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

† sdg †

John 1:1-10

John 10:1 KJV 1611

There’s a famous old painting of Jesus where he’s standing outside a door knocking, not banging like He’s in a rush or rage, but patiently, calmly, with a peaceful, yet intent gaze on His face. It was inspired from Revelation chapter 3 where Jesus says, Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him. But in the Gospel from John for today, Jesus says in this instance that He is the door. And this is Good Shepherd Sunday, so He is the door for the sheep. That’s why some Bibles translate the word “gate” instead of “door.” You may think it silly for me to point this out, but I must. Jesus is not like a door, as if there were something greater than He called a door and that He is patterned after it. No, He is the Door.

Thinking of Jesus as the Door is very important for Christians. After all, your Lord went through the door of His Father’s “house” of heaven in order to come to this earth and be born in a stable-manger and take on your frail human flesh. He came to live, suffer, die and rise again for your sake, in your place, and for your salvation. He came to us through that door which leads from heaven to earth, then He had that same door slammed in His face at the moment of His death on the cross. That is to say, God put His own Son there in place of those who rejected Him, He was counted as the one who rebelled against God, and so your sins required the Father to slam the door of heaven in His Son’s face – on top of all His agony and bloody suffering. Think instead of Jesus in that tranquil painting pounding on that door until His knuckles were bloody and raw, but there would be no answer – He would have to die, rejected at God the Father’s door. Christ was to be alone in the fire and the forsakenness of eternal punishment for you to have forgiveness. In the midst of torment, He would cry out from the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Our Savior would endure that torture so that you and I might be able to look forward with certainty to all the blessings of heaven.

After the door to heaven was slammed in His face, Christ then went through another door, the door of death as His torture came to an end late on Good Friday. He passed through that door to Hell and He proclaimed His victory there over Satan and his forces of darkness. Then, on Easter morning, He came back out through the door of death, with the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb, so that by going through and coming out again He would become the Door. Through Him sinners could now pass from the sheepfold of His Church out into the heavenly pastures of God’s kingdom of glory.

And here is where you see the connection between Jesus calling Himself both the Door for the Sheep, and the Good Shepherd at the same time. For He says that He who enters by the door is the Shepherd, and the sheep hear His voice. Using His voice, that is, the pastor preaching the Word of God to you and washing your sins away in the water of Baptism, that is how Christ calls you His sheep by name. Although most of the time these days you are treated as if you were nothing more than a number, but the way God sees it you are so much more than that. You are personally known to our Shepherd, and He calls you out of this desolate wasteland of sin into good, safe, grazing pasture – filled with the sweet, succulent nourishment of His Word of Life. He doesn’t just round you up and turn you loose to wander aimlessly around the countryside like sheep tend to do. He’s always there with you, calling out to you using the Voice of the called servant of the Word.

Even in the face of death, says the Psalm, your Shepherd will be there beside you. And you don’t have to fear anything because He has already gone on before you through that fearful valley of the shadow of death, when He paid for your salvation. He’s at your side no matter what you face, and He has His rod and staff to comfort and protect you – even when it would seem as if there could be no help at all. This is the promise of your Good Shepherd that cannot be taken back, and on this promise you can base all your trust and hope. You have a Good Shepherd who has come to you to give, not get. There are many thieves and robbers in this world, and their only motive is to get something from us – to milk us for all we’re worth. Not so the Good Shepherd. He hasn’t come to get, but only to give – to give His life as the purchase price for your pardon – and to give you every blessing in His name.

Jesus the Door is also Jesus the Good Shepherd because He lays down His own life for His sheep. Rather than beating you down with condemnation for your many straying ways, instead He takes the beating Himself by dying the death of the cross in your place. He’s the Good Shepherd because He takes up in resurrection the life that He laid down. In fact, the only reason you can call Him the Good Shepherd is because of Easter – for that was when He forever pulled Himself out from the mighty grip of death so that you would never have to experience what He had to go through. Now to you – His sheep – He says, “Because I live, you will live also.” No other Shepherd is out there that can match that promise. Only Christ, the Good Shepherd, can say: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

So, as sheep there are only two things that you must now do. First of all, you must hear and listen to the Shepherd’s voice. Whenever you come to the Divine Service – whenever you sing a hymn – whenever you hear a sermon – whenever you pick up and read God’s Word – you are hearing His Voice speaking. He’s saying: “I died for you” – “I rose from the dead for you” – “Because I died and rose, your sins are gone, and you will live forever.”

But it goes even farther than that. The Shepherd’s voice invites those of you who are communicants to this Altar and partake of the Holy Supper of Christ’s body and blood that is given and shed for sinners to eat and to drink. The Lord who stands at the door and knocks is He who wishes to come and eat with you in a miraculous way. Listen when He says to you: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” The more often you “remember” Jesus by partaking of this Holy Meal, the more your sins, and the sins of those who have offended you, are placed on Jesus and cast into the depths of the sea and forgotten. You are reconciled to God and to one another, because you both heard the Shepherd’s voice, and entered forgiveness and life through the Door.

Secondly, as sheep you then follow Him – which means you go where He’s gone and do what He’s done. It happens automatically, by the power of the Holy Spirit. It isn’t something you set out to do yourself. He went to a cross, and you will go to yours. As Luther loved to point out, in all believers there must be a daily crucifixion – a daily death, if you will – of the sinful nature inside you, which he called the Old Adam. And this is what happens every time you recall your Baptism, when you remember your sins and trust that Jesus has washed them away. In Baptism the old man of sin is already drowning under the water and the Word. And although it’s hard – even impossible at times – for you to hold that sinful nature down under that water, it’s something you must daily be prepared to do. The power of God in your Baptism is there for you every day. In that flood of forgiveness every day is like Good Friday for you as your Old Adam is put to death once more. Even though sin is an ever-present reality, you still daily put that sin to death in Baptism. Because you know that on the day when you pass through your door of death into the glory of God’s eternal heavenly kingdom – you’ll be completely and permanently dead to sin, but alive in Christ.

Finally, as Jesus came out of His grave, so shall you also come out of yours. Even as you daily crucify and put to death your sin in you, you also rise anew each day to live in righteousness and holiness forever. Hear what St. Peter had to say in the Epistle: “(Christ) himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness . . . for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” For you sheep who belong to Jesus the Good Shepherd, every day is Easter. For the present think of your Baptism as your first Easter resurrection, that is renewed each day as you rise again to forgiveness and new life. But the ultimate Easter will take place on the Last Day – the day of the Resurrection of All Flesh. On that day, dear friends, you will rise to eternal righteousness. In the meantime, you’ll continue as sheep following the voice of the Good Shepherd, who is also Christ the Door, and His voice speaks through the pastor He gave you. Also in your daily life and personal calling you submit yourself to Christ’s leading, living, dying, and rising as you sacrifice yourself for the good of your neighbor. For you know God will freely grant you all of this since Jesus already promised. In fact, all that goodness is in His hands ready to give you for housewarming, you could say, as He stands there and knocks on the door of your heart.

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

Luke 24:35 KJV 1611

Luke 24:13-35

In Nomine Iesu

Thomas (remember from last Sunday) had fear and doubt. Yet even Thomas knew that all He needed from Jesus was His nail-pierced hands and spear-gashed side. He knew that Jesus died for him and that would remove his doubt and his fear. I said just last week that was true also for you. Jesus removes your fear and gives you a more confident faith in its place. Today we hear from St. Peter, though, and it’s starting to sound contradictory, if not just plain confusing when he writes something like this: “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17).

Why would this courageous leader among the apostles, speaking to newly-baptized infants in the faith, why would he tell them that they need to have fear? I thought that the good news of Easter was that there was no need for fear anymore! Why should a Christian’s journey be one of fear, especially since we know Jesus our risen Lord and in Him we have no more reason to fear those things we used to fear? To be sure, fear isn’t all of the story.

The Ten Commandments remind us that not only should we fear God, but also love and trust in Him above all things. As we read and hear the Gospels, we witness everything our merciful Savior did and said so that we may believe in Him through His Word. Yet the Gospels also have other people in the story. There are people who talk to Jesus, who respond to His Word, and we would miss out if we ignore them. These other people in the Gospels, like Thomas in the Gospel last week, are showing us pictures of ourselves as we do our spiritual traveling in this world that is not our final home.

What happens with people when God breaks in, enters their world and their lives? Sometimes we see in the Bible’s historical accounts the way things are supposed to be. Other times we see the opposite. Think about the detailed description of the two disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about seven miles away. It took place on the very day that Jesus had risen, many were overjoyed at this point, yet these two men were sad. This is not what we would think to be a good example of the church that proclaims the resurrection. They should be glad. They should rejoice. They had already been told by the others that Jesus had risen. But like Thomas, who wasn’t in the room when the Lord appeared, these two men were not yet convinced.

That shows us a picture of ourselves. We’re traveling on a journey in this world, we have been baptized and are clothed with Christ. We hear the preaching that Jesus is risen, and we respond He is risen indeed. But still we question. Can it really be? Is it possible? Could it be true that God took on flesh, died and rose on the third day? Even so, would it matter anymore? Does all this church-talk have any benefit for me today with all that I’m going through, two thousand years later?

As we learned from Thomas, part of the sinful baggage that we carry with us as we travel is that we doubt. We grow weary on the journey. We risk losing our hope. Sin threatens to tear us and those we love away from Jesus. This is why St. Peter says in his epistle to pass the time of your exile journey here on earth in fear. The disciples would rather have had Jesus stay with them, keep on teaching and reassuring them, but Jesus told them in his last sermon to them in St. John’s gospel that he had to go away for their sake, for their good. A little while, you will not see Me, and then again, after another little while, you will see Me.

Think of yourself walking down that Emmaus road. A Stranger catches up to you, and speaks something that is at one and the same time frightening and encouraging. Law that condemns you. Gospel that forgives and strengthens you. This is the journey of the church, until the Day when our Lord Jesus will return as He promised in glorified, visible form. This is the life that Christ wants for the church to live after He ascends to heaven and sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We cannot help but wonder, why did Jesus hide His true appearance from them as they walked on the road? If we look at the church and its life today, however we can give a good guess as to the reason.

They still don’t recognize Him, yet Jesus nevertheless asks a few questions and then begins to turn the table as He preaches, all from the books of the Old Testament, remember, about the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Messiah. What a sermon, a Bible study, an education that must have been! When you hear God’s Word in church and also read it from the Bible, that’s when Jesus is catching up with you on your journey. He comes to you hidden, shrouded in the words you hear, but He’s still there, ready to stay with you and walk with you. He has promised to be with us here today, and He most certainly is here! How often it is that when God’s Word is preached, though, we grow tired and restless. When the Gospel is read and we hear of Jesus in those words entering our ears, our slow hearts fail to see Him. Though we hear the proclamation that Jesus is risen, we still grow weary and dull even while we’re hearing that joyful good news.

We have been given such a precious gift, yet we cannot seem to fully comprehend or appreciate what it means for us as we journey in Christian life today. It is for all sins, even our sins of weariness, that Jesus died. Jesus came to suffer and die so that we may have Him with us in these hidden ways, which are called means of grace. His death poured a never-ending flood of mercy for you into simple words, water, bread and wine.

The Easter story about the two men walking to the village of Emmaus tells us a lot about how Jesus loves us and helps us. Those two disciples arrive at their destination with this supposed “stranger,” then they ask Him to come in with them and rest and have a meal. They thought they would serve Him, but instead, Jesus would end up serving them, giving them something that would greatly help them. Even though this is an ordinary meal, the words Luke wrote are the same words that are used to describe the Lord’s Supper: “He took bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them.” Sound familiar, right?

Just as Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the upper room the night before his arrest, it is as though He is reminding them of this. “Do this in remembrance of me.” He had said. The amazing thing is that their eyes were opened at the moment when He broke bread and then they saw Jesus. They even told the eleven disciples that Jesus was “known to them in the breaking of bread.” This is an important detail for us to keep in our minds with this Gospel story. It’s important because we know Jesus not by something that we feel or by some truth or principle that we tell ourselves in our minds. We know Jesus when He actually comes to us and opens our minds to understand Him, to hear His Word that forgives your sins, and to eat and drink His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. In your journey, here is where Jesus walks with you, not in your mind nor is it something you will always feel in your heart. He comes to us. He is not far away. We should be here in God’s house often so we can meet Him!

Jesus took two sad, confused, and worried men and gave them the gospel Word–He gave them Himself. They knew all the facts about what happened to Jesus. They said it back to Him accurately when this Stranger asked them what things happened in Jerusalem. But they needed Jesus to help them see, from the Bible and from His teaching from the Bible, that yes, Jesus did redeem Israel, He did pay the price for your salvation to come true. He gives you the forgiveness that you know you didn’t deserve, and the eternal life that for you had been impossible to achieve. Like those two men walking to Emmaus, God’s Word opened up to you what Jesus did for you, and He makes it clear what the whole point of your journey is—it’s to be with Him.

The whole church is on a journey. Jesus is going with us, and you’ll hear Him and receive His gifts and forgiveness. This is how you know His love is for certain. Jesus takes away our sins, our sorrows and worries, right now at this moment, and gives Himself to us. Peter reminds us in his epistle that the Word of the Lord endures forever. Yes, He does! Jesus is our victor over death because He didn’t stay dead. His victory is our victory, and when we drink the Communion cup we see Jesus. He said it’s His blood, so that’s what it is. Our eyes are opened unto Him in the bread that we eat, since He has already said, it is His body. We eat and drink and we receive Jesus; His love; His forgiveness.

He is making the journey with us, ever abiding and leading us. We still conduct our lives, and as Peter wrote we proceed in this earthly land of exile with fear, yes, there is a new kind of fear that is thankful and reverent to our Lord who loves us, but since we have Christ walking with us all the way, we need never be fearful. When the road we walk seems dark and sometimes without direction, it is Jesus who forgives us and helps us. He journeys with us through the Word that He is, through the Word that we hear in faith, even when we do not always detect that He is there. He cares for and nurtures His church along the road, as the psalm says: “For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psalm 18:28).

In the Name of the Father, and of the † Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant sdg

Pastor Mark Stirdivant was born and raised in Hemet, California, where his parents still reside. He attended college at Concordia University, Irvine, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, and then attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He sang and toured with the 16-voice men’s choir, the Seminary Kantorei. He served his vicarage year at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, under the tutelage of Rev. Robert Beinke.
After a long-distance courtship and engagement, he married his wife Krika in 2000.
In 2002, he was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry and installed at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 2008 Pastor Stirdivant joined the Gladstone Public Safety department as a volunteer chaplain. He went on ride-alongs with the officers, attended roll-call meetings and occasionally attended to severely traumatic police calls. In June of this year, he will have completed 15 years in the Office of the Holy Ministry.
Pastor and Krika have a Boston Terrier named Poppy, and all of them are very excited to be “back home” in California, and they look forward very much to getting to know you better!

Pastor Mark Stirdivant

Pr. Mark and Krika Stirdivant

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Ezekiel 37:1-14
The Dry Bones prophesy is appointed
to be read during Lent
because
it is about the days of
the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The Dry Bones describe us,
the believers,
who have no hope of our own,
but are
rescued through
Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Cliff Dwelling, Canyon de Chelly, AZ

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Isaiah 42:14-21
God says ‘Look and you will see.
View my Word on Calvary.’
Here, we read of the Suffering Servant,
aka, the Messiah
Who has waited millennia,
and now,
brings the blind by a way they did not know.
We celebrate the Suffering Servant,
Who has called us, who do not listen
and made us see, who do not look.

Sliding-House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly, AZ

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is John 4:5-26
Without water, we cannot live.
And so,
Eternal Life given to us
is called “Living Water”.
And also for us,
let us make our confession,
and
receive that Living Water
for ourselves.

Cliff Dwelling, Canyon de Chelly

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Romans 4:1-8; 13-17
We have 2 key words:
Righteousness, or Being Justified
(dikaiosune – being found innocent by a judge)
and
Counted
(logizomai – reckon, as in bookkeeping).
Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him as righteousness.
And so for us,
What is written in the books about us?
Righteouness,
a free gift, not gotten by our own works.
Our faith is not in our own efforts,
but God’s grace.
Sola Gratia.

Cliff Dwelling, Canyon de Chelly

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Genesis 3:1-21
In the garden of Eden
there was just one commandment
and our first parents
believed the serpent instead of God.
They desired a knowledge
not yet permitted,
and disobeyed.
The Fall corrupted everything.
The Offspring of the woman
crushed the head of the serpent,
and in the obedience of one Man,
forgave us of many sins.

Canyon de Chelly, AZ

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Joel 2:12-19
Ash Wednesday is the beginning
of repentance for our failures
before God
as we make ready to celebrate
Jesus’ victory over our sins.
The prophet Joel calls us
to gather and discover that
the LORD our God is
gracious and merciful,
slow to anger,
abounding in steadfast love.
Hear the call, like the sound of a trumpet,
Hear the Word, confess our sins,
receive the Body and Blood of our Lord,
receive God’s forgiveness.

Sliding House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly, AZ

From Pr. Hendry’s sermon:

Our reading is Matthew 17:1-9
The Transfiguration:
The Godhead of Jesus shined
through the body of Jesus, the Son of Man.
Once before, a meeting with God
was radiant on the face of Moses
as he brought down the tablets of the Law.
Exodus 34:28-35.
What was Jesus’ direction next?
Toward Jerusalem,
to die, to rise again,
to establish a New Covenant,
so that we could be saved,
and live with God forever.

Clear Quartz