Sermon - Holy Trinity - John 8:48-59

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one of the most sublime teachings of the Christian faith.  That the God we worship is one God, but consisting of three distinct persons, is truly a mystery beyond comprehension.  We can’t understand it.  We can, really, only confess it, as we do so beautifully and thoroughly in the Athanasian Creed. 

There are so many ways to approach this foundational teaching, which really separates Christians from non-Christians.  But what I’d like to do today is meditate on the personal name of God which was first given to Moses at the burning bush, and is claimed by Jesus as his own, here in John 8.  And that name is “I AM”, or in the Hebrew, “Yahweh.”  Wrapped up in this one little word, just four letters in the Hebrew, is a world of meaning, but just a hint at the glory and eternity shared by all three persons of our holy Triune God.  And that Jesus is in that mix is great good news for us, his people. 

For both the doctrine of the Trinity and in any attempt to fully grasp God’s true nature, it is always good to begin in humility, with a sense of our own limitations.  And that’s really for two important reasons: 

For one, we are limited as we are the creature, not the creator.  We are finite, whereas God is infinite (as we just confessed).  And so we can never hope to master or fully comprehend him, no, not even close.  One quick glance at any aspect of his creation should put any thought of that sort of thing away.  A sense of wonder at the vastness of the universe, or the awe we feel at the sight of a beautiful garden, or a snowy mountain.  How great thou art, indeed!  Creation declares the glory of God!  And boy, does it! 

But the other limitation we have when it comes to comprehending these deep truths, is we are horribly and entirely corrupted by sin.  And that goes for our reason and intellect as well as our will and morality.  Body and soul, brain and spirit, our entire person is fallen, sinful, polluted by sin and perverted from the truth.  And so even the law that God has written on our heart becomes fuzzied and is easily rationalized away or hardened over.  How can we truly know God, if we can’t even know ourselves?  How can we rightly say anything about him that we derive from our own flawed devices? 

The Jews certainly got it wrong.  They called him a Samaritan.  They said he had a demon.  They were astounded at his claim to be greater than Abraham, and were ready to stone him for blasphemy! 

We can only know what he tells us, what he reveals to us.  Just as we can only believe in him by the power of the Spirit, so can we only truly know him by grace, and receive a renewed heart as a gift, a new creation that only God can bestow upon us.  We can only have ears to hear if he gives us those ears, that faith, that heart. 

So let’s take this name, “Yahweh”.  As I said, it’s a ponderous thing that God names himself, “I AM”.  Jesus expounds on this a bit in our reading from John today, “Before Abraham was, I AM”.  He is teaching us the eternal nature of God as confessed in this holy name.  It’s not, “I was” or “I will be” or even “I might be or could be”.  It’s simply “I AM”.  He always is, was, and ever will be.  He is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, who is, and who is to come.  He is God of God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father.  The ground of being, eternally existing and dependent on no other. 

But by the same token, we have our being only through him.  We are the creature.  Finite and dependent.  We are the conditional reality, that only have a being because he spoke it, because he wills it.  He’s the I am, we are the “I might be.  I could be.  I can be only if he says so.” 

There was another time in John’s Gospel where Jesus claims that personal name of God, “I Am”.  Do you recall?  On the night of his arrest, the band of soldiers came to take him (from John 18): 

Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 

Jesus, who is the God Yahweh made flesh, who has a glory incomprehensible and indescribable from eternity, he submits to arrest, and trial, and of course, crucifixion.  So that not one of those given him would be lost. 

His name, that little name “Yahweh” is so powerful that even the speaking of it knocks burly soldiers to the ground like dominoes.  He demonstrates his power and authority here, knocking them over, if only to show them that he’s the one really running things, and that his arrest is only by his consent and submission.  But still his concern is not for himself, but for his people.  Not just these 11 disciples, but for all who would call upon his name and be saved.  That’s why he is arrested.  That’s why he must die. 

And this is also how God glorifies his Son, Jesus.  By the cross.  His greatest glory isn’t his eternity, or his omnipotence or omniscience.  His power or majesty or sovereignty.  His greatest glory is the humility of his cross, by which we are saved.  In Christ’s obedience to his Father, he accomplishes his mission, and faces death so that we, his people will never face death, or taste death. 

How can this be?  Since even Abraham died.  Because Jesus also says in John’s Gospel, “he who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.  And he who lives and believes in me will never die.”  Death isn’t really death when you believe in Christ and keep his word.  Death loses its sting, its meaning, it is de-clawed and de-fanged.  Our worst and final enemy is as nothing, it is “I am not” when faced with the great “I AM”, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity, a teaching which our God, Yahweh, has revealed to us most clearly in his Son our Lord Jesus Christ.  We honor our God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.  Thanks be to him for the glory Christ reveals in his cross, defeating death for us, and by giving us the faith to believe it by his Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.  Amen. 

 

Sermon - Acts 2:1-21 - The Day of Pentecost

We now stand 50 days after Easter, and it is the Day of Pentecost.  For those early disciples of Jesus, about 120 of them in all, it was a most notable day.  They were together in one place and they heard a mighty rushing wind, the saw the tongues of fire descend and rest on their heads, as the Holy Spirit was poured out on them.  They spoke in languages they had never learned, preached to all the pilgrims gathered there and shared the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Nothing quite like this has happened ever since.  But some things a lot like this have been happening ever since.

So often when we encounter these stories from Holy Scripture we are tempted to pay more attention to the visual imagery than the words being spoken, the message itself.  Or maybe we get distracted by the miraculous speech that is given on that day – speaking and hearing that crosses the barriers of human language.

But while it certainly was God’s will to give a visible sign along with this unusual outpouring of the Spirit, we ought not focus on the flames of fire, or get fixated on the speaking in tongues, or even on the rushing wind.  Rather, we ought to tune our ears to what is being said:  “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

What are those mighty works?  We don’t have a script, but we can certainly imagine what they spoke about, or better, about whom:  Jesus!  How he was born in Bethlehem and fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures.  His miracles and signs, his preaching and teaching.  How he was transfigured and how Moses and Elijah testified to him. 

And then, his mightiest of works:  that he suffered for the sins of the world, that he died as a substitute for us under God’s righteous wrath, and took his borrowed grave in the place of death for us all. 

But surely they also spoke of his mighty work of resurrection, how he left death in the dust, how he ascended gloriously to heaven, taking back his rightful throne.  And perhaps they also pointed forward to the mighty work of his return in glory on the last day.

In short, they preached the Gospel to those pilgrims.  They connected the dots for all these God-fearers from around the world, showing that Jesus Christ is the one who brings it all together, God’s chosen Messiah, the Savior of the world.

What a list of visitors to Jerusalem, people from all over the world.  And God used this blessed opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to them through the fledgling church.  And nothing quite like this has ever happened since.  But some things a lot like it have been happening ever since!

For the Gospel would continue to be preached, even to the ends of the earth.  God would raise up men, like St. Paul, to preach from town to town, city to city.  Sharing with Jew and Gentile alike the mighty works of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And through their preaching the Holy Spirit would call many to faith in Christ.  And many more would hear through them. 

In this way, the Day of Pentecost has continued through the ages, even down to us, here, in this time and place.  In this language.  In this people group.

You, a pilgrim, have come here to this house of God, today.  You, also come, on the day of Pentecost.  You are gathered together, also from many nations and backgrounds, we’re actually more diverse here than many congregations.  But nonetheless we all have the same problems of sin and death that those pilgrims to Jerusalem had.  We confess that very truth each week as our first order of business. 

But we also come knowing we will hear the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ.  We hear, again and again, the blessed Gospel.  The Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us.  And he points us always to Jesus, our Savior.

The scoffers, of course, didn’t have ears to hear. They never do.  They must have heard what sounded like babbling and claimed the disciples were drunk.  Filled with new wine.  But Peter’s not having that.  These men are filled, rather, with the Holy Spirit.  And Peter, himself empowered by the Spirit, preaches his first sermon.  And what a powerful one it was.  We have just the first portion of it here today.

He draws on the Old Testament, and some words from the prophet Joel, to show how God was fulfilling his promises.  The Spirt of God is poured out on all nations.  Young and old, male and female, slave and master alike.  In Christ there is no distinction when it comes to salvation.  All have sinned, and all are freely justified.  The Spirit is poured out, liberally, on all flesh, in these latter days of the church.

It happens when the word of Christ the crucified is preached.  It happens when the waters of baptism wash away sins, and another child of God is re-born.  It happens when the body and blood of Christ are distributed to the faithful, and forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are bestowed. 

The Spirit works.  He points to Christ, calls to Christ, creates faith in Christ, and leads us to follow Christ.  He sanctifies us individually and corporately, the whole Christian church on earth.  And he preserves our faith, for without him we would surely and quickly fall away.

God showed wonders, as Joel put it, in his church through the apostles.  And the church will persist through even the apocalyptic events of the end times.  Eventually even creation itself will melt away.  But here’s the greatest wonder, the mightiest work of all:

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  That is to say, all who believe in Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven by which we must be saved.  The only one to accomplish the mighty works of God for us, and whose Spirit applies his good gifts to us.

This Day of Pentecost, the work of the Holy Spirit continues.  Christ is still pouring out his Spirit, sending forth his Comforter, to bear witness to the Gospel.  Thanks be to God that we are so blessed to hear it, to receive his forgiveness, and to serve at witnesses in our own vocations to the mighty works of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

 

 

Sermon - Easter 7 - Revelation 22:1-6, 12-20

 

Today we hear from the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22.  And as the kids would say, “Spoiler Alert!”  The Bible tells us how it all ends, at least for us who are in Christ.  It’s the happiest of endings, an eternal destiny of blessings and good things.  The church in her glory, after this creation melts away and the new heaven and new earth are revealed, what a day that will be!

But before we can really appreciate the end, we have to go back to the beginning.  Because the last chapter of the Bible closes the loop that begins in Genesis, with creation and the fall.  So let’s remind ourselves how it all started.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  “Let there be light” he said, and so there was.  Let there be everything, he spoke it all into creation, and so it was.  Finely ordered.  Flawless and good.  Then he made man in his own image, out of the dust, and the woman, likewise out of Adam’s rib.  And only then, with the crown of his creation, human beings, did God declare everything to be “very good”.

He put them in a garden.  A lush paradise full of good things to eat and pleasing to the senses.  An orderly place he had prepared just for them.  And there was a tree at the center of it all – the tree of life – if you eat form it you live forever.  And so they would have.  So they could have.  But soon it all went wrong.

There was this other tree, the only one forbidden, and to eat of it brought knowledge of good and evil.  To eat of it was death.  So God warned them. 

Because a serpent slithered in, casting seeds of doubt.  Eve ate, Adam ate, both fell, and everything changed.

God cursed the serpent, and cursed the ground because of Adam.  Both Adam and Eve and their children would now know pain and toil.  Life got hard.  Suffering entered in.  And then there was death.

But in a mercy that must have seemed like further punishment, they were exiled, and in them, we were exiled from paradise.  It was for their good, though, since God didn’t want them eating of the tree of life, and now, in their sin, living forever.  And so an angel with sword aflame would bar the way back.  Paradise is lost.  Exile into chaos begins.  No more neat and orderly garden where everything comes easy.  Now it’s the wilderness and the sweat of the brow.  No more idyllic paradise full of beauty and delights.  Now it’s change and decay in all around I see.

Oh, what trouble sin has brought us!  Every hurt and sorrow, every grief and loss, it all goes back to the beginning.  That car accident, that bleak diagnosis, that child-sized coffin.  All of it is fruit of the tree that brought bitter knowledge of good and evil, and pain and death.  We know it, because we live it, out here in the wilderness, in the exile of the fallen world.  And we can’t just blame it on our first parents because we participate in the same perversion, we too would make ourselves like God.  With every sinful deed and word and thought we confirm it.

But God is good.  And there are still flashes of that paradise because of his great mercy.  Even the unbeliever can point to the good of life, enjoy happiness for a moment.  The rain falls on the just and the unjust.  Daily bread is given to all.  But there’s more.

God provides a way out of the wilderness.  He sends a second Adam to undo the damage of the first.  He restores us to paradise by the tree of a cross, and the blood of his own son.  Death to destroy death.  Only Jesus is equal to the task.  And with him, and with his resurrection and ascension, and one day his return in glory, everything changes again.

It’s back to the beginning.  It’s back to paradise.  It’s out of the wilderness and chaos and back to something even better.

Revelation 22 pictures for us the final destination of God’s holy people, the church.  And it is described in John’s vision as a holy city, the New Jerusalem.

Not a garden, but a beautiful city.  But the similarities are striking as he restores us and renews us for eternity. 

Eden was planted by 4 rivers.  In the New Jerusalem flows the River of Life, its source the very throne of God. 

Eden featured the Tree of Life, which God barred us from eating for our own good.  In the New Jerusalem, now this tree reappears, and not just one but many, with fruit year round.  In other words, abundant and eternal life awaits us there!

The leaves of Eden were plucked by Adam and Eve in an anemic attempt to cover their shame.  Now the leaves are for the healing of the nations, that is all the descendants of Adam.

And here, in our blessed eternal home, there is no longer any curse.  Not the ground, not our labor, not even a cursed serpent to bother us. 

But once again we dwell in the presence of God.  He who once walked in the garden with us in the cool of the day, will dwell in our midst eternally, giving light and love and blessing.  He will even give us a share in his reign, and we will worship him in perfect joy.

Everything that went wrong when sin came into this world will be reversed, restored, made new and clean and incorruptible.  Every sorrow will be but a distant memory as God himself wipes every tear from our eyes.

We have a hope, dear Christians, that does not disappoint.  And it is far greater than the pop-spirituality of our psuedo-Christian culture.  We don’t just die and go to heaven, as if some nebulous and vague place of happiness.  We have grand and specific promises about our eternal future.

We have a resurrection.  A reversal of death, so that in our flesh we will see God.  Just as Christ is risen, so shall we, to live forever, body and soul.

We have a new creation promised.  This world will pass away, melt away, and give way to the new.  Much as our own flesh must die and be raised, so God will restore creation to its intended glory.

And best of all, our God will be with us, face to face.

These words are trustworthy and true.  They were brought to John, and to us, by an angel.  Not one bearing a flaming sword casting us out into exile, but welcoming us to an eternal home.

And our Lord himself invites us to this destiny.  The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”  the Church agrees and proclaims the invitation even now.  Come to the foretaste of eternity, breaking into our reality today, in a sacramental meal that reverses the curse for us.

Today, in the day that you eat of it, you will live!  Forgiveness, life, and salvation are yours, now, in this Holy Sacrament.  And life, free and without price, is ours forever, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Sermon - Ascension Day

Christ has ascended into heaven. 

This is kind of a big deal. 

Holy Scripture teaches us that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared, over the course of 40 days, to his apostles and to many others, to prove he was alive.  He walked with them, talked with them, even ate with them, to prove he was bodily risen from the dead, and was no ghost. 

40 days, of course, is that special biblical number which indicates a time of testing or proving, like the 40 days he spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil at the beginning of his public ministry.  Now, at the end of his time walking this earth, he again proves and demonstrates his victory over sin and death. 

But there’s more. 

Christ began his saving work for us with his incarnation, as he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, and was made man.  At that time, he set aside his divine power and majesty, choosing not to exercise it by and large, to enter our human world, our human experience, even our human nature.  He took on flesh.  He was made man. 

And we call this phase of his work, in theology, his “state of humiliation”.  From his incarnation, his conception, to his death and burial, Jesus does not generally exercise what is his by divine right.  He sets it aside, with rare exceptions. 

At times, we do get a peek at his glory, say, at the Transfiguration, or in his miracles.  But for the most part he submits to the limitations common to all humans – location in space and time, along with all the suffering of human life – poverty, scorn, exhaustion, pain, hunger, thirst, etc.  He submitted to it all.  He humbled himself, to take our place, to walk our walk, as one of us.  As the representative of all of us. 

And then, of course, he went to the cross.  The ultimate humility.  Submitting to an unjust death in order to justify us all.  Humbling himself in obedience to death, even death on a cross, to make atonement for sin, to bear the brunt of God’s wrath, and to shoulder on himself the punishment we so richly deserve.   

But all of his humiliation for us was not the end of the story.  He would not remain in the grave.  Death doesn’t have the last word.  Christ rose on the third day and from then on... things were different. 

No longer does he limit himself as before.  No longer is he bound by time and space.  For only a little while does he visibly walk among us, talk and eat and such.  He begins taking back, exercising more and more his divine power and majesty and glory.  Until finally we get to this day, his ascension.  When he fully reclaims his throne.  When he leaves behind earthly humility for heavenly glory.  When he takes his rightful place at the right hand of the Father, and begins his reign over all things. 

If his baptism was his ordination, his ascension is his coronation.  It is the finishing of his course, from heaven, to earth, to death, to life, and to heaven again.  But as with everything Christ does, he does it not for himself, but for you. He ascends into heaven for you. 

At first you might not think so.  At first you might be like those disciples, standing there mouths wide open in amazement, trying to make sense of it all.  Well the angels smack that out of them but quick, and so also for us.  This is no time to stand around wondering.  Nor is it a time to be filled with grief as he departs from our sight.  Indeed, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 

One way to see Christ’s ascension being for us is this:  that we, in a sense, ascend with him.  For one, he takes our human nature with him, in his person, and is enthroned.  That means this:  A man is seated at the right hand of the Father!  True God, yes, but also true man, in the person of Christ.  He elevates our human nature in himself, and now, “one of us” is also in charge of all things!  Thanks be to God! 

Furthermore, Christ is our forerunner.  Where he goes, we go.  To death, yes.  To life again, yes, for us, too, when we rise at the resurrection.  But he also goes before us to reign in heaven, of which he promises us a share.  He who is faithful unto death will receive the crown of life. 

Christ’s ascension, visibly, is a sign to his disciples, and us.  He didn’t just randomly disappear.  We would be left wondering.  But he goes, intentionally, specifically, to show us, and to comfort us.  He’s reigning in heaven, that is to say, over all things, for us.  He is the kindest friend we’ve ever had, but also the most powerful, most wise, most good.  A benevolent monarch if there ever was one, and he, our king, rules all things for us. 

He rules even over the powers of this world.  As Luther said, “even the devil is God’s devil”.  That is, nothing happens without his permission.  And while we don’t blame him for evil, we can find comfort that the evil he allows, he will also both limit and bring to a close.  For he works through all things for the good of those who love him.  And the worst that this world can through at us, the sufferings of this age, are not worth comparing with the glory that is yet to be revealed.  We have confidence, faith, hope and trust in Christ because he has ascended to his throne and rules over all, for our good. 

That’s what it means, as we say in the creed, that he “sits at the right hand of the Father”.  It’s not a physical place, it’s not even literally in the heavens.  But it’s a status.  A state of exaltation to the highest place, the name over every name, the authority that he shares with the Father.   

The Ascension is also a comfort to us, a blessing to us, in that Jesus goes in order to “fill all in all”, as St. Paul puts it in Ephesians1.  Rather than locked up far away in a place called heaven, Christ’s ascension signifies he now fully exercises his divine omnipresence – and what a comfort that is.  Christ who is for you, is everywhere, for you. 

But he is particularly located, for you, in the bread and wine of his Holy Sacrament.  Unlike the false teachings of the Reformed, who want to limit Christ’s power to be truly present in the meal, we regard his ascension as part and parcel of his divine prerogative to be just where he promises to be – in the bread and wine – for you. 

And finally, though we could certainly say much more, Christ’s ascension also comports with his promise to send the Holy Spirit.  Yes, the Spirit has always been active in the church, through the word.  But now, that Holy Spirit will empower the preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and even, dear Christians in Keller, Texas, to you.  And so by “going away” Christ has come ever closer to us, in word, in sacrament, and by his Spirit. 

Thanks be to God for the glorious exaltation and ascension of Christ to the very throne of heaven, the right hand of the Father.  Thanks be to God that he reigns and rules for you and me, fills all things for our good, and will come again, just as he departed, on the last, glorious, victorious day when he makes all things new, and puts even death under his feet forever. 

In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.