Sunday, May 30, 2010

Holy Trinity Sunday Sermon -- John 8:48-59 (LSB Holy Trinity C)

May 30, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


The Jews said to [Jesus]: “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.’ Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do You make Yourself out to be?”


The Jews were in the Temple to remember how the Lord God brought them out of Egypt, how they dwelled in tents on their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. But now this Galilean carpenter’s son is ruining the whole event. They once had believed Him. But now, His statements rankled them in the worst way. Their question is pointed, rooted in their disbelief at what Jesus said: “Who do You make Yourself out to be?”


To claim to be a prophet is one thing. Jesus seemed to speak well. His comments on Moses’ Law were worth consideration. But His claims about Himself are ludicrous: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” And when Jesus is asked if He’s greater than Abraham, what does He say? “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing. It is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known Him. I know Him. If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and I keep His word.” Jesus calls the Jewish pilgrims unbelievers, that they really don’t know the God who led their ancestors out of Egypt. He is calling their celebration of the Festival of Tabernacles a fraud.


But Jesus goes even further: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.” Jesus claims to be the One Abraham was looking toward, the One whom Abraham believed in. This receives the final question: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus has gone off the deep end! This could never be! And yet, Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” That sets off the charge of blasphemy in the crowd: “So they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the Temple.”


How had this interaction in the Temple reached the level of stone-throwing? In today’s Gospel Reading, you heard a portion of Jesus’ teaching about Himself. You heard Jesus reveal His nature and identity to the festival crowds. Jesus speaks about who He is and He speaks about the nature of the Godhead. Jesus’ statements are meant to show that He is the Incarnate Son of God. He claims to be God come down from heaven to earth, being made man, to bring salvation. That is why Jesus’ words are read on this Holy Trinity Sunday. But His teaching confounds the people. Why? It is impossible to receive, to accept, to comprehend. The people hear a Galilean saying all sorts of things that run contrary to human observation. There is only one way that what Jesus said is true—that it actually is God standing there in the Temple.


This is what Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” But Jesus’ words do not meet the crowds’ observations. They see a thirty-something man with their eyes. How could Jesus have lived before Abraham? He isn’t yet fifty; Abraham lived over 1500 years before Jesus’ birth. Yet when asked, Jesus’ reply isn’t just that He existed before Abraham did—as impossible as that may seem. Jesus is claiming the Divine Name as His own. He says that He is the One who spoke to Moses in the wilderness from the Burning Bush. He claims to be the One who set off the whole Exodus in the first place.


Jesus’ statements are His response to the Jews’ questions: “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.’ Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do You make Yourself out to be?” Jesus is saying: “Yes, I am greater than Abraham and the prophets. The only One who is greater than Abraham and the prophets is God Himself. But I don’t make Myself out to be the Son of God; that’s what I’ve always been.” So He says: “It is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known Him. I know Him. If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and I keep His word.” It is why He says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”


This true nature of Christ is the reason why the Western Church has a Holy Trinity Sunday. That is what this festival that closes the first semester of the Church Year is meant to teach again. After hearing the Scripture readings from Advent through Pentecost, the Church makes the great confession that Jesus is true God and true Man. This is what Jesus’ words and works have shown, what they reveal as the source of your salvation. If the Scriptures are true, then the conclusion must be that Jesus is “I AM.”


Not everyone in the Temple rejected Jesus’ statements. For some, Jesus’ words and works became the object of their faith, what they trusted. What they trusted, they also proclaimed. Peter’s Pentecost proclamation makes the same claims that Jesus did in the Temple: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Peter’s declaration is based upon the Psalter’s description of the Christ—the description that Jesus fulfilled. It is based upon the resurrection of Christ: “Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, [David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.” Just as Abraham looked forward to Jesus’ day and saw it, so David also looked forward to Jesus, the Lord and Christ.


How did these Old Testament figures look forward to Jesus’ day? Because the Word of the Lord came to them, speaking about the Christ. The Scriptures are all about Jesus. Their story is His story. He is their content. He is the main character. The Scriptures reveal the Wisdom of God. And Jesus is that Wisdom. Listen to what Wisdom says about Himself: “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. . . . When He established the heavens, I was there; . . . when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him, like a master workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” That Wisdom is the Word that created life, the same Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.


Many of you know well what the Prologue of John’s Gospel and its testimony about Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” That description of Jesus shows how He is greater than Abraham, why “Abraham rejoiced that he would see [Jesus’] day.” For what did Abraham believe? He believed “God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.The Lord’s Word gives life to the dead and brings things into existence. His Word makes one wise to salvation. And that Word and Wisdom is none other than Christ Jesus our Lord. That is why Jesus can rightly say: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”


Only God Himself could make such a claim. The Jews in the Temple knew that, but they would not accept that Jesus could actually be that God-in-the-flesh. So the Evangelist says: He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” But that Word and Wisdom has come to you. His claims have been believed by you. And so the promises made to Abraham and David who looked forward to Jesus’ day are extended to you: “But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”


What have you come to believe? “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.” That is what the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost have brought to your knowledge. You have heard the accounts of Jesus. You have learned Jesus’ identity, just as Peter proclaimed: “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.”


You have learned through Jesus’ words and works that what His claim is true: “I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it, and He is the judge.” Through Jesus’ words and works, you have learned that the Son of Mary and the Most High God was born to fulfill His Father’s will. His Father’s will demanded His humiliation and death, and yet Jesus gave it. His Father’s will brought Him into the resurrection. And His Father’s will is that you would believe it all this was for you and your benefit. That is the confession of the Christian Church, the catholic faith in which the Holy Spirit keeps you, so that you may have life in Christ’s name. So you believe “that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” So you believe: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” And so you believe that His promise is true: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”


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

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Pentecost Day Sermon -- John 14:23-31 (LSB Pentecost C)

May 23, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


Jesus said: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”


The Lord Jesus speaks about keeping His word. He calls it a matter of love: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word . . . . Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words.” What Jesus discusses is not hard to comprehend. You know about keeping things and discarding things. Every week in your curbside containers you have experience at it. Why do you keep something? Because it was hard to obtain or it’s valuable or it’s unique. Perhaps you have a special relationship with the one who gave it to you. Some reasons are quite logical: throwing away a valued item lowers your wealth; discarding something difficult to attain discounts your work. Others are quite illogical: kindergarten artwork or summer camp crafts have little worth, but the parent/child relationship grants it value beyond any dollar amount.


With Jesus’ word, all these aspects are true. His word is hard to obtain, unique, and valuable. And you have a special relationship with Him who gave it to you. That is exactly what Jesus says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” The relationship with Jesus is described in the term love: this is what binds Jesus and His disciples and the Father with Jesus’ disciples. The value of Jesus’ words is described in what Jesus said about the keepers of His word: the Father and He will come to him and make their dwelling place with him.


This dwelling with His people is what Jesus promises to His disciples in the Upper Room. He says that He will be leaving: “You heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’” Jesus will be leaving His disciples behind. He is going away, an event that we celebrated as the Ascension of Our Lord last Thursday. But note what Jesus also says: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Though Jesus is departing, He tells His disciples not to fear, not to be discouraged by this.


Why are they not to be afraid? Why should the disciples not be troubled? Jesus tells them that He is not leaving them alone: “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Jesus’ followers will have the Holy Spirit with them. Jesus tells them what will happen: “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.” Jesus is leaving, but what He said is also true: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” God will still dwell with His people, even after Jesus has left.


The fulfillment of this great promise is what the Church celebrates on this Pentecost Day. What took place in Jerusalem so many centuries ago made good Jesus’ words. Those who heard Jesus’ promises looked for their fulfillment. They waited in Jerusalem, just as He told them to do. They expected the promised Helper. Why did they do this? Because they loved Jesus and were keeping His word: “When the Day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”


There is the fulfillment of Jesus’ words! The Helper arrives, just as Jesus said. And the Helper does what Jesus promised: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The Holy Spirit empowers the disciples to go out and proclaim Christ’s word. Peter and the rest of the Twelve go and speak. They don’t speak their own wisdom, but they speak the words of Christ. On that Pentecost Day, they do just as their Lord commanded them: “baptizing people in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep all things that I have commanded you.” The Twelve keep Jesus’ word in their love for their Lord. And in His love, God makes His dwelling place with them.


But what happens on Pentecost is not limited to that day. Nor is it limited to the Twelve only. For when they proclaim the word of Christ, as they “began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance,” the crowds heard it. The word of Christ came to the crowds for them to keep. Note the reaction of the crowds: “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. . . . We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” They heard for themselves the mighty works that Jesus did for the world, just as He promised the Twelve: “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, but I do as the Father commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” Just as Jesus spoke, the world began to hear through the apostles’ Spirit-driven preaching on Pentecost.


The crowd at Pentecost received what the Twelve received. Knowing its value, knowing its power, knowing its uniqueness, knowing who gave it to them, the Twelve deliver Christ’s word to others, so they also could possess it. Hearing “the mighty works of God”—the life and actions that Christ accomplished, including His great resurrection from death—the crowds have Christ’s word made theirs. It was given to the crowds to believe. It was given to them to keep. It was given to them as the way that the Lord God makes His dwelling place with them. It is given to the multitude to bring them from death to everlasting life.


And that is where this event begins to involve you. For you are like that Pentecost multitude. The word of Christ has been given to you. It has been given to you as a great possession, as the way of life. It has been given to you by the Holy Spirit, so that you are made Christ’s people. It brings life to you. It brings knowledge to you. It brings divine love to you. Through it, the promise that Christ made to the Twelve is extended to you: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”


The keeping of Jesus’ words is a matter of love. Love is more than an emotion. It is a divine characteristic. But it is made yours because of the transformation that the Holy Spirit makes in you, just as He transformed the crowds in Jerusalem through the apostles’ proclamation. Jesus’ words in the Upper Room are meant for you: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. Not as the world gives to I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” There is much to fear as sinners. You should rightly fear the wrath of God, anger like was shown upon the people of Babel for their disobedience. But through “the mighty works of God” done by Christ, you need not fear. You have been delivered from sin. You have the life that Christ has achieved given to you. You have the wisdom of salvation granted to you by the Holy Spirit.


Jesus has gone to the Father and has been received by Him, confirming that His work has been well pleasing. So you need not fear. For the Holy Spirit has taught you all things and has brought to your remembrance all that Christ has said, especially His statements that He has atoned for your sin, that He has overcome this world, that Satan has no claim on Him or His people, and that He has opened up Paradise for you. So your hearts need not be troubled, but may rejoice at what Christ has done for you.


The Holy Spirit especially reminds you of what Jesus said to His followers in the Upper Room: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words.” All the good things that Christ has earned—forgiveness of sins, life, salvation—come to you through His words only. The Father loves those who keep Christ’s words. God makes His dwelling place with those who keep Christ’s words. That’s how it works. There’s no other way that the Lord God has revealed. So you must be where Christ’s words are spoken, so that you may hear them. You must be where Christ’s words are given, so you may possess them and hold on to them. You must be where Christ’s words are found, where the Holy Spirit is, so that Christ and His Father may dwell with you.


The promise has been made and fulfilled: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you.” That is what takes place here where Christ’s word is found. For here “the mighty works of God” done for you are proclaimed, taught, and brought to mind by the Holy Spirit, so that you may love Jesus and be given the right to dwell with Him and His Father forever. That is what has been given to the Church, what you have been given by your Lord Jesus.


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

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Easter 7 Sermon -- John 17:20-26 (LSB Easter 7C)

May 16, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


[Jesus said]: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”


As the Easter Season draws to its close, the Ascension of Our Lord being celebrated this Thursday past, the Gospel Reading presents Christ’s Prayer for the Church. What you heard today is the final paragraph of a long teaching that Jesus gave in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday, a discourse that ends with Christ’s prayer. Just hours before His betrayal—the first scene of the last act of His mission to bring salvation to the world—Jesus prays for His disciples. Jesus discloses that He will be departing from them, so He prays for their welfare.


But what is at the heart of Jesus’ prayer? What will benefit those whom He is leaving? You heard it in Jesus’ words: He prays for unity among His followers. In His prayer, Jesus speaks about what will happen after His departure: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. . . .” Jesus reveals that His disciples will be preachers. They will take what Jesus had given them and proclaim it to the world. Through their proclamation, many will be brought to faith in Jesus.


Bringing Christ’s words and works to the nations is the apostles’ great task. But it is done not with their own ability. Such a task is only accomplished because they carry the authority of the Son of God. The power which Christ bestows upon them brings forth the faith in Him. Christ’s authority unites all those who are called to belief to Him, just as He prays: “that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Jesus’ further statement illustrates more of this: “The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me.”


Jesus’ prayer includes many words that speak about connectivity, relationship, unity. It is so, because that is what is given to those who are brought to faith in Him. A change takes place in them. Those who were far off, separated from the Lord God by their sin, are brought close; they are reconciled. Jesus’ work overcomes the barrier between God and man. Through His sacrifice, sin is atoned for. Through His resurrection, death is conquered. Through His perfection, failures are forgiven. This grants a new status to people, as they are united to Christ and brought into fellowship with His Father who has union with Him.


So how is that unity given? It is accomplished through the work that the Holy Spirit does through the apostles’ proclamation. This is what Jesus states: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Christ gave that task of bringing testimony to the world to His apostles. It drives the selection of Matthias to replace Judas, as you heard in today’s First Reading: “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day when He was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to His resurrection.”


Witness to Christ’s resurrection—proclaiming that the Son of God came down to earth, lived perfectly, died sacrificially, and returned to life—is what brings separated, sinful beings into a reconciled, restored relationship with God the Father. It was so for you. Witness to Christ’s resurrection has brought you into fellowship with God. It has made you a privileged people. None of this is what you have achieved, but what you have been given. For through the witness, you have been made to know who God is—not just His identity, but what He has done for you. Again, Jesus declares this in His Prayer for the Church: “O Righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You, and these know that You have sent Me. I made known to them Your Name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”


Jesus’ words reveal a great truth about the Godhead: the world does not truly know God the Father. It may know that there is a Creator or a Supreme Being. But it does not truly know His character. It does not truly know the way He considers His creation. The world may have some concept of God’s justice and order, but it lacks knowledge of His mercy and love. But that is precisely what Jesus reveals: “I made known to them Your Name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus reveals the truth about God the Father: that He desires all people to be saved, that He wants His fallen creation to be restored, that He acts for eternal good. Jesus makes this known in His teaching and in His actions. That revealed truth is what the apostles carry into the world. That truth is “for those who will believe in [Jesus] through their word.”


The unity of Christ’s followers isn’t an external arrangement. It isn’t based upon an organization. It isn’t brought through the ratification of some statement of agreement. No, the unity is given through the knowledge and belief in the truth that Jesus reveals. That truth brings to each of Christ’s believers “the love with which [the Father has] loved [Him] to be in them, and [Christ] in them.” This is what unites. This is what brings people of all sorts of languages and nationalities and ethnicities into fellowship and communion with one another. The love that the Eternal Father has for His Eternal Son is in you because you have been brought to belief in Jesus through the apostolic proclamation. And so, you have been made part of the divine household, made children of the Heavenly Father.


This identity has been given to you in your baptisms. Through that action done with the authority of Christ, you are brought into unity with Him. You are connected to the Son of God who was crucified and who was resurrected to reconcile you to the Father. Everlasting life is what you have received; it is made your right as the Father’s children. In St. John’s vision that you heard in today’s Epistle Reading, you see this declared. Describing Paradise, John reports: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His Name will be on their foreheads.” Describing who will be present in Paradise, the apostle proclaims: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and that they may enter the city by the gates.”


What the apostle sees is the result of the Father’s love being extended to the believers in Christ. It fulfills what Jesus prays for: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” Being with Christ where He is—that means being in the eternal presence of God the Father, where the Ascended Christ forever dwells. Seeing Christ’s glory—that means a physical resurrection at the Last Day. That is what the Lord Jesus promises. And His promise is based upon the fact that He has died and has risen; what Jesus vows to give to you is what He Himself underwent.


That promise is extended through the apostolic proclamation. It is what you trust will happen, what you hope in, because you have been numbered among those Jesus prays for: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” Jesus’ prayer is for you to be where He is and to see His glory. You have been given the Divine Name in Holy Baptism, and so you have entry into heaven. And to show that He is trustworthiness, Jesus leaves you a pledge during your time here on earth. It is what we prayed during Lent in the Eucharistic Prayer of Thanksgiving: “[You] have ordained this Holy Supper as a memorial and a seal, in which You give us Your Body to eat and Your Blood to drink: so that we, being in You, as You are in us, may have everlasting life and be raised to a glorious immortality at the Last Day.” So today in that sacrament you will receive again what builds and bolsters that union between you and Christ.


The unity Jesus speaks of isn’t just getting along or the absence of visible strife. No, it is what He accomplishes by bringing life to you through the offering of Himself. It is what the Spirit of Truth gives to you, as you believe in Christ through the apostolic proclamation, having knowledge of God the Father given to you. Such unity comes from connection to Christ’s death and resurrection, drowning and rising in Holy Baptism. Such unity comes from having Christ placed into your mouths and souls through the Lord’s Supper. Jesus prays for you to have this unity. And it is what His Father will bestow because His love for His Son is now yours, just as Jesus’ words have been proclaimed to you: “I made known to them Your Name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”


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

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ascension Day Sermon -- Luke 24:44-53 (LSB Ascension)

May 13, 2010 at First St. John’s Lutheran Church – York, PA


[Jesus] said to [the apostles]: “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.


Jesus fulfills everything written about Him. That is what He declares to the Eleven gathered together to hear Him for a final time. All is completed, just as Jesus had said while suspended from Calvary’s cross: “It is finished.” So now, Jesus takes His followers out to the Mount of Olives. He makes His disciples know what He has accomplished: salvation is theirs because of His work. His death has made atonement for their sins and the sins of the world. His resurrection has brought life to them and the world. Nothing is left to be done, and so we hear: “Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”


All is completed. All is finished. And because it is so, mankind can be in the presence of God. That is the central message of the Ascension. It is based in who Jesus is and what He has done. Think back to the beginning of Christ’s life. Remember what was said to Mary about her Son: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. . . .The child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” But as much as Jesus was indeed the Son of God, He was also truly the Son of Mary. His identity is what we confess in the Small Catechism: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord.”


This true God and true Man reverses Adam’s sin and the curse it brought. Where mankind was imperfect and flawed, Jesus is not. This perfect Jesus acts for the benefit of all of Adam’s descendants. All of humanity is wrapped up in Him. So the Apostle writes: “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one Man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” That is the effect of Jesus’ work. Adam brought sin and death into the world, but Christ has brought righteousness and life in their place.


Remember what happened when Adam sinned? He eats of the tree in the middle of the garden. And so the man who broke the Lord God’s command flees from His presence. In shame and fright, Adam jumps into the bushes of Eden. Perfection was lost. The wrath of God should fall upon Adam. In an attempt to avoid the effects of his action, Adam hides. He cannot stand to be in the presence of the Lord God at all. He cannot bear to have the divine gaze fall upon him.


Yet, the bushes could never cover Adam. Their shade could not conceal his imperfection. The Lord God knows the trespass which Adam has committed. His divine curse will soon be upon the man. Adam knew it, and so would all his descendants. Isaiah knew it when given a vision of heaven: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Peter knew it after seeing the great catch of fish: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” The same curse is spoken against you. Because of your transgressions, you cannot bear to be in the divine presence. Adam’s reaction, Isaiah’s reaction, Peter’s reaction: they are the same thoughts that you have when the demands of the Divine Law are spoken, when your righteousness is measured according to that standard and found lacking.


But something different is true with Jesus. For what does this true man do? You heard it in the Evangelist’s words: “While [Jesus] blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” You also heard the Apostle’s description of this event: “[H]is great might He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Note what took place: man is once again in the presence of God. The true man Jesus is brought into the presence of God the Father. But not only is that man in God’s presence, He is present “in the heavenly places.” And even more, that man is “seated at His right hand.” Think about that! All the negative effects of man’s sin have been overcome, so that mankind no longer must hide from God, but can receive divine honor.


Man stands at the right hand of God the Father. Why can this be so? Because that Man Jesus is without sin, without flaw. Adam’s run to the bushes cannot be repeated by Jesus, because He has nothing to hide. Isaiah’s words cannot apply to Jesus, since He is not unclean. Peter’s demand for God to go away from him is not spoken by Jesus, because He is not a sinful man. Remember what was said to Mary about her Son: “the child to be born will be called holy.” And so, that Man Jesus Christ can stand in the presence of God without any fear.


That is a great thing. But why should it be a cause for great joy among you? So Jesus can be in God’s presence: well, good for Him, but what does that have to do with me? And just why should I give up a nice May evening to sit in a wooden pew to hear something good about another person? Just what does Jesus’ Ascension have to do with me? Why is it so great? Those are honest questions that could be asked on this day. They are also the questions that the Apostle answers.


Think back to what Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” The apostle wants his audience to know what Christ’s ascension has to do with them. So he tells them: “that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”


Paul connects the dots for you. The ascension of Christ—His being raised from the dead and seated at the Father’s right hand—is “the immeasurable greatness of [the Father’s] power” and the “riches of His glorious inheritance.” More than that, it is “the hope to which He has called you.” The ascension of Christ is part of the divine work of salvation for you, what the Father has designed for your profit. The great mercy that the Father displays in Christ’s ascension has benefits for you. What happens in Christ’s ascension has effects for your lives.


What are those effects? You can stand in the presence of God without fear. You can stand in the presence of God without any threat of condemnation and curse. You can stand in the presence of God and be with Him forever. That is what Christ’s work as true God and true man has accomplished for you. It is so because Christ Jesus has completed the way of salvation laid out in the Old Testament. That is the gospel of salvation which Jesus makes known to His disciples: “’These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” It is what you have been made to know.


All those prophecies and promises made by the Lord God had been fulfilled, even that promise made at Adam’s Fall: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” That is what Jesus reveals to you, His disciples. The head crushing and heel striking have been accomplished in Christ’s crucifixion. That long-ago-promised Offspring of Eve has been raised to life again. Perfection is once again found in a man. God’s image and likeness have been restored. No longer is man barred from passing through the entryway to Paradise.


Jesus’ Ascension has changed all that. Man now stands eternally in God’s presence. And because you possess Christ’s righteousness as your own, because you have been given to know what He has accomplished for you, because you have been crucified and buried with Him, you now have the great hope and inheritance of everlasting resurrection and dwelling with your Eternal Father. Everything that Adam had ruined has been restored by Christ.


Humanity can dwell in God’s presence once again. That is the significance of Christ’s ascension for you. That is why you gather this day to worship Him. Where your Lord has gone, you shall surely go. So He promises: “I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.” And so He will fulfill it, because it was written about Him and about you “in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms.” Look forward to that day when “this Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” For it means that your own ascension shall take place.


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

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Easter 6 Sermon -- John 16:23-33 (LSB Easter 6C)

May 9, 2010 at Calvary Evangelical Lutheran ChurchMechanicsburg, PA


[Jesus said:] “In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”


It makes sense to hear these words of Jesus this morning, as we reach the Sixth Sunday of Easter. This day in the old liturgical calendar was called “Rogate Sunday.” The name comes from the Latin word rogare, which means “to ask.” And even though we are on a new system of lessons, we still come across this reading from St. John’s Gospel, where Jesus teaches His disciples about asking things from His Father.


Really what we see in the Gospel reading for today is instruction about prayer that Christ gives. It’s not the only time that He spoke on the subject. We might well recall the whole Sermon on the Mount when Jesus taught the crowds about prayer. We may remember when the Christ said: “Ask, and it will be given to you.” Or His instruction: “When you pray, say Our Father in heaven, etc.” He even makes it clear that “babbling on and on” or “making a public show of prayer” does not please God the Father.


But when He speaks to the Twelve in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday, Jesus focuses on the reason why His disciples may pray. Their Lord points out to them why they have access to God the Father, why He will hear their prayers. And in the late stages of their learning from Jesus, the disciples are given instruction of how they will pray in the future, when Jesus is no longer with them on earth.


That point is seen several times in what we heard from St. John’s Gospel today. Jesus says: “In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” He tells the Twelve: “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” There is a marked change in the way things will operate from that moment on in the life of the disciples, and that is what Jesus wants to get them to understand.


The change is simple enough to grasp, even for the Twelve. While Jesus was with them, leading them, teaching them, He was their conduit to heaven. Jesus speaks for them, prays for them, acts for them. He shows them how to pray. He offers petitions on their behalf. The Christ intercedes for His flock that He was shepherding for three years, from Galilee to Judea.


But the Christ was going away. His ascent to heaven was a mere 43 days from the time He spoke these things to the Twelve. And that event, Jesus’ return to heaven following His betrayal, death, and resurrection, would shift matters regarding prayer. After the Christ’s ascent to heaven and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, His disciples would not have Him in their midst to pray to, or to pray for them. A new day would come when Jesus’ followers would have access to the Father because of what He accomplished for them.


That is the situation in which we also find ourselves. We live in “that day” which Jesus is talking about. We live in the same time period as the Twelve disciples did after Christ’s ascension to heaven. And what Jesus tells them about prayer is also instructive for us. What He teaches the Twelve is what we also confess about prayer, especially in the Small Catechism.


Think back to what you learned about the Lord’s Prayer from the catechism. We start out with the introduction: “Our Father in heaven.” And in the explanation of these words, we confess: “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.” What we learned at the rudimentary level about prayer is congruent with what Jesus told the Twelve: “In that day you will ask in My name . . . for the Father Himself loves you.”


But to understand the significance of Christ’s statement, we need to look further at His words. There is a reason why “the Father Himself loves you.” And it has nothing to do with you or what you have done. It all depends on who God the Father is and what God the Son has done on your behalf. That is what gives you the ability “to ask of the Father.”


Jesus told the Twelve, and He tells the Church today, the reason why “the Father Himself loves you.” The reason is simple. Jesus says plainly: “You have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.” It is a matter of faith, believing that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, the One who came down from heaven and gave His life for the world. It is confessing that Jesus Christ is your Redeemer, the One who delivered you from Satan’s grasp, broke the jaws of death, and absolved each and every sin you have ever committed. That is what gives you and every disciple of Jesus access to God the Father. It is what makes them children of God, recipients of the Spirit of adoption.


Think back to another portion of the catechism about prayer. Recall what you learned about sin and its forgiveness in the Fifth Petition. We pray “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” And in the explanation of this, we confess: “We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.”


It is a bold confession. It isn’t what society usually says about themselves. But you speak the truth about yourself: “I don’t deserve anything from God the Father. I am not worthy of being in His presence or receiving His blessing or asking Him for anything at all. But I still ask Him, to give things to me, especially forgiveness, out of His gracious nature and because I have been made His child through Jesus’ work.”


This squares with what Jesus told the Twelve: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you” Jesus tells them and all His followers to ask. Be bold to ask things of the Father in His name. Our Lord instructs us to pray, to petition God the Father, to place our requests before Him. And Christ points out why we can: “because you ask of the Father in My name.”


All of Jesus’ followers bear His name. They are marked as Jesus’ people. They have His seal of approval, His stamp of ownership engraved in their hearts and souls, just like the gates of heaven have the names of the Tribes of Israel and the Apostles etched on them. Our Lord is pointing us back to our baptisms, where that holy name was given to us. And because we have it, because we bear it, because it is ours, we have access to God the Father. We may ask of Him for our physical and spiritual needs, and Jesus says that His Dad will give it to us.


That’s what Jesus wants His disciples to know. It is an understanding of the significance of His work for them. Because He suffers and dies, but rises and lives, we now have standing before God the Father, before the maker of heaven and earth, before the deity sovereign over all that exists. We get to speak directly to Him. We get to make demands about what He has promised to give.


Think about the Lord’s Prayer again. It’s all commands given by us to God the Father, demands that we are able to make because of the name of Jesus that we bear. “Your name be holy. Make Your kingdom come. Enforce Your will in heaven and earth. Give us what we need to live. Forgive our sins. Keep us from temptation. Bring us out of danger to safety.” They are all what we ask, what we demand from our Heavenly Father. And they are what He is pleased to give to us, because we are His dear children, made so by Jesus Christ our Lord.


We don’t need Jesus to ask His Father for it. It’s not like the kids of the neighborhood who have to ask their friend’s parents’ permission to go to the game with them or to stay over at the house. No, we need not do that anymore. We can go straight to God the Father, because He isn’t only Jesus’ Father, He is ours as well. And what we ask of Him in Jesus’ name, reminding Him of what the Christ has done for us, we are promised to receive: the necessities of earthly life, but most especially the forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and salvation that Jesus has won through His bitter death and glorious resurrection.


That is what our Lord desires us to know about prayer while we live here on earth and await His return. And so we shall on this Rogate Sunday, with the promise and instruction of Jesus foremost in our hearts and minds.


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