his flock in the fields. He said, “I, your servant used to keep [my] father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”

Such powerful words from a little shepherd boy! Those words demonstrate that David was bound to his flock in the same way that he was bound to uphold the honor of the living God. He spoke from deep conviction within. He had a vested interest, you see, in the precious things that he defended. As a young boy David’s flock was his life. He could no more let a bear or a lion take one of his sheep than he could let that same bear or lion attack him without a fight. David, you see, was a true shepherd, one of the good ones, because he had more than a casual interest in the flock. In fact, He was willing to put his life on the line to save his flock from those who would destroy it. A mere hired hand, he was not.

It isn’t at all uncommon today for the flock of God, the Church, to be attacked by wolves. Sometimes those attacks will come from outside of the church and they will be quite evident, and even the sheep are moved to stand up together and oppose it. Other times, though, attacks can come from inside the church. In fact, Jesus warns that sometimes wolves will sneak in. “Beware of false prophets (He says), who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” (Matt. 7:15). Certainly the attack that comes from within is much fiercer than the one that comes from the outside. The great danger posed by the wolf, the false prophet, is that he seems to pose no danger to the physical wellbeing of the flock. The flock grows quite accustomed to the wolves’ voice in its midst for the sheep sense that there’s no immediate danger, no threat. The wolf’s words seem harmless. His false teaching can seem acceptable, often it even sounds right. But, finally, as is the character of wolves, having disarmed his prey, at the right time he devours, he consumes, as the souls of God’s people are led astray into the wilderness to consume the poison of false teaching.

Jesus warns us at length in this parable about following such a false shepherd. In fact, He doesn’t refer to the false prophet in John 10 as a shepherd at all. Rather, he is a hireling. You could call him a “rent-a-shepherd.” When he sees danger on the horizon he leaves the sheep to fend for themselves because he has no vested interest in the welfare of the flock. And sadly, the sheep, having followed the voice of the hired hand, have walked too far into the path of danger.

Faithful is the shepherd who defends the flock against such heretical teachers, even though his words may be taken as an affront, as an offense to “ecumenical ears,” that is, people who favor no distinctions of belief whatsoever so that everyone, it is hoped, will get along. The early confessors of our Lutheran Church saw fit to include this portion of God’s Word, from John chapter 10, when they discussed the need for pastors to teach what is right, but also for them to expose what is wrong. The Formula of Concord says, “In order to preserve the pure doctrine and to maintain a thorough, lasting, and God-pleasing concord within the church, it is essential not only to present the true and wholesome doctrine correctly, but also to accuse the adversaries who teach otherwise. ‘Faithful shepherds,’ as Luther states, must both pasture and feed the lambs and guard against wolves so that they will flee from strange voices and separate the precious from the vile.'” We need more pastors who see this as their solemn duty, and are called, rather than just hired so that the congregation is the flock that has been given into their pastoral care and responsibility. They above all else need to emulate Christ, the Good Shepherd.

But how good is the Good Shepherd? Which person today would be more likely to be called “good” by most people? Is it the firefighter facing a blazing building or hillside? A police officer running towards, not away from, danger? Or the football player using his freedom of speech to opt out of showing respect for the flag? And yet of those three, all of them sinners, you couldn’t tell who was really good on the inside. Most everyone wants to say of themselves, I am a “good” person, at least more good than others. God’s Word, of course, tells us otherwise, “for we all like sheep have gone astray, everyone has turned to his own way.” We wouldn’t have needed baptism, if it weren’t true that we were born afflicted with sin, and that we do sins of thought, word and deed every day. That is hardly good. We need to acknowledge that we are sinners, or else we would deceive ourselves. We the sheep need a Shepherd.

Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. He emphasizes the word “Good.” No other good that we can think of, nothing comes even close to the Good that Christ our Shepherd is. As a shepherd, Jesus is, of course, the greatest. He instills faith into the hearts of called pastors, His servants of the Word to lead His flock faithfully as His under-shepherds, to defend the flock, to fight off wolves. Most importantly, though, the Good Shepherd Himself gives to His faithful servants His soothing Gospel voice of forgiveness of sins, even as He does what is necessary to protect the sheep for life lasting to eternity.

Jesus’ “goodness” as a shepherd goes even further. He was sent from the Father to become one of the sheep that He might suffer and die for the sake of the sheep. This is not putting on sheep’s clothing in an act of deception; this is our Shepherd actually becoming a lamb for the slaughter, all for our sake. Yes, you would have looked for Jesus to act more like brave young David, and take up the shepherd’s weapons to slay the wolves that attack you each day, but instead Christ offered Himself in weakness to the wolves so that you might go free. Avoid preaching or devotion books that tell you to do this or that as an improvement to your standing before God. But when you hear words about substitution, as in Jesus’ life being given for your life, or about God’s strength being found in weakness and the cross, then you can rest assured that you are hearing the true voice of your Good Shepherd. From this one, clear voice, you have your sins forgiven, and you have all the other blessings that come from the forgiveness of sins, namely life and salvation, and as we say together in the creed, you have also the future blessings of resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. That’s the voice of our Good Shepherd, He is the good beyond all that is good, and His goodness is yours free of all exceptions, conditions and strings. Any other voice is that of a hired hand, a wolf whose employer is the Evil Foe. His is the voice we heard in the baptism today and His is the voice that will sound out an affirmation of that baptism for those who will make a public confession of their faith. They are joining our Communion, our flock in which we depend on one another and promise to believe the same thing together, the full teaching of Jesus our Good Shepherd. Thanks be to Him who gave Himself as a lamb to be slain and now lives and reigns in Divine glory to all eternity!

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

Readings:
Acts 4:1–12 the stone rejected by you builders no other name under heaven
Ps. 23 The LORD is my shepherd
1 John 3:16–24 we know love, because He laid down His life for us
John 10:11–18 I am the good shepherd

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

My God eats fish! That sounds strange to you, doesn’t it? Today when you think of people talking about God, you’re thinking of deep, mysterious, and hidden truths, and in many people’s minds, God’s works are far superior to ordinary, earthly activities. In the Early Church times, there was a widely held heresy that made people think that the body actually held down the spirit and imprisoned it. Many people are enchanted with the thought that if you escaped your body you could then have direct contact with unseen spirits. Jim Jones convinced people to release their free spirits from the confines of their body, so they drank his poisonous cool-aid. There is something wrong with the body, but our human reason can’t bear to acknowledge its own sin. The body and the spirit, the visible and invisible, seem to be enemies in many people’s minds, and the human soul seems to long for something greater and higher than itself. Mankind is constantly attempting to approach God.

What do Christians today think is more spiritual? A prepared, written-out sermon, with a basis in a text of an ancient book? Or some helpful advice that you can find on the Internet? What prayer is better, one carefully crafted and printed in a book or one spoken on the spot and “from the heart?” Do we want a Savior up there in heaven, handing down principles to us to make our lives successful and more fulfilling, or one who takes up our poor, diseased and fallen flesh, dies, rises then eats some fish? I personally find it much harder to believe that what we have written down for us in the Bible is made up. It’s just not the kind of story that people usually tell. I mean, purely humanly speaking, why would God want to lower Himself to become a servant? The fact that He did is clear evidence that these events in the Scriptures really happened, and they are not made up, because mankind is always making spiritual talk about us rising up into heavenly realms, while God is concerned with coming down here to eat fish with sinners.

Here in the Gospel, these human “spiritualizing” notions are challenged – indeed, confronted head-on by our risen Savior as He miraculously stands before the frightened disciples. He stands there not spiritually, so that they have to close their eyes and feel Him in their hearts, but He stands in the very flesh which only days before had been crucified in bloody horror for the sin of the world. Christ is no fleeting specter or some shadowy “spirit-being.” He isn’t a disembodied Savior. But rather He’s the One who stands among us in His flesh and bone – especially is He here today in external means such as water, bread, wine, and words. His teachings haven’t come to us out of thin air, as it were, but rather through God’s human ministers, the servants of the Word and of His Church. God calls us not to a private, secret or spiritualistic Christianity, nor to merely changing our work ethics and morals, but He makes of us a living flesh and bone fellowship that receives a living flesh and bone Lord.

For weeks now, our Easter Gospels have found Jesus’ Disciples cowering in fear behind locked doors and windows – and for the third time, He appears to them speaking a Word of Divine peace. At first they were startled by His presence – even frightened by the thought that what they were seeing was a ghost. But hear what He says to them in order to put their troubled hearts at ease. “Look at My hands and My feet. Touch Me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have!” What a comfort this flesh and bone Savior desires to be for those who understand the dangers you daily face in life.

Where this tends to make the clearest difference is when our human struggle between life and death feels its sharpest sting. Right from the very beginning of life and from Baptism, the Christian faces death. Some reach a ripe, old age, others die far too soon. That’s why Baptism grants an abundant comfort to parents and ought to be a cause for joy for anyone who witnesses its ceremony. With simple water combined with His Word, God breaks into the darkness of death and sin and clothes us with the very same promise the Disciples received from Jesus on that first Easter evening.

Only those who are spiritually blind and foolish would refuse to seek such a concrete, tangible, flesh-and-bone Savior, for because of the sinful nature, they’re filled with such pride and arrogance that they think they have enough spiritual stuff inside themselves to manage on their own. But when trouble comes, and you find yourself standing before God stripped of everything and exposed, what you need is a real Savior’s real touch. When you’re buffeted by the storms of life, you need a steadfast Anchor to hold you steady – something outside yourself. And that Something, that Someone, is this same Lord who is pleased to come to us in ways that we can see, touch, and handle. That’s what was happening when Jesus appeared to His Disciples that night. He “showed them His hands and feet, and while they still didn’t believe it . . . He asked, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ And when they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, He took it and ate it in their presence'” – so that they might see Him as a real flesh and blood Savior- God who eats fish and makes His followers into fishers!

Christ our Lord has given you a concrete promise to hold on to – a concrete hope upon which to build. He still provides you with a visible, tangible reassurance of His presence in this world today. In Holy Baptism, He applies His life to you through water and Word. In Holy Absolution, He personally grants you the forgiveness of sins in words spoken to you by your pastor. In Holy Communion, He gives you His body and blood to eat and drink as the real meal of salvation. Christ wants you to be confident that you have a Savior who’s still speaking to you the very same words of peace He first spoke to His disciples.

Contrast this faith with a so-called spiritual trust that looks only to your own heart for confidence and peace – and that ignores the real, saving touch of Jesus through flesh and blood! Aside from the outward promises of God, what else is there to cling to – private thoughts, feelings, personal opinions, or an independent religion in your heart that has no grounding in the Word of God? These things will consistently delude you and lead you astray. They won’t be there for you when you come face to face with the harsh reality of sin’s grasp on humankind – that death is waiting to claim your body someday!

But what God gives in the flesh of Christ, that will not betray you. You can count on His precious gift! That’s why God is here among His people to provide for them the saving body and blood of our Lord in bread and wine. As you eat that blessed Sacrament you have fellowship, oneness, with God through the very flesh and blood of His Only Begotten Son. That fellowship with God binds you together as one in the same confession of faith—the doctrine that upholds Christ’s Body, the Church universal which will never pass away.

John wrote in our Epistle last week: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father – and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” Through our Flesh and Blood Savior, God has made you and me to be of one flesh – not only with Him as our God, but also with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ! Our Bridegroom is the Husband of only One Wife. And that Bride is us, His Church. We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh – and, since God called us by the Gospel, we now each belong one to the other.

When you and I eat the bread and drink the wine of the Holy Supper, God gives each of us the exact same food. There’s no difference in what we eat and drink in this Meal, for we are receiving it in common as members of God’s family in Christ. Thus it is a blessed Communion, and in it, we get all Jesus has – and all Jesus is. Jesus is here to make our hearts happy and bold, because we aren’t trusting in ourselves – or anything else we might have as individuals – but only in what we have in common, that is Jesus! If someone doesn’t believe and still eats this Supper, then it is harmful to them, so that is why we are called to be careful with the Lord’s Body and Blood.

Martin Luther once spoke of eating this gift of our flesh and blood Savior, saying: “When I eat it, then it eats me! Outwardly I eat the Meal, but inwardly and spiritually I receive all the treasures of Christ – and even Christ, Himself. So when I receive the Sacrament, it is Christ who receives, consumes, and devours both me and my sins, so that I enjoy and receive His righteousness, His godliness and His riches – as at the same time they swallow up my sin and misery.” (See What Luther Says, #2538)

In the very same way, as we are one in Jesus’ flesh, so we are also united together with one another. As individual grains of wheat are crushed, ground, baked and formed into a single loaf – as many grapes are squeezed and made into a single wine – so also we are gathered into one body in this Meal. As Christians, you and I don’t live our lives any longer in isolation from one another. In Christ your life has become my life, and my Faith has become your Faith. Our fellowship is not with God unless it’s also with one another! I, your pastor, serve you in my calling with all that I am and have, thus I become your food. And in turn, when you serve me and my family in love with all you are and have, then you become our meat and drink. We pray for you, and you kneel down before God’s throne of grace on our behalf as well.

We as the congregation of God are invested and completely consumed and lost in one another – and all because God the Father, in Christ, has made us to be of one family and one body. We all belong to one Christ – because whoever feasts upon the Savior has more to live on and live for than just himself. You have more than a private, secret, disembodied or merely spiritual Christianity to sustain you. We all have fellowship in real flesh and blood through Jesus Christ, your God who eats fish! – and in that fellowship we will live together forever with Him who has called us to be His very own.

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

Readings:
Acts 3:11–21 how the lame man was healed repent and turn back
Ps. 4 I will lie down in peace and sleep
1 John 3:1–7 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us … we shall be like Him
Luke 24:36–49 Jesus Himself stood among them…peace to you.

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

Easter makes sense of just about everything else that we celebrate in the Church Year. We don’t celebrate disjointed holidays and string them together like a fruit-cereal necklace, as if you happen to take one away and eat it, you still have the other loops on the string. No, instead, the Church Year is carefully constructed by a very knowledgeable and pious church heritage that has gone on for centuries. It tells a story that is vitally important to our faith in Jesus, our Christian life in this world, and our hope of the life of the world to come. Having just finished the seasons of Christmas, Epiphany and Lent – where we heard about how God sent His Son to be born of a Virgin so that He could suffer and die for the sin of the world – and now as we have begun the season of Easter –we rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. All that He did for us comes into clear focus for our faith. It was the same for the disciples: John said that he and the other disciples didn’t understand the things Jesus said and did until after He was glorified, meaning His death and resurrection.

The Easter season does mark a significant shift in the story we hear every year. Jesus fulfilled His salvation mission on the cross and when He rose from the dead. As we move further into the season of Easter and on into Pentecost we’ll take a closer look not only how God saves us, but also how He lifts us up in our faith, how He strengthens us, and how He enables us to go on living in this sinful world after receiving a foretaste of the glories that await us in heaven. Our God, you see, isn’t only a God who worked in the past and has made promises for our future. He’s also active in your life now, and in the lives of all His people as they go about their day to day activities.

Consider the Gospel for today. It begins on the first Easter Sunday evening. Only three days earlier Jesus had been crucified, died, and was buried. The Disciples had only just recently heard the stories of His resurrection, which made them even more dazed and afraid. Having locked themselves away in a room for fear of what the Jews might do to them if they were caught together, the followers of Jesus made sure no one would be able to sneak in and catch them unawares. No doubt they were fearful of the Jews’ reaction to the news of Jesus’ resurrection, but they might also have been fearful about what Jesus might say to them for deserting Him during the hours before His death.

Then, all of a sudden, there He was – standing in their midst. Although He appeared miraculously, He didn’t seem to be a ghost. He had a real human body and that body didn’t look as if as if it had just spent three days in a tomb. He wasn’t angry or distressed. They must have wondered to themselves what He was going to say or do –how He was going to react. Yet, the first words out of His mouth were the forgiving, freeing words: “Peace be with you!” Then He showed them the wounds on His hands and in His side. This was no ghost or a spirit– He was real – just like the peace He offered. His words weren’t empty or meaningless, but they bestowed on them the peace which He had just purchased on Calvary’s cross. And the most amazing thing was that this peace was now being given freely to them – the very ones who had betrayed and abandoned Him only three days earlier!

Jesus came among them to strengthen them and to reinforce their faith. He appeared in their midst to assure them that in His flesh He had indeed risen from the dead. He was there to plant the seeds of ministry in their hearts. He wanted them to go out and carry His peace and forgiveness to everyone. He was sending them on a mission – to go out into the farthest corners of the world and declare this peace to all – to call all mankind to believe in this One who died on the cross for the salvation of sinners.

Next, our Savior breathed on them the Holy Spirit. There they were, downtrodden, dejected, not knowing what to do or how to do it – and then He spoke. He gave them power to move forward with boldness. Through the proclamation of His Word, people’s sins would be forgiven. All they had to do was proclaim this message. But Thomas wasn’t with the others that night. We don’t know why he wasn’t there, but we do know that because he wasn’t there he continued to doubt – and this even after the others told him the Good News of Christ’s resurrection. He made it clear that he refused to believe, that the fear and slowness of heart that afflicted the other disciples still had their clutches on his soul. His spiritual colleagues already had the personal contact with Jesus. They were ready for ministry in His holy Name, because at the very beginning, the Holy Spirit would spread the Church through these appointed eyewitnesses. Thomas knew that he would be disqualified as an apostle if he had missed his opportunity to see the Lord Jesus like the others did. How terrible would that feeling have been for him?

Thankfully, the other disciples managed to convince Thomas to be in the room with them the next Sunday to meet Jesus. They knew only the Lord could help him. They wanted Thomas to be united with them in proclaiming the glorious Easter message of forgiveness, life and salvation! You may think of it as a similar feeling that you get when you think of those you know and care about, those whom you hope and pray would someday join with you in the services of God’s house to meet with our risen Savior and receive His gifts. Maybe their faith is struggling right now. Perhaps they find it hard to believe. You know that only the Lord Jesus can help them.

For Thomas, He appeared in the room once again, despite the locked doors and the fearful hearts, and said as the Greek literally translated says: “May you cease to be unbelieving from this time forward. Instead, be constantly believing.” And Thomas, the doubter – when he saw and felt for himself the peace that God purchased for him in the wounds of His Savior – he was convinced. Devastated at the state of his faith, he cried out, “My Lord and my God!” God had stepped back into Thomas’ life and rekindled the flame of faith.

What an amazing God we have! Those who are down are lifted up. Those who are despondent are given that peace which passes understanding. Those who are crushed are made whole. Those who are blind are made to see. Those who are sinful are made righteous. When God comes into a person’s life, even though his heart is locked up in fear of the unknown, He changes that person from a sinner in danger of His wrath, into a beloved saint and an heir of everlasting life. He changes that person from the status of faithless enemy to the standing of a trusting child. What a tremendous God we have!

My dear Friends, at one time God also came into your life. Just as He came to the disciples, He also came to you. When you least expected it, there He was – in His Word, in His Bath of Baptism, and in His Supper – in His Church and in the mouth of His servant – showing you those wounds which earned you His peace. When you wanted least of all to believe, He enabled you to confess Him as God and Lord. When you scarcely wanted to serve Him, He placed you willingly into His service. And He’s still calling to you today – right now – calling you to hear His words of comfort and reconciliation– and to rejoice in the Gift of life He brings.

You do not have the same calling as the Apostle Thomas, yet you do have a holy calling, and the specific blessing from the mouth of Jesus: Blessed are you who have not seen and have believed. You confess and declare with joy the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You pray for the opportunity to bring those loved ones on your mind and heart to have contact here with the wounded, yet risen Lord Jesus, since Easter makes sense of what those wounds really did for you and for them and for the whole world. You can invite them to come, see and hear what you’ve seen and heard – even as the other Apostles invited Thomas. You may not be trained or qualified to be an evangelist – to be sure, the prospect of speaking to others about your faith might be rather frightening– but all God has ever asked is that you tell someone else what you already know to be true. After all, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this Book, but these things are written that” you “might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.”

It’s a fearful task you face when you open your mouth to speak the Truth of God to someone who needs to hear it. Will they reject you for saying what you know you need to say? Will they laugh with scorn at your gullibility for believing something so amazing as this Gospel of Grace which saves us, or will they turn their back – thinking you’re a fool? It doesn’t matter, for this is really God’s work, and when God gives us something to do, He also gives us the words and power to do it. So do it we will – sometimes fearfully, sometimes joyfully, sometimes even against our unwilling sinful nature – but always with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is at work in us, causing us to do and say that which would otherwise be impossible. For although such things are impossible with us, with Jesus, our Lord and our God, nothing shall be impossible, and His Easter victory will make sense of anything you may not fully understand.

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

Readings:
Apr. 8 Second S. of Easter
Acts 4:32–35 they had all things in common
Ps. 148 Praise the LORD from the heavens
1 John 1:1—2:2 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard…if we say we have no sin …
John 20:19–31 Jesus came and stood in the midst…Thomas…my Lord and my God!
These are written so that you may believe