Pentecost Video

Click here for Pentecost [John 14:8-17] (19 May 2013)

Pentecost [John 14:8-17] (19 May 2013)

This sermon was preached at St. John's Lutheran Church, Karoonda (9 am).  

I don't like to use a lot of TV illustrations, but have you ever noticed that the best way to market your new product is to make the existing product you're trying to replace look like it's impossible to use. So that's why we have commercials for hair straighteners that have people who for the life of them can't figure out a curling iron or steam mop commercials that show people who have no idea how to run a vacuum cleaner on the floor. It's a good trick, but come on, the problem isn't with the old machines, the problem is you're trying to convince us they're so impossible. On this Pentecost day, by the Holy Spirit we can confess the same:

We may struggle with the words of Jesus, but the Holy Spirit doesn't, and he's been given to comfort Christ's Church, given by Christ himself.

We struggle with Jesus' words and therefore with the Holy Spirit's office. This happens when we have problems with the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. We're not alone in this. Even Jesus' disciples have problems with his own words. That is why Philip speaks to him in today's reading, on the night in which he was betrayed. We hear, “Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." ⁹ Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” But step back a moment, is Jesus using long and complicated words? No. Is he speaking in half-sentences or sentence fragments? No, these are sentences. He's using very simple language. But the disciples are still having problems with his words. And in doing so, Philip asks to see the Father, but that actually denies that to see Jesus is to see the Father, as Jesus explains.

There are many things we do that seem innocent but show our problem with God's Word. Staying in bed on Sunday mornings (whether or not you stayed up too late on Saturday nights) is an example – we label it as just a choice, what a person prefers that day. But it's trading a miracle for something ordinary. If God actually speaks his Word, the Holy Scriptures, that is a miracle, that a book of paper and ink is God's own Word. To go to church then is, for sure, to hear God speak as you hear those Scriptures read, and that's a lot better than the good gift of sleep. It looks like an innocent choice, but it's having a problem with God's Word.

And having a problem with God's Word goes back a long way, all the way to the Garden of Eden. And it goes to today's Old Testament reading: the Tower of Babel. God had said to the people, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” And what do they do? They say, “Let's stay here and build a tower so we won't be scattered all over the earth.” They had a problem with God's Word, so in order that the people wouldn't trust in themselves but in God and his Word, he confuses their languages so that . . . they have trouble with each other's words!

Our Lord Jesus Christ overthrows all of that, all those problems, by sending us His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't struggle in doing his office because Jesus does his (on the cross and with the Church) – to our comfort. By his work he comforts Christians. No wonder then that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Comforter (though that word also has the sense of Helper/Advocate).

The Holy Spirit has no problem comforting us with the word of Christ's death for you. The one thing missing for Philip is the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and (and this is really important), the Holy Spirit who will teach them the words of Jesus. The one thing missing, which Jesus promises to his dear disciples as a comfort before his own death, is that the Holy Spirit will apply Christ's death and resurrection to them.

When there is a problem with God's Word, the problem is us, not God's Word. That's because the Holy Spirit always works through the Word. The Holy Spirit speaking through the Word has no need of repentance; we do. In fact, Paul says, if he or even an angel preach a different Gospel, the problem is with them, not God's Word! A word like that, which is 100% dependable, that's a joy to hear, every time. That's a comfort.

On Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples in tongues of fire, and Peter preaches Christ, and the people hear and believe and are baptized, on that day the Holy Spirit makes it as if the whole world is united in one speech once again, as before the Tower of Babel – but that one speech is now the doctrine of Christ.

The Holy Spirit has no problem bringing faith in Christ. The account of Pentecost shows that beautifully, as many people are brought to faith by the Holy Spirit through the Word, which is a fulfillment of the prophet Joel (whom Peter quotes in his sermon), who prophesied that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on the people, and that's how! The Holy Spirit has no problem bringing faith in Christ, and that is seen in the history of the Church from that Pentecost Sunday until now. It is seen especially when all has seemed lost for the Church, and without doubt that will be seen again.

Christ argues forcefully to not look at yourself and your own opinions about how God is looking at you, but only through his words that speak of God's gracious face toward you because of the love of Jesus which is the love of the Father which is the love by which he covers your sins with the cross. Trust that Jesus gives the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit does his work of creating and sustaining faith in Christ - “even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit has no problem in his office because Jesus hands him over by his death on the cross. John links the cross and the giving of the Holy Spirit, because John records that when Jesus died, he bowed his head and gave over the Spirit. That's how it says it in the Greek. And that's what Jesus does – that's his promise of comfort from the Holy Spirit, and it can be done because he has died for you.

The Holy Spirit has no problem in his office because Jesus is the only place where your faith can lie – it's both the will of the Father and the office of the Spirit. So we don't ignore the Holy Spirit, we rejoice in his work. And his work – is to point to Jesus, not himself!

The Holy Spirit has no problem comforting you with God's love in absolution, Word, and Sacrament. The promised sending of the Holy Spirit comes to you when his Word comes to you. And his Word comes to you also in visible ways, in Baptism, the absolution, and the Lord's Supper. They're visible because he joins his Word to things, for your comfort.

And the way to overcome having a problem with God's Word is to have the Holy Spirit as your Teacher, who doesn't teach apart from that Word. So the solution is to rightly divide the word of truth, as Paul says. That means to rightly divide - Law and Gospel! The Word is delivered by the Holy Spirit to, yes, show you your sin and the threat of what that sin does to you, but is moreso delivered for the purpose by which the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. He's not called the “condemn you Spirit”, though he does that (he condemns unbelief, as Jesus says “And when [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in me”), but he is called the Holy Spirit, because he makes you holy through faith in the blood of Christ shed for you.)

When the Holy Spirit does this, he does this as the Comforter. And no one was ever afraid of a comforter. Martin Luther preached that is was as if Jesus said,

• This is what you are to look for and expect from the Father and from Me. If, as Christians who believe in Me and hold to Me, you suffer or are assailed, whether it be by the devil or by your conscience, then the Holy Spirit will be your Comforter and will address Himself to your heart as follows: ‘Be unafraid, and do not fear; for you are baptized, and you believe in Christ. Therefore you need not be frightened either by the devil with all his angels in hell, by your own thoughts, or by your anxiety about your relation to God. No, do not think otherwise than that God’s anger and all hell are totally extinguished. For that is surely true for believers, even though they still feel sin and weakness.’ ” It is for this very purpose that the Comforter is promised and sent to them, to fortify them against such terror and fear.

The Church praises the Holy Spirit for his work. Again, Pentecost isn't the one Sunday of the year that we believe in the Holy Spirit, and then we put him in the box the rest of the year. When we believe that the Holy Spirit does his office according to Christ's promise, we praise him as truly God with Christ and the Father. And we do this a lot.

We do this when we sing an opening hymn that calls upon the Holy Spirit to bless us. To do that at the beginning of the service is to confess that nothing happens there unless the Holy Spirit works through the Word, which we have been promised he will do. That gives the comfort that we don't have to “make things happen” here.

We praise the Holy Spirit when we let him make true students of God out of us when we hear his Word, just as we hear in Psalm 119 – that we pray that the Holy Spirit alone can teach us to know our Savior rightly, that we meditate upon that Word as a great gift and treasure, and when we suffer all sorts of trials having no other comfort than that which the Holy Spirit can give.

We praise the Holy Spirit, lastly, when we remember our Baptism. Remembering our Baptism is praising the Holy Spirit in his work that by his power not our reason or strength we may believe in Jesus, who is all Truth.

Conclusion: When God speaks his Holy Word by giving us the Holy Scriptures, we have problems with it, and need to repent. But when we receive the Holy Spirit through that same Holy Scripture, he doesn't need to repent, and he doesn't struggle in comforting us. And that comfort is the cross of Christ, which the Holy Spirit teaches the Church again and again. He is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, given by Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.   

7th Sunday of Easter [Acts 16:16-34] (12 May 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran Church, Karoonda (11 am).  

This is a sermon that should, rightly, be saying a lot of things. This Sunday is, wait for it, the first Sunday after the Ascension (the Church celebrates the Ascension always on the 40^th day of Easter, because 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven, which we confess in the Creed). This Sunday is, wait for it, the 7^th Sunday of Easter. Next Sunday it's not Easter anymore, it's Pentecost. And this Sunday is, yes, a happy and joyous Mother's Day. So a sermon on a day like today, you'd think it should say a lot of things, but it will only say one thing. Just like Paul, for all the things he said in today's reading from the book of Acts, really only said one thing.

Paul says a few things in today's reading: to the demon-possessed girl, to the jailer, to the jailer's family; he even sings hymns. But in the end, they all have something in common, and in the end, he says the same thing to them all.

It starts with a slave girl. It was very common wherever there was the religion of Greek mythology to have oracles, serving at pagan temples or elsewhere. Today we would call them fortune-tellers, and you don't go to a temple to find them. But we hear that this slave girl was possessed of a “spirit of divination”. And just like the demons always recognized Jesus, as we hear in the Gospels, so this demon recognizes what Paul is doing as a servant of the Lord. But for Paul, this run-in with the demonic is basically just annoying. Paul isn't terrified, for demons bother the Church, just as false teachers bother the Church, all sorts of things bother the Church. He's dealt with all those, and now he's dealing with this demon and this girl. So he says, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” He says this to the demon, but to the girl it's as if he says, “I have good news. This demon who has been bothering me and oppressing you, he recognizes what I'm doing, but this good news of Jesus isn't something to be preached by demons. Right now, he's not your lord anymore, he's gone, in the name of Jesus.”

This has some consequences. First, for the girl. But the girl was a slave, and her fortune-telling brought in money for her owners. They got angry. They drag Paul and Silas to the rulers of the city. They make up some things – the Jewish religion was legal, and Christians weren't recognized as separate from the Jewish religion at this point, so in their greed and anger they call what Paul and Silas were proclaiming to be “illegal” for Romans for those reasons. Paul and Silas can't defend their case, they're just beaten and thrown into jail. And it does seem odd that the rulers put them in jail with instruction to keep them securely locked up. But the jailer puts them in the inner jail, and in stocks. Stocks keep you from moving your legs. You kind of need to move your legs every once in a while, just to keep the blood flowing. So it's not like the jailer is being gentle. It seems like he's going out of his way not to be.

But all of this, for Paul and Silas, it's not life and death stuff. That's why the first thing that comes out of their mouth after their arrest – prayer and singing hymns! And in the middle of the night! And that's important, because the jailer would expect them to be yelling out curses at him and everyone else. But they don't. In fact, they open their mouths in prayer and praise of Christ. All the prisoners are listening when something that out of the ordinary happens. Funny how we fly off the handle at small things, as if they were catastrophes. We're like children that way. And little do we realize that demons, suffering, beatings, and imprisonment – they're small things!

And the jailer gets some bad news. And it starts like this. There is an earthquake that not only opens the doors of the jail, but also the stocks that hold people's feet. When the jailer realizes this, he takes out his sword. That's because he was responsible for all his prisoners, with his life. If they escaped, he'd be put to death. So he was going to save them the trouble. But then there is this loud voice, the same one that had been singing hymns: “Don't do this bad thing. We're all here!” None of the prisoners had left. We don't know why that was, but the prisoners had two surprises that night, first the hymn singing and then the earthquake, so it's not hard to imagine they put the two together and stayed put in amazement.

Now the jailer has a real problem, and it's no less than sin and hell. The man who called out to him is the same man he locked up so cruelly. He shouldn't have done that. For this jailer, all of a sudden it's all right before his eyes: his guilt. Before, it didn't bother him. Now it does. But he'd listened to those strange prayers and hymns. That's why he goes in and brings out Paul and Silas. Why does he go in to them? Why doesn't he just have a sigh of relief and go have a cup of tea? It's the accumulation of all that led up to Paul's words.

Once again, Paul opens his mouth, and good news comes out. This man has asked the very most serious question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul gives the very sweetest answer. It's not a list, it's not anything for him to “do”. “Believe in the Lord, and you will be saved, you and your household.” In other words, “You must believe, that is, you do not need to do anything yourself.” Is it so simple? It is when you have a burden which you would give anything to be rid of – the guilt of deserving God's righteous punishment. He wouldn't want to get rid of such a burden? And to hear that it is free, that this Jesus Christ takes it all away? Nothing is sweeter.

Paul speaks what Jesus does. Each time – to the demon, in prayer and hymns which the prisoners hear, to the jailer, to the jailer's household. Paul knows he's not out there doing his own thing. Jesus is very involved, both as the one who sent Paul and as the one who brings the Gospel through Paul. Paul doesn't speak a Jesus who is so ascended that he has nothing to do with his Church. He speaks of the ascended Jesus who is with his Church, works salvation for the whole Church.

Paul speaks what Jesus does. And when he does that, people get baptized. That's not a mistake – it's the goal of preaching Jesus and it's the very work of Jesus in bringing salvation. So Paul speaks the Word of God to the jailer's whole house. Why? Because Jesus has some good news for you, and that baptism is the good news. It washes away sins and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Faith lives in this baptism every day in repentance, knowing the burden of sin can only be removed by Christ.

Jesus has some good news. It's a matter of life and death that his word shows us the depth of our sin, and brings the forgiveness of all our sins. It's a matter of life and death when he baptizes, absolves, and hosts at the Lord's Supper. So when things are bad for the Church, we can sing hymns. It's not a matter of life and death. Life and death is being put to death with Christ in holy baptism and therefore being joined to his resurrection from the dead. The crosses and trials of the Church, of Christians living in this world, are so small in comparison with the cross of Christ by which you are purchased as God's own.

Jesus has some good news. He saves miserable sinners. What did all the people Paul talked to have in common? Trouble. And not just any trouble. The trouble was the burden of sin, death, and the devil. And the thing is, when he knows it, the jailer can't run to Paul and Silas fast enough. And they can't speak Jesus to him fast enough. Our own pride would keep us from seeing our need; that needs to be broken. And Jesus saves the broken. Jesus himself was broken on the cross – not his limbs but his life. He died there to bring you life here. Paul preached that, and Christ brought about the Church. Faithful pastors preached that here, and Christ brought about the Church here.

Paul preached that to a household and at a household. And it had an effect on that household: the whole household was baptized, and the whole household rejoiced. Christ created, and still creates, all these links through baptism. He links himself to you by the Holy Spirit. He links members of the household to each other in the faith. He links the household to the congregation, in the faith. We're very bad at talking about these links, but Christ is very good at making them.

Jesus has some good news – and we give thanks today for Lutheran mothers who confess it. Mothers know that children make a catastrophe out of everything. But not everything is life and death, but we give thanks for Lutheran mothers who know what is life and death - their own sin and Christ's own salvation for them! And that has been passed on in so many places and ways.

Conclusion: Paul said the same thing. He spoke Good News. He spoke what Jesus does for miserable sinners. He rejoiced in that salvation, in that cross, even when he himself was suffering. One very happy family rejoiced in that salvation, right after their baptisms. One very blessed church gets to rejoice in that salvation today. Amen.

6th Sunday of Easter (Revelation 21:10, 22 - 22:5) [5 May 2013]

This sermon was preached at St. John's Lutheran Church, Karoonda (9 am) and Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend (11 am).

I can't watch surgery shows on TV. I'm sorry. I know that what the surgeon is doing is healing, but that's hidden under all the knives and the cutting (which seem like the very opposite of healing.) John knows a thing or two about that. John sees all the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, coming out of heaven from God. But where does he see this vision? He himself tells us: “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev 1:9 ESV)”. John is given such a vision of the comfort that belongs to all Christians, even if it is hidden under suffering and persecution.

The good gifts of God for the Church are hidden on earth but still real, and not hidden in heaven.

Rev. 21 and 22 describe the reality of the Church that isn't seen but is real; but we're attacked by what we can see. What we can see is our uncleanness/unholiness, our sickness, and our being in the dark. John writes that nothing unclean will ever enter the heavenly Jersusalem. But we see our uncleanness. Our uncleanness/unholiness is from an unholy nature performing unholy acts. And yet we try to work our way up to holy. No one has yet succeeded at that.

John writes that the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. And we do see that the world is sick, that we ourselves are sick. Our sickness is from a sick nature performing sick acts that cause more sickness. And yet we try all sorts of 'home remedies' that never work, which are all idolatry – that we look to ourselves for our highest good,

John writes that in the heavenly Jerusalem “night will be no more.” But we see that we ourselves are in the dark. Our being in the dark is from fleeing from the light of God's Word. And yet we attempt to think our way to enlightenment outside of God's Word, which only leads to darker and darker stuff (genocide in war and abortion along with the rest of the list in Rev. 22:15 “Outside [the heavenly Jerusalem] are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” None of those sound very enlightened to me.)

Transition: As sinners we can see our sin, though only clearly through the Word. Our holiness is hidden from us, because it doesn't come from us. But the Church is always tempted to prefer what is visible rather than what is hidden.

The Church is attacked by the temptation of what we can see rather than what's real. The Church is attacked by the desire for physical signs of success that we can see. We can see only danger. But that can't be right. The Church is full of glory, so we should be able to see that in the Church. Tell that to John, who doesn't see success and glory when he looks at the Church. He sees the danger of persecution and exile.

Success is hidden in Christ and his work, and not in the work the Church does to make itself presentable to Christ (through virtue of her Baptism, she is already declared a success, that she is Christ's kingdom). The Church is always tempted to say “Look at us. Look at all we're doing.” Who are we selling ourselves to? God? He always says, “Look at Christ. Look at what he has done for you.” The world? It's hard to sell yourself to the world when you're not even displaying the goods – the things that God has done in Christ to bring about and preserve the Church. But again, those are the things that have a hidden glory.

The Church is attacked by the desire to look with our eyes rather than our ears. To see with our ears is to believe God's Word rather than what we can see.– 'The Church is dying' v. 'The Church lives because Christ lives'. 'The Church is boring' v. 'The Church speaks forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and life everlasting, which you can't get anywhere else'. God's Word is so wonderful that it's more real than what we can see.

Transition: And here's what God says about the glory of his Church.

The glory of the Church will be seen at the end, but is real now because Christ's cross and resurrection are real. Only at the end of all things will what we see with our eyes line up with what we see with our ears. In heaven we will see that Christ lives when we see the living Christ face to face. In heaven we will see the resurrection of the body when, at the end, we will look at our resurrected bodies. In heaven we will see the life everlasting when we see that we keep on living and will never die. We confess these things now, and they are real know, but we see them with our ears now. But in heaven our eyes and ears will agree.

In heaven we will see the holiness of the Church, our healing, and the light that shines on us. But they are still real now. We will totally see the holiness of the Church that it is from God. We will totally see the healing that comes from Christ's cross which has won forgiveness for us. We will totally see that we have no need of light for the glory of God will be our light, and the Lamb our lamp. We will totally see all these things clearly and gloriously. But that doesn't mean they're not real now.

Nothing common enters the heavenly Jerusalem. Common is the word for the things that weren't set apart as holy for use in the temple in the Old Testament. Where God dwells, that's a place where only holy things can be, as he himself is holy. So how is it that nothing common will enter the heavenly Jerusalem? Aren't we poor, miserable sinners? How can we enter the Church on earth and in heaven? Because Christ imparts his own holiness by the forgiveness of sins by which you are justified by faith not works. And that's real now.

In Revelation 21 John sees the tree of life. That sounds familiar from Genesis 1, the Garden of Eden. But it has a feature not described in Genesis 1: “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Even the leaves of the tree of life are good for healing, because God is so good at giving life, because he alone is the source of life and healing as the only true God (take that idols!). And that's real now.

 [Aside – The Triune God is the only and true God. Therefore he alone is to be praised. Praise is real, a true worship of the only Lord will be seen in heaven and is seen now (but perfected in heaven). It's the only thing we do on earth that we'll do in heaven.]

Revelation 22:5 ends “They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” We sing: Christ is the world's light, he and no other. Born in our darkness, he became our brother. If we have seen him we have seen the Father: Glory to God on high! And the only glory is the glory that is founded upon the death and resurrection of our Savior. We can't find his glory apart from his mercy, apart from his saving Word.

 In the Church now, the glory of the cross, the power of the means of grace, and our own holiness is hidden, but at the end won't be. And these things are hidden that you may trust in God and not yourself. At the present time, these are hidden under their opposites (glory under danger, forgiveness under water, words, bread and wine, holiness under daily repentance - the glory of the cross under the danger of confessing Christ crucified; the forgiveness of sins given to you under ordinary physical elements. And our holiness is hidden. We can't see each other the way that God looks at us in Christ, perfect and spotless. But this is so that we may confess that the holiness is not from us, but from God in Christ, and the only way to know that is to hear it in the Word.).

Finally, even in death our life in and from God is hidden, that we may trust in God alone and not avoid the issue [Pres. Semmler made this point powerfully and multiple times during Synod. He said, “When you bury me, don't say I “passed away”. I died. If you say 'passed away', I'll come back. He said it because he won't avoid the issue of death because he won't avoid the issue of the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting and the New Jerusalem coming out of heaven from God, which we will see clearly then, but is real now. It also refers back to a quote from old Lutheran pastor Claus Harms. At the time of the Prussian Union, from which some of our ancestors fled, he wrote “Don't do this [Union] over Luther's bones, or they will come to life, and woe to you!”].

Conclusion: This is a comfort. But when it comes to this Word, when it comes to this comfort, and all that is hidden in the life of the Church on earth, it's good to let Dr. Luther have the last word: 

“we can profit by this book and make good use of it. First, for our comfort! We can rest assured that neither force nor lies, neither wisdom nor holiness, neither tribulation nor suffering shall suppress Christendom, but it will gain the victory and conquer at last.

Second, for our warning! [We can be on guard] against the great, perilous, and manifold offense that inflicts itself upon Christendom. Because these mighty and imposing powers are to fight against Christendom, and it is to be deprived of outward shape and concealed under so many tribulations and heresies and other faults, is impossible for the natural reason to recognize Christendom. On the contrary, natural reason falls away and takes offense. It calls that “the Christian Church” which is really the worst enemy of the Christian Church. Similarly, it calls those persons damned heretics who are really the true Christian Church. This has happened before, under the papacy, under Mohammed, indeed with all the heretics. Thus they lose this article [of the Creed], “I believe in the holy Christian Church.”

This is why natural reason cannot recognize it, even if it puts on all its glasses. The devil can cover it over with offenses and divisions, so that you have to take offense at it. God too can conceal it behind faults and shortcomings of all kinds, so that you necessarily become a fool and pass false judgment on it. Christendom will not be known by sight, but by faith. And faith has to do with things not seen, Hebrews 11[:1]. Christendom joins with her Lord in the song, “Blessed is he who takes no offense at me” [Matt. 11:6]. A Christian is even hidden from himself; he does not see his holiness and virtue, but sees in himself nothing but unholiness and vice. And you, stupid know-it-all, would behold Christendom with your blind reason and unclean eyes!

In a word, our holiness is in heaven, where Christ is; and not in the world, before men’s eyes, like goods in the market place. Therefore let there be offenses, divisions, heresies, and faults; let them do what they can! If only the word of the gospel remains pure among us, and we love and cherish it, we shall not doubt that Christ is with us, even when things are at their worst. As we see here in this book, that through and beyond all plagues, beasts, and evil angels Christ is nonetheless with his saints, and wins the final victory.”

Amen. 

Luther, M. (1999, c1960). Vol. 35: Luther's works, vol. 35 : Word and Sacrament I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Vol. 35, Page 409-411). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

  

5th Sunday of Easter [John 13:31-35] (28 April, 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend (9 am).

 Professional artists, especially in the days of royalty, lived by commission. That's not commission like a salesman receives: 10% of every sale. No, it's the commission a patron of the arts would give to an artist to produce a particular piece – think the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Can we then say that Christ commissions the Church, that he hands over the job, but also the full payment that makes it happen? All we need to do is ask: the love we have for each other in the Church, what explains it? That it's our love, or that it's Christ's Church?

Jesus mentions the love we have for each other in the Church. But love is a word that always depends on how you use it. It's the worst word in the world if it's the same as saying “here's what you have to do to find God”. That's because the command to love is still a command. And the command to love in the same way that Christ loved you is also a command, and a very high one – Christ's love is a sacrificial love to the point of death. We can't match that. To be sure, the love that Christ has for you is no command but a great promise. But to say “do that love” is a command. And it's serious because it's a love we could never reach, much less perfectly keep. This is very obvious, because most of the commandments are the ones we think we can keep without a problem (like 'do not steal'). We're wrong about that, because we don't understand the true weight of sin apart from God's Word, but that's what we think. That's why the 'popular' commandments are the ones we think we can do. “Love God perfectly, all the time”- that's one I can't do. “Love one another in the Church” - that's easy, I mean, unless they get in my way. Oops. If we cling to our ability to love one another, we're in for a surprise. We can't.

But it makes sense that the Church is a place where love doesn't come to life. This very often is the cause of a lot of distress for Christians: a lack of Christian love. But it makes sense: Christians are and remain sinners. Our sinful nature keeps rearing its ugly head. That's not a surprise, it's why we hear the Scriptures talk of the need for daily repentance and return to our baptism. It's the love that does come to life in the Church that we think is easy to explain, but in fact it's the hardest to explain.

Very often this last week I heard this statement: “The Scripture is clear. We are unclear.” And that statement is right. Consider this: Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” and we say “Great, if I love people, then God will love me and save me.” Jesus' words are clear, but I have just muddied the water, so to speak. And that's serious, because that's false teaching, which always hurts and always elevates ourself before God.

We want to hold our love up to God and say “here's how I did it”.

But that's going against what Jesus says here (notice how the argument about love doesn't really have much to do with the context of Jesus' words?). The context is everything. Jesus isn't laying down lists the disciples can use to become good enough to be saved, he's talking about his glory by which he saves us. He speaks the words of today's Gospel right after Judas leaves the upper room. Why? To betray Jesus over to death on a cross – which is the love by which Jesus loved us, and loved us to the end (as John 13:1 says – which is more good context!). But our love is connected to that.

Love is something good. But what does our elevating our own love do? Elevating our love is a way to deny that we are justified by God's grace alone. The temptation is to say that since love is so great (and it is) that it must play a part in our salvation (it doesn't, only Christ does. He's not such a poor Savior that he would need you to finish what he started.)

So, love is the best word in the world when Christ commissions the Church by handing over his death. Now we do start heavily using the context of Jesus' words. We start with these words: Jesus' 'glory' and his words “just as I have loved you”. Christ's glory is his sacrificial death on the cross. Christ's death is something we can hold up to God, and say “look, my dear Savior has done this completely, and he has done it for me.” Elevating Christ's love (by which he loved us by dying for our sins on the cross and promising us forgiveness), this explains how there can be love in his Church. That's because it at the same time puts our love in the right place and brings it about. Our love doesn't earn anything from God, but Christ's love brings our love to life, like sun and rain and soil bring a seed to life.

And then we turn to that word Jesus uses: commandment. Here's the other times John uses that word before chapter 13: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father." ” “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment-- what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me." ” When Jesus uses that word, he uses it as something he has received from the Father, not as a command but a commissioning, and what he receives from his Father is the sacrificial death that he will die for the life of the world! And does Jesus give that to his disciples? Oh, absolutely. He gives the content of his cross, as the foundation and lifeblood of the Church. Neat, huh?

The Church is God's gift and our love isn't built by us and presented to God but received and shared (presented to each other) because the content of Jesus' death is received and shared according to his Word and Sacraments.

There is no explanation for the love the Church has for one another apart from Christ (which is why the commissioning isn't “do this: love one another” but “that you may be able to love one another in the first place” - you can't explain the Church as a group of people with similar interests and opinions. 1 John chapter 4 tells of this love which is unlike any other love the world can produce: “1 John 4: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. ”

Our love isn't bad, but it has a source and it has a purpose - to point to the source. Jesus says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The world recognizes that these are Jesus' disciples because they have his good news, which has brought about such love. When we proclaim our love, we have nothing special. When we proclaim Christ's love, Christ gives eternal life by his words and his love bears a lot of fruit.

Love is the best word in the world if it's the same as saying “Here is everything that Christ has done for you”.

Conclusion: Christ's commission of the beautiful Church is only seen as being beautiful when his death is seen as the greatest love and glory in the world. The truth of God's Word is love. God's promises free us from having to earn God's love. Christ explains how it is possible for there to be love in the Church. Our love is the result of God's love – and, in fact, our love is shown in the fact that the content of the Church is Christ's death and love. This doesn't elevate our work, this is his work - that he forgives our sins, and grants us eternal life. Amen.